(Part Twenty-Seven - Startica, Christmas: Part Two)

I awoke..
And yes I still had a sister.
Having been around the Misaki's long enough, I should have been ready 
for this.
Yeah right, that's half the fun.

I was laying on the couch, with Misaki, Mom, Tsui, and Hikara hovering 
over me.
When I saw Hikara, I reflexively jolted up.
And summarily fell over, tripping on a tripped on a fireplace log.
Gee, I have to thank Washu for placing that phased in fireplace, just 
for the holidays; ouch..
I was helped back up by Tsunami and Hikara; sporting a nice and 
colorful welt.

I had to sit down again, and be retold that Hikara WAS my sister.
Elder actually as I would learn, well.. might as well tell now.
She was born about the same time as I was, but a few minutes before.
This is a long story. 
It was Father that told me the whole story, with Mom and Tsui 
interjecting points here and there.

It all started about twenty years ago.
Tsunami had already assimilated with Sasami in saving her life, and 
both her and Ayeka were in cryo-stasis, searching for Yosho.
But apparently Tsunami retained consciousness during this time period, 
and while drifting along with Ryu-ou-oh, encountered my life signature 
being conceived.
Then Tsunami discovered that the Sai`Hon soul line had fused with my 
being.

This caused Tsunami to investigate further, and resulted in her finding 
my Mom and Dad.
She watched for a few months, determining the status of the pregnancy, 
finally deciding to act late one evening.
To say the least that Mom and Dad were shocked to encounter Tsunami was 
an understatement. Now you know where I get it from.
Tsunami calmed them down, and informed them of my status; which led to 
a set of far reaching decisions leading up to my birth. I was also 
discovered at the time, that there was a second child. But more on that 
later.

Of all the strangest things, among all the preparations for birth. Was 
the Le Mans classes my Mom and Dad took, with Tsunami disguising 
herself as a nanny.
There they encountered of all people the young Achika and Nobuyuki, 
with guess who on the way.
Achika and Nobuyuki never found out about Tsunami, but someone else 
did. A dark person.
Mulhorand's reach extended all the way to the past.

It was while Mom and Dad were approaching the end of the third 
Trimester, that Mulhorand started to act.
Ever so subtly; he tried bad storms, vehicle accidents, and a few other 
nasty things.
But every time, Tsunami acted just as subtly to avert casualties; not 
only for us, but a few innocents as well.. I looked at Tsui with pride.
The story continued with my birth, with my Sisters just before mine; I 
saw the look of feigned relief on Mom's face, and got a good chuckle.

It was after that, that everything turned sour.
A couple of Dark Jurai constructs went for the blunt approach, and 
received the same from Dad and Tsunami.
This confirmed Tsunami's worst fears, and started the process of our 
family break-up.

First, before anything else happened; Tsunami had Hikara whisked away 
to a non-descript place, to be brought up by made up relatives. This 
part worked perfectly, and Mulhorand never knew about Hikara.
The second part was not as fortunate.
Tsunami had my parents start using a series of safehouses,  and used 
the first of many null-field effects to try and hide my life force from 
Mulhorand.

And for the next year, it was a vicious and desperate game of hide and 
seek; as Mulhorand started pulling no punches in his bid to kill me as 
a infant.
I felt cold at this, so close was I many times to being snuffed out; 
the closest being while Tsunami was away buying formula, when Mulhorand 
took a personal hand in attacking my family.
A vicious chase ensued, and Dad was wounded, and Mom about to be lunged 
while holding me. When Tsunami appeared and drove Mulhorand off with a 
desperate show of power. This ended that round.

But four months later, it all came to a head. With Mulhorand using all 
his resources. He went so far as to devastate half of the town we were 
hiding in. Sending several hundred shadows and constructs; they nearly 
outflanked Tsunami, as she tried to lure them away from my hiding 
place.
In the end though, Tsunami was forced to unleash a torrent of power; 
causing both the eradication of the Dark Jurai, as well as much of the 
town not yet impacted by the battle.

In the final equation, Mom and Dad agreed that sacrificing their lives 
was more important than seeing mine extinguished.
And while Dad distracted Mulhorand, Mom helped Tsunami unleash a cage 
of ten Lighthawk Wings upon Mulhorand, trapping him.
And with their last goodbye, then sent Mulhorand into the deepest 
recesses of space; with them both ending up being transported to Jurai 
to save them.
Tsunami then had to disappear, but left enough of a trace for rescuers 
to find me the next day in the rubble.

It was from there, that I was taken to the Orphanage I knew so well for 
the next Sixteen years.
And all the while, Hikara grew up; and learning of my existence while I 
didn't even have a clue.
The only thing that laced my mind then and there, was that if Tenchi, 
Hikara, and I knew each other, we'd be the best of buds.
I dun know.. I just thought of that.. so sue me?

By the end of the story, I was feeling a connection between myself and 
Hikara; whom had taken to hugging Mom all this time.
It was then that the entire gathered family spent the rest of the night 
relating to Hikara all the adventures of Tenchi and I combined.
By the time THAT was done, it was late; and the snow was falling 
thickly outside; much to Ryoko's displeasure.

The next morning started as always, Ayeka and Ryoko fighting over 
something (with the occasional boom), Mihoshi wailing to Kiyone about 
something lost here or there, Misaki and Washu trading quips about who 
Tenchi should marry (even though THAT had already been decided, I think 
it's a hobby..)
Then came the heavenly aromas coming from the now deluxe kitchen, made 
to cook for a Jurai legion. (A subspace pocket similar to Washu's 
multi-planet dimensional lab); and meow here and there looking for 
carrots.
I would awaken as always with Tsunami latched onto me, and take my time 
showering and freshening (And yes, the sentence makes sense..)

I would encounter Tenchi, as he escaped from a morning lecture from 
Azusa about Royal etiquette; and we along with Tsui (still glomped to 
me like a gravity singularity.) encountered Achika and Nobuyuki, along 
with Mom and Dad. We would trade quips about married life, and so on; 
then the rest would come down, Nen glomped by Bruinuae on the way down, 
Ayeka and Ryoko led by the ears by Misaki; whom had gone up to stop the 
ruckus. Finally would come a semi-meek Hikara, as Sasami would 
encourage her to join in.
Then would come the fabulous breakfast as always, all the girls feeding 
guys something. I cannot for the life of me remember the last time I 
was able to feed myself, only for myself, with no help at all..

Then at the table this time, along with the usual racket, would come 
talk of starting to get the Christmas decorations up.
The Misaki core of the family had already had three Christmases 
together, so they knew the drill, it was more new for the likes of 
myself, my parents and Sister, and the Azusa contingent of the group, 
Nen and Bruinuae included.
But I had a share of Christmas with the orphanage, and Hikara with her 
foster parents, now since deceased.

Tenchi was declared the big decorating Kahuna, with the delegation of 
duties left to Sasami and Mihoshi.
The girls would handle the inside of the house, the guys outside; 
though the lines for all of this would obviously blur. I nearly cracked 
a gut when Ayeka warned Ryoko not to 'test' the lights again this year. 
Something to do with attaching the ends of all the light together and 
plugging it into on of her Gems.
You know the Millennia celebration not to long ago, with all those 
fireworks? You get the picture.

What I found most exhilarating, was the chance to finally loose about 
twenty years of gift giving frustration. Did I mention I still have 
that enormous bank account? Okay.. good..
The surprise was, that I asked Washu to do the same for the other 
members of the family, mortal that is.
I was determined to have the best Christmas ever. 

From breakfast, came the unpacking of decorations, which had become 
woefully inadequate to the new size of the house; which had grown from 
the previous year.
We also had to get a tree; which became a spirited matter of debate, 
mostly around both the size of the tree, and the modular nature of the 
living room. (Did we want to expand the living room as WELL!?)

We decided upon; despite the protests of Washu, (she was becoming too 
much of the family architect, in the case of the house itself, hence 
the spirited discussion..) to go with a simple tree.. And a natural one 
at that.
Apparently there was a history of plastic trees, and Ryoko and Ayeka's 
hobby-like wars; plastic and energy beams don't mix.
As it was my first Christmas, I was named to the tree hunting party, 
along with Tenchi, Nobuyuki, Yosho, Tsunami and Hikara.
An adventure in itself.

Our part of the equation started ten minutes after the decoration 
discussion ended, and Yosho knew just the tree to find.
Meanwhile, Sasami, Mom, Dad and Achika went into town to gather a mound 
of decorations, we left the tastes up to them; and they usually are 
good.
The rest started decorating, or showed others how to decorate in the 
Christmas manner.
Good thing Sasami said she'd be getting new lights, as apparently Ryoko 
just will never learn..

It took a few hours to reach the area; with Hikara and I getting used 
to each other better. It was also an adventure to avoid the deluge of 
snowballs Tsui and Tenchi would send my way. I would retaliate with a 
few well skilled shots of my own, but I could never get Tsui.. 
We reached the site of the tree Yosho said he had chosen.
It was a tree alright, a full and wide seven feet of pine. It was also 
quite dowsed in snow; which Tsunami was more than capable in helping 
with.
By removing the snow, and dumping it all on me!! At least she warned 
Hikara first.

While kept trying to smack a few snowballs at Tsui; Tenchi, Nobuyuki, 
and Yosho argued about how to get the tree down after they cut it.
It wasn't more about the cutting part, it had more to do with not 
disturbing certain spirits of the forest without a proper tribute of 
some sort.
It got so bad, that Yosho was telling one of his patented ghost stories 
about a snowmaiden spirit haunting the stuffing out of a group of tree 
hunters that didn't pray properly to the shrine. Something about their 
souls being sucked out into some kind of an eternal torment of loving 
slavery. 
Gee, getting trees must be complicated for the Misaki's.

Tsui and Hikara weren't so much fooled, heck, it's what girls do the 
boys. Tenchi wasn't as impressed, tough Nobuyuki mentioned something 
about already being there.
I acknowledged in kind, and ate a snowball in the face from my beloved; 
ow..
But, after all this, it only took a deft low swing cut from Yosho, with 
the axe we have brought; and it was one of the heavy ones too, to fell 
the tree.
It took another few hours, mostly with me being pelted again; to make 
it down to the house.

There we put the tree away for the night, and found out about Ryoko's 
inability to learn, and then with everyone around the table for dinner, 
described all the wonderful decorations we'd be playing with tomorrow.
Kiyone mentioned Mihoshi's adventures with garland; while Sasami kept 
saying to us, that we'd love the color lights that her party had 
chosen.
After all this, despite quips between Ayeka and Ryoko about the light 
incident; again, we headed for bed.
After my turn in the shower, I entered my room, to find it covered in 
mistletoe all over the place.
Upon the bed lay my wife, also covered in mistletoe; and nothing else. 
You can guess the rest.

The next morning was the same, except now we proceeded with the 
decorating.
Rather than pulling the tree in the door, Tsunami and Washu had it 
teleported in; through a subspace hole.
This was a good idea turned lousy, when a strange subspace ghostlike 
creature came in with the tree; and had thought Yosho's story was 
ACTUALLY true!!!
While the family scattered with the wind, Washu quipped about the 
legacy of foolish daughters; and dispensed with the creature in a quick 
fashion.
Everyone looked at Ryoko, who raspberried Washu in kind.

After I regained what was left of my composure; we moved on to the 
placing of the tree.
This was a bit of a problem, the tree turned out to be a bit too tall, 
not quite touching the ceiling; but it would make it a problem with 
placing a tree topper.
Washu, again; came to the rescue. Before anyone could act, she hit a 
button on her customary holo-top; and the house suddenly sounded like a 
massive crane from a shipping dock.
Suddenly, the room was a full half story taller, along with a remains 
of crashing sounds upstairs.
It was Ryoko's turn to quip at Washu. Another raspberry.

After everyone took stock of what was left of their rooms, we started 
the decorating.
While the girls, euphemistically led by Misaki, took charge of the 
tree, we strutting guys took charge of the outside.
First came the walkway; which had a good three feet of snow on it. 
While Tenchi and I did the worst of the work clearing, Azusa took to 
giving out commandments of how clear the walkways should be, even 
taking after Nen, Yosho, and Nobuyuki.
It got to the point that Azusa was pushing it a little, getting too 
full of himself, when we all simply stopped, and plastered the 
sovereign with a ton of snowballs.
Hey, at least it helped clear the walkways much faster. But soon came 
the female contingent, with Misaki at first yelling for us all to stop, 
but taking a face full from a bad shot from Azusa, one meant for 
Tenchi.

All chaos erupted after that, as one by two by the rest, the gals 
joined in the massive snowball war.
Other than Azusa being the target of unholy war from Misaki, the rest 
of us took pot shots at one another. But there was a definite  pattern 
of whom was targeting whom, as the fight spread out through the entire 
hillside area.
As I scrambled for my life from Tsunami, Mom, and Dad; Tenchi actually 
took to hunting down his soon to be wives, a switch from last year. 
Azusa was hunted mercilessly by Funaho, and a deranged Misaki, while 
Kiyone took pleasure in gaining a semblance of vengeance upon a hapless 
Mihoshi.
Nen, Washu, and Sasami took to just hitting whoever came along, and 
getting a few in return.
Achika concentrated on Nobuyuki; a one sided affair.
It also got to the point, that Sasami, Bruinuae and Washu were in these 
snow white camouflage suits, indiscriminately ambushing most that came 
their way. This was the only time Tsunami actually got hit with 
snowballs this entire time, I suppose because of Sasami. I took quick 
advantage from all the pelting I had received, by slamming into a tree 
Tsunami had ended under, and completely smothering her in a large 
dumping.

The great fight continued, until the more Jurai portion of the group, 
minus myself; decided upon teaming up, and hunting the rest of us down. 
That left myself, Ryoko, Nobuyuki, Nen, Washu, Mihoshi and Kiyone to 
form a self-defense compact.
But it didn't help much, despite Ryoko, Washu, and myself; we were 
picked off one by one by an unfair use of Jurai powered snowballs.
About a half-hour later, Ryoko and I were fleeing for a safe cover near 
the Demon Cave; as we were pincered along two directions. Tsunami just 
had to add some flowery taunting while they crept up after us, along 
with a few poison barbed comments from Ayeka towards Ryoko.
But Ryoko and I came up with a quick plan. And as the enemy was 
starting to petter shots at us, we turned the tables of using power, to 
send a massive tsunami (with pun intended, thank you verymuch.) of snow 
in the two directions indicated.
With Ryoko and myself celebrating victory upon the fallen, we all 
headed back inside to warm up with hot cocoa and warm cookies, ones 
that Achika and Mihoshi had waiting.

Next, after everyone recovered, with a few hot showers; came the roof, 
which had lost all of the snow due to the sudden remodeling. 
To prevent a repeat of the walkway incident, Azusa was tasked with 
holding the ladder.
It took a few terse hours for staple-gunning; but we managed to put up 
a sweet set up, did I mention the caffeine additive Washu had put into 
the cocoa? ZOOM!!!
By the end of the afternoon, the set up was complete. It was here that 
a massive blast of snow nearly tumbled us all from the roof, as a 
familiar starship exploded into the sky.
I mentally inferred to Tsunami the case, and got in return that Mihoshi 
and Kiyone were called away on a distress signal. And also that Nen 
decided to tag along for support, much to the worry of Sasami and 
Bruinuae; as well as a turn on for them I discovered later.

After I told the rest of the group, we finished the last details of the 
roof, then headed down to work the ground decoration setup.
We were done by the evening hour, as we headed back in with a tired 
chill to our bones.
Despite the minus of three members, we had another great meal; but left 
some leftovers for the GP members to dine on upon their return.
The girls retired to the indoor Onsen; while we guys waited.
Three hours, and a warm bath later, we went to bed, and fell asleep 
quickly enough.

It was while I was in the middle of dreaming about piloting a large 
mobile suit, when I awoken rudely by Tenchi and Washu; Tsunami was just 
finishing phasing into a kimono.
I learnt quickly that something had happened to the Yagami; and that 
Tenchi had decided to send himself with Washu and Ryoko as an advance 
party on Ryo-ohki, Tsunami countered by sending herself and myself 
within Tsui-ohki, whom she pulled out of hair aka Mihoshi style.
The rest planned to follow in the Azusa, while we advanced ahead. 

I was quite worried about the situation, not wishing to have a funeral 
for Christmas, which was now a week away.
With Ryo-ohki thundering ahead, and Tsui-ohki trailing behind, we 
flashed towards the scene; which was near Neptune.
It took a few minutes at subwarp; but we reached the area; and it was a 
mess.
The Yagami was hovering near a large transport ship; strangely Juraian 
in design, as they both were being preyed upon by a large swarm of 
pirate fighters; with a couple of large pirate warships to the left of 
our position. 
It looked like the Yagami had taken a harsh beating, only saved due to 
it's Cruiser design. And that the Yagami had put itself in between the 
main pirate vessels, and the transport.

Unfortunately, as soon as we arrived, a new wave of fighters disgorged 
from the larger of the two vessels, apparently a Carrier for the 
fighters.
Tenchi took quick command, and had both cabbit vessels split up, which 
only served to split up the fighters into three groups, one for each 
cabbit vessel, with the rest concentrating fully on the Yagami, 
ignoring the other vessel completely.
We were at a slight disadvantage in numbers, but made up for it in 
firepower, as a great number of pirate fighters bit it in a large laser 
exchange.
It was while we were screaming past the Yagami, that Washu popped up 
onto the screen suddenly; I and Tenchi shouted from our respective 
cabbit ships at the same moment, in the same vein: "NOT NOW WASHU!!"

Washu said we might need a bit of help, and had sent the Sele`nta just 
after we left, with a special surprise; an early Christmas present for 
me.
The said Juraian destroyer arrived through a Jump portal hole, and 
Tsunami took control of Tsui-ohki from me, and I ported over to the 
Sele`nta. What I found shocked the hell out of me.
While Misaki and Bruinuae took control of Sele`nta, whom had 
accompanied the vessel; I launched from the Sele`nta within the 
confines of nothing less than a Gundam mecha!
It was a Juraian version of the Wing Zero Custom Gundam that the family 
and I watched on one of DVD's of the same series; I guess Washu had 
noticed.
And I do mean a Juraian version of the Gundam, it had the coloring and 
leafy pattern along the main body of the vessel, and the wings; which 
exactly matched the same mecha unit. It had a Gem power source, a 
Juraian designed Shield and Heat Rod, and a large Double beam trident, 
which operated and looked along the same lines as a Juraian Key Sword, 
which meant only a use of Jurai boosted Gem power, it even had a 
particle shield grid; an improvement I thought.

This introduction of power shocked the pirates as much as it did me, 
but I got over the shock in glee, the pirates weren't so deciding.
Now it was the pirates turn to start running, as the cabbit, Juraian, 
and GP vessels began pummeling the fighters and the two vessels, while 
I quickly made short work of six squadrons of fighters.
The accompanying pirate Cruiser began to break for it, leaving behind 
it's slower Carrier brethren in a cowardly pirate fashion.
I had dispatched three more fighters; when I saw the pirate Cruiser 
bolting. I quickly informed that I would give chase; but got a warning 
from Tenchi and Tsunami simultaneously.
I ignored and gave chase, and nearly got a face full of an ion cannon 
blast for my trouble.

I quickly managed to cripple one of the main engine links for the 
pirate Cruiser, and then backed off, hoping that they couldn't Jump 
now.
I then had to contend with three fighters, while Ryo-ohki closed with 
the Yagami; intending to dock. At the same time, the Sele`nta squared 
off with the pirate Carrier, which it handled easily with the Lighthawk 
Wings engaged.
Suddenly, three Jump signatures arrived, as a GP Task Force of forty-
three ships, a Juraian unit of seventeen ships of the Protected Zones 
Fleet; responding to Azusa's summons, and he whom belonged to the third 
contingent as the Azusa arrived with the Funaho, and Terr`iah.
Within five minutes, the pirates gave into the inevitable.

Soon after, I landed the Gundam in the Sele`nta and transported over to 
the and transported over to the Yagami.
There I found Mihoshi fawning over Tenchi, and Bruinuae fawning over 
Nen, Kiyone was talking to Azusa, Tsunami, and Misaki.
An apparent ambush upon a simple transport, and the Yagami got more 
than it bargained for when it reached the area, it took a while for 
Kiyone to get off the distress signal through a jamming field that the 
pirates had thrown up.
I was more impressed, and perplexed.

The former towards the Yagami crew for putting up with so much 
punishment, as well as guile in beating the jamming.
The later towards the pirates, a rather well founded operation to say 
the least. I learned that these pirates were from the Traquis 
Collective, and that they had been on the Class A-One list for decades, 
but had never been detected, much less captured up till now. I could 
imagine the look of shock on their faces, the pirates I mean.
But I then was more perplexed upon their intended target. As I had 
mentioned, the transport was themed in the Jurai style, but I had never 
seen such a vessel.
Azusa had, which surprised me more.

Tenchi and I were kept in the dark for a bit, as we followed Azusa, 
Kiyone, and Funaho to the port Yagami docking clamp; which had been 
attached to the transport.
I was getting a bit miffed, when we reached the docking port. That 
quickly was silenced, when the hatch was opened.
And all I saw was faces of children.
At least thirty, but the count turned up thirty-seven in the end.
Azusa upon seeing the faces only sighed. Funaho looked thickly in the 
pensive.

A Orphanage ship, the Lent`it`tos I learned quickly.
This Christmas had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.
And we hadn't even done the shopping yet.
Oh boy..

(End Part Twenty-Seven)