LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 241.1
Chapter 241.1. Urashima Taro
The Amatsugahara Special Zone was in a frenzy. It was already December, and with the new year just around the corner, people were counting down the days on their fingers as the few remaining ones slipped away.
Crowds strolled along the main streets, buying food from stalls, checking out the lively Tori-no-Ichi festival, and laughing joyfully.
Abandoned buildings had been demolished, leaving empty lots where stages were built. On one stage, performers took turns showing off their skills.
At the moment, a magician was doing tricks, making a ball disappear and reappear, while children watched, captivated. A small child, amazed by the tricks, excitedly talked to their parents, who were watching alongside them. The parents gently patted their excited child’s head, smiling softly, wondering how the tricks were done.
Despite the bustling festival atmosphere, the cold winter wind strangely didn’t blow. The weather felt more like spring, and people were enjoying themselves in light clothing, their faces lit with happiness.
But there was a group of people standing stiffly, watching the scene with tense expressions.
The festival-goers glanced curiously at these people, wondering why they weren’t enjoying the festivities. When someone who knew the reason quietly explained, they nodded in understanding and moved away.
These were former members of the Self-Defense Forces, who had been captured by demons in a fortress battle. They had returned after a twenty-year gap.
They looked around, stunned and bewildered, struggling to believe in this strange world. They had lost their loved ones, their country, and their purpose.
One of them, a man in his early thirties with an average build and a slightly handsome face, scratched his head and sighed.
“What the hell… Is this some kind of welcome party for us? I can’t believe it.”
“Yeah… Hey, isn’t this a dream? What if we wake up and everything’s back to normal? Right, Manabe?”
The muscular man standing next to him, who had called him Manabe, pinched his cheek with a tense expression. But no matter how hard he pinched, the scene before them didn’t change.
“Suyaki, it looks like we really did time-slip. This is apparently the world twenty years in the future.”
“Were we… really captured by demons?”
Suyaki, unable to believe it, mumbled, and Manabe, feeling the same disbelief, silently agreed.
It had been a few weeks ago. Manabe had woken up to find himself lying in a bed. He saw a white ceiling and thin curtains separating the beds, and he’d felt relieved, thinking, I must be in a hospital.
His last memory was of heading out to take down a monster lizard that had suddenly appeared. They’d joked about it being a few meters long, laughing with their comrades. They thought it was probably just a lost pet that had fallen into a ditch and chatted lightheartedly on their way, thinking it might even make the news, and wondered if they should record it.
And then… and then… Manabe had no memory after that. A nurse noticed he was awake and smiled, saying she was glad he had woken up. He vaguely recalled answering, thinking he must have been in an accident.
Later, a doctor came to check on him, and told him the shocking truth.
The doctor said:
“You were frozen. What’s the last thing you remember? Do you know what year it is now?”
His face expressionless, the doctor asked, and Manabe, feeling uneasy, answered honestly, telling him the year he remembered.
Hearing that, the doctor replied.
He told him about the current year.
A year more than twenty years into the future.
At first, Manabe thought it was a joke. His body was just as it had always been—muscular from his training as a member of the Self-Defense Forces, his hair still black, his skin smooth with no wrinkles. He was far too youthful for someone over twenty years older. He laughed it off, thinking the doctor must be joking.
But in the back of his mind, he understood that doctors don’t joke about such things. He just didn’t want to believe it.
But the reality hit him in the worst possible way. He was taken to the roof, accompanied by a nurse, and when he saw the world outside, he understood.
There were many people on the roof. Some of them were familiar—comrades he remembered from their mission. Others stood, staring blankly at the outside world. In hindsight, Manabe realized the nurses must have been watching to make sure they didn’t try to jump.
That’s how shocking it was. A high wall surrounded the city, and he saw buildings and houses in such a state of decay that it was unimaginable for Tokyo. The most shocking sight, though, was the ruins beyond the wall.
There were probably no people living there anymore. The windows were broken, and the walls of the buildings were blackened, and overgrown with moss and vines. The buildings that still had an intact exteriors were the lucky ones. Some were halfway collapsed, and some houses and stores had burned down or were half-destroyed. There were no proper buildings in sight.
It was like a scene from the apocalypse. The landscape was so bleak and desolate that it brought that word to mind. The brutal reality confronted them, leaving no room for denial.
Everyone understood then that they were in the future. No one cried; they were simply stunned by the grim scene, their hearts heavy with sadness as they looked on.
They later learned that the hospital they were in was located in a place called the Outer District. When they asked what that meant, the nurse, with a pained expression, explained. Manabe would have preferred not to know.
Dungeons had appeared en masse, and Japan had been ravaged by monsters, resulting in countless deaths.
A military coup had occurred in Japan. The nurse explained that the gap between the rich and the poor had been physically divided by a wall—a fact that was hard to believe.
Regardless of whether they believed it or not, they were confined to a barracks and abandoned. The powers that had staged the military coup saw the regular Self-Defense Forces members as a threat.
And so, they ended up in the Amatsugahara Special Zone, the place they now stood. Close to 5,000 people were under the protection of Amatsugahara Corporation, which controlled the zone.
The term special zone was unfamiliar, but they were told that this place was a town built by people who had been abandoned by the wealthy residents of the Inner District.
The town appeared somewhat outdated. No one was playing around on smartphones, nor were they using them to communicate.
It seemed that during the festival, vehicles were banned from the streets, though in reality, most people didn’t own cars except for work purposes. It was said that, in some cases, people even struggled to find enough to eat, and there were rumors of the harsh lives they led. It was a survival-of-the-fittest world, where showing weakness could get you killed or have your possessions stolen.
Manabe had only half-believed the rumors… but now it seemed they were true. The children were overjoyed by simple magic tricks, their eyes sparkling as they gathered around a man performing a kamishibai.
Everyone wore patched clothes, clearly second-hand, but there was no sense of shame. This was clearly a different world from the past. The people, living in poverty, were pouring all their energy into enjoying the festival. They were brimming with vitality, full of hope for the future.
Ironically, it was the people’s happiness, their enjoyment of the festival, that revealed just how dire their lives had been.
“We were freed from the demons, only to be trapped by reality…”
“What’s that? A poet now? But I get what you mean. We’ve got no one left, no place to go.”
“Yeah… We’ve lost everything. Maybe there’s no reason to live anymore…”