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need a base of operations quickly, so I think that they're
willing to clean it out fast and dirty. I don't think they'll do
something like this with the rest of Nippon. That is going to
be mostly combat, unless they think of Okinawa."
I was glad Wolf wasn't mentioning the Allies dropping
nuclear bombs on my homeland to get them to stop fighting,
because Okinawa showed them that we were never going to
surrender to them unless they did that. I didn't know if he
was being polite or just remembering that the Allies had
bombed his country too.
"They're fucking pulling a Congo here," Mason snarled,
ignoring what Wolf was trying to imply. Or it might have been
that he didn't get the references. Mason would be the first to
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admit that he didn't know much history, but I would have
thought that he would know those references, as opposed to
the Battle of Nagashino or Kawanakajima. I had no idea what
he was referring to with that comment about the Congo. "You
know that and I know that. And soon they're gonna dump a
shitload of their mercs here to finish the job, because
remember what's the other company that these assholes
have access to. You willing to deal with them?"
"I assure you that we are not innocent babes in the
woods," Daikaku said. "We are the Hakkenshi, the beasts
that "
" I cursed you to be," Tamazusa whispered, blinking her
eyes rapidly. "You are the result of the hate that your
grandfather caused me to feel. You are innocents in this."
"Does that mean that I get to call you grandmother?"
Genpachi asked her seriously, after a long moment, breaking
the tension in the room. I just knew that Shinbee had wanted
to say something nasty to Tamazusa, but one glare from
Konbungo stopped that, along with a preemptive strike on the
back of his head.
"I knew there was a reason I liked you," Mason muttered,
before adding in a louder voice. "But shit, these fuckers will
be pulling shit that was invented after you guys were around.
And what about your troops? Does this shit affect them? If
those fuckers slaughter your armies, how the fuck do you
people get replacements?"
"For now, we can all absorb the ronin who have survived,"
Shino said.
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He wasn't going to answer Mason, and I didn't want him
to. I knew that when you died here in the Dreamlands, it was
permanent. That was one of the reasons Nippon had been at
peace for so long. The other was that anyone who wanted to
work out their aggressions could do so by hunting the
monsters that roamed the lands. But I was curious about how
one became a citizen of the Dreamlands. Helga wasn't
someone who was noble, and Tholf was a man who seemed
to want nothing more than a good fight.
"We need to move out in the morning," Shino said.
"Sousuke and I can escort you to the edge of your kuni,
Tamazusa-sama, but you know that you must go on alone
from there."
"At least with only myself and a guard of her samurai,"
Samojirou said smoothly. "She will not be unescorted during
this. While I trust my lord and her strength, I do not trust
Iida."
"Do you think that Aboshi would let me go alone?"
Tamazusa asked with a smile. "And he was with me the first
time that I claimed my kuni. He is as much a part of it as I
am."
Shino nodded, accepting her decision. I realized that I
would have very little time with my lover, and we were going
to be wasting part of that with an argument.
* * * *
Mason
The meeting broke up soon after Samojirou decided to
accompany Tamazusa to her kuni. I felt better knowing that
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he was going with her, but Wolf still was looking like he
wanted to rip someone a new one. He was muttering to
himself in German, one word over and over again,
"Lebensraum."
"Wolf, this isn't your fault," McGann finally told him.
"They are using gas attacks on innocent people," Wolf
practically snarled at her. "It could be anything!"
"It could be," she said softly.
"You want to know what my grandmother teaches?" Wolf
demanded.
"What?" I asked him when McGann didn't open her mouth.
She probably knew, but she wanted me to be the straight
man for this.
"History," he said. "Germany during the thirties and
forties, to be exact. Not too popular a topic when she started
her career, which was shortly after the war was over."
"Fuck," was the only thing that came to mind. "But, shit,
ain't she Norwegian or Swedish?"
"Norwegian," Wolf said. "And my grandfather's German."
I knew that. And I knew that his grandparents raised him
after his father had killed himself and Wolf's mother in a
drunk-driving accident. The only thing that had saved him
was that he had been with his grandparents for the summer.
"I don't get it," I told him. I really didn't. I knew I should
have, that I was missing what was pissing him off about this,
aside from the fact that he was a nice guy and didn't
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