"I was thinking of retiring, but the way you talk about our adventures, William, makes me want to tear down the fence I was on about it," Eden laughed. She smiled at Gravity's words, "I have an apartment in Kyoto, too. Maybe you can come over for dinner sometime. That is, if you're not crewing the most feared pirate ship this side of former Kuvexia. Say, Hoshi, didn't you want to become a pirate, once? Captain of a ship with a bounty and then you'd put out a counter bounty on whatever Kuvexian was calling for your blue head?"
Hoshi grumbled and looked away while in Chlorate's embrace, murmuring loudly, "Gravity can have all the fun. I'll just discover the mysteries of the Kikyō Sector or whatever. "She chuckled, looking to the touch between William and Aiko. "I thought you were some great matchmaker, Eden. What happened to that?"
Eden's tight lips betrayed more than a little, but she looked to Kiyo, "No, that's the universe whose dictator tried jumping into my Nekovalkryja operating system and who I now control the every action of. To those wondering, slavery was abolished two years ago and the universe as a whole seems to be on the up and up. Though I am still trying to locate Yui to have her take over for me- er, for IYS Eve. It's confusing," she said, leaning in to Kiyo.
Hoshi, hugging Chlorate back, now, smiled to Kikios, then looked to Chlorate. "I'll be on a mission here and there but the ranch is open to anyone who wants to drop in. I trust y'all to come even when I'm away. You can meet up here or in Kyoto. As far as everyone all together," her deep blue eyes narrowed. "I think this is it. A lot of us will be making choices that take us away from being on missions together again. Maybe some of us will be reachable but I think some of you are done fighting, understandably. The Kuvexian war felt like a long string of battles with no end in sight. But they were fun to fight. Whatever this is, this ending, it's an uphill battle I don't think I can fight."
Eden took a moment to push the tear from the corner of her eye, looking down and sniffing as she batted at those on her cheek with her sleeve.
With a raspiness to her voice, Eden asked, "Hoshi said the yaks were saddled. Anyone up for a ride?"
Hoshi smiled as she preemptively got up, following Asuka to the glass paneled doors that led to a small trail to the hitching posts. There were three posts with about as many yaks on each. They were about ten feet tall, though some were bigger. The largest seemed fit for William with broad horns to match its long draping bubblegum pink hair. Most of them were Hoshi colored, though a few were a more standard flaxen color. Hoshi unlatched the clip from the post and led the bridled yak towards a series of two steps on the ground.
"Those without ST, wear a helmet," Hoshi said as she donned a large-brimmed infinity gallon hat. "Some of you can't fly so use the steps to get up. Like so," she said simply as she stepped o the top step of one of the portable step-ups. She then aced her foot into the stirrup iron nearest her. In one quick motion she jumped from the step and swung her leg behind her, over the yak's back and onto the other side of the saddle. She looped her foot into the other stirrup and leaned down to pat the yak's silky smooth blue and white hair.