Pathway to Japanese Literature

**Title: Lunar World Exploration Chronicle**

New Spacecraft

The New Spacecraft for lunar world exploration had now completed all departure preparations.

When speaking of Tsuchiura in Tokyo's suburbs, it was a desolate place with nothing but fields and plains.
There, a barrack factory had been secretly erected three years prior, and within it, this rocket ship had been constructed under great secrecy—now poised to launch from Earth.
This silver giant ship—resembling a torpedo elongated to submarine proportions—lay lengthwise beneath roof beams topped with corrugated iron.
Its head tapered like an artillery shell; at its base, propulsion devices resembling canned goods arranged in a rounded honeycomb pattern were attached in five layers; its tail was adorned with a large rudder bearing three wings.
In the middle of the silver hull, a round window now stood wide open.
But no—it wasn’t a window.
It was an entrance large enough for a person to pass through easily.
Through that entrance, a bright interior could be seen.
Countless pipes for electricity and steam meandered along the walls while the control panel was lined with nearly a hundred instruments—switches, blue and red pilot lamps, vacuum tubes all crammed together in such overwhelming complexity that it made one’s head ache just to look at it.

Susumu Rokkaku, the young communications officer, kept the receiver pressed to his ear while busily moving a pencil across the desk. Then, after finishing his writing, he tore off a sheet of paper with a crisp ripping sound and stood up.
After reading through the message once more, he removed the receiver from his head,

“Captain, Captain.
“...A radio message has come from Wilson Mountain Observatory!”

he said, turning around.

“What? Another radio message from Wilson Mountain Observatory…”

Dr. Hachiya, the captain, stretched out his hand and received the slip of paper that the young Susumu was holding out.
On it was inscribed the following message.

“This is our final warning.
‘In the vicinity of the Sea of Peril,’ we have discovered no anomalies such as those your spacecraft claims to have observed.’
Your spacecraft’s observations are clearly erroneous.
If you depart without heeding our warning, your spacecraft’s actions will be tantamount to suicide.”

“Tantamount to suicide…?”
“When you put it that way… Even though I know our telescope is superior, it still doesn’t sit right with me.”

Dr. Hachiya muttered.

This New Spacecraft had embarked on its renewed lunar expedition under extraordinary resolve for two reasons: first, to trace the disappearance of Susumu’s father Dr. Rokkaku and two others who had launched a rocket ship toward the Moon ten years prior in the summer of Shōwa 11 (1936), determined to finally achieve successful lunar exploration; and second, because the expedition team’s electronic telescope had recently—quite unexpectedly—detected a bizarre anomaly in the "Sea of Peril," located slightly north of the Moon’s equator.
The anomaly was a very small white dot—its true nature still unknown—but in any case, it had suddenly appeared fifty-four days prior and had never been observed before.
The Lunar World was fundamentally considered a dead world devoid of air, where no living beings were believed to inhabit.
Therefore, this small white dot that had appeared in the Sea of Peril cast a trace of doubt upon the theory that the Lunar World was uninhabited.

As a precaution, they had Wilson Mountain Observatory—which possessed the world’s largest 200-inch aperture telescope—investigate the matter.
However, that observatory had replied, "We can’t see anything at all."
And when they learned of our New Spacecraft’s resolve to embark on a lunar expedition, they were greatly alarmed and had repeatedly advised us to refrain from such a reckless act.
Nevertheless, the resolve of Captain Hachiya and his four crew members remained firm, and they did not abandon this expedition.
But if there had not been here the new telescope called the electronic telescope—a rare device in the world—which Miss Midori Amatsu, one of the crew members and a Bachelor of Science, had painstakingly developed, then perhaps they might have abandoned this expedition…
According to Miss Midori’s calculations, her new telescope should have appeared twenty times larger than that of Wilson Mountain Observatory.
Therefore, if there were an object in the Lunar World about the size of a city bus, it would appear as just a single tiny speck through the new telescope…

“I should inform Miss Midori quickly, but where has she gone…”

With that, Dr. Hachiya exited the rocket's midsection and stepped down onto the earthen floor.

“Miss Mii-dori…”

Dr. Hachiya raised his voice and called the woman scientist’s name.
But there was no response anywhere.
His face suddenly clouded with anxiety.

“Where could she have gone?”
“Hey, Susumu! You search too!”

“Miss Mii-dori…”

“What?! Miss Midori isn’t here?”

Young Susumu also came rushing out from the rocket’s midsection.

“Miss Mii-dori…”

The two of them called out Midori’s name in unison as they opened the hut’s door and stepped outside.
Outside was as bright as midday.
The mid-autumn full moon of August 15th now shone radiantly in the midheaven, casting its brilliant light...

“Oh, Miss Midori… Were you here?”
“What in the world happened?”

Dr. Hachiya cried out in alarm when he saw Midori standing despondently outside.

Murder Just Before Departure

Midori, who had been standing like a statue, silently raised her right arm and pointed forward.

“Wh-what...?”

Dr. Hachiya was shocked and looked at the thicket of grass Midori was pointing to.

“Ah!
“…Pilot Hazawa has collapsed!”
“What happened here?”
“Ah…!”

When they rushed to his side, one of the crew members—a pilot—lay collapsed, the chest of his white shirt stained crimson.
Upon examination, he had been killed by a single bullet shot straight through his heart.
Who in the world could have shot him here?

“...Ah, it’s over.”
“All our hard work on the expedition…”

Midori cried out sorrowfully and then, perhaps in despair, crumpled limply onto the ground.
It was a heartrending sight—the way she collapsed in despair.
Midori’s brother was named Hyakutaro Amatsu and had been a rocket pilot who disappeared.
She had planned this expedition to bring solace to the spirit of her brother, who she believed had died harboring resentment.
Yet despite this, Pilot Hazawa had suddenly died just before embarking on their grand journey.
Midori’s grief was pitiful to even contemplate.

“There’s no helping it.”
“This too may be divine will,” the Captain said gently, placing his hand on her shoulder．
“It’s regrettable,but we must call off the expedition this time．”

That was when it happened.
From the street ahead, headlights flared their glaring eyes toward them as it drew closer.

“Ah, someone’s coming this way—”

Young Susumu shouted.

When they saw what approached, it was a low-slung racing car.
Eventually the car stopped before the hut, and from within emerged a man with a sallow complexion who resembled a pilot.

“Ah—Mr. Saruta…!”

The man called Saruta briskly stepped forward before the group,

“Ah, everyone. On the occasion of your departure, I’ve come to offer some farewell words.”

Midori abruptly rose to her feet at that moment.

“Ah, Mr. Saruta. You’ve come at just the right moment. …Won’t you pilot this spacecraft to the Lunar World?”

“Ah, Miss Midori—wait a moment…”

Captain Dr. Hachiya tried to interject.
However, Midori cut him off and shouted again.

“Now, Mr. Saruta.
You’ll go for us, won’t you?
If you don’t pilot for us, we’ll miss this once-in-a-decade perfect opportunity!
Please go.
…You’ve been saying for some time that you wanted to pilot this spacecraft, haven’t you?”

“Yes, Miss.
I’ve made up my mind.
I’ll pilot this spacecraft for you.”

“Now wait a moment.”

As Dr. Hachiya began to speak, Midori—

“…Well, Dr. Hachiya. Surely you aren’t suggesting we wait ten years for me to become an old woman before going to the Lunar World—are you?”

“...”

Dr. Hachiya seemed reluctant for some reason to have Pilot Saruta join the expedition, but Midori, unwilling to let such a rare opportunity slip away, ultimately resolved to ask Pilot Saruta to take Pilot Hazawa’s place.

The spacecraft’s departure finally drew near.
What remained were about ten barrels containing drinking water.
The entire group worked together to carry in this final load.

“All right—everything’s perfectly prepared… Susumu-kun*, please search inside the spacecraft once more.”
“…Just in case there’s a stowaway hiding somewhere—you understand?”

*Retained "-kun" per Rule C (honorific preservation) despite unconventionality in English dialogue

A rigorous interior search of the spacecraft commenced.
They meticulously checked behind the barrels and under the equipment platforms but found no trace of any suspicious stowaways.

“There, no stowaways here!
“It’s all right now.”

Young Susumu shouted.

“Let’s depart. Close the hatch...”

The heavy double hatch shut tight, and the four crew members took their respective stations.
Dr.Hachiya settled into the command post near the rocket’s bow and peered into the television monitor with six projection screens.
Through its mechanism allowing simultaneous viewing of all six directions—front, rear, both sides, above, and below—the spacecraft’s surroundings became clearly discernible without movement.

Shortly after that, Young Susumu secured himself in a leather-strapped seat, guarding the radio transceiver.
To her side, Miss Midori likewise secured herself to a sturdy chair equipped with numerous instruments and computers for observing meteorological conditions necessary for the spacecraft’s navigation and calculating the optimal course to take.

At the very back, replacement pilot Saruta was stationed at the complex control panel.
There, under the captain’s orders, he took on the most critical and demanding role—continually adjusting the rudder, regulating jet thrust to control speed, and fixing issues with air tanks and coolant flow.

“Prepare for departure!”

The captain put the voice tube to his mouth and shouted.

“Departure preparations complete.”

From Pilot Saruta’s station came the reply.

“Course set to Ursa Minor’s Polaris. Commence departure!”

Finally, Captain Hachiya issued the departure order.
When Saruta threw the switch with a thunderous boom, a violent explosion erupted instantly—the hut was pummeled by earth and sand before collapsing.
At that moment, as if floating upward with a smooth whoosh, the craft left behind a vivid blue luminous tail stretching toward the ground below; then the spacecraft soared high into the moonlit sky.

Space Travel

In just five seconds, the New Spacecraft rose to the height of Mount Fuji.

The speed continued to increase, and ten seconds later, it reached the stratosphere.
Outside the window, the sky grew gradually darker even as the moon remained visible.

At that point, the New Spacecraft’s course changed.
Aiming directly at Vega—also known as the Weaver Girl Star—shining straight overhead in the constellation Lyra, it began to climb rapidly higher into the vast sky.

The distance from Earth to the Lunar World was a lengthy 384,400 kilometers—this New Spacecraft had been calculated to traverse it in a mere ten days.

The course had been set toward Vega, and already the third day had arrived.
The surroundings had become a pitch-black world where even black and white were indistinguishable, with only beautiful stars glittering brilliantly, and when one looked back into the distance, the Earth they had left behind now appeared to be at dawn, its massive dome-like spherical edge bathed in sunlight and beginning to shine a beautiful golden crescent.

Captain Hachiya stood at the observation deck, repeatedly measuring the vicinity of the Orion constellation with a sextant, but soon put the instrument down, approached the handrail, and called out to Midori below.

“Say, Miss Midori…”

“Oh? What seems to be the matter?”

Midori slapped the triangle ruler down on the star chart and looked up at the captain’s face.

“It’s just that something feels off.”
“Given that three full days have passed, we should have already covered 120,000 kilometers, yet we’re significantly behind schedule.”
“It’s not reaching full speed like during the initial tests.”
“Surely there’s no mistake in your calculations, I trust?”

“No, the calculations align perfectly across all three methods.”
“There’s no error.”

“No error…”
“…Then there must be some other critical reason for this.”

As he said this, Captain Hachiya crossed his arms and sank into thought.

“You think it’s due to my poor piloting skills, don’t you Captain?”

Pilot Saruta threw up a sarcastic remark from below.

“I don’t believe so.”
“Quiet now…”
“Ah, Susumu—it’s nearly time for water rationing.”
“Go open the fourth barrel in advance.”

Young Susumu left his post by the communication device and descended below.

“No, all three calculation methods align perfectly,”
“There’s no mistake.”

“No mistake,”
“...Then there must be some other critical factor at play.”

Having said this, Captain Hachiya crossed his arms and sank into contemplation.

“You’re blaming this on my incompetent piloting, aren’t you, Captain?”

Pilot Saruta threw a sarcastic remark from below.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “Be silent, you… Alright, Susumu-kun—it’s nearly time to distribute water. Open the fourth barrel and have it ready.”

Young Susumu left his station by the communication device and descended below. No sooner had he slipped into the gaping hole in the floor and vanished from sight than—moments later—a scream tore through the air, followed by a voice urgently summoning everyone.

The Captain restrained the remaining two with a hand gesture and descended alone into the bottom hole with a pistol in hand, but soon—amidst fierce shouts of abuse—he dragged up an unfamiliar young man by the collar.

“A stowaway.... This spacecraft hasn’t been proceeding according to calculations at all because of this man’s presence.”
“Why must you interfere with us?”
“Who exactly are you?”

“Now, now—don’t be angry! Please let me stay! I’m Sasa Hōdan, a newspaper journalist.”
“Having just one extra person like me shouldn’t matter much, should it?”

A heated debate erupted aboard the spacecraft regarding how to handle this unexpected stowaway.
Now that they were 120,000 kilometers from Earth, parachuting him down was impossible.
Doing so would have meant certain death.
The captain declared:

“We either take him along as we are or turn back.”
“If we take him along, our food supplies are insufficient—starting today, there’s no choice but to reduce everyone’s food portions by a quarter each.”

The first to oppose was Pilot Saruta.

“What a bold bastard, stowing away like that.”
“Don’t bother with him.”
“Throw him out immediately.”
“Just the thought of cutting into the one pleasure we have—our food rations—I’m against it.”

With that, he puffed out his cheeks in protest.
Midori opposed the idea of turning back.
The captain finally said:
“Regrettably, there’s no choice but to have this reckless journalist disembark.”
Then Young Susumu, who had been silently thinking all this time, shouted loudly:

“Captain, that’s too cruel!”
“Then I’ll split my food with Uncle Sasa here! So just let him stay like this, okay?”

“As long as my food portion isn’t reduced, I don’t care about the rest.”

Saruta said.

The captain finally granted permission for Sasa the journalist to remain aboard the spacecraft.—Sasa had been trembling in fear over his fate, but saved through Young Susumu’s warm-hearted intervention, he gripped the boy’s hand tightly and thanked him sincerely from his heart.

“You’re my lifesaver… I’ll repay this debt someday without fail,” he said. Then, to no one in particular: “No—the world’s full of people putting on noble airs while doing things crueler than demons...” he murmured words heavy with implication.

Lunar World Landing

In lunar exploration, the greatest challenge was said to be traversing the Zero-Gravity Zone.
This zone marked the point where Earth’s and the Moon’s gravitational pulls were precisely equal in strength—a terrifying band of space where any hesitation or engine failure would leave them suspended between worlds, unable to advance toward the Moon or retreat to Earth, with nothing to do but await starvation.

Captain Hachiya’s skillful command fortunately caused no engine errors and safely navigated them through the perilous zone.
The four crew members—or rather, now five—heaved sighs of relief.

At last, on the twelfth day since departing Earth, the long-awaited time to land on the Lunar World arrived.
Here on the Moon, the lunar surface stretched boundlessly like Earth’s own vast land, and when they turned to look, the Earth glowed a beautiful orange in the distant dark void.

“Well—here we are at last!” Captain Hachiya said, unable to contain his jubilation. “Then let’s make a bold landing on Condorcet towering to the south of the *Sea of Peril*. Everyone—don’t forget to attach oxygen inhalers to your cold-weather gear. …Prepare for landing!”

“Landing preparations complete!”

Pilot Saruta shouted.
He had secured himself so thoroughly there were no gaps, with a pistol holster at his waist, a large pickaxe slung diagonally over his shoulder, and three bottles of liquor concealed in a canvas sack, wearing an expression that declared he’d be the first to set foot on land.

“...Commence landing...”

The spacecraft reduced its speed and, quietly spiraling, descended toward the desolate Lunar World.

“So, Dr. Hachiya,” she said. “What do you intend to do after we land?”

Midori said.

"As planned, I intend to first investigate the white spot captured by your electronic telescope."
"Through our observations en route, we've determined it's actually a large crater."
"Moreover, there appears to be something resembling terrestrial stair formations."
"It might very well be an artificial construct."

"Ah! Could Dr. Rokkaku and my brother have survived and built those stairs?"

“Well…”
The captain nearly asked aloud whether the doctors who had embarked on their expedition ten years prior could still be alive in the Lunar World, but managed to stop himself at the last moment.
“Well, that would be good… if true.”

“I shall accompany you as well.”
“Oh, I’m so happy!”

At that moment, Young Susumu came up from the storage compartment at the bottom of the spacecraft.

“Captain, the food supplies have gotten a bit worrisome.”
“Even if we turn back immediately, we’d still have to reduce rations by about half for the return journey.”
“Especially water is running short.”
“After all, Uncle Sasa the journalist had been hiding in one of the water tanks, you see.”
“Hahaha!”

When he heard this, Pilot Saruta rolled his eyes widely.

The spacecraft gradually descended during that time and finally landed on a pristine white sandy expanse, kicking up a gritty roar of sand.

The one who halted this mercy there was the stowaway Sasa Hōdan.
Despite having come all this way, the captain did not permit him to disembark.
Even he, who bore the brave name Hōdan, had no power to do anything now and could only silently obey the order.

The New Spacecraft’s round, double-layered entrance/exit was opened from the inside for the first time in what felt like ages.
The four members donned their masks and filed out, led by the Captain.

It was unexpected that precisely at that landing site—where sunlight struck at an angle—the temperature proved comparatively high.

When they stepped onto the sandy ground and began walking, their bodies floated weightlessly as if they had grown wings.
This occurred because, unlike on Earth, the gravitational pull in the Lunar World was exceedingly weak.

The group set out toward the white spot visible on the plain called the Sea of Peril.
Not a single drop of water existed on the Moon.
Thus those areas that from Earth had resembled seas revealed themselves upon arrival to be nothing more than plains.
Now among the party, Pilot Saruta alone steadily outpaced the other three and advanced at a ferocious speed.
Midori—unsurprisingly given her gender—couldn’t maintain even half of Saruta’s pace, so the three of them fell behind together, their distance from Saruta swelling rapidly to immensity.

The three of them walked for about thirty minutes, struggling with their unfamiliar masks and the difficult-to-traverse sandy terrain, when they noticed something glittering approaching from ahead.

“Ah! Someone’s coming this way.”
“Could that be a creature of the Lunar World?”

At Young Susumu’s startled words, the group froze in their tracks on the desolate desert sands.

Despair.

“Oh, what nonsense! That’s no creature of the Lunar World—it’s an Earthling! That’s Pilot Mr. Saruta.”

With that, the Captain removed the binoculars from his eyes.

“Well, Mr. Saruta… What could have happened?”

As they continued onward, Pilot Saruta approached from ahead with a broad grin.

“Hey, what happened? Did you make it to the hole with the staircase?”

“Ah, we did go there and back!”
“It’s a marvelous place.”
“I picked up this chunk of gold by the roadside.”
“There’s still plenty lying around, but you can’t possibly collect them all.”
“Go take a look quickly.”

With that, he did not slow his pace but shook his large-masked head and steadily stomped back down the path they had come.

“That man rushed back in such a hurry—what could he possibly be planning? That’s strange, isn’t it?”

Midori anxiously looked back at Saruta’s retreating figure in the distance.

“He means to leave those gold chunks in the spacecraft and come back for more… No—even if he grows that greedy, we won’t let him load up so much.”
“But that man’s shrewd through and through, isn’t he?”
“Ha ha ha!”

The group hurried onward.
After about ten more minutes, they were able to find the greatest objective they had come all the way to this Lunar World to seek.

“Ah! This must be where it appeared as a white dot.”
“Look.”
“Unlike the surrounding sandy terrain, there’s a huge hole gaping open.”
“See? You can spot it clearly.”
“A broad staircase stretches straight down underground.”

“Goodness, this is extraordinary…… Captain Hachiya?”
“That staircase is made entirely of gold.”
“Those fragments Mr. Saruta took were pieces from this very structure.”
“Look—you can see bits scattered all around here.”
“He must have hacked them out… How appalling…”

Young Susumu had long heard that the Lunar World had gold to spare, but seeing it scattered carelessly all around like ordinary Earthly rocks made him feel as though he were dreaming within a dream.

"My joy lies not in the Lunar World's gold, but in the discovery that creatures capable of creating such a staircase once dwelled here."

With that, Captain Hachiya peered beneath the Golden Staircase with keen interest.

That was when it happened.

“Huh? That’s strange…”

And Young Susumu cried out in a shrill voice.
Hachiya and Midori, startled, turned toward the boy.
The two realized that the boy’s complexion had abruptly changed through his cellophane mask.

"Oh, l-look at that!" the boy exclaimed, raising his hand to point ahead.
In the direction he pointed, through the clear, airless space, the majestic form of the New Spacecraft could be seen.
“Someone fired a pistol from inside the spacecraft.”
“The one who was shot just collapsed onto the sandy ground.”
“Who was shot?”

“Oh no—this is terrible!” Midori pressed a hand to her chest. “The person inside the spacecraft was that journalist! It was Mr. Saruta who just returned who got shot—wasn’t it? That journalist’s suspicious anyway—even back at departure time—before sneaking aboard—he might’ve been the one who shot Pilot Hazawa with a pistol!”

And Miss Midori stated clearly.

"Well, this is serious either way."
"Now then, let's hurry over there and take a look."

The captain immediately took the lead and ran off toward the spacecraft.

At that moment, no sooner had a belch of white smoke risen from the tail of the moored New Spacecraft than the vessel suddenly swayed unsteadily, its nose shaking, and in an instant shot up into the sky.

“Gah! This is bad!”
“The spacecraft—it’s moving!”
“This is a crisis…”
“Wa— Wait!”

“Oh no, what should we do…?”

As they were speaking, the spacecraft spewed bluish-white gas as it rapidly ascended higher into the sky and quickly receded into the distance.

The three of them—Captain Hachiya, Midori, and Susumu—rushed over with corpse-like complexions due to the utterly unexpected event, but they were already too late.
All they found at the spot where the spacecraft had been moored was a single masked figure lying fallen, their leg shot by a pistol and stained crimson.

When they helped him up, it turned out to be Reporter Sasa—the one who had been ordered to remain inside the spacecraft.
He had lost consciousness from a severe wound but finally regained his senses and clung to the group.

“Pilot Saruta has boarded the spacecraft alone and fled.”
“At first, Mr. Saruta entered the spacecraft carrying gold bars, but then he said he was going back to retrieve more and told me to come along. After setting me down on the ground first, he seized the moment when I was off guard and shot me with a pistol—*bang!*”
“I can tell you now—he’s a terrible murderer!”
“This was before I snuck into the spacecraft in Tsuzuki Village—I clearly saw and knew that he shot the person standing in front of the hut—Pilot Hazawa—with a pistol and fled in the waiting car.”
“He is truly a dreadful person.”

“Ah, now I understand.”
“Saruta killed Mr. Hazawa because he was determined to join this expedition with his sights set on the Lunar World’s gold.”
“And then he acted completely innocent and offered to join us!”
“Unaware of that, I went and allowed him to join… Oh, what should I do?”
“We can no longer return to Earth.”
“Ah…”

The four of them exchanged glances and fell into deep despair.

They descended the Golden Staircase.

As expected of the captain, Dr. Hachiya steeled his resolve and lifted his head.

“Now then—our inability to return to Earth was something we had resolved ourselves to from the very beginning. There’s no use lamenting it now.”
“Rather than that, now that things have come to this, I think we should do what little remains of the expedition’s work. What do you say?”
“I intend to go down that staircase.”
“Somehow, I can’t shake the feeling there are living beings down there.”
“Now—everyone—let’s keep our spirits up.”

The captain’s words were well understood.
Once resolved to die, there was nothing left to fear.
So the three of them carried the injured Reporter Sasa and headed back toward the Golden Staircase.

And then—what was this?
Even though moments ago there had been no one, on top of the Golden Staircase now stood an unmistakable human-shaped figure—a single entity watching them intently—when suddenly, in clear Japanese,

“Oh! Isn’t that my sister Midori over there?”

Midori was the one who stood shocked.

“……Oh! Brother.
“Oh…”

No sooner had she cried out than she clung tightly to the chest of her brother—Pilot Amatsu—whom she had believed dead.

The moment he grasped the situation, young Susumu grew suddenly excited,

“Uncle! Where’s my father? Please tell me now!”

“Oh… Your father…”

“That is Dr. Rokkaku!”
“I am Susumu Rokkaku!”

“What? Susumu Rokkaku!
“Ah, so that’s how it was.”
“So you’re the Captain’s boy.”
“Well, you’ve managed to come all the way to the Lunar World.”

“Please let me meet my father soon.”
“Where is he?”

“Ah, your father…” Pilot Amatsu’s face clouded slightly. “...The truth is, he has fallen ill here underground.”
“However, were he to see you, there’s no telling how invigorated he would become.”
“Now, let us proceed.”

Amatsu took the lead and began descending the Golden Staircase.
As they descended toward the “underground,” the group heard for the first time about the creatures of the Lunar World and were struck by a sense of wonder.

According to this account, nothing lived on the surface of the Lunar World. For one, there was no air or water; when the sun shone directly, temperatures soared to 120 degrees Celsius, but when night fell, they plunged to -120 degrees instead—such drastic fluctuations made it utterly uninhabitable for living beings. However, it wasn’t that the Lunar World was completely devoid of life. In this world as well, hundreds of millions of creatures were residing after all. They all were living in cave dwellings deep beneath the Moon’s surface. The underground remained warm, with a climate akin to early spring, and there was said to be both air and water there. The lunar creatures were not so different from humans, but their intelligence had not yet developed fully. Thanks to this unexpected lunar underground society, the group was saved from succumbing to the cold.

The only unfortunate thing was the condition of Susumu’s father, Dr. Rokkaku.
Dr. Rokkaku had become terribly weakened due to senility and was in such a state that he could not be moved.

That night, the group spent their time surrounded by curious lunar humans—talking and listening to various stories, and being treated to strange foods.
The group had spent three nights in this manner, distracting themselves from their loneliness.

It was a time equivalent to the morning of the fourth day.
Though in the Lunar World—a strange realm where fourteen days of unbroken daylight were followed by another fourteen days of continuous night—it was in fact always bright.

Anyway, that morning, Kunuya—a lunar resident stationed to keep watch at the Golden Staircase created by Pilot Amatsu—hurriedly rushed to Amatsu’s location.

“Some large, pure-white object is standing upright in the sandy ground!”

Upon hearing about this large white object, Amatsu informed Dr. Hachiya and the others, then hurriedly climbed the stairs. When they ascended, there indeed was a silver panel jutting out from the sand—

“Oh! This is a spacecraft!”

Could it be that the New Spacecraft piloted away by Saruta had crashed here?
The group proceeded to dig this out from the sand with great interest.

“Hmm, this is different.
“It is not the New Spacecraft.”

Dr. Hachiya shook his head from side to side.

“Well, well.”
The sudden shout from the side came from Pilot Amatsu.
“Well, I’m astonished.
“Miracle of miracles!
“The first spacecraft that took to the skies, leaving Captain Rokkaku and me behind on this land.”

Dreadful Miscalculation

“My goodness, how strange!”

“It was precisely the same sort of occurrence as what befell your group.”
“Back then too, there was an avaricious man named Inubushi among our expedition—he crammed the spacecraft full of lunar gold ingots, then abandoned the Captain and me to fly off alone.”
“I’d always believed Inubushi had returned to Earth—this defies comprehension.”
“Let’s inspect the interior—we’ll find answers there.”

With Hachiya, Midori, and Susumu helping force the door open, they examined the inside.
There they found the covetous Inubushi—dead from starvation while embracing gold ingots.

Now, it was the group who were delighted.
Unexpectedly—though it was an older model—they had obtained a spacecraft, and so a glimmer of hope to return to Earth had emerged.
Upon checking, what a stroke of luck it was!
The fuel had been stored in ample quantity.

“Oh God! Thanks to Your grace, we can return to Earth!”

Upon hearing this good news, the group leaped up in joy.
But how this spacecraft had come to fall into the Lunar World remained a complete mystery to them at this time.
The repairs to the spacecraft had been completed within a few days.

Thereupon, the matter of who would board it became an issue.
After much debate, they finally decided—though it was something of a stretch—to exclude the critically ill Dr. Rokkaku and proceed with five others: the New Spacecraft’s crew, now replacing the absconded Pilot Saruta with Midori’s brother Pilot Amatsu, thereby preserving their original composition as they prepared to embark on their return voyage to Earth.
And so it was agreed that Dr. Rokkaku would be retrieved at a later date.

The repaired old spacecraft—carrying some gold ingots as souvenirs—headed toward "Sea of Peril"

Their departure from nearby Condorcet occurred ten days after arriving in the Lunar World.

“We can finally return to Earth!”
Pilot Amatsu’s face beamed with joy.

“Well then, Lunar World—farewell!”

“Goodbye, Lunar World. We’ll visit again.”

Dr. Hachiya, who had indeed taken on the role of captain, stood side by side with Miss Midori at the window and bid farewell to the Lunar World stretching across desolate mountainous terrain.

“Uncle, this time we can return home in triumph, right?”

“Not really, Susumu.”

Sasa and young Susumu had become good friends and were smiling.

“Departure!”

Once the order was given, the craft quietly began to lift off.

“Father! Please stay alive until I bring a good doctor to come get you!”

Young Susumu prayed to the shifting lunar terrain from the window.

The rocket spacecraft’s speed gradually increased.
The engine hummed smoothly within the craft as each crew member worked diligently at their post.
Reporter Sasa had now been assigned the role of food manager and was working busily.

“Oh, Miss Midori—we’ve encountered a rather troublesome issue.”

“Oh, that’s not good, Captain.”
“What’s the matter?”

“This older-model spacecraft consumes fuel quite heavily relative to its speed.”
“If we continue like this, we can travel three hundred thousand kilometers, but according to calculations, we won’t be able to move at all for the remaining eighty thousand kilometers.”
“This means we won’t be able to return to Earth.”
“Ah…”

They had kept their worries between themselves for a while, but by the third day after departure, it became impossible not to make the announcement.

At this disclosure, the group's faces abruptly darkened.
The joyous return journey had suddenly transformed into an anxious voyage.

"What on earth should we do?"
"We leave everything up to you, Captain."

They had resolved to follow all orders according to the Captain's commands.

Thereupon, Dr. Hachiya finally had to make a painful decision.

“Everyone.”
“In this situation, we must ask one of you to disembark from this craft.”
“Therefore, to ensure fairness, we will conduct a lottery.”
“The one who draws the lot with the red mark will become a noble sacrifice, and we must request you to step out from this window.”

The group exchanged glances.

One by one, the lots of fate were drawn.
Midori drew the first lot, and it was white.
Next, her brother Amatsu drew his lot, and it too was white.
The next to draw his lot was young Susumu.

“Ah… It’s red.”
“I’ve decided to disembark.”

The group gasped and looked at the boy’s face.

Reporter Sasa finally resolved to propose dedicating his own life this time to the boy who had previously saved him, but the captain—invoking their initial pledge—refused to consent.
It was a tragic scene.
The anguish of those who remained outweighed the sorrow of those departing by severalfold.

“Well then, everyone—farewell!”

Young Susumu, who detested anything weak-willed, resolutely approached the window and—with a spirited cry—leapt out of the spacecraft.

“I’ll go too.”
“Wait…”

In the blink of an eye, the next to leap out the window was Reporter Sasa—the man who owed his life to young Susumu.
Before even processing what he saw, the Captain swiftly pressed himself against the window and declared with solemn gravity.

“We must honor this noble sacrifice, or we cannot fulfill our duty! Now then—all of you, man your stations and increase speed! This area lies perilously close to the zero-gravity zone. Not a moment’s lapse allowed!”

The Captain’s eyes were filled with welling tears, and he could see nothing.

A Miracle Among Miracles

Would readers believe it if told that young Susumu and Reporter Sasa arrived safely on Earth a full day before the spacecraft commanded by Captain Hachiya?
Indeed, it was a miracle among miracles.
Without hearing why, no one could possibly believe it.
Outside the spacecraft was a desolate expanse of space.
Is there such a thing as one who does not die?

However, for these two fortunate individuals, theirs was an exceedingly rare occurrence.
The place where they had leapt out was precisely the aforementioned zero-gravity zone.
In that space, the body does not fall upward or downward.
They merely drifted through the zero-gravity zone, gently swaying back and forth due to the momentum from being ejected.
Naturally, Reporter Sasa—who had jumped out afterward—caught up to young Susumu.

As the two of them clasped hands and exchanged their final resolve, a colossal ship drifted serenely into view from the side—none other than the New Spacecraft that Pilot Saruta was supposed to have stolen in his escape, a development that defied all expectations.

The two could only think it was a dream as they stared in astonishment.
Why was the New Spacecraft floating idly here in this place?
When they reached it and looked closely, the pipe containing wires connected to the jet gas appeared to have collided with something and been severed.
It was no wonder the jet gas had stopped.
Even so, it must have struck an immensely hard, massive object in space…

Young Susumu suddenly slapped his knee.

“This is how we should think about it—the spacecraft that Inubushi stole initially must have accidentally fallen into this zero-gravity zone and been drifting here.”
“Then—this time—the New Spacecraft piloted by Saruta happened to pass by and unexpectedly collided with a boom.”
“At that moment—the pipe split open—stopped functioning—beginning to drift through this zero-gravity zone.”
“Meanwhile—the older-model spacecraft was flung away by the collision—propelled by that force—probably went crashing down to the Lunar World.”

“That’s really clever,” said Sasa. “All villains meet such ends.”

He nodded in firm agreement.

There, the two pried open the spacecraft’s interior to retrieve tools, repaired and reconnected the pipes and wiring from outside, then piloted the New Spacecraft again to rush back to Earth—but due to its speed, they arrived ahead of Captain Hachiya’s group.

Saruta had committed suicide with a pistol inside the spacecraft.
He must have resigned himself when the instruments stopped working.

Newspapers and radio stations across the nation extensively reported the astonishing miracles of young Susumu and stowaway journalist Sasa Hōdan.
Then mountainous piles of congratulatory telegrams and get-well messages gathered on the desks of the two.
These came not only from Japan but also from far-off Berlin and Rome, as well as London and New York.
That great sympathy transformed into voices insisting that Susumu’s father, Dr. Rokkaku—now ill on the Lunar World—must be rescued without fail.
Given this momentum, the day when a new rescue rocket would launch to save the elderly Dr. Rokkaku likely wasn’t too far off.