International Permit Agencies

International Permit Agency
Kanji	国際渡航許可庁
Rōmaji	Kokusai Tokō Kyoka-chō
Debut
Manga Debut	Chapter 341
Group Statistics
Status	Active
Classification	International Agency
Leader	IPA Director
Base of Operations	Unknown
Affiliations	V6

The International Permit Agencies (国際渡航許可庁, Kokusai Tokō Kyoka-chō—lit. "International Travel Permit Agency") are a group of different organizations (possibly one) that regulates travel to the Dark Continent and are operating directly under the V6 (formerly V5).

Overview

The role of the International Permit Agencies (IPA) is to research travel worldwide and organize a database taking into account political and social landscapes, biodiversity, and climate to calculate travel risk and conservation level and ultimately assign countries a safety index. Ordinarily, applications to travel to the Dark Continent are forwarded to the IPA after being approved by all Restricted Voyage Agencies (RVAs). In practice, the IPA has the unspoken duty to reject all such applications and, in the rare cases in which this should not be possible, to accompany qualified travelers to maximize safety after screening them through a multilateral and comprehensive inquisition and training process.

The IPA's involvement with the Dark Continent is deeper than the public knows. Victims of the Five Threats brought back to human civilization are stored off record in the basement of the International Environment Agency. Not even the Deputy Secretary is normally aware of this side of the agency. Despite officially dismissing it as a work of fiction, the Agency utilizes Journey to the New World as its primary source of information concerning the Dark Continent. Other than this book, Beyond Netero's report on his trip to the south shore of Lake Mobius with the V5 member, Kukan'yu Kingdom, contains more details on Zobae Disease.

During their time on the Black Whale 1, considering that the IPA's journey mainly lies on the Dark Continent, several employees of the IPA who are also on the Black Whale are assigned to help Kakin's Justice Bureau Investigation Department.

Kakin's Journey to the New Continent

Following Kakin's announcement of an imminent, massive expedition to the Dark Continent with an open-door policy, the IPA received new duties and powers. Its Deputy Secretary, Steiner, was informed of the top-secret side of the agency and put in charge of a special unit coordinating all RVAs. The Kakin Empire chose not to sign the V5's Inviolability Treaty, instead choosing to ignore the IPA's screening process for travelers but demanding the IPA grant them unlimited access to the Dark Continent. Kakin's trip to the Dark Continent is also filed under "business: colonization" instead of sightseeing, which concerns the IPA due to their expectation that such a trip would antagonize the Gatekeeper of the New World.

During the summit, after having submitted to the V5 an analysis of the risks and benefits involved, the IPA was tasked with suggesting possible courses of action. This resulted in the distinction between the Dark Continent and a New Continent inside the far ocean boundary and outside humanity's territorial waters, which will act as the destination of regular civilians. The IPA's approval of Kakin's colonization project and the admittance of the developing country in the Modern Nation Leaders will ensure that the distribution of all rewards will be in even sixths. The actual voyage will be left to Kakin on the condition that their members be carefully screened, and the Hunter Association functions as Kakin's chaperone during the journey. The Deputy Secretary and his team were assigned to join Beyond Netero in the exploration of the actual Dark Continent, advising him with the knowledge gathered from Journey to the New World.

Plot

Succession Contest arc

After Nasubi Hui Guo Rou reveals his colonization project, the IPA Director assigns IPA Deputy Secretary Steiner to a team coordinating all RVAs. The IPA Director brings Steiner to the basement of the International Environment Agency, where they walk past several biological containment tanks containing grotesque forms. The IPA director retrieves a copy of Journey to the New World from a safe and tasks Steiner with reading it and submitting a report identifying the risks of traveling to the new world. He explains to Steiner that these tanks contained the victims of the Five Threats brought back from the V5's expeditions to the Dark Continent.

Steiner reviews the information and subsequently conducts a briefing with the current heads of the V5 on expeditions to the Dark Continent, keeping the information presented to only what has been officially recorded. Steiner explains that official ways to stop Kakin are limited and military, but proposes an alternative way to quell the situation instead of outright stopping Kakin:

• Invite Kakin to the V5, and reorganize into the V6.
• Unofficially support Kakin's journey, allowing their King to go down in history as a pioneer.
  • In return for the V5's support, the distribution of all rewards from Kakin's journey would be split evenly six ways.
• Find a suitable uninhabited island in the Neutral Zone within the Far Ocean Boundary to act as the real destination of Kakin's expedition and have the civilians on the voyage spend their new lives there.
• Let Kakin continue their voyage on condition that the voyage members be carefully screened and leave them to suffer the same fate that originally united the V5.
• Have the Hunter Association act as a chaperone on Kakin's journey to the Dark Continent.
  • Leave the Hunter Association responsible for convincing Beyond to allow them to act as the IPA's chaperone for his trip to the Dark Continent, after they finish the V5's commission to capture Beyond.
  • Should the Hunter Association fail to capture or convince Beyond, have the V5 negotiate directly with Kakin's Leader.
  • If the Hunter Association is not useful, the V5 will send an unofficial team themselves. This is not a desirable option as it would greatly exceed their current budget.

The leaders of the V5 agree to Steiner's proposal.

After the meeting, Steiner expresses his hesitations about lying by omission during IPA's meeting and proposal to the V5. The IPA director reassures Steiner by saying that peace is more important than honesty.

IPA Deputy Secretary Steiner and three other members of the IPA lounge about in their quarters in Kakin's Black Whale 1 during it's departure. Their lodgings are seemingly near Beyond's holding cell on Tier 1 of the Black Whale. Steiner reads his notes on the Dark Continent as the others lounge about, expecting their journey to go smoothly with the protection of the Hunter Association.

Steiner and Peuckert (one of the other men seen lounging near the start of the journey) are on loan to Kakin's Justice Bureau Investigation Department during their time on the Black Whale. They make their appearance again as part of Kakin's Justice Bureau Investigation Department when Prince Halkenburg is arrested under suspicion of the premeditated murder of Vict, a private soldier of Prince Benjamin.

Steiner makes his appearance again outside the investigation rooms of the Kakin Justice Bureau Investigation Department on Tier 2 of the Black Whale 1. Kaiser entrusts Steiner with a button due to his status as an outsider and status as one of the few witnesses on board guaranteed to return alive. Kaiser gives instructions to Steiner to press the button in case special martial law is declared, explaining the worst-case scenario of the army deeming the Justice Bureau as insurgents and executing them and the role of the button as the last check against the army going rogue.

Trivia

• In Chapter 340, Curly uses the word "Foreign" (外来, Gairai) instead of the more used term "International" (国際, Kokusai) to refer to the agency. Whether this implies, they are two different agencies or not remains unclear. One way to explain Curly's choice of words is that he preferred to use "foreign" rather than "international" to convey the meaning that Kakin is an independent country from V5 at the time.
  • Curly's and Steiner's descriptions of the two agencies both involve "screening applicants who wish to travel to the Dark Continent", further adding proof that the two organizations might be the same.
• It's unclear whether the International Environmental (国際環境許可庁, Kokusai kankyō kyoka-chō) and Travel (国際渡航許可庁, Kokusai tokō kyoka-chō) Permit Agencies are the same organization, as Steiner's description of his job accommodates both meanings.
• The current IPA director is one of the unofficial survivors of the Dark Continent.