DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.

The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei
Omake: Seeker
by Regina Magia

East Jerusalem, the second Saturday in April 2012, mid-afternoon (Tōkyō time: Mid-evening)...

"Tariko's alright...! Thank goodness!"

The dusky-skinned Israeli with the dirty blonde hair done in a low ponytail to mid-back and the dark hazel eyes, looking to be in her late teens, could only smile in relief. Currently, she was standing in a quiet wood in the eastern Jerusalem neighbourhood of at-Tur, located on the famous Mount of Olives where the Christian Saviour was said to have finally ascended to Heaven. Currently, Naomi bat-Lian was clad in a gold jumpsuit of the halter top pattern preferred by the current Terran-born generation of Yizibajohei, complete with brownish-orange belt and boots and emblazoned with a dark gold sun with a stylized eye insignia in white on her chest above her cleavage. This marked her as the Far-searching Maiden of Light to those who were quick to recognize uniform patterns on the World of the Forge. In Yizibajohei, she would be called Lemdo ("Seeker"); Naomi used the Hebrew translation, Mekhapés, whenever she had to introduce herself to the authorities and didn't want to reveal her birth name.

Gazing at the rising sun ascending over the deserts of neighbouring Jordan, Naomi let out a sigh. It was a good Gift she possessed. The Great Crystal had given her powerful photokinetic abilities, the ability to fly at supersonic speeds and enhanced visual senses similar to Superman's powers, which her battle line often used for exploration and/or search-and-rescue purposes right from the Dawn of Power; her first-self had been the Yizibajohei equivalent of an American Air Force pararescueman who scoured the foreboding woods and endless ice of the planet's southern polar continent to locate stranded travellers.

Like many of the pretty girls Tariko Katabarbe had met on her travels, Naomi endured a considerable amount of personal hardship when she first got to know the current incarnation of the Trickster of the Show two years ago. In the case of the native of one of the Jewish settlements near Bethlehem in the West Bank, she and her family had been caught in the crossfire of the seemingly never-ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict over who controlled the Holy Land. Her parents had been killed, but she and her sister Rivkah survived, moving into the western suburbs of Israel's capital city to reside with an aunt. Before that happened, Tariko found them amid the rubble of their house, then easily persuaded them to become Gifted once she got the chance to see them rescued by local security forces.

Currently, Rivkah was only pre-Gifted; Naomi had accepted her Gift a year ago.

At this time, the baker's elder daughter was a member of the Tori Simnie ("Salvation Alliance"), a new battle-group of Terran-born Yizibajohei from all parts of the Middle East who gladly sought out young people their age who were suffering abuse or enduring other horrible situations to offer the chance to become Gifted and thus be able to defend themselves from the many dangers in the region. Of course, like anyone who knew the most horrible part of Tariko's own pre-Gifting at the hand of her well-meaning yet grieving adopted mother a decade before, Naomi and her peers understood how important it was that the choice be made willingly. Still, given what was happening in Iraq and Syria with the recent rise of the "Islamic State" — earning them the terrible ire of the other group of Yizibajohei-type metahumans now active in the region, the Tutoam Kimr'be ("Angels of Darkness"); already, the world's news media were starting to pick up on stories of metahuman girls tearing into the maniacs following Abū Bakr al-Baġdādī, especially after those lunatics beheaded an innocent person and posted the recording of such on the Internet — those the Alliance's members located rarely refused the offer.

Ending the communications link over her Personal Administrative Assistant, she turned back to the two younger children she had been speaking with. "Sorry about that," she apologized.

"What happened?" asked the younger girl currently with her, one just past the cusp of puberty named Maya Barron. Born to a family who lived in Lotan in the Negev Desert near the Jordanian border that had expressed a deep hatred of Muslims dating back to the War of Independence in 1948, the slender yet tomboyish brunette with the hazel eyes befriended her current companion, a raven-haired, dark-eyed Palestinian who was the son of a merchant from nearby Ketura named Malik bin Muḥammad, when they were in primary school. That friendship had done much to help Maya reject her parents' deeply-rooted Islamophobia...even of the elder Barrons would understandably become angry when they found out about her befriending an Arab of all people. When they threatened to contact the authorities to have Malik and his parents taken from Ketura — even when they had been invited to live there by the leaders of that kibbutz! — the pair of children ran away in fear, making their way north into the West Bank and relative "safety". Naomi encountered them when Malik tried to pick her pocket while she was touring the Muslim parts of eastern Jerusalem. One look told her everything she needed to know.

After hearing their story, she made an offer.

"Remember I told you about how I got my Gift and who helped me get it?" she asked. After they nodded to show they did remember that, she said, "Turns out that Tariko was busy seeking new friends in her old hometown...but for some strange reason, she was magically obliviated of all her memories of Yiziba and transformed back into her birth form a month before the Urusians came. Kasuga Ayumu just found her and got her turned back." She took a deep breath. "Tariko's also accepted her Gift as Coyote."

"How?!" a wide-eyed Malik wondered as he tried to imagine who could have taken down a wonderful woman like Tariko Katabarbe, a woman who seemed to him to be clearly blessed by God Himself to have gone forth to become the saviour of lost children such as they over the last decade and more.

Naomi shook her head. "I'm not sure exactly, but according to what Hasegawa Chisame learned from Mihama Chiyo, it has to do with the umale from Uru and that Tag Race they ran six months ago."

That made the younger teens scowl. It had nearly caused a war when space taxis tried to steal the plentiful oil under the sands of Arabia the previous fall; fortunately for all of humanity, the mysterious "Men In Black" from New York City had been able to get the black gold restored to where it had been found without any harm to the environment. And while the fact that Redet Lum had been able to "pay" the taxi driver off with some of her own power to send him away, four Japanese boys who became the warlord's daughter's "Stormtroopers" were now the objects of much cursing among the people of the Middle East, especially among the nations who were members of OPEC; this was thanks to their being the people who actually called down the damned thing in the first place...all to go forth and seek out the warlord's daughter they all clearly desired! Once details of that incident were published thanks to the Japanese interior ministry not hours before, the leaders of ISIL immediately issued a fatwā demanding their deaths and the death of the "alien devil-girl" who was the ultimate cause of that incident.

"Was Miss Tariko involved?" Maya asked. "That thing with the space taxi?"

"I don't know, but I think so," the older Israeli answered. "Whoever did this obviously knows that if any of us hear or see the name 'Moroboshi Ataru' in the media, a whole STORM of us would go to Tomobiki to seek her out. Given that those umale are actually living there now, that could have easily provoked a massive fight scene, even a repeat of the Mother of All Fight Scenes centuries ago. So if Tariko was involved in any way, shape or form, people outside town wouldn't know of it."

"What are her plans?" Maya's friend then wondered; they hadn't reached the stage where they'd be comfortable as "boyfriend" and "girlfriend".

"Keep silent for the time being," Naomi stated. "What the Angels are doing up north right now is easily disguised given how people tend to misinterpret things. The umale know of the magicals living among us and how fanatic they are in keeping that stupid secrecy statute intact." She then shook her head. "But whoever did this has aroused the anger of the Trickster of the Show. According to the stories of the Dawn of Power I've heard about, Coyote's fury was said to be violent enough to even scare Infinity!"

That made the younger teens shudder as they instantly imagined what a fight scene between Tariko Katabarbe and Kasuga Ayumu could be like. During the time Naomi had been with them, she regaled them with many tales of the current incarnation of the Goddess Who Walks Among Men, especially the times she allowed people to get Battle Doll bodies to help them control their Gifts. The Archangel of Mortality herself — executioner of the heretic Usāmah bin Lādin who saw so many in New York and Washington killed years ago — was one who benefited from Kasuga Ayumu's largess. "Those people from Uru are monsters!" Maya then sulkily noted. "What made them think they've got a right to invade us, especially with the other neighbouring races keeping a watch on things?! If they'd come in peace or to help us in some way, that's one thing...but to pretend to want to CONQUER us...?!"

Naomi chuckled. "Well, they won't be a problem very soon..."

In a cave on Yiziba, a day later...

"Nesu...TEMDUO!"

Naomi smiled in delight as she watched Malik calmly emerge from the glowing wall of crystal that formed the inner end of the Cave of the Future near Habitation One, the effective "capital city" of the Free Planetary State of Yiziba on the northern polar continent several hundred kilometres south of Tariko Katabarbe's hillside cabin in the old territory of Nesetimtuto. The young Palestinian was now clad in a bright yellow jumpsuit in the modern sleeveless model with pale blue accents, a mace-like symbol in dark blue surrounded by a ring of thunderbolts on the upper chest. She knew through the memories of her past-self that Temduo — his popular tag-line would be "the Living Lightning" — had the ability to weld massive levels of electricity to the point where s/he could transform her/himself into a bolt of energy similar to how the American comic book hero Human Torch turned into living flame.

"Are you alright?" she asked as the merchant's son came over to embrace her.

"A miracle...!" Malik breathed out.

A polite cough made the two turn to gaze upon the Bright Genius of the Young Guns herself standing nearby, who had what looked like a super-advanced version of an iPad in her hand. As the woman born Mihama Chiyo smiled at him, Malik blushed in embarrassment. Seeing that, Naomi tried not to giggle; not even the most dark heel on this planet could make him/herself resist that super-cute smile. "Malik-san, how would you like your battle-name interpreted on Earth?" the native of Itabashi in Tōkyō asked.

He hummed for a moment, then smiled. "'Vájra'."

That made Chiyo blink in surprise. "That's Sanskrit! Wouldn't you want it...?!"

"In Arabic or Hebrew?" he finished, then shook his head. "No, Miss Chiyo, that's not necessary. In the eyes of the umale like Miss Tariko's 'wife', we are not Muslim or Jewish or followers of Shintō or anyone else. We are Terran first." He impishly smiled. "Besides, my father has friends in India whom he met during his ḥajj to Makkah. He always liked Buddhist theories and legends."

"Oh...!"

The Great Crystal then glowed again...

"Nesu...HIEGA!"

Emerging from the wall of glowing mesonium was Maya. She was dressed in a deep purple jumpsuit with black belt and boots, the suit decorated with chains of colourful sahasrāra-like symbols up the sides to form a central symbol over her upper chest. Seeing that, Naomi shook her head in amusement, instantly sensing the influence-by-proxy of Malik's father in the choice of his future daughter-in-law's Gift. Maya was now the current incarnation of the psychic nicknamed the "All-Seeing Sage of the East"; her first-self was a religious philosopher who saved many villages on the eastern equatorial continent during the years of the Dawn of Power. While not as powerful a telepath as Chiyo's friend Mizuhara Koyomi, the native of Lotan now also possessed some telekinetic abilities, normally used in levitation.

"Well?!" the Searching Maiden of Light asked. "What do you think?!"

Maya shuddered. "It's wonderful...!"

"Maya-san...?"

Remembering the other girl's presence, the young Israeli girl hummed before she nodded. "'Véda'.".

Chiyo giggled. Why am I not so surprised...?

Naomi nodded. "So now we have to get you two someplace to ensure any issues of Post-Gifting Shock don't end up causing unnecessary damage," she announced.

"I'm looking forward to it!" Malik exclaimed as he allowed electricity to crackle between his hands and lash out into the ceiling of the Cave, thus causing some...issues.

Everyone giggled as they all headed towards the entrance, where Asakura Kasumi was now standing in her uniform as the Voice of the Show, hand-held camcorder before her eyes to transmit the first images of the two newest Terrans to be Gifted out into the public media networks across Yiziba. As both Malik and Maya flashed peace signs to the camera, the latter psionically said, «I feel much the same. There's so much that I understand now.» She then frowned. «Part of me wishes that my family could too...»

"It'll be alright, Maya-san!" Chiyo instantly cheered. "It'll be alright!"

"So where to now?" Malik asked.

Naomi smiled at the two newest members of the Salvation Alliance.

"Anywhere you want..."

Fin...

WRITER'S NOTES

Translation list and source language: Bat-(name) — Literally "daughter of (name)", serving as the patronymic part of a person's name (Hebrew); Bin (name) — Literally "son of (name)", again serving as the patronymic part of a person's name (Arabic); Kibbutz — Gathering/Clustering (Hebrew); Fatwā — Non-binding legal opinion on Islamic law (Arabic); Nesu — Behold (Yizibajohei); Nesetimtuto — Analogue of the United States, the name of the most powerful nation-state before the Dawn of Power (Yizibajohei); Ḥajj — Pilgrimage (Arabic); Sahasrāra — Literally "thousand-petalled" and also called the crown chakra, this is the seventh primary chakra in tantric yoga traditions (Sanskrit); Vájra — A war club with a ribbed spherical head (Sanskrit); Véda — Literally "knowledge", the catch-all term for a large body of Hindu religious texts that were written from long-standing oral tradition (Sanskrit).