Suddenly her Hayabusa shook violently, tossing Yumiko around, smacking the side of her head up against the canopy. She was hit! Ears ringing, Yumiko snapped around to her nine o'clock. Coming in low and fast, the Ilyushin bore in on her, twenty millimeter cannons cracking away.

With nowhere safe to go, Yumiko throttled up and veered sharply into the barrage, abruptly closing the gap. The wing mounted cannons had a minimum effective range. The aggressor's machine guns rattled briefly as the two snapped past one another at break neck speed.

As the Ilyushin slowly circled around, Yumiko tucked into a tight wingover, teeth clenched. A circle war quickly ensued, the heavy Ilyushin continuously banking hard but unable to out-turn the nimble Hayabusa. Just as Yumiko put the Ilyushin in her cross hairs the rear gunner opened up with a long burst with their single machine gun. Weaving, Yumiko answered back with cowl mounted twin fifty calibers. Her first burst went high wide. The second slipped just under.

The Ilyushin continued its desperate attempts to shake her, the rear gunner firing in an unceasing stream, attempting to hose her down with lead. Yumiko wondered, maybe they were just as scared as she? She quickly put the thought aside, snaking her stick, as she concentrated on making a shot that would hit, a hit for Miyuki's sake.

Yumiko squeezed the trigger. In an instant the Ilyushin's rear gun went silent. She blinked. She hit it? Several tattered pieces of the Ilyushin slowly tore away from the fuselage, tumbling through the air and out of sight. She hit it!

“Take that you lousy Bear!” Unable to out turn or out run her, the Ilyushin was now at her mercy. Yumiko centered her sights and opened up a long burst on the aircraft. The heavily armored fighter absorbed the burst like a sponge, shaking, losing pieces, but remaining aloft. Deep anger filled Yumiko as she punished the aircraft with two more long bursts, one right after the other.

The wounded plane started to trail smoke. Like a crippled animal its weaving became less and less, making it easier prey.

Yumiko pounced twice more, aiming for the left-wing root, pummeling the aircraft mercilessly. All she wanted to do was turn it into scrap.

Suddenly the Ilyushin's left wing sheared off. The doomed plane rolled over. At one thousand feet, it was a short trip down.

Yumiko watched silently as the airplane hit the ground nose first, exploding into a massive fireball on impact. She felt no pleasure at the sight, just the hollow ache of revenge draining out from her veins, filling her stomach in a tight, uncomfortable pit.

Her first kill.

She never killed before. Well, a spider, she hated spiders, and a beetle, or three, and some other bugs. But never a person.

Circling around, Yumiko surveyed the burning remains. Fueled by aviation petrol, the raging hot fire quickly spread to nearby trees, scattering birds and a deer. There was no chance of survival. Her first kill. Not one life, but two.

Yumiko pinched her stick between her legs, put her hands to her face, and wept.