"Base One, Nunavut Seven, feet dry."
"Base One, Nunavut Sixteen, feet dry."
"Acknowledged, Seven, Seventeen. Report when pick-up is done and you're on your way back. Base One, out."
"Roger that, Base One," the pilot of Nunavut Seven -- it's official tail number was 19907, as prominently etched into the hardened duranium sides of the T-shaped tail assembly of the CY-199 Borealis specialized warfare trans-atmospheric research support craft -- replied before cutting the link with CFB Ellesmere Island. "Scan status?" he then asked.
"Negative all known scanners in target area. We do have a blip from that alien scientist at that shrine at Okayama," the co-pilot reported after a quick check with the onboard ECM scanning gear. With that, he grinned as he flipped his own external communicator unit on, and then linked into his headset. "Hello, Washuu-chan!" he called out in nearly letter-perfect Japanese. "What are you doing today?"
The viewscreen fitted into the frame dividing the two front cockpit windows then flicked on to reveal the image of the "greatest scientific genius of the Universe" currently resident at Masaki-jinja. "Being bored," Hakubi Washuu replied. "I picked up both of you with a lateral Doppler motion scanner." Hearing that, the flight crew of Nunavut Seven exchanged a knowing look. The unspoken competition between Washuu and the brainiacs in the Specialised Warfare Regiment's Unique Technologies Development Squadron was pretty intense. "What brings two 199s to Japan today?"
"Pick-up in Tomobiki for us both," the pilot replied; as with many members of the Regiment, he had a universal translator surgically planted in his brain that would allow him to both interpret and speak any known language. "Nunavut Sixteen's being a hearse today for the boys in Medical. We got a security detail."
Washuu had been monitoring the news networks. "The Niphentaxians?"
"Roger that, ma'am."
Washuu moaned, her blue eyes rolling about in disgust. Of all the known sentient races in the Universe, did the Milky Way Galaxy have to be cursed with the likes of the Niphentaxians?! Despite all the bad rep the Yizibajohei had earned over the centuries, they at least had class and style. In Washuu's eyes, the Niphentaxians seemed always willing to throw out their whole culture virtually at a whim, uncaring of the sheer emotional havoc that could unleash on the prospective "faithful." "Do with them whatever you want, boys! Even if their alliance with the Onis has been beneficial to Earth by keeping the more expansionist leaders on Jurai at bay, their chronic assholia . . . " -- the scientist just loved some of the interesting bit of profanity her association with the members of the Regiment had taught her over the years -- "Can give anyone headaches. If you need any help, call."
"We should be alright, ma'am. Thanks for the offer, anyway."
"Have a good day."
The link was cut. "Nice lady," the pilot mused. "From what I've always heard from the Observation boys about her, she seemed always to be like a more emotional version of Major Raeburn's friend Lord Ryasan."
"She's been through a lot," the co-pilot answered before he pressed a toggle to open up intra-ship communications with the passenger compartment. "Major Guthrie?"
"Guthrie," the commander of the Regiment's Security Squadron called back.
"We're feet dry and totally masked from all ground sensory, save for Professor Hakubi over in Okayama. ETA drop zone will be twenty minutes."
"Make sure you pass it up to the boys in UTD, Lieutenant."
"Yes, sir."
"Thanks for coming with me today, Tomo-san."
"Hey, it's cool, Shinobu-chan," Takino Tomo replied as she gave Miyake Shinobu a friendly pat on the shoulder. Both were in their normal winter school uniforms -- the former in Azuma High reddish-brown, the latter in Tomobiki High dark blue -- as they made their way into the general entrance of Tomobiki General Hospital. "We all heard all the bad things about Ataru-kun even up where I go to school, but man, he didn't deserve to die, especially after putting up to Lum all the time."
"That's true," the woman also known as Rampage admitted before she gazed on her companion, who had made her debut this morning as Warwind. "Some mate I turned out to be, eh? Took one look at Mendou-san the first day he parachuted into class and I started to act as if Ataru-kun didn't even exist. Some could even accuse me of totally abandoning Ataru-kun when he needed a friend the most."
Tomo considered that for a moment, she inwardly grateful to Mihama Chiyo that when she gained Warwind's powers, she also gained the memories and experiences of the dozen Warwinds who had lived on Yiziba over the last millennia, ever since the Dawn of Power had forever transformed Shinobu's birth-race into one of the most feared cultures in the Universe. "Things between him and Lum worked out later, didn't they?"
"Sometimes, it was hard to tell with those two," Shinobu admitted as they stopped before a wall-mounted guide map of the hospital. Locating the morgue in the basement level, both girls turned to the nearest bank of elevators. "There were times that Ataru-kun seemed to be willing to go all the way with Lum. And then there were times that he seemed to wish she never existed at all." A shrug. "Then again, would their relationship have survived if he ever found out about those Niphentaxians."
Tomo was quick to see the cloud of anger cross her new friend's face. The leader of the Bonkuras of Azuma High could understand and sympathise with Shinobu's feelings about that race of loony psycho-religious fanatics they all learned about when the news of Minira's kidnapping broke out. To learn that she had actually been seen as a "sinful doubter" by a whole race -- those same beings worshipping her classmate as a living goddess of all things! -- was bad enough. But to then learn that Shinobu's own diary had been tapped into by the Niphentaxians so they could create a special book in their current holy text, The Book of Lum. And, to add insult to injury, they weren't even accurate copies, but had been twisted to support the "party line" which had condemned Moroboshi Ataru from the start as the Church of Lum's penultimate devil-figure, the "Great Evil."
Hopefully, Yomi and Kaorin'll find out if those bastards had anything to do with Ataru-kun's death before the others come in with Gojira from Niigata, Tomo mused to herself as Shinobu pressed the button on the elevator panel for the hospital's basement level. Be nice for Shinobu-chan to be able to put some closure on all the crap Lum's living in this town's heaped all over her . . .
The elevator dinged, the door opening to reveal two well-dressed men in dark Ray Ban glasses, they marching smartly past the two high school girls as they headed out. Shinobu watched them go, her eyes widening in stunned recognition, and then she followed Tomo into the elevator. "What is it?" the latter asked.
"Those were two of Mendou-san's Kuromegane," Shinobu reported as her friend pressed for the basement level. "What were they doing here, anyway? I'm sure the people Kagura-san hurt when you visited his house could've been cared for there."
"Search me," Tomo said with a smirk as the elevator doors closed, the car moving to descend down a floor. "I'm just glad the jerk was willing to help out after Yukari-chan persuaded him to loan Kagura-chan some weapons so we could go after those dorks!"
Shinobu laughed as she remembered what she, as Rampage, had seen at the Mendou estate when Warwind, Wild Rider and the others from Azuma High had come over to get some weapons and other gear for Caltrop. After Wild Rider had used her powers to literally warp a whole regiment of the Mendou Panzer Corps' tanks -- thus cowering both Mendou Shuutarou himself and his insane sister, Ryooko -- Caltrop had broken into a nearby weapons locker and got what she needed. To Rampage, it looked as if the transformed Kagura Michiko had decided to launch a major war with what she got her hands on! And when poor Mendou had screamed in protest at the "theft," Warwind had contemptuously tossed him into Wild Rider's transformed "Yukari-mobile," she then giving him a "ride" -- all in reverse gear (and Yukari not looking through the rear-view mirror), the parking brake on, and the average speed not going lower than two hundred kilometres per hour! The "ride" lasted five minutes.
Mendou had been more than willing to let things go after that.
The elevator stopped, the doors opening to allow the two girls to egress. Both followed the signs to the town morgue, located near one of the larger cargo elevators that lead to the emergency entrance. Peeking inside, Shinobu politely knocked on the door before she called out, "Hello! Is anyone here?"
"Just a moment," an aged man's voice called back before a fellow in his early fifties stepped out from the door leading to the examination room.
Shinobu was quick to recognise him: "Wakatsuki-sensei!"
Wakatsuki Michio jolted, and then he smiled. "Shinobu-chan! What are you doing here, child?! Aren't you supposed to be at school now?!"
"It's been cancelled because of that business about those alien spies those heroes who stopped Gojira earlier this morning found out about," Shinobu explained. "The Principal decided that since most of those aliens lived in and around Tomobiki -- to say anything about their interest in Lum and anyone who ever associated with her -- it would be best for us to head out to help in the search."
The Tomobiki town coroner stared at her, and then he gaped. "My God!" He was a practicing Catholic, as was Shinobu; his ancestors also hailed from Kagoshima. He also had burakumin ancestry -- a factor that weighed in heavily when it came to dealing with others who knew about the "taint" in his ancestry -- but to those who accepted faith in Jesus Christ, those sorts of prejudices didn't matter. "You mean to say what I heard over the radio was true?!" he then demanded. "These beings actually tapped into all your diaries to create their . . . "
"Holy book," Shinobu finished for him when he stuttered on that last phrase, and then she nodded. "Hai."
He was quick to notice the cloudy look on her face. "Was it that bad?"
"It was a perverse lie," Shinobu hissed out as tears appeared in her eyes. "Not only did they use language which would've made the writers of the Gospels throw up in disgust, the fact that they took every positive thing I ever wrote about Ataru-kun and twisted it around to say that I actually hated him . . .!"
"I grieve with you, child," Wakatsuki said in sympathy. "Are you here to see him?"
Hearing that, she nodded. "Please?"
"Of course. Come this way. Er . . .?" he then moved to ask as he looked at Tomo.
"I'll stay here," Tomo said.
Shinobu nodded as she smiled at her. "Arigatou."
"Hey, Megane! Look up there!"
"Eh?!" Megane blurted out on hearing Chibi's shout, and then he perked on hearing the throaty rumble of jets flying very close overhead. At first believing it might be one of the Mendou Clan's Air Corps' jets heading out on patrol, he then stopped as the strange harmonic in those engines got to him. No jet he had ever heard of before made that sort of noise; it sounded like a normal jet engine mixed in with the moan of a desert wind. Looking up, he then gaped on seeing the two low-flying cargo planes -- what looked like two cargo planes -- soaring over Tomobiki from the northeast. "Buddha! What the hell are those things?!" he screamed out.
"Markings aren't Japanese or American!" Paama noted as he spotted a lighter grey insignia on the undersides of the wings of one of the aircraft.
"I don't even recognise the model!" Kakugari asserted.
Megane watched as the plane zoomed past, and then he gaped as what looked like vertical retro-thrusters began to fire. Landing gear deployed as the craft came to a perfect hover close to Tomobiki General Hospital, and then as the plane angled itself to lower down to the ground, the outer wings folded up! "Holy shit . . .!"
"Hey! Check out that flag on the fin!" Chibi said.
Megane looked. "The Canadian flag . . .?"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T SPOT THEM?!" Mendou Shuutarou shrieked at the two Kuromegane standing at the doorway to his private study. "THOSE WERE CARGO JETS, NOT STEALTH FIGHTERS! WHY DIDN'T THE RADAR AT THE AIRFIELD PICK THEM UP?!"
"We're very sorry, Young Master," one of the bodyguards apologized as both bowed to him. "But it appears both craft are covered with an excellent radar-absorbing surface material. Not even the experimental scanners Mendou Technologies is developing for the Self-Defence Forces -- those were, as you know, sir, brought to the Air Corps' base to test out -- detected them."
"We did see Canadian national markings on those aircraft, sir," the other bodyguard then added. "And markings indicative these are aircraft belonging to the Canadian Armed Forces. The tail codes of these aircraft, sir, are quite odd, though."
Mendou stopped. "How odd?"
"The tail codes are five digit numbers, sir," the first Kuromegane said. "Canadian military aircraft incorporate the model type as the first three numbers of an airplane's tail code. The ones on these aircraft begin with '199.' Yet to all our knowledge, there is no aircraft in the Canadian military inventory that has that sort of designation."
Silence fell as the scion of Japan's richest family took that in, and then he asked, "Have the reports on that monster that appeared at Moroboshi's bedside last night and scared Lum-san off been compiled?"
"Only a bare report, sir," the second bodyguard answered. "We have identified this 'Doctor Destructo' fellow as one Grigori Stefan Wysynski, born in Oświęcim, Poland in the year 1932. He migrated to Canada, settling down near Ottawa, in the wake of the Second World War. We are still trying to compile more information, but our business contacts in Canada are, as you know, quite small and it appears that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police may try to intervene in the investigation."
Mendou gaped. "The Mounties?! This man was involved in scaring Lum-san off Earth and plans to literally transform everyone on the planet into metahumans! Why are they trying to stop . . .?!"
The door to the study burst open, revealing a third Kuromegane. "Sir, an update on the two Canadian aircraft that just arrived over Tomobiki," he reported. "One is moving to land now at the Mizunokooji estate. And the other one . . . "
"What?!"
"It's just landed outside of Tomobiki General Hospital."
Silence.
"WHAT?!" Mendou shrieked out.
"Oh, Ataru-kun . . . "
Shinobu shook with sobs as she gazed on the pale cadaver laid out on the slab in the middle of the town morgue. The body had yet to be touched, it being covered to just above Ataru's waist. The tools necessary for Wakatsuki Michio to carry out his post-mortem examination were on a nearby table. Reaching down to run a hand over the cold forehead and the messy hair she always found to be quite attractive, Shinobu took a deep breath to calm herself, and then she stared at the coroner. "Have you . . .?"
"Not yet," Wakatsuki replied with a shake of his head, a flash of anger and disbelief appearing in his eyes. "As a matter of fact . . . "
"What?"
"Your rich friend sent two of his thugs down with a message, demanding I do nothing to pursue an investigation as to what killed Ataru-san in the first place."
Silence.
"What?" Shinobu hissed out. "Why in God's Name would Mendou-san . . .?"
She then stopped herself as she remembered the previous night, when the appearance of Yiziba's Chosen One, Doctor Destructo, on television had sparked the emergence of all her memories and power as Rampage. The man had actually appeared outside Ataru's hospital room, his doing so having scared Lum right off the planet and sending her back to Uru with her tail tucked between her legs. And it was without a doubt that Mendou had seen that act; Destructo himself had spoke of it to that reporter after he had sent the Sailor Senshi packing. And given Mendou's own obsession with the Oni -- to say anything of the habit almost all in Tomobiki possessed when it came to blaming everything on Ataru whenever something weird happened -- it didn't take Shinobu very long to finally realise where this could have gone.
"Did his people tell you why he demanded that?" she then asked.
"According to what was said, your friend was worried that something might have been discovered which would have led people to believe that the Oni herself was, in some way, responsible for Ataru-san's death," Wakatsuki replied. "He didn't wish the girl to come back under the cloud of being a murder suspect, it seems."
Shinobu started to shake as she felt a familiar cauldron of fury roar up from deep within her soul. It was almost immediately extinguished when the knowledge and skills of the past Rampages who had lived on Yiziba came back to her from the dark corners of her memory. Finding new strength with those memories, she then breathed out, "Okay."
"Excuse me?"
The voice was female, speaking fluent Japanese but with a definite Western accent. The two spun around to see a woman, red haired and green eyed, clearly northern European by ancestry, standing there. She was dressed in what appeared to be an arctic-pattern camouflage combat uniform standing there, a helmet tucked underneath her arm, the usual accoutrements one would associate with a serving military officer strapped over her tunic. Her name was marked in Roman script on a cloth nametag on the right side, her rank insignia -- some type of officer, Shinobu suspected -- on an epaulette slip-on over the buttons of her top. On her shoulders were low-visibility flag markers, their simple pattern telling both Shinobu and Wakatsuki plenty.
"Who are you?" the coroner demanded.
The woman smiled as she gave him a salute. "Doctor Wakatsuki, I presume? I'm Doctor Melissa Phelps, lieutenant commander in Her Majesty's armed forces, officer commanding Medical Squadron, Specialised Warfare Regiment of Canada. In the wake of a direct request of His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor Akihito of Japan, to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second, and Her Excellency, Governor General Michaëlle Jean of Canada, my unit and I are here to take custody of the mortal remains of Moroboshi Ataru and transport him to our base to ensure a proper and thorough autopsy can be done to determine the cause of his most unfortunate demise yesterday afternoon." She reached into the cargo pocket of her pants to pull out an envelope to hand to the coroner. "From His Majesty."
Wakatsuki blinked as he took the envelope in hand and opened it, he quickly noting the Imperial mon etched into the wax seal that had closed the letter up. Pulling the letter out, he was quick to notice the very expensive paper it had been written on, and then he moved to read it. It wasn't typed, but handwritten in very rich ink. The hanko stamp and the signature noted there spoke volumes.
After showing it to a wide-eyed Shinobu, the coroner sighed as he faces the visiting officer. "Phelps-sensei, please take care of him."
"We will, sir," she assured him with a smile before looking to the door. "Sergeant Major!" she called out in English.
A tall man with the rank insignia of an air force master warrant officer stepped inside, he giving his boss an informal salute. "Yes, ma'am?" he called out.
"Get it done."
"Yes, ma'am! Boys!"
Eight other men marched into the room, one of them carrying a canvas stretcher. Shinobu watched as they formed two rows on either side of the table holding Ataru. The senior man of the burial detail, an army sergeant -- all in the Regiment's Medical Squadron were members of the Canadian Forces Medical Services, they wearing the caduceus hat badge of their service in lieu of the phoenix badge worn by line members of the Regiment -- then drew out a folded flag to drape over the corpse. Before he moved to do that, the others moved to gently wrap the whole of Ataru's body in blanket Wakatsuki had draped it with. Once that was done, the body was then lifted with great care onto the opened stretcher. The flag was then draped over it. It wasn't the white-and-red Hinomaru of Japan or the red-and-white Maple Leaf Flag of Canada, Shinobu noted, but the blue-and-white United Nations flag.
She turned away as the corpse was raised up onto the shoulders of the men who had followed Doctor Phelps and her squadron sergeant major inside. "Commander, escort detail ready to move out," the sergeant in charge then declared.
"Move out, Sergeant."
"Yes, ma'am. Okay, boys, let's go!"
The corpse was carried out of the examination room. Wakatsuki watched them go, and then he nodded thanks to the Canadian doctor. "Please take care of him, Sensei."
"We will." To Shinobu. "You want to come with us, Miss Miyake?"
"Eh?" Shinobu gasped.
"With us to the airplane to see him off?" Phelps wondered.
The young student took that in, and then she nodded. "Hai!"
"Who the hell ARE these guys?!" Megane demanded.
"Dunno!" Kakugari replied. The Stormtroopers -- not to mention a large crowd of civilians -- were standing some distance from the hospital's emergency entrance, they being kept back by a thick cordon of Japanese police. "Canadian special forces?!"
"I've heard of their Joint Task Force Two," Paama noted. "They're just as good as the Americans' SEAL Team Six and the British Special Air Service. But I don't think these guys are them! Look at the weapons they've got!"
The other Stormtroopers nodded grimly; it seemed that the inner ring of Canadian soldiers deployed around the strange V/STOL-capable aircraft sitting by the emergency entrance were armed with something straight out of Star Wars or Star Trek. "So what do you suppose they're here for?" Chibi asked.
"Search me . . . " Megane began.
"HEY, LOOK!" Paama screamed out, pointing. "It's Shinobu!"
Everyone's eyes snapped around to see a strange procession walk out of the hospital. Six soldiers with a body on a stretcher, which was draped in a United Nations flag. Following them were two more soldiers, the town coroner, a lady officer and Miyake Shinobu, along with another student in the uniform of a high school in Itabashi Ward. "What the hell's going on?!" Megane demanded before he moved to scream . . .
And then, that scream died in his throat on seeing one of the soldiers surrounding the aircraft spin his weapon on him, giving Megane a too intimate view of that weapon's muzzle. A police officer close to the Stormtroopers' leader was quick to notice this, and then he marched up to glare Megane down. "Be silent!" he ordered in a voice that brooked no opposition, and then he turned to gaze on the soldier, he giving him a light bow with his head and upper body. "On behalf of my most disrespectful countryman, Corporal, I apologise."
"It's quite alright, Constable," the soldier replied -- in fluent Japanese, the Stormtroopers quickly noted -- as he drew back, keeping his rifle close to him.
Megane was nearly frozen stiff after hearing that. "Gentlemen!" the Medical Squadron's sergeant major then called out. "Form ranks at the ramp!"
"Take care of yourself, Constable," the corporal said before he pulled back to double-time it over to the back boarding ramp.
The police officer watched him go, and then braced himself to attention as he gave the departing soldier a salute. "A safe trip home, Corporal."
As the crowd watched, the soldiers formed two lines of review leading up to the opened rear entrance of the CY-199. Once in place, the sergeant major then called them to attention, dressed ranks, and then ordered them to shoulder arms.
Then: "Guard detail, PRESENT -- ARMS!"
Rifles were snapped up in front of the troops, and then in perfect order, right legs were stamped back to lie at 45-degree angles in comparison to the left. Seeing this, the cordon of policemen all turned inward, they drawing themselves to attention as hands snapped up in salute. Once in place, the squadron sergeant major then called out, "Burial detail, advance on board, SLOW -- MARCH!"
Broadcast bagpipe music -- Amazing Grace, many of the crowd were quick to recognise -- was then played over the plane's external loudspeakers as the stretcher was carried aboard. Shinobu, Tomo and Doctor Wakatsuki followed the procession to the edge of the boarding ramp, where they stopped, they still a couple paces behind Doctor Phelps and her senior subordinates. Once the burial detail was aboard, they moving to strap down the body for the trip back to Ellesmere Island, Phelps and her companions about-turned to face the civilians.
Salutes were given. "Please forgive us for disturbing your day," Phelps said.
Deep bows were returned. "Please have a very safe trip home," Wakatsuki replied.
"We will. Sergeant Major, embark the men. Let's go home."
"Yes, ma'am!"
With that, the soldiers were ordered back to the shoulder, and then to carry arms -- the unofficial soldier's salute from ages past -- before they were turned to march aboard the CY-199. Wakatsuki guided Shinobu and Tomo back from the aircraft as its retro-thrusters began to thunder. That was the signal for the crowd to back away as the boarding ramp was closed and the aircraft pressurized. Then, the roar picked up in volume as the CY-199 lifted off the ground like a Harrier jump jet. As soon as it was clear of the uppermost floor of Tomobiki General Hospital, the wings folded out in flight mode as the main drive was turned on. In a minute, the airplane was soaring up and away from Tomobiki, it arcing on a great circle route to the Canadian Arctic.
Back on the ground, Shinobu sighed. "Let's go, Tomo-san."
"Where to?" Tomo asked as she followed her new friend away from the hospital, they passing through the crowd without a care to questions being fired at them from those who might have known Miyake Shinobu's relationship with Moroboshi Ataru.
"Somewhere where I can go break things!" Shinobu snarled.
And where does Shinobu decide to do that?
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(Posted Mon, 18 Sep 2006 04:24)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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