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In front of Tomobiki High School, the first Monday of May in 2012, lunchtime...
"Holy shit! What happened there?!"
"Is that a TANK in the wreckage?!"
"Didn't realize those alien lovers in Class 2-4 did THAT!"
"What happened to Lum-chan?! Is she okay?!"
"Oh! I hope Mendō-san wasn't hurt bad...!"
"Who gives a shit about him?!"
"HEY!"
Hearing the many comments from the people around him — half of whom had dressed in school uniforms even if emergency text alerts had been sent out to inform students attending the now-world's most infamous education institution that classes were cancelled for the time being — the effeminate raven-haired freshman in trendy clothing now leaning against a fence wall on the other side of the street from the main gate could only shake his head, his dark brown eyes flashing with amusement and calculation under his reading glasses. Deep within the artificial mind of the android known to his peers as Shizuma Shun and to his clientele of lovers by the nickname "Akane", calculations were swiftly made as he analyzed how the shutdown of Tomobiki High would affect not only himself but dozens upon dozens of others like him over the next while.
The good news was that the two primary threats to all Shōzoki living on Earth had just been removed from the planet. Shun had seen the crown princess of Neptune and the daughter of one of Fukunokami's leaders appear an hour ago to transport the wounded Redet Lum and Aruka Ran from the planet to more competent care elsewhere, they being accompanied by Lum's young cousin Redet Ten. With them gone — though Shun personally doubted it would be forever given Lum's maniac desire for her Terran "husband" Moroboshi Ataru — the only potential danger was from the followers of the Oni warlord's daughter descent of Phentax Two now living on Earth. However, from what Shun had observed and had learned from friends also in the know about the Church of Lum, those people seemed quite neutral towards the many Shōzoki "refugees" living on Earth.
The bad news was that with school cancelled for the time being until the building was rebuilt, the several Mother-controlled gatherer units who attended Tomobiki High now had time on their hands to help capture and enslave free-thinking units like Shun and the other freshmen AIs now attending Tomobiki High School.
But the BEST news...!
Perking as his cell phone buzzed, Shun reached into his pocket to pull the device out to see a text there:
Akane-chan,
Am free for a date. You free?
Ataru
A delighted smile crossed his face...
The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei
Ataru's Harem Omake: Bijoux Fantaisie
by Fred Herriot
The Toranoseishin Finances Tower in downtown Tomobiki, after school...
Moroboshi Ataru could only smile as he stretched himself, relaxing in the chair within his guest bedroom near the top of the fifteen-floor office complex owned by his family's small keiretsu before he picked up a pair of very advanced macro-binoculars to scan the crowd of people who were STILL gathered at the front gate of Tomobiki High, doing nothing more than gaze upon the complete, total devastation his "wife's" lightning unleashed hours before. Chuckling in amusement as he reflected on the sheer level of STUPIDITY that people in this town expressed, he sipped some tea that his "other" twin sister had made for him while be waited for his first local date after the temporary removal of Redet Lum from his life to come here so he could relax.
"You're more relaxed than you were when you woke up this morning, Onii-san," a voice called out from nearby. "Are you looking forward to helping pre-Gift Shun-kun and his friends?"
"Actually, I am," he noted as he gazed on the film replica of him created by accident back in March, then was reborn three weeks before as a bioroid whose body was moulded thanks to those of Lum's "most faithful" who didn't care for that "great evil" nonsense espoused by Ōgi ot'ndai-Zkuhsbagh. "According to Rumiko-chan, Shun's a smart kid, son of a well-to-do family — all now AIs with the parents no more than Class D drones, of course — who's comfortable working as an escort to earn some money. Since everyone who's part of Bigiotteria practices safe sex to avoid issues of being made to reveal themselves to ignorant 'masters', it shouldn't be too bad. Even more, once they're all Gifted, they'll be as safe as safe can be from guys like Kōsuke."
Moroboshi Hiromi shook her head. "Poor Kōsuke-san," the would-be school counsellor breathed out. "According to Rumiko-san, he's a pure gatherer android, as is Hokuro-san from your class last year. At least Yui-san was built as a companion gynoid before she was taken over by Mother."
"Well, they have to practice even bigger stealth now that they know I've been able to Gift some of the 'rogues' in town such as 'Amina-chan and Kira-chan," he noted, earning him a delighted and amused laugh from Hiromi. "Even more so, with Asuka-chan getting in on things thanks to Hikaru-chan and his friends at the Natural Café, we should get a whole bunch of new players for the Great Show in quick time."
"And once that stupid bomb in the Ginza is out of town..."
Ataru snorted as a surge of very welcome anger flooded his inner soul on being reminded yet again about what was ALSO going on in town behind everyone's backs. That the rimrae umale from Phentax Two had come to the "holy city" in droves once their living "goddess" moved here the previous fall was more than understandable. That some of those religious nutcases had come to fear the "great evil" so much that they were willing to place a starbase self-destruct device into one of the most earthquake-prone parts of Earth — something with the estimated equivalent explosive power of a THOUSAND Soviet RDS-220 Tsar'-bómba thermonuclear devices from 1961! — defied all forms of STUPIDITY the now-male other-half of the Trickster of the Show understood.
And people have the guts to say I'm stupid...?
"You're still bothered about Hinako-chan, aren't you?"
Hearing Hiromi's question, Ataru sighed. "Aren't you?"
Before the would-be counsellor could answer, a knock echoed from the door, making both people turn as it opened, revealing one of the secretaries working under Toranoseishin's chief of staff Yumoa Reigi. She wasn't alone. "Gomen nasai, Ataru-sama, Hiromi-sama," she declared as she waved to what appeared to be a pretty freshman girl dressed quite fashionably. "Your guest has arrived, Ataru-sama."
"Thank you," Ataru called back.
"I'll leave you two be, then," Hiromi declared as she winked at the just arrived teen escort...
The Tomobiki Ginza, an hour later...
"So who's your new boyfriend, Ataru-kun?"
Moroboshi Ataru awked on hearing that teasing question from the proprietor of Tampopo's Rāmen and Beefbowl Bar located in one private section of the town's main shopping district close to the Toranoseishin Tower, then he gave Kamekichi Tampopo a mock-annoyed look. "You're not supposed to tell, Tampopo-chan!" he hissed.
The stocky, middle-aged woman — as she looked to normal people; Ataru knew much better, of course — smirked as she winked at him before heading back behind the main counter to oversee the other customers relaxing at their chairs and tables enjoying dinner. While it was quite the crowd there — including construction engineers employed by the Mendō Clan tasked to salvage the surplus Leopard 2 main battle tank that had been wedged into Class 2-4 at the start of the weekend in preparation for the school Golden Week Festival — there were no faces familiar to the "cancer of Tomobiki" from the school itself. He knew that Tampopo was quite harsh to any of the "usual suspects" who flocked around Ataru's "wife" when they charged in here to bother him during times he wanted a private place to eat and think; he couldn't count the number of occasions that even Lum's alien friends had been concussed by the older woman's pizza-sized baker's peel before Tampopo threw them out. Hopefully, when the issue of the bomb buried nearby was dealt with, Ataru would fade from the scene and relocate somewhere more private, thus bring a sense of peace and harmony to Tampopo's.
But until that blessed day came, he had work to do...
"She is more than she seems."
Hearing that comment from his current date — who had dressed up in fashionable women's clothing that could fool next to anyone despite the prominent Adam's apple, such now masked by a pretty ascot — Ataru chuckled as he sipped tea. "She is, but I won't reveal more than that," he stated quietly; even if he had used his PAA to throw up a "notice-me-not" field around them, it was just being prudent in the long term. "It's her reveal scene as we say back home." Slipping off one of his shoes, he gently inserted same under Shizuma Shun's skirt to tap his manhood under a pair of silk panties modified for people such as he, making the young android shudder. "So tell me about yourself. I need a reveal scene here. Much that I know some things from Rumiko-chan..."
Shun shuddered. "Well, I was activated a year ago, just before the start of my template's last year at Tomobiki Junior High. Same situation as people like Kira-chan underwent; you know that story. Fortunately, my parents' replicas were programmed well enough to act as if nothing had happened..."
"They're more Class E than Class D, right?"
That caused the young escort to gape. "You know the Andrews Scale?"
"My family is friends with Andrews-hakase's old boss in the Specialized Warfare Regiment."
Shun's jaw dropped even more. "Raeburn-shihan?"
"Hai. You know about Moroboshi Negako-san, don't you?"
The surprise on the android's face then turned to reverence. "Everyone knows about the First, Ataru!"
That made Ataru smile. Effectively Earth's first true artificial intelligence, the woman now known as Moroboshi Negako — who was Ataru's true legal guardian despite what his parents Muchi and Kinshō believed — had been forged from a semi-magical massed data-bank of knowledge and memories from past masters of his family's martial arts school, Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū. Becoming fully sentient in a tragic incident in Hokkaidō in 1808, she was prevented from seizing control of her then-host by Master Hozan Hirosuke, the immortal servant of the Imperial Household. Up to eleven years ago, Negako's very essence had been carried by people who had sworn the "Promise of Bunka-gonen", vowing to find some way to allow the innocent being to live her own life.
Thanks to the first true friend of Ataru and his other-self Tariko Katabarbe, it happened.
Even more so, Negako had earned the respect of MANY on the World of the Forge when she found away to literally Gift herself into a true Nameless state by manipulating the ambient ki of Yiziba to transform the synthezoid battle doll body given to her by Kasuga Ayumu into a proper organic form.
And even if the Conservator hailed Negako as Ledo Kimr'be (the "Earth Angel") — which effectively made her Named by Yizibajohei tradition, making her the first incarnation of a new battleline — the being known to many as "Imperial Special Agent #49" hadn't resided on the third world of Kaeyu since that time, returning to Earth to present herself to the Heavenly Sovereign and become his personal assassin.
While Negako could be deceived if the circumstances allowed such — as witness what happened to Tariko Katabarbe when she had been forced to revert back to her birth-form as Moroboshi Ataru the previous September, a month before the Tag Race — she still served as Clan Steward, legal guardian of Tariko's and Ataru's half-sister Sukeyama Sakuya, not to mention Ataru himself now that he was his own person.
Of course, that hadn't been revealed yet to Ataru's birth parents.
Not until some issues forced on him by his "wife" were permanently dealt with.
"Negako-san was the only person to defeat Oba-chan during the Second World War," Ataru explained. "Strange as it sounded, once she became her own person thanks to Ayumu-chan and us..." — the use of the plural first-person pronoun indicated when he and Tariko were one single being, Shun knew — "...they became friends in a way, as much as Negako-san personally understands the concept of 'friendship'." As Shun nodded, the older man pulled back his feet on sensing a couple of people at the bar peering curiously in their direction; even if a notice-me-not field was up, Ataru was known to frequent Tampopo's and he had been seen coming in with his "date" before the privacy screen was put up. "She didn't catch onto what happened to us until after it was said and done on our birthday. Once she got the reveal scene from Ayumu-chan, she moved to locate those officials who were there when Fat Boy Invader and his daughter showed up at the house. They're all dead, by the way."
An understanding nod twitched Shun's chin. "Someone cleaned up after themselves."
"Yeah..."
"Akane-chan, you shouldn't sit with...!"
KK-KRANG!
Ataru and Shun looked towards the bar...
...then both snickered on seeing Miyake Shinobu's father Toshoba having nearly got his head caved in thanks to Tampopo's large spatula. "Toshoba-kun, hasn't all the times I've disciplined your daughter clued you into the fact that Ataru-kun comes here to get away from people sticking their noses into business that's not their own?"
...before she tensed on hearing a cold chuckle escaped the person who just walked in.
"Fu-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu! Milady, is this BOORISH fellow harassing Ataru-kun?"
As most people inside the restaurant shuddered, Tampopo gazed on the pretty brunette elder teenager with the glittering amethyst eyes. Even if she seemed quite ordinary, she seemed to project an aura of raw DANGER that made most people close to her shiver in terror on realizing this one wasn't going to let ANYONE push her around.
"Yes, he was harassing Ataru-kun, Tadako-chan. Would you be so kind?" Tampopo sweetly asked.
"Before you do that, Ojō-sama, I need to tell Oji-san something," Shun then said, standing up.
As the newcomer gracefully nodded, the freshman android escort leaned over to hiss something into Toshoba's ear, that making him turn as grey as stone before he stared wide eyed at Shun. He then rapidly nodded...before he gargled as the newcomer's black-gloved hand snared him by his jacket.
A second later, he got to experience a mortar shot flight right back to his house!
Watching the idiot disappear, Ataru sipped his tea while his finger tapped the control crystal of his PAA to drop the notice-me-not screen. "The whole family is as bipolar as my so-called 'girlfriend' herself!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
Many in the restaurant found themselves gaping in wide-eyed disbelief at that LOUD statement...
Musashino (south of Tomobiki), an hour later...
"So you were the first one Lady Yonaga was able to 'salvage', Lady Tatsuta?"
Blushing at the term "lady" given to her by the cute cross-dressing android who had wrapped an arm around her own — his other arm was wrapped around that of her new "admiral" — the reborn second of the Tenryū-class light cruisers built at the end of the Great War and sunk by a torpedo near Hachijō-jima in the spring of 1944 giggled, covering her mouth with her gloved hand. "Hai, Shun-chan. It was easy for our long-missing fleet mate to get me back up and returned to duty," the adopted native of Ikoma near Ōsaka (source point of her namesake river) and Sasebo (where she was built) affirmed. "Given Teitoku's little sister Hinako-chan was running around earlier in the month getting little Fubuki-chan's sisters back to duty, I felt something odd was..."
"HEY! MOROBOSHI! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING WITH THOSE...?!"
A croaked scream then escaped the leader of the small crowd of Butsumetsu High girls who had spotted the three people heading towards a nondescript office block not so far from the virtual fortress that was Keppeki Girl's Middle School. As Moroboshi Ataru, Shizuma Shun and their light cruiser escort turned to look...
"Fu-fu-fu-fu...! Ya scared?"
Seeing the roguish-looking tomboy with the shaggy raven hair grasping the throat of Chisa Reika — Ataru knew she was the local faction leader of the "Rosebuds", Mendō Shūtarō's fan club of floozies from Tomobiki and neighbouring towns save Nerima — with a grip of solid steel, Tadako chuckled. "Oh, Ten-..."
"Human names, Tadako-san!" Ataru hissed.
The second of the Tenryū-class quickly caught herself. "Tamiyo-chan, what are you doing with such a boorish girl like that?!" she then called out to her reborn elder sister.
Shimosuwa Tamiyo's exposed golden brown eye — she wore an eye patch over her left orb — glittered as she gazed upon her sister, then she turned to glare death at the caramel-haired girl who had the temerity to DEMAND something of the reborn THG Tenryū's new admiral in such a disrespectful tone. "So what the FUCK is your goddamned problem, lady?! Why are you bothering Ataru-kun?!"
The crowd of girls who had been with Reika — they had been walking around town to relax after another day at their school located on the border between Nishitōkyō and Musashino — shuddered, clearly conflicted at what was happening. Like others who had crushes on Japan's richest teenager, they simply LOATHED the "cancer of Tomobiki", wishing he would finally admit his love for his alien "wife" so that they stood a chance to get even closer to Ataru's class rival. However, given that Tamiyo had appeared out of NOWHERE to snare Reika and literally BOOST her right off the sidewalk with ONE HAND, moving with speed that literally defied imagination...!
A polite cough then escaped the woman Ataru's age who then walked up. "Captain Shimosuwa, is there an issue here?" a familiar voice speaking with the soft Kansai tones indicating she had been built at the Maizuru Naval Arsenal as the world's first truly "modern" destroyer then inquired.
Tamiyo glanced at a neutral-looking Fukushima Fujiko. "Commander Fukushima," she hissed out. "My sister and I were just ensuring that Moroboshi-dono wouldn't be harassed by these TRAITORS TO TENNŌ!"
As Reika's friends all screamed in horror on being called THAT, a policeman came running up. "What's going on here?!" he demanded as he glared at the older-looking teenager...
...before he blinked as the woman known now as the Blizzard of Death, Roerike ("Fubuki"), drew out a wallet to flash an identification card. Reading what was there, the patrolman snapped to attention and saluted the brown-haired teenager. "Can I be of assistance, Fukushima-kaisa?" he respectfully inquired.
Fujiko nodded as Reika's friends all winced on realizing that this young-looking woman was a part of the Maritime Self-Defence Forces. "I should apologize for my superior's actions concerning these hooligans, Junsa-san. Like myself, she and her sister here..." — here, she nodded to her right as Tadako came across the street to join them — "...were just rescued from suspended animation by Moroboshi-dono's adopted sister Moroboshi Negako-shihan. They were so eager to meet the new patriarch of his family that they forgot their identification cards." Here, she drew out a couple wallets, handing them over to her reborn fleet-mates. "Captains."
Tamiyo chuckled in embarrassment as she took her own wallet, then opened it to show her identification — even while STILL holding Reika without any effort with her other hand — showing to the policeman that she was also part of the Maritime Self-Defence Force's Special Service List, ranked a captain. He nodded on seeing that, then he turned and saluted as Tadako showed her own ID card. "Captains. I'm glad that Negako-sama was able to rescue you both. I would assume that because of the issues with the aliens that was revealed quite recently, Negako-sama's adopted brother is now under your group's protection."
"Indeed Ataru-kun is, Junsa-san," Tadako declared as she turned to gaze at Reika's peers, she making them quake by that look alone. "Given that it's Negako-shihan who is Ataru-kun's legal guardian and not his pathetic excuses for parents, the Moroboshi Clan does NOT recognize the alien monster's claim on his hand in marriage. Thus, Ataru-kun is clearly fully free to date young Akane-chan without harassment, especially by people who are clearly too IGNORANT of reality!" She hummed, noting the area off to her sister's left lead into a tree-lined alley with no sign of anyone there. "Tamiyo-chan, I think a demonstration is needed."
"I think so as well, Tadako-chan," the adopted native of Okaya near Nagano (source of her namesake river) and Yokosuka (where she was built) affirmed. "'Cuse us, Junsa-san..."
Suddenly, a MASSIVE blast of water surged out of NOWHERE to smash face-first into the Butsumetsu girls, sending them stumbling away from Ataru. As the policeman whistled at such a show of power, Fujiko smirked as she gestured, sending a blast of Arctic-level cold at the surging waves generated by the cruisers — so Gifted thanks to their being named after rivers — to literally FREEZE Reika and her friends in place. "That should make them cool off," the adopted native of Maizuru then noted as Tamiyo and Tadako gazed in approval at her.
"How long will they be frozen?" the policeman asked, clearly not bothered by what just happened; anyone that was on the JMSDF Special Service List were granted broad legal powers when it came to keeping the peace.
Given how many students from Butsumetsu High always loved to cause issues...!
Tamiyo hummed as she tasted the air. "It's a warm day. Give it a few hours. They can explain to their parents how they got soaked to the skin, then got a massive dose of frostbite."
By then, Ataru and Shun had approached the scene. "And I'll pass it on to my clan matriarch to deliver a stern message to those idiots," the former then coolly declared.
"How so, Ataru-kun?" the policeman wondered.
A knowing smirk then crossed the face of the world's most famous teenager; even if this place was a neighbouring district to Tomobiki, the locals hadn't been bothered by that "cancer of Tomobiki" nonsense. "Given that it's MY family that loans Mendō's family all the money for his paramilitary forces...!"
"Recalling loans, Sempai?" Shun asked.
"Indeed. That should shut Sword-for-Brains up real quick."
"The whole of Metropolitan Tōkyō will rejoice, Ataru-kun," the policeman noted.
Laughter escaped everyone standing there, not to mention the small crowd of people who had gathered around them to see what was going on. Given the LOW reputation of Tomobiki's resident "bad luck" school...!
An hour later...
Club Bijoux Fantaisie was like other escort establishments in Japan: A central reception lounge where guests were greeted, hallways leading to various rooms; the whole place occupied the top floor of a five-level office block near the Musashi-sakai JR station on the Chūō Main Line connecting Tōkyō and Shinjuku Stations to Shiojiri and Nagoya far off to the west. Of course, given the many loopholes Japan's prostitution laws currently possessed, the club was quite discretely masked from outside view; new patrons were normally contacted via word-of-mouth and text messages. ALSO given the unique nature of all the workers in the group basing themselves here, Escort Group Bigiotteria, there were many defences here that ensured that ANY potential threat to both the escorts and their patrons wouldn't unleash something that would hurt far too many.
While he was personally impressed by such precautions, Moroboshi Ataru vowed to get even more help here.
Given what one of his classmates — who had NOT been hurt by the incident earlier in the morning provoked by the dream demon Mujaki as well as his other-self Tariko Katabarbe — could bring to the table...
"To the return of the honourable heart of the Imperial Navy! Kampai!"
Glasses of wine were raised by the crowd of escorts and their current guests in toast to Fukushima Fujiko and the Shimosuwa sisters seated off to one side of the reception hall, such making the three shipgirls blush madly at that show of respect from the alien-built androids in the room. "You guys...!" the reborn first of the Fubuki-class fleet destroyers eeped before she gazed upon her salvager's bro-bro. "Shirei-kan...?!"
"You're as much an artificial intelligence as they, Fujiko-chan," Ataru soothed as he reached over to squeeze the brown-haired cryokinetic's shoulder. "Even more so, you treated all those you've met since you first learned of them AS human. You don't know how much being treated that way means to them."
"So we're hoping you'd bring your sisters here whenever you need to get away from Ōmure-jima, Fujiko-san."
That was the chief host of Bijoux Fantaisie, Shimanouchi Yūichi. Known to his close friends as "Yui", the androgynous older teenager — he had been built to resemble a sophomore in university — with the bobcut brown hair and the twinkling chocolate eyes could count dozens of politically powerful people as friends in case something came up to threaten him. One of them, Ataru had just learned, was none other than Miyake Shinobu's own father Toshoba; the man that Shimosuwa Tadako had so readily thrown out of Kamekichi Tampopo's establishment a couple of hours ago was a mid-level official in the Ministry of Finance whose co-workers loved to frequent Bijoux Fantaisie after a hard day's work in Kasumigaseki.
"Well...!" Fujiko then trilled as she tried not to visibly duck from Yui's knowing look.
Ataru coughed. "Mister Te'ekum?"
One of the three high school freshmen escorts sitting as a group off to one side perked. "Mister Katabarbe?" Nakasone Yū then politely inquired as he gave his master a knowing look.
"May Mister Katabarbe ask a favour of Mister Te'ekum and his friends?"
"Mister Katabarbe may do so."
"Mister Katabarbe thanks Mister Te'ekum," Ataru said as he gave Yū and the other two freshmen the other-self of the Trickster of the Show took under his wing within an hour of his return to Tomobiki just after his birthday three weeks ago. "Mister Katabarbe wishes that Messrs Te'ekum, Zuegu and Kyawwuzem would provide Miss Fubuki with the companionship she would desire this evening while Mister Katabarbe tends to Mister Akane to ensure a certain camera-in-the-sky Mister Akane still fears will not come to bother him anytime in the future."
Fujiko awked again. "Shirei-kan!"
Yū — along with the other two who formed the Unison Yell troupe within this year's iteration of Class 1-4, Asanuma Shun and Funakoshi Mahiro — grinned before they moved to gather close to the reborn first modern destroyer. As the adopted native of Maizuru sputtered in hapless protest while the three recently-Gifted androids-turned-metahumans — they had adopted the family names of three pre-Dawn of Power comedians from Lemriesem in Nesetimtuto, known collectively on that planet as the Nekrokakro (the "Three Little Dragons"), as their own battle names — moved to escort her to one room, Yui gazed fondly on the man he hoped would soon become his own master. "Why don't you leave Tenryū-dono and Tatsuta-dono to us, Goshujin-sama," the elder escort bade. "You DO have a date with Akane-chan this evening."
"Indeed I do, Sempai," Ataru declared as he gave Shun an anticipatory look...
To Be Continued...!
WRITER'S NOTES
This omake begins within a couple hours of the end of the side story Giftings, Dreams and Nightmares. This series of omake will look at the events leading up to the Mother of All Fight Scenes against the Niphentaxians and the coming together of Moroboshi Ataru with his half-sisters as noted on in Remember My Truth.
Shizuma Shun, Nakasone Yū, Asanuma Shun and Funakoshi Mahiro are based on characters created by Nemunemu; Shun himself was also one of the characters in the OVA version of the dōjinshi Otokonoko Delivery. Shimanouchi Yūichi is based on a character created by Makuro.
Translation list and source language: Bijoux Fantaisie — Fashion jewellery (French); Keiretsu — Literally "grouping of enterprises", this is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings (Japanese); Bigiotteria — Costume jewellery (Italian); Shihan — Martial arts grandmaster (Japanese); Bunka-gonen — Fifth Year of Cultural Advancement, the year name of 1808 CE (Japanese); Junsa — Police constable (Japanese); Te'ekum — Keaton (Yizibajohei); Zuegu — Lloyd (Yizibajohei); Kyawwuzem — Chaplin (Yizibajohei); Lemriesem — Analogue of Hollywood in California (Yizibajohei).
The Andrews Scale of Artificial Intelligence is my own way of indicating how intelligent and independent an android or gynoid actually is. Rated from Class A to Class G in increasing capabilities, the system was created by Professor George Andrews, whom I first mentioned in Part Nine of Book One. Shizuma Shun would be rated as Class G; in effect, he's as human as an android can be. Anyone who's rated as a Class E type of android/gynoid can act as human but really can't draw up original thoughts by themselves.
Kamekichi Tampopo was first created for my lemon fanfic The Galatea Syndrome and has appeared as a background character in my stories since. Chisa Reika (her family name is my invention) and the other members of the Rosebuds first appeared in the Yatsura anime story "Goodbye Season" (anime episode #64).
Please reference the writer's notes in Part One of Book One to read more about the shipgirls appearing here.
The honorific Kaisa literally means "naval subordinate". This is applied to field-grate officers of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force. Such officers are specifically ranked from highest to lowest as Ittō-kaisa (a navy captain), Nitō-kaisa (a navy commander) and Santō-kaisa (a navy lieutenant commander).
Kasumigaseki (literally "misty gate") is a part of Chiyoda Ward in Tōkyō where national government ministries are headquartered. The term also serves as a metronym for the Japanese government bureaucracy as a whole.