Summoning Our Country - NHS Kai

Chapter 1: May Our Country Know True Peace

"Well then..."

Finished in his prayer, he dropped his shivering hands down to his hips and looked up at the already pitch-black sky unfolding endlessly above his head. Tracing across the hopeless expanse of darkness were fireflies of red and green, the many airliners that populate the skies above the Tokyo metropolitan area, carrying in their tens or hundreds of people to lands far and wide, near and dear. Closing off the march of black, enclosing it in an eternal semi-sphere was the artificial skyline of Japan's capital, the bright colors of the city's famous skyscrapers towering above the trees that surround Yasukuni, their number and constant flickering denoting that the city was yet to sleep.

Savoring in his last view of the Tokyo early evening before his ascension to the office, a screenshot of the present to be saved in the recesses of his mind, Takamori sighed. His brown, anxious eyes, anticipating the responsibilities he would have to carry, turned to those of a man lost in forlorn sentiment. As if witnessing a dream that will inevitably fade from memory, he had a hunch deep in his heart that this may be the last time he'll see such a sight.

It was peaceful.

But not because it was quiet; the incessant whirring of car engines and clanking of steely train wheels setting off according to schedule assumed their place in the background noise as the rustling of trees complemented the whistling of air in the foreground.

It was peaceful because Takamori stood there, spending the time loitering in the shrine grounds refusing to move forward with the flow of Chronos. To get it all done with, and move forward, he had to break the status quo–the peace. Hesitance and fear held him back, the spell of reluctance hung over him, but his spirit doggedly egged him on. If he were to take his place at the helm of a country that continues to advance, he himself must move too. Time gave him the last, decisive push, reminding him of the futility to resist–to remain unchanging.

Takamori finally submitted.

"Let's go."

He muttered in a volume that only he himself and the gods could hear.

Imperial Residence, 19:45

"Here."

"My sincerest thanks."

Takamori flatly replied as he kneeled down on the soft yet thin cushion that separated his folded legs from the clean tatami mats that comprised the surface of the room's floor. Groaning softly as he settled into his position which despite the innumerable times he had done it, his increasing age has constantly made the movement ever so difficult for his body. The old man who was now newly appointed Prime Minister turned his face upwards and looked straight towards the man that had appointed him to the position: Emperor Reiwa.

The two men sat opposite one another at just a bit more than an arm's length, with a brown, polished table separating them. While he had already been appointed by His Majesty to the office, Takamori had little clues in hand as to why the Emperor would summon him alone after the fact. Looking at His Majesty's face, that of a man more than a decade younger than his person, he could not take any more clues from the poker face that stared back at him. Even if he was the only one summoned, it might not be for something important. However, the lack of any teapot or teacups on top of the table for him to serve the Emperor must have meant that they were going to do more talking than drinking.

After almost a minute of staggeringly vexing silence, Takamori faked a cough to break the ice.

"What have you summoned me for, Your Majesty?"

Delving straight to the point, Takamori looked at the Emperor and turned his head downwards, a measly response to his strong opening. His face reflected the worries of a man in a position central to Japanese society, but the anxieties that lay deep in his heart concerned something far more than the people of the island nation. Finally responding to the Prime Minister's question, he asked another question, throwing the ball back to Takamori's court.