A/N:
The 'Sousuke' portion of this chapter has been modified to satisfy my modern day muse. The 'Kaname' part remains relatively true to the original fanfiction (circa 2005).
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"Mr. Sagara!"
The gym teacher stood, rubbing his closely shorn head. He had on a shirt that was too large and pants that were too baggy. His whistle was never too far from his lips.
"Sir!" Sousuke ran to see what the instructor wanted. He held the book was securely in one hand. He had become afraid that his sweat might damage the delicate pages, and had torn some skin while removing the strong adhesive tape.
"Young man, this is PE class, not the Library." The teacher eyed the book and shook his head. He started his trusty stopwatch out of habit. Tick tick tick tick. After thirty seconds, he looked over at the Sagara boy. He still cradled that book. He was puzzled. Was the boy trying to get out of the day's work? "You will be running long distance today. You can't just sit in the shade and cram for a test or something. Everybody else will want to do it, too." And the lazy ass bastards in the class will just want to lay on their back and watch the clouds float past.
Kids these days.
In his days, the others boys would have jumped in and pantsed anyone found carrying a book to PE. Hell, they would give a Wet Willie or a nipple twister to anyone who actually brought a book to school. Then again, in his days, dark and moody boys didn't carry pistols, grenades, or combat knives He was not willing to risk frisking the young man standing at attention in front of him.
"I am well aware of today's assignment, Sir." Sousuke's words snapped with crisp cadence. "I will be running with the rest of my squad. It is not a problem!"
"But… the book…." The PE instructor scratched himself in places that would get him in trouble if he was outside at the same time as the girl's instructor. He had found that out the hard way, once. One week's 'vacation' without pay. "You better not expect me to hold it for you or something! Why didn't you just put it in your locker?"
"How shall I put this?" Sousuke thought quickly on his feet. "Hmmm. Did you hear about the incident in Homeroom class 4?"
"Yes." The instructor nodded. "The janitor, Mr. Zenji told me something about it. He was glad that he didn't have to clean it up. Someone else had taken care of it."
"The perpetrators were after this book," Sousuke admitted. He did not consider himself a perpetrator, even though he was the one who rigged the trap.
"Is it valuable or something?" The teacher suddenly had a look of avarice. "Something rare that someone might want to steal?" Maybe he should hold the book for the boy.
"Negative!" Sousuke said. "It can readily be purchased through book dealers and over the internet."
"Did some pretty girl scribble a love note in it? You don't want your sweetheart to find out?" The man chuckled. He remembered being young.
"No Sir!" Sousuke answered.
"A boy?" The teacher raised one eyebrow. "Did some young man express his deepest feelings for you?" His face held a look of disdain and disgust.
"Negative!" Sousuke replied.
The SRT member had come across alternative lifestyles as a mercenary; but, he didn't ask and he didn't tell whatever he found out. He did not approve, but his aversion was based on military grounds and not moral ones. It was unwise for squadmates to get involved with one another. It might reduce their effectiveness… and could become a serious issue if a soldier had to choose between mission success and the well-being of a lover. But the concept was not gender specific. It would never be wise for him to get romantically involved with Tessa, for example. And-
For a moment, the book felt as if it was scorching hot. No, it felt like it had immeasurable weight. He felt a lump in his throat, thinking how his relationship with Kaname was frowned upon at Mithril.
Would he have to choose between his profession and his beloved some day?
"Well, what is it then?" The teacher rubbed his chin. He blew his whistle, signaling for the other boys to stop stretching and come over to him. "Is that book something dirty? Pornography?" His visage grew stormy. "Not little boys, I hope."
"Sir!" Sousuke pulled out his Glock 26. Where had he concealed that?! "I do NOT ship that way!"
Jindai High's most infamous student had to fight down his anger. After the plane crash in his early youth, Kalinin had found him and took him to Russia, where he and other orphaned children were assigned to the Institute, a shady establishment tasked with growing a generation of child spies. He was taught several languages and gifted with counter-intelligence and investigative skills. He also learned to fight with shooting, martial arts and hand-to-hand fighting competitions, some of which were to the death. Had he not been seriously wounded during one such match, he would have been secreted away to become adept at the arts of seduction.
"It was wrong." Sousuke whispered to himself. "Doing that to the innocent." He was speaking past tense, not present, naturally. Grammatically, that is. His outrage at the practice came to life when his sense of empathy began growing like the Grinch's heart, once he joined Mithril, and encountered the worldwide tragedies that the paramilitary force sought to extinguish. As a child, he had little sense of right or wrong, just or unjust.
Today, he still had no memory of polite society.
Across the decades, both men and women have been set as honeytraps by the Soviets. There was erotic dancer-turned-double agent Matai Hari in the First World War. There were East Germany's 'Romeo spies' who had been sent into the West on gigolo duty to seduce women of influence during the Cold War. Indeed, honeytraps were something of a Cold War specialty. Take the case of a security guard at the US embassy in Moscow who enjoyed what he thought was a chance encounter with the 25-year-old Violetta Seina at a metro station. It later emerged that he had leaked intelligence to the KGB officer. Meanwhile, suspected East German spy Ellen Rometsch was a call girl who allegedly became involved with President John F. Kennedy. There were far less glamorous examples, too.
Young male KGB spies were sent to Afghanistan. Some were sent as assassins. Others were tasked with learning the secrets of Afghan commanders. Rich and powerful men prowled the streets of Afghanistan in search of poor and orphaned boys to use as sex slaves and entertainment, a twisted tradition that had been going on for centuries. Boys, typically aged from ten to eighteen, are coerced or abducted from the streets, and then dressed in women's clothes and forced to dance as entertainment. They are referred to as 'bachas' and used as dancers at private parties by powerful warlords, commanders, politicians, police chiefs, and other members of the elite who keep them as a symbol of authority and affluence… and often sexually exploit them. That practice is known as 'bacha bazi' which translates to 'boy for play.'
Sousuke still might have been thrown into that lifestyle, when he had joined Afghan society after failing to assassinate General Majhid. That guerilla leader adopted him, and valued his fighting skills… so much so that he killed Commander Ahmad Haqqani, who wanted to sell him to wealthy friends.
"W-H-O-O-O-O-A!" The teacher put his hands up. "So it's girlies, huh." He smiled when Sousuke flinched. He was right! He leered at the book.
Sousuke opened his mouth, about to say that the book depicted women and men. It was best to say nothing at all!
"I never saw a gun, wink wink," the gym teacher said with a drawl. "If you like, I will hold the book for you. It will be our little secret." Whether bribery or extortion, that entreaty was impossible. A large number of guys had walked up, ready to start class, grudgingly.
They had heard part of the conversation.
"Sagara's got porn?" All it took was for one boy tol ask that question.
Words of mouth spread like wildfire amongst the boys. Just the question itself caused word to spread like wildfire. "Come on man, share it! We're all buds here." Not everybody was of like mind, if only because they thought that the only porn that Sousuke might have would be a catalog filled with naked guns. And, very few boys had wanted to be buddies with a certain soldier prior to today.
"I did not say-" Sousuke could not get a word in.
"Alright! Tittie pictures." A freckled boy with overly thick bifocals said with a sickly smile.
"Serve'm up, dude. It'll give us something to think about while we run." One of the boys on the track team rubbed his hands together.
"We're even willing to jog with our peckers dragging on the ground, heh heh." That came from a soccer player with an inferiority complex.
"It is not-" Sousuke held the book tightly.
"Bitchin', man! What kind of stuff?" One boy tunneled his way beneath the crowded cluster of students. He forced his way to his feet. "Babe on babe? Idol shots? Girl next door?"
"Hey!" One boy from the camera club grinned. He had helped reproduce and print the candid photos taken in the girls' showers, after a computer geek had helped him hack into covert cameras. "Did you make a scrapbook from those steamy shots?" He was trying to be clever, equating 'steamy' naughtiness with the steam in the showers. "Get it… steamy…."
"Move it!" A burly member of the wrestling team pushed his way near Sousuke. "Out with it Sagara. Good to see you're a normal guy after all. I bet you took secret photos at outdoor showers and onsens." Little did he know how fierce Sousuke had been in his fight against Kurz and Shinji to safeguard Kaname and the other girl's modesty in just such a setting. "Maybe you snuck some of your military cameras into a lingerie changing room. Or a whorehouse."
"-" About to offer another denial, Sousuke froze, thinking back to Hong Kong.
He had seen a girl trying to flirt with a couple of soldiers who blow her off. When she turned around, he is surprised to discover that she looked just like Kaname. The prostitute saw the whisky bottle in his hand and asked if he might want to have some fun with her. After a long pause he finally agreed. There was a first time for everything right? Why not that night, in a world where nothing seemed to really matter anyway?
At her apartment, the girl poured two glasses of Scotch and told Sousuke that he looked just like the guy she used to go out with. She told him to smile a little, and he had said that he only knows how to fight. That response caused her to burst out laughing, because she thought that Sousuke was a cleaning guy based on his uniform. "I was a Specialist," Sousuke hissed under his breath, annoyed by that memory. "I do not do toilets!"
When the hooker had asked what Sousuke was up to that night, he had replied that he had been working with his colleagues but decided to skip out. The girl commiserated and said that the best action when faced with a difficult situation is to run away. Sousuke said that he could not return to his companions now because they had lost their trust, and the girl said that he shouldn't be so trusting of them in the first place, since people are only good as long as they are useful to you. By that point the girl was drunk and Sousuke hadn't touched his glass, since he had never had alcohol before. The girl straddled him, hot to trot. But every time the downtrodden soldier looked at her face, he remembered Kaname. Before she could kiss him, Sousuke pushed her off and said that he won't go through with it. He tossed her some money and she angrily threw his whisky bottle back at him, telling him to get out of her sight.
The book felt cold to the touch now. For a brief moment, Sousuke wondered if he should still follow through with his plans. He should. Yes, in the past, he had pushed away a girl who looked like Kaname. But, that was not because he wanted to reject Kaname Chidori. It was just the opposite. He wondered if he was somehow beholden to tell Kaname about the sex worker who looked like her. No. Most definitely not.
It would be like bringing the rope to his own lynching.
"Shit! Man, don't bogart the book." A member of the gymnastics team vaulted off of the back of his fellow sportsmate. He landed near Sousuke and thrust his arm out like a striking cobra, causing the young soldier to reflexively step back and accidentality stomp on the gym teacher's foot.
"O-u-c-h!" The instructor cursed under his breath. "Everybody get back!" Things were spiraling out of control. "This is ridiculous! Buy all of the magazines you want at the street vendor." He turned to Sousuke. "Things are getting crazy. I'm afraid that I'll have to confiscate that pornography, son. I promise not to tell the Principal."
"It's… not… pornography…." Sousuke said. He was getting worried. There were a lot of guys crowded around him. If they successfully grabbed the book, the word would get out. Kaname would know what he had been up to. He wanted to tell her himself, at the appropriate time! Despite his natural instincts, he had to try to keep a promise he had made to his girlfriend about reducing his violent responses, especially towards his fellow students. Because of that, he could not use excessive force, merely to protect the book.
"Maybe it's just a book on Arm Slaves," Shinji said. He looked more excited than the porno freaks. The other guys pushed him out of the way.
"It's probably hitozuma and jukujo themes," a swimmer offered. "Married women. Remember when that married babe saved Sagara's ass at the flirting contest?"
"Way to go, guy!" A member of the chess club gave Sousuke the 'thumbs up' gesture. He began to sing off key: "I'm just a gigolo and everywhere I go… people know the part I'm playing…. paid for every dance, selling each romance… ooh, what they're sayin'…."
"Maybe it's anime porn," a pimpled otaku said, breathing heavily. "You got Haruka Oikawa? Kaya Nanami? Yuri Ozawa? How about Akane Natsukawa, she's super hot!"
"Man, how about Nao Kobayashi or Rin Horiguchi?" The baseball player with a valiant but scruffy attempt at a beard frowned when everyone gave him an accusatory glare, as if he was a geek, too. "I'm no nerd. Naked girls are naked girls, you mutts. You better have some Toshimi Yonekura!"
"Yeh," a rather hirsute boy said, his large belly partially uncovered by his gym clothes. "Sometimes cartoon chicks look hotter than real ones." A number or boys nodded their heads. No one made any attempt to correct the use of the word 'cartoon' instead of 'manga' or 'anime'. The speaker was whispered to be member of a local gang.
The boys all crowded in on Sousuke. A number grabbed hold of the book, while others brought the young soldier to the ground. The gym teacher was red in the face, after blowing his whistle long and hard. Light in the head, he almost passed out.
"IT… IS… NOT… F-CKING… PORNOGRAPHY… YOU… SHITHEADS!"
Sousuke's obscene shout owed a lot to the time he had spent with Lt. Melissa Mao. It burst out of him like the creature in 'Alien', taking everyone by surprise. They all went momentarily limp.
Eel-like, the mercenary squirmed free, and his flying elbows and knees gained him more freedom. A series of gunshots fired straight up into the air added to the shock of the moment. A small stun grenade landed at a strategic point. The detonation left a number of salivating boys stricken, but Sousuke remained unharmed. He had not broken his promise to Kaname. The violence had by no means been excessive.
Moments later, the ground shook slightly, like a herd of water buffalos was approaching. A subsequent shout told Sousuke who had arrived after hearing the pistolfire.
"Hold on, Leader!"
That voice was familiar to Sousuke, even with the ringing in his ears. It was one of the Rugby players that he had helped train. The shouted profanity had caught his attention even more so than the familiar gunshots.
"We'll f-cking save you. Come on guys, move you f-cking sorry asses. We gotta f-cking rescue Sagara!"
"FUCK YEH!"
The entire Rugby team began picking up moaning and writhing bodies, throwing them aside like they were toys. Like a bull seeing red, one enthusiastic boy mistakenly tossed the gym teacher skyward. The hang time was tremendous. The rescuers helped Sousuke to his feet and asked if he was okay now.
The gym teacher was a shaken up. He considered sending Sousuke to the Vice Principal, someone who seemed to tolerate Sagara's actions far less than the Principal did. But, he had not acted forcefully enough to control the situation, and had actually helped cause the ruckus. He might get into more trouble than Sagara and his gaggle of gargantuan trainees. Deciding to act like a responsible adult, he limped about, checking on each member of his class. He was relieved to see that no one was injured severely. At worst they were stunned, with a few minor cuts and bruises. He had not been as fortunate.
"As I have said… it is not pornography," Sousuke lectured the chastened boys. "I would not look favorably on anyone who spread that type of rumor." To emphasize his statement, he removed the empty clip in his gun and slammed in a fully loaded one. "Neither would they…." He motioned towards the Rugby team. To the onlookers, those boys looked larger than they truly were, and their eyes gave off the illusion of glowing with deep red fire.
"Hey! Who the Hell said it was porno, man?" One boy raised his hands and backed away.
"We never heard anything about pornography, guy!" That boy's statement had everyone eagerly nodding their head.
"I am sorry that the misunderstanding has taken so much time," Sousuke said to the gym teacher. "We should begin our running now."
"I can't," the teacher replied, one ankle beginning to swell. "And I am tasked to accompany you boys wherever you run."
He had let the boys run on their own once. Out to gather school supplies, another school teacher saw a large group of boys out buying sake, cigarettes, and sexy magazines. He had caught great grief because of that, and almost had to search for another line of work.
"We will have to find something else productive." The teacher nodded. Maybe they could all be set to weeding the school flower beds. He might get some good credit for that! No. Never mind. This group of apes would probably pick out the flowers by mistake. He didn't want to end up working in the fast food industry. "You can do individual exercises."
"Yes!" A large number of boys exclaimed, happy to avoid a lengthy run in the hot midday sun.
"That is not necessary," Sousuke said, a stern look on his face, his back ramrod straight. "If you enlist me, I will lead this group."
"Hmmm-mm-m." The teacher thought a moment. It would be best if he stuck to the curriculum he had given to the school board. A fan of American western movies, he said "Alright, sheriff. You can lead the posse. Just have'm back by sunset." That last had been meant to fit the genre, not as a literal command.
"Sir, yes sir!" Sousuke flipped a mental switch, a change helped by the presence of the Rugby boys. He was now more drill instructor than fellow student. He needed to carry out his task properly, as he saw it. But, he also needed time to peruse the book, and wanted a way to do so without anyone paying too much attention to his literary pursuit. "May I deputize fellow students?" He was a western fan, too.
"Sure, sure." The teacher said. "Do what you see fit. Just don't kill anyone. They're highschoolers, not cattle rustlers or prisoners of war." He was referring to the American Civil War, since surrendering soldiers from either side were held in shabby penitentiaries. "Just make sure they sweat enough." By that, he meant 'don't let them slack off after a lap or two.'
"By your command!" Sousuke deputized the Rugby players and had them head off with the other students, as if they were cowboys herding cattle.
"So-" Sousuke said, rubbing his chin. "What would be a sufficient work out?" He thought back to a time when he had gone to Israel with Captain Testarossa and Mayer Amit, wanting to appraise useful modifications the Israeli army had made to their American-bought arm slaves. He had been allowed to join the Sayeret Matkal on their one hundred and twenty kilometer march, the outing where every commando hopeful was looking to earn his red beret. No. That would take far too long. He then thought back to a particular assignment, the only one on which he wore a prosthetic disguise. He had spent time undercover amongst the Chinese Snow Wolves, looking for a Whispered girl amongst them. He had run ten kilometers with those Special Force members, carrying a thirty-five kilogram pack like they did. No, again. Still too much time and too much weight for today's outing. "Hmmm." The solution was simple enough.
The boys would all run around the track as swiftly as they could, stopping when they reached three kilometers, or when class time ran out. "Get each troop member a hurdle to carry," he told the leader of the Rugby squad. "Anyone who drops it will return to the start." He thought about adding 'And they will be shot.' No. He did not want to rule through fear.
But, he would gladly keep it as a last resort.
"Yes, leader!" The boy spoke with his fellow teammates, and then went to tell the good news to the gym class.
"Wait!" Sousuke said, halting the other boy. "Make certain you are not overly harsh." Military principles can apply to all aspects of the civilian workforce, and as such, should be reflected in bastions of education. He remembered tenets held by the U.S. Marines: Be technically and tactically proficient…. Know your Marines and look out for their welfare… Set the example… Keep your Marines informed… Ensure the task is understood, supervised and accomplished…. Make sound and timely decisions… Train your Marines as a team… Develop a sense of responsibility in your subordinates… Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions… Employ your unit in accordance with its capabilities.
A number of those principals were relevant, today. This was not a group who would compete for the school's honor, like the Rugby squad had done. And, it was not a Mithril training camp. Also, the teacher had stressed that the boys were not prisoners of war. He opened his mouth to clarify his remark, but paused. He was beset by memories again. It seemed that his current emotional state left him vulnerable to uninvited excursions across his mental borders.
"Leader?" The boy looked quizzically at the man who had turned him into a raging ball of sports fury.
While some sources listed Sousuke as Japanese in origin, he thought himself to be from Afghanistan. Just the same, he was very tuned into Japanese military history from World War Two. Not that long ago, he had watched a film about the Bataan Death March. Within hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, bombs rained down on U.S. and Filipino forces in the Philippines. After months of vicious fighting in the cities and the jungles, allied forces surrendered only to be met with a brutal death march to P.O.W. camps dotted across the rugged landscape. Thousands died during these marches. After reaching the P.O.W. camps, more lost their lives. There had been an estimated 600 to 650 American deaths and 5,000 to 18,000 Filipino deaths.
To Sousuke, that was all an atrocity. But, he had witnessed things just as bad, if not worse. Mujahideen treatment of prisoners had been fantastically savage to the point that Soviet soldiers made it a point to save the last bullet or grenade for themselves to avoid capture. Apart from the usual guerrilla tactics of ambushes, mines and close quarter knife assassinations of Soviet soldiers who walked into crowded markets alone, the Afghans often doled out mutilations, such as cutting out ears, eyes and tongues; beatings; beheadings; and immolations. One muj commander made it a habit to skin and castrate Soviet prisoners and leave them out surrounded by booby traps.
Sousuke swallowed hard. Not only had he witnessed things… he had been an active participant. He shook his head, but he couldn't block out certain memories, things that seemed righteous at the time, but seemed more like haunting ghosts now. He was no longer the Tin Man. He had been given a heart, and that brought a conscience along for the ride.
"Leader, are you alright?" The rugby stalwart took a few steps towards Sousuke, stopping when the other boy raised his hand.
Another muj practice which the Soviets dreaded, later described in Soviet Paratrooper vs Mujahideen Fighter, was the 'puppet'. The Soviet prisoner was blinded and his limbs were chopped off before what was left was be tossed onto the roads in front of Soviet convoys. Only his tongue was spared so he could beg to be euthanized.
Not surprisingly, Russian morgue attendants dealing with the remains of these victims often drank themselves silly to cope with the trauma.
The Soviet Afghan War was particularly vicious not just because of Afghans' tradition of mutilation but the Soviet military was prone to random, indiscriminate violence against both combatants and civilians. Entire villages were obliterated with artillery, air strikes and vehicle mounted weapons. Afghans could be arbitrarily shot or beaten or tortured.
Afghan? Japanese? Whatever or whoever Sousuke was, he would not add to the sins of his fathers.
He gave his command to the other boy: "Unlike during your sport training, each boy can have a single drink of water-"
He paused, not wanting to make the error of being too soft. The boys should not be allowed to take a water break, interrupting their exercise. Gym classes provide students with physical exercise on a consistent basis. It is particularly important for the physical well-being of children who do not engage in physical activities outside of school. A good physical education class will feature activities that raise the heart rate, increase the pulse rate and rev up metabolism. According to a number of national Heart Associations, gym classes can help teach children skills that can help them be active their whole lives. The physical exertion also helps the mind, as children will find they are able to think more clearly and are able to focus better in other classes following a physical education period.
"-If they drink while running… and do not drop their burden." Sousuke continued. A thought occurred to him. He should make good use of something he had heard in a lecture at Merida base the week before. Everyone needs water, but drinking water is a habit, not an urge or reflex. By the time your body actually wants to drink water, it's already dehydrated. "No… strike that… make the drinking mandatory. If they cannot swallow, secure one of the gardener's hoses and assemble an enema. Be certain to clean it off between uses."
They were not barbarians, after all.
"Right!" The rugby player ran off to perform his duties.
With innate compass skills, Sousuke was more than capable of running along a course while paying little attention to the ground. He began jogging at the back of the procession, happy to contribute to everyone's well being.
"I remember what we were taught in Biology class," he told himself, flipping to the Index of the Kama Sutra. "Physical exertion results in endorphin production in the brain. Endorphins are the 'feel good' hormones that improve mood and outlook." He knew that children who engage in robust gym classes benefit from the release of endorphins. "The physical activity becomes fun. The endorphins' effects will allow all of us go to go onto our next classes feeling cheerful, relaxed and ready to focus on learning new ideas."
He was also happy to have a useful military reference, of course. German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel had once said 'War makes extremely heavy demands on the soldier's strength and nerves. For this reason, make heavy demands on your men in peacetime exercises.'
Life was a battlefield, was it not?
So, everyone there was a soldier in one way or another.
Back to the book. This chapter would do.
OF THE WAYS OF EXCITING DESIRE, AND MISCELLANEOUS EXPERIMENTS, AND RECIPES
IF a man is unable to satisfy a Hastini, or Elephant woman, he should have recourse to various means to excite her passion. At the commencement he should rub her yoni with his hand or fingers, and not begin to have intercourse with her until she becomes excited, or experiences pleasure. This is one way of exciting a woman.
Running in gym class, and reading the ancient text at the same time. Keeping his body physically fit, while learning how to excite a woman. If only his Mithril compatriots could see him now! Kurz would be ecstatic… Mao would just shrug… Mardukas would scowl… Kalinin would chuckle like a proud father… and Tessa… uhhh…. would she faint, or put on some gym clothes herself? No… he should not think such things about his Captain. Though, she had once been chained to a bed by the Sergeant Major.
Or, he may make use of certain Apadravyas, or things which are put on or around the lingam to supplement its length or its thickness, so as to fit it to the yoni. In the opinion of Babhravya, these Apadravyas should be made of gold, silver, copper, iron, ivory, buffalo's horn, various kinds of wood, tin or lead, and should be soft, cool, provocative of sexual vigour, and well fitted to serve the intended purpose. Vatsyayana, however, says that they may be made according to the natural liking of each individual.
Make it longer? Sousuke wondered if that was truly necessary. After all, bayonets functioned perfectly at certain lengths. Any longer, and the weapons might prove awkward and unwieldy in the thrust. "That-" The choice of words had been perfect if unintentional. However, it would be best if he did not weaponize his… well… you know. Then again, his proficiency with weapons was legendary.
The following are the different kinds of Apadravyas:
'The armlet' (Valaya) should be of the same size as the lingam, and should have its outer surface made rough with globules.
'The couple' (Sanghati) is formed of two armlets.
'The bracelet' (Chudaka) is made by joining three or more armlets, until they come up to the required length of the lingam.
'The single bracelet' is formed by wrapping a single wire around the lingam, according to its dimensions.
The Kantuka or Jalaka is a tube open at both ends, with a hole through it, outwardly rough and studded with soft globules, and made to fit the side of the yoni, and tied to the waist.
"A French Tickler would be simpler," Sousuke blurted out, remembering something Kurz had once espoused. A 'French Tickler' is a type of condom that has bumps and or protuberances designed to increase the pleasure experienced by the person in whom it is inserted. It's called a 'tickler' because it tickles. It's called 'French' because there is a long-standing belief… on the part of the English…. that French people are much more sexually active than anyone else and this leads to things even vaguely related to sex often being given the name: 'French'. Thus, we have: 'French kissing', 'French letters' and, of course, 'French ticklers'.
The young mercenary momentarily lost good footing, and had to swing the book as a counterweight, to keep from falling. He had imagined holding something behind his back that he would hand to a happy and expectant Kaname. She would be thinking about roses or maybe a friendship ring. And he would hand her a French Tickler.
"Uhhh."
Not happening!
When such a thing cannot be obtained, then a tube made of the wood apple, or tubular stalk of the bottle gourd, or a reed made soft with oil and extracts of plants, and tied to the waist with strings, may be made use of, as also a row of soft pieces of wood tied together.
The above are the things that can be used in connection with or in the place of the lingam.
The people of the southern countries think that true sexual pleasure cannot be obtained without perforating the lingam, and they therefore cause it to be pierced like the lobes of the ears of an infant pierced for earrings.
"No!" Sousuke reacted immediately. He felt an uncomfortable stirring in his loins. Without thinking, he said: "It is not me. It is the book." He didn't have time to feel foolish, reassuring his John Thomas, so he kept running and reading.
Now, when a young man perforates his lingam he should pierce it with a sharp instrument, and then stand in water so long as the blood continues to flow. At night, he should engage in sexual intercourse, even with vigour, so as to clean the hole. After this he should continue to wash the hole with decoctions, and increase the size by putting into it small pieces of cane, and the wrightia antidysenterica, and thus gradually enlarging the orifice. It may also be washed with liquorice mixed with honey, and the size of the hole increased by the fruit stalks of the simapatra plant. The hole should also be anointed with a small quantity of oil.
In the hole made in the lingam a man may put Apadravyas of various forms, such as the 'round', the 'round on one side', the 'wooden mortar', the 'flower', the 'armlet', the 'bone of the heron', the 'goad of the elephant', the 'collection of eight balls', the 'lock of hair', the 'place where four roads meet', and other things named according to their forms and means of using them. All these Apadravyas should be rough on the outside according to their requirements.
"I wonder if that is why Sergeant Shivaji Maharaj always walked funny.' He knew that probably wasn't the case. Prior to meeting Sousuke, the Indian soldier had stepped on a land mine. He chased those thoughts away with a full fusillade when an image of Grace Wiseman flickered across the back of his mind.
While the other members of the Indian Ocean Special Response Team being sent to Afghanistan to stop Gauron teased Sousuke due to his young age and dismissed the idea of taking his advice, that woman had apologized for their behavior and introduced herself. She urged the other team members to listen to him since he knew the area. When the others became hostile towards him, she defended him, telling them that he had fought Gauron before, and bruised another Mithril soldier for implying she had a crush on him.
At one point in their ultimate battle, Sousuke and Gray were the only ones left to face Gauron and Zaied. Sousuke tried to assist Gray, but Zaied forced him to stay back using an Ak-87 anti-AS Gatling cannon and pinned the Arbalest under the feet of his Shadow. Gauron attacked Gray with his Codarl. Firing her GDC-B rifle until she ran out of ammunition, she was unable to stop his approach. She tried to use a monomolecular cutter, but Gauron overpowered her M9E Gernsback and killed her before Sousuke could reach her.
The ways of enlarging the lingam must be now related.
When a man wishes to enlarge his lingam, he should rub it with the bristles of certain insects that live in trees, and then, after rubbing it for ten nights with oils, he should again rub it with the bristles as before. By continuing to do this a swelling will be gradually produced in the lingam, and he should then lie on a cot, and cause his lingam to hang down through a hole in the cot. After this he should take away all the pain from the swelling by using cool concoctions. The swelling, which is called 'Suka', and is often brought about among the people of the Dravida country, lasts for life.
If the lingam is rubbed with the following things, the plant physalis flexuosa, the shavara-kandaka plant, the jalasuka plant, the fruit of the egg plant, the butter of a she buffalo, the hastri-charma plant, and the juice of the vajrarasa plant, a swelling lasting for one month will be produced.
By rubbing it with oil boiled in the concoctions of the above things, the same effect will be produced, but lasting for six months.
The enlargement of the lingam is also effected by rubbing it or moistening it with oil boiled on a moderate fire along with the seeds of the pomegranate, and the cucumber, the juices of the valuka plant, the hastri-charma plant, and the eggplant.
In addition to the above, other means may be learnt from experienced and confidential persons.
"Baka!" Sousuke admonished himself when he pictured himself asking his father figure Kalinin for advice: 'Sir, how would you suggest that I lengthen my lingam?' He almost stumbled again, when the imaginary Kalinin in his thoughts smirked, stirred some borscht, and said 'Ask the Commander." By that, he meant Richard Mardukas.
The young mercenary closed the blook and shut his eyes very hard. Maybe that would keep the phantom he feared at bay. It was no use.
'So, Sergeant' the imaginary Mardukas began, his voice and posture rigid and professional. 'You wish my advice. First you must answer this question correctly. Any child could do so. What is long… hard… and filled with seamen?'
'It… that would be a…." Sousuke would not falter in front of that man. 'A penis!' He had herd the word 'seamen' but thought 'semen,' given his reading material.
'Incorrect, moron.' The imaginary Mardukas vanished, but his condescending correction remained: 'It's a submarine! I can't imagine what the Captain sees in you.'
Sousuke opened the book… flipped through the pages with some difficulty, as a strong breeze kicked up at the high school track… and found the stanza he had been about to read.
The miscellaneous experiments and recipes are as follows:
If a man mixes the powder of the milk hedge plant, and the kantaka plant with the excrement of a monkey and the powdered root of the lanjalika plant, and throws this mixture on a woman, she will not love anybody else afterwards.
If a man thickens the juice of the fruits of the cassia fistula, and the eugenia jambolana by mixing them with the powder of the soma plant, the vernonia anthelmintica, the eclipta prostata, and the lohopa-jihirka, and applies this composition to the yoni of a woman, and then has sexual intercourse with her, his love for her will be destroyed.
The same effect is produced if a man has connection with a woman who has bathed in the buttermilk of a she-buffalo mixed with the powders of the gopalika plant, the banu-padika plant and the yellow amaranth.
An ointment made of the flowers of the nauclea cadamba, the hog plum, and the eugenia jambolana, and used by a woman, causes her to be disliked by her husband.
An ointment made of the fruit of the asteracantha longifolia (kokilaksha) will contract the yoni of a Hastini or Elephant woman, and this contraction lasts for one night.
An ointment made by pounding the roots of the nelumbrium speciosum, and of the blue lotus, and the powder of the plant physalis flexuosa mixed with ghee and honey, will enlarge the yoni of the Mrigi or Deer woman.
Drinking the milk of a white cow who has a white calf at her foot is auspicious, produces fame, and preserves life.
Sousuke read through many more examples. Near the end of the chapter, he happened upon the following sentence:
'This work is not intended to be used merely as an instrument for satisfying our desires.'
That was an important point, especially for a young man who had a habit of getting overly motivated by military manuals.
Sousuke suddenly felt relieved, unconscious fears dissipating like smoke in the wind. He didn't want to become as obsessed with sexual things as he was with military ones. Back at the Institute, he remembered his Soviet instructors laughing and bragging about Joseph Stalin, when they thought that he and the other youths were asleep, or otherwise occupied.
As a young man, Stalin had been a prolific lover. He often promised marriage, only to renege at the last minute. He had affairs with numerous women. Later, in 1913, during his four years exile in Turukhansk, a remote part of Siberia from which escape was particularly difficult, he spent time in the village of Monastyrskoe. There was not much to do there except drink, feud and fornicate, and Stalin had perfected all three pursuits. He became engaged to at least three women, all of whom he abandoned. A shameless, caddish rogue, he seduced several landladies and usually their maids too, as well as a series of noblewomen and liberated revolutionary girls. When he parted from one mistress, he managed to move in with another the next day, suggesting he was carrying on with several simultaneously. It was claimed that when he was in his thirties… and before he became leader… that Stalin had raped or seduced… even fathered a child with… a girl who was just 13 years old… and had been indicted for the under-age seduction by the policeman who caught Stalin and the girl Lidia in flagrante delicto.
"The helicopter." That thought didn't just zoom in out of the blue, and there was no actual rotary aircraft flying overhead. He was thinking back to a cold and snowy night in the Russian suburb of Khabarovsk... for good reason.
A mil Mi-24… NATO reporting name 'Hind'… was on the wing, searchlights illuminating the ground beneath it. There was more movement. A small truck hurried on its way, heading for the safety of nearby mountains. But, the vehicle was no longer safe in the cover of darkness. A missile, followed by a faithful tail of smoke, exploded near the truck, tossing it on its side, and throwing a red-haired girl out into the snow. The girl stood up… walked over to the truck… and retrieved a large data-disc from the hand of the dead driver. Immediately thereafter, the menacing Hind hovered before her and unleashed the fury of its 12.7 mm Yakushev-Borzov Yak-B Gatling gun. An observer might think that the girl would surely perish. But, a giant anti-armor dagger sped through the night and speared the Hind. Impaled, the aircraft aptly nicknamed 'a flying tank,' still managed to be a danger… but not for long. ECS turned off, Sousuke piloted his M9 to tower above the cowering escapee. He grabbed the Mi-24… carried it forward… and then threw it to the ground, blades still whirling. The copter burst into flames.
Sousuke had knelt the Gernsback down… opened it up… and dismounted to approach the red-haired girl. Frightened, she had asked 'What are you going to do with me?' He had replied 'Take you back with us.'
That girl, a Whispered, was Mira Kudan. She would go on to work in Mithril's engineering division. She helped to build the Arbalest for Mithril, in gratitude for her rescue.
She was a descendant of Stalin, born to an illicit family that still lived in Siberia.
"I hope that she is doing well," Sousuke said fervently before resuming his reading. Engrossed, he hurdled a number of stricken gym-mates, who in their exhausted state served as groaning obstacles on the course. The words of the Rugby boys in their attempt to motivate the fallen fell on deaf ears.
"Are you quitting on me? Well, are you? Then quit, you slimy f-cking walrus-looking piece of shit! Get the f-ck off of the track! Get the f-k off of my track! NOW! MOVE IT! Or I'm going to rip your balls off, so you cannot contaminate the rest of the world!"
"Were you born a slimy, scumbag puke piece o' shit, Kazama, or did you have to work on it?"
"I bet you're the kind of guy that would f-ck a person in the ass and not even have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reach-around. I'll be watching you."
"It looks to me like the best part of you ran down the crack of your mama's ass, Kotaro, and ended up as a brown stain on the mattress.
"What is your major malfunction, numbnuts? Didn't Mommy and Daddy show you enough attention when you were a child?"
"Tsubaki, why the f-ck did you drop your hurdle and start sprinting? Are you trying to lap the leader? You puke, you will run with that hurdle, you will sleep with your hurdle. You will give your hurdle a girl's name because it is the only pussy you are going to get. Your days of finger-banging ol' Mary-Jane Rottencrotch through her pretty pink panties are over! You're married to that metal. And you will be faithful. Back to the f-cking beginning and start again!"
Amongst the continuing commotion, and during his final few hundred yards of his run of reading, rumination and reminiscing, a certain Sergeant felt a sudden sense of satisfaction and ease when he read the final paragraph in the chapter:
'In short, an intelligent and prudent person, attending to Dharma and Artha, and attending to Kama also, without becoming the slave of his passions, obtains success in everything that he may undertake.'
There would be no obstacles that he could not overcome. There was no course that he could not run and reach its end.
Right?
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"But-"
Kaname rubbed at her blue mane with a towel. She and her friends looked like a bunch of drowned kittens. Their hair was plastered to their heads and their clothes stuck to them like a second skin. That had prompted hoots and whistles from happily shocked boys when they had run their short dash to freedom.
"There will be no 'buts', Miss Chidori." The girl's gym teacher had her hands on her hips. "You will be running with the other girls."
"Teacher, we may get sick." Kyouko tried to dry off her glasses on her shirt, before remembering how wet it was. Water ran still down her leg and puddled on the hardwood of the gym.
"Outrun any illness, Miss Tokiwa," the teacher said, sounding rather haughty. "Be glad that I won't be calling any parents. Imagine, you girls going into the boys' locker room… into the showers, of all places." She sighed. "What could you have been thinking!"
"Sousuke Sagara," Ryo said with a frown. She did blame Sousuke to some degree. Mainly, it was safer to single him out than to point a finger at Kaname. The blue-haired girl was the type who would rip a base out of the ground and hurl it at the source of her irritation, after all.
"Yeh," Maya said. "Sousuke AND Kaname." She was cut from stronger cloth than Ryo. Kaname had gotten her into this mess, and she was going to show her displeasure.
"Miss Chidori?" The teacher looked shocked. "You… and Mr. Sagara… are the two of you…." She made an effort to settle herself down. It was her duty to be supportive, not accusatory. She was a teacher, someone the girls could come to with their problems and questions. Then again, she was responsible for their well-being and the honor of the school. "Do I need to refer you to the Health Clinic for a talk on sexual education? Our nation is gaining an unwanted reputation for promiscuity, with schoolchildren having more sex than ever before, but many are shunning condoms, unaware of the risks of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases."
"Wh-Wh-Wh-" The first word froze to Kaname's tongue, as if she had licked something extremely cold.
"I know that there is a cultural reluctance to openly discuss sex in the home. It can't help that your father is in America. Not that a Japanese man would necessarily be the best person to talk to in any case." The teacher continued unabashed. "In case you were unaware, the popular culture often treats teenage girls as sex objects, and there is a proliferation of online dating sites that has led to a rise in enjo-kosai… 'compensated dating.' That's just a euphemism for teen prostitution, in which girls sleep with men they meet in chatrooms in exchange for cash or gifts." The teacher looked at Kaname with a look of sympathy.
She mistook Kaname's reaction as shame and confusion.
"Wha-Wha-Wha-" Kaname was turning red in the face. Even Kyouko stepped away from her. No one there could comfortably determine the blue-haired girl's blast radius.
"I know that the rebellious Mr. Sagara might seem fascinating to an impressionable girl," The teacher said, sighing and bringing her hands to her chest. "That doesn't mean that you have to be one of the fifty percent of 17-year-old girls having had sex, right?" She thought back to her own youth for a moment. Times had changed so much. "It's not enough just to be studious, Kaname. You need to take care of your body as well as your mind."
"W-H-A-T?"
Kaname's successful shout had Kyouko covering her ears. Mizuki smiled a smarmy smile, drinking in every minute of it. Ryo and Maya tried to sneak outside, but the teacher wasn't done with them. Cringing from the unexpected cacophony, the older woman snapped her fingers and pointed to the floor. The two girls sat back down, currently cordoned off from the remainder of the class, who were all ears at the moment.
All ears, and comfortably dry.
"What," Kaname repeated, at a much quieter volume this time. "Why are you jumping to conclusions. I have… not… slept… with… that… moron." She bit off her words, eyes flashing. "I am one of the fifty percent who hasn't slept with anybody!" For a moment she looked at her friends. She did the math, looking at her friends. Mizuki may have slept with Shirai. What about the others?
Wait.
What the Hell was she thinking!
"You don't need to be ashamed. I'm only trying to help. Maybe if you-" The teacher froze, seeing the look on Kaname's face.
"I have done nothing. I am not planning on doing anything today. I may never do something. If I did, it wouldn't be with Sousuke Sagara, that military freak! He may not even know what to do!" Kaname felt her chest heaving. She recalled all too clearly how she had felt about Sousuke, back in the days of panty thievery. She never thought that she would feel that way again, even for an instant.
"Oh?" The teacher nodded. "If you and your young man are having…mmmm… trouble… I can ask the Boy's gym teacher to make an appointment at the clinic for Mr. Sagara. Usually… at first… they do not interview the boy and the girl together."
"WE… ARE… NOT… HAVING….. SEX!" Kaname shouted. "WE ONLY JUST STARTED DATING!"
Oh No.
'Please, tell me I didn't just say that. No, shout that.' That was what Kaname thought just as the echo of the word 'DATING' grew silent in her ears.
There was no way to take that word back now.
Damn the teacher.
Damn those boys and their shower.
Damn Sousuke.
"Oh?" The teacher was taken aback. Not just by the shouting, but also by the fact that a girl would admit something like that at a time and place such as this. Kaname Chiodri must be a well-grounded woman. Confident. Sure in herself. Not worried by the usual gossip and whispering that still takes place in high schools to this very day.
"Knew it!" Mizuki crowed.
"Me too," Kyouko said, with much less gusto. "Well… I was pretty certain…."
"I owe you one thousand yen," Ryo said, sighing. Maya just smiled.
Kaname stood stunned.
Everything had been happening at a crazy rate lately. It was like she trapped inside of a bad TV sitcom, or in some kind of exaggerated anime like those that Sousuke watched.
Ooooh.
She didn't even want to think that name! No. Wrong. She did want to think it. Ryo had given her the seed of an idea.
All she needed was time to let it grow.
"I think that I will set you up for an appointment, Miss Chidori." The teacher nodded her head. It was the right thing to do. Better safe than sorry. Confident girls could easily end up being overconfident at the wrong time, especially if they were involved with someone they find intoxicating. Who was she to judge the partners in a relationship? One girl's bug repellant might well be another girl's kryptonite.
Maya and Ryo slapped hands. Mizuki hugged herself, ready to burst at the seams. Kyouko sighed and whispered 'Oh, Kaname' for the twelfth time that afternoon.
"While I'm at it, I will set you all up for appointments," the teacher amended, pleased with her maternal feelings and keen insight. She was referring to the wet girls only. "Sometimes groups of friends get sucked into things like enjo-kosai as a group. Let me write the names down so that I don't forget anyone. Miss Tokiwa. Miss Inaba. Miss Kojima. And Miss Mukai. Fine. I will be discrete. There will be no one calling you at home. The nurses at the Clinic will tell me when the appointments are scheduled, and I will tell each of you in turn." She looked at her watch. "Let's go. Join the other girls." She clapped her hands together quickly. "We'll head over to the track. Be cautious. I imagine it might be a bit crowded for a bit. The boys in your class are outside now for a while longer." After that, she jogged off in her brightly colored sports outfit, her ponytail bouncing off of her back.
Everyone turned to face Kaname.
For the moment, they weren't even excited about the news she let slip.
"Thanks a lot, Kaname!" Ryo looked fit to be tied. Her thinking a bit otaku, and understandably so, she said "Loose lips sink ships." If her parents even got wind of this! All it would take was for one witless witness to blabber something to the wrong person to get the ball rolling.
"Don't blame me!" Kaname said crossly. "It was little miss Maya who had to make the Kaname AND Sousuke comment!" She was beginning to feel numb. There were far too many emotions her to sort out at the moment, standing there with her brassiere and panties soaked and sneakers squeaking.
"Blame Sousuke," Mizuki said. Her feelings for Kaname were always in a state of flux. Her resentment towards Sousuke remained strong and true.
Everyone stopped and looked at one another. They didn't smile; but, their frowns began to recede like the waves on the shore after high tide.
Sousuke was always the perfect scapegoat.
In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of two kid goats. As a pair, one goat was sacrificed… not a scapegoat… and the living 'scapegoat' was released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities. The concept first appears in Leviticus, in which a goat is designated to be cast into the desert to carry away the sins of the community. Similar practices arose in ancient Greece. In Abdera, for example, a poor man would be feasted and led around the walls of the city once before being chased out with stones form one grand reason or another. In Massilia, a poor man was feasted for a year and then cast out of the city in order to stop a plague.
In the girls' minds, Sousuke certainly would not be feasted. In fact, if push came to shove, and they became angry enough, they might pool their lunch money and buy out every fresh white roll available. No. The only question would be: should he be exiled… should he be stoned… should he be stoned and then exiled… or exiled and then stoned.
"So, what should we do now," Maya asked.
"I know," Kaname said, the creeping numbness gone now. "I will bankroll everything. But, I cannot take credit for the idea. That goes to you, Ryo. You were the spark that will set everything aflame."
"Huh?" Ryo looked puzzled. "Why me?" What had she said or done?
"Your bet with Maya," Kaname said, her eyes narrowing. She wasn't about to forget about that. Now, however, she had bigger fish to fry. "One thousand yen, if I heard it correctly."
"Cha ching," Maya said.
"What are you going to do, Kana-chan?" Kyouko spoke in a timid voice. She didn't want things to boomerang again. She didn't know how much more of this she could take.
It might be safer to take wet fingers and try to put out the fuse on a bundle of dynamite.
"I want that book," Kaname said. "That's all that matters to me now." Yes. Kaname Chidori really hated to lose. "That will put Sousuke in his place." She tossed her hair, looking rather proud of herself. "Money. I think that money will do the trick." Yes, she had once read a quote: 'Money cannot buy peace of mind. It cannot heal ruptured relationships, or build meaning into a life that has none.' But, it can help get things done! She also knew the quote 'Fortune favors the brave,' and was not afraid to make a mental pun.
"Money?" Mizuki wrinkled her nose. "Do you mean you are going to bribe Sousuke to give you the book?"
"Of course not," Kaname said with a laugh. "He should be the one paying me, the big dufus." She smiled. "I want my money to be better spent."
"So tell us already," Ryo said, biting her lip after speaking. What was that feeling of eagerness? She should be feeling a sense of dread, right?
"Six," Kaname said, holding one hand up, fingers splayed, along with another hand, one finger up. "Six thousand yen. That's how much I will be offering for someone to get me the book. Boy or girl. If I'm feeling generous, I might also throw in five hundred yen for anyone who simply helps corner the big jerk. He's out on the track now. There will be a lot of guys and gals around him when we hit the rubber."
'Rubber' referred to the nature of Jindai's track, a marvel that had been supplied by Mithril-paid contractors after one of Sousuke's more egregious… and costly… mishaps. The top of the track consists of semi-vulcanized rubber granules that create a solid layer to help runners grip the surface. Below that is a honeycomb backing that consists of hexagonal air chambers that can compress in all directions and bounce back with a runner's forward motion. It also featured Non-Directional Tessellation, a patterned texture that reduces the need for runners to wear spikes and that also helps improve drainage. Black technology wasn't just for Lambda Drivers and Omni-Spheres anymore.
"But-" Kyouko had a very bad feeling. Was it a premonition? It didn't matter. She was too weak to offer any resistance.
Maya, Ryo, and Mizuke looked at Kaname with expressions of respect. That plan was truly brilliant. No wonder their friend was the Class Representative.
"Get the word out, girls." Kaname said, licking her lips. "Now we know how to take him out… spread the word tell them how to take that son of bitch down."
The Student Council rep did not cringe, realizing that she paraphrased a quote from 'Independence Day,' a movie that Sousuke had persuaded her to watch.
Her spirit was rejuvenated. Fire ran through her veins. Every breath she sucked in tasted great.
She looked forward to a vigorous run.