Chapter 9 Meanwhile, with Mihoshi and Tenchi Meanwhile, at the Galaxy Police Station, Mihoshi was terribly lonely without Kiyone. Her huge office was practically barren, and one thing that absolutely could drive Mihoshi crazy was a barren room. "When's Kiyone coming back?" she asked herself. "I don't know," she answered herself. "I wish I had been there when Kiyone signed up for that mission. Who knew that she would sign up for it at the exact time I was getting coffee during Mitsuki's holiday. This stinks." Tears started brewing in her eyes, and she suddenly screamed, "I MISS KIYONE!!", tears rocketing out of her eye-sockets like a full geyser. She pouted for a few more seconds before an idea sprung in her head. "I'll ask Mituski where Kiyone went!" she informed herself. "Good plan! She'll know!" she complimented herself. She had been talking to herself a lot since Kiyone left. She pushed the intercom button and yelled excitedly into the speaker, "MITSUKI!! WHEN'S KIYONE COMING BACK?!!" "AAAHHH!!" she heard Mitsuki's voice over the com. "Don't talk so loud! I was having coffee and I spilt it on me." "WHAT?!!" "DON'T TALK SO LOUD!!!" "Ok! You don't have to yell!" "WHAT?!!" "I SAID YOU DON'T HAVE TO YELL!!" "Oh. What do you want, Commander Mihoshi?" "When's Kiyone coming back?" "Oh. She's not coming back for a few days." "WHAT?!!" Mihoshi screamed over the speaker, on the verge of tears all over again. "AAAHHH!!" she heard Mitsuki scream. She paid little mind to the detective/secretary. She was more concerned with the problem of Kiyone being gone. "MITSUKI!!!" she whined over the com. "Oh sorry. I didn't mean to talk so loud." "WHAT?!!" "I SAID I DIDN'T MEAN TO TALK SO LOUD!!" "DON'T MENTION IT!!!" "OK!! DO YOU KNOW WHERE KIYONE IS?!!" "SHE SHOULD BE AROUND JINQUAL, PICKING UP A SMUGGLER!!!" "THANK YOU!!!" "DON'T MENTION IT!!" Mihoshi turned off the intercom and stood up. "I'LL GO LOOK FOR KIYONE MYSELF!! SHE MIGHT NEED MY HELP!!" she screamed to herself. She walked out of her room and into the hall way. Many people were holding their ears and staring angrily at Mitsuki. "WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT?!!!" she screamed. "That girl talks way too loud," Mihoshi mumbled as she made her way to her ship. She went into the ship holding pen and was stopped suddenly as she saw the most beautiful ship she had ever seen. The craft, which had the name Yukanojo painted on the side of it, had cool racing stripes on the sides and it looked shiny and new. Mihoshi checked to her left and right to make sure no one was looking before she climbed aboard. This wasn't her ship, but she guessed since no one else was using it, she could take it for a ride. It would go fast and would probably find Kiyone in no time. Now, all she had to do was start it up. Mihoshi pushed a large, green button on the front controls which she guessed was the start button. She could hear the engines rev up quietly and smiled. She hardly ever got it right on the first button. Then, suddenly, a voice spoke through the control panel. "Hello, detective. My name is Yukanojo and I am experimental craft 0. How may I help you. "Cool," Mihoshi marveled. "It can talk." "Yes, detective, I am fluent in over twenty-two million forms of communication all over the univer-" "Let's plot a course out of here." "Very well, detective." "Call me Mihoshi." "Very well Mihoshi." Mihoshi clapped her hands together as she felt the craft pick itself up and move slowly to the pen door. By remote control, it opened the steel doors keeping the vacuum out, and proceeded through and out into space. Unknown to Mihoshi, outside, everybody immediately felt the huge pull of the vacuum and started grabbing on for dear life. It was a miracle that nobody was killed before Yukanojo closed the doors back up. Meanwhile, Tenchi's life was becoming extremely boring. He just couldn't stop thinking about his voyages through space with all his lady friends, and was often called down for daydreaming in class. He stopped caring about school and even started taking out his aggression on his friends, which few he had that was. Actually, by his calculation, he had more friends in space than on earth. He was beginning to really regret not staying with Aeka. He sat in class that day Mihoshi made off with the most expensive space ship in the GP, thinking back to the last time Nagi had confronted him. She had looked so desperate and somehow frightened. Her tight uniform seemed to be wrinkled on her, and their were large bags under her eyes. He had not been caught by surprise like the first time they had met. He seemed to sense the coming of the ship Ken-oki minutes before it landed. He remembered the day, although it had been weeks ago, as though they it had been yesterday. He was in the field, picking crops, when the a cold feeling enveloped him and sent shivers down his spine. He got up and looked around. He saw nothing around him, but, as though by instinct, looked to the skies. There he stared for a full two minutes, the cold feeling growing greater and greater. Then he saw it, the ship Ken-oki, growing in the distance, coming to the small planet of earth. He watched it come and land in the fields. He never moved, standing his ground as the ships door opened and the bounty hunter hopped out. He watched as Nagi walked towards him, her black cloak wafting in the breeze like a flag. "What do you want, Nagi?" he asked calmly. "You know what I want," she answered coldly. Her voice cracked, very unlike her, and she looked very haggard. She had obviously not had much sleep in the past few days (or possibly weeks). "I haven't seen Ryoko," he said, looking down to the ground. "Yes you have!" she said, whipping out her sword, pointing it at the boy. Tenchi stared at the bounty hunter, his hand hovering over his Tenchi sword which hung on his belt. "I hate to disappoint you, but . . ." She walked closer, and Tenchi could see a faint limp in how she walked. She was certainly worse for wear than when they had faced last time. She walked up to him, nose to nose, and looked deeply into his eyes. She stared for many seconds, and Tenchi could actually taste the alcohol on her breath, although he made no attempt to move. Finally she moved, walking away from him, towards her ship. "Nagi!" Tenchi called out. Nagi stopped, although she didn't turn around. "I hate to say it, but . . . she's most likely dead." Saying those words brought Tenchi dangerously close to tears, although he managed to hold them back, barely. What happened after, Tenchi wouldn't be soon to forget, as she turned around and stared at him. It had been the look in her eyes, the distant rage that had built up there, which had frightened Tenchi the first time the two met, and had frightened him again this time. "You know," she said to the emperor, "I'm going to tell you a story I haven't told anyone for close to a decade. Do you know how Ryoko and I met?" Tenchi shook his head reluctantly. "It was about ten years ago. At that time I went by a different name, Jamie Murdock. I worked for the galaxy police. I was even partners with your friend, Kiyone, for a short time, although she seems not to remember me. Well, that all changed one faithful day when Kiyone and I were on a mission. We were after a smuggler, which is what we were mostly ordered to catch, but when we got to the place the informant told us the culprit was at, the place exploded and kind of blew me up. We were both injured, and I konked out, but when I came to, the whole place was gone and Kiyone was no where to be seen. I was pretty beat up, but was alright. I went back to my home, about to call the Galaxy Police and tell them I was alright, since they probably thought me dead, when I get a telegram. "It was from the Galaxy Police from the department of outside Jurain homicide. That was close to where my sister, Nagi, lived. The telegram said that she had been killed, by the space pirate Ryoko, and that there was witness testimony to link Ryoko to the crime. I loved my sister . . . dearly. And I pledged then and there to kill that bitch if the courts never did it for me. She was never caught, so I decided to adopt the name Nagi and become a bounty hunter, giving up the identity of Jamie Murdock forever. That's why I need to kill Ryoko. You understand?" "But you don't have any proof that it was Ryoko who killed your sister! Just one witness!" Tenchi shouted. "I can't believe that she would do anything like that!" "I have enough. She was there, she was the only known felon, and she was the only enemy my sister ever had. I have enough, and if that woman has any honor at all, she'll face me." "But-!" "I have only one more thing to say," she interrupted. She turned around, looking up at her ship, the Ken-oki, hovering in the air mere feet above the ground. "If you see that pirate, tell her to stay in one place, and I'll find her. If she has any bravery at all, she'll do it." Tenchi was left speechless, though his mind desperately raced to think of something to say, to keep the bounty hunter there. He had to say something, to find out more. She couldn't just spring this on him and leave. But after a few minutes, Ken-oki took off and was soon out of sight, leaving a sputtering Tenchi, still desperately thinking of something to say. Tenchi looked out the class window, so wrapped in his thoughts that he didn't notice the teacher staring at him. "Mr. Masaki!!" she yelled. "Will you kindly get your mind out of space and join the rest of the class?!" Tenchi looked to his teacher, and then, not for the first time, it dawned on him how much of a mistake it had been to give up being Emperor of Jurai, and the anger that had been swelling inside him for weeks finally erupted. He looked directly at the teacher, and without another word, calmly picked up his books and headed for the door. "Where are you going?!" the teacher asked furiously, but Tenchi didn't even look back. He made his way outside and up to the roof, where he fell asleep, hoping to find Ryoko when he awoke. Three hours later, he awoke, and found nothing but a dusty old roof and a few pigeons. Neither the roof nor the pigeons looked very much like any of the space girls.