|
Cuttlefish -> RE: Small Ship, Big War (5/2/2008 1:51:11 AM)
|
January 23, 1944
Location: Tokyo
Course: None
Attached to: Disbanded in port
Mission: None
System Damage: 0
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475
Orders: Await further orders.
---
The Shun residence sits on a low rise overlooking the sea. Like most houses on Okinawa it is built much differently than houses on the mainland. It is a low stone structure with a roof of cemented tile, built to resist the typhoons that regularly strike the island. A pleasant stone walkway, flanked by low, neatly trimmed shrubs, leads up to the front door. A small stylized stone dragon crouches on the roof and looks down over this walkway. The dragon is a shisa, thought to bring luck to the house and those within.
Shun arrived at his home in the morning. Right now he and his daughter Nanami are sitting and talking while the widow Rin, his mother, prepares a snack. The conversation between father and daughter is taking place in Kunigama, a variant of the Okinawan language peculiar to the region, and would be incomprehensible to most other Japanese.
This pleasant little family scene is interrupted as the front door swings open. A ragged-looking man clutching an old Nambu pistol steps into the room. He sees Shun and his daughter seated across the room and springs forward. Rin Shun is in the way and the man thrusts the old woman aside. She falls with a cry and her tray of rice cakes and tea clatters to the floor.
Shun bounds to his feet with a roar of almost animal rage but he stops almost immediately as the intruder points the gun not at him, but at his daughter.
“Please don’t do anything rash, Chief Shun,” says Umeda. “I don’t want to shoot the girl, but I will. My apologies, old woman,” he says in an aside to the widow Shun. She is dragging herself along the floor, whimpering.
“Umeda,” growls Shun. “What do you want here?” Beside him Nanami stands stunned. Her stricken gaze darts from the gun to her grandmother and back.
“I have come to kill you,” Umeda says calmly. “You and your captain have destroyed me. I will return the favor. I think I may also kill that menace Ariga, if I live long enough.”
“Riku?” says Nanami.
Umeda grins nastily. “Do I detect some affection there? If I were you I would make other plans.”
Nanami turns a pleading gaze on Shun. “Father?”
“Don’t worry,” says Shun through gritted teeth. “He has neither the ruthlessness nor the skill to carry out his plans.”
“I don’t know about that,” says Umeda. “I have killed two men just getting here. One of them was your executive officer’s brother. Is that sufficiently ruthless for you?” Shun’s face turns even more grim.
“So the worm is growing a spine?” he says. “If I am not mistaken all that makes you is a snake.”
“Enough talk!” says Umeda. “Time to die, Chief Shun.”
Shun looks at his daughter, then back at Umeda. “What about the women?” he says. Umeda shrugs.
“I do not have anything against the women,” he says. “If you accept your fate quietly I assure you they will not be harmed.” The gun remains steady in his hand.
“Then I have no choice,” says Shun.
“Very good,” Umeda replies. “Your mother and daughter may wish to leave the room. There is no need for them to watch this.” Shun turns to his daughter.
“Nanami…” he says. Nanami suddenly wails and collapses backward into her chair.
“Nooooo!” she shrieks. Her legs kick and she beats her small fists against the air. “Noooooo!” Both Umeda and Shun stand stunned by the display. The hysteria is not only unexpected, it is very loud.
It is in fact loud enough to cover the sound of a rifle bolt being worked. It is not, however, nearly loud enough to cover the sound of the subsequent shot.
The bullet comes in from behind and to one side. It strikes Umeda behind his right shoulder blade and comes out near his sternum. The former Tokeitai officer staggers forward and falls to his knees. He looks down in disbelief at the hole in his chest and then looks back. Rin Shun braces herself and once again works the bolt on the heavy old Lebel infantry rifle that she has wrestled off the wall. The old woman raises the rifle once again, arms trembling, but there is no need. Umeda pitches face forward and lies still.
Nanami’s hysteria ends abruptly. She leaps to her feet and, lifting the hem on her kimono, runs over to help her grandmother.
Shun stands looking down at the body. “You did that on purpose,” he says to his daughter, lifting his gaze to where she is helping Widow Shun to a chair.
“Of course,” Nanami says calmly. “I knew he would hear Grandmother getting ready to fire.”
“She’s your daughter,” says Rin Shun to her son as she sits down.
“Are you all right, Mother?” says Shun, coming over to her.
“Yes, yes,” she says. “A bit bruised, but I am fine. Who was that unpleasant person?”
Shun looks over at the body. “A small person who thought he was big,” he says. “It finally got him killed.”
|
|
|
|
