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"I’ll Be Seeing You" (Road to Toran) It’s cold today, she thought to herself as she plodded through the trees in the morning hours. I wonder if Sonya received my letter. I hope she doesn’t mind my leaving so abruptly. I just… knew she had to get home, and with me around, she wasn’t going to. What’s that noise? She heard three thuds behind her, and she immediately readied her naginata and whirled around. It was them again, those silly scantily-clad girls that had attacked her before. Did those Amazons see her—or perhaps even recognize her—as an easy target? And didn’t they realize that sometimes the weather gets really cold? “RinRin, it’s freezing! Couldn’t we have stolen some clothes from that merchant back there?” “You idiot, this is better since it’s not on the main path! Get her!” Yoshino backed up slightly as RanRan and TenTen ran straight for her. She calculated quickly, then jumped to avoid the one and smack the other hard in the back with the stick of her weapon. A yelp was heard, and TenTen was floored and in a great deal of pain. “Owww… I still don’t see why we couldn’t have stolen some clothes from that merchant….” RanRan looked carefully at Yoshino through squinted eyes. “Hey… I think I remember you. Weren’t you one of those people from a few days ago who had the sticks with pointy thingys on them?” Yoshino used the time that passed during RanRan’s little interrogative sentence to gather force for a charging blow that didn’t allow RanRan one more millisecond to think it over. Yoshino felt the jarring force of the attack in her naginata and almost cringed at what she’d done. But she didn’t cringe. She knew what she had to do to survive. With her forehead raw in some places, bloody in others, and bruised in all, RanRan managed to say one thing before she fell unconscious to the ground. “Can I go home now?” RinRin assumed a stance of sheer embarrassment, with one hand on her hip and the other on her forehead. That, somehow, reminds me of Sonya, thought Yoshino with a smirk. I wonder if forest bandits are necessarily all that much different from Generals of the Republic…. Yoshino’s eyes narrowed as she held her weapon in front of her, ready to defend herself. RinRin saw this through the corner of her eye, and took it as an invitation to a battle. The latter woman smiled and readied her own staff. And the battle commenced. RinRin jumped high into the air and swung her staff above her head. Yoshino quickly ducked to the side and thrust the handle of her naginata in RinRin’s direction as she landed. The target had anticipated her however, and was able to parry the attack. Yoshino jumped back and RinRin stood with an angry glint in her eye. “Why are you fighting me?” questioned Yoshino as she swung her blade around, pointing it at RinRin. RinRin pulled her left foot backward and took a defensive stance before answering. “I have no choice but to fight!” “No choice?” Yoshino ran straight towards RinRin. “None!” came the answer with a deft block. Yoshino tripped RinRin, causing the girl to yelp as she hit the ground. The laundry woman placed the blade of her naginata at RinRin’s neck. RinRin glared at Yoshino. “I was born into this life, and I will die from this life. There is no other place for me. So go ahead. Kill me. It is only fitting.” Yoshino hesitated. It was possible for her to change, wasn’t it? Yoshino had changed from an innocent homemaker to a somewhat formidable warrior. But could it possibly happen the other way? Suddenly, someone screamed right behind Yoshino, and there was a thump as she hit the ground. Yoshino whirled around to see a moaning, bloody TenTen on the ground. Behind her were Sonya and her sailors. Yoshino blinked confusedly a few times before RinRin knocked her to the ground. Yoshino managed to recover quickly and return to her battle. Sonya didn’t seem to be helping her. Was she testing her? Was she afraid to get in the way? Was there something else? Yoshino saw an opening, and she slashed RinRin’s cheek with her blade. RinRin screamed, dropped her staff, and covered her face in her hands. “Kill me!” she cried. “Kill me!” Yoshino shook her head. “I refuse to take advantage of the situation.” RinRin fell to her knees and cried, the salty tears stinging her gaping wound. Yoshino felt the pity strike her directly in the conscience part of her brain. She took a medicine from the pack she carried and threw it to the weeping girl. “Learn lessons,” said Yoshino to RinRin. “Don’t just teach them. You’d be surprised at what your colleagues can teach you.” Yoshino turned to face a very angry Sonya. Her spear was readied, and she had it pointed at Yoshino’s neck. Yoshino, while surprised, didn’t flinch. “I’m sorry. I took a cloak because it was cold. Do you want it back that badly?” Sonya stood rigid, her blue eyes icing over. “Where are our supply packs, traitor?” “Supply packs? I only took my own!” “Liar!” She touched her blade to Yoshino’s neck. Yoshino could feel a bit of warm blood trickling down her skin. “Where are they?” “I haven’t the faintest—” “If you please….” Sonya eased herself slightly and turned her head to view the speaker. Mary, one of the typically silent sailors, stood up and spoke in an authoritative tone of voice. “I think I can speak for Yoshino-san.” Sonya stood mute and expressionless. “We can have a trial right here if you want,” continued Mary. “You can be the prosecutor, General Shulen. I will be the defense. The rest of the crew can be the jury.” Sonya relaxed. “You know, I really do hope you have some valid statements.” Mary only smiled. “You start, Sonya.” “All right,” said Sonya. “Last night, I was on watch with Yoshino and when it was time for us to switch shifts, she offered to wake Billiana for the next shift.” Yoshino interrupted. “Wait, I can explain….” “No, Yoshino,” said Mary. “Don’t explain. You have to stay silent. This is your trial and you aren’t allowed to speak unless you are asked to.” Yoshino sulked in submission. Sonya continued. “In the morning, I found out that Billiana hadn’t been woken up, and that all of our supply packs had been stolen, which included some confidential maps and information that was given to me by the Toran Republic. Yoshino had also disappeared from the camp, leaving us with this letter.” She produced a crinkled piece of paper from her cloak. “I see no reason not to suspect her of betraying us.” The jury reluctantly nodded its approval of the denouncement of their friend. It was at this point that Mary turned to the rest of her colleagues. “Let’s think this out, shall we?” All eyes stared at the small brunette who rarely spoke unless it was needed. She surveyed her audience without turning her head, then closed her eyes, bowed her head, and spoke again. “Sonya, how many bags were stolen?” Sonya cupped her chin in her hands and thought carefully. One for each of us, so that’s about… “Ten, more or less,” she answered. Mary nodded. “How much did each of those packs weigh?” Sonya’s eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t know… enough to supply each person for a week, but not so much that it was a burden to carry.” At this, Mary smiled. “So, as strong as Yoshino-san was, how could one woman, in the middle of the night, take all of the packs including her own and expect to be able to get away from us? And more importantly, why would she want all of them? She could have easily transferred any maps she needed into a single bag, and we can assume that she is an intelligent enough woman that she would do so if she wanted to. So why take all that food? It couldn’t possibly be for her trip back. Banner is actually not very far from here, but it would be impossible for her to transport ten packs from here to Banner in one night. And she wouldn’t think of staying in this forest for very long with information that we needed—especially while we’re still in the forest.” Her audience gave an affirmative nod. A few things began to make sense…. “Then… who took our packets?” interrogated Billiana. “I did, dammit!” came a screech from behind them. It was RinRin, her face semi-healed from using the much-needed medicine. “It was me and RanRan and TenTen! Your packets are in the trees overhead! Now leave the lady alone!” Caught by surprise, it was a while before anyone found his (well… her, in this case) voice. Mary finally spoke. “I’m sorry, but I was curious as to why you would want to help free our friend from blame.” RinRin and TenTen, who had also used some medicine for her wounds, limped over to RanRan’s limp form to carry her away. When they had raised her up onto their shoulders, RinRin finally answered. “Nobody else had ever tried to understand me before.” They limped off into the distance, leaving some very awed sailors behind her.
Henrietta interrupted the long, pensive silence. “How about the letter? She wrote a letter saying she was leaving, and she left us without warning. We can still suspect her for trying to steal information.” “If she was trying to get away from us, would she write a letter that told us she was going to leave?” “Well… no.” “One more question for you, Henrietta,” said Mary. “Did you finish reading the letter?” “Finish? Well, actually….” “You only read the first sentence. Why don’t we read it to the end?” Sonya handed the letter to the defense attorney, who smoothed it out the best she could and read it in a loud, clear voice.
Dear Sonya and friends, “Well,” said Mary. “What do you think?” Sonya knotted her eyebrows in thought. “It can explain her behavior, but how do I know that this letter tells the truth?” It was at this point that Yoshino spoke up again. “You have your soldiers. Go ahead and kill me if you think I’m lying.” All eyes turned to the woman in question. Yoshino only watched Sonya’s reaction. Her eyes had turned from the color of cold winter evenings to the deep blue of the sea. What had done that? Did she finally believe her, or was it just a reminiscence of the past? Or was she, a highly renowned general, truly about to shed tears? Yoshino would never find out for sure. Sonya merely stood up and motioned for her soldiers to follow her. Without a word, every single one of them got her supply packet out from the trees and headed for the path to Toran. Yoshino watched them, studied their faces, as they turned and looked at her one last time before leaving on the path out of the City-State. She sighed. Sonya, I have this feeling that I’ll be seeing you again someday. Yoshino turned her back to the retreating soldiers and headed in the direction of Banner. I just hope that when that someday comes, we aren’t standing at opposite sides of the battlefield…. Goodbye, my friend.
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