DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.
In the northern part of Onishuto on Uru, three hours before breakfast (Tōkyō time: An hour before midnight on Sunday)...
"Um...excuse me, Bakaro Bolem...?!"
That pleading query came from the dark-haired twenty-something man dressed in the uniform of the Speedy Flyer, Lu'unum ("Streak"), now standing near the front gate of the small plot of land near the edge of the ruins of the old Imperial capital city wrecked in the Mother of All Fight Scenes. In a reflection of trailer parks in America, many personal scout ships were parked in this plot; this part of town was where many single Urusians who graduated from galactic middle school came to live once they felt it right to get away from the parents and start up their own life. Gazing on him now as the crunching noises of a very powerful FISS-type moving to demolish the interior of one such scoutship echoed in the background — one the citizens of Japan's most infamous town would immediately recognize — was a woman with hime-cut raven hair that flowed past her hips, blue-grey eyes peeking out of a severe face. She was dressed in a solid black jumpsuit with a dark grey spiral-like insignia on her chest; dark grey belt, boots and a dark grey-trimmed black cloak finished the ensemble. "Hai, what is it, Ha'aku-san?" she asked in a very quiet voice that belied the cosmic power she welded.
That form of address made the man born Ha'aku Asim blink in surprise. "Um...I'm sure we've never met before..." the reincarnated forest ranger from the northern polar continent on Yiziba noted.
The woman calling herself Tsuchidō Otome in honour of the twelfth of the "sister" characters in the hentai dating simulation game Colourful Kiss — on which her current Avalonian body was modelled after — smirked. "You know who calls you that, Ha'aku-san," the current incarnation of the Endless One, Bakaro ("Azriel"), coldly declared as the sounds of multiple bones being shattered echoed from inside the now-wrecked scoutship home of one Aruka Ran.
Hearing that, the Speedy Flyer blinked before his blue eyes went wide in horror. "Gift thievery...?!"
"Unintentional, but yes," Otome finished as the frightened shriek of Redet Lum's childhood "friend" echoed from inside her devastated home, that soon followed by a sharp crack indicating that the daughter of the naval infantry officer who had been Redet Invader's sponsor in the Union Congress before his death had just been slapped down by Otome's sister Yamanobe Saki, now the current incarnation of the Demon of the Slums, Takrobim ("Scrapper"). "Still, it has to be punished. Ran needs to be shocked out of her sense of privilege because Lum foolishly deferred to her too much thanks to what Ran's mother did to her every time she was punished for something Lum did. One can't allow a lur'buo lonukro to run around thinking she's at the top of the card in a fight scene. Agreed?" Here, a cold and cruel smile crossed the Endless One's face.
Ha'aku winced on hearing that vicious term being applied to Ran, even if Otome had used the western equatorial continent pronunciation meant to identify someone who was SO out of control and SO willing to shatter even the scant few social conventions existing these days on Yiziba that such a person NEVER deserved to have his/her Gift seed returned to the Great Crystal on death to allow the battle line to continue in a future generation. Before he could ask Otome what actually marked Ran in that manner, one side of the pink-haired Seishin teen's mobile home was blasted from the hull, the shattered and bleeding ushitora body of Lum's old fiancé flying out with it. A moment later, a woman with shaggy, shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair, part of that pulled away from her face by a white headband, emerged from the wrecked scoutship, a grim smile crossing her face. "Let's see you try to steal food from yatai owners in the future, you walking slab of mindless beef!"
"DIE!"
Ran's personal anti-fortification weapon discharged, sending a rocket slamming into Saki's back. Ha'aku ducked as the warhead detonated, though there was no shrapnel from the blow; as the Demon of the Slums, Yamanobe Saki was a high-end FISS with rumoured adrenaline boost capabilities similar to what Takino Tomo welded as the Wild Warrior of Passion. All that attack did do was to make the first of the "sisters" turn to stare intently at Ran with chestnut eyes that now blazed with a level of hate that the Seishin teenager had never experienced from ANYONE before. "I'm done with you," she coldly declared. "Now it's Otome's turn! Enjoy your DEATH SCENE, lur'buo lonukro!"
Ran shrieked on hearing that phrase, but didn't lunge clear of Saki's hand fast enough before she was pitched out of her scoutship to smash into the ground at Otome's feet. As a pained moan escaped the naval infantry officer's daughter, the Eternal One mirthlessly smirked as her eyes began to glow with the endless fires of the power she welded; Otome was a cosmic meta nearly at the level of Kasuga Ayumu, though she wasn't affected by the bouts of narcolepsy the native of Wakayama who was the first of Tariko Katabarbe's "pretty girls" to be Gifted endured. "Hello, Ran," she declared, her voice booming at a level that would impress any Goa'uld system lord. "Do you remember the day you CREATED all of us? When you tried yet again to continue your silly spat with Lum, then caused a RIOT in Tomobiki when you went and created THOUSANDS of CLONES of Nii-ya? When, after it got too much for you to handle, you HID in a GARBAGE CAN...then had the audacity to tell Lum, 'It's not MY problem. Maybe they'll go away if we treat the source! LET'S WIPE OUT THE REAL ONE!'"
As Ran felt her bowels vent themselves as she felt the cosmic aura of the woman who now stared at her like she was confronting a cockroach about to be squashed, Ha'aku moaned. "Oh, Crystal...! And they have the guts to say WE'RE monsters?!" he demanded.
Otome smiled. "It's a good thing that WE understand what REAL civilization is all about, Ha'aku-san," she declared as she gazed at him, winking. As the Speedy Flyer quickly noted that, she turned back to lean down and yank Ran up by her hair to bring her to the Eternal One's eye level. "Now, Ran...since your mother's not around to punish you, it's time to put you down like the RABID ANIMAL you are!" she said with a mirthless smile. "THIS time, Lum's NOT going to save you!"
A second later, a howling shriek of agony filled the early morning air...
Aboard the FPSYS Normandy, an hour later...
"Hai, Hina's here! What's wrong, Isaac-san?!"
Isaac Thomas sighed as he looked over his shoulder to see the Spirit of Innocence standing by the main door leading onto the Normandy's pilotage platform. "Hey, Hinako!" the Wise Lone Sage called out as Saeru Hinako came over to join him by the command chair. Escorting the youngest of Tariko Katabarbe's half-sisters was Hamamoto Kodachi, an anticipatory smile on the face of the reborn fourth of the Shiratsuyu-class destroyers. "A pleasure to meet you at last, Commander!"
"Poi!" the adopted native of Sasebo said as she grasped her host's hand before she sighed as she crossed her arms, taking a guarding stance close to Hinako. "Honestly though, you really got to stop asking Hinako-chan to go all over the place like that! She needs her beauty sleep!"
The native of Queens chuckled. "Well, under normal circumstances, I'd be happy to handle this potential confrontation scene myself, Commander Hamamoto. But given the specific circumstances that started this mess, it's best to have the best person available to help out in this case. And that's Hinako here," he said as he pointed to Hinako, making her blush.
"Isaac-san!" the native of Niigata moaned before she sobered. "So what's wrong?!"
"You know Ha'aku Asim, don't you?"
An eager nod answered him. "Hai! Ha'aku-san was there when Maclay-sensei got Gifted as Gospel because that meanie-meanie creep Leno Lu'umlo-san was trying to toss around Gift seeds all over the place! Margo-san sure got really, really, really mad when she found out what that baka-baka was doing!" Hinako then caught herself. "Is Ha'aku-san okay, Isaac-san?"
"He's fine. An hour ago, he witnessed the current incarnations of Azriel and Scrapper tear the snot out of Seq Rei and Aruka Ran in a mobile home park near the ruins of old Onishuto." As Hinako nodded at that while Kodachi drew out her PAA to call up names and see what sort of powers they had, the Wise Lone Sage added, "They're now in intensive care in the main hospital for the defence force. Ran's in a coma, one so deep that I doubt even Yomi could get her out of it." He gazed at her. "Here's the weird part. When Azriel put Ran down with her powers, she stated she was seeking revenge for her Nii-ya...and this had something to do with some sort of riot in Tomobiki that Lum was also involved in."
Hinako blinked. "Eh?! Ran-san hurt this person's big brother?!"
"Yes. Atop that, Ran supposedly CREATED both the new Azriel and Scrapper."
The Spirit of Innocence blinked as she considered that for a moment, then she gasped as a possible explanation came to her. "They could be two of Onii-tama's clones from that silly thing Ran-san started the same day Fujiko-chan got Gifted!" she said.
"That's impossible!"
Everyone turned around as Tariko's would-be "wife" came up to join them, she accompanied by her fiancée, cousin and friend. "Can you be honestly sure about that, Lum?" Isaac asked as he turned his chair so he could stare directly at Redet Lum.
The warlord's daughter from Onishuto nodded. "I'm more than sure, Isaac-san! When it was all over with and I destroyed the clone gun that I made and the one Ran-chan made, all the clones disappeared. No clone created in that manner can survive the destruction of the device that created it. There's no way any of them could survive, much less survive to be Gifted!"
"Unless your so-called 'most faithful' had something to do with it, koishii."
Lum's head snapped around so she could stare at Hiromi Katabarbe, then she moaned. "Tcha! That WOULD be something one of Ōgi's idiots would do!" she said. "But what happened to them?!"
"Fortunately, Ha'aku was able to get pictures," Isaac said as he tapped a control on the armrest.
Two holographic pictures were instantly displayed, showing both full-body and facial close-ups of the women who had effectively disposed of Lum's old fiancé and her oldest "friend" not an hour before. Gazing closely at those pictures, Redet Ten blinked before his eyes went wide. "Colourful Kiss!" he declared as he pointed at the pictures. "Those two are Yamanobe Saki and Tsuchidō Otome! You know them, Hiromi-onēchan! That's one of the games Ataru hates a lot!"
"EH?!" Hinako cried as Hiromi moaned and Lum winced. "You mean that etchi game where the player is allowed to do mushy stuff with his SISTERS?! EWWW!" she then groaned, looking understandably nauseated. "How could someone do THAT to them?!"
"'Great Evil', remember?"
That was a sympathetically-smiling Oyuki. Gazing at the crown princess of Neptune for a moment, the others then sighed. "So are these creeps still around?!" a shuddering Kodachi asked as she cracked her knuckles in anticipation. "If they went and made clones of Teitoku behind his back like that, they deserve to get a nightmare party dropped on their heads!"
"Hinako-chan, are you SURE you got rid of all the observers in Tomobiki?" Lum asked.
Hinako nodded. "Hai! Ayumu-chan used an Infinite Wave to make sure any of the creeps that could have still been hiding when you had that silly scene with that Memory creep were sent home! We didn't touch the Avalonians of course, not to mention that bomb in the Ginza!" She hummed as she considered that before she looked at Isaac. "Isaac-san, could Saki-chan, Otome-chan and the others have been in their birth tubes and hidden somewhere when we did that?"
The New Yorker considered that. "Strong possibility. An even stronger possibility might be that some other group who would have reason to hate the Niphentaxians might have gone and 'liberated' them. Which means they may have known of the connection between Ataru, Tariko and Yiziba. Which then certainly justifies Otome's charge of Gift thievery she declared to Ha'aku before she put Ran into a coma." He shook his head. "Mimir, have you been able to trace down anything?"
"No trace of either of them, Isaac," Mimir Shepard answered. "If they teleported in..."
"Unknown ship de-cloaking ahead of us, Doctor!" the android manning those controls called out, which made everyone tense. "Power sources indicate Yizibajohei origin. Twelve life signs aboard, all Gifted Avalonian bioroids. One other possible life sign..."
Isaac tapped controls to allow the main screen to display a strange rectangular craft with wings holding outlying warp drive pods, now orbiting Uru with her stern facing the Normandy. Gazing at it for a moment as he tried to interpret what had inspired this particular ship, Isaac then blinked a couple of times before he shook his head. "Um...Hinako, I never knew that Tariko was a fan of Mel Brooks," he said as he gazed in amusement at the Spirit of Innocence while the others on the bridge all gaped at the ten-to-one sized replica of the winged 1986 Winnebago Chieftain 33 that appeared in Spaceballs…
Minutes later...
The Normandy had slid up alongside and slightly below the new arrival, which bore the name EXCELSIOR written on the protective cover over the "spare tire" mounted on the rear of the hull above the aft bumper, where two sub-light drives had been installed to propel this flying motor home that was larger than even the biggest Terran jumbo jet through in-system jaunts. As soon as the top boarding hatch of Isaac Thomas' command ship was positioned close to where the side door would be on a real Winnebago, a retractable jetway extended from the side of the Excelsior's hull, it forming a perfectly-pressurized boarding hatch for an away party to visit the smaller ship. Once the seal was positive, Hamamoto Kodachi gently carried Saeru Hinako up and into the jetway, they accompanied by Fukushima Hatsue, Ashikaga Shikuko and Toyama Sumie. Once the four destroyer shipgirls had formed a protective line, Isaac himself floated up on an anti-gravity pad projected from his boots, he followed by Redet Lum (carrying her fiancée Hiromi Katabarbe in her arms), Redet Ten and Oyuki (who used her ice powers to create a quasi-lift to allow her to join her friends on this visit).
People soon came up to the main outer hatchway, which had a metal plate with Yizibajohei characters written on it. Gazing at the plate, Hinako blinked before she read it, translating, "'Who needs the Force when you have the Schwartz'?" She shook her head before she gazed on the man who gave her Kasa-tama. "Isaac-san, is Hina going to get a headache if she asks Isaac-san what the Schwartz actually is?"
The Wise Lone Sage was trying not to chuckle while Ten was smothering his mouth with his hands so he didn't laugh out loud in front of the Spirit of Innocence and both Hiromi and Lum looked away. "No! It's actually similar to your sister's type of humour, Hinako!"
The native of Niigata considered that before she crossed her arms. Honestly! She wasn't a kid! "Isaac-san better be sure of that!" she said before she turned and politely knocked on the doorway.
Muffled footfalls echoed from inside the Excelsior before the door unlocked and swung open, revealing a girl that seemed to be a virtual double of the third of the Fubuki-class destroyers in demeanour; she had a dull and glazed look on her face that made her seem as if she just woke up from a long period asleep. She had shaggy blonde hair in a quasi-bouffant style, amber eyes peeking out of a pretty yet not unique face. As she was in a potential battlezone, she was dressed in a battlesuit, soft beige overall with pink belt and boots. On her chest was a symbol that instantly attracted Hatsue's eye: A kotatsu of all things over a pink heart emblem! Seeing that made the adopted native of Maizuru blush in delight as she realized she was now standing close to someone who could UNDERSTAND her!
Given she had been turned into an Avalonian bioroid, it didn't take much for Kishiwada Fūka to lock in on the raven-haired destroyer-turned-VERY cute teenage girl, curiosity crossing the former clone's face.
Silence.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Then...
Hearts now shone in Fūka's amber eyes as she found herself mentally undressing Hatsue. As Hinako gaped in shock on feeling the Gifted bioroid's "time of the month" overcome her like a tsunami, Hatsue zipped up to stare intently into the eyes of the person who had just become her new admiral.
"Where?" she asked as she pointed to the symbol on Fūka's chest.
"My cabin," the sixth of the replicas of the Colourful Kiss cast declared.
ZIP!
People then blinked on seeing that both Fūka and Hatsue had VANISHED! Seeing that, Sumie gazed on Isaac. "Um, Thomas-sensei, who the heck was that, anyway?" the adopted native of Maizuru (where she had been built as THG Shimakaze) and P'ohang in South Korea (thanks to all her half-sisters seeing the industrial city on the East Sea coast of Kyŏngsangbuk-to as their adopted home town) then asked. "I thought you said I was the fastest metahuman on Yiziba!"
The Wise Lone Sage chuckled. "Honestly, Sumie, I'm as clueless as you are."
"Don't be surprised, Isaac," a strange woman's voice then hailed as footfalls heralded the arrival of the replica of the fifth of the Colourful Kiss "sisters" bearing a copy of Moroboshi Ataru's soul. "Fūka got a rather rare Gift when the idiot androids that kidnapped us from our 'masters' around the time of the Pseudo-War tried to splice some of Onii-san's DNA into our bodies. Of course, not realizing until it was WAY too late to stop things when the Giftings got underway for all of us that Onii-san had been given a battle doll body when he had been separated from Onē-san in April."
Isaac and the others looked before the New Yorker grinned. "Why didn't you name this ship Eagle 5 like in the movie?" he asked as he gave his host a knowing look.
The somewhat bookish girl — Lum was instantly reminded of Tsuruya Rumiko — with the bobcut black hair and the blue eyes behind protective goggles smirked. "Even if I'm trying to dial it back, Isaac, I do have things to be proud of," the current incarnation of the Supreme Polymath, R'buoyatodo ("Excelsior"), declared as she gave the Wise Lone Sage a knowing look while crossing her arms. "I'm taking a break from the torture scene I was running on one of the androids that wanted to learn how Onē-san and Onii-san ticked when we came by here and Saki decided to settle scores with Lum's so-called 'friend' and her old 'fiancé'." Scorn dripped from Karasawa Mitsuki's voice as she waved the others aboard her ship. "I've got some nice Ukoach mountain eta powder; the eta-ch'ukaitu I can make from it is excellent for one's sinuses." She winked at Lum while she turned to wave everyone aboard.
As Hiromi's fiancée tried not to squeal at being offered that — the red pepper powder that came from the mountainous region of Noukiios' southern main continent was worth its weight in any hard currency used anywhere in the Galactic Federation; not even Lum's father Redet Invader could afford any large shipments of Ukoach eta powder or any teas derived from that — the others were quick to respond to Mitsuki's unspoken invitation. They headed away from the main boarding area and up four decks to the primary recreation space; fortunately, there were handy lifts for those people who couldn't fly. Once in the very homely space, the visitors were quick to note that another of the transformed clones was in the room. She was in a uniform of the older style, soft brown overall with white belt and boots. On Haruhino Shizuka's chest was the manor house insignia of the Mistress of the Travel Lodge, Huokro'o ("Landlady"); her first-self had become famous for using her psychokinetic abilities to create emergency shelters for homeless refugees fleeing the larger cities on the western equatorial continent during the harsh years of the Dawn of Power. Already, cups of spicy yet sweet tea were set out on the circular table for the new guests. "Please make yourselves at home," Shizuka then bade in a voice that reminded Lum of the couple of times she had come across Tendō Kasumi during the year or so she had lived in Tomobiki. "The others are either sleeping, meditating or having some relaxation time torturing our current 'guest', so Mitsuki-chan and I will answer all your questions."
"You're too courteous, Lady Huokro'o," Oyuki said with a polite bow, which Shizuka returned. As the others took their seats and Hiromi moved to prepare Lum's tea for her, the crown princess added, "I only just wish that our fathers had been far more understanding when it came to our 'most faithful' and how far they were ultimately willing to go with your template if they ever got the chance. I pray that none of you were ever abused when you were transformed into Avalonians."
Mitsuki chuckled as she assumed her place at the head of the table. "No. After our souls were captured and transferred into these bodies — the observers who were in charge of that knew of Onii-san's revulsion concerning Colourful Kiss — they kept us in our gestation tubes for future study until they were sent home by Ayumu-chan in August. Around that time, some of the Shōzoki who were in town discovered us, then decided to find some way to use us against Onē-san."
"Gift thievery," Isaac concluded as he sipped his own tea, slightly wincing as the harsh peppery taste danced over his tongue; he wasn't used to those type of spices with things he drank.
"Exactly," Mitsuki affirmed with a nod. "Our being kept in our gestation tubes allowed us to recover the memories copied from Onē-san that were suppressed in her mind by this First District group." At the surprised looks from the others, the Supreme Polymath smirked. "I bugged the whole house when Onii-san was out of the building for a time after that whole thing with Memory, so I had a pretty good idea what was going on. By the way, Ten-chan, that was good acting."
Hearing that made Ten suddenly blush as Hinako reached over to squeeze his shoulder in a show of support. "Um, th-thanks, Mitsuki-onēsan!" the firefighter's son sputtered before he sipped his tea. "You stayed away because of what Haruhi-onēchan did, right?"
"Hai, we did," Shizuka answered for her sister as she took her own chair to Mitsuki's right, then telekinetically moved to prepare her own tea. "After all, we had no idea how Lum might react even if the idiots who had the keys to controlling that bomb were long since gone." As Lum grimly nodded, the Mistress of the Travel Lodge added, "Not only that, we didn't want to attract attention to us as we went out to locate those Shōzoki who wanted to turn us into weapons against Nii-sama and Nē-sama."
"How did you get free of them, Shirei-kan?" Shikuko asked.
As Lum and Oyuki both blinked on hearing the adopted native of Maizuru use THAT title with one of their hosts, Shizuka smiled at the second of the Ayanami-class destroyers. "They somehow acquired a sample of Nii-sama's blood, then infused it into our bodies, which effectively pre-Gifted us, then allowed us to be Gifted right away." She then shared a knowing grin with Mitsuki. "Of course, the sheer energy overload of all TWELVE of us being Gifted at once wrecked the whole building where we were being held. Fortunately, given the total level of damage Tomobiki suffered because of the Pseudo-War, it was easy to mask what happened and we made a clean getaway. Once Mitsuki-chan got us teleported back to her past-self's laboratory on Yiziba, she got to work building our mobile home while we proceeded to go find ALL the Gift thieves that were involved with us."
"Including me...?"
Eyes turned to gaze on Lum, then Mitsuki sighed. "You went out of control that day...but unlike your 'friend', you not only APOLOGIZED for what happened, but helped clean it up, Lum." As the warlord's daughter blushed at that compliment while Hiromi squeezed her hand, the Supreme Polymath added, "Given that you didn't know about the Avalonians at that time, it was understandable that you never suspected how far your 'most faithful' were willing to go when it came to Onii-san and us."
"Still, we definitely agree to Nē-sama's whole plan to keep Earth relatively clear of contact with aliens until cooler heads prevail and we don't wind up triggering a multi-planet Mother of All Fight Scenes," Shizuka added, crossing her arms. "Especially given what Hinako-chan provoked with the shipgirls that got a lot of mystical creatures and two of the Great Old Ones in on the action, not to mention those umale r'betike in America when it came to Naomi-san." As Hinako chuckled in embarrassment while rubbing the back of her head, the raven-haired girl added, "With 'Shipgirl Fever' now underway back on Earth, we all have to strongly keep in mind that there will be some hot heads on the planet who would gladly want to point a just-Gifted shipgirl towards Triton or the Galactic Taxi Company or even Uru itself to retaliate against what people have done to Earth by design and by accident."
"Aren't you coming to stay with us, Shizuka-chan?" Hinako asked.
"Eventually we will, Hinako-chan," Mitsuki affirmed. "But we have to clear things up on the Shōzoki front before we're comfortable moving to Ōmure-jima. It'll definitely take some pressure off Onii-san, especially with Benten-san now involved in what's going on with him atop all the shipgirls that want to be close to him. Atop that, we'd want to not impact on Welcome House..."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! RELEASE ME! FREE ME! YOU WILL NOT WIN, FLESH-BOT! YOU WILL SUBMIT TO MOTHER...!"
"Um, Mitsuki-chan, who's torturing our 'guest' now?" Shizuka asked.
As the Supreme Polymath blushed, the others at the table blinked in confusion...
Minutes later...
"FURUYA TOSHIHARU?!"
Everyone gaped on hearing Hiromi's shocked cry, then people gazed at her as the raven-haired teenager now strapped to a diagnostic bed wailed with both pain and outrage as his body convulsed under the sheets that gave him some sort of modesty, especially with the presence of a five year-old boy and an eight year-old girl. Gazing at him, Ten blinked before his eyes went wide. "Ah! It's the Tomato Guy!" he cried, pointing at the struggling amateur botanist.
"Darling! You know this man?!" Lum demanded as she gazed at her fiancée.
The Mistress of Morphing smirked before she walked over to lean into Furuya Toshiharu's face, making him goggle as she allowed herself to morph into a perfect replica of her brother's body, though the uniform stayed the same. As Lum blushed madly on seeing "his" manhood barely masked by that form-fitting costume, Hiromi smirked. "It was just after I was Gifted," "he" explained before morphing back into her proper body. "I was taking Onii-san's place in class for the first time when Ten-chan accidentally burned down the greenhouses where this robot and his friends tended to be a little TOO fanatical when it came to caring for their plants." She gazed at Lum as the warlord's daughter blinked, her eyes widening as memory finally clicked in. "You remember this, don't you, koishii? After they got into a fight with Ten-chan here, he and his friends decided to pretend to be the sons of Leatherface, chasing after all of the boys with chainsaws!" She then blinked as she recalled who else had been involved in that incident, then she stared at Mitsuki. "Were the others...?!"
"Sadly not, Onē-san," the Supreme Polymath answered as she adjusted her goggles, then walked around the diagnostic bed before she tapped controls on a holographic panel hovering near her "guest's" head, that making Toshiharu gargle before a silent scream escaped him. "Which is a pity! We had to watch as those three tried to turn you all into spare parts for Mister Frankenstein!" she then snarled as she glared at the struggling android while Isaac came over to scan him with the many sensors in his own goggles. "Of course, once that incident was over with, I was more than happy to remove it from the school to make sure it wouldn't hurt you or Onii-san or Onē-san ever again!" As the others nodded, Mitsuki smirked. "Now, all we have to do is wait for this one to finally answer a question that I need answered, then we can dispose of it once and for all time!"
"NEVER!" the android wailed.
"Poi! Question, Teitoku!"
Eyes locked on Kodachi, who had put up her hand. "What is it, Kodachi-chan?" Mitsuki wondered.
"Why are you calling him 'it'?" the fourth of the Shiratsuyu-class destroyers asked. "That's a boy even if he's a machine. Admiral Hatoyama insisted that boy android Captain von Tirpitz and her friends brought over from Norway be treated as a real boy! What's the difference, poi?"
"Because I'd hardly call this one a truly sentient being, Kodachi-chan," the hyper-genius of the Colourful Kiss sisters answered with a sneer as she glared down at Toshiharu, who returned that with his own scowl even if the pain he was now enduring was considerable. "To be truly seen as sentient in the Yizibajohei standard, one must be able to think on one's own, feel on one's own and have no constraints in one's choices in life. This thing doesn't have it since it's completely slaved to Mother, which also prevents it from properly thinking on its own and feeling on its own." A smirk crossed her face. "Right now, we're torturing it to make it feel more to break the bond with Mother...!"
"MOTHER WILL DESTROY YOU, FLESH-BOT!" the android shrieked.
"Oh?! Don't you know of Nē-sama's connections to Sagussa, perchance, Toshiharu-san?" Shizuka sweetly asked as she leaned into his face. "Where they developed genesis bombs?! All we have to do is drop one on Shōzoran and your precious mama will be DESTROYED!"
"NEVER!"
"Hai! It's Yukari's turn now!"
Everyone blinked, then turned to see a grinning girl looking to be about fifteen standing at the doorway to Mitsuki's laboratory. Possessing long pink hair done in waist-length twintails with an ahoge sticking out of the top of her head, she had teal blue eyes on a childish face. As the shipgirls gaped, Ten snickered on recognizing her: Misaki Yukari, the effective baby of the Colourful Kiss characters. She was dressed in a pink-hued silver uniform with dark pink belt and boots, a shower of pink snowflakes descending from her neck to her waist; noting that, Isaac realized Yukari was the current incarnation of the Morning Chill, Damte ("Frost"), a mid-level cryokinetic whose first-self arose in the southern polar continent. "Hai! Hai! It's Yukari-chan's turn!" Mitsuki said as she did a high ten with the newcomer. "We'll leave you be and let you have your fun with this thing. If it tells you who its controller is...?"
A hand went up in affirmation. "Hai! Yukari will tell Mitsuki-chan right away!"
The Supreme Polymath waved the others out of the room. Ten seemed to hesitate, but then got tugged out by Hinako. "Ah! Hinako-onētama! What are you doing?!" the firefighter's son protested.
"It's gonna be mushy stuff, Ten-chan," the Spirit of Innocence warned.
Hearing that, he perked before he blushed. "Oh...!"
Dear Diary,
Oh, Maidens! Doesn't this ever STOP?!
Ugh! Why is it that Uncle and everyone else went and allowed that mindless moron Ōgi to DO all this?!
Oh! Sorry! Forgot to tell you about Tariko-onēchan's ADOPTED sisters!
That's right! Atop twelve half-sisters in people like Hinako-onētama and the others plus one sort of mental replica in Hiromi-onēchan, Tariko-onēchan hadone adopted older sister in Moroboshi Negako-sensei, who's Earth's first true artificial intelligence; she was Imperial Special Agent #49, the same being who put a stop to a possible Japanese CIVIL WAR at the end of the Second World War by killing off all the agents of the Black Dragon Society after the late Heavenly Sovereign finally declared the war was over.
It turns out that Negako-sensei's soul would have been put into Tariko-onēchan's head before she was moved to Yiziba by her adopted mother when her old host body was about to die. However, when Tariko-onēchan got shifted to Yiziba, the old host didn't have someone to move her spirit into until Ayumu-onēchan came along and let Negako-sensei make use of a battle doll body to finally live her life.
And then Negako-sensei did something incredible.
She became fully organic WITHOUT being Gifted!
It was the first time EVER that a battle doll had done something like that!
People on Yiziba still can't understand how that happened!
So since she finally got her own life to live, Sensei went back to Earth and became the official Steward of the Moroboshi Clan, watching over things because Tariko-onēchan's grandmother Nagaiwakai-obāchanwas dying and the other sisters were just too young and living with their own families.
She's also said to be the one being on Earth who can equal that planet's Jewel Warrior, General Dean Raeburn, when it comes to martial arts.
Sensei could probably deck any of the characters from Dragonball Z without any problems...and she doesn't have super-strength unless she boosts her body with the ki energy she can use by just touching the Earth!
Given that she wasn't really allowed to develop her own emotions, Sensei is really reserved and logical, sort of like Mr. Spock in Star Trek is. It kinda scares all of Tariko-onēchan's sisters, so they don't have much to do with Sensei.
But now...
Now Tariko-onēchan has TWELVE other adopted sisters!
Maidens!
Ōgi is such an IDIOT...!
Outside Onishuto, the Invader home, breakfast...
"A CLONE GUN?!"
Redet Lum winced as her father's shout echoed throughout the house. "There was no choice, Daddy..."
Seated beside her at the kitchen table while both Redet Invader and his wife Chim glared at their child, her fiancée smiled. "Otō-san, please! Unlike the idiot who PROVOKED that mess, your daughter here was willing to clean up after herself when people confronted her about it. And the incident was not repeated after Onii-san's clones were disposed off..." She looked over to see the ten girls now relaxing in the living room enjoying spiced tea as they chatted away with Milan Domo and her team about their particular situation. "Or so we thought...!" she added before sipping her own tea.
Invader groaned. "First spacializers, now clone guns! What ELSE did you do on that planet when you were pursuing that boy, child?!" he wondered, making Lum duck again. "Maidens! It's no wonder the United Nations and its member governments were more than happy to support Tariko's overall plan to scare all the aliens off the planet when she revealed the presence of people like her there! Much that I understand how much you wanted to be rid of Rei...!"
Lum tiredly nodded as Hiromi Katabarbe squeezed her shoulders while Oyuki and Isaac Thomas shook their heads. Chim sighed before she gazed at Saeru Hinako, now seated beside Aria des Beauchamps; the second-youngest of Tariko Katabarbe's sisters had teleported over from Ōmure-jima once Hinako passed on the news concerning their new sisters. Both were enjoying lollipops the Candy Lady made with her powers, as was Redet Ten. "Aria likes having more sisters," the native of Paris declared before her lips turned down into a frown. "Aria doesn't like the fact that Yukari-chan is doing mushy stuff with that mean android that once tried to hurt Nē-ya," she added before a sniffle escaped her. "Kusun...!"
"Hina doesn't like it either," the Spirit of Innocence added. "But Onii-tama is really, really, really worried about Asuka-san's boyfriends. If we don't catch the creep that controlled those robots that Nagisa-san wrecked yesterday morning to save Asuka-san, they're gonna try to hurt Asuka-san's boyfriends, not to mention Tove-chan and Stian-chan! That would sure make Ryōko-san upset!" As her sister nodded, the native of Niigata shook her head before turning back to enjoy her lollipop.
"Don't your powers affect those type of beings, Hinako-cha?" Chim asked.
"There's not that much organic stuff in their brains for Hina's power to touch, Oba-san," Hinako confessed. "Hina could try to calm down people like Tove-chan and Stian-chan down since they have more organic stuff in their brains, but not like that creep Yukari-chan's trying to get to talk about who's in charge of those robots in Tomobiki that hurt her and..."
Everyone jolted on hearing a garbling scream echo from outside. Invader was instantly on the move towards the main door to see what was going on, he joined by all the others as they crowded around the doorway. Reaching the portal, the battlewagon warlord stopped on seeing Furuya Toshiharu now frozen in a solid block of ice that had been created by Misaki Yukari. Given his current pose, everyone was quick to realize that the android had been trying to charge into the Invader home when the Morning Chill caught him with her powers. "What happened, Yukari-chan?!" Hiromi demanded as she moved to shield Lum just in case the trapped Toshiharu somehow broke free of his containment and attacked.
As the warlord's daughter blushed as she sensed what her fiancée was doing, Yukari grinned madly as she held up a "V" sign for victory. "Hai, Nēnē! Yukari stopped the stupid robot from hurting Nēnē and her sisters! Yukari got a name, too!" she then whooped.
"You did?! Who?!" Karasawa Mitsuki demanded.
"Someone named Kamiya Hokuto!"
Lum blinked on hearing that, then she exchanged looks with Hiromi. "Darling!" the former said as she pointed out the doorway at the frozen Toshiharu. "Hokuto-san's part of our class..." She caught herself as she remembered what happened a couple days ago. "Er, I mean...!"
"Hai! Hai! Hai! I know! I know!" the Mistress of Morphing said, waving her fiancée down. Reaching into a pocket on her belt, she pulled out a PAA, tapping the crystal. "Oi! Rumiko-san! Are you there?!"
A second later, the holographic image of the Careful Planner of the Circle of Thought, currently seated in her new work area in the clock tower belfry at Tomobiki High School, clearly looking very tired. "Trying to get some sleep right now," Tsuruya Rumiko moaned as she rubbed her eyes clear before slipping her goggles over her eyes. "What is it, guys? Couldn't it wait until morning?"
Hiromi blushed. "Ah! Gomen! Gomen! We just found out about a possible Shōzoki infiltration of the school, Rumiko-san. Kamiya Hokuto from the class is a possible android, one slaved to Mother."
That made Rumiko's eyes widen for a moment before she chuckled. "Oh, relax, Hiromi-chan! The instant Hikaru-kun and Asuka-chan came by on Saturday morning, I took a scan of those androids Nagisa-chan wrecked. Instant anything slaved to that eye in the sky that runs Shōzoran tries to walk onto the grounds, he or she will be in for a very ugly and very embarrassing surprise."
"What sort of surprise would that be, Rumiko-san?" Oyuki asked.
"I'll let the bragging one there explain!" Rumiko breathed out. "Oyasumi..."
"HEY!" Mitsuki yelped.
The link was cut...
...just as loud cracking noise echoed from outside, making people spin around to see fissures appear on the ice block holding Toshiharu in place. As Yukari gaped in disbelief at the fact that the machine she had helped subdue was now breaking clear of his imprisonment, the ice finally shattered as he let out a delighted roar. "YOU LITTLE MONSTER! DIE!" the android howled as he glared at Ten, which made the firefighter's son awk as he remembered his last encounter with Toshiharu.
"Oi."
Toshiharu blinked as he stopped, then spun around...
...before he screeched in outrage at the sight of Kishiwada Fūka standing next to her sister, a big and plump tomato in hand as she took a huge bite out of it. "MURDERER!" the android screamed as he cocked back his arm, allowing it to morph into a familiar chainsaw that was mated to his elbow, which made everyone gasp in shock before Toshiharu sent it flying at his target...
KK-KKRANG!
Yukari gasped as said chainsaw instantly shattered on hitting skin the density of carbonized neutronium! The only effect it had on Fūka other than making her hair ruffle a bit was to see the tomato in her hand slit in half thanks to flying shrapnel, which sent the pieces into the ground. As Toshiharu gasped in horror on seeing such a healthy tomato destroyed like that, the sixth of the Colourful Kiss sisters blinked before she levelled a very annoyed gaze his way.
"That was my breakfast," she declared...
...before her boot-covered foot slammed into his groin!
Everyone seeing this watched as half of Toshiharu's body was CRUSHED by the sheer force of that blow, a fairly powerful sonic boom echoing from the place of impact to rattle people's ears. As the android squealed in a very good simulation of mortal agony, Fūka's hand snared his still-intact head, then she pushed that extremity towards the ground, tearing apart his body thanks to the whiplash effect his compressed abdomen forced on his torso. As the effectively dismembered bottom half of the amateur tomato farmer spiralled into the sky for a moment before dropping onto the ground to shatter into several pieces, Fūka's hand slammed his face into a rock buried in the dirt in front of her, crushing his skill and snapping his head off the neck. His now-severed thorax smashed against her limb, the impact force breaking the arms off, severed parts tumbling onto the grass nearby as torn power conduits that served as the android's equivalent of one's circulatory system spilled hot plasma onto the ripped clothes, instantly igniting them and the artificial skin underneath.
As the onlookers gaped at such a display of strength, Fūka hummed before she slouch-walked her way back to the nearby Excelsior, ignoring the slightly wary look on Yukari's face.
"I liked that tomato..." the former then said with a sigh.
Silence fell over the scene as people took that in...
Ah...ha-ha-ha...!
Wow! Fūka-anē sure is something, isn't she...?
Oh, right! Forgot to tell you about Colourful Kiss!
Like most Terran kids his age, Ataru was always interested in seeing naked girls since puberty was coming on; despite his overdoing it at times, he was pretty much no different than anyone at Tomobiki High School, even that dork Megane!
Because of that, he always collected pornographic magazines and videos and video games and the like, always doing his best to hide them from me. I realize now that he was doing that out of the fact that I was seen as too young by Japanese law to view that sort of stuff, so he was protecting me in a way. Of course, I wasn't really interested in that sort of stuff — I'm a KID, after all! — but now that I understand why Ataru acted the way he did when he had that stuff...
Oh, well. He's okay with what happened these days.
Anyhow, there were adult things Ataru WASN'T interested in. Anything that showed girls being abused or anything like that was something he never liked. He didn't really like stuff that exaggerated a person's body; Ataru was not one for the unnatural beauties, with Sakura-nēchan representing the limit of what he could tolerate when it came to how girls looked.
And he sure didn't like storylines where boys did mushy stuff with their own SISTERS!
Which is why he hates Colourful Kiss!
That's a dating simulation game whose latest edition came out in 2007. It's where the player character meets up with twelve girls — which is kinda the average when it comes to those type of games — and while being treated as their 'big brother', ends up working to do mushy stuff with them!
And Ataru learned of this game BEFORE he found out he had REAL sisters!
Unfortunately, that dork Ōgi's people in Tomobiki found out about this, then — all because they saw Ataru as the 'Great Evil' and wanted to find some way to hurt him to get him away from Lum-cha! — they captured twelve of the clones Ran made during that clone gun fight in March. Once they did that, they inserted their souls into Avalonian bioroid replicas of the Colourful Kiss characters!
Even more so, they layered programming on all of those clones to make them ACT like the characters in the show!
And when they all got Gifted thanks to the Shōzoki now in Tomobiki…!
Well, you just saw what Kishiwada Fūka-anē did to that android I had a fight with back on Earth a month ago.
Fūka-anē is the current incarnation of the Slothful Fighter, Samga; she adopted the Russian name Oblómov as her fighting name on Earth.
Fūka-anē is a top-end FISS...but because her energy levels tend to burn out fast, she ends up sleeping a lot of the time.
Wow! No wonder Hatsue-chan took to her right away!
The other FISS-type in the group is Yamanobe Saki-nēchan, who is the Demon of the Slums, Takrobim; on Earth, you'd call her Scrapper. She was the one who was involved in crippling that dork Rei earlier today.
The one who put that idiot Ran into a coma is the 'mysterious' sister of the group, Tsuchidō Otome-nēya, who's the Endless One, Bakaro...or Azriel as she calls herself on Earth. She's a cosmic meta like Ayumu-onēchan but can't affect as much as Ayumu-onēchan could, though she could keep doing things even longer than Ayumu-onēchan could. She's kinda like Chikage-anekun in a way.
Then there's the effective den mother of the group, Haruhino Shizuka-nēsama; she's the Mistress of the Travel Lodge, Huokro'o; on Earth, you call her Landlady. She's a psychokinetic who is able to build new shelters and all that for people when there's need for a dry and warm place to live. She helped her sister Karasawa Mitsuki-onēsan build their ship, which they call the Excelsior.
That's not surprising, since Mitsuki-onēsan is the hyper-genius of the group. On Yiziba, she's known as the Supreme Polymath, R'buoyatodo...which on Earth, is translated as 'Excelsior'! She's like Isaac-san and Rumiko-onēchan and Rinrin-aneki and all the other super-smart people that Tariko-onēchan can rely on to help with really technical or alien stuff.
Then there's Misaki Yukari-nēnē, who's the kid of that crowd. She's a cryokinetic known on Yiziba as the Morning Chill, Damte...or Frost as she would go by on Earth. She's like an older Hinako-onētama who never really grew up...
Outside the Invader home, an hour later...
"A motorhome?"
"Hai!" Mitsuki said as she puffed with pride.
A weary-eyed Hatoyama Rinrin blinked as she gazed at the polymath of her newly-adopted sisters, then she gazed back at the Excelsior for a moment. "A motorhome?!" she repeated.
"Hai!"
Again, the Technological Sorceress of the East stared at the Supreme Polymath for a moment before gazing on the latter's ship. "Okay, I'll bite. Why a motorhome?" the native of Ōsaka then asked as she gazed once more on Mitsuki, trying not to allow her eyebrows to twitch.
"Because motorhomes are cool," the physically older girl said. "And Spaceballs was cool, too!"
A sweat drop appeared in Rinrin's hair. "Um...yeah...!"
Standing nearby in a row were Moroboshi Ataru and the other sisters, who were all looking in confusion at the transformed clones. Of course, Shigaten Benten and a slew of shipgirls had come with their spiritual admiral and his kin to this planet to ensure they remained safe in a potential battlezone; the destroyers Saeru Hinako had helped see reborn in her "shipgirl hunts" earlier in the year had been quite vocal to the others concerning how much of a pair of monsters Seq Rei and Aruka Ran had been with Ataru back in Tomobiki. Acting as "flagship" over this bunch was Matsunaga Ryōko, who had been gaily dancing with her new "admiral" when the news came in from Uru about Mitsuki and her siblings.
"Um...I hope this isn't too much of an issue for you, Madame Sakuya," Redet Invader then mused as he gazed in sympathy at Sukeyama Sakuya.
The Healer of Men's Hearts sighed. "Well, since this is all Ōgi's fault in the first place — not to mention whoever was controlling THAT thing that Fūka-chan decided to beat down..." — here, she indicated the burnt grass nearby where Furuya Toshiharu had met his end thanks to Kishiwada Fūka; a field team of the Defence Intelligence Directorate had come by minutes before to retrieve the android's shattered body for analysis — "...blaming these girls for what happened is just plain wrong. Much that I HOPE they don't do what their namesakes in that silly game did to their Onii-sama..."
"Sakuya-chan!" Hano Wakaba snapped as she glared at her opposite number among Ataru's sisters. "That's INCEST! I wouldn't EVER think of doing that sort of thing with Nii-san!"
"I think they understand that point, Sakuya. You don't need to bother them about it anymore."
Eyes locked on Hirosaki Chikage, who was seated off to one side, next to the futon Kishiwada Fūka used to sleep under. Beside her was Tsuchidō Otome; both were enjoying some tea. Naturally, both the Slothful Fighter and the destroyer that selected her as her personal "admiral" were tucked in under the quilted blanket that covered that table snoozing away; both Fūka and Fukushima Hatsue were lying on a futon spread out over the grass to ensure their clothes didn't get dirty.
As all the shipgirls who escorted Ataru and his sisters here moaned at the sight of the third of the Fubuki-class once more slacking off and sleeping, Redet Lum took a deep breath. "You're going to have your hands full with them, Darling," she warned.
A moan escaped Ataru. "Gee, Lum! I really needed to hear that!" As his would-be wife winced at that sarcastic comment from him, he then sighed before walking over to slip his arm around Mitsuki's, making the Supreme Polymath blush. "So why don't you show me the inside of this thing, Mitsuki-chan," he then bade, making the blue-eyed raven-haired woman blush madly. "I need to make sure that this ship is nice and comfortable for you all to travel around in."
Her cheeks instantly reddened to the Don't Point That at MY Planet! stage. "Ah...h-hai, Onii-san!"
Once he made that statement, his blood sisters moved to follow him aboard, with the clones following in their wake as they paired up with the sisters. With a wave of her hand, Otome teleported herself, Chikage, Fūka, Hatsue and the kotatsu to the Slothful Fighter's quarters aboard the warp-capable mobile home. That left behind a chorus of shipgirls and Ataru's would-be lover, not to mention Lum, her fiancée, family and Oyuki, plus Isaac Thomas. "Um...you don't seem to be really surprised at this sort of thing happening, Hiromi-cha," Lum's mother Redet Chim noted as she gazed on Hiromi Katabarbe.
"According to Negako-san, it's always been the policy of our family to take in orphans who have nowhere else to go and no one around to support them, Okā-san," the Mistress of Morphing explained as Benten and the shipgirls headed over to board the Excelsior. That served as the signal for everyone else to head back into the Invader home. "Given they're spiritually Onii-san's own sisters because they were effectively cloned from him thanks to Ran-san, they have as much right to be part of the overall Moroboshi Clan as Sakuya-chan and the others do because of their blood relationship to Onii-san; in all effect, people like Mitsuki-chan are no different than myself. Or Onii-san for that matter."
"Makes one wonder who WAS the real Moroboshi Ataru in the end," Oyuki observed.
Wry chuckles escaped the others as they headed inside...
...then Chim perked on hearing an impatient buzzing noise echoed from the main communications station in the kitchen. Flying over, Lum's mother tapped controls to allow the signal to come through. "Invader residence...oh! Mrs. Mamoru!" she called out.
Lum tensed on hearing that, realizing who was calling in without even seeing the woman: Aruka Chena, Ran's mother. "Good morning, Mrs. Invader," the raven-haired Seishin forty-something woman said from her house on the colony planet of Shingetsu. "I just got a call from the Onishuto Defence Medical Institute saying my idiot daughter is in intensive care, in a COMA of all things! Not to mention the man she's pursuing as her husband." A slight sneer crossed the woman's face on her saying that. Both Chim and Invader knew that Chena didn't care at all for Seq Rei...and with both of Rei's parents dead atop his uncle having died at Jessica Wakefield's hand, there was no one of sufficient social standing to support the frontier pilot's case...that is IF he wanted to pursue Ran still and not try to claim Lum back. "What in the name of the Maidens happened to the foolish girl THIS time?!" she demanded.
Invader sighed as he joined his wife. "I'm afraid that one of your daughter's foolish stunts on Earth concerning my daughter came back to blow up in her face, Mrs. Mamoru," the captain replied.
He then explained the whole situation. Hearing what happened, Chena growled. "Oh, I knew letting that girl go to that planet would cause trouble!" she spat out. "That's all she's ever got into ever since she tried to blame things on your child like she did when they were younger. Fine! I'll have her moved to the defence medical unit here on Shingetsu to keep an eye on her. Maybe putting her into the Abbey of the Maidens here might actually TEACH that girl something called 'self-control'."
The link was then cut. As Invader and his wife shook their heads, Hiromi sighed before she gazed on her fiancée, who now had a guilty look on her face...
In the cafeteria aboard the FPSYS Normandy, a half-hour later...
"You look like someone who wants to admit some things, but isn't sure doing that will help."
Lum perked on hearing that very calm observation, then she sighed as Isaac Thomas moved to sit across from her. She had come aboard the base ship of the Wise Lone Sage after Saeru Hinako convinced her fiancée to check out the clones' ship; Oyuki and Ten accompanied Lum aboard the Normandy. "Tcha...!" the warlord's daughter breathed out. "You overheard Ran's mother when she called in to my parents about her. All the things that Ran was said to have done when we were kids..."
"You actually did," the New Yorker finished.
Lum slumped. "Tcha..."
He nodded as Ten shook his head and Oyuki squeezed Lum's shoulder in support. "As you'll know now, Ran has an Avalonian sister, Aruka Damasu," Isaac said. "She was one of the living 'gynoid targets' Ōgi tricked Nassur and Cinba into accepting as a way of protecting you four from threats like the Mikado and Gegranko, then was allowed to live on Okusei under Kyech's guardianship until Tariko got to them once Ayumu told her about them, then helped them be Gifted."
"Damasu-cha is now Yiziba's effective president," Oyuki noted. "Benten and Lum-cha told me that."
"That's correct," the Wise Lone Sage stated. "Thus Tariko, Ataru and Hiromi got a convenient window when it came to understanding your 'friend' and what drives her. Naturally, they shared their observations with myself and the other polymaths they personally know of. Much that you might have 'provoked' such punishments in the past when it comes to your 'friend', Lum, something like this was going to happen one way or another. That's the type of person Aruka Chena ultimately is."
"A child abuser," Oyuki concluded, shaking her head. "Which, given that Damasu-cha is Avalonian as well as Yizibajohei, would spell that woman's death should she ever have the ill-luck to cross Damasu-cha's path. To say anything of Hensō-cha and the others as well."
Lum cringed. "Still...!"
"Lum, Ran's fight scene was just with you," Isaac advised. "She had no right to involve Tariko or Ataru in any way, shape or form. That she did such many times basically made her as much of a berserker as some other people I happen to know of. People who effectively become rabid dogs, so blinded by revenge that they wind up not caring about how many people suffer as long as the one they want to target suffers for it most of all. In my eyes, she's not worthy of any respect or sympathy from you. Captain Itō had the rights of it yesterday when she came here to defend Ataru from both her and Rei after Benten declared her feelings for Ataru. Ran knows she's effectively a nobody here on Uru now. She can't hurt you through people you care for on Earth — who would be defenceless against her in the long term — which takes the power she has over you away from her. Hiromi can certainly defend herself and has utterly no care at all for Ran. Given what Saki and Otome did to her this morning, Ran will know now that she's the hunted and not the hunter. That's not a place a bully likes to be."
"Oh, shit! Don't tell me we got another Ryōga running around, Isaac!"
People perked on hearing that sarcastic woman's voice, then they spun around...
"Hey, stranger!" the Wise Lone Sage called out with a grin as he got up, offering his hand to the muscular yet petite redhead with the crystal blue eyes walking up to join him, dressed in a form-fitting dark blue jumpsuit with a red belt and boots, a red rearing horse's insignia on her chest. "What the hell are you doing here now, Kanami?!" he then demanded. "Don't you know you have classes tomorrow morning in Sunnydale?! Given that you're hanging out with the 'bad' crowd...!"
A snort escaped the current incarnation of the Untameable One, Muona ("Mustang"), the most powerful FISS-type ever to live on Yiziba. "Do you honestly think I give a shit what Snyder the Troll actually wants, Isaac?" Hayashi Kanami (né Saotome Ranma) wondered as she gave him a wary look. "'Sides, Kikuko's interested in having pillow scenes with the old football team, so she wants to hang out with the crowd inside the school to get up to date on American teen stuff."
The native of Queens gave the "heir" of the "Saotome-ryū" a wary look. "The 'old' football team?" he wondered as he crossed his arms while Ten flew over to float close to Kanami. "I take it these folks ran afoul of the nightlife in Sunnydale," he then concluded.
"Yeah, you could say that," she responded as she hugged the firefighter's son. "Hey, Ten-chan!"
"Kanami-niinēchan!" Ten whooped as he snuggled up against the Untameable One.
She gave him a sharp look. "Oi! What did I tell you?!"
A blush crossed the Oni child's face. "Only call you 'Kanami-nēchan'...?"
He got kissed on the forehead, which made his blush turn as deep red as ripe cherries. "Better!" she declared, which made Ten relax, then she gazed on Isaac. "'Sides, there's rumour running around the 'Dale that a new 'big bad' is moving to take up the place Angel, Dru and Spike left behind. Since I'm not really needed unless it's some real power demon — and Molly Hecht often likes to get involved in those sorts of fight scenes — I came here to get the sitch on what the lar'beke are doing, plus keep Takino in line." She then looked around. "Oh, speaking of the bonkura, where the hell is she?"
"Dirtside," Isaac declared as he gave the newcomer a look. "Please keep it off my ship, Kanami!"
"Hai, Sensei!" the transformed native of Nerima crowed back...
The island O'ahu in Hawai'i, Joint Base Pearl Harbour-Hickam Library on Mills Boulevard, a half-hour later (local time: An hour after breakfast)...
"Thank you again, Captain Owings!"
The currently quite dazed adopted native of Phoenix and Brooklyn could only nod as the group of smiling seamen in civilian clothing saluted her before heading out of the library to return to their barracks and get the pictures they were able to take on those small "cellular phones" posted on the incredible worldwide communications network called the "Internet" through something called "social media". Shaking her head as she once again found herself thanking the managers of the library that she could bring a good strong cup of coffee from the base wardroom into the building here while she moved to catch up on the seventy years of history since her sinking, Sonia Owings could only sigh before she sensed a concerned look coming her way from the Episcopal minister who had been on Ford Island when she had been reborn the previous afternoon. "What is it, Reverend?" the reborn Pennsylvania-class super-dreadnought asked before sipping her coffee.
"It's overwhelming, isn't it?" Reverend Louis Cole asked.
Thinking on that, Sonia nodded. "Yes, it is overwhelming. I was able to sense some things in the years my hull was on the bottom of the harbour, especially with all of my crew that survived being buried in the barbette of Turret Three every time they answered Taps." A sigh escaped her as she focused her eyes on the ceiling overhead for a moment. "Not just them. All the people who came to the memorial over my hull, no matter their nationality or age or anything else..."
"Well, that's a good sign," an aged voice mused from one end of the table, which made Sonia smile as she gazed on her old quartermaster, who had also been on Ford Island the previous afternoon. "Much that the idiots that started that war in Japan deserved what was coming to them, the sheer level of damage we did to that country was hideous. Especially..." Here, QM1 Wayne Hunt tried not to scowl. "Especially the damned bombs that murdered that admiral's family in the end."
Grim nods echoed from the other people seated at the table. Upon her reporting to the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Cecil Haney, within an hour of her Gifting and rescue by that mysterious shipgirl whose identity NO ONE at Pearl Harbour knew of, she had been assigned a small division's worth of guides under Reverend Cole's leadership while waiting for the proper paperwork to be pushed through and see her officially welcomed into the United States Navy Reserve. Of course, the whereabouts of her elder sister Margaret Penn — much less all the others who had been sunk at the Crossroads nuclear bomb tests in 1946 — was a mystery to COMPACFLT or any of his subordinates. Supposedly, some highly secret air force agency was directly involved with Margaret and the others, but as to who it was and where on Earth they could be based...!
"Don't worry, ma'am. It'll all straighten itself out."
Sonia smiled at the elderly Marine master gunnery sergeant who was the senior enlisted person assigned to her detail. MGySgt Thomas Beckett was from Chicago. He wouldn't be listed on the normal nominal rolls of the Marine Corps as he was part of the Magical Wing of the service set up nearly a year after Sonia's sinking in response to the rapid movements of the Greater East Asia Liberation Army under Marshal Yomigawa Tsukiko's command. A veteran of the magical side of the Wars of Liberation, he was currently part of Charlie Company, First Battalion of the 75th Marine Regiment (Magical), which normally recruited from magicals living throughout in the Midwest States. While nominally a reserve formation, the Magical Wing and its component regiments could be called up to duty at the order of either the President or the Secretary of Magic, who himself was a veteran Marine officer, having topped off as executive officer of the 72nd Marine Regiment by the time of the end of the Wars of Liberation. "I thought this Joint Specialized Warfare Command could cut through the red tape and get me back on the active nominal rolls a lot faster than even your people do it, Master Guns."
As snickers escaped the others at the table, Beckett shrugged. "Even if it is an established command in the military hierarchy, Captain, the Specialized Warfare Command is basically a manning pool of metahumans currently and recently retired from the uniformed services with just a small clerical staff running the show in San Antonio," the veteran magical naval infantryman noted, rolling his eyes.
Sonia shook her head. She knew that Fort San Antonio — now part of Joint Base San Antonio with two Air Force installations and an Army airfield — had been chosen as the site for HQJSWC due to the fact that the late leader of the Liberty Legion, Texas Ranger David Collins (also known as the Cosmic Cowboy, the Wrangler), came from that city. But to believe that America had been sorely behind Canada when it came to organizing its military metahuman formations was hard to process. Beckett had told her that within a year of Tariko Katabarbe starting her mission to get people Gifted to protect Earth, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien ordered the mobilization of the Specialized Warfare Regiment of Canada as a fighting element of the country's special operations forces, with then-Brigadier General Dean Raeburn taking charge of her old students in country for a while until the decision was made to re-mobilize the Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry to provide tactical aviation services to both the Army and CANSOFCOM, she becoming the first Master General of that corps in over thirty years.
"Sonia'll be plugged in where she can fit, you mean," Hunt's granddaughter Donna Reese mused.
"Most likely, ma'am," Beckett answered. He knew EXACTLY where Sonia would be posted, but since Stargate Command was as top secret to the no-majs as the Magical Wing of the Marine Corps, he wouldn't reveal that unless ordered to by very competent authority. Of course, he knew how to lock in no-majs into the country-wide Fidelius charm to allow people like Reverend Cole and Quartermaster Hunt into the secret of magic — which would also allow them to stay quiet about the SGC — but he hadn't been cleared by his own commanders to perform that. "It'll come soon, I'm sure..."
"Captain Owings!"
Sonia's head snapped around...
...then she got to her feet, returning the salute of the wide-eyed lance corporal that had double-timed it into the library. "Report, Marine!" the adopted native of Phoenix and Brooklyn demanded.
"Beg pardon, ma'am! But we got five shipgirls on the lawn by the community centre up the street!" the panting Marine declared. "All of them are Japanese; the kanji on their uniform chests call it out!"
"Has anyone tried to talk to them?" Reverend Cole wondered.
"My gunny's trying now, Padre," the just-arrived rifleman declared. "They either don't speak English or don't wanna speak English! But one of these girls has got hold of one of those short swords they used back in the war...and she looks like she's gonna use it on HERSELF!"
Sonia's eyes went as wide as saucers. "No...!"
"Seppuku...!" Beckett hissed.
Before someone could ask what was going on, the Chicagoan firmly grabbed the super-dreadnought by the shoulder, then he concentrated hard, instantly apparating both of them out of the library...
In front of Hickam Communities Ka Makani Community Centre, that moment...
"OH!"
"Ma'am! For God's sake, put that sword down! The war's over...!"
Shaking herself before snapping an annoyed look at Beckett for teleporting her here without warning, Sonia then looked to the north on the grassy strip separating South Avenue from Porter Avenue...
...before her jaw dropped in horror on seeing the beautiful woman in the white battlesuit with the red belt and boots, the red Oriental castle insignia on her chest topped with the white-trimmed black kanji 赤城, she now gazing tranquilly at the small crowd of armed Marines in battle dress and gaping sailors and civilians being held back by several shore patrolmen. Standing solemnly close to the reborn native of Maebashi in Gunma prefecture (where her namesake volcano was located) and Kure (where she had been built as THG Akagi) were four other women, three twenty-somethings and one older teenager. Peering intently at them, Sonia was quick to see the faint ghostly echoes of the ships they had been.
Thanks to being allowed to communicate with the sisters of that brave young man who had defended Earth from alien invasion the previous fall by her just-returned fleet mate Eleanor Livingston, Sonia also knew the human names matching up to the warships they had been.
"CAPTAIN TAKAHASHI! STOP! PUT THAT TANTŌ DOWN!"
That made the kneeling brown-haired woman's head snap over before her brown eyes locked on the reborn super-dreadnought. As others gazed her way, the reborn battlecruiser-turned-aircraft carrier that served as flagship of the Kidō Butai both at Pearl Harbour and later at Midway lightly smiled.
"The only way, Arizona-dono..." Takahashi Anna calmly declared...
...before she plunged the tantō right into her abdomen!
As many people seeing this all screamed and the gunnery sergeant in charge of the guard detail barked for a medic, MGySgt Beckett's hackles instantly rose on sensing the huge aura of the being that just teleported in when a voice called out, "Man, Red, you're the most square of the freaking lot!"
Before people could note what was happening, a flash of fire saw seven shipgirls disappear!
Seeing that happen, Beckett gaped.
That had been phoenix fire...!
What in Merlin's name is going on here...?! the veteran of the Wars of Liberation wondered...
To Be Continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
Translation list: (Battle Name) Bolem — Lady (Battle Name), the typical honorific used for a Gifted woman on Yiziba; Lur'buo lonukro — Wild animal; Eta-ch'ukaitu — Red pepper apricot tea; Eye in the sky — Yizibajohei euphemism which is normally applied to any sort of artificial sentient being being that acts as a controlling mechanism for other beings like Skynet from The Terminator series; COMPACFLT — Navy shorthand for Commander, United States Pacific Fleet.
Streak (Ha'aku Asim) first appeared in Regina Magia's omake A "Quiet" Time in Delaware.
Colourful Kiss is, as noted in the text above, a hentai dating simulation game that was created in 2003 by Giga. In effect an hentai version of Sister Princess, Colourful Kiss is pretty much as described above in Redet Ten's diary entry. Given that all the characters were about the same physical age save for Misaki Yukari, the chances of them being actual sisters (or even half-sisters) of the player character is very slim. No doubt, the Colourful Kiss "sisters" are just a group of twelve girls who elected to see the player character as their spiritual big brother even if they had intimate relations with him.
As noted before, the "clone gun fight" between Aruka Ran and Redet Lum was depicted in the Yatsura manga story "All of Me" (manga chapter #107).
This chapter introduces a slight variation of the word-encoding system I devised for Yizibajohei as described in Part One. Under normal circumstances, I would translate the kana tsu (つ) as it were written "tu", thus becoming "ko" in Yizibajohei. However, there were times that I actually made the encoding come out "kro" as note the battle name I gave to the Major Domo of the Cosmic Mage Guild, Nalokror'be (the Thaumaturge [Thérèse Peverell]). Thus, I decided to allow the tsu=kro encoding to occur for those who speak the western equatorial continental version of Yizibajohei; that continent on the World of the Forge would be the analogue of Europe before World War Two. Thus elsewhere, the phrase lur'buo lonukro ("wild animal") would be pronounced "lur'buo lonuko".
Ukoach is the analogue of Kangwŏn Province (Kangwŏn-do) in Korea, which today is split by the Demilitarized Zone separating the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from the Republic of Korea.
Furuya Toshiharu first appeared in Yatsura the anime story "Tomobiki High School Survival! Who Are the Survivors?!" (anime episode #139). He was known as "Toshi-chan" in the anime; his full name is my creation. Kamiya Hokuto, modelled somewhat after Kenshirō from Fist of the North Star, first appeared in the anime story "Kiss Courier! Darling's First Jealousy!" (anime episode #178); his family name is my invention. Note that a version of Hokuto also appeared in the anime story "Pure Fox Again! Shinobu-san is Love" (anime episode #158); he was depicted fighting and losing against Kotatsuneko. Aruka Chena first appeared in flashback scenes in the manga story "A Narrow Escape From Memory Lane" (manga chapter #59); her real name is my creation. Note that in Urusian society my stories, a married (even widowed) woman is always publicly addressed as "Mrs. (husband's given name)". Ran's Avalonian twin Aruka Damasu and Lum's Avalonian twin Redet Hensō first appeared in The Senior Year story "What Price For Love?" Gegranko first appeared in the TSY story "Oyuki's Story".
Sweet Valley High character note: Molly Hecht first appeared in the novel On The Edge (novel #40).
Master Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Beckett first appeared in The Seventh Shipgirl.
Members of the Liberty Legion and the Soldiers of Freedom that have been noted on in this story are based on characters created by one of the first truly fan-driven storylines to be published by a mainstream comic company, DC Comics' Dial "H" For Hero. These characters here are based on the 1980s incarnation of the series, first published in a special insert in Legion of Super-Heroes #272 (February 1981), then ran in Adventure Comics #479-490, then continued in New Adventures of Superboy #28-49, then finally wrapped up in DC Comics Presents #44 when the main protagonists of the story, Christopher King and Victoria Grant, had an encounter with Superman. The main creators of the second series (the first appeared in the 1960s in the House of Mystery anthology series) was writer Marv Wolfman (co-creator of the New Teen Titans) and artist Carmine Infantino.
Unlike that series, members of the Legion and the Soldiers are their own people and not just mere hour-long super-powered personas assumed by Christopher or Victoria via their "H" Dials, devices that allowed them to acquire such abilities at random. Real names, home towns and stories of the people listed here are my creation. The Wrangler (David Collins) was created by Tom Reed.