Part 6: Chapter 4

    In his manor, about a dozen reporters were crowded around Prime Minister Nakasone, who remained impeccably dressed in a business suit despite the heat of the summer.
    "Prime Minister, what is this emergency cabinet meeting about?"
    "Is there any progress regarding this autumn's election?"
    There was no end to the reporters' questions. But there was a look of irritation on every one of their faces. The mass disappearances centered around Musashino Ward were now an open secret. But under strict orders of silence, none of them could ask nothing about it.
    While Set had craftily been gathering only the residents of an individual ward, after losing Isma, his Assiah-word co-conspirator, he had started indiscriminately absorbing humans from all over. The situation had gone far beyond the point where it could be concealed.
    "I only wish I had the answers you are looking for." Leaving this one comment, the Prime Minister disappeared into the cabinet room with a pained expression on his face.

    "I have been waiting for you, Prime Minister." Chief Cabinet Secretary Fujita's cracking voice called to Nakasone as he entered the cabinet chamber.
    The prime minister looked painfully at the tired face of the loyal retainer who had been the motivator of his rise to power.
    He's been the one who has been fiercely insisting on keeping the disappearances quiet. Now that things have gotten as bad as they are now, I have no choice but to make him take responsibility.
    Having to do so was one of the weights on the Prime Minister's mind. He had no way of knowing that the Chief Cabinet Secretary was possessed by an Apep.
    "Minister of Home Affairs, report on the situation."
    "As of 10:00 Am this morning, the number of those missing ranks at 42,500. The areas hit have spread to Nerima Ward and Suginami Ward in the east, and Koganei City in the west. Immediate measures must be taken." Minister of Home Affairs Hanashi, who had been forbidden to send out any search teams, replied with an irritated voice.
    "Have a look at the area right now." Defense Minister Kurihara stood and pressed a button on the table.
    The image of the streets of Musashino City flickered on a screen in front of them.
    "This is footage taken from one of our RPVs. (Remotely Piloted Vehicles)"
    Since Set had started indiscriminately hunting people, the veil of fog that had blanketed the area had started to clear more and more, and the RPV sent a clear picture of the surroundings for two meters all around to the liquid crystal display. The business district in by Kichijoji station, the great green scenery of Inogashira Park, and quiet residential districts sped by onscreen. The image looked eerily peaceful as hardly anything onscreen was moving at all. Spinning the dial by his hand, Kurihara zoomed in on the screen. The rays of the sun reflected off the hoods of abandoned cars strewn about Inogashira Avenue. Cats wandered the human-free town as if they owned it.
    "What on earth is going on?" Murmurs broke out in the room.
    Shortly the RPV started moving toward the west. All of a sudden, it appeared as if the scenery onscreen had changed to that of a tropical jungle.
    "What the hell is that?" There was a stir amongst the entire cabinet.
    Manipulating the dial, Kurihara zoomed the camera in even further, and its bizarre form filled the screen.
    The wet, slimy, gelatinous thing appeared to be an immensely enormous one-celled organism. It was clearly alive, as the membrane enveloping its central core throbbed gently. Silently, Kurihara moved the RPV, rotating it around the otherworldy creature, which appeared to be like a skyscraper of flesh jutting into the sky.
    "Hey, isn't that a human?"
    Nobody responded to Nakasone's exclamation. The ghastliness of the scenery had stunned everyone. A line of people, hundreds of them, led out of the forest, advancing toward the tower. As they approached it, they tore off their clothes and naked, extended their arms in front of them like sleepwalkers before being absorbed into the protoplasm. The transparent jelly dissolved their bodies almost instantaneously, fusing them with the lump of meat that was its nucleus.
    "Chief Cabinet Secretary, Foreign Minister Hamano, it was you two who so forcefully suggested we cover this up, no...?" The speaker was Minster of Education Shiokawa. But even the Minister of Education's voice, known wide for its forceful complaints, sounded dry and scratchy.
    "This was an unexpected development. There's nothing we could have done!" The words sounded nothing like those of the Prime Minister's right-hand-man, the man so well-known by everyone for being forthright and honest.
    Has he gone mad?
    The thought was in everyone's heads as the sound of a telephone broke the silence.
    "I told you to shut out all calls during the cabinet meeting, no matter what they were!" The officer that picked up the phone spoke into it in a hushed voice, but as soon as he heard the speaker on the other end, his face drained of color.
    "Prime Minister, we have an emergency phone call from President Reagan of the US."
    "What is it!?" Suspiciously, Nakasone took the receiver. Nakasone was famous for being the most fluent speaker of English amongst Japanese politicians. Still, he couldn't help but cry out "I don't believe it!" in Japanese during his conversation with Reagan.
    Right at that moment, there was a scream from behind him. As Nakasone turned around, he nearly dropped the receiver, forgetting for a moment that he was speaking to the President.
    Fujita and Hamano were screaming in laughter, yet without out making a sound. Their faces became more and more purple by the moment. Fresh blood spewed from their lips, their ears burst, and their eyeballs, staring emptily into nothingness, were expanding as if they were about to pop out of their sockets. A horrible rotting smell permeated the meeting room.
    "Let the SP and the paramedics in! Don't let any of this leak to the media!" Ota, who had come to his senses earliest, ordered the officer who had picked up the phone, who was standing still, his mouth agape.
    Well, I suppose it can't be helped. If these two die here, nobody else will know my secret. Ota's greatest wish had come true.
    The heads of the two men, whose features were now distorted far beyond anything normal, limped loosely, and their bodies dissolved into puddles of slime like rotten fruit on the ground.
    In the chaos of people running about in the room, not a single person noticed the two small white snakes slip out of the now two formless bodies lying in a pile on the ground.
    Meanwhile, Ota was laughing inside as everything had seemed to proceed as he had planned, but the next instant, his face twisted in an expression of terror.
    The red eyes of the snakes were watching him closely.
    "Aagh!"
    As Ota reflexively took a few steps backwards, his feet slipped on the blood-drenched carpet. He tumbled to the ground, and the two serpents quickly slithered toward his head.
    Meanwhile, the enormous pillar of flesh continued to display onscreen, though nobody was watching it any longer. All of a sudden the camera angle changed sharply. It appeared as if the entire screen shook for a moment before it was filled completely with green as the flow of data from the RPV stopped.