Ryuunosuke groaned. She didn't know how she was supposed to pass her upcoming exams when her father kept dragging her out to the beach every weekend. He was insistent that they leave as soon as school was out on Fridays so that they could have their small stand set up for the weekend. The fact that it was still too early for anyone to be on the beach didn't appear to faze him.
Speaking of the old fool, it sounded like he was back. She raised her head from her algebra book and spied him jogging across the sand towards her.
"Ryuunosuke, why aren't you watching the shop?" he asked angrily. "What if we'd had a customer while I was gone?"
"We haven't had a customer all weekend, Pop," she replied. "You're an idiot for thinking we would."
"Is that any way to speak to your father?" he growled, raising a fist.
"When your father's an idiot, then yeah!" she replied, shutting her book. "I can't even study because of you."
"What do you need to study those books for?" he demanded. "You need to be studying useful things, like how to crush ice just so, or how to make the perfect beach shop ramen!"
"For the last time, I don't want to work in your cruddy old tea-shop my whole life," she spat out.
He crossed the distance between them in a second. "I dare you to call the Hamajaya cruddy again!" he yelled in her face. "My grandfather built this place himself with his sweat and tears! How dare you insult his craftsmanship!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Ryuunosuke yelled back. "You told me yourself that his shop was destroyed by a typhoon when you were five! And we went through two more shops before we moved to Tomobiki!" She gestured at their small stand. "Look what we're reduced to now!"
"This is just the portable Hamajaya!" he protested, looking at it proudly. "And the Hamajaya is the Hamajaya, no matter the time or the place!"
"You don't make any sense, old man," she replied.
"What kind of son are you, insulting your heritage?" Mr. Fujinami demanded.
"I'm not your son!" she screamed back. "God, I hate you so much!" Grabbing her book, she ran off across the beach, desperate to get away from her idiot father. His voice rang out plaintively behind her. He was calling out to her deceased mother, no doubt.
She kept running until she felt like her legs were about to give out beneath her. Flopping down in the sand, she stared out across the sea at the endless waves. It seemed like all of her life she had been staring at this same boring ocean. It was in constant motion, but nothing ever changed. It really was the same as her father.
Trying to take her mind off of her dismal life, she opened her book up and started studying again. Monday they had another mock exam, and her results on past tests had been less than satisfactory. Onsen-Mark-Sensei had been doing his best the past few months to give her extra tutoring after class, but it still wasn't enough.
After she had been reading for a long while, she glared at the dark page irritably as a shadow fell over her, blocking out the quickly fading sunlight. She peered upwards and caught sight of a tiger-striped ship slowly passing by overhead. For a moment excitement gripped her. Lum and Moroboshi must have finally come back.
Then she realized that this ship appeared to be a good bit larger than Lum's had been. She didn't recall it having such an oblong shape either.
The ship headed inland silently, heading roughly in the direction of Tomobiki. Ryuunosuke watched until it had passed out of sight behind the mountains. The last time the Oni had invaded, they had stayed in orbit. To the best of her knowledge none of their ships had ever been seen flying this low.
She stood up slowly and worriedly clasped her book to her chest. Mendou had mentioned to Shinobu a few weeks back that the group who had tried to invade Earth was still prowling around the solar system. She started jogging back down the beach towards her father, hoping he would have some idea what to do.
"Why should we care?" Mr. Fujinami asked grumpily. "They aren't bothering the sea, are they? They didn't land on the beach and start stealing the sand, did they?"
Ryuunosuke glared needles at him. "If there's an invasion, we won't have any customers," she reminded him angrily.
"Even invaders need beachfront tea shops," he replied, looking up at the stars begining to shine in the sky.
"Stop being such an idiot," she replied. "They were probably heading for Tomobiki. How are you ever going to get enough money to rebuild the Hamajaya if the school gets destroyed?"
His confident face fell a bit. "That is true," Mr. Fujinami mused. "Ok, let's get the place packed up and go tell someone."
She looked at the empty cart and the fully stocked stand. "That'll take a couple of hours," she whined. "Can't we just leave it? No one's going to bother anything way out here."
"You would desert our beloved shop just like that?" he asked incredulously. "You shame me, Ryuunosuke."
"You have no right to talk about shame!" she insisted as she started packing up crates. "Now stop talking and start packing."
The ringing phone near his head jolted Shutaro out of a sound sleep. Checking the clock, he saw that it was a bit past midnight. He wondered angrily what could possibly be important enough to bother with at this time of night.
"Hello?" he answered sleepily.
"Is that you, Mendou?" a female voice demanded. It took him a second to recognize that it was Ryuunosuke.
"Yes, it is me," he replied, holding back a yawn. If this wasn't important, he was going to have someone's neck for forwarding a call this late at night.
"You've got some way to talk to those Oni, right?" she demanded. "I heard from Shinobu that you did."
Shutaro blinked. "Yes, I do communicate with them on occasion," he confirmed. "Why?"
"Did they send a spaceship to earth?" she asked. "I saw one heading towards Tomobiki a few hours ago."
He shook his head. From what they had told him, there were still enough patrols out there that they couldn't risk something like that. "I really doubt it," he replied. "Are you out on some beach?"
"Yeah, we're a bit up from Shizuoka," she replied. It's a pretty quiet area."
"What did the ship look like?" he asked next.
"It looked a lot like Lum's new saucer," she replied. "It was colored the same, but it was a little bigger and shaped more like an egg."
He thought for a moment. That didn't sound like one of the big angular warships they had seen orbiting the planet a few months ago. Maybe it was some sort of scout ship."
"Alright," he replied. "Do you have any more details?"
"No, that was it," she told him. "What are you going to do about it?"
"I'm not sure yet," he admitted. "Thanks, Ryuunosuke-san, I appreciate you telling me."
"No problem," she replied. "I'm going to bed then. It took us over an hour just to get to this crappy little town."
The phone went dead in his hand. Shutaro stared at it for a moment, wondering what he was going to do. He stumbled out of bed and looked dubiously at the radio he used to communicate with Shu-chan. Invader had recommended not using the relay if the Uruseins returned, but he had been thinking more along the lines of a full-scale invasion. Of course right now Shutaro had no idea whether that was the case or not.
Finally he decided to take the chance. Picking up the microphone, he started recording. "Hey Shu-chan, I need you to forward a message for me. Ask if they have sent any ships to Earth. An egg shaped tiger-striped one was sighted heading this way a few hours ago. Size was a bit bigger than Lum's ship."
He sent the message, hoping no one would pick up on the transmission. They used an encrypted channel, but he had no illusions that it couldn't be broken.
Once the message was sent, he went back to his phone and called the command center. "We may have an emergency," he told the night shift supervisor. "I want everyone ready as soon as possible. Jets on the runways, helicopters ready, the full works. I'll be down there in about an hour."
He hung up the phone as soon as the supervisor gave his affirmation. Now he just had to wait for an answer from Oniboshi. Glancing at his bed, Shutaro considered lying back down for a little while, but decided against it. He needed to be fully alert to handle the situation.
The wait seemed like forever, but finally the light on the radio started flashing. Shutaro hastily hit the play button and Shu-chan's voice started ringing out.
"Hi, Shutaro-kun," she greeted him. "I got a response already. They said no, and that it was probably some kind of scout ship."
He sent one last reply back. "Blackout," was all he said. She knew what that meant, not to transmit any more replies to anyone until he contacted her again. It was his best idea for keeping the satellite undetected in case someone managed to trace her signal.
Grabbing his sword, Shutaro started towards the command center. Even a scout ship could be pretty dangerous. And if they were scouting around, that meant it was likely that something bigger was about to start. He didn't intend to just sit around let that happen.
"So there's nothing unexplained on radar?" Shutaro confirmed.
"We've got access to radar coverage for seven hundred miles around," the command center's supervisor confirmed, "But we usually only scan a ten mile radius around the estate. If anything was out there earlier, we wouldn't have picked it up."
Shutaro nodded. He knew they had been able to track Lum's ship with ease, but then again it hadn't been a military vessel. And even her ship had some sort of visibility cloaking device, though she had rarely used it.
"Send out recon planes on the route between Shizuoka and here," he directed. "Have them scan for anything abnormal, especially magnetic anomalies.
Only a few minutes after he gave the order, he watched on the main screen as a wing of E-2C Hawkeyes started off towards the East. They were a fairly recent addition to the Mendou Clan's private air force, and one that he had lobbied hard for.
His persistence paid off. It was less than two hours later when one of the planes reported an area with an unusually strong magnetic field about fifteen miles south of Tomobiki. Shutaro gave the order for all planes to return immediately. Now that he knew where the ship was, it was time to see what they wanted.
Invader looked at the latest report glumly. He had figured it was just a matter of time before Uru started nosing around Earth again. But after a month of trying to convince other planets of the danger of leaving the planet unguarded, he still hadn't been able to get any results. If Uru sent in a full invasionary force again, several planets had hinted that they might take action, but no one was going to do anything until then.
"What did you tell Mendou?" he asked.
Jirettai shook his head. "I just confirmed it wasn't one of ours, and that it was probably a scout ship."
"I hope he doesn't do anything stupid," Invader replied. "If they piss off Uru, his little private army won't be worth anything. Send another message and tell him that he should just try to ignore them."
The communications officer shook his head. "The relay isn't responding anymore," he informed the warlord.
Invader looked troubled. "They must have found it," he replied. So much for that run of good luck. But at least they knew that Uru was on the move again. He just hoped the Earthlings wouldn't make any fatal mistakes.
The reconnaissance team returned to Shutaro's makeshift field camp soon after first light. Shutaro had sent in just a few men to confirm the ship's location, figuring land or air vehicles would be easily spotted. Hopefully they had gone unnoticed by the aliens.
The team's leader stepped up and saluted smartly. "Sir, we found the ship. It's landed in a small field about a mile south. There were a few Oni, maybe nine or ten, wondering around outside, but I don't believe they spotted us."
Shutaro nodded. "Were they carrying weapons?" he asked.
"A couple had what appeared to be rifles," the leader replied. "The others had various handheld devices that we couldn't identify. Most of them didn't appear to be military, but I can't say for sure."
Shutaro thanked the officer and went back into the command tent to think over his next move. He undoubtedly had the Oni outnumbered and likely outgunned, but they could likely call on reinforcements fairly quickly. He really didn't want to turn this into an interplanetary incident, but then again these people had tried to invade the planet before.
He glanced outside at his beloved Leopard tank. It was far from the most advanced tank present, but he still preferred the older vehicle. Hopefully it wouldn't even be needed today, but it was comforting to have it on hand.
"Ok," he finally decided. "I'll lead a small group in myself. I don't want anyone carrying weapons though."
"Young master, isn't that too risky?" the troop commander protested.
"I didn't say that we will be the only ones going," Shutaro replied. "I want snipers covering us the whole time. And everyone else should be ready to move in if things go wrong."
"Understood," the commander replied. "We'll cover you as close as we can."
"Just make sure you stay out of sight," Shutaro told him. "I don't want this to turn ugly if it doesn't have to."
The commander saluted and went out to prepare the troops. Shutaro watched them for a moment before setting his sword carefully down on a chair. Once he would have just rushed in with a heavy show of force, but now he wasn't sure enough of the situation. They'd try the peaceful approach first, and see what happened.
Shutaro approached the clearing slowly, about fifteen troops following close behind. If they'd had their way, he would be in the rear, but being on the frontline was the only honorable way to do this. The ship soon came into sight through the trees. A few oni were scurrying around outside, but he couldn't tell what they were doing.
He decided that they might as well get this over with. He strode calmly into the clearing, his men standing in neat rows behind him. It was a moment or two before any of the aliens noticed him. One oni eventually spied the group and ran back towards the ship, yelling in what Shutaro assumed was their native language.
Their response was immediate. A trio of armed men emerged and pointed their rifles at Shutaro.
"What are you doing here?" one of the oni guards demanded in heavily accented Japanese. "This area is off limits to Earthlings."
Shutaro stared defiantly at the alien. "This land happens to be owned by the Mendou Conglomerate," he replied. Part of it actually hadn't been theirs, but he had quickly purchased the remainder before setting out. The Japanese government had been a bit touchy lately about the Mendou private army operating outside of their private property.
"If you value your lives, you will back away and mind your own business," the oni snarled back.
Shutaro sighed. "I don't think you understand," he replied. "This land belongs to me, and I want to know what you are doing here."
"You stupid Earthling," the guard replied. "We are here on a mission from Uru. We can go wherever we like. You animals should just go home and forget you ever saw us."
"Is that so?" Shutaro responded, starting to get more than a little annoyed by the alien's condescending attitude. Patience had never been his strong point.
"Go on," the oni continued. "Scurry on home."
Shutaro looked the ship over. It had several gun turrets visible now; he was certain they hadn't been there a moment ago. He noticed that there was something odd going on underneath as well. It looked almost like the bottom of the ship had dropped down and embedded itself into the ground.
"You are going to tell me what you are doing," Shutaro said, interrupting the guard's continuous insults. He hadn't understand all the details that Invader had explained about Uru's plans, but he could see they were definitely up to something here.
"I've had enough of your insolence," the guard snarled, raising his rifle up to his shoulder.
"I wouldn't do that," Shutaro replied casually. "If we get hurt, none of you are going to leave her alive."
The guard smiled and aimed his rifle at Shutaro's head. "I'm sick of hearing your mewing, boy."
His finger didn't get close to pulling the trigger. A volley of shots rang out from around the edges of the clearing and the three oni dropped to the ground motionless.
Shutaro cursed as he ran the short distance back towards the cover of the trees. He'd really had hoped this would end peacefully, but that didn't seem possible now.
He dropped to the ground as soon as he was under cover, expecting the ship's guns to open fire at any moment. He heard the rumble of tanks smashing through the trees behind him and hoped they would have enough sense to stay back.
Oddly enough the ship's guns were still silent. Come to think of it, the entire clearing was eerily quiet. He figured that the rest of the oni must have fled inside while his group had dove for cover.
The commander crept low to the ground over to Shutaro's position. "Sir, what are your orders?"
Shutaro thought for a moment. If they opened fire on the ship, they might never find out what the oni were up to. On the other hand capturing the ship was likely to be a costly battle.
The decision was made for him as the turrets along the side of the ship suddenly opened fire in all directions. Trees started falling on all sides, ripped in half by the aliens' powerful lasers.
"Pull everyone back," Shutaro yelled. "We'll hit them from a distance."
The commander barked out orders over his radio and the troops began abandoning their positions around the clearing. Shutaro didn't move, intending to stay until everyone was safely back.
"Come on, young master," the commander urged him. "You need to get out of here."
Shutaro shook his head. "Not yet," he replied stubbornly.
The commander, a burly middle-aged man, gave Shutaro an exasperated look and wrapped his arms around his employer. "I've got orders to keep you safe," he explained as he started running, not seeming to notice Shutaro's added weight. "I pledge an oath to your father ten years ago, and I'm not about to fail him now."
Shutaro glared at the officer. "Fine, put me down," he ordered.
The man unceremoniously dropped him on the forest floor. "Sorry, sir," he apologized.
Shutaro climbed painfully back to his feet. "It's fine," he grunted. "Let's just get back to camp.
Five of his men didn't return to camp. To Shutaro's knowledge this was the first time the highly skilled private army had lost any soldiers in combat. It was a shameful and heavy burden on his young shoulders, and he dreaded having to inform his father of their disastrous mission.
The question was what to do now. An air strike was their best bet, but it was highly possible that the ship was shielded in some way. It was also likely that they would see any air attack coming from miles away.
"Send in the unmanned tank," he finally commanded. "See if they can do some damage on that thing." They only had one, and it was just a prototype, never before tested under actual combat conditions. But all he needed it to do was go forward and test out the oni's defenses.
The commander gave the order and the tank slowly lurched forward along the path they had cleared earlier. Twenty long minutes passed before the tank operator announced that the tank was nearing the ship's position.
Shutaro stared over the man's shoulder as the tank rumbled to a stop just inside the edge of the trees. The clearing was noticeably wider now, much of the surrounding forest having been razed to the ground by the ship's earlier volleys.
"Go ahead and fire," Shutaro ordered grimly. These damn aliens were going to pay for attacking his men.
The camera's view rocked back violently from the recoil of the tank's main gun. A billow of smoke erupted as the shell impacted with the ship, obscuring the camera.
"Direct hit," the operator confirmed. His smile faded as the smoke cleared, revealing that the ship hadn't been affected by the blast. A second later the picture went white and cut off. The operator frantically checked several sensor readouts before declaring that the tank was kaput.
"Damn it," Shutaro cursed. It looked like they were going to have to use the heavy stuff after all. "Call in the bombers," he ordered. "Tell them to stay as high as possible."
Night fell swiftly on the Mendou estate. Just having arrived home, Shutaro stood numbly in front of his father as the elder man read through the battle reports.
"We lost three B-52's today," his father noted calmly. "You know that we weren't even supposed to have those, don't you? They violate Japan's constitution. We had to have them shipped in secretly, piece by piece."
Shutaro nodded miserably. Even at high altitude the oni ship didn't seem to have any trouble picking the planes off.
"That's not important though," his father continued more passionately. "We lost sixteen men today. That's not just a number, that's sixteen men who won't be returning to their wives and children."
"I'm aware of that," Shutaro snapped. "We did everything we could to retrieve survivors."
"Didn't Lum's father recommend that we lay low in case Uru's forces returned?" his father demanded. He turned away, the report clenched tightly in his fist. "Instead you charged right in even without knowing the enemies capabilities. You didn't even manage to dent the thing, did you?"
"No sir," Shutaro admitted glumly. At this point it was doubtful anything short of a nuclear blast could penetrate that ship's hull.
His father sighed. "I wish you had talked to me before dragging us into this mess," he said softly. Turning back around, he put a comforting hand on Shutaro's shoulder. "Shutaro, I understand why you did what you did, but you've still put the family in a very dangerous situation. I think it would be best if I took away your command privileges."
Shutaro nodded. He hadn't expected anything less after such a colossal failure.
His father frowned. "I'll have to report everything to the government," he continued. "Of course I'm going to leave out some details, they don't need to know exactly what kind of equipment we lost. Maybe they can deal with the problem themselves, and we can just stay out of it." He looked at Shutaro sadly. "Why don't you go on to bed, son?" he said firmly.
"Alright, father," Shutaro replied. "I am sorry that I have disappointed you."
He headed for his chambers without another word. The elder Mendou considered going after him, but the boy really needed to learn that there were consequences for such rash actions.
Shu-chan floated silently through the darkness. The Oni had been hailing her for hours, but she wasn't going to respond until Shutaro told her it was ok. Having complete control over the subspace transmitter was nice; before she had salvaged it, the thing would have automatically responded to their requests. She wasn't sure if subspace messages could be traced like normal radio waves could, but she wasn't taking any chances.
For the millionth time she cursed her slow speed. If she was back in Earth's orbit she could see what was going on for herself. From this far away there wasn't anything she could see or do. And now she didn't have anyone to talk to. It was surprising how much she had grown to anticipate her daily conversations with Shutaro-kun.