The room we were given resembled a traditional house with modern touches, they had a TV, a sofa in the wall, some kitsch hotel paintings, a Kotatsu in the middle, kitchen and fridge, a separate bathroom with shower and sink, a small closet, etc. While in the other room, this particular hotel has no beds, in the other room there where 2 separate futons parallel to each other in a horizontal position to the room, I could drop but I risk hitting myself in the "snout", Usami on the other hand she just dropped down in such motion that she somehow didn't thud into the floor. But then we get a knock on the door.
"can you get that Canmoore-san?" she tiredly asks.
"sure, and please, let's leave formalities aside, with Plyush is perfectly fine"
As I make my way to the door I check through the peephole, and I see a young woman in a Yukata dress, probably housekeeping. I open the door to greet her.
"Hello?" I ask to the woman/
"Konichiwa!" The woman greeted me "Watanabe-Sama told me to give you two access cards to the Onsen, the Onsen is open now but closes at 9:30 afterwards, there are designated men and women areas."
"great!" I responded "thank you very much."
The women left as I closed the door, and went into the room to tell Usami.
"hey, they gave me the access cards for the Onsen, let me give you th-"
But I was almost greeted with Usami semi-undressed in her underwear and only a shirt when I half opened the door. "P-P-PLYUSH HOLD ON!" She rushed just in time to close the door.
And when she closed the door, she knocked me directly into my "snout" with great force.
"GRAAAAGH!" I yelled, "Oh crap! Sorry Plyush! You scared me; I should have told you I was changing for the Onsen!" Usami speaks through the door.
"It's ok, It's ok! I should've knocked first!" I tell her while rubbing my "snout" with my hand.
After the accident, Usami then exits the room wearing a bathrobe while holding a towel. "There, you can change too if you are going to go to" she said to me to which I respond "yeah, yeah I was going to change too, by the way, here is your card"
"t-thanks" she responds in a slightly embarrassed tone, she proceeds to then exit the room to the hallway while I enter to change into a towel, but due to my body's "condition" I decide to play it safe and also use a bathrobe.
I entered the Onsen and it was a pleasant view. It was a medium pool with water so clean I could see butterflies' reflections from the garden that was displayed in the front of the pool as soon as you entered the place. I take my robes off and proceed to slowly enter the pool. The water felt great and the sound of a small waterfall that feeded the pool with continuous fresh water.
I got comfortable in the middle admiring the open garden. I felt relaxed and empty minded as my breath got slower, and that's when I started remembering. The old days of taking a Russian spa with my buddies after finishing a raid on a private bunker, relaxing and drinking vodka, only here they served me a complementary small bottle of sake and a dish to drink from it, but as I was recalling more and more, I stumbled upon the day it all began.
My crew was met with a gruesome end, we were given a tip about a certain train station camp that was freshly restocked in supplies, we were running low on ammo and fuel that day and we had to restock as soon as possible. We entered carefully trying to not alert any guard, but it was awfully quiet, as if the guard where not there, turns out...we were ratted out, as soon as we where in their desired spot, we were met with guards and soldiers in every direction of the station pointing their gun at us, and we were only 6 of us, we had no choice but to drop our guns and kneel to the ground.
We were then taken to the main platform of the train. And behind us, a door opened from the control room, and there came the leader of the soldiers that captured us.
"so, this is the so-called "hangar" platoon? Let's see what kind of flies the shit has attracted. A machine gunner? Dear machinist, you can't use such a weapon when you should have gone back to the lines like a coward. A scout? Maybe if you had seen the area earlier you would have figured we already took everything since noon, wake up early next time. A demolition man? When we figured most of your losses were to your shrapnel, you probably would've gone and taken another post. a rifleman? Cannon fodder, simple as that, a medic? And a female one at that? What's wrong, didn't get into medical school, I bet even your nursing skill wouldn't even have put a vegetative baby to sleep. And last but not least... A Tanker? Jeez, they are wasting proper men to die in a frontline instead of dying in a machine.
We all had to put up a tough act, but in the end, we did really screw up, we had to get those resources one way or another, who was this guy treating the best crew that held up in the defense of our base. I know it wasn't, it had to be a setup...someone ratted us out!
Somehow the leader noticed my face and it's like he read my thoughts "yeah yeah let's cut to the chase here tankie, one of your men ratted you out, for 300 miserable and juicy dollars, real American dough, want me to make it funnier for you, it was one of you right here in your crew, but unfortunately, I have to tell ya, one thing I despise I dirty fighting... it was your scout friend here."
We all turned our heads to the scout of our team, looking with faces mixed with anger, shock, disappointment and distrust. "NO WAIT, THIS WAS NOT PART OF THE PLAN" said the traitor "this is no plan, in the moments of need, you just gotta improvise". As soon as he finished the word improvise, in the far distance of the tracks, a train horn was heard, we all turned our heads to the left side of the tracks, and we saw a bright light coming into our direction.
"Oh, speaking of improv, let me seal you a great deal, we gotta bounce with the actual goods, so let me give you all of you guys a ride, my men included, but we shall take the ride to HQ, while you rats... take the ride to hell." Afterwards he signals his men.
One by one my crew are thrown into the track while, even the traitor was thrown, all in the tracks tied up moments before the train arrived. When I was about to be thrown, the leader stopped the men.
"HOLD IT! Leave that one for me" and he goes towards my direction.
I'm closing my eyes waiting for the worst when suddenly my eyes are opened by force as he grabs my face towards the direction of my men, the train is just meters and stopping at a slowed alarmed rate...Oh god its real.
"this is what happens... when you mess with Voroshilov"
The trains passes by. The screams of my crew are drowned in a sound mash of bones breaking, flesh tearing and the loud train scrapping the tracks because of breaking. Blood spattered everywhere...everywhere, and I was in the splash zone, it splattered all-over my chest and eyes, just witnessing that gruesome sight, I passed out.
The next memory I have is of me being woken up by a team of the guerrillas I belonged to. I must have been there the whole night because when I opened my eyes, the sun was rising far away on the mountains. All the men were trying to salvage anything that was left, and 3 men were taking me to their truck, they're all asking me what happened, but the shell shock left me unable to talk or even mutter anything.
Back at the HQ I was locked up because of my failure. I spent the whole day there. They wanted me to talk about what had happened back there, but I was unable to even speak. If I did not, I was to be executed publicly this morning, even though they felt sorry as I was one of their best men. Cowardice took the best of me. I managed to pick the lock and escape the cell, but not right after I took my stuff and stole some weapons and supplies from the armory.
I took off to the forest and ran away to hitch a freight train to Montenegro, trailing halfway to my objective. I estimated that by dawn I would arrive in time to hitch the train. I was tired so I took a small rest to drink some water. That's when I saw a rain of shooting stars. I am not sure how long I stayed there, but I was awed at the sight of the celestial rain.
And that's when it happened...
A bright red star was passing through the stars, as if it were being escorted by the other shooting stars, when it suddenly fell down upon earth towards my direction, I had no time to react when I realized it... The red star had pierced my chest... and the rest was history.
I woke up, realized I must have slept in the Onsen, and could see that the night outside the garden got darker, with the big lights of the city acting as stars. I regained my senses and started to look around me, still empty, with the lights now having changed from a bright warm light to a dim orange. I looked at the clock behind me, it was 9:25, so I figured to wash myself quickly with some cold water and robe up once again.
/Walking through the hallways I could realize that the night lights had been turned on, so I made sure to walk as quietly as possible to not wake anyone up, but I think Watanabe told us we were basically the only ones.
I reached the door of our room and opened it with the keycard, and realize that the room was dark, so I figured that Usami was asleep, and did as little noise as possible closing the door and reaching the fridge for some fresh water, and taking some sips.
I go to the other room to see Usami already asleep. With her asleep I took the chance to change into my pajamas and lay down in my futon.
However, as soon as I arrived into the closet to get my clothes out of my haversack, I noticed a faint glow within it.
"huh?" ..."wait" ..."a ...a link?" I stood there lost in thought for a microsecond
"A LINK!" I yelled but then tried to drown it with my hands in hopes of not waking Usami up, I turned so fast towards her that knocked my sack over to the left, spilling everything I had with me, but the glow of the sack soon disappeared as it was now tumbling over near to Usami, and I swear, the glow got brighter when it got closer to Usami. The object in question was a golden cube with big geometrical marks and stripes in the middle and the sides. That's when I remembered, that cube, was another of my possessions that I had with me, it was an object that was with me the day I got pierced.
But my curiosity was caught more by the glow, because I have never seen it glow that strong before, and I deduced why I got brighter when it got closer to Usami, so distracted that I forgot the fact that I yelled super hard, but somehow did not wake Usami up, so I slowly approached the cube and tried to pick it up
but as soon as I touched it, a cold chill ran up my "spine" and I felt a shock within my core and then fainted on the futon beside her, Hitting my "snout" in the fall...
meanwhile, an observer watches through the back, thinking who was the mysterious "tanker" that met Usami Renko, watching... far beyond the boundary...
"Gensokyo Welcomes you with open arms"