Fortune Favors The Merciful: Chisato's Story [Part 1]
Posted on Sun Feb 23rd, 2025 @ 1:03am by Commander Chisato Nishikigi
1,414 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Younger Years
Location: Koguma jidou yougo shisetsu- Kumamoto, Japan
Timeline: October, 2375
Warning: this post contains mild depictions of animal cruelty that even the writer was not comfortable with; viewer discretion is advised.
"Stop! You're gonna hurt him!"
"Relax, Pipsqueak! He's just about dead anyways!"
Nine-year-old Chisato Nishikigi fought back tears as she struggled against the two older boys holding her back. In front of her stood a third boy, his boot hovering just inches away from a wounded rabbit that was teetering on the brink of life and death. The four of them had come across the rabbit in the woods behind the orphanage, most likely the victim of a fox attack not long before they'd stumbled across it. They had initially assumed it was dead before it's whiskers began to twitch and Chisato realized, miraculously, that he was still clinging onto life. The boys, however, didn't seem to share her sentiment, and had made up their mind that the rabbit was too far gone to save.
"He's hurt! He needs a vet!" Chisato pleaded desperately.
"He's probably going to be dead by the time the vet gets here!" the lead boy argued. "We're better off putting him out of his misery!"
"But you don't know that!" Chisato protested. "Please, just listen to me-!"
The lead boy looked up at her and sneered. "What's the matter, Nishikigi? You chicken?"
"I'm not a-!
"Bawk-bawk-bawk!" the other boys taunted. "Chisato Nishikigi is a chicken!"
"I am not a chicken!" Chisato insisted as she finally wrested herself free of one boy's grasp. She attempted to grab the rabbit with her now-free hand, but the other boy yanked her back and shoved her into a puddle of mud.
As she began to pick herself up off the ground, Chisato could hear the rabbit letting out a terrified shriek- followed by a sickening crack as the lead boy brought his boot down- a noise that would plague her nightmares for years to come. Shock quickly gave way to anger, and in that moment of fury she felt a rush of adrenaline coursing through her veins.
"YOU MONSTEEERRR!!!" she cried as she leapt to her feet and proceeded to rush the lead boy, tackling him to the ground and pummeling him mercilessly. "You cold, heartless RABBIT KILLER!!!!"
She could hear the lead boy screaming as she continued her unrelenting assault, but his cries for mercy might a well have fallen on deaf ears, for so blinded was she in her rage that she couldn't focus on anything other than her fists. And so she kept on punching; till the boy's cries grew hoarse, and his cheeks began to swell; till the blood streaming from his nose began to cake her knuckles; till the caregivers were alerted of the commotion and dragged Chisato away in a fit of hysterics.
The two of them were reprimanded and sent to bed early, but it hardly made a difference to Chisato, as she was already sick to her stomach from the whole ordeal. Admittedly, she had something of a sheltered upbringing for those first nine years of her (then relatively short) life, having been born with a congenital heart defect that left the entire left side of her heart underdeveloped, but the evident disadvantage of not having as much stamina as some of the other kids had only strengthened her resolve to be like them. Her parents had done their part in protecting her from the cruelty that this galaxy had to offer, but now that they were gone, such barbarism was now on full, unfiltered display. To think that someone her age- her age! Just nine short years- would have so much as an inclination to do harm to someone who was so desperately in need of their compassion was disheartening, and it was on nights like these where she felt woefully unprepared for the world, and she missed her parents even more so.
She found herself staring up at the ceiling, tracing the pale moonbeams as they cast their glow from the window nearby, gradually fading in and out as the branches from a nearby tree danced in the crisp autumn breeze. She had given her actions earlier that day some considerable thought- who was right, who was wrong, and what was to be learned from it- and no closer to sleep than she had been 3 hours ago, she decided for her peace of mind that it was time to get these thoughts off of her chest.
Throwing off the covers, she got up off of her Futon and made her way over to the window, taking extra pains not to step too loudly so as not to alert the caregivers. prying open the window, she was greeted with another gust of wind that blew a few strands of hair across her line of vision, which she quickly brushed out of the way. The view of the night sky was partially obstructed by the tree outside, but now that it was autumn and it had shed most of its leaves, it was at least clearer than it had been when she first arrived here. Fortunately for her, she could just make out the faint glimmer of two particularly bright stars that had caught her attention not long after the Breen Attack across the Pacific, not long after she had found out that her parents weren't coming home.
propping her elbows up against the window sill, she leaned forward and gently rested her head upon her forearms. She remained like that for a few minutes, just sitting there and admiring the view, before she finally mustered up the courage to speak.
"Mom; Dad," she began, knowing full well by this point that her parents weren't here, and never would be here again; but at this period in her young life where she had no such parental figure to turn to in times of need, she liked to imagine those two stars, shining brighter than all the rest, as her parents, looking down from up above with an eye and an ear open for their beloved daughter, as they always had in life.
She sighed. "I hope you're still doing alright up there, and that you're looking out for me as you always have... I, uh, I did something that I know you wouldn't be proud of today; a friend of mine- well, I guess he's not really my friend any more after what happened... he went and killed a rabbit that was injured and in need of a vet... I just... I got so angry that he'd have the gall to do something that cruel, that I went, and I hit him, and I hit him, and I-!"
No; stop, Chisato; you're just working yourself up.
She took a deep breath. "It appalls me that there are people out there who can be so cruel without so much as a second thought- people my age who have their entire life in front of them, and yet they don't value other lives? Weren't we supposed to be past that as a society? Haven't we learned that all this senseless killing gets us nowhere? And if not, when will we? And so, I got to thinking tonight, and thought about it real hard- about what you guys would do in this sort of situation. And I think I've decided:"
She glanced up. "Never again is someone going to die because of me; from now on, I'm going make this galaxy a better place, for everyone, so that nobody has to grow up without a Mom and a Dad ever again, because I know that's just the kind of girl you would've wanted me to be."
She smiled. "When I get older and I'm finally out there making the difference, if you're still up there, watching me from afar... I hope you'll be proud of me."
She stood back up. "Thank you again for being there for me, even if you aren't; and have a good night."
And with that, she closed the window and returned to her Futon, where she finally drifted off to sleep.
Posting by:
Chisato Nishikigi
Future Chief Intelligence Officer of the USS Tokyo (NCC-91101)
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