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Welcome House on Ōmure-jima, the fourth Saturday of May in 2012, an hour after lunch...

"What does this do...?"

A moaning cry of pure joy escaped the pretty teenage-form gynoid, that making Kisaragi Yayoi stop as she gazed quizzically upon the now-quaking Tomoe Hotaru. Both were now in the private quarters set aside for the Eternal Purifier and the Rainy Scrapper of Spring in the main commons of the youth hostel built originally for American occupation forces at the end of the Second World War. "Are you alright, Hotaru-san?" the shipgirl asked.

The amethyst-eyed adopted native of Bunkyō Ward in Tōkyō proper — such was the home of her template's first seiyū — gave the adopted native of Yokosuka a shy look, her inner processors still ringing hard from that tsunami of passion which surged up from a simple touch of one circuit now exposed after the removal of her abdominal maintenance hatch. "Th-that a-aroused m-me, Yayoi-sama..." she weakly eeped.

The healing empath nodded as she reached for the square patch of artificial skin and musculature that had been removed by Hatoyama Rinrin earlier when the Technological Sorceress of the East came in from Ōsaka to look over three of her friend's Replicants. "I apologize. Such was not my intention in the first place," Yayoi calmly said as she put that hatch cover in place, then used her fingers to reseal the skin.

"I wouldn't have minded it if you did do that, Yayoi-sama."

Hearing that muttered comment from the raven-haired woman now lying on her bed, Yayoi shook her head. "It would not be proper," she said as she reached over to pick up a cup of cherry tea that had been brought up to her by another of her admiral's recently-discovered sisters, Susumu Marie. "I have memories of crew who took advantage of 'comfort women' kidnapped from their homes in Korea, China and elsewhere to be used as sexual slaves because they were seen as 'lesser' to native Japanese. While my crew saw such as acceptable, I did not and do not to this day. Their sufferings echoed through their tormentors' memories that merged to form my living kami. To do that even to — No. ESPECIALLY to! — a fellow 'artificial intelligence' is simply wrong."

Hotaru gazed on her host before a touch of shame flooded her at even suggesting a pillow scene. "I heard how Fujiko-sama and the others Hinako-chan helped salvage reacted to their crews' actions in the Second World War from Isaac's interviews when they travelled to Remnant to assist with the extermination of the Grimm. Once you all go public with who and what you really are, it will do a lot to help heal the many wounds of that war."

"Sadly, that can't happen just yet..."

"What can't happen just yet, Yayoi-chan?"

Yayoi perked, then turned...

...before her sky-blue eyes went wide on seeing who just through the open door of her new bedroom: A woman her physical age with long, flowing purple-tinted dark brown hair, also possessing the most sensual-looking amethyst eyes the adopted native of Yokosuka had ever "seen" either as warship kami or shipgirl on anyone. Like Yayoi herself had been dressed on her Gifting a week before, the newcomer was in the traditional sleeved martial arts gi-like robes worn by older generations of Yizibajohei and several shipgirls such as Itō Yoiko and Naomi Haight-Ashbury. Such was dark blue overall with white belt and boots, a white-framed red heart embossed by a gold crescent moon over her heart, that embossed with a white-bordered black stylized 如月.

"Kyōko," Yayoi greeted with a polite nod.

The adopted native of Maizuru now known on Yiziba as the Weaver of Love Light chuckled as she came in, reaching down to pull her next-youngest sister up from the floor so they could embrace while Hotaru quickly straightened her clothes, then got to her feet to bow politely to Kisaragi Kyōko. "Oh, still as stoic as ever, eh, Imōto?" the reborn THG Kisaragi playfully scolded before she gazed on the other woman in the room, her eyes narrowing as her empathic abilities reached out. "You're one of Minako-chan's friends, aren't you?"

Hotaru tensed. "Hai, Kyōko-sama. Tomoe Hotaru desu. Welcome back; I'm sure Tennō will be overjoyed to learn you've returned to duty." She bowed again, which the reborn destroyer returned with a nod. "Did Hayami-sama, Aoi-sama and Haruna-sama come back as well? I'm sure they would be more than welcome."

"No, they're being sleepyheads; that's what Hinako-chan concluded after she did that instantaneous teleporting we can do with our personal aide machines to look in on them," Kyōko answered.

"Hinako-chan is here?" Yayoi asked.

"Hai, she's here," Kyōto affirmed with a nod. "Ditto with all the other sisters who could get away from their hometowns to visit their brother this weekend, even the three strays from Europe."

"They found another sister in Europe, Kyōko-sama?" Hotaru asked.

"Supposedly..."


The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei
Aoba News Omake: The Rage of Eizō
by Fred Herriot

Based on a suggestion by Dr. Tempo.

Including characters and situations from Bishōjo Sensei Sailor Moon, created by Takeuchi Naoko.


The Dobu Salada on the border between Tomobiki and Nerima, that moment...

"Ataru-kun! This has gone on far enough...URK!"

Moroboshi Ataru sighed before he gazed over his shoulder at his former girlfriend, who was now being grasped and held off the floor by the reborn third of the Kuma-class light cruisers. "Miyake-san, I really don't believe that the patrons of this fine establishment care to hear you caterwauling like that," he said in a polite tone of voice before turning away from Miyake Shinobu to gaze on "Amy Anderson". "Now, if you don't mind, I'm having lunch with a polite lady. I don't want to deal with a MONSTER like you! Captain, would you PLEASE be so kind...?!"

"Um, excuse me!"

Everyone turned as one of the waitresses came up, a smile that had no mirth in it crossing her face. "Hai?" Kumamoto Kiko asked as she squeezed hard on Shinobu's throat, causing the poor woman to gasp.

"Could you please take her outside before beating the shit our of her, Captain?" the waitress politely asked before she glared at the struggling woman trying to free herself from the cruiser's impossibly hard grip. "You and your 'friends' in the Rosebuds are forbidden from eating here until you pay all the BILLS you owe us, Miyake-san! We've already sent the receipts to your parents!" she then added with a cruel smile.

As Shinobu awked on hearing that, Ataru snorted. "And people say I'm a selfish idiot?" he derisively wondered aloud while Mizuno Ami politely giggled, covering her mouth. "Get her out of here, Kiko!"

"Hai, hai!"

Shinobu wailed as the raven-haired adopted native of Iwate carried her out single-handedly. "Let me go! Let me go, you monster! Ataru-kun, call her off...!" she screamed, helplessly bashing away at the body of a woman who could dead-lift 208,106,162,776 tonnes at full power. "Save me, Ataru-kun...!"

"OH, SHUT UP, YOU ALIEN-LOVING MANIAC!"

Shinobu awked on hearing that from a man her age — he looked like he was a student at the Taian Commercial Institute nearby — before her whole body suddenly heated in outrage. "HOW DARE YOU...?!"

Kiko's free hand came around in a fist to slam into the struggling woman's jaw right under the chin, nearly snapping it in half as her whole head rang hard from that concussive blow. As people around her cheered again on seeing how easily the reborn torpedo cruiser had put down a woman known to be able to lift the mass of TANKS were her anger aroused, Kiko carried the dazed Shinobu out through the front door...

"Oro?! Is that one of the enemy I have to deal with, nyashii?"

...before she stopped on seeing the pretty teenage girl with the short reddish-brown hair and the chestnut eyes standing there, she in the canvas shirt-and-slacks combination indicating that this reborn destroyer had just come in from briefing at Sano-wan with Admiral Fujita Hiroshi. "Commander Kisaragi," Kiko nodded as the reborn first of her class — whose spiritual echo the third of the Kuma-class could see using her own meta-sight, right to her hull number — snapped to attention and saluted her. "Hai, this selfish bint is Shirei-kan's former girlfriend...though these days, he's more than convinced that she NEVER loved him in the first place."

"Oh, Miyake Shinobu you mean," Kisaragi Mutsuko — the reborn THG Mutsuki herself — trilled, nodding in understanding as she gazed on the struggling teen. She then perked before looking up at the windows of the second floor dining hall, her cheeks reddening on seeing her new admiral wave at her. Quickly saluting him, she then glanced a question at Kiko as Shinobu started to stir. "Is Shirei-kan currently protected?"

The reborn cruiser shook her head. "No, you can take over watching over him, Mutsuko-san. I want to drag this idiot over to her house and give her parents a very stern talk about properly raising their child."

"LET — ME — GO!"

Both shipgirls gasped as Shinobu's face deformed while she threw all her strength into trying to pry Kiko's hands off her. Sensing immediately what the stupid girl was trying to do — on her rebirth a day ago, the woman now known on the World of the Forge as the Passionate Moon of the New Year, Nutodake ("Mutsuki"), discovered she had considerable empathic manipulation powers — Mutsuko then focused on the screaming girl...

...that making Shinobu freeze, her face in a rictus as something raked through her mind with the same type of power the third Kuma-class cruiser had demonstrated by strength alone. "Oro...it's no WONDER that Shirei-kan hates you, nyashii...!" the adopted native of Sasebo snarled as her target's body began to quake. "Doing all those nasty things to him all the time, especially when he needed a friend when the fool aliens came...!" She raised her hand as all-out HORROR crossed her target's face. "There! Now every time you think of hurting Shirei-kan, you get to feel how much he HATES you! That should get rid of that ki-charged strength of yours!"

"I'm sure that 'fan' of yours from Butsumetsu High will appreciate that," Kiko added.

With a crouch, the reborn torpedo cruiser soared into the air with her prisoner...


After lunch...

The "talk" — which was more a one-way shouting match between the lady now known on the World of the Forge as the Travelling Warper of the Northern Lights, Butoluo ("Kitakami"), and Miyake Shinobu's parents Toshoba and Kimiki — had been loud, instantly reported on by neighbours who once had a lot of sympathy for Moroboshi Ataru's former girlfriend...but after the revelations the adopted native of Iwate made, forced many to think of the long-suffering girl in a new, harsher light. Naturally, Shinobu's peers from Tomobiki High and elsewhere who overheard that "talk" were quick to get on their cell phones and computers to pass on the word to others about what just went down at the Dobu Salada, who was there now and what he was doing with a pretty girl.

The arrival of one Kisaragi Mutsuko on the scene somehow escaped those notifications.

When a virtual lynch mob of girls from both the Taian Commercial Institute in Tomobiki's northwest end and the Sanrinbō Institute in the Minami-ōizumi part of Nerima arrived at the Dobu Salada — said group lead by the Rosebuds' overall leader, Sanrinbō senior Ogin Haneko — they expected that it would only be Ataru there with one metahuman to deal with, they possessing considerable superiority of numbers.

Unfortunately, by the time that they came to the restaurant to deal with their friend's ex-boyfriend, Mutsuko had departed with Mizuno Ami so the latter could give the former a quick tour of the town to help update the adopted native of Sasebo on all the trendy modern things people their "age" did in Japan.

Mutsuko had been effectively relieved by one Hirosaki Chikage.

The newly-acknowledged Matriarch in Waiting of the Moroboshi Clan of Mutsu was definitely in NO MOOD whatsoever to deal with those planning to hurt her brother darling.

Haneko's small lynch mob soon got a prolonged dose of Force lightning as a result!

While people inside the restaurant all politely applauded at that action — while vowing to themselves to NEVER threaten Ataru again if he had a sister capable of doing something like THAT! — Chikage was quick to sense the presence of someone else, who had come over from the Tendō dōjō near the Ōizumi Interchange when she learned from her local flunky Marubeya Momoe about the planned attack of Moroboshi Ataru.

Tendō Nabiki was soon to learn that she was up against someone she couldn't affect with her own magical powers, a "gift" from a certain Noroyoniite mercenary named Kyūiin over a year before...


Somewhere...

"Interesting illusion magic, Nabiki. I wonder what Ranma might do when he finds out what you've done."

Gasping on hearing that toneless voice behind her, the middle daughter of Tendō Sōun spun...

...before she screamed as an invisible hand snared her soul gem, yanking it clear of her body before it was teleported to her current opponent's private quarters on Ōmure-jima. As Tendō Nabiki collapsed in a wide-eyed daze thanks to her very SOUL being teleported many kilometres beyond where her physical body was, warps in mid-air on both sides of this alley that the older girl had used to approach the Dobu Salada unseen opened.

"Ah, an eldritch witch..." the Dark Heart of Pure Chaos declared as her amethyst eyes glowed the sickly gold-red indicating that the darker side of her very being was coming out to play. "How nice..."

Ignoring the sucking sounds behind her indicating that four more magical girls gifted by Kyūiin recently were entering the scene, the dark lady of the Sith shifted her neck slightly to allow her cape to come off her shoulders, that being hung on a nearby fence corner as she drew out her dual-ended sabrestaff...

PSSHHHEWWW!

Gekasawa Kumiko, Sōma Mayuki, Akatsuka Miyuki and Fujiwara Mana exclaimed in horror on seeing such a horrible weapon — one that logically should only exist in realms of FICTION! — be deployed by this woman who just GLOWED with both magic and something else, then the former snarled as she summoned her newly-acquired empathic magic. "YOU EVIL MONSTER! YOU WON'T EVER HURT MENDŌ-SAN!"

As a storm of stick-like spiders lunged out of the various warps on both sides of the alley to attack the humans in the alley, Chikage gestured, telekinetically yanking the newcomers' soul gems away from them. All four girls collapsed in screaming agony at that, though they were still conscious enough to see the second-oldest of Moroboshi Ataru's half-sisters calmly, methodically approach the dark creatures now advancing on her...

...then in a weird replay of what Chikage's master in a galaxy far, far away had done in another dimension when confronting a cell of rogue Alliance warriors over the planet Scarif — in a prequel of the chain of events which would see Anakin Skywalker finally kill Sheev Palpatine and bring the Galactic Civil War to an effective close, though WITHOUT the sheer BILLIONS of innocent casualties depicted in the various Star Wars films — the woman known in that universe as Darth Eizō twirled her crimson blade around to intercept eldritch darts of energy, some being reflected against the fence walls on both sides while others were sent back at the beings who shot them. A mixture of screams escaped the familiars as they realized this being before them — one who stank with the scent of the Atom of True Life — was no magical girl but something millions of times worse.

«JOIN ME, LADY EIZŌ.»

As a small portal appeared, allowing Nabiki's soul gem to be teleported back to drop by her — said gem now tied with a considerable amount of charms remotely put on it to allow Chikage to keep personal track of the woman who could be seen as one of the potentially most dangerous "normals" in the area around Tomobiki — the native of Tōkyō gestured, causing two of the minions to be yanked into the air before they were slashed in half by her lightsabre, the parts dropping to the street on either side of her. "I'm sorry about that, but you're now being sacrificed right now to deliver a little object lesson to the fools now behind me. Never fear, though..."

As Nabiki's eyes opened before they went as wide as saucers on seeing the sheer destruction the Dark Heart of Pure Chaos was unleashing, the arch-mage/dark lady of the Sith then made a grasping motion.

"...death is the LEAST of your worries at this time."

The witch in question screeched as she was literally YANKED out into the open by Chikage's mind...

"YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH...!"

...before a blinding torrent of Force lightning lanced out of the teen arch-mage's free hand to fry the tengu-like humanoid that was just pulled out into the open now, making the poor creature scream in mortal agony as all of Chikage's metahuman power burned away her being. While Mayuki came over to aid Nabiki in slipping her soul gem back on before helping her up, the witch's minions all tried to dog-pile their mistress' attacker...

...then all of them were immediately chopped apart as Chikage activated the other end of her sabrestaff, then twirl it like a propeller blade over her head single-handedly, chopping them to fragments before those blades went vertical to hack the witch's grief seed in half, making the shattered body explode into nothingness.

The arch-mage's weapon deactivated as the pocket dimension created by said witch faded, making the magical girls behind Chikage look around. As Nabiki moved to use her illusion magic to ensure no one else saw them in their uniforms, Chikage slowly turned to gaze upon them, her eyes still reflecting the darkness of her own soul.

"Now, Nabiki, as for you..."

Silvery eldritch lightning once more lanced out to inundate the senior student of Fūrinkan High, that making the other girls shriek in horror before they move to attack the evil creature now in front of them...

...before they were grasped by the throats telekinetically and yanked into mid-air while Chikage continued her assault, all four screeching as they reached up to grab at whatever it was that was choking them. After a minute, the arch-mage let up her brutal assault with the dark side of the Force, leaving Nabiki a burnt wreck, her soul gem darkening considerably. Securing her sabrestaff to her belt, Chikage gestured to have her cape restored around her shoulders with a gesture of a hand, her eyes going back to normal.

"See how easy that was?"

As Kumiko and her friends stared wide-eyed at this being, the Dark Heart of Pure Chaos allowed a little of Darth Eizō to take control of her as she ominously added, "NEVER threaten Ani-kun again."

Those glowing eyes then raked down to the moaning senior at her feet. "As for you, Nabiki, how will you ultimately survive once Ranma is forever out of your grasp, I wonder?" Chikage mused before she walked back past the other magical girls towards the Dobu Salada to rejoin her brother darling.

After a minute, Kumiko, Mayuki, Miyuki and Mana dropped into undignified heaps on the ground...


The Senshōbu-jinja, located to the southeast of Tomobiki High, suppertime...

"Here you are, Kumiko-san. This should help heal any muscle or tendon damage."

"Arigatō, Sensei," Gekasawa Kumiko hissed as she accepted the offered herbal tea from Ozuno Tsubame, Sakurambō Sakura's very handsome twenty-something fiancé. Both she and her friends currently attending the Senshō Girl's Academy on the other side of the Mendō estate in nearby Kodaira had retreated to Tomobiki's only active Shintō shrine to find a place to heal, plus pass on the word about what a certain sister of the town's most infamous resident was REALLY capable of doing. "Damn...to believe that Star Wars is REAL...!"

"Many dimensions away, it is VERY real, Kumiko," Sakura stated as she gazed at her guests with her mage-sight, quickly confirming with her own eyes what she had been told about these sorts of people by friends working for the Kantō Magical Association in nearby Mahora. "Chikage-san is not the only one from our universe who went to that dimension on a magical quest. Her grandfather Ryūji did that back in the early years of Shōwa before the Greater East Asia War; he himself attended Hogwarts in the meantime as a way of trying to bridge the growing chasm between Western and Eastern forms of magic. Though as far as I could tell, Elder Ryūji never mastered THAT side of the Force like Chikage-san obviously has. And given how much she clearly cares for her brother..."

"Who is right now VERY angry at a lot of people in this town," the dark-haired traditional Western rune-trained arch-mage — who knew he didn't stand a chance against the likes of Hirosaki Chikage even if she herself had yet to sit her OWL examinations for Hogwarts, those coming sometime next month — added. "You're rather high on that list, Sakura-chan." As the younger people cried out in disbelief, he gave her a knowing look.

"Hai..." she acknowledged that criticism with a nod.

"Sensei, for heaven's sake...!" Kumiko croaked.

"I accidentally cursed the man when we met, Kumiko."

Silence.

"So?! He clearly did something to deserve that!" Fujiwara Mana concluded.

"Has he chased any girls since he came back from that forced wedding on his birthday?"

More silence.

"Um...no! Now that I think of it," Kumiko then concluded, blinking owlishly as she thought back over the last month or so. "In the couple of days before the school got wrecked because of that nightmare Lum had after Golden Week, he was really stand-offish with all the girls in the school except Rumiko-chan..."

"Who's a lesbian," Sakura noted.

"...and Yon-san, too..."

"Who's real name only Moroboshi remembers."

Still more silence.

"Wait! That's the girl's basketball team forward, right?! Inu Chigaiko-chan?!" Sōma Mayuki demanded, earning her a set of very confused looks from both the Tomobiki High school nurse and her own unofficial little sister who attended that very school. "Oh, shit...! If Chigaiko-chan's cursed of all things...!"

"No wonder a lot of folk at Butsumetsu High are pissed at folks from your school, Kumiko-chan!" Akatsuka Miyuki moaned. "Chigaiko-chan's sister Fuchiko-sempai is one of the senior gang leaders in that place! She pretty much leads the anti-Mendō faction there against Chisa Reika-chan." As Kumiko gargled on hearing that, the bespectacled magical girl shook her head. "Oh, shit! No wonder Ataru-kun's pissed at you, Sensei!"

"Whatever this is, it affects anyone associated directly with Tomobiki High, staff or students," Mayuki noted. "Except Ataru-kun, which could be explained because he's hated. Does anyone know when this all started?"

"I could text Sempai and ask her," Mami volunteered.

"Do that, Mami-san," Tsubame bade. "Maybe helping that poor girl will do a lot for many people in the school. If Ataru's withdrawal from the school didn't break the curse, it has to have some other source point and we need to determine what it is." He then squared his shoulders. "Now, as for you four..."

The younger people all tensed as Sakura shook her head...


Atop the Toranoseishin Tower downtown, that moment...

"Damn! You really did something to hide this place, didn't you?"

"Not against someone like you, Ranma."

Hearing that name applied to the her, what people in Nerima would immediately see as the cursed form of perhaps the most famous martial arts prodigy of the current generation smiled. "I'm going to be looking so forward to ditching that name for something more proper sometime soon..." — here, Saotome Ranma grinned as she gazed on the short-haired brunette in the form-fitting jumpsuit standing on the roof — "...Tariko-chan."

The Trickster of the Show hummed for a moment before she smirked as she placed a fingertip on the newcomer's forehead, a knowing smile crossing the reality warper's face. "Kanami."

"Huh?"

"That's your name from now on: Hayashi Kanami."

Blinking, the girl who was born a boy not long after the other boy-turned-girl was born thought about it before she hummed. "How written?" she wondered, clearly interested by that proposal.

Tariko smirked as she gestured with her free hand, making the characters 林 加奈美 appear over the palm. Seeing that, the being who was one of two BOYS to actually be entered into The Book of Pretty Girls thanks to the Neko-ken incident in the early spring of 2005 hummed before she smirked. "I can go for that."

"So let's make it real," the lady who had saved the-then Saotome Ranma from that dark training bade.

"Let's," Hayashi Kanami agreed.

Their pinky fingers then came together to echo a promise made seven years before...

...that would soon rip the "Nerima Wrecking Crew" apart beyond ALL HOPE of repair.

To Be Continued...


WRITER'S NOTES

Yatsura character and situation notes: The Dobu Salada restaurant first appeared in the anime story "Goodbye Seasons" (anime episode #64). The "fan" of Miyake Shinobu spoken of by Kumamoto Kiko (THG Kitakami) here is Soban, who first appeared in the manga storyline "Get Something On Your Chest" (manga chapters #184-185). Sakurambō Sakura's long-suffering fiancé Ozuno Tsubame first appeared in the manga story "Disco Inferno" (manga chapter #19). The elder sister to Inu Chigaiko (the Unseen Woman), Inu Fuchiko, first appeared in The Senior Year story "Darling's Secret Date".

Kisaragi Mutsuko (THG Mutsuki) is one of the main stars of the Kantai Collection anime series. In this series, she is first noted on in Part Eleven of Book One.

Tendō Nabiki being a magical girl of the type appearing in Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magika was revealed in Part Eight of Book One. Her confrontation with Hirosaki Chikage (Dragonheart) is the effective start of the "Week of Hell" that befell Nerima as provoked by Hayashi Kanami (né Saotome Ranma).

The name of Sakurambō Sakura's shrine, Senshōbu-jinja, is my invention; such was a combination of two of the Rokuyō first noted on in the Ataru's Harem omake Surprise From Shakkō. Here, I combined the terms Senbu (directly translated as "before victory") and Senshō ("before defeat") to create a term implying a spiritual double entendre reflective of what often is displayed in Urusei Yatsura. Given what the components individually imply, the luck of those who interact with Senshōbu-jinja might be either total or nonexistent.