Blood and adrenaline slammed into Thomas’ muscles like pistons. He drew his Genji Type-24 between heartbeats and leveled it at the top of the stairs.

Milly jerked Sayuri back towards the embankment and out of the line of fire. The first Genji soldier hurtled after his unarmed quarry, only thinking a second later to look where he was going. Thomas fired three shots. Two into the protruding ceramic plates that protected the man's clavicle and one through his cheek. Everyone on the wharf scrambled for cover.

The second Genji soldier had more warning and the barrel of his assault rifle peeked over the lip of the stairs before he did. Thomas backpedaled seconds before rifle fire made toothpicks of the boardwalk. More lined up to fire over the top of the embankment. Thomas forced their heads down with a few shots in their direction. His magazine, however, was running light.

"Get to that boat!" Thomas screamed.

Milly and Sayuri scrambled for the Daisagi-Maru and its dumbfounded captain. Thomas ran after them, firing off his last few shots to suppress the riflemen for a few more seconds.The boat's motor rumbled to life with a sputtering whirr.

Bullets sent jets of splinters into the air around Thomas as he sprinted for the boat. He dove in right as the pumpjets fired, tilting the bow towards the night sky and shooting the boat out of the wharf and into open water. Splashes and clinks followed them into the river.

"Is the hull gonna be alright?" Thomas asked, picking himself off the aluminum floor.

"Aye, she's still a military boat at heart. Paint job might need some touchin' up," Shuu said from the bridge.

Thomas set the wallet on the steering console. "It's all yours."

Steering with one palm pressed to the wheel, making minute adjustments by feel, Shuu looked over at Thomas and handed him the wallet back.

"We'll worry about it when time comes," Shuu answered, his voice missing the cheekiness from earlier. "Save it for incidentals."

Milly leaned against an empty machine gun mount in the stern and yelled over the engine. "We appreciate it! What's your name!?"

"Shuu!" he yelled back.

Sayuri, clutching the railing of the bridge like she'd fall off at any moment, perked up. "Ue no namae?"

"Fukuzawa ya! Daga, Shuu tte yobare."

"Hakagahara no Fukuzawa no shizoku desu ka?"

"Saa, meccha en ga to-oi naa. Shikashi, soko e ichidomo ikan jaa,"

"Demo, Shuu-san no namari wa chotto..."

"Uhh, Thomas!?"

Thomas turned from the hypnotically unintelligible conversation to Milly pointing at dark shapes gaining on their boat.

"Shuu! We're being followed!"

Their monitors were too lumbering to disembark in time, but the Genji river flotilla had patrol boats, smaller than the Daisagi-Maru, faster, and powered by hatsuden fuel cells which rendered them silent save the chop of their bow.

"She's not gonna outrun 'em. Best hope we can out-maneuver 'em," Shuu said.

"Do you have any guns on board?"

"Yeah, this one!" he said, reaching into the corner of the tiny bridge and handing Thomas a rusty double-barreled shotgun that topped the list for most pathetic weapons he'd ever seen, and he’d fought peasants armed with farming tools.

Thomas snapped open the action and popped two shells out. Dry firing it towards the river, the firing pin sounded good, and the barrel and shells didn't feel wet. Most importantly, there wasn't another option. He loaded the two shells into the chamber.

"Do you have any more?"

"Nope! Better not miss, huh?"

The trees on their left and the town on their right were fuzzy blurs. The speedometer above the wheel inched towards 40 knots and the wind roared in their ears. But their patrol boat had been designed for infantry support, not pursuit. By the time Thomas inspected the shotgun, the Genjūkō boats had closed half the distance.

He turned to Milly and Sayuri. "You two stay behind the gun mount up on the bow. They're gonna try and board us so they don't risk accidentally shooting—" Thomas caught himself before he said the name “Sayuri” out loud. "Stay down and out of the line of fire, understand?"

Milly nodded and peeled a reluctant Sayuri off her emotional support railing while rustling for something in her bag. Thomas took up position behind the stern gun mount and pulled the hammer back on the first barrel.

Through the shields of the mount he watched sleek, blue-and-silver boats draw closer and closer. He counted three boats, each with four men aboard. A pilot, two riflemen, and a machine gunner in the rear. Twelve men, three boats, and he had two bullets in the chamber. On top of that, his brain kept putting more boats in his vision that he knew weren't there.

"Hey, Tom!" Shuu called back.

"What!?"

"The Genji dinghies back there, they got outboard motors. Pretty easy to shoot if we swing around on 'em, don'tcha think?"

"Can you do that!?"

Shuu cut the Daisagi-Maru into a 180-degree swing at full speed. Thomas knew the boat could do it, the pump jets underneath made it feel like the boat was levitating over the water, but its captain, a civilian, handled it like it was his own body. Their pursuers were equally surprised, having barely enough time to lift their rifles before Thomas popped up and riddled one of their engines point-blank with lead pellets.

The damaged speedboat sputtered and came to a halt as its two sister craft overshot the Daisagi-Maru. Shuu banked hard and sped off right as their pursuers were turning around. Thomas’ skin crawled as he thought about the fact that if sinking them was Genji’s goal, they’d already be dead. One sweep of their rotary machine guns would do the trick.

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"Guess that trick'll only work once," Shuu said.

A rifle round cracked into the shield inches above Thomas' head. Thomas risked a peek over the top of the mount. Both boats were forking around on either side of the Daisagi-Maru. He estimated twenty seconds before they pulled alongside. Letting them get ahead of them would put Sayuri and Milly in the line of fire.

"Hey! You Afujin used to charge each other on horses for fun, right?" Shuu asked.

"You mean jousting?"

"Wanna try that?"

Shuu swung the boat around using the same pump jet maneuver. This time the Genji boats dropped their speed back in anticipation, taking the opportunity to fire a few more rounds which plinked off the hull and tore the canvas fabric over the bridge. Once they were facing the two boats, Shuu yanked the throttle back and the jets launched them towards their pursuers.

The two Genji boats swerved out of the way, but the Daisagi-Maru cut towards one, coming inches from its hull as Thomas leveled the shotgun against the boat's motor and fired. Shards of plastic, fiberglass, and metal splashed into the water. The boat's crew looked stunned.

The sailors were green, Thomas realized. Despite the technology Genji put in their hands, the men hired as sailors for their brown-water navy had probably only ever harassed fishermen. Under fire, they had no idea what they were doing. Adding insult to injury, a split second after their narrow pass, the men were capsized by the Daisagi-Maru's wake as it turned to face back downriver.

Under stress, the sailors’ inexperience showed. Against orders, the gunner of the last boat swung their machine gun towards the Daisagi-Maru and spun up to an ear-splitting, droning buzz. Shuu swerved out of the firing line but not before a dozen or more machine gun bullets clanged into the aluminum hull, lighting up the evening air with fireflies. A second later, cooler heads on the Genji boat stayed the gunner's hand.

They weren't out of danger yet. Genji would catch up, and the shotgun was now nothing but an awkward club. There was no way around their pursuers boarding them, and at that range, the Genji sailors could use their machine gun without fear of hitting Sayuri.

"Comin' up on our right!" Shuu shouted.

Thomas pressed his bloated body tight against the sides of the machine gun mount, hoping surprise would be enough of an advantage.

"Ten seconds out!"

His heart slammed like a jackhammer. A film of sweat built between his trembling hands and the shotgun’s wooden barrel. He knew his body could do its job, but his mind projected images of being carved apart by a buzzsaw of bullets. It transposed himself onto the Ryūjin peasant he had done the same thing to. He didn't want Milly to see him like that.

"Pulling up!"

Shuu let go of the wheel and ducked below the thin metal sides of the bridge that would do nothing to stop the 14mm rounds of the Genji machine gun. Before diving for cover, Shuu pushed the throttle forward, and both boats slowed to a stop. Thomas shot out of his hiding spot club in hand.

"Cease this!" Sayuri said, standing with her arms splayed in the middle of the boat.

Thomas stood, shotgun-club in hand, eyeing the boat's occupants who returned his gaze, both parties aware of the other’s homicidal intent.

"I will go with you, but I ask that you not harm the occupants of this ship," Sayuri said.

"Boat!" Shuu corrected from his hiding place.

The Genji sailor nearest the Daisagi-Maru, a gaunt man with a bushy beard and sunken eyes, shook his head. "You are not in position to ask anything, girl. We have orders to take your pet terrorist too," he said, jamming his thumb in Thomas' direction. "And we may also take your half-breed. For other uses."

Thomas' knuckles turned white against the barrel of the shotgun.

"To enforce one’s whims through violence is the domain of brutes and barbarians! Civilized Kaihonjin ought to be motivated by moral principles of autonomy and civility.”

The sailor laughed. “Is that the garbage they teach academy girls? That is funny. Take them.”

Sayuri was about to continue protesting on moral and ethical grounds when someone else made a more compelling argument.

Bang. Click. Bang. Click.

Unlike the sailors' motor-powered machine gun, the six chambers of Milly's pocket revolver turned idly, almost leisurely, with each new bullet waiting patiently in the revolving queue to be called up, while the cylinder ticked like a clock. A woman firing a gun with the intent to kill was beyond the horizons of possibility for the sailors, so even after the first two shots entered the brain of the one in front of Sayuri, the other three weren't sure who shot him despite the muzzle flashes exploded from the end of Milly's arm.

Bang. Click. Bang. Click.

Two more bullets buried themselves in the arm and shoulder of the machine gunner, causing him to recoil in shock from his weapon.

Bang. Click. Bang.

The final two went into the chest of the other riflemen. Then the empty revolver clattered to the deck.

Thomas was on the Genji boat before the panicked pilot could pull away. The shotgun's wooden stock slammed the man's skull, crumpling him instantly. The gunner dove into the water, furiously paddling for shore. The sailor shot in the chest had simply disappeared.

This left the man Milly shot through the head sprawled across the deck of the Daisagi-Maru leaking dark red blood from holes above his ear. Watery pink puddles of blood sloshed across the deck. Sayuri backed away from his body, hyperventilating at the carnage that had blossomed right in front of her.

Thomas hopped back onto the Daisagi-Maru while Shuu emerged from behind the bridge and pushed the body into the water with a mop.

"Do you have a couple blankets or towels, Shuu?" Thomas asked.

"In there,” Shuu said, pointing at a plastic chest in front of the bridge.

From it, Thomas pulled out a couple ratty beach towels and draped one over Sayuri who wasn't in a state to notice the dirt caked onto it. He walked over to Milly, still in the same spot she had shot the men from.

"T-Thomas..." Her voice was choking up.

He put the other towel around her. "Go sit down."

"Thomas w-what did I—"

"Go sit down, Milly."

Under Thomas’ direction, she planted herself in the bow mount, knees drawn to her shoulders. Thomas returned to the bridge.

"Let's get your collar unlocked," Thomas said.

Sayuri nodded, shivering despite the towel wrapped around her. The rubber-and-silver collar the Genkai-Wabu slapped on her to absorb her hatsuden wasn't technically urgent. Anything else Genji could throw at them would take a while to disembark from Edgarstún. But as his sergeant told him after his first firefight, the best balm for trauma was giving and taking clear orders.

"I can help with that," Shuu said, producing some small metal tools from a drawer under the pilot's seat. Fiddling with the lock, Shuu had the collar open in less than a minute. Thomas tossed the thing overboard on the off chance it had surveillance electronics in it. Sayuri rubbed her neck.

"How could he- I-I don't understand. How can someone be so cruel? It's like we weren't humans to him," Sayuri said, her voice hollow and distant.

We weren’t, Thomas wanted to say. We were the coal that someone was paying him to shovel into the fire. He left this unsaid, not wanting to disturb the girl any more tonight.

"Err, lass, wouldja like to learn how to pilot a boat?" Shuu said.

"What? Mr. Fukuzawa, I am not sure if—"

Shuu must have thought her native language would help calm Sayuri down, so Kaihongo joined the sounds of rustling trees and lapping waves. After a brief back and forth, Shuu let Sayuri pull the throttle back and the Daisagi-Maru once more lurched out into the dark river.

Thomas sat down next to Milly on the bow. Neither said anything. The constant, droning hum of the diesel engine offered a gentler version of the Shroud's numbing effect while the blurry lights along the shore grew more and more sparse as they left the city limits of Suigen-Kyō.