Chapter 88: 'Only Too Human.'

Hero had been sitting at the base of the entry hall stairs staring despondently at his shoes for several minutes. He been siting there far longer he supposed, lost in thought uncertain of his next move.

His conversation with the queen had raised far more questions than it had answered. To say nothing of the considerable inner turmoil it had stirred up!

The same questions had been rolling through his mind, over and over again since the Queen had made it her business to be elsewhere and no answerers seemed to be forth coming.

His mother was alive? What did the empress know about his mother?

Like it or not there was no conceivable way for him to pry the answers from her 'august' person anytime soon. Those facts and his on going worrying over Ryo-Oki caused a kind of gloom to settle over the entirely of his being. Numbly now he took again to regarding the door, mentally willing Lady Funaho to return and answer. Hero truly had no ideal of what to do next.

"You!" A voice said harshly to his immediate right. Glancing sullenly over, his eye's widened ever so slightly at the sight of Kiyone framed by the living room doorway, glaring at him with something akin to murder in her eyes!

Key had withstood perhaps ten minute watching the dissection of her blaster before decided she might mount another scouting expedition to see what else might turn up. A few moments glancing at the broken TV however had convinced there was no covert way of dismembering or transporting the pieces effectively. Her mind had turned automatically then to the downstairs bath room among other 'stops' on her current excursion. As she had rounded the corner however, the sight of Hero siting on the stairs had sent her blood pressure into somewhere near low orbit.

"Give me one good reason not to paint this hallway with the back of your skull!" She glowered menacingly to which Hero gazed back for a long moment blinking several times.

"I have no ideal what you are raving about detective." He replied, coldly dismissive, in light of his current internal turmoil.

In response Kiyone took the four require steps necessary to bring her directly in front of him.

"Don't play dumb!" She snarled, both hands balled into fist at her sides. "You set us up!"

Hero must have sat there several additional seconds staring at Kiyone dumbfounded. Noting her standing before him like a gunfighter. Despite Hero's rather intense dislike of the woman, as her remark registered, he felt his jaw go slack.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Hero mouthed, now utterly confused.

"Isn't it just 'damn convenient' how you managed showing up less than a day before these goons arrived?" Key asked hotly. Tossing her head the general direction of the hall.

Hero's eyes drifted briefly noting appearance of several Knights curiously glancing into the corridor at the commotion, from the kitchen and the living room behind angry police woman.

His gaze then returned to hers, rapidly moving from surprised to outrage. Rising to his feet toe to toe with Kiyone.

"You! are out of your fucking mind!" He yelled slightly upwards into her face. Suddenly painfully aware of their difference in height. Seething they stood for a few instants, eyes locked.

From somewhere in the corridor, Key caught something ... Just a faint noise. Something which sounded like a chuckle. At any other moment Kiyone would have identified and dismissed it. Probably, a response from one of the Knights witnessing the encounter.

Under the current circumstance, her friends and home threatened the effect was akin to gasoline on an already red hot ember. Eyes blazing, giving into her most violent impulse Kiyone grabbed. Plucking the astonished diplomat off his feet by the lapels.

"I'M GONNA TO POP YOUR HEAD LIKE A ZIT!" She swore.

The exclamation wasn't fully formed from her mouth, as Tenchi and Ayeka were suddenly at her sides!

"KEY!" Tenchi yelled grabbing her arm. "Let him go!"

All the various frustrations of the last few hours seemed to have 'built up' to the point where Kiyone didn't immediately respond. Even enraged, a portion of her mind reconstructed the sound of the front door sliding open behind her only seconds before.

"Constable!" Ayeka gasped, latching on to Kiyone's right arm. "Control yourself!"

For all the effect the princesses body weight were having, Ayeka may as well have been hanging from the pull up bar at the training ground.

In the seconds it'd taken Tenchi and Ayeka to grab Kiyone, Hero overcame enough of the shock to place

backs of his wrists against the insides of hers.

With a grunt and the most horrifying of ease he shoved Key's arms apart, violently breaking her grip.

With her hands no longer anchored, the combined body weight of Tenchi and Ayeka caused Kiyone to stumble backwards more towards Tenchi side of the hall. Astonishment shorting some of her anger, Key found her self gaping at Hero.

"Stop acting crazy!" Tenchi rasped directly into her ear, while no less surprised he stared at the diplomat as Hero was angrily straitening his jacket.

"Lady." He growled, attempting to compose himself. "You got a serious attitude problem!"

"What kind of freak are you?" Kiyone demanded. It wasn't everyday she had her grip just broken like that!

Hero simply glared, being a trained diplomat, he considered himself above anything childish as name-calling, but god! This woman sorely tempted him!

"Your not," Ayeka began, pausing upon realizing how rued the question she was about to ask. Hero spared a glance her way.

"Human." She finished lamely.

"Not completely your highness." Hero told her tritely. "My mother was Jurian."

"BULLSHIT!" Kiyone snapped. Making a halfhearted attempt to dislodge Tenchi from her arm. Brute physical strength after all wasn't a hallmark of a Jurian birthright.

"Would you cool your jets?" Tenchi snapped irritably refusing to let go.

"You're probably a spy you little weasel!" Kiyone grated.

"What?" Ayeka looked at her oddly.

"Don't you think its damn convenient this asshole shows up a day before your mother?" Kiyone snarled.

There was a slight pause as everyone absorb that pronouncement.

"Probably scoped out the location so the imperial guard could just waltz in here!" She added angrily.

"Your insane!" Hero snapped.

"Constable?" Ayeka sighed. "My mother already knows the layout of the house and property."

"I still don't trust him!" Key bristled after a moments glaring at Hero.

"That's because you don't like him Key!" Tenchi moaned tiredly.

"The feeling is mutual!" Hero shot.

"And you shut up!" Tenchi told him. "You're not exactly helping!"

"SHE STARTED IT!" Hero snapped, then eyes widening instantly remembering whom he was talking to. "My prince." He added contritely.

"You're both acting like children!" Ayeka breathed. Kiyone just stared. Talk about role reversal! Unwilling however to just let it go she allowed her glare to slide back over finding Hero had no trouble meeting it harshly.

"Had it ever occurred to you?" He asked her. "They gassed me along with the rest of the damn house?"

"So you say!" Kiyone snapped.

"It's the truth!" Hero volleyed. "I woke up in a cell on their damn landing craft!"

"He's lying!" Kiyone snarled. "He wearing the same clothes he was yesterday!"

"What's that got to do... ?" Hero asked bewildered as Key curtly indicated her white robe.

"They didn't strip search you!"

"Probably the best thrill you've had in years!" He goaded. In response Kiyone jolted forward almost pulling her arm clear of Tenchi.

"You little sack!" She growled.

"WOULD THE TWO OF YOU STOP!?" Tenchi yelled getting a firmer grip.

"I mean it! Key! You're not making any sense!"

"What reason would my mother have to send a spy?" Ayeka asked.

Kiyone drew a sharp breath about to reply.

"Uh..." She mildly grunted. Whatever it was she was about to say however died in her throat as in spite of herself she actually starting to think it through. The look on her face must have spoken volumes however because Hero firmly nodded.

"There!" He huffed indignantly, gesturing towards the princess. "You see!"

"And you shut up!" Ayeka snapped. "I never said I was on your side!"

"But!" Hero gasped. Then looking slowly from Ayeka to Tenchi and back suddenly slumped.

"Yes, your highness." Ayeka sighed as Tenchi leaned around Kiyone.

"Can I let go of you now?" He asked meaningfully.