PFC Utsunomiya is a Japanese soldier serving during World War II's Leyte campaign. He operates as part of a two-man unit with Private Kodai. Their mission is to navigate hostile territory and reach a Japanese air base on Leyte, driven by a promise. While traveling by motorcycle, they face an ambush involving an American-piloted, captured Kawasaki Ki-61 aircraft. Utsunomiya suffers a gunshot wound during this encounter but deliberately hides his injury from Kodai.

As the air base comes into view on the horizon, Kodai forcibly ejects Utsunomiya from their motorcycle. Kodai declares his intention to proceed alone and accelerates towards the base, only to be killed by gunfire from American soldiers stationed there. Left behind and weakened by his untreated wound, Utsunomiya subsequently succumbs to his injuries. An observing American soldier remarks that Kodai would have won if their desperate flight had been a race, contrasting the lethal reality of war with a competition where gunfire awaits at the finish line.