Hello! Here is chapter six! Please enjoy!
As always: Thank you to all my readers and especially my reviewers!
All previous disclaimers still apply...
No Need For Kiyone and Mihoshi:
Chapter 6:
"There is a way." Trista said with a smile.
"What is it?" Kiyone demanded. "Whatever it is, I'll do it!"
Trista held up a hand in pause. "Before I tell you, I have to make it clear that if you suceed, everything will be as it was... Everything, Kiyone... Mihoshi will still be your partner and she will still be as accident prone as you remember.
"Make sure this is what you want, after this day there is no going back." Trista told her.
"I don't care!" Kiyone answered. "Look at this universe! Everything is wrong here! All this misery because Kiyone thought she was getting a bad deal! They deserve better than this! Sasami deserves more than this... Mihoshi...
"Mihoshi... My partner... Should be making some silly little joke or bugging me to go out to the karaoke bar... Not acting like...
"Me..." Kiyone whispered.
Trista put a hand on her shoulder in comfort. "You feel you've treated her badly, don't you detective?"
"I know I have." Kiyone replied.
"There is someone you have always treated far worse than Mihoshi, detective... Yourself.
"Most cadets at the Galaxy Police Academy would be happy if they graduated in the top third of their class. You were second in your graduating class and yet you were unhappy with that."
"I could have been first if I had tried harder."
"Second best is the first loser?" Trista questioned. "Not to the people who care about you Kiyone. To them, you are the best...
"Now if you're trying for total perfection. I can save you some trouble Kiyone, because you'll never make it. You are a human being detective and that means by definition you'll never be perfect! Not you, not Tenchi, not Washu or Ayeka. Not even me detective.
"I've made more than a few mistakes over time. Some were nearly disasterous. I was just lucky that I had friends to help me. Friends alot like your's Kiyone! I mean the real ones, like Ryoko and Ayeka, not the ones like Mitsuki.
"To your real friends, you have nothing you have to prove to them. To the others, nothing you can do ever will prove anything to them.
"Now." She said. "Let's see what we can do to end this nightmare. Shall we detective?" Trista said as the orb glowed once more...
They reappeared in the past. Kiyone recognized their location as being in the apartment she and Mihoshi shared on Mura. At the kitchen table, Mihoshi sat with a stack of manuals, studying for her exam the next day. The time on the clock on the wall was 21:43.
"We are now exactly two hours and eight minutes before your past self pulls over that hovercar and history decides whether you survive or not... If Mihoshi can be distracted sufficiently to abandon her studies, she will go to find you and you will survive this night. If not, then the altered history you have just witnessed will come to pass..."
"Great!" Kiyone quipped. "Look at her! The one time I actually need for her to goof off and she's acting like she's glued to those books! Not to mention the fact she can't even tell we're here!"
Trista smiled slightly. "Though it will be difficult detective, I can focus my power so you can interact with this setting. Your partner will still be unable to see or hear you; for if she did so, it might trigger a time paradox, but you will be able to manipulate objects in a limited fashion."
Kiyone sighed. Why did it always have to be the hard way?
"Remember Kiyone, we only get one chance at this." Trista warned.
"Right." Kiyone answered with a nod.
Trista concentrated with visible effort as her staff glowed. After a moment, she nodded to Kiyone that all was ready.
Kiyone's first tried slamming shut the kitchen window. She pushed down on it as hard as she could and caused it to slam shut... Mihoshi merely glanced up momentarily before returning to her studies.
"...See chapter 14, subsection 5 for emergency procedures..."
"Hmmm... Maybe a little music will get Mihoshi's attention." Kiyone thought. She went over to the stereo and turned on "Benarra's Symphony a'Sympatico." and slowly turned up the volume. Soon, Mihoshi was even humming in tune with the orchestra...
Unfortunately it did not seem to disrupt Mihoshi's concentration as she continued to study...
"...In the event of a catastrophic decompression..."
Okay! Kiyone thought. We'll just have to change stations... She flipped the dial to a station playing 'Underground Slam' music. A shrill that would have put any of Earth's "Heavy Metal" bands to shame in its intensity. Mihoshi hated it as did Kiyone and most anyone with a pair of working ears. Moreover, Kiyone had turned the volume to max. She immediately covered her ears as did Trista, who even seemed nauseous at the incomprehensible noise. Kiyone looked on in apparent triumph as Mihoshi closed her book sharply and got up to end the noise.
Unfortunately the earth shaking racket was too much for the old set of speakers they had and the stereo went dead as they burned out. Mihoshi looked at the dead stereo in confusion for a moment then sat back down, resuming her studies.
Kiyone was now painfully aware that time was now beginning to slip away as she tried everything she could think of to distract Mihoshi.
She tried opening the refrigerator, hoping Mihoshi's stomach would distract her. Mihoshi merely got up, holding the book in one hand as she reached for a bottle of fruit juice with the other hand, closed the door with her foot and returned to the table all without even looking up from the manual.
"...See paragraph twentythree of the 'Space Navigation Act' , subparagraph two..."
Kiyone swore... everything she had tried and nothing! She wanted nothing more than to whack Mihoshi with the big cast iron skillet sitting by the sink, but she needed Mihoshi conscious, not out cold on the floor.
Then she saw the picture on the counter. It was a shot of the both of them and had been taken on the day Kiyone had been promoted to Detective First Class. A thin smile played on her lips as she considered it.
"Come on Mihoshi, people are counting on us...!
"Come on partner... Don't let me down!" Kiyone said to herself as she knocked the picture off the counter and watched it hit the floor and the frame shatter.
Mihoshi looked up. She saw the picture laying on the floor. Closing her book, she got up and went over. Carefully, she plucked the picture from the wreckage and gently checked it for damage, then carefully set it aside. After sweeping up the broken frame, she returned to the picture and stared at it for a minute. Then she set it back down and reached for her coat...
Kiyone was overjoyed with relief.
"Yes! We've done it!" She exulted as Mihoshi left the apartment. Then she saw the clock on the wall...
"Oh no!" She exclaimed as she saw the time. "We're too late...!"
To Be Continued...