Duty

Corporal Kurihara was oblivious to the sweat coursing down his neck as he stared through the dark mass of foliage with implacable patience. His tattered fatigues hung like the limp, dank fronds around him. No one walking the barely present path would have noticed his motionless rifle.

It had been some considerable time since he'd last sighted the enemy. Nor, strangely, had there been any contact from HQ - but they would come to relieve him in due course.

As dusk shrouded the jungle, he mentally checked the date; August 30, 1946. It was a long war - that much was certain.