Tsunami

Tsunami

 

A spaceship sped through space at nearly 99% the speed of light. The ship, which had a red core block in the middle and was fitted with a gigantic wooden hull unit, was of an exceedingly unique design; its planet of origin would be instantly recognizable to most races in the galaxy. No matter how vast the universe may be, there was only one planet that made its spaceships from wood.

The ship’s name was Kirito. It was an Imperial Family ship, owned by Planet Jurai, holder of the largest single-country territory in the whole of the Milky Way. Kirito was a ship that could literally only be owned by the Imperial Family of Jurai. As such, the central core block of the ship held a special unit, where a First Generation Royal Tree was planted.

A Royal Tree was the name for a type of tree cultivated only on Planet Jurai (or so the Juraians spun the story) which controlled the power, life support, navigation, and every other system aboard the ship Kirito as it now tore through space. While it appeared no different than an ordinary tree, it produced far more energy than a star and possessed intelligence more developed than a super computer (up until the Third Generation Royal Tree, at least). A combination of a nuclear reactor and a computer, it was truly a tree endowed with omnipotent power.

Of course, it wasn’t all positive. Royal Trees had a low rate of germination and were exceedingly difficult to cultivate. And in order to actually utilize it, a type of ceremony called the Rite of Tree Selection was required, since only one person could form a bond with one tree (although it was the tree that did the choosing). Planet Jurai held the monopoly on Royal Trees because they did not publicize any information on the Unit devices used to cultivate them, and for some reason, these Royal Trees would only open their hearts to members of the Imperial Family or those slated to join it.

Currently, there were several other Units onboard aside from Kirito (the ship Kirito took its name from the Royal Tree Kirito). If Jurai’s Imperial Family could not form contracts with multiple Royal Trees, then why were they there? This was because the other Units were to be cultivated as later generations of Kirito. While it had become customary for the Juraian Imperial Family to cultivate the offspring of a Royal Tree with their parent for a fixed term, that was only when the parent tree had become a Juraian Royal Ship. Nobody, not even those in the Imperial family, knew how the saplings were raised inside the Hall of Royal Trees within Tenju, the Juraian Imperial Palace and the symbol of Jurai. Planet Jurai might have been the exclusive users of the Royal Trees, but even they did not fully understand them.

Even so, when they grew as huge as Kirito, a First Generation Tree with only three past masters, there was a high probability of it producing seeds that could mature into Second Generation Trees. For the sake of the further development of Planet Jurai, they installed a system unit that produced a special environment that encouraged seed germination and cultivation.

But why was Kirito, invaluable among all Juraian ships, traveling on its own? There was a reason for that. The sole person aboard her was currently on a journey of training and self-discovery. His name was Masaki Azusa, the Crown Prince of the Juraian Imperial Family, and next in line for election as Emperor of Jurai.

 

“Dammit!” On Kirito’s bridge, Azusa was in a very foul mood. Grasping his Master Key (the symbol of his partnership with the Royal Tree, the jewels it was adorned with themselves made from hardened tree sap), he increased the ship’s speed. While nothing changed inside the ship, the stars outside the window suddenly streaked rearward.

“That’s enough, sir!” As the chiding voice made itself heard, the velocity indicator on the main display dropped, and a spinning ball about ten centimeters wide appeared before Azusa. It was the miniature spherical terminal of Jijii, his chaperone and Guardian Unit. His main incarnation was sealed away, as he was only a nuisance to Azusa (in Azusa’s opinion, naturally). While the terminal couldn’t use physical force against him, it always followed him around, ready with a lecture.

Azusa thought that sooner or later, he’d have to seal it away somewhere, too. Azusa scowled sidelong at Jijii.

“Young master, turning them down like that was simply too rude!”

“Hmph! Like I care.” In his mind, he imagined those people swarming around him, grinning and crudely rubbing their hands together in supplication (he’d completely forgotten what their faces looked like). “They’re probably friends of that old bat!”

The “old bat” Azusa was referring to was Kamiki Seto. Her husband’s name was Utsutsumi, the head of House Kamiki, one of the four great houses of the Juraian Imperial Family. With her long hair, gentle gaze, and clear eyes, her beauty took men’s breaths away and made women sigh. But that was only what those fortunate people who did not know her true nature thought. From Azusa’s point of view, she was nothing but a malicious old bat.

This had all started several weeks earlier, a few days after he departed on his journey. Picking up a distress call that the daughter of some galactically prominent somebody or other was being attacked by space pirates, Azusa immediately headed toward the scene.

However, the distress call was odd… in a way that was quite obvious.

DAMSEL: Oh, dear. Somebody, save me, please.

PIRATE: Bwa-ha-ha. It is dangerous to travel in space alone.

DAMSEL: Oh. Please stop.

PIRATE: No gallant man driven by a sense of justice will magically appear in a place like this.

DAMSEL: I won’t believe it.

PIRATE: Though there’s a wimp out there listening, he’s scared to come and will just steer clear. Bwa-ha-ha.

In addition to the wooden audio, the pirate pretending to attack the rich girl sent a real-time image of this, along with her profile. Azusa was 21 years old at the time, and while young, he was not some hot-blooded fool who allowed thoughts of reckless valor carry him away, nor was he crazy enough as to waste time on such an obvious farce. And yet, he had to try to rescue the ship transmitting the distress call, as official galactic law required that he make an attempt. You could say he was being serious to a fault. Blame that on his youth and inexperience.

So, he saved her. Kirito’s power… or rather, Azusa’s power alone was more than a match for some pirate, who, after all, was just acting. A warning shot prompted a quick getaway, with a few pointed, badly-acted, parting threats.

With the reactor destroyed and the ship disabled, he towed it to the nearest star, where he found himself whisked off to meet the girl’s family, who welcomed him with such grand extravagance that it was clear they had prepared the whole thing in advance.

At first, he was glad. He thought of it as a sort of accident on his journey, a type of informal diplomacy. But when it kept happening every three days, he was at wit’s end. After subtracting his detention time, Azusa would only get half a day’s travel before a pirate was attacking some rich daughter.

Azusa would receive a distress call, be obliged to rescue, find himself detained before he would excuse himself and make a run for it… Rinse and repeat, day after day. He disguised his ship’s hull with metal, but this quickly became discovered. He tried ignoring the distress call, only to have the weeping girl curse him out. On one occasion, they even told him that it was “time for today’s rescue.” Meanwhile, their machinations to detain him only grew more radical: they threatened him with guns and then surrounded him with a fleet. At this point, he could not tell who the real pirates were.

Their goal was to wed their daughters to Azusa, the next Emperor of Jurai, which boasted both the most territory in the galaxy and the strongest military. Becoming relatives would mean a huge rise in status for their nation and their family. For most royalty and titled nobility, marrying into Jurai meant getting the golden ticket.

Officially, the only people permitted to have a Royal Tree were members of the Imperial Family. However, Jurai granted trees of the fifth-generation and beyond in strict confidence to non-Juraians, and were used as power sources on planets and colonies in early stages of settlement. Nations who were relatives of the Jurai received preferential treatment. As a result, the routine had now become, “rescue beautiful and desirable girls from cold-blooded pirates, then their fathers try to detain him by military force.”

Azusa’s training journey had turned into a matchmaking tour.

“Don’t you find it strange?” Azusa asked Jijii.

“It is a bit unnatural.”

Azusa’s tone grew harsh in response to Jijii’s unperturbed demeanor. “A bit?! It’s totally unnatural! Jijii, you know the rules of this journey, right?”

“Yes. The nature of the training journey taken by the Crown Prince of the Juraian Imperial Family is such that, once he sets out, there is no obligation to report your whereabouts to even the Juraian Emperor himself. In the event he is caught up in any trouble, even the most mortal of peril, they will not be notified.”

“Right. Exactly. I change my destination on a daily basis, so why are there always girls being attacked there?”

“It is strange,” Jijii conceded.

“It all has to be the work of that old bat!” Azusa seethed, a scowl on his face.

In other words, this bat, Kamiki Seto, was somehow locating his position and passing that information along to these girls’ fathers. She had even clearly set a few of them up personally.

Azusa had a three-year-old fiancée named Misaki. This adorable little girl, 18 years his junior, was the daughter of Seto, the puppet master behind “Operation Arranged Marriage.” So, why was Seto trying to arrange a marriage for her future son-in-law? It was not that she did not want to give up her daughter, Misaki. She did not really have any objections to this marriage. However, she felt sorry for him that he was unable, out of deference for Misaki, to associate with another woman (and meet a young man’s immediate needs, as the saying went).

Providing a partner for her daughter’s fiancé… She was doing something that was frankly none of her business, knowing full well that he did not want it. This was an example of Seto’s warped expressions of love for others.

In any case, Azusa had been her favorite since childhood, and he was well acquainted with her methods after often suffering mischief of this sort. You could say he had developed a sixth sense of sorts. If Seto was involved, he somehow just knew.

Rumor had it that she was subtle, but bold; ridiculous, but precise; and acerbic, but loveable. Seto, Jurai’s most fearsome schemer (which she of course took as a compliment), was being so blunt.

“That old bat should’ve just told me she was arranging a marriage for me instead of coming up with something this ridiculous.”

“Will we be making an escape?” inquired Jijii.

“Of course,” Azusa reflexively snapped back at Jijii. While he had gotten used to this nonsense, he had grown frustrated, not only at the nerve of these arranged marriages, but also that Seto could see right through him.

Yes, it was true that Seto was concerned about Azusa, but that was not the only reason. Since he had begun his journey one galactic standard week ago, Azusa had tasted a heretofore unprecedented feeling of liberation. The Juraian Imperial Family bloodline was originally of pirate stock, with a tendency towards wanderlust, and that disposition flowed within Azusa as well. For him, especially, the splendid life and political power of the scion of the galaxy’s largest territory held no appeal. Handed a ticket called “freedom” and leaping out into the void of space, the hot-blooded nature of his ancestors sleeping deep within his DNA had sprung forth. Unfortunately, this tendency was strongest in those who had what it took to be the Juraian Emperor.

“Operation Arranged Marriage” came just as he was starting to think he wanted to just run away from it all. In other words, knowing Azusa’s personality well, this was Seto’s prank to keep him in check. Nobody was supposed to know where he was going, yet here she was, accurately predicting Azusa’s haphazard journey, letting him know that “escape was impossible.” This sort of circuitous lesson was very much in her character.

While he was disappointed that she still treated him like a child thirteen years after he had first met her at age eight, it was not as though he did not understand the position in which he had been placed. No matter how strongly he might have longed for freedom, he would never abandon Jurai. And Seto knew that, too. Yet here they were. It bore repeating that Seto’s affection was a bit warped.

Azusa sighed in defeat. He was still wrapped around Seto’s little finger. Moreover, he knew that she was just getting started. Not even the future Emperor of Jurai could be a match for her. That was Kamiki Seto. “Pathetic…”

“Young Master, I beg your pardon, but why not just go meet the lady?” Jijii suggested.

“Don’t be absurd! I will never do as that old bat says!”

The Juraian Emperor took several wives—they were polygamous. Forming ties with new families was beneficial. In fact, Jurai had grown to its present power through both the Royal Trees and its taking many wives, continuously binding other national powers by blood. In the present day, others flocked to Jurai, not the other way round. Had Azusa been so inclined, he could have chosen any number of wives.

And yet he did not. It was not that he was being stoic. There had been a number of women who had made a good impression on him. However…

“Azusa-chan…” The voice calling to him in his heart stayed his actions. Her elegant smile and white hair longer than her body blowing in the night breeze. Each time he became interested in anyone, he heard her voice again in his heart.

“Could that old bat know…?” Azusa wondered. “No, she’d never,” he said, shaking his head in denial of the doubts that seeped from his heart. And so, with his freedom guaranteed while also under complete surveillance, Azusa’s journey continued.

 

Ping, ping. An alarm chimed softly, and a mayday message popped up on the forward panel.

“For crying out loud!” Azusa blurted out, but who would blame him? It had only been two hours since he had escaped the last lady’s ship. To hell with galactic law; he could not take this anymore. Seto’s sarcastic laughter echoed through Azusa’s mind. “Jijii, ignore it. Ignore it and just go!”

“Young Master, hold on. This isn’t like the others we’ve been getting.”

“What do you mean?” Azusa turned his attention to the screen. The mayday appeared to be coming from a transport fleet belonging to a famous company that occasionally visited Jurai, along with its escort fleet. Azusa and Jijii could not confirm specifics because subspace communications were being jammed. It was clear that the attacker was obscuring their actions. Odds were slim that it had anything to do with “Operation Arranged Marriage.”

“Looks like it’s for real,” Azusa concluded.

“What shall we do, Young Master?”

“Hmph… Why do you think I’m even out here?”

“By your command,” Jijii changed Kirito’s course and headed for the scene at maximum speed.

Azusa’s eyes shone intensely as he stared at the void of space onscreen. It was not out of a sense of justice, but merely a desire to kick some pirate ass to work out his irritation over what had been going on, and his indignation at the old bat (Seto). Even knowing it was Seto’s handiwork, he kept rescuing the damsels mainly because the attackers were “pirates,” and even now, that thought was subconsciously driving him.

Perhaps the old bat does know… Azusa thought as he recognized the feeling inside him.

“Azusa-chan…” He heard the voice calling him from the depths of his heart. It was not his imagination.

 

By the time Azusa arrived, it was all over. The escort flee was destroyed for the most part; it truly was one-sided slaughter. If there was one oddity, it was that the attackers went after only two of the transport ships, leaving the others completely untouched. It was clear that the attackers acted with a target in mind and that they were not lowly pirates who randomly plundered and kidnapped.

The display zoomed in on the distant pirate ship, and there was no doubt that this was no ordinary assailant. The ship was chalky white, like two serpents coiled around each other, a shape that did not seem to belong to any star system, and far too ostentatious for any mere pirates to possess.

Azusa opened all channels and broadcast a message to the pirates. “This is Masaki Azusa, Crown Prince to the Imperial House of Jurai. You are engaging in piracy. Under galactic law, I advise you to come to a halt and surrender. I say again…” The message was set to continually broadcast on auto-repeat.

The transport crew was no doubt ecstatic to hear the message. After all, the Crown Prince of Jurai, famous throughout the galaxy, had come to rescue them. Anyone would have thought that the pirates would turn tail and run.

No, there was only one person who did not think so: Azusa himself. As if to substantiate his thoughts, the white battleship withdrawing from the scene came about and headed for Kirito.

“That doesn’t indicate surrender,” observed Azusa. “Hah, they act as if Kirito were no threat to them.”

“Young Master, the target is far enough away from the transports. Destroy it at once!”

“Don’t rush me. Look at that ship. It’s not even using the transports as a shield. Interesting… I’m curious to see who’s aboard her.”

“What?!” Jijii exclaimed.

“Using a First Generation Juraian ship in this situation will only make me a laughingstock,” declared Azusa.

“B-but…!”

Azusa backhanded Jijii as he tried to stop him, then fired transporter pods into several locations on the approaching white battleship. Immediately, the screen displayed the contact points, and he estimated one that looked favorable.

“All right, Jijii, here I go.”

“Young Master, wait! I shall go with you.”

“Hmph! Have it your way.”

Their bodies were instantly transported into the white battleship’s interior. They were in a passageway near the upper hull, where they assumed the bridge to be.

“Intruders, and yet no alarms going off,” Jijii observed. “It’s almost as if the ship’s unmanned.”

“Unmanned…? No, there’s one powerful energy source… at the center.”

“Then it may not be human. We should fight them ship to ship…”

“They challenged a Royal ship head-on,” Azusa replied. “I expected as much. That’s why I wanted to greet them. Something’s coming!”

Turtle-like guard robots, hemispheres with limbs, appeared in the passageway in front of and behind Azusa and Jijii. But this level of firepower could not stop Azusa, the next Emperor of Jurai. He did not bother to use his Master Key sword and fought them in hand-to-hand combat. A single kick destroyed several of them. Azusa seemed to be enjoying it, as if it were a game. In fact, he was enjoying it.

After defeating more than 200 guard robots, a subspace hole suddenly swished open in front of Azusa.

“Young Master, it’s a trap.”

“I know. Seeing how they went to the trouble of inviting us, we should go.”

Stepping inside without any hesitation, Azusa emerged in the middle of an enormous hall, 150 square meters in size. Artistic decorations adorned the columns and walls, making it hard to believe that they were aboard a pirate battleship. Just then, they heard the delicate melody of a neorle (a musical instrument similar to a pipe organ on Earth) being played nearby.

The person working the keyboard withdrew his fingers and stood. His fair skin, long hair, yellow eyes behind pince-nez spectacles, and outfit—similar to the dress uniform of the Galaxy Academy, the facility which gathered together the sum of cosmic knowledge—gave all the more impression of a great intelligence within.

This man, who looked in no way at all like a pirate, bowed respectfully as he spoke. “Welcome to my cathedral, Azusa-dono, Imperial Crown Prince of Jurai.”

“A welcome complete with the music of the neorle, I see. As thanks for your invitation, I shall receive your name. Answer me!”

“That would be my honor. My name is Kagato.”

Kagato. That was definitely what he said. To think that 750 years before Masaki Tenchi fought and defeated him, Kagato had met the future Emperor of Jurai in a place like this!

Cautiously eying his surroundings, Azusa inquired of Kagato, “Still, this ship seems a bit of overkill for the piracy trade.”

“All I seek is knowledge, and to liberate that knowledge for those who deserve it. This beautiful vessel Souja is a treasury of knowledge.”

“Are you saying you are not a pirate? No matter what your objective is, what you do can only be described as piracy under galactic law!”

“Based on the logic of the laws that you people use,” Kagato replied. “I operate under my own laws.”

“Even if that results in aggravated robbery?”

Kagato laughed, “Imbeciles who cannot evaluate their own competence desire knowledge and would never be able to use it all. Don’t you think that’s a terrible waste?” He adjusted his spectacles as he spoke from the stage upon which the neorle stood. “Law is that which is allowed by those who have power. So show me your laws through your power.”

“Have at you, then!” Azusa cried, leaping at him.

Unlike when he had engaged the guard robots, this time he held the handle-like Master Key in his right hand, from which a blade of light extended. He realized that this man called Kagato standing before him was not what he appeared to be. If he made the wrong choice, he would never be able to win. The experience and knowledge he had gained from training in the martial arts since coming to Jurai at age ten—as well as his own instincts—moved him to draw the energy blade.

There was a flash. But then an invisible wall generated in front of Kagato, protecting him!

“What?!” Azusa was dumbfounded. The barrier deflected his mighty sword, which was unbeatable even on Jurai!

Kagato’s eyes glowed with an uncanny light. His right arm moved.

A warning from deep inside his head raced through Azusa. Absorbing the repulsion shock into his body, he jumped back from Kagato.

“Ah,” said Kagato. “You’re quite powerful. This should be far beyond the limits of human-based bio-augmentation. And you’re able to maintain such stability while using that much power.”

Not bothering to listen to his admiring words, Azusa extended a second long sword and severed Kagato’s right arm. But it regenerated before he even knew what was happening.

“Are you even human?!”

“You’re the one who misjudged me,” returned Kagato.

Indeed, despite Azusa’s superhuman combat strength of the Juraian Imperial family, he was unable to inflict any damage in the face of Kagato’s regenerative ability. On the other hand, Azusa found himself easily knocked to the floor again and again by the powerful energy shots Kagato released. Each time, he hit the floor with a bone-rattling impact.

How could Kagato be so strong? This was because Kagato’s body was actually Ryoko’s prototype body, into which Washu, called the greatest intellect in the galaxy, had poured everything she had. Just as Azusa had sensed, he was not human at all!

Jijii flew spinning towards the wounded Azusa, calling out worried advice. “Young Master, any more of this will be dangerous. Call on Kirito-dono for assistance!”

“I don’t care if he’s not human. Using a ship’s might against flesh and blood will only bring shame upon the name of the Crown Prince!” Azusa stood, fighting back the pain. Taking assistance from his Royal Tree partner would give him superhuman power. Or, rather, he could have power equivalent to the ship itself. Incidentally, when Ayeka fought Kagato, she was constantly calling on her Royal Tree, Ryu-Oh, for assistance. Rejecting assistance was a demonstration of Azusa’s determination to defeat Kagato by his own power. He grinned, and then glared at Kagato. “Rejoice, Jijii. I finally feel like I’m on my training journey!”

He did not intend to change tactics. He would put everything he had into his sword, and then kill Kagato. He thought that was the action he would need to take as the future Emperor of Jurai. No—he thought that a truly powerful man did not need a plan. That’s right. Just like with that old bat, when I was a child…

As Azusa moved in to attack, Kagato summoned a sword from his clenched fist. The mighty Azusa and silent Kagato’s blades crossed without a sound. A moment later, there came the faint hiss of burning flesh.

“You have truly shown me the skills of the Crown Prince of Jurai,” said Kagato as Azusa went down on one knee. An incinerated slash ran from his right shoulder to his left flank, not bleeding, but hurting much more than a cut.

“Young Master!”

Azusa screamed, drowning out Jijii’s voice, but did not fall to the ground, clutching the Master Key tightly as its energy sword deactivated. Through the screaming, he asked himself why he had ever come to Jurai. He thought of his father and mother. He remembered Seto’s chuckling. He saw white hair waving in the night breeze. He saw a beautiful face in profile behind it…

In that moment, the Master Key he clutched in his hand began to glow with light! The cathedral was alight with a golden glow.

Kagato was astonished! “A warp in space?! Impossible! A pathway cannot be created within Souja’s internal barrier!”

“Young Master, hurry!”

Azusa momentarily hesitated to leap into the pathway Kirito had created. However, if Kirito had judged the situation this dangerous, then his discontent meant nothing. “I guess this shows I’m still just an amateur…”

Just as Azusa and Jijii vanished in the golden light, a wooden spaceship appeared in the cathedral’s skylight.

Kagato regarded the ship. “A Juraian vessel… You mean to say this was all that ship’s doing?!”

 

Dozens of light beams stabbed at Kirito from Kagato’s battleship Souja as Azusa and Jijii returned. Souja was 37 times larger, with an overwhelming advantage, but her blasts could not put even a scratch on Kirito. The three wings of light Kirito had deployed to her fore completely blocked physical, psychic, and even subspace attacks.

Meanwhile, on Kirito’s bridge, Azusa fought pain as he held the Master Key aloft with both hands, linking with the Royal Tree and directing Kirito to counterattack.

“I never expected someone like this.” Azusa had assumed he was just a pirate, though formidable. There was no way for him to know that his opponent was the assistant to Washu, the scientific genius of the Galaxy Academy, with Ryoko’s prototype body. On his first training journey, Azusa had encountered a being who could stand up to a Juraian vessel, lauded as the strongest. It was fate.

“However…” Concentrating power into the center of the wings of light, which were devoted exclusively to defense, the light penetrated Souja’s defense field like a thin skin and landed a direct hit. The 60 meter long sword of light pierced her, inducing an explosion.

“Such power. So those are the wings of light used by the ships of Jurai, renowned throughout the galaxy… The Light Hawk Wings?! I see. They are powerful, indeed.” Floating within the partially-destroyed cathedral, Kagato stared at Kirito, directly in front of him. His face showed faint surprise, but no fear.

“Meeowwww!”

A ship appeared, along with a cry that seemed to resonate through the heart. A ship made of black crystal, with four horns projecting from its central core block! The ship’s name was Ryo-Ohki, in her first generation, before she regenerated.

This time, it was Azusa’s turn to be surprised. Ryo-Ohki possessed firepower equal to that of Kirito. If anything, she had an advantage, if only a slight one. “What’s with that power?! Could she possibly have the same power as a Tree?!”

A communication override overlapped Azusa’s shocked exclamation. The screen showed a young woman with bristly hair and fire in her eyes. It was Ryoko. She licked her lips, seeming to enjoy the battle, as she looked Azusa over. The jewels on the nape of her neck and both hands shone crimson.

“Not bad,” she said, “against me and Ryo-Ohki!”

“A woman?! No… You aren’t human either, are you?!”

“You can figure that out when you’re dead. I don’t care if Juraian ships really are the most powerful in the galaxy—Ryo-Ohki and I are going to blast her to bits!”

The moment she cut the transmission with a rude wink, Kirito began to take heavy fire. The wings of light generated by Kirito, the three Light Hawk Wings, could not cover the ship completely. The beams fired from Ryo-Ohki scored direct hits through their gaps. The Light Hawk Wings’ defenses were not enough… or so it seemed to Azusa and Jijii.

Part of Ryo-Ohki’s attack passed through the Light Hawk Wings, neutralizing them. There was one form of energy that could pass through Light Hawk Wings. It required an immense reactor to utilize such energy in a weaponized form. Because of this requirement, it would take nothing short of a planetary-scale battleship to generate this weaponized energy, and it still would not cause critical damage to a Juraian vessel. The weapon Ryo-Ohki used was something else entirely.

Kirito shook, her hull taking direct hits for the first time. Juraian vessels could get away with wooden hulls because they possessed Light Hawk Wings, which served as both an absolute defense and offense. Of course, it was also an old tradition, but ships made of wood were the symbol of Juraian invincibility. Now, the ship composed of black crystal shattered that symbol!

“It’s sluggish?! Dammit, from just this much damage?”

“Young Master, you cannot maintain the link with the ship in your condition. We must retreat!” Jijii anxiously advised Azusa.

“If we do that, that ship will finish us! I’m taking us in!” Diverting energy from the Light Hawk Wings, Kirito focused its barrier at the bow. Ryo-Ohki began to spin like a top, emitting energy beams. The two tremendous energies collided. Back and forth, the two ships struggled against each other.

“That wasn’t good enough?! The link may be imperfect, but this is a First Generation Tree!”

It was Jijii’s frightened scream that roused Azusa from his bewilderment. “Young Master, the fabric of space… It’s tearing!”

“What?!”

The screen showed an exterior view. Space was twisting and curving right before his eyes. The two energy fields slightly out of phase with each other were generating an enormous repulsion, inducing a dimensional rift.

“Meow… meooww!” Ryo-Ohki, too, cried out at the tremendous energy.

The phenomenon spread out at the speed of light, engulfing Souja, as well. “A ship capable of taking on Ryo-Ohki. She may be unstable for now, but she couldn’t overwhelm it with the power of her jewels?!” On his bridge, Kagato’s body began to tremble for the first time.

The rift in space would not be enough. The excess energy of this phenomenon would likely cause ripple effects up to 300,000 light years away. The three ships fell through the rift. And in that instant, Kagato saw a humanoid form in space. The woman, her long blue hair tied behind her in two bunches and two circular marks inscribed on her forehead, floated in space like a transparent ghost.

“Who are you?” Kagato’s asked in a dazed murmur. Ryoko’s own murmured reply provided the answer.

“Tsunami.” Ryoko knew her… or, rather something within Ryoko knew Tsunami.

Wings of light grew from Tsunami’s body. Tsunami: the progenitor of the Juraian Royal Trees. Ten Light Hawk Wings grew from her body, enveloping the dimensional rift created by Kirito and Ryoko! Everything faded to white.

 

From the cathedral aboard Souja, Kagato saw Tsunami’s form, as did Azusa from Kirito’s bridge. But, almost immediately, the woman began to transform into another.

“Azusa-chan… Azusa-chan…” The woman with white hair longer than she was tall smiled at Azusa. He had not seen that slightly clouded smile in a very long time. He could never have imagined he would see her again.

“Mitsuki…” Azusa called her name, his face in sorrow.

“Azusa-chan.”

He longed for that lovely voice to embrace him forever. If I’d met you now, I could have protected you, he thought. I would protect you. Was that now an impossible reality?

A rude, hoarse voice called Azusa from his reveries and back to reality. “Are you all right, Young Master?!”

He stared silently at Jijii in front of him. This brief pause was Azusa’s meager resistance to his reality.

 

The dimensional rift sucked in Kirito, Souja, and Ryo-Ohki, and all three ships vanished from the area of space where they had been battling. Unbelievably, the excess energy created by Kirito’s Light Hawk Wings and Ryo-Ohki’s jewels had also vanished without a trace. The only thing left in that region was Tsunami, who had absorbed the energy. Tsunami gazed at one spot in space. Perhaps there had been something that drew her attention there, but eventually she silently closed her eyes and then seemingly melted away into space.

The progenitor of the Trees of Jurai, the Tree of Beginnings who could deploy ten Light Hawk Wings—Tsunami would, in 50 years, have her fateful meeting with Azusa’s second daughter Sasami and assimilate her. And then, 700 years later, she would save Masaki Tenchi in his battle with Kagato after Tenchi lost half of his body.

This incident also prompted Kagato, a scientist seeking a complete unified theory for all dimensions, to take interest in the ships of Jurai, particularly the Royal Trees. He would later order his servant Ryoko to steal Tsunami, the mightiest tree of Jurai. For now, he started on the repair and refit of the badly-damaged Souja.

As for Ryo-Ohki the First, whose incomplete link with Ryoko’s jewels had been unstable, the battles with Azusa’s ship Kirito, as well as with the First Generation Ship Funaho (which would belong to his son Yosho, born ten years later) dramatically shortened her life span. In 700 years, the spat between Ryoko and Ayeka would silence this Ryo-Ohki for good, eventually regenerating to evolve into Ryo-Ohki the Second.

Azusa and Kagato fought for barely three hours. No one could have guessed how much that brief encounter would affect history. Indeed, this was the moment where destiny took a turn.