MASAKI TALES Vol. V - QUEST...
Author: Daferge
. . . . . . . . . .
Disclaimer: Tenchi Muyo! is a copyright AIC/Pioneer Ltd...
All respective characters are property of their original owners...
All original characters and ideas are property of the author...
. . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 09... Home troubles part 02...
( on Seniwa... )
Mihoshi took a deep breath and opened the door...
Passing through she and her escort found themselves in the Seniwa Royal throne room...
The door and hallway was a special entrance reserved for only the highest members of Seniwa royal upper class...
The noise in the room dropped to a whisper as almost every one in the room turned to stare at Mihoshi, wearing a female version of Tenchi's crown prince outfit with all the formal markings...
She, Ayeka and Ryoko had worn these when Tenchi toured a number of Juraian military installations some months before...
Washu had designed them to not only make a statement, but be functional as well...
They tended to fit in better than large bulky formal gowns and were far more impressive...
Ayeka was still reluctant at first, but changed her mind when Nobuyuki, Tenchi's father, comment on how well it showed off their figures...
Tuskiko and Rogon behind her in their Royal Palace Guard uniforms helped...
. . . . . . . . . .
On the throne, the King, had been trying hard to get control of all the shouting voices, was surprised when the 'noise' suddenly disappeared...
Seeing every one looking off to his right, he turned to see what every one was staring at...
He saw the three figures in Juraian garb standing next to the special entrance and an eyebrow went up...
However, as soon as he recognized who the blonde female was, a small smile appeared...
It seem that his daughter's message had gotten through...
But it quickly disappeared as he noted the look on Mihoshi's face...
It was the same one his daughter got when she was very upset and it was best to be else where...
As it was far too late to exit the room, he gestured for her to join him...
After a slight nod, Mihoshi and escort made it's way to the throne...
Made easy as the crowd tended to part before them...
. . . . . . . . . .
To the King's left stood two males, both with smiles as big as a Juraian tree-ship...
Mihoshi's father and grandfather, the GP Grand Marshal...
Her grandfather had seen many Juraian uniforms before, but this one was new...
Like her formal GP uniform it fit her well and it didn't restrict her movement...
It wasn't hard to see Washu's hand behind this one, something special for prince Tenchi's family to wear...
However there was something odd about her two guards...
They didn't act like your normal 'look-down-their-noses' Juraian guards...
In fact, their eyes movements were every where, taking in every one and thing, ready to react to any threat...
In fact they acted like -...
He then recalled Washu's comment a while back about problems dealing with some local professionals...
He managed not to laugh as he realized a number of things...
OH... THIS IS GOING TO BE GOOD...
. . . . . . . . . .
( Washu's Lab... )
Ayeka gazed into the glass status container where Ryoko was sleeping...
Washu had assure every one that, unlike the Juraian stasis field in the cave, this one did 'freeze' her 100%...
Between her closing her eyes and opening them again, would be a blink of an eye to Ryoko...
Ayeka ran her hand across the glass and smiled...
It seem that Ryoko was going to miss the fun Ayeka was listening to from the Seniwa Royal court...
Sensing Mihoshi seeing her father and grandfather, she reminded her of why she was there...
She could hear Tenchi and Washu remind her that they were with her too...
Ayeka was sure Washu's soft chuckling was helping...
. . . . . . . . . .
( the Seniwa Royal court... )
As Mihoshi approached the throne she was startled to see her father and grandfather there...
Though she wants to rush to them and hug them both Ayeka's voice reminded her where and why she was there...
Coming to stand before the throne, Mihoshi saw her friend Nihoshi sitting just behind her father, the king, a sad look om her face...
The room was shocked as a member of the Juraian Royal family bowed to the Seniwa king...
She spoke the words that Ayeka suggested...
" Your majesty... I understand that charges of treason have been brought against me and my family... I have come to face my accusers... "
Rogon and Tuskiko stood at rest, behind her, watching and waiting...
Rogon noticed the small smile that the king managed to hide...
They both ready themselves as a tall yellow haired male, wearing the uniform of Seniwa's military make his way to the open floor...
" I, Zeon, of the clan Kimura, proclaim it... "
. . . . . . . . . .
Mihoshi recognized him, the most powerful member of the Kimura Clan...
But it was the smear on his face that she recalled most, the same smear he'd had when he tried to bully her into marring him...
After she refused, he and his 'friends' hounded night and day...
Her grandfather got her accepted to the Galaxy Police Academy to get her off Seniwa...
It seem that he hadn't changed much...
But she had, she wasn't the same shy young female from decades ago...
She was an experienced GP officer and had faced opponents far beyond him...
It seem that he was one of those with a long memory, who held grudges forever...
She smiled as she heard Tenchi laugh at Ayeka's comment about Zeon...
Now, now... Such language from a Juraian princess...
Washu had a comment too...
About him reminding her of those nature channel shows and the big hairy ape pounding his chest with his fist...
Mihoshi had to smile, she enjoys those shows and Washu was right, Zeon DID remind her of one of those big, hairy apes...
Ayeka mentioned some members of the Juraian Royal court having similar traits...
. . . . . . . . . .
Not getting the reaction he'd expected, Zeon looked at her two guards who now stood between him and Mihoshi...
Juraian were and had been easy marks in Seniwan hands...
" Will you have these Juraian scum fight for your honor... "
He smiled as he saw them both tensed up and take a defensive pose...
But Mihoshi smiled as she steps forward, gently touching Rogon's shoulder...
" I would be more careful with my words if I were you... "
Since Washu and Ayeka's comments, any hold Zeon might have had on her was gone...
Zeon's smile got bigger, he saw his words hitting their mark...
" What?... For calling them scum?... "
Mihoshi sighed as she snapped her fingers and the Royal Guard uniforms became the garb of galaxy ninjas, feared throughout the Galaxy...
" No!... For calling them Juraian... "
Zeon's eyes weren't the only pair wide open...
. . . . . . . . . .
The room was silent until broken by a noise behind her, the sound of her grandfather, the grand marshal, laughing hysterically...
Trying to regain some control, Zeon struck out again...
" So the Kuramitsu clan has sunk so low as to hire assassins!... "
Above all else, Mihoshi valued family...
Her eyes narrowed and for the first time in her life, she became very angry...
In the Masaki family Tenchi was it's brains and heart, Ayeka was it's diplomat, Mihoshi was it's lawyer, Ryoko it's defender and bodyguard...
With Ryoko disabled, it now fell to Mihoshi to be it's defender...
Were any one to look closer at her forehead, they would note a slight glowing, the signs of an emblem of power...
However every one was looking down at the moment, as she was now hovering several inches off the ground...
Another effect was that her hair was floating slightly...
. . . . . . . . . .
( within Avalon.. )
Washu's eyes widened, she could just kick herself, if she could divide, like Ryoko...
Her fingers sped across her keyboard...
It didn't take long to put all the pieces together, they'd been there the whole time...
But a common factor had been missing, Washu Hakubi...
It also helped explain a number of strange things that had happen to members of the Kuramitsu family in the past...
Very few knew or needed to know that Mihoshi and Mitoto, as well as the rest of the Kuramitsu family were descendants of one of the three Chousin Goddesses...
But it seem that some females of the family tended to develop powers of some sort, like Mitoto's teleporting just about any where...
And some had worried about Mihoshi picking up BAD habits from hanging around ex-space pirate, now princess Ryoko Hakubi Masaki...
It seem that she might have just acquired other 'habits'...
Oh, was Ryoko going to be in for a surprise when she awoke...
And the Royal family, she couldn't wait to tell emperor Azusa...
Every one but Tenchi stared at her as she started laughing...
. . . . . . . . . .
( the Juraian Royal Palace... )
For Emperor Azusa Masaki Jurai it had already been a very long day...
Was it just him or was there more papers than normal today?...
All that trouble in Seniwa wasn't any help...
And just when things had been starting to look up too...
Suddenly he froze and then he was looking around...
Why did he feel as if he'd heard his name mentioned and chuckling...
He was the only one in his office...
When a light on his desk started blinking, he made up his mind...
Time for a break...
Getting up he left every thing behind and exited his office...
It was time that the kids were having a break, just the place to go...
On his desk the small light continued to blink...
. . . . . . . . . .
( the Sub-space garage... )
Aboard the Hinase, Minagi Hakubi was just finishing up her scans, thanks to her robots...
" Minagi?... "
She continued to study the reports...
" Yes?... "
The ship continued it's multi-tasking...
" It seems we have an emergency request from the Yukinojo... "
This got Minagi's attention...
" Wasn't Yukinojo here in sub-space?... "
" Yes... But it seems it's now on the other side of the Juraian Empire... "
Minagi paused...
" You're sure?... "
" The coordence sent with the request is listed as an isolated system, cut off from the rest of the galaxy... "
Minagi was about to ask how that could be when she remembered who she was living with...
She didn't know how, but some how Washu just had to be involved...
Any way, the was no way she could be of any of any help, not that far away...
She continued her scans and repairs...
. . . . . . . . . .
( the Seniwa Royal court... )
Rogon and Tuskiko fell to one knee and allowed Mihoshi to float past, both were hiding smiles...
As she approached a wide eyed Zeon, he pull out a light-sword and ignited it...
Not even slowing, Mihoshi squeezed her hand like she'd seen Ryoko and the others do, producing her own light-sword...
Taking a swing, due to her strength, when her sword contacted Zeon's sword, it was knocked from his hand and went out at once...
Zeon stared at his sword, then Mihoshi hovering a short distance away and he fell to his knees, his head going to the floor...
Seeing Zeon on the floor, Mihoshi sighed, her hair relaxed and she slowly settled to the ground, opening her hand she dispelled her sword...
Looking around she sighed and took a deep breath...
" MY NAME IS MIHOSHI KURAMITSU OF SENIWA... I AM MARRIED TO TENCHI MASAKI... WHO JUST HAPPENS TO BE THE GREAT GRANDSON OF LADY FUNAHO MASAKI JURAI... WHO IS MARRIED TO AZUSA MASAKI JURAI, WHO HAPPENS TO BE THE EMPEROR OF JURAI... DUE TO THIS TENCHI IS NOW THE JURAIAN CROWN PRINCE... "
The entire room was silent as Mihoshi repeated part of the family tree speech Ayeka gave her and Ryoko before the wedding...
" AS I SAID, I'M MARRIED TO TENCHI MASAKI, NOT EMPEROR AZUSA... IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT... I AND MY CO-WIVES, AYEKA MASAKI JURAI MASAKI AND RYOKO HAKUBI MASAKI WILL BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO DISCUSS IT WITH YOU... "
The look in her eyes dared any one to speak up...
. . . . . . . . . .
The was complete silence until she heard soft clapping behind her...
Turning, she found her friend Nihoshi, standing, a big smile on her face clapping her hands...
She watched as the king stood, smiled and began clapping too...
Slowly she began to hear clapping behind her, turning she found that more and more of those in the chamber were smiling and clapping...
Soon the whole room was clapping...
After a while the King raised his hand got every ones attention and quiet...
Smiling he looked at Mihoshi he noticed that Zeon had disappeared back into the crowd...
" Now that that's settled, perhaps we can get to more serious matters... "
His eyes narrowed and his smile turned wicked...
" Like what we should have for dessert with lunch later... "
This caused quite a bit of chuckling among the crowd...
The King had just made it quite clear what he thought of the charges of treason...
The clan Kimura had lost a lot of face and respect, perhaps it wouldn't be such a pain, for a while, but the King doubted it...
. . . . . . . . . .
Standing before the throne, Mihoshi noticed that both Rogon and Tuskiko were back in their Royal guard uniforms...
They both note that her shy smile has returned, what they don't hear was the chuckling voice Mihoshi heard...
Seems Tenchi's not the only one with surprises these days... Guess we'll need to spend some time in the lab when we get back...
Mihoshi's reply was instant as her smile got bigger...
Will Tenchi be there too?...
Another voice answered as she heard Washu's softly chuckle...
Of course I will, my dearest...
Another, firmer voice was heard as Ayeka spoke up...
We will ALL be there, Lady Mihoshi...
. . . . . . . . . .
They all heard Washu sigh...
It was a good thing she'd created that special isolated Lab a while back, it would help keep her main Lab in one piece...
Only Rogon and Tuskiko had any idea why Mihoshi suddenly had a dreamy look on her face - Tenchi...
A short distance away her grandfather had managed to calm himself down enough to notice the young female his son-in-law was talking to...
It had been a while but Mitoto Kuramitsu, his daughter, was some one hard to forget...
He smiled as he heard her ask her husband why he'd come to GP headquarters...
Those closest to her had long ago given up asking how she'd suddenly appeared out of nowhere, she was just Mitoto...
His recent involvement with the new Juraian crown prince and his new mother-in-law, one Washu Hakubi had provided some answers, family...
. . . . . . . . . .
Since the wedding Washu had kept the Grand Marshal updated on Mihoshi...
She'd confirmed the rumors of Mihoshi's walking around the royal palace in nothing but a towel and even walking in on Azusa during diplomatic talks...
She'd even sent him a copy of the security film taken during the Morning Star incident...
Whenever he needed a chuckle, watching strong pirates run away from Mihoshi did it...
Then there were the images, like the one of her asleep, cuddling up to a stuffed animal she called mr. Tenchi...
It seem that with Mihoshi around both Ryoko and Ayeka were starting to relax now and hardly ever fought any more...
Princess Nihoshi stepped forward and took her leave of the court, escorting Mihoshi out of the chamber and back to the Royal apartments...
There was so much she want to know and Mihoshi was more than happy to tell her...
She heard Washu, Ayeka and Tenchi tell her to take her time and enjoy it...
It would take a while to arrange for her return any way...
. . . . . . . . . .
( the Tavern near the Jurai Spaceport... )
So far, today had been pretty normal, the usual mix of Jurai military, Galaxy Police officers, a good number of ex-space pirates and the one or two still active pirates...
What they did outside the tavern meant nothing, unless they were a class A like Kagato...
For the most part, those here had been petty 'criminals' and if they 'took the pledge' and gave up pirating, they could get their criminal record voided after a pre-set time...
If they joined the Jurai or Galaxy Police special Deep Space patrols the time was shorter...
So it wasn't unusual for some of the roughest being to travel the star lanes to be around...
Shift changes weren't for a while so only a couple of GP or Military were here...
Thou neutral ground, both sides had eyes watching here...
The unattached pirates had been places others couldn't go and often times saw things of interest...
And these days information was of value, to the right people and for a price...
And both Jurai and the GP were always interested...
. . . . . . . . . .
As it was, this was the last place to see upper class Juraians show up...
But in walked a couple, as if it were nothing at all...
This was the last place any high lords should show their faces...
As they made of an empty table one of the few still active pirate slapped the female's rear and made a pass at her...
The male sighed and headed towards the bar, leaving the female alone...
The bartender started to get one of the GP officer to step in, but it was all over in the blink of an eye...
The female had spun around, grabbed the male by the collar and tossed him across the room into an empty corner...
She then sat down at the table and began to wait...
When the male reached the bar he ordered 2 bottles of Sake, a popular drink these days...
It seem Princess Ryoko liked it...
. . . . . . . . . .
Setting the bottles on the bar, the bartender couldn't help commenting...
" Quite a female you got there... "
The male smiled as he paid for the drinks and picked them up, glasses on top...
" She's actually a lot calmer now that we're expecting... "
As the male headed to the table the bartender noted his hair for the first time, pink...
Looking at the table, he noted that the female's hair was blue...
Only one Juraian couple had that match, Lord and lady Tennan...
Seryo Tennan had been a GP officer and for a while a space pirate...
Where as Kyo Komachi was a well know member of the Deluna Guild, a captain and close friend of every bodys favorite ex-space pirate and now GP officer Ryoko Balta...
He noted that the others were now giving them plenty of space...
Perhaps it was going to be a quiet evening after all...
. . . . . . . . . .
( Aboard the Yukinojo... )
Every one was looking at the 3D image of the system above the rec-room table...
The few small green dots among the asteroids, the Juraian task force ships...
The mass of red dots, a fleet of Raider ships, approaching the green dots...
The red dots were moving past the systems only livable planet and the two slightly larger green dots on it...
Both the GP cruiser Yukinojo and the Juraian tree-ship Amelia were on the side away from the Raiders, under water where the Raiders scanners wouldn't notice them...
Sitting to the side, munching carrots, were Ryo-Ohki and Ken-Ohki, ready to transform into very powerful warships...
But, all had agreed that Ryo-Ohki would remain aboard the Amelia with Princess Sasami just to play it safe if any thing went bad...
. . . . . . . . . .
Still, with just the three powerful ships they had a good chance...
Scans were indicating that the Raiders seem over confident of themselves, as their shields were down...
Ryo-Ohki, Ken-Ohki and Yukinojo were all able to mask themselves enough to be invisible, until they got real close, well within firing range...
So, with luck and every one looking the other way, surprise would be on their side ...
The task force would continue to draw the Raider's attention...
And then they would hit them as hard as they could from behind...
Perhaps the Raiders would panic and then make a break for it...
Thou they all want to destroy every Raider, just surviving was the order of the day...
As they said back in 0315, they were keeping their fingers crossed...
Every bit of 'help' was welcomed, no matter how small...
. . . . . . . . . .
On the Amelia Sasami had spent her time fixing a meal for them...
There hadn't been a lot to work with, but she seem to work miracles and as soon as they finished going over the plan one last time, they'd hop back over to the Amelia to eat...
None of them would miss one of Sasami's home-cooked meals...
After that it was only a matter of watching and waiting...
Watching to make sure nothing changed...
Waiting for the right time for them to react...
Watching and waiting...
. . . . . . . . . .
To be continued...
. . . . . . . . . .
Please feel free to comment and review for any errors...
. . . . . . . . . .