“Because you won’t fly close enough for a look—”
“And THIRD, if your little slip was stupid enough to fly off alone and land in the middle of ten thousand gaijin berserks, that’s her own fault. I’m not flying this ship within spitting range of those ’thopters, and I’m sure as hells not taking her below the clouds in this storm!”
“Little slip?” Akihito’s eyes grew dangerously wide. “You son of a ronin’s whore—”
“Leave my mother out of this, little man. Liable to hurt my feelings.”
“She could be in trouble. She could be dead.”
“Best to grab yourself an umbrella then, Akihito-san. In case all the shits I don’t give start falling from the sky.”
“Gentlemen.” Michi placed a restraining hand on their forearms. “I think everyone needs to breathe deep and think some happy thoughts. Spring days … The laughter of a carefree child … A woman with cleavage you could hide a boat inside…”
Akihito ignored her, still glowering at the captain. “Why fly us here if you were going to shit yourself five miles short of the mark?”
“You’re welcome to get out and walk the rest of the way, if you think the leg can take it.”
“It can take anything you dish out and more, you fat bastard.”
“That so? Do you think it could take you kneeling down to suck my—”
“Izanagi’s balls, will you two just kiss and get it over with?” Michi shouted.
Blackbird looked at her sideways, nodded to Akihito without missing a beat.
“His beard looks prickly. I have very delicate skin.”
Akihito’s face contorted as he tried to stifle his grin. The Blackbird skipped the pretense, bursting into a barrel-chested guffaw. The cloudwalkers around them relaxed and slouched back to their posts—it looked like there would be no sky-plank walking today.
Thunder bellowed in the cloud cover below, tension fading with the echoes.
“I’m sorry, my friend.” The Blackbird patted Akihito’s shoulder. “But flying any closer to that camp is suicide. Kurea is fast, but not armed for war. We fly low enough, those ’thopters will cut us to pieces. And given you were aboard Thunder Child when she died, I shouldn’t need to explain what happens if Susano-ō decided to give our inflatable a little kiss.”
Akihito sighed, running one hand over his braids. “We have to save her.”
“She might not need saving, Akihito,” Michi said. “Piotr is with her. You’ve seen the way he talks about her. I don’t think he’d lead her willingly into danger.”
“Can we at least drop below the clouds for a moment?” Akihito looked at the Blackbird, pleading. “See if we can spot Kaiah amongst the mob? She shouldn’t be hard to spot.”
Blackbird looked the big man up and down. “Well, well. Got it bad, don’t you now?”
“Sick as a dog, this boy,” Michi nodded.
“Stop talking foolishness,” Akihito growled.
The Blackbird and Michi shared a knowing glance, the girl shaking her head. The Blackbird turned and bellowed at his helmsman (not entirely necessary given the man stood six feet away). Compressors were engaged, hydrogen crushed inside the inflatable with a vacant hiss. The Kurea descended, her crew striking up chi-powered lanterns as the clouds bubbled up over her edges and flooded the deck.
Michi took up vigil beside Akihito, shivering inside her cloaks. The cloud breathed down the back of her neck with clammy fingers. After what seemed an insufferable age, they broke through into the midst of a heavy squall. Kurea rocked like a pendulum, filthy black rain flooding over her decks. Michi cursed and pulled up her kerchief. In seventeen years, she’d never seen rain this toxic. Even swaddled inside a heavy oilskin, it still left her feeling dirty.
… No. Not dirty. That was the wrong word.
Unwholesome.
She peered over the side and saw the gaijin camp through the downpour; thousands of dirty gray tents, huge machines on tank treads carrying rows of rotor-thopters, like great metal insects with their broods clutching their backs. A black runnel had been carved in their wake, the mud churned by thousands of feet, metal treads, rubber tires as they marched inexorably toward Yama city. Lightning tore the skies a hundred yards to port, and Akihito flinched.
“You see anything?”
Michi roared over the howling wind. “Nothing!”
“They’ve sure as hells seen us!” Blackbird was peering through a mechanized spyglass. “Pilots are scrambling for those ’thopters!”
“Can you see Hana? Kaiah?”
“All I see is ten thousand round-eyes set to fuck our corpses! Helm, ascend one hundred and set her to full burn! We’re off like a new bride’s silkies!”
Michi turned on the captain and tilted her head. “… Silkies?”
“Well, what the hells do you call them?”