No Need for Lawyers

The Yagami bridge

It hadn't taken long for them to find an irate Washu floating in a force field bubble on her way to the Masaki shrine. After that Kiyone, now certain that everybody was safe, attempted to drop everyone off at the Masaki shrine. This was a not so successful action.

"I'm staying," Ryoko declared. "Nothing better to do anyway." Kiyone didn't know what Ryoko thought she was going to do, but she had her guess.

"I don't...."

"And I think I will be staying as well," Ayeka interrupted her. "I would like to know what exactly this man was shooting at his for."

"Princess..."

"I'd guess I'd better stay as well," Tenchi responded to Ayeka's statement. Ayeka smiled, Ryoko and Tenchi, still angry, glared icicles at each other.

"There's no need...."

"Captain Makibi," of course Rakkan had to put in something. "I do not think I should leave you alone with that assassin." Rikyu was leaning against a bulkhead trying to keep from laughing.

"I can take...."

"And I think we should speak to Jurai about Earth's general ignorance," Karya noted.

"Perhaps, that would be a good idea," Ayeka noted. Everybody looked to Kiyone expecting her to try objecting again.

"That's actually a good idea," the detective answered the unspoken question. "But I don't...."

"Do you still have that fighting game," Sasami asked, with a bored but slightly embarrassed voice.

"Yes, but...."

"Oh, I want to play too!" Mihoshi piped in. The pair ran off towards the living quarters. "I'll beat you this time, Sasami!" The little girl giggled.

"Not likely," she cheered, everyone had tried, and no one had yet succeeded.

"At least there out of the way," Kiyone grumbled, though it was kind of annoying that Mihoshi was going to be getting out of the work. Then she turned to Washu and Rikyu. "Anything from you two?" The red-haired Akuneko was virtually ready to burst with laughter, when he tried to talk it all came bursting out. This was much to his ladylove's irritation.

"I've been wanting to test something anyway," everyone shifted back and forth and Kiyone hoped for a moment that they would decide to leave, but no such move was made. Washu looked shrugged apologetically, though whether it was to Kiyone or the group she didn't know. She irritably stood up and started for the brig.

The brig

The sniper sat up out from the floor stiffly, trying to remember the sequence of events that had provided him so much pain. He remembered bouncing bullets off thin air and then being smashed by one of his targets who had crossed a street and run up three flights of stairs in under a second. The only thing that kept the man from totally surprising him was the odd sound that had occurred just behind him, something like a rip in the fabric of space.

Now he was here in an empty, futuristic room, with an unsecured doorway. Or at least it looked unsecured. He remembered something like a nightmare where he had been thrown into a room like this and he associated the empty doorway with bright lights and pain. He removed a button from a shirt pocket and tossed it through the doorway, what followed was an impressive display of sound and fury. The button disintegrated, even its ashes were destroyed.

"Where am I?" He asked as the area quieted down around him. He heard the sound of clicking footsteps close by, shortly before he was answered.

"This is my vessel, the Yagami," Kiyone answered as she stepped in front of the force field. The man in front of her was tall for a human with short cropped, dark hair. She couldn't tell if it was black or just a very dark variation of something else. His clothes were more than a little ragged, he had been through the door after all.

"A ship?" the man said. "That explains the high bounty on the blonde and that purple-haired girl so what are you? American?" Kiyone smiled, behind her Rakkan scowled at the human killer.

"I think that I should clear some matters up first," she noted. "I'm placing you under arrest for attempting to murder a Galaxy Police officer."

"Galaxy..." The man started as Kiyone continued undaunted.

"You have the right to remain silent as pertaining matters to your disadvantage."

"...Police?" he looked on the verge of cracking up.

"You have the right to a legal representative, if you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you." The assassin began chortling hysterically.

"Galaxy Police. That's a good one."

"Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you?"

"Oh yes," the assassin laughed. "I understand these rights, so who are you really?" A communication holograph appeared next to Kiyone, cutting off the assassin's glee a little.

"Captain," Karya sat on the other side of the screen, whispering. "Could you please hurry, it is becoming frightfully tense up here."

"Well, bear with it for a little longer," Kiyone suggested. "But right now I'd like to ask our friend some questions."

"Yes, Captain," Karya whispered quietly, glancing nervously off screen. The holograph vanished.

"About that lawyer," the assassin noted, a little afraid now.

Yagami Bridge

"Its a little cold in here," Ryoko complained.

"It's fine Ryoko," Tenchi responded.

"My fingers are turning blue."

"Lord Tenchi, Lady Shinku," Ayeka snapped, patience gone after several minutes of these little debates. "Really, you two are acting quite childish. I'd expect that from Ryoko, but really."

"You didn't waste much time after Ryoko stopped talking to me," Tenchi observed. For once Ayeka didn't respond angrily, she'd already come to that conclusion herself. She was surprised that Tenchi would bring it up.

"Tenchi," Ryoko gasped. "Ayeka, you know he's just mad at me. He doesn't mean anything."

"Oh, but he's perfectly correct," Ayeka admitted. Everybody stared at her as if had just gone insane. "Out of curiosity, you didn't just spend time with me out of guilt, did you?"

"I....like you alright," Tenchi muttered. "And I...hoped...that something else would happen, but...."

"Yes, I understand the feeling," Ayeka noted. "I thought there already was...something."

"This is crazy," Ryoko snapped. "She loves you and you love her."

"Actually, Lady Shinku," Karya began. Rikyu flinched as she continued talking and raced for a way to stop what was coming. "Part of Princess Ayeka's purpose tonight was to..."

"...let Tenchi down easy." Karya glanced at him curiously.

"Yes, that is it," Ayeka agreed quickly with the pirate's son. "But apparently there is no need for that. Friends then." Ryoko's jaw was working, but nothing was coming out.

"Yeah, friends," and Ayeka and Tenchi hugged, a rather platonic manner.

"But..." Ryoko started. "You...in the battle..."

"And that's another subject," Ayeka noted. "I am not this fragile little glass figurine, you know. How would you like being treated like a small child all the time."

"She's only worried about you, Ayeka," Tenchi put in.

"Hey don't you defend me!"

"When do you think La...I mean Captain Kiyone will return, Lord Rikyu?"

"Not for a while I think," Rikyu noted, missing the Jurai's near slip. "Unfortunately." The two continued watching the three-way argument build from there.

Yagami Brig

"If you wish it," Kiyone opened another holograph, a bored looking nekojin appeared on the other side.

"Galaxy Police legal section," the man yawned. "What do you need?"

"I have a prisoner who has requested a lawyer," Kiyone informed the man, he revealed a mild amount of surprise. He then began shuffling his papers.

"Okay, what hospital is he in," the Terran assassin's jaw dropped at the assumption of hospitalization.

"Well, he's in my brig," Kiyone explained. "Minor burns, extensive bruising, maybe a concussion."

"Is that all?" the nekojin asked. "Didn't this prisoner even try to put up a fight?"

"He's an Earth native, I think somebody paid him to assassinate my partner and Princess Ayeka."

"Oh a primitive," the nekojin noted. "That explains it then, well Sol system is quite a ways from where we are now. Would your prisoner accept a holograph conference?"

"Do you mind?" Kiyone asked. "He wants to know if we can run this with your lawyer appearing by holograph, it might be weeks otherwise."

"And you can't do anything to me in the meantime, right?" the assassin smiled.

"Me? Nope, definitely not," the assassin looked smug, very briefly. "But Rakkan here is an Akuneko noble not connected to the GP at all. Ayeka and Tenchi are from the Royal family of Jurai, they could legally do whatever they want to you. Washu might decide you'd make an excellent guinea pig, and I couldn't do anything to stop her if she decided that. Ryoko is a powerful space pirate, and she's recently been very, VERY protective of Ayeka. Ayeka is the purple-haired girl, by the way. Finally, sometime in those weeks you might encounter one of my partner's accidents, which rival natural disasters for fury."

"I think I'll take the holograph lawyer."

"Okay, he'll accept it," Kiyone informed the sweating nekojin. "I'm sending the file over to you now."

"Thank you, it shouldn't be more than an hour," the nekojin yawned before shutting down the communication.

"Well, I'll see you when they contact me again," Kiyone smiled.

"Hey, what is the average sentence for attempted murder?"

"One moment," Kiyone opened a holograph to the bridge and popped it around a few moments, until she found Ryoko. "Ryoko, what did you go to jail for exactly?"

"Fraud. Why do you want to know," Ryoko asked frostily.

"And how long was the sentence?" Kiyone glanced at the assassin.

"Well the sentence was about a thousand, but I made parole at seven hundred."

"Okay, so you got off a year early," the assassin yelled from off screen. "What does that have to do with the average sentence for attempted murder."

"Oh, I get it now," Ryoko disappeared from the screen and appeared in front of the brig. The assassin's eyes goggled, but at least he knew how that "Rakkan" had gotten behind him so fast. "Listen asshole, I was in for seven hundred years, not days."

"For fraud?" the assassin sounded disbelieving. "So how old are you granny?"

"I'm not a grandmother yet," Ryoko laughed. Then she turned to Kiyone, eyebrow upraised. "Am I?" Kiyone blushed.

"No, why would you be?" Kiyone quickly answered. "If you'll excuse me, we really shouldn't be talking without your lawyer." Kiyone smiled as she walked down the corridor. Ryoko followed, floating cross-legged down the corridors alongside the detective. Rakkan sat down in mid-air and watched the assassin in the brig.

"Is that all you wanted?" Ryoko asked.

"I believe it will make him think a little, don't you?" Kiyone responded. "The average life expectancy around here is only seventy-five after all."

"Well, I guess that's true," Ryoko noted. "Why are you breaking off by the way?"

"Oh, he asked for a lawyer," Kiyone answered. "Shouldn't be more than an hour. He'll sit there in the meantime with Rakkan glaring at him."

"Letting him stew? I always hate that." Ryoko smiled.

"What's going on at the bridge anyway?" Kiyone asked.

"Tenchi and Ayeka broke up," Ryoko said, neglecting to inflect the words.

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