ASAHI NO NISHISEI - Rising Sun Goes West (1)

Part 3: Taking a Sudden Turn | Visitor

December 20

Tokyo, Japan

It is the end of the year. People are busy going about their daily lives amidst the daily snowfall. With only five days left until Christmas, the streets of Tokyo were decorated with fir trees, wreaths, bells, and ribbons. And three days have passed since the two battles of Glenkia Peninsula ended with Japanese victories in both battles, and reports of the two victories have excited public opinion in Japan. In any age, people are always excited by their country's victories. But in the streets of Tokyo, there are citizens' groups quietly but loudly chanting their opposition to the war.

"Don't allow Izumikawa's cabinet to expand its hegemony over the world!"

"There is no future for regression to militarism!"

A group of about 10 people wearing headbands and holding banners were making speeches over a loudspeaker. The group looked quite serious, but the passersby either paid them no mind and walked by, or took pictures of them and looked at them with amusement.

. . .

Tokyo Red Cross Medical Center

As a hospital under the direct control of the Red Cross Headquarters in Japan, many patients visit or are hospitalized here. The staff working here performed their duties as usual. Among them, there is one of "them". They were the doctors who had been engaged in medical activities in the Crossnellyard Empire. They had gathered in a distant foreign land and escaped from Lithianburg in the nick of time on the day the war broke out. After returning home, they scattered and returned to the clinic where they had worked before being sent overseas to resume their work in Japan.

Eighteen of the 35 returned staff members worked at this Red Cross Medical Center. Working in their respective departments, examining, treating, and dispensing medicine, they seemed to have forgotten that they had once risked their lives together in the escape attempt. However, there is one thing that is different about this hospital. A certain "special patient" brought back from the Juperia Continent by the medical team is admitted to the hospital.

Infectious Diseases Department Ward

A fragile girl is hospitalized in a large private room. Her name is Theopha Rae Anglem, the fourth daughter of the 26th Emperor of Crossnellyard. According to the announcement by the government of the Crossnellyard Imperial Domain, she died a strange death together with the family of the late emperor due to a plot by Japanese doctors.

The new emperor, Alphon I, declared 'revenge' against the 'simultaneous deaths of the imperial family' that had caused such a stir in the world, in other words, he declared war on Japan. He also announced that the Japanese envoy had insulted the Pope in at the Japan-Papal State bilateral meeting that had taken place just prior the assassination, and since the Holy Rovance Papal State had authorized this war against Japan as a 'Holy War,' other leading Irulan countries joined the war one after another, and the war continued to escalate.

Of course, the Japanese government denied all these announcements. However, many of the upper classes and people in Crossnellyard took their government's announcements to heart and turned hostile toward Japan.

However, on the night of the simultaneous deaths of the imperial family, the Fourth Princess Theopha had successfully escaped from the Imperial Palace by Japanese doctors who happened to be visiting the Imperial Palace that night, thus escaping the usurpation of the emperor's brother. She was therefore the only member of the Crossnellyard Imperial Family that the Japanese had in their possession, and the trump card they needed to overturn the current emperor's deception.