Triton, the largest moon of Neptune…
"Heaven's most sincere blessings upon you, Lady K'ekhech."
"And to you as well, Minister of the Gates. Is the Warp Chamber prepared?"
"Set right to the place where the Princess' friend and her husband live, Lady."
A nod. "My thanks. I will go there now."
A small bag was placed on the control lectern situated right before the wormhole-like aperture of the Central Warp Chamber, the great alien device that, a thousand Earth-years before, had provided the route of escape for the starving and diseased remnants of the Neptunian race so they could live on the pristine moon of Triton and not die in the industrial sewer-pit that had been made of their homeworld thanks to a race so evil, it defied all description: the Seifukusu Dominion. Since that time, while the Neptunian race (to call them Tritonians was also correct, but out of respect for the sufferings the Seifukusu had unleashed on them, the former term was seen as politically correct) had recovered its population considerably and expanded out to colonies on Uranus, two of her moons (Titania and Oberon), as well as several moons of Saturn (Titan, Iapetus, Rhea and Dione, with a new one soon to arise on Telesto), Neptune itself remained a barren wasteland, its surface still poisoned by industrial waste and its native flora and fauna all but wiped out. Since joining the alliance known as the Galactic Federation (of which Uru, Fukunokami, Elle, Karasutengu and Yaminokuni were all member states), the leadership of Neptune had been promised many times that their allies would gladly help in a united clean-up of that world so her native population could at last return home. Those promises had yet to produce results save for hot air.
The Imperial Dominion of Noukiios, a galactic empire spanning a hundred worlds over a space equal in size to the Federation worlds combined, had also made offers to help in the cleanup in Neptune. Offers the minister in charge of the Warp Chamber knew were both honest and could be done in a very quick period of time. But every time such offers were made from Suchkyuk (Noukiios' capital city), loud diplomatic protests stormed the office of King Fuyu and Queen Samui, usually originating from the direction of Uru. For reasons the minister of the Chamber did not begin to understand, the Urusians were mortally afraid of an overt Noukiite hand in the Neptune-Earth system. It made no sense to him. Those Noukiites he had met over the years — like the lovely young woman who had just placed a bag of gold-pressed latinum on his control console to pay for her trip to Earth — were almost to an end unfailingly polite and respectful of other cultures, quite well-tempered and almost serene in their outlook on everything around them. What was so wrong with people like that?
"The Chamber needs a minute to fully energize and form the wormhole, Lady," he warned.
"Thank you," was the simple reply.
As he worked his controls, the minister took a moment to gaze upon the Lady K'ekhech. That was not her birth-name of course; in the rather word-intensive way Noukiites used to mark personal designations, she was Seu-P'ye Yesu-Re Hechnich'-K'ekhech. Dropping the caste prefix before the family name (Seu, short for Seup'uk or "Flower Youth"), birth/sex order prefix before the given name (Yesu, meaning "first daughter") and the courtesy name prefix (Hechnich' short for the term that meant "sacred true bone lady"), her name could be simplified as "Re P'ye, The Free Warrior Lady K'ekhech." She also had a childhood name, which she only allowed intimate friends to use. He didn't know it and knew it would be a grave insult to use that name as they were mere strangers. And it was stupid beyond belief to insult this woman.
For the Lady K'ekhech was "She Who Spoke To Dragons."
Her deeds were legendary, spoken to wide-eyed children across the cosmos.
Her battles with faces and heels from The Unspeakable Place.
Her hunting down of bandits all across the Noukiite Outmarches that faced the borders with the Galactic Federation worlds such as Uru, Fukunokami and Elle.
Her saving of starving animal flocks from natural disasters.
Her single-handedly wiping out enemy troops with one swipe of her great double-bladed polearm, the Cleaver of the Heavens.
Deeds that seem supernatural at every re-telling.
And yet…
In person, she seemed so…
Simple.
Truly strange.
A warning beacon flashed on the console. Seeing that, the minister then nodded. "The wormhole is open, Lady K'ekhech. May your journey be safe and without interruption."
"Thank you, again. Heaven's blessings upon you, Minister of the Gates."
With that, she stepped into the swirling snowy maelstrom of the Chamber…
…and then stepped into Ataru Moroboshi's and Lum Redet's bedroom in Tomobiki.
Pausing as she felt the greater pull of Earth's gravity on her body, Kyech — her childhood name, which she only allowed her true friends to use — took a deep breath, and then blinked as she looked down. She then frowned on seeing the rather big pile of snow on the floor, which was always the mark of the landing places the Central Warp Chamber was opened to when transiting between worlds. Summoning the Cleaver of the Heavens from her own mallet-space pocket, Kyech then made a gentle wave of the halberd, sending some of her own ki energy into a heat wave to evaporate the snow and dry off the floor. Not to mention the futons rolled up underneath the linen closet, which was where Ataru/Tariko and Lum normally left their larger items of clothing.
Once done, she proceeded to the door and slid it open to walk into the hallway just as Kinshô Moroboshi stepped out of the main bedroom, a pile of linens in hand. The older woman gasped on seeing the red-haired alien standing there, nearly tossing her laundry into the air. In a flash, Kyech was there, catching it all, and then she handed it back to the startled Kinshô. "Okâ-san," she said in accented Japanese, nodding in greetings.
Kinshô breathed out. "Kye-chan! You SCARED me! How did you get in here, anyway?!"
"The closet."
The older woman's eyebrow twitched. The Neptunians' warp chamber, which always made a huge mess when it was opened up into her child's bedroom. "Oh." A sigh. "Tariko and Lum-chan are currently on her ship enjoying some time alone."
"Arigatô."
With that, Kyech headed downstairs to walk out the front door. Kinshô watched her go, and then she shrugged as she turned to get the linens back to where they belonged. "Such a nice girl," she mused to herself. "I'm glad Tariko and Lum-chan are friends with her." She then frowned. "Hope she doesn't get hungry while she's here. Feeding her is such a chore…!"
Stepping outside, Kyech paused to take a breath of the air — and then tried not to gag on sensing the pollutants in the air — before she moved to walk through the front gate and onto the street. As she did this, she ignored the shocked and surprised looks from neighbours and passers-by, all of whom were taken aback by the sight of a red-haired (cut shaggily at mid-neck), chestnut-eyed woman in her early twenties. One that appeared almost totally human save for the bird's feet of bony ridges on her forehead (barely noticeable under the heavy bangs of her hair) and the bursting flower insignia tattooed under both her eyes. She was dressed in a gold-trimmed, black-and-white hooded martial arts gi-like uniform with a scroll of alien writing down the outside jersey flap, a leather belt across her waist and slip-on shoes covering her feet. In her hand was a weapon as tall as she, a long bo-like staff mated to a double-bladed axe at one end, now pointing into the air.
A most unique figure in this town where uniqueness was quite commonplace.
"GYAARGH!"
Kyech blinked, and then turned to see a wide-eyed Ran standing nearby. The rose-haired Urusian (her sub-race was known as either Gaki-Urusian or Seishin-Urusian) was shivering as her eyes took in the details of this stranger that had just walked out of the Moroboshi home. Like so many across known space, she knew who this person was.
Which beggared the question:
What in the name of the Maidens was the DRAGONSPEAKER doing HERE?!
Kyech hummed. "You are Ran Aruka."
Ran nearly gagged on her tongue.
This monster was talking to HER?!
"R-r-Ran A-a-Aruka?" Ran sputtered, and then she laughed. "Oh, y-you mean R-Ran Aruka! She's just down the street h-here…YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
That was Kyech yanking on one of her earlobes to allow them to return back to their normal Urusian pointed shape. "No. You are Ran Aruka," Kyech stated as the Urusian woman tried to pry that vize-like grip off her ear. "You should see a faith-healer very soon if you're not capable of realising who you are." She let the ear go, which made Ran drop to her knees as she gripped her throbbing extremity.
The Noukiite free warrior then tensed as her eyes focused somewhere to the southeast of her. Her eyes narrowed as she felt a wave of ki flood past her from a certain point on the peninsula beyond the bay where the great city of Tôkyô was anchored on, and then she focused her ki on herself as she allowed the air to condense around her and elevate her off the ground. As the onlookers and neighbours gasped and screamed in shock and disbelief, she flew off to the east, towards downtown Tôkyô.
By then, Ran was back on her feet, a bazooka in hand as she moved to aim it at the fastly departing figure. "COME BACK HERE, YOU BONE-HEADED…!"
WHANG!
"That didn't hurt…" Ran moaned before dropping unconscious onto the ground.
Standing over her, Kinshô could only shake her head as she allowed her mallet to rest in her hand. "Honestly. Whatever did her mother teach this girl, anyway?" she mused to herself as she turned around and headed back into her house.
A moan escaped the barely-conscious Ran as she tried to recover from the mallet strike from Ataru's mother. As the crowds took that in, one person then gazed on another. "Must be one of Lum-san's friends," he stated.
"The strangest things happen in this town."
As Kyech flew off to the southeast…
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(Posted Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:27)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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