(Writer's Note: The school in To Heart was never named. The name I use is of my own choosing. As to what character belongs to what series [for those needing scorecards], I'll have that placed in the comments file for this episode. G.)
Let's take a look at three girls, from three separate universes, all of whom found themselves in yet another universe.
First, Nanase Yuu.
Second, Tatebayashi Miharu.
Third, Nagaoka Shiho.
From Hiroshima, Yuu is one of twelve girls who had got to know one Shigoozei Gioo, a travelling salesman's son who had lived in various cities across Japan from the first year of elementary school to the last year of middle school. Gioo had lived in Hiroshima, Yuu's hometown, when he was in the spring semester of the first year of middle school. Though a loner by nature, she was quick to gravitate to Gioo, who clearly ached with his own kind of lonliness due to his being forced to say goodbye to friends every time he moved from one town to another.
One day, just before he was forced to leave Hiroshima with his parents, Yuu took Gioo to one of Hiroshima's more famous attractions: the sunken torii on Miya-jima, located in Hiroshima Bay. It was just after sunset. As they watched, a meteor shower rained in the skies overhead. To Yuu, it was a sign that a relationship between her and Gioo was possible. That sign haunted her until very recently, when she travelled to Tokyo to deliver a message to Gioo.
Unfortunately for her, Yuu wasn't the only one of Gioo's special friends to do that...
Miharu is a third-year student at Kirameki High School, a private institution run by the very wealthy Ijuuin Clan. A shy girl at heart, Miharu had harboured a deep crush on one Takami Naoto, a handsome fellow who, atop being a member of the school soccer team, was also the acoustic guitarist for Irodori, a local high school band. Unfortunately for Miharu, her reticent nature always got in the way every time she tried to do anything concerning Naoto. Even trying to chat with him over the telephone never got past the "Hello" stage -- that is, of course, whenever Miharu managed to dial the right number; when she didn't, she normally got Naoto's next-door neighbour, Fujisaki Shiori.
Worst of all for Miharu, Shiori wasn't just Naoto's next-door neighbour. Shiori had known Naoto since pre-kindergarten days. And despite the fact that there were many other students who had become close to Naoto since he had started attending Kirameki, it was now becoming quite obvious to many that Naoto's feelings for Shiori were fast evolving past the "friendship" stage into something deeper, more profound.
And with graduation fast approaching...!
Currently a second-year student at Akimena High School, Shiho is the resident gossip. If you wanted to know anything about anyone or anything interesting happening in the area around Akimena, Shiho is the girl you went to see to get the latest scoop. Atop that, Shiho sees herself as the resident "karaoke queen;" her skill with a microphone and music had to be seen to be believed. She was also very close friends to three of the more popular students at Akimena, Kamigishi Akari, Fujita Hiroyuki and Satou Masashi.
Unfortunately for the self-assured Shiho, recent events concerning a Christmas party she was throwing for her friends had caused her to come to question her feelings for Hiroyuki, a man whom Akari had known since way before kindergarten. When once, Shiho often rode Hiroyuki's case for being lazy and uncaring for his fellow students, she was now seeing him in a newer and more passionate light.
But what could Shiho do in the face of knowing how much Akari loved Hiroyuki...?
And now, thanks to two men -- both answering to the name "Moroboshi Ataru" -- and blaster fire from a phalanx of Cylons...
"Are you alright, Kamigishi-san?"
Shiho shuddered as waves of nausea warped through her body, though she was quick to recognize to whom the strange man who just lifted her out of that damned cold coffin was now talking to. "Little dizzy," Akari's voice echoed from that same direction, making Shiho look over...
Then her heart nearly freezes on seeing the very handsome fellow now lifting Akari from her own chamber, helping her kneel on the floor beside a slowly recovering Matsubara Aoi. As Shiho's eyes dance over every exquisite feature on his face and body, her heart now thundering in her ears, he turns to face the crowd of recovering women. "Please remember, ladies. Breathe slow and calm! If you breathe too fast, you'll get hibernation nausea. Trust me on this one; it is not an experience you'd want..."
"Intruder! Capture him!"
He rolled his eyes on hearing that metallic voice, then raised a VERY big rifle to aim somewhere to Shiho's left. "Oh, damn it all, don't these morons EVER give up?!!" he demanded before racing past Shiho, placing the weapon to his shoulder.
Everyone screamed out on hearing the weapon discharge, people automatically diving for the deck and covering their heads. "What the hell's going on here, anyway?!!" Kurusugawa Ayaka screamed out from nearby.
"There is insufficient data to postuate a possible answer to your question, Ayaka-san," Serio replied.
"THAT'S A RHETORICAL QUESTION, SERIO!!!!" Ayaka bellowed back.
"Then why did you ask it in the first place?" the golden-brown haired maid android wondered.
Ayaka screamed out, burying her face into the concrete floor. "You have to admit, she was asking for that!!" Yamamoto Rurika howled.
More weapons fire. "Is anyone hurt?!" Ijuuin Rei called out to her fellow Kirameki students.
"Save for my hair being a mess, Ijuuin-kun, I'm just peachy," Kagami Mira replied. "Where ARE we, anyway?!"
"Believe me, lady, I'd love to get the answer to that one!!" Matsuoka Chie roared, then yelped, "OH, SHIT!!!!"
People turned to look, then screamed out as two wounded Cylons staggered towards them, parts of their arms and legs aflame as showers of circuits burst from their chest plates. Multi and Serio exchanged a look, then bolted to their feet, racing at the wounded alien androids. "Multi-chan, what are you DOING?!!" Akari screamed out as the two maid androids closed the distance with the Cylons.
Before they could get within arm reach of the alien warriors, rifle fire caused the Cylons' heads to explode. Multi and Serio leapt clear of potential stray bullets as the now-dead androids fell to the floor, revealling a tall, dark-haired woman welding the same type of rifle as the man who had rescued the To Heart, Senchi and Tokimemo girls. Silence fell over the scene, then she pulled up her weapon. "Are you people hurt?" she asked, then blinked on seeing the shocked looks cross many people's faces. "Um, what...?!"
Adachi Taeko: "She's...?"
Nagakura Emiru: "Sakaki-san...?"
Saotome Yumi: "From...?"
Hinayama Rio: "Azumanga...?"
Miyauchi Lemmy: "DAIOH?!?!"
"Um, h-hai!" Sakaki flustered, inwardly surprised that people from (to her) three separate video game/anime series would know of her.
"Hey, Sakaki!!" someone bellowed from behind her.
Taeko, Emiru, Yumi, Rio and Lemmy: "KAGURA-SAN?!?!"
"Ah, Kagura!" Sakaki turned as Kagura jogged up, the latter also armed with a Range Hunter. "Where's Moroboshi-san?!"
"He's killin' off the rest of those freakin' Cylons down that way!" Kagura replied, thumbing the direction she just came.
More weapons fire echoed Kagura's words. "Hey, what the hell's going on here, anyway?!" Kiyokawa Nozomi growled, marching over to glare at the two AzuDai women. "If you two are supposedly characters from some stupid TV show...?!"
"Hey, who're YOU callin' 'stupid?!!'" Kagura cut in.
"That's enough."
Both swimmers stopped, then turned to gaze on Sakaki. "Everyone, I realize this situation seems next to impossible, but it's for real," the taller woman began, turning to face the crowd. "And right now, we simply can't afford to waste time bickering like this." She pointed to the downed Cylons. "Whether you recognize them or not, I will confirm this: these robots are now driven by a mad compulsion to destroy all forms of organic humanoid life in their own native universe. And thanks to the situation that saw us all brought here from our home universes, the Cylons now have the capability to extend their mad crusade throughout all of Creation. It must be stopped here!"
Silence fell for a moment, then Akari perked. "Separate universes...?!" she began, then turned to stare on the Senchi girls. "Then you must be from that video game about the boy who travelled from city to city in elementary and middle school to meet you all..."
"Oh, you mean Gioo-kun!!" Endou Akira confirmed with an amused titter, then she stared on Shigoozei Gioo's other would-be girlfriends. "Then that means you're the girls he met in all those other places...?"
"Hai!" Emiru gushed. "Emiryun went to school with Darling in Sendai!"
The others glared her down, the heat of their jealousy blazing from every point on their bodies. "'DARLING?!?!'"
"I would personally hate to be in that fellow's shoes right about now."
"Ah, Moroboshi-san!" Sakaki called out, turning as Ataru came up, then she gasped. "You're hurt!!!"
Silence fell like a guillotine blade as people noticed the burn in his left sleeve, it now splattered with blood. "Oh, this?!" Ataru wondered, a smirk crossing his face. "Relax, Sakaki-san, it's just a scratch! I got worse dealing with the Oni irregulars on Machibusu!!" He then focused on the Range Hunters in hers and Kagura's hands. "And what are you two doing with two of my guns?!"
"Chakotay-chuusa asked us to relay a message to you," Sakaki began.
"'CHAKOTAY?!!'"
Eyes turned to Nanase Yuu. "From Star Trek - Voyager," Kagura confirmed.
"No way...!" Akari gasped.
"This is getting WAY too freaky!!" Lemmy added.
"What's the message?" Ataru asked.
"We have hidden allies here now," Sakaki replied. "The 33-S's from the original Bubblegum Crisis OVA series. Your counterpart rescued all of them, not just Sylvie-san, Anri-san and the others from Genaros. From what Tuvok-shousa's landing team reported, it was a team of 33-S's who released your sisters from cryostorage..."
"Ya, Ani-kun."
Ataru yelped, then spun around to glare into Chikage's eyes. "Chikage, do you MIND?!!"
"Mind what?" the purple-haired sorceress asked, her dark eyes twinkling amusedly.
Ataru stared at her for a moment, then he sighed. "I give up," he muttered before perking on hearing a patter of feet storming his way.
"Onii-chan!!!"
"Onii-chama!!!"
"Anii!!!"
"Onii-sama!!!"
"Onii-tama!!!"
"Aniue-sama!"
"Nii-sama!!!"
"Aniki!!!"
"Anigimi-sama!!!"
"Ani-chama!!!"
"Nii-ya!"
Before the onlookers could react, they witnessed the typical "Mass Hug of Big Brother" Ataru had been on the receiving end of nearly on a daily basis for the last year or so. Ataru grunted as their weight drove him to the floor right on his wounded arm, though he doesn't scream out. Heaven only knew, his sisters had been through enough over the last while. No need to panic them more than necessary.
"Oh, my...!" Ayaka breathed out, shaking her head.
"'Oh, my' what, Ayaka-san?" Aoi asked.
"The lead male character of Urusei Yatsura with all the main characters of Sister Princess," the younger Kurusugawa sister mused. "That must be a strange universe."
"I will say one thing about this, though," Taeko spoke up.
"What's that?" Morii Kaho wondered.
"No offense to Sakaki-san or Kagura-san, but seeing this is seeing something way cuter than anything Chiyo-chan can do."
Everyone considered that. "You have a good point, Adachi-san," Sakaki commented...
Later...
"So these Cylons are using my counterpart and his quest for 'revenge' to try to kill off every human in the multiverse?!"
Ataru grunted as Chikage wiped the blood clear from his arm. The younger of his sisters -- Hinako, Aria and Kaho -- had been whisked off to the Windrider before they could see how badly their brother was hurt. "That appears to be the general consensus we came up with," Sakaki confirmed with a nod. "The Cylons we've seen so far aren't the ones from the old TV series."
"She's right there, Aniki," Rinrin added, thumbing the wrecked androids nearby. "They're a lot sleeker than the originals."
"Oh, cute..." Ataru breathed out, then looked up at the ceiling. "This whole situation smelled 'set up' to me almost from the start. But to believe that it's something like that..."
"What do we do, then?!" Akari asked. "How do we stop these monsters?"
"You got all those extra guns up on your ship," Kagura noted, holding up her own Range Hunter.
"I'd prefer if you were all up on the ship," Ataru noted.
"Anigimi-sama, if people wish to fight with us against these beasts, we can't refuse them!" Haruka noted.
"I know, I know..."
"I'll help!"
"Shiho!!" Akari gasped, spinning on her friend.
"It's okay, Akari!" Shiho replied, winking in return. "Besides, if these dorks are as dumb as they seem, it'll be a turkey shoot."
Shiho's response quickly brought on more volunteers from the just-freed women Ataru had found: Miyauchi Lemmy, Matsubara Aoi, Sakashita Yoshie, Kurusugawa Serika and Kurusugawa Ayaka from the To Heart group; Sawatari Honoka, Morii Kaho, Ayasaki Wakana, Nanase Yuu and Matsuoka Chie from the Senchi girls; and Ijuuin Rei, Saotome Yumi, Kiyokawa Nozomi, Himoo Yuina and Tatebayashi Miharu from the Tokimemo group. Seeing their determination, Ataru took a deep breath, then nodded. "Okay, then. Here's what we'll do..."
Now what?
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(Posted Tue, 17 Feb 2004 04:43)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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