No Need for Preparations

The Yagami bridge, extreme Earth orbit

"Miss Kiyone," Azaka addressed the mistress of the Yagami. "You need to sleep." The knight's youthful-looking partner nodded his agreement. Mihoshi was already snoring in her co-pilot's chair.

"Not yet, there's too much to do," Kiyone said, yawning. She opened a communication screen. "Washu, any preliminaries on the ship?"

"It's too early to be asking that," the scientist said irritably. "Give me some time, and get some sleep. You're almost falling over." Washu was one to talk, she regularly worked through the night, often waking up in one of her floating chairs leaning against the solid holographic consoles she could summon at will.

"I do not need sleep," Kiyone griped, switching off the communication.

"Miss Kiyone," Kamidake started, ignoring Kiyone's forbidding glare. "You've reported what you discovered, we're here to watch the prisoner, Washu won't have a report ready for a while yet. The Jurai frontier reports no ships yet. There is nothing you can do right now but get some rest."

"No, there is one more thing I need to do," Kiyone corrected. "I need to find some way around that force field of they have. I can't always count on them teleporting where I can hit them." Usually she'd leave this kind of thing to Washu, but Washu had more important things to do right now. Then Kiyone had an idea, she started back into vast corridors of the Yagami, but was stopped by Nagi's outstretched energy whip.

"Not you too," Kiyone growled.

"Get some sleep now, or you'll be useless when we need you," the bounty hunter ordered without any of the respect of the two knights. Kiyone and Nagi glared at each other. Nagi was still healing from her and Ken-Ohki's wreck. Kiyone on the other hand hadn't slept in almost two days by now, staying awake while the rest of the Tenchi crew slept. The two of them were both trained and accomplished martial artists, unlike Ryoko who was still in many ways a raw and brute force oriented combatant.

"I'm not the only one," Kiyone noted looking to the sling Nagi's arm was in. The way the bounty hunter was holding herself, Kiyone suspected she had a cracked rib as well.

"Point taken, okay, I'll take it easy if you do," the bounty hunter laughed. "It is almost lunch time in Japan isn't it. That little princess should be cooking something."

"I'd like some of Sasami's cooking too, but for now we stay on the ship."

"There is no need for that miss Kiyone," Azaka responded. "We can watch that brigand for you." Kiyone didn't doubt that, but it was her ship, and she didn't trust Nagi around Ryoko.

"Fine, I'll take one of the guest cabins then," Nagi said. "I really miss the time when you had the house in the cargo bay. The Masakis have a good place to rest."

"If anything happens you wake me up," Kiyone ordered. Her voice still held the hint of command as she wearily moved to her own quarters.

"What do we do about her?" Kamidake pointed to the open-mouthed and loudly snoring blonde.

"Hope she keeps sleeping," Azaka gave the obvious answer.

The Yagami brig

Rei flexed his left arm, glad that he could move it again. The leg was another matter, all told he'd be laid up for a long time, he'd probably miss the war. It was all Makibi's fault, she was the only one that had touched him. And it had been a weakling's weapon that had injured him, he'd been shot by a laser like some powerless peasant.

Her tried to call forth an energy blade, but found himself still too drained. The assassin snarled and tried again, focusing on the image of the weakling peasant that was holding him, a small dagger sized blade appeared in his hand. Soon he'd be able to summon a full blade with that arm again.

The assassin thought bitterly about his "dear brother" whose command this mission had been. Ryoi planned to be Thane, there was no secret there. Until now, Rei never thought that he would betray his family for the title. His brother had made a mistake though, he hadn't arranged for a surety of his death. Rei was not a forgiving individual, and now he realized just how undeserving of the title Thane Ryoi was. If anybody should be the Thane of Kuroi it was him, not that scheming official back home. After that he would take the title of High Thane when the Shinku were finally destroyed and the Kuroi remained to rule the Akuneko.

Rei laid back and slept, letting his body repair itself.

"You will need more power," a voice in the darkness of sleep told him.

The Cave

"Isn't there supposed to be a goblin sealed here?" Rikyu asked as she and Ryoko stood in the Masaki cave. "That was why they put a shrine here, wasn't it?"

"You've met Washu?" Ryoko asked.

"Yeah, what about…oh, I get it," Rikyu paused uncomfortably. "What are we doing here?"

"Training," Ryoko answered. "How much can you do, really?"

"You've seen most of my tricks," Rikyu answered. "Other than those tricks not much, I can raise a wall if I'm not doing anything else."

"A wall?" Ryoko asked. "Like this?" Rikyu quickly noted the translucent, almost invisible shell that surrounded his mother. He'd seen the assassin do something similar to block Ayeka and Kiyone's attacks.

"Well, no," he admitted. "I've never done that. I meant a wall." Ryoko let her force field dropped as a wall of the same force rose up between her and Rikyu. The creation effectively cut the cave into two chambers.

"I've never tried that," she said. Then again, until recently Ryoko had only ever needed to protect herself.

"I've been in a couple of wars," he said. "It proved useful to keep the bullets off my side, just advance until the position favors us, drop the wall and fire."

"That means you can move it forward," Ryoko noted. Rikyu shrugged, he let the wall dropped.

"Yeah, it took a while to get that part to work though, why?"

"Try to raise a force field," Ryoko suggested. Rikyu thought about shell shaped wall, and soon raised an oval-shaped personal force field. It took him a little longer than Ryoko had, but it was there. Ryoko nodded. She walked over to stand next to him. "A little slow but it works, show me the wall again."

Rikyu obliged and noted his mother watching every step of the process. He released his breath as he completed the wall again.

"Okay, move it away from us." Ryoko watched as her son advanced the force wall forward. "That's good, I think I got it, but your missing something."

"What do you mean?" Ryoko smiled. She might not be the most skilled warrior of the crew, she usually made up for that with her raw natural speed and power, but she had been a pirate for somewhere around seventeen hundred years of her twenty-hundred year life. She had discovered most of her tricks without any help, perfecting the teleport and force field. She was far more innovative than she seemed.

"Most of your effort is going into controlling the wall," Ryoko took a moment to raise her own wall. It took quite a bit longer than her son had accomplished, she realized that he was right, she wouldn't be able to do anything else while doing this. Upon successfully raising the wall, Ryoko started its motion, and let it go.

The almost invisible wave of force slammed into the cavern wall and raised a cloud of dust. Rikyu picked himself up from the ground and stared at where the wave had struck the wall. As the dust fell he saw that it was still undamaged, aside from clutter knocked from the ceiling.

"Why are you smiling, it didn't seem to do much but produce a shockwave," Rikyu asked.

"You should have seen it when we released Washu," Ryoko told him, smiling at the memory. "That was a mess, this isn't your everyday cave."

"So what next," Rikyu asked.

"Next we work on your teleporting," Ryoko noted. She suspected that he couldn't combat port, she and Rei had several times in the battle two days ago, but Rikyu never had.

Yosho's Training Grounds

"Lord Yosho, why am I here?" Ayeka asked from where she stood by Tenchi. "I'm a princess not a warrior."

"Your habits would claim otherwise," Yosho quipped. Tenchi was curious about the lack of bokkens in the area. "But in this subject you are actually ahead of Tenchi, so I could use some help."

"But Lord Tenchi is Jurai warrior-prince," Ayeka said.

"Who lacks training in channeling the Jurai power," Yosho told her.

"Your going to train us in using the Jurai power?" Tenchi repeated. He wasn't certain of this, he hadn't tried to do that without the sword-Tenchi.

"Yes," Yosho answered. "There are many thing you can do without the sword, Tenchi, and you'll need to know a few of them if more of those warriors are truly coming."

"Kiyone isn't usually wrong about these things," Tenchi noted.

"We'll start with the basics first," Yosho noted. "Ayeka can you demonstrate just a light for the moment."

"Yes, Lord Yosho," Ayeka nodded sharply, and then produced a small blue globe which bathed the area around them in a soft light which mixed with the light of the filtered daylight in an eerie and peaceful manner.

"Tenchi," the young prince nodded and tried to copy what he had felt. He'd used the sword enough to know something about channeling the Jurai power, but this would be the first time he'd tried it. It took a little time, but soon a bluish-white globe added its light to the clearing. "Good, now form it into a shield. Ayeka, if you would first." Ayeka's shield curved in a triangular arc in front of her body.

Tenchi then worked on forming his own shield. He had been training in combat all his life, this and his recent experiences, the battles with Kagato and Caine, had prepared him for the mystical part of the Jurai martial arts. His shield was a blue-white triangle, hanging in front of him like a sheet of glass.

"You can release it now," Yosho said.

"What now?" Tenchi asked. Yosho smiled.

"Now it starts getting difficult," he answered. Tenchi winced.

Kiyone's quarters on the Yagami

Kiyone was dressed for bed, and she was sitting cross-legged on the matress, but she wasn't sleeping. On the desk to her side she had a tool box with a variety of items ranging from archaic pliers and screwdrivers to high tech circuit burners and energy routers. Next to the tool box were her personal weapons, the yo-yo and the GP laser. She wasn't going to touch those, but the Yagami had a small arsenal for her to tinker with. Five of the GP lasers were on the bed in front of her in various states of dismantlement. She also had a small supply of engine parts, and, the key to her idea, a small cylinder that glowed in an alternating color scheme of blue, white and purple.

Every couple of moments Kiyone started to slump over, but every time she shook herself completely awake. She was having trouble keeping her eyes open, but she was already past the delicate work. There was nothing extremely damaging she could do from this point. As far as she was concerned at this point she wasn't tired, because there was no time to be tired.

The Jurai energy generator only supplied energy for a few minutes before it burned out. That was no problem, she wasn't planning on a sustained charge. All she needed was a short release of power added to the light defractors she was aligning from the lasers. She had no idea if this would work, but it was worth a try.

It had taken her thirty minutes to assemble the rifle, right now it was an ugly collection of the various parts she had scavenged. She'd plate it later, after testing it.

"Right now all I need…is to test the," Kiyone paused for a yawn. "…relays, and then find a…" She yawned again. "…a safe place to test it…" Despite herself she laid back on her pillow. "…talk to Ryyaaahh…whoah.Ryoko….or maybe Rikyu…" That was the last sound she made for a while, aside from a deep steady breathing.

Guest quarters on the Yagami

Nagi was not tired, but Kiyone was right, she needed to recuperate before any real battle occurred. Ken-Ohki was already mostly recovered after only two days, the cabbit had a stubborn cut on one of his legs and that was about it. The bounty hunter was reclining in the simple chair, which, aside from the bed, was the only real furniture in the room. A platform extended from the wall to form something of a table which Nagi was resting her feet on.

Nagi also knew why Kiyone didn't want her near the Masaki house. The detective suspected that Nagi would try for Ryoko, injuries or not. As much as Nagi hated it, she couldn't have done that. Ryoko no longer had a bounty on her head. That meant that killing her would legally be murder. No, Nagi had to wait for the woman to break the law again. Also it wouldn't have been a very good idea to kill Ryoko if the Akuneko were really coming.

The Yagami cargo bay

"How very interesting," Washu noted, after tearing apart the circuitry of the door. "This circuitry is almost as efficient a organic neural net." She stepped into the cockpit and examined the console.

"Hmm, there are no manual controls," she picked up a circular object attached by wires to the computer. She opened the circle and closed it again, then on impulse closed it around her neck. She was suddenly aware of every available device and function in the ship. "Amazing, I knew Ryoko had telepathic capabilities, but I had no idea. I doubt they have much capability, but it would explain the technology. I'll have to remember to test Ryoko's potential." Washu smiled as she thought that.

The Cave

"Anything wrong," Rikyu asked. Ryoko had been attempting for the third time to translate combat-porting into speech when she paused. A confused look came over her face.

"Felt threatened for a moment," she answered. "Still must be sleepy. Anyway, I want you to try again…"

The Yagami cargo bay

"Now, this direct telepathic link with the ship presents some possibilities," Washu noted. "We should find a way to send feedback down the lines. There'll be…" Washu stopped talking and her eyes went wide. She dropped the scanner in her hand.

At the paired training grounds Ryoko and the Jurai experienced similar reactions and looked in the direction of the Yagami, though they could not see it. At the Masaki residence Sasami slipped in cutting the vegetables and cut herself, she didn't notice.

In the Yagami the two knights rose and looked at each other in disbelief.

Even Kiyone and Mihoshi snapped awake and felt what they all did. All those who had faced him when he finally fell felt it, telepath or no, Jurai power or no. They all breathed the same word.

"Kagato…"

Moments later Kiyone, Mihoshi, the knights and Washu were at the brig.

Rei's mindscape

Everything was black, the only points of color being Rei and the tall dark haired Jurai standing across from him. Rei was limping towards the man, driven by greed and wonder.

"I can teach you the power you need," the warrior told him. "But I can't return now, you have to come to me."

"Where are you?" Rei asked feverishly.

"The darkness at the center of the universe," the warrior spoke reverently. "You can learn much from here, enough to make you the most powerful man in the universe. You can be immortal, unstoppable, and I will teach you my mistakes, and you can topple the Jurai, and claim rulership over your own people."

"What's the catch?"

"You only get one chance to return," the warrior explained. "Fail and you return here, forever."

"I will not fail."

The Yagami brig

The Akuneko had walked under the doorway and was now being bombarded with painful energy. For him, in the condition he was already in, the exposure would prove lethal. It should have been any way. The on-lookers were aghast as every wound the door opened began wafting a crackling black energy.

"I'll be back Kiyone Makibi, 1st class Galaxy Police detective" the assassin yelled. "I'll be back with more power than you can imagine!!!" The assassin was laughing as he seemed to explode into black, creeping energy. In moments not even the energy remained, returned to its source at the center of the universe.

"It can't be possible," Kiyone said. "Tenchi killed Kagato, and Rei is Akuneko. He can't possibly channel Jurai energy."

"I fear the power Kagato wielded," Washu started. "Was not Jurai by the time we encountered him. Certainly he could channel Jurai energy, but I think he used something else."

"Yes," the Azaka agreed. "And now he still strikes at us from his eternal prison. This assassin will indeed return more powerful."

"Great more good news," Kiyone breathed.

"Oh Kiiyoooneee," Mihoshi wailed. "It's not true is it? Tell me it's not true!"

"Quiet Mihoshi," Washu commanded. "We won't deal with this by breaking down. He won't be back very soon. He'll come back when the war is over and we're exhausted and weakened. We can deal with the Akuneko first, then him."

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