(Note: This episode is a nod to a delightful fanfic I read once, Girl Days by Robert Haynie AKA Kenko. It can be found on Fanfiction.net under the author's pen name. Read Chapter 14 and you'll understand the reference in this story. G.)
"Noukiites…?"
"Hai," Ran affirmed as she stared on the group of people who had assembled in the living room of her scoutship home in Tomobiki. Atop some of her schoolmates from Tomobiki High School such as Shinobu Miyake, Ryûnosuke Fujinami and her fiancé Nagisa Shiowatari, the members of Lum's Stormtroopers and several of Lum's former classmates like Momoe Marubeya and Kumiko Gekasawa, there were representatives from the other high schools in town as well as Sakura and her uncle Cherry. "They're our intergalactic rivals. Not just us on Uru, but on other worlds in the Galactic Federation such as Fukunokami, Elle and Neptune. Look at this."
She tapped a control on her desk. A holographic image of a field of stars appeared. One star blinked brightly. "This is Sol, right?" Shinobu said as she pointed to it.
A nod. "Hai. The centre of the galaxy — course 000 for you Trek fans out there…" — She glanced at Megane when she said this. — "…is straight up. Now…" She tapped a control on a desk, making another star to the right (as the people staring at the image saw it) of Sol blink. "This is Oniboshi, Uru's home star. Your astronomers give this star the number HR3259. You've even been able to detect three of the planets in the system, though you haven't been able to see Uru itself." Another tap of the control created an orange blob around Oniboshi. "This is the territory Uru currently controls. Ten inhabited planets in ten star systems."
"Nice bit of territory," Perm mused.
"Hai, it is that. This star here…" She tapped a control to allow a star almost on the straight line between Oniboshi and Sol to blink. "…has a planet in its system we call Toshitto. It's our closest colony to your system. The corridor between Toshitto's home system and your own…" Another control was tapped to create a tube-like corridor between that star and Sol. "…is the only truly safe passage for ships of the Federation worlds to trade between our wing…" More controls created more blobs of space in different colours to the right (as the viewers saw it) of Uru. "…and our allies' side of the Federation." Another control created blobs of territory downwards and to the down-right of Sol. "This is the Galactic Federation as a whole." She indicated various territories. "Karasutengu, where Kurama comes from. Elle. Fukunokami, Benten's homeworld. Neptune, of course. Gomiana. The Phentax systems. Zeiwan. Tofunokoibito, where Lupica comes from. Spotak. And all the way down here…" She pointed to a lone group of worlds at the edge of a galactic void. "Yaminokuni, where Rupa and Carla come from."
"You said that corridor between Toshitto and Earth/Neptune is the only safe corridor of trade travel," Sakura stated. "Why is that, Ran?"
A sigh before Ran tapped a control to project a large and very dark green bubble of space in the inside of the "L" formed by the two wings of the Galactic Federation worlds. "This is the Ipraedies Empire. Homeworld of Ipraedos is here." A star in the heart of that space flashed. "They're a very aggressive and xenophobic race that has been in a state of cold war with the Federation worlds for some time now. Always launching border incidents and all that just to provoke us into a war. We've resisted it so far." A shrug. "They're afraid of us, so they want to do anything they can to break us. The best place to do it…" She pointed to the deck of her ship.
"Us," Shinobu stated.
"Hai. Fortunately, our move into this system made them back off. How long that will stay that way, I can't say, but we're always on the watch for them."
"What territory does Noukiios control?" Ryûnosuke asked.
Ran tapped a control. Everyone's eyes went wide on seeing a huge swath of territory, distantly resembling a coiled-up snake — or dragon — "atop" the Galactic Federation territories controlled by Uru, Fukunokami and Elle, reaching all way down to encompass the other side of the Earth-Toshitto corridor from Ipraedies space right to Earth itself, and then to a significant area of territory to the left and up from that. "Holy shit!" Megane gasped. "That's as big as the Federation worlds combined!"
"Noukiios — the Imperial Dominion of Noukiios to be official — controls 107 planets in separate star systems directly beyond itself. You'll notice that Alpha Centauri (as you people call it) is controlled by them; the colony planet in that system is called Tengsei. Or 'Jiyû' as we call it; the name was given to it by an Urusian explorer who mapped the system four centuries ago." Ran sighed. "Of course, out of respect for our feelings about the Noukiites, all our friends in the Federation call the planet by that name. But say the name in front of a Noukiite and they take great offense to it. Just like they do to all the other planets my people explored but they eventually settled, including all the worlds that border our space or the corridor between Toshitto and Earth/Neptune."
"So it's jealousy at the end."
Eyes locked on Sakura. "Hai, you can say that, Sensei," Ran affirmed with a nod.
"Would Lum meeting this girl constitute a crime of some sort?" Momoe asked.
All the boys in the room gasped on hearing that, their faces paling at the thought of their beloved Lum-san being arrested for the crime of being friends with the "enemy." "Technically, no," Ran answered. "While my government generally discourages any sort of cultural or social contact with Noukiites as a whole, they're not seen as an enemy as we view the Ipraedies." A shrug. "And personally, I don't really understand why we're so afraid of them. The Noukiites don't conquer planets that already have indigenous populations on them. And if they decided to place this whole star system under their watch, there's no way in Hell that the Ipraedies would try to challenge it." She then rolled her eyes. "Even though the bosses on Uru…"
"Will feel as if they've been kicked out of another solar system. And a very strategic one at that," Sakura finished for the younger woman. "Oh, dear…"
"Why has Lum never spoken about this before?" Shinobu asked.
A shake of the head. "I can't say, Shinobu. There are times I don't even begin to understand what goes through Lum-chan's head. Especially when it comes to Darling and why she wants to marry him." Ran then frowned as she gazed on the protective layers of transparent gauze that protected her burnt skin from outside infection. "Even though it is pretty obvious now that he does love her if he was willing to call down a Noukiite dragon of all things down on us." She scowled. "At her request!"
Everyone tensed. "Hai, it was Lum that did that," Sakura affirmed.
"Hey! Ataru tricked her into doing that!" Megane snarled.
The other boys (save Nagisa) in the room nodded vigorously at his statement. The girls shuddered in anger. "Megane, do you fuckin' have selective memory or what's the damned story here?!" Ryûnosuke snarled. She and Nagisa had been at the edge of the blast zone when Nengmek'i came to Earth that day, so neither of them had to spend time in a hospital. They had been forced out of their "home," though; Tomobiki High School had been nearly burned down to ashes thanks to dragon fire. "Lum actually liked it when Moroboshi called down that thing to barbecue you idiots!"
"LUM-SAN WAS TRICKED BY ATARU!" Megane screamed out.
BLAM!
"QUIET, YOU IDIOT!"
Megane was now blasted into the deck thanks to a particle rifle Ran drew on him. Seeing what the rose-haired Urusian had done, the other boys quickly clammed up. "Arigatô, Ran," Sakura breathed out as she sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. "So what do you know of this girl who came here today?"
Ran breathed out. "Seu-P'ye Yesu-Re Hechnich'-K'ekhech. She Who Speaks To Dragons. Slayer of Bandits. Destroyer of Armies. Hunter of They-Who-Must-Never-Be-Named. Nature's Supreme Defender." A shrug. "She's got a ton of other nicknames, too. Put simply, she's Noukiios' most powerful and feared free warrior." She tapped a control to highlight a section of Noukiite space that bordered the Galactic Federation worlds all the way past Earth/Triton. "This part of the Dominion is known as the Imperial Outmarches. This is K'ekhech-dono's normal stomping grounds. She mostly spends her time fighting and killing bandits and other outlaws that prey on farmers and villages on these words; even with them being frontier planets, police are somewhat thin on the grounds there due to a lack of intensive population save for the really big cities. And believe me, she kills those monsters in battalion-sized groups! Usually with one swipe of her halberd. Which is called 'the Cleaver of the Heavens.'"
"How powerful is she, Ran-chan?" Kakugari demanded.
Ran shuddered. "She's strong enough to rip a skyscraper out of the ground with her bare hands and toss it through the air like a tennis ball."
Everyone's jaw dropped as most of the boys in the room paled at the thought of their precious Lum-chan being so close to such a being. "Sh-sh-she's a monster!" Perm stammered. "H-h-how do we pro-pro-protect Lum-ch-ch-chan from th-th-THAT?!"
"You don't."
Gasps echoed through the living room as eyes snapped over. "Mrs. Moroboshi!" Shinobu cried out on seeing Kinshô standing by the quarterdeck gangway that led into Ran's ship, her arms crossed and an annoyed look on her face. "What are you doing here?"
"I felt it was best to come here and make sure you get the real story about Ataru's and Lum-chan's relationship with Kye-chan and her friends on Noukiios," Kinshô replied before she levelled a glare at Ran. "Not whatever warped fantasies this troublemaker loves to spread out so she could hurt Lum-chan in return!"
Ran's jaw dropped; she was clearly taken by surprise by the vehemence Ataru's mother was showing her. Immediately, she went into "cute girl" mode. "But Oba-chan!" she whined as she stared teary-eyed at the older woman. "I am…!"
"Oh, dear," Kinshô mused. "I'll have to ask Ataru to ask his friend to come back for a visit." As everyone blinked in confusion, she waved her hand in front of her face as if trying to chase away a most foul odour. "I hope the sulphur of his breath doesn't stink up the town like it did a month ago."
"GLAARKK!"
Everyone in the room was now frozen stiff. "That's better," Kinshô said as she turned to leave. "Everyone, I learned my lesson about what's really going on between Lum-chan and my child four weeks ago. It appears you still all need to LEARN that lesson still. Take my advice: LEARN it! Or make sure your WILLS are written out."
With that, she left, leaving everyone frozen in place…
Kimitsu…
"So you really ARE a tôshi!"
"No, Mimôko. I am a free warrior."
Shimei jolted on hearing that flat response from Kyech. Sitting nearby, Tariko chuckled. "Kyech, I think Mimôko-san is implying that you've been resurrected from a past warrior-form." A nod. "And yeah, she's right about that."
Kyech blinked, and then she shook her head. "Not really, Tariko."
"Why do you say that?" Ranma wondered.
"I've only been reborn once after the end of my first life in 2008," Kyech noted. "Mimôko here has been reborn eighteen times before her current life."
"'Twenty-oh-eight?'" Kôkin asked.
"That's the year in the Noukiite calendar when she died," Lum answered, and then she hummed. "Let's see…this year on Noukiios is…"
"She died in 1117 BCE, Lum," Tariko provided.
Everyone else in the room gasped. "Wow! That's a long time ago!" Hakufu said.
"Hai, it was that," Kyech noted. "One day, I was in a dungeon with At'at'at' awaiting execution, both of us taking poison so that Seup'it' didn't have to directly kill either of us…" A shrug. "And then the next, I woke up in my adopted parents' home in Ryekkyuk as a ten year-old girl, finding myself three thousand years into my own future, with my planet united and in control of a vast interstellar empire."
Everyone's jaw dropped. "Wait a minute!" Shimei gasped. "You woke up when you were TEN?! What happened in the years before that happened to you?"
"I did not exist at the time."
The tôshi in the room jerked. Before Shimei could scream out at their visitor from Noukiios, Lum politely cleared her throat to get their attention. As people looked at her, the Oni waved to the other woman. "Kyech here is a bioroid."
Silence.
"You mean like in Appleseed?" Kôkin asked.
"Tcha!" the Oni affirmed with a nod. "Her soul was saved pretty much like I think all of your past-selves' souls were saved in those earrings of yours." She pointed to her left ear in emphasis. "But when the container — what it was, I don't know — was found, someone managed to clone Kyech a body for her to use, let it stop growing at ten years of age, and then let her be adopted by descendants of her family who still lived in Ryekkyuk." She giggled. "That's why we call her 'Kyech.' That was the name her adopted parents gave her at the start: Eyu-Pye Yesu-Kyech."
"Why such a huge difference between the names?" Kôkin asked; she had written down Kyech's proper formal name in Rômaji when Tariko had done the formal introductions after Shimei came in to join them. "The first part of her family name is changed, the given name's totally different and the courtesy name isn't there."
"Technically, I am in the same place in the Ten Orders as I was in my first life," Kyech answered. "The Seup'uk — the Flower Youth — are a sub-caste of the Eyukhu, the Fourth Order. By Imperial ordnance, those who were once Seup'uk before the Tri-Kingdoms period began are allowed to have a different caste marker before their family names. Not to mention a courtesy name given to us on reaching maturity."
"They're the Guardian Order," Tariko explained. "Police, soldiers, teachers and the like. They're the protectors of knowledge and protectors of society."
Everyone nodded in understanding. "So she's some sort of robot?" Hakufu asked.
"No, Tsueko-chan, bi-o-roid," Tariko stated. "'Biological android.' No different than a normal person except created in a genetic laboratory."
"The ultimate test-tube baby, in other words," Ranma said.
"Right."
"So what does bring you here, anyway?" Shimei asked.
A sigh. "One of Nengmek'i's friends came to Earth sometime ago and allowed some of her power to be placed in a Terran, just like Nengmek'i himself gave to me when I saved his life when we were both children," Kyech stated. "But sadly…"
Ranma tensed. "Wh-what…?"
"She tends to leap from the hills to the valleys."
Everyone blinked. "What does that mean?" Shimei asked.
Tariko giggled before she reached over to touch one of the bony ridges on Kyech's forehead. "Hills." She then pointed to the space between the central ridge and the one arcing over her left eye. "Valley." She danced her fingertip between the ridges and the depressions between them on her friend's forehead. "Leaping from the hills to the valleys and back again. Get it now?"
Ranma stared at that, and then she moaned. "She's loony."
Nods from everyone else in the room. "Definitely insane," Shimei mused.
"Clearly mentally disturbed," Hiromi added.
"Totally out there," Hakufu said.
"About to take a high dive into a black hole," Lum topped that.
"Nuttier than a fruitcake," Tariko said with a grin.
Ranma exploded. "ENOUGH, ALREADY! I GET THE HINT!"
The others in the room laughed save for Kyech, who remained calm and quiet. "So what can K'ekhech-dono here do to help Ranma control whatever gift this other dragon gave her?" Shimei then asked. She found the pronunciation of Noukiite terms very easy, in fact; the language seemed a harsher version of Korean, which had been heavily influenced by Chinese over the last two thousand years.
"Kanami is not in real danger," Kyech stated. "Her skills already give her great control over the extra power Hucheng-ch'ekyunghechha gave her. But given the current state of her relationships between her and those she lives with now — especially those who lie and try to use her — if something goes wrong…"
"The next time she goes medieval on someone might result in very wet red spots on the ground, right?" Tariko finished as she stared at her friend.
"Hai."
Ranma took that in, and then she breathed out in relief. "Okay! Self-control lessons and ki practice! That, I CAN do! We can relax now!"
"It will take a while," Kyech warned.
A shrug. "Summer vacation's starting up in a month. We'll have time then."
A nod. "I will remain with Tariko and Lum until then."
"So what does that name mean, anyway?"
Eyes locked on Kôkin. "What do you mean, Kôkin?" Hakufu asked.
"The dragon Ranma-san met?"
Kyech shrugged. "'Leaper of Hills and Valleys.'"
Hearing that, Ranma groaned. "Great! I actually met a dragon named 'Loony!'" She shook her head. "There are days I just hate my luck."
Tariko reached over to pat her friend's shoulder as rueful chuckles echoed through the room from the others while we…
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:10)
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.