[Episode 234344] [Episode 234344]
"Most Venerable."
Hearing that title addressed to him, Ataru felt his eyebrow twitch before he gazed on the Noukiite officer currently standing near the entrance to his guest quarters aboard the starship K'ekseuk, the personal flagship of the Imperial Chancellor of the Outmarches. "What's wrong, Lieutenant?" the Terran wondered.
"Most sincere compliments from the Lady Flag Captain Kyukkich, but we've just made system-fall, sir," the lieutenant said as he bowed his head low. "Our sensors have already detected the starship Bismarck approaching us to escort us to Earth."
Ataru blinked. "Thanks. I'll tell the others."
A deep bow. "By your leave, Most Venerable."
After the standard salute, the lieutenant headed off. Ataru watched him go, trying not to shake his head at the show of exaggerated formality a lot of Noukiites often used with him, all just because of his two-month encounter with the planet Sagussa — the "World of Holy Reincarnation," as it was known among his hosts — when he was six, just before the essence of the Saikō Jinseijutsu had been inserted into his mind and his life was forever changed. Taking a deep breath, he keyed opened the security lock for his cabin, and then stepped inside the room. "Hope you're decent."
"Just made system-fall," Benten noted as she zipped up the black leather jumpsuit she normally wore in lieu of the soft fabric two-piece gi-like clothes Noukiites normally preferred. And what Ataru's other lovers currently had on; it had been quite the orgy as the K'ekseuk ate up the light-years between Okusei and Earth. "Problems?"
"Bismarck is coming to escort us in," he said as he sat on the large bed, reaching over to draw Lum and Ran into his arms so they could relax in his embrace. It was a normal thing for all of them when they were together. Unlike Benten — who, as was the tradition among her people, had been strongly encouraged from early age to be emotionally and mentally independent — and Oyuki — who, as the now-former Heiress Apparent of her planet's throne, had to be strictly raised to prepare herself to be the Queen of her people — Lum and Ran had been raised in normal homes, with the warmth of parents and other relatives to call on whenever they needed it (even if Ran's widowed mother Chena left a LOT to be desired in that category!).
That had made what happened five years ago — when the girls had undergone their "body swaps" thanks to the curse of the Old Lady of the Oak Forest coming into play when the Niphentaxians assisting with Project: Kamen had moved to probe their memories to better program the "android" replicas they had prepared on Nassur's behest — all the more hurtful to Ataru's two Urusian lovers. And that was part of the reason Lum and Ran had gravitated to Benten and Oyuki respectively when they, while living in practical exile on Okusei, began to discover all the unique aspects of being Avalonians. Beings genetically programmed thanks to thousands of years of evolution on Sagussa to be fully bisexual, to seek out "bond-mates" of the same gender so they could help raise children once a willing "child-mate" had been found to be the father.
Thinking of the potential outcome of that, Ataru tried not to shudder too much. While seeing four insanely beautiful women make love to each other was every teenage man's ultimate fantasy, to be expected to find a man to be a lover with himself so they could also be "bond-mates" was definitely NOT his cup of tea. His lovers understood that, thank the gods, which made him feel like the luckiest man in the Universe now…
"Darling, don't," Ran urged as she sensed a cloud of uncertainty fill his heart. "It ultimately had to happen. You know that."
He blinked as he moved to tenderly kiss her…
Okusei, four months ago…
"I don't want to leave you guys."
Hearing that, all four girls smiled as they gazed fondly at him. They had gone out for a picnic in the woods near the Okusei Academy in a private glen. Of course, being alone had immediately provoked more passionate feelings within them all, which they gladly gave free reign once the wonderful lunch Ran had prepared had been eaten.
"We know," Lum whispered as Ataru reclined his head in her naked lap. An equally naked Benten and Oyuki lay to either side of him, their tongues playfully licking his nipples as their hands roamed across his well-muscled chest. Ran currently had his manhood deep in her mouth as she gently allowed her tongue to tease and tickle that stiff muscle to elicit what currently lay within him. "We don't want you to go either, Darling. But you're certainly not prepared to deal with the fallout of what might happen if you go back and reveal what you just found out about five years ago."
He took that in, and then he sighed as he gazed into her face. Even if she was as stunningly beautiful as the woman currently making use of Lum's original body was, there was a noticeable painful weariness in her eyes. Seeing that had enraged him like nothing else in the world, not even his parents' painful verbal abuse or any of Hensō's rather overwhelming attempts at trying to keep control over his life before he came here and learned the truth about a lot of things. Seeing that had almost tempted him to ask Kyech to go to Uru, Fukunokami and Triton and terminally deal with Hensō, Damasu, Mienai and Kamen so that he could bring his companions back to Earth with him so they could be together for the rest of their lives.
But he couldn't.
The future of six billion people — all of Earth — now depended on him doing something that was, in many ways, quite alien to him.
To stop and wait.
And the reason why was quite understandable. While the local leaders in the Imperial Dominion of Noukiios — people like Kaep' here on Okusei, Ch'esyuk on Tengsei, Seup'it' on Kaisei and Hep'p'yech on Kesei — were quite sympathetic to Earth's current situation vis-à-vis the states of the Galactic Federation, it had not become such a pressing concern in the halls of power here that immediate military intervention was necessary to keep his homeworld ultimately safe, both from the "wild card" races of the Federation like the Niphentaxians and from peoples like the Ipraedies. Given the United Nations' Special Committee on Alien Activities had persuaded the Urusians — and, through them, the other Federation members — to keep all Terran-alien contacts isolated to Tomobiki, leaders among the Noukiites felt that at the present time, the situation was under control and there was no need to rock the boat.
The reactions of Lum, Benten, Oyuki and Ran to their replicas' actions during the six months between the Tag Race and the encounter with Elle told Ataru a different story.
With Hensō alone…
Holding Earth's primary energy supply hostage to make Ataru accept her in his home.
Travelling back in time in an attempt to "cure" Ataru of his girl-chasing habits.
Using psychokinetic clay to physically restrain Ataru.
Dragging him off against his will to the yearly Setsubun celebration without even bothering to ASK him if he wanted to go, much less explain why.
Allowing Mienai to teleport into his bedroom, dumping enough snow to rot out the bedroom floorboards, then not even bothering to offer to help with repairs.
Allowing her cousin to run totally amuck with alien candy that mutated local wildlife into something they certainly weren't supposed to be.
Doing next to nothing substantial to keep Damasu at bay from hurting him.
Spying on his very own diaries without respecting his private space!
"Hey, Lum! Cut it out!" Benten urged. "You're spoiling the mood!"
Lum jolted, and then she sighed. "Sorry about that…"
He gazed up at her, and then he grunted as he suddenly felt a rush deep in his loins that heralded Ran striking ivory gold. As he exploded deep into the Seishin teen's mouth, Ataru allowed his mind to haze out for a moment as his arms drew Benten and Oyuki closer to him. All of the girls shuddered as the deep psychic links they had with each other and Ataru allowed the surge of his orgasm to flood them, and then they all sighed as they found their minds slowly returning back to normal. Allowing the afterglow to hold them for a few minutes, Ataru then gazed up at Lum. "What do I do with her now?" he wondered. "I can't even think of her anymore without remembering what happened to you." He turned to gaze on each of the others. "Any of them."
"Pity you couldn't stay here with us," Oyuki mused. "Just totally disappear."
"Wouldn't last long," Benten noted. "Instant Lum's double gets it into her head that Darling disappeared WILLINGLY, she'll probably take the whole freakin' planet hostage to make him come back. And asking someone like Kyech, Kuohu or Su to go kill her would just start a freakin' war! We're trying to PREVENT that, remember?!"
"Still…"
Eyes locked on Ran. "What is it?" Lum asked.
The rose-haired Seishin-turned-Avalonian teen hummed as she let go of Ataru's soft love machine and shift herself into a straddling position over his legs. "There IS one thing Darling can keep in mind when it comes to Hensō."
"What's that?" he asked.
She smirked. "She thinks she's married to you because you tagged her horns and said 'now I can be married' at the end of the Tag Race," Ran explained.
"But even if I point out that it was a Tag Race when this happened, she probably won't accept it now that her parents forced an omiai with mine," he advised her.
"True. But you can divorce her, you know."
Lum's jaw dropped as Benten's and Oyuki's eyes widened. "Ran…"
"How do I do that?" Ataru asked.
A smirk crossed Ran's face. "It may seem a little difficult at first," she admitted as she leaned down to stroke her finger down his breastbone. "But thanks to Negako-san, you have full access to all your clan's fighting skills now. Including making yourself so hard physically, Hensō's lightning won't bother you anymore." She leaned close to him as her smile turned lethal. "And here, Darling, is what you do…"
"You still regret it, don't you?"
Ataru looked down into Ran's warm green eyes. "If that was Rei you had to do that to, wouldn't you feel any regrets?" he asked.
She blinked, and then she nodded. "I would," she admitted before nodding. "And yeah, you're right. Hensō, Damasu, Mienai and Kamen are as much victims of this whole mess as we are. But back in galactic elementary school and middle school — before we were forced to go to Okusei, of course…" — the "body swaps" had happened just after the four alien teens had begun their first year at galactic middle school — "… we were always taught when we learned how to make things like clone guns and spacialisers and all that to use them responsibly! I don't think our teachers would have ever appreciated us using clone guns to make a virtual stampede of mentally-damaged Moroboshi Atarus to run wild through the streets of Tomobiki…"
"Much less spacialisers to go back in time (when it is EXPRESSLY forbidden to do so unless you're CERTIFIED to do so as an historian) and then attempt to change a person's life just because certain habit he has doesn't agree with you," Lum added.
"Yeah," Benten mused as she stretched herself. "Our doubles sure aren't a pack a geniuses!" She then smirked. "Then again, back then, we weren't that much different."
"You are right about that, Benten," Oyuki mused, and then she sighed before a smile then crossed her face. She then giggled.
The others gazed on her. "What?" Lum urged.
"Oh, I was just thinking of what will happen should we ever run into our 'sisters' again," the Neptunian ex-princess — and right now, she was more than happy to just be plain Oyuki (and one day soon to be Moroboshi Oyuki) rather than become the future queen of Neptune — stated. "While we certainly are free of any influence of the Old Lady's curse thanks to Negako-san, our 'sisters' aren't so fortunate. If Hensō sees that her 'husband' was now in the grasp of her own 'double'…"
Benten smirked. "And with us also being Darling's lovers?"
"It'd probably blow all their minds away," Ran noted.
A hum. Eyes locked on Lum. "What?" Ataru urged.
The Oni then smirked. "Well, seeing as she does have my original body — and Obā-san did tie her curse to my body to make it work — then Darling's divorcing Hensō is just ensuring the curse remains active. That 'I' will never know true love."
The others considered that for a moment. "Are you saying we should find some ways to help our sisters get Avalonian bodies of their own?" Oyuki asked.
"Why not?"
Eyes turned on Ataru. "Darling, are you being greedy?!" Ran scolded.
"No, but there is Tariko to think about, too," he reminded her.
The others nodded. "Good point," Benten stated…
"AH-CHOO!"
"They are speaking of you."
A moan escaped Moroboshi Tariko's lips as she moved to wipe her nose clear of the jarred mucus. "Damn!" she moaned before she moved to tie the belt around her waist to keep her top in place. "So what are they talking about, Onē-san?"
Negako's dark eyes narrowed as she turned her metasenses forward towards the cabin now being shared by the half of her last host still in his birth-body and his lovers. "They are discussing ways of ensnaring Hensō, Kamen, Mienai and Damasu, having all of them transformed into Avalonians and then presenting them to you as your own harem of lovers," the grandmaster of Saikō Jinseijutsu Ninjutsu-ryū reported. "They all feel it is unfair that Ataru is now living full time with his mates and you have nothing."
Tariko blinked, and then she smirked. "Well, that's nice of them," she admitted before reaching over and taking a sip of the spiced tea that was common on Noukiios. "Still, if I wanted to have anything to do with any of them, I'd sure as hell hope they'd finally learn some damned lessons about living with people of other races."
"I believe the lesson delivered to Hensō a week ago was quite harsh enough to make her pause and take stock of what her current life goals are."
Silence.
"Onē-san?"
Negako gazed at Tariko. While the latter looked very much like her brother and sister, the former — thanks to some modifications in the DNA coding when her own body had been prepared five months ago to give her what she had wanted for so long — looked like a woman in her mid-twenties, with black hair that was more flowing than the shaggy mess Ataru, Tariko and Hiromi possessed, and eyes that were almost pure ebony. It made her look like Ataru's older sister, which in many ways Negako was.
"It would have happened sooner or later," she stated, sensing immediately what Tariko wanted to ask. "Hensō's many insecurities would have eventually provoked something that would have forced Ataru to finally make a choice. Either accept her as his one and only mate or openly renounce her and leave to rejoin Lum and the others on Oku-ch'ehek." Negako always spoke of Noukiite planetary names with the native terms, not the common terms used across the galaxy. "It was simply a stroke of luck — or, perhaps, the influence of this curse forced on Lum when she was newborn and later passed to Hensō when their souls were made to trade bodies — that our finding a spare body for Hiromi and our meeting Tsukihana and Ayami with their fleet coincided with Rupa's desire to seek Hensō's hand in marriage, believing her to be Lum." A slight shrug. "And it is as Ran advised Ataru four months ago before they parted and he returned to Earth. Hensō proved herself willing enough to make others suffer to force Ataru to capitulate to her when the matter with the space-taxi occurred. She had to be made to see that those actions which affect others will no longer be tolerated. And by 'divorcing' her in front of all her friends and supporters like that, Ataru drove home a lesson that not only will Hensō fail to forget, but all those who either supported her or wished to use her to press their own ends."
"'The carnival's over,'" Tariko breathed out.
"Exactly."
Hearing that, Tariko closed her eyes. "Well, let's hope she doesn't do something even more stupid," she admitted. "It surprises me that she didn't try to kill herself after Nengmek'i and his friends chased her and the others off the planet."
"Once she was in the hands of her parents — and with Kamen close by — any such tendencies would have been curbed." Negako then looked over. "Enter, Benten."
The door opened to reveal Benten. "Damn, Negako! You're fuckin' scary when you do that!" she said before gazing at Tariko. "Hey, Tariko! The Bismarck's here to escort us in to Earth, so you might want to get ready. Planet-fall's in an hour."
"Thanks," Tariko said, and then she perked. "Were you guys serious?"
The Fukunokami blinked. "About what?"
"Gift-wrapping Kamen and the others so I can have my own harem?"
Benten jerked, and then she spun on Negako. "WILLYA QUIT SPYIN' ON US LIKE THAT?!"
Negako's only response is an arched eyebrow as Tariko fell over laughing while we…
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