PS: If racism doesn't sit well with you, you can basically skim/skip over the first half. I wish I could. Those hours of my life ain't coming back...
Since team East Sea had launched the sneak attack and contacted team Celestial, half an hour had passed. Everyone was depressed, not knowing when team China would attack. Or perhaps, they were waiting for them to arrive exhausted at the Diaoyu Islands. Simply put, team East Sea could no longer think, having lost Adam’s wit.
“Perhaps we were wrong…” On the deck, Miyata Kuraki and Sora Aoi were walking slowly, one in front of the other. The atmosphere in the room was so oppressive that the two had agreed to go out and stretch their legs a while.
“Then, we’ll follow the strategy Adam established for us.” Sora Aoi looked tenderly Miyata Kuraki, muttering as she lowered her head.
“Not that… but our attitude towards those yellow monkeys… no, those Chinese.”
Sora Aoi immediately went silent. She normally didn’t say much regarding this topic, as she knew of Miyata Kuraki’s background. His grandfather was a Brigadier General ranked officer in the Japanese army in the WWII era, and his father was a mainstay of the Black Dragon Society. In the circumstances where his family were all right-wing, he had been inculcated with the narrow-minded values of the Japanese far-right since birth.
In comparison, Sora Aoi’s father had been a member of the Japanese Communist Party. Although the party had gradually declined, her family had indeed been Japanese friends close to China. They had also helped in China’s Three-North Shelter Forest Program in China’s Northwest, and her family had sent people to help. So, she had spent half her youth in China, and her horizons were broadened by her experiences there. She knew the world wasn’t as the Japanese right-wing declared, and that China wasn’t the China that the right-wing was hostile towards. It was a mighty country...
But what could she alone do? The Japanese right-wing ran amok, wantonly revising textbooks and refusing to admit the WWII war crimes. Due to Japan’s stubborness in this area, and the right-wing’s longtime antagonism towards China’s actions, China only disliked Japan all the more. This feud thus became more and more real.
Even her companions in this team were all trapped in this thinking.
She knew that Miyata Kuraki and his father’s generation were different. He was a man with a kind heart. The reason he entered God’s Realm was due to his frustration over not being able to save his companion during a car accident. But even if it was him, a kind-hearted person, he would refer to the Chinese as yellow monkeys normally and show various kinds of disdain after receiving the toxicity of the Japanese right-wing and militaristic thinking.
(Perhaps, us Japanese really are as some American authors say. We’ll grovel and beg the strong, but be rude and brazen to the weak? For example, the much stronger than us team China…)
Sora Aoi looked with complex emotions at Miyata Kuraki, listening carefully to every word of his.
“This world doesn’t have inferior races, only inferior people. All races will have gems of greatness within, but also despicable people, traitors, repulsive people, cowards and so on. It’s not as father and grandfather said, where the Chinese has long since lost their souls, and you can only refer to them as yellow monkeys since the Song period. Adam was right. We have our Yamato spirit, and they have their Chinese heart. There’s nothing superior or inferior…”
Miyata Kuraki focused his gaze far off. He muttered, “Ever since we heard about the three strongest teams in our first team battle, Devil, Celestial and China, as well as much about the strongest Zheng Zha, his clone and regarding their comrades… I couldn’t believe they were base people. Every powerhouse deserves respect. Only with sufficient courage, spirit, intent and ambition could one become a powerhouse. Perhaps we were wrong. The Chinese are still the Chinese who created a glorious history, except they’re like Napoleon said, sleeping, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.”
“This is the bad habit of us Japanese people, right?”
“What bad habit?” Miyata Kuraki asked curiously.
“Oppressing the weak and venerating the strong…”
Miyata Kuraki went silent, and recited these seven words. His gaze was indescribably complex, and after a long while, he sighed, “Perhaps it is a bad habit. But, to be able to fight to the death with a powerhouse, it’s sufficient for such a sword’s radiance even if it withers away in an instant like the cherry blossoms. If we survive and return to the real world, I will surely go to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders and kneel for forgiveness. That is, if we survive…”
“If we do die… I hope you can bring me with you.”
Holding Miyata Kuraki’s waist, the two stood there quietly, experiencing what could perhaps be the final bit of warmth,
“Not good!” Sora Aoi suddenly shouted. She ran to the conference room, her face red. She looked to have been angered into confusion. Miyata Kuraki froze, then immediately recovered and angrily followed after.
In the conference room, Koinu Maosu was pouncing on Yingkong’s body, his eyes red. He was hurling abuse, using his remaining arm to tear at her upper body’s clothes. The two just happened to enter as he tore off her upper outer garments and her chest wrap. Those indescribably marvelous breast thus stood firm before all present.
“What are you doing?”
Before Sora Aoi could say anything, Miyata Kuraki had already shouted and landed a foot on Koinu Maosu’s back, sending this man who was taller than him flying several metres away. He crashed into the hard wooden table with crash, breaking it into splinters.
“Are you crazy? If you want to play with a woman, go back to God’s dimension and make one yourself! Don’t embarrass us Yamato people here! She's a captive, not a prostitute for you to play with!” Miyata Kuraki roared.
Koinu Maosu used a single hand to wipe away the fresh blood on his forehead. He hideously smiled as he stood up, shouting at the same time, “It should be you who’s crazy! You actually decided on your own to reject Adam’s help. Do you think you’re better than team Celestial’s strategist? You’re just forcing us on the road to ruin! I don’t want to die with you, and especially die in humiliation under the hands of those yellow monkeys, no, yellow pigs…”
“Shut it! Respect towards your enemy is respecting yourself. Please call them Chinese!” Miyata Kuraki shouted, making the stance of being about to rush at Koinu Maosu.
Koinu Maosu seemed willing to risk everything, retreating as he shouted, “You’ve forgotten the glory of the Yamato people! Where’s your warrior spirit? You’re actually calling those pigs Chinese… Have you forgotten how your father’s generation fought in Manchuria? You actually have sympathy for an inferior race?”
Miyata Kuraki roared as he unsheathed his katana, scolding at the same time, “You’re really crazy. What is in that head of yours? Will you take pride in attacking someone who can’t resist?”
“Correct! There’s no need for any compassion towards these inferior races!” the reply came.
“Then who will you be compassionate towards? Members of team Celestial?” Miyata Kuraki’s katana slashed towards Koinu Maosu’s head, stopping there, only coldly asking.
“... It’s naturally different when it comes to team Celestial.” Koinu Maosu hadn’t thought that Miyata Kuraki really wanted to cut him, and cold sweat immediately started flowing on his body, and there as a trace of carefulness in his words.”
“You…” Miyata Kuraki was so angry upon hearing that that he couldn’t say a word. The hand carrying the katana couldn’t stop trembling, leaving a bloody mark on Koinu Maosu’s head.
The people around them hurriedly counseled them, working together to break the two apart. Several even muttered, “Since we’re enemies with team China already, give her to him. Why are we talking about compassion when it comes to those yellow monkeys…”
“You all… you all are crazy! What are you all thinking?” He was even more enraged and confused now, but upon closer inspection, he realised everyone was looking at him with incomprehension and slight traces of disdain, as if he was the one talking crazy.
“Is it really our bad habit, to oppress the weak and venerate the strong? How shameless and despicable. Is this the warrior spirit and Yamato spirit I believed in?”
Miyata Kuraki abruptly felt like his belief and world was collapsing. Only when a small hand held his tightly did he recover. Sora Aoi was standing close behind him, “This is the true Yamato people. Because of that brainwashing and the right-wing running amok, a large majority more or less have this kind of inclination. We are just the extreme minority amongst our people, and so is Koinu Maosu. However, the majority of those in between are slowly leaning towards the right…”
“Is that so?”
Miyata Kuraki’s heart was becoming more and more dismal. Those before him were his companions before, and yet they looked so ugly and unbearable right now. But, before he could say anything, a shrill warning sound sounded from outside the conference room, the entire fleet sounding off an alarm for an enemy raid.
Team China… cometh!