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Tomobiki High School, Tuesday, near the start of first class...
"THIS CAN'T BE!"
Everyone in Class 2-4 jolted on hearing that scream from the scion of Japan's richest family, then Fujinami Ryūnosuke looked over. "Oi! Mendō! Tone it down, huh?! We got other things to worry about than you making a whole tonne of white noise like that! 'Sides, classes are starting!"
"Yeah!" Marubeya Momoe declared. "Sit down and wait...!"
"HOW CAN YOU ALL BE CALM ABOUT THIS?! THIS IS A CALAMITY...!"
KK-KLONK!
"Shut up for once in your life!" Tsuruya Rumiko snapped after she bolted up to wing Mendō Shūtarō in the back of the head with her chair before taking her seat. Ignoring the resentful looks from people like Obinata Hiromi and Yamagata Masako like she had always done — both were quite pleasing to the eyes, but both were also air-headed idiots who didn't have a working brain cell between them both, the Careful Planner of the Circle of Thought always believed — she drew out her disguised PAA to do some scans of how the reconstruction she had her construction nanites do last night turned out; much to her private amusement, not anyone had commented on how fast things were repaired.
"What on Earth has got you into a tear now, Mendō-san?" Miyake Shinobu wondered.
"THIS!"
The newest incarnation of the Eternal Titaness of Life blinked on seeing a piece of paper nearly shoved into her face by her former boyfriend. People gazed their way before Shinobu sighed, leaning her chin on her hand. "This is the CLASS LIST, Mendō-san. What about it?" she asked.
"DON'T YOU SEE IT, SHINOBU-SAN?!" Shūtarō shrieked.
"See what?! Let me look at this...!"
The sheet of paper was snatched from his hand by Arakida Yui, who turned it over to gaze upon it, with Shirai Kōsuke leaning over her shoulder to look upon the sheet himself. After a moment, the Purifier of Youth and the Passionate Father of Sentient Machines blinked, exchanged looks, then the former handed the sheet back. "Nope! Nothing wrong with that, Mendō. So what's the problem?"
"ARE YOU BLIND, YUI-SAN! WHAT ABOUT YOU, SHIRAI?! DIDN'T YOU SEE IT?!"
"Oi! Mendō! What's going on here?!"
Everyone turned as the four members of the Stormtroopers came into the room. "There you are, Megane!" Shūtarō stated as he stormed over, holding out the class list. "Look at that!"
Megane blinked as he took the sheet in hand, then scanned through the names. "Hai, everyone..." he began before a jolt ran through his body. "What...?!" he began before his whole face seemed to twist into something that made many of the girls there roll their eyes in disgust. "WHAT IS THIS?!"
"WHAT THE HELL IS WHAT?!" Ryūnosuke snapped. "MAKE YOUR POINT!"
"ATARU'S MISSING FROM THE LIST, FUJINAMI!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"Of course he quit classes. He never did the ENTRANCE EXAM, remember?"
That was Kōsuke, who was now taking his own seat as Yui put herself down in her chair to his left. As some boys exchanged looks — even if they normally would rejoice at the departure of the "cancer of Tomobiki" as such would give them better chances with Redet Lum, they knew what the REAL reaction from the warlord's daughter might be — Megane sputtered. "Oi! Shirai! Aren't you even WORRIED?!" the leader of the Stormtroopers snapped. "Without Ataru here, Lum-san will leave Tomobiki!"
"Good riddance to her, then!" Gekasawa Kumiko declared from her spot beside her best friend's seat. As the boys tensed, the Living Omnissiah of Technology turned back to gaze on her cell phone. "Since idiots like Redet can't live anywhere else on Earth and it's obvious that Ataru's gone to live with his sisters and his fleet, the stupid alien will go home and things will finally calm down...!"
"YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH...!"
People tensed on hearing that pained scream from the direction of the west gate onto the school grounds, then Momoe looked outside. "What the hell is Aruka's problem now?" the Wise Jurist of the West asked. "She got some new disease or did Redet decide to zap her by remote?"
Others in the room went to look, then Shūtarō awked on seeing that the rose-haired native of Shingetsu was literally STOPPED at the fence line, she dancing on air as she tried to step onto the school grounds proper. As a couple people from the school's nominally useless morals committee watched in amusement on seeing Aruka Ran be nearly electrocuted to death by some form of burning electrical attack — they had been rendered effectively powerless after the arrival of the scion of Japan's richest family in January with his move to create the Secret Peer's Guidance Committee to enforce his own influence — Shūtarō shuddered. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS NOW?!" he bellowed.
"Final divine retribution on the psychopathic bitch," Momoe said before she opened her window wide. "OI! KASUMI-CHAN! SEND THAT STUPID BITCH OUT OF HERE!" she bellowed.
As the boys seeing this awked at that statement from the reborn lawyer — doing ANYTHING to rile up Lum's oldest "friend" was GUARANTEED to unleash all sorts of retribution from the quite bipolar Seishin-Urusian teenager — the raven-haired Serizawa Kasumi from Class 2-2 waved back...
...before many seeing this fainted as she drew out a huge, futuristic RIFLE out of nowhere, levelling same on the ground by Ran's feet. "KASUMI-SAN! NO!" Shūtarō screamed...
KK-KRACK!
KK-KKOOM!
A wailing shriek escaped the native of Shingetsu as the explosion from the impact of the bullet fired from the heavily modified Range Hunter assault weapon — a projectile firearm designed and built by the only organic race in the galaxy even Mother-controlled Shōzoki as a whole respected, the lizard-descent Kamahanites; they were as much keen weapon-smiths as the Zephyrites — sent Ran spiralling off in the direction of her mobile home. "Wai! Nice shot, Kasumi-sempai!" her assistant when it came to morning security, effeminate Erizawa Itsuki, squeaked as hearts appeared in his blue-grey eyes.
An amused snort escaped the transformed companion gynoid who was now the Relentless Tracker of the Central Wilderness, Patonukro Syuor'be ("Game Hunter"), she slinging her weapon over her shoulder; such was the same size as a Vietnam War-vintage M60 general purpose machine gun even if she welded it like it was a marching baton. "Pay attention, frosh!" she bade as she allowed her brother Shōzoki — naturally, both were among Moroboshi Ataru's large harem of lovers gained after his birthday in April — to gently wrap his arms around her free one. "Given what's going to happen in the next few days, you'll have to be VERY harsh to anyone who'd want to see innocent people hurt."
"Hai!"
"ONSEN-SENSEI! CONFISCATE THAT THING!"
KK-KRACK!
"Serizawa-kun has every damned right to have that weapon with her, Mendō!" Onsen Mark declared as he marched out after the scion of Japan's richest family stormed out to confront the woman who was also a member of the school's group of quite beautiful mahjong players; the gruff vice principal had decked Shūtarō with his handy shinai to shut the arrogant fool up. "What happened, Serizawa-kun?"
Itsuki let go of the older-looking woman's arm to allow her to thumb towards the main gate while others ran out of the school building to learn what was going on; naturally, the weapons nuts among the students were just gushing in awe at the sight of the very futuristic alien battle rifle. "The vampire approached the main gate, then started screaming out as some sort of energy attack began to burn her, Kōchō-sensei," the adopted native of Mito in Ibaraki Prefecture north-northeast of Tōkyō proper declared. As the vice principal once more blushed on hearing that title being applied to him, the reborn big game animal hunter from the central equatorial continent who once fought under Yiziba's most despised metahuman dictator bar none added, "Given that sort of thing could hurt anyone if she walked onto the grounds, I sent her on a drop-shot flight to her ship. Maybe it'll make sure that tiger-cow who loves to run rampant through town won't come here to eat everyone's lunches."
Suddenly, the warning bell for first classes echoed. "I have the gate!" Itsuki advised.
Everyone watched as the pretty freshman boy raced over to close and lock the main school gate. Onsen nodded before he turned to look at the people standing there. "What the HELL are you all doing out here?!" he snapped. "Get to classes! It's homeroom period right now! MOVE!"
Shūtarō jolted. "SENSEI! THAT WEAPON MUST BE CONFIS-...!"
A card was then held up before his face.
"...a United Nations special international weapons permit?" he eeped, wide-eyed.
"Hai!" Kasumi said as she stowed that card into her skirt pocket. "Amazing what Ataru and his sisters can do, ne?" she teased before unslinging her weapon. "OI! YOU IDIOTS STANDING OUT HERE GAWKING LIKE THAT! YOU HEARD KŌCHŌ-SENSEI! GET TO CLASS!"
People yelped before they raced inside, massive clouds of dust marking their passage...
At a certain house in Nerima close to Hikarigaoka Park, that moment...
"Welcome home, my daughter."
"It's good to be home, Otō-san."
Silence fell as Saotome Genma gazed upon his transformed son now living as Hayashi Kanami. Noting the nicely-styled deep crimson hair, the visibly very taunt muscles that the person born as Saotome Ranma still possessed when struck by the Jusenkyō curse that caused so much trouble since father and son-turned-daughter entered that remote valley in China over a year ago, not to mention the stylish clothing which had been clearly modified to withstand the heavy wear-and-tear being a practising martial artist would unleash, the "master" of the "Saotome-ryū" nodded before a snarky smile crossed his face. "The Hellmouth?!" he wondered. "You remember the LAST time we were there, don't you?"
A snort answered him. "The nightlife's calmed down a lot since we've got two Slayers living there, both of whom were Gifted by Tariko," the Untameable One announced. "Yeah, I know there's only supposed to be one Slayer, but a friend of mine there decided that prophecies concerning the death of someone he considered a good friend could go screw themselves, so the Slayer line got split in two."
"I thought that could never be done," Tendō Sōun mused as he and Kiryū Kazuma gazed at the just returned "heir" of Musabetsu Kakutō-ryū who was now a student of the Tensei-ryū.
"Xander's like that, Oji-san," Kanami explained, an amused smile crossing her face. "Even if he's a ki master and has even better recovery abilities than I did before I was Gifted, he's always been one who thinks WAY outside the box when dealing with the death cheaters in that town. Which is really good since we've decided to pursue a 'capture and restore' policy with vampires when chances present themselves." At the elder martial artists' looks, she sighed. "Shortly after Buffy — the first Slayer to come to Sunnydale — met Xander, his best friend Jesse was turned by an old death cheater calling himself the 'Master'. After Jesse was dusted in the first big fight Buffy got involved in, Xander used some of his blood to make a recently-turned vampire be restored to true life, effectively becoming Nameless along the way. Once that was proven to work, it became the policy of the Scooby Gang — that's what we call ourselves, by the way; it's taken from some old American anime series — and they pressed on, never turning back." She reached up to thread her hair with her fingers. "It works with vampires who are at most about six centuries old. So Buffy's boyfriend Angel can be saved..."
"Angelus?!" Sōun exclaimed.
She gazed at him, a "what can you do?" shrug rolling her shoulders. "He got his 'soul' returned to him thanks to a clan of Roma over a century ago." As her father and his best friend gaped at her, Kanami rolled her eyes. "Turns out that demon-descent vampires don't actually lose their souls once they're turned. It's just that the sheer weight of magic that goes into the turning buries their true souls so far down into their subconsciousness that even most 'experts' about those type of blood-suckers came to believe that people like them ultimately lose their souls. However, the curse that turned Liam — that's Angel's real name, by the way — back to 'normal' had a cute way of being taken off: Him experiencing real happiness. Which he did when he and Buffy had a nice pillow scene back in January!"
"Please tell me someone tried to warn her ahead of time!" Genma stated.
"Oh, someone was there, alright, Otō-san...even if she turned out to be less than USELESS before it was just too late to save the poor guy! She was hired as the damned computer teacher at the school! But she was enspelled to NOT reveal that tidbit to Buffy to ensure Angel kept 'suffering'!" Kanami made finger quotes to emphasize that word. "Once Buffy got wind of what was going on, she decided that a message had to be sent to this clan for them flubbing the revenge scene like they did! After Jenny — that's her name — got saved by the second Slayer who came to town a month later, she was chased out of Sunnydale with her tail tucked between her legs and a warning that if these fools ever showed up there again, Doctor Death would be called in to wipe that whole clan off the map!" She shrugged before taking up her cup of tea and sipping from it. "We haven't heard from them ever since."
"What about Angel himself, Kanami-chan?" Kazuma asked.
"He's still out there somewhere with his 'daughter' Drusilla and 'grandson' Spike, Aniki," she replied, making Genma and Sōun blink at such a personal form of address by her to the Yakuza wakagashira. "After Margo-san blew into town to wipe the Judge out of existence back in March, the Whirlwind's pretty much stayed under the radar, which allowed that death cheater of a mayor to move in to become the active 'big bad' in town." She thumbed her current shipgirl escort. "Of course, Chloe-chan and Brooke-chan had something to say about that once they got salvaged and Gifted last month."
Chloe Zitzewitz giggled in embarrassment, scratching the back of her head. "I had to shower for days to get all that creep's blood off me!" the reborn escort carrier muttered.
"We heard that the rest of your task group have also returned and were Gifted, Zitzewitz-taisa," Sōun noted. "Where are they now? Back over the Hellmouth?"
"Well, only Brooke is there now, sir," the adopted native of Xootsnoowú answered. "Admiral Katabarbe found the jerk that brainwashed her last fall before the aliens arrived, then shipped him to Admiral Summers to have the folks at Wolfram and Hart have at them." As both of Happōsai's students winced on hearing the name of the demon-owned law firm, Chloe added, "Turns out that the creeps that brainwashed Admiral Katabarbe want to have another demon — someone call the 'Obsidian Lord' — conquer Earth." As Sōun scowled and Genma shook his head, the pretty blonde twenty-something shrugged. "Well, the folks at Wolfram and Hart don't care for the creep, so they're getting their offices here to make things rough for the idiots in country who want him to come conquer the planet."
"Can't stand the competition," Kazuma said with a sneer.
"Let them kill each other. Good strategy," Genma noted, nodding in approval.
"How soon can Tariko-chan get to Fūka-jima to help people get Gifted?" Sōun asked.
"Not until after Friday," Kanami reported. "Just because Lum got swept off her feet earlier this morning because of her real fiancé doesn't mean that her friends like the ice queen, the space bōsōzoku and the ki vamp won't cause shit, especially with Rumiko-chan now sealing the school off from them." At the older men's surprised looks, she winked. "She's the Sage, one of the Circle of Thought."
"The people whose first-selves literally rebuilt Yiziba from the Dawn of Power," the Grand Poobah of the Golden Springs added, that making his current hosts nod in understanding.
"So..." Kanami then perked before she looked outside. "Sensei...?"
The older martial artists jolted on feeling the incredibly BIG nexus of ki energy that just touched down on the front lawn, that accompanied by another big nexus of power that was akin to Kanami's current shipgirl escort. As Genma rose to greet the newcomers, a woman's voice echoed from outside, "...need to come escort me here, Commander Yuhara. This is a private affair of the Tensei-ryū."
"Which — as a practitioner of Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū as acknowledged by Shihan-sama — concerns me, Chūjō-sama," a more neutral woman's voice announced, making Chloe rise.
Everyone else scrambled to their feet as Genma bowed deeply. "Shihan-sama, welcome to my humble home," he declared. "Please, come in. We're more than honoured by your presence."
Footfalls heralded the arrival of the grandmaster of the Tensei-ryū, she now being escorted by the reborn second of the Kagerō-class fleet destroyers. "We need to talk about some things, Saotome-dono," Dean Raeburn warned as she gave the older-looking man a knowing look.
Genma felt a fearful gulp rise up his throat...
Meanwhile, at the third Sol-Mars libration point (UTC time: Tuesday, shortly after midnight)...
"Holy fucking SHIT...!"
Rose Johnston clearly believed herself to be in Heaven now.
"I'm pleased you like what we did to your starship-self, Thoughtmistress-prime."
The adopted native of Cincinnati instantly blushed from the pretty Terran-form Avalonian construction team supervisor's addressing her by the Sagussan term for a senior teacher/professor or martial arts master, then she flustered. "Um...you don't need to be THAT formal with me, Chief...!"
"Hey, Rose!"
An embarrassed giggle escaped her, then she perked on seeing the other members of Taffy Three save Brooke Roberts and Chloe Zitzewitz come towards her and her current host. Given the vast size of this particular dockyard space within a station that was FIFTY kilometres wide and over TEN kilometres deep — not counting the upper and lower habitation towers, which extended for an extra TEN kilometres in both directions! — the ten other members of the famous Task Unit 77.4.3 from the Battle off Samar were travelling on some type of open-air hovercar that floated about half a metre above the observation deck where the hulls of United States Starships Johnston, Hoel and Heermann were docked, they on auxiliary power. There were ten other starships within this particular space, complete and ready: Six Casablanca-class star aircraft carriers and four John C. Butler-class star frigates; the term "destroyer escort" had been dropped from United States Navy nomenclature in 1975.
"Hey, guys!" Rose called back as her sisters and the others of their team hopped off the hovercar to join her and the shipwright-prime in charge of this section of the old Sagussan fleet construction station that had been shifted to the opposite point in Mars' orbit vis-à-vis the Sun from the red planet back in early June. "Can't believe they all whipped this together because Chloe and Brooke showed up in Sunnydale like that!" Here, she waved to their starship-selves floating nearby.
"Well, it's good that they did," Lily Kenworthy noted. "How goes the manning, Chief? I know people have had to keep things secret from the public because of the horn-heads and the other idiots who came in their wake, but if we have to deploy on Friday to stop them from gutting themselves on Professor Wakefield's defence network, I don't care to sail without enough crew for proper watches."
"Not to mention the complete lack of aircraft to carry," Hélène Coultier warned.
Their host smiled in reassurance. "Fortunately, our telepathy allows people to be trained very quickly in both ship's systems and on-board aircraft and shuttlecraft. There will be more than enough volunteers if you have to deploy on either Thursday or Friday, Thoughtmistress-prime."
The others nodded, then Lily waved her people over to a small lounge that gave them a very excellent view of the space-faring version of a Fletcher-class fleet destroyer. Modified from the seagoing version atop the ten-to-one increase in size, they were given four twin turrets firing 50 inch/38 calibre Mark 12S rapid-fire dual purpose weapons, all contained in Mark 38 Mod 0S mounts in superfiring pairs forward and aft. Replacing the old Number Three Mark 12 mount on the old design were two quad clusters for 400 millimetre Bofors L70S heavy auto-cannons for anti-small ship/aircraft defence. Added to that were six twin mounts: Two abreast the forward superstructure, two abreast the second funnel/particle intake and two at the aft end of the weather deck. Fourteen 200 millimetre Oerlikon 3S auto-cannons finished the projectile armament, all in single mounts on the weather deck alongside the superstructure. Since having an outer space version of depth charge launchers or racks wasn't really feasible, starships like Johnston had two quintuple launchers for 240 foot long, 17.5 foot wide anti-ship missiles forward and aft of the second funnel; the ship was built to carry TEN reloads per tube in large magazines within the main hull. Lining the lower curve of the hull were hatches for a virtual JUNGLE of short-range anti-missile chaff launchers; even if the starships had defensive force fields that could repel next to anything thrown at them, it was better being safe than sorry. A hangar deck had been placed under the weather deck aft of the new Number Four main cannon mount, possessing storage space for four folding-wing sublight-capable cargo utility shuttles known in the American military as the Northrop Grumman CV-94 Star Flare, which could also double as long-range light strike platforms when required.
"They're awesome ships," Madelyn Hoel noted.
"Yeah, they are...but it's not enough," Rose warned.
"Agreed," Lily breathed out. Given their special telepathy, the members of Taffy Three subconsciously linked their minds to each other over the last month since their Giftings. A smirk then crossed the flagship's face. "Can't let the Krauts, the Japs and the Greasers be the only ones to bring out the heavy firepower in case the horn-heads break through all the carrier strikes on them."
"We've got Eugen at least, with Long Beach holding the fort at the asteroid belt, Lily," Hélène noted. "Besides, the Japanese shipgirls, Roma and Pola are quite passionately loyal to Admiral Moroboshi. Even Brooke and Chloe defer to him when they go visit Welcome House."
"I'm more comfortable with OUR battleships being there," Lily then breathed out as she allowed certain images in her mind to be copied over to her group mates. "Rose? Maddie? Kisty?"
"Yo?"/"Yeah, Boss?"/"Si, Jefa?"
A devilish grin crossed her face. "Go wake them up!"
Hungry smiles crossed the faces of Rose and her sisters before they teleported away...
On the shore of the Delaware River across from downtown Philadelphia (local time: Monday, ninety minutes after supper)...
"Still here, Professor?"
Night had long since fallen over the Camden waterfront as Professor Arthur Crowning looked up from his slice of apple pie before he smiled at the pretty waitress gave him a knowing look. "Still wishing," the English literature instructor working at the local campus of Rutgers University stated before he gazed out the window of this quaint coffee shop at HER floating nearby.
The waitress looked herself at the VERY impressive sight docked alongside the Walt Whitman Plaza from their location within one of the buildings forming the BB&T Pavilion outdoor concert arena. Said café was always open whenever the nearby museum and memorial centred around America's most decorated big gun battleship was welcoming guests, even staying open late in the day in case there were overnight tours sleeping within one of the mess decks aboard United States Ship New Jersey.
Such had become common in recent months, Crowning mused to himself as he sipped the tea he ordered with his pie and a late meal. Ever since the quite public salvage and virtual transformation of the world's most famous warship off the coast of France in late August, people across the United States had wondered if the nation's many museum ships would take that step and become living shipgirls. While President Josiah Bartlet had publicly pleaded on several occasions for people to NOT wish such vessels "back to service", the news media had been filled with calls to AT LEAST ask the living spirits of the namesake of the Garden State and her sister Iowa-class fast battleships — not to mention two South Dakota-class battleships from World War Two, the USS North Carolina of the prior class of fast big gun ships and the centenarian super-dreadnought USS Texas — to come back to duty as what were obviously metahuman shipgirls. Given the issues concerning the Japanese town of Tomobiki alone — the residence of the young man who had literally saved all of Earth over a year prior, who had ALSO become the unofficial "admiral" of many shipgirls from that nation as well — it was just only...
What on Earth...?!
"What was that?" the waitress asked.
Crowning looked himself...
...then gaped in stunned shock on seeing three flashes of energy appear on Jersey's weather deck forward of her Number One main gun mount, such forming into three beautiful teenage girls. Peering closer — the native of Princeton was nearsighted, so his bifocals could allow him to see much detail at a distance — he then gaped on noting said girls were in the sleeveless battlesuits worn by most modern shipgirls that have appeared in public since late August, coloured white-and-blue with a smattering of red...and very recognizable stadium ring-shaped ship's crests on their upper chests.
Even better, there were hull numbers on their upper thighs: 532, 533 and 557!
"Oh, my dear God...!" Crowning hissed as he rose to run outside...
Aboard United States Ship New Jersey...
"We have people sleeping aboard, Rose!"
Hearing that from her sister who survived Samar — no doubt, Kistiñe Heermann y Brown had been able to sense warm bodies using her healing empathic abilities — Rose Johnston sighed. "Well, we don't want to risk killing them when we wake her up," the adopted native of Cincinnati warned. "Let's..."
"HALT!"
All three reborn destroyers squawked, then they spun around...
"Dear God...!"
Rose and her sisters relaxed. "We're here to wake her up, Chief," she said as the three destroyers accepted the salute from the elderly chief machinist's mate engineman — dressed in old-fashioned blue dungarees — approaching them. "Sorry for dropping in like this, but there's a situation developing with the horn-heads over in Japan right now that we need all hands on deck to deal with."
Reading the crest on the reborn eighty-sixth of the Fletcher-class destroyers, the elderly veteran scowled as he assumed an at-ease position, noticeably relaxing. "Same alien bastards that tried to steal the world's oil back last fall after that 'tag race', Commander Johnston?"
Rose blinked before she blushed, remembering her fighting uniform had the rank insignia of a naval commander on her collars. "Yeah, same idiots! Turns out that the horn-head bitch that wants to hop into Admiral Moroboshi's hammock all the time had a real fiancé from some other planet out there. She just got nicked out of Tomobiki an hour ago. From what Sammy and Gamby told us after we finally RV'd with them yesterday morning, the horn-head's pals from out there will throw a damned shit-fit over her being kidnapped like that, especially with the admiral finally walking away from that damned town to be with his sisters and his fleet." She gave him a knowing smile as she added, "No sense in letting the damned Krauts, Nips and Greasers have all the damned fun in case a fight goes down."
Johnny...?!
The chief tensed as that strong voice echoed over the weather deck. "Hey! Hey! Hey, ma'am! Calm down!" he bade, turning to face towards the decommissioned battleship's bridge. "You know the President's orders, Captain! You can't DO that, not with all the kids in the mess decks...!"
"Where, Chief?!" Madelyn Hoel demanded.
Hoel...?!
The adopted native of Hamilton near Cincinnati snapped, "Not YET, Dragon! You got civvies aboard!"
"Which mess desk, Jefe?!" Kistiñe demanded.
Heermann...?!
Realizing the situation was now spiralling out of control, the chief pointed aft. "CPOs mess on the second deck aft of Turret Three, Commander! There's a whole Sea Scout troop aboard!"
"Shit! LET'S GO!" Rose snapped.
The reborn destroyers leapt into the air, flying around the starboard superstructure of America's most decorated battleship — seeing her "salad bowl" of TWENTY medals and decorations posted under the bridge windows in the forward superstructure, Rose could only grin — to land on the quarterdeck close to the helicopter pad that once had two catapults for Chance Vought OS2U Kingfisher scout floatplanes. Finding the nearest hatch to get down to the second deck, the sisters leapt down into the ship's interior, then raced after to where the chief petty officers normally racked out. "OI! GENERAL QUARTERS! EVERYONE, OUT OF THE RACKS AND ON YOUR FEET! GET READY TO ABANDON SHIP!" Rose shrilled as she reached the galley space for the senior enlisted rates, looking in...
"IT'S NOT OUR FAULT!"
...then she blinked on seeing a small group of teenagers in the uniforms of Sea Scouts seated on the deck, a beautiful cake seated between them with candles spelling out the battleship's hull number 62. "Get your mates up, get your kit and get to the gangway!" Rose ordered. "AND BRING THAT CAKE! SHE'LL BE HUNGRY AS HELL ONCE SHE WAKES UP! DOUBLE-TIME IT, PEOPLE!"
The teenagers gaped — some of them spotting the reborn destroyer's name and hull number on her ship's crest — then they scrambled to get off the deck. "YES, MA'AM!"
Rose nodded, then sprinted aft to help her sisters...
The Stargazer Academy on Ōmure-jima, that moment (local time: Approaching two hours before lunch)...
"A-RI-RI?!"
For the members of Primary Class 2B, hearing that made them automatically tense.
"Hinako-chan?! What's wrong?!"
Saeru Hinako blinked as her wide eyes lost focus for a moment, then her brow furrowed as she concentrated. "It's another shipgirl...!" the native of Niigata hissed as her homeroom teacher, Miyazaki Nagisa, came over the kneel beside her while both of the cosmic empath's new gynoid friends from North Korea immediately reached over to hold her hands. "Pretty far away..."
The others in the class immediately moved to cluster around her to give the cosmic empath some emotional support. "Who is it, Hinako-chan?" her best friend in class, Chiba Chiemi, wondered.
A grunt answered her. "Dunno, Chiemi-chan...somewhere in America, Hina thinks..."
Both Sŏ Hina and her sister Sŏ Mina tensed. "Could it be a plot to attack Hinako-ya, Sŏnsaeng-nim?" the former asked the pretty teacher who welcomed the two visitors from Taehongdan with open arms without any sort of objection; all on Ōmure-jima were locked in on the various Fidelius charms that Hirosaki Chikage put over both the island as well as certain choice bits of information.
Hinako shook her head. "No, no, no, no, Hina-chan! Hina's passed by this one before! She's not sunk..." she muttered. "No...not New York, so it's not Helen-san or Charlotte-san...!"
"Intrepid and Growler," another of Hinako's classmates, Okazaki Ritsuko, said; she was now gazing at a list that she got from her friend's bro-bro now memorized on her cell phone which had all the human names for potential shipgirls who could be reborn from various museum ships worldwide. "Is it Ling, Hinako-chan? Or maybe Nautilus?" she then wondered, gazing at her classmate.
Another shake of the head responded. "No, it's not Grace-san or Patricia-sensei, Ritsuko-chan..." She then blinked. "Hina think she just heard the Liberty Bell ring..."
"Philadelphia!" Nagisa advised.
"Hai!" Ritsuko declared as she scrolled down the list. "Okay, we've got Olympia and Becuna..." — here, she ignored the giggles from their classmates on hearing those odd-sounding names — "...and there's United States just down the river, too. All the ships in storage at the Navy Yard are there south of downtown. Requin's in Pittsburgh and New Jersey's across the river in Camden..."
"Jersey...?!"
People tensed as they gazed once more on Hinako before her eyes went wide, glowing brightly. "OOH! ROSE-SAN NO BAKA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WAKING KATHY-SAN UP?!"
And in a flash of teleportation energies, the Spirit of Innocence was gone!
The others in the classroom stared at the empty space of air where she had been, then all turned to gaze on Ritsuko. A giggle escaped that girl as she held up her cell phone to show a name:
USS ニュー・ジャージー (第戦艦62台): アン・キャサリン・ハイド ("キャシー")
"Uh-oh...!" Chiemi eeped...
Ten time zones away, a minute later...
"ROSE-SAN! MADELYN-SAN! KISTIÑE-SENSEI! WHAT ARE YOU SILLY PEOPLE DOING?!"
Hearing that shrilled shriek from the direction of the quarterdeck, the three reborn Fletcher-class destroyers instantly froze in place while moving to evacuate the Sea Scout troupe who had been staying aboard USS New Jersey overnight, they robotically turning aft to see a very impatient-looking little sister of their Japanese friends' spiritual admiral standing there, her fists on her hips as she tapped one foot on the teak deck of America's most decorated battlewagon. "Ah...ha...hiya, Admiral Saeru!" Rose Johnston sputtered as she moved to wave politely at a VERY upset cosmic empath before she scratched the back of her head. "Um...just obeying the flagship's orders, ma'am...!"
Saeru Hinako moaned before she tensed on sensing a VERY familiar reddish-silver glow start to appear around the upper-works of the second Iowa-class fast battleship. "Oh, no...!" she groaned, slapping her forehead in growing frustration. "Bartlet-hakase isn't going to like THIS...!"
"Miss Saeru!"
As the visiting sea scouts blinked in confusion as the veteran chief engineman that Rose and her sisters met moments before came up to salute a VERY young Oriental girl in what looked like some sort of school uniform, Madelyn Hoel moaned. "Everyone off! It's starting to happen! Get on the dock!" she barked out, waving everyone to the gangways. "You're gonna watch a show!"
Hearing that command from the adopted native of Hamilton near Cincinnati, the leader of the scout troop turned to bark at his people to get them off the battleship...
...just as the LAST voice Hinako would prefer to hear right now called out:
Tene lomher'buo, Julia Mary Dewey...Denise Hayley Sturr...
Hinako groaned as she looked towards the waterfront of the City of Brotherly Love a half-kilometre to the northwest, where two columns of silvery energy were now shooting into the night sky from America's only remaining protected cruiser and a fleet submarine docked beside her. "Oh, no...!"
"Santa María me preserva...!" Kistiñe Heermann y Brown hissed before she energetically waved the other teenagers and younger children onto the gangplank. "¡AMIGOS! ¡VAMOS! ¡VAMOS!"
Fortunately, the omniversal translation function of her jumpsuit was sufficient to make the English-speaking cadet sailors understand what she was saying. As the glow from the direction of the Independence Seaport Museum across the river from Camden grew starbright, people streamed from the direction of a café in the buildings ringing the BB&T Pavilion...including a middle-aged Rutgers literature professor who was carrying a beautiful apple pie he had specially ordered for this day.
"Olympia and Becuna?!" the chief demanded.
"Hai...!"
Suddenly, an explosion of energy lit up the night sky across the Delaware...!
Nesu...OLUMPÍA!
Nesu...TANOSO!
Two streaks of human-shaped energy shot into the air, arcing over the river and the boundary between the Keystone and Garden States right for New Jersey's quarterdeck. Hinako and the chief — not to mention Rose, Madelyn and Kistiñe — watched awestruck at such a display in the evening sky before they tensed as the two just-Gifted shipgirls came down to land gingerly on the teak deck close to Number Three turret; even if the Spirit of Innocence was now quite upset over this happening so haphazardly, even she could admire such manoeuvres, especially from a protected cruiser who was well over a century old! Suddenly, out of nowhere, a ship's bell gonged three times as a ghostly voice called out with the authority of a chief boatswain's mate, "Olympia, arriving! Becuna, arriving!"
Instantly, the chief and the three Fletcher-class destroyers snapped to attention, saluting the rather sea-worn elder teenager in the white traditional jumpsuit with gold belt and red boots...not to mention the unique sleeve insignia awarded by Congress to the flag officer who had stood on her bridge during the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898 against the Spanish. Over her heart was a modern ship's crest, bearing a shield displaying the Washington state capitol building on a blue-and-green background, a beautiful floral-like display of her six decorations forming a supporting wreath, such topped by the six-star modern rank insignia of an Admiral of the Navy and with a motto scroll declaring ESTE PARATUS; the hull number assigned was CA 15. Said woman projected an aura of dignity to the people standing there gaping at her; she possessed long straight red-tinged silver hair spilling down loose to the level of her breasts. Her eyes were a beautiful chestnut brown shade that shone with frightful intelligence.
"Admiral Dewey! Welcome aboard, ma'am!" the chief called out.
Perking on hearing that address, the woman now calling herself Julia Dewey chuckled. "Hardly an admiral even if I served as flagship of one, Chief," she drawled with a lilting mix of California, Pacific Northwest and western New England denoting her place of construction (San Francisco), her namesake city (Olympia) and the birthplace of her beloved admiral (Montpelier in Vermont) respectively. "'Commodore Dewey' will do best for me, I believe. Depending on how Congress will see it..."
"Well, unless Constitution comes back, you're effectively the senior American shipgirl...!"
"Sensei!"
The chief awked on hearing Hinako's warning tone, which made Julia and her current companion gaze her way before a demure smile crossed the face of the reborn protected cruiser while the reborn eighteenth of the Tench-class fleet submarines nearly squealed in typical teenage delight on seeing someone who was just gosh-darned CUTE! "Ah! The little bright spirit who's been busy bringing sunken warships back to duty since spring!" Julia said as she came over to kneel in front of the Spirit of Innocence. "Yes...you're touched by the Forge of the Seekers as much as young Becuna here and I are, not to mention those three eager greyhounds over there." Here, she gazed on Rose, Madelyn and Kistiñe, all three instantly blushing madly on winning the notice of Olympia of all warships!
Hinako chuckled. "Um...well, Bartlet-hakase didn't want all the ships who are museums to become shipgirls just yet, Julia-sensei!" she advised, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment. "Especially since we have to deal with those dork Oni who keep bugging Onii-tama all the time!"
"The same aliens who prompted the near-theft of the world's oil supplies last fall, correct?"
"H-hai..."
"And a good majority of the Imperial Japanese Navy has returned to duty?"
"Um, h-hai..."
"And we ARE allies with Japan these days, Chief?"
The chief engineman nodded. "Aye, ma'am!"
"Then America will NOT be seen as failing her allies!" the reborn protected cruiser declared as her voice dropped to an icy tone that sent shivers down other people's spines. "NOT — ON — MY — BLOODY — WATCH!" she bit off a word at a time. "That stupid isolationism nonsense has allowed MILLIONS to suffer needlessly! If we have the power, we have the RESPONSIBILITY to use it wisely!"
"You ever thought to get into politics, ma'am?" the chief quipped.
Julia moaned. "Ugh! Spare me THAT horror!" she stated before gazing once more on the three sisters nearby. "You three! You were part of that squadron that faced down a division's worth of battleships when we went in to liberate the Phillipines in 1944, correct?" she demanded, pointing at them.
"Ah...y-yes, ma'am!" Rose snapped as she and her sisters snapped to attention, saluting her. "United States Ships Johnston, Hoel and Heermann, destroyer numbers 557, 533 and 532 of the Fletcher-class! Our flagship ordered us to come down here to wake up our fleet mate in preparation to assist Admiral Saeru's brother and sister in expelling the aliens from Earth come Friday morning Japan time, ma'am!"
"Lar'beke?!" Denise Sturr, the reborn USS Becuna, eagerly demanded.
As the chief blinked in confusion on hearing "snake leech" thanks to the omniversal translation systems worn in the shipgirls' fighting jumpsuits, Madelyn shrugged. "We're not sure about that, Becuna!" she confessed. "The Chair Force have one of the Stargates left behind on Earth; they're the ones who deal primarily with the lar'beke. 'Sides, given what the Oni and the rest of that crowd have done..."
"Never you mind, young Hoel," Julia bade, making the adopted Ohioan/Californian squeal in delight. "Aye, Jersey has told me about you three," she added, her eyes sparkling with amusement. "She feels guilty at being forced to leave you and your squadron mates alone to face this Yamato and her friends off Samar Island, even if I've tried to convince her that it was her own admiral's mistake, not hers."
"You relax, Sensei!" Hinako declared, waving her down. "Hina can make Kathy-san see that!"
Kathy...?!
"Ah! You're waking up!" Julia snapped as the faint glow around the battleship they were standing on began to increase while the night sky overhead began to glow once more thanks to a gateway being formed with the Great Crystal of Power. "Let's be off, people! Our fleet mate is reporting for duty!"
"Anyone else aboard, Sensei?!" Hinako asked as people moved to the gangway.
"Just me and the kids, ma'am!" the chief engineman replied.
The cosmic empath from Niigata stopped to reach out with her powers, then she nodded. "Hai!"
Reaching the gangway, they quickly moved to guide the more curious sea scouts down to the ground and away from anything tied to New Jersey's hull. "Shoo! Shoo!" Hinako called out as she waved the older kids on. "Kathy-san's starting to get changed! She needs room! Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!"
"¡Vamos, amigos! ¡Vamos!" Kistiñe barked.
Everyone quickly got off the gangplank just as the heavens opened up...
Tene lomher'buo, Anne Katharine Hyde...!
Oh, man! This utterly ROCKS!
Cell phones instantly came out as a certain Rutgers professor came over to kneel beside the Spirit of Innocence. "Moroboshi Ataru's sister, right?" Arthur Crowning then asked.
Hinako looked over, then she noticed what was in his hands. "Apple pie?!"
"Had it made especially for her," the English literature instructor at the local campus noted. As the native of Niigata laughed, he then gave her a knowing look. "Is it true?"
"Is what true, Sensei?"
"Your brother makes all the human names for girls like them?" Here, he nodded to the three reborn destroyers plus the reborn protected cruiser veteran of the Spanish-American War and her long-time fleet submarine companion standing close by, the two newly-Gifted shipgirls blinking in confusion as the giddy sea scouts moved to get selfies with either Julia, Denise, Rose, Madelyn or Kistiñe.
"Hai!" Hinako then winked. "Well, at the start, it wasn't actually Onii-tama."
"Oh?"
An angelic smile answered him. "Hina will tell Sensei later!" she hissed.
As Crowning blinked, the mass of Navy grey nearby glowed starbright...!
Nesu...JÈRRI-EKE!
Everyone ducked as 50,454 tonnes of steel, teak and other materials instantly collapsed, metaphysically merging into a first-generation battle doll from the seemingly endless store somewhere deep inside the heart of Yiziba itself. As the air and waters around the second of the Iowa-class battleships shifted around to fill in the sudden vacuum the disappearance of such a massive hull unleashed...
"Whoa! That was fucking something ELSE...!"
Hinako looked over. "KATHY-SAN! DON'T SWEAR! THERE ARE KIDS HERE!"
"INDEED SO, CAPTAIN HYDE!" Julia shrilled with the imperious voice of a VERY pissed flag officer. "A BATTLESHIP MUST POSSESS DIGNITY AND COMPORTMENT, ESPECIALLY IN PUBLIC!"
An embarrassed awk made everyone else look over...
"Holy SHIT!" one girl exclaimed.
"Man! She is STACKED!" one of the boys exclaimed.
"Check her abs out! You can grate cheese on those things!" another exclaimed.
As a couple girls slapped the backs of their heads for being so lewd, Hinako moaned. "Hina's so glad that she doesn't have to worry about that silly, mushy stuff!" she muttered.
As Crowning chuckled while patting her shoulders, a sudden rush of wind heralded the arrival of a VERY tall, quite muscular woman in a modern jumpsuit coloured dark blue with gold belt and boots — the reverse of her namesake state's flag colours — the hull number 62 in modern format on her upper thighs and a far more dignified ship's crest over her cleavage: The escutcheon, helm, mantling and crest of her namesake state over a base of wavy blue lines representing the sea, a wreath of blue violet flowers with leaves at the base, that wrapped with the blue-gold-red-green ribbon of the Navy Unit Commendation with one bronze star embossed on it under the shield, the flowers holding nineteen bronze stars for her service from World War Two to the Persian Gulf and two gold stars representing her being awarded the Combat Action Ribbon twice. Between the wreath and the shield was a motto scroll declaring LIBERTATIS POTENTIA, a close approximation of the motto once applied to her, "Firepower for Freedom". Possessing long strawberry blonde hair done in a thick French braid to the level of her hips, the transformed fast battleship who could now call herself Katharine "Kathy" Hyde had bright blue eyes peeking out of a very mature yet quite welcoming twenty-something woman's face.
"Hey, Professor! Is that apple pie?!" the adopted native of Camden (her adopted home city) and Philadelphia (where she was built in the Navy Yard not six kilometres away) eagerly asked.
Crowning blinked before laughter echoed over the shore side park...!
Back in a certain town within Metropolitan Tōkyō, moments later...
"Holy shit! There are three more shipgirls, guys!"
It was now a subdued morning study hall for Class 2-4, something that was quite welcome from most of the girls while many of the guys looked as if the Apocalypse was looming in the near-horizon. And while the noticeable absence of one Redet Lum hadn't been reflected on — the warlord's daughter from Uru was no doubt moving to take care of issues with this new "fiancé" that just popped out of nowhere — the fact that Lum's "husband" was PERMANENTLY gone from Tomobiki High School, with NO way to try to trace him down, was a hint that things were about to go very sour for a lot of people.
One of the boys not so bothered by this was Mifune Hideyuki. A rather handsome fellow — though not in the same league as Mendō Shūtarō, Shirai Kōsuke or Shitto Kōsuke AKA "Perm" — he had been a sort of affiliated member of the Stormtroopers since almost right after Lum arrived on Earth. However, shortly after the turn of the new school year, he took immediate interest in the then-unknown cruiser shipgirls who had moved into town to serve as a sort of "support force" to Lum's would-be husband; his favourite among them was the very pretty yet sometimes high-strung and self-conscious Kuwana Aiko, the reborn sixth of the Nagara-class light cruisers THG Abukuma. And while he had been scolded on several occasions by Aisuru Satoshi for his "disloyalty", the growing rift between Lum and Ataru ultimately diverted the attention of the core Stormtroopers away from their many affiliates in Class 2-4 and elsewhere. This allowed Hideyuki to continue crushing after Aiko as well as make for himself a huge data bank of knowledge when it came to shipgirls once the truth about Ataru's "fleet" came out in late August. Since that time, he had been signed onto multiple social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Instagram to get as many updates on the arrival of such beings worldwide.
And he just got the mother-load now!
"So what?!" Megane moaned.
"Well, this might sound a bit crazy but Ataru's kid sister Hinako is there!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
The air in the class swirled as people instantly gathered around his desk, they straining to get a good look. "Battleship New Jersey, cruiser Olympia and submarine Becuna..." Sugihara Nara, one of the still non-Gifted girls in the class, read out before she gaped. "Hey! That's in PHILADELPHIA! How on Earth did Hinako-chan get all the way out THERE?! She should be in SCHOOL now!"
"No...!"
Heads snapped over. "Mendō-san!" Obinata Hiromi called out as she moved to steady the now-shuddering Shūtarō. "What's wrong?! You look like you just saw a ghost!"
The scion of Japan's richest family gulped. "Tariko-san..."
People blinked. "Who's Tariko?!" Hideyuki asked.
A gargle escaped the other man. "Moroboshi's...TWIN SISTER...!"
People blinked. "I thought he had a twin BROTHER, Mendō," Megane stated.
Right now, the richest member of Class 2-4 looked like he was about to die of a very severe apoplectic fit. "HE HAS A TWIN SISTER, TOO!" he then shrilled. "EVEN WORSE, SHE'S TUYUKI! AND TENNŌ JUST MADE HER HIS SHŌGUN TO DRIVE LUM-SAN AND ALL THE ALIENS OFF THE PLANET!"
Shūtarō dropped to his knees as a panicked moan escaped him. People watched this, then Megane jolted as the meat of that message sank in. "Tuyuki, you say...?!" the leader of the Stormtroopers then exclaimed as he bolted up, slamming his fists onto his desk. "You mean the monster that nearly SLAUGHTERED Lum-san's whole RACE almost three centuries ago, Mendō?!"
"HAI! AND SHE'S BEEN RECRUITING PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER EARTH TO BECOME THEM!"
Almost all the boys cried out; they remembered well seeing the complete wreckage of old Onishuto at the hands of the Children of the Forge when they were forced to recuperate from Ataru's aborted wedding to Lum in April. "No...!" Daremo Hiroyuki croaked. "That means all of Ataru's sisters have to be THEM as well! How could Hinako-chan get to AMERICA to be there for the shipgirls...?!"
His voice trailed off as he gazed wide-eyed at his group leader. "THEY'RE GIFTED, TOO!" both men exclaimed as they pointed at the other, making many other boys scream in disbelief.
"Well, that's a freaking relief!"
Heads snapped over to allow people to gaze on who just spoke. "Fujinami!" Megane snarled as he slammed his fists again into his desk. "How could you say something insane like THAT?! You know what sort of damage those monsters could unleash! Do you want to see that happen HERE?!"
A snorted laugh escaped her. "All you give a shit about is Redet, Aisuru!" the Huntress of the Wild stated as she looked contemptuously over her shoulder at him. "Never stopping to use whatever brain you've got to think about what SHE'S done since she came here last fall! Did you forget all this time the Oni first came here last fall to INVADE us?! I'm glad Tariko's moving to kick them off the planet right now! With all the CRAP we've had to put up to because of Redet, Aruka, Seq, Shigaten and Fuyujo all the time — not to mention all the OTHER morons that came in their wake — I'd rather prefer a good FIGHT SCENE in one of the big habitations back on Yiziba than deal with all that horse crap in the midst of a tonne of innocent bystanders who NEVER ASKED for all that shit in the first place!"
Stunned silence fell as many of the boys stared in horrified disbelief at her while many of the girls — regardless of how they felt for Shūtarō — gaped in wide-eyed hope at one of their class' popular students. "Need to work on your reveal scenes, Ryūnosuke," Tsuruya Rumiko muttered.
"Ryūnosuke-kun...you're GIFTED?!" Nara's best friend Nishihara Ikue squealed.
The "heir" of Hamachaya smiled as she stood up, holding up one hand covered in the new finger-less gloves that her old girlfriend gave her last evening...
PSSSHHEEW!
The boys screamed as the girls squealed with delight on seeing half-metre energy claws deploy from Ryūnosuke's fingertips. "NO!" Shūtarō howled as he moved to grab the woman's free hand to use his charm on her. "YOU MUST REJECT MOROBOSHI'S EVIL PLOT, RYŪNOSUKE-SAN...!"
KK-KRACK!
A simple backhand slap sent the scion of Japan's richest family head-first into the blackboard! That was more than enough to have someone storm over from Class 2-7. "WHAT'S GOING ON...?!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"Um...how did you get THAT ability, Ryūnosuke-san?"
The Huntress of the Wild sheathed her energy blades. "Courtesy of my first TRUE friend, Sensei," she calmly answered as she gave Sakurambō Sakura a knowing look. "She tried to save me from Oyaji on my sixth birthday 'cause she hates any form of CHILD ABUSE, but lost track of me because her REAL mother was dying then. She didn't catch up until last night since she didn't want to be distracted by Redet and her dolts, risking a worldwide HOSTAGE SCENE until it was the right moment to send those alien umale packing." Here, a hungry smile crossed her face. "In body bags if necessary!"
Many boys in the class whimpered as the school nurse/Shintō shrine maiden blinked. "Does that explain why that ghost that's been haunting you for the last month is now a GIRL of all things?!"
"And Gifted, too!" the "heir" of Hamachaya affirmed while people's jaws dropped in shock on hearing what just happened to Shiowatari Nagisa. "By the way, Sensei, word of friendly warning: That's MY girlfriend you keep bugging! And she's a fucking high-end FISS-type, able to duel Superman if he ever shows up in our dimension!" As the boys shrieked, she moved to take her seat. "So cut it out with the ofuda and all that! Doctor Death's okay with it since Tariko went to bat for her!"
"Tariko-chan is the current Tuyuki, Sensei," Miyake Shinobu sweetly added.
The older woman took that in, then she hummed. "All who are Gifted, put up your hands!"
Hands immediately went up, making the boys seeing this howl in horror on seeing what had befallen a considerable number of their classmates...especially one Shirai Kōsuke of all people! Noting that, Hideyuki surged up to stand before the Passionate Father of Sentient Machines, his hands clasped in a begging pose. "Oi! Kōsuke! You gotta help me, man!" he then pleaded.
"About what?" the former gatherer android then asked, understandably confused.
"It's true that Yizibajohei can't have kids with aliens, right?!"
"Hai!"
"And Kuwana Aiko-chan's a Yizibajohei, right?!"
A knowing grin crossed Kōsuke's face. "She is indeed!"
"NO!" Megane shrieked. "YOU CAN'T BETRAY LUM-SAN, MIFUNE...!"
KK-KRACK! KK-KRACK! KK-KRACK! KK-KRACK!
"No one asked YOU, Megane!" Shinobu declared after bashing the Stormtroopers down.
As many other boys awked — they had noted that Ataru's former girlfriend had put up her hand when Sakura asked who had been Gifted — Kōsuke reached into his pocket to pull out a PAA. As the school nurse came over to gaze intently at that strange device, the reborn artificial intelligence expert tapped the transmitter crystal, allowing a hologram to appear. "Ataru-kun!" Ikue gasped.
Noting where his "best friend"/lover was transmitting from, the brother of the Trickster of the Show sighed. "I take it there was some sort of uncontrolled reveal scene, Kōsuke?"
"Ah...y-yeah! That's my fault, Ataru!"
Ataru blinked from his bedroom in Welcome House. "In other words, my so-called 'wife's' useless umale lo'obir'ba decided to be really stupid today, Ryū-chan," he affirmed with a nod.
"Sadly so, Ataru-kun," Shinobu affirmed.
A tired sigh escaped him. "Who, Kōsuke?"
"Hideyuki, man. He wants to court Kuwana Aiko-chan," Kōsuke announced.
An approving nod answered. "Hai, hai! I'll take care of it."
As Hideyuki whooped while several girls patted his back in support, Sakura shook her head...
Welcome House on Ōmure-jima, an hour later...
"Do we want to risk this, Ataru? I don't want to see Aiko-chan's heart broken."
The members of Moroboshi Ataru's "fleet" of lovers were seated at various places in his bedroom. Having joined him were his older sister/other-self and his film replica twin, not to mention Yamamoto Chiyoko (who represented the newcomers who had been met by Hayashi Kanami earlier that morning). "Well, there have been times Megane's fools have ridden his case about his crush on Aiko-chan that I've seen, Anne," he mused before he gazed on his sisters. "What did you sense, Onē-san? Hiromi?"
"The couple of times that I've been in class acting as you showed me he's pretty much forgotten that Lum-san exists," Moroboshi Hiromi noted before sipping her tea. "His interest in shipgirls is quite profound, Aiko-san most of all. I'd think he'd be good for her. It might even make some of the other boys in school finally forget that 'Stormtroopers' nonsense once and for all. Onē-san?"
Tariko Katabarbe hummed. "Yeah, Hideyuki's pretty much moving on with his life. I'd vote him in." She then held up a finger of warning. "Of course, it's Aiko's decision in the end."
"Naturally," Ataru affirmed with a nod of his head.
"Unleashing Yoiko on him for a spell?" Catarina von Savoyen wondered.
Laughter filled the room as people imagined what the reborn seventh carrier of Operation Z would do to Mifune Hideyuki if he did ANYTHING that disagreed with the reborn sixth of the Nagara-class light cruisers. "We should wait for the aliens to come and go from this place to seek out their friend before approaching Signor Mifune," Roberta Ansaldo proposed. "No sense in dealing with interference."
Everyone nodded. Thanks to what just happened in Camden and Philadelphia, the news media were now echoing with shouts from all quarters of the United States to see dozens of museum warships allowed to evolve into shipgirls. There hadn't been any official comment from the White House about that; no doubt, when Josiah Bartlet made his decision, Ataru and his family would be one of the first to learn what was planned. "I can see where Lily-san was coming from," Chihaya Sarah noted. "Save for Yvonne-san, Naomi-chan and the members of Taffy Three, we've got no American representation in the EDF right now...and they had to lean on Raeburn-shihan to provide a lot of their current air power on Enterprise, with next to nothing for the escort carriers. All the big guns are us and the Germans."
"Ja. The only 'heavy' ships from America being my starship-self and Naomi's even if they've got a whole slew of their dreadnought battleships and other heavy vessels replicated and waiting to be manned," Catarina confirmed with a nod. "Naomi will be patrolling the Ceres orbit line in this case."
"What are the status of the American space battleships, Isabel?" Sarah's elder sister Anne asked.
The reborn third of the Kongō-class fast battleships pulled out her PAA to check. "We've got both North Carolina-class ships, all four South Dakota-class ships of the latter generation, four of the six Iowa-class ships, plus both Florida-class ships, both Wyoming-class ships, both New York-class ships, both Nevada-class ships and both Pennsylvania-class ships, Onē-sama." She adjusted her glasses. "That's twenty battleships completed to date, with enough veterans of Lum-san's 'army' from Phentax Two to man them in basic emergencies, which this situation could easily be counted as given Elizabeth-san's possible predictions as to the reaction from Toshitto when this goes public. Which, thanks to what just happened in Ataru's old class, stands a VERY good chance to happen a little sooner than we planned."
"Still, this shouldn't be too bad," the youngest of the Chihaya sisters noted.
Everyone looked at Chihaya Heather. "What do you mean, Heather?" Ashikaga Akemi wondered.
"Well, according to Tamiyo-san and Tadako-san, Lum-san almost got what was going on when she saw Tennō's Rescript, Akemi-chan," the adopted native of Takasaki in Gunma prefecture said. "She just didn't realize Tariko-chan and Ataru were once the same person. If she's remembering her encounter with Tariko-chan eleven years ago, she'll probably understand what's driven Tariko-chan all this time."
"Which could convince her to go along with this," Paola de Lerici noted.
"That would put her right at odds with the Imperial Round on Uru, though," Hiromi warned.
"Who cares about those shitheads, Hiromi?!" Akemi noted. "'Sides, with what Tariko's been sensing about Lum and who could be pulling her strings, we've got to get rid of that first."
"Agreed, that would do much to show our good intentions," Roberta noted, nodding.
"Let's make sure of it."
Eyes locked on the Trickster of the Show. "You have a prank in mind, Onē-san?" Hiromi asked.
An evil smile then crossed the reality warper's face...
To Be Continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
Concerning the joke about Moroboshi Ataru no longer being a student at Tomobiki High School, read the side story Giftings, Dreams and Nightmares, especially the end scenes.
Serizawa Kasumi (Game Hunter) is a character from Super Real Mahjong; she first appeared in the P3 version. As an aside, the Kamahanite Range Hunter made its appearance in The Senior Year story "The Return of Kōsei Ryōki". Erizawa Itsuki is based on a dōjinshi character created by Nemunemu.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel character notes: The battle with the Master (Heinrich Nest) as depicted in "Prophecy Girl" (the finale of the first season of BTVS) would have occurred in the late spring of 2011 in the timeline of this story. The late best friend of Xander Harris (Suoti), Jesse McNally, first appeared in the premier of BTVS, "Welcome to the Hellmouth"; he would be killed in the next episode, "The Harvest". The computer teacher at school mentioned by Hayashi Kanami (Mustang) in this part is Janna of the Kalderash, AKA Jennifer "Jenny" Calendar. She first appeared in "I Robot, You Jane" (eighth episode of BTVS Season One) and was killed by Angelus (Liam O'Connor) in "Passion" (seventeenth episode of BTVS Season Two); the run of events of the latter story in this universe would actually see Jenny saved by Faith Lehane (Wildflower) as noted above.
Translation list and source language: Jefa — Female version of Jefe ("Chief") (Spanish); Santa María me preserva — Saint Mary protect me (Spanish); Vamos — Move (Spanish); Este Paratus — Always Ready (Latin); Libertatis Potentia — The Power of Freedom (Latin).
Professor Arthur Crowning was also a character in TheJMPer's delightful Belated Battleships. Note that his actual university of employment was never identified in the original work; his working at the local campus of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, is my choice.
Shipgirls introduced or directly spoken of in this chapter:
Rear Admiral (Lower Half) Julia Mary Dewey USN (United States Ship Olympia [CA-15, later CL-15, then IX-40])
Captain Helen Joanna Hoover USN (United States Ship Intrepid [CV-11, later CVA-11, then CVS-11])
CAPT Anne Katharine "Kathy" Hyde USN (United States Ship New Jersey [BB-62])
Commander Eustace Patricia Wilkinson USN (United States Ship Nautilus [SSN-571])
Lieutenant Commander Gemma Grace Molumphy USN (United States Ship Ling [SS-297, later AGSS-297, then IXSS-297])
LCDR Denise Hayley Sturr USN (United States Ship Becuna [SS-319, then AGSS-319])
LCDR Dana Sylvia Cutter USN (United States Ship Requin [SS-481, later SSR-481, then AGSS-481, then IXSS-481])
LCDR Charlotte Helena Priest USN (United States Ship Growler [SSG-577])
Julia Dewey (USS Olympia) takes after the Warship Girls interpretation of Teresa Laclède de Tamandaré (USS Saint Louis). Helen Hoover (USS Intrepid) takes after her Kantai Collection self. Kathy Hyde (USS New Jersey) resembles fan art done by PJMoyer that can be found on SpaceBattles at post #19159101; this was done in support of TheJMPer for Belated Battleships.
As an aside, the reason that Julia Dewey is given the rank of Rear Admiral (Lower Half) (abbreviated RMDL) is the simple fact that she is one of the OLDEST still-existing warships in the United States of America AND that she served as a flagship for the highest-ranking officer to ever serve in the United States Navy, Admiral of the Navy George Dewey (1837-1917). Note that she was declared a heavy cruiser (hull classification code CA) in the big 1920s rationalization of hull numbers in the United States Navy; she would be reclassified a light cruiser (CL) the next year. As for Patricia Wilkinson (USS Nautilus) begin given the rank of full commander in lieu of lieutenant commander, this was when the need for higher rank levels to better control America's seagoing nuclear ships came into play.
Concerning the others listed above, Helen Hoover (USS Intrepid) was commissioned as an aircraft carrier (CV) in 1943. She would be changed to an attack aircraft carrier (CVA) in 1954, then would shift into the rôle of an anti-submarine warfare carrier (CVS) in 1961. During the Cold War era, many wartime-built submarines had their hull classification codes changed to reflect special assignments given to them as newer construction came on line. Many submarines were converted into research support submarines (AGSS) to help better develop underwater warfare techniques and technology; others were assigned as radar picket submarines (SSR) once upgraded to serve as far-forward scouts for various task forces. Helena Priest (USS Growler) was purpose-built as a guided missile submarine (SSG) as Patricia Wilkinson (USS Nautilus) was built as America's first nuclear-powered submarine (SSN). Of course, when submarines are about to be decommissioned for preservation as memorials, their final listing in the Naval Vessel Register would be as miscellaneous auxiliary submarines (IXSS).
As you can expect, the blurb of kanji and kana at the end of the sixth scene is the Japanese way of writing out the ship name, hull number and human name of Kathy Hyde (USS New Jersey).
Note that the title of Commodore is seen more as a position title these days in the United States Navy in lieu of a proper rank title. It had served as proper rank title, positioned above captain, in the USN for many years until it was changed to rear admiral (lower half) in 1919. The rank was revived for World War Two due to the needs of the expanding Navy, though such was finally discontinued in 1983 when it went back once more to being RDML. These days, the term "commodore" in USN parlance indicates a captain in charge of functional Navy formations of all types outside carrier air groups.
Mifune Hideyuki would have been introduced in the same side-story in The Senior Year as Sŏ Yŏn'i (Gemini). Sugihara Nara and Nishihara Ikue first appeared in the Yatsura anime story "Goodbye Season" (anime episode #64); their family names are my invention and they actually "appeared" in a relationship chart Miyake Shinobu (Prometheús) made in the first part of the episode.