Tightrope Dancer, Stage 1
Ao no Kiseki Volume Seven
Kai discovers that the data hasn't been deleted, it has merely been locked away. He works to remove the multiple locks and traps. When he clears the last one, the missing data blasts onto the main screen, followed by the repeated message "we meet again." Sanshirou immediately urges Kai to run to the shuttle to escape. The ship was rigged so that the flammable cargo will explode. Sanshirou stays behind for a few minutes, then joins Kai and zooms away just before the ship self-destructs.
Though the shuttle is pelted by debris, the Jules Verne moves in to shelter it with the larger ship's shields. Kai and Sanshirou dock and hear from Lord that Sanshirou succeeded in transmitting a good portion of the hidden data to the Jules Verne before the abandoned ship exploded. Sanshirou sets about repairing the damaged shuttle.
When Sandra and Lord are left alone on the bridge, they discuss Sanshirou and Kai's future. The two still haven't registered as Buddies. Sandra wishes they would do so before it's too late; she's convinced that they're perfect for each other, and she would rather work with them on the return trip than random strangers. Lord tries to comfort her that there is enough time left, though he maintains that whether they register or not is a decision they must make for themselves. Gai, for his part, still believes that the two need to be separated as soon as possible so that he can give Kai appropriate psychological treatment. Kai continues to stall, saying that he is not quite finished with the task he needs to accomplish.
Three days later, in the middle of the night, Sanshirou visits Kai's room. He has been working on the shuttle without resting all this time to get it functional, and though he needs a break he insists he can't get to sleep. Consumed with tension and frustration, he pins Kai on the bed and gives in to his wild emotions to the point that he even buries his fangs in Kai's neck. Kai is angry at first, but he soon recognizes Sanshirou's need and offers to wear him into exhaustion so that he can sleep.
However, the late night visit turns out to have been a ruse to wear *Kai* into exhaustion. Sanshirou knocks the other crewmembers unconscious and is about to sneak out in the damaged shuttle when Kai shows up and pulls a gun on him. Kai is furious that Sanshirou would abandon them, but Sanshirou refuses to explain other than saying that there's someone he needs to rescue. Sanshirou uses his fighting skills to take Kai's gun, but he's surprised to find that it isn't loaded. Kai takes advantage of his momentary distraction to zap him with a powerful empathic shock.
Sanshirou awakens in his own room, arms bound, facing the rest of the crew. Gai is holding a meeting to decide whether to try Sanshirou officially as a criminal. His actions could lead to thirty years in prison and removal of all of his elite qualifications. Kai had discovered that Sanshirou had actually been spending his time on the shuttle decoding a mysterious encrypted message from the ship that had self-destructed. Gai surprises the other members of the crew by offering Sanshirou a deal: if he hands over the code, the means of decryption, and information about the group that uses such a code, he will let Sanshirou go on his unexplained mission--as long as Sanshirou promises to return and give a full report when he is finished.
Kai explodes at the suggestion, shouting that Sanshirou cannot be allowed to leave. Even Lord and Sandra harbor doubts about the wisdom of such a plan. Gai agrees to postpone the decision for a day to allow them to talk about it among themselves, and he will abide by the majority decision. They drug Sanshirou to sleep for the duration and close him in his room with the lock welded shut.
Kai invites Gai to his room to discuss Sanshirou's fate. Kai refuses to budge on the issue. He does not want Sanshirou to leave Jules Verne, no matter how many precautions Gai says he will take. Kai pulls up his trump card on the computer: he has researched Sanshirou's past and has a list of crimes Sanshirou has committed. As Gai inspects the list, he notices that all of them are from when Sanshirou had worked as a mercenary during a war and the side employing him had wound up losing. If his side had won, he would have been a war hero. In these cases, however, the winning side branded him a criminal. Either way, he was just doing his job as a soldier; calling his actions crimes is simply a matter of interpretation. Knowing this, Kai threatens to send the criminal record to the Federation government.
Gai is appalled that Kai would do such a thing. He finally works out the Lunan's motivation. The combined crimes would give Sanshirou a sentence of at least 150 years. It has become the policy of the government that when a person's crimes call for a sentence longer than the average human's lifetime, the person is put into coldsleep under guard for the duration. The criminals' coldsleep capsules are located deep underground in the Lunar Prison, which is run by Kai's father. In a twisted way, Kai is ensuring that Sanshirou will never leave him. Kai uses this criminal record to force Gai's hand, saying that he will submit the report if Gai tries to let Sanshirou leave the ship.
After leaving the stunned Gai, Kai wanders into the ship's garden. There he finds Lord, who reminisces about Sanshirou's numerous visits to nap, pick fruit, and climb trees. He knows that Kai cannot forgive Sanshirou for trying to leave, but he provides a different interpretation. Lord speculates that Sanshirou didn't really betray them--he didn't put them and the mysterious person he wants to save on a scale and choose the one he valued more. On the contrary, he values them so highly that he doesn't want to drag them into what is sure to be a dangerous situation. Kai might think his refusal to explain his reasoning to the Jules Verne crew is a sign that Sanshirou doesn't trust them, but Lord believes it's more a sign that he *does* trust them. Sanshirou trusts that they can get along without him, while the person in trouble cannot. Lord concludes by speculating that Sanshirou has grown up so saturated with loneliness that he doesn't even know what loneliness is...like a person who never has to think about oxygen because he has always had it. Sanshirou can't understand the loneliness that the crew will feel if he leaves because being alone is so natural to him.
Kai exits the garden and wanders the ship's corridors, lost in thought. He wonders if he is doing the wrong thing. He ponders the situation from many angles, trying to come up with an excuse that will convince him that he is right. He finally realizes that he is so set on his course of action because he cannot bear to let Sanshirou go off without him.
Sanshirou awakens at the appointed time and is surprised to find that he is no longer bound. Gai announces that the final decision has been made. Kai reveals that the crew has agreed to let Sanshirou go...under certain conditions. The first is that he has to register officially as Kai's Buddy. The second is that he has to take Kai along with him. Sanshirou explodes in protest, but Kai won't change his mind, and he has Sanshirou's criminal record as blackmail. With all of his arguments countered, Sanshirou has no choice but to agree.
Kai and Sanshirou register as Buddies and set off together into a war zone.
End Volume 7