RP: YSS Miharu Kyoto: Samurai House

Nyton looked over at Kotori in alarm. "Your highness!" he said in surprise as the tea bowl shattered. He looked her over in concern that she might be injured. Ironically, in the event she was not physically injured he began looking for something to use as a towel and clean her up.

At this point Nyton had become fairly confused towards Kotori's actions. He thought she wanted children later so when did that change? What did this have to do with her original body stored in the ship's hold? The matter being brought up was not surprising though. Nyton had expected a confrontation regarding this but not quite like this.

The Samurai shook her head.

"You are my daughter. My only daughter. The NH-22M body that is on-board your ship is ... I do not know. I know I am angry with Sylvester-san for making two of you, in essence.

"But is that what you wish me to say? Or would you prefer something harder, colder? Something more, Samurai-like?"

"I do not know," Kotori snapped back, losing her composure. "Parts of me wants to destroy her, to remain unique! The other is cheered that she survived after all and feels that she is far more worthy of surviving than I am - she never died, after all! Why should she not be unique?"

Nyton found a small cloth napkin and quickly unfolded it. Picking the shards of the bowl with his left hand he quickly placed them off to the side for later collection. With his right hand he used the napkin to try and wipe off Kotori's hand which was closest to him first. "Be brave, your highness." he said finally realizing that her fears were what had caused her to be upset.

"You assume uniqueness is being the only one, with no others. At this moment in time you are both unique. You are two lives that, while you share common history, have become unique." Kôsuka shook her head. "My daughter did die that day at Pagoda no Uesu. And she was reborn as you. The body in the hold of your ship is not my daughter as I know her now."

She paused. "But, she could be. With time."

The distraught nekovalkyrja made eye contact with Nyton before she swallowed hard and returned her attention to Kôsuka as he dried her hands.

"That is not fair." The words came out painfully - Kotori was aware she was being an hypocrite and not arguing in her favor "The NH-22M nearly expired and even though she was considered dying, she managed to survive despite the odds. It is not her fault if she was left asleep and that I was made. She doesn't deserve waking up and finding her place taken."

She absently offered her other hand when Nyton was done with toweling the first. "I do not know what to do with her. I might add I do not know what to do with myself either. It wasn't particularly pleasant to find out I was a guinea pig in some attempt to become a special weapon which could trump a psion like Eve. Regardless of my current mission, I never intended to sacrifice so much for my career in the military."

Once every shard from the tea bowl had been set aside Nyton began to use both hands to finish drying up Kotori. When he was done drying the other hand he then unfolded the napkin and laid it over Kotori's leg carefully. In order to preserve modesty he allowed the napkin to absorb on its own rather than press down with his hands. Nyton wasn't sure if it would look proper to be wiping down Kotori's legs. As he let the napkin absorb the tea he then turned to face Kosuka.

"Kosuka-san, your daughter has been extremely troubled by this turn of events. Perhaps you can offer some guidance in this difficult matter. I have promised to support Kotori-sama however I can." Nyton said with a calm urgency.

" ... Mm."

The Samurai kept her arms folded in front of her, but Nyton could see they were straining, beneath the gi, to do something.

"We ... we cannot respond ... shimatta." Kôsuka bared her teeth, but not at Kotori. "She deserves to live, and so do you, Kotori. What Sylvester-san has done to us, to you and I and her, is payment enough for what the 22M did to him years ago."

Kôsuka looked down at the table, teeth clenching again from one thought or another. "I cannot take her in. She failed the Samurai training, and to house her here would end with my banishment. But I will not let those seething mongrels from SAINT take her from me. From us."

Her face softened a little. "Even if I were to leave the House, I could not take her in. I cannot do that to you, Kotori." She looked up, then down for a moment. Finally her head rose, and she was grimacing.

"We must deal with the present, if we are to prepare for the future. She is in stasis for now, but she cannot be that way for all time. Perhaps, when your mission is done, and you return here, we can address it. For now, she should be taken off of your ship."

Kotori managed a small nod, a shuddering sigh whistling out in heady relief. "Despite my dislike for it, I have a hard time figuring out why Sylvester-Juni did this. I do think it would be against character to be out of spite. I also still, to this date, have no clue about what condition the NH-22M's body or mind is."

She moistened her lips and she continued. "One hypothesis I've had was that he might have put her on my ship to allow me to test that 'Signaler Reversal' ability. Seeing I have no way of putting it to the test before coming up against one of Eve's trained psion - which would put both myself and my crew at risk - perhaps it was considered wise to generate a controlled situation in which only I would be put at risk."

"I doubt that would be the reason but at the same time it should not be dismissed. This little bit of cruelty could have been intended as an act of mercy in that it would help increase your own chances of survival. Regardless of the reasons we could always find that out by asking him directly." Nyton put forward before assuming his thinking position.

"Given the fact that so much time has passed since the 22M body has been in stasis we should have our medical personnel do an examination on her to make sure there hasn't been any permanent damage." he then added.

"I'm not certain I could stomach a conversation with him at this time," Kotori's ears drooped despondently and - with her hands clean - she started to toy idly with her black hair. "Another thing to keep in mind is that Sylvester-Juni is still attached to the Star Army Research Administration. He might not have had the choice if the order came from up the grapevine."

"Karl Sylvester is a gentle person, but..." She gave Kôsuka a meaningful look. "I've reason to know SARA has a mean, cruel streak to it. After all, the leader of the clan sponsoring it supported morally questionable experiments like Project SWEETHEART and had a role in the founding of Black Spiral."

"Kessaku Irim." Kôsuka could not have spoken with more vitirol while maintaining her composure. Her hatred for the Neko boiled to the surface of her face anyway, blotching it with a twisted grimace. "We will not speak of her."

It was a long few seconds before Kôsuka could speak again. "Sylvester-san said the system was tested in an NIWS before it was used on a living soul, and he spoke as if the project were not his own. What SARA has done, though, is not helpful here. Nor is what Sylvester-san has done."

Her head went down, as if to think. "Your mission, Kotori, is to kill Eve. Your body will potentially allow you to survive that, but Sylvester-san did not seem to intend for you to practice on the 22M. He spoke of it only as a possible back-up method. 'Foreknowledge would be of little help since it's based on the spontaneous fight or flight reactions of a living mind more than anything else,' were his exact words when I asked about training."

Her brow furrowed. "Sylvester-san lead me to believe the 22M is alive and actually improved. Why and how, he didn't specify. Perhaps she will be a useful crewmember. If she is woken, I would be most worried not about how she responds to you, Kotori." She looked up at Nyton. "It is your relationship with Claymere-san that could affect her. No matter how platonic it is or appears to be. She could be very reasonable when she wakes up, and even after, but when she discovers you have a ... servant — " she hoped that was a fair word to use — "She might become unreasonable."

Nyton picked up on just how much disgust Kosuka had towards Irim. After his frenzy of research he had found that particular Taisho to be distasteful himself. Effective but not someone who would be very conducive to peaceful relations with anybody. Perhaps Kosuka could give him further insight.

At the mention of his presence making matters worse with the two Kotori's though he then became confused. "How would I complicate things?" Nyton asked.

"I can imagine some reasons as to why. One would be jealousy," Kotori replied quietly, turning her amber eyes to Nyton. "Back when I lay, helpless and dying, in the dept of the PNUgen complex; I realized that hoping for too much and waiting for something which could kindle those hopes meant that I had nothing in the meantime. I realized that I had lived my life, but never actually given myself the chance to really enjoy it when I was left to my own devices. I had nothing and would die having nothing."

She smiled wanly. "Those are probably the most vivid of the NH-22M's last memories. That sense of loss and of so much precious time wasted waiting to be able to be happy. I know it made me feel heartbroken, insecure and desperate for a way to fill that emptiness, that loneliness - to give my life a little more meaning in the present instead of reaching out for a future I might never see."

"My solution then was to latch on Yukari. We were both broken in some ways and I was only too happy to see my support both be needed and returned - we both used each other but at least it was better than being alone." Kotori's smile grew brave. "That was just a stopgap solution and that became painfully obvious when Yukari started obviously preferring Tom Freeman's company to mine."

"I've learned to cope with it since then. There is no use in forcing things, after all. However, that growing complicity you and I have, Nyton-san - be it the commander/subordinate, princess/retainer or older brother/younger sister angle - that sort of thing might spark discomfort and envy from someone whom felt bereft from those, especially considering the stinging way Rufus Sydney left," Kotori finished.

Nyton sort of nodded in understanding. For some reason that brief moment earlier in the morning rose up in his mind for a second and filled him with a pang of regret. Regret for what he still had not fathomed completely yet. That feeling managed to show itself on his face though, as disappointment. It was still so confusing though that it was shaken off as quickly as it had arrived especially once he returned to his analysis.

"I see. Yes if she is in that state of mind then it would be necessary to take that into consideration. Returning her to conciousness will require several factors that we have yet to equate even." Nyton said analytically. Then he turned to face Kotori with a softer expression. "I knew Rufus was something of a ladies man from the moment I met him. I just did not know you two had that sort of relationship." he finished.

"We didn't," Kotori returned sourly. "Sydney-Taisa's interests came mostly from his groins while mine weren't. Figuring how shallow and shortsighted he was, we weren't bound to go very far. I can admit as much now, though I can't deny Sydney-Taisa was also a mentor figure whom took note of me and allowed me the opportunities that have lead me to this point."

Nyton couldn't help but chuckle a bit at Kotori's displeasure. "Well, at least there was some good which came out from that encounter." he said, allowing some amusement before going serious again. "That aside, the matter of my presence creating jealousy between yourself is definately not something I had taken into consideration when we discussed this matter earlier. However, what would stop her from becoming jealous of every relationship she encountered, outside of our own?" he pondered.

"For the sake of your other self's emotional stability perhaps she would need some sort of companion to support her needs and be a friend to her." Nyton then suggested.

"Between yourself," Kotori repeated under her breath and then shook her head. "Kôsuka already mentioned that we should not keep her on the ship; we might not need to deal with this immediately... and I, for one, am happy enough to maintain the current status quo. I don't feel ready to confront her yet."

Kôsuka absorbed the talk and could not help but flash a blatantly proud smile. To hear her daughter talk that way of a man who so obviously deserved it ... clearly Kotori had done very well. She had not been aware of the relationship with the Shosa, either, but that break seemed at least somewhat mutual. Perhaps the urgency with which the Shosa had spoken to her was tainted with other emotions?

"If we take her from the ship," Kôsuka said, getting back on track, "we must have a place for her to go. That could be Ketsurui no Iori. Could be Uesureyan Fields. Could even be Central Uesureya. But it must not be Kyoto. It is too easy for SAINT or SARA to discover her here. And if we free her from her slumber, we must not lie to her. She must be allowed to handle the situation, though not all at once. To do anything else would likely fracture her mind beyond repair."

"We do not have to hurry to make a decision. For now we at least have the luxury of some time so there is no need to revive her. We do have a mission to complete after all." Nyton said in response to Kotori's decision to stay the current course.

When Kosuka began to ponder where to remove the 22M body though, he thought about the possibilities and the likelihood of discovery. "Well she has so far not yet been discovered while the whole time sitting in the hold of a ship. And Sylvester-Juni must have covered his tracks well enough so that no one is even thinking to look for her. Pardon the reference, but for now she can be disguised as whatever piece of cargo we wish her to be." Nyton then shifted a little bit as he thought further. "But if there is any chance of her being found at all within the Empire then there is still that risk. Especially when it may even be necessary for someone to be with her to ensure security, even if just to check up on her condition every so often."

Nyton looked into Kosuka's eyes. "Kosuka-san, you cannot be expected to watch over her while you still have your duties. Not unless you can take some sort of extended leave of absence without drawing suspicion. Granted even if you move her away from Kyoto to any distant section of the Empire, how would her security still be guaranteed without someone there to keep watch? And we cannot entrust such a task to people outside of those who are aware of the situation both for their sake and everyone involved. We could attempt to 'hide a tree in a forest' but that still becomes complicated."

With that he then looked over to Kotori. "Your highness, I believe she will be safest from discovery outside of the Empire. If we are truly concerned about her being discovered by SARA and SAINT, even with your rank and privelages, then we need to find a way to smuggle her out until we are ready to properly restore her to conciousness."