Onegai, Megami-Sama!
Interlude the Second
"Sir!"
"Yes, Private?"
"We have another reading from the Sol sector. That strange energy signature's come through again, and we managed to get a fix on its destination."
"Excellent. Where's it coming from?"
"Earth, sir."
". . . I would hope so, Private. Where on Earth?"
"We weren't able to get a lock on the origin, as we didn't see the signature until the transfer was complete, but we were able to get the destination. It's in the Northern Hemisphere, in the country known as Japan. The closest institute of learning is a technical college known as Nekomi."
"I see. Were you able to learn anything more about the signature?"
"Nothing, sir, though it was weaker than its previous occurrences. As you can see, the readings we had before were about four times greater than this last one, except for that spike, which was greater by a measure of magnitude."
"It's been long enough, has Engineering come up with anything for that signature?"
"Negative, sir, it's unlike anything we've ever seen before. I hear they've already started a betting pool for what it turns out to be."
"That's odd."
"It's Engineering, sir."
"True. What about the teleportation system that was used, is it still reading as a Marie?"
"Yes, sir, and Technical has been able to identify it as the Marie system that's part of Kazami's ship. It seems she went back to Earth."
"I see. Keep tabs on the Sol system, we'll be sending an agent there to find out what's happening."
"Yes, sir."
"Oneesan?"
Maho glanced around, but her sister's apartment was empty. She frowned. Why wasn't she here? She should be here, her or that wimpy idiot husband of hers. . . . This definitely wasn't good.
Earlier today, their mother had read about orders for one of the Galaxy Federation's agents, orders that were sending him to Earth to find out something about strange energy readings and to retrieve Mizuho. Maho gritted her teeth when she thought about that. They weren't going to mess with her older sister, no matter what, and she'd see that they didn't.
If only she could find her.
She glanced out the back window, and saw that the sun was about to set. This couldn't take all day, she thought.
"Miruru?"
The round-faced, lilac-clad navigation system faded into the air next to Maho, and peered at her. "Mii?"
"Has someone teleported out of here earlier today?"
Miruru squinted its eyes for a second, then nodded. "Mii!"
"Good!" Maho grinned. "Trace it, and send me there, it's a priority one!"
"Mii!"