Bloody Monday Season 2 - Pandora's Box 55

Chapter 55

01

Kirishima: Damn it! Sawakita! What's going on in the Karuizawa Party Hall!? Has Minami contacted us!?
Text: For the sake of Japan and their colleagues!!
Credit: Ryuumon Ryou x Megumi Kouji
Below credit: Volume 6 goes on sale Monday January 17!!
Sawakita: You don't have to yell, Kirishima-san!
Sawakita: I can't help it if she hasn't contacted us...

Sawakita: Ah.
Title: File 55 An Invisible Terror
Sawakita: We just got an email from Investigator Minami!

Sawakita: She started bleeding from the nose 2 minutes ago...She's begun to show symptoms!

02

Kirishima: ...I see.

Kirishima: Yajima-san, Minami...Kanou-san...I'm sorry...

Kirishima: I expected this. With how infectious Bloody-X is, the two who came into direct contact with Yajima-san shortly before he showed symptoms would definitely be infected.
Kirishima: And if they've reached that stage, it can now infect others through the air.
Kirishima: Tsukamoto, can you simulate the spread of the infection?
Tsukamoto: I'm doing it now.

Tsukamoto: It's done.
Tsukamoto: The infection will spread to everyone in the sealed party hall. The estimated time it will take to get to 99% infection is...

03

Tsukamoto: ...27 minutes!

Kirishima: Just 27 minutes...

Kirishima: Sawakita.
Kirishima: Have the hotel employees and the investigators there to immediately disinfect themselves and evacuate.

Kirishima: And thinking of how long it takes for the Bloody-X virus to activate, we need to find everyone Kanou-san and Minami were in contact with since 7 this morning.
Sawakita: Got it.
Sawakita: What about sanitation countermeasures?

04

Kirishima: Send out some helicopters and disseminate disinfectant over the entire area within a 200 meter radius! If we don't hurry, Karuizawa will turn into a city of death!
Sawakita: Roger that!
Sawakita: I'll inform all of the inspectors who have completed their mission in Karuizawa...

SFX: Beep
Sawakita: Kirishima-san!
Sawakita: We have a transmission from Minister of Justice Suou.

Kirishima: What?

Suou: Hey, Kirishima! What are the terrorists' demands!? I thought I ordered you to make preparations to comply with their demands!

Kirishima: They haven't given any yet! We're trying to contact them now.
SFX: Beep
Tsukamoto: "Falcon" just transmitted the terrorists' demands to us!
Small text in Suou's bubble: Ho.
Suou: Oh, read it to me!

05

Kirishima: What is it?

Tsukamoto: Th-the terrorists' demands are to completely disassemble the political administrations in Japan and America...and to pull all American troops out of the Middle East...
Kirishima: Wha...?

Suou: Wh-what the hell!?
Suou: Are they mocking us!?

Text: This isn't right...

06

SFX: Type type

Fujimaru: Damn it! They're screwing with us!
SFX: Smash
Hibiki: What is it, Fujimaru?
Inaba: What did the terrorists say?

Fujimaru: It's not even worth repeating. I sent it to "Third-i" just in case, but it's a complete joke.
Fujimaru: It clearly isn't what they're really after. But what ARE they after!?
Fujimaru: What do they plan to achieve by confining the American President and the Japanese Prime Minister!?

07

Fujimaru: What is it, Hibiki...?
Hibiki: What if everything up to this point was in preparation for this?

Fujimaru: You're probably right about that.
Fujimaru: They did wait until the president was here for a conference with Prime Minister Kujou to call in their mercenary team.

Hibiki: Let's think through it all. First, they hijacked that plane in order to have Hino Alexei released from prison.

08

Fujimaru: Then they located the giant nuclear bomb, "Tsar Bomba", that Hino had hidden and took the plutonium from it.
Fujimaru: By causing that gas terrorism in Tokyo, they had the city using a huge amount of electric power requiring the experimental fast-breeder reactor to be used for the city. They used that to send the reactor out of control and into meltdown.

Hibiki: Up until then, it looked like their goal was to cause a great massacre of people in Japan.
Hibiki: But did they ever give any "demands" during that time?
Inaba: No, not they I heard of.

09

Fujimaru: I see. That's clearly odd. Acts of terrorism are carried out because the terrorists have certain demands.
Fujimaru: And even now that they've captured the President and the Prime Minister, they haven't given any realistic demands.

Fujimaru: It's almost like terrorism for the sake of terrorism.

Hibiki: Terrorism for the sake of terrorism...
Fujimaru: That's right, Hibiki.
Fujimaru: It's almost like they were causing terrorist attacks in Japan in order to give a certain impression to the American President!

Hibiki: What if that's what they were doing?
Fujimaru: Eh?

10

Hibiki: What if all of the terrorist attacks so far were carried out for that very reason.
Hibiki: What do you think changed because they did all this before President Adams came here to Japan?

Inaba: I-I don't know.
Inaba: Maybe if I asked "Third-i" HQ...

Fujimaru: That's not necessary.
SFX: Forceful action
Inaba: Eh?

11

Fujimaru: I'll hack into a server that stores the Pentagon's classified documents...
Fujimaru: and you do a search in the window that appears on that computer for the official regulations for the president's overseas travel in a situation like the one Hibiki suggested.

Inaba: U-Understood!
SFX: Type
Shioda: W-wait a second. You're going to hack in and read the Pentagon's classified documents!?

Fujimaru: This is the fastest way.
Fujimaru: And if we tried the diplomatic route, they'd probably refuse.
Fujimaru: ...Okay, here it is!

Inaba: I-I'm searching now!
SFX: Type

12

Fujimaru: Okay! Got it.
Fujimaru: There's a lot here, but does it have what we want?
Inaba: There are a lot of regulations for when the President travels to a conflicted area of level B or higher. That refers to an area with accidents or incidents related to frequent terrorism, poison gas, bacteriological weapons, or nuclear weapons.

Fujimaru: I'm going to run it through a machine translator!
SFX: Type

Fujimaru: ...I see. There are a lot of regulations.
Fujimaru: I guess that should be obvious. Unlike the Japanese Prime Minister, the American President is also the commander-in-chief of the American military.
Fujimaru: If he's going to a conflicted area, there's a danger that he'll never be coming back. And in the unlikely event that he was rendered unavailable and an enemy country attacked...

Fujimaru: Hm?
Fujimaru: This is...

13

Fujimaru: What?
Computer: When travelling to a greater than Level B area of conflict, the President will carry Pandora's Box with him. And the spare key will accompany him.
Fujimaru: The spare key...
Fujimaru: and Pandora's Box?

14

Inaba: I'm reading it untranslated here. "Spare Key" is a code name.
Inaba: It's sometimes written as "Duplicate Key" or just "Dupe" here.
Inaba: The literal translation is "When travelling to a conflicted area of Level B or higher, the President must carry Pandora's Box with him and the duplicate key...or the "Dupe"...must accompany him."
Inaba: Ah, what does that mean!?

Fujimaru: Well, the word "dupe" was used in a conversation between the US forces in Japan and the President's aide shortly after the President arrived in Karuizawa.
Inaba: Hah? How do you know that?

Fujimaru: I have a personal wiretapping system called "Falcon Echelon".
Fujimaru: It's kind of hard to explain, but I got it through that.
Recording: "'Dupe' was killed in an explosion at Narita Airport."

Inaba: Killed in an explosion?
SFX: Step forward
Shioda: Was that the foreigner killed in an explosion from earlier today?

15

Shioda: I did hear that it was someone with a special diplomat card who belonged to an unknown organization.

Inaba: That's it! It has to be! He was killed by the terrorists!
Fujimaru: The American President is carrying "Pandora's Box" and the "Duplicate Key" was killed.

SFX: Fear

Fujimaru: C-Could it be...
Fujimaru: that it's...

16

Fujimaru: Hello!? Hello!? Can you hear me, Kirishima-san!?
SFX: Forceful action
Fujimaru: Minami-san, Kanou-san, can you hear me!?

Minami: Pant...pant...
Minami: Fujimaru...?
SFX: Pant
SFX: Pant

17

SFX: Wind blowing
Kanou: Pant...pant...

Kanou: Fujimaru? What is it...?

Kirishima: I hear you, Fujimaru-kun.
Kirishima: What is it?

Fujimaru: I know what the terrorists are after!
Fujimaru: It's Pandora's Box!!

18-19

Kirishima: Pandora's...Box!?

Fujimaru: Yes.

Fujimaru: It's a box that gives you the ability to fire...
Fujimaru: every nuclear missile the American military possesses.

20

Fujimaru: It's a box of death!
Text: They will rule the world...
Bottom: To be continued in Issue 8.