Hiya, and thanks for reading. I do hope you like it.

Disclaimer: Again, I don't own S7 or the gearhead, and this is all a what-if by a fan who refuses to believe the obvious.

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Besides the flyer, which I use for moving around rather large areas around the community, I also made a small, collapsible scooter. Something I can use for moving around shorter distances or narrow spaces. Honoka made me a little walking stick, too, bless her heart. She tied a little weather doll on it for good measure.

"Why are you being so nice to me, Honoka-san?" I asked her one night, when everyone had left the hut.

"Why are you being so nice to everyone, Heihachi-sama?" she asked back.

"I….um….."

"That's also my reason," she said, and went to bed.

Honoka is quite nice to everyone on the whole, of course. A bit on the quiet side, but she has a toughness to her that she could not hide under the calm face. Maybe it's because of what happened to her and to her family that makes her so, as well as the fact that she was forced to become a spy.

We're somewhat alike that way. We have worn our mask-like faces for so long, it's rather hard to stop wearing them.

Have I told her what I told Kanbei-sama, you ask? Yes, I have, when she decided to keep me company after a long procedure they did to my hip bones. It just came out, flowed out, you might say. First slowly, then faster and faster, until I could not keep any part of it hidden anymore. I had to do it. I had to explain why I did that to her. I had to apologize.

She said I did not have to apologize. But apologies are given for peace of mind. Finally, after all these years, I can tell someone, I am sorry for what I did. For years, there was absolutely no one I can apologize to, and I had to carry all those unsaid apologies, all in my heart.

I asked Mizuki what her sister might like to have that I can make for her, in return for all her kindness.

"I'm not sure, really," she replied and scratched her head. "I do remember we used to have a little music box at home. My father bought it in town. Nee-san liked that a lot. It had a little person dancing and twirling on top."

"How did the song go?"

She hummed the tune and imitated the little dancer for me, as I smiled and laughed at her. When she finished I said my thanks and quickly made a few sketches. I showed them to Mizuki, who told me to add this and fix that. But she was soon satisfied, and I soon started work on it.

Since I'm a mechanic used to large vehicles, very small machines and gadgets are a challenge to me. I had to stay up a few nights, after she had gone to bed, creating the little music box, just working out which gear was small enough to turn the drum, then how to place it in.

I managed to get the music box finished by the end of that week. I had been on quite a rush that night, making the finishing touches and running final tests. I never noticed the hours that passed. I barely remembered looking happily at the dancing figure as she moved to the tinkling music of a faraway village when I was done, glad that I had finally done a little something for her.

I think I fell asleep without me really knowing. But a blanket had been draped over me, and the music box had disappeared from the workbench.

Nothing changed with how she worked with me that day, in that kind but somewhat aloof manner that she had. She helped me stand up, let me lean on her – but she did not talk to me. Mizuki did not say anything unusual about it, either.

But that evening, a few minutes after she said goodnight, I heard it. A quiet tinkling.

Life is good.

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It takes a whole month, after the fall of the capital, before I am well enough to go outside the underground community. Thanks to Honoka and Mizuki, I get to meet a lot of good people over that month, both among the refugees and the Shikimoribito. And yes, in the process, I got to be fed a lot by the nice ladies of the community. They keep telling me I'm cute and funny, and they like me. I guess that's a good thing.

I also manage to find my place among them, now considered as something between refugee and Shikimoribito. I help out with maintaining their transport vehicles and cranes. I also try to keep the carts in condition. My abdomen still hurts a bit while I work, but it's no big deal. They have done so much for me, it's about time I return the favor, don't you think?

There are several children among the refugees, and they make the days pass faster for me. Always asking why I have the flyer and the other tools, and can they use them, too.

"Nee-chan told us, you came back from the dead!" one little kid tells me.

"Now that's taking it too far…." I reply.

"Nii-chan said, you're a mechanical samurai, but you don't look like one," another says.

"Well, I guess I am, in a way," I rub my head and give them a little grin.

But the little girls remind me of Komachi and Okara, and I realize that I have not been to Kanna village since we attacked the capital. I do want to see for myself how it is right now.

I ask for permission from the heads, and they actually say it would be convenient for them. They have to do some trading with the village, and they ask me to pilot the transport ship.

"Wearing THAT?" I ask them quite suddenly, and point at their uniforms, which I think is quite bulky.

"It is not too difficult to use, Hei-san, once you get the hang of it," one of them says.

I shrug and let them fit me.

Because I still don't want them to know that I lived.

I drive a red transport ship out of the caves into the desert. With me are two Shikimoribito who will do the actual negotiations with Gisaku. It was a minor deal. One battery in exchange for some rice bales. Kanbei-sama had requested for it, evidently. It was for a few machines needed to help clear out the fields that were destroyed by the attack.

I circle the outskirts of the village once we get there. The place is deserted. It's still winter, and very cold. And it is still quite early in the morning.

I park the ship, and get on the flyer. The two Shikimoribito could take care of things from here. I have other places I have to go.

I have to go to the cliff.

I take the scenic route, though. I'm covered enough inside the borrowed suit, thus no one would know me. The flyer is so quiet I manage to pass through the deserted village without being noticed. It is better that way.

Kanna village is pretty much the same way I last saw it, a calm and quiet village. In many places I see houses in various stages of rebuilding, but most of them are quite done by now. Katsushiro-kun's warning systems and the towers we built are still in place, though. For better or for worse, Kanna village had changed because of us, and it would never again be the same.

I see Katsushiro-kun, already awake and practicing sword drills in the snow. There is a sad determination in each swing now, that wasn't there before. Each swing is now steady and sure. I am really sorry it had to happen to such a nice young man.

Shichi-san is also up and about, inspecting the wooden frame of a house being built. I wonder if he has seen Yukino-san yet.

Kanbei-sama I do not manage to find. I do hope he isn't meditating at the top of the cliff where Goro-san is.

I steer the flyer onward up the hill, and upward to the cliff.

It is as they said. Five swords now line it, and mine is planted over a little mound. I pause in spite of myself. I had wanted for all of us to get out of that final attack alive. It was not meant to be.

I take off the uniform. I want them to recognize me. I'm not sure why, though. I'm not even sure if they would recognize me now: dark gray and simple farmer's tunic, goggles on my head, my messy hair tied back low, a semi-rigid brace at my back. But I want them to see me. I take out the cane and hobble my way closer to the mounds. It doesn't hurt as much now, but it's still tough having to walk. All the same, I think my comrades deserve this effort.

I stop at each one, and remember everything I can about our short time together. How Kyuzo-dono tossed me a large Nobuseri rifle and trusted me with it completely. How Kikuchiyo brightened up and steamed at me when I said he was a samurai through and through. How Goro-san got me and Rikichi to dress up and play as crazy women. That is how I want to remember them. I'm not sure if I want to know how they died, but I do know that they died honorably, trying to save the village. I hope, they think the same about me.

"You know them, sir?" A voice asks just behind me, a female voice. I turn around just slightly, and see that it is Shino, Manzo's daughter.

I take a deep breath, and try to disguise my voice, since my clothes don't give me away so much. "They were honorable men, and I want to pay my respects."

I should've remembered that after Kirara-san, Shino-san got to talk to me a lot, and she knows my deeper voice, too. "I know that voice. Heihachi-sama." I scratch my head, and bow politely, but she suddenly comes forward and holds me by the hands and shoulders and cheeks. "It's impossible! But I'm feeling a real body! It's impossible!"

"I thought I was a goner, too, if you must know..."

"But how?"

"The Shikimoribito, they found me……"

She gives me a hug, fortunately not tight around the waist. "I cried as hard as everyone else when Rikichi told us, maybe more. You still tried to be kind to my father, after all that."

"Um, thank you, I guess?"

She wipes off a few tears from her cheeks. "How come you didn't tell us you are still alive? You have to come back to the village with me! I have to tell Kirara, and Katsushiro-sama!"

"He is still here?"

"Yes, he, Kanbei-sama and Shichiroji-sama. We have to tell them!" She begins to tug at me.

But I shake my head. "No, Shino-san, no, thank you. I will ask you not to tell them."

"But this is such good news! And we'll have a nice lunch set out for you!"

"No, please, Shino-san." I lower my head. "It's better that they think I'm gone."

"Heihachi-sama!"

I sigh, and explain. "I've been with Kanbei-sama and Katsushiro-kun long enough. They would feel sorry for not doing more. Shichi-san might not admit it, but he would feel the same way, too."

"But...but...And there are so many things I still want to tell you….."

I hobble back to the flyer, and take out a spare communicator I had brought just for this purpose. I give a few short comments for the folks back at the base to say what I just did, and give the communicator to Shino. "I am staying with the Shikimoribito now. If you need me in any way, or you just feel like talking, press this button and ask for me. You can tell me all about my comrades with that. Just please don't tell them about me."

She takes the device from me, then gives me a final hug. "I am very glad to see you again. I am glad you are safe."

"So am I." I release myself from her embrace, and face the graves of my fallen comrades. "I swear, on their honor, that I will come here, should you ever need my help."

"Come back soon," she bows to me, as I get back on the flyer, start it running, and disappear into the woods.

As I fly back to the transport ship, I quickly hear a crackling noise over the speakers of the onboard communicator. Shino forgot to deactivate the transmitter, and a voice comes through to me.

"You're up here early," the voice, another young lady, says. "Who was with you just now?"

There is a silence of a few moments, then I hear Shino's voice. She is chuckling a bit. "Tenshi."

"Tenshi?"

She chuckles again. "Yes, I guess I can call him that. Tenshi-sama. He was an angel. He promised to help us should we ever need it."

"Have you gone crazy, Shino?" her friend asks her.

She keeps chuckling. "Just a little bit. I didn't expect to see an angel so early in the morning."

Yare-yare. These people make me an angel, when I'm not even a saint.

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Again, thanks for still reading this. Comments and suggestions welcome. See you in the next chapter.