"So what do you plan to do with yourself, Tariko-chan?" Shinobu asked before she took a sip of her tea after she had helped her hosts clear the breakfast table. "I mean, even if you've been added to your family's register, there're no records on you whatsoever. Are you thinking of . . .?"
"Making the records appear out of nowhere with a snap of the fingers?" Tariko finished, and then she giggled. "That would be pretty easy for me to do. But it might be smart for me to keep in the background for the time being. With Lum sent back to her planet like she did, there's the chance that she -- or someone we don't know of who could be supporting her -- might try to storm back . . .!"
Her voice faded as her eyes suddenly widened, an ill feeling surging through her. Shinobu and Ataru were both quick to notice. "What is it, Nee-chan?" the latter asked as he reached over to touch her shoulder.
Tariko jolted on that contact, and then she gasped as she moved to shove her brother and his ex-girlfriend to the floor. "GET DOWN!"
They make it just in time; the living room windows exploded inward a second later as a limber form in black leather soared in, barely missing Tariko's head by centimetres. He ploughed into the far wall, leaving a fair-sized hole in it leading to the back yard. As the house quaked almost to the point of collapse, Tariko bolted to her feet, mentally willing her clothes to transform into her fighting costume. "Dominator!" she then hissed out.
Surging back into the living room is a man who instantly reminded both Ataru and Shinobu of Fujinami Ryuunosuke, both in physical looks and in the general way he carried himself; a tough scrapper ready to fight at the drop of a proverbial hat. His uniform was composed of form-fitting slacks bloused into buccaneer boots, an open-front vest being the only other article of clothing he had save for a steel-studded neck choker, arm and wrist bands. Immediately focusing on the woman in grey, he snarled, "Infinity. Long time, no see. You look well!"
"What are YOU doing here?!" Infinity demanded.
A snort. "What do you think?" With that, he lunged at her . . .
Only to get a table smashed into his head by Shinobu! "YOU MONSTER!"
The only reaction from the newcomer was an amused smirk as he looked at her. "Ouch," he said.
Shinobu cried out as his fist whizzed at her face. Infinity's hand intercepted it with an ear-shattering slap! before the Terran's skull would have been smashed into powder by the impact. "OUT!" she yelled as she flung him out the original hole he had made on arrival. "We're taking this outside!"
She flew out after him. Shinobu was frozen stiff, her face white with shock as her mind tried to wrap around what just happened. Ataru quickly moved to help her back down as Kinshou ran out from the kitchen. "Ataru, who was THAT?!"
"The Dominator," he explained as he took Shinobu's hands in his own, his empathy reaching out to embrace her. "When he's female, he goes by 'Dominatrix.' Power-wise, he's nearly Nee-chan's equal. He also is quite addicted to engaging in some of the more brutal fight scenes you can imagine."
Shinobu blinked several times as the initial shock finally wore off, and then she found herself staring at her former boyfriend. "Um . . . Ataru-kun, how brutal is 'brutal?'" she then asked in a somewhat-level voice.
"The 'devastate whole planets' level," he honestly answered.
Shinobu stared at him before her eyes rolled into her head, the strength in her body fading as she passed out in his arms. Ataru sighed. "She took that quite well, I think," he said as he gave Kinshou a wry look.
"Hey, guys! She IS here! Let's fight!"
"Oh, hell!" Infinity moaned on seeing four other figures race towards her from various points on the compass. Remembering that regardless of his own power level, the Dominator rarely acted as a lone heel, she threw up a shield to intercept Cyclotron's nuclear blast and deflect it harmlessly into space. "Couldn't you idiots've saved this fight scene for when I got back?"
"You're back now, darlin'!" Carcajou howled with mad glee as he lashed out with his fists of energy claws, barely missing contact with Infinity's ribs. "That's good enough for us, especially since it IS you that's back!"
"Hey!" Infinity yelped. "Watch it with the claws!"
"Try to subdue her, Manacle!" the Dominator yelled as he soared up to join them.
Infinity jolted, freezing for a second before she willed herself to vanish before Manacle -- whose ability to temporarily dampen anyone's paranormal powers matched Oblivion's ability to permanently erase them -- could grab her. A second later, Infinity appeared above and behind Manacle to dive-bomb on him feet-first. The impact sent him flying face-first into Dominator's gut, that sending both of them hurtling into the empty lot where Ran had once parked her ship! The impact sent a 5.5 jolt through Tomobiki as a plume of dirt and dust flew into the air.
Infinity, unfortunately, doesn't have time to ascertain how bad it is before Cyclotron sends another blast her way from above. "Shit!" she gasped as she forged a bubble of energy to catch the oncoming storm of rampant power and send it once more harmlessly into space. That distraction is enough for a car pitched at her by Trebuchet to slam into her back, sending her flying through the air towards the Tarouzakura hill located in the south end of the city.
"Get her!" Carcajou yelled.
The others surged off in hot pursuit.
"Are they trying to kill her?!" Kinshou gasped.
She and Ataru -- after he had carried the unconscious Shinobu into his bedroom so she could recover -- had watched what had happened from the front lawn of the Moroboshi home. "With Dominator, it's hard to tell, Okaa-san," he replied. "His addiction to experiencing pain drives him to challenge everyone he even thinks is more powerful than him. He's always had a very profound inferiority complex." His eyes then widened. "Unless it's because of the Doll House . . . "
Kinshou stared at him. "The what . . .?"
"I'll let Nee-chan explain it to you when the fight scene's over with."
"The new tree is quite beautiful, Shuutarou-kun."
"Thank you, Oba-san," Mendou Shuutarou said with a graceful bow, and then he found himself staring at his intended fiancée, Mizunokooji Asuka, for a moment.
Seeing Asuka give him a shy smile in return, both Mendou's mother Haruka and Asuka's mother Saeko exchanged a knowing look. Accompanied by Haruka's ever-present personal valet/human parrot, plus a troupe of Mendou Kuromegane and Mizunokooji Kurotenshi bodyguards, the would-be couple had been taking a tour of the hill, whose restoration from the events in the Tomobiki Pseudo War had just been completed. While Asuka's androphobia was still quite acute -- as witness the fact that she was currently wearing the special glasses given to her by her headmistress at Keppeki Girl's Junior High School -- being around an acknowledged "onii-sama" like Mendou pretty much guaranteed things would stay calm around her.
The thoughts of both matriarchs were quite alike: Now, if only that Moroboshi fellow doesn't appear . . .!
Wishful thinking.
"HEAD'S UP!"
Everyone looked up on hearing the shout from above, and then they gasped on seeing a brown-haired woman in a grey jumpsuit fly down to smash into the ground right where the new Tarouzakura's trunk entered the ground, the impact creating a rather deep hole in the ground! As another powerful tremor ripped through Tomobiki as a result, the young cherry blossom tree was ripped in half by the shock. Everyone nearby was thrown off their feet -- or in the case of Mendou Haruka, tossed off her ox! -- as the person who had just joined them surged out of the hole.
Infinity threw up a shield to intercept a whole troop of Mendou Leopard II tanks thrown at her by Trebuchet -- who had grabbed them from the Panzer Division's caserne when he had leapt after his companions from the area of the Moroboshi home -- not to mention another blast of energy from Cyclotron. As the tanks were flung aside and the energy blast sent flying into space, Carcajou ran up to get close and personal. "Time ta cough it up, darlin'!"
Seeing the snarling man in brown-and-white, utterly bulging with muscles to say anything of those wicked energy claws sheathing his fingers, Asuka shrieked out as her fist flew at the newcomer's head, "A MAN!"
The impact sent Carcajou flying into the sky to slam into Cyclotron, that sending them both flying off in the direction of Tomobiki High School. By then, both Manacle and the Dominator had appeared on the scene, Trebuchet right behind them. "SUBDUE HER!" the Dominator screamed as he pointed at Infinity.
"MEN!" Asuka shrieked as she grabbed the fallen Tarouzakura to swing his way.
The Dominator laughed as a hand lashed out to shatter the trunk below the lowest level of branches, that pulverizing the rest of the tree.
"Damn . . .!" a dizzy Carcajou groaned as he tried to peel his way out from under an unconscious Cyclotron. "I think that babe . . . likes me . . .!"
"GO AWAY!" Asuka shrieked as she lashed out with a fist.
It impacted the Dominator's jaw, causing his whole head to shake for a second. The blow nearly shattered the poor girl's hand bones on skin that was tougher than even depleted uranium, causing Asuka to wail in pain as she collapsed to the dirt. On seeing that, the Kurotenshi sprang into action. "DEFEND THE YOUNG MISTRESS!" their leader, Makige Kinko, screamed as she levelled her Maschinenpistole 40 on the black-clad stranger, her finger pulling the trigger.
The Dominator blinked as the storm of nine-millimetre slugs slammed into his chest and abdomen, and then laughter escaped him as the other Kurotenshi and several of the Kuromegane poured it on. Even Trebuchet and Manacle, both of whom were also pretty much impervious to normal weapons, found themselves snickering at the stupid norms' attempt at subduing them. "Oh, that doesn't even tickle!" the Dominator said as he flexed his muscles dramatically, allowing more of those little hornets to carry on their conversation in Braille over his skin.
"This will, shit-for-brains!"
He jolted. "Eh . . .?"
Infinity's foot impacted him right between the legs, making his voice shoot up into his throat as he found himself bound for the stratosphere! A second later, both Trebuchet and Manacle joined him thanks to likewise kicks placed down there. Once they were gone, Infinity waved her hand to create a space-warp ahead of her three opponents. In a flash of light, they vanished from the sky. As the Mendou and Mizunokooji bodyguards checked fire, the grey-clad woman then gestured in the direction of Tomobiki High School.
"HEY!" Carcajou yelped as he and Cyclotron both found themselves being yanked into the sky and sucked through a space-time tunnel to appear once more over Yiziba.
Watching them depart from the grounds of Tomobiki High School was Fujinami Ryuunosuke and Shiowatari Nagisa, both of whom had been drawn outside on hearing the two Yizibajohei heels slam into the front yard of the school property. "Who the FUCK were they, anyway?!" the former then demanded.
The latter could only shake his head in wonderment.
Infinity breathed out on sensing that all of them were safety thousands of light-years away from Earth. Straightening herself, she then gestured with her hand to restore the Tarouzakura back to the way it was before the battle started, not to mention repair the damage in Asuka's hand. Once that was done, she leapt into the sky and vanished in a flash of light. "WAIT!" Mendou called out after her.
To no avail.
"Who WAS that, anyway?!" Mizunokooji Saeko demanded.
"It is hard to say, Mistress Saeko," Mendou Haruka's valet parroted his mistress' words in response as he joined his companions in looking to the sky.
"Okaa-san, tadaima!"
A flash of light inundated the Moroboshi home for a moment as Infinity made repairs to the living room, and then she shifted her clothes back to normal. "Okaeri nasai, Tariko-chan," Kinshou called back as she and Ataru followed Tariko into the living room, where . . .
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Fri, 05 Oct 2007 02:44)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.