Six

A single day of school had felt like a whole week of Nadesico life. For hours on end, she'd gone from one mind-numbing lesson to another and not once all day had her mind been challenged. The boredom had left Ruri's mind completely drained. It had been such a waste of her time and energy. Compared to today, that fifteen-hour shift on the bridge had been bliss.

"And I'll have to go through it all again tomorrow," Ruri thought bitterly as she trudged up the path to the orphanage entrance. Around her, young children were playing in the garden, making the most of the sunny afternoon. Ruri, however, had no desire to be outside at the moment. Right now, all she wanted to do was sit alone in a dark room and read. It was four-thirty now, meaning she had three full hours to herself before supper – enough time to finish her book she reckoned.

Wearily, she climbed the stairs and plodded over to her room. Even before she reached the door, she could hear excited voices inside. Her heart sank – she'd hoped to find it empty. Oh well, she'd just have to put up with the distraction.

To her horror, the first thing she saw when she opened the door was Leon sitting on her bed, with her computer on his lap. He was tapping the keys eagerly and was surrounded by a few others, including Mikoto, who were looking at the screen over his shoulder. Everyone glanced up as she entered. Leon's mocking gaze fell on her like a swarm of midges.

"Hey robot, what's your password?"

Last night's performance had been bad enough but stealing her property was surely going too far! Ruri strode into the room towards them with her eyebrows knit. "Excuse me, that laptop belongs to me," she stated firmly.

Everyone laughed at her annoyance. "So? What are you going to do about it?" taunted Mikoto.

"I wonder if she has any good games on here?" murmured Leon, continuing to tap keys with his stubby fingers.

Ruri let out a frustrated breath, then said, "There's nothing on there of any interest to you, and even if there was you couldn't access it without the password. So please, just give it back."

"Well, she's not going to give us the password, so let's guess," said Leon. He typed something in. "Hmm, it's not 'freak'. Let's try 'bug-eyed alien'."

Naturally, the other children found this hilarious. To Ruri this was just getting tiresome. "I said, please give it back," she restated, snatching at it. Two of the boys pushed her back while Leon leaned back, taking the computer out of reach.

"I'll give it back if you tell me the password," the short-haired boy said with an evil sneer.

She wasn't that gullible. "I don't find this very amusing," she stated flatly.

"How about you jump for it?" Leon stood and held the laptop tantalizingly over her head. He was a great deal taller then the pale girl and Ruri knew that he wouldn't allow her to get it, whether she tried or not.

"I don't intend to humour you," said Ruri, weary of this little game. She took her book from her bedside table and crossed over to Mikoto's bed. She sat down on it and started reading without giving them another glance.

"Hey!" Mikoto shouted, suddenly indignant. "That's my bed!"

"Well, I have little choice on the grounds that you're all sitting on my own bed. And since you seem to disregard the concept of ownership, you shouldn't really be so upset." Ruri's reply was not at all aggressive, merely a cool statement of facts.

"Get off!" Mikoto surged over. "You'll give it freak germs!"

Ruri hopped off the other side of the bed before she could be pushed off. Mikoto glared at her with that flaming gaze of hers. Ruri responded with her own cold one. This staring battle between fire and ice continued for several silent seconds until Mikoto broke off.

Ruri was at a bit of a loss of what to do next. Her only option seemed to be walk out of the room, leaving her laptop at the mercy of these bullies. But she was reluctant to do that, since her laptop was important to her and she didn't want them to damage it in her absence. So she just stood there regarding them. Their combined stare faced back at her.

"What you gonna do now freak?" jeered Leon.

Ruri wasn't at all sure, but in any case before she could reply, one of the other boys looked at his watch and slapped Leon on the shoulder.

"Hey, Gekiganger's on!"

Ruri nearly choked in disbelief. How far would she have to go before she could escape that show's poorly animated clutches? Ironically though, it was doing her a favour this time, since the group all stood and made for the door. Mikoto gave her another devil-glance before leaving the room. Leon was the last to leave as he still held Ruri's laptop. He looked down at it in his hands, as if unsure what to do with it. Finally, he reached a decision and snapped its lid shut.

"Hey robot! Catch!"

Ruri gasped as she realised his intention. He wouldn't, surely? Yes, he would. Swinging his arms, Leon hurled the laptop into the air in her direction. Ruri backed off and spread her arms, as it arched down towards her. She just managed to catch it, but the momentum caused her to fall backwards. She exhaled in pain as she hit the floor hard. It took a few moments to recover from the sudden blow, but she managed to stand up again in time to hear Leon's mocking laughter echoing down the landing.

Ruri clutched the laptop to her chest and sighed in exasperation, for the umpteenth time since yesterday. What on earth was she doing here? She didn't belong here at all.

Fortunately her laptop was undamaged – her back had taken all the landing impact. But her pride and confidence had taken a dent. It really did disturb her, this persistent harassment. What really bothered her was the fact she couldn't see why they were doing it. To her knowledge she hadn't done anything to offend them. Perhaps their discrimination simply stemmed from the fact that she was so different to them. But that was no reason to hate her! Sure, she was different, but did that make her a freak?

Perhaps she'd been luckier on the Nadesico then she'd first thought. On that ship, people knew what friendship was and how to treat each other properly. Sure, there were always arguments and fights, but never any real malice. Not like here. Subconsciously, she went over to her closet and opened it so that she could look up at her Nergal uniform. Her white shirt and orange sleeveless top were hung up next to each other and her black skirt was folded up underneath them. She sighed with longing. Already she was finding this new life away from the Nadesico hard to deal with.

As she looked up with longing at her old uniform, she noticed that something was in the shirt pocket. Curious, she took it out and realised it was Akatsuki's business card, where she'd left it on the night he'd offered her that job. She held it between finger and thumb, reading the information on it. This small, seemingly insignificant piece of card represented another path. Escape from this nightmare. With a simple call, she'd be back aboard a gunship, doing what she was best at. Admittedly, it wouldn't be the same as on the Nadesico, but it couldn't fail to be more enjoyable then her current situation, surely.

Then she heard the noises of children playing outside and remembered the other implications of Akatsuki's offer. She would be returning to the fighting, only this time as Akatsuki's pawn. Tearing down the peace between Earth and Jupiter and killing scores upon scores of people, most of whom couldn't fight back. Slaughtering innocent children, like those playing outside now. It would no longer be fighting for justice, it would be simple cold-blooded murder, all for the ambitions of one man. She'd be a butcher, drenched with the blood of the weak, disregarding the very ideals that Captain Misumaru had instilled in her. No, she wouldn't, she couldn't go running back to Akatsuki just because it was the easy thing to do.

"What's that?" demanded Mikoto, shocking her out of her trance. Ruri hadn't heard her come back into the room. Her tone was still fierce, but Ruri detected a slight trace of genuine curiosity behind it as well.

"Nothing at all," she replied, crushing the card in her palm and throwing it at the waste-paper basket by the door. It hit the rim and fell on to the floor, so Mikoto picked it up and pulled it back into shape.

"Who the hell's Nagure Akatsuki?" she inquired, reading the name off it.

Old friend? Old enemy? "Old colleague," she settled for in the end.

"Huh. Whatever," murmured Mikoto, dropping it into the bin and leaving the room again, a magazine tucked under one arm. That had been the most pleasant conversation between the two of them so far, Ruri noted with a dry smile. Only due to the absence of direct insults though.

Well, now that she finally had the room to herself again, she could finally have a moment's peace. That simple pleasure was the best thing this life could offer in her eyes. After remaking her bed to remove the creases which the other children had made, she lay down with H.G. Wells' classic and prepared to find out whether humanity could overcome the Martian menace that threatened their survival. Before she sunk into her fantasy world, she spared a thought for her crewmates, wondering how they were dealing with their imposed fate. Like her, they were probably finding it difficult to settle in to their new situation, she guessed. Which was better – lonely freedom or captivity with friends? She knew which one she'd have chosen, but in her case, the coin had landed on the wrong side.