And please remember to pay your taxes, the bureaucracy need them to fight the endless war with the ideas of the policy-makers.
Symbols:
abc private thoughts from a human
* Ryo-ohki * thoughts
[Mind speak]
Night of the carrot cakeRyo-ohki jumped out from the window of Ayeka and Sasamis bedroom and rested on the roof. Ryoki was as usual sleeping outside on the roof. * She may be bounded to the earth for the time being, but you can't take the stars out of a child, who was born to the sea, so she slept as she had done always, as a child under the sea of stars *.
Ryo-ohki scratched his left ear, while looking on the blinking stars on the sky. *The day had ended well. The cake had been just as fabulous as promised; everything had been eaten to the last bite. The cake had even managed to stop Ayeka and Ryoko from brooding over Mihoshis luck, and that took much. Maybe something from the young catalyst had rubbed of on Sasami cooking this day. If he just had a catalyst as her to live with, but the greater ones power, the greater ones duty. And on the matter of duty *.
Ryo-ohki starred into the sea of stars, his ears catching the vibrations of the galaxy.
*A large dot symbolising another meaningless battle for the honour of Tokimi, several small dots shoving minor conflict or attack. Nothing special, nothing serious *.
Ryo-ohki moved his ears once more * Hmm, the near scans showed two ships reaching the outer sphere of the Sol system. One of the ships was armed. Hmmm, Mihoshi is going to get lucky again*.
Ryo-ohki started to transfer the flight data to Mihoshis ship.
* Her computer would take care of the rest, getting Mihoshi to meet the ships when she went on petrol tomorrow, not that she had planed a petrol, but her computer would now tell her it was time for another sweep of the solar system. Mihoshi presence did more to help Tenchi than she did know or needed to know *.
Finished with his routine work Ryo-ohki started jumping down to the old sacred tree. * As a tree it was not as bad as some of the others. Especially for a Jurai tree, those were always the worst to get to see reason. Tsunami was one of a kind *.
Suddenly Ryo-ohki halted in the middle of the air. His scanners were overloaded *. An infinite power had just entered his fields *.
[Greetings to you – eternal guardian of Chaos and Chance]
Ryo-ohki looked stunned on the young girl hanging before him. * A young girl in a blue dress. How did she manage that? Her face a smile of happiness, her eyes a wasteland of sorrows, all seen before their time to come. She had appeared out of nothing inside the area of his shields.
He had heard something from the local guardians about a Power born to the Earth tree, but this was way way overkill. This Power did not only wear the signature of Creation and Law, but also the signature of Death and Destiny. The local authorities must have been mad, even the idea went against the basic teaching of her creators *
[Greetings to you – Oh Power of the Earth to come. How can I serve you, splendour of reality].
Ryo-ohki moved his ears down in greetings. * When dealing with Power, show respect. This one was young, so young, but yet so powerful, and obvious without protectors. Earth was a wonder, but a deadly one. It was as bad as it would be if Tenchi got lose on Jurai *.
[You speak well, oh ancient reborn. Please, let us drop the formalities, I senses that you are as bored of them as I am, call me Lain]. The statement was followed with a laughter from her, rolling over him * Feeling something like a mixture of innocence and the corrupted, like Sasamis experiments with carrots in sour and sweet sauce tasted *.
[Well, Lain. What are you doing here? This area is by treaty outside of the jurisdiction of Earth the last 700 years] Ryo-ohki answered.
Lain: [Nothing much. I was asked to look into the disturbance of the catalyst living here].
Ryo-ohki: [Well, yes, I was on my way to discuss that matter with the local representative of the opposition, you are most welcomed to join in the discussion. If Jurais trees are behind this scheme for Tenchi, I'm going to cut some roots].
The laughter of this creature named Lain once again rolled over him [As you once cut the roots of the tyrant of the Black Tower Empire?].
Ryo-ohki: [It was my duty, it was my pleasure. Earth play with high stakes?]
Lain: [Oh, my creators always play high, and you better check for marked decks too. That is why Jurai trees gained a treaty 700 years ago. So many treaty binds Earth, that no one Power normally dare disturb any of them. If one is a weak Power, then one should have many strong friends living very far away]
[Ancient teaching] responded Ryo-ohki.
Lain and Ryo-ohki continued sparring on words as they went down to the shrines holy tree.
When they arrived the tree greeted the presence of Lain with a golden light. Fireflies glowed in respond. A fairy tales indeed if anyone mortal had seen this nightly discussion between a rabbit, a tree and a young girl in blue, floating in the air, about a prince and the matter, with disturbed him.
The prince in question was himself lying sleepless on his madras. Thoughts in his mind, carrot cake in his body.
The day had been smeared with dreams of destruction. First one where he treated Ayeka as a slave, and then a dream where he killed Ryoko in battle. That particular nightmare he had before, but Ayeka as a slave, or worse, a thing, was a new dream.
The only good thing in the last dream had been the part of being with Mihoshi, and in the dream he had been the hunter of her, not him who was being hounded by her. That was probably what he liked most of Mishoshi, she didn't plagued him like Ryoko and Ayeka, but trusted her luck to be with him.
And no matter what he thought about her generally, his feet had found hers by them self. And the body often did know the reality of the world, as it is, before ones mind gasped it.
But everything with a decision always ended up bad, even his dreams. Thank the powers that he didn't need to make a decision regardless of the endless request to do so. No need for me, Tenchi, to do so – now .