"Honoured guests, welcome aboard the Independent Star-Sail Craft Windrider. Heaven's Blessings to you all."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"We're on a spaceship."
That was Tomo, by the way.
Yomi: "A spaceship."
Kagura: "A real spaceship."
Yukari: "A real honest-to-goodness spaceship."
Kaorin: "A real honest-to-goodness spaceship with real aliens."
Pause.
Everyone save Ayumu: "TOO COOL!!!"
Receiving the small crowd just beamed up from the planet where one Moroboshi Ataru had imprisoned them until their rescue by another Moroboshi Ataru, the lovely female android who had piloted the Windrider to this place tried not to sweat too much. "Well, I'm pleased that all of you seem to have endured your ordeal quite well. We have food prepared for you in the galley in case you're hungry. While we're waiting for the Venerable One to return with his sisters, we ask that you remain out of those places...! Yes?!"
"WHAT sisters?!!" Yukari demanded. "Moroboshi Ataru doesn't HAVE sisters!!! What are you talking about?!!"
The android considered the question, then recalled what Ataru discussed with the Being before they were sent here. "Ah, I apologize. We don't hail from what you might call a 'pure' Urusei Yatsura universe. We hail from a 'crossover' universe as you would see things."
"Crossover with what?!" Kagura demanded.
"I believe you might know the Venerable One's sisters as characters from a video game named..."
Tomo: "Dookyuusei?!"
Yomi: "Pia Carrot?!"
Kagura: "Dragon Pink?!"
Ayumu: "Sister Princess?!"
Everyone stared askance at Ayumu. "Osaka..." Yukari muttered.
"There's just no way that Moroboshi would ever interact with a series like that!" Tomo finished.
"Actually, Lady Takino, the Lady Kasuga is correct."
Silence.
Tomo: "NO WAY!!!!"
Chiyo: "You mean Hinako-chan, Aria-chan and Shirayuki-chan?!!"
Sakaki: "And Chikage-chan, Karen-chan and Marie-chan?"
Kaorin: "And Sakuya-chan, Haruka-chan and Yotsuba-chan?"
Kagura: "And Mamoru-chan, Rinrin-chan and Kaho-chan too?!"
All students: "ALL OF THEM?!?!"
"Hai," the android replied, nodding, then she waved to the door leading out of the transporter room. "Now, how about something to eat?!"
Everyone nodded...
Planetside...
"Master, we haven't found a trace of the intruder who destroyed the Cylon guards. There is also no trace of any of Group 'Azudai,'" a dull-eyed Kuonji Ukyou reported. "We have found expended shell casings of a large-calibre rifle of some sort, though."
"Rifle?!" the would-be harem master echoed his slave's words from the castle's heart. "Keep looking!! Find him and deal with him!!"
"Hai!!" the small squad -- atop Ukyou, there was Tendou Akane, Lao Shan-pu, Kunou Kodachi, Shiratori Asuza, Ninomiya Hinako (in adult form) and several others, all trained martial artists -- replied as one before racing off down the hallway.
Silence fell over the scene for a moment before movement from a nearby alcove revealed the presence of one Moroboshi Ataru, still mostly invisible thanks to his cloaking cape. "The cast of Ranma too? Jeez..." he muttered under his breath before drawing out his scanner to do a sweep. "Okay, time to find the others." With that, he slipped his scanner back into his pocket, then raced off...
In orbit...
"So you're saying this other version of Moroboshi-sempai kidnapped us all to force us into a harem for himself?!"
"Unfortunately, correct, Lady Mihama," the android soberly nodded. The just-rescued hostages were now relaxing in Ataru's private cabin, which was one of the largest spaces on the Windrider. Other androids had brought in some food Shirayuki made from the gantry so that people could have something to eat. It served the extra purpose of keeping the AzuDai women calm as explanations were made. "To say that the Venerable One is quite angry over this whole affair is understating the matter. Setting aside the fact that all of his sisters, one of which is your age and one of which is two years younger than you, were drawn into this mess, the fact that..."
"Something happened that reminded him of something he wanted so much to finally put behind him just smacked him right in the face, right out of the blue," Kurosawa Minamo finished for her.
"Exactly."
"So where does this ship come from anyway?" Tomo asked. "I barely remember seeing some of the Yatsura movies and this ship sure don't look like anything the Onis would have."
"No, it is not, Lady Takino," the android confirmed. "These days, the Venerable One wouldn't have anything to do with the Onis. Not only would flying on an Oni ship remind him too much of the departed Lady Lum, it would also remind him too much of the fact that it was the Oni leadership who had his grandmother murdered just before the First Tag Race."
Yukari perked. "Grandmother?! They never mentioned anything about Ataru-kun's grandmother in the manga OR the anime!"
"The Venerable One wasn't surprised to hear that fact, Lady Tanizaki," the android reported. "You see, thanks to the mechinations of the two monsters the Venerable One once had to call his parents, he had been made to totally forget his grandmother ever existed!"
"Why?!!" everyone demanded...
Planetside...
"Intruders. Terminate them at once."
Ataru peeked around the corner to see a platoon's worth of androids level their blasters on a small group of humanoids dressed in mostly black form-fitting uniforms, all with either gold, red or blue trimming. Noting the arrowhead-shaped gold-and-buff silver badges on their left chests, he grimaced. "Crew from the Voyager..." he muttered, quickly recognizing a dark-skinned Vulcan male with lieutenant-commander's pips on his collars, he now standing beside a fair-haired male Terran lieutenant. "Okay..."
He swung the Range Hunter up, aiming low so that the armour-piercing bullets wouldn't punch through the androids and accidentally hit any of the Starfleet personnel several metres beyond. "HEY, JERKS!!!! EAT THIS!!!!" he barked before pressing the trigger.
The Cylons turned as one on hearing his voice, then a half-dozen of them fell, their legs and lower abdomens exploding in showers of sparks and flames as Ataru's fire hit home. Seeing that, the Voyager's people quickly levelled their phasers on target, then fired. The combined volley quickly dropped the rest of the security personnel. As the last of the androids collapsed to the ground, Ataru stepped out of the shadows, reaching up to pull the hood off his head. "You folks okay?!" he called out, hoping the others would understand him.
"We are unharmed," Tuvok replied as the landing party approached the downed Cylons.
Hearing the Vulcan's reply in his native Japanese, Ataru breathed out. Thank the Fates for universal translators, he mused to himself as his eyes scoured the wrecked machines between him and the Voyager personnel. Seeing that several of them still seemed operational, Ataru levelled the Range Hunter, switching to single shot mode. Several well-aimed shots blew their heads apart. Watching this, Tom Paris clicked his tongue, then gazed on the younger man in camoflauge green and butternut. "Making sure of it?"
"Wise thing to do," Ataru responded, then turned to Tuvok. "Through rather an odd method, I happen to know a lot about you people, Tuvok-shousa. How long's it been since your ship was fired into the Delta Quadrant from the Badlands?"
A very brief flash of surprise flashed through Tuvok's eyes, then he quickly reasserted itself. "It has been four years, eight months and twenty-two standard days since the Voyager departed Starbase Deep Space Nine." A pause, then he added, "I should remind you, Mister Moroboshi, that whatever ficticious media in your dimension actually does report on Voyager's journey through the Delta Quadrant in our universe may contain certain inaccuracies. Having witnessed your own life's adventures through the manga and animation series called Urusei Yatsura (as provided by the Entity who brought us to this dimension), I am quick to realize that there are many inconsistencies between that record and what we have heard of you directly from the Entity who transported us here."
"You realize I am quite different from the other me that started this mess, I hope."
"Oh, definitely," Tom chuckled.
"Well, I'll be more than happy to fill in some of the gaps, but right now's not the time," Ataru promised. "You have your captain and shipmates to rescue. I have my sisters to rescue. And there are loads of others who need rescuing. Let's get to it."
The Starfleet personnel nodded...
"That's me..."
"It appears to be a slightly older version of you, Master," Miroku confirmed as she and Ataru gazed on the image flashing from the viewscreen before them. "He is armed with a projectile firearm whose capabilities match what Group 'Nibunoichi' discovered."
The would-be harem master stared at the image of his other-self, a gnawing fear slowly rising up his back. It wasn't the beard and moustache, much less the longer hair. It wasn't the strange cloak that seemed to make the other man fade into the background. Hell, it wasn't even the very big gun the other man had used to kill of Miroku's brother Cylons.
It was his eyes that spoke the story.
The story of another version of him...
...who also had something die deep inside him.
Another version of him...
...in far more ways than one.
"Miroku?"
"Master?"
"Is Group 'Yatsura' ready to go?"
"Affirmative."
"Release them from storage. Have them team up with Group 'Nibunoichi.' Have the other me captured. Alive and unhurt."
"By your command."
"In orbit."
"The Onis murdered Moroboshi-sempai's grandmother just to ensure these Zephyrites wouldn't interfere with their invasion of Earth?!"
The AzuDai girls all gaze agape on the android after she had finished explaining what happened to Moroboshi Ataru. "That is correct, Lady Mihama," she confirmed with a nod.
"And because Ataru-kun would've inherited all that money from his grandma had he not got married to someone who could've replaced Nagaiwakai-sama as matriarch of his whole family, that's why his parents tried to force him to marry Lum?!" Yomi asked.
"Yes, Lady Mizuhara. Now, did the Venerable One's parents know of what Lady Lum's father and the Oni leadership had done to the late Venerable Nagaiwakai? The Venerable One was unable to discover that answer when he volunteered himself to fight alongside the Dominion of Noukiios when they decided it was time to put the Onis into their place. None the less, the involvement of Lady Lum's father in the murder of the late Venerable Nagaiwakai was a contributing factor in his eventually turning his back against the Onis altogether..."
"Wait!" Yukari cut in, holding up a finger. "The Ataru-kun who kidnapped us dealt with all the girls in his own universe first, right?" After the android nodded, the teacher then asked, "Is the Lum of that universe involved?"
"Yes."
"So what'll happen if your Ataru meets up with that Lum?" Minamo wondered.
The android took a deep breath. "That will depend on whether or not the Venerable One finds his sisters first, Lady Kurosawa."
Confusion flashed on many people's faces. "What do the girls have to do with this?" Tomo asked.
"Quite simple, Lady Takino. If matters become very bad planetside, they may be all that stand in the way between the safety of all the others the Venerable One's counterpart absconded with..."
She stopped, a gulp escaping her. "And?" Chiyo stuttered, quickly realizing that if this android was scared, it was bad.
"And an Entity that is called by the Zephyrites..."
The others gulped.
"He Who Heralds The End Of All Things."
Darkness fell over the scene...
(Posted Wed, 11 Feb 2004 06:04)
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