NOTES ON THIS CHAPTER: Words that appear quoted like this "" are
words spoken in english. All of the dialouge spoken in normal quotation
marks like this "hello" are in japanese.
All characters presented herein are not of my creation. Dragonball Z and
Sailor Moon are owned by their respective creators and producers.
*********************************
To Protect a Princess
By Tunguska_Boy
Chapter 15
Piccolo was gone. He'd been gone for a few days now. He didn't say
goodbye or leave any kind of note. When they woke he simply wasn't there.
Rei meditated for hours but couldn't find his energy anywhere. They had
made their way to a highway and managed to flag down a bus that would take
them into town. Thanks to Ami's artfully constructed cover stories Ami,
Minako, Usagi, and Rei had a very easy time explaining there absence.
Makoto, of course, didn't need a story to tell. As predicted they were able
to rejoin their school without incident, again thanks to Ami's work. They
had agreed to continue their physical training at Makoto's place. She had a
spacious apartment and no parents that would complain about noise or if
anything got broken. In general, life was back to normal for the five young
girls. However, the world was not back to normal for everyone.
********
Bukichi cradled his daughter in the crook of his right arm while he
prepared a bottle of formula with his left hand. It was 3:15 in the
morning. He and Maneko had worked out a schedule for late night feedings.
Bukichi would handle it Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday and Maneko
would handle it Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. It didn't bother him that
he was up most nights taking care of his daughter. Since she'd been born
he'd nearly forgotten that he was in the military. When he did think of it
he was trying to figure out how he could avoid another fight. With his
daughter in his arms he couldn't imagine going into a battle that may cost
him his life. He had too much to live for. As soon as the Colonel
contacted him next he would request transfer for his family.
He'd spoken to a few people on the base about his plan and they all advised
him to do anything other than just waiting for the call from the Colonel.
It would make the base look bad if nothing was done. Bukichi agreed, and
decided that they should run some simple espionage missions. Just a few
safe, simple, fact-finding missions. Since he was the only one on the base
with the proper training in covert operations it would just be him out in
the field. But so long as he had his cloaker he would be just fine.
Jhessail had given him a watch which had a special sensor in it. The sensor
was set to detect the atmospheric shifts that accompanied the Senshi.
Bukichi planned to learn quite a bit from the Senshi in the next few days.
********
A few nights later Aino Minako was out late. She was sitting alone in a
small café reading a magazine and idly sipping her jasmine tea. Bukichi had
spotted her from outside the café and was watching her drink her tea. Quite
despite himself he had to admit that she was absolutely beautiful. His
thoughts strayed no further than admiration as he sat waiting for her to
leave the café. He had planned a surprise for her. A few of his men were
cloaked and waiting in all the nearby alleyways. Suddenly she stood,
dropped a few coins on the table and left the café. She took a right out of
the door and walked down the side walk. Bukichi crossed the street and fell
into a casual walk twenty feet behind her.
As she passed the threshhold of the alley way three pairs of hands seized
her and pulled her into the alley so fast that she couldn't even scream.
Bukichi smiled inwardly, the plan was working perfectly. He ran to the
alley and turned the corner just as one of his men had yanked the purse off
her arm and the other two held her against a dumpster. Bukichi charged at
the one holding the purse and hit him with a glancing punch across his jaw.
The soldier, as ordered, threw himself backwards from the feigned attack and
crashed in a heap. The other two soldiers took their cues and dropped
Minako to charged at Bukichi. Bukichi received one with a light blow to the
stomach and caught the other by the arm and threw him over his shoulder in a
very impressive looking manner. The soldiers groaned quite convincingly as
they picked themselves up and ran off into the night. Bukichi went to where
Minako had dropped her purse and picked it up. He looked over to where
Minako was standing next to the dumpster still wondering what had just
happened. Bukichi walked over to her and held out her purse.
"Ah, hello, um, is this, uh, purse yours?" He said in his best
I'm-a-foreigner-who-doesn't-speak-japanese-very-well voice. She looked at
him oddly for a moment before accepting the purse. Bukichi smiled as she
took the purse from him. He was fully cloaked now, and looked as human as
anyone else on the street that night. He was about 5'7" and had a head full
of curly black hair. His face was lean and his features were sharp. His
eyes were piercingly blue and seemed to cast the most critical importance
onto whatever they were looking at. And right now they were focused on
Minako. When she caught sight of his eyes being fixed on her face she
blushed slightly and turned her head.
"Thanks for helping me. Are you new in town?" She asked taking notice of
his lack of confidence with her language.
"Yes, I am new in town." He said with a smile. "Are you..." He trailed
off as if he was struggling to figure out what the next word was. "" He muttered softly in english. Minako didn't know a whole lot
of english, but what she did recognize were the words "beautiful girl" and
she smiled.
"He's pretty cute, " she thought, "brave too. I could've handled these guys
but he swooped in too fast. He must've seen them grab me."
"You okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'm alright." She said as she took a step forward when her boyfriend
securing instincts kicked in. She stepped down on her right foot and winced
as if it were injured. She fell forward and Bukichi caught her shoulders.
Her hand shot out and she braced her self against his chest. She pushed her
self back up after a moment of letting the feel of his muscular chest rest
against her hand.
"Actually," she said, "could you help me back to my place?" Bukichi
pretended to take her question apart and translate each word before he
answered.
"Yes I can." He said evenly. She held onto his arm as they walked down the
sidewalk toward her home. As they walked they talked in a mixture of
japanese and english. He told her that his name was Mike Butler and he
moved to Japan to work for a small computer start-up a friend of his brother
owned. Beyond that they didn't discuss much, they talked a lot but nothing
much was said. When they stood at the door to her home Minako thought of a
reason to see him again.
"I noticed that you don't speak a lot of japanese." She said hoping she
didn't sound insulting. Bukichi only shrugged. "I can give you some
lessons if you like." She let her voice soften as she finished her offer.
"Thank you, I would like that." He said in response. She smiled broadly
and tried in vain to hide her happiness.
"Okay, meet me here at six tomorrow okay?" She said.
"Fine, here at six." He said. She nodded and after a few more pleasentries
the two went their separate ways. As he walked away from her place a voice
crackled through his micro-ear piece.
"Smooth moves there casanova but you may want to keep that young ladies jets
cooled or else I might have to kick her little ass." Maneko's voice came
through the ear piece. Bukichi smiled.
"Don't worry," he said, "I've got it under control."
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