At the negotiating table, a treaty would naturally be signed.
Among Byakuya's proposed terms, there were two key points.
The first was war reparations for rebuilding Tokyo. Byakuya demanded 100 billion US dollars outright.
In truth, rebuilding Tokyo wouldn't require nearly 100 billion dollars. Byakuya was deliberately making America bleed.
Though compared to Germany's war reparations to the victors after World War I, Byakuya's demand was relatively modest.
After losing WWI, Germany had paid 132 billion gold marks—equivalent to 47,000 tons of gold. At current gold prices, that would be roughly 3 trillion US dollars.
And it was paid in installments—Germany didn't finish paying off this war debt plus interest until the early 21st century.
This was also one of the main reasons a certain mustached man rose to power in Germany.
Byakuya could have squeezed America the way the WWI victors had squeezed Germany, but he didn't see the point. First, he didn't need that much money. Second, he didn't want to push America too hard—otherwise, they'd eventually become like WWII Germany.
Although America's annual fiscal revenue was extremely high—leading the world by a significant margin—they still faced serious fiscal deficit problems.
The second key point was naturally executing the masterminds.
The White House officials, including the President, had already been executed by Byakuya. But besides America, those old bastards in the Japanese Cabinet were the bigger cancer.
This Battle of Tokyo had happened precisely because those Cabinet old-timers had conspired with America.
So Byakuya's demand was that America must give up those Cabinet members—otherwise, he would place all responsibility for the Cabinet's actions on America's head.
When that time came, he wouldn't mind dropping two meteors on the Capitol as well.
The other terms weren't particularly important and didn't need mentioning...
"I apologize, but 100 billion dollars is still too difficult for America at this stage. Could Mr. Amaha perhaps show some flexibility?"
The interim Vice President sent by America naturally tried to negotiate.
"You want to haggle? Fine, make it 200 billion then. Even one cent less, and I won't let this go."
Byakuya gave no room for negotiation whatsoever.
Hearing this, the Vice President's face went pale with shock. He immediately backtracked: "No, no, no! I was purely joking just now. Please don't take it seriously, Mr. Amaha!"
"Fine, I'll consider it a joke. Any other issues?"
Byakuya said indifferently.
"None."
The Vice President hurriedly signed the treaty, terrified that Byakuya might actually double the war reparations.
As for Byakuya's demand to hand over the masterminds, he didn't question it at all.
At this point, why would America care about those Cabinet old-timers' lives?
They actually wanted to grind those old bastards' bones to dust. If those fools hadn't lured them into war with Byakuya, they wouldn't be in such a miserable state today.
Therefore, after the treaty was signed, America unhesitatingly sold out the Japanese Cabinet.
Without solid evidence from America, Byakuya wouldn't have found it convenient to move against the Cabinet.
But now, he could rightfully clean house.
Before the Washuu Clan's fall, the Cabinet ministers normally worked at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in Tokyo.
But after the Washuu incident, they'd found an excuse to relocate to Kyoto.
Now, they might not even be findable in Kyoto.
After all, news of the American military's defeat had spread worldwide. The Cabinet ministers definitely knew already—anyone with half a brain could figure out that Byakuya would come to settle accounts. So they certainly wouldn't be sitting obediently in Kyoto, but hiding somewhere secret.
In this situation, Byakuya couldn't be bothered to handle it himself.
He mobilized American forces, sitting back to watch American soldiers hunt down those Cabinet ministers. American soldiers had plenty of experience catching people—they'd done it more than once hunting terrorist leaders in the Middle East.
Under Byakuya's orders, American special forces launched capture operations throughout Japan except Tokyo. All current Cabinet ministers were targets, including the Prime Minister.
Based on past examples of American soldiers hunting people in the Middle East, the short cases took eight or nine months, the long ones eight or nine years.
Capturing those Cabinet ministers wouldn't be easy either. Fortunately, Japan's land area was small, and being an island nation, escaping abroad was virtually hopeless.
During this period, Byakuya focused on rebuilding Tokyo.
Though the Battle of Tokyo had been brief, the damage to the region was massive.
Beyond the American military's bombardment, the Tailed Beasts' attacks had also caused large-scale destruction to terrain and buildings.
But they'd achieved total victory and received enormous war reparations. None of this was a problem.
"Those special forces still haven't caught the Cabinet old-timers? They're quite the runners. Speaking of which, the Cabinet's paralyzed now—Director, interested in becoming Prime Minister?"
Marude sat in the conference room, chatting away.
Besides the various Associate Special Class and Special Class investigators, Byakuya was naturally present too.
"I'll pass. I'm not interested in politics."
Byakuya shook his head slightly.
As for power—with absolute strength, why worry about not having absolute power?
In a normal world, precisely because everyone was ordinary and would age and die, people sought power.
But in a fantasy world, strength essentially equaled power. Even if you lived as a hermit picking your toes, all the gods and buddhas would still treat you with utmost respect.
Byakuya's plan was to have capable people replace the former Cabinet ministers. As long as they behaved and didn't do anything too outrageous, Byakuya couldn't be bothered to manage them.
"As for catching those Cabinet ministers, even if it takes months, that's normal. We can wait."
Byakuya said calmly. "What needs to be done now is mainly rebuilding Tokyo, settling the displaced civilians, and dealing with the Dragon Orphans scattered throughout Tokyo..."
Byakuya's plan was to follow a certain approach—beyond the funds needed for rebuilding Tokyo, most of the war reparations would be distributed as compensation to participants and Tokyo citizens.
Hundreds of billions of dollars—even distributed evenly to everyone, it would be a substantial sum per person.
Tokyo's population was roughly 10 million. Dividing evenly meant several thousand dollars per person—even more if calculated by household.
...
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