"I see how easily you overcame the restriction a Power Jewel always forces on any prospective welder, Destructo," Metron mused.
"Easy as pie," Tariko stated with a snort. "You see, in dying, I was betrayed by Lum due to her never telling me about those Niphentaxians. Because of that, my soul got swept up into a place where I could be reborn as someone -- and something else." She stuck out her hand to allow the visiting scientist a chance to inspect it. "See something rather interesting?" she asked with a playful wink.
Metron gazed closely at it, his enhanced senses quickly detecting something that would mark Tariko as being quite different than a normal native of this world. "Your DNA is not Terran humanoid despite your looks," he then declared as he turned to gaze once more on the transformed Moroboshi Ataru. "That means . . .!"
She nodded, her smirk growing a little wider. Metron's eyes went wide, and then he turned to stare on Destructo. "I have heard of such a place," he mused. "It was created sometime immediately after what the Yizibajohei call 'the Dawn of Power.'"
"The 'Doll House' as it is sometimes nicknamed by those who know of it," the Doctor replied.
Metron nodded. He had explored Yiziba many times in the past, doing so each time in such a way that he didn't wind up being caught in the rampant madness ruling most people on that world. One of his visits introduced him to a pocket dimension bonded to the planet's very biosphere. It had been initially encountered by the first Infinity, in fact (as Kasuga Ayumu would soon remember).
The events that led to the creation of the "Doll House" were these:
Infinity I had a son whom he doted on with loving care, he grooming the boy to eventually face his own time before the Crystal of Power. Ignored in the equation was that Infinity's mate, who, while caring very much for their child, was getting annoyed at the fact that her mate was ignoring his proper duties concerning her (put frankly, Saotome Nodoka would be able to sympathise with this woman). One day, Infinity and his mate got into a very bad argument. The fight scene resulting from that mortally wounded their child.
In shame and grief, Infinity unleashed his ultimate power, the Infinite Wave, and literally saw his child reborn in a place beyond Yiziba itself. Curiously enough, due to circumstances which eluded studies about that incident to this day, as a girl and as a silicon-based bioroid (pure-born Yizibajohei have carbon-based DNA with iron-based blood, just like Terrans).
That bioroid eventually faced her own time with the Crystal and became Infinity II. Once she became capable of using her sire's power for her own purposes, she moved to remould the place of her rebirth into something that would always be there for those children (who had yet to face the Crystal) who might have died due to their parent's negligence or any intentional act of betrayal on the part of their parents or a loved one. Since the bioroids birthed in this dimension had silicon-based DNA, they eventually became to be known as "dolls" -- hence this place's nickname, the Doll House.
"You accessed the Doll House to ensure Tariko here would be preserved," Metron stated as he gazed on the Doctor.
"Exactly," the transformed Grigori Wysynski replied. "It was gross negligence on Lum's part when it came to keeping matters concerning the Niphentaxians a secret from Ataru that, in essence, resulted in his death. Since I've long intended to bring him into my circle, it was child's play for me to invoke the House's power to recognise Ataru as Yizibajohei, thus ensuring his rebirth as Tariko when such would have come about. That was the best course to take concerning this matter; the House is automatically inclined to perform cross-gender reincarnations, so Ataru's mind and soul were remoulded to accept her new life as Tariko along the way."
"Sensei was initially tempted to simply find a way to split off Mustang's Jusenkyou curse-body from his real one and give it to me. But it would've taken him a while to help me get used to being in a girl's body 24/7. The House takes care of it in a flash." A pause. "And until I get a chance to go to Yiziba and make a call on the Conservator and get my own powers, I need something to make do," Tariko finished as she waved to the necklace in her savior's hand. "Hence that."
Metron nodded in approval. "A wise decision."
"I am pleased you agree, my friend," the Doctor said. "Are you prepared, Tariko?"
"Hai!"
With that, the Doctor lifted the necklace up, unfastening it so he could slip it around her neck and secure it in place. Once there, the crystal which was the focusing point of the Jewel's power came to nestle at the upper reach of her cleavage, that barely hidden by her jumpsuit top. Once contact with the skin was made, the Jewel then began to glow as it ran through the "checklist" all of its kind did when it confronted a potential new host . . .
Factor One: potential host is an orphan? . . . Confirmed.
Factor Two: potential host has endured physical and/or emotional hardship according to host's native social standards while growing up? . . . Confirmed.
Factor Three: potential host is a bearer of life? . . . Potential present, but not compatible with parent species. Easily corrected.
Conclusion: potential host is worthy. Now designated as Host.
And with that, Tariko gasped as the Jewel flodded her with energy, that zeroing in on every atom of silicon in her artificial body and remoulding it back to the carbon norm native to naturally-born members of her birth-race. That the Host had been born as a bioroid was not relevant. The Host was in the proper form for a "bearer of life" (as the Seekers called the female elements of bigender species), and that was well and enough. When it came time for the Host to seek out a potential mate, the Jewel had been geared to assist in whatever way it could.
A scan of the Host's soul demonstrated that she qualified for the first two Factors which ruled a Jewel's bonding with a potential host. The Host was an orphan despite her birth-parents being still among the living; the Seekers had long recognised the potential for their heiresses to be emotionally estranged from their sires, so that had been factored into a Jewel's bond programming.
As for the second Factor, the Host's attempts at performing her reproductive duties -- while as a "seeder of life" (male) -- always resulted in rejection. And for the one who had actually fixated her attention at the Host, her ultimate act of negligence -- thus leading the Host to become a bearer of life thanks to the pocket dimension called "the Doll House" -- ultimately ensured that, at the present time, there was no real friend the Host could call on.
The Jewel's glow faded, that allowing Tariko to breathe out, "Oh, man!" A hand landed on her head of short-cropped reddish-brown hair -- the Doll House had given Tariko a body which resembled that of one of Ataru's favourite anime characters, Izumi Noa of Mobile Police Patlabor -- before she muttered, "That was sure one hell of a rush!"
"It was that way for Deannette when she became Earth's native Jewel Warrior," the Doctor declared as he nodded approvingly at Tariko's fighting costume: a deep blue gi-like one-piece jumpsuit with flared sleeves and leggings, that decorated with a shower of white mullet-shaped stars dancing over her arms, legs and across her chest on both sides of the V-neck top framing the Jewel. Slip-on pumps now covered her feet. The Cat's Claw sword -- a metre-long blade forged of pure neutronium (taken from the heart of a neutron star) in a taiken-like style, its hilt framed in four cat claw-shaped energy projectors at 45-degree angles to the blade axis -- was in a scabber strapped to her left side on a silver belt. "Do you like what you've become, Corsair?" he then asked as he crossed his arms, an eyebrow arching knowingly.
Tariko blinked, and then she smirked. "You did that on purpose, Sensei!" she said with a wagged finger at him, and then she hummed. "'Corsair,' huh? I kinda like that! Okay, I'll bite." A pause as she then remembered something the Doctor just said. "So who's this Deannette anyway? A friend of yours?"
"An inspiration," the Doctor replied. "The initial inspiration for my life's path having taken the course it did until I became what you see before you. If you wish to know more, Tariko, you can travel to Deannette's family home in Ontario. All the questions you might have about being a Jewel Warrior will have answers there."
"I'll consider it."
"What of those who once interacted with you when you were still Moroboshi Ataru?" Metron then asked. "They all still live. And Lum would, I suspect, be overjoyed to know that her 'Darling' was alive and well, even if transformed. What will you do about them?"
The newly-christened Corsair considered that, and then she . . .
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(Posted Sat, 23 Sep 2006 04:45)
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