Here's a little more...
Later on, with
Sasami and Ayeka keeping Minagi happily engaged, I went and knocked
on Washu's door.
“Washu-chan.
Pondstrider.”
There was a click
from somewhere under my feet and the floor dropped out from
underneath me.
“WHAAA!?” I
yelped as gravity's pull sent me down the hatch.
What happened
next... well, the only comparison I can draw was back when I was in
Navy Recruit Training and I had to pass a basic swim qualification –
basically you had to jump into the water from a 20-foot high-dive
platform and swim fifty yards using any stroke. It was like the
first part with the two-story drop, only there was no water waiting
for me below. However, I did suddenly slow very much like I had
dropped into a swimming pool of water.
I looked around and
found I was in the main atrium of Washu's Lab. Just as my feet
gently touched down on the ground, gravity resumed it's normal
business – I was oddly reminded of riding downwards on a high-speed
elevator and arriving at the ground floor – and Washu popped up out
of nowhere like a kid on a sugar rush.
“OOOH!
Whatisit!? Whatisit!? Whatisit!?” cried the pint-sized mad
scientist as she seemed to teleport all around me. “Ninjas?
Pirates? Zombies? Ninja-Pirate-Zombies!? OOOH! I'd love to
dissect one of those!”
I laughed. “Whoah,
slow down there, small stuff! Nothing like that, but it's still
important. Yakage is gonna show up at Dinnertime and kidnap Ayeka.”
That sobered Washu
up immediately. “Huh. I can see how that could pose problems.
Tenchi?”
“Totally
ineffective,” I stated flatly.
“Even with the
changes you brought about?”
I shrugged. “Do
you see him taking himself seriously enough to duke it out with
Yakage from the get go the way he did with Kagato at the end?”
Washu made a pained
sounding sigh. “Dammit, Garrick, you ever think I get sick of you
being right like that?”
I gave Washu a
small smile and said, “Wise man once say, truth hurts. Sometimes
you science types forget that.”
“Oh, c'mon! It's
not always that bad!”
I raised an eyebrow
at Washu and said, “Washu's Pore.”
I couldn't have
gotten a better reaction out of her if I had thwacked her over the
head with a five-pound mallet.
“Don't feel too
bad about it now, Washu-chan,” I said as I placed my hands
comfortingly on her little shoulders. “Now it's prime real estate
space.”
Washu snickered.
“You know what? I just figured you out, mister. You are a mad
genius, just like me.”
“HAH!” I
crowed. “What took you so long to figure that out?”
It was Washu's turn
to shrug this time. “With your tech level, you're hard to pick out
among the rest of your kind. You're experiments are hardly
noteworthy to people like myself... But then, I'm not like the
others.” At this, Washu's expression took on a fond, motherly
expression. “Watching you and your own projects... it's so much
like watching a child at play.”
I couldn't help
myself then. I just grabbed Washu-chan up and gave her a
bone-crushing hug.
“I guess that's
just because I'm such a kid at heart myself,” I said softly as I
let her go again.
Washu smiled back
at me. “I saw that the moment I laid eyes on you, Gar-kun. You
used to be so sad, frightened, and lonely... but now... now you're
not alone, and you're definitely not frightened anymore.”
I smiled down at
the strange little person that called herself Washu Hakubi. “That's
because I have you and everyone else here to thank.”
Washu smiled as she
scoffed. “C'mon, enough with the sappy warm and fuzzy feelings.
Let's go get some dinner and see if we can talk down this wayward
student of mine.”
Even so, an evil
part of me could not help but notice that she left out the 'sad'
part. I was definitely feeling better these days, but even so...
there was always that taint of depression lurking in the back of my
head... waiting to seize on any negative circumstances that may come
my way.
But once you pared
it all away, all the intellectual pursuits, physical betterment, and
project to make my little world a better place... once you look past
all that, managing my depression was what being me was all about.
Everything else was simply a means to that end.
My sun sign is in
Libra, and I definitely live up to it by striving to balance my joy
against my sorrow. I don't try to keep score or anything like that.
I simply live with the knowledge that all it takes is the slightest
thing to bring me down.
I must be careful.
The higher I climb, the more painful the fall will be. I only pray
that my new-found family will be there with a net when I do fall.
I was not lying to
Funaho.
I will die for
these people if I must. If I lose even one of them... it would kill
me for sure.
Dinner that night
felt like a slice of heaven on Earth.
The food was
delicious.
The conversation
was lively.
The company was
warm.
I flirted with
Minagi.
She gave me warm
smiles with flush cheeks.
Ryoko teased
Minagi.
Ayeka teased me.
I would fire back
with glee.
Tenchi stifled his
laughter, lest he became a target.
Washu cackled –
she didn't care because she could troll everyone in one go.
Including Yosho.
Noboyuki and
Mihoshi were our unwitting audience to this dinner theater.
Sasami positively
glowed.
Just as it was all
reaching a crescendo, the point where I would normally break out a
small quantity of my booze, it happened.
The glass windows
that looked out at the lake all shattered as the drones shot through
them faster than we could see.
The joyful look on
my face turned to determined wrath.
For ruining this...
perfect night... I was going to get my pound of flesh.
Forewarned is
forearmed. I wasn't sure if the Manga Timeline would take effect,
but I prepared for it regardless.
Forewarned is
forearmed. I hadn't been idle. I was a very busy little boy
building big-boy toys. Those projects Washu had mentioned? Only
about half of them were not
forms of armament. I had been making guns. Surprised? Don't
be. I was a Gunners Mate in the Navy and I have a doctorate in
Mechanical Engineering. That's really all you need... well, a
computer workstation with CAD software and a fully equipped machine
shop does wonders, too.
Forewarned is
Forearmed. I had left one of my backpacks leaning innocuously
against the couch. The others had seen me use it to tote various
books around along with my iPad and laptop, so I took comfort in
knowing that it would remain unmolested.
Forewarned is
forearmed. Literally. This was starting to become a mantra for me.
Everyone's eye go wide as they see me remove the bizarre
short-barreled shot gun from the backpack and fit the utterly
ridiculous looking drum-magazine to its receiver. I had based it off
of the Serbu Super Shorty. And then I slipped on the safety glasses.
It would suck to get splinters in my eyes.
“COVER YOUR
EARS!” I snarled. Click-click went the action as I pumped the
off-set pistolgrip, mounted at a jaunty forty-five degrees to the
stubby barrel, stripping a 3” 12 gauge steel slug round from the
magazine. And waited.
The drones had been
precisely programmed to home in on threats. And me standing upright
with a firearm in hand screamed it in neon letters. I barely saw the
first one coming as I reacted.
The time spent in
my simulator with Mihoshi had not been wasted I noted to myself as I
was showered with splinters. What was left of the drone smashed into
one of the timbers that arced over the vast open space.
Just as I thought.
These slug rounds struck with more than 4000 joules of raw kinetic
energy in a spot barely more than an inch in diameter.
The second one
joined its brother as it followed too quickly for its relatively
simple computer to process just what kind of danger it was in. It
bleeped in such a pathetic manner as it died that I almost felt sorry
for it.
“An impressive
use of... primitive technology, young man.”
My ears were
ringing, but I could still hear him.
“Sometimes all
you need is a hammer to take care of a nail or two. Perhaps you've
lost sight of that, Mr. Yakage.”
The man stepped
into view at last, shrouded in Jyuraian robes and a mask. “You
seem to have me at a disadvantage. Who are you?”
“He's my newest
student,” chirped Washu happily as she came up behind me. “Isn't
he wonderful? He just loves taking such direct routes – he doesn't
beat around the bush at all! And he's such a fast learner, too!”
Yakage stopped dead
in his tracks. He then slowly removed his mask, revealing his
scarred face.
“You're alive!
I'd heard the reports, but I hardly believed them.”
“Well, you should
know by now, Yakage, I'm just full of surprises.”
“Yes... like this
student of yours here. Does he know what he's getting into here?”
“Far better than
you might think,” I told him flatly. “In fact, the question is,
do you know what you're
getting into here?”
Yakage's
eyes widened in surprise, and then he exploded into laughter. “You?
A mere Human? Presume to be a threat to me!?”
“Damn
straight I do!” I snarled right back at him. “I'll tell
you what I told Seto Kamiki Jyurai. I am human. My life is destined
to be short. Painfully so. And I can feel it, every second of every
day, burning away like a candle. For that reason alone, us humans
struggle to give our lives meaning. And if the meaning of my life is
that I protected these wonderful people from the likes of you, then I
will welcome the fire that consumes me. So go ahead! Bathe me in
flames! I'll burn so brightly you'll never see the light of day
again!”
To emphasize the
point, I racked the action on the shotgun once more, ejecting the
still-smoldering shell and sending it skittering.
“You're insane!”
Yakage cried out.
There was a strange
clap and an electrical sizzle. I smiled as I knew exactly what that
sound meant – Tenchi was now playing seriously.
“Am I?” I asked
as I felt Tenchi's presence next to me.
“No! Stop this
now!” cried out Minagi as she interposed herself between us and
Yakage.
“Minagi!?”
cried out Yakage in shock. “What are you doing here!? You were
supposed to assess this boy's potential for me!”
“'Assessing'?”
Minagi cried out in shock. “That's what I was supposed to do?
Your programming nearly made me kill these people!”
“If that is what
it takes, then there is no life precious enough to stop me from
achieving my goal! You should know this, Minagi!”
“No! That's
wrong! That's horrible! I don't want to be that way! I don't want
to be a killer!”
“What is wrong
with you, Minagi? Have you lost your mind?”
“I lost my
memories, and now I don't think I want them back, ever!”
You could hear a
pin drop in there.
Yakage dropped to
his knees, completely stunned. “minagi...”
I then stepped over
to Yakage and hunkered down by his side. “Oi, I think this is
where you start playing nice, Mr. Yakage, otherwise we'll all open up
an institutional size can of Masaki Family Brand Whoop-Ass.”
Later on, with
Sasami and Ayeka keeping Minagi happily engaged, I went and knocked
on Washu's door.
“Washu-chan.
Pondstrider.”
There was a click
from somewhere under my feet and the floor dropped out from
underneath me.
“WHAAA!?” I
yelped as gravity's pull sent me down the hatch.
What happened
next... well, the only comparison I can draw was back when I was in
Navy Recruit Training and I had to pass a basic swim qualification –
basically you had to jump into the water from a 20-foot high-dive
platform and swim fifty yards using any stroke. It was like the
first part with the two-story drop, only there was no water waiting
for me below. However, I did suddenly slow very much like I had
dropped into a swimming pool of water.
I looked around and
found I was in the main atrium of Washu's Lab. Just as my feet
gently touched down on the ground, gravity resumed it's normal
business – I was oddly reminded of riding downwards on a high-speed
elevator and arriving at the ground floor – and Washu popped up out
of nowhere like a kid on a sugar rush.
“OOOH!
Whatisit!? Whatisit!? Whatisit!?” cried the pint-sized mad
scientist as she seemed to teleport all around me. “Ninjas?
Pirates? Zombies? Ninja-Pirate-Zombies!? OOOH! I'd love to
dissect one of those!”
I laughed. “Whoah,
slow down there, small stuff! Nothing like that, but it's still
important. Yakage is gonna show up at Dinnertime and kidnap Ayeka.”
That sobered Washu
up immediately. “Huh. I can see how that could pose problems.
Tenchi?”
“Totally
ineffective,” I stated flatly.
“Even with the
changes you brought about?”
I shrugged. “Do
you see him taking himself seriously enough to duke it out with
Yakage from the get go the way he did with Kagato at the end?”
Washu made a pained
sounding sigh. “Dammit, Garrick, you ever think I get sick of you
being right like that?”
I gave Washu a
small smile and said, “Wise man once say, truth hurts. Sometimes
you science types forget that.”
“Oh, c'mon! It's
not always that bad!”
I raised an eyebrow
at Washu and said, “Washu's Pore.”
I couldn't have
gotten a better reaction out of her if I had thwacked her over the
head with a five-pound mallet.
“Don't feel too
bad about it now, Washu-chan,” I said as I placed my hands
comfortingly on her little shoulders. “Now it's prime real estate
space.”
Washu snickered.
“You know what? I just figured you out, mister. You are a mad
genius, just like me.”
“HAH!” I
crowed. “What took you so long to figure that out?”
It was Washu's turn
to shrug this time. “With your tech level, you're hard to pick out
among the rest of your kind. You're experiments are hardly
noteworthy to people like myself... But then, I'm not like the
others.” At this, Washu's expression took on a fond, motherly
expression. “Watching you and your own projects... it's so much
like watching a child at play.”
I couldn't help
myself then. I just grabbed Washu-chan up and gave her a
bone-crushing hug.
“I guess that's
just because I'm such a kid at heart myself,” I said softly as I
let her go again.
Washu smiled back
at me. “I saw that the moment I laid eyes on you, Gar-kun. You
used to be so sad, frightened, and lonely... but now... now you're
not alone, and you're definitely not frightened anymore.”
I smiled down at
the strange little person that called herself Washu Hakubi. “That's
because I have you and everyone else here to thank.”
Washu smiled as she
scoffed. “C'mon, enough with the sappy warm and fuzzy feelings.
Let's go get some dinner and see if we can talk down this wayward
student of mine.”
Even so, an evil
part of me could not help but notice that she left out the 'sad'
part. I was definitely feeling better these days, but even so...
there was always that taint of depression lurking in the back of my
head... waiting to seize on any negative circumstances that may come
my way.
But once you pared
it all away, all the intellectual pursuits, physical betterment, and
project to make my little world a better place... once you look past
all that, managing my depression was what being me was all about.
Everything else was simply a means to that end.
My sun sign is in
Libra, and I definitely live up to it by striving to balance my joy
against my sorrow. I don't try to keep score or anything like that.
I simply live with the knowledge that all it takes is the slightest
thing to bring me down.
I must be careful.
The higher I climb, the more painful the fall will be. I only pray
that my new-found family will be there with a net when I do fall.
I was not lying to
Funaho.
I will die for
these people if I must. If I lose even one of them... it would kill
me for sure.
Dinner that night
felt like a slice of heaven on Earth.
The food was
delicious.
The conversation
was lively.
The company was
warm.
I flirted with
Minagi.
She gave me warm
smiles with flush cheeks.
Ryoko teased
Minagi.
Ayeka teased me.
I would fire back
with glee.
Tenchi stifled his
laughter, lest he became a target.
Washu cackled –
she didn't care because she could troll everyone in one go.
Including Yosho.
Noboyuki and
Mihoshi were our unwitting audience to this dinner theater.
Sasami positively
glowed.
Just as it was all
reaching a crescendo, the point where I would normally break out a
small quantity of my booze, it happened.
The glass windows
that looked out at the lake all shattered as the drones shot through
them faster than we could see.
The joyful look on
my face turned to determined wrath.
For ruining this...
perfect night... I was going to get my pound of flesh.
Forewarned is
forearmed. I wasn't sure if the Manga Timeline would take effect,
but I prepared for it regardless.
Forewarned is
forearmed. I hadn't been idle. I was a very busy little boy
building big-boy toys. Those projects Washu had mentioned? Only
about half of them were not
forms of armament. I had been making guns. Surprised? Don't
be. I was a Gunners Mate in the Navy and I have a doctorate in
Mechanical Engineering. That's really all you need... well, a
computer workstation with CAD software and a fully equipped machine
shop does wonders, too.
Forewarned is
Forearmed. I had left one of my backpacks leaning innocuously
against the couch. The others had seen me use it to tote various
books around along with my iPad and laptop, so I took comfort in
knowing that it would remain unmolested.
Forewarned is
forearmed. Literally. This was starting to become a mantra for me.
Everyone's eye go wide as they see me remove the bizarre
short-barreled shot gun from the backpack and fit the utterly
ridiculous looking drum-magazine to its receiver. I had based it off
of the Serbu Super Shorty. And then I slipped on the safety glasses.
It would suck to get splinters in my eyes.
“COVER YOUR
EARS!” I snarled. Click-click went the action as I pumped the
off-set pistolgrip, mounted at a jaunty forty-five degrees to the
stubby barrel, stripping a 3” 12 gauge steel slug round from the
magazine. And waited.
The drones had been
precisely programmed to home in on threats. And me standing upright
with a firearm in hand screamed it in neon letters. I barely saw the
first one coming as I reacted.
The time spent in
my simulator with Mihoshi had not been wasted I noted to myself as I
was showered with splinters. What was left of the drone smashed into
one of the timbers that arced over the vast open space.
Just as I thought.
These slug rounds struck with more than 4000 joules of raw kinetic
energy in a spot barely more than an inch in diameter.
The second one
joined its brother as it followed too quickly for its relatively
simple computer to process just what kind of danger it was in. It
bleeped in such a pathetic manner as it died that I almost felt sorry
for it.
“An impressive
use of... primitive technology, young man.”
My ears were
ringing, but I could still hear him.
“Sometimes all
you need is a hammer to take care of a nail or two. Perhaps you've
lost sight of that, Mr. Yakage.”
The man stepped
into view at last, shrouded in Jyuraian robes and a mask. “You
seem to have me at a disadvantage. Who are you?”
“He's my newest
student,” chirped Washu happily as she came up behind me. “Isn't
he wonderful? He just loves taking such direct routes – he doesn't
beat around the bush at all! And he's such a fast learner, too!”
Yakage stopped dead
in his tracks. He then slowly removed his mask, revealing his
scarred face.
“You're alive!
I'd heard the reports, but I hardly believed them.”
“Well, you should
know by now, Yakage, I'm just full of surprises.”
“Yes... like this
student of yours here. Does he know what he's getting into here?”
“Far better than
you might think,” I told him flatly. “In fact, the question is,
do you know what you're
getting into here?”
Yakage's
eyes widened in surprise, and then he exploded into laughter. “You?
A mere Human? Presume to be a threat to me!?”
“Damn
straight I do!” I snarled right back at him. “I'll tell
you what I told Seto Kamiki Jyurai. I am human. My life is destined
to be short. Painfully so. And I can feel it, every second of every
day, burning away like a candle. For that reason alone, us humans
struggle to give our lives meaning. And if the meaning of my life is
that I protected these wonderful people from the likes of you, then I
will welcome the fire that consumes me. So go ahead! Bathe me in
flames! I'll burn so brightly you'll never see the light of day
again!”
To emphasize the
point, I racked the action on the shotgun once more, ejecting the
still-smoldering shell and sending it skittering.
“You're insane!”
Yakage cried out.
There was a strange
clap and an electrical sizzle. I smiled as I knew exactly what that
sound meant – Tenchi was now playing seriously.
“Am I?” I asked
as I felt Tenchi's presence next to me.
“No! Stop this
now!” cried out Minagi as she interposed herself between us and
Yakage.
“Minagi!?”
cried out Yakage in shock. “What are you doing here!? You were
supposed to assess this boy's potential for me!”
“'Assessing'?”
Minagi cried out in shock. “That's what I was supposed to do?
Your programming nearly made me kill these people!”
“If that is what
it takes, then there is no life precious enough to stop me from
achieving my goal! You should know this, Minagi!”
“No! That's
wrong! That's horrible! I don't want to be that way! I don't want
to be a killer!”
“What is wrong
with you, Minagi? Have you lost your mind?”
“I lost my
memories, and now I don't think I want them back, ever!”
You could hear a
pin drop in there.
Yakage dropped to
his knees, completely stunned. “minagi...”
I then stepped over
to Yakage and hunkered down by his side. “Oi, I think this is
where you start playing nice, Mr. Yakage, otherwise we'll all open up
an institutional size can of Masaki Family Brand Whoop-Ass.”