Kneeling on the floor of her private quarters, Nana quietly observed the walls.

As ordered, she had let somebody take care of her wounds and taken a long but and had slept briefly. For most of the day however, she quietly stared at the paintings on the wall, hoping the life story of a legendary warrior drawn there would offer her some insights.

For the tenth time that evening, her eyes traced each of the panels, lingering halfway on a panel where the warrior fought a hundred enemies by herself to reach her lover.

Suddenly, it clicked.

That legendary warrior never gave up, not until she finally reached her lover. And giving up was exactly what she did.

Well resolved, she stood up, tied her short bob back and headed to the vanity to fix her face paint. She very deliberately chose a pattern this time. On her lips she put the colors of her position in society, the vermilion and amber of the dragonfly. Next, she imitated the paint of the woman on her wall. A midnight blue bar around her eyes, only leaving to room to add the one part of her family’s colors she regularly used; A dazzling golden glow around her eyes.

When she was done, she took a moment to regular her breathing as she waited for the paint to dry, then stood up to choose her clothes, deciding on the damaged dress she had yet to return to the girl in Choukishi.

After dressing, she collected her weapons and lit fresh incense over the bowl of rice that stood as an offering to her ancestors. She begged them to look over her, then headed to collect her mount.

When she left her room and entered the hallway, she found Rei waiting for her. Or at least, the girl would have been if she hadn’t fallen asleep against the wall. She had clearly been waiting for Nana until her exhaustion caught up with her, leaving Nana now to wonder if she should take the girl along.

She decided against it and on quiet feet headed up towards the stables.

A little later, she was speeding across the evening sky, back to Choukishi.

It was close to dawn when she arrived in Choukishi, where she found the foreign ship as she had hoped. Even from the sky she could tell it was heavily damaged, though more interesting was the fact that instead of the mighty Haga-powered engines, two emergency masts had been jury-rigged onto the vessel. The furled sails gently blew in the winds, fighting with the flags to see which could make the most noise.

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Assuming the sailors would still be asleep, Nana swept down and inspected the heavy damage to the metal hull, finding that they would only need a little help to be lost the ocean depths forever.

She clawed her fingers through one of the gaps and tugged on it. It didn’t budge.

Pressing her knees into the flanks of her hornet, she returned to the city and audaciously landed in the middle of one of the streets.

A group of sukeeru leading a dung beetle, on their way to collect the night soil, hurriedly took a different street to avoid the Giya and her terrifying mount.

Nana pretended not to notice them, tied her hornet to a nearby streetlight and headed into the a dark alley to find the Dung Beetle’s lair.

She knocked a few times, waiting patiently.

A few moments later, she knocked again, becoming less patient

After a third bout of knocks and no response, she quite simply kicked down the door.

“Daigaimon!” she called, “I need your skinny ass out here, right now.”

A secret panel somewhere in the wall opened and the man known as the Dung Beetle stared blankly at her.

“Tassi,” he yawned, “It’s too early for this kind of noise.”

Nana didn’t wait for the man to recognize her. She strode across the room, grabbed him by the neck and pulled him out of his hidden bed.

“I don’t have time to waste, Daigaimon, listen…” It had taken Nana only five minutes and a few threats to get what she wanted and, armed with her new weapon, she left the hideout and returned to the road only to stop dead in her tracks when she saw a familiar face.

With folded arms and tapping foot, Rei was waiting for her. She raised a brow when she saw the large package under Nana’s arm.

“Thought you’d be here,” she said calmly, “The Gunari wants you…”

“He’ll have to wait.”

“He wants you to join him, Nana. He’s marching on Kuwagata.”

The news surprised Nana, who frowned, though in the end she returned her thoughts to the matter at hand.

“I’m not his bodyguard,” she said simply, “He doesn’t need me in battle.”

“Nana, I said you were sleeping. You have until noon to join him.”

“Plenty of time then. Step aside.”

“...What are you doing here anyway.”

Nana nodded in the direction of the bay, “Finishing the job.”

Rei cast a dubious look at the masts that rose over the city.

“Nana…”

“Saying my name over and over, won’t stop me, Lady…”

“Don’t,” Rei sighed, then resorted to tapping her fingers against her arm in silence, before sighing again and turning her full attention to the ship.

“What are we doing?”

“Fireworks,” Nana smiled, holding the package up, “Choukishi’s going to wake up early today.”