Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex Fan Fiction ❯ My Magical Gate Experience Was Ruined, As I Expected ❯ YGS: 20 ( Chapter 20 )

[Tanya/Komachi]

“Wait, say that again?” I asked my brother over the phone. We were using my private encryption system, which would irritate the JSDF, but they owed me money so f-them.

“Itami killed the emperor. Emperor Molt was running a slave empire and his son bragged about torturing and killing Japanese people that their invasion had kidnapped in the Ginza incident, or before it. There were cases of people going missing in the area before the gate appeared so apparently there was some traffic before you arrived and bottlenecked them. Itami has been ordered to appear at the Diet for a military court martial, but he’s not being allowed a defense so he’s currently on the lam in the Special Region with his harem.”

“That’s a lot to consider. What else?” I asked.

“Lelei is with him, and they’ve gone to a university city called Rondeau, where she’s apparently going to show off her spell mastery and if it gets approval will award her with the title of Master. She said it’s a really big deal, especially since she’s so young. She said her sister is attending the school there and it might get awkward. I wanted to go meet her there, but I have duties at Alnus. Do you think you could go and sort of watch over things? Itami is kind of freaking out, and refusing to be court martialed and probably shot at dawn by a bunch of corrupt politicians at the Diet is not doing him any favors. I guess I can see why he would run, but it’s causing all kinds of chaos with the collapse of the Saderan Empire leadership, even if Pina’s brother is assuming the throne,” Hachiman explained.

That was a lot to consider. Going there would piss off the JSDF, who stole my payment for killing the dragon, and then stole the head, and then refused to pay the bounty on my ending it because they said I was a government contractor and ineligible. That was three strikes. I looked at Taishi.

“Hey, you want to buy a house in a magical fairyland? Or maybe somewhere closer but a bit more discreet?”

“Are we still talking Japan or another country?” he asked.

“All my stuff is here. I am willing to step on toes, but I’d like to avoid assassins, and I suspect that if the Gate closes my magic will dry up again. I am not sure how long before that happens, but we shouldn’t count on it long-term.”

“I know a place up north that might be good. They advertise welcome to all sorts of lovers and claim to be family friendly. The community is shrinking, but they are trying, at least. We should visit,” he suggested. I looked at the map and the web page, recently updated. They had a gimmicky local legend as a tourist trap and the tourist bureau there was trying to attract visitors and new residents. Home prices were cheap, and there was good farmland. It looked very peaceful.

“Any takers on the ebay auctions on those dragon scales?” I asked. Taishi was running that.

“They’re going for 130,000 yen each, on average. The laboratories and obvious spy agencies were the first buyers, and paid the most. Now it seems to be various collectors and rich people, but eventually we’ll saturate the market. The gold and diamonds you brought back are in the safe and should be moved once we find a better location. There are a dozen spy agencies outside, and the vacuum seal on the windows is supposed to defeat laser microphone setups,” Taishi commented. That was good. This house would probably sell for a decent chunk of change, and if this rural place was okay, and the government didn’t press their point, we should be able to retire, me to my books and Taishi to his investments. Maybe we could grow a garden. Or take up baking.

Tyuule and Saki had met, after some serious use of antibiotics and minor surgeries and my own healing for the scars. She was physically healthy, but her mind was another story. Tyuule was the former queen of the Rabbit-people, called Warrior Bunnies. This was not, apparently, a joke title. The rabbit people were exceptionally aggressive and reknowned fighters, like Amazons. They’d been recently conquered by treachery and betrayal by a warrior working with the former prince, and Tyuule had been forced to give herself up as a hostage or her people would be slaughtered by the superior numbers of the Saderan Fourth Division heavy dragoons. The cavalry were well equipped for conquest of the rabbitians? Is that a word? Tyuule had been stripped, beaten, systematically gang raped and broken as a slave for the personal abuse by the prince, Pina’s dead brother. She had been planning, she revealed to Hachiman and Batou in their interrogation of her, to destroy the empire by promoting the madness of the prince into power, which would result in bad decisions being forced on the otherwise competent organization, destroying it through incompetent leadership and his self-destructive delusions. Killing him might save the empire, a fact which sat poorly with the Diet. Pina was pushing for the abolition of slavery, not because she hated slavery, but because she was terrified of what the JSDF would do next. Negotiating from a position of strength was working.

“So you want me to go to this Rondeau place and make my introductions and not do more than bodyguard Itami, if they need me? Is that right?” I asked to confirm this.

“Yes. That’s it. You won’t be paid, and this isn’t an official mission from the general or anything. This is off the books.”

“And the Diet is going to just let me work?”

“They aren’t here. And the Saderan succession looks to be going our way. Things are improving. I’ve gotten my report through to the generals who matter, and we might see a regime change to someone a bit more forgiving of Itami. I heard he’s buddies with the Minister of Defense. He’s on the list for next Prime Minister,” my brother explained, chuckling at the irony. “For once, corruption might be going Itami’s way.”

“Okay, I’ll go look after Yui’s alternate. She’s nice enough, I guess. Kind of cold, but she’s not unkind.”

++++++++

[Tanya/Komachi]

I went alone through the Gate and headed for this Rondeau city. It was a four hour flight at high speed, but I was feeling good and wyverns were steering clear of me. The hum of the mana here was interesting, and I could kind of hear the god Rory prayed to. I could also sense Rory so homed in on her and found Itami, Lelei, Tuka, and Ebina at one of the squat tower buildings. Inside a master of water magic was cackling happily at the distress of Lelei’s older sister throwing a fit about her own magical incompetence. A short time later they announced a friendly duel between sisters. I stood by and watched, ready with a shield to prevent any actual injuries, serious ones anyway. It was showy fun, with the sister whirling a chain and flinging magic with each spin, and Lelei flying, probably learned from me, and the crowd impressed. Then a guy with a crossbow stepped out of the crowd to shoot my sister in law’s twin so I plugged him into chunks. This put paid to the festivities. I examined the corpse and found a convenient note about an assassin’s guild, a bag of gold and rubies, which I took for myself, and a pistol crossbow, which I handed over to Itami to examine.

“Hmm,” I said.

“Hmm,” agreed Hina.

“Hmm,” said Itami.

“Hmm?” asked Tuka.

“Hmm,” agreed Rory. That settled, we took Lelei back to her inn and got her a bath and a fresh change of clothes. I used a spell on her robe and got all the orange ink stains out. And the blood from that assassin. Chunking an enemy is satisfying but messy. It looked better. Lelei put the robe back on and we proceeded to the lecture hall where she waited her turn to give her demonstration on aligned acceleration circles. She’d been planning to use it on the dragon, but the dragon was agile and it took a long time to get them to line up and full powered, something that might have left any assistants to die buying time. It was a cute spell. It just needed to be faster.

She got her chance, described the spell at the lectern, then demonstrated it by firing a globe of water several times the speed of sound into a log that was end-on at a cleared area in a part of the lecture area. It split loudly. There was applause and approval at the new type of magic. She got her Mastery and was presented with a gold chain fitted with a large blue sapphire as a pendant. She seemed pleased. Also, one of the locals tried to stab her but I tased her using a spell and waited for her to wake up from the brainwashing spell. The assassin got away. Itami was fine, and Rondeau seems like a fun place to pass some time. It has a university town vibe, crossed with a magical expo, if that makes sense?

I hoped my upcoming trip to that little town would find it a good place to settle down and raise a family. My morning bile and a resulting test found I was pregnant at last. I am pleased that I will be a mother. Less pleased with morning sickness, but it’s part of the deal. I haven’t told Hachiman yet, though I think Yukino already knows. She’s very attentive and notices things. I don’t know what I’d do without her.

I suppose, if things had gone differently and Itami hadn’t pulled the trigger on two maniacs I would be facing a full scale insurrection and coup d’etat, with Pina getting tortured in the dungeons at the palace, wolf riders with brooms attacking the mansions because they can’t seem to hire competent guards in this empire, and my brother getting stabbed by a rabbitian spy who works as a barmaid in Alnus, right after offering to assist the suicide of a depressed Japanese teenage girl who’d herself been gang raped and tortured by that same prince. All sorts of badness, and I would probably have gone nuclear if niisan got hurt because some weenies at the Diet didn’t want to appear competent and were getting bribes from overseas powers for access to a world of resources.

The thing is… this isn’t the only gate. I can sense more openings when I’m here in Falmart, what they call this planet. The Outbreak Incident wasn’t the only alternate portal, and the major powers have backed off because they’re finding their own ways through. Japan’s smug assumption that they’d control everything was just another failure of history. Falmart wasn’t a toy for one nation of corrupt officials. It was going to be the toy of many nations of corrupt officials, and the race to access oil and rare earths and precious metals was on. I fully expect that other magical girls, in other nations around the globe would be crossing over and using their abilities to launch LEO satellites over that pretty planet and divide it up until the gates closed again. It has happened before. It will happen again.

Me? I’m pregnant. I’m going to retire to motherhood with my pile of precious stones, stack of gold ingots, overseas numbered accounts, and a little house with a garden. The JSDF can lose my number.

The End