Sharp Wings; 鋭い翼 [Gintama]

28 | The past holds a lot of truths but nothing's truly a lie in the present

"I do." Shizuku replied in a muffled voice as she looked at the blood-colored and bloodstained ground.

"I do know that, but I don't like it. It's bad enough that I probably won't see one of my closest friends anymore. Who knows what Tatsu-nii's doing out there in the open, away from all of us without any contact?"

"You know, he did ask you to come with him." Kiko replied softly, turning in her chair to fully look at Shizuku. "When he left, he asked you and I believe the other three told you to follow him, too, right? That way you'll be out of the conflict area."

"Yeah." Shizuku replied with a sigh. "But.... I didn't want to leave.... Especially when..." her voice trailed off.

Kiko gave a small hum in understanding without Shizuku ever finishing her sentence. "I mean, if I were in the same situation, I wouldn't want to leave, either. You don't want to found out from other, irrelevant people if either of the three died, huh?"

The younger girl nodded weakly. "But I also feel guilty. What if I really won't see Tatsu-nii anymore? He's just as important to me as the other three."

"Are you sure that you won't see Sakamoto-san anymore, though? That's guys' smart. He'll probably come up of ways to meet with you again. All you have to do is to believe that you will all survive this whole ordeal and the five of you will be together again."

"I don't know. I just...." Shizuku's voice thinned out once again. "I just have this feeling. A very bad one. I don't know. I don't even know what it means."

Kiko sighed before she gave a small smile to the younger girl. "Just trust in the three, Shizuku. You know that they're not going to die. After the war is over, all three of you can go back to the city or the province once again with no one to bother you. Who knows, maybe you'll see Sakamoto-san in the middle. That guy's not going to let anyone or anything kill him."

Shizuku was quiet for a little while before she sighed, eventually giving in. Truthfully, she didn't even know why she go the idea of one of their three remaining generals dying, but the thought was certainly in her head. Deciding that she wasn't going to think about it anymore, she just gave a weak smile towards Kiko. It was probably obvious how fake it was, but the older girl certainly did not comment anything about it.

They have their own problems with the whole ordeal with the war. Their only purpose is to help the injured. Any more than that, they're useless. They can't fight, they can't help with tactics, they can't be of use for anything else except for being helpers and pseudo-nurses and -doctors. Shizuku's alright with that.

At least they were good for something, right?

In the end, the girl just let the topic go and continued to work with her small eight-year-old body and limbs.

The main base is a busy area despite being away from the frontlines. The infirmary, even more so as it was situated at the very back of the compound – emergency tents were placed at the very front to help those who were just coming in and they would be transported to the infirmaries at the back if they were stable enough. There was still blood splattered around and dead bodies piled up at every corner – Shizuku tried to pretend that they weren't there – but it was most certainly unlike the frontlines of the battle. OF course, there was the occasional bombings and attacks, but they were protected there. Shizuku had nothing to worry about.

But the fear was still there, no doubt.

Night comes along and it was normal for Shizuku to spend her time over at the other makeshift infirmary tents with the other helpers. They did whatever they could, they never complained about anything. Again, Shizuku was alright with anything just as long as she could help in any way that she can. There's only so much that an eight-year-old could do, after all. She didn't even eat dinner than night, but frankly, she didn't even care.