Disclaimer:……………….you know the drill.
“My name is Akito Tenkawa… Up until a little while ago, I was just a penniless, wandering cook, with a decidedly bleak future. Then I ran into her… Well actually, her suitcase whacked me on the head, but anyway, after that, a chain of events occurred and I somehow found myself as a pilot onboard a space battleship owned by the largest corporation on Earth. Fate sure is funny isn’t it? Now, now I don’t know what to think… Things have changed too quickly… We admitted our feelings, and then everything went to hell the next day. I couldn’t save that girl… Now she, and all those people are dead, because I wasn’t fast enough. It all came rushing out after that. All the aggression and anger I had bottled up inside of myself since my parent’s death came bursting to the service. And I annihilated an entire Jovian fleet single-handedly. Now everyone aboard the ship looks at me with fear in their eyes. Not that I can blame them of course. The only ones who even talk to me anymore are Ruri, Ines, and Yurika. Megumi is afraid of me, and Ryoko is the same. Sigh, man, I really should have stayed a cook…”
In a dimly lit room, a man sits with his knees drawn up to his chest. The only light comes from a screen in front of him. On the screen, various images flash. Images of a giant robot fighting monsters, and poorly animated people yelling out inspirational, if corny phrases. The man watches this when he has nowhere else to turn to. We all have our own individual escapes. When we don’t want to face reality, we retreat into these escapes. Drugs, alcohol, TV, writing, whatever gets our mind off the painful truth. Because when it comes right down to it, reality hurts a great deal. The real world is a painful place. So the man continues to watch the screen in the dark room, because he does not want to face reality right now.
“Akito, where could you be?” Yurika thinks to herself as she wanders the halls of the Nadesico. With the battle over, and the majority of the shuttles safe, everyone was taking some time to relax. But of course, most couldn’t. Not after seeing the product of nanomachines and one man’s pain.
“If only I had known he was in such pain, I could have helped him…” She thought sadly as she peeked into another room, hoping to see his familiar face. She had already checked his room, her room, the kitchen, and many other various places he usually frequented. But so far, she had found no trace of the spiky haired pilot/cook who held her heart.
“Oh, Akito…”
Megumi sat on her bed, hugging a stuffed animal to her chest. She too needed to escape reality for a while. On the screen in front of her, she watched a show she had voice-acted in once. But she kept replaying a scene in her head, over, and over. His anguished scream, and the raw destruction that followed in his wake. It was frightening how easily he destroyed those ships. What would happen, if he ever turned on the Nadesico she wondered. Would he spare her life, or even consider it? Would he show no mercy just like with the lizards? Megumi hugged the animal tighter.
“Akito…”
Ryoko sighed sadly as she watched the various engineers fix up her aestivalis. She had received less damage then the others, probably because she was farthest from the enemy, when the initial surprise attack occurred. She silently stared into the mech’s cold, lifeless eyes. It stared back at her, and she looked away after a moment. She heard footsteps and saw the familiar form of Dr. Ines Fresange stand next to her. The two women stood in companionable silence for a few moments, before Ines spoke up.
“You know, it helps sometimes, to talk about it…” Ryoko whirled on her angrily.
“Talk? Talk!? You want to talk!? An entire shuttle of innocent people is dead. A guy whom I thought was a gutless wimp for the most part, suddenly goes nuts and destroys an entire enemy fleet with one aestivalis, and then up and disappears on the ship, and you want to talk? She asked incredulously. Ines was unperturbed as always and replied coolly.
“Well what do you expect? Do you have any idea how stressful Akito’s life has been since he was a little boy? There’s only so much one man can take! He’s only human!” Ryoko sighed again and looked away.
“A human doesn’t single-handedly obliterate a whole armada…” Ines sighed herself and also looked away.
“No, no, one certainly doesn’t…” This time, the silence stretched for a much longer time, before Ines finally walked away. She stopped, but didn’t turn around.
“I know where he is right now you know… He’s in the former Admiral’s room. Probably to get away from everything…” She then continued walking.
Ryoko just stared at the aestivalis again, and didn’t move.
“Why does life have to be so complicated…” She muttered.
The man has laid back now. The episode is over, and the new one is starting, but he is beyond caring. The fact that everyone is afraid of him now means little to him. Once again, he is beyond caring at this point. He briefly contemplates leaving. But he wills that thought away moment later. He was sick and tired of running away from his problems. Then what was he doing now? He questioned. He didn’t know, he was beyond caring. The opening theme played.
“Can you hear tomorrow’s dreams call…” He whispered, but no one heard.
Jun Aoi cursed to himself as he saw his unrequited love wander off again in search of her own. It hurt to admit, but he knew that Tenkawa had won before the game had even begun.
“And now this…” He muttered. He was a soldier, so he could handle things like violence and whatnot, but what scared him was the fact that this could have happened at anytime. What if Akito had gone berserk back when he had dueled him?
“I’d be dust right now…” He thought as he noticed Yurika coming back and heading down to another wing of the ship. It was sort of funny how even with something that had the rest of the crew scared stiff, she still searched for her love and sought to comfort him and ease his suffering. These thoughts used to hurt, but now it was just sort of a dull ache for him. He smiled sadly as he watched her go.
“I hope, that I find someone who loves me that much someday…” He thought to himself.
Yurika groaned in surrender as she closed yet another door.
“Another dead-end…” She muttered. It seemed that she would never find her darling. It was obvious that he just didn’t want to see anyone right now. She wished he would talk to her though. It hurt to think that he was avoiding even her. It was enough to bring tears to her eyes, but she willed them away.
“I have to be strong now! Strong for both of us!” With that thought, she decided to try one more place: the old room of Admiral Fukube. She figured it was worth a try.
He was alone in a world of darkness. The screen was dead, and the room was completely black. He was the master of this world though. He was the prince of the darkness… It obeyed him. He held up his hand, and the symbol engraved upon it shone, creating an aura of bright light. He watched as it grew brighter until the entire room was bathed in light. He fought it, the darkness was causing the light! His soul, consumed by evil, was producing a blinding power that he could not control. Angrily, he willed it away. But it remained. Then the door slid open.
“Akito?” The light vanished, and the man looked up at the doorway.
“Yurika…” He breathed.
Yurika cautiously entered the dark room, calling out his name questioningly. She heard his barely audible reply and rushed over to his slightly illuminated body.
“Oh Akito! I’ve been looking everywhere for you! I’m so glad you’re alright!” He bowed his head sadly.
“But I’m not…” She looked at him questioningly.
“Huh? What do you mean?” He looked up and met her blue eyes with his brown.
“Never mind… You should get away from me Yurika… I don’t want you getting hurt because I can’t control myself…” He turned away, ignoring her hurt gaze, and walked over to the corner of the room.
“In fact… I think you should forget about me…” He said. Her eyes widened, and she started to cry. He cursed himself, but remained strong. Then her eyes grew angry.
“Oh no! Akito Tenkawa! I am not going to just walk away and leave you! Not after I spent so long without you! All those years without you… I couldn’t bear to go through it all again…” He looked at her curiously. She bowed her head sadly.
“I, I can’t stand to not be around you…” She looked up at him, and her eyes grew tender.
“You’re my best friend, my knight, and most of all… the one I love, and have always loved…” His face registered shock at the tenderness she was exhibiting, it was so very sincere and heartfelt.
“So please… please, let me help you get through this… I know you have a lot of pain locked up inside you, but maybe, maybe it would help if you just talked about it with someone… So for once in your life Akito, Talk to me… Let me in…” He stepped over to her, earnestly touched by her words, and embraced her. They were both crying now, but they’re tears were ones of cleansing and joy. They both felt a great weight lift from their hearts, and Akito tilted Yurika’s face up to him, and slowly kissed her. She returned it passionately. Trying to let him know just how much she loved him. Their bodies slowly sank to the ground, and together, they escaped…
Author’s notes: I apologize for the ridiculous amount of time it took me to update this, but real life can be a cruel mistress, and I also felt compelled to write other stories in the meantime. Anyway, I hope that this chapter is a little better than the last few. I admit it’s a bit choppy, but it’s hard to get across the character’s feelings without being a little disjointed. I’m also sorry that I don’t really put much comedy into my Nadesico story, but well, this a serious story, so I felt that adding humor would detract from that, so sorry… Anyway, I hope it wasn’t too bad… Please review! And you can expect the next chapter to have more action in it, as the climax of this series draws near… Oh yeah, and did you catch the little Nadesico movie reference? Pretty stupid, I know, but it seemed to fit…
