Tomobiki, the Moroboshi home (local time: dawn)…
Moroboshi Ataru's eyes opened.
It was NOT his ceiling.
It was NOT his room.
It was NOT his home.
Shaking his head, the only son of an ordinary salaryman and his wife — both of whom had been killed two years ago by a woman named Margo Black, one of the many people Ataru had encountered over the years to bring to Yiziba to allow her to gain a Gift; thinking about Elizabeth Wakefield's perfect physical twin from New Jersey, he tried not to shudder — moved to slip the blanket off him and then he slowly got to his feet. A glance onto the futon revealed the peacefully-sleeping form of Jessica Wakefield curled up under the blankets, her head propped on a pillow. She was draped in a nightshirt, which gave Ataru some relief even if he couldn't ignore how beautiful she was; much that he often joked about having "nookie" time with girls ever since puberty had set in and his adopted sister had given him the Talk — which, coming from the likes of Moroboshi Negako, was something that had actually TRAUMATISED him for a week after it happened! — he really wasn't ready to go all the way with a girl just yet.
Oh, well…
Stretching himself, he walked over and slid open the door of the bedroom he had been forced to sleep in for the past thirteen months and step out into the hallway. His nose was quick to pick up the scent of a cigar drifting up from the main floor. It didn't have the slight sweet tincture of a Dutch Masters Honey Sports brand — the usual brand smoked by one Major Deannette A. Raeburn — which meant that ANOTHER Canadian that had befriended some of his wide circle of lady friends was in the house. "Who's here?!"
"It's just us, kid."
He turned…and then smirked. "What hauls you guys here?" he said as he gently grasped Logan's hand. "I'm no mutant. Cerebro never got a thing from me."
"You're right," the older man stated. "But now that I know what the hell turned Michiko and Ryūnosuke into Caltrop and Carcajou — not to mention got an idea of what's been going on in this town for the last year or so — I wanna make sure my friends' friend gets out of this mess with his hide intact and gets back to his proper home."
"Appreciate it…"
"Ah! Ataru-san! Ohayō gozaimasu!"
He looked downstairs. "Osu, Chiyo-chan!" he said as he came down to gently hug Mihama Chiyo. "How's the cutest genius in the whole Universe these days?!"
Mega-blush. "Ataru-san!"
"What does that make ME, then?!" a strange voice then challenged.
"You're the prettiest genius in the whole Universe, Liz," Ataru then assured as Elizabeth Wakefield came over from the living room. "When did you get here?"
"Professor Wyszynski persuaded Headmaster Dumbledore to come to the Valley and wake Jess and I up after midnight local time," the elder of the Wakefield twins answered as Chiyo headed back into the kitchen to prepare breakfast. "We came here right away with Winston Egbert; he was one of the ones the professor helped get a Gift."
"Tall, lanky guy with glasses, right? He became Lightmage."
Elizabeth blinked. "You knew?!"
"I assumed he would have told you himself. You know I don't blurt out people's line-names without permission, Liz," he confessed. "What about the others?"
"So far — save for the Azuma Gang and Ryūnosuke — no one has checked in…"
A sigh. "Well, we'll have to take care of that once the mess here is dealt with."
"Do you really want to deal with this?" a new voice then asked. "You were forced into this from the very start, Ataru-kun. It's not your responsibility."
Ataru gave Mizuhara Yomi a look. "True, they may have forced me to be their patsy to make the Oni go easy on Earth, Yomi-chan…but now that I've got my memories back and a Gift to back me up, I'm going to settle this MY way," he stated.
That made everyone in the living room perk. "You got a Gift?!" Kagura gasped.
"What?!" Takino Tomo cried out. "What?! Tell us! Who won the Bet?!"
The X-Men — all of whom were relaxing with their new friends around the living room table as they enjoyed coffee and tea — all perked. "What Bet?" Scott Summers asked.
"Oh, it's a bet that all of us who got our Gifts thanks to Ataru-kun made as to what sort of Gift he'd get when he finally gave in and went to visit the Cave of the Future to get one," Tomo explained, and then she gazed on Ataru. "C'mon, Ataru! Spill!"
"It's NOT Mustang."
Silence.
"WHAT?!" Tomo exclaimed. "Mustang's perfect for you!"
"I have to agree," Yomi added.
"What is the significance, Frau Mizuhara?" Kurt Wagner asked.
"Well, of all Yizibajohei, about fifty percent of named lines are what are addressed as FISS-types," the telepath from Nakano explained. "That means 'Flight, Invulnerability, Strength and Speed.' Tomo's like that, as is Jessica-san upstairs. Mustang is the most powerful of that whole group. Even-steven with Superman and Captain Marvel."
"That is most impressive," Henry McCoy — who had joined his former group from the Avengers when the Phoenix had disappeared from New York City; fortunately for the Beast, his fellow Avengers had understood his reasoning — stated. "I assume however — since mesonium is involved in empowering you all — there's a mental side to this."
"Hai, McCoy-sensei, there is. Mustang is known amongst us all as 'the One Never to be Tamed,'" Yomi explained. "In effect, atop his powers, he has the most unbreakable will of the non-cosmic metas — people like Ōsaka here — outside Stone Mountain." She waved at Kasuga Ayumu — who was sleeping under the kotatsu — in emphasis. "And I do admit that it does fit your personality type, Ataru-kun. So why…?"
"It WAS offered to me, but I rejected it," Ataru admitted.
"You have a choice in taking a Gift?" Henry asked as he scratched his chin.
"Full freedom of choice, Sensei. Though the offered Gifts are geared to one's general personality type," the younger man answered before he waved to Elizabeth. "Liz here is very intelligent, lives a structured lifestyle, respects her elders and uses her brains to figure out problems she faces. That matches the Academician. Ditto with Chiyo-chan here," he then waved to the young genius from Nakano. "She was smart enough BEFORE her Gift to be vaulted five grade levels and start attending high school at age TEN!" As the X-Men gasped on hearing that, he indicated Yomi. "Yomi-chan here is a girl that likes to feel in control of her situation. Soul Searcher, as a telepath, can control any situation she confronts. Tomo-chan is a party animal at heart. Hence, Warwind. Ditto with Jessica upstairs and a few others from her home town. And people like Ayumu-chan…" He smirked. "Well, you've met her, I recall."
"Yeah, we have, kid," Logan said.
"So who else would fit Infinity herself?" Ataru asked.
"That still doesn't answer the question," Kagura warned.
"True. Turns out my Gift comes from one of the Nameless."
Silence.
"One of the Nameless?!" Tomo gasped as all the Terran-turned-Yizibajohei gaped at him, though Elizabeth and Chiyo were both nodding in understanding.
"What are the 'Nameless,' Comrade Moroboshi?" Pyotr Rasputin asked.
"They're descent from the monks, nuns and the other truly religiously devout on Yiziba who weathered the Dawn of Power relatively intact, Gospodin Rasputin," Elizabeth answered. "Unlike other meta lines on the planet, they chose to not use battle-names to mark their specific personalities. Atop that, they normally stayed away from the main habitations. In the early days after the Dawn, after so many had died in the in-fighting that toppled all the nations existent at the time and the Show began in earnest, they went out into the countryside to clean up the villages and allow it all to go back into nature." She then gazed at Ataru. "I assume that you WILL call yourself something…since you'll NEVER swear an oath of celibacy!"
"NOOKIE!"
In a flash, Tomo had embraced him. "And there's no way that girls like my sis and Tomo here — and ESPECIALLY Tara Markova! — will allow you to BE celibate!" Elizabeth added.
As Ataru blushed, the others laughed…
Outside, sometime later…
"Hey! Look at Ataru's house!"
"Holy…! It's been totally REBUILT! What happened?!"
"Did he finally confess to Lum-chan?!"
"I don't know…but if he did…"
"WHY THE HELL IS HE LETTING US ALL SUFFER?!"
Hearing that thunderous shout from their leader, the four members of the group of alien otaku known more commonly as "Lum's Stormtroopers" all quaked before they turned as one and marched right for the front gate of the Moroboshi home…which had drawn a small crowd of onlookers as they gazed on the pristine house while clouds of fungal spores still filled the skies as the alien mushrooms unleashed from this VERY LOCATION continued to grow from everywhere around it. Before they could get close to the main door so they could march in and storm the residence, an airbike rumbled through the sky. "DON'T GO NEAR THAT PLACE, YOU IDIOTS!" a familiar biker-babe cried out.
The Stormtroopers stopped as they spun around just as Benten landed her machine nearby. Oyuki was riding side-saddle behind her friend. "What's going on here, Benten-san?!" Megane snarled. "How the hell did Ataru get his house fixed up?!"
"The You Know Whos are involved, that's what!" Benten snapped.
He blinked, nonplussed by that comment. "Oh, the You Know Whos are involved…"
It hit him.
"Who are the 'You Know Whos?!'" Megane demanded.
As people fell flat on their faces from hearing that question, Miyake Shinobu then came up. "What's going on here?" Ataru's former girlfriend then asked as she looked around, and then she paused to gazed on the Moroboshi house before she gaped. "What in God's name…?! How did Ataru-kun's house get repaired?!"
"The You Know Whos are involved, Miyake! I said that already!" Benten snapped.
Shinobu blinked. "No, I don't know who're you're talking about. Who did this?"
"We do not say their race's name because it is a name that inspires mortal terror within all of us, Shinobu-san," Oyuki stated. As people gazed on her, they were quick to see that the normally pale woman was almost as white as a sheet. "They are a race of literal metahumans. Where every adult and almost all children possess a unique power that in some cases will equal that of the Last Son of Krypton himself!"
Silence.
"People…as powerful as SUPERMAN?!" Megane croaked out.
"Yes!" the Neptunian princess hissed out. "What is worse, they live in a society that is in a state of perpetual anarchy! Where they engage in what they all call 'fight scenes' every waking moment of their lives for totally senseless reasons! Any attempts by anyone to civilise them has always failed! And they have unleashed unspeakable damage on any planet that has drawn their wrath! Like Lum-chan's home world over two of your centuries ago!" She closed her eyes. "Ataru is now allied with them…"
"Holy fuck!" a familiar voice called out from nearby. "I can't believe you'd say somethin' like that! I thought you were the SMART one, Oyuki!"
Everyone perked. "Ryūnosuke-kun…?" Shinobu gasped as she turned…
…and then she gaped, as did many of the other people who were quick to recognise the type of jumpsuit the woman born Fujinami Ryūnosuke was wearing. "What are you doing dressed like THAT?!" Megane demanded as he stormed up to glare into Carcajou's face. "What the hell do you know about what's going on here, Fuji-…?!"
ZZZZZT-SSSSSSSSS!
He then gargled on sensing four ENERGY CLAWS now bracketing both sides of his head. "Shut up, you fuckin' loud-mouthed moron!" Carcajou snarled. "If you can't hack the fact that most people in this stupid town can't tolerate your precious Lum-san, that's too damned bad! 'Cause in one sense of the term, I KNOW what those freakin' SAMES up there are capable of doing to people they want to fuck around with!" She then contemptuously nodded up to the Oni cruiser hovering overhead.
"You're an ALIEN?!" Chibi gasped.
A laugh. "No! No! No! I was born in Chōshi, you idiot! I just got my Gift — my ki-manipulation powers, the healing factor and my heightened senses! — on another planet! It's called 'Yiziba.' The name for my adopted race — and Ataru's, by the way — is 'Yizibajohei.'" Her dark brown eyes narrowed. "And if you two fuckin' idiots don't stop it with that, I'll get the Weaver to bounce both your home planets so many continua away, it will take all of ETERNITY itself to find you! Got me?!"
Everyone spun around to see Benten now crouching behind her airbike, as white as a ghost and moaning out things in her native language that sounded very much like prayers to her own gods to make the evil demons go away…and then they looked on Oyuki, who was now shying away from the transformed Ryūnosuke as quickly as she could move despite her being in a kimono-like gown. "Why are they scared of you?" Perm asked.
"It's all stemming from what Oyuki was talkin' about when Lum's people came by the planet to launch another of their stupid tag races," Carcajou stated as she allowed her ki-claws to dissipate. A glare at Megane — who had nearly soiled himself when he realised how close his classmate came to DECAPITATING him! — to make him stay quiet, she then added, "Back then, our predecessors were cool with the idea of the tag race. Even if the Oni were fuckin' sames, we didn't mind the interruption in the Show. The Rampage alive back then was the elected champion. The Oni never knew he could fly. When the starting gun went off on Day One, he made the tag in seven seconds."
Everyone blinked. "So what happened?" Shinobu asked. "You won the tag race, so the Oni had no pretext to invade Yiziba." She glared at Benten as the latter cried out on hearing that name, and then she blinked. "I take it they were sore losers."
"VERY sore losers, Shinobu," Carcajou affirmed. "The commander of the invasion force — he was a relative of that jackass Rei — declared that we 'cheated' and said they'd invade anyway." As people gasped on hearing that, she smirked. "We don't like bein' called 'cheaters'…unless it's for good cause. That time, it wasn't. So we introduced them to what we call a 'fight scene.' We trashed their fleet and sent them scurrying back to Uru with their tails tucked between their legs!" A sigh. "I will admit that some of the more powerful of us decided to take it a little further. That was the 'Mother of All Fight Scenes.' Uru got a serious case of urban renewal as a result, not to mention went through a famine and a few other things, too. But in the end, the Union Revolution — that occurred about fifty years later — came about and the jerks that were running the show there got kicked off their thrones. Once that happened, we were all cool about it. It's not our fault that sames like them always blow what happened right out of all proportion all the time!" A shake of the head as she glared once more at the moaning Benten and the shuddering Oyuki. "Idiots."
"So how does Ataru figure into all this?" Kakugari asked.
"Another guy from Earth who became a Yizibajohei found him when he was six after he had actually absorbed the soul of the planet's first-ever artificial intelligence," the Wild Hunter of the Forest explained. "He took Ataru to Yiziba to give Negako — that's the AI's name; she became his adopted elder sister after that — her own body. After that, he started travellin' to and from Yiziba to find people like me to give us the chance to get our own Gifts. I was the tenth person he met; I got my gift as a sorta special seventh birthday present after he caught Oyaji trying to beat on me."
Shinobu gaped. "Your birthday's in JANUARY, Ryūnosuke…"
"My point."
Ataru's former girlfriend moaned out. "Well, that explains how you survived even in that ratty old teashop you had on the Kujūkuri Beach when we…" She then stopped before her eyes went wide. "Wait a minute! Ataru-kun was living on Yiziba all this time?! That's impossible! He and his family were living here in Tomobiki!"
Others immediately nodded in agreement. "Oh, fuck me…!" Carcajou snarled. "Someone's been muckin' with all your minds! YO, SEARCHER! WE NEED YOU!"
"I sensed it! Relax!"
As people perked on hearing Soul Searcher's voice, Shinobu then gasped as she felt SOMETHING enter her mind from somewhere, that seeking out all the memories she had of Moroboshi Ataru from before the First Tag Race all the way back to before they began elementary school…to the day when a dirty yet smiling Ataru had come to comfort a crying Shinobu after her paternal cousin Hitomi had been forced to move out of Tomobiki with her family for neighbouring Nerima. And then those memories began to replay…
…but then she began seeing them in a new light. After that day in the park when Shinobu had found herself falling in love with Moroboshi Ataru, he had totally DISAPPEARED from Tomobiki. There had been the usual police search for the missing child, but that had been stopped about two months after he had vanished. Much to the surprise of others in town, Ataru's parents had not really reacted as parents normally would to a missing child; they seemed actually RELIEVED that they no longer had to deal with their son. Shinobu — who then clearly didn't understand what she would later learn when it came to Moroboshi Muchi and Moroboshi Kinshō concerning their child — could only weep at the idea of her first male friend having vanished like that…
…until some weeks later…
Ten years ago…
"You're okay! You're safe! Where WERE you, Ataru-chan?!"
Ataru — he was dressed in a child's black martial arts gi, a black belt around his waist — chuckled as he allowed a sobbing Shinobu to hold him close. He had come to visit her in the same town park where he had come to console her after Hitomi's departure for Nerima. He hadn't come alone; a young Kasuga Ayumu — in the grey gi-like uniform of Infinity, shrunk to her current size — had accompanied him. "Well, I had to leave the house, Shinobu-chan," he confessed as she gazed up at him, her eyes awash in tears. "I couldn't stay with Baka Tō-san and Baka Kā-san anymore, especially after I got Onē-san put into my head by Cousin Hirosuke…"
Shinobu blinked. "You have a SISTER?!"
An eager nod. "Yeah! She's really neat, too! She's talking to the Emperor now to get him to make her my legal guardian!" As Shinobu gaped at him, Ataru shrugged. "At least, that's what Onē-san calls it! I don't understand it really…!"
"So where are you living?" Shinobu asked.
"On Yiziba!"
Silence.
"Where's Yiziba? Is that in another country?" Shinobu then asked.
"Shinobu-chan, look up!" Ayumu then said, pointing up. "THAT'S Yiziba!"
And Shinobu looked up…
Oh, my God…that's right! Ataru took me to Yiziba…
«To the Cave of the Future,» a voice whispered in her head. «You got something there.»
The woman born Miyake Shinobu blinked, and then her eyes went wide.
"I DID!"
And ki then exploded from her body as people cried out in shock, they backing away as Shinobu's normal clothes instantly warped into a Yizibajohei jumpsuit. A second later, the transformed woman then emerged, dressed in an evergreen uniform with flowers all over her leggings and arm sleeves, not to mention over both breasts. As the current incarnation of the Belle of the Wilderness, Wildflower, took a deep breath, both Oyuki and Benten screamed out on realising that ANOTHER of Lum's classmates at Tomobiki High School was one of They Who Must Never Be Named. Carcajou then whooped as she clapped her hands. "Damn! I should'a thought that Ataru would'a got to you, Shinobu!"
"Yes, he did!" the newly-woken Wildflower stated before she gazed on Soul Searcher. "Is Ataru-kun alright?! Who the hell ORDERED this to happen to all of us?!"
"I don't think targeting all of US was deliberately intentional, 'Flower," the telepath from Nakano stated. "But if Ataru-kun had his family's martial arts skills AND a Yizibajohei body when he faced Lum a year ago…"
"A near-repeat of what happened on Yiziba two centuries ago," Carcajou finished.
"No! That's not it!"
Everyone blinked. "What do you mean, Shinobu-chan?!" Chibi asked.
A sigh. "Akira-kun, MY parents and ATARU-KUN'S parents are DEAD!" Wildflower stated. "Ataru-kun's parents were killed by a woman calling herself Doctor Death two years ago when she discovered how much they never really DID love their own son!" As people gasped, she sighed. "Doctor Death was another person like myself and Ryūnosuke here." As the others nodded, she added, "My parents died in an auto accident about six months later. They always knew about what had happened to me; they were supportive of it."
"So what happened to make you and Ataru forget what you were?" a voice snarled.
She turned to see Wolverine standing there, an angry look on the Canadian's face. As people watching this gasped on recognising one of the famous X-Men — unlike America, Japan always had been more open and accepting of mutants; for a country that often had to deal with daikaijū like Gojira, people with metahuman powers were actually seen as quite mundane! — Wildflower took a deep breath. "They were magicals, Logan-san," she said as she gazed on Carcajou's friend. "And one of them was a bald fellow with no human nose, very pale skin and red eyes like a lizard's. He had several friends with him, all dressed like magicals in Europe dress. He was working with a small team from the Men In Black to blank out Ataru's mind and I tried to stop him."
"Voldemort…"
People turned to see a wide-eyed Albus Dumbledore standing nearby, accompanied by Stephen Strange and Takahata Takamichi. Noting the headmaster of Hogwarts was there, Wildflower nodded. "Hai, Kōchō-sensei. And now that I realise that the man who did this to us was this 'dark lord' your society's been dealing with over the last couple of decades, I think I can guess why he would stoop himself so low as to team with 'muggles' to make us — and by extension, all of those Ataru helped get Gifts — forget what we were."
Dumbledore blinked…and then his blue eyes went wide as it hit him. "Oh, my dear Heavens…" he gasped. "You mean to say that one of your friends…?"
"Is me, Professor."
The headmaster of Hogwarts turned to look…and then he seemed to age several decades all at once. "Harry…" he breathed out on recognising the Boy-Who-Lived under the hooded enchanted cloak and dark green jumpsuit of the First Sorcerer of the Cosmic Mage Guild, the Warlock. "How did Tom find out about this?"
"I'll be happy to explain this to you, Professor," the transformed Harry Potter stated. "But first of all, let's handle this issue," he said as he…
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