Chapter 10 – The Conquests of Haruhi Suzumiya
"Kyon" stated Sensei Fujisawa as he turned around to face me while I was in the midst of a horrific emotional outburst, "You need to calm down for a second. Let me check Koizumi out. I'm trained in first aid and CPR!"
After taking a brief moment to compose myself, I capitulated to Sensei Fujisawa's advice. I was actually too shocked and dismayed to find fitting words to voice given the current situation that afflicted my fellow SOS Brigade memb... no, my friends and I. Certainly, the SOS Brigade, and especially myself personally, had endured some tough scrapes before. Ryoko Asakura had tried to kill me, necessitating Nagato's rescuing of me; a dismally ironic memory given what Yuki had just done. Haruhi and I had found ourselves caught in some awful weather and falling off of shallow edges on rocky cliffs, while walking about the island villa that Itsuki had taken us too, forcing us to take shelter in a cave. And hell, there was even that dream which Haruhi and I both had which Itsuki and Yuki had argued could have seen the entire universe rebooted like some sort of cheap corrupted computer hard drive. But this felt different. El Hazard felt different.
From its far from innocuous inception, the SOS Brigade at least had always been united. I hadn't really given it much thought before, but the five of us had become a real team; a true brigade, appropriately enough, in some ways. For all of the exasperating activities that Haruhi forced the rest of us through, and for all of the discombobulating dumbfounding that many of my discussions with Itsuki, Mikuru, and Yuki had caused me, I had still grown close and even fond of my fellow SOS Brigade members, I had to admit. Now, however, Haruhi was aligned with an egomaniacal wannabe despot, Mikuru had been captured by him as well, and Yuki… I could barely begin to fathom what had happened to Yuki. Oh, and Koizumi… Koizumi might be dead. The very thought chilled me to the bone, and made my already dark thoughts grow even more bleak and gloomy.
The reassuring presence of Sensei Fujisawa was the one strand; the one necessary tether that kept my mind secure from tumbling into an engrossing melancholy from which I might have never returned…
"Phew…" stated Sensei Fujisawa, as he placed his fingers on one of Koizumi's wrists, "At least he has a pulse. It's awfully low, though. Kyon… we're going to need to call off the mission to help out your friends Haruhi and Mikuru for now. We need to rush Koizumi to the best medical facilities that El Hazard has, and we need to do it right away! We're heading to Florestica in Roshtaria!"
I gingerly nodded in agreement, as I still felt clogged within a deep engulfing malaise, as well as numb. However, a moment later, a careful consideration crossed my mind, prompting me to give voice to it.
"Wait!" I shouted to Sensei Fujisawa, "How are we going to get to Florestica? The Peacemaker craft has been ripped into shreds and pieces of molten shrapnel. And to get to Florestica from here on foot would be a hazardously long trek for us! Itsuki is going to need attention faster than that!"
"You're right, Kyon" answered Sensei Fujisawa, "That's why the two of us are going to have to very carefully work together to piece the Peacemaker back together! I know enough about mechanics to know what parts should go where, and in which ways! I'm going to tell you exactly how to fashion the Peacemaker back together, and you'll need to use your magnetic powers to do it!"
I breathed a short nervous sigh over this. It seemed like an overly onerous task to me. But, for Koizumi's sake, I would give it a shot all the same.
"Ok, Sensei Fujisawa…" I began in strong reply, trying to firm myself for this immensely laborious task, "Let's give it a try!"
Thankfully, the two of us working together would succeed in piecing the Peacemaker craft back together in about thirty minutes of work. Sensei Fujisawa checked Itsuki's pulse again after that, thankfully still finding one there, albeit ever so slightly weaker than before. Sensei Fujisawa noted to me that it was odd for the Shadow Tribe's poisons to take so long to kill their intended victim. He could only surmise that Koizumi's esper form had given him some sort of added resiliency against the lethal drug; we theorized that it worked as a sort of back up immune system that flooded Koizumi's body with metaphysical antibodies to combat the otherwise impairing poison. Still, we couldn't count on Koizumi's esper form to keep him alive forever, and hence we flew straight to Florestica, even through the dark hours of the night, before arriving there early on the bright morning of the SOS Brigade's fifth morning on El Hazard.
During the journey, I must admit that I spoke little to Sensei Fujisawa, although he tried his best to hearten me with his typical fortitude and optimism, infused with the sincerely caring soul that exuded them. I was simply in no mood to talk, wanting instead to get lost in my thoughts. I very much would have liked to have slept, thinking that any dream would ironically be a welcomed respite from the nightmare that reality had become. Still, the crispness of the night air combined with what I could only call a humming silence kept me both awake and alert. Additionally, my concerns over Haruhi… over Mikuru… over Yuki… and over Itsuki were just collectively too much for me to quiet my mind sufficiently for sleep. My mind felt boxed in by a canopied square of depressing images, one side of the square for each of my four fellow SOS Brigade members.
We finally arrived at our destination during the rising dawn. Florestica, I have to concede, was both resplendent and exquisitely sublime. Its architectural features managed to achieve the perfect balance between elegance, dignified appearance and imposing structure. Mind you, as bleary and bushed as I was after a sleepless night of apprehensive travel by air, I could only grant a couple moments of appreciation for the majesty of Florestica before a great longing for rest began to consume my thoughts once more. Thankfully, the Priestesses Shayla Shayla and Afura Mann would soon take notice of that after greeting Sensei Fujisawa, Itsuki, and I as we landed the Peacemaker upon the marble royal courtyard enhanced by lush greenery all about it.
"Sensei Fujisawa!" exclaimed Shayla Shayla, as her and Afura rushed over to greet us, as they had decided to take in the morning sunrise in order to bring peace to their minds given recent concerns and troubles, "It's about flaming time that you finally got back here! Did Miz meet up with you? Did you find any of Kyon and Koizumi's missing friends? And… why aren't Makoto or any of the others with you?"
"It's… a rather long story… ha ha ha" answered Masamichi Fujisawa while rubbing one hand over his head, and chuckling nervously a bit.
"Shayla!" shouted Afura Mann in a tone of displeasure to her fellow Priestess of Mount Muldoon, "Don't you realize how tired Sensei Fujisawa and Kyon are, given that they must have flown overnight? This is no time to be interrogating them. Why, Koizumi appears to have already passed out!"
"It's worse than that, I'm afraid." I managed to say, "Koizumi… Koizumi was poisoned by a powerful assailant. That's why we rushed here to Florestica as fast as we could."
"Yeah" added in Masamichi, wanting to clarify the situation a bit further, "From what I gathered from a conversation that Kyon had with that powerful assailant, it sounds as though the Shadow Tribe, including even Galus, may be problems again for us!"
Afura and Shayla looked completely flabbergasted by this. After a tense pause, though, Afura took it upon herself to help Sensei Fujisawa drag Koizumi inside, and to be evaluated by Dr. Schtalubaugh as soon as possible. Shayla Shayla began furiously questioning Sensei Fujisawa over what had happened, but I was too tired to take much attention to it. So, on this fifth morning of the SOS Brigade of Earth's presence on El Hazard, I would finally be afforded comfortable lodging for sleep by a bearded attendant named Londs. However, while I rested, a far worse fate would befall the El Hazard nation of Gannan.
The entire country of Gannan would fall in one frightful day of warfare. Borrowing from the military tactics of Napoleon Bonaparte, while adding his own personal flare of multifaceted layered combat and added psychological warfare to them, Katsuhiko Jinnai pieced together a cruelly efficient conquest of Gannan. Jinnai had divided his accompanying forces into seven divisions, five of which were basic ground forces, one being a siege unit armed with makeshift catapults and trebuchets, and a seventh being air support.
Four of the five ground forces impeccably enacted Napoleon's Manoeuvre De Derrière, as Jinnai placed them across the Gannan military's main lines of communications. This enabled him to quickly isolate each regional corner of Gannan from the other three, carving all four into more easily digestible portions, in Jinnai's cold calculating assessment of things. The three remaining bugrom divisions would then forge a carefully coordinated combined arms assault that included an emphasis on numerical superiority and speed, mildly reflecting the tactics of Genghis Khan.
Finally, roughly two thirds of each of the seven divisions would then converge in the ultimate pincher maneuver around the capitol of Gannan. Jinnai had come prepared with contingency plans, but found them utterly unnecessary as Haruhi's 'special training' had led the bugrom to become an even more fearsome fighting force than they had been at their very height in the recent history of El Hazard. Furthermore, the bugrom were eager to once more prove their worth in battle, and to quickly gain a positive first impression with their new Queen, Haruhi Suzumiya. The bugrom, hence, startled even Jinnai himself in how quickly they overwhelmed the soldiers, and more resistant civilians, of Gannan.
Mind you, no nation had engaged in, or endured, the depredations of war more in recent decades than the country of Gannan. Furthermore, the miraculously revived Bugrom Empire was decidedly not something that they had been prepared for, or had any reason to be. Unadulterated terror gripped the hearts of most of the people of Gannan this day, as it all seemed like an apocalyptic nightmare to them.
Still, and in complete fairness, Jinnai did try to keep the actual number of casualties to a minimum on both sides; this invasion differed from his original one of Gannan in the Queen Diva era in that it did not make use of any sort of deliberate scorched earth strategy. This was to be Haruhi Suzumiya's conquest as well, in Jinnai's mind, and she wanted SOS Brigade converts, presumably not dead bodies. Still, there were some tragic casualties of war this day, inevitable given the nature of bloody conflict. There were also, of course, the ill-gained spoils of war…
"We're baaaack!!!" exclaimed Katsuhiko Jinnai playfully, as he jittered pass the burgundy walls and over the silvery polished patterned tiles of the corridors of the Imperial Parliament building of Gannan, and into its enormously spacious Senate Hall, followed closely behind by a few of his top bugrom soldiers.
Like a kid in a candy store, Jinnai started gazing about the impressive interior décor of this building of great cultural and political import to Gannan.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha…!" he laughed, being greatly amused by the total emptiness of the exalted surroundings in spite of its hundreds of finely designed benches, lengthy tables, and lone majestic throne for the Chancellor, "The country of Gihren Zala himself has fallen once more to Lord God Jinnai! So terrified were the senators of Gannan at my coming that they didn't even bother to stay here to greet me. Ha! Gummo, is the entire capitol firmly in our grasp now?"
"Yes Katsuhiko!"answered Gummo enthusiastically, "We have achieved complete ground control of the entire city!"
"Excellent!" responded Jinnai, pumping a fist, "Then in one day, I have brought an entire country to its knees in servitude to the SOS Brigade!"
"Well, boss…" began Gummo in respectful correction, "We haven't actually propagandized anybody yet, based on what you told me that term met…"
"Good point, Gummo!" replied Jinnai, giving credit where credit was due, "It's been a long day; a glorious day, mind you, but still a long one as well; so we'll begin enticing, and coercing if need be, the citizens of Gannon into joining the SOS Brigade in the morning. For now, have about a hundred bugrom begin unfurling our specially made giant posters of the SOS Brigade symbol, and of Queen Haruhi's face, over the edges and sides of the tallest buildings here in the capitol! That'll serve as the perfect backdrop for our SOS Brigade promotions tomorrow!"
"As you command Katsuhiko!" exclaimed Gummo in response, saluting his Lord and friend, "The imposing irresistible face of our Queen will soon be all about Gannon!"
"Now, Chico…" stated Jinnai, turning about to address another one of his inner round table of bugrom knights, "We never really bothered to loot much of the government coffers and royal holdings of Gannan when we conquered this country before, but this time, I think that having such valuables could prove useful in enticing people to join the SOS Brigade tomorrow! So, take your own contingent of a hundred bugrom, and begin raiding this city for anything that you see that looks like it might have monetary worth!"
"No jewel or gem or anything shiny or used for bartering will be left untaken, boss!" shouted Chico in turn, "Bugrom Empire wealth will grow greatly today!"
"It already has!" interjected Groucho, as he had actually decided on his own to briefly break off from the rest of his boss' forces to find a particular item that he wanted.
"Oh?" piped up Jinnai in intrigued question, as he turned to face Groucho with a hungry grin plastered across his face, "What have you found, Groucho?!"
"I have the perfect gift for you to give to Queen Haruhi, boss!" he exclaimed in turn, before handing it over to Katsuhiko.
"A-a necklace?!" exclaimed a perplexed Jinnai, "I could perhaps see a big honkin' wand or scepter… but a necklace?! What possible use could a cunning conqueror like Haruhi Suzumiya, the new Bugrom Queen no less, have for such an impractical trinket?"
Groucho was about to chastise his 'best bud' for not having a clue about females… but instead, he decided that a different tact might prove more effective here.
"Boss…" began Groucho in explanation, "Queen Haruhi has been working really hard and tirelessly for all of us! I can tell that she hates not being able to explore El Hazard more thoroughly, and that she's making that sacrifice to be the best Bugrom Queen that she can be! I'm… worried about her morale, boss, as you might say. She seems to like anything the least bit exotic or alien to her and this necklace is made out of metals that only exist on El Hazard! She'll love it boss, and it would really cheer her up!"
"Hhhmmmm…" mused Jinnai, cupping his face with his hand while dwelling on the Groucho's reasoning here, "Yes… I suppose that you might have a point, Groucho. Still, in order for that trinket to have any lasting value, I order you to engrave the letters 'S O S' into its largest central stone. At least then it'll serve as an identification accessory!"
"No problem, boss!" exclaimed a gratified Groucho in turn, "That'll make this gift from you to Haruhi even better!"
Groucho, through being Jinnai's most trusted bugrom soldier, had been the bugrom to benefit the most from exposure to the philosophies, thinking, and understanding of Earth humans. In a sense, you could even say that Groucho was the most evolved of the bugrom; the one most capable of independent thought and action. In some ways, he had amazingly become more perceptive than Jinnai himself was, evidenced by how he had actually tricked his 'boss' into eventually making what would unwittingly come across to Haruhi as a romantic gesture. Right now, however, romance was the furthest thing from Haruhi's mind, as she was thoroughly energized by the sight of the rebuild Hive royal hall of the Bugrom Queen.
This room was an exact replica of Queen Diva's royal hall in the former Bugrom Hive, right down to the oval crevice bore into the floor, and the stalagmite chandelier hanging from the roof, and the pinkish and purplish hues that shimmered throughout, and the slight crystalline staircase leading up to the Queen's throne. The entire scene was enough to bring rhapsodic rejoicing on the part of Haruhi Suzumiya. Racing jubilantly into the hall, Haruhi theatrically turned her body about ninety degrees and outstretched her arms as though she was trying to hug the entire room! A smile of pure bliss was on her face.
"This is the niftiest and most phenomenal room that I've ever seen!" exclaimed Haruhi, as she actually pranced around it, "He he he he!!!"
"This room really is pretty cool and charming!" shouted a happy Mikuru Asahina in turn, here along with Haruhi to take in the sight, as Haruhi had decided to give her a brief break from cleaning duties for the occasion.
"Isn't it just divine, Mikuru!" exclaimed Haruhi, taking impassioned hold of her friend's hands with her own, "And just look at that rainbow reflecting crystalline chair of a throne over there! It has that lovely lattice all around it too! Wow… the lattice itself has those bodacious bonsai trees on it too! Let's go take turns sitting in that throne, Mikuru!"
Haruhi and Mikuru hence rushed up to Queen Diva's old throne, taking turns sitting in, running around it, hopping up and down on it, and basically acting half their age. Their juvenile behavior had not escaped the notice of the bugrom Margaret or of former Queen Diva, who had accompanied Haruhi and Mikuru for this introduction to the most recently reconstructed portion of the former Bugrom Hive.
"Queen Haruhi, and our… moe mascot… really seem to like it, Diva!" stated Margaret, "They might like it a bit too much, if anything."
"In complete honesty, Margaret…" began Diva in reply, as she took in the scene of the giggling Haruhi and Mikuru playing around a replica of what used to be her royal throne, "I must confess that my earliest recollections of gazing about this royal hall included similar jubilance on my part, as well."
"I guess that it's only natural for us females, bugrom and human alike, to appreciate such beauty" stated Margaret in response.
"Indeed" replied Diva, "Mr. Jinnai has always had a subtle appreciation for grand palatial design, but he certainly doesn't chew the scenery quite like Miss Suzumiya does!"
"Diva!" shouted Haruhi, as she rushed back over to talk to her, "Please express my gratitude to Chico and his building team for getting this ravishing royal hall reconstructed so quickly, once he gets back here from Gannan along with Katsuhiko!"
"I will make sure to do that, Miss Suzumiya" responded Diva with a modest smile, "However, knowing Mr. Jinnai as I do, I suspect he will be back with news of success within but a day or two. So, it's important that we go over what you're to say once that happens!"
"What Haruhi has to say?" asked a startled Mikuru, stunned to see Haruhi taking instructions for a change.
"That's right, Mikuru!" shouted Haruhi, "From what Diva told me, the Bugrom Queen has to perform a ceremonial congratulations for the Supreme Commander in a very precise manner. Think of it as a really important scene in one of or SOS movie productions!"
"I-I don't have to go around fighting Yuki again, do I?" asked a nervous Mikuru, remembering what the making of the last SOS Brigade movie production was like.
"No silly...!" stated Haruhi, "For one thing, there is no fighting involved in me awarding a medal to Katsuhiko. And for another thing … Yuki isn't here."
"Yeah…" replied Mikuru a bit saddened by that fact.
"Well…" responded Haruhi, sharing Mikuru's feelings here, "I miss Yuki, Kyon, and Koizumi too. However, Katsuhiko told me that by going ahead right away with Operation: Permanent Vacation that we would be able to kill two birds with one stone. In other words, while he's going around getting everybody in El Hazard to join the SOS Brigade, he's bound to run into Yuki, Kyon, and Koizumi somewhere along the way! I just know that we can count on him, Mikuru! He hasn't let me down yet! So… don't get all sad and droopy eyed on me, Ok?"
"Ok!" replied Mikuru cheerfully, as Haruhi's words had been successful in having their desired effect, "Katsuhiko does seem like a nice and sweet guy… as much as that helmet you gave him gives me the shivers. So… yeah, I'm sure we won't be without Yuki for much longer!"
What Haruhi and Mikuru didn't know, however, was how an invisible Yuki, after having had the damage done to her by Sensei Fujisawa repaired by Shadow Tribe engineers, was back in her role of keeping close tabs on Haruhi. This mirthful moment between Haruhi and Mikuru had raised yet more fragments of lost memory into Yuki's uncommon mind. Very slight doubt began to creep ever so provisionally into Yuki's thoughts. Logically, she began to suspect that there had to be something sincere and real about what Haruhi, Mikuru, Itsuki, and myself had all said about her. Logically, Nahato was having concerns that Yuki might add two and two together as well…
"With Mikuru Asahina now reunited with Haruhi Suzumiya…" he began in question to Lord Galus, "And with them talking about Yuki the way that they are… and with Kyon and Koizumi having talked about Yuki to Yuki the way that they did… I'm a bit fearful that our conveniently amnesiac Demon God may start to figure things out even with out her memory restored, Lord Galus!"
"You're concerns are well stated, Nahato" stated Lord Galus in reply, "However, I am frankly more concerned with Nanoha than I am with Yuki."
"Nanoha has been disciplined, sire." responded Nahato, "She has been reassigned to bothersome menial tasks here in our principle headquarters for the next seventy two hours. We also performed a thorough medical and psychological evaluation on her to try to determine a means by which we can turn her into a more reliable assassin".
"Let's hope that your efforts pan out, Nahato" replied Lord Galus, "As for Yuki Nagato, then… yes, we need to find a way to move events more quickly along towards the final realization of our plans, to ensure that they are realized before Yuki might rebel against us. Hhhmmm… leaking altered or selective information to the Bugrom Empire has proved useful in the past. Perhaps doing so again would be helpful here."
"What are you planning there, Lord Galus?" asked Nahato, "Is it something that I can help with?"
"Yes, Nahato" answered Lord Galus with a smile, "I believe that it is. First, however, what information do we have on the Makoto Mizuhara contingent?"
"Their search is pointless, of course, as Yuki is already under our control" replied Nahato, "Also, sire, our base is currently concealed by our phantom technology. There is no chance of Makoto Mizuhara, Nanami Jinnai, Alielle, and Priestess Miz Mishtal finding us even though their search area does include us within it. Still, Lord Galus, with your added cybernetic power and strength, I'm confidant that you could crush these four interlopers if you attempted to do so. Why not take revenge upon them, as two of them were instrumental in our last defeat, and even in your temporary death?!"
"Makoto Mizuhara's mastery over El Hazard technology may extend to even my partly cybernetic body" answered Lord Galus, "And Nanami Jinnai can see through our innate disguises and illusions. The risk is simply too great, Nahato. However, please continue monitoring them until they give up their search efforts. After that, I have a very important mission for you."
It was truly a meaningless mission, and a thankless task, that Makoto Mizuhara and his search team were currently involved in however. They had now spent roughly a day and a half of searching through some of the northern most regions of the entire world of El Hazard. Bitter cold had forced them to wear large woolen overcoats and hoods over their regular attire, which displeased Alielle since it made Makoto look less like Princess Fatora. While Princess Fatora was actually being well fed and looked after by the bugrom Zeppo, this was not known by Alielle, and likely wouldn't have assuaged her concerns over Fatora anyway. While walking upon unforgiving icy slopes of snow and tundra, with biting winds rasping across their faces, serious debate began over whether or not to continue their search.
"Sigh" stated Nanami, as she was clutching her overcoat tight to her body while quivering from the chilly weather, "I… I think that we should head back, Makoto."
"H-head back?!" replied Makoto in stunned question, shocked to hear Nanami's suggestion, "But Nanami, we haven't found Yuki Nagato, Mikuru Asahina, or Haruhi Suzumiya yet!"
"Yeah!" quickly added in Alielle, "And we haven't found ~Fatora~ either!"
"Look… I hate to be insensitive, but…" began Nanami, "If Yuki Nagato or Haruhi Suzumiya arrived in this wintery wasteland wearing anything less than what we're wearing now, she would have quickly been frozen solid! There's simply no way that she could have travelled anywhere farther from the initial spatial anomaly point than what we have already painstakingly searched."
"So, what are you saying, Nanami?" asked Makoto in turn, "That… Yuki or Haruhi just disappeared into thin air? A frozen solid in ice person would have been noticed by us, after all!"
"I'm not saying that anybody simply disappeared, Makoto… but maybe that stinking brother of mine has already got to both of them!" answered Nanami, "And clearly… him and the bugrom aren't here!"
"Ok" responded Makoto, "I'll concede that point to you, Nanami. So… Mikuru, at least, isn't here. Fair enough. That doesn't mean that Yuki or Haruhi aren't here though!"
"Listen, Makoto…" replied Nanami a bit more forcefully, "I have a theory now that I've been thinking over for awhile, and I want you to hear me out on it!"
"I'm all ears, Nanami" responded Makoto, "Well I am as long as they don't freeze off on me, anyway. So… go ahead."
"Here's what I think" began Nanami in explanation, "The spatial anomaly that Sensei Fujisawa, Kyon, and Koizumi went to is probably near, or where, my brother is. Haruhi Suzumiya arrived in that spatial anomaly, I'm almost certain of now. There, Katsuhiko ran into her, and somehow the two actually became friends. That would fit with what Katsuhiko said to you when he made that spineless sneak attack against you back in the forests of Canbia!"
"Not this again, Nanami!" whined Makoto in turn.
"Please, Makoto, just let me finish, Ok?" asked Nanami in turn, confident that she could change Makoto's thinking here if he would only let her complete her point.
"Sigh… Ok, I'll consider what you have to say, Nanami" answered Makoto.
"Good!" responded Nanami, before continuing, "Look, I'm not necessarily saying that Haruhi is some bad person or anybody that would actually like someone like Katsuhiko, alright? Katsuhiko can be a really slime ball conniver, and so maybe he fooled Haruhi into thinking that he was actually one of the good guys here on El Hazard. To prove his supposed good intentions to Haruhi, he offered to retrieve all of her fellow missing SOS Brigade members! Hence, him and the bugrom grabbing Mikuru! And maybe he came here earlier, and grabbed a frozen Yuki Nagato too! Maybe all of the SOS Brigade members and Fatora as well, are where Sensei Fujisawa headed off to!"
"Then we need to head over there on the double!" piped up Alielle, having listened in closely to the conversation between Makoto and Nanami.
"No." interjected Miz Mishtal, "If Nanami is right… and her theory sounds good to me… than Masamichi probably arrived long ago at the spatial anomaly point that he went after. By now… he's probably managed to thwart Katsuhiko Jinnai, let Haruhi in on the truth about him, and rescued everybody that needed saving! I have no doubt that my Masamichi could get that done all by his lonesome!"
"Yeah…" added in Makoto Mizuhara, after meditating on everything that Nanami and Miz Mishtal had said, "You and Nanami are both probably right. It makes sense… it fits altogether perfectly! And I just know that Sensei Fujisawa, especially with Kyon and Koizumi with their new found powers helping him out, were more than what Jinnai and the bugrom could handle! So… they probably headed back to Florestica, and are waiting for us there!"
"Right!" chimed in Nanami, "So we should head back there too!"
"Wait!" interjected Alielle, "But… but this is all guesswork that we're doing here! We don't know any of this for certain. ~Fatora~ may still be in danger!"
"You could be right, Alielle" responded Makoto, "But, unfortunately, we're working off of very limited knowledge here, and have to speculate a little bit. At the very least, I'm inclined to think that continuing to search around here is going to be pointless. And I have faith in Sensei Fujisawa. And Kyon saved me from Katsuhiko back in Canbia; Kyon is dependable too! So… if nobody is at this spatial anomaly point, then they must have all been at the one remaining one, and Sensei Fujisawa and his team could take care of things there! In fact… by now, everybody is probably back in Florestica worried sick about us!"
"~But what if they're not?!~" asked Alielle.
"If they're not, and if we discover that, then we'll head out to the spatial anomaly point that Masamichi went to" answered Miz Mishtal, "But… Makoto and I are right, Alielle. Sensei Fujisawa is the most reliable man that I know. He even handled the super bugrom single handedly, remember? So, there are way better odds of him having defeated Jinnai than there is of Jinnai having defeated him!"
"O-Ok…" Alielle stated, finally relenting, and seeing the logic and rationale behind everybody's points, "I really hope that you're all right!"
Makoto, Nanami, and Miz Mishtal were all somewhat right, their deductions made erroneous largely by their unawareness of the involvement of the Shadow Tribe, and by Yuki Nagato having become a demon god of El Hazard under their control. Nor were they aware then, of course, of the abominable crisis that Itsuki Koizumi was currently in. While I dozed and slept through most of this fifth day on El Hazard, the team of Dr. Schtalubaugh, some of Dr. Schtalubaugh's top medical students, and Masamichi Fujisawa worked diligently to try to resolve that crisis.
"How's it going, Doc?" asked Sensei Fujisawa, of Dr. Schtalubaugh, and in reference to his efforts to cure Itsuki Koizumi, while several people had gathered around the operating table and Koizumi was currently on.
"Well… we have managed to gather a great deal of essential insight into the poison that currently courses through this young lad's veins" answered Dr. Schtalubaugh.
"What is it that you have learned about the poison, Dean Schtalubaugh?" asked Afura Mann.
"Yeah!" quickly added in Shayla Shayla, "I want to know just how putrid this poison is, so I can know how far I should go in giving that heartless Shadow Tribe a taste of their own medicine!"
"Give me a minute to explain" responded Dr. Schtalubaugh, "After taking a blood sample from this newcomer to El Hazard, I then proceeded to distill the poison out of it. Next, I ran several scans and tests on that poison. What I have concluded from the readings and results thereof is that the poison, by all rights, should have killed this afflicted man of Earth a mere thirty minutes after it had entered into his blood stream! However, this young man apparently has a most fantastic and fascinating power, gifting him with a most curious reserves immune system that has served to immensely mitigate the effects of the poison!"
"That's great news!" exclaimed Sensei Fujisawa, appearing very heartened by it, "So, he's going to pull through then, Doc?"
"Well… perhaps mitigate was too strong a word…" began Dr. Schtalubaugh in answer, "Delay may have been a more precise term to use here. I would estimate that it has caused the lethal aspect of the poison, which I hasten to distinguish from its abundant anesthetic aspect, to be slowed by a sizable factor. I would estimate that the poison's full lethal effects will not run their course for… approximately six days."
Sensei Fujisawa, Afura Mann, and Shayla Shayla took about half a minute to fully digest this information, and what it precisely meant.
"So…" began Afura Mann, thoughtfully, "That means we have six days to find a cure to the poison, and inject it into Itsuki Koizumi's blood stream."
"Correct" responded Dr. Schtalubaugh, "And… unfortunately… we have no such cure readily available to us, and, worse of all, I'm not aware of any such cure. I have never encountered a poison like this one before!"
This was truly dire news for everybody in the room, causing Sensei Fujisawa to swallow uneasily, Afura Mann to look petrified, and Shayla Shayla to become increasingly enraged in her appearance.
"That savage slaughtering Shadow Tribe!" exclaimed Shayla Shayla, with the veins on her forehead throbbing, "I'm going to roast every last one of them until they squeal like pigs!"
"That will do Itsuki Koizumi no good, Shayla…" chimed in Afura Mann, "What we need here is a cure! We must find one, Dr. Schtalubaugh!"
"I know, good Priestess" responded Dr. Schtalubaugh, "That is why I will begin to research my voluminous library of books and resource material for any possible cure for the disease!"
"I'll help you with that!" exclaimed Sensei Fujisawa, "I'm not letting this fine young student die on my watch! Let's go!"
After awaking from my sleep in the late evening, I would learn of exactly what Dr. Schtalubaugh had disclosed here. Hence, I too, would join Sensei Fujisawa and Dr. Schtalubaugh in an exhaustive search for a cure to the poison that threatened to kill Itsuki. The increasingly intense incidents of El Hazard continued to weigh heavily on me, but, worse of all, Itsuki's very life now hung in the balance. My skepticism had, in one painful way, been continually reinforced since Haruhi had marched us to the Jinnai ruins, ultimately leading to the ruins of Gannan being held in the hands of Jinnai. I continued to wonder just what would befall the SOS Brigade next…
To be continued…