THE JOB, Chapter 22: Unwanted.
DISCLAIMER: Tenchi Muyo! is copyright AIC/Pioneer, LDC. I claim no rights to it. However, all events in this story are entirely of my own imagination. Please don't change them. Feel free to distribute this story as widely as desired.
FOREWORD: Happy Thanksgiving everybody! This year you really have something to give thanks for: another chapter of The Job! This chapter has probably given me the most trouble. I keep wanting to put in more testimony, such as having the girls talk about Ryoko and revealing inner thoughts under public scrutiny. Well, I think that would get old really quickly. Besides, it would kind of ruin the mystique of Tenchi Muyo if everyone (the characters) suddenly revealed their true feelings all at once. Also, I have been writing this particular story long enough. Chapters have been getting longer and longer, and I originally wanted this story to have short chapters with only a brief delay between each. I think it's time to bring this story to a close.
AUTHOR: Dreamr
LAST REVISION: 24 November 2004
EMAIL:
BEGIN.
"Your Honor, the Defense calls Ryoko Harada to the stand."
Ryoko stood up from her seat and shuffled to the witness stand. This was it. This was her time to tell the galaxy why she was who she was, and what had driven her to take such extraordinary measures just to survive. Hopefully, the jury would be sympathetic. Ryoko almost laughed as she took her place on the witness stand. It was horribly ironic that she was actually trying to score sympathy points with a jury of so-called peers. They were the common people; those who went about their lives on a day-to-day basis with little regard for others, unless they were inconvenienced. Pretty much everyone considered jury-duty an inconvenience. From the looks on their faces, they didn't seem very happy with her. The prosecution had detailed every little scam and misdemeanor she had ever committed, with only a few exceptions. They looked about ready to hang her. Daisuke followed a couple paces behind, ready to begin the questioning.
"Miss Ryoko, how would you describe your arrest?"
"I turned myself in."
"Why?"
"Tenchi said I should take more responsibility for myself."
"How did you feel when he said that?"
Ryoko had to pause to consider her answer.
"Kind of sad, I guess."
"Why is that?"
"Because I knew he had no idea what it meant for me to do that."
"And what would it mean?"
"That I would have to turn myself in to pay for my crimes."
"Would you describe that as the action of a cold-blooded criminal?"
A small grin spread across Ryoko's lips.
"No, not really."
"Would you describe yourself as a criminal?"
The lawyer for the Jurai Prosecutor's Office, Masahiro Gonzo, stood up.
"Objection. The defendant's opinions on her own behavior have no bearing on her guilt or innocence."
The judge for the case, Judge Garland, an older woman with silver hair, spectacles, and a rather severe look about her, seemed to think about that for a second before coming to a decision.
"Counsel indicated in his opening statement that he would be pursuing a character defense. Objection over-ruled."
Ryoko breathed a sigh of relief. Daisuke had indicated to her that the objection would occur, and that the judge would have to rule on it. Her entire case hinged on the testimony being allowed. Otherwise, there was not much for her to tell. Daisuke repeated the question.
"Would you describe yourself as a criminal, Ryoko?"
"I just did what I had to do to survive."
"Survival. Is there a trait or desire that, to you, is any more compelling than that?"
As Ryoko opened her mouth to respond in the negative, a different answer popped into her mind. An image of Tenchi floated before her eyes.
"There's... one thing I can think of."
Daisuke look right at her. He did not like surprises. As Ryoko's defense attorney, it was his job to get her out of trouble. Unexpected answers could put a big monkey-wrench in the works. Now it would look very suspicious if he did not pursue the line of questioning. Hoping like hell, Daisuke went forward.
"What might that be?"
"Love."
Daisuke grinned. He should have known.
"Love, you say?"
Ryoko confidently nodded.
"Yes."
"Thinking of anyone in particular?"
Daisuke actually succeeded in getting Ryoko to blush.
"Yeah."
"Who?"
"Tenchi."
"The same Tenchi the witnesses spoke of earlier?"
Ryoko nodded.
"Ryoko, are you familiar with the penalty scale for Ultra Class A criminals?"
"Yes."
"Do you know what the penalty is for Capitol Piracy with Deaths Resulting?"
"Yes."
"Tell me."
"Execution, if possible. Otherwise, eternal confinement in sub-space."
"Were you aware of the penalty before you were apprehended?"
"Yes."
"And yet, here you are." Daisuke let the sentence hang so that the given testimony would have a chance to sink into the hearts of the jury.
"Well, then. Let's move on and investigate the what of the acts of survival you spoke of. Do you know where you're from?"
"I guess."
"Is the answer is in question?"
"Well, the person who told me didn't have a reason to lie. But there's no proof of it."
"I see. What do you believe the answer to be?"
"Makina."
"And who told you this?"
"A nun at the orphanage I was in."
"Did she tell you anything else?"
Ryoko's head began to droop.
"Yes."
"What did she tell you?"
"Where I was found."
"Where, exactly, did she say you were found?"
Ryoko hung her head, refusing to answer. Daisuke had told her in advance that he would be asking her personal questions. But he had not told her they would be that personal. Her origin was not something she ever discussed with anyone.
"Please, answer the question."
"I don't want to."
The judge glared down at Ryoko from her place on high.
"Witness will answer the question."
Ryoko remained silent. When the judge raised her gavel to impose some form of punishment for noncompliance, Daisuke jumped in with a suggestion.
"Your Honor, perhaps the witness would feel more comfortable writing the answer for the court."
Judge Garland slowly lowered her arm.
"I suppose that would be acceptable. Any problem with that, Mister Gonzo?"
The attorney for the Jurai Empire's judicial branch just shrugged.
"Fine by me, if she can figure out how to write with feedback gloves on."
There was a few chuckles as those who were watching recalled that Ryoko was still wearing the mittens that kept her from generating offensive energy attacks, thus, making it impossible to write.
"Oops." Daisuke apologized to Ryoko as she glared balefully at him through the hair that hung in front of her eyes. "Well, perhaps we could remove the feedback mittens."
Mister Gonzo shot to his feet, nearly overturning his desk in the process.
"I OBJECT! Ryoko is accused of 79 counts of Piracy with Death Resulting and 18 counts of Capitol Murder, five of those premeditated! Frankly, I'm a little uneasy just being in the same room as her!"
With an easy-going smile, Daisuke turned to address his reply to the presiding judge.
"Your Honor, if Mister Gonzo's evidence is true, do you really think we would even be here having this trial? I mean, I'm standing right next to her, and I seem to be whole and unharmed. What's more, the witness box is surrounded by a class four reactive energy shield. If Miss Ryoko refuses to put the gloves back on, she will simply remain in the box until she complies."
Gonzo shook his head.
"This is highly irregular."
Judge Garland drummed her fingers on her desk as she contemplated Ryoko's unwillingness to speak.
"Normally, I'd start throwing fines at the witness until she complies. But, since she is penniless and facing the death-penalty already, I can't think of any further penalty that would force the witness to speak if she is disinclined to do so. Therefore, I have no other alternative but to order the feedback mittens removed. However, they will only be removed for as long as it takes to write the answer to the question."
Gonzo sat back down, keeping a sharp lookout to the front where Ryoko was sitting. One of the guards, an older male Jurai Internal Security officer, retrieved a remote control from a loop on his belt and pointed it at Ryoko. The mittens immediately expanded to several times their original size, allowing Ryoko to remove them with little effort. Daisuke, seeing that his suggestion was being implemented, went back to his courtroom desk to retrieve a writing pad. He shuffled aside a few of the documents that were cluttering the desk. Once he had the paper and pen in hand, he returned to the witness stand and handed the implements to Ryoko. The class four reactive energy shield that Daisuke had spoken of remained inactive, as it was not detecting any known forms of harmful energy or radiation.
"There."
Ryoko stared forlornly at the pad in her hands.
"Ryoko, if you don't answer the question, Judge Garland's going to get upset."
A ripple of laughter swept through the courtroom at Daisuke's comment. The judge, who was renowned for her temper, merely cleared her throat while glaring at the defense attorney.
"All right, already." Reluctantly, Ryoko took the pen and began to scrawl her answer across the paper. For all her reluctance, the actual act of writing her answer took only a second. "Here." Ryoko thrust the pad out as if it were some highly undesirable thing. However, as the written testimony was now officially evidence, it was the security officer's task to retrieve it. The older man stepped forward and quickly snatched the pad away from Ryoko as if she might snap at him during the attempt. The officer was quite used to hearing and seeing disturbing things in the environment of the courtroom. His only reaction at seeing what was written was a raised eyebrow. Dutifully, he walked the pad the judge and handed it over.
"Your Honor," Mister Gonzo prompted, "the feedback mittens?"
"I hear you." Ryoko grumbled at the man's paranoia. If she had wanted to hurt someone, she would have done it a long time ago.
Judge Garland glanced at the pad once, then waved the guard on. Next, the officer went to the desk of the prosecution. Mister Gonzo rolled his eyes and sighed with disapproval. Next, the pad went to the ten-person jury. The officer handed the pad to the head juror. The man's eyes went wide as he stared at the paper for several seconds. Casting a nervous glance towards Ryoko, he handed the pad to the next juror, an unpreposing family-woman. She took one look at the pad and started to cry. She quickly passed the pad away in distaste. Around the jury the pad made it's rounds. At each stop, the reactions ranged from angry grimaces to tears of outrage. Judge Garland waited for the pad to return to the security officer before speaking. Murmurs of curiosity began to make the rounds as the viewers wondered what could be drawing such a strong reaction from the formerly stolid jury.
"For the record, bailiff will read the written response aloud."
"NO!" Ryoko jumped to her feet. "You didn't say he was going to read it out loud!"
The crack of Judge Garland's gavel snapped across the court room. "Sit down and shut up!"
Ryoko slumped back into her chair.
"No..."
The officer cleared his throat before speaking.
"For the record..."
"Stop it..." Ryoko shut her eyes tight.
"...the witnesses answer is --"
"STOP!"
Afraid that her most shameful secret would be made public and unable to talk the court out of it, Ryoko tried to attack. Her first instinct, although less than lethal, was to blast a big hole in the floor at the officer's feet, which instantaneously activated the feedback mittens. The energy she released was absorbed by the mittens and amplified five fold, then redirected back into her, with excruciating results. Ryoko screamed as the energy coursed through her body.
In the back of the courtroom, there was a commotion brewing. Someone burst from the public gallery and ran for the main floor. Besides being protected by a constant forcefield that was always on, the main floor was also under constant guard. There were two young male officers of athletic build on duty. When they saw someone rushing the floor, they acted promptly to intercept the young man. But just as they got within a hand's-breadth of him, the youth expertly snatched their wrists and flung them away with almost no effort. However, one of the guards had the presence of mind to grab at his hair on the way out. Unfortunately for him, the hair was false, and came away in his hand. Tenchi Masaki charged the floor, only to meet the dividing forcefield head-on. Luckily, his evasive tactics with the officers had robbed him of most of his forward momentum, and he only stumbled backwards in surprise. He quickly moved forward again, pressing against the wall-like force-field.
"Ryoko!"
In the brief moment before Ryoko's nervous system shut-down from the overload, she saw Tenchi pounding on the shimmering forcefield and shouting her name. Then she collapsed behind the witness box.
Fearing that Ryoko had taken an injury or worse, Tenchi stared at the apparently empty witness box as Daisuke quickly went around to the back to check on his client. For a moment only his feet were visible from around the corner, then he stood up with a relieved look on his face.
"She's alive."
Tenchi released the breath that he hadn't even realized that he was holding. He took a moment to silently thank all the gods of strength for giving Ryoko such a strong constitution. In the moment that he was silently giving thanks, the two guards that he had slipped by a moment ago came for him again. However, they were unaccustomed to dealing with members of the royal family, who rarely went out without an escort. Still acting on Aeka's orders, Azaka and Kamidake had surreptitiously followed Tenchi, despite his disguise. Although they had left their staves behind in order to blend in more effectively, they were still more than capable in hand-to-hand combat. Quickly grabbing the two guards, the knights tossed them aside like so much dirty laundry.
"It is our duty to protect the royal family." Azaka offered by way of explanation.
"We sincerely hope this won't get any worse." Kamidake added, just before Judge Garland's voice roared across the courtroom.
"In the name of Tsunami I have had enough!" Everyone looked at the Judge's bench to see Judge Garland towering imperiously over the courtroom, her face burning red with indignance. "This is a court of law, not a wrestling ring! Since the public can't seem to control themselves, and I know full damn well why my witness was reluctant to testify, I am hereby declaring these proceedings closed! Security! Empty the gallery at once!" Garland sat down with a thump and a growl, still glowering at those who were crowding her courtroom.
The two security guards that had been tossed about twice this day got back to their feet again. They kept quiet as they went about directing the observers and media out, but not without directing nasty looks at the two cloaked Knights of Jurai.
"Lord Masaki, that includes you, as well."
Tenchi looked up at the judge, perturbed that she would order him out before he even knew Ryoko's condition. Standing up straighter, Tenchi looked at the judge with as much determination as he could muster. At the moment, that was a quite a lot of determination.
"I'm not leaving until I know Ryoko's all right."
Judge Garland could see that Tenchi meant what he said. By the look on his face, she believed that he really would stand there until he was satisfied. Recalling that she had a duty to the welfare of the participants of the trial, as well as maintaining order, the judge looked down to her left to see if the bailiff was attending to the witness/defendant. Besides being a security guard, the man was also a trained Emergency Medical Technician. At the moment, he was checking Ryoko's vital signs.
"Well?"
"It seems she's only unconscious. But I've never seen such a strong reaction from a set of feedback mittens. I doubt she'll recover before dinner time."
Daisuke got to his feet and rounded the bench with a look of anger on his face.
"You Honor, with all due respect, this is unacceptable! In the interests of the safety of my client, I demand the feedback mittens be immediately and permanently removed!"
The head prosecutor came to his feet again. This time he jarred the table so hard that a cup of water spilled over.
"I strongly protest! If it hadn't been for the feedback mittens, the right honorable bailiff would be a smoldering pile of jello! Besides that, he just said she was only unconscious. The current arrangement is perfectly safe for everyone."
Rarely did Daisuke ever get truly riled up in court. It was his job, after all. But once in a while, when he felt strongly about something, a little of that emotion slipped out. Right now, he was quite angry.
"If my client is in anyway injured as a result of this cruel treatment, I swear I'll switch from a defender to a prosecutor in half a minute!"
Judge Garland's face turned red again.
"You are out of order, Mister Karatai! If you think you can get away with ---" Looking down from her position above Daisuke Karatai, Garland noticed Tenchi was still waiting for a response. Realizing that things were getting out of hand again, she took a deep breath to calm herself.
"Lord Masaki, the young lady is unconscious. But she is expected to recover." Looking to her left, the judge saw that the jury looked completely frazzled after all the excitement. "In the interest of justice, I'm calling a close to today's proceedings."
Breathing a sigh of relief, Tenchi turned to leave. Behind him, the prosecutor respectfully cleared his throat before calling for the judge's attention.
"Your Honor?"
"Oh, for... what?" Garland glared at the head prosecutor.
"The witness's testimony hasn't been read for the record."
"Oh."
"Is this really necessary?" Daisuke asked.
"Yes." Gonzo answered.
"Fine. Let's get on with it." Garland agreed. "Bailiff?"
"Your Honor?" Daisuke meekly interrupted.
Garland's hands curled into claws and her eyes began to burn with a hellish orange glow.
"What!?"
"The gallery is not yet clear."
A sudden eruption in her stomach caused Judge Garland to pull open a drawer and reach for some anti-acid pills while waving at the guards to finish the job they had been assigned. Popping three of the pills along with a glass of water, the judge waited until Tenchi and the knights were on their way before proceeding.
Listening to the footsteps receding behind him, Daisuke declined to look back. He had a feeling Tenchi was directing a pointed stare at him from over his shoulder, while wondering why this older man seemed so concerned with his romantic interest. Daisuke had seen it dozens of times. An overly concerned spouse or lover charged the forcefield knowing full-well that it was impossible to get through. Then the guards threw them out of the building. He had seen too many relationships torn to shreds by the secrets revealed in court. In this case, he thought it best to keep Tenchi in the dark about Ryoko's past. Hopefully, he hadn't aroused too many suspicions with his outburst.
"Mister Karatai?"
"Huh?" Daisuke looked up to see he was being addressed. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"
Judge Garland reached into the drawer again, this time for a vial of something that would definitely not help a bleeding ulcer. She stopped just in time to avoid a substantial breech of court ethics.
"The feedback mittens will stay on. Bailiff, read the damn answer before I really lose my temper."
"Yes, Your Honor. For the record, the witnesses answer was... 'in a trash pile'."
The double doors to the courtroom closed with an imperiously resounding thud.
END.
AFTERWORD: I made up every aspect of Ryoko's background. There's no evidence for any of it.