13th April, 1919 (Taisho 8)

Shanghai, China

The raggedy orphan breathed hard, ducking in and out of narrow alleyways. She stretched out a hand to catch the side of a pole and let her momentum carry her against it.

Kohran listened for her pursuer.

Silence, except for the faraway sounds of the city, punctuated by hisses of steam. She heaved a sigh of relief.

"Finally."

She sat cross-legged on a nearby crate and took out her precious bundle – snatched from the shop window of a pawnshop. A lucky thing the man's paunch prevented him from running and his two sons happened to be out on shop business. If she had been caught –

– Kohran shook her head to clear it and lifted away the fold of cloth.

A heavy gold watch gleamed in her hand, the lid heavily dented. Smiling, she held it up by the chain and examined it from all angles.

Her father's sole treasure, one of two survivors of the bandit raid on their village. It had gone out of her possession – briefly – and was hers, years too soon.

The pawnshop owner had been greedy enough to covet the watch, and unscrupulous enough to steal it from its orphaned beggar owner. Kohran had been too exhausted from the desperate trek from her ruined village to put up a fight. But now it was hers again.

The girl frowned. The watch's hands had stopped and she remembered it had yet to be fixed after taking the bullet meant for her heart. "Well, I'd better open it up and take a look..."

Fishing a rudimentary bag of supplies out of her satchel, Kohran eased up the back and exposed the cogs. She closed her eyes and remembered her father's lessons on the mechanics of the clock, before tinkering with the minute gears.

15th May, 1919 (Taisho 8)

Shanghai, China

Old Chang began the day with the dusting. His shop assistant bustled around, fetching goods, making the place ready for business.

He opened the drawer to look for the duster – and yelped in surprise when something inside whirred and hummed.

"W – what?"

Kohran rushed over. "What is it, boss – oh! My Mr Duster!"

"Say what?"

She flicked a switch on the side of the contraption and the duster began sweeping left and right rhythmmically. "I noticed you get tired dusting, so I built this to make things easier! See, you just hold it up and it sweeps for you..."

The grizzled shopkeeper smiled. "Been a while since I saw a young 'un like you so talented with mechanical doohickeys. Makes an old man proud, it does."

"Aw, thanks, boss," beamed Kohran. "It's really nothing."

"That reminds me! I heard this fancy new steamship from Japan's stopping by the harbour this afternoon. Why don't you take the afternoon off and have a look?"

She put down the stack of papers and blinked at him. "New steamship?"

"Yeah." Chang eased himself off his stool; pulling a crumpled magazine from a drawer in his desk, he opened it to one page and handed it to Kohran. "Saved it for you – thought you would be interested. Articles says summat about a newfangled way of utilizing steam more efficiently – but that stuff's wasted on me."

"Kanzaki Heavy Industries," she read aloud, the Japanese sounding alien in her ears. "The leading power in steam machinery." Eyes shining, the little girl looked up from the magazine.

He waved a hand lazily at her. "Eh. Keep it. No use to me. Now be off with you, or I'll cut your pay if you show up a minute late tomorrow."

"Thank you, boss!"

Still in a daze, Kohran made her way back to Chang's little shop, her head spinning with the events of the day.

What a stroke of luck. Eager to see the new ship, she had dashed to the harbour only to find it packed with people waiting for passengers, all taller than she was. Undaunted, Kohran made her way to the terrace of a nearby hotel which boasted a good view of the harbour and the surrounding area.

All she wanted was to see that ship – it was the best she could hope for. There was no conceivable way a penniless orphan would be allowed to climb onboard and see the engines, the construction for herself.

Then the strange lady – Ayame, she said her name was. She was Japanese but spoke in passable Mandarin. Somehow, she knew about Kohran, knew about her talent for all things mechanical and had encouraged her to go to Japan to learn more.

"Sure, ma'am, that sounds real nice, but I haven't got any money," Kohran had told her. "I'm an orphan."

Strangely, the lady knew. And offered to take her to Japan on behalf of some Japanese military organization and find her a teacher.

"When you make up your mind, come and look for me," Ayame had said, passing her a piece of paper with a hotel address written on it. "I'll be waiting for your answer."

"Boss, sir! Are you still here?"

The owlish face poked out. "Honglan? It's late, what're you doing here?"

Excitedly, she related the events of the afternoon to him.

Chang pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose. This precocious young orphan, the closest thing he had to a daughter ever since the day he agreed to give her a job in his shop, was finally moving on. For once, he was glad the world had given her a chance to prove herself when it had crushed the dreams of so many others.

"Is there any catch?"

"I might need to stay on for a while and do research for the military."

"Well then, of course you're going," he said gruffly. "You're not going to pass up that opportunity to look at that ship, aren't you?"

Her brow creased. "But boss – who's going to help you in the shop?"

"There's no shortage of homeless, hardworking kids in Shanghai, I'm thinking. No, maybe I'll wait for you to build me that machine you're always talking about, that thing that can stack shelves and carry boxes for me."

Kohran was silent for a moment, her expression unreadable because the angle of the light making her glasses opaque.

"Boss, I promise when I get back, I'll build you the best, most efficient machine ever."

25th December, 1919 (Taisho 8)

Kobe, Japan

Kohran had never been happier in her life. Her new mentor, Percy Howard, was a brilliant mechanic and inventor, always praising her little creations and pushing her to do more.

And his sense of humour... she had had not much reason to laugh in the past, but now found herself amused by his nonstop puns and jokes.

The puns were especially helpful in learning Japanese – much to the despair of her tutor, who was the constant victim of her jokes.

Most of all, Occhan (as she called him) was the only one who never laughed at her dreams of building a giant machine, one able to walk and do things like a normal human could.

"It needs t'be able t'fight too," she told him one night as she read an article in the newspaper about the growing demon threat. She was rapidly gaining mastery of Japanese, though her tutor's Kansai accent was becoming a part of her language.

Howard rubbed his chin. "That'll be useful indeed." His accent, a strange agglutination of foreign and Kansai was something peculiar to the man.

Today, however, was possibly the strangest thing he had done since she had come four months ago. A modest tree stood in the corner of the room. A gaily-wrapped box sat underneath.

"... Hey Occhan, what's this?"

He pulled a shocked face and pretended to fall over. "Masaka! Y'never heard of Christmas?"

"No..."

"... Well, can't be helped." Howard crossed the room in a few steps. "Anyway, we gaijin got this holiday called Christmas where we have a fancy tree an' we exchange presents."

Kohran blinked. "An' what's the rationale behin' that? I mean, what're you celebratin'?"

Howard laughed. "Y'don't need to know that. For you Chinese – and the Japanese – that's all y'need to know. Now, here. Merry Christmas."

"For me?" She opened the present carefully. Inside was a set of blueprints for a humanoid machine...

"Occhan! Is this – ?"

"Not mine, actually," he answered. "A coupla years back, when I was in Tokyo, I met this guy from the Imperial army – Yamazaki, I think. Brilliant mechanic and gifted inventor. He had this idea of building reiryoku-powered armour to fight against demons so the disaster of the Demon War wouldn't be repeated... great man. He wanted as many as possible on it so a breakthrough would be reached so much faster."

Kohran's eyes shone. "An' you're givin' the plans to me? Howard-han..."

"Ha, what happened to Occhan?" he teased her.

9th March, 1921 (Taisho 10)

Hanayashiki Branch, Tokyo

Kohran fidgeted with the panel. "Jest a few more adjusmen's..."

The mechanic hovered close by, unsure of whether to interrupt. "Kohran-san, are you sure you want to recalibrate the lead wires? It might lead to a short circuit – "

"Trust me! I know what I'm doin'!" She slammed the panel closed and shot him a triumphant grin. "I was jest workin' on this improvemen' with my mentor!"

"If you say so..."

Kohran swung a wrench over her shoulder. "Yossha! Turn on th' power!"

The koubu's engine hissed into life, steadily humming as the anxious mechanic checked the dials and gauges. "It's... working perfectly! And feedback reports – why, this is the best levels of energy we've ever had!" The man gazed at Kohran in astonishment. "Kohran-san, please forgive me for doubting you."

"Jest Kohran would be fine – Kohran-san sounds weird, don't ya think?"

She was glad she was not too late – by the time Ayame had come to fetch her, Kanzaki Heavy Industries had already built three prototypes of Yamazaki's machines – koubu, they were called. Powering the thing had been an issue; Yamazaki had not added his ideas about reiryoku to the older copy of the blueprints the company possessed. But luckily the company's young heiress had stumbled upon that crucial fact – allowing Kohran to implement her ideas and findings on the newest prototype.

This one was painted a fetching purple, and Kohran wondered if it was the girl's idea.

"Well, that's jest the first. I've got a whole lot of improvemen's to make to this thin' – so can I count on your help?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

24th December, 1926 (Taisho 15)

Imperial Theatre, Tokyo

"Y'know, instead of havin' a normal tree, we could have a mechanical one that can light up an' greet people!"

"... No, Kohran," said Maria.

"Okay, that might be a bit weird. How about an automatic present unwrapper that'll clean up after itself?"

"Maybe that's not such a good idea, Kohran..." hedged Sakura.

"Then a – "

"Kohran-san!" Sumire glared at her from over the top of her fan. Orihime seconded it. "The Hanagumi's Christmas celebration does not require such machines!"

Kohran grinned, not easily put off. "Sure does – okay, maybe not the fancier ones. Maybe smaller ones. I could build a machine to help backstage."

"That sounds interesting, Kohran," said Ogami loudly, cutting through the noisy babble that erupted. "Why don't you work on it some more and show us later?"

"Us? You can go, Chuu'i. I'm not coming close to any of her inventions, I don't want them exploding in my face!"

"But that's my latest innovation! Even though they explode, strangely enough it doesn't hurt..."

"Oh boy," sighed Ogami as he tried to keep the other girls from chasing Kohran.

25th December, 1926 (Taisho 15)

Imperial Theatre, Tokyo

"Merry Christmas!"

The Hanagumi gathered around the grand tree in the corner of the lounge to exchange their presents.

"Everyone, I've got somethin' to say." Kohran beamed at all of them. "Joinin' the Hanagumi was one of the best things that ever happened to me. In appreciation of y'all, I've made a special machine for each of you."

The other girls eyed the boxes warily. "... That is a kind gesture, but not really necessary, Kohran," commented Reni.

"Nonsense! It was Ogami-han's idea anyway, so you can thank him as well!"

He blinked in surprise. "K – Kohran? But I said – "

"Go on, don't be shy! Open them up!"

Kanna held hers at arm's length, expecting the contents to jump out. Iris' hovered a safe distance from her. Reni and Maria calmly undid theirs. Sumire and Orihime kept poking their boxes tentatively. Sakura unwrapped hers with all the care of handling glass – albeit a deadly exploding variety.

"What – ?"

In all seven boxes lay... a perfectly ordinary, non-mechanical gift.

Kohran exploded into laughter. "Hahahaha! Y'should've seen the looks on your faces!"

Sumire stood up slowly. "Chuu'i... you were in on this, weren't you?"

Ogami backed away. "N – no, this was what I suggested to her – erk!"

"That was a really funny joke," said Sakura. "I'm sure you must have had such fun planning it with Kohran."

"S – Sakura-kun, please don't pinch me so hard..."

"Kohran!"

"Ogami-san!"

"Uh oh!" The Chinese inventor quickly snatched Ogami out of the girls' clutches. "We'd better run, they don't look too happy!" He was only too happy to agree.

The pair of them fled down the corridors, eventually seeking refuge in the attic.

"This brings back memories!" she enthused, sitting down cross-legged on a pile of boxes.

"Does it?"

"Yeah, of bein' a small kid in Shanghai..." Kohran sneezed. "Darn, it's dusty in here."

He leaned against her pile of boxes. "Nobody comes up here often apart from me when I'm doing the night watch."

"Heh." She eyed the untidy piles of boxes, papers and files. "Maybe I should build that machine after all, boss."