Third-person POV
By 10:20 p.m., the convoy arrived in the JSDF headquarters in Ichigaya, and Itami and his group were exhausted from the ordeal in the Hakaze Inn on the sofas. Furibayashi looked as if she went on a long quest in the Special Region. But, Cesare, Thiago, and Odesa, alongside the 3 MPC agents who drove the SUVs, were alerted yet a bit exhausted. When Itami raised a question on who they are, the six MPC agents (plus the drivers) showed their credentials to him and everyone on his side.
"Cesare Benedetto, of Italy's AISE," Cesare said.
"Thiago Rocha, of Brazil's ABIN," Thiago added.
"Odesa Quezon, of the NBI of the Philippines," Odesa added.
"Armando Teixeira, of Brazil's ABIN," Armando, one of the three SUV drivers, added.
"Matias Mario, of Spain's CNI," Matias, the second driver, added.
"And I'm Jerome Capili, of the NBI of the Philippines," Jerome, the third driver, added.
Itami and his side were in awe at the diverse coalition of small-time nations and their intelligence agencies as the six MPC agents put back their ID credentials.
Upon seeing that they had come safe and sound, Hazama rushed to them and informed them of the attempted hacking by the foreign agents of the three Big Ones and the eventual restoration by the MPC agents.
Itami and Kurata were stunned to hear that, and they and Furibayashi walked to the command center, where another JSDF general showed a saved photo of the MPC Crusader cross with the 7 lines of "We got this" in 7 languages.
"It seemed that they used some sort of 2000s computer virus to destroy the malicious code of the kill switches and restore the power of our network and power grids," the general said. "The Brazilian ABIN captain for the Brazilian team, Estevao Da Costa, stated that the Philippines had used that old virus, remodified it, and used it to hack into the CIA secret files."
Walking into the table in the room with a metal deep tray full of Brazilian dessert Pave as a chill-out treat to calm thing down, Estevao said to them, "Ah, right in time, amigas, yup, the NBI were clever at using that virus."
He put the chilled tray on the table. "Have some of this dessert. It's chilled Pave from Brazil. It's sweet."
Upon seeing that, the Special Region guests, Rory Mercury, Tuka Luna Marceau, and Lelei la Lalena were mesmerized and got up to get some of the sweet Brazilian dessert. Some of Itami's comrades were brewing tea with Odesa and a handful of Filipino and Italian agents to relax their nerves.
Itami and the rest got some of the Pave in small plates with spoons.
Rory and Tuka were mesmerized upon the first bites.
The sweetness hits their tongues like a tsunami.
Meanwhile, Kurata examined the 7-language line of the MPC image. "I know the 6 languages as of the Philippines, Greece, Turkey, Indonesia, Italy, and Spain, but the Portuguese one…was Portugal involved into this operation?" Thiago chuckled while sipping on his tumbler of water. "No, it's Brazil."
Kurata felt embarrassed and apologized for that.
"Nah, that's fine, Kurata-san." Thiago laughed.
"Yes," Ferdinand added while holding his English-Japanese dictionary, "you're welcome for both the power grid and the intervention at the Hakaze Inn."
But for Itami, the acts by the MPC nations means complicated stuff against the Big Three ones. He then approached Ferdinand and said to him in a low voice, "Hey, uh, I appreciated your aid for us, but you have definitely no idea what kind of storm you guys are brewing. The Big Three won't let this slide. They will storm your countries and economies with what they have: economic sanctions, military retaliations, immigration meltdowns, and diplomatic isolation."
However, Ferdinand wasn't bothered by it, put down his cup of tea, and said to him, "I know you're going to ask that question, Itami-san, but we're not afraid at all. Manila, Ankara, Madrid, Brasilia, Rome, Athens, and Jakarta are not afraid of the three superpowers either. For centuries, we watched our nations rise, fall, get colonized, and get independence, so we know exactly how it feels to be under the big nations."
Itami was speechless at his words, the words of a descendant of Dr. Jose Rizal.
Mari, meanwhile, was in awe, until she was shocked to learn from Odesa that Ferdinand was a descendant of Philippines' national hero through Paciano Rizal.