July 1st, 2025

Sgt. Sawabe Tsubaki

It was yet another bright day, and a tough combat exercise for a whole Team. Combined arms to the core, especially with the increased involvements of our unmanned comrades in the sky and the ground. And that night the entire Team Kirin was called to the base's mess hall. Sergeant First Class Kashiwagi as well as the company's deputy commander 1/LT Numakura, had prepared something for us.

"Alright people." It was Kashiwagi who spoke first. "Quiet down. We don't have much time." Everybody went silent before the most senior NCO of the company continued. "As you know, among those given three days liberty are Lieutenants Kousei and Kaori Arima, thanks to their exemplary hard work and leadership in pre-deployment training. Right now, there are on their way for some time in Hiroshima. Sure it's nearer the frontline compared to here, but it's still ours."

I also notice that two other people were missing, and I remember that one of my squad members earned that break as well; Private Fuji Yashio. A college educated fellow, yet he served as private thanks to the fact that he turned down an offer for a seat in OCS.

"What does this announcement related to us, sergeant?" Watari asked. However the one who replied to him was the deputy commander.

"In three days, Lieutenant Kaori Arima's birthday will come, and we have to make this right as we are about to give her a surprise, and her husband will surely welcome. Besides... this is quite personal, but I played the piano just like Lieutenant Kousei Arima. Not as good as him, honestly."

"That's wonderful, sir." I said. Then Lt. Numakura went closer. "Sergeant Sawabe, you and Private Ryouta are close to both Arimas, did you have an idea on what is Lieutenant Kaori Arima's favorite flavor?"

"She liked all flavors, her parents being a baker and the shop is still running. Also, she got a fast metabolism hence Lieutenant Kousei told me that Lieutenant Kaori was actually was close to fail the medical thanks to her weight was barely above the minimum standard."

"Her favorite among the cakes is the French Caneles. But we won't do that, as she will surely got it from her parents. I think we should make a chocolate cake, for the sweetness!" I replied at Watari.

No other troopers present had dissenting ideas, and so the decision were made and assignments were sent.

...............................................................................................................................................................

2/LT Kaori Arima

"Do you want to know why I requested for Hiroshima instead of Tokyo or Numazu?"

Right now Kousei and I were walking out from our final stop at the main station of what had been called the "City of Peace." for decades whose reputation was unshaken even after 1999.

I can't believe how much an irony we are facing right now!

"I thought we should visit this place before we are going to combat."

"I can see where you're are going to. Were you talking about 'The Dome?'"

"Of course! Somehow, I want to visit it again. It's something that I want to remember." The stroll through the city was in order, just the two of us starting from the Dome.

However, the remainder of what we are facing now were always there with green colored jeeps and various wheeled armored vehicles on duty patrolling the town in conjunction with police officers. Drone swarms patrolled the sky in anticipation of any attacks and private traffic were also greatly curtailed in favor of public ones, volunteer civilians, and ride-hailers, plus nationwide curfew, vary in duration and prefecture depend on its proximity to the frontline in Korea, Taiwan, Yellow Sea, and Western Pacific Ocean in general.

"Halt!"

Few blocks outside the station there was a checkpoint, with body armor-clad riot police officers and military policemen stood guard, rifles loaded and ready. Knowing that we are Army officers, the MPs gave us the salute before checking our documents. My husband was the first to gave them his identification as well as the liberty pass required for us to be outside our base. Out from the checkpoint, we immediately head for a streetcar stop not far from the station to head towards the Dome itself, officially named Hiroshima Peace Memorial.

With all tourism suspended, the building, once an industrial exhibition center, was nearly deserted, with occasional visit from local inhabitants.

We walked through the riverbank passing through a patrol of two soldiers. They have American-supplied M16A4 rifles on their hands and shoulder patch with a word "NATIONAL GUARD OF JAPAN" in Kanji and English; those people were our second line of defense akin to home guards/territorial defense forces in the Baltic and Nordic states, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine, or Homeland Reserve Forces in South Korea.

Their mission was to reinforce regular and first line reserve of Defense Forces, support prefectural police forces and military police in maintain order during emergency situations from disasters to war, guarding and operating key installations,.overall sustainment operations and rear area security, disrupting and eliminating hostile spies and special forces/saboteurs inside our territory, and to fight as partisans behind enemy lines.

The two guardsmen stood in attention recognizing our ranks.

"At ease" commanded Kousei at the two guardsmen who subsequently resumed their patrol. Along the way the river flowed alongside the park, its water was a beautiful deep blue. The tranquility throughout the park was a sad juxtaposition with the reason for its existence; it's contrast increased as time went by ever since Kousei and I first visit it back in High School. Especially as we reached the Peace Bell when in the sudden, the atmosphere was rocked by screams overhead.

Fighter jets. Luckily for us, those planes, four of them, were ours, followed by four more that could be Americans.

The bell had a world map without national borders on it's surface to symbolize a single, unified world. A radiation symbol was also carved on it as a reminder of the dangers of nuclear weapon. People were free to strike the bell, and every visitors were encouraged to take the opportunity to do so with a prayer for world peace. Right now, the locals were doing that in a regular basis ever since the war was announced, and in our visit today we could see two elderly women took their turn to strike at it and pray.

I looked at Kousei's eyes, and I could see a burning flame inside him.

"Arima Kousei-kun."

"Yes?" He responded further. "What I am about to say might not be appropriate inside this place, my love. We'll discuss this later."

"Very well." And so, we continued our walk towards the other part of the memorial, the Children Peace Memorial, where even with restrictions, local kids made their presence known and put on folded paper cranes symbolizing the pursuit of peace. After we paid respect to the names of children inscripted on the monument as well as with the nearby cenotaph bearing the rest of the names connected to the blast, we decided to head for the nearby restaurant that was still open.

"Irrashaimase" (welcome).

Inside we saw only the sea of mostly green and camouflage uniforms belonging to all three services of the Imperial Defense Forces.

Upon we seated on the table a waiter instantly turned up and said. "Sir, ma'am, ready to order?"

We ordered anago, saltwater eel. While we're waiting, a soldier that we recognized as another junior officer due to his shoulder board came up to us and said. "Banzai. Mind that I take a seat?" The male officer was fiddling with his fingers before asking us "You two are from Nerima Division, right?"

"Sure is, Banzai." Kousei answered. "While you are from the 10th Division, the Nagoya Division, Lieutenant."

"That's right; the Nagoya Division had been deployed to reinforce units here in Hiroshima; the separate 13th Hiroshima Rapid Brigade." he said. "I heard a lot of rumors that if the Reds want to land here in the Home Islands, the Chugoku region will be the first to got hit after Kyushu and Okinawa."

"I see." This time it's me who replied. "I heard that part of your division were actually supposed to be deployed to Korea, is that true?"

"Yes, it's 22nd Brigade of the Nagoya Division, which is also my unit. However, with recent intelligence on hand, the order has been changed." The 10th Division, unlike our division, lacked main battle tanks, as it's composition consists of two medium rapid deployment brigades with eight by eight Mitsubishi wheeled armored vehicle families. "Speaking about Korea, do you have any information about how 17th Tank Brigade is doing out there?"

"Ah" the lieutenant started. "Before I forget, my name is Lieutenant Sora Yamaguchi."

"Nice to meet you" I replied. Kousei responded with the same handshake to the officer as well.

"...back to topic at hand, I have a big brother who joined the Army four years ago, and right now he's making his own name with the 17th as one of it's tank commanders. His letters told me that there was no day without tanks and AFVs to kill up there, even as reinforcements from NATO had started coming; British, French, Turkish, etc... despite losses in shipping as well as traitors inside their society who are against intervention, which gave them a considerable delay in doing their part."

"...Just like U-boat campaign in World War II or how the Americans blockaded us at that time." I muttered. "...compounded with Chinese money, propaganda, business influence, and cyberwarfare."

"Here I am, an only child, but somehow they gave me the draft notice. I don't mind that through, with the fact that I have Kaori on my side." Kousei put on a smile on me and then to Yamaguchi.

"That's wonderful, while my brother and I were regular volunteers, and I know that she," he pointed at me. "must be a volunteer as well because there is no legislation so far universally drafting women into the Defense Forces."

I answered him. "That's right. I want to be with him everywhere he's going to fight, that's why I signed up for Officer School." I decided to leave out the story about how I am proud of my fighter heritage until the time that is deemed appropriate.

"Let's get back to the situation on the front. Korea is hell, but Taiwan was it's own league. While the Free Koreans so far managed to contain most of the Reds' assault, the Taiwanese or now we call them Free Chinese...

"Exactly" interrupted Kousei. "It's an order directly from His Imperial Majesty himself for us to start calling Taiwan as Free China ever since we switched recognition, as well as the usage of the term Free Korea for our South Korean neighbors."

"That's right, and their situation is dire. We don't expect that they can hold their ground forever, and right now they were clinging to every inch of their land to the last magazine. Like how the Polish fought the Nazi Germans in the first days of World War II, I dare to say. Two of my classmates back at high school died there. The other one was too injured to fight anymore and right now he's in the hospital here in Hiroshima. His name was Sergeant Uchida Yuuma, he's one of my volleyball buddies in high school in Nagoya... and that's when I know how much of the fight the Chinese did for sake of their so-called rebel province. Anyway, I noticed the rings on your hands."

"You figured it out just now about us?" Kousei chuckled and I followed suit.

He told us. "Yeah, you two must be happy with your marriage, unlike me."

"What happened?" Kousei asked.

"I got a sweetheart once, but just as His Imperial Majesty's Government declared a state of emergency, she dumped me."

"We're sorry."

"It's okay" Yamaguchi replied to us. "I'm moving on right now, especially as sooner or later we are going to see action. There are plenty of fish in the sea anyway."

Upon our orders were delivered, so was the time for us to dig in. Not for long we have to say goodbye with Yamaguchi and the rest of Nagoya Division troopers present in the café.

"We're looking for fighting with you guys." That's what I told Yamaguchi before leaving the café with Kousei. "Banzai."

"That time will come, Kousei and Kaori." he replied. "Banzai!"

We spent the rest of the day at the nearby hotel, with curfew regime in place there was nowhere to visit at night. Especially after a time at it's gym facility in the afternoon which the management had declared as free to use for service personnel lodged in their premises.

"The Ministry of Defense and some charitable individuals had given us advance checks." they told us before we entered the gym area at that moment.

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2/LT Kousei Arima

19.00 JST

Before my wife asked, now we've finished our dinner, it's time for me to explain about what I told her back at The Dome. "Kaori, let's talk about what happened."

"Sure, I was about to ask you about that anyway." she replied.

"Here." I began. "I have to be frank, that the world map we have seen on that bell, a borderless united one, is something that is impossible to reach. Universal values exists, that's why we are allied with the Western world, but there were many instances that efforts to reach that state of affairs was to the detriments of individual nations, culture, and groups. There is a fine line between isolating yourself and being too open which only serve to dilute the uniqueness of every people or in this case, nations..."

My wife nodded and she said. "Go on."

"From our mandatory citizenship lesson at school up to college and even on the network, we learned that our nation believed in peace, tolerance, democratic rule, and human rights at any cost, with respect to the tragedy of Second World War that also brought us to a higher level of prosperity and freedom, and a reason for us to strongly promote multilateralism and humanitarian causes using the United Nations and other organs of the world stage." I continued. "Yet, ever since I understand things more, especially after my father's revelation of his part in the War of 1999, I came to believe that this state of things won't last forever."

"You know." Kaori said. "I remember a meme which showed that strong men create good times, and the rest of it."

"Indeed, my love; strong men created good times, good times created weak men, weak men created hard times, hard times created strong men, and now we are facing the hard times ever since the virus came. Or like you told me back at high school, a dark road ahead. Yet somehow, I remember that everything had it's time, and are there for our own good, and I know my decision to comply with the callup was for such thing. It was simply a right thing for us to go on this journey."

"I know you will use this moment to reinforce your reason, I like it. Mozart shall be proud too about how you remember his word..." She clasped my face between her hands, closer to her, before our lips crashed with each other. Then came her sweet voice over my ear. "Our days are numbered, but you gave me forever, and I am grateful."

"Me too."

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2/LT Kaori Arima

Instead of an alarm that we had set, it was a city-wide air raid siren who shook everyone out of their private domains.

"This is not a drill, this is not a drill! This is a missile attack! All citizens seek shelter immediately!" Fixed loudspeakers and newer solar and battery powered long range acoustic device - a type of sound cannon initially associated with riot control - blared all over the place. Just like when facing an earthquake, we must not rush to leave the building we are inside right now.

"Take cover!"

Yet only few shakes were registered. "The Chinese might be using ballistic missiles to target the port area, or by submarine launched cruise missiles or drones." my husband whispered. When "All-clear signal" was finally declared, we decided to continue to what we are going to do but with a faster pace; you name it, necessary things like taking a bath and call for breakfast.

We are lucky, the hotel and everyone inside was also safe, especially with the fact that many of the guests were service personnel on liberty just like us. Upon dawn we head straight to the city by foot, and asked one police officer guarding nearby.

"Sir, ma'am." the officer began. "They're mostly targeting Kure, and they managed to hit some." It's obvious with sirens from fire engines and ambulances echoed all over the city. "However they had also registered hit on Hiroshima itself. They used multiple missiles for that."

A change of agenda was in our mind. We might be useful here in helping the city's inhabitants. Using a local Army garrison's jeep that came out of nowhere and stopped near us, the driver who introduced himself as Private First Class Seigo Narazaki, a reservist, told us the same story; Chinese H-8 supersonic bombers (a copy of old Soviet designed Tupolev Tu-22M) coupled with submarine launched cruise missiles and land-based ballistic missiles were targeting port cities in Maizuru, Kure, and in Kyushu Island in a bid to slow down reinforcements as well as reducing Japanese naval power.

"We have to be grateful for drone fighters. Those little things helped reduce some the load of our pilots." Narazaki exclaimed. Just few minutes later, he stopped the jeep at what used to be a small apartment which had collapsed as the result of Chinese air raid. So we joined the first responders tending the scene.

"It's more likely that this was from a Chinese cruise missiles that went off course." one of the firefighters said.

"Doubt it" I could hear a sneer somewhere, most likely from another firefighter.

Many hands make light labor, and by the time we had spent twenty minutes in the location most bricks and blocks that had fallen had been pulled off for cleanup.

"Have you got that bit here?" I asked; with my husband helped me in this matter. Meanwhile on the other side one firefighter replied. "Yeah, I got my end, let's lift this up, 1, 2, 3!"

With the debris cleared, it uncovered two young men in their mid twenties. The sight quickly gave our stomach a telltale sign of our meals about to be ejected instead of been digested properly.

"You're okay?" I noticed that two policemen had their eyes on both Kousei and I.

A local volunteer nearby told everyone present. "Those two were herbivores, recluses, who were living in this place."

Hikikomori or not, they are still our people. I muttered.

The man continued. "We tried to help them relocate to somewhere safe when the State of War Emergency was enacted, but they refused."

Fair enough. You had done your part...

"One day those who were responsible for this shall be punished." That's how I hear from my husband, with his hands shaking from our first, shared experience with death for the first time. Seeing that also caused me to realize how much my hands had reacted the same. His choice of words also mean that anger began to flood through our veins much more than ever.

"Those bastards will got their due and it will be by our own hands, Kousei-kun!"

"I will make sure my crew know this. Especially Watari." Then I continued. "Tsubaki will surely be pissed off, knowing her."

Kousei asked me back. "What we're going to do now? Kaori love?"

"We're going back to Gotemba. Now."