The hallway was illuminated. Yellow gold light flooded the paper door, broken by dark long patches of shadows. Kinu could hear the low titterings of a conversation she couldn't make out, one voice deep and low, and the other distinctly female. It sounded like both of them were coming to the room. Hiromi stood at her side, hands pressed over her mouth and nose.

She turned to Kinu, gesturing her away and the girl fumbled to get to the back door without alarming the entire building of her presence. She made it in the nick of time.

Kinu was just outside of the cracked door when the one to Hiromi's room slid open.

"Oba-san, you have a visitor." The woman's voice said, and Kinu squeezed her eyes shut as she listened to the stifling silence of the room. She expected more. Hiromi knew she couldn't look. "Amagi-sama has purchased your debt. You're to take your son and accompany him." There was another stint of nothing where Kinu thought she heard movement. Not enough to be a scuffle.

There was the sound of the roller track and the tap of wood. Off towards the front of the building, Kinu heard another steady tap. The rhythm of quick dull footsteps.

"This isn't a game." Amagi's voice had an edge to it. "You're scheming something, wretched woman. Where's that thing you claim is mine?"

"Yuto is yours." Hiromi said back as Kinu pushed the edge of the door open to see the man for herself. Across the porch, Ishii rounded the corner sword in hand.

"Ah-kun," She kept her eyes on her teacher. He wasn't sheathing his blade, and neither was she. "We want to talk."

"I thought you might still be here." The man said, crossing the room to her side. Kinu's first instinct was to back away when he came onto the porch, but Amagi motioned to Ishii. She was only thankful that he hadn't come for her.

As he waved his hand, the girl's eyes honed in on what she expected to be wrapped, or a stump. His hand was a normal shape, hidden underneath a black leather glove. That's what money could do, Kinu guessed.

Ishii reached their side, not even sparing a nod on Kinu. He spoke directly to his superior.

"It's just them."

Amagi nodded, and motioned for Hiromi to join them.

"We can chat, Kinu-chan." Held his arm out for her as the woman joined them on the porch, and Kinu stared at the offering, not fully understanding. "I'll hear whatever you have to say. Let's walk and talk."

Glancing at the closet uneasily, Kinu hesitated.

"I don't…" Why couldn't she think of anything? "We need privacy." She tried, but Amagi shook his head.

"You never know who's listening in these kinds of places." He bumped his arm towards her again, teeth beaming white in the moonlight, and Kinu carefully took hold of it. This was awful. Nothing was going right from the very start. "These gardens are lovely, have you walked through them yet, Kinu-chan?" When she shook her head, the man's hand pinned hers against his forearm so tightly that she thought her knuckles would crack. "Let me show you."

Given no choice, Kinu stumbled beside the man, down into the sandy stone speckled garden. She glanced back to find Hiromi watching with so much of the white of her eyes showing it sent a burst of nervousness through her chest. Just behind the woman, Ishii was sheathing his blade, walking slowest of all.

Tailing them.

Only then did she sheath her sword. Amagi took them beyond the cross section of Hiromi's room, far to the other side of the building. Cut away from the safety of Gintoki or Takasugi.

"Speak quickly, Kinu-chan." The man said, once the sand had turned to shrubbery, and the koi pond met the rocky edge of the cliff overlooking a lower shopping plaza.

"You want a wife, and Hiromi-chan has your son." That was as simple as she could put it. Kinu didn't know why he was urging her to speak, but the longer they'd walked the more hopeless everything had looked to her. What if they had their own trap set? A place they were taking them?

Amagi's pleasant expression slipped.

"Even if that was my son…" He shot a look over his shoulder. "My father has been very specific about what he will accept. That woman isn't enough."

"Has your father ever met her?" Kinu asked, forcing her feet to stop and holding her place when the man tried to pull her along. He finally turned back, and she was able to yank her hand free and massage her red knuckles.

Hiromi took her opportunity to steal Kinu's arm instead, and Kinu latched on.

"He has." The woman said. "Your father likes me."

"Which is why I'm moving you to the Edo Sanitorium."

The word rattled around Kinu's head. From the look on Hiromi's face, it had done just as much damage. Confusion, then humor, and finally horror took the woman.

"You can't do that! You can't- I have your son!"

"No, I have my son." He grinned then, half chuckling as he met his friend's eyes. "They're removing him from your room now." The man picked up the pace again, walking further down the path, and as Kinu looked back the way they had come, Ishii stood in the path with one hand on his sword. Watching.

Hiromi's fingers dug into Kinu's arm as she pulled the woman along to follow. They didn't have a choice right now. Maybe if they could hop the cliff and hope the rocks didn't bash them to death on the way down. Amagi continued as they caught up to him.

"These footpaths can be confusing near the edge, Hiromi-chan. I'm sure I could find it in myself to sponsor your son once I hear how a man used my good name to sully your honor." The path was coming to an end. The parking lot was in sight, and just where the sidewalk began a black jeep was waiting; door open. "It is a shame about your accident, though."

Kinu stopped, yanking her friend back with her.

"My-" The woman was asking, but as they turned, Ishii was rushing towards them. Kinu's blade was out before she could get her arm away. He slammed into her, and they went their separate ways. Hiromi hit the boulder edge, crying out in spite of the flash of silver she was waving around. Kinu stumbled into the sand destroying the solemn surface as the edge of the man's blade ground into hers and a wash of sparks washed over her.

Forced to back away another step, she tried to press into the man. Tried to get him off of herself but he was bearing down on her, forcing her to retreat.

"What's wrong?" Ishii whispered, and her ears pricked. Amagi was strolling down the pathway behind him, but Hiromi was only watching with wide eyes, stretched across the same rock she'd been on the last time Kinu had seen her. "Don't you know how to use that thing?"

"Run!" She called, and Hiromi gaped at her, unmoving. Kinu's muscles were shaking, but she had to push back. Leaning out to one side, Kinu broke right and Ishii stumbled left. Kinu thought she may get past to grab the woman's hand and lead her to her feet, but the second she was free the man's blade was back.

Swiveling on one foot, Kinu ducked back, as the air whistled past her. She was only vaguely aware of the man before her when she saw the dark swatch that spilled out over the sand she'd dropped into. Cut. He'd gotten her. Pushing herself back up in the same breath, Kinu backed away. A chunk of her sleeve had cleared way, absorbing what little blood it could where her palm clamped over her forearm.

Ishii's sword twisted, and her hand slipped back to the hilt of her mother's sword. He was the worst teacher she'd ever had. Kinu caught and averted his attempt at pushing her. By then, Hiromi seemed to regain herself, because she was on her feet, but coming towards them. For Kinu.

"Go, go-" Waving the woman off, Kinu barely had time to avoid the next blow. Amagi's pace turned to a jog as Hiromi took off the way they had come. Everything had gone wrong. Kinu was the one that had lumped them into this; it was only right that Hiromi got the chance to escape.

With the way Ishii was cutting at her, Kinu had her hands full just trying to back away in time to not be chopped in half. First she was in the sand, then across the porch, ducking behind pillars and wooden railing to try to shake him off her trail but he was hyper-fixated. She caught his blade with her own, hoping to leverage him against the railing and fight it away, but he had her outweighed and wasn't so easy to bend to her whim.

Somewhere in the distance, she could hear fighting. Swords, and voices screaming alike.

"She got away." Amagi's voice cut through the tension so easily that Kinu thought she would finally get the better of her opponent, but he offset her blow and sent her stumbling towards the wall. "Forget it. As long as we've got the kid she's just some crazy woman with nothing to show for it." He was studying Kinu as he tugged at the fingers of his gloves, left first, and then the right.

Light shined off the dull gray metal as he held it up to her, grinning. "Cool, huh? Wanna see it?"

Wide eyed, Kinu watched the way the metal joints glided into place as he bent and straightened his mechanical fingers.

Yes. She wanted to see it. Depending on the model, that hand could hide more than a few secrets that Kinu wasn't prepared for. Ishii stepped back as Amagi moved towards her, hand up, and Kinu swung her sword his way.

"Stay back!" She hadn't realized she was cornered until she tried to back away. They had her in the joint of the building, one on each side. Closing in. In one last desperate attempt, Kinu squeezed her wallet key for Mister Snaps, hoping her bloodied sleeve hadn't drowned it. She hoped Ayumi and Naomi would let him out to find her if his notification system went off, and that Hiromi had actually made it to the road, and far as she could. Hoped Hiromi was still going.

"Kinu-chan," Amagi said her name slowly, as if approaching a wild animal. "That snake didn't even try to help you. She's halfway to town by now. Really left you here all alone. Make this easier on all of us and put down your sword."

"So you can grab me and throw me in your kidnapper van?" She shouted the words, praying somebody could hear her. Gintoki. Takasugi. A good Samaritan that just happened to be passing by and was staunchly against kidnapping unwilling brides. She wanted her mother.

"Nobody is kidnapping you, Kinu-chan." He took another step, one too close, and she swung at the man, but her blade hit an impassable barrier. Metal fingers wrapped around the steel. Amagi yanked it, and though Kinu held on with both hands, she wasn't prepared for the knee that came up and caught her in the stomach.

The handle disappeared from her hands, and she doubled over, sputtering and wheezing as her mother's sword skid across the deck behind Amagi, lost to the garden sands. Her body was locked in place, but her mind screamed that she needed to get back up. Before Kinu had the time to regain herself she was being lifted by her throat. Cold metal dug into her neck, pinching and painfully grinding into her muscles.

"I'm just going to put you to sleep." The man said, moonlight shining off the silver streak mixed into his dark hair.

Her nails clawed against her own skin, unable to find give in the metal digits, and her legs kicked helplessly at his shins. She was an idiot, thinking she could lead some elaborate plan like a criminal mastermind. All of the pressure in her body gathered in her face, behind her cheeks and eyes until it felt like her head would pop.

"Amagi!"

Kinu couldn't look but Takasugi's voice was magic to her ears.

Genuine shock took the man's face. He looked away and his grip loosened just enough for her to get her fingers under his palm. Kinu felt the safety pin built into the joint and jammed her fingers into it as footsteps rang out across the hardwood. The metal thumb peeled back and Kinu dropped to the hardwood coughing as a silver canister slid by her and bounced off the wall.

Smoke poured out of it, and as she grasped her throat she found her salvation only slightly rougher for wear as they pushed through one of the many doors of the wall adjacent to them.

"That's enough!" Gintoki was the first to reach them. His bokken went over Kinu's head and she ducked down to the porch as the wooden tip slammed into Amagi's shoulder and sent him flying through a closed door. The smoke was pouring over her now. To her left, Takasugi was tearing at Ishii. Walking him back with every strike. He had managed to turn the man around and was between them; both men had shoved their way into the mix and cut Kinu off from her attackers.

The surprised faces of Amagi and Ishii were hidden in the blinding screen as Kinu crawled to the edge of the garden and dropped over the ledge into the sand, still choking and gasping for air.

She could hear the shrill cry of a blade against another, but it wasn't until a gunshot split her ears that Kinu managed to get the energy to drag herself back to her feet and to the edge of the porch her sword had disappeared over. She hoped Gintoki was okay.

Her mother's sword wasn't hard to locate. Not nearly as difficult as managing a full lung of air. The second she had her hand on it, a form was darting down the porch.

"Oi!" He slid under the railing and had her by the hand, stumbling down the winding mountain path behind him. Leaving Gintoki to bear the weight of the spreading smog on his own. Kinu struggled to maintain pace with Takasugi after he released her. She coughed into her sleeve, and found it sticky with blood and leaving a steady dripping pattern to mark their path.

There were too many footsteps behind them to count, but when Takasugi was suddenly behind her with Ishii bashing their blades together she knew it wasn't a mutual stop. She could see the blinking green light in the distance. Safety over the edge of the cliffside.

Another cloud of smoke erupted behind Kinu and she rounded the corner into the plaza, aiming for the edge. Kinu heard the voices calling out behind her. Both Gintoki and Takasugi had caught on the second she headed for the railed end of the plaza, but they were too far behind to catch her.

She flung herself into the open air, wanting to scream as the ground went out from under her, but the blinking task banner soaring up to meet her as she slipped into the abyss was the only thing assuring her of her continued life. Kinu hit the metal surface with the last of the breath she'd had in her leaving altogether. Her ribs ached in protest as she struggled her way into a sitting position atop the service bot, but she managed to pull her legs under herself and balance on his assist platform.

This was proof that the larger models were a better investment. Next time she'd install a double seat.

A head of white curls came over the edge of the railing as Kinu drifted to face level with Gintoki, out about five meters. Mister Snaps handed her the ear piece and a microphone the size of her pinky from his storage compartment. The lights in the plaza blazed to life as her bot lifted the camera to her face and her image was projected onto the screen over the chaos reigning before her.

"Ah- can you hear me?" Her own voice rang back to her from the plaza. She was pleased to find the fighting slowing to a halt. Men were still moving, but Gintoki and Takasugi were both watching her with wide eyes. Panting, and bloodier than she liked them. "Ah-kun, I know you're still down there. This is your last chance."

Ishii was near Takasugi to the far left side of the plaza, but separated by a wall of a dozen or so men. They had come better prepared than she anticipated. Kinu thought Amagi would at least keep his dirty work a secret, but it looked like he had a platoon of men dedicated to just that. When Amagi didn't readily offer himself up to her, she brought her tiny microphone up.

"Maybe this is more convincing." She clicked the camera view over to Naomi's handheld, and Hiromi came into view, grinning and waving. Son in her arms.

"We'll ruin you." She said, voice coy and low. "One false move and we'll go public. Every man there should lay down his weapon if you know what's best for you."

"Un." Humming into her microphone, Kinu scanned the small crowd as she cut the feed and reclaimed her spotlight. Nobody moved to disarm themselves. "This is my big TV moment Ah-kun, where are you? I've always wanted to be a popstar. Don't I look sparkly?"

"That's not one of the words I'd use right now, Kinu-chan." A small chain of movement took in the center of one of the tightly formed groups. It spat out Amagi; gray streak sticking straight up in the moonlight, angular jaw a bright puffed red with a stream of blood leaking into the dingy white collar of his dress shirt. "But who's to say that I don't shoot you where you are? It's a long way down."

"You could. But that story has nothing to do with me." Her ride was here. Gliding up the valley, headlights off, but Kinu could see the great big shadow of the van below. A hunk of steel they'd managed to get skyborne in the nick of time. She grinned, pushing herself up to the tips of her toes with her hands level with her shoulders. A solid target. Amagi's arm shot up, and when she fell this time, the sound wasn't only from her weight but the deafening bang of an attempted murder.

Kinu nearly laughed.

She hit hard, but the laughing hadn't died by the time the old bankrunner was over the wall of the plaza. Wind whipped around her, setting her hair into a wild frenzy at her face as she sat up, glaring back at him. She had to hold the edge of her yukata to her thigh as she rocked back to her feet and employed the last trick up her sleeve.

"My turn. Bang." Pointing into the plaza, watched the white cast shoot from Mister Snaps' body. For a moment the only thing that existed was the wind and the hiss of the canister as dozens of wide eyes and shocked faces witnessed the full extent of her wrath. It rocketed into the stone ground, and the cold night went white, then burst into a scorching orange. Heat blasted Kinu's hair back, and whipped at her face, stinging her eyes.

Multiple figures dropped to the earth scorched black at the impact zone. Bodies, she realized. Casualties. Her enemies had scattered like roaches, retreating for the cracks of the mountainside and alleys between buildings to seek shelter from the blazing flames. Mister Snap's aim had been centralized to the heat signature, not on target. Amagi was long gone and lost in the chaos. What part of this looked like it was under control?

She dropped through the hatch with Mister Snaps, cutting the feed and yanking the side door open as Hiromi and Naomi pressed themselves into the back seats, fixing the baby into a proper car seat in anticipation of the ride.

"Get as close as you can, they can't get out of there like this!" Kinu shouted to Ayumi at the pilot's seat and received a brief thumbs up through the door before the boat was taking a sharp turn against the mountainside. Rock ground against the undercarriage of the ship, but as they came up Gintoki took a running leap of faith into the opening.

"Ki, that's already someone's catch phrase!" He said as soon as his boots touched down and they were behind the armored wall. "It doesn't count if you have an actual gun!"

"I couldn't think of anything else!" She snapped. Glancing out, Kinu could see Takasugi sprinting their way. Ayumi was pulling up too quickly, trying to get airborne but Takasugi wasn't going to make it. To her surprise, it looked like most of the men were fleeing, but a select few were firing. The ones that didn't realize bank carriers were heavily armored and could tank a jet ray if push came to shove.

"Onii-chan, help!"

"What?"

Leaning out of the doorway, Kinu held her hand out for the one eyed man. She had to duck back the second she was out of the hatch for fear of taking a bullet to the head, but she was back just as quickly. Takasugi cut a man out of his path in a spray of red, and his foot hit the wooden safety rail as he launched himself towards the open door and Kinu threw herself out to grab him. Her hands clasped around his wrist, and a burning pain shot through her the second he took hold of her arm. Just as she thought she may slip through and tumble over with the man, her waist was caught.

"We got you." She had to smile when Takasugi glanced back down, and managed his sword into his sheath. Both hands wrapped around his wrist, Kinu watched as the ground fell away from the man and the city of Kyoto faded underneath them.

Gintoki pulled them both back over. That's what big brothers were for. As the men sat back onto the benches, Kinu slammed and latched the door feeling the tinges of guilt creeping over herself.

Nothing had gone right.

A deep crimson line was streaming from Gintoki's forehead, and he was cut everywhere he was willing to sacrifice over a vital part. Takasugi was barely better. Smoking and draped across the seat like he'd paid for it himself. And maybe he had in blood. Maybe they both had.

Kinu hadn't wanted this to get as violent as it had. She thought Amagi would be peaceful on good faith if they were in a power position, even if it was minor. That hadn't been enough, and it had been a gamble to plan such a thing without heavier man power.

Having Gintoki and Takasugi was the same as a hundred men, but she couldn't risk them like that again.

Looked like they were along for the ride. For now.

She guessed she had to start her own gang now. So she had a cool name to say when she did things like this. All of them, rough and tumble women that would kick a man in the throat if they had to. Maybe Matako would join them.

No. That wouldn't work. Matako would never leave Takasugi's gang.

The ship was comfortable enough. The cockpit was a two-seater, one side for navigation and the other for defense and technical add ons. The back storage compartment had been hollowed out to make room for their seats. Ayumi had fixed in two benches across from one another, cafe style with a short folding table that could come down if needed. The perfect amount of seats if they hadn't taken up two more passengers. So Kinu stood at the handrail beside the cab.

They were ditching it as soon as they reached Edo. For now. Kinu knew a place she could keep it until she could break it down and stash the Amanto core in the engine. If she was lucky, she'd be able to make another bot out of this thing.

"Scout!" Ayumi's voice carried down the short corridor as she kicked the wandering doorway open for the umpteenth time. "He's got a scout on us!"

The entire ship jerked, and Kinu hung onto the rail for all that she was worth as the wall became the floor. Gintoki bounced across the cabin, crying out as he plummeted into the bench across from him, landing nearly directly on Naomi, but the woman managed to squish herself to the side.

One hand on either side of the hall to stabilize herself, Kinu struggled to crawl her way towards the cockpit as Ayumi called back to them.

"That's more than a scout! Everybody buckle up, this is gonna get bumpy!"

"Gonna?" Gintoki shouted back as Kinu climbed into the hallway. The baby was screeching and the engine groaned in protest as the cab jumped and twisted, but Kinu had one foot in the support seat and the strap in her fist. She fixed herself in place as the racing darkness of a poorly illuminated valley rushed underneath.

One look at the navigation system told her that they were completely off course.

In the side mirrors, she could see the cross wing flight cruisers hot on their trails. More than two, but Kinu couldn't keep track of which ones she'd counted with all the movement.

"We can take the damage but they're faster."

"Didn't you ace the flight exam?" Kinu asked, flipping four of the blue levers on the panel. "I Thought you were the only one that passed!"

"Nobody was trying to gun me down at the test site!" Both hands on the steer, Ayumi looked over as the gray nose of a Thunderbird poked into view. "That's a Two-Ten, the wings are like graham crackers!" No sooner than she'd said the words was the woman ramming into the side of it. It broke off in a burst of smoke and flames; crumbling into the all encompassing sea of treetops.

Kinu had cried out when her seatbelt cut into neck and waist and her body pulled towards the window, but seeing their progress and newly found upright position, she pushed herself from the chair. They had to get away.

People had died.

She had brought all of them this far, they couldn't stop now.

"How many?" Gintoki's voice made Kinu jump upright. She looked back to find both him and Takasugi practically hanging in the hallway, half standing on the bathroom door. They had closed the cabin behind themselves, and were watching Kinu flip the levers on the ceiling as she charged up the thruster to try to push them past the safety limitations on their regulator.

"Four?" Ayumi asked, glancing at her mirrors. There was no need to look much longer, because two ships took their front corners, leaving two at their back. They were surrounded. The woman tried to ascend, but a fifth shadow overhead made her think twice. It was a decent mix of ships. The wing trick wasn't saving them this time. When another pushed right she was forced to hang left to keep their side engines intact. "They're pushing us!"

"Corralling." Takasugi's hand found the doorway and he managed his way into the room. "If you keep straight you're gonna hit Dead Crossing."

"What?" Ayumi yelled despite the man being right over her shoulder.

"Sellswords." Gintoki explained. "A whole camp of them." The men were looking at one another. Seeming to hold a private conversation.

"Pull up." With the flip of another switch, Kinu adjusted the throttle lever from ten to fourty. One arm on either side of herself, she held her weight as best she could as gravity worked against her, twisting the ship out from under her with every step.

"We'll break the stabilizer!"

"It's gonna be a rough landing." Kinu said, as she managed her way to the doorway. "Hard to fly straight, but this is a money runner, that's not gonna kill us."

"It will if we hit the ground." Gintoki leaned into her chair and claimed it for himself as Takasugi took Kinu's hand to help her into the hallway.

"Then let's try not to do that." The one eyed man said, and Kinu hummed in agreement.

Just then, the ship jerked underneath them. Multiple voices cried out in unison, and Kinu was one of them as she found herself on the floor. Her torso had hit the metal grate but her knees were firmly planted, and as she picked herself up, she found Takasugi on his elbows in front of her.

It was the first time he'd seemed to fully hone in on her. Mostly the dark smear underneath her left forearm. She still hadn't fully looked. For only a moment, in spite of the shaking walls and shouting, Kinu found herself halted when the man ripped the remnants of her sleeve away. He tore it into strips, still bouncing around on his knees, and when he found Kinu's arm it took both of them to keep steady enough to make a knot.

"Thank you." She couldn't stand to look at him but he was studying her. There was too much happening for them to get distracted like this. Pulling back, Kinu drew herself to an unsteady foot. Behind her, Gintoki's voice crested over Ayumi's swearing, and then they were back to being bounced across the narrow hallway walls.

"Bots! It's spitting bots on us!"

"I can see that! I see them!"

That was a can of shit in itself. What kind of bots? She didn't understand how Amagi could have had ships and bots, and men flooding a town in less than two hours. One look out of the front window and she saw three on the hood of the ship.

Each the size of a large cat, and poised on four razor sharp spider legs with a central body. They reminded her of the virus pictures in her biology basics class; bacteria-something or another.

"Squealers?" Kinu's deduction was echoed by Ayumi, but followed with a warning.

"Hold onto something!"

Their nose dipped and the mountains raised to give way to rich green foliage as the belly of the van ground into it, and pulled back. Suddenly there were five ships ahead of them, and they were pulling up. It'd be impossible to get away with those things on them. Anybody with a signal feed or a heat tracker would be able to see them, bright as day on the radar.

Kinu was barely able to keep upright when Takasugi slipped down the floorboards and into the carriage, catching himself on the ladder to the hatch, but she was behind him with Gintoki at the side door in a matter of seconds.

"Hold it steady!" Gintoki was saying, as the pilot shouted back.

"I'm trying!"

The moment they were stabilized, Takasugi had his sword out, and was at the hatch door.

"On three!" He ordered, one finger out already, and Gintoki nodded in agreement as he took the door latch.

"What are you doing?" Naomi shouted over the turbulence, still buckled in. Behind her, Hiromi was stooped over with her face buried in the car seat with her son. Kinu couldn't tell what Naomi was doing, but at least somebody was trying to shut that baby up.

Without explanation, Gintoki gave the latch a hard shove and yanked the door back. A gale of wind swept through the cabin, and metal scraped at the walls of the bank runner where the door's track laid. One hand on the ladder Takasugi was at the top of, Kinu yanked her mother's sword from her hip as the first bot poked past the doorway, but Gintoki's bokken found no resistance when he smacked it off.

Over her head, the one eyed man was out of the hatch with only his feet on the rungs to prove that he was alright. She could see him twisting. Swinging his sword.

More and more metal scraps and bangs echoed through the van, louder than the infant, or shouts mulling into the rest of the noises to be forever lost. Kinu's sword glided through the joint connecting a bot's body and legs and the magenta lights in the display died before she kicked it through the open door. It soared into the black unknown.

"Ah-" Takasugi's cry sent her whirling around to find two spider legs digging at the latch in front of him. A third leg was buried in his arm. He was wrestling with that thing. She has halfway up the ladder shoving her sheathed sword at the bot so not to cut the man squeezing her against the hatch. As soon as she was out, squinting through the wild black and blonde tendrils of her hair, she saw their real position. There had to be more than a dozen bots perched on the roof and sides alone, and that was only what she could see.

Her sheathed sword did the trick of knocking them off into the windy oblivion behind them, and they bounced off the two ships trailing them before scattering to the earth below. Beside her, the one eyed man cut through another and it burst into bright blue sparks before being sucked away. They had to get free before daybreak. That was their only chance. If the sun came up they were highly visible and screwed.

As if functioning in perfect unison, every magenta dotted form skittered straight at them, and Kinu cried out as she tried to hold her side of the latch. Behind her, Takasugi didn't sound any more pleased.

"About that stabilizer-" He shouted, and her stomach flipped. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the jagged edge of where it should have been.

"Get inside!" One hand on the back of the man's yukata, Kinu dropped through the hole.

The latch slammed, and Takasugi fell back to the cabin as the ship abruptly hooked right and they slammed into the far wall across from the opening.

"Stabilizer's out!" Kinu managed before the air trying to suck them out of the open side door died. Gintoki shoved the latch back in place, winded and coated in a thick sheen of sweat. They all were. Hand pressed into the one eyed man's chest, Kinu held his yukata over the freshly sliced skin as his palms joined hers and took over. "Ayumi-chan-" Kinu started back towards the front, pleased to hear the woman scream back.

"We've got a head on them!"

Relief sprung through Kinu's racing heart, but only for a second. Not long enough to fully feel it. She kept Takasugi's belt in hand, and tugged the man along with her. How could she leave him when the blood was spilling down his ribcage and belly? After he'd wrapped her arm? The man took her seat and she sat between his legs, stretching to pull a clean cloth from the side storage.

"Get as high as you can, and hang south." As Kinu pressed the towel into his chest, Takasugi was securing them in the support seat. "When you hit Strat dive and gain as much speed as you can. Burn those things off and lose them on the glide! Everybody buckle up!" Kinu called the last half over her shoulder, down the hallway.

"We'll blow the reactor thruster!" The woman shouted back as Kinu pushed the lever to ninety. Before she could answer, Hiromi was in the doorway doing it for her.

"Blow the thruster or be caught? Hmm, I wonder which one is worse right now, Ayumi!" Their pilot wasn't above screaming even louder than her friend.

"If it blows we are caught!"

Kinu started to tell the woman to get strapped down somewhere, but Hiromi sank into the chair beside Ayumi and promptly latched herself in with the same belt.

"Kinu-chan, cut the regulator."

"Completely?" She asked, but her fingers had already found the little blue switches on the board. Hiromi was nodding.

"Yeah, now hit the thruster!"

The ship lurched as if it was on the ground, but when Hiromi took the steer and they went nose first, Kinu realized that the woman had taken them higher than anticipated. The earth was a black smear dotted with cities covered in pockets of lights and they were hurtling towards it.

Holding the dash in one hand and a larger palm in the other, Kinu watched with wild eyes as the cities rushed back into the distance, and both the women beside her started pulling levers and hitting pedals with their feet. In the background, she could hear muffled screaming beyond the cockpit door, and she was sure that it wasn't only the baby.

Their tilt evened out until they were parallel to the ground, and they corkscrewed midair.

Kinu joined their shrieking passengers as two Thunderbirds came into the windshield, dashes blinking green and headed straight towards them. An arm around her waist tightened, and she twisted back into the shielding grasp. If not for Takasugi's grip on the hand rail overhead, she was sure that they would have smacked against the window and been knocked out. The cabin was trembling. Veering left and right, but with both Ayumi and Hiromi holding the steer they were as stable as could be, given the circumstances.

They were close enough to see the pilots. One was an older blonde man, and the other was rail thin. That was all Kinu noticed before Hiromi yanked the steer so hard she thought they would nosedive again. They clipped down, narrowly missing a bright pink burst of energy as the ships passed overhead. The lights behind them grew smaller in the mirrors until they were dark, distant shapes swallowed by the blackened land. For thirty seconds all Kinu could see was the open ravine of stone, and the white rushes of what she thought to be a waterway far below, getting closer faster than she liked.

Deep in the canyon, there were trees on both sides of the stream, and as Ayumi dropped the steer, their underbelly bounced against the river. When they lifted they were significantly slower. More so after the second bump. The ground hit them rougher, and Kinu could hear the rocks and metal grating in protest until the van settled for good under the open mouth of a cave, just at the edge of the moonlight.

The dash went silent, lights went black, and all was still.

When the only sound was the baby screaming into the quiet, Kinu let out a laugh, one hand on her forehead.

"We're alive." She said, not only to the grinning man behind her, but the pilots beside them. They laughed. All of them. Long, and hard until they couldn't wipe any more tears from their eyes.