The Hiyodori had not alot of space for me, or even for the other sailors aboard her deck. To the tells of one of the sailors I had the chance of talking to, he said to me that some of the men aboard just sleep on the deck rather than the utterly noisy bottom. (Excuse my describing of it, for I was not born for the sea).
I was offered the very last and near the very loud engine, it offered me and three other sailors two bunk beds. And... That's all I could say. Not much luxury I would say, but this is not something I'd worry about considering the actual purpose of the ship.
Midnight had reached before I could really examine the top deck of the ship, to see the bow and stern. Being in the army, and always in the city, me in a ship was something of a journey, a new thing entirely. And me, being I; my mind'd come to terms, writing about this in my journal I write everyday on.
I arose from the bottom deck to the top, where the only men there were those who navigated the ship into the rough daunting waters. However, the moon was nowhere to be seen, it was a dark, dark, night. I would sooner imagine I was in a voyage in the middle of an ink-ridden sea than the Champa Sea. (I've heard a local man say to me in the little vietnamese I knew; however it was in truth the supposed Southern Chinese Sea but I have reasons to doubt they claim such sea).
Then it clicked, in my head, I now knew why I was chosen to ride long this path for the Emperor! For I can speak my native language, English, that little Vietnamese, and Mandarin, but more so than the Viets and Chins; is the Philippine language. Maybe for I was stationed in the harbor city did my country choose me above all else.
Stumbling upon the deck, rocking back and forward against the sea's waves, I made my way down towards the aft. There was one sailor there at the stern, I believe he was calculating the destination? Seeing for potential enemies? I understood that my country wished to take almost all of the southern asian countries, so maybe the latter was the case. Making my way towards him, my heavy footsteps alerted him of my presence.
"Who is there?" He looked to me, or more-so, my dark silhoute. The lantern he held up to his face had showed me the face of a scared, war-torn man.
"I am, Tabata Shinji. Lieutenant of the army." I saluted as he saluted to I back. I walked over to him, to see what he was doing.
"Kudo Ken, lieutenant."
Before my lips and tongue could render my words, Ken told me; "Say, Shinji, what do you think of the war we've delved ourselves and our the great country in?" He looked to my eyes, dim as they were under the light of his lantern and whatever light those stars above could give me and he.
"War." I said softly before relaxing myself with a sigh. "Wilhelm the third of the German Empire, I recall he has entered into a military alliance with the Philippines, the simple fact that the Emperor has brought me to voyage upon to the archapelogo, I suspect the worst in the upcoming year ahead."
"And, that, I tell you is certainly true, that the year ahead shall be more so daunting than the other years we have had. The European powers are acting, it has been three years since our undertaking of the Chinese republic and in those years, the powers had not yet acted as much as we thought, even from last September; as we take the Frenchmen's country, they did not act as much as the start of October, when that Germany started helping the Philippines." He turned to the stern and towards the dark land, the silhouete of the the harbor we had just left,
"I suspect a greater war. And as things move, and you and I, navy and army continue to despise each and each, it will all come crumbling when some General of ours invades the Philippines, or more unfortunate, the Philippines invades us."
There was a brief silence that I broke up with; "Let the Emperor be correct upon the wants of his truly. And that my mission be done swiftly and efficiently."
"Let be."
---
It was morning when I woke to the sound of the whirring engines and the other sailors aboard causing some sort of ruckus I could not determine from my small bunkbed. In instinct almost, my hands reached for the nearest towel before putting it onto my head and scrubbing. Then, though there was no mirror in the room, I looked at the silver, dull grey, metal walls.
Then, a large clang!
I put my suit back on, and cleansed my face as best I could before I exited, then, as I opened the iron bulk; a rage of heat and the chatter of men grazed on before me. The other sailors were enjoying a nice lunch in their rooms, they had apparently left me alone for some reason they did not explain to me.
Rising to the top deck, the morning sun heated my cold skin and the sea made my eyes singe. Then a familiar voice. "Awake, Shinji?" My eyes adjusted to the luminance and focused on the singular dark figure before me.
"Ah," I bowed, "Lieutenant Ken, Good Morning."
"To you too." He gave me a box of cold rice and next to it a semi-hot can of meat.
"Even the navy is given the same, I expected better." I chuckled a little.
"Unfortunately." He smiled at me.
I plucked off the chopsticks at the side the tin can and sat on an iron platform, I had not looked behind me, but Ken had pointed it out that there was a whole Anti-Air gun to my back aimed to the sky. Warning me not to rest back.
I enjoyed the meal, however bland it really was, with the small amount of seasoning that was added to the meat it was practically gourmet compared to the rations I was given in Vietnam, cold always, and sometimes dirt and other stuff got in the cans.
I've lived lavishly in Japan before my years as a soldier, it was quite the shocker to me that the Imperial Japan could not surrender it's men better food. But that was just my opulent past working up to me.
I finished the meal I was given and handed it to some sailor dressed as a cook, bowing and thanking him for it. Then, now in-a-ways full, I headed to the bridge whereupon I saw the sailors gathered more so than down in the deck. There I saw the captain, (I have still no knowledge of his name). Where then when he saw me, he ran to me, and fast.
"You, Shinji." He said, barreling at me.
In a jolt, I saluted to him; "Sir!"
"I have recived news that German torpedo boats and destroyers are patroling the Manila Bay." He said in a rather monotone voice. "We've no choice but to deviate towards Bataan. It'll be a ways off from the capital, but we believe you'll make it there. It isn't much but here is five-hundred pesos." He unbuckled his chest pocket and handed it to me.
"Thank you, sir!" I bowed down low then; still bowing, I took the money off his free hands.
"Now, prepare yourself, we might be arriving earlier than expected, maybe dusk. Figure out where you'll be going by then, and when you're in Bataan. Understand your mission. Collect intellegence and understand the inner-workings. I am sure those who lie on those lands are as thirsty and courrupt as the americans. Traitorous they were to their own brethern I heard in the last days of annexation."
"Thank you, sir." I bowed once more.
He turned aroudn swiftly, a calculated jolt left and up he ran for the bridge's doors, where his presence I could see no more.
Then, this thrill rushed inside of me. I will be arriving earlier than estimated, but the sheer fact that there will be danger in sea as in land, makes excited, more so than if there were no warships of any country patroling the bay's waters. My mind put my hand to my heart, feeling the beat and that rush.
"Bataan." I mumbled to my breath.