Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ His Honor ❯ Karma, neh? ( Chapter 3 )

His Honor

By, Jamie1317kast

 

The company moves out, dragging Shigure and Kureno with them.

 

Disclaimer: Fruits Basket is copyrighted to Natsuki Takaya, not me. I own Gabriel, Jamie, Tobias and Andre. I own nothing else.

 

Rated R for violence.

 

Karma, neh?:

 

" All right you lazy bastards! It's time to move out!"

It was just before dawn, or as near as I could guess with my head under the covers. I didn't recognize the voice, but who ever it was was obviously in charge of this company.

" ME-owww." I heard Jamie complain. " I don't want to get up."

The tent flap opened and a figure stalked in. " I don't want to hear any more of your lip, Peterson! Get your ass off your cot before I do it for you! And make sure these Japers know what's what around here!"

Of course I could tell right away that I didn't like this man.

" Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Okinawa." Came the reply as the General left our tent.

Jamie sat up. " All right everybody, time to get up! Gabriel, Tobias, Bastard (this means you, Andre.), Shigure-san, and Shigure-san's stupid cousin! Up and at'm!" Jamie made his rounds around the tent, whacked everybody with one of his boots, and threw off the covers of our sleeping bags.

We scrambled out of our cots, desperately grabbing for our boots and guns. Of course, Jamie was already ready. If I didn't know better, I would have said the man was born ready.

Wearily we lined up outside the tent; the sun wasn't even up yet. I could see clearly now, in the half-dawn light. There was another tent near ours, an army jeep, nothing but desert as far as the eye could see. The flap of the other tent lifted and two men came out.

One was Andre and the other man must be Okinawa. Jamie barked at us, “ Company, salute!” and he snapped to attention. Oh, yes, I could see it now. I could see that Jamie was born for this.

Okinawa strode out in front of us as we saluted him as well. I could tell that Kureno was about to complain, but thankfully, he stayed silent. Taichii Okinawa wasn't very tall, and Jamie towered over him. He had Asian-tan skin, cold brown eyes, and his black hair was slicked back into one greasy mess. Taichii, Andre, and myself all shared the same features, and it sent a chill down my spine.

Oh, and did I fail to mention his red tie?

And I thought to myself, as I saw his fingers constantly fiddling with it, that if I ever got home I was going to burn my red tie.

Taichii stopped in front of Jamie, Gabriel, and Tobias, finding something to complain about when I knew that each of them was spotless. He looked at Kureno with an undisguised sneer. He grabbed Kureno's hands, and inspected them closely. His sneer grew wider.

" Well, what's this, Japer? It looks like you've never worked a day in your life!" His sneer became an evil grin. " Well rest assured, that is definitely going to change. And you!" He let go of Kureno and came over to me.

" And I suppose you've never worked either." I held out my hands for inspection, and I had to suppress a shiver as his oily hands grabbed mine. “ Ha! You know the only reason that 9/11 happened was because we let foreigners like you into our country! If we'd just kept out you Japers, Chinks, Slams, and Spic bastards,” His grin twisted itself sideways. “ We wouldn't even be fighting this damn war in the first place. In fact, if you ask me, our America would be even greater without all you foreigners and it would rightfully belong to the people that were here first-."

A voice piped up from somewhere to my left. “ Who? You mean the buffalo?" Jamie's voice cut through Taichii's thick silence. “ You're Japanese, Okinawa, and as I recall, your people weren't exactly given the red-carpet welcome.”

Taichii let go of my hands and whirled on Jamie when another voice spoke up. “ We are all foreigners, every single one of us. We have all worked hard for many years to accomplish what we have now." Gabriel kept his eyes fixed ahead. “ And the United States' government is not perfect, though some would like to think that it is. I am here to serve my country, do my duty, and then go home. Besides, should we not be moving out now?”

He growled, caught. Taichii was seething, but he barked out orders. We took down the tents, and loaded them into the jeep. Taichii and Andre hopped up into the car. “ You five will proceed on to our next meeting point, you have all the equipment that you need." Taichii ordered. And then he, with Andre, drove off until I lost sight of the jeep over the horizon.

Good riddance.

 

I hated Afghanistan, still do, in fact. I couldn't stand the country then, and I can't stand it now. The terrain was terrible, hot and rough, nothing like Japan at all. I would have gotten lost within the hour of setting out from camp, alien and foreign, the Middle East was anything but home.

It was hot and Kureno (that bastard), never stopped complaining. I steeled myself against his constant whine, willing myself to ignore it. Jamie however, had no such patience.

" My GOD! Will you just shut the fuck up?!"

And, Kureno shut up.

After that, Jamie was my hero.

Jamie Peterson seemed to embody everything a writer could hope to capture in a character. He was strong, never doubted his footing, and had an impeccable sense of direction. He wrote letters home to his wife every night, depositing whole stacks of them on a dispatcher when we met up with other units.

One night as I was scribbling down notes on a notepad, (because you never know what details you won't remember when you start a novel later.), I saw Jamie staring at some photographs. Inching over, I saw a petite woman with dark hair and blue eyes.

Your wife?

Yeah, my wife, my Michelle.

How old?

Twenty-three.

How long have you been married?

Five years.

You miss her?

Yeah.

But you'll see her again, won't you?

Go away. Tobias, I'll take watch.

" Do not ask him about Michelle." Gabriel looked over at me from his cot. Jamie had left the tent, stuffing the pictures back into his breast pocket.

" Why not?" I couldn't restrain my curiosity.

" Because he will never see her again. And before you ask why, this is a suicide mission. Mark my words, we will all be dead before the year is out."

 

After that a heavy silence fell on the group, even Kureno didn't try to complain. It might have been the heat, so oppressive that it's an effort simply to breathe. It might have been the heat, but it wasn't.

I didn't want to die. I had to go home and see Akito before I died. I couldn't die out here, on this foreign soil. So far from home.

I suddenly thought of all the people who would fight in this war, of all the people who would die in this war. All the people who would never see home again, never see their families or love ones.

I cried.

Tobias handed me a packet of tissues and nobody said a word.

I wondered, vaguely, if anyone had told these soldiers to 'be safe' when they left. Not just those in my company, but the other companies as well. And what about the people we were 'fighting'?

Did anyone tell them to 'be safe'?

 

I had nightmares.

I saw armadillos with no claws, a fly caught in a spider's web, and an army of ghost soldiers.

John Irving, Chaim Potok, and Tim O'Brian.

I need to stop reading Gabriel's high-school literature before bed.

 

Tobias died.

 

It was my fault.

 

I had the medical bag that day, there was shooting. The very first shooting since I had come here.

It was so loud and frightening.

Tobias died.

 

I had to crawl, and even then I couldn't move. It was terrible.

 

I'm such a coward.

It was my fault.

 

Tobias died.

 

Jamie leaped up over the bank swinging his four and a half-foot long katana, screaming like a madman. He hacked the first shooters to pieces and chased after the ones that ran away.

There was more shooting in the distance and screams of the dying.

Gunfire echoed, shout praises to God.

Tobias…

 

Normal day, normal heat. Suddenly, the shooting started.

Jamie shot in the arm, barking orders, careless of his own safety.

Bullets whipping Gabriel's hair, Kureno ducking for shelter.

 

…shot.

 

" MEDIC!"

 

My fault.

I tried, I really did.

 

Jamie popping a grenade.

 

Explosion.

Screams.

Dead.

 

" Get Tobias, NOW!"

 

Crying.

I was afraid.

And I failed.

 

Mortar rounds screaming in my ears.

Blood on my face, I hurt somewhere.

Just a scratch.

 

" He's DYING you bastard!"

 

Tobias died.

 

A bullet through his neck, blood gushing from the wound, his eyes pleaded with me.

His eyes told me to be brave.

 

Jamie came back covered in blood.

He looked at Tobias and then he looked at me.

 

" I-I-i.. "

 

" You managed to shoot one." He said calmly.

The silence was so strange after all the commotion had died down.

"…"

" It happens to the best of us, even me when I started."

" It's my fault."

" Shut up, you couldn't help it. No, don't do that Gabriel, I'll carry him."

 

Jamie lifted Tobias over one shoulder and sheathed his katana.

" Move out men, our checkpoint is right over this next hill. Get up you bastard!"

He jerked Kureno up from his cowering position.

 

We fell in line behind Jamie like we always had.

And then he started singing softly, and the feather in Tobias's hair swung gently to the sway of Jamie's steps.

" Everywhere we go-" " People wanna know-" " Who we are-" " So we tell them-"

 

Echo.

 

Gabriel said, Karma, neh?

And Jamie said, Karma.