THUNDER
As the days grew shorter, the lieutenant grew more impatient. He insisted for Haruna to develop offensive maneuvers with her “magical abilities or whatever,” and supervised her training in an attempt to pressure her to learn faster. Instead, it made her uncomfortable and unable to focus. Eventually, the officers familiar with her convinced Lt. Akiyama to stop his supervision, but not without frustration.
Naoki and Lt. Isobe were there as well. As Lt. Akiyama proposed a couple of maneuvers for the girls to try out, he was met with numerous questions from the girls. Some of them were because they didn’t understand the strategic merits behind certain decisions, but most of the questions were stated because they were naive to the nature of war. Why would the enemy do this? Why would they do that? Wouldn’t intimidation be enough? Why, why, why?
After several days, the lieutenant no longer bothered to explain and cried out, “For heaven’s sake, just try it!” then got frustrated when the girls didn’t properly carry out his instructions. He also got frustrated at their frequent requests to take a break or use the outhouse. He discovered how taxing their magical abilities were to the camp’s rations, and tried to no avail to withhold their share until he had deemed they made some progress. This, of course, did not work. Once they grew hungry, their strength to concentrate their energy quickly dwindled. It worried the soldiers familiar with the two, as they knew their impeccable defense did not exist when Haruna was exhausted.
Just the day before he relieved his supervision, he finally lost it. He began to rant about how women had lower capacity to fight, regardless of their magical abilities, and how they were “higher maintenance” than the men. He didn’t get very far before Lt. Isobe lost his composure as well and interjected. “Enough!” he shouted, to the surprise of the senior lieutenant. “Whether or not they are ‘higher maintenance,’ they are still our girls!” Lt. Akiyama greeted this outcry with a fierce look of disapproval, but did not say a word. He did not threaten or retort his junior, but instead stormed off of the training field back to his quarters. The next day, the group found out he would no longer supervise them when he sent a senior officer instead.
Those few weeks were quite revealing about the lieutenant’s convictions, even to his own men. It was the first time they had seen him fail to grasp a situation and resort to using personal slander. Haruna came to share Naoki’s disgust of the lieutenant and avoided all contact with the men of the new camp, as if they were on the same side of a token with the senior lieutenant. Naoki resumed work around the camp once the trainings eventually halted, though she was notably less outgoing with the new camp members. Because of this, the camp feared that their relation with the girls was irreversibly damaged.
One night, they sat crouched on the roof of their quarters. They had already eaten, and did not do much that day. It was their lowest night in a long time, and sharing each other’s feelings of depression did not make matters any better.
They had joined each other silently. Haruna rocked back and forth on her heels, perched as she usually was. Naoki eventually had to stretch her legs out, grunting a little bit as she moved to stretch her back as well. She sighed, and eventually spoke up.
“You okay?”
“…”
Haruna did not immediately speak up. But her sib knew her thoughts were darting.
“I want to go back,” she eventually murmured.
“… Back where?”
“I don’t know. Before here.”
Naoki sighed. “I feel the same way. Anywhere but here.”
“We’re nothing but tools here.”
“We were always like that.” Her voice was bitter.
“No, Ken cared.” Speaking up, Haruna straightened herself a little and looked at her sib. “Ken stills cares. Isobe still cares. So do some of the people in our old group.”
“I hate it here,” Naoki began to scowl. She was still staring out over the camp, her eyebrows knitted. “We should just run away.”
Haruna observed her face for a moment. “Don’t become like them.”
“… Who? The deserters?” She turned to see a concerned face.
“No. The ones that hate.”
Realizing the sight she was putting, Naoki softened her expression and relaxed her shoulders. “They have killing-hate. That’s a different kind of hate.”
“It’s sad to see any kind of hate.”
“But you had the same feeling as me,” she defended, referring to their thoughts about the short stump.
“Yes, and I was depressed once I realized.”
The shorthaired opened her mouth, but did not speak anymore. She knew she had gone too far once her sib admits to being unhappy out loud.
The lonely mountain wind took over once again. Haruna resumed her previous state, rocking back and forth. Not knowing what else to do, Naoki eased backward to lie on the roof, her hands crossed underneath her head. She stared at the stars, admiring their unwavering light as they levitated above the mountains. What was it like up there, she wondered, to watch over the two girls from their celestial summits. She wondered if they pitied them and lamented on birthing them into such a cruel world. Or if they mocked them as insignificant beings worrying over petty circumstances.
This sublime humbling reached Haruna, and her thoughts began to wander as well. She dreamed about what life was like before she had been taken by the war. What it was like before her parents died, before the orphanage, before the military came for her, before she had met Naoki. Her feelings of the past swelled up until she felt she had to do something about them.
“I want to go back to my homeland.”
Naoki tried to smile. “What’s it like there?”
“It was green and beautiful during the summer. Lots of little green hills.”
“Ah, must be nice.”
“Lots of little trees,” she continued. “And a few big ones.”
Naoki chuckled. “Is that how you learned to climb trees?”
“Well… I think I did imagine climbing them. But my parents didn’t let us climb. And the orphanage too.”
“Mm, that’s a shame.”
“We were little kids.”
“Still. I was lucky that my parents were very relaxed about what we did as long as we weren’t hurting each other.”
“You had plenty of trees, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, we sometimes climbed them. But we never got very high, of course.” She chuckled a little, then sighed. “Too bad the trees are most likely gone though. I heard my hometown was burned down because of the war.”
“Ah…”
Naoki shrugged. “I’ve gotten past it at this point. I lived at the orphanage longer than I did at home.”
“You don’t feel any emptiness for it?”
“I miss the orphanage more, and all the kids there. I feel emptiness for there, as I know it’s gone too.” She paused. “The building… and all the people in it…”
“…”
“I don’t have anywhere to return to, I suppose.” She turned her head away from the stars. “You’re the only family I have now.”
“Don’t forget Ken.”
“Haha. Yes, and Ken too. Mm.” She faced back upwards. “Where else do you want to go after the war?”
“Eh…? Where else?”
“Besides home.”
“I don’t know. Somewhere peaceful?”
“You don’t have anywhere else in mind? Out of all the places we’ve visited?”
“I don’t know. I’m sick of traveling. I just want to go home and stay there.” She thought for a moment. “Or go with Ken, actually. I don’t know if there’s anything left at my home, either.”
“Ah. Well, wherever you go, I’ll go with you.” She smiled under the darkness.
“Thanks, I guess.”
Naoki sat up. “I’m being serious.”
“I know. I just… don’t know how to respond.” Blushing, she ducked her chin under her crossed arms.
“Just a smile is enough for me.” She schooched closer to Haruna and leaned forward to see her face. Haruna couldn’t help but avoid her gaze, but after a while, she forced herself to glance over. Naoki beamed with a giggle, and Haruna eventually breathed out and flashed a modest smile.
The smile quickly left her face, however.
Haruna abruptly straightened. Her long hair eerily raised off her slender body and slowed to levitate unnaturally. Her muscles tensed. Her eyes peaked open wide, but there was no gaze; as if they were distant-looking.
All in a split second. Moments later, the sky exploded, crackling like lightning as it roared throughout the mountains. The camp was illuminated with abnormal, blue light, and the men woke up in a daze. Bits of blue embers showered down like the remains of a firework, pelting the rooftops as if it was raining.
Naoki was startled by the explosion, tensing up well after the thunderous roar shook her. She looked at the cloud in shock, but she knew what it meant, and when she turned back to Haruna, she only confirmed her assumption.