[Serialized Novel] "Lute of the North Wind" Episode 34

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Episode 34: Kagami-hara Crisis (4)
"Worms are food for the fish of the sky."
Takatsuka leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He had no time to deal with such nonsense. The budget reports were piling up.
"The mutant variety, the Red Poison Worm, releases an attractant, causing the fish to accumulate poison and die. The fish of the Kagami-hara sky are on the verge of extinction."
"Where in the sky are there fish?"
He intended to silence Tenma.
"They are invisible to us because they are transparent. I believe they are incarnations of the wind."
Wind in the shape of fish? Was he still at it?
"The kanji for wind contains the character for insect. People of the past knew that the wind preyed on insects—that is, worms. Perhaps they could see them."
His chronic migraine was about to get worse.
"It's fine to hypothesize that there are fish swimming in the sky. How do you prove that they are preying on the worms?"
"We experimented at N University," Tenma said, opening another video.
Red microorganisms wriggling in a petri dish vanished the moment the lid was opened.
"This is..." Takatsuka bolted upright in his chair.
"You're saying the fish of the sky ate them?"
It was hard to believe, but this was experimental footage, not some kind of magic trick.
It was annoying how Tenma looked so proud, as if to say, 'See?'
"It is certain that the fish of the sky exist, and without their presence, the Kagami-hara Crisis cannot be explained."
Tenma began a long-winded explanation starting from the frequent strong winds of last autumn.
Due to rising temperatures, the worms increased explosively, and the sudden surge in food caused the fish of the sky to swarm, triggering strong winds and tornadoes. The worms grew larger and became toxic. It was a race between reproduction and predation. The fish of the sky devoured the Red Poison Worms and fell into a state of poisoning. That must be the worms' strategy. They are merely following the laws of survival. The cause was human-induced global warming. The Kagami-hara Crisis can be called a hammer blow dealt to us by nature.
"Everything adds up. The cause and effect match perfectly."
Tenma leaned over the desk, pressing his point.
Takatsuka spun his chair halfway around, stood up, and looked out the window.
Even though the atmosphere wraps around the Earth uniformly, it changes its expression depending on the terrain and subtle changes on the ground. Takatsuka knew well that the beautiful sky could bare its fangs and change in an instant.
"Are you telling me to move Kasumigaseki with this 'Red Tide of the Sky' theory?"
With his hands clasped behind his back, he fixed his gaze on Tenma.
"You guessed it. And without a moment's delay."
Along with dizziness, he felt a slight surge of excitement.
"To save Kagami-hara, we must remove the red scabs and resolve the oxygen-deprived state. There is no other way."
As soon as he declared this, Tenma began to spit out his preliminary plan for the specific method of extermination. Takatsuka no longer had room to interject or disagree.
So, the Japan Meteorological Agency, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism?
Did he come up with this all by himself?
Before he knew it, the sun had tilted, stretching long shadows into the corner of the room.
"Director, it's an inverted rainbow. A circumzenithal arc."
Tenma pointed at the sky, excited.
High in the pale, translucent twilight sky, a rainbow drew an inverted arc as if tracing the bottom of a circle. Among the light magic the sun displays, it is particularly beautiful, alongside the circumhorizontal arc. It is a miraculous sight shown by the hexagonal plate-shaped ice crystals hidden within the clouds acting as a prism.
"That's a good omen."
Tenma stood by the window. His profile, smiling as it caught the setting sun, was full of energy.
I'm sure I had a time like this too. A time when a naive belief—that I could save the world through meteorology—was burning in my chest.
If there is any meaning in giving up research to sit in the director's chair, perhaps it is to shake Kasumigaseki with the 'Red Tide of the Sky' theory and become the foundation for that very look in his eyes.


Ikegami, who was glaring at the sky from the deputy command room of the Kagami-hara base, had his smartphone ring.
It displayed 'Ryuto Tenma'. 'That cheeky meteorological researcher?'
"Ikegami here," he said, his voice sounding worn out.
"I would very much like to ask for Deputy Commander Ikegami's assistance."
He got straight to the point without even identifying himself. He was as insolent as ever.
"What is it?"
He twisted out the cigarette he had been holding. Talking to this guy always increased the number of cigarettes he smoked.
Ikegami listened in silence as Tenma argued for the necessity of establishing a 'Sky Red Tide Countermeasures Headquarters' involving the Japan Meteorological Agency, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
"Understood. Sakakibara, who is on loan from the Ministry of Defense to the Cabinet Secretariat, is my contemporary. I'll pull some strings from that end. Don't tell me, was this request also part of your calculations?"
Ikegami crushed the empty pack of Hi-Lites.

To be continued