Fred
Retired Staff
ON: YSS Miharu, Nyton Claymere's quarters
The door to Nyton's quarters make a muffled 'clunk' as it opened and a barefooted, yukata-clad Kotori slipped in the room before making the door quietly come to a close with a muted 'clump'. The nekovalkyrja walked to the edge of Nyton's bed and propped herself on the edge; Nyton had stayed up rather late and barely shifted when Kotori sat down on his bed. Instead a slight mumbling came from his lips, some words unintelligible, others fragmented sentences. "It's hot... sun.... grip too hot...be care....use glove..."
Kotori's iridescent eyes, shining slightly in the near-darkness of the chamber, eyed him a moment longer before she bent over him and gently nudged him to wakefulness. Nyton enhanced reflexes had him awake to full alertness quickly, with low-light vision kicking in so he could see. "Kotori-sama," he breathed.
The points of Kotori's ears lifted a bit. "I need someone to wash my back," she said nonchalantly, her voice barely above Nyton's in volume. Her curtain of dark hair hanging around her face as she was particularly bending over him, her amber eyes unblinkingly fixed on his.
For a moment, the unexpected request had Nyton doubt if Kotori was really being serious, but after appraising her expression a moment he finally managed a nod. "Of course. Allow me to stand up unless you had something else in mind, Kotori-sama," he whispered. He wasn't sure why he was whispering despite the soundproof walls and door but there was this sort of complicity in the air that inspired the need to do so.
The nekovalkyrja eased off him, though she did not leave from her perch at the edge of his bed. "Do you need a yukata?" she whispered back.
Nyton shook his head as he sat up and uncovered himself. He had gone to sleep wearing only his underwear. "I am pretty sure I have nothing left to hide from everyone on the ship," he noted, recalling prior baths and being carried naked to the medbay. "But it would be more professional to use one." he whispered.
Kotori nodded, stood up and moved through his room - a room which doubled as a shrine to Naraku for all the information he had piled up on the criminal nekovalkyrja - and helped herself to his closet. Nyton took the moment of Kotori's journey to stand up and track down a small plastic container he used as a toiletries carrier. "Last on the left." he said as he watched her movement, still whispering simply because that was what they had been doing this whole time. The black-haired gynoid nodded, unhooked the bathrobe from her suspender and brought it back to him. "Here," she said as she offered it to him.
"Thank you." he replied, taking it back and putting it on quickly. He then picked up his container and put it under his arm. "Ready when you are."
"Mm!" Kotori nodded in an expression of childish eagerness and went to open the door of Nyton's room open to then pad out. Nyton followed after Kotori, noting she seemed excited to be taking a bath. She certainly enjoys her hygiene, he thought, amused. He knew better though, as he had already noticed how much she enjoyed playing with her hair.
Aside from the distant hum of life support the ship seemed eerily quiet and empty, though Nyton knew all he had to do was call out and Miharu would answer. Soon the nepleslian and the nekovalkyrja woman-child found themselves in the changing room; where Kotori untied the sash to her bathrobe, shrugged it off, hooked it up on one of her feet and with a flick of her leg tossed it into one of the lockers. She closed the locker's door with a twist of the same foot and grabbed one of the stacked white towels to wrap it around her torso. While not as flashy, Nyton took a locker next to Kotori and removed his own yukata. Placing it and the boxers he had been wearing underneath inside the locker he then took a towel from the stack and wrapped it around his waist. "Trying to get an early start on the day, Kotori-sama? I take it we arrived at Yamatai."
She gave him a nod. "Mm. I was not able to sleep much." She opened the sliding doors to the baths and crossed over, grabbing on one of the wooden stools on her way in. She chose a shower stall and placed the stool before it before she sat down and looked back to Nyton expectantly.
Recalling the tips Nyton had received from his mother during his last trip to Nepleslia, he took the shower head and set it to a lukewarm setting until he had coaxed a gentle stream of water from it before he applied it to Kotori's hair. As the water soaked her hair and began sluicing off her pale skin, Kotori closed her eyes. Her ears dropped a bit to protect their insides from the gushing shower head. Nyton set the shower head down once this was done and took the shampoo bottle. Pouring a small amount on his hands he set the bottle back down before rubbing his hands together and creating a bit of lather which he then slowly began applying it to Kotori's hair. After nearly half-a-minute of Nyton working on her hair, she said "I have an itch on the lower left side of my head. Can you scratch it?"
"Of course." Nyton said before tracing down his fingers to the area where she reported the itch. Carefully so as not to damage her hair with his fingernails he gently scratched the area. "Did I get it?" he asked a second after he began.
"A little lower," was Kotori's quick response.
Nyton moved his left hand lower as Kotori requested and continued scratching there. In the meantime his right hand continued to work the shampoo into her hair. A twitch from Kotori's ears indicated success before she thanked him.
Even though he couldn't see her face at the time, he could hear the smile in her voice when she then said: "I have good news and bad news."
"Oh do you?" Nyton replied with a barely checked curiousity. He continued to work the shampoo into her hair until there was a sufficient lather.
"Want me to start with the bad news?" Kotori asked lightly.
"Bad news first please. I have the hope that the good news balances out the bad," Nyton responded with a bit of sarcasm. Her tone seemed to indicate that this situation was not exactly world shaking.
"I want to head down to Yamatai today and visit my mother," Kotori announced. "I was also thinking that I might stop by the boutiques on planet and spend some of the money I've been earning in the last months. Seeing I'm a princess, it wouldn't do to have me wander on my own so I figured I needed an escort - you never know when Eve might decide I'm causing her too much trouble and that she'd come and try to have me assassinated. Wouldn't be a minor inconvenience for me, seeing I have no ST Backups." The nekovalkyrja princess paused a moment and finished with: "Sigurd might have been good for the job, but he's not much of a conversationalist... so I decided on you to be my bodyguard and porter."
Nyton raised an eyebrow in interest. "This is the bad news? What might the good news be then?"
"The good news is that you won't be dragged by me into the very breast of the Ketsurui clan yet," Kotori turned her head enough for him to see her smirk. "Family members had trouble gathering, so, Yui-Taisho salvaged things my turning it into a teleconference last night."
"Yui-Taisho quickly outlined her desire to go to war with the United Outer Colonies and make an example of how traitors should be dealt with," Kotori ominously shared with Nyton before breaking into a grin. "Empress Himiko and I managed to argue over the point and discouraged that from happening, instead advocating trying to make friends with our neighbors rather than keep acting the part of interstellar bullies."
"The other Ketsurui present seemed to lean toward the reforms the Empress wanted to promote," Kotori continued. "I was cheered to see that Empress Himiko - despite boasting the sort of uncompromising sternness so typical of the Ketsurui clan - seemed willing to go that way and that she had the spine to stand up to Yui-Taisho to back her arguments up."
Nyton slowly nodded his head in understanding. "I see. While the impression made of the Empress is somewhat heartening I can see why there would be mixed feelings with the results of the meeting," he said in a detached fashion. "The Empress would seem willing to attempt a new approach, granted I do not know much about her history yet. Yui-Taisho however continues to give me cause for concern." He stopped lathering and reached for the shower head, grinning a bit before he turned on the water in a faster spray to rinse out Kotori's hair.. "I will admit my nerves were on edge when I believed the meeting was in the Military sector, not on Yamatai."
"I fear Empress Himiko is trying to appeal to others like that mostly for the advantage of the Empire rather than out of any truly genuine goodwill," Kotori confided, raising her voice over the din of the water. "But this is a welcome change and I'm hardly going to spit on it." She closed her eyes when the shower head made some of the foamy shampoo slide down her hair and into her face.
"Yes, it would seem she is merely being pragmatic. I can only hope that the rewards to such an approach would encourage her to continue a less aggressive approach." Nyton said. He rinsed out the rest of the shampoo and reached for the conditioner. "Did you want conditioner as well, Kotori-sama?"
"I would be grateful if you could do that as well," Kotori, her chin dripping, looked back at him.
Nyton opened the bottle and poured a little less of the conditioner into his hand than he had shampoo earlier; he then let it rinse with a bit of water before he carefully applied it to the ends of Kotori's hair away from the scalp. Judging that it should be enough, he sat back to look at his handiwork. "As your porter and bodyguard is there anything specific you would like me to bring?" Nyton asked as he let the conditioner sit.
"You'd look dashing enough in your uniform, but a kimono may be suitable if we are to visit my mother," Kotori replied as she looked at him from the corner of one of her eyes. "The usual implements and weapons you use should be suitable. I was thinking of wearing one of my mandarin dresses myself." She paused and then asked: "Do you have any suggestions as to how I should wear my hair?"
Nyton raised an eyebrow. "If I were to wear something formal I would have thought to dress in a suit and tie but a kimono I will have to purchase planetside," he mused thoughtfully. "As for your hair, I suppose you could wear it up for a change but would you be able to stand not being able to play with it at will." he smiled. "Seriously though, I believe it would be dependent upon what style of dress you would wear. I am no fashion expert but I understand enough to know that you would have to consider the whole image. Along with the time of season and weather."
Kotori thought on it and then asked. "Well, I could wear it free like usual. Won't it look pretty anyways?"
"Your hair is pretty regardless of how you wear it. This being your first time seeing your mother though, perhaps you may want to present yourself differently. Or since you mentioned your concern regarding how she may see you because of your assignment, a style that she would know to be familiar," Nyton was being analytical, for lack of something else to go on.
"Something more conservative might look cold and clinical," Kotori nodded. "Seeing we work with SAINT, perhaps that should be avoided?"
"Yes, that is exactly what I meant. That way you will present to her that you are still her daughter," Nyton said before crouching over a little to look more closely into her eyes. "The daughter that I am certain she still loves very much," he added, hoping it would reassure her.
Kotori couldn't help but wince. "That's right. You don't know about me yet."
Nyton went back to attending Kotori's hair by reaching for the shower head and turning it back on. "Know what about you yet?" he asked before beginning to rinse the conditioner out of her hair.
"Saito-Hei and Yukari figured out what was wrong with me; why I wasn't able to do ST Backups of myself," Kotori told him.
A slight 'O' of rememberance hit Nyton as he recalled the subject. He had broached Miyoko about it but she had never gotten back to him about Yukari's progress. "Ah, they did. Miyoko had told me that Yukari was working on that issue. What have they discovered?"
"As you've probably guessed, the NH-29 I have is hardly ordinary." Kotori wrinkled her nose. "Not only do I still retain skin vision and thermo-optic camouflage, but I've apparently become without my knowing it an extremely powerful defensive psionic countermeasure called a Signaler."
Nyton nodded as he listened and finished rinsing out Kotori's hair.
Kotori looked down. "The Signaler function was originally for the NIWS, but they did not have the kind of spontaneous mindsets to be able to make it work. It supposedly protects the nekovalkyrja from anything which could tamper with her mind and provide nearly absolute control of any psionic manifestation in an area."
"Supposedly, if Eve wanted to make my head implode I should be able to harness the powers she'd be trying to unleash on me and make her head implode. Or I could get inventive and just snap her ribcage open," Kotori continued explaining in a deadpan tone. "Of course, no one cares about NIWS transfering to other bodies. Like Yamataian ones to bear children."
Once Nyton had completely rinsed out Kotori's hair he interjected: "I take it they were unable to find any solutions to this problem then."
"Not yet," Kotori answered glumly. "Science is an ever evolving thing so getting depressed and dwelling on the 'never have children' would probably be premature. I wasn't to that point in my life yet anyways. Not me, at least."
"You have a long biological clock ahead of you. Unlike some women, you don't have to worry about complications with bearing children in your forties," Nyton tried with a hint of optimism.
"There this another problem and things are made more difficult for me because Mother is aware of it as well. In fact, she was the one whom found out and explained it all to Yukari and Saito-Hei," Kotori chuckled mirthlessly. "Apparently, my foster-father not only gave me this body, but kept my previous one. Only, instead of expiring as the NH-22M had been diagnosed, it healed from the wounds the phosphorus grenade had dealt it and eventually made a full recovery." The nekovalkyrja shook her head. "...and so I, my former self, the one still able to bear children, currently lies dormant inside the Miharu's cargo hold, not aware of anything since I've lived in this one. She's the original and she's still alive. As monstrous as it sounds, it makes me an illegal copy as long as she lives and I do not know what to do about her."
That bit of news actually made Nyton stop and think. "I don't know if your being an illegal copy when you were not aware of it would be something held against you. But it does complicate matters."
"Complicate?" Kotori shook her head and her eyes narrowed. "What Karl Sylvester did, whatever his personal agenda, was criminal. Not that I plan to arrest him for it, but whatever misdeeds I might have felt guilty of before, I consider this evens up the scale."
In an attempt to keep his thinking in motion Nyton reached for the edge of the towel to begin removing it. "Need to remove this to wash the rest of you," he said nonchalantly before replying to the bigger matter. "I see. So it is that simple in terms of legality. But then you mention that your previous body is still alive. No idea yet on what to do then?" While he spoke on his mind was still processing and catching the words Kotori had said. Attempted rape of the man whose family she lived with. Very intense, he thought.
Kotori shook her head, clearly uncertain. "I'm not sure what he was thinking. I'm not sure he made it so that she'd end up here. I don't get why he did not keep her secret from me if he truly wished to preserve her. I fail to understand why he did not dispose of her as the law of the Empire dictates when transferring bodies." She closed her eyes. "Part of me is actually cheered that my original body survived despite everything. If she survived, a part of me wishes that she be the one to live on and that I would be unworthy by comparison. But then..." Kotori leveled a look back at Nyton. "I want to live too. All I lived here, she has not. No amount of transfered memories could account for how I matured since then. She, unlike me, was never adopted in the Ketsurui clan either." She paused in her tirade. "Part of me feels that if Karl failed to kill her that I should finish the job myself. But Yukari says she has rights," Kotori's mouth twisted in a frustrated grimace.
"A very existential dilemma." Nyton said as he removed Kotori's towel. Putting off to the side he then began to run the shower head and rinse her body down. "Perhaps, and this may only make things worse, but perhaps you two should talk," Nyton said simply as he reached for the soap and began to build up some lather to put on Kotori's body. "If you have ever wondered how well you know yourself, you may now have the opportunity to truly test that out."
"If I was her, I wouldn't want to talk," she answered back, obviously torn. "She deserves being unique. She would try to destroy any copy of her made. I know how I reacted to the NH-18 Copy Black Spiral had made of me to manipulate the Lorath into joining the Mishhuvurthyar. I know."
Nyton nodded knowingly as he began to work the soap onto Kotori's back. He had fought that very same copy alongside Kosuka. "She is already unique. Though you may possess all her memories and those that she doesn't, she is still unique because you are not her anymore. You are who sits before me now. She is who you were at the time of near death. It is like the man who travels back in time to meet himself. The version in the past does not have the experiences of the self from the future and the one from the future is not who he was in the past anymore."
Kotori smiled bitterly, her ears hanging low. "She ought to see things differently. If I feel offended, I bet she'll feel enraged at the very sight of me. I wouldn't stand a chance against a NH-22M; not with her in a berserker rage and ripping my mind apart with psionic attacks. If I were her, I wouldn't let anything stop me."
Nyton paused for a second mid-scrub. "I thought your Signaler body would counter any sort of 'mind ripping' she could attempt," he stated, not altogether seriously. The low ear hang was tugging at Nyton's heartstrings though. It seemed awfully... cute. "You are a very intense person. But I would still entertain the possibility that you can be reasoned with."
His light-hearted remark had Kotori sit rigidly. She was giving him this wide-eyed horrified look and her skin - already pale - seemed even paler. Nyton immediately stopped. "My apologies if I have offended. I merely sought to prevent you from feeling as overwhelmed as I was last night. I am aware of how difficult this issue is I have just went about approaching it the wrong way." he said.
"No," Kotori shook her head slowly and raised her arms so to hug herself. "I just realized that might have been exactly what Sylvester-Juni had intended all along. To give me a controlled environment in which I would confront an assuredly hostile opponent capable of using lethal psionic attacks. Otherwise, I would have had no way of testing it out before meeting a trained psionic from Eve's side in situations where the stakes might not only put me at risk, but also my ship and my crew."
Nyton let what Kotori said sink in. "That is indeed disturbing," he said as he saw Kotori curl up on herself. "Perhaps he did but you cannot be certain of that. More likely when he realized you were still alive he could not bring himself to dispose of the body so coldly. Most likely he saw it as killing his daughter even though it would be illegal since he had given you a new body."
"Then why have the body here?" Kotori said plaintively, raising her amber eyes to look at him.
"It is difficult to imagine what someone would do in such a situation. Since it is your body then he may have wanted you to decide what to do with yourself," Nyton said. "I know I play devil's advocate here but perhaps it is something to consider."
"Then, what about Kosuka?" Kotori sighed anxiously. "When I broached the subject of hairstyles, I did not think it would come to this. Nyton, Kosuka seemed willing to accept the NH-18 Copy of me. I- as horrid as it sounds, I don't want her to accept the original. Despite the NH-22M having done no wrong but struggle to survive, I don't want her to be me. I want to retain the sanctity of my own identity. Even... even if it is stolen. There should not be two of us."
"If Kosuka was willing to accept your copy then I am certain she will accept you. However I understand your wish to be uniquely yourself. Before you pursue a direction you will need to take a lot of thought and make some very difficult decisions," Nyton said as he placed a hand upon her shoulder in an effort of comfort her. "Because the decision you make, regardless of what it may be, is going to be hard. And you will have to think them through to their full fruition. Not just the here and now. You may decide to keep her in that box. Or kill her while she is asleep. Or have a duel to see who has the most will to live. Maybe send her to Yamatai to live with your mother, give her a chance to make a decision," Nyton sighed. "Whatever you decide, though, I will help you see it through."
Kotori nodded meekly and she left her perch on the stool, impulsively pressing her naked body against Nyton so her arms could wrap around him in a fierce hug. "Thank you," her voice sounded choked as she rested her forehead against his breastbone.
Being suddenly embraced by Kotori had taken Nyton so off guard that he stood there with a somewhat blank expression on his face. "Of course... Kotori... -sama." he managed to get out before he put his arms around her. Kotori lifted her face to him, her eyes glimmering and her eyelashes wet.
Nyton was well aware of the predicament he was in and found it difficult to think. This was becoming all too much a movie moment - the kind where the Nepleslian guy kissed the girl... and with a crushing full-mouth kiss that fiction usually romanticized at a lot. The string of memories in the file 'COLD SHOWER' was working at full strength to keep his body in check but he could already verify that his body temperature had gone up a few degrees. The books that he had read always described this moment with varying degrees of intimacy. It just fell upon him that he did not know which direction to take this moment.
Then came the conflicting thoughts and desires. The cold shower memory string was starting to fail and as it failed he noticed his face was looking down into her eyes which he thought seemed to be drawing his own. Kotori's eyes which shimmered in the light were attracting Nyton's artifical pair. She was staring back, her lips slightly parted and to all appearances frozen just like he was. It was such a strange sensation to look into her eyes like this. There was a wisp of a sentence forming in the back of his throat, so fragile that it could die at the merest flicker.
Intense conflict waged within Nyton. One impulse told him to stop and let go of Kotori right now before something - he did not know what and yet he did - but something could happen. Another impulse just as strongly argued not to let go but rather to give in and follow through. It dared to answer the something that the other impulse refused to acknowledge may happen. The moment grew as intense as the conflict in Nyton's mind and he had to say something, anything, that would relieve at least a little of the pressure to help him think. "Kotori ah, your hair is beautiful regardless of how you have it. Why not just let it flow freely?" he said before he realized it.
Kotori blinked her eyes and let out an incredulous "Eh?"
Brilliant recovery, Nyton thought to himself sarcastically but still maintained hold of his composure and crouched down to meet her face. "Are you alright?" he then asked, taking her hand into his own.
"I think I am now. Sorry about that," Kotori soberly met his gaze, taking the moment she was recovering as well to seemingly wrap her wits about her like an armor. "I'm done with my maidenly moment of vulnerability. I guess I'm a little too nekovalkyrja for comfort and still with a painfully young ego. I was sincere, though, about appreciating your support."
Nyton just smiled a little. "No need to be embarrassed. Anyone can get swept up in the heat of a moment. Especially given the strength of the emotions that carry them," he said reassuringly.
Kotori nodded and smiled, propping herself up so she could sit again on the stool. "Were you done washing me?" she said, trying to go along with his forced subject change.
"Ah, no not yet." Nyton replied as he stood up. "I still had a little more to go on your back before I rinsed. I know you can take care of the rest after that," he said with a bit of humor.
Kotori smiled wryly, giving Nyton the impression that there was a private joke which amused her but that she wasn't sharing it. "After that, want me to pay you the favor back, or would you rather have me take a soak while you wash yourself?"
"You reward your retainer rather generously," Nyton lightly replied as he returned to his task. "If we are not pressed for time then that would be appreciated. Otherwise I have no qualms about passing for now."
"Then, perhaps wiser to keep my hands off you for the time being. They don't seem to have done you much good this morning," she said and stood up once he was finishing rinsing her. The dripping nekovalkyrja walked up to the warmer of the two soaking baths and lowered herself in it. Kotori exhaled. Her lips moved - she was probably saying something under her breath. Nyton's software for reading lips made it up as: "Besides, my love life is a mess. I don't want you to be close enough to be hurt."
Nyton found himself unsure of what she meant by those words. He mentally tallied what her love life consisted of from what he knew and figured that there was something that still haunted her. Given that she did not say it directly though probably meant she was not ready to confront such and to come out and address it now would seem more a violation of her privacy. For one thing I know little of her attempting to rape this Karl Sylvester. Not exactly a shining event someone would like to share but that she mentioned it to him at all must have meant she had some measure of trust in him. For now, though, Nyton went on with his bath, his eyes staying alert all around him while his mind logged everything down for later analysis. There was definitely something inside that he felt for Kotori. What it was he was not sure he could even say. Whatever it may be it was something he had not even known existed.
END
The door to Nyton's quarters make a muffled 'clunk' as it opened and a barefooted, yukata-clad Kotori slipped in the room before making the door quietly come to a close with a muted 'clump'. The nekovalkyrja walked to the edge of Nyton's bed and propped herself on the edge; Nyton had stayed up rather late and barely shifted when Kotori sat down on his bed. Instead a slight mumbling came from his lips, some words unintelligible, others fragmented sentences. "It's hot... sun.... grip too hot...be care....use glove..."
Kotori's iridescent eyes, shining slightly in the near-darkness of the chamber, eyed him a moment longer before she bent over him and gently nudged him to wakefulness. Nyton enhanced reflexes had him awake to full alertness quickly, with low-light vision kicking in so he could see. "Kotori-sama," he breathed.
The points of Kotori's ears lifted a bit. "I need someone to wash my back," she said nonchalantly, her voice barely above Nyton's in volume. Her curtain of dark hair hanging around her face as she was particularly bending over him, her amber eyes unblinkingly fixed on his.
For a moment, the unexpected request had Nyton doubt if Kotori was really being serious, but after appraising her expression a moment he finally managed a nod. "Of course. Allow me to stand up unless you had something else in mind, Kotori-sama," he whispered. He wasn't sure why he was whispering despite the soundproof walls and door but there was this sort of complicity in the air that inspired the need to do so.
The nekovalkyrja eased off him, though she did not leave from her perch at the edge of his bed. "Do you need a yukata?" she whispered back.
Nyton shook his head as he sat up and uncovered himself. He had gone to sleep wearing only his underwear. "I am pretty sure I have nothing left to hide from everyone on the ship," he noted, recalling prior baths and being carried naked to the medbay. "But it would be more professional to use one." he whispered.
Kotori nodded, stood up and moved through his room - a room which doubled as a shrine to Naraku for all the information he had piled up on the criminal nekovalkyrja - and helped herself to his closet. Nyton took the moment of Kotori's journey to stand up and track down a small plastic container he used as a toiletries carrier. "Last on the left." he said as he watched her movement, still whispering simply because that was what they had been doing this whole time. The black-haired gynoid nodded, unhooked the bathrobe from her suspender and brought it back to him. "Here," she said as she offered it to him.
"Thank you." he replied, taking it back and putting it on quickly. He then picked up his container and put it under his arm. "Ready when you are."
"Mm!" Kotori nodded in an expression of childish eagerness and went to open the door of Nyton's room open to then pad out. Nyton followed after Kotori, noting she seemed excited to be taking a bath. She certainly enjoys her hygiene, he thought, amused. He knew better though, as he had already noticed how much she enjoyed playing with her hair.
Aside from the distant hum of life support the ship seemed eerily quiet and empty, though Nyton knew all he had to do was call out and Miharu would answer. Soon the nepleslian and the nekovalkyrja woman-child found themselves in the changing room; where Kotori untied the sash to her bathrobe, shrugged it off, hooked it up on one of her feet and with a flick of her leg tossed it into one of the lockers. She closed the locker's door with a twist of the same foot and grabbed one of the stacked white towels to wrap it around her torso. While not as flashy, Nyton took a locker next to Kotori and removed his own yukata. Placing it and the boxers he had been wearing underneath inside the locker he then took a towel from the stack and wrapped it around his waist. "Trying to get an early start on the day, Kotori-sama? I take it we arrived at Yamatai."
She gave him a nod. "Mm. I was not able to sleep much." She opened the sliding doors to the baths and crossed over, grabbing on one of the wooden stools on her way in. She chose a shower stall and placed the stool before it before she sat down and looked back to Nyton expectantly.
Recalling the tips Nyton had received from his mother during his last trip to Nepleslia, he took the shower head and set it to a lukewarm setting until he had coaxed a gentle stream of water from it before he applied it to Kotori's hair. As the water soaked her hair and began sluicing off her pale skin, Kotori closed her eyes. Her ears dropped a bit to protect their insides from the gushing shower head. Nyton set the shower head down once this was done and took the shampoo bottle. Pouring a small amount on his hands he set the bottle back down before rubbing his hands together and creating a bit of lather which he then slowly began applying it to Kotori's hair. After nearly half-a-minute of Nyton working on her hair, she said "I have an itch on the lower left side of my head. Can you scratch it?"
"Of course." Nyton said before tracing down his fingers to the area where she reported the itch. Carefully so as not to damage her hair with his fingernails he gently scratched the area. "Did I get it?" he asked a second after he began.
"A little lower," was Kotori's quick response.
Nyton moved his left hand lower as Kotori requested and continued scratching there. In the meantime his right hand continued to work the shampoo into her hair. A twitch from Kotori's ears indicated success before she thanked him.
Even though he couldn't see her face at the time, he could hear the smile in her voice when she then said: "I have good news and bad news."
"Oh do you?" Nyton replied with a barely checked curiousity. He continued to work the shampoo into her hair until there was a sufficient lather.
"Want me to start with the bad news?" Kotori asked lightly.
"Bad news first please. I have the hope that the good news balances out the bad," Nyton responded with a bit of sarcasm. Her tone seemed to indicate that this situation was not exactly world shaking.
"I want to head down to Yamatai today and visit my mother," Kotori announced. "I was also thinking that I might stop by the boutiques on planet and spend some of the money I've been earning in the last months. Seeing I'm a princess, it wouldn't do to have me wander on my own so I figured I needed an escort - you never know when Eve might decide I'm causing her too much trouble and that she'd come and try to have me assassinated. Wouldn't be a minor inconvenience for me, seeing I have no ST Backups." The nekovalkyrja princess paused a moment and finished with: "Sigurd might have been good for the job, but he's not much of a conversationalist... so I decided on you to be my bodyguard and porter."
Nyton raised an eyebrow in interest. "This is the bad news? What might the good news be then?"
"The good news is that you won't be dragged by me into the very breast of the Ketsurui clan yet," Kotori turned her head enough for him to see her smirk. "Family members had trouble gathering, so, Yui-Taisho salvaged things my turning it into a teleconference last night."
"Yui-Taisho quickly outlined her desire to go to war with the United Outer Colonies and make an example of how traitors should be dealt with," Kotori ominously shared with Nyton before breaking into a grin. "Empress Himiko and I managed to argue over the point and discouraged that from happening, instead advocating trying to make friends with our neighbors rather than keep acting the part of interstellar bullies."
"The other Ketsurui present seemed to lean toward the reforms the Empress wanted to promote," Kotori continued. "I was cheered to see that Empress Himiko - despite boasting the sort of uncompromising sternness so typical of the Ketsurui clan - seemed willing to go that way and that she had the spine to stand up to Yui-Taisho to back her arguments up."
Nyton slowly nodded his head in understanding. "I see. While the impression made of the Empress is somewhat heartening I can see why there would be mixed feelings with the results of the meeting," he said in a detached fashion. "The Empress would seem willing to attempt a new approach, granted I do not know much about her history yet. Yui-Taisho however continues to give me cause for concern." He stopped lathering and reached for the shower head, grinning a bit before he turned on the water in a faster spray to rinse out Kotori's hair.. "I will admit my nerves were on edge when I believed the meeting was in the Military sector, not on Yamatai."
"I fear Empress Himiko is trying to appeal to others like that mostly for the advantage of the Empire rather than out of any truly genuine goodwill," Kotori confided, raising her voice over the din of the water. "But this is a welcome change and I'm hardly going to spit on it." She closed her eyes when the shower head made some of the foamy shampoo slide down her hair and into her face.
"Yes, it would seem she is merely being pragmatic. I can only hope that the rewards to such an approach would encourage her to continue a less aggressive approach." Nyton said. He rinsed out the rest of the shampoo and reached for the conditioner. "Did you want conditioner as well, Kotori-sama?"
"I would be grateful if you could do that as well," Kotori, her chin dripping, looked back at him.
Nyton opened the bottle and poured a little less of the conditioner into his hand than he had shampoo earlier; he then let it rinse with a bit of water before he carefully applied it to the ends of Kotori's hair away from the scalp. Judging that it should be enough, he sat back to look at his handiwork. "As your porter and bodyguard is there anything specific you would like me to bring?" Nyton asked as he let the conditioner sit.
"You'd look dashing enough in your uniform, but a kimono may be suitable if we are to visit my mother," Kotori replied as she looked at him from the corner of one of her eyes. "The usual implements and weapons you use should be suitable. I was thinking of wearing one of my mandarin dresses myself." She paused and then asked: "Do you have any suggestions as to how I should wear my hair?"
Nyton raised an eyebrow. "If I were to wear something formal I would have thought to dress in a suit and tie but a kimono I will have to purchase planetside," he mused thoughtfully. "As for your hair, I suppose you could wear it up for a change but would you be able to stand not being able to play with it at will." he smiled. "Seriously though, I believe it would be dependent upon what style of dress you would wear. I am no fashion expert but I understand enough to know that you would have to consider the whole image. Along with the time of season and weather."
Kotori thought on it and then asked. "Well, I could wear it free like usual. Won't it look pretty anyways?"
"Your hair is pretty regardless of how you wear it. This being your first time seeing your mother though, perhaps you may want to present yourself differently. Or since you mentioned your concern regarding how she may see you because of your assignment, a style that she would know to be familiar," Nyton was being analytical, for lack of something else to go on.
"Something more conservative might look cold and clinical," Kotori nodded. "Seeing we work with SAINT, perhaps that should be avoided?"
"Yes, that is exactly what I meant. That way you will present to her that you are still her daughter," Nyton said before crouching over a little to look more closely into her eyes. "The daughter that I am certain she still loves very much," he added, hoping it would reassure her.
Kotori couldn't help but wince. "That's right. You don't know about me yet."
Nyton went back to attending Kotori's hair by reaching for the shower head and turning it back on. "Know what about you yet?" he asked before beginning to rinse the conditioner out of her hair.
"Saito-Hei and Yukari figured out what was wrong with me; why I wasn't able to do ST Backups of myself," Kotori told him.
A slight 'O' of rememberance hit Nyton as he recalled the subject. He had broached Miyoko about it but she had never gotten back to him about Yukari's progress. "Ah, they did. Miyoko had told me that Yukari was working on that issue. What have they discovered?"
"As you've probably guessed, the NH-29 I have is hardly ordinary." Kotori wrinkled her nose. "Not only do I still retain skin vision and thermo-optic camouflage, but I've apparently become without my knowing it an extremely powerful defensive psionic countermeasure called a Signaler."
Nyton nodded as he listened and finished rinsing out Kotori's hair.
Kotori looked down. "The Signaler function was originally for the NIWS, but they did not have the kind of spontaneous mindsets to be able to make it work. It supposedly protects the nekovalkyrja from anything which could tamper with her mind and provide nearly absolute control of any psionic manifestation in an area."
"Supposedly, if Eve wanted to make my head implode I should be able to harness the powers she'd be trying to unleash on me and make her head implode. Or I could get inventive and just snap her ribcage open," Kotori continued explaining in a deadpan tone. "Of course, no one cares about NIWS transfering to other bodies. Like Yamataian ones to bear children."
Once Nyton had completely rinsed out Kotori's hair he interjected: "I take it they were unable to find any solutions to this problem then."
"Not yet," Kotori answered glumly. "Science is an ever evolving thing so getting depressed and dwelling on the 'never have children' would probably be premature. I wasn't to that point in my life yet anyways. Not me, at least."
"You have a long biological clock ahead of you. Unlike some women, you don't have to worry about complications with bearing children in your forties," Nyton tried with a hint of optimism.
"There this another problem and things are made more difficult for me because Mother is aware of it as well. In fact, she was the one whom found out and explained it all to Yukari and Saito-Hei," Kotori chuckled mirthlessly. "Apparently, my foster-father not only gave me this body, but kept my previous one. Only, instead of expiring as the NH-22M had been diagnosed, it healed from the wounds the phosphorus grenade had dealt it and eventually made a full recovery." The nekovalkyrja shook her head. "...and so I, my former self, the one still able to bear children, currently lies dormant inside the Miharu's cargo hold, not aware of anything since I've lived in this one. She's the original and she's still alive. As monstrous as it sounds, it makes me an illegal copy as long as she lives and I do not know what to do about her."
That bit of news actually made Nyton stop and think. "I don't know if your being an illegal copy when you were not aware of it would be something held against you. But it does complicate matters."
"Complicate?" Kotori shook her head and her eyes narrowed. "What Karl Sylvester did, whatever his personal agenda, was criminal. Not that I plan to arrest him for it, but whatever misdeeds I might have felt guilty of before, I consider this evens up the scale."
In an attempt to keep his thinking in motion Nyton reached for the edge of the towel to begin removing it. "Need to remove this to wash the rest of you," he said nonchalantly before replying to the bigger matter. "I see. So it is that simple in terms of legality. But then you mention that your previous body is still alive. No idea yet on what to do then?" While he spoke on his mind was still processing and catching the words Kotori had said. Attempted rape of the man whose family she lived with. Very intense, he thought.
Kotori shook her head, clearly uncertain. "I'm not sure what he was thinking. I'm not sure he made it so that she'd end up here. I don't get why he did not keep her secret from me if he truly wished to preserve her. I fail to understand why he did not dispose of her as the law of the Empire dictates when transferring bodies." She closed her eyes. "Part of me is actually cheered that my original body survived despite everything. If she survived, a part of me wishes that she be the one to live on and that I would be unworthy by comparison. But then..." Kotori leveled a look back at Nyton. "I want to live too. All I lived here, she has not. No amount of transfered memories could account for how I matured since then. She, unlike me, was never adopted in the Ketsurui clan either." She paused in her tirade. "Part of me feels that if Karl failed to kill her that I should finish the job myself. But Yukari says she has rights," Kotori's mouth twisted in a frustrated grimace.
"A very existential dilemma." Nyton said as he removed Kotori's towel. Putting off to the side he then began to run the shower head and rinse her body down. "Perhaps, and this may only make things worse, but perhaps you two should talk," Nyton said simply as he reached for the soap and began to build up some lather to put on Kotori's body. "If you have ever wondered how well you know yourself, you may now have the opportunity to truly test that out."
"If I was her, I wouldn't want to talk," she answered back, obviously torn. "She deserves being unique. She would try to destroy any copy of her made. I know how I reacted to the NH-18 Copy Black Spiral had made of me to manipulate the Lorath into joining the Mishhuvurthyar. I know."
Nyton nodded knowingly as he began to work the soap onto Kotori's back. He had fought that very same copy alongside Kosuka. "She is already unique. Though you may possess all her memories and those that she doesn't, she is still unique because you are not her anymore. You are who sits before me now. She is who you were at the time of near death. It is like the man who travels back in time to meet himself. The version in the past does not have the experiences of the self from the future and the one from the future is not who he was in the past anymore."
Kotori smiled bitterly, her ears hanging low. "She ought to see things differently. If I feel offended, I bet she'll feel enraged at the very sight of me. I wouldn't stand a chance against a NH-22M; not with her in a berserker rage and ripping my mind apart with psionic attacks. If I were her, I wouldn't let anything stop me."
Nyton paused for a second mid-scrub. "I thought your Signaler body would counter any sort of 'mind ripping' she could attempt," he stated, not altogether seriously. The low ear hang was tugging at Nyton's heartstrings though. It seemed awfully... cute. "You are a very intense person. But I would still entertain the possibility that you can be reasoned with."
His light-hearted remark had Kotori sit rigidly. She was giving him this wide-eyed horrified look and her skin - already pale - seemed even paler. Nyton immediately stopped. "My apologies if I have offended. I merely sought to prevent you from feeling as overwhelmed as I was last night. I am aware of how difficult this issue is I have just went about approaching it the wrong way." he said.
"No," Kotori shook her head slowly and raised her arms so to hug herself. "I just realized that might have been exactly what Sylvester-Juni had intended all along. To give me a controlled environment in which I would confront an assuredly hostile opponent capable of using lethal psionic attacks. Otherwise, I would have had no way of testing it out before meeting a trained psionic from Eve's side in situations where the stakes might not only put me at risk, but also my ship and my crew."
Nyton let what Kotori said sink in. "That is indeed disturbing," he said as he saw Kotori curl up on herself. "Perhaps he did but you cannot be certain of that. More likely when he realized you were still alive he could not bring himself to dispose of the body so coldly. Most likely he saw it as killing his daughter even though it would be illegal since he had given you a new body."
"Then why have the body here?" Kotori said plaintively, raising her amber eyes to look at him.
"It is difficult to imagine what someone would do in such a situation. Since it is your body then he may have wanted you to decide what to do with yourself," Nyton said. "I know I play devil's advocate here but perhaps it is something to consider."
"Then, what about Kosuka?" Kotori sighed anxiously. "When I broached the subject of hairstyles, I did not think it would come to this. Nyton, Kosuka seemed willing to accept the NH-18 Copy of me. I- as horrid as it sounds, I don't want her to accept the original. Despite the NH-22M having done no wrong but struggle to survive, I don't want her to be me. I want to retain the sanctity of my own identity. Even... even if it is stolen. There should not be two of us."
"If Kosuka was willing to accept your copy then I am certain she will accept you. However I understand your wish to be uniquely yourself. Before you pursue a direction you will need to take a lot of thought and make some very difficult decisions," Nyton said as he placed a hand upon her shoulder in an effort of comfort her. "Because the decision you make, regardless of what it may be, is going to be hard. And you will have to think them through to their full fruition. Not just the here and now. You may decide to keep her in that box. Or kill her while she is asleep. Or have a duel to see who has the most will to live. Maybe send her to Yamatai to live with your mother, give her a chance to make a decision," Nyton sighed. "Whatever you decide, though, I will help you see it through."
Kotori nodded meekly and she left her perch on the stool, impulsively pressing her naked body against Nyton so her arms could wrap around him in a fierce hug. "Thank you," her voice sounded choked as she rested her forehead against his breastbone.
Being suddenly embraced by Kotori had taken Nyton so off guard that he stood there with a somewhat blank expression on his face. "Of course... Kotori... -sama." he managed to get out before he put his arms around her. Kotori lifted her face to him, her eyes glimmering and her eyelashes wet.
Nyton was well aware of the predicament he was in and found it difficult to think. This was becoming all too much a movie moment - the kind where the Nepleslian guy kissed the girl... and with a crushing full-mouth kiss that fiction usually romanticized at a lot. The string of memories in the file 'COLD SHOWER' was working at full strength to keep his body in check but he could already verify that his body temperature had gone up a few degrees. The books that he had read always described this moment with varying degrees of intimacy. It just fell upon him that he did not know which direction to take this moment.
Then came the conflicting thoughts and desires. The cold shower memory string was starting to fail and as it failed he noticed his face was looking down into her eyes which he thought seemed to be drawing his own. Kotori's eyes which shimmered in the light were attracting Nyton's artifical pair. She was staring back, her lips slightly parted and to all appearances frozen just like he was. It was such a strange sensation to look into her eyes like this. There was a wisp of a sentence forming in the back of his throat, so fragile that it could die at the merest flicker.
Intense conflict waged within Nyton. One impulse told him to stop and let go of Kotori right now before something - he did not know what and yet he did - but something could happen. Another impulse just as strongly argued not to let go but rather to give in and follow through. It dared to answer the something that the other impulse refused to acknowledge may happen. The moment grew as intense as the conflict in Nyton's mind and he had to say something, anything, that would relieve at least a little of the pressure to help him think. "Kotori ah, your hair is beautiful regardless of how you have it. Why not just let it flow freely?" he said before he realized it.
Kotori blinked her eyes and let out an incredulous "Eh?"
Brilliant recovery, Nyton thought to himself sarcastically but still maintained hold of his composure and crouched down to meet her face. "Are you alright?" he then asked, taking her hand into his own.
"I think I am now. Sorry about that," Kotori soberly met his gaze, taking the moment she was recovering as well to seemingly wrap her wits about her like an armor. "I'm done with my maidenly moment of vulnerability. I guess I'm a little too nekovalkyrja for comfort and still with a painfully young ego. I was sincere, though, about appreciating your support."
Nyton just smiled a little. "No need to be embarrassed. Anyone can get swept up in the heat of a moment. Especially given the strength of the emotions that carry them," he said reassuringly.
Kotori nodded and smiled, propping herself up so she could sit again on the stool. "Were you done washing me?" she said, trying to go along with his forced subject change.
"Ah, no not yet." Nyton replied as he stood up. "I still had a little more to go on your back before I rinsed. I know you can take care of the rest after that," he said with a bit of humor.
Kotori smiled wryly, giving Nyton the impression that there was a private joke which amused her but that she wasn't sharing it. "After that, want me to pay you the favor back, or would you rather have me take a soak while you wash yourself?"
"You reward your retainer rather generously," Nyton lightly replied as he returned to his task. "If we are not pressed for time then that would be appreciated. Otherwise I have no qualms about passing for now."
"Then, perhaps wiser to keep my hands off you for the time being. They don't seem to have done you much good this morning," she said and stood up once he was finishing rinsing her. The dripping nekovalkyrja walked up to the warmer of the two soaking baths and lowered herself in it. Kotori exhaled. Her lips moved - she was probably saying something under her breath. Nyton's software for reading lips made it up as: "Besides, my love life is a mess. I don't want you to be close enough to be hurt."
Nyton found himself unsure of what she meant by those words. He mentally tallied what her love life consisted of from what he knew and figured that there was something that still haunted her. Given that she did not say it directly though probably meant she was not ready to confront such and to come out and address it now would seem more a violation of her privacy. For one thing I know little of her attempting to rape this Karl Sylvester. Not exactly a shining event someone would like to share but that she mentioned it to him at all must have meant she had some measure of trust in him. For now, though, Nyton went on with his bath, his eyes staying alert all around him while his mind logged everything down for later analysis. There was definitely something inside that he felt for Kotori. What it was he was not sure he could even say. Whatever it may be it was something he had not even known existed.
END
