No Need for Assassins

Yagami extreme Earth orbit

"Okay, Mihoshi," Kiyone said irritably. "Let's see what hayseed wants us to perform maintenance on their craft this time."

"Yes sir, Kiyone," Mihoshi responded chipper. Kiyone glared at her and then flipped the communication screen on. She had almost cracked Ryoko when this call came in. Major alert in this solar system often meant a broken down engine or even air conditioner in one case.

"Detectives 1st class Mihoshi and Kiyone," the face on the other side of the screen was the current sergeant of detectives, Kiyone immediately snapped to attention. This had not been her day. "You may have a situation."

"What is the problem, sir?" Kiyone asked. The image on the screen shifted to show a sleek, needle-shaped black and red craft. Next to the craft was the portrait of a man with spiky black hair and vertically slitted pupils. Kiyone's eyes narrowed, this was the second time in as many days she had seen someone that seemed to be from Ryoko's species.

"This is Rei Kuroi, he passed the Jurai frontier several days ago on the claim that he was a tourist."

"Crossed the frontier?" Kiyone repeated. "But sir, the Jurai frontier reaches the end of the galaxy. There's nothing but dead space beyond it."

"And beyond that dead space are the Akuneko. This man claims to be one of them."

"Could he be lying sir?" Kiyone asked. "No one ever saw what the Akuneko looked like, he could just be some bandit that skimmed the frontier for a few parsecs. The Akuneko haven't been around for over two-thousand years"

"We have no records on this man previous to this," her superior answered. "And we do not have any record on the make of his craft. As if that were not enough, we and the Jurai both lost sight of him after he had a tussle with Nagi." The screen showed highlights of the battle. "We do not know what has become of the bounty hunter now, they finished the battle on an uninhabited planet with heavy cloud cover. The Akuneko came out the winner." A light blinked on beneath the monitor.

"Hey isn't that..." Kiyone held out her hand to quiet Mihoshi.

"We do not know where this man is now, but his conflict with Nagi suggests an interest in Ryoko. Nagi would not have attacked a bountyless man otherwise. That suggests that he may be heading your way."

"Understood sir," Kiyone answered. "We'll keep an eye out. Kiyone and Mihoshi out." They saluted and then Kiyone switched the communication screen.

"Kiyone, you have trouble," Nagi was staring them in the face. She sounded like she was in pain.

"Rei Kuroi?"

"How did you know?"

"Our superior just told us about your fight with him," Mihoshi put in. "Are you and Ken-Ohki okay?" The screen panned back and the view behind Nagi revealed not the spacious and magnificent bridge of Ken-Ohki, but a battered mess. The bounty hunter was clutching her shoulder where a bloodstain was slowly growing.

"Oh my goodness."

"That little ship did that?"

"Little bastard ran me into a cliff, neat trick." Nagi sounded impressed. "We'll be fine," Nagi said in response to the concerned looks. "But Ken-Ohki is grounded for the moment, and I'm not in much better condition. The important thing is that this Kuroi is on his way to kill Ryoko."

"But don't you want to kill Ryoko?" Mihoshi asked.

"That's why your partner has to make sure she stays alive."

"I see," Kiyone answered dryly. "Thanks for the warning. Did he mention why he wanted to kill Ryoko?"

"He claimed that he was Akuneko," Nagi said. "So I don't see what legitimate reason he could have."

"New HQ believes that he came from across dead space," Kiyone told Nagi.

"You mean he really is Akuneko?" Nagi asked surprised.

"Yes."

"Interesting, it might explain why I had so much trouble with him," Nagi commented. "Be careful detectives, Nagi out." The screen vanished.

"Come on Mihoshi," Kiyone ordered. "We have to find Ryoko and get to the bottom of all this."

"Right, we can't let this Rei person get her. No matter what she did to him."

They were soon storming into the Masaki house, still in uniform.

"Where's Ryoko?" Kiyone yelled.

"So she was doing something," Ayeka snapped. "Off robbing banks or something wasn't she!"

"Actually there's this really nasty guy named Rei Kuroi who's on his way here to kill her."

"What?!" Tenchi shouted. Sasami gasped, Ryo-Ohki meowed in surprise, and a muffled "serves her right" came from Ayeka. "Where did you here that?"

"The sergeant of detectives and Nagi," Kiyone answered. "Where is she?"

"Yeah, Nagi had a fight with him, and now she and Ken-Ohki are beat up real bad."

"What?" Sasami yelled. Ryo-Ohki was meowing hysterically. "Are they going to be okay?" Sasami asked quietly.

"Nagi said they'd be fine," Kiyone answered. "Where is she?"

"After you left she disappeared," Tenchi said. "I assume she'll be back tomorrow."

"That may be too late."

"I believe I know where she's going," Washu declared. Everybody turned to face the diminutive genius, who was grinning ear to ear. "But first you have to tell me what the Akuneko want with Ryoko." She'd been spying on Ryoko for the past few days, it seemed to be the only mildly entertaining activity at the time.

"The…of course you would know. But how?"

"The name Kuroi," Washu said. "It was one of the clans involved in the conflict. They and the Shinku were the two highest ranked clans."

"The Akuneko," Ayeka said, chilled. "They haven't crossed dead space for ages."

"When the Shinku were defeated the Kuroi pulled away from Jurai space. They would have had to soon any way, they way were far too depleted afterwards to take on the Jurai alone, but they were terrible warriors, and why do you think they're after Ryoko?" Washu turned to Kiyone again.

"I think Ryoko is Akuneko," Kiyone told them. Everybody stared at her, stunned. "So where is Ryoko?"

"She's been training with Yosho recently," Washu told them. "She didn't like the way Kagato beat her so easily. She'll be up in the woods with him most likely. Recently she's been acting quite out of her normal character, actually."

"Training with grandpa?" Tenchi asked. "Why didn't either of them say anything."

"And admit to us that she needed help," Kiyone explained. "She's a little to proud for that. Come on Mihoshi."

Outside the Masaki shrine

Ryoko was bouncing from peg to peg, using a bokken to hit a piece of wood on a rope back and forth. It seemed quite pointless to her, but Yosho was the most experienced warrior among them. If he said this would help her improve, she had to believe it.

"You're improving, Ryoko," Yosho encouraged her from the side. He was sitting with his bokken leaning against his neck. "But you should be getting more sleep. You're moving a little slower than you could."

"Okay, so I'm learning how to use this stick," Ryoko started, still working on that piece of wood, and trying not to use any of her natural powers. "But I'll never be able to channel Jurai energy, so what good does it do me?"

"Do you think that in a real fight I bounce around on one foot wailing at an arbitrary point in the air," Yosho asked, then he laughed. "That would be silly wouldn't it?"

"So if you don't use this, yourself," she asked. "Why do it?"

"You still think of fighting skills as a physical thing," Yosho said, shaking his head. "Run the kata series I taught you, I'm going to the shrine for a moment."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, old man," she muttered as she started running the first kata of the series.

"And when I return, perhaps we'll test you against me," Yosho informed her. Ryoko winced, and stuck her tongue out at his back before starting the kata again.

The house of Rikyu Shirai

"The item appears to be some sort of scanner," Rikyu was saying. "I'm not certain what it is supposed to scan for, but…" He stopped recording as the device came alive in his hand. To his surprise a circular hologram began to be projected from the device. It showed several red blips and one yellow one moving at high speed. "The device appears to have activated itself, I think it is tracking some sort of craft."

He stared at the yellow dot in curiosity. The hologram shifted to show a sleek black and red needle-like craft against a starfield. There was a readout but he couldn't read the language. He knew a large variety of Earth languages, and the common trade tongue of the space, but that was about it.

"The device seems to be activated by thought," it was something he had encountered before. "And it is indeed tracking what appear to be space craft, perhaps I should contact those two Galaxy Police detectives about this craft." The starfield vanished into a blue sky, which quickly darkened to twilight. It was only a little ways away from the city now.

Yosho's training grounds

"Katas and hitting sticks," Ryoko griped. "How'd he get to be such a strong warrior doing stuff like this."

"Well, Lady Shinku," Ryoko froze. She hadn't been called that in well over two hundred years. "It seems that you have completed your clan's fall from grace, learning the arts of the enemy. Still seducing our operative into reporting you were dead was a clever idea." Ryoko turned about to face her enemy.

"I've told you people before," she said, turning about. Her opponent was cloaked as was normal. "My name is Ryoko, I don't know anything about these clans of yours."

"We don't care what you know Lady Shinku, just what you are." the man dropped his cloak and smiled at her. "By the way, don't you want to know what happened to that peasant who helped you?"

"Damn, he's already in battle armor." she thought. Indeed the man was in the same kind of battle suit she wore when there was real trouble on the way. "I assume it wasn't anything nice." Ryoko set the bokken down behind her against a tree.

"Oh, Renshi had an interesting last few hours in life," he told her. "He told us everything, before we let him die." Ryoko snarled.

"Let's get this over with," Ryoko snapped.

"Indeed, know that it is Rei of the Kuroi clan that has slain you" the man pointed at her and shot a blast of red energy at Ryoko. The space pirate teleported out of the way and appeared in the air above her opponent. She sliced down with her energy blade only to be blocked by another.

"We'll see about that, buddy," Ryoko rebounded off Rei's energy sword and brought it around again with a burst of borrowed speed. The other blocked and riposted as well, and they entered the dance of a flight powered sword battle. She was better, she could feel it, the moves felt more natural, and they flowed easier from position to position. She could win this battle.

"Very good for an uneducated amateur like yourself," Rei said. "But I am no peasant assassin." A second energy blade appeared in Rei's off hand and Ryoko suddenly on the defensive again. She dodged, blocked and teleported with absurd speed trying to stay one step ahead of the whirling blades.

"I'm not out of tricks yet, bastard!" Ryoko blasted out with her off hand. Rei dodged easily and lashed out with what would be called a hilt punch, catching Ryoko in the face.

"You call that a trick?" he chided her. He began again to press his attack, driving Ryoko to the ground and back to a tree, before forcing her energy sword wide and successfully disrupting it.

"Go ahead, kill me," Ryoko shouted defiantly. "You still can't win." She smiled up at the man. She knew their goals, and at least she had the pleasure of knowing something he didn't.

"Oh I'm afraid I can, Lady Shinku," Rei smiled as he raised one of his blades. "Like I said, Renshi told us everything." Her eyes widened in terrified realization, as the blade descended she screamed.

"Nooo!!!!!!" The blade never landed, it was disrupted in mid strike by a yellow laser beam.

"You are in violation of Galaxy Law," Kiyone declared confidently. "Release the weapon and step away from her." Mihoshi shook nervously behind her partner, staring at the Akuneko. Rei laughed at them.

"And what do you barbarians think you can do to me?" He teleported behind them, planning to slice the detectives in two. As soon as he vanished Kiyone smiled, and turned her laser to face backwards. She fired as soon as she heard the teleport behind her.

"Aah!! Damn you!!" the man shouted. He didn't have much time to elaborate as Kiyone followed the shot through with pummeling barrage of kicks and punches. The Akuneko was heavily favoring his left side where Kiyone marked a burn mark from her laser.

He finally managed to block a couple of strikes and return one of his own. Rei was much stronger than Kiyone and the Galaxy Police detective flew backwards against a tree.

"Kiyone!!" Mihoshi yelled, as she started firing a swarm of wild laser blasts. The Akuneko managed to raise a force field and smiled at the ineffectual attacks. Until he heard Ryoko's war cry and saw the red energy blade cutting through his field. The assassin quickly vanished, and reappeared high in the air.

"We'll find you later, Ryoko," the man laughed. "Right now I have other prey."

"Like hell you do!! Get back here bastard!" she launched an energy blast at the already teleporting Rei. "Damn it!! Kiyone, you have to take me to Rikyu now!" The Galaxy Police detective stood up from her collision and face Ryoko.

"I'm right, aren't I?" Kiyone asked, dusting herself off.

"Right about what?" Mihoshi asked, clueless as usual. Ryoko glared at them.

"Yes," Ryoko admitted.

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