The attack at Tsukinomori had sent shockwaves far and wide, not only because the evil organization had, for the first time, directly targeted Schicksal, but also because Tsukinomori was populated almost exclusively by the children of the elite and celebrities.
You could say the entire upper crust of Japan had been affected.
For the longest time, the world had grown accustomed to magical girls dealing with these evil organizations.
After all, no country could constantly spare vast amounts of manpower and resources to counter large-scale terrorist attacks that could happen at any moment.
Maintaining that level of alert wasn't impossible, but it couldn't be sustained indefinitely.
The money just wouldn't hold out, and neither would the people.
But now the situation was different. This time, the evil organizations had struck at Japan's very lifeblood.
All the upper echelons had jointly demanded that Japan root out these criminals who threatened their descendants.
And demanding action from Japan was, in reality, putting pressure on Japan's leaders to beg Schicksal for help.
Everyone knew Japan was basically in Schicksal's grip these days.
While it's not right for a servant to make demands of their master, this time the enemy's target was a Valkyrie school—in other words, they'd slapped the master right across the face.
Surely, under these circumstances, fanning the flames a little was acceptable, wasn't it?
As it turned out, it absolutely was.
Of course, it wasn't about getting justice for Japan. Schicksal genuinely needed to show these interdimensional evil organizations the might of the 'local power.'
Under the relentless, no-expense-spared search and targeting by Schicksal and the shadowy World Serpent, the evil organizations entrenched in Japan had been having a miserable time lately.
Many of their members' civilian identities had even been uncovered, turning them into fugitives with their mugshots plastered all over streets and alleyways, while enduring endless assaults and harassment from Schicksal's Valkyries.
Everyone understands the logic of 'strike first to avoid a hundred blows.'
Schicksal had concentrated nearly half of its Valkyrie forces in this tiny island nation.
It got to the point where if there was even a hint of an evil organization cadre appearing anywhere, they'd be swarmed by countless Valkyries teaming up to take them down.
The cadres were grinding their teeth in frustration.
Schicksal's message was crystal clear to them: they were to be hounded into complete submission, too terrified to even show their faces, never daring to challenge Schicksal again.
The intent was understood, but there was simply no counter.
No individual was strong enough to bulldoze through such opposition. Every encounter meant fighting a dozen, sometimes several dozen opponents.
Running away was possible, but mental energy has its limits.
These days, they couldn't even sleep, trapped in an endless cycle of flight and combat.
One cadre shared Schicksal's own attitude—if you can strike first to avoid a hundred blows, why can't I?
With that thought, she severely injured three Valkyries in a battle.
The retaliation, however, was even more swift and violent.
Not only did the number of pursuers after her double, but Schicksal dispatched an additional ten percent of Valkyries to Japan.
Within two days, she was captured out in the wild.
The fact was proved: Schicksal could throw that punch, but the cadres couldn't.
They couldn't even retaliate too fiercely, or they'd end up like that cadre—facing even more hunters.
All they could do was pray Schicksal's wrath would subside quickly, while harboring immense resentment toward the colleague who had provoked Schicksal in the first place.
But... this was somewhat inevitable.
Before these recent events, they hadn't thought much of the Valkyries either, seeing them as nothing more than slightly more annoying ants than the police, utterly insignificant compared to their archenemies, the magical girls.
Under this non-stop, high-intensity purge across all of Japan, dozens of cadres were arrested in just a single week.
The situation where a dozen attacks occurred daily, with every city having its own evil organization presence, vanished completely.
Evil organization cadres became a rare species.
Forget a dozen attacks a day—there hadn't been a single attack all week.
Any fights that did occur were just the unavoidable ripples during Valkyrie capture operations.
The magical girls were starting to feel like they might be out of a job, and their fans, unable to see them in action for so long, were losing their source of energy replenishment.
It was then that Schicksal finally gave the signal that its fury had abated, withdrawing the Valkyrie forces and sending them back to their originally assigned countries and regions.
Simultaneously, the entire world became aware of a certain truth.
The Valkyries weren't police.
They were a violent armed force belonging solely to Schicksal.
When Schicksal decided to crack down on a region, hundreds of thousands of Valkyries could flood the area at any time, making it impossible for any evil organization there to even breathe.
It wasn't just the evil organizations that were terrified; human nations were equally shaken.
They wanted to issue condemnations to Schicksal, but then suddenly remembered that Schicksal's Overseer was currently on the front lines, standing against the otherworldly threat for the safety of all humanity.
So, they quietly withdrew their draft condemnations.
What else could they condemn? Condemn Theresa for possessing such armed forces with malicious intent?
Would the people care? All they could see was Theresa, with barely any personnel, conducting explorations of incalculable danger in another world.
Better to wait until Theresa returned and issue condemnations in a non-public setting.
During this period, the Principal's expression was also troubled.
The reason was a detailed report she had sent to headquarters a week ago, documenting the entire incident.
It included everything she had compiled from surveillance, testimonies, and her own observations, along with updates on Kiana and Mei's conditions.
The matter of the 'Cores' was one of the key points of her report.
But after all these days, headquarters still hadn't given her any response. Even when she inquired, they just sent two technicians to collect the girls for a physical exam, and that was the end of it.
The good news was that her potential punishment hadn't been finalized, but the Principal wasn't too concerned about that.
What worried her more was what attitude she should take when facing those two girls.
She had kept them confined at the school for a whole week already.
If this continued, not only would the white-haired one, who was already getting restless, be stifled, but she herself would feel too ashamed to meet them.
Even if Schicksal couldn't immediately provide a solution for handling this matter, they could at least give some response, so she would have something to go on, right?
However, what she didn't know was that things were even more chaotic on Schicksal's end.
In a modest-sized office, several people had gathered, their faces showing varying degrees of urgency.
The person in the main seat directly challenged the others, "So, have any of you figured out the actual situation or not? Overseer Theresa hasn't sent any messages for an entire week; she's practically missing."
"And yet you're still here talking about 'not being allowed to make unauthorized contact with the other world without the Overseer's permission'!?"
"If we don't hurry up and prepare a search and rescue team right now, it'll be too late if something really has happened to the Overseer!"
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T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.