Yagami extreme Earth orbit
"Okay, Mihoshi," Kiyone said irritably. "Let's see
what hayseed wants us to perform maintenance on their
craft this time."
"Yes sir, Kiyone," Mihoshi responded chipper.
Kiyone glared at her and then flipped the
communication screen on. She had almost cracked Ryoko
when this call came in. Major alert in this solar
system often meant a broken down engine or even air
conditioner in one case.
"Detectives 1st class Mihoshi and Kiyone," the face
on the other side of the screen was the current
sergeant of detectives, Kiyone immediately snapped to
attention. This had not been her day. "You may have a
situation."
"What is the problem, sir?" Kiyone asked. The image
on the screen shifted to show a sleek, needle-shaped
black and red craft. Next to the craft was the
portrait of a man with spiky black hair and vertically
slitted pupils. Kiyone's eyes narrowed, this was the
second time in as many days she had seen someone that
seemed to be from Ryoko's species.
"This is Rei Kuroi, he passed the Jurai frontier
several days ago on the claim that he was a tourist."
"Crossed the frontier?" Kiyone repeated. "But sir,
the Jurai frontier reaches the end of the galaxy.
There's nothing but dead space beyond it."
"And beyond that dead space are the Akuneko. This
man claims to be one of them."
"Could he be lying sir?" Kiyone asked. "No one ever
saw what the Akuneko looked like, he could just be
some bandit that skimmed the frontier for a few
parsecs. The Akuneko haven't been around for over
two-thousand years"
"We have no records on this man previous to this,"
her superior answered. "And we do not have any record
on the make of his craft. As if that were not enough,
we and the Jurai both lost sight of him after he had a
tussle with Nagi." The screen showed highlights of the
battle. "We do not know what has become of the bounty
hunter now, they finished the battle on an uninhabited
planet with heavy cloud cover. The Akuneko came out
the winner." A light blinked on beneath the monitor.
"Hey isn't that..." Kiyone held out her hand to
quiet Mihoshi.
"We do not know where this man is now, but his
conflict with Nagi suggests an interest in Ryoko. Nagi
would not have attacked a bountyless man otherwise.
That suggests that he may be heading your way."
"Understood sir," Kiyone answered. "We'll keep an
eye out. Kiyone and Mihoshi out." They saluted and
then Kiyone switched the communication screen.
"Kiyone, you have trouble," Nagi was staring them
in the face. She sounded like she was in pain.
"Rei Kuroi?"
"How did you know?"
"Our superior just told us about your fight with
him," Mihoshi put in. "Are you and Ken-Ohki okay?" The
screen panned back and the view behind Nagi revealed
not the spacious and magnificent bridge of Ken-Ohki,
but a battered mess. The bounty hunter was clutching
her shoulder where a bloodstain was slowly growing.
"Oh my goodness."
"That little ship did that?"
"Little bastard ran me into a cliff, neat trick."
Nagi sounded impressed. "We'll be fine," Nagi said in
response to the concerned looks. "But Ken-Ohki is
grounded for the moment, and I'm not in much better
condition. The important thing is that this Kuroi is
on his way to kill Ryoko."
"But don't you want to kill Ryoko?" Mihoshi asked.
"That's why your partner has to make sure she stays
alive."
"I see," Kiyone answered dryly. "Thanks for the
warning. Did he mention why he wanted to kill Ryoko?"
"He claimed that he was Akuneko," Nagi said. "So I
don't see what legitimate reason he could have."
"New HQ believes that he came from across dead
space," Kiyone told Nagi.
"You mean he really is Akuneko?" Nagi asked
surprised.
"Yes."
"Interesting, it might explain why I had so much
trouble with him," Nagi commented. "Be careful
detectives, Nagi out." The screen vanished.
"Come on Mihoshi," Kiyone ordered. "We have to find
Ryoko and get to the bottom of all this."
"Right, we can't let this Rei person get her. No
matter what she did to him."
They were soon storming into the Masaki house,
still in uniform.
"Where's Ryoko?" Kiyone yelled.
"So she was doing something," Ayeka snapped. "Off
robbing banks or something wasn't she!"
"Actually there's this really nasty guy named Rei
Kuroi who's on his way here to kill her."
"What?!" Tenchi shouted. Sasami gasped, Ryo-Ohki
meowed in surprise, and a muffled "serves her right"
came from Ayeka. "Where did you hear that?"
"The sergeant of detectives and Nagi," Kiyone
answered. "Where is she?"
"Yeah, Nagi had a fight with him, and now she and
Ken-Ohki are beat up real bad."
"What?" Sasami yelled. Ryo-Ohki was meowing
hysterically. "Are they going to be okay?" Sasami
asked quietly.
"Nagi said they'd be fine," Kiyone answered. "Where
is she?"
"After you left she disappeared," Tenchi said. "I
assume she'll be back tomorrow."
"That may be too late."
"I believe I know where she's going," Washu
declared. Everybody turned to face the diminutive
genius, who was grinning ear to ear. "But first you
have to tell me what the Akuneko want with Ryoko."
She'd been spying on Ryoko for the past few days, it
seemed to be the only mildly entertaining activity at
the time.
"The�of course you would know. But how?"
"The name Kuroi," Washu said. "It was one of the
clans involved in the conflict. They and the Shinku
were the two highest ranked clans."
"The Akuneko," Ayeka said, chilled. "They haven't
crossed dead space for ages."
"When the Shinku were defeated the Kuroi pulled
away from Jurai space. They would have had to soon any
way, they way were far too depleted afterwards to take
on the Jurai alone, but they were terrible warriors,
and why do you think they're after Ryoko?" Washu
turned to Kiyone again.
"I think Ryoko is Akuneko," Kiyone told them.
Everybody stared at her, stunned. "So where is Ryoko?"
"She's been training with Yosho recently," Washu
told them. "She didn't like the way Kagato beat her so
easily. She'll be up in the woods with him most
likely. Recently she's been acting quite out of her
normal character, actually."
"Training with grandpa?" Tenchi asked. "Why didn't
either of them say anything."
"And admit to us that she needed help," Kiyone
explained. "She's a little to proud for that. Come on
Mihoshi."
Outside the Masaki shrine
Ryoko was bouncing from peg to peg, using a bokken
to hit a piece of wood on a rope back and forth. It
seemed quite pointless to her, but Yosho was the most
experienced warrior among them. If he said this would
help her improve, she had to believe it.
"You're improving, Ryoko," Yosho encouraged her
from the side. He was sitting with his bokken leaning
against his neck. "But you should be getting more
sleep. You're moving a little slower than you could."
"Okay, so I'm learning how to use this stick,"
Ryoko started, still working on that piece of wood,
and trying not to use any of her natural powers. "But
I'll never be able to channel Jurai energy, so what
good does it do me?"
"Do you think that in a real fight I bounce around
on one foot wailing at an arbitrary point in the air,"
Yosho asked, then he laughed. "That would be silly
wouldn't it?"
"So if you don't use this, yourself," she asked.
"Why do it?"
"You still think of fighting skills as merely a
physical thing," Yosho said, shaking his head. "Run
the kata series I taught you, I'm going to the shrine
for a moment."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, old man," she muttered as
she started running the first kata of the series.
"And when I return, perhaps we'll test you against
me," Yosho informed her. Ryoko winced, and stuck her
tongue out at his back before starting the kata again.
The house of Rikyu Shirai
"The item appears to be some sort of scanner,"
Rikyu was saying. "I'm not certain what it is supposed
to scan for, but�" He stopped recording as the device
came alive in his hand. To his surprise a circular
hologram began to be projected from the device. It
showed several red blips and one yellow one moving at
high speed. "The device appears to have activated
itself, I think it is tracking some sort of craft."
He stared at the yellow dot in curiosity. The
hologram shifted to show a sleek black and red
needle-like craft against a starfield. There was a
readout but he couldn't read the language. He knew a
large variety of Earth languages, and the common trade
tongue of the space, but that was about it.
"The device seems to be activated by thought," it
was something he had encountered before. "And it is
indeed tracking what appear to be space craft, perhaps
I should contact those two Galaxy Police detectives
about this craft." The starfield vanished into a blue
sky, which quickly darkened to twilight. It was only a
little ways away from the city now.
Yosho's training grounds
"Katas and hitting sticks," Ryoko griped. "How'd he
get to be such a strong warrior doing stuff like
this."
"Well, Lady Shinku," Ryoko froze. She hadn't been
called that in well over two hundred years. "It seems
that you have completed your clan's fall from grace,
learning the arts of the enemy. Still seducing our
operative into reporting you were dead was a clever
idea." Ryoko turned about to face her enemy.
"I've told you people before," she said, turning
about. Her opponent was cloaked as was normal. "My
name is Ryoko, I don't know anything about these clans
of yours."
"We don't care what you know Lady Shinku, just what
you are." the man dropped his cloak and smiled at her.
"By the way, don't you want to know what happened to
that peasant who helped you?"
"Damn, he's already in battle armor." she thought.
Indeed the man was in the same kind of battle suit she
wore when there was real trouble on the way. "I assume
it wasn't anything nice." Ryoko set the bokken down
behind her against a tree.
"Oh, Renshi had an interesting last few hours in
life," he told her. "He told us everything, before we
let him die." Ryoko snarled.
"Let's get this over with," Ryoko snapped.
"Indeed, know that it is Rei of the Kuroi clan that
has slain you" the man pointed at her and shot a blast
of red energy at Ryoko. The space pirate teleported
out of the way and appeared in the air above her
opponent. She sliced down with her energy blade only
to be blocked by another.
"We'll see about that!" Ryoko rebounded off Rei's
energy sword and brought it around again with a burst
of borrowed speed. The other blocked and riposted as
well, and they entered the dance of a flight powered
sword battle. She was better, she could feel it, the
moves felt more natural, and they flowed easier from
position to position. She could win this battle.
"Very good for an uneducated amateur like
yourself," Rei said. "But I am no peasant assassin." A
second energy blade appeared in Rei's off hand and
Ryoko suddenly on the defensive again. She dodged,
blocked and teleported with absurd speed trying to
stay one step ahead of the whirling blades.
"I'm not out of tricks yet, bastard!" Ryoko blasted
out with her off hand. Rei dodged easily and lashed
out with what would be called a hilt punch, catching
Ryoko in the face.
"You call that a trick?" he chided her. He began
again to press his attack, driving Ryoko to the ground
and back to a tree, before forcing her energy sword
wide and successfully disrupting it.
"Go ahead, kill me," Ryoko shouted defiantly. "You
still can't win." She smiled up at the man. She knew
their goals, and at least she had the pleasure of
knowing something he didn't.
"Oh I'm afraid I can, Lady Shinku," Rei smiled as
he raised one of his blades. "Like I said, Renshi told
us everything." Her eyes widened in terrified
realization, as the blade descended she screamed.
"Nooo!!!!!!" The blade never landed, it was
disrupted in mid strike by a yellow laser beam.
"You are in violation of Galaxy Law," Kiyone
declared confidently. "Release the weapon and step
away from her." Mihoshi shook nervously behind her
partner, staring at the Akuneko. Rei laughed at them.
"And what do you barbarians think you can do to
me?" He teleported behind them, planning to slice the
detectives in two. As soon as he vanished Kiyone
smiled, and turned her laser to face backwards. She
fired as soon as she heard the teleport behind her.
"Aah!! Damn you!!" the man shouted. He didn't have
much time to elaborate as Kiyone followed the shot
through with pummeling barrage of kicks and punches.
The Akuneko was heavily favoring his left side where
Kiyone marked a burn mark from her laser.
He finally managed to block a couple of strikes and
return one of his own. Rei was much stronger than
Kiyone and the Galaxy Police detective flew backwards
against a tree.
"Kiyone!!" Mihoshi yelled, as she started firing a
swarm of wild laser blasts. The Akuneko managed to
raise a force field and smiled at the ineffectual
attacks. Until he heard Ryoko's war cry and saw the
red energy blade cutting through his field. The
assassin quickly vanished, and reappeared high in the
air.
"We'll find you later, Ryoko," the man laughed.
"Right now I have other prey."
"Like hell you do!! Get back here bastard!" she
launched an energy blast at the already teleporting
Rei. "Damn it!! Kiyone, you have to take me to Rikyu
now!" The Galaxy Police detective stood up from her
collision and face Ryoko.
"I'm right, aren't I?" Kiyone asked, dusting
herself off.
"Right about what?" Mihoshi asked, clueless as
usual. Ryoko glared at them.
"Yes," Ryoko admitted.
=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
Signed
He of Too Many Names (Thrythlind/Thryth/Luke/Hyperbole/Pika/Pooka)
http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html
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