Chapter 324: The Cow and the Bear Shall Feed Together (5)
Once she had the gist of it from the demon duo, Hitomi chose her words with care.
"So, um... you're saying this person is effectively the head of state of Russia?"
"Well. In sum, one might put it that way."
Philotanuss smiled and inclined his head.
"Why would someone like that lend their name to Anathema Production of all things...?"
That was the question sitting in Hitomi's chest. If the parties were already on familiar terms, it would hardly be strange for one to ask whether they might borrow the other's name. Listening further, though, this did not seem to be a matter of that modest scale. A character merely drawn from a celebrity, and the person themselves openly declaring that an arrangement had been reached—those were entirely separate things, were they not?
Asked whether the news was a boon or a liability for Anathema Production, one would have to call it closer to the former. The same could not be said for Behemoth. A head of state endorsing a particular company in a foreign country was not something to be waved aside, and still less when that company shared an especially close bond with a juggernaut like the Hyakurenno Group. Between private individuals, perhaps. As a politician, it was difficult to call the choice an entirely wise one.
"Because Han Seoyeon Margarita is a benefactor to the two of us."
Behemoth answered her with a bright smile.
"A benefactor...?"
"Now and then people use the phrase 'a person with many enemies.' Margarita is the exact opposite. She is someone with many allies. I am far from the only one on her side."
Behemoth's gaze drifted toward some far-off point.
"Can't you feel it, just from how hard she is working in Japan?"
"Shion does have a bit of that tendency, yes."
Something in it must have rung true, for a strange, wry smile caught at Hitomi's mouth. She knew perfectly well that, in more ways than one, the woman stood a long way from ordinary. This not-ordinary had nothing to do with her being a specialist who had climbed as far as the rank of Apostle. Even set beside Apostles who were, each and every one of them, a screw loose, the human being called Han Seoyeon was a rather alien creature. So much rancor was carved into that body that most people recoiled from her at the level of the soul itself—and yet spend even a little time in her company, and you would be hard-pressed to find a busier busybody anywhere.
She was not the strongest Apostle, nor the most brilliant... but one could say with certainty that she was the busiest. Even those who had reached only the level commonly called Gravekeeper were already treated as one-person special forces, and an Apostle was as good as an asymmetric weapon. Short of some disaster breaking out, they rarely took on anywhere near so many missions. Even allowing for Japan's peculiar situation as the stronghold of the Church's radical faction, Seoyeon had her hands in an abnormal number of places. Most Apostles would have solved a problem like this by simply crushing every radical in Japan. ...There was a reason that she, even among the Apostles, was classed as an extreme moderate alongside her master, Giacomo Marchisio.
Remembering that her lover really was a gentle person, Hitomi felt an unbidden swell of pride.
"That is Margarita for you. The people who owe her a kindness alone would fill a hall."
Before becoming an Apostle in particular, Seoyeon had wandered every corner of the world with Han Jihan, Giacomo, and the others. Their temperaments were not so different from Han Seoyeon's—which was only natural; whom else would Seoyeon have learned from?—and considering that, the people they had helped in those days must have been very many indeed.
"I am one of them."
With that, Behemoth gave a light shrug.
"Besides, Ryuumai Fuu is someone I would not mind parting with a little of Behemoth's authority for. The earth might split in two before she would ever abuse it."
A member of the Triage Team who flung herself into the jaws of death without a thought for her own life. Behemoth's judgment was that power given to someone who had risen as far as unit leader in an organization that could be called the furthest extreme of rescue work was not power that person would misuse.
Hitomi nodded her agreement.
"...Except when she's fighting Miss Momomomo Chisa."
And yet what she added at the last was the name of the one person Ryuumai hated past all reason. Ryuumai would never turn new strength to a private end—except, perhaps, in the single case of attacking Chisa, when she might just haul in a great heap of Behemoth's faith. Somehow, Hitomi could see it happening.
"Those children still don't get along, I see."
"You know the two of them as well, Lady Behemoth?"
"How could I not? Japan's anomaly-response agencies fell into civil war. A country sitting right beside them could hardly afford to look away."
And once one began gathering information on a matter like that, it was impossible not to learn which faction the aces capable of overturning the board had joined. So those two were famous in their own right. The thought came to Hitomi unbidden. Ryuumai had made a name for herself through her work with Triage, yes, but Hitomi had never expected that name to have reached foreign shores even before then. ...Perhaps, knowing as many Apostles as she did, her standard for what counted as an impressive talent had simply climbed too high.
"Ah. It looks like they're about to start."
One story had led to another, and somewhere in the midst of it the show seemed ready to begin in earnest. In front of the crew still setting up the stage, the man who had been holding forth launched into his introduction of the first performer, and before long the members of the band he had described climbed up onto the stage.
From a good way off, someone bellowed the band's name with everything they had. It did not stop at a single voice. Several people were roaring it out together. Listening, Hitomi felt a thrill run through her for no reason she could name, even before the music began.
In truth, she had little connection to performances in the flesh. She had been onstage herself, but only ever in a form where the audience logged on over the internet to watch. There was something uncanny in the force of a real crowd gathered and aimed at the people performing. She thought it strange to feel any such thing about a stage that was not even hers, and yet the only cheers she had ever known were chats typed out as text. This was the first time she was tasting the heat of a live venue.
"...I wonder how many of our fans are here."
The thought rose in her suddenly, and she murmured it. The voice a moment ago had sent a ripple through her, but if she was honest, there had not been so very many of them. Of course, the mere fact that this many fans had come was already something to marvel at. And once she followed that thought, she could not help arriving at the question of how many of Anathema's own fans had gathered.
The audience for the virtual concert had been enormous, but the two were difficult to compare. Simply watching in comfort from home was a completely different kind of access. Foreign viewers had it worst of all. Even people in Japan would struggle to attend depending on where they lived—how much more so anyone else. And with an event of this scale, there would have been a ticketing war against the other participants' fandoms as well...
But Guroyuki Sui, seated beside her on the picnic mat, answered with perfect calm.
"Don't worry so much, Ninomae-chan."
"If anything, there are fans who come because of that. Call it a wash."
"They come because of it?"
"If it were only us, some of them might have decided the money and the time were hard to justify. Throw in sets from musicians like these, and they decide it's worth showing up. Those people exist. I'm sure of it."
Nothing shifted in her expression, and no particular feeling showed through, yet the words carried a hard confidence.
"Of course, some people wanted to come and couldn't get tickets. So maybe not many of our fans made it in the end. Possible."
"Yes. Honestly, that's a lot of what I'm worried about..."
"Doesn't matter. Then we just turn the people who came without knowing us into fans."
Her eyes fixed, unblinking, on Hitomi's.
"Right?"
"...You really are something, Guroyuki-san."
Faced with that unshakable bearing, Hitomi laughed before she knew it. A confidence almost worth envying. She could not have asked for a more reliable senior.
"You're right. We're the ones who have to build the stage. We can't be shrinking in on ourselves."
So Hitomi closed her fist tight and set her resolve. She would have juniors of her own soon enough. She could not afford to be rattled by something of this size. Above all, if the performers were lost in stray thoughts, the audience would not be able to enjoy themselves properly either.
"Let's take them. Every last one."
"Yeah. That's how we walk out there."
The two of them faced each other, and then they nodded.
"Next up, then... Yes. I believe it's been a very long time since she last took the stage. We have a performance prepared from Miss Bansei Marin, former leader of VV—"
"...I can't speak to the quantity of our fans in this crowd, but the quality seems certain."
"Ah, ahaha..."