Nadesico Fan Fiction ❯ To Die or Not to Die ❯ Chapter 7

A/N: The writer's block is still hanging around >< Oh well. I'm managing to spit out yet another chapter. I admit, yes, the last chapter had a lot of I+R stuff in it… bah, who cares. ^_^ The time thing may be a bit more confusing in this chapter… and YES it's STILL episode 13! (I don't even like this episode, but many interesting things happen in it, so there. :P) In the next chapter though, expect something of a small Hikaru interlude. And on to the fic.

~*~

There was darkness. Nothing but darkness. But, suddenly, there was a tiny pinprick of light. Not very big, but it slowly grew. Soon, it was tough to keep his eyes closed, the light got so bright. The brown orbs slowly opened, and everything was quite out of focus.

What was seen was nothing, at first. Then there was gray. He could hear slight beeping in the distance, but it was irrelevant. The only thought was, 'Where am I?' As the boy woke up more, it became much more apparent, he was in a hospital room.

He sat up and tried to rub his eyes, but his arms wouldn't let it happen. Blinking, he realized they had tubes through them. 'What the hell happened to me?' He had a headache as if someone was dropping a million chulips on it, all at the same time.

'Chulips! Oh shit… I boson jumped! But where am I… Oh god, that girl.' Flashes of his meeting with the violet-haired pilot called Itsuki, her Aestivalis attaching to the goliath, the goliath jumping ran through his head. Akito started to shake. 'If only I had thought. If only I contacted her with the communicator, she wouldn't have died…'

He heard a door open and close. An unfamiliar, gruff voice grunted. "So, you're awake. But we need to do some more things to help you heal, so we need to go back to sleep." The doctor filled a syringe with some fluid. Akito couldn't really see what it was, for he apparently lost his contacts. It was injected in his arm, and soon felt his eyelids grow heavy.

~*~

Stepping into the corridors of the Nadesico, the two women went straight towards the bridge. Gai didn't feel like dealing with the Captain right now, so, instead, he headed for the room he shared with Akito a year ago. It took him a while to find it, for he didn't have a very good memory. He opened the door easily though, and when he was finally in, dropped Akito's backpack and his own duffel bag on the floor. Unzipping his bag, he noticed something on the floor. Two somethings. They looked like cards.

Gai felt curious, so he opened the first one.

'Dear Akito,

I hope you have a very nice Christmas! I was also wondering, do you have any plans on Christmas Eve? I'd really like to spend it with you. Yes, only you.

Love, Megumi'

Gai's eyebrows furrowed together. 'Since when does seiyuu girl like fry-cook boy? Apparently, more has changed this past year than I thought…' A little disturbed, Gai picked up the other card, which he expected was from the Captain. It was.

'My dear, sweet Akito,

Merry Christmas, my love! I'm very sorry that I do not have a present for you, but will my love for you be enough? I hope that baka Megumi didn't make any plans with you for Christmas Eve night, because I'd really like you to come to my party. Please come, my dearest!

Love, Yurika'

Gai chuckled a bit. 'And then he spent Christmas Eve with me…' That just made him think back, again, to what Itsuki said, three months ago.

'"For example… you're always going on about getting back to the Nadesico… You've also told me just about everything there is to hear about that little Martian cook…"'

Gai shook his head to clear the memory away. 'There's no way in hell… Besides.' Gai looked at the cards in his hands distantly. 'Why would someone with two girls hanging off of him go after a person like me, a man, no less?' Gai's eyes welled up with frustration as he threw the cards towards the trashcan.

~*~

Itsuki stood in front of the door, somehow gathering up her courage to finally raise her hand and knock on it. Almost immediately, the green-haired pilot answered the door, dressed in her off-duty, of course. "What do you want?" Itsuki cringed at Ryoko's tone.

'Dammit, I took the wrong direction with her. I should have gone slower. Damn my stupidity, she probably hates me now.' Itsuki moved her gaze downward, feeling more dumb than usual. "I just wanted to say, thank you. For saving my life that is. I owe you one." Ryoko nodded.

"And…" Itsuki forced herself to look into Ryoko's eyes. "I'm… Sorry."

That caught Ryoko off-guard. "Huh?"

"I apologize for acting so… sleazy to get your attention Ryoko. I obviously missed read you, and I'm terribly regretful. Do you think you might be able to, maybe, forgive me?"

Ryoko was torn. 'God, she's really pissed me off… but, she still seems to be a good person. She's able to notice when she's made a mistake at least. Can't get that too often, nowadays at least…' "Sure." The word was out of her mouth before she could consider it.

Itsuki's eyes, before solemn, brightened. "Thank you Ryoko. Thank you so much." She grinned before she knew what she was doing, and had run off.

Ryoko stood staring off into the distance. 'That was a real smile. None of that attemptive-suave shit, but a real smile.'

~*~

Megumi stood up. "You! It's your entire fault, isn't it? It's your fault that Akito's dead. You knew he could boson jump, and you made him take the robot with him!"

Erina didn't have much response. "Please control yourself. And as for Tenkawa -"

She was cut off as a large communication window popped up. Nothing but static, but then Akito's face appeared. "Hey! Nadesico!" The current bridge crew gasped. "Where have you been? It's been two weeks! I've been calling you over and over!"

Inez smiled. "It's the time variable. You jumped to the moon two weeks ago." She glanced at the ebony-haired helmswoman. "I suppose we all know what happens now."

Erina chuckled. Jun leaned over the railing at the top level of the bridge. "What's that, Miss Frassange?" He was playing captain as Yurika had to go handle her personal issues.

Erina answered for her. "Full speed to the moon, immediately."

TBC…

~*~A/N: My god, this is really really sucking now. >< Oh well, I need to rush off to the next chapter all ready. Hope you enjoyed it so far!