Well it's been a hell of a long time but this chapter is finally up. I could give you one of many excuses such as my starting University, or my continued hatred in writing dialogue for Airi but I'm not going to insult you by doing it. Fact is I'm just very lazy and if it wasn't for the combination of a friend of mine going on and on about her Star Wars fanfic and exploring the Saint Knight's Tail website I would probably have not been inspired to return to this. Which would have been a pity because I still have really good plans for this story in my head. Let's hope I get further before giving up this time.
Tenchi sat at the small table in the living room and looked around, marvelling at the calm. It was true that Ayeka and Ryoko were fighting but it was a long way away on the opposite side of the lake and thus he couldn't hear it. The weather was so nice that Washu had taken her laptop out to the veranda and was doing her work in the sunshine. Ryo-ohki was napping in her child form her head resting on Washu's lap. Sasami was in the kitchen preparing lunch and her happy singing did nothing to disturb the peace. Tenchi knew that it wouldn't last so he was enjoying it while it did.
Sure enough the peace was soon broken by a cry of terror from Mihoshi which was closely followed by her running down the stairs from her room, still wearing the clothes she used for sleeping in and muttering things along the lines of:
"Oh no, this is really bad. If I'm late I've no idea what could happen. Oh no, oh no, oh no." She ran through the living room and ran into the glass doors leading out to the veranda. Picking herself up, she opened the doors and ran out to Washu.
"Miss Washu."
"Yes?"
"Could you be kind as to please extract Yukinojo from sub-space so I can make my bi-monthly report to the GP?" Washu looked up from her laptop and turned to look at Mihoshi, a big smile on her face.
"No." Mihoshi looked as if she was about to cry.
"But why?"
"Because every time you use that ship I have to end up rebuilding the house. Trying to stop you from destroying the house is like trying to disrupt the flow of established history. I give you landing lessons, you forget them. I give you an autopilot; you forget to turn it on. I give you a landing beacon; you take it with you when you go to space. So I'm going to deal with it the same way you change history, by doing something the system does not expect." Now Mihoshi was crying,
"But please Miss Washu, if I can't make my report I'll lose my job."
"No you won't." replied Washu standing up and striking a dramatic pose (while also accidentally knocking the sleeping Ryo-ohki off her lap and onto the floor). "For I, Washu, the number one genius scientist in the whole universe, have a solution."
As Washu walked confidently into the living room with Mihoshi following after her the battle between Ayeka and Ryoko ended and both made their way back to the house. As Ryoko could teleport she made it back much faster and arrived in the living room just as Washu opened a small portal to sub-space and pulled out an object while shouting,
"And now my newest ingenious invention." There was a pause before Ryoko said what both Tenchi and Mihoshi were clearly thinking,
"It looks like the TV."
"That's because it is the TV." Ryoko gave Washu a scathing look and prepared to teleport away. "…With some modifications. You see I was trying to work out why Mihoshi even needed to go into space to make the report, the reason? Because GP security protocols mean that you must transmit on obscure wavelengths, wavelengths that cannot penetrate a planet's atmosphere. Until now. See I took the transmitter from Yukinojo and attached it to an orbital satellite of my own creation, by transmitting messages between here and the satellite you can communicate with the GP from the comfort of the Masaki family living room."
Tenchi and Mihoshi both made impressed noises but the awe was broken by the sound of Sasami calling from the kitchen,
"Does anyone want some lemonade?" and everyone present replied in the affirmative.
"So how does it work?"
"It's simple really. You sit here," Washu guided Mihoshi onto the sofa, "And you enter your communication coordinates and frequencies here." She punched a few numbers into what looked like a remote control but with far too many buttons on it and the familiar face of Captain Nobeyama appeared on the screen. He looked worried but the moment he saw Mihoshi's face he let out a huge sigh of relief.
"Oh thank the Goddesses. I thought you weren't going to make it on time. I'm going to patch you through to GP central now." He started pressing buttons on his console, Mihoshi was even more confused than usual,
"Don't you want to hear my report?"
"There's no time for it now. You've been promoted," his face performed a weird spasm as if even he could not believe the words he was saying, "you're now a special operative and you report directly to Lady Airi Masaki. She's awaiting your transmission now." For once in her life Mihoshi was completely lost for words, as she sat there in silence Sasami came in and handed around lemonades. Then Nobeyama looked up,
"You're about to be put through to head office. Good bye Mihoshi, despite the huge amounts of damage bills you racked up, you still managed to arrest more criminals than any other officer under my command and I'm sorry to see you go. When you're up there laughing it up with the other Special Operatives, don't forget your friends here in Section seven." Mihoshi was in tears now,
"I won't" she sobbed. The screen went black for a second before Airi's face appeared on the screen, Mihoshi attempted a salute but the effect was ruined by the tears streaming down her face.
"Congratulations Mihoshi," Airi began but was quickly drowned out by another flood of tears, when this was over she continued. "We at the GP feel that given that for the past few years your job has consisted mainly of protecting the Masaki household we might as well make it official and elevate your pay accordingly. You are hereby promoted to the position of special operative we would also like to assign you a partner who would also live within the Masaki house if Tenchi doesn't mind."
"That'd be fine provided Mihoshi has no objections to sharing a room" interjected Tenchi moving into the range of the camera on the TV and for the first time making Airi aware of the others in the room. When she saw Tenchi she fell briefly into fawning-grandma mode before she was able to regain her composure.
"In that case you can expect Miss Makibi to arrive within the next week. Actually, there is one more thing, is Noike around?"
"No, she's out shopping at the moment."
"In that case can you tell her when she gets back that we've located a major space pirate fleet out in Sector 37C and I would like her assistance in dealing with them. She is to leave once Kiyone arrives."
"Yeah, sure." Tenchi replied. There was a sudden squeal as Mihoshi's mind finally processed Airi's words,
"Kiyone Makibi?!" Airi smiled,
"Oh did I forget to mention. She's been found alive and given how good a team you made in the past she's your partner again." Mihoshi let out an even louder squeal and threw her hands into the air with joy; her hands holding a glass of lemonade. Washu saw everything move in slow motion as the drink flew through the air towards the TV,
"Run!" she suggested as she grabbed Mihoshi and headed towards the door. The last of them barely made it out before the house exploded in a massive fireball. As they looked back and stared at the familiar site of the wreckage of the Masaki house in flames Washu let out a long, loud groan.