"He has come."
The person known to her peers as Mihama Chiyo could only breathe out in relief after watching the Chosen One espouse his mission to the norm reporter on NHK. Finally, after living on this planet since she was just a babe, after the gift by the Conservator blessed her with the vast intelligence she had barely been able to suppress as she performed her role as an elementary school student -- later elevated to high school after her fourth year among her peers -- in the city of Tokyo, she could go forth and finally show these norms what they had been missing all along.
And she knew exactly what she would do in this case.
Standing up, she walked over to her dresser drawer, opening up one compartment to reveal eight small pendants. They looked harmless enough; they were, of course, shaped to individual taste so the ones they were intended for would more easily accept them. But they held a special gift in each of them; fragments of the great Crystal of Power the Conservator used to allow each individual Yizibajohei the chance to best express himself/herself, live his/her life as s/he so wished.
Thinking of the day she herself had been touched by the Crystal, when she became Cerebral Child (her actual name in Yizibajohei was quite difficult to pronounce even in a flexible tongue like English, to say anything of something rigid like Japanese), Chiyo could only smile with contentment as she drew up one of the crystals, the one meant for Sakaki Kiyomi. At that moment, she just knew she would leave the bosom of Yiziba to come to a place like Earth, a place where the one called Destructo would also come, to forever shatter the rigid bonds of Order (to any self-respecting Yizibajohei, Order was practically the equivalent of a living death!) on another planet.
And it was Earth that she had been eventually elected to travel to when the time came to prepare for Destructo's coming. This world has so much potential hidden in the genes of each of the people living here. If the wide variety of metas who currently lived here demonstrated anything to Chiyo, it was this: if given the chance, Earth would easily evolve into a second Yiziba, a place where infinite diversity in infinite combinations (to borrow the Vulcan phrase) could become fact.
But there would be a lot of norms and sames on planets close to Earth who wouldn't even begin to like that ever coming about. The Juraians and their totally stupid belief that Earth was actually one of their colonies -- Yeah! Right! If you believe that, I've got a mountain of diamonds to give you! Chiyo wryly mused on remembering that. The Onis and their equally stupid belief that their distant ancestors had actually been expelled from Earth (thus their hidden desire to come back and take their "ancient homeworld" back, Tag Races and supposed sportsman-like conduct notwithstanding). The other races like the sames of Thanagar, who had their own dorky reasons for forcing their own will on the people of this world. And the worst of them all, that so-called "god" Darkseid from Apokolips, who actually wanted to find a mythical equation which would given him total control over every living being in the Universe. Yeah, right! Not happening!
"Chiyo-chan!"
Chiyo perked on hearing that voice, and then she rose up, her hand drawing up one of the pendants she had made for just this occasion. "Konban wa, Osaka-san!" she called back as the door to her bedroom opened to reveal Kasuga Ayumu. "You're just in time!"
"In time?! For what?" the narcoleptic girl from Japan's second-largest city wondered, and then her eyes focused on the small crystal pendant in Chiyo's hand, it shaped in the image of the Tsuutenkaku Tower in Osaka. "Whoa!" she then gasped as she took a step back, her eyes going wide as she pointed at the crystal that would soon change her life in many ways. "I don't believe it! Chiyo-chan, you . . .?!"
"Me what?" Chiyo prodded, she canting her head confusedly.
Dramatic pause.
"You're really an alien out to make everyone like that Destructo guy said on TV!"
Chiyo gasped, her eyes going VERY wide as her classmate's words sank in. "Osaka-san! How did . . .?!" she cried out before she stopped herself, a giggle escaping her. "I always knew you were a lot smarter than you let on, Ayumu-chan!"
Ayumu stared at her friend, her eyes going very wide, and then she muttered, "You didn't call me 'Osaka' . . . "
"I always hated that silly nickname Tomo-chan gave you," Chiyo admitted. "I just didn't want to draw too much attention to myself if I bucked the trend too much!" she then added with an embarrassed laugh.
Ayumu took that in, and then she leaned down to gaze into her friend's eyes. "So whatcha doin' here anyway, Chiyo-chan? Don'tcha miss being on your own planet!"
"Hai, I do!" Chiyo replied. "It's so stifling here with you norms on Earth. All your silly rules and stupid laws and traditions that just stop people from doing what they want to do! It's so different back home! But . . . " She then raised up the crystal pendant. "Well, anyhow, this is for you, Ayumu-chan! Here . . . "
Ayumu blinked, and then she bowed her head to allow her shorter friend to slip the pendant over her hair. Soon enough, the crystal itself sat in the small valley of the taller girl's cleavage. "It's really pretty," Ayumu admitted as she cupped the crystal in the palm of her hand. "So what does this do, anyway?"
Chiyo grinned. "You'll find out in right about . . . "
A flash blinded her!
"NOW!" the diminutive genius cried out.
"So it begins," the Doctor mused as he watched the transformation progress on his monitor screen. "So it begins . . . "
"Oh, dear . . . "
"What is it, Sire?" Captain Marvel wondered as the others of the Justice League turned to stare on Shazam.
The faraway look on the ancient wizard's face spoke volumes. "It has begun," he then declared in a voice of ashes. "It has begun . . . "
"Chief!"
The senior watch officer for the Specialised Warfare Observation Unit (Tokyo), a first class petty officer, tensed on hearing one of his subordinates scream out, and then he looked over. "What is it, Killick?"
"Huge power surge coming out of Itabashi Ward close to Azuma High School!" the junior observer -- a leading seaman ("killick" in old Canadian Navy parlance) in rank -- reported. "It's that alien girl, Miyama Chiyo! She's just nailed one of her friends with those power crystals, probably the same as what Doc Wysynski . . . "
"That's only theory, Killick," the petty officer barked back, though deep down, he also had to wonder what had happened to the legendary Doctor Greg Wysynski, who had retired from the Regiment's service ages ago, sometime before the Heroes Alliance had been commissioned as the 33rd Operations Squadron. "Any I.D. on this new one?!"
"Most likely that girl from Osaka, Kasuga Ayumu. Sensors indicated that Miyama's close friends were going over to her place to study for the Centre Test!"
"Damn!" the older officer snarled. "Alright, update the files on that one! Keep a sharp eye out on that place, people! We're going to be rewriting some history here!"
"How soon do we flash it up to the Regiment?" an able seaman, the juniormost member of the unit, asked as she looked up from her own station.
"As soon as we can give them the whole story -- or as much as we personally understand it -- as we can. You know how it's done!"
"Aye-aye, P.O.!" the others chanted before they got back to work.
"WHOA! CHIYO-CHAN, WHAT DID'JA DO TO ME?!"
Chiyo beamed on seeing the energy fade from her transformed friend's body. A body now clothed in a dark grey, full-sleeved bodysuit -- the shadows of the suit were pure pitch black -- complete with black buccaneer boots and a hood pulled back to allow Ayumu's hair to flow free. On her chest, where the pendant had been, there was now emblazoned a white sideways "8" insignia. "You are now Infinity, Ayumu-chan!" the diminutive genius declared with pride. "The most powerful Yizibajohei of all! The one who can change Reality Itself to fit her wishes! Isn't that great?!"
Ayumu -- no, Infinity! -- blinked as her mind took that message in, and then she cried out as images began to bombard her brain from every possible direction. The flows of ki and mana which allowed every physical thing to exist, the Ley and Dragon Lines which formed the basis of all life on Earth, even the more esoteric energies that philosophers on Earth were only now starting to understand -- it was all hers for the taking, all hers to touch, mould and shape to her very heart's content. Hey! This is really neat! the transformed native of Osaka mused to herself, surprised that all the knowledge that came with this power had been supplied to her . . .
She then noticed several glowing bits of light off to her left, near where the massive lattice web of power which had to be Miyama Chiyo -- No! She calls herself 'Cerebral Child!' Infinity mused to herself before a frown turned her lips. Ugh! That's a dorky nickname! It's just like Tomo-chan calling me 'Osaka!' Gotta make something better for her . . .! AH! I got it! she then cried out before she pointed at Chiyo. "Prodigy!" she screamed as energy lashed out from her fingertip.
Chiyo cried out as the bolt of energy slammed into her, shredding her clothes in an instant to transform them into a dark blue costume similar to Infinity's, the chest symbol a flowering of lightning bolts from a sideways-turned "C" symbol. At the same time, Chiyo's body itself began to morph. She grew taller, as tall as Ayumu -- not to mention growing out in other places as the many changes adolescence normally forced on a humanoid took place. In the proverbial blink of an eye, the nominally thirteen-year-old girl had matured five years. "There we go!" Infinity declared as the transformed Chiyo stared down at herself. "Prodigy! That's a better name for ya, Chiyo-chan!"
Prodigy blinked as she took that in, and then she gazed on her friend, her eyes glistening in tears. "Um, not that I really don't mind, but . . .?"
"Why'd I make ya a big girl now?" Infinity finished for her before she grinned. "Oh, it's easy! Don'tcha remember when you asked Sakaki-chan about getting her height and I said that Sakaki-chan sucked it outta ya!" She waved to herself. "Well, I know that she didn't do that! Sakaki-chan just ain't that type of girl! But I guessed ya wanted to be bigger than you were! And hey! No one can ever mistake a big grown-up girl like Prodigy with a little girl like Chiyo-chan, ne?!"
The other girl blinked as she took that in, and then she giggled. "Yeah, that's true, I guess," she mused before she turned back to her drawer . . .
To see all the other crystals missing. Screaming out, she spun back on Infinity before the other girl's knowing giggle stopped her. "Don't worry, Chiyo-chan! I know you wanted to give those other crystals to Sakaki-chan, Yomi-chan, Tomo-chan, Kagura-chan, Kaorin, Yukari-sensei and Nyamo-sensei. I took care of it!"
"Oh?!" Prodigy said with a hum, and then she nodded. "That sounds good!"
So now that two new metas of Azuma High have been created . . .
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(Posted Wed, 13 Sep 2006 16:14)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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