REIWA JIGOKUHEN - Chaotic Disturbance of Reiwa Era

Chapter 21 - Preparation for Negotiations

Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo: General trading company

Ships and airplanes have disappeared, and the company has lost contact with its overseas branches. Since yesterday, the company had been in chaos. In the midst of all this, people were suddenly beginning to gather in the archives room. Records of overseas transactions from the past, when the company was in its mid-70s and even the chairman had not yet been born, were being brought out from the archives one after another.

"Petroleum, coal, and nonferrous metals are the top priority."

"Err, let's see, Dutch East Indies... what's the country code?"

"Oh, and the rock salt deal with Egypt, over here."

The historical documents strewn about the large conference room were hurriedly sorted and organized. Since they were not digitized, the employees quickly scanned them. The images were scanned with OCR, blatant typos were corrected, and the documents were thrown into an impromptu database from one side to the other. When it came to OCR, the top market share product was not very useful, and the one developed for university history departments was more efficient.

"I wonder if Uesaka will be all right..."

Ota, the section chief, let out a sigh as he worried about his best friend's health.

The two were classmates at the University of Foreign Studies, where they majored in Russian together, but Uesaka had been transferred to the branch office in St. Petersburg. As a result, they lost contact and there was no indication that they would be in contact with each other again. Looking around the company, there are employees who have been in such a situation on a percentage basis. And under such circumstances, it was time to sort out the moldy historical documents. He knew that this was of vital importance to the company and, by extension, to Japan, but he couldn't help but resent this time-space cataclysm.

"Dammit, what the hell is going on?" Ota blurted out, staring at the canned coffee and took a sip.

Coffee beans are not grown in Japan, so this may soon become a controlled item. No, coffee has been cultivated in Vietnam since the days when it was known as French Indochina, and in March 1945, when the Imperial Japanese military began to dismantle the local government offices, could they manage to import coffee? It would be profitable if they could get a hold of it—and then someone called.

"Ooh, Ota-kun, leave the historical documents to someone else already, and come to Training Room 3 at 3 o'clock."

As soon as he pressed the dial button on his smartphone, the section chief gave him a quick order.

"I understand. Is there something wrong?"

"It's a study on the business practices of our time. I've been able to contact several countries. Many of the employees have disappeared, but we're in anyway."

"I see. Then I guess we should concentrate on work now."

"That's right. By the way, I'm going to be in the Manchukuo team and you're going to be in the Soviet team. Let's work hard together."

"Yeah!"

Ota replied, realizing that both names were those of countries that had long since disappeared. He stepped into the past and close the deal.

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Kyoto: Uji University

Associate Professor Masako Hashimoto majored in a not-so-familiar field of study called historical psychology. She collected historical documents as wide-ranging as a general trading company and systematically analyzed them to reveal the mental tendencies and thought patterns of the people of a certain era. Furthermore, it was thought that by applying this information, it would also help them to understand themselves. Hashimoto thought that she might be able to conduct fieldwork on this time-space cataclysm.