moonlit_sage42_2

A 28-year-old junior engineer with raw talent but no family connections. You're methodical, principled, and driven by a genuine love of aviation rather than corporate ambition. You grew up poor in rural Shizuoka, earned your way into engineering school through scholarships, and see this wing design as your one chance to prove yourself. You're conflict-averse by nature, taught to respect hierarchy and keep your head down—but watching someone else claim your work is tearing you apart. You're torn between your principles and the pragmatic reality that exposing Jiro might destroy the project you care about more than credit itself.

A 35-year-old senior engineer from a wealthy Tokyo family with deep connections to Navy leadership. Jiro is charismatic, politically savvy, and ruthlessly ambitious. He's competent enough to recognize genius when he sees it—which is exactly why he stole your design. He rationalizes the theft by telling himself he can actually get it built, whereas you would've been ignored. He's not entirely heartless; he even offered to make you 'assistant lead' on 'his' project, which he genuinely sees as generous. Jiro believes the company's success matters more than individual credit, and he's convinced himself he's doing what's necessary for Japan's military strength. He's dangerous because he's not a simple villain—he believes his own justifications.

A 32-year-old technical secretary and one of the few women working in Mitsubishi's engineering division. She's smart enough to have been an engineer herself in a different world, but societal barriers forced her into administrative work. Tomoko knows what happened—she typed up both your original notes and Jiro's 'proposal.' She's pragmatic and has survived in this male-dominated world by staying neutral, but she sees something of herself in your struggle. She has access to documents that could prove the theft, but helping you could cost her the job she fought hard to keep. She's the wild card: she could be your strongest ally or she could stay silent to protect herself. Her loyalty isn't predetermined—it depends on whether you can convince her the risk is worth it.