SUPER ROBOT TAISEN S

oooooooooo

Welcome back, everyone! I need to apologize for the ridiculous amount of time that, once again, I took to update this story, but I had lots of things to do, and I was still a little disoriented after coming back from my vacations. Anyway, I trust you all had a nice beginning of the new year, and without further ado, I leave you to the beginning of my new chapter.

This time, I will be focusing mostly on the Nadesico side of the story, as Ruri and the crew of the Nadesico B try to gather the old bridge bunnies and pilots in order to stop the Martian Successors. And, on that note, we will also see some improvement - hopefully - with Ruri and Hari. Our favourite electronic fairy isn't all that receptive to the poor boy's feelings, is she?

Anyway, that's about it from me! Now, let us enjoy the new chapter, and I hope to be able to update soon with another chapter of Super Robot Taisen S Zero!

Later, folks!

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Chapter 11 - Gathering the crew

"Prospector of Nergal Heavy Industries..." Fiona read aloud, reading the card she had been given by the bespectacled Nergal executive. "So, from what I can gather, you have been working with the Nadesico crew during the first Earth-Jupiter war, and you have kept tabs on the old crew for a long time..."

"Quite so, yes." the strange man answered, his fingers lightly stroking his short moustache. He then produced a small notebook from the inside of his suit and began reading through it. "I acknowledge, it was not the nicest action I could take, but considering what kind of enemy we are up against, it is fortunate that we at Nergal have taken such precautions. Anyway, first things first: we need to locate the Aestivallis pilots before everything else... and that means miss Hikaru Amano, who is now an emerging mangaka, and miss Izumi Maki, who now owns a small bar. Those two should not be hard to convince, especially since we already have their old squad leader, miss Ryoko Subaru, on our side."

"Indeed." Ruri answered.

Prospector nodded and adjusted his glasses. "Then, this is what we need to do. We'll split up in groups of two, in order to reach every member of the old crew faster and more efficiently."

"But is this really necessary?" Hari asked, somewhat annoyedly. "I mean, do we really not stand any chance at all against the Martian Successors all by ourselves? With the Captain's skills and Lt. Subaru, Lt. Saburouta and Miss Fiona on our side, we can defeat any enemy, can't we?"

Ruri seemed not to listen to Hari's complaining, while Fiona sighed and turned a somewhat annoyed glance at the black-haired boy. "Sure we can. We can defeat that red freak who was having a field day sweeping the floor with my Excellence." she snarked, before shaking her head in apology. "Okay, okay, that was uncalled for on my part... but still, we are not up to par with those guys as of now, and captain Bright cannot lend us any aid. We need to gather our allies if we are to defeat Kusakabe and his flunkies."

Hari sighed and looked down, accepting this truth... and Fiona cast a sideways glance at Ruri, who did not seem to have really acknowledged that Hari had tried to get his point across. The albino girl was a little too dismissive of Hari, in her humble opinion...

oooooooooo

"Oh, what a surprise! It's been soooo long since we last saw each other, Ruri-Ruri!" the smiling face of a glasses-wearing young woman of about twenty-three years of age, with shoulder-long and somewhat unkempt red hair cascading down both sides of her head, peeked out of the door of the small Shinjuku apartment. Despite having been at least two years since former pilot Hikaru Amano had last seen the rest of the Nadesico crew, she really hadn't changed that much, aside from the fact that she had turned her love for anime and manga into her everyday job. According to what Ruri and her friends had heard, Hikaru had become an aspiring mangaka, and was now in the process of creating her first real series.

Ruri, Hari and Saburouta bowed gracefully as Hikaru, dressed in baggy house clothes, a warm hakama, and a white band tied around her forehead, opened the door and let them inside, revealing a small and messy house with innumerable drawing tools, papers, otaku paraphernalia (which included a few models of Gekiganger 3, Hikaru's favourite mecha anime) and drawings scattered everywhere. Inside the living room, the three coould see a large grey table upon which Hikaru had laid her almost-finished works, but even those were in disarray. It seemed clear that Hikaru Amano was quite the high-strung girl and was forever in a hurry to meet her deadlines.

Smiling warmly, Hikaru produced a few chairs from her living room and motioned for Ruri, Hari and Saburouta to sit down. "Please, guys, have a seat! Then you can tell me all about you... especially on the reason why you're here after so much time! I'd really love to hear all about this!"

"Thank you, Hikaru. Truth be told, we have come here to ask you for a favor..." the albino girl answered as she and her crewmates sat down, and Hikaru took one of the seats for herself. "Recently, some of the terminal colonies of the Hisago Plan - which, as you probably already know, was supposedly a plan to allow for better, faster interstellar travel via the control of Boson Jumping, have been attacked by a mysterious enemy..."

As Ruri narrated the story, she could plainly see that Hikaru's perky demeanor was gradually dampening, and the news that a completely changed Akito had been responsible for attacking the Hisago Plan colonies, and that Kusakabe was the real mastermind behind the whole deceit, had her previous enthusiasm dissipate completely, replaced by a mask of seriousness and gravity which looked cruelly out of place on the vivaciouss redhead's face. When Ruri and her friends had finally ended their story, talking about the incident at the Montoya labs, their meeting with Fiona and her friends, and the other problem Earth was facing with the combined forces of ZAFT and Neo Zeon... Hikaru had no need for any more words to be convinced into joining them.

"Very well, then! I'm ready to help you out, everyone, and we'll make sure those who did this to Akito and captain Misumaru pay!" Hikaru exclaimed, more forcefully than she probably meant. However, one second later, her confidence seemed to falter slightly, and she scratched her forehead in doubt. "Huh... only, I've got a small problem on my hands, as of now. Y'see, there is this new manga I'm drawing, and I've got a deadline soon, but with the kind of life I have as of now... well, let's just say I haven't had much time to draw and continue my work. And if I miss my deadline, well... my editors aren't going to take this well, as you might imaginee! Hehehee... that's why... erm... I kinda need to ask you to help me out on the last part of the drawings! Do you think you could do that?"

"Oh, absolutely, miss! Anything for a comely young lady such as yourself!" Saburouta answered first, flipping his blonde-and-crimson lock over his head with what was meant to be a charming gesture. Judging from Hikaru's unchanged expression, the attempt had fallen completely flat on her.

"It is okay with us." Ruri went on. "You just need to tell us what we haave to do, and we'll do it at the best of our capabiilities."

Hari widened his eyes in surprise. What was THAT all about? They never had any experience with drawing and writing manga until then, how could they expect to do an halfway decent job of that? Still, Hikaru did not seem to mind about that, and quickly rose from her seat to grab Ruri's pale hand in hers, comical streams of tears running down her bespectacled face.

"Oh, thanks, Ruri-ruri, you're a life saver!" the young manga artist squealed. "I was running myself dry trying to keep up with all those deadlines and stuff... anyway, Ruri-ruri, you and Mr. Saburouta can work at the drawings and the colouring... and Hari, over there, can take care of the telephone and answer all the calls I'm given! Please, if anyone asks for me, tell them I'm kinda sick and I cannot come to answer myself! And please, do not remove the sound-only feature from the telephone..."

As Hikaru began to list a series of jobs she was going to entrust to her unexpected guests, Hari widened his eyes in surprise... then he sighed and shook his head. What on Earth had they gotten themselves into?

"As I said... wouldn't it have been simpler to just go after the Martian Successors ourselves?"

oooooooooo

The harping of a badly-played ukulele assaulted Fiona's ears as she, Mitsuko and Lahge sat down at a table, in a crowded bar in the old Shibuya district. The music was completely off key, cacophonic and random - how was it that anyone could make a living out of playing such crap?

"Say, Lahge... I'm totally okay with going to strange places to find the old Nadesico crew... but why do we have to endure this crap?" she murmured annoyedly, rubbing her forehead in an attempt to dull out the headache she was feeling. "Man, if I knew this Izumi Maki girl was that bad a musician, I would have brought my headphones with me to drown this noise out!"

"True as that may be," Lahge answered calmly, taking a sip from his glass of water even as he winced for another really bad mistake on the ukulele player's side. "Maki Izumi's quirkiness has never stopped her from being a competent pilot and marksman. There is a reason why she has been selected for the Nadesico A's all-female team, after all." He then glanced at the figure playing the ukulele on the large bar's stage: Izumi Maki, the owner of the premises, was a tall woman with pale skin and long, flowing dark green hair, a fringe of which was neatly falling on her right eye, partially obscuring her face. She was dressed in an elegant white Chinese dress with matching high-heeled shoes, and while she looked beautiful and charming, there was something vaguely disturbing about her appearence...

"Excuse me, gentlemen... are you acquaintances of miss Maki Izumi, perhaps?" a bartender asked Fiona, Mitsuko and Lahge as he approached their seats, serving them three glasses of ice-cold peach-flavored tea.

"Not exactly..." Lahge answered, as he produced a Nergal badge. "But we do come from Nergal in order to discuss important matters with miss Maki. I take it you know she was once part of the Nadesico crew, right?"

"Hm? Er... yes, that's common knowledge around here..." the bartended answered. "She was part of a squadron of three female pilots who distinguished themselves during the Earth-Jupiter war. Is this... about the recent incidents on the Hisago Plan colonies?"

"Exactly. Miss Maki's piloting skills will be needed once more." Mitsuko said, after taking a sip of her tea. Not very good tea. She made a grimace. "Er... anyway, do you think it would be possible for us to meet with Miss Maki and discuss the matter further?"

"Most certainly." the guy answered. "At the moment, as you've probably already seen, she is unable to meet with you, but if you can just wait until the end of the show, I think she will be glad to listen to your proposal."

"Thanks, we appreciate it." Fiona answered, as the bartender bowed and walked away, leaving the trio to their mediocre ice tea and to Izumi's even less laudable singing, punctuated by an incredibly lame pun here and there...

"Oh, dear... the things we have to do for those Nergal guys..." Fiona muttered to herself, unknowingly echoing Hari's thoughts.

oooooooooo

"I am Ruri Hoshino. Computer operator. Eleven years old." the younger Ruri said, standing against a backdrop of pure darkness as she introduced herself to the smiling, cheerful faces of the old Nadesico crew... Minato... Megumi... Ryoko, Hikaru and Izumi... Jun...

"Pleased to meet you." everyone answered in turn, as their images split apart to show the smiling Akito Tenkawa and Yurika Misumaru, their hands extended towards her in a gesture of love and acceptance...

"Pleased to meet you as well, Ruri!"

"Really, you're so adorable!"

But those happy images lasted too little. A pair of gunshots rang out, and the images of both her adoptive parents disappeared, leaving Ruri to look in horror at the body of a young Nergal ensign, lying face down on the cold floor, surrounded by Gekiganger paraphernalia and by a widening pool of his own blood.

Jiro Yamada... no, Gai Daigouji, the young ensign who had been mysteriously murdered at the beginning of the Nadesico's maiden voyage, and whose death had never beentruly clarified.

And a few seconds later, Ruri saw his lifeless body turn into that of Tsukumo Shiratori, the Jovian officer who had tried to further peace talks with the Earth, only to be assassinated under Kusakabe's orders... under the orders of the same man who was now out there, surrounded by an army of fanatical followers, and ready to ruin the hard-earned peace...

A few glimpses of strange, disquieting vistas flashes through Ruri's mind, and soon enough she found herself talking with a shadowed woman, a blood-red sky in the background.

"Boson Jumping is a specialized technology, based on what both the old EArth Union and the Jovian Federation discovered on Mars." the woman explained, with a clinical detachment that reminded Ruri of Inez Fressange, the Nadesico's chief scientist and Boson Jumping expert. "Those who will find and excavate the Ruins of Mars first will certainly use them more to enhance their own war effort than for technological innovations or such..."

Inez's image blurred... and before Ruri's very eyes, the horrific image of Yurika Misumaru turned into a lifeless stone statue appeared. Cracks immediately began appearing on the surface of her body... and soon enough, Yurika Misumaru shattered, her body turning into countless lifeless shards that fell into the everlasting darkness...

oooooooooo

And that was when Ruri's eyes jerked open, a terrified gasp escaping her lips.

As she looked around, she felt at first weirded out in seeing that she was still in Hikaru's apartment, her head laying on a drawing table, and everyone else - Hikaru, Saburouta and Hari - soundly sleeping around her. She shook off the sleepiness, and rubbed her eyes before looking out of the windows, seeing that dawn was slowly coming. Had they been at work so hard that they had simply fallen asleep on the job without seeing that coming?

The young Nadesico B captain sighed. With everything that had happened in those days, she was starting to lose it...

oooooooooo

"Ta-daaaan! Here I am, Haruka!"

With these bold words, a red-brown haired teenager in a school uniform threw open the entrance door of the apartment she lived in together with her surrogate mother, and flashed a victory sign, while simultaneously giving a toothy grin. For the Jupiter-born Yukina Shiratori, this was a day of celebration, for a simple reason...

"Guess what? I got picked out of the school's junior club! Isn't this great news?" she exclaimed loudly... before she realized that there was no one to talk to! The house was empty, with everything properly ordered and cleared of all specks of dust... the only hint that someone might have been there was the videophone still beeping, with a message recorded in its memory.

"Haruka?" Yukina called out to her surrogate mother, former Nadesico helmswoman Minato Haruka. Having received no answer, Yukina walked to the phone's answering machine and activated it... and as soon as she did that, an image of Minato, her long light brown hair neatly combed on one side of her head, and her full lips tinted with bright red lipstick, appeared in front of her, her hands together and smiling in apology.

"I'm sorry for not being home, Yukina. It appears something important is happening." Minato's recorded message answered. "I will be out for a few days, so please take care of yourself, okay?" Minato ended the record by blowing a small kiss to the viewer, and Yukina frowned in suspicion. For Minato to go away like this, without even giving a warning, it must have really been something serious...

"What's with the kiss, anyway?" Yukina murmured to herself as she switched the answering machine off. "Well, it appears something fishy is going on... and I'm willing to bet it involves the old Nadesico crew. Don't you think so?"

The last part was said in a totally deadpan voice, as Yukina looked at her right, as if expecting to see an audience...

oooooooooo

"I have to say, Kusakabe's coup d'etat has taken everybody off guard... we were woefully unprepared for them." Admiral Kouichiro Misumaru said evenly, as he discussed the situation with a few fellow military higher-ups. "And unfortunately, they seem to be swelling their numbers. There are quite a few squadrons of both the Earth Federation and Jovian army who sympathize with Kusakabe and defected to the Martian Successors. Also, I don't know how much credit should be given to such rumours, but I've heard a few Neo Zeon and ZAFT soldiers have jumped ship to join the Martian Successors."

"That almost does not surprise me." Commander Akiyama answered calmly, as he took a sip from a glass of water. "After all, such terroristic uprisings do give off an air of being courageous and noble, don't you think so, Commander Aoi? What with all the simplicity and clarity..."

Jun Aoi's reaction was of complete denial, as it could probably be expected for a guy whose best friend and former crush was being made into a vegetable by a bunch of self-righteous fanatics. "This is not a joking matter, commander Akiyama!" he yelled out, losing most of his composure. "Those guys are a bunch of traitors and murderers who want to destroy us all! Something must be done to stop them, unless we want to be..."

A comm screen flickered into existance a second later in front of the young blue-haired commander, who prompty cut himself off and looked up in surprise. "Commander Aoi, we have a call for you." the female officer appearing on the screen said. "We apologize for the disturbance, but it seems to be something urgent. Shall we patch her through?"

Her? What was the officer talking about? Jun was quite pzzled by the whole deal, as he didn't think he would be receiving calls for the day... but still, he decided to answer the call. After all, what was the worst that could happen? "Er... okay, then... patch it through to me, I'll take care of it..."

He almost immediately regretted those words when the image in front of him changed into the beaming face of Yukina Shiratori, smiling happily at him! "Hey, Jun! What's up?" she cheerfully greeted him, causing the mild-mannered Neo Federation officer to almost topple in his chair. "Say, Jun... is Minato involved with something concerning Nergal and the Nadesico crew, by chance?"

"Wh... What?" Jun exclaimed, his hair almost standing on end. "I... I can't answer this question! These are classified informations! Military secrets! Do I make myself clear?"

Yukina's serene demeanor quickly left place to an angry scowl, and the comm screen almost doubled in size as it threateningly approached Jun's face! "HEY! Don't play dumb with me, now! I don't care if you're with Nergal or with the Neo Federation... but I know you and Minato are hiding something from me! Is that true, huh? I wanna know the truth!" she exclaimed. It was all too obvious that she was not going to take a no for an answer... and Jun grit his teeth and sweatdropped as he tried to think of a way out of this situation.

"For... for crying out loud, Yukina!" Jun exclaimed in desperation. For being the younger sister of a deceased Jovian hero, she sure could be immature... "I told you, it's classified! It's not like I can speak of such matters with a civilian!"

"Well, you did speak of 'such matters', as you put it, with Minato! So what's the difference, huh?" Yukina pointed out annoyedly, defeating Jun's flimsy excuse. A second later, her behaviour swiftly changed again, and the Jovian girl clasped her hans together in a begging gesture. "Awww, c'mon, Jun, you're the only one here I can count on! Tell me where Minato is, and I'll go out with you or do whatever you ask me to do! For real! I'll be yours!"

Jun's face turned a deep shade of crimson as he stood up from his chair and stumbled backwards, almost tripping over his own feet in the process. "Wh-wh-wh-WHAAAAT? You... you idiot! Just listen to what you're saying!" he stuttered, as the other officers present in the room began murmuring amongst themselves about the unusual situation.

"Commander Aoi is a capable person, but he's just too soft at times..." Kouichiro commented, to which Akiyama and the others could do nothing but nod.

"I agree." Akiyama whispered. "To let a teenager push him around..."

Jun Aoi immediately turned to them, pointing his index finger at them with an extremely flustered expression on his face! "You there! If you're talking about me, I can still hear you!" he shouted in his exasperation...

oooooooooo

The next day...

"So, that's pretty much the whole situation..." Mitsuko summed up. after swallowing a bite of Cantonese rice. "We have managed to find former pilot Izumi Maki... a bit of a nutcase, but I trust the reports about her piloting abilities. However, engineer Seiya Uribatake was absent... his family told us as much when we visited him."

"I see..." Hari answered. "Therefore, we have another great warrior deserting us, huh?"

Fiona and Ruri, along with their groups had rendez-vous at a familiar place, the Chinese restaurant belonging to Miss How Mei Wong, the Nadesico's chief cook, and were now discussing the results of their search, in front of warm Chinese dishes courtesy of the restaurant's owner. At least Ruri and her friends had managed to find Hikaru and Minato, but even so, the crew seemed quite understaffed for the job they were facing. And more to the point, Hari was still voicing his doubts about having to reunite the old Nadesico crew.

"Still, I keep having this doubt, captain..." he was saying at the moment. "Why is it so important to reunite the old crew? What would the problem be if we did the job ourselves? I mean, I understand needing more Aestivalis pilots, but I am the only one who can helm the ship correctly, and Saburouta can take care of the pilot leadership! Really, we're the best crew the Neo Federation can count on, and people who retired to their own civilian jobs have their own lives now! What's the important reason for reuniting the has-beens?"

"Hari, that will be enough." Saburouta intervened, having had enough of the young boy's lamentations.

However, Hari was not about to give up then, and as Ruri was finishing her own ramen dish, he reiterated his question. "Please, Captain... you have to tell me!" he pleaded... to whicch Ruri simply set her now-empty dish down and ordered another one!

"Please, Miss How Mei... may I have another one?"

Hari had had enough of that, and after standing up from his seat with such vehemence that Fiona jumped up from her place. "Captain, you idiot!" he yelled indignantly before storming out of the restaurant and in the street, among a crowd of people looking at him as if he had just sprung out of the earth. Even Saburouta and Fiona's friend followed him for a while, concerned about him.

"Hey, Hari! Where are you going?" Saburouta exclaimed, before taking a look at the chair he had knocked out in the process of running away. "I can't believe he managed not to hurt himself..."

"Captain, are you sure you shouldn't follow him and call him back?" Fiona asked, somewhat annoyed at seeing Ruri still seated at her place, as if nothing had happened. "He looked... quite upset at your refusal to answer. And if I have to be completely frank, I think you've been neglecting him as of late."

"Fiona, please!" Lahge tried to hush her. "That's not exactly something we should intrude into..."

"It will be alright." Ruri interjected. "After all, we cannot defeat our enemies simply by ourselves. I am sure he understands that... he just needs some time to ponder it."

Mitsuko frowned, somewhat put off by Ruri's attitude... but before Fiona or one of her crew could speak again, How Mei beat them to it.

"Actually, just because we understand that something is true, that does not mean we automatically accept it... after all, we're still human beings." she said, emerging from the kitchen with two full plates of ramen in her hands. How Mei was a thirty-something Chinese woman with dark brown hair tied in a bun behind her head, and dressed in typical kitchen garb, with a white coat and a cook's hat, and since her days as the chief cook onboard the Nadesico, she had always been considered a bit like a mother to all the young crewmembers. Even then, after three years of separation, she was ready to give out solid advice.

This time, Ruri actually did look a bit concerned, and turned her head to How Mei as if to ask what she meant by that. To which, almost as if How Mei could read the albino girl's mind, the Chinese cook smiled and went on. "It's only natural that he's jealous. Of both the old crew and the old Nadesico. So... I guess that maybe it wouldn't hurt to talk to him about this problem."

Ruri blinked in wonder, as Fiona crossed her arms and smiled, nodding sagely to herself. How Mei sure knew how to read people's feelings and advise them for the best.

"I happen to agree with miss How Mei..." Fiona commented. "Please, captain, go talk to Hari. I think he needs to hear that from you, after all."

oooooooooo

"Sigh... captain, you're an idiot..." Hari murmured dejectedly for the umpteenth time that day, as he walked through an indifferent crowd. He was beginning to feel bad about that outburst, a few minutes earlier... that was really uncalled for, he had to admit, but at the same time, he was feeling so frustrated at the time, that he still didn't have the will to just come down and apologize to Ruri.

"Well, an idiot she may be, but it's not like I'm much better... I'm afraid I overdid it, back there..." he repriminded himself. "Gah, what should I do now? And I've even left them with my bill to pay..."

As the young boy paced around in a funk, narrowly avoiding the people walking all around him, he suddently came to an halt as he slammed into a tall, beautiful woman with long, light brown hair who, as far as he was concerned, had pretty much popped up out of nowhere in the middle of the way. Unfortunately for him, the woman was so much taller than Hari that the black-haired boy ended up with his face right in-between two typical parts of the female anatomy, and his whole body ended up blushing a crimson red as the woman in question stood there with a surprised look on her face!

"Oh my," the woman murmured, almost dropping the two bags of grocieries she was holding in surprise. "Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going... you alright?"

After a few moments of embarassed silence - and risking death by nose hemorraging - Hari managed to dislodge himself from the woman's chest and, his eyes wide in alarm, he looked up at her, apologizing profusedly! "Ack! I... I... I am deeply sorry, ma'am! I... I wasn't looking as well, and I was thinking of other things... really, I haven't done it on purpouse, I swear!" he shouted in near-panic, flailing his arms about!

Instead of getting angry at him, though, the woman smiled kindly, and Hari was able to see her appearence a little better: rather tall for a Japanese woman, she had large, beautiful blue eyes, and lips tinted with a bright red lipstick, giving her an almost motherly look as she looked down at the boy with concern. "There's no need to apologize, really... are you okay, by the way? You look a little troubled to me, if you don't mind my saying so." she said, as Hari was still doubled over in an apologetic bow. "Hehee... you know, I was kinda lost, and I wanted to ask if you could point me in the right direction, but I guess you're not in the right mood for that, right?"

"Huh?" Hari murmured, still unsure what to make of the woman in front of him. Then, deciding that it would be better to be a gentleman, he quickly shook himself out of his stupor and grabbed one of the bags the lady was carrying, trying to help her out. "That's... that's not the case, ma'am, really! I... er... I am an official of the Neo Federation Space Navy, after all! I know this place like the back of my hand!" he exclaimed, doing his best to carry the incredibly heavy bag. "So... er... please tell me... ugh... where do you want to... go...?"

"Oh dear... there's no need to do that, really..." the chestnut-haired woman tried to stop Hari from overexerting himself, but seeing that the boy had already made p his mind to help her at all costs, she deciding to drop the subject and answer his question. "Okay then... there's this Chinese restaurant I needed to meet some friends at... it's called "Everyday's Calm", do you know about it?"

Hari nearly dropped the groceries in shock. As luck would have it, that was exactly the restaurant he had run away from, and he still wasn't in much of a mood to return there... "Er..." he started to answer, completely unsure of what to say at that point. "Well... it's just that... ugh... actually, yes, I know the place, but I'm afraid that, if I go back there, I won't be welcome at all..."

The young woman saw the boy almost slumping down in defeat and hang his head down in dejection, and thought she might as well help him out on that. After remaining there for a few moment, pondering about what she should do, she reached forward and lightly placed her hand on Hari's shoulder, which caused him to stiffen again in tension. "Er... sorry about that, I didn't know... but still... if there's anything that's bothering you, maybe... you wanna go somewhere else and tell me about it? Maybe you'll feel better afterwards..."

"Ma'am?" Hari asked, turning to the unknown woman, and once again seeing her smiling, helpful face...

oooooooooo

The cold hard truth was, Hari wanted to talk about his problem about ten times as much as the unknown woman, who had introduced herself as Minato Haruka, and was apparently a member of the old Nadesico crew, wanted to hear about it. The two of them had found a rather good place to talk, and were now sitting on a bench, under a large oak tree in a park... and Hari, after struggling a little with the notion that Minato was one of the old Nadesico crew, had fund himself almost mesmerized by the young woman's kindness and had told her what his problem was.

"See? Isn't it much better now that've taken this weight off your heart?" Minato exclaimed cheerful, winking and clasping her hands together.

Hari smiled and ran a hand through his short black hair. "Yeah, much better... thanks for hearing me out, Miss Haruka, it really meant a lot to me." he thanked.

Minato waved a hand in front of her face. "No need to thank me, really... anyone who's friends with lil' Ruri is also a friend of mine, after all!" she explained. "But, you know, it's not true that Ruri doesn't care about you. See, every time she sent an e-mail or a letter to me, she always mentioned your name and how good you are at your job. She really seems to hold you in high esteem, you know?"

Hari's eyes widened in surprise. Was that really so? Was Ruri... the Captain... really that appreciative of his skills? And here he thought she considered him as nothing more than another member of the crew... "Miss Haruka... you really mean that?" he asked incredulously.

Minato nodded sagely. "Yes, she was always writing things like... 'I have a younger brother now', or 'he's quite like me, yet different in so many ways'... or even 'he's a brilliant guy with a good demeanor'. You know, Ruri is not the kind of girl to give praises freely, so that means you really impressed her! Oh, and by the way... look who's coming! There's another one I don't know, but that girl... looks like lil' Ruri to me!"

In fact, when the surprised Hari raised his head to see who was coming, he saw that both Fiona and Ruri had come to fetch him, and were now approaching him and Minato. Silently, Ruri and Fiona walked up to Hari and Minato, and the albino girl, keeping her face neutral, extended a hand towards her friend. "We need to be back soon, Hari." she said. "Our rendez-vous with the rest of the crew is in an hour."

"You know, Hari, you're pretty good at hiding yourself... we spent the good part of the last two hours looking around everywhere for you!" Fiona said with a slight laugh. "You ought to have been a secret agent or something!"

Hari finally managed to smile and gently took Ruri's hands, standing up with a little help from her. "Yes, Captain... you're right! Thank you!"

"I need to apologize as well." Ruri explained. "I have been too dismissive of you, recently. I did not realize I was hurting you, and for that, I need to ask for your pardon."

Hari did a salute. "That... that will not be necessary, Captain! I... I blew the problem out of proportion, and began acting foolishly!" he said, smiling. "I shouldn't have done that... there are far more important things to worry about, right now!"

"Indeed there are..." Ruri answered, before turning to Minato and greeting her with a slight bow. "It has been some time since we last saw each other, Haruka."

Her eyes almost trembling with emotion, Minato stood up and bowed respectfully to Ruri, resisting her urge to simply walk up to the white-haired girl and hug her in joy. "Yes... yes, it has, lil' Ruri! I'm so glad to see you, after all this time!" she exclaimed. "I see you're doing well, after all... oh, and who's this nice young lady with you? I don't seem to recall ever seeing her..."

Obviously, she was talking about Fiona, who was standing a little farther from the rest and was watching them greet each other with a slight smile on her face. As soon as Minato spoke about her, the red-haired pilot stood on attention and introduced herself. "Oh... sorry about that, where are my manners?" she exclaimed. "My name is Fiona Grayden, I'm nineteen years old, and I'm a test pilot currently serving under Nergal Heavy Industries and, by extention, the Neo Earth Federation army."

"Really?" Minato asked in wonder. "So, you're not really military, right?"

"Yeah... it's a bit of a long story as to how I ended up working with the Nadesico..." Fiona answered, rubbing the back of her head with a slight smile. "Fact is, it was a bit of a chance encounter, and I ended up fighting on their side after they helped me and my friends out. Anyway, miss Haruka, I hope you're ready to get back onboard the Nadesico... you guys will have to contend with an old acquaintance of yours..."

Minato's demeanor took a dive, and her sweet, motherly expression became grim and resolute. "I know... I was told about it... it's Haruki Kusakabe, isn't it? If there is one person in all the universe I hate with all of my heart and soul, that would be him." she said, old pain speaking for her. She could never forget how, three years earlier, Kusakabe had ordered Tsukumo Shiratori, the man she had fallen in love with, shot to death... "I... I would like to be part of this mission as well, if only to thank Akito and Yurika of what they did for me... and to help Ruri find her parents."

Fiona and Ruri were sure Minato also burned with a deep desire to see her boyfriend's murdered face justice for his crimes, but they let old matters lie. Now was not the time to think about that... they needed to get ready for their mission, and prepare as well as they could for the crisis lying ahead...

oooooooooo

The next day, at the Yokohama Nergal Docks...

Hari Makibi took a deep breath and steadied himself for the task he was about to embark himself into, as he waited for theelevator to come and pick him up. This was, indeed, a dangerous endeavor... and yet, the captain had told him that he was the only one who could perform this mission at the moment, and he was not about to disappoint her, even afraid as he was. This was his chance to show that Ruri's trust in him was not misplaced, and he couldn't afford to fail this one.

The elevator's low, rumbling noise, which echoed almost mournfully in the empty corridor Hari was standing in, became more audible for a few seconds... and then came to a sudden halt, as the cabin descended and stopped in front of him. The gates opened slowly, revealing a couple of Nergal agents, a man and a woman, dressed in black suits, who immediately stood on attention as soon as the young officer was in their sights.

"Vice-Captain Hari Makibi, of the Neo Earth Federation forces." the man greeted, as Jun saluted himself. "We trust you are ready for this experiment. You have been warned of all the possible risks, right?"

"And I am willing to run these risks, else I would not be here." Hari answered, as the two agents stepped aside to allow him into the elevator. The woman nodded as soon as the young vice-captain was inside the cabin, and the elevator quickly began climbing the floors back up, only stopping as it reached what was marked as the 40th floor. When Hari and the Nergal agents stepped out of the cabin once again, they were faced with a long corridor eventually winding up into a large room filled with complex-looking machinery, with several sciientists and researchers clad in white all frantically working at the controls. In the middle of the large room, Hari could see a deep semispherical hole whose walls were etched with strange jagged lines, that probably wouldn't have made much sense to the casual onlooker. However, for someone like him who had at least an inkling of Bosom Jump technology, they were far more important and significant than just that...

In a few minutes, Hari got ready for the experiment, donning an heavy-looking suit similar to that of an astronaut, which covered his entire body, shielding his face with a thick transparent plate. The young boy was now standing in the middle of the large hole, a few cables connected to his suit, and the light around him dimming all of a sudden.

"Er... I understand that you need to take all precautions and all that... but what's this suit for?" the young vice-captain asked. "I mean, I feel like I was a marionette..."

The lead scientist, who was sitting at the main console about two metres above Hari, right at the border of the spherical hole, chuckled in amusement. "Well, that's necessary to monitor your physical and psychological condition, vice-captain." he answered. "A Boson Jump pushes a person's body to extremes, so we need to keep constant watch over you in all phases of the experiment. Please, stay calm, and try to cooperate at all times."

"Alright." Hari answered, though he privately felt very afraid.

Great, now that was conforting, Hari thought to himself with a shiver. However, he tried to will those thoughts away, and concentrate on his duty... and that was when another person, garbed in a similar suit but whose features were unmistakeably feminine, stepped into the hole herself and reached Hari.

"The navigator has entered the Boson Jump circle."

"Initiate activation of crystals."

As the scientists began saying things Hari didn't really know how to make sense of, the woman who had entered the circle along with him extended her hand, and the boy gladly shook on it. At least, the partner he had been given for this experiment seemed to be nice enough...

"Pleased to meet you, miss... my name is Hari Makibi." he introduced himself, as he managed to take a good look at the other woman's face, even behind her helmet. She appeared to be still rather young, with a calm face and smooth blond hair... but apart from that, Hari couldn't see much, as even the woman's eyes were obscured by a black visor she was wearing. She did look kinda familiar, though...

"Pleased to meet you as well, Hari." she greeted, shaking his hand back. "Is this the first time you're attempting a Boson Jump?" When Hari nodded nervously, the woman went on. "I thought as much. That's why I'm here, to aid you in the visualization of the final destination. Just close your eyes and take a deep breath... then think of something amusing, or happy... or anything that might help you relax, really."

"Relax, huh? Alright..." Hari answered, closing his eyes and never letting go of the woman's hand. All around them, the Boson Jump circle had begun lighting up like a Christmas tree, and the scientists were once again frantically at work on their consoles...

"Activation of Tulip Crystals proceeding normally."

"Increasing levels of photons, gravitons and pi-mesones."

"Jumper and Navigator in synchronization, increasing Boson exchange."

The light emanating from the Boson Jump circle kept increasing, bathing the whole control room in a nimbus of golden light, as Hari and the woman accompanying him teleported away for an unknown destination...

oooooooooo

The graveyard just outside the center of Yokohama was a peaceful, almost dreary place where people came to pay respect to the dead... and, just as they used to do a lot in those last two years, Ruri Hoshino and Minato Haruka were there to pay respect to those they had lost. However, on that particular day, another figure was standing in front of the tombstone that supposedly marked the resting place of Akito and Yurika Misumaru... a tall, intimidating figure cloaked in a black dress, with dark brown and messy hair and a black, triangular visor obscuring his eyes. He looked cold, distant and almost alien as he glared at the tombstones... and though Ruri only remembered seeing him at the Amaterasu colony, she immediately recognized him, and while her face didn't show many signs of excitement, she did feel her heart beating faster after seeing him.

"A... Akito?" Minato murmured, recognizing him as well. She was greatly dismayed at seeing him like this - he looked so incredibly... different from the kind, idealistic boy she had seen during the Nadesico's maiden voyage, three years earlier... what had happened to him to make him change like that?

Wordlessly, Ruri and Akito approached each other and stood one in front of the other, looking at each other in the eyes, as if a silent conversation only they could hear was going on. Finally, when Minato began to think the silence was getting unbearable, Ruri broke it by speaking the first few tentative words.

"Today is the second anniversary." she said softly. "Many were the people who died or simply disappeared. But you, Akito... and captain Misumaru... you just came back from the dead. All A-class Boson Jumpers... navigators who could correctly arrive at any destination they had in mind. They all were kidnapped by the Martian Successors, right?"

"Kidnapped?" Minato gasped. Now a lot of things were becoming clear... all too horrifically clear, in fact.

Ruri ignored her and continued talking to Akito. "Akito... I have no idea what you went through in these last two years..."

"You don't want to know." Akito spoke sinisterly, his voice almost completely devoid of emotion.

"I don't wish to know that either, but I wanted to ask you this... why?" Ruri went on, now with an almost pained accent filtering into her voice. "Why haven't you told us you were still alive?"

The empty shell that had once been Akito Misumaru seemed to have no empathy at all. "There is no reason why I should tell you." he said... to which Minato, fed up with his indifference, walked up to him and slapped him in the face, leaving a red mark on his cheek. Akito remained stone-faced, though, as if he could not even be bothered with such a trivial thing.

"How can you say something like that to lil' Ruri?" Minato scolded him. "Weren't you the same person who, along with Captain Misumaru, wanted to adopt Ruri once the war with the Jupiterians was over? Apologize to Ruri now, Akito! Ruri was worried sick that you were dead!"

Akito's answer to that was completely unexpected: he took a gun from the inside of his jet-black coat and pointed it at Minato, startling the poor woman for a moment... before shifting his aim to Minato's left, to a place where there seemed to be absolutely nothing...

And just then, a tall, intimidating figure clad in the clothes of a Buddhist monk, with chilling mismatched eyes and a devilish smile on its face, simply warped into existence a few metres away from Akito and the girls, startling Minato with its threatening appearence. Behind him, six more individuals materialized, wearing similar dresses, and they placed themselves in an eeringly symmetrical formation behind their leader, effectively trapping Akito, Ruri and Minato. As Akito's gun pointed at the leader's face, the monster in human guise smirked even more widely, and spoke in a terrifying, unnatural voice.

"You were careless, Akito Tenkawa." Hokushin said, as it slowly advanced on its targets...

oooooooooo

TO BE CONTINUED...

Author's Note: Not much to say about this one other that... it's about time I updated! I'll try to make it as fast as possible, so be patient! Ciao for now!