Some things were easier when you were small and almost everything was easier when you have both hands. Yasuko had to make do with what she had. The first major problem was her pursuers. She had been on the run from local cops many times, but Prince Sturla's agents were in a whole other league, which led to her second problem. Nowhere was safe. She didn't know where to go because they would follow her wherever she went. Maybe if she got into the Unincorporated Territories, but even that probably wouldn't be enough. For the time being, she just had to keep moving, resting as much as she dared until her bones were fully mended.

As important as rest was to the healing process, food was important too. While she might have been able to swipe what she needed from the market, she didn't fully trust her reflexes in the brace and so long as her money held out, it was better to do things legally and keep a low profile than resort to stealing and risk getting caught.

Yasuko bought a couple grilled skewers. For a hundred chips, it wasn't a bad deal. Meat wasn't easy to come by most generally. They'd say it was chicken and you didn't ask questions. Not concerned with looking particularly ladylike, Yasuko cleaned off both skewers at the same time, leaving her with a mouthful of greasy, rubbery 'meat' that would take her forever to chew.

While she was looking around, trying to decide if she wanted to pay for a little bread to go with her meal, she noticed two strange men talking with one of the vendors. One of the men seemed too fair-skinned to be a paisano. She had heard that you could find people with Man ancestry this far north, but he still stood out. The second one, on the other hand, was too dark, like an Idingan. For such a mismatched pair, their clothes were identical, military uniforms obviously but without the tunics to clearly identify them. Their attempt to speak Lingua sounded off too. Could they be Turians or Grandians maybe? If so, what were they doing so deep in Imperial territory?

While Yasuko was distracted, she felt the ominous presence of someone looming over her.

Yasuko gulped down the food she was chewing on and replied, "I think I'd rather resist."

Unlike so many of the people she had fought before, this assassin didn't waste any time. However, instead of his knife slipping through her ribs and going into her lung, it bounced off one of the steel supports of her brace. Bad luck for him.

Yasuko whipped around and jammed the skewers up under the assassin's chin. It wouldn't kill him, but it did stagger him so she could trap his arm and wrench his elbow to make him let go of the knife. She figured a knife from a professional assassin would be better than the paring knife Señora Villalobos gave her. While she crouched down to pick up the knife, the assassin grabbed for her and got her hat. While she was down there, she stabbed him in the foot and in the knee to take out his leg. Only as she was doing that, she saw others coming at her.

Even if perfect health, with both arms and a muscle suit, this would be a challenge. In her current condition, it was basically suicide, but she couldn't run, so all that was left was to fight.

The moment's distraction was time enough for the assassin she was fighting to backhand her, laying her out flat. He plucked out the knife that was still stuck in his knee, but as he made a go for her, the injured leg buckled under him. Seizing the opening, she kicked out one of the legs of the food vendor's brazier, knocking it over and spilling out hot coals on the assassin. While he was howling and flailing about trying to get the coals off of him, Yasuko kicked him in the face. This further staggered him, giving her the chance to recover the knife and stab him in the neck.

The assassin was ineffectually clawing at her in his death throes, causing her to very nearly miss a throwing knife sent her way. She managed to move the assassin's body enough to shield her from the knife and the two more to follow in quick succession. Then there was the crack of a whip on her back. The brace mostly protected her, but she still felt the blow and it reminded her that they were coming at her from both sides.

She rolled into the food vendor's stall. She didn't exactly want to be cornered, but it was worse to have her back to one set of assassins or the other. There was also plenty of stuff she could improvise for weapons. She started with a jar of sauce that she threw at the assassin who threw the knives. It wasn't much of a serious attack, just intended as a distraction, but it was a mistake because while her arm was extended from the throw, the assassin with the whip managed to snare her. The natural instinct was to move away, but that was exactly what the assassin would expect. Instead, Yasuko ran at him, or as near enough to running as her legs could manage. Because he was trying to reel her in, the slack unbalanced him. Yasuko threw herself at him, paying no heed to how much it was going to hurt. Despite her weight disadvantage, she was able to tackle him hard enough to knock him off his feet and, as she feared, there weren't words enough to describe how much it hurt.

For all the good it would do, Yasuko gave the assassin a couple punches to the ribs while she was on top of him. Then, seeing the brace of daggers strapped to his leg, she drew one out and tried driving the point into his lung, but he was wearing body armor that deflected it. She should've known.

She felt a sharp pain as the nearest assassin threw a knife into her arm. She went to pull it out, realizing a moment too late that she was just waving her stump. Dammit.

She couldn't exactly spring back to her feet, so instead she rolled to the other side of the street to take cover in another stall. This wrenched the knife loose, hurting like hell and opening up a bigger wound. She didn't stand much chance as it was, but if she lost the use of her arm, she was dead for sure.

As she was trying to get back on her feet, the owner of the stall, this huge man who had to be nearly two hundred kilos, was pitching a fit, furiously haranguing her for invading his space and getting him involved. He very unwisely got between her and the assassin, which led to him taking a knife in the back. If he didn't have so much insulation, it might have been dangerous. It may not have hurt him much, but it did make him angrier, so instead of yelling at Yasuko, he started yelling at the assassin and shaking his big meaty fist. That was a good way to get himself killed, even if the assassin would have to go digging to find any vital spots.

Yasuko snatched up a big carving knife and was going to go for the assassin while the vendor drew his attention, but as she cleared the stall, an assassin from the other side tackled her to the ground. He slapped something on her back and she felt this tightening sensation around her arm and chest.

Yasuko briefly flashed back to her showdown with Hongxia, where Yoon-hee was held hostage and strung up by microfilament wires. She wondered if the wires cut through metal as easily as meat. She had to risk it because the only alternative was to let them take her back to Sturla.

Before she could do anything, though, she felt something pressed against her neck and heard a hiss. An autoinjector. Even though Mithridates' Gift would probably break down whatever the assassin injected her with, it wouldn't be quick enough. Worse yet, whatever it was, it was fast-acting. She could already feel herself getting lightheaded. She tried to get free of the assassin, but he had her pinned down quite securely. As she started to black out, she thought she heard some commotion. She didn't know if that was good for her or not, but knowing her luck...

Another voice then spoke. It wasn't quite Lingua, but it was close enough for her to understand.

Her eyesight was coming back into focus, though they were in someplace dark, so she could barely see anyway. The man holding her down was the dark-skinned foreigner she saw before. The light-skinned one was standing behind him and another was crouched down beside her, cutting away at the microfilament wires. Once he was done cutting the wires, the dark-skinned man let her go.

Part of her wanted to make a run for it right then, but the foreigners didn't seem hostile. If anything, it appeared that they saved her from the other assassins. It could be a trick, but that seemed a little too unnecessarily convoluted, even for Sturla.

This put Yasuko on edge.

The man who cut away the wires, who looked Wo to her, held up the autoinjector and said, "A simple scan told us what we needed to know."

He showed her a wrist-mounted console like the Little Companions she'd seen some of the nobles wear. So they didn't know about the compound because they were in on the plan to capture her. Or at least that was what they wanted her to think.

Lowen shook his head.

Yasuko felt herself in a bit of a daze. There were people from other planets? Well, the Celestials had to come from somewhere, so maybe it made sense. Still, she found herself say, "There are people from other worlds?"

Yasuko seemed to remember something similar being among the Emperor's styles here. So apparently Lowen's Emperor had the same love of ostentatious titles. She wondered if he called himself the Son of Heaven as well.

Setting that aside, she asked Lowen, "Why help me?"

Yasuko knew from experience that that wasn't true, but if they were going to try and make use of her, could she do the same with them? If even a fraction of what Lowen said was true, this could be her ticket to bringing down the Celestials and getting her revenge on Sturla. Only for the briefest moment did she consider the possibility that she might be opening the door to something worse, but the prospect of hurting the Celestials—really hurting them—blinded her to anything else.

Yasuko offered her hand to shake on it and seal the deal, but Lowen gave her a quizzical look. Once again, she forgot that she didn't have a hand to shake and was only offering an empty sleeve. She was looking at her left hand as an alternative, but Lowen said, "I don't know about your people, but among mine it's considered bad form to shake with your left hand, even in... exceptional circumstances." He placed his hand on her shoulder. "This will have to do."

So he was Wo after all. Because Yasuko didn't use Wo very much, it took her a moment to respond, saying only, "Ee, ichiou..."

Kan grinned.

Lowen motioned to the fourth member of his group and said, "Matrose Badu Din, Deck."

Din simply nodded. He was holding his arm, prompting Yasuko to note, "You're bleeding. You get that from one of them?"

Lowen furrowed his brow, then said, "Fine, but I'm going with you."

Kan said something in their language, prompting a short exchange among the four of them. When they were done, Lowen then told Yasuko, "Leichtmatrose Wanna and I will go with you."

Arguing the point wasn't going to get her anywhere, so the best thing was to get it over with and move on before any more trouble found them.