Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Kenshin in Space ❯ So now you know. ( Prologue )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

* Stuff in stars is in English. *
Thoughts will be in italics most of the time. Italics after some random Japanese in diologue will be a translation.
: Actions are in colons. : (That's where all the fun is ^.^) I know, bu-dum chhh! [MJb is a yaoi fan- reow! NOT of RK yaoi though]
(this fic is based solely on the anime, and the Revenge arc basically has never happened)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin, it belongs to Watsuki Nobuhiro and some other people like Jump comics and such. I'm not making any money off of this… unfortunately. :P.
Warning: Again I switch perspectives in this chapter ^.^0, another thing that might be confusing is my way of using romanji. You might notice that when the perspective is 3rd person I use the correct spelling/pronunciation of words, but when I'm in first person I write as the person thinks. Notes will be at the bottom.
Vocab ^.^
Ohayo- good morning
Sou ka?- Is that so?
Sugoi- Wow
Mou- jeez
chan, kun, san- chan: friends with a girl or very close, kun: friends or equals with a guy, san: respective and distant.
Beikon to egges- Bacon and Eggs... in romanji and japanese ^.^0

Chapter 2: So now you know.

Sano, Yahiko, Sawyer and Tackets all had to sleep in the main room on the floor while Megumi and Kaoru slept in Kaoru's room and Kenshin and Yahiko slept in their own rooms respectively. Sano didn't trust them not to do some sort of foreign, strange magical killing ritual and so he had forced the three of them to sleep in the same room. The only place that was comfortable for them was the main room.
That is why in the morning, when Kaoru walked in on them all she first tripped over Sano's head -and kicked it in retaliation although the chicken STILL didn't wake up- and saw that Tackets was sleeping silently against the shouji and Sawyer was nowhere to be found. However, she did smell something cooking, and she was sure that it wasn't Megumi's work since she had risen earlier than the lady doctor that morning.
She was slightly tired from lack of sleep. After she heard everyone go to bed she remained awake and thinking of what these outlandish people were doing in her home and if what they were saying made as little sense as it sounded. Even if it was true she really wasn't sure what they were asking of her. It sounded like they wanted her to come away with them, but that thought left her feeling cold and lonely so she dismissed it as absolutely ridiculous. She felt better that everything would be solved today and then she could sleep her nights away in peace.

Curiously I walked into the kitchen to see what was being cooked for breakfast so early. Even Kenshin usually didn't get up this early, but, my heart leaped, maybe he had been as worried as me and could not sleep as well! I smiled broadly before entering the kitchen and scoured the room for Kenshin. Maybe, I thought again, He would finally remember the gi I had bought him and wear it like he did last night. I had thought he looked quite handsome in it and was delighted to see him wear it.
I did see blue… blue and gray in fact, but to my dismay they were on opposite ends of the male body then they should have been. Saya-san stood near the counter at the moment with his back facing me, humming contentedly. Had I not been lost in my own thoughts, my stupid, girly thoughts, I would have noticed that it couldn't possible have been Kenshin from the start. Saya-san's voice was much deeper compared to the comical rurouni that said 'oro' almost as often as he breathed in. Sigh, I love that about him…
I blinked. Really, instead of daydreaming I should ask the strange crazy man what he was doing in my kitchen and possibly relieve him of any sharp objects. I took a cautious step towards him. He didn't notice me so approached with less hesitancy. "Ano," I asked softly so as not to startle him too much.
Saya-san was much more handsome up front than as he was last night in the gloom and the dark. He had a softly lined face and full lips. His nose and eyes were different. His nose was straight and more pointed than mine, and his eyes much wider. His light skin was clear and he smiled broadly with straight pearly teeth. He was only about five centimeters* shorter than Sano and his hair was similar in color. But Saya-san's hair stood up in a slightly flatter, more controlled way and he wore no bandana. "Ohayo!" he said brightly.
"Ohayo…" I responded lamely, trying not to sound too suspicious.
I heard a sizzling sound and Saya-san pivoted back to the food. How is he cooking in here? I wondered. "I wanted to repay your kindness for letting us stay," he said slowly. "So I got up very early and went back to my *ship* and," he yawned, "Sorry, I mean ship, and I picked up a small stove with *bacon and eggs*. He stepped to the side to let me see what he was cooking.
In one of my frying pans there were six strips of bubbling meat and some yellow fluff. "Beikon to egges wa?"
"Hai," he dumped the contents out on a plate. He handed me the plate and some chopsticks, "hai," he said once more and waited me to try the food. I looked at his suspiciously and sniffed the food first but he only laughed at me. The food did smell new and delicious… and I was awful hungry… When I didn't sleep I always felt hungry in the morning. I ate some of the eggs tentatively.
"Sugoi!" They were excellent! I started shoveling eggs in my mouth and finished most of them in about twenty seconds.
Saya-san laughed heartily and gently removed the plate from my hand; I blushed at my own crudeness. "I'm happy you like them. I'll make them for all of us. It's pretty easy."
Easy? I looked up in interest and when I caught Saya-san's eye I looked down and blushed once again. I could feel him smiling kindly at me and he placed a hand on my shoulder so I looked up and tensed a little, always on my guard. His smile faded the slightest bit, but he renewed it before I took much notice, "Would you like me to teach you how to cook this?"
I looked shiftily from left to right and then into the man's gray eyes, "If you don't mind…" I implied uncertainly. I then became bolder because he was being so nice about it. I stuck my hand behind my head and laughed nervously then said amiably, "I'm a horrible cook really."
Saya-san smiled, "Sou ka? Then who cooks?" he asked slowly. He moved over to the side so that it would be easier for both him and I to work.
"Well I try, but usually if we want to eat good food… Kenshin cooks…" I smiled disappointedly. All I ever got in this house were insults; it occurred to me that they might be rubbing off on me.
Saya-san glanced at me and seemed resolved to cheer me up. "I'm a bad cook too." He smiled, "But humans are lazy in the future so cooking is easy." We laughed. Even though I still didn't buy that tale about the future it was still funny.
Before anyone came looking for me, I had managed to cook enough food for all of us and it didn't even come out badly! Saya-kun had tried to teach me how his 'elechirik s'tovu'** worked and why it needed no fire (thereby preventing many incidents on my account) but he had trouble speaking in Japanese so early in the morning. Bacon was pretty easy to make as he had said. I just let them cook by themself and turned them over. The eggs took more steps but only two batches became messed up: one undercooked and the other overcooked.
All in all it was the best meal I ever made.
Yahiko was the first to go searching in food. I figured Sano had stayed up late - until Taketsu-san and Saya-kun had already fallen asleep, which, by Saya-kun's recollection, had been very, very late. When Yahiko saw the food his jaw dropped and he sat down as swiftly as possible to start inhaling.
I will never teach that child to eat slow! Mou… Then something occurred to me, "Yahiko!" I pulled the plate away from him. He started yelling and jumping for it. "You are such a pig! Go and get the others… then you can eat."
Yahiko glared at me, then eyed the food hungrily and I knew I had him. "Ugly bitchy teacher…" he mumbled as he turned to leave.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!!!" I held the plate back and aimed…
Then suddenly I had no plate. I whirled around and bonked Kenshin over the head for stopping me…
Only it wasn't Kenshin, it was Saya-kun. He fell to the floor with a plop, barely keeping the food afloat skillfully and wavered slightly with swirly eyes. I had half expected to hear "Oro?!" Instead I knelt and apologized, "Kya! Saya-kun! Gomen nasai!" I touched the side of his head where a bump had formed and heard him groan. "I'm so sorry!"
Saya-kun shook his head. "Iya, daijoubu." Nah, I'm OK. He handed me the plate and stood up with difficulty. "Ow."
When I saw that he was okay I tilted my head, "Ano, where are you from Saya-kun?" I had never heard the expression, "Ow," before.
Saya-kun paused and shook his head before answering, "I'm from *America*." I could tell he held back saying from what time he was from. "*New York, New York*; America." He smiled. "I'm honored to be called 'kun' by you, but my name is Sawyer Dominic. Not 'Saya'." The way he spoke made it impossible to be offended by the correction.
I tried again, "Saoya?"
"Sawyer."
"Soiya?"
"Close enough, Kamiya-san." I recognized the fact that he was asking if he could call me by a less formal name but I only smiled and asked, "Will you help me bring these out?" Together we brought out the food.
In truth I had asked Yahiko to go get the others only because I wanted to see if Kenshin liked my cooking. Yes, he always ate it without complaint, but I knew I was a bad cook and I was disappointed that I wouldn't be able to cook for a man like Kenshin… if I ever got a man like Kenshin. Not that I necessarily wanted Kenshin… right? I closed my eyes and sighed.
My feelings for Kenshin were in a jumbled mess on the floor next to my feelings about the strangers in my house. Soiya-kun*** seemed like a very nice man and not insane at all. Hell, he could cook better than I could. That said something. Not that I hadn't heard 'insane' among the many strings of nasty nicknames Yahiko delighted in christening me. Kenshin never insulted my cooking, but he didn't compliment it untruthfully either. Should it have made me feel good or bad that he told me the truth at least? Again with the confusion.
Soiya-kun and I spread out the food for everyone in the main room. Yahiko had done us the honor of waking up the house quite unceremoniously. A disgruntled Sano sat lazily up and glared at Soiya-kun. Who knows what Yahiko did to wake him up. Tackets stood as I entered and bowed his head before I set down the plates.
Sano looked around, "Wow, I always thought that the day I woke up earlier than kitsune would be the day hell froze over."
"Bite your tongue," Megumi said rather sleepily upon entering. "Yahiko's screaming for you to wake up woke me up. Are you sure you have a brain in there or is your head so full of junk that you can't even hear through your ears?" She flicked Sano's head. "Besides, that means I actually did wake up earlier than you," she sat and stuck out her tongue.
I waited nervously on my feet for Kenshin to come in. I couldn't imagine what was taking him so long. Yahiko was probably still looking for him or something. It was still very early in the morning and even Kenshin could still be sleeping. I leaned back to see if he was coming, "Waiting for Kenshin?" I heard Soiya-kun ask quietly next to me.
I shook my head quickly and tried not to blush. "No! Why would I do that? I was just waiting for Yahiko to come back so I could…" I felt at a loss for words. Instead of continuing I simply sat down abruptly and began eating.
Just then Yahiko ran in and sat down. "Ikatakimatsu!" He started eating vehemently. I tried not to look around for Kenshin, and I didn't need to for almost immediately I heard, "Ohayo," in a high yet comforting voice.
I smiled into my eggs before answering in like. Kenshin sat next to me, in between Soiya-kun and myself. "What food is this?" Kenshin asked as he nimbly picked up some eggs.
"Kaoru actually cooked something right for once. But I think it's just 'cause the crazy helped her-" Yahiko tried to say before he was knocked over unconscious by me.
Sano stared at his food doubtfully, "Jo-chan's food is already poison, I ain't eating nothing made by her and brought by some freaky man-witch." He pushed the food away; the first time I had ever seen him do that.
I sighed, I wasn't going to force Sano to eat my food, if he didn't want to eat it, he would go hungry. Let 'im. I took a bite of my own food before trying to watch Kenshin out of the corner of my eye. He had turned to ask Soiya-kun what he was eating and turned back so that I could see his profile. I watched closely as he brought up some bacon to taste, and closed his mouth around it, and then chewed.
To my delight Kenshin's eyes widened. He looked at me and smiled with his eyes closed, "This is very good Kaoru-dono de gozaru yo."
I beamed despite myself, "Hounto?! I'm glad you like it!" I felt warmth bubble through my chest and make it's way into my cheeks. That had been happening more often lately. My sudden bursts of uncalled for affection aimed at Kenshin almost annoyed me because it made me feel like I was falling for him when I didn't know if I could have him.
Kenshin's smile made me feel as if my stomach was melting. "Did Soiya-dono teach you how to make this?"
I nodded. "Aa, but it involves an elechirik s'tovu, which I don't really understand. I think I could make it without one, though. I just… don't have a supply of bacon and egges." I leaned forward to address Soiya-kun, "Where are they available?"
Soiya-kun had been busy eating and hadn't even bothered to try and translate everyone's conversation early in the morning so he only looked at me confusedly with a full mouth and made the sound, "Mm?"
"Where do bacon and egges come from?" I repeated.
"Technically, the future…" I glared at him, "Realistically, " he added hastily, "pigs and chickens."
"Hm." I thought about where I could get those things. I did notice that the food we were eating wasn't the healthiest thing possible… but at least I could cook it!
"Look on the bright side," Megumi added, "You can always have Sanosuke lay a few eggs for you." Everyone turned and waited for Sano's retort, but none came since he was halfway through his second helping of breakfast. We all sweatdropped.
"Didn't he say he would never eat my food?" I asked.
"Is that my plate?" Yahiko asked after he regained consciousness.
"Isn't that caniballism?" Megumi, of course.
"De gozaru," Kenshin added.
"I was hungry," Sano said in between bites angrily. "I also say that you guys weren't dropping like flies after eating the food so I figured it's not lethal."
"That's what I always say about Kaoru's cooking! 'What doesn't kill us makes us stronger!'" He patted his chest proudly.
Bubbling, mirthful laughter echoed from behind Kenshin. "You guys are so funny… just living your lives," Soiya-kun stated. "I have never met such a beautiful family." He smiled at us all.
Needless to say I felt flattered that he felt that way. It wasn't that I cared so much about his opinion as I did the fact that I felt the same way. So what if the word 'beautiful' didn't cross my mind? The feeling was there. These people were the best I ever had. I couldn't help but become a bit nostalgic about my lonely days by myself.
Everyday was torture, knowing that I had no one to share my life with. Genzai-sensei was around, but he also had his patients and a job. I wasn't close to any of my students to the point where any of them would hang around with me as a friend. I had almost no girl friends except Tae… and she was always busy at the restaurant. My father and mother were dead, and Ayame-chan and Suzume-chan were too young to understand anything I was going through. I knew what loss was. I had felt pain every time I saw people my age simply hanging out, or couples walking together. I watched little girls play with their fathers, mothers and siblings remembering the days when I would practice relentlessly under my father's direction.
My father had been strict and rather cold towards me to the point where even though he was around, after my mother died I still felt alone. When my mother was alive she seemed as cold and distant towards my father as he was towards me. She was kind and selfless but left my life much too early. Father didn't even mourn with me… he mourned his own way, separately… but I was always alone after my father died, for as long as I could remember up until the point when I met Kenshin.
Not many respectable males of Tokyo's society could run a successful dojo… The fact that I was a poor, alone female who ran a dojo, which didn't even teach someone to use a sword, successfully, proved something. In fact it was all I had. There was nothing, no one else in my life worth living for. That's why I had run out to face the Hitokiri Battousai on my own (not that I had a choice). I had lost my students… the only people I could count on being around me, even if we weren't so close. And I had lost my dojo… my only source of enjoyment and empowerment that kept me believing that I had something to look forward to.
Kenshin and I never outright discussed such details of my feelings… but he knew that I had suffered. I had once asked him if that was why he stayed, because he had seen that I had nothing left. He had answered, in a very Kenshin-like way: "Hanbun". He then explained that the other half of him had also needed company. It was the perfect thing to say and it still made me happy when I thought of it.
Everyone had continued eating my food while I was still recapping on my lonely life. But, I chided myself, that's stupid. I should enjoy my life as it is right now… while all of this still lasts, I thought bitterly of the task we were to perform after breakfast.
I reawakened from my thoughts in time to hear, "Maybe we should go to the future if Kaoru's gonna be able to actually cook something edible." Even though it should have been a funny comment that caused me to make some projectile object hit Yahiko upside the head, it was actually sobering and the room quieted.
"I think we should get going, ne?"

They walked with shuffling feet behind Sawyer and Tackets. The slow, lazy and forcibly relaxed steps of Kenshin-gumi seemed to be resilient and meant to prove how confident they all were that the slab from the previous night was a trick, that there would be no ship hidden in the wilderness and the story that the two strangers made up could not possibly be true.
Even though their feet were casual, what went on above the ankles was by no means calm. Kenshin, who did not believe them, and Sano, who was sure they were being led into a cult where they would be ambushed, were both tense and ready for action. Kaoru was starting to doubt herself. This was not due to feeling unsafe - she felt extremely safe with her family.
Sawyer had called it her beautiful family. He certainly didn't act insane. Perhaps she was naïve and trusting and she knew it; but still she could not ignore the instinctual feeling that Sawyer wasn't more insane than any given member of her family.
Even though he did not know Japanese that well he had learned it in only a month, and in his speech, crazy as it might sound, he had spoken clearly and intelligently. He was a caring person, with plenty of consideration for others as far as she could tell, and he was doing no harm to anyone so far. Once this matter of a 'ship' was settled… That brought up her doubts again.
Suppose he did have a ship. When she really thought about it, his story made it sound possible indeed for him to actually be here enlisting her help. Then again, that was ridiculous. She tried to convince herself of all the things she knew she should be thinking but that only caused the doubt to grow.
Hypothetically, if these people were for real, what would she do was the question that was really bothering her. She could even handle being looked down on by everyone for believing but what would she do? Such thoughts circled her mind as they trudged down a path that was pretty widely cleared within a miniature field area.
Yahiko looked up at the hazy gray-blue sky that hued as evidence of the previous night's rainfall. Shamelessly, he thought of what it would be like to really be able to sail in the sky, like a ship, or to launch a rocket, like what he was reading about with Daigoro. So the guy's nutso, he figured. Even I could take him with my shinai. And who cares as long as I get to fly the ship?
Megumi did not really need to pay attention to where they were headed so she allowed her mind to wander. Of course, she should have reprimanded herself for thinking of Sanosuke because of course, she had better things to think about. But still, as she gave a sidelong glance to the paranoid idiot, he had potential. They weren't together as of yet but she was starting to see where this would be going. They would spend more and more time together until something physical happened and then he would either be attached to her like an extra limb or leave her alone until he needed something such as money, or wanted something.
Such was the bitter and dark manner in which she conducted her thoughts on relationships. It was not that she would not want to have something with the chicken; it was just that he was so immature. She would have to be as blind as Kenshin was (metaphorically speaking of his skills with relationships) to not realize that Sano was a great catch. He was strong, stubborn, joyous and endearing, and he was obviously a hunk. The attraction was there, but what, she wondered, would that be followed up with?
She had been hurt before by immature men who couldn't hold a relationship if it were strapped to their 'manhood' before. There was so much pain and loss between Aizu and the Kamiya dojo that she had erected walls around herself in the form of cool, witty eyes and a fiery tongue. Not that she was heartless… but virtually untouchable. Kenshin was the first person for whom she broke down those walls, therefore, when she was hurt once again she had become even more wary to men, although she still liked to tease them. ^.-
Kenshin studied the ki around him and focused particularly on a certain crafty morning chef who had been able to do the impossible - teach Kaoru how to cook. Sawyer's ki, he decided, was by no means threatening at all, but Sawyer was no weakling. Kenshin didn't know in what yet, but Sawyer was good at something. He observed the taller man's body and decided it was not muscled enough for something such as kenpo or street fighting. Kenshin also got the feeling that if you gave the guy a sword he would probably hurt himself with it before he figured out how to unsheathe it.
There was a sudden mysterious rise in the stranger's ki. That could indicate any number of things but Kenshin assumed that he had suddenly become nervous. Kenshin checked around; there was nothing there. He wondered why Sawyer was so nervous then. How curious.
Sawyer sighed and refrained from smacking himself in the head with his palm. He had just been to the ship that morning! How could he possibly have already lost it? There was only one road to follow and he was looking for a huge metal, time traveling ship! How hard could that be? He reprimanded himself.
In a last desperate measure, he turned to Tackets, "*Hey, do you remember where I left the ship?*" he asked lowly.
"*You LOST the ship?" Tacket's whisper-yelled back.
"*The ship lost us,*" Sawyer joked.
"*I can't believe this, it's "your" ship for chrissake.*"
"*Some big help you are,*" Sawyer mumbled. Not for the first time he wished he had his old partner, Roxanne back with him. She would know where the ship was, she would have soothed the nerves of that weird chicken man during the night in order to make the close quarters breathable and most of all, she would have known Japanese by now!
Oh, how grateful Sawyer would have been if Tackets could have SAID something last night that was helpful. It almost just seemed like Tackets was a stoic old geezer that should not be talked to lest he die of the exertion of making an effort to respond in Japanese. He was not stoic because he was stoic; he was stoic because Japanese was lost on him!
Tackets, he considered, would be a more bearable companion on the way back to the future with the very charming Ms. Kamiya with him. She could help him improve his Japanese and he would teach her how to cook other food stuffs that appeared after her time such as soup that came in a can… and soup that you only had to add boiling water to… and microheaters, hydroveggies and all those "bachelor's cookbook" foods. He would not have to be alone in complaining about Tackets' snoring and by the look of her dojo, the woman might make Tackets clean his side of the room.
At a glance, Sawyer's eye caught on a distinctly gnarled tree that he had used as a mark before to remember where the ship was. He didn't feel so bad that he had lost the ship. The ship wouldn't be easy to spot with the camou-netting anyway, but the prospect of really not being able to find the ship made him extremely nervous for, how would Ms. Kamiya respond to that? "Oh, yes, I'm quite sure that there's a ship that travels through time… you just have to trust me because I cant find it at the moment. You see, its covered in a special net that hides it from all eyes and if you'll just be a little patient, perhaps let me stay at your house and eat your food for another night…" Yea, that sounded like real reliable reason as to why he 'couldn't find the ship'. His sarcastic side commented.
The gnarled tree calmed him though. All he needed to do was to head east for only another 50 meters.

After we turned east we only walked for a little longer before Soiya-dono began to pull something out of his gi. Instantly Sano and I were on either side of him although I had not yet put my hand on my sword hilt. The man sweatdropped and slowly pulled out a small black object in the shape of a little square.
He held it in his fingers and pressed a small button on the top of the device. There was the cute sound of: "Beep! Beep!" before a cluster of unfriendly looking trees before us suddenly shimmered and disappeared to reveal a large silver blur covered with black netting.
My heart sank so that my stomach felt a pressured sensation. The possibility that it had been true- Soiya-dono's story, it was true. I heard a thump and a familiar gasp. I looked to Megumi-dono who had abruptly sat and Kaoru-dono who had emitted the gasp I heard. I felt another twang of worry, how would Kaoru-dono take this? I looked back to the ship… How would I take this?
From what I understood of last night, the existence of this ship meant that Kaoru-dono's help was needed in the future. It still was not sinking in, this information and understanding only floated on the sea of consciousness I held at the moment. That ship simply couldn't be there; it didn't exist. I stared at the ship and only dimly wondered how the others were reacting.
"S-sugoi…" Yahiko blurted. That word pretty much summed it all up de gozaru yo, I thought bitterly. In a flash the realization of the existance of the large metal machine hit me. I blinked, "Oro!" finally escaped my mouth of it's own accord.
I surveyed the large… ship. It was a smooth bullet-like object made completely of a silver metal that sparkled in the sunlight with the exception of the window at the point that was too high for me to see into. From my angle there was only one sharp triangular wing visible but I could assume that the… thing… ship, was symmetrical and therefore had a wing on the other side. As the utter reality of the ship before me continued to dig into my conscious I could see more clearly that it was not just bullet shaped. The ship was slightly flattened and the end flared out. There was a bulbous middle section to the ship I hadn't noticed before that had long slits along its diagonal arches.
No one had spoken in long minutes so Soiya-dono took it upon himself to start. "Well," he waved his arm, "This is it." With that remark he seemed once again at a loss for words. He looked from one side to the other in a lonely gesture and then continued, "Um. This is my proof." He shifted to from one foot to another uneasily. I would have said something, but I could think of nothing. Soiya-dono did his best, "The proof I'm from the future…" he trailed off this time.
I needed to respond somehow to that hateful word "future". "Oroooo…" I trailed off myself.
Kaoru-dono looked over blinked at me helplessly. I felt my chest constrict a little at the look that said, "Help," when I could do nothing. For that look I would make everything disappear, the ship, Soiya-dono and Tackets-dono, if only I could. I almost caused me physical pain to see her so distressed. Anything to make that look disappear!
"So?" Sano asked obnoxiously. I thanked him silently for saying one of the many things I was feeling. Really, what were we to do? It was a ship… -and?
"So… we need Kamiya-san's help," Dom tried. Oh, yeah, my heart sank. At least with that said we were getting somewhere.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kaoru-dono asked as if she was lost and distracted.
Soiya-dono looked surprised at her tone, "You… we're asking you to come with us," he said more quietly.
Now that none of us could deny the truth, retold information struck a new chord in the hearts of us all visibly. Kaoru-dono gave a start, but that was all I noticed until I fully considered what all this meant.
From the way he was talking, Soiya-dono was giving Kaoru-dono a choice. She could stay at the dojo and Soiya-dono would leave without her or she could go with him and save humanity.
Unfortunately, in all the time I had known her, Kaoru-dono was never one to turn down people in need. Look at Yahiko, or how Sano mooches off her, or me. The woman is full to the brim with stubborn morality and she always (whether I liked it or not) did what was right. It was something I loved about her, and- wait- I didn't just… nah. The chances of her refusing Soiya-dono were slim. She might not want to leave the dojo, but I would bet my sakabatou she would. Or… there was always the possibility that if she wouldn't-
"You don't have to decide right now of course!" Soiya-dono said hastily. I looked to Kaoru-dono to see what had made him interrupt my thoughts. Kaoru-dono had gone ghostly pale and nodded sharply.
"Can I see the inside?" Yahiko asked with quelled excitement.
Soiya-dono smiled fondly at Yahiko. It was a familiar smile. It was at that moment, with dimming colors in my mind and a swirling view of what was happening, that I realized Soiya-dono smiled exactly like I did when I was putting up a front. I hadn't seen a genuine smile out of him the whole time he had been around. Given that wasn't very long, but it was even more confusing because he smiled so much.
Soiya-dono signaled for Taketsu-dono's help and went over to where a stake of some sort was driven into the ground. At the same time they pressed in a code into the side of the stake and the net that covered and hid the large ship (when… it turned on? I don't know.) flew up and snapped around the back, beyond view.
The ship was easier to see now. I could see streamlines running from above the wings horizontally all the way to the back of the ship. The sphere was not in the middle of the ship, but at the very rear and the engines flared out behind it.
Soiya-dono took his small object with buttons once again and flipped it over. On the other side there were two buttons. He pressed them in sequence and I heard a quaint beep. Soiya-dono smiled with pleasure. "I did it myself," he held up the small black piece. "In my time, that's the sound things made when they stopped being locked." He pointed the device back at his ship and put in another sequence.
We all gave a start as the bottom of the ship hissed with the compression of air and a circle of silver metal descended from the belly of the ship being held with a pole. There were also two rails and it didn't take me long to realize that this was the way a person got into the ship. The cut circle reached the ground and I cast a glance at Kaoru-dono.
"Would you all come in?" Soiya-dono asked and Kaoru-dono took a step forward so that I could not see her face.
"I will." Kaoru-dono said shortly but not rudely. Her steps were forced as she made her way towards the ship. I was, of course, right behind her and responded in like.
Yahiko ran ahead and speculated about the descending platform. Before I started to examine the ship or the platform I stole a glance at Sano- who was helping Megumi up. Content that all was as well as it could be, I sped my pace so that I could be next to Kaoru-dono.


*I used centimeters because I was too lazy to look up the measurement they used.
** 'elechirik s'tovu' for those of you who know nothing about the Japanese alphabet lemme help ya out. Or maybe ya know some but not this. Well: electric. The Japanese have a sound 'e', and 're' that doubles as 'le'. So that's 'ele'.
I used 'chi' for the 'ct' sound because I think that it's more of a 'tri' sound, which leaves me wanting to use 'ti' but there is no 'ti' in Japanese. There's: ta chi tsu te to, for the 't' section. 'Chi' is in the place of 'ti', and as an added bonus it saves me from adding 'k-something'. That's 'elechi'.
'rik' was easy. Theres 'ri' and then there's 'ku' in which the 'u' sound is sometimes omitted. When I omit vowels (usually 'u's like in ku and su) I put and apostrophe, which is why I wrote "s'tovu", but in this case since it was at the end and omitting 'u' in 'ku' is pretty common, (like in kuso, for which people write k'so), I simply didn't put an apostrophe.
Well I probably only confused you more, sorry. But there was reasoning!!! Reasoning damnit!!! You want to correct my mistakes, review or something, I'm cool with it. And I want to say that I don't know much Japanese, I can read it to a certain extent but don't really comprehend. Blah.
*** My reasoning behind calling him "Soiya-kun" It's the closest I can get with romanji. It's either I call him that or, "Soiyaru-kun" but I think thats unecessary.