June 20, 826 A.S. at an unknown location. On day 4, the hijacked patrol boat returned to the fishing boat following the GPS signal. Instead of Kiri and Misaki, Lady Yamada stood staring at the night sky surrounded by armed yurei operatives. "Isn't it a beautiful night?" she mentioned to no one in particular. "I often get tired of the confinement of our stations. This fresh air does me well."
The patrol boat came to a stop next to the other ship and Lady Yamada stepped on the deck of the fishing boat, while adjusting her coat and tying her hair into a ponytail.
June 20, 826 A.S. Somewhere on New Tokyo
Ryo stepped out from the bridge of the ship, staring down at the newcomers. He held his right hand behind his back, as if hiding something. Rikka walked to the top of the stairs, as if she was summoned on a radio. "Excuse me, can I help you with something?" Ryo called down. "Ryo you idiot!" Rikka called back. "These are the people Chi works for...I think" Rikka eyed the women. "You ARE the people Chi works for, right?"
June 20, 826 A.S. Somewhere on New Tokyo
Rikka and Ryo brought out their handguns at the mention of Kempetai, but only lowered them when Yamada cleared the 'joke'. "That's not funny you know." Rikka glared. "We kinda take our jobs seriously, and Chi made it like, REALLY clear how important this is." Rikka stuck the gun in her waistband. "But alright let's go see the old man." Rikka waved them on, walking below deck. Ryo followed behind the group, his gun lowered but still unholstered. As they stepped off of the stairs leading to the lower levels of the ship, Rikka held everyone back. "sssh" She puts her ear to Nakamura's bedroom door. "He's sleeping." She slowly pushes the door open, on the bed is the prisoner silently sleeping. Rikka whispers "Isn't he cute?" before quietly shutting the door. She then leads the party to the workshop. The room is in a state of disarray. Metal slag all over, failed statues, tools, nothing organized neatly. On the workbench sits two objects, a golden statue and mask, obviously placed there to save it the fate of the rest. "There they are." Rikka enters the room, pushing debris off to the side with her foot, creating a path. "Poor guy has been slaving away day and night to get this stuff done." She picks up the mask, holding it in front of her face. "Even made this thing look nice, kinda spooky though, right?"
June 20, 826 A.S. at an unknown location. Yamada looked over at Nakamura "Has he been treated well?" She then took the mask from Rikka and inspected it from all sides. "This looks like a nice piece of work." The mask was solid gold and the original floral pathern of the silver version was now edged into into the gold instead. She then turned to the statue. A lifelike sculpture of Yuyu Matsuda holding the book that inspired the Golden Chrysanthemum movement stood on the table in the corner of the room. Two of the yurei were already stood around it, admiring the craftsmanship. "Perfection."
Yamada then turned to Rikka. "He did his job well and will be returned to where he was found unharmed."
June 20, 826 A.S. Somewhere on New Tokyo
"Oh that's good to hear. Poor guy hurt himself the other day, so whatever was in store for him I think that is a good exchange for it. His fault, not mine, dude fell on some hot tongs. I fixed him up though, kind of. I'm not a doctor." Ryo spoke up from the doorway. "So are we taking him back home? It should be too hard if you guys aren't taking care of it."
Late night, June 18, 826 A.S. Ainu Depot
Chika lay in bed. Lights off, half dressed, lazily petting a cat sleeping on her stomach. She had nothing pressing to take care of. Rikka and Ryo had the Nakamura situation under control. The Cartel job wasn't a large priority, there were other pilots taking care of it. No worries, just time to relax. She had been like this for awhile. No way to tell how long, but she preferred it that way. Suddenly, Chika's computer gave off a ding. The screen flared up, lighting the room. The sudden noise and light startled the cat awake, it running off to find some peace. Chika sighed. Who the hell, at this hour. She got up to check the message. Rick Tiltman the screen said. Who? she thought. After reading the message Chika was visibly giddy. "no way, NO. WAY." She couldn't believe it, the Congress responded to her. She didn't have much faith that they would respond, let alone like the idea of selling a ship to a Chrysanthemum. "Charo!" Chika called out, running to find the now hiding orange and black tortoiseshell. She found her sleeping in the bathroom. Chika scooped her up, hugging it to her face. "Charo, they might actually give me a bulldog, do you believe it?" The cat gave a bit of protest, trying to push Chika away while squirming out of her arms. "Ugh, fine, be that way." Chika said, defeated. "Stay here and sleep then, I have somewhere to go." She returned to her dark room, flicking on a light. Her room was modest. Just a bed, desk, dresser, and various furnature for her pet. Walls adorned with posters of musicians, decorative scrolls, and a small banner above her bed sporting the Watanabe kanji. On her nightstand sat a childhood picture of Chika and her parents. Chika opened the drawers to her dresser, she needed something to not stick out, but she didn't have many clothes that would fit in with Liberty. She settled on a pair of jeans and a shirt sporting the Chrysanthemum sigil over her heart. Ready to go. Chika stepped out of her room, "Ittekimasu!" she called out to her cat, still absent.
June 20, 826 A.S. at an unknown location. Yamada made a short call using her phone and put it away again while she had the sisters carry the statue to the deck of the ship. 20 minutes later, an Anki freighter apeared in the sky and made its way towards the fighing boat, where it hovered only a few meters above it. Its cargo doors opened and two sisters on board threw down a crate attached to chains. The inside of it was padded to make sure the statue and mask would remain undamaged. When it was taken on board, the Anki quickly disapeared out of the New Tokyo sky again.
Yamada turned to Rikka again. "Lets take Nakamura home"
June 21, 826 A.S. at an unknown location. They unloaded Nakamura's equipment into the patrol ship and torched the fishing boat behind them. Yamada looked from the deck to the inferno while Nakamura was brought inside the cabin.
1 hour later the patrol boat reached a remote and largely abandonned harbor where the group disembarked the ship. It was now past midnight. A vehicle stood ready and an hour later they reached Nakamura's workshop, where they stopped.
Yamada stepped out of the vehicle and opened the door next to Nakamura. "As promised, you have your life and freedom back. Besides that, you earned the gratitude of the Golden Chrysanthemums."
Early morning, June 19, 826 A.S. New York system
"Auto-pilot, cancelled. No known route." Chika was startled awake by the sudden message. She blinked for a few seconds before stretching as much as she could. It's been a few hours since she set off in her Blossom. With the Nakamura job, Chika couldn't afford much time to go across Sirius. Setting the ship on auto-pilot, Chika took a red eye flight straight to New York. I guess this is New York she thought. Chika had only been in New York one other time in her life, the unfortunate day when Misaki was following her. Ryo said Texas is next, but where is Texas? She opened up her nav map. Nothing. The only thing mapped was the scrap field she was currently floating in, as well as the jumphole she just came out of. "argh" Chika ruffled her hair in frustration. How do they expect a random Chrysanthemum to make it down this far? Or maybe that was part of the deal, proving that said random Chrysanthemum was worthy of flying a Junker ship by finding their home. This is going to suck.
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