Long Live The Queen
by Rob Morris
Chapter Ten - The Folly Of Wishful Thinking
1
KAMAKURA, JAPAN, THE MAPLE HOUSE
THE VERY VERY CROWDED MAPLE HOUSE
The heartbeat of an entire overstuffed household came to a halt as, on-screen (the overlarge on-screen, courtesy of Dr. Arakawa), Queen Nana jumped off the Washington, DC podium in a field near the White House, there to confront a madman with a bomb vest. The tears in her eyes, so visible with the new video technology, tore through the hearts of those that loved her, blood and otherwise. Finally, all present gasped as Nana negated gravity's hold on the lunatic, ending his threat - and him as well. Little Hana was the first to speak, her question silly-headed but heartfelt.
"Is he gonna land here? Nana-Onee-Chan sent that bad man really far up into the sky."
Mayu adored the girl who was both her half-sister and her cousin, but another part of her was with Nana, whom she knew had to be devastated at killing for the first time.
"Hana-Imouto needn't worry her sweetie head. That man will never land anywhere. We are safe from him. But how did he get that close to the President? I'd heard everyone who is even in the same area as him gets looked over with a fine-tooth comb."
Kouta seemed to be reaching out to the screen, as though to wipe Nana's tears away. He stopped himself, and Yuka held him.
"She's taking on so much responsibility. I just wanted her to pull some weeds and feed Wanta. Now she's saving world leaders?"
Yuka smiled.
"Maybe the whole world, too."
Little Wanta looked up at the screen, barking lightly as though Nana could hear him. Mayu shook her head. She briefly recalled her teacher saying that dogs recognized people by scent and sound, not facial recognition, but let this pass as yet another of Wanta's oddities,
"Nana can't hear you, silly Wanta-chan. Oh-make sure he doesn't start watching when the credits roll on-screen. It gets him really dizzy."
Wanta, for his part, seemed delighted by all the extra people, all paying him attention - until he had to chase some of them out of his doghouse.
"C'mon, doggie-it's so crowded in there."
A fact the small animal seemed to have no sympathy for.
Yet despite everything, a sense of normalcy had begun to fall over Maple House. The college students were chipping in and keeping things to a dull roar, and the grounds were kept clean. The Agent, with too much of her father Jouji Bando in her, knew it couldn't last, and told the heads of household as much.
"Look, I'm glad Nana has the ear of some grateful opinion makers, and even more grateful that the old-school existing Diclonius are now starting to walk away from the wild newbies made by Kakuzawa. The less enemy to fight when the big push comes, the better. But the fact remains, wherever the hell they came from, there are plenty of Diclonius out there in full attack mode. Horned girls, horny for blood and combat, and attracted first and foremost to three things: Technology, Infrastructure, and leave us not forget -"
She pointed outside to the yard and surrounding grounds.
"Large concentrations of Humans. Where we gather, they make a beeline to, with every bit of haste. This is rapidly turning into the densest concentration of Humans in the entire shoreline area. I am officially suggesting, for the sake of Arakawa, Anna and Nana, as well as all the vital war assets that call this place home, that these students be sent bye-bye."
Kouta noted that the Agent's diction had slipped a little since her parentage became common knowledge. But it was Emiko who spoke up first.
"Just where are these kids supposed to go? The university was turning a blind eye to their makeshift housing, until this crisis began. Now that school is like a garrison. I thought that was supposed to be illegal now."
Yuka was grateful that her mother had not brought up her chastisement over Yuka's initial invitation to the unhoused students, in which she had bypassed both Emiko and Kouta. The newlyweds' lack of alone time had also brought this home - as had the chores of maintaining the toilet and onsen.
"I mean, can we even be sure this army of girls is really headed here? Kamakura now has a reputation as being nearly Diclonius-free. Maybe some instinct makes these girls respect their queens?"
Before the Agent could rebut, Kouta spoke up.
"They're coming. Some innate curiosity will be present, and some vague fear won't keep them away forever. Eventually, it might even draw them in. Agent Bando is right. With the summer festival due, school resumes soon after. We'll move them out as classes hopefully resume. At the very least, we won't take in any more guests. Because I can't see this getting any more...and what's that noise?"
The noise, as they both likely predicted, was indeed the noise of more guests, albeit ones camping outside the perimeter of the walls. Kouta felt his head exploding, and called on one he saw and knew.
"Tohru? Do you know what's going on here?"
In the distance, Kouta saw Pastry Merchant Ani Yaroake setting up her stand in the area, and then recognized other merchants as well. Tohru came over, looking a bit sheepish.
"Yah, Sensei-well, the good news is, we all got jobs at the Summer Festival. The um-bad news-"
Kouta cut him off.
"You do realize I was JOKING when I said we should have the Festival right here? Didn't you?"
The other man shook his head.
"Wasn't my suggestion, Sensei. Look, school should start again soon, and word is, we'll all get roped into building the new student housing - legit this time. So we'll be out of your hair, anyway. But for here and now, we need jobs, and the merchants need to be where the people are. Please, Onii-Chan-you've done a solid so far-don't pull it out on us before it's done."
Kouta fretted, wondering if his heart would ever harden apart from his final moments with Lucy.
"Don't pull that Onii-Chan crap - you're older than me, remember?"
Tohru nodded.
"Yeah, but none of us have got it together the way you Maple House bunch do. Even the little girls are like senior managers compared to us. Can we stay?"
Having heard rumors that the Festival would be cancelled altogether, Kouta feared disrupting it, even at the expense of his peace of mind.
"Things end entirely by 2 AM, and do not start again until at least 11 AM. Understood? Cross that line and I really will throw everyone out."
And now he would have to do it, just to keep any credibility or control, he realized. Ani the Baker gestured to him.
"Kouta-San? Thank you so much. I've tried to buy a booth at the festival before, but since I know the landlords, I leveraged my way in. Now-a surprise!"
She opened a box, and what Kouta saw made him finally smile.
"Yuka! Get everyone over here - just our family."
He hoped she knew that 'family' meant their 'House' family, but indeed she did, and when they came over, they all saw. Mayu joined the smiles.
"How wonderful, Ani-San. I bet they'll be a hit."
Nozomi held one of the cookies.
"They look just like her."
Little Hana marveled at the specialized cookies that looked just like Queen Nana's face.
"Is it proper to eat my Onee-Chan's head? Hana doesn't wish to be rude."
Her mother gave a look that seemed to say 'Since When?', but when she caught a look from Nozomi's father, Haruto. She had seen such looks before, and decided it was time to deal with them.
"Watanabe-San?"
Haruto seemed surprised that she was addressing him. With so many people now in and around Maple House, they had barely interacted.
"Mrs. Hagiwara. Is there something I can do for you?"
Arika, mother to two girls in Maple House and aunt/stepmother to another, nodded.
"You can let me explain myself in a forthright and pre-emptive manner, and accept my apologies for bluntness and burdening you beforehand."
Since he appreciated such traits - to an extent, and usually only with other men - Haruto allowed this.
"Go on."
Arika was as forthright as she had set up.
"We do overly indulge her. There are many times we could easily reprimand or even punish her for her 'Hana-isms' and yet we stop and fail to even correct her."
Since she said nothing to disagree with, Haruto let her continue.
"I know she's not a brat, but she is greatly rambunctious. She only seems to know a little of customs and restrictions. Please understand, when she was born, we were only a few years removed from losing Nana and Mayu. One because we were offered no choice, the other because the choices were so incredibly frightening. We saw each other as our mutual last chance for love. We saw Hana as a last chance for our lives meaning anything. We had failed our first daughters. We owed it to them to make their little sister happy. If that meant other people scolding us for our approach, her smile made that price well worth it."
Haruto seemed to take this in. Nozomi listened from a distance as he spoke.
"Hana-chan seems to know little of words never spoken, of words that should never be said. While she must learn of this, I, through hard experience, urge you not to harden her too much in this way. This war was able to be started by Anna-chan's father by way of questions our officials failed to ask until it was too late. Why did they fail to ask? Because Kakuzawa-San was too highly placed, and too successful. Surely such men don't engage in conspiracies to overthrow God?"
Haruto turned and looked at Nozomi.
"Surely such men, even while grieving, can bother to consult a medical tome and learn that voice loss, while a concern, is not an inevitability? Surely, they can pull back and separate their intense grief from their concern for their child, and not the mix the two up until all actions and words become a hateful jumble of lashing out?"
He had his child at last, and was not prepared to let go ever again.
"I now unburden myself on you, child. I hated her for leaving us. For leaving me. For leaving you with me. Now I had no back-up, should I fail you-as I did. For not being able to face her loss."
Nozomi melted inside, the thaw at last begun.
"I hated her, too - even if that thought was unworthy. I even thought - maybe she left because of me. Because I was too clingy. Too mousy, as you once said."
Hana again proved her mother's point.
"Why, Nozomi-chan? Where did she go, when she left you? Maybe we can go and get her back?"
Before Arika could finally lay down the law, Nozomi stepped in.
"Hana-chan, you should not interrupt others. It's rude."
Mayu also moved in, this latest incursion too much to take.
"Hana-chan, I know you're trying to help, but this is a matter only for Nozomi-chan and Haruto-San. We love you, but you must learn to keep back from some things."
Hana shook her head, but not defiantly.
"Hana wants to help, because they are so sad. Hana wants to give some of this house's magic to them, so they can be happy again."
If there was something Haruto did not believe in, it was magic, so the girl's words intrigued him.
"Magic, child?"
Hana nodded.
"My Onee-Sans were both dead, once. But they came here to Maple House, and now we are a family again. No more secret frowns for Mama and Papa, and I have more Mamas and Papas here than the kids in the books who have two apiece. The mad scientist lady is happy here - when she isn't locked in the onsen or keeping Wanta-chan to herself. The Secret Agent even cracks a smile at some of Hana's cartoons."
The Agent, always nearby a crowd of her charges, shrugged.
"Just that one with the bear they keep telling him he isn't a bear. It spoke to me."
Hana continued to push her luck.
"Hana is sorry to interrupt, and to always be so excited. But since she now has everything she wants, she wants other people to have some of this as well."
Nozomi calmed herself, and smiled despite old pains.
"My Mama is dead, Hana-chan, like Nyu. But she didn't just die. She ended her own life. She had suffered a terrible loss, and she could not go on that way. When we say she left us, that is what we mean."
Haruto seemed more relaxed as well.
"Because that is what it felt like. We all talk about the things that we're not supposed to say or do, and while some things this is true for, we end up assigning it to so many things, they block our sight and our hearing. I-thought that Nozomi-chan would suffer as her mother did, but in trying to stop this, and deal with my own shame and pain - I made things worse."
Nozomi put out her hand.
"Papa-please walk with me along the beach. I want to talk."
His hand met hers.
"Maybe on the boardwalk. But Yes. Let us walk. Hana-Chan? Thank You for lending us some of your house's magic."
But as they left, Hana was far from done.
"Mayu Onee-Chan? Can you take some magic, too? Can you stop hating Papa?"
Mayu fought off the glare that she was certain her Imouto would have taken badly. But her words were much more sharp.
"Hana, you talk too much. You place yourself in the middle of things even when you don't have to, and it is unseemly."
Within a second, she grabbed and hugged the little girl.
"Don't ever change. Keep our parents on their toes. Mayu tried so hard to be a good girl, she didn't notice that her Mama had left her long before she threw me out."
Then Mayu released Hana and looked at their father, Kenjiro.
"But she didn't throw me out, did she? I ran away, knowing that things would never improve. Just like you did, Papa."
Arika looked ready to object, but didn't. Mayu looked at her with gratitude.
"Mama is kind. But it is only now, looking back, that I fully grasp what a selfish child she was, and how much it hurt all of us. Papa had no choice but to retreat, just as I did, for this was a retreat into reality. The hard reality of a broken heart or life without a home, because keeping to her meant only pain."
Mayu breathed in, as though to gather strength.
"I thought I was bad for leaving. I thought that somehow, I would make her worry about me despite her ugly words. But she had been ugly in more than her words for a very long time. She made me forget about Auntie, who is now Mama, and about baby Nana. She yelled at me until I promised that I would forget that there was a beautiful horned baby - and then I did. I just kept giving in, thinking it would make things right."
Kenjiro shook his head.
"Then you are not like your first Mama. You are like your first Papa. She began to scare me, Mayu-chan. I was scared of losing her, but I was also scared of what I might see in her before I finally decided to do what so many urged."
Father and daughter spoke as one in the next instance, not in a cute accidental sense, but in an almost telepathic bonding of intent, to say what must be said.
"I tried so hard to be good, but it just wasn't enough to save her."
Arika, who had never once liked the late unlamented Shin Hagiwara, spoke to confirm the needed words.
"Because there was no saving her. She wanted to create her own world, where she called all the rules, and that world can only be a hell for everyone else. In life, she came between all of us. Please, for me and for Hana, let her do so no more. Just please - no more."
Mayu walked towards the man who had never intended to walk away from her, only to find he had done so anyway.
"I was afraid that, if you ever came back, you would be like her husband. That maybe there had never been any good Papa. Poor Kouta-San took the brunt of my distrust, and that is why I defer to him. For he passed my tests, even ones I didn't realize I gave him."
Kenjiro walked up and finally held his firstborn.
"I was afraid that, if I ever got you back, you would have become like her. I had an illusion about who my wife was, and now I wondered if my precious little girl had ever existed, either. I knew it would be cold in her house. But if I had ever known you would be unsafe there, no court, no law and none save Kami himself could have opposed me as I took you back."
Mayu hadn't known many details about this part.
"What did the courts do?"
When Kenjro closed his eyes against tears, Arika again spoke up.
"Your mother had told them that your father was a menace to you - exactly the way your stepfather truly was to you."
Mayu shook her head fitfully.
"Did they believe her filthy lies?"
Arika looked at her younger child.
"Hana, go check on Kouta-San, alright?"
Hana snapped to.
"Yes, Mama - Kouta-San is also very worried about Nana Onee-Chan!"
The small lie would spare the child the sad history. Arika continued with Mayu.
"They didn't simply buy her stories without evidence, but while she had you, I guess she also got you to ignore his presence in court. This raised doubts that she exploited."
Mayu felt a hard burst of regained memory her 'second Papa' Kouta would have well understood.
"She-she told me Papa had died, and that a man claiming to be him would be in court. She told me he had cheated Papa - and - and - was anything she said ever true? Her name was Shin - that's supposed to mean truth!"
Kenjiro regained himself long enough to speak.
"Very basic stuff. Details always served her. I was determined to break her lies, but the only solution seemed to be having the courts place you in foster care until it was all reasoned out. I objected to this, but eventually gave in - and then we were having Hana. My lawyer told me that if one child had been removed, both of them would have to be. I've heard stories of babies in the system vanishing, being adopted out from under you. So I made a sorry gamble - that with her coveting grasping nature, your mother would always care for you. You were hers, and what she owned was precious to her ego and station. The accusation was dropped and allowed to be forgotten - so long as I never saw you or her again."
Mayu looked down, defeated. Some of this, she had heard before, but never in this raw a form.
"Then there is nothing of mine she didn't take. No happiness, no peace of mind, she didn't see fit to disrupt and destroy."
Kenjiro felt he had to add more, expanding on things he had already once said.
"Like I told you before, I approached her again when the storm of accusations came out about your step-father. I actually tried to be civil in my demands she release you to me. That didn't last, and so I laid it out, and bought my house back for a pittance. When she proclaimed that you had left, I never believed her story about you and Kouta. But I thought maybe she had sent you away to where she was going before fleeing herself. I thought at that time - you were lost to me forever."
Mayu felt off balance, but also like some things were righting themselves.
"And I didn't look for you because I thought there was no one to look for. I did check local cemeteries to see if I could find your marker. I just had no idea where to look. Papa, I'm tired of being afraid. I wish you had called her bluff, but I know that dealing with her lies was to always lose the argument."
She then said words that she meant, words that lifted tons of weight off of all of them.
"I forgive you for what you couldn't do for me. Because I know at least that you tried, and that you always cared."
Kenjiro went next, also lifting a weight.
"My Mayu was always as good as gold. Maybe you were almost too good to be born to someone like her. Except I see her in you - that is, I see the person I imagined her to be, or imagined that she could be. You are a good girl, Mayu. Always."
As father and daughter overcame the last barriers between them, Hana continued her role as inadvertent catalyst for air-clearing in Maple House.
"Yuka-San! Have you seen Kouta-San?"
Yuka became concerned, despite the excitable nature of the child.
"Why, Hana-chan? Is he alright?"
Hana stopped, looking briefly confused.
"Umm, Mama-San just said I should get him. She didn't say why."
Yuka scooped up their little visitor, and mussed her hair.
"It's a good girl who obeys her Mama. But Kouta-San is just fine."
Hana ran off to tell her mother just that. Yuka was in turn approached by her mother, Emiko. Her smile nearly vanished, and her eyes rolled.
"Mother, I don't need a snarky remark. I haven't done anything worth lecturing or taunting me about."
Emiko shrugged.
"Just what did I do to deserve that?"
Yuka's mood shifted from melancholy to volcanic.
"How about always giving me a hard time! How about always taking someone else's side - even when I'm just talking about arguments I've had with people you never even met? How about treating me like I'm some sort of burden?"
Emiko was now glad for her suspicions. They kept her from blowing her own top at this pushback.
"You were a burden. Raising you alone is the single hardest thing I ever had to do, because you were already so determined, and so capable-which also meant bullheaded and too certain of yourself. When your father was gone, and my family so soon after-you were all I had left. Since this world seemed set on consuming all I loved, I thought that if I was tougher on you-it would let you stay. Now let me say my peace."
Emiko shook her head.
"Except for this outburst, I've never seen you so serene, so calm, so at peace. So Yuka-chan-how far along are you?"
Yuka's eyes went wide as saucers. Which is to say, wider than the usual saucers they were normally as wide as.
"You knew?"
Emiko grinned a slightly evil grin.
"Well, you've been doing it like rabbits, even with all the crowding. This tends to be the result. The only thing that throws me is the time-frame-till I realized how much time has passed since all this started-I mean since this phase of it started. Now, have you told Kouta yet?"
Yuka looked down.
"How can I, Mother? The law makes pretty clear what has to happen now - and what can't be allowed to happen."
Emiko pushed her chin up, and kissed her child on the forehead.
"We will find a way. Life wins this time."
The pair began to literally approach destiny as they sought the rest of their family.
Emiko was right, and her daughter knew it. The amount of time since all the college kids had moved in – indeed, was both long and yet brief, kind of like the two simple years from finding the nude and bleeding Nyu to having to mourn her mercy killing at Kouta's hands.
"Mother – I must speak to my husband."
The way Yuka spoke left no thoughts of debate, but Emiko swore inwardly to step right in if she felt any evasion or deception was at play. This was far too vital. Kouta had to be told.
*Hell, is this the future?*
Emiko now viewed the future as the outcome of a war between her side of the family and the main Kakuzawa line. With her own children and Anna following her lead, she felt she could win absent extinction.
*Yes, absent the end of everything. Sheesh.*
Yuka gingerly approached Kouta, who once more showed his recovered intelligence after she covered her stomach before meeting his gaze.
"So soon? It feels like we've barely had a chance to be together."
The others present, save for Emiko, started openly. Kouta's shift from clueless to sharp now had him a page ahead instead of behind, but often no more in tune as a result. Mayu took her role as house daughter to heart.
"Yuka-San is pregnant?"
Returned from her walk, promised Godmother Nozomi perhaps picked up on the lack of celebration.
"This is wonderful news, isn't it?"
Her father, once deliberately ignorant of medical facts, shook his head.
"Nozomi-chan, the law says that this baby may not be born."
The harsh but needed impact of these words showed on all their faces, but most especially on Little Hana's. Rather than burst out into a flood of chatter, she simply began to cry and said, "But that isn't fair. The baby would have so many that would love them."
Kouta saw all the questions that they might have, and more forming. He centered on one alone, the only one that mattered to him. He looked his wife in the eyes.
"Do you want to have this baby?"
Yuka wanted to scream, but knew he was sincere and caring in asking this.
"Yes, Yes, of course. More than anything. I want life to win. There has been enough death to last us several centuries. But Kouta? Haruto-San is right. The law is clear on preventing all births in this time."
Kouta was said to merely have improved thinking, not enhanced. But the thought of his child being taken before it could even develop was forcing him down new pathways.
"Agent Bando? Can an exception be made?"
Elena Oahu Bando scratched her head with her gun.
"Yeah, I think I could obtain a waiver, but that wouldn't be the problem, would it?"
Arika, a mother who had lived with the idea of vanished children for the better part of a decade, caught on first.
"Kouta-San? Imagine the pain of a family that asks why you and Yuka-San have a baby and they may not. Imagine the child's pain, teased and targeted by other children for being vastly younger or vastly older than all the kids around her."
Unlike his wife, Kenjiro felt the loss of his child as a very personal failure, of nerve and of courage.
"Stuff their pain! I'm sorry, but the people of this house have been known to have some, and did any of those moaning neighbors tell them when the jack-booted forces – sorry, Agent-San – were about to knock down their doors? I already love this child, and I want it to call me Uncle, or Second Papa, and have Yuka-San chastise me for spoiling it rotten!"
Agent Bando shrugged.
"No offense taken, though we didn't offer them much choice on the silent part. By the way, that is all IF I could get a waiver. The help you've all given might make some in charge grateful, but it might also make them extra wary of a kid coming from Lucy's home, horns or no horns."
Kouta felt he had the solution.
"There won't be any horns, because I'm immune! That's what the American Army doctor- D'Abrruzzo – said. I am the only man on Earth to be so, absent the vaccine once it really gets underway. No new Lucy. I cared for her, but her time is done. Our baby will be perfect – ehh – not that Nana-chan or any other girl is bad, but – ahhh – you know what I mean. The concerns about our child are moot. The pain Nyu brought us is also our joy now. Balance is satisfied. As long as Yuka wants to do this, I could not want it more."
But now Yuka was crying.
"Kouta is wonderfully kind to keep my wishes foremost. But I – I can't have this baby!"
Emiko fought off a comment about her girl's contrarian nature.
"I don't understand you, honey. Kouta just said it won't be a Diclonius – except oooohh – maybe it will. I mean, technically, I am—wow. Suppose it has horns like mine and Anna-chan's? People may not believe she has no powers."
Anna, who still preferred to be in the circle of those she knew, had heard enough to add her two cents.
"My family used the ancient hunts to justify their actions. If this war were to bring back that prejudice, I'm afraid I wouldn't be at all surprised. But if you choose to have it, I will lay down my own life to protect it, I swear!"
Yuka again covered her stomach, and all were silent. The thought of having the baby stolen, killed or otherwise seized regardless of its species designation was heartbreaking and strength-sapping all at the same time. Kouta felt his legs giving out beneath him.
"Do we really have no other choice?"
Another voice entered the conversation.
"Wow. Here are all of you, looking to undertake a deception to save a life, and you're not turning to the best scientist liar on Earth?"
Dr. Arakawa immediately punctured one approach.
"The American medical folks contacted me. There is no way in HELL you can tell anyone that you're naturally immune to the virus. Mayu's internal repairs, Nozomi's throat structure being reinforced, even little Wanta – "
Mayu flushed with worry, but let Arakwa continue.
"None of it can come out. Those folks lied to their superiors, partly for your sakes, partly because of the Hawkins Protocols from the 1980's."
Agent Bando nodded.
"Back in the 80's, the Yanks and Russians had some strange things occur, centered around Indiana. Things spooked their spooks – sorry, spies - so bad, both sincerely agreed to just put 'Walking Bio-Weapons' aside, and they actually kept to it. They shred any records they find – and for some reason, we're supposed to report discarded Eggo Waffle boxes, if found. Seriously? I'm a French Toast girl, myself."
Arakawa got back on topic.
"But they could skirt it all if all they did was study you all – and by study, I mean, goodbye sunlight, meals not served on trays, all that. So you can't go around saying how special you are – or you'll know how Lucy and Nana were raised first-hand. Not pleasant."
Emiko, not really a fan of the repentant schemer, was about to pounce on Arakawa when she completed her thought.
"So the only thing special about Kouta Kanbe is that, back when we first met, you agreed to be the first-ever test patient for what would become my world-saving vaccine. We kept it quiet because I suspected you might be involved with horned girls – and you were."
Yuka playfully pulled upon Kouta's ear.
"Well, he did try to be involved, after all…"
Kouta smiled, not only at the teasing, but at the idea that their child could live amidst a family that would love them.
"Wait – would that work? Suppose someone questions the timeline?"
Yuka took this one.
"In Europe, a myth persisted for centuries that Emperor Constantine had given the Pope power over all of Europe beyond the spiritual. Even as many came to disbelieve, it was politely adhered to until it was absolutely debunked."
Kouta nodded.
"And when it was debunked, didn't Europe dissolve into deadly religious wars that still echo today? I don't want our child to have a brief period of peace followed by a lifetime of being hunted like Nyu!"
Arakawa, determined to have this moment of truly making things better, moved in with all speed.
"BAKA! You and I are the only ones who know the whole story. This doesn't decide the future and power in a continent of warring kingdoms. Just one baby. By the time people even potentially question this, the baby will be the one in college – if not facing parenthood themselves."
Mayu took her second Papa's hand.
"Kouta – you and I have learned not to trust fate, or simply wishing that things would go better. Please – trust this for the broken girl you took in from the night, and protected when she couldn't bring herself to trust you."
Kouta mussed his first child's hair.
"You don't have to impress me anymore. That girl is no longer broken, and she is a source of intense pride for me. Alright – but Doctor? We have to at least try and get our most basic story details straight. I'll never trust fate that much."
A sentiment no one in the room disagreed with. Perhaps relieved that his promised godmother of a daughter would not be grieving again so soon, Haruto actually smiled.
"Then I say – all praise to good fortune!"
The assembled in the room turned and fixed a glare on him. He nearly gulped.
"What did I say that was so wrong?"
Outside, there was a sound of sudden movement. Agent Bando shook her head.
"Note: Fate has been tempted. Repeating: Fate has been tempted and has met us on the field."
Resigned to the idea that the Agent was right, the fractious family made their way outside to be greeted by a sight Kouta would have welcomed, just a few weeks (or was it months now?) back. Hana found her promise to be quieter hard to keep.
"Why are all the shop keepers pulling up and leaving?"
The tents, the lean-to's, the mini-shacks, the carts – all were indeed packing up in the middle of the day, well before the late-night deadline Kouta had demanded, and not too long after his early day limit. Kouta breathed in, knowing he would regret asking.
"Why is everyone clearing out? Not that I, ya know, mind all that much…"
An older man, fitfully folding up a difficult cart, pointed over the horizon.
"They're coming! The girls are almost here!"
A woman who helped him finish the near-comical folding of the cart nodded.
"The Diclonius Army – the savage one. They're on us. It's time to run."
Agent Bando picked up her phone.
"Listen, people – I am in with the intel crowd, and that thing we which have feared most of all, has definitely, positively, resolutely NOT – "
She stopped, and stared at her phone in disgust.
"…Come To Pass. The evac order for Kamakura and Enoshima is given."
She then threw down the phone in anger.
"You morons! You let your spies know FIRST! Ya know, we nervously keep a secret and then everyone glares at us – yeah, I read too many of Arika's manga."
Once again, Kouta had the uneasy feeling of being a bystander to the story of his own life. He knew he couldn't allow such a thing here. He chose his next words with a precision that showed some of the young man he once was before his many trials.
"If you run, they will hunt you down. This group of girls is supposed to like to do just that. But there is a way we can defeat them. A way that we of Maple House know all too well."
Yuka tried to chime in, though in this case she was less certain of her man than she had recently been.
"Can't you all see that this is just the final act of a mob of desperate children?"
One of the vendors shook his head and shrugged broadly.
"Lady, we frankly don't care if this is the first act of Grand Kabuki followed by High Tea with the Emperor!"
Emiko bit back a comment that they had been invited to just that, once the war was done. She had the correct feeling that it would not have helped.
Kouta pointed in the direction of the ocean and beaches.
"We are a shore town. Who is better equipped than we to handle waves of unruly guests? We have a sure-fire method of handling children who have never known all the simple wonderful things this world can offer. Now, if you go out of town, even if they don't find you, you'll be pushing over each other in a blind panic. Then, where will you go? What sort of lives will you live? Will we see the nation our parents and grandparents rebuilt from the ruins of imperial folly fall apart because someone authorized a maniac to pursue a twisted dream? I will not. I've loved two horned girls in my time. One I couldn't save. The other may save us all. But I know the dream that haunts their heads, horns or no. The dream of simple acceptance and comforts. We have no way to truly fight them, and flight is iffy at best. So let's fight their invisible arms with our very visible open ones."
As the crowd whispered and murmured considering Kouta's words, Emiko turned to Anna.
"We'll need a welcoming committee. Prepared to make a small sacrifice?"
Anna nodded.
"To stop Papa's folly from consuming this place? I would give my life."
Emiko hoped it wouldn't come to that, and moved to have them ready for the smaller sacrifice.
"This summer weather was getting too warm, anyway."
The two made for the house, and some of the vendors set up tables, hoping that the young man who was now their de facto leader knew what he was talking about, as did Kouta himself. With no time left, Emiko and Anna emerged from inside the house, ignored the gasps and questions, and made for the stairwell that would take them to the boardwalk – and the meeting with an advancing army.
Anna chuckled, ignoring the fact that some of the results of her own father's schemes were waiting less than a kilometer away.
"Can you believe Yuka-San wanted Kouta-San to do the same as us? What good would that have done?"
Emiko fell back to her own mental habits, knowing full well that they could easily be marching to their quick brutal deaths.
"To be fair, I think Kouta was ready for it. She's been doing this sort of 'it's only fair' thing since they were kids…and now they're going to have one…time is bullshit."
On the opposite (though no longer far) end of their journey, a threat awaited. Not the ultimate threat, and not the worst to be faced anywhere on the planet, not by any stretch. But to governments in hiding or spread far too thin, and to mortals without special powers potentially forced to flee by land locked in by water, they were as deadly as the four Biblical riders believed to be waiting in the end times – and these were not sent by God. At least they hoped that. One of these seemed to think what Anna's late father thought about the subject of a supreme being.
"Why are there fewer of us now? There used to be more."
Antonia Fremont, not her real name, waited for the response so she could thin the heard one last time.
"Because you made them go away, Antonia!"
She was disappointed. There was nothing in their words or tone that could provide an excuse to 'discipline' some of them. But, she reasoned, this was good too. It meant that she had them in absolute line.
"Damn straight for you, always."
Antonia Fremont, it should be known, was a nobody. She was an angry little nobody with an excuse and a secret. But she was a nobody with a weapon, with lots of weapons. Before she was done, the nobody would become a flat nightmare none of those at Maple House would ever forget. This is to say, for those able to forget.
"I see two of them over the hill!"
Antonia almost licked her lips in anticipation.
"First blood! I was starting to think this stinking town had already evacuated."
One girl who had more than fear driving her spoke up.
"Can I stop and evacuate? That soup we found is kicking out on me really bad…"
Her head was off in the sky before she realized it, and her body cast into the nearby ocean before the often-cited question about final bowel movements could be resolved.
"Anyone else not want to hold it in?"
The army approached the great pathway, whatever pain they were in, and came within sight of the two women, one very young, and one firmly in middle age, though it would a supremely wise idea to never say that to her face.
Emiko spoke.
"Welcome to Kamakura, and to all the places surrounding it. If you come to celebrate with us, you are welcome here."
Anna followed up.
"Please come in peace. Near here is a special spot called The Valley Of The Horns, The Dale Of The Marked Ones – The Kakuzawa. Some say our kind began in this region. We should know happiness and comfort here. We want that for you."
Their shaved heads revealed the truth they had hidden away most of their lives. But if their 'horns' drew gasps from many of the Humans back near Maple House, they were less well received by their intended audience. The one calling herself Antonia stepped forward and pointed.
"Is this supposed to be a joke?"
She turned back to her group.
"They aren't like us! You can't feel anything coming from them. Those are just bumps on their heads. This is an insult. Now let's take them apart!"
Anna broke a lifetime of deference in speaking before Emiko, but she would receive no chastisement. Plus, she was annoyed at losing her hair, even for a good cause.
"It's true, we're not made like you are, but these bumps – our horns – are real. Our family has had them for many generations, and like you, we were hunted and hated because of them. Our family is responsible for a lot of bad things, because our hate of other humans twisted us inside."
Emiko, who had waited a lifetime to get a real haircut during the summer, minded a little less than Anna, but was annoyed by Antonia. She had met a lot of kids in her time, liking most of them straight off. Those few she took an immediate dislike to (not including the absent Nana, whose deceptions she sensed from the start), she always learned she was right about, including one glad-hander who insulted Yuka behind her back. She had become a big believer in the old adage, *The first time someone tells you who they really are, believe them*. To her mind, Antonia had done this repeatedly, if the savage reports were to be believed.
"We're not here to insult you, or trick you. Like we said, you are welcome here, so long as you come in peace. We're leaving now, and we'll be waiting with the others to show our good faith."
Antonia sneered at this, re-confirming Emi's early opinion of her.
"With weapons and soldiers, right into the frying pan, right?"
Emi, past master of snarkiness, shot back.
"Well, there are plenty of frying pans, but no soldiers. Sorry, honey – were you looking for a date? Aren't you a little young for that – and to be commanding an angry army? Does your mother know that you're out?"
Anna chimed in, though less acid in tone than her elder.
"As to weapons? Even if we had them, only high grade military assault weapons can do anything to a Diclonius. We have no such weapons. Anything less, your powers will just bounce back. Lucy, your late queen, was only wounded by a high powered sniper rifle that partly surprised her. The people back there are peaceful, and we are going home to them now. Follow us if you want."
As the pair turned and left, Antonia screamed after them.
"WHERE IS YOUR QUEEN? WHERE IS THE PRETENDER CALLED NANA?"
Emiko concluded their baiting talk with some more acid to compensate for Anna's gentler tone.
"Why, she's meeting with the President Of The United States, at the request of The Emperor. That's what happens to important people-like her."
Anna smiled as they picked up their pace, just to be on the safe side.
"Why were you ever afraid of my Papa?"
Emiko shrugged.
"Well, he was a sexist lying hypocritical egotistical bigot with Deicidal ambitions, and with armed soldiers at his beck and call. That could have had something to do with it."
Anna grinned an evil-looking grin, and took off at an even faster pace. Emiko met her every effort.
"As Lady Madonna once said – don't try to run – I can keep up with you."
Just over the rise, a figure with binoculars shouted, revealing himself as Kouta.
"They're coming back! Be ready!"
The two ladies passed him, while he remained at the entrance to the area just outside Maple House. Against Yuka's tearful yells, Kouta had told everyone he would do this, just in case his life would be enough for these intruders.
"I don't know why, but I think they're coming for me."
Nyu had stopped speaking to him in dreams. The last one had said they were nearly ready to hold her hearing, her judgment in the life after this one. While he could hardly rely on dreams, they felt real enough that he chose to believe them. Closing his eyes, he felt the clamber of hundreds of pairs of feet approaching. Closing his eyes, he opened them when the sound grew very loud. Mayu mouthed the word 'Papa' but gave no voice to it, in order to not offend her returned birth father. Kouta spoke, and while seven thunders did not answer, the crowd before him was nearly thunderstruck by his words.
"Horned girls are welcome here. You are all welcome here. Please join us as we sit down to eat our meal."
He pointed beyond him, and seemingly endless tables full of steaming hot food awaited what Kouta had reasoned would be a lot of very hungry little girls.
"Try the somen, please – it is a favorite dish of Queen Nana's."
Antonia pointed at him.
"It's you we came for, you piece of shit! And why wouldn't we just kill everyone and take that f—"
Kouta fought off a laugh as the horned girls rushed past their supposed leader, waiting as plates and utensils were handed to them as they sat down, all emulating both their queens when it came to the simple pleasures of life.
Kouta answered his pint-sized accuser.
"I don't know what business you think you have with me, but I think it's now concluded, isn't it? General – I submit that you have no army."
Antonia looked about her. The group she had herded and bullied and casually put down at her whim and will were simply looking up from their empty bowls and saying only one thing.
"More, please."
The vendors, nervous and scared beyond words, joyously filled the tummies of some decidedly non-paying customers.
"Eat up, little ones! We have plenty to serve. This is a happy summer festival."
Ani Yaraoke, the bakery merchant, was ably aided by her one-time non-customer Mayu in distributing biscuits that sopped up waterfalls of soup and goodies.
Her friend, the crepes merchant, rolled things into his creations that he had never thought of before, and his permanent scowl seemed like it had never been there.
"Normally, I tell people not to let anything go to waste. Not a problem here."
While this effort was costing them, so would throwing it all away or leaving it to rot as they ran. Kouta had been right – a welcoming place with good food had neutralized a dire if not existential threat. Kouta made one final effort.
"Antonia, is it? Kid, there is lots of good food here, and maybe even a chance for you to leave what you've done behind. The governments want to punish you. I just want this to end. Now what do you say?"
Apparently very fond of pointing, Antonia tried to look menacing.
"Don't dream it's over. You will pay for what you did."
As she stalked off, notably none of her army followed. Kouta allowed that some of them might be moles to attack from within, but the pace of the consumption toned that worry down.
"Wait – you never even told me what I did!"
Yuka heard this, and shook her head.
"I hate people like that – all vague accusations and pent up aggression."
Kouta looked at her, to see if she was joking. She was not.
"Kouta – is she gone?"
Kouta found himself incapable of saying anything. After wolfing down a crepe stuffed with almost literally everything, he sat down by a tree and took a nap, wanting to believe he had just accomplished a miracle. But even absent a Diclonius' senses, he could not shake the feeling that the little brat was not fully gone.
*They only seem to come here. They never seem to truly go. And I – I want them all to be safe, and happy. Even the ones like her.*
He awoke with nearly all of his current friends and family sitting nearby him.
"Is this tree a new hot spot, or am I suddenly hard to resist?"
To his surprise, the ladies surrounding him didn't shoot his humor down in flames. Agent Bando pointed at the Maple House a few hundred yards away.
"You did your job too well, Kanbe-San. We can't get in or near the place."
Kouta looked and saw what she meant. The compound was once again near to bursting with people, camped out to and past capacity. He asked the obvious.
"What happened here?"
Yuka looked a little sheepish, as she had when it was first revealed she had invited all the college students to stay there. Kouta braced himself for another such overly generous offer of aid done behind his back.
"Well, the little ones – they really ate their fill – and then some of them overate, and you know where that goes, and then they needed baths, and all the food vendors were exhausted and needed to rest, so the college kids offered to help all of them get washed up and settled in – and then I guess they got tired too."
Kouta had honestly not thought the place could get any more crowded than it had been. Life loved proving him wrong as always.
"How many people – I don't care about their age or species – are in there right now?"
Mayu shook her head.
"Emiko-Oba went inside, I think to keep hold of her property, and so did Nozomi-chan's Papa. Wanta once again had to defend the sanctity of his doghouse from invaders, so we haven't seen him come out. Papa, Auntie and Hana managed to keep their room – somehow. They called out to us. But the rest of us found you by this tree and decided it was a good idea."
Kouta saw the honest befuddlement on his would-be daughter's face.
"Floor space?"
Nozomi held up a phone.
"Papa says the smallest ones are even camped out on the steps leading upstairs. We've prepared ourselves to defend this tree if we have to. Also, may I officially say, as regards Emiko-Dono and my Papa's relationship – Ewwww?"
Kouta loved that these girls were now fed and sleeping under a roof with baths and smiles. But he was once again nearing his limit.
"Agent? Can your friends arrange some housing? We can't live like this, and I kind of want my house back."
Agent Bando waved a hand in the air.
"Being worked on. The Diet is past AWOL, looking at desertion, half of them running, half hiding campaign donations from Anna's unlamented Papa. The Americans still refuse to take over, but have vowed to support anyone who wants to act like a government. I'm told some junior geeks and wonks are stepping up to the task. They're likely going to ask the college kids to shore up some of the apartment buildings that got condemned by Lucy's last rampage. Somewhere for them and the girls to stay. Because the only thing this land fears more than wandering horned girls is wandering teens and young adults."
Anna, still nearly clean-shaven from her recent heroic crew-cut, poked her head out from just beyond the Agent.
"Kouta-San, would you have released my father, if he fell under your jurisdiction?"
Anna Kakuzawa had been introduced into their lives at a time when Maple House was in transition, and it was easy to concede, Kouta was least close to this young lady, though she seemed to appreciate his small kindnesses, not to mention his larger one of aiding her when her arm's true nature was revealed. Anna for her part regarded him as having the caring her father aspired to but could not get past his agenda.
"Anna-chan, your father was wanted for many things. He would hardly be let go on my say so alone."
The question confused him, but Kouta would rapidly be brought up to speed.
"Yes, Papa would be considered a war criminal, of that there is no doubt. War criminals should not be let go. So why did you let that girl, that Antonia, go on her way?"
Kouta shook his head.
"I had to make an offer of peace. She still had powers of her own, and her level must be formidable, to command so many others – I guess. We had disarmed her for the most part. I either wanted her to give up what she was doing or just walk away broken. Attacking her or holding her here might have stirred up the others, and we had just calmed them down. Hmmph. How did she think that an army of such little girls was going to get her anywhere?"
Kouta's sharper mind (of late) was on the verge of making a realization when an angry Anna kept on.
"So would possible information Papa or Onii-Chan had keep them alive and free? Is that how war criminals get treated? Would King Herod merely be held for questioning?"
Agent Bando finally chimed in.
"No way. Israeli Mossad would do a lot more than question someone who gave those kinds of orders, particularly a collaborator like Herod. But Anna-Chan? Kanbe-San here made the right choice. Sometimes, we catch and kill the monsters, and sometimes we send them scampering off, hoping we've kept them from further mischief. Hell, the Americans and the Soviets both took in useful former Nazis – some them not as useful as they thought, and some not so former. But for the Yanks at least, Operation Paperclip bought them their space program. Worth Horcruxing your national soul? Hard to say."
All nearby stared at her for the odd reference. She shrugged.
"Muggles!"
A figure approached the sleepy group. It was Tohru.
"Man. It's gotten way crowded in there. The little ones found the big TV and have gotten hooked on a marathon of animated shows based on live action ones. Did you know there was a 2nd Gilligan cartoon? And that Happy Days did Time-Travel? Oh - Mind if I sleep here?"
Kouta looked at Mayu.
"Make sure he wasn't followed."
Mayu did that, and secured the perimeter, even managing to eyeball Wanta in the distance. The hopelessly expanded group resumed their sleep, such as it was, with Arakawa hiding out beneath one of the food tables.
"Beats having your head flattened on a desktop,"
Inside of Maple House, a little horned one was put to bed after being told the news program didn't have a real conclusion. Haruto Watanabe, a wealthy man with a very large house, couldn't find a spot to even fall asleep standing up, so he comforted little girls who had no one at all, and wished once again he had developed this skill much earlier with his Nozomi.
Emiko, the owner of this overwrought property, had a different, more selfish concern, as did the bundle in her arms.
"Emi-Mama – we're not getting anywhere near that bathroom, are we?"
Emi was forced to agree with Hana's assessment – and then she caught a whiff of something.
"Yeah, Hana-chan. What's more, I'm not sure it's anywhere we'd want to be in. Listen, kiddo – I have a solution, but it's kind of gross."
The girl nodded.
"Hana doesn't care about being rude right now. Hana just needs to poop – a lot."
As the two made their way to a place they hoped no one else knew of, Haruto saw to yet another confused looking horned girl.
"Should I say a prayer, even for mean old Antonia?"
Haruto felt that no prayer was wasted, especially now.
"If you have a positive prayer in your heart for that girl, then yes, you should. By all means."
The girl did so, and Haruto noticed how much like the changing leaves her hair was colored.
"Kami-Sama? Please keep Antonia away from here. Don't do anything bad to her, but her and those other girls we left outside of town liked hurting people too much, and everyone here is so nice."
Haruto felt his eyes and his blood vessels all over his body expand at the meaning of the girl's words. He reached for his portable phone – which he had left in the kitchen, now half a world away with the crowd about. A heartbeat later, he heard Wanta yelp and howl loudly, and then make a panicked beeline out the front door and then out of the compound entirely. Haruto yelled out with all his might to the slowly stirring crowd.
"GET OUT OF HERE! GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE NOW! THERE IS NO TIME! WE MUST MOVE…"
There was a whooshing sound in the sky above them, and Haruto spoke his final words on this planet.
"Nozomi-chan, carry on for Papa. Nomi-Dono – I come to join you."
Upstairs, a rare night not tending to Hana meant that her parents slept more deeply than normal. They would continue to sleep forever.
Vendor Ani Yaraoke had already started up the hill to bring fresh biscuits to her favorite customers when something bolted past her.
"Wanta-chan?"
Chasing the small dog, she would be just far enough away to both survive the cataclysm and yet have a prime view of the carnage.
Having eaten much more than they had gotten used to under the vicious Antonia, the girls who could conceivably have turned this attack back were in what some humorously call a 'food coma' and were spared witnessing the end that came so savagely.
The students and vendors, very used to odd hours, tried to both get out and grab a little one while doing so. But the outer compound was slammed first by design, and not only blocked their exit, but cut them down as the first of them managed to get outside.
The tree on the hillside was spared, with the attackers assuming that the main house was where everyone was staying. But it afforded a perfect view of an abomination in the eyes of Kami and Heaven alike.
No one who was in or directly outside of Maple House survived the attack.
Kouta saw the concrete pieces fall like meteors. He reasoned that they must have torn apart some of the beach wall directly by the shoreline to do this, but it was far from all they used. One gigantic projectile was once part of a statue head. Yuka was in tears.
"The Buddha! THEY'VE PROFANED THE BUDDHA!"
Before anyone could correct her focus, she did it herself.
"The people. Oh, the people…I invited them in. I invited them."
Kouta stated the painfully obvious.
"She didn't bring her whole army. She held some back."
The Agent prepared her weapons for war.
"You still made the right choice for all we really knew. My people should have checked their movements and gotten with me."
Pieces of boardwalk, benches and even train tracks and trestles followed until the venerable Maple House was a shattered ruin beyond repair, and all its walls were down.
The former residents stood up, two of them now orphans, with a third to learn this, and the exact death toll unknown except that it was high, wide and deeply felt. Mayu spotted the arrived, triumphant attackers over the rise.
"Come to gloat. We've done nothing to them. We even extended our hands. Our replacements? They're no better than us."
This time, Antonia did not have little girls behind her. Some few were teens by their doubled aging standards, but many more were nearly adults or very much so, the rapid aging ones created by Chief Kakuzawa's virus, who could spot out how to rip apart infrastructure in the quickest way possible. Antonia's grin was almost playful.
"I told you this wasn't over. But I knew you'd survive, Kouta. People lose their heads, get chopped in half, all sorts of pain and death – but you always make it through, like a cockroach. Well, I've brought my big girl boots for that. Boots – start walking!"
As the power-wave built up and released, the Agent reflexively seized Arakawa and Anna, getting them behind what cover there was, behind the tree and a rapidly-overturned table. She was automatically forgiven for doing her duty, except by herself. Her detachment was history, and these were friends now. She would also have to explain Mayu's loss to her father. The trio crouched as branches fell around them.
"Anna! I need eyes on dead and wounded!"
It was a risk, but the small girl could poke her head out fast enough – and sadly, she wasn't as vital as Arakawa.
"No dead, no wounded – they're all fine!"
Indeed, as Agent Elena Oahu-Bando saw for herself, the original residents of Maple House, Wanta included, were unmoved, not a hair or a piece of clothing out of place. Tohru and Ani had run aside as well, and only received minor cuts.
Nozomi, still at this point hoping to see her father again but perhaps knowing better, asked the big question on all their minds.
"What just happened? Why are we alive?"
Yuka felt her stomach. Somehow, she sensed that the life inside her was also unharmed.
"Continue to be strong, little one. We all want to meet you."
Mayu thought about their recent medical exams.
"Kouta? Did Nyu do something else to us?"
Kouta felt a stirring, and saw a pink-haired girl smile.
"It's the Queen's Blessing. Vectors can't hurt those that the queen loved – and I guess, despite everything, she loved all of us."
At the exact same moment, both Nozomi and Yuka had the exact same thought.
*Some of us more than others.*
Antonia Fremont sneered once again.
"That's bullshit! You're alive by some weird quirk of how Lucy died, and you think it's the power of love? Well, Kouta Kanbe, I am the power of her hate! The hate that fled her just before you killed her. The hate that connected with me – just before you caused our true queen – The Voice – to renounce her reason for existing. You actually had her thanking God for your 'mercy'. Well, here's your mercy back at you. You failed again, Kouta. Failed to protect your home, or the ones that stayed in it. Oh, and we'll find another way to kill you, be certain of that!"
Kouta nodded.
"I – We did fail to save Maple House, and our many – many many – guests. Maybe all of them. Our grief is so fresh, we cannot even begin to process it. But though we failed to protect our home, be certain we will avenge it."
Antonia was expecting cowering, and in fact had been counting on it. The little nothing still had terrible aces up her sleeve.
"Brave talk from someone about to die. You asked where my army is? Well, they're right here, lending me their strength – adding to my own, of course. So here is my army, Kouta – and here am I – their general!"
A new whooshing sound came then, but it was no new bombardment. Instead, it was a lone, solitary figure who had traversed the world and set off multiple early warning systems across that same globe. She landed with one hand in front of her, tossing her overcoat to Mayu.
"Please hold this, Onee-Chan."
Mayu tried to mouth painful words, but the true Diclonius Queen shushed her.
"I know what she has done. And she will pay."
Nana turned and looked at her would be rival.
"Normally, Nana might ask who you are, and why you have done this to her home, and her family, but Nana is past caring about that. So I will ask something else instead."
Nana gathered a fraction of her enormous power.
"Excuse me, General – would you care to throw down?"
NEXT CHAPTER: THE FOLLY OF WARS