Mocuxi (Revelation)

The church in Satsuma, the government and entertainment industry in Japan…and who knows how many other sectors these people have their hands in?

Make no mistake, fellow citizens, wherever you are watching or listening from: your government is hiding the truth from you. They may not even know they’re hiding the truth from you, but they are.

War is coming. All will be revealed soon.

Ret. Major-General Jotaro Niiro’s latest podcast, released this Wednesday morning, had helpfully been translated into many languages, including English and Chinese. This had the effect of making the general’s audience jump by two or three orders of magnitude, bringing in viewers and commentators from all around the world. Many of them had never heard of the death of Hiromasa Ohtomo or the attempt on Cornelio Fukuda before today, but by their collective clout they brought them to the attention of thousands, if not millions. The general opinion was, as it seemed to be with all things in this day and age, divided.

On one side were those who had already been caught up in the culture of conspiracy. Those who had, by one means or another, become firmly convinced that there was some group out there who controlled all affairs in this world, and had done so for decades at the very least. Whether it was communists, capitalists, liberals, conservatives, globalists, theocrats, Satanists, extraterrestrial beings, or the whole collective of any race, ethnicity, religion, company, organization, family, or any other grouping of human beings mattered not, and which of these it was (and it could be multiple) changed from week to week.

Any event in the world of more than passing significance could always be blamed on them, and those that could not were false flags meant to obscure something else. They would accept any belief, even the belief in magic, if it meant giving them more fodder for their performative paranoia. At this very moment, there were dozens out there trying to connect other events in world history to the “magic elite”, in order to solidify their beliefs. Through their combined power, if they kept making and sharing more content promoting their theories, eventually the “group” would fall, and all of mankind would be free forever.

All in all it might best be described as Manichaean, in both the classical and modern sense.

Then there was the confederacy of nay-sayers. Some simply brushed off the claims with a “Magic can’t possibly be real!” Others poked holes in Niiro’s logic or consistency where they found them. There were also, of course, those conspiracists who claimed that these claims were a false flag to keep the public from learning about an even bigger bombshell of information. And, finally and perhaps most pathetically, were the apathetic or even enthusiastic ones: the ones who said “even if magic was real, that wouldn’t affect me much” or “if magic really was real, that would be a good thing”.

Justo Ijyuin and Leonor Yang, who were listening to the podcast up on the roof of St. Protasio, accompanied each by a cigarette, were in the “magic is real, but its existence won’t affect most people that much” camp.

“Pfft!” scoffed Justo. “‘War! Is! Coming!’ F—in’ patsy.” He glowered beneath his shades and bit down on his cigarette. “I feel stupid for ever thinkin’ he was some kinda mastermind behind all this.”

“Incredible,” said Leonor. “He needed a whole week to make his exposé, only to talk about something that happened three days ago and some made-up story he has absolutely no evidence for.” She took a drag. “Sounds to me like his source ran dry.”

“Yeah. Know what, though? Maybe that ups his chances of ratting whoever’s really handlin’ these rogue onmyoji out. I say we just nab ‘im.”

“How, exactly?”

“Easy. We get an onmyoji to teleport us in. I blow a hole in the side of his house, an’ the two of us storm the place. You handle his wife an’ kids (assumin’ this guy has any), while I knock out the dog and the man himself. Then we get ‘em to teleport us all back. In ‘n’ out.”

“I think I’ll knock you out before we get anywhere close to doing that.”

Justo let out a booming laugh.

“In any case,” continued Leonor, “That also leaves the matter of the onmyoji who cursed Noe, because I doubt it was Karen Koizumi.”

“…True,” remarked Justo. He clicked his tongue. “Man, if only I could get in touch with Sachi about any ‘a this. She’s been gone a whole week now! I’ve tried textin’, callin’—ain’t nothing worked! Maybe next we oughta try a smoke signal… Hm?”

Justo’s attention was suddenly drawn to Noe Numasaki, who was hyperventilating and clutching her head only a few feet away from him and Leonor, crouched down against the wall. As it stood, she was solidly in the “magic is real and we’re all going to die” camp.

“We’re all gonna die we’re all gonna die we’re all gonna die we’re all gonna die…” she chanted like a mantra. Leonor walked over and crouched down beside her.

“Noe, you okay?” she asked.

“I’M PERFECTLY FINE!!!” screamed Noe. “Just…t—t—trying not to think about all the people online talking about war, and violence, and riots, and…and… THEY’RE GONNA COME FOR US, LEONIE! They’re gonna come for ME especially, ‘cause don’t they still know I’m cursed?!”

“Doubt it,” said Justo, who likewise approached Noe. “They ain’t gonna try the same trick twice, not now that they know we’re on the lookout for ‘em. Plus, considerin’ Karen tried to take out the archbishop on her own, I’d say they might ‘a moved on without you.”

“And anybody else won’t do shit, ‘cause they don’t know shit,” Leonor tried to assure Noe. “If anything, based on what that guy said I’m one of the first on the chopping block. See me worrying?”

“Y—You don’t know…”

“Hm? Don’t know what?”

“What he said…about Hiroshima…it’s true.”

“Huh?”

“M—M—My dad,” Noe began, her voice settling a little, “he’s always told me that he met some guy from the Japanese army who knew about a gathering of exorcists that happened in Hiroshima. Not long after the Chugoku War.” She took a deep breath in. “And he told me that that guy is him. Jotaro Niiro. I never believed him before, but now that I think about it, it lines up with everything!”

Justo raised an eyebrow.

“Interestin’. But all that proves is that he’s been thinkin’ ‘bout this for a long time,” he said to Noe.

“I know,” replied Noe, “but…it just doesn’t make sense to me. None of this does. Why are you all so scared of everyone knowing about magic? Why won’t you even consider that there might be other ordinary people out there who know about you? I mean, look at me! I’m just a high-schooler, and I just happened to run into you one day!

“Didn’t you say you all help people all the time? How do you know one of them hasn’t found out the truth, and more importantly, why won’t you tell them the truth?!”

Justo removed his cig from his mouth. Holding it between his index and thumb, he let it turn black and scatter into the wind. Then he slowly took a seat in between Noe and Leonor.

“Y’know, I’m just a high-schooler too, Noe,” he began. “We ain’t supposed to know everything. And in my case…I just happened to be born into this. Me, myself, I don’t mind this kind of life, and apparently this is the way we’ve been for centuries.”

“Centuries?” asked Noe.

“Yeah. I told you, the Alchemist Court was formed when our country split off from Japan. Apparently we needed alchemy to fight ‘em off—we the samurai, I mean.”

“Wait, you mean—”

“Yep, surprise. Not only is my whole family alchemists, but we’re crazy rich an’ crazy connected. I like bein’ an alchemist; what I don’t like is bein’ seen as spoiled.”

The worry disappeared from Noe’s face, though it was exchanged for a look of dull surprise.

“Wait. So your whole, you know…‘Cutting class to smoke and beat other guys up’ thing, is…”

“Forced? Yeah, a bit.” Justo gave Noe a wide, smug grin. Noe burst out laughing.

“Could’ve had me fooled. You go a bit overboard with the accent, though.”

Justo chuckled. “Well, guess I can dial it down.”

“That reminds me, though…” said Noe. “I remember my dad also saying Niiro was a noble name, too. In Satsuma, I mean. You think maybe…?”

Justo scratched his chin again. “Ehh… Maybe. But y’know how names are, they travel from place to place. ‘Fact, I remember looking it up before and seein’ the name’s been in Japan for centuries too.”

“Hmm…” Noe briefly mused. Then she got back up to her feet.

“Justo!” she shouted, calling the alchemist out. “I’ve made my mind up. I want to get to the truth. And if helping you all will take me there, then I’ll do whatever you need me to—even after I’m exorcised.”

Justo smiled, nodded, and got up to his feet to meet her. He stuck out his hand, which Noe took in a firm shake.

“Sweet,” he remarked. “Just nothin’ that’d break your clearance, dig?” Then Leonor popped out from behind him.

“Forgetting about someone?” she said, not with a jealous look on her face though she was quite clearly jealous. Noe quickly unclasped Justo’s hand and ran over to give Leonor a big, constricting embrace. Leonor nearly turned to stone.

“Aww, of course not, Leonie!” exclaimed Noe. “I told you, I wanna make sure you can be happy too.”

Leonor blushed. “A—All right, then,” she stammered out. “Now, let go of me please.”

“Whoops!” Noe quickly let go and jumped back. Just then—

BRRRRING!

Something buzzed and played a brief tone in Noe’s pocket. Noe, confused as to who could be texting her in the middle of the school day, pulled her phone out.

NEW MESSAGE

FROM: Teresa Mori

>Hi Noe! Sachiko finally got back to me (after two whole days, which is CRAZY for her!), and she said she didn’t want you guys to come :( It’s ok tho, I’ll tell you how it goes on Sun

>Oh yeah, the event’s this Sat night btw

“Damn,” remarked Justo with a hint of sly admiration, leaning in to read off Noe’s screen. “You got Cocoro-chan’s number?” Then, as he made his way through the message, his face slowly turned into one of shock.

“What the?”

“Let me see,” said Leonor, while tugging Noe’s arm downward.

“…The hell?”

Noe turned around to the other two, forcing a smile but looking like she was about to die inside.

“I’m not getting exorcised any time soon, am I?” she eked out.

“Not unless you stuck a tracker on her or somethin’,” said Justo. “Or you got any other ideas on how to reach ‘er.”

Noe held her face for a moment, but suddenly cocked her head to the side, looking real pensive.