“What the hell do you mean ‘he’s gone?’”
“I mean, he’s gone.”
“You let him escape?!”
“Not escaped. Not dead. Gone. Poof. Disappeared. Ceased to exist.”
The man at the front desk of the prison, with whom I had built a rapport after my many visits, dropped that bombshell on me as soon as I arrived at the prison.
“‘Ceased to exist?’ How?”
“I wish I could tell you, but I have no idea. Normally I would never do this, but since you’re close to the case I’ll show you the footage from the security camera. It makes just as little sense to me as it does to you.”
The man pulled a video feed up on a tablet and showed it to me. Sure enough, in the footage the director is standing idly in his cell in one frame before simply disappearing entirely the next. No movement. No sudden burst into flames. Just gone. As if he was never there.
“What the…”
“I’m sorry to disappoint but we don’t have the faintest clue what happened to him. The only solace I can offer you is that he left a letter addressed to you in his cell, we found it not long after his disappearance. I don’t even know how he had a pen and paper, we sure as hell didn’t give it to him.”
He rifled around in his desk and produced from within a pure white envelope, the front inscribed with a carefully written “Sora” kanji. I knew immediately that he had planned his disappearance and for the guards to find the letter, as he would have written “Shin” if he planned to give it straight to me.
“This all that was left behind?”
“The only thing of relevance, yeah.”
“Dammit. I can’t believe he slipped through our fingers again. Thanks for giving me this, hopefully it’ll shed some light on the situation.”
“You’re welcome, Ms Goto. We’ll make sure to inform you if he’s found.”
Stepping out of the prison for likely the last time ever, I sent a message to the group chat containing myself, Mai, Sunao and Saki.
Meet at Saki’s house ASAP. DefCon 1.
I cursed myself out under my breath for failing to predict this, then made my way to the train station.
***
“Okay, all of us are here now, what’s got you so worked up?” Mai asked, watching me frustratedly pace around Saki’s room.
“What’s up is this fucking thing.” Not brother to suppress my anger, I pulled the envelope out of my pocket and held it up so everyone could see.
“You just came from the prison, right? So is this…”
“Yep. It’s from that bastard.” I answered Saki’s question as she trailed off. “I have no idea how, but the fucker was gone. One second he was in his cell, the very next he was gone. The only thing he left behind was this letter. It’s like he’s fucking taunting us.”
“Have you read it yet?” Mai asked
“No, that’s why I wanted everyone to be here. Whatever’s in this letter probably concerns all four of us.” I opened the envelope and pulled the letter out from within.
It was carefully calligraphed and written in a fine black ink, which only angered me more. How did he find the time to sneak in such high quality materials and write such a carefully crafted letter while under constant surveillance? It was becoming more and more clear that he had likely been planning this all for weeks.
“I’ll read it aloud for everyone:
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Shin.
If you are reading this letter, it is because I have shed my mortal shell and ascended to the form I have longed for for so long.
I write this letter to you, not out of the goodness of my heart, but because my master Baal Zebul has taken an interest in the courage and resolve shown by you and your team. He wishes to test that resolve directly on the battlefield, by pitting his forces and your own against one another.
As such, he has asked my inform you and your compatriots of his intentions: on the year’s long night, at the place where world and underworld connect, the Hot Gates will open, and demons will once again walk the Earth. If you and your forces fail to protect your home, Earth will be assimilated into hell. Those concepts you were so desperate to protect, your “love” and “friendship,” will be but memories of a less civilised age.
Conventional weaponry will prove ineffective against the might of demonkind. Only those blessed with holy power, such as that that runs through your veins, may engage us in combat. So prepare your guardians of Earth. Your heroes of justice. Your magical girls. Prepare them for a war that will determine the course of history.
You have until the sun sets on that day.
May fortune favour you.
Director.”
My voice was practically shaking from anger by the end. A fucking letter of challenge. A threat in every sense of the word.
“That bastard… that fucking bastard… as if betraying humanity wasn’t enough…” I had never been so livid in my life.
“The year’s long night? What does that mean?” Asked Saki.
“I-it most likely refers to the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. It’s the 21st of December this year.” Replied Nao.
“Todays date is… 21/11/2033… we only have a month?!” Saki said, the four of us coming to the realisation at the same time.
“The legions of hell invade Earth and their one ‘kindness’ is giving one fucking month of warning. Bastards.” I was so angry I had started subconsciously crumpling the paper in my clenched fist.
“I think I know the place too… ‘the place where world and underworld connect…’ in Shinto that’s Yomotsu Hirasaka, the slope connecting Earth and Yomi.” Mai said, answering a question I had been wondering. “According to the myth, the connecting point is in Matsue city, Shimane prefecture.”
“Matsue… that’s, like, 700km from here! We have to travel halfway across the country just for a chance at fighting back?!” I said incredulously.
“Just be thankful it’s in Japan. I doubt any country in the world would accept ‘we have to fight demons and save the world’ as an acceptable in immigration reason.”
“Thanks, Mai, that makes me feel a lot better.” I immediately felt bad for snarking Mai, but we had more important things to deal with.
“We have to let Hana know as soon as possible. The four of us alone aren’t enough, and she’s been amassing a small army of girls saved from our enemies. We’re gonna need all hands on deck if we’re gonna have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning this thing,” Saki reasoned. “She also has that teleporter girl that can move multiple people. That should help us get to Matsue at short notice. It might not be much, but every little bit helps.”
“I hate this… god, I hate this so much. How many lives are we gonna have to put in danger to protect our world? How many innocent people will have to be sacrificed? Those girls… they never asked to be given magical powers. They never decided to get involved in some holy war that defies human comprehension. And now we have to drag them into the most dangerous situation they could ever be in because no one else in the world has the ability to fight back. It’s just… it’s so wrong.”
I was letting my anger get the better of me, but in that moment I didn’t care. This war that we were forced into against our will, these oppressors that saw us as no more than pawns in their petty eternal bickering, they were now coming to take everything that made us special from us. It was a cruelty above all other cruelties in history. A crime that exceeded reason.
“Hell wants to test our resolve? Then I say we exceed their every expectation. Take every ounce of resolve humanity has to offer and use it to send those fuckers back where they belong. Show them that us being mortal doesn’t mean they can walk all over us.” Saki sounded just as angry as me, though she exhibited better control.
“For thousands of years, they’ve made us fight proxy wars. Hundreds of millions dead, and for what? A conflict we knew nothing about? Let’s take everything our species has learned from those wars and burn their armies to the ground with it.” Mai was more enraged than I had ever seen her, but that only seemed to power up her resolve even more.
“I-I can’t forgive them for what they’ve done. Not now, not ever. The suffering and pain they’ve caused the people of our world. If this war gives us a chance to avenge the people killed by their actions, we have no choice but to fight back with all we have.” Nao’s expression was furious, but even in anger she spoke with eloquent words.
“They see us as pawns. As powerless grunts, cannon fodder to suffer in place of their own. They’ve had us pointing our weapons at each other since the dawn of humanity. Let’s show them what we can achieve when we point our weapons at them instead.” I steadied my voice long enough to speak any own resolve, now more determined than ever to protect what was dear to me.
“Then it seems we’re in agreement. Let’s give it every ounce of our being and beat the shit out of those demon bastards until there’s nothing left to beat. You all with me.”
“I’m with you!” Nao, Mai and I met Saki’s rally cry with our own.
The first battle in the war between humanity and divinity was set to begin.
We had one month.