The cat knew.
Later, it was obvious, but so are many things when they are considered afterwards, and so nobody thought twice about her sitting at her usual spot in the middle of the three tents at the edge of a sunny clearing, and staring at the well-trodden pathway that led deep into the forest.
“Hime-chan,” Shintaro called quietly, crouching in front one of the tents with a piece of meat in his fingertips.
At Shintaro’s call the cat looked behind, noticed the treat in his hand, and walked over to him. She devoured the offered meat in seconds, then circled around Shintaro, arching her back and pushing her head against the man’s knee.
Shintaro rubbed her behind her ears. “I wanna take her home with me.”
Kochi, sitting cross-legged on the ground, looked up from the rag on which he had spread the pieces of his rifle for cleaning.
“I don’t know that they’ll let you take her on the ship,” he said apologetically, letting his oily hands fall idle into his lap, palm side up so he wouldn’t get oil stains on his uniform.
His task was pointless of course. There would be no need for his rifle anymore. Hadn’t they all sat around the platoon’s radio two days ago, incredulously listening to their emperor speaking to his subjects about an agreement having been reached between Japan and its enemies? After the emperor, the radio announcer had even clarified it in explicit terms: Japan had surrendered. The war was over.
“We lost.” In the stunned silence left by the emperor’s speech, someone’s shaky whisper had been loud enough for everyone to hear.
Hokuto, Shintaro, and Kochi had just looked at each other without a word. They had already faced their greatest loss two weeks ago.
Missing In Action:
Sergeant Jesse Lewis
Private Tanaka Juri
Private Kyomoto Taiga
“I don’t care,” Shintaro snapped, indignant. “I’m not leaving Jesse’s cat!”
Kochi sighed, his eyes gentle and mouth pulled into a sad, understanding smile. It was easy to guess his thoughts. None of them really wanted to leave the cat.
Of course, Hime wasn’t originally Jesse’s cat. She was just a stray that one day around the end of last April wandered into their camp and meowed heart-wrenchingly until Jesse gave in and offered her a piece of his dinner even though the forest was full of mice and birds for her to feed on. Ever since, she had returned every day, though she left every night to hunt for a proper meal. And so, for the whole four months that they had been located deep in this endless Chinese forest, Jesse had been pampering the smoke-gray cat like she was his baby; feeding her, playing with her, petting and hugging her, and letting her sleep in his lap whenever she wanted to.
The whole platoon of fifty men up to the first lieutenant knew about the cat that Sergeant Lewis had adopted, and no-one seemed to mind, as the silly antics of the tame, playful animal brought joy to all of the men. The cat allowed everyone to pet her as she passed by them, but it was obvious Jesse was her favorite.
Hokuto looked down into his own task of mending a hole that had opened in the heel of his sock during last night’s patrolling. It was a shame, as it was his last pair of good socks. Then again, he would probably get a new pair soon. But it felt good to have something to do with his hands. Maybe it was the same for Kochi, the concrete physicality of a familiar, tedious task bringing comfort to a troubled mind.
He glanced behind when someone yelled out, but it was just a private calling another to help with a pile of planks he was carrying. Most men were resting, worn out by the relentless heat of midday, but some where already packing and taking down the sheds and other light buildings that had been built during their occupation. Some were smiling, presumably with images of home flashing in their minds, but most faces were either solemnly calm with resignation or outright gloomy with the uncertainty of their future.
The camp of their platoon had been oddly subdued ever since the emperor’s announcement. Funny, what peace did to people. Everyone had waited for the war to end since the day one, and yet now that it was over, nobody was celebrating. They were thankful of course, but also nervous for reasons they could hardly specify. The young men who had spent their best years at the front didn’t know how to exist in this new world, this new era, that was about to begin.
Hokuto, Shintaro, and Kochi weren’t taking down anything. Not yet.
Just not quite yet.
There was no hope left, not really, but the three of them carefully refused to state it aloud. Instead, they feebly hung on the vague phrasing of the official status. Missing in action. Not fallen, but merely missing, until proved otherwise. Thus, the three tents stood side by side like they had for months.
The only change to the old order was that the three of them had moved into one tent to avoid the terrible idea of each of them sleeping alone with the other bed in each tent staying empty night after night after night. They had moved Jesse, Juri, and Taiga’s belongings into one tent, their own belongings into the other, and so managed to fit three beds into the third.
They were scheduled to be transported to the harbor in four days. There would be time to pack everything tomorrow, or the day after. Or, most likely, as soon as someone higher-ranked would march up to them and require that the remaining members of the sixth squad take apart their campsite immediately.
Shintaro sat down into the dust, rubbing his sweaty face with his hands. Hime bumped his side with her head and purred, asking him to pet her. After a while, her ears twitched and her tail perked up, and she walked over to her spot where she sat to lick herself clean and stare into the forest again.
“She could be useful. There’s definitely enough mice on board,” Shintaro insisted weakly, sounding choked-up in a way that Hokuto had constantly felt for the past two weeks.
The sun crawled across the zenith, starting its daily slide towards the horizon. It would soon be time for the change of shift for the patrolling teams. Then dinnertime. Then evening, and the second night of patrolling in a row for the three of them.
Shintaro still sat on the ground, staring at the cat that sat with her back towards them all. Finished with his rifle, Kochi had retrieved his shaving kit from the tent and, holding a tiny pocket mirror in his other hand, started to clean up his cheeks until there was only a neat mustache and a small beard left. Despite himself Hokuto chuckled softly as he looked between Kochi and Shintaro, both looking so handsome and grown-up with the beards that they had started to grow some weeks ago as a playful contest.
Shintaro was winning, but Jesse had been a strong second with Kochi.
The three others had been ruled out almost from the beginning, doomed to lose. While Juri had managed to grow something that strongly resembled two tiny, hairy caterpillars under his nose, after a week there had only been a pathetic little stubble on Hokuto’s chin, and merely a dark shadow on Taiga’s upper lip.
Blinking hard and swallowing against the thick lump in his throat, Hokuto remembered how pleased Jesse had been with his beard, and how silly it had looked when Jesse, Kochi, and Shintaro had stood in a circle with their heads together, carefully determining whose facial hair was most impressive.
They hadn’t known it yet, but that had been their last evening together. That night, they were ambushed and separated during a mission.
Hime stood up, stretched her back and legs carefully, and meowed.
Kochi rinsed his shaver in a cup of water and patted his face with a wet handkerchief. He was just collecting his tools when a private from another squad run down the forest pathway, his cap askew and his face red with exertion.
“Lieutenant! Lieutenant! We need the medical team!” he screamed, then noticed Hokuto, Shintaro, and Kochi, who had leaped up to their feet. The private flashed them an excited grin. “Corporal Kochi! We found them. They’re alive!”
How it was possible to feel cold in the burning afternoon sun, Hokuto didn’t know. But his whole body felt freezing when he stormed uphill towards the guard post that the patrolling private had come from. The medical team would follow them soon after, but no lieutenant, captain, colonel, or general could have stopped Hokuto, Kochi, and Shintaro and made them wait.
He first saw Juri sitting in the shadow of a tree and hanging his head between his arms and knees. By his side was Taiga, leaning against the trunk of the tree with his head back and eyes closed. Jesse was lying down on something that looked like a makeshift stretcher, but Hokuto could see him moving his hands and the gripping feeling in his chest eased slightly. Around the three of them stood the other members of the patrolling squad with water bottles in their hands, clearly talking with Jesse.
“Juri!” Hokuto screamed. “Taiga! Jesse!”
Juri looked up, and a relieved smile lit up his tired face.
* * *
After Juri, Taiga, and Jesse were carried back to the camp, Hokuto, Shintaro, and Kochi moved all their belongings to the right tents while the others were being patched up. And to everyone’s delight, the whole sixth squad was relieved of their patrolling shifts for that night by the order of their lieutenant. So the six of them gathered around a small fire they lit near their tents. Jesse had to stay lying down, but his stretcher was turned so that he could see the others.
With short, simple sentences Jesse reviewed the essential events of the night when everything went wrong. He had been badly wounded by a big shrapnel in his left leg, but Juri and Taiga had managed to tie him up until he stopped bleeding.
“Then Kyomo saved us both,” Juri said quietly, continuing after a while despite Taiga shaking his head. “We couldn’t move Jesse at all for the first days, so we just hid and waited in that thicket. Then we all got sick. We suspected dengue fever but who knows. He carried water from a nearby river for us all when Jesse and I were barely conscious.”
“My fever wasn’t as bad as yours. And you told me what to do,” Taiga insisted, wrapping his arms around his knees. “I wouldn’t have known.”
“And later they both carried me on that heavy stretcher even though they were both still recovering,” Jesse finished firmly.
Everyone stared at the fire.
“I’m sorry we didn’t find you,” Kochi finally said in a tight voice that betrayed the grim weight of responsibility he had felt this whole time. He had never once talked about it, but Hokuto had known all the time that he blamed himself as the second-in-command of their squad. “We tried, but we didn’t know how far in the enemy territory you might be and-”
“Stop it,” Juri murmured gently, nudging Kochi’s side with his elbow. “We know. We knew you’d try.”
Everyone looked up when Jesse laughed softly. Hime had appeared from somewhere and was butting her head against Jesse’s cheek while Jesse twisted his hand so that he could pet her. Then she leaped onto Jesse’s chest, wrapped herself up into a content little ball of fur, and started purring so loudly, everyone could hear it.
“The cat knew,” Shintaro said suddenly, looking blankly at Jesse and Hime. “I didn’t realize before now.”
Shintaro was right, Hokuto realized as well. Her curious habit of staring into the forest every day only started after Jesse and the others were gone.
“Were you waiting for me?” Jesse asked the sleeping cat, touched into tears once Shintaro had explained what they were talking about. “Hope you know I’m keeping you, darling.”
“Will they let you take her on the ship though?” Taiga asked hesitantly, but Kochi met Hokuto and Shintaro’s eyes across the fire, and grinned.
“We can claim she’s a crew member. I’m sure there are enough mice on board for her to earn a living.”