The air pressure in the meeting room was very low.
The root cause was the middle-aged man sitting at the head of the table.
He slumped in his chair with a belly like a pregnant woman's. Thick fat was piled on his face, his narrow eyes squeezed into tiny slits by the flesh. His short, thick fingers held a cigarette, and grey-white smoke drifted out of his nostrils.
He looked very much like an arrogant, well-fed Shar Pei.
"Minister Shimoda, I still have certain... views on your opinion."
Sakai Takashi spoke hesitantly, the black sign pen in his hand spinning irregularly, constantly revealing the young man's uneasy heart.
Beside him, Usami Reiko and White Torch remained silent.
"We currently do not know the specific personnel composition of the 'Equilibrium Sect'. Attacking that 'Barrier Master' so recklessly might provoke the organization behind it."
"Recklessly?"
Shimoda Junichiro shook his fat and glared angrily at Sakai Takashi: "Know your place. What right do you have to say such things to me?!"
Sakai Takashi was speechless. He gripped the pen in his hand tightly, gritting his teeth in silence.
"We are the only legitimate official ritual organization in all of Japan. No one! No one can challenge our authority!"
His thick palm slammed against the table with a bang.
"White Torch!"
Shimoda Junichiro turned his head and criticized White Torch with dissatisfaction: "What exactly is wrong with you?"
"The nation gave you all its resources, and we put in so much effort."
"And yet you were defeated by some trash Ritualist who came out of nowhere?!"
A flash of impatience crossed White Torch's solemn, square face. He remained silent for a few seconds: "The opponent was very strong."
"How strong?" Shimoda Junichiro pointed mockingly at Usami Reiko: "Miss Reiko?"
Usami Reiko took a deep breath. After looking at White Torch, she turned her head and said in a professional tone:
"White Torch is a 'Judgment' rank Ritualist, but at the time, we saw with our own eyes that the 'Barrier Master' easily repelled him."
"Based on this, there is a high probability that the opponent belongs to the 'apostle' rank."
The meeting room was silent, save for Shimoda Junichiro's repeated grunts.
"'apostle'?" The fat man did not believe Usami Reiko's statement: "Tell me, where would an 'apostle' come from?"
He picked up the report and suddenly threw it at Usami Reiko!
The blue plastic folder spun through the air toward her face.
Usami Reiko lowered her head with her eyes tightly shut—
Snap.
She opened her eyes.
White Torch had reached out and caught the folder.
He gave the woman an imperceptible nod, and then the verbal abuse continued.
"This investigation report clearly shows that the opponent did not use mystery exceeding the 'Judgment' rank! Aside from the ritual and the chaos creations, no mystery exceeding White Torch's was left in the space!"
"Is there something wrong with the brains of our inspectors?"
"Or is it that what you saw was not an 'apostle' rank ability?"
To be honest, seeing this report, White Torch was also confused—at the time, he had truly felt the surging energy within the opponent, the high-amplitude blade, and the lightning-fast reflexes.
How could no mystery be left behind? Wasn't the opponent a Ritualist? And how to explain that massive barrier?
Shimoda Junichiro looked mockingly at White Torch and Usami Reiko. The man who was supposedly number one in all of Japan now had his brows knitted together, looking at the investigation data in his hand with great confusion.
"I have good reason to suspect whether you simply saw wrong... or are intentionally hiding something."
Seeing Minister Shimoda acting like this, Sakai Takashi spoke up again in dissatisfaction to argue: "Minister! The opponent's physical strength indeed exceeded White Torch's—"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
Shimoda Junichiro was furious. This low-level trash had contradicted him repeatedly; the newly appointed man would absolutely not allow such a thing to happen.
He was looking for an excuse to assert his authority.
"What is your rank? A Soldier? Who do you think you're talking to?!"
Sakai Takashi clenched his fists tightly. "But what you said is, after all, different from what we saw—"
"What does that matter?" Shimoda Junichiro raised his short eyebrows. "If you can't solve it, it just shows your Ability is insufficient."
"Whether it's the 'Masquerade Ball' or the 'Equilibrium Sect,' they're just a bunch of ants that can't stand the light."
"White Torch, do you agree?"
Being called out for the second time, a hint of displeasure finally appeared in White Torch's weather-beaten eyes.
"Minister Shimoda, I hope you can trust my professional Ability."
"Professional?"
Shimoda Junichiro sneered.
"You were defeated by a mere Ritualist, yet I'm supposed to believe you, Mr. White Torch, 'Japan's strongest'?"
His stubby fingers stubbed out a cigarette on the table as he stared at the First Captain of the Ritual Institute with a half-smile. "Ask your teammates, do they still believe in you?"
Sakai Takashi glanced at White Torch and silently mouthed words while baring his teeth like a clown.
"I believe in you."
White Torch couldn't be bothered to pay him any attention.
Usami Reiko was truly fed up with this minister. Since his recent arrival, the Ritual Institute had been in a foul state, and now he was finally stretching his hands toward the Logistics Department and the Support/Field Squads.
"Minister Shimoda, I hope you know what you're doing."
Usami Reiko twirled the pen in her hand, her brow furrowed. "Even though we have an entire country as our backing and resource, still..."
But this was different from war.
Ritualists were, after all, a scarce resource; they weren't something a national ruler could summon in any quantity with a single command. Selecting a single 'Contactee' was already one in ten thousand, let alone those official Ritualists with ranks.
Just dealing with the endless Chaos Incidents and capturing/killing those ignorant Infected already kept the Field Squads of the Ritual Institute incredibly busy.
Add the Masquerade Ball to that, and even White Torch was exhausted from dealing with it all.
Now, this fat-brained idiot of a minister actually intended to go to war with the Equilibrium Sect... At this rate, the numerical advantage the authorities had painstakingly accumulated would likely vanish in no time.
Usami Reiko had long been disappointed with the authorities; in this current situation, the woman wasn't surprised in the slightest.
It was just a small island in the sea; it was normal for a cluster of idiots to exist.
"So what?"
Shimoda Junichiro exhaled smoke nonchalantly. "No matter how powerful a Ritualist is, they can't stand against firearms."
Usami Reiko thought of the 'Barrier Master's' lightning-like evasion and phantom-like speed... If they provoked this organization and it began a massive slaughter of the masses... However, Shimoda Junichiro didn't seem to care.
He gestured, and the secretary beside him immediately and respectfully brought over a stack of documents to distribute to everyone in the conference room.
This is...?
The data was very detailed; it had to be said that Minister Shimoda had indeed done his homework.
The white papers were filled with recent Chaos Incidents in Tokyo, both large and small. What they had in common was—
They had all been resolved.
"The Barrier Master...?"
He had silently resolved so many Chaos Incidents.
With a couple of grunts, Shimoda Junichiro waited until everyone had finished reading before speaking up. "That Barrier Master from the Equilibrium Sect has been resolving Chaos Incidents everywhere lately."
Didn't he help us?
Sakai Takashi took the documents and scanned them quickly.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"I'll say it one more time!" Shimoda Junichiro bared his yellow teeth. "I will not allow any Ritualists to exist outside of the official authorities!"
—He won't allow a 'good' organization to exist.
—Otherwise, once that organization grows large, how can my power be guaranteed?
—We are the only organization that can save the country and that the country can rely on.
—We must also be the organization the country relies on for financial support.
—If we aren't, then we'll just make ourselves the only one.
A bunch of fools.
"If that Barrier Master doesn't want to be our enemy, then—"
"Have him join the ranks." Seeing everyone's shocked expressions, Shimoda Junichiro nodded with satisfaction. "I'll leave this matter to White Torch."
Recruiting civilian Ritualists was a move the authorities had made long ago, but to be honest, most of the civilian Contactees they found had gone mad... the few remaining had become followers of the Chaos Faction.
Civilians who could survive the Contactee stage, calmly enter the World of Ritualists, and belong to the side of order... were few and far between—the authorities had recruited a few, and they were currently out on missions with some Field Squads.
But, recruiting... the Barrier Master?
With the authorities' current attitude... rather than recruitment, it was more like intentionally forcing the Barrier Master to resist... right?
This Minister Shimoda really would do anything for power.
The situation and images from that day flashed through White Torch's mind.
The man shook his head imperceptibly.
This was a death wish.
He was a dutiful person and never participated in death-seeking behavior.
"I refuse."
Amidst Shimoda Junichiro's twisted expression, White Torch stood up and spoke calmly.
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