Author's Note: Hey all! Been another bit, but I'm finally finished with the next part of the story.

In other news, I recently came across an article saying that Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress was just a rip-off of Attack on Titan, and although I was initially very upset, I realized—after some grudging deliberation—that there's actually a lot of sense to the argument. But, no matter what the consensus is on that front, Kabaneri is still a decent anime in and of itself, and I enjoyed watching it when it way back when.

Anyhoo, here's some more of Miyako and Kichirou, hope you like it!

When the captain said four days, he must have meant by train, because four days for the average man on foot factored down to three or even two when Miyako pushed it. "Osahashi," though, was nowhere to be found on the roadside signposts she passed on the fourth, then fifth day.

"How're you holding up?" she asked, maintaining her brisk sprint. Kichirou offered no reply from his place on her back, where he'd been confined for longer than usual since Miyako had wanted to speed things up. That, however, didn't seem to be the cause of his silence—a cause that Miyako hadn't yet pinpointed.

Over the past few days, their conversations had been sparse and subdued. When they did talk, Kichirou tended to fall silent after a bit, seemingly unable to voice the thoughts in his head. His apparent internal conflict had silenced the bubbling questions in her throat, and she found herself following his lead and averting her eyes when conversation ceased. It wasn't so much that she was afraid of Kichirou's reply as she was of where her thoughts would lead her once he uttered the words. She wasn't prepared—it was as simple and complicated as that, and although she knew her fears were inane, she wanted to continue living in ignorance for a while longer, if only to avoid the possibility that even the faraway "Osahashi" would provide no answers.

Instead, she distracted herself with the more important issue of whether or not she would be allowed to enter Osahashi. However inconsequential her appearance was on a daily basis, she knew that she'd do well to remember that her red eyes and white hair would instantly incite wariness in any human, and if that didn't seal her fate then her glowing heart and molten veins that grew visible when she fought definitely would.

The guards I saved saw that, Miyako thought, clenching her teeth. And even if they wrote it off as some illusion, the town's bound to have a screening process in place by now.

The guards of her own hometown had taken little time before ordering everyone in the station into lines so they could check for bites, and though Miyako's bitemarks had long faded, the glowing star in her chest was a dead giveaway as to her current status. She was a Kabane through and through, and she knew she couldn't fault the town if they spurned her when she arrived, because if she lived in Osahashi—if her family was still alive and well around her, sheltered from the Kabane hordes—she too would hope the border turned away anything like what she was now.

Well, it's useless worrying about it, Miyako thought, speeding up her pace. The answer to all her questions were still days away in Osahashi, and when she got there, she'd have the answers to her questions—regardless of whether she liked them or not.

— — —

Kichirou landed with a heavy thump, setting loose a cloud of dust in his wake, but he scrambled to his feet quickly, the makeshift shinai Miyako had fashioned for him trembling with every shaky breath as he levelled the weapon at Miyako.

"Feet," Miyako said, then rushed forwards, hands outstretched. Kichirou barely had time to process her words before he was on his back again, a fresh flurry of dust settling around him. But, just as before, he picked himself up and met Miyako's gaze to signal that he was ready, the tip of his bamboo sword wavering a he waited for her to strike.

Such was the new routine Miyako had devised for them—one where she played the Kabane and Kichirou the boy fighting for his life. Although she held back, she knew she was still a bit faster than the average Kabane, hitting a bit harder, fighting a bit smarter. However, she also knew that Kabane came in various forms as well. She'd now fought a total of two Kabane that had carried swords. The first, taking her by surprise, had managed to partially disarm her; the second, clearly less experienced, was dispatched only after it'd shattered one of her katanas. These instances had reminded her of her mortality—something that she'd slowly become jaded against after months of travel. She was more than a match for one sword-wielding Kabane, but against two or three? The feeling that possibility stirred wasn't so much fear as it was despair, and it was precisely this that drove her to taking up late-night practicing alone, smoothing out her swings and strike in preparation of the battle that could fell her.

In comparison to the sword-wielding Kabane, however, the Kabane she mimicked in Kichirou's practice sessions was ordinary, blindly charging forwards under the belief that its strength and speed would be enough, whatever the scenario. She'd considered devising a more basic exercise, but with their imminent arrival at Osahashi, she'd figured that she'd do what little she still could: imprint in Kichirou a sense of how Kabane moved and struck so that his response, in return, would become instinctual. Though he seemed to be making more progress in gathering bruises than she'd liked, the possibility of him surviving a Kabane attack drove her on.

"That's enough for today," she said, walking over and helping Kichirou up after a few more falls. "You alright?"

Kichirou nodded numbly as Miyako patted him down and dusted off his robes.

"Drink," Miyako said, depositing the satchel of water in his hands and guiding him over to the log she'd rolled up by the fire. "I'll go find us something to eat."

Kichirou nodded again, tipping the satchel into his mouth as Miyako walked off.

He's still quiet, she thought as she stalked into the darkness, straining her ears for sounds of life. But all that matters is that I get him to Osahashi—to safety—and find the answers to my questions.

— — —

Miyako tossed her broken sword aside, frowning as she crouched down to examine the fallen Kabane. Being dead, the creature's eyes had darkened to a dull red, the burning light of life snuffed out by a clean stroke that severed head from body. Out of the open wound oozed a mixture of metallic reds and browns from which fresh steam hissed into the air, the molten metal itself quickly fading into blackness as it cooled and solidified.

Wonder if this metal is malleable, Miyako thought, poking at the cooled metal with a stray stick.

"Miyako-san!" Kichirou called, pulling Miyako from her investigations. Looking over, she spotted him running over, a sheathed katana in his hands.

"Thanks, Kichirou," Miyako said, untying her empty old scabbard and sliding on the new one. "This one's a long one—must be a bigshot samurai that commissioned this one."

Kichirou was silent beside her, eyes flicking between her and the Kabane at her feet.

"What's on your mind?" she asked, seeing his restlessness.

"Will… Will I really be able to kill a Kabane?" he asked at last, meeting Miyako's gaze nervously. "Even you snap your katana sometimes, and…"

He trailed off, fidgeting his feet. Miyako winced.

"Well," she started, not knowing how to continue. Should she tell him the truth? That for all his training, all his efforts, he would likely never actually be able to cut down a Kabane?

"It's better than nothing," she said at last, adjusting the angle at which her new katana fell at her hip. When Kichirou didn't respond, Miyako ruffled his hair and grinned. "Don't worry about it. I'm here to protect you, aren't I? All you need to do is be able to protect yourself until I get there."

Kichirou stayed silent, his gaze averted.

"C'mon now. Osahashi's waiting for us," Miyako said, patting his back before making to lead the way back to the tracks. She glanced back. "Kichirou?"

"Will they let you in?" he asked.

Miyako froze, but Kichirou plowed on.

"When we get to Osahashi, will they let you in?" he asked again, as if he hadn't been clear enough the first time around.

Miyako averted her eyes briefly before forcing herself to focus on Kichirou, aligning her gaze with his.

"They'll let you in, Kichirou," she said. "They have no reason not to, and the soldiers owe me that much for saving them."

"But will they let you in?" Kichirou persisted, eyes wide.

Miyako paused. "I don't know," she admitted, "but… probably not."

"But you saved those soldiers!" Kichirou protested. "They owe you their lives, not me. How can they turn you away after you saved them?"

"I'm a Kabane, Kichirou," Miyako said, sighing. "How can they not? But it's alright because they'll take you in," she continued, giving him a gentle smile. "You'll be safe with them, and you'll be able to live a real life."

"No," Kichirou said, shaking his head. "I'm not staying there if you aren't."

"Kichirou, don't be silly—"

"I'm not," he said loudly.

"Kichirou," Miyako said, shaking her head. "I can't give you what Osahashi can, so you need to think about it before—"

"I don't want to," Kichirou retorted.

"Kichirou," Miyako repeated, frowning. "Please. Think about it."

Kichirou was silent, his eyes averted.

"Now let's get moving," Miyako said, continuing towards the tracks. "C'mon."

She exhaled with relief when Kichirou finally followed, the unsettled feeling inside her subdued for the moment.

He needs to stay at Osahashi, she thought as she led the way back. He just needs to realize that.

— — —

"Remember to aim for the eyes," Miyako instructed, dodging Kichirou's shinai deftly. Kichirou, too breathless to reply, whirled towards her, the arc of his bamboo sword closer to her face than the last.

"Good," Miyako said, batting the shinai off with ease. "Again."

Kichirou, though, backed off, panting.

"Again," Miyako repeated, brows knitting.

"What's the point," he said, wiping his sweat away with the collar of his robe. "It's not like I'm going to be able to kill a Kabane anyway."

"But you'll be able to defend yourself against one," Miyako said, closing the distance between them as Kichirou bent down to grab his water satchel. "Isn't that why you wanted to train?"

Kichirou didn't reply, instead bringing the satchel to his lips.

"Kichirou, I know you're mad at me, but this isn't how you should be handling it," Miyako protested. "I don't have much left to teach you, but at this rate, I won't be teaching you anything before we arrive at Osahashi," she said, moving to face him when he turned. "So don't be like this, okay? Kichirou?"

"I'm not mad," Kichirou said when he finished drinking. Miyako sighed.

"Kichirou," she started, fully aware that exasperation had saturated her voice. "Don't be like this. You're the one that wanted to train, and I'm just—"

"Then I don't want to train anymore, alright?" Kichirou snapped.

"What?" Miyako asked, momentarily taken by surprise.

"I said I don't want to train anymore," Kichirou repeated. "What's the point? I'm going to be staying at Osahashi anyway, and there aren't any Kabane in Osahashi, are there?"

"Kichirou," Miyako said, her temper rising. "That's not the point."

"But it's my point," Kichirou retorted. "I don't want to learn to fight anymore."

"You don't mean that," Miyako said, crossing her arms.

"Yes I do," Kichirou replied, crossing his as well as he met her gaze with defiance. The seconds stretched out as Miyako tried unsuccessfully to stare him down. Finally, she gave up, sighing and uncrossing her arms.

"I don't know what you want me to do, Kichirou," she said sadly. "Osahashi's your best bet at a real life—you should know that."

"Then I don't want that life."

"Then what do you want instead? This?"

"Yes."

"You want this? Scavenging for food and clothes, not knowing whether or not you'll have a place to sleep or fresh food to eat? This isn't a life, you know."

"But it's your life."

Miyako paused. "Kichirou. You have to understand that we're different. That I'm a Kabane."

"I don't care."

"Not human," Miyako continued, ignoring him. "I drink blood, don't need to sleep, and am strong enough to use katanas to cut through Kabane. I don't think that my standards of living can be called 'normal' at this point."

"I don't care!" Kichirou shouted, his tears taking Miyako by surprise. "I'm not going to leave you! I don't want to stay in Osahashi if you can't. I—I want to stay with you," he continued, his hands wiping futilely at his eyes.

"Kichirou, don't say that," Miyako said, springing to his side and hugging him. "You have to go. You'll be safer there than you ever were with me, and they can offer you a life—a real life. Not this mess of travelling nonstop."

"I—I don't want—"

"Kichirou, I said that I would keep you safe, right?" Miyako asked. "I'm doing that, but Osahashi offers you more than just safety; it offers you a life. A chance to live like a normal boy again, to have friends and teachers and a place to call home. You deserve that much."

"But—But I want to stay with you," Kichirou protested, rubbing at his eyes. "I don't want to be stay with them. I don't know them."

"Kichirou," Miyako said, her hands firm on his shoulders. "It would make me extremely happy if you could stay in Osahashi for me, where you're safe and well-fed and can make new friends. So can you do that? For me?"

"But—"

"Kichirou, please. Promise me you'll stay in Osahashi," Miyako said, meeting his teary eyes. "Can you do that? For me?"

"I—"

"Please. "

A fresh wave of tears spilled from Kichirou's eyes as he nodded, hugging Miyako. "I don't want to leave you, Miyako-san," he sobbed.

"Shh," Miyako said, rubbing his back as his tears streamed down her shoulder. "I don't want to leave you either, Kichirou, but you deserve better than what I can offer," she said. "And it would make me very, very happy if you could be happy. So be happy, alright? For me?"

Kichirou nodded, squeezing Miyako tightly as his sobs continued.

— — —

"We should be arriving soon," Miyako said as she used a stick to push some outlying pieces of wood further into the flames. Beside her, Kichirou set down his piece of rabbit, swallowing.

"What do you think it'll be like?" he asked.

"Osahashi? I expect it'll be fairly big if it's still standing, with tall walls and lots of guards."

"How tall?"

"Well, at least taller than those walls we came across in the deserted villages. Two or three stories minimum, but probably taller—as tall as they could build it, and of solid rock, stone, or mortar. No windows like normal castle walls, or Kabane would definitely have gotten in."

"With archers standing guard?"

"Sounds likely."

"And a big door for trains to enter?"

"Probably," Miyako said, grinning and ruffling Kichirou's hair. "Why're you asking me? You're going to end up living there anyway, so just wait and see!"

Kichirou's smile dropped at her words, and Miyako instantly regretted them.

"Hey, it'll be okay," Miyako said, using her closest arm to pull him in for a hug. "I'll come and visit often. Promise."

Kichirou nodded fervently, prompting a grin from Miyako again.

"Now eat your food properly, or you're never going to grow," she chided. "If you don't, you might even end up being shorter than me!"

"No I won't!" Kichirou protested. "I'll grow taller than you for sure!"

"Sure, sure," Miyako teased, laughing. "I'd love to see the day that happens."

— — —

The signpost, large and well-maintained as it was, was impossible to miss. "Osahashi" was scrawled out in thick black paint on the wooden sign, which had been firmly staked at the designated fork, complete with a makeshift roof that seemed to have already weathered a few rainstorms.

"Finally," Miyako breathed when she spotted the structure in the distance, scooping Kichirou up and breaking into a sprint.

"Wha—"

"Just hang on—we're almost there," Miyako said, nodding at the signpost as they passed it. "See? 'Osahashi.'"

"I can read," Kichirou protested, but Miyako was too excited to care to reply. After all her days of travel, after all the weeks of wondering into the night sky, the answers she sought were finally within her grasp, so tantalizingly close that she was afraid that anything but sprinting at them at full speed would cause her to miss them, as if they were really as elusive as they'd been when she couldn't see proof of her destination.

"Miyako-san," Kichirou protested again.

"We're almost there," Miyako repeated, swinging wide of the turn in her rush but quickly correcting her overstep. And, just as she'd promised, there it was: The trees broke to reveal a grand wall that stretched for miles either direction, rising far above Miyako's head—easily three or four stories, if not more. A trench had been dug out in front of the wall, several meters by several tens of meters of dirt displaced to add extra security, dividing forest from civilization. The faint echo of hammers clanging could be heard from the top of the wall, and Miyako was just able to make out an arm peeping out from over the edge.

"Hello!" she yelled, hoping her voice carried.

The clanging stopped, a deathly silence falling over the wall.

"Hello! Can you hear me?" Miyako tried again, stepping out from the forest edge.

A head poked out from over the wall, its features too distant to make before it disappeared, a frenzy of conversation sounding in its wake.

"Who are you?" the man called, reappearing. "Where did you come from?"

"Hishima Miyako and Sasaki Kichirou!" Miyako called back. "We're from up north! We followed the tracks here, and we need shelter from the Kabane! Two weeks ago, I saved a group of your soldiers rom the Kabane! They should have returned on train!"

The hum of conversation too high up to hear broke out again as the man disappeared. A few seconds later, he reappeared, joined by two more men.

"Head that way along the wall!" one of them shouted, pointing to the right. "The gates are over there!"

"Thank you!" Miyako yelled, bursting into a run in the direction pointed, but when she glanced back, they'd already disappeared.

— — —

The trench, as it turned out, wasn't so much dug to protect the wall as it was to allow for a drawbridge to function and thus trains to enter. For Miyako and Kichirou, though, a rope was swung across instead.

"Grab on!" came the shout. "We'll pull you up when you fall!"

"I'll jump over!" Miyako called back, eyeing the trench warily. Clearly it'd been a while since they'd had to handle people rather than trains.

Sweeping her eyes over the drawbridge—a conglomeration of metal parts fitted messily but securely into each other, clearly an ongoing project from the looks of the remaining wood—Miyako's eyes stopped on the metal support a few meters further in. The square length of metal, as roughly crafted as the rest of the bridge, seemed to serve the purpose of a ledge Miyako could land and push off of to reach the main platform, which was currently blocked from her view by the drawbridge.

"What? Don't be insane, girl!" came the reply, but Miyako was already adjusting her stance in preparation.

"Ready?" Miyako asked, grinning.

"Ready," Kichirou replied, his grip around her neck tightening.

With three bounds, Miyako cleared her half of the bridge, turning in midair to plant her foot on the support's flat face and push off it to propel her towards the main platform on which a crew of men stood, staring at her with wide eyes and open mouths as she landed and leaned down to allow Kichirou onto his feet.

Far from the riskiest thing I've done so far carrying Kichirou, Miyako thought with amusement as she took in their shocked faces, and definitely not the longest distance I've cleared either, although perhaps the one with the deepest drop if I failed.

"Good god, are you even human?" one of the men asked. Miyako flinched, but the sound of hooves interrupted her thoughts.

"Slow," came the call as a group of what looked to be horsebacked samurai came to a halt at the entrance of the bridge.

"That's her, sir," one of the men said. "That's the girl who saved us."

The man beside him nodded, and it took a moment for Miyako to place him as the captain of the group she'd rescued.

"I recognize her, Yokima. You all, stay here," the captain said, dismounting his horse and walking over to Miyako and Kichirou despite a round protest from some of his guard.

"I am Fujioka Yasuhiro, one of the captains of the guard here at Osahashi, and I thank you for your aid two weeks ago," the captain said once he'd reached the pair on the bridge, bowing.. "Tell me—what are your names?"

"Hishima Miyako," Miyako said, "and this is Sasaki Kichirou."

"Well, Miyako-san, Kichirou-san, welcome to Osahashi," Yasuhiro said. "There will be a physical examination before we can head to the main hall, if that's alright with both of you. It's nothing to worry about."

Miyako hesitated, eyes wide. "I don't think—"

"It's nothing to worry about," Yasuhiro repeated, meeting Miyako's eyes. "Everyone who enters through the gates has to be examined, but I've seen to it that special accommodations have been made for you two, seeing as I am in your debt."

Miyako hesitated again, but—with a squeeze of her hand from Kichirou, who looked pleadingly at her—she relented, nodding.

"Very good, Miyako-san, Kichirou-san. Follow me," Yasuhiro said, leading the way towards the gates. The guards there, now dismounted, parted for him, most of them giving Miyako and Kichirou a wide berth as they approached, a mixture of wariness and distrust apparent on their faces. A few, however, seemed to differ in opinion; the other man who'd spoken out when he saw Miyako approached now, his grin revealing a few missing teeth despite his young age.

"Yokima Koichi," he said, introducing himself. "Glad to see that you got here without problem, girlie. What are your names?"

"I'm Miyako, and this is Kichirou," Miyako said, motioning at Kichirou, who was clinging onto her arm, his eyes wary and watchful.

"Oh don't you worry, boy. There's nothing to be afraid of here," Koichi said, flashing his gap-toothed grin again. "We've got everything taken care of, so just go along with it."

"Koichi-san, when you say that everything's been taken care of," Miyako started, but Koichi cut her off with a wave of his hand.

"Just call me Koichi, please. I can't have someone I owe my life to calling me something no one else does. As for what I mean, I mean that things are taken care of," he said, winking. "Just go with the flow, girlie. Go with the flow."