Even without electricity, the makeshift Annitou jails tended to be fairly well lit. It paid to be vigilant when any random thug pulled off the street might be a human weapon in disguise. This particular holding cell was specifically for civilians only, though, and its wide area and plethora of benches more than satisfied the dozen or so drunks and disgruntled street urchins that the Annitou Navy had thrown in there for the night. The large metal bars which made up the gate made it almost seem like a cage, but most of the folks in there were regular and understood well enough how the system worked. Stay quiet, keep your head down, and you could get out in the morning. For some of the jail’s residents it was better than sleeping on the streets, anyway.

Half an hour after his encounter with the kids, the filthy vagrant was inside that warm jail cell, scarfing down Annitou rations like he hadn’t eaten in days. The current duty guards watched with an amused look, since it wasn’t an uncommon scene. Who needed to bribe informants when random bums would sell you out for nothing more than a couple days worth of food? The man hadn’t committed any crime but had insisted on spending the night there- he was probably just tired and needed a place to rest. At any rate the information he divulged was more than worth the price of admission.

Some buildings over, in the main Annitou headquarters, an incredulous looking Ringo and Hajime stared down the firm glare of General Gou. The enormous general took up quite a bit of space in the tiny ‘office’ which bore his name. It was impossible to make out any distinct furniture or decorations in the room- it was full to the brim with armor, weapons, and stacks of unread reports. Gou himself refused to sit and loomed down over his two cadets with his usual rock hard expression. He seemed to anticipate trouble. “It’s final. No arguments.”

Hajime took the lead this time and blurted his thoughts instantly. “Can you at least explain why? Why can’t we help search for Gekko?!”

General Gou scratched his facial stubble, then placed his massive hand onto a small set of documents sitting on what might have been a desk. When he leaned forward it felt like the whole building shifted from his enormous weight. “This witness you brought in was able to clearly identify Gekko, but it has been hours since the sighting occurred. The mercenary, this...” He glanced back down at the table’s documents. “...Kiku-ichimonji Junko, is far too dangerous for cadets to pursue. Continue your patrol routes for the rest of the night then head back to the barracks. Those are your orders.”

“Ah, uh, Sir!” Ringo’s teeth clenched together as she managed to contain her own emotions in stark contrast to the very agitated looking Hajime. “Maybe we could tail the search party, just to learn from them. We wouldn’t engage in combat. We would retreat at the first sign of danger!”

“There will be no search party.” Gou grunted. Ringo’s eye twitch and Hajime opened his mouth to protest but Gou threw up one his giant palms to silence them both. “If this man you found is to be believed, the mercenary has had half the night to run off into the jungle. It would be a futile effort to give chase without any other clues. Besides, if she is keeping Gekko alive, then there must be some reason. She is likely working with the fugitive Daisuke to keep the boy hostage. There will be a chance to recapture him later.”

“What if there’s not?” Hajime was leaning so far forward he was almost standing off his stool. “What if this is our only chance?”

“Then that responsibility lies with me.” Gou stared the boy down with his own fierce gaze. “Your opinions have been noted, cadets. I have made my decision. Finish your patrol.”

“Yes Sir!” Ringo chirped through her teeth. Hajime started to spurt something out but Ringo gave him her own death glare, and he let it go with a defeated exhale. Abandoning a comrade was unthinkable! But so was disobeying a direct order from a General. The chain of command could not be broken. The entire fabric of Annitou society was built on that rigid belief. The country came before all else.

The two left the office and a pair of Annitou agents escorted them back out. The two kids awkwardly milled about at the entrance to the jail as they waited for the front office clerk to finish filling out their timecards. “Do you think that homeless guy had some ulterior motive?” Hajime steamed, trying to take his mind off the burden resting on his conscience. “Maybe he got lucky describing Gekko. To give up that information for just a hot meal and a place to sleep for a night, isn’t that strange?” Hajime and Ringo were forced to move aside as another crowd of patrolling guards and their catches turned up at the front desk. It looked like the usual crowd of young, rowdy sailors. For some reason lots of people were trying to get arrested that night. Camp Monog’s crime problems were only getting worse.

“Who cares.” Ringo looked away from the adults and stared at an empty wall. “We were ordered to not think about it. We have to complete our patrol.”

Hajime pursed his lips in dissatisfaction. A brief, traitorous thought crossed his mind. If only Ringo got kidnapped instead. That girl never disobeyed an order. Meanwhile Gekko was always fine with anything as long as it didn’t mean more work. Had their situations been reversed it would have been...well, no, not really. Hajime quickly dismissed the fantasy. Gekko wouldn’t have tried to save either of them either. The only thing Gekko was passionate about was how much he hated cadet work. Gekko might be easier to get along with, but Ringo at least shared Hajime’s commitment to their work. Why couldn’t he have been on a team with two other Hajimes! Then nobody would ever disagree with him!

It took a bit longer than usual to escape the clutches of Annitou’s paper-pusher brigade due to the influx of visitors, but eventually the two cadets did manage to slip away. The Jinchi air chilled their faces and the mood as both cadets exited. Both silently began the trek back towards their assigned patrol routes.

Their path took the pair on a winding path around the outskirts of Camp Monog and soon enough glimpses of Jinchi’s towering trees could be seen in between the makeshift structures of the settlement. This would be the last time the two would be so close to the wilderness for a while. Tomorrow was port duty, followed by ship cleaning and inspection...and by that time Gekko might be on the other side of the island (or worse!). As Hajime watched the distant jungle grow closer he felt as though walking away now meant walking away from his ally for good. There wouldn’t be any other chance after tonight.

“Ringo, did you see that?” Hajime put just enough raw emotion in his voice to shake the girl out of her rigid focus. The confused girl looked up from the suspicious trash can she’d been probing to where Hajime now pointed. “There, northeast of us, by that pile of broken bottles.” Hajime raised his spear and moved the lantern in that direction. “Someone very suspicious just walked by!”

Ringo squinted. “I only see shadows. And what looks like a bunch of discarded corn cobs.”

“No, really. I saw someone. For sure.” Hajime was already crossing the street and Ringo, ever the tailcoat rider, stayed on his heels. “Definitely had some weapons. I think two swords. Seemed like a very shady individual!”

“Nobody would openly carry weapons like that.” Ringo’s guarded words were tinted with a bit of doubt, but it was more of the ‘Hajime is mistaken’ suspicion rather than anything more sinister. “Even if they did, Jinchi residents are allowed to carry weapons if they have the proper permits.”

“Well, maybe she doesn’t have the right permit.” Hajime suggested with an usual amount of confidence. Ringo picked up on exactly the wrong thing and quickened her step to keep side by side with Hajime.

“She? You recognized it was a woman, at this distance?”

“Uh, yeah. Totally.” Hajime cast the light away from his face just to make sure he gave nothing away. “Definitely had the body of a woman, yeah, no doubt. Man’s intuition you know. I’m certain of it. 100 percent!”

The catalog of criminals in Ringo’s mind began to unfurl upon hearing those details and already the girl was trying to sort if this mysterious stranger was someone to care about. Hajime rushed to round the corner of the garbage pile. As he swung his light down the path it revealed not a soul, nor was there any indication that anyone had even travelled down that way. Ringo’s own suspicion began to build as the speed of their pursuit increased. “Any identifying markings? How tall was she? There aren’t many female migrants on Jinchi, we could probably narrow it down really quick.”

“Uh, yeah, you know,” Hajime mumbled as he swung his spear down to make sure they didn’t trip over anything while moving down the winding path. “I couldn’t see too much but she was, uh, about this tall.” He made no gesture to indicate what he meant by ‘this tall’, and instead turned down the street to dodge the inevitable Ringo follow-up.

“How tall? As tall as your spear?”

“-Big shoulders, you know. Broad. Clearly a soldier.” Hajime coughed and spoke sideways hoping some of his words were misheard. Ringo zipped around to the other side of Hajime and gave the boy an attentive, alert look. Hajime was running out of his usual tricks for avoiding Ringo’s pestering.

“Are you sure she went this way? I don’t hear any noise. Someone that large would make noise when they walked.”

“...I know, right?” He turned his face again to look away from Ringo’s piercing gaze, much to the girl’s chagrin. “It’s really spooky. Also really suspicious. It might be an agent!”

“Or it might be that you were mistaken.” Ringo slowed her own pace slightly just to listen again and confirm the only footsteps along the path they took were their own. “Sir, if you are weary, feel free to return to the barracks. I can finish up the patrol myself.”

“Ah, well,” The momentum in Hajime’s voice lost steam as the two neared the end of the path. “I’m confident someone went this way. If we can just catch a glimpse of them I’ll be happy. Let’s just hurry along-”

The two turned another corner and were faced with a complete and utter dead end. Three sheer walls rose up on all sides, boxing in the small path they were taking. The farthest wall was simply a large wooden fence that rose up ten times higher than both of the children, tied together haphazardly with barbed wire and nails. Although the barrier was rickety and clearly slapdash, there were absolutely no signs that anyone had tried to climb it. There also didn’t appear to be any way around it- these dead ends were fairly common in Camp Monog, where residents threw up buildings overnight without caring whether or not they would be blocking off existing roads.

Hajime moved his light around expectantly in the hopes of finding a hole or a door or something to keep their progress moving. There was nothing, however. This dead end couldn’t have died any more definitively. .

“...wow, that’s impressive.” Hajime murmured to himself as Ringo strained to understand what was going on. “Where could they be? It’s like they slipped out from us at the last moment!”

“Are you absolutely sure?” Ringo looked up at Hajime again and the boy had nowhere else to turn his eyes to. “Are you positively, absolutely sure you saw someone come this way?”

A short pause floated between the two. Even through the slats in the fence Hajime could see the dim silhouette of the treeline against the backdrop of stars. Maybe some barriers just couldn’t be forced through. It would be wrong to keep this charade up any longer. It was wrong to have even attempted it but- but-

“No. I guess not.” Hajime approached the long rods that made up the fence and put his spear besides them. He grabbed on and gave them a firm pull, not to try and make a path but just to vent his frustration at something. He could just barely squeeze a bit of his face through to get a better view of the tantalizing wilderness in the distance. “Wouldn’t make any sense for her to be able to get through this, would it?”

“What do you mean, her?” Rather than accusatory Ringo’s voice took on a more inquisitive tone. “You mean that mercenary? That Kiku-ichimonji character that had Gekko?”

“What? I mean, it wasn’t anyone.” Hajime pouted through the fence. “Nobody came this way. It’s a dead end. I wasn’t right. Let’s head back.”

“But you saw her specifically?” Ringo tilted her head in thought. “And went after her? When we were told not to?”

“What is this, twenty questions?” Hajime spun around and scowled. He attempted to lean up against the fence to strike a pose suggesting nonchalant casualness but inadvertently pressed up against a piece of barbed wire and jumped. Rubbing his back in agitation he continued. “I just told you, I didn’t see anything. We still need to finish the patrol, so just forget about it.”

Ringo nodded in agreement. “Yeah. We can’t pursue her while on duty. We’ll have to come back.”

Hajime sighed and picked up his spear. Of course it was impossible. Ringo never disobeyed orders, and they were just two cadets. This was just the way things had to be.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Sorry. We’ll just have to come back- hang on, what?” Hajime’s funk dissipated just long enough for him to process what the small girl was saying. “What do you mean, come back? We can’t pursue- I just said, I didn’t see anyone. There’s nobody to pursue.”

Now it was Ringo’s turn to look upset and she crossed her arms in defiance. “Sir, we were ordered to finish our patrol. Obviously we can’t pursue her before finishing our duty. But once our tour is finished we can look for Gekko on our own. That’s perfectly allowable.”

“Eh? Eh?” In all their...one single year of working together Hajime had never known Ringo to engage in military work outside of their designated hours. Training, sure, and who knew what the girl got into in her free time, but this felt like a fairly explicit breach of protocol for the otherwise straight laced cadet to suddenly be engaging in. Sensing her superior officier’s reluctance Ringo threw one of her hands up dismissively. “Sir, if you don’t want to waste your precious free time looking for a comrade, I completely understand. Off duty hours are very important to soldiers and I wouldn’t want to burden you. I will do it myself if you already have plans.”

“Eeeeeh?” This new information was difficult to process, but Hajime wasn’t about to ask questions. “I mean, eh, no, that wouldn’t be any good. Yes.” He sagely closed his eyes and shook his head as if deep in thought. “I can’t let my subordinates run around by themselves...I better tag along with you to keep you out of trouble. Jeez, Ringo. You’re such a pain sometimes, running off and chasing your whims. I’ll allow it though, just this once! ”

“Of course, Sir.” Ringo’s expression hardened and she gave a salute. “I won’t make trouble for you, I promise!”