RP: YSS Miharu Mission 4: The Fame and the Fury

Hinoto for her part silently walked on all four to close the distance between Tom and her, and then cuddled against him.

Tom was now in an uncomfortable position, the type of uncomfortable position that any single man would kill for.

Before the engineer could react, he found the Hoshii sprite with feathery white hair, soft-skin and surprisingly squishy breasts attached to his chest in a hug.

The sprite's cute, snow-white cat ears tickling his cheeks didn't help the situation either.

She was physically gorgeous. Almost etheral.

Tom did his best to hug back, but also suppress his natural male reaction to such stimulus.

He was failing. Miserably.

"H-hinoto. Don't worry about it, really."

Blushing visibly, the engineer felt around the sprite's back, trying to find a way of peeling her off discreetly.

No good. She was latched on just about as hard as those capacitor bolts.

"You know Mara, I just upset someone I actually enjoy working with so I am not really in the mood for redirection. Now what is it?" Nyton said, a bit more adamantly this time.

Most of Tom's pawing in Hinoto's back resulted in him discovering where her bra clasp was underneath her uniform.

Considering the circumstances, that was a detail he could've lived without precisely knowing.

* * *

Mara raised her eyebrows. "Oh gee. Sorry if I, on the other hand, am trying to repress my smug satisfaction at finally managing to win a battle of wits with sly little Hinoto. Usually, she's the one whom wins any verbal matches we have and she very often uses Sigurd to do that."

A bead of sweat formed on Tom's forehead.

Even with the injuries and blood on her outfit, Hinoto's staggering beauty shimmered like a small light in his arms. The sprite had done so well at concealing that with her diminutive personality, always helpful, but polite and bashful.

With Hinoto bearing down on him, her emotions raw and in the open, her beauty in Tom's eyes only increased. The sprite's fragility gave her delicate body an exoticism that attacked the engineer's senses relentlessly.

Only now did he realize that she was the most beautiful person on Miharu. Even moreso than Yukari?

His hand momentarily rested on the bra strap, the small bulge hidden, thainfully beaneath her orange-paneled skirt uniform...

...a skirt uniform that she was pressing onto his lap with.

It was too much for the engineer to control. By now, Hinoto knew exactly what kind of response she had gotten from Tom's body.

"H-hinoto...?"

Nyton finally let a half smile, almost a smirk, appear on his face. "I commend you for your attempt at being considerate to your sister but I find your honesty more comforting. Still, I find it odd that your sister has won all these times." he replied before a sudden thought hit him.

"Speaking of winning, I seem to have gotten off track here. This whole mess made me forget about Nimura and her sudden jump in skill. You said you have the recordings of her victories which I want to observe. Cake can wait for a few more minutes and I will confront Hinoto at a later time. Is there a place where we could observe those battles?"

"You're out of luck," Mara replied to the Nepleslian. "The Virtual Reality chambers are being set up in preparation to that simulation the Shosa wants to do, and it's really the only place I could do a re-run of how Nimura handled herself. I'd do a file conversion of the volumetric data to display in the sensor dome's volumetric array, but most of my processing power is going to be needed to hack into the protections of the salvaged Bowhordia databanks. All I've left is the CIES and it isn't sufficient for the task."

"Sorry, bad timing. I can compile some media files for you to review in the comfort of your quarters later, though," she offered.

* * *

Hinoto pulled back slightly and her eyes met Tom's. "Juni?" she asked softly.

From her slightly parted lips, Tom could smell the mild tang of blood on her breath.

"Yes, bad timing that. Fine then, I suppose we can chase after Hinoto then. You can practice repressing your smug satisfaction while I see about mending things with her." Nyton said, his expression somewhat disappointed before turning to begin walking towards Hinoto's room.

Tom's grey eyes were a cloud of intensity, as if Hinoto had unlocked a room into the engineer's mind and soul.

The flush heat from the engineer's face matched the heat from his hands as he gently moved one and brushed a few strands of her soft hair away from the delicate skin of her forehead.

He brushed her porcelain cheek with the back of his hand, drying her streaks of tears. Then, with the skill of a artisan, his fingers ran down to the sprite's lips and found a small splotch of her blood, where he wiped it off gently.

There was a pause, a momentous struggle so great that his eyes closed tightly for several moments.

His head tilted down and with his burning lips...

.

.

.

...he placed a gentle, chaste, kiss on Hinoto's forehad.

His eyes opened and they were shining.

"Everything will be ok. I'll take care of you."

"Hai, Juni." Hinoto gave him a slight smile in return. Something told Tom that Hinoto had not been blind to the short moment of complicity they had just shared. Her smile - her demure expression - spoke of both her gratefulness for his comfort, and acknowledgment that it was all she could have from him.

The sprite edged away back to arm's length distance. The repositioning was deliberate, a conscious precaution against the threat she had perceived she was for Tom. From there, she gave him a nod and a way out of that particular predictament: "Thank you for all your help. I'm better now."

* * *

Nyton and Mara turned to head into the Hoshi since Hinoto resided in one of the officer quarters of the auxiliary vessel.

"Well, mend things if you want, but don't be too soft on her," Mara commented as she followed him - arms crossed. "I don't care to turn her into a spoiled brat just because she looks and sounds so soft and cuddly. Some adversity is good for her - builds character."

"I will proceed as I see fit." Nyton stated, looking at the door way with a stony glare before looking over at Mara. "Or are you just jealous? You know, if you weren't so hard edged all the time more people would be a lot more cuddly with you." he teased, smirking.

With that Nyton then sounded the chime on the door to alert it's occupants to their presence.

Tom responded with a grateful nod.

"Please enjoy your cake as soon as those teeth come in," he said with a smile. "I cannot permit it to go bad."

With a sigh, he wiped his brow, picked his gloves up and slipped them on.

Then the chime rang.

Mara gave a flat shrug, not really biting to Nyton's verbal barb.

* * *

Hinoto glanced up at Tom. "That would by Claymere-Taii and Mara." The sprite bowed her head slightly to the engineer. "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."

"Ok, show time. Wish me luck."

He did a final check on his 'area' to make sure there wasn't any lingering effects from the heat of the moment the two shared. Then, he stood up and swiftly walked to the door, where it slid open.

True to the sprite's words, there was Nyton and Mara. Paying little attention to the sprite, Tom's game face was focused on Nyton.

He bowed politely.

"Sir, it is a pleasure to meet you. I request permission to speak with you regarding this situation."

Nyton raised an eyebrow in mild surprise at seeing Tom answer the door. "I see you've been dragged into this, Freeman-Juni. Very well then. Your presence is actually welcome. Perhaps a third party can assist in reducing the soreness of the matter." he said.

"Actually sir, the situation applied to me in ways I do not think you perceived, but it will be discussed appropriately. Although I would wish to speak to you in private, I will not disagree with your decision to have Hinoto contribute to the conversation."

It was obvious that Tom was being very formal.

Hinoto, from where she was sitting on her bed, frowned slightly.

Mara blinked and nodded slowly. "Right. I'll check on Sanri and see if bridge watch agrees with her this time around. Last time, she complained it was giving her dandruff."

The blonde sprite walked off.

Smiling at the trio as she began to lead them back towards the wardroom, Masako shook her head. "No need for that yet," she replied to Kyou. "Especially since we haven't gotten a proper heavy weapon yet. We should eventually, but for now I would like you to act as standard infantry." the Warrant Officer explained.

Upon entering the Wardroom, they were greeting by Yukari. Bowing politely to the Shosa, Masako continued to smile at the new recruits. "This way please," she motioned as she lead them all to the Recreation Room on the Port side.

The recruits would find themselves in a slightly curved room with plenty of bookcases and exercise equipment lining the walls. There also seemed to be quite a few lounging chairs and tables to relax in as well. But the Warrant Officer didn't stop there. She immediately headed towards a door on the fore wall. "While I could just give you a detailed briefing on what you maybe facing, I'm a believer of learning hands on." Masako stated as she turned to her new recruits.

"Therefore, this simulation will put you in a situation you would most likely face as a member of this crew: boarding operations. Mainly, the enemy boarding the Miharu." the raven-haired Warrant Officer explained as she moved over towards a console. "Your enemies will be trying to take several key points on the ship: Engineering, the MEGAMI, and the Bridge. Of course, each place will be defended of some simulations of the crew, but you will be acting as a roving interception team. This means you would be moving throughout the ship, reinforcing key positions when needed and eliminating enemies that you come across." Masako explained the basics before pausing for a moment. "Any questions?"

Close quarter fighting.. ugh. This was not Kaida's strong point by any means. But then again, that was the whole purpose of training, wasn't it? To better herself and work on her weaknesses? Though perhaps she would have the chance to practice her 'speed sniping' as she liked to call it, where she would use a rifle from medium to long range and try to make a headshot within a second of her spotting her target. It wasn't perfectly accurate by any means, but she was getting better at it. Someone had once asked her why she couldn't be that accurate with say, a pistol or SMG. Simple really, the SMG's rapid fire was suprisingly hard for her to control and the pistol was awkward in how it was handled. She was used to aiming down a scope, not using metal sights.

Though that begged a question, if there was any fighting to be done in the hallways themselves, then perhaps... "Will it all be close quarters or will we be defending the hallways or at other similar ranges?" Her wording towards the end was a bit off, but she was a bit distracted at the moment.

"Nineteen, actually." Kai said, getting up and grabbing the oddly shaped bag of flesh that was his Daisy's insert. "Almost twenty. I ran away from home at seventeen. I'd rather fight for my nation than do something as menial as run a little shop. My parents obviously didn't understand my reasoning, and forbade me to go. So I decided that I was an adult capable of making my own decisions, and here I am, two years later, doing secret missions for the Yamatai Star Empire." The Yamataian carried (mostly dragged) the insert to the door and paused for a moment, turning back to look at the sprite and ask "Need anything from the fabrication rooms? I've got to stick this back in the system and check on my project. It'll only take a couple minutes.

*****

Yuzuki took a couple of moments to process the information.
"No, that's fine," she replied, sitting back on her heels and clasping her hands at the wrist, elbows on her knees, "Don't even bother. I can take it up when I am done with the rest of the armors, just stick it over there." She motioned to a corner of one of the temporary dividers erected in the bay. "Just lay it down, it doesn't have to be clean."
Hardly missing a beat, the sprite continued on. "So you worked at a shop on Tami for seventeen years, till you ran away. What did you sell?"