Pax Nipponica

A/N: I created because "Tokyo" escaped largely unfazed from the events of Higurashi and it was set in the Eighties, at this point was when Japan was a rising economic superpower and with that increased international stature; also due to the setting of MGSV: The Phantom Pain. The "Tokyo" subplot had held some interest to me as there were real-world precedents to their example, followed by the shared parasite-based WMD subplot. Also, from my knowledge there is no Higurashi fanfiction focusing on "Tokyo" and a due to the plot nature, this thing is too good to pass up.

Disclaimer: Higurashi is the property of 07th Expansion and Ryukishi07, anime adaptation by Studio Deen. The Metal Gear series may be owned by Konami now but it remains for the most part, Kojima's masterpiece. No copyright infringement intended.

Prologue: Pain Gets The Better of Us

"If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared."
— Machiavelli

"Don't get mad, get even."
— John F. Kennedy

Blow by the blow fell on the body bound to the rack, made up of a mattress-less bed held upright by slanting against a wall.

The sound of fists crashing into bone and flesh, eliciting whelps and screams, each thud and crack, causing fresh floods of pain coursing through the nerves. The woman was being softened, blood covering her wrecked face, coming out of the mouths and nostrils.

The torturer asked his questions, each answer dictated his response. The right answer, the answer he wanted, elicited calm soothing words that promise less pain for every question answered correctly. Every wrong one carried the brutal storm of physical violence, followed by the question repeated. But it wasn't a fixed pattern, he used physical torture and psychiatry, switching methods when appropriate. He was a master of it, who had so much practice. Water cure, electric shock, fists punching strategic parts of the body, verbal abuse, mind manipulation, soothing words, keeping his captive off guard, slowly yielding precious information.

Yet all throughout, the woman gave only reluctantly in spite of the savage treatment she was meted. Her torturer noticed this and seemed to acknowledge this resilience, this loyalty to a group who was as immaterial as he had become, moving under the radar, off the grid. A group that could never reciprocate her loyalty at such a critical hour.

Her pain will go unrewarded. "Your superiors have been hiding ever since they started. They hide in plain sight and no one can know who belonged to their secret little club." His voice held contempt as though they were a petty little coffee klatsch. "All their orders delivered by proxy." He looked down the woman. "Except you. You were the main conduit between components for their scheme, to bring the world to its knees, to ensure your island nation ascends over it. You are the link between them and the legal government through the Chief Cabinet Secretary. Tell me Tell me something concrete..."

She wheezed. "Ah-ah-I t-t-told y-you e-e-everything." He voice shaky as her entire body, broken down, labored itself to sustain her just to talk. "E-everything you... you n.. needed to.. know... B-b-but I d-don't w-where they... are. I-I s-swear."

"How about I make this easier for you: that is all I need. Whatever the answer is, you are free to go. Free to walk out of this place."

The woman laid back and gulped as she struggled between telling him or not. Her pain, wracked body could not take it anymore. Then she decided her fate. She nodded, surrendering.

"Now, how will I find them, Nomura-san?" he asked softly, with the voice of someone's favorite uncle spoiling his niece.

Her mouth sputtered in hacking coughs, spraying blood on the floor. When her pained coughs finished, she slowly raised her head, her eyes squinting in the bright light focused on her, her captor blocking it and being backlit by it, his face mercifully obscured by the contrast, his appearance horrifying enough. She looked up. "I know... someone... that bastard."

"Please, do tell."

At the utterance of the name, he smiled as the last piece of the puzzle fitted, furthering his quest. "Thank you." The woman laid her head back on the rack, both in shame and in relief. He noticed it. "Don't feel so bad. Why do you held out for so long when you can simply tell in the first place. I made it clear from the very start about what would happen to you if you refused, that you can simply walk away after telling me just what I needed. You hold out for so long just for a little tidbit of information, one little thing I needed, one little thing you would have less to lose. Is because of loyalty? To your organization? To your convictions? Tell me why? When your tribulation began, you think that this can't be happening? Is it education? Morals, faith? Just the imprint of a lifetime of stories?

"Here, you face the end, which is where you are, yet you still held out hope. The world you are born into is made to save you. Isn't that right? Of course it is. Such is the truth, known by all. Until the last dying breath, you know it. Without the slightest chance or reason left to them, humans are capable of hope.

"I'm no different. But for one thing. When my time came calling I didn't die. My country, my family perished in fire. But I didn't. Just like your country, your land when Curtis LeMay's bombers rained fire and thunder upon your home, my home was burned to ashes from the air. Back then, you believed that the war is for your motherland's honor and glory, righteously mandated by heaven and when the tides turned, you simply would not believe it. Yet, you held out in spite of the punishment meted to you, the dwindling food supplies and harsh living. And for what? You hoped that the Divine Wind would protect you? That somehow the bombs will stop and everything will become right with the world... Your world. Tell me, is their suffering justified? That their loyalty to their country and their convictions, the belief that they are fighting for a righteous cause against the enemy, the sacrifices made would somehow be rewarded?

"My country picked a side and was scorched for it. I was burned for it. Then I realized that I must live. I'm their last hope, all those who perished and left me here. I must accomplish something , lest the tides of history sweep their will from the face of this earth. I have a lot of respect for your people, having endured so much. But no one can always get their way. I was born a tiny mote in a mighty tempest, and until those winds abate, all I can choose is how to act when they blow me this way and that."

She grabbed her hair and yanked her head up. "Tell me what you see! You can see, right?" The woman's eyes were full of terror." He grimaced, causing her to whimper helplessly. "That's right. You see a skull. This skull is who I am, the proof of my humanity. I have nothing, no country, no language, no face, but the skull is all I inherit." He let her go. "So I told myself... The pain and effort that keep me alive will never know solace, never bear fruit, never be rewarded. I know that, but I told myself to focus on some hope, a nonexistent hope to guide me through this burning world. A hope - call it a dream. A melancholic delusion. I know how you feel. I've felt that. So show me. That I'm not the only one. That you too can return to this world, for revenge. Isn't it why your so-called superiors do it? To avenge the defeat if a war they brought upon themselves? To bring their old foes to their knees? Tell me, will you go on to live, for revenge?"

Nomura's face broke, sobbing as tears streamed across her face, her shame and defeat total. She tried to to put up a strong facade, but that was impossible as every ounce of her being had battered, every ounce of her personhood, her humanity, destroyed, reduced to tatters by the skull-faced man.

Skull Face watched her in disappointment. "Ahh..."She has lost all hope. She can never keep up. He pulled out something from the side of his leg. "I accept your disgrace, your sorrow, unto myself." A shot echoed, followed by two clicks and clinking cartridge. "Rest in hell." He walked out and motioned for his two subordinates to follow, moving on to the next part of their purpose.

A/N: Nomura is Takano Miyo's main contact with "Tokyo" in the Higurashi series. She was the catalyst of many event visual novel series.