Disclaimer: I do not own Magic Knight Rayearth and sadly, regretfully I never will k? Good.
*Now, listen up, this story is definitely written on a whim. I got the idea while doing a project on American Patriotism, I did World War II (1939-1945 this happens to be set in 1942 just after Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese) My friend illustrated the projector transparency thingy for our project and drew the three Magic Knights and Mokona on it (check out some of her other fanart at http://venuscandychild.tripod.com). That sparked something, and I began to wonder. Here is the creation of my questions:*
Torn Between War and DestinyChapter 1 Worlds Apart
She bit on the stale bread and sighed as she felt her stomach cringe, demanding if she was just going to let it sink into nothing. She had wondered before if there was some way that it could collapse upon itself and just be non-existent. Of course, she thought dryly, it's called starvation. Well I'm not going to starve, she looked up through her spoon of cold broth and saw her mother staring absently. She had always been thin, but now she was sickly looking, and the skin below her eyes drooped making her look years older than she was. Those hollow emotionless balls looked back at her daughter as she silently encouraged her to eat. She hadn't heard her mother's sing-song voice since that day…
She forced her mind away from screams and the clanging of army style boots in her mind. She threw it all out of her mind and tried to encourage her mother to eat the same way, without words.
Her mother smiled weakly back and took a bite of the rock-hard bread as her daughter took a bite in turn then set it back down. She seemed to force the food down as she gulped heavily, and she knew her mother was only eating to make sure she did. It was how they had survived the past…what? Three months? No two, three since they had come to this country. The Land of the Free, she scoffed, maybe for Americans, or even other foreigners, but not for her, not for what remained of her family.
She shook that thought away as well as the man pulled her food from her. She reached out for it, but he laughed and took it despite her protests. Where had her voice gone? Did she even remember what it sounded like? How long had it been since she had uttered a word? So long she didn't even remember, so long that she had lost track. Time seemed to move that way in this place, this place that though she could see in color was just like a black and white photograph showing only the dismal points of the camp, but then…there were only dismal places.
America, she laughed now at the idea, "We'll go to America, they'll take us in there. They'll accept us," that's what her father had told them.
Accept them? Sure for the first month it was fine, life was as good as it could be without a father and with a mother that you had to feed she supposed, at least…she didn't think it could get worse. Things always get worse when you take what you have for granted, she learned that the hard way. Then after those seven words her life had rapidly plummeted, "A Day that will live in infamy…"
§§§~~~
"C'mon Hikari," she knelt down and attached the dog's leash to its collar and darted out the door saying a quick goodbye to her brothers as she went.
"Ja ne!" they echoed back, and she laughed and shook her head. She knew that they should be careful using their foreign tongue. She knew it fluently and could speak it well, but they had to be careful in times like these. She pushed those thoughts away and bounded off the street skipping merrily and waving to the neighbors that would be seen with her. She stopped and talked to another girl she had used to attend school with and asked how everything was going, small talk. When she responded fine and said she had to go, darting inside, her spirits were only slightly dampened.
When they reached a nearby park she slipped off the dog's leash and let him run across the field as she laughed at his merry barks.
She heard whispers behind her and cruel words but didn't turn, she was too immune to it all. She had heard it all a dozen times before and had learned to deal with it, as soon as this was over, as soon as this was over…
§§§~~~
"Kuu would you please help me with this?" she puzzled over her schoolwork.
"Not now," her sister hushed her, "I'm studying," she looked over at her sister and was caught up in what she was looking at.
"That's father's map!" she gasped, and her sister hushed her.
"Sh…!"
"We'll get in trouble if he see…" she didn't get to finish because she felt a looming figure over her. She slowly turned, her sister behind her as they saw their father in front of them. She jumped up and bowed, apologizing quickly.
"Gomen nasai!" they both shouted in unison, and to their surprise a smile fell over his face.
"It's okay girls," he led them back to the map, "It's nothing you haven't seen or heard about in school."
"What are all these dots for father?" Kuu asked obviously intrigued.
"Well…" he pointed to one, "This…this is us, Japan, and that," he pointed just across the Pacific Ocean to a small set of islands, "This is America, and this," he moved over to the small continent that she recognized as Europe, "This is Germany, and Italy; they are our allies, and these," his fingers spread to many small countries in Europe and then to other countries around Japan, "Are all the countries that we have conquered. They are all one now, all ours."
"But father," she looked puzzled, "Why would we…"
"Are you questioning are leader?" he demanded, and she shook her head quickly bowing.
"Never father, never would I question our leader."
"Good."
She turned and ran from the room pushing back tears…
§§§~~~
"Pretty Japanese girl why do you look so lost?" one of the American soldiers asked her harshly as she wondered around the camp.
She glared but never spoke a word; she would never give them the pleasure they wanted in mocking her.
"You know what?" one of them demanded angrily, "My fiancée was a nurse in Pearl Harbor. She was killed because you and your kind. I hope you all burn in hell!"
She almost looked sympathetic but then remembered her own losses, and most of all, her own innocence.
"Yeah you feel bad don't you?" he questioned icily, "But I don't want or need your sympathy. There is nothing you can ever do to bring those men and women back."
She wanted to scream at his ignorance, how could she, a girl of sixteen, cause his fiancée harm? Especially when she was a continent away in New York when Pearl Harbor was bombed? How?! She held it back and stalked away.
"Answer me! Say something!" he shouted, but she never turned.
Someone kicked her shins, and she fell to the ground dust and grime settling over her already torn and tattered clothes. She hadn't changed once since she had been packed into a truck and carted off to this camp in no man's land. Her clothes were washed only once a week, and she was one of the lucky ones who didn't have lice. She didn't think she would be able to last if her long gorgeous blue hair was hacked off like all the rest's.
"Answer me before I kill you right here and now, no one would stop me. Just one less of you to go around," he answered her stunned look without needing words.
Suddenly all her hate and anger flew from her mouth in one word, in her native tongue, "Kisama!"
Almost instantaneously he eased back and laughed, "You better learn how to speak English fast because you're on our soil now," he turned and left, and she wanted to shout back at him that she understood English fine, and that she could probably speak it better than he, but held it all in turning and stalking away.
§§§~~~
She lie in her bed wide awake. She might be able to hide it from her brothers, but she hurt. Every comment, every insult, every shying away, it killed her. It was slowly destroying her. She couldn't speak to any of her old friends without them shying away, and she couldn't walk into an American owned store without them shoeing her out. Once, she had tried to proclaim that she was Chinese, but they had demanded proof and when she couldn't provide it they threw her out. America wasn't the warm, loving home she remembered. And worst of all she couldn't decide who to blame it on, the Americans or the Japanese.
She turned and tried to close her eyes but forcing sleep only made it come slower. She groaned, and her dog whined at the end of her bed thumping his tail happily against the thick comforter. At least…she thought smiling slight, at least she still had her family. She closed her eyes as sleep overtook her.
§§§~~~
Half a globe away she was just arising and getting ready for a day at school. She sighed, more talk of war and the ultimate leader. More lectures on how they could never abandon their cause and how much they needed every 'true Japanese citizen' to support the cause. She heard about how the Germans would come to their aid soon, they would help them, send back-up, but until then they would have to fend for themselves.
The Japanese are resourceful, she told herself again, they'll keep it up until the Germans get here, they will. It was more of a guess than a sure thing. She hoped that that guess would become reality though.
She sighed as she pulled on her school uniform and sat on the bed, her head in her hands. She couldn't help but wonder what was going on in America.
§§§~~~
She crawled into the bunk bed she shared with her mother kissing her cheek gently before climbing the wooden steps to the top bunk. She had insisted on taking it without words. Her mother had been so fragile when they came she thought that she might fall off if she attempted the climb, she knew one thing…she didn't want to risk it. Her mother was the only family she had left and though she missed her father terribly she knew that she would die for her mother, just like her father had died for them.
She sighed with those thoughts haunting her still and shut her weary eyes. They were worked hard in the camps; she had spent all day at the fields picking crops that she couldn't eat in fear of being whipped to death. She had one more thought before sleep grabbed her, it was of her home, Japan, the little island that seemed a world away. She would get back there…someday.
*I know I said I wouldn't start this until I finished my
other fic but I couldn't help it! The idea kept popping up into my head so I
had to do it. I'll try not to use too much boring history but a little
might have to be in the next chapter a very little. It's just to add to
the effect, that's all I swear!*