Headline News

Alliance Office Japan, Akasaka Press Center, Minato, Tokyo.
June 15
12:10 AM

Gunshots could be heard all over the room, explosions that made the windows shake, and screams could be heard in the background, were they orders or were they people in panic? The sirens of the patrols sounded everywhere, but they were all directed towards a single point, the origin of the explosions. A girl was climbing on a chair to be able to look out of a window, despite the discomfort she kept looking trying to find the truth of what she was witnessing, Nozomi Yasuda was her name, an investigative journalist, of a very respectable reputation thanks to her work for the Nichibotsu no taiyō Shimbun, a period of high fame throughout Japan. As a journalist, she felt the need to get as close as possible to where the events were taking place. Still, this time that would be impossible, because she was locked up in a small jail located on the second floor of the building where she was, she had been arrested for trying to obtain information from a secret meeting of important people, or so she thought.

Nozomi watched through the window as a group of men ran out of the building where she was locked up, also running towards the source of the gunfire. They were large and well-armed men, their uniforms revealed that they were foreigners, United States soldiers. The reporter managed to distinguish among them all Captain Cedric, a war hero with an incredible record, seeing him running in his battle suit was not good news. The reporter was imagining various scenarios she could see happening. Still, most of them only indicated that an attempt had been made on President John Smith's life and his security forces were responding accordingly. As time went by, the gunshots were less and less, until later only the sirens of more policemen were heard, but the same ones were silenced sometime later, it seemed that the event was already over. Nozomi was still reflecting on what could have happened and if this was related to the woman she had been investigating for some time, she needed to know if Mrs. Adelis was in this building that the president visited, because if it was true it would indicate that many of her suspicions about them could be true. The door of her cell opened suddenly scaring the girl, an African American soldier was telling her to go out to take her somewhere, she had no choice but to obey him because the soldier had a rifle with him.

The soldier took her through the corridor to the elevator, the journalist looked carefully at what he was doing, she hoped to deduce that his intentions were not bad, she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that he pressed the number one button, where the exit was, probably they were releasing her. The door of the elevator opened, the journalist found that everyone in the place had a large weapon at hand, even the janitor had a gun and radio communicating something, after taking the first step she heard how the elevator next to her gave a slight sound, indicating that soon it would open too. What a surprise Nozomi got when saw Mrs. Adelis next to her, the woman was walking quite fast and talking a lot with the people around her, several men in black suits and several girls, one of them dressed quite strange with even a mask on her face, she seemed angry with everyone at the same time. Nozomi tried to pay attention to what they were saying but with so many people talking at the same time she couldn't get anything. The soldier took the journalist to the base gates and dismissed her, leaving her free.

She walked quickly to Nogi Park to pick up the camera she had left and see if by any chance she had recorded anything she could use for her work, a couple of pictures of a patrol car would be enough, but as she was walking more and more people were coming out, when she was only a block away she could see a huge crowd watching. Had Nozomi's preparation paid off? She ran into the crowd and got as close as she could, only to find the yellow ribbons of the police stopping her. The sight was terrible, a war had taken place in front of the park and the shrine. The whole street was full of holes from gunshots, destroyed cars, almost a hundred bodies lying around, and hundreds of police and soldiers checking every inch for more threats or clues. The journalist saw Cedric again talking to one of the police chiefs, saying that they had come to help the police with the tragedy that was happening. The girl was praying that her camera was still intact after all that, then she looked up and found it, on the balcony of one of the buildings, looking exactly at the place where the events took place. Now it was just a matter of getting there, but how would he do it with so many cops blocking the entrance?

The girl looked down at the fall, at least four floors separated her from the ground, only one meter to the next building and her camera. She had managed to convince the owner to let her go up to the roof with the excuse that she was desperate to see her son in good condition at home, he told her the plan to jump from one building to the other, but it was still difficult for the girl to know that if she miscalculated the jump would be catastrophic, but it was also true that the best journalists were the bravest and she was one of those. She took enough momentum and jumped forward, a journey of a couple of seconds, seconds in which she held her breath from nerves, a big hit, her feet touched the ground again, she was alive. She opened the door and went down the stairs, then she managed to enter the abandoned apartment and looked down, hoping that no cops were watching her so they wouldn't take her camera, she waited a couple of minutes and took it. She left the place using the emergency door that was right behind the office where there was no one there yet, after that she left as fast as she could from there.

Nozomi didn't go straight home, instead, she took a cab to the Nichibotsu no taiyō Shimbun building, her workplace, being fast with the news was important for a journalist, especially with events as important as this one, it was quite far away so during the trip she checked the video camera. She was anxious, she had an exclusive complete with a video of everything that happened, her boss would be extremely happy about it, maybe he would even pay her a generous bonus, her video would be on the TV news, it would be the topic of conversation for the next few days. But part of his optimism disappeared when he saw the video, in which he could appreciate the brutality of the combat, how people died to gain a meter from the hands of their enemies, how a woman lost her life just for being in the wrong place, and in the middle of all this a little white girl. In the video, you could see how it all started because of her when she took a suitcase out of the sanctuary and an armed group rushed later to take it away, how the little girl was the main reason why the shooting was so long. Worst of all, Nozomi knew the girl in the video personally, she had even talked to her several times in the past, she had talked to her just this morning, there was no way to confuse her with that stupid fox tail, that same girl had slit the throat of an armed man biting him in the neck until a waterfall of blood like a wild beast hunting her prey, that same girl who waved in the park from time to time killed several policemen who approached her. The white girl was injured a couple of times, then at the end of the video, she was seen getting into the car of one of the police officers with the help of two other girls who had been there. The journalist had to stop reviewing the video when the driver told her that she was at her destination. 

The girl went straight to the editor's office, she had to deliver the information to him personally. The man was busy with a call, from the sound of the shouting outside it must have been important, so the journalist waited for him to finish first, she looked at a television that was in the waiting room. On it was a journalist reporting the incredible chase that had taken place on the Metropolitan Expressway Bayshore, several cars completely destroyed, vehicles on fire, and a huge number of fatalities. All the channels were talking about it but almost none about the Nagi Park event. Nozomi, seeing the scale of what had happened, quickly made up her mind that the girl in white had escaped in a car and was being chased on the freeway. When the man finally had time Nozomi ran up to him and handed him a copy of the video from the camera. She assured him that the video was genuine and that she had taken it herself, explained the reasons why she had set up the camera in the first place, and how she had been stopped trying to set up another one in front of the Akasaka Press Center offices. She also went on to explain what was going on in the video, the shrine case, the men in costumes, and also the girl in white, although she did not reveal that she knew her personally. He on the other hand was quite happy about the exclusive news they had in their hands and how they had such a good video that others would even have to pay them to use it if they wanted to be on the same level. Due to the late hour, the man told Nozomi that he could leave now and that he would take care of making the best excerpts of the video and that he would publish them tomorrow, both on the website and as cover images in the newspaper. The girl was quite happy and proud of her hard work and stroke of luck.

Nozomi still trying to press his luck that day tried to contact Nanami, the white girl in the video to see if he could get information from her. He wrote her a couple of messages to see if she had accepted the proposal she had offered him the morning of that day, but also hiding the fact that he had her in such an incriminating video, however she received no response. She thought no more and rested until the next day.

Because of her excitement, the reporter woke up early and turned on the TV to watch the news and see the reception of her contribution. She saw the headlines of the day, President John Smith leaves the country in the face of violent Yakuza clashes, movie-like chase on the Metropolitan Expressway Bayshore, Respected police Inspector Yamamoto hero of the day, Bomb threat in Nogi Park due to the clash of recognized Yakuza gangs caused a display never seen before by the security forces. Nozomi continued to watch the television with great excitement as if she were watching an action movie. The news said that the president of the United States had to leave early due to threats of confrontation between Yakuza gangs, according to the words of the presenters, the threat although light, the secret service is very serious about the safety of the leaders of their country, so they preferred not to risk it and took Mr. John Smith out of the John Smith around noon yesterday. Nozomi clearly knew that the news had been made up to look less serious than it really was, after all, the United States wanted to save its image in front of the whole world, the reporter understood what happened, it was obvious that some changes would be taken place, so she was not surprised by the changes that happened. The following news item refers to a road battle that took place on Expressway Bayshore, multiple vehicles were involved in a major chase that was later joined by the police, Apparently, this happened when Inspector Yamamoto found and defused a homemade bomb linked to a powerful criminal gang targeting the leader of another rival gang, Yamamoto took the bomb and while carrying it as incriminating evidence to the police station he was attacked by both Yakuza gangs which ended in the spectacular chase. Nozomi was this time confused with the news, she was sure she had explained well her deduction about the events that happened, the disguised men were too well equipped to be just a normal criminal gang, they seemed more like mercenaries, but surely her boss did not get her idea and he also needed to talk well of the police to soften the blow that would come later with her new. The news was quite related to the next one, which talked about how old police inspector Yamamoto's valiant efforts earned him no less than the title of hero, for he single-handedly managed to take down his criminals and stop the chase, saving quite a few lives in the process, the police chief gave an interview about how proud he was of him and how he would be receiving a medal at a ceremony in the near future. Nozomi was quite impatient, her news would be next, one of her best jobs in record time. except that before giving the news came the section of commercial announcements

The journalist was on the edge of her seat, counting the seconds until the newscast came back on the air and she could see the good work she had done. When the commercials ended the hosts started the news, a threat from an anonymous source revealed the bomb in the vicinity of Nogi Park, Inspector Yamamoto was the first to arrive on the scene and bravely defused the homemade bomb, after which the Yakuzas appeared and the confrontation started, leaving about 20 civilians dead and as many police dead or wounded. A real tragedy, which only continued later on the highway, was the main focus of the news, as Nogi park was only the starting point of the rest. The video of the girl finally appeared while the reporter was talking, several small clips where you could see the disguised men against the police, also some parts where the policemen appeared in their patrol cars and opened fire, the most important clip was where Inspector Yamamoto's car appeared slightly away from the camera, yes, all videos credited to the journalist Nozomi Yasuda of the newspaper Nichibotsu no taiyō Shimbun. The next news item was the names of several of the criminals arrested, such as Rinto Yaginuma, who had problems with the rival gang, and the girl turned off the TV in anger.

Nozomi quickly got ready and left her house in a hurry, she went as fast as she could to her office and without touching her desk she went straight to talk to her boss, who was in the same office as yesterday, wearing the same clothes and with his desk full of energy drinks, it looked like it had been a long night. But even with all that the girl had no sympathy for him and called his bluff.

"Mr. Nakatsuka!"
"May I know what happened to my news?"
"What was that news that was on TV?!?"
"Where is my exclusive news!?"

"Lady Yasuda?"
"Damn it, I only slept 10 minutes and this is how you greet me?"
"If it's for your payment then have this..."
"In this envelope is your bonus for your news and video"
"That's it, you can take the day off"

"It's not the money!"
It's the video!
"I gave you a video with a privileged view of everything that happened and what do you do with it!?"
"3 clips of 5 seconds in a complementary news item to the highway chase!?"
"People died in Nogi Park!"
"You know perfectly well that what happened there is more important than the freeway!"
"And what about the Kanenaga group terrorists, they showed up too!"
"And the other group aren't Yakuza either, just look, they have pretty expensive equipment, these are mercenaries!"
"What the hell happened to this! The whole news is wrong!"
"You tricked me!"
"You said we'd use this video to show the truth!"
"And what do I find? A filler and biased news!"

"No... it's... so simple"
"You have no idea how dangerous that video is"
"...."
"Believe me, I wanted to show that video too."
"But I can't, there's no way"
"Just forget it, keep working on the rest"
"Look, I even overpaid you for the trouble of having to leave all this behind"

"Are you bribing me not to report a story!?"

"I am not bribing you, I am protecting you!"
"The money is for you to understand how dangerous the matter is!"
"...."
"Don't you understand?"

"I never thought I would see you stoop so low Mr. Nakatsuka"

"Some guys came by after you left"
"2 meters tall, black suit and sunglasses even at night, blond hair"
"A FUCKING SECRET SERVICE MEDAL ON HIS CHEST"
"What do you think they asked me for?"
"All the news of what happened yesterday is getting the same treatment"
"Get out of the way and watch out for the consequences of having the wrong people as your enemies"

"There are foreign agents threatening us?"
"We have to report this to the law!"
"We can't leave it like this!"

"Goddamn it Yasuda!"
"This is not a simple threat from a couple of people with money"
"This is a game of countries"
"The kind of game that disappears people and journalists"
"What don't you understand? What happened yesterday is far from just a stray shooting"
"The United States deployed its military on foreign soil without asking the government's permission"
"Japan has done nothing, do you know why?"
"Because yesterday they were the ones who saved our country and we could only watch"
"We made a fool of ourselves and they were the ones who saved our asses"
"The president of the United States was kind enough to let us pretend and use this to keep our honor with the people"
"...."
"...."
"If the truth comes out, not only will the outsiders come after you, but the government will come after you as well"
"This is the game where spies die away from the public"
"It is with news like this that brave journalists are buried in the mountains"

"It is with news like this that a country can change its destiny"

"Yasuda, plese understand ...."
"I have a family, two girls who go to school every day"
"Look at this picture the men in black gave me, them coming out of their school"
"They know where they are and what their schedule is"
"You think I can put them at risk just because of a coworker?"
"If you continue with your stubbornness, I will have no choice but to fire you Yasuda"
"If you are going to put yourself at risk at least do it alone and don't include others in your stupid journalist pride"

The girl looked into the eyes of her boss, in his gaze, she could see the heartfelt request that the man was making, far from the image of a strong person that Mr. Nakatsuka was known for, what was happening was real, this man was seriously worried about his future. Out of respect for her boss, Nozomi took the money and left the room without another word, for she was terrified of what she had gotten herself into. She walked on and went to her desk to grab a couple of things before returning home to think about what she should do about it. On the way, she met her Kohai, Miss Natsuki whose desk was next to her. Natsuki congratulated her on her work by reaching the TV news. The new girl considered Nozomi as an idol, he as a journalist should be. In the young girl's eyes, Nozomi felt much more guilty about what was happening, how it would devastate her to know that the person she considered a role model had hidden one of her best news because of threats from bad people. Inside her body, a flame was lit, the idea that she should go to the end of the matter and know the truth, maybe not to give the news to others, but as a personal goal, as a way to be at peace with herself.