The moment Ryuu's order reached the group, the corridor shifted, not calmer, just redirected.
Sho responded first, already turning as another burst of gunfire echoed deeper in the hall, the guards still pushing forward but their formation fractured, less coordinated, more desperate, while the sound of collapsing metal rippled through the structure like a warning.
'Move!' Sho said with urgency.
Kanesaki didn't argue, and Yasuko gave one brief glance back toward the lounge, toward where Ryuu still was, before moving without hesitation. The three of them broke from the fight line immediately, cutting through the nearest gap as the structure shuddered again.
Sho raised his blade and stepped into incoming fire without slowing, steel meeting gunfire in sharp flashes as he deflected one shot, then another, not lingering to finish targets but creating space instead, forcing openings, pushing the corridor forward rather than clearing it. Kanesaki followed instinctively, using that pressure as cover, his curved blade striking only when necessary, each hit precise, efficient, decisive.
Yasuko stayed slightly behind, controlling angles, her sickle snapping out to drag weapons off-line, interrupt aim, prevent any formation from stabilising. Blood streaked the floor in thin lines as she moved, never stopping long enough for any strike to settle.
The barge lurched again, harder this time.
A section of ceiling ahead buckled, debris and sparks raining into the corridor as the lights died, leaving only flickering red emergency glow and smoke.
Sho didn't slow. 'Shit, this thing's collapsing already!'
Kanesaki stepped over a fallen guard, breathing heavier now. 'We're not making it through the same way!'
'We don't have to,' Sho replied.
Another tremor hit, and this one didn't fade.
The corridor tilted, the world slipping out of alignment, floor becoming slope, ceiling groaning as if deciding whether to hold. Shouts from behind were swallowed by the rising scream of the storm outside the hull.
Yasuko grabbed a railing to steady herself. 'Where are we going!?'
Sho didn't answer immediately, kicking open a side panel.
Behind it, maintenance access, ladders, emergency routes, exposed cables vibrating under strain.
'Up, now!' he said.
They climbed.
The ladder shook violently as the barge bucked beneath them, but they didn't stop, Sho first, pulling himself upward with controlled urgency, Kanesaki following, Yasuko climbing faster than expected despite the chaos below.
Gunfire echoed up the shaft behind them.
Then it stopped, not from surrender, but because the structure shifted again, the sound of metal tearing through metal and the pained screams of people trapped within swallowing everything else.
The passage opened into a narrow tunnel near the outer hull. Wind roared in the moment the hatch gave way, sand blasting through like a living wall, visibility collapsing.
Sho pushed through first.
Outside, the world changed.
They stood on the exterior of the mining barge, on exposed plating and structural ribs clinging to the vessel's side, below them a churning void of red, black and golden sand, above them a blotted sky, just a whirling tempest of sand, rocks and debris.
Kanesaki steadied himself against the railing.
Yasuko narrowed her eyes into the storm. 'Crap! Where now?'
Sho pointed ahead.
A jagged rise of rock cut through the storm nearby, black cliffs like teeth rising from the desert, the barge passing too close, its trajectory scraping unstable terrain.
'There!' Sho said. 'We jump, or we die with it.'
Another violent shudder ran through the barge, stronger than anything before, a deep crack echoing from its core.
The hull was failing – not slowly, but all at once.
Kanesaki didn't wait, he ran and launched himself into the storm, becoming a silhouette swallowed by sand and wind before slamming into the cliffside, boots scraping, fingers clawing for purchase.
Yasuko followed, landing higher, sliding before catching herself against a ridge.
Sho went last, timing the barge's tilt to carry him further, landing cleanly, rolling once, rising already turning back toward the vessel.
The mining barge loomed like a dying beast, its hull cracking, plating peeling away under the storm, torn loose into the void below, lights flickering wildly, some still alive, others dying mid-pulse.
Inside its core, something ignited.
A flash.
Then another.
The explosion came not as a single moment, but a chain reaction, one breach triggering the next, fuel lines rupturing, pressure systems failing, the storm itself forcing its way inside, tearing the structure apart from within.
A final rupture split the barge.
Then it broke.
Fire bloomed outward, swallowed almost instantly by sand and wind, but still bright enough to tear through the storm like a wound in the sky. Sections of the vessel tore free, spinning into the desert as the rest collapsed inward.
The sound reached them a moment later, not a single boom, but a continuous, rolling roar.
Kanesaki stood at the cliff's edge, watching the wreckage vanish, Yasuko lowered her head slightly, breathing hard, and Sho said nothing at first.
Then, quietly, 'That's done.'
The storm continued, indifferent.
And where the barge had been, there was only fire fading into sand, and silence slowly returning to the cliffs.
The storm did not calm, it simply moved on, as if the destruction of the barge had been nothing more than a passing interruption in its path.
On the cliffside, the four of them stood in uneven silence, watching the burning wreckage dissolve into sand and darkness. Fragments of the mining barge still broke through the storm now and then, twisted metal, collapsing beams, sparks that died almost as soon as they appeared, what had once been a fortress of steel already becoming indistinguishable from the desert itself.
From slightly behind them, Sugimoto's voice came again, calm, almost conversational.
'The Prince will hear about this.'
Ryuu didn't turn, and Sho exhaled slowly through his nose.
Sugimoto stepped closer to the edge of the cliff, hands resting loosely at his sides, the tension of combat gone from him. Without it, he looked less like an assassin and more like someone studying weather patterns, the twin katana at his hips remaining sheathed, forgotten for now.
'Even if it was accidental,' he continued, 'interference with one of his operations doesn't go unnoticed.'
Yasuko straightened slightly, brushing sand from her sleeve as if she hadn't just survived a collapsing warzone.
'Oi, listen here! We didn't do anyone wrong here,' she said, 'they were criminals, we stopped a trafficking operation and escaped an exploding death trap, that feels pretty–'
Sho's head tilted toward her slowly, not angry, but enough.
'Shut up,' he said quietly.
Yasuko blinked. 'What!? I'm just saying–'
'You don't say anything to people like him unless you want attention,' Sho cut in, voice lower now, sharper, 'especially not out here.'
That shut her up, not out of agreement, but instinct.
Kanesaki, still watching Sugimoto, finally spoke. 'If you were going to kill us, why not finish us off now?'
Sugimoto glanced at him for the first time since they had left the barge, no tension in it, no threat, just mild interest.
A brief pause followed, then Kanesaki frowned slightly. 'Well?'
Sugimoto looked back out toward the storm, something almost like amusement crossing his expression.
'I have no desire to anymore,' he replied, 'killing you now would be… dull. You were more interesting inside a collapsing ship.'
Sho let out a short breath that almost became a laugh but didn't quite reach it.
Yasuko muttered under her breath, 'That's some reason not to die.'
Sugimoto ignored her, stepping back from the cliff edge as the wind caught his cloak and snapped it outward like a broken wing.
Below them, faintly through the storm, a shape began to emerge, a small freighter cutting through the sand-laced air, lights dimmed, hull reinforced for speed rather than comfort. It moved close enough to the cliff that its side doors were already sliding open mid-flight.
Sugimoto didn't hesitate, he simply stepped off.
For a moment, he vanished into wind, gravity, and storm, then his boots struck the edge of the freighter's open hatch with controlled precision. He absorbed the impact, pivoted once, and disappeared inside without looking back. The hatch began closing almost immediately, and the freighter continued forward, vanishing into the storm with him.
Silence settled properly this time.
Sho and Yasuko stared after it for a moment longer than necessary.
'Well,' Yasuko said finally, her posture loosening as the adrenaline drained away, 'I'm exhausted, starving, and I think I hate sand now.'
Sho didn't look at her. 'I didn't even get anything,' he muttered, 'Mitsuko would've wanted something off that barge, something technical, something useful.'
Kanesaki gave him a tired glance. 'She's not even into you.'
Sho turned slightly. 'That's not the point.'
'It felt like the point,' Kanesaki shot back.
Yasuko made a low sound of agreement, half-laugh, half-groan, shifting her weight against the rock. 'Can we go home now? Preferably somewhere not actively trying to kill us.'
Sho exhaled and finally lowered his weapon. 'Yeah,' he said quietly, 'I second that.'
Kanesaki took one last look at the burning remnants fading into the storm.
Ryuu stood slightly apart from them, still facing the desert, jaw tight beneath his mask, not speaking, not satisfied, just annoyed, like the fight had ended in the wrong shape.
Behind them, the storm kept moving, and so did they.
Chapter 74 – end