Until the End
Chapter 21
A Trip Down Memory Lane
The pain was unbearable. As the guard's boot connected with his stomach he felt the bile rise in his throat. Too tired to do anything about it, the acidic liquid dribbled down his mouth and onto the cold granite floor. The guards beating ceased, but they merely paused to drag the prisoner out of his cell and down the corridor to another room.
The guards were in a particularly inventive mood today, Ryoga mused as he was shackled to the wall. A small fire had been started and metal tongs placed over it. It didn't take a genius to figure out what the tongs were for. Ryoga grimaced as looked down at his scarred chest. He had been subjected to this kind of torture before, and it was one of the most painful methods the Chinese had of torturing him.
At 21 years of age, Ryoga was the youngest man in the entire prison camp. To the guards this meant that he should be able to take a more severe beating than the other prisoners. This did not mean that the other seventeen prisoners received kinder treatment; all it meant was that their beatings lasted a specific time. Ryoga's on the other hand, went until he either passed out or the guards became exhausted from their efforts.
Ryoga's body, once muscled and covered with a healthy color, was now a collection of scars and contusions on a bruised body. His skin color was now a deathly pale, and his skin was now slack, and clung to his body. His clothes, which had been removed for the torture, covered the fact that his ribs were now clearly visible, and that his stomach now dipped two or three inches below his protruding ribs. Ryoga was an educated man; he knew that after four years of such treatment he would not be able to survive much longer.
As two guards entered the room, Ryoga closed his eyes, and let the constant memories of old flood through his mind. He thought of anything that would keep his mind off of the horrible pain that awaited him. Even after four years Ryoga had not lost his hope, nor had his mind slipped in any way. Several of the other prisoners had already gone insane, their ramblings nothing more than a tortured soul trying to escape from the horror it had been subjected to for only too long.
Ryoga himself had been close to losing it. The guards in this place had succeeded in breaking his body and his spirit, but the only thing that allowed him to keep his sanity was his memories. But his memories were a kind of torture in themselves. The particular memory of Akari, his fiancée, was enough to make him saddened to the point of contemplating attacking one of the guards, a sure way of getting shot. Ryoga had long before given up hope of ever escaping this hellhole, and about the only that kept him going was his determination to live. The memory of when he and Akari had first had sex in the hot springs in Qing Hai province China was one of his most vivid, and one of the most painful.
But it was something for him to focus on, and that was what he let his mind wander to as the first metal tong, heated to a scalding temperature, touched his flesh. He screamed, a natural reaction, but the pain was detached, and as long as he thought about Akari, he could continue like this, and maybe, just maybe, when his body finally gave out he would be able to see her again from the heavens.
===============
"W-what do you mean?" Ranma asked doggedly. He tried to inch away from Yoshida but found that his body wasn't complying.
"You were saying something about a guy named Phil, said that you wanted him to get you out of here," Yoshida said in a neutral voice. He noticed Ranma seemed to be trying to work his throat so he grabbed his canteen and handed it to him.
Ranma accepted the canteen wordlessly. He averted his gaze from Yoshida and took a pull on the canteen. Not because he was thirsty, but because he was trying to organize his rampaging thoughts. As he lowered the canteen, he glanced at Yoshida and saw him waiting patiently for an answer.
You've really done it this time Saotome, Ranma chided himself. Christ how the hell am I going to explain about Phil. Think Ranma, think!
"Kenji," Ranma started slowly, softly. "Do you trust me?"
Yoshida looked at Ranma strangely for a moment. "Yes lieutenant, I trust you."
Ranma shook his head. "No, no ranks right now Kenji, I'm Ranma and your Kenji alright?"
"Yes si-, I mean Ranma," Kenji said. "I trust you Ranma."
"Okay. Now, you believe that I'm a good person too right?" Yoshida nodded. "Then you also must think that I would never do anything to jeopardize what were doing here then."
"Yes Ranma," Yoshida answered. "Are you going to get to the point?"
Ranma flashed Yoshida an angry glare. "The person I was talking to in my sleep, the guy named Phil, is a friend of mine from America."
"Oh," Yoshida said, nonplussed. "That's what I thought it was."
"You mean you're not shocked?" Ranma asked incredulously.
"No, he's just a friend of yours. Now if he turned out to be an American soldier than yeah, I guess I would be shocked," Yoshida chuckled. His laughter left him when he saw the look on Ranma's face. "Ranma? You're not saying."
Ranma cast his gaze to the ground.
"W-what does this Phil person look like?" Yoshida asked unsteadily.
"Big, well muscled, African American and he'd most likely be wearing the uniform for a Green Beret."
Now it was Yoshida's turn to look incredulously at Ranma.
"My god lieutenant I'm so sorry!"
Ranma looked at Yoshida in shock. "What the hell are you saying Yoshida?"
With a horrified expression on his face, Yoshida related to Ranma what happened when he went after him into the woods during the battle.
"-and I hit him in the shoulder I think. I was worried about accidentally hitting you so I aimed high. I didn't bother firing again because I wanted to get you out of there."
"Was he moving after?" Ranma asked quietly.
Yoshida thought for a moment. "Yeah, it sounded like he was cursing in Japanese."
Ranma surprised Yoshida by chuckling. "For once in my life I'm glad you're such a bad shot Sergeant!"
As Ranma continued to laugh, Yoshida felt his worry slip away; it was obvious that Ranma was going to be okay. Once his laughter died down, Ranma looked at Yoshida.
"Now that we have that straightened out, can I guarantee that you won't speak a word of this to anyone?"
Yoshida nodded. "You don't have to worry about me lieutenant."
"Good," Ranma said. It looked like he wanted to say more but he instead sat back on his sleeping bag and promptly fell asleep.
===============
"What do you mean they have been pushed back!?" Zhisheng thundered out. The Army General flinched back as Zhisheng slammed his fist onto his desk.
"You assured me that this battle would not pose a problem," Zhisheng growled out, pointing an accusing finger at the general. "You told me that before the night was done we would have Alden under our control. Did you not tell me that!?"
"Sir," the General began. "I was merely acting on what my subordinates were telling me."
"Don't you feed me that bullshit!" Zhisheng snarled. "Are you telling me that the Army Chief of Staff didn't have a good idea on what 120,000 soldiers were capable of doing?"
"How is it my fault if my subordinates lie to me?" the general demanded.
"You tell me! I don't understand how you can assume that simply listening to what others tell you is enough to satisfy whatever thoughts are in that pinhead of yours!"
The Chief of Staff's face flushed red with anger.
"I am afraid that I may lose my temper so I must leave this meeting where it is," the general said and got up from his seat.
"I'm not finished with you yet!" Zhisheng said loudly. "If you think for one second that I'll let this go, without reprimand, then you are greatly mistaken. You allowed a force that was about thirty thousand men shy of our strength to best you in battle!"
"Not all of it was our fault!" the general countered. "If the Air Force had been doing their job then they wouldn't have dropped bombs onto their own troops. And the Japanese! My god! They gave up after only three hours of fighting. The troops either turned tail and ran or just outright surrendered to the Russians."
Zhisheng's voice became deathly cold. "I am aware of the cowardly actions that our Japanese brethren committed, and I intend to have a long conversation with Shizuko after I am through with you. Now, I want to know, can we rebuild from this?"
For the first time that morning the general's face relaxed. "Actually, what happened is not as bad as it seems. We lost seventy thousand men, and the Japanese forces, but that does not mean we did not give the Russians a sound beating. Preliminary reports say that at least fifty thousand Russian troops died or were rendered incapable of fighting. At this point we have been pushed back about five hundred kilometers, and are not at the point where we need to think about abandoning the Siberian Freedom Action. I have taken the liberty of acquiring two hundred thousand letters that will be delivered to the men we have decided to begin our second offensive strike. The Russians may have pushed us out for now but we will be back."
Zhisheng nodded indifferently. "Good, get started on that right now, the people are beginning to worry and I am not so naïve to believe that I can keep lying to them forever."
The general got up and saluted, more of a casual wave than anything. Just as he turned he seemed to remember something and turned back.
"One other thing sir, not all of the Japanese forces surrendered or were captured. Some platoon units fought with the bulk of our Chinese force. I was just wondering what you wanted to do with them."
Zhisheng thought it over for a moment. "Arrest them. I intend to separate all ties with Japan at this moment, and I don't want one of their soldiers fighting with us. Ship them back here and I'll have them put into a Prisoner of War camp."
"Good idea sir," the general said quickly.
"Is that all?" Zhisheng asked.
"Yes sir."
"It was a pleasure talking to you general," Zhisheng said as he picked up his phone.
===============
Author's Notes: Really short chapter this time. I know I promised a longer one this time but something very important has come up. I'm really sorry.
Chapter 21
A Trip Down Memory Lane
The pain was unbearable. As the guard's boot connected with his stomach he felt the bile rise in his throat. Too tired to do anything about it, the acidic liquid dribbled down his mouth and onto the cold granite floor. The guards beating ceased, but they merely paused to drag the prisoner out of his cell and down the corridor to another room.
The guards were in a particularly inventive mood today, Ryoga mused as he was shackled to the wall. A small fire had been started and metal tongs placed over it. It didn't take a genius to figure out what the tongs were for. Ryoga grimaced as looked down at his scarred chest. He had been subjected to this kind of torture before, and it was one of the most painful methods the Chinese had of torturing him.
At 21 years of age, Ryoga was the youngest man in the entire prison camp. To the guards this meant that he should be able to take a more severe beating than the other prisoners. This did not mean that the other seventeen prisoners received kinder treatment; all it meant was that their beatings lasted a specific time. Ryoga's on the other hand, went until he either passed out or the guards became exhausted from their efforts.
Ryoga's body, once muscled and covered with a healthy color, was now a collection of scars and contusions on a bruised body. His skin color was now a deathly pale, and his skin was now slack, and clung to his body. His clothes, which had been removed for the torture, covered the fact that his ribs were now clearly visible, and that his stomach now dipped two or three inches below his protruding ribs. Ryoga was an educated man; he knew that after four years of such treatment he would not be able to survive much longer.
As two guards entered the room, Ryoga closed his eyes, and let the constant memories of old flood through his mind. He thought of anything that would keep his mind off of the horrible pain that awaited him. Even after four years Ryoga had not lost his hope, nor had his mind slipped in any way. Several of the other prisoners had already gone insane, their ramblings nothing more than a tortured soul trying to escape from the horror it had been subjected to for only too long.
Ryoga himself had been close to losing it. The guards in this place had succeeded in breaking his body and his spirit, but the only thing that allowed him to keep his sanity was his memories. But his memories were a kind of torture in themselves. The particular memory of Akari, his fiancée, was enough to make him saddened to the point of contemplating attacking one of the guards, a sure way of getting shot. Ryoga had long before given up hope of ever escaping this hellhole, and about the only that kept him going was his determination to live. The memory of when he and Akari had first had sex in the hot springs in Qing Hai province China was one of his most vivid, and one of the most painful.
But it was something for him to focus on, and that was what he let his mind wander to as the first metal tong, heated to a scalding temperature, touched his flesh. He screamed, a natural reaction, but the pain was detached, and as long as he thought about Akari, he could continue like this, and maybe, just maybe, when his body finally gave out he would be able to see her again from the heavens.
===============
"W-what do you mean?" Ranma asked doggedly. He tried to inch away from Yoshida but found that his body wasn't complying.
"You were saying something about a guy named Phil, said that you wanted him to get you out of here," Yoshida said in a neutral voice. He noticed Ranma seemed to be trying to work his throat so he grabbed his canteen and handed it to him.
Ranma accepted the canteen wordlessly. He averted his gaze from Yoshida and took a pull on the canteen. Not because he was thirsty, but because he was trying to organize his rampaging thoughts. As he lowered the canteen, he glanced at Yoshida and saw him waiting patiently for an answer.
You've really done it this time Saotome, Ranma chided himself. Christ how the hell am I going to explain about Phil. Think Ranma, think!
"Kenji," Ranma started slowly, softly. "Do you trust me?"
Yoshida looked at Ranma strangely for a moment. "Yes lieutenant, I trust you."
Ranma shook his head. "No, no ranks right now Kenji, I'm Ranma and your Kenji alright?"
"Yes si-, I mean Ranma," Kenji said. "I trust you Ranma."
"Okay. Now, you believe that I'm a good person too right?" Yoshida nodded. "Then you also must think that I would never do anything to jeopardize what were doing here then."
"Yes Ranma," Yoshida answered. "Are you going to get to the point?"
Ranma flashed Yoshida an angry glare. "The person I was talking to in my sleep, the guy named Phil, is a friend of mine from America."
"Oh," Yoshida said, nonplussed. "That's what I thought it was."
"You mean you're not shocked?" Ranma asked incredulously.
"No, he's just a friend of yours. Now if he turned out to be an American soldier than yeah, I guess I would be shocked," Yoshida chuckled. His laughter left him when he saw the look on Ranma's face. "Ranma? You're not saying."
Ranma cast his gaze to the ground.
"W-what does this Phil person look like?" Yoshida asked unsteadily.
"Big, well muscled, African American and he'd most likely be wearing the uniform for a Green Beret."
Now it was Yoshida's turn to look incredulously at Ranma.
"My god lieutenant I'm so sorry!"
Ranma looked at Yoshida in shock. "What the hell are you saying Yoshida?"
With a horrified expression on his face, Yoshida related to Ranma what happened when he went after him into the woods during the battle.
"-and I hit him in the shoulder I think. I was worried about accidentally hitting you so I aimed high. I didn't bother firing again because I wanted to get you out of there."
"Was he moving after?" Ranma asked quietly.
Yoshida thought for a moment. "Yeah, it sounded like he was cursing in Japanese."
Ranma surprised Yoshida by chuckling. "For once in my life I'm glad you're such a bad shot Sergeant!"
As Ranma continued to laugh, Yoshida felt his worry slip away; it was obvious that Ranma was going to be okay. Once his laughter died down, Ranma looked at Yoshida.
"Now that we have that straightened out, can I guarantee that you won't speak a word of this to anyone?"
Yoshida nodded. "You don't have to worry about me lieutenant."
"Good," Ranma said. It looked like he wanted to say more but he instead sat back on his sleeping bag and promptly fell asleep.
===============
"What do you mean they have been pushed back!?" Zhisheng thundered out. The Army General flinched back as Zhisheng slammed his fist onto his desk.
"You assured me that this battle would not pose a problem," Zhisheng growled out, pointing an accusing finger at the general. "You told me that before the night was done we would have Alden under our control. Did you not tell me that!?"
"Sir," the General began. "I was merely acting on what my subordinates were telling me."
"Don't you feed me that bullshit!" Zhisheng snarled. "Are you telling me that the Army Chief of Staff didn't have a good idea on what 120,000 soldiers were capable of doing?"
"How is it my fault if my subordinates lie to me?" the general demanded.
"You tell me! I don't understand how you can assume that simply listening to what others tell you is enough to satisfy whatever thoughts are in that pinhead of yours!"
The Chief of Staff's face flushed red with anger.
"I am afraid that I may lose my temper so I must leave this meeting where it is," the general said and got up from his seat.
"I'm not finished with you yet!" Zhisheng said loudly. "If you think for one second that I'll let this go, without reprimand, then you are greatly mistaken. You allowed a force that was about thirty thousand men shy of our strength to best you in battle!"
"Not all of it was our fault!" the general countered. "If the Air Force had been doing their job then they wouldn't have dropped bombs onto their own troops. And the Japanese! My god! They gave up after only three hours of fighting. The troops either turned tail and ran or just outright surrendered to the Russians."
Zhisheng's voice became deathly cold. "I am aware of the cowardly actions that our Japanese brethren committed, and I intend to have a long conversation with Shizuko after I am through with you. Now, I want to know, can we rebuild from this?"
For the first time that morning the general's face relaxed. "Actually, what happened is not as bad as it seems. We lost seventy thousand men, and the Japanese forces, but that does not mean we did not give the Russians a sound beating. Preliminary reports say that at least fifty thousand Russian troops died or were rendered incapable of fighting. At this point we have been pushed back about five hundred kilometers, and are not at the point where we need to think about abandoning the Siberian Freedom Action. I have taken the liberty of acquiring two hundred thousand letters that will be delivered to the men we have decided to begin our second offensive strike. The Russians may have pushed us out for now but we will be back."
Zhisheng nodded indifferently. "Good, get started on that right now, the people are beginning to worry and I am not so naïve to believe that I can keep lying to them forever."
The general got up and saluted, more of a casual wave than anything. Just as he turned he seemed to remember something and turned back.
"One other thing sir, not all of the Japanese forces surrendered or were captured. Some platoon units fought with the bulk of our Chinese force. I was just wondering what you wanted to do with them."
Zhisheng thought it over for a moment. "Arrest them. I intend to separate all ties with Japan at this moment, and I don't want one of their soldiers fighting with us. Ship them back here and I'll have them put into a Prisoner of War camp."
"Good idea sir," the general said quickly.
"Is that all?" Zhisheng asked.
"Yes sir."
"It was a pleasure talking to you general," Zhisheng said as he picked up his phone.
===============
Author's Notes: Really short chapter this time. I know I promised a longer one this time but something very important has come up. I'm really sorry.