ASAHI NO NISHISEI - Rising Sun Goes West (1)

Introduction | Black Doctor

This is the first chapter of the volume.

- Bokutotsu Zen'u

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Evening of a certain day in October 2028

Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Since the arrival of the black ships at the end of the Edo period, Yokosuka has served as a base for national defense, and has a history as a military port, having hosted the Yokosuka Guardian Office during the Japanese Empire era, the naval facilities of the US Navy Seventh Fleet, and the headquarters of the Self-Defense Fleet of the Maritime Self-Defense Force after the war. Today, the US Navy ships of the Seventh Fleet have moved to the Yawa Peninsula, so the US Navy is no longer present, but escort ships of the 1st and 11th Escort Squadrons still come and go frequently, and trading ships from many countries also enter the port.

Two men were sitting on two benches, looking out to sea, talking to each other in the harbor where all ships come and go. A distance of about 10 meters opened up between them.

"I never expected you to become a marquis..."

He was Takehiko Sasagawa, a Lieutenant Colonel of the Ground Self-Defense Force. In 2025, he was a medical officer in the 3rd Survey Team of the Mugen Islands, where he was in charge of maintaining the health of SDF officers and civilians belonging to the group. He had been stationed at Takeyama Garrison, where he was originally stationed, but had now been replaced by someone else and returned to his original duty station.

"The marquis of that country is fourth from the top and fourth from the bottom, not low, but not high either."

Tomokazu Shibata, a Lieutenant of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, who was sitting next to him, replied while looking out over the harbor. He had returned to Japan for the first time in about 10 months from the distant otherworldly continent of Juperia. Although the two of them belonged to different organizations on land and sea, they had been interacting with each other as they were both medical officers.

"Hey... are you going back to the SDF Hospital?" Sasagawa asked.

It was a natural question for Shibata, who had been away from Japan for ten months.

"About that..."

Shibata answered after a short pause. The setting sun shining into Yokosuka's harbor sinks further, casting a long, strong shadow over the two of them.

"I'm going to resign from the SDF... as a medical officer. The reason I came back home this time is to submit my resignation."

"!"

The answer Shibata gave startled Sasagawa.

"I was originally pressured by my superiors to quit... This is a good opportunity."

Shibata continued.

"After all, I am the biggest stain on the SDF in the East Asian War... For the past ten months, not a single order to return home has come. I guess they would have preferred that I become an aristocrat or something in another world and bury my bones there, and not come back."

Shibata described his own delicate position within the JMSDF with a sense of self-mockery. He had been demoted from the rank of Lieutenant Commander after causing some problems at a battlefield hospital in Nanjing, China, where he was deployed during the East Asian War. He was told that he would not be promoted any further within the SDF, and after the war, his superiors had been urging him to resign from the medical profession, either casually or overtly.