A/N – In this chapter things start to get moving. I apologise if Ruri seems a little OOC, but keep in mind that she's a little worked-up.
Ten
"Ruri? Are you in here?" Miss Nishida walked into the games room and saw the young girl sitting on the sofa with her laptop. "Ah there you are!" she said with a smile.
The interruption was almost welcome. Ruri had been playing chess against her computer and was currently fighting a losing battle, thanks to an earlier school-girl error.
"What is it, Miss Nishida?" she asked, looking up at her with those large golden eyes.
The elderly woman beamed down at her. "You have a visitor!"
"A visitor?" said Ruri, her eyes widening incredulously.
"Yes, someone's waiting in the hall for you. Come on!" Miss Nishida motioned her up.
Ruri shut her laptop and tucked it under her arm, before standing and following the head of the orphanage to the hallway. Her mind was buzzing at this sudden news. Who would possibly want to visit her? Maybe it was one of her Nadesico crewmates? Her heart leapt at the thought that Yurika, Akito or Minato might be standing in this very building! Had they been released and come back for her?
Her hopes were soon torn apart when she entered the hallway and saw the figure standing there. It was one of her old crewmates, but hardly the one she'd hoped for.
"Hi there, Ruri," said Nagure Akatsuki wearing his permanent smug grin. "Long time, no see,"
"Hello, Mr Akatsuki," murmured Ruri half-heartedly. She tried to make her tone polite, despite the disappointment that was pouring over her.
Akatsuki looked over to Miss Nishida. "Is there anywhere we can talk in private?"
"Yes, we can go to my room." Ruri said before Miss Nishida could reply.
"Very well," said Akatsuki with a nod. "Lead the way."
Ruri lead the Nergal chairman upstairs and across the landing to her room. She held the door open for him, with mocking courtesy. She then walked in after him, closing the door behind her and crossing over to sit on her bed. Akatsuki looked around for a few moments, but after seeing there were no chairs, settled for sitting on Mikoto's bed opposite Ruri.
"So what are you doing here, Mr Akatsuki?" she asked, regarding him with a hard gaze.
Akatsuki spread his arms. "Well, I was in the area on business and I thought I'd pay a visit to my favourite young computer expert to see how she was doing!"
"Are you sure this isn't a recruitment drive?"
Akatsuki chuckled lightly. "Well, you're still as suspicious as ever I see."
"You'll forgive me if I don't trust a single thing you do anymore."
He let that pass. "As a matter of fact, I did want to run it by you again. I didn't want you to feel as if your opportunity had passed, so I felt a visit was in order. We still want you with us Ruri dear."
Ruri narrowed her colossal eyes. "Once again I thank you for your offer, but I thought I'd made my stance completely clear the last time we met."
Akatsuki wasn't the least bit fazed. "I figured you'd have changed your mind by now, having thought it over."
"There's nothing to think over, Mr Akatsuki," replied Ruri, injecting more force into her voice. "You're intending to slaughter countless innocents for your own ambitions." She shook her head defiantly. "I won't be an instrument to that."
"Oh come now Ruri, the time for foolish martyrdom is past! Look around you!" He gestured around at the room in which they were sitting. "Do you really fit in here? Do you really want to live like this for the rest of your childhood?"
Ruri kept her cool gaze locked on him. "It's not about what I want, Mr Akatsuki. I won't become a bullet in your gun, just because my life's not ideal. This is my final answer Mr Akatsuki. I will never change my mind, not for anything or anyone."
For the first time, Akatsuki showed some aggravation, his mouth becoming a thin line and creases appearing on his forehead. His tone was still as calm and collected as ever though.
"I think you're just being stubborn for the sake of it, Miss Hoshino. I know you're don't like me, perhaps with good cause. But don't defy me just because of that. Think logically. That's what you're best at right? Are you really snubbing a well-paid job, which suits you perfectly, to be an orphan in this run-down orphanage? Well? Are you?"
"I know what you're trying to do to me!" Ruri suddenly burst out. "You've planned this all along!"
Akatsuki faltered slightly, "Whatever do you mean Ruri?"
"Let me show you," She opened her computer on her lap and started tapping keys rapidly. She didn't look up from her typing when she spoke to him again. "Since it's not like Nergal to care for its employees, I was suspicious when you set up a home for me, especially one in an isolated rural location, yet within striking distance of Hiratsuka.
"I did a bit of research and found out that there were four reputable orphanages in Hiratsuka itself and many more in the surrounding area that were closer than this one. Naturally I began to wonder why you'd singled out this particular facility.
"I found two main reasons. Firstly, the distance from Hiratsuka - you wanted me close enough to be surveyed, yet far enough so that I couldn't communicate with my former crewmates or interfere directly with your schemes.
"I found the second reason even more perverse," Ruri turned and tapped a few more keys on her laptop, then turned it around so that Akatsuki could see the screen, on which a long list was displayed.
"I found details of a government orphanage assessment, conducted last year, on the internet. It can be clearly seen that the better orphanages, when considering space, funding, amenities and staff per orphan, are all located in Hiratsuka. If we look for Seven Oaks Orphanage we can see that it's here." Ruri pointed to its position on the screen and turned to face Akatsuki. "Out of twenty-three orphanages surveyed, it came third from bottom in the quality table. The implications are pretty clear. You wanted me to make things hard for me here so that I'd come running back to you and your battleship. Am I right?"
Akatsuki was silent for a moment, his expression not revealing anything. However, though his exterior was unruffled for the most part, Ruri noticed his slender fingers were fidgeting, as if each one was fighting against the others. That was a real giveaway, especially coming from Akatsuki, who never betrayed a shred of nervousness under normal conditions. She must have singled out the precise details of his plan to provoke such a reaction in him. Despite his instinctive finger work, his voice was still composed when it came.
"Well Ruri dear, you've gone a long way to dig up some dirt! A good effort I admit, but you're only seeing what you want to see. You're far too suspicious, my dear. We selected this orphanage because we felt you would prefer a quiet village environment to a crowded city."
No-one had ever seen anger in Ruri's eyes, but Akatsuki was seeing it now. Her fists were clenched in balls by her sides and she kept her voice low and deadly as she spoke.
"Don't play games with me Mr Akatsuki. I've seen your evil and I will never work for you. Please Mr Akatsuki, do me a favour and get out of my life!"
Akatsuki was silent for a moment, his face grim as Ruri gaze bombarded him with flaming ice. He appeared stricken by the insult and this previously unseen side of Ruri. He held his silence for several seconds, then slowly folded his arms and regarded her with harsh solemnity, like an angry father whose daughter had displeased him.
"So be it. Just don't forget that your fate was self-imposed."
With that final statement, he slowly rose and turned his back on Ruri as he strode out of the room. The jerkiness of his walk showed his deep frustration clearly. He nearly collided with Mikoto as he went through the door and seemed on the verge of throwing her aside, before merely dismissing her with a fuming glare. The small girl watched him with wide eyes as he disappeared into the corridor.
"So who was that?" she asked, turning to Ruri now.
"That was Nagure Akatsuki." Ruri stated flatly. "The Chairman of Nergal."
"No way!" Mikoto exclaimed, looking back to where Akatsuki had just been. "It can't be!"
"He is the Chairman of Nergal." Ruri insisted. "It surprised us too when we found out for the first time."
"But what did he want with you?" Mikoto asked.
"He was offering me a job,"
"A job? Did you take it?"
"No,"
"But why on earth not?"
Ruri lowered her eyelids. "For more reasons then I care to mention."
* * *
It hadn't taken long for Erina to work out that Akatsuki's meeting with the former computer operator of the Nadesico hadn't been successful. He'd only grunted a greeting as he'd walked back into his office and hadn't spoken to her since. That was never a good sign from him – he'd had the demeanour that came from only the worst possible outcomes.
Because of that it came as a surprise when Akatsuki sent for her just a few minutes later. Erina was on her guard as she entered her employer's office. It wasn't wise to provoke Akatsuki in this mood.
She found him sitting behind his desk, his contemplative frown supported by one hand. He didn't speak or look at her as she took a seat before him. The first move was Erina's to make.
"I'm assuming that your talk with Ruri didn't go too well?"
"She's stubborn," Akatsuki replied darkly. "Turns out she had us sussed from the beginning. Perhaps I underestimated her."
"I won't say 'I told you so,'. So she hasn't changed her mind?"
"No. I thought by now she'd be ready to relent, but she was even more insistent than last time. Stupid kid," His frown deepened. "It's all the fault of those fools she worked with. They've drilled all these noble ideals into her skull." He slammed his fist down on his desk, scattering papers onto the floor. "They tainted the perfect crewmember!"
Erina didn't reply, seeing that her employer was having trouble suppressing his rage. It looked as though he was about to yell in frustration, but in the end he settled for clenching and unclenching his fist with his head hung. His voice when it came was stony calm. Erina couldn't see what rode in his eyes.
"I did it this way to get her trust. Unfortunately, it's had the opposite effect. Now she doesn't want anything to do with Nergal or the N5," He shook his head weakly. "I can't see her turning a corner now."
After a brief silence, Erina nervously asked the inevitable question. "So what do we do now?"
Akatsuki brought his head up so that his secretary could see his face again. "We'll need a new computer operator for our ship. Make a search for any possible candidates within the company."
"Yes sir. And, about the child?" she asked hesitantly.
Akatsuki closed his eyes regretfully. "The stubborn brat leaves us no choice. She defied me. More to the point, she has all the expertise and equipment she needs to hack into Nergal, and so is a threat to us." He opened his eyes to reptilian slits.
"Have her killed."
"Yes sir," Erina swallowed. "I'll see to it at once."
