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Chapter 100 – Inside the Airship

“Oh, it really does float properly.”

“Reiko, you’ve got some nerve.”

“You too, Kouryuu-sensei. This is your first time in the sky, isn’t it?”

“Same goes for you, right?”

“Not really, since I’ve flown many times in my dreams.”

I whisper like a child right by his ear. In this cramped cabin, if you talk loudly, everyone can hear you.
Yes, right now we’re inside the airship Zeppelin. Just as our conversation says, we’ve just left Kasumigaura and begun ascending.

The passengers from Japan are just me, Kouryuu-sensei, and one more person—a naval officer named Kusaka Ryuunosuke. From my history-nerd knowledge, I’ve got him pegged as the Chief of Staff of Nagumo’s Mobile Unit, which carried out the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. 

Kusaka-san, like us, is looking down at the ground below.

On top of that, all the passengers are gathered here right now. That’s because, aside from the bedrooms, the only place on this ship where passengers can spend time is this narrow room that serves as both a restaurant and lounge, where we are now.
Other than that, there are only ten tiny private rooms with cramped bunk beds.

From front to back, it’s arranged in the order of the cockpit, restaurant, passenger cabins, and shared toilets. Even including the kitchen next to the restaurant, the space is only thirty meters by six meters.
Naturally, everything is quite small.

This whole section is attached to the front lower part of the large hull, almost clinging to it.

On top of that, from what I’ve heard, the crew doesn’t have private rooms—they sleep in beds placed inside the hull. Of course, there’s no dining hall for the crew either. The passenger cabins are also just cramped spaces smaller than a train compartment, with nothing but bunk beds.

It might look like a huge airship, but honestly, it’s easy to see that just staying afloat is already taking all it’s got.

With nothing to do besides flying through the air and watching the monotonous scenery, the only real luxury seems to be the full-course French meals. But honestly, I think I’d get tired of that too.

For the record, if you depart on the 23rd, you arrive in Los Angeles on the West Coast of America on the 26th, then another three days later on the 29th, you reach the East Coast, completing a round-the-world journey.

As for us, mainly because of my selfish request, we’re only going as far as the West Coast. It’s a three-night, four-day flight.

As for the passengers onboard, aside from me, almost all are men. If there are women, they’re the wives of those men.
Naturally, everyone is upper-class bourgeois, the kind of people who ride just so they can brag to others afterward about having flown around the world. 

In short, it’s a rich person’s way of killing time.

As for me, I only wanted to ride because I know this Zeppelin airship is a page in history, so you could say I’m not much different from them.

I knew that Mr. Hearst had invested in this voyage and was on board, but I never imagined we would become closely acquainted.

And during the few days inside the ship, whether we like it or not, we have no choice but to build close relationships with all the passengers.

After all, aside from lying down in an absurdly cramped private room, the only other place to spend time is the single narrow restaurant-slash-lounge. There are just barely enough seats for all the passengers, but for rich people, it’s still a cramped space.

Even I, as a child, feel that way—so the sense of confinement for the adults must be considerable.
Still, during the day, the sky is always visible through the windows, so there’s some distraction. But once the sun sets, it’s pitch black beyond the glass.

I wonder how this airship, drifting along in the sky with its faint light spilling out, looks from the outside.

We take the shortest route, crossing the summer northern Pacific, but we likely won’t see any ships from up here—and in the first place, there aren’t many ships sailing the northern Pacific—so it’s a lonely voyage.

And to ease that feeling of confinement and indescribable solitude, the passengers continue to gather in the cramped lounge, maintaining their pride as bourgeois upper-class people while endlessly engaging in conversation.

In the midst of all that, Kouryuu-senseiu is quite the popular figure.

Several of his innovative new medicines have already become known worldwide, and many people have been saved by them.
In particular, oral rehydration solution—which is easy to produce, and in its simplified form can even be made at home—has spread explosively in a short time. 

When it comes to gastroenteritis, it seems it’s now practically considered a “savior.”

Along with the publication of his papers, patent applications have been filed in various parts of the world, including Europe and America, and the profits from those are already starting to reach Kouryuu-sensei.
In other words, even without any connection to the Ootori family, Kouryuu-sensei alone is joining the ranks of the upper class.

On top of that, he graduated at the top of his class from the most prestigious university in Japan, is related by blood to the Ootori count’s family—an upper-class lineage—and that family itself is one of Japan’s leading zaibatsu.

Someone like that would never be left alone simply because of racial barriers. Rather, the Western upper class would seek to invite such a person into their circle and keep him there.

In fact, several prestigious universities and research institutes in America and Britain have been sending love calls to invite Kouryuu-sensei.

Of course, since the Ootori conglomerate owns pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and even a medical university, there’s no way they would let him go—especially since Kouryuu-sensei is the direct heir of a cadet branch of the Ootori family.

On top of that, even the Japanese government has already begun to move, starting to provide support to Kouryuu-sensei.

Well, given the situation with the University of Tokyo’s medical faculty and such, I’m not expecting much from the Japanese government’s actions, but Ootori himself is fully backing Kouryuu-sensei.

When someone like that suddenly goes overseas to give lectures, it naturally becomes something of a topic—especially in America, where the industry circles are paying particular attention.
Of course, the fact that he’s a Nobel Prize candidate only fuels that interest further.

There’s no one better than him to serve as my cover.

And aboard the airship, I play the role of the troublesome noble-and-zaibatsu daughter who tagged along with her uncle out of selfishness.
In other words, the clown act.

Other than Mr. Hearst, there’s no one here who knows about me. And even if they have heard of me, it would only be as a member of the Ootori conglomerate or the Phoenix Fund—they wouldn’t think a child like me is deeply involved in them.

However, just being a selfish brat would be boring, so while pretending to be the prim-and-proper type forcing herself to act refined, I listened to various stories from fellow passengers.

And since bourgeois people generally love to talk about themselves, they just kept on talking.
All I had to do was nod along and listen.

Since, aside from Mr. Hearst, they all see me as nothing more than an extra child tagging along, they probably think that even if I’m just some little Oriental girl, if I quietly listen to their bragging, they might as well talk to me.
And, rotten as they may be, since they’re still members of the upper class, their conversations sometimes have unexpectedly important information hidden in them.

“Good work, Kouryuu-sensei.”

“O-Oh… I never thought that behaving properly would be this much more exhausting than talking. I guess you really shouldn’t do things you’re not used to.”

When we returned to our private room—small as it was—Kouryuu-sensei started loosening his neck, shoulders, and arms.
I, being a child, had retreated to the room much earlier and was already reading the book I had brought along. 

That said, I was already on my second read-through.
There really was nothing to do.

I felt like grumbling a little, but instead I rummaged through my small handbag and pulled out the thing I had been looking for.

“You’ve only got yourself to blame for saying that. Want candy? It’s a throat lozenge.”

I said this as I shook the drop candy tin, placed a single candy in my palm, and held it out to Kouryuu-sensei.
He promptly took it without hesitation. Honestly, what a shameless person—though probably only with me.

“Oh, that’s a big help. You sure carry handy things around.”

“I had a feeling it might come to this, you know?”

“True, that was careless of me. So, did you get anything worthwhile?”

“From Mr. Hearst, nothing beyond what’s on the surface. As for the others, they just treat me like a child, so it’s all useless bragging stories.”

“Well, I figured as much. We talked a bit, but what about Major Kusaka? He seemed quite the gentleman, with some training in martial arts as well.”

Yes—once Kouryuu-sensei’s background became known, the other passengers started asking to talk with him, so he’s almost always with someone other than me.
That’s why I slip out of the lounge early like this, and before bed, we exchange information.

“Since we could speak in Japanese, we talked quite a bit. Well, I couldn’t say anything careless with other eyes and ears around, though.”

“I’ll just ask to be sure—you didn’t throw him off with some weird story, did you?”

His tone was slightly admonishing. But then again, that’s just how Kouryuu-sensei is—an academic nut, or rather, a bit of a blockhead.

“Ah—well, I don’t know. When I said I liked Navy ships, he seemed pleased. I also told him about when I went to see them at Hashirajima.”

“If it’s that kind of talk, it might be better to bring it up more often. You might not know, Reiko, but military officers don’t have the best reputation in the public eye.”

“Even you care about things like that, Kouryuu-sensei?”

When I said that, he gave me a sharp, narrow-eyed look. With his sanpaku eyes, it was pretty much the same as glaring.

So I resign myself to the fact that I can’t hide anything from him.

“Well, when I mentioned Ootori’s oil fields, related industries, and tanker construction projects, he looked pretty surprised.”

“Is that all?”

His narrow-eyed stare grew sharper.

“I also talked about airplanes, which is his specialty. You know, since I’d been to Kawanishi Aircraft. And then… ah, right, I also told him about the Yagi-Uda antenna.”

“What’s that?”

“A special antenna with excellent directionality. Tohoku University is doing all kinds of research and development on electronic devices, and Ootori is supporting them. I told him that it could be used for military purposes in the future.”

“That’s… not a lie, is it?”

“It’s true. I saw it in a dream. It uses radio wave reflections to detect anything.”

“And you just went on and on about it?”

“Well, since it might also relate to business with us, I mixed in a proper explanation. Then he gave me that wide-eyed look again.”

“Don’t do that kind of thing on your own. Honestly, your mind works on a level beyond normal people.”

“You only think that because I’m a child. When I grow up, I’ll be just an ordinary person.”

“…Hmm. Well, fine. So, can I get changed?”

“Ah—go ahead. I’ll be upstairs under the covers, so do as you like. I’m going to sleep anyway.”

Sharing a room like this for several days, the usually indifferent Kouryuu-sensei has at least become a bit more considerate—that’s a big step forward.
And since I am, at least in appearance, still a child, I let some things slide for him.

Even so, the airship trip has been a disappointment in every way except speed.

Over the Pacific, there’s nothing but sky, clouds, and sea. Truly nothing at all—so boring I could die.
The only sights worth seeing are the sunrise and sunset from above the clouds, but even those get dull by the third time.

If there’s any gain from this, it’s that I was able to once again feel, from the sky, that the Earth is round.

In my previous life, I saw that view from a passenger plane flying in the stratosphere, but the sky was no different then than it is now.

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Kusaka Ryunosuke:
He’s famous as the Chief of Staff of Nagumo’s Mobile Unit, which carried out the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
In actual history, he also crossed over to America aboard the Zeppelin.