Their first stop in their investigation was to an information broker, one who sold secrets to the highest bidder, by the name of simply Mori. Mori was known to be someone who worked both sides of the game, selling high security information to pirates and when caught was known to trade information about said pirates back for immunity. Mikumo was able to determine that shortly following the king's death Mori had rented out a luxury resort on a far off planet resort known as Kushu.
Tenchi Masaki had joined Mikumo down at the air lock as the ship was docking, "Masaki, I would like for you to come with me, might give you a chance to experience life on other worlds. Don't worry I can promise your safety no one there will be willing to open attack anyone."
Tenchi looked at Mikumo as he seemed to be waiting on something, "Um so I'll go, but care to tell me where 'there' is?"
"A party of sort Masaki, our contact Mori is holding a get together of sorts, it will be packed with pirates and smugglers, but everyone knows not to start a fight around Mori."
"Everyone knows?"
"Mori has a zero tolerance policy against violence. No one will be armed and most will be offering gifts to try and get a chance at a discount at Mori's information. Thus to blend in we will be doing the same, just waiting to hear if our gift to Mori has made it or not."
Tenchi stood nodding his head as he waited by Mikumo till he gave the go and they would start to wherever Mikumo thought they needed to be. A low sounding beep was heard from the ear piece Mikumo had in his right ear as he held up his hand against the machine and listened in. Mikumo nodded as he gestured towards the doorway in Tenchi's view, "Right their ready come on Tenchi."
Mikumo started out of the ship walking onto the dock walkway and as he turned to wait for Tenchi he caught sight of someone standing on the exterior of the ship, it was Zaneko. "What you doing up there?" Mikumo asked as Tenchi joined him off the ship now looking up as well.
"I have a bad feeling, so Hishima and I are watching; he's on the other side." Zaneko said never lowering the binoculars he was looking out through as he sat on the ship.
"Zaneko you know what the chances are of anything happening even on the same planet as Mori are as well as I do." Mikumo said waving his hand to call for one of the taxis waiting at the docks.
"Indeed," Zaneko said lowering the binoculars as he looked down at the two, "but my gut instincts have saved us before now haven't they?"
"Right, right, just don't do anything drastic okay?" Mikumo said getting into the taxi and gesturing Tenchi to follow as they saw Zaneko give a quick smile and go back to watching through his binoculars.
Their ride was a quiet and peaceful one; only after they reached their destination did things start to shake up. They stepped out in front of the large hotel built almost at a curve around the pool behind it. Mikumo gestured Tenchi to follow him as the two approached the front staircase, where a guard was surveying the guest and gifts for any sort of weaponry.
It was during this that Tenchi saw the gift Mikumo must have brought to the occasion. It was a larger-than-life sized gold plated statue of none other than Fredsin that stood erect upon a marble stand. His gold lifeless eyes seemed to focus on nothing other than Tenchi, even in death Fredsin persisted after him. Oddly enough there was something Tenchi did not notice about Fredsin that was in the statue, his arms were at his side and his left seemed more skeletal and was plated in silver gripping a pistol.
Tenchi was still staring at the statue when suddenly a voice rang out close to them, "Beautiful, I would assume Mori would take enjoyment at such a sight of the most wanted pirate or our generation." Tenchi turned to see the source of the voice seeing a rather young looking woman, brunette hair, fair skin and bright emerald eyes. Her dress waving against her body as she twirled the wine in her right handed glass looking at Fredsin's statue.
"Indeed that's the idea isn't it? If we don't impress Mori…well I have heard stories of what happens to people kicked out of Mori's parties." Mikumo suddenly spoke up tossing a smirk at the woman.
The woman took a sip of her wine after giving a haughty chuckle and tilted her head before going back inside. Mikumo looked over at Tenchi, "Come on, we have an audience with Mori. Best to get this over with before everyone recognizes me and starts complaining or plotting."
Walking into the party Tenchi was rather taken back seeing the lobby filled with guests. The walls seeming ready to burst from the sheer volume of people inside, and somewhere amongst them was this Mori they needed to talk to. Tenchi felt almost overwhelmed by the idea of trying to find one person in this group, till suddenly, a booming high-pitched voice broke out, "Hello! Hello by best fishes!"
Tenchi turned to the voice and saw a person walking down the steps in the back of the lobby. He could not easily tell the gender of the being but was assuming a man since the facial structure featured a hard chin and deep eyes. The person walked down the steps in an extremely over-the-top tunic that fan out at the collar and rim. This person was walking around, talking down at people as if he was the center of all the attention and thus the cause of the whole party. Tenchi assumed this must be Mori.
However, as Tenchi started to walk towards the oddity of a person Mikumo grasped at his arm stopping him, "You can mingle with guests later; Mori is the main reason were here."
"I know, but that person…isn't that Mori?" Tenchi asked gesturing to the over ecstatic man as Mikumo laughed.
"Sure Tenchi boy, if you think that's Mori than I'm glad I didn't leave you here to talk to Mori. I'll explain later, this way." Mikumo said heading towards a door at the far right wall of the lobby.
After squeezing through the crowds towards the door, Mikumo and Tenchi entered through it without any problems. The room in itself took the appearance of a library, with rows of shelves filled with old paper books and some of the shelving devoted to electrical data. At the far end of the room stood the same woman who earlier took note of the Fredsin statue, "I really do like the statue. So, Mikumo, what does the GXP need of me now?"
Back on the ship Zaneko still sat on the roof of the ship, overlooking towards the horizon as Hishima had already came to the conclusion that things were peaceful, "Still having that gut feeling Zaneko?"
"You know Hishima, sometimes I wish I could set you on mute, or whatever it is I could do to shut your mouth." Zaneko said as he continued to watch.
"Sometimes I wish the same thing concerning you."
"Than it sounds likes we have a problem, remind me later to settle this the old way."
"Why? I beat you last time." Hishima said as he still lay on the ship.
"You didn't beat me as I recall…" Zaneko let his words drift off as he straightened up. He brought his binoculars down and looked out at the horizon confused before looking through once more, "What the hell…"
Hishima glanced back at Zaneko as he got up to move by Zaneko, "Finally see something do you?"
"Yeah…the Jurai Royal Guard…here take a look." Zaneko said rising to his feet handing Hishima the binoculars as he stroked his bare chin. "No isn't that odd…You wouldn't think…I mean Mikumo told Misaki that we were…" Zaneko looked at Hishima as the other looked down at him, "Keep an eyes out I'll make sure no one comes out."
Hishima nodded as Zaneko went down into the ship simply to insure no one became a problem if things outside became complicated. The robot continued to look out at the oncoming troops. It was not only odd that here, as far from Jurai control as they could get, to encounter a group of the Royal Guards, but it was also that these men seemed ready to fight.
By the time Zaneko had returned, Hishima was waiting by the dock of the ship, for the Royal Guards were now nearly at the ship. Zaneko stood beside his mechanical companion as they watched the armed guards marched towards them, "So Hishima, what's the plan?"
"The plan? Well if their friendly you can do the talking, if not, than I take the ones on the right." Hishima said, his eyes darting about the guards.
"Good enough I guess." Zaneko said as the guards suddenly charged at the ship, spears and swords drawn. Zaneko looked at Hishima, "You always ruin our luck." Zaneko said before popping his knuckles and charged at the guards alongside Hishima.
The battle waged as Hishima's systems quickly adapted to the tactics and weapons of the guards as he continued to hold the guards off with his fists alone. Zaneko also fought with his fists, his god-like energy permitting him to keep up with the metal fighter, but his fists were soft and slowly started to ware from the constant fighting. The good part of it was that for every guard they defeated, two others retreated. Though Zaneko worried more so when suddenly from behind him he heard the voice of the cyan pirate scream out, "What is going on out here?"
"Hishima! Hold them back!" Zaneko shouted, attempting to work through the crowd back towards Ryoko. However, in his struggle in moving the guards were able to land a few more extra blows on him. The last sight he saw before blacking out was of a guard landing a lucky blow on the back of Ryoko's head, sending her unconscious as well.
Zaneko had awakened a few more minutes later by Hishima shaking him. Zaneko groaned rubbing the back of his sore neck as Hishima offered a hand to Zaneko, "Sorry. They snuck past me with Ryoko. You okay though?"
Zaneko shook his head as he gripped on Hishima's wrist and pulling himself up looking out away from the ship. "No…Let's get a hold of Mikumo, he needs to know." Zaneko said stumbling off into the ship as he continued to rub his neck.