(Writer's Note: This is a background sketch of events between the Second Tag Race [as depicted in the fifth UY movie The Final Chapter] and the Lemon Flu storyline. When you finish reading this episode, hit your "back" browser button, then switch to the option ...here to learn about Gioo Shigoozei to continue with this storyline. The only link offered here will be to start a whole new storyline for those who require it. G.)
The Second Tag Race had left a VERY bad taste in people's mouths.
Especially when they were elements of the Japanese government...
...and the United Nations...
...and certain intergalactic governments...
"This will not pass!" they all proclaimed.
And for once, normalcy came to Tomobiki.
Rather, it was IMPOSED on Tomobiki whether people liked it or not!
Within five days of the end of the race in question, Lum found herself facing the Intergalactic Judicial Tribunal, a neutral quasi-legal body formed by various planet-states to help mediate disputes between them before they escalated into all-out war. Learning she was being, in effect, charged with nearly allowing the Yaminokuni mushrooms to destroy all life on Earth -- and that DIDN'T mention the threatened use of a memory-erasing device -- shocked the young Oni princess. Facing seemingly endless hours of interrogation by a dozen officials from as many planets, without her father to shield her, Lum was worn down to the point where she screamed, "IT'S ALL DARLING'S FAULT!!! IF HE ONLY SAID HE LOVED ME, I WOULD'VE GOT RID OF THE MUSHROOMS AND LEAVED EVERYONE'S MEMORIES ALONE!!!"
To be charitable, you can guess how bad the interrogation was...
Even if that WAS probably the WORST thing Lum ever admitted...
Returning to Earth a day later, Lum was shocked to learn that while she was gone, Ataru had been allowed to move out of his parent's house! When she interrogated Muchi and Kinshou about it -- after the latter had stopped burbling "I wish I never had him!", of course! -- she learned that representatives from the national government had come to the house and grilled them both about the way they had raised their only child. Thanks to some serious verbal slip-ups by Kinshou and Muchi keeping his face hidden behind his evening paper, the esteemed representative's of the Emperor's Government decided there was most likely sufficient cause to have Ataru moved to a new home and kept clear of Muchi and Kinshou.
Of course, once the explanations were made, Kinshou tried to persuade Lum to go out, grab Ataru, then drag him off to get married right away.
Worn down by what she'd been through with the Tribunal, Lum agreed.
Naturally, she wasn't too happy to learn shortly afterward that there now was a court injunction against her, blocking her from trying to marry Ataru until he came of legal age (it's 20 in Japan).
That didn't mention the OTHER court injunction which forbade her from trying to live with Ataru at his new residence.
And both, to Lum's shock, ALSO came with an additional warning from the Intergalactic Judicial Tribunal.
Guess what that warning implied?
Learning that Ataru was in a new classroom -- AND being forbidden from transferring to said classroom by the NEW principal of Tomobiki High, a fire-breathing, bearded man in his forties named Hyousuke Magumo -- was, to Lum, just the icing on the cake she was being made to swallow wholesale!
And Ataru...?
How did he react, you ask...?
Well...
Being FINALLY rid of his parents brought forth a big smile on his face. Much that he did somewhat care for them, the endless nagging from Kinshou -- especially when it was laced with comments like "I wish I never had you!" to Ataru's face, much less "Oh, no! He's not my son!" to any passer-by whenever something really odd had happened -- and the near-total ignorance from Muchi had just came to grate him over the years. And tack all that to the times when his parents paid much more attention to his so-called "fiancee" and her cousin Jariten...! No matter what he might have said or indicated to other people, deep down, it had HURT him badly.
Now that he was living on his own -- actually, he was living in an apartment above his favourite eatery, Tampopo's Ramen and Beefbowl Bar in the town Ginza -- he decided to enjoy some payback whenever fate brought him together with those who sired him, especially Kinshou. Now the sharp words were "I wish you'd finally just die and get it over with!" to her face if he passed her on the street or "Oh, no! She's not my mother! I never knew my mother!" to anyone who might mention the resemblance.
Yes, expressing some malice was VERY sweet at times...
Getting transferred into Class 2-6 rather sucked. There were no girls in the class at all, which quickly convinced Ataru that some of the staff at Tomobiki High were still out to get him whatever way they could. The bad feelings quickly vanished when he learned that Lum was still being kept in Class 2-4, along with the five biggest banes of Ataru's life since he and the Oni met: Lum's Bodyguards and Shutaro Mendou. It got even better when he learned that the men of Class 2-6 didn't really care too much about Lum for one reason or another. And, when a girl did transfer over to Class 2-6, it was another 2-4 alumni: Chigaiko Inu.
Within minutes of her arrival, Ataru learned two things about her:
One, Chigaiko HATED Lum with a passion.
Two, Chigaiko had a bona-fide crush on Ataru.
Learning THAT kept him speechless for the rest of that day. But he soon learned why Chigaiko's feelings were the way they were: Ataru was the only person -- student or teacher, boy or girl, it didn't matter -- who REMEMBERED Chigaiko's name. When it came to dealing with anyone else there, it was either "Hey, you!", a quick check of the nominal rolls or (if she was in basketball class), being called "Yon-san."
Guess which number she had on the girl's team?
As time had progressed, Chigaiko had come to blame her lonliness on the one person everyone else liked without reservation: Lum. So when she learned Ataru had been forced to take his classes with Class 2-6, Chigaiko had asked her parents to pressure Principal Magumo to send her over as well. "She can't make friends in a class where the boys are going ga-ga over that Oni all the time and most of the girls are going ga-ga over that rich fool Mendou," her father Akira had told Hyousuke when the transfer was made official. "At least Ataru-kun treats my girl with kindness, always saying 'Good morning' to her without fail. We can only guess that the government's going to finally send that Oni packing one of these days. I want my daughter to get a chance with the man she loves!"
Hyousuke, who was a closet romantic, quickly agreed.
Chigaiko was lucky that no one in Class 2-4 noticed her absence.
Not even Lum.
Knowing that Lum was now in pretty deep shit with certain off-planet authorities, not to mention the national government, produced a mixed reaction from her "Darling." On the one hand, he was grateful that the Diet and the various ministries were finally getting off their collective duffs and putting some controls over Lum and the other full-time resident aliens in Tomobiki. And now that he wasn't forced to spend all his time in her company, he could relax and try to enjoy himself more. It was the main complaint he had about Lum: by forcing him to act as her "husband," she was seriously crimping his style and personal space.
And PLEASE, don't get him started about actually marrying her!
Ugh!! Thanks, but NO thanks!
On the other hand, it didn't take him too long to realize that the things she did leading into the Second Tag Race had cost her a lot. And while he WAS angry at her for forcing all that crap on him, making him the fall-guy for something that was ultimately the fault of Rupa's idiot great-grandfather, he did know how kind and caring she could be when she didn't allow her jealousy to overcome her. That still pulled him to here despite all the abuse he got from every other quarter, despite all the times he went off on his girl hunts or did something equally stupid, despite...
...the fact that he loved her...
...yet didn't know what would happen if he admitted that love.
And if he did admit it, what of Chigaiko?
Didn't her feelings count?
What could he do...?
(Posted Tue, 14 Jan 2003 01:29)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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