Bloody New Year's Eve

The Bloody New Year's Eve was a worldwide biological weapon attack launched by the cult of Friend on the night of December 31, 2000/January 1, 2001. While massive outbreaks of Friend's unnamed blood-draining virus occurred worldwide the centrepiece of the plan was unfolding in Tokyo, where an enormous robot appeared in the Kasumigaseki neighborhood and rampaged across the city.

The Bloody New Year's Eve was itself the final 'prediction' in the Book of the Prophecy, which was created by Kenji and his friends when they were children. After the Bloody New Year's Eve, Kenji's Group was blamed for the attacks, forcing them into hiding for the next 14 years. Following the Bloody New Years, Friend's plans changed to reflect the predictions of the New Book of Prophecy.

History

The 'prophesized' event preceding the Bloody New Years Eve was the bombing of Japan's legislature, the National Diet Building, which caused 32 deaths and 91 injuries. The attack was performed such that the perpetrators, the Friendship Democratic Party, was the only political party left unnaffected, and thus was left effectively in charge of the government's response to the later New Years Eve attacks. Following the bombing, Kenji's group planned to kidnap FDP leader (and Friend's right-hand) Manjoume Inshuu in order to prevent the attacks, but were unable to execute this plan before New Years Eve.

On the night of the 31st, Friend's giant robot arose in Tokyo and began rampaging across the city, killing anyone near it with periodic bursts of aerosolized virus. Meanwhile, the government came to believe that the robot was powered by nuclear energy, greatly complicating any potential counterattack against it. At he same time, the virus was spread in other major cities worldwide. Those mentioned include London, Moscow, Paris, Beijing and New York.

In the end, the Bloody New Years plan was a sham, however. Rather than destroying the world with the virus and giant robot, the intention was instead to create an incident which could be blamed on Kenji's group, while the FDP would appear to swoop in with a solution, in the form of a vaccine for the out-of-control virus. The giant robot itself was barely deserving of the name, being little more than an elaborate tracked-vehicle designed to look like an intimidating giant.  It's bulky 'head', assumed to contain a nuclear reactor, was actually only an enormous ballon with radiation symbols painted on, while it's relatively crude mechanisms were simply disguised with shredded fabric.

Ultimately, Friend himself confronted Kenji after luring him to the robot's control cockpit. When the dynamite Kenji had brought with him to destroy it detonated, the effect was to make it appear that Kenji and company had been controlling the robot all along, and had simply self-destructed it when confronted and trapped by the 'heroic' Friend. Meanwhile, the FDP suddenly confronted the Japanese government with a solution to the worldwide crisis: a vaccine for the virus.

By 2014, Kenji is believed dead, and his friends are all in hiding. The 'Kenji Faction' are believed to be the terrorists behind the devastating attacks, while history has declared Friend and his followers the true heroes of that night, the latter even being vetted at the United Nations. The truth of the Bloody New Years would not emerge until 2018, when Friend suddenly and shockingly confessed his various crimes to the people of the world.