Season 2: Home Life and Shadow Plays Episode 1: No Need for a Home Tokyo street "So what exactly are we looking for," Rikyu asked. "At the moment?" Kiyone asked, half-annoyed, half-teasing. "Well, other than, Mihoshi," the Akuneko responded as he looked into the next shop window. It was a book store, and he didn’t see Mihoshi inside. "You said, house hunting, but you never said what sort of house you were looking for." "I don’t think my apartment is going to cut it anymore," Kiyone put in. There was a sudden crashing sound about two stores down. Kiyone noted the sign marked a toy store, which hopefully meant that nothing was broken. The newly promoted Captain slumped, frustrated. "I think we found her." "It would appear so." They arrived to the sound of a familiar wailing cry. "I didn’t mean it, I’m sorry!!" "Look at my store?" the shopkeeper was yelling. "You tumbled every single shelf in the place." Then Mihoshi saw Kiyone and Rikyu standing outside, gaping at the scene of destruction. "Kiyone, I didn’t mean it," Mihoshi whined. "I was just trying to get the…oh there it is." Mihoshi’s unhappiness vanished as she picked up the three-foot tall plush cat that was on the top of the pile. "Mihoshi," Kiyone sounded tired. "What is it Kiyone?" she asked, Kiyone wasn’t mad, so she wasn’t to concerned. "Nevermind," Kiyone said. "Sit down outside and wait for us." "Can I have this?" the blonde asked, brandishing the stuffed animal. Kiyone thought about it. "No, Mihoshi, maybe before you made this mess, but not now," tears started to well up in Mihoshi’s eyes and she walked outside dejectedly to wait for her friends. Kiyone could hear her crying outside. "I’m sorry for the mess my friend caused, perhaps we can clean it up." "You’d better, or I’m calling the police on that moron," the shopkeeper yelled. Kiyone glared at him, Mihoshi was an idiot, and a disaster area, but it wasn’t like she did anything intentional. "Excuse me," Rikyu said walking past the fuming shopkeeper. To the man’s surprise the red-haired Akuneko picked up one of the fallen free standing shelves and held it about three feet off the ground while Kiyone cleared the space underneath it. Rikyu couldn’t use his abilities as well as Ryoko, she could generate much more power in a lot less time. On the other hand he had a lot more physical strength, which made him very strong indeed. This didn’t go well with his slim outward appearance, in fact it would have seemed rather comical if one wasn’t there. "Okay, you can put it down now," Kiyone said. Then Rikyu moved to another shelf and repeated the process. "Good thing these shelves are plastic, there doesn’t seem to be any real damage." "Now what were you saying about your apartment?" Rikyu asked calmly as he held the second set of shelves up. "Well, it was fine for me and Mihoshi," Kiyone started. "Finished. But since Karya and Rakkan don’t seem to be interested in leaving anytime soon I’ll have to find something bigger." "Well that makes sense," Rikyu said as he easily hefted the next shelf. "Where are Karya and Rakkan anyway?" "At the Masaki’s, studying Earth culture." Masaki Residence "So, this Kimi is trying to steal Toshi’s heart from Aiko?" Karya asked. "Yes, but she doesn’t really love him," Ayeka confirmed, munching another cookie. She liked these soap operas more recently, she could almost convince herself everything was normal. "Its because she blames Aiko for everything that’s ever happened to her?" Rakkan questioned. "Yep, but what she doesn’t know is that her cousin Tadaaki has been manipulating her all this time," Ryoko said. Watching this soap opera with Ayeka was one thing that hadn’t overly changed from her routine. "Because he hates her for proving that his brother, Seiki was embezzling from their employer." "But didn’t he save her life when that Togan person tried to kill her?" "Oh that was because Togan went to school with him in France and knew about Tadaaki’s illegal businesses." "And he wants Kimi to suffer, not just die." "Oh I see, and what about Nyoko?" "The maid? She’s in love with Tadaaki, but is too shy to say anything." "Does she know what he’s like?" "They haven’t said yet, I don’t think so, Ryoko believes that she does, though." The toy store "So how are things between you and your mother?" Kiyone asked as Rikyu set down the last of the shelves. They started trying to organize the toys and put them back on the shelves now. "Well, at least I understand why she left me here," Rikyu answered. "But we haven’t really done anything but exchange fighting tricks." "I feel sorry for her," Kiyone commented, tossing a smashed electronic toy aside, calculating the cost as she did so. "Especially now, she’s been trying to live a normal life ever since I met her here. She must think everything is crumbling around her." Kiyone glanced outside at the pouting Mihoshi. "I know how that feels." "Yeah, I can imagine you do," Rikyu laughed. "Have you heard anything about Ayeka yet?" Kiyone was quiet for a moment. "Washu did a full battery of tests," Kiyone answered, starting again to put toys on shelves. The shopkeeper was only looking at them in shock, or more precisely, Rikyu. The Akuneko was now floating up to put things on the higher shelves. "But there isn’t much information on Jurai burn out. She could die fifty years from now, or she could live another thousand." "That sounds like a long time to me," Rikyu noted. Once the shelves were arranged it didn’t take them much longer to clean up the place. "As a Jurai royal family member, Ayeka should be looking at another five thousand," Kiyone explained. "Well, I guess that makes it signifigant." "Excuse me, how much do I owe you for the damages?" The shopkeeper looked from her to the man with spiky red hair and yellow eyes. "Uh…no problem…cleaning up was enough," he said nervously. "Are you sure?" Kiyone asked, she didn’t want this coming back at her later. "Yes ma’am," the man nodded vigorously, watching Rikyu like a mouse watches a cat. "Okay, I guess this is it then, sorry about the trouble." Kiyone walked out the door ahead of a yawning Rikyu. "Oh, its no problem at all," the shopkeeper affirmed nervously. When the door closed behind the pair he let out a heavy sigh of relief. "Okay, Mihoshi," Kiyone addressed the other detective. "We’re finished here, let’s go." "Okay, Kiyone," Mihoshi sniffed. "You still haven’t said what kind of house you’d like," Rikyu noted. "I can’t help you if you don’t give me any information." "I don’t know for sure," Kiyone admitted. "Four bedrooms, maybe on the edge of town like Tenchi’s place. You’re the one with businesses all over town, shouldn’t you know about real estate?" They began to pass into the suburbs now. "Four bedrooms?" Mihoshi repeated confused. "Why, do we need four?" "You’re going to get your own room, Mihoshi," Kiyone answered. "So is that the only reason you asked me to join you today," Rikyu asked teasingly. "I can’t have my own room," Mihoshi whined. "What if I have a nightmare again, or what if that Rei person comes back and I’m all alone?" Rikyu laughed as Kiyone turned to face Mihoshi. "Listen, Mihoshi," Kiyone started. "Before you knew me you had your own room right?" "Yeah," Mihoshi admitted, half-crying. "And think about it," Kiyone started. "You could take a lot of stuff out of that cube and know where to find it all the time." "And you wouldn’t be mad at me for making a mess?" "No, it would be your room," Kiyone said encouragingly. "So you get to make it look like what you want it to look like." "Oh-kay," Mihoshi cheered. "Let’s go find a house!" "Yeah, let’s go," Kiyone repeated. "Mihoshi!" The blonde paused and turned around to look back at Kiyone. "Stay with us this time." "Um…Okay, sorry, Kiyone." "That’s okay, Mihoshi," Kiyone repeated, trying not to sound irritated. "Now what were you saying?" "Oh, it wasn’t important," Rikyu waved it off. They walked on for a few minutes more, occasionally having to stop for Mihoshi related incidents, but nothing as bad as that first one. They chatted back and forth as they walked, eventually the plots of land began to get larger and less modern. Kiyone stopped as they passed an empty house. It was an old building, but in good condition. She could see through a worn down fence an overgrown rock garden in the back of the place. It stared at them with dark, empty eyes, lonely and pleading. "Kiyone, that house scares me," Mihoshi whispered. Kiyone didn’t answer her, the teal-haired policewoman walked past the for-sale sign and stepped into the shadows of the inside. Rikyu came in behind her with Mihoshi reluctantly following. Kiyone wandered through it randomly, it was certainly big enough to serve her purposes. "What if there’s a ghost?" "There are no such things as ghosts," Rikyu told her. "Just space pirates and alien invaders." "How do you know?" Mihoshi asks. "We’ve seen a ghost before." "That was in the middle of Sargasso, do you really think we'd be unlucky enough to..." Kiyone paused. "I'm not finishing that thought. Anyway I like this house, and it shouldn’t take too much to fix it up." "Yeah a few hours clean-up," Rikyu noted. "Some paint, a new fence. A lot more furniture." "I have that," Kiyone noted. "In the Yagami, all the furniture we collected during the Kagato thing. You wouldn’t believe how much stuff they bought on that trip." "Well, let’s make the call." "Didn’t you hear me say that I don’t like this place?" Mihoshi whined after them. Galaxy Police Academy Mitsuki regarded the cadet with a hint of annoyance. In little more than a year she had gone from head of the special crimes unit, to just another detective. Now she was training rookies, it was embarrassing. It was that woman’s fault, the redhead told herself. Kiyone Makibi was off revealing traitorous conspiracies and fighting alien invasions while she sat here and lost everything she had every worked for. Kiyone always came out on top, the only time Mitsuki had beaten her was due to a little creative computer work involving their final academy rankings. Even when Kiyone volunteered to return to that primitive little dust ball fate hands her a promotion and Jurai commission all in one swoop, and that was a month ago. Kiyone was a hero, while Mitsuki was a scheming little nobody training cadets. "Well, cadet," she spoke in her mock cheerful way. The red-head was smiling broadly, but her manner was friendly in a way that intended insult. A sort of condescending sneer that was heavily vieled under a smile and sparkling eyes. "Let me see what you can do." The cadet’s black eyes narrowed and he smirked a little viciously. The man brushed at his short cropped, black hair. Mitsuki was of the opinion that he had only recently cut his hair. She wasn’t certain of what species he was, the tail meant that he wasn’t human. He looked somewhat familiar. Mitsuki thought that she should recognize him from somewhere. She would have pegged him for an Akuneko but for the eyes, they weren’t the yellow that people were discovering was normal for Akuneko. Those eyes were cold black pits in the center of the whites of his eyes. "As you wish, Mitsuki-San," he answered respectively, in the same manner that Mitsuki was friendly. The cadet took the pistol and sneered, Mitsuki thought that he was insulted to be using it. The cadet fired three times, and the target revealed a decent score. "Well, you’ve improved from pathetic to average," Mitsuki commented, in that false complimentary tone. "If you have to fight I’d stick to hand to hand if I were you." "Of course, Mitsuki-san," he responded patiently. "Out of curiosity, why do you hate Captain Kiyone Makibi?" All pretense of friendliness vanished, the red-head made sure no one was around to see, and then slammed the arrogant cadet against the wall. "What do you know about that?" she hissed. The man smiled at her, despite the fact that she was trying to crush his throat. "Just that you and I have a common interest," the man smiled at her. He shouldn’t have been so comfortable considering Mitsuki was trying to crush his throat. Mitsuki’s eyes narrowed and then she laughed. "I thought I recognized you, Cadet Ren," she let him go and laughed. "I could turn you in, make Kiyone look like a fool by catching her escapee." A blade of black energy appeared under Mitsuki’s chin. "Don’t waste your life," he instructed her. "I am going to destroy Kiyone Makibi and then I will make you powerful, you will be my public face." "You want me to be your puppet?" Mitsuki asked nervously. The black blade vanished. "And how are you going to send Kiyone into the pits again, I doubt they’ll believe in her going outlaw again, Kagato already tried that." "Oh we’re not going to defame her," the man smiled. "You are going to avenge her, and become the hero that she already is." Mitsuki smiled. "Interesting idea," the red-headed policewoman smiled sinisterly. "I like it."