"So who's the girl with the sword standing beside Rampage?"
"Search me, man," Megane replied as he and the other Stormtroopers -- they standing with a large crowd of people in an electronics store in downtown Tomobiki -- as they watched the events currently playing themselves out in Azabu-Juuban. "New hero, I guess. Kinda reminds me of Izumi Noa of Patlabor, now that I think of it."
"They sure are popping out of the woodwork today, aren't they?" Kakugari mused. "I mean, Rampage from here, that Mustang guy from over in Nerima, all those chicks from Itabashi, that Windtalker girl sendin' out this signal, that girl with the robot and Lady Marvel from that Fuuwa-jima place down in Chuugoku-chihou . . .! Man, it's weird!"
Chibi nodded. "They can't be all related to that Destructo guy who show up . . .!"
The smallest of the Stormtroopers then gagged as a pair of glowing glasses seemed to focus right at him. "Chibi, never mention that monster's name ever again!" Megane shrilled out, the aura of his outrage making his companions shrink down on themselves in some vain hope of escaping his wrath. "Do you hear me?! Never . . .!"
WHAP! "Quiet, boy!" an elderly lady snapped after belting him with her walking cane. "We're watching this!"
Megane groaned, he sinking to his knees as he moved to feel his forehead. Watching the usual round of antics from Lum's most loyal fans in town nearby were several of the Rosebuds, they having come downtown to do some shopping after their meeting at the Dobu Salada inn. "I just can't wait for the day when it finally sinks into that bastard's brain that with Destructo-sensei on Earth, that Oni will never come back!" Momoe hissed to Kumiko. "It'll be priceless!"
The latter laughed, and then she perked on hearing two middle-aged women step into the shop, both chattering excitedly. "To believe that all this time, Moroboshi Ataru wasn't even his mother's real son but her stepson!" one woman said loud and clear to both Tomobiki High girls. "And to believe that he actually had a sister all this time!"
"Could that story Tanenobu-san said about these half-sisters be true, too?" the other woman asked.
"Maybe!"
A hum. "So he actually got it from his father?"
"Strange, ne?"
"Hai!"
They walked on, continuing to chat away -- not realising that a good proportion of the crowd had overheard what they had said.
"Sister?" Momoe gasped.
"Sisters?" Kumiko echoed her.
"SISTERS?!" the Stormtroopers exclaimed as one.
Dramatic pause.
"SISTERS?!" everyone then screamed out . . .
"WHA-CHOO!"
"Ah!" Infinity called out as she stared at Corsair. "Bless you! Someone must be talking about you, Corsair-san! Are you okay?!"
"Probably," the newest Jewel Warrior moaned as she sniffed back the mucus dislodged by her sneeze, and then she looked around. "Wonder who's talking about me?" Jewel, scan around. There any sort of threat coming our way?
None detected, the Jewel transmitted into its Host's head just as a curious cold wind seemed to flow past everyone standing by the wreckage of the Orphan destroyed by Infinity. Save for . . .
"Ya, Ane-kun."
Everyone screamed out, they spinning around to see a portal of solid blackness appear behind them, that allowing a girl draped in a hooded white cape, complete with stylized red Gothic crosses, to walk out. The young lady who just teleported in to greet us, the Jewel then helpfully finished for its Host.
Corsair blinked as she quickly spotted the darkened features of the newcomer's face hidden in the newcomer's hood. "Who are you?" she then wondered.
"That will be explained soon enough, Ane-kun," the newcomer announced as she reached over to gently touch the Jewel Warrior's sleeve.
And in the blink of the proverbial eye, both had disappeared in a wash of black shadow. "HEY!" Rampage screamed out. "Who in God's name do . . .?!"
"That was Shadow, Rampage."
Eyes spun around to see Windtalker walk up to join them, the metahuman truth-seeker's webcam perched on her shoulder. "Shadow's here, too?!" Infinity gasped, and then she blinked as something came to her. "Oh, yeah! That's right! No one back on Yiziba ever knew whenever Shadow was alive or dead! It was so hard to tell!"
"Who's Shadow?" Captain Marvel asked.
"A neutral, pretty much like myself," Windtalker replied. "Couldn't tell if this version of her is a migrant from Yiziba or a local girl converted into a Yizibajohei; my ability to perceive the truth at a glance gets fuzzed up really bad when it comes to people like Shadow."
"What are her powers like?" Sailor Mercury asked.
"Master-level sorcerer," Windtalker answered as she glanced at the two members of the Justice League present. "Like your friend Doctor Fate, but most of her powers -- as her name implies -- are based around the more 'darker' entropy-aligned spells."
"So why would she be interested in Corsair?" Rampage then demanded. "And why on Earth did she call her 'big sister?' I know for a fact that Corsair's an only child!"
"As she is now, I agree," Windtalker said. "Rampage, I'm from Yiziba, too. I know a child of the Doll House when I see one." She then winked. "How the Chosen One arranged all that, I can't even begin to guess. But I'd love to find out . . . "
A beep! echoed from somewhere in Soul Searcher's uniform. Taking a deep breath, the telepath from Azuma High School reached into her top to draw out a pocket communicator the size of an MP3 player; Prodigy had included the devices for all her friends' uniforms before she moved to empower them. "What is it, Warwind?" she then asked on seeing the caller's name on the mini-screen on the device.
"Interesting news Windtalker might want to come over to Tomobiki and film," Warwind then announced. "Big hoe-down at the Moroboshi home right now. Twelve girls just showed up with their mothers. And all of them are claimin' Moroboshi Ataru's dad as their dad, too! In fact, one of them's saying that Ataru-kun's mom ain't his real mom!"
Silence.
The eyes of everyone save the Sailor Senshi and Kuga Natsuki all then locked in on Rampage, a.k.a. Moroboshi Ataru's former girlfriend, Miyake Shinobu.
Her own eyes were as wide as saucers as that revelation hit her, and then she moaned, her hands reaching up to massage her temples. "Nothing is ever easy around you, isn't it?" she hissed under her breath.
Superman's eyebrow arched. "You mean to say that your friend . . .?"
Infinity appeared beside him, she shushing him. "No real names!" she hissed.
The Man of Steel jerked, and then he flustered. "Sorry."
Fortunately for all those who knew Rampage's real identity, the Sailor Senshi hadn't heard what had just been said about Corsair.
"WHAT?! OF COURSE HE'S MY SON! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" A moaned wail then followed. "OH, I WISH I NEVER HAD HIM!"
A thunderous bellow then blasted Moroboshi Kinshou down. "OF COURSE YOU DIDN'T HAVE HIM, YOU SELFISH WOMAN! I HAD HIM FOR YOU!"
A crowd was starting to gather at the front gates of a certain nondescript two-floor home in the residential section of Tomobiki, one that had, for the past year or so, served as "chaos central" for this particular subdivision of Metro Tokyo. As the people watched this weird tableau play itself out, a small crowd from downtown walked up to join them. Leading the way were the Stormtroopers. As soon as they got a clear view of the front lawn of their late classmate's home, they then stopped, their eyes bugging out of their skulls as they took in the scene before them.
"No way . . . " Megane gasped for them all.
On the lawn right now were ten young women, ranging in age from seventeen to about eight, all dressed in a wide panorama of school uniforms. Accompanying them were ten older women, clearly the younger girls' mothers. Moroboshi Kinshou herself was lying flat on her face on the front porch, moans escaping her as another older woman stepped out to glare her down. "Damn! I just knew leaving poor Muchin with this selfish bitch was just going to cause trouble!"
"Ikuko-chan," one of the other mothers standing there, she standing beside a tall, shapely girl with royal blue eyes and caramel hair tied in twin stringy ponytails down past her hips, called out. "No use ranting to her now."
A tremor passed through the muscles over Tanenobu Ikuko's eyes as she considered that point, and then she gazed at Sukeyama Ryooko. "You have a point there, Ryooko-chan." She then called out to the others on the front lawn, "Girls! Let's get inside now! We're starting to attract the wrong type of crowd!"
She fired a knowing look at the crowd outside the gates, they all quickly ducking away from the accusatory look Ataru's real mother -- Was this Moroboshi Ataru's real mother? -- sent their way. The vilest look was reserved for the Stormtroopers. As the younger girls took those words in, they nodded as they moved to head inside. Ryooko's daughter, as she moved to guide her siblings inside, was quick to spot Megane and his friends. She then scowled as she spat out, "You're right about that, Oba-chan! The four traitors to the human race are here!"
An explosion decked the Stormtroopers! "'TRAITORS TO THE HUMAN RACE?!'" Megane screamed out in shock, he staring wide-eyed at the woman who had called them that.
In answer, the second-youngest of the crowd, a girl with platinum hair tied in four small buns on the back of her head, she dressed in a dull yellow seifuku with a beret perched on her head, then walked over to stare disapprovingly at them. Seeing her glare, the Stormtroopers -- even Megane -- felt their hearts chill as they seemed to take an involuntary step away from her. Finally, the young girl sniffed as she turned her back on them, and then she said in a French-accented voice, "You're very bad people! Betraying Nii-ya like you did!" She turned back to wag an accusing finger at them. "Shame on you! Shame on you for what you did to Nii-ya! Bad people!"
With a sorrowful sob, she then turned and hurried inside. The crowd by the front gate watched them go, and then they turned to stare on the Stormtroopers. All of who currently looked as if they all had just taken a hard kick right in the nuts, that followed by a backbreaking punch to the guts. "Nasty girls!" one fellow noted.
"Got that right," another man said.
"Chikage-chan, much that I really do like hearing that I actually now have family to live with, I still have to ask you this: HOW?!"
Shadow -- her real name was Hirosaki Chikage, daughter of Moroboshi Muchi's magically inclined ex-high school classmate, Hirosaki Jalynda (as Tariko now knew) -- tittered in amusement as she and Corsair relaxed in Moroboshi Ataru's room. The room itself had been sealed off magically by the former when she had teleported herself and her transformed half-sibling there from Azabu-Juuban; no one could ascertain that they were there. The room itself was unchanged since Ataru had last been in it the previous evening after supper -- save for the obvious signs that indicated that Lum had taken everything she had in here, plus her annoying cousin Jariten, with her when she had fled back to Uru after she had been scared off Earth thanks to the Doctor.
"Easily explained, Ane-kun," the sorceress replied. "Your stepmother, it turns out, was the daughter of a hibakusha from Hiroshima. When she was born some years after the Enola Gay made her visit, Kinshou appeared to be a normal healthy baby girl. It wasn't until she and our father were engaged to be married that, when she visited a doctor, the truth came out: the walls of her uterus were simply incapable of holding a foetus to term. She could still conceive, but no foetus could survive more than a week in her womb."
Tariko took that in, and then she breathed out, "Okay! After hearing that, I can understand the surrogate mother idea. Hell, the Emperors of the past all had concubines to ensure they could carry on the Imperial line! And maybe now I can understand Karen-chan and her calling me 'Onii-chan' when we met at Dad's high school reunion in Okayama three years back." An eyebrow arched. "But how on Earth does it explain the rest of you girls? I just can't see Dad being that type of stud when he was our age!"
Another titter. "Our mothers actually viewed him as, to quote Sakuya-chan, 'prime beefcake' when he was our age," Chikage stated before she turned to glance in the direction of the living room, where her mother and the other sisters' mothers were gathering to fawn over their mutual ex-boyfriend (and later surrogate father to their daughters). "Doesn't seem that now, ne?"
Tariko slowly nodded, she quickly warming up to the idea of actually having no sort of genetic or emotional ties to the former Yamaguchi Kinshou, either as herself or what she once had as Moroboshi Ataru. And it also explained the family name the Doctor had chosen for Tariko; that was also the name of Tanenobu Ikuko and her daughter Karen, the aspiring young pianist Tariko (as Ataru) had met three years ago. "She broke him, in other words."
"Most likely," Chikage acknowledge that with a nod.
"So how did you get your powers?"
"Excuse me?"
"Your powers? I'm a doll of the Doll House underneath all this, Chikage-chan." Tariko pointed to her chest underneath her Jewel in emphasis. "And I know a Yizibajohei when I smell one. So what's going on?"
Chikage stared at her, and then she smirked . . .
(Posted Thu, 28 Sep 2006 01:19)
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