Ch 10: An Ask

The high wizard of this place, or principal if I had to put a normal word to it, was an older man who looked like he belonged in a 1970’s kung-foo movie.

According to what I had read, the guy was nearing a hundred and ten years old, and was likely to be replaced here in the next decade by someone else.

It was hard to understand his name, but my translation earring kept saying “Grand Dragon Keishi”... which caused some hesitation on my part, due to American history.

He was also staring at me with heavily wrinkled and annoyed eyes, having been hearing me bark about my worries with what I believed was coming, along with the rest of his staff.

“So you believe,” he began, an ancient hand stroking his long white beard, “That we are going to be attacked on the day before the new year?”

“Preposterous!” A teacher exclaimed, a little brown noser that taught alchemy. “The castle is at its height of power during Shōgatsu! They wouldn’t dare attack us at such a time!”

I let out an aggravated sigh, holding out my palms to the gathered staff and then putting them on my hips. “Exactly, none of you would be expecting it, now would you? Tano-”

“The Rogue Priestess?” A female teacher spoke up, narrowing an eye at me. “You have been quite close with her these last few weeks as of late. Is this what she said?”

“It is.” I stated, my Socom glinting maliciously with the light of the many candles and lanterns around us. “And I agree. If a small contingent can get to the side gate, I have no doubt a larger force can easily make siege on this place. If you would just set the surrounding forests on fire-”

The brown nosing alchemy teacher let out an impudent “puh!” at my words, cutting across me as he turned to address the Grand Dragon Keishi. “Again with this nonsense! All of those trees are sacred, you little normie Amerikajin!”

“Professor Rinji is correct, Gun Master Shy.” Keishi said politely, and he seemed as annoyed as I was at the little brown nosing Professor Rinji. “The forests are sacred, and burning them would lessen the barriers around this castle.”

It felt odd hearing my last name being used in the open, and it kinda caught me off guard.

“What do Gun Mistress Ambrekt and Gun Master Wallace believe?” Keishi asked me, leaning forward in his chair and planting a pleasant smile on his lips.

I pursed my lips, then shook my head once while glancing at the ground. “We need more men.”

“I’m afraid that cannot be afforded.” Grand Dragon Keishi said quietly, leaning back in his chair. “What else?”

I looked up at the older man, and fixed him with a look that I hoped he recognized. “Prepare your students and the villages for war.”

“Do you not think that is a bit… presumptive?” Keishi asked me, peering down at me past his long, white eyebrows.

I shook my head. “I would rather they all be ready than caught flat footed. Your enemy knows you will be celebrating, unawares and ignorant. We can use that against them if you follow my security counsel.”

Grand Dragon Keishi sat there in his chair, slowly drumming his fingers along the ancient carved arms as his staff all looked at him, waiting on his word.

After what felt like an eternity, Keishi slowly stood from his chair with the air of his age.

“I will heed your advice.” He stated, then bowed his head forward to peer at me through his eyebrows. “But I will not stop the festivities. The students and the villages will be made aware, and if need be, will celebrate armed. The Shōgatsu celebrations must go forward as planned.”

I frowned at him, deeply, but nodded, knowing I was not going to get him to budge on the subject. “Very well, thank you for taking my counsel so quickly.”

“Go with grace.” Keishi said, waving at me as he turned to his staff and started issuing orders.

I left them to it and shouldered past the door, finding Tano waiting nearby with my M110 across her back.

“What did they say?” Tano asked me, trotting up beside me as I turned and headed down a bustling hallway full of curious students.

“It’s not going to be enough.” I muttered, taking Tano gently by the elbow and directing her towards our staircase. “You’re coming with me.”

“F-For what?!” Tano stammered out with a blush, though she had an odd smile on her face.

Whatever was causing the smile kind of died when I then called out for Brody and Deckard over the radio.

We arrived at the room at the same time as the other two, and I guided Tano inside while turning to Brody. “You still got the extra kit?”

“Of course, you want the evening set or something more black tie?” Brody said loftily as she grinned at me, while Tano clicked her teeth at the state of our room.

“Black tie.” I responded in a tired monotone, letting out a sigh as Deckard closed the door behind us. “We are in for a hell of a time.”

Deckard pulled out a chair and sat down on it, flexing his split-toed boots. “They aren’t letting us bring more troops, are they?”

“No.” I responded, pulling out the extra extra magazines that were brand new.

Brody looked out the window, thumbs hooked on her plate carrier as she blinked at the setting sun. “Attack soon?”

“Yes.” I said.

“Holiday?” Deckard asked.

“Yes.”

Brody held up a finger. “We’re in Asian holiday territory, that means the new year.”

“Yes.” I said angrily, snapping my fingers at Brody. “Get the damn vest already.”

Brody sniffed at me, but pulled out the all black plate carrier, complete with two sets of plates and rigged out for larger magazines. “This looks her size.”

“Get her fitted.” I said, looking at Deckard. “You got the extra knives?”

Deckard nodded, reaching over with his impressive wing span and grabbing a small duffle. “Sure do.”

In a matter of minutes, we had Tano rigged up with her own plate carrier, complete with a full combat load, extra magazines in the rear pack, tourniquets, combat knife, radio, IFAK, flashlight, and anything else we could strap to her.

Tano took to the vest like a fish out of water, twisting around herself to look at it while grinning widely at the mirror.

I took the time to show her how to strap herself up with a leg holster for a spare Beretta 92X, which she insisted I show her how to first. I got a fair amount of leg touching in, though I stayed professional while Tano kept grinning down at me.

“We’ll go over how the pistol works tomorrow.” I said, buckling everything in place and sliding the pistol into its holster. “Just leave it there for now, get used to the weight.”

“Alright.” Tano said, wiggling her thigh back and forth.

It caused both the pistol and something else to jiggle, which I found quite distracting.

“As well, keep that rifle on you at all times.” I said standing up and looking Tano in the eyes. “Keep it on safe while here in the castle, alright? And try not to drop it down any staircases.”

Tano looked affronted, reaching behind her and placing her hand on the buttstock. “I would never! We Oni do not treat our weapons in such regard.”

I waved her off tiredly, then turned to Brody and Deckard. “We need to stage.”

“Magazine dumps and ordinance points?” Deckard asked, reaching over and grabbing a map of the castle. “I would do the same with weapons as well, just in case an accident happens.”

Brody nodded, placing her finger on the grand hallway that led to the front doors. “Put the crate here so we can use it as soon as possible. Ammo boxes for the SAW all around the upper floors, set them up every twenty feet.”

“Magazine cans every thirty yards.” I added, tapping my finger from the front gate, and then bringing it back towards the castle. “These gates and the outer walls will fall first since we lack the manpower to fully crew them, so we will completely ignore those as far as ammo dumps go. Around this third gate, we’ll add both ammo and plenty of grenades. Deckard, how are we looking on claymores?”

“We have the entire compliment still.” Deckard said easily, though Tano was looking at us all as if we were speaking a completely alien language. “We can rig murder-alleys where we know they are going to funnel. The wizards were silly enough to get us everything we asked for despite the legality, which means I have plenty of serious-putty to play with.”

Tano raised a hand, and we all looked at her with impatient eyes.

“What is serious-putty?” Tano asked. “And what is a claymore? It is a kind of sword, yes?”

Deckard reached over and pulled out the claymore mine, holding it up towards her. “These, they are mines.”

Tano took the claymore mine into her hands gingerly, feeling the weight of it. “A mine?”

“A mine.” Brody chimed in. “They explode outwards, and send hundreds of metal ball bearings flying through the air. Turns people into shreds of meat.”

“Air looks like someone was eating a tomato and then sneezed.” I said, then reached up, taking the claymore mine from Tano. “Do you know if you guys have any metal cans, or glass jars?”

Tano nodded. “Oh yes, the kitchen staff love the new metal cans that get shipped in from the mainland, saves them a lot of time on cooking.”

“We’re going to have to turn this castle into a Home Alone Hell Hole.” I muttered, tossing the claymore back to Deckard. “Think you can rig up some shrapnel bombs?”

Deckard chuckled as he caught the claymore. “Now now, you know me better than that, and I know you remember Yemen.”

“Oh, I remember Yemen.” I said with a grimace. “I’m still surprised you aren’t in a prison somewhere.”

Deckard grinned at me. “Because we were being paid by the winner, of course.”

“Improvised explosive traps, ammo dumps, and fallback positions.” Brody said, cutting between us to not further confuse Tano. “We have a lot of work to do.”

Tano shook her head. “Oh no, I can get all that cut down to barely a fraction of the work done by you.”

Brody, Deckard, and I turned our head towards Tano, confused, but she had this odd little smile on her face as she looked back at me.

Then she winked, and I got a little worried.

—

I had expected many things, but Tano involving her classes in “modern Human war tactics” was not one I saw coming.

I had also not expected Wizards to be able to fill sandbags so quickly, which made a lot of the work a snap in a breeze.

While the other teachers were rather confused as to why their students were coming back from history lessons with dirt and mud smears, Tano had sought out to “teach” the wizards about regular Human field craft and how to “survive against a modern threat the same way Humans did”.

It was technically history, but not what they were used to. On the same hand, they apparently preferred this to falling asleep in the classroom, and it was really helping us get the castle ready.

At the outer walls, the students helped us set up egress points and small gunnery nests, stacking perfectly filled sandbags to reinforce the stone walls and make sure shrapnel didn’t hit any of us if something hit said stone.

Tano went further, teaching them about trenches, foxholes, murder holes, and fieldworks, and the wizards had a grand time looking at pictures of World War II fortifications and replicating them.

It was around the time they were playing and creating barbed wire that the other teachers finally caught on to what was going on, but were stopped from interfering by Otani Noritada.

Noritada and I had an understanding, one we shared with a few glances as I was packing a bunch of rusty nails and broken arrow heads into an old soybean can filled with TNT and a blasting cap.

I wanted to believe that Noritada saw the seriousness about me, but we both knew he saw the fear in my eyes.

If it had been any other pissant location on this planet, I would have just grabbed my shit, my men, and left, but I couldn’t do that here.

I couldn’t leave Tano and the kids to die.

So here I was with Deckard, shoving broken sword bits, nails, shards of old metal, and anything else metal into these damned cans.

Brody was busying herself with showing the students where to set up her gun positions on the windows, and was stacking ammunition boxes for her crew served guns near said positions.

Tano had assisted us in sending out a letter to the teachers, and all the students knew not to touch the things we were leaving around. This included the grenades and ammunition pouring in from the crows and the mysterious staff member that was making it for us, and they seemed to be cranking them out for us in perfect mint condition.

That alone caused me to raise a brow, and I was starting to think that whoever this wizard was… they were stealing these things.

The grenades were properly marked, factory new, munitions were always factory new, and the explosives were always graded with the right wording.

When I had asked a pair of crows where all our goodies were coming from, they had glanced to each other.

“I wouldn't go steppin' around askin' questions 'bout that, daddy-o.” One crow had said, the other nodding.

“It's best ta keep info like tha' kinda vague, ya know? Keeps everyone's friggin' nose outta where it don't belong.”

I stopped asking after that, and busied myself elsewhere.

Before I knew it, a month had passed by and it was colder, the snow coming down softly at times this high in the mountains. They still wanted me to wear these stupid Japanese pants, but that didn’t stop me from wearing my waffle layers and my winter jackets.

The other students and teachers didn’t understand how serious we were until they saw all our positions finished, and it was after seeing the weapon bags sitting near ammunition that it clicked with them.

My men and I had been running our three selves ragged getting everything ready, going over every little thing we could think of, setting up clappers, redundancy fuses, creating explosive, area denial traps, and just stressing over every little thing.

Tano had finally been able to sit me down on one of the most rearward gunnery holes, my breath fogging in front of me as she poured us tea and pushed a plate of food towards me.

“You haven’t been eating.” Tano said, her voice even but her eyes worried.

I reached forward, grabbing a grilled chicken breast with my fingers and biting into it. “There’s no time.”

“There is time to eat.” She chided me, pushing a cup of tea towards me. “Just as there is time to sleep.

I closed my eyes as I chewed, the sweet glaze bringing my mouth back to life from all the energy gels I had been consuming. “There isn’t time to sleep.”

Tano looked over towards Brody, who was cat napping on a pile of empty ammo cans and sand bags, then to Deckard who was snoring in the corner of a freshly dug fox hole. “There is always time to sleep.”

I sighed, picking up the tea and sipping it, letting the hot cup sting my cold fingers. “We aren’t ready.”

“I know.” Tano answered with a smile. “Everyone can feel it wafting off of you like a sickness, has all the teachers and students worried.”

I smiled at her, opening my eyes. “If I had even… a Platoon of men, this would be a piece of cake.”

“I know.” Tano replied, moving her outdoor seat around so she could sit next to me, and then leaned her shoulder against mine. “But I’m afraid this is the best we can do. There are more things out there than just Oni. The barrier does more than keep out the physical… it keeps out the things that glide on the air, and move as the wind does.”

I hummed out a laugh at that, taking another bite of the chicken breast and chewing. “Your country is super creepy, Tano.”

“Yours is no better.” Tano quipped with a poke to my cheek. “You still have no idea about the Wendigo Rebellion going on, or the failure of the Sasquatch treaties.”

Before I could ask what the fuck she was talking about, someone to our extreme right cleared their throat.

Our heads turned, and it was Noritada and Arihada that slowly walked around the corner, both of them in traditional winter weather clothing.

I stared at them, slowly taking another bite out of my dwindling chicken breast as Tano glowered at them, refilling my tea.

None of the teachers had helped with the construction, only the students, but I think the reality was forcing them into contact with us at last.

“Appears you are serious about your worries.” Noritada said after a long, awkward pause, scuffing his cold weather boots along the snow dusted stones of the wall. “No one goes this far for this long unless they have true convictions.”

“You think I did all this shit to the castle for the fun of it?” I said dourly, licking my fingers clean and reaching down for a bowl of cooling rice.

Noritada made a face, but an elbow from Arihada made him fix it.

“I have come to ask you what we should do.” Noritada said after a sideways glare at Arihada. “You seem adamant that war is coming, and that means if it does… we need to know where to put ourselves and our students that are of fighting age.”

At that phrase, I stopped eating my rice and turned my head to look at him. “You don’t have that luxury.”

“I beg your pardon?” Noritada asked me, his voice dangerous. “The luxury of what?”

“Of relying on fighting age.” I said lowly, sipping more tea as Tano drank hers. “You’ll need everyone that can hold a weapon, including a wand.”

Noritada’s eyes narrowed so much I thought he was blinking at me. “Our youngest students are ten years of age. You can’t expect-”

“I expect them to be butchered like lambs if we all die on the walls!” I said harshly, standing up rapidly with a clatter of plates and rice bowls on the crate we were using as a table. “Do you honestly think your enemy is going to spare your youngest?! They will mount them on spikes along the wall like fucking christmas ornaments!”

Noritada took a step back while Arihada stood firm, my frustration making itself known.

Tano had been telling me over the weeks what would happen if the Oni and Trolls got in here, fueling me to keep running despite the lack of food and sleep.

“I told Grand Dragon Keishi my worries and you all brushed them off! I already checked and no students are being sent home, they’re all planning stalls for the festival! It’s a miracle that the villages are all coming here to celebrate in one place!” I shouted, slamming the bowl of rice in my hand onto the stone floor of the fortification wall and sending rice flying. “Do you have any idea how much I hope that I am wrong? That I am just the odd little non-magic crazy man that doesn’t know anything?! But I know, I know your enemy is coming here to bury you, and you are all so complacent!”

Tano was quiet, saying nothing as she sipped her tea and gazed towards the castle, the M110 catching flakes of soft snow along its frame.

Arihada stepped forward in front of Noritada slowly, and regarded me with her scarred face. “My bow students would like to know where they should stand.”

I stared at her, hard, but my eyes softened when Tano gave my jacket sleeve a soft tug, still staring at the castle.

I sat back down heavily, taking a plate of more chicken breast from Tano as she handed it to me, then gave her own wand a little flick to fix the bowl I had broken.

“Here.” I said finally, the little bowl jumping off my booted foot to land back on the table. “Keep them there, where it is safest. You may think to have them down below on another level, but this is considered our Alamo, and they have less of a chance of being cut off here.”

“Plus the lower levels are trapped to hell and back.” Brody called out, the bowl being shattered waking both her and Deckard up.

Deckard’s voice carried up and out of the fox hole. “We have no mines up here, so it is safest.”

“Every student that can draw a bow will have one.” Arihada said with a slight bow. “Those who can’t will have a weapon or wand, won’t they, Noritada?”

Noritada was glaring at me openly now, but now that he understood my anger, and my fear… I saw it in his eyes as well.

He knew this was all real, or as real as I was making it out to be.

“We have enough weapons in the castle to make sure everyone has something to wield.” Noritada said, his voice reserved and masked. “We have plenty of students, from kendo to kenjutsu, as well as those who are learning the naginata.”

I started chewing on my chicken again, then pointed the sauced cutlet towards the castle. “Keep them here, make them aware that this is the only safe place on this castle for them to stand. We have rigged the entire lower elements to be a gravesite… we have to.”

“I will alert the other teachers and the rest of the staff.” Noritada said, bowing forward before walking back to the castle with Arihada.

Tano and I were silent as I ate, the yellow skinned Oni slowly pouring me and herself more measures of tea. Once I had eaten nearly five chicken breasts and two bowls of rice, Tano finally spoke.

“Do you think they believe you now?” Tano asked me, leaning her head to the side until it was resting on my shoulder.

I leaned my head towards hers, giving it a light, playful thud with my skull. “I hope so. If we’re lucky, they’ll pull those villagers in before New Years.”

“Would it change anything?” Tano asked, wrapping her hand around my cleaner one that hadn’t been holding chicken this entire time.

I thought about that, rinsing off my fingers with some nearby snow and flicking them free of the melted flakes.

“I don’t know.” I answered once I found myself unable to come to a conclusion on the question. “This is a bit beyond me.”

Tano hummed in her throat at that, then pulled my knuckles towards her lips. I felt her hot flesh hiss along them, then the heat of her cheek as she pressed her face to my hand. “You’ve been quite absent for these past weeks, and I’m afraid that I can no longer tolerate it.”

I turned to look at her, smiling. “Is that right?”

“It is so.”

“Are you pulling rank on me?”

“Perhaps.”

“Perhaps?”

Tano looked up at me slyly, her cheek still pressed to my knuckles. “I have a kotatsu in my room, and it has been a rather cold day. Would you care to warm up with me?”

“I think I can be persuaded.” I said with a smile, then leaned down and kissed the nearest of her horns. “I am sorry for being distant… but this is important.”

“I know.” Tano replied, leaning up and kissing me on the lips. “Just as being warm is important. Come, let’s get you out of these snow-wet clothes.”

I got up and left with Tano, the dishes collecting themselves in a towel and carting themselves off to the washroom. Unbeknownst to me, Brody and Deckard had not fallen back asleep, instead having been awake the entire time.

“Did those assholes just leave us here outside?” Brody piped up after Tano and I had walked away. “What, no room under the kotatsu for lil Brody?”

“I’m pretty sure we don’t want to be anywhere near that room, or that kotatsu for that matter.” Deckard chuckled out, then popped his head up above the fox hole. “Come on, we may as well head inside too. Nothing else to be done out here.”