Hikari’s Work-In-Progress Burning Reintro

Hikari knew it went against her Shifu’s teachings, but the Oni’s mind wandered as she went through her daily exercises.  Thinking back to the day she returned to the *Defiance*, a bemused smirk subconsciously graced her face.

*”My old Xena credentials were enough to get me past the Gollar,”* her inner monologue mused, *”and that Kiel manning the sign in table was laughably distracted,”* a slight chuckle escaped her lips as Hikari recalled how eagerly Raebach seemed to want to be somewhere else.

In fact, only Orla had noted the Oni’s return to the ship in spite of Hikari’s attempts to be as quiet about things as possible.  Luckily, after a small chat, the AI was agreeable to stonewalling the info about this as best she could - especially after Hikari explained her reasoning about not wanting to face the others just yet.  Both knew this was only a stop gap measure, and Hikari knew she would have to confront her guilt soon enough, but the wound was to fresh on her heart just yet.  The young Oni also knew that this 'secret' was in name only and the artificial intelligence would, at the bare minimum, give a report to Carter.  However, given recent events, the Fates favored Hikari so far in the others having their own matters to deal with that, to them, were more important than a half remembered face from seven months before.

WIth her room's lighting set to an intensity that most other races would find uncomfortably blinding, but merely reminded Hikari of home, the dull thunks as the increasingly distracted Oni was practicing a meditative form of martial art echoed lightly.  The ironwood log she circled was long burnished by centuries of use by Hikari and others.  As her mind wandered, the echos of her strikes began, though it would take a practiced ear to notice, to falter and fall out of rythm.

Hikari knew deep down she was supposed to be using this meditation to calm her mind and ease her heart into what she needed to do, but something was balking and kept trying to take her mind elsewhere.  Currently, she was flashing to when a cousin who had married into the Mori clan, trying to cheer Hikari up, had taken the younger Oni on a tour of a shipyard she was in charge of operations over.

Unconciously, a small smile emerged onto her face as she the calming, serene personality of her older cousin.  It was this moment of distraction which finally broke things.  With one final strike against the hunk of wood, Hikari felt a distinct, sharp pain shoot through her arm.  Given that she was alone, Hikari allowed a small hiss of pain to escape her lips.  Realizing that her inattention had given her a serious injury.  Frowning, she pushed aside the many memories of her Shifu chiding her in the past during her training.

Cradeling her injured arm, recognizing the sensation of a fractured ulna, Hikari rummaged through her bags for her osteo-regenerator.  Pulling out the medical device once she found it, she aimed it at her injured forearm and, ready to run it over the beam over the whole forearm as she didn't know exactly where the fracture was.  Her scowl when the device instead decided to sputter and die instead of activating was enough to melt lead.

"Vilgehk cheap piece of Command knock off," she swore, the conveniently untranslated Oni curse being mixed into the Kiel.

Squeezing the malfunctioning device in her good hand, she stormed out of her quarters with her injured arm still held tight to her torso.  Hikari knew there were probably more Command and Confederation models stored in ship's medical.  Mindful of her surroundings, not wanting to knock her injured arm against anything or anyone, she nimbly dodged out of Saesa's way as the doctor went racing out of the medbay towards the mess.  Noting the urgency of the Kiel woman's movements, Hikari hovered in the hallway outside the door and, just as predicted, watched as Saesa returned with the trays.

Stepping into the room behind the returning room, Hikari spoke up after Amlai asked Saesa to stand by.

"Will they be expecting this ship to do anything for the injured who are not part of the crew?" the Oni inquired, standing just out of sight on Mihal's bad side, "In any case, you can count on my aide to help if its needed."

Ignoring her fractured ulna, she slipped her malfunctioning osteo-regenerator into a pocket and stood waiting patiently for Amlai's response.