Nadesico Fan Fiction ❯ Chasing the Darkness ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

Chasing the Darkness is a continuation of Nadesico that takes place after the movie, Prince of Darkness. The Jovian Alliance under Kusakabe Haruki has been overthrown and replaced by a peace-advocating faction led by Genpachirou. After Kusakabe's followers, the Martian Successors, failed in an attempted takeover bid, Kusakabe surrendered and is currently incarcerated on the Moon. However they have been weakened, though, the Martian Successors are far from defeated. Kusakabe's officer Shinjou Aritomo has risen to the forefront, and the rest of the solar system is walking on eggshells, trying not to disturb the delicate peace they now enjoy. For them, everything rests on the secrets of the Martian Artifact.

All the characters from the series (even some of the dead ones), as well as the characters from the movie make appearances, and for the most part, the traditional couples are respected.

I re-uploaded the story after some chapter rearrangement and a few grammatical corrections. Nothing significant plot-wise was changed.

Disclaimer: Mobile Battleship Nadesico and its characters do not belong to me no matter how many times I ask for them for Christmas. I've stayed as true as I can to the original storyline but I apologize in advance for any discrepancies that might arise.

PROLOGUE

"I'm not sure I understand." Misumaru Yurika cocked her head to the side in her usual clueless manner. Ruri sighed, but it was more a sigh of endearment than exasperation. She knew her surrogate mother was brilliant, but you wouldn't think that just from talking to her.

"It's very simple." She said slowly. "I've requested that you be stationed on the Nadesico C."

"But I can't be stationed there, Ruriruri." Yurika protested. "I'm not staying with Nergal. I have to find Akito."

"Baka." Ruri muttered under her breath. "What do you think I'm going to do, Cap…" she stopped herself before she finished the word. Yurika wasn't her captain any longer. She was the captain now. "I want to find him, too. That's why I want you to be the admiral in command, not some stranger."

Yurika studied Ruri carefully. It was a tempting offer-but it wouldn't be the same. She had been the captain of the first Nadesico. Being the admiral of the Nadesico C, with Ruri as its captain no less, would be too strange for her to handle. But then again, nothing was the same anymore. She wasn't the same anymore. She'd have to learn to deal with that, or Akito would never come back to her. "I'll think about it." She told the small white-haired girl. Ruri's blank face revealed nothing, but she knew she had won.

Two standard weeks later, Yurika stood quietly in her place on the Nadesico's bridge, tugging nervously at her new uniform, a ridiculously happy expression painted sloppily across her features. She was careful to keep her guard up when anyone she knew well was around, but if anyone had chanced to look at her closely at this moment would be able to tell that it wasn't a sincere smile. She pulled at the hem of her jacket again. An admiral's uniform wasn't so different from her old captain's uniform, except that instead of a white shirt she wore a white jacket with black shoulders. The bars and stars pinned at her chest were for service out of the line of duty-she had been the first Martian captain to receive the American Purple Heart for valor. Though she was only a one-star admiral, she was almost as decorated as her father, the legendary General Misumaru. Around her neck was a tulip crystal, to serve as a memory of her days during the war with the Jovians. Things had been so simple back then. During that war they had fought with faceless enemies called Lizards-now their enemy was themselves. The Martian Successors had eyes and ears everywhere; Yurika should know. After all, she had been their main computer for three years.

Ruri's entrance on the bridge drew her from her daydreams. She had once been an eleven-year-old genius under Yurika; now she was her sixteen-year-old daughter and the heir to Yurika's legacy as the captain of the Nadesico. The ship's re-charter and departure had drawn significant media attention, since every crewman was considered a war hero. Besides Yurika and Ruri, Haruka Minato was still at the helm, and Megumi Reinard still the communication's officer. The legendary Aestivalis trio-Izumi, Hikaru, and Ryoko-had also returned as the ship's pilot squadron. Two people Yurika had not known, Ruri's brother Harry and a Jovian pilot whose name always seemed to escape her memory, were also present. The only people missing were Ines, who was working as a first-class jumper still, Aoi Jun, who was commanding his own ship, and Akito.

Akito, Yurika's mind wandered as someone important gave an inaugural speech, I will find you. And then… she paused, frowning. She had been about to think that everything would go back to normal. But she knew it would never be like it was ever again. From what Ruri had told her, Akito had changed so much that he felt he couldn't stay with her. And then there was that strange girl, Lapis Lazuli. Yurika's frown deepened. Well, she would find a way for things to be all right. She could adopt Lapis. She'd adopted Ruri, hadn't she? And she would always love Akito, no matter how much he had changed. She knew his soul, and no matter what else had happened to him, his soul was still his.

After the media dispersed and the Nadesico began her voyage, Yurika returned to her rooms. She smiled slightly as she looked at her new nameplate: Admiral Tenkawa Yurika. That plate was proof to her that chasing Akito was not a lost cause. If he had loved her enough to marry her, then he must love her enough to let her find him.

"Cap-I mean Admiral!" a familiar voice said cheerily in the background. Yurika waved and grinned as Uribatake Seiya walked by on his way to the Aestivalis hangar. When she was safely behind the door of her room, however, she let the smile fall away. Everyone seemed to think that she had stayed the same over these lost three years. She understood that they needed her to be the constant, so that they had something familiar to hold to, and so she let them have it. But she knew that it wasn't the truth. She had been scarred more than anyone by the Martian Successors, with the possible exception of Akito himself.

Akito, she thought again, staring out her window at the vast starry expanse that surrounded her ship, What's happened to us?

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