"Where am I...?"
Mihama Chiyo's brown eyes fluttered open, revealing to the very young high schooler a hazy dark field. That soon cleared up, revealing the darkened walls and ceilings of some strange hallway somewhere. Before she could focus on anything, the hooded head of a bearded man slipped into her arc of vision from the left. "Do you feel alright, Mihama-san?" he asked, the concern in his voice quite obvious.
"A little dizzy..." Chiyo moaned, though she didn't resist as the man lifted her from whatever she had been laying in. "Where am I...?"
"Right now, in a lot of trouble," the man grunted as he allowed the young girl to sit on the floor. "Breathe deep and slowly. Don't try to hyperventilate. You've been in suspension. Trying to force your lungs to work too much'll provoke hibernation nausea."
His hands pulled away from her as Chiyo took in what he just said. Looking left and right, she was quick to note the rows of glass coffins, all of which were now open. Kneeling on the floor close to her were some of her friends and classmates, plus two of her teachers. The man who had talked to her, he dressed in a brownish gi-like uniform with a camoflauge green cape slung over his shoulder, was now busy lifting Sakaki from a nearby chamber. What was going on here? Where was she?
"Ano...!"
The man perked on hearing Chiyo's voice, then he reached up to pull the hood away from his head. That action revealled a head covered in dark brown hair that extended to mid-shoulder, it tied at his neck with a tiger-stripped ribbon. A neatly-trimmed beard and moustache covered his face. His eyes were the same shade as hers, though to Chiyo, they seemed to fit better on a much older-looking man. Looking at the young girl he had just freed, the man took a deep breath. "Mihama-san, please," he urged as he helped Sakaki sit down on the floor. "You've got more than enough rights to be scared, but panicking now will get all of us into a lot worse trouble. Okay?"
Chiyo shuddered, though she was quick to nod. "O-o-okay...! Um...! Er..."
He blinked, then smirked. "Oh, sorry. I'm Moroboshi Ataru. Pleased to meet you."
"'Moroboshi Ataru?!!' Impossible!!!"
Eyes spun around to gaze on Tanizawa Yukari. Chiyo's homeroom/English teacher was now staring disbelievingly at Ataru. "What are you talking about, Yukari-sensei?!" Takino Tomo demanded, pointing at Ataru. "You know this guy?!"
Yukari didn't answer her student's question as she took several steps towards Ataru, he now moving to free Kasuga Ayumu from her suspension chamber. "Moroboshi Ataru...?" she whispered. "From Urusei Yatsura...? That's impossible...!"
"I'm told that's the name of the anime/manga series I star in," Ataru confirmed as he pressed the button to open Ayumu's chamber.
"Written by Takahashi Rumiko-sensei?!" Yukari added, her voice picking up in pitch.
"Who also wrote Maison Ikkoku, Ranma Nibunoichi, Inuyasha, the Rumic World series, One Pound Gospel..." Ataru rattled off, then he shrugged before swinging the cover away from Ayumu. "Yes, it's almost all the same in my universe, Tanizawa-sensei. Except that in my universe, I'm real and you..." He pointed to Yukari. "Are a fictional character in a manga and anime series written by one Kiyohiko Azuma. Which is called Azumanga Daioh, by the way."
"'Great King Azumanga?!'" Mizuhara Koyomi wondered. "What type of name is THAT?!!"
"Well, Mizuhara-san, I'd wonder the same thing about 'The People From Planet Uru,'" Ataru retorted.
Silence fell over the scene as everyone considered that, then laughter escaped Yukari. Soon, everyone was busting a gut. Kagura quickly cut in with, "Hey, wait a minute!! The Moroboshi Ataru I heard of is a lech and an even worse idiot than Tomo!!"
"Hey!!" Tomo screamed, spinning on her classmate. "Who're you calling an idiot, idiot?!!"
"Yes!!!" Yukari thundered as she pointed an accusing finger at Ataru. "And he doesn't have a beard and moustache!!!"
"And where's Lum?!!" Tomo added, remembering what little she knew of Urusei Yatsura.
"She's dead."
Silence.
"Dead...?" everyone gasped, all staring in shock at Ataru.
"Yes, dead," he replied, the anguish on his face controlled but still quite obvious to the women around him. "Murdered in a terrorist attack on her homeworld's capital city. An attack which also killed Jariten, Ran, Lum's parents and five million other people. An attack that used an annihilation device -- an anti-matter bomb to those Star Trek fans out there -- that was loads worse than what the Americans dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki in 'Forty-five." A pause, then he added, "By the way, sometime after that happened, Islamic terrorists blew up Tomobiki High School to 'punish' the students there for their involvement in the time that space-taxi company stole all my Earth's oil. That attack killed Megane and his friends plus my parents. And it nearly killed Mendou, Miyake-san and Fujinami-san."
After hearing that, many of the women present were on the verge of tears. "That never appeared in the manga," Yukari hissed.
"I'm told that manga series ended with the second Tag Race I ran with Lum," Ataru explained. "To me, that was a year ago." A pause. "A hell of a lot's happened to me in that time period, Tanizawa-sensei."
"Moroboshi-sempai..."
He looked down at Chiyo. The younger girl's eyes glistened, streams of tears flowing down her cheeks. "It's okay, Mihama-san," he assured her with a weak smile before turning back to lifting the still-dozing Ayumu from her chamber. "Now, let's get Kagura-san out of here, then we'll beam you all up to my star-barque so you can be safely returned to your dimension..."
As he slipped his hands under Ayumu's body, her eyes snapped open, she automatically turning to gaze on whoever was touching her. Ataru didn't notice the flashing message on the screen beside her chamber, reporting that the mental conversion had been restarted. Now she...
(Posted Tue, 10 Feb 2004 06:10)
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