SHINJI'S BIRTHDAY WISH
Chapter 3
Four Sisters and A Brother
Disclaimer: I do not own Eva, Samurai 7, Ghost in the Shell, Tenchi, Ranma, InuYasha or Sailor Moon.
049 Faithless Observer: sorry but I'm really going to disappoint you this chapter.
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Shinji stared at the pair with some confusion.
The man who called himself his uncle was a tall, older man, with long brown hair tied up in thick locks, almost like dread locks. He had a small patch of a beard on his chin, but no moustache and his skin looked tanned by a desert sun. His clothes were mostly that of a white 'wanderer' and looked like he had a cloak wrapped around his shoulders with a white pair of gloves. He wore two earrings and his eyes seemed heavy with age. Yet from all Shinji could see he was still far from 'retired'.
His name was Shimada Kambei.
The woman with them was an above-average height woman, about 5'8" he figured. Her hair was shoulder length, looking like a pageboy style cut. Her face was clearly feminine, yet had a strength, a firmness and flawlessness that made him think about a finely crafted mannequin. Her body was slim and very well proportioned, not to mention athletic. He knew that because the silvery bodysuit she was wearing, which covered her figure, left almost nothing to the imagination.
Not that he had much of one now. Especially with him now pressed against the athletic woman in a firm hug. Particularly his head buried between her breasts.
Her name was Motoko Kusanagi.
"You're my aunt?" Shinji asked as the woman pulled back from her hug and leaned down so that she was face-to-face with him, careful not to have crushed him with his cyborg strength.
"Yes. Kambei did tell you that your family was looking for you, right?" she asked.
"He did, but..."
"But, nothing, Shinji, we have to go and now." she said as she pulled him by his arm and headed down the street.
"So what's the plan?" Kambei asked.
"The Battle Trailer is on it's way. We should get off the streets to avoid drawing more attention to ourselves." Motoko said as she pulled the boy into a nearby warehouse.
"What about the others?" Kambei asked as he followed.
"I called them when I found you. They're on their way."
"Others?" Shinji asked.
"The rest of our family." Motoko stated as she looked out the large door to make sure no one else was nearby.
"Family." he uttered the name. "I have... a family?" he repeated.
Motoko looked at Shinji and smiled, pulling the boy into a one-arm hug. "You do, Shinji." She released him and looked at Kambei. "Why don't you take Shinji further into the warehouse and wait until the others get here. I'll keep a lookout."
"Are you sure?" Shinji asked.
"I can avoid being seen. Remember?" she said as she started to flicker and then vanished altogether.
"Oh, right." he replied as he followed the older man deeper into the large, crate-filled warehouse. "How does she do that?" he asked Kambei.
"Perhaps one day you will find out." Kambei said as he placed a hand on the boys shoulders.
Motoko watched them go before she turned back to the other four creatures that were with her.
(Tachikoma, you and the others go outside and guard this building.) Motoko transmitted. (Stop any unfriendly intruders that try to get in.)
(But Major, shouldn't I wait with you and Shinji?) The first invisible Tachikoma asked.
(No. Kambei and I can handle things here.)
(But...) The second invisible Tachikoma started to say.
(Why are you waiting? What's wrong?) She asked.
(Well, what if... Shinji needs help?) The third invisible Tachikoma asked.
(I'm here. And so is his uncle. Remember? What could happen?)
(But what if you need help protecting Shinji?) The fourth invisible Tachikoma asked.
Motoko creased her brow. (You want to stay with Shinji? Why?)
(Well, he is pretty cute...) The first one said.
(I don't believe this. GET OUTSIDE AND GUARD THIS PLACE!)
(Alright, alright, alright. I'm going. Jeez!)
(Un-Be-Lievable. When this is all over, I'm gonna strangle that spiky-haired loon! Giving the Tachikoma's human personalities, what was she thinking?) She groaned as she held her head in exasperation.
Going deeper inside the warehouse, Motoko found the pair just talking.
"So you play the cello. It's a fairly difficult instrument." Kambei said.
"It's pretty easy actually." Shinji said with a grin.
"I meant to carry." he grinned.
Motoko was tempted to join the conversation, when the sound of machine gun fire erupted from outside the warehouse.
"What's that?" Shinji gasped as the roof exploded open as several figures dropped onto the floor.
(Tachikoma's! What's going on?) Motoko transmitted.
(They're coming out of the wood-work, Major! They're all around uAAAAAAHHHHHH!)
(Tachikoma! TACHIKOMA!) Damn it! she thought. "Kambei!" she shouted.
"We have to hold them off until the others get here!" Kambei said as he drew his sword.
"Right!" Motoko said as Shinji felt an unseen force move him back to the thickest of the warehouse walls as the roof exploded inwards, allowing dozens of black garbed figures to drop to the floor.
Shinji could do nothing but watch as Kambei slashed at the black garbed assailants while others seemed to fly away as if struck by an unseen attacker.
However, the throng of aggressors appeared to be ignoring his aunt and uncle, and seemed to be trying to get to him directly.
Kambei gripped his sword and slashed through several of them with blinding speed and skill. Never was a stroke or swing wasted. But that didn't stop the attackers.
"These attackers! They're not human!" Kambei shouted as he slashed at the attackers, just seemed to get back up and heal themselves.
"I know, they keep coming!" Motoko said as she threw a roundhouse kick that knocked another black garbed attacker down, only to have two more replace him. "They're just relentless!"
The black garb of the attackers was just like that of the Umibozu had worn, but Shinji noticed that there was something almost... organic about them.
Why did I think that? Shinji wondered as the attackers persisted.
Suddenly, one of the attackers lashed out, his hands baring strange claws. And they didn't seem like gloves of any kind.
"Shinji, watch out!" Motoko shouted as she leaped in the path of the attack, the steel-like claws hit her hard and she went down despite herself.
"Aunt Motoko!" he shouted as he ran up to the woman while her stealth camouflage suddenly failed. He froze when he saw the spark and flash of metal from the gash nick on her arm. "You're a... a cyborg?"
"Yes, Shinji." she said as she struggled to stand up, placing herself between Shinji and the attackers as two of them leaped at her.
"Like the Umibozu?" he asked as she upper cut them both.
"No. They only have cybernetic arms and legs. I'm a full-bodied cyborg." Motoko said as she spun around and roundhoused another attacker.
"Full-bodied? You mean... completely?"
"Well... 97 at least. I still have my original brain and spinal cord." she said as Kambei slashed at the attackers she didn't see.
"They're not human! They're..." Kambei shouted as he beheaded one of the attackers.
Everyone froze, as the attacker's body suddenly started to smoke and turn into a small pile of slime.
"What the..." Shinji gasped.
"Demons, monsters, creatures of the night. Whatever you want to call them." Motoko said as the attackers, seeing no reason to keep up pretenses, removed their masks to reveal their inhuman faces and features.
Some looked like lizards, others looked like insects, and others looked like disfigured humans. There were about two dozen of them and they were all out to get Shinji.
"We knew you would sacrifice yourself to save the boy, thus revealing yourself." one of the demons said to Motoko.
"We are here for the boy. Give him to us now." one of the monsters said in a gurgled voice.
"Over our dead bodies." Kambei challenged.
"You say that like we have a problem with that." he said as the group swarmed the trio.
Suddenly...
"Moon Crescent Blast!" a voice shouted from on high as a beam of light blasted the demon.
The demons spun around as a blaring, spinning object torpedoed from out the warehouse and slammed into several other demons, slicing them in half and destroying them. The insect monsters suddenly lifted off the ground and were thrown/slammed into various parts of the warehouse walls. A dark figure leaped from the shadows and hammered into the lizard creatures.
Another energy blast vaporized several more, the spinning object came back around and quickly decapitated three more, two more demons rose off the ground and were launched through the north wall, and the last monster was dispatched by the dark figure who struck with great strength.
In seconds, the battle was over as Shinji, Kambei and Motoko absorbed the quiet of the warehouse as the monsters all disintegrated. It was a quiet that was broken seconds later.
"BIG BROTHER!" a cute younger girl with sea-green hair and pink eyes shouted enthusiastically as she nearly crushed Shinji with a rather strong bear hug around the waist.
"Huh?" he gasped in shock at the girls appearance and embrace.
"How are you big brother? I missed you!" the girl cried, rubbing her face against his chest.
"Big... brother?" Shinji glared at the girl. She was cute, with lite pink freckles, a small triangle on her forehead, sparkling pink eyes, sea-green hair that had two long locks sticking standing up like antenna, and dressed in a green and blue dress that looked a lot like royal robes.
"Well what else would she call you, little brother?" a lovely taller girl with a black ponytail hefting up a giant boomerang asked as she approached and wrapped her arms around him from behind. She was taller than Shinji, which made the hug easier, dressed in a black bodysuit with pink knee, elbow, shoulder and shin guards, brown eyes and a kind smile. "I mean she is the youngest."
"Hey! I want to hug our brother too!" an attractive girl with long blond hair that was tied up in two very long pigtails with two meatball-like spheres on her head cried out as she ran up to the group and joined the hugging they were giving him. She was dressed in a strange-looking sailor fuku with a blue miniskirt, red knee-high boots, long white gloves that reached down to her elbows, and a golden tiara on her head. Her smile was warm, though her overall features seemed only slightly Japanese.
Brother? Are these my... sisters? Shinji wondered.
"He's not going to have any breath in him if you don't let him go." a masculine voice said as the fourth figure stepped out of the shadows.
The girls loosened up their hold on Shinji as a taller more muscular boy in a red martial arts gi with black pants and 'slippers' and a long pigtail made himself known.
"How you doing little bro?" he said to Shinji.
"Bro?" Shinji repeated the moniker. This boy is my... brother? Shinji wondered.
"You know he doesn't like that, Ranma!" the taller girl said.
"That's as affectionate as I get, Sango." the boy replied.
"And you could ease up on the hugs, Sasami." the blond-haired girl said to the shorter one.
"But I've missed my big brother, Serena." the green-haired girl pouted.
Sango, Ranma, Serena, Sasami. Shinji thought, wondering if he got the order right in terms of age. Sango and Ranma looked a little older than him, though Sango was a bit taller. Serena was the same height so maybe she was the same age, and Sasami definitely looked younger.
"What? I don't count?" Ranma asked the younger girl.
"You're not as cuddly when you're a boy." Sasami said, sticking her tongue out at him.
"Are you alright, Aunt Motoko? Uncle Kambei?" Sango asked the older pair as they approached the group of young men and women.
"We're fine, Sango." Motoko said as she held her side. "But I'm gonna need to get this looked at."
"Yeah. That looks pretty bad." Ranma stated.
"Nothing serious, though." Motoko replied. "Just annoying."
"At least you're all safe." Serena said.
"We are now, thanks to your dispatching of these demons." Kambei said.
"Yeah, they're a real pain sometimes." Sasami stated.
These people are my... brother and sisters? But why did... Sasami say that she missed me? We haven't met before now. But... if they're here like Kambei and Motoko... they would have to know me, right? He reasoned, yet for the life of him didn't know where this train of thought was coming from. As far as he knew, he had never been this intuitive.His minds paused as he remembered something. Wait. Did she say, WHEN you're a boy? Shinji wondered. He couldn't help but ask. "What do you mean, When he's a boy?" he asked the girl still latched on to his waist.
She looked up at him and smiled. "Oh yeah. A little cold water and Ranma-kun becomes a girl. Something about a curse he got a couple years ago." she explained.
"A girl? Curse? Cold water?" he asked, obviously confused.
"Yeah. A pretty cute redhead." Sango added with a smile.
"With boobs bigger than mine." Serena grumbled with a pout.
"It's actually kinda funny when he asks to borrow our clothes." Sasami teased.
At this point Ranma was blushing and scowling furiously. "It would help if you didn't keep throwing cold water on me all the time."
"But you're so cute!" Sasami giggled.
"I'll ignore that." he frowned, crossing his arms and looking away.
"So... I've got four sisters and a brother?" Shinji asked, trying to reason it out.
"Well, three sisters, and a half-sister/half-brother, actually." Sasami giggled.
"Ha. Ha." Ranma belatedly groaned as the group broke into full-out laughter.
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Author's Notes:
Did everyone like that?
Sasami is from Tenchi Muyo, Sango is from InuYasha, Serena is Sailor Moon, and Ranma is from Ranma, (like that wasn't obvious)
I chose Sasami, Sango and Serena to be Shinji's sisters because they are all 'S' names, and because I have seen those series and like their characters. Ranma isn't an 'S' name character, but I added him because I have read a couple other fanfics where Ranma actually became Shinji's brother.
The fanfic 'Shinji Saotome' was a particularly good read. Therefore I decided to put him in as Shinji's big brother since I like his character.
Also, I should mention that, while Sasami doesn't really display a lot of powers in the Tenchi series, she is bonded to the goddess Tsunami and thus will have special powers when she grows up. To that end, I decided to give her telekinetic powers to give her weight on this family/team.
And as always, please read and review.
Next up: The Cousins.
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