The labourers went to their jobs, as usual, the next morning, and for every morning in the two weeks following that. Yuzu worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure both the victims and other individuals running the operation had no clue the tides of their world had severely changed.

Mei was reunited with Haruki on the third day, to which he was overjoyed to find her alive and relatively unscathed, and she him. Soon enough he was rolled into the plan, surprisingly accepting the criminal nature of his ex-colleague as gracefully as a lone heron does the advantageous change of wind. He was given the keys to the only black van not required for any specific outings in the following weeks and sent down to the final port Takamoto had moored at, along with his boat key. The plan was for him to pose under the name Takamoto and collect the boat, to which the company of three women, young boy and dog would flee two weeks later after Yuzu had initiated her final plan.

The warehouse would be abandoned on that final day, Yuzu personally ensuring everyone had gotten out before she alerted the appropriate authorities to the nature of the operations that had taken place over the last years within the ominous metal jacket of the building. She explained to an apprehensive Mei and Harumin that naturally, she would take a fall once her name was found on the records relating to the incidents. She brushed off their insistence to burn the records within the building, explaining digital versions and multiple copies existed beyond the walls of the warehouse and how there was no way she could finish this without damning herself in the same instance. They protested and again, she insisted. In the end, an agreement was reached. An agreement that led to the burning of her office and all the damning papers within, for as Harumi put it, the mere hell of it.

On that final day, the fire accidentally as Mei claimed it, much to Yuzu's grand suspicions, spread much further than initially intended resulting in the absolute burning of the old bearings factory right down to the pockmarked concrete it stood on.

And at that, staring at the blackened ruin of the metallic afterlife that had been Yuzu's home for the last seven years, Mei finally seemed to accept the fact her sister's destiny to become a known criminal right alongside her was no less than a sealed certainty.

/

Takamoto's funeral was held on a grassy bank overlooking the sea of Japan on the second day. Harumi was perhaps the one to mourn his loss the most. His grave was dug on an area of land Arata's long time business partner owned; an idea Mei was initially uncomfortable with considering the man's relation to the atrocity she had just survived, yet still more uncomfortable with the thought of someone accidentally disturbing Takamoto's final resting place. A lone willow tree stood guard over the unmarked grave; the stunning ocean view beyond an image Mei could never forget.

The other two bodies were buried elsewhere.

Yuzu explained in the hour before the small homage to the heroic man, how Takamoto had decided to trek up to Sakata after hearing about the ordeal the two escaping women had faced after they left his boat. It was more of a fluke than anything how Takamoto had happened across the right warehouse, despite being the one to offer the idea of searching industrial land initially.

A limping Shinobu had apparently taken off a mere few metres into the trek across the industrial land, and upon following him, Takamoto had happened across a small boy who his loaned dog was lapping affectionately at the ears of.

After a few icy questions, it soon became clear to him that by sheer dumb luck, Shinobu had found a boy who had followed the two women he was tracking almost as immediately as they left Kagoshima. Sure then, that he had found the right warehouse, he attempted to infiltrate it, leaving the ailing dog to the care of young Eiji, the Blue Dragon's one and only glass collector, as he hoisted himself onto the roof.

That also happened to be the moment Yuzu herself stepped out onto the roof, desperate for the fresh air that would prompt the plan to get her sister and best friend out of the grip of certain death. After the initial shock of the roof meeting had subsided, Takamoto immediately recognised her from the lengthy description Mei had given him, which earned a blush from Mei as Yuzu told it, and quickly told her of his reasoning behind being there.

And the rest is history; the two of them quickly devised the plan of the stand-in physician and wheeled their shoddy yet robust plan back into the warehouse and down to the outhouse for its one and only run. The only flaw in it all was that Arata had been listening to the whole exchange a few metres off. It was to his own misfortune, however, that the ego that convinced him to let the plan playout didn't warn him against the ruthless nature of the seemingly harmless old man.

Takamoto had apparently instructed Eiji to wait with Shinobu on the beach before he undertook his final journey. Still, Eiji, who had just finished his own trek across the length of Japan wasn't about to sit out for the finale.

The boy gave a sheepish grin as he explained how he snuck in afterwards whilst everyone was too distracted by the commotion and waited patiently in the hall outside. It was to the debt of them all that young Eiji decided to reveal himself and the humongous dog he had spent the effort keeping quiet the whole time, in that last minute when all hell was finally ripped loose. If he hadn't disobeyed Takamoto's direct instruction, the three of them wouldn't have been alive to hear the tale on that second day. Mei, Yuzu and Harumi all made sure to thank the boy that would be honoured, mostly teasingly, from that day forth as a lone hero to all of them. He grinned, embarrassed, as they said so, earning endearing smiles from all three of them as he shied away.

On the final day before they left for the port, Harumi and Mei made the final trek to the slumbering Hellcat together. Despite the inconspicuous nature of the vehicle, the two of them had agreed, the bulk of that agreement being influenced by Harumi, it was only right they leave Sakata carried by the car that had gotten them there; in a way, it had become one of the family.

Harumi's hand had already mostly healed, the bruising a distant memory and the only real indication of the torment she had undergone being the scabbed wound and slightly reduced mobility in the fingers of her right hand. Mei watched patiently as she hid the rucksack full of money under the back seat which Yuzu, Eiji and Shinobu would all cram themselves onto in a couple of hours, the mismatched handguns of Takamoto and Arata coming to sit beneath the driver's seat and Mei's own reclaimed shotgun, who she had to admit after his polishing now appeared ruggedly handsome, nestled beneath the frontside passenger seat.

They drove the car the short journey to the beachfront where Eiji, Yuzu and Shinobu waited, both silent and reflective under the lightening dawn sky as they slipped through a pair of opposing paddy fields. Mei was appreciative of the dawn air that blew through her shattered window as it claimed the last vestiges of sleep from her body.

Her thoughts were as free as the wind, and she found in that freedom surprised to say she felt a fresh thrill, the scent of autumn filling her nose and the twilight country land of Japan gorgeous, at the prospect of an unknown future for the first time in her life. She smiled, a gesture Harumi caught and replicated as Mei thought on the insanity that lay before her; the three of them; a thief, a profiter of slave labour and a wanted murderer, all on the run across Japan. It was a ridiculous thought and yet, finally, they were all together on that ridiculous escapade. The hellcat rumbled ever on down the quiet dirt track as Mei's smile widened with the fading moon.

/

The brightening dawn sky swam with a creamy purple, its darkened expanse flecked with ripples of hot pink and the odd star still visible amongst the belt of creamy velvet. Mei glanced up, the Challenger parked patiently a few metres behind, at the beautiful twilight that heralded the beginning of the final day before their departure. She looked gently back down to her own bare knees; Yuzu's floral dress billowed softly about them in the slight wind, her legs tickled lightly as she waded through the long blades of ornamental grass in the wake of the second woman.

Mei could see Harumi's plum hair shifting gently across her back in the not so far off distance, her figure almost silhouetted against the beautiful seafront backdrop. It was a brilliant view on any day from up atop the grassy bank that overlooked the quiet spot of the beach below, but the glowing sky, warm wind, and white sands that had emerged with the break of dawn made the whole scene look incredibly picturesque on that last day.

Mei could see Harumi had stopped to look across the vast sea of Japan, its usual ultramarine thrown into an equally gorgeous star pricked indigo under the reflection of the twilight sky.

Breaking through the ream of waist-length grass, Mei walked a little further along the soft ground then also stopped to regard the scene a couple of feet behind Harumi. They stood there in silence like that for two minutes, listening to the soft crashes of the waves below, the odd bark of Shinobu and the excited giggles of Yuzu and Eiji as they played on the beach a few metres below their feet.

Takamoto's unmarked grave stood at the bank's edge overlooking the scene; a single willow tree wrapped its long fingers around the spot, the last of its red autumn leaves dropping in soft decoration along the recently dug ground.

The wind blew through the scene, throwing up some of the fiery leaves in an arching swirl which Mei watched even as Harumi finally turned to face her. Mei turned her eyes to the woman whose eyes now regarded hers, her freshly washed hair playing against the tail end of the slight breeze, her face soft and expressive.

Mei understood now was the time she had to say something, but she didn't want to say that something, so she defected. "Are you sure the car will be okay to drive? I mean, considering?"

Harumi waited for a moment before replying; her eyes seemed strangely distant. "I know it's not exactly inconspicuous, but it got us here, and I just feel it's only right that it gets us out of here."

Mei inclined her head softly, only half listening as she watched Harumi's dawn-lit face move around her words. "Besides, I've been looking over the maps, and I've found a scenic route that will take us most of the way to the port. So, yeah. It should be fine."

Mei lowered her head to the object nestled in her light grip. "Alright, then."

A small bark and outcry from Yuzu flicked her head back up in time to catch the small smile that slipped across Harumi's face at the giggles below.

"Harumi." Mei stepped two paces forward, closing the gap between her and the other woman. Harumi regarded her with calm eyes as Mei unfurled her hand and extended the metal object tentatively towards her," I want to thank you, for finishing it, back then."

Mei looked away, suddenly embarrassed by the formality she brought on the moment that she had planned to come off as entirely natural, yet continued awkwardly nonetheless. "So, I want you to have this."

Mei watched Harumi's eyes as they stared distantly at the lighter, every smidgen of blood washed from the perfect silver of its skin and the kanji for fire winking brightly against the bursts of hot pink lining the sky above. Harumi raised both her hands to Mei's cupped one, to which Mei's breath hitched as their hands contacted, her mind fully anticipating her final relief from the weight of the murderous trinket.

But, Harumi didn't take it. She clutched Mei's fingers gently between hers and cupped them back over the lighter's warm surface, not removing her contact as she pushed Mei's hand back to her chest. "The way I see it, everyone who takes that thing ends up getting killed."

Mei felt her lips draw up of their own accord into the softest of smiles as she registered the humour in Harumi's whisper, the warmth of the woman's hands on hers trickling rapidly to her fast stepping heart. "And besides, I'm trying to quit."

Mei looked down at their hands in one another's, and she nodded, the slight smile still on her face. "Yes, I suppose that's true." She looked to the willow tree as another leaf, breathed delicately in flame, fluttered softly to the ground. "Perhaps, I'll leave it to Takamoto. After all, death can't touch him anymore."

Harumi nodded, the grief of the sudden loss still reflected on her melancholic features, but her humour still miraculously untouched. "Some hobo will probably have a good day when he finds it lying on the ground."

Mei revealed her true smile to Harumi, her eyes warm as she whispered back. "Let him; it'll be more use to the hobo than me."

Harumi inclined her head again as Mei looked past her shifting plum strands to the brilliance of the first disc of red sun peaking over the sea. She could feel the projected beams warming her face, their fiery fingers decorating the dress she had borrowed from her sister as she looked back to the woman whose hand she still held around the lighter.

The sun streaks looked magnificent playing across her plum hair, the edges of Harumi's face suddenly caught in the fiery glow of the break of dawn. Mei looked into her amber eyes, which were looking back into hers deeply, and suddenly, she felt ready to address that something.

Mei clutched Harumi's hand tighter, the lighter still encased between their twin grips, as she raised her unoccupied hand to the caress of Harumi's face. She felt the other woman flinch under the touch of her fingers, Yuzu's angelic laugh ringing out in ridiculous cue somewhere below the slim bank," Mei, I."

Mei spoke in the barest of whispers, unsure if her voice would hold up to her resolve. "I know, you've already told me; this is just a means to an end. Don't worry, I already promised her too." She brushed her thumb over Harumi's soft lips and looked back into her eyes almost pleading," so please let me have this, just one last time."

Mei closed the gap between her and Harumi before the other woman could even consider denying her consent. She touched her lips to Harumi's in the lightest of kisses, barely able to sense whether or not Harumi kissed her back but all the same uncaring as she relished in the last contact she knew she just had to have before the end.

She turned away from Harumi quickly, breaking the kiss before it had really begun in the knowledge she couldn't push her guilt far enough to linger on the disappointing end of whatever this was between her and the woman before her.

Mei found herself, to her despair, still unsatisfied as she turned, truly wanting one last look into those gorgeous cat-like eyes, but all the same, accepting full well that was something she just couldn't do in the peak stride of her weakness and guilt.

Her hand squeezed against the lighter's hot surface as Harumi's bandaged hand caught her retreating chin mid-turn. Mei opened her eyes. The rising sun had thrown a fiery halo around the face of the woman who looked back at her; the smooth curves of her longing face tricking against the deep flame, her plum hair lit in a blazing auburn. Mei looked into Harumi's vivid eyes until they fell out of focus, their noses glancing one anothers as Harumi drew her lips back to hers. She whispered in the last second before they contacted, sending Mei's stomach into giddy convulsions as she registered the words she had only dared to dream," I don't think I quite got the message."

Mei felt the guilt trickle out as Harumi's soft lips contacted hers duly this time; the admonishment she held for herself quickly falling out of reality as she pressed her own lips back against Harumi's with all the earnest of a woman who had wanted this kiss for longer than she cared to know.

Her initial surprise quickly dissipated, such joy splitting through her core at the response Mei couldn't help but trace her free hand through the plum tresses of Harumi's breeze blown hair. She felt her whole body shudder as she absorbed as much of Harumi's fiery essence as she could, entirely certain the other woman was doing the same as their hands intertwined further around the hot metal of the lighter. She felt Harumi's bandaged hand fall from her cheek and slide about her waist, pulling her closer and deepening both the kiss and the heat of the blush across Mei's cheeks as the red sun disk drew itself ever higher above the sea's sparkling waters.

Right then and there, the world phased out for Mei, and she was finally wrenched from the hooked grasp of all the forces that had collaborated to bring her down. All her emotion poured out as she embraced this freedom, its profound finality reflected in that one last physical act of passion.

She felt Harumi's fingers slip softly from her own, the lighter sliding from between the encasement of their entwined hands and falling to the ground where it bounced to a still at the close of two grassy thumps. Mei committed the last taste of the woman to her memory as her lips finally lifted, breaking the kiss and accepting the end to a perfect moment. She kept her eyes closed even as Harumi's warm fingers finally slid from her trembling grasp.

Mei could sense Harumi taking a last look at her as the sun-kissed wind came gently to caress her face; it's soft breath profoundly marking her graceful acceptance to the end gifted to this insane chapter of her life. Mei didn't lift her eyelids even as she felt the breath of motion play against her sun-warmed face as Harumi finally turned and walked away.

She only opened her eyes as the crown of Harumi's head slipped below the edge of the bank. Mei looked after her for a moment before she came to realise something rather peculiar - she was smiling.

Smiling as she heard the jubilant cry of her sister as her best friend joined whatever crazy game her, a young boy and a dog had thought to involve themselves in on this beautiful morning. She was smiling because that was the family she had earned at the close of her arduous journey, and it was a gift beyond any she ever could have considered deserving at the end of her journey across the length of Japan.

Holding that endowment close to her warm heart, Mei felt a contentment wash over her of the likes she hadn't experienced since her years of childhood. She stooped to collect the lighter which had nestled itself uncomfortably between an errant patch of earth and dewy clump of grass. She clutched its small, tactile form between her slender fingers as she rose and made the short trek over to the willow tree marking Takamoto's seaside grave.

The kanji engraved into the lighter's marless surface glinted in the fiery hue of the rising sun as its full circle finally graced the creamy sky. Mei stopped at the foot of Takamoto's stoneless grave; she looked down at the slim semi-circle of seashells her sister had used to adorn it and back to the lighter sitting patiently in her palm.

A curious feeling churned from somewhere deep within her gut as she considered parting with the beautiful object. And soon enough, staring at its winking lustre, she came to realise that a random hobo throwing it onto his day's scrap heap would stab at her insides more than her wavering heart cared to admit; after all, the trinket was a token of her journey.

She looked back across the near dentless ultramarine of the glittering sea, the distant call of seagulls starting up as the gorgeous day wound up and prepared for sail. The fingers of her left hand fidgeted as she stared across the ocean, her thumb coming to nudge against something cold and hard. She glanced down to find her wedding band, by some miracle, still encircling her left ring finger. She didn't hesitate.

She nudged the memento off of her finger softly and holding the thin loop of silver up to the kiss of the light a final time, she knelt and deposited the ring within the semi-circle of shells where it stood to centre the decoration of Takamoto's grave.

Drawing herself back into a stand, Mei took a step back and looked upon the small shrine created to honour the great man's life. It looked right.

She slipped the lighter into the thin side pocket of her dress where it nestled snugly at home against her thigh. Mei looked back across the glinting ocean; the terrible weight finally lifted from her shoulders as for the first time in a long time, everything seemed right with her world. She laughed out loud to herself as she came to recognise her view of normalcy; that was, beginning the next chapter of her life fleeing the small seaside town as a wanted murderer, might appear a little skewed to the common man; but, she didn't care. She had finally crafted her own life, and something in the flutter of her heart told her, it was going to be a good one.

Mei hit the ground before she'd ever even registered the tickle of fur between her calves. She felt the grass blades stick into her bare thighs and the dull ache of her backside as the furry brown shape suddenly manifested in front of her. She glared at the animal with bewilderment, delayed in coming to connect her current state of dishevelment to the two hazel eyes that stared apologetically back at her. She couldn't even stop the large pink tongue as it gifted her with an accompanying apologetic lick, dousing her face with a thick layer of saliva before the dog that owned it hopped from between his victim's legs and bolted back towards the edge of the bank.

Mei turned as she heard the outcry of twin laughter sound behind her. Yuzu and Harumi's faces positively beamed back at her even without the help of the morning sun. They slipped into an even higher degree of hysterics as Shinobu bounded back towards them, the face of displeasure Mei pulled just too much for their weak laughter tolerance's to hold back.

Mei felt the initial irritation at being toppled by the unruly hound fade away as she continued to glare at the two women who had already started running, the young boy who until then watched tentatively from the sidelines already halfway down the bank, his lack of familiarity with Mei's detention face, filling him with a far greater fear than the other two who trailed behind him.

Mei looked back on Takamoto's grave a final time as she returned herself to her feet, the stupid smile plastered back on her face as she registered the erratic skittering of several pairs of foot and paw steps on the sand below. She inhaled the autumn air; even with the defiant ache of her backside and the dry mud now speckling her pale legs, everything was truly perfect.

/

Yuzu and Harumi almost tripped over each other as they spotted Mei's approaching form peek over the bank. The pair of them knew she was quite athletic in school, but they assumed seven years and a ton of desk work might have taken the edge off her sprint.

They soon found they assumed wrong as they were chased at lightning speed across the near hundred metres of white sand that made up the fatal gap between them and the sea. The chase ended in their both being thrown into the waters they had run to for refuge, as Mei took revenge on her sister first, pushing her with the barest restraint head first into the cold waters still yet to be warmed by the young sun. They all screamed in tandem as Shinobu came launching into the sea afterwards, drenching them all with the ocean's icy spray; a misfortune they would all soon forget, as all four of them would end up neck-deep in the ocean at least once over the course of the next ten minutes of scrambling fun.

Mei kept right on smiling like an idiot even as Harumi shoved her into a not so shallow pool, causing the dress still on Yuzu's tight loan to end up positively soaked from neck to trim, because she could honestly say alongside the four of them, well five including Shinobu, and one knows better than ever to forget the importance of a good dog, she was truly the happiest she had felt in the last decade of her life.

After the better part of an hour spent sandcastle building, seashell collecting and less aggressive paddling, Mei found it almost hard to accept, as she watched the sun climb to near its highest point in the sky, that the time to leave had finally come.

Somehow she had convinced herself the instance on the beach would last, unchanging, throughout all eternity, as though the great yellow face of the skies would never come to claim them from the white sands of Sakata. And Mei found herself also believing in that final moment on the sandy shore before the sun reached its peak in the sky, for the first time since she had started this journey, the brilliant ultramarine and white sanded world spread out before her; that with the five of them finally together; this, was truly, only the end of the beginning.

The End

I can honestly say the last seven and a half months have been an absolute roller-coaster. I want to thank everyone who supported this story, with special thanks to Skaty92, , Lily, Thai, citrusfan8, Classic, Yuu, Joya224, the ton of guest reviews and last but definitely not least Matsuri-wins. I massively appreciate the time you took to review this story during its creation and you all definitely spurred me on to keep writing. I realise the story I told was a little different, but it was the story that came out on that first night I sat down in front of the blinking cursor of my laptop screen, so I accept its peculiarity with gratitude and I'm glad I got to see it through to its end.

I hope you found some pleasure reading it and wish you all the best going on. Now this tale has met its close I'm off to pour myself a much anticipated glass of Jack and Coke. I'll give a toast to you all and sincerely hope every last one of you has a brilliant day.

Thanks again, signing off - Yoru49.