Chapter Nine
"So," I said quietly, "because you've told me your name, you think I'm automatically inclined to tell you mine?"
He shrugged. "No."
"So why'd you do it?"
"What?" He raised and eyebrow at me. "Tell you my name? Because I've got nothing to fear from it. Not like you have." He smiled mockingly at me. Then his expression became solemn again. "But I still don't know what to call you."
I frowned for a second. "You could call me Liushu."
"I could." He nodded. "Okay then, Liushu it is." He reached down to help me to my feet. "You need to see a doctor with that." He indicated my injured arm.
I nodded. "I suppose so."
"Come on then."
*-_-*
Outside the building was no better than the inside. Despite the fact that the city had been blown up hundreds of years ago, nobody had bothered to try and make it better. There were still mounds of concrete and clouds of something that I don't think even has a name filling the air. I turned to Gershom. "Do people live here?"
"Yeah, of course. What did you think I was doing? Hanging out?"
I shook my head thoughtfully. "It just seems so barren. Why hasn't something been done about it?"
He shrugged. "Recently, the war with the colonies. Before that, who knows? Could have been any number of reasons."
Quietly I followed him around seemingly endless piles of rubble and debris. I noticed people at every turn who seemed to be just standing there, watching us. I nudged Gershom.
He smiled. "They're just guards."
"Military?"
"I guess you could say that."
"Whose?"
He looked at me with a puzzled expression before finally figuring out what I meant. "Our own. None of the other military groups want to bother us."
"You have a military?"
Gershom frowned for a second, wondering if I was asking a trick question. "Why is that unusual?"
I shrugged. "I just…" I groped for the right expression. "This doesn't seem like a military community." I shook my head. "I dunno," I muttered, confused.
"It's a little unusual, huh?" He nudged me towards a building that looked close to collapse. "In there."
*-_-*
"Well." The doctor looked at me curiously. She had examined almost every part of me that could possibly be examined. She was obviously interested by what she had discovered. "You've pulled the muscle almost completely off the bone here," she indicated my upper arm near the shoulder. "That means," she continued, "you won't be able to use the arm effectively without surgery."
I looked to her apprehensively, waiting for her to continue. "We'd be willing to help you, but…" She smiled at me as she trailed off. She'd guessed right.
"I'm sorry, but I don't trust anyone at the moment."
She nodded. "I understand. But just bare the offer in mind when you're running around with a useless arm will you? As my patient, I feel responsible for you."
I smiled slightly, despite myself. "You don't have to worry about me. I'll be fine."
The doctor looked over at Gershom, who was leaning against the doorframe, watching on. "Excused Cadet."
He looked unhappy, almost disappointed, but politely saluted. "Ma'am. Liushu." Then he turned and left the room.
She noticed my amazed look, and smiled at me. "It's the way things work around here. We're a very military based society." She paused. "But I won't go over our community's history. You obviously have other matters to attend to at the moment."
"Yeah," I muttered, frowning.
"But," she continued. "I'd like to ask you a few questions first."
I shrugged. "Go ahead, although you know I can't guarantee answers."
She nodded to herself. "Are you a soldier?"
I weighed the question up before supplying an answer. "Yes."
"Are you for or against Oz?"
"Against." The answer came without my having to think about it. I took a breath. "Fiercely against."
"Is your name really Liushu?"
"As far as you need to know."
She nodded, seeming to understand my position, although I couldn't be sure of that. "Well Miss Liushu, Gundam pilot…"
I panicked. "I'm no Gundam pilot."
"Gershom says differently."
"Then he made an assumption. I'm just a regular pilot."
She frowned at me, obviously aware of the Oz military taking on volunteers my age, both genders. Aware of Gershom's possible error. But also acutely aware of how far the other pilots had gone in the past to keep this information from the wrong people.
"You know. Liushu." She put her clipboard to one side as she leaned towards me, arching her fingers. "We support the efforts of the Gundams."
"Why?"
"They represent peace in this world. In outer space. Those are ideals we take very seriously. And these fighters uphold those values. If we could, we would support them, but we have nothing to fight back with. Do you see?"
She looked toward me earnestly. I looked back, keeping my face as blank as I could. I wasn't giving anything else away. I wasn't going back.
"I'm still not sure why you're so certain that I'm a Gundam pilot. What proof do you have?"
"We've found your Gundam."
