Avalonians at Hinata-sō

by Pyeknu

Prequel to "Phoenix From the Ashes." When the Avalonians were liberated, a group then living in Hinata seek a place to live at the Hinata-sō, befriending Keitarō. In doing so, they give him a new sense of family…which radically changes the lives of all there. Especially when one becomes his sister and another his fiancée. Keitarō/OC, girls/OCs, no promise girl quest.

4. Relatives Come to Town…and Friends, Too!

Hinata Station, an hour after breakfast…

Given its location between the western slopes of Ōgusu-yama and the shores of the Sagami Sea, the city of Hinata was rather isolated when it came to local transportation networks from the remainder of its home prefecture. Fortunately, the Keikyū Zushi Line — which had originally been constructed as a branch of that company's main line connecting the Minato Ward of Tōkyō with Kawasaki, Yokohama and Yokosuka — had been designed with a potential extension in mind from its original terminus at Shin-Zushi Station down to a new station in Hinata near the intersection of the spa city's namesake street and National Route 134. First opened in 1990, the Hinata Extension was quite the money generator for its parent organization thanks to the popularity of the hot springs at the Hinata-sō and neighbouring hotels…though the service nearly crashed in the spring of 2008 when public use of the hot springs at the Hinata-sō was closed thanks to Urashima Hina. Fortunately, ridership on the Hinata Extension remained somewhat lucrative since there were university students residing in the town who needed to take public transportation to their schools. But — like many other places that had suffered because of the transformation of the Hinata-sō from hotel to all-girls dorm house — there were business executives at the Keikyū offices in Tōkyō that would gladly wish all sorts of curses on the matriarch of the Urashima Clan of Hayama…and who supported her grandson's current moves to have the property legally transferred to his own control.

"Eh?! Keitarō-san is moving to seize the Hinata-sō?!"

A chuckle answered. "Not exactly, Tsuruko-san," the middle-aged man in the relaxed clothes said as he and the beautiful raven-haired woman with the dark grey eyes dressed in the robes of a Shintō shrine maiden rode the train into Hinata-eki. "What's happening is that — since he has no means by which to pay the property taxes for the upcoming fiscal year and that his grandmother has, to his knowledge, done nothing to prepare such payments for the Hinata-sō — Keitarō-kun came to conclusion that his grandmother totally ABANDONED the property to be seized by the city authorities come the start of April. To prevent that and find some way to generate the necessary revenue to keep the property in his family, he is moving to have the Kanagawa Prefecture Court transfer legal ownership of the Hinata-sō to him. Once that's done, he can concentrate on ways of getting new revenue into the property so he can pay the property taxes and make a successful business of that. To do that means he has to turn the place back into a hotel or allow many more tenants — including men — to move in."

Hearing that, Aoyama Tsuruko nodded in understanding. She had been contacted by the local police box in Kyōto early Thursday morning concerning the horrifying events the night before surrounding her sister and those evil aliens who had inserted themselves all over Earth over the last several decades for whatever nefarious purposes they ultimately had. Learning that the Noukiites — who clearly were a noble and civilized race ready to aid those less fortunate than they — had taken Motoko and her friends to their squadron's hospital ship now in orbit, Tsuruko then had to calm down her understandably upset parents, grandparents and other clan elders, all of whom wanted to get their hands on the monster that had nearly killed Motoko and rip him to shreds. That had taken almost the whole day…not to mention a visit from a sympathetic Noukiite priest — called down by an Imperial Marines platoon commander; there had been a group of Terran-form Avalonians living close to the Aoyama family dōjō — who was quite detailed in explaining what would happen to Tarash dai-Joranth once he came under the care of the prison wardens subordinate to Her Imperial Majesty's High Warlord of Hichkyech'eng. Once said elders were satisfied that Tarash would literally be twisted mentally into something he feared greatly — apostasy was a capital crime on Phentax Two — Tsuruko arranged to take the first Friday morning train from Kyōto to Tōkyō.

On arriving at Tōkyō-eki, she had the surprising luck to meet up with Horie Haruhiko. A senior executive working for Toyota at their world headquarters in the city of the same name in Aichi Prefecture near Nagoya, he was the estranged father of Motoko's very good friend Narusegawa Naru. Haruhiko had been separated from his beloved daughter after he was forced to divorce his wife when poor Naru was ten; by then, Naru's mother Yui was already making plans to marry the man who would become Naru's stepfather and wanted to make sure that Haruhiko wouldn't have any influence on his child's life whatsoever. That had badly hurt the man; he loved his daughter greatly and wanted the best for her…but because he — as he would explain to Motoko's sister on their trip down from Tōkyō Station — privately feared that Naru's mother would embezzle all the funds he had set aside for her, he felt he had no choice but to comply.

On hearing the bitterness in the man's voice when he explained about the whole situation, Tsuruko could only shake her head. She didn't know what the actual truth concerning the breakup of Naru's parents was and didn't really think it was her business to learn that…but since Haruhiko was at least making the effort to look in on his hurt girl now, he deserved a chance to prove himself.

"How will this change the situation concerning the original residents?" she then asked as the train came to a stop at the station and they rose to step off.

He sighed. "For your sister, no change at all. Your family pays for the rent and I doubt Keitarō-kun will want to change it. As for my daughter…" He sighed as they moved through the security gates before he turned to give the Shinmei-ryū kendō-ka a wry smile. "I'm a control fanatic deep down, Tsuruko-san. That's partially what led to the breakup between my wife and I. I always need to make damn sure that everything I'm affiliated with is as healthy and operating at peak proficiency as possible. My ex-wife hated that about me and feared that I would literally cripple Naru-chan by acting that way around her. Yet it turns out that when she made the agreement with Keitarō-kun's grandmother concerning my daughter staying at the Hinata-sō two years ago, that's what ended up happening. Naru-chan stays there free of charge…yet without being forced to take personal responsibility about helping out there with things like maintenance and housekeeping. I'll be happy to pay for whatever rent that Keitarō-kun wishes to charge after he becomes the owner of the property, but I'll make damn sure that Naru-chan understands that she won't be allowed to freeload…eh?!"

"Horie-sama? Aoyama-sama?"

"Hai?" Haruhiko asked as two police officers came up to him.

Both saluted. "Mayor Takada has asked us to escort you to him. Konno-sensei is also here. The mayor will be happy to take you to your meeting with Taeko-sama at the Hinata-sō."

"'Taeko-sama?'" Tsuruko asked.

The older of the police officers gave her a knowing look. "T'aeja-sama."

That phrase made Motoko's sister turn very pale…

---

Soon to join the travellers from Kyōto and Toyota for the small trip up the Hinata-dōri to the city's namesake hot springs hotel was Konno Hikari, Mitsune's paternal aunt. A best-selling science fiction author who was born in Ōsaka and was currently based in Kyōto near the old Imperial Palace, she had been the woman who had sparked her niece's interest in writing. However, try as she might to force Mitsune to get off her butt and publish things, her parents' interference — to say anything of their loud demands for full control over their underage child's earnings; Hikari wanted to make sure they never saw a single yen of it since they'd turn around and waste it on frivolous things — and her niece's refusal to stand up to them until she finally fled the family home in the Mejiro part of Tōkyō's Toshima Ward to join her schoolmate Narusegawa Naru at the Hinata-sō never saw anything printed. While Hina hadn't been forbidden by Mitsune's parents to keep Hikari away from their only child — unlike Haruhiko; his ex-wife had been adamant on making sure he NEVER got the chance to see his daughter now that she was effectively living on her own away from her mother's supervision — there had been no encouragement by Hina to make Mitsune go forth and meet with her aunt now that she was effectively free of any interference from her parents.

"It's like Hina wanted to give my niece, your daughter and Tsuruko-san's sister a place to take a chance to relax, get their bearings back and go forth to plot new lives for themselves…but never followed through with what she did by helping make them understand that they have to work to make good futures for themselves," Hikari stated as the mayor drove his personal car — a sturdy 2007 Toyota Land Cruiser, Haruhiko had noted with typical company pride — to the small plaza beside the Wafū Chabō Hinata. "And much that I'm glad that Hina did that for Mitsu-chan, I'm not pleased at all to hear about her borrowing money from Hina's grandson and not bothering to find some way to pay him back."

Haruhiko nodded as the mayor parked the car and everyone moved to step out. "I've heard about all the things my daughter's done to the poor man ever since he came here. Much that I understand her wanting to protect herself from perverts and the like, I remember Keitarō-kun as a boy. He was the nicest and most likeable lad you'd ever want to meet." He shook his head. "She got her temper from her mother, that's for sure!"

Tsuruko was quiet as they made their way onto the sidewalk. Much that she suspected that her sister had also gone well past acceptable limits when it came to Urashima Keitarō, the fact that the demon inside the Yōkatana Hinata was finally free of the containment spells Hosan Hirosuke had put on it back in 1603 — and was currently seen by everyone in Hinata as Keitarō's adopted twin sister in a Terran-form Avalonian body cloned off his DNA, Urashima Taeko — was enough to put the damper on her normal reaction to her sister's many acts of stupid arrogance, especially towards the man who made sure she had a roof over her head. Part of her was sorely tempted to negotiate an end to the lease on Motoko's room at the Hinata-sō, then arrange for her to be sent back to Kyōto once she was free of Noukiite medical care.

Like Motoko, Tsuruko had been saturated with many recounts of the story of the Great Fire of 1603, which saw half of Kyōto's population of two hundred thousand killed by — as the official history of the city reported — the combination of dozens of refuse fires that had gone out of control thanks to a very forceful dry summer wind.

All members of the Shinmei-ryū knew better.

A minor samurai retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Urashima Tadaoki, had brought back with him from Korea a solid steel fireplace poker he had found in a burnt-out manor home in the mountains near modern-day Sŏul. Due to his losing his weapon in the Battle of Sekigahara when he fought at the side of Toyotomi's successor Tokugawa Ieyasu, he had the fireplace poker reforged as a katana, a beautiful weapon in the Muramasa style that had such a fine edge that it was said to be able to cleave off the the wings of a horsefly without touching the rest of the insect's body. Unfortunately, Tadaoki never realized that his new blade was possessed by the spirit of a now VERY angry tokkaebi named T'aeja, who was quite willing to do anything to seek retribution for the mutilation of its own body and avenge the near-wrecking of its spiritual home country at the hands of the hated "pirates of the Wa." Once it was able to possess Tadaoki, the rampage begin…and wouldn't stop until Kyōto was a smoking ruin, thousands of samurai were dead, tens of thousands of helpless civilians were also either dead or homeless, the Shinmei-ryū nearly wiped out to the very last warrior, the Emperor and his family also rendered homeless and the survivors owning their very lives to a man who had been born over forty-five centuries before in the mountains of modern-day Tibet and had sworn his eternal service to the Imperial House of Japan since the Asuka period.

Since that time, the Yōkatana Hinata was kept by members of Tadaoki's family though it was always available for use by any Shinmei-ryū warrior in repayment for the near-extinction of that particular school of martial arts in the Great Fire. Scant few members of the Aoyama branch of the Shinmei-ryū wanted anything to do with the Cursed Blade, though there were members of their sister school controlled by a branch of the Konoe Clan — one of the Five Regent Houses descent of the Fujiwara Clan — who had considerable experience with the Yōkatana in battle. One of those people was the current Director of the Kansai Magical Association, Konoe Eishun, a close friend of the famous Thousand Master himself and a former member of the Crimson Wing group who had helped save the inhabitants of Mars' magical twin planet of Nerio from the plots of the Mage of the Beginning a few decades ago. And while Tsuruko certainly respected Eishun as a great swordsman and a wise man, the fact that he would — once he finally got word of what just happened here — probably break down and cry like a baby on learning that his "beloved T'aeja-sama" was finally free at last had long convinced Motoko's sister that the man was also clearly insane.

Honestly…actually wanting to FREE a creature that had nearly killed the EMPEROR?!

"Ohayō, minna-san."

Surprised to hear that aged male voice, Tsuruko's head snapped over…

…and then she inwardly groaned on seeing the elderly arch-mage now standing at the bottom of the steps leading up to the Hinata-sō from the Wafū Chabō: Konoe Konoemon, the dean of the Mahora Academy and Director of the Kantō Magical Association. What was worse, his son Eishun and granddaughter Konoka — with her han'yō bodyguard and lover, Sakurazaki Setsuna, hovering close by — were also awaiting them. Surprised to see the four visitors from Mahora and Kyōto there, Mayor Takada hummed. "Um, excuse me, but I was told by Taeko-sama that no other guests would be here."

A chuckle answered. "More than understandable, young man," Konoemon stated as he exchanged polite bows with the newcomers. "However, when His Majesty wishes that all proper and due courtesy is extended to the being once known as the Lady T'aeja of Chosŏn — now the adopted sister of Urashima Keitarō-kun, Urashima Taeko-sama — to make her feel welcome here in Japan after being given such horrid treatment over the years, it has to be done."

Tsuruko tried not to moan. Oh, ye gods! What made the Emperor think THAT?!

The mayor of Hinata hummed. "Was it Tsukiko-sama that suggested this to His Majesty?"

The older man nodded. "Hai, it was. We're here to analyze the full extent of Taeko-sama's magic and entreaty a working alliance between herself and the magicals of this land."

On hearing THAT, Tsuruko nearly collapsed to her knees in horror.

Ye gods! she moaned to herself. People can't be THAT stupid…!

…can they?!

---

Observing the reaction of the representative of the Aoyama Clan, Setsuna tried not to grin too much on seeing how pale and sick the poor woman looked now.

Then again, it was more than understandable.

Having actually trained with the Yōkatana Hinata when she was a child and used it when she was older, Setsuna got the chance several times to converse with the spirit within. Given that she — as a han'yō born of a union between a human father and a karasutengu yōkai mother — shared a sort of spiritual kinship with the tokkaebi trapped in the Cursed Blade, they had become something akin to friends…though such never had progressed far thanks to the rather interesting complexities of the magical spells Hosan Hirosuke had put on the Yōkatana in 1603. Such — which given members of either school of the Shinmei-ryū the right to use the blade whenever such levels of power were actually needed to succeed in whatever mission said warrior faced — always made sure that it would, when not in use, be returned to reside in the official family home of the descendants of Urashima Tadaoki…which, these days, was the Hinata-sō. And while it was a safe thing to do — with the Yōkatana in her hands, Setsuna could probably challenge Major Dean Raeburn herself to a sword duel and break even with the last heiress of Master Hosan and current grandmaster of the Tensei-ryū…even with the Canadian metahuman warrior possessing a blade forged of purest neutronium! — in the long term, it always made Setsuna sad that nothing had been done to address the true crime that had befallen T'aeja of Chosŏn all those years ago and give the tokkaebi its freedom.

That the "space angels" — as news pundits all over the world were now starting to call the Avalonians as a whole — residing now in Hinata had done that out of the goodness of their own hearts had been all the proof needed in Setsuna's eyes that the alien bioroids could be a massive force for good on Earth if they were approached right and simply treated with respect.

If the "arrogant berks" — which had been the words Setsuna's teachers had used to describe members of the Konoe Shinmei-ryū's sister school — of the Aoyama Clan couldn't hack the idea of the Lady T'aeja living free as Urashima Taeko, that was just too damned bad…

---

Minutes later, inside the Detached Hall…

"Four hundred and ninety-six points," Konoka declared.

As the ghostly parchment that had flashed that number in glowing characters faded into the air over the main table, Taeko gently adjusted her glasses. "So now that you're more than satisfied that I'm a magical under your silly laws, can we stop this?"

A blushing Konoemon — who had to whack his son several times to prevent him from, as Tsuruko predicted, making a total ass of himself in front of Taeko — nodded as he rubbed the back of his balding head. "Hai, Taeko-sama. Now that we have a direct reading of the level of your magic via the Neuwied Test, we can officially enter you into the Book of Loyal Magicals for Kantō as an honoured guest of our nation. Of course, given your particular circumstances — that you were effectively kidnapped all those years ago by your adopted brother's ancestor, literally mutilated to become that fool man's new sword, then trapped here since 1603 to serve people you clearly wished to have nothing to do with — His Imperial Majesty would desire that anything within reason that can be done to make your future stay in Japan all the more peaceful and happy for you and those you adopt as your family is done." He then winked at her. "In other words, we'd rather like it if there was NO repeat of 1603, Taeko-sama."

Taeko roared with laughter on hearing that flippant statement, and then she smiled as she sipped her tea. Also there representing the Urashima of Hinata was Dō Karumi acting on her fiancé's behalf; Keitarō didn't want to deal with any relation of Aoyama Motoko at this time and was currently exploring the tunnels under the grounds to determine what best to do with them. While Tsuruko hadn't been insulted by the snub — on stepping into the building, she had sensed the ki echoes of all the things that had been unleashed on the poor man by her sister; she also had been given the cold shoulder by young Maehara Shinobu when they had met in the banquet hall — the current landlord delivered onto her, she didn't particularly appreciate being forced to face TWO living nightmares at the same time, both with the power to determine whether or not Motoko would be allowed to stay here anymore.

"Well, that's more than understandable, Konoemon-ssi," Taeko then declared before she hummed. "And I can understand his request. Actually, it doesn't surprise me that Amaterasu's current descendant asked you to ask me that. He's long impressed me."

Everyone gaped. "He has, Taeko-sama?!" Hikari asked.

"Ne. You may recall on his birthday nine years ago that he openly acknowledged his blood-kinship with the rulers of Paekche through the descendant of King Muryŏng who became the mother of Emperor Yamabe…" She then caught herself. "Sorry! I forgot you use posthumous names here; I got that habit from Negako-sŏnbaenim!" As the others laughed, she said, "She was the mother of the Kammu Emperor." To Konoemon. "Konoemon-ssi, you may inform the current holder of Amaterasu's Throne that he has nothing to fear from me…save unless my family or those who seek out safety and peace on these grounds anytime in the future might be threatened. In fact, please take my letter unto him so he can read my words directly." With that, she handed a rolled parchment to him.

He bowed his head as he took it with both hands. "I will be honoured, Taeko-sama."

"Wonderful." A sigh before she gazed on the relatives of her three wounded tenants. "Now, as for you three. I realize that you may not have been informed of the full extent of your relatives' actions towards my brother over the last year, but I will say this once and for all: They will be forgiven…but not forgotten, much less allowed to be repeated. In other words, if Naru-ya and Motoko-ya can't find some way to control their tempers, the next time they attack Keitarō-ya for whatever reason — if Karumi-ya here doesn't decide to deprive them of their hands! — will be quite embarrassing and very painful for them!" As both Haruhiko and Tsuruko winced on hearing such a threat, Taeko turned to Hikari. "The same goes for Mitsune-ya if she continues to act like an undisciplined kisaeng and tries to steal money from my brother. I hear that Avalonians can be very vicious when it comes to those who force themselves on their bonded soul-mates, especially sexually. You'll notice that Karumi-ya has a silver magatama on her ear, which marks her as an A-rank amongst those like her. Mitsune-ya wouldn't last five seconds against her."

Karumi took that time to crack her knuckles, which made very sharp sounds that caused Naru's father, Mitsune's aunt and Motoko's sister to openly wince. "In other words, the free lunch ends on the first of April," Keitarō's fiancée added. "The chances are good according to Tamasuke-kun here that we'll be able to take this whole business about the ownership of the property to court on Monday. Until the time comes that the judge declares my fiancé the legal owner of these grounds, we can't do anything about the fact that Naru and Mitsune don't pay a damned yen of rent. Now, given that we now plan to open this place to any Avalonian who wants to resettle here, the fact that two people — three if we count Shinobu-chan — are living here free of charge might not matter so much. But it's the principle of the thing. They need to stop being lazy, get off their butts and earn their way in this world. We know this world doesn't give people breaks. So they better smarten up. We've already had to drop-kick ONE selfish brat out of this place back to her stupid little island out in the Pacific. We'll be happy to make it a hat-trick."

Haruhiko and Hikari both nodded in understanding. Noting that, Karumi then focused her brown eyes on Tsuruko's grey ones, which made the Shinmei-ryū swordswoman openly wince as this tōshi — whose total ki levels were nothing short of explosive! — focused on her. "As for your little sister, since your family does pay for her living here, we can accept her living here as a tenant. But I'll tell you this right now, lady: We're possibly looking at a total rebuild of this whole property. That's partially thanks to all the shock damage the frames of this place have taken in the last year from your sister pulling her stunts with her sword, not realizing there's such a thing as air pressure that hurts people and things other than what she's trying to target. Fortunately, our new friends from outer space have the technology to help us do the rebuild of this place without any cost, so we won't be hitting you for part of the repair bill. But I'll make DAMN sure that the building will be rebuilt to the same code standards as my old high school across the bay from here. Ki users are heavy on the ground at Kyoshō; every time someone acted up when I was there, the repairs were done quickly and the town safety inspectors who came in afterwards were stunned at how much the building could tolerate all that abuse. I'll ALSO make damn sure that there are special reflectors put into this place that'll turn any of your sister's attacks right on her ass if she gets out of hand with my fiancé. Let's see how SHE likes being knocked through the sky all the way to Tomobiki — that's FORTY KILOMETRES AWAY from here! — a few times!" She stood up. "I'm done."

With that, she headed out of the room. Taeko sighed as she noted how small Tsuruko seemed to have shrunk in the wake of such a tirade. "Tsuruko-ssi, I've always been curious about something," she said before sipping her tea. "Why is it that you all just decided to declare Motoko-ya the future grandmaster of your family school without asking HER opinion of what she might want to do with herself?" As Tsuruko jolted in shock, Taeko smirked. "I've been able to sense her thoughts since she first came here. While she is honoured that your relatives trust her with something as precious as that, there's always been a small part of her who's resented being put on the spot like that when she was just fourteen. If you keep demanding so much of her, it wouldn't surprise me if she finally decided to WALK AWAY from your family once and for all time." As Tsuruko gaped at her, Taeko sighed. "Now, Kaoru-ya is awake down in the tea shop at the bottom of the hill. I suggest you all go down there to speak to her about when you can finally see your relatives while I escort Konoemon-ssi and his family over to Maria-ya's room so they can get to know her."

The others nodded…

---

The tunnels under the Hinata-sō, minutes later…

"You weren't too harsh on them, were you?"

"I was tempted," Karumi confessed as she leaned against the man she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt now that she would spend the rest of her life with. "Then again, I shouldn't be too surprised. Folks want to think the best of relatives, especially if they're direct descendants like sons and daughters. Not to mention siblings." She sighed. "I know you don't want to permanently break their spirits — and knowing how much your sister told you about them, I can understand wanting to let them down easy even after all the shit they've done to you over the last year — but there's a voice inside my head saying they're not going to take this lying down once they finally clue in to what's going on. This was their sanctuary from all the scary monsters out there…and you're moving to effectively destroy it behind their backs. And with the woman who championed them now in a coma somewhere out there, you moving to hit now…"

He smirked. Taeko had warned him that the chances were very good that once the blood ki wards that had kept Karumi locked away from the outside world were destroyed, the backlash would have either killed or severely maimed Urashima Hina wherever she was in the world at the time. While he hadn't got confirmation of anything about it, there had been e-mails from his parents — which he had automatically routed into his junk mail box without opening them, as he also had done with anything sent by Kanako — that had come in early that morning. He had forgotten the titles of those e-mails, but they had been marked with an "Urgent" tag…which, in his experience, was the normal sign that spam mail had been sent. Since he had a public e-mail address, he had to deal with spam for a long time, so there was that excuse to fling back at his parents should they raise a stink about not answering him…which was no different than what he had done to them for months.

You'd think they'd get the message from the automatic recording the cell phone network produces whenever a number's been blocked by someone, he mused to himself.

"Well, it's too bad. I've no time to deal with wounded sensibilities from people who see me more as a dumb idiot who doesn't deserve to think for himself than someone who has feelings and dreams." He sighed. "Even if he allowed the dreams to become the be-all and end-all of his life." He then shrugged. "And while I'm not too sure now about what Otohime-san thinks about it, it's as clear as rain to me that Narusegawa-san — while still wanting to get into Tōdai — doesn't allow childhood promises she would barely remember to rule her life. She looks on my cousin's old boyfriend as her current inspiration." Naru's memories of what happened when she had visited the Hinata-sō years ago had been confirmed by Taeko. "So I should do the same. Try for Tōdai because I want to go there, not because I promised Narusegawa-san I would go there. Now that running this place will be finally streamlined and put into better hands than mine…"

"Not to mention magical hands," she advised with a coy grin.

He nodded. While Keitarō hadn't officially asked Taeko to become the new landlady and manager of the Hinata-sō when the legal issues were finally put to rest, having her be the "public" face of the family running the show at the future hostel only made sense. While Yamamoto Eriko and her sisters hadn't endured any really hideous levels of abuse at the hands of their masters since their creation, there were Avalonians who had been raped and abused for YEARS by their masters now aboard the bioroid factory and all the other starships and space stations that were making cislunar space around Earth seem very crowded to the folks at NASA and Róskosmos. Many of them would — once permitted by the national government — be allowed to resettle in Japan, which would make a "female friendly" place like the Hinata-sō all the more appealing to them. While Keitarō's being an Avalonian by blood-adoption might make him far more acceptable to such suffering women than a normal Terran man, there was no sense in provoking any sort of panic attacks.

It was simply just not in Keitarō's nature.

That was one of the things that Karumi now found so attractive about the man.

Honestly, what the fuck was Narusegawa thinking of when she rejected his attempt at trying to start something with her?! the sixty year-old tōshi in a body of a twenty year-old wondered as they walked down the corridor, looking into the now-empty side rooms that lined both walls. Once all of Kaolla Su's personal belongings — including what was in Room 301 at the front end of the south wing of the main building; in Taeko's eyes, there had been no sense in taking any chances after last night's idiocy — had been cleared out and sent back to Molmol, the Noukiites called down some combat sappers to tear through all the tunnels under the Hinata-sō to make sure any other potential surprises were neutralized once and for all. After another inspection of the tunnels by Taeko earlier that morning, they had been judged totally clear of any threats to the Hinata-sō or those living within it.

With that particular headache now finally out of his way, Keitarō found himself tempted to totally fill in the whole network once the major renovations got underway. There was simply no historical value in keeping such tunnels in place, especially in a high earthquake zone like Japan. Atop that, given that the Molmolites were all pretty much aware of magic, there was the chance that someone on that island might try to find some way to launch a sneak attack against the Hinata-sō by teleporting themselves into these tunnels — thus bypassing the wards surrounding the property on the surface — as they sought vengeance for Kaolla Su being "humiliated" by Urashima Taeko.

"They might try that once they get the official note from Tōkyō saying the brat's not allowed back into the country," Karumi warned. "Until then, they'll try to pursue it government-to-government. Even if they're not recognized by the government here."

Keitarō smirked. It had stunned him to learn that the "Kingdom of Molmol" only held diplomatic relations with twenty nations worldwide, chief of which being mainland China. In the eyes of the governments of other nations like Japan and America, Molmol was seen as part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, whose main territory lay off to the northwest; in the eyes of the government of that young nation on the atoll of Majuro, the island of Molmol was a self-governing municipality but had not been granted any sort of legal independence by the Republic's legislature. In the end, the Republic of the Marshall Islands neither encouraged Molmol's claims of independence as a separate kingdom nor did anything to suppress such claims to the outside world…which, ironically, was actually quite normal behaviour when it came to outsiders who were forced to deal with that particular island and its inhabitants.

During the scramble for colonies in the Nineteenth Century by the Europeans, Molmol had been initially claimed by Spain in 1874 as an element of the Spanish East Indies. The island was legally transferred to Germany in 1884, becoming part of a protectorate that was administered by the colony of German New Guinea. The island — not to mention the rest of the Marshall Islands — was transferred to Japan in 1919 as part of the South Pacific Mandate set up by the League of Nations after World War One and the German overseas colonies were divided amongst the victorious Allied Powers. In all that time, little had ever been done by the governments in Madrid, Berlin and Tōkyō to solidify their claims on the island; only when World War Two loomed in the horizon were military troops landed on Molmol to make it part of the network of island bases set up to keep the Americans from striking directly at the Home Islands. However, save for neutralizing the Japanese naval and army air forces based there and establishing a surface and anti-submarine blockade to prevent resupply, there was no liberation of Molmol as was done on Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands to the west of the Marshall Islands in November of 1943. In essence, Molmol's Japanese occupiers — and their effective native prisoners — were left to "wither on the vine" for the rest of the war.

Naturally — and understandably — the Molmolites didn't care too much for the Americans who finally came in the late summer of 1945 to "free" them…only to incorporate the island into the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands set up to administer a far-flung archipelago of islands and coral reefs extending from the International Date Line to the Philippines. Even more so, it didn't impress the natives at all when the Americans turned nearby Bikini and Enewetak Atolls into target sites for their atomic bombs, especially the Castle Bravo explosion of the first true thermonuclear hydrogen device on 1 March 1954 that spread all sorts of fallout across much of the Marshall Islands…and most likely reached all the way down to Molmol itself! More recently, the independence of the Marshall Islands — which had been loudly applauded by people in Molmol City — in 1986 had come hand-in-hand with a "compact of free association" treaty which delegated ALL defensive authority and responsibilities to Washington!

Naturally, that simply just wouldn't do.

While a part of Keitarō was acutely sympathetic to the Molmolites wanting to take full control over their own affairs — the island's population of about 250,000 outweighed the rest of the Republic of the Marshall Islands on a four-to-one scale and would make an independent Kingdom of Molmol a little smaller than Barbados on the worldwide scale — from outsiders, that was tempered by the fact that most of the rest of the world viewed the natives as being quite…eccentric, almost to a degree that made many think of them as "deranged morons." They were brash and in-your-face to anyone whom they met that they hadn't accepted as friends or adopted members of their community. They simply didn't care a bit about respecting other cultures when they interacted with people in other nations. And they simply didn't even bother to try to learn the many truths about the big world beyond the shores of their little tropical paradise.

Thinking on that point, Keitarō then remembered Taeko once telling him that when Kaolla's classmates confronted her about her country of origin a half-year ago, she confessed that she hailed from the "deserts of Tōkyō"…which probably made all those poor kids who heard that shake their heads and wonder how stupid the gaijin barbarian really was.

And this was a girl who built military-grade weapons and robots for a HOBBY?!

That didn't begin to cover Kaolla's letters home about her adventures here in Japan…which always made the damned evening news every time they were delivered to the Royal Palace! Even worse, each broadcast included film made by Kaolla's secret platoon of supporters living in Hinata, always depicting all the times Keitarō had been hurt by the princess, either by the usual "foot to the head" greeting or by one of the weapon systems she created like that mechanical version of Onsen Tamago he had seen stored down here the previous day; Why the heck was she building THAT for?! he wondered on remembering that thing.

And worst of all when it came to Keitarō's suffering thanks to Kaolla making the evening news in Molmol, the news presenters who showed such footage always gushed over how much their princess's "big brother" loved to "play" with her!

Note to self: Sic Nuna-ya on whatever Molmolites are in Hinata and make it known that this town is now a VERY hazardous place for them to live! he reminded himself as a churlish smile briefly crossed his face. Let's see how they like it for a change…!

---

Hidden in places all over Hinata, a dozen people shuddered when chills froze their hearts…as if a cold wind just blew over their graves…

---

Sensing her fiancé's inner delight at his plotting some serious mayhem to a certain little brat's hidden supporters in town, Karumi could only beam with pride on noting how much their psi-bond and the automatic sharing of personal knowledge and experience between them was helping finally break Keitarō of some deeply-ingrained habits that might have impressed the adults when he was a kid…but was becoming a serious risk to his health and well-being now that he was an adult with adult responsibilities before him.

Of course, there was nothing wrong at all about being helpful and charitable to people who really needed it. Most tōshi that Karumi knew of were remarkably pleasant people when they dealt with outsiders, especially the young, old and defenceless. To attack kids Maehara Shinobu's age or younger was simply the lowest of the lows in any self-respecting tōshi's eyes; only the gods could help the stupid idiot that ever broke THAT rule and his or her peers got wind of it! And regardless of what the stupid, selfish bitch had done to Dō Karumi forty years ago that ultimately tore Urashima Kyōsuke from her, Urashima Hina did have her heart in the right place when she opened her family's hotel to four girls who were in desperate need of a place that was well clear of either uncaring relatives or overwhelming family obligations so they could get a better sense of control over their lives.

However, one couldn't hide from the damned world forever.

Any tōshi could tell anyone that.

This was the reason that people such as Karumi often went out of their way to seek out "normal" friends, lovers or family members to forge close emotional ties with. Regardless of what some idiots gladly said about the reborn warriors of the Three Kingdoms of China who now lived across Kantō, they were essentially normal people with normal dreams and hopes. Yes, the ugly politics that the souls of their past-selves loved to make their hosts engage in while within the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the Seven Battle Schools guaranteed that surviving to write the Centre Test and moving on to university was pretty iffy for a lot of tōshi…but once one DID get clear of places like Kyoshō, life pretty much became normal. There had been no threat at all to Kyōsuke once Karumi started dating him, no matter what that nosey bitch Hina or her other relatives loudly claimed to the contrary.

Well…

She smiled as Keitarō leaned down to give her a kiss of reassurance. Yeah, not even Hina can run from the damned world now, all courtesy of Taeko-sama, Karumi mused as she leaned her head against his shoulder. Blood ki wards — the non-magical version of the deadly defensive fields of energy most sorcerers of any stripe would erect around vital places such as their family homes — were based on the intent of the person setting up the ward in the first place and what purpose the ward was supposed to perform. From what Taeko told her that morning after inspecting the remnants of the wards in the tunnels, Hina's blood ki wards were meant to totally keep Karumi away from Kyōsuke. In that way, they had worked perfectly; Karumi had been contained to the point where her original body had begun to collapse in on itself as her fighting ki struggled to keep her alive in the absence of all forms of sustenance like food and water. Logically, they should have totally faded after Kyōsuke's death.

However, given Hina's underlying determination to ensure that the "evil tōshi bitch" would never threaten her family even after having Kyōsuke taken from her, they stayed strong…and began to grow in strength when the quasi-consciousness controlling the wards came to sense that Karumi was still ALIVE — in a way — and was nowhere close to joining her ancestors. Because of that, they ultimately began pulling in extra ki energy from their own creator, coming to badly affect Hina's health over the years, most likely to the point where she had to retire from running the Hinata-sō full-time in 2009 and go on vacation. This left her dangerously vulnerable since she was nowhere close to the Hinata-sō when the time came to finally break Dō Karumi out of her four decade-long prison.

It surprised Karumi that Hina was — according to Taeko — still alive, though most likely in intensive care in whatever hot springs town she had been visiting the day Keitarō allowed his sister to possess him and free his future wife to give her a new life for herself. No doubt, the woman's stubbornness is keeping her from going to whatever hell she deserves, Keitarō's fiancée mused as they moved to walk down the main corridor for the stairs leading back up to the surface. She was like that back when she was a teenager, too!

Well, wasn't it a pity that the power backlash from purposefully-wrecked blood ki or magical blood wards on the caster — if the caster was still alive — would unleash torrents of sheer agony, worlds worse than what the four victims of Mizote Toshiko's brother on Wednesday would be experiencing now if they weren't doped up on a mountain of pain-killers. IF Hina ever woke up from what Taeko had done to her, she would be either permanently crippled or a mental vegetable for the rest of her short life…which would make any sort of questions concerning owning the Hinata-sō — were they ever brought up again in some court challenge by Keitarō's parents or other relatives — effectively mute. Of course, by the time something like that happened, the Avalonians would have finally been allowed to migrate down to Earth from space en masse, which would immediately increase demands for new housing across Japan and elsewhere. If what Karumi sensed from Mayor Takada about extra plans concerning the Hinata-sō…

"We'll have to ask him what he wants to do," Keitarō noted. "He's hinted when we've met before that he's got bigger ideas than just turning this place back into a hotel to get the tax money flowing back into the city coffers again, not to mention help businesses in town earn more income from tourists. He didn't tell me more, but I think he views the changes here as the cornerstone to a much bigger development project that's going to shake up things here pretty hard."

"He always was a go-getter," Karumi noted with a smile as she recalled the couple of times she had dated the current mayor of Hinata. "I'll just have to remind him of what he learned when he studied the nisei who fought for America in World War Two."

"What's that?"

"The motto of their 442nd Infantry Regiment," she stated. "'Go For Broke.'"

He laughed…

---

Pararakelse (north of the Equator halfway between Baker Island and Jarvis Island), liaison office of the United States Department of Magic to the Commonwealth of Pararakelse (local time: Thursday 18 February, two hours after lunch)…

"So what do you think of these Space Angels anyway?"

The physically twenty-something English witch sighed as she considered that. Corrine McMaster was a normal-born — she was one of the last generations born in Britain who saw the term "muggleborn" as normal — from Liverpool who had graduated from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as part of Ravenclaw in 1964, well before the rise of the Death Eaters under Lord Voldemort and the First Blood War killed thousands until the Dark Lord was put down by the actions of Lily Potter in the fall of 1981. Having found little fulfilling work in her homeland with its anti-muggleborn prejudices, Corrine — like many of her generation — migrated abroad to find her fortunes elsewhere.

She eventually came to Pararakelse, a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States with commonwealth status located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. An island the size of the Big Island of Hawai'i lying just north of the Equator, Pararakelse was geographically distinct from the Line Islands to the east and the Phoenix Islands to the west; geologists believed it had been formed by the same type of volcanic hotspot that had ultimately created the Hawai'ian archipelago. Inhabited by a mixture of native Polynesians and Caucasian migrants from America, Pararakelse had about a hundred thousand inhabitants these days. It was also an island steeped in ancient magical history and equally ancient normal history. Since coming here, Corrine had worked as an archaeologist researching the remnants of the so-called "Turtle Kingdom" of Pararontas, often accompanying normal researchers who wanted to do the same thing.

Like all on Pararakelse — and almost everywhere else on Earth — Corrine hadn't begun to suspect that there had been actual aliens living in secret amongst them until very late Tuesday evening, when a platoon of very determined Noukiite Imperial Marines had teleported themselves into Pararakelse City to raid a house that turned out to have a middle-aged Niphentaxian woman residing there, having been observing events on Pararakelse for three decades! Also residing at that home and in apartments all over the island's capital city were a HUNDRED Avalonian bioroids who had been genetically moulded to look no different than any native Pararakelsian, either Polynesian or Caucasian, to any Terran. Like many Niphentaxians according to CNN, the woman who had been on the island — Corrine hadn't learned her name — always treated the Avalonians under her charge as mere "robots," no different than mindless golems. Corrine had been simply shocked at that. One of those girls, Joanna Teraina — who was now the Elder Mother of the Avalonians on Pararakelse — was one of her senior assistants when she went out on exploration digs in and around the Desert of Death. While Joanna hadn't registered highly on the Neuwied Test — she only scored 41 points; one wasn't seen as a "real" magical unless one scored 110 points or higher — Corrine hadn't sensed anything mechanical or artificial about the woman.

"Literally no different than you or I, John," the Liverpudlian finally answered as she sipped her lemonade; it was quite warm today and her host wasn't a tea drinker. "Out of curiosity, I had Brent do a full examination of my chief assistant Joanna." Healer Brent Atworth was another British expat and a fully-trained magical healer, having done time at St. Mungo's Hospital before getting out of the country in 1976 when the Death Eaters began attacking muggleborns at random. These days, he was the only fully-trained magical healer living on Pararakelse. "She's physically as human as you or I and could interbreed with any of us without problems, though things like her lifespan potential, healing abilities and psionic powers will pass to any child she has with an Earthling." She sipped her lemonade. "There are small glands in her body that link into her cardiovascular system which secrete a mesonium-based regenerative enzyme that helps heal physical injuries at a rate that I'd swear could equal the best potions regime Brent would use on any of us. Her psionic powers totally work through the nerves in her body. The telepathy is tactile in nature, no different than what Mister Spock does in Star Trek. Her empathic senses can track someone out to at least ten kilometres if she allowed her powers to reach out that far and she could tolerate the input were she in a crowded area. In effect, there's no way in Heaven that someone — even a master at Legilimency — could sneak up on her."

"Damn!" John Fitzpatrick breathed out. A native of Boston and graduate of the Seven Hills Wizarding Academy near Lynchburg in Virginia — it was the all-man's version of the Salem Witches Institute near the city of the same name in Massachusetts — he had served for twenty years as a magical special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigations before transferring to full-time government administrative work a decade ago. His position as the Liaison Officer for the Department of Magic to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pararakelse made him the senior magical official on the island; unlike the normal world where Governor Traya Namo could call on a well-trained local police force answerable to her office to deal with civil disturbances, magical disturbances always fell under the jurisdiction of the federal Department of Magic via the local office of the magical branch of the FBI. That was alright; there were only a thousand or so magicals on the island and there was really nothing of major value on Pararakelse that might attract the attention of a dark lord like Voldemort. "So the governor was right in issuing her Executive Order declaring Ms. Teraina and her sisters full citizens of the Commonwealth?"

She nodded. "Yes. When will the Magical Congress made a decision about them?"

He sighed. "Well, since they're aliens, they fall under the purview of the Men In Black in lieu of the International Conference thanks to the clauses of the Roswell Agreement. It's the President and the normal Congress that will have to decide about all the Avalonian-Americans in the fifty states and the District of Columbia…and Traya's opposite numbers in all the other unincorporated territories for all the Avalonians living there."

She nodded in understanding. The International Conference of Magical Communities was the worldwide meeting house for Terran magicals and had been since it had replaced the human-centric, blood-centric and Europe-centric International Confederation of Wizards in 1946 in the wake of the end of Tsukuyomi's War of Liberation and Grindelwald's War. The Supreme Mugwump of the ICMC was dual-hatted in the hierarchy of the United Nations as the Under-Secretary-General for Magical and Mystical Affairs, though s/he was always elected by the member groups of the ICMC and not the member states composing the General Assembly of the United Nations. After the Roswell Incident in 1947 — when a prototype Zephyrite scout ship crash-landed in the southeast part of New Mexico and was met by both magical and metahuman officers of the United States government in the first known true "close encounter of the third kind" between Terrans and aliens — a new agency in the United Nations was formed to deal with all issues concerning non-Terrans who might travel to Earth, the Special Committee on Alien Activities. Known more popularly as the "Men In Black" thanks to their usual work uniform of a black business suit with RayBan glasses over their eyes, the SCAA was given carte blanche rights to deal with anything of a confirmed non-Terran origin, which the Avalonians clearly were regardless of how humanoid they were deep down. Any decision made by the Chief Director of the SCAA, Professor Zachariah Rhetor of Israel (known to his co-workers as "Chief Zed"), concerning the bioroid race would be seen as legally binding to the ICMC as a whole according to the "Roswell Agreement" made between the two groups in the wake of that close encounter with the Zephyrites.

Of course, the eventual reality of what might happen between Avalonians and Terran magicals — especially in conservative societies like Britain — would be much different…but John suspected deep down that it would all work out in the end.

Put simply, the Avalonians — if what news reports from NASA now indicated about how much the bioroids had brought with them from the Phentax system in the last couple of days were true — were a technological gold mine waiting to be tapped into by normal governments worldwide. Even the leaders of the deeply conservative societies in the Middle East wouldn't be so stupid to let THIS chance pass them by.

After all, one NEVER kills the goose that lays golden eggs.

"Well, let's hope it all goes well," Corrine said. "After all, if we don't allow them to stay here while they try to make a society of their own, where will they go?"

John nodded. "Yeah. According to the MIBs, the solar systems all around Earth are claimed by one power or another, so any move by the Avalonians to any of those places would be seen as an invasion. Besides, given how fascinated the Niphentaxians were about Terran society if what our recent 'guest' told us was true, that would have clearly rubbed off on their…"

KK-KRACK!

"Merlin!" Corrine gasped as she whipped out her wand. "Who…?!"

ZZ-ZARK!

"AAAAUGH!"

Both ran out of the office into the waiting area beyond…and then stopped on seeing an unconscious man on the floor in the middle of the room. Covering him from her place close to the chair where she had been seated before said fellow had apparated into the room was Joanna Teraina, a lovely woman with the typical dusky skin shade of a Polynesian-descent Pararakelsian, now dressed in a T-shirt and Bermuda shorts…though it was clearly obvious to John that Joanna had no bra on under her shirt; the dark orbs of her nipples were quite visible under the white fabric of her top. The raven-haired, blue-eyed twenty-something had a very advanced-looking pistol resembling a Glock with a streamlined laser targetting device under the barrel — a Lawgiver, John recalled the name; the Noukiite platoon commander who had come here on Wednesday had the same type of weapon — aimed at the newcomer. As Corrine moved to stand protectively close to her chief assistant, the DOM liaison gazed on his receptionist. "What happened here, Glenda?" he calmly asked.

Glenda Rawaki took a deep breath. "He just apparated into the room, sir," she stated with a forced sense of calm; the suddenness of what just happened had clearly unnerved the young native witch. "Before he could march into your office — he just simply refused to say a word to me — Ms. Teraina drew her weapon and stunned him unconscious."

John sighed. His office recently had sound-blocking wards installed which kept out the standard level of conversation noise or other sounds from the reception room so that he could concentrate on work in case someone came in and Glenda needed to converse with the visitor before she advised her boss of said visitor's presence. Obviously, the wards weren't strong enough to block any loud bursts of noise such as a person apparating in…not to mention the discharge of a Lawgiver. "Ms. Teraina, why did you shoot him?"

"He was determined to march into your office and lay down whatever demands whoever sent him from Molmol wanted delivered without a damned care in the world about the fact that he should have answered Glenda's questions, much less respected the fact that you might have been entertaining someone or were busy doing something important," Joanna said as she turned the safety of her weapon on and slipped it into the holster now hooked on her belt. "Given his clothes, it was quite easy for me to tell where he came from. As I recall, there happens to be an international border that separates the Republic of the Marshall Islands from the Commonwealth of Pararakelse. Wasn't this man supposed to check in with the local customs office at the airport here before coming over to see you?"

Which the magicals of Molmol always love NOT to do when they visit me, John mused as a delighted grin crossed his face. No doubt, the Avalonians had learned long ago about how easy it was for local magicals to apparate from Molmol to Pararakelse and back; the distance between the two islands was only six hundred miles and most magicals who lived in the Pacific Ocean basin learned how to apparate over such large distances in their graduate years of study at local schools…or in the case of people like John Fitzpatrick and Corrine McMaster who came into live in the area from other countries, after migrating here. Ignoring Glenda's delighted giggle and Corrine's laugh on seeing how the Molmolite — John recognized him as Ganda Gan, the "Royal Herald" serving Lamba Lu; he was always the person who relayed the so-called king's "royal decrees" to officials in nations and territories within close range of Molmol — had been brought down so easily by one of Pararakelse's newest citizens, the Magical Liaison to the Governor sighed as he rolled his eyes. "Well, let's see what His Majesty wants now," he derisively muttered as he leaned down to pick up the roll of parchment on the floor close to Ganda's hand, and then he opened it to read it and a sheet of paper — the photocopy of something else — that was contained within.

A moment later, his eyes went wide. "Oh, my God…"

"What?" Corrine asked.

A whistle answered her. "Well, it's one busy day for the folks in Mahora," John stated. "Not only has the Earth Angel gained her own body, which fulfils the Promise of 1808…but the Destroyer of Kyōto is making waves now, too. Adopted as the sister of the guy who was made the landlord of the place Lamba Lu's brat cousin was staying at in Japan last year."

The other magicals gaped. "Merlin! Lady T'aeja?!" Corrine exclaimed.

"Yep. Calls herself 'Urashima Taeko' now; that's according to the letter that was sent with all of Kaolla's things back to Molmol last night," John stated before he smirked. "Oh, man! You can tell Lady Taeko's a tokkaebi. Dropped a brick right on Amalla's head, then dropped another brick right on the king's head right afterwards!"

More laughter…which was stopped when a howling Ganda surged up from the floor. "HOW DARE YOU LAUGH AT THE KING'S MISERY, YOU…?!"

He then eeped on feeling the cold kiss of a pistol muzzle on his neck. "Now, my friend, you're going to sit right down and act like a civilized person…or is such a thing totally beyond your kind?" Joanna said with faux sweetness as she leaned up to hiss right into his ear before her voice turned as frigid as the Antarctic in mid-winter. "Because if you can't respect the importance of Thoughtmaster Fitzpatrick's office as a representative of the President of the United States of America to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pararakelse, I will have no choice but to say 'Target,' then your name, then 'Kill-disintegrate'…to render you ashes!"

John smirked as Ganda turned grey on hearing that threat; no doubt, the Molmolite had learned about the deadly power of a Lawgiver from news networks like CNN, which could be received in Molmol City. "What the hell did that brat you call a princess do to piss off a tokkaebi of all things, Gan?" the American then asked.

Ganda paled. "'T-t-tokkaebi?!'" he sputtered in horror; as a graduate of Seven Hills — Molmol didn't have its own indigenous magical school — he knew what THEY were.

The American nodded. "Yeah. Korean trickster spirits that normally become sentient inside a household object, like a fireplace poker…as one named T'aeja did before some idiot named Urashima Tadaoki picked it up and took it with him to Japan during their little war with Korea at the end of the 1500s. He had the poker reforged as a katana…which pissed T'aeja enough that she wiped Kyōto off the damned map as a response!" John then clicked his tongue as he shook his head. "Now she's been adopted by Tadaoki's very own descendant Urashima Keitarō as his sister Taeko. Which means that if your princess goes back to Japan, she'll be in range of someone who finds slaughtering a hundred thousand people an easy thing to do." As Ganda nearly soiled his trousers on realizing who was now allied with his princess' "big brother," the American official smirked. "You want to know how sick people here in Pararakelse feel when they see the nightly news broadcasts you people put out, showing what that spoiled brat does to that poor man?!"

Ganda roared out, "HOW DARE YOU…?!"

ZZ-ZARK!

"De'ne!" Joanna spat as he collapsed to the floor after a close-range shot to his neck from her Lawgiver. "Do you want to have him sent back?" she offered.

"Please?!" John groaned out.

"Yes, sir!"

With that, Joanna pulled out a modified cell phone. A quick call to the bioroid factory later, Ganda vanished in a shower of energy that reminded John of the transporter effect from the second Star Trek television series. He smirked as he imagined what the reaction in Molmol City would be like on noting that the "royal herald" had been returned from Pararakelse unconscious…and by means other than apparition or a portkey, which would unnerve them greatly. "By the way, how long does the heavy stun effect of your pistol last?" he then asked.

"Depending on the target's physical health, up to two hours," the Avalonian-Pararakelsian archaeological assistant answered.

"Well, he'll be back soon enough…unless we can put up anti-apparition wards around the island to make him stay away," Corrine then mused.

"Never could get Washington to give me the money to set them up. 'Sides, if we did that, he'd just 'port over to Tarawa and bother the I-Kiribati," John muttered as he returned back to his office, waving the others to come join him. "I don't want to do that to Michael and his people. They don't deserve it."

As Glenda took her place at a chair to take any notes her boss might need written, Corrine returned to her guest chair while Joanna placed herself close to the door; there were no other chairs in the room. "So what else could happen today?" the English expat then asked. "The Lady Negako is now living in her own body after 202 years of being forced to live in the subconscious minds of dozens of people. Now, Lady T'aeja…" She then caught herself. "Wait a minute! Given what she did in 1603…"

John's eyes widened. "Why are the Japanese not hitting the panic button?" he wondered before reaching over to his satellite communications unit, a magically-hardened device that resembled a modern laptop computer. Seeing that, Corrine felt a surge of envy on how much American magicals were willing to incorporate technology into their day-to-day lives; such technomancy had only become legal in Britain at the turn of the millennium.

Tapping controls to open a link, John then called out, "Embassy Tōkyō!"

A second later, a woman's image appeared on his screen. "McLean here."

"Good day, ma'am. This is John Fitzpatrick, Department of Magic Liaison Officer in Pararakelse," he announced. "Sorry to bother you today, but we just got a visitor from Molmol City indicating that Miss Kaolla Su was just evicted from her current place of residence in Japan by a woman called Urashima Taeko, who claims to be the Destroyer of Kyōto. Ma'am, if I recall my magical world history classes right, the only living being who has any right to claim to be the Destroyer of Kyōto is…"

"The Lady T'aeja of Chosŏn," Brenda McLean, Assistant Chief of Mission (Magical) for the Embassy of the United States of America to the State of Japan in Tōkyō, finished. "I took the same classes at Salem, John. To answer your question, Urashima Taeko IS T'aeja. The Avalonians who live down in Hinata City got a sample of Urashima Keitarō's DNA and used that to turn one of the non-templated spare bodies they had available into a new body for the Lady T'aeja to use and let her be finally free of the containment and loyalty spells Master Hosan forced on her back in 1603. Poof!" She made an exploding motion with her hands. "Keitarō gets a very magical sister." She then gave him a curious look. "So what did Lady Taeko do to the spoiled brat from Dodo Island, anyway?"

As Corrine laughed and Glenda giggled on hearing that nickname for Molmol, John sighed as he held up the copy of the original letter sent to the island last night. "Lady Taeko — now the landlady and manager of the Hinata House — has officially evicted Kaolla Su from the residence and stated quite emphatically that she will never be allowed back until she learns that arcane concept called 'discipline.'" As the senior American magical official in Japan laughed on hearing that, he then held up the response letter from Lamba Lu, which was to have been conveyed to the Imperial Palace in Tōkyō. "The 'king' demanded in return that the Lady Taeko be extradited to Molmol for insulting his precious adopted sister, denying her a place to stay and play in Japan, implying that the Lady Taeko's brother actually hates the little princess…and that some other woman name Mizote Toshiko is to also be extradited to Molmol for actually causing the princess injury two weeks ago when she interfered in her attempt at playing with her precious big brother and actually went so far as to injure her!"

The other woman moaned. As in the world of normal diplomacy, magical diplomats gladly wished every time they were forced to confront anyone from Molmol that the island would kindly "do an Atlantis" and permanently sink below the waves of the Pacific. While the International Conference of Magical Communities had different rules when it came to welcoming new members into its ranks than their counterparts in the United Nations — not to mention allowing multiple representatives from one nation to sit in the chambers in Geneva; for example, Japan had eight representatives, each being an officer of one of the regional Magical Associations as there had not been a single Minister of Magic in the country since the elimination of the position of Mahō-Shōgun in 1946 as a concilliatory move to appease the magicals of Europe in the wake of Yomigawa Tsukiko's actions — there were certain set rules about actually joining the organization. The "Kingdom of Molmol" never bothered to acknowledge that; in 1956, an ambassador from Molmol City arrived in Geneva and declared that he was there to represent his people without even bothering to ASK if he could be allowed to do that, much less undergo the confirmation process! Unfortunately for him, the Supreme Mugwump of the ICMC at the time was the just-retired Lieutenant Commander Heather Thompkins of the Royal Canadian Navy's women's service division, a personal friend and former fighting companion of the Protector of All Life herself. The self-trained normal-born arch-mage — who could fight Yomigawa Tsukiko, the woman who had wrecked the old ICW almost by herself between 1939-45, to a standstill — from Québec and veteran of World War Two wasn't the least bit impressed by such bluster…and responded to that by sending the idiot for a swim in the Pacific in the middle of a swarm of sharks!

Understandably, Molmolites came to hate Canadians as much as they did Americans.

"Could you send that to me, please?" Brenda then asked. "I'll have to bring this up to Dean Konoe before it starts to escalate into something stupid."

"I'll have Gringotts courier it to you as soon as I can, Brenda," John offered.

"Thanks, John."

---

Hinata, the Wafū Chabō Hinata, an hour before lunch…

"So once the transfer of our relatives onto one of those space factories you had the Yehisrites and the Noukiites tow into the system is complete and they're finally awake, we'll be able to finally go up and look in on them," Horie Haruhiko recapped before sipping his tea.

Shiina Kaoru nodded. "We could actually take you up once the transfer is complete, Haruhiko-san. As much as we gladly make use of intimate therapy to help people heal from wounds…" — here, she gazed fondly on Urashima Haruka, making the tea shop matron blush right to her toes — "…we also recognize the need for relatives to be also involved in the recovery process."

At the head of the table in the genkan where the relatives of the three wounded Hinata-sō residents now under Noukiite/Avalonian care, the residents' current trauma doctor and the manager of the Wafū Chabō were seated at, Mayor Takada Tamasuke sighed. "When we tried to contact your ex-wife about Naru-chan, she began making all sorts of ridiculous demands concerning what we were supposed to do with her now that she was in the hospital, Haruhiko-san. Couldn't get a damned word in to inform her that Naru-chan was in space on the Noukiite hospital ship and that her wounds were so severe that the possibility of her being forced into becoming an Avalonian had to be explored. She wouldn't allow us to say a thing to her." He shook his head. "We had no choice but to hang up on her. We actually hoped that would have provoked her to call back so that we could force her to be reasonable." Another shake of the head from the mayor. "We haven't heard from her since."

The Toyota senior executive sighed. "Well, that doesn't surprise me." He wryly chuckled. "I was always the control fanatic…and Naru-chan's mother turns out to be a million times worse than I ever could be." He sipped his tea. "Well, at least we know our relatives will be safe. Shiina-sensei, what happens when someone becomes an Avalonian? The physical process is very easy to understand, but…"

"Well, the mental process is quite similar to how someone like myself came into being," Kaoru explained with a chuckle. "We only have the experience of the Flower Youth of Noukiios — not to mention Ataru-kun's new siblings — to go by, but since they all reported the same sort of thing, we could view what happens as standard for Naru, Mitsune and Motoko. Once the tre'cha occurs and the soul awakens in its new body, it has to orientate itself to its new form. Whatever long-term illnesses or other infirmaries the person suffered — Mitsune's drinking problem, for example — will no longer affect them physically. As for the mental affections — as alcohol addiction does have a mental aspect — there may be cases of withdrawal, but with the support of friends and loved ones, such can be overcome. The Awakening comes shortly after the tre'cha is done. This is when someone develops their sense of the Te'a."

"The power of Kami-sama," Aoyama Tsuruko stated.

"Not exactly that, Tsuruko-san," Kaoru countered. "The Te'a could be seen in that aspect as more a veil between the mortal and the Divine than an actual reflection of the Divine. Since my people haven't really had the chance to develop our own theories as to what the Te'a actually is — and such was never encouraged by our masters, even those of us who did see us as living beings — we can't really say what That Is we can see inside our minds. I suspect as time marches on and we interact more with the religiously inclined here on Earth, that might change. But no matter what, once the Awakening comes, Naru, Mitsune and your sister could be overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of the Te'a. Naturally, there'll either be myself or nursing volunteers there to help them get through that, not to mention train them in the use of their powers. Once that hurdle's past, they can then carry on with their lives."

"Their incredibly long lives, too," Konno Hikari amended with a smirk.

The healer nodded. "Hai, true. But isn't that what parents would always want of their children?"

The older people blinked before they nodded, smiling. They then perked on hearing a ringing noise from the direction of the plaza. "Who could that be?" Kaoru asked as she turned to look.

Everyone then froze on hearing a gargled intake of breath from Tsuruko. Eyes locked on the swordswoman from Kyōto, and then people paled on seeing the grey pallor on the face of Motoko's sister. "Hey! What's wrong?!" Haruka asked as she moved to comfort.

"Oh, my!" Hikari breathed out.

Haruka spun around to gaze on the writer. On noting where she was looking, the tea shop matron turned to look herself…and then gaped in disbelief.

Now standing at the foot of the stairs leading to the Hinata-sō from the Wafū Chabō were three people, all the same age and dressed alike in what Haruka knew were Noukiite traveller's robes over the two-piece martial arts gi-like clothing that was common clothes for civilians in the Imperial Dominion. Two of them were women, identical twins. The third clearly would have been both girls' fraternal twin brother. And while his hair was longer than what pictures of him that had circulated over the Internet and in newspapers across Japan and the world over the last eight months had shown of him and there was something of a moustache and beard covering the lower half of his face now, there was no mistaking who HE was.

The most famous teenager on Earth today.

Moroboshi Ataru had come to the Hinata-sō.

To be continued…

---

WRITER'S NOTES

1) The Keikyū Corporation — the name is short for Keihin Kyūkō; the word Keihin is taken from alternate readings of the second kanji in the words Tōkyō (東京) and Yokohama (横浜) — is the company that is responsible for all light rapid transit connecting the capital city of Japan with the major cities of Kanagawa Prefecture (Yokohama, Yokosuka and Kawasaki). Originally formed in 1898 when the nation's third electric railway line (and first for the Kantō Region) was established, the current corporation came into being in 1948. Using standard gauge trains (track width of 1.435 metres [4 feet 8 1/2 inches]), the company is in charge of five lines of service composing 87 kilometres of track serving 73 stations in real life.

2) National Route 134 (in Japanese, Kokudō 134-gō) is the trunk highway that connects downtown Yokosuka with the town of Ōiso on the northern shore of the Sagami Sea, following the southern shoreline of the Miura Peninsula.

3) Translations: Eki — Name suffix for a railroad station; Wa — Ancient name for Japan; Han'yō — Literally "half-apparition," this is the term applied to a being that is half-human and half-yōkai; Karasutengu — Literally "crow dog of heaven," this is a type of yōkai that assumes the features of a crow or raven (it should be noted that the base term tengu originally meant a being that assumed canine features…but evolved over time to become a being that bore avian features); -ssi — Standard Korean honorific, their version of the Japanese "-san" suffix honorific; Kisaeng — Officially sanctioned female entertainers (and sometimes prostitutes) in Chosŏn-era Korea, who were — in many ways — the local version of Japanese geisha; Róskosmos — The common name used for the Federál'noe Kosmíčeskoe Agíntstvo Rossíi ("Russian Federal Space Agency"), that country's version of NASA; Nisei — Second-generation people of Japanese descent living in another country like the United States; De'ne — Literally "no intelligence," this is the most common and popular Sagussan insult; I-Kiribati — Demonym for natives of the Republic of Kiribati; Tre'cha — Literally "the passing on," this is the Sagussan version of the concept of shifting one's soul into another person's mind similar to what Spock did with Leonard McCoy in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

As an aside, the "'" mark in the Scientific Romanization system for Russian indicates the "soft sign" letter in Cyrillic. This letter is always written after a consonant and indicates that the preceding consonant is softened (in proper terms, palatalized). The letter also precedes "soft vowels." It also indicates a syllable break when it appears in the middle of a word.

4) The names of Naru's parents given here are my creation. It made sense to me that Naru's father would have a different name than her; it was obvious to me that Naru was legally adopted by her stepfather if she shared the same family name as her stepsister Narusegawa Mei. I take the family name for Naru's father from her anime voice actress, Horie Yui (born 1976), who has also done roles such as Sakuya (in my fanfics, Sukeyama Sakuya) from Sister Princess, Multi (AKA HMX-12) from To Heart and Kisaragi Honey (AKA Cutey Honey) from the 2004 three-part OVA version of the Nagai Gō manga series, Re: Cutey Honey. As you will note, Naru's mother shares the same given name as her seiyū.

As an aside, the story of Mitsune's parents and an explanation concerning why she was at the Hinata-sō in the first place was never given. What is said here is also my creation.

5) The Muramasa style is one of the two most famous forms of sword-making known in Japan. Said to be founded during the Muromachi period (1337-1573) by one Sengo Muramasa (unknown dates of birth and death), the blades fashioned in this style were claimed to be cursed by their creator, a man who was a genius at making steel but also very mentally unbalanced. It was claimed that swords forged in the Muramasa style would eventually drive their owners to either go on murderous rampages or commit suicide. Ironically, Tokugawa Ieyasu himself dimly viewed any sword forged in the Muramasa style; he was said to have lost many friends to Muramasa-style blades and was himself badly injured by one at one time. I personally didn't know that factoid when I decided the Yōkatana Hinata would be forged in the Muramasa style; thus it is ironic that I created the story of the Great Fire of 1603 — the year Tokugawa became Shōgun! — that nearly destroyed Kyōto to explain the bloody past of the Cursed Blade.

North American comic readers would be familiar with the Muramasa legend thanks to the character of Katana (Yamashiro Tatsu), who first appeared in an insert in issue #200 of The Brave and the Bold (July 1983) and was created by the first writer-and-artist team to create the Outsiders superhero team, writer Mike W. Barr and artist Jim Aparo. As Katana, Tatsu makes use of a Muramasa-style katana known as the Soultaker, which literally absorbs the soul of those it is used to slay; Tatsu can also use a special ceremony to restore any soul within the Soultaker to quasi-life, enslaved to her.

6) While not officially acknowledged in Mahō Sensei Negima, the character of Konoe Konoka — not to mention her father Konoe Eishun and grandfather Konoe Konoemon — is most likely a distant relation to the Imperial Family of Japan. The Konoe Clan is, as noted above, one of the Five Regent Houses, five cadet families of the Fujiwara Clan who produced many regents in Japan before the practice of nominating a shōgun (literally "supreme general") to act as military head-of-government came into vogue. The Fujiwara Clan are themselves descent from the Nakatomi Clan — who was a prominent family during the Asuka period — and a servant of the Tenji Emperor (626-672 C.E., reigned 661-672), Nakatomi no Kamatari (614-669), who was given the right to take the honorific Fujiwara for services rendered to the Throne. The Fujiwara Clan would maintain heavy influence over the Imperial Throne during the Heian period (795-1185)…but lost influence when the Imperial Family engaged in insei ("cloistered rule"), where ruling emperors would actually abdicate from the Throne, though a retired monarch would still retain heavy influence on his/her successor. Around this time also came the rise of warrior clans, which required a military general to lead them in the name of the Son of Heaven.

7) Nerio is my name for the Mundus Magicus introduced in the "Magical World" story arc of Negima. As I stated in Phoenix From the Ashes and other stories, I do NOT accept Akamatsu-sensei's idea that Nerio is actually Mars under magical disguise. In the universe of this story, Nerio was formed when an asteroid slammed into Mars millions of years ago and literally sheared off half the planet's mass to allow another planet to be created. The life-bearing elements that were on Mars at the time were transplanted to Nerio, thus allowing sentient lifeforms — the "beast people," which I call therianthropes — and magic to develop there over time. Mars, unfortunately, was rendered lifeless.

8) The concept of neutronium as used here is the same as what appeared in the classic Star Trek second season episode "The Doomsday Machine" when it concerns the outer hull of the Planet Killer that wrecked the starship U.S.S. Constellation. In effect, this is the densest element in the known Universe, created in the core of neutron stars where the orbiting electrons are crushed by gravity against the atomic core. Natural neutronium, under these circumstances, would have the equivalent mass of tonnes per cubic centimetre…which demonstrates the overall level of power necessary to forge such material into the Cat's Claw swords a Jewel Warrior can make use of.

9) The Neuwied Test is my version of the "magical power quotient" version of an I.Q. test that a lot of Harry Potter fanfic writers love to use to measure total magical strength and potential. I first introduced this concept in my fanfic story Harry Potter and the Icemaidens; in that story, I gave Albus Dumbledore a score of 225 points…which gives you an idea of how incredibly powerful Urashima Taeko ultimately is as note the score Konoe Konoka recorded for her here.

As an aside, the highest score ever recorded using the Neuwied Test — as noted in Wizards and Avalonians I: The Man-Who-Won and the Ladies from Avalon — was earned by Heather Thompkins (AKA Spitfire), who (as noted here) was a former Supreme Mugwump of the International Conference of Magical Communities (ICMC) as well as a personal friend and fighting companion of Dean Raeburn. She was first introduced in Part 51 of Phoenix From the Ashes. Heather's score — as tested in 1984 — was 504 points.

10) The story concerning the direct blood relationship between Emperor Akihito (born 1933) and the old kings of Paekche as relayed by Taeko here is true; such was revealed by His Majesty in an interview to the press on his sixty-eighth birthday in 2001. Unfortunately — given the prevalent attitudes many Japanese have when it comes to their neighbours across the East Sea (Sea of Japan) in Korea — such a statement by His Majesty only received coverage in one of the major national newspapers in Japan, the liberal Asahi Shimbun. Naturally, such a public statement by the Japanese emperor made headline news all across South Korea.

As an aside, Muryŏng of Paekche (family name unknown, birth name said to be either Sama or Yŏyung, lived 462-523 C.E., ruled from 501 to his death) was the twenty-fifth king of that land. His tenth generation descendant who became a concubine to the Kōnin Emperor (birth name Shirakabe, lived 709-82, ruled 770-81) and the mother of the Kammu Emperor was named Takano no Niigasa (circa 720-90).

11) The 442nd Infantry Regiment (442 IR) of the United States Army was first formed in World War Two, composed of Japanese-Americans who volunteered to fight in the European Theatre of Operations despite the fact that their families had all been subjected to internment in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941. The regiment earned the nickname the "Purple Heart Battalion" for the number of soldiers wounded or killed while it was in combat (a total of 9,486 Purple Hearts were awarded to members of the regiment…to say anything of twenty-one Medals of Honour and many other bravery awards). Officially formed in 1943, the regiment served as part of the 92nd Infantry Division in Italy, southern France and Germany. Inactivated in 1946, the regiment was reformed the next year as a unit of the United States Army Reserve; the 442nd is the only infantry unit on the order of battle for the national part-time army (which differs from the Army National Guard, which are controlled by the governments of the several states in peacetime; units or members of the National Guard may be called up for federal active duty in times of war or national emergency as so declared by Congress in Washington). The regiment — organized as a single battalion, the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry (so numbered thanks to an administrative separate infantry battalion of Japanese-American volunteers from Hawai'i who were formed in 1942 and united with the 442nd Regiment in Europe in 1944) — is based in Hawai'i with detached companies on American Samoa, Saipan and Guam (in the universe of this story, another detached company is also located on Pararakelse). The battalion has been mobilized for duty in the Vietnam War and the War on Terror to serve in Iraq.

12) Speaking of which, the exact location of the island of Pararakelse — just like the exact location of Molmol and the Hinata-sō — was never exactly given in the Love Hina manga, though there was a picture of someone showing that Pararakelse was located just to the west of Molmol. Because of this confusion, I based the location noted here on an image from the anime series that can be found on the Love Hina Wikia page on Pararakelse, which shows someone pointing out a location north of the Equator and east of the International Date Line; Molmol itself was stated to be just close to the International Date Line. Thus, I placed the island amongst the various atolls and small islets of the United States Minor Outlying Islands.

As an aside, I decided to make this island akin to Puerto Rico in the Caribbean when it comes to its legal stance vis-à-vis Washington. Officially, Pararakelse is an unincorporated territory of the United States. This is a legal term of art which indicates territories of the Union which are not seen as being under the full jurisdiction of the Constitution of the United States and the accompanying laws passed under the Constitution by Congress in Washington D.C. Inhabitants of places such as Puerto Rico — and, in the case of this story, Pararakelse — are entitled to all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States, no different than any citizen from any of the fifty states. However, such territories do NOT have the right to send voting delegates to Congress to fully represent the inhabitants of these territories before the national legislature as members of the House of Representatives and the Senate from any of the fifty states do. Like Puerto Rico, Pararakelse only has one delegate who can sit in the House of Representatives…but that person cannot VOTE on laws even if s/he can sit in government committees. Furthermore, even though Pararakelse is pretty much self-governing with its own governor (Nyamo Namo's mother, by the way), legislature and judicial branch, Congress has the right to meddle much more in internal affairs than it can in the affairs of one of the states of the Union.

Unlike Puerto Rico — which has a population of over three million — any move for statehood by Pararakelse may not materialize anytime soon.

13) I first mentioned the Seven Hills Wizarding Academy in The Icemaidens and the Philosopher's Stone. I created this school as a male-only counterpart to the Salem Witches Institute, first mentioned in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

14) The term Special Committee on Alien Activities (SCAA) was a term I created as the "official" name of the Men In Black as they were depicted in the movies starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Zachariah Rhetor is the name I give the character of Chief Zed as played by Rip Torn.

As an aside, the whole story of Tsukuyomi's War of Liberation and its effects on European wand magicals is better explained in the Wizards and Avalonians side stories to PFtA.

15) The term Protector of All Life is the term mystics and magicals normally use to speak of Major Dean Raeburn. She, of course, hates that term!