ETERNAL DREAMS:
YUKIMURA AND MAKIE
By
Gregory P. Wong
To 23rd century scientists of "temporal mechanics"—in laymen's terms, time travel—there existed a little known phenomenon called "temporal shift resonance flux."
What it meant, simply, was that in rare cases, people directly involved in time travel would experience some direct temporal displacement anomalies. It was hypothesized that entirely new timelines could be created, not going quite the way they should have. George Washington might die before crossing the Delaware, the alien Arcone and Gryth might not be friendly, or even a person might be erased because his ancestors never met.
In general, these occurrences were rare and minor.
In some cases, not.
For a group of people, it was a case of the latter.
"Did the fever break well enough?" Yukimura asked his wife apprehensively.
"Yeah, she'll be fine," Makie Sanada whispered tiredly. "The nanites got everything squared away. Close though... her body's still weak."
Yes, that little body was. Their daughter, Kaede, was only eight months old, and the fever had hit pretty hard. The medicinal nanobots were good, sure, but they could do some damage to an infant's body. Well, it hadn't happened here. Thank God.
"It's okay... you did good, Makie," he said delicately to her.
"Thanks, Yuki," he heard his wife reply. She crept up closer and wrapped him in her arms. "Good God, I was so scared," she whispered.
"I was too, believe you me," he admitted, holding his wife.
Way scared. Normally his talkative wife was cracking jokes about everything, twenty-four-seven, but this... this had really gotten them on the ropes. Call it un-manly, but he drew strength from his wife, especially the exuberance and energy she always had.
Little Kaede would be all right. He needed sleep. Sleep to recover.
He looked down at the petite woman in his arms. Makie Omori Sanada. Or, depending on who you asked, a Japanese girl formerly known only as Kunoichi.
Well, not exactly a girl. She was twenty-two years old now, two years past the Sraida confrontation. Young woman, yes. And, technically, still Kunoichi. Makie still did ninja stuff, like the one time, for an April Fool's day joke, the woman had hidden Keiji's hair gel.
Wife and mommy, she was. Also a business partner of sorts. He and Makie ran a dojo that catered to just about any species wanting to learn martial arts. Not a bad way to use their skills, though his wife was wondering if she should take up teaching again.
Heh. That was him, again. He was thinking about—relatively—inane things to keep his mind from dwelling on what could have happened.
This was getting weird. Maybe it was time to think about something that also mattered, really.
Like how lucky he was to be married to Makie.
"Makie... God. It's after things like this that I just think about how lucky I am."
Ol' Yuki. Such a great guy. Really. Great as in perfect. She loved him so much.
And to think at one point she didn't want to be married to him. That was a really screwy story that didn't need repeating. Then again, that story ended with her getting married to him. So... yeah.
"Yuki, I love you too. With all my heart... even when you get all mushy on me."
She felt her husband squeeze tighter and give a little nervous laugh.
Oh, she was going on Kunoichi on Yukimura again. Humor was her defense mechanism.
Well, not "Kunoichi", since they were the same person. She didn't have to stop being that peskily upbeat female ninja to love Yuki. Another long story.
It was getting bright.
Huh?
She looked at her PAD on the nightstand. "PAD, what time is it?"
"It is 0317, ma'am."
Three in the morning? What the hell? The sun didn't rise for at least—
Wait... that light was the wrong color. It wasn't orange... it was white. White like—
Oh no...
And then there was a flash of white.
Flash!
Yukimura Sanada felt pain send its claws into his right thigh. He collapsed to the floor of Ueda Castle's tower.
No, he couldn't die here! Lord Shingen's dreams still lay unfulfilled!
But the shadow...
He levered his body back up using his spear. Hattori couldn't... couldn't...
In the dimness of the torch-lit room, he could vaguely see shadows bounding across the walls. There...
It was hopeless. If this were a battlefield, Hattori would have had no chance. But in this dimly lit room, well...
And, damnation, where was Kunoichi? This was a job for a ninja.
He felt his knees buckle. Blast! The Tokugawan agent would wear him down and finish him with a simple strike. He had to hold out!
"What in friggin' hell just happened?" Yukimura said aloud.
Bright flash... and now this? Where was this, anyway!?
Plus, being only in pajama bottoms and a tank wasn't making him feel completely secure and comfortable. He didn't even have underwear, which meant nothing to protect his...
And then he saw a red-armored, black-haired man stumble. Who was it? Damn, the lighting was bad but he could just make out—
Another him? Hell no.
Another Yukimura Sanada! Or, at any rate, a guy who had stolen his face. But how in hell was there a guy who looked like him? It was imposs—
And then he saw a black blur. A shadowy blur
Dear Lord... it couldn't be...
Hanzo Hattori! But that was impossible: the ninja was in the wrong century.
Wait a second...
Something... the flash. Something had happened. He remembered that white flash, when the United Nations of Terra had opened a portal that had sucked him and his wife into the twenty-fourth century. But that happening again should have been impossible.
Should have. One of the most annoying phrases in the English language.
He saw the ninja lord stand over the beaten form of the lookalike.
Okay, things were really confused right now... but Hanzo wasn't assassinating anyone tonight.
"HATTORI!" he yelled. He hoped it was Hattori. Yes, the ninja was holding a kusarigama, but that wasn't exactly an uncommon weapon.
The ninja's head jerked up. He felt eyes looking over his face.
"What devilry is this?" he heard a voice wisp in Japanese. Yes, that was Hattori's voice.
"23rd century magic, I think," he muttered. He raised his voice so the ninja could hear him. "Well, assassin, let's see how well you do with another target."
And when—if?—he got back home, he was going to have a word to the UNT researchers who explicitly told him there wasn't going to be any adverse consequences from bouncing from century to century. Jesus.
Hattori rose from the other man—he was having this feeling that it was a Yukimura—and turned towards him.
Uh-oh...
Uh, okay, this was weird.
She didn't want to think how whoever made a perfect replica of Ueda Castle's interior. Really weird. Cripes, were those real torches on the wall? The fire department would be having about three cows and a goat right now.
Thump!
Uh, what was that? Was that a thump?
Hmm... it came from one of the corridors to her right. Wait... yeah, she recognized this place! It was one of the larger halls. But this was weird, at this time the guards stood down and—
What the hell was she thinking? This wasn't Ueda Castle, just some really weird replica that some rich lonely dude had contracted to impress some girl or something. How she got here was probably super strange and depressing. Eh.
Plus, she was dressed only in underwear and a night robe. The indignity of this!
Oh, well, standing here doing nothing wouldn't solve any problems. First on checklist: check out the thump. Right.
At least she still have her ninjitsu skills to take her through. Plus, her musou-psionics were fully unlocked, meaning she was not just any ninja, but an uber-ninja, like the ones you saw in video games or bad anime shows.
She melded into the shadows of the flickering torches and moved towards the corridor. It was brightly lit, something she used to hate when she went all Splinter Cell, but with her full powers, it wasn't hard to just do some Invisible Man stunts. God, she loved being a ninja.
She moved down the corridor until she was the opening where the thump had come from. She hugged the wall and peeked, seeing a—
"Yah!" she cried as a form was hurled out of the hallway and into the main room. She took a look at the person who had just done an impression of a baseball pitch. Female, purple shorts, a form-fitting sleeveless blouse, funny hat, purple sash—
Funny hat? Oh, Christ on a crutch.
Okay, why was there a girl lying on the ground with a hat that looked identical to the one she had hung up in her room?
And, er, why was this girl all bloody and bruised? That wasn't a good sign.
She looked into the corridor...
...And backed away very, very quickly.
A large, mean-looking man with a horned hat and a reeeally big spear came stalking out. Uh... Tadakatsu Honda?
Okay, what was going on? This was completely—
Wait.
Temporal distortion. A little voice was telling her that is was temporal distortion. Said voice also told her that this wasn't some really elaborate replica of Ueda, but the real thing... or a version of the real thing. Which meant that Honda was the real thing, too, which meant ickiness to the extreme.
"Humph. Another one," growled Honda... in Japanese "I was hoping that Yukimura would only have one kunoichi. No matter. You won't be leaving this room, so Hanzo's job will be easier."
Hanzo? Yukimura?
Oh, God. This was that point in time. The rescue at Ueda! Hattori was coming here to kill Yukimura, but she—or at least a UNT-issue cyborg version of her, or something sci-fi like that—had beat the Iga ninja off Yukimura.
Holy crap, this history was really screwed up... but it made sense! Honda intercepted "her" while Hattori took on Yukimura. Damn! Honda was in a brightly lit, open room, and Yukimura was in a dark little one. Which meant both Kunoichi and—the current?—Yuki would get beaten. Probably killed.
Well, a monkey wrench was tossed in. Her.
She ducked under Honda's swing and somersaulted away, towards the other figure. She took a look. Yep, that was definitely "her". The injured Kunoichi moaned and struggled to get up.
Now, where was it... there! She snatched up two daggers from near the other her's hands. "Stay back," she whispered to the injured maybe-her. She looked up at the hulking Japanese warrior. "I'll take Hacked-Up Hondas for eight hundred, Alex," she said and grinned.
What... what was happening?
Yukimura looked up, dimly, and saw something impossible. He must have hit his head too hard.
It looked like Hattori was using all his fighting and ninjitsu skills, but the ninja had yet to land any hit on the other man. He had never seen someone avoid death from the Mikawa agent at close range for this long.
Yet, this other man was doing it unarmed and unarmored.
The other man ducked under a high roundhouse kick, shot up, and latched a hand onto Hattori's throat. Then—
His eyes widened as the ninja flew into the opposite wall, a distance of at least ten yards. Impossible! No one could hurl a man—even a smallish man like Hattori—thirty feet with both hands, let alone one!
But that man had done it.
In amazement he watched the stranger run towards him. He could just make out the face. It was... it was...
Hurling Hattori wasn't impossible... This was impossible!
How could this person be him!?
"It's a long story, and, uh, it can wait. Mind if I borrow this?"
Before he could even understand what was going on, let alone give permission, the other-him snatched up his jumonji-yari.
"You will die for this!" he heard Hattori hiss at the stranger.
"Yeah, let's see how that works out," the other-him muttered, and charged.
What in the world was this? First Honda somehow knew that she would be coming here to save Lord Yukimura, and now this!
What sort of magic or whatever made another her—one that seemed better at fighting, to boot—appear at exactly the right moment?
Honda would be no match in the right situation, but out in the open, revealed, she really didn't have a chance. No way was she going to stand up to Honda.
But... the other her wasn't just "standing up" to Honda, she was thrashing him.
This other Kunoichi moved faster than lightning, and had ridiculous strength. Sure, she was no weakling—no kunoichi was—but this ninja was actually blocking Honda's attacks. If he had tried to stop one of Honda's overhead smashes, she'd have her own daggers dug into her skull. This other person was a girl, Honda wasn't, but the other-her just didn't seem to care.
And what kind of person fought while wearing that?
Honda stumbled backwards as the other Kunoichi slammed a strong kick to the warrior's chin.
The spear clattered to the floor. Honda looked horrified.
"Im... impossible!" snarled the defeated Tokugawan. "A mere ninja is no match for me!"
"No normal ninja, sure," the other ninja said smugly. "But you know what? I'm no regular ninja chick. I'm Makie Sanada, Kunoichi version two-point-oh, and all your base are belong to me, you antler-headed S-O-B. Get the hell out of this castle before I pull a Thanksgiving and carve you up like turkey."
Huh? "Version?" "Makie Sanada?" And what were turkeys?
Now Honda looked sullen as the man got to his feet. "Foolish woman. This means nothing! Ieyasu Tokugawa will destroy the Sanadas and Toyotomis!"
Er...
"Yeah, okay. You can shut up now and scoot butt out of here. You're pissing me off," she heard the other Kunoichi say demurely. "For such a supposedly uber-awesome warrior, you kinda sucked. Buh-bye."
With a look of contempt, Honda climbed back to his feet and hurried off. Hmm... he should be able to get out of the castle. Yeah, probably would.
The other woman walked over to her and knelt down. "Man, I own."
Er... okay. Well, now that the other woman was close, she had to ask "Makie Sanada" some questions.
Namely...
"Why do you look like me, and how did you get the name 'Sanada'?"
Ooh-kay, not the question she expected. Well, the first one, yes, but not the one about her new surname.
"Well Mak—I mean Kunoichi—we'd better find Yuki—Lord Yukimura—before I get to that. You'll probably need a place to sit down, too."
Yukimura slammed the haft of the cross-blade spear into the Iga ninja's face. Hattori stumbled backwards, stunned.
This was frankly amazing. Damn, he'd have been peeing himself if someone told him he was going to take on a ninja in a dark room. Come on, the ninja lived and killed in shadow.
But he was beating Hattori.
Quite easily, too.
It had to be that little stint he, Makie, and the fourteen others had gone through those years ago. It had to be!
Hattori grunted and moved.
Hmm...
He brought up his spear and knocked away the flurry of shuriken. No sweat.
There came a weird shimmering sort of sound, and Hattori disappeared. That meant—
He stabbed backwards with the butt of spear and connected with something soft.
By the sound of expelled air, it was probably Hattori's stomach. Right on the dot.
He whirled around and backhanded the ninja, propelling the smaller man another ten feet.
Hattori was wheezing on his knees not too far off. Then the ninja jerked his head up quite angrily.
"The end is approaching, samurai," Hattori whispered in that eerie voice "The inevitable will not be impeded!"
"Whatever you say, ninja. You know, I find it interesting that Tokugawa finds the conquest of the Sanada to be inevitable and yet still needs to send off a ninja to assassinate, uh, me."
"Fool."
"Yeah, I'm a fool. Whatever. You're not going to beat me, you know. Run back off to Mikawa and tell your lord about this failure of an assassination."
Damn, he swore he could feel hate radiating from the beaten ninja. Then Hattori leaped to his feet, kusarigama in tow, and fled.
He also swore he heard "what a blunder," come from Hattori's direction.
Humph.
He looked back at the semi-dazed Yukimura on the floor. The other's armor was a bit bloody here and there where Hattori had capitalized on openings, and his eyes looked glazed, but he'd be all right. He knelt down next to the other Sanada.
"I thank you," the other Yukimura said tiredly. "I... I am simply amazed that I was saved at all, let alone saved by you."
"You're welcome. Speaking of being saved, I, er, recognize this place. Unless I'm really mistaken, Mak—I mean Kunoichi—was supposed to fend of that ninja. I wonder where she was the whole—
And then it hit him, thinking about Kunoichi. He'd been so engrossed about defending Yukimura Two here that he hadn't realized it.
He had no seen his wife anywhere.
Makie... Where could she be.
Another jolt.
What about Kaede? She was still weak, and without mom and dad there, she would die.
Dear Lord, what could he do?
Then he heard the door to the chamber open.
He turned to look.
Kunoichi gasped as she saw two Lord Yukimuras.
What in the world was going on!? This was beyond strange... it was downright insane.
"Yuki!" the other her cried out and rushed into the arms of the strangely dressed man.
"Yuki"? What did that mean? Could it mean... Yukimura?
But... but...
"Oh, you're hurt," she heard the other her say quietly. Hmm? Oh. In the dim light, she saw a slightly bleeding slash on the other man's strange shirt. The other her tore a scrap from that strange looking robe and pressed it to the injury.
She frowned a bit.
Well, she wasn't an expert at this—her knowledge of romance and things like that could fit on a spearhead—but by the way "Makie Sanada" was dabbing at the wound she could see that there was a lot of affection between the two.
"Thanks, sweetie," the new man said. By the way he said that, it showed that there wasn't just affection, but love.
"Ah, don't mention it, Yuki," said the other her with a tired chuckle. "Just glad that you're fine."
This was getting uncomfortable. Who was this other man? Couldn't be some Lord Yukimura, since that other woman had admitted to be a kunoichi, and...
Then she saw the face of the man.
Er... it really looked like the "real" Kunoichi and Yukimura were several hundred steps behind what was going on.
Makie scratched her head. She'd been a gradeschool teacher back in the 20th century, and she could tell stories fairly well. There was a big difference between The Pokey Little Puppy and "How I, My Husband, And Fourteen Others Fought Off An Alien Invasion", but she didn't really have a choice, did she?
"I think you two need to know what's going on," she said, and looked at Yuki. Her husband just nodded. "Well, let's just say there's something called, uh, time-travel..."
What an... an... utterly impossible story!
But the proof was right before his eyes!
Yukimura Sanada wiped a hand over his eyes. The story was dubious at best, yet he felt compelled to believe it. Something... something about it.
But what really left him nonplussed was that "Makie" and Yukimura were married. Ninjas didn't do that.
Well, most ninjas, since Makie was quite obviously a ninja and the wife of the other Yukimura.
"So, I was supposed to save Lord Yukimura from Hanzo, but the thing that's messed up was that Tadakatsu was there to stop me?" Kunoichi asked.
"That about sums it up. Honda's a monster, and I didn't think you'd have walked away from that fight," answered Makie. "And Hattori was about to make mincemeat out of Yukimura over there. Lucky my Yuki was there."
Yes, very lucky.
This whole "Sraida" business, was confusing at least, but he could grasp some of the concepts. How strange. He still had to ask them something, though.
"You... you two," he said. The other Yukimura and Kunoichi looked at him. "You two really... love each other?"
Silence.
Not the oddest of questions. Expected, actually. Yukimura looked at the other him, who was currently holding the other Kunoichi's hand.
"Yes, we love each other dearly. It's so damned hard to even describe it." He shrugged. "I don't know. Just leave it at that I love her more than life itself. I even proved it once."
He felt Makie's grip on his hand tighten. Damn, she had been so frightened when that had happened, when he had basically saved the universe as everyone knew it.
Yes, this love they shared... even death couldn't touch it.
It was so nice to be reunited with his wife again. It was at least keeping him from worrying about Kaede for the moment.
"And you two even have a daughter." The other Yukimura said. It wasn't a question.
"And we love her."
He watched the other him look at Kunoichi. It was a questioning look.
He heard Makie clear her throat. "You two. I'm not going to say too much more—space-time continuum and temporal distortion and all that good stuff—but... I don't know. Kunoichi aren't supposed to have anything to do with their masters, and I can fly with that. But... you can't be Kunoichi forever. There might be a day when Japan will be peaceful. Then, well, the rest is up to you."
He felt his throat get a little dry at that. What would the siege of Osaka bring in this timeline? He loved his wife... could this Yukimura get to experience it? Could—
FLASH!
Yikes! The two others had just disappeared.
Kunoichi looked at Yukimura.
"We can't," Lord Yukimura said simply.
"I know. But, you know, like that 'Makie' said... I won't have to be your bodyguard forever."
Had she just said that!? Ninjas weren't supposed to get involved like that.
But only if the ninja was still needed as a bodyguard.
"I know," she heard Yukimura answer.
It was quite for a few moments.
"There will be a time though... when you can cease being my shadow. Perhaps then..."
She had to do this.
She knelt down next to Yukimura and leaned forward.
Ahh!
It was wonderful. So very... heavenly. Yukimura answered her kiss.
And then they broke away. She felt Lord Yukimura take her hands in his.
"There will be a time," Yukimura said fiercely. "We've hid these feelings for too long, ever since we met each other. This is just one more reason why I will fight to bring peace to this land."
She stood up. Yes... she knew Lord Yukimura could do it.
But, until then, she would just have keep being his shadow.
Until the land was united... and then that shadow could become someone else.
Makie rubbed along the edges of her husband's wound. Just a cut really. Some antibacterial ointment and lots of love, and it would be all fine.
She thought for a moment. What would happen to those two back in that wacky timeline? At least she and Yuki had gotten them thinking about things like "true feelings."
Well, she had this feeling it would be all right in the end. She finished applying the gel to the cut. She felt a strong arm wrap around her.
Yuki... she loved him so much, and she knew he loved her just as much.
Their daughter slept peacefully in her crib, healthy. The future was a wonderful thing, really. What could the next day bring? The next month? The next year? Did it really matter?
Not really. Not with her Yukimura there for her to draw strength from.
She returned Yuki's embrace, and smiled. Sraida, weird time-shifts, the life of being a parent... nah, nothing would be too much for her and her husband to overcome.
That was what love did.
Whatever curveball life threw, she would be batting it out of the park.