Hiromi blinked. "Hucheng-ch'ekyunghechha?!"
Kyech nodded. "Hucheng-ch'ekyunghechha."
"Hucheng-ch'ekyunghechha?!" Lum and Ran exclaimed together.
Ataru breathed out. "Hucheng-ch'ekyunghechha."
"Um, excuse me…?"
Eyes turned to Sakura. Everyone was now in the nurse's station, with both Kashin Suikō and Kataikō on two of the diagnostic beds. Chōjō and several other of the Attendants were also there to ensure the magical blocks that held back the full power the Izuku sisters possessed from unleashing itself without restraints on innocent, defenceless bystanders remained in place. "What is the problem, Sakura-sensei?" Hiromi, seated on the bed beside her reborn wife, asked as she gave Kataikō's hand a squeeze.
"Who is Hucheng-ch'ekyunghechha?" Sakura asked, trying not to stutter on the harsh Noukiite syllables.
"The Leaper of Hills and Valleys," Kyech provided.
"It's also the Noukiite euphemism for being insane," Ran added.
Several people in the room gulped. "Which means?" Shinobu prodded.
"What it means, Shinobu-san, is that Susuko-san and Mioko-san here both encountered one of the most misunderstood and least predictable ch'uokyek ever to live throughout Noukiios' known history," Hiromi explained. "Not only did Susuko-san and Mioko-san gain a considerable level of Hucheng-ch'ekyunghechha-sama's power, they also — Mioko-san especially — seemed to have gained a little of her various mental illnesses." She then focused on Chōjō. "I would assume, Okā-san, you felt you had no choice but to restrain them both to ensure they wouldn't hurt anyone else."
Silence.
"What did you just call me…?" Chōjō gasped, her eyes watering.
"Well, back in your first lives, didn't Hiromi see you as her foster father?" Tariko asked with a knowing smirk as she leaned on the guard rail at the end of Kataikō's bed.
The other Attendants all smiled as Chōjō sniffed back her tears. "Throughout the incarnations and the generations, I always dreamt of the times you called me 'father,' My Emperor," she whispered, and then breathed out before she gazed on the now-sleeping Kataikō. "We should discuss this at another time, though," she then admitted before she gazed on Kyech. "Lady K'ekhech, is it possible for you or perhaps one of the Sky Lady's compatriots to help both Susuko and Mioko gain better control over themselves? Much that we could certainly waste days and months trying to speculate why this being did that to them, they need to have their lives restored to normal."
"They cannot be helped as is."
More silence.
"Why not?" Ranma asked. "It's just mostly a large pool of ki they have in their bodies. Some meditation and a little exercise would help a lot."
"Not in their current bodies, though."
Everyone tensed. "You mean…?" Lum began.
"They'd have to become like Hiromi and the others," Ataru finished for his lover.
A nod. "Hai."
"Why is that?" Sakura asked.
"Because the life energy of a ch'uokyek is native to Noukiios, only a native of Noukiios could benefit from such a gift, Venerable Healer," Kyech explained as she gazed on the nurse/priestess. "Neither Susuko or Mioko are Noukiite. They are Terran. It is a wonder to me that they've been able to survive this long. No doubt, Yuzumi and her sister seucheuch, when they used their magic to restrain them both, helped keep them alive." A shake of the head. "But they cannot remain this way forever."
"How many spare bodies do we still have on Haida?" Ran then asked.
"About a dozen or so," Hiromi said before she drew out her communicator. "I best call Tsukihana-san and bring him down here so he can get the blood samples."
As she stood to make a call, a hand lashed out to snare her by the wrist and yank her back down almost atop Kataikō. "HEY!" the reborn emperor yelped before she nearly had the breath pushed out of her lungs as her reborn wife nearly crushed her with a hug.
"Don't leave me!" Kataikō wailed.
Hiromi grunted as she tried to push herself out of the other tōshi's grasp, and then she moaned. "I never expected something like this," she then lamented.
"Here, give it to me," Tariko then breathed out. "I doubt Mioko-chan'd like Ataru leaving her side. I'll give Tsukihana a call to get him down here."
Hiromi nodded her thanks as she passed the communicator over. As Tariko moved to head out, she then yelped as the face of a wide-eyed Kataikō loomed in her vision. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" she screamed out as she yanked out her Ultimate Idiot Basher mallet to send the reborn empress flying face-first into the floor.
"Husband…" Kataikō moaned as she tried to extract her face from the floorboards.
As Tariko marched out of the room, muttering about idiot women who couldn't keep their breasts in their bras, Akane breathed out. "She has to teach me that!"
Ranma gave his fiancée a worried look…
Later…
"So you're a tōshi, huh?"
A shake of the head. "I am not a tōshi, Susuko. I am a free warrior."
"I think she means the resurrected part of it, Kyech," Ataru grunted; he was now being forced to hold the smiling Kataikō in his lap as she snuggled up to him.
"You holding out there, Darling?" Lum asked.
"Trying to."
Noting this, most everyone else in Class 2-4 burst out laughing. The only ones who really weren't finding amusement at Ataru's current predicament were Mendō and the Stormtroopers. Noting Lum's amused smile, Megane snorted. "Well that proves that!"
"Proves what, Onii-san?" Tokiko asked.
"That she is NOT Lum-san!" he said as he pointed at the Oni in question.
"And your proof for that is?" Shinobu teased.
Megane waved at the scene at Ataru's desk. "Look at that! Would the real Lum-san actually allow Ataru to get away with molesting that innocent girl?!"
The girls all looked. "Well, it looks like to me that Mioko-chan's the one who wants to do the molesting, not Ataru-kun," Marubeya Momoe noted.
"Agreed," Gekasawa Kumiko mused. "But if she was Hiromi-chan's wife in her first life, shouldn't she be crawling into Hiromi-chan's panties, not Ataru-kun's boxers?!"
"Momoe-san! Kumiko-san! Don't be blinded by his evil scheme!" Mendō pleaded.
"And what evil scheme, Onii-sama, is Ataru-san supposedly plotting?!" Tachiko demanded.
"What he ALWAYS plots!" her brother roared out.
A fist rapped on the table. "Excuse me! I don't mean to intrude on this mind-blowing display of stupidity by the rich idiot and the geek squad here, but I have to ask this question of all the SANE people here!" Bachō Mōki then asked.
"Mikoko-san!" Mendō gasped as the Stormtroopers all shuddered with outrage.
"Quiet, moron, or I'll force-feed your toothpick down your throat sideways," the Ryōshū freshman snarled. As Mendō yelped in shock at the tōshi's threat, she then turned to the ladies in the class. "Ever since Sensei's brother discovered the truth of what was going on in his own mind six months ago, did he EVER misbehave in any way, shape or form, when it came to any of your personal spaces?!"
"Not at all," Shinobu affirmed.
"He always treated me as a girl, but he never did anything he was said to have done before that whole thing with that rose queen," Ryūnosuke added.
"He always treated me with respect and kindness," Inu Chigaiko stated.
"Never once asked for a date with any girl that I know of," Tsuruya Rumiko mused.
"Alright," Mōki said. "So — despite his having to keep certain things secret because of these no-life Niphentaxians; that which you all finally learned when Sensei came to school last week — do you actually see Ataru-sempai as evil?"
A snort. "If anyone was evil, it was 'Lum,'" Chigaiko snarled out. She then caught herself, and then she gazed on Lum. "Sorry about that."
"I'm not offended," the Oni said, smiling.
"WE ARE!" Megane screamed out.
"Well, who gives a flying fuck what YOU think!" Mōki said as she glared at him.
"Indeed," Koshaji Enjō added. "It's a wonder to me that Usāmah bin Lādin didn't put out a fatwā that didn't put death marks on their heads for what they pulled on the world just after Hensō came here."
The Stormtroopers all croaked. "That was Ataru's fault!" Perm bellowed.
"That was YOUR fault as well as HENSŌ'S fault!" Shinobu countered.
"HOW DARE YOU?!" Megane screamed.
Watching this exchange, the Attendants — who, with Suikō and Chinkyū Kōdai, had come to the class to await what was now happening aboard Haida — gazed in veiled amusement at the leader of the Stormtroopers. "Blind, isn't he?" Sōsetsu mused.
"What do you expect from someone like him?" Kōran asked.
The others laughed. "Indeed," Chōjō said as she walked over to gaze intently into Megane's eyes, that motion making him cringe. "While his passion is quite admirable to behold, his current choice of allegiances leaves much to be desired."
"Just like I always thought," Ataru said as he gently stroked the now-sleeping Kataikō's hair. "A traitor to the human race, right to the end."
Megane exploded. "ATARU! HOW DARE YOU…AWWWRK!"
He was now having his throat crushed by a shuddering Kataikō, her whole body aflame with outrage as her eyes glowed with power. "A pity I was stopped from ending your worthless life eleven months ago when I saw that alien whore force herself all over my beloved husband!" the reborn empress snarled as she began to twist his windpipe in such a way that his throat was guaranteed to be crushed. "While the Lady Shinobu strikes me as a decent sort to become one of my beloved's concubines, YOU wouldn't ever deserve the privilege to be made a EUNUCH at the court in Luòyáng…!"
"Dearest."
She stopped, and then stared in confusion at Hiromi. "Hai?"
"Killing him will do nothing save see you arrested for murder," the reborn emperor advised her as she gave her a wink and a smile.
"Not that he won't be really missed," Tokiko added.
"None of them would," Mitsuko emphasised with a snort.
The other Stormtroopers all cringed on hearing their own DOUBLES assert something like THAT about them. Considering that, Kataikō then breathed out. "Yuzumi-san?"
"Hai?" Chōjō asked.
"Remove their memory blocks," the reborn empress then instructed as she dropped Megane to the floor. As he gasped out while feeling the deep welts driven into the flesh of his neck, she glared down at him. "Let them remember how close they came."
The leader of the Attendants blinked, and then she smiled as she raised a hand and whispered something in a forgotten tongue. At that moment, Ataru, Shinobu and the Stormtroopers all froze as something seemed to unlock deep in their minds. A moment later, Ataru then sighed. "Damn it, Onē-san! You sure called THAT right!"
Shinobu gazed on her former boyfriend. "That was Negako-san?!"
"Anything that sounded like the dead of World War Two speaking at once was ALWAYS her when she took control of her hosts' bodies," he said as he gazed knowingly at her.
"So what happened, Darling?" Ran asked.
Ataru smirked as he sat back in his chair…
Eleven months ago, sometime after the "oil-theft" incident…
"LUM-SAN! LOOK OUT!"
As the Stormtroopers and several other bystanders watched in horror, a blue-haired typhoon of destruction brutally pummelled a certain green-haired alien teenager over the head and body with two sheared-off lengths of metal pipe. Try as Lum — in truth, Hensō — could to mount any sort of defence against the rampaging Kataikō, it was worthless; one of the Oni's horns had been bashed clear off by a side-swing blow from one of the tōshi's weapons, thus she couldn't summon the power necessary to either fly or use her lightning against her. Not that it would ultimately save her.
"Who IS that girl?!" Chibi cried out.
"WHO CARES! STOP HER! SHE'S GOING TO KILL LUM-SAN!" Megane screamed as he charged.
The four men raced at Kataikō's back just as the tōshi slammed Hensō on both sides of her head, causing the alien to drop into a puddle of her own blood onto the street. Just as they were about to dogpile her, she spun around to glare at them, a deadly smile crossing her face as the air around her became alive with ki.
The resulting beat-down, in the eyes of the onlookers, was truly something to remember.
Once Kakugari collapsed in a heap of snapped bones and torn flesh, Kataikō took a deep breath, and then she walked over to the unconscious Moroboshi Ataru, who had been zapped hard by Hensō after he had shoved her away and ordered her to return back to her home planet. Seeing him slowly stir, the reborn empress smiled as she moved to cradle him. "Now, my husband! Let's be away from this town of traitors so I can fully awaken your memories and restore you to the way you should always have been," she sensuously purred as she moved to gently rub her cheek against his.
"Ataru-kun…"
Kataikō's eyes narrowed on hearing that pleading voice, and then she turned to glare at Miyake Shinobu, who was standing nearby, now white-faced with overwhelming shock on witnessing something that couldn't even BEGIN to compare to any martial art film she had ever seen. "Leave, woman!" Kataikō hissed as she moved to place herself in a shielding position between the man possessing the soul of one she loved more than life itself and the stupid little girl who had utterly NO idea what was REALLY going on in the world. "You made your feelings known when you walked away from my beloved the day he defeated this alien whore!" She waved to the badly-bleeding Hensō in emphasis. "Your precious 'boyfriend' is meant for much greater things than to be a trophy husband to a selfish brat like you, much less a pet to a MONSTER like her!"
Shinobu recoiled at that insult, and then she shuddered as fear and anger began to fight for control of her emotions. Seeing that, Kataikō grinned in triumph. "So your true feelings show themselves," she declared. "You never loved him at all. You USED him, like all the others in this sick village of TRAITORS used him! Too bad. He is awakening to your true nature. When he does, he will never be there for you ever again. Just like you deserve." She moved to lift Ataru into his arms…
…and then she gasped as Ataru did an impossible back-flip out of her arms, and then his fingers lashed out to hit several pressure points on one of her neck meridians. As the reborn empress cried out in shock on sensing all her power suddenly cut off from her mind's control, Ataru straightened himself, revealing a face that was now as white as a ghost's with black tiger-striping all over the exposed parts of his skin. "I DO APOLOGISE, MIOKO," he then said in a voice that sent chills down the backs of all around him. "MUCH THAT I REALISE WHAT YOU DESIRE, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CLAIM YOUR REBORN HUSBAND AT THIS TIME. I HAVE NEED OF THIS BODY FIRST." As Kataikō collapsed to her knees and fell flat on her face, his eyes then glowed as he gazed off to one side. "YUZUMI, COME HERE," he ordered.
Footsteps then heralded the arrival of a blonde-haired woman with ice blue-grey eyes. "So it is true," Chōjō stated. "Not only does Reitei-sama share a body with an innocent boy, he also shares a body with the Black Death itself."
A mirthless chuckle, which sounded like shotguns going off and made many of the people watching this all collapse to their knees as the stench of bowels and bladders being let go began to fill the air around them. "NO DOUBT, YOU WILL CONSIDER THIS A CURIOUS TURN OF THE FATE THAT YOU BELIEVE DOMINATES YOU AND YOUR FELLOW TŌSHI THROUGH THE MAGATAMA YOU BEAR," the awakened sentience of the Saikō Jinseijutsu then mused. "WORRY NOT ABOUT IT. LIKE ALL THOSE BEFORE HIM, ATARU SWORE THE OATH OF BUNKA GO-NEN WHEN I WAS ALLOWED TO INHABIT HIS SUBCONSCIOUS MIND TEN YEARS AGO. AND EVEN IF LIÚ HÓNG'S SOUL NOW ALSO RESIDES WITHIN THIS BODY, HIS FATE IS NOW DEPENDANT ON WHAT WILL FINALLY BEFALL ATARU AND MYSELF." He then smirked as those glowing eyes then focused on Hensō's slowly stirring form. "STILL…"
"Still what?" the leader of the Ten Attendants asked.
The possessed Ataru then grinned. It had no humour in it at all. "THIS ONE, WHILE LIVING A LIFE OF LIES AND HALF-TRUTHS, MAY BE OF USE TO ME…"
As people around them shuddered as they wondered what those words could ultimately mean, Chōjō came up to gaze on the barely-conscious Oni with her mage-sight…
"So WHY did you do that?!"
Chōjō blinked as she gazed on Shinobu. "Do what?"
"Erase our minds of what Negako-san discovered about Hensō?!"
The leader of the Attendants laughed, which made almost everyone in the room — as they were conversing, the Stormtroopers were all frozen in shock as they remembered how close they all came to dying because of what lurked within Moroboshi Ataru's subconscious mind eleven months ago — gape in shock at her. "Shinobu-san, while I do agree that letting out the truth of what Hensō really was and what was going on within Ataru-kun's mind might have saved people some problems, it could have easily provoked something even worse. Don't you recall who ELSE was in town by then?!"
"Some of Lum's so-called 'most faithful worshippers,' you mean," Ryûnosuke snorted.
"Hai," Chōjō affirmed with a nod. "I admit, I am a very good user of magic. But compared to someone like Negako-sama, I am but a babe in the woods. You all pretty much understand what she is and what her skill level is like, don't you?" she then asked the others in the room. As people nodded, Chōjō smirked. "By just reading someone's ki signature, she could write an entire ENCYCLOPEDIA of one's whole LIFE! She could analyse multiple targets of interest in a thought's breadth, read the very ley lines that criss-cross the surface of the world to know of events THOUSANDS of kilometres away, and then process all that information together to give her a good tactical reading of what her options could be." A sign. "And no doubt…"
"The tactical situation for Negako-sama was nowhere near what she needed to finally win control of her life and win her freedom," Enjō finished.
"Exactly. But in Hensō, she did find something that gave her hope."
"The link to Lum and how she came to be in her new body."
Eyes locked on Ataru, and then Chōjō smiled. "Exactly."
"You USED Lum-san…?!"
Eyes turned to gaze once more on Megane, who was shuddering in outrage as he glared at the man who had, in his mind, stolen everything precious from his life. "No, stupid," Ataru said as he gazed in amusement at the other man, which made Megane quake more. "Onē-san used Hensō to get what she — and Hiromi as well — ultimately needed to get full control over their lives separate from my own. And since Hensō was nothing more than a little wind-up doll with delusions above her station, what happened to her in the end DOESN'T MATTER!"
An explosion! "YOU BASTARD…!"
The whole school then shook as desks were flung at Megane to bury him low. "GET A LIFE, IDIOT!" many of the girls in the room screamed out.
As Megane moaned from under the pile of desks that now weighed down on him, Tokiko could only shake her head. "That, Onii-san, you had coming to you…"
"You can say that again," Takako breathed out.
"Ne, ne, girls!"
The Stormtroopers' sisters all blinked before they gazed on Ran while their brothers moved to help their leader. "What is it, Ran-chan?" Mitsuko asked.
"Once we get our idiot 'sisters' into their new bodies, would you guys like to have a chance with them?" the rose-haired Seishin teenager asked, winking at them with the eye that couldn't be seen by their brothers.
Tokiko hummed, and then she sat back in her chair. "I suppose we could use some handmaidens to help clean up our homes," she said as she winked back at Ran.
The Stormtroopers all cried out hearing that while many of the girls laughed…
Several hours later…
"That was…" Sakura began.
"Utterly incredible," Cherry then finished.
"But for any Avalonian, quite natural."
Both turned to gaze on the Old Woman of the Oak Forest. She, as well as Moroboshi Negako, had come down with the freshly-created bodies for the Izuku sisters from Haida; as with the replacement body the crew of Arizona had prepared for Samantha Carter's android replica, cloning new bodies for Kataikō and Kashin Suikō had been done as quickly as the bioroid chambers allowed. "Why would they be blessed with such a power, then?" the Shintô shrine miko then asked. "To have the ability to create perfectly human bodies, then be gifted with the power to pass on their very souls into those new bodies without any major problems? To do something like that…"
"Clearly, young lady, that is something only the creators of these Avalonians can only answer," the Old Lady mused as she watched the Izuku sisters get dressed behind privacy curtains in the nurse's station at Tomobiki High School. Most of the student body had gone home for the evening, though there were those close to Moroboshi Hiromi who had remained behind to learn of the fate of her reborn wife and her sister. "In the meantime, once we fully disposed of those poisoned carcasses young Susuko and Mioko had been forced to live in for so long, it'll come the turn of Hensô and her friends."
"Good luck, Obā-san," Sakura said as the aged sorceress walked out.
By then, both Suikô and Kataikô had emerged from behind the curtains, the former in designer slacks and a button blouse, the latter in the uniform of a student of Rakuyō Senior High School. On seeing the aged monk and the young priestess gaze on them, the Izuku sisters could only smile before they bowed to them. "You are still touched by the kin to the one who touched the Lady K'ekhech," Cherry warned.
"But it should be easier to control now," Suikô admitted. "Excuse us."
They headed out of the nurse's station. Cherry and Sakura watched them go, both smiling. "Their fate is still dark," the monk then whispered.
"But there is hope," the priestess added.
"True."
"Hey! There they are!"
Everyone turned to see two women walk out of the school building and head over to where the small crowd awaited them by the front gates. As the Izuku sisters came up, both then slowed down as they gazed on Kyech. Silence fell as the two tōshi gazed on the Noukiite free warrior, and then Suikô took a deep breath. "Is she alive?"
A shake of the head. "I can't say, Susuko."
The reborn supreme general's eyes then bowed. "Damn…"
"The others will be interested in meeting you, of course."
The sisters perked. "What others?" Kataikō asked.
Ataru chuckled from nearby. As always, he was surrounded and embraced by his lovers. "Nengmek'i-jichan and his friends," he advised.
The Izuku sisters took that in, and then Suikō breathed out. "Damn!"
"What's wrong?!" Shinobu asked.
"What do you do when you meet an honest-to-goodness DRAGON?!"
"Hey, Susuko! One good piece of advice."
Eyes locked on Benten. "What's that?" Suikō asked.
"Be insanely polite," the Fukunokami said.
A nod. "Right…"
"My Emperor!"
Everyone perked, and then they turned as four women in the uniform of Rakuyō Senior High School came out of the shadows, one carrying an object wrapped in beautiful silk. Noting that, Hiromi then smiled. "Was it difficult, Joei-dono?"
A deep bow from the leader of the Angels of Chōan. "Not at all, Kyōrei-sama," she said before going to her knees and allowing the package to open.
Everyone then gasped on seeing what lay within Joei's hands. "The Imperial Seal," Kōdai breathed out as she dropped to her knees in reverence.
As the other tōshi all fell to their knees in respect to this long-lived symbol of the one and true Mandate of Heaven, Kataikō walked over to gently take it from Joei's hand, and then she turned to present it to Hiromi. The reborn emperor gazed on the carved block of pure jade, and then she gently reached for it, pulling it up to gaze on the intertwined carved dragons that served as the Seal's handle before she turned it to gaze on the delicately carved characters on the Seal's face. "Shòumìng Yú Tiān, Jì Shòu Yǒngchāng," she whispered the ancient phrase in modern Mandarin.
"What does that mean?" Oyuki asked.
"'Having received the Mandate from Heaven, may He lead a long and prosperous life,'" Kataikō translated, and then she gazed into Hiromi's eyes. "And no matter what, my beloved husband, I will…we ALL will…wish that upon you."
"It is said that whoever loses the Seal will lose the nation," Kōdai whispered.
"And the one who gains the Seal will gain the nation in turn," Enjō added.
"Hiromi."
Eyes then locked on Kyech. "What is it?" Hiromi asked.
"That is not totally jade," the Dragonspeaker warned.
The reborn emperor blinked. "What?!"
Kyech's eyes narrowed. "It's core is pure naqahdah."
Silence.
"Holy SHIT…!" Tariko breathed out as the aliens in the crowd all gaped on hearing THAT revelation. "Then who the HELL…?!"
Hiromi blinked, and then she gazed on the Seal before her eyes narrowed. "Yi."
Kataikō blinked. "Who is Yi?!"
The other woman breathed out. "An alien, Mioko. A creature that invades the bodies of others like a parasite, all to control and conquer all those he saw as potential slaves to help preserve a dead empire. Who, when he came to China many thousands of years ago, pretended to be Yù Huáng himself!" A scowl. "The Jade Emperor."
As people gaped at her, we now…
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