"…did you know that genetically, you yourself are Yizibajohei?"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"Excuse me?!" a wide-eyed Ataru gasped.
An amused smile crossed the Doctor's face. "What do you remember of your life before Lum came to Earth, Ataru? What do you REALLY remember about it?"
The younger man blinked in confusion, and then he hummed. "Well, before Lum came here, I was just a normal student at Tomobiki High School. I was dating Shinobu-chan at the time — we've known each other since we were kids — and…" A shrug. "That's it!" He stared anew at the strange man with the burning eyes. "So how the…?"
He stopped on seeing that the visitor was shaking his head. "Ataru, you've been effectively brainwashed and made to believe you were a normal Terran," he stated. "Yes, you were born here. Yes, you are the only child of Moroboshi Muchi and his wife, the former Yamaguchi Kinshō. But shortly after your sixth birthday, a distant paternal relative of yours found you playing alone in the park nearby." He crossed his arms. "He was actually then the host of a being that could — within reason — be addressed as this planet's first true artificial intelligence. An entity known far and wide as the Saikō Jinseijutsu…though she later became known as…"
"Onē-san…!"
The Doctor stopped on seeing Ataru suddenly turn as white as a ghost as his eyes went wide for a moment before his body started to shake. As the Yizibajohei-gifted Terran watched, his own meta-senses picking up what was now happening inside the younger man's body, he could only shake his head. "Such fools…" he hissed out…
At a nearby encampment…
"No…!"
Now as pale as the young lad whose soul he had been trying to save from the demons, devils and other supernatural beings that had haunted Moroboshi Ataru for years — no thanks to a creature that was truly the darkest of all Kami — Cherry shuddered as his own meta-senses picked up the radiating waves of shattering magical bonds and memory blocks that had been employed on Ataru some time prior to the First Tag Race. While the aged Buddhist monk hadn't fully learned the true motives of those people who had enchanted Ataru like that, the fact that the foolish boy — at SIX YEARS OF AGE! — had sworn the devil's agreement known as the "Promise of Bunka Go-nen"…!
Moving quickly for someone his age, he drew out his prayer beads and his shakujō, and then he raced off towards the Moroboshi home.
Hopefully, he would be on time…
"KONTŌ!"
The Doctor stepped back as a tidal wave of ki exploded from Ataru's right arm to form the burning image of an enchanted katana, and then he winced as the younger man spun the blade and plunged it right into his forehead!
In the skies over Tomobiki…
"TCHA!"
Everyone jolted on hearing that pained scream, and then they turned…
"LUM!" Benten cried out as the Oni collapsed to the deck, looking as if someone had snuck up behind her to pound her hard with a ki-mallet!
Instantly, people were racing over to render aid…
In the streets of Nerima near the border between Tomobiki…
"Oh, my Heavens…!"
One of the young wizards of the Kantō Magical Association perked on hearing that gasp from the elderly Englishman amongst them, and then he looked over. "Dumbledore-kōchōsensei, what's wrong?!" he asked as he moved to place a steadying hand on Albus Dumbledore's shoulder. "What is it? What do you sense?!"
Dumbledore blinked as he used his mage-sight to gaze towards the Moroboshi home; his decades of experience dealing with many forms of dark magic — including those types of magic that almost all of his native society had NEVER heard of! — had honed his body to the point where even a minor shift of magical energy would be felt. "Oh, my…" the aged headmaster of Hogwarts breathed out before he gazed on the younger man beside him. "You never said anything about Ataru being under some sort of geas!"
Silence.
"A geas…?" the younger wizard gasped.
Quickly sensing that this poor fellow had no idea what was going on, Dumbledore shifted his shoulder to make him let go, and then he apparated away with a crack!…
"Oh, man…"
The Doctor sighed, and then he perked before a sharp explosive noise of air being harshly displaced echoed from one corner of the room, revealing an elderly man in quite decorative robes, a pointed wizard's hat on his head of silver hair. As he gazed over, his burning eyes seemed to sparkle with hidden amusement. "Hello, Albus."
Silence.
Dumbledore stared in shock at the other man in the room before his blue eyes went wide with recognition. "Grigori…?" he breathed out. "What are YOU doing here?!"
"Putting a stop to what the so-called 'Men in Black' did to Ataru prior to the First Tag Race to ensure he was vulnerable and pliable when Lum came," the Doctor mused as the young man at one corner of the room shook his head to clear the cobwebs. "You don't know this, Albus, but Ataru was the fifty-seventh person to swear the Promise of Bunka Go-nen and allow the essence of the Saikō Jinseijutsu to be inserted into his subconscious mind. I chanced upon them shortly afterward and took them to a planet named Yiziba, where I was transformed into what I am now after learning I was about to be killed under the Specialised Warfare Regiment's Omega Directive."
Dumbledore gaped. "What?!" Having fought alongside the World War Two-era incarnation of the Regiment — the 1st Canadian Specialised Warfare Unit, nicknamed the "War Hawks" — in various battles that led up to the Battle of Nurmengard when the-then transfiguration professor of Hogwarts had finally defeated his would-be lover Gellert Grindelwald, he was fully aware of what personnel of the Canadian Armed Forces' counter-paranormal and counter-metahuman defence unit was all too capable of doing. "So you suffered from ebony meson poisoning! So did Master Hosan, Dean's very own adopted father and the Lady Negako's creator! Where on Earth was Dean in the middle of all this?!"
"Unfortunately for me at the time this was detected, off-planet," the man born years ago as Grigori Wyszynski answered. "After she officially retired from her career in the Canadian Army in 1954, Deannette went off-planet to begin training other Jewel Warriors in the use of the Seekers' Gifts." As the visiting headmaster of Hogwarts nodded, the Doctor took a deep breath. "Fortunately for me, a Yizibajohei 'recruiting agent' who adopted the battle-name 'Shepherd' found me before elements of the 5th Defence Squadron came to end my life, then whisked me off to that planet to be 'gifted' with metahuman abilities…and, by extension, de-crystallise the ebony meson in my blood to ruby meson." As Dumbledore nodded in understanding, the Doctor then smiled as a groaning Ataru slowly got to his feet. "I trust your memories have been restored, Ataru?"
A tired sigh. "Where's Onē-san, Wyszynski-sensei?" the Terran onigokko champion then demanded in a voice that was so full of outrage, it made Dumbledore take a step back.
"On Yiziba, where you last left her in Habitation One," the Doctor replied. "I wasn't alerted to your NOT returning back to Yiziba just a few weeks ago Earth-time. I apologise for not coming for you sooner; my responsibilities to others kept me distracted enough to not look in on you." He then smirked. "Then again, you always were pretty devoted in helping other people across the Earth receive their own Gifts. Even if you yourself — much to the shock of those native-born Yizibajohei still alive on the planet now — never accepted a Gift from the Crystal of Power."
Ataru blinked, and then he chuckled. "After having Onē-san in my head for almost ten years, Sensei, why would I need metahuman powers?" he wondered. "After all, doesn't the Batman work with the Justice League? He's a normal man deep down."
A slight chuckle, which made Dumbledore — who had done a brief scan of the Doctor with the Elder Wand, getting a result which had made the elderly archmage gape in shock — stare in surprise at the other man. "True, he is. And while I personally hope the time will come that the natives of Earth will evolve into a race of metahumans such as the natives of Yiziba did millennia ago, I do respect those who would choose NOT to receive a Gift." A sigh. "In the meantime, let me…"
"EVIL SPIRIT! BEGONE!"
Dumbledore's wand snapped over. "REDUCTO!"
An explosion later sent Cherry flying into the evening sky. "It's Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate…!" the elderly monk wailed as he disappeared in a flash of energy.
Ataru smirked. "Thanks, Kōchō-sensei!" he said as he stood up and brushed off his pyjamas, giving Dumbledore a grateful look.
The headmaster of Hogwarts blinked. "How on Earth did you know I was a headmaster at a school, dear boy? We've never met before."
Ataru blinked, and then he moaned. "Oh, hell! Not you too!"
Dumbledore himself blinked. "What?!"
"Albus, go to this location," the Doctor stated as he handed a folded sheet of paper to elderly archmage. "Seek out the person there, and then use a Finite Incantatem spell on that person. You'll understand then. I'll take Ataru to Yiziba to reunite her with Negako. Even if she hides her emotions well, she is concerned about her brother."
And with a flash of energy, both the Doctor and Ataru disappeared as Dumbledore opened the paper to gaze on the name and address written there. A moment later, his blue eyes went wide before he proceeded to apparate out of Ataru's bedroom, heading to…
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