ASAHI NO NISHISEI - Rising Sun Goes West (1)

Missing Object

At first glance, the bureaucracy is quite sloppy in this chapter, but it's necessary for later developments, so please bear with me.

- Bokutotsu Zen'u

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December 26

Green Leaf Pavilion Inn 5th Floor, Seve

Endo and Nitta's Room

The sun rose over the eastern horizon. The glorious rays of the morning sun streamed into the world's foremost international port city, illuminating the cityscape. The light also shone through the windows of the Green Leaf Pavilion inn and hits the two men lying on the floor of their guest room.

Beep-beep-beep!

"Uuhh, aah...!"

"!!"

Nitta woke up in the morning to the sound of his smartphone alarm, startled. Looking toward the moaning, he saw Endo writhing in agony next to him. Perhaps he was hungover or something.

'Hangover, huh? Sloppy... But... when did I fall asleep?'

Nitta looked at Endo, who was suffering from a hangover, in dismay. However, he too had vague memories of yesterday and was in no position to laugh at Endo. Perhaps he had fallen asleep while drunk.

'I think we had a glass of wine after returning to this room...'

Nitta desperately traces his hazy memories of last night. He looked around the room and found an empty bottle of wine on the table, just as he remembered. In addition, two glasses have fallen on the floor. They were the glasses from the inn that he and Endo had used yesterday to drink wine.

'Could it be... did we got drunk and go straight to sleep? No, that can't be true, just two people drinking a bottle of wine...'

Neither Nitta nor Endo are weak drinkers. Normally, they would not have fallen asleep after this amount of drinking. Despite this, Nitta fell asleep drunk, and Endo was suffering from a hangover.

'It is said that when one is tired, one gets drunk quicker... perhaps the fatigue of the trip had taken its toll...'

Nitta considered the reasons for his drunkenness. Later, Endo and Nitta began to prepare to leave the inn, while getting up their creaking bodies. After shaving their stubbles, fixing their sleeping habits, and changing their clothes, they began packing.

"Huh? Huuh... HUH!?"

At that moment, Nitta suddenly looked panicked. Immediately afterward, he began going around the room looking for something.

"What's wrong?" Endo asked him.

Nitta replied in an anxious voice.

"My bag is missing..."

"Isn't that your bag?"

Endo pointed to the bag Nitta was packing earlier, a small carry-on vase.

"No, not that. It has a wallet, passport, and other things in it, and I put it on my shoulder..."

"...You mean the bag that you always carried around with you!?"

Endo finally understood what was going on. What Nitta was looking for was the bag in which he carried his wallet, diplomatic passport, and other valuables, and which Nitta had never left his skin.

"No way... thief!?"

"!?"

Nitta instantly paled when he heard Endo's words.