Akagi spoke first, when the pair met up with Totani on the pathway.
"Morning Tayo, just finishing your rounds of the posts today?"
"Just the Hiryu and Soryu Batteries, left, thankfully." Totani responded feelingly. Her courier duties took up much of her mornings and a good part of her afternoons each day, collecting the daily reports from each of the batteries and the many fortified infantry or observation outposts that doted the two lagoons and the three islands that made up the head of the Serpent Isles" Fang Rock, Maw Island and Neck Island. She was fortunate that she didn't have to cover the other islands that made up the body and tail of the "snake" or she would be at her duties all day. Both Akagi and Sasaki as it happened had that particular responsiblility, and both had obviously just come back from the other island and landed on one of the numerous jetties to make their way back to Fang Bay and drop off those reports at the garrison headquarters.
"We will go with you, Tayo. Tedious duties pass more quickly with friends." Sasaki said in her soft, sibilant voice. Akagi, gave the Ainu equivalent of a nob of agreement, then lightly clasped Totoni's shoulder in a friendly grip. "Let's be about it then, when we get back to Fang Bay, lunch is on me."
Totani walked with her comrades towards batteries with a more cheerful step. Her day suddenly feeling just a bit brighter then it had started.
Sho-sa Oda Mitsuru was as a rule a patient, thoroughly professional and humane man, well liked and respected by both his peers and subordinates alike while being esteemed by his superiors. A rare combination in any military establishment, his troops generally dubbed him Snow White or Old Snowy on account of his long white beard and moustache and his superb almost glacial clam and composure in any and all circumstances. He had been the Imperial Army his entire adult life, having served in the ranks before becoming an officer, although as a member of the samurai-caste in general and the powerful Oda clan in particular he was almost entitled to an officer commission by way of birth rate. He had chosen early on however to dedicate himself to mastering the highly technical artillery branch of the Service and had thought the best way to do that was from the bottom up.
That customary calm was in abeyance this afternoon, and that was because he had just gone through his morning correspondence from Headquarters in Tokyo, which explained his exceptionally foul mood to his military garrison and civilian staff. The Imperial Army Headquarters, had informed him that his samurai assault company was due to be rotated out within the next month, and a replacement infantry unit would not forthcoming. The captain of the gunboat Chiyodogata, the single warship the Imperial Navy, had not yet pulled out the isles, had advised him this morning that the Imperial Navy Headquarters was contemplating doing just that in a few weeks. It had been the capper to a perfect day, as far as Oda was concerned.
Oda, tossed his reading glasses upon the heap of letters, reports and sundry paperwork that covered his desk, and rose to walk to window of his office that faced Fang Bay. The Governor's Mansion, looked out from a hill overlooking the waters of the harbor. Being the military and civilian governor of the Serpent's Isles, had been Oda's job since his predecessor Sho-sho Sawato Hirotsu had died from over drinking in the spring of 1888. Oda was beginning to understand why after holding the job for the last ten months.
Note: (1) Sho-sa, was the IJA rank equivalent of Major. (2) Sho-sho, was the IJA rank equivalent of Major-General.
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