A/N: It's coming to a head in the story, so it'll only be another chapter or so (really two at the most) until this is done. And I will be writing two other 'Indiana Jurai' Fics to parody the other two 'Indiana Jones' movies. I do not own Tenchi, UC Stanford, or Indiana Jones.
Ch. 5 Another Day, Another Inane Observation
Despite all of Indiana's horrible ideas of what would happen in Gersh, it was surprisingly easy to retrieve the journal. She had snuck in dressed as a Kawazi and began checking Ryoko, Washu, and Tenchi's separate rooms. The journal had been in Tenchi's room, on his desk. Indiana was slightly letdown by the lack of opportunities to fight but was still pleased with the results of the excursion. Being that Jerhtara was down in Jordan and Gersh was in Germany, Indiana had managed to get two train tickets to Turkey. From there they'd have to go by car. They'd have to be extremely careful; Jordan was in the Middle East after all.
Indiana stared out the window and sighed. Her mother had been sucked into her journal trying to find what she had written about the three trials. Deciding there wouldn't be any conversation, Indiana plugged herself into her MP3 player. She'd gotten it because it was cheap and she wasn't going to sell out to the iPod craze. Granted, she used Mac anyways, but it was a matter of pride. Grumbling about the length of the trip, she hit the play button. R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know it" came on. That's certainly ironic, if we don't keep this out of Kawazi hands this might as well be the end of the world as we know it. She sighed again, Mom's sure engrossed in that journal. Are these trials really all that important?
"Ayeka, Ayeka!" Misaki shook Indiana, who had fallen asleep against the window. "Huh? Mom, what is it? Are we at our stop, or something?" Misaki lowered her voice to a whisper and jerked her head in the direction of the aisle, "We've got a problem" Three Kawazi soldiers had just entered the car, and another was standing in the doorway. Indiana groaned, "Guess this wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be. Mom, stay here." Indiana slunk out into the aisle and strode towards the kawazis, pulling her fedora over her face. One of the Kawazis moved to block her and she said, "Is there a problem Gentlemen?" "No one iz to leeve zis train. We are looking for zome people." Indiana thought about the options for a minute before thinking Ah, screw it. and punching the Kawazi in the face. Pulling her fedora back up she threw herself at the other two Kawazis. Taken off guard by the sudden assault, the two fumbled for their holsters. Indiana punched one of them into the other, causing them to fall into one of the empty seats. (Tenchi: "Everything seems to be solved with violence." Ryoko: "Right on, Ayeka!")
The guard at the door ran at Indiana who moved out of the way and elbowed him in the back, which slammed him to the ground. After she had tied the Kawazis' hands using their belts, Indiana returned to her seat, "No problem." Misaki just stared, "I guess getting you those martial arts lessons when your were twelve wasn't a waste of money." I never thought it was, considering I'm still in it and have a black belt. It comes in rather handy. Now what about those trials?" "I found them here in the notebook. There are three trials. The first is the test of skill, the swift shall pass. The second is a test of wisdom, the dragon will guide. The third is the test of conviction, the wise guess will provide passage." "That's gibberish, Mom." "Well, yes. But it was the only information I could find on the trials." "Wait just a minute, you're telling me to believe that this is all you have on these trials. That's it?" "Well, yes." Indiana sighed, "Well, it's better than nothing I suppose. We'll just have to see."
The rest of the trip was uneventful, not including Misaki freaking out at Ayeka for ordering a bottle of Scotch on the train (To which Ryoko had commented that Misaki was overreacting, and that Ayeka should have ordered sake). When they arrived in Jerhtara, they headed to Nobuyuki's place. Inside they found Noboyuki nursing a bump on his head and a whiny Mihoshi, who sported similar wounds. Nobuyuki informed them that they had been attacked one night by a small group of kawazi's who had knocked them out and stolen the map Mihoshi had been carrying.Indiana put her head in her hands; this was getting worse every second. Nobuyuki looked at her sympathetically, "I do have some good news, I made a photocopy of the map, so we have something to go on." Indiana stood, "Well then, I guess mom and I will head out first thing tomorrow." Nobuyuki stood as well, "Allow me to accompany you." Mihoshi stood as well, "Me too." Indiana smiled at them, "Thank you, but you two probably should stay behind, especially with head injuries like that." "I think we're going to insist, right Mihoshi?" "Yeah." This discussion went on for about twenty minutes before Indiana threw her hands up in mock defeat, "Alright, alright. I guess you're coming. This is one fight I'm not going to win." Nobuyuki and Mihoshi just grinned at each other.
The foursome made good time through the desert, riding (to Indiana's disgust) camels. When they had reached the gully that was marked in the map as a halfway point, Indiana called for a stop. The others unmounted and went to rest under some of the overhangs that provided shade, but Indiana went scouting further along the gull. The further down she went, the more she thought, This would be the perfect place for an ambush. I don't exactly like the idea of a dozen kawazis jumping us here. She was jerked out of her thoughts by the sound of rocks sliding down the side of the gully. Slowly she dismounted and started looking for anything that would betray the presence of another person.
Looking up, she jumped back just in time to avoid an attack by a man with green hair and an odd deformity over his left eye. He stood up and grinned at Indiana, "So, you're as good as they Dr. Jurai." "Who are you?" "Call me Z. I'm one of the Dhagas. And our gracious leader wants you dead" Indiana backed up a little more and dropped into her martial arts stance. The Dhagas were a small group of professional killers that functioned within the Kawazis. They were said to never fail in eliminating a target. "I assume your 'gracious leader' is Dr. Habuki?" "Wrong, she and her daughter were found out to be double agents. Unfortunately they managed to get away. The new leader of the expedition wants you dead." With that he launched himself at Indiana.
Misaki looked down the direction that Indiana had headed. She hadn't come back from scouting the trail. She stood up, "Come you two. We should go see if Ayeka is okay." Meanwhile, the topic of discussion was fighting for dear life. Z obviously had some martial arts training. It was a fairly even fight. Z grinned at her and charged again. Indiana responded by dropping down and knocking his legs out from underneath him. Z rolled out the way of four punches, and stood up. Their fight had managed to work them to the edge of a sharp precipice. Indiana moved in an immediately went on the offensive, pushing Z to the edge.
Misaki, Nobuyuki and Mihoshi came down the gully in time to see Indiana aim a kick at Z's head. He managed to block it, but because he had shifted to do so, fell down the precipice. Panting, Indiana turned back to the others, "The Kawazi's are probably at the temple already, we should hurry." The others simply nodded.
Comments are welcomed and appreciated!