Jurai no Nozomi: Snippet "Nozomi and Shigure (2)"
Another of my experimental scribblings regarding Nozomi and Shigure playing "Survivor" as they attempt to work together to stay alive.

---

"Nozomi?"

It was Shigure who broke the silence, and Nozomi shifted her aching body into a more comfortable position, shooting him a quizzical look.

"Yes?"

"What's the Earth like?"

"The Earth?" Nozomi looked startled. "I didn't think you cared about such heathen worlds, Shigure. I thought it was all beneath you."

"But we're stuck here and I'm trying to make conversation. You don't have to be rude to me at every single opportunity, even if you were raised on a backwards planet."

"Oh." Nozomi sighed. "I see."

"Is it like Jurai?"

"Yes and no." Nozomi contemplated. "I mean, they're both beautiful. But Jurai's beauty....well, it's like painting. Do you know what I mean?"

"Not at all." Shigure admitted. "But I'm not surprised, since you don't always make a lot of sense."

"You're impossible." Nozomi grimaced. "What I mean is that when you set out to paint a portrait of something - of a landscape, for example, you know where you want everything to be. Every tree, every house, every flower - it's all accounted for, to give the picture the best overall impression. Everything is planned - nothing is left to chance."

"I see..." Shigure said slowly. "And you think Jurai is like that?"

"Yes." Nozomi nodded. "Everywhere you look is nature and beauty, but it's calculated beauty. It wasn't accidental - it's like Tsunami designed her planet to look a certain way, and her people followed her directions. Nothing is out of place. It's all part of a big master plan."

"And the Earth?"

"The Earth is...more like when you sit down and just take a brush and paint whatever comes into your head or your heart first." Nozomi looked thoughtful. "You don't stop and think about it, or plan it. You just do it. But still, at the end, everything comes together and it looks right. Earth is like that. Nobody sat down and planned how it was going to look, but it's right, anyway."

Shigure was silent for a moment, digesting this, and Nozomi shot him a questioning look.

"Well? You did ask."

"I did." Shigure pursed his lips. "But I never heard anyone describe places as pictures before. It sounds a little strange...but not in a bad way."

"Well, my father is an artist, and so is my grandfather." Nozomi pinkened. "I draw and paint a little too, but I'm nowhere near as good as them. My Grandfather designed our house when he was still in high school, you know. That's still what he does for a living - he designs houses for other people and he's really good at his job. So much so, they won't even think of letting him leave or retire. And father studied art in college. He finished with top marks, although most of the time he's tied up with diplomatic Earth-Jurai relations, now. He still draws, though, sometimes. When I was five or six, he painted a picture of Mother and I - completely from his memory. I love that picture. It captures both of us so well."

"And you? What do you draw?"

"Whatever I feel like doing." Nozomi replied. "I guess I paint a lot more like the Earth - it's random and I don't know what I will paint until it's done. Sometimes I try and paint people, but I don't seem to have Dad's way of seeing into their heart and soul. And I paint the mountains and the hills where we live. I love those hills, especially in the summer. All the life and the flowers and everything...it's the one time of the year I always feel free."

"You're always free." Shigure objected. Nozomi shook her head.

"Not during school term." She responded. "I have to study, else I get bad grades or fail. And then Father is disappointed in me, and I end up spending my summer doing re-take work. I hate that. I only just scraped through my last exams again, and that's how it usually is. School is like prison, except for my friends. I'm not free then."

"I've never been to school." Shigure admitted.

"Never?" Nozomi looked surprised. Shigure shook his head.

"Princes have tutors." He said, and Nozomi thought she heard a wistful note in his tones. "Large classes are not proper for the son of the Empress."

"But what about making friends? That's the best part of school." Nozomi frowned. Shigure snorted.

"Friends aren't something you make, Nozomi. They're things that are foisted on you to keep this or that political peace." He said frankly. "Princes don't have friends, they have contacts and associates. I thought you understood that."

"Well, it sure explains why you're so obnoxious to be around, sometimes." Nozomi frowned. "If your friends have no choice but to hang out with you, I guess it doesn't matter how you treat them."

"I'm not obnoxious to be around." Shigure protested. "You just don't have any manners at all, and you're rude and crazy and you do foolish things like get us stuck on remote, abandoned planets!"

"Yeah, I know. I heard you the first time and it's getting old." Nozomi sighed, leaning back against the wall as she did so.

"What about your friends, then?" Shigure asked. "What are they like?"

"They're people I like spending time with." Nozomi looked startled at the question. "My best friend is a girl called Hanako - we've been friends ever since we were three or four. Her grandfather and mine work together, and that's how we met, sort of. Her grandfather brought her to the Masaki shrine and she wandered off because she was bored with all the grown up chat. I was playing with Ryo Ohki in the cherry blossom and she found me. We wound up becoming friends right away...and even now, we still are."

"I see." There was that wistful note again, and Nozomi sent him a sidelong glance.

"Are you jealous?" She asked innocently. "Because I have friends and you don't?"

"I'm not jealous of you." Shigure bristled.

"You are." Nozomi said matter-of-factly. "Because I come from a world you consider backwards, but I can still do the thing you can't. I can wield father's sword, which means I could be Queen over you and you hate that. You want to be Crown Prince a whole lot, I know that. And I don't want to be in line for Jurai's crown, but they'd still offer it to me before you as things stand. You can't stand that thought, can you?"

"I guess it's not something that appeals to me, no." Shigure sighed. "Because you have no idea how Jurai is or what people expect of a King or the court. I've attended the Council once or twice, and I've been trained in my swordplay by one of my mother and my aunt's most trusted associates...he tells me things, as well. I know more than you do about everything Juraian. Just because you have Tsunami's magic already wouldn't mean you'd be a better leader than me."

"Actually, I agree with you." Nozomi said pensively.

"You do?" Shigure looked surprised. Nozomi nodded.

"I don't want to be Empress, ever." She replied emphatically. "It sounds really really boring, if you want to know the truth. I know Father didn't want to be King of Jurai, and I know why, now. There's way too much nonsense involved, and your court is full of stuck up people. Just like you are, Shigure. You're one of them and I don't like fake people. I don't like people who suck up to me because I'm Lord Tenchi's daughter or who badmouth me because Ryoko the Space Pirate is my mother. I don't like any of that."

"I am not stuck up." Shigure snapped. "You don't realise how important Jurai's social hierarchy really is."

"No, I don't, because it makes no sense." Nozomi said bluntly. "My mother is an amazing woman, Shigure. She's saved this planet more than once, and she is a true blooded descendant of your stupid first Emperor, even if her connection is through Prince Kagato. Her grandmother was Lady Aiko, just like yours is Lord Haru, so she's no worse than you, really."

"Kagato-dono was a bastard." Shigure reminded her. "And your Grandmother, Lady Washu, is not Juraian born."

"Does that matter, though?" Nozomi asked.

"The illegitimacy thing, yes." Shigure said wearily. "You don't get it, do you? Tsunami's gift is pure, and Kagato was illegitimate. He used his bastard magic to bring this planet to it's knees. Do you need any more evidence as to why the illegitimate royal lines should always be ignored? Kagato-dono mixed his Jurai power with base dark arts from whichever hell-hole planet his father originated from. If you ask me, there's no better example of why bastard children are cut out of the succession."

"Meaning me, I suppose." Nozomi remarked. Shigure hesitated, then he sighed, shaking his head.

"No, because you're not." He said reluctantly. "Regardless of what your mother's side of the family is, you're a direct, unbroken descendant through Lord Azusa, Lord Yosho and Lord Tenchi. On that side of your family tree, your connection is flawless...back to the King that I'm named for and beyond. And your parents were married when you were born - even if your mother's were not and your grandfather's neither. Since your claim is through Lord Tenchi's line, you qualify."

"Pity." Nozomi sighed. "I almost wish Mother and Father had waited until after I was born, then, if that's the case."

"What a thing to say!" Shigure appeared shocked, and Nozomi shrugged, wincing as she jarred the pain in her side.

"At least then people would leave me alone and stop trying to make me make decisions I don't want to make." She said quietly. "I'm sixteen, Shigure. Not even seventeen until the end of next month. And yet I've been pulled into all of this, told I'm a Princess and more, I could be Queen of Jurai if anything happened to Lady Ayeka before you managed to find your magic. They talk about things like marriage and the Jurai power and political stability. I don't even have a boyfriend! I don't want a husband! And I sure as hell don't want a husband who hates me and looks down on me because he hasn't bothered to get to know my mother for the person she really is!"

Shigure stared at her, momentarily robbed of speech by her impassioned words. Then he frowned, shaking his head.

"I don't want to get married, either." He admitted. "I hate all of this fuss just as much as you do. It's not just about you. Ever since I turned seventeen, Father's been looking for prospective brides for me. I've met about a thousand eligible women from within Jurai's boundaries and beyond - influential children from ambitious families who'd like to see their progeny on the throne. It happened with my own parents. My Grandfather Imada negotiated my parents' marriage with my Grandfather Jurai. Mother and Father were pretty much left without a choice in things, and I hate that I'm going to end up the same way."

"I didn't know that Lady Ayeka's marriage had been arranged." Nozomi was surprised. "I thought she and your father were genuinely close."

"They are." Shigure acknowledged. "They've been lucky. It worked in their case. But I'm just fed up with the whole thing, that's all."

Nozomi pursed her lips, contemplating.

"I guess that must suck pretty badly." She acknowledged at length. "That you're going to be marshalled into one or other of these matches whether you like it or not."

"Right." Shigure agreed. "At least you have a choice. When - if - we ever get back to Jurai, you still have the option to go home. Your family have been insistant from the start that this isn't their choice, it's up to you. I wish I had that. If it were up to me, right now I'd declare for bachelorhood and just get on with my life without all the bother of women and matrimony."

"For the sake of Jurai, you might want to consider it." Nozomi told him acidly. "I can't imagine what your poor wife is going to have to deal with, when your father finally finds a suitable sucker. She'll have to put up with a lot."

"Well, it's hardly surprising you don't have a boyfriend, given your tendency to shoot first and ask later." Shigure retorted. "So I guess that makes you no better than me!"

"I don't go around using my magic on the Earth. Not in public - people would freak out." Nozomi objected. "And that's why I haven't...I don't have a boyfriend. Because it's just too complicated."

"I don't see why."

"I'm...not as in control of my magic as I seem, sometimes." Nozomi glanced at her hands. "Especially when my emotions are riding high. So when I lose my temper, I'm much more prone to flaring up and something might explode. Equally, I guess, if I let my feelings go the other way..."

She trailed off, and Shigure snorted in amusement.

"That would give your beau quite a shock, I see." He said drolly. "Although you're only sixteen. I don't imagine that you'd be doing much to raise that kind of feeling."

"The Earth isn't like Jurai." Nozomi said simply. Shigure raised an eyebrow, and Nozomi shook her head.

"I don't mean like that." She responded quickly. "But, well, it's all right to hold hands in public, or to kiss someone you really like, without people getting upset or calling you names or whatever. Those things are okay. People don't mind."

"Really?" Shigure looked surprised. "Without even speaking to your parents, or anything like that?"

"Right." Nozomi agreed. "But it doesn't really matter in my case. Mother and Father wouldn't mind me having a boyfriend if...if I wanted one. But I can't risk it, because I've worked so hard to fit in with everyone else and be like them. I don't want to give myself away, so I guess I just...don't. The mountains are the only place I can really be myself - and use the magics I've inherited from both sides of my family without being found out. That's why I love the summer so much. I have the freedom to roam the hills all day, if I want to. I love that."

"You're a strange kind of Princess, you know that?"

"And you're a strange kind of Prince."

There was silence between them for a moment, then Shigure shot her a sheepish glance.

"I'm sorry I insulted your Lady Mother." He added. "Bastard born or not, it wasn't a gentlemanly thing to do, and especially not to a cousin. I'm sorry."

"It's all right." Nozomi looked taken aback at this sudden U-turn. "You don't know her, so you don't know what she's really like. And she doesn't like Jurai, so I guess you're not the only one there who has a bad opinion of her. I know that your Great Uncle was fond of her, in some way or another, because Father said that he was the one who saw to Mother's pardon, originally. And I know she likes Lady Sasami and Lady Ayeka, most of the time. But a lot of your family she's wary of - especially your grandfather. I guess maybe the suspicion just runs both ways."

"I guess so." Shigure nodded. He paused, then,

"Do you think they're looking for us?"

"Considering the trouble we've caused, I wouldn't blame them if they didn't bother." Nozomi said darkly. "But yes, I think so. And I'm going to get into so much trouble, too, when Mother gets a hold of me."

"It can't be worse than what Father will say to me." Shigure looked bleak. "It'll be the mother, father, Emperor and Tsunami-kami-sama of all lectures, believe me. He has very definite ideas on how a Prince of Jurai should behave. Running across space in a stolen ship - however accidentally - is not really going to go down well."

"It was my fault, though. Tell him that."

"I didn't have to come aboard, and I didn't have to stay when you said you were going to fly the thing." Shigure shook his head. "So it's not all your fault and it wouldn't be right to let you take all the blame."

He sighed.

"Besides, as the Crown Prince, Father will blame me." He added resignedly. "I'm the one who lives on Jurai, knows the rules, yada yada. You're the stranger - he'll forgive you on account of your ignorance of Juraian customs. I won't get such an easy ride."

"Well, right now I'll take the lecture, if it means we can go home." Nozomi admitted. "I don't like this planet, wherever it is. And I don't want to spend the rest of my life here, not really."

"Me either." Shigure acknowledged. "But I'm not sure right now what we can do about it, except sit tight and stay safe...and hope they find us sooner rather than later."

He eyed her keenly.

"How's your side?"

"Sore, but I'll live." Nozomi pulled a face. "It's not going to heal so quickly because we're constantly on the move, but I'm all right."

"Are you sure?"

"I said I'll live. I'll be fine."