Chapter 19 "Starry Comes, Storm Follows, Shadow Escapes"

Chapter 19
Starry Comes, Storm Follows, Shadow Escapes

“Okay, we’re docked,” Night says cheerfully. He opens the cockpit easily. When he places his foot on the edge, he stops and turns halfway around to reach out his hand. “Here.”

After taking his hand, Katuo and Siko easily leap out of the space aircraft and land on the floor. They look around at the docking area and notice that there are not too many space fighting aircrafts and jets around.

“President Kejinto sent two-thirds of the troops in all of the divisions to defend Planet Earth,” Night answers after he notices Katuo and Siko’s questioning faces. “He wants to make sure that no enemy lands a foot on Earth.”

“I see,” Katuo says simply. He looks up at the high ceiling, as if he recalls something from one of the astronomy textbooks. “Isn't the ISS operating anymore? I thought it was already disposed of in 2024?”

“Oh, it was in the process of being disposed of, but then the Nuclear Wars came… After that… it was completely forgotten,” Night says thoughtfully. He chuckles lightly. “When President Kejinto found out about this station as soon as he took office as the Earth President… he wanted to use it. Although… He never said anything about using it as a battleship or something like that.”

He takes one more glance at the docking area and continues, “He upgraded the spaceship by adding another module to it along with new large hallways and few new rooms with better gravity control - control, weapon, and engineering rooms. Said that was all he needed.”

Tezuka did this? I thought he was just an idiot with a handsome face and a charming smile? Katuo frowns at his own thoughts. 

“Well, then! Please follow me. I will take you to President Kejinto,” Night says almost cheerfully.

While they are walking through the hallway, Katuo and Siko cannot help but notice that every person, soldier or not, stops and gives salutes at Colonel Night Kurosawa.

After a few turns, Night stops at the door with a large ‘conference’ sign. “We are here.”

He places his palm on the touch screen panel next to the door. When the panel announces that the access has been granted, the door easily slides open.

“Tezuka…” Katuo says softly but he freezes up when he realizes that his father is not alone.

He and Siko can feel every stare on themselves in the room. Those are the Generals of the Space Force of United Earth… excluding General Ryu Mitsukai of the First Division.

“Mr. President.” Night gives him a quick salute. “They asked me to bring them here.”

Tezuka rolls up his sleeves. He had lost both his suit jacket and his favorite tie sometime ago. He does not back from the table yet, but his hands still remain on it. A frown on his face lightens up a little. “Well then… they came here, after all? Why am I not surprised?”

“Colonel Kurosawa, can you please return Mr. President back to Earth?” asks one of the Generals. “It’s too dangerous for him to be here.”

“How many times have I told you? Who is supposed to look over the First Division? General Mitsukai is still missing.” Tezuka snaps at him, only to receive a mumbling ‘Yes, sir.’ He rubs his throbbing forehead. “Volesmash brought more troops than we expected. Dammit!”

“What is the story with the Volesmashians?” Katuo asks. “Does Ryu have anything to do with them?”

“Generals, fifteen-minute break.” Tezuka takes his coffee cup and walks out of the conference room into the hallway. “Night, call your medical team here. We still have hundreds of wounded soldiers in the medical cabin. We don’t have a sufficient number of medics.”

“Yes, sir!” Night turns to leave him alone with the young gods.

“As for you, Katuo and Siko…” Tezuka keeps walking. “Come with me.”

Katuo and Siko follow him into an office room. Tezuka helps himself by sitting on the leather love sofa and places his mug on the coffee table.

“Don’t stand around. Sit.” Tezuka nods his head, watching the teenagers quickly taking their seats on the couch. “We have fifteen minutes before I have to get back to the conference room. The Generals seriously suck without Ryu or me, after all.”

Katuo raises an eyebrow as Tezuka takes a sip of his coffee. This is not like Tezuka to say that. At all.

“Are you ok?” Siko asks nervously. He continues when he does not get Tezuka’s answer, “Is it… My dad?”

Katuo swears that he has just seen a tiny bolt suddenly sparking around Tezuka’s clenching fist but decides not to say anything.

“Ryu…” Tezuka looks away from Siko. “He gave himself up. The Volesmashian troop had one of his troops cornered… So, in order to save their lives, Ryu handed himself over to Volesmash. I don’t know if he is alive or not, but… I know for sure he is on the way to Planet Volesmash.”

Katuo stands up fast. “What the hell are we standing around for? We have to go, then!”

“That is the problem.” Tezuka takes out a crumbled paper and places it on the coffee table. “When his troops came back… They gave this to me.”

Katuo opens up the crumbled paper and reads it out loud,

“President Kejinto,

Please don’t follow me.

General Mitsukai.”

“Dad…” Siko is now tearing up. “We can’t save him now?”

“There’s more,” Tezuka says.

Katuo continues, “P.S. Starry comes, Storm follows, Shadow escapes. We shall be together once again.”

“What does it mean?” Siko asks in confusion.

“They were our codenames after we left the U.S. Army and joined the Dark Team.” Tezuka crosses his arms. “My codename was Storm. Ryu’s codename was Shadow…”

“Starry was Sky’s codename, right?” Katuo asks, earning Tezuka’s surprise. He answers as soon as Tezuka is about to open his mouth to question, “We saw him when Jikan showed the timeline to us.”

Tezuka’s icy blue eyes soften at the memories of his former comrade.

“But Sky is dead, isn’t he?” Siko asks softly, playing with his fingers nervously. “What was Dad trying to say?”

“I better get back to the conference room.” Tezuka gets up from the couch, taking his mug. Right before he places his hand on the touch screen panel, he turns back to Siko and Katuo with a small smirk on his face. “I know you’re worried. But I believe in Ryu. I know for sure he’s alive and still kicking ass.”

Siko smiles a little after Tezuka leaves the room.

<3<3<3

“Mr. President, I was surprised when they called me Sky, you know? It reminded me of the first time I met you and General Mitsukai.” Night chuckles lightly. He has caught up with Tezuka when he sees him heading for the conference room after he finished calling for the rest of his medical troops. “I thought you said that you never told them anything about him?”

“It was Jikan,” Tezuka says simply. He turns to Night, taking in his entire appearance. He frowns. “You really look just like Sky. Only if he were...” He cannot finish his sentence.

“I’m sorry.” Night looks away.

“Hmph.” Tezuka turns away from Night and is about to place his palm on the conference room’s panel when Night stops him.

“I’m jealous.”

“What?”

“Of Medic Skylar Lawrence. General Mitsukai and you… You guys were always talking about him,” Night says softly. “About how great and caring he was as a medic. But I’m not mad at you… It was because of you, General Mitsukai, and Medic Lawrence… I worked hard and got to where I wanted to be. I’m now serving not only as Colonel but also as a medic to the world’s greatest leader, you know?”

“I am not --”

“Because you are President Kejinto,” Night says firmly, his fists clenching in anger. “So… Why the hell are you still being depressed and moping around here, then?! If you want to rescue General Mitsukai so badly, then fucking go!”

Tezuka stares at him with a surprised look on his face. After a few seconds, he smirks with a little amused look on his face. “Well in that case… Come with me!”

<3<3<3

Katuo has been staring at Ryu’s writing for the past ten minutes. He mumbles at himself, repeating one more time, “Starry comes, Storm follows, Shadow escapes…”

“What does Sky have to do with this? What did my dad think about while he was writing?” Siko asks before he rubs his face furiously. “Ugh! This is frustrating!”

He glances at the white door. “I wonder what Night is doing right now? He should have finished calling his medical team by now…”

“Night!” Katuo exclaims, startling Siko. “Starry is Night! Oh my Cosmos, why didn’t I think of that?!”

“N-Night? What are you talking about?” Siko tilts his head a little in confusion.

“He looks like Sky. If Night is here, then --” Katuo is interrupted by loud alarms. “Now what?!”

Siko opens the door out of curiosity when he hears loud footsteps running down the hallway. “What is happening?”

One of the soldiers stops briefly and yells in panic, “Mr. President and the Colonel just took one of the space jets! We are ordered to get them back no matter what!”

“W-wait!” Siko cries when the soldier runs off joining others. He turns to Katuo. “Where is your father going? Back to Earth?”

“No, that’s not it.” Katuo shows the paper to Siko. “Starry is Night. He looks like Sky a lot. See? Starry comes... Night came! Then, Storm follows... Tezuka is going to follow… something! And then, Shadow escapes... That’s when Ryu will escape from the enemy and join Tezuka and Night!”

“They are going after my father, then! We have to go right now!” Siko exclaims, tagging Katuo’s black shirt a little.

They quickly take off running through the large hallways, passing the rushing soldiers. They do not even realize that they are faster than the soldiers who are completely in awe of their speeds. While the soldiers know that Siko is the child of General Mitsukai and Katuo is the child of President Kejinto, they wonder if the sons have such great powers just like the fathers?

<3<3<3

By the time Katuo and Siko get to the docking area, one of the space jets is already gone. Tezuka and Night have left the International Space Station without any reinforcements at all.

Katuo recalls that Tezuka had been attending the gym as well as martial arts classes before he became the seventh President of Planet Earth. After that, Tezuka was always surrounded by the bodyguards except when he was with his family. The media asked him about it, and Tezuka said with, of course, a charming smile, “I like to spend alone time with my family. Why should my bodyguards butt into my personal life?” And then, as always, the reporters -- both males and females -- could not help but either faint, sigh almost lovingly, or aww’d.

Siko and Katuo have never seen their fathers fighting for real. Sure, they had seen them training, but not for combating or fighting. They begin to wonder how powerful Tezuka and Ryu actually are.

All they know about them is from the history books and classes. Tezuka used to be the world’s fastest soldier, and Ryu used to be the world’s best sniper with the long range like an owl’s eyes. Katuo and Siko have never cared until just now.

“I know you’re worried. But I believe in Ryu. I know for sure he’s alive and still kicking ass.”

Siko never had any idea that Tezuka was so positive about anything. Sure, Tezuka was always optimistic but he was always realistic even if the outcomes might have turned out to be negative.

Siko stops running with an unusual frown on his face. “Katuo… I feel so bad...”

“What?” Katuo turns to him after stopping as well.

“I… I had never cared about what my father did in the past. Our friends… or at least, classmates and even teachers… Every time they hang out with us or even just see us at school…  it’s our fathers that they always talked about. I was sick of it.” Siko is now kicking at the floor. “I’ve never thought about, you know, fighting at all. Fighting to save the planet… To save the universe. Fighting… to save someone… like my father. You know, it’s scary.”

Katuo places his hand on Siko’s shoulder. He half-smirks, “I’m scared too, Siko. But we are stronger now. Tezuka and Ryu might have been the heroes of the Earth in the past… but today we are the Gods of the universe.”

Well, well… here you are.

Siko and Katuo freeze at Hikyou-sama’s amused voice.