Hello, and thanks for still reading. Please leave a review if you are! I guess I am fishing for it, but I do want to know what people think of this little story.

Disclaimer: I don't S7, my favorite gearhead, or any of the people here, and this is all conjecture by a fan who refuses to believe the obvious.

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"Tenshi-sama, Tenshi-sama….over…."

I could never get used to being called that, but it has turned into my communicator handle. "Hi, Shino-san, what can I do for you?"

"I just want to say hello, Tenshi-sama," and she giggles a bit. "And I want to invite you here. It's Komachi's birthday tomorrow, and there will be a little party."

"Save me a little of the food, then," I answer back. "Especially some of your cooking."

"You flatter me, Hei-sama," she forgets for a moment. "Um, I mean…."

"It's alright, Shino-san. Nothing giving you trouble there?"

"Everything is alright here. Well, maybe except how Kirara stays sad about something……"

"Really?"

"Yes, unfortunately. We can't get her to smile a lot now."

"And Katsushiro-kun?"

Some silence on the other end. "Katsushiro-sama, he left the village last night. Kirara told us."

I do feel sorry for Katsushiro-kun. You can feel it that Kirara was the first young woman that truly caught his eye, but she had her eyes on another man…..and that man has to be his sensei. As for his sensei……I don't understand why he doesn't open his heart to the girl, when she seems nice enough, and loves him enough.

"So, Tenshi-sama, are you coming tomorrow?"

I do want to. I miss the way Shino cooks her rice, which is better than that of the other young women of the village. But I don't feel ready yet to face the village, being like this, feeling like this. Happy to be alive, but wanting to be dead.

"I'll just send over a gift for Komachi, will that be alright? There's a messenger turtle I saw lurking around here. I'll work on it tonight."

I could sense her disappointment on the other end. "Oh, alright. Thank you, Hei-sama. Over and out."

Shino contacts like this at least once a day, the first week she had the communicator. Always at night, after dinner and her father had went to bed. That is just fine with me, because by then I was also free for the evening, and done with all the mechanic work.

This communication with Shino does get me into trouble sometimes, with the other short-haired woman I have to regularly deal with.

"Doesn't she have anything better to do?" she once asked me with a decidedly icy voice.

I give her my embarrassed grin. "What else do you expect her to do after dinner and her father's gone to bed?"

She tossed her head and left the room.

But the novelty of this little pastime eventually fades with Shino, and after two weeks the contacts decrease to one or two in any given week. I'm glad for that. Honoka seems to be less cold with me when that happens.

…………………………

Winter makes way for spring.

Life for me falls into a routine, here in these caves. In the mornings, I take Honoka and Mizuki on the flyer to the fields where they work. After that, I take the flyer to the battery factory, checking what needs to be fixed or tweaked. For lunch, I go back to the fields and have lunch with the girls. I would check on them and try to help out with repairs to the carts and reapers. We all go home together for dinner. And that's that. It's a good life, and I am happy to be here, helping out and being with the others here.

Sometimes the Shikimoribito ask me to drive one of their transport ships out of the community and into Kougakyo or any of the other farming villages. I always oblige. I want to see the other villages, and how the world outside kept moving after the fall of the capital. By going outside with them, I want to know if everything is still alright, that nothing was happening elsewhere in the world that would harm Kanna and other villages like it.

I always love to ride around in the scooter while in Kougakyo, savoring the smells and taking in the sights. For the most part, nothing much changes in Kougakyo, from the way I remember it. Stores bustle with customers and sellings. Restaurants and food stalls are full. And yes, ronin still wander the streets. However, the people respect them a little more as they walk around. I suppose we did that for everybody, I'm glad.

But I keep noticing little groups of people whispering and looking anxious, especially when anyone who looks rather rich makes his way through the town. More buzzing happens then. The man is the manager of such-and-such town, this other man is the most influential man across so many villages. So-and-so has great chances to be chosen as the new emperor. So-and-so might kill for it. Eventually I learn that there will be a general assembly of the leaders of the towns and villages. An overall leader will be chosen from among them. Such is the reason for all the anxiety.

Sure, we did everybody a favor when we took down Ukyo…um, I mean, ended the Amanushi dynasty. But what after that? Nobody knew who was supposed to be the leader now, or if there was supposed to be a leader over all the towns and villages. Some of the town managers wanted to be overall head, the lord, the emperor. If Ukyo of Kougakyo could be one, why not they? So there was still a tension in the air around Kougakyo and the other towns.

I have seen enough of Kougakyo and its people. They will not cower again. They will not agree to be lorded over again. Sure, they would agree to be allies or such, but they will fight again if anyone tried to be their masters again, especially if by force.

But I am a ronin and a refugee. Politics are not my thing; those are things Kanbei-sama knows how to handle. Not me.

I spend a little time at that restaurant I used to go to back then, having some of their popular rice meals. I'm glad that this time I have a little money to pay for my meal and tea, since the Shikimoribito give me some whenever we're in a town. I take a seat and table just outside the shop, on account of the scooter. I enjoy the afternoon breeze and savor my meal.

That is when I overhear the group of people just inside the shop. A wooden wall with a window is the only thing separating me from them, and I hear every word, even if they try to talk in whispers.

"Not all the Nobuseri were destroyed at that attack, you know," one person says.

"Even if they were, we hold the engineering plans for many of the common types. We got it from someone who worked with the capital's chief mechanic," yet another says. "No humans are needed anymore, we can operate them from a control center. We have that process as well."

There are a total of three people, judging from the voices. "Are you saying, we can build them to our advantage?" the third man says, a man who sounds like an authority figure.

I take out a little device I use for finding faraway screws, a very small fiberoptic telescope. I extend it, and make it pass just slightly into the window. I now get a good view of the people who are talking. One man I recognize to be the new Kougakyo manager after Ayamaro and Ukyo. And rumors have it he got the position by killing off all that remained of Ayamaro's subordinates. The second man was a samurai bodyguard, judging from the sword he had. The last man probably was a spy of some sort.

"Yes, sir," this last one says to the manager. "We can force this deadlock to end. With these robots, we can scare the towns and villages to vote in your favor in the coming assembly."

Through the telescope, I see the manager rub his chin thoughtfully. "The idea is very good, very good indeed. Of course, the public need not know this. If you strike at night, they would not see them. Even if they did, we can say that an unknown force led them, all the more reason for their vote of confidence for this leader."

The samurai speaks. "How much damage shall we impose?"

"What do you suggest?" the manager asks the informant.

"The outskirts of Kougakyo, and half of some of the villages. Where, sir, do you suggest we strike?"

"Strike the more stubborn areas first. Kanna, for example," the manager says.

Kanna! Why Kanna village first, damn you?

"They will offer the most resistance, I figure," the manager explains. "But now that the attack is over and their samurai are either dead or gone, they should be frightened back to submission."

Oh, no.

"We will meet here again in a week. I want more information about these Nobuseri that you speak of. If you can, start development on them already. And, I want a solid plan of attack at our next meeting."

I pull back my telescope as the men stand up and leave the restaurant. None of them have noticed me or my telescope.

I feel my pulse racing and my heart pounding as I try to start up the scooter. This is not happening to me. This is not happening!

I finally manage to get the scooter running, and I speed as fast as I can back to our transport ship. I wait for my Shikimoribito comrades there. I speak to no one, listen to no one. It's bad enough what I just heard.

I don't know what to do, or who to tell. I don't have Kanbei-sama's experience, I don't have Katsushiro-kun's raw guts. I'm just a mechanic and a sorry excuse for a samurai. But if I don't do or say anything, Kanna, even Kougakyou, will burn!

I return that evening to our hut, quite spent and tired out. I try to stay happy for the sisters, and try to laugh at Mizuki's jokes. It's hard to maintain a happy face when I know something so terrible. I don't do justice to Honoka's fine cooking, and I can't tell her what's bothering me, because I'm not sure myself what's bothering me.

Why me? Why do I have to know that? Do I tell somebody what I know? What if I make a mistake, and tell it to the wrong people, and destroy Kougakyo, or Kanna, or the Shikimoribito community? I can't make that mistake again. I can't.

I usually walk around with the cane at night, for a little practice, you know. But tonight, I feel really weak. I use the scooter to get into my room, and flop from the scooter into my chair by the workbench.

The communicator on the workbench makes a funny noise, then a familiar girl's voice comes through. "Tenshi-sama……Tenshi-sama………over……"

It has been many days since the communicator crackled with Shino's voice, so I am a bit concerned. "Yes, Shino-san, how are you?"

"We started planting today, Sanae-san was with us, too….." but I can tell that Shino is making small talk. "Have I told you that Komachi is the Mikumari now?" Her voice keeps breaking up, and for such happy news, she does not sound happy.

"Shino-san, what do you really want to talk about?" I ask her.

"Hei-sama…." She sniffs, "They have left."

"Left? Who?"

"Kanbei-sama, and Shichiroji-sama, they have left us, Hei-sama. They have left."

"So……there is….."

Suddenly I hear another voice. "Shino, what IS that?" It's a young lady, and I'm rather concerned that I know who it is. Kirara is with her in the same room. "Why are you talking to a box?"

I stay silent, because I'm not sure what to do. Shino's voice comes in, begging. "Tenshi-sama……shall I tell her?"

Well, people have to know some time. I do the talking. "Good evening, Kirara-san. Hayashida Heihachi, at your service. This is Shino-san's communicator. I'm talking from the Shikimorito community. I'm quite fine here, don't worry. How are you?"

I'm glad Kirara is not typically the screaming kind of young lady. "Shino……the box…..the box….."

"Yes, he's alive, he gave me the communicator," I hear Shino explain. "Want to try it?"

"I can't believe I'm hearing that voice again….." Kirara's voice breaks. "I saw the weather doll…..Katsushiro-sama told us….."

I try to make it easier for Kirara. "I'll come over to Kanna some day and I'll prove it. But is it true, Kirara-san? Kanbei-sama and Shichi-san have left Kanna?"

"Hello, hello?" she first said. "I'm here with Shino. I just want to be with someone tonight. It's true."

So no one is actually protecting Kanna right now. No one except the spirits on the cliff. This is not good. Not when there are rumblings of a political uprising in the towns.

But I can't leave here. They also need me here. I don't want to frighten these girls without reason. And I definitely don't know what to tell Kirara. She's feeling sad, I know that.

Kirara's voice is painful to hear through the communicator. "Is it really you, Heihachi-sama? Please come back to us, please. Kanbei-sama is gone. Even Katsushiro-sama."

"I will see what I can do, Kirara-san, Shino-san," I promise that with all my heart. "Over and out."

I cut the transmission.

I don't want to talk anymore. I WILL see what I can do, but I don't know exactly what to do. I'm just one person. A person who cannot walk very far, who can no longer fight. What can I do?

I'm not an angel. I'm just a weak person.

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Really sorry if you don't know S7 yet, junyortrakr. Thanks for reading this all the same.