Season 2: Home Life and Shadow Plays
Episode 1: No Need for a Home
Tokyo street
"So what exactly are we looking for," Rikyu asked.
"At the moment?" Kiyone asked, half-annoyed,
half-teasing.
"Well, other than, Mihoshi," the Akuneko responded
as he looked into the next shop window. It was a book
store, and he didn�t see Mihoshi inside. "You said,
house hunting, but you never said what sort of house
you were looking for."
"I don�t think my apartment is going to cut it
anymore," Kiyone put in. There was a sudden crashing
sound about two stores down. Kiyone noted the sign
marked a toy store, which hopefully meant that nothing
was broken. The newly promoted Captain slumped,
frustrated. "I think we found her."
"It would appear so." They arrived to the sound of
a familiar wailing cry.
"I didn�t mean it, I�m sorry!!"
"Look at my store?" the shopkeeper was yelling.
"You tumbled every single shelf in the place." Then
Mihoshi saw Kiyone and Rikyu standing outside, gaping
at the scene of destruction.
"Kiyone, I didn�t mean it," Mihoshi whined. "I was
just trying to get the�oh there it is." Mihoshi�s
unhappiness vanished as she picked up the three-foot
tall plush cat that was on the top of the pile.
"Mihoshi," Kiyone sounded tired.
"What is it Kiyone?" she asked, Kiyone wasn�t mad,
so she wasn�t to concerned.
"Nevermind," Kiyone said. "Sit down outside and
wait for us."
"Can I have this?" the blonde asked, brandishing
the stuffed animal. Kiyone thought about it.
"No, Mihoshi, maybe before you made this mess, but
not now," tears started to well up in Mihoshi�s eyes
and she walked outside dejectedly to wait for her
friends. Kiyone could hear her crying outside. "I�m
sorry for the mess my friend caused, perhaps we can
clean it up."
"You�d better, or I�m calling the police on that
moron," the shopkeeper yelled. Kiyone glared at him,
Mihoshi was an idiot, and a disaster area, but it
wasn�t like she did anything intentional.
"Excuse me," Rikyu said walking past the fuming
shopkeeper. To the man�s surprise the red-haired
Akuneko picked up one of the fallen free standing
shelves and held it about three feet off the ground
while Kiyone cleared the space underneath it.
Rikyu couldn�t use his abilities as well as Ryoko,
she could generate much more power in a lot less time.
On the other hand he had a lot more physical strength,
which made him very strong indeed. This didn�t go well
with his slim outward appearance, in fact it would
have seemed rather comical if one wasn�t there.
"Okay, you can put it down now," Kiyone said. Then
Rikyu moved to another shelf and repeated the process.
"Good thing these shelves are plastic, there doesn�t
seem to be any real damage."
"Now what were you saying about your apartment?"
Rikyu asked calmly as he held the second set of
shelves up.
"Well, it was fine for me and Mihoshi," Kiyone
started. "Finished. But since Karya and Rakkan don�t
seem to be interested in leaving anytime soon I�ll
have to find something bigger."
"Well that makes sense," Rikyu said as he easily
hefted the next shelf. "Where are Karya and Rakkan
anyway?"
"At the Masaki�s, studying Earth culture."
Masaki Residence
"So, this Kimi is trying to steal Toshi�s heart
from Aiko?" Karya asked.
"Yes, but she doesn�t really love him," Ayeka
confirmed, munching another cookie. She liked these
soap operas more recently, she could almost convince
herself everything was normal.
"Its because she blames Aiko for everything that�s
ever happened to her?" Rakkan questioned.
"Yep, but what she doesn�t know is that her cousin
Tadaaki has been manipulating her all this time,"
Ryoko said. Watching this soap opera with Ayeka was
one thing that hadn�t overly changed from her routine.
"Because he hates her for proving that his brother,
Seiki was embezzling from their employer."
"But didn�t he save her life when that Togan person
tried to kill her?"
"Oh that was because Togan went to school with him
in France and knew about Tadaaki�s illegal
businesses."
"And he wants Kimi to suffer, not just die."
"Oh I see, and what about Nyoko?"
"The maid? She�s in love with Tadaaki, but is too
shy to say anything."
"Does she know what he�s like?"
"They haven�t said yet, I don�t think so, Ryoko
believes that she does, though."
The toy store
"So how are things between you and your mother?"
Kiyone asked as Rikyu set down the last of the
shelves. They started trying to organize the toys and
put them back on the shelves now.
"Well, at least I understand why she left me here,"
Rikyu answered. "But we haven�t really done anything
but exchange fighting tricks."
"I feel sorry for her," Kiyone commented, tossing a
smashed electronic toy aside, calculating the cost as
she did so. "Especially now, she�s been trying to live
a normal life ever since I met her here. She must
think everything is crumbling around her." Kiyone
glanced outside at the pouting Mihoshi. "I know how
that feels."
"Yeah, I can imagine you do," Rikyu laughed. "Have
you heard anything about Ayeka yet?" Kiyone was quiet
for a moment.
"Washu did a full battery of tests," Kiyone
answered, starting again to put toys on shelves. The
shopkeeper was only looking at them in shock, or more
precisely, Rikyu. The Akuneko was now floating up to
put things on the higher shelves. "But there isn�t
much information on Jurai burn out. She could die
fifty years from now, or she could live another
thousand."
"That sounds like a long time to me," Rikyu noted.
Once the shelves were arranged it didn�t take them
much longer to clean up the place.
"As a Jurai royal family member, Ayeka should be
looking at another five thousand," Kiyone explained.
"Well, I guess that makes it signifigant."
"Excuse me, how much do I owe you for the damages?"
The shopkeeper looked from her to the man with spiky
red hair and yellow eyes.
"Uh�no problem�cleaning up was enough," he said
nervously.
"Are you sure?" Kiyone asked, she didn�t want this
coming back at her later.
"Yes ma�am," the man nodded vigorously, watching
Rikyu like a mouse watches a cat.
"Okay, I guess this is it then, sorry about the
trouble." Kiyone walked out the door ahead of a
yawning Rikyu.
"Oh, its no problem at all," the shopkeeper
affirmed nervously. When the door closed behind the
pair he let out a heavy sigh of relief.
"Okay, Mihoshi," Kiyone addressed the other
detective. "We�re finished here, let�s go."
"Okay, Kiyone," Mihoshi sniffed.
"You still haven�t said what kind of house you�d
like," Rikyu noted. "I can�t help you if you don�t
give me any information."
"I don�t know for sure," Kiyone admitted. "Four
bedrooms, maybe on the edge of town like Tenchi�s
place. You�re the one with businesses all over town,
shouldn�t you know about real estate?" They began to
pass into the suburbs now.
"Four bedrooms?" Mihoshi repeated confused. "Why,
do we need four?"
"You�re going to get your own room, Mihoshi,"
Kiyone answered.
"So is that the only reason you asked me to join
you today," Rikyu asked teasingly.
"I can�t have my own room," Mihoshi whined. "What
if I have a nightmare again, or what if that Rei
person comes back and I�m all alone?" Rikyu laughed as
Kiyone turned to face Mihoshi.
"Listen, Mihoshi," Kiyone started. "Before you knew
me you had your own room right?"
"Yeah," Mihoshi admitted, half-crying.
"And think about it," Kiyone started. "You could
take a lot of stuff out of that cube and know where to
find it all the time."
"And you wouldn�t be mad at me for making a mess?"
"No, it would be your room," Kiyone said
encouragingly. "So you get to make it look like what
you want it to look like."
"Oh-kay," Mihoshi cheered. "Let�s go find a house!"
"Yeah, let�s go," Kiyone repeated. "Mihoshi!" The
blonde paused and turned around to look back at
Kiyone. "Stay with us this time."
"Um�Okay, sorry, Kiyone."
"That�s okay, Mihoshi," Kiyone repeated, trying not
to sound irritated. "Now what were you saying?"
"Oh, it wasn�t important," Rikyu waved it off. They
walked on for a few minutes more, occasionally having
to stop for Mihoshi related incidents, but nothing as
bad as that first one. They chatted back and forth as
they walked, eventually the plots of land began to get
larger and less modern.
Kiyone stopped as they passed an empty house. It
was an old building, but in good condition. She could
see through a worn down fence an overgrown rock garden
in the back of the place. It stared at them with dark,
empty eyes, lonely and pleading.
"Kiyone, that house scares me," Mihoshi whispered.
Kiyone didn�t answer her, the teal-haired policewoman
walked past the for-sale sign and stepped into the
shadows of the inside. Rikyu came in behind her with
Mihoshi reluctantly following. Kiyone wandered through
it randomly, it was certainly big enough to serve her
purposes. "What if there�s a ghost?"
"There are no such things as ghosts," Rikyu told
her. "Just space pirates and alien invaders."
"How do you know?" Mihoshi asks. "We�ve seen a
ghost before."
"That was in the middle of Sargasso, do you really
think we'd be unlucky enough to..." Kiyone paused.
"I'm not finishing that thought. Anyway I like this
house, and it shouldn�t take too much to fix it up."
"Yeah a few hours clean-up," Rikyu noted. "Some
paint, a new fence. A lot more furniture."
"I have that," Kiyone noted. "In the Yagami, all
the furniture we collected during the Kagato thing.
You wouldn�t believe how much stuff they bought on
that trip."
"Well, let�s make the call."
"Didn�t you hear me say that I don�t like this
place?" Mihoshi whined after them.
Galaxy Police Academy
Mitsuki regarded the cadet with a hint of
annoyance. In little more than a year she had gone
from head of the special crimes unit, to just another
detective. Now she was training rookies, it was
embarrassing. It was that woman�s fault, the redhead
told herself. Kiyone Makibi was off revealing
traitorous conspiracies and fighting alien invasions
while she sat here and lost everything she had every
worked for.
Kiyone always came out on top, the only time
Mitsuki had beaten her was due to a little creative
computer work involving their final academy rankings.
Even when Kiyone volunteered to return to that
primitive little dust ball fate hands her a promotion
and Jurai commission all in one swoop, and that was a
month ago. Kiyone was a hero, while Mitsuki was a
scheming little nobody training cadets.
"Well, cadet," she spoke in her mock cheerful way.
The red-head was smiling broadly, but her manner was
friendly in a way that intended insult. A sort of
condescending sneer that was heavily vieled under a
smile and sparkling eyes. "Let me see what you can
do."
The cadet�s black eyes narrowed and he smirked a
little viciously. The man brushed at his short
cropped, black hair. Mitsuki was of the opinion that
he had only recently cut his hair. She wasn�t certain
of what species he was, the tail meant that he wasn�t
human. He looked somewhat familiar. Mitsuki thought
that she should recognize him from somewhere. She
would have pegged him for an Akuneko but for the eyes,
they weren�t the yellow that people were discovering
was normal for Akuneko. Those eyes were cold black
pits in the center of the whites of his eyes.
"As you wish, Mitsuki-San," he answered
respectively, in the same manner that Mitsuki was
friendly. The cadet took the pistol and sneered,
Mitsuki thought that he was insulted to be using it.
The cadet fired three times, and the target revealed a
decent score.
"Well, you�ve improved from pathetic to average,"
Mitsuki commented, in that false complimentary tone.
"If you have to fight I�d stick to hand to hand if I
were you."
"Of course, Mitsuki-san," he responded patiently.
"Out of curiosity, why do you hate Captain Kiyone
Makibi?" All pretense of friendliness vanished, the
red-head made sure no one was around to see, and then
slammed the arrogant cadet against the wall.
"What do you know about that?" she hissed. The man
smiled at her, despite the fact that she was trying to
crush his throat.
"Just that you and I have a common interest," the
man smiled at her. He shouldn�t have been so
comfortable considering Mitsuki was trying to crush
his throat. Mitsuki�s eyes narrowed and then she
laughed.
"I thought I recognized you, Cadet Ren," she let
him go and laughed. "I could turn you in, make Kiyone
look like a fool by catching her escapee." A blade of
black energy appeared under Mitsuki�s chin.
"Don�t waste your life," he instructed her. "I am
going to destroy Kiyone Makibi and then I will make
you powerful, you will be my public face."
"You want me to be your puppet?" Mitsuki asked
nervously. The black blade vanished. "And how are you
going to send Kiyone into the pits again, I doubt
they�ll believe in her going outlaw again, Kagato
already tried that."
"Oh we�re not going to defame her," the man smiled.
"You are going to avenge her, and become the hero that
she already is." Mitsuki smiled.
"Interesting idea," the red-headed policewoman
smiled sinisterly. "I like it."
=====
"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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