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HOME IS FAR AWAY, WITHIN MEMORIES

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*****

Though the rainy season had yet to arrive, the cicadas had already begun their early chorus. Listening to them, Saburo, Rob, and Arcelia walked among the lush, verdant trees.

It was well past midnight when Rob and the others had finally fallen asleep last night, and now, it was nearly noon.

Saburo seemed to have been up since dawn, and he had prepared a late breakfast for them—rice, miso soup, pickles, and grilled fish.

It was a warmth like visiting a grandmother’s house in the countryside during summer vacation. Even though it was an experience I had never actually had, for some reason, it felt nostalgic.

After that, at Saburo’s suggestion, we set out to climb the small mountain behind his house, ostensibly for sightseeing.

「――Bears appear around here. They aren't particularly dim-witted, but it’s a precaution.」

Just before departure, Saburo, carrying a hunting rifle, had said only that before heading into the mountains.

Saburo was a man of few words.

He seemed to be the exception only on the first day and when alcohol was involved; otherwise, he hardly wasted breath on anything unnecessary.

We learned that the "bears" were monsters larger than polar bears, and the hunting rifle he carried was a custom magical firearm—he had requested it because he couldn't adapt to the magic of this world, so they made a magical tool in the shape of a gun.

To Rob, those were rather important details, but Saburo barely spoke of them. We only found out that night, when the alcohol had made him a bit more talkative.

Following Saburo’s steady gait, Rob recalled the half-life of the man he had heard about last night.

***

In 1983, First Lieutenant Saburo Fujita, a fighter pilot for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, crashed during a night flight training exercise.

Saburo himself remembered the moment of impact with the ground vividly.

However, Saburo did not die. He was summoned to a country that resembled Japan in an alternate world: the Nichirin Empire.

It wasn't until two months later that he realized he had been summoned. He had appeared in a forest, and it was a hunter living in a small farming village nearby who had found him.

The hunters and the villagers treated him very well, but eventually, the government came to collect him, and he learned everything.

The world was in the midst of something like the Second World War, and like the Empire of Japan of old, they were in a disadvantageous position.

He was apologized to, told he had been accidentally summoned during a prayer for victory by a member of the imperial family. Saburo was furious, devastated when he was told there was no way to return to Japan, and bewildered when he heard the situation of the country.

He found it hard to understand a world run on magic rather than natural science, yet despite that, he found it incredibly strange that history was following a path similar to Japan—or rather, Earth.

But then, it immediately occurred to him.

If the history were to follow Japan’s, an atomic bomb would likely be dropped in one year.

For Saburo, who had parents from Nagasaki, that was something he could not overlook.

The faces of the villagers who had cared for him when he was just dropped into a forest, clueless, also flickered through his mind.

But as a Self-Defense Force officer, intervening in a war was not permitted.

Even if, hypothetically, they reached the end of the war without him fighting, if the history followed Earth’s, one could expect severe racial discrimination from other nations, and it wouldn't be strange for Saburo—an otherworldly visitor—to be treated like a lab rat.

After much agonizing, Saburo decided to fight.

He placed his faith in himself, now apparently imbued with divine protection, and his beloved aircraft.

From there, he played a pivotal role in military, political, and diplomatic affairs. After successfully navigating the Second World War, he continued to fight on behalf of the Nichirin Empire amidst an international climate still rife with colonial rule.

"Wings of the Sun" and "God of War"—these names referred to Saburo Fujita, and there was even a statue of him in the capital, Toto.

***

Sixty-two years had passed since then.

Saburo, who was thirty at the time, was now ninety-two. While his lifespan had extended slightly due to the magic in the air, it wouldn't be strange for him to pass away at any time, and for that reason, Saburo had retired from all work two years ago.

It seemed he had been considering retirement for twenty years, but between the international situation, handing over his duties, and above all, being held back by many people, his retirement had been delayed until this age.

However, looking at that vigorous back, Rob was certain that Saburo was still far from a helpless old man.

Even after continuing to walk along a mountain path that was barely more than a game trail, the bear-hunting rifle on his shoulder didn't tremble in the slightest, and he wasn't even out of breath. He didn't have the intimidating presence of a warrior, but even with his back turned, there was an air of being watched, of being overlooked from above.

From the perspective of a former Japanese citizen like Rob, there were many "impossibly" vigorous old men in this magical world, and perhaps this man was of the same breed.

Feeling somewhat exhausted, Rob continued walking up the mountain path.

After about two hours of uneventful climbing, they finally reached the summit.

「......」

Saburo said nothing and sat down on a nearby rock.

As they neared the summit, glimpses of the surrounding scenery had flickered between the trees, but when Rob looked at the view from the top, his eyes widened.

In the clear, azure sky, white clouds drifted by.

To the east, a city centered around towering skyscrapers stretched out endlessly.

To the west, a single sharp, white mountain peak jutted out among a cluster of rolling mountains.

Toto, which resembled Tokyo, and a mountain that resembled Mt. Fuji.

Was that from when he was in elementary school, junior high, or perhaps high school? Rob overlaid the memory of a distant day he was certain he had seen once before.

「......Shall we get going?」

Rob must have been gazing at the scenery for about thirty minutes; he came to his senses at Saburo’s voice.

Arcelia, holding Pashe, also looked a little worried.

「I’m only human, after all.」

Rob said this to hide his embarrassment, but Arcelia gave a small nod.

「I know.」

At Arcelia’s overly straightforward reply, Rob looked away and urged Saburo to lead the way.

It seemed they were taking a different route back, and after descending for a while from the summit, they reached a large waterfall.

「This way.」

Although it was clearly not the path back, Rob and the others followed Saburo, who was heading behind the waterfall, tilting their heads in confusion.

There had only been a rock wall behind the waterfall, but strangely, when Saburo touched it, a small cave appeared.

As they proceeded through the cave, which was barely wide enough for one person to pass through, they soon emerged into an open space.

There, Saburo’s beloved aircraft sat enthroned.

The air-superiority fighter, the F-15 Eagle.

With its sharply pointed nose, smooth body, two vertical and horizontal stabilizers, and grey armor painted with small rising sun emblems on both wings.

Rob and Arcelia, who had never seen a fighter jet up close, felt as if they were looking at a dragon.

「My partner.」

Saburo stated simply.

『Sovereign Bird of the Joined Wings』.

It only functions as an ability when Saburo and the Eagle are together.

By becoming a unique ability, its power transcends catalog specs, allowing it to exert its combat capabilities even in outer space.

Its speed exceeds Mach 3, its radar has been modified for the magical world to detect even individual mages, its armor has become tougher and possesses self-repair functions, and its radio communication can be used just like telepathy.

It wasn't just the fixed machine gun and air-to-air missiles it was armed with at the time of the summoning; it could launch guided bombs for ground attacks and anti-submarine missiles at Saburo's will, and the power could be adjusted as Saburo pleased.

「......I suppose there will be no more need to use it. No, it’s better not to use it.」

Looking up at his partner, Saburo muttered quietly, as if speaking to someone who wasn't there.

「Why show me this?」

Why show such a partner—one he didn't want to use—to Rob, a fellow Japanese man?

Saburo answered without looking away from the Eagle.

「I killed and destroyed with this. That is not a phantom; it is the truth.」

The taciturn Saburo spoke in bits and pieces.

Defending a country meant there were many things that couldn't be settled with clean hands. There were mistakes.

But most of the people in this country did not blame him for it; they called him a person of character, a hero.

That was certainly a fortune. That was why he could fight, why he could kill.

But at the same time, the fact that he wasn't blamed—the history that treated it as if the slaughter had never happened—became a burden.

「I thought that if it were you, a fellow former Japanese citizen in a similar position but not a resident of this world, you would remember the truth.」

Rob couldn't say anything.

It had been the same with Harlequin; why did they insist on making him carry such things? He couldn't even judge if they were heavy or light.

Yet, he felt he had no choice but to nod.

――Clang.

At the sudden noise, everyone’s gaze gathered.

Pashe had stuck its head into a scrap pile. It looked like a stray dog rummaging through the trash.

When Arcelia hurriedly scooped it up, the head of a screw was visible from the corner of its beak.

Without waiting for her to stop it, Pashe swallowed it back down.

When Arcelia immediately apologized, Saburo laughed softly, telling her not to worry.

The Eagle had a self-repair function, but Saburo still lavished care upon it, and what Pashe had eaten was scrap waste from that maintenance.

Rob apologized along with her, while inwardly tilting his head at Pashe’s baffling biology.

After that, Rob and the others, who had descended the mountain before sunset, spent the time idly.

Rob and Saburo sat on the veranda, gazing out at the twilight.

They didn't talk about anything in particular, just feeling the cool breeze rustling through the trees as it flowed by, but for some reason, Rob even felt a sense of nostalgia.

It seemed Saburo felt the same, as he now looked like a gentle old man, staring off at something in the distance.

After a while, the smell of dinner, prepared by Arcelia who had taken the initiative to go to the kitchen so as not to disturb the two, wafted over.

「......Come to think of it, what is she planning to make?」

A somewhat pungent, strange spicy aroma drifted over.

Now that he thought about it, Rob had never seen Arcelia make anything.

He frowned at the unpleasant premonition, but Saburo rebuked him.

「She’s making it for us. Sit down and wait.」

Even that scolding, which sounded like a Japanese adult, stirred nostalgia in Rob, and he could do nothing but nod obediently.

He went to the living room, and upon seeing the blue "something" that looked like curry, which Arcelia had made by following a recipe, Rob lost his expression.

Even so, remembering Saburo's words, just as he steeled himself to plunge his spoon in, the house’s doorbell rang.

*****

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