[Intro:]
The First Sino-Japanese war occurred from 1894-1895, between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Era Japan. The war was fought over the annexation of Korea; Japan needed Korea out of Chinese control to boost her own economic success, while China obviously didn't want to lose its territory.
In this story, Tenten is the daughter of General Hao Lan Long, who is leading the Beiyang Army that is marching towards Korea, where Japanese forces have begun to settle. Having learned Japanese in her childhood, Tenten accompanied her father as a translator in case they needed to negotiate with the enemy.
Neji is the nephew of Emperor Meiji's closest advisor, Hyuuga Hiashi. Sergeant Hyuuga Neji is in charge of the 3rd provincial division of the 1st Japanese Army.
While I did steal the general situation from history, I'll be deviating from historical accuracy (my knowledge is only Wikipedia-deep) as we progress. Let me know if anything is too hideously incorrect, or if you do know about the historical war, I'd love to learn about it.
[Chapter 1:]
My mind began to wander as we marched towards Korea. Weary footstep after weary footstep agitated the dust on the ground, covering all the troops with a layer of light brown dirt. My father rode ahead of his soldiers, sitting astride a decorated brown horse.
"Halt!" he called, and I heard sighs of relief all around me. "We'll camp here for tonight."
Tents were unfurled and propped up, and sleeping rolls opened for the night. The clear night sky was speckled with little dots of lights, and the moon stared impassively down at us. I set up my own small tent and lay down, feeling completely exhausted. Darkness coated the campsite as soldiers put out their lamps. My father had ordered that lamps were only to be used if absolutely necessary, because a cluster of lamplight was practically asking the enemy to attack us. I closed my eyes, and fell asleep almost instantly.
Some time later, I woke, though I don't know why. It was completely silent and dark all around me. I sat up, pushing my blankets away. I might as well check on the guards, I thought. When I left my tent, it was as silent and dark as it had been inside the tent, as expected. Wandering towards the edge of our tents, I spotted a single flickering lamplight. I frowned, ready to admonish an idiot soldier. So many of these men were untrained and unthinking, straining against my father's orders, not knowing that they were meant for their own safety. It wasn't until the figure was close enough to see that I froze. Fear and adrenaline shot through my veins, and I pulled out a knife from my boots. The lamplight belonged to a soldier, certainly, but not a Chinese one. I was absolutely certain—this soldier was a Japanese scout.
The scout was looking the other way. If I left him alone to report back, he might leave and take with him vital information about us. If I tried to capture him, I might not be successful—after all, I wasn't a trained soldier. There was only one choice. I got as close to the scout as I could and threw my knife at him. It sank into his back with a soft squish, and he gasped, gurgling as he fell to the ground. Well, that was fairly easy. I rifled through his clothes, searching for anything that might help us. The only things the scout was carrying were a single scroll and some ink. Ditching his body, I headed towards my father's tent to report what I had found.
"Tenten," my father said, looking at me in surprise. Dark smudges of exhaustion rested beneath his eyes, and I knew that his hopes for the war were not very high.
"I found a Japanese scout," I said, holding out a scroll. "I'll translate it for you. It says… 'Urgent, to Sergeant Hyuuga Neji. Chinese forces found located two days march away to the east. The unit numbers about 1,000 men. Further confirmation required, but General Hao likely leading the troops.' This scroll is the only thing the scout was carrying."
My father sighed, looking a lot older than his 40 years of age should allow. "Thank you, Tenten. Though that's not too useful to us, it is good that the scout did not take the information back to his commander. In that case, we'll have to increase the guard to look out for other scouts, or ambushes." He sighed again. "Go back to sleep, Tenten."
I tried to sleep, but the dull thud of the knife as it entered the scout's body kept replaying in my mind…he wasn't the first man I had killed, but it didn't make me any more comfortable. It didn't matter what I felt. I was serving my country, and each Japanese soldier killed was a step closer to victory. I lay awake in my tent until creeping fingers of sunlight emerged, and then I quickly packed my tent for another long day of marching.
It was another easily routine day. Wake, eat watered-down rice porridge, march until noon, eat more watered-down rice porridge (sometimes with a bit of a vegetable), march until the nightfall, eat more watered-down rice porridge, set up camp, sleep. We had been marching from southern China for about two weeks now, and everyone was exhausted. It wasn't as if these men were excited to fight either—each family was required to provide one able-bodied male for the war, and they had barely two weeks to train under Maito Gai before being whipped out to the war front. Sure, Sergeant Maito Gai was one of the best trainers in the country, and one with a good history of military success, but two weeks was too brief for even him to make soldiers out of farm boys.
We were passing through a narrow mountain pass and the sun was nearing the end of its journey for the day when I heard a horrified yell. I looked around, searching for the source—had someone been run over by a carriage? But then I saw the dark figures emerging from the nearby forest, and panic began to flood my mind.
"ENEMY ATTACK!" someone shouted. "Enemy attack! Enemy attack! We've been ambushed!"
The Japanese troops flowed onto us, and the sound of metal against metal filled the air. It was absolute chaos. One of the carriage horses got free and started whinnying, rearing up and crushing people below her. The carriage rolled free, rolling over and killing all in its way.
"Gather together! Fight back to back!" my father yelled fruitlessly, trying to save his troops. "Get into your formations!" His voice was cut off as he blocked a sword swinging towards him. His poor horse, covered in the banners of the Beiyang Army, screamed as someone stabbed her.
I ran. I dodged struggling bodies and stumbled over fallen ones. I slipped on a puddle of blood. Someone—friend or foe, I don't know—struck me against the head and the world went dark.
When I woke up, the sky was light again. The back of my head ached like none other, but I was glad that I managed to be alive at all, so I wasn't complaining. The guards my father had ordered to watch out of ambushes clearly didn't do a very good job, because we had been attacked—and destroyed—by Japanese troops without warning. Though it looked like we took out a fair number of them as well—there were about two Japanese corpses for every three Chinese ones.
I touched the back of my head gingerly, grimacing as my hand came away with some blood. Maybe there were other survivors. I picked up a sword from the ground; whoever it had belonged to certainly didn't need it anymore. Hardening the resolve in my mind, I decided to kill any Japanese survivors there were left in this horrid battlefield. I waded through the bodies, nudging as many as I could to try and get a response.
By the end of the day, I had around 18 survivors, and I had mercifully—or at least that's what I told myself—ended the lives of 9. While I was scavenging for living people, I had also picked up the remains of our medical supplies, which I used to bandage the back of my head.
"Form a line, please. I have our bandages and medicine. I'm not a doctor, but hopeful I can patch you all up so you'll live until you can find one," I said, waving at the few living soldiers we had left. That wasn't quite true, actually. I knew that a solid third of our soldiers must have fled as soon as the sounds of battle began. The dead bodies littering the ground were more heroic than any of those survivors.
"Tenten," a familiar voice said, and I looked up in surprise. I saw a bloodied man with a gaping stab wound to his leg, but if he was still alive it must look worse than it actually was. "Tenten, it's me. Lee." Oh! Lee was so beaten that I couldn't even recognize my own cousin. I felt a wave of relief as I thanked the gods that at least Lee wasn't one of those dead bodies.
"Have you seen my father?" I asked him desperately. "I didn't see him out there…"
"He's dead," the soldier whose leg I was bandaging said. "General Hao is dead."
Much to my surprise, the soldier burst into sobs: weary, defeated sobs. His body shook with the force of his despair. "We're all dead," he continued, "we'll never win this war."
My eyes narrowed in anger. "How can you say that? Even if we are killed, at least we will die with honor! We will have served our country and our people. China needs us, and it is our duty to keep on fighting."
The soldier stared at me with dull eyes. "You are too naïve for this war, little girl. You grew up in a noble family and never felt the bitterness that we did. Do you know why we lost this battle?" I stared at him, taken aback. "We lost because of you! Because of people like you! Our country is so corrupt that majors and generals know nothing else but how to embezzle funds! We have no money for real food as we march to give up our lives because all the money goes to building your houses." The soldier knocked my hand away from him. "China is CORRUPT! You are serving nothing."
I stumbled away, shocked by his words. As I walked numbly away, I looked at all the corpses of the soldiers who had loyally fought to the death, who had loved their countries enough to die for them. I looked at the Chinese uniforms, and I looked at the Japanese uniforms. And then I had an idea.
Hurriedly, not wanting to lose my courage, I went over to the closest uniform with the least blood on it. I stripped it off the dead Japanese soldier, making sure to remember exactly how it was worn. I shook it out, rinsed it as best I could with the water we had (we had rations for a whole platoon, and now everyone was dead, so it wasn't as if I had to conserve it) and hung it up to dry. And then I went to tell Lee about my plans.
"Lee! Lee!" I said, feeling invigorated by my plan. It was an opportunity to act, to free myself from the depression of losing a battle and a father. I don't think it really sank it yet, the fact that my father was dead. That my father, who had raised me to be educated and strong, and taught me how to hold my own in a battle, and how to understand his military strategies, was gone. But if I could do something, get away from this graveyard of war and do something, I wouldn't feel as empty as I did.
"I am feeling much better, my youthful blossom!" Lee chirped, though I could tell he was in a lot of pain. He was propped up against a tree, bandaged leg extended away from his body. "I think we should return to Sergeant Gai as soon as everyone is able to travel. He will know what to do."
"I have an idea, Lee! I'm not really that injured—just a bump on my head—so I'm going to keep on going." I grinned, becoming more and more excited as I worked out how I would get into the Japanese camp. "I'm going to infiltrate the enemy!"
Lee looked confused. "Don't you think they will notice that you don't really speak Japanese?" he asked, frowning. "And that you are in a Chinese military uniform?" Lee paused slightly. "And that you are a woman? Women are not permitted to serve in combatant roles!" he exclaimed suddenly. "We must protect our delicate blossoms!"
I patted him on the head. The stab wound must have made him more delirious than usual, and I hoped it wasn't getting infected. "It's not a problem at all, Lee. I've got everything figured out. You're in charge of getting everyone back to safety, and I guarantee that I'll supply vital information about the enemy's movements."
"May you be forever youthful," Lee said, before promptly passing against the tree he was leaning on. I smiled, knowing that my cousin had stayed conscious through sheer force of will to speak to me. I prayed that he would be safe and healthy upon my return.
Leaving Lee alone, I went to the broken cart where some of our supplies remained. Pulling the Japanese uniform over my limbs, I took the time to consider what I should carry with me. In the end, after carefully tying my hair into a man's hairstyle bun, and smudging some dirt onto my face, I decided to take only some water and dried fruit. It was time to go.