Season 1: Return of the Akuneko
Episode: 11: No Need for Medics
Yagami Bridge
"Captain Makibi," Kiyone turned around to see Karya
standing behind her at attention. Mihoshi was sitting
in her co-pilot's chair mercifully unconcious, somehow
the fact of the battle had finally made it through her
head. The blonde had fainted soon after Rikyu had
tiredly confirmed her theory. "I don't believe that
we're going to find any more survivors, and Lord Ryoi
should be collecting his commanders."
"I hate this stuff," Kiyone muttered. "Okay,
Rikyu-San, let's head over to Tenchi's clinic."
"Aye, aye, Captain," he teased. Kiyone turned a
narrow-eyed glare on him. "Ah ah, watch it, remember
who signs your paycheck."
"Ha," Kiyone laughed. "I can get another job."
Karya watched the playful exchange curiously while
Mihoshi started snoring. A Jurai soldier entered the
bridge.
"Captain Makibi," he addressed her respectfully.
Kiyone was getting a lot of that recently, and she
wasn't sure that she enjoyed it as much as she thought
that she would. "There is an Akuneko noble wanting to
speak to you." Kiyone sighed, resigned, they had not
put the survivors they picked up in the brig. This
noble must have been one of them.
"Where is this noble?" she asked. The Jurai
answered and she opened a communication screen to the
guest quarters. "Teleport up here, I want you where I
can see you." A silver-haired Akuneko appeared before
them.
"Captain Makibi," the man kneeled before her and
hung his head. "I am Rakkan of the Kuroi clan."
"What do you want?" Rikyu asked sharply. If
anything the man was more contrite at Rikyu's
question. It was unusual for Ryoko's son, but then the
Kuroi seemed to be at the root of a lot of pain.
"Lord Ryoi will have their families killed," he
told them, when he realized that they might not know
what he was talking about he continued. "The families
of the other five clans involved in this invasion. You
have to prevent that." He sounded desperate.
"I'm not surprised," Rikyu mumbled. He had seen
similar dramas on a smaller scale in his time.
"Why are you telling this, wouldn't this be a
betrayal of your Lord?" Karya demanded.
"I have a sister in the Midori clan," he informed
her. "And Lord Ryoi has not been accepted as Thane by
the other clans."
"And why now instead of earlier?" The man really
had no obvious reason to lie, and it fit Ryoi.
"There is no other way to stop him," he answered.
"He is defeated, he will strike against the lesser
clans for it."
"I will do what I can," Kiyone told him. She had
indeed read Ryoi correctly, he was a selfish, little
coward. Still it was more than plausibly a lie, hard
to investigate, a distinct possibility, and the man
did have something to gain from it. For now she would
operate as if it were the truth, but she'd keep her
eyes open.
"Thank you, milady."
"I am not a noblewoman," Kiyone corrected him. "Try
Captain."
"Yes, Captain," he responded. He remained kneeling,
Kiyone realized that he was waiting to be dismissed.
"If that's all, you can go."
"Yes, Captain." He stood up and bowed to Rikyu and
Kiyone, a little deeper to Kiyone. "Milord." He then
walked out.
"I'm liking the Kuroi less and less," Rikyu
commented.
"Aren't I the noble here?" Karya asked,
half-offended.
Ryo-Ohki
Ryoko was worried, something had happened. She
could feel it, one of her friends was hurt. She'd had
that feeling before, during the Caine incident when
Tenchi was fighting Caine among other cases. This time
the feeling hadn't come on suddenly, half-way into the
battle it had started, since then it had been
building.
"Something's wrong," she told Ryo-Ohki.
"Something's wrong."
Washu's Station
The scene at Washu's station had not been what
Kiyone expected. She knew Tenchi had convinced Washu
to form a medical unit of some kind, and had passed
along his command to the Gyanburu. Kiyone herself had
sent some of the Kagekiha's wounded down, the ones
that she felt would be better served by what Washu
could offer. Then she began combing the battleground
for more escape pods and survivors. When she finally
arrived herself at Washu's station it was far more
than she expected.
The Washu factor was expected, she had scavenged
the destroyed fighters to build a variety of general
medical equipment. The presence of ten Jurai medics
was not entirely surprising either. What Kiyone didn't
expect was the number of people there. Not only was
the overflow from the Gyanburu, and the five
reinforcing craft, here, but so were a large number of
Akuneko common soldiers.
The nature of space battle meant that injuries were
usually minor, from being bumped around as the ship
was struck. Most major injuries were caused by
boarding actions, or else made moot by the fact that
the wounded party was also suddenly exposed to vacuum.
Washu and the two Jurai medics worked with an Akuneko
commoner on the few major injuries while Tenchi, the
knights and a collection of uninjured soldiers
performed first aid on those that needed less.
Next to Kiyone, Mihoshi stood yawning. Rikyu
scanned the site, impressed, the MASH units he had
seen in Earth battles were much less organized than
this. Captain Karya was standing a little behind the
teal-haired detective. Rakkan stood rigidly next to
the Jurai. Kiyone had ordered her reinforcements to
make sure no Akuneko craft left, she would have done
it anyway, they might have their own help after all.
Still it had been fifty minutes before
"Mihoshi, don't touch anything," Kiyone ordered,
she couldn't think of anything Mihoshi safe to assign
the blonde to, that meant carting her around. "Do you
understand?"
"Of course, Kiyone," she answered. "Hey, look
there's Ayeka! She looks sick." Kiyone looked where
Mihoshi was pointing and saw Ayeka wearily carrying
supplies for the medics. She had a gray color that
Kiyone didn't like.
"Kiyone-San, Lord Rikyu" Ayeka called happily as
she saw them. The purple-haired princess handed off
her bundle and shuffled towards them, attempting to
maintain something of her usual demure manner. Then
she hugged them both, and came to the dizty blonde.
"Mihoshi, for once I'm even happy to see you."
"Really?" Oh thank you, Ayeka! I always knew you
liked me."
"Ayeka, are you all right," Kiyone asked. "You
look...gray."
"I'm just tired," Ayeka waved it aside as she pried
herself from Mihoshi's grip. Karya blushed and bowed
as Ayeka looked at her.
"Princess Ayeka," the young Captain addressed her.
Rakkan noted the action and title. He went to his
knees as was standard for Akuneko before higher ranked
nobility.
"Milady." Ayeka looked down at him, unsure of how
to react.
"Kiyone-San, the Akuneko commanders have not yet
arrived," Ayeka told her. "I'm sure Lord Tenchi or
Washu...Chan could use some help."
"Do either of you have first aid training," Kiyone
asked the rigid pair of nobles.
"Yes, Captain," Rakkan answered from his kneeling
position.
"I'm afraid that I do not, Captain Makibi," Karya
said embarrassed. Kiyone turned to Rikyu.
"I've worked in MASH units before," he told her, he
was already moving.
"You were on TV?" Mihoshi asked, wondering. Karya
and Rakkan looked at her, confused, Kiyone merely
rolled her eyes.
"Okay, I want Rakkan to talk to Tenchi anyway,
Karya, could you help Ayeka," Kiyone added quietly
hoping that the princess, who was already returning to
her labors. "Watch her, I think she's pushing herself
too hard." The woman glanced at Ayeka and nodded.
"Yes, Captain," Karya bowed and moved off to help
Ayeka cart supplies around.
"Captain," Rakkan asked as he and the rest of the
group began moving among the wounded. "Who is this
Tenchi?" Kiyone saw him wrapping an arm bandage around
an Akuneko soldier.
"That's Tenchi," Kiyone explained, she waved to him
and started to pick a path in his direction.
"He'd be the next king of Jurai if he wanted it,"
Mihoshi added helpfully.
"If he wanted it?" The boy saw them and waved back
after finishing the bandage.
"Hey Kiyone, Mihoshi," he called, and walked over.
He looked at the Akuneko warrior suspiciously. "Who's
your friend."
"This is Rakkan of the Kuroi," she introduced the
man, who was already kneeling and addressing Tenchi as
"milord."
"Please don't do that," Tenchi said embarrassed. "I
get more than enough of that from the Jurai around
here." Rakkan looked up and scanned from side to side,
confused, this Tenchi was the first noble of any sort
who appeared to not like being addressed as was
proper.
"As you wish," he answered slowly, raising from the
ground.
"You need to talk with him about Lord Ryoi," Kiyone
informed Tenchi. "I'll fill in for you in the
meantime."
"Something important I assume," Tenchi said
tiredly. "Well okay, let's go find somewhere to talk,
but make it quick. We have a lot of work to do."
"Yes, milord," Tenchi rolled his eyes and started
walking. Knight-Azaka, who had been watching, filed in
behind him and the Akuneko. The knights still
considered themselves Tenchi's bodyguards, though
Kamidake was with the more severe cases under enforced
bed rest.
"How can we be sure that he isn't lying, Lord
Tenchi?" the bearded knight asked after the Akuneko
had explained matters.
"We don't know," Tenchi agreed. Then he thought to
himself, "But we can't ignore it either."
"I swear that it is the truth, milord," Rakkan made
Ayeka seem loose.
"I didn't say I wouldn't do what I can," Tenchi
answered. "For now find somebody and patch them up."
"Yes, milord."
The Akuneko soldier was staring hard at Mihoshi
while Kiyone was immobilizing his arm and shoulder. He
was finding it difficult to believe that this blonde
was on the Yagami's crew, he had seen the maneuver's
it had been making in battle. The Yagami had actually
out maneuvered some of the less skilled fighter
pilots.
"Now where was it," she was saying. The blonde was
twisting and turning her storage cube and producing a
stream of oddball objects. "It's a neat magazine, lots
of pictures and comics and stuff."
"Okay, I'm finished here," Kiyone declared as she
made sure the sling was tight. "Come on Mihoshi pick
up your stuff."
"Huh, oh okay," Mihoshi began frantically putting
stuff back into her cube. "Oh there it is!! Don't
worry I can find another copy." She took a folded
magazine and handed it to the confused Akuneko. This
was Kiyone's plan to keep Mihoshi moderately out of
the way, talking to the patients. Most of the Jurai
had already been treated, after all the Akuneko still
outnumbered them by quite a bit.
Kiyone was bandaging a torso gash when Nagi walked
up, Kiyone noted that she was still favoring the one
side. Apparently the bounty hunter had aggravated her
injuries a little.
"we're here, Captain," Nagi smirked at the title.
"Thanks," Kiyone responded, finishing up on her
most recent charge. "Could you find Tenchi and Captain
Karya? I'll find Rikyu and contact the captains of the
other ships."
"Grabbing everybody you can?" Nagi quipped.
"Oh yes." Kiyone answered. "Come on Mihoshi, we got
to go."
"Kiiyoooneee, I'm tired of walking, when will we
get to sit down?"
"Pretty soon, Mihoshi," Kiyone promised. Then the
policewoman walked unerringly in Rikyu's direction.
Ryoko's son was finishing up on his own patient as the
Miho-Kiyo pair walked up. He turned around to greet
them before they announced their presence.
"Lord Ryoi is here," Kiyone explained. "I think you
and Ryoko should both be there."
"Looks like we came in at the tail end of things
anyway," he agreed. "Everything is pretty much under
control here. Lead away, Captain oh my Captain."
"Everybody's oh so funny today," Kiyone huffed
before walking off. They met Ryoko, Lord Ryoi, and his
commanders at about the same time the captains of the
five reinforcing ships arrived.
"Miho-Kiyo, Rikyu" Ryoko waved, the collected
Akuneko clansmen glared at the undisciplined space
pirate as if she was an embarrassment. Kiyone regarded
her carefully, she was worried about something.
"You're all safe!" She teleported across the barren
ground to meet Miho-Kiyo and Rikyu. Then she hugged
Rikyu in one of her uncharacteristic displays of
emotion.
"Uh...Ryo...Mom," Rikyu mumbled. "Could you let go
of me?"
"I'm sorry something's bothering me," she said as
she released her son.
"Captain Makibi," one of the reinforcing commanders
addressed her. "You were given command of these forces
for battle, but that does not give you the authority
to set terms."
"Will you accept the crown prince of Jurai?" Azaka
demanded as Tenchi arrived.
"Tenchi!" Ryoko seemed happier now, she hugged him
as she had Rikyu. It wasn't one of her normal glomping
embraces. "You're safe too!"
"Ryoko, Let go!" Tenchi protested. "Of course I'm
safe, don't you think you would have heard otherwise!"
Rakkan stood a little ahead of Azaka, where the
Jurai knight could watch him. If it weren't for the
fact that everybody was treating this as if it were
rather normal he would have intervened. The Akuneko
moved to a position behind Kiyone as he arrived. Ryoko
watched the man carefully, upon noticing him. Rakkan,
on the other hand, lowered his head as Ryoko regarded
him. The space pirate recovered her composure and
released Tenchi, she was beginning to think that she
was worried over nothing.
"Lord Tenchi," the captain gasped. "I did not know
that you would be leading these surrender
proceedings."
"Would it be too much for anybody to just call me
Tenchi?" the young Jurai-warrior asked nobody in
particular.
"Hey, we call you Tenchi," Mihoshi put in.
"Mihoshi," Kiyone shook her head embarrased.
"Hey, where's Ayeka," Ryoko asked.
"I'm right here, Ryoko," Ayeka responded irritably.
She sounded tired, as the reversal to Ryoko's proper
name also showed, but she was apparently fine. Ryoko
breathed a sigh of relief as she turned about to see
another of her friends safe and sound. Then she
stopped in mid motion. "What's the matter, were you
expecting me to be dead?" Captain Karya and Nagi were
with her. Karya moved to stand next to Rakkan behind
Kiyone, eyeing the taller Akuneko warrior with a
little trepidition.
"Ayeka..." Ryoko had seen a more severe version of
that grey pallor once before, immediately after the
fight with Caine. Achiko had looked like that after
burning out some of her Jurai power in fighting the monster.
=====
"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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