The end of a story...

[Xing]

Chapter 6 - Dans L'Empire du Soleil Levant...

It was still early in the morning on New Tokyo. Hovercars and spaceships were already flooding the airtraffic, as the centrale city of the busy metropole-planet began waking up. But here, far away from the tall super-buildings and commerce centre of the prosper imperial capital, on this little island where fleet admiral Mitsurugi had set home, it was all quiet.

Isabelle looked back as she saw her shuttle leaving...
She promised herself to never look back...
Yet, opening her hand, she could see herself through the reflected image on the five silvery stars...
It was strange, she didn't remembered having washed them, yet they were now clean?

Isabelle smiled slightly, uncertain how to interpret this. Probably a good thing...
She was going to keep these five stars, the five general stars, and they alone would be the only objects to remind her of her past life...


Admiral Mitsurugi wasn't there that morning, having left a few days ago for important matters aboard his flagship, the KNF Yamato of the Kusari 1st Fleet. As such, there were no one in the mansion but Jimmy... she approached the gates and tipped on the little pad the 9 security digits she had been using since she was 9 years old.

Jimmy was awaiting her it seemed, since a very long time. No words exchanged; they rushed to each other and hugged with the passion of eternal love. And they stayed like that for a long while, merely enjoying the contact of their body.
"How I missed you, my love..."

--

Later that day, as they lied together side by side on their bed, their passion satisfied, they began relating of the various events that has hapenned in the very short notice of time. Isabelle talked about all what she lived through, the death of her father to the conflicts she had with the administrative structure of Liberty, the corruption she was living within, a nation that wasn't one anymore, a cause they defended that was lost since a long time...
Her eyes still shone with the dim light of sadness, but she made some effort to smile, for her love, for herself and for father too, she had to forget all her misery and pass on to something new...
A new life in Kusari, under the wing of her "uncle Daite"...

--

Late that night, a video transmission from Mitsurugi came in through the holoprojector as Isabelle and Jimmy finished a dinner the automated household androids prepared.
The elderly admiral was sitting on a command chair, even larger than the one aboard the Citadelle. He smiled and bowed as he saw his proteg?s, Isabelle and Jimmy returned the salute with respect.
"Greetings, Jimmy Patterson. Greetings, Isa. I am glad to see you have returned safe and well here... please, both of you, feel free to use my house as your's..."
"My time with the two of you is limited, for duty calls me in time of emergency... war..." he sighed, seemingly finding the situation of the Kusari-Bretonian war not very appealing despite the fact his nation was actually winning ground.
"It is not safe to discuss of such matter on open channel either... I am sending you this message for tomorow a shuttle shall be waiting for the two of you, which will ferry you to my flag, the Yamato. We shall be discussing of... destiny."
"But meanwhile, please, enjoy the hospitality of the Kusari empire, feel free to do as you wish; you are in the capital world of our people after all."
With this, Mitsurugi smiled and ended the transmission. His emblem, a golden dragon, appeared on the screen instead, before leaving the screen fade out.

--

The next morning, as promised, the naval shuttle awaited for them. It was a short trip to the Yamato, stationned along with the entire 1st fleet in New Tokyo system, above the normal civilian airspace. Isabelle and Jimmy looked through the viewport of their shuttle and watched in awe at the impressive mass of vessels assembled; there must be nearly one hundred battleships and even more destroyers...
But then again, this was the 1st kusari imperial fleet, a fleet assigned with home defence, inspiring respect and dread.

The Yamato itself was unmistakable, the largest of the battleships in the formation, painted with golden trim. It didn't took long for the "foreigner visitors" to get a docking permission aboard the 1st fleet flag; especially when the host was the Fleet admiral himself...

The three of them met in the spatious personnal office of Mitsurugi, who was working on his own load of paperwork from his data terminal. He looked up from his screen as he heard the doors slide open, and warmly greeted the two libertonians.
"Ah, Jimmy Patterson... sorry for having left you alone in my domain for so long, but, you certainly understand, my duty commands my honour."
"Please, the two of you, take a seat... we have much to discuss, and we'll hope no message from Supreme HeadQuarter comes bothering our meeting. Be comfortable, we might have to deal with this for quite a while."

Once they were ready to begin, Mitsurugi closed the door through his remote control, and with another button, activated a disrupter.
"We might speak of sensitive matters... it is better we are not recorded by anyone."
"Isabelle... the offer I've proposed you still stands. You might have guessed, it won't be easy. It has never been seen before, but I believe - no, I know, we can achieve our goals."
"To put more precision in my thoughts, I intend to assign, the two of you, with command duties in the recently formed 7th fleet..."

Isabelle shook her head in disbelief,
"But uncle, how?..."

"Do not worry. I merely stated the final objective. Now let us observe all the obstacles on our path...
First, we have the fact you are no kusari. By that, I mean neither of you looks like one, and obviously doesn't have citizenship.
Second, we know my people are extremely reluctant when it comes to accepting people from another nation... a good reason why we have so few immigrants. It is a miracle that someone actually manage to get citizenship within the empire if at least one of his parent isn't of Kusari descent...
Third, without point one and two of accomplished, the imperial navy would never be able to accept you within their ranks."

Mitsurugi began passing his hand through his long white beard, wondering.
"Virtually, one and two are impossible to achieve by normal means. And I don't want to put my hands with these lowly hogosha scums although it would probably be the easiest way."
"Basically, the two of you need to prove you are fit for this job..."

"But, uncle Daite, how can we prove this? and to whom? Our..."

"Shh, let me finish Isa.." Mitsurugi smiled gently, "I am getting old, my thinking process is slowing down, but please do bear with me."
"I will suggest to set you as a special military advisor agent for the 7th fleet. At this moment, commodore Kaito is at the command of this fleet. In a few days, it will be sent for a first trial in real combat close to the sigma borders, where pirate raiders are often sighted. Engagement will be inevitable. With your temporary rank, you have the authorisation to advise the commodore, although you have no command power over anyone. I guess it will pass without much questions. The naval forces used to do this since a long while, that is, recruiting military advisor from other nations to improve our own military. Of these days, its mostly exchange made with the Rheinland nation, but I guess..."

Isabelle smirked, continuing for him,
"Since I speak fluidly japanese, I guess we can just pretend I am rheinlander... along with my assistant, right?"

Mitsurugi nodded,
"Indeed. Try to be insightful and impress the commodore. Kaito is young and unexperimented but he is also very traditional to our culture; he will hardly tolerate that a female shows any kind of superiority, and is not so far from considering the other nations as inferior races... so be careful how you deal with the man."
"However, once you get his respect, then we will be on the right track to get your transition within the empire, succesful."

The fleet admiral rose up from his chair, and so did his visitors,
"For the moment, welcome in the kusari empire. Welcome to your new home."

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