"Shinobu-sama?"
Shinobu perked on hearing that kind voice, and then she turned to gaze on Koizumi Hitomi. "Hai, Hitomi-san, what is it?"
"Would you desire more refreshments before you retire for the evening?" the blue-haired bioroid asked. The pyjama party that the girls from Tomobiki High had been planning for this evening was being held in the main lounge forward of Haida's bridge. "The others of the crew and myself will be entering our rest cycle at this time as the members of the Regiment will be taking over watchkeeping duties."
Shinobu shook her head. "No, thanks. We can take care of ourselves."
A nod. "Hai."
With that, she headed off. "That is so freaky to watch," Ryūnosuke mused. "She and all her sisters are as human as you or me, yet…"
"Be patient, Ryūnosuke-san. We'll be helping them soon enough," Hiromi advised.
Everyone gazed on the leader of the VEDF, and then they nodded. "So, Tsukihana-kun, how does it feel to be actually invited to a sleepover?" Gekasawa Kumiko asked as she gazed in amusement at Kōgetsuei. Ataru was also present, accompanied by his four lovers. Also there were the female members of the 33rd Operations Squadron of the Specialised Warfare Regiment: Maria and Lynn Kennison, Lorrie Melanko and Ursula Patton. The other Canadians were busy on the bridge and in other stations on Haida as they acclimatized themselves to the newest unit in the Canadian Armed Forces. The Old Lady of the Oak Forest and Moroboshi Negako — along with the mothers and guardians of Ataru's lovers — were in sick bay watching over the replicas of Ataru's lovers as they moved to prepare them for their body-swaps in a couple of days.
The young redhead sighed. "I just wish Ryōko-chan was here."
"Who's Ryōko?" Momoe asked.
"Morokuzu Ryōko-san, also known as Shokatsuryō Kōmei-dono," Hiromi answered. "In her first life, she was Tsukihana-san's husband. Zhūgě Liàng, Lord Kǒngmíng."
"Oh, I've heard of him!" Ryūnosuke then said. "He was the chief strategist and chancellor of Shǔ Hàn back then. Really smart guy." She then gazed on Kōgetsuei. "So what's Ryōko like, Tsukihana? I bet she's really smart, too."
A shrug. "I really wish I knew, Onē-san. I haven't seen Ryōko-chan in four years; that's when the Ipraedies kidnapped me so they could study Terrans, just like they did to Ataru-oniisan's backdoor neighbour, Ryōki Kōsei-san."
"From what my cousin has told me, Kōmei-dono is currently a shrine maiden near Seito High School," Hiromi answered. "She's the same age as Tsukihana-san, so it might be a while before they decide to pursue any sort of deep relationship."
The Tomobiki girls all blinked. "Um, Hiromi-chan, isn't that what you're trying to fight?" Inu Chigaiko asked. "Everyone being sucked into what their predecessors all did 1800 years ago?" She waved to Kōgetsuei. "Don't Tsukihana-kun and Ryōko-chan have the choice to pursue their own lives, just like everyone else does?"
"Indeed they do, Chigaiko-san, but there's a profound difference between two childhood friends who were brought together by the 'fate' to start a relationship, and Shikuko-san here going out to kill Chūei-dono because it is necessary to progress everyone's lives forward, regardless of what the 'fates' of others would end up leading them."
"Why are the spirits of your ancestors so restless?"
Eyes locked on Ursula. "What do you think it is?" Lorrie asked.
The chief petty officer rose as she gestured with her hand. Everyone gaped as a very richly-decorated winged staff appeared in a flash of light, and then she moved to wave it over Kōgetsuei's head for a moment. As her metasenses — Ursula, given the call sign "Binesi," after one of the Ojibwe words for "thunderbird" — came alive, she hummed. "The spirits that touch yours are trapped." She leaned down to touch his magatama, and then she nodded. "Even if they were copies of the original spirits, they rebel at being forced in the twilight place between the living world and the spirit world." Her eyes then focused on Hōsen and Shimei. "The spirits tied to you are even more agitated than the one tied to Tsukihana here. Yours especially, Shikuko."
"Why hasn't this been looked at before?" Lorrie asked. "There are many mystics in Japan who could have tried to help you. Why haven't they?"
The tōshi exchanged looks, and then they shrugged. "I guess it's because we're so emotionally isolated from mainstream society," Hōsen admitted as she walked over to a nearby canteen to refill her cup with juice. "Look at the way we all act when it comes to what we want to do? Fighting to 'conquer' all of Kantō like it was China back eighteen centuries ago." She sighed, and then she reached up to draw the magatama away from her ear so she could gaze at it, a slight shudder running through her as images of bloody battles many centuries in the past flashed once more through her mind. "I wear the magatama. The magatama doesn't wear me…" she hissed.
Ursula gazed at her, and then she smiled as she reached over to squeeze the younger woman's shoulder. "Fèngxiān understands, Shikuko," the adopted native Canadian mystic — Ursula Patton was the orphaned child of a mixed WASP-Irish couple — said as she smiled. "All he hopes is that one day, you will truly understand those words."
Hōsen gazed at her, and then she nodded before putting the magatama back in its place on her ear. "So what do you guys do, anyway?" Benten asked as she gazed on the Canadians. "I kinda freaked out when Hiromi told us that you have this cache of alien equipment on that icebox island of yours that had been there for FIVE MILLION years!"
"We're the guardians against any sort of paranormal or metahuman threat to the peace, order and good government of the Dominion of Canada," Maria answered. "Many of us are metahumans. I'm a telepath. Lynn's an empath and teleporter. Lorrie absorbs sunlight to augment her physical strength and fire energy blasts. Stephen's intelligence is way past what is considered 'genius' level on Earth. Ursula's a fully-trained mystic and can call upon the powers of the gods of the First Nations if she needs to." She smirked. "We nickname ourselves 'the Heroes Alliance of Canada.'"
Everyone else gaped. "So do you guys do like American superheroes all do?" Ryūnosuke asked. "Dress up in funky costumes and beat up the bad guys?"
The Canadians all laughed. "We could do that, but the woman who helped teach us how to use our powers and fight as a group would personally tan all our hides if we did something that idiotic," Lorrie stated. "'If something blows up THAT badly, the mission's a failure.' We're the people you DON'T see on The National."
"Who taught you people?" Shimei asked. "I can tell by your ki signatures that you've all been through some seriously harsh training to get where you are now."
Maria, Lynn, Lorrie and Ursula exchanged knowing grins…
Later…
"So you're not afraid that they said 'Yizibajohei?'"
Lum laughed as she and Shinobu walked down a hallway in Haida's forward upper superstructure, where the officer quarters were located. "Well, when we first were moved to Okusei and the Academy by Su, every time we heard any of the Flower Youth say that word, we were hiding under the beds," the Oni admitted before they stepped into one of the rooms, which Shinobu had staked out as her own for this evening. As they sat down in the small living space, Lum then shrugged. "As time went on and we heard all our friends use the word, we just got used to it." She then perked. "Actually, I even met the current Infinity when he came to Okusei once to visit Kyech."
Shinobu giggled. "That must be so strange," she said before gazing out the window at the stars and the curvature of Earth under and behind Haida. "I never really cared too much about what happened when we went into space. But now…"
"Well, you have to admit, your first REAL trip into space wasn't really something to think about positively," Lum admitted. "And the SECOND time that happened, you were literally KIDNAPPED!" A shrug. "If that happened to me, I'd be pretty upset."
"Why did she do that, anyway?"
"Hmm?"
"Why did Hensō do all those things?" Shinobu then shrugged. "Act like she could get away with anything she wanted! Why, Lum? Didn't she realise it was wrong?"
A sigh. "Near as I can understand it from what Darling's told me of everything that happened to you all, Hensō never emotionally matured past the thirteen year-old bad girl I was when I first started going to galactic middle school," Lum said. "Then again, can you really blame her? She was made to be my double, and then suddenly, she ended up living MY LIFE as ME! And no one was around to tell her otherwise. Dad and Mom never understood the truth of what she was. Ōgi, if he knew, was going to keep TOTALLY quiet about it. Nassur-chan tried to tell people about it, but given what happened, people just couldn't make themselves believe the truth of what happened." A sigh. "And then Hensō met Darling and the Tag Race happened…"
"How did he know?"
Lum perked. "What do you mean?"
"How did Ataru-kun know you were you and Hensō was her?"
The Oni smiled. "Darling and I actually first met when we were four." As Shinobu's eyes widened in shock, Lum nodded. "It's true. Benten, Ran and I were playing tag with Oyuki and her cousin Tōji when we wandered into the Central Warp Chamber." A sigh. "Some idiot technician left the controls on and before we knew it, all four of us were warped to Sendai, at the farm Darling's uncle then owned."
"Ataru-kun was visiting his uncle at the time?"
"Tcha. This was at a time when things were a LOT more civil in Darling's family."
A nod. "What happened?"
"Well, it was wintertime, but Oyuki found it was too warm for her tastes — her control over her powers hadn't really solidified at the time — so Darling put her into a walk-in freezer to give her a chance to cool down. He then got on his outside clothes and sat in there with her. We all did." A giggle. "And that's where Darling's grandmother and uncle found us." A sigh. "Back on Triton, people found out what happened and Nassur-chan's wife Cinba was sent to pick us up and we were returned home." She closed her eyes. "That was the last I saw of him until he came to Okusei."
"So how did this relate to Hensō?"
"She got a lot of my memories, but THAT was one thing she DIDN'T get," Lum emphasized. "You have to admit, something as traumatic as THAT, when you're FOUR…?!"
A nod. "Good point." Shinobu then blinked, and then she gazed on Lum. "There's something you're not telling me."
A sigh. "I don't know how to admit it to you."
Shinobu smiled. "I can take it."
Lum blinked, and then she breathed out. "When we were there, someone else got involved. Now, as to who she is, it's really hard to explain. But she — as to the 'why' she did this, we don't known — found a way to forge a subtle psionic bond between Darling and all four of us." She then closed her eyes. "And even though it was nearly next to destroyed when we went through our body-swaps — not to mention what Darling went through with Negako and Hiromi — it was always there."
Silence.
"I see…"
"He still loves you, you know."
Shinobu blinked, and then she sniffed back her tears — why on Earth was she crying? — before she nodded. "I know. And I still love him, too. Even with all the things that he did to me, either intentionally or not, I still love him." Another sniff. "Even when he called me a 'fair-weather friend' after he got back from allowing his DNA to be copied to make Hiromi-chan's body to find out what Hensō did…"
Lum gave her a sympathetic look. "Darling was a little upset at the time."
A laugh. "That he was…"
Over a week before…
"Oh, gods! What the hell did that BITCH do now?!"
A shuddering Moroboshi Ataru was standing on the street near Tampopo's Ramen and Beefbowl Bar, glaring around him to take in the devastated landscape and the hazy sky overhead. Mushrooms. Giant alien mushrooms now growing out of people's homes and businesses at a degree that was just not natural for Earth, sprouting seeds from the gills under their caps. Mushrooms that certainly WEREN'T Terran in origin.
"Ataru-chan!"
He turned as Kamekichi Tampopo came out of her restaurant. "What the hell happened?" he demanded as he walked over to join her. "Where did THIS all come from?"
The overweight restaurant owner breathed out. "Courtesy of a rival for your wife's so-called 'fiancé,'" she said. "Come inside. We have to talk about this."
He blinked in confusion, though he was quick to follow her into Tampopo's. Once there, she went behind the counter to prepare some food for her favourite customer. "So what's this about Hensō having a fiancé?" he asked; Tampopo was the only one other than him in Tomobiki who knew the truth about the woman calling herself Ataru's wife.
The door then crashed open. "Ataru-kun! There you are!"
He turned as Shinobu stormed into the restaurant, followed by Sakura, Cherry, Mendō and Ryūnosuke. They were soon joined by Oyuki (Mienai), Benten (Kamen) and Ran (Damasu); they themselves followed by the members of Lum's Stormtroopers. "Nice to see you all," he said evenly as Tampopo sent Mendō and Megane a warning look to make sure they behaved. "What's this about Lum getting a fiancé out of the blue like this?"
Growling, Kamen lunged over to grab him by the collars of his shirt. "YOU BASTARD! WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU WHEN LUM NEEDED…?!"
WHANG!
Kamen dropped to the floor in a semi-conscious daze. "That didn't hurt…"
Mienai gasped; she had heard rumours of this woman who had often imposed herself — especially in the last four months, when Ataru had pretty much moved out of his family home to spend almost all his non-school time here — between her friend and her husband, leaving Hensō with loads of lumps on her head like the one Kamen now sported…and Ataru pretty much free to do whatever he wanted. Beside her, Damasu tsked as she shook her head. "I warned you," she whispered.
"Now," Ataru said as he turned in his chair to gaze intently at them all. "What the hell is going on here?" he asked in a chilly voice that NO ONE had ever heard from him before. "I go off to do personal business and then I come back to see alien mushrooms growing out of almost every building in this town. What did Lum do THIS time?!"
Instantly, a typhoon of accusations rained down on him from Mendō and the Stormtroopers. Ataru's eyebrow began to violently twitch as ki seemed to billow around him, which made some of the others gazing at this warily step back. Finally, he pulled out a megaphone from hammer-space and bellowed through it, "BE QUIET!"
The resulting ki-enhanced sonic boom blasted everyone down like dominoes. Ataru stared at them for a moment, and then he breathed out as he reached up to pinch his nose. "Note to self: Never ask stupid questions to traitors to the human race in the future," he muttered loud enough for everyone else to hear him.
Mendō and the Stormtroopers all gaped in shock at him; much that they had gone through many fights between them concerning Lum in the past, Ataru had NEVER called them something like THAT! As Mienai then moved to speak, the Terran onigokko champion turned to glare at her with such anger, it made the Neptunian cringe. "Not you," he said. "I've no desire to speak to alien barbarians like you about this. I find your attitudes about a lot of things too disgusting to contemplate."
As Mienai gasped in shocked disbelief at the words he had just used, Ataru then gazed on Ryūnosuke. "Now, if you really don't mind, Ryū-chan, what's going on here?"
The tomboy perked. "Why are you asking me?"
"Well, I don't want to distract Tampopo-chan from making me lunch as I haven't had something to eat for a while," he admitted. As Tampopo laughed from her portable stove, he then thumbed towards Sakura and Cherry. "I can't stand listing to the words of these incompetents for even a minute. And I learned long ago not to trust anything fair-weather friends tell me. So can I PLEASE get an explanation for this?"
He ignored the wide-eyed, pale look on Shinobu's face…
"That hurt so much."
Hands squeezed Shinobu's shoulders. "Darling really didn't mean it," Lum assured her as she moved to massage those tight muscles. "He actually wanted to stay on Okusei to wait for Hiromi's body to be finished so he could be there when she woke up. It was Kyech that warned him to come back to Earth to look in on things here."
Shinobu blinked as she felt a wave of relaxation fill her. "Good thing, too," she said as she gazed out the porthole into space. "What could've happened if he came back here some days later with Hiromi-chan and this whole fleet to see the mushrooms spread beyond Japan to cover most of Asia?" She then giggled. "Is she always like that?"
"Who?"
"Kyech-san?" Shinobu had been told about the Dragonspeaker by Hiromi.
Lum then giggled. "I've known her for five years and I haven't even BEGUN to figure her out," she then admitted. "I doubt even At'at'at' really understands her. And they've been together for one extent or another over TWO separate lifetimes!"
Both girls then laughed, and then Shinobu breathed out as she leaned her head on the Oni's shoulder. Lum blinked, and then she moved to draw the Terran a little closer to her. Shinobu didn't resist, though she did give Lum a curious look. "Why aren't you with Ataru-kun?" she then asked. "You've been separated for so long."
Lum smiled. "Darling needs a little time to get over all his anger and frustrations when it comes to Hensō and the others. He's still trying to get used to having all of us back in his life." A shrug. "So are we, but we're all working on it."
"So why are you with me?"
"Because I really want to get to know you."
Silence.
Shinobu's eyes widened. "Lum…"
As they gazed into each other's eyes, Lum then smiled before she leaned close. Shinobu remained in place as the Oni tenderly kissed her, and then she blinked as a beautiful warmth seemed to flood her body from head to toe. Immediately, instinct took over as she allowed her mouth to part, thus inviting Lum's tongue to gently slip inside to start playing with her own. After a couple of minutes of passionate kissing, both girls then pulled away from each other as they gazed into the other's eyes, Lum's shining with desire and passion and Shinobu's wide with surprise and shock.
Finally, the Terran eeped, "Why…?"
The Oni smiled. "Because I want you to be part of us. We all do."
Shinobu blinked several times as her mind nearly crashed from that tsunami that had just hit her. Until now, she hadn't really realised what was ultimately going on with Ataru and his girlfriends. While she did suspect that they were intimate with each other — the passionate looks exchanged between Ataru and Lum, Benten, Oyuki and Ran were just impossible to ignore — she never thought that the four alien girls had become SO close to each other and so TRUSTING of each other that they would openly contemplate doing THIS. And with HER of all people! But…
"What about Chigaiko-chan?!" she then blurted out.
A giggle. "Ran's working on her."
Shinobu's jaw dropped. "You're serious!"
"Tcha!" Lum said with a nod, and then she sighed. "Shinobu, please. I think the one thing that separates Avalonians from everyone else is that we don't feel the social need to focus on ONE sole person as a potential mate for life." She smiled. "I love Benten. She's my oldest and dearest friend. I'm quite comfortable doing everything with her, including having sex with her." The smile slipped a bit. "And with the others, too. I love Ran. She suffered a lot because of me when we were children because of her mother, but we got over it and became very close. I love Oyuki. She always looked at us as the people she could be with to just be a person, not the future Queen of Neptune. We all love Darling. He welcomed us — ALIENS on his own planet! — into his life without reservation. And when we reunited with him, he accepted us without question." She reached up to gently stroke Shinobu's chin. "And we want to love you and Chigaiko and anyone else that has been close to Darling while we were separated from him. You're his oldest friend. You've still loved him even if you 'broke up' like you did when Mendô came into your life. Chigaiko was hit with that curse and everyone around her — save Darling — forgot she ever existed. I can feel her need to be close to him. I can understand that. And I want her to be happy, too. We all do." She then leaned close. "We want you to be happy, too."
Shinobu blinked as Lum kissed her again, and then she moved to draw the other woman close to her as their tongues passionately played while we…
(Posted Sat, 29 May 2010 14:02)
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.