By Michiru
“Is it true that Rei will be back?” Kuwabara asked as he ate with Mukuro. He went straight to her palace when he heard that Rei and Hiei were returning from their training.
“Yes. And how is Yusuke? Faring well, I hope. Raizen left him a lot to deal on.” Mukuro replied. She had adopted both Hiei and her sister, Yukina then, so technically, Kuwabara was her son-in-law. “What about you?”
“Yusuke’s doing great so far. His place looked great actually. And don’t worry, all things are well in his side of Makai. As for me, hard, but managing. The wounds are still fresh, I don’t think it’ll ever heal.” He said quietly. He had not been himself since the death of his wife, and they didn’t even had any children to remind him of her. That was why he also loved his niece, because she looked so much like his dead wife. Rei was adopted by Hiei the day he found her, and so far, things had been faring well in Makai as well.
Makai is now completely rebuilt, and things started to become like the way it was used to. Though securities are now tighter, and they now have combat training as a requirement in every school.
A messenger came in and bowed at Mukuro, “Mukuro-sama. They have arrived.”
“Ah….let them in. I missed my son. I feel like some old lady when I say my son….” She sighed as she joked a little and Kuwabara just laughed. He always thought of her as intimidating but ever since she got her face fixed, she had always been in a lighter mood.
Hiei walked in with Rei by his side, both of them looked like they’ve been through hell and back. Mukuro smiled at the two, no doubt Rei would become just as good as Hiei with the kind of training she had been through. First with Yuusuke, then with Yomi and Kurama, and finally with her own father. She would be great in battle. “Welcome home.”
Rei only bowed in respect but didn’t speak. Hiei, on the other hand, smirked. “I did a good job.”
“What?! What did you do to her? The last time I checked she knew how to smile! What the hell did you do!?” Kuwabara hollered as he looked at Rei’s emotionless face.
“The right training. She had been harsh when she finished training with Yusuke. Too ready to attack without thinking, though he thought her well with guns. Yomi and Kurama made her too gentle. But they did taught her a great deal about tactics and strategies.”
“And you? You taught her what? Rudeness?!”
“Shut up bafoon!”
“Shut up shrimp!”
“You two, stop. Come Rei.”
She walked towards Mukuro silently. “Let me take a good look at you…you’ve grown a lot for over 3 years. Hiei did do a great job. Now go to your room and change into something nice.”
Rei bowed again and then left. Kuwabara pointed at Hiei, “See?! She’s too silent now! Did you cut her tongue!? I, the great Kuwabara will not allow this!”
“I taught her to speak only when necessary. Apparently, you need some training as well.”
“Why you…”
“I said stop. Hiei, you’ve got a message from some of you and Kurama’s former colleagues, it’s in your room.”
Hiei nodded. He gave Kuwabara one last glare then left with a snort. “Stupid idiot.”
“I heard that!”
“You are all in stand by. Don’t do anything unless you receive our next message. Understood?”
Heero looked at the message in his laptop. He then pressed the delete button and said, “Ryoukai.” He walked out of the door to tell the others.
“What? Then, what do we do for now?” Quatre asked.
“I, for one, would love a day-off. We deserved a break you know.”
“There has to be something wrong. OZ had been keeping silent lately, if we are ever going to execute any missions, now is the best opportunity.” Wufei stated calmly. He then looked at the silent pilot.
Trowa nodded in response, but he kept his silence. “It’s too silent lately.”
“Well, if you could talk a little more then it wouldn’t be too silent. You guys are so paranoid.” Duo made a pout at his fellow pilots and settled down at the sofa. “I suggest we enjoy the free time we have now.”
Meanwhile, the scientists who had vowed never to make contact unless necessary finally met in one lab to discuss something.
“This is not good.”
“Yes. OZ and SEELE had merged. And they are starting a new kind of MS.”
“Based on research, it’s called EVAs. It has a different structure, and have this new type of armory that’s in par with the Gundams.”
“Definitely not good. We can’t let the pilots steal the blueprints since there’s only one, and it is in SEELE main HQ, and we have no idea where the main HQ is.”
“Yes, there are far too many HQs and we don’t have the time to search the datas, when they are making complete preparations for the release of those EVAs.”
“We should find something to use against those EVAs.”
“Only another EVA would do. And I don’t think we could make one. The technology we have, though superior, is not enough to make an EVA. Besides, we don’t even have the blueprints.”
“Well, I know a place where there might be the right to technology for an EVA.”
“You mean….”
“Yes.”
“Makai….”
“Correct. Do you remember Kurama and Hiei?”
“Yes. Kurama’s the genius, and Hiei’s one great teacher when it comes to combat skills. I even tried to get him to teach my pilot. He wouldn't’"
“Maybe we could get them to help us.”
“I doubt that. We can’t even contact Makai even if we tried.”
“We could try.”
“So be it.”
Hiei looked at the vid-screen. There was one message and when he clicked the play button, he saw the familiar faces of the scientists.
“Hiei, we sent Kurama the same message and we just want to ask the two of you to do us a favor. Please contact us.”
He frowned and then called Kurama. His image popped up on the screen. “Why?”
“Blunt aren’t you?”
“Well, I am having my lunch with Botan so this better be important.”
“Dr. J just sent me a message. Did you receive one?”
“I did. But I’m eating now, so I’ll just call later. Or you can deal with it. I’m sure you could do that. Ja!” Then the screen went blank all of a sudden.
“Such rudeness.” Hiei muttered, then he contacted Dr. J. He waited for someone to answer the call and was about to turn off the vid-screen when Dr. J’s face came on screen. “Ah..Hiei. You look well.”
“What do you want?” Might as well get things over with. He didn’t had the time to talk to them.
“Still as blunt as ever. But, that is not what we wanted to say. Well, OZ and SEELE have merged.”
“So? We don’t have anything to do with OZ nor SEELE.”
“It’s not that. They’ve created EVAs and we know that you have some blueprints because of Gendo Ikari. We want to ask for your assistance in this.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“We don’t want anything to do with OZ or SEELE, or you.”
Dr. S face came on screen all of a sudden, “We really do need the blueprints at least, and the technology and some supplies. Will you provide us?”
“No. EVAs are far too complicated than what you are all portraying. It’s not like the Gundams, and the parts aren’t at all similar. There are some similarities, but it’s different. Besides, we’ve helped you once in supplying the Gundaniums, we’re not giving now.”
“We really need it. It’s for a good cause.”
“No. You have the Gundams, be satisfied with it.”
Mukuro knocked at the door and then walked in. She saw the faces on the screen and waved at them. “Hello. It’s been a while.”
“Ah…Mukuro-sama.”
“This looks important, what are you all discussing?”
“I don’t like people barging in my room.” Hiei scowled at his mentor and adopted mother.
“I knocked.” Mukuro said non-chalantly and then looked at the screen again. “You were saying?”
“We would like to ask for the assistance of Makai to help us build EVAs, just even one would do.”
“If we do provide help, who would pilot it?”
“We’ll train another.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“Would you help us then?”
“It’s not a decision that I alone would make.”
“We understand. Please consider.”
“I would. Goodbye, we’ll contact you.” She then turned off the screen.
“What was that? We don’t have to meddle. Makai would be in danger if we make the tiniest effort of helping those rebels.”
“I never thought that you would stay away from battle. Maybe having Rei did softened your heart a bit. Nevertheless, arrange a meeting with Yuusuke,Yomi and Kurama. We would discuss a lot of things.”
Hiei only nodded. He was still a subordinate and he had to follow. “Where is Rei?”
“She’s with Kuwabara, sparring. I’d like to congratulate you for a job well done, though I do not like how you passed your silence to her. She got too much of your silence. You even talk a lot more than she does.”
“Hn.”
“Good thing she doesn’t do that too.”
Heero hacked the systems of OZ, despite the fact that their superiors told them to stay put. Everything had looked like everything he had seen before when a new set of data made him pause the scrolling and read it carefully. Duo walked in and saw that Heero was in front of the laptop again. “I thought that they said we should stay put? Man….what the hell is that?! That looks weird….boy….those things…..where did that come from? Where’d OZ get those? I should tell the others….”
Before Duo started to walk out, Quatre already came in. “Tell us what?” Apparently, they were staying at some small house, and there was only one room for all five of them.
“Well…just look. It has rendered me speechless. You should really see it. It’s creepy.”
Quatre moved closer and saw what Heero was reading. It really was creepy, “Where’d they get those? Aren’t the scientists going to tell us something about those?”
Wufei walked in as well, when he saw all three of them hover at something on screen. **What are they doing now?** He looked at the screen and his features darkened, “Aren’t we going to do something about those? They looked dangerous…..and it’s not like any MS I’ve ever seen.”
Trowa followed Wufei inside the room. It seems that something had caught everyone’s attention, and it looked serious. “EVAs.” He stated simply as he looked at the screen.
“You know these?” Quatre asked, surprised.
“No. It says there.” Trowa pointed at the lower edge of the screen, it says EVA.
“Oh…”
Heero continued scanning the datas, which apparently weren’t many. Just descriptions of the new MS, but nothing useful. He tried to hack some more, but there wasn’t any data. He decided that they should just wait for the new mission, and then maybe ask about those EVAs.
End Part 1.