Chapter 9: Trouble Above Karakarai

Meanwhile, Ishida and Rhina discussed their plan in Ishida’s mountaintop cabin.

“On the back of the mountain, there are many abandoned factories.” Ishida began. “Some of them are still operating. A few days ago, before I entered the ammunition factory, I also saw an aircraft factory. I’m pretty sure there are still lots of planes in the hangar.”

“So what are we going to do?” Rhina asked.

“We’re going to sneak into the aircraft factory, get in a plane, and fly away!” Ishida replied.

“Fly away? What about the war reparations?” Rhina demanded.

“What I meant to say was that we’re going to fly to the Great Sea City of Ajens,” Ishida explained.

“That’s what I was thinking,” said Rhina.

“We’ll start the journey tomorrow,” the young man told her. 

Ishida went into his storage room, where he opened one of the dusty drawers. At once, dozens of papers flowed out onto the floor. 

He searched through them, and, not finding what he was looking for, stuffed them back in. 

He dug into the other drawers, one by one, and explored them thoroughly. By noon, he still hadn’t found a single map dating back to his father’s last voyage.

“What is it that you’re trying to find?” Rhina asked him while they ate. “I might be able to help.”

“My father’s maps during his voyages, particularly his last voyage” Ishida answered. “This food is absolutely marvelous! I haven’t had anything like it since my mother left,” Ishida complimented.

“Thank you! I’m glad you like it.” Rhina smiled. “Cooking is my favorite hobby. If you don’t mind, I can make dinner today, too.” 

“That would be great!” Ishida replied. 

In the afternoon, Ishida went back into the storage room while Rhina prepared a grand dinner for him. 

He managed to find some maps that his father used during his first four voyages in search of the Ajenian sea city, but none that were used during his last trip. 

The young man spent many hours searching through the drawers.  At last, just a few minutes before sundown, he finally found what he had been searching for. 

It was a folded piece of paper with creases all over and small rips on the edges— a map. 

It looked like something from the ancient world, with all sorts of markings and cursive writing on it.

Ishida carefully folded the map, stuffed it into his pocket, and went into the kitchen. 

The grand dinner that Rhina made for him was ready.

In the following hours, Ishida had what was undoubtedly the best meal in his life. The brilliantly cooked dishes and mouth-watering dessert tasted like something that had fallen down from paradise. 

The feeling was like sitting under a waterfall after a long day in a desert. The charming, flavorful taste lingered in his mouth long after the meal. 

Early the next morning, Ishida and Rhina began the trip to the abandoned side of the mountain. 

Upon reaching the barbed wire, Ishida climbed the gate and jumped down. Rhina climbed up and Ishida prepared to help her get down from the gate, but she did not need any help. 

At that moment, Ishida remembered that Rhina had run away from home and realized that she probably climbed some gates in that process.

Once they were on the other side, they sprinted past the abandoned buildings. They dashed past the ammunition factory and found the aircraft factory Ishida had seen earlier.

“Be careful, someone might still be here,” Ishida whispered. 

The two quietly opened the door and stepped into the factory. Like the ammunition factory, it was seemingly old and abandoned on the outside but was completely new on the inside. 

Here, however, the machines were no longer working. 

In a small hangar, they found a two-seater red biplane. Ishida climbed into the canopy and started the engine while Rhina jumped into the back seat.

“Wait, do you know how to fly an airplane?” Rhina questioned. 

“Well, yes, flying was— and still is one— of my hobbies,” Ishida replied.

He skillfully drove the biplane out of the hangar, where there was a runway that appeared to be old but was still largely intact. 

As the plane ran down the runway, the propellers spun faster and it began accelerating. The tail lifted from the ground and the plane soon flew up into the sky. 

Within a few minutes, they were above the clouds. 

“You’re a great pilot,” Rhina remarked.

“My parents taught me well.” Ishida smiled. 

“Where are we going to fly to? You know where the sea city is?” Rhina asked.

Ishida reached into his pocket and took out a folded piece of paper with many creases and rips. He carefully unfolded it, revealing that it was the map he founded the day before.

 In the middle of the map was Mount Lagoda, marked with a triangle. Next to it was a massive plain, and to the northeast— beyond the plain— was a vast ocean.

“This is the map my father used to find his way to Ajens on his last voyage. Right now we’re somewhere… here!” Ishida said, pointing to the part on the map that represented the coast. “You should see the ocean sometime soon.”

Twenty minutes later, Rhina spotted the seashore.

“There it is! I see it just below the horizon!” she said excitedly. “That’s the Gulf of Cessabit, isn’t it?”

“It should take us a bit more than an hour of flying to get to the end of these plains. We will be flying over the city of Karakarai in no time!” 

“That’s all well and good, Ishida, but where do we go after that?”

“After leaving Karakarai, we’ll fly past an abandoned port. It was built in the early days of the Medietan Empire and served as an important naval base but was destroyed in a war. No one repaired it after the war, and it remains unused even now.”

The yellow stalks of grass rising from the ground gave Rhina the impression that they were flying over fields of gold.  

Across these plains ran a long railway with two tracks. This was the Lucada-Karakarai Railway, starting in Lucada in the northwest and ending in Karakari in the east. 

The railway did not pass Mount Lagoda, for the land around the mountain was not very flat, and flat ground was a “must” for the railroad companies. 

An hour later, the plains ended on the coast and the outskirts of Karakarai appeared beneath the plane’s wings.             

Ishida and Rhina approached the center of the city, flying over dozens of houses with the typical Medietan-style triangular roofs. 

At the center of the city was a train station where three railways intersected. This intersection was by no means bustling; Ishida did not see very many passengers getting onto the trains as they prepared to depart or getting off the trains as they stopped.

A massive air base— the second-largest in the Medietan Empire— was located a few kilometers east of the train station.

There, hundreds of fighter planes and bombers were parked neatly in rows from wingtip to wingtip. A number of small blimps and military airships were also moored at the air base.

After flying over Karakarai Air Force Base and a small fishing boat pier on the city’s coast, Ishida and Rhina finally reached the ocean. 

“The abandoned port should be to the west of our current location. That means—”

“There are a bunch of ships at the harbor!” Rhina abruptly interrupted.

“At the harbor? Hmm, that’s strange, I thought it was abandoned!” Ishida replied.

What she saw was a formidable fleet of warships anchored at the previously abandoned port. They were battleships— humongous floating fortresses with dozens of guns pointed towards the sky. 

Then, without any warning, the battleships’ anti-aircraft guns opened fire. They seemed to be aiming for the tiny red biplane in the sky.

Pom-pom-pom-pom-pom! 

Rrr-BOOM!

Pew-pew-pew-pew-pew!

BANG BANG BANG!

Pom-pom-pom-BOOM!

“They’re shooting at us!” Rhina exclaimed.

“Hold on tight! We’re going to fly into some clouds,” Ishida told her. 

Seconds later, a stray bullet struck one of the airplane's lower wings, lighting it on fire.