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Tomobiki High School, the fourth Wednesday of May in 2012, after breakfast...
"Rei-sama...poor Rei-sama...what happened to him...?"
Class 2-7 was located immediately south of the infamous Class 2-4 in the southwest wing of the school building on the second floor. While having not been drawn into the epicentre of weirdness that rocked their peers next door, the members of this particular class had often suffered the side effects of major incidents that rocked this year's "classroom of failure". That was mostly because of their one alien member, Aruka Ran of the Urusian colony world of Shingetsu near the frontier with the Ipraedies Empire. While everyone had long since realized the truth about Redet Lum's so-called "best friend" and why she was here, Ran wasn't as much of a source of trouble for her peers as the warlord's daughter from Onishuto often turned out to be in the eyes of many.
Even if Lum once had the luxury of having said incidents actually blamed on her "husband".
But with Moroboshi Ataru no longer a STUDENT at Tomobiki High...!
"Rei-sama...poor Rei-sama...what happened to him...?"
"How long as Ran-chan been like that for?"
Annoyance flashed across the faces of several girls in the room before they gazed at the annoying interloper who had been sticking his nose into things that weren't his business since well before the aliens came. "Kanzaki, do us all a grand favour," class representative Kinomiya Yukari stated, her grey eyes flashing. "Leave!"
Kanzaki Ryūha jolted before he glared at the raven-haired beauty with the long locks tied in braids draped over her shoulders. "Have you any idea what's going to happen now once SHE finds out what happened on Monday night, Yukari-san?" he demanded with an angry hiss as he marched over to glare directly at the smaller woman, pointing at the moaning Ran. "Instant she reads the new edition of that damned 'newspaper'...?!"
"Excuse me, Kinomiya-iinchō, is this man bothering you?"
"He should be inside his own classroom preparing for homeroom, Fujimoto-taisa," the native of Kitakyūshū in Fukuoka Prefecture sternly declared as the member of Class 2-2 slowly turned...
...before awking on seeing the woman who looked VERY much like the publisher of the Aoba Shimbun standing behind him, arms crossed. The difference between Fujimoto Ayako and this particular woman was that the newcomer had pink-shaded grey hair tied in short twintails and green eyes. Like Ayako, Fujimoto Kinue now lived in the once-abandoned house directly south of the Moroboshi residence, they sharing the place with the first family of local metahumans to move into town, the Shimosuwa sisters Tamiyo and Tadako.
Noting the newcomer was in the mottled utility dress marking her as a member of the Maritime Self-Defence Force — with her rank insignia of captain on her epaulette slip-ons — Ryūha shuddered. "What the hell are you doing here anyway, Kaisa-san?! You've no authority over us! If the PTA hears of this...!"
"The Parent-Teacher Association has no authority now," the adopted native of Yokosuka (site of her namesake mountain) and Kōbe (where she was built as THG Kinugasa) sternly declared. "They are under investigation by the Tōkyō Metropolitan Government Board of Education for multiple abject failures concerning the students attending this school. Since martial law is in effect for Tomobiki due to the aliens, we were more than happy to help with security, especially given how certain students tend to love going out of control all the time."
Before he could protest further, the reborn fourth of Japan's heavy cruiser force grabbed him by the earlobe and dragged him out of the room, making many inside Class 2-7 breathe out in relief...
The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei
Aoba News Omake: A New Way of Doing Things
by Fred Herriot
Class 2-4, homeroom period...
"I thank you for your votes. I promise I won't let everyone here down."
Cheers filled the classroom as people applauded the election of Tsuruya Rumiko as iinchō. Given the absence of their "infamous" peer — an issue causing some of the staff to panic over what the reaction might be from the students once the alien member of this group of sophomores made a decision concerning her "husband" — tensions had started to grow between the sexes. To stave off the potential elevation of Mendō Shūtarō as iinchō — he had served as vice-representative in the previous year's class — some of the girls nominated Rumiko as their new leader, which won votes from all sides. Being a lesbian who wasn't interested in the class' richest student THAT way, she was seen as safe by the girls...while the boys knew that their school's smartest student bar none had no interest whatsoever in Redet Lum, which made her safe in THAT manner as well.
No one in the room save Inu Chigaiko had any idea about what the class was in for.
As the girl called "Yon-san" by almost everyone in the school tried not to cackle maniacally at the idea of one of the Circle of Thought actually MANAGING the affairs of THIS particular group of students...!
"Congratulations, Tsuruya-kun," Onsen Mark declared, he also clapping his hands. He certainly respected the young woman for her many accomplishments and her willingness to do her best in helping keep the rowdiness in line. Her revelations over two weeks before concerning Moroboshi Ataru had been MORE than welcome even if the gruff vice-principal found himself MISSING the lad now. From what the middle-aged veteran English teacher had seen after that whole business with his other alien "fiancée", Ataru seemed to have made a complete 180 degree turn in behaviour; he didn't chase any girl or cause trouble, scolded his "wife" for proposing things that COULD have caused issues and seemed willing to help keep order in this place wherever he could.
Had his learning about his half-sister Sukeyama Sakuya done THAT much to change the lad...?
"In the meantime, let's get the roll call done," Rumiko stated.
"Huh?! What are you reading, Shinobu?"
The eyebrows of the Careful Planner of the Circle of Thought twitched as she crossed her arms before she looked over. "Miyake, could you PLEASE put the newspaper away...?"
"EH?! DARLING WAS IN TOWN ON MONDAY NIGHT?! WHY DIDN'T...?!"
SPPPPPISSSSSSSSSSSSSH!
"...EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
Everyone spun around...
...before they gaped as the warlord's daughter from Onishuto crashed onto her back, gripping her eyes as the heady smell of garlic filled the air. While some of the boys moved to comfort the screaming Lum, Rumiko put down the special spray bottle of concentrated garlic solution she made to make sure the stupid, selfish girl behaved herself. "Do you MIND, Redet?!" she thundered, making those who were comforting Lum wince. "I don't care to put up to STATIC ELECTRICITY every time you have a TEMPER TANTRUM!"
The girls all snickered as Lum continued to wail away in pain...
Lunchtime...
"Ouch! Who did that to Lum-chan?!"
Members of the school mahjong club perked on hearing Aruka Ran's question, then they turned to gaze on the rose-haired native of the colony world of Shingetsu. Everyone was relaxing on a blanket on the front lawn enjoying the wonderfully sunny day while having their meals. Even if the alien girl was still quite depressed over what had happened YET AGAIN to the man she had a deep crush on, she had instantly brightened up on seeing her childhood "friend" be walked out by some of her fans, her eyes now covered in bandages.
"Whoever did that deserves a medal," Kinomiya Yukari noted before sipping from her canteen.
"Rumiko-chan?" Fujiwara Aya wondered.
"Oh, definitely Rumiko-chan!" Tōno Mizuki noted, pointing to the sky. "Have you heard all the times she's complained about the static electricity frying out her things every time Redet has a temper tantrum?"
"Yeah, that gets REALLY annoying after a while," Hayasaka Akira noted. "So, did you read the story about how Ataru-kun took Yayoi-san and her sisters over to Esmerelda's on Monday evening to get them clothes?"
"Hai, I did," the tanned and tomboyish Mizuki affirmed, nodding as her chestnut eyes flashed with amusement. "According to the pictures messages he put out to everyone, they go some pretty racy stuff on the fifth floor."
Ran perked. "Wait! Isn't that where people get lingerie?!"
"Yep," her classmates all chanted as one.
"And Darling didn't pass out when he saw that stuff? I know he's a lot more shy than people say he is."
"Not anymore, Ran-chan," Akira stated as she thumbed towards where Lum was now seated with the Stormtroopers, Mendō Shūtarō and some of the other guys from her class. "Ataru-kun is TOTALLY over that selfish idiot there. Rumour has it that he's got it BAD for one Ashikaga Akemi-chan."
Surprise crossed Ran's face. "Who's she?"
"She's the girl who appeared on the front page of the first edition of the Aoba Shimbun," Yukari explained. "Originally from Ōsaka but with ancestors who came from up in Fukushima. She's a photokinetic as well as possessing what seems to be the standard physical powers of this particular group."
"Super-strength, invulnerability, ability to fly, very fast speed," Mizuki noted.
"She can fire pure light beams out of her eyes to burn anything in front of her. Even more powerful than Cyclops of the X-Men or Superman even..." the raven-haired Aya warned.
"IS SHE THE ONE?!"
Everyone jolted on seeing Ran now on her feet, a bloom of angry ki forming around her as she glared at her classmates. "One what, Ran-san?" Yukari wondered, clearly not bothered by such bluster.
The Seishin teenager's fangs splayed as she growled, "Two weeks ago, poor Rei-sama was admitted to the base hospital on Toshitto with THIRD DEGREE burns all over his body! It forced poor Rei-sama into regeneration therapy for over a WEEK to heal him!" She whipped out her own copy of the first issue of the new Aoba Shimbun, pointing to the picture of a happy couple on the seashore. "IS THIS HER?!"
A hand slammed down on her forehead, the fingers compressing enough to make Ran shriek with agony at a grip that seemed like depleted neutronium, it was THAT unyielding. "Yeah, that was me, shithead!" a woman's voice snarled from behind her. "You got a fucking problem with that, you bi-polar airhead?!"
"Konnichi wa, Akemi-chan!" Mizuki greeted the newcomer with a polite wave.
"Hey," the adopted native of Ōsaka known now as the Orchid Nova on the World of the Forge nodded greetings to the four free gynoids bound to her admiral by his expertly keying their intimacy programming, then she forced the native of Shingetsu down to her knees before twisting the head around so Ran could glare into Ashikaga Akemi's now-glowing eyes. "So what was that about that cow you've got the hots for?!"
As Ran tried desperately to not soil herself on feeling that disgusted stare burn right into her soul, the profane eighth of the Ayanami-class added, "You know, Ataru can't believe he FELL so easily to that 'sweet innocent me' act you pull on everyone here. Soon as that nice lady who rescued him from being married to that horn-headed bitch over yonder got him free of that cathedral, she filled him in on ALL your secrets. Including the fact that you're a fucking EMPATHIC VAMPIRE of all things, never mind you migrating to this planet to get your 'revenge' on Redet over there! Well, let me make it VERY clear for you, Aruka: If you EVER threaten MY man again..."
She let go of Ran as a pair of hands snared her by the shoulders...
...then she was forced to kiss Kisaragi Yayoi of all people!
Everyone seeing this gasped at such a sapphic display in front of them...
...before people awked as Ran started to glow before her whole body began to SHRIVEL, her rich pink-red hair instantly going to a sickly silver as the poor woman's empathic vampirism was simply OVERLOADED by a combination of the Eternal Purifier's own healing empathy...and the fact that her living essence was built upon the combination of memories from over a THOUSAND people involved in her construction and service in the Imperial Navy as THG Yayoi from her commissioning in 1926 until her sinking in the late summer of 1942!
A moment later, the alien member of Class 2-7 collapsed into a fragile heap on the blanket, her eyes spiralling as the sheer power of the person she just kissed nearly burned her brains out. "So...much...youth...!"
As Ran's friends all shook their heads, a storm of running feed made both reborn destroyers blink...
...then Yayoi blinked again as a crowd of students from all three years formed a circle around her, screaming banzai cheers. While the adopted native of Yokosuka gazed in confusion at such cheers, Yukari stage-whispered to her master's current lover. "They've been targeted by Ran-chan's powers before, Akemi-sama."
The Orchid Nova smirked before she reached over and raised the Eternal Purifier's arm in victory...
The Moroboshi home, before supper...
"There you go, Lum. It doesn't look too bad now."
"Itta-cha...!" Redet Lum croaked after Sakurambō Sakura removed the last of the bandages from her still-stinging eyes while the people seated around her — including Mendō Shūtarō and the members of the Stormtroopers, there was Miyake Shinobu and a slowly-recovering Aruka Ran — sympathetically winced. Also watching this were Moroboshi Muchi and Redet Ten; Muchi's wife was in the kitchen preparing supper.
"I never thought Tsuruya Rumiko of all people could be THAT vicious to anyone!" Shinobu lamented before sipping her tea. "She never complained about things beforehand."
"You're very wrong, Shinobu. You just never noticed it," Sakura warned as she moved to wipe the area around Lum's eyes with a simple saline solution to remove the last of the garlic that had been lanced into her skin hours earlier. "Despite her being part of Mendō's peer group, Rumiko has always made complaints about Lum's behaviour in class, usually in private to either Kōchō-sensei or Onsen-kun. It's only recently that she's begun to be more open about said threats in front of others." Noting the others staring curiously at her, the shrine miko/school nurse added, "She's threatening to permanently withdraw from Tomobiki High..."
"Feh! Good riddance to the dyke then!" Megane snarled...
...before he yelped when Shinobu slapped him in the back of the head, sending the bespectacled teen face-first into the floor. "Don't be more of an idiot that you usually are, Megane!" Moroboshi Ataru's former girlfriend snarled. "If Rumiko-chan leaves, a whole tonne of students who get tutored by her for free suffer for it, including some of the people in our class! I doubt they'll care for your bone-headed homophobia!"
"It gets worse, Shinobu," Sakura stated as she gave the other girl a warning look. "Rumiko has gladly warned that if she leaves, she'll ALSO get Yon-san to transfer out to another school way beyond Kantō, then find a way to make Moroboshi himself disappear to the point where even Lum couldn't find him!"
Everyone jolted. "Shit! The volleyball team would LYNCH us if Yon-san transfers out!" Kakugari croaked.
"Lum-chan, haven't you found where Ataru is, for heaven's sake?!" Chibi pleaded.
"No!" the warlord's daughter from Onishuto snapped before a cloud of depression fell over her, making her slump. "Not only did Darling somehow find all the tracers I sewed into his clothes to help me keep track of him, he got SOMEONE to hack into my ship's computer to wipe out all sensor readings of him!"
Eyes instantly locked on Ran. "OI! IT WASN'T ME!" the native of Shingetsu snapped.
"Of course it wasn't you, you bi-polar airhead!"
People perked, then looked around...
"Ah! Otsune-onēchan!" Ten cheered.
Heads snapped to the north windows of the room, which were open; Muchi couldn't afford air conditioning given the near-constant presence of Kotatsuneko in his son's bedroom with his space heater regardless of time of year. Leaning on the window sill was a grinning woman with waist-length brown hair ending in spiky bangs, eyes of the matching shade gazing in amusement at the group of idiots — plus one poor kid who had to flee CHILD ABUSE of all things, then found himself in a place without peers to play with — seated in the living room.
"Otsune-san!" Shūtarō gasped before he lunged over to grasp Kumamoto Otsune's hand while he moved to lay on the charm. "Otsune-san, you must reject Moroboshi! He's an idiot! He's a lech! He'll give you bad luck...!"
"Allow me, Sempai," a new voice cut in...
...then people inside awked as many strings of bamboo stalks surged in like fast-moving rattlesnakes to wrap around the head of the scion of Japan's richest family. As the others watched spellbound, said stalks formed what appeared to be a perfect kasa worn by an itinerant monk like Sakura's uncle Cherry...
...before said kasa morphed into something that completely encased Shūtarō's head, causing his chronic nyctophobia and claustrophobia to kick in. "IT'S DARK! IT'S CRAMPED! I'M SCARED!" he shrieked as he staggered away from the reborn fourth of the Kuma-class light cruisers, who was now joined at the window sill by the reborn second of the Aoba-class heavy cruisers, both of whom were mirthlessly grinning.
Instantly, Shinobu moved to yank the object forged by Fujimoto Kinue's chlorokinesis from her ex-boyfriend's head. "CALM DOWN, MENDŌ-SAN!" she screamed, knowing a woman's voice would relax him.
"He can't hear you."
People froze save for Shūtarō, who staggered off to one corner of the room wailing in terror, then they turned as the woman now known on Yiziba as the Hat Weaver of the Central Ports, Isyo'o ("Kinugasa"), gazed in mirthless amusement at those who had been such troublemakers for her admiral in the past. "Ataru-kun clued us in to this jerk's weaknesses long ago," the adopted native of Yokosuka dryly declared. "Atop that, his grandfather has ordered that the brat be disciplined for all his past excesses when it comes to using his clan's paramilitary forces. Seeing as how Ataru-kun's wonderful sister Sakuya-chan — the MATRIARCH OF THE INSHIN GROUP, by the way! — has offered to have a full AUDIT done on all of the brat's expenditures since January...!"
"AN AUDIT?!"
Eyes locked on the scion of Japan's richest family, who had frozen in place on having detected THAT WORD spoken before he dropped into a dead faint to the floor! As the two shipgirls giggled at such a sight, their admiral's mother stormed towards them, her meat-cleaver in hand. "YOU GET OFF MY...!"
KK-KRACK!
Moroboshi Kinshō pinwheeled in mid-air thanks to the well-aimed brick that smashed her face thanks to Otsune. As the physically older woman crashed to the floor with her face resembling a mauled chocolate cake, the adopted native of Shizuoka known now as the Great Well of the Southern Mountains, Gar'buo ("Ōi"), turned away. "Oi, Ten-chan, tell her when she wakes up that she'll STILL grow old and die alone!"
"Hai, Otsune-onēchan!" the firefighter's son from Onishuto called back, waving.
"One other thing," Kinue stated. "Sakuya-chan's ordered the closing of ALL accounts that Useless and the yūjo here have with the Inshin Bank!" As Muchi awked in horror on hearing that, the reborn heavy cruiser added, "All the funds — MINUS WHAT THE YŪJO AND HER BROTHER EMBEZZLED FROM YOUR SON! — will be sent to you in a cheque and you're FORBIDDEN from doing business with Inshin ever again!"
With that, she headed over to join Otsune at the residence used by the reborn Kuma-class cruisers. People blinked at this, then gazed towards Ataru's father, who looked now like he was facing a firing squad.
"The mortgage...!" the salaryman croaked before he passed out.
As the others in the room blinked, Ten crossed his arms. "Well, that's what'cha get for ABANDONING your son like that, Baka Aho Oji-chan!" the young boy snarled before sipping his tea...
Class 2-4, the fourth Thursday of May in 2012, morning homeroom period...
"So what the hell does it mean for you to face an au-...?"
Kanzaki Ryūha's voice was cut off when Mendō Shūtarō turned as grey as ashes, his voice catching. The former then winced after Miyake Shinobu slapped him in the back of the head. "Don't say that word!" she snarled, making him duck. "It's something that Mendō-san fears even worse than being DISINHERITED!"
"So what does THAT mean for Mendō-san, Shinobu-chan?" Gekasawa Kumiko wondered.
"All paramilitary forces — including the Kuromegane — who respond to either Mendō-san or his sister will be put on paid leave...and the Mendō Conglomerate has to pay for it from their own funds, not from the accounts holding the funds they borrow from Ataru-kun's family, Kumiko-chan," Shinobu explained. "In other words, if something happens and we need help, we can't get it from Mendō-san until THAT is complete!"
"Why's Mendō-san's sister involved?" Arakida Yui wondered.
"Everything is paid for out of the same budget, Yui-san."
That was a slowly-recovering Shūtarō. "Sorry about that, man," Ryūha stated as he patted the other man's shoulder before he gazed once more on Shūtarō's former girlfriend. "What about Ataru's parents? I can't believe he hates them so much that he'll gladly have them thrown out onto the STREETS!"
"It's worse than that, Ryūha-kun," Shinobu breathed out. "When he cleared his belongings out of the house, he also went through the photo albums Oji-san and Oba-san had. Everything that had pictures of Ataru-kun, Lum or myself were taken out and shredded before Nozomi-san handed them back on Monday." As the people who witnessed that event winced in sympathy, she shook her head. "Even the photo negatives were destroyed."
"Damn! There's hate...and then there's HATE!" Shirai Kōsuke wryly mused.
"They tried to sell him off to Redet's family when de Rosenbach came by, Kōsuke-kun," a voice echoed from near the head of the room. "Ataru-kun decided that the best punishment was to give them a taste of it in return."
"Why do YOU care about the guy, Iinchō?!" Perm demanded.
"Because unlike the rest of you blind fools, I've taken the time to REALLY see what's going on here!" Tsuruya Rumiko stated as she turned around in her chair and gazed with barely veiled disgust at the gathering around Redet Lum. "And I've noticed ALL the times that Ataru-kun's been blamed for things that he was never the least bit involved with! Why do you think he had to go all the way to the Hague of all places to clear the damned air over his head?!" As people winced on hearing that oblique reference to the International Criminal Court — who wanted to haul in the Stormtroopers and Shinobu for questioning and possible charges in concerns with the world oil theft incident from the previous fall — the Careful Planner of the Circle of Thought turned back to her notes. "Even more so, because of what Ataru-kun was so kind to reveal to the WHOLE WORLD, the Diet has decided that any moves by ANYONE in Tomobiki who continues to support the alien presence here will NOT have sanction from the government of Japan!" She then focused on Shūtarō. "And by the way, Mendō, they will NOT listen to a thing YOU say about it! It all goes through your grandfather from now on!"
As the scion of Japan's richest family awked on hearing that, footfalls echoed from the hallway beyond. "...shocked at this, Shimosuwa-kaisa! The very thought of one of the students here doing THAT...!"
"Don't worry about that, Kōchō-sensei," the voice of the first light cruiser of Japan reborn as a shipgirl declared as people turned to watch Shimosuwa Tamiyo and her sister Tadako walk by, accompanied by Onsen Mark.
"What's going on...?" Ryūha demanded.
People went to the interior windows to look down the hallway, noting that the Shimosuwa sisters and the vice-principal had passed Class 2-7. "They're going into your class, Ryūha-kun!" Marubeya Momoe warned.
"OI! WHERE THE FUCK IS MATSUI SHINTARŌ?!"
Both Ryūha and Shūtarō exclaimed on hearing that name, then scrambled out of the room, racing down the hallway to the classroom at the end of the southwest wing on the upper floor. Looking inside, they gaped on seeing a man bolt up just as Tamiyo came up to him...then screamed as the poor fellow was snared by the CROTCH by the one-eyed adopted native of Okaya before he got lifted out of his chair. "You just got EXPELLED, buddy!" Tamiyo snarled as she threw Matsui Shintarō — a member of the Secret Peer Guidance Committee formed by Shūtarō shortly after the scion of Japan's wealthiest family began attending Tomobiki High in January — over her shoulder. "Bet ya didn't think that there would be people who'd put up to you ABUSING a tonne of nice girls since you hooked up with the Kempeitai major's shithead grandson, huh?!"
Girls in the class — as well as from Classes 2-7 and 2-4, who raced over to see what was going on — shrieked on hearing the powerful hydrokinetic declare that, then turned to glare on Shūtarō, who wilted...
"Am I interrupting something, Tamiyo?"
Save for the two shipgirls, everyone awked on hearing that toneless voice...
"Oi! Negako-san! What are you doing here?!" Tamiyo demanded.
...then people fearfully backed away as the grandmaster of Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū stepped calmly into the room, two wrapped bundles in her hands. "Delivering presents Ataru arranged for you and Tadako to receive," Moroboshi Negako stated as she placed the VERY long package on the teacher's desk. She then moved to unwrap the shorter present. "I assume Shintarō has been expelled for his actions towards female members of the student populace," she stated as the wrappings were torn away to reveal a tube about 1.5 metres long. "Seventeen counts of sexual molestation, thirty-seven counts of theft of women's underwear and two counts of attempted rape." As girls spun around to glare death at the whimpering man, Negako reached into the tube.
Tamiyo's exposed eye went as wide as a saucer on seeing the VERY ornate katana that had been effectively gifted to her by her admiral. "I...!" the adopted native of Okaya eeped as her cheeks went nuclear at such a present from Moroboshi Ataru. "How the hell did Teitoku get THAT made, Negako-san?!"
"We have access to a very excellent weaponsmith, Tamiyo," the ninjutsu grandmaster stated. "One who was able to create an alloy forged of the same mixture of mesonium used in the forging of Dean Raeburn's Power Jewel with the highest quality Ryekkuch tungsten-augmented steel. Virtually unbreakable against anything save any form of neutronium." She then smiled. "Ataru named her Amamurotō; 'Sword of the Heavenly Void'."
A sniff escaped the first light cruiser of Japan before she tossed Shintarō off her shoulders — after squeezing his privates a little TOO hard, though his pained shriek at being effectively rendered a eunuch was cut off by his face smashing into the blackboard! — before she tenderly took the offered blade in hand, then she unsheathed it to reveal the glistening silver blade. Seeing this from the hallway, Aruka Ran nodded. "Damn! Ryekkuch steel from Noukiios?! That's the stuff Noukiite sword-smiths use to make eunuch blades!"
As people gazed on her, Redet Lum added, "They're the most indestructible swords in the whole local cluster!" Ignoring the dropped jaws from those around her, the warlord's daughter then asked, "But how...?"
"Ataru's late grandmother Nagaiwakai was a Zephyrite Righteous Gentile, Lum."
Lum awked on hearing that from her "husband's" current legal guardian. By then, Negako was moving to undo the longer present for the reborn THG Tatsuta. As people came around to get pictures of a giddy Tamiyo holding Amamurotō like it was the most precious thing in the Universe, the ninjutsu grandmaster drew out a weapon that looked like a mix of a Japanese naginata and a Chinese yǎnyuèdāo similar to the blade welded by the famous Han Dynasty general Guān Yǔ. Like Tamiyo's blade, Tadako's new weapon was composed of the same glistening silver steel; it was three metres long with a fifty centimetre curved cutting blade emitting from the head of a traditional Oriental dragon. "And this is Kōkatsu-ryūshi, Tadako. 'Word of the Cunning Dragon'."
"Oh, I DO like!" the adopted native of Ikoma noted as she took up the beautiful polearm, though she wouldn't swing it around in such a confined space. She then perked on hearing a weak croak escape the just-expelled man now lying on the floor before she looked, then she sighed. "Oh, Tamiyo-chan..."
"Huh?! What...?"
Tamiyo then awked on seeing the considerable pool of BLOOD now forming around Matsui Shintarō's groin. "Oh, fuck me...!" she whined as others came over to look.
"Tamiyo, learn to better control your strength," Negako advised as she gave the cruiser a knowing look.
"Haiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...!"
With that, the ninjutsu grandmaster left the room as Shūtarō dropped to his knees in horror...
To Be Continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
Kinomiya Yukari, Fujiwara Aya, Tōno Mizuki and Hayasaka Akira are all characters from the Super Real Mahjong series of video games released around the turn of the millennium. Aya, Mizuki and Akira all appeared in the PV edition of the game from 1994 while Yukari hails from the PVI version of the name released in 1996.
Translation list and source language: Iinchō — Literally "committee chairman", this is the title applied to representatives of a school's student council (Japanese); Ryekkuch — Literally "level calm", this is the name of the analogue of the traditional Korean province of P'yŏng'an, which is located around the city of P'yŏng'yang (Noukiite); Yǎnyuèdāo — Reclining moon blade (Mandarin).
Matsui Shintarō is inspired by a character mentioned as having been expelled at the start of the Yatsura manga story "What Child Is This?" (manga chapter #29). His given name is my creation.
I first made mention of Noukiite eunuch swords — weapons made by physically barren smiths as a way of guaranteeing their spiritual immortality through their creations — in Lonely Souls.
