Chapter 6 – Zum Dienst!

"Adolfine? Oh hi! What brings you here?" Toshiro asked clearly surprised.

"Toshiro? Is that you? I almost didn't recognize you with that hair!" Adolfine, clad in a light winter jacket shouted back.

"Well, not everyone knows about my current look to be honest. So, what gives with this visit?"

"I told you I'd contact you in a few days, didn't I?"

"Well, hell, I thought you would contact me via radio or something…"

"And how could I do that? You are not a member of the IFN, remember?"

"Yeah… Huh?" Toshiro felt a tug on his shirts sleeve. "What is it Yoshika?"

"Who is that again, Toshiro? I think I saw her…"

"That's Brigadier General Adolfine Galland, the Karlsland Emperors advisor. She was at Erica's award ceremony."

"Oh, now I remember! She's ranked even higher than you!"

"Hey, what are you talking about there, huh?" Adolfine interrupted with a smile.

"Oh, I'm just refreshing Yoshika's memory. Say, what brings you here?"

"Hmmm… Can we eat first? I'm starving, and I could use some Fuso cuisine right now…"

"Don't worry, Galland, Miyafuji could probably take you in, right?" Mio asked boldly.

"Um, yes!" She answered.

Adolfine approached Mio, and unexpectedly they shook their hands.

"You have grown quite nicely, Mio."

"And you didn't age a bit, Galland, hahaha!"

Toshiro tilted his head in surprise.

"Um… Could it be that the two of you know each other?" He asked.

"Why yes we do, Toshiro. Back in '37, I was visiting Fuso and by chance I helped Mio with her training."

"Yes… Galland helped me improve my Magic Eye ability…"

"And she is now better than me in that manner!" Adolfine shouted proudly.

"Huh, what? You have that ability too, Adolfine?" Toshiro asked totally dumbfounded.

For a second, Adolfine's right eye flashed purple.

"Yes I do, but I have to use the scope I always carry to limit my field of vision." After saying that she patted Mio on the back. "Mio on the other hand trained so damn hard that she can focus without accessories! Goddamn Fusan witches always try the hardest! So, let's go, shall we?"

They arrived at the Miyafuji clinic. Right on the doorstep, just after Yoshika opened the door, Sayaka peeked out of the living room.

"Oh, you are back, Yoshika. And you have quite the entourage…"

"Good morning Mrs. Miyafuji, I'm Adolfine Galland, and one could say that I'm Toshiro's boss."

"Oh my, did Toshiro do anything?"

"No, no… But could I please get some breakfast first? I was flying for almost a day straight…"

"Of course, please, come inside."

The four of them seated themselves, and after a brief introduction, Grandma disappeared somewhere. Yoshika went into the kitchen to prepare some breakfast.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Toshiro finally spoke up.

"So, Adolfine, what brings you here?"

"Are you eager to hear it, sheesh… Well, our Kaiser and your uncle seriously wanted to promote you to some absurd rank, and place you in the Rosario HQ… But I persuaded most of it out of him, and even modified the original plan a bit…"

Cold sweat appeared on Toshiro's forehead as she said that.

"And w-what would the modifications look like?" He asked with a trembling voice.

"You are to fly to Africa and join the 31st JFS near Tobruk in role of a supervisor. I think it will be be…"

The loud noise of breaking ceramics interrupted Adolfine. Everyone looked at the source of the noise, and saw Yoshika with her hands forward, as if she was carrying a plate. The plate itself was on the ground shattered, with mugs and sushi pieces lying on scattered all over. Yoshika's face was pale; her eyes lost all their shine. Her lips were moving, but no sound was coming out.

"Yoshika, what…"

"No… No… No.. NO!" Yoshika shouted and lunged at Toshiro, hugging him with all the strength she could find in her small body. "You can't leave! Not now! Not when we are together again! I forbid you!"

Toshiro felt as his shirt started getting wet from Yoshika's tears.

"Adolfine… You just made one hell of a mess now…" Toshiro said with a resigned voice.

"Huh?"

"You don't understand? Yoshika is my girlfriend, but you should already know that. She was waiting three months for me, living only with the hope that someday I'll stand at the door of the clinic and return. But then I was pronounced dead, and her world shattered like a those mugs and plates right there. When I returned, she looked as if she spent ten thousand years mourning… Just looking at her made me sad… And now you come here, and tell that you are taking me away through half the world…"

"I'm really sorry; Toshiro, but you should have known what you are signing in for joining the Wehrmacht. We Karlslandians are known to be resourceful, and we cannot afford to put such an asset like you to waste. If it is of any importance, your mission will only last for a month after you arrive. You are to assess and supervise the work of the 31st JFS both as an emissary of the Kaiser, and of the United Allied Forces."

"Ugh… Can't anyone else do it?"

"You are already approved by all people that needed to approve you, so no. Besides, you need to learn how the army works from another point of view, so you have a full experience. That Major rank you got can't be an empty rank; those were your own words, Toshiro…"

"I see… And if I refuse?"

"Then I have orders to take you there by force, or shoot you down as you stand…" Adolfine said with a grim face.

Yoshika started crying louder on that remark.

"Ehh…" Toshiro sighed heavily. "Why are you doing this to me, Adolfine…? Okay, I'm coming peacefully, since you have such convincing 'arguments'…"

Yoshika's grip tightened even further as she began to use magic.

"Please don't go… Please… I beg you… Toshiro…"

Toshiro hugged her back and said, "I have to go, my princess… Duty calls... I promise you, that come April, we will be together again, unless I get some other stupid assignment. I'll send you telegrams so you'll know I'm okay, deal?"

Yoshika looked at him with eyes swollen from tears and nodded.

"Okay…" She said with a barely audible voice, and her animal ears disappeared.

Toshiro looked at Galland and asked, "We are going right now, right?"

"Yes. Bring whatever you need with yourself, and let's go…" Adolfine said with guilt reverberating in her voice.

"Give me a minute…" Toshiro sighed.

Toshiro stood up and went to Yoshika's room. He opened his chest, changed into the Luftwaffe uniform and fastened the ammo pouch plus pistol to his belt.

"You didn't protest, Yuki?"

"I'm okay with that, actually. Your relationship could actually benefit from a short separation…"

He took the chest with him and went to the living room.

"I'm ready."

"Let's go then."

Adolfine and Toshiro went to the exit. Just as they were about to open the door, Yoshika suddenly shouted.

"Wait, Toshiro!"

He turned around slowly, and only saw a flash jumping at him. Yoshika kissed him with such passion that he dropped the chest he was carrying.

"That's so you won't forget about me…" She said with rosy cheeks.

"Now I won't for sure." Toshiro said with a smile.

As Toshiro entered the flying boat, he saw an enormous amount of supplies and gear.

"Adolfine, what gives with the stuff here?"

"Supplies for the 31st, at least those non-perishable. For food and water, we will make a stop in Gibraltar; the supplies are already arranged there."

Toshiro looked around further, and saw something familiar. He went closer, and his eyes reached the size of saucers as a familiar shape was recognized by him under the canvas.

"Adolfine… Is that…"

"What? You thought we are sending you out as some paper-pusher? Oh no my dear, you will also be fighting, alongside pushing papers. The African front is still in turmoil, despite the efforts of many."

"Well, now it makes more sense to be honest…"

"I wanted to tell you this earlier, but I saw the reaction of your girlfriend… Poor girl…"

"Anything else I need to know…?" Toshiro sighed.

"Since you will be the supervisor, you'll have power over the unit. Don't worry though, the commanding officer is also in rank of Major, so you won't have to feel strange about that. Furthermore, I was given authorization to give you judicial qualifications."

"But I don't know shit about military law, other than the fact that standing before a judicial officer usually means problems…"

"Don't worry about that. During the flight, which is scheduled for a week by the way, you will be learning from a book. When you feel ready, I will do an oral exam with you, and if you pass, you get the qualifications. Of course you may fail, but it would be good for you to have an additional ace in the sleeve, right?"

"I suppose so…"

"Oh, and… Let's take care of some paperwork before we lift off, okay?"

"Sure…"

Adolfine led him to a bench, on which a small locker was present. She put in down and sat on the bench, as did Toshiro. She pulled out a military ID, and gave it to him.

Toshiro looked at it. It had no photograph of him, and it didn't have his signature, but besides that, it was complete.

"You may wonder why there's no photo of you, right? I somehow anticipated you would change, heh… We will make a photo in LA, since I don't have the necessary equipment here." She said and passed him a pen. "Place your signature in the ID and you can take it."

Toshiro gave his signature and placed the ID in his wallet.

"Okay… Now, your military record needs to be supplemented with your thumb print and signature."

"Don't tell me you have an ink pad for that occasion…"

"I have, heh…"

She pulled out and ink pad and a small ink container.

"Unbelievable…"

She poured the ink in the inkpad and placed it on the bench.

"Okay, Toshiro, press your right thumb against the pad, and then stamp it in this box." She said while pointing to a specific place in his papers.

Toshiro did that, and it turned out well as expected.

"Okay…" She muttered and pulled out an envelope. "And this is your first pay, ninety pounds."

"Are you kidding me?!" Toshiro shouted.

"You won't get more, silly. You're only a Major…"

"No, I mean… Ugh, ninety pounds, what will I do with this money…"

"You can use it as TP if you'd like, I don't care…"

Toshiro placed the money in his wallet, which started looking fat now.

"Okay, what else do you have for me?"

"Eager, huh? I got some medals for you, two to be exact. And don't worry, they got reinstated to the living you, not the dead you."

"Show me them already, and let's start flying…"

She pulled out one box, and opened it.

"I told you about the possibility of earning the medal for your kill count, and here it is: the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. And here's the certificate for it." Adolfine handed him a piece of paper.

"Heh, now I'll have the same medal as Erica… And what's the second one?" Toshiro said and put the medal and certificate in his chest.

"This one is a treat, I assure you."

Adolfine pulled out another box, and opened it. Inside, was a medal, shaped in a so-called Maltese Asterisk, enameled in white with gold gilded tips. In its center, was a gilded disc with a woman's head, and 'République de Gallia' written on a blue enameled ring around it. Underneath the cross was a green enameled laurel, and above it was an oak wreath. The whole medal was attached to a red ribbon, which was further connected to a neckpiece.

"I don't know of this medal, Adolfine."

"The Republic of Gallia has gave you this medal for destroying the Neuroi Hive back then. This is the Legion of Honor in Commanders class. To simplify, this is the highest Gallian award to date, and the class of it is in the middle of the classification."

"If only Perrine was here… Anyway, is there also a certificate for that?"

"Of course!" She said and handed it to him.

As Toshiro couldn't read Gallian, he just placed it with the order inside the chest.

"Oh hey, Toshiro!" Adolfine moaned disappointed. "Won't you be wearing those? You are a high ranked officer right now; you should represent your Vaterland with pride!"

"As if I was listening to Trude… Okay, okay…"

Toshiro pulled out both of his new medals, and placed them on his neck in such a way that they were both visible, with the Knights Cross on top.

"Splendid! Now you look perfect! But there's still more!" She shouted with pride.

"You want me to look like a Christmas tree?"

"Heehee, no, but rules are rules…" She pulled a box. "These are your insignia, both normal and tropical variants."

Toshiro opened the box and saw a lot of epaulettes and collar patches.

"Any help with discerning this?" Toshiro asked.

"Oh, right. So, the orange patches are for tropical uniforms, so let's not worry about that." She pulled out one of the epaulettes and showed it to him.

The design of it was eight silver braided cords, wrapped on top around a silver button. The color of the underlay was light gray, symbolizing affiliation to a witch unit.

"This is a Major rank epaulette; wear it with pride, Toshiro. Here, let me attach it…"

Adolfine swiftly attached the epaulettes to his shoulderboards.

"And now, this is a collar patch, and as the name indicates, it's worn on the collar. Since you only have flaps on your uniform, it will present itself a bit better than on those high collars of some generals…"

The collar patch was a trapeze, with two parallel silver bars connected on the ends, with gold bars on top of them. The underlay was also gray.

Adolfine pulled out a needle and thread, and started sewing them on. After just two minutes, she was finished.

"There you go, pride of the Wehrmacht! I'll attach the insignia to your Afrika Korps and that long sleeve version of your current uniform while we are flying."

"Looking at you, I wouldn't say that you knew how to sew, Adolfine. No offence!"

She laughed briefly and said, "None taken, Toshiro. You know, besides being a soldier, I'm also a woman, so I have to know some things." Adolfine turned around and used the PA system. "Okay, Udo, we can start now!"

"Verstanden, Frau Generalmajor." A voice came from the speaker.

"Okay, Toshiro. Sit tight, we are going to Africa!"

Notes:

Chapter name - '(ready) For service!'

If you want to praise/rant about my story, please leave a signed review, so we can continue via PM's. Seriously, I don't bite. Unless provoked :]