Takahiko Arima

(3rd Person View)

March 1st, 2025

Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Imperial State of Japan

It was an ordinary nine o'clock in the morning, after breakfast and light exercises with his wife, Takahiko Arima was working on his vegetable garden in yet another good harvest and maintenance work when he suddenly felt a vibration to his mobile phone. His first considered action was to check the number on the military grade encrypted phone that he somehow managed to obtain back in early 2010s, old but tough and still reliable, as he thought that it was either prank, a hack, or even an attempt from one of his former comrades to swindle him, a gut feeling inside the old naval officer and banker called him to pick it up anyway.

"Moshi moshi? (Hello)" he said gruffly.

"Lieutenant Commander Arima"

Clearly one of his connections back in the Navy or even the Defense Ministry. "Speaking"

"Lieutenant Commander, Taiyou Maru here." 

The officer focused his attention to what the man was about to say, whom he recognized as Commander Mahiro Shiga, once served as one of the enlisted torpedomen aboard destroyer Shimakaze during the War in 1999. Later, he entered OCS in Etajima and was subsequently assigned into a shore duty upon commissioning, but the rest of his career, as far as Takahiko knew, was shadowed, and he took good care to keep it that way.

"There is something that you will have to see. I'll send you some soon, but the news had already came too as well." 

"What are you talking about?" 

"Can't say it anymore, Lieutenant Commander, but this is related to what we're keeping watch for."

The man hung up, and it's not long before his wife that was cleaning the house bolted out from inside the house and called him.

"Takahiko, look at this!"

He answered, "Soon, let me finish this, dear." Saki nodded.

He quickly finished the rest of the work and took the veggies to the kitchen. After a needed hand-washing, he went to the family room when he found his wife clicked the TV tuned to the NHK showing a breaking news.

"Taka, you better listen to this."

"This is Yukiho Kousaka," said a brown-haired female anchor. "We have a breaking story from the heart of China sent directly by our partners. There has been an explosion in South Zhongnanhai at approximately eight-thirty this morning, Beijing Time."

The screen switched. Takahiko could see the ancient compound dated to the Ming and Qing dynasty—now being patrolled by paramilitary soldiers of the People's Armed Police in combat dress.

Thanks to the latest event, a full company of armed soldiers or police officers in Zhongnanhai clearly mean something bad. 

Takahiko told his wife as the smuggled amateur video continued to play, showing smoke rising from the governmental compound. "First there was an attack on their premier oil facilities deep inside their interior, than a coup, and now this? Strange."

The old couple examined the television picture closely as the recording switched closer to the compound and to the street level. The one body Takahiko could see looked awfully small. He wrote it off to distance and perspective.

The screen than split, where it also shown an older man in his 40s and the word 'Taipei'"

"Yukiho, what we seem to have here is the first major terrorist incident in the
history of the People's Republic of China —"

"Since the bastards set themselves up," Takahiko snorted.

"We know for certain—at least we've been told by our sources—that a bomb was detonated in the south building. They're certain it was a bomb, not some kind of accident. And we know for sure that three, possibly more people were killed, and perhaps as many as forty or fifty wounded."

"Now the really interesting thing about this is that the Politburo had been scheduled to hold yet another meeting here about that time."

"My God!" Takahiko put the phone back on his pocket.

"Can you tell us if any of them were among the dead or wounded?" asked Yukiho at the Taiwan-based correspondent, Fujita Masaharu.

"No, Yukiho. You see, the video was taken more than two kilometers away, and the senior Beijing officials arrive by car—when they do, that is, they always come in from the other side of the compound through another gate. So, nobody managed to know that they were here without significant risks. However, we did have some possible hint that it was the case, pending confirmation from our sources... wait a minute. We got another video of another explosion, this time in a child care center in Qingdao. Chinese state media had confirmed that up to 10 people inside the center has been killed, all children..."

"Clearly those people will be shocked with these double attacks, it's just like if someone managed to detonate a bomb inside the Diet building of all places." commented Saki as the dialogue continued between the TV journalists after a fresh tape showing the explosion in the said port city of the Yellow Sea and it's aftermath were shown for the viewers.

"...I cannot reliably discern on how they will, or won't direct their rage and grief against anyone outside of their country, especially against Japan or against the United States... and so far, we also confirmed that there are multiple groups claiming responsibility..."

"...So, to summarize what we know to this point, there has been a bomb attack within the Zhongnanhai walls, possibly an attempt to eliminate the CCP Politburo, simultaneously another bomb in a child care center in Qingdao, though I must emphasize that we are not certain of the real motives, or if the attacks were linked together. We have had it confirmed by our sources inside Beijing that at least three people are dead, with forty or so other wounded, while in Qingdao, those wounded being evacuated to nearby hospitals. We will be reporting throughout the day as more information becomes available. This is Fujita Masaharu, reporting from Taipei Bureau of NHK."

The scene shifted back to the anchor desk.

"And so that's the Breaking News today from NHK" Yukiho the anchorperson smiled, and the screen faded again, this time to a commercial for 7-11. 

And so, for the rest of the day, Takahiko did his usual things he loved in the garden with Saki as well as a nighttime fishing with two of his old, close friends back at junior high - nearly similar to his only son before Kousei met his future wife - named Kazuhiro Kurosawa, one of the richest man in town, and a retired judge named Denjiro Mizushima - with the following sentence in his mind.

"If it was really a bomb, knowing the CCP, they will surely blame us or the Americans. Then they'll go to the higher alert status. Much more with the recent events..."

Next day

"Who is that?" asked Saki when her husband's phone, the plain one that somehow stoked her curiosity over the years, suddenly rung.

"Someone from the service" he answered. "I'll be back"

Before she could even reply, Takahiko had ran off upstairs, to his room, just in time to click the answer button.

--- This message will be deleted as soon as it's received ---

Taiyou Maru: you'll love it.

Takahiko: Go on.

Taiyou Maru: We pirated this off two news wires half an hour ago... TV and others shall got it by now, but let's get this short - Guoanbu has arrested one Li Huang-liu, from Kaohsiung, Taiwan (ROC)... and accused him to be the mastermind of both Zhongnanhai and Qingdao bombings! He missed the big shots, but the CCP is now emphasizing that alongside those poor souls of Qingdao, among the dead in Zhongnanhai were f*cking eight Chinese Young Pioneers (1) from Chongqing who were making a presentation to the Politburo! Take note, the Americans got a good saying to what this means. "Sh*t is going to hit the fan."

"Damn it." Takahiko sighed, but out of a need to focus with the day as well as his wife, it's time to put it aside, again.

Also, another question will be, how many things he learned that should be shared to his only son?

A/N:

(1) Young Pioneers are a Scout-like children organization in Communist countries operated by a communist party as part of its ideological indoctrination. Upon reaching adolescent age, a member of this kind of organization then typically joined a Young Communist League, like in case of the Chinese Communist Party being the China Youth League.