All For Love
Disclaimers apply. Please note that great care has been taken to keep certain information as factual and objective as possible. No offence is intended. The old names of some places at that time, as well as the names of areas as known to the Chinese, have been used. I'm sorry I had to use the Chinese names of some characters but it's to make it more authentic.
Names and their Chinese equivalent:
Misao: Cao, or Xiao Cao
Omasu: Zeng/Ah Zeng
Okon: Jin/Ah Jin
Okina: Lao Die (Old Father)
Shiro: Ah Bai
Kuro: Ah Hei
Kaoru: Xun/ Xiao Xun
Megumi: Hui/ Xiao Hui
Yahiko: Mi Yan
Chapter One: First Glances
Misao's POV
February 11 1942
"Xiao Cao!" my older sister Zeng called. I looked away from the window for a while as she rushed up to me, her face looking grim. I sensed bad news.
"What is it?" I asked her. She looked as if she was about to break down in tears. "Bukit Timah....The Japs were there..."
Fear and worry rushed through me as I got what she meant right away. "Hei
Ge and Bai ge...are they okay?" I asked at once. She choked back her sobs.
"I don't know...I heard it from a British soldier who was at Hui's clinic...it's terrible, almost everyone there was killed, even the women and children! And the volunteers who went there to fight, there has been not much news, but they say that there are few survivors. I told them, Xiao Cao...I warned them not to go!"
My brothers...killed? It can't be, and I had never hoped for something so much in my life. "I want to find out whether they're alive or not! I'm not going to rest until I know!" Throwing open the door, I rushed down the stairs.
"Cao! What do you think you're doing? It's dangerous! What if you run into the Japanese soldiers? If even Hei and Bai were no match for them, what are you? And...and you're a girl...you know what they did in Nanjing..." Zeng ran after me. "Even though you know wushu..."
"Don't worry, they'll never see me!" I called back to her as I ran out into the streets.
I had never run so fast before for such a distance, and upon reaching the jungle, I stopped for a while to catch my breath. The sky was beginning to get dark, and I wondered whether Lao Die would be cursing me at that moment. It was not safe for a girl of sixteen to be out alone at a time like this, martial arts training or not. And furthermore, the Japanese soldiers were around...
I heard a sudden noise and some voices, and slipped myself behind a tree, hiding in its shadow. Hopefully, it was sufficient...if my heart was not beating so loudly that whoever it was could probably hear it.
The voices came closer. I held my breath. They were speaking in a language that struck fear through my heart--Japanese. A crude laugh.
As they drew nearer, my heart beat faster and my body was nearly numb with terror. What if...what if they did discover me...Zeng was right, there was no telling what they might do to a girl. I held my breath.
The group of soldiers walked past, and I could not help but stare at their khaki coloured uniforms and the peaked caps with the flap behind. One of the soldiers caught my attention most--his uniform was different-- dark green, and his cap was flat. An officer, but rather young. He stood out mainly due to his height, being much taller than the rest. What was worse was that he was looking in my direction, as if he had sensed my presence. I nearly cried out in fear as his intense eyes rested on the tree behind which I was hiding.
He was kind of handsome, I had to admit, with those greyish blue eyes that seemed so knowing. But I couldn't keep it out of my mind that he could have been the one who murdered my brothers, and a whole lot of other innocent people.
He never took his eyes off the tree and the shadows that surrounded it, and I nearly thought that I would suffocate from holding my breath for so long. Then, one of the soldiers asked him something and he took his gaze away to reply, and I heaved a sigh of relief.
But somehow, the officer left a deep impression in my mind, for some strange unknown reason.
The officer looked back toward the trees, where he was extremely certain he had sensed a person's presence. In fact, he had caught sight of what his inferiors could not have noticed--a flash of a black braid and a small feminine figure ducking into the trees. A spy? It couldn't be...a spy would not have been as fearful as what he had sensed. Probably someone looking for news of a relative or friend missing in battle.
He could not help but feel a little sorry. By the time he had gotten news of the massacre and rushed to the site, countless bloody bodies lay lifeless on the ground. All because of the brave fighters who had dared to fight them. He had to admit albeit grudgingly, the enemy side had fought well and bravely, much more so that the pale haired and pale skinned foreigners they had crossed paths with earlier on. If those local fighters, the Chinese resistance force, had been better equipped, perhaps they could even have succeeded in fending off them, the Nippon army. What a pity...he thought of the innocent old people, women and children who lay dead after the massacre of the village. All for revenge...he had thought it was senseless, but what was done had been done. If only he had gotten there earlier, perhaps he could have stopped them, but they were hungry for blood.
The corpses would have to be given proper burials, and he would see to that as soon as he could by the next day. But it had to be done in secret--his superiors would not like it. And the girl...his thoughts went back to the female figure he had glimpsed. Hopefully she would not be discovered by anyone else. He knew the other officers and soldiers, many of them would not hesitate to kill--or worse. After all, although months and even years without female company was nothing to him, he could not say the same for the others.
"Shinomori-san, are you sure there's nothing suspicious around?" His friend, Hannya, asked. He nodded.
"Nothing. Probably just the wind," he replied. But somehow, he couldn't keep his thoughts of the girl out of his mind.
To Be Continued
I know this is rather short, but I promise more the next chapter...although that will probably be in about a month since I have to prepare for my exams which are slightly less than 2 weeks way...well, I'm treating research for this as something like revising for History. In the meantime, please C&C.
Next chapter: Are Hei and Bai dead? Will Cao/Misao and Shinomori meet again? And can he stop her from being um...violated? What about the other characters, where do they all fit in? Answers to all these questions all in the next chapter
