In a non descriptive conference room in government building somewhere in Tokyo several men were waiting. They worked for various government agencies and economic interest groups on a level of decision making where the dividing line between the two was blurred and of which the public seldom became aware. A few of them wore uniforms of some sort of another while other wore the type of black suit and dark glasses that identified them as members of some of the less public executive organs of the state.
From the frequent looks to their watches. And the longing gazes at the cell phones that they had to turn of for security reasons when they entered the room it could be inferred that the occupants of the room where beginning to become slightly impatient. In fact a general of the GSDF was just making preparations to leave when the door to the conference room opened to admit the last three participants of the conference into the room.
A young man in a conservative gray suit stepped to the head of the conference table while his two companions, a short haired blonde in a business-suit and a man wearing the robes of a Catholic priest took seats on either side of him.
"Gentlemen, I am sorry for the slight delay." The young man addressed the room in a tone and with a smile that did not even try to be sincere. "But now that we are all here it is a pleasure to welcome you to the first conference of the Special Council for the Investigation of Supernatural Manifestations."
This announcement provoked a wave of murmurs in the room as it was the first time that many of them learned what the abbreviation SCISM actually stood for. The reactions ranged from curiosity and puzzlement to confusion and indignation.
The impatient general who had been less then amused with this waste of his time before mad his position on the newly revealed topic of the conference clear.
"Is this supposed to be some sort of joke?" he demanded, "are you telling us that this is about investigating miracles?"
"Angels." the young men at the head of the table corrected softly.
"What? Angels?" the general was not trying to keep his voice down in a like manner.
"We are here to investigate angels not miracles." the young man clarified again without raising his voice." At least that is what we decided to call them for the purpose of this meeting. And I think this would be a good point for Shiina to entertain us with a brief presentation on our subject."
He set down and the blonde to his right stood up and activated a projector in the center of the table. Without looking back to ensure that the right picture appeared behind her she began to address the room in a firm and crisp voice entirely devoid of emotion.
"What you see here is one of the best photographs we were able to acquire of one the entities we have termed angels." She began.
The picture behind her showed an unsharp outline of a vaguely female humanoid figure. Details of the figure were drowned out in a bright glare that seemed to be centered on the figures chest. The only clue that it was not a miraculously inept photo of a normal human female were what appeared to be two white wings growing out of the figures back.
"As you can see," she explained, "even this photograph is anything but clear, a fact that we assume to be the result of an electro-magnetic cloaking effect inherent in the subjects that shields them from nearly all types of mechanical or electronic sensors. Audio recordings have proven to be similarly affected."
"However," she continued as the next slide appeared, "they have been observed on numerous occasions with the naked eye and artist renditions have been made according to the descriptions of eye witnesses. Here you can see a typical example of such a procedure."
The image now projected behind the speaker was a drawing of a young girl. She appeared to be wearing a stylized variation of the type of school-uniform still popular at many Japanese schools. The skirt of the uniform was shorter than most schools would have allowed and there probably were not many educational institutions that included high-heeled boots and gloves in their dress codes. small wings grew out of her shoulders and she was leveling what appeared to be some sort of magic wand at the viewer with a purposeful expression.
The image caused another round of murmurs to go through the room and again the general took it upon himself to interrupt the proceedings by airing his personal opinion on the matter.
"A Magical Girl?" he asked incredulously, "This whole thing is supposed to be about magical girls?"
"Magical Girl is one of the names that have been applied to the angels by the public also the term Witch would perhaps be a far better translation of the term Mahô Shôjo for our purposes." the blonde replied, but before she could continue the man in the gray suit interrupted.
"Don't look too surprised General. Magical Girls are real and they represent a considerable concentration of actual power beyond our control or ability to predict. Despite the nice presentation Shiina has prepared for us we know next to nothing about them other then the wreckage they leave behind in their confrontations. We don't know if the different groups and entities work independently or if they are connected somehow. We don't know who and what they are fighting for and have little knowledge about their enemies. Their exact capabilities are unknown to us but judging by what we think they have done in the past there is reason to be worried."
The blonde turned of the projector and sat down without any show emotion now that her presentation had effectively aborted by her boss.
Too most people in the room the information just heard had not come as a surprise and even the general seemed to accept them, but unwilling to back down he made a last attack at the subject.
"So if this is about dealing with some rouge urban magic users and not actual divine manifestations, what is he doing here?" he asked pointing at the priest who had come in with the speaker.
"Mr. Nezumi comes to us from Rome where he worked in one of the more traditional departments of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He will brings us specialized know-how and will help us in transferring institutional memory that we might wish to utilizes in one of the possible scenarios of dealing with the Mahô Shôjo Problem." The young man explained.
It took a moment for the audience to parse this, but it did not take too long as none of them had made it to where they were by being especially slow in the uptake. One of the dark-suited men likely belonging to some sort of intelligence organization who had previously kept mostly silent took the word.
"Do you think that an actual witch-hunt will prove necessary?" he asked giving the impression that he was only slight perturbed by the idea. "You mentioned yourself that they have potentially quite enormous offensive capabilities that could end up costing us serious resources to subdue. Not to mention the fact that we would be giving away the chance to gain control of these capabilities ourselves. I hope that you have also planned for a less confrontational course in tackling the problem."
"Certainly," the leader replied," we have made plans for several approaches and are not set on a violent solution if a more peaceful arrangements can be made.
"Are you perhaps proposing an arrangement like the one that has been made in Britain as a satisfactory solution?" One of the men who appeared to be affiliated with the foreign ministry wanted to know. "Because I would not think that allowing those elements to organize themselves in a secret parallel society with a quasi-independent self-government would be acceptable. Not if it leads to the frequent occurrences of 'gas-explosions' and 'terrorist bombings' that we can observe over there."
"I have to disagree," a diplomat at the other end of the table objected, "I don't think we should judge the effectiveness of the traditional British system of self-governance on the current regretful internal power-struggle. Their system has proven effective in the past and I especially like the fact that it provides clear conduits between the normal authorities and their special counterparts and gives the responsibility of maintaining secrecy and order to the subjects themselves."
"It should also be considered," added another man, "that most of the damage and disturbance here in Japan appears to be caused by underage girls who likely have little experience and control over their powers. A system of early identification and compulsory schooling in their talents would likely help them to act with greater tact and subtlety. A government control school like the ones in Scotland, France or the Baltic would also give us the opportunity to instill a proper sense of loyalty and patriotism in the girls at an early age and leave us in possession of their names and identities in case they should become a problem later on."
The rest of the conference considered this compelling argument. They also considered that the last speaker was from the ministry for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and likely had some very definite ideas who should end up in control of such an academic institution.
"These magical girls are not completely hidden from the public view" A member of the Imperial Household Agency observed. "And it should perhaps be kept in mind that they enjoy quite a popular standing with some parts of the public who regard them to be heroes and defenders of the realm. An unnecessary confrontation might displeasure certain persons who consider them with favor."
That again gave everyone present reason for introspection.
"I think," a gentleman who represented some of the more private interests announced, "that perhaps too much government intervention at this point might be counterproductive. The costs caused by them both in monetary terms and human lives have so far been rather minimal and below what many think of an acceptable level. On the other hand their actions have also brought a small amount of positive commercial impulses in many niche markets ranging from the tourism industry to makers of arcade games. If we keep the government out of this and encourage the forces of free market economy to handle the situation everything will work out fine. Celebrities in the spot lights would be far more manageable than schoolgirls living in secrecy and a suitably manipulated fan-base exerting pressure would be at least as good a control as indoctrination in a public school."
"I don't think that the relationship based on trust and respect that exist between a student and a teacher can be compared to public feedback in magazines or even the relationship of an idol and her agent." the man from the education ministry struck back.
The general who had kept silent after his earlier outburst decided to use the ensuing silence to present his view on the subject.
"To get back to the worst case scenario of open conflict with those angels. I must wonder on how exactly the governments combined executive forces are supposed to deal with the problem. from what I have heard some of these girls are supposed to be awfully powerful and might be beyond what can be handled by the military under its present budgetary constraints without incurring unacceptable losses. It would perhaps be best to prepare a suitable force right now in case the more peaceful approach fails instead of waiting for it to fail before beginning to think in military terms."
"Don't worry general," the grey suited leader assured him, "we know of the limitations of our military forces and would not want to depend on them in an emergency. Not to mention the fact that tanks of the Ground Self-Defense Force rolling down the streets of Tokyo to engage well-liked public icons would be a PR nightmare. We currently tend to consider outsourcing the apprehension of the angels to a private group. That would not only allow us to use the free-market forces referred to earlier but also gives a suitable buffer of plausible deniability in case things go bad. Of course the other proposals that have been made also have their merits and it would perhaps be wise to attempt one of them first."
Later the conference decides to
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