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Chapter 47: Job Crisis
🕑 Added 2024-06-15 09:04:03 +0000 UTC“Hey, what the fuck just happened?” I asked her teammate. Black Lily was there, and she disappeared right in front of our eyes. Was it her illusion?
“Was it her clone?” Serene looked at the spectacle.
“Clone? But can a clone be that expressive?” I asked.
“No… No!! We have to stop the boat! Lily is still on the beach! Against that scary anathema!!!” Shining began to scream uncontrollably.
“No. We can’t. Officers! Lend me your lifeboat. I will chase after her! You must stay here, Shining. Otherwise, these people will have nothing to eat in the next week.”
“No! I must go with you.”
“What! You mean we have to leave her alone?!” Serene and Shining looked toward their shoulders. MG usually spoke to their familiars through telepathy. It was rare for them to lose control of their emotions and talk to their familiars out loud.
“Zordon?” I followed suit and queried my familiar.
“The chance of survival in New Soil is slim. Moreover, Magical Girl Black Lily does not wish to be found. She has turned off her transponder and is currently in radio silence protocol. She didn’t reply to our pings. It will pose a significant risk to the rest of the guardians and the five thousand lives on the ship to mount a rescue mission for her.”
“But we can’t leave her there!”
“We shall mount a covert rescue operation after we save these people.”
“Wan-chan! Where is the quest? We saved five thousand people! We should be granted a significant bonus, right?”
“Hold on. We have connected to the Zenith main server. Yes, the Zenith will reward each of you with 5 thousand points.”
[Quest Completed! - New Soil Evacuation]
[Description: New Soil was attacked by an aberrant class anathema. Thanks to the timely intervention of Magical Girls, even without support from Guardian Command, New Soil’s citizens have been saved. We have decided to reward every MG participating with points.]
[Difficulty: Medium]
[Reward: 5000 Points]
“What are you talking about? Why care about points right now?” I reprimanded her. I never thought Pink to be that kind of girl. She was supposed to be a bringer of peace and love, not some greedy for points MG.
“Good! We can donate these points to Shirayuki’s, right? Kageyama would be pleased to have over 35 thousand points from us, even when he had to dispose of those pieces of equipment! This will make Lily evade Shirayuki’s reprimands!” Shining said. She planned to reimburse Shirayuki’s with MG’s gate points? Honestly, the thought never crossed my mind. MGs are treated as generals or captains on the battlefield. Any equipment they requested would be deemed appropriate for military use. It should not be us who reimburse Shirayuki’s lost equipment but the UNH (United Nations of Humanity).
“I see. Good idea. Announce our plan to Lily. Make her open up her radio silence. If we know where she is, we would be able to mount a rescue right away with a single speedboat. I will contact Kageyama.”
“Greetings, Magical Girl Serene Night. How was your day? I hope my employees didn’t give you a hard time. I have ordered Tanaka to obey every last one of your orders.” Serene opted to let her calls with Shirayuki’s head become public. I could see the figure of an old man in hakama there. His house was opulent, with traces of the now-destroyed Japanese culture. Samurai swords, lined with wooden bamboo swords, were strung on the wall.
“Sir Kageyama, there has been a change of plans. New Soil was attacked by an aberrant class anathema, so we had to evacuate. Here is the video of the attack. Sugar, if you please. While it might be against our contract, we opted to use your boat for the evacuation.”
“I see. Hm… we are thankful to be of service. But that cargo ship, can it really hold 5000 people? Does this mean you have abandoned all of our equipment in New Soil? At the very least, you did make sure to save our employees, right? They are humans too, you know.”
“Yes, your employees are safe, and everyone else from New Soil. As for your equipment, I am sorry, but we had to leave them behind.”
“I see. Well, that’s fine. Be sure to arrive safely here. Don’t forget to contact Guardian Command to send some rescue boats filled with supplies to you. I don’t think we have enough supplies on board to feed five thousand people.”
“Oi, he looks like a chill old grandpa to me. Why would Black Lily be so scared of him that she chose to stay on the deserted continent filled with murderous anathema?” I whispered.
“Well, it might be just a facade,” Zordon nodded.
“Now, where is Black Lily? Why are you the one giving reports?”
“Um… before that, will you give us your word that you will not reprimand Lily? We have some points for you if you promise us not to reprimand her too harshly for failing her missions…” Shining said.
“Hm? I am not her parent. I am just her uncle. What? Is she sulking in a room or something? Well, she is a perfectionist, so this incident would likely have an impact on her confidence.” He laughed. “Never thought she would be a bit childish with her attitude.”
“Um… She left the cargo ship and returned to New Soil…” Serene finally dropped the bomb.
“… What? You left her on the beach?” Kageyama widened his eyes. His smirk from before disappeared completely, replaced with rage. Somehow, the curse words never came; he merely looked at us intensely. “I see. I thought you were friends… This is the second time you put my niece as bait. I never thought Guardians could be this depraved.”
“We never intended to leave her! I swear!!” Shining screamed.
“Yes. Here is the footage. She fooled us by putting her clone on board the ship. We have footage of it,” Serene said. “I swear on my soul gem that what we said is true. I could even sign a geas and be interrogated in court.”
“I see.” Kageyama sighed. “What a child. She is too smart and immature. Did she understand what happened? I should not have let her see the accounting book.”
“Hm? Could you tell us what happened, Mr. Kageyama? I understand now that you don’t intend to reprimand her, correct?”
“Next week, when you reach Eden, we shall see each other face to face. If you are so inclined to learn about us, the Shirayuki family, we shall meet at Shirayuki’s Headquarters. You can ask me any questions there.” Kageyama said before cursing. “Damnit.”
The call ended, and we were left to our own devices. We sailed toward Eden, with complaints from the masses increasing due to the cramped space.
“Hey! What are we going to do now? New Soil was destroyed! It was because of this new MG disrupting those Anathema nests!”
“Was New Soil really destroyed?”
“Yes. I can access my spy cam, and all it shows is wreckage.”
“Ugh! How should I find a new job now? I don’t want to live in the shelter!”
“Everyone! Relax! We have food here! Whatever was destroyed by those Anathema, we can rebuild it! As long as we survive, we shall prevail!”
“We might have lost now, but we survived. We will defeat the Tyrant Behemoth one day!” Red Hound and Shining started their MG tirade to lift the refugees' spirits.
The journey was uneventful, apart from constant complaints from the passengers. We reached Eden a week later. After informing Kageyama about our arrival, we made an appointment at Shirayuki’s HQ. In his office, adorned with a comfortable couch, a glass table with some wooden sculptures, and potted plants in the corners, Kageyama sat there in his tuxedo.
“Oh, he isn’t wearing his Japanese garments here,” I whispered.
“I can choose what to wear during my free time, like when I am at home in the evening when you guys called. But we try to assimilate with others, so I choose a more neutral outfit for formal occasions. Please, have a seat. We have tea for you.” The eight of us then sat on the couch prepared for us. Shining and Serene sat nearer to Kageyama as they would be leading the conversation.
“Thank you for receiving us warmly. So, the matter with Black Lily…”
“Yes. Before we begin, could you bring out whatever animal you have? I would prefer to talk to them face to face. Here is our accounting book. We suffered a blow to our finances when New Mesa was struck.” Kageyama said. “You may look at it, but I doubt you would understand it.”
“Sugar?”
“Wan-Chan.”
“I also brought out Zordon, my Power Ranger familiar.”
“Okay. So, familiars, what can you surmise from looking at our documents?” Kageyama asked.
“Hm… after reading this 126-page finance book, we surmise that you plan to downsize Shirayuki’s corporation. Did we guess correctly?” Wan-Chan and Sugar said. Kageyama was clearly talking to the familiars and not us. He might have been thinking that we were too young to understand these adult matters. But Black Lily was also in our age group, wasn’t she?
“Yes. Good job, as expected from Zenith’s familiars. So, it doesn’t matter to you guys, right?” Kageyama said, his eyes judging us. “But it matters to our family, and by extension, to Black Lily.”
“What do you mean it doesn’t matter? Twenty thousand employees are going to be fired!” Shining said. “They will be homeless!”
“There are shelters…” Serene shrugged.
“Yes, there are shelters. Made by Zenith…” Kageyama sighed. “You are teenagers, right? You were born in sanctuary cities. You have never seen what the world was like before those Abysspawn came and wrecked it. Zenith, these critters, they might be smart, but they don’t know us yet.”
“Well, I read books, too. Was there something you wanted to tell me?”
“Eden is a utopia. There are no homeless, and every basic need is fulfilled by Zenith. Ah! I have a perfect example! Why don’t we ask one of our public Guardians here, Miss Alice. Why did you open that pastry shop and restaurant? I don’t think your restaurant brought in much profit. Even if it does, does it matter? Since you are a Magical Girl.” Kageyama smiled as he looked toward Shining.
“Well, life in the shelter was suffocating. We do have community canteens and could eat every day. But we had nothing to do. So, we tried to do something…” Shining Arrow said.
“Hm… Good. Now Serene, since you claim you read books, do you know what the unemployment rate is?”
“Hmm?” Serene tilted her head, but Sugar, her familiar, answered for her.
“Unemployment rate means the percentage of people who are working compared to the whole populace or every able-bodied person. Eden’s unemployment rate last year was 35%. With Shirayuki’s downsizing and the failure of the Frontier Project, we can expect the unemployment rate to rise to 45% or up to 50%.”
“That sounds bad,” Shining said.
“Hahaha.” Kageyama laughed. He then smirked as he continued, “Well, just for comparison, before those Hellspawn came, the unemployment rate for each country on Earth was 3 to 5%.”
“...” Serene and Shining gawked.
“If that rate ever increased by more than two percent, a president… hmm… you don’t know what a president is. Let’s just say the UNH Chairperson would lose their job.”
“So? I understand that seems bad.” Serene tilted her head. The rest of us also tilted our heads. He made it sound like it was the end of the world, but we are currently living. Eden was cramped, but it was not as terrible as he said.
“It was enough to destroy us completely. If it were not for Zenith.” He looked at us. Our familiars nodded. His reminiscence continued. “Just five years, and humanity had lost. Those Hellspawn kept coming. Newspapers kept speaking about them. Nukes after nukes were launched, but it was in vain.”
“I think we have diverged from the topic,” Sugar said. Serene also nodded.
“Ah! Yes. Let us go back to the topic. About Black Lily. I have never told her about the downsizing. I don’t know what she surmised with her cat after reading our finance.”
“But she seemed desperate to save that equipment.”
“That equipment is enough to give jobs to fifteen thousand people. The downsizing could be minimized,” Kageyama said, nodding.
“Hm? Weren’t there only several hundred or a thousand people max there? The numbers don’t add up.” I finally opened my mouth. I knew almost everyone from New Soil, including those from Shirayuki.
“I don’t have time to explain it to you. Just ask your familiar about the economic supply chain. Let them teach you about the five sectors of the economy. What New Soil did was considered a primary sector. The goods from it could be further processed into other stuff in the secondary sector in New Mesa. But that too was destroyed.”
“Hmm? We were okay without New Soil ten years ago. What happened?” Shining asked her familiar.
“We currently help humans directly. We provide them with the stuff they want,” our familiar answered.
“Yup,” Kageyama nodded. “Thanks to Zenith technology, we now can produce food using vertical farming empowered by Mana reactors. Wood can be produced using cloning techniques in the same farm. Fish too. All were from Zenith’s technology. However, the mining job sector is dead. Without mining, there would be no metal, concrete, and stone. Without them, we can’t build anything—automotive, construction, even those teacups and spoons were made using material imported from Zenith.”
“If Zenith provided them, then there were no trouble, right?” Serene sighed. “I understand now. I must say, I too was miffed that we have to depend on them so much—”
“Zenith, will you continue to provide those things indefinitely?” Kageyama stopped her and asked the vital question.
“We are not abandoning humans. We currently have no plans to do so.”
“Ah. I am sorry. I misspoke. Let me rephrase. Will there be any change to our budget from Zenith?”
“Huh?”
“I had some words with General Armstrong. The reason why the new frontier project was made in such a reckless fashion.”
“Yes. Budget will always change, Mister Kageyama. It might be joyful news to you, but if we successfully destroy Anathema's Gate, we might increase that particular budget.”
“Nevertheless, without equipment, we can’t use them properly, can we? So the downsizing will still happen. And we will drop from the eighth biggest company to the fifteenth or maybe twentieth. I think we could still climb to the tenth place by promoting Black Lily, but she left us…”
“With the destruction of New Lake and New Hill several days ago, we do not think your company will fall that far behind, Mr. Kageyama. You might want to hold off on that downsizing. Zenith was not pleased with the death of 200 MGs and the destruction of 75 soul gems in a futile defense there.”
“Huh?” Kageyama's eyes widened at our familiar.
“What!?” All of us looked at our familiars, baffled.
