By the time Uchiha Senmon arrived at the conference room with Yuuji Kanbara, it was already packed.
Although the conference room looked filled to capacity, the people seated on the left and right formed two clearly separate groups.
The officers on the left greeted Uchiha Senmon warmly as he entered, while those seated on the right watched with cold indifference. Yuuji Kanbara did not know whether he was imagining it, but he sensed a faint hostility in the gazes coming from the right.
"Uchiha, over here! Come sit here!"
A cheerful, heavyset man in the front row on the left, built as burly as a bear, waved his plump arm and called out loudly.
"This is Senior Superintendent Akagi, Section Chief of the Fourth Investigation Division."
Uchiha Senmon led Yuuji Kanbara to seats in the front row and made a brief introduction.
"Senior Superintendent Akagi, sir! A pleasure to meet you!" Yuuji Kanbara rose and bowed.
"You're Inspector Kanbara, the first person to make contact with a Superhuman, right? Your name has certainly been making the rounds in our Fourth Investigation Division these past few days."
Section Chief Akagi extended a greasy, pudgy hand, and Yuuji Kanbara hurriedly took it in both of his.
Even at Metropolitan Police Department headquarters, a senior superintendent counted as upper management, not to mention that this man was his boss's boss.
"Superintendent Uchiha is our Fourth Investigation Division's ace investigator. Make sure you learn all you can while working under him. Don't end up like his previous assistant, who let his guard down for a moment and died in the line of duty."
Holding Section Chief Akagi's hand, Yuuji Kanbara felt awkward for a moment. Who said something like that at a first meeting? It was far too ominous.
By then, Section Chief Akagi had withdrawn his hand. He looked at a middle-aged officer with dark, bronze skin seated in the front row opposite them, then smiled at Uchiha Senmon.
"Have you read the internal report on what happened Saturday, Uchiha? The Fifth Division really made fools of themselves this time."
"Ahem, Section Chief Akagi, we're not in the Fourth Investigation Division's office right now. If the Fifth Division hears you..."
Uchiha Senmon gave a light cough, pretending not to notice the glee in Section Chief Akagi's voice.
"That's what they get for trying to hog everything. The Public Security Bureau's Fifth Division found a lead on a Superhuman during Saturday's livestream incident and went charging off on their own. They didn't notify our Investigation Fourth Division, nor did they coordinate with the Special Assault Force as regulations required. They let the big fish get away. The higher-ups are furious..."
Yuuji Kanbara was thoroughly confused. Although he did not understand much of it, he could at least tell that the Criminal Affairs Department's Fourth Investigation Division and the Public Security Bureau's Fifth Division did not get along.
Uchiha Senmon sighed at the puzzled look on Yuuji Kanbara's face.
Although the Public Security Bureau nominally belonged to the Metropolitan Police Department, it actually enjoyed considerable autonomy.
To investigate supernatural incidents, the Metropolitan Police Department had reinstated the Criminal Affairs Department's Fourth Investigation Division, while the Public Security Bureau had established the Fifth Division. With their responsibilities overlapping so extensively, relations between the two departments were naturally strained.
This was also a problem inherited from the past. The Public Security Bureau and the Criminal Affairs Department already had considerable overlap in their work. Although their relationship was not as bitter as that between the army and navy before the war, when each regarded the other as a mortal enemy, friction and conflict were still constant.
In the past, after many serious crimes, the Criminal Affairs Department and the Public Security Bureau had refused to cooperate, each conducting its own investigation. Even on the few occasions when they formed special investigation headquarters to work together, competition for credit, old grudges, and other issues led them to undermine each other and act independently, making themselves a laughingstock more than once.
The conflict between the Investigation Fourth Division and the Fifth Division was not merely a legacy of the past. More importantly...
It involved the conflict between the Homegrown Faction and the American Faction.
Looking at the several obviously mixed-race faces among the Fifth Division officers opposite him, Uchiha Senmon felt a headache coming on.
"Unlike our Fourth Investigation Division, the Fifth Division takes a more hard-line approach. There's frequent friction between our two departments," Uchiha Senmon explained quietly to the still-puzzled Yuuji Kanbara.
There was no need to add the rest: "The Fourth Investigation Division always comes off worse. Having the Americans backing you really makes a difference for the Fifth Division."
Of course, these tangled, complicated internal conflicts were not something he could discuss in depth with a newcomer like Yuuji Kanbara. He would understand soon enough through his work.
Creak!
The door at the front of the conference room opened, and the heads of the Criminal Affairs Department and the Public Security Bureau entered together with the Superintendent General, his secretary, and several others. Bringing up the rear was a blond, blue-eyed foreign man in a suit.
The entire conference room instantly fell silent, and everyone stood to pay their respects.
"You should all have heard about the two incidents involving Superhumans last week. This is the first confirmed existence of humans with supernatural powers in the fifteen years since the first supernatural incident in Heisei 19! We have convened this meeting to discuss our next steps," the Superintendent General said sternly, his temples streaked with silver.
"For the Monk who appeared at the haunted house in Shimono Nakano last Monday, April 4, we have only testimony and traces of an eruption of power left at the scene as circumstantial evidence. However, the Spirit-Hunting Livestream Incident at the abandoned shopping mall in Adachi Ward last Saturday, April 9, provided the first clear footage of a Superhuman! This meeting will therefore focus on the latter Superhuman incident."
After distributing the documents, the Superintendent General's secretary switched on the projector and played one video after another.
Beneath the moonlight, a young man wearing an Akatsuki cloak delivered a fearsome sword strike. His blade flashed, and a crescent of Sword Energy sliced a mannequin several meters away in half at the waist.
The young man in the Akatsuki cloak stood atop an archway and spat an enormous Fireball two meters in diameter into the air, where it exploded. Finally, he formed a strange gesture with one hand and vanished on the spot like a cloud of smoke.
The first video had been taken directly from the livestream and was exceptionally clear. It looked like a scene from a sword-fighting blockbuster laden with special effects.
The final video appeared to have been recorded by a body camera. Because it had been filmed from far away at night, the footage was very blurry, and the camera shook constantly. Still, the distinctive clothing and figure confirmed that it was the same person.
"Officers, please do not doubt the authenticity of these videos. Our technical division has verified that they are genuine. Regarding the Spirit-Hunting Livestream Incident, analysis of the traces at the scene and the livestream footage indicates that the streamers came under attack by a Type A entity, then were rescued by the mysterious young man in the video. Two ultimately survived," the secretary read from his prepared notes.
"Officer Odagiri of the Fifth Division was the first to detect the anomaly. He blocked the livestream and was the first to arrive at the scene to negotiate with the young man. However, negotiations failed, and he was attacked. The young man then vanished while surrounded by Fifth Division officers. Officer Odagiri's reattachment surgery was successful, and his life is not in danger. He remains hospitalized."
Even the seasoned police investigators were dumbstruck by the mysterious young man's miraculous sword strike in the video. They leafed through the distributed documents and began whispering among themselves.
"Is that the legendary Sword Energy?!"
"It's a shame Officer Odagiri grew up in America. He only learned American Iaido, not Kendo. Otherwise, as someone who encountered him directly, he might have been able to identify the young man's school of swordsmanship."
"Are you kidding? What school of swordsmanship lets you unleash Sword Energy and slice bullets fired from a semiautomatic pistol? Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu? Even if Miyamoto Musashi came back to life, he'd get shot full of holes!"
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