Gekijo needed to get away from the blazing alleyway - the Fire Department was bound to show up any moment, and then the NYPD, and this would become a crime scene. He didn't know what they'd find, a charred set of angel armor or maybe nothing at all, but he wasn't going to find out.

Tamashi started crying, she was naked in the freezing air. He was moving fast, and made it to the nearest subway station and into the bathroom. There he pulled off part of his armor and his shirt, soaked with sweat. He held it in front of the air hand dryer for a long time - it was a horrible swaddling cloth but better than nothing. He put the armor back on, and got onto the next train with Tamashi wrapped up and in his arms.

The only place he could go was his apartment. He needed to reunite with Sweet Atlanta and then they needed to get out of town. As he approached his apartment door, he contemplated just busting off the doorknob, but he felt Sweet Atlanta's presence, and knew that she was inside. He waited a moment, and the door swung open.

"Gekijo!" Sweet Atlanta cried, then she saw what he was holding. "What- is that…?"

Gekijo nodded, moving in to the apartment. "We need something for her, like a crib," he said. There was the empty armor crate, filled only with cushioning. Sweet Atlanta cleared out the bubble wrap and then added some soft towels. Gekijo removed his old shirt from Tamashi and wrapped her in a fresh one and set her down in the makeshift crib. It wasn't much but it was better than nothing.

"You did it Gekijo, I knew you would do it," Sweet Atlanta said, and his wife grabbed him and kissed him hard. Her glow met his halo, they pulled to each other. "I knew it," she breathed into his ear, her head next to his.

"What happened to Quinn?" Gekijo asked. Sweet Atlanta hesitated. "I don't know," she lied.

"What about Bones and Doctor?"

"Oh, they're fine. Everyone's fine."

"We need to leave," he said to her. They were holding each other so hard.

"But Tamashi...," Sweet Atlanta started, and then she was kissing him again.

Gekijo pulled away slightly. "That's why we need to go."

"But it's the night."

"Perfect for cover."

Even as he said it, the halo was tugging for her. He didn't want to go but they had to.

"You did it, Gekijo, everything, you are amazing," and she was kissing him again and he didn't let go.

Gekijo awoke in bed. It was light out. He bolted upright, looking out the window. The sun was not yet up but dawn light was brightening the horizon. Sweet Atlanta was not there. He could feel it, she wasn't even anywhere nearby. Not just that, there were noises somewhere. Not normal city noises, Gekijo thought he was not even hearing them with his ears. It was a faint slinking sort of knocking somewhere far away and dark.

Gekijo rushed out into the living room. Tamashi was still there, nestled in a towel. But something was definitely up. They should have left during the night. Where would Sweet Atlanta have gone? With Quinn? And what was that "sound"? It seemed to get betting louder. Quinn was still an obvious problem, but he wasn't the only one. To add to their many earthly enemies, Gekijo had just killed one of Heaven's servants; there was bound to be retribution, but how soon he did not know.

Gekijo quickly donned clothing and his armor pieces, and cinched the wakazashi to his waist. The dark knocking, thumping, slapping sound was coming, getting closer. It must have been what had woken him up. Tamashi began to cry. Gekijo tried to comfort her, to run his hand in the little tuft of hair on her head, but it was no use, she just kept wailing. He stepped out into the hallway of the apartment building, blocking the door. He looked down both ways. On one end was a stairway entrance, beyond that a bend that eventually led to the elevator. On the other end was a window, with a fire escape visible. Whatever reckoning this would be, Gekijo would face it, and he would see it coming.

The sound of cracking, breaking, splintering tearing was coming. He drew the wakazashi. He was alone in the hallway. There were many other apartment doors along its length, but it seemed to Gekijo that they did not really exist in this moment, that opening any of them would lead to blank wall. It was him and the sound. It was coming up the stairway now, this was certain. A slithering tentacle gripped the door frame, and the entire stairway collapsed behind him as Quinn pulled himself into the hallway.

"You! Motherfucker!" Quinn spat, pointing a black dripping finger at Gekijo. "Think I don't know anything? I know everything!" The shotgun swung level in his hands. Gekijo very quickly got out of the hallway, just as the double-barrel blast rocked the small airspace. Gekijo heard the window at the end of the hall shatter, and Quinn sped by in a blur, on his belly with too many appendages flailing. Gekijo ran out in pursuit, watching Quinn take to the fire escape, going up.

Gekijo's apartment was near the top of the building, it was only a few flights to the roof. Quinn would be waiting there, shotgun trained on the top of the fire escape. Gekijo checked the normal staircase, but it was a collapsed rotted heap, and he would have to jump several feet to reach the bottom steps of the remaining flights going up.

He checked the elevator. There was an "R" button, for roof. He pressed it. The elevator dinged when it reached the top, and the doors opened. Gekijo stepped into a small white room, with two doors leading to mechanical rooms and one with a push bar leading outside. Fast or slow?

He pushed through the door and sprinted full stride to where Quinn was standing like a rotten spray of grain fungus in the morning light. The demon turned to face him, the muzzle of the shotgun pointed at his belly, but Gekijo brought the wakazashi up, knocking aside the double barrel as Quinn pulled the trigger. The blast was overloud, shaking the air, with Gekijo right on Quinn. He grabbed the gunstock, elbowed Quinn in the neck, disarmed him, swung the gunstock around to connect with his skull but Quinn leapt backwards out of reach.

Gekijo had never used a shotgun before but he understood the basic concept. He pumped the action once, pointed the barrels and squeezed. Quinn was only about six feet away, the spiral cone of buckshot would turn him to jelly. In that instant Quinn's body broke into fumes, like a cloud of smoke dispersing, but not light wisps of smoke, this was thicker, wetter. He spread out, shifting out and backwards, and then quickly condensed and congealed back into himself, now several yards away. He was laughing his crazed laughter. The buckshot had passed right through him.

Gekijo bent the hot barrels with his hands and tossed the gun aside. It served no use to him, and was actually a liability if it got back in Quinn's hands. Quinn was still laughing.

"I can't believe you fell for it! You know what comes next, right? Of course not, but I do!" Quinn then made a slight squatting motion, like he was about to take a shit. But instead a large black serpent uncoiled from the center of his belly, trailing onto the ground and sliding too fast, frictionless off to the fire escape.

Tamashi! Gekijo sprinted after the serpent. He lunged for its tail as it slipped over the metal bars, but something detained him. It was Quinn, on his back, pushing him to the ground. Gekijo struggled but strong tentacles wrapped around each of his limbs and neck, constrictor snake tails squeezing and squeezing. It was unexpected, how had Quinn gotten like this? Gekijo fought hard, searching for an opening. He pushed painfully with his wings against the back plates, but they didn't budge. The grip just got tighter, pressing in everywhere. The armor was holding up but Gekijo could barely move.

"You know what your problem is, asshole?" Quinn's putrid hissing breath splashed against Gekijo's ear. "You never learned to live in the modern world. You can't drive, can't shoot, barely use a phone, and you think spying is tiptoeing around and looking through cracks." Gekijo didn't bother responding. He was concentrating his energy on getting out of this grip. How had Quinn gotten so strong?

"I know all about you. I know every move you've made. I saw you fuck Sweet Atlanta. I watched that seven times. And I saw you bring your little daughter home. Who do you think will win, little baby girl or big fucking python?"

Gekijo managed to jerk his head and smack Quinn with the side of his helmet. He got his left arm stretched out further but then the tentacle regripped and he was held like that, left arm fully extended, claws down on the roofing, which he gouged and ripped up in his grip. It was a jerky, awkward struggle but he still found no real opening.

"I'm not gonna kill you," Quinn continued. "Not yet. In a second I'm gonna let you free, so you can run down and watch my python choke on your daughter's dead fat head."

Gekijo managed to jerk his right arm out further. There was a thud. He flexed both his arms and felt a coil lose grip. He pushed out suddenly and hard with his wings, enduring the pain as he rolled, tossing Quinn aside.

Gekijo jumped to his feet. Quinn was on the ground, quivering, convulsing. He started barfing up a thick black discharge, like molten tar and dead leeches. Gekijo felt Sweet Atlanta nearby. His head snapped in her direction. She was standing on the next building, a crossbow in her hands.

Gekijo wasted not another second. He leapt to the fire escape, clambering down the steps as fast as he could, jumping through the broken window. Maybe whatever as happening to Quinn would be happening to the serpent. Maybe it wasn't too late.

Gekijo pelted through the open door of his apartment. The snake was there, but it was definitely not alive. It was gutted, torn, and split lengthwise, sprays of its guts and flesh spattered on the walls and ceiling and furniture. Tamashi's crib was empty.

Gekijo moved slowly through the apartment, until he found what he suspected, but not the way he expected it. In the bedroom, Kiruka was there, Tamashi nuzzled at her breast.

"What are you doing?" Gekijo demanded.

"You need to feed her," Kiruka chided.

"Put her down," said Gekijo.

"It's okay, Tamashi's done for now," she said, gently pulling the baby away and readjusting her blouse. She gave Tamashi a kiss on the forehead and then set her down softly on the bed covers.

"Leave," said Gekijo.

"I was just going." She moved towards the window and then turned back to Gekijo. "And make sure not to let Tamashi out of your sight for even a fraction of a second, please." Then she stepped backwards out the open window frame, waving her fingers, and she was gone.

Gekijo took off his helmet and sat down on the floor, leaning against the bed frame. Tamashi wriggled over on her side, looking her dad in the eyes, her mouth working open and closed but making no sound. Gekijo looked into his daughter, and saw the silver glow inside her. Her body was not yet really functional, and she could not yet speak, but she was fully there, a strong and swift intelligence, and a kami, too, like the rest of them. Gekijo wondered what kind of woman she would grow to become. If it was in his power, he would make it good. He would do what he could to make it good. She loved him completely. She waved a little hand at him, and he held out his human hand and let her touch it, splaying her baby fingers against his skin. Then he stroked her head, that little tuft of black hair, and he was crying.

Sweet Atlanta walked in. She still had the crossbow slung across her back. She just stood in the doorway a moment, watching them.

Gekijo turned to look at her. "Where did you go?" he asked. It had been good, whatever she had done.

"I had to go... see an old friend. Get a favor." She put the crossbow down, along with a bag of bolts. There was something up with them. They had a pungent odor, but something more than that.

"It wasn't just a crossbow bolt that killed Quinn," Gekijo said.

Sweet Atlanta shook her head. "They're all soaked in the Eucharist wine. Blood of Christ. More effective than holy water."

"Quinn is dead, isn't he?" Gekijo asked.

"You can go look for yourself if you want," she said.

"No, I believe you."

"He's really, really super dead," she said. Then that wry little grin of hers appeared. "And I'm not sure if you're cheating on me already."

Gekijo said nothing. She continued. "I saw a woman climb out of your bedroom window just a moment ago. Then she turned into a fox and ran vertically down the side of a skyscraper."

Gekijo shook his head, sharing the smile awkwardly. "Kiruka, the kitsune. She is free now." Then he sighed, the weight of this fact very clear to him. There would very well be hell to pay for that one. "She is... Tamashi's mother," he finished.

"Nonsense," said Sweet Atlanta, "I'm Tamashi's mom." She stroked Tamashi's head and the baby batted playfully at her.

The three of them, the family, so close and small yet so big at once, a nucleus, sat in silence for a moment. Then Gekijo stood up.

"We need to go."

Epilogue

It was February, and the snow was heavy and everywhere. They were in a cabin in northern Quebec, a fair jaunt in from the Hudson Bay, many miles from the nearest town. Gekijo still intended to go back to Japan, but they had decided that this move was the wisest for now, until Tamashi had grown some.

Gekijo had Tamashi in a large wide bowl, and was giving her a bath while Sweet Atlanta was preparing a late lunch in the kitchen. The two of them had somehow settled into the necessary domestic pattern that a small child prescribes. Gekijo had successfully raised Tamashi through infancy once before and would do it again, though he couldn't help but feel as though the eyes of Kiruka were on him, ready to whisk Tamashi away if he somehow failed in any of his parenting. Kiruka had, for better or worse, made no actual appearance since they left the US, and Gekijo was concerned for what she was up to. Kiruka could have made Tamashi into a young girl again, or even an adult and been her twin sister if she had wanted, but she made Tamashi a newborn, pinning Gekijo down and taking him out of action for a good while. Gekijo felt he needed to be keeping tabs on her, but he wasn't going to let Tamashi out of his sight for even a moment. Exactly what Kiruka wanted.

They were near the fireplace in the living room, where it was warmest. Most of the house was closed off for the winter, to conserve heat, and the living room had become the main quarters, with all of their sleeping gear lead out there. Doctor was there, also, sitting in a rocking chair that he was tied to. The strange old man had so far shown nothing but simple affection for Tamashi, but his chronic and undeniable eeriness had led Gekijo to take that most straightforward precaution. Doctor, for the most part, complained little and was occupied mostly with a sketch pad that he filled day by day with surreal and obtuse drawings.

Bones had gone out into the woods the same day they had arrived to the cabin. They had a room for him, but he had instead found a nearby pond that had frozen over, and broken a hole in the surface of the ice and climbed in, letting the pond freeze more thickly over him as the winter worsened. Gekijo assumed they would see him again in spring.

Carlos had not come with them. Gekijo had offered him the option, but he turned it down. "I reconnected with my mama. She figured out who the money was coming from. I lied and told her they let me out of heaven to protect her. Actually I've been wanting to get out of New York for a while now, but I thought Quinn would come after me. Actually I thought he was going to send <i>you</i> after me. You are one scary-ass motherfucker, Gekijo, let me tell you." Carlos had said this with a smile, patting Gekijo on the neck and shaking his hand. "Thanks for killing Quinn, man, seriously. I'm taking my mama down to Miami. Watch out for Invincible Carlos, I'll be back on top in no time!"

Tamashi was splashing in the bowl, making a wet mess and laughing little baby laughs. Gekijo cursed light-heartedly in Japanese which made Tamashi laugh more. The silver light was in her, she knew what she was doing. He picked her up out of the bowl and deftly dried her off, as well as the table. She pointed a chubby finger at him. "Gah," she declared.

"Hey, Gekijo, come look," Sweet Atlanta called from the kitchen. Gekijo needed to give Tamashi a new diaper, Pampers were a welcome invention Gekijo did not have the first time, but he forewent that action for the moment to see what Sweet Atlanta was indicating.

In the kitchen, she pointed out the window. "Look, a fox," she said. Out in the snow, near the tree line, there was indeed a fox in its winter coat, camouflaged against the snow and difficult to pick out.

A second fox appeared, and then they both ran off into the trees. Tamashi put her little fist against Gekijo's cheek. "Gah," she declared again. Then she reached with both arms towards the window. It was hard to tell, but Gekijo was pretty sure that each fox had had only a single tail.

Oh, fire fox glow
Show me through the thorny way
Show your wisdom eyes