In a cafe in Nerima people were sitting down having drinks and doing who knows what with their laptops. One of them was watching youtube as others looked over their shoulders.

"This is incredible."

"This is dangerous. Aliens are going to show up now and after we get rid on one more take its place. We should get armed, not take videos of these freaks."

"Freaks? They're not freaks they're just living creatures from other planets."

"This one is made out of diamonds. That's not natural. End of story."

At a counter drinking some soda a teen rolled his eyes. 'Figures some people watching that video of me as Diamondhead would get some critics too. Heh, Diamondhead, that's the best name the guy who posted the video could come up with for my crystal alien form? Granted Onitaru and Fourarms aren't exactly high on creativity but I can do better. In fact, I know I can.'

His phone started ringing, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Hello?" He said when he answered it.

"Darling! Where are you?!"

Ataru dropped his drink, spilling it all over the counter and a little on himself.

"Hey!" One of the cafe employees yelled. "You're cleaning that up kid!"

"Leave me alone!" Ataru said a bit too loudly, talking to his phone but the employee thought otherwise.

"Oh you're going to pull that kind of attitude on me now are you? Get the hell out of here!"

Ataru paid this no mind. "You're not my fiancee. You're not even my girlfriend. How did you get this number in the first place?" He was cut off by the employee grabbing his shirt.

"I said get lost!"

Ataru frowned and pushed the employee away. "Fine I'm going." He then walked out with a frown, ignoring the looks of everyone there, silently accusing him of causing a scene.

"Darling!" Lum yelled from the phone. "You can't run from this! You know I'm ri-" He hung up and pocketed his phone.

'Great, if she could get my number, and my address, then there's no real way for me to hide from her. And I get the feeling a restraining order isn't going to do me any good.' He thought as he walked thru the unfamiliar town, trying to be anywhere but Tomobiki right now.

He turned a corner, and by chance someone else was coming his way at the same time, bumping right into him. It was an adult woman with brown hair wearing a red blouse and black pants.

"Oh, sorry ma'am." Ataru said politely. The woman strangely just stood there, looking dazed and sounding like she was having a hard time breathing. "Umm... you okay?"

She knelt down, barely able to stand, grabbing his shoulders as she collapsed.

"What is it? What's the matter?" Ataru asked. Others watched, wondering the woman was hurt or if the boy was bothering her.

"My heart..." The woman wheezed. "When you bumped into me... the shock..." She looked at him, then looked horrified. "You're... go away. You'll only make this worse." She let go and backed away.

"What are you talking about?" Ataru asked.

"Hey, this guy's harassing a woman in broad daylight!" One of the passerby shouted, taking the woman's scooting away as a sign of fear.

"What?" Ataru asked.

"Hey look, it's that guy who had to race that alien chick last week!" One guy said.

"Yeah, didn't he only win because he ripped her clothes off in front of everyone?" A woman asked bitterly. "Now he's doing it again!"

'Would it kill people to thank me for saving the planet? Am I asking for too much?' Ataru asked himself.

"Get away from her!" People yelled, looking ready to force Ataru to get away from the ill woman. In fact, they looked more then ready, they looked more like they didn't want to do anything but use force on him.

"You are nothing but misfortune. You are beyond help, like myself." The ill woman accused.

Ataru frowned, glancing at his omnitrix. 'I could get rid of them, but then word will spread of me having this and I'll only be hated more. Guess I gotta handle this the human way.'

Apparently the human way was to grab the ill woman, hold her bridal style, and run off from the growing mob. They gave chase, but Ataru was rather good at running when he had to. In retrospect that might have been part of why he was chosen to be part of the tag race to begin with.

He came to a stop in an alley between two buildings, having lost his accusers, and put the ill woman down. She seemed to be breathing easier now. "Alright, now what was that about?" He demanded. "I was just being nice and you tell me to scram? What's wrong with you?"

"You're haunted by evil and bad luck. I can tell just by looking at your features. You're the embodiment of bad luck." She claimed.

"You sound just like this ugly short monk I saw."

The ill woman raised an eyebrow. "Ugly short monk? He wouldn't happen to have a sort of square squished face with big ears would he?"

"You know him?" Ataru asked.

"Sort of. I'm a miko at a Shinto shrine where he comes by all the time. Mostly to take our food." She claimed.

"A miko huh? Well, you do seem mysterious enough for that role." The teen boy commented.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" The ill woman asked, looking a bit nauseous now.

Ataru shrugged. "I needed to get away from home for the day. Too much trouble happening all at once."

The ill woman gagged and coughed, covering her mouth and leaning against the wall of the building. "It's your fate to be burdened with disaster and difficulty."

"Some fate. I want a refund." Ataru chided, reflecting on something that had happened a few days ago.

-Flashback-

"Moroboshi! This is a classroom! Not a brothel!" The homeroom teacher of Class 2-4 Onsen-Mark yelled, throwing an eraser at his most troublesome student, hitting him in the head. Why? Because Lum was trying to sit in his lap.

"Hey! I didn't bring her her! She invited herself!" Ataru defended on deaf ears.

"I told you that you need me around now. Besides, I've got nowhere else to go now." Lum remarked calmly, looking rather content in her seat.

Behind them Shinobu Miyake, Ataru's 'girlfriend' for lack of a better term, was crying and glaring. "You're doing this just to spite me aren't you?"

"I don't need to spite you." Lum told her.

"I wasn't talking to you!" Shinobu replied, making Ataru feel a jab.

"You're taking this out of context!" Ataru declared.

"You're a twisted scoundrel." Several girls in the class replied, crowding around Shinobu to support her.

"This is the girl who said she'd marry you if you won the game Darling?" Lum asked, giving Shinobu a disapproving look, like she was just some merchandise the oni didn't want to purchase. "The one who made a promise to you and rewards you by pretending it never existed? Maybe you should be spiting her."

"You heartless alien bitch!" One of Shinobu's friend yelled.

Ataru arched an eyebrow. "Hmm... maybe you're right Lum."

"Glad you think so." She said, then before he could object she pulled him down for a kiss, surprising him as much as the rest of the class.

"Ataru! How dare you force yourself on Lum!" Megane accused.

"What the hell? Are your glasses just for show idiot?" Ataru asked, getting fed up with everyone automatically assuming he was the one causing the problem.

Right then he got hit in the back of the head with a desk. He turned and saw a very angry Shinobu, who grabbed another desk and no one, not even the teacher, looked the least bit interested in making her stop her physical assault.

But Lum was interested. She pointed at the earth girl and zapped her with a low dose. Shinobu shrieked and dropped the desk on herself.

"Lum how could you do that?" Ataru asked, bothered by this.

The oni girl looked at him with a frown. "For someone who says they wish others were more grateful, you're not exactly Mr. Thank You yourself you know."

Ataru was silenced, realizing she was right. She had helped him and he was being ungrateful, just like how the planet as a whole was ungrateful to him. What right did he have to complain when he was no better?

Before he could say anything, the majority of the class started to attack Ataru. Why? Because they could and they wanted to hurt someone that's why.

-End Flashback-

Ataru sighed. 'And she followed me home too, still trying to push her ultimatum on me. But maybe I overreacted.'

The ill woman winced. "Ow, my heart."

"Want me to take a look?" Ataru offered.

"No, just take me to my shrine if you feel you must do something." She replied. "When I'm there, maybe I can exorcise you of those evil spirits you possess."

'I wouldn't call them evil spirits.' Ataru thought, helping her up and giving her support. 'Just ten aliens.'

It took a while for him to find her shrine, which happened to be back in Tomobiki. The woman wouldn't say what she had been doing in Nerima in the first place if she wasn't feeling well. She wouldn't even say her name, and after a while the teen boy stopped trying to make conversation.

"I'm... I'm home." She called out once they went inside, getting on all fours like she was utterly exhausted.

"Welcome back Sakura." An older woman's voice called out.

"So your name is Sakura." Ataru noted. She merely panted in response.

"Ah, you brought a guest with you?" The older woman asked, coming into view. Ataru gasped at seeing her. This woman was short, square-faced, big-earred, and overall unappealing, dressed in a kimono.

'It's a female Cherry!' Ataru mentally groaned, noting a remarkable similarity to an annoying Shinto monk he unfortunately knew.

"Is something wrong?" The Cherry-lookalike asked.

"Umm... no." Ataru answered, getting a bad feeling. "I just have to go."

"Do not let him go Mother." Sakura insisted.

"No problem." The old woman said, taking out a braided rope with paper streamers and threw it at the teen boy, wrapping around him like a snake.

"What gives?!" Ataru asked.

"You have too much negative energy around you. We must exorcise it or you will only bring doom to everyone around you." Sakura proclaimed.

"And judging by how many unlucky features you have on your face, you need this exorcism more than you need air." Sakura's mother added, dragging the struggling teen inside to one of the rooms of the shrine.

"You can't do this without my consent!" Ataru said loudly when they placed him by a small shrine within the room. 'I can't move my hands, I can't use the watch. But I can run.'

"We don't need permission to do what's necessary." The old woman countered.

"Well I said no." Ataru added, getting up and running. Only to run into Sakura who pushed him down.

"Don't you understand?" She yelled angrily. Ataru could see she was now dressed as a normal miko with lit candles wrapped around her head, and her face was now a bit swollen. "I'm worried about you and just trying to help! And you're refusing my help? How ungrateful can you be?"

"Don't talk to me about being ungrateful!" Ataru yelled. "I saved every person on this planet last week and nobody seems to give a crap about it!"

Sakura winced in pain. "And if you want your luck to improve then let me exorcise you!" Without giving him a chance she grabbed the rope bindings and dragged him back, using more strength than she appeared to have while sickly. She placed him back in front of the shrine and waved one of her talismans. "Exorcise him. Purify him. Exorcise him. Purify him."

'Might as well just get this thing over with.' Ataru groaned, figuring they'd accomplish nothing and the sooner they saw that the better.

"Agh! The pain!" Sakura winced, stopping her ritual. Dark purple energy was swirling around her, and it didn't look friendly. "I must persist. I will exorcise these evil spirits. I... am getting a migraine, but I cannot stop now!"

'Screw getting this over with, I need to get out of here.' Ataru said, trying to touch the omnitrix. But he couldn't reach it.

The purple aura around Sakura was getting darker, and it was moving away from her towards Ataru, making him more desperate to escape. She almost fainted, gasping and clutching her chest, and her mother came over.

"Poor Sakura." She said, looking and sounding like this was nothing new to her.

'This can't be how an exorcism works.' Ataru told himself, feeling like he was about to break his wrist activating the omnitrix.

All of a sudden, Sakura jolted to her feet, her face full of wonder. This rather surprised her mother. "Sakura? What happened?"

"Unbelievable! I feel... wonderful!" She pumped a fist in excitement. "I've never felt so healthy in my life!"

Her mother glanced at the dark purple energy that was hovering between her daughter and the teen boy. "That miasma, it must be the source of your life long illnesses."

"Then why is it only now she can get rid of it?" Ataru asked. "It's been affecting her for years and surely you've tried exorcising her before right?" His questions feel on deaf ears as the mother and daughter hugged. "Hey!"

Sakura looked to him with a smile. "Fear not, this miasma is trying to use you as a new host. But I shall continue to exorcise you of it and your own hauntings."

"Could you maybe loosen the rope around my wrists first please? They're cutting off my circulation." Ataru lied.

"Sure." Sakura's mother said while the miko went back to chanting and waving her wand. The old woman went behind Ataru and loosened the ropes, allowing Ataru to move his hands. "That's a strange thing on your hand. Looks like a watch but there's no clock."

"Well let me tell you what time it is." Ataru jested, finally able to activate the device and spin the knob, hoping for one of the few forms he was familiar with so he could escape. "Time for..." He trailed off as he pressed the knob.

He couldn't see it, but his body got thinner, skeletally thin, and his eyes went all blank.

Sakura's mother lept away. "Hurry Sakura! The evil spirits are having a physical effect on the boy now!"

Ataru's skin turned grew and black lines showed up streaking across it, settling in a patchwork design that had no pattern. His legs fused together into a single tail-like limb, and he started to float off the floor, while a single bright purple eye appeared in the middle of a black line across where his face used to be.

"It's some kind of freaky ghost!" Sakura's mother said in fear.

"Hmm... I think I like the sound of Ghostfreak better." The new alien replied in a haunting voice.

"Evil spirit begone!" Sakura shouted, trying her hardest to exorcise the teen boy now.

The dark miasma swirled in the air, looking like it didn't know where to go now. It tried going to Ghostfreak, as if sensing something it liked, but it acted like mud against skin in that it clumped against him but didn't stick.

"This evil is too great!" Sakura warned her mother.

"Stand back I'll handle it!"

Everyone turned to see a cloaked figure jump at Ghostfreak, armed with a scythe. The impression was that of a shinigami. Too bad this shinigami actually went right thru Ghostfreak and landed face first on the floor.

"Ha! Looks like I can't be hurt in this form." Ghostfreak taunted, the dark purple energy sort of dissipating around him harmlessly.

The cloaked figure got up, revealing themselves to be Cherry.

"Uncle?" Sakura asked.

"Brother?" Her mother asked as well.

"You both can sense there's something wrong with this spirit right? Besides the obvious?" Cherry asked, not taking his eyes off the ghost-like alien. "By the way, congratulations on your improved health Sakura."

"I told you I wanted to leave, and you all kept me hostage." Ghostfreak rasped. "Let's see how tough you are now."

The skin on his stomach pulled back, and six black tentacles with grey rings going down them came out, lashing out at the three humans like a monstrous octopus. All three jumped back, missing them, and the tentacles retracted, but they looked afraid now.

"Leave this world evil spirit!" Sakura demanded, waving her streamers.

"Good riddance to you all as well." Ghostfreak said, managing to go directly thru the wall like a real ghost could. 'Wow, I'm actually a bit surprised that a real life creature can do this.' He went out of the shrine, and couldn't help but shirk a bit at the sunlight. 'Heh, the light's too bright. This creature must live in a darker environment normally. I should get some shade.'

There was a forest on the other side of the shrine, so Ghostfreak went inside, able to see better now that he was out of direct sunlight. "This looks like Tomobiki Park. Probably not a good idea to be seen like this now."

"Lum, forget about that idiot Moroboshi. You should be with me."

The ghostly alien stopped, and moved its eye, oddly enough without moving its head. The eye just moved along the black lines, like it wasn't fixed in a socket like any normal eye would be. 'That sounded like Megane. This I gotta see.' He turned invisible by subtle command and crept towards the voice of his classmate.

There Megane stood alone, facing a tree. "No, that might only enrage her. I should be more subtle, but include a lead into why she should dump Ataru's ass."

'If he wants her that's one thing, but he's making this personal. That's making me mad.' Ghostfreak mentally hissed, getting an idea.

"Alright, maybe this. Lum, I'm saying this as a friend. Ataru is all wrong for you. I've known him for years, you need to hear a few things before you go too far."

"Like this?" Ghostfreak asked from behind.

Confused, Megane turned around and gasped when he saw a grey ghost floating in front of him. And then Ghostfreak pulled back his skin, exposing the entity underneath it with a dry roar. Megane screamed, put up his arms in defense, and his hair spiked up turning white in the process.

The glasses-wearing teen fell on the ground and scooted away, unable to take his eyes off this thing that didn't belong on Earth. "What... what the heck are you?"

"I'm Ghostfreak." He answered, closing his skin. "And I'm not in a good mood right now."

"Get away! Get away!" Megane shouted, trying to scoot away more.

Ghostfreak leaned closer to the teen. "Boo." He said jokingly, but in his voice it sure didn't sound like a joke.

All Megane could do was scream more and get up and run off. Ghostfreak laughed in a dark way, and the omnitrix started to time out. He returned to normal and was somehow on the ground again instead of hovering above it.

"That was strange. That... didn't really feel right." Ataru commented. "But I'm still new to all this, so maybe I'm overthinking it."


"Where is that boy?" Ataru's mother, Kinsho Moroboshi, asked as she sat at the table, looking outside and seeing the sun starting to set.

"Don't be too worried. We both were that young once." Her husband Muchi Moroboshi told her while reading his newspaper.

There was a knock at the door and Kinsho got up to answer it. At the door was Lum. "What do you want?" Kinsho asked, not thrilled about having aliens back at her house.

"Is Darling here?"

"No my son is not. And I don't think he wants to see you." Kinsho answered, trying to be civil if not friendly.

"Mrs. Moroboshi, I know he doesn't want to see me. But if I just go away now his life is going to be in danger. He knows this, and yet he's trying to run away from the problem. If he won't listen to me, maybe he'll listen to you." Lum pleaded.

Kinsho looked confused. "What do you mean his life is in danger?"

"Can I come in? I don't want to explain this where others might overhear." The oni girl requested.

Kinsho was hesitant to answer. "Keep this quick." She finally said, stepping back so the extraterrestrial could enter. Lum went inside but Kinsho didn't let her get much further. "Start talking."

"I had to come back to this planet on assignment. I was delivering something that should have been delivered sooner but wasn't. Something that an inhabitant of this world requested and we were happy to oblige. But I was attacked along the way, and the item in question is now... attached to your son."

"You brought something here and now it's stuck to Ataru?" Kinsho repeated, really not liking this. "Why haven't you removed it?"

"If I could I would have, but I can't. And I don't know anyone who can. The device itself is not dangerous, but the people who want it are. Humans and non-humans have already gone after him for it. If I'm not around they are going to hurt Darling, even kill him." Lum insisted.

"And what can you do?" Kinsho asked, skeptical.

"The creator of this device is on this world, I don't know where he is but I know I can find him. Then Darling can have it removed. And until then, other non-Earthlings might come, and I can help keep Darling safe from them. Also, given what this device does, Darling's going to need someone who knows about alien lifeforms around."

"Is everything okay?" Muchi asked, walking into the room.

"Not quite, Darling has this thing called the omnitrix stuck on him, and it's going to cause a lot of trouble for him." Lum answered.

Muchi blinked. "Alien tech stuck to my son eh? Well, it seems to me the only reasonable thing to do is let someone who actually knows a thing or two about this stuff keep an eye on him so he doesn't hurt himself with it."

"That's what I told him." Lum claimed.

"That's not how you phrased it though." Ataru said from the front door, surprising everyone since they didn't hear him return.

"Son where have you been?" Kinsho asked.

"Darling!" Lum said, relieved, flying over to hug him.

"Let go of me!" He said, trying to pry her off.

"Ataru, can we see this thing Lum was telling us about?" Muchi asked.

The teen looked confused. "Why would you want to see it? It's not like you can do anything about it."

"Doesn't mean I don't want to see it." Muchi replied.

"Alright." Ataru said, then held out his left arm towards his parents.

"Looks like a watch." Kinsho noted. "But it doesn't tell time."

"I get the feeling it's not supposed to." Muchi commented. "What is it supposed to do?"

"It transforms me into other aliens." Ataru admitted.

"Transforms you? Son you absolutely have to get this thing off. It can't possibly be safe for you." Kinsho said, trying to pull off the omnitrix.

"Dear stop that." Muchi said, taking his wife's hands on his son's arm. "Remember, Lum said it's not that easy to take off."

"And you're trusting the alien that shackled our son?" Kinsho asked angrily.

"I'm trusting the voice of experience on this matter." Muchi clarified.

"You want to know what this 'voice of experience' said to me earlier?" Ataru asked. "That she expects to live here now because of all this."

"Well I've got nowhere else to go and you need me around. You don't know a thing about these creatures you turn into so who else is going to teach you? And in case you've forgotten there's someone in space trying to kill me. If I leave now I'm as good as dead." Lum said, trying to keep her cool.

"Is that the case?" Muchi asked, and Lum nodded. "Well son, I gotta say she makes a good case."

"You want to let her live here?" Kinsho asked. "We already have enough trouble with the budget."

"If money's a problem I know how to fix it, assuming Earth's currency system works as I think it does." Lum offered.

"Like what? Giving us space-dollars?"

"Space-dollars?" Lum repeated, then rolled her eyes. "What a juvenile concept. No, I'm talking something a lot more real and useful. One of Darling's new forms can create gemstones at will. Those can be sold in this economy right?"

Kinsho blinked in surprise, then looked at Ataru like he was a walking ATM. "In that case, maybe this could work."

Ataru hung his head with a sigh. 'Great, she's going to bleed me dry, and Diamondhead can't even bleed.'