"Would you want Lum to come back?"
Ataru perked on hearing Sakura's question, and then he sighed. Before he could answer, though, the thunder of fists on the front door echoed in the living room. He turned to gaze that way, and then he rose. "Excuse me please, Sakura-sensei," he apologised to the miko before walking to the door. "We have visitors."
Opening the door, he moved to ask what was going on. A pair of hands immediately grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and then he found himself looking VERY closely into the face of his would-be wife's most fanatic native supported. "MOROBOSHI ATARU, YOU BASTARD! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO LUM-SAN?!"
Clearly not impressed by Megane's bluster, Ataru sighed as he reached up to grab his classmate around his wrists. Now, were Ataru still just a normal Terran, this wouldn't have hurt Megane too much and would most likely send the leader of Lum's Stormtroopers into an even worse frenzy. But now, Ataru was physically Yizibajohei. And while he didn't possess any special physical powers such as that of the Dominator or Trebuchet, his strength was still many times that of a normal Terran. Which Megane was quick to notice, as witness the blood draining from his face as vise-like clamps threatened to crush both his wrists. "Kindly unhand me, Satoshi-san," Ataru said as he shoved his classmate away, sending Megane flying into Chibi and both sprawling onto the ground. "I've no time to have my hearing hurt because something happened to your precious 'Lum-san' . . . " -- he said the Oni's name with enough scorn to cover the grounds of the Moroboshi home -- " . . . which you clearly don't approve of."
Megane didn't hear him; he was curling into himself as he tried to bring some comfort to his bruised arms. Chibi was trying to pull himself out from under his friend's body. Having seen that, both Paama and Kakugari looked hesitant. Having known Ataru for some time prior to the First Tag Race, the core members of the Stormtroopers had a pretty good idea of what their classmate was and was not capable of doing. Speaking in such a formal way, much less tossing Megane aside like a rag doll, was clearly categorised in the latter column.
Before they could react, a white, World War Two-vintage Steyr 1500A staff car came to a stop before the front gates of the house. The driver quickly got out to open the passenger door. Ataru was quick to see who it was. "Good morning to you, Shuutarou-san," he hailed as Mendou Shuutarou stepped out to walk through the front gateway. "And what brings you here to see me? Or need I guess?"
Mendou halted on hearing his rival's greeting, and then he paused as he stared at Ataru, his eye for detail quickly detecting some of the minor yet still obvious physical changes the man had undergone over the last twenty-four hours. That didn't include the shock he now felt on hearing the man actually address him by given and not family name. "Moroboshi . . .?" he began.
Ataru sighed. "Please come inside. We're having tea with Sakura-sensei and Shinobu-san is visiting as well." He stared at Megane. "Behave, Satoshi-san. We're not interested in listening to your mindless verbal diarrhoea today. If you do not, I will ask Nee-chan to take away your voice."
With that, he headed inside. Mendou and the Stormtroopers exchanged looks.
Yet another detailed explanation later . . .
"How COULD you?!" Megane gasped.
Ataru blinked before he took a sip of his tea. Tariko and Shinobu sat to either side of him. Sakura and Kinshou were off to one side, both of them keeping an eye on the five men who, for good and ill, had often proven themselves to be the primary external sources of trouble for Ataru when it came to Lum. While Mendou was stealing stunned glances to Tariko -- he had been quick to recognise her as the woman who had saved his and Mizunokooji Asuka's lives at the Tarouzakura earlier that day -- the Stormtroopers look like they had taken a collective kick in the testicles. "How could I?" Ataru then asked. "Let me reverse that question, Satoshi-san: How could you continue to support Lum in the wake of her threatening to erase the memories of everyone in Tomobiki -- including all of you, by the way . . . " -- he glared at each of the Stormtroopers in turn -- " . . . so she could make me capitulate to her like she desired?"
"BY THREATENING HER WITH THE ONE RACE HER PEOPLE ARE SCARED TO DEATH OF?!" Megane shrieked. "BY ACTUALLY BECOMING ONE OF THEM?! BY ACTUALLY THROWING HER OFF THE PLANET, NOT GIVING HER A CHANCE TO DEFEND HERSELF . . .?!"
Tariko's fingers snapped. Megane continued to rant and rave -- yet to everyone else in the room, nothing came out of his mouth. Seeing that, the other three women in the room began to laugh. The other Stormtroopers and Mendou were staring wide-eyed at their classmate as he continued his tirade. It took Megane a minute to realise what had happened, and then, glaring at Tariko, he whipped out a wooden sign. [BITCH! GIVE ME BACK MY VOICE!]
WHAM! That was Shinobu smashing Megane over the head with the living room table. "DON'T BE SO INSULTING, YOU PIG!" she shrieked. "IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU THAT WE HAD TO PUT UP TO LUM IN THE FIRST PLACE!"
Another sign wobbled up from the pile of humanity on the floor. [THAT DIDN'T HURT . . .!]
The other Stormtroopers wisely kept their mouths shut; they had been involved in that incident with the space-taxi that Shinobu was clearly alluding to. "Ne, Nii-chan, do you think we should take Shinobu-chan over to see the Conservator?" Tariko then asked Ataru, a coy smile crossing her face. "I was right earlier; she would make the perfect Rampage."
Ataru hummed. "You make an interesting point, Nee-chan. And with Shinobu-san's very fine moral upbringing, this would be one Rampage who would be clearly on the side the faces." He stared at a now-madly blushing Shinobu. "Shinobu-san, would you care to partake? We can resolve the matter in less than five minutes."
Shinobu acked. "W-well . . .!"
"Moroboshi!" Mendou snapped, his hand twitching for his katana so he could make the other man a head shorter for what he had unleashed. "You have no right to force Shinobu-san to do what you just did!"
Ataru gave him an even stare in return. "I am not 'forcing' Shinobu-san to do anything, Shuutarou-san. I am merely suggesting she consider the offer. Becoming as powerful as Rampage would give her a clearly better sense of safety and self-assurance than what she possesses now. And since she is my friend, someone I still deeply love and care for, her welfare is my concern!"
Shinobu acked again. "A-a-Ataru-kun . . .!"
Mendou was taken aback by Ataru's tirade for a second before the familiar feelings he held for the latter surged back forth. Seeing him move to snap-draw his katana, Tariko raised her fingers to open view, middle finger and thumb poised to snap. "Even think of drawing your little toothpick, Sword-for-Brains, and I'll turn it into a rattlesnake. A very angry one at that," she warned.
Mendou acked as he literally moved as far from Tariko as he could. "It's quite obvious to me that on her creation, Tariko absorbed whatever negative emotions her brother must have felt towards everyone he dealt with before last night," Sakura then noted before she stared knowingly at Ataru. "Would you agree?"
"Hai, Sensei, I would," he affirmed with a nod. "While I realise now that Satoshi-san, Akira-san, Koosuke-san and Hiroyuki-san . . . " -- the last three were the given names of the other Stormtroopers (Chibi, Paama and Kakugari respectfully), which were almost unknown to most of their classmates -- " . . . are the way they are because they feel emotionally inadequate to seek out their own future life-mates, plus given the fact that Lum is an exceptionally attractive woman, Nee-chan (on the other hand) . . . "
"Look on your four losers as potential threats to the whole human race," Tariko finished for her brother. "If you idiots are still hell-bent on backing Lum even after she threatened to blank out your memories of her before I sent her back to Uru, then you've got some real big problems." Seeing them pale as they moved to shuffle away from her, Tariko's grin turn positively evil as she fixed Mendou with a stare. "But their problems won't be as bad as your problems will be should Carcajou ever decide to come back for another visit, Mendou. Remember that little punch Asuka-chan gave him earlier today . . .?" A shrug. "Well, knowing him, he'd consider that a 'love-tap.' It might make him more interested in seeing what she's all about. So if he comes back . . . "
"Oh, my, my, my!" Ataru said as he considered that possibility. "Shuutarou-san, a humble word of advice: If Carcajou does return, do not think of challenging him. Your katana would be rendered into slivers by his energy claws and your private army and Kuromegane would only provide him with a few minutes' distraction before he would literally gut you alive."
Mendou gargled at his rival's warning.
Minutes later, five dejected boys slowly shuffled their way out of the Moroboshi home. Watching them from the doorway, Ataru and Tariko politely waved good-bye. Once they were clear of the property, both headed back into the living room, where the others were waiting. "A truly distasteful task we just performed," Ataru lamented as the siblings sat down to finish their tea.
"You consider it 'distasteful?'" Kinshou asked.
A nod. "Hai, Okaa-san, I do. Much that there have been times I've hated the things they've done to me, they're not evil people. Shuutarou-san is just too badly influenced by his upbringing among his family's wealth and power to really understand how 'common' people such as we live."
"Remember how shocked he looked when we said that money has no value on Yiziba?" Tariko added as she gazed on Shinobu and Sakura.
Both of them nodded. "What about Megane and his friends?" Shinobu asked.
"They're denying it very well, but they realise that now, things have changed too much and they have no way of restoring them back to a state of affairs they would be comfortable with, Shinobu-san," Ataru explained. "For too long, whenever their presence has influenced events here in Tomobiki -- the matter with the oil-theft by that space-taxi company, of course -- they've never been made to face up to the consequences of their actions. They believed right up to now that their support of Lum justified their actions. And since Lum herself didn't challenge such matters (and I never thought of making her challenge it, unfortunately), her 'acceptance' of them just encouraged them more. But now . . . "
"Now there is no 'Lum-san' for them to venerate and on whose behalf they can act on," Sakura finished. "They'll loose whatever social influence they might have, especially among the boys at school. Threats against you are pretty much meaningless now and threats against Tariko is nothing short of suicide."
"The girls will be very happy at this turn of events," Shinobu then noted. "It's been their secret hope that somehow, some way, Lum would be forced off Earth and sent back home. You'll be a hero to them, Tariko-chan. And once they realise how much Ataru-kun's changed, they definitely won't mind that at all."
"Still, some restitution should be given to them, Shinobu-san," Ataru admitted as he scratched his chin. "But how can we do that . . .?"
"The only real thing of value we can offer them is to make them all Yizibajohei," Tariko noted. "That'll be too much for a lot of them."
"Hai, that is true," Ataru agreed as . . .
(Posted Mon, 08 Oct 2007 03:15)
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