Pursuing Dreams

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Reviews most welcomed! (A/N. would you like the story with or without pairings? If so, which would you prefer?)

Author: Phantom Shyraz

04: First Meeting

"Nya! Home at last!" Kikumaru Eiji jumped out of the hatch and landed gracefully on the walkway. He waited, not so patiently, for the rest of the Seigaku Regular Crew to exit their home for the past three months.

"Oh, I haven't had burgers in such a long time!" Momoshiro exclaimed, the second passenger off the ship.

"But didn't we have it last week when Taka-san made them?" Oishi managed to stop the sprinting pair in their steps.

"I'm not saying that Taka-san's food isn't great, but I needed burgers that are on a bun, with fries and coke and sides." Momoshiro loved food and Taka-san, whilst he is good at Japanese cuisine, is not that well versed in western food. His creation was hamburger—the patty kind—and not the burgers Momoshiro are currently craving for.

"Saa, Oishi, leave them be." Fuji placed a hand to stop Oishi from throttling Momoshiro. "It was a longer trip than usual and we deserve a break."

"Wait a moment." The authoritative voice echoed in the cavernous space. Stood on top of the walkway as Tezuka, dressed impeccably as always. There was not a single crinkle on his dark blue uniform jacket or his slacks. His shoes were polished to a shine and his stripes were in the right place showing off his rank and position. "Ryusaki-sensei said she'd like to see us as soon as we docked." Tezuka's voices said it in a tone that suggests it to be an order than one of a request. This stopped Momoshiro in his tracks, standing dejectedly at the base of the walkway.

"Ryusaki-sensei said that?" Oishi thought for a moment, wondering if it was because there was someone related to them that got hurt. "It's quite odd for her to see us the instant we arrive." His face obviously had shown some signs worry, to which Kikumaru bounced to his partner's side and gave him a smile. Oishi's heart felt warm at the gesture and he smile back just as warmly.

"The briefings are normally on the next morning we arrive so it couldn't be that." Inui flipped out his trusty notebook as the group proceeded to Ryusaki-sensei's office. "There's a seventy-two percent chance of one of the Academy requesting a practice opponent. Twenty-two percent to do with special orders or missions from the higher up. Five percent of someone being transferred."

"Um...Inui-senpai. The percentages doesn't add up." Momoshiro was brave enough to ask. He was afraid that pointing out the flaw in the data-man's calculations might earn him the newly-developed-special-deluxe-Inui-elixir.

"As there is insufficient data, the remaining one percent is unknown." There was a glint from Inui's glasses, which sent shivers up everyone's spine except for their fearless leader, Tezuka Kunimitsu, and the only person to be immune to Inui's creation to date, Fuji Shuusuke.

Ryusaki Sumire just finished paging Ryoma to come to her office when she heard the buzzer sound. Without a second thought, she let the Seigaku regulars into the office. As expected of her captain, Tezuka was immaculate in his presentation. Most of the more senior members of the crew were dressed in their full uniform consisting of the jacket, slacks, neck scarf and black polished shoes. The two newer additions, Momoshiro Takeshi and Kaidou Kaora, who joined just last year and a year after Tezuka took over the duties of Seigaku, were dressed in a slightly sloppier manner, with their shirt button undone at the top and the scarf hanging loosely around their neck. Kaidou also had added his personal touch in the dress code by tying his hair in his trademark bandanna.

"Sorry for having to call you here straight after you've docked, "She started, noticing the tired look from some of the member's face, "but there is someone I'd wanted you to meet."

"Where is he?" Momoshiro blurted out without much thinking, earning him a look from both Tezuka and Oishi. He quickly shut up, knowing that he just spoke out of line and would most likely earn himself another set of laps around the docks afterwards (both Kaidou and himself had been arguing on the way to the office and Tezuka had ordered 30 laps).

"He's new and he would be joining the Seigaku when you next leave in two weeks time."

"He's a freshman then?" Tezuka asked, no doubt the question would be in everyone's mind.

"In a way, yes…" She left off, wondering how much she could tell the regulars about Ryoma without revealing his actual mission details.

"Then we'll see him when the rest of the freshmen come aboard the ship." Tezuka did not see why there should be special treatment to this particular freshman.

"Although he could be termed as a freshman, he's more of a transfer into the Academy." She waited for questions whilst looking at the confused faces of the regulars. Though there were three she couldn't read, first was Tezuka because he was in deep thought, next was Fuji due to his smiling façade, and finally was Inui because he hid behind his reflective glasses. "He knows more than just you're average freshman, even though he is the same age as they are. He his more trained, but not from other Academies."

"Where is he?" Ryusaki-sensei's description had roused Fuji's interest and he could see that it was reflected in Tezuka's face.

"He'll be arriving soon, I've just notified him of your arrival." They waited patiently for Ryoma to arrive. All the while, Ryusaki-sensei asked them about their trip but not really debriefing them. She would wait until tomorrow when they are all rested to update the regulars about the going-ons around the rest of the Academy and colonies.

On the other side of the Academy, quite far away from where Seigaku was docked, Ryoma sat on the ground busily typing in commands on his computer. He is in the middle of updating the system with simulation programs. As he was expecting to meet with the Seigaku crew, he was semi dressed in the uniform. The only exception was his neck scarf and jacket, which is currently draped on the arms of the pilot chair. He knew the importance of making a first impression so he made a clear choice of the black neck scarf, which showed him as a member of the Echizen family, rather than the red junior or the green senior scarf. But he doubted anyone would recognize the significance of the neck-scarf.

There are a few influential families in the history of Earth protection, one of which were the Echizen that works mainly as active individual agents out of the government's control. Many other family decided to limit themselves to desk jobs or stay within the Earth's boundary. As such, members rarely see those from the Echizen line and believed the line to be extinct. The black tie is plain, but upon closer inspection, there were black embroidery of a stylized letter 'E' in a repeating pattern all over the fabric.

All of a sudden, there was a beeping sound in background, Ryoma looked around for the source. He was sure he left his PDA inside is temporary dorm room, and he seriously doubted his oyaji would be contacting him anyways. Looking closer into the cockpit, he realized the sound came from the inside of his jacket. As he searched, he only found the metallic access card that was given to him last evening by Ryusaki-sensei. But instead of being a smooth silver coloured piece of card, it now has a blinking red mark the size of a coin on it. He had no idea how to stop the sound so pressing on the dot seemed like a good idea to stop the incessant sound.

"Ryoma," The voice of Ryusaki-sensei emitted from the card, along with small 3D holographic image of her sitting on top of the card's surface. "The Seigaku has docked and heading up to my office now. I'd like you to join us here."

"Uisu" Ryoma replied, preparing to leave with his jacket in hand.

"Oh, and come in full uniform. It'd be best if you can make a good impression for the regulars." There was another beep before the hologram blinked out and left Ryoma within the silent cockpit with a blank piece of metallic card.

"Master Ryoma," Karupin's voice suddenly sounded. Ryoma was surprised but only showed by widening his eyes slight. "The upgrades have been installed correctly and there are no signs of bugs. System is ready to go."

"Ah." Ryoma carefully tied the neck scarf around his collar. If given a choice, he would have walked straight to the office as he is. But since Ryusaki-sensei had near to command him to go in perfect uniform, he had no choice but to obey. He used the now blackened screen as a mirror, checking his image before turning his mind back to Karupin. "Run simulations 5 to 25 and record the results."

"And pilot type?" Scripts began to scroll through the now alive screen inside the cockpit.

"Ghost 4" Without looking back and trusting Karupin to look after the place, lock up the cockpit, and run the relevant security programs as he left the area.

When he arrived in front of the office, he could hear voices and without even needing to press the buzzer, the sliding doors automatically opened to let him in. he looked around the room, noticing the eight people standing in front of Ryusaki-sensei's desk. He assumed these to be the regulars on board Seigaku. He consciously followed protocol and saluted to Ryusaki-sensei, even though at all other times he plainly did not do so. It was against his nature to follow all regulations, but that may be because of his upbringing with his oyaji and brother.

"Good, you're finally here. We can begin the introduction." Ryusaki Sumire remain seated behind the desk as the line of regulars in front of her parted slightly to allow her to see the new comer close to the doorway. She was pleased to see Ryoma dressed befitting to his station but hid the smile behind a professional mask. She also noticed Ryoma preferring to stay close to the door, as though prepared to escape the office at a moment's notice. "The one in front of me is the captain of Seigaku, Tezuka Kunimitsu."

Tezuka nodded to acknowledge her statement. He did a quick analysis of the young boy in front of him. Tezuka thought he recognized the uniform and at one point thought he saw some hidden pattern stitched on his scarf but it must have been a trick of light. The boy had a cocky and confident aura surrounding him and his cat-like golden eyes looked as though it can bore through a person's soul. Though Tezuka was immune to the stares he was receiving. He did not doubt that as he was making observations about the boy and storing them for future use, the boy was also doing the same.

"Next to him, on his right, vice captain Oishi Shuichiro, his partner Kikumaru Eiji and Kawamura Takeshi." Kikumaru waved enthusiastically but Oishi, on the other hand, just smiled. Kawamura was shy and did not know what reqction to give, so he settled on a small smile instead"Last on the right is Momoshiro Takeshi, who just joined the regular's position last year." Momoshiro had a grin on his face, proud to earn his stripes.

Throughout this first part of the introduction, Ryoma only nodded in acknowledgement of each member. He thought he would have difficulty in remembering all the faces and names but seeing each member being so individualistic, he realize the task may not be so difficult after all. At first glance of Tezuka, Ryoma could only think of one word—strict—but upon further inspection, he could see the warmth behind those glasses. Moving along the line, Oishi seemed to be the kind type of person who would rather not be in the spotlight, whilst his partner Kikumaru is more of a showman. Ryoma did not know what to make of Kawamura but he knew that there is power and strength behind that shy face. Momoshiro seemed to be the average big-brother figure who would volunteer information and get into trouble at the same time. His instincts told him that Kikumaru and Momoshiro could be New Human because of their physical look and he learned to trust these instincts. That was one of the main reason why he stayed so close to the doorway.

"On Tezuka's left is Fuji Shuusuke," Ryusaki-sensei continued. Fuji smiled and opened his eyes for a split second before returning his face to the same eerie smile. "The one next to him is Inui Sadaharu and finally, also a new member on the team is Kaidou Kaoru." Inui nudged his glasses up when his name was mentioned but returned to writing in his green notebook. On the other hand, Kaidou just stared up and down at Ryoma beforing letting out a soft hiss.

Ryoma's interest was further aroused after Ryusaki-sensei's introduction to the rest of the group. The feminine looking person had a strange aura about him. Ryoma had thought Fuji to be kind at first but he knew there was a devil behind the smile the moment those sapphire eyes looked at him. If people thought Ryoma's gaze was startling, it was nothing compared to Fuji's, which seemed to dissect a person to their very core just with one look. With Inui, Ryoma made a mental note to question what he wrote into the book. Ryoma knew for certain it was something to do with him. The last regular looked scary but Ryoma had seen his fare share of intimidating people so he just shrugged at the hiss.

"This here," Ryusaki-sensei gestured across the desk to where Ryoma was standing, "is Echizen Ryoma. He will be joining the Seigaku."

"Are you sure this is wise sensei?" Inui questioned. The name did not ring a bell and seeing the boy in front of his made him question Echizen's skills. "Seigaku has responsibilities for long term, outer space missions. It wouldn't do well to have to train up new rookies…"

"If that's the case, we can just test him." Momoshiro offered. He had taken a liking to Echizen already.

"I second that." Fuji was curious why Ryusaki-sensei had deliberately called this meeting. He was sure that their supervisor had expected something similar to a test being suggested to prove Echizen's worth. "It would be good to see how he could perform."

"Tezuka, what do you say?" Ryusaki asked, though also expecting the captain to agree. Although she was the highest ranking person in the room, she left the ultimate decision to Tezuka seeing as he would be the one overseeing the crew in Seigaku.

"Very well." Tezuka thought a moment at the possible tests that could allow Echizen to show his skills. "Momoshiro, since you suggested it, you can spar with Echizen. After that, we can test out his piloting skills with Kaidou."

"Are you sure this is wise…" Inui left his sentence unfinished. A few days before they docked, Momoshiro had injured his leg during one of their sparing exercises and is still recovering.

"I'm sure. Are the training centres available?" Tezuka turned to Ryusaki-sensei, who nodded. "We'll meet up there in 30 minutes so everyone can get ready."