The Hearts in Darkness

5. Of Anchors and Cherries

"These things back there were Type 16 mines. Remote-detonated little platforms, filled with Composition 4 and a layer of small lead pellets on one side. You set it in the right direction, connect it to a detonator with electric wire, and when it goes off, an explosive sends a wave of pellets in about 160 degrees, up to 100 meters. Kinda surprising that my little ambush worked, actually."

"It is. How did you know that they will be coming there?"

"I figured that they would follow you."

"So, you saw me lying on the ground, and instead of helping me, you started setting traps around me, like I'm some bait?"

"But we did catch some good fish, didn't we?"

I couldn't argue with that.
Her indifference to my wellbeing at that moment allowed her to prepare, and ultimately save me.
As she was packing her backpack with all sorts of stuff, I just watched her, while trying to boil some rice in her mess kit.

Her camp turned out to be a foxhole with a poncho tent stretched over it. Magane had everything she needed here to survive for a week at least. A canister with drinking water, a sack of rice, some vegetables in a bag, and a crate-worthy amount of weapons and magazines for them, along with grenades. She told me to watch my step when we got close to her little hideout, so it could be that she also made tripwire traps with these grenades.

Looking closely, this mess kit wasn't Japanese. It had some old markings with Roman letters, so it's likely to be some old, WW2-era leftover from the British army. In all honesty, the entirety of India is a leftover from the British Empire. There was just so much of it left. The weapons, the gear, the machines, the planes. Buildings, cars, laws, the very language - the western influence was in everything. Maybe even in their way of thinking.

The majority of Asian revolutionaries are people with western education. Just a funny thought.

My rice was ready. Oh, I'm so hungry. We didn't even had a proper breakfast before going to the mortar hunting. Rice isn't the most nutritious meal, but it's definitely something.

Magane got her tent and tucked it in a roll. It seems she was preparing to move. She already stuffed all this food inside her backpack, somehow. The canister was almost empty, so she just poured the remaining water in her mouth and then dropped it.

"So, what're you doing here, anyway? Some regular patrol?"

"No, actually. A mortar hit our base, and we were sent to find and destroy it."

"Mortar, you say? My, what a luck."

What is she talking about?
With backpack on her, she slung her rifle.

"Alright, let's go. Gotta show you something."

"Eh? But what about all this pile of guns?"

"Well, I planned on selling it to INA militia, but screw it. I rigged it with some explosives. If they try pulling something from that bunch - ..."

She imitated a sound of explosion, and showed a shockwave with her hands.
Come on, I get it. I'm not that young.

As we were moving through some bushes in an unknown direction, I finished my meal. Eating on the move is actually very dangerous, as you can't focus on your surroundings, but with that woman I felt like it just doesn't matter that much. Just to think about it - she lived there for more than a couple of day, in the wilderness, where wild animals and komi roam at nights. With seemingly no help from the others, she made traps, ambushed the partisans, took their belongings with her... What a scary woman.

And just now I noticed a patch on her right sleeve - a black shield with an olive anchor and a cherry blossom on it. Two stripes under it indicated her rank.