[Episode 125056] [Episode 125056]Things started to go downhill when Michiru leapt to the roof of the wagon again, bearing the former owner and operator of the now-defunct vehicle. Everyone stared for a few moments at the results of her labor before Setsuna hesitantly asked, “Mi-chan, don’t you think that’s a bit much?”
Both Haruka and Michiru kept a large stockpile of toys and equipment in their dimensional storage spaces. From the looks of things, Setsuna surmised that the elegant and refined reincarnated princess of the planet Neptune had taken Biiko’s disparaging remark about “common performing sluts” rather badly. Being the guardian of time didn’t mean Setsuna had time to keep track of all the names these two gave their favorite toys, so she wasn’t sure of the exact nature of “the jawbreaker”. In its current use, all she could tell was that it covered the lower half of it’s victim’s face in black rubber and seemed to be living up to its name as well as making the poor girl’s cheeks bulge out grotesquely. This had been followed up with a tightly laced hood (often used on conventional prisoners by conventional police) that covered the rest of her head in black rubber as well. From the neck up the only human features visible were a ponytail of blue-gray hair erupting from a hole in the hood, and a set of nostrils that quivered as she fought for air.
The fight for air was not due to blockage by the hood but to the corset, also of black rubber, squeezing the trapped waist down to a freakishly small diameter. A sheath of the same material compressed the captive’s legs into a single unit, and a smaller version of that sheath did the same for the arms, pressing elbows together in a way that emphasized her young breasts and added to the overall discomfort. Short straps had the tips of her prayerfully pressed hands almost touching the backs of her knees and toes almost touching the back of her head. As a final touch, her other two orifices appeared to have been packed in a manner similar to what the jawbreaker was doing to her mouth, in terms of relative effect if not in actual size. A strap running from the front to the back of the corset kept the intruding objects in place.
The group continued to stare in silence for a while as the packaged and compressed prisoner lay on the roof of the wagon, a straining bow of shiny black rubber with breasts, buttocks, and labia bulging outward from the pressure elsewhere. Biiko struggled but lacked the mobility to wriggle properly, being reduced to quivering and pulsating in fascinating ways.
Haruka was the one to break this period of silence. “I like it Mi-chan, and I can see you put a lot of your self into your work here, but she’s not going to make it to Osaka like that, let alone Tokyo.”
That was sufficient to sink the good feelings of a curly-haired blond clutching an autographed silk scarf. Her wail of, “You’re taking her away?” matched any she had emitted during the chase and battle. Tears welled up in her enormous green eyes as she stammered, “But. But. B-b-but you can’t!”
Haruka looked to Michiru. “I think we can. I hope we can because I do like what you’ve done here even if you’re going to need to loosen some of that up before long.” She turned and directed her statements to Pluto. “I really, really, want to take her with us because we only gave her the introductory course earlier and she has so much to learn.”
Eiko had moved to take up a defensive stance once more in front of Shiiko. “I’m under arrest too aren’t I? Are you planning on taking me away? On taking Shiiko?”
Pluto fixed her gaze on the dangerously powerful redhead again, saying, “Neptune, get the box.” Michiru leapt away to obey while Setsuna tried to head off another showdown. “Your family wishes to see you.”
That statement was enough to break through Eiko’s growing hostility. Pluto chastised herself for not trying this tactic earlier, but by the time she had realized the potential power of this girl, Setsuna had been unwilling to break her own concentration in the stare down. Pluto pressed onward. “My orders, based on letters from your family to my Master, are to take you with me on my journey to Tokyo. Someone will meet me there to take charge of you. This happens to coincide nicely with a desire on the part of certain parties in Kobe to see an end to this recurring brawl in their territory. Officially, you two are under arrest, and are in my custody until I either turn you over to a magistrate, or select a punishment for you and justify it to a magistrate.”
Michiru returned with a flat, silvery metal box. Setsuna did not know how it had arrived at the shrine, there were no signs of seams, hinges, or catches to open it, and she didn’t know what was in it. These facts frustrated her greatly and had made her reluctant to place it in her or anyone else’s subspace storage. “My orders are also to present you with this object.”
Eiko’s gold eyes widened in recognition when she took the box from Neptune. While she was dealing with box, Shiiko stepped up. “What about me? When the Knights arrest us they take me too. Are you going to take them away and leave me?”
Setsuna lifted an emerald eyebrow. “I wasn’t given any orders about you, but I do have a request from some locals to leave you here.”
In her long existence, Setsuna had faced terrifying and mind-boggling threats. A short, curly-haired blond trying to kick her in the shins while chanting, “I wanna be arrested too! I wanna be arrested too!” didn’t even register on the scale, but she did have to think for a bit, while nimbly dodging, to develop an appropriate response.
Meanwhile, the redhead had run a fingertip around the box on the smaller surfaces, and a seam had appeared where her finger had been. She swung the newly formed lid upwards and stared at the contents for a moment before withdrawing a sheet of paper. Setsuna could not see what was on the paper from where she was, but she had every intention of getting a good look at it later, even if she had to use the Gates to read over Eiko’s shoulder at this moment.
Eiko looked up from the paper and wistfully watched her shorter friend in action for a while, chasing the tall tanned, woman in the extravagant outfit around. When it looked like the target of Shiiko’s wrath might be preparing some form of defense, Eiko spoke. “Shiiko…Shiiko you can’t come with me.” The blond froze, one tiny foot lifted to deliver another kick, then slowly turned to face her friend. Eiko continued. “My father…says it’s time to continue my education elsewhere. My mother sent me something as well.” From the box, the redhead lifted a collar with a pair of light chains hanging from it. She handled it with care and respect, even as she fastened it around her neck with a solid sounding click. The chains hung from the back of the collar, trailing down her back until she collected them and somehow attached them to the bands covering her forearms. As those chains were connected, despite any apparent mechanism for doing so, Setsuna sensed the girl’s ki dropping to a mere-mortal but still above average level. Dropping the letter from her father back in the box, Eiko sealed the container again and walked slowly towards Setsuna and the sniffling Shiiko, holding out a key, presumably to her new collar and chains.
Things went fairly smoothly from there, from the Senshi’s perspective. Shiiko and Eiko had a tearful, hugging farewell with promises to write and sent telegrams if Eiko was allowed from wherever she was going. Shiiko also cried over the trussed form of Biiko, cradling her in her lap and giving the shuddering prisoner more reason to shudder with some of the squeezing and petting that was part of her good-by.
Uranus salvaged a cycle with a sidecar from among the minion mobiles for transporting the cooperative Eiko, though she was rather zealous about strapping her in for safety. Neptune insisted on carrying Biiko herself, claiming she wished to keep an eye on the girl’s condition so she could adjust the bindings when it became necessary. As her friends were carried away into the distance, Shiiko stood on the wrecked wagon, waving with her autographed scarf.
The overwhelmingly cute blond sniffled, remembering not to blow her nose on the scarf just in time. How was she going to carry on without them? Who would she play with?
How was she going to get back to town?
A possible answer to these questions came as a blue-gloved hand slipped around her right arm while hands in green seized her left. Shiiko looked into the smirking face of Jewel Knight Crusader Lapis Lazuli. “So,” the azure archer said, “I hear you want to be arrested?”
A few miles away, Pluto’s Slave breathed a sigh of relief. She still had much to do and mysteries to investigate concerning her new charge, but she wished all her battles could be this easy.
~700 years ago.
Sailor Pluto dragged herself down a hallway of Castle Charon, away from her usual staging area for Gate transport, cursing herself for blindness on so many counts. Jurai had maintained the quarantine, or protective status or whatever they were calling it at this point, for so long and so effectively that she had stopped paying attention to anything outside the star system, and spotting those sorts of external influences could be difficult even when she paid attention. The sudden and violent arrival of Ryoko and the Crown Prince took her completely by surprise. Now that he was here, she could see the prince was going to ruin everything.
Unfortunately, she could not deal with him as she had other threats to the future. Mystic bonds and oaths of loyalty and servitude meant striking or otherwise taking action against the Prince of Jurai would be a betrayal of her oaths and would pull the plug on her abilities. That left her with deflecting the Prince. If she took a little trip back in time and aided him in his fight against Ryoko so that they never fell to Earth, then she would just be fulfilling the responsibilities of a loyal vassal of the Empire.
Pluto coughed a red spray onto the floor in front of her. Leaving the healing crystals in a cabinet down the hall rather than near the place she would reflexively jump to in case of emergency was another oversight. She was definitely getting sloppy in her old age.
Despite her powers, interfering with the fight before it reached Earth was easier said than done. A planet is large enough that for most applications of physics and magic it counts as a stationary frame of reference, despite the fact that it is spinning and rushing through space. She could use the Gates as transport to the surface of any world in the star system, as well as most of the moons and larger asteroids. Materializing in a moving vehicle on a planet was more difficult. Targeting a speeding spaceship doing combat maneuvers in the void between planets was nearly impossible. But she had done the nearly impossible before in her duties and she had done so now.
What she hadn’t done was be prepared for what awaited her on the other end of that trip. There was nothing she could do from the Prince’s vessel, except distract him at a crucial moment. Thus, she had gone to confront his enemy and cause as much havoc on that ship as she could. She had been ignoring the rest of the galaxy for thousands of years, and she hadn’t understood what it meant for this Ryoko to be feared by all the worlds, including Jurai itself. She had also gotten soft, dealing with primitives and working primarily through intermediaries that she steered into the path of her enemies.
She spilled a box of the precious crystals over the floor and clutched one to her chest while rolling onto her back. As the crystal took effect and dulled the pain, she gazed upon the blackened stumps that had once been her left knee and shoulder. No, she thought as she slipped into unconsciousness, she hadn’t been prepared for Ryoko.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Fri, 19 Nov 2004 17:32)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.