7/10/2012
Just When

Chapter 4: So much for FORTified: Part II

A/N: Hello all! Hope you enjoy the chapter! I'm not entirely sure where this is going after the end of this chapter….might have to start diverging from the WWII storyline. :3 Now, on with the plot!

"Sir, there's a catch."
"What catch is that Corporal?"
"Catch 22, sir."
-Either Mew and Mewtwo, or those guys from Catch 22. It was a pretty hazy night.

NOT DISTRACTING SUPER DUPER FANTASTIC LINE BREAK

"Move her inside!"

The ground shook, but I couldn't see why…..

I felt myself being dragged over to debris-strewn ground, wondering where I was.

Then it hit me. The fort we were taking. I had gotten stabbed…..and I blacked out after that. I tried to look over to see who was dragging me, but the stab wound in my side prevented me. A tuft of orange hair made it across my field of vision, and in my dazed state, it took me a second to recognize the face.

"Minegishi! What….what the hell is going on?"

I tried to maintain a strong voice, but I failed terribly. God DAMN does that hurt.

"They're mounting a counter-attack! There's a huge force coming from the south! Misao seemed happy about it though…..eh, in any case, we're retreating into the fort, we'll hold them off from there."

I coughed, before realizing she was dragging me into a bunker on the outer edge of the fort. My leg jarred off of the ruined doorway, shocking me awake from the last dregs of my unfortunate nap. She pulled me up to a table and in a single motion, heaved me up and deposited me on the table. It was right next to a small window facing the south side of the forest.

Oh man, that is a LOT of Chinamen. Ayano handed me my rifle, which I just set down on the table, not being up to the task of firing it.

"I'll be right back, I have to coordinate the defense. Tsukasa will be coming in here soon; she's gonna set up shop right here."

Ayano scurried up a ladder in the corner, before running off to do whatever, so I was left to wallow in pain and self-pity.

I didn't really mind the pain by this time, it was a dull throb compared to what it had been whenever it actually happened. The feeling that we might all die and that I let my team down is what really got to me. That was the worst feeling ever, so I sat up with a grunt, ignoring my protesting side and slid off the table, wobbly standing up.

I heard gunfire right outside the bunker, and even heard it pinging off the heavy iron door at the end of the room. I grabbed my LMG off of the table, and lay down underneath the table. I lined up my sights with the only entrance to the room, as the walls were too high to be climbed, even in their damaged state, and therefore I did not need to worry about the roof.

The gunfire continued, a melodic orchestra of death.

Suddenly, a huge explosion shook the ground, knocking some loose stones out of the walls around me, while I waited.

The gunfire was dramatically reduced, but there was a new sound, close by, almost right above. It was a sharp crack, and only occurred every few seconds. In an instant, it was joined by more of the same sharp cracks, and the machine gun fire dropped to even lower levels. A few minutes later, and the gunfire ceased in its entirety, but not after one small concussion wave, though I couldn't figure out what it was.

Still no sign of Tsukasa though….I wonder where she is?

A/N: It's more fun from more perspectives! May or may not be a recurring thing, lets see how it goes.

_TH_

"Riflemen up here, line the wall! No Chinamen are going to make it past this point! Misao, you too! Get up here! Squads Two and Three, go farther down the wall, towards the tower! Kuroi, up here, next to me!"

Wiping the sweat out of my face, I was seated on the roof of a bunker defending the remains of the fort we took about an hour ago. My twin sister Kagami, yeah she got stabbed in the side by some guy we missed at first. I didn't miss him again. His face was a really nice target though…..

We thought it was all said and done, but about half an hour ago, our watchman, Konata, spotted a whole force of Chinamen coming through the forest as quietly as they could. As soon as she spotted them, I sent our Explosives Specialist, Misao, down the side of the hill to lay some traps. Of the explodey kind, anyways.

She put down all of the explosives she had in one huge pile, covered it in some foliage and dirt, and laid a wire all the way back up the hill so she could detonate it when needed.

After sis went down, I was scared, and everyone kind of looked to me for instruction, which was an entirely new experience for me. I was trying the best I could, and I think I was doing pretty well. No one had complained yet, anyways.

In the darkness, we could see them start to approach the hill. They seemed to melt out of the trees, and we would have been none the wiser if Kona-chan hadn't seen one of them put out a cigar in the forest. I had seen the embers through my scope, and followed the shapes through the forest from time to time.

Miyuki-chan was waiting in the back with Sebastian and Akira Kogami, laying out medical kits ad scavenging first aid stuff from the fort, readying for our skirmish.

Konata was still crouched in the guard tower on the south-east side, tracking them. We had set up a fire in the corner of the fort to provide light where the moonlight didn't shine. The stubby barrel of her rifle stuck out when the light of the fire played across it.

Now I heard my old History teacher, Ms. Kuroi, come up the ladder on the outside of the bunker, crawled beside me, and set her rifle next to mine. Hers was near identical to mine, besides the barrel length and the scope. My rifle had a longer barrel, so as to cause all of the propellant from the bullet to be used, and prevent muzzle flash. I was also issued a scope, because I was seen to be very accurate, making me the unofficial sniper of the group, until they could scrounge up a better weapon. I liked it just fine, but if it was insisted upon, I wouldn't argue.

I was seated nearest to the hole that the bombers had blown open on their run. On the opposite side of the hole, Hiyori, Minami, and Ayano were all laying down, spaced about a meter apart, as the wall had been partially damaged, and there was to good cover if they were sitting.

Misao was sitting on the ground inside the fort, her back against the wall, and the detonation wire in her hands. She looked up to me, gave her toothy smile, and I gave her a nod back. She stood up silently and leaned around the corner of the wall to look at the approaching enemy. She sat back down, but started to count on her fingers.

The enemy opened fire on us. We started firing right back.

Looking down the hill, I took aim at the first enemy, unable to see any features, just seeing the glint of his eyes, and pulling the trigger. The rifle jumped in my hands, and I pulled the bolt back, readying the next round. Through my scope, I watched a few more Chinamen go down, but spotted one that was spraying a machine gun all around. He needed to be taken out immediately.

I spoke too soon; as I tried to steady my rifle, Kuroi's rifle went off and he went down like a sack of dead Chinaman. The constant cracks of our rifles were thinning down the enemy, but not enough. I looked down at Misao, who had just finished counting.

She pulled the cord, a smile unlike anything I've ever seen reaching across her face.

The explosion itself was deafening, but the effects of it were simply astounding. Almost the whole force was caught up in the blast, and the mostly unarmored enemy was torn asunder like leaves in a forest fire. In the moonlight, their gunshots turned to screams of pain from those unlucky enough to have survived the explosion. A swift ratatatata sound started and surprised me a bit, but I realized it to be Konata's rifle, tearing through the remaining Chinamen. I put a couple rifle rounds in them as well, but Misao wasn't done yet.

Out of the corner of my eye from where I was sitting, I saw her throw something a short distance down the hill. A few seconds later, it exploded.

It had obviously been a hand grenade, and it ripped through the remaining enemy with its shrapnel, making a lasting sound like a reverberating gong.

An uneasy silence crept over us, unsure on what to do.

I slid over to the ladder and climbed down to the ground, going inside the bunker to check on my sister.

When I went in, I couldn't see her. It was almost pitch-black inside, but I heard her sigh of relief.

"Sis? Where are you?"

Her voice came out strained and weak, but from underneath a table, none the less.

I bent down to look at her, not really surprised to see her gun aimed at the door.

"Always prepared for the worst, huh, sis? Don't worry about it, we got rid of the rest of the enemy and we're starting to relax."

"Don't."

That single word caught me by surprise, making me look back to sis, who was still laying in the same place, her gun still on the open door.

"What did you say sis?"

"Don't. Relax. Just when you think it's over, something, anything, will happen, and that's how I got stabbed, and that's how good soldiers end up dead."

Her voice was hard and cold, like she had eaten an iceberg while she had been unconscious. I guess it's true, war changes people…..

_KH_

"Now will you help me up? I don't want to put pressure on my wound…."

Tsukasa obligingly helped me out from underneath the table and let me lean on her so I could stand. She grabbed my rifle out from underneath as well, and handed it back to me, but not before switching the safety on.

Always looking out for each other…..yeah. I need to work on that…

She helped me walk out of the bunker under my own power, and I was surprised to see that not only was nobody else injured, but everyone seemed to be pretty okay with the whole "kill a ton of people" thing.

I personally didn't have a problem with it myself, and I knew Tamura was a bit of a sick one herself, and Konata viewed it as a game, but to listen to Minami quietly recount to everyone about how she got one of them after they had been playing dead was just odd to listen to.

Everyone gave a little cheer when I walked out of the bunker who could see me, including Miyuki, who had apparently gone down the hill with those two from the radio show to check that all of the enemy was dead, and to take whatever useful things they could.

How Miyuki managed to shake my hand while carrying guns and ammo, I'll never know.

But I did have to ask…..

"Er, Miyuki-chan, what did you pour on that stab? It hurt a lot…."

I was following her back to where they were dumping these "supplies" but she just turned to look at me.

"I'm sorry Kagami-san, I didn't pour anything into your wound. I simply bound it up with a bandage and gave you a sedative to put you out for a bit….."

I pulled up my uniform. Yup, that's a bandage covered in blood. Wonderful.

I thanked her and headed off to check on everyone else. Izumi Wakase and Patricia Martin were up in the guard tower with Konata, though Konata ad fallen asleep, using her bag as a pillow. I respected Wakase's wishes and did not wake her up, but relayed the message that I wanted everyone down in the main (intact) building at 0700. I bid them goodnight before climbing back down.

I assigned three 2-hour watch groups to the members of Squad Three. The rest of Squads Three and Two that I did not know their names set up shop in what appeared to have been the barracks. With almost everyone asleep except the watch, Tamura, and myself, I went up to the roof of the bunker I had been in during the battle.

There I found Tsukasa, sleeping against the wall, her rifle a short distance away. I left her there, not wanting to wake her up, just gazing across the expanses of forest.

You know, when nobody is trying to kill you, this place looks really nice.

In the moonlight, I could see Tamura waving at me from the opposite wall, gesturing for me to join her.

I pinched my nose and climbed back down, really starting to feel the pain from the stab wound.

I climbed up to the opposite wall, thankful there was a staircase, before joining Tamura next to the bottom of the guard tower.

"Hiya Hiiragi, how's your side?"

She was wiping her glasses off on Ayano's shirt, as she was fast asleep. I struggled not to laugh, because for some reason I found that hilarious. A twig snapped off in the distance, reverberating until it reached our ears.

"The sedative Miyuki gave me is starting to wear off. Sleeping is gonna be a living hell, and she's already asleep….so….."

Hiyori nodded, and I could of sworn she was blushing.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to bother the goddess of moe, amirite?"

…."What did you say?"

She blanched, but not before recovering rather quickly.

"Eh never mind never mind! Just an inside joke, I though Kona-chan would have told you! Ehehehehe….yeah…"

O…kay. She's really blushing hard now. Wait. Does she….? No, of course not. She's weird, but not that weird, right?

I looked away, trying to find anything else to look at. I looked at Ayano, who had one eye open.

Oh god, she heard that whole thing, didn't she? Plan B, Plan B!

"So Tamura-san, why did you wipe your glasses on Minegishi' shirt?"

She shrugged, and I kept looking at Ayano, whose eyes got narrow.

"Oh you know, it had some blood and something, maybe someone's brains on them and I didn't want it to clog up my-"

WHACK

Somehow, Ayano was standing now, and Hiyori had a large red mark on her face, and I was laughing my ass off.

"YOU DID WHAT!"

Ayano looked about ready to kill Tamura, but I had fallen over, and the laughing was making my side hurt, maybe more than it did at first. Owies, but this is too good to miss! Must…retain….consciousness…

Shit. FOILED AGAIN.

A/N: My my, Kagami really needs to learn to not rip open wounds. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and make sure to leave a review!

Bye-nii~