Silence had fallen over the main lounge of the Redet Glory.
"Chiyo-chan…what did you just say?" a very pale Lum then gasped.
"A cobalt bomb," Prodigy replied. "And it's a real big one, too! Has an explosive yield potential of 2.1 exajoules altogether."
"How much is that in TNT equivalent?" a pale Arbitrator demanded.
A sigh. "Five hundred megatons, Nabiki-san."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"Oh, my Heavens…!" Albus Dumbledore breathed out.
"Gods!" Konoe Konoemon gasped. "Why on Earth would these people do THAT to them?!"
"Um, excuse me…!"
People gazed on the Sentinel. "What is it, Dudley-san?" Prodigy asked.
"Who ARE the Niphentaxians?!" the Warlock's maternal cousin wondered.
"They're a race of mimics…"
That was a hollow-voiced Lum. "Lum-chan…" the Arbitrator breathed out.
Tears were now flowing down the Oni teenager's face. "They're the most powerful members of the Galactic Federation," she said in a voice full of ashes. Watching her, everyone was quick to see the shame leech from every point on her body. "They'd be 'sames' by Yizibajohei standards. They have the power to mimic anything they encounter…but they don't have the ability to create their own things. Their own society, their own culture, their own technology…things like that." She sniffed…and then smiled gratefully as the Warlock conjured up a handkerchief for her to use. "Arigatô, Harry-san," she said as she wiped her eyes, though the tears wouldn't stop flowing. "What's worse, they're inclined to be very religious when they encounter something they believe is touched by the Divine. Like a boy my age named Ōgi did concerning me once."
"What happened?"
That was the deceptively calm voice of one Kagura Michiko, the current Caltrop. As Lum turned to stare at the lethal female warrior, she stepped out of shadows to move into a new position close to the door leading into the main lounge. Casting a contemptuous glance at the unconscious Benten, the Deadliest Woman Alive then crossed her arms. Noting that the sportswoman-turned-unconventional warfare specialist wanted some answers, Lum breathed out. "When I was six, a trade delegation from Phentax Two — that's their home planet — came to my world. Ōgi was the son of one of the delegates. He wandered off into the Terrible Swamps west of my home and was frightened by the monsters there. I was out flying about when I saw him being scared by one…and I zapped it with my lightning to make it leave him alone. He was grateful for what I did…" A sigh. "But the next thing I know is that a couple years later, a 'Great Awakening' started to happen on Phentax Two. And they looked on ME as their living goddess figure!"
The others blinked. "So where on Earth does this lead to their planting a BOMB of all things — especially one that could unleash NUCLEAR WINTER on this planet! — here?!" the Arbitrator then demanded as she crossed her arms.
"Most likely because all my friends here on Earth are seen as my 'holy company' or 'holy apostles,' Nabiki-san," Lum answered. "When I moved here and people started to go crazy over me, they started to probe into the diaries of all the people like Shūtarō, Megane-san and his friends, Shinobu and the others to create a 'holy book' they called the Book of Lum." A tired sigh; gazing on the Oni now, everyone was quick to see how old she seemed. "No doubt, they decided that because their 'religion' based on me was their 'one true faith' — almost EVERYONE on Phentax Two and their colonies believe in it — they put the bomb there to ensure none would ever 'sway' from me."
"Can the bomb be disposed of, Chiyo-chan?" the Warlock added.
"It would be pretty hard, Harry-san," Prodigy confessed, shaking her head. "The unit has six safety transmitters planted in different parts of the city set out in a hexagonal pattern. If one of the energy switches between the bomb and one of the transmitters is broken, the bomb will detonate. And that…"
"Nuclear winter," the Sentinel finished; he wasn't one of the smartest people around, but he could understand what the young genius from Nakano was saying.
"What about Ayumu here?" the Arbitrator asked as she waved to Infinity.
Prodigy shook her head. "Ōsaka-san has the power to teleport it off…but even before our memories were blanked out by whoever it was that made Ataru-san forget all of us and the skills he got from his sister, she always had a small problem with control when it came to doing really precise things, Nabiki-san. There is a really great risk that she might slip up and trigger the bomb before it was safely pulled off the planet." A sigh. "The only hope for us is to get the people who planted the bomb here to disarm it and remove it. But if they're as fanatical as Lum-san said…"
"They won't do it."
People gazed on the Oni teenager. "Lum…" the Warlock breathed out.
Lum sniffed. For so long, she had always believed that what she had done concerning Earth had been for honourable reasons. Unbeknownst to everyone in Tomobiki, the Oni had never intended to INVADE and CONQUER Earth like Invader had threatened to do when he and his daughter had met Moroboshi Ataru at his family home before the Tag Race. Given other races' interests in the planet — and given the proximity of Federation worlds to Earth — it had been decided in Onishuto that they would "pretend" to invade the planet while doing everything they could to LOSE the Tag Race. This would — atop making the Oni look like true sportsmen when it came to confronting less-advanced cultures — see to it that those races who DID have ambitious designs towards Earth would be made to back off and leave the Terrans alone. Part of the reason she had been so willing to adapt to living on Earth with Ataru was to ensure that happened.
But now…
…everything she had believed in from HER side of things was ALSO a lie!
The news of the cobalt bomb would get out. There was no way the Men in Black would be able to make people forget what would be revealed quite soon. If it didn't happen because of people like Mihama Chiyo or Elizabeth Wakefield, it would happen by some other means; something like THAT could NEVER stay secret! And when that DID come out, the backlash against the Oni and their allies would be FURIOUS. Lum wasn't blind to the power some of the metahuman residents on Earth possessed. Superman by himself was a handful. Add Captain Marvel — the one known as the "World's Mightiest Mortal" or the "Big Red Cheese," not the deceased Kree military officer who had actually been born under the name Mar-vell — to that mix and it became a potential holocaust. And now that there were Yizibajohei with the same level of powers involved…
…and they were all TERRAN by birth…!
Lum then smirked. "Um…Nabiki-san?"
"What?" the Arbitrator asked.
"What's the Bet like now?"
Blink. "Excuse me?"
"The Bet concerning what Darling would be gifted as if he faced the Crystal?"
The woman born Tendō Nabiki blinked several times before she roared with laughter. As the others all grinned or chuckled on hearing that, she said, "It's still up in the air right now, Lum! Why?! You want to make a wager? I'm still taking them in!"
More laughter. "What are you thinking, my dear?" Dumbledore then asked.
The Oni sighed. "Trying to persuade Ōgi to change his mind about something is really hard to do, Kōchō-sensei. He's the most powerful man on his planet right now. In a way, he's even worse than some dictators on other worlds that I know of. And since the Niphentaxians think of Darling as their 'great evil' — their devil-figure — because he wouldn't accept my 'divinity,' anything I do that might weaken Ōgi would be seen by him as something Darling made me do. Especially now that Yiziba in involved…"
"I've got an idea."
Eyes locked on Caltrop. "What's that, Kagura-chan?" Infinity asked.
A vicious smirk. "A hostage scene."
People blinked…
The streets of Tomobiki beside Tomobiki High School, minutes later…
"EXCUSE ME!"
That thunderous shout made everyone in town — even those within their homes — turn to gaze on the young girl in the jumpsuit-like uniform that clearly marked her as one of the mysterious metahumans that Moroboshi Ataru had supposedly befriended in the years he had been gone from his family home. As people — including Lum's Stormtroopers and other members of Class 2-4 at Tomobiki High — came up to approach her, many were quick to see the deadly-looking teenage girl in the combat clothing standing nearby, bearing all sorts of lethal weapons on her person. As they sensed that challenging this woman was guaranteed to cause a long hospital stay, they shied away from her.
Prodigy lowered her special megaphone for a moment to clear her throat — which made many of the people gazing at her instantly gush on seeing how cute she was! — and then she touched a control to lower the output volume before she put it back to her lips again. "Sorry to bother you, everyone!" she called out. "But I have an announcement to make! This message is for all aliens currently resident in Tomobiki and the neighbouring municipalities, especially the Niphentaxians living here!"
As people began to whisper to each other — mostly asking questions like, "What is she talking about?" and "Who are the Niphentaxians?" — the young genius from Nakano then added, "Because we've just discovered something that shouldn't be on this planet — and you know what I'm talking about — we citizens of the Free State of Yiziba…!"
Horrid screams then echoed from people in the crowd. The Terrans amongst them all jolted before they turned to see people — including many OLDER people — dressed in the SCHOOL UNIFORMS of Tomobiki High School! A more detailed look revealed the tapered ears they all had. "HEY! WHO THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE?!" one man then demanded as he pointed at them. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU, ANYWAY?!"
"EXCUSE ME!"
That had been Prodigy again. "An explanation for them will be made very soon, Oji-san!" the young genius stated with a smile. "But to get back to what I was about to announce, we of Yiziba…" — this time, she ignored the screams from the aliens in the crowd around her and elsewhere — "…as we were all born here on Earth and met up with Moroboshi Ataru before we went to Yiziba…" — again, she ignored the screams — "…to get our Gifts have decided that it's long since time for aliens who have NO BUSINESS on Earth to LEAVE Earth! And if the Niphentaxians who are here do not do this — as well as remove the object that I'm talking about from this city without causing it to harm anyone here in Tomobiki — then Lum-san will PAY THE PRICE for their actions!" She smirked. "We just took Lum-san hostage! Isn't that nice?!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"You took…Lum-san…hostage?"
That was Aisuru Satoshi, known amongst his friends as "Megane," the leader of the Stormtroopers; he was now ashen-faced at Prodigy's words. "Hai!" the young genius stated with an earnest nod — which again made many of the crowd gush at how cute she looked — before she put the megaphone back to her lips. "The Niphentaxians have twenty-four Earth hours to evacuate this city with their device! And when they leave, they must not bring harm to any person in Tomobiki regardless of species! If they do not do this, then — to borrow the words from the Extreme Archaist…!"
She took a deep breath.
"SHE WILL BE MADE TO CONFORM!"
Total silence.
"Wh-wh-what does th-th-that mean…?" a pale Megane stammered.
Another smile. "She's be turned into a Yizibajohei!" she said. "Isn't that nice?!"
As people gaped at her, the Niphentaxians in the crowd all began to wail at the thought of their own beloved Goddess being turned into one of They Who Must Never Be Named. As the Terrans gazed in confusion at them, one woman asked another, "Is that a bad thing?"
The other woman shrugged as we…
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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