Alright volume 2! electric ayeka boogalo!
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Prologue:
It was late may
it had been a short while since Azusa and his wives had left earth to go back to Jurai. They had recently spent 10 days having suitors battle tenchi.
the house was quiet. Sasami hugged Ryo-Ohki . she was in her cabbit form.
the house was quiet. Sasami hugged Ryo-Ohki . she was in her cabbit form.
This was at the time of day when sasami had free time for herself. It was at the end of the day, after she has cleaned and prepped dinner. As usual she was reading shoujo manga and basking in the sun with Ryo - Ohki, but she was feeling uneasy and had something on her mind that was bothering her. she felt the need to move around. She went for a walk. then she started madly doing chores. she swept the steps. then she pulled weeds while Ryo-Ohki in her little girl form, chased after a butterfly and fell down a slope. she wanted to clean more but it was pointless. Mihoshi had already done a bunch of cleaning the day before.
It was surprising but Mihoshi was actually good at doing housework. Although it took her a lot of time.
Sasami sighed. Suddenly washu poked her head out from underneath katsuhito's shrine.
*its elevated*
Washu greeted sasami while she had a big hand
full of black spiderwebs. sasami was scared half to death. she screamed so loud that katushito came out of his study to see what was going on. Washu explained that she was there to observe a type of spider that made it's nest in the sand. She asked sasami why she was sighing as she crawled out of the crawl space under the shrine. sasami explained that she was sad that her parents were only here for 10 days. she was homesick. washu, who was covered in dust and soot, hugged her in order to console her.
full of black spiderwebs. sasami was scared half to death. she screamed so loud that katushito came out of his study to see what was going on. Washu explained that she was there to observe a type of spider that made it's nest in the sand. She asked sasami why she was sighing as she crawled out of the crawl space under the shrine. sasami explained that she was sad that her parents were only here for 10 days. she was homesick. washu, who was covered in dust and soot, hugged her in order to console her.
"hey sasami want to see something interesting?" Washu said, Sasami was hit by a bad feeling.
She heard ayeka's screams coming from tenchi's house. she realized immediately this was what washu meant. she ran to ayeka's rescue. She was too late though. When she caught up to Ayeka she was already being engulfed by an opaque black gelatinous blob that had spider legs.
The movement of the viscous mass stopped after a short moment and it made a sound. the sound that a microwave makes when it is done to be exact.
"it looks like it's done." said washu. Sasami ran to her sister.
The black blob shot out ayeka from under it and left.
"Washu why did you do that to me?
"...... Sasami, with her hair like that doesn't she look like your mother?"
Sasami stared at Ayeka stunned. ayeka took out a mirror from her outfit and looked at herself... she screamed loudly.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT"
The color of Ayeka's hair had changed to a light blue-green color that looked like Misaki or Sasami's hair and it turned into a sharp hairy form like a pineapple ... then, it quickly changed back to her normal hair style.
Ayeka realized that her sister was missing home. She had been doing so much housework and adult stuff around the house that her older sister Ayeka, had forgotten that she was only nine years old. they hugged.
katsuhito asked washu when she noticed that ayeka's hair was genetically altered. she told him she had noticed when she performed a physical on them back when zero was posing as ryoko.
katsuhito asked washu when she noticed that ayeka's hair was genetically altered. she told him she had noticed when she performed a physical on them back when zero was posing as ryoko.
Genetically it was 4x more likely for her to have been born with misaki's hair color. Seeing her hair that color reminded Yosho of another time. A time when he wasn't called katsuhito but was called yosho.
end prologue
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disclaimer: this first part of the book can be a bit... uncomfortable. Royalty has historically been this level of ...odd about intermarriage if not more. but this is not a story about how yosho likes this situation this is a story about how yosho, a man born into a political situation he hates, escapes it and falls in love with a woman who is also a slave to her high status family's marital whims and well ....
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Chapter 1: Ayeka
Jurai ----.
"Jurai" was a paradise of plants where gigantic trees grow.
Among them there was a huge enormous tree of about 500 meters in height. It was an aggregated body of urban structures made by infusing countless kinds of plants and trees in complicated branches and leaves, it was called "Tenju".
Tenju was the capital city of Jurai, the home of the royal family of Jurai, and the center of the political economy.
Of course, such a thing didn't grow naturally. It was carefully refined by its people's hands, the Imperial Trees (Tsunami), and Juraian royalty, and it was done over hundreds of years. (People who bad mouthed it called it a "giant bonsai")
Somewhere in Tenju, the voice of a pretty girl rang out.
"Big brother~ Hey, Big brother Yosho ~!"
said a girl who vigorously jumped through a window into a yosho's room.
the young girl looked like a young Sasami and had a number of leaves woven into her hair and clothes from climbing. she jumped on yosho with a smile.
"I found you, big brother Yosho~!"
"Ayeka, you shouldn't come in from the window, azusa will get mad at you if he finds out"
"But my mother Misaki does it all the time."
Misaki poked her head in.
Misaki climbed the outer wall of Tenju every morning at a fixed time. On her way down she always poked her face through yosho's bedroom window and woke up yosho. this was embarrassing and he hated being called yosho-chan, and he hated that she could see him in the morning while he was asleep.
The reason he didn't like it is simply a matter of men 's physiology. (morning wood )
"Good morning.Misaki-sama: I am fine today, too."
With a smiling smile, Yosho greeted Misaki. He desperately made a face which would normally hurt to make. If he didn't, then Misaki would make a strange expression, reach a cold hand into Yosho 's bed to tickle him, and take off his blankets.
he waited for misaki to leave.
Ayeka gots his attention again and told him she over heard misaki and funaho talking. This surprised him because yosho's room was already really high up and funaho's room was hundreds of meters higher, there were safety systems in place though to catch them if they fell so he wasn't that worried about it.
"do you want to hear what they said?" she asked him
"sure"
"I'm going to be my brother's wife. that's what Mother and mother Funaho were saying"
"……what!?"
Although he had thought it was a possibility, Yosho was surprised to hear it was becoming a reality.
Ayeka asked him if it was true. He simply replied no.
It was two weeks later that the engagement of Yosho and Ayeka was raised on the agenda at the highest council of Jurai.
Yosho was 12 years old.
Ayeka was four
Yosho was born in a difficult position.
His mother Funaho was from a planet other than Jurai (and an undeveloped one at that), and yet she was still the first Empress.
when Funaho got her twin second generation Imperial Tree "Mizuho" and Misaki's got the other twin tree Karin the matter was supposed to have been settled. But it wasn't.
half of juraians were accepting of her , but the other half remained either neutral towards or critical of her being first empress and unfortunately all those who opposed her were people of high status and power. Even if she had half of the support of the nation, it wasn't exactly from people in a position of power. in fact all those in the Amaki branch of the family, especially Syūzan Amaki, disliked her., and many in the Tatsuki family including Utsutsumi remained neutral in the situation. Yosho felt their was implied pressured to boost his mother's position. he also felt the need to keep funaho company whenever he could. he wanted to both physically and mentally keep her safe since her father was too busy being emperor to do so.
half of juraians were accepting of her , but the other half remained either neutral towards or critical of her being first empress and unfortunately all those who opposed her were people of high status and power. Even if she had half of the support of the nation, it wasn't exactly from people in a position of power. in fact all those in the Amaki branch of the family, especially Syūzan Amaki, disliked her., and many in the Tatsuki family including Utsutsumi remained neutral in the situation. Yosho felt their was implied pressured to boost his mother's position. he also felt the need to keep funaho company whenever he could. he wanted to both physically and mentally keep her safe since her father was too busy being emperor to do so.
he was selected by his tree when he was 8. he found it in the same chamber as his father did. It was planted in the same place where "Kirito" his father's tree was planted. He named it Funaho after his mother.
"Funaho" was a very young and small tree compared to the others, despite being as tall as a second generation tree, it's had the power to surpass other first generation ships.
At the time having a first generation ship meant you had absolute power. There was no one who could even touch a first generation ship in a fight. but they weakened with every successive generation. in the past thousand years there had been very few fights between royal ships because of this, and because of this the recognition of stature based on the generation of one's ship had given way to political stature based on raw political power alone. The power that Syūzan Amaki had was an example of this.
this was the reality Yosho was living in.
Yosho was greeted by seto as he walked down a corridor in tenju,
she asked him if funaho was home and he said yes.
Seto went inside to talk with her. Misaki was also there.
Seto: concerning The matter of Yosho and Ayeka-chan, I have arranged for it to be officially accepted a part of the agenda of the Supreme Council of tomorrow"
Funaho:"I don't like it, But i realise I have no other options given my position. Yosho will understand, and I think that Ayeka will give Yosho a very good political advantage.
Misaki:"I am very pleased that ayeka will be Yosho-chan's wife.I love Yosho-chan, I always wanted to marry him."
Funaho: quiet that is a secret
seto:funaho what is the secret?
Misaki:stop... I promised ayeka and funaho i wouldn't tell anyone. but anyways I understand the two are to be engaged
seto:"... .... Misaki. Please stop going to Yosho's room from the outside wall. "Yosho-chan " is 12 now and it's embarrassing for you to wake him up like that and call him that name. he has to become an adult. "
misaki:"but... i do that because..."she blushed. she was married and she had birthed ayeka but she was still a child mentaly.
Seto: "It's your duty to treat yosho as if he was about to be an adult soon."
misaki "……Understood" she said as she skulked out of the room sadly and silently
funaho sat down shortly after
Seto:Yosho-dono is much more of an adult then azusa-chan was when i met him.
funaho picked up on the irony of that statement.
funaho:"you told her not to do it to yosho but you'll always call azusa " Azusa-chan "no matter how old he gets"
seto turned a bit red
"Well, then i guess I'm not really in a position to say anything about it to Misaki "Seto said as she shyly smiled.
seto: Sometimes i wonder, if azusa was born earlier, would i be standing here talking with mitsuki right now?
funaho: haha that probably would have been the case. on some level she also wished to see that.
seto puts her hands on funaho's head and Seto brings her face closer.
seto:"You are not as small as you think, you are a big deal for azusa-chan ... and Misaki and I are just as happy that you are with him ..."
seto:" and i feel that things are better this way.Yes, i just have a premonition.When something changes, even Jurai's fate, I just know. I feel like your new blood will change something ... And also ... ... "
Funaho:"and also?"
seto: "With you here there's someone to keep misaki from acting like yosho's creepy older sister."
Seto kept smiling
Funaho:"... ... i feel Sorry for Azusa-sama"
In response to Funaho 's words, Seto' s burst out laughing.
Funaho:"Please don't tell my husband about that."
the next morning yosho was in bed. He sighed
"here she comes." misaki came. he waited for her to jump through the window but she didn't. Instead she called for him and asked if he was awake.
"... Yosho-chan ... No, i mean Yosho-dono, are you awake?"
"Yes, Misaki-sama"
" I can't come up to your room today, I'm sorry."
"... No, It's alright i can get up on my own, don't mind me."
"Well, i guess you're already an adult then ... ... Yosho-dono"
Yosho knew that Seto had probably said something. He thought he was relieved that she wasn't going to bug him anymore. he was still just becoming an adult and didn't realise he actually had feelings for misaki yet.
later that night yosho was reading a book when someone rang his doorbell. it was ayeka. it was rare for her to come in through the door. he told her to hurry up and come in. usually she entered very happily but today she was in a bit of a slump.she was taking her time to come in. he closed the book he was reading and went to open the door. ayeka was standing there with her hair changed to purple.
he realized that ayeka's hair had been genetically altered to look more like azusa. and he felt upset about something but he couldn't quite put his finger on.
Ayeka told him that misaki had liked the change and when she saw it she hugged her for a whole hour. she then asked yosho what he thought. he said he liked it. she ran out the door to show everyone her new hair. she ran just like misaki did.This mades him realise he was sad because he really wanted to marry misaki not ayeka.
the next day he heard misaki coming down from outside. she said hello. he said hello back to her. he tried to remain calm. when she left he cried into his pillow. the next day seto came by. she invited herself in. visits from seto were rare. she brought tea and persimmons. They were Cultivated from the gift basket that funaho had brought from earth long ago.
"They want me to enroll in the galaxy academy?"
"Yes, as you know about 10 people are sent by jurai every year to the Galaxy Academy as goodwill students"
"so they want me to join next year?"
"No, this year"
"But this semester started a month ago"
"There's no fixed rule on when you can start, of course I won't force you to go, but as you know, not everyone gets invited ..."
"... Why are you just mentioning this now? "
Yosho was puzzled. he did not understand Setos' true intentions.
Galaxy Academy graduates came from many nations in the galaxy, and most of them were in key positions. this would be a good opportunity for Yosho to expand relations with other countries. it was a quick way to make Yosho big on his own rather than being shadowed by his mother's status.But the semester had started a month ago and this year's international students had already been dispatched. he couldn't figure out what seto's angle was. she appeared to be staring him down, but she was actually staring down the the persimmon slices she brought. she really wanted them but didn't want to be rude. she had already eaten all of hers but yosho hadn't touched his. "maybe you can meet someone there like misaki."She said. He realised that she brought this up so that he could get some distance from Misaki. Yosho mentally thanked Seto. he recommended she take the last of the persimmons. Seto happily ate them. He wondered why she liked them so much.
Yosho was busy from then on. he had to leave for the galaxy academy very quickly. the council decided he would marry ayeka two years after the end of his study abroad.
"Oh older brother, I'll be waiting, Ayeka will wait forever."
Until his departure, Ayeka repeatedly visited Yosho's room and repeatedly cried the same line of speech as if it were a spell.
he promised to come home twice a year.
On the night before the departure,Yosho crawled into the bed and felt alone.
Tomorrow morning his daily routine would be coming to an end,
He Looked forward to hearing the sound of misaki climbing the walls, Yosho quietly closed his eyes.
End chapter
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Yosho:
Yosho named his ship funaho after his mother. while on it's bridge traveling through space the main monitor displayed a solar system. it was the galaxy academy The Galaxy Academy was a public school near the edge of Juraian space.It is the size of a solar system.It used to be a juraian Imperial facility, but, It was made separate 20,000 years ago when the Galactic Federation was formed. At the beginning of the establishment of Galaxy Academy, it was one artificial planet Plus six natural planets, but now there are four artificial planets added, and there were thousands of satellites of various large sizes. it was getting bigger every day, it wasn't even possible to confirm the exact number of planets and satellite.
It was a treasure trove of knowledge in the galaxy, a facility that had supported the current prosperity of mankind since its foundation. It was also somewhat of a pandora's box.
Yosho got a bit nervous when he saw the biggest central planet of Galaxy Academy displayed on the main monitor.
he didn't have a guardian unit with him or any servants. but there were few people who could harm him. he had undergone the royal family's special type of Body Enhancement. If there was someone who could though they lived here. he was flying around in his first generation ship and it made him feel a bit embarrassed like he was bringing his mother with him to school. He landed.
No one greeted him when he arrived at the docking port. he wasn't expecting anything huge, but nothing at all shocked him.
it made him realize he wasn't on jurai. "Welcome to Galaxy Academy, Masaki · Yosho · Jurai" a girl who seemed to be a student called behind him. "You look surprised, I bet you expected the prince of Jurai to receive a big welcome didn't you?"said the girl. she was a student guide, a student who volunteers to takes care of the new students.
"I'm Airi · Magma. nice to meet you"
"I am Masaki · Yosho · Jurai ... .... Magma, what did you mean when you said ... ...." she cut him off
"Magma?" Airi said a bit irritated and confused
"what did i say something rude? It's normal to refer to people like that on jurai."
"Oh, it's just my name isn't magma, you must be unfamiliar with my how our naming conventions work ... ... call me Airi."
(he gives his name japanese style she gave hers english style if you didn't notice he thought her first name was magma and her family name was airi)
"This place isn't ruled by your family and many people here come from countries actively against you. surely you didn't expect people to fawn over you with some kind of gaudy display. You don't even have any bodyguards and your ship is non discrete how would they even know it was you?" Airi said as she looked at Yosho's ship moored in the airport.
Funaho was camouflaged with metallic armor.
The core unit of the Imperial Tree ships are typically not very large, if you removed the exterior wall units they were just as big as a small cruiser. However,the thing inside them was more powerful than the entire armies of most countries.
With Jurain Imperial ships, the presence of the "royal Trees" inside was sometimes said to be top secret. people other than the royal family were not normally allowed to see inside.
Also, Imperial ships operating outside the country's jurisdiction, were regarded as battle warships by the galaxy law.
the juraian royal family was aware of this, so they fitted Yosho's ship with a dummy exterior to hide it. They also did it because it was a first generation ship and they didn't want anyone to see it .
Airi told yosho there was going to be a welcoming party for him that night and later that night he was incredibly surprised
"... .... Airi, What's going on!?"
It became so loud Yosho had to shout to airi who was next to him.
The streets outside were quickly filled and practically overflowing with people. It is like a festival or a parade. It was a complete 180 from the quiet of the day.
Airi gave a wink to Yosho "Ahahahaha ~ ~ ~ are you surprised, I didn't say it was only you're welcome party."
"What do you mean?"
"People come from here from every country in the galaxy, there are various religious beliefs and cultures, so there is some kind of celebration every day"
"... Does that mean that it's like this every day?"
"well, It's not everyday, it's every night, near midnight... we're students, we have to study in the daytime.
Yosho was forcibly covered with a hat with a big sticker.
"What, is this?"
"Don't pick at it, it's a landmark"
"Landmark?"
a stranger greeted him
"Congrats"
"Oh, uhm, thank you."
He looked around and noticed some other people were wearing the same thing . Apparently, those who wore this hat were being celebrated that night.
"Congratulations"
"Thank you"
the Welcoming people got on fancier as night went on.
A woman wearing lipstick and a tight fitting dress emerged, she hugged Yosho while drinking booze.
"wow! you're Cute. Hey from now on why don't you let me be your guide? I will show you a thing or too ♡."
"No, that's uhm ... ...."
"Aw, you're so innocent ♡"
Airi pushed herself between Yosho and the woman and told her to back off.
"Oh, Airi's your guide. hahaha, well then,i feel sorry for you."
"Why is that ... ....?"
"See ya..."
the woman disappeared into the crowd without answering the question.
"Airi is like a celebrity," someone told him
"Congratulations, on studying abroad. What's your name?"
"I am Masaki · Yosho · Jurai"
The area around him became silent as soon as Yosho responded with his full name to the girls surrounding him.
"Yes, he is the prince of Jurai."
Airi said smiling slowly, the original hustle and bustle cames back to the crowd again.
He wondered why it got silent when he said his name.
as the night went on more and more women drunkenly threw themselves at yosho until finally Large fireworks illuminated the night sky.
"Oh no, it is already that time?
The People around Yosho said, they settled down and started heading home. The fireworks above were a sign that it was curfew time.
"Yosho, you should go home" airi said to him
"Oh, okay, I appreciate your help today."
Yosho lowered his head to the waving people leaving.
yosho and airi split up and went to their respective gender's dorm. But yosho felt he was being followed as he went to his dorm. soon he was attacked by a group of five people and he defeated them all quickly and with ease.
He examined the fallout of his battle. There were five boys who were groaning around Yosho. They were the people who attacked him.
"Oops. ... ... ... maybe i hurt them a bit too much. "
Yosho went to check on his defeated enemies.
"Do you have something against me?"
Yosho noticed that another group of boys was staring at him. It seemed that their skill levels were higher than the first round of boys who attacked him, but for Yosho the difference meant nothing. A boy who seemed to be a leader got up, the other boys ran off and took boys who were still incapacitated with them. Only the leader and Yosho were left in the courtyard.
The boy had a fearless face on a large body.
" i am Masaki · Yosho · Jurai"
"Here Jurai's position and authority means nothing. those who rely on such things are made fun of here.In spite of that there are large amounts of idiots who sometimes do not understand that, mostly royalty of the Imperial Family. "
Kanemitsu gazed at the lawn where the imprints of the people yosho defeated remained.
"What do you want from me?"
"Even though it is said that authority does matter, the fact that you are an imperial figure of Jurai will not go away, and conversely that may cause you some problems."
"……I will be careful"
"There are other things to be careful of"
When Kanemitsu told him that, the bells rang for lights out. They needed to go back to the room before the dormitory patrol came around.
"Change guides"
"What's wrong with Airi as my guide?"
"Who is there?" a dorm officer called at them as he pointed a flashlight at them.
"I'll tell you Later, till then investigate it on your own.
Yosho thanked him for the advice as the The officer yelled at them to go to their dorm.
Later in his dorm, Yosho thought about what kanemitsu had said as he took a shower that night.
He wondered why he was told to ditch airi.
he got out of the shower and changed into his sleepwear.
After changing, he used a terminal to contact Funaho.
"Funaho, Please check the Human Resources database of the Galaxy Academy. Please tell me the profile of Airi · Magma"
Information was displayed from the terminal in less than a few seconds.
"... .... she is from Planetary State of Airai. she is the Airain Chiefsman's daughter, the eldest daughter of Mr. Gaira · Magma, Director of the Airian Church"
... oh is that so ...?"
that little piece of information sewed many seeds of doubt in his head.
The teaching of the Airain religion extended far into the galaxy, it was the largest religion in the the Galaxy, the number of members it had surpassed the largest national population of any nation in the galaxy. Until ten thousand years ago, it was only a religious organization of one state, but after a certain fact was discovered, it's numbers exploded.
That fact was that there were common ruins on many planets of the galaxy. The ruins were a kind of religious ruins built by those who came from other planets. And many primitive religions were created from those ruins by primitive human beings that originally lived on those planets.
The establishment of the Galactic Federation created an exchange of information between many countries that caused them to realise the ruins on each planet were of similar origin.This was confirmed by researchers at Galaxy Academy, but who built the ruins and Which planet was the true ancestor of the religion remained a mystery.
Naturally the controversy broke out over who it was, and war followed until a research team from the Galaxy Academy led by Washu found its roots after 10,000 years. That was the planet Airai.
The fact that all the religions derived from the ruins draw from the teachings of Airai caused the religion and its power to expand explosively.The Church of the Airai then took control of it's planet's education and political systems. That was the cause of the problem for Yosho.
Jurai had always allowed freedom of religion, and it had a history of being made up of members from many ethnicities, and there were many diverse religions. However, now that they had all collapsed into the ariaian religion , There were actually quite few left.
Even though it was a common business site for airaians, there were very few juraians who actually believed in the araian religion.
There were several reasons for this. Jurain territory had very few relics and they were very far from airai. And obviously, they had Tsunami to worship. God's to space faring nations didn't mean god like it did on earth. it meant ultra powerful high level dimensional beings with immense power. and tsunami was actually a god so it makes no sense for them to believe in any others. Obviously this led many airaians think of juraians as heathens. and conservatives on both sides had begun to prevent of the others into their area's of space...
"Perhaps Kanamitsu is afraid of me being converted to Airai... That's just stupid. "
Yosho didn't get that vibe off of her but as he fell asleep he couldn't help but wonder why she volunteered to be his guide.
.
He woke up expecting to hear misaki coming down the wall of tenju. but it never happened.
A monitor appeared above his head. It was airi calling him to wake him up. she told him to change out of his pajamas and
meet her at the park. he got dressed and went to the park
"Sorry to keep you waiting. Good morning"
"Good morning, that was pretty fast.
"... ... Hey Yosho-kun, can I continue to be your guide?"
"Sure,Airi if is not trouble."
A few hours later, after breakfast, they parted and he went back to his room.He called airi later that night
"Airi, please forgive me for calling this late but, it's Yosho."
"... Oh, Yosho, what's up,why are you calling so late?" She switched from audio only to video.
"... .... Sorry, I did not know that you were asleep. ill Contact you tomorrow ..."Yosho said quickly dismayed
airi was on the screen with an oversized cleavage showing sleeping shirt and her hair was a mess. yosho's heart beat faster.
"Oh, no i always dress like this at home, what's up. Is it something you need help with?"
yosho was not used to seeing someone like this, but it was no big deal for airi
"Well, actually, I have somewhere i'd like to go with you tomorrow ........."
he said talking quickly, Airi laughed with a smile.
she agreed to go with him she was looking forward to it.
"Well, thanks."
he quickly told her when and where he wanted to meet and then he cut off communications with her. he thought about how she said she was looking forward to it over and over in his head.
Yosho reached for Funaho's terminal.
"Please, Funaho ......"
End of chapter
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Chapter 3 airi:
"Well, let's get going!"
For Yosho this date had one purpose, to weed out those who might be monitoring Airi and him. He was attempting to lure out suspicious individuals in every possible environment.He even had his ship monitor those around him from the sky.
He decided that in one day he couldn't possibly lure them all out. So he intended to do it in several.
Today was only the first day ... but ... ....
"Well ... then, To the next place .... ooh, let's go over here!"
Airi was moving at a breakneck pace,she was quickly moving through everything Yosho had planned for the day.
"A, Airi ... more slowly ... you don't have to hurry so much"
"but if you walk, we can't see it all in one day."
"I don't have to see it all today,"
No matter how much Yosho complained, he could not slow airi's momentum.
"Ok Now, on to the next one, on to the next one!"
Yosho began to wonder if she was doing this on purpose. However, the smile that Airi showed was dazzling enough to wipe out such thoughts.
The two finished touring all the routes before evening.
"Ha ha ha ... ...."
Airi fell down covered in sweat on the lawn of the park where they first met. Her breathing was rough and her forehead was sweaty.
"Airi, are you OK?"
Yosho fanned her with the fan he had but he wasn't doing it well enough.Airi ordered him to fan harder
"I'm fine it's just hot, I'm three years and four months older than you, Please don't assume i'm some old granny."
"I have not said such a thing"
"but you thought it in your mind."
"I did not"
" why are you fine, you're not even out of breath."
"Because I am trained not to"
As soon as she heard that from Yosho, the feeling of anger vanished from Airi 's eyes. She Stared at Yosho silently.
airi sympathized with yosho's upbringing
"Poor Yosho-kun"
".................."
This confused yosho. he was royalty. he was not poor.
Airi saw that yosho had misunderstood her. she got up and started hitting him in the head.
"Cry!Get angry! do something! ~!!"
the people around them were weirded out by this.
"Oh, Airi's doing it again."
"Poor guy, who is the victim this time?"
this was a familiar sight to those nearby.
After a while of this the bell near them rang telling them it was 5 o'clock.
"... ...., Hey, if there is nothing left after this, why don't we go eat?" let's go to that shop I told you about earlier"
She grabbed him and dragged him off at a breakneck pace he didn't enjoy.
The store was named "Naashisu" it was on the second floor of a big shopping street next to the park. The shop itself was very ordinary, it was a very common restaurant like one you could find almost everywhere, but when they went to the terrace Yosho got stuck gazing at the magnificent landscape that was spread out in front of him.
There was a huge 700 meter crator in the cliffs in front of them
gxp ep 7
yosho looked for this crater in a guide pamphlet he had but was's not there. the area was erased by a red square marked secret.
Places with particularly important research facilities were not disclosed on the map in this way as well. Moreover, the place was camouflaged even from the sky by optical processing.
he asked why there's a shopping center here if it's supposed to be an off access area. she told him that it was only done like that to surprise first time visitors. According to Airi's explanation, this was a crater of about 50 kilometers in diameter made by the runaway of experimental equipment owned by the philosopher Washu. Originally it was supposed to be restored But washu's fans campaigned to keep it intact.
She told him the building in the center was where the department of philosophy was. "Department of philosophy!?"
Yosho was surprised. The Department of Philosophy a a department that collected the knowledge assets of all departments and tried to integrate them into one theory or decide usage ethics. The department of philosophy was also the place where the most elite members of the Galaxy Academy were gather.
"If that's philosophy department, no wonder it's so small."
"No, this is just part of it, and actually it's the facility of only one philosophy official."
"A facility that big for just one person?"
"If you are a philosopher, that's not uncommon, but it's special, because it also serves as a kind of memorial hall."
"Memorial hall?"
"Have you heard of them Yosho, they were philosophers of legendary caliber said to be the best in the academy. It's the Hakubi Washu and Akara Naja memorial hall"
"I know Hakubi Washu, but who is Akara Naja ... ...."
"Naja did most of her work in the background, I'll show you sometime if you are interested, i know that place like my own garden ... ... the philosopher who is over there is a nice old man, but if he gives you a drink of tea you'll be stuck listening to him recount old tales for hours. "
airi smiled at him as server served their dishes, the server remarked about how it was unusual for her to take a guy here so soon. usually, it seemed, it took her a few months. Yosho greeted the server, his name was Casa Igurie
"Masaki · Yosho · Jurai" Nice to meet you. "
"he's new here this is only his third day ...."
"she doesn't usually take men here unless they fully master her training. The average is roughly two weeks. Most students escape before that."
He left to serve other people
"I think that the food here is relatively safe for country's pallet." airi told yosho as he stared at his dish.
Students at the Galaxy Academy came from a wide variety of countries. Taste preferences differ greatly between some of them, and some leave just because they can't stomach the difference. usually religious differences cause more trouble though.
"Since Jurai was originally a multi-ethnic country, I'm fine with anything in regard to dishes, ... ...."
"Okay, good."Airi said relieved, and the two began their meals. The meal here was much better then the one in the dorm. Yosho could feel the warm personal touch of the cook as he ate it.
"Airi, are you guiding anyone besides me?"Yosho asked her as they ate
"You're asking because of our server aren't you?"Airi said as she sipped her tea.
"I was his guide before but he requested someone else. That happens a lot with me."
"Is that so"
The two finished the meal and continued their conversation, they discussed things their favorite things and hobbies for a bit before they stood up and went to the register.
"Yosho, go outside and wait, I'll pay for our meal"
"Since I invited you today, I should ... ...."
"What are you talking about, students studying abroad at a nation's expense can not spend money all willy nilly, it's not proper to treat you parent's money in such a way"
"Don't you get your money the same way though?"
"I actually work, so just leave it to me ok ."
Airi lightly striked Yosho's forehead with her index finger.
Yosho, who was a prince, had his own colony planet, and it covered the expenses for studying abroad with it's income.
Airi probably didn't want to hear that though so he didn't tell her. He waited outside for her and after a while she joined him.
He asked her a question "A moment ago, you said that you were working part-time, but why do you do that when you don't have to?"
"... Well ... to have my own opinion ..."
"your own opinion?"
"To be free"
Airi said as she looked up the sky which was already growing dim. Although she didn't show it in her expression, he felt that Airi was sad.he asked her if was hard for her to be a guide and go to school she said no but now that he was assigned to her she had no one left to take out her frustrations on. Airi clasped her fist as she looked up to the sky.
"... I think that I did a lot of things at this park in the past." she said thinking fondly of all the people she beat up in this park.
"I've made up my mind then! I'm going to work part-time as well!"
"Well, the quickest way to find work is being as a specimen for human experiments"
"No way, Airi!"
He instinctively stopped walking and looked Airi.
"I don't know what you can do here, I myself am a tutor for the children of the elementary school, three people in all ... ..."
she checked her watch and realized she had to leave to to work.
Yosho wished her good luck and told her to do her best.The two parted ways at a tram station.
From the crowd, an elderly man slowly came in front of Yosho and graciously lowered his head.
"Masaki · Yosho · Jurai, are not you?"
"Yes, who are you?"
"Please forgive me suddenly, I am a butler, Mr. Amaki Kasen's butler, kaneaki Hirata, please come with me."
Yosho knew that the man wasn't alone, There were 10 people around him. If Yosho refused they would try to drag him off by brute force. Not that they could.He agrees to come with them anyways.
a land rover pulled up and he got in they headed north on a nearby highway.
Yosho noticed that Kaneaki looked alot like kanemitsu he asked if they're related. he told him kanemitsu was his son and apologized for the other day. Kaneaki was the one who ordered the attack.
When he arrived and kasens residence he was greeted by kasen who was a seventeen year old top heavy jerk. A jerk to his servants and a jerk to yosho. He wasted many hours of his life not saying anything of importance and then Yosho asked to be excused because It was time for his curfew. He was taken home.
Yosho went into his dorm where he accessed funaho.
All juraian computers could be accessed by 1st generation trees without their partner's permission and Yosho had a first generation tree. He figured that seto's computer system was the best to access first so he hacked into the mikagami.
The information collection ability and analysis ability of Seto exceeded the ability of his father or Jurai's formal information acquisition department. Besides Yosho, only Azusa, Misaki, and Funaho knew about it and if Yosho hadn't had a first generation tree, he wouldn't have known that fact.
the first generation's were given priority access to everything unless it endangered the life of the royal family because they were deemed allies of each Imperial Tree. So yosho was able to mimic Seto and ask the mikagami for access to it's files.
The analysis he ran spit out results in no time.
"That's too much and too fast ... ...!"
a vast amount of data on the entire Galaxy Academy flooded in, it was not specifically what he ordered it to get but he expected as much when it came to seto. "Wow, this is terrible. it's like Spy information rain storm"
Yosho and Airi's behavior seemed to be surprisingly effective at getting them flagged in seto's system.
"Student's data seems to be excluded from being checked.how It is any different ... did she deliberately erase that data in anticipation of my access?" it's Seto. It would be appropriate for him to think so.
he examined the information he got on kasen. As he read it he couldnt help but feel like he was dancing in the palm of seto's hand.
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he wondered if kanemitsu was aligned with kasen but he figured that just because his father was, he shouldn't assume he was.
an undisclosed amount of days later yosho was running to have lunch with airi and he came across kanemitsu.
He asked him some questions.
"Is Kasen a member of the Amaki house of the royal family?"
"Yes, Kasen amaki is a member of the Amaki family of jurai."
he wondered why was being such a dick to him. He figured it must be syuzan amaki's doing.
kanemitsu walked off and airi came running up to yosho
"... ... were you just talking to that kanemistu guy?"
"You know him?"
"I have a friend who is his guide, I've heard that his grades are top in his class, but I hear he doesn't know how to treat the ladies.
"I am sorry I am late Airi, can we still go out to lunch?"
"sure, whatever"
Contrary to her indifferent attitude, Airi quickly walked over to the cafeteria while dragging yosho by the arm.Airi's aggressive attitude made Yosho feel better.
Several days passed without anything
then Yosho got a threatening letter from kanemitsu's dad advising that interaction with Airi was unadvisable.
Yosho went to see Airi in a hurry, she was a bit surprised.
He showed her the letter and she told him that she had her own Guardian system that was produced for her by the Kaunaq corporation.
The Kaunaq family owned an old-fashioned clothing accessory Line "Kaunaq" Their headquarters were centrally located in the Galaxy Academy. they produced a military guardian system called "GS" which was also an extension of their clothing line
She told him she could set it to different modes depending on the circumstances. Yosho asked her to set it to the highest settings possible. airi was amazed by yosho's stupidity and told him that she if she did that and something went wrong it would be fatal to anyone who set it off. later they went for a walk in a courtyard. yosho gave her a ring made out of royal tree sap
Airi received the ring from Yosho's palm and put it on her ring finger on her right hand. she Raised the back of her hand to show it to Yosho.
"Thank you, I'm so happy ..."
she asked him what he thought of it on her and he said it suited her.
after that he kept receiving threatening letters ignored them since nothing came of it.
one night after curfew airi came to his door in a panic. he let her in. they had tea and she explained what had happened earlier to her.
she was going home after tutoring and went through a park when her gs activated suddenly. She was attacked by invisible ambushers and she couldn't see them but the gs kept striking at them and giving off sparks. She set her gs to full attack mode like yosho suggested but it didn't help. then an unknown guardian unit came to her rescue. It chased off her attackers said something in a strange voice to her and left her alone in the park
"... ... and so, I thought maybe you might have done something !!" she said
"Are you injured?"
"it's nothing! Answer my question !! What was that !?"
"... ... i only know whatever you just told me ..."
"I it must have something to do with the ring you gave me! "
"did it scare you"
"no but it's voice was creepy.
"It seemed like It was in a panic."
she said it's voice sounded weird kind of like a puppy. she also told yoshi that she loved puppies.
yosho told her it was getting late and implied they should go to bed. As he laid in bed he resolved to tell her about his ship funaho who was disguised as the guardian unit that saved her.
-- end chapter
---------------------------------
CHAPTER 4 Funaho puppy
Yosho was at the spaceport where funaho was docked.
"Sorry I made you wait" Airi appeared from behind a pillar.
"You seemed to have escaped successfully"
"yes, I was surprised to see that no one was judging me for it or stopping me, I even passed several students on the way here."
They were talking about sneaking out past curfew.
"Ah ha ha, there is no such thing as a student who hasn't skipped out past curfew. No one would stop you. You only really have to be careful sneaking out, other wise you will get caught by guard, or if you're not careful you'll be caught by human hunters."
"Human hunters?"
"Don't act like you haven't heard of them before, It's common knowledge that there people who are looking for subjects for human experiments."
They headed to the spot where funaho was docked spot and went inside into it's bridge but It was disguised on the inside as a normal space ship.
Airi asked if he was going to tell to her that the voice behind the GS that saved her was his ships. he told her she was right on the money. she said she was going home and tried to leave. he grabbed her shoulder to stop her. she told him that when she heard the voice she had expected something exciting to be behind it.
"Airi, what were you expecting?" Yosho asked her.
"............... It's an Imperial Tree, a Child of Tsunami, a guardian of the imperial family of Jurai, with terrible power and high intelligence ...
"oh, I see..." yosho laughs the voice she heard when she was saved laughed with him.
"That's .... that voice ......"
"It is the voice a the person who is expecting you Airi."
After yosho said that they were soon teleported to the actual bridge where the tree that was known as Funaho was waiting.
"I will introduce you, Airi, this is the first generation Imperial Tree Funaho"
The number of lights increases, and the brightness increased.
"Good day, good day. Airi, Airi, Airi ...... " lights flew around airi
"……Ah!!"Airi kneeled before the tree letting out a cry of admiration.
"Please answer me, what kind of a being are you?"
"are you ok airi?" yosho asked surprised with her questions.
"Is your creator,Tsunami, one of the three goddesses?"she said as she ignored yosho. she acted as if she was asking God itself, Airi looked up at Funaho with her hands on her chest. It looked like she was a drawing of the advent of creation.
All of a sudden, the light rhythm disappeared, silence wrapped around her. it was as if that was Funaho's answer to Airi's question.
"... .... Funaho, Funaho sama! Please, please answer me!"
"Airi, Airi !!"
Yosho cuddled her close to him to keep her from reaching for the tree.
"Airi stop!!"
"... .... Yosho ... you ... I ... ...."
she shrugged her shoulders down, and collapsed.
Yosho Picked up airi and sat on the bench next to the unit, which was actually a device for cultivating trees. Airi, who hadn't been able to control her excitement was upset, she breathed heavily on his shoulder.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, sorry ... I'm sorry, ... ..."
"What did you ask Funaho about? If you do not mind telling me ..."
Airi didn't open her mouth To answer Yosho's question .
"Airi?"
"... I want to find God,"
After the silence, Airi slowly started talking. This was also a confession to Yosho for her.
"God?"
"Yes, preferably the three goddesses."
" what are the three goddesses?"
"Well, maybe I should say Hi Dimensional Beings ... ... they are often referred to as Gods. even by societies as advanced as ours.
"is this what your Religion is about"
"Yes, yes. Hi Dimensional Beings have confirmed before, but they rarely show their existence in front of a human being there have only been 28 examples of encounters, but among the high order intelligent being with extraordinary power, it seems might be three goddesses that have extraordinary power and unique abilities that surpass them all."
"It seems?"
"Yes, when you collect descriptions from prehistoric civilizations, it starts to line up, it seems they can be all be classified into three types"
"that is a slightly ambiguous way to put it, is there not enough data to be sure?"
"No, there aren't any other encounters of high-level intelligence as far as I can tell,
"Well ...Is there any data to back that up?"
"There is data but we can't comprehend it."
"Can't comprehend it?"
"Yes, We can perceive them we can see them but the data makes no sense. they exist, but they can't exist. but they exist."
"... .... like the Light Hawk Wings?"
Airi nodded silently. Light Hawk Wings didn't emit any energy measurable, but actually existed as "light". She wanted to say that the wings of light that trees could generate were just an expression of three goddesses.
"That's right. My great-grandfather spread the teaching of Airai through the galaxy and made it the largest religion. But to maintain a huge domain, it was necessary to have a powerful idol to worship. They first looked for it in the blood. They made a hero of my grandfather and my father, Who inherited his father's charisma. But you see, faction began to form inside the religion and then it started to get difficult to keep this system. They tried to my great-grandfather a saint and create a new god, but this was possible only if there is an absolute god. That is why they have been seeking an absolute idol, an explicit god. They want the Juraian goddess, Tsunami."
"What!"
It was a shocking confession.
"You don't have any believers of Airai in Jurai," said Airi. "But that's natural. You have a real god in Jurai. That's why the conference tried its mission to Jurai and thought to make Tsunami the god of Airai.'
"You too, Airi-dono?"
"When I was in Airai, I did think so. Tsunami was the god of Airai and Jurai was keeping her only for themselves."
That was her confession. Airi made it harder for yosho to see her face, and Yosho and diverted his line of sight from her.
"But when I came to the Galaxy Academy, I met a lot of people, and those whom I have hated or distrusted were very kind to me and - my point of view just fell apart. I was embarrassed over what I had wanted to do, and for the lies, which the church was teaching to the people. Isn't it funny? We started this to protect the church and then the process just turned out to be the object, although it was opposite to our discipline. But this was all because we didn't have our own real god."
"Is that why you wanted Tsunami?"
"Tsunami-sama is Jurai's. It will only be a reason for conflict. But we can look for one of the other two goddesses, and maybe Tsunami-sama knows something about it. At Least that's what i though... But it's no good. Funaho-sama has also thrown my theory over board..."
shee covered her face with both hands and cried. Yosho gently stroked her hair with feelings love.
Airi, held back her tears, and sobbed with her hands on her face. She was caught between her home country and her friends and was upset by it. Yosho Noticed her distress, Airi looked sweet to Yosho and he caressed her hair. And Funaho felt the same way Yosho did.
"Airi, Airi, please don't cry."
The voice of Funaho came into their minds.it was sad as if it had synchronized with Airi's feelings.
Huh?" Airi lifted her face and looked up at Funaho.
"Airi-dono. Funaho is not a god. No, even though she may have the powers of a god, she cannot be the god you expect, and she would not desire to be one. The first King of Jurai who met Tsunami put it this way. he said that they had become friends."
"Friends? With Tsunami-sama?"
"Airi, Airi, please don't cry."
said Funaho's worried voice, Yosho lifted his hand and told her it was all right.
"Airi-dono, it is the same for us, Funaho and I. We became friends. Just now, she did not send you away, she was just surprised, that you suddenly begged her like that. Yes, that's right, just like a puppy hiding behind a trash can. Then she got worried about you and stuck her head outside."
"Airi, Airi, don't cry, Airi."
The pulsation of Funaho's pure sorrow came into Airi's heart and the grief in her slowly disappeared.
"Airi, Airi..."
"Don't cry, Funaho. I'm all right now. See?" said Airi as she wiped away her tears.
"Really? You won't cry anymore?"
"Yes, I'm all right. I am," said Airi, and she smiled at funaho.
"Tee-hee. Airi smiles," giggled Funaho.
Funaho's lights began to dance again around her. Airi smiled brightly in response to Funaho's tickling pulsations of joy.
"It's so beautiful, Funaho." She laughed.
"Airi laughed. Airi..."
Airi threw her arms above her head and lights gathered around her. Funaho was not a god, but the lights that surrounded Airi were a god's miracle to her.
"Once it starts it goes on forever," murmured Yosho, watching them, and smiled.
Slowly a melody started to flow around her.
Funaho's song covered Airi.
The night went on and yosho fell asleep while airi and funaho played together. she woke him up in the morning.
"I must have fallen asleep while keeping up with the Airi and Funaho's endless playing." Yosho thought to himself and he began to grasp the situation. her got up in a panic.
airi thanked him for making things clearer to her. He mentioned to her that they should get back. he told her he had left a dummy body in his bed, it was a projection of funaho's, so no one cold tell it wasn't him if they looked at it.
"let's have breakfast somewhere. but before that can i use your shower?" airi asked
"we should clean our clothes too.... lets just go to the ships residential district." he suggested.
The two transferred from the bridge to the residential area where they descended a passage along the outer wall of a huge tree in the center of the residential area. there was Forests, rivers, small lakes, hills, and even vast fields of crops. It looked like a rural area.
she disappointedly stared at the landscape.
"... What, here?"Airi muttered.
"This is a residential area fixed in Subspace ... Ouch!"Airi pinched Yosho.
"I guess this isn't a dream"
"Don't you want to make sure of that on yourself?"
she gave him the standard how's all this inside of the ship reaction that one would have been expected to give the first time they visited a ship that was this much bigger on the inside then the outside.
"Yeah, it's about a hundred kilometers in diameter."
The second generation ships seemed to be able to fix up to several dozens of planets in it's subspace, but it was impossible to know how much could be fixed in his first generation ship.
A door opened in front of them as they walked down an aisle, a holographic female figure welcomed Airi.
"is this your room? airi asked.She was amazed at the majestic building in front of her that was built of wood, she raised her voice in admiration.
"you're the daughter of the chief director of Airai, how is this so surprising?"
"There are no private rooms with 100 square kilometers of gardens in Subspace on Airai ."
"oh is that why you're so surprised."
"Yes,But I like the buildings of Jurai. It's nice and natural.Our Church also likes things that used old ruins, but recently their tastes have gotten a bit flashy... "
The guide led her to the bathroom of the guest room. "Here you are"
"Well, don't hesitate to let me use it,"
"Take your time" yosho said.
Airi turned around After she walked a few steps.
" no peeping not even on accident..."
"I won't"yosho headed to his own bathroom.
"Hey, Yosho-kun! Yosho-kun !!"
In front of Yosho was airi who had left the bathroom early. she had changed into Juraian clothes and waited for him on the terrace . She had styled her hair and looked like a completely different person to yosho.
"What's wrong?"
"No, it's nothing, it really suits you very well"
"Oh, okay. Thank you ...wait.. what is this!"
airi examined the clothes she was wearing.
"Don't you like it? unfortunately I don't think we have anything else ..."
"It's different...this is a Juraian raw weave, isn't it? It is also the finest quality ... ... I've only seen a teacher of mine wearing this material once... Oh, it feels good ..."
Airi enjoyed the feel of silk as she stroked it. The raw silk of Jurai was produced in exactly the same way as the silkworm of the earth, but it was much thinner and stronger than the silk thread. The quality of Jurain-made things was apparent in the silk, It had a feature that made the color of silk thread change subtly depending on leaves and grass that was eaten by silkworms that produced it. Although it was also produced in other countries, it was inevitably lower in quality than the ones from Jurai and the knockoffs she had seen had always been of a quality that wasn't very good.
"When you get in the neighborhood of Airai this stuff is definitely expensive, but this raw silk is made here, please have it if you like it."
"Oh, really? ...... Hehehe"
Airi scratched at the sleeve part gladly.
"If you use fine quality raw silk for long time, it will last a long time.I used quite a lot of it, so there are more then a few stocks of raw silk around here.If you want me to make you something, I can sew it for you... .... "Yosho said, hr noticed that Airi was thinking with a complicated expression on her face, she hesitated because it was an expensive item.
"... ok then, how much is it on Jurai?"
"How much?"
Airi talked him into selling her something made of the silk.
Airi jumped and was pleased when the negotiations were made. It was a super - first class item that Yosho had made, it was not a price that Airi could easily pay normally. But when it was made here Funaho did all the work, so high labor costs and profits were not added to the cost. so, Airi was able to pay when Yosho when he presented her with a convincing enough price.
yosho suggested they have breakfast. she asked him if this place is top secret.
"Well, since the residential district is my private room, there's no problem with me taking you here but as for the bridge if you're admitted there it's by the trees permission and that means the tree thinks you're a good person. Not even the juraian emperor has the power to override the wishes of the tree. so you're fine. The only time it's top secret is when it's a lower than third generation ship. they aren't sentient so they can't allow anyone to see them."
"It says a lot for their power if not even the juraian royalty can oppose them"
Even though she was convinced that the royal Trees are not Gods, the power that Airi witnessed was still special.
"Even if someone put up a fight and tried to get in to see one by force they couldn't,"
"but i usually speak to you from the other side, i get lonely," funaho said to them. They laughed when they saw Funaho's avatar that had taken the form of a puppy. It sat between them and the royal Tree, Airi laughed loudly, Yosho smiled as well.
3 months later kasen finished studying abroad and went back to jurai. it seemed those who kasen had used to attack yosho when he arrived had devoted themselves to their studies in his absence. Yosho became chummy with them but remained hesitant. especially with kanemitsu who helped him out with a lot of things. Yosho and airi were never bothered after he left.
And then before they knew it, half a year had passed since Yoshio had met Airi.
Yosho recieved a video call from seto. he expected her to be mad at him over airi, but she was pretty thrilled about him and airi getting along so well. she told him he had to come back to jurai though to do public service as the crown prince. he told airi later that he would return in half a year. Airi breathed a sigh of relief. However, as the day when Yosho was to return home approached, no one noticed that her facial expressions got just a bit stiffer then before. It was a trivial change that even he himself did not notice. On the day before he returned home, he looked for her but couldn't find her. He went to see kanemitsu and on his way there he rand into an acquaintance he barely knew in the corridor of the dormitory "...... rude, Masaki-kun" The man briefly bowed to Yosho and left.
he remembered that guy was a lecturer in his class and he had seen him several times with Kanemitsu. Although this was a student dormitory, teachers frequently visited.
"Kanemitsu, it's Yosho." he said on the intercom. kanemitsu gave him permission to enter and the door opened.
He asked kanemitsu to keep an eye on and guard airi.
Kanemitsu attacked yosho crying over this. He couldn't do that for yosho even though he wanted to. He and his father were being forced to work for kasen and it was an arrangement he couldn't get out of but he didn't want to be in it. yosho resolved to help him and told him he would have seto give his father and him protection from the amaki's. Yosho left to find airi again and thought to check the spaceport for her. he was correct inside funaho was Airi. "... ... What are you doing?" Around the Imperial Tree, a tremendous number of puppies were running around. Yosho got closer to Airi, whose face was surrounded by puppys.
"Oh, you finally came"Airi's tone was cold.
"I thought you would figure out i was here much sooner than you did..." she said like a wife who's husband came home from work super late
Airi hugged a puppy produced by Funaho while she giggled. Funaho reacted to that, and all the puppies running around the area rushed towards Yosho and Airi. An unusual number of puppies covered the two people. funaho tickled them. Airi told yosho not to forget this moment in the 6 months he would be gone.
Later that night she asked to use his shower
"Could you lend me a shower?I brought a change of clothes this time"
"Sure.Let's eat again in my room when you're done."
sure" she smiled and they held hands as they went to the residential district.
--------------------------------
kanemitsu
Yosho heard misaki crawling down tenju and woke up. Even though it had been a week since he came back to Jurai, hr was still not use to the hustle and bustle of juraian life. Just playing with misaki and aykea tired him out. He understood why Seto wanted him to come home, It was so he wouldn't get weak and lazy. However his feelings for masaki were all sorted out, he hadn't even remembered she existed the last three months he was away. he was too busy with airi to have any time to think of anything else.
"Good morning, Yosho-chan ... ... Not Yosho-dono"
Misaki who now rarely came into his room called out.
"Misaki-sama!"
Misaki told him he had to go do a thing for seto today and rushed him out of bed
Yosho headed to the Jurain Imperial Academy as seto requested.
There was a departure ceremony for the students. The Kamiki family attended it every year.
The Snow Kasumi 's flowers, which closely resembled the cherry trees of the earth but bloomed pure white, were in full bloom.
"I look forward to seeing the scenery here every year"
While they walked through the large garden heading to the school building, Seto gazed at the sight of the trees. However, Utsutsumi next to her remained silent. Yosho walked between the two asked seto why Utsutsumi looked so cranky.
"Seto-sama," Yosho asked, "why have you asked me to join you today?"
But Seto ignored his question and faced her husband.
"My dear. I will finish my business with Misaki and Yosho. Please go on ahead of us. We will join you later."
"Ok, But I was planning to show Yosho around the place. It is a nice chance of scenery, you know. I think it would be good to introduce him to some of the teachers," replied Utsutsumi
Seto looked at him and laughed. "You can do it after the ceremony."
Yosho asked seto if he should go with utsutsumi
He didn't know why, but he thought it would be better to join Utsutsumi now.
"Okay, then. Let's go. I'll show you a lot of nice places."
"Thank you, Utsutsumi-sama."
"Oh, you are so sweet, Yosho," said Seto. She of course knew what her husband was trying to do. "But no. I have something we must finish doing before the ceremony."
"Then we will go to the ceremony first. You can go with Misaki," said Utsutsumi.
"It is related to Yosho-dono, my darling."
Seto kept on attacking Utsutsumi as if he was handing off a cliff and she was prying his fingers off one by one.
"All right then, I will go with you then."
When Utsutsumi said this, Misaki got around him and grabbed him by the arms while Seto grabbed Yosho by his shoulders.
"You see, Yosho-chan. I am upset, I was molested by him here,"
complained Seto to Yosho while fake crying Needless to say, this was a lie. Of course this was a lie.
"What! What the hell are you saying!" Utsutsumi cried out, his face turned red.
Utsutsumi had lost his composure. But no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't get away from Misaki who held him from behind. Poor Utsutsumi, Misaki had already grown stronger than him. Seto began to tell Yosho the tale, her cheeks blushed.
"Yes, that day the flowers were blooming like today. I was having a nap in the bushes and then suddenly, something fell on top of me.'
"Oh no! Why are you telling that to this boy!"
Utsutsumi didn't deny this, it seemed that this part was true.
"I tried to resist as hard as I could. But what could a delicate woman do?" said Seto as she wiped her tears with Yosho's sleeve.
"Delicate? Don't tell a lie! You Shitty old hag!"No one could deny that statement either.
"And then he put his hands on my breast ..."
"Nooo! Seto was sleeping and I just caught my foot on her. That's why I fell on her! That's all!" Utsutsumi cried out.
"But you touched my breast."
"It was an accident. I couldn't help it when I fell on you! And it was your fault anyways. You didn't appear at the entrance ceremony and I was sent to look for you! And... and you were sleeping in the bushes comfortably. I was only 9 years old!"
He hadn't noticed, but Utsutsumi had been lured into telling the story on his own.
By the way my mother was 4500 years old when this happened"Misaki chimed in.seto hit her on the head.
"They don't need to know that!"
"……ouch" Misaki looked back to her mother. But she still held her father tight in her grip.
"I really was surprised. It had been a long time since I was touched," said Seto who returned to a graceful lady like face from the strict and scary one she had just moments before. She blushed and leaned on Yosho. As she was a beauty, it was a sexy view, but after seeing her strict face when she hit Misaki, no man could feel attracted to her at that moment.
"Of course not! Who would meddle with the The Terrifying Princess of Jurai" if they cared for their life,: Utsutsumi blurted out . Yosho tried not to laugh.
"Oh, Yosho-chan, that furry bear is teasing me. He must have forgotten what he did to me. Boo-hoo," wept Seto as she hanged on tightly to Yosho.
"Yo-You... I was only a boy when I tripped over you. You just said," Because of you, I can't marry any more. Please take the responsibility for it" with a straight face."
"It was only a joke," replied Seto.
"How could a 9-year old boy understand that! Did you know that I could not eat for over a month out of fear?"
"And you went into the hospital because of malnutrition," laughed Misaki.
"Yes, yes that's right! After that,I trained myself for 130 years . And finally I was able to find the courage to talk with you face to face. So I told you I would take care of you. Then you, then you..."
"What? What did you say?" Yosho asked.
To Yosho's question, Seto showed her tongue and said, "I laughed. You see, he just suddenly proposed to me without saying anything after 130 years."
"If I had known what you were like, it would have taken more than 130 years!'
Yosho remembered that most of the old people remarked to him that Seto was really intimidating. Being satisfied, Seto nodded and faced Yosho with a smile.
"So that was what he was worried about and was why he wanted to take you with him. He thought I would tell you about this. Well, he told you himself in the end it seems."
"oh, I see," answered Yosho. he glanced at Utsutsumi who was exhausted from telling all his secrets.
"Now that he's told you all about it there's nothing for him to worry about. Let's go, Yosho-chan."
Yosho began walking again. A few steps later he looked back and found poor Utsutsumi sinking to the ground. Now he understood many things in many ways; why his father treaded lightly when he dealt with Seto; why others who knew Seto well were afraid of her and why she was called The devil Princess of Jurai.
On a later occasion they were invited to the office of the principal of the jurian imperial academy. he was an old man who didn't like seto and seto and misaki were no strangers to this. they had their usual expressions on their face that they made when dealing with him. The principal told seto that misaki was bullying kanemitsu. she was solded by the principal in front of seto. kanemitsu knocked on the door and asked to be let in. he asked why the principal called him here. At the time misaki was mildly famous for being a very skilled professional fighter and she was super strong. It seemed that she had been really hurting kanemitsu lately by hugging him. She had acquired a habit of hugging things she found cute. seto asked kanemitsu if he wanted to be transferred back to the galaxy academy. he was hesitant to reply. After her thought it over a short while, he told them he was grateful for being able to study in both academies thanks to both the amaki and the kamiki families. it was his dream to study at the galaxy academy, but he wanted to realize his dream using his own power. Seto understood. she told him it was easier to do so now but it required a long amount of time. It would take him decades to finish his study. He was prepared for it. she asked if he wanted to make a bet with her.
she said she would pay him double the amount paid by jurai's government funded study abroad program for every class he took where he got the top grade. IF he does bad she would cut that amount cut in half. there were other stipulations but those were the main ones. she would reward him for studying hard and being the best. That would allow him to study for as long as he wanted, even for hundreds of years as long as he earned it. If he worked hard she would offset the expenses. he accepted. the principal approved. on the day he left misaki gave him a good luck amulet made out of her hair. she had cut a large part of her ponytail off when she made it and it was noticeable.
this whole thing was a plot from seto though and Yosho had quickly noticed that fact. With test scores and grades like Kanemitsu's, he could easily receive any all expense paid scholarship he applied for...
end of chapter
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I enjoyed this next chapter. it's short but very nice.
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Airi Again
Yosho had finished his half-year of civil service on Jurai so he returned to the Galaxy Academy once again.
"Welcome home, Yosho-kun" Like a year ago, Airi · Magma, who was in the lobby of the spaceport, was waving towards him. Yosho saw that Airi hadn't changed at all in six months. he greeted airi back and then she hit him on the head so he would realized he was really finally back at the galaxy academy. they entered the bridge of funaho and a rush of puppies came at airi. she asked the royal tree funaho if it had been doing well. she jumped into the wave of puppies and yosho left her alone on the bridge for a while to play.
Airi was sad though. she was very much in the same circumstances as yosho. she bared the heavy responsibility of being the chief director of airai's eldest daughter. She used to live in fear of those whom her planet saw as enemies, but life at the galaxy academy had broken those shackles in her mind and she had gained the ability to think freely about things in her own way. She wanted to tell yosho about how he helped her gained the ability to genuinely enjoy her life and tell him about how he brought her genuine laughter for the first time, but she found herself unable to. Every time he would go to jurai for half a year he would take that ability with him. over the years the cycle repeated itself and every time she felt delight and disappointment. eventually she dreamed of telling him that she wanted him to stay with her forever. she didn't want him to leave for jurai.
one time around a month after yosho had finished studying and had returned to jurai, Airi received a message from her hometown on Airai.She stood in front of a display sitting in a chair decorated in gold and red as she wore the custom made silk clothes she purchased from yosho. a person wearing the clothes of Airain priesthood was on the display. It was her father Gaira who remarked at how well she looked. she gave her father a smile but when she noticed he was broadcasting from a conference hall she stiffened up. He told her that the time had finally come for her arranged marriage. he seems upset by this. The spotlight was confiscated by a man named Goba who was the deputy chairman of the Airian society association, the most powerful faction in the Airian government. He ordered her home in the name of their mission statement, which was to infiltrate jurai by marriage, bear a king, and seize tsunami. He told her she has two months to return. airi begged them to let her stay longer on the basis that in 6 months her courses for her grade level would be over. although really begged so she could see Yosho when he returned in 5 months. she really just wanted to tell him goodbye. they denied her appeal. she asked to at least be told who she was arranged to marry. they told her that it had to be kept a secret till the marriage. they assured her it would be to someone agreeable. she told them she understood. People like her had no freedom to choose who they married. She had to accept what the association chose for her for the sake of her country and for the sake of her father, even though she didn't want to do it, she didn't want her father to suffer if she didn't go through with it. She was sad. she thought she wouldn't get to see yosho again.
but in the days after that she heard some news that gave her hope. Seto was going to visit the galaxy academy soon. She immediately applied to be Seto's guide but the current state of diplomacy between their countries was not good. and she was turned down every time she brought it up to the person in charge of assigning guides.
Seto was visiting as a member of the royal family not as a student they just couldn't allow it. But Airi was smart she didn't give up. she found a loophole. She became Kanemitsu's guide.
Giving up was not something Airi was capable of doing, No matter how thin and short the thread of chance was. she would not give up while there was hope. That was what she learned from her stay at the Galaxy Academy.
When Kanemitsu arrived he tried to runaway from her as soon as he saw her but she grabbed him by the throat and wouldn't let him go.
Airi:"Why are you running away !!"
Kanemitsu:"Because I know what you're going to ask me to do!"
Airi:"IF YOU KNOW THEN DO IT."
Kanemistu:"How many times do i have to tell you I can't help you meet with seto!!"
Airi:"I won't know how many times you have to tell me till you help me meet with seto!"
No matter what, Airi would not let him go.
Kanemitsu"You crazy bastard , Lady seto is not my friend I am not in a position to talk to her about such personal matters You'd have better luck asking your father instead of asking me. Why don't you just to that!? "
Airi:"Don't even joke about such a thing!"
Kanemitsu"You are being unreasonable !!"
eventually she had to let Kanemitsu go. A few days later, Airi looked at the special program welcoming Seto on her monitor while lying in her bed. She looked at it with total defeat. Although she had used all methods possible, She couldn't meet with Seto. However, When Seto 's visiting schedule was announced on the program, she noticed a possibility. she got out of bed./
Jurai, is jurai, it's the greatest power in the galaxy and as such a person like seto had as much security as one would expect. Airi found herself far from being close to seto. she could barely see her from where she was and the conditions for meeting her were bound to be very strict. But there was one place where she had a possibility to meet her, and that was at the washu and naja memorial in washu's pore. The old philosopher there and airi were on good terms and he would let her have a pass to her private aisle there. she could bypass most of her guards completely. she decided to initiate her confrontation when seto finished touring the exhibition. all and the cameras and pr representatives would have already left. If any cameras caught her it would have resulted in an international scandal she couldn't afford. After the tour was done seto was supposed to have a private talk with a philosopher and there she was expected to have few security guards. In the corner of the facility airi changed into the silk Outfit yosho had sold her. This made her seem like she was an imperial member of jurai. she headed down the passageway seto was set to come down. as expected the security guards were fooled by her outfit, they were stunned by her presence they honestly thought she was supposed to be there. as seto prepared to talk to the philosopher she walked in front of her and calmly and slowly kneeled.
"I am sorry but I speak with you first, I am Airi · Magma, I served as a guide for Mr. Masaki · Yosho · Jurai. I am sorry to come before you in such a rude matter but i must speak with you.
Airi's words ceased here. As she lifted her face and saw Seto's eyes, she felt a tremendously intimidating presence from her and was stunned. Without breaking her calm expression seto kneeled elegantly like airi. seto felt that speaking with her while looking down on her would have been rude.
"Airi, Sadly, your country and Jurai are currently in a difficult situation and you are the daughter of the head of the state of Airai. But, yosho and I thank you very much for what you've done and we sincerely hope that diplomatic relationships improve. I hope one say to meet you again officially as an ambassador. but for now please excuse me" the philosopher lead seto into a room behind the airi. setos guards were stunned and ignored airi as they hastily went to catch up to seto.
Airi was left trembling as she knelt in the passageway. something in seto's eyes had greatly terrified her. she had begun crying tears of shame and regret. The feeling that it has now impossible to meet with Yosho again filled her heart. she left the facility in tears.
the philosopher and seto had a conversation which went a bit like this. She mentioned the pair of washu and naja were her favorite philosophers, and asks the philosopher about what kind of people they were. It seemed they they played a lot of pranks and made people their experimental playthings sometimes. seto giggled at all the anecdotes the philosopher shared with her. he told her that although he met many new people the at the academy since washu went missing and naja passed away, He was still sad that they were gone.
Seto replied to him by simply saying, "Fun things don't last forever ..."
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Seto and Airi
airi came back to her room. she stared at her bed and saw that the nightly festivities were going on outside her window, but she didn't feel like going out. she thought of yosho and got a hunger pang, She rarely had those. She got up to make food and as she did someone rang her doorbell. she asked who was at the door. It was seto. she asked airi if she could come in. Airi was stunned and said nothing. after a moment of silence seto asked again if she could come in. Airi quickly opened the door and looked around to see if anyone was watching.
"it's ok, no one can see us." seto assured her. Seto was supposed to be having dinner with the galaxy academy's board of directors but she dipped out and snuck off to visit airi. seto put up a sound barrier around them just to make sure no one head them. airi asked her why she came and seto told her she had something to talk about with her... also was dinner time and she was hungry. In seto's hands hands where two large baskets full of food from Naashisu. seto told Airi that her and the philosopher went there to have lunch and she picked up some to go. she spoke great amounts of praise towards the restaurant.
Airi was surprised that a member of the royal family would eat in such a normal place,
"It was very tasty, so i had them make you a boxed lunch." Seto told her.
Airi helped set up her table to serve the food was arranged the dishes when she realized that she didn't recognize a lot of the things in the dishes. She asked seto if she bought the dishes somewhere else.
"Oh That...I made it myself." Seto had actually gone into the kitchen of Naashisu and made her own dishes. Seto told her that the shop carried an interesting tasting sauce and interesting seasonings and she wanted to use them. The dish was purely juriaian but the seasoning was all Naashisu.
Airi was surprised that seto knew how to cook and told her how nice it was that she brought her such a thing. Seto told her to enjoy it they, began eating.It was very good. seto was glad she liked it."You Know, you can live anywhere if you can make delicious food." seto said to her.
seto told airi that she had taught funaho a bit once, she but never really got the chance to teach her after the first times. Her granddaughter, Ayeka was clumsy in the kitchen and seemed to prefer sewing so she didn't bother with her. she told airi that if her next grandchild was a girl she was going to teach her too. They made small talk and finished their meal.
seto asked airi if she wanted some dessert and brought out some cake from one of the baskets. There were tons of dishes scattered around them. airi was stuffed to the gills and seto herself was responsible for over 70% of all the empty dishes on the table. Airi politely declined seto's offering of cake. seto countered her own offer and offered airi tea made with special water from the mikagami instead. Airi gladly accepted. she had this kind of tea before with yosho on his ship and enjoyed it very much. She sipped it happily as seto sliced the giant cake ... " are you sure you're not going to have any..." seto asked "Well... maybe just a little.", no one can resist cake. not even airi.
The cake, which seto had made from scratch, was a fruit and nut cake flavored entirely using fruit instead of sugar. Jurai has more planets in it's control than any other nation so obviously the cake had many different kinds fruits and nuts that gave each bite a unique flavor.Airi and seto had been so wrapped up in the good food that airi forgot about what she wanted to say to seto. After they were done though, it came back to her.
"Oh, that was delicious, it was a really nice treat, I was going to make myself just a small meal, also about Yosho ... ...." seto cut her off to ask if she wanted more tea. She did. And so she forgot what she was going to say and went back to drinking tea. As she sipped her tea, seto spoke to her "When Yosho comes back from the Galaxy Academy, he always seems really happy and carefree. its like he's a different person. His mother funaho always tells me that when he's on jurai he's so tense.... Do you love Yosho?" Airi was shocked and didn't know what to say. well she knew what to say but she didn't want to say it. Seto told airi that she understood how airi felt. Seto also knew that Airi probably thought that this was a matter Seto shouldn't have been aware of.
"Are you going to return home and get married?" Airi 's eyes opened wide.
"How do you know about that!?"
"The Masaki family is always a victim of Jurai, and It makes love hard. Yosho's family before him all had the same problem too. Jurai stands upon sacrifice's made by the masaki family. You may have heard people say that Masaki family is the weakest among the four houses, but that is a mistake, The people of the Masaki family are the only branch strong enough that they never choose Jurai, they choose love. So the other houses hate them strongly and love them strongly ...... Like i love Yosho's father...Of course I love my husband too .... But in a sense I love Azusa as much as I do my husband, and i have since the first time I tried to bring him to Jurai, I always have, I love what Azusa loves too, and I will not allow anything to hurt Azusa, not even a god... You see yosho and I both think alike, we both think like children. So honestly, I both Didn't want him to meet someone like you, but I did want him to at the same time. If you and him both decide to make like his grandmother amame and abandon your home worlds for love. I will be ok with it... That is what you plan to do right? ...That.... or something like it?"
There was no way in airi's mind that Yosho would abandon jurai and his loving mother and there was no way she could have abandoned her father like that. Airi told seto that she couldn't bring herself to do such a thing. Seto wasn't even sure she would want to her to do that. Yosho was supposed to be married to her grandaughters fiance after all. airi wasn't sure of what seto was trying to tell her to do. she told her she was getting mixed signals and asked her to clarify. seto ignored her questions and responded with her own.
"Airi, I want you to tell me who your marriage is with." Seto asked
"... ... I haven't been told." Airi admitted
"You ought to know, you should have heard from Keira · Magma"
As with most religions, in Airai there was a separation between clergy of the opposite sex in order to prevent commingling. Keira was the chief of the Airai nuns and was an authority figure just like Gōba. Airi was officially affiliated with the Nunnery and couldn't marry without the permission of Keira, So even if they had intended to keep the people being married confidential they still had to tell Keira.
Seto told airi that was too bad that Airi didn't know because seto had a very good idea of who it was but she would have liked to confirm her suspicions.
"Why do you want to ask me such a thing?" Airi asked her
"Why are they trying to conceal it so much?" Seto retorted
Airi also wanted to know that.
Seto told her that she knew that Airai's goal was to get a hold of tsunami.
"There are many countries that want a "royal Tree" , mostly for military purposes... hah"
Airi thought about funaho and it's puppies, and Funaho and military weapon in her mind didn't belong in the same sentence.
"They don't like fights much, and we don't want them to fight if we can prevent it, but even if they got a hold of a first generation tree like Funaho, we would have nothing to fear tsunami could just destroy it. Tsunami has a tremendous power much greater then any of the other trees, It could erase the universe itself if it wanted to."
"What is Jurai doing with such power, and what does airai wan't to do with it?" airi asked
Seto shrugged her shoulders at the question.
"We will not do anything, the " Royal Tree's "our friends, not our slaves"
"Yosho told me that the first Emperor of jurai had befriended Tsunami..."
"Yes, and if you know that then you know how her children are."
"……Yes"
she listened to the words of Seto and remembered the Funaho puppies, and her fear of the power of the royal Trees that she had felt until then disappeared. If a person has a deadly weapon, and you know that it will definitely not point itself at anyone, It's not exactly scary.
Seto asked Airi if she knew that Kasen Amaki was an orphan who was adopted into the royal family. Airi didn't. Kasen's parents were unknown but seto knew that he was really from the ruffin family, a family related to Airi's, he was set to be married to 3 of Syuzan Amaki's daughters soon, and that would make the magma's and the amaki's fully related.
"In Jurai there are quite strict conditions for marriage with outsiders. But it seems that he has found a loophole that puts no restrictions on marriage within the family "
Airi understood what was going on. They also wanted to marry airi off after that to someone else. She didn't know who but it didn't matter the whole plan was flawed. Her people couldn't see past the cage of their own religion and seriously thought that the would be able to forcibly take a god from someone. They were so blinded by the idea of getting their hands on a god they were unable to even think of what that really meant.
But Seto knew what they were up to and was planning to put a wrench in their plan and if she did that Airi's marriage would no longer make any sense. If they couldn't use her for their plan they would only be able to make her into a political puppet just like her father. She would be treated like property and only brought out to see the public when necessary.
"in half a month, Yosho will be coming back to the Galaxy Academy"seto said as she stared at airi, She was giving Airi her final chance to have her freedom. She tells Airi that if her and Yosho sent out a request for asylum to the galaxy academy and yosho rooted his imperial tree in the ground there, neither jurai nor Airai could touch either of them. But Yosho and Airi both had things that they didn't want to abandon in their respective countries.
"That would mean this is the last chance i'd have to say goodbye." Airi smiled lonesomely
"i have met your father a few times before, He's stronger then you think." she walked to the door to open it but before she left she turned around.
"You can be free soon, but it's all up to you... I recommend you learn how to cook from the lady at Naashisu..." she left. Airi collapsed in her bed and cried.
About a half a month later Yosho returned the galaxy academy. As usual airi was waiting for him at the spaceport. They greeted each other and went inside his ship. as usual the ships tree sent tons of puppies to greet her. then they decided to have dinner. Airi asked to cook. Yosho was surprised because he didn't think she could cook but when he ate it he noticed that it tasted like the food at naashisu. In the past few weeks she had gotten the lady at nasshisu to give her lessons on how to cook and had learned well.
over the course of the day, airi made funaho send a stampede of puppies after her and yosho seven times. she didn't want to abandon her father so she figured at least she could spend one more day with him in her favorite place. That evening the sky was dyed red On the hill where they watched the sun set inside the ship they were surrounded by Funaho's puppies. They didn't say a single word to each other until the sun settled on the horizon.
Airi cried, Yosho asked her what was wrong, she confessed her love to him he comforted her with a kiss. The funaho puppies around them disappeared and they made love...
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The next day airi returned to airai. Seto revealed Kasens identity. His marriage to syuzan's three daughters was canceled and Airi's marriage was called off. Airai entered a state of political isolation for a few years and for a time no one on the outside knew what was going on there. Yosho lost track of airi. Seto wouldn't tell him anything about it. He wanted to go see her but he had no idea what would happen if he did.
five years passed like this.
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Ryoko attacks
On that day, there were many explosions from the battle that was being waged in Juraian space.
Jurai's military power was the greatest in the galaxy and because of that fact it had been nearly 2000 years since the last time they had to do battle.
An emergency klaxon ran out in the command room of the imperial palace. A warrior and an operator looked at the data being displayed on their screens and reported it in shocked voices.
the data displayed on the display and reported it in an unbelievable voice.
"Jurai's absolute defense sphere has been broken. They will reach the ground's surface within a few seconds. " They scrambled to find out who was attacking them, their computers malfunctioned for a moment due to a huge energy reaction. When their computer systems came back on, they were shocked at what they saw. "It's only one ship!" Everyone in the command room shuddered. Even Jurai's 3rd generation ships had the power to annihilate thousands of fleets in one move under the right circumstances, One ship against a juraian ship was practically suicide. But now before them they saw a single ship that broke through their defences and was rapidly approaching them.
"What a fool." The commander murmured. But he could not deny the reality in front of him.
A pillar of light filled the sky and a black crystal ship stopped in the air just a few hundred meters above the ground. It let out a tremendous roar that shook Tenju. "Ship type confirmed, It's the Ryo-Ohki!"
"Ryo-Ohki !?" The Ryo-Ohki that they call the "Black Destruction"! The Astonished commander shouted.
Those outside the Supreme Council don't know it but the Ryo-Ohki fought a battle with the Emperor of Jurai, Azusa, and his ship kirito, while he was on a mission to undergo military training. However, the name of the Pirate ship Ryo-Ohki was still very well known throughout the galaxy.
They tried firing a barrage of shots at it with a fourth generation ship. It did nothing and the ship was destroyed soon after. they couldn't believe it. An enemy with the power to threaten Jurai had appeared in front of them! The descending black destroyer dyed Jurai 's sky in red.
When Ryo - Ohki attacked jurai, Most of the Juraian royalty was dispatched on an excursion trip far away. Yosho had gotten word of the attack and was returning to Jurai at a breakneck speed.
"Is Jurai really being attacked!?" he asked the person who gave him the message
"Yes, the intruder is a ship named the Ryo-Ohki, A confirmed Space pirate, is currently doing battle with the Planetary Defense Force, the enemy seems to be trying to break into the imperial palace in Tenju."
"I will arrive at Jurai in about five hours."
The person relaying the message to him saluted and terminated their communications. Yosho made his speed up, he was in a rush.
Yosho had heard rumors about the ryo-ohki. it was a pirate ship that belonged to no Guild and acted alone. It was known as the "black destruction" due to its terrible destructive power. But that was just a rumor, Ryo - Ohki had never been seen in any largely populated civilized area, No one really knew what it was capable of. Yosho didn't know it at the time but Ryo-Ohki Was even stronger than his father's ship Kirito ... ....
He knew that Ryo-Ohki had been involved in every recent incident in which intellectuals were kidnapped, or important cultural artifacts were stolen. it was easy for him to assume that it was trying to steal the royal tree's stored inside of tenju.
Back on Jurai Ryo-Ohki continued its attack, three fourth-generation Jurain ships fell from the sky behind it.On it's bridge was a smiling emerald green haired woman who had her arms crossed. She had three gems embedded in her, two on her wrists and one in her neck and she was dressed in a black and red battle outfit. She was the space pirate Ryoko and she was completely drunk on the destruction she was reaping.
She redirected the Ryo-Ohki into an area where the juraian ships were gathering.
Tatsua Masaki , the general of the planetary defense department was responsible in this situation due to the absence of the royal family. He had his subordinates try and contact syuzen amaki but syuzen had turned off his communication channels. Syuzan was supposed to have arrived a day earlier then yosho but they couldn't reach him to confirm his location.
"Our first line of has been broken !!" an operator screamed.
Ryo-Ohki began zigzagging in orbit. Tatsua knew that the ship was only toying with them at this point.
"The enemy has broken through our second defense line! "
"... ... so it's come to this..."
Tatsua left the bridge and turned over command to his first officer. He was on his way to board his third generation ship. He had ordered the rest of the 3rd generation ships to join him. Including him there were only 5. he ordered a dozen 4th generation ships to follow them for backup. He planned to drive ryo-ohki back into space, but when they all assembled only 3 of the 3rd generation ships were there. The other two were owned by the amaki family and they refused to send them. Instead they opted to defend tenju.
"Defend tenju! That's beyond Stupid, what the hell do they think they can do with only two ships? " Tatsua shouted to his screen on the bridge of his ship.
"Those damn fools what do they think they can do with two ships... It will be over for them in seconds.Damn Syūzan, does he really hate the Masaki family that much ...!"
in reality though, they were just scared they didn't want to participate in this fight.
Tatsua was an excellent fighter who was trusted by Seto, but even he was terrified of the ryo-ohki. He began the first stage of his plan and headed with the other two 3rd generation ships towards the Ryo-Ohki. A dandelion of light enveloped the Ryo-ohki and for a moment it's movement stopped.
"... ... Hmm, it this the Light Hawk Wings doing?" ryoko wondered. to the left of her she could see three light hawk wings being produced by two of the ships. she tried to withdraw but her ship was hit with an extraordinary attack from the other 3rd generation ship and the 4th generation ships that it had as back up.
Tatsua was happy to see his plan was working. Little by little the enemy ship was being pushed off of the surface and back into the stratosphere, he was convinced that victory was at hand. Ryoko laughed at their pathetic attempt of an counter attack as her ship was surrounded by red light from her enemies attacks. she countered. Tatsua's ship shook. he was amazed by his enemies power. "All ships full power! concentrate your fire on the Ryo-Ohki!" They desperately repeated their attack but it did no damage. Tatsua didn't understand how a ship without light hawk wings was capable of having a defence like the Ryo-ohki's.
Ryoko grew bored "Playing with these fools is a waste of time, Let's go Ryo-ohki!
She had her ship remove the two ships holding her in place out of her way like they were nothing.
"Miyoooooooooo !!" The loud voice of Ryo-Ohki resonated in the sky of Jurai. The other ships quit firing in response to the roar.
"What's wrong, Why won't they shoot !?"
"I don't know, all systems are all normal!"
"what!?"
Tatsua understood what this meant though, the tree's where the ones who stopped the attack. He didn't understand how that was happening though. Only someone with a greater generation royal ship was supposed to be able to do such a thing. He couldn't believe it. The tree's were like gods to the jurains. He couldn't believe that anything existed with more power then them. If such a thing existed , he couldn't allow it to escape them. For Azusa, for tsunami and for his country, Tatsua sent his ship on a crash course with the Ryo - Ohki. He thought that if it was as powerful as a 3rd generation ship then maybe a collision with third generation ship would destroy it. he set the light hawk wing in front of his ship and rapidly approached the ryo-ohki. he figured with the light hawk wings he would be able to break the enemy's shields and collide with their ship which in theory would have destroyed them both. But his hopes were dashed when the ryo-ohki let out another roar!"Miooooooooooo !!" His ships light hawk wings disappeared and their ship was hit with a direct energy blast. "Tatsua, the ship is going down, you have to escape!" said an operator to Tatsuya on his intercom. Tatsuya was lost in thought. He wondered why this was happening. His ship burst into flames and fell back down to the surface of Jurai in pieces.
Ryo ohki began attacking Tenju and now it was on fire. A woman ran outside from a room in tenju, She had two deep purple long ponytails that trailed behind her and an elegant face, her name was Ayeka Masaki Jurai. She was originally set to go on a trip with her father Azusa buter royal tree selection ceremony was planned at the same time and it took priority so she stayed on jurai with her sister sasami.
"What on earth is the defense corps doing? If they can't do anything about this, I will go and do it myself!" she walked down a corridor and was detained by her attendants.
"Please, Ayeka, please stop"
"The only my second generation ship Ryuuou is the only one on jurai"
"But Ayeka you just established your contract with your ship and we haven't finished fine-tuning your ship."
"If i'm here and i do nothing i will never be able to face by father and my brother again. !"
She took off in her ship which had never gone to space and wasn't even finished.
Ryoko, saw the Ryuuou on the monitor of Ryo-Ohki as it burst out of the dock it was harbored in. She felt there was something different about it.
"Well now, That ship seems much stronger, ... I guess I can take a moment to play with them."
Ryoko fired at Ayeka's ship but it deployed it's light hawk wings and blocked the blasts.
Ryuuou tried to counterattack but the attack fired in a random direction. It missed the
Ryo - Ohki completely and disappeared into the void of space. This was because Ayeka had no key to help her synchronization with her ship and because of this she wasn't even able to use the royal tree in her ship or its power.
"How about this!"
Ayeka kept on fighting but the only thing she could really do was defend. Ryuuou was safe though because of it's Light Hawk Wings. "Hey, wasn't that ship just destroying everything around it a moment ago?" said ayeka from the bridge of the ryuuou.
Ryoko was taking it easy on her. She was playing with her. Numerous energy bullets were fired from Ryo-Ohki and approached Ryuuou. Ayeka's ship blocked then with its Light Hawk Wings again, but one bounced off and hit Ayeka's favorite garden.
"That was my favorite garden! I won't forgive you for that, you space pirate!!"
"Your favorite, huh? Hahaha"
Ryoko deliberately concentrated her attacks on the garden. The plants and trees in the garden were turned to ash instantaneously.
"Stop it, Not there! ... That's the garden that i like to go to with my big brother ...!"
In a moment her favorite place was destroyed. She instructed Ryuuou to attack with everything it had, while she held back the tears in her eyes. She used a technique to turn the light hawk wings from defence mode to attack mode. the light hawk wings contracted in one place and took aim at the ryo-ohki.
"Please do the thing now! "Ayeka shouted, Her ship's power circuits overloaded. The exterior could not bear the load of the energy and the attack malfunctioned and radiated energy bullets all around it.
Ryuou 's energy bullets showered all over the place and one hit Ayeka' s favorite garden completely severing the giant branch it was on from tenju!
"AAAAAh! oh no! whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!?" ayeka moaned.
Although it was just a branch of Tenju, it was several miles around in size and when it fell, it wasn't a gentle fall.
one of the bullets had also hit the Ryo-Ohki and it tremored with a force much greater than it had received from any of the 3rd generation ships. "Oh how scary, she really must be a princess of this pirate country. Let's go Ryo-Ohki"
Ryoko had noticed that ryuou had blown a hole in tenju and she was going to enter through the hole. However, the juraians figured out her plan and 10 ships were headed her way. They stopped suddenly though when a giant translucent 4 eyed creature with red eyes and sharp fangs and sharp nails appeared in front of them. Ryoko, whose name meant summoner of the spirits of the earth and trees, was able to call upon such creatures, but she hadn't done this this on purpose though, it seemed that in her excited state she had summoned it unconsciously.
Meanwhile just outside the room in tenju that stored the royal trees it was silent. it was as if there wasn't even a huge battle going on outside, although the occasional echoes of explosions could be heard coming from the outside of the room.
"Wow" said sasami who, was only three years old, looked at the door curiously. she had seen her sister enter it just the other day and she too wanted to enter it, but the adults around her had kept her from doing so until now. But her nanny, Mahma, was confused by ryo-ohki's attack and she had gotten away from her. she put her and on a door, a door which could not be opened easily by a child and it opened for her as if it was inviting her in. *.
Sasami went inside and saw countless intersecting roads and the glowing lights of the royal Trees around her that were watching her. they raised their voices in admiration and began playing a melody. sasami was looking around at this fantastic sight and unknowingly stepped on a transport pad she was taken to where the second generation trees were. she was enjoying herself and and greeted each and every tree she saw.
outside of Tenju , two of the 3rd generation from earlier and one of Amaki's ships that had avoided fighting earlier was battling the Ryo-Ohki, the Ryuuou was still shooting random bullets from its earlier attempt to attack all over the place. it hit some of the other royal ships and although the damage done was minor, their Light Hawk Wings disappeared because they lost their concentration. Ryo-Ohki noticed the gap in their defence and shot one of the ships, it slammed into the side of Tenju and caused a large explosion.
and in that moment destiny happened. Sasami slipped and fell off the aisle down into the abyss of the room below when the explosion outside shook the floor. sasami screamed as she fell. into the darkness.
"Ayeka, please stop your attack. your damaging Tenju! " said tatsua to ayeka on a monitor
Ryuou's bridge vibrated greatly and Ayeka had fallen on the floor. "Uncle tatsua, I can't make it stop! The exterior unit has ruptured ... ...."
"expload the exterior! Quickly!!"
Ayeka forcibly removed Ryuou's exterior. It exploded and blinded ayeka's ship's monitors. when the smoke cleared the only thing ayeka saw on her monitors was the ryo-ohki infront of her. She shivered.
"... .... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I can't deploy the light hawk wings again in time!"
Ryo-ohki was charging it's attack to destroy her ship when yosho's ship funaho descended from the clouds and struck ryo-ohki with a blast from it's light hawk wings.
"Big brother Yosho!?"
"Ayeka, stand down! "
he shot at the ryo-ohki to distract it as she got away.
then tatua sent communications to yosho
"Yosho-sama,an intruder is in Tenju"
"This was just a decoy!? I have go there now and stop them! "
He distracted the ryo- ohki and beamed into tenju ryoko followed him. Their two ships battled without them .
Ryoko fought off guards outside the door to the trees. she aimed several blasts of energy at the door but it was unscratched. She tried to fire without holding back and whens he did her gems glowed and she was hit with a pain worse then any kagato had ever gave her.
"what. What is this, huh !? " she said grasping at her throat and bearing through the pain.
on the other side of the door sasami lay at the bottom of the pit she fell into and was bleeding out. her blood fell into a pool of water that was there with a small tree in it's center. It was The tree of Tsunami, original royal Tree
The moment her blood hit the water Ryoko partially lost consciousness from a severe pain that shot through her.
sasami who had been dead started talking and moving slightly her body floated up in front of tsunami and the water rose up and swirled around her violently.Sasami and Tsunami's minds fused in the whirlpool their new fused body was rebuilt The subspace that Tsunami was producing in the whirlpool has had turned into the inside of the mother's uterus.
The world spun around ryoko outside the door Yosho stood behind Ryoko as she lost conscious
"So You are Ryoko, I am Crown Prince, Yosho. It was a bad idea for you to come to This place you should leave immediately, otherwise ..."
He waited a while to hear her response and noticed she was unresponsive, he struck her with his sword but she avoided the attack unconsciously she closed her eyes and began involuntarily attacking him in a strange and unnatural fashion. Energy bullets filled the corridor tremendous explosion hit Yosho. However, Ryoko was the one who was blasted out of tenju by the blast. Ryoko finally woke up as she fell.
"... what ... what are you doing to ...... Tsunami?"
"I am going to keep my promise -- to my friend ."
Tsunami unit can't be possessed anymore.
"……What?" ryoko said in response to the voice
Something spoke to Ryoko in her mind. it was the same Someone who was in Ryoko who spoke when she had fought with Azusa and seen Tsunami ... It was not from a voice from Ryoko's mind but from three jewels embedded in her.
Ryoko sometimes felt somewhat of a will other than her own coming from the three three jewels.
There is nothing that I can do here now.
"……What does that mean?" ryoko didn't understand
"............"
"Damn, i forgot about Ryo-Ohki !!"
The flash from the explosion dissipated, Yosho, who was unharmed, saw Ryoko had boarded the Ryo - Ohki and was headed towards space.
As soon as Yosho called Funaho, Ayeka came down in front of him from ryuuou
"Yosho Older Brother!"
"I have to go catch ryoko"
It was the last conversation between Yosho and Ayeka.
yosho was beamed aboard his ship and opened a line of communication with Tatsua Funaho searched for Ryo-Ohki.
he officially declared his responsibility for everything that had happened, so tatusa wouldn't bear the burden.
he cut communications and went into space and jumped off after ryoko.
Yosho cut off communication unilaterally, break through the atmosphere and jump to space again.
Yosho thought that if he hadn't told him that then syuzan would blame the entire masaki family for the the whole ordeal. if yosho died in battle he could have used that to try and grab the throne when azusa retired. but if he lived and succeeded in capturing ryoko the problem wouldn't just go away. the fact that jurai had been invaded by a single ship was humiliating. The best solution was for yosho to capture ryoko and never return. He was scared but happy, he finally had his chance to be free from being bound to serve jurai. he thought about ayeka and how she felt for him and he was regretful about what he was about to do emotionally to her. he thought about how airi had healed his feelings towards misaki but he knew ayeka probably would not have as easy a time fixing the damage he was about to do to her. he regretted it.
He got a communication from azusa's ship.
"Yosho! "
"father"
Without making any facial expression, Azusa stared at Yosho. That meant that he knew what Yosho did.
"I received a report about an intruder invading the planet, you should hurry up and catch them.. "
Yosho bowed to him, and went on his way..
from the battle data sent from Tatsua, yosho learned the ryo-ohki didn't get its power from engines as they had initially thought, but instead it was powered by the gems embedded in ryoko. Yosho wasn't happy to hear that. he thought ryoko was far too powerful for a human to defeat. he remembered there was a unique part of space nearby where asteroids with large amounts of rare metals floated. it caused ships warping in it to jump much faster than normal. it also caused ship's black boxes to explode so that their locations couldn't be tracked if something happened to them and it would make it impossible for anyone to find where he went.
This was his chance to leave jurai for good. no one would be able to tell where he went. he was thrilled at the idea of such a thing. he set his destination to the planet where his mother had been born. she had a garden in the palace that imitated the environment of their home town so he had know what it was like from a young age. He was intoxicated just by the idea of going there.
ryoko was aboard her ship at the time. something was troubling her.
"I Failed to take the Tsunami unit, I wonder what kind of face Kagato will make when i tell him"
Just report the truth ... Ryoko thought. I have nothing to do with what he'll think about it.he is the one who has to think about it because I am just his tool. Tools don't need to have emotions.
Kagato used Ryoko like a tool taught her to only do what was necessary to fulfill his orders. However, she picked up ideas that were not his as a result of being in the outside world, while she was originally just a tool, inside had been born a personality and emotions.
At first, Ryoko did not feel anything when killing people. so she didn't kill meanlesslessly. She found no pleasure in ending someone's life, and Kagato felt that killing was inefficient and unrelated to his goals.
One day Ryoko waiting on Kagato's orders. She wanted to see fluctuations in the feelings of the people she would interact with. In that sense, she was the most cruel at this time in her life to those who got in her way. anger, hatred, fear, were the only emotions she had ever experienced being directed at ther..
"I'm tired of this. They make same faces ... .... "
Kagato didn't care what she did as long as she carried out his orders. ryoko sometimes wondered if he was researching her emotional development.It wouldn't matter if he wasn't, she wasn't allowed to refuse an order.
"It's useless to do such a thing. I don't like being in trouble with him." In fact kagato orders often hindered her emotional grown but she wanted to feel emotion.
Those who are unsophisticated , when they seek excitement and pleasure, they try any technique. Drugs did not work on her. she couldn't taste food and she only ate till she wasn't hungry anymore. Liquor was her favorite, but unless she actively kept it intact it, decomposed in her quickly.
She had become famous as a space pirate and everyone always ran away from her so having sex was a problem. even if she disguised herself something about her facial expression made men flaccid. there were many people who wilted for some reason when looking at her eyes, and it became troublesome of those days. Porn and erotica did nothing for her it was as if there was some kind of protection applied to her brain to prevent it sex also did not give her much pleasure nor mastubation. destruction was the thing that gave her the biggest thrill, especially when people ran away, she especially liked the facial expressions those people made. She never felt danger and she was never really exposed to anything dangerous. the more destructive the things she did the more fun she had.
Ryoko remembered Ayeka who acted very angrily towards her on Jurai.
"That girl was nice. She made me smile."
It had been long time since she last smiled.
she soon found herself laughing
ryoko had been lost in thought and wasn't sure where she was going. she asked ryo-ohki to show her a map of the 100,000 light year radius around her. Her ship displayed it to her and and sensed yosho's ship. he was in the same area of space where she had encountered azusa decades ago she took it as an invitation to fight him. opened a channel to call the Funaho. Yosho appeared on the monitor right away.
"Where are you going, aren't you the prince?"
"... ... I want to show you the hometown of my mother ... ... Ha ha ha, think of it as a challenge,"
"that would be nice, I will accept your challenge."
They both met up at the area and they jumped which cause a huge explosion in the area behind them
Yosho checked his map and confirmed he was in front of the earth
"Where is Ryo-Ohki?" he confirmed their position
"This sure is a strange bridge." she said from behind him. he looked behind him to find ryoko standing there but then she quickly disappeared and reappeared swinging an energy sword at him. He avoided the attack. the royal tree funaho warped spaced around ryoko and ejected her to it's residential area.
The first-generation ship have huge residential areas fixed in subspace inside them. Originally they were intended to prevents attacks from the outside, but now it was being used to protect from an attack on the outside.
Yosho clasped His master hey and transferred to the residential district where Ryoko was she was holding a light sword.
"If you are here, we can fight without hesitation, but if possible, I want to see the earth!"
Yosho 's Master Key extended it's light as well and the two crossed swords.
Ryoko had exponentially more power than him, but she had no skill to back it up. Yosho 's sword technique had been polished for many years in comparison to ryoko's.
he moved around very quickly that ryoko could no longer see him and she started firing random energy bomb randomly in every direction. eventually she figured out where he was and fired an attack directly at him and he blocked it with 3 lighthawk wings
"Light Hawk Wings !?" Ryoko was surprised she didn't think it was possible for humans to use them because she had only seen them used by ships. she was distracted and he snuck up on her channeled his light hawk wings into his sword blade and cut off her right arm jewel. this was a technique that only yosho could perform while backed up by the power of the royal tree.
"That's one down!" yosho said as he said it her jewel was sealed into the handle of the master key sword.
"Aaaaaaaaaaa!" ryoko cried out as she lost her balance. because she had lost one of the jewels the power of the other two began to go out of control inside her.
Because yosho was still using the light hawk wings, funaho was forced to divert power from maintaining the residential area in subspace and when the jewel entered the sword it received a torrent of power from it. cracks began developing in the subspace they were in.
Yosho hurried up and took ryoko's other wrist's gem while she was incapacitated. This fixed the imbalance and restored ryoko's power. she began attacking him with a barrage of energy bullets. yosho switched the light hawk wings back from attack mode to shield mode. but in the process he absorbed some of the blast and collapsed to his knees. the area around him dissolved and he found himself transported to the bridge of his ship. funaho had dragged him there and sent ryoko back to her ship. He apologized to his ship's tree and quit borrowing it's power. the ryo-ohki began firing at them. It hadn't lost any offensive power but it's defensive capabilities were lacking now that yosho had taken two of ryoko's gems. yosho could tell when he attacked back that ryoko's ship was having a much harder time dodging.
Yosho deployed the light wings but ryo-ohki fired a blast at them that went through the wings and hit them head on.
"A Direct hit? But the Light Hawk Wings should have already been deployed." he checked, they were, all three of them. They were hit again. Ryoko's attacks went right through the light hawk wings. suddenly the same phenomena that had happened when ryoko fought azusa happens, both ships ended up heavily damaged. yosho noticed the moon and remembered the earth. he looked at it and at ryo-ohki as a tremendous shock hit Funaho's bridge. The ryo-ohki was a living ship and so when it was heavily damaged it headed towards the earth to find water. Yosho followed it down to a small island country. His ship was badly damaged and it ended up destroyed when it crashed to earth, his royal tree teleported to him safely before the ship exploded. but he was left unconscious.
He dreamed of airi. and reached out a hand to grab her. he regained consciousness and found he had grabbed the hand of a woman who was taking care of him that he didn't know. she turned red took her hands away from him and ran out of the room. It seemed he had been found and was being tended to by her. he looked around and an autumn leaf flew in. he thought it was pretty.
He felt like he knew this place for some reason
He looked at the leaf for a while
"oh are you awake now? Good" an elderly man said as he came in with the girl. she hutting the sliding screen door behind him. this was probably the old man's house.
Yosho thanked the woman for finding him.
"No, I found you, that was just my grandchild Kasumi."
Yosho looked at the woman
"Oh, oops i forgot... ... I, uhm ...I will go draw you some water." she said turning red and leaving the room to go get water. she opened the door went outside and tripped and fell on nothing. when she got up yosho got a quick glimpse up her kimono and turned red. she got up and rushed away. yosho laughed. "thank you for helping me, I am Masaki Yosho."
The old man laughed when he heard yosho's name for some reason. The old man apologized and told him his name was Taro.*
Taro tell him that the mountain outside the window is named after yosho. (the Yoshozan mountain)
He looked outside closely and noticed the area outside was like his mom's garden. The old man says something about funaho but doesn't finish what he is saying and just says forget it. Yosho understood where he was from what the old man had said and he began to wonder about the identity of the man and his granddaughter.
"Taro, I am ... ...." he tried to tell him he was funaho's son but outside kasumi screamed. taro thought she had probably fallen, but yosho knew that he had not confirmed that ryoko was dead yet so he got up and went outside taro followed him.
"what is that! is that a demon?" taro screamed out.
near the hole where ryoko's ship had crashed was ryoko who was clearly injured holding kasumi. she had a crazed expression on her face. "give me back... My gems...."
"Ryoko. Get your hands off that woman ... "
"I can't... I can't control my hands."
"Stop it!"
She didn't stop.Ryoko strangled Kasumi's neck her hands were out of her control.
"Kasumi!" Taro shouted sorrowfully.
"Okay, I will give you your jewels!" but yosho's words didn't reach ryoko she lost control of her actions completely and kept strangling kasumi
"Stop it !!"
That moment, it happened. As if was fate..........
The bosom of Kasumi glowed and Ryoko flew back.
"......... !!" immediately yosho took his chance and drew his master sword and jabbed in into ryoko. ryoko struggled reaching for yosho. she was laughing as she clawed out at him. she had felt the pleasure of defeat a feeling she never experienced before. Yosho sealed the last jewel into the master key and ryoko gradually slowed and she went limp. but soon she revived and began attacking yosho. they seemed to disappear to kasumi and taro. but they could hear the sounds of explosions in the wind and in a matter of seconds yosho appeared before them again with ryoko who was collapsed in his arms.
his master key began shining in response to something. kasami also felt it and took a comb out of her pockets. Looking at the comb, Yosho opened his eyes.
"... ... that's from a royal Tree ......" it was the comb kasumi's deceased mother had given her. it was one of the pair that funaho had given her sister before she left.
Kasumi 's deceased mother' s memorial comb, that was a pair of one that Funaho sent to her sister.
*(in fact it is stated in yosho that could only enter this room if they were invited by the tree's within it. so there you have it everyone, Tsunami deliberately killed sasami and fused with her.)
** so kasumi is yosho's first cousin apparently and taro is funaho's father.but the kasumi who is tenchi's aunt and baby taro are different characters it seems - special thanks to forum user harls for that
pictures: 1.Ryoko strangles kasumi
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Azusa
After yosho had gone missing, the juraian council were deliberating on the report they had received from tatsua
Syuzan started off the deliberations by being the jack ass that he was, He complained about how the whole ordeal was outrageous and he questioned how the masaki family was going to take responsibility just like yosho had predicted he would. He himself had been two hours late to the scene of the incident. He ignored the part in the report about yosho claiming responsibility, he just wanted to use this to hurt the masaki family’s reputation and create scandal.
Tatsua objected to his claims but syuzan brought up the fact that it was ayeka's ship that caused the hole in tenju to be made that lead ryoko to the tree room. The two fought each other tooth and nail arguing non stop between each other with long winded verbal attacks while azusa and utsutsumi watched silently.
Utsutsumi knew that tatsua was right and syuzan was just being an ass but he was waiting for azusa and funaho to take action.
"if the emperor of jurai can't even do his job to this extent he should hurry up and turn over the position to someone else and do it quickly." said syuzan
Azusa's feelings on tatusa and syuzens argument was obvious to anyone.
"Alright, stop it!" azusa said
"But!" refuted syuzan
Misaki was growing frustrated.
"You idiot, don't you know how powerful first generation ships are? No one could have done anything. Maybe if you had gotten there two hours earlier you would know." she said.
Syuzan shut up and looked around at the room when he realized he was setting himself up. He quickly tried to change the subject. they soon called the meeting to an end
After the meeting the real meeting happened, Seto called azusa, funaho and misaki on a special line inside their ship.
"Where are you!" Seto shouted. she was referring to misaki. she wanted to reprimand her for her outburst at the meeting Misaki was hiding from the screen she came forward. "Sorry, mother. I am sorry, my sister" she said drooping miserably.
It would have been easy to just eliminate syuzan. Azusa was the emperor and a had a first generation ship. but jurai was not a dictatorship. it's system existed to protect the royal family. And no matter how awful he was Syūzan was still family.They got down to business.
"Well, Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki have the ability to surpass the first-generation ship ... .... Do you think they have something to do with Tsunami?"
Azusa brought up how the ships refused to attack and how when he had fought them long ago his ship was also hesitant to attack and his commands were all delayed. he had always just assumed that at the time it was because he was injured.
"The fact that all the third generation ships in Jurai hesitated to fire and the fact that the fourth generation ships, which do not have a will of their own, also hesitated before attacking drew my attention. There is only one possible explanation for this; the opponent was in a higher generation than them. Actually, when I confronted Ryo-oki long ago, my attacks against her were slightly delayed aswell. At that time I thought it was my injuries that had caused the delay so I did not report it. If it is true that even the first generation ships hesitate to attack it, then there is no possibility except Tsunami. Seeing as how you called this meeting Seto, I'm sure you have more news on the subject, other wise we wouldn't be here "
"Azusa chan, You just keep getting more and more boring with age." seto muttered with a strange expression
"... we have been looking into Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki since we received a report from you years ago. In Jurai, Ryoko was not so famous, but It seems that she was a considerable threat in other parts of the galaxy. she specializes in robbery of information and things such as excavated items and old relics from the ruins of prehistoric civilizations, which is why Ryoko she wasn't very well known here. we concluded that she was not affiliated with any other country or organization"
"That means that Kagato has nothing to do with any other country or organization"
"Well, how did you come to that conclusion?"
"We could only find records on Kagato going back 5,000 years ago. We couldn't find anything about him before he became A-class wanted thief. "
"What did he do to be put in class A?"
"One fool from a certain big and powerful country who was poaching on a planet in a special protected area was extinguished along with his entire battalion, by one person, and that person was kagato."
They were quite because this was a famous incident.
"But what was important is that there was a person on that planet doing preservation research. Who do you think it was?" asked Seto, in a joyful tone
"was it you Mother?" misaki said pointing to seto. she was joking. seto struck her over the head
"It was washu Hakubi"
"Washu? Wasn't she the person who founded the galaxy academy? That weirdo?"
"Wasn't that the royal academy that did that?"
"Yes, and the lab assistant who was with her was called Kagato " seto said and she showed a photograph of the assistant with Washu but it was a woman. Azusa rubbed his eyes and frowned.
"That is not the same person i met before... ... ... is it supposed to be?"
misaki recognized the face from somewhere and told seto. seto showed another picture with washu and the woman. Misaki asked what the difference between these two pictures was. "... Washu's expression ..." seto said.
in one washu was hardend and tense looking.in the other one she was calm and relaxed.
"... are these two different people?"
"yes, one was taken late, the second one i showed you was Akara Naja, a friend of washu's. Kagato was her clone."
"What happened to the original one?"
"About 5,000 years ago, on planet K 1190 she was attacked by space pirates while unearthing the ruins ... ... they never found her corpse, technically she is missing but an investigation deemed her dead."
"K 1190, but mother ... ..." said misaki
"... .... Yeah, when I was six years old I was found on that planet by my adoptive father."
"In addition to Naja Akara's excavation team , there were several treasure hunters. it was My foster father, Ushio Kamiki , whm wiped out the pirates and saved the survivors. I lost my memory in the shock caused by the attack, but I was a bereaved child of a treasure hunter"explained Seto with a sad smile, but in the next moment she turned back to her normal face.
"The problem we have now is Washu. 20,000 years ago she was found in front of an orphanage on a planet in Juraian territory. She was three years old when adopted, and she didn't' remember anything before then, so nothing is known about her origin. She tried to find out about her past, but she found nothing. Though, there is one thing about her that interests me."
Three red jewels were displayed on the sub monitor.
"There were the only thing she came with when she was left there. no one thought anything of them until now."
she brought up a picture of ryoko and zoomed in on her wrists and neck and everyone gasped. she didn't know if they were the same ones or a copy but it was definitely the same things. she wondered if they should ask tsunami about them. She concluded that kagato was just using washu's inventions and hadn't invented the gems himself. seto feared that if this got out other countries might try and get their hands on the gems, but naturally jurai had the best chance at getting them. azusa told her it was a legitimate concern and told her to continue her investigation. she sent him a biography on washu.
The first meeting on Ryoko ended here.
But they couldn't find yosho or ryoko's locations, they sent an investigation team to earth but yosho's first generation tree was able to fully conceal them.
six years later passed and they were trying to decide on a new marriage candidate for ayeka. although it had been 6 years she still had the same feelings for yosho she had when he left, no actually they had grown even more intense from not being able to see him.
On the day before the Kamiki family and the Masaki family selected a suitor for her, Ayeka decided to leave Jurai and go on a journey to find Yosho. she was a woman of the masaki family just as much as she was one from the kamiki family. she chose love over her country like everyone else in her family.
She camouflaged her ship so no one would find her and waited,She didn't know where yosho was but she had a second generation ship so she only had to wait for a 2nd or 3rd generation ship she could use it retrieve that information directly from seto without being detected.
On the day her departure, Ayeka departed from Jurai and left the information gathering to her guardians Azaka and Kamidake and froze herself in stasis. she didn't know at the time that it would take 700 years.
But her plan to hide was amature and would have failed if it wasn't for the fact that her sister sasami had worried about her sister and snuck aboard. using the power of tsunami she was able to completely block all other ships from touching her ship and change their outer appearance.
at the time jurai was in a big upheaval over what had happened. both ayeka and sasami left messages behind for their families to find. a search group was immediately organized. but they couldn't find them with tsunami not wanting them to. Seto couldn't even find them
"Could it be Tsunami ...?" They had asked her but she told them nothing.
utsutsumi who was with her as she was looking over the investigation data left to go to a meeting on the subject.
The meeting went exactly as one would predict and syuzan used it to criticize funaho yet again. he called funaho a frog pejoratively for leaving her planet (hopping from lily pad to lily pad) and said about yosho "it's no wonder that the child of a frog is a frog."
she could endure the condemnation of herself but when it came to yosho she wouldn't allow herself to be silent. she asked syuzan to drink sake with her. This was a request for battle on jurai. He was sure he would be victorious after all she was a woman, from another planet, without much battle training. he offered her a chance to allow someone to fight for her she did not take it. it was her quarrel to fight.
Misaki and seto came with her to watch and utsutsumi came late and announced that he thought this fight was stupid just like syuzan. nevertheless he ordered his subordinates to bring in a large barrel of the finest liqueur behind them.
this was a traditional juriaian ritual that was based on bar fighting. after all the juraians were originally space pirate and such a fighting was an everyday occurrence amongst pirates. so the custom persisted.
funaho got very drunk very quickly and syuzan provoked her and seto told him that funaho was actually stronger than utsutsumi. utsutsumi ran over to funaho to challenger her. her face was flushed and she was smiling stupidly. he had a club and he tried to swing it at her but she grabbed it and threw him across the room. seto smiled and laughed. she quickly took misaki with her and went outside to call m from the inside misaki could hear terrible destructive sounds. Seto called to everyone outside that they should come inside the saloon quickly and watch what was going on.
when funaho was drunk she would involuntarily pull power from both her and misaki's tree, something she was able to do but misaki was not. when she did that she was stronger than someone pulling from a 1st gen tree. and when she was drunk her judgement completely went out the window she went berzerk.
an hour later the entire building was destroyed
Later Seto was sitting next to Utsutsumi who was wrapped in a full body bandage in a hospital . he was mummified.
misaki and funaho came to greet him. she apologized he apologized to her for how he had treated her when she first arrived on jurai
this fight was what settled funaho's position as an imperial figure amongst a lot of people and thanks to seto word of it traveled far and afterwards no one ever suggested alcohol to funaho ever again.
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Epilogue
Yosho was still in Taro's home they had tended to his wounds. Several months had passed since the battle with Ryoko on Earth, and his tree was rooted at the foot of the mountain. he had no way of flying in space anymore.
Yosho made the decision to live there with Kasumi. Using Funaho's residual energy, he took out all of his items from his room in subspace. Once Funaho lost all power, there would have been no way to access it again. He could have sent a rescue signal out whenever he wanted to. But Yosho chose to live on earth.
Although Ryoko was robbed of her jewels, she wasn't dead. he made a barrier around some nearby rocks and sealed her in them. he wasn't sure why he chose to do that instead of killing her. but when he had defeated her he saw beauty and purity in her eyes and it reminded him of a child like ayeka when she was young.
The damage caused by the fight was great and a source of rumors, he wasn't sure how to deal with is. Taro and Kasumi didn't know either.
"It does not matter if you don't do anything."
"But what about the fuss, there were too many witnessed ... how do i explain it ...?"
"leave it to us"
Originally the legend of demons had been handed down in this land. The people, especially those who had seen the ship and its red roaring exterior, believed Taro's story that it was a fight between demon and a master swordsman. that made the most sense to them. a lot of people in the village were worried until a shrine was built to calm the demon. the shrine gave people peace of mind, and the fear of the demon kept people away from the shrine.
A few years later, Yosho married Kasumi. Kasumi could not heal his feelings towards Airi, but she shared the same position in his heart as Airi.
He had three children with Kasumi and their peaceful life continued for a while ... but something bothered yosho. The royal trees' power gradually weakened when they were rooted in the earth, eventually their power should have ran out, but Funaho's power was not lost at all for decades.
It was immediately expected that the cause was Ryoko's jewels. If that jewel was Ryoko's energy source, there was plenty of possibility that that the energy was flowing into Funaho through Master Key.
---------two of his three daughters are akie the onsen lady and kei, the lady who drops off taro the third child still unknown-----
the imperial tree's had a second way of absorbing energy besides from its roots, which when planted get blocked off. They could receive energy from other royal trees. that meant that the jewls had the same type of energy as the trees. his ship funaho was a first generation tree so it required a lot of energy and that meant her jewels were at least as powerful as his ship.
He didn't have to worry about his tree dying but he had other problems to deal with now because of it. Kasumi lived a long time and couldn't bear the concept of living longer then other people, when he offered to make her live longer she refused to extend her lifespan and died age 80 of old age. She lost her mental facilities as she had aged. his tree was able to extend people's lives if he it wanted to at least for a few hundred years, but unlike bioenhancement nothing changed in the person's physiology. kasumi realised that no matter how much she'd live her mental condition and physical condition would only worsen and she didn't want that.*
long life on Earth carried various troubles for yosho as his number of descendants increased it became impossible to break himself off from the outside world. people who lived as long as him were rumored about and there were people who had money and obsession great enough to pursue such rumors. many came to him seeking immortality and he refused them and eventually he was revered as a kind of god by some of them.
after kasumi died he was determined to use funaho to contact kanemitsu at the galaxy academy. he knew seto would pick up his presence in the process.
"It's been a long time. Kanemitsu-dono"
"... ... you, Yosho?"
The next moment kanemitsu was drop kicked completely off screen by someone.
"... .... Yosho ... Are you really Yosho, no doubt about it, Yosho it's you !!"
"...... Airi ... ... ..."
Yosho lost his word.
he thought he would never see her again but their she was and now she was a beautifully mature adult woman.
and she was blushing as she looked at yosho who had became an adult male. However ... ....
"... .... you idiot, I AM so going to ~~~~~ !!"
That angery yelling coming from the monitor reverberated in the mountains and was a voice that could have born a legend of a new demon.
"Airi ... ... calm down"
the moment she tried to start shouting again, a huge group of Funaho puppies jumped out from the Airi's ring.
her shouts turned to screams of joy and airi was stuck in the wave of Funaho puppy. Yosho was relieved.
"……who's that"
"eh!?"
Beyond the monitor, a woman older than the Airi was when he met her was staring at yosho. No matter how much he tried to remember, Yosho did not recognize her.
"Nice to meet, my father"
"…………What?"
Yosho turned white
"This is Your daughter Minaho!"
The girl bowed.
he didn't know how Airi had returned to the academy from Airai to the Academy. but that was a story for some other time.
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Afterword
Nothing that important is in the afterword. kajishima was talking about how he was really flattered with all the alternative universe remixes of his work over the years. the next volume is about washu.