Gate: Thus the Sorcerous Kingdom Fought There

CHAPTER 5: Know your enemy, Calm before the storm

While his superiors chewed him out for nearly an hour, Itami had put on a mask of carefully feigned ignorance and let the words flow in one ear and out the other. In the end, the meeting (which felt more like an interrogation) had ended with a "Since you brought them back, it can't be helped."

He had to report to Ichigaya (the Ministry of Defense) about how he had been protecting those refugees who were unable to care for themselves, such as the sick, injured, elderly, and the children. While the lecture was unavoidable, when Itami said that he had forced his way through for humanitarian reasons, the other side could only smile bitterly and acknowledge his efforts.

"Although, you'll have to take care of them." They said at the end. That didn't mean that Itami would have to pay for them out of his own pocket. But, he would be in charge of arranging the protection of the refugees. That was the condition placed on him.

Itami thought about feeding the refugees and sleeping arrangements for them and left the black corridor for the staircase. If he put in a requisition with the ration team, he could probably solve the first problem. Granted, they would be eating combat rations, but they could hardly pick and choose. The real issue was arranging beds for them. The barracks on the base were not complete yet, and the team members had to make do with the frames of the buildings. Tents were the only way out; it would seem.

"Preparing the documents, recording the required items, the chops... ah, what a pain," Itami thought as he stepped out into the corridor.

As he continued walking, Itami saw someone sitting on a chair in the shadows. Along with that was a mote of light from a lit cigarette. The wisp of smoke which curled up to the ceiling came from a mouth that was curled up in a sly smile. It was First Lieutenant Yanagida.

"Itami, did you do it on purpose?" Yanagida asked

"Do what on purpose?" asked Itami.

Yanagida was younger than him, but he had been a lieutenant longer than the freshly-promoted Itami. When ranks were the same, seniority took precedence. On the other hand, Itami didn't like Yanagida at all. His principle was to involve himself as little as possible with people he didn't like. That way, it would reduce friction and smooth over unpleasant incidents in the other party's memory.

"Don't act dumb. Everyone knows it. You've never missed a single periodic check-in before, so who's going to believe you when you say comms are bad? Were you afraid of being ordered to abandon the refugees?" Questioned Yanagida.

"Ahhh, well, about that... it's a different world, after all. It's hard to predict the condition of the ionosphere and the magnetosphere, right? Plus, there's probably sunspots here too... ah ha ha ha..." Itami scratched his head while he laughed like an idiot. It felt bad, but he didn't particularly need to convince Yanagida. Even if no one believed him, the report still said, "Because of poor communications, I could not receive further instructions, so I made a judgment call and brought the refugees back to the base."

"Hmph, you're really trying to cover it up, really..." Noted Yanagida as he took a long drag on his cigarette and exhaled. Along with the smoke came a sigh.

"Eh, well, we had to deepen relations with the locals sooner or later anyway, this was just ahead of schedule. Even Top thinks of it that way too. But to us... well, it's a pain in the ass. Our plans are all in a mess now." Yanagida sounded kind of helpless as he said that. When he saw the state Yanagida was in, Itami couldn't help but feel guilty.

"You'll be spiritually rewarded for it, sooner or later." Assured Itami.

Yanagida forcefully put out his cigarette in an ashtray and shrugged. "That's not enough. It's nowhere near enough." Yanagid commented.