Description: On the eve of the Fourth Round of Jinchuu, the Suiryuu gets a most unwelcome array of visitors.
A clear night. A cloudless sky. The moon shines, reflecting over the waves.
Here in the Pacific, this is the very height of mid-autumn, the apex of the lunar calendar. The night of the full moon.
The great fighting ship cruises upon the ocean, bow parting the waters, foam sluicing off her flanks. Whiteness rippling in the ship's wake. Lit, running lights illuminated over the vessel's length...joined by the runic sigals engraved upon the hull, glowing with an ethereal aura...an aura all the more strong beneath the silvery moon.
Among the Chinese, this is a festival. Among the Muslims, a night of Ramadan.
For the agents of Jinchuu, however, it is not a night for prayer or celebration.
It is merely an opportune night for violence.
Up on the bridge, uniformed personnel man their stations with a cool professionalism. The chamber is dark, illuminated only by the lights of the screens and consoles, and what filters in from outside. In the centre seat, the captain's chair, rests one of the mysterious ninja in charge of this enigmatic tournament, overseeing things on this most critical night.
Unfortunately, that ninja is Riko Koganei.
She's dressed in the dark ninja outfit she has taken to wearing for the occasion of the tournament. She has, however, also added a little bit of plastic Star Trek merchandise, a shiny Starfleet emblem pinned securely to her top.
It is, after all, the night of the Fourth Round of Jinchuu.
A night to remember.
Tictictictictictic..
A pile of paper sits on one the flat surfaces on Hiretsu's desk, a pile of very thin readoff ticker tape. Being spat from a small machine set upon the plexiglas covering of the mapping table, the tape is a black length marked with elaborate punches that...don't quite seem to be in any known language. Regardless, the tallish director in the clean, crisp Jinchuu uniform seems to be able to read it perfectly as he emerges from the nearby security office at the bridge. Drawing the tape between gloves, he sets his cane down onto the deck, delicately balancing it against the navigational map board. Despite his reliance on the implement, standing still he seems scarcely affected by the ship and her regular pitch and roll.
As he studies the length fervently, he continues in absent attentiveness a conversation he was having only a few moments prior, with the ship's Security Chief.
"You will have to excuse Ship's Captain. Though as you well know, he /has/ received your.." pause. "Memo.. he has been quite fervently embroiled in the various intensities of ship's engineering. Preparations must be made for the final round. As a fellow agent, of course you understand--however, I do trust you are more than adequately trained in the use of the ship's security surveillance system, mmm?"
After such a time, Hiretsu at the very least did find time to show her how to rewind the ship's cameras. It was, of course, all in the Operations Manual. Not that the manual is exactly user-friendly. Of course.
The Director grins wolfishly, setting down the tape. "We've got the readouts for the next match prepared and assigned. Miss Koganei--" he addresses, in a.. surprisingly delicate tone. At least, for someone who, at least on paper, shares an almost equal amount of authority with the young lady.. "--What is our current heading?"
"Heading forty-six degrees, following our last course change," Riko replies, in a cool crisp voice, "relative bearing of one-hundred-and-twenty-four degrees from designated point alpha."
A mostly cool and crisp voice, anyway. Somewhat leavened with a slurping sound, iced coffee being drawn through a straw. Apparently the Suiryuu's captain's chair has a cup holder.
Riko looks round, twisting in the seat, peering at Hiretsu and Sakura as they emerge from the compartments aft of the bridge.
Kasugano hasn't been in that security room much. For one, it drives the tomboy nuts to be sequestered away in a tiny room when the giant vessel is cutting its way through the water, making for a breathtaking journey unlike any other. For another, that room just gives her the creeps. Despite her diligent patrols of the vessel and constant seeking-out of the numerous nexii of chi throughout it, there are =still= cameras peering into rooms she hasn't visited yet.
Accordingly, when Hiretsu asks her if she understands the surveillance system, her answer is a meek, uncomfortable, maybe even -squeaky- laugh.
So now she knows how to rewind without crashing the system. Not that it would crash, per se, just that the young Taiyo graduate had a fear of inadvertently doing so.
Regardless, the Chief of Security has received an education. "Uh-huh... " she continues, stepping out of the room, "I think I've got it now." Kasugano glances over to Riko as she enters, still a bit stuffy-headed after being in that room. She hates that room, really.
But really... she's at a temporary loss for words, not really knowing Hiretsu well enough to josh around with... or in the immediate vicinity of, really. There are things she'd like to ask Riko, but there are better times.
Accordingly, she settles for folding that clipboard behind her back, and bowing her head to Hiretsu. "Thank you, sir..." she states, more out of rote than sincerity. She... guesses the ship's bearings are a good thing?
The great hunt. To catch the largest prey ever sought. A trophy like none other.
Out here at the sea there are only a few things one ought to be wary of. Flash storms that defy predicted weather patterns or other natural phenomenon that no one could predict - tsunami, tidal waves, water spouts, drifting ice bergs... Oh yeah, one also must be wary of pirates.
It's been decades since the pirate ships of old sailed the seas, hoisting the Jolly Roger atop their dreaded masts as they pursued and overtook merchant vessels on the high seas by hook or crook. Modern day pirates have lost their luster. Desperate men have traded cutlasses for pistols and large frigates for small motor boats as they prey upon ships closer to shore. At least most of them have.
Unfortunately for the Suiryuu, with publicity comes that two-edged blade of attention. Slipping out of the shadows with the most noteworthy new creation to set sail is a surefire way to garner the public's imagination. The ratings must be exceptional. The matches broadcast are like none other. But out here, with nothing but seawater and clear night skies for miles, what is there to fear of attention? Who's arm would be long enough to grasp hold of the sleek watercraft miles away from any shore?
Perhaps that awaits to be seen. The sound begins as a distant rumble. The sound of chopper blades ripping through the air. Four large, dual rotor helicopters flying in a diamond formation. They would be invisble to the naked eye. Black, sleek, no lights to mark their presence. Only that encroaching sound. Even traditional surveillance techniques would have a hard time pinpointing their exact position.
This far out, it would be unlikely that they hail from any ground based airport. Their approach is slow for an aircraft though compared to any speed the boat could hope to accomplish, they will close distance rapidly.
Meanwhile, aboard the Suiryuu, the crew is ready to meet this threat with their profound and incredible professionalism.
Riko slurps her coffee-flavored beverage, drawing brown sugary sludge through the straw. She licks her lips, tongue darting round to pick off stray flecks of sweetened moisture. She grins at Sakura.
"Kinda hard to program that VCR, innit, Sakura-senpai? I still say we should have gotten a TiVo, but /someone/..."
Riko leans over the armrest of the center chair, glaring mock daggers at Hiretsu. Her eyes bore into the old cane-wielding man.
"...is still in the /Dark Ages/ when it comes to technology."
Riko pouts.
"Bad for our publicity! You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get all those tourney videos onto YouTube..."
"Excellent." At this point, it's a forked comment. Occupied as he is with folding out the tape on the table and packing it away in some neat little bundle by the ticker machine, his words could very easily be directed to either of his two crewmates. Or both. "Including this one, there are only two rounds left until the final battle. Our extra matches should be wrapping up in this round, and we can begin to announce these when we reach alpha."
The odd trend changes when the director picks up his cane once again, placing a fair amoutn of his weight on it. Hiretsu looks up at Sakura, flashing her that same warm smile. Disarming in his own fashion, though one wouldn't begrudge the idle glance from the Director to Riko, a sterile gesture, thin eyes showing a sliver of white under the shadows of his cap. "Though my and the Captain's," he stresses the last word with particular relevance to the Engineer, "tend towards antiquity, they are no less capable," he explains to Sakura. ".. Properly utilized," he adds, as an afterthought. "Of course, though Miss Koganei call me what she wishes as she always has... Call me Hiretsu."
Though something happens in the sky far beyond them, when his glance strays across the panels of instrumentation at the fore of the ship, it is with little shock or surprise. There is nothing there worth attention.
Part of the reason Sakura feels so... on-edge around Hiretsu is because his personality is a more advanced version -- literally and figuratively -- of the qualities which perturb her about Riko and Seishirou. Despite the clearest ring of sincerity, the tomboy always picks up some latent /je ne sais quoi/ of condescension in the voice. It could easily be in her own head, of course, but the way Riko's statement can be taken in both a literal sense and a scornful sense irks her somewhat. Before she can really get ticked off about that one statement, though, she realizes the scorn could just as easily be targeted at Hiretsu... this time.
"Yeah," admits Sakura lamely, "I always leave that stuff to my brother. "He tapes all the SNFs for me, I just watch 'em whenever I get a moment..."
Kasugano doesn't seem to notice the rumbling at first, instead going on to crane her neck to see if either Hiretsu or Riko is carrying the fight listing just mentioned. And, seeing none, she feels compelled to chip into the conversation: "Two rounds, huh? I woulda figured we'd already be at the end of 'em..."
There comes a point when the rumble becomes rather impossible to miss, however. Narrowing her eyes, she glances into the black inky void of night. "... uh... hey." Stamping her foot lightly, she leans upon the bridge's front windshield framing, nose practically pressed to the glass. "You two can hear that, right? Shouldn't we, uhh... toss out lights or somethin?" Nothing worth attention? Bah! Not to Sakura!
The diamond flight formation catches up with the boat in due time. The aircraft move with a certain belabored effort - as if they were capable of moving faster but something is slowing them down. That speed slows even further, however, when they catch up with tonight's quarry du jour. Their flight is strange - even when their forward momentum has become synchornized with the Suiryuu, they seem to strain to maintain their positions, occasionally leaning to one side or the other, before correcting and pulling back into the four cornered arrangement they arrived in.
The reason for all of the trouble the choppers are having becomes evident moments later, but by then it's probably too late to do much about it. The sound of large, metallic winches unwinding, accompanied by the whistle of steel cable running against a series of pullies in each of the choppers is just barely audible above the roar of the eight engines straining to keep the birds aloft.
And then it drops. Invisible in the darkness, it may be difficult to distinguish just what it is until it has blanketed the mighty yacht. A gigantic net made of a web of thick cables, large enough to encompass the entire boat from bow to stern. Heavy weights on the edges will serve to pull it down swiftly over the surface of the entire vessel. It may prove troublesome to anyone caught topside, but the human personel are hardly the target of the heavy, constricting weight that just plummeted out of the sky.r
Radio antennas and other electronics on the top of the control structure are likely to be crushed or riped free of their mounting by the twisting cables but even more of a problem would be the boat's turbines. Any rudders or propellers external to the ship's hull are likely to get bound up by the large net and could very well be damaged beyond hope if the engines aren't killed in time to prevent it.
Up on the top of the boat, right at the very center point of the giant netting, is a large electronics device. A black sphere. Its surface perfectly smooth, black iron, except for a large, red LED that blinks ominiously on the top of it.
Freed of their burden, the choppers now move far more swiftly, each flying in low to different parts of the boat. Bow, stern, port, starboard. Ziplines shoot down with strong hooks, aiming to imbed themselves in the surfaces. The shouts of men are heard in the air above. It would appear that the Suiryuu is seconds away from being boarded.
"Wait for the EMP!" a shout is heard. And for the next few seconds, the choppers simply hold their positions.
As the ship shakes...
Riko's on her feet, skate wheels hitting the deck as she leaps from the captain's chair. In a flash, she's beside one of the uniformed crew members manning the bridge stations, almost shouldering past him. The man toggles a few screens in response to Riko's snapped order - and the girl frowns.
This is the Suiryuu. This isn't supposed to happen. Especially not after all the effort spent in acquiring a honest-to-God military sensor suite. Purchased from a major defence technologies firm. Which is to say that Riko broke into a warehouse and made off with the thing. But she did leave some money behind, and made sure she got a receipt, so it wasn't /precisely/ a theft. Granted, the money she left was only just about enough to cover breakfast at McDonald's, not the price of a long-range multi-function radar...
..it's all a matter of principle though.
After all that, and the additional chi seals inscribed on the phased array, this isn't supposed to happen. They -should- have early warning of any approaching threat, up to two-hunded-fifty klicks away. They -should- be able to track any air or surface target. The fact that they /haven't/ is almost alarming.
Almost.
"More guests," Riko says, her voice strangely casual, "that's no good. I don't think we have enough parking..."
"Oh?" Hiretsu looks up. "My hearing isn't what it used to be," Hiretsu complains, slowly making his way towards the bulkhead and the bay windows set therein. "I am quite sure it's only--"
THNK. The iron rain comes.
Hiretsu.. frowns. Distinctly.
"I /thought,/" Hiretsu notes to Riko, in a distinctly less than cordial and humble tone this time around, "That your state-of-the-art technology was procured explicitly for the purpose of /detecting/ things."
One might consider the Director's colder tone somewhat unwarranted in this case, until one also takes into account the face that a giant net has just fallen over the entirety of the Suiryuu.
"We'll just need to make some room," Hiretsu points out. He himself wastes little time, reaching up and drawing a phone from a nearby box. Vigorously, he winds a hand crank on the side, causing a loud tweeting noise to chirp in the tight space. The onboard phone system will still work in this situation. "Get me the Crewmaster," Hiretsu snaps into the phone quickly, before looking over his shoulder at Sakura.
A.. pleasant smile?
"It would seem we may be boarded," Hiretsu mentions.
Pause.
"..Again," he adds, an ironic tone creeping into his voice.
Hearing steel cables clamp down onto the boat is one thing. Feeling the boat lurch sharply as those same cables get lodged in the mechanisms driving the ship... well, that's a bit =more= of a problem. Kasugano's glad she's still relatively close to the front window when that happens -- as she has her hands really close to keep from knocking herself =out=.
Okay, yes, she gets it -- the director's mad that the ship was boarded last time. What the heck kind of security precaution can one take to prevent one from =slamming a tractor trailor into the ship?= The dockmasters don't take nicely to suggestions that retractible bollards be installed in their concrete outside, after all!
"I swear, you guys are taking this =way= too nice!" snaps the tomboy, a bit frustrated at all the ironic statements being bandied about. Kasugano practically leaps =over= the crewmembers in her way as she heads to the door of the bridge. One bad thing about being on the topmost deck of the ship is that the steel cables are really close to the bridge itself. ... One =good= thing about this ship in particular is the stylistic purpose of the sail superstructure, which makes even the taut cables act as a tent for the young woman to get out of the bridge door. ... If not much further.
Kicking the door open, she looks up to the sky, scowling somewhat. "I can't see anything!!!" she shouts, over the roar of helicopter rotors.
What's that she heard about an EMP, though? "Oh, screw that!" shouts the chief of security. There's a voice, and no matter how far away it is, Kasugano's going to be making her own light show! Cue one blue ball of chi, aimed right toward the voice! "HADOOOOOOOUKEN!"
Really, she can be as loud as she wants after =that= parade.
"Keep it to the radio you idiot!" comes the counter shout to the warning regarding the EMP impending. That's the problem with technology. It knows no loyalty. Defense mechanisms stolen from the military are swell. But against one particular group that has circumvented and in many cases, /invented/ that technology, it can quickly become a betrayer. Though the ninjas have 'technology' that doesn't come from any world government warehouse. And it's those warnings that should be sounding off really soon.
The choppers hold their positions, anchored by the zip lines imbedded into the decks and hull of the traget vessel. There's the cacophany of radio chatter - voices shouting back orders in code that sounds meaningless to those it's not intended for.
And then it comes. A massive pulse from the sphere at the center of the thick web of cabling that blankets the boat. There is a blue flash at the point of origin, but most of it goes unseen, an invisible sphere of instantly expanding waves targeting electronics of the traditional sort, threatening to disrupt or damage circuits, overload capacitors, and melt transistors.
There is a shout of pain from one of the black, sleek helicoptors. "Argh! They're shooting back!" It would seem Sakura's projectile hit something or someone. "Go, go, go!" From each of the four choppers descend six men decked out in all black. Nightvision goggles are resting against their foreheads and will be donned if the ship ends up blanketed in darkness as intended. They're bearing arms though each one is at least a moderately competant fighter in his own right. The ship has some new visitors. And they don't seem to be here just to spectate.
But would twenty four fighters of non legendary status be able to take the boat by force? One would imagine not, with the the number of powerful fighters aboard the vessel that will probably not be too interested in being taken hostage by these pirates. And of course, the brain behind this operation would not make that mistake. The netting, the EMP, the men boarding the ship... it's all a distraction. All intended to divert attention inward rather than outward. To pull eyes away from the displays that would warn those wary enough of the impending threat from abroad.
It hastens upon the Suiryuu. A massive, black leviathan, visible only in the way it blacks out the stars in the horizon - an obscurring silhouette against the night sky. The lights won't come on until it's already there, just off the side of the People's Suiryuu. It's then that the deck of the carrier will suddenly be aglow with activity. Spot lights off the side of the hull will begin sweeping over the exterior of the boat of the Ryouhara. The sound of small moter craft firing up from a built in harbor at sea level can be heard as well.
And above it all, so very high up in the sky, a single powerful spot light beaming against it, waves the blood red flag of 'R' from the top of the massive command and control structure of the largest man made mobile monstrosity ever created.
The brunt of the pulse lasts for only a second, as the fluctuating field radiates from the weapon. But the sheer energy released carries on. And when magnetism meets metal in this quantity, there's a secondary release of /electricity/, as current and voltage surges... and that power travels through the hull of the ship, through the superstructure.
Inside the bridge - as things must be, throughout the ship - there's brightness and sparks.
Then darkness, sparks, and the acrid stench of frying circuits, computers, silicon chips toasted to slag.
Voices, as the men of the crew swear and shout. A few emergency lights come on almost immediately, casting a dull illumination over the ship's interior - emergency systems powered by vacuum tubes and simple motors, largely unaffected by the pulse. Such systems were not /precisely/ installed as a backup for this eventuality, for even the infamous planning of Seishirou Ryouhara could not have predicted this. At least not to the exact detail. But the ninja engineer has a well-known preference for archaic technology, for devices powered by clockwork and analog mechanisms rather than bleeding edge electronics. So a significant portion of the ship's systems, designed by him, still function despite the disruption...
..but many do not, for electronics are /Riko's/ area of expertise, and her preferred choice of technology.
The girl scowls, her expression - briefly - dark as night.
On the other hand, there's nothing normal about Riko's technology. The young ninja produces her mobile phone, fingers curling tightly around the colorful plastic case. The cheerful cartoon-character ornament hanging from the strap sways dangerously as Riko raises the phone. She stabs her thumb into the keypad with excessive force.
She turns to Hiretsu, then.
""Electromagnetic bomb," Riko says, rather unnecessarily. But she continues her report, in simple clipped speech. "Switching affected systems to chi-seal network. Nominal functions available in fifty-four seconds. Full restoration of electronic systems...unknown, pending damage control..."
Riko glances at the bridge exit, the door leading to the exterior of the vessel and the main deck... the door through which Sakura left, just a few moments ago.
Then she turns her eyes to the open ocean, to the movement starting across the waves - and the silhouette of another ship upon the ocean.
Her eyes narrow.
"...weaponry should be unaffected, but most importantly..."
Riko lifts her phone to her ear, hitting the speed dial.
"Programming," she says, "are the fighting arena cameras online?"
Hiretsu seems amazingly unconcerned when Sakura jumps over his head and kicks down the door. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he evaluates the cost fo the hinge on that door. They seemed to have been going through quite a few sets of door hardware, of late. As something of a testament to Hiretsu's remaining sanity, that particular estimate was very, very deep in the back of his mind.
"Maintaining the chain of command will be vital here," Hiretsu dictates. "They display an organization and planning level far beyond that of our last attackers," he evaluates. There is a cold tone in his voice. A sharp edge, perhaps mercifully beyond Sakura's earshot.
"Hello," Hiretsu finally manages to call into the phone system. "Crewmaster Gibbons," he greets. "Please mobilize the crew, we have an invasion. If you'll--"
BOOM.
In the sudden darkness lit only the ship's emergency lighting, Hiretsu snorts. "Antiquity is no less capable," he repeats. ".. Properly utilized."
He hangs up the phone, now temporarily useless.
There was another hard line outside going to the announcement system.. Glaring at the dark sleek, form of the ship in the distance, Hiretsu steps off the bridge, his limp suddenly becoming quite pronounced. "All continues as planned," he mentions to Riko in his wake. "We'll continue as planned..."
Emergencing from the cabin only moments later beside Sakura, the Director murmurs, "Shooting at /them/ is only going to cause the airships to crash into the deck," Hiretsu interjects, still moving past her. "Clear the netting, first. Then, come with me. I'll instruct you in the use of the Bachigan and Daikonran Taihou..."
Chain of command, et cetera ET CETERA. Sakura's been charged with the security of this ship, and there's a SECURITY ISSUE right now, so as far as she's concerned, she has every guldurn right to be out here taking potshots at the people she can lay eyes on! And that first guy won't be the =only= guy to be shot, either -- it's a few seconds before the stately Hiretsu can make his way out there, and that's a few more seconds Sakura will take advantage of, to get a general range for each of the multiple voices shouting. "Hadouken!" she howls, focused, long-range blasts streaking out to each of the pinpricks of light she can see in the choppers above. Individually, the blasts aren't large enough to take down an airship, but rather enough to stun a soldier for a few moments. The lack of electrical lighting throughout the ship doesn't seem to be a bother for the young fighter -- there's a full moon out, she's outside, and she's not targeting with just her -eyes-, at any rate.
Whether this is -televised-, though, is the least of Sakura's concerns. She'd 'let' the ship get invaded last time, and she's determined to prevent such from happening this time. Gritting her teeth, she takes aim at another soldier...
Just before the Director passes her in the night, voicing his interjection. "... h-huh," she stammers, lost in thought for a moment. "Yeah, hadn't thought of that..." she adds, frowning. Clear the netting? That stuff's =heavy!= It's not just =net= after all...
"Uh... yeah." she adds, even more lamely than before! "Right on it..." And with that, she moves to grab the nearest piece of metal cord, testing its weight and tautness... but more than that, she's trying to find out where it =is=.
*kch-THOOOOOOM* There go the spotlights -- and for a brief moment, Sakura catches sight of where the nets are joined together, to head up to ne of the diamond-formation airships. Grinning, she pulls her hands back for another Hadouken... if she can blast that, it's simple, right?
The aircraft stay in position hovering over their decks. In each chopper is a pilot, co-pilot, and a gunner. Powerful gatling guns are trained on the Suiryuu, as well as wing-mounted missile racks. But the orders are to not fire unless absolutely necessary. Rugal wants this ship slightly damaged, not sunk.
The men that boarded via the ziplines move in unisen, each covering each other's back. They're pros. Some of the best in the business when it comes to this sort've thing. Bernstein spared no expense. The motorboats heading directly over from the Black Noah's built in docking bay will be pulling alongside the people's vessel in no time, using grappling hooks and the platforms mounted to the exterior of the ship to ascend onto deck rapidly and back up the pros that descended via the choppers. They number twenty easily, each as well armed and equipped as those first to board.
In the backdrop looms the carrier itself. The Black Noah, dwarfing the tournament hosting vessel by several orders of magnitude. If it were so desired, it could have just tried to ram it. That it merely draws near before holding its ground makes clear the intent here. Takeover, not total destruction. But knowing Rugal, if he can't have it in the end, he'll see that /no one/ does.
It isn't personal. The Ryouhara have never done anything to attract the attention of the tyrant of 'R'. They just have something he wants. And what he wants, he takes. They speak of the weak and the strong - he is here to demonstrate it. His men will be making efforts to restrain any passangers that don't put up a fight with very strong, thin plastic cables that they will use to tie them up and leave them secured in their rooms. They're merely pawns in this game - safely ignored unless they chose to get in the way. The real problem are the fighters themselves. Whether or not they can sway the outcome of this invasion waits to be seen...
As chaos wages upon the Suiryuu's deck, and the surrounding ocean...
Riko's still on the phone. Listening silently as a tinny voice filters from her tightly-clutched mobile phone, whispering into her ear. She quickly digests what the engineering crewmember on the other end of the line tells her...before terminating the connection with a sharp stab of the fingertips.
She looks out the bridge windows, her eyes roaming across the sky and water. Soon, she notes, a battles will be fought upon the decks, as armaments are distributed among the crew, as efforts are mobilized to repel the invaders. Then there is the Black Noah itself, a vessel that /must/ be dealt with.
But all that is not Riko's concern.
What she worries about, now, is not the unexpected - but what /was/ planned.
"The conventional cameras are down," she relays, speaking across the bridge to Hiretsu, "those augumented with spiritual seals appear to be functional, but will draw increased chi to compensate..."
Riko flicks her hand, fingers forming into a distinct pattern. She presses them to the surface of her mobile phone. A blue glow suffuses the LCD screen.
"...within acceptable limits. There will be," she stresses, "no interruptions of the schedule."
These things are never quite personal, are they?
It's a sentiment Hiretsu understands../quite/.. well.
Somewhat eerily, the director moves fast, despite his perceptible limp. Almost as if he were only a shadow himself. One muttering various obscenities under the breath, of course. As Sakura works to dislodge the netting, he mutters to himself, pulling a catch at the outside of the cabin wall, opening a small panel. A box there supplies a small handset and a handcrank. These he utilizes. "The crew will need to be organized," he mutters. "Armed--and .. people trained..a reassignment crew put together.. but most importantly.."
Hiretsu sets his cane to the deck, leaving it to stand there shock straight and in perfect balance, as he works the crank. This one crackles visibly with but barely contained yellow energy. Just enough to carry his voice..
He favors the handset with his main hand, lifting it so it rests only three inches or so away from his lips.
"Such trouble simply to run a tournament," the Director grouses, before pnching a switch in. He speaks in a clear, calm tone. "Attention all agents of Jinchuu," he voices in a calm, controlled tone. "The ship is currently being invaded by a hostile military force. As a direct result, we are going to have to accelerate our timetable...
"Please settle your affairs with all due haste and gather at your designated locations. Round Four matches will begin immediately and without delay..."
Log created on 15:28:28 10/02/2007 by Prime, and last modified on 15:31:40 10/02/2007.