Dreadnought

The Pacific War Memorial Park in Chuo was baking in the late afternoon heat. We’d run out of money for the train, so both Ayasa and I were drenched with sweat. I hadn’t expected that I’d be back here so soon. The reason we were here was the kid standing above the breakwater with a pair of oversized binoculars, watching something unfold out over the bay.

“Shinji.”

Hiroki dropped his binoculars and turned to me.

“Nishizawa. You okay? You look like you fell in a swamp.”

I wasn’t dying.

“I could use a cold drink.”

“Missed the vending machines by the entrance?”

“No time.”

No money was more like it.

“Well, you came just in time to see something really interesting. Have a look!”

Without warning, Hiroki threw his heavy binoculars at me. I managed to catch them by the lanyard. Hiroki clicked his tongue in mock-disapproval for almost breaking his very expensive sightseeing gadget.

“What am I looking at?”

“Over there, on the bay. Look southeast, just a few degrees off the sun-glint.”

I took the binoculars and scanned the water. Nothing worth noting.

“I don’t see it.”

“Turn your head a bit more south.”

Ah. There was something. A ship, of some kind. No, that was just a tugboat.

“A tugboat?”

“Follow the tow-ropes.”

I couldn’t see any tow-ropes, but the tugboat did appear to be towing something behind it. A massive steel castle. It was a big ship, a few hundred meters long. It wasn’t like the other cargo ships out across the bay. I lowered the binoculars.

“Some kind of battleship?”

Hiroki thumbed his glasses. A cliched signal like that meant that he was about to start a rant or give a history lesson.

“Not just any battleship. The last one.”

“Last?”

“That’s the Ise.”

“Ise? It’s Japanese?”

“Last of the old Imperial Navy.”

I took another look at the ship under tow. It didn’t have the same clean angular lines of a modern missile destroyer. If it really was a ship from the Imperial Navy, it was old. Really old.

“What’s a museum piece like that doing out there?”

“Ever heard the term ‘Ship of Theseus?’”

“No.”

“It’s a metaphor for something that’s had every part of it replaced. The Soviet Navy seized Ise after the war - it was the only capital ship of the Imperial Fleet that wasn’t sunk or too damaged to move. They kept upgrading her over the years, so by now she’s probably had every part of her replaced. A real Ship of Theseus. Here, this is what she looked like during the war.”

Hiroki handed me a thick book - The Pocket Encyclopedia of Naval Vessels 1918-1945. A very Hiroki-like thing to carry around. The page was opened to the Ise, a multi-turreted dreadnought battleship. Hiroki’s assessment was spot on- the ship out on the bay looked almost nothing alike. The front two turrets were intact, but everything aft of that had been altered beyond recognition. The tall pagoda-like mast had been cut away to a stout superstructure, and now steel girders ringed the rear of the ship. Tall missile tubes sprouted up from the sides of the ship, and the stern had been completely cut away into a flight deck with a small helicopter sitting on it. It looked more like a distant factory or some kind of oil rig than a proper warship.

“So what’s a museum piece like that doing out there?”

Hiroki faced out towards the bay.

“Good question. She’s been rusting in the Soviet Pacific Reserve Fleet for almost forty years now. Could be going in for final scrapping now.”

“Well, it does seem way too old to be useful.”

Hiroki almost looked offended at that, like I was treading on holy ground.

“I heard another theory, though. They say they’re reactivating her to transfer her to the North. Supposed to be the core of a new surface force.”

“The North has a navy?”

It was the first I’d heard of it. The Northern Air Force was impossible to ignore with all the recent flyovers, and their army frequently paraded their tanks around to impress Uncle Yoshi. I’d never seen a ship flying the flag of the North, though.

“Always has. It’s been mostly missile boats and hand-me-down diesel submarines from the Soviets, though. They haven’t had the money for a real surface fleet.”

“Shinji, do you really not have anything better to do on a Saturday afternoon?”

Hiroki smiled.

“Nishizawa, you don’t seem to have anything better to do either.”

I could have mentioned that I had just been- and continued to be- on something that was almost like a date with a girl, but that would have felt too much like I was rubbing it in. I handed Hiroki his binoculars back without reply.

No, wait. That was why I was here in the first place. I needed to get Hiroki to lend out one of his rooms so Ayasa would have a place to stay beyond just tonight. Hiroki had just decided to inconveniently be in a part of town much further away from Akiba than normal.

“Listen, about that thing I texted you about…”

“Nishizawa, you’re only ever that vague when you have bad ideas incoming. Spit it out so I can call you a dumbass, already.”

Damn. Hiroki never misses a beat. He was already glued back to his binoculars and still finding ways to be one step ahead of me.

“So there’s this girl…”

“Oh Lord- you found another little comrade?”

“No, same one.”

Miho saw through Ayasa’s disguise instantly. No use trying to hide it from Hiroki- he, of all people, would be the first to detect her Northern-ness.

“You want to send her a letter or something? It’s not gonna make it. They don’t even read the mail before burning it now, unless it’s in diplomatic satchels.”

“Her name is Ayasa Higashiyama.”

Hiroki dropped his binoculars, letting the lanyard catch them. I considered clicking my tongue as he had done, but decided it wasn’t the time.

“How the hell’d you find that out?”

“She’s here.”

“Here? In the South?”

“Here, as in, here in this park.”

Sure enough, Ayasa was still sitting on the bench where I had left her. The bench was partially shaded by a tree, but that wasn’t much relief in the sweltering heat. Hiroki almost lifted the binoculars to inspect her, but she was a bit too close for that to work.

“That’s her? The girl you’ve been obsessing about these last few weeks?

Obsessing was a bit strong of a word for what I’d been doing, but yes. That was the same girl I had already told Hiroki about.

“Yep. A real Northerner, in the flesh.”

Hiroki had tuned me out and was already walking over to her. Shoot. I hoped he wouldn’t freak her out too much.

“You’re Higashiyama, right?”

Ayasa looked up at Hiroki. She had either been lost in thought or just trying to focus on something besides the heat.

“Yes.”

Ayasa was on the defensive again. There wasn’t any need for it, but I guess it would be pretty hard to just blindly trust someone, especially given her situation.

“This is Hiroki Shinji. He’s the friend I told you about.”

“So, you’re a real Northerner?”

Ayasa froze up. A completely different reaction to when Miho had casually dropped that fact. They must have spoken together long enough for Miho to tune in to the fact that she wasn’t who she said she was.

“It’s okay. He’s a friend.”

“How can you tell?”

I wasn’t sure if that was directed at me or Hiroki. Hiroki answered anyway.

“Nishizawa told me. Your dialect’s pretty strong, though. Might want to work on that.”

Hiroki’s bluntness managed to give Ayasa’s a run for its money.

“Is it that easy to hear?”

Ayasa had been getting better- remarkably so, really, given how short of a time she had been in the South. She still had a long way to go.

“Shinji’s pretty perceptive about this stuff. You’re fine.”

She wasn’t fine, but no sense in giving her another thing to freak out about.

“So, how’d you end up here? Did you swim?”

Uh oh. If Ayasa told the truth-

“Nishizawa led me under the wall.”

Damn. I had been hoping that part wouldn’t come up.

Hiroki didn’t glare at me, though. He slapped me on the back in congratulations.

“My friend! Nishizawa! I’ve regained much respect for you today. I knew you’d not risk hell and high-water for something as crass as monetary gain!”

Yeah, yeah. Ayasa had been a side effect of the pursuit of crass monetary gain. Hiroki didn’t need to make this into some knightly quest.

“Well, there was high water. I don’t know about the hell.”

Not for me, at least. Ayasa might have different feelings on the matter. She politely avoided interjecting anything more about what had really gone on.

“So, you tunneled in, found your princess, and made a daring escape?”

“No. We just happened to end up in the same place.”

Hiroki frowned.

“You could make it sound a little more epic than that. Not every day you get to go on a real life rescue mission.”

“It wasn’t a rescue mission.”

More like a kidnapping.

“Well, if it wasn’t a rescue, why’d you come to me to brag about it?

“I didn’t.”

Okay, that was maybe half-true. Ayasa was pretty enough to brag about.

“I see.”

Hiroki left it at that.

“Well?”

Hiroki didn’t leave it at that. He was waiting for me to explain.

“She doesn’t have a place to stay now.”

“What about your room?”

A pleasant thought, but out of the question.

“I think it’s a little too soon for that. I’m already on short notice from my parents for getting home late last night.”

“Ah, so you want me to do…what?”

“Is there a spare room at your place?”

“The apartments? No.”

Well, shit. That was one promise to Ayasa I had already broken, and it hadn’t been more than a few hours since I made it.

“Nishizawa, why so sad? You know your friend always keeps a spare room.”

“But you just said-”

“What kind of man would I be if I didn't surrender my cabin to a castaway?”

Hiroki’s father must have drilled the manners of a naval officer into him.

“Then you’d be living with-”

“Nope. I’ll make the commute from home.”

Well, that’s a great way of making you feel inadequate. Hiroki swept in like a perfect gentleman and offered up his apartment to Ayasa without a second thought.

“She only needs it for a little while.”

No, she needed a place to stay for a long while- forever, in fact. I don’t know why I was so insistent on making this a temporary arrangement.

“Higashiyama. You can stay in my apartment for as long as you need.”

Ayasa was fanning herself with Hiroki’s naval encyclopedia. When did she pick that up?

“Thank you, Mr. Shinji. I can’t offer you anything except gratitude at the moment, but I hope-”

“No need for anything more. One of Nishizawa’s friends is one of my friends. Also, you can call me Hiroki.”

Nope. Nope. Nope. If Ayasa wasn’t calling me Touma, there’s no way that Hiroki’d get to be on a-

“Ah- Saijou says I shouldn’t do that. Is that not right?”

“Saijou? ‘You’ve met Miho? Nishizawa’s Miho?”

“She’s not my Miho. And yes, Ayasa’s staying with-”

Oops. I was supposed to be calling her Higashiyama.

“Higashiyama’s staying with Miho right now.”

“Nishizawa, you ape. You’re not supposed to cross those streams.”

The reference was, as usual, lost on Ayasa.

“I’m in the process of realizing that, Shinji.”

Hiroki laughed and dropped onto the bench next to Ayasa.

“East meets West, huh?”

He phrased it like a joke. Ayasa wasn’t laughing. Neither was I.

“Your names.”

A bad pun. Nishizawa had the character for “west” in it, and Higashiyama- I presume- used the character for “east.”

“Oh, yeah, Shinji. One more thing.”

“Hmm?”

“Can I borrow 500 yen? I’m really thirsty.”

“Say something sooner then, dumbass.”

Hiroki flicked a few coins at me.