REIWA JIGOKUHEN - Chaotic Disturbance of Reiwa Era

Chapter 22 - First Contact

Iruma City, Saitama Prefecture: Iruma Base

"Yes, sir, it's an honor."

"Hey, come on, that's not right."

The co-pilot First Lieutenant Satoshi Mitani was joking around while the pilot, Major Kei Iwane, lightly scolded him.

From the outside, however, it appeared that both men were just playing a joke on each other. Although they are senior officers of the Air Self-Defense Force, they are in the cockpit of a C-1 transport dressed as Army aviators from long ago, and they were talking in an antiquated style. Normally, if they were to do things like that, they would be summarily fired by their commander who would say, "You can go back to your cheering squadron and do street ads from tomorrow!"

However, the C-1 transport aircraft they were piloting was just like that. The crews of the planes and their Ground Self-Defense Force occupants were all dressed in funny outfits, and even the plane was painted in an old paint job. Everyone had a serious purpose.

"After getting the liaison personnel on board, land in Nanjing under the guise of an Army plane."

Those were Iwane and Mitani's orders.

The government, upon learning of the time-space cataclysm, acted like the Kuniaki Koiso Cabinet and the Army and Navy, managing to contact the forces deployed to China. The government then invented an excuse that a major disaster had necessitated a drastic review of the mainland defense plan, sending a liaison officer—a GSDF colonel who was now an Imperial Army colonel—to the area. It is doubtful that the other side will be convinced by this, but anyway, Iwane and Mitane were flown to Nanjing under such circumstances.

"But what's going to happen...?"

"What?"

"I mean, our ancestors on the continent."

Mitani looked a bit sullen.

"They may be prepared to never set foot on the soil of their homeland and never see their family again, but they may not expect that their homeland will be replaced by a future version of it and their young sons and daughters will become grandfathers and grandmothers."

"Well... Second Lieutenant Mitani, what do you think you would do if you were in such a situation?"

"Honestly, that's a difficult question. Hmmm..."

Mitani pondered for a minute.

"I would rant and rave like a fool, and when I realized that there was nothing I could do about it, I would assume that I had somehow died or been reincarnated in another world and look for a new life."

"I guess I need a place somewhere where I can actually look for that."

Looking up at the starry sky outside the cockpit, Iwane also thought for a moment. If he went to Yasukuni Shrine to find the enshrined ones, or if he returned to his hometown, he would find his footprints etched all over the place, or perhaps he would encounter his older self. It is not pleasant. He might be able to stay for a little while, but he didn't think he could stay for very long.

"Anyway, let's hope this mission will help."

"I suppose so."

Iwane and Mitani grinned and gave each other a thumbs-up. Five minutes later, the tower cleared the C-1 for takeoff, and it began its runway run. On the way, they will stop at Tsuiki for refueling, but beyond the East China Sea, it was a world of the past.

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Bern: Japanese Embassy in Switzerland

"What in the world is the Japanese government thinking?"