Chapter Seven
"I think we've pushed them back about as far as we can go."
In the busy central control room of the pirate mothership, the clamour of voices fell to a dull murmur as the woman walked between them, casting approving looks on all sides. "We've done well. All of you have done well. You make the Balta proud...bringing to heel so many Daluma ships and with so few losses to our own people. They'll think twice before encroaching in our space zones again, that's for sure."
"Captain Komachi." From his vantage point at the back of the chamber, the young man raised his hand, offering the woman a smile as she turned to meet his gaze.
"Hotsuma." She said softly. "If you pilot every raid ship the way you piloted that one, you'll be captain in your own right before you know it. Did you take any prisoners?"
"Yes, Captain." The man nodded his head, a shock of fair hair falling over his shoulder as he did so. "Seventeen crew, all sealed in the convict quarters, ready for you to come see what you can get out of them."
"I see." Komachi's eyes twinkled with humour. "I'm sure they're very comfortable, too."
"Yes, Captain. They're happy as can be." Hotsuma smirked. He hesitated, pursing his lips.
"Captain, there's something else. Something you should know."
"Something else?" Komachi frowned, tilting her head on one side as she regarded him. "What kind of something else? We cut off all escape routes to the Daluma vessel, didn't we? Their contraband is taken for our own? And all prisoners are secured?"
"Yes, Ma'am." Hotsuma bent his head in confirmation. "But contraband wasn't the only thing we seized from their raiding vessel. Captain Komachi, they had a child aboard."
"A child?" Shock flickered in the woman's eyes and she shook her head. "What kind of a child? A ship's boy?"
"No...no." Hotsuma hesitated, then shook his head. "A little girl."
"A girl?" Komachi reacted with amazement. "Aboard a Daluma ship? Is she hurt?"
Hotsuma eyed his captain for a moment, then he shrugged his shoulders.
"She's bonded." He said softly. "She has a scar across her left palm."
"Bonded into piracy? A little girl?" Komachi was stunned. "But..."
She trailed off, as if considering the point. Then, "All right, Lieutenant. Take me to this girl."
"Yes, captain." Hotsuma nodded his head. "She's this way. I didn't want to seal her up with the prisoners...not considering some of the jeers that were going her way. She's not...a child exactly. I mean, she is, but..."
He smirked.
"She seems able to defend herself." He admitted. "But I thought it better that she was away from them anyway."
"Without a doubt." Komachi's expression darkened. "What kind of guild are the Daluma, dragging a young girl into their barbaric practices?"
Hotsuma shrugged his shoulders.
"I thought she was a captive." He admitted. "I was surprised when I saw the scar. And she spat at me, when I tried to see if she was hurt. I was quite impressed by her spunk, to be honest."
"I can imagine." Komachi said dryly, as they reached the door of Hotsuma's own small cabin. He unlocked it, ushering his companion inside and then following, casting a glance around for the small girl he had left there. She sat defiantly on the end of his bed, and though he could see the tearstains on her cheeks, she was clearly not about to break down into sobs of terror. Komachi eyed her for a moment, then approached her slowly.
"Are you hurt?" She asked softly. The girl looked up, meeting the captain's gaze with bright amber eyes.
"I'm all right." She said flatly. "And I'm not with them, so let me go already, will you?"
"Not with...them?" Komachi looked confused. "With who, little one?"
"I'm not little!" The girl flared up at this. "I'm the Space Pirate Ryoko and I'm almost fifteen summers! I can take care of myself, so don't call me a child!"
"The Space Pirate Ryoko, huh?" Hotsuma eyed her with interest. Ryoko nodded.
"Yes." She said frankly, folding her arms across her chest. "So there. And if you touch me, I'll blast you like I did the others, so don't come any closer. I'm not stupid and I know what men like to do to girls when they're bored."
Hotsuma stopped in his tracks, a droll smile touching his lips. He cast his captain a quizzical look, and Komachi frowned.
"Are you a Daluma, Ryoko?" She asked softly. Ryoko shook her head.
"Then where do you belong? You can't possibly be a pirate all on your own."
"I could if I wanted to." Ryoko said sharply. "I'm strong and Haki says that..."
"Haki?" Komachi was on this in a moment. "What on earth are you doing mixed up with a monster like Haki? Fifteen or not, you're too young to be flying with a man like that - Ryoko, he'll only hurt you! He uses the term pirate as his excuse to slaughter and torture his foes and his friends alike."
"I'm bonded." Ryoko thrust a pale, small hand out, palm up, revealing the fading white scar that ran from top to bottom. "And I belong with him."
"Then where is he now?" Hotsuma asked pointedly. Ryoko frowned, and the pirate was aware of tears in the depths of her eyes.
"I don't tell tales." She said firmly. "So...so kill me if you like. I'll never tell you anything you want to know. I'm not a spy."
Komachi sighed, shaking her head.
"Perhaps you could stay here."
"I don't want your help. I don't need charity from you or anyone." Ryoko spat back. "Let me out of here, before I blast your room to pieces, lady. I'm not kidding. I'm part demon and I can really hurt you when I'm mad!"
Flickers of energy danced at the tips of her fingers, as if to illustrate her point, and Komachi spread her hands.
"How are you going to get anywhere, without a spaceship?" She asked sensibly. Ryoko scowled.
"I have a spaceship." She said sullenly. "She'll come when I call her. And I don't need your help. Let me go or kill me. I won't help you and if you make me stay, I'll hurt you."
"I don't fight children." Komachi said simply. "And nor do my crew. You're not a prisoner aboard my ship, Ryoko-chan. However you got here, you're free to leave at any time."
"I'm not a child." Ryoko repeated, but Komachi took no notice. Instead she stood back, reaching to open the cabin door.
"Go, and go with care." She said softly. "But do us this one favour, Ryoko the Space Pirate."
The girl, who had hopped off the bed at her action paused, turning to eye her in surprise.
"Keep what you have seen aboard my craft a secret, and I will not doubt your honour as a true pirate." Komachi said gently. "Do we have an agreement?"
Ryoko stared for a moment, then she nodded her head, the hostility fading from her amber eyes.
"I give you my word on my pirate's honour that I won't tell anyone about your ship." She said firmly. "And I won't help those Daluma scum either."
"Then go safely." Komachi shrugged her shoulders. "And maybe one day we'll be able to meet again, in friendship."
Hotsuma sat back in his seat, taking a long, thoughtful sip of his drink as he contemplated recent events. It had been a long time, he mused wryly to himself, and yet there was still something about hunting in the vicinity of the Space Pirate Ryoko. As he sat there, swirling the amber liquid around in his glass, he remembered only too clearly the first time he had met her. He had suspected then that she was not someone who would be easily beaten down, and he had respected her spirit and her fight. But now...
He frowned, casting a glance across the cabin to the room's other occupant. After searching the length and breadth of the ship, he had finally found her curled up on a worn bunk in one of the craft's accomodation cabins. She had been asleep when he'd found her, and his first impulse to wake her had faltered when he had noticed the unmistakeable sight of tears on her lashes. He bit his lip, taking another sip of the drink and setting the glass down on the wooden table top.
So what had happened, then, to his fiesty, fiery space pirate?
"Perhaps too long has passed since last we flew together." He mused regretfully. "The woman I knew would never have shed tears over lost lives and past acquaintances. But then, Ryo Ohki was a fine ship, and their bond was all-encompassing. Perhaps the wrench of being seperated has taken it's toll. Either way, right now she's not the girl I remember."
He held up his hand to the light, carefully sliding off his glove as he glanced at the faded white line that ran from north to south across his palm. It had been a long time ago, he knew that, but he remembered it as clearly as if it were yesterday. Hesitating for a moment, he pressed a finger to the scar, tracing the mark across his hand.
"Hotsuma?"
As if awoken by the magic of an ancient pirate bond, his companion stirred, blinking as she struggled to bring him into focus. "Where...what's...why are you here?"
Hotsuma eyed her keenly, pursing his lips.
"I was worried about you, when I couldn't find you." He said simply. "You're not yourself and I don't like to see you weak and vulnerable. It isn't the real Ryoko and it troubles me."
"I'm not weak or vulnerable." Ryoko pulled herself into a sitting position, grasping at the blanket that lay discarded on the bed beside her and pulling it around her shoulders as a chill wind whipped through the cabin. "I just needed time to be alone. You of all people know that I don't like enforced company. Why do you think we stopped raiding together the first time around?"
"Ah, now that's a question I know the answer to only too well." Hotsuma looked rueful. "Do you want a drink, Ryoko? There's plenty, and it will help. You know it will."
"All right." Ryoko shrugged, and Hotsuma reached for the bottle, hesitating, and then holding it out to her. She took it, glancing at it, then taking a swig, setting it down beside her. "I haven't tasted that in a long while. Not since..."
She faltered, a shadow touching her expression, and Hotsuma frowned.
"Snap out of it, will you?" He demanded. "You're a pirate, start acting like it!"
"I told you, I'm not a pirate any more!"
"You're always a pirate, or didn't Haki ever tell you that once you're bonded, you're bonded for life?" Hotsuma retorted. He held up his hand, indicating the faint white scar as he did so. "See? You might not have spoken to me in years, Ryoko, but we're still connected, and we always will be. The scar marks the bond...you can't break it."
Ryoko glanced at him for a moment. Then, very carefully, she removed her own glove, resting her hand palm up on the bedcovers.
"I have no scar." She said simply. "I have no bond."
"What?" Hotsuma frowned, grabbing her hand and holding it more clearly under the light. "But I don't understand - how is it possible?"
"I told you. I'm not a pirate any more." Ryoko pulled her hand free of his grasp, sliding the glove back over it. "Haki's scar, your scar...it's all just a memory. I turned my back on that life when I met Tenchi. You just haven't accepted it, that's all. Which is why we don't raid together. You always think you know best, and I swore when Haki vanished that I wasn't going to take orders from anyone ever again."
"I don't remember you taking orders from me too often, either." Hotsuma said darkly. Ryoko shrugged.
"Of course not, not if I could help it." She agreed flatly. "But in the end, Hotsuma, we stopped raiding together because you had crazy ideas and I didn't want to wind up in a Galaxy Police cell. I always did have more sense than you when it came to plotting our adventures. You just stopped listening to me, so I stopped flying with you. You said yourself that pirates walk away and don't look back, right?"
"Then why are you still fixating on this Tenchi?" Hotsuma demanded. "He's the past just as much as that life is, now. I thought you wanted to avenge yourself on Shank - how can you do that if you seclude yourself away to cry over a dead man?"
"I was not crying!" Ryoko reacted fiercely to this, bringing her hand sharply down across her companion's cheek and despite himself, Hotsuma flinched back, anger stirring in the depths of his own blue eyes.
He grasped her by the wrists, meeting her gaze darkly with one of his own.
"Don't raise your hands to an ally." He said warningly. "You might think you're the smarter of us, Ryoko, but I'm stronger than you are."
"Not necessarily." Ryoko glared back at him, wrenching her hands from his grip. "And I don't cry. So stop saying stupid things like that and we'll be fine."
She paused, then,
"You always were too sweet on your own opinions."
"And you would never listen to anything anyone ever said." Hotsuma retorted.
"Then why did you bother bringing me aboard your ship?" Ryoko demanded. "If you think I'm so difficult and weak and hopeless, why did you even care?"
Hotsuma eyed her carefully for a moment. Then he held up his hand.
"Because we're bonded." He said quietly. "And even if your scar has healed, the bond is still there. I told you, Ryoko. Only death can break a pirate's blood-bond."
"Then I'm still bonded to Haki." Ryoko returned acidly. "Wouldn't you think?"
"Haki isn't here to interfere. You and I are the only ones here."
"For now." Ryoko nodded. "Until we kill Shank. But I'm not a pirate, Hotsuma, and I'm not going to stay with you. I'm going back to the Earth, just as soon as I've taken my revenge."
"Really?" Hotsuma softened his tone of voice, eying her thoughtfully. "See sense, Ryoko. You have nothing else to go back for. You said yourself that your family were aboard Ryo Ohki. If they truly were anything to you, they're not now. They're gone. Space dust, just like so many others before them. There's nothing on the Earth. Just emptiness and boredom. You have to start again - bounce back, like a pirate always should. Take your losses and move on. You lived. They did not. This is the start of a new chapter, not the end of an old one."
"I don't forget people so easily as that." Ryoko snapped. Hotsuma raised an eyebrow.
"Then you're not the girl I thought you were."
"Perhaps I'm not." Ryoko got to her feet, sliding off the bed and padding across to the room's tiny porthole. "Where are we, anyway? When I blacked out we were in the middle of Sargasso, but this is familiar territory. You said Balta space - but where, exactly?"
"About two light years from the planet Concor. Where we first met, in fact." Hotsuma offered her a mischievous smile. "When you spat at me and told me that you didn't need my help. You were a spitfire even as a girl, Ryoko. You certainly left an impression."
"I remember." A faint smile touched Ryoko's lips. "I taught a lot of people that day that I wasn't just someone's toy to be played with. Just because I was a girl and young didn't mean I was going to be easy. They learnt it the hard way. You at least had the sense to keep your hands to yourself."
"Some things are worth waiting for." Hotsuma's tone was teasing, and Ryoko frowned, turning to face him.
"That was a long time ago." She said sadly. "And you said that we don't dwell on the past."
"True enough." Hotsuma nodded his head. "So instead, we should look to the future. And that means finding the Daidalos."
"Yes." Ryoko nodded her head, resolution burning in her amber eyes. "I want to find him and make him pay for what he did, Hotsuma. I don't care if Haki did kill his family, that didn't give him the right to kill mine. I never did anything to him to deserve that, but he's going to find out what it means to cross me."
"Now that sounds like the Ryoko I know." Hotsuma sounded approving. "Right, then. Let's go to the drive room, and look at space charts. Considering the damage you inflicted already on his ship, he can't have gotten too far and we should be able to catch up with him fairly easily."
"Oh, I do hope so." Ryoko clenched her fists, light glowing around them as she contemplated his words. "All right, Hotsuma. For the sake of Tenchi and the others, let's go."