06: Rivals!
"How did you learn to do a sand panther call?" Chiyo asked as they whipped over the desert. The Jedi sat on the body of the speeder behind her, feet resting on the backseat. She wouldn't have been able to cram herself into the tiny space.
"I taught myself," Sakaki replied quietly, with something approaching wistfulness. "I always hoped one would get close enough so that I could pet it."
Kagura thought back to the description of the creatures and wondered why anybody would want to touch them. Not for the last time, she decided not to ask.
Sakaki's small abode sat literally in the middle of nowhere. If you stood on her front step, the desert stretched out around you unbroken by any feature nearly to the horizon. It was a squat, unassuming little structure made of hard clay that was almost the same color as the sand around it.
A small speeder-bike leaned against one wall. Though the notion of this placid young woman tearing around on such a dangerous, rakish vehicle was a little disconcerting, it at least explained how she got supplies.
The inside was just as simple, but blessedly cool and dim. The only bit of decoration was an enormous plush cat resting in one of its threadbare chairs. Again, Kagura decided not to ask. As she removed her sunglasses, she happened to glance over at Sakaki and take note of a profusion of scars on her hands.
"What happened there? Do you Jedi run your hands through broken glass or something?"
"Mm?" Sakaki glanced at her own hand in surprise. "Oh… I spent some time with the one who taught Master Kenobi. He believes corporal punishment." Now that Kagura was looking, she saw a lot of what looked like bite-marks. And yet one last time, she let go of her curiosity.
Sakaki started some tea and motioned them to sit in the living area. "What did you need to see Master Kenobi about?" she asked.
"I'd rather… is he around? Can I wait for him?" Kagura replied.
"He-" Sakaki looked away for just an instant, "That is-- Master Kenobi… passed away."
"What?"
"He left on a… business trip about a year ago, and…"
Kagura sighed. It just figured. "But you were his student?"
"I was." This was said firmly and without a hint of duplicity. Though she wasn't the trusting sort, Kagura felt that she could trust this person. And then there was that blasted familiarity…
"Well, I was supposed to give you this," Kagura said, handing over the envelope. "It's from Princess Kaori." Sakaki looked at the envelope sadly, then set it aside without opening it. "And this…" continued Kagura, producing the disk, "Was for Master Kenobi."
Sakaki nodded and disappeared into the kitchen again, returning with a tray of tea in one hand and two objects clutched awkwardly in the other. The first, she dropped on the table in front of Kagura; it was an antique reader, so decrepit looking that she didn't really want to trust the disk to it.
Their host set the tea down and handed the other object to Chiyo. "I thought you'd be interested to see this," she said, her eyes lifting a little. "It was your father's."
As Chiyo lifted whatever-it-was, Kagura could have sworn that her pigtails twitched with a faint 'weep-woop!' sound. Nobody else reacted, though, so she must have imagined it. "This…" Chiyo murmured, then stood and lifted it high over her head. With that fabled snap-hiss, a light blue blade burst into being.
"It hasn't been ignited in ten years," Sakaki said, taking a cup of tea in hand. "It's rightfully yours, if you'll take it."
"But… what would I do with a…?" Chiyo trailed off, staring into the humming blade. Her pigtails twitched again. "It's true, then…"
Sakaki gestured through an archway into an empty room. "You should get a feel for it… just be careful." Chiyo stood and walked into the cleared space as if in a daze. "Are you sure if that's a good idea?" Kagura asked.
The Jedi didn't respond. They sat in silence for a few seconds as the reader chattered to itself. The disk was giving it indigestion, apparently. As long as there was nothing important to be doing… "You know, some people can't handle hot tea," Kagura said, grinning challengingly. "How are you at it?"
Kagura threw back the near-scalding cup, chugging it down in half a second and slamming the empty glass on the table heavily. "Hot damn! Beat that!"
Sakaki stared at her blandly and took a measured sip of tea. Kagura was annoyed at first, but that aggravating obstinacy is what finally made her identity click. "I remember you! We went to the Imperial Academy on Delnor together! We were rivals, remember?"
"Rivals?" Sakaki asked blankly.
"Yeah! Swimming, rock-climbing, track, marksmanship… you usually beat me, but I always gave you a good fight. Don't you remember?"
Sakaki looked slowly back at Chiyo to buy herself some time. The girl was waving her new blade through slow infinity loops, still looking kind of glazed. But, try as she might… the Jedi turned back. "No."
"Oh, come on! You're the one who spurred me to improve so much! I never would have made it to the Princess's Guard if not for you. You seriously don't remember?"
Again, she slowly turned her head back for a few seconds. Fortunately, Chiyo still hadn't decapitated herself. "Sorry."
"Oh, well," Kagura said, a trifle hurt but shrugging it off, "We'll pick up where we left off!"
They shook, Sakaki perhaps showing a little less enthusiasm.
Chiyo extinguished the light-saber and returned. "I… so my father seriously was a Jedi? But… I mean, they were wiped out two Emperors ago!"
Sakaki nodded. "And you can be, too-- a Jedi, I mean. Not wiped out."
"Wh-what? Me? But I… but…"
"Yeah, her?" Kagura added with even more disbelief. Chiyo shot her a miffed look.
"The Force is strong in you."
"The… Force?" This time, Kagura was sure the girl's pigtails moved with that strange little sound.
"The Force is what gives a Jedi her power," Sakaki explained, (Weep-woop! went Chiyo's hair) "It's an energy field created by all (weep-woop!) living things. It surrounds (weep-woop!) uh…" she lost her place for a moment, "Surrounds and penetrates us. It binds- (weep-woop!) um… can you, can you make them stop doing that?"
"Doing what?" Chiyo asked innocently. Her pigtails moved again.
"That's pretty creepy," Kagura commented.
Sakaki grabbed Chiyo's pigtails gently and finished her speech in a quick burst. "It surrounds and penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together." "Oh," Chiyo said. Sakaki released her hair and added more sedately, "And it's strong in you. It would be a waste if you didn't develop it."
The girl didn't respond, instead looking at her father's lightsaber. It was a little too large for her, but not by much. Yasuhiro Mihama hadn't been a very tall man. She looked conflicted.
"You don't have to decide right now," Sakaki put her hand on Chiyo's head. "Do what you feel is right."
"It's ready," Kagura said, giving the ancient reader a smack. "C'mon, you piece of crap, display!"
Sakaki got up and started around the table. "It doesn't help to hit it," she advised. "You'll only—" and suddenly she dropped to one knee with a strangled gasp.
"What's wrong?" Kagura asked in alarm. Her old classmate had partially curled up, shuddering and covering her face with one hand. The woman's Jedi calm had been blasted away. "Are you okay?"
"Ms. Sakaki!" Chiyo cried, taking her arm.
Sakaki shook herself. After a few seconds, she rose slowly. "I've never… that…" she leaned heavily on the table. "That's never… happened before…"
"What was it?" Kagura asked.
"It was a… a disturbance in the Force. It was as if…" she groped for words, "As if a million voices all cried out at once and vanished. Like… a whole world had died." Her dark eyes seemed a little blank, but she was pulling herself together admirably.
"Will you be okay?" Chiyo asked, still clutching her arm. Sakaki closed her eyes and nodded, finally standing fully.
Kagura gave her a concerned glance but didn't say anything more. She struck the reader again, and finally... "Okay, it's coming up."
Sakaki circled behind her and leaned over her shoulder. What she saw on the reader's cracked screen made her eyes darken. "Let's get Chiyo-chan home, Ms. Kagura. We're going to Alderaan."
