Buck

As Buck turned back from staring at the fog, he saw the girl offer a small, silver flask to Miller. The recruit hesitated, and she took a sip herself to show him it was safe. Miller took a healthy swig and coughed. Autumn patted his back and didn’t smirk too obviously. 

“What’s in that?” Buck asked, although he had a pretty good clue. 

The girl understood his gesture if not his words, and handed over the flask. Buck took a sniff and then a cautious sip, and choked some himself. 

“Why’re you trying to get my recruit drunk?” he demanded, like she could answer.

Luckily Recruit Tanaka caught up to them just then, and she spoke to Autumn, who responded with a shrug.

“She says it’s only rum, for shock,” Tanaka translated. “Well, she called it honeyed something but it smells like rum. She just used the old word for alcohol.”

“What’s a bitty thing like her doing drinking paint thinner like that?” Buck demanded.

Tanaka shrugged. “Cultural difference, maybe?”

Nguyen arrived then and proceeded to look over Miller and Autumn, who tamely allowed him to examine her arm. She shook her head firmly when he asked if she was hurt, and Tanaka translated for him. 

Nguyen stood up to report to Buck. “Alcohol isn’t the best way to treat shock... although...” he shrugged. “I’m not really sure what else we can do. It won’t hurt him anyway. Miller’s mostly okay, just bruised. We’ll want to watch him for shock and signs of a concussion; he got shook up and dropped pretty far. The young lady’s arm’s fine, too. Whatever that lightning stuff was, it didn’t hurt her any that I can see.”

“Good to know,” Buck said. He turned to Tanaka. “Can she tell us what the fuck that was and how to send it back to whatever hell hole it crawled out of?”

Tanaka translated, probably paraphrasing a little bit. Buck wasn’t sure how profanity translated into antique Japanese. He figured it was kinda like asking him to speak to someone who learned English from Shakespeare. Sure, they could talk but it wasn’t easy.

The girl climbed to her feet and pocketed the flask. She said something in Japanese, motioning towards the fog. She waited while Tanaka struggled through a translation. 

“She says it’s, um, a creature of unformed... fog? Mist? Uh, that stuff,” Tanaka said.

“Huh? Like, what, that mist stuff makes monsters? Or the monsters are made of it?” Buck asked.

Tanaka turned back to the girl and fired off several more questions, her antique Japanese apparently getting better with practice and desperation.

The girl held up one hand for Tanaka to pause. She said something, to which Tanaka responded with a short phrase. The girl then said something that Tanaka protested, shoulders slumped. The girl rested a hand on her shoulder and spoke more gently. She looked around the gathered recruits and asked another question, which Tanaka tried to answer. 

“Recruit?” Buck asked.

Tanaka shook her head, “She’s talking about magic, I think. She’s asking which one of us is... a magic user? She’s using a word that translates to energy, but... I’m almost sure she means magic, Sergeant.”

“See if she’ll clarify. We don’t have any magic anything users here,” Buck said. “And did you catch her name?”

“She calls herself, um. Autumn, like the season. She said her name is the concept, not the word, so we should use our word for the season. Not Aki, which is the Japanese form, or whatever it is in her language.” Tanaka frowned and added, “There’s something else, I think it’s like a rank or a title but it doesn’t seem to translate well, or she doesn’t remember the Japanese word for it.”

“That’s okay, Recruit Tanaka. You’re doing your best. See if you can’t find out why she’s here.” Buck let his voice shift to something like sympathy. The kid was doing her best. 

Tanaka turned back to the girl, and whatever Autumn answered put the most painful looking hope Buck had seen in a while on Tanaka’s face.

“She says she can stop the monsters, Sergeant,” Tanaka said.

“Ask her exactly what she’s going to do,” Buck ordered.

Tanaka translated, and Autumn frowned down at the tarmac before speaking. Tanaka translated for the rest.

“She says it’s difficult to describe. She will set a... barrier? Seal? Like what she did to stop the spider from squishing her and Miller, but big.”

“She can cover our whole base?” Buck asked.

Tanaka translated that and the girl nodded confidently. 

“She says it’ll stop the wandering monsters. She calls them... fog formed? Mist born? Sorry, Sergeant.”

“You’re doing better than I am, Recruit. The only Japanese I know is ramen and konichiwa. And I probably said those wrong.”

Tanaka smiled, so he probably had butchered the words. 

“Does she mind if I stick around and watch whatever she’s planning on doing?” Buck asked, like he was going to go anywhere else if she said no. He just wanted to see how sneaky the girl wanted to be. 

Tanaka asked Autumn, who nodded like the request was no surprise to her. 

She walked to the edge separating the fog from the base. She looked confused by something, and turned to ask Tanaka a question, which she answered. 

“Recruit?” Buck asked.

“She just wanted to be sure no one’s left the base,” Tanaka reported, “and she also says we really, really shouldn’t step out into it because we’ll get lost. Like, even one step.”

“Seriously?” Buck said.

“She doesn’t seem like she jokes around much, Sergeant,” Tanaka pointed out. “And, uh, if more things like that spider are hiding in there, I sure don’t want to wander into it blindly.’

“Good point,” Buck said, “Tell her to carry on.”