NOTE: All characters original to the Tenchi-Muyo! TV1 series
portrayed in this story, as well as all those from the
Tenchi-Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA series, are the sole property of AIC
and Pioneer Animation. Any appearance of them in actual life is
purely coincidental. Tenchi-Muyo! material and paraphernalia
listed within is copyright Pioneer Animation 1997. Kyoto
Minamoto, Muriyaki Kushiragi, Chisako, Chi-Ohki, and all other
related characters are the sole property of R&C Books and appear
through permission from R&C Books. If you would like to use any
of these characters in your work, please contact the licensing
department at RCBooks@hotmail.com or visit our website at
http://rcbooks.webjump.com/galleries/tenchi_muyo/mugen1.html
Also, in this episode, as well as the one preceding and perhaps
the one following, all characters, names, and fighting
techniques/schools taken from the anime/manga Rur�ni Kenshin
are the property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Fuji TV, Sony, SPE Visual
Works, whichever of the Jump magazines the manga is serialized
in. For further information on the wonderful series, visit
http://www.anipike.com/rkenshin.html.
Episode #24:
No Need for a Past! -- Part 3
Several days later.
"Get your idols of the Goddess here! Get your idols of the
Goddess here!" Kyoto, dressed in merchant's garb, is standing
in front of a booth in Yachika's market place. On the table in
front of him are small likenesses of both Chisako and a
super-deformed version of Tsunami. These Tsunami's vary in size,
from small ones just the right size to fit on one's mantle,
to doll sized ones that are just the right size for little kids
to cuddle, to life-sized ones that are the right size for.
somewhat unholy actions. (And no, you hentais, we are not going
to go into further description.)
Naturally, the booth is almost being mobbed.
"I'll take one!"
"Give me two!"
"Give me ten of the life-sized!"
"Can I have a couple for my little girls?"
Unnoticed by the crowd, the actual Tsunami is rather annoyed
as she looks at her likenesses. "Those look nothing like me!"
She turns to her youngest sister for support. "Do they,
Murasaki--"
Her voice trails off as she sees her youngest sister cuddling
one of the doll-sized Tsunamis to her breast.
"It's so kawaii!" the magenta haired goddess bubbles. She then
remembers what she's being asked. "Actually, onee-chan,
they look just like you!"
Tsunami sighs. "Why me?"
* * *
"Ah. My dear Tsunami."
It appears even the Evil Kyoto has gotten into the Tsunami
craze. He is sitting on his throne with one of the life-sized
Tsunami dolls in his lap.
Evil Washu sweat-drops as she enters the throne room. One thing
she really does not need to see right now is her liege
committing unspeakable acts with an idol. "Um. my lord?"
Evil Kyoto does not look up from his newest plaything. "Doctor,
I believe I left specific orders to be undisturbed."
Evil Washu continues to sweat-drop, and her left-hand nervously
fingers one of her brand new Tsunami-shaped earrings. "Aren't
we gonna do anything about your counterpart on the surface?"
"Leave me immediately!"
Evil Washu recoils and retreats from the throne room. Once the
heavy doors slam shut, she sighs, in equal parts disappointment
and relief. "Oh, well. I better take this time to finish
coloring in my Tsunami coloring book."
* * *
"I can't believe Kyoto is actually doing merchandising
of all things." Tenchi mutters, sipping from his TsunamiT
teacup.
"Are you so sure you can't believe it, Tenchi-yon?" Kiyone-yoni
responds, fingering the sleeves of her brand new kimono, which
has chibi-TsunamiT images all over it.
"I have to agree, Tenchi-yon," Yoni echoes, adjusting the
ChisakoT-shaped hairclip securing her braid. "This is very in
character for him."
"I don't think you'll find too many of us complaining,
though, Tenchi," notes Ryoko, as she tallies up the sales on her
TsunamiT abacus. With a jerk of her head, she indicates Mirei
and Momoko who each have several of the chibi-TsunamiT
dolls in their arms.
The two young girls turn their most kawaii looks upon Tenchi.
The young emperor begins to sweatdrop.
"Daddy?"
"Uncle Tenchi?"
Tenchi gulps. "Yes, girls?"
They smile even wider, and Tenchi's teeth begin to ache. "Will
you please buy us some more Tsunami dolls?"
Tenchi knows that the battle is already lost, but he tries
anyway. "But you already have several apiece."
Predictably, the two girls shift expressions to their secret
weapon: the watery eyes and quivering lips.
"N-now, girls." Tenchi holds up his hands in a futile attempt
to ward off the inevitable.
The quivering of lips and wateriness of eyes intensify.
If there's one thing the nieces, daughters, and wife of Tenchi
Masaki have learned, it is that he cannot resist a girl's tears.
And once again, Tenchi relents. "All right."
"Yay!!" The two young girls throw their arms around Tenchi and
hug him till nearly the point of asphyxiation.
* * *
".But how can we be really sure that this so-called goddess
is in fact the revered Tsunami?!" Yachika's chief priest looks
skeptical, in spite of-- or even because of-- the city's
unquestioning acceptance of the new arrival. "Can she give us
any proof that she is who she says she is?"
A moment later, the chair has disappeared out from under the
priest, and he finds himself floating in mid-air. Tsunami has
her arms crossed and a smug expression on her face.
"O-o-of course I could be wrong.." The priest sighs in relief
as Tsunami lowers him into his chair again.
"Why don't you recheck the old prophecies?" Tsunami suggests
brightly.
The priest nods quickly and cracks open one of the old scrolls
in front of him. "A woman fair in appearance. with long hair of
blue and eyes of red. kind and generous, yet also mercurial
and jealous. Well, she does fit the profile." The priest stops
reading when he feels the burning eyes of a very angry Tsunami
falling upon him. "M-m-m-my lady, that's just what it says in
the prophecies."
Behind her, both Tokimi and Murasaki are stifling giggles,
barely. "What goes around, always comes around, I always say,"
comments Tokimi, smiling over at her sister. "I guess she
learned that it's not nice to say mean things about someone."
"I would have to agree, onee-chan," concurs Murasaki.
The priest quickly continues reading the scroll. "It is also
written that a group of eccentric travelers would precede her,
as her heralds. Oh, and your chariot my lady, is also
described." He turns the scroll towards Tsunami, who looks and
sees a crude drawing of Chisako.
Tsunami giggles and traces a finger over the familiar
five-pronged shape. "How cute."
"I think that settles the matter, don't you?" says Ten'chi
impatiently.
"Huh?! Oh, yes-yes-yes-yes-yes, that settles the matter
definitely!"
* * *
"Attention, citizens of Yachika! By decree of Ten'chi-dono,
the next three days and nights are hereby decreed as a festival
in honor of Tsunami-sama, the patron goddess of our city!
Tonight is a great feast in honor of Tsunami-sama! Please attend
if you are able!"
This decree is read throughout every neighborhood in Yachika.
Always ready for a good party, the people throw themselves
into the preparations. By nightfall, the party is in full swing.
And what a party it is.
The food and wine is free-flowing--especially
the wine. Soon, half the adult population of the city is drunk
off their collective gourd.
The goddess in whose honor the party is being held is slumped
on her impromptu throne, a half-full flagon of wine in one hand
and a full one in the other. Her eyes dart from young man to
young man, and the thoughts in those baby reds are most
certainly not holy.
Murasaki is already passed out--poor dear never could hold her
liquor. Spread out on a table, she does present a tempting
picture. However, every time a lecher--drunk or not--attempts
to reach out and touch, he finds himself facing a grim Kyoto.
If the lecher is lucky, he manages to run away.
It's a first for Mirei as well. The first time she ever gets
drunk. It starts with Momoko giving her a mug of mead. The taste
is bitter at first, but she quickly grows accustomed to it. And
she starts drinking more.
Soon, the alcohol has permeated her unaccustomed system, and she
is dancing drunkenly with a life-size Tsunami doll, with several
Ohkis dancing around her feet. She is also singing very off-key
at the top of her lungs. "Little bunny Foo-foo hopping through
the forest, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the
head."
Momoko is a different kind of drunk. Whereas Mirei gets silly,
she gets. well, friendly. Consequently, she starts coming on to
every guy in sight.
Kiyone-yoni and Yoni are sleepy drunks. They are doing much what
Murasaki is doing, except they aren't using the tables as beds.
Tenchi is drinking sparingly, to keep watch over the situation.
As for the rest of the group. Ryoko and Kyoto are "friendly"
drunks--and boy, are they.
Ayeka is an angry drunk--or at least a sadomasochistic
one; she keeps whipping everyone in sight.
Tokimi (the girl) and Kyo are in a secluded spot, drunk off
their asses and very amorous.
In the irony of ironies, Tokimi the goddess is sober. She is
sitting off to one side, watching the goings-on with several
cabbits.
Katsuhito is a singing drunk. Right now, he is attempting
to sing "I'm A Little Teapot."
The guardians are clumsy drunks. They keep crashing into trees
and apologizing, thinking that they crashed into each other.
Everyone else is either abstaining or unconscious.
* * *
This cycle repeats itself, be it either day or night, for the
next two days. The frenzy whips itself into an all-time high.
The reason for this: the goddess herself will be appearing
at the evening's festivities..
Tenchi peers over Kyoto's shoulder worriedly. "Um.. Are you sure
you know what you're doing with those controls, Kyoto?"
"Would you relax, Tenchi," chides Kyoto. "I was doing this for
a living before you were even thought of. Let me demonstrate."
Kyoto extends the antenna on his large remote unit-- one that
looks suspiciously like a controller for a RC-racer-- flips the
power switch, and eases back one of the little levers.
At once, large iris hatches peel back on Chisako's underside,
and the ventrally mounted ship-killer cannons emerge, aiming
their barrels towards the horizon in all directions. A
loudspeaker dispassionately announces, "Stand by for firing
of main particle cannons in 5.4."
"Kyoto?"
".3."
"Yeah?"
".2."
"We need to talk."
".1."
"I think you're right."
"Firing."
Charged particles begin to collect around the firing tips of the
massive cannons, increasing in density and brightness before
exploding forward in five brilliant lances of cerulean light.
The blasts arrow off into the distance, past the mountains,
and off past the horizon.
Tenchi and Kyoto stand opened mouthed for a long moment,
watching the blue beams of light arc off. Finally, Kyoto manages
to pull his mouth shut and gain some coherence. "I. meant to do
that."
"I don't doubt it," Tenchi mutters. "I'm afraid to ask what
you've hit."
* * *
Up in Chisako, Ayeka watches the five beams slam into a grassy
plain in the Southern Hemisphere, gouging large craters into the
face of the planet. "Hmm. So that's where the Star Lakes came
from."
"History in the making," quips Washu. "Pass that dish of
cookies, please."
"Aren't you just the tiniest bit worried that this might affect
history adversely?" Muriyaki asks dubiously.
"Not really," Ayeka replies. "The origins of the Star Lakes were
always shrouded in mystery anyway." She looks around the room.
"Where's Tsunami?"
"She's getting ready for the festival tonight," Washu replies.
"Can I have some more of those cookies, please?"
* * *
"Finally!" In another universe, the evil Washu turns to her
liege. "My lord, we have located Masaki, Minamoto, and their
party."
"Good, good." The evil Kyoto rubs his hands together in
anticipation. "Which universe are they in?"
"Their original."
Kyoto strokes his chin thoughtfully. "That's odd. Strange that
we didn't detect them there before. ah, no matter. Set course
and prepare for fold."
"Aye, my liege."
* * *
At nightfall, Chisako assumes a low orbit over the city's
center, shining its powerful floodlights down into the city
square.
Throughout the crowd, questions are being asked. "Is it the
goddess?!" "Is she finally coming to visit us?" "Will she sign
my TsunamiT poster?"
In response, a column of light lances straight down from the
center hub's iris hatch. Tsunami descends down the column of
light, waving to her subjects.
"Hello, everyone! I'm so happy to see you!"
"Hey," yells one of the local perverts. "I can see up her--"
He promptly turns into a tree.
"Anyone else?" Tsunami asks, a glint of steel showing under the
sweetness.
(All other perverts in the crowd hold their tongues.)
"I thought not." The beatific smile returns. "As I was saying,
I'm so glad to be here tonight."
Aboard Chisako.
"Something just occurred to me." Tenchi sits up in his chair.
"Murasaki, when was the first time you and your sisters visited
Jurai?"
The youngest goddess looks thoughtful. "Come to think of it,
Tenchi, I don't think I quite recall." She turns to Tokimi.
"Onee-chan, do you remember?"
The elder goddess' brow furrows in concentration. "You know,
I actually don't remember either. I know that together, after
you left, Murasaki, we were able to appear to the Juraians
of Yachika just after Yosho Masaki and his crew made planetfall,
but I don't remember the first time we were here."
"Maybe that's because this is the first time?" Kyoto quips from
across the room.
"You mean we're writing history as we speak," Tenchi responds
dryly, as he gets up and drapes a blanket across the sleeping
younger Tokimi, who is curled up with a cabbit in her arms.
"And that all of this was preordained," Kiyone-yoni adds,
stroking the sleeping Mirei's hair.
Tokimi actually brightens. "Yes! That must be it! I remember
onee-chan telling me how odd it seemed for everything to be
almost in place!"
Murasaki, on the other hand, looks worried. "Something tells
me we should worry about this.."
The elder goddess pats her younger sister reassuringly
on the hand. "There, there, Murasaki-chan, if we're doing it
now, doesn't this mean that we come out all right?"
Murasaki sighs as she rises to get more snacks. "Onee-chan,
aren't you the one who told me not to use circular logic in an
argument?" Just then, one of the ubiquitous cabbits mi-yas,
and Murasaki picks it up on her way.
* * *
"But enough with trivial matters." Tsunami looks out over the
crowd with just the right blend of seriousness and
determination. "My people, you have a destiny." She raises her
right arm and points a finger up into the sky. The people as one
turn to follow her gaze, and more than one gasp as they realize
that she means the entirety of space.
Tsunami continues, her voice firm. "Your destiny will take you
out among the stars, to the farthest reaches of the universe.
Thousands of years from now, Jurai will stand proud and strong
as one of the great powers of the universe.
"But this road will not be an easy. You must overcome many foes
and obstacles, and you must learn to extend help to those in
need, and forgiveness to your fallen enemies, for graciousness
and kindness will be as important as strength.
The goddess lets her voice lighten. "But that is for the future.
For now, my children, celebrate and work hard, and let tomorrow
take care of itself."
The only ones on Chisako's command deck at the moment are Azaka
and Chi-ohki. Kamidake is back in the Masaki house tending
to Mitsuki, who is starting to experience morning sickness.
In spite of their obvious differences--Chi-ohki
still nursing a grudge against Jurai and Azaka still strongly
pro-Royalist--the rebel cabbit and the knight are surprisingly
capable of intelligent conversing, having both lived through
strange times that have seen many a friend pass on.
Chi-Ohki smiles as he blows another cloud of smoke through
the holographic screen holding the image of the activities
on the planet's surface. "So, we're the ones responsible
for making the Juraians what they become, a people of tree
hugging hippies. I wish so badly that Chisako was my property.
I would royally fuck Jurai over."
The elder knight raises an eyebrow at Chi-Ohki. "How so,
cabbit?"
Smiling and blowing another puff of smoke at the view screen,
Chi-Ohki pats the holographic keyboard hovering in front of him.
"Well, the thought had occurred to arrive in Jurai's history
just after Kyoto stopped his attack, when he met Tenchi, the
prince who ended the Jurai-Megami war. If I were Kyoto, I would
have arrived at Jurai just after the battle of Anopon, when both
the Juraian and Megamian forces were battered and exhausted.
I would take advantage of the lack of an effective local defense
force by eradicating the tree of Tsunami and permanently
erasing Jurai's naval forces. After all, it is said in the great
books of history that if the tree of Tsunami dies, all her
offspring will die too?"
The cabbit looks up at the Knight to see if his comments have
frightened Azaka at all. He smiles wider when he sees a small
twitching in his right cheek.
"Well, isn't that true?" Chi-Ohki asks again, taking a long drag
on his cigar.
"Yes.. It is.." Azaka sighs, turning away from the Chi-Ohki,
who is now laughing his head off.
The knight rallies, though. "You realize, though, cabbit, that
it is Jurai's loyalists who are now working to save your own
worthless arse. I believe that you should.. what is the term.
cut us some slack?"
"You're right," Chi-ohki agrees. "I probably should."
Silence for a long moment, then:
"But I ain't gonna."
Azaka sighs. "I wish I could say I was surprised."
* * *
Meanwhile, Tsunami is finishing her speech to the Juraian
people. As her last words fade into the night, she floats from
her place under the column of light emanating and takes up a
position several meters away.
She then places her hands together, palm to palm, and begins
concentrating. From the seam between her palms, an aura of blue
energy begins to waft out, spiraling up and away from her hands
and several feet into the air, before dissipating. After
chanting in a low voice for several seconds, chanting in ancient
High Juraian, she allows her hands to separate, palms up.
Hovering above her hands, now, is a large, walnut-shaped
seed, bathed in an aura of blue energy. With a simple hand
gesture, the seed sails over to the center of the column where
she had been standing when she first appeared, and buries itself
in the ground.
Chanting louder now, Tsunami brings her hands up above her head
with the palms open up towards the sky. In each palm forms two
new balls of blue energy, each one pulsing and growing steadily
larger and she chants, keeping rhythm with her feet.
She continues to chant, steadily speeding up her pulse and
volume till she is practically screaming her chants. The balls
of energy in her hands have grown in size, each one being as
large as a medicine ball. With a final high-pitched scream,
she brings both her arms down till they are directly in front
of her and releases the balls of energy.
The two balls explode forward into wild arcs of blue lightning
cutting through the air and striking the ground where the seed
had buried itself moments before. Everything falls dark and
silent. The only light in the area emanating from below the
surface of the soil where the seed had been buried.
Suddenly, a shockwave of energy erupts from the focal point of
the seed and cascades through the soil, knocking most of the
city's inhabitants to their knees. A second shockwave follows
only seconds behind the first. Then another.. And another.
These tremors continue to growing, coming faster and faster,
shaking the citizens of Yachika to their bellies. Finally at the
point where no one could imagine the tremors to grow any
stronger, a column of soil erupts from the ground, soaring
high into the sky. As the column continues to rise, branches
and bark begins to erupt from the column growing outward at
alarming rates.
On the bridge of Chisako, the rapid accent of the column is not
lost on the two on the bridge.
"Holy shit!. We're too fucking low!" screams Chi-Ohki scrambling
over the controls.
Too late.
The column slams into the underside of Chisako, carrying her up
higher into the air with her.
"Do something, you fat, smelly piece of fur!" barks Azaka,
clinging to the back of Chi-Ohki's chair as the ship is rocked
and buffeted atop the earthen pillar.
After several minutes of violent climbing, the earthen tower
grinds to a stop. After pausing briefly, the tower begins to
crumble, the dirt crumbling into a lightly sloped hill around
the newly grown tree. Sitting atop the branches is Chisako,
cradled in a bassinet of green. On the bridge, Chi-Ohki and
Azaka are heaped together in one corner, neither looking very
comfortable with the arrangement.
"Move, you fat furball!" groans Azaka from under Chi-Ohki's
weight.
"Bite me, knight boy! I'll get up when I'm good and ready! I
just need to figure out where I am, so I can stand up!" barks
Chi-Ohki, his eyes swirling and his face turning a light shade
of green.
"What the fuck happened?!"
Chi-Ohki and Azaka snap their heads around towards the doorway
as they hear Kyoto moan.
"Um.. Well, you see Kyoto.. It was Azaka's fault! He thought
he could pilot the ship while I went to get myself a drink.
When I came back, he caused Chisako to run into Tsunami's
tree! Then, he turned to me and said--"
"We were in too low of an orbit and were caught up in the tree
as it rose from the ground," Azaka interrupts.
"Thank you, Azaka," Kyoto staggers over to the helm and begins
to spin the trackballs in several directions, bringing Chisako
from her place of rest atop Tsunami's tree to an orbit just
above it.
* * *
Below, in Yachika's central square.
.or what was.
Tsunami glares up at Chisako, several veins starting to appear
on her forehead. "Kyoto no baka.." moans Tsunami, trying to hide
her frustration from the people of Yachika.
Several of the priests are huddling close to Tsunami. One of
them croaks, "My lady, is your husband angry at us?"
"My hus--?" Tsunami abruptly realizes what they mean, and
responds in the calmest voice she can. "No, my husband is just
an absolute imbecile."
* * *
The living room of the Masaki house is now a complete clutter.
Broken dishes are strewn across the floor and the television
has fallen from its perch face down the floor, the screen
irreparably broken. The inhabitants of the house are huddled
tightly together in a ball in the corner of the room.
This group remains huddled for several more seconds before
Nobuyuki finally gains the courage to separate from the others.
"I think we've stopped moving, you can all let each other go
now."
Slowly, the others pull apart, moving very cautiously,
as if at any second the house will begin shaking again. "What
just happened?" Tenchi asks slowly, his eyes slowly taking in
the damage.
"Maybe we should ask the command deck?" Yoni suggests,
distastefully eyeing the wine now splattered across her blouse.
As if in response to her words, the intercom built into the wall
crackles to life with the cussing and swearing of Chi-Ohki.
"..sunovamotherlovinggoatwhatthefuckjust--"
"SHUT UP CHI-OHKI!!" snaps Kyoto's voice, bringing an icy
silence to the intercom. A moment later, Kyoto's voice, now
softer, speaks again. "Sorry about that everybody, we a had a..
slight technical difficulty, but everything's just fine now!"
"Ya, Kyoto had a brain fart when he was figuring the tree's
height!" pipes Chi-Ohki.
"How many times do I have to tell you to shut up?!?"
"More times than you can physically say the word!"
Ryoko staggers over to the intercom panel and switches the panel
to OFF. "I think that's enough of that for now!"
* * *
"My Lord, we got them!"
The Evil Kyoto's attention turns from his latest "diversion."
"Where are they?"
Evil Washu smiles grimly. "Confirmed Jurai energy reaction.
Locking onto the source and feeding the coordinates to the
navigation computer."
"Excellent. Begin our decent, we shall take them while they are
still trapped in the atmosphere."
* * *
By now, Tsunami has the crowd mostly calmed. "Everything
is alright, my people, but now it is time for me to depart."
She begins to say more, but then she hears the loud sound of
atmospheric turbine engines.
That's odd, she thinks. Chisako's engines aren't usually that
loud.It couldn't be!
Very slowly, she turns around and looks upward. Her heart sinks
as her fears are realized.
Descending on either side of Chisako forming to corners of a
triangle with Chisako as its tip, are Akiko and Tomoko. Even
from distance, she can sense their weapons charging. She turns
quickly to the Juraians, who are staring up in shock. "Escorts
have come to take me home, I must bid you farewell, but we will
meet again, until then!" And then she disappears.
She reappears on Chisako's command deck. Kyoto is sitting behind
the master terminal, while off in a corner of the bridge,
Chi-Ohki and Azaka are brawling.
"Did you see them?!" she asks breathlessly.
"Yes, I did. I'm taking us out of the atmosphere now, " as he
punches up the anti-grav turbines to full. Chisako rises swiftly
out of the atmosphere, followed by her sisters.
* * *
"Don't let them escape! Activate the dampening field!" roars
the Evil Kyoto. "Shall we deploy the interceptors and boarding
ships?" Nagi suggests.
"Excellent idea, do so at once," Kyoto orders.
* * *
"They're swarming us!" reports Kamidake, from one of the sensor
terminals. "Mostly fighter craft and boarding ships. But there's
hundreds of them."
"This looks like a job for the cabbit brigade!" Everyone turns
in shock to face Chi-Ohki.
"What did you just say?" stammers Tenchi, trying not to swallow
his tongue.
"What does it sound like, oh great emperor of Jurai?" the cabbit
quips. "I said, this is a job for the cabbit brigade!" And with
that, Chi-Ohki dashes off to an airlock.
Seconds later, the group watches as Chi-Ohki's ship form races
away from Chisako and at the fighters.
"Does he know what he's doing?" Kiyone asks, skeptically.
"Well, it's Chi-Ohki," Tenchi replies slowly.
Kiyone looks sidelong at her husband. "That doesn't really tell
me anything."
"It wasn't meant to," he says apologetically.
* * *
"My Lord, one Ohki has appeared to have launched from Chisako."
"What can one cabbit do against all our fighters?" sneers Kyoto.
"Its ship form appears to be substantially larger than other
cabbits, even male ones," reports one of the sensor techs.
"Even so, it can't carry many more weapons than--" Kyoto's
voice cuts off as he sees a series of explosions begin to appear
across the display. "What the hell?!"
"Getting reports from squadron commanders," reports a
communications tech anxiously. "Twenty fighters and two of the
boarding ships destroyed, losses rising."
"Let me see that display!" Nagi orders, swinging her own screen
around. Her eyes widen as she studies the information.
"Amazing," she murmurs.
"What's so amazing about it?! It's destroying our forces!"
"But its how, My Lord," Nagi explains. "Instead of
straightforwardly attacking with weapons, it's turned itself
into. I don't know how to explain it, but its literally cutting
through some of our ships and shooting the rest down, all at
once!"
"Well, find some way to counter it!"
* * *
Kyoto wears a smug expression. "Crude, but effective. Just like
the one wielding it."
Ryoko explains. "That is apparently Chi-Ohki's ultimate attack.
Yoppon-gatana no Mai, the Dance of Four Swords. He rotates
himself at top speed, turning himself into a flying blade, while
firing all his weapons at once."
"Didn't he steal that from a movie?" asks Momoko.
"Probably. Though which movie escapes me at the moment," Ryoko
replies.
* * *
Elsewhere in the Masaki house, on the second level, is the
bedroom shared by Sasami and Tsunami. The room is completely
darkened; even the curtains are tightly drawn. The two girls
are kneeling across from each other, their hands folded in their
laps, their eyes closed.
They maintain this position, completely unchanged, during the
rocking of the ship.
Suddenly, their eyes open.
And all hell breaks loose.
* * *
"Um. my Lord, we have a problem!."
The Evil Kyoto turns to glare at the hapless engineering
officer. "What is it!" he hisses.
The engineer gulps, but stands his ground. "Sir. we're having
a problem in the fold drives, they're activating."
"WHAT?!" The Evil Emperor turns his glare upon his two
assistants, both of who look as confused as he is.
"We got trouble here too," reports the navigator, his arms in a
gesture of defeat as he motions at his navigation display.
"The navigation computer's gone completely haywire. Thirty
seconds ago, it started feeding random coordinates into the main
drive computer and locked them in. The process is irreversible."
* * *
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S IRREVERSIBLE?!" screams Kyoto at the main
terminal. He starts to kick the terminal, but since its
holographic, he ends up kicking through thin air and landing
on his ass.
The computer isn't completely unaffected, "Repeat, fold sequence
engaged, fifteen seconds to space fold, fourteen, thirteen,
twelve."
* * *
In their room, Sasami and Tsunami are chanting softly to
themselves, echoing words said long ago.
"O fire which burns hotter than any star, o water that is deeper
than any ocean, o wind that blows stronger than any hurricane,
we ask for thy favor. We ask for thy knight. We ask for the
Light Hawk. It is only he who can triumph against what is ahead.
We ask for thy champion. We ask for the Light Hawk."
* * *
And the ships fold.
Leaving Chi-Ohki behind.
"WHATTHEMOTHERFUCKINGSONOFGOATSEATINGSPAMONTUESDAYWHILESLEEPINGWITHCHE
ETOSANDMASSAGINGARABBITSHINEYANDTASTINGGRE
is going on here?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?"
The End--Episode #24
Star Lakes: A popular resort area in the Southern Hemisphere
of Jurai, the Star Lakes region is also the governmental
and communications hub for that part of the planet. The Royal
family maintains a summer palace here, and the Jurai Defense
Forces a large naval base. Two large cities grew up in this
area, Mizumachi and Suimachi, and came to be known as Jurai's
"Twin Star Cities." These cities were destroyed by Kyoto
Minamoto during his days as a pirate, but were later rebuilt
and expanded. Ironically enough, the Star Lakes area was also
the center of operations for Jurai's early space exploration
efforts.
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