•
26
Of Running Away For Real, Honorary Subjugation and War
Yao
If it had been any other regular occasion, I would have had slapped myself the whole way for being crazy.
… Then again, dire situation or not, I suppose all this is crazy, isn't it?
But then again, a lot of dire situations required one to do crazy things.
And besides… I want to do this.
During the hours of night, when the other soldiers in my tent were done with their wrestling tendencies and were waist-deep in slumber, I snuck out of bed and stealthily made my way through the tent flaps and out.
By now you've probably already guessed what I am about to do.
When a child attempts to run away from home, he would feel uncertain- perhaps even a little frightened. But he has only to exit the front door and make a dash for it.
The escape I was about to undertake would be much, much harder, no arguing about that.
That was because I had morethan just a front door to make a mad dash through – heck, I probably can't even make a mad dash if I didn't want to be caught in the act by any patrolling soldiers, or get lost in a vast camp I have yet to familiarize myself with.
Ah, the patrolling soldiers.
In my frenzied attempt to escape and get the whole ordeal done with, I had temporarily forgotten about that part and – ironically, underneath the light of a burning lamp and while snooping as slowly as possible – tripped over a tent pole scattered somewhere.
Unable to retain my balance, I toppled face-first into the dirt with a thud that resonated in the silence.
Cursing myself under my breath, I was just about to heave myself off the ground when two silhouettes disturbed the light casted by the lantern.
"Hey, did you hear something?"
"Someone's trying to break into camp!"
"What if it's a Japanese intruder?"
"I'll go report to the commander. You stay here and keep an eye on him!"
"How come you get to go – ?"
Amidst the squabbling, I had managed to scramble my way behind a tree, still panting from the prospect of being nearly caught.
"Concentrate Yao, concentrate!" I hissed to myself, "You'll never get out at this rate – !"
"Yao?"
I swiveled around and had to stifle a scream.
Chang Bai stared at me blankly, his stout features illuminated eerily by a lantern clutched in his hands.
"Yao, it is you!" he gasped, his mouth throwing lumps of silhouette across his face.
"Li Chang Bai, what in the name of – w-were you following me!"
Disregarding my fury, Chang Bai nodded sheepishly, "I woke up in my tent just in time to see you leave yours, so I wanted to see where you were going – "
"– Well, excuse me for being rude, but it's none of your business, so I'm going to have to demand you go back!" I snarled, haphazardly picking myself off of the ground and attempting to push him away.
However, he was much bulkier than me, and I only ended up nearly slipping in the pile of dried leaves all over again.
"Well, what are you doing out here at this time of the night anyways?" Chang Bai squinted his eyes at me suspiciously.
"Nothing, go away!"
"You're going to meet someone, aren't you? Yao, you sleazy scoundrel you!" he accused.
"What are you- no I'm not!" I retorted, "go back to the tent and leave me be!"
"Not until you tell me what it is you're doing out here!"
I groaned in frustration, "why do you need to know!"
"Look here, Wang Yao", Chang Bai emphasized my name, his face glowering uglily in the light of the lantern, "if you're not going to tell me why you're snooping around camp at night, then I'll have no choicebut to report you to the commander!"
"No, don't do that!" I pleaded.
"Try me", Chang Bai huffed, before storming into the dark.
He would ruin everything!
Without thinking twice, I broke down, trying to keep my voice low despite the growing feeling of anxiousness in the pit of my stomach, "wait – Chang Bai! I'll tell you, okay! I'll tell!"
Chang Bai swiveled around, a triumphant leer playing at his lips. The lantern clutched in his hand tipped dangerously in this sudden motion, and for a moment I feared he would set the grass alight.
"Good. Tell", he instructed.
"I-I… I'm running away", I squeaked.
At those simply words, Chang Bai's eyes grew as wide as saucers, and his mouth formed a perfect 'o'-shape.
"You're… Running away?" he repeated, "you've given up this camp that fast?"
"No, I haven't given up yet! Well, actually I… N-no, that's not the point! Listen to me, Chang Bai. I need to do this. Someone… Someone I care about is in danger, and needs me now, more than ever. So I've got to go fast!"
'Ohhh… I get it", Chang Bai raised his eyebrows implicitly, "it's your girlfriend, isn't it?"
"What girlfriend, I – I mean…Yes! Yes, my… Girlfriend", I added quickly.
"Yao, women and war don't mix, so she'll be fine", Chang Bai assured, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"No, you don't understand! See, the thing is, he's a – "
"I'm sorry- did you say 'he'?"
I immediately clamped down on my lips, feeling my face grow hotter than the summer night.
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
"So… Your girlfriend", Chang Bai guffawed, "your girlfriend is a man?"
My burning cheeks were enough for an answer.
"Ha-ha! I-I'd never thought that in a million years! Ha-ha-ha-ha!" He chortled, "so he is that pretty to pass, eh? Yao, you're a faggo – "
"Don't you dare finish that! Don't. Say it", I snarled, clamping a hand on his mouth.
"Buh shtill… I neva tot in…"
"So – there you have it! You know why I'm out here! You know I have a pretty little boyfriend! Go on and tell the other campers, I couldn't care less!" I snapped, "Now will you leave me alone?"
"… Nope."
"What! But I already – "
"No Yao. I am coming with you", Chang Bai declared.
Now it was my turn to look baffled.
"Err… Excuse me? I thought I just heard you say – "
"That's right. I am coming with you!" Chang Bai repeated with so much gusto that I had to clamp his mouth shut again.
"But… Why?" I wanted to know.
"B'caugh –" – displacing my hand and making a show of pounding his chest – "Because! As you have defeated me in earlier combat, I am bound to honorary subjugation – "
"What!" I must've hissed for the hundredth time that night, "Oh nonononono, you are not bound to honorary anything – Well, look, see? Since, err, I am the victor of the, um, earlier combat, I have the power to release you from honorary subjugation and the like – a-and look here, I just did! So you go back to the tent now, and I'll be on my way…"
To my chagrin, Chang Bai showed anything but complying to his release from this 'honorary subjugation'.
"Wang Yao, I am coming with you and that is final!" Chang Bai declared in a tone that suggested honorary subjugation had nothing to do with anything in the first place, before his expression softened along with his dying lantern, and he added rather solemnly, "Yao, during today's earlier swordsmanship session, you knocked me to the ground. You defeated me. If it were any other men, they would laugh and mock me, and it would be the end of me here!
"But you… You threw those swords away and instead gave me a hand… And I want to repay you for that, so I can't let you escape knowing that I've never had a chance to repay that debt. Please let me help you!"
"B-b-but…! I-I… Oh, okay", I relented, "Now hurry up before we get caught!"
Chang Bai happily obliged, putting his barely-lingering flame out and tossing the lantern aside.
Together we ducked out of our hiding place behind the tree, careful to make as little noise as possible as our boots crunched the undergrowth.
"So, tell me, why does this boyfriend of yours need saving anyways? Who is he?"
"Well…" I began, before stopping myself.
What was I supposed to tell him? That I was trying to save my boyfriend, who is Japanese?
What if Chang Bai –
"Yao? Who is he?" Chang Bai repeated, and although we were plunged in almost-darkness, I could still make out his brows furrowing in suspicion all over again.
"Well… Ah, that's something you don't need to know", I stammered after being unable to wrack my mind for a better explanation.
"Yao… What did you say his name was?" Chang Bai paced before swiveling back to me with accusing eyes, "… Kiku, isn't that right?"
"Did I say that – ?"
"Yes! Oh my heavens, yes! So that's where I've heard that name before!" Chang Bai gasped to himself.
"What? Wh-where did you – "
"Yao, you didn't tell me your boyfriend was Japanese!" Chang Bai barked, making a sudden lunging at my arm.
I cringed inwardly.
I had just revealed to Chang Bai Kiku's true identity.
I had just blown my cover.
"Chang Bai, please be quiet!" I begged.
"No! No!" he cried, being anything but quiet, "I am not helping! I'm not helping you rescue a Japanese! Never! Honorary subjugation broken!"
Squeezing my arm tighter, he began hollering and hooting and waving his free arm, "help! Help! Runaway soldier! Runaway soldier!"
"Let me go! Let me go!"
"Runaway soldier! Help! Runaway – "
Thwack!
My foot connected with Chang Bai's chin. His hand released me, desperately groping the air in search of anything to steady himself with.
No such luck.
The man fell to the ground with a thud and a bloody chin.
I wasn't going to sit around and wait for him to recover.
Just as the thunder of multiple footsteps drew closer, I fled the scene, not caring if I snapped a thousand twigs and dried leaves. They knew what I was up to already anyways, so it doesn't matter anymore.
I never slowed my pace. I never glanced back.
Sprinting through a maze of trees and shrubbery, I found myself before the lake. I didn't stop.
Down the riverbank I dashed, faster and faster until the camp disappeared and I crumpled to the ground in a breathless heap, sweating profusely.
Once my breathing had eased, I heaved myself up again and ambled on down the river, careful not to lose my footing on the mossy banks and sprinting over boulders.
After a few minutes, the cold draft surrounding the river took advantage of my sweat-ridden body. I shivered in the gloomy light of the moon, as the river haughtily tumbled and skipped and tripped over itself beside me.
How did it get this bad so fast?
For the first time in what seemed like forever, I felt truly and utterly alone.
"Kiku… Where are you now?"
Thud.
I'd lost track of how long I've been walking ages ago.
All I know was that somewhere amidst the endless trudging along the riverbank, I had blacked out.
The next time I re-entered consciousness, I was drenched in sweat and spray from the river, and every ribbon of muscle on my body was aching. The afternoon sun had clambered its way to the top of the sky, beating down on me with its smouldering rays.
But wait…
The river was no longer crashing downhill.
It was no longer brewing in torrents and beating at the banks. Instead, the pure water now slithered calmly towards the horizon.
Picking myself off the ground, I can now see the precarious cliff which I now know to be the place where Kiku had lost his memory – the tufts of bamboo teetering at the ledge. I can see the bridge ahead that broke the expanse of blue in the river.
So up ahead should be –
"Bless the heavens above…"
There, where it should've been on the hills, the military camp had vanished; even from afar, it was obvious that the familiar tents were no longer there. All that was left was a field of ash, as well as the occasional tongues of flames still licking the air hungrily for more to devastate.
My former camp had been burnt to smithereens.
My eyes seem to grow wider and wider every step I took into the ruins. The camp was as barren as it was battered. There was absolutely nothing left; if the fire had not devastated it, it had simply vanished from existence.
Stolen , was the only explanation that seemed to make sense in this scenario.
As well as being devoid of its tents, the camp was deathly silent. Not a single soul was to be seen anywhere. They had fled, I ascertained.
I didn't want to think about the worst that could happen to my comrades.
But the sight that greeted me next confirmed my earlier suspicions.
Being done with the ravaged sights that greeted me at the campsite, I proceeded to inspect the cliff…
Our place…
I had a horrible feeling about this, and it grew deeper and all the more stronger as I trudged over the now devastated path, the once-lush greenery reduced to cinders that crackled forlornly under my boots.
Even from my earlier spot beside the river, I couldn't make out our flag…
And as I found myself facing the mutilated clearing, and had to fight the urge to scream, I realized why.
That's because someone – something – had snapped the pole, and our flag truly was nowhere to be seen.
All that was left was a pool of…
Red.
A stomach-churning, heart-pounding red that blended in too well in the sea of dead bodies loitering our place.
It was a gruesome sight indeed, and if I had eaten anything that morning, I'm sure I would have regurgitated it all out in less than a split second flat.
The bodies… The blood… The ruins…
The cherry trees, devoid of any greenery, their branches outstretched into the grey sky like begging, skeletal hands.
It all resembled that of the picture on the article.
The thoughts were too much to bear.
"Yao?"
Looking down, I uttered a low gasp.
Lou, his head barely inches from the toe of my boots, looked back at me solemnly with only one eye.
His other eye was nothing but a black socket, and his spectacles were nowhere to be seen.
"Lou! What happened? Did he do this?" I wanted to know.
Lou shook his head painfully, only too aware of whom I spoke of, "Yao… Kiku d-disappeared… He went back home… He w-went back home without saying goodbye…"
"He went back home… ?"
"They did – " – choking on a mouthful of smoke and spewing blood down the front of his already-dirty military jacket – " – t-they did this. They… Brought more firearms… More cannons… W-we didn't stand a chance."
"Cannons?"
"The victor was predictable, really. They blatantly destroyed us all."
"Well – wh-where's Xiao Ming… Where's Gua Feng?" I dreaded the answer to my question.
Lou shook his head once more and whimpered, "Gua Feng… I'm sorry for him… He was the first…"
"Oh Lou…"
In all the years I've known Lou, I knew he was always the most sensitive of us all. I knew he could sense emotions as easily as a child would recognize his own mother's voice, and I knew his own emotions were prone to sudden changes depending on his environment.
However, what happened next – what was etched in Lou's face next, scared the living daylights out of me.
"Yao, you shouldn't be here", even the coughing and spluttering could not disguise the grave seriousness in his voice, "run away! R-run like the w-w-wind!"
"Why?"
"Yao… They're searching… P-prisoners! T-to be brought back to-
"YAO BEHIND YOU!"
The last thing I saw was Lou's one good eye widening in horror.
Thwack!
Then the whole world went dark.
