Chapter 6

  Eventually Tanya heard the “all clear,” come from the radios on the two officers guarding them. They seemed to relax before requesting back up for hostage extraction.

  Shortly after that they were ordered from the room one at a time and each had an individual officer escort them from the building into a cordoned off area where multiple ambulances and medical staff were checking over the former captives and sorting them into busses under the watchful eyes of the police.

  Tanya made sure she stuck next to Visha and began her first duties as a translator when one of them tried to communicate with her.

  “What is your name miss? Do you have any injuries or medical conditions?”

  “Sorry sir, she doesn’t speak Japanese I was always pared with her because we both speak German, so they had me tell her what they wanted. I can translate for you if you want. I want to stay with her if I can, she’s my friend.”

  “That will have to do for now,” He turned speaking into his radio, “This is Tendo with medical team 4. I have another foreigner here, this one only speaks German, do we have anyone on hand to translate otherwise one of the other victims has offered to stay with her and translate for her, over.”

  “This is local dispatch, that is acceptable, we will sort it out later back at the station over.”

  “Ok miss, let’s start with you and then move on to your friend, what’s your name and do you have any injuries or medical conditions?”

  “I’m Tanya Degurechaff, and this is my dear friend Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov. Neither of us are injured or have any known medical conditions. Though Visha has mentioned that she has been feeling cold since the shooting happened and once she mentioned it I noticed I feel cold as well.”

  “That is perfectly normal in this kind of situation, nothing to worry about it’s a common symptom of mild shock. Let’s get you too some blankets and load you up on a van to get somewhere safe ok.”

  Tanya turned to Visha and translated everything the paramedic had said. Then turned to follow him towards one of the vans. Visha took the opportunity to dramatical cry out and clutch at Tanya’s arm speaking rapidly about not wanting to be alone.

  The paramedic stopped quite shocked at the scene as Tanya explained. “She’s scared that we are going to get separated and it’s making her a panic. She would do it every once in a while, when they would split us up to do different…” Tanya trailed off conjuring her most dead and vacant stare.

  The paramedic gave her a second then cleared his throat to get her attention.

  Shaking her head to clear the non-existent trauma away. Tanya continued her performance.

  “Anyway, whenever we were separated, she would freak out and start crying and pounding on the door, they used to slap her until she would stop or just bring her along. So long as I stick with her it shouldn’t be a problem, I’m very sorry for the imposition.”

  “That’s fine, tell her that we will make sure you two stay together ok, don’t worry.”

  Tanya soothed the sobbing Visha who had her head buried in her shoulder and hair. “Hey, don’t worry it’s ok, we’ll be alright, they said that we could stick together so stop crying and come on. I’ll even get you some chocolate as soon as I can, ok.”

  Visha pulled her head back and so help me are those real tears Tanya thought as Visha wiped her face and nose before holding Tanya’s hand and following behind her as they boarded the police van.

  Taking their seats Tanya noted six other former captives already on board with the final sliding into the seat next to herself. An officer closed the doors and slapped the side of the vehicle signaling its readiness for departure.

  Wrapped in a blanket that her and Visha shared to sell the story, Tanya allowed herself a small smirk. So far, the plan was proceeding well.

  She knew that the field trip wasn’t over yet and she had a long way to go before she was sitting back in her apartment surrounded by things that belonged to her and not just something issued or on loan from the army.

  After several twists and turns, the van found its way onto a main road and shortly after got stuck in Tokiyo traffic as the morning rays of the sun began to kiss the tops of the city’s skyscrapers. Tanya found herself lolled to sleep resting her head on Visha’s taller frame, as the exhaustion from a sleepless night caught up to her.

  ~

  Visha smiled knowing that if Tanya felt comfortable enough to sleep in this situation, then things must be safe and going as planned. She herself was very tired but years of sleeping in shifts guarding each other backs as they slept was a hard habit to break in one day, even if she had died earlier today. But there was something else keeping her awake as well, the city.

  It was huge, big in a way that seemed impossible. The buildings, the cars, the lights, even the people. A world full of color and light that surpassed anything she had ever seen even before the war. It was a little dizzying to look at to be honest, and she found herself getting frustrated at not being able to read any of the signs. The driver was talking to his passenger and Visha found herself increasingly confused at how strange it sounded.

  She decided to put these things out of her mind for now and instead focus on the strange way people passing by were dressed. The slow speed of traffic allowed her to get a good view of how differently clothing styles were compared to the Empire.

  While there were plenty of outfits that looked familiar, such as men’s suits and slacks. The vast majority boggled her mind with both the style and lack of modesty. Visha had been more covered in her swimsuit then some of these women walking the street in the cold morning air.

  She thought back to the bag of clothes that had been confiscated by the police. She really hoped they got it back later. She really did like the feel of the fabric and hoped they could find others of as good a quality.

  Visha looked down at the still sleeping form of Tanya some minutes later. Her arm was starting to tingle so she gently adjusted it to rest on the back of the seat. She felt Tanya’s hair tickling her hand.

  Looking over she once again found it strange how unfamiliar Tanya looked with black hair. She was so used to seeing blonde locks fluttering in the wind in front of her and now the change was proving to be distracting. She was constantly having to do a double take when she turned to talk to Tanya.

  Gently she twirled a few locks of the raven black strands through her fingers. It was much cleaner than normal but still a bit oily and Visha felt her fingers catch on a few knots that had begun forming. The commander was usually the picture of hygiene and good grooming, but she too had let many things go during the weeks of constant attack and retreat.

  I was a rare occurrence but the two had brushed each other’s hair on more than one occasion when circumstance had permitted. It was often one of the more quiet times she spent with the commander.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Of course, she knew Tanya didn’t really care about her hair, at least not anymore then to make sure it was cut to regulation and presentable. But that subtle pride most girls had in their hair, was just never there with Tanya.

  And I guess now I know why she thought. She hadn’t completely processed what it meant that Tanya had been a man, or she remembered being a man? Or did she think of herself as being a man still?

  It was a confusing situation and rather than feeling unsettled by the notion. What she most felt was pity for her friend. God had been right when he had stated that it was better to forget you past lives. Don’t worry my Zakadychnaya podruga, I’ll stay by your side just like this until the end, again.

  Slowly Visha felt her eyes grow heavy and she too let sleep claim her.

  ~

  Nagafuji Kokoro had been splitting his focus between the road ahead of him and watching the former captives in his rearview mirror. His partner beside him kept up a running commentary of everything going on in his life and Kokoro barely had to respond with more than single word answers to keep the conversation flowing.

  He felt bad for the girls, it was a terrible situation to be in, and he was glad they had been rescued. But more he felt deep shame that the situation had existed in the first place. He was only a low-level officer and spent most of his days driving around the transport van picking up drunks and hauling them to the nearest Koban (Small police station local to a neighborhood).

  This was the closest he had ever come to true evil, and it left his heart heavy, and his stomach kept clenching at the thought of what had been done to these girls.

  Though there had been a moment when he felt his hot rage freeze over and cold sweat spread across his back. The van had been being loaded each passenger being escorted by a medic then their name was passed to him to log as they entered his vehicle.

  Everything was normal and he remembered feeling pity as he wrote down each girl’s name and watched them enter his van. Then those two had come.

  Two foreigners, both young girls, but when the little one had looked at him, he felt like a young cadet back in police academy getting stared down by the assistant police inspector while waiting for inspection. The moment passed as she entered the van, but the memory of it stayed with him.

  He ended up having to rush to write her name down, no doubt butchering the spelling. The second one was both better and worse.

  She glanced at him, and he knew somehow that she could kill him, despite her tear-stained face and troubled look toward her friend. That moment too passed, and he tried to shrug it off as he finished loading and started up the van.

  As they drove through the city heading towards one of Tokyo’s main police stations, he was almost able to forget the feeling. In fact, as he watched the short one fall asleep on her friend, who took care of her in a very moe manor.

  He felt like maybe the whole thing had been in his head, induced by the stress and excitement of the situation, after all he had seen the number of body bags that had been hauled out. The thought was reinforced when the taller blonde one also fell asleep her head resting on that of her friend.

  That would have been the end of his thoughts on the matter as well as his thoughts about the two girls if not for the incident that occurred ten minutes down the road.

  A car ahead them in another lane swerved rapidly in front of him, cutting him off and forcing him to break abruptly.

  First, he heard a shout in a harsh foreign tongue, then he felt the eyes of an apex predator sweep over him before disappearing. Among the squeals of fright from the other passengers he heard the same language again softer this time though the words were still harsh to his ears.

  “Just had to break suddenly, everything is ok.” He tried to reassure his passengers. But there was no one around to reassure him, his partner didn’t even seem to notice the feeling of death pass over them. One thing was sure though he would not be deluding himself into thinking it was all in his head this time.

  ~

  Tanya woke up to an abrupt inertial shift. Startled awake, she began shouting orders, confused about her situation. “Battle stations! Fall in!” Then she remembered where she was and hiding the shame turned to Visha and calmly explained to her what had happened and that there was nothing to worry about.

  It didn’t help her mood at all that Visha had a little smirk on her face as she deadpanned, “no worries here Tanya I wasn’t frightened” It was at this moment that Tanya remembered that due to her age Tanya had never had to operate a car in the other world while Visha had been her primary driver in most every occasion.

  Her neck was feeling hot with shame again at the embarrassment of it all. What’s more is that she had slipped up and shouted army commands in heat of the moment. Hopefully no one would be able to remember the phrase she had said to later translate.

  Not that it would really matter, she supposed after all the truth was stranger than fiction in their case. And now the driver kept giving them strange looks throughout the rest of the trip.

  Turning into an underground garage, Tanya knew they must have arrived at their destination. The entrance area was swarmed with police and service vehicles as well as personnel.

  Theirs was not the first van of freed captives to arrive and they found themselves parked and waiting for their turn to be processed. As they exited the van Tanya made eye contact with their driver who flinched but came when she motioned him over.

  “My friend had our clothes stuffed in a pillowcase with her before we left, as well as two shovels that are a part of our outfits, I know it sound’s silly, but these are the outfits that we had on when we were rescued, and we want them as a sort of keepsake. It was taken by an officer with the badge number 371. Can you please make sure she gets it back after they are done checking it.”

  For some reason the man gulped before saluting, then after realizing what he’d done nodded and assured Tanya that he’d “make sure it got back to them.” Then the man walked off at a very brisk pace. Handing his clipboard to his partner before disappearing into the crowd.

  After a short wait they were ushered indoors with their new escort. This time only two officers for each van group. Tanya couldn’t say she recognized anything, even the police dramas she had seen in the past didn’t show this more mundane side of a police station.

  They passed through a large hallway with plenty of doors leading to offices and file rooms. Eventually they passed through an open office space and where lead into a mostly empty conference room with plenty of chairs for everyone in their group including their escorts.

  After settling down they were asked if they were hungry, and refreshments were offered in the form of tea and prepackaged snacks. Apparently, we were going to be interviewed individually, checked for identification and those with family would have them contacted.

  Since we weren’t prisoners, they would be transferring us to a secure housing facility nearby that was basically a repurposed barracks and was typically used as an evacuation/disaster relief shelter.

  Before going there though, we had to finish these preliminary interviews and get a full medical checkup and screening at a nearby hospital to ensure our health and prevent the spread of communicable diseases.

  It looked like they had a long day ahead of them. Tanya leaned back and closed her eyes again preparing herself for a long wait. But a steady shaking of her chair prevented her from relaxing enough to sleep so she forced her eyes open, only to see Visha’s leg nervously bouncing up and down vibrating her chair.

  Reaching over she placed her hand on Visha’s knee stopping the motion. Visha took that as an invitation to hold her hand and Tanya noted the clammy sweat that had formed on her palms.

  “Relax Visha, you have faced far worse than this. Not matter what happens at least here you won’t die.”

  “I know it’s just after everything that has happened, we are so close to being free from it all and I’m worried I might screw it up or that they’ll send my away or something. Plus, everything here is very different then what I’m used to.”

  “It’s fine, I’ll make sure that everything works out one way or another. I mean worst case scenario is we get separated and then both of us have to immigrate to the United States or some other country to meet up. If it looks like we are going be split up, I’ll give you a few phone numbers that we can use to stay in touch ok.”

  “Who’s phone numbers?”

  “My mo… My grandmothers. Now relax and try to sleep.”

  Visha finally seemed to settle though she still maintained a grip on Tanya’s hand as the two sat waiting for everything to be prepared and their turn for the interview.

  Eventually clerk came over to speak to Visha through Tanya, asking what languages Visha spoke. After learning that Visha was of Russian descent and spoke that language as well as German, they mentioned that they would look for someone who could translate for her.

  Stating that while they appreciated Tanya’s help, they would need the translator to be someone official. The man came back twenty minutes later with another officer who apparently spoke Russian. He and Visha proceeded to have a stilted conversation, with the man apologizing claiming it was difficult to understand Visha’s dialect.

  Tanya stepped in to help whenever either of them couldn’t understand the other and after pulling Visha aside to speak with her without Tanya present, the officer and the clerk decided that it would be fine if Tanya joined in to help with translation during Visha’s interview.

  “What was that about?” Tanya asked after the two men had left.

  “Oh, they asked me if you were forcing me to stay with you, and if I really wanted you to translate for me. They insisted that if you were coercing me, they could help and make sure I was safe from any reprisal from you. I made sure to freak out a little at the idea that they would take you away from me and insisted that you were the one who always helped me.”

  “Well, that’s one hurdle down, Hopefully the interviews go well.”