10 "Fuku · escape"
On this day, the Kamidake had been practicing fighting using the subsystem Amane developed
as they changed from the conditions of being on planet to outer space, Amane moved the Kamidake and did a trick maneuver, Fuku had gotten use to this and didn't interfere
. In the past few days, Fuku got accustomed to the situation, she thought of it as a fun game, but as expected she got tired after a while, the Kamidake was soon unable to navigate well.
"Kiriko, it seems that we've reached our limit."
"Well, I'm done collecting data at the moment"
"OK, reset the simulation program, move the Kamidake to a fixed position"
"Captain, please remove Fuku's gear"
"Thank you for your patience."
Seina approached Fuku, and he took off the equipment
"Mia ~~~ ..."
fuku was hugged by Seina and patted on her head and she was happy.
"let's go home."
Seina put Fuku on his head, he headed to the transfer gate.
"Good job today"
After sending off Seina, Amane went to get everyone food as usual as Kiriko and Erma began processing the data.
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"Ah! I forgot!"
Suddenly Kiriko stood up when the meal ended
"I was washing Fuku's towel, I have to give it to her."
Kiriko jumped into the transfer gate in a hurry and headed to Seina's house at full speed.
She opened the door and took out Fuku 's towel from the case containing things already washed and headed to the bedroom.
"Sorry Fuku chan"
as expected fuku was crying and was stuck to seina's heels
"Mya Mia!"
Fuku, who noticed the towel Kiriko had, rushed towards Kiriko.
"Ms. Kiriko, that towel ..."
"I am sorry, it was just so dirty, I couldn't bear it.... it had bite marks i didn't want her putting it in her mouth like that so i washed it."
"Seina tried to take the towel from Kiriko. Suddenly, a loud alert from NB sounded in the room.
"huh!!?"
Kiriko hid behind the scenes with Fuku.
"Mr. master! Mr. master! They were so mean to be this is awful... "
"Hey, hey, calm down"
"No I need revenge~! Where did that monster go? I saw her run off! "
Listening to NB, Seina had somehow understood why Kiriko hid with Fuku.
"I understood, I will listen to your story, just calm down"
Seina headed for the living room with communication monitor.
"Mia!"
"
Fuku-chan"
Kiriko kept Fuku from following Seina. after a while she took Fuku and headed to the living room and confirmed that Seina was behind a privacy wall.
Then Fuku gave up, and became quiet.
"Erma, are you there?"
Kiriko opened the communication to the bridge.
"Oh, Kiriko-san. Apparently NB seems to have broken out of the time freeze. "
"seina is going to be busy. should we postpone things?"
"Yes, that's fine. i feel sorry for Seina."
"
Kiriko headed to the bedroom as soon as she got off the line, she put Fuku on the bed with her favorite towel.
"Come on, go to bed."
"Miah?"
However, Fuku sniffed the smell of the towel and noticed there was no smell of Seina.
"Mia! Mia!"
"All right, I'll stay until Seina comes."
While saying that, Kiriko stroked Fuku.
Fuku was a bit restless, but gently lay down on the bed.
"It's going to take a while."
"Miah?"
Fuku looked curiously at Kiriko's face.
"Once this data collection is over, Fuku-chan you won't even need to board the ship ... ... you don't have to be scared anymore."
"Mia!?"
Fuku looked up at Kiriko as if surprised, with tears in her eyes.
"What's wrong, have you remembered soemthing scary?"
Kiriko hurriedly wiped Fuku's tears with a towel and gently petted her.
"I'm sorry, it's okay, it's okay, don't be scared."
"Miao ... ... Mhau"
but fuki didn't stop crying, Kiriko kept stroking slowly to calm her down. Then Fuku grabbed the little finger of Kiriko and began to suck it as if she drink was drinking breast milk.
"Oh ... ... I forgot to feed you!"
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About an hour later, Seina was finally released from NB-Airi's complaining and he headed tiredly to the bedroom.
Seina noticed the quietness of the bedroom and looked on the inside so as not to make a noise.
There was Kiriko staring gently at the sleeping Fuku.
(Aunt...Tsukiko ?)
For a moment, she seemed to resemble Tsukiko. It was just how Tsukiko looked at a young Kai while he was sleeping.
( I always envied her looking at Kai like that) Seina 's mother was never that close to him due to his bad luck. but when he slept his bad luck's influence lessened, for his mother it was the time she was finally allowed to rest, so his mother was always desperate to put Seina to bed.
"... ...!" Kiriko noticed seina and left fuku stealthily.
"Sorry I left you with NB"
"It's ok that was a good call... I'm just kind of tired now."
"Haa ... sorry about that."
"when I saw you with fuku it reminded me of aunt Tsukiko and Kai."
"uhm, okay?"
Kiriko didn't know if that was a compliment and to her Tsukiko was now a rival.
------
"Oh, Captain, are you ok?"
Erma asked when he came onto the bridge.
"The complaints never ended it just went on and on for hours."
"sorry about that, but thanks to you playing decoy we had enough time to finish everything.we can start at any time."
"our data collection has finished sooner than expected"
"alright we can test it on the way back home"
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─ ─ ─ Fuku had a dream.
─ ─ ─ a memory of Fuku before she was born.
─ ─ ─ after moving from the shoulder of Washu to the egg nucleus.
─── a Voice was heard.
"..., ..., Miau, Miah"
"Hmm? What's wrong Ryo-Ohki? "
"Miau"
"Oh, is this kid? she's your ... ... well,... sister. "
"Miah! Myan "
A gentle voice and a joyful voice. And the feel of the warm hand transmitted through the eggshell.
"Huh ... aren't you excited to see what kind of child she will grow up to be? I'm looking forward to it. "
Finally, Fuku 's memory ended and a new one began.
─── Gentle but quiet and lonely darkness.
Suddenly light and voice, and the first thing she could recognize was the face of Seina.
─ ─ ─ Ah, this guy! This person!
── I'm so happy! I'm so happy! I'm so happy! I'm so happy! I'm so happy! happy!!
"Mia !!"
Fuku woke up trying to jump to Seina.
"Mia! Miah! Mia ... ...."
There was no appearance of Seina anywhere she looked, there was nobody there other than Fuku in a dimly lit room.
Fuku suddenly became scared and looked for her towel but it didn't smell of Seina anymore. There was a smell of Kiriko slightly attached to it but that was it
"Miah, Mi ... ...."
Fuku pressed her nose to the towel with all her might.
The slight smell of Kiriko was comforting for Fuku now and relieved some fear.
Fuku loved Kiriko, Amane, Elma, Hakuren, Karen, Suiren, and Gyokuren. But she disliked them when they were in the bridge at work ... Well, it's more accurate to say she was scared of them ─ ─ of course they scolded Fuku when she did bad things but that didn't make her afraid of them.
However, when they did it on the bridge they treated her coldly as if she was an unresponsive machine. And not only that, they treated her like a machine. Especially in battle she felt only seina was there for her.
"Mew ... ... Mya"
Fuku was born to be seina's ship. And she knew that it made her feel happy. That's why Fuku felt it was a bit unnatural that she was unfit to act in that capacity in the present moment. she understood vaguely that Kiriko and others built the subsystem for that reason. but when kiriko told her she wouldn't even be needed on board it upset. all she could think about was Seina taking several days to come back, maybe even months. that would make her feel even worse then she did right then.
her fear of the pirates was not only a fear of her own death but rather also the fear that she couldn't safely pilot the ship, destruction of the hull of the ship would mean the death of Seina. For Fuku, that is was her biggest fear. she didn't want to think that she would not be able to see Seina again,
she began to cry at the thought "Myang! ...... Miao ..."
"... ... Mya!?"
And then, Fuku remembered her dream.
─ ─ Ah, this kid? she's ... ... well she's your sister.
─── Miah! Myan.
Warmth of warm Ryo-Ohki's hands transmitted from the eggshell.
"Mia !!"
─── Ryo-Ohki ...... If you are my sister, you can tell me how to move the ship successfully!
─ ─ ─ In that case!
"Mia! Miah! Mia!"
Fuku imagined Seina and Kiriko praising her piloting and her body trembled with excitement
That jubilation was soon passed down to the ship. And that was just the moment that Seina entered the transfer gate.
"huh ... ... what?"
seina ended up in the public bath.
"Why did i end up here?"
Seina hurried back to the transfer gate and tried to set a destination, there was no response, Seina dared to enter. But only ended up in another part of the public bath. he tried over and over, but there was no way out from the public bath.
About two hours later, Seina decided it was futile and at last and sat down on the bench.
"well Kiriko should come by in 8 hours or so... but .... I am worried about Fuku."
Seina stared at the bathtub in front of him. he took off his clothes, and jumped into the bathtub.
Actually Seina was confined there by Fuku who didn't want him to stop her from heading to the earth. -------------------
A few hours after Fuku had escaped,
Airi who received Kiriko 's reports in the Chairman' s Office was not angry, but rather just staring at Kiriko and Hakuren's groups. However, the silence was very heavy and came with tremendous pressure "There was a report from a patrol ship that visually recognized the Kamidake but it didn't respond when hailed"
Mikami who was checking the monitor next to Airi got up with a big sigh.
"Ryo-Ohki is famous for being difficult to detect, that's why she was able to storm into Jurai,"
"do you think fuku has gone on a joy ride?"
Amane said loudly unable to stand the silence.
"You guys ... is it true you built a full-blown subsystem?"
It was not glaring,so to say but Kiriko was intimidated by being in Airi's line of sight.
"Seina-chan ...... No, the captain's duties are still too heavy for Fuku to take on, and we can not afford to wait for her to grow up, so I decided that a subsystem was an essential need."
Kiriko said as objectively as possible.
The existence of Kamidake is still a top secret, it was a ship in the middle testing it's experimental use. the conversation here was a private one and they were as good as family. However, this blunder was bad enough that it may have resulted in seina being assigned new assistant staffing. For that reason Kiriko decided that the formality of speaking like a subordinates would to their boss should be maintained in this conversation
"We also thought Kiriko's judgment was correct"the other girls affirmed, It was a manifestation of intention that responsibility was everyone's.
"... ... you girls are some pieces of work u know that."
airi seemed to be amazed.
"What ??"
"this whole time you were analyzing Fuku-chan and didn't even notice when she was scared or crying, or even when she was lonely, all you saw her as was a computer unit not doing it's job"
"what!?"
" She's having a hard time because she is scared child and somehow you only see her as a machine that isn't working and you're just irritated she won't do as commanded" the formality between Airi and Kiriko changed to that like one between a mother and her daughters.
"Even if she was a machine it is a good thing to have affection for all things.To give love to something to try to know it's perspective ...... that girl has a will of her own ... Fuku chan and that ship is a person of it's own ... ... the more you know her the more the ship will know you.That is the power of Ryo-Ohki.the power of Jurai's ships .... don't pamper her but please embrace her more, listen to her, talk to her For Washu-sama, Fuku-chan is the same as a daughter.she left her with you hoping you would raise her well. "
"…………I'm sorry"
Kiriko looked down
In retrospect, Fuku 's grim eyes on the bridge were always directed only to Seina. the only one who cared about how she felt. well Neeju as well. In private, Fuku had approached Kiriko and she nurtured her, but she never asked Kiriko for help on the bridge.
(Fuku-chan ... I'm sorry)
kiriko cried " honestly you should have realized that on your own."
"……eh?"
Kiriko raised her face while wiping the tears in the corner of her eyes.
"Why do you think that bridge is shaped to face Fuku-chan in the center? Seina seems to have caught on unconsciously, but should have known better,"
"You're right....Do you know where Kamidake is going yet?"
"There is no point in searching for it, there is only one place that child is going to ... it's mother's place ..."
"Oh!"
Everyone raised their voices at the same time to Mikami's words.
they started running to the transfer gate all at once
The Kamidake was only invisible to other ships, not to the naked eye, while they were talking a pair of spies who were hiding in the outer ring of the academy captured an image of Kamidake leaving the Academy. That information was instantly transmitted to other pirates.
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Not long afterwards, Space Pirates found the Kamidake and captured it. specifically two brothers Wight and Jate
"Bro we did it!"
"woohoo!"
there were many other pirates who had been after her but they captured her first so under pirate rule the Kamidake was all theirs.
" How much do you think we'll make?"
"enough to pay off this ship we just bought with a three hundred year loan!"
"yeah but how much will we have after that!!"
"we can probably organize a small fleet with a few large ships!"If this ship really is the same tech as ryo-ohki we can probably buy a whole country! ." the men of the bridge cheered.
─── Mia Gahiaaaaaaaaa An !!
"... .... Fuku !!"
Seina who had taken a nap, woke up with Fuku's cry.the warmth of hot water made him fall asleep.
In the sky, an image of the battle was projected and the crying voice of Fuku was heard.
Seina didn't even dry off, in a hurry he put on his uniform and ran towards the transfer gate Fortunately, after going in he came out to the residential area, and then he ran to the gate to the bridge in the central pond
"Fuku!"
"Miyaaaaaaaaa Ann !!"
Fuku was crying while trying to cling to the table
she was paralyzed with fear and was worried of being shot down. Fuku did not want to let Seina die, she desperately stayed in place.
"Wait a minute, Fuku!"
Seina sat down and took over the manual controles. "I studied the manual It's a good think I took some lessons on how to operate this thing."
Although it made Fuku feel knowing seina had taken the burden of steering of her made her perk up "Mia aa an Ann!"
As soon as he took control of the hull control, Fuku rushed towards Seina without hesitation, she began to cry "Fuku, it's all right now, everything's going to b efine"
Seina talked to Fuku to calm her down. Although he had taken over the control, the influence of Fuku was not completely gone. Fuku 's fear sometimes affected his steering greatly. Next Seina checked the state of the hull with an external monitor.it was covered in a familiar red paint.
Fuku has not yet experienced battle yet and had no idea how to avoid having her route intercepted she had sailed in a straight line towards the destination For that reason, she had also received a surprise attack by Space Pirates with paint bullets. Unlike when they fled with Seto's baggage, the Kamidake's route was easy to read. so he knew help would be coming. the only thing worrying seina was his lack of experience piloting and his bad luck.
the girls went back home and began scanning their information sources for spotting of the Lamidake, Erma was the first to find things on the pirates network, she suddenly got a call from her adjutant came in to the monitor.
"Captain,look! " he showed a feed of the kamidake being captured.
"I understand, can you send me a detailed location?"
"I am investigating now. I will report it when I find out. "
"Please do"
"Kiriko-sama! Jurai has information"
"so does the information department of the Academy, but Erma's Intel should come faster"
And the next moment Kiriko said "I got it!" Kamidake's location was displayed on all their monitors
Kiriko searched for the location of the Kamidake while comparing it with the data.
"I found it!" there was a super space emitter that was installed as a result of Seto 's package delivery to prevent that from happening again, it identified it's whereabouts. the girls looked at a feed of the ship. "oh no they've been paint balled!" "But the Kamidake should have the ability to break free from that !?"
"yes but Fuku is in a panicked state!"
"that's a lot of pirates it's going to be hard to do this with a single ship ..."
"It will take time to organize a large rescue team!"
"Oh yeah ... but you know what's close by to us ... ... Jurai's secret supply base ... ...."
Amane showed them what was on their monitor. ,
"How do you know that?"
Hakuren stood up angry.
"From Mihoshi's people, she invited invited me to visit it with her."
Amane said without hesitating,
"Mihoshi-sama ... ..."
"we you can go long there by distance transfer gate in the president's office,"
------------
In the president's office Airi and Mikami where relaxing with some tea. seina's crew came in all at once from the usual transfer gate and ran past Airi like a heard of runaway shiba inu's to the long distance transfer in the back
The beep sounded alarmingly and violently.
"Overweight!"
Kiriko looked around dumbfounded. calling any of the girls fat was a lie "Shit, make yourselves lighter!"
amane said everyone took off their clothes.
They rushed into the long distance transfer gate again. However……,
Beeeee─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ P
"That's it! just a few more ... ...!"
"Ooooooo! what an Angle! Superb view, superb view! When you mr master see's this he will get a nosebleed for sure ~~ Yea ..." Dooooooooooooong!" NB was kicked out of the gate.
The weight limit was now under and the gate transferred then
------
"Oh, this year's tea crop sure came out lousy"
Almost at the same time. Seto was having a relaxing tea with Minaho on the Mikagami Bridge.
"Seto, communication from Amane"
Amane, dressed in Juraian's operator clothes, was displayed.
"Please lend me the Chobimaru!" "
"what!! ??"
everyone below Seto was taken aback.
"Oh my how straightforward ? the Chobimaru? what are you using it for? Are you going to start a war?"
the Chobimaru was a planetary battleship. Moreover, it was a third generation ship. they could defeat most countries with it alone.
"Even before Neeju's case, we went though lot of hardships for you."
"Well, it is true that I owe you a favor, and I understand you are in a hurry ... ...."
The expression of Seto, which was a little shaky, turned into a gentle smile. Behind Amane you could see the bridge of Chobimaru, Mashisu Kuramitsu and Kiriko with confused faces, and hakuren's group.
"fine ... but please do don't ask me for favors after the fact from now on"
"Thank you"
To put it briefly, Amane cut off communications
"Oh boy... this will be interesting"
Seto held her tea cup in her hands. Actually, the Mikagami was heading to the same place as the Chobimaru.
"there's no pulling one over on you, Seto-sama"
"get ready to court the pirates.."
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Mashisu Kuramitsu was standing next to Amane she sighed. She was the wife of Misao Kuramitsu , and adopted daughter of Kamiki Seto. during a certain incident before, he had planed the assassination of Masaki Tenchi......... Well, she went along with it because she had a love affair with Misao who she had known since long ago. But because Misao's grandfather, Minami, opposed their marriage for status reasons, Seto adopted Mashisu so she could get approved. Of course it was not out of charity for Seto but also so she could establish formal ties between Jurai and the Kuramitsu.
"I cant believe you guys"
Mashisu glared at Amane with a keen eye.
Mashisu was originally a soldier. The left of her face had been blown away in a past battle and the color of the material used to restore it was different. her hair style and fearless appearance gave an impression that of a leopard.
"I'm sure Seto understands"
Amane said, They were friends via Mihoshi. It was the same for Kiriko,
"Sorry, Ms. Mashisu"
"Well, I couldn't say no either way knowing ryo-ohki's sister's in trouble."
Mashisu said with a smile
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End of chapter