"We've arrived," Louie reported.
They stepped on land and boarded a truck with other troops, inbound to General Foch's headquarters.
Algeria was sunny and tropical, palm trees lined the roads warm climate
Andou helped Rosehip on to a wheel chair, and headed into the building.
"Generale Foch, they've arrived." The guard spoke
"Let them in." He replied.
Andou wheeled Rosehip in.
"Bonjour, mademoiselles, please, take a seat." General Foch spoke.
Ferdinand Foch was a stark contrast to Arthur Currie. He was old and fit, with a grey bushy mustache, compared to being cleanly shaved, slightly over weight.
"Now, let us make our information clear," Foch turned to Andou, "You are Rena Andou, a 17 year old Japanese."
Andou nodded.
"Your service under the title of nurse as a infantryman has proved useful in many situations, Captain Wong has praised you for your courage and bravery, especially during the defense of the Paris line."
He pulled out a Croix de guerre and pinned it on her. "You are also granted French citizenship."
He turned to Rosehip.
"You are Rosehip Akako, 15 years old. Why your parents named you after tea, I will not bother questioning. Even Lieutenant Taylor, who gave a good word for you, specifically wrote not to question it."
"Wow, Louie actually wrote that?", Rosehip thought.
"Anyway, you've shown courage under fire, been a fantastic messenger, trench raider and you were wounded twice, a shell knocking you into barbed wire." Foch read out.
"Arthur Currie asked me to give you this," he said, pulling out a Victoria cross.
"Whooooaaaa." Rosehip gasped in awe, Darjeeling told her all about the Victoria Cross, the highest honour. "You also now have Canadian citizenship." He continued.
"Now, I understand all of you are stranded in 1918," "Foch continued, "however, we are working on a replica of the German time machine."
"With our defeat in the great war, our progress is slowed significantly, but commander Dupont has made great discoveries in other technologies."
"So now, you are all honourably discharged from the army, unless you wish to keep working in." Foch reported.
"Your friends should be arriving soon." General Foch continued.
The truck stopped at the HQ and the soldiers disembarked.
They were brought in to his office. "General", Louie and James saluted.
"At ease." He replied. "Have all troops been evacuated?".
"Yes, although Syndicalist artillery sank a ship." James reported.
"Alarmingly, the British Royal Family was evacuated to Canada after a Syndicalist revolution successfully overtook Britain." Foch told him.
He turned to everyone, "Although the Great War is over, peace is a long way off."
He handed them all discharge certificates.
"If you wish, you can return home and return to civilian life."
"Well, I've had enough of this goddamn war, I'll go back to my place in Vancouver." Replied James.
He went outside and waited for the next ride to Port.
"I'll go back too, but I'll stay for a little while." Louie spoke. "Eh, I'll join Louie." Rosehip spoke as Louie smiled and wheeled her away.
"I wanna stay, I like Algeria." Spoke Oshida, Andou just nodded and went with her.
James saw a convoy of demobilized troops and hopped on.
"Who's the officer of this Convoy?", he asked.
"Moi, mon ami." Dupont replied. "I've discovered that chlorine and other chemical agents can cause mutations.
"The Canadian government has offered me resources to conduct my research, in BC."
"Say, I'm heading to Vancouver, mind if I join?", James spoke. "Of, course, you can even help me in this project, and get paid of course." Dupont chuckled. They headed to the dock yard.
"You can drive a motorcycle right Louie sama?", Rosehip spoke as she was placed in the side car.
"Don't worry, I've done sledding in North West Territory." Louie replied.
"Errumm, that's not the same!", cried Rosehip.
"Ehh, what's life without danger?", he remarked. He revved the engine and sped along the coast.
Rosehip was a little scared, but he handled it well, the atmosphere was warm and comfortable.
"So, how long until you can walk again?", he asked. "A month later", she responded. The barbed wire caused an infection in the legs.
"You know, we never really spoke to each other that much," Louie spoke, "So, what did you do before landing yourself in 1918?".
"As part of a senshadou tournament, we went to Belgium, where we would fight BC freedom," she chuckled.
"Well, I was recuperating from the battle of Amiens of James, until the German attacked and we got shafted in holding the line." Louie spoke.
"I heard you like going fast." Louie spoke, speeding up the motorcycle, "Why so?".
Rosehip felt exhilarated, with the wind in her face, "My brothers are always so annoying, stealing my food and such, so I have to do it fast.", she sighed, "So I need to do everything fast."
"Middle child eh?," Louie chuckled.
"Well, I have eight siblings and three cousins….. And that's not counting my relatives."
"Jesus, your family must be rich, my father could barely support me, my sister and mother when they were all alive." He responded.
"Not exactly, I barely got into such a good school like St Gloriana's." Rosehip explained.
"The future must be awesome." Louie chuckled. "The schools I went to were absolute shit, they force us away from our parents, beat us for any small mistake, and force us to pray to God."
"I used to be able to speak Huronian, but now I can barely remember, because they beat our ass if we do speak it, thankfully dad got me out."
Rosehip now appreciated everything a little more. "So how did you join the army?", she asked, trying to change the subject.
"Well, my dad kicked the bucket and left lots of debts, so I joined up for some money." He responded.
"Now my turn, tell me about senshadou, you good at sports? "
"Darjeeling sama helped me join the senshadou team, I loved it! I could do something by myself at first, I'm tired of always being forgotten." Rosehip smiled.
"Darjeeling sama has been giving me "etiquette and elegance" classes though, I'm not very good at them." Rosehip said. "So I've been trying to copy her."
"Don't worry, although manners are good to have, sometimes you gotta get your hands dirty to do some work, after all, you adapted the trenches fastest, some of our newer recruits were killed right off the bat." Louie comforted.
"Also, don't be afraid to be yourself, not everyone's perfect, in fact, take pride you can be yourself, lots of my friends were beaten for doing that."
Rosehip felt a little better. "Here," Louie said as he pulled out a canteen, "tea, not as good as your standards, but hey, tea."
Rosehip looked, it was evening, how long did they chat?
"Tell ya what, let's get some food and a place to stay, and call it a day." Louie spoke.
They pulled into downtown, and booked a decent hotel, they had plenty money due to inflation.
Rosehip hobbled out in crutches with Louie into a restaurant.
With a beautiful scene of the coast they sat down.
A waitress brought over a menu, Rosehip found it was in French.
"Oh, I can help with that." Louie translated the menu to her.
Louie translated to Rosehip, and ordered.
They ate and watched the sunset.
"So, you got Canadian citizenship eh?", spoke Louie.
"Yeah." Rosehip replied. "Do you wanna go to Canada with me?", he asked on a whim.
Rosehip thought, of course she'd join her friends, but with Louie?.
She hadn't considered it, but he always cared and helped her. He even showed faith in her, something she almost never got.
"Of course, Louie sama!"
Louie smiled, he hadn't felt this happy in a long, long, long time.
"I want to take a bath, the trenches were horrible! Desu wa!", Rosehip complained.
"Well, that can be arranged, you take baths often back home?", Louie asked.
"In Japan, we typically take baths together in a massive pool." she responded.
"In western society, we used to do this, but it spreads diseases easily." He replied. "Anyway, you need any help?".
Soon, Rosehip enjoyed herself with a cup of tea. She sat on the couch with Louie, and listened to the radio.
They both leaned in, embraced each other, and fell asleep.
Archangelsk, Russia, 1919.
Maho fastened her stahlhelm, adorned with the totenkopf.
Russia was an unforgiving land. She was to train, arm, organize, and lead and fight alongside as part of the expeditionary force.
Archangelsk was heavily defended, fresh troops and supplies were rotated in and out everyday.
The Bolsheviks attacked with great ferocity. Corpses littered beyond the trenches, staining the snow purple.
"Achtung!", she announced, the white army volunteers stood at attention.
"If you wish to survive, you'll do exactly as I say, now go over to that table and grab a rifle and a pistol."
The recruits grabbed gewehr 98s and Mauser c96s, except for the last one.
"You'll have to move faster than that, you'll need a real weapon if you wish to kill the Bolsheviks."
"Now, there are more in the storeroom." The recruit hurried off.
"Now, take aim, and fire…".
The recruits shot the dummies under Maho's instruction. "Now, head over to the grenade range."
"But these are potatoes, ma'am." A recruit spoke up. "Why are we using potatoes?".
"Because real grenades are valuable! , more than your sorry ass." She explained.
They continued through the course.
"Lieutenant Nishizumi, we have intelligence reports for you." Kruger arrived.
