All of the World
Saving Comrade Li
" Iie!"
Syaoran had gotten out of tighter spots before, actually. In fact, he had gotten out of tighter spots with the Japanese, literally. But experience did not mean he had the means to get out of this one without some miracle. In fact, all other times had been miracles as well.
He did not know much about what was going on. All he knew was, one moment he was asleep, and the next moment the base was under attack. No doubt Zhong had something to do with it, but at the same time, if the Japanese spy could even find his way here, no doubt the Japanese imperials already knew the base's location. Simply knowing of the base was hardly enough to stage a successful attack, and it was obvious, as soon as Syaoran joined his brother's at arms, that the Japanese were not even trying to take over the base.
They wanted the lieutenant.
I probably would have done us all a service just staying behind and sleeping. Syaoran thought wryly. Strangely, now that he was facing the Japanese general, whose bayonet pointed at him like a wand of doom, all the boy could really think about was how on earth did he get into this position. One moment—with his brother's at arms. The next—alone, facing General Kinomoto.
Fever's doing a number on you. You're starting to have blackouts. Blackouts with poor judgment mixed in, leaving him hopelessly confused during the sparse lucid moments.
Lucid. Hm. Could really go for some beer. Syaoran shook his head to clear it, blinking his tired eyes. Looks like he was going to die. Should he even try to figure out how he got into this mess?
" Iie!"
Syaoran barely heard the report from Kinomoto's gun. Pain flared in his left shoulder as he toppled over in shock. Damn. Thought Syaoran. Can never get used to getting shot. Unless it was as mere graze, the pain from the bullet always seemed to ram his senses out of his brain. A few seconds later he stared up at the dark sky and suddenly realized that he should be dead already. Are the Japanese that stupid? Did he seriously miss my head from point blank range? Unless Kinomoto was not aiming for his head. But that was just stupid.
Huh…his comrades were not shooting either. He could understand their reluctance at first, when Kinomoto was threatening to shoot him, but now that the general missed…or maybe his ears were deafened by the gunshot.
No. Definitely not deafened. He could hear the lieutenant's high voice shouting at the general. " Oni-chan! General! Don't kill him!"
Weird. Syaoran thought. Then he heard gunshots. Lots of them. The other Chinese were opening fire on the Japanese. Well, given that he had just gotten himself shot in the shoulder and cannot seem to think straight, he will just lie here. Sky looks really nice. Huh. Can't see any stars. I want some pepper. The world spun and Syaoran suddenly felt giddy. His left shoulder seemed to burn and throb, but the pain did not seem to make its way to his brain. He heard people shouting his name as well, shouting at each other, death-cries, echoing in his brain. He was slowly losing his focus…
Someone was moving him. A lot of someone's. His comrades? No—they were wearing Japanese uniforms. The lieutenant-woman was staring at him, her green eyes very wide.
Oh suddenly realized. They were capturing him. They were in the middle of capturing him. He tried to move, but his limbs seemed paralyzed, and the pain wafted over his senses to that for a moment he blanked out.
" It's okay." He heard the lieutenant say. He raised his tired eyes and saw Zhong standing behind her. Cold terror washed over him as he found himself in a car all of the sudden. Sharp Japanese commands barked back and forth. Oh no. Oh no no no no no…
" You better explain what's going on, Imotou." He heard General Kinomoto say, before everything went black at last.
oO
" We can have Yukito-san look at it." Sakura said to her brother.
" Yukito doesn't like looking at prisoners."
" That's because we torture them later."
Her brother folded his arms. " We're on our way out of the base. Tell me what's going on."
" First tell me how you found me. And what was up with that ridiculous attack on a base that's ten times our size."
" Hiiragizawa tipped us off." Her brother explained. " We were here to get you out of the base. Who knew that this bloke would stumble right into the front."
" He was very sick."
" Mind telling me now," Her brother snapped shortly, " Why you caused me to miss him just when I had him?"
" You still shot him!"
" I was aiming to kill him! Care to explain why you stopped me from doing that? This guy captured you!"
" He saved me. He kept me safe. And," Sakura paused, knowing her brother's ways, " He's useful."
Her brother sighed. " How?"
" He's a Senior Colonel. He knows their ways. And it's no secret how good he is at what he does." Sakura glanced down at the young man's unconscious form. " He has a deep sense of honor. We can win him to our side."
" By what?"
" Guilting him." Sakura felt odd saying these words. It felt like she was actively manipulating her brother in a way that was neither harmless nor honest. When did I start viewing Oni-chan as an obstacle to my desires?
" I hope you don't actually still harbor feelings for this Sato Masato." Her brother spat. " Caused us no end of grief, you did." He then reached out and pulled his sister to him. " You won't be leading the front lines any more, Imotou."
Sakura, feeling disheartened, replied, " It might be for the best." She glanced at Syaoran then. Here was a man who hated the Japanese with all his being. He would even hate her, because she was Japanese. She stroked his hair back.
" What exactly did this guy do?" Her brother asked in disbelief as he watched her with him.
Sakura did not answer.
oO
Terror made him week, and though Syaoran hardly broke down in front of the Japanese, his tense frame and the fear in his eyes gave away all that was needed.
" You know I don't treat prisoners." Yukito folded his arms as he regarded the boy lying on the bed, half-delirious with fever and exhausted from sickness and agony. " I know what you guys do. As your brother would put it, I don't have the stomach for it. You hand him to me, I'll kill him myself, doctor or no doctor."
" He's not going to be tortured." Sakura sighed wearily. " He's our guest. You don't know enough about military protocol. We don't put prisoners we're about to torture in an actual bedroom. Can you look at his wound now? And while you're at it, take a look at what's causing his fever."
" Kami-sama." Yukito sighed. The doctor was very tired and stricken from what he had learned about the Japanese military. " I'll hope for the best and pray that you won't just boil him alive." He walked over to the boy.
Syaoran was skinny and his color was pale from sickness. Though he had been cleaned and now wore clean clothes, a faint layer of sweat glistened on his skin. His eyes were half open and tired, but he stared at Yukito in alarm.
" No…" He whispered, and writhed on the bed, aggravating his wound. He coughed a wet cough and a splash of phlegm landed on Yukito's hand.
Far from being disgusted though, Yukito raised the hand with the bit of phlegm and sniffed at it, studying its color.
" Bacterial infection." He noted.
" Rabbit fever."
Yukito scowled. Scowls were normally not expressions Yukito wore, but he was truly disturbed by what the Japanese Imperials employ. " Bio-weapons?"
Sakura did not reply.
" First-generation." Said Yukito. " I keep telling them. They can't engineer these stupid bacterial strains from their original counterparts. It's as bad as engineering viral strains from scratch. We need better technology. Ones I hope we never invent."
" Will he live?" Sakura broke in.
" He'll live." Yukito sighed. " Let me get my equipment."
Syaoran was far from compliant, however. Certain that Yukito was merely trying to cure him so he was fit for interrogation, Syaoran did his best to dodge all of the doctor's moves.
" I can't remove the bullet if he's constantly moving around," Yukito said to Sakura. " He sure doesn't seem to agree that he's a guest here."
Sakura glared at Yukito. " You claim I am lying to you."
" I don't know what to believe." Yukito rose. " Ever since I learned that Touya was capable of becoming a cannibal, I don't know if I even know you guys anymore."
Sakura frowned then, unable to respond.
" I promise you, in the name of our Emperor: Li Syaoran will not be tortured." She told Yukito. " He doesn't know that because he's half delirious."
A thump interrupted her, and they both turned to find Syaoran, sprawled on the floor. His face had turned paper white from the pain.
" Behave," Sakura remonstrated, as she helped Yukito lift the terrified youth. " We're trying to help you, you paranoid baka."
Syaoran spat at her.
" Kami-sama." Sakura sighed. " This will take a while."
But it did not, strangely. After he was back on the bed, Syaoran was too exhausted to struggle anymore. Yukito removed the bullet with no incident, murmuring comforting words along the way. By the time he bandaged the wound in Syaoran's shoulder, the boy was sleeping.
The general walked in.
" Oni-chan." Sakura greeted. Her brother glanced at the boy on the bed with a frown.
" He was too exhausted." Yukito told the general. " It is prolonging his sickness and worsening his injury. He'll need rest. And a stress-free environment."
" We can do that." Sakura broke in.
" You presume too much." Her brother remonstrated, but it was half-hearted. " I don't understand why you like him so much. This guy has killed many of us. He wouldn't hesitate to do so again."
Sakura bit her lip but did not respond.
Yukito glanced at the room, noting that they were alone. He could talk more freely here. " I kind of doubt Chinese soldiers eat Japanese children."
" That's only because we never bring the children here, not to mention they don't have the means." The general sighed. " Are you ever going to let that go?"
Yukito sputtered. " You honestly think I can just let that go. Kami—we all knew there was some propaganda, but you really think any of us would be thrilled to learn that you were slaughtering innocent children by boiling them alive?"
" Yukito-san, stop." Sakura silenced the doctor. " You don't know what it's like here. There are resistances at every step of the way. And as Oni-chan pointed out, the Chinese has killed many of our brothers."
" Well if you boil their children alive, I don't really blame them."
" They are hopeless ingrates, the ones who started all this." The general snapped. " Perhaps he started off as innocent as any other. But he is no longer. He won't hesitate to kill you any more than I hesitated to kill the children."
Syaoran's body suddenly jerked on the bed as he coughed. He had woken when Yukito raised his voice. As a spy, it was hard enough listening to this nonsense, but now as a prisoner it was nearly impossible to keep silent. He managed to hold his tongue, but the sheer anger made him choke with rage. He felt something coppery splatter out of his mouth.
The doctor bent over him, his hands gentle as he felt Syaoran's forehead.
" Well, we shouldn't point fingers while he's in the room." Yukito remarked. Sakura gasped as she looked over Yukito's shoulder.
" Oh no." She murmured. " What's wrong?"
Syaoran coughed again, tasting more blood in his mouth. Yukito prodded gently at his jaw and Syaoran turned his head away, still choking.
" This guy does understand Japanese right?" Yukito asked. " What part of ' I'm trying to help you' does he not understand?"
" He doesn't believe us." Said the general, his arms folded. " What are you trying to do?"
" Hoping to see that the blood is coming from his mouth and not further in him." Yukito replied dryly.
Syaoran locked gazes with Sakura. " I'll never give you what you want." He hissed, coughing more, splattering his pillow.
Sakura scowled in annoyance, feeding her irritation to hide her hurt. " You don't even know what I want, you baka."
" Ha." Syaoran shut his eyes then. He did not mean to shut his eyes. He wanted to stare her down. But his head hurt too much. It felt like something was sucking his brains out and yet filling it with cotton to the point where it was about to burst. " I have a fair idea."
The sentence seemed to drain all the energy out of him. He lay there helplessly as Yukito filled a syringe, but managed to whimper when the doctor came close.
" This is just to help you relax." Said Yukito. " Good lad." The doctor murmured, even when Syaoran whimpered more as the needle approached. He hated needles. They reminded him too much of the hooks that killed his father. He tried to twist his arm away. " Easy," Yukito soothed.
The general glared at Sakura, looking very much annoyed and stressed. " You favor this kid, that's fine." He said to his sister. " But if I find any romantic notions growing in that head of yours, I'm shooting him in the head. Understand?"
Sakura was composed enough to nod. " I'm not stupid, Oni-chan. Don't think that just because I got captured that all of the sudden you can bully me around."
" I'm your big brother." The general snapped angrily. " I'm supposed to protect you!"
" Don't overdo it." His sister replied.
" He's asleep." Yukito shook his head. " He'll be out for a while, but just in case his fancy Li-Syaoran-brains manage to wake him despite the drug's effects so he can cough up blood in rage at what we're saying, let's move out. Poor kid's not going anywhere, sedative or not. We don't have to watch over him like this. It would probably stress him out more if we do, anyway."
The general and lieutenant obliged, with the elder Kinomoto fuming, confused, angry, and hurt by his sister's cold treatment of him. Before they quite exited the door, however, Sakura hugged her brother from behind.
" Gomen nasai." She said. " I love you."
Kinomoto Touya turned to her and smiled wryly. " Hell." Said he. " I don't care if you suddenly fell in love with Mao. I'm just glad you're safe here."
