"There you go, Priss-chan. Feeling a little better now?"
"Somewhat," Priss grunts as she closes her eyes. Now dressed down to an oversized T-shirt that modestly covered her to mid-thigh -- it was one of Ataru's -- she now relaxes on his bed in the apartment over Tampopo's establishment. "You're really something, Oba-chan. Where the hell was someone like you when we needed you in Megatokyo?"
The chef chuckles. "No doubt, if I have an analogue or counterpart in your universe, she'll be doing what I'm doing here: running a restaurant and being a friend to someone who needs it." She then perks as the bedroom door opens, revealing the other Sabres. As with their wounded teammate, they have slipped off their softsuits, putting on T-shirts that barely shield their modesty. "Had enough of seeing 'yourselves' done in animation, ladies?" she quickly notices the stunned looks on their faces.
"That..." Sylia begins, then sits at Ataru's work desk. Nene and Linna relax at the foot of the bed. "That has to be the most surreal experience I've ever had. To actually view some of the most important events in our lives through old-style 2-D animation..."
"It's scary. I never knew Irene-san had a sister who's not just a famous singer but also heir to the leadership of a Triad!" Linna hugs herself, remember her late friend Irene Chang, murdered at the order of Brian Mason before the end of 2032.
"Not to mention the fact that Sylvie and Anri lost three friends trying to escape from Genaros," Nene adds.
"Anri..."
Eyes shift to Priss. The singer's eyes are closed, though tears flow down her cheeks. Tampopo reaches over to tap several places on Priss' forehead to make her fall into a deep sleep. "There, she can rest up now," the chef rises. "Shall we head downstairs so you girls can get something to eat and we can discuss this further?" she gazes on the other Sabres.
"That seems the prudent thing to do, but what about whatever's going on elsewhere in Tomobiki?" Sylia asks as they exit the bedroom, then follow Tampopo into the main restaurant. "Aren't you afraid that someone might try to burst in here...?"
"I don't believe you'll have to worry about that, Sylia-chan," Tampopo nods to her BAS, now hanging in its usual place over the cash register. "But before we get started, let's give you girls something to shield you from all that..."
She draws out a small can of ground white powder, then drawing up a thimble-full, allows each of the Sabres to snort it into their noses. "Clearly, this is some sort of aerial contaminant," Tampopo muses. "I'm amazed that this is able to move so quickly about; I haven't seen something spread out as fast as this little bug since the days of the Black Death, much less the influenza pandemic in 'Nineteen."
Sylia gapes at her. "The Black Death?! That was back...!" she stops. "How old ARE you, Kamekichi-san?!"
A knowing smile crosses their host's face. "I stopped counting when I started getting into the four-digit range. And that was a VERY long time ago, I assure you. But enough about me for now. First thing we have to determine is how to find a way to get you girls back to where you belong. Much that you would be accepted quite easily in Tomobiki in case you're never able to go home, I do recall that you, Sylia-chan, have a younger brother back in your dimension, not to mention Nene-chan's parents and all your friends and acquaintances."
"Hai, that's true," the Sabres' leader nods. "Atop that, we have to gauge what sort of effect that warp which brought us here had on Megatokyo. Do you have any idea how we can check into that?"
"While you girls were getting out of your suits, I put in a call to a friend of mine who has the means of investigating something like that. And fortunately, she's not been affected by this bug or whatever it might be that's hit town. I'm expecting a call..."
The phone rings. "Speak of the goddess," Tampopo walks over to pick up the receiver. "Moshi-moshi, Tampopo's Ramen and Beefbowl Bar. Ara?! Peorth-chan! How are you?" A nod, then, "Did you check out that dimension that faulty space/time warp punched into...?" her voice trails off, then she nods. "I see. Yes. Uh-huh. Alright..." a frown turns her lips, then she perks up. "Well, that's certainly good news. Did you speak of this to...?" she is cut off by the other end, then nods. "Alright, then. If it happens, don't come by until later, when I've had a chance to proof this place from whatever's spreading around...! Eh?" she stops, then listens to the speaker for a moment before nodding again. "Ah, I understand now. Yes, that does make a lot of sense. Thanks for telling me that, Peorth-chan. Ja nai."
She hangs up. "Who were you just talking to, Oba-chan?" Nene asks.
"A friend of mine up in Asgard, Nene-chan," Tampopo replies.
Linna and Nene blink confusedly while Sylia's brow furrows. Asgard was the name of the mythological domicile of the pre-Christian Norse gods. And if what Tampopo had said before answering the phone was true, this Peorth she spoke to could possibly be...!
But...! Then that would mean...!
A shudder races through her as that overwhelming sense of unreality sinks in again. Other dimensions, she could accept. Aliens, she could accept. A woman who was either EXTREMELY long lived if not outright immortal? That was harder. And goddesses...?
"Anyhow, there is good news about your friends back home, not to mention the state of your crusade against Genom," Tampopo continues. "You can be assured, Sylia-chan, that your brother is alive and well. No doubt worried about you, but he's home right now. If we can get a message to him right away telling him that you are all alright, we'll do it. However..."
"However?" Linna tenses.
Tampopo sighs. "Well, when the space-warp opened over Genom Tower, it caused a subspace shockwave to spread out in all directions from the point where the tear occurred. That shockwave passed into the core of the Tower itself, setting off a destabilizing effect in some top-secret experiments being conducted in the lower basements of the tower. Peorth-chan wasn't too specific about what it exactly was, but those affected experiments caused a chain reaction that set off some very powerful explosives the Tower's builders installed as a sort of 'final option' in case someone was about to compromise all of Genom's more important secrets."
"A self-destruct in the Tower?!" Nene gapes.
"Yes. Roughly equivalent to the explosion that flattened a lot of the city of Halifax back in 1917, to be exact," the chef grimaces. "The end result was that much of the heart of the Tower was gutted right out. The rest of it..."
"Collapsed onto its foundations, turning a mile-high structure into a pile of rubble that would take YEARS to clean up," Sylia finishes.
The other Sabres stare at their leader. "Why would they do something like THAT?!" Linna demands.
"Remember what was mentioned about the OMS system in the sixth video we watched, Linna?" Sylia gazes on her.
"The experiment that would've given Largo the power to rule the world," Nene nods.
"Exactly. And that is what, from what I know, the OMS is potentially capable of doing. Or rather, if Kamekichi-san's information is correct, it WAS capable of doing. Now..." Sylia shrugs. "We'll never know, I suppose."
"It was in the Tower, right?" Linna nods.
"Hai. Most likely, along with a lot of Genom's other dirty little secrets, now either blasted into bits or buried under tons or rubble."
The others consider that. "I don't think Genom's going to recover from THIS!" Linna shakes her head. "The main headquarters and one of their primary research facilities gone, three other Towers worldwide blasted into rubble thanks to Largo..."
"What of the casualties when the Tower collapsed, Oba-chan?" Nene asks.
"Well into the thousands," Tampopo sighs. "I would strongly suspect that most of Genom's leadership was wiped out in one blow. As for Quincy's fate, it's hard to predict. So the chances are good that when you return home, if you can return home that is, all you'd be forced to do for some time to come is helping mop up the mess."
"If they don't turn around and blame this all on us," Linna dryly notes.
The front door then opens, Ataru's cheery voice calling out, "Tampopo-chan, tadaima (I'm here)!"
"Okaeri ne (Welcome back), Ataru-chan," Tampopo looks over, then notices the three young women hanging off him. "Ara?! Where on Earth did you find these girls, Ataru-chan?" she crosses her arms, a knowing look appearing on her face.
Ataru chuckles embarrassingly, then blinks on seeing the three young women at the counter, all wearing his T-shirts. "Eh?! Who are...?" he moves to ask, then blinks as they turn to gaze at him. Tall woman, early twenties, brown eyes and black hair cut short with a curl draped over her forehead. Slightly shorter woman, about twenty or so, blue eyes and black hair combed straight, held down with a headband. Normal sized woman, late teens, green eyes and rose-pink hair bob-curled on her shoulders. "The Knight Sabres...?" he gapes as his girl radar confirms that these women were as real as Chigaiko, Yuu and Manami, then turns to gaze on Tampopo. "But HOW?!!"
"It's a long story," Tampopo chuckles, then points to the still-apparent bulge in his pants. "But before we tell that to you, let's do something about THAT first, shall we?"
Ataru acks, then laughs, rubbing the back of his head...
Later...
"So you're saying that Lum's spacializer must've somehow malfunctioned, then opened a gate between our universe and the Sabres', then dragged them here?" Ataru recaps.
"That's exactly right," Tampopo nods. After giving Ataru and his companions a dose of the white powder -- which, much to his relief, finally brought his erection under control, plus finally calmed Chigaiko, Yuu and Manami down -- stories are swapped. "Right now, Priss-chan is in your bedroom sleeping off what's probably been one of the worst days in her life, so I don't want her disturbed."
"Are they going to be safe, Tampopo-san?" Manami nods to the other Sabres. "Even if you shielded them from this flu bug that's made everyone go crazy, what happens if they accidentally catch it on their clothes and carry it back to their dimension?"
"Perhaps we should stop referring to this as a 'flu bug,' Manami-san," Sylia takes a deep breath.
"What would you call it, then?" Chigaiko asks.
"A biological warfare agent."
Silence.
"Bio-war...?" Linna and Nene gape.
"Exactly," Sylia nods. "Granted, much different than what one might expect when this subject is broached, but it does follow the basic concepts that lead to a successful bio-war campaign. Bio-war, put succinctly, isn't meant to destroy but disrupt a target society, force it to either cease to function or inhibit its functioning as much as possible for the attacker to carry out whatever he would desire."
"But what would whoever did this desire, Sylia-san?" Yuu wonders. "I mean, all this has done is make us so horny that we'd drop everything and get laid by the first man we meet..." her voice trails off as it hits her. "Oh, my..."
"Oh, shit!" Ataru breathes in. "That DOES make a world of sense..."
"What do you mean?" Nene asks.
"Simple," he stares at her, then indicates Yuu and Manami. "Yuu-chan and Manami-chan here came to Tomobiki to meet up with my classmate Gioo Shigoozei, a man they happen to love and care for a lot. What happens? This bio-thing hits, they go crazy and when I came along..."
"We nailed him right then and there," Yuu finishes.
"Meaning?" Linna prompts.
"Meaning that now, our interest in Gioo-kun, something that's been building and building up since we both knew him in middle school, has taken a back seat to our just-developed interest in Ataru-kun," Yuu points to Ataru.
"Chigaiko-chan here's lucky since she did love Ataru-kun before this hit us, so she was able to press her interest forward," Manami indicates Ataru's first lover. "But that wasn't the case with Yuu-chan and myself, though I do confess that I don't really mind it."
"What exactly happened to you?" Sylia probes.
"Some sort of psychic bond's developed between them, a bond so powerful that in some societies I know of, it would be the automatic mark of marriage or its equivalent," Tampopo explains. "That's not so surprising since Ataru-chan's always had a very strong empathic potential, but never got the chance to explore it. And from what I've sensed of both of you girls..." she gazes on Ataru's out-of-town lovers, "...it appears that both of you have a higher-than-normal empathic potential."
"We do?!" Yuu and Manami blink.
"Hai. Further, it's spilling over into Chigaiko-chan as we speak."
"It won't hurt me, will it?" Chigaiko pales.
"No, dear, you can relax," Tampopo chuckles. "What it will ultimately do, I believe, is allow all of you -- and any others who might end up joining your little group -- to develop a very close family bond with each other. I suspect that, barring any unforseen development, you'll all be together for the rest of your lives."
Silence falls as Ataru and his lovers consider the chef's words, then exchange a look. "I'm not really ready for this..." Manami admits.
"We all aren't ready for this one, Manami-chan," Ataru reaches over to squeeze her hand.
"That sadly emphasizes the point I made earlier about this being not so different from a bio-war agent," Sylia shakes her head.
"And it's spreading now?" Nene shudders.
"Most likely," Tampopo closes her eyes. "I give this bug about three days to be spread out from Wakkanai to Naha. Along the way, it'll transmit across the East Sea to South Korea. From there to China. From China to..." she breathes out.
"The whole planet," Ataru rubs his head. "Oh, man..."
"Makes you wish you were one of those unfortunates the North Koreans kidnapped, ne?" Yuu wonders.
"No," Manami sighs. "Even they'll get hit, right across the Yalu River from China."
"This..." Chigaiko moves to make the final point, "...sucks."
"Big time," Ataru nods in agreement. "What do we do now?"
"Very little we can do, unfortunately," Tampopo reports. "Those who might be able to do something about this here in Japan'll either be under this bug's influence -- which means that they'll not be fully within their senses for some time to come -- or if they're unaffected, they'll have a lot of problems trying to believe something like this is happening. Ditto with outside Japan."
"I have to agree with that," Sylia nods.
"Well, if that's the case, I'm going to take a nice long soak in the furo," Ataru rises from his seat. "Anyone want to join me?"
"Hai!!" Chigaiko, Yuu and Manami automatically rise as they follow their lover into the back.
"Stay out of your bedroom for now, Ataru-chan!" Tampopo calls out. "Priss-chan needs a chance to sleep."
"Hai, hai, wakata (gotcha)!" he calls back.
As the door to the furo room closes, the Sabres turn to gaze on their host. "What do we do now, Oba-san?" Linna asks.
"You best stay indoors for now. Go to my room and get some sleep if you want. This way, you won't risk bringing this bug back into your reality should you get the chance to get back home," Tampopo advises.
"Hai!" the three travellers from 2033 nod as they head out.
Tampopo watches them go, then sighs as she considers what to do now. If what she'd seen and sensed of this bio-virus and its effects was true, everything that had been accepted as "normal" in this abnormal town would be turned completely on its ear before midnight. And since part of the problem lay with the fact that this bio-virus had -- in conjunction with yet ANOTHER shocking display of Lum's own negligence when it came to Oni tech on Earth -- killed a couple thousand people in the Knight Sabres' home dimension (not to mention gutting the heart of the largest business firm on that Earth), that meant that it was time to call in some of the big guns.
So she...
(Posted Thu, 23 Jan 2003 00:36)
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.