"I'm being sent to Italy!" Hisako cried.
She mashed at the old fight pad she'd dug out from her closet. Beside her, Sylvain danced his fingers nimbly over his controller. They were sitting in Sylvain's new apartment, deep in the heart of the Chubu Division's Headquarters, where foreign guests stayed.
They were playing a fighting game in co-op mode; Sylvain hadn't trained Hisako up enough for competitive play, especially against him.
"Right arrow, down stick." He calmly reminded her in Japanese.
She briefly struggled to respond in English: "The, uh, foot—leg-leg sweeping attack."
"Spam it."
"I don't get why I'm being sent out of the country," she sighed, obliging his order. "All the exciting stuff is happening here."
"The bird must learn to flap its wings before it flies," Sylvain said sagely. He taunted with his character repeatedly, making them comb their hair obsessively—he had yet to teach her the buttons for that.
She finally knocked the boss enemy over for them to trigger their tag-team ultimate attack and put the enemy on their last bar of health.
"Your character has a special ability…" he prompted.
She flicked the buttons and cranked the joystick, sending her character into the air to do a spinning axe kick, repeatedly damaging the enemy and locking them into damage frames.
"Sweet," Sylvain hissed.
Her character panted in recovery, and Sylvain finished off the staggered boss with a suave basic attack.
"First try on Challenger Mode is good. This boss scales higher than the others in co-op." He leaned back in his chair and stretched. "But really, if your captain is sending you out of the country while it's getting hot here, it must be for a good reason."
She sighed. "I know… It's just annoying. Izu was fun, but now this is like a second vacation."
He chuckled. "It's a work trip though, right?"
"Eh. I get briefed later today. I only just heard the news yesterday."
"Well, it's a good thing you've been practicing your English!"
She snorted. "Don't they speak Italian in Italy?"
He raised a brow at her. "'Sako. Really? English is, like, the second biggest language in the world. A bunch of European countries teach it in grade school. You'll be speaking English with them."
"Mm," Hisako hummed. "So do you want me to bring you back a souvenir?"
"In English," he demanded, snickering as he started the next level.
She rolled her eyes playfully. "Do you want a souvenir?" she asked, carefully mimicking Sylvain's accent.
"Yes, please," Sylvain said, exaggerating the accent back. "Thank you so much."
Hisako shoved him playfully.
***
Lieutenant Strömberg was talking with Captain Iwamoto and Lieutenant Fujioka when she entered the briefing room. She hesitated at the entrance, eyes glancing around for more familiar, approachable faces.
Eiji and his mentor were standing by Amajiki, who waved Hisako over when he noticed her.
The only seated individual was an unfamiliar woman carefully eyeing Eiji and Hisako, sitting behind a stack of what had to be information packets. She had short red-orange-dyed hair and dark, keen eyes.
Hisako strode over to her mentor evenly, trying not to stare back at the stranger. Eiji beamed at her.
"I'm glad to see a familiar face," Hisako told Eiji.
"You don't seem too excited," Eiji noted.
"I'd rather be in Japan," she sighed.
Eiji gave a sympathetic look. "Consider it a business trip and it won't feel like a waste of time."
"Everyone is here?" Strömberg shifted his gaze. "Let's begin then. Time is of the essence, unfortunately."
He approached the seated woman and was given the stack of papers. Eiji and Hisako were motioned to sit down by their mentors, who stood leaning against a neighboring table. Strömberg handed the packets to everyone, including himself and Fujioka.
"Japan's Doorkeepers will be, for the first time in four years, participating in a global summit with like organizations," Strömberg said. "The summit is in four days."
"We had little time to assemble a team," Fujioka added quietly. "The logistics of regaining an invite after so long was complicated. Seeing as how Serizawa-san and Mochizuki-san are recently made available, you two were perfect."
Strömberg nodded and continued. "The summit is two parts. One part is easy: competition. Countries compete to show off their best fighters." He raised a hand. "I'm aware there are more qualified individuals, but this venture is more about the other side of the summit.
"The primary reason most countries attend is not ego, but information—the second part of the summit. Not only do you see the combat aptitude of other countries, but in the social events you learn and exchange important information.
"The pair from the Chubu Division will compete in the competitions, and Hisakawa-san and I will focus on gathering information. Hisakawa-san specializes in tracking rogue Awakened." He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Our goal at this summit is to expand our understanding of the increase in rogue Awakened activity in Japan. We want to know if this is a global phenomenon or just us."
Hisako narrowed her eyes. She'd figured the situation was bad if the patrols were being stretched so thin, but the fact that such sudden actions were being taken made her suspect the Doorkeepers were desperate.
Not just desperate—they needed others to help them find answers.
"We offered your names because we believe you two are a capable pair for the job," Nakano said. "The convenience is just a bonus."
Amajiki nodded.
Strömberg continued: "You'll have two days to prepare yourselves, then we travel for the third. The host this year is allowing early arrivals, but he doesn't want to entertain guests earlier than one day before the summit."
"The venue this year is a training facility in Tuscany," Amajiki said. He sounded excited for them. "The world-famous Italian Mobile Response Unit trains there. I'm sure you'll meet some of the best fighters in Europe."
Hisako fought back a frown. They were the convenience picks, going up against the best?
"Serizawa-san, Mochizuki-san, you're dismissed to prepare," Strömberg said.
Hisako stood numbly and followed Nakano and Eiji outside. Amajiki closed the briefing room privacy curtain behind them, then gestured for Hisako to follow him. They found a familiar path—the path out to Amajiki's favorite little courtyard, always quiet and peaceful.
He smiled, a little amused and a little serious. "Nakano-san may be all stern, business-faced, but she does mean what she says. She believes in Serizawa-san, and I believe in you."
"Hmm," Hisako hummed uncertainly.
He tilted his head, analyzing her. "Really. I think you're almost there, Mochizuki-san. You have everything but experience, and you only get that by doing things outside your comfort zone."
Hisako sighed. "What about Japan? What about everything happening here?"
He shrugged. "Intelligence thinks the answers to our problems won't be found here. I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but that's above my pay grade."
Hisako nodded. "Is it really that bad?"
Amajiki made a strained noise. "Well… From what I understand, they have an idea, but it's novel. Unexpected. Needs more supporting evidence. More data. Data other countries may have."
"Other countries, which we aren't on great terms with?"
"Japan has a habit of going isolationist for periods," Amajiki said slowly. "The recent… power shake-up has made socializing with the outside world a little awkward. The European and American organizations, in particular, don't agree with some of our decisions. Banning Doors and the noble family structure are the biggest points."
"Big enough that we have to bargain for important information?"
"Ehh. There is a general distrust between organizations. Politics. Messy. You know how it is."
"I do," she agreed reluctantly. "Fun."
He nodded. "Unfortunately, it's a game we can't afford not to play anymore. We need to make nice again, and this summit is so big it's perfect, but also so big that they are reluctant to let us back so easily."
Hisako squinted. "Does that mean they're also concerned about security? Like, letting in people they aren't sure are safe?"
Amajiki blinked. "I… Didn't think about that angle."
"So… maybe they really are having the same issues we are—badly enough that they're being this careful about security… Maybe even badly enough that they're having the summit in one of the most well-prepared places in Europe?"
Amajiki stared, thinking quietly. A smile grew across his face. "And you don't believe you're ready to represent Japan?"
She huffed. "I… I'll trust your judgement."
He nodded, pleased. "I'll count that as a win." He tilted his head amicably toward her. "I think you'll enjoy the summit. Between the Officers of the United European Door Guardians and the Rangers of the Greater American Alliance, there are plenty of interesting characters."
"Officers and Rangers, huh?"
"They all call themselves different things. It gets hard to remember at a certain point," Amajiki chuckled.
Hisako snorted, amused.
"But you'll enjoy it. I promise," Amajiki assured her. "And you'll realize you're in the right place."
Hisako nodded. "What should I expect?"
"Lots of Doors. The competitions are always productive for the general public. The competition will always be some type of Door Hunt. Kinda self-explanatory, but the Doors are always natural and usually unranked wild Doors."
"And the competition is how many you can clear?"
"By the end of the week, yes. Meals are social; everything else is going off on your own each day with a witness to confirm you've cleared the Doors."
"Someone to chat with, then? About the rogue Awakened issues they know about?"
They reached the courtyard, and he settled into his usual spot, motioning for her to sit next to him.
"Mochizuki-san," he began, "I believe that you have the power to connect with people. You are a good person—so good that people can see it and trust you. I mean nothing negative by it, but I believe you and Eiji, the boots on the ground, will be the ones to connect with the other countries' officers.
"I don't think you need to do anything more than be yourself, and the other officers will open up to you. If you can find anything out, I'm sure Strömberg will be very grateful, even more so if you can get someone to trust you enough to talk to Strömberg and Hisakawa-san."
Hisako found only faith in his steady eyes. "Th-thank you," she said finally.
He gestured to the information packet she'd been given. "So, let's go over your first briefing, yeah?"
***
She watched Japan disappear under the clouds. Familiar cities and coastlines became smudges in the window before being swallowed by the sky.
When the sun became too bright, reflecting off the sheer clouds into her eyes, she looked away and recounted the key points of the briefing.
In Italy's Tuscan countryside, where the best Mobile Response Unit officers of the United European Door Guardians trained, there would be an annual summit. The summit, jointly hosted by the British Door Knights and the Italian Door Guard, would last a week. In that time, they were to help the Intelligence Division Doorkeepers obtain the information they needed. They would do so by representing Japan in the summit's "friendly" competition and keeping their ears to the ground for any leads.
She glanced at her carry-on, provided by the Chubu Division barracks and mostly full of her dress uniform—a crisp navy kimono emblazoned with the crest of the Doorkeepers across the back with the Chubu Division's crest over her heart.
The flight was quiet. Eiji was similarly re-reading his briefing, marking it with notes and adding his own to a notebook he'd brought. She blinked for a moment; she probably wouldn't be able to carry her briefing around—she made a mental note to buy a notepad at the airport in Italy.
Milan. That's where they were landing. Eiji sounded really excited. He'd brought along a little camera and had waxed about the city's architecture. Strömberg had told everyone they wouldn't be sightseeing, but they were free to look around on the way to the venue so long as they didn't slow the party down.
Hisako took a deep breath and pulled the shutter down. She closed her eyes and began to think about everything. She tried to think in English, repeating her goals and the facts of the job.
She exhaled calmly as she recalled Amajiki's advice.
All she had to do was be herself. Her best self, she added on, but just herself.