Season 1: Return of the Akuneko
Episode 2: No Need for Questions
for the impatient (^_-) the full fic is at
http://members.aol.com/lycanskord/aku.html
Yagami in extreme earth orbit:
"It doesn't make sense," Kiyone complained. Earth
records were complete on Shirai Rikyu. He was mainly
an antique dealer/collector, but he had a number of
small businesses operating throughout Tokyo. Of which
her most recent employer was one of them. Apparently
he hadn't been in Tokyo for the last four years. "Wait
a minute, according to this, he should be at least
forty years old."
The man she had seen earlier didn't look more than
twenty or so for an Earth human. It was an interesting
point.
"Yagami, scan the Earth records for the name Rikyu,
go back a thousand years," the computer quickly
produced a list of hits. Unfortunately there were far
too many to be useful. "Okay, cross reference the hits
with instances of myth and legend." The natives on
these backwoods planets often mistook technology for
some sort of magic.
The computer returned with a much shorter list, but
there were still far too many. Kiyone leaned back and
thought on the problem. Then she remembered the
comment about her earring.
"Cross reference with Galaxy Police files for this
region over the same time period," the computer came
back with one hit.
"The demon war," Kiyone noted. "And case number
348502. I vaguely remember that." Kiyone looked an
Earth twenty, but she was much older. Her people had
long ago perfected such techniques as gene therapy and
age retardation. Some times they even outlived the
Jurai royalty. She didn't mention it much, she always
thought that she should have come further in twelve
decades. It was embarrassing enough for people to
think she was only twenty and still nowhere.
Kiyone skimmed the reports and marked them so
they'd be easy to find later.
"Yagami, give me the file on Ryoko," the computer
took a little longer here. Connecting with the galaxy
net was actual work for it. The report came up quickly
though, right from Ryoko's first appearance to the
recent pardon she had received from Jurai. She scanned
the file, quickly growing bored when she noticed
something.
"Ah ha!" she declared. She leaned back in her
chair, satisfied for the night. "Yagami transport me
home." She was soon walking into her apartment.
"Mihoshi I'm�oh�ugh!" She shook her head in disgust as
she looked at the pile of clothes and Mihoshi.
How her partner had gotten entangled in that
position, she'd never know, and didn't want to. It
didn't surprise her that Mihoshi had some how fallen
asleep in the impossible position. Kiyone reached over
and unhooked the bra that seemed to be the key to
holding Mihoshi captive. The blonde sprung loose,
knocking Kiyone away, and then curled up in her normal
sleeping position.
Kiyone grumbled as she stood up and walked to her
sleeping mat. She didn't bother to wake up Mihoshi and
tell her to change. For Mihoshi a sweater and jeans
worked as well as a set of pajamas. At the moment she
was tired enough it didn't matter to her either. She
just plopped on her mat and joined her partner in
snoring.
Masaki residence EARLY morning:
Ryoko opened first one eye, then, when she was sure
no one was about, the other. She quietly sat up off
the couch and turned her head left and right, making
sure no one was watching her. Yesterday had been a
very bizarre day, but it didn't change matters much.
She'd just have to avoid that place now. Still, she
was curious, maybe she'd talk to Kiyone later, or
better yet, Mihoshi. The blonde wouldn't reach the
more annoying conclusions.
She tiptoed quietly over to a cabinet nobody used
much and took out a little bag. Then she checked once
more to make sure that nobody was watching her and
teleported away. No nothing had changed at all, she
knew about this when she came to Earth.
"So I was right," Ayeka declared. "She is up to
something. It's probably some underhanded trick to
seduce Lord Tenchi. Well, we'll see about that!"
A bar in space:
"Earth?" a scrawny little man repeated, surprised.
"Why would you want to go to a little dirt ball like
that?"
"The point isn't to give you information," the
cloaked man said. "Is it?" A sphere of energy began to
form over his outstretched hand.
"It is just a few hours travel from here," the
informant offered, terrified. "On the fifth vector,
but there's nothing there worth seeing, stealing, or
doing."
"Well there's no problem in giving me this
information then, is there?" the cloaked man dropped a
few Jurai bills and teleported away. At one of the
tables another cloaked figure stood up and walked out
the door. The figure carried an energy whip at her
side, and as she walked a white cabbit jumped to her
shoulder.
"Well, Ken-Ohki," she said. "It seems that Ryoko is
going to have a visitor."
The cabbit meowed questioningly.
"Why else would anyone go to Earth but to hunt
someone in the Masaki household?"
Ken-Ohki meowed worriedly, the figure's small mouth
crinkled in irritation.
"I'm sure Ryo-Ohki is fine, Ken-Ohki."
The cabbit meowed happily, then meowed another
question.
"Yes you can have some carrots!" the figure yelled.
"But first we are going to ask this person what
interest they have in Earth."
The Akuneko ship
"It seems I have a second tail," the cloaked man
said to himself. He scanned the databanks to identify
the class of the ship following him. He wasn't
familiar with all the craft of this region, which was
what they had spies for. "A cabbit? I have heard of
these creatures." He placed the control collar around
his neck and, once the controls were connected to his
battle suit, shut off the autopilot. The ship was
virtually an extension of him now, and it pulled a
sudden stop, letting the cabbit rocket past him.
"Damn! Ken-Ohki switch back!" The large, white,
spiny space ship spun about a hundred and eighty
degrees and faced the smaller Akuneko ship. "FIRE!!!"
A pinwheel of beams ranged out from the ship-form
cabbit, racing for the needle like Akuneko fighter.
The Akuneko rolled out and dodged the attack and
returned fire on its own. A large red beam that left
behind a "wake" of three energy discs.
"That looked like Ryoko's blast attack!" Nagi
shouted as Ken-Ohki dodged the blast. It was followed
by four more, smaller blasts of similar nature.
Ken-Ohki shook a little as the shields deflected the
majority of the attack. "I'll worry about the firing,
Ken-Ohki, just keep us moving.
A cloaked face appeared on a hologram screen in
front of Nagi.
"Who are you?" the man asked snidely. The Akuneko
fighter rolled past another barrage of energy blasts
from Ken-Ohki.
"Isn't that my question?" Nagi asked. "After all,
you are the one that initiated this conflict."
Ken-Ohki went into a seemingly wild spin to dodge the
Akuneko's blasts.
"You fired first, but I am the stranger here," he
smiled confidently. "So I will introduce myself first.
I am Rei of the Kuroi clan, a warrior of the Akuneko.
And you are?" The fighter blasted forward, past
Ken-Ohki, dodging energy blasts as it passed.
"I am Nagi," the man paused a little in apparent
confusion. Obviously this woman thought that the
single name was enough of an identification. Then he
remembered something and smiled. Ken-Ohki rotated
again to face the Akuneko craft as it whipped around
and started another pass. This time there was barrage
of energy blasts with it, those that struck bounced
harmlessly off of Ken-Ohki's shields.
"Ah yes, you're in the file. We shouldn't be
fighting," the man said. "After all our goal is the
same. The death of Ryoko." Nagi laughed as she
diverted Rei's attack with a barrage of her own,
forcing him to concentrate on dodging.
"I'll defeat Ryoko on my own," Nagi declared.
"Without any help from fools claiming to be legends.
You have me beat on maneuverability, but everything
else is in my favor." The Akuneko fighter dived for
the surface of a planet the dueling space craft were
passing. Ken-Ohki followed.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Rei produced his own
smirk. "But our business with Ryoko is older than
yours, and if you won't help then you must be dealt
with." The agile fighter, better designed for
atmosphere fighting than the almost symmetric cabbit
ship, weaved into and out of canyons as the larger
ship fired on it from above. The hologram went dead
and all three being concentrated on the battle.
They came to wide-open range with no canyons for
the Akuneko fighter to hide in. Rei blew everything to
his engines and made a straight run away from the
cabbit. Nagi smiled predatorily as she slowly gained
ground on the smaller craft.
It was still managing some basic dodging routines,
but Rei's piloting had removed the possibility of any
more extreme maneuvers. The only really annoying thing
was the constant barrage of backward directed blasts.
These were by far the weakest attack the "Akuneko" had
directed at her yet, but the impacts on the shields
were obscuring the area. Then the Akuneko took an
almost ninety degree turn straight up and a cliff face
came into view directly ahead of Ken-Ohki
"Ken-Ohki, pull up!!!" the war craft almost managed
to clear the cliff, but a good portion struck the
wall. Then Nagi was thrown forward of her control
station as Ken-Ohki rolled across the ground until he
finally came to a stop. "DamnDamnDamn!!!"
Nagi recovered her feet quickly and instantly
scanned the damage report. They were grounded for now,
but weapons and shields were still active, weaker, but
they were active. Nagi scanned the skies around her
and saw the Akuneko bearing down for a strafing run,
and brought her own weaponry to bear. The Akuneko
broke off and rocketed past the crippled cabbit one
more time.
"I don't have time to continue this," the man
appeared on her hologram again. "I'll bring Ryoko your
regards." He smiled again, before blinking his
communiqu� off.
"Damn you!!! I'll get you, you damn fraud!"
Masaki residence, late afternoon:
"Miss Kiyone," Ayeka said surprised. Then her eyes
narrowed and she added, in an irritated voice. "And
Miss Mihoshi, what are you two doing here?"
"Oh we just thought we'd drop on in after work,"
Mihoshi said cheerfully. "Kiyone said it's been a
while since we've visited you know, and we'd like to
repay Sasami's and Ryoko's visit yesterday, and well,
I don't know. Kiyone said we should drop by." Kiyone
had her hand to her face and was shaking her head in
despair.
"Oh Mihoshi and Kiyone!" Sasami called from the
living room. "Have you come for dinner? That's
wonderful!"
"Hi Sasami!" Mihoshi waved cheerfully. Tenchi
walked out from the back saw the two detectives as
Ayeka stepped aside to let them in.
"Guess what Mihoshi," Sasami chimed smugly. "I got
another beanie baby yesterday."
"Oh, hi guys," Tenchi waved. "Haven't seen you
around for a week or so."
"What really, oh let me see! Let me see!" Mihoshi
yelled and followed a gloating Sasami back to see her
latest collection.
"Since you are here," Ayeka began. For once didn't
cringe as she listened for the inevitable request to
investigate Ryoko's actions. "Ryoko has been acting
very strangely recently, I think she's up to something
dirty and underhanded. Why this morning she snuck out
of the house before the sunrise carrying a little
bag!" Tenchi and Kiyone stared at the ranting
princess, embarrassed for her.
"Come on you guys," Kiyone griped, glancing Ayeka's
way with a lecturing stare. "I'm not a private eye,
you can't just send me out to investigate people
because you think they might be skipping chores."
"Ryoko was acting kind of strange yesterday,"
Tenchi put in. "It might really be something this
time."
"Hey, where's Ryoko," Mihoshi called from the back
to Kiyone's horror. "Because Kiyon-"
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" snapped Kiyone, hand
over Mihoshi's mouth. Then she turned back to the
suddenly curious Tenchi and Ayeka, and laughed, before
continuing in a resigned voice. "Well okay, just this
once, but I'm not making this an everyday thing
though." The effect had already been ruined by
Mihoshi's outburst.
"We don't know where she is," Sasami said, sounding
a little worried. "And she seemed so sad yesterday."
"Grrr�we don't know where she is on any day!" Ayeka
snapped. "Today is no different. She's gone all day
and then when she's here she sleeps, or else just sits
around watches TV or eat. It's all she's done since we
came here." Ryoko popped into existence at that point
and stretched out her body.
"Oh, hi guys," Ryoko waved wearily to Kiyone and
Mihoshi. "Sorry about running out on you yesterday I
wanted to�*" She sat down on the couch and promptly
pulled a Mihoshi by falling dead asleep.
"Check her breath," Ayeka suggested.
"Ayeka," Tenchi lectured her.
"She's not drunk," Kiyone said. "It seems she's
just exhausted."
"Exhausted?" Ayeka said in disbelief. "What has she
done to be exhausted? Well wake her up and ask her
what she's been doing!"
"This isn't all that important," Tenchi suggested.
"You could let her sleep."
"Oh, let me through," Ayeka shouldered her way to
the snoring Ryoko, and then started shaking the space
pirate. "Wake up, you beastly woman!! We want to talk
to you."
"I finished the room!" Ryoko yelled, as Ayeka's
efforts proved effective. Everybody backed off a foot
from the virtually leaping Ryoko. "Huh? What? Where am
I?" She sat back down and almost immediately started
snoring again.
"I told you she's drunk," Ayeka said triumphantly.
She had some how recovered her properly demure voice.
Ryoko snapped awake again.
"I am not drunk," Ryoko insisted. She stood up and
walked into the kitchen and came back with a Megavolt
cola. Or at least that was what it was called
officially. Most people called it caffeine in a can.
"So what did you want princess?"
"We want to know why you keep disappearing during
the day," Ayeka snapped. "Why can't you do your chores
like all the rest of the us?"
"You won't find me wasting my time with all that,"
Ryoko sniped. "I have better things to do."
"Like what, gambling? Stealing? Blowing things up?"
Ayeka yelled. "That is all your good for, isn't it!"
"Oh like you'd know an honest days work if it bit
you on the ass?" Both women growled and the
characteristic sparks began flying between them.
"Hey, Ryoko," it was Mihoshi's voice. Kiyone moved
toward the blonde with a speed born of a terror that
no one but her could truly understand. "Why'd you
leave so suddenly yesterday?" Ryoko was instantly
distracted from the building fight. Everybody stared
in shock, that had rarely happened before. Well, not
Ayeka, if anything she was more annoyed now than ever.
"Oh that?" Ryoko waved aside the question. "I just
remembered something we left at the last stop. By the
way, what's your boss like?"
"Ryoko, in case you haven't noticed you still
haven't answered my question."
"Excuse me, Ayeka," Tenchi interrupted. "But I
don't want to have to ask Washu to rebuild anything
just yet." He escorted a fuming Ayeka out of the room,
until she noticed that she was going to be alone with
Tenchi. That was when she returned to her ultra sweet
voice and attitude, much to Tenchi's discomfort. Ryoko
didn't react at all, which was odd.
"Hirata-San?" Mihoshi said in response to Ryoko.
"He's okay I guess, but he's always yelling for some
reason." Sasami yawned and wandered off, this was
getting fairly boring, and she had dinner to cook
anyway.
"No, no," Ryoko stopped Mihoshi before she could
continue. "The other guy, with the red hair."
"Oh, he's very nice," Mihoshi said. "He didn't yell
at all, even when I spilled his soup all over the
floor." Kiyone noted Ryoko smiling smugly.
"What's your interest, Ryoko," Kiyone asked. Ryoko
and Kiyone locked eyes, and prepared for the coming
interrogation.
"Nothing much," Ryoko insisted. "He just looked
familiar, that's all."
"How could he look familiar," Kiyone asked. "He
hasn't been in Tokyo for years."
"And how do you know that?"
"I have my secrets."
"Really, is that so?"
"Why did you come to Earth in the first place?"
"Your partner chased me into the solar system and I
crash landed." Ryoko gave the obvious answer and her
eyes narrowed more. "Just how much does she guess or
even know." Ryoko thought to herself.
"I mean the first time."
"The first time?" Ryoko repeated. Kiyone smiled,
she had Ryoko on the run now, victory was assured, and
even Mihoshi had quieted down as the word duel
continued. Then their GP beepers went off.
"Oh no," Mihoshi shouted. "It�s a major alert!"
"Well I guess we'll have to continue this later,"
Ryoko smiled. Kiyone glared at her, Ryoko would be
avoiding her now.
"Come on Mihoshi! We have a flat to fix!"
=====
"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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