Enemies of tyranny
It was early the next morning when they were woken from their sleep. The girls had enjoyed a much more comfortable rest than usual in sleeping bags and tents provided by the soldiers.
"Wake up all of you!" the sergeant shouted loudly from outside.
"It's too early," Ritsu protested from the tent.
"I don't know what time you're used to getting up but you're staying with the military now, so you have to follow our rules and that means getting up early!" he shouted back. "So, get a move on."
The group had been allocated a single tent between them; it was comfortable but a little small for their liking. Ritsu unzipped it and crawled out. "They could have let us sleep a little longer," she complained. "It doesn't take that long to drive to Kyoto."
"I'd just like to leave this place as soon as possible," Mugi said as she joined her outside.
"Hey Mio, Yui hurry up in there," Ritsu called hitting on the outside of the tent.
"Okay I'm just getting ready," Mio called back.
"I don't see what you need to get ready; we wear the same clothes every day," Ritsu moaned.
After a few minutes Mio followed them out. "I don't want to look a mess when we arrive back," she said. "Does my hair look okay?"
"Who cares about your hair? We're getting back today, aren't you excited?"
"Yes I am," Mio hesitated. "It will be good to end this journey."
"Anyway, I don't think you of all people should be complaining about your hair, you actually took a shower yesterday, the rest of us weren't so lucky."
She was right, four nights of not sleeping in a proper bed had left their clothes caked in dirt, Ritsu's shoes were brown from mud and her legs were peppered with cuts and bruises from walking through the undergrowth. Ritsu was sure that if she found a mirror she'd be shocked by her appearance.
"Is Yui going to ready any time soon?" Mugi asked, she seemed to have maintained a better appearance than Ritsu, but that didn't say much.
"I'll get her to hurry up," Ritsu said as she disappeared inside the tent, after a few minutes of clattering in the tent Ritsu dragged out a sleeping bag containing a blissfully sleepy Yui. She looked so content that they almost didn't want to wake her.
"Yui it's time to wake up," Mio said nicely.
"Hurry up and wake already so we can have breakfast Yui!" Ritsu shouted not so nicely.
"I don't want to, it's so comfy." Yui snuggled further into the sleeping bag.
"Come on Yui you have to wake up some time," Mio said, gently nudging her.
"Hey Yui, there's some strawberry anpan out here just for you," Ritsu said craftily.
"Really?" Yui unzipped her sleeping bag and looked around excitedly before realizing the truth. "Aw it was just a joke wasn't it?"
"Yep, we don't have any anpan but what we do have is basic rations," Ritsu informed.
After a quick breakfast the sergeant from earlier led them to the vehicle which would take them home.
"It's so great we're going home," Ritsu said happily. "I knew I'd get you all there, didn't I say on the first day we could hitch a ride with someone?"
"You didn't mention how long it would be until we got it," Mio said.
"No, but I knew it would happen," Ritsu cheerfully countered, for the first time since leaving the shelter she began to have faith in what she'd said at the start. "We're all going home."
"How long do you think it will be? I hate long car journeys."
"We've walked some of the way already so it should only be a couple of hours."
They arrived at the jeep after a short walk; it was a small vehicle with enough seating for five, similar to civilian models they had seen around except painted in camouflage.
Ritsu and Yui climbed in. "Wow it's actually quite spacious in here," Ritsu pointed out.
"It's not as big as the tank," Yui said.
"Huh?"
"Oh nothing," she excused quickly after a glance from Mugi.
"Look, it has a machine gun on the back as well," Ritsu noticed.
"It makes gun-kun look tiny," Yui said in awe.
"I sure hope we won't be using that on the way home," Mio added as she climbed in.
Mugi was the only one left outside, when she tried to climb in one of the soldiers barred her way.
"What's the problem?" Mugi asked smiling.
"You're not coming, commander's order," he said bluntly.
Ritsu's grin faded as she heard that. "Wait, why can't Mugi come?"
"Sorry, the Commander wanted her to stay here, I can't remember what it was about."
Understanding dawned on Mugi. "Oh I had hoped this wouldn't happen."
"We can't leave behind Mugi-chan she's a crucial member of the group!" Yui shouted.
Mugi composed herself and smiled at them. "It's fine, go on without me," she beamed falsely.
"Mugi-chan?" Yui questioned.
"I'll be okay, I'm sure they'll send me on a later jeep, I don't want to slow you down," Mugi told them. "Go without me.
"We can't leave without a member of our group," Ritsu said. "We need to go together."
"I'm sorry but I can't do that" the solider stressed.
"Why not?!" Ritsu exploded.
"Look," the sergeant said "I'm sure the commander just wants a little word with her, then she'll be sent home as well."
Ritsu ground her teeth in frustration as she realized she couldn't win, either she forfeited their transport or let Mugi stay and hope they were telling the truth.
"Okay we'll leave her," she decided, she turned to her abandoned friend. "You'll be okay Mugi, I'm sure you will."
"Goodbye everyone I'll see you when we're home," Mugi said trying to mask the worry consuming her. The jeep door slammed shut and began to drive away. As it left Mugi sure her friends concerned faces looking out at her and wondered if she'd see them again.
Azusa and her cat had been walking for the best part of the morning when they encountered a barricade in the road. It was a waist high red and white barrier spanning the path. The terrain either side of the path was so steep in was insurmountable creating a natural funnel through the area. Behind the barricade were parked two jeeps further adding to the roadblock next to them were two soldiers.
"Halt this area is out of bounds for civilians!" he shouted as they approached. "Turn back now."
Azusa looked at him tiredly, the past day of travelling had been tough and she didn't know if she was any closer to finding her friends. "Why? Why can't I go through?" she called, her voice was hoarse from not speaking for so long.
"Listen, we have this whole valley blocked off from the Chinese, no one but military personal is allowed through, not even refugees."
"I'm not a refugee I'm looking for some people, my friends."
"I don't care who you're looking for, this area will very soon be a war zone, and it's dangerous for someone like you to go through."
"Oh…" she said morosely, she didn't have the energy to argue with him and honestly she didn't have an argument either. She didn't even know if her friends were through there or not. She was just following the roads guessing they'd gone this way home. She slumped down at the side of the road. The cat she'd named after Yui curled up next to her, it had followed her all the way from the barn and she was glad of it, it was the only company she'd had.
Turning to Yui-neko she said, "What am I supposed to do? I can't carry on walking this way but I don't where else I'm supposed to go. Should I turn back? I could go back to Ui on my own I suppose but I don't even know if I could find the way back now. What if I'm not able to find them because something's happened to them? What if they're dead?" She struggled to say the last word as that horrible thought crossed her mind. A new wave of sadness washed over her as she thought about it, the thought that her mission to bring them back safely may be already over.
"Hey," called out one of the soldiers from the barricade making her look up wildly, she hadn't considered what they might think of her talking to herself.
"What is it?" she croaked. "Am I not allowed to sit here either?"
"It's just your friends, they wouldn't happen to be a friendly brown-haired girl, a girl with a big forehead, a distinguished blonde and a black-haired girl who's far too shy for her own good would they?"
"That's them!" Azusa shouted excitedly, for the first time since discovering their camp there was hope of finding them. "Where did you see them?"
"They came through camp yesterday; nobody could miss them, they stuck out like a strawberry in the snow."
"Can I come through to see them?" she asked.
"Nope," the guard replied.
"But I need to find them to bring them back!"
"Sorry, I can't let you through, ain't much point if you're trying to see them anyway, they left today on one of the jeeps," he replied.
"On one of the jeeps? There's no way I can catch up on foot," Azusa thought aloud.
"Well don't expect us to help you out with a jeep I heard the commander only got them out the way because one of their father's is some big shot, he's not going to waste another one on you," he pointed out.
Azusa turned away from the barricade in disappointment; her excitement from hearing they were okay was marred by the news that they were speeding away from her on a jeep and she had no hope a catching them.
"Maybe there is some way to catch them," she told the cat. "But I'm going to need wheels, big ones."
Mugi was dragged to the command tent roughly, almost as soon as the jeep had left she'd been grabbed by a solider, she found it to be a most unpleasant experience. When she was pushed through the tent flap it was no surprise to her to see Commander Yamano sitting back in his chair sipping on a come of tea as if he had been awaiting her arrival. Mugi suppressed a scowl as she looked at him.
"Ah there you are if it isn't my good friend Mugi, ah, sorry Sumire," he smiled as her face turned to shock that he knew her identity.
"How did you know?"
"Surprised Miss Kotobuki? You shouldn't be, your special little Frisbee friend flat-out said your name in front of me, twice in fact if you don't remember. How unlucky for you Tsumugi, maybe you should try to get some less idiotic friends, those pitiable girls really don't have a brain-cell between them. Still I'm sure you'll make lots of new friends where you're going."
"Where am I going?" Mugi asked trying to stay calm as she internally panicked.
"Chugoku internment camp," he said reveling in her reaction. "Don't look so down Tsumugi it's a lovely place really, sure you may have heard rumors of 'torture' and forced 'labor' but it's not so bad, sometimes they even give you food."
Mugi gulped, she'd heard of it before from her parents, it was where the government sent its worst traitors and enemies, once someone went in, they were never seen again.
"But I digress," the commander started again taking another drink of his tea. "There was another reason why I suspected you were Tsumugi even before your challenged friend told me. You see you said your name was Sumire Saito."
"Yes," Mugi nodded with a sinking feeling. Sumire had been her childhood friend and servant to the Kotobuki household. Her family had been key members in her parent's organization against the government. Her name had been the first one she'd thought of but now she considered it she realized she'd made a disastrous mistake.
"But I knew that was wrong since I met the real Sumire Saito a few days ago, when I was visiting Chugoku prison."
Mugi gasped and looked at him in anger . "You can't hurt her!"
"Don't worry she'll be fine, she's not lonely in there by any means, your family are there to keep her company. But something's wrong, I have nearly all the Saito's and Kotobuki's in there, all except one," he smiled at her coldly. "So I thought why not complete the set?"
"I haven't broken any laws," Mugi protested. "You can't send me to prison."
"I believe I can, I'm a military commander whereas you are just a pathetic little girl, and I can do whatever I want with you," he grinned as Mugi sank into her seat. She realized what was going to happen to her.
"I see, so I'll be in prison with my parents?"
"Oh I'm not so sure about that, who's to say you will be allowed together? In fact who's to say they're still alive, your father didn't look in a very good shape last time I saw him, blood everywhere."
Mugi considered this, things looked desperate, but she had an idea, something that might just work.
"If I'm going to prison can I ask you for one last thing please?" she said politely.
"Oh and what's that?" he asked bemused
"I'd like a cup of tea please," Mugi smiled.
"Tea?" he scoffed. "Why would I give you that?"
"If you do I'll..." Mugi gulped. "I'll tell you what my parents told me."
"Oh?" This captured his attention. "So, you have information on the traitors, interesting but I could easily get it out of you some other way, I doubt it would take much to get you to squeal."
Mugi wiped sweat from her forehead as her pressed his face closer.
"Still I'm an honorable man I'll hear you out. Someone get this girl a cup of tea," he called outside.
At that moment the solider that had escorted Mugi burst into the tent. "Sir we're under attack, the roadblocks been breached and an unidentified vehicle is heading into camp."
The commander was about to get up before changing his mind. "I'm sure someone will deal with it besides I don't think that has any bearing on your current orders, make me a cup of tea."
"But sir shouldn't you be leading the troops?" he protested.
"Are you questioning my judgment lieutenant? I don't care about the troops I am getting information out of a prisoner and it is not your place to question orders!" he shot him an icy glare. "Do you understand?"
"Yes commander," the officer replied, taking out a tea set.
"Good," he purred. "Now, Mugi what was it you were going to tell me?"
"I've lived a sheltered life sir," Mugi started. "I grew up in a rich home surrounded by servants and I didn't have much experience of the normal world until I started high school. In such a sheltered privileged environment it might have been easy for me to develop the assertion of narcissism and superiority. But my parents taught me differently, they told me that everyone should be treated with dignity and fairness, not to be arrested for no reason. That is the exact opposite of what this regime stands for, oppression and cruelty. That is what you stand for commander-san; you are an arrogant pathetic human and you don't even care about the lives of the soldiers you're supposed to protect," Mugi told him with a gentle smile.
He was shaking with rage as he realized that she wasn't going to tell him her secrets. "Do you have any idea of your position, you little bitch? You are in my custody now and ! Do you really think your little friends can save you now? They can't! They turned their backs on you for their own needs." He spat at her. "You are so low that even those poor excuses for vermin don't want you!"
Mugi was shaking she was trying to be calm but it was difficult, she remembered that her parents had said people like this needed to be stood up to.
"The tea sir." The officer placed a cup next to Mugi and scurried out of the tent.
She took a sip, it was very hot. "Commander Yamano ever since I started high school my friends have supported me and looked after me. They have been kind and loyal. Which is why I find it difficult to believe that they would truly abandon me so readily like you suggest, with that in mind..."
Mugi took a sip of tea.
"I would deeply appreciate…"
Another sip.
"… That you would take into consideration"
Sip.
"A simple recommendation of mine."
She put down her tea-cup and looked him right in his flabbergasted eyes, careful to show no fear.
"Don't insult my friends!"
As quickly as she could Mugi flung the remaining scalding tea into the commander's face. He screamed as it hit his eyes. She picked up her chair and swung it at him as hard as she could, sending him tumbling to the floor. The chair broke in half as it impacted, splintering everywhere.
Mugi panted and gave a grin of relief. "I sounded so cool!" she squealed happily. She looked down at the writhing figure on the floor. "I hope he's not too hurt…"
"I'll get you, you little bitch," he managed through the pain.
"Actually I don't." She kicked him once in the stomach and headed out of the tent.
A deep rumbling noise shook the barricade where the soldiers were stationed.
"Huh what is that?" one of soldiers asked.
"Look over there, is that what I think it is?"
"What the hell?" The soldier recoiled backwards as a large vehicle smashed through their barricade.
One of them went for a radio. "Come in base."
"What is it?"
"The northern barricade has been breached."
"By the Chinese? Are they attacking?"
"No, by a small girl, and she seems to be driving some sort of farming equipment," he replied.
Inside the tractor Azusa was far from composed. "I'm going to find them," she told the cat on the passenger's seat. "Even if I have to steal to do so."
The tractor roared down the road as Azusa tried her best to keep it in control, her spade she'd taken as a weapon earlier bounced up and down on the floor from the vibrations. She was lucky that she'd watched the farmer driving one, it did give her an idea of the basic controls even if she was too small to use them properly. The tractor had been the first vehicle she'd found when she was looking for something to follow them in. It had been at an edge of a field with the keys in the ignition. It had been perfect, so she had thought, but now doubts were starting to creep back, she couldn't drive, she was just 15, and she was going through a militarized base on a tractor.
The girl timidly turned to the cat. "Back at the club-room I was always the one to point out all the stupid things the other girls did," she gave a timid smile. "I guess now it's my turn to do something stupid." She laughed queasily. "It's funny how things turn out." Despite all her doubts Azusa ploughed forwards into the camp.
The jeep trundled on with the sergeant driving them.
"So I bet you'll all be glad to be getting home," he said, starting a conversation.
"Yeah, it's going to be super awesome to be back" Yui agreed.
"I'm looking forward to seeing my family again," Mio said. "I just hope they're okay."
Ritsu stared at her feet. "It's not going to be right without Mugi."
"Mugi's coming on the next jeep remember?" Mio reminded.
"No, she's not," Ritsu snapped back. "She's not coming back at all."
"What?"
"You heard me, Back there, what do you think they wanted her for? To make tea for them? NO they're arresting her Mio, and we abandoned her when she needed us."
"What are you talking about Ritsu?" Mio asked.
"Yeah nobody is going to arrest Mugi-chan, she's innocent," Yui said.
Ritsu looked at her friends in despair, they weren't listening. "Driver turn this thing around right now!" she demanded.
"I'm not doing that, my orders are to get you home and that's what I'm going to do," he replied.
"I see," Ritsu replied grumpily. She was supposed to be the leader but she'd left Mugi in danger when she should have been looking after her. She had to do something.
"Do any of you want me to put some music on?" he asked casually "We can turn on the radio if you want?"
"Yes, please it would make it a bit less boring," Yui said.
"Alright what kind of music do you like? Pop? Rock? Jazz?" he reached over to turn the radio on.
Crack!
Ritsu delivered a vicious kick to the back of the driver's seat. The impact sent him sprawling forward onto the steering wheel. The jeep veered out of control and spun to a stop at the side of the road.
After bracing for the impact Ritsu flung the door open and scrambled out. "Come on get out here!"
"Ritsu what the hell are you doing!" Mio screamed in utter confusion.
"We're going back for Mugi, come on!" She sprinted off.
The tractor hurtled into camp at a high speed, small trees were crushed under it and soldiers had to toss themselves out of the way to avoid falling prey to it.
An injured commander staggered out of his tent and looked in horror at the vehicle ploughing through camp. "What are you doing, shoot the damn thing!" he rasped holding his face.
"But sir there's just a little girl and a cat inside," a solider protested.
"I don't care, get rid of it!"
A single bullet broke through the side window of the tractor as the glass shattered everywhere.
"Ah!" Azusa squealed, shielding herself with her arm. The tractor carried on moving as she could hear gunfire ricochet off the chassis.
"Keep calm Azusa I can do this, I can do this," she told herself as the tractor moved over a hump. "I can do this, it's all for them, I can do this for my friends," she whimpered.
Smash!
Another hail of bullets broke her other windscreen. This time she wasn't quick enough to shield herself. A big bit of glass splintered off it and struck her face, drawing blood.
"Ah!" she squealed in pain taking her eyes off the road to look at her feet.
Azusa felt a jolt of pain as the vehicle crashed into an object bringing it to a jerking stop.
"Ow…" she clutched her face as gunfire carried on around her.
Her faithful cat squealed and let itself out the window.
"No, don't go!" Azusa cried, the cat ran out onto the road in front of her. Just as a large tank was making its way towards her. Azusa winced as the cat got crushed beneath the tracks.
"NO!" she cried desperately as tears began to stream down her face. Her whole body shook as she sobbed, her one hand on the gearbox loosed and she shrunk into herself. That cat had been the one thing she'd had left, her last hope, her only friend.
"No, no…" floods of tears ran down her cheeks as everything that had happened over the last few days bubbled to the surface, the farmer, the incident with the barn, the constant fear and loneliness. "How could this happen? Why can't anything go right for me?"
A solider pointed a rifle through the window. "You identify yourself at once!" he shouted "Who are you?"
"My name is Azusa you bastards!" In a fit of emotion she swung out her spade straight into his face. He was not knocked away.
Sadness turning to anger she reversed away from the tree and accelerated as fast as you could. "I'M NOT LETTING ANY OF YOU BASTARDS GET BETWEEN ME AND MY FRIENDS, NOW GET OUT THE GODDAMN WAY!"
The soldiers in front of her scattered as she floored the tractor forwards.
Straight towards the tank.
"AHHHHHHHHH" she roared as the tractor hit the tank.
There was a crunching sound.
Then everything went black.
A/N: Azusa is getting a bit crazy, Actually the whole things gets a bit crazy in this chapter, it's quite fast paced compared to the others.
Anyway I was wondering how people actually know when this updates because only about five people follow this but every time I update loads of people seem to realize quickly and read it. Well not exactly loads (according to my traffic figures it's about fifty people every chapter)
People with out an account may not know this but when you publish a fic on this site you get some nice little bar graphs showing traffic figures at what times and from where. A lot of people from the Philippines read this apparently, well I say a lot it's about twenty people, but they're still the second largest nationality here after Americans. There's also quite a few people reading this from Mexico, France and My country Britain. I think I'm getting a it off topic here.
Replies to reviews
Yo: It's good to see you're still enjoying it :) Azusa may meet up with the others very soon...
Sam Hayne: Thanks for making your presence known! It's nice to know you like it, it's always good to hear from readers. Getting no feedback from a story is awful because you have no idea whether people liked it or hated it. Posting reviews let's the Author know people's opinions on it so it's a good thing to do. If you're knew to reviews don't worry about doing a proper review like a critic, most people just use it for comments and feedback rather than proper reviews. It has been a lot of chapters, this is about half way through the story at the moment but I guarantee that I will keep updating till I finish (if people still want me to that is.) Thank you for reviewing anyway, it was good to hear from you.
Next week on Grave of the turtles: Mugi makes a daring escape, Ritsu runs off away from a jeep, and Azusa looks into some puddles.
