REIWA JIGOKUHEN - Chaotic Disturbance of Reiwa Era

Chapter 10 - Contingency Plan

Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo: Prime Minister's Office

"We have no choice but to believe that it existed in the solar system as of March 10, 1945."

That was the conclusion of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), which compiled the results of observations at multiple sites. The results of the analysis were extremely precise, taking into account the anomalous behavior of the moon, major planets such as Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune, asteroids such as Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta, as well as the precession of the Earth and the movement of the stellar system. Astronomers had no idea of the cause, but they agreed that they had no choice but to accept it as fact. Moreover, the possibility was increasing that all countries except Japan were still in the same state as they were in March 1945, although this was not yet confirmed.

"As for the contents of the radio transmissions from each country, the Intelligence Headquarters had already succeeded in deciphering some of them. The communications were mainly from the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Asia, with those from the latter appearing to be mainly Japanese language-based communications."

The Intelligence Headquarters is an intelligence organization that reports directly to the minister, and Defense Minister Kusaka read the report from them.

"The majority of the communications were related to the Second World War during the same period."

"Is it really that easy to read?"

Tsuyama, the no-nonsense Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, asked in a voice that sounded as if she was trying to stifle something. The Internal Ministry-affiliated research institute under her command had just finished putting together a team and was taking all the credit to the Intelligence Headquarters that was supposed to be working with them. But, as they say, set a fox to catch a fox.

"The ciphers of these eras might have been easy to write using modern computers."

"It was more like we knew what the other side was doing... it seems that when we apply the encryption methods that each country was using in 1945, we can decipher it in a short time. Of course, there are cases where the Vernam cipher, which is theoretically impossible to decipher, was used at that time, but this is limited to some high-level communications. We would like to ask the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to confirm and verify the same method."

"It was back when they were using those gears like Colossus or some such monstrosity. I saw it in a movie a long time ago," PM Kato said, holding his head in his hands.

"Ooh, Alan Turing himself is alive?"

"Pretty much, I'm sure. Neumann, Einstein, Fermi, Feynman, Oppenheimer, and so on... oh, no. Isn't it possible that the Manhattan Project is currently underway?"

"Defense Minister, in a few minutes the C-2EB will be approaching North America in the vicinity of Seattle, Washington."

Amidst the uproar, Mitsuya, the Joint Staff Chief, offered a helping hand.

"Hanford, the plutonium production center at the time, is also in Washington State, and we have plenty of fuel for the C-2EBs, so we could order a reconnaissance there. That would be an airspace violation, but still no scrambles."

"Prime Minister, what should we do?"

"Oh... do whatever you think will help," Kato ordered, and the liaison officer who received it ran.

Meanwhile, Kato took a sip of coffee and looked a bit sick to his stomach.

"But... just what is happening? Are you saying that the American bombers that were supposed to attack Tokyo in March 1945 are the ones that struck Tokyo today?"