It had been a few weeks since Haruka's arrival onto the ranch. Tensions were still high between her and Jacob but somehow she managed to not lay him out on his back. She didn't need to rub the other ranch hands the wrong way as it was. Her body ached all over and her hands were already back to being calloused up a bit worse than usual. Handling the lariat ropes bare handed hadn't been her best idea but some of the men needed the extra set of hands to pull a few stubborn steers down to the ground. The branding had been an easy task for her as her horse was well suited to listening to orders and standing when a steer was roped and tied off onto the saddle. The men had slowly started to get used to her around. The elder one who looked familiar to her still kept his distance however. He was quite fearful of the blonde having seen her skill with a gun and he also had guilt riding him.

Haruka sighed a bit taking a break from moving hay up into the barn loft by use of a rope and hands. Her shoulders were burning up and her hands needed a break so one of the other men took over the task of pulling the rope to lift the hay. She moved to the well to get some water to drink and as she walked, her ears caught the sound of music. It echoed from the main ranch house and so her eyes moved to an open window on the top floor. She recognized it as Michiru's room as she had gotten quite used to joining the woman for talks when neither of them could sleep that well. The sound made the new hand smirk a bit before dunking her head into the well bucket full of cold water. It sent a chill down her spine but she didn't care. Tossing her head back, she wiped the water off her eyes with the back of her hand and just leaned against the stone barrier of the well.

"I had no idea she could play something like that." she whispered gently. Her eyes closed allowing herself to get lost a bit hearing the high and low notes from the violin music.

"It's how she finds herself at times." came a soft response.

The gunslinger turned moving a hand to grasp at the handle of her pistol before she realized who it was. Mr. Kaioh chuckled lightly soon approaching her with use of his hard wood cane. He seemed amused from the reaction he got out of the blonde.

"I really wish you would say your name first or say mine. I nearly shot you, sir." murmured Haruka as she sighed and leaned back against the well.

The elder man smiled lightly before nodding. "I do apologize for that but you seemed to be enjoying the music from your stance. I didn't want to ruin it for you."

"It's not often I hear music like what she is playing. The last time I heard a violin it was in New York at my grandmother's home. She played the violin while my grandfather played alongside her on the piano."

"I see. So this holds some fondness in your memories of back then to those times, does it?"

"Somewhat. It was fond only for the music really. I didn't quite settle into what my grandparents expected."

"Ah."

The elder looked toward the blonde. Her face was more sun scorched than before and her collarbone had quite a bit of sun burn to it as well. The sleeves of the once white shirt had been rolled up to her shoulders in attempts to keep herself cool from the work she had been doing. The man could tell she was quite a hard worker from the amount of abuse the ranch hands had been getting her into. He did have to give her credit as a horse woman though. The paint she had been bucked off two weeks earlier had been trained and numerous other horses had followed suit.

"Sir, would you mind me asking about Michiru? How did she come to wield a rifle so damn well?" questioned Haruka lightly.

He chuckled lightly. "I don't mind you asking. You don't have to keep addressing me as sir all the time, Haruka. Don't be afraid to call me Toshiro. As for Michiru, she picked it up after I wrote to her to come out here. With my health and age, I can't get around the way I used to. I can still shoot pretty well if I have a rest to steady my gun.." he smirked.

"I wouldn't doubt that. It's a tough country out here and sometimes that is all you have to rely on. I've never met someone with her kind of speed with a long gun. When I first ran into her, I had the barrel pointed at my head and she was quite set on shooting me if I didn't start talking."

"Michiru's been around a while to see the type of things that go on out here. She's a rough woman when she needs to be but she is a sweet child."

Haruka chuckled lightly and gave a gentle nod noticing the music had stopped playing. She sighed and pushed herself off of the well feeling the winds picking up once more. Mr. Kaioh glanced toward her watching her movements. He could tell she was stiffening up from the amount of work she had been doing. Something else had him curious of her as he could tell there was a meaning behind why she had the gun belt on her body.

"Tenoh, I know you may want to dodge the question. Why do you truly wear those guns? It's not just for protection. I know, as an old gunslinger myself." he murmured.

Haruka stood straight with her back turned toward him. She bowed her head a bit and closed her eyes turning her hands into fists for a few moments. The question echoed inside of her head but she knew she had to be careful how she answered it. It brought back the one thing she was constantly running from.

"To remind me what made me turn to them." she responded calmly. "It's to keep me focused on ending a reign of terror that's lasted far to long."

"It has something to do with that gang that attacked the town last month, doesn't it?"

"Yes, Toshiro."

The elder dropped the subject having noticed a flicker of fire behind the green eyes. Whatever that gang had done, it had the blonde wound up rather tight and he couldn't get through the layers. She was a hard one to unravel but it was not his place to attempt that job. Instead, he would leave it to someone else who might be able to get down to the true Haruka Tenoh.

"Tenoh, perhaps you'd feel up for riding the fence lines for a while. You look a bit drained from the harder work with your hands. A ride on your horse might ease you a bit." he murmured gently.

Haruka gave a light nod. The elder was right about that. When she was on the back of her horse, she could just let things vanish for a while to enjoy the ride. That was one of the factors that made her an excellent choice for breaking in the rough bronco stock. It also helped that she enjoyed a bit of a challenge in the matter of showing the men she wasn't just some push over. She offered a light bow of her head toward the man before moving off to the barn to remove her horse from his stall. After a few minutes, she emerged on the back of the large horse with her hat squarely upon her head to block some of the sun off her face. The horse bolted with a calm kick to the ribs and in a matter of minutes the rider was gone to inspect the fences and the herds of stock on the ranch.

Mr. Kaioh smiled a little watching the dust Haruka had kicked up. He shook his head as he heard a few of the men laughing a bit and taking a break themselves. The day was getting hotter already as it was eleven in the morning. The horses had plenty of water from the river in the lands they grazed and the cattle were safe and sound. No rustlers had even attempted to take any more cattle after five of them had been killed by Haruka's gun when she rode the fences. They got the hint that anyone caught would not survive so it wasn't worth attempting in the first place. The ranch itself was growing again and for the better since Haruka's arrival. Toshiro had noticed the rivalry between some of the rand hands and her sparked the men into working twice as hard as the blonde. The work had doubled and the barn was looking as good as new from part of the roof being redone. The gunslinger had brought quite a bit of prosperity for the old man and his grandchild.

The elder slipped inside of his home to take a seat in a rocking chair to rest his sore knee joints. He was doing better than he had been but he often tried to ignore the pain to not worry Michiru. She often worried about him and he hated to see stress in her eyes. Toshiro had grown more stubborn over time and Michiru often had to wonder if Haruka was rubbing off on him at all or not. A smile formed on his face as he heard foot steps moving down the stairs.

"Grandfather, just what were you doing?" she inquired.

Toshiro merely chuckled. "I was chatting with your blonde friend. She heard your music."

"I didn't realize she would be listening. The others don't often seem to pay attention when I play."

"She did."

Michiru shrugged moving over to take a seat upon the couch a moment. She raised a hand to brush back a few of her aqua curls and her eyes settled back onto her grandfather watching him rock in his chair. He appeared to be in a good mood which she couldn't understand. The old man was plotting something but what she had yet to find out. Her eyes drifted back to grabbing a black ribbon from her front jeans pocket to tie her hair up off her neck as she debated on going for a ride mentally.

"She's out riding the fences." murmured the old man.

"I assumed as much. She doesn't tend to stay still for very long even when she works." chided Michiru.

"It's in her nature, Michiru."

"I suppose. Well, I'm going for a ride myself. I should check the cattle fields in the east side."

"All right, but be careful. You never know what could be waiting out there."

"I'll be okay, Grandfather."

Michiru rose from her spot on the couch and walked to the door. Before she slipped outside, she grabbed her rifle and her belt of ammunition. Toshiro smirled a bit watching through the window as she vanished into the barn to saddle her horse. The elder could also tell she had changed with the time the blonde had been on the grounds. In the past month, the two seemed to becoming what looked like friends and Toshiro was thankful for that. He only hoped Haruka wouldn't overlook that new bond that was growing. In time the old man closed his eyes, and Michiru took off on her horse to just enjoy the ride having no idea what was ahead of her.

It didn't take her long to come across the cattle herd where she spotted Haruka down below the ridge. She smirked a bit leaning upon her saddle horn a bit with an elbow as she just observed from higher ground. A young calf had gotten himself stuck in a mud pit and while Haruka had been checking the fences, she had come across him. In an effort to get him out, she had roped him and tried to drag him out with her horse. It worked for a short time until the rope made it hard for the calf to move. As Michiru came onto the scene, the blonde was up to her waist in mud wrestling the calf out.

"Come on, damn ya. You got me dragging through the mud trying to save your sorry excuse of an ass." growled the blonde.

The calf bleated out and nailed Haruka right in the torso as it got free to drier land. Doubling over, the gunslinger cursed out even more before grabbing the lariat rope she had removed from the calf. Tugging on it, her horse picked up the cue and started to move backwards helping her to slide out of the mud pit. After a few minutes, Haruka was laying on her back staring up to the clouds above while trying to allow her chaps to dry out from the pounds of mud still clinging to them. She didn't hear the sound of hooves approaching her as she relaxed.

"Have fun swimming in the mud, cowboy?" chimed a voice.

Haruka looked over toward where it came form and sighed seeing it was Michiru. "Just a ball of fun."

Michiru giggled a bit hearing the sarcastic response. "Oh come on now, it wasn't too bad."

"So says the one that isn't stuck with an extra thirty pounds on her body." grumbled Haruka.

The blonde slowly got up off of the ground only to undo the buckles to her chaps to allow it to fall to the ground revealing the clean half of her pants. Michiru covered her mouth trying to stifle a fit of laughter. She was rather amused from the sight in front of her where Haruka had mud up to her shoulders on her shirt and a defined hove print set to the torso. The laughter soon broke and Michiru was trying not to fall off her horse from laughing so hard. The blonde rolled her eyes and walked over to her horse to wind up the lariat that was also a bit caked in mud. When she finished, she glanced back over to the laughing woman and shook her head.

"Get your laughs in now, Michiru. I don't intend to keep doing this job forever." she sighed.

Michiru stopped her laughing and looked back toward her. "You're doing well for just learning the ropes on this job."

"I know not to let any of the herd die if you can help it. That's common knowledge of ranches."

"Yes, but not many ranch hands would wade into the mud up to their waists the way you did without getting stuck themselves."

"That's where the rope and my horse came into play. I do have brains that aren't linked to shooting."

"You had me fooled."

"Think as you will." shrugged the blonde as she grabbed her mud soaked chaps only to drape them over the saddle horn.

Michiru chuckled a little soon moving her horse down into a walk to stop short of where Haruka was standing. The blonde was attempting to kick off a bit of the mud attached to her boots. It worked after a few moments and in victory, the blonde swung herself up into her saddle only to glance toward Michiru with a raised brow. From kicking out the mud, a piece of it had smacked Michiru right on the cheek. Removing it, the aquanette sent a playful glare toward the blonde.

"Do you enjoy making everything muddy?"

"Well, you are dirty minded so I think I'm just doing you a favor, little lady." grinned the blonde.

"Haruka!" shouted Michiru.

The blonde took off on her horse racing through the field ahead of the angered Michiru. She knew she had pissed her off by calling her little lady once again and no doubt she'd be bleeding by the end of the night. It was worth having a little fun to drive the rifle woman a bit batty once in a while. Looking back behind her, she spotted Michiru racing after her on her horse. She was catching up as well and because of that Haruka turned her horse to go through the trail leading up and passed the river on the mountainside. Her horse managed to keep his footing before reaching the woods around the river. Slowing him down, she glanced behind her finding Michiru was not behind her as closely as she had been. She stopped her horse before turning to back track the trail when the sound of gunfire caught her ears. For the first time in ten long years the blonde felt her heart skip a beat as more guns went off. Spurring her horse in the ribs harshly, she leaned up in the saddle urging him forward as fast as he could manage.

Outside of the forest line, Michiru had been sent off her horse and was stuck between a small gully behind a few large boulders. She growled abit firing back a few times with her rifle to the unknown shooters locations. The bullets grazed the boulder in response to her attack and she ducked down avoiding a bullet across the face. Whoever was firing at her, meant business and wanted to kill her from the way the bullets kept getting closer and closer to actually making their mark. Breathing carefully, she moved and fired off two shots before three were sent back at her. Blood started to drop from her face onto her shirt as a bullet grazed her cheek. It made her realize she had to move before they started to come in on top of her to finish her off. She maneuvered through the ridge of rocks until she came across a deer trail leading into the safety of some of the woods. The shooting from the upper woods stopped as she took cover into the pine trees waiting for her move.

The shooters emerged slowly from the wood line only to raise their rifles spotting movement in the trees. As they fired, they found a saddled horse run through the pathway without a rider. Smirking a bit, the men looked to one another before laughing.

"Looks like we got her, Eric." murmured one of the men.

"Sounds like we did so far, Randy. However, I ain't taking any chances. Jackal sent us out here to kill her and we are gonna make sure she is dead." growled Eric.

"All right then. Let's go check it out." he smirked moving to slip out of full cover.

A gun went off and he very quickly was jerked backward onto his ass in the underbrush. Eric had pulled him back by the shoulder to keep him alive for the time being.

"Seems she ain't dead." sighed Eric before moving to trail up through the woods a bit under cover. He planned on circling around to where the horse had emerged.

Randy shook his head and crawled out through the tall grass on his stomach to reach the gully. While Eric would back track, he'd go to where the aquanette had last been in attempts to find her. He intended to kill her in order to keep Jackal from killing him. The gang leader was not impressed with their stunt and failure to actually kill Michiru in the first place. The anger exploded into a full out beating of both men from the rest of the gang and ended with the orders to make sure the woman was dead. If they failed, they would be tied by their arms to a tree and skinned alive. Needless to say, the men intended to come back with their jobs completed in order to keep their skin.

Michiru panted a bit wiping the blood away before trying to slip out from the cover of the pine trees. She managed to get off the trail only to feel an arm move about her waist and a hand over her mouth. With widened eyes, she moved to try and bite the hand only to hear a familiar voice curse from the bite. Retreating her hand from about Michiru's mouth, Haruka sent a glare to her.

"Sorry, Haruka. I thought you were one of the people shooting at me." she whispered.

The blonde shook her head. "I have a feeling its more people from Jackal." she responded in a hushed tone.

"Why would they be out here shooting at me?"

"The better question would be what did you do to piss off Jackal?"

"I didn't do anything except defend some people in town from his gang last month. I killed one of the gang members."

Haruka slapped her forehead and grimaced in pained agony from hearing the woman's words. Without saying a word, she dragged Michiru down to the riverbed where she looked around carefully and listened for any sounds of movement. So far they were lucky without any more bullets being thrown at them but that didn't stop the urgency in Haruka's mind to come up with a plan and fast. Pulling Michiru to her a moment, she whispered something into her ear and soon let her go. Michiru watched as her friend vanished through the brush once more leaving her in the open. She only hoped the plan would work and not backfire on them in the end.