Editing City Series:Volume7 Layer 10 (section)

===Record 106: I am Sure You Will Understand===
[[Image:TOKYO_153.jpg|thumb]]

'''01/27/1999

'''11:21

It was Wednesday, middle of the week. I had gone to the Officers’ living room instead of going to class. Senpai, Snowy, Lady, and I were gathered in the central conference room.

Senpai sat at the head of the table, his arms crossed below the fluorescent lights.

“Why are one of the aides and two of the Special Duty Officers missing?”

“They said they had to either be a lecturer or a lab rat for their classes. Should I call them here?”

“No. This topic is mainly for the fieldwork and PR teams that often head out on jobs with me. I will inform the others when the need arises.”

Snowy frowned at that.

“Will the others join us if we mobilize our full force?”

Senpai nodded.

“So what is this about?” I asked.

He opened his mouth to answer me.

“Things are getting strange in Kansai. Regarding Babel, of course.”

After a pause, Snowy crossed her arms and Lady adjusted her position in her seat. I turned on the TV.

The screen showed the same thing it always did nowadays: that tower sticking up into the sky. The Battle of Babel news competition was still ongoing. But now it was being fought between the corporate side and the student side.

After she pondered that in silence, Snowy opened her mouth.

“This is a spark of conflict, isn’t it? If Babel is completed and falls into an Osaka corporations’ hands, the power balance will shift to the west despite the reunification, won’t it?”

“Yes, it all comes down to the corporations. The smaller corporations that built our foundation during the east-west split are having their market stolen by larger corporations after the reunification. If Babel is completed during that chaos, the power will shift westward. And the corporation that owns Babel will be able to take the lead by advertising on a global scale.”

“B-but isn’t that inevitable at this point? Babel has been built, so the power balance is going to the west no matter what.”

“There are two ways of preventing it. The first is to destroy Babel. The other is to force Osaka to start a conflict similar to the Kinki Riot, restrict Osaka’s influence, and divide the east and west again. If we tried to eliminate the corporation that owns Babel, I expect Kansai would choose the former since they are closer to Babel and Kantou would choose the latter for the opposite reason. Then the chaos in the unified market would return to normal.”

“But why would they try to do that to Tokyo?”

“The student representative fighting in the Battle of Babel is a transfer student from Tokyo. I can easily imagine there are Kansai students who are less than fond of him. What if they are coming to Tokyo to vent their frustrations? And what if the Chancellor’s Officers keep stopping them, so they get mad and things escalate?”

I smiled bitterly as I spoke. I thought back to when I had run track. That boy had once shown me his back, but what was on his mind while he fought in Osaka now? I still had my hands full as #2 here.

And Senpai, my current #1, asked a question while viewing the tower on the TV.

“Doesn’t this situation worry you?”

Lady let out a resigned sigh.

“It is true Japan is focused on Osaka because of Babel. Which means there is less focus on Tokyo.”

Senpai uncrossed his arms.

I switched off the TV without a word and Senpai stood up.

“I hear three UN Knight Strikers have gone missing in Osaka. And I also hear some large weapons have been ‘stolen’. Be ready to take action at any moment.”

He left the room, leaving us with just one more thing.

“I will contact you when the time comes.”

'''Author Comment:

They discuss information related to Babel and some other things that were off limits before.

Based on Snowy and Lady’s reactions, I think they had either suspected the truth or had detected it in their own way. (Lady also seems to have told Sensei about the issues related to Kansai and Kantou.)