âMomâs life settles into a routine after her first day of work. Sheâs assigned to clean the kitchens, but she canât help but notice the tension between the cleaners and the cooks.
âTheyâre forced to work together, but itâs clear they donât get along. Mom quickly arranges the cleaners and cooks into shifts. This way, one part of the kitchen can be cleaned while another part is being used for cooking.
âBy the end of the day, the food is ready and the kitchen and dining room are cleaned on time.
âThe head chef appreciates Momâs knack for organization and hires her into the kitchen a few days later. She starts as a kitchen maid, doing the dirty work behind the cooks.
âMomâs good at the dirty work, and the cooking skills she picked up from living with the workers come in handy.
âBut she ends up organizing the kitchen maids so that each one does a small part of the meal and passes it onto another. This speeds up the work, but it also throws the whole kitchen off balance.
âThe head chef promotes her to a cook position, but she applies the same system, dividing the different jobs in the kitchen.
âShe assigns two cooks to work on sauces, another to handle the meat, another to do the vegetables, and so on. After a couple of weeks, sheâs reorganized the entire kitchen staff.
âFed up, they transfer her to the clothing factory. Momâs relieved to find that the factory is well-organized. Each worker does a bit of the work and passes it along to the next.
âThey produce a lot by the end of the day. But the work is monotonous and repetitive, and Mom quickly grows bored.
âIn her free time, she hunts for discarded pieces of clothes and fabric. She sews them together to make clothes and blankets.
âThe other workers notice how much theyâre wasting each day and start doing the same. To Momâs surprise and delight, her patchwork clothes become a trend in Resistance.
âThe demand for patchwork clothing skyrockets. This overwhelms the clothing business, and Mom is transferred to work on the farms.
âMom loves working on the farms, but sheâs not good with animals. She doesnât know how to handle them. She talks to them, expecting a response, or at least a sign they understand her.
âWhen she gets none, she becomes frustrated. Sheâs not much help on the farms and is sent to work in the fields.
âThe work is hard, but she gets to bask in the artificial sunlight and breathe the fresh air from the plants.
âEveryone participates in the corn harvest. Even the army men, who strip off their shirts to work in the heat of the mirrors.
âBarrels of corn are hauled from one side of Resistance to the other, to the kitchen pantries where women work to preserve all the fruits and vegetables the farms produce.
âAfter the corn harvest, the plants are uprooted and new corn plants are planted. Another woman joyfully tells Mom that because theyâre underground, the plants donât have a sense of seasonality.
âThe earth is given a few weeksâ break; then the same plant is planted again and grows without any problems.
âMom loves spending her days in the fields, feeling the fresh earth under her feet, the soft plants. She enjoys watching them grow, each day a little bigger.
âShe carries a basket and picks the fresh fruits and vegetables, pulls the roots from the earth, and at the end of the day delivers it all to the kitchen. After her shift, Mom goes back to the dorm and changes.
âOne of the first things she buys after she starts working is her running clothes. A pair of tight, stretchy pants is expensive because theyâre very old.
âA tight shirt and a pair of bouncy shoes are the most expensive because they were made before the war. Each day she changes, then heads to the army training room.
âNo other civilians go to the training room, but since Mom started coming from the first day, it becomes normal and no one says anything.
âShe runs along the track, enjoying the hard feel of the packed earth beneath her feet. It reminds her of her time with the workers, running each day, getting stronger.
âShe wants to maintain her strength, and she loves the freedom she feels as she races along the track. As she runs, the armies train.
âThe Resistant army works hard on their gunmanship. They spend hours loading, unloading, and reloading their weapons, aiming from different parts of the room, lying down, and running.
âThe Japanese men focus more on hand-to-hand combat. Mom loves to watch them train. After her run, she sits on the bleachers and watches them.
âSanoske trains them as a pack, going through the obstacle course. Even though itâs the same one, he changes the track each day, confusing his men and forcing them to improvise.
âThen they train with the Resistant army. Even though they only obey Sanoskeâs orders, he believes itâs important that they learn to work with other soldiers. They practice their shooting.
âWhen the Resistant soldiers finish their training, they leave to take their baths. Some stay and sit with Mom on the bleachers to watch the Japanese soldiers finish their training.
âTheyâre called the Kagegun, the shadow army. Mom doesnât understand why until she sees the end of their training. They practice their martial arts skills. Each man has his own specialty.
âAkira carries small blades in his belt. Heâs an expert at throwing them. Jun excels at hand-to-hand combat. He brings men to their knees without any weapons.
âSaito carries two short blades on his back. Heâs a quiet man, one that Mom didnât notice at first. But heâs one of the most impressive fighters Mom has ever seen.
âHis blades slice through the air, and he moves with them, carving his way through the air in one smooth movement that takes Momâs breath away.
âHaruhiko is the youngest Kagegun soldier and easily the fastest. He dances around them, slips between Takeshiâs sword and Junâs punches. He climbs the walls and runs the fastest.
âHaruhiko always manages to come out on the other side of whatever Sanoske throws at him, grinning from ear to ear. That grin, itâs what my mom fell for. She saw the joy in his eyes every time he took flight.
âKazuya, heâs a master with this long staff he calls a âbokken.â He swings it through the air, making a whooshing sound that echoes in the room.
âHeâs able to block every attack and counter at the same time, sending his opponents flying across the room.
âDespite its length and weight, Kazuya holds his bokken with a light grip. Itâs like itâs part of him, like theyâre in this fight together.
âBut the one who really steals the show is Sanoske. He doesnât train much when others are around, but when he does, my mom canât take her eyes off him. His movements are unlike anything sheâs ever seen.
âHe carries this long, gleaming sword. Itâs not just a weapon, itâs an extension of his arm. And he flies.
âHe moves from one side of the room to the other, his sword and body twisting and turning, ducking and spinning, until heâs practically flying. His feet barely touch the ground, and his sword always hits its mark.
âMy momâs eyes struggle to keep up with his movements. Theyâre too fast. She sits there, gripping the edge of the bench, her heart pounding in her chest as she watches Sanoske move.
âHis steps are so light, itâs almost like a dance. But itâs a deadly dance. Each movement is designed to kill, to slash someone open. He doesnât hold back. Thereâs no mercy. He brings death with each step.
âAfter their training, the Kagegun men join the other soldiers for a bath. My mom rushes to her own bath, where she shares the space with three other girls she met in the kitchens.
âSheâs often the first one back in the training room. She sits and waits for the Kagegun men to return. Kazuya is always the first one to join her. They sit and chat while they wait for the others.
âSanoske is always the last one. Not because he enjoys making people wait, but because he tends to fall asleep in the baths and his men have learned not to wake him.
âThey all eat together in the dining room, gathered around a long table. Most nights, theyâre joined by Roy, the mayorâs son, who sits across from my mom, listening to the soldiersâ war stories with fascination.
âThe Kagegun men often switch to Japanese during dinner, talking fast and excitedly. At first, my mom and Roy are lost, only able to talk to each other.
âBut over time, they start to pick up some Japanese, until they can understand some of the conversations at the table.
âEvery meal is an adventure for my mom. Sheâs used to eating at long tables with her friends, but the discussions were never this lively.
âIt seems like the Kagegun men purposely choose the most controversial topics for each meal. They all have different opinions on everything, and theyâre all eager to share their thoughts loudly.
âSome nights, they even end up wrestling on the table, and Sanoske and Kazuya have to pull them apart, unless theyâre the ones fighting.
âFood is sacred to the Kagegun men. They all eat their fill every night.
âThereâs this game between Kazuya and Jun where they try to steal all of Haruhikoâs food during the meal, forcing Haruhiko to gulp down his food all at once.
âAfter they finish eating, they play games. Usually, they head back to the training room with a few bottles of alcohol.
âThe most popular game started with my mom when she began responding to them in Japanese. If she gets it right, she gets a kiss on the cheek from any of the Kagegun men.
âSoon, the Kagegun men and Roy start asking for her kisses every time they do something impressive, whether itâs spinning their swords on their palms or eating the most potatoes.
âMy mom grows very close to the Kagegun men and Roy. She spends all her free time with them. They tell her about their lives: Roy growing up in Resistance, being groomed to be the next mayor, being taught to hate all Perfects.
âAnd the Kagegun men, they tell her about growing up on the other side of the world. They tell her about snowcapped mountains, forests, beaches, and fishing lakes.
âThey tell her about the bright sunlight, about cities and small towns. Each night, when she goes back to her dorm, she dreams about their world. A world that seems so far away, just a dream.
âKazuya and Sanoske have the most stories to share. And Sanoske, heâs a great storyteller. The men grow quiet and listen when he speaks.
âHe and Kazuya are from the same small fishing village in a place called Hokkaido. The village is mostly women and children because the men have all gone to war.
âKazuya and Sanoske couldnât stand each other when they were young, but they were both in the same martial arts class taught by Kazuyaâs grandfather.
âThey were the best in their class, quickly surpassing the other kids their age. They started taking on the older kids and eventually ended up fighting together.
âOver the years, they became close friends. They remind my mom of her friendship with Beth.
âSanoske and Kazuya can almost read each otherâs minds. They always have opposite opinions, and when they fight, they fight until theyâre pulled apart by the other men.
âThey never want to lose to each other. Best friends and worst enemies. But my mom can tell they would die for each other.â