(Writer's Note: It's been a while since I last put an entry into this particular storyline in the Addventure. Hopefully, the changes in my writing style won't be that disorientating. Enjoy! G.)
In orbit over Earth, two hollowed-out rocks, each the size of a dump truck, began to descend towards Japan. Each of the rocks was filled nearly to the brim with salt water, that held in place from the near-vacuum of deep space thanks to a type of telekinetic ability that would even impress Jean Grey, a.k.a. Phoenix of the X-Men. Inhabiting those rocks at this time were two mollusk-like beings, one male and one female. Though it had been thousands of years since their ancestors had swum the depths of their native world, these entities still took great pride and joy in the title they used for their race.
The Great School of the Nendo-kata.
Unfortunately, the male of the pair -- they were brother and sister, both of the same extended family -- couldn't take much joy in anything else, the female sadly mused as she guided them both towards the outskirts of Tokyo. A week ago, a burst of radiation from a neutron star had badly damaged the male's mind, rendering him all but brain-dead. The body remained fully functional though, but without some sort of mental support, it would be cast into the Black Ocean within a month as time was told on Earth.
To any Nendo-kata, a tragedy like this was simply a test given to him/her by the Mother Of All.
To allow the newest inductee into the "Dead School" to fall into the Black Ocean before some sentient being in the Cosmic Chain of Life could be bestowed the saving gift of the Crossing Over was seen as the worst form of disUnity.
It would not be allowed the happen, the female had vowed.
And thanks to a Wanderer who had already Crossed Over, now living on the beautiful planet below, a chance for this to happen had become apparent. It would be taken advantage of. It would be done right. It would be done for the benefit of whomever the Wanderer who now called himself "Moroboshi Ataru" had selected to receive the Mother's greatest and most holy Gift.
As the Mother so ordained years ago.
Her Will be done.
"Ranma-kun, that's horrible!!"
Ranma winced on seeing that none of the girls who had come to visit Ataru and Miyake Shinobu this morning had dry eyes in the wake of his telling them his life story and what had prompted him to come to Tomobiki in the first place. "Aw, c'mon, girls, don't cry!" he soothed.
"Of course we'll cry!" Gekasawa Kumiko snapped before dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief. "You did all those things for those...! Those...! Those bitches!! And that's how they paid you back?!!"
The other girls nodded. Gazing at his guests, Ataru tried not to grin. The instant Ranma was allowed to enter classes at Tomobiki High School -- Sakura had told him that she was looking into the matter -- an instant rivalry would form between the martial artist from Nerima and one Mendou Shuutarou. There was just no way that Tomobiki's richest high school student would tolerate any of his female classmates paying attention to any other man. If Mendou's behaviour concerning Ataru's relationship with Lum was an indicator...
Lum.
Ataru canted his head, focusing his telepathic and empathic abilities on the small tiger-stripped scoutship now hovering over his human-half's old home. The others in the room ignore him; they were busy peppering Ranma with questions. Ataru's eyes briefly glowed as words exchanged between Lum, Benten and Oyuki echoed deep in his mind, then he relaxed. So, she had finally decided to leave Earth.
It was a pity...
Eh?!
His eyes glowed again as an empathic wave of energy washed over and through him from somewhere in high orbit. Sensing one very acute female mind and one nearly brain-dead male mind, Ataru grinned before he quickly sobered. He'd had to break this situation to Ranma ever so gently. The martial artist had, for the longest time, lived in a situation where he had no real practical control over his life and destiny. He had been intrigued when Ataru gave him the choice of the Crossing Over. As a Nendo-kata, Ranma would not only retain his formidable martial arts skills, he would also inherit the telepathy, telekinetic skils and empathy native to the Great School. And now that that absurd "don't hit girls" belief Saotome Genma had rammed into his son for so long had been wiped out...
EH?!!
"Oh, damn!!!" he gasped, bolting to his feet as he ran for a nearby picture window.
Shinobu rose as the windows flew open, allowing Ataru to leap into open air. "Ataru, what's wrong...?!!"
No answer; with a telekinetic push, Ataru vaulted himself towards Lum's ship...
"Two more of those things?!!" Benten shrilled.
"Tcha!!" Lum snapped as she flipped controls to arm her ship's weapons array. Ever since that fateful night in the forests north of Tokyo, the Oni had kept her vessel's sensor array peeled for any sign of the arrogant beings who had taken her Darling away from her, transformed him into something she couldn't hope to control or influence. There was no way that she, the daughter of Invader Redet, heir to the leadership of the largest clan on her homeworld, was going to allow Earth to be taken out of the Oni sphere of influence. To have lost the first Tag Race -- well that was one thing. Given the amount of cooperation that the Terran world authorities in New York City had given her over the years convinced Lum that winning the people of this world as potential allies was far better than conquering them.
But to allow another race to kick her and her kind off this planet -- and to do that with the full support of the United Nations...?!
No. It wasn't going to happen.
"Lum-chan, do you really think this is wise...?!" Oyuki demaned.
"NO!!!" the Oni thundered as she focused the targeting scanner on the approaching alien mollusks. "I'm gonna...!! URK!!!!"
Lum's voice was cut off as a telekinetic "fist" grabbed her heart and squeezed tight, driving her to her knees as the cutting off of oxygen to her body brought on an instant dizzy spell. "Lum!!!" Benten screamed as she lept to her friend's side...
...then found herself propelled backwards to have her skull smashed against the bulkhead. As the poor Fukunokami slid to the deck in a daze, Oyuki stared at the monitor screen to see a familiar shape floating off the scout's bow, his glowing eyes telling the tale. "Ataru-san..." the Neptunian princess whispered, ignoring the sound of Lum collapsing unconscious on the deck by her feet.
A mental sigh echoed in Oyuki's mind. <<Oyuki-san, you will deactivate those weapons now>> Ataru's telepathic "voice" then commanded. <<If you do not, I will send that ship into orbit and detonate its warp core will all of you aboard>>.
Hearing that cold threat, Oyuki could only breathe out. Lum, you fool! she mentally snapped at her unconscious friend, then walked over to flip controls. "They're deactivated, Ataru-san."
<<Good>>, the Nendo-kata-turned-Terran replied. <<Oyuki-san, I will only say this once. You will take that ship back to Lum's homeworld. If either she or Benten attempt to resist what you are doing, freeze them in place. When you get to Lum's homeworld, you will tell that pathetic sub-creature she calls a father that NONE of her kind will be permitted on Earth -- or anywhere within the spheroid marked by Jupiter's orbit around the Sun -- for the next one hundred years. And if you think Lum's people can defy the Great School on this matter, well...!>> A morbid chuckle echoed in her mind. <<We dealt very thoroughly with the Lannarkites and the Brood once. I'm sure those living still in the Mother Ocean would be more than happy to defend Earth, especially from a spoiled brat like your 'friend.'>>. Another pause. <<Am I understood?>>
"You are."
<<Good! Go!!>>
On the ground close to the Moroboshi home, people jerked on hearing a high-pitched whine. Looking up, many gape on seeing Lum's ship, a familiar sight in the skies over Tomobiki, soar away from them, rocketing in the general direction of the Moon, still visible in the sky directly overhead. As people start to mutter to each other over this development, they don't notice the levetating man soar through the air back to his apartment...
"She's going," Shinobu whispered.
"She's really going," Marubeya Momoe echoed her.
"Gone from Earth once and for all," Kumiko added.
Silence.
"WE'RE FREE OF THAT ONI FOREVER!!!!" all the girls screamed out as once.
As they started to dance and bounce around the room in celebration, a female voice then echoed deep in their minds, <<Greetings!>>
Everyone spun around to see Ataru perched on his windowsill, a delighted smile on his face. "Sorry to break up the festivities, ladies, but my request to my home school concerning Ranma-san's problem seems to have been answered a lot sooner than I expected."
The others crowd around the window, gazing on the floating rocks with their alien cargo some metres away.
Now what?
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(Posted Sun, 15 Feb 2004 09:24)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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