THE MOMENT
“You're kidding,” Ozone shook his head with a smile. He was at ease in his beach side office. The window was open to let in the breeze and the sound of waves. “Humanity always shoots for the moon, how could you not expect it?”
“It was expected, which is why I'm here. What I said is that it was unanticipated, that's a more distinctive level of preparedness. Sharp Development engineered a society that quashed that innate desire to explore. This is one of our final trials on the project and by this point they should not be able to unite enough manpower behind the idea to get this far. That they have wasn't anticipated, but there is a backup plan in the case of the ordinary, expected outcome.” Bijou replied as she gestured at Ozone. But, he wasn't convinced to take the job yet. L “You have Calaveras on the Sharp payroll, and more than enough magical power to get the job done. Why involve a third party?” He was a businessman and not against the request, but he wanted as much detail as he could get. Information was information, whether it was immediately useful or not.
“Precisely because you are a third party. Anything Sharp Development does directly will affect the project going forward. We can't eliminate the problem because our interference will be imprinted as a likely cause. If an unrelated organization delegates the job to another layer, it's far enough removed from our systems to avoid being entangled.”
“I see,” Ozone nodded. “What was the second item?” Bijou arrived with the intent of having two separate discussions. But, he was still processing and pricing his services, and needed the full picture.
“It's a personal favor, for me,” she specified. Ozone raised an eyebrow, that was a rare ask. “Entirely unrelated to this formal request.”
“Alright, we'll get back to it. This Earth, it has humans as the only inhabitants, and you didn't anticipate this batch inventing spaceships, so you want them eliminated before they get off the Earth?”
“That's a valid summary,” Bijou nodded.
“And beyond that, the details don't matter?”
“It’s your job to complete.”
“Okay, consider it done, standard obliteration fee,” he nodded. “So let's hear this favor.”
“Settling this first,” Bijou replied as a large sum was deposited in Ozone’s account. His balance appeared in the corner of his view to show the increase as it arrived. He nodded in approval while passing the job to his personal assistant through Whisper communication.
“I have a magical girl starting at Toku-high this week,” she said. “Regarding the seasonal rules, I'd like to excuse her from Mecha-related obligations. She'll be enduring plenty of challenges as part of her training, and attending school is meant to be more of a reward than adding to her responsibilities. I'd prefer it if she wasn't distracted by mecha ownership at all.”
“Getting a mecha license isn't required for the students,” Ozone shook his head and Bijou nodded.
“I'm not asking you to let her choose not to, I'm asking that you don't let her even apply,” she said. “She's likely to want to, but we can't have her losing time to non-magical-girl related distractions. More specifically, I'm asking you to ensure she's limited solely to magical girl extra-curriculars.”
“Ah, that's different,” he nodded. “A personal favor, huh?” he asked to see if that was still the offer.
“From me, not Sharp Development,” Bijou nodded.
“Alright, it's a deal,” he replied. As he nodded, a black portal appeared next to him and his blonde assistant emerged. She was a curvy blonde wearing a star-print house dress and covered in dust.
“Job done, Mr. Ozone!” she smiled at Ozone, then nodded at Bijou. “No more rockets, spaceships, or people to build them, Ms.Bijou. “ “Thank you, Andie,” Bijou smiled at the blonde. “That was faster than I anticipated.” Andie laughed. “I could tell one one there expected it either.”