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1945シリーズ #4
蒼穹のローレライ
戦後十八年目のある日、三上徹雄のもとを病死した旧友・城戸勝平の息子が訪れた。
彼は城戸が亡くなる直前に、三上へ一通の封筒を預かったという。
封を開けると、中には戦死した零戦パイロット・浅群塁に関する内容がしたためられていた……。
―――時は太平洋戦争中期。
ラバウルに向かう途中、三上が乗っていた一式陸攻は敵の攻撃に遭い、不思議な音を響かせて戦う一機の零戦に助けられる。
着任後、命の恩人を捜していた三上は、「ローレライ」という二つ名を持つ、声の出ない、碧い目の搭乗員に出会う。
彼こそが三上たちを救ってくれた、零戦乗りの浅群塁一飛だった。
「敵機を墜として俺も死ぬ」
浅群のその願いを、三上の整備魂は許せなかった―――。
要保護の軍神・浅群塁と、整備に燃える三上の青春の日々。
彼は城戸が亡くなる直前に、三上へ一通の封筒を預かったという。
封を開けると、中には戦死した零戦パイロット・浅群塁に関する内容がしたためられていた……。
―――時は太平洋戦争中期。
ラバウルに向かう途中、三上が乗っていた一式陸攻は敵の攻撃に遭い、不思議な音を響かせて戦う一機の零戦に助けられる。
着任後、命の恩人を捜していた三上は、「ローレライ」という二つ名を持つ、声の出ない、碧い目の搭乗員に出会う。
彼こそが三上たちを救ってくれた、零戦乗りの浅群塁一飛だった。
「敵機を墜として俺も死ぬ」
浅群のその願いを、三上の整備魂は許せなかった―――。
要保護の軍神・浅群塁と、整備に燃える三上の青春の日々。
288 pages, Paperback
First published October 28, 2015
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May 30, 2018
update 2/10/18: i read this for the 2nd time, and despite being incredibly apprehensive about the ending, IT'S SO MUCH BETTER THE SECOND TIME AROUND. i already knew what's going to happen so there was no need to constantly brace myself. albeit how it ended, it's such a beautiful book. it's not just (now officially) my favorite book in the series but one of my favorite books ever. the imagery, the monologues, the realistic character development and growth, the lessons learned, the pain, the hope, the despair, the trust, the betrayals, the truth, the realizations, the regrets... this book is a reflective and emotional journey that keeps me up at night, but one that would stay dear and near to me for as long as i live.
volume 4 of the 1945 series. before i say anything else, WAVING THE DEATH FLAG OF A MAIN CHARACTER HERE. this is not a spoiler because the fucking summary TELLS you this. ogami took my heart, fucking threw it on the ground, and stepped on it. kicked it across the room. got a gun and shot a bullet through it. and fried the damn thing with peanut oil, dipped it in hot sauce, and ate it as a midnight snack. the ending, all of it, was... i cried. hours later, i cried some more. there was a lot of crying.
YOU AIN'T GETTING NO HAPPY. IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE SAD SHIT, THEN GET OUT AND SAVE YOURSELVES.
warning: depressing prologue.
warning: incredibly depressing end.
warning: that fucking last sentence.
warning: you're going to cry like a bitch.
THE ENTIRE STORY AFTER THE PROLOGUE IS BASICALLY A FLASHBACK. after the main story, in the veeery end, it goes back to the same setting as the prologue and continues where it left off.
THE BEGINNING: mikami, a mechanic, is traveling on a plane to his new post in rabaul, with the other passengers, the calm and quiet atmosphere took a drastic turn as mikami hears the loud cry of a "bird". suddenly, the pilot yells out that they are getting attacked by the enemy, and the sounds of guns soon follows after. the captain successfully KOs one enemy plane, but another enemy plane starts to fly towards them, as if avenging his lost comrade. the sound of the "bird" returns and attacks this plane, and as mikami's plane tries to find a detour and escape the war zone, the zero fighter acts as their shield and protects them from further enemy attacks.
mikami learns later that this talented and assertive pilot is nicknamed, "lorelai" (or lorelei) because of how vigorously and unmercilessly he goes after the enemies. my buddy wiki explains that: "lorelai is a feminine water spirit, similar to a siren or mermaid, which is rumored to send sailors to their death, by luring them near cliffs with her beautiful singing voice". the gist - the enemies hears the sound that this pilot is making with his plane, comes after him, and the pilot rushes over to shoot them all. mikami thinks that the reason why his plane makes these mysterious sound is because there's something wrong with his plane. he believes this is dangerous because, despite how talented the pilot is, this could endanger the pilot in the future. pilots are not supposed to draw attention to themselves, but stealthily attack. upon landing at a nearby town, mikami (wanting to return the favor of having his life saved by this stranger) seeks out a way to send a telegram (he ends up bargaining with someone to make this happen) to the rabaul base, hoping that communications would relay to this "lorelai" to have his plane checked.
during mikami's first day on the rabaul base with his new team of fellow mechanics, he sees someone being yelled out by their superior. this person being scolded is "lorelai" otherwise known as the 21 year old asamura rui. rui has this habit of not following the orders of his commanding officers during battle, since the superior is angrily yelling, "it's not about the result (how many kills you can get)... you could have endangered your comrades and yourself!". rui doesn't give two shits and argues with him that he's not going to wait around for an order. if he sees an enemy, he'll get out of battle formation and do whatever he can to shoot as many of them down. he doesn't need anyone, he can kill all the enemies himself. great teamwork attitude you got there, bud.
problem... is that no one is able to hear or understand anything that comes out of rui's mouth. rui has a speaking disability where the sounds that comes out of his mouth ends up being airy and raspy with no comprehensible words coming out. the only person who apparently is able to comprehend the frustrated rui is mikami himself, who always had a good ear. he volunteers to act as "translator" to rui's flying squad in order to alleviate the awkward and chaotic atmosphere. mikami accidentally finds himself translating rui's insulting comments to his superior, and when the boss hears this, ends up punching and beating up mikami as if it was coming from mikami himself. poor guy, but thankfully the bystanders separates the two or else the dude was just gonna continue on with his beat down.
later, mikami meets the leader of the communications division of rabaul, named kido shouhei. kido is known by being a graduate of a prestigious communications specialist school, and for being friendly, loud, and sarcastic. kido informs him that they received his telegram intended for lorelai, which he thinks is absolutely hilarious. unknown to mikami, the people of the base use the name "lorelai" as a derogatory nickname for rui. it's not one of praise. of course, kido mischievously had already relayed the message over to rui, who now holds hatred over mikami.
due to circumstances that was probably manipulated by kido (or even the members of rui's squad who might have possibly felt bad for him getting beat up by their leader), mikami was transferred to work for rui's squad (where as before, he was assigned to work with another group). NOT ONLY was he transferred to rui's group, he was also promoted to a leadership position AND to be solely responsible for fixing and maintaining rui's zero fighter plane.
SO WTF WITH THE SOUND OF LORELAI'S PLANE? read to find out :D but mikami is 100% against this, since this is just asking to be killed. in theory, why rui did this to his plane might sound like a good idea, but REALISTICALLY, all you're doing is telling the enemy where you are at all times.
mikami doesn't realize at first why everyone is okay with rui risking his life like this, but later finds out that all the higher ups really care about is how many kills rui can bring them. if rui dies in the process, oh well. he fought a good battle. mikami doesn't play this game and tells rui that he won't give him the ok to fly the plane until he listens. rui is against this obviously and so mikami ends up doing what he gotta do, for rui's sake. throughout the entire book, there's this going back and forth with mikami doing what he KNOWS is best, rui going to the higher ups and having them force one of the mechanics "fix" his plane, mikami "unfixing" it and getting lectured by his superiors, rui convincing someone to "fix" it again for him, etc...
this cycle goes on forever, and in the mist of this, mikami finds more problems with the plane, and he needs more time to fix them. rui - stubborn, selfish, and refuses to listen to orders - doesn't want to just sit around and wait for his plane to be fixed as the enemy attacks. ignoring the fact that the plane needs more maintenance, he continues to ignore mikami's advice and rides the faulty plane, risking his life.
REASON FOR RUI'S BEHAVIOR: the thing about rui is that he doesn't give a damn about the war. he could care less about fighting. war? fuck war. it's not about attaining glory for the shits and giggles. he's doing it for... read to find out :D
this story is a relationship between a serious mechanic who loves his job, the machines that he fix, and the pilot that he learns more about and eventually falls in love with. unlike the previous volumes, it was nice reading about the team of mechanics, the communication specialist, the ground crew, etc... the non-combat side of war (until you get to rui's pov - then front row seats to a typical zero fighter x grumman dogfight). what makes this hard to read is going through rui's life from beginning to end. seeing him die in such a way. his dying words and the message that he left. and what happens afterwards. it hurts a lot.
overall, breathtakingly beautiful. love the pov changes and the characters' reflections. absolutely amazing and soul-crushing. mikami's and rui's relationship... tears.
READ AND FOREVER WEEP. until next time...
volume 4 of the 1945 series. before i say anything else, WAVING THE DEATH FLAG OF A MAIN CHARACTER HERE. this is not a spoiler because the fucking summary TELLS you this. ogami took my heart, fucking threw it on the ground, and stepped on it. kicked it across the room. got a gun and shot a bullet through it. and fried the damn thing with peanut oil, dipped it in hot sauce, and ate it as a midnight snack. the ending, all of it, was... i cried. hours later, i cried some more. there was a lot of crying.
YOU AIN'T GETTING NO HAPPY. IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE SAD SHIT, THEN GET OUT AND SAVE YOURSELVES.
warning: depressing prologue.
warning: incredibly depressing end.
warning: that fucking last sentence.
warning: you're going to cry like a bitch.
THE ENTIRE STORY AFTER THE PROLOGUE IS BASICALLY A FLASHBACK. after the main story, in the veeery end, it goes back to the same setting as the prologue and continues where it left off.
THE BEGINNING: mikami, a mechanic, is traveling on a plane to his new post in rabaul, with the other passengers, the calm and quiet atmosphere took a drastic turn as mikami hears the loud cry of a "bird". suddenly, the pilot yells out that they are getting attacked by the enemy, and the sounds of guns soon follows after. the captain successfully KOs one enemy plane, but another enemy plane starts to fly towards them, as if avenging his lost comrade. the sound of the "bird" returns and attacks this plane, and as mikami's plane tries to find a detour and escape the war zone, the zero fighter acts as their shield and protects them from further enemy attacks.
mikami learns later that this talented and assertive pilot is nicknamed, "lorelai" (or lorelei) because of how vigorously and unmercilessly he goes after the enemies. my buddy wiki explains that: "lorelai is a feminine water spirit, similar to a siren or mermaid, which is rumored to send sailors to their death, by luring them near cliffs with her beautiful singing voice". the gist - the enemies hears the sound that this pilot is making with his plane, comes after him, and the pilot rushes over to shoot them all. mikami thinks that the reason why his plane makes these mysterious sound is because there's something wrong with his plane. he believes this is dangerous because, despite how talented the pilot is, this could endanger the pilot in the future. pilots are not supposed to draw attention to themselves, but stealthily attack. upon landing at a nearby town, mikami (wanting to return the favor of having his life saved by this stranger) seeks out a way to send a telegram (he ends up bargaining with someone to make this happen) to the rabaul base, hoping that communications would relay to this "lorelai" to have his plane checked.
during mikami's first day on the rabaul base with his new team of fellow mechanics, he sees someone being yelled out by their superior. this person being scolded is "lorelai" otherwise known as the 21 year old asamura rui. rui has this habit of not following the orders of his commanding officers during battle, since the superior is angrily yelling, "it's not about the result (how many kills you can get)... you could have endangered your comrades and yourself!". rui doesn't give two shits and argues with him that he's not going to wait around for an order. if he sees an enemy, he'll get out of battle formation and do whatever he can to shoot as many of them down. he doesn't need anyone, he can kill all the enemies himself. great teamwork attitude you got there, bud.
problem... is that no one is able to hear or understand anything that comes out of rui's mouth. rui has a speaking disability where the sounds that comes out of his mouth ends up being airy and raspy with no comprehensible words coming out. the only person who apparently is able to comprehend the frustrated rui is mikami himself, who always had a good ear. he volunteers to act as "translator" to rui's flying squad in order to alleviate the awkward and chaotic atmosphere. mikami accidentally finds himself translating rui's insulting comments to his superior, and when the boss hears this, ends up punching and beating up mikami as if it was coming from mikami himself. poor guy, but thankfully the bystanders separates the two or else the dude was just gonna continue on with his beat down.
later, mikami meets the leader of the communications division of rabaul, named kido shouhei. kido is known by being a graduate of a prestigious communications specialist school, and for being friendly, loud, and sarcastic. kido informs him that they received his telegram intended for lorelai, which he thinks is absolutely hilarious. unknown to mikami, the people of the base use the name "lorelai" as a derogatory nickname for rui. it's not one of praise. of course, kido mischievously had already relayed the message over to rui, who now holds hatred over mikami.
due to circumstances that was probably manipulated by kido (or even the members of rui's squad who might have possibly felt bad for him getting beat up by their leader), mikami was transferred to work for rui's squad (where as before, he was assigned to work with another group). NOT ONLY was he transferred to rui's group, he was also promoted to a leadership position AND to be solely responsible for fixing and maintaining rui's zero fighter plane.
SO WTF WITH THE SOUND OF LORELAI'S PLANE? read to find out :D but mikami is 100% against this, since this is just asking to be killed. in theory, why rui did this to his plane might sound like a good idea, but REALISTICALLY, all you're doing is telling the enemy where you are at all times.
mikami doesn't realize at first why everyone is okay with rui risking his life like this, but later finds out that all the higher ups really care about is how many kills rui can bring them. if rui dies in the process, oh well. he fought a good battle. mikami doesn't play this game and tells rui that he won't give him the ok to fly the plane until he listens. rui is against this obviously and so mikami ends up doing what he gotta do, for rui's sake. throughout the entire book, there's this going back and forth with mikami doing what he KNOWS is best, rui going to the higher ups and having them force one of the mechanics "fix" his plane, mikami "unfixing" it and getting lectured by his superiors, rui convincing someone to "fix" it again for him, etc...
this cycle goes on forever, and in the mist of this, mikami finds more problems with the plane, and he needs more time to fix them. rui - stubborn, selfish, and refuses to listen to orders - doesn't want to just sit around and wait for his plane to be fixed as the enemy attacks. ignoring the fact that the plane needs more maintenance, he continues to ignore mikami's advice and rides the faulty plane, risking his life.
REASON FOR RUI'S BEHAVIOR: the thing about rui is that he doesn't give a damn about the war. he could care less about fighting. war? fuck war. it's not about attaining glory for the shits and giggles. he's doing it for... read to find out :D
this story is a relationship between a serious mechanic who loves his job, the machines that he fix, and the pilot that he learns more about and eventually falls in love with. unlike the previous volumes, it was nice reading about the team of mechanics, the communication specialist, the ground crew, etc... the non-combat side of war (until you get to rui's pov - then front row seats to a typical zero fighter x grumman dogfight). what makes this hard to read is going through rui's life from beginning to end. seeing him die in such a way. his dying words and the message that he left. and what happens afterwards. it hurts a lot.
overall, breathtakingly beautiful. love the pov changes and the characters' reflections. absolutely amazing and soul-crushing. mikami's and rui's relationship... tears.
READ AND FOREVER WEEP. until next time...
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