Chapter 20 Hikaru's Betrayal

The war raged on and Hikaru searched. She went to work at factories with her mother when she was needed, and their daily lessons ended at age seventeen. She would be able to get into a good college when this was all over; she was smart. All the time she was focused on Umi, looking at internment camp after internment camp. they all sent her away with fair warnings. No one seemed to know the names of the inhabitants, and no one bothered to ask. Once, she saw a flash of blue and screamed for her comrade, but the girl turned and it was only a young child, maybe three or four.

She tried not to let her spirits sink, but it seemed that her comrade was nowhere to be found.

"Maybe it was all a dream," she muttered once, and Satoru took her arm.

"Keep searching, I know in y heart that it wasn't a dream."

She smiled at him and kept searching.

§§§~~~

"Hikaru," Lantis said her name again so softly they barely caught it.

"It's not forever; she'll want to come back eventually," Zagato told him, and he looked down.

"No, it's been years, it's been at least three years for them; she's move on," he looked down.

"Maybe it's time for you to move on too. You've been without a woman for too long," Zagato told him quietly, "Hikaru is not the only girl for you."

"But she is," he looked down, "But she is."

They sighed and wished away the pain on him, on everyone. The Magic Knight's sudden departure had stressed them all. Even now, many years later, they couldn't put the memory behind them.

§§§~~~

"Hikaru-chan," Maseru, Kakeru and Satoru walked into her keno practice, looking grim, "We have something to show you."

She bowed and put the sword down, "Hai?" she had gone back to speaking Japanese with them despite their protests. She thought if she spoke her native tongue she would be speaking their native tongue and always keep a piece of them with her, the two girls that she had lost so tragically. Umi-chan where can you be? She asked herself for the thousandth time in the last three years, gomen nasai Lantis-chan…

"Look," Satoru handed Hikaru a small piece of paper, and she picked it up with curiosity. When she discovered what it was she dropped it like fire.

"What?"

"Gomen nasai Hikaru," Kakeru told her quietly.

"No!" she screamed, "That's not right! They can't! They hate the Japanese why would they want them to fight for them?!"

"Sh…" Satoru calmed her, "Why is not the question now. We've been drafted, we're leaving very soon, within the week. We may not even see the war, but we may. We will be fine."

"No," Hikaru sobbed and dropped to her knees, "Now…now I've lost everything."

"No Hikaru, we're not lost yet, we won't be lost, for you we will stay alive, for you because we love you and do not want harm to come to us for you," Maseru assured her.

"But what if what if?" she couldn't even bring herself to say the words.

"Nothing will happen. We won't let anything happen," Kakeru stopped her.

"Ashiteru!" she cried and grabbed all three into a huge hug.

§§§~~~

"Okay men, this is the day," the general was speaking calmly even though the mortar shells were dropping all around them, and the screams of men could be heard through the death. The screams that no one wanted to hear, and they would never forget.

They put a gun in each of their hands, and they dashed out onto the beach. The blood was heavy here, the waves were washing up the blood of fallen soldiers onto the beach, staining the white sand deep red. The water had turned from a murky blackish blue to a deep scarlet, and it was staining their uniforms.

The gulls overhead screeched their fury as the dead fish floated onto the beach. This was unnatural, this was wrong, and they missed their war-free home.

Satoru was never afraid, he was always strong, but now, as he looked around him, heard the screams and the cries for mother, he was terrified. He looked at his two younger brothers beside him, and they were shaking, "We'll get through this," he whispered to them in Japanese, "We'll get through it, for Hikaru-chan."

"Hai," they responded and looked around them in fear. They watched as a white gull dove into the water and flew out, dripping with blood and screaming in terror at the body it had seen floating in the water.

"Are you the enemy?!" the general smacked Satoru across the face with his gun, causing blood to flow freely down his cheek. He scowled and looked away, "Damn Japs."

"Traitors is what you are!" someone on the boat called, "It's madness the way they're making you fight with us!"

"Bloody hell we're all going to die soon anyway what are you fighting for? Like a bunch of women," a British man took a swig from his canteen and looked over the scene, "Jesus Christ, God help us all."

They plunged into battle and scrambled toward holds in the beach where they would be somewhat covered.

A bomb exploded nearby and Satoru heard Kakeru scream in pain and terror, "Kakeru!"

"Leave 'im!" someone ripped him away from the area and threw him into the sand, "There's no helping 'im now!"

Satoru looked at Maseru and wanted to scream, "But…"

"No, we can't help him, he's right," Maseru said softly in rough English, "Let's fight, for him, and for Hikaru. We promised we'd get home to her."

A nearby soldier came charging forward, "Maseru!"

He fumbled with the latch on the gun and tried to get the bullet in. Someone fired and Maseru hit the ground with a clean wound through his chest.

"No!" Satoru knelt by his side, "You'll be fine," he abandoned English and went back to Japanese, "Come on you'll be okay."

"Be safe, go home, tell Hikaru… tell her we tried to stay with her," Maseru pulled on Satoru's bloodied shirt, "Promise me!"

"Our promises don't go far," Satoru whispered, "But this I will make sure happens," he handed him his dogtags as a token of the promise before Maseru smiled softly and then went limp in his brother's arms.

"Maseru, Kakeru, I will avenge you."

He ran onto the beach with his gun out and fired at every soldier that came toward him. He shot recklessly and that was his fatal mistake. He looked down to his packs on his side, and his eyes widened in horror when he saw that there was no ammunition left. He pulled off his jacket and cases to be lighter if he had to run. His hands searched a body nearby and came up with a few bullets, as he fumbled with them a German hit him across the head with the butt of his gun, and he fell onto the beach, barely breathing.

"Friendly fire!" a nearby German shouted in Japanese.

"What?" he called back in Japanese as well.

"He's Japanese you idiot! He's on our side!"

"Oh, up you go," the man that hit him pulled him into a nearby tent, and they removed his clothes and replaced them with warm blankets and helped the wound on his head.

§§§~~~

The car came up the path, and she walked outside with her mother, looking scared. The star was prominent; they knew what it meant.

"I'm sorry," the man said softly as he stepped out of the car, and Hikaru looked confused.

"What? What are you sorry about?" she questioned.

He handed the letter to her mother, and she read it over as tears came to her eyes, "No, not all of them, no…"

"They fought bravely," he tried to offer support.

"Kakeru, Maseru, Satoru?" Hikaru whispered,  "It can't be. They promised!" she screamed, and her mother fell onto the ground, sobbing.

"Your eldest, Satoru, he is missing in action, there is always hope. The other two, we found their dogtags and their bodies. They were identified. Your other son Maseru; he was holding Satoru's dogtags. Again, I'm sorry, but their help was needed by their country."

"Leave!" Hikaru screamed at the man and forced them from the property, "You've caused enough pain and suffering leave!"

"Hikaru!" her mother screamed, "Hikaru where are you?!"

"I'm right here mom, sh…" Hikaru whispered and held her mother while they both cried.

The smoke was sickening; she looked around her and couldn't breathe, "Where am I?!" she screamed and tried to find her way out. She looked around her and found that she was in her house, "Let me out!" she begged and found the flames engulfing her. She remembered the last time she felt flames at her skin; she was in Cephiro, in a volcano, only she was free from harm, "Lantis!"

She ran from the room, her tears were blinding now; she looked around everywhere and couldn't see a thing, "Lantis…" she whispered as she passed out on the ground from smoke inhalation, "Cephiro…" her last images were of the grassy hills and beautiful sea, the huge volcano and the dark hair and piercing eyes.

The flame leapt onto her skin and devoured her. She wouldn't remember the pain though she screamed and writhed in agony at this deep, horrible betrayal.

§§§~~~

"And hate crimes of the Americans against the Japanese continue to ravage much of America," the reporter was saying on the hospital radio, "In a mass hate crime last night seven houses were burned, including the home of three Japanese soldiers, the names of the victims are not yet being released, but we were told that there was a young girl at the age of nineteen, her mother and father all killed in this hideous crime."

Satoru looked at the radio disbelievingly, "No," he whispered, but it would come to be, many hours later he would hear the name that was released, "Shidou."

 Tori:

"So sure those girls now are in the Navy

Those bombs

Our friends can't even hurt you now

And hold those tears cause they're still on your side

Don't hear the dogs barking

Don't say you know we've gone

Andromeda stood with those girls

Before the hair in pairs

It just got NASTY

And now those girls are Gone"

~Tori Amos, Spacedog, Under the Pink