Homecoming

Their journey up the river was surprisingly peaceful.
At first, the mouth of the Ryusui was hard to distinguish from the Jinsui lake. Although narrower than the main body of the lake, it was still quite wide and seemed to get much more traffic than the rest of the lake. It was in this part that most of the citizens of the Tsubame territory were allowed to collect water, and many of them waved to the pirates as they gently floated past.

“Wow, everyone's so kind here,” Sumire remarked, waving back at an awestruck child. “I know Nezu told us to be really careful about pollution, but no one around seems to really mind that we're here, huh?”

“On the contrary, they seem to be amazed that we're capable of it,” Senren added, grinning at a young girl who blushed and hid behind her mother. “This must be where it's more socially acceptable to interact with the otherwise sacred water.”

As the river drew narrower and the surrounding forest grew denser, Jimmu sniffed the air.

“We will be approaching the Imperial Capital territory soon,” he announced with a grimace. “But I don't like it. This strange scent makes me instinctively want to stay away…”

“So we're that close, then…” Senren tensed, a subtle reaction that Sumire noticed immediately. “That's not surprising. Kyonkichi administers a sort of pheromone around their territory to deter the entry of Yokai. The Imperials are…less than fond of your kind.”

“Truly? How exclusive of them,” Jimmu replied with distaste.

Despite his calm explanation, the closer they got to the Kyonkichi border, the more uncomfortable Senren seemed to become. He was clearly on edge, staring about aimlessly and occasionally drumming his fingers or fidgeting. To Sumire, it was particularly unusual behavior to see from such a typically calm and collected ronin.

“So what's the deal, Sen?” She finally asked him, pulling some dango from their food supplies. “You're getting more squirrelly by the second. I totally get being nervous around your old stomping grounds, but you seem downright anxious.”

“Hm? Ah, my apologies,” Senren’s response made it obvious his thoughts were preoccupied. But, despite that he still turned to address Sumire with his full attention. “Being near Kyonkichi again does make me nervous, I suppose. Although, it isn't merely because I haven't returned in a while. Don't you remember the story I told in the caravan?”

“Yeah, of course,” Sumire thought back for a moment. “You said that you were sentenced to death by burning, but I guess you never explained what happened after that. Like, you obviously didn't get burned to death — you aren't a ghost.”

“Heh. No, I'm not,” Senren chuckled a little, searching for the right words. “Honestly, there isn't much to say about that. Someone freed me from my cell the night before execution, and I fled.”

“An incredible escape,” Jimmu commented. “You owe that good samaritan your life.”

“I truly do. But, unfortunately that means I'm a fugitive within Kyonkichi. If the Hagashi recognize me at all, they will surely attack.”

Jimmu nodded thoughtfully.
“Yes, that certainly is a dilem—”

“Ahh, don't sweat it, Sen!”

Sumire interjected with a much more enthusiastic response. “We'll be totally fine. Nothing can stop us now!”

Her positivity might have been a little foolhardy, but it was undeniably infectious. Even Senren found himself grinning. Despite his worries, things felt like they were going to be okay.

Their riverboat voyage went just as smoothly as Sumire had suggested it would for a while. Even after entering the Imperial territory, the atmosphere remained mostly peaceful, with their only company being the nature of their surroundings. However, things started to tense when the woodlands thinned and civilization came into clearer view. Some Kyonkichi civilians visiting the river waved to them, or regarded them with curiosity, but luckily none had noticed Jimmu's tail beneath the water.

“See, Senren?” Sumire boasted. “What'd I tell ya? We're awesome! Nothing's gonna stand in our way, not even an Imperial arrest warrant!”

“I must say, you are quite determined, Miss Sumire,” Jimmu remarked. “It's impressive. The way you seem to manifest your delusions with confidence is an inspiration.”

Sumire was about to respond with a sort of defiant spark in her eyes, when Senren laid a hand on her shoulder.

“I hate to ruin the mood,” he said a little urgently. “But it appears we're approaching a new obstacle.”

Senren pointed ahead, where there was a bridge arching over the river from one end to the other. Standing upon it were about five Hagashi, guarding the passage and just beginning to notice the boat approaching.

“You, there,” one of them called out to them. “Who are you? What are you doing traveling the Ryusui?”

“Uhhhhh,” Sumire stood and her brain froze. No thoughts passed through her synopses, instead leaving her mind filled with white noise. “Well. Haha. You see, funny story! Actually, we… Well—”

“Hang on,” the guard interjected, having a revelation. “That's nothing but a rowboat… How exactly are you traveling upstream?”

“Aha! About that!” Sumire continued trying to answer in a bold and boisterous voice, even though her thoughts still hadn't caught up to the situation. Noticing that a conversation was happening, Jimmu also slowed their propulsion to appear more nonchalant. All of it set alarms off in Senren’s mind.

“See, we're actually going on this… Ah, you know, it's… Well, it's an adventure! And we—”

Shing!

A wave of water suddenly cut through the air and slapped the Hagashi square in the face.
Good news; Sumire no longer had to struggle with a convincing story.

Bad news; the force was enough to knock the officer down onto the bridge. His subordinates apparently saw this as a grave offense, since they wasted no time in drawing their katana and training their weapons on the boat.

“Halt! Stop where you are!”

“Senren, what the hell?!” Sumire whipped around to see that the ronin had drawn his sword and used it to assault the Hagashi with his water magic. The look in his usually calm gaze was wild and erratic, similar to a cornered animal.

“Jimmu, hurry!” He shouted. “Get us as far past the bridge as possible!”

“Y-yes! As you wish!”
Taken just a little off guard by the urgency, Jimmu suddenly increased his speed greatly. It was enough to knock Sumire off balance, sending her tailbone slamming into the bottom of the boat, while a much more prepared Senren braced himself properly.

“That was a water attack!”

“Did she say Senren? Could it be that traitor?!”

“Stop them at all costs! They might be harboring a fugitive!”

As they sailed beneath the bridge, Sumire heard the guards scramble to apprehend their boat. A couple of them grabbed rifles and attempted to shoot, but Jimmu was too fast. The bullets narrowly missed and within seconds they were out of range.

“Whoa! That was crazy!” Sumire cried, an exhilarated smile on her face. “But that was totally reckless, Sen! What would we have done if we couldn't escape?”

“Well… Perhaps we'll find out…”

The ronin replied apprehensively, staring ahead of them. Confused by his response, Sumire followed his gaze to find that they were rapidly approaching another bridge. There, several Hagashi were rushing in, crowding the bridge to face the boat. Many of them were drawing weapons, prepared to stop the pirates by any means necessary.

Seeing this, Sumire got to her feet and reached for the conductor sword on her back. Opposite her, what appeared to be a captain of the amassing guards drew a sort of handgun and loaded it with a lacrima cartridge.

“Sumire, get down,” Senren gritted his teeth at the new weapon. “That's a Paralyzer! He'll shoot you!”

“A Paralyzer, eh?” Sumire had never heard of that weapon before, but she had a hunch about what it might do. She smirked dubiously.

“Halt!” The Hagashi captain shouted at them. “Surrender the fugitive or we'll shoot!”

“Heh. Try me, you lapdog, I dare ya!”

When faced with the demoness that was Sumire, the Hagashi did what only felt logical and fired his Paralyzer. The weapon shot a bolt of high voltage electrical energy which, now that the boat was only a few feet away from the bridge, hit Sumire square in the chest.

All at once, Sumire's nerves were overloaded. The electrocution gave her entire body a familiar short-circuited feeling, tensing every muscle to the point of spasm and pain. But, in all honesty… it was nothing compared to the symptoms she'd endured from her illness. Any other person would have been debilitated, or possibly knocked out…

But Sumire laughed.

“Sumi!” Senren cried out in concern.

“Sumire, are you alright?!” Instinctively, Jimmu slowed their propulsion, perhaps even too much so. As a result, they were nearly shot down by the guards’ less-than-accurate rifles, the bullets instead grazing their little boat and Jimmu’s shoulder.

For a brief moment, their boat slowed to a crawl and Senren's ears were filled with an odd hissing sound. He couldn't tell if it was Jimmu hissing in pain, or the air around Sumire charged with static — or even an ungodly merger of the two. Whichever it was, it filled the Hagashi with as much unnerve as it did him.

“Heheh… Nice try, but now it's my turn!”

The electric energy from the Paralyzer blast had channelled into the conductor sword, amplifying around its Koi Tear. In one fell swoop, Sumire released all of that energy with a grand slash towards the Hagashi. Instead of colliding with the men, however, it instead destroyed the bridge with a large blast.

While Senren and Jimmu tried to shield themselves from falling debris, the latter of the two began trying to speed up the boat. A few of the guards were debilitated by the blast, while the others scrambled to respond. Suddenly there was a bang, and a single firework streamed high into the sky and burst.

“We need to hurry,” Senren announced. “That was their distress signal. Reinforcements will be here soon!”

“Ngh. Understood,” Enduring the pain in his shoulder, Jimmu tried to pick up the pace as much as possible. This meant that he could no longer focus on keeping his powerful tail concealed, an unfortunate circumstance considering the Hagashi’s reinforcements were swiftly arriving.

“Captain, look! The man on the back of the boat is a Yokai!”

“That must be how they're moving upstream. Subdue him at once!”

Immediately, the Hagashi began to directly target Jimmu. Since he was unable to properly defend himself while driving them forward, it was up to Sumire and Senren to protect him as much as possible. When officers on one side launched a net, Senren made the water beneath the boat surge to push them away from it. As more officers caught up to them with rifles on the opposite side of the river, Sumire slid in and deflected their bullets with her massive sword.

“Tch. These guys are relentless,” Sumire remarked as she detonated the ground beneath a few of the men's feet with a lightning blast. “How can they run this fast and this far without boggin’ down?!”

“Hagashi training is merciless,” Senren answered. “As a result, I've heard many civilians regard them as superhuman. Gh—”

The ronin suddenly fell to one knee, gently bracing himself with his sword. Sumire could tell even from just a glance that he was near his limit — tears and sweat streamed down his pale face, and his breathing was noticeably labored.

“There's a cave up ahead,” Jimmu declared over the din of rushing water and shouting men. “They will not be able to follow us inside. If we hurry, we can reach it!”

Bang! Bang!

The sea serpent hissed in pain as two shots from the Hagashi finally found their mark. One bullet tore through his side while, on the opposite side of his body, the other struck him in the area of his tail that would have been a thigh. The pain caused his speed to rapidly decrease, blood from his wound staining the water.

“No, Jimmu,” Senren voiced his dismay. “Please, you have to push past it…”

“Look, I can see the cave entrance!” Sumire encouraged. “We can make it, just hang in there!”

Jimmu bared his fangs in frustration. He could hear the Hagashi celebrating his supposed demise and preparing another net to cast out at him, and with every movement bringing sharp, burning pain to his body, Jimmu couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't be caught. But his friends… If these officers succeeded in catching him, then his friends would surely be doomed.

The sea serpent had to think fast. He had to save his friends. Looking down at the red string tied around his finger, Jimmu steeled himself.

“You must go on ahead without me,” he declared to his two companions with no amount of uncertainty. A vast amount of energy began to amass around him, enough that even his sleek black hair started to float upwards with it.

“What..?”

“No way! Jimmu, you'll die! They'll kill ya!”

“Do not worry!” Jimmu rejected his friends’ pleas. “I will not let them contain or exterminate me. I am going home!”
The conviction in his voice was unmatched. It was a declaration that only God could disobey.

“Now, go!”

Balancing himself in the water, Jimmu pushed the rowboat away from him with a blast of energy. It sent the craft sailing with enough force that the water kicked up behind it in a fury, and the pirates jetted into the cave.

As they passed through the cave entrance, Sumire saw one final glimpse of Jimmu fighting off the Hagashi as their net fell over him…