HARMONIZE

By the time classes were over, a small but growing group of students had already gathered at the front gate of Chitoku Academy. Rumors, as they were wont to do, had spread fast, and student after student left their final classes of the day to see just what had happened.

Nothing was visible until they stepped outside the school property. There, on the fine stone wall on either side of the school's wrought iron gate, was what they had been looking for.

Various slogans were scrawled on the stone in what appeared to be red spray paint. Notably, most of the words written were not in hiragana, katakana, or kanji, but rather English. Those who cared to look saw phrases such as “REMEMBER NANJING!” and “WE NEED ARTICLE IX!”

Perhaps most notably, though, the flagpole standing alongside the gate no longer flew the Rising Sun Flag that had been adopted by the current government. In its place was the more traditional Hinomaru, the red circle emblazoned proudly on the white background, along with a second flag, identifiable by at least some in the crowd as bearing the emblem of the United Nations.

Staff milled around, doing its level best to disperse the students, and send them off to their dorms, homes, or club activities, but there was a notable sense of unease in the air...