The land of the rising sun is so called because its flag resembles the natural phenomenon known as a sunrise. The sun on the flag is red- like the blood in a human body. Some bodies, when viewing a sunrise, feel reborn and inspired to do good. Charles Charles, dead man and bandit, felt neither as he watched the rising sun in a hotel room in the land of the rising sun- despite the newfound heat as radiation rushed through the vacuum of space towards the planet he called home, Charles felt a chill in his soul. Which is understandable, because before the sun which was now rising in the land of the rising sun set the next day, he would stop some one else's sun from rising.
Permanently.
But although the rising sun and all the happiness and radiation it bought was being felt in the land of the rising sun, none of it was being felt in Papen County Airport.
"Simone, if that dog don't stop twitching, the plane's gonna twitch itself right off the ground and we're gonna be twitched out of a flight." Emerson Cod was a private investigator whose plans for a romantic honeymoon in the land of the rising sun were being eclipsed by a dog who was mooning for attention.
"I'm sorry, but we were working on Bubblegum's leaping last night and now he can't stop." Simone Hundin was the star who lead his way.
"Maybe you should try that clicker thing again." Charlotte Charles was bright young star who had been briefly extinguished before she was reignited by…
"Or maybe we should all stop twitching, clicking and leaping because the flight just twitched and clicked and then leapt back another two hours."…Ned, a piemaker whose finger was like the sun- it gave life and could take it away very easily.
As the unlikely travel partners all resigned themselves to two hours with nothing to do, Charles Charles was resigning as well.
"I'm sorry you have to leave us, Mr. Charles. And so soon after starting."
"Me too, Mr. Misaki, but as you know my treatment means I can't get comfortable anywhere before they move me to another hospital." In truth, Charles Charles was worried that, if he set down his rug anywhere for too long, a certain pie maker might come and pull it out from beneath his feet.
The earth had done a half orbit around the sun since Charles Charles had left Papen County and his daughter to boot; and in that time he had drawn more red lines in the atlas than most people do in all their time in the sun. Now, he was running out of places under the sun that he could draw on, but that was not a problem because-
"The blue berets have need of your skills, Mr. Charles."
Charles steps into his hotel room, a man in a blue suit stands there.
"Oh, and what skills would they be?"
"Turning former agents into ex-agents."
"And I suppose the fact that I've been ex myself for the last twenty years doesn't bother you?"
"You wouldn't be the first agent who found need to fake his death, Mr. Charles."
"No, I don't guess I would be. So, who's the lucky body?"
The facts were these: Simone Hundin was the rising star of blue berets, where she moonlighted as an animal trainer, known for her stellar ability to change potential supernovae into obedient little white dwarfs. However, this all went sunny side up when she fell in love with Emerson Cod: her superiors begged her to reverse her decision, but they might as well have asked for the sun and the moon and the stars.
"Ms. Hundin knows too much to be allowed to sun it up here in Japan: we need you to put her lights out."
"She's heading here?"
"She's attending the Nippon Dog show tomorrow. Extinguish her light then."
The Nippon dog show was hailed as a beacon of light shining through the clouds of drab animal shows that orbited the land of the rising sun; Simone Hundin and her loyal Bubblegum had once more been pulled in by its gravity, and the possibility of glowing glory. As they prepared for their moment in the sun, a seemingly inconsequential celestial body approached and asked for one
"Ms. Simone Hundin?"
"Speaking. But not for long, I'm afraid: it's nearly our time."
"Oh, I'd definitely say your time was here."
Simone had been referring to the allotted time at which she would dazzle the spectators, Charles Charles had, unfortunately, been referring, Charles pulls a blade from his sleeve and slashes it across Simone's throat, she clutches her neck and then falls, her blood forming a circle on her white suit similar to the Japanese flag, to her death.
Emerson Cod had been hoping to gaze on star-struck, as his shining star twinkled in the spotlight. But, when his star didn't appear in the night sky, he went to see if the star had been struck.
With stage fright.
"Simone, what's the matter with you, woman? You played bigger crowds than this just walking that damn dog in the park. Simone?"
When Emerson saw that his lover's light was no longer gleaming, he went through a process that can only be described as 'lights out'. Emerson faints.
Having plunged Simone into eternal night, Charles Charles then attempted to slip into a different kind of night altogether. Calling for a helicopter to spirit him away, he ghosted his way up to the roof and there ran into another spirit who he had rather hoped to avoid by the name of
"Charlotte?"
"Dad?"
The father and daughter who had once been as close as helium particles in an infant star now felt as though they were a galaxy apart, and this was largely due to-
Ned walks onto the roof. For a moment, the three stars were as still as the universe before the big bang.
And then things boomed into action.
Charles grabs his knife and holds it against Chuck's throat. Ned runs up but Charles kicks him in the chest, slamming him back.
"Mr. Charles, would you really snuff out your own daughter?"
"If it stops me from going back into the black hole, I'd say so." He softly draws the blade up and down Chuck's throat.
"Dad, please-"
"Now, Button, don't whine- I raised you better than that."
Then, Charlotte Charles' whining was droned out by the whine of helicopter blades.
"Well, that's one flying object I can identify."
A ladder drops down. Ned goes to make a move, but Charles grabs the bottom rung and then throws his daughter at the Pie Maker. They tumble over and Charles, still gripping the ladder, laughs as he starts to fly away.
The Pie Maker's love for a dead woman- his mother- had caused him to end Charles Charles' life the first time. Now his love for the dead woman Chuck was causing him to extend it. Charles pulls a revolver from his pocket and aims at Ned's head. But someone else's love for a dead woman- Bubblegum leaps from out of nowhere, and bites the hand holding onto the ladder; Charles yelps and lets go, plunging down into the cityscape- caused it to end again.
As Charles Charles raced the setting sun towards the ground he realised he should have forgiven the Pie Maker long ago- because one should never let the sun set on anger.
Epilogue
An empty bullet train station is a sight seen not regularly seen. A station containing solely a PI, a dead woman who isn't dead, a dead woman who is dead, a pie maker who can raise the dead and a rat in a cage, is a sight never before witnessed.
The train nears the station. Ned glances at the clock and then touches Simone on the neck. She comes back to life and looks around, confused. Emerson, Chuck and Ned all then run to the train, leaving Simone and the caged rat on the station. The train pulls away.
Simone Hundin had spent a relatively small time out of the sun, but still she the found glare of life disorientating. But once she'd spent a minute dazed, confused and sun struck, the rat drops dead,she would have an entire life time to get back into the limelight.
Simone had been bought back because she made the right friends- it seemed she was born under a lucky star.