Chapter 2

Chapter 2

YEAR 2043
 [Ryu Mitsukai – 17 years old]

He blinks in surprise. No, he refuses to believe this… He has not seen him and has been waiting for him for over a year only to discover that –

His father, Tokuso Mitsukai, died in an explosion, which was caused by an atomic bomb. Some crazy suicidal guy in South Korea recognized him as one of the famous soldiers who went to the war against Planet Volesmash, so he faced him right away. They battled for hours, and Tokuso was winning. Unfortunately, the suicidal man knew that he was losing, so he took out the bomb, which went off fast, taking down the entire city.

“No, they must be lying,” Ryu clenches his fist in anger after his mother turns off the computer. They were recently on webcam with the General of the U.S. Northeastern Division, who recently informed them about the unfortunate news. “Dad is much smarter and stronger than just a simple suicidal man!”

“Honey, I’m sorry,” his mother gives him a hug. “Your father was so brave… so kind… pure-hearted. He would do anything to defend his country. That’s why I fell in love with him.”

“No, shut up!” Ryu pushes her away, breaking off the hug. “He was not doing this for the country! He was… He did this to protect us…”

Mother sighs softly. “I know how you feel… Honey, please remember that he loves us and always will.”        

“Yes,” Ryu smiles sadly at her. “You’re right. You are the only family member left I know now…”        

She frowns at him. “What about your brother?"

“Screw him! He ran away,” Ryu snaps at her. “He is a coward! I will never forgive him for abandoning us! He was supposed to be the man of the house while Dad was away!”

She sighs softly at her son. “How would you know if he was a coward for running away? What if he has a reason for leaving us?”        

Ryu ignores her. To be honest, she’s right. His older brother is not the kind of person who just runs away without a valid reason. But whatever the reason is, he is still a coward for abandoning them like that.        

He shrugs his shoulders and leaves for his bedroom. He has homework to do, and he wants to graduate this year. The sooner, the better so he can join the Army just like his father did. But, his father is not the only one reason – he also wants to stop the war once and for all.

~*~

YEAR 2044
[Tezuka Kejinto – 18 years old]

He crosses his arms angrily at his men. One of his feet is tapping on the ground impatiently. For each minute, he checks his watch.

One of the sergeants is out sick, and none of the others are able to take his place. On that day, Tezuka has the day off from his duty… until he picks up the annoying ringing phone from Sergeant Kyota to find out that he has been called back. It is not even his job to discipline the soldiers. He is not a Segreant, for Pete's sake!

The rookies are whispering to each other. They realize that they will get one hell of a workout today. It’s all because of one very late soldier, who hasn’t gotten here yet.

The motto for the U.S. Army is “Never leave your comrade behind.” Tezuka wonders why the idiots did not drag this late rookie’s ass to the training this morning. He would have done so in order to avoid the harsh training.

“Silence! I never commanded you to start talking!” Tezuka’s booming voice startles the rest of the troop. “You! Tell me why one of your comrades is late!”

“I-I don’t know, sir! I think he isn’t a morning person, sir!”

Bad answer. Tezuka thinks. “Very well. We are going to start without him. Two hundred… no, four hundred laps!”

Just as the new soldiers start doing the laps on the small track, the last one has finally arrived. “Sir, sorry about being late!”        

Tezuka does not have any time for this stupid rookie. “Five hundred laps for you!”

~*~

Tezuka has an urge to smack himself in the face. It’s almost dawn and three of his soldiers can’t even climb over the brick wall?

He almost rolls his eyes at the stupid rookies, who have no common sense at all. Come on, he is much younger than they are!

“Dismissed!” He yells at them, watching them return to the locker room. Sighing lightly, he takes off his cap and takes a brief glance at the field. It is almost dark, and there is still one more troop left.

“Sergeant Kyota, shouldn’t you give them a break?” Tezuka comes over to his favorite mentor.        

“Ah, Specialist Kejinto! Perfect timing! I would like you to meet your future partners!”        

“Eh, partners?” Tezuka blinks in surprise.

“Yes…” Sergeant Kyota leans forward a little to whisper in Tezuka’s ear. “For a secret mission! Requested by the CIA!”        

Tezuka almost gasps in amazement, but he cannot show any emotion in front of the rookies. “Hm, fine, I will meet you in one hour.”

Just as he turns around, he spots a certain young man. Suddenly, this man looks awfully familiar to him… Wait, he looks Japanese! What the hell is a Japanese soldier doing here?!

Before he makes a scene, he remembers that this troop is Segreant Kyota’s, so he cannot do anything about it.

The man makes a brief glance at Tezuka. He looks nervous.

Good! He is supposed to be scared of those above him! Tezuka thinks to himself.

~*~

YEAR 2044
[Ryu Mitsukai – 18 years old]

Ryu tries to take a peek at Kejinto, who Sergeant Kyota called. How the hell can he be a Specialist? He seems to be at the same age as Ryu is, for God’s sake!

But, but… Kejinto seems to go through so much. He may have more experience than Ryu does… maybe he’s older than him but looks that young?

“Hm, fine, I will meet you in one hour,” Kejinto says and waits patiently until Sergeant Kyota raises his hand for him to shake.

Sergeant Kyota waits until Kejinto leaves. He then turns to his recruits, “Today is your last day for training. You did an excellent job today. I’m so proud of you, but there is only one of you that is strong enough to join the U.S. Army. The one I’m choosing will be welcome to serve the U.S. Army is…”

~*~

Ryu cannot help but grin all the way when Sergeant Kyota takes him to his office. He… he has been chosen to join the U.S. Army and to serve his country he was born in! He will prove to everyone that he loves and supports the United States, not other countries. Fuck yes!

He patiently sits on the chair after Sergeant Kyota tells him to wait in his office. He begins imagining all of the things he had always wanted to do ever since his deceased father returned from the War of Earth and Volesmash.

Finally, three men come into the office. Two of them are Sergeant Kyota and Specialist Kejinto… and the other is a blonde-haired stranger to Ryu.

“This is the recruit I chose today,” Sergeant Kyota says cheerfully. “Cadet, this is Specialist Tezuka Kejinto and Medic Skylar Lawrence.”

“Just call me Sky,” the blondie says cheerfully. He blinks his cheerful blue eyes at Tezuka. “Whoa! You look way too young! How old are you?!”

Tezuka resists the urge to roll his eyes at Sky’s silliness.

“Do not underestimate his age,” Sergeant Kyota smiles brightly at them. “He’s stronger than you think!”

“So young!” Sky says. “You’re eighteen, Ryu?”

“Yes,” Ryu says nervously.

“I have a question,” Sky turns to Sergeant Kyota. “Why do I get to team up with inexperienced and immature ones?!”

“Hey!” Tezuka and Ryu yell at the same time.

“So are you. You’re only four years older than they are,” Sergeant Kyota retorts. “Deal with it. Be glad that we selected you out of 100 medics.”

“Sorry, sir,” Sky mumbles.

“Now that you know each other,” Sergeant Kyota claps his hands once and sits at his office table. “As you probably already know, the CIA has been working with us for the last few decades. Together, we formed this squad called Sunny Wing, which started fifty years ago. Recently, we have been losing a few soldiers, and we are pretty low on the number. It’s rather difficult to find good soldiers these days.”

“So, you chose us?" Tezuka asks.

“Yes. We need a team of an assaulter, a sniper, and a medic,” Sergeant Kyota smiles brightly. “Kejinto, your father taught you martial arts. That makes you an assaulter. And, of course, you are the medic, Lawrence. You stated that you went to a medical school and that you graduated from it a few months ago, correct? You went through the training as a medic for the U.S. Army, like Mitsukai did and you are one of the best.”

“Then, the new guy is the sniper?” Tezuka raises an eyebrow.

“Yes! You should have seen him at the shooting area! His aim is 100% perfect! He never missed once!”

“Really?” Ryu blinks. He has never really thought of becoming a sniper. All he wanted was to get in the U.S. Army.

“What the soldiers in the training did not know was that we had been looking for a fast and strong sniper. We chose you, Cadet Ryu Mitsukai, to be the sniper."

“Wait!” Sky says. “Don’t we have plenty of snipers in the U.S. Army? Why are you selecting a rookie out of all expert snipers?”

Sergeant Kyota smiles brightly and says, “Good question! He is the son of our top sniper, Tokuso Mitsukai! He also used to be in the Sunny Wing Squad.”

“Really?” Ryu blinks in surprise. He had no idea that his father was such a soldier like that until recently.

“I’m not surprised that you did not know, Cadet,” Sergeant Kyota begins writing the paperwork. “The Sunny Wing Squad is one of the secret agencies working for both CIA and U.S. Army. Your father joined us as soon as he was selected to serve in the U.S. Army.

“You are required to have the codenames. You can’t tell your real names to anyone outside this squad whenever you are working. It will only endanger you and your families.”

“Yay! What would our codenames be?!” Sky exclaims cheerfully.

“Tezuka Kejinto’s codename is Falcon. Ryu, you will be Owl. And, Sky… is Nightingale!”

“Nightingale?” Sky almost pouts in disappointment. He has no idea what the hell Nightingale is. “Those young soldiers got to have such cool names!”

“Shut up,” Tezuka snaps at him.

“You guys will be assigned to two superiors. I can’t say their names right here, but I can send you to them. You will be in another training for the special missions. It may take one year or less before they will send you out on the mission.”

“Training? One year?” Ryu frowns. He already had enough training. It had been so long. “But, I wanted to join the U.S. Army so that I can serve our country."

“You will. We have been searching for the mastermind who started the whole Nuclear War,” Sergeant Kyota says, already catching the young soldiers’ attention, “I said too much. It’s best that you get the information from your superiors, ok?”

“Yes, sir!” Tezuka, Ryu, and Skylar speak at the same time.

~*~

“Tezuka Kejinto. I’m from Washington D.C. I enrolled in the U.S. Army two years ago because I wanted to end the war once and for all.”

“I’m Ryu Mitsukai and I’m new. I was born and raised in New York City. I’m here for the same reason as Kejinto.”

“Hi! My name is Skylar Lawrence, the new medic! Born and raised in Mexico, Maine! I enrolled in the U.S. Army when I was 18 and then enrolled in the medical school for the military and studied there until I was chosen to be a part of this squad. I’m also here for the same reason."

“Mexico, Maine?” Tezuka and Ryu ask at the same time. They have never heard of a city like that.

“A small town,” Sky smiles brightly. “So, we are all from the east coast, eh? I guess living on the west coast must be bad enough.”

Ryu glances at the window, watching the beautiful meadows. They are on the train; on the way to the Sunny Wing’s headquarters.

“Because of radiation,” Tezuka says. “My mother died.”

“My father died when he went to the Nuclear War,” Ryu glances at Tezuka briefly.

“At least, we are here, right?” Sky says cheerfully. “We will definitely stop the war!”

“I see,” Tezuka smirks. “We are here for the same goal, right? It looks like it won’t be as bad as I thought it would be. Sky, you are an idiot. You, Ryu, are Japanese. I thought the world was ending. Guess I was wrong.”

“Hey!” Ryu and Sky yell at the same time, also feeling offended by Tezuka’s comment.