08/17/2040; Naha Military Port, Naha, Okinawa, Japan; 13:44p.m.

Standing on an expanse of aged concrete, spreading across the seawall of what appeared to be the island's main port, Urushibara Kamiko and Amane Suzuha stood together in front of a small cluster of armed troops, comprising a small landing force that had marched off a roped gangway only minutes before. Gathering expected attention from their arrival, several groups of locals stood in various places in the distance, startled by the nearly silent arrival of an unknown force on a small group of naval vessels.

"This is the main island, right?"

"Fairly certain. Naha is the capitol, and we've clearly found a decent port... Plus there's people here."

Eyes wandering around the industrial and commercial surroundings of the city's port, an odd sense of peaceful posterity was realized, with a complete lack of battle damage or debris visible anywhere.

"There's someone... Well, a bunch of people coming, actually. That must be their greeting party."

"They knew we were coming... And no shots were fired. We should be okay."

"Right."

Moving her shoulder back, confirming the presence of her rifle's wooden stock, Kamiko peeked towards Suzuha as she leaned closer.

"That one in the middle... White and green."

"She's leading the group behind her."

"Yep."

"Alright, I've got this."

Moving forward with hesitant footfall, Kamiko took in an uncertain breath, singularly approaching the group ahead.

Commander-turned-ambassador... At least there's far less bullets flying at me these days.

"Greetings, and thank you for providing us clearance to enter your port waters."

Stepping closer, only to slow to a halt again, Kamiko's eyes met those of a particularly short fair-skinned woman, with remarkably lengthy dark hair bound in several large gatherings behind her head. Drawing to a halt a few paces away from Kamiko, the petite woman crossed her arms, and the distinctly lengthy muzzle of an M4A1 carbine shifted into view from behind her hair.

...And she's personally armed. Alright.

Straightening her posture and remaining firm, hearing Suzuha's reserved footfall approaching just behind, Kamiko then eyed the still-silent woman intently, only for her vividly green eyes to meet her own, startling the commander from the piercing gaze.

"We come from Tokyo... The Valkyrian Settlement of Tokyo, rather. We're here for peaceful purposes, to establish diplomatic, um... Mutuality."

Blinking from the unwavering expression of the middle-aged woman standing before them, with a green and white kimono tied together over an old robe, and a mismatched pair of traditional sandals on her feet, Kamiko's lips parted in an attempt at further words, only for the mysteriously compact woman to lean aside. Eying the warships floating in the harbor, her arm then thrust outward in a concise point past them.

"I assume those are yours?"

"Oh, the ships? Yes. They are."

Brow flattening, revealing bushy eyebrows beneath straight-trimmed bangs, the woman's arms then crossed, and Kamiko exhaled with silent relief from the awaited response.

"Now I see where the Navy's vessels have been hiding all this time... At least they weren't sunk."

"N-No, they've thankfully been left alone. SERN did nothing with them during the occupation."

"Still contending with SERN, hm?"

"I, well, we were. But we've since eradicated them from the mainland."

"Ah. I was starting to think you had arrived to ask for our help."

"Well, no, not in a military sense, really. We've got our own resources, as I'm sure you... Can tell."

Speech wavering from the still-furrowed brow meeting her eyes, Kamiko's lips pressed together.

"Then why are you here?"

"My leader... My father, wants to form an alliance with you. Or, everyone on the island, rather."

"Your father?"

"Yes. Hououin Kyouma. Okabe Rintarou. The leader of the Valkyrie rebellion. I'm the daughter of him and Urushibara Ruka."

Hearing a hushed cloud of whispers, from nearby troops and a slowly-growing cluster of civilians alike, Kamiko eyed the older woman firmly, realizing her own revelation had made unseen progress.

"Is that so?"

"It is. And since I'm certain you desire additional confirmation... My father has spoken of being personally acquainted with someone familiar to you. Makise Kurisu, I believe is her name... Is this correct?"

Watching a nearly magical illumination arise upon the petite woman, her expression softened for a moment, allowing an exhale of weakness to leave her lungs.

"...Yes."

Smiling from the continued headway, Kamiko discreetly exhaled.

"I... Hope we haven't inconvenienced you or your population in any manner. We are simply here to reunify Japan as one nation."

"Indeed. You haven't."

"I would like to speak with whoever is in charge of things here... If possible. My purpose is purely ambassadorial."

Eying Kamiko with interest, she then turned about face, and motioned for her to follow with her hand, revealing the full extend of her thickly gathered hair, shrouding the features of the assault rifle comprising a majority of her limited height.

"Come with me."

Exchanging a smile with Suzuha beside her, Kamiko hesitantly stepped into motion, giddy with near-disbelief.

Wow. A name as a code phrase, and it actually worked... Thanks dad!

"Your guards won't be needed... We have the entire island secured."

"Oh, well... Suzuha is my only guard, actually. She's always with me."

"Hmm. Fine."

Thrusting her thumb back towards the cluster of men left behind near the ship, the middle-aged woman peered back over her shoulder.

"What about the rest of them?"

"Oh, they're all soldiers... And crew."

"I see."

"A-Anyway, as we said earlier, we're here to seek an alliance. They're ju-"

"I'm aware."

Exchanging uncertain expressions from the seemingly impatient responses, Kamiko's mouth opened again, deciding to change the subject.

"It... Looks as if you've been faring alright here."

"We have."

"Keeping busy with recovery?"

"No recovery. We've just been keeping SERN and any other uninvited guests out."

"Oh? So have we. Took a bit of doing..."

"I imagine reclaiming Honshu from them was far from easy."

Trading expressions, with many years of combat experienced between both of them, both younger women smiled weakly.

"Eheh, yeah... Securing Tokyo alone was a bit of an effort. Got easier from there."

"Miss, um... I just was curious after earlier."

"Yes?"

"...You knew this Makise person?"

Seeing the short woman's shoulders rise and lower from a sigh, her mane of hair bobbed in a nod.

"Certainly did. She was a good friend of mine long ago... We both attended the same university in America."

"Wait, You were in the states? How did you get out of there when the war started?"

"I was already visiting here in Okinawa when it did, so I just elected not to return. No sense in flying back to a nation in the middle of a war."

"But your friend, and family..."

"My family has lived here for generations, and as for Makise...'

Looking up into the cloudy sky in a moment of reflection, a wistful expression was visible on her features.

"...I don't know what became of her out there in California. Should have brought her with me, honestly."

"I'm sorry."

Peeking aside to Kamiko from her speech, her brow furrowed again.

"Its alright. No need to extend your sorrows for my sake. That whole god-forsaken war and everything afterward has taken so much from Japan alone... But lingering on the past won't do much for the future."

"Yeah, true."

"...And with that being said, since Valkyrie seems intent on rebuilding our nation's future together, I hereby welcome you here to Okinawa."

Stopping and whirling towards the taller women in a startlingly friendly move, she offered both of her hands outward, an unexpectedly confident smirk present on her face.

"Hiyajo, Maho."

Shaking her hands one by one, both of them began their own introductions.

"Urushibara Kamiko. Commander, and ambassador of Valkyrie."

"Amane Suzuha, her bodyguard... Are you in charge around here?"

"Of course I am. Ever since Uncle Sam left behind all this nice military hardware and acres of facilities... Somebody has to take care of things around here."

"Oh."

Snickering from the matched response from both of the younger women, Maho's chin rose.

"Weren't expecting that, clearly."

Whirling back around, with the edges of her Kimono brushing against the visitor's legs, she began marching forward again with renewed energy.

"In case you haven't taken a history lesson in a while, Okinawa was long occupied by the United States military after world war two. For strategic defense purposes, of course. However, when world war three came along and the world was set ablaze, miss America brought all of her troops home, leaving the islands behind for us to have back... Finally."

"I see." American military, huh? That explains the rifle on her back... But, they've been armed and secure all this time? I don't think anybody back home even knew!

Looking towards Suzuha, who seemed to be going through the same whirl of information, their eyebrows rose in tandem.

Well now I see why Okabe sent us here... And to think this little woman runs the place, with a rifle that's almost as big as her... Haha.

Arms crossing, Suzuha's lips pressed together in ongoing contemplation.

I wonder how she did it? Assuming control back whenever everything went down... Then again, that makes one wonder how Okabe and Ruka came to control Valkyrie. That was also a government run operation... Huh. More mysteries about this whole war we've lived through... Guess we'll never really know everything, will we?

"So, the American troops left, and... They left behind all their stuff?"

"Not quite. They took all the vehicles. No boats or aircraft to speak of. Munitions and weaponry were only hurriedly grabbed... Otherwise, they left behind a good amount of things on all of the facilities."

"That's fortunate."

"Agreed. Since that point in the early twenties, we've essentially held Okinawa as our own territory this whole time. There's been occasional attempts at invasion, but we've repelled everything. As far as we could tell, SERN stopped altogether a year and a half ago."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. With you speaking of driving them entirely off of Honshu... I'm starting to believe more and more that SERN's military might is finally being exhausted."

"Taking over the world is costly."

"And essentially impossible. Consider that they've taken over nations that are more or less obliterated and partially uninhabitable. Preying on whatever is left... They may seem big and scary, but they're just as hungry and weak as whoever else exists out there... Just with more useless land to watch over."

"And meanwhile, we've fought them off of an island nation with no surviving government."

"An island nation that happened to secede from NATO in a timely manner. Frankly we've all been rather fortunate on these islands of ours. History has shown that we can operate in fragmented city-states just fine. Especially when there's a unanimous mentality to survive and succeed."

"Hell yes."

"In any case, I can see now that uniting with Valkyrie may prove fortunate. Goodness knows we could share resources and information... Just as long as you aren't attempting to pull some kind of coup takeover."

Eying both younger women with narrowed eyes, only to stick out her tongue, Maho's face curled into a smile.

"Just kidding. None of us are that stupid, hopefully. You've finally disposed of a tyrannical nuisance on our ruined planet. I doubt anyone wants to start new wars among ourselves."

"Yeah. I certainly don't."

"Me neither.

"And yet all three of us have guns on our backs... Security is a hard feeling to attain these days, isn't it?"

Looking around in realization at the clean and undamaged cityscape they had slowly wandered into, both Kamiko and Suzuha exhaled in wonder at the sight that was just barely returning to Tokyo.

"Yes. It looks like you have it here, though."

"We do, and we cherish it. The rest of the world can be ruined... Just as long as we have our own little realm to call our own."

Hands lowering into pockets, both younger women kept pace with Maho's slower short-legged stride, glancing occasionally at the smile that now remained on the leader's face.

Well. I certainly wasn't expecting this... All this time, Okinawa has been practically untouched, and we never had a clue.

Eyes meeting once more, feeling an odd sense of comfort in the foreign world, their closer arms drifted nearer, hands clasping together in the limited space between them.

Should have tried contacting these people sooner... Better late than never I guess.

END.