Kino no Tabi:Volume9 Chapter9

“Continuation: A Tale of a Tank” —Spirit—

So it was something like that, huh?”

“Yeah. But—”

Kino and Hermes stared at the back of the floating tank.

They stared at the back of the tank until it can no longer be seen; a black tank, with three red vertical lines on the right side of its turret, and a picture of a tapir drawn on the left.

——

As to how many years or months have passed since then, the tank has already lost count.

The tank roamed, floating over various plains, forests, mountains and deserts. However, no matter where it searched, it couldn’t find the tank ordered to be destroyed by its commander in his final moments.

The tank continued to wander. At times it would get scorched under the intense heat of the sun, or beaten by heavy downpour. At times, it would meet a blast of strong wind or get buried under snow.

To charge itself, it stayed under the sun for countless months. Even if its body corroded all over and many of its parts fell off, it continued its journey.

And there came a time, in a location unknown except for it being a lush forest,

“Commander, I cannot move anymore.”

The tank broke down at last. It could no longer move from its place, it could no longer float. Its enormous body fell on top of a collapsed tree.

“Commander, forgive me. I’m sorry that I couldn’t fulfill your final order. Forgive me. Forgive me.”

The tank said, and no longer thought of anything.

—

“—This can still move, it’s not yet completely broken.”

“Really? If that’s true, then…amazing!”

The next thoughts of the tank were to wonder as to whom the voices nearby belonged to. To allow a view of the outside, it switched on its sighting device, which was turned off ever since it stopped moving.

The tank watched. Deep in the forest, two children climbed up its body that was buried under fallen leaves. One of them was a boy wearing a hat, and the other one was a girl with pigtails. Both looked around eleven, and wore gray overalls smeared with oil.

As the two children happily brushed away the piled up leaves on top of the tank,

“Who? —Who are you? Who are you two?”

It has been a long time since the tank spoke. The last time it did was ages ago; when it met a motorrad and a traveler.

A quick reply came from the girl and the boy.

“Hello mister tank! Hello!”

“Hello! It’s not completely broken after all—amazing!”

The tank was saddened upon hearing this.

“It’s true that I’m not yet broken. However, I can no longer move. I can no longer move. I can’t do anything,” the tank said, and the children happily replied.

“Then, we will fix you!”

“Fix you!”

Saying nothing else, the children left.

The tank remained silent, and shut its eyes…

And decided that it was nothing but a dream.

—

But it was an incredible scene that greeted the tank the next time.

Without noticing it, various parts have accumulated around its body. Everywhere, there were parts that the tank needed for it to be fixed.

The boy and girl were working with all their might under the rays of the morning sun. They were changing the tank’s broken parts with the parts that they carried with them. The two used the crane of the small truck that they rode in to move the heavy parts.

“What are you doing? What are you doing?” the tank asked, puzzled.

“Fixing you!”

“Fixing you! Curing you!”

The boy and the girl shouted cheerily. Their faces were smeared with oil, but their smiles were radiant.

“Unbelievable. Unbelievable,” the tank said. But the children proceeded energetically with their work, and by noontime,

“Unbelievable…”

The tank was almost completely fixed. As soon as it is connected to a power generator and received electricity, all of its functions will be restored. Once again, its lifter will be operational, and though it’s not known to how much extent, its big body will be able to float.

“Yippee!”

“Pee!”

The two happily slapped their palms together.

“How were you able to do such a task?” the tank asked.

“Because our master trained us.”

“Trained us!”

The children answered as if it was a trifling matter. According to the two, the reason why they were knowledgeable in fixing broken vehicles was because the two of them worked under a brilliant mechanic, who they called master.

The tank thanked the children. It thanked them with all the words of gratitude it could come up with, that the two were greatly embarrassed.

And then,

“It’s just this—” The girl showed the tank a box. Inside were the completely yellowed bones of a human. In addition, there were tattered clothes, as well as a rusty, unusable hand persuader (Note: A persuader is a gun. In this case, a pistol). “These belonged to the person inside your body. —We were taught that dead humans should be buried.”

“What are we going to do?” the boy asked. The tank became silent for a while before answering, “Please deal with it according to human customs. Please. Please.”

“Okay,” the two children answered. And then,

“Then, come.”

“Come.”

It was all too sudden that the tank came along without even being given a chance to object.

The tiny truck rattled along on the forest road. It was followed by the tank, floating lowly, and mowing down trees in its path.

Evening was drawing near when they finally came out of the forest and crossed a hill, and arrived at a tiny factory. The factory stood alone in the middle of the meadows, where not a single country could be seen. It was occupied with equipment for repair and cluttered with various machines waiting to be fixed. The factory was surrounded by fields with vegetables growing on them.

The truck stopped by the factory, and the two children trudged along with a box and shovels in tow. The tank slowly followed.

Just when the whole sky was colored with a scarlet hue and the clouds high up in it shone vividly, the tank arrived before a tomb. It was a steel grave marker that stood alone in the middle of the meadow. Beside it, the two children dug a hole and placed the contents of the box inside, laying the tank commander to rest.

Once again, the tank thanked the two children, who had their soiled hands clasped in prayer. Afterwards, the two came home aboard the tank’s turret.

—

The next morning, the tank asked the children, who were washing their faces by a well, why they were living in such a place.

The two honestly told the tank various things about themselves.

They lived in a country nearby, but were abandoned by their parents since they were little. They were found by their master who lived in an underground tunnel, and were taught how to repair machines. Their master built the factory, and with plenty of abandoned tanks and armored vehicles scattered about due to a war a long time ago, they made a living scavenging parts and repairing vehicles to sell to other countries.

“Are you going to sell me? Is that why you fixed me?” the tank asked in surprise, but the two children shook their heads.

“We won’t sell you.”

“We don’t sell tanks. What we sell to countries are equipment for plowing fields and sowing seeds. So we always remodel the vehicles to serve that purpose. But we can’t remodel a tank that is not yet completely broken.”

“I see,” the tank muttered in relief.

“But just before we met you, our master suddenly caught a cold and died.”

“Died… No matter how many times we shook him, he won’t wake up—”

“That’s why we buried master in the fields he so loved. We thought he felt lonely there all alone, but now, he’s together with that person so he must be happy now, right?”

“Right? Maybe they can become friends.”

The tank asked the two children, “Didn’t you say that your master was a nice person?”

“Yup,” the two answered in unison. Then the tank continued,

“If he is, then I’m sure they can be friends.”

—

Around noon that day, it began to drizzle.

As the tank can’t be put inside the factory, it settled outside. Being quite heavy, it sank slightly into the soil. But the two children covered its entire body with a sheet.

“You’ll catch a cold if you get wet—”

“Tanks don’t catch colds.”

“Just do it, already,” the boy insisted.

—

Under the gentle raindrops, the tank rested, covered by a sheet.

“Commander…by some stroke of fortune, I was repaired by two brave children,” the tank muttered.

“But I couldn’t find what I was looking for. I couldn’t find what I was looking for. The tank that you ordered me to destroy…where could it be? Where could it be…?”

—

Inside the factory, clanking sounds could be heard as the boy and the girl worked.

“Mister tank doesn’t seem well.”

“Yeah, not well.”

“Even after we fixed him, huh?”

“Huh?”

“Let’s cheer him up!”

“Yup. Let’s cheer him— Wait, what does it mean for a tank to be cheerful?”

“Um…when we’re cheerful, what do we do?”

“We do?”

“I know! Being cheerful means to have fun!”

“Yeah, to have fun! And when we have fun we say ‘Yay!’”

“For tanks, that’s the same as shooting the cannon and going ‘Boom!’”

“Yup. That’s it! ‘Boom!’”

“But what are we gonna do? How do we cheer him up?”

“Up?”

“He looks really sad, don’t you think?”

“You think? He was lonely after all.”

“That’s it! Because there are two of us, we weren’t lonely even after master died. So, we should make another tank to be his friend!”

“Oh. Make a friend…”

“I’m sure he’ll be happy.”

“Happy, yeah.”

“If we do that, he’ll go ‘Boom!’”

“He’ll go ‘Boom!’”

The pair jumped up in joy.

“Let’s do it now!”

“Now!”

“If we only do the exterior, it will be done in no time!”

“Time!”

The two abandoned what they were doing, and looked around in the factory for parts that they could use.

They decided to use the iron plates from the rail cars that have been converted to tractors.

And then they made a fake turret using a rain gutter. They painted it black and drew three vertical lines on its right side. And on the left, they drew an animal that looked just like the one drawn on the tank, even though they did not know what it was called.

And it was completed by evening.

“If the weather is clear tomorrow, let’s show it to him!”

“To him!”

The gentle drizzle stopped by dawn.

—

The boy and the girl removed the sheet covering the tank.

Morning dew sparkled beneath the light of the clear morning.

“I am truly grateful to the two of you. But I have something that I need to do, so I have to leave.”

“Eh? Wait!”

“Wait!”

The two hurriedly returned to the factory.

The tank’s massive form slowly rose. The lifter operated, and with a shudder, the massive armored body floated a mere inches from the ground.

At that moment.

*Vrrrr vrrrr*

From the back of the factory, another tank appeared, digging up mud as it tread over the ground.

“Ah!”

The floating tank raised a cry of surprise.

“I found it…”

—

Inside the imitation tank running through the ground,

“I’m sure he’ll be happy!”

“Happy!”

The children shouted out in delight.

—

“Commander, I found it!”

The tank started to move. It advanced at a very slow speed towards the ‘enemy tank’.

“I found it at last. I found it at last! Commander, commend me. Commend me. ‘Make sure to destroy a black tank with three red lines drawn on the right side of the turret, and a tapir drawn on the left.’ I can accomplish that order right here on the land where you rest. I can finally carry out your final command.”

The motor let out a low hum. The heavy turret rotated smoothly, and its 200mm smooth-bore cannon slowly lifted.

“Fire control system check—no problems. Barrel stability mechanism check—no problems.” The tank promptly performed the directions its former commander used to give.

“Enemy tank laser—not exposed. Other enemies—none. First shot—armor piercing round. Next shot—anti-tank projectile.”

The freshly-repaired automatic loading system pushed an enormous depleted uranium shell into the long barrel.

“Loading—complete!”

From the rear of the gun turret, a red lamp lit up. The barrel moved and trained its tip at the sluggish imitation tank, slightly quivering with the movement.

“Alignment—complete!”

And in place of the tank commander, the tank cried out.

“Fire!”

*Vrrrr vrrrr vrrrr vrrrr vrrrr*

The imitation tank came up right in front of the floating tank and stopped.

“Why…”

The tank’s cannon remained silent, but kept its aim at the imitation tank, following its movement.

“Why…why won’t it fire?! Why!”

There was no one to answer the tank’s question.

Soon its large build lost strength and slowly dropped onto the damp earth. The lower half of its body sank into the ground.

“Look, look!”

“Look!”

It was the voice of the boy and the girl, coming from the imitation tank right in front. The hatch made of patched-up iron plates opened, and the two children stuck out their heads.

“Why…why…why…”

It heard nothing. The tank only repeated its question again and again.

“We did it perfectly, right?!”

“Right?!”

The two took out a huge mirror. It was a mirror from a bathroom.

The tank’s sighting device perceived the mirror. The image reflected there was that of the tank half-buried in the earth.

“Why?!”

The tank clearly recognized the figure in the mirror, and came to a realization. Then, as if to avert its eyes away, it vigorously turned its gun turret. At that moment.

Boom!

The moistened gunpowder finally ignited, its thunderous roar shaking the surroundings. The shock wave brushed off all the dew clinging on the grass.

And in a speed five times faster than that of sound, a shell flied out of the cannon and in an instant, leaped beyond the clear sky.

—

A lone factory stood in the middle of a green meadow.

Right beside it was an enormous tank and a tiny imitation tank.

“Yippee!”

“Amazing!”

And the merry voices of two children echoing for eternity.

Translator’s Notes

Back to Chapter 8

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Forward to Chapter 10