An Introduction of sorts

Ankoku no Ki, Part 2: 

Living Key

Chapter 9:

Introduction

1.

            For whoever may read this, I am a narrator without name whose identity will never be expressed explicitly, but may be guessed upon as we delve further into the story of Rachel Edington and her companions. There are facts to be consider however before you read anymore of her story. “What facts?” you may ask, but I wish to do nothing more than relive the past few decades.

            On the day that I am writing this message, my calendar reads: January 27, 2036, a little more than 5 years since Rachel was abducted from her dormitory at The Ohio State University and taken to a top secret wing at Wright Patterson Air Force base. The reasons for her abduction might be questioned, had they not been required under presidential order. Since the signing of the Treaty of Beijing between China and Japan in 2019, the United States’ police power has been acting under questionable authority to secure the interests of their country.

            Then again, the Treaty of Beijing had been a questionable matter to begin with. In one fell swoop, it destroyed the long-standing rivalry between China and Japan and forced their people to forget all past aggressions. Such an action probably would have been welcomed, had not the treaty ushered in a new era that combined the two world powers and created the Republic of the Eastern Union (R.E.U.), which gradually grew to envelop such countries as Mongolia, South Korea, and the ever-controversial North Korea. This new union worked effectively to push the United States out of Eastern Asia, only worsening the effects of the US bull market crash of 2022. As conditions in the United States worsened the military and technological expertise of the R.E.U. began to eclipse the once dominant world power. It seemed as though the R.E.U. would be the new leader of the civilized world.

2.

            As per all good things, the conditions of life in the R.E.U. came under question as a new leader arose and brought the country to its peak at the cost of its citizens’ freedom. The average citizen was overworked, underpaid, and largely without proper nutrition. A rising population had left many people without work and without a place to live. In response to the population issue, the leaders of the state of China within the R.E.U. suggested reinstating the old practice of forced abortions, which passed without opposition. When media coverage of such events reached the United States to make the conditions of American seem better than they actually were, the public cried out in protest and eventually elected a man in 2024 whom saw the benefit of trashing the R.E.U.’s policies and sending unwanted aide to Asia. When the aide was met with resistance from the Eastern Union’s military, innocent people were slaughtered by soldiers and the anti-U.S. propaganda turned the Union’s citizens against U.S.

            Eventually the growing hatred turned to violence in 2027, when a series of elementary schools were bombed in southern California by Union radicals who wanted to instill fear in everyone stateside. The POTUS used this action to get preach to Congress and declare war. The president was reelected easily and in 2029 U.S. bombers devastated the P.E.U.’s capitol of Beijing. This action only worked to intensify the hatred between both sides until finally the Union’s military invaded California only a week after Rachel’s escape from Ohio, making the U.S. the main battleground for what appeared to be the start of World War III. 

3.

            As has been already told from Rachel’s story so far, a section of the military believed that the answer to the conflict was to make the United States an unstoppable power through the use of the Tree of Darkness (Ankoku no Ki in Japanese)--an ancient tree that Japanese legend named as a barrier between life and death, good and evil. Legend places the tree somewhere in Japan, but only viewable by its guardian, whose true name has been lost to time.

“What exactly would the U.S. military want such a barrier for?” Well, that question shall be answered in time. Until then, the facts shall build with the tension until all minds crash with realization of what are the truths and what are the lies of this book of grotesques.

Fate drives me.

~Alex