TODO: refactor everything in this section into "now" instead of "in the past"

Agent P and I arrived at the room, designated solely for the kickoff of our mission. Five old man with pencil and papers on their hands sat together, lined up towards us. Each of their expression looked as daunting as looking at the devil in the eyes. Daunting, because of their sheer amount of experience and knowledge if compared to where I am then. From the left, the men are as follows.

Mister Abraham, or Mr. A, is a war veteran and a senior at this agency. He's had a lot of experience inside and outside of the agency regarding field work and war tactics. Right now he's a very important person that oversees most of the active reconnaissance mission and the go-to-guy if you want to know the answer to most of the dire situation in the agency.

Next to him is Mister Barnabas, or Mr. B, a passionate magic user that have created and transformed the way most of us use magic in day to day life. He invented a better abstraction over how we write the scripts we use to manipulate the world. I've heard that he's an active member of the research and development group, but other than that, not much of him is known. Although, I do know that his love of magic is comparable even higher than my own.

Next up is the authoritative voice that I know and love, Agent C. There's not a lot of information that I've found about him, besides the fact that he's quite authoritative. Hope you could live with that explanation.

The fourth person is an administrative and human resource genius, Mister Dolt or Mister D. He might not be the most prestigious-looking person in the agency, but without Mister D greasing and rotating the gears of administration, we all will be long dead before even standing up against the enemies. Most people have no idea how much a humane and "employee first" human resources would change the mood of an agency, especially when we're dealing with sensitive and stressful information every day.

The last one of course is an odd ball amongst the other agents and employees, Kojima-san. Not a lot of people know what his job in the agency is. All we know is that his skills on geopolitics and the latest magic for our field missions is critical in bringing victory to the war effort. As a side note, Kojima-san and his team are researching the field of "mana powered clothing" for "infinite copy of small items". Somebody once told me that it's used for duplicating ammunition or other small tools we use in the field.

Agent C, our authoritative voice, starts up the kickoff with an opening question.

Agent C

Welcome to the mission's kickoff, Agent L and P. I presume both of you are already acquainted with each other, but let me introduces you to all of the members at the table. Gents, these fine agents in front of us is codenamed Agent L and Agent P. Both of them will go through a mission that I've described via the files that was sent about two days ago. Right now we'll begin the mandatory sanity questioning of both of our agents here, just for formality. So, are you ready agents?

Both of us looked at each other then nods in confirmation. At the edge of the table, Kojima-san seems to prepare his paper and pencils for something.

Agent C

Mister B, how about you do the honour this time. Maybe you could also test that magic item for the questioning?

He smiled and readily put a single golden ball on the table. It's shiny, fancy, and quite mysterious. With a swish of his hand, the ball's color suddenly turns into a clear white. He brought up the ball from the table and show it to us with a pride written all over his face.

Mr. B

This right here, is a ball of truth you see. An experimental magic item that has the ability to detect lies and doubts when answering question. I've tested it on some people, and the accuracy is quite scary. Scarily good, comparing to how little mana this object consumes for achieving such great result. Agent P, I suppose we'll start with you. Please handle the ball gently.

She took the white ball from him and grip it firmly because of how smooth and slippery it is. Mr. B then asked a short yet personal question.

Mr. B

Agent P, would you please explain your initial motivation when joining this agency?

Agent P

Yes sir. It's been my dream to serve a body of government since I was a little. Because of the influence of my grand father, I was redirected into applying to a certain government agency.

Mr. B

Your grandfather? The files shows us that he's a war veteran, just like Agent A. His story must have touched you so much to the point of applying here. How is he doing right now?

Agent P

He's alive and kicking, sir.

Mister B smiled then nods with his eyebrow relaxing in relieve. He noticed that the ball doesn't change color, still as white and spotless as ever.

Mr. B

It seems like you're telling us the truth. A bit odd to know that someone would would even dream to be employed in this god forsaken department, but I get it. Serving something larger than you, with its vision and mission aligned with our personal morality has their own unique advantage.

Thank you for your explanation, Agent P. You may give that ball to your partner.

Now Agent L, please answer the following question. Based on your love towards magic and writing scripts, I want you to explain us like we're 5 years old, the process of extracting mana.

Agent P

Certainly. Mana is a form of energy that's invisible to our senses as long as it's not stored in a container. We extract them by identifying objects or sources that have a some amount mana in them and then through some mechanical process, we extract them and syphon it to a special container. That container is designed in such a way that we could redirect the mana into a magic object or scripts of our choosing.

Mr. B

Very good. Although I could argue that's an explanation more towards 12 years old rather than a 5 years old, but I digress. Anyway, I'll give the stage to Mr. A for... further... questioning...

I'll be damned.

The ball on my hand abruptly turns gold again and shone brighter than before. Mr. Barnabas' words got cut off by the event as he looked intensely at me. I don't really get what's happening at the time because I felt that I was being truthful when answering the questions.

Barnabas then relaxes himself by putting his back towards the chair and told me to not worry about the glowing ball. I then brought the ball back to his glove wearing hands, then stepped away from the table. He's rubbing the ball several times as if looking for a speck of dust on that clean and smooth ball. It was quite weird to see a grown man so interested in a magic ball, like a cat to a yarn toy.

Mr. B

It's alright Agent L, you've answered the questions truthfully and with confidence. I'm just a bit surprised, that's all. Please Dolt, they're yours to probe.

Mr. D

Oh you jest Barnabas, I'm not here to probe anyone. Although there's some merit in that term because I'm going to ask several very important question.

I'll let any one of you to answer the question whether its Agent P first or Agent L first. So, the question is...

He nudged his glasses while reading a paper, filled with unintelligible hand written notes. Seems like he prepared something very specific for us to answer, knowing the need to note things down.

Mr. D

Are you aware for a fact, that this very unusual assignment would take a very long time to finish? Maybe more than ten years?

Indeed, that's certainly a very long time. But i felt that this is necessary knowing that the intel that we're gathering could be used for something major in the future. Maybe they will use it for something that would contribute to the war effort. But who am I to talk about the true desire of this agency.

Agent L

I realized that this is a long term mission sir. Yet, my trust in my ability as an agent will not falter. I'm confident that the mission could be conducted in the best manners possible.

The questioning continues for some hours after that. We talked a lot about the state of politics in our world, the people around the area of our mission, and other information that might be useful for our journey. Sometimes, they even asked us something totally unrelated to the mission, such as my personal hobbies and non-work related interest. Of course, I will always lie whenever someone is asking me any personal questions. I don't want anyone to actually know who I am, that would be silly.

My suspicion grew larger that there's something wrong in the room, like they're waiting for something to happen. The questions began to drift away from our assignment, and more or less random and made up on the spot. It's very unstructured, like a kid asking their parents for something so apparent. Agent P and I felt it, this weird feeling of aimless chit-chat is nothing but a distraction towards something. That something of course, would be revealed once a knock on the door decided to interrupt our conversation. The door is opened big enough for a single very feminine hands, protruding outwards. In that hand, everyone could that it's holding an opaque file, flailing it around, signaling for someone to pick it up. Kojima-san went up from his seat to retrieve it. He layed it down on the content of that file on table, facing us.

Kojima-san

これは婚姻届です。

My eyes went directly to Agent P, asking for help and translation. I have no idea what this brilliant man just said to me, and I'm too afraid to ask. She gave me a blank stare, as if asking me back the same question. Agent C smirked and answered our unanswered question.

Agent C

It's a marriage registration form. I'm sure both of you know that this will eventually happen. If you read the mission brief thoroughly, you'll come to realize that both of you are going to be married by the agency. This paper right here, is nothing but formality.

But...

Even when I did say that you can't back out of this mission, last night I've thought about it again. I can't, with my own good conscience, not give you a chance to back out of this one. Essentially, we're pushing both of you into a commitment that not even we would want to be in. You get what I'm saying here?

It's just seem inhumane of us to push this marriage as a requirement. So I'm going to give both of you the very last chance to drop out. Don't take the pen, and don't sign this paper. Get out, if you don't approve it. Hell, I'll even close my eyes if that helps.

Mr. D

Agent C, what are you doing? You know that this is a very import-

Agent C

Shut up D. Marriage is no laughing matter, even if their decision is hindered by the importance of this mission. If push come to shove, we could just search for someone else anyway.

It seems like we are not the only candidates huh? That does make sense, I'm quite sure he had some kind of short list that he could choose from.

Agent P felt she is mocked from the remark made by Agent C. She took it as if he's question her commitment to the agency. I didn't take what Agent C said as seriously as she did, but it seems he poked something deep inside her heart, to the point where she did something reckless. Reckless according to my standard anyway. She signed the marriage form with her disguise's full name and fake signatures, fueled by her own self fulfilled conviction to proof Agent C wrong. I did the exact same thing she did, but with less ire behind my signature.

The kickoff continues after we signed the form and Kojima-san packed it inside of a file. Agent C stood up and let us sit on some chair that's vacant, littered around the room. He moved forward and activated a big contraption that's powered by electricity. It's a black box, thin as a pamphlet, wide as a road side banner, with a large screen, projecting 2D coloured pictures. Some people called it "teevee" or "damn box". Most people in the agency simply nicknamed it "telly". Pictures of maps and other people's headshots glide across the telly with short description below them. I suppose this is the time where Agent C shows us a presentation about our very particular assignment.

Agent C

Gentlemen, we have ourself two agents that are now legally married. Now, their honeymoon's destination shall not be a vacation island west of our own, decorated by exotic yet traditional objects. It is nothing like that, because they are going to a lovely mana extraction facility in the east of this land named, "Joint Mana Extraction Facility". I shall pronounce it as J-MEF, for brevity.

Our agents will infiltrate this place and blend in as a couple of lovebirds that just took their first dip at the pond of mana extraction. They will live there as long as necessary, mingling with the populace, to find the answer that some of us kept asking. This problem my lady and gentlemen, is of course the question regarding the spike of volume in mana extraction that's caused by an unknown phenomena. Although the explanation for this situation is highly desired by the public, the information that we need the most would be the motive behind the spike of mana. The agency's best guess is that there's something very unusual about our Department of Energy and their associates. They haven't addressed this concern properly and dismissed it with a very low effort comment such as, "no comment" and "it's just an anomaly, nothing to see". Which is in my opinion, a kind of statements that's just asking for a trouble.

The presentation continues with some aerial pictures of the compound. It's taken from a public archive and scribbled with notes which describes each building in brief. None of us took note of this of course, because we knew it from the start by reading the mission briefing. It seems like one of these gentlemen of the table is nodding along with what Agent C said. I guess at least one of us didn't read the briefing.

He also highlights the people inside of the facility, especially those who are suspected to be nosy and suspicious. There's at least two person that we need to take account for. The first one is a female secretary, that knows every one and every thing that's in that place. She's tall, well endowed, and is pictured with a helmet and safety jacket wrapped around her slender figure. The second one is a male janitor, that also knows every one and every thing that's in that place. His appearance were not as visually appealing as the secretary, but he looks like a friendly person that has many years spent behind him. The information gathered by the agency concluded that they're a difficult type of people to handle and has been reported as the perpetrator for most gossips in the area.

Agent C

Remember to not let your guard down around these people for their mouth is as loose as a broken faucet. My recommendation is to avoid any unnecessary contact and only talk with them with a very clear intent. Now, let's talk more about the points of interest around the area.

He gave us a basic outline of the buildings around and inside the facility. Although it was just a basic outline, he did warned us about the uncertainty of these information. After all, it was a long time ago since the last time they did a proper recon around the area. Eventually, he started to slow his explanation down, then turned off the monitor.

His gaze is fixed against both of me and Agent P. People in the room can see there's a certain light within his eyes. A light that shone from someone who's worried yet excited at someone they're seeing. I have no idea what he's actually thinking at the time, because although this is not an ordinary mission, it's not terribly dangerous either. In my opinion, he should not worry about our condition, yet I can sympathize for his concern toward this mission. Agent C finishes it off with a short speech which he memorized for us.

Agent C

Agents, this is going to be the assignment of your lifetime. Based upon my experience, this might take a long time, from 5 to 10 years, or more. I'm worried about both of you, yet I can not stop stressing how important this mission is to the public's interest. This mission might not be that dangerous, but I felt that there's something much bigger behind this anomaly that we're seeing.

Either way, good luck agents. We will contact you on the field, via the pendant that we gave you.

Oh, so that's what it's for. I still have no idea how to use it though.

Author's Note (click me!)

Once again, thank you for reading my short stories. I hope that the story could continue way pass the barrier of my plans and knowledge. After all, this is a universe that I've dreamt up since I was in middle school, can't believe that I could realize it into a series, even when the scale is small and niche.

Please follow the adventure of Agent P and L on their quest to fulfill the objective of their mission! There's a lot more to come and I hope you'll like it!