A watery sunrise lit up the still sleeping pleasure district, regarded only by a solitary figure whose bare feet dragged through the muddy roads of the closed off quarter. She glanced at the moon, which seemed to be overstaying her welcome and spotted two riders on the horizon. They dove from the sky well away from the city.

Even though they were gone, she continued to stare for a time. She wasn’t sure what sort of mount they had been riding, though whatever they were, the woman envied their ability to go wherever they wanted.

The young woman placed the parasol she had been balancing on in her neck and continued to walk, lamenting the cards life had dealt her. She had willingly forgotten the name her parents, poor farmers, had given her and assumed the name Shirosato out of spite to her elders who sold her to a brothel when she turned twelve. After she was sold, she had quickly earned a reputation for being troublesome and recalcitrant, which left her owner to foist her off on the foreign merchants that lived virtually imprisoned on a small island off Choukishi’s coast.

Away from her seniors and hard handed handlers, she had quickly flourished. The strangers valued the quick witted rebellious nature of the girl, and she now went decked in foreign jewelry, made from metals that most people in the Eighth Empire would never even have seen in their lives; Silver bracelets decked with jade, ruby anklets, and, the crowning piece of her collection, a thin collar set with a rainbow of gemstones. All in all, Shirosato, who had turned out to be quiety the beauty as an adult, even with the permanent scowl on her face, had done well for herself. She would have been able to buy her freedom and even had some offers from high placed Giya, men and women, to become their concubine.

Shirosato however, had her sights set on bigger things and her unique access to the foreigners was what she needed to bring her plans to fruition.

As a kechi, a prostitute, she went without painting her face, as the law demanded, but she could still find envious looks on the faces of the few laborers that were already up at the crack of dawn. However, she was unsure if they wanted her body, which was barely covered in a short dress that many cultures would have considered a shirt, or the riches on her bare limbs, she could not tell.

She offered anybody who she noticed looking at her, a coquettish smile then put on a neutral face when she spotted the guard outside the foreigner’s trading post. The man had a reputation as a lecher and had been bribed easily enough with a few feels and a promise of more in the morning to let her go out and about at night.

He wore a purple star around his left eye, marking him as a servant of the city magistrate. Green lips marked him as a lieutenant in the local army.

“Seiji,” she greeted him icily, making sure not to address him by rank.

“Whore,” the man grinned in returned, “You’re back.”

“So I am.”

“Good,” the man said and made sure to lick his lips, running the green paint.

“You know the procedure.”

Shirosato suppressed the urge to make a face, or show him any rude gestures, knowing that would only make the ‘inspection’ last longer. She placed her parasol down in the dirt delicately, then spread her arms, waiting for the inevitable.

The man’s search was less about finding any contraband as it was about getting a good feel of the woman’s bare limbs and a manhandling of her chest.

“They’re not hollowed out,” she said testily when it took longer than needed, “I can’t hide anything in there.”

Even though he stood behind her, his body pressed to hers, she could feel his eyes wander down and feel a hand on her hip snaking towards the gap under her dress. She froze as the man contemplated for a few heartbeats if he could get away with it, then pushed her away as if disgusted by her.

“You’re clear,” he said.

“Thank you,” she said, retrieved her parasol, then entered the door set into the heavy gate to the trading post.

The trading post’s servants were already up to tend to the gardens where the foreigners grew the odd vegetables that were a staple of their diet or wrangling the strange three-horned lizardlike creatures they used for meat and fertilizer. One of the animals spotted her, opened its beakmouth and hissed at her.

“Good morning to you too,” she said airily, waved the creature to its handler and wished him a good morning in his own language. The tan-skinned man replied with a wave off his hand, then continued weeding the yard.

Shirosato always found it a nice change of pace when she was I nthe compound. The foreigners, wherever they were from, didn’t wear the traditional face paints the natives of the Empire wore and as such, Shirosato felt less othered. Being welcome to join conversation, even with her incomplete mastery of the language as opposed to having to be seen and not heard was another of the pluses of socializing with the strangers.

She smiled softly to herself as she walked up to the main house of the island. A large building with two floors, which had been made entirely of heavy logs. She found it odd that the house wasn’t made of the same paper-laced lattices there rest of the empire used, but it had grown on her. It was where the leader of the foreign merchants went about his business, filling book after book with numbers and the going-ons of the island. That’s what she’d been told anyway. She couldn’t read, let alone the foreign language that was entirely in a different script, so she had no chance of verifying his claims.

Next, she looked at the massive metal ship that floated a little way off the coast, wondering how they managed to propel the steel dreadnought without sails, as she always did when she saw it. She’d often stand and look at the flags that decorated it, imagining the foreign lands, but had no time for that now. Normally she’d make sure the headman was cared for during his morning rituals, but she had more pressing matters to deal with, heading behind the towering log building to the paper house where the dreadnought’s captain stayed during their stay.

The captain, a dark skinned woman, had been peeking out the window already, looking along the purple curtain that starkly contrasted with the yellowing paper. She hurriedly put on her uniform, then opened the door to let her guest in…

Two human shaped rested along the road, a little distance away from the bridge that spanned the river. Even if there had been traffic at this hour, it would have been unlikely for anyone to see them unless they were actively looking for them. Rei looked at their mounts being maneuvered through the thin white trees, then gave Nana an annoyed look as the older woman pushed a false piercing into her lip.

“I don’t want to do this,” she pouted at Nana, who was too focused on getting the chitin of the second piercing right. When she finally had it in place, she replied.

“Neither do I,” checked herself in the river to make sure she had applied the red circles around her eyes correctly, “But we need to make quick contact with the local trash.”

“… But …”

“We’ll give them their marubu back later,” Nana sighed, trying to put Rei’s mind at ease, “We’ll just hit the poorest looking merchant.”

“Why not the richest?”

“Because the ones that look poorest, generally are the richest. You don’t want to look like a mark after all.”

“That,” Rei started, contemplating if Nana had made any sense. She sighed, then took the small palette of face paint to copy Nana.

“Just a quick robbery,” Nana said calmly, though if she was talking to herself or to Rei, Rei could not tell.

“They’ll think we’re desperate Emubo.”

“I still don’t like it,” Rei continued to pout, “Emubo have a bad enough name as it is.”

“Duly noted. Do you have your weapon?”

Rei took off her belt, which was made from the same Chitin as Nana’s blades. At the end of it were two small hooks that at a casual glance looked like they merely existed to clasp the belt together, but had been filed to a sharp point.

Nana gave the weapon a dubious look. She had seen Rei practice with the chain, which generally was impressive to see, though she had never seen her bondwoman use the odd weapon in earnest.

“Are you sure you don’t want to borrow,” she started, already drawing the shorter of her two blades.

Rei smiled brightly and shook her head, “Nope. This is fine.”

“If you say so,” Nana said, pushing the weapon back in its sheath, “Go find a target then.”

After an earnest nod, Rei cast the chain around one of the nearby trees, using it to quickly scale the wood.

The headman of the trading post opened his eyes and his morning smile immediately fell. He’d expected the warm body of Shirosato next to him, but she was conspicuously absent. For a moment he felt betrayed, then came to the conclusion she probably just went to the bathroom. … And maybe bring him a special breakfast! It was his birthday after all, which he had told her over and over. That meant… He did not know what it meant in this strange land, but back home it would have meant an extra pipe of toetherm. He sighed, remembering smoking it was illegal in this foreign land and resigned himself to whatever Shirosato would bring him.

He dressed in an opulent velvet jacket with golden buttons, which barely fit around his gut’s impressive girth. He tried to close it a few times, gave up, then lumbered down the stairs of the only two-storied building on the island. His breakfast was waiting for him in his study. A few slices of buttered black bread, to be dipped in what was most charitably described as ‘gruel’.

“A special breakfast,” he said, clapping his hands in delight and sat down to start on his meal.

There was a knock on the door and the bulldog-faced man shouted the caller in with a full mouth. He was pleased to see it was Shirosato, though less enthused to see she had Captain Kaba in tow.

From an aesthetic point, he didn’t mind seeing Captain Kaba. The dark skinned woman was filled in the right places after all and was pretty enough in the right light, but there were two reasons he couldn’t stand the woman. One. Her personality was too much, seeming to fill the entire room as soon as she entered. And two, her bright personality generally drew the local courtesans to her before he had a chance to get to know them.

Kaba was the first to speak, dropping herself down uninvited in the chair across from him and helping herself to some of the black bread.

“Good morning, mister Pannkuch,” she said cheerfully, taking a gentle nibble of the appropriated bread, “Awful, this stuff you eat here.”

“Don’t touch my food,” Pannkuch said, his face coloring red in exasperation, “What do you want?”

“I want a new load,” the woman said, letting her black dreads dance by the way she bobbed her head as she spoke, “…Not yours, obviously. Keep your pants on. I want silk.”

“You have copper,” the man replied icily.

“I. Want. Silk,” the woman reiterated, her brown eyes locking with the green of the redheaded merchant, “This copper is junk. I want to make a profit after leaving this prison after a month.”

Pannkuch swallowed a retort, then drummed his fingers on the table, chewing as he did, then finally answered.

“If we change the load, you’ll be stuck here even longer.”

“I want a profit,” the captain reiterated.

“Fine,” he sighed, “I’ll let you change half the load. We need copper for our ships.”

“Your ships?” the captain laughed, “You barely have a navy. If you did, I wouldn’t be here.”

“Still,” Pannkuch said, refusing to explain more, “Now get out of my sight. I’m trying to enjoy my birthday breakfast!”

“Are you now?” the woman laughed, taking another piece of bread from her host and throwing a meaningful look to Shirosato, “I’ll leave you to it then.”

She stood up, slapped Shirosato on the rear before leaving the door, then wiggled her fingers at Pannkuch before throwing the door behind her, loudly singing happy birthday for the headman.

“Awful woman,” Pannkuch said, angrily dipping his bread in the gruel.

“Can you explain?” Shirosato asked, rubbing her buttocks where the captain had struck her, “Slowy, so I understand?”

“Nothing important,” Pannkuch said, gesturing for her to come closer and making room so she could sit in his lap, “Just work.”

“Your work is angry,” she said, then smiled softly, put a finger in the gruel and pushed it to his lips.

The man spoke against the digit.

“It’s my birthday!” he said enthusiastically, “That’s far more important!”

He sucked her finger clean, watching her half closed eyes. She nodded.

“I’ll go get you the birthday grub then,” she said, mirroring his energy and leaving his lap to rush out the door.

For a moment Pannkuch seemed happy with the upcoming present, then his face fell.

“The birthday what now?”

Nana and Rei had hidden themselves in the bushes on either side of the road and were waiting for their approaching target. The giant blue pill bug lumbered over the bridge towards Choukishi. Its riders were half asleep, no longer expecting trouble now that they were almost to their destination. … Which is exactly why Nana had picked this spot to set her trap, hoping to get the robbery over with a minimum of bloodshed.

The massive metallic bottom feeder trudged past them. Nana signaled to Rei that it was her time to act, which she immediately did.

Nana always felt watching the agile girl move was a delight and now was now different. She took a small sprint, then hopped onto the first of the shell plates, using it as a springboard, then grabbing a loose rope, that normally would have been used to secure cargo, to climb to the litter that was attached to the insect’s back.

The guards barely had time to notice the tiny smiling girl. The first woke to Rei’s chain around his neck, a tug and found himself on the ground next to his mount a second later. Next she twirled the chain around the second that was trying to arm himself, finding himself shackled a second later. She ended her acrobatic display of violence by cartwheeling onto the third and last guard, pinning him to the floor of the litter.

The merchant, who had been asleep and probably hadn’t planned on getting up before reaching the city, stirred and and reached for his own weapon. A simple wooden club.

“Might want to drop that,” Nana said, appearing next to him and lightly placing her blade on the man’s neck, “Now… Your riches please.”

“The magistrate will have your heads, you…”

“Yeah yeah,” Nana said impatiently, “Heard it all before. What are you carrying?”

“Just my marubu,” the man replied, his tone turning pleading, “It’s my life’s work!”

“And now they’re your lifesaver,” Nana laughed, “Hand it over.”

The man sighed, dropped his club and pointed to a chest in the back of the litter.

Nana signaled to Rei that she should stay in her place, then quietly considered her next step. She hardened her heart and pointed to the merchant’s hand.

“Your hand,” she instructed.

“What about my hand…?”

“Put it on the floor.”

The man paled, seeing the shape of things to come.

“No!”

“Yes,” she replied, “Hand or neck.”

The man looked dubiously, then placed his hand down on the bamboo.

Nana drew her short blade and used it to pin the merchant’s hand to the litter. To his credit, the man made nary a peep, though if he was putting on a brave face or simply too shocked to respond, Nana could not tell.

She stepped into the litter proper, picked up the crate that kept the Maruba and without bothering to look for locks, threw it over the side. With a loud crash, it splintered and an orange semi-translucent ball the size of her head rolled out of the splintered wood. She jerked her neck at Rei. Rei nodded, stood up and lightly somersaulted to the floor, rushing to grab the escaping ball.

“Sorry about the trouble,” she called over shoulder.

“She’s sorry,” Nana said, retrieving her blood-slick blade from the man’s hand, “I’m not.”

She hopped off the pill bug, lightly though without the showmanship of Rei, then lazily walked over to Rei who had already managed to retrieve the Marubu, casually kicking it between her bare feet.

The guard that had been toppled from the mount was approaching Rei, drawing his weapon as he did.

“Brave,” Nana said, placing her naked blade in her neck, “How about I give you a handful and you don’t bother with this?”

The man looked at his employer, who he now assumed to be destitute, then to the women he was supposed to defend him from. He had a short moral argument with himself, then nodded.

“Smart,” Nana laughed, pushing her hand into the honey-like orb and pulling out a hand of the material. Both the large and the small amounts reshaped to balls. She dropped the maruba and kicked it to the guard.

He took it in hand, raised his hand to his fuming employer, then rushed into the forest.

“And now,” Nana said calmly as she collected the orb, “We go have ourselves a drink.”

“Great,” Rei said, looking regretfulyl at the still crawling pill bull, sullenly locking eyes with the merchant’s desperate ones.