Description: Poor Sakura. She was on deck when the Suiryuu exploded, plunging her into the ocean. She survived, of course, but she's not feeling all that bright right now. And the first person she finds when she climbs back on board, cold and dripping wet...is Riko. There's been death, there's been destruction, and Sakura is not amused. She demands an explanation. But from Riko, is there ever such a thing as plain truth?
Daybreak.
The light of the sun filters through the clouds, shining upon the ocean. A breeze stirs the air, a chill wind passing over the waves.
It is morning, now. After a long night of violence, the world is finally at peace.
More or less.
Two ships float upon the ocean's surface.
In the distance, the great length of the Black Noah. The aircraft carrier, though, is no longer a frenzy of activity. It lies dark, silent, a slumbering giant...listing slightly to one side, as it takes in water through a breach in the hull.
And here, the Suiryuu. The fighting aboard the tournament ship has also ceased, and the Suiryuu too is quiet.
What's left of it, anyway.
Because from above, it hardly resembles a ship. The superstructure and main deck has been torn away, ripped and scorched by the burning hand of God. Shattered and scorched wood, twisted metal, deck plating melted clear to the skeletal ribs of the hull. Damaged, unstable...and very clearly sinking. Slowly, perhaps, but sinking all the same.
The surrounding waters are littered with debris, with flotsam and wreckage - even a few scattered human bodies, clad in the uniform of Rugal's soldiers.
Despite the devestation, though, there are signs of life.
Take, for instance, the small figure even now emerging onto the deck of the Suiryuu, climbing up from the lower hull. She moves carefully over the uneven flooring, slowly, steadily. The girl scales the remains of a fallen mast until she can peer over the side of the ruined vessel. Riko Koganei scans the ocean, a pair of binoculars held to her eyes - and a large ring-shaped life preserver looped round her arm.
She's looking for something. Or someone.
The Suiryuu's egotistical chief of security would certainly like to believe that Riko's looking for -her-. It's true, the young Taiyo graduate was caught in the explosion, trapped in between hulls as the upper decks were ripped off the ship. The only thing that came between her and certain death was her lucky placement near one of the stronger bulkheads of the ship. She's sure to go into great detail on this if anyone asks.
But she'd also regale the inquisitive soul with tales of her swimming through the ocean just a few heart-pounding moments afterwards, as she tried to get back aboard the customized yacht. It was no field trip -- with all the bulkheads-turned-flotsam flying off the Suiryuu, Sakura had quite a time of it. It shows in her appearance, her usual unruly hair at least eight times moreso, gnarled and twisted by the addition of oily seawate, her uniform torn in places and scorched in others, her face a deathly pallor with hunger and exhaustion quite obvious. She'd give zombies a run for their money, really.
Kasugano tromps up to the highest deck she can from an alternate angle, weary and exhausted. Oddly enough, she's carrying a book, no doubt liberated from the library. Despite beign waterlogged, it most certainly contains a great deal of wisdom.
Sakura didn't bring it aboard for the wisdom. She brought it along knowing she wasn't in much of a mood to huck fireballs at people. But books? Sure, she can hurl a book at the back of Riko's head. And does so, an irritable rage seeming most unusual for the young woman! A fireball might be more easily noticed... but a book with pages not likely to unstick and make flapping noises?
But Riko reacts, all the same. She turns, and in one fluid motion, swings the life preserver looped round her arm. The big safety-orange floation device smacks into the airborne book, batting it out of the air. The abused tome crashes into the deck, spine-first, coming to a halt by Riko's feet.
The ninja girl blinks, owlishly.
"Wow," Riko says, "you literally threw the book at me."
Pocketing her binoculars, Riko sets the life preserver securely down on the deck, then picks up the soggy book. Very carefully, she pries the cover open, turning the pages. Not an easy feat, that, but one she manages. Somehow.
"One of these," Riko continues, nudging the ring-shaped flotation device with one foot, "would prob'ly have been a better thing to carry, but I guess this way you at least had reading material..."
"I'm glad =you= can look on the bright side of all this..." mumbles a disgruntled Sakura, hardly the ideal specimen of an energetic schoolgirl she might usually appear. Slicking her fingers through her hair in a vain attempt to wring some normalness out of her coiffure, she slowly closes the distance between the two. Kasugano can't remember the last time she's slept now, after having (at least in her mind) repelled one invasion of Rugal's, and attempted to keep folks safe in a second. Breath ragged, and even a bit waterlogged, she's ... seen better days.
"There's corpses floating about in the water out there... you've seen that with your little ninja-binoculars, right?" Scowling, she cocks her head to the side sharply -- it's not -just- an emotional outburst, she's trying to knock water out of her ear.
Seething, quite likely on the lofty precipice of violence, she manages to keep herself composed as she draws close to Riko, quite possibly looking down at her, if the little ninja doesn't move. She just wants to see Riko eye-to-eye, figuratively and literally -- if either is really possible.
Indeed, it's kinda hard to see eye-to-eye with Riko. Very hard. If for no other reason than the fact the ninja girl is far shorter than Sakura, presenting something of a logistical difficulty.
As Sakura draws nearer, Riko remains where she is, paging through the soaked book, carefully turning the sodden pages - and managing, somehow, to not rip the paper in the process. In contrast to the older girl, the little ninja is quite calm. Almost too calm, really; her mein has an unnatural air to it, one of careful control and composure. Of course, angry as she is, it's hard to say whether Sakura can tell the difference.
She's almost on top of Riko...before the kunoichi looks up, finally meeting Sakura's gaze. Riko stares at her, levelly.
She lifts a hand, pointing a finger at the book in her grasp, running a fingertip down the lines of smeared ink.
"If human life," Riko says, in an uncharacteristically solemn voice, "is given by God, what right do men have to take it away?"
Sakura doesn't quite know what to make of that. On one hand, Kasugano wants to beat the everliving snot out of Seishirou and Riko. On the other hand, Kasugano... wants to =fireball= the everliving snot out of Seishirou and Riko. The only thing really tempering her at this moment is the fact that she'd have a tough time with either at her current state.
She settles for swiping her hand out rapidly, with a mind to knock the book out of Riko's hands.
She couldn't care less as to whether she's successful with this or not, really. "Don't change the subject on me!"
The possibility that the subject hasn't, in fact, changed, eludes the prospective phys-ed teacher.
"Don't you even =care= that people just died as a =direct= result of what you just did? Dammit, Riko, I =trusted= you! People thought you ninjas were all bloodthirsty killers, but I =defended= you! I =believed= in you!" Kasugano's fists clench, her arms literally trembling with rage... but her raw emotion, her tears... ought to make it quite evident that she's holding back. "..."
Her eyebrow twitches, at a recollection of Riko's last solemn statement. "So yeah! What the heck gives =you= the right to take away life like that?!"
The book falls from Riko's hand, leaving her clutching empty air. She flinches, slightly, but otherwise displays no other reaction.
Riko continues staring straight at Sakura, unblinking. Her expression does not change - an emotionless, distant mask.
"You mean," Riko replies, quietly, "besides the fact -they- would have killed us all?"
"Does that make it =right?=" Kasugano snaps, one seawater-soaked sleeve brushing her tears away for one moment. ... That's probably not the wisest thing to do, but she bears it anyway, glaring back at Riko. "Death! Destruction! Did you ever consider, I dunno, =surrender?= Is it that damn important that your precious little ship survive an attack it can't win, that you're willing to sacrifice =half= of it and all of their people just for your master's ideals!?"
Kasugano draws back, turning a sharp heel at that. Embarassed? Just a bit, sure, but impulsive rushes like that are just what she =does=. Tempered mildly, she nonetheless keeps her eyes away from Riko for the moment: "Look, I ain't sayin' you shouldn't defend yourselves or nothin, but is it worth =that= much? Is it worth killing for?"
Riko doesn't reply. Instead, she turns away from Sakura, averting her own eyes. But she doesn't turn away due to embarrassment, or a reluctance to face the reality of the other girl's words.
No...because when Riko turns, she's staring out over the waters - the surface of the ocean, littered with floating wreckage from the explosion...and the distinct remains of Rugal's soldiers. She does not deny what has happened. She does not refuse responsibility. But it is impossible for Sakura to tell what emotions play across Riko's face.
If any do, at all.
"They would have killed us," Riko answers, finally, "killed us all."
A pause, then.
"Do you think," Riko adds, "we could have surrendered? Really? Truly?"
"Oh, please!" Kasugano turns back to Riko, shaking her by the shoulders if she can. "Don't give me that tired ol' 'kill or be killed' crap! There's always another way! You... you of all people know what chi's capable of! You... you can't tell me with a ship this big, that we couldn't just knock people out, toss 'em overboard, or anything like that! If death =really= mattered to you and Sei, we had plenty of cards to play still, cards that didn't mean blowing up the damn boat and half the people on it!"
Kasugano would really like to see Riko's eyes. Really, Riko's measured responses are... weighing on her. But without seeing those eyes, it's hard to really accept them at face value.
She steps back, giving Riko more breathing space.
"You're using me as a pawn. I'm sick of that. I trusted you, and I tried to get other people to trust you. I =believed= in everything you said about this ship, and... and..." Kasugano shakes her head. "You three..." Kasugano coughs. "You two aren't givin' me many reasons to care about anything other than getting everyone off the boat, now, s'all I'm saying."
She crosses her arms, levelling a somewhat more controlled gaze at Koganei. "I'd like to hear your real voice, if that's possible. If you can =trust= me to handle the truth."
"You want the truth?"
There's a hint of ire in Riko's voice. A hint of irritation, of anger. She turns away from the scene of devestation floating upon the water, looking straight at Sakura, now. A tinge of red rises to her cheeks, her facial muscles tightening, her eyes sharpening.
She smiles, thinly, but there isn't much, if any, humor in the smile.
"You underestimate us...and overestimate us, at the same time."
She lifts her hand, raising her arm to full extension - pointing to the side, out to where the Black Noah lies on the horizon.
"We TRIED other ways! You were THERE! You KNOW this. Do you think we honestly wanted to release this energy here? Now? This was the final protocol. We HAD no other choice. And any slower, Seishirou-sama, Arika and Eva would be /dead/."
There's explicit challenge in Riko's voice, her high soprano climbing in volume and pitch.
And a hint of bitterness, then:
"Better them than us."
"Yeah." Kasugano can see the ire, the hint of irritation. She sees the smile... but she knows that it's fake. The fact that Riko's getting so upset only proves to Sakura that what she's getting is probably as true as she's going to get from the diminutive ninja. Sakura, likewise, feels her cheeks getting a bit red as well, as she stands waiting for Riko's shouted response.
Giving that a moment to sink in, Sakura takes a long, still somewhat bitter, breath. "I know," she starts, "I'm... I'm sorry. I am. Because we =did= try." Kasugano looks past Riko, to the Black Noah off in the distance. "Heck, I know better than anyone, 'better them than us.' Those people knew what they were getting into when they joined up with that maniac."
Kasugano actually... eases up, at this point. Almost a smirk, but her weariness makes the look a bit questionable. Her tone, though, clearly shows she's not as angry now.
"I had to know what you -really- thought. See if I could =keep= fighting with you at my back."
"I =did= think you coulda done better, but considerin' we're still here..." Kasugano shrugs a shoulder, even forging a bit of a smirk. "I guess that'll do."
As much as the girl seems to be in higher spirits, she's still got the eye of someone who might just -meet- that challenge, though, as she watches to see how Riko responds.
Riko exhales, shaking her head slightly. She seems mildly peturbed by Sakura's answer. Though, after a moment, she snorts, then gives a dark laugh.
"And here I was," she murmurs, "wondering whether a show of genuine emotion would win or lose you..."
She arches a slender eyebrow at Sakura.
"...when you were testing me."
She doesn't seem offended, though. Were the circumstances rather less grim, she might even be pleased. After all, the nuances of social manuevering are Riko's stock in trade.
The girl reaches down, scooping the fallen book from the deck. She turns her back to the scene of destruction and carnage - instead smoothing down the pages of the volume, inspecting the damage.
"I'll be honest," Riko says, after a while, "one person was supposed to die. One. Not..."
She tilts her head, somberly.
"...this."
"Testing? Pfft!" Kasugano looks aside for a moment, tapping her cheek as she remembers a line stated not long before. "You, uh, underestimate =and= overestimate me!" The Ansatsuken Angel just cracks her knuckles as she paces about the deck for a moment, gathering her thoughts: "I... I dunno. I was mad. Killing's wrong, y'know? But it's hard to be mad when you know the reasons for it. Still don't like it and all, but I just gotta wonder if we aren't =already= dead."
Kasugano gestures around with her hands, indicating the rest of the glowing ship. "If it weren't, y'know, better to fold now and cut the losses."
Sakura takes a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment. And when she opens those eyes a bit later, she's smiling again. And makes herself a seat on the edge of the deck, looking out onto the ocean at the Black Noah. "Oh, just out of curiosity, who were ya lookin for, anyway?"
"Nikolai Tippin," Riko replies, flatly, her voice devoid of falsehood. It really is plain unadulterated truth, for all it matters. Riko does not believe in lies, in any case, merely...creative misdirection. But there's none of it here, none at all.
The ninja girl leans against a broken wooden spar, her back resting upon the damaged surface - heedless of the splinters and ragged bolts sticking out from the bit of wreckage. She continues leafing through the battered book. From her body language, she would seem at ease, even mildly distracted. Her tone of voice, though, is still intent.
"Believe me," she says, "he'd have deserved it. But...we've given Agent Travedi of Interpol enough clues to catch Mister Tippin's trail. I'm sure some kind of justice will be done, once we're all off this ship."
She speaks as though there's no doubt of that.
Nikolai Tippin, hmm? Kasugano remembers him from the crew briefing, but still knows very little about him. She can tell Riko's... tone is different though. Which leads her to at least suspect that maybe this is the honest Riko.
Considering the past, though, Sakura has her doubts even now.
But it won't make her stop smiling though. If for some chance this =is= the real Riko, she wants to at least be a friend to her, rather than picking apart every less-than-perfect success. "Heh, that'd be good. I guess he kinda got in the way of your plans in the past or somethin, huh? None of my business, really." She snickers, covering her mouth, at that.
"Because, heh... really? I meant to ask who you were looking for when I got here. Binoculars, life preserver, et cetera." Casting a smile back to Riko, she gives a tiny shrug of her shoulders. "Or maybe both questions've got the same answer, who knows?"
"You," Riko answers, simply. It happens to be true, after all, so there's no need to lie or present it in any dramatic fashion.
"You're important, you know," Riko adds. She lifts her eyes from the book, looking at Sakura. She carries on speaking, her tone light and conversational.
"Of course, we have many important people on board, but most of them were accounted for. Mister Tippin, for instance, he's quite safe. Not you, though. We were concerned for your safety. It's all fine and well to kill Rugal's people, but..."
She trails off, deliberately.
"Heh, really?" Kasugano scratches her cheek, grin growing a degree or two larger. "I was kinda thinking it might've =been= me, y'know, but wasn't sure if that was just my ego talking." Yes, she knows it runs unchecked at times! The counselors at her new school certainly told her so.
With a smile, she looks back to the ocean. Open and forgiving, her tears from earlier totally dried up. She's meant most of what =she's= said, despite her claims to the contrary. And even that... was from ego, more than anything else. But now, that ego's not really a factor: "Thanks. That means a lot to me."
"But really, though... is it worth staying on this boat? Are you still going to be able to accomplish what you set out to do, Riko? With the ship in... this shape?" She smiles faintly, reaching her hand out to the nearest glowy bit, her hand tingling a pale blue in resonance with the floating chi battery. "Wedding's gonna be strictly no-frills at this rate."
Smirk.
"Open air weddings," Riko replies, in a sedate and matter-of-fact fashion, "are all the rage these days."
She closes the book, handling the spine and cover carefully. Then she points, with it, pointing upwards to where there is quite clearly no roof over their heads - the upper decks of the Suiryuu simply /gone/, along with all the masts, superstructure, and most of everything above the waterline.
"Very modern. We'll set up a gazebo over there, and the buffet table there..."
It'd be funny, if her last gesture wasn't out over the ocean...where there are still bodies floating in the water.
Riko tucks the book under her arm. She reaches down, hooks her fingers round the life preserver, carrying that as well. Then she descends from her perch at the edge of the wrecked hull, climbing down the charred wood and bent metal plates. As she moves, she keeps talking, her voice remaining flat and even.
"The ceremony will go as planned," Riko says, cryptically, "we allowed for bad weather. And there'll be a bridal car afterwards, to take you safely on the honeymoon. Don't you worry."
Kasugano keeps smiling all through Riko's reply. ... Well. All until the buffet table is mentioned, at which point she covers her mouth and looks away. Ugh! So much for lightening the mood!
A bit abruptly, Kasugano rises to her feet, looking a bit paler than before. She can be a rough-and-tumble tomboy most of the time, but -- as seen earlier -- she's still prone to emotional excesses from time to time. And now... she's exhausted, despite her attempts to play it off. "... well... good! Hope it's got pontoons an' stuff, cuz it'll be a crappy ride otherwise." She nods her head to Riko, mimicking the tipping of a hat to the young Koganei as she takes a few steps towards the nearest below-deck access. "Well, goin' back to my room for an hour or two. Preeeetty sure the ship'll last till then, I hope!"
Riko flashes a smile.
It might even be genuine.
"Have a good rest, Sakura-senpai. I'll wake you if we sink."
Log created on 18:02:21 10/23/2007 by Riko, and last modified on 22:23:48 10/23/2007.