Author's Note: I apologise unreservedly for this. I'm going off the Japanese dub for this. I grew up with the English dub, but it's so cringy...So instead of Enterran, it's Matrixer, Kutal is in the same age range as the other two (I think? The jap was never very clear on that one), the kittens are his little cousins/siblings, they're travelling to a place called Central/Centre, not Shinzo...anything else that I think is important, I'll pop in along the way. I do enjoy the Jap far more than the Eng Dub, but I apologise to those who will wonder what the frag I've done with the Shinzo they know and love. And obviously, this already has OCs out the wazoo so if this isn't your cup of tea, the exit button is over there!

Title: The Threads of Fate

Author: Princess Kanako

Pairing(s): Mushra/Yakumo, Sago/OC, slight Kutal/OC, Mushrambo/OC, OC/OC

Date Submitted: 24/9/18

Disclaimer: I do not own Mushrambo/(マシュランボー)/Mashuranbō/Shinzo or any of its affiliates; they belong to Tetsuo Imazawa-sama.

Claimer: I own my own OCs, a few plot ideas, and some other stuff that pops up along the way. If I do not, I will say so.

Genre: Adventure, Romance, Drama, Fantasy, Humour, Angst.

Summary: Sent tumbling into Earth's future, Hitomi must keep her wits about her as she tries to change the course of destiny. In an uncertain, violent time, will she be able to overcome the trials that fate flings at her? Or did the gods choose the wrong person?

A few days later, Hitomi found herself staring at quite possibly, the oddest thing she'd seen all week. She half-wondered how she'd landed herself in such a strange scenario.

After she'd awoken the next morning, Kat had promptly dragged her to the nearest body of water for a bath. It was cold and made her shiver, but it got her clean, so the good negated the evil, in that case. She'd tried to reach for her clothes, but Kat had confiscated them, stating that she stuck out too much in 'Stone Age clothes' as she'd put it. Hitomi had been forced to stay in the water, slowly growing numb until Kat had pick out new clothes for her that would help her 'blend in'. Choosing not to ask about just where said clothes had come from, she had dressed in the blue tunic and grey leggings and they had set out. The entire time travelling had been spent with Kat testing her on knowledge she had imparted the day before, as well as shoving new facts at the bewildered Hitomi. Kai had been mostly sullen and silent, though he had stopped to correct his rather eccentric partner when she'd gotten her facts wrong. Time passed swiftly and before she knew it, Kat and Kai had parted ways with them, journeying for parts unknown. When she'd questioned Accalia on the matter, she had been informed that they were on an errand for her, and that they would rejoin them when they could.

They'd arrived at a ramshackle town, build around an oil-tanker graveyard, by the looks of it, and bar a handful of residents, most of the town's citizens were walking - and talking - flies.

"This is taking the cake," she'd muttered as Accalia had booked a room for them, keeping the cowl of her hood up and her face covered.

"There are far more exotic Matrixers in the world, my lady," the fox had replied. They had decided it would be best if she appeared to be Hitomi's companion as they travelled. A lady and her servant wouldn't garner much of a look - but a human and a Matrixer willingly helping her? That would draw the bounty hunters by the droves.

Hitomi pursed her lips, but let the matter alone. They'd only been there a couple of hours - long enough for her to fall asleep - when she was woken by Accalia roughly shaking her shoulder.

"Whutssat?" she groused, sitting up in the bed. Her cloak was thrown at her.

"You need to come with me."

"But it's late! Surely it can wait until morning!" she'd whined. The fox had pinned her with an opaque stare.

"Your purpose is soon to reveal itself," she'd said mysteriously, and refused to say any more. Upset, Hitomi had done as she'd asked and followed her out of the town towards a dense shock of forest. Either she had been frustrated that Hitomi had been unable to keep up with her or she'd seen the size of the crowd ahead, but whatever the reason, the human girl had ended up on the fox's back as she'd leapt through the treetops, no longer a humanoid but a beautiful, metallic-blue fox, the size of a horse. Hitomi could only hang on in dumbstruck wonder as they'd jumped nimbly through the branches, landing eventually at a large crater, in which rested-

"You are kidding." A soft yip was her answer, as the fox made herself comfortable, and shrugging, Hitomi did the same, finding a plush seat in the fox's thick fur. It was quiet for a time as the crowd muttered amongst themselves until two limp bundles were strung up from the Statue of Liberty's chin. The small one - a boy from the looks of it - was obviously a Matrixer (no human could have that colour naturally) while the bigger one was -

"A human?" she breathed. A sense of hope fluttered in her chest as her eyes devoured the other member of her race. There was another human. She wasn't alone in this. Maybe they knew the way home? Her happy bubble was promptly popped when the flies set a large fire blazing at the feet of the statue. Which led her back to the present.

"A lynch-mob made up of racist flies tying up a human and setting fire to Lady Liberty. That checks out," she muttered to herself, before glancing over at the fox. "Are we going to do anything?"

A shake of the head was her answer.

"Look, I really don't want to become the last of a species here, so please tell me that someone is going to save those two," she hissed, anxious to get her point across, but not to the point that they'd be overheard. Accalia growled at her, baring her teeth when Hitomi tried to stand. "Okay, okay. You'd better have a plan," she grumbled, watching as the boy started wriggling around, calling 'Yakumo' over and over again. It was a pretty name, she mused. She half wondered how to spell it, as the kanji used would effect the meaning of the name. Did her name mean 'Increasing cloud' or perhaps another variation? She wondered.

As she wondered, the girl finally woke up, and her companion was out of his rope and swinging from it by his feet like a born acrobat. As he began to untie the ropes binding Yakumo, a cloaked figure on a pink - scooter?- flew down from the embankment and water started to spray from the underside of the vehicle. The scooter circled the statue once, thoroughly dousing the flames (as well as the bloodthirsty mob who'd stood in the pit) before flying off into the woods - right beneath the tree they were currently sitting in. Hitomi peeked down to see the person get off their scooter and stand casually among the crowd, uncovering the face to reveal a male teenager who acted as though he'd been there the entire time. Bizarrely, an enormous yellow cat dressed in pink with a green neck-scarf seemed to be in on the plan. Maybe they were friends? A scream from Lady Liberty drew her attention, and her heart stopped in her throat as she saw Yakumo sliding down the stone robes, luckily catching herself in a fold. Her acrobatic friend was on the statue's shoulder, giving a filthy look at a flying bug Matrixer in brown. She tried to work out if he was a fly or not before just not bothering. Something about the guy was repulsive - and it wasn't the fact he was a bug.

"No-one is going to save you now," the bug taunted, pointing a claw at the boy.

"Unbelievable!" the boy snarled, drawing his fists together before spreading them, a golden staff glowing into existence as he did so. He leapt from his perch to attack the bug, who parried the blow easily.

"I have no interest in a brat," he sniffed. "I want the Matrixer who killed my brothers. Where is he, kid?"

When the boy didn't answer him after a split second, the bug sighed as if very put-out and withdrew from a pocket two large cards, with a curious design on the back. He brought them up to his mouth and then ate them. As she watched, repulsed, the bugs features changed; his physique grew buffer and he became a muted green colour, with gold armour. As the crowd reacted in awe (or what it fear?), she could hear the cat talking underneath her branch.

"Hyper Form?" he muttered.

"He's a Hyper Matrixer!" Scooter-Boy exclaimed, raising his voice, "Mushra! Be careful, he's stronger now!"

Mushra. Yakumo. Scooter-Boy and the cat. What connects these four together?

Parry. Lunge. A blow that could have sent the young Matrixer boy flying connected instead with the statue's shoulder, as he nimbly leapt up to stand on the torch's bracket. But he was not as speedy as the flying Matrixer, who backhanded him, sending him tumbling down to the ground.

"Mushra!" Yakumo screamed, mere seconds before the boy was engulfed by flames that erupted out of his own body before extinguishing promptly. In a flash of red, the boy was now a man, in red armour with spiked shoulders, and a bird's beak and eyes etched into the cowl on his head.

He's a Hyper Matrixer too, she realised, a grin growing on her face. Bug-boy's got a problem now.

Mushra landed on the shoulder before leaping high into the air and diving for the bug Matrixer, a sai-blade appearing on the end of his staff. Parry - once, twice, three times. A line appeared in the statue's neck. The pair flew to the side, before the bug decided to power on through the stone and messily decapitated Lady Liberty.

I'm pretty sure that wasn't on the bucket list of 'what could happen to the statue in terms of damage'. She facepalmed.

The severed head slid down the front of the statue that had held it aloft for so long, shattering the stone that had been so lovingly carved centuries before. Yakumo had disappeared, she noted with a tinge of fear. That promptly dissipated when she spotted Mushra descending from above like an avenging angel, the human girl held carefully in one arm. The look on his face made her shiver. The bug had pushed him over the edge when he'd threatened the girl. Mushra was out for blood.

He was toying with the bug, if Scooter-Boy's opinion was to be believed. And sure enough, after about two minutes, both of the bug's blades were broken with the ease of tearing a tissue, and he'd left a long trench in the statue's head as Mushra prepared to strike the killing blow.

"Stop right there!"

Everyone did a double-take, including Hitomi. Yakumo was pleading for that insect's life? Was something wrong with the girl? Mushra seemed to share her thoughts on the matter.

"Stop?" he repeated incredulously in a deep voice. "This vermin hastried to kill you twice now!"

"That is his way, Mushra, not ours!" was the response. The bug saw the opportunity to escape, and Mushra began to go after him. "Mushra!" He jerked as though his chain had been yanked. With a yell, he split the statue's head right open as Yakumo looked on.

"Did he enter the 'bloodlust' faze?" Hitomi whispered to her foxy guardian. The dark head inclined, and Hitomi was left dumbfounded.

She managed to stop a Matrixer when he was in his bloodlust faze, a state that, according to Kat, only a Matrixer's mate could break them out of, and even then, chances are slim. She controlled him with a look and her words. Just what is with this girl? She draws people to her like a moth to flame.

She did not speak on the journey back to the inn, so lost in her thoughts she was.

She was still mulling the events of the night before over in her mind when they left the next afternoon, Accalia changing into a large fox once they'd reached the outskirts. As they raced across the ruins of Manhattan, Accalia would stop and sniff for a moment before taking off again. Hitomi would occasionally catch a glimpse of something she had seen once in a movie - Broadway, Central Park - and she was depressed that she had never gone to see the great city when it was still called 'The City that Never Sleeps'. Now it was a ghost town, silent and still.

They had arrived in the ruins of Times Square when, instead of continuing on the road, Accalia made a sharp left and dived into what used to be the subway system of New York city. Hitomi had to press herself into the fox's thick fur to avoid being hit by dangling cables and other debris she preferred not to think about.

Something wet landed on her neck and she squealed. Pressing a finger to the goop, she drew it near her nose and took a sniff, the scent reminding her of the old bookshop near the library. Beeswax?

"Accalia, are we near a hive?" she murmured into the fox's ear before they drew to a sharp halt. "Cali, what the frig?" she hissed, her stomach lurching as she saw the ground was way too far away for her liking.

"Yakumo...is mine to protect!" a pained yell reached her ears. Hitomi glanced around, bewildered, because that had sounded exactly like-

"Mushra!" And there was Yakumo. In the arms of a tubby ginger Matrixer with a garish pink coat and teeny wings. An apparently kinky Matrixer, if the whip she was lashing against Mushra's skin was an indicator. Could the girl go twenty-four hours without needing to be rescued? Evidently, the thought had occurred to the girl as well as she tried to push the Matrixer away from her, but she was promptly smacked down.

Literally.

"Be quiet, you little monster!" the female snarled before her mouth got twice as big. "Now, itadakimasu!"

Oh sweet God, she's going to eat her.

"Let...Yakumo...go-" Mushra panted as he forced himself to stand. "You old witch!" He yelled, flames spurting around him until he was standing before them, once again in his Hyper Form.

"Oh, you're a Hyper Matrixer?" the female asked, sounding almost impressed as she released Yakumo. "But, you know," she continued, smirking nastily, "Did it ever cross your mind that I was one too?"

She glowed an electric yellow before she stood before them in the Hyper Form from hell. She was a mix of a war lord from the Edo period, a robot, and a mutated bee with the amount of spike protruding from her rear. And then the penny dropped. Tiny wings, stinger - Queen Bee. Oh, how cute. This place was going to be the death of her. She could feel it in her bones. Is she farting stingers at him? Oh my god, she is. This place is weird.

Mushra soon made short work of her and crushed her with a subway car that was a few feet from their rather sticky perch. Yakumo was brought back down to the ground next to their imprisoned friends and had just reached out to start pulling the yellow stingers that held them in place when an evil chuckle soon broke the happy spell.

It was the same bug from the statue. The one that had tried to kill them twice. Jeesh but the guy was determined.

"There's a word for people like that," she whispered to the fox. "We call them stalkers."

The fox choked back a bark, and the pair didn't see a pair of cat eyes glancing up at them, too focused as they were watching the bug eat Queen Bee's card and Hyper Forming again. Now he was a vivid green, with four arms, a face on his stomach, and insanely buff. The Terminator had nothing on this guy.

"Come!" he yelled, firing two blades at Mushra who smacked them away, and then obliged the fellow by leaping towards him. He started firing stingers from the face in his stomach, which distracted the Fire Matrixer long enough for the two blades from before to return like demented boomerangs and throw him to the floor.

"This time will be different!" the bug crowed as the blades slid back into place along his forearms.

"Just like Mushra to lure him into a false sense of security!" the cat said smugly, crossing his arms.

"He's not! He's actually in trouble!" Scooter-boy said in exasperation. Singers were flying with deadly accuracy, and Mushra was leaping about to avoid them. Two blades struck their marks - one disarmed him, the other pinned him to the ground.

"This is it," the bug breathed, readying himself. "DIE!"

In an almost annoyed manner, Mushra yanked the blade that had pinned him out and flung it at the bug with enough force that his armour cracked in half and left a long bloody wound in its wake. Mushra picked up the staff and took several menacing steps towards the bug who immediately started cowering.

"Surely they're not-"

"Mushra! Spare him, please!"

Oh for the love of-

"I hope you're ready for some tough love," she whispered to the fox. "Because I've had it with the forgiveness."

What could only be described as a toothy grin graced the fox's face as they prepared to pounce.

Mushra knew that Yakumo wanted him to spare his opponent. She had a big heart and an easy ability to forgive that was endearing and exasperating all at once. He didn't want to hurt her, but she had to understand that by letting their enemies get away, they would only return to try to hurt her again. And Mushra didn't want that.

Ever.

So when she had asked him to spare the bug, he'd walked away. Gave the guy a chance to get away before he got carded. True to par, he heard the blade being drawn, even though he was at the edge of the large wax-ball. He heard the footsteps, and he was ready to parry the prat and card him. He was even prepared for Yakumo's outrage over it - though he dreaded it.

What he wasn't prepared for was a loud snarl to rip through the room, for the loud thump and squeal of pain. He turned to see an enormous fox pinning the bug, its fur shining brightly despite the murky light. The fox snapped at the bug when he tried wriggling away. Mushra definitely wasn't prepared to see a hooded figure atop the fox's back, the person's mouth and chin the only part of the face visible.

"Now, that wasn't very nice," a honey-sweet voice chided. A girl? Mushra thought in bewilderment. "And Yakumo-san even offered you a chance to walk away. And then you try to skewer Mushra, just because he's wiped the floor with you a few times?" The girl tilted her head in Yakumo's direction. "I am sorry about this," she said, sounding apologetic. "But this guy-" her focus shifted back to the bug writhing beneath the fox's paws. "doesn't deserve any more chances." As if that were a signal, the fox snarled and with a large paw, sliced the bug in half. He screeched in pain before his body vanished, leaving four cards sitting in his place. The girl picked up the cards and with a gentle nudge to her mount, approached Mushra, who had his weapon ready.

"I don't want to harm you," the girl assured, holding out the cards. "Please, take them. They'll help you on your journey. At least-" she snorted. "That's what I've been told, in any case."

Shell-shocked, Mushra took the four cards from her. "Do I know you?" he asked suddenly. Her lips curved into a smile.

"No. But you will, soon enough." She turned to look down on Yakumo and the others. "I'm sure it would please some here to know that there are other humans around," she said loudly, and the look of sheer delight on Yakumo's face was almost enough to bring Mushra to his knees.

"See you soon, Mushra," the girl smiled, before the fox turned and leapt nimbly to an opening near the ceiling disappearing from view. Yakumo was near-crying with the delight that she'd just seen another human. Kutal was hyping her up, while Sago was trying to get them out of Queen Bee's prison. A thousand questions were buzzing around the Fire Matrixer's head as he tried to make sense of what just happened.

How did she know my name? Or Yakumo's? Who is she?

One thing was for certain. If the girl proved an ally, Mushra would be happy to welcome her to the team, if only to see Yakumo happy. If she was an enemy, however...

He would cut her down before she laid a finger on any of them.

To be continued...