Over Tomobiki (local time: three hours after midnight)…
"What happened to her?"
The senior medical officer aboard the Redet Glory turned to shake her head. "I don't know, Captain," the young Oni woman stated. "But from what our systems can detect, there was some sort of empathic bond between your daughter and her husband." She lowered her eyes. The Oni had some experience with psionics; members of their race did exhibit telepathic powers from time to time, a trait that had been appearing with greater frequency in recent generations. Thus, what the doctor was revealing to Invader wasn't a whole lot of gobbledegook. "And it was totally shattered!"
Silence.
"By who, Sensei?" a very pale Oyuki gasped as Benten shook her head in horror.
"By what I could sense, it was Lum's husband himself, Your Highness," the doctor said. "Something happened that made him remember a very deadly martial arts form that he once knew of. He used it to literally CUT the bond out from his own soul. As to what might have happened to him after that, I can't say." A sigh. "But clearly…"
"What?!" Benten demanded. "Why the fuck did Moroboshi do that?!" To actually remove a SOUL-BOND from someone's own MIND…!
"To remove her forever from his life, Miss Benten," the doctor declared. "There was ONE emotion from her husband that I felt from the memories Miss Lum sensed before the bond was shattered." She squeezed her eyes closed. "It was pure RAGE!"
More silence.
"What does this mean?" Invader asked with a mixture of anger and fear in his voice.
If Lum's husband had done THAT to her…and now felt THAT about her…!
A sigh. "I heard the name of You Know Where thought of — or spoken — by someone who was with Lum's husband when it happened, Captain. I…don't have proof positive of this, but if it's possible that he knows of They Who Must Never Be Named…!"
"Ataru…knows the Scary People?"
Everyone turned…
"Ten-chan!" Oyuki gasped.
Floating near the door to the main lounge where Lum was now convalescing after she had been struck down by that horrible bolt of psychic energy was a wet-faced Redet Jariten. "Son, you shouldn't be here!" Invader — moving into kind uncle mode — said as he moved to try to usher the Oni pre-schooler out of the room. "We're…!"
"NO!" Ten snapped. "Lum-chan got hurt by that a-ho! Why don't you…?!"
He then broke down and cried. "Ten-chan!" Oyuki called out as she swept him into her arms. "What?! What happened to you?! Who gave you these burns?!"
On her saying that, the others in the room then noted the blistered and charred skin on the young Oni pyro-kinetic's body. "It was…some kinda forcefield…around the house…" Ten moaned out as Oyuki moved to use her power to help cool the wounds. "I went down there ta see the a-ho…but then I got burned…"
"Some sorta forcefield?! When did the Terrans get THAT?!" Benten demanded.
Invader was already moving. "Bridge!" he snapped as he tapped a control.
"Yes, Boss?" his first officer called back.
"Scan the Moroboshi home! What's going on down there?!"
"One second, Boss!" the younger officer stated…before he gasped. "Maidens!"
"WHAT?!"
"Boss, the whole house…it's totally REBUILT!" the first officer reported, the shock in his voice quite apparent to all. "There are no mushrooms sprouting up from either inside it or around it! And the whole house…it's surrounded by some sort of force shielding! It's totally sealing off the whole property from the outside!"
"Get the ECM people on it!" Invader snapped. "Find out who's doing this!"
"Right, Boss!"
"They Who Must Never Be Named…"
Eyes locked on the doctor now tending to Lum. "But why?" Oyuki then demanded.
A shake of the head. "I can't answer that, Princess…"
The Moroboshi home…
"ŌSAKA-SAN HAD TO DO WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"
"Stop Phoenix of the X-Men — who turns out NOT to be Jean Grey! — from doing a Galactus on a STAR with an inhabited world orbiting it!" the Academician replied from her position in a small park at the edge of Tomobiki; she had picked it as a quiet, out-of-the-way place so she could set up her gear and get to work. "What's worse, this star was in the Triangulum Galaxy…which is technically overseen by the Shi'ar!"
In the living room of a now-fully restored home, Prodigy moaned. "Elizabeth-san, what do you mean that Phoenix is NOT Grey-sensei?! I don't understand!"
A sigh. "I don't understand it myself, Chiyo-chan. All I can do is relay what Ayumu told me from the Doll House. She had to give Phoenix a 'spanking' before she consumed the D'Bari star…and then she discovered that Phoenix was NOT Doctor Grey!"
"Do the X-Men know about this?!" Caltrop demanded.
"I can't say," the woman born Elizabeth Wakefield stated. "I am picking up reports through Nexus herself from New York indicating that the X-Men were in a really nasty fight at the Hellfire Club in downtown Manhattan. Several of the senior leaders of the group were badly wounded, including Harold Leland and Jason Wyngarde." A smirk. "Both of whom are natural-born metas. The former is a gravity manipulator and a member of Sebastian Shaw's little clique of behind-the-throne world dominators. The latter…"
"Is Mastermind, an old partner of Magneto's," Carcajou snarled.
"Exactly. Atop that, Emma Frost — who was Shaw's equal in the group — is in the hospital and comatose as well. No doubt because of Phoenix."
"They were trying to subvert the X-Men!" Prodigy gasped.
"It seems the logical conclusion. Even more so, they convinced Senator Kelly of Kansas to sponsor a new series of Sentinels to be constructed to 'contain' the X-Men."
The three metas inside the Moroboshi home moaned. "Hey, Liz! Why don't you go call Margo Black and sic her on Shaw?!" Carcajou snapped. "We can't have that sort of shit happening here! Natural-born metas have enough problems on this planet…"
She then tensed as her hearing — like her near-namesake Wolverine, the woman born Fujinami Ryūnosuke was blessed with superhuman senses as well as special claws (though hers were ki-forged and not adamantium-laced bone) — picked up a familiar rumble from outside. "Oh, fuck!" she spat out. "It's Benten! What the hell's she doing here?!"
"I'll go upstairs and check it out," Caltrop stated.
And with that, she headed upstairs…
"Holy fuck…"
"Oh, my! What happened here?!"
"Dunno," Benten said as she landed her airbike on the street in front of the Moroboshi home…which, unlike all its neighbours, was pristine and intact, unaffected by the alien fungi that were growing out of other places in Tomobiki and elsewhere. "But if there's something here that's buttin' in on Lum's business, we better check it out."
"Benten, wait!" Oyuki gasped as the Fukunokami hopped off her machine, pulling out a particle cannon along the way. "Don't you remember what Lum-chan's doctor just said?"
Benten paused on hearing that, and then she stopped as she turned to stare up at the simple two-floor home that her best friend had called home for the last Earth-year. "The You Who Knows?" she then asked before gazing back at Oyuki. "Why?"
A shake of the head. "I cannot say. But — much that I know how much you despise him — look at it from Ataru's direction. Lum-chan is now holding his home planet HOSTAGE to force him to admit publicly that he loves her. We both know how much he has always denied any claims of a relationship of ANY sort with Lum-chan. What if — in spite of the times he WAS kind and nice to her — there was a growing ANGER inside him?! An anger that just needed the right trigger to let loose…and the right set of circumstances to allow him to express it WITHOUT any fear of retaliation?"
Silence.
"No…" Benten moaned, shaking her head. "You can't mean…!"
"He clearly HAS made an alliance with They Who Must Never Be Named, Benten," Oyuki warned. "Did you not hear earlier this evening?! The shout of 'Yiziba'…" — she winced on saying THAT word! — "…and 'fight scene' by some man?!" She then lowered her eyes. "What if one of Them came here this evening…and presented his race in such a light that Ataru concluded that WE are the monsters! And thus struck out at Lum…in a prequel to another Mother of All Fight Scenes?!"
More silence.
"No…Moroboshi wouldn't do THAT…would he…?"
Oyuki closed her eyes. "Benten…in the end, do we REALLY know who Moroboshi Ataru is?" she then asked. "Would even Lum-chan know who he is?"
Still more silence.
"What do we do?" Benten then pleaded as tears sprang up in her eyes. "That's our FRIEND up there suffering…!" she snapped, pointing up to the Oni cruiser overhead.
"True…but this whole PLANET is suffering as well," Oyuki stated as she pointed down. "Despite his willingness to pursue women from other words, Ataru IS Terran. Lum-chan IS threatening HIS planet. Just like her people did a year ago when they forced him through TEN DAYS of solid HUMILIATION to prevent the ONI from invading this world! Can we REALLY ask him to show mercy to her when she — to the casual bystander — now appears not to be showing mercy at all to his PEOPLE?! Especially after what we've been through?!"
Benten blinked…and then she seemed to deflate on herself as she crouched down on the street. "I…!" She then shook her head. "Damn it, Oyuki! You know I don't care for that sorta deep thinking!" she then stated. "But…Bensaiten's Grave! Lum LOVES that guy! And he was always there ready to help her when she needed it! He's GOTTA love her! I mean…!" A sigh. "Oh, fuck! I don't know WHAT I mean!"
"Well, that's a good sign."
Both women tensed, and then they turned…
…to see a woman their age leaning against a lamppost that somehow survived the mushrooms sprouting up all over Tomobiki. At first shocked — and understandably wary — on recognising her jumpsuit-like uniform as being the set standard pattern for people from THAT place, both Oyuki and Benten then realised something else. "You're from here!" the latter snapped as she walked over to point at Soul Searcher. "You're from HERE! What the fuck are you doin' dressin' like THAT?! If any of Lum's people see ya and realise you're Terran, they'll probably kill ya on general principles!"
"I'm both Terran AND Yizibajohei, Shigaten-san!" the telepath from Nakano stated, which made both alien girls yelp on hearing her say THAT name. "Born here in Japan, given my Gift when a very nice young boy named Moroboshi Ataru — who LIVED on YIZIBA for NINE YEARS before some selfish BASTARD trapped him on Earth and then WIPED OUT HIS MEMORIES just to make him an acceptable 'husband' to your selfish friend up there…" — she waved contemptuously at the Redet Glory — "…who was concerned that a 'pretty girl' like me wouldn't be hurt by all the OTHER metas running loose on this planet! Other metas that YOU idiot sames are TOTALLY ignorant of!" She glared at Oyuki. "Gods! Your people are our galactic NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOURS! Didn't any of you CLUE IN even ONCE as to what's been REALLY going on this planet before you let your friends come here to launch their stupid tag race?! Which RUINED MY FRIEND'S LIFE?!"
Oyuki and Benten both gaped at her…and then they blinked as the front door of the Moroboshi home opened to reveal a familiar face. "Ryūnosuke!" the latter gasped…
…before her breath caught in her throat as ki energy exploded around the woman she knew as Fujinami Ryūnosuke, shredding her gakuran and reforming it into a skin-tight black-and-grey jumpsuit with polo shirt collars, padded gauntlets and buccaneer-style boots. As Oyuki nearly fainted in shock on realising that one of Lum's CLASSMATES was one of They Who Must Never Be Named, the woman known as Carcajou raised up one hand…to allow foot-long glowing CLAWS to emerge from her fingertips. "Hey, Yomi," she said as she gazed on Soul Searcher. "So what should we do with these selfish idiots?! See if they can be decent people…or do we cut off their heads and put 'em on pikes to make Lum's fat idiot of an old man take his brat kid off the planet…and NEVER COME BACK?!"
"I don't know, Ryū-chan," the woman born Mizuhara Koyomi stated. "I have to personally confess that I'm REALLY disappointed in the Ice Princess here." As Oyuki jolted on hearing that, Soul Searcher smirked. "I would think, Your Highness, that as the heiress to the throne of a kingdom whose inhabitants were forced to FLEE their native planet a thousand years ago because of something ALIENS did to their world to make it uninhabitable, YOU would be the first person to loudly OBJECT to what Lum pulled here!" She then smirked. "But it really doesn't matter after all, doesn't it? You don't give a damn about the people whose lives your friend went and disrupted since the day she LIED about her being MARRIED to Ataru-kun a year ago! You don't give a damn about the fact that there's a growing level of XENOPHOBIA even here IN Tomobiki among the people who are sick and tired of HAVING their lives ripped apart by ALIENS of all things! Like that dumd-as-a-post tiger-cow your friend was once engaged to! How many restaurant owners have had their businesses DESTROYED because of Rei, huh?! Did ANY of that ever matter to you at all?!" A shake of the head. "Well, as they say it here, Oyuki-san, you reap what you sow! In a few hours — if your friend hasn't recovered from Ataru-kun using the soulsword to break the mental brainwashing he was put through a year ago — he will come back from Yiziba. And most likely with a GIFT as well!"
As Benten awked on hearing THAT, Carcajou allowed her ki-claws to fade out before she moved to lean her hands on the stone fence of the Moroboshi property. "So what are you going to do?" she then asked, making the Fukunokami spin around to stare wide-eyed at her. "Now, it ain't your fault that Ataru was made to be vulnerable when Lum's people came here…and it ain't your fault that he finally woke up to what happened to him and did what he did with the soulsword. Hell, it ain't even Lum's fault! But for the love of the Kami, look around you!" She waved around them. "Do you think we LIKE having THIS sorta shit happen to us all the time?! Huh?! Do you?!"
"Ryūnosuke…" Benten whispered.
A sigh. "Look, I like you, Benten. I was annoyed as all fuck when you couldn't see I was a girl at first, but I like you. So I'll be straight with you: If it wasn't for Ataru comin' along to help me get my Gift, I wouldn't be ALIVE today! And I know that once he calms down finally, he'll realise you and 'Yuki there — hell, even Lum, too! — are pretty alright! But you better warn Lum's old man and Rupa this!" She pointed off to the north, where a very dark object was floating a kilometre above the ground. "Get rid of the mushrooms and get rid of that memory-erasin' thing ya launched earlier. Tell Lum to say IN PUBLIC that she AIN'T married to Ataru. Hell, a little apology for allowing this shit to happen in the first place would do wonders. 'Cause if you don't, you better remember two centuries ago. You want that to happen AGAIN?!"
"Because — especially since there were some of us who were within a hair's breadth of becoming Ataru's LOVERS before all this happened — if you DON'T do it, I GUARANTEE it WILL happen again," Soul Searcher added. "That's no threat, by the way."
"So do the smart thing for once, huh?" Carcajou stated. "Show you're good people."
And with that, she turned to head inside. The telepath from Nagato moved to follow, and then she stopped. "By the way, there's something else you should know."
"What…?" a stunned Oyuki feebly wondered.
"Did you know Ataru-kun's parents have been DEAD for TWO YEARS?!" The transformed Yomi pointed to the Moroboshi home. "What lived in here for the last year were ANDROIDS created to make it appear that Ataru-kun was a normal person with a normal family. Androids that were MAGICALLY augmented to fool even YOUR technology." A shake of the head. "You really ought to see what's going on around you."
And with that, she headed inside…
The Redet Glory, minutes later…
"Darling…"
Invader and Ten both gasped. "Lum!"/"Lum-chan!" both cried out.
As the doctor moved to help the stunned Oni teenager to a sitting position, her father and cousin moved to help. "What happened…?" Lum then moaned. "I felt something awful from Darling…and then I passed out…"
"Be lucky you suffered only that, Lum-chan."
Lum's head snapped over. "Oyuki-chan!"
The other Oni looked…and then tensed on seeing the look of mortal FEAR on the Neptunian princess' face. "What happened?" Invader demanded. "What did you find out?!"
"He's one of them, Oji-san," Benten hissed out as she moved to lean against the aft bulkhead, her eyes tearing. "Moroboshi's one of the fuckin' You Know Whos."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"Son-in-law…?" an ashen-faced Invader moaned.
"Darling…?" a white-faced Lum croaked.
"That a-ho's one of the Scary People…?" an equally pale Ten gasped.
"Hai," Oyuki affirmed with a jerky nod. "He has been for at least a decade Earth-time. What is worse, the Terran authorities literally KIDNAPPED him just before your people came here to launch your 'invasion'…and BRAINWASHED him into being a 'normal' Terran when you chose him to be this planet's defender." A sigh. "His friends from That Place have caught up with him and restored his memories. No doubt that's what you sensed when you passed out, Lum-chan." She sadly gazed on Lum in emphasis.
Silence fell again as father and daughter considered that, and then Invader took a deep breath. "You can't be married to that man anymore, Lum," he declared.
Lum jolted…and then she sadly nodded as she felt her heart crash. A pain she knew she would NEVER recover from. "What else did you learn, Oyuki-chan?" she weakly asked.
"Ryūnosuke-san is one of them as well," the Neptunian answered.
That made Lum gape. "Ryūnosuke…?!"
"And she conveyed a warning to us. As did another one we encountered at the house," Oyuki then added. "That warning is this: That if you and Rupa do NOT remove the fungi plague from Earth AND remove the Memory-Erasing Device that Benten accidentally launched from this ship…AND publicly apologise for the disruption that you unleashed on the people of Earth AS WELL AS publicly RENOUNCE your claim of marriage to Moroboshi Ataru, then They Who Will Must Never Be Named will RETALIATE!"
"The Mother of All fuckin' Fight Scenes," Benten hoarsely declared.
As Invader and Lum shared a horrified look…
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(Posted Sat, 31 Mar 2012 05:24)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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