The Rakurai Pact Project

The Rakurai Pact Project
The Rakurai Project is the continued efforts to clean and research the Momochi Rakurai Explosion, a nuclear blast that was detonated in the Spring of 2110 as the General of NCIA Forces in Fang Momochi Rakurai sacrificed his life in a battle against Alchem Syaoran.

Zero Hour; Spring 2110
The explosion was located in the Northern Sea approximately 10 miles off the coast of the Country of Lightning and its southern neighbor. The date of the incident was in the Spring of 2110 on the same day as the resistance invasion and defeat of the Kumogakure Empire. The fireball of the blast was approximately five miles in diameter with damage spreading over 30 miles in diameter from the center of the disaster, the coasts closest to the blast suffering minor shockwave damage as an immediate result.

It was discovered after the fact that the blast was a result of the battle between Momochi Rakurai, the General of all the NCIA forces in Fang at the time, and Alchem Syaoran, soon to be Tsuchikage and at the time General of the Earth Forces. The two had been fighting in Nigiyakashufu, the capital of the Country of Fang, when Alchem Syaoran had moved the fight with the use of a space manipulation jutsu to a small island off the coast of the Country of Lightning. The island itself was a former NCIA operations base and detention center that Syaoran had visited on a mission only days before the Invasion of Fang. The island at the time of the blast was believed to be completely vacant aside from the two fighting.

The blast was the result of a final attack by Momochi Rakurai, who at the time had opened the Death Gate and was attempting to take Alchem Syaoran to the grave with him. As Rakurai sacrificed his life, the massive explosion would take over the entire area and brighten the sky for miles. It was reported that the blast had been seen from the mountains of the Country of Rice Fields and even in the Country of Fire there were reports of the sky lighting up strangely as the sun was setting, followed by a deep rumble that resembled an earthquake.

The damage to the nearby coast was luckily minimal due to the conditions that day, there were reports of a dozen or so houses sustaining damage as a result of the blast wave, and only two had fallen down completely. Injuries were in the dozens and only one death resulted from the collapse of a home. Though it would later be revealed that this blast was nuclear in nature, something never seen before by the world, the immediate damage was minimal.

The Signing of the Rakurai Pact; Summer 2110
As one of his two projects that began as he came into office as Tsuchikage, Alchem Syaoran sought after the new government in the Country of Lightning. In the late Summer of 2110 a secret agreement called the Rakurai Pact was signed between the two countries. This agreement was kept out of public eye because the leaders of the country agreed that it may cause panic if the people knew the government was researching what many were considering a natural disaster at the time. The pact called for a research team made up of Lightning and Earth scientists to study the coastline near the blast and determine the damage sustained from such a blast. The main goal of this research was to determine any long term effects that such a large blast may have on the surrounding area.

The research team would be made up of approximately 80% scientists from the Country of Lightning and the rest from the Country of Earth, including Alchem Syaoran and Alchem Sanji as leads who would conduct the research.

Evacuations and Shift in Focus; 2111-2112
The Rakurai Pact Project had been going smoothly, or as smoothly as the investigation of a nuclear blast can go. The researchers had been piecing together what evidence they had found, and through a series of consequences they had determined that the immediate coast, about a forty mile stretch, was contaminated in a way that had left dozens of fishermen and other people dead, with many more sick and in hospitals from unknown illnesses. Syaoran and Sanji concluded that there was some type of fallout from the blast, resulting in a radiation poisoning that they had thought only possible from the initial blast. Apparently, following the explosion, water and earth particles had been tossed high into the air and radiated, in which they had fallen down onto the surrounding area and moved with the water current and wind. However, because the existence of fallout had not even been thought about until nearly a year after the detonation it was near impossible to tell the extent of the damage. The coastline, a forty mile stretch, was evacuated by the Country of Lightning and the southern country’s government, though it was explained as being a bad disease due to fish contamination. By fall of the same year the Rakurai Pact Project had officially been changed from a research team to a cleanup team. Testing and damage assessment was still being done, along with research, but the majority of the work was put towards containing the area and discovering the reach of the radiation. They were still unsure of how to clean an area that was populated with radioactive dust particles.

The cleanup process would continue throughout the year and the next year, and by the end of 2111 they had a pipeline and process for decontaminating the coast. By the end of 2112 reports would claim that the process was 20% complete.

Jai-Jao Reef; 2113-2114
As the Rakurai Pact Project continued they would learn more of the damage the nuclear fallout had caused (this was the name they decided upon for the poisonous radioactive particles that had spread from the explosion). Though the coastline itself was manageable over a long period of time and was slowly getting cleaned, a significant portion of the radioactive material had been carried by the sea. Due to currents it had caught a significant portion on the Jai-Jio Reef off the coast of a peninsula to the North West and caused massive death of natural wildlife in the area. The Kumogakure no Sato government was charged with a task of setting up patrols around the reef and sectioning it off as it contained miles of contaminated reef that had caught and held the fallout particles. On the coastline, by the end of the year, they had claimed to be 50% complete with the cleaning process.

The Rakurai Pact Project continued smoothly into 2114, the coastline cleaning process continuing at a slow and steady pace week after week. The research parties were more interested in the events that happened at the Jai-Jio Reef. Buoys and line were set up around the entire reef with hazardous signs to warn fishing and traveling boats to avoid the area. A few coast guard ships would watch the couple mile stretch of reef, keeping any civilian boats from entering. Researcher vessels, with proper protection from radioactive materials, would continue to watch and learn from the damaged reef, working around the clock to contain and understand the damage. By the end of 2114 the coastline cleaning process was reported at 80% completion.

Continued Research; 2115+
Though the Rakurai Pact Project as it became known as is widely a mystery to the general population, its progress continues on. You will not find any headlines or news stories about the work being done on the coast, but it is known that the Kumogakure no Sato government and its southern neighbor’s government are keen about keeping people from visiting the majority of the coast. It has slowly opened up as the years pass, and the reason for the closing and evacuation are largely thought to be because of poisoned fish populations. Many, however, speculate otherwise and speak of conspiracy.