Residence of the US Ambassador to Japan, someday in September 2021, Tokyo, 3:00

It was a cool, uneventful early morning. The US Ambassador to Japan, Francis Woods, was still peacefully sleeping on his bed with his wife. The dark, beige walls of the bedroom were lit only by the small red light emanating from the alarm clock which told the time. However, the peaceful status quo within the room changed when the blinds behind the bed suddenly shone bright, disturbing the solemn, sleepy mood of the room and casting away the darkness on the walls and returning them to their default beige state. Sensitive to light, Francis flinched from the light hitting his face and woke up. Shaking off his drowsiness by rolling his head back and forth, he used his hands to wipe off the last bits of sleepiness in his eyes.

"Crap, it's already this late?"

Getting up, he rushed from the bed to the wardrobe where he picked out a suit that was ironed the other day.

"Hey honey! It's already midday! I gotta skip breakfast and head to the embassy."

While he put on his suit, Francis called out to his wife, who finally awoke and rose from the bed, still sleepy and disoriented.

"Already? I still feel sleepy for some reason."

"Too tired from last night, I presume?"

"Now, now, Frank. It wasn't that fun, I tell you."

"Riiight. Alright, you gotta get up now and-"

As the couple bantered, the ground suddenly started shaking. It wasn't particularly strong to knock a person off their feet but Francis still crouched as he followed protocol.

"Earthquake! Quick Lou, get under the table!"

Having felt the shaking on the bed, his wife, Louisse, immediately left the bed and went under the study table next to the wardrobe before Francis joined her. Following protocol, Francis put his hands on his head to cover them and urged Louisse to do the same. The ground rhythmically shook, causing the switch of the ceiling fan above their room to dangle back and forth and some books to fall from the highest row on the bookshelf. After two harrowing minutes, the shaking subsided before eventually stopping altogether.

"Alright, it's stopped. Quick, we gotta get out of the house."

As Francis emerged from underneath the study table, he helped Louisse up to her feet.

"Keep your hands on your head. Let's go"

With their hands on their heads, they proceeded to walk quickly towards the exit of their house, emerging out onto a patio before the gate. Opening the gate with his one hand, he went out of their house and onto the street followed by his wife. The street was populated with other people who either followed protocol and exited their houses after the shaking or those who were already outside when the shaking began. There was a commotion among those that were outside as some started to realize something strange.

"Should we proceed to the evacuation center?"

"I'm not sure either."

"Shit, have you seen Twitter?"

"What?! I can't access Twitter! Nor Insta! No fucking way!"

As some of them began to check their phones, the commotion rapidly turned into uproar and confusion. Apparently, some of them were panicking after having checked the internet. Some were even calling it the end of the world. Unable to see any authorities in the vicinity, Francis tried to take up responsibility of urging them to safety. Remembering his Japanese, he spoke up.

"Don't worry! It's just an earthquake and not the end of the world! Like all earthquakes, there's the possibility of aftershocks so you must proceed to the evacuation centers! I repeat, you must..."

Seeing that he's being ignored, he stopped for a while to try and gather the guts to shout louder. As doubts continued to pile up in his head about whether his Japanese was faulty, he felt a tug on his suit from behind.

"What is it Lou?"

"Frank... Check the time..."

As she looked at her phone, Lou's face was terrified. Seeing his wife's expression made his heart shudder and sink, knowing fully that his wife wasn't easy to intimidate or scare. Following his wife's order, Francis swivelled his arm up to check the time on his watch.

He believed what his eyes were seeing but he couldn't shake off the terror in his heart after seeing the hands of the clock, which pointed to the time 3:15AM. How? It was as bright as midday. He even felt the heat of the sunlight hitting against his skin. Looking up to check any abnormalities scared him even more.

The sky wasn't blue. It was white. Pure, blinding white.

Feeling his clenched fist subconsciously shaking, he tried to stop it as rummaged his head for explanations and more importantly, solutions. Leaving behind the problem of the sky, he decided to tackle the time problem. Maybe his watch ran out of battery? But then his wife told him to check the time, meaning that she also has the same time. Looking back at his watch, the second hand ticked away, unfazed by the drop of sweat that poured from Francis's forehead onto the glass cover. Wanting to bury his doubts, he asked around.

"Excuse me but what time is it?"

"It's 3:15AM! What's going on?!"

"Excuse me but-"

"It's fucking 3:15AM, white man! You have a watch there, don't you?"

This old man is asking for it...

He thought out loud in his head as he prevented himself from retorting back. It was no use. It was without a doubt 3:15AM, supposedly the middle of the night. Reconciling with himself that he can't explain nor understand it, he hung his head dejected but deep in thought. Just as he walked back to his wife, his phone rang.

"Okay, the cell towers seem to be undamaged."

He remarked as he picked up his phone, which showed the name of his secretary at the Embassy. Accepting the call, he put the phone close to his ear as he heard a young voice.

"Mr. Ambassador! I've been trying to reach you but it seems that I was in a dead area!"

"Colette! Where are you right now?"

"I've just arrived at the embassy, Mr. Ambassador! Is Mrs. Louisse alright?!"

"She's fine. Anyway, what's the call for? I'll head for the embassy right now."

Giving his wife a kiss on the cheek and mouthing the words "gotta go," he rushed back inside the house to grab his keys before entering his car and starting the engine.

"Mr. Ambassador... We've lost communications with CONUS, Guam, Hawaii, and the others. The Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry also just called to ask us whether we could still contact Washington. We told them we no longer could but they refused to comment further when we asked them why they asked."

"Alright. I'll be there in a few minutes!"

Dropping the call from the car's bluetooth, he pondered their situation as he drove down the packed streets.

"What in God's name is going on..."

Yokosuka Naval Base, that same time

With the base awakened due to the earthquake, they were still following earthquake protocols when they began to realize that something was wrong.

"Are you sure you can't contact our forces in Guam?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Sir, the line with the Pentagon is silent too!"

"What?!"

The earthquake wasn't out of the ordinary since they were in Japan after all. However, the blinding, midday-like intensity of sunlight at 3:14AM for more than 10 minutes was nothing short of mysterious. Coupled with the sky turning white, it was a phenomenon they struggled to explain, let alone understand. It wasn't just a local phenomenon too as their bases all over Japan, which they could still communicate with, are witnessing the exact same thing. Before he, Commander of Naval Force Japan, could react, his attention was captured by the commanding presence of someone else in the vicinity.

"Rear Admiral."

"Commodore."

Standing a hand's reach from him was a dashing, well-groomed Northern Irish-Welsh man in his early 30s who also gave an air of showmanship from his posture. The man is Commodore Tommy Lee Griffiths of the Royal Navy's Carrier Strike Group 21. After some concise formalities, Griffiths went straight to the problem at hand.

"I'm here to enquire about the status of your communications."

"We can't contact the Pentagon nor our other bases in the Pacific. We're currently checking with the embassy if they could contact them."

"Then I am afraid we are in the same boat. Our lines with Northwood have completely broken down and not even the Jacks could contact anyone back in the Isles. Checking with the embassy, they also said that they couldn't reach London."

As the commander pondered on what to say, he was interrupted by one of his subordinates.

"Sir! The embassy says they couldn't contact Washington!"

"Then that settles it. We should check the Japs out, see if they have any better luck than us, otherwise, it's all to the pot now."

Agreeing with the Commodore's statement, the commander picked up the phone to contact the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force's headquarters in that base.

150 nautical miles east of Chiba Prefecture, that same time

On a flight bound for Los Angeles International Airport from Narita International Airport, two of the passengers, American siblings who were returning to see their parents, were sound asleep. Sitting next to the opened cabin window, the brother was woken up by the intense light shining on his eyes and face. Groaning from his sleep being rudely cut short, he motioned his arms to shut the blinds when something caught his eye. Moving his head closer to the window to get a better glimpse of the outside world, he sees the supposedly early morning sky eerily drenched in pure white. He couldn't make out any stars, the moon, or any peculiar feature on the blank canvas that stretched out as far as the eye could see. Thinking that he was hallucinating, he went to check with his sister sitting next to him.

"Hey, hey! Wake up!"

"Hnnngh... What?"

The sister groaned as she rolled her head to the other side of her neck pillow.

"C'mon! Check and see if you're also seeing this!"

Weirded out and intrigued by his brother's remark, she opened her eyes to lean towards the window. As she looked outside, she too saw the same thing.

"What the hell? It's all white! I can see the ocean but the sky is white!"

"So it ain't just us huh."

One of the 3 people sitting in the row of seats in front of them remarked as if replying to the siblings.

"Hey, what's going on outside?"

"Why's it like that?"

"Oh God…"

Soon, more and more people woke up and opened their blinds to see the exact same thing. It wasn't just their side of the plane seeing the sight but also the other side. With the blinds all opened up, the darkened cabin of the passenger jet was now lit up by light pouring in from the outside. As the siblings looked out the window trying to make sense of what was going on, their view suddenly tilted downward towards the ocean as the sister felt gravity pulling her towards her brother and the window. It seemed that the plane was making a turn. As the plane turned around, a chime played out within the cabin followed by a voice.

"Dear passengers, this is your captain speaking. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have been instructed to return to Narita International Airport. The fastened seatbelt sign has been turned back on and everyone is instructed to stay in their seats."

Hearing the captain's statements, some of the passengers panicked while the majority stayed on their seats talking and murmuring amongst themselves. As for the siblings, they thought that since the pilots were instructed by air traffic control to return, the phenomenon that they were seeing must not have been limited to only them. Fearing the worst, the siblings could only sit, wait, and pray for theirs and others' safety.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that same time

"...Thank you."

As a staff member ended a call, they immediately turned to inform their higher ups.

"The Chinese Embassy says they've also lost contact with Beijing!"

"The South Korean Embassy says they could no longer raise their government in Seoul!"

"The US Embassy says that their line with Washington is no longer responsive!"

As the endless wave of bad news pours from the monotonous lines of dozens of staff, Agano Kenzo, Minister of Foreign Affairs, runs in after rushing from his home due to the circumstances. Greeting him were staff hurriedly rushing about as more news came in and his secretary, who bowed after approaching him.

"Good morning, Minister."

"Morning. Seems like the bad news has already started pouring in."

He looked around to see staff on telephones talking to their counterparts in other embassies and some of them shouting the same horrifying line: X Embassy has lost contact with their country. Still catching his breath from running, he noticed that his secretary was waiting for him to return to his senses.

"Minister, the Prime Minister has called for all ministers to an emergency meeting."

"Alright. Thank you."

Dismissing his secretary, he sighed deeply as he paused for a moment to quickly contemplate what was happening. While he certainly felt the chaotic scene at the ministry, he dreaded the reports that they will hear and handle at the meeting with the Prime Minister and the other ministers. The emergency meeting meant that the chaotic scene he was witnessing in his ministry wasn't limited only to his own but probably the other ministries as well. If anything, it was probably not a stretch to say that what he was seeing was the state the entirety of Japan is in as of the moment.

"I haven't even eaten yet..."

He sadly murmured to himself, feeling his stomach cry for food as he headed towards the emergency meeting to carry out his duties.