The First Steps

Japan

From the diary of Imperial Princess Piña Co Lada:

"After passing through the boundary known as the "Gate", I saw rows and rows of towers which scraped the sky. At this time, I wondered; what did the men of the Imperial Army who first set foot here think? Did they have any idea of their upcoming fate? Nestled within the valleys between these vast buildings, I realized how small I truly was. The fact that we have declared war on a country that built such magnificent structures makes me worry for the fate of the Empire."

Then again, Ginza would not have things like skyscrapers. If one thought about it, most of the tall buildings one might see would be found in places like Shinjuku or New York.

On the topic of grand structures, Piña and Bozes considered the Imperial Palace, the Senate building, and various other military strongholds to be quite impressive, so to them, even walking down Ginza must have struck them dumb with awe.

Having a tall building among regular buildings would only make the tall building stand out more.

Because of that, from Piña's point of view, a capital city should be planned so that there would be an awe-inspiring structure standing in the middle. However, the city on the other side of the "Gate" was different. All its buildings were massive skyscrapers.

If there were a single giant tree, one might still be at peace when looking at it from underneath. However, a forest of giant trees would inflict an enormous pressure on those beneath it.

Standing there, Piña's and Bozes' hearts were deeply shaken by the sights before them.

Itami, Lelei, Rory and Tuka were led to a waiting room by members of the Diet.

This was where Bozes and Panache parted ways with Itami's group.

Kuribayashi and Tomita followed them onto the microbus, which left from the main gate of the Diet Building, and travelled to a high-class hotel somewhere in Tokyo.

Piña and Bozes were not official envoys, so there was no way to officially invite them into a government building. More importantly, on paper, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister's Office was officially unaware that they were in Japan. They had been invited to Japan by the Defense Ministry under the pretext of being "backup speakers in case the witnesses to the National Diet were unable to give their testimony".

After all, their presence in Japan at this point would cause a lot of problems if it were made public.

Once they gained a chance to open diplomatic negotiations, the military's opinions would obviously carry extra weight.

Diplomatic talks, especially those designed to clear up the aftermath of military conflicts, would absolutely require military power to back up any proposals made. But many people did not know, or who chose to ignore this fact, and thus protested the accumulation of military power.

The Japanese government did not intend to excessively limit the JSDF's activities at this stage, and in order to avoid interference from external powers, they had officially disavowed the existence of Piña and Bozes.

That being said, Piña and Bozes were still VIPs. After all, it would be beneficial to Japan to gain an intermediary for secret negotiations with the Empire, so it was a simple matter to pad the nominal roll of people present in order to accommodate them.

Piña and Bozes were brought to a stateroom in the high-class hotel which was their destination. Two groups of four men and women were waiting for them there.

"We welcome your visit, your Imperial Highness, your Excellency."

The first two were Councillor Shirayuri Reiko, the Prime Minister's aide, as well as Sugawara Kouji from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was there to take notes for the meeting.

In addition, Kuribayashi and Tomita were present, wearing their dress uniforms. Because Lelei, the most proficient with the Special Region's language, was not present, Kuribayashi and Tomita would take her place as interpreters.

Piña and Bozes were understandably nervous. After all, a single mistake could ruin the Empire.

Piña had not come here for talks. She had only agreed to come as an intermediary to facilitate relations between the Empire and Japan. If Japan asked her to speak on the Empire's behalf, that would be a completely different beast from being a middleman. Given that the Empire had suffered multiple crushing defeats on the battlefield, asking her to sign a treaty would be no different from demanding the Empire's surrender.

Because of that, she had to stick to her position of being an intermediary. She was so worried about saying the wrong thing that the sweat beaded visibly on her forehead.

Piña felt that "Diplomacy is a war of words", and right now she regretted not having brought Hamilton along with her.

Similarly, Kuribayashi and Tomita were having a hard time.

The two of them did not have Lelei's analytical and deductive skills or her extensive vocabulary, and although Itami was not a cunning linguist, having him around would have cut out a lot of the trivial details. However, the two of them had to rely on their phrasebooks — as well as the occasional helping hand from Piña and Bozes — in order to somehow push these talks through.

Where could they find the Empire's heads of state, particularly representatives they could communicate with, and what powers and position did these people have?

As for these "representatives they could communicate with", the first choice would obviously be Piña, who made it clear to Japan who they were communicating with. Of course, they would not dump all their requests on her; even being a middleman would be enough. The Japanese government would obviously want to verify that piece of good news.

Next would be the number of people in the first group of envoys.

In negotiations, a single person could not attend meetings and dictate conditions by themselves. These matters would be discussed repeatedly, over long periods of time, with both parties working together to come to a compromise that they could both agree on. This was a long and tiring process, and it only made sense to send multiple people to carry it out.

In addition, they would have to decide how to pay for their envoys' stay in their host country.

This too was natural; after all, diplomatic negotiations would not be finished in a day or two.

The negotiation process might take months, or even years. There was a joke that "Congress does not move, it dances", but it accurately reflected the process of ironing out the conflicts of interest between both parties. The joke referred to the Congress of Vienna, which only reached a decision because of the shocking news of Napoleon's escape from the Island of Elba. In other words, without any pressing threat, the Congress of Vienna would not have reached a decision. From that example, one could imagine that the negotiations would take a very long time, and as a result, the food, lodgings and dress of the envoys, among other expenses, would need to be taken into consideration as well.

At the same time, since she was accepting the position of an intermediary, the question of bribes came up. Only a child would frown at bribes; they were a necessary part of doing business.

However, the bribes in question would also depend on the opposition's position. Both parties might not place the same value on mere currency; therefore an effective bribe would be an offer of an object or service that the other side needed.

In addition, they had to address the matter of how both countries would speak to each other. Piña suggested sending several scholars to learn the Knee Horn language, while Sugawara promised to take her request into consideration. The language barrier had to be conquered in order for effective negotiations to take place, after all.

The final item they discussed was the matter of the prisoners.

The Japanese government had captured roughly 6000 members of the Imperial Army that had crossed through the gate to invade Japan. Because there were a lot of them, it was troublesome to care for them, to say nothing of where to house them. The government built a POW camp on an unmanned island in the Seto Inland Sea, and stuffed the captives in there.

The expense of feeding these prisoners was shockingly high, and while many of the lesser troops had died in the conflict, many of the prisoners were high-ranking officers. As a result, their haughty air made them very difficult to deal with, and they only provided information that an officer might be expected to know. Perhaps their tongues could be loosened up with such delightful measures as hot irons, but there was no practical way such harsh measures would be approved, both for humane reasons, and because they wanted to use them as bargaining chips with the Empire.

As an aside, among these 6000 prisoners were huge beasts such as ogres and other demihumans that the people on this side of the "Gate" might identify as apes. Although they were not sure if they counted as human beings, they could speak, and so they were treated as humans to avoid problems with human-rights violations. In addition, several prisoners had been taken away by the USA in the name of "Investigations by the United Nations".

"Our country has imprisoned them as war criminals, and we hope your nation will seek a way to bring them home."

Piña was struck dumb when she heard the figure of 6000. "Let, let me calculate how much ransom we need to pay," she said. From what she knew, it would be a staggering sum, and the thought of it made her sweat even more.

However, Shirayuri Reiko simply smiled at her answer. "In this day and age, our country does not practice the ransoming of prisoners. After all, we do not trade in slaves. Under these conditions, we would prefer to take our payment in means other than hard currency. For instance, in exchange for the release of your captives, we would expect certain concessions from your country." Shirayuri paused briefly, and then continued.

"In order to give Your Highness some bargaining power as our mediator, we are willing to unconditionally release a select few captives that Your Highness will select. We hope you will make use of these terms to ensure the negotiations go well."

And so, Piña learned how the country of Nihon treated their prisoners, as well as gaining a powerful weapon she could use to negotiate with the nobles of the Senate.

"I have exclusive, reliable news that your son is still alive. If you want him to be released safely, then you'll have to negotiate with them. If need be, we will prepare a meeting place as well."

Which parent would not be moved by this news?

At this moment, Bozes cut in.

"I know it may not be possible now, but I would like to meet some of the prisoners. Could I count on you for that? I would also like a list of the captives' names."

In truth, one of her friends had sent her husband to the battlefield (Ginza).

At first, she had thought he had died in battle, but now there was a sliver of hope she could cling to. However, the news she had now was limited to "Some people might have survived?" If Bozes could give her more concrete information, it would help things. Frankly speaking though, Bozes wanted to run back to the capital and say, "Your husband might still be alive! Chin up!"

Secretary Sugawara answered, "Then, the next time you ladies pay us a visit, we will arrange for you to visit the prisoners in their holding facility. As for the name list, I will complete it and hand it to you before you return to the Empire.

And so, without being recorded in the history books, the first secret talks were thus concluded.