"Ataru?! What are you doing up! Don't you . . .?"
The voice of Ataru's mother Kinshou screeched to a halt as she watched the young man currently cloaked in the dark burgundy and black jumpsuit of Rake step into his bedroom. Staring at her transformed son, Kinshou felt her mouth suddenly water as the subtle physical changes the Great Crystal of Power had unleashed on him not fifteen minutes before. While he still had the shaggy, messy brown-black hair he had been born with, it now had a rakish quality to it which would melt most women's hearts into mush. When you added that to the stylized moustache, dark five o'clock shadow, more chiselled facial features -- not to mention the more pronounced muscle structure which was quite apparent under his form-fitting clothes -- the only thing that was preventing the older woman from drooling in mad lust at the sight was the fact that this was still recognisably her own child. "A-a-Ataru . . .?" she squeaked.
Rake gazed on her for a moment, and then a contrite look crossed his face. "Okaa-san!" he called out as he walked over to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder, his other hand grasping her own. "Okaa-san, a thousand humble apologies for disturbing your sleep. It wasn't our intention to wake you up."
Feeling his touch sent a jolt of pure erotic fire through his mother's body, her knees nearly giving out from the onslaught of pheromones that was just leeching from every point in her transformed son's body. Barely able to get herself back in control, Kinshou fought down the urge to madly blush all the way to her toes as she asked, "W-wh-what ha-happened to y-you . . .?"
"Many wonderful things, Okaa-san," Rake assured her as he moved to wave around them. "For example, I trust you've taken notice of what's missing now."
Kinshou blinked, and then she looked around the room. The most glaring change was quite apparent to her. "The mushrooms are gone."
"From all of Tomobiki, Okaa-san. They will threaten us no more."
Kinshou's eyes widened. "Did you finally confess to Lum-chan?"
A pained look crossed his face. "I could not, Okaa-san. Much that I do love and care for her, to make such a public admission of such . . . " He tried not to make a face as he finished: "Would have been to surrender to her attempts at ecological terrorism. It had to be stopped, Okaa-san. Fortunately, I was able to find a way to stop it without any harm to anyone involved."
"How?!" she demanded.
"Because of me, Okaa-san."
Kinshou blinked, and then she turned to stare at the doorway leading to Ataru's patio deck. Standing there was a girl Ataru's age, draped in a slate-grey bodysuit, it possessing flared sleeves and leggings, with a white infinity symbol on her chest. Once she took that in, she looked at the woman's face, and then she gasped as the familiar features came to her. "A-a-Ataru . . .?" she sputtered out before the sensory overload finally got to her.
Rake was quick to prevent her from cracking her head open on the floor. "Nee-chan, I do believe we need some tea made up."
"Hai!" Infinity agreed with a giggle and a nod.
Sometime later . . .
"So because of that time when you ate the lollypop Lum-chan once gave you, then ate the cake Cherry made -- when you became twins -- the life-energy didn't disappear when you were brought back together again," Kinshou recapped. She was currently in the living room with her transformed son and her -- well, daughter! -- seated across the table, tea served for all. "So when this Destructo-sensei took you to this Yiziba planet, it was able to transform you, Ataru, into this . . . " -- she tried not to blush yet again as her eyes took in Rake's features -- " . . . and at the same time, created you." She then stared at Infinity. After they nodded, she then asked, "Is there a way . . .?"
"To restore us back to normal?" Infinity finished. "No, Okaa-san, not this time. I doubt even with all his arcane knowledge, Cherry couldn't do anything to overwhelm something created by the Great Crystal."
"Besides, Okaa-san, haven't you often wished for a daughter?" Rake asked, and then he indicated his sister. "Well, here she is."
Kinshou jolted, and then her cheeks reddened. "True . . . " She then gazed once more on her children. "But last time, you were twin boys! How . . .?"
"It's because that for this current generation of Infinity, I have to be a girl," Infinity replied. "I'm the twenty-sixth in the line since the Dawn of Power. All evens have to be girls. Odds are boys."
A blink. "Is this true for all people from this planet?"
"No," Rake answered. "There are some lines that are gender-specific regardless of the incarnation. Mine, for example. It would be seen as very queer for a female Raze to appear. My female 'counterpart,' so to speak, is Courtesan. That's a separate line from my own, Okaa-san." He then hummed before staring at his sister. "Still, it is odd, don't you think . . .?"
"Why didn't I become the next Courtesan?" Infinity finished for him. "She's already alive and around, Nii-chan. Not available."
"Ah!"
Surprised that her children were taking this so easily, Kinshou then shook her head. "Well, that's fine and fair enough, but how on Earth are we going to explain this to your father . . .?"
And sure enough, almost in answer to Kinshou's words, the front door then opened and closed, revealing Moroboshi Muchi. "Tadaima!"
"There's Otou-san right now," Infinity said.
After slipping off his shoes and putting on slippers, Muchi walked inside -- and then he stopped, his face turning stark white on seeing the transformed Ataru, not to mention the female Ataru sitting beside him. "Okaeri nasai, Otou-san!" both Rake and Infinity called back.
Muchi blinked, blinked again, and then his whole body began to twitch. "Dear, how could you . . .?" he feebly whimpered as he sank to his knees. "All these years . . .! Hiding another man's child . . .!"
"ANATA NO BAKA!" Kinshou shrieked.
"BAKA AHOU OTOU-SAN!" Infinity yelled at him.
"OTOU-SAN, YOU CAD! HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE OKAA-SAN OF SUCH A THING!" Rake added.
Overwhelmed by the shouts coming at him from his wife, his son and the other girl in the room, Muchi passed out. Then, recalling what her son had just said to her husband, Kinshou felt her cheeks redden as she glanced briefly at Rake. This might be something I can get used to, she mused to herself before rising to help her husband.
"There we go," Muchi said as he lowered the Moroboshi Family Registry -- the book had been teleported to the house by Infinity from its storage place deep inside the offices of the National Registrar -- to his lap. "All filled in."
The others in the room gathered around him, they looking at the entry headed with the kanji for "Tariko" ("other village child"). "I still find the name a little hard to accept, Tariko-chan," Kinshou noted.
"It describes me perfectly, Okaa-san," Tariko admitted. She had used her powers to transform her clothes from her fighting uniform into a stylish halter-top and slacks. "Even though I have all of Nii-chan's memories and feelings, I'm influenced a lot more by all my prior reincarnations as Infinity as he would be by all the prior reincarnations of Rake. I've been 'around,' so to speak, twenty-five times before. Compared to that, Nii-chan . . . "
"Is something of a spring chicken," Ataru, who had transformed back into his pyjamas, finished for his sister. "Only four reincarnations for me."
"Why so few?" Muchi asked as he handed the Family Registry to Tariko, who teleported it back to where it belonged.
"Unlike many of my peers, I'm something of an 'only comes when needed' type of Yizibajohei," Ataru admitted. "My time only comes when there is a gross imbalance between males and females. You'll recall, Okaa-san, how off-balanced Sensei said it has become these days."
"At least 249 boys for every 100 girls," Kinshou repeated that fact.
"Do you actually expect to be able to recruit girls to become Yizibajohei, Ataru?" Muchi asked.
"It shouldn't be too difficult, Otou-san," Ataru asserted. "The one thing Sensei is trying to drive above all else is to give people the chance to be more in control over their lives than before. After all, how many times, whenever things have gone totally out of control, have you felt helpless? Felt as if there was nothing you could do to protect yourselves even more? There were many times I felt that -- and I was often in the middle of it all, either by choice or by accident!" He sighed, staring at his hands. "At least now, I feel safer and more secure!"
"But what about Lum-chan, son?" Muchi asked. "What are you going to do with her? That message Tariko-chan sent to her was pretty intimidating!"
"Otou-san, we both love Lum very much," Tariko answered. "And yes, we would gladly ensure that she would be welcome in our lives."
"But to actually marry Lum . . .!" Ataru added. "Lock my life in with her and only with her for the rest of my days . . .?" He tried not to look ill. "It's a loathsome concept to me, Otou-san! Especially now!"
"And I'm not too keen on the idea either," Tariko said. "I'm only seventeen, Otou-san. I'm not interested in having my life confined like that. Look what happened to both of you when you got married!" She waved at their parents. "All the fun went out of your lives!" To Muchi. "You slaving away day-in and out at work, never having the chance to enjoy yourself or do anything you want to do!" To Kinshou. "And look at you, Okaa-san! Whatever happened to the fun-loving girl who tore up Tomobiki High School twenty years ago?!"
The older people stared in shock at their children as they rose to head to bed. "Given the lateness of the hour, I think it's time we retired," Ataru said. "Please have a good evening. We'll see you in the morning."
"'Night," Tariko said before they headed upstairs.
Muchi and Kinshou remained in place as their children headed into what was once just Ataru's bedroom. After the door slid closed behind them, the latter then gazed on the former. "Has it gotten better or worse?" she wondered.
"Can't say," he muttered as he reached for his newspaper.
"Think we convinced them this time?" Tariko asked as she willed her clothes into a pair of flannel pyjamas. "Or is it going to be more of 'I wish I never had you!' from Okaa-san and muttering nonsense from Otou-san?"
"Hard to say," Ataru muttered as they headed to bed . . .
(Posted Mon, 01 Oct 2007 17:23)
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