RP: YSS Miharu Mission 3 Prelude: Rise; you better shine

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

ON:

Kôsuka did not respond immediately. She still had not her opened her eyes. "That is for him to decide. There are alternatives to death, customarily. But death will absolve his dishonor immediately."

Nyton sighed a bit as he looked down. "Most unfortunate if he chooses the latter." he said while assuming his thinking pose. "I thought Kotori-sama knew this. Wasn't she training to be a Samurai once?"

"She was," the Samurai responded. "She's familiar with much of a Samurai's training. But as you witnessed when you were introduced to Kei and Yuri, she does not always think as a Samurai does."

"Then it must have been some time since. I should have realized much time had occurred since. Or perhaps too many events." Nyton then mused.

"It was when she was first born," the Samurai said. "It has been some time. But Kotori has a brilliant mind. She has not forgotten."

"She is very clever." Nyton said with a grin. "Perhaps her only limitation there is her self-doubt."

"Perhaps." Kôsuka let a few beats pass in silence. "The right of Samurai protection is only that. It's not a requirement. But for one clan member to take another's Samurai guard away without full justification and compensation is unheard of."

Nyton thought for a second before replying as he chose his words carefully. "Kotori-sama would only choose to do something extreme if it were something she felt strongly about. There must be a strong feeling or reason as to why she would take such action."

"Yes. There must be." Kôsuka's breathing held steady. "What do you suppose it is?"

"That I do not know yet. I was hoping to receive a little insight." he said. "At this point I can only speculate."

"Speculate. I am interested."

Nyton took a moment then to think. "It would have to be some deeply held belief. Something that would make her rely on her rank and position here, especially if it goes against clan tradition," he began while attempting to piece together the scant bits of information he held. "Male Nekovalkyrja are almost unheard of so she would assume, as I did, that he was originally a Yamataian."

He looked upward to the ceiling. "Of all her deeply held beliefs, the only one I can associate to Sumaru is her desire to be human. By willingly becoming a Nekovalkyrja, Sumaru has cast aside the more human form which I suppose would be an affront to her. So I could speculate that this disgusts Kotori-sama to the point of trying to force him back into a Yamataian body."

"With his Samurai status removed he would have no reason to remain in his NH body and would have to resume being a regular Yamataian," Nyton then concluded. "At least, that is one way of seeing it. I do not take Kotori-sama for being prejudicial but maybe this was just too bizarre for even her."

Kôsuka seemed to be briefly stunned. "I did not suspect that. That ... would be unexpected, Claymere-dono." She smiled. "Perhaps you would become a Samurai someday."

Nyton chuckled slightly. "I doubt I would be able to keep up with the training regimen. Flight and invisibility are a little outside of my league," he said before shaking his head. "I seriously doubt she has a prejudice against male Nekovalkyrja. After all, I am just speculating, Kosuka-san."

"Your humility suits you. And the training is not so hard. I am sure you would survive." Kôsuka opened her dull gold eyes. "I do not wish to keep you further, Claymere-dono. I am sure the Taisa expects you."

Nyton bowed his head slightly. "You flatter me Kosuka-san. However there is something I would like to know about your daughter, if I may ask in regards to her past," he said, with a subtle context to the words 'your daughter.'

"Ask. Perhaps I will answer."

I see where she gets her evasive demeanor from, Nyton mentally grumbled to himself. "I was wondering if ah, Kotori-sama has... if she has ever been in love." he asked. While his face bore a neutral countenance, a faint flush appeared on his cheeks.

Kôsuka returned Nyton's neutrality. "I do not know."

"That is too bad. That could have given me an angle if we discussed Sumaru's condition." he said with a touch of disappointment.

"Knowing if she was in love or not? How so?" The Samurai's interest was piqued.

"Having been in love or knowing love at some point may help her to understand him a little." Nyton said as he crossed his arms. "I would have had a better idea of how to approach the matter."

"That does not explain how love factors into her decision on him."

"I shall elaborate then. After talking to Sumaru I find his strength of will and detemination to be admirable. This strength is borne of an attachment I believe he has towards Sora-hime. Perhaps it was just my imagination but I theorize he is in love with her. I wondered if perhaps knowing this Kotori-sama would understand why he would willingly choose to become a Nekovalkyrja."

"Maybe if she understood the feeling she could sympathize with his decision and understand his motivation." Nyton finished.

"That is a perceptive hypothesis ... you shall have to test it on her." The Samurai smiled.

"As a strategist I prefer to have more to go on than just my own insight." Nyton said. "Very well then, I suppose I shall have to go forth with what I have."

"You will do well," Kôsuka said. "She likes you. It is easy to see."

"I believe in her. I also trust her to be reasonable." he said as he began to stand up. Once up on his feet Nyton then looked back into Kosuka's eyes. "As for being a Samurai maybe you could teach me a few pointers. I could always stand to learn a new application."

"I do not know, Claymere-dono." She closed her eyes as if to return to meditating. "I believe your talents would go to waste."

Nyton's features softened for a moment. "You flatter me but I appreciate your confidence. Thank you for your time, Kosuka-san." he said in preparation to depart.

"You are welcome any time," she replied.

END

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

"While I do have suggestions, I think that perhaps they would be better said at a later time," Sanjuro said to Sora as he threw a glance towards Miyoko at the other end of the table in the most casual manner he could muster. "It's nothing that is so urgent as to press it right at this moment."

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

"They may be pros, but I am not sure if they're expecting something quite like that. It could give us a little bit of an edge until they figure it out." Yoroko looked toward the rest of the table. Yoroko noticed Miyoko sitting idly by as the world moved around the neko. "How was the dessert Saito-Hei?" Yoroko asked before she queried Miharu again. "Miharu, can you set up low powered forcefields throughout the ship as well? I have another idea. Is it possible to weaken them so that unarmored personnel would be able to pass through without realizing that they did so, and can you make them invisible? I'm thinking that perhaps we could use them as an alternative method of tracking." Yoroko decided she needed more flan, more often.

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

"I can bring up an actual solid forcefield in what you'd term 'a blink of an eye'," Miharu supplied to Yoroko. "They are impassable as long as I keep them up, but I could not have them be selective as to what passes through. I can create atmospheric fields too, whom are perfectly passable but won't hold much of a purpose inside the vessel unless there is an hull-breach."

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

Nyton had arrived at the doorway to Kotori's quarters shortly after his departure from Kosuka's. He had not been summoned but given his position as retainer then he should learn to predict or accomodate any need as they arise. Nyton then rang Miharu's chime to alert Kotori to his presence.

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

Kai Ate his flan in silence, mulling over the taste of the food. When Yoroko spoke with Yukari, the Yamataian listened, and began to think of ways that that would work. It seemed like a good idea to him, and he wondered just how much thinking Yoroko had put into it.

Silently, he asked Miharu if he would be able to see such progress on the matter, to maybe add a bit of his own insight. Outwardly, he just ate the flan.

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

Yukari retired to the bridge after ensuring the sprites could handle the necessary cleanup and such. She found it a more soothing place to think than her and Tom's quarters.

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

"Can you detect when someone has passed through an environmental forcefield?" Yoroko played with her fork on the empty plate, dragging it lightly across the plate's surface which produced a light grating noise. "Also does it take much energy to maintain those fields? What I mean to ask, would it be possible to maintain a set number of them in a combat situation without diverting too much power from other more important systems?" Yoroko dragged the fork over the plate absentmindedly a few more times before she looked back toward Masako. "Anou, Kurohoshi-Juni, when does the evening shift begin?" Yoroko asked as she tried to think if she would have time to talk to Asher before the shift.

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

Miharu informed Kai that it would be up to Suzuka-Shosa to decide how the progress on such endeavor (headed by the ship's operation department) would be shared.

To Yoroko, she said: "It'd technically be the same as with femtomachines keeping watch; if their AIES tries to do point-blank sensor jamming, they'd be fooled. As for the actual number of field emitters which could be active... many segments of the ship have their own field emitters with emergency power supplies attached to them. Even if no extra power is being transferred to life support systems, they could in theory all function at the same time. The graviton-spike of doing so is not going to make us look very stealthy, though."

* * *

The door to the Taisa's quarters opened slightly, Kotori's head peeking out - she was wearing a yukata now.

"Claymere-Shoi?" she asked, edging aside along with the door to leave him room to come in.

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

Nyton bowed his head slightly. "I came by to see if you needed anything and perhaps discuss a few items. Would this a bad time?" he asked. Taking note of the space she gave him he entered the room so that the door could close behind him and restore her privacy.

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

Seeing Yukari set off toward the bridge, Miyoko rose to follow her after giving brief bows to the rest of the crew still at the table. Masako may have been in charge of the bridge for the evening, but if the XO was heading there, the start of the shift couldn't be too far off. Besides, she'd had her share of eavesdropping and flan--a rare circumstance indeed.

The violet-haired Yamataian caught up with Yukari halfway down the hall. "It seems," she remarked neutrally, "that this ship is getting rather crowded of late."

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

"No no, it's fine." Kotori gestured Nyton to her couch and then walked barefoot to her desk to dismiss several volumetric windows that looked - to Nyton's peripheral vision - like text transcripts from Star Army Communication Network transmissions. "What did you want to talk about?"

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

"I mainly came to offer my services to you in any way necessary. No matter how trivial it may seem, I am here at your disposal, Kotori-sama." Nyton began as he walked over to the couch. "I also wanted to see if I could bring you some insight to the delicate Samurai issue." he said, still standing by the furnishing Kotori had offered.

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

"Oh, I've already had some insight into the topic," Kotori replied tartly as she joined him on the couch. "What else do you want to talk about?" she offered, pretty much showing her reluctance to return on the former subject.

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

A familiar irritation ran through Nyton as he sat down. Didn't I just hit this same wall earlier? Whatever these two said to each other it must have become heated. he thought. "Very well, I suppose my discussion with Sumaru-Juni can always wait." Nyton replied as he looked straight at Kotori with his main eyes. "For starters, aside from that I also wanted to know if you wanted me up early again tomorrow to assist with morning hygiene. If you gave me a time I could set an alarm and spare you the trouble of waking me up." he quickly continued.

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

Yoroko said:

"Anou...Kurohoshi-Juni, when does the evening shift begin exactly?"

Click to expand...

Masako was once again interrupted from her thoughts and checked the time. "About fifteen minutes from now," she replied as she looked at the dessert in front of her and frowned. It would be a waste to not eat this and leave it out to spoil. Taking the plate in one hand and the fork in the other, the young Nekovalkryja shoveled the flan into her mouth in a matter of seconds before placing them back on the table.

"I shall be on the bridge," she said as she stood up. "Saito-Hei, Mizuno-Hei...please take your time, but be on the bridge in fifteen minutes time. I believe Saito-Hei will take up the sensors and communications while Mizuno-Hei will be in charge of navigation and piloting," she stated before bowing and taking her leave for the bridge.

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

Kotori seemed mildly surprised that Nyton brought up that particular topic. She considered it for a moment and then replied: "Actually, why not sleepover instead? My bed is large enough for two and I have my own bathroom. You won't need to program an alarm if you end up next to me when I wake up."

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

"While I can see the practicality in that I find it hard to believe you are being serious." Nyton replied with narrowed eyes. "If anything we would probably give Hinoto another heart attack if she saw me emerging from here so early. Given Miharu's sense of humor I can see her keeping that information from her just to see the results."

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

"You seem to easily challenge the veracity of my proposition," Kotori noted coyly before adding: "If so, then, what do you make of us nearly kissing in the baths this morning?"

Re: Mission 3: The sound of machina

There was a noticeable pause as Nyton thought back to the morning. "I had been pondering on that myself and have been unable to draw a conclusion yet. Regardless of our motivation though, that was an unguarded moment that neither of us forced upon the other. I suppose one question we should ask ourselves was whether or not we wanted to stop." he said as he shifted his body to face Kotori. "However I do know that you have a very interesting sense of humor and this subject is something that you could enjoy toying with me about. It is only fair to show a little skepticism to your proposal."