Subject: [FFML] [Tenchi Muyo!]Kiyone Muyo! [7]
From: Thryth
Date: 4/18/2000, 4:46 PM
To: ffml@fanfic.com

Season 1: Return of the Akuneko
Episode 7: No Need for Preparations

The Yagami bridge, extreme Earth orbit

   "Miss Kiyone," Azaka addressed the mistress of the
Yagami. "You need to sleep." The knight's
youthful-looking partner nodded his agreement. Mihoshi
was already snoring in her co-pilot's chair. 
   "Not yet, there's too much to do," Kiyone said,
yawning. She opened a communication screen. "Washu,
any preliminaries on the ship?"
   "It's too early to be asking that," the scientist
said irritably. "Give me some time, and get some
sleep. You're almost falling over." Washu was one to
talk, she regularly worked through the night, often
waking up in one of her floating chairs leaning
against the solid holographic consoles she could
summon at will.
   "I do not need sleep," Kiyone griped, switching off
the communication.
   "Miss Kiyone," Kamidake started, ignoring Kiyone's
forbidding glare. "You've reported what you
discovered, we're here to watch the prisoner, Washu
won't have a report ready for a while yet. The Jurai
frontier reports no ships yet. There is nothing you
can do right now but get some rest."
   "No, there is one more thing I need to do," Kiyone
corrected. "I need to find some way around that force
field of they have. I can't always count on them
teleporting where I can hit them." Usually she'd leave
this kind of thing to Washu, but Washu had more
important things to do right now. Then Kiyone had an
idea, she started back into vast corridors of the
Yagami, but was stopped by Nagi's outstretched energy
whip.
   "Not you too," Kiyone growled.
   "Get some sleep now, or you'll be useless when we
need you," the bounty hunter ordered without any of
the respect of the two knights. Kiyone and Nagi glared
at each other. Nagi was still healing from her and
Ken-Ohki's wreck. Kiyone on the other hand hadn't
slept in almost two days by now, staying awake while
the rest of the Tenchi crew slept. The two of them
were both trained and accomplished martial artists,
unlike Ryoko who was still in many ways a raw and
brute force oriented combatant.
   "I'm not the only one," Kiyone noted looking to the
sling Nagi's arm was in. The way the bounty hunter was
holding herself, Kiyone suspected she had a cracked
rib as well.
   "Point taken, okay, I'll take it easy if you do,"
the bounty hunter laughed. "It is almost lunch time in
Japan isn't it. That little princess should be cooking
something."
   "I'd like some of Sasami's cooking too, but for now
we stay on the ship."
   "There is no need for that miss Kiyone," Azaka
responded. "We can watch that brigand for you." Kiyone
didn't doubt that, but it was her ship, and she didn't
trust Nagi around Ryoko.
   "Fine, I'll take one of the guest cabins then,"
Nagi said. "I really miss the time when you had the
house in the cargo bay. The Masakis have a good place
to rest."
   "If anything happens you wake me up," Kiyone
ordered. Her voice still held the hint of command as
she wearily moved to her own quarters.
   "What do we do about her?" Kamidake pointed to the
open-mouthed and loudly snoring blonde.
   "Hope she keeps sleeping," Azaka gave the obvious
answer.

The Yagami brig

   Rei flexed his left arm, glad that he could move it
again. The leg was another matter, all told he'd be
laid up for a long time, he'd probably miss the war.
It was all Makibi's fault, she was the only one that
had touched him. And it had been a weakling's weapon
that had injured him, he'd been shot by a laser like
some powerless peasant. 
   Her tried to call forth an energy blade, but found
himself still too drained. The assassin snarled and
tried again, focusing on the image of the weakling
peasant that was holding him, a small dagger sized
blade appeared in his hand. Soon he'd be able to
summon a full blade with that arm again.
   The assassin thought bitterly about his "dear
brother" whose command this mission had been. Ryoi
planned to be Thane, there was no secret there. Until
now, Rei never thought that he would betray his family
for the title. His brother had made a mistake though,
he hadn't arranged for a surety of his death. Rei was
not a forgiving individual, and now he realized just
how undeserving of the title Thane Ryoi was. If
anybody should be the Thane of Kuroi it was him, not
that scheming official back home. After that he would
take the title of High Thane when the Shinku were
finally destroyed and the Kuroi remained to rule the
Akuneko.
   Rei laid back and slept, letting his body repair
itself.
   "You will need more power," a voice in the darkness
of sleep told him.

The Cave

   "Isn't there supposed to be a goblin sealed here?"
Rikyu asked as she and Ryoko stood in the Masaki cave.
"That was why they put a shrine here, wasn't it?"
   "You've met Washu?" Ryoko asked.
   "Yeah, what about�oh, I get it," Rikyu paused
uncomfortably. "What are we doing here?"
   "Training," Ryoko answered. "How much can you do,
really?"
   "You've seen most of my tricks," Rikyu answered.
"Other than those tricks not much, I can raise a wall
if I'm not doing anything else."
   "A wall?" Ryoko asked. "Like this?" Rikyu quickly
noted the translucent, almost invisible shell that
surrounded his mother. He'd seen the assassin do
something similar to block Ayeka and Kiyone's attacks.
   "Well, no," he admitted. "I've never done that. I
meant a wall." Ryoko let her force field dropped as a
wall of the same force rose up between her and Rikyu.
The creation effectively cut the cave into two
chambers.
   "I've never tried that," she said. Then again,
until recently Ryoko had only ever needed to protect
herself.
   "I've been in a couple of wars," he said. "It
proved useful to keep the bullets off my side, just
advance until the position favors us, drop the wall
and fire."
   "That means you can move it forward," Ryoko noted.
Rikyu shrugged, he let the wall dropped.
   "Yeah, it took a while to get that part to work
though, why?"
   "Try to raise a force field," Ryoko suggested.
Rikyu thought about shell shaped wall, and soon raised
an oval-shaped personal force field. It took him a
little longer than Ryoko had, but it was there. Ryoko
nodded. She walked over to stand next to him. "A
little slow but it works, show me the wall again."
   Rikyu obliged and noted his mother watching every
step of the process. He released his breath as he
completed the wall again.
   "Okay, move it away from us." Ryoko watched as her
son advanced the force wall forward. "That's good, I
think I got it, but your missing something."
   "What do you mean?" Ryoko smiled. She might not be
the most skilled warrior of the crew, she usually made
up for that with her raw natural speed and power, but
she had been a pirate for somewhere around seventeen
hundred years of her twenty-hundred year life. She had
discovered most of her tricks without any help,
perfecting the teleport and force field. She was far
more innovative than she seemed.
   "Most of your effort is going into controlling the
wall," Ryoko took a moment to raise her own wall. It
took quite a bit longer than her son had accomplished,
she realized that he was right, she wouldn't be able
to do anything else while doing this. Upon
successfully raising the wall, Ryoko started its
motion, and let it go.
   The almost invisible wave of force slammed into the
cavern wall and raised a cloud of dust. Rikyu picked
himself up from the ground and stared at where the
wave had struck the wall. As the dust fell he saw that
it was still undamaged, aside from clutter knocked
from the ceiling.
   "Why are you smiling, it didn't seem to do much but
produce a shockwave," Rikyu asked.
   "You should have seen it when we released Washu,"
Ryoko told him, smiling at the memory. "That was a
mess, this isn't your everyday cave."
   "So what next," Rikyu asked.
   "Next we work on your teleporting," Ryoko noted.
She suspected that he couldn't combat port, she and
Rei had several times in the battle two days ago, but
Rikyu never had.

Yosho's Training Grounds

   "Lord Yosho, why am I here?" Ayeka asked from where
she stood by Tenchi. "I'm a princess not a warrior."
   "Your habits would claim otherwise," Yosho quipped.
Tenchi was curious about the lack of bokkens in the
area. "But in this subject you are actually ahead of
Tenchi, so I could use some help."
   "But Lord Tenchi is Jurai warrior-prince," Ayeka
said.
   "Who lacks training in channeling the Jurai power,"
Yosho told her.
   "Your going to train us in using the Jurai power?"
Tenchi repeated. He wasn't certain of this, he hadn't
tried to do that without the sword-Tenchi.
   "Yes," Yosho answered. "There are many things you
can do without the sword, Tenchi, and you'll need to
know a few of them if more of those warriors are truly
coming."
   "Kiyone isn't usually wrong about these things,"
Tenchi noted.
   "We'll start with the basics first," Yosho noted.
"Ayeka can you demonstrate just a light for the
moment."
   "Yes, Lord Yosho," Ayeka nodded sharply, and then
produced a small blue globe which bathed the area
around them in a soft light which mixed with the light
of the filtered daylight in an eerie and peaceful
manner.
   "Tenchi," the young prince nodded and tried to copy
what he had felt. He'd used the sword enough to know
something about channeling the Jurai power, but this
would be the first time he'd tried it. It took a
little time, but soon a bluish-white globe added its
light to the clearing. "Good, now form it into a
shield. Ayeka, if you would first." Ayeka's shield
curved in a triangular arc in front of her body.
   Tenchi then worked on forming his own shield. He
had been training in combat all his life, this and his
recent experiences, the battles with Kagato and Caine,
had prepared him for the mystical part of the Jurai
martial arts. His shield was a blue-white triangle,
hanging in front of him like a sheet of glass.
   "You can release it now," Yosho said.
   "What now?" Tenchi asked. Yosho smiled.
   "Now it starts getting difficult," he answered.
Tenchi winced.

Kiyone's quarters on the Yagami

   Kiyone was dressed for bed, and she was sitting
cross-legged on the matress, but she wasn't sleeping.
On the desk to her side she had a tool box with a
variety of items ranging from archaic pliers and
screwdrivers to high tech circuit burners and energy
routers. Next to the tool box were her personal
weapons, the yo-yo and the GP laser. She wasn't going
to touch those, but the Yagami had a small arsenal for
her to tinker with. Five of the GP lasers were on the
bed in front of her in various states of
dismantlement. She also had a small supply of engine
parts, and, the key to her idea, a small cylinder that
glowed in an alternating color scheme of blue, white
and purple.
   Every couple of moments Kiyone started to slump
over, but every time she shook herself completely
awake. She was having trouble keeping her eyes open,
but she was already past the delicate work. There was
nothing extremely damaging she could do from this
point. As far as she was concerned at this point she
wasn't tired, because there was no time to be tired.
   The Jurai energy generator only supplied energy for
a few minutes before it burned out. That was no
problem, she wasn't planning on a sustained charge.
All she needed was a short release of power added to
the light defractors she was aligning from the lasers.
She had no idea if this would work, but it was worth a
try.
   It had taken her thirty minutes to assemble the
rifle, right now it was an ugly collection of the
various parts she had scavenged. She'd plate it later,
after testing it.
   "Right now all I need�is to test the," Kiyone
paused for a yawn. "�relays, and then find a�" She
yawned again. "�a safe place to test it�" Despite
herself she laid back on her pillow. "�talk to
Ryyaaahh�whoah.Ryoko�.or maybe Rikyu�" That was the
last sound she made for a while, aside from a deep
steady breathing.

Guest quarters on the Yagami

   Nagi was not tired, but Kiyone was right, she
needed to recuperate before any real battle occurred.
Ken-Ohki was already mostly recovered after only two
days, the cabbit had a stubborn cut on one of his legs
and that was about it. The bounty hunter was reclining
in the simple chair, which, aside from the bed, was
the only real furniture in the room. A platform
extended from the wall to form something of a table
which Nagi was resting her feet on.
   Nagi also knew why Kiyone didn't want her near the
Masaki house. The detective suspected that Nagi would
try for Ryoko, injuries or not. As much as Nagi hated
it, she couldn't have done that. Ryoko no longer had a
bounty on her head. That meant that killing her would
legally be murder. No, Nagi had to wait for the woman
to break the law again. Also it wouldn't have been a
very good idea to kill Ryoko if the Akuneko were
really coming.

The Yagami cargo bay

   "How very interesting," Washu noted, after tearing
apart the circuitry of the door. "This circuitry is
almost as efficient a organic neural net." She stepped
into the cockpit and examined the console.
   "Hmm, there are no manual controls," she picked up
a circular object attached by wires to the computer.
She opened the circle and closed it again, then on
impulse closed it around her neck. She was suddenly
aware of every available device and function in the
ship. "Amazing, I knew Ryoko had telepathic
capabilities, but I had no idea. I doubt they have
much capability, but it would explain the technology.
I'll have to remember to test Ryoko's potential."
Washu smiled as she thought that.

The Cave

   "Anything wrong," Rikyu asked. Ryoko had been
attempting for the third time to translate
combat-porting into speech when she paused. A confused
look came over her face.
   "Felt threatened for a moment," she answered.
"Still must be sleepy. Anyway, I want you to try
again�"

The Yagami cargo bay

   "Now, this direct telepathic link with the ship
presents some possibilities," Washu noted. "We should
find a way to send feedback down the lines. There'll
be�" Washu stopped talking and her eyes went wide. She
dropped the scanner in her hand.
   At the paired training grounds Ryoko and the Jurai
experienced similar reactions and looked in the
direction of the Yagami, though they could not see it.
At the Masaki residence Sasami slipped in cutting the
vegetables and cut herself, she didn't notice.
   In the Yagami the two knights rose and looked at
each other in disbelief.
   Even Kiyone and Mihoshi snapped awake and felt what
they all did. All those who had faced him when he
finally fell felt it, telepath or no, Jurai power or
no. They all breathed the same word.
   "Kagato�"
   Moments later Kiyone, Mihoshi, the knights and
Washu were at the brig.

Rei's mindscape

   Everything was black, the only points of color
being Rei and the tall dark haired Jurai standing
across from him. Rei was limping towards the man,
driven by greed and wonder.
   "I can teach you the power you need," the warrior
told him. "But I can't return now, you have to come to
me."
   "Where are you?" Rei asked feverishly.
   "The darkness at the center of the universe," the
warrior spoke reverently. "You can learn much from
here, enough to make you the most powerful man in the
universe. You can be immortal, unstoppable, and I will
teach you my mistakes, and you can topple the Jurai,
and claim rulership over your own people."
   "What's the catch?"
   "You only get one chance to return," the warrior
explained. "Fail and you return here, forever."
   "I will not fail."

The Yagami brig

   The Akuneko had walked under the doorway and was
now being bombarded with painful energy. For him, in
the condition he was already in, the exposure would
prove lethal. It should have been any way. The
on-lookers were aghast as every wound the door opened
began wafting a crackling black energy.
   "I'll be back Kiyone Makibi, 1st class Galaxy
Police detective" the assassin yelled. "I'll be back
with more power than you can imagine!!!" The assassin
was laughing as he seemed to explode into black,
creeping energy. In moments not even the energy
remained, returned to its source at the center of the
universe.
   "It can't be possible," Kiyone said. "Tenchi killed
Kagato, and Rei is Akuneko. He can't possibly channel
Jurai energy."
   "I fear the power Kagato wielded," Washu started.
"Was not Jurai by the time we encountered him.
Certainly he could channel Jurai energy, but I think
he used something else."
   "Yes," the Azaka agreed. "And now he still strikes
at us from his eternal prison. This assassin will
indeed return more powerful."
   "Great more good news," Kiyone breathed.
   "Oh Kiiyoooneee," Mihoshi wailed. "It's not true is
it? Tell me it's not true!"
   "Quiet Mihoshi," Washu commanded. "We won�t deal
with this by breaking down. He won't be back very
soon. He'll come back when the war is over and we're
exhausted and weakened. We can deal with the Akuneko
first, then him."

=====
"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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