Impermanence

[Imperium]

The drone's message did not manage to alert or disturb the few remaining students who were preoccupied in their own training. As it slowly descended to the floor, it's little hum faded into nothing more than a silent echo. The last bit of life of it silenced with a small tab that reverberated with it's connection to the Dojo's wooden floor. Akiko was rather motionless while her brain processed all the information she'd just received.

"What?"

She simply asked herself that, muttering it silently under her breath. Her legs were no longer crossed, but rather slung to one side, almost as if to lay down. She reached down to the drone and picked it up with both hands, it feeling shockingly light given what it was.

"Mitsubachi, hai?"

The drone pulsated in response, but did not reactivate. A simple blue light provided a warm glow before fading back into its powered down state. A quick shake of her head and Akiko picked herself up to her feet, the drone still in hand. After a short walk through the station, she made it to her quarters. The moment she was through the door, she let out a huge sigh and sealed the door behind her.

"Just as I was getting used to things? While I am a damn sight better than I was, I don't feel even close to what I need to be. I suppose I should gather my things, not that I have many."

She quickly collected what few possessions she had brought with her, as well as a few of the miscellaneous gifts she'd been given by her fellow students. The main thing was her datapad, which she couldn't really be separated from. With all her belongings in hand, along with the drone, she made her way out of her room, leaving it almost exactly like she found it all those months ago.

The basic layout of the station was extremely familiar to her now, and it was a rather simply trek back to her ship. There was no smile on her face, but nor was their a frown. There wasn't a person that stopped her along her way to the ship, normally they'd be at least one person stopping her for a talk or something; but perhaps they were informed, or could just see now was not the time for such. Perhaps, Akiko was once again overthinking things far more than they needed to be.

It didn't take long. The ship fired up, the drone positioned on the co-pilot seat. With her on her way home she once again input coordinates for her home away from home, the decaying liner of Okinawa. It only just occurred to her she'd never actually given it a name, it was simply just "The Liner". She never got a chance to talk about her offer to Hirotada, so perhaps her only real chance to get this Liner fixed was Kajima.

"At least I'll have some company and interesting thing for the log this time around." Akiko chuckled slightly to herself, before returning her focus to the ship.

She quickly set the ship on it's way before diving her attention across her ship. She'd noticed that it seemed noticeably cleaner and everything seemed rather organised, it would seem that she'd have to return and thank the Hikone engineers for that at some point. While the ship entered cruise and began to shoot off into the void, Akiko looked back towards the drone.

"Mitsubachi. Awaken." She only knew this was the command to restart it after overhearing Hirotada say it once, it was nice she had a somewhat selective memory. The drone slowly hummed and burst itself back to life. "Konichiwa, Miku-San. Daimyo Watanabe has assigned me to your service as a token gesture. It is an honour, Miku-San." The lights on the drone dipped slightly when it finished talking, as if to emulate a bowing gesture.

Akiko simply smiled back to it.

"The honour is mine."