Scars Anecdotes and Other Stories

Wounds

Welcome back!

Fresh off of the success of the my previous story, let's dive in!

Unlike Scars, there will be no linear order. I will jump time periods as I please. Stories will range from real-world events to slice of life.

As always, I will take suggestions!

I hope this book is successful as the last one, perhaps more so!

September 17, 1945

The United States

Japan raced through the ruined city. She didn't know where her destination was; all she knew was that her instincts were screaming at her to run and never look back.

The sky was orange with fire and smoke. The air was engulfed in heat, causing sweat to form and promptly get zipped away in her speed. Buildings and homes lay in ruins, some outright vanished from the scene. Shadows, their owners obliterated, imprinted on the ground, which burned Japan's feet. The survivors wandered around, gaping in shock, some of their clothing melted into their radiation-reddened skin. They didn't seem to notice the little girl with the cat ears and tail dashing through the streets.

"Japan," called a voice. So familiar it hurt. Japan didn't stop.

"Japan," She clamped her hands over her ears, but the voice somehow bypassed the barrier.

"Japan!" Finally the little country came to a halt over a river that came out of nowhere. Despite being an island, she had never learned how to swim. Her head swiveled around, ignoring her mind protesting the movement.

An adult country, with feline attributes just like Japan's. She had a red dot with rays coming out of it, resembling a sun. But that wasn't noticeable over the total horrorshow she'd become.

Her skin was horribly veiny and charred, some of it disintegrating, revealing muscles and bone. Her wrists were gashed open, blood pouring out at an impossible rate. It also came out of her mouth, with solid matter that Japan didn't want to think what they could possibly be. The blood loss didn't seem to affect the zombie creature that was her mother.

"Japan," Imperial rasped. "I told you to never surrender."

"I didn't surrender!" Japan defended. "You did it by killing yourself! You were just too proud to tell the Allies upfront!"

"You dishonored me!" she screeched. "You dishonor your people! By allowing the enemy to take you in."

"That wouldn't have happened if you'd just stayed alive!"

Imperial's arm fell off. Japan wanted to scream, but she forced herself to be silent.

"Then maybe you should've committed seppuku," Imperial suggested darkly. "Then we'd be together, forever denying our enemies the satisfaction of our surrender."

"What?! Then who'd take care of our people?" Japan backed away, not noticing how close she was getting to the river. "I'm eleven years old! No way in hell am I going to kill myself over a lost cause."

"Lost cause?!" Imperial's voice thundered, causing the ground to shake. "We Japanese never fight for a lost cause!"

"Then you clearly don't know what the term 'lost cause' means."

As if reality had suddenly hit, all of Imperial's inflictions made her collapse. She crawled towards her daughter, losing a leg in the process.

"If you didn't want me to die, then why did you let me?"