The Yakusta Shipping company was an excellent secret front for the
Japanese gangsters who owned it. Its legitimate activities effectively
concealed its less wholesome trafficking of cargoes of liquor, electronic and
human merchandise. The hired muscle who had been placed on guard in front of
the warehouse that the trucking firm occupied bitterly cursed his superiors
for summoning him from the warmth of his favorite brothel to stand guard on
such a cold night. The local constabulary were paid off, the feds had no clue
to what was going on, and the watchmen who patrolled the Nerima Industrial
Park knew better than to include this building in their rounds. So what was
the point of him freezing?
A shiver rocked his stocky frame and he reached for a fresh cigarette to
ward off the cold. He had found some shelter from the wind behind a stack of
discarded pallets. It had been awhile since he had seen any of the other
guards and he assumed that they had found similar accommodations for the
evening.
*What a weird set up.* he thought as he looked longingly at the heated
building. *Columbian gaijins and 'Shining Path' communists meeting with a
Yakuza head. Wonder what they're cooking up?*
As he fumbled with the lighter, he failed to notice the slight figure
approaching behind him or the hiss of her sword being drawn from its scabbard.
He was dead before either half of him hit the ground.
*Only four guards and none of them better than this fool!* the woman
within the electronically enhanced armor thought as she wiped her blade and
slid it back into place. She scanned the surrounding area and detected only
the rapidly cooling forms of the other three who had lamentably failed in
their duties. *So much the better. Not only do I prevent the further
poisoning of Japan by foreign filth, I eliminate a host of traitors at the
same time.*
* * *
Urusei Yatsura - The Senior Year: "Shinobu: Futures Imperfect" Part 4
By Philip Gavigan
PGavigan@aol.com
**** **** ****
Edited by Fred Herriot and E. B. Kushnir
**** **** ****
A side story based on the fan fiction stories in turn based on "Urusei
Yatsura," created by Rumiko Takahashi.
**** **** ****
IN THE THIRD PART OF "SHINOBU: FUTURES IMPERFECT," Tomobiki is stunned when
Shinobu, trying to put her life into perspective, decides that she must leave.
She hopes that by removing herself from the orbit of Lum and Ataru she can
achieve the normal life that she has dreamed of. She is wrong.
**** **** ****
And with that...ON WITH THE SHOW!!!!
**** **** ****
"...so the main points are covered. Now all we gotta do is iron out
some of the particulars," said Tokai Mendashi, the head of the Nerima Yakuza.
The youngest man to be entrusted with such a position, he had wasted no time
in exploiting the possibilities of his appointment. Brash, greedy and without
honor he had every intention of moving into fields that his older counterparts
had found contemptible.
He looked at the two men sitting at the table with him. Se¤or Bandarras
with his connections in South America would provide the product. The
revolutionary cells Hiradoshi Makato controlled in every major educational
institution would be the perfect sales force. The college students with their
slavish adoration of everything Western had proven an avid market and would
quickly succumb to the allure of cocaine.
In the center would be Tokai; controlling the flow, setting the price
and making the profit. Within six months he would be offered a seat on the
"Committee," an innocuous sounding term for the most powerful gang bosses in
Japan. After that he intended to establish an international presence as the
Japanese Mafia would begin to exploit the riches of their Pacific neighbors.
*Yeah, the future's so bright, I'm gonna need shades!* he thought as he
poured his partners fresh drinks. Bandarras had proved to be remarkably
intelligent, speaking Japanese fluently and well versed in proper behavior.
He had provided the twenty-five year old scotch that they were presently
enjoying and had been very respectful to his host's rank.
By contrast Makato was a disappointment. Radical beyond rational
thought, he viewed the distribution of drugs as a political act, a dagger
directed at the heart of a corrupt society. That the consumers of the cocaine
would be the young students most sympathetic to his cause had apparently gone
unnoticed. Still, he would be useful in establishing the means of
distribution. He could be disposed of later.
Tokai looked around the well lit storage room and wondered about a
replacement for Makato. Twenty of his most trusted were present; some gaming,
others checking their weapons and a few keeping watch. He had recruited them
from the toughest youth gangs across Japan and made them all rich with
promises of additional wealth to come.
With a loud *clack!* the lights went out and the windowless room turned
black. Tokai and the other two sprung to their feet as did their guards.
Tokai couldn't see a thing but heard something happening in the dark.
"Yosha?!" he cried out the name of his right hand man. "Yosha, what's goin'
on here?!" An eerie silence was all that answered him. "Yosha!!" he shouted
into the dark. "Talk to me, man!! Get those lights back on!"
A hollow voice that came from everywhere and nowhere laughed and said,
"Yosha's unavailable but I'll see what I can do."
A single overhead light flashed on, terrfying the three. Momentarily
blinded by its brilliance, they were unaware of the carnage around them. Then
they saw the corpses littering the floor of the warehouse. Every man that
Tokai had with him, twenty of some of the most dangerous men in Japan, had
been cut down in the time that it took to turn a light off and on.
Bandarras was turning to Tokai to demand an explanation as a plasma bolt
struck him solidly in the chest! Tokai and Makato were stupefied as the
intense heat consumed the Columbian, converting him into gas before their
eyes.
Both men had pulled out their pistols when the lights had failed and
began firing wildly at shadows as they raced for the door. As they reached it
a figure dropped from the rafters above them. Neither had the time to react
before she had cut through both of them with a single stroke of her katana.
Their revolvers fell from their nerveless hands as both clutched their
stomachs in instinctive denial of their approaching demise. They dropped to
their knees and the armored figure walked to Tokai and snatched his silk
handkerchief from his suit pocket to wipe his and Makato's blood from her
undecorated and unsigned blade.
Tokai looked at the gory mess oozing between his fingers and knew his
life was over. He had seen Yakuza who had betrayed their blood oaths commit
seppuku to atone for their deeds. He tried to study the person who had
murdered him. The figure was short for a man and wore armor similar to a
samurai's, but made from modern materials. The helmet had a face plate that
revealed a smallish pointed chin and two cold eyes that regarded the dying men
with grim satisfaction.
"Finish it!" the gang lord gasped. "Have that much mercy."
Their killer shrugged and lifted off the helmet. Both men were
astonished to see the butcher was a woman. "No," she said, her attractive
features terrible in their ferocity. "My ancestors may have granted you the
mercy of a swift death, but this is my punishment for your betrayal of Japan."
She pointed towards Tokai. "For the Western poison you would have introduced
to our youth." She turned to Makato and continued. "And yours for the lies
that you have fed them. For teaching them to be discontent with their lot.
For urging them to ignore the traditions of our people and turn to the
materialistic ways of the West." She nodded at the cloud of fumes that had
been Bandarras. "I granted the him mercy because he was a gaijin and could
not be expected to behave in a civilized manner but both of you knew better."
She silently watched the two as they cried, begged, and finally,
horibly, agonizingly, died. Shinobu restored her helmet before she left the
room. There was much to be done and little time to waste...
* * *
"...so when Reigi brought Ataru down for that meeting I came with him to
check with you and pick up our little friend," Noa stopped and looked at the
computer expert of Pathfinder Troop Six, perched in front of the terminal in
Ataru's suite of rooms in the Toranoseishin Finance Center. Nene was out of
it again. Put the girl in front of a computer and the two would merge into a
single entity.
Lum's bond-mate sighed and poked the seated girl with her forefinger.
Nene yelped and blushed as she acknowledged Noa's presence. "It's right over
there. First cabinet, second drawer."
Noa smiled. She pulled open the drawer and lifted out the familiar box
within. She checked its contents and was satisfied with their condition.
Nene had helped her develop this device over the past fourteen years and it
was now one of her most useful possessions. Very useful for keeping tabs on
certain unfriendly elements.
"Thanks for helping me out while I was off-planet," Noa said, as she
prepared to leave the room.
Nene was concentrating on the computer looking very anxious and
muttering under her breath. "Darn," Noa heard the girl grumble. "I wish that
Demelza was here."
*Demelza?" Noa thought of the Tritonian-born-Sagussan. *Why would she
need the help of a temporal physicist?*
Noa went to Nene and asked for an explanation. Nene typed a few
commands into the computer and a three dimensional map of Tokyo appeared on
the monitor. The chart had a series of cones on it, as if someone had pushed
a pointed object through it from the other side. "These are time spikes,"
Nene began. "They're the harmonic residue left when someone move from one
plane of temporal reality to another. This began a few weeks ago but I only
learned about it on Monday. This isn't my field but it looks like four
separate attempts are being made to insert someone into this time line."
"You mean someone is attempting to time travel to our present?"
"No, I mean that four different individuals are breaking through the
dimensional barriers as well as the temporal one. These spikes are similar to
the ones caused when a Urusian temporal spacializer is used."
Noa frowned, this could be very serious. "Where are they centered?" she
asked.
"That's what's so strange. At first the epicenter was in Tomobiki...but
if I've triangulated this correctly it's now in Nerima." The girl broke off
her explanation as another spike appeared on the screen.
"Did that one get through?" Noa asked.
"No," Nene replied. "Only two have. The first arrived ten days ago and
the second six days later and I can't trace them. These records indicate that
both were standard Terran genotypes and the computer wasn't programmed then to
track anything other than alien life forms."
Leaning against the wall, Noa whistled tunelessly. "I wonder what's in
Nerima that could be so important?" she deliberated.
* * *
Ataru Moroboshi closed the leather bound menu and handed it to the
hovering waiter. Much had changed about the teenager over the past six months
but he still appreciated a good meal and this restaurant was known as the
finest in Tokyo, the place for the most successful businessmen in Japan to
meet, eat and deal.
Normally the restaurant would have been crowded over the lunch hour but
the tables immediately surrounding him and his two dining companions were
empty with tiny reserved signs placed on the fine linen covering them. Ataru
glanced at the ring of grim looking men and women encircling him...a mixture
of elite Japanese Special Forces and the United States Secret Service.
Unusual, but considering that he was sitting with the Prime Minister of Japan
and the Vice President of the United States, not unexpected. "When Reigi
Yumoa told me that we were going to have this meeting, gentlemen," Ataru
began. "I had imagined it would take place somewhere more private."
"We want this meeting to be widely reported in certain circles, Mr.
Moroboshi," the Prime Minister responded. "There are individuals and groups
who are less than favorably inclined towards you and we're signaling that you
are under our joint protection."
Ataru thought that he hid his smile behind his water glass. "I'm very
grateful for your concern, but I believe that I have certain resources at my
disposal."
"If you're referring to the Sagussans," the Vice President uttered,
"...I agree that they're very capable of dealing with the Urusians, the
Niphentaxians, the Mikado and his hunters, the Ipraedies and the Seifukusu
Dominion. But they lack the subtlety to deal with the home-grown threats."
The American watched as the young man slowly lowered his glass. He now
had his full attention and was ready to employ the most dangerous weapon in
the arsenal of diplomacy; the truth. "Mr. Moroboshi, I really wish that we
could do this differently, that we wouldn't have to be as hard on you as we're
about to be. But things are rapidly getting out of hand and we just don't
have the time to be gentle with you. May I proceed?"
Ataru nodded his silent consent and the Vice President continued. "How
familiar are you with Special Resolution 444 of the United Nations?"
"It's the legal device that the United Nations established to regulate
the presence of extra-terrestrials on the Earth," Ataru replied.
"Not quite," the American returned. "The order was written in the style
of American law. It articulates the broad principles to be regulated while
leaving it to the courts to define the specifics. The phrase used to denote
the individuals covered by it is 'alien' but the definition of what actually
constitutes an 'alien' is never made. This could be determined any number of
ways by the courts. May I use you as an example of how the order could be
interpreted?"
"Of course." Ataru politely answered. He knew now where this was
headed.
"Disregarding the nature of your unique genetic heritage," the Vice
President said while watching the young man sitting across from him stiffen,
"...there's the matter of your legal citizenship. During the time of your
troubles with your parents, your grandmother obtained legal status for you as
a citizen of Zephyrus so you could sever the legal bonds between you and them.
It can be argued that at that point you renounced your Japanese citizenship."
"But Japan recognizes dual citizenship," Ataru retorted.
"Correction, Mr. Moroboshi," the Prime Minister interjected. "The
government recognizes it on a case-by-case justification. It is never
automatically granted. Beyond that, it is only ceded on the basis of nation
to nation. There is no historical precedent for establishing dual citizenship
between a sovereign nation and a sovereign planet. You should also understand
that your grandmother has established Zephyrite citizenship for herself and
all her direct decedents, none of whom have registered their presence on Earth
with the United Nations as called for under Resolution 444. Only your father
currently lives in Tomobiki. You, your grandmother, uncle, sisters, daughter
and the rest are in violation of the Resolution's residency clauses, which
demand that all aliens live in Tomobiki-cho of the city of Tokyo."
Ataru looked at the grim men staring at him. "What you're saying is
that the Resolution could be used as the means to expel the Moroboshi Clan
from Earth."
"Such an argument has been written by the Attorney General of the United
States and needs only an Executive Order before being presented to the World
Court at the Hague," the Vice President said.
"And will this order be executed?" Ataru asked.
"Gods, no!!!" the Prime Minister snapped. "We had it prepared to
placate some of our wavering allies. Those who are not convinced of the
Sagussans' good will towards Earth. You have more friends among the leaders
of the world than you appreciate, Mr. Moroboshi. We recognize that you are
the world's best hope of maintaining our independence from a multitude of
space-borne threats. But powerful people are feeling threatened by Sagussan
actions on Earth. Admittedly, in retrospect, they can always be perceived to
be in the best interest of humanity. But they have a regrettable tendency to
act without informing us. They must realize that they are no longer operating
in the vacuum of space but in one of the most densely populated areas of
Earth. What they do will be noticed and commented upon...and considering
their reluctance to explain their actions, they are beginning to be perceived
as simply another group of aliens treating humanity as an exploitable
resource."
"Please try to understand our position, Mr. Moroboshi," the American
said. "We're dealing with scores of factions that are interpreting events to
suit their own agendas. There are members of my government who are arguing
for total isolation from inter-world affairs. Others see this as a golden
opportunity to capitalized on alien sciences. And...the fact that your
girlfriend has a set of horns has not gone unnoticed by religious
fundamentalists around the world."
"Indeed, there are those within the Japanese government urging that, as
the host nation to the extraterrestrials, we should have special privileges to
compensate for our hospitality," the Prime Minister bitterly added.
"Representatives of certain industrial factions are pressuring me to open
direct talks on trade...while right wing paramilitary groups advocate Japan
leaving the United Nations and forming a military alliance with an
accommodating alien power."
"That's ridiculous!" Ataru declared. "The Sagussans would never violate
the Non-Interference Directive to such a degree."
"He didn't say that the Sagussans would," the American inserted. "But
there are others. We've evidence that the Urusian Imperialistic faction have
formed a working relationship with the most powerful fascist group in Japan
and are supplying them with materials. Today I received a report that they've
been assisting an Urusian insertion team operating in the Tokyo region."
"Why haven't you arrested the leader of this group?" Ataru asked.
"Because under the law he's done nothing illegal. There's nothing in
Resolution 444 that compels a Terran to report any contact with aliens. An
oversight on my part," the Vice President ruefully admitted.
Ataru looked at the men sharing his table and the last of his anger with
them vanished. Men like these were waging an undeclared war to prepare their
world for the universe that stretched beyond Earth's confines. It was time
that he joined the fray. "So what do we do today?" he asked and watched the
tension drain from their faces.
"First we eat," the Prime Minister said as he signaled the guards to
admit the waiter carrying the salads. "We're going to need the energy."
* * *
"Dr. Tofu would like to schedule a follow up appointment with you, Mrs.
Mori. When would be a good time for you to visit us again?" Shinobu asked the
elderly lady. She was enjoying her temporary position as an assistant to the
chiropractor and felt very good to be doing something so useful.
Two men in business suits watched Shinobu from across the waiting room.
One was thin and quiet while the other was larger and sullen. The smaller
leaned to his companion and said, "She doesn't look like a bad girl does she,
Taga-sama?"
The angry looking man snorted. "They're all bad in Tomobiki and that
whore is the worst of the lot. You've heard the stories about them. You know
what she's capable of. And the government won't let the newspapers print the
truth. They know if the people of Japan learned what was really going on up
there, they'd be swept from office and replaced with real men who know how to
deal with trash like her."
Mochizuki shrank away from his partner and settled back into his chair.
He did not want to be here but he was weak and easily dominated by the man
next to him. He looked back at the young girl checking the appointment
calendar at the receptionist desk. "How did Tofu hire her anyway?" he asked.
"Her cousin found the position for her. He must have hired her without
knowing who the slut really is," Taga growled. "She was the one who hurt my
son. He met her soon after she came here. Not only did she have the audacity
to proposition him *and* his friends but assaulted them when they refused to
behave in such a perverted manner."
"She did that to his hand?" the small man said. "How could a girl be
strong enough to...?"
"Pardon me please, gentlemen," Shinobu said, walking towards the pair.
"Dr. Tofu is ready to see you now. Would you come with me..."
"We know the way," Taga rudely interrupted as he shoved past her with
his companion trailing after.
Ono Tofu looked up from the case files on his desk as the two men
noisily entered his office. "Usually my patients make separate appointments,"
he coolly said. "So when two prominent member's of the Businessman's Council
ask to see me at the same time I assume that it is not for my professional
services."
Mochizuki glanced nervously at Taga as they sat. Everyone in Nerima was
so used to the quiet manner Tofu normally behaved in that they had forgotten
how formidable the pleasant young doctor could be. Taga coughed and began.
"You're right, Dr. Tofu. We're here as Representatives of your fellow
businessmen and professionals." Taga paused, waiting for Tofu to ask what
they wanted. Instead he waited silently behind the desk, forcing him to come
to the point. Taga's face colored as his quick temper soared. "We want you
to dismiss that whore working for you and send her packing back to Tomobiki!"
"I don't employ 'whores.' As a doctor I know the medical risks involved
in such behavior. The only young ladies working for me are Hitomi Miyaki and
her cousin Shinobu. Currently they're sharing the duties of my receptionist
and assistant and will do so for the rest of the summer. They've been doing
an exemplary job and I have no intention of dismissing either."
"Don't give me that crap!" Taga boomed. "We've all heard the stories
about what that girl does. When she's not helping those aliens tear Tomobiki
apart, she's screwing with anything that moves. We don't need that sort here.
Nerima's got enough problems with all of those martial artists running
around..."
"The same martial artist you businessmen regularly turn to when street
gangs try to extort protection money from you, when anything happens that the
local police can't cope with. I know, I'm one of them. And yes, I have heard
those stories about Shinobu. But the first thing every doctor learns in
medical school is to rely on the evidence of his own senses and not on gossip,
innuendoes or lies."
Taga quivered in indignation. "We've already started a campaign to get
rid of her. In a few days nobody decent will be seen walking on the same side
of the street. Be careful, you might find yourself with an empty waiting
room."
"I do have a very full case load, more than I can really handle. This
will be a good excuse to start trimming it back. Starting with the two of
you." Tofu handed each man one of the files he had been studying when they
entered. Both saw their names on the labels. Stunned they looked back at the
inexorable man facing them. "I'm certain that two busy gentlemen like you
must have pressing engagements so I won't keep you. I'd show you to the
door...but in my present mood I'm more likely to put you through it."
Shinobu watched the two men run from Dr. Tofu's office, across the lobby
and out into the street. She had not been surprised by their hostility. Many
of the people of Nerima who had initially been friendly to her were now very
distant. It did not matter. She had made some new friends and was too busy
to dwell on the slights she had received.
"Are you going to the Tendou dojo, Shinobu?" asked Dr. Tofu as he walked
into the waiting room.
"Yes sir. I'll be leaving as soon as Hitomi arrives for the afternoon
shift." The girl studied the slim man from the corner of her eye. Dr. Tofu
was precisely the sort of man she had imagined marrying when she was younger,
but now that she had met him she felt nothing more for him than friendship and
respect. His reaction when Kasumi Tendou had stopped by to return a book
probably had something to do with that. He definitely had it bad for the
young woman, reminding Shinobu of Koosei's reaction to Oyuki. "Thank you for
telling me about Akane. She's an excellent instructor and says I'm making
real progress."
"Your natural strength probably has something to do with that," Tofu
paused. "Which reminds me. I was curious as to why you wanted to study
martial arts when you seem strong enough to deal with most problems."
"I want to learn how to defend myself without relying on my strength.
After I arrived in Nerima, I was accosted by a group of perverts who thought
they knew me." Shinobu blushed painfully. She was uncomfortable talking
about this. "They wanted me to do...things for them and I refused. As one of
them groped me, I broke his hand."
* * *
On the busy street in front of the Ono Clinic a tall, thin boy loitered
in the bus kiosk. Dressed in the school uniform of Tomobiki High he sat
listening to his Walkman and nervously adjusting his ski cap pulled low over
his tapered ears. When Shinobu left the single story building and headed down
the sidewalk he pulled his radio from his pocket and whispered into the hidden
microphone. "The Sinful Doubter is moving. Am in pursuit."
Finding the heretic in Nerima was the break that he and the rest of the
Church of Lum's surveillance team had been hoping for. Ever since the arrival
of the harpies known as the Sagussans, no Niphentaxian had been able to enter
the Holy City or approach the seaside lair of the beast, the Great Evil.
Perhaps they would have something positive to report back to the Church's
elders, growing increasingly frantic over ancient prophecies regarding their
people. Perhaps they would even be able to shed some light on one of the
Great Mysteries of the Church. The relationship between the Sinful Doubter,
the Great Evil and the Goddess was unclear and fuelled a great debate among
the faithful. Some, such as his team's leader, speculated that the true
importance of the Heretic may have been underestimated by the hierarchy.
Still, she was known to be a member of the "Cult of the Sinful Doubter
Shinobu" and would probably do what ever she could to enhance her idol's
importance.
Suddenly a sharp noise pierced the agent's concentration. A quick look
at his communication device confirmed that an emergency signal had just been
sent out and all operatives were required to report immediately. A dash down
an alley way and he was ready to make contact.
The message from central command was direct. All operatives were to
return immediately to base. The computer adept had found a cache of
information related to the Most Holy One and her entourage. The great secret
of Tomobiki was discovered and the true face of the monster revealed!
* * *
The practice of kenjutsu, the art of military style swordplay, always
brought a sense of focus and discipline to Baron Suzuki, something that he
desperately needed now. He performed the intricate maneuvers in his private
training hall and tried not to think about the day's events.
The latest warriors sent by his erstwhile allies, the Urusian Imperial
Restoration Movement, had proven as incompetent as their predecessors. The
latter had been sent to Earth to insure the demise of the Democratic Alliance
of Uru via the assassination of its leader and her daughter. Privately the
Baron was convinced that the meager abilities demonstrated by the hired
ruffians guaranteed its failure and he had been proven correct. Within hours
of their leaving the safety of his estate, the Baron's chief assistant, Mr.
Lee, had reported their failure and demise. Suzuki had since learned the
ramifications of this act had reached Uru itself. The Renning family, a minor
house of Urusian nobility and the instigators of the scheme, had been wiped
out.
Today, another catastrophe. Overly confident in their own abilities,
the three latest Urusian agents from the Imperialists had entered Tokyo three
days ago and had established a base in an abandoned garage. For two days they
had regularly checked in with the Baron's organization, but last night had
fallen silent. The Baron's men had just reported that they had found no trace
of them at the garage other than blood stains and blaster marks.
The Baron stopped his sword excises and leaned wearily against the wall.
Everything was going so wrong. The allies he had found, from the Urusians to
Takanaba were either inadequate or treacherous. The great cause, to which he
had dedicated his life to since boyhood, was slipping away. He was
forty-seven with another birthday fast approaching. He had sacrificed so
much, had delayed having a family to concentrate on his mission and leave a
better world that he had inherited. It was beginning to appear that he would
have neither family or accomplishment when he left this world for the next.
What would his father have done under these circumstances?
He remembered the last time he had been permitted to see his father.
The man had aged dreadfully in his confinement but his spirit had not been
broken by his American captors. Inside he was still the strong man that he
had been before his capture and trial at the end of the Greater East Asian
War. Even his unjust fate had not broken his will. His son drew strength
from his father's example. He would continue his task for both of them.
Suzuki turned and nearly jumped through the roof as he realized that he
was not alone. In the center of the training room stood a smallish figure
wearing futuristic armor influenced by samurai tradition. He began to speak
but stopped as the warrior raised its hand in a hushing motion and said,
"America shall be our bread basket, Europe our boutique and the stars our
destiny."
Astonished the Baron studied the person before him. He had never shared
the promise he had first made the night of his father's execution with anyone.
It had been his private source of inspiration and comfort in the long years of
tribulation. He gathered his considerable courage and demanded, "Who are
you?"
"I am a contingency," the warrior spoke, her voice ringing cavernously
in the hall. "I am a representation of a potential future, a possible destiny
for Japan and all mankind." The samurai raised a gauntlet and swept away her
helmet as she knelt before the startled man. "I am here to insure that
destiny comes to pass," she said as she drew her katana and presented it to
him hilt first. "I am here to serve you."
The Baron examined the face of the young woman. He thought that he
recognized her from photographs he had seen at meetings about the aliens
currently residing in Japan. But that was impossible. That had been a girl
in her mid-teens while this was a mature woman of about thirty. "Do you have
a younger sister living in Tomobiki?" he asked.
Shinobu rose to her feet and answered, "No. I have a younger *self*
living in that district." She smiled ruthlessly and continued. "I was her
and she must become me."
* * *
It had been so easy for her to slip away from the meeting. Suzanna
Lords, a recent appointee to the American Consulate had asked one of her
coworkers to keep an eye upon the three men working at the restaurant table.
She told her fellow State Department employees that she wanted to review the
latest intelligence reports back in the suite of offices retained for the Vice
President's temporary staff. The security guards had not challenged her when
she left the restaurant and no one had offered to accompany her. No one
noticed that as she entered the empty elevator she pressed the button for the
basement and not the floor where the offices were located.
The basement hallway was empty as her contact had assured her it would
be. All of the staff were currently at their duties. She walked down the
corridor until she found the predesignated door with its lock taped open. She
pushed at it and entered, carefully removing the evidence at the same time. A
flick of the lights and she found herself in a storage area for dry kitchen
supplies. She looked around but could find no sign of the person she was to
meet. "Where are you?" she whispered.
No answer. She was about to try again when there came a noise that
might have been someone uttering "Over here." Lords walked between two
shelving units and found an overcoated figure sitting with her back to a
corner, a loose felt hat hanging over her face and a wicked looking pistol in
her hand. The Japanese woman raised her head and her stock of heavy white
hair parted to reveal a still youthful face. She did not say anything as she
waited for the young American to make her report.
"Everything is going as it should," Suzanna said. "Their writing
proposed changes to Resolution 444 to accommodate a treaty between Earth and
Sagussa. Moroboshi seems sincere about protecting Terran rights against any
aggressors. He's even made some suggestions about..."
"Ataru-kun has always been sincere," the huddled figure answered in
slightly accented English, "...but even he can't predict the future. Remember
that saying about the path lined with good intentions? I live where it ends.
What they're doing up there today, despite the noble objectives, is the
beginning of the end. It's my curse that I'll live to see its culmination and
beyond."
Lords shivered. When this mysterious figure had first appeared at her
modest studio apartment nine days before she had brought with her a detained
record of what she claimed would happen over the next week. Deaths,
accidents, breaking new stories, all things that no one could have anticipated
and they had all occurred. The last time they had met she had told Lords to
take her fingerprints and run them through the data base that the United
Nations had established concerning Tomobiki. The name that had come up had
shook the embassy aide to the core. It was the final proof that she had
needed and she would now help this person in any way that she could.
Suzanna looked at the person sitting on the floor. Her own destiny was
as dreadful as the one that she had painted for mankind. She bent over slowly
and began to reach towards her while saying, "Shinobu, I want to thank you for
what..."
The woman flinched as if she had been struck and pulled away from Lords.
"Please don't call me by that name," she gasped. "That person isn't here
anymore."
Suzanna stood back up. "I have to get back now. I want to review the
reports. Maybe I can get a lead on those Urusians." She walked slowly from
the room, stopping only to turn off the lights.
Alone in the dark the woman drew her knees to her thin chest and began
to rock back and forth. *This is harder than I thought it would be. Being
here brings back memories, too many memories.* Then she began to recall her
last coherent memory of Earth and she began to grit her teeth and knock her
head against the wall. It was no good, it could not be denied.
The long hallways in her palace at Kyotos. The carved doors of the
receiving room. The soldier who had carried the pallets and their cargo from
the spaceport and now formed the honor guard around their fallen comrades.
The bodies of her precious, precious children lying in state with the flags of
Earth and Yehisril draped across their torn bodies. And behind them, the
demon of her life, the one who had taken everything of meaning away from her,
wept crocodile tears over those whom she had lead to their death.
At that moment the rage that she had buried for so long erupted and
overwhelmed her. In an instant Shinobu Miyaki drowned in its ebony depths and
Scalphunter was born.
She undid the top button on her overcoat and, like a Muslim with his
prayer beads, began to clasp the necklace made of Oni horns that she wore.
There were three fresh ones upon it...
* * *
To be continued...
Thwap! Thwap! Thwap! Thwap!
Nabiki Tendou turned away from her bedroom window from which she had
watched her younger sister with a student train in the garden below. She
walked to her computer table and sat down in the chair next to it. Normally
she would be on-line examining commodity prices and checking her investments.
Today she stared listlessly at the monitor and studied her reflection on the
dark screen.
"I didn't mean anything by it," she whispered to the image. "I...I just
provided the pictures. They never did anything like that before. I didn't
think that they were...that they were capable of doing that. It's not my
fault. It's not! It's not!" She shuddered and looked back at the open
window, hearing the sounds rising from underneath. "I can't even convince
myself," she moaned. "They wouldn't have been able to do it without me. I am
responsible." She thought about the young woman tutoring with her sister and
trembled with guilt and shame.
* * *
Urusei Yatsura - The Senior Year: "Shinobu: Futures Imperfect" Part 5
By Philip Gavigan
PGavigan@aol.com
**** **** ****
Edited By Fred Herriot and E.B. Kushnir
**** **** ****
A side story based on the fan fiction stories in turn based on "Urusei
Yatsura," created by Rumiko Takahashi.
**** **** ****
IN THE FOURTH PART OF "SHINOBU: FUTURES IMPERFECT," Ataru learns a lesson in
political realities as the Prime Minister of Japan and the Vice President of
the United States inform him of the many threats to him and the Moroboshi
clan. Shinobu's presence in Nerima is unwelcome by the businessmen who fear
that she will draw the chaos that rocked Tomobiki to their district. This
concern might be justified; Nene and Noa have discovered that four individuals
are transversing the dimensional and temporal barriers to Earth. Two of them
have arrived, both alternative future versions of Shinobu. One, Lady Katana,
is an ardent Japanese militarist. The other, Scalphunter, is a serial killer
who targets aliens, specifically Onis....
**** **** ****
And with that...ON WITH THE SHOW!!!!
**** **** ****
It had taken Nabiki only minutes to learn everything about Hitomi
Miyaki's cousin Shinobu. She used her contacts in the local governmental
bureaucracy to collect information re family lines, property transactions, tax
records. There was only one constant to all of them, the name of the most
infamous district of Tokyo: Tomobiki. A quick trip to the local library and
the stored newspapers on microfilms confirmed the girl's identity. Shinobu
Miyaki. According to the newspapers an unwilling participant in the affairs
of that troubled area. But if half of the stories that people whispered about
her were true...
Nabiki was too intelligent to give credence to these tales. But that
did not mean she was not above making money on those who were not. The
opportunity came quickly. She was shadowing Shinobu when she saw the girl
stopped by a group of Furinkan High Chemical Club schoolers. Distance
prevented her from hearing what was said, but when Masaki Taga attempted to
fondle the girl's breast the sound of breaking bones carried sharply through
the morning air.
Nabiki had sold photos of Akane and Ranma in his female form to this
group. Perhaps when they were released from the hospital the Chem Club might
be interested in purchasing some of Shinobu. The problem was how to acquire
photos of the young woman. Benevolent fate stepped in when Shinobu appeared
at the Tendou dojo the next day to arrange for basic self defense lessons.
Nabiki could not understand why anybody who could rip a lamppost from its base
and use it to flatten a group of perverts needed to learn how to punch
someone, but she did not question her good fortune. A fresh roll of film in
her camera, followed by a quick trip to her favorite photo developing store
and she checked the results. Since Shinobu did not own a traditional gi used
by most students of the martial arts she had worn a gym outfit borrowed from
her smaller cousin. The photos were very sensual as Shinobu's considerable
charms were flattered by the tight fitting shirt and trunks. Nabiki was very
pleased with the effect, as was the least injured member of the Chem Club who
met with her that evening. All of the photos were purchased without any
attempt at negotiation.
For Nabiki that should have been the end of it. Then a few days later
an idea occurred to her. The trade in photos of Akane and Ranma-chan, while
profitable, was extremely local. But Miyaki was known across Japan and there
might be an exploitable market out there for that series of photos. She would
use her computer to explore the possibilities.
On line Nabiki found what appeared to be a gold mine. Within moments
she stumbled across a site dedicated to the inhabitants of Tomobiki. Calling
itself "Urusei Yatsura," it had a collection of links to sites around the
world. Barely believing her luck, Nabiki scrolled down the list looking for
sites that centered around Shinobu. Unfortunately she soon found one. It was
called "The Shrine of Kali-Shinobu," which puzzled her since she knew that
Kali was the Hindu goddess of seduction and death. Why would anyone associate
that name with Shinobu? After logging on with that site she knew.
It was a locus of the rankest perversions. Every deviant thought, every
aberrant deed was celebrated on it, all identified with Shinobu. Here she was
homaged as the Goddess of Sex and Destruction, the living personification of
both. There were crudely written fictions about her corrupting and dominating
the inhabitants of Tomobiki through the gratification of the lewdest of
appetites. Drawings of her engaged in the most intimate acts with humans and
otherwise.
Then there were the photos. Gods, there were the photos.
In them Shinobu, dressed in a black leather outfit that was too short,
too tight, and too low, used a whip to "discipline" a young girl with green
hair cringing at her feet. But this was not what so appalled Nabiki. It was
that she recognized the photos. She had taken them. Using a computer graphic
art program someone had altered the photos of Shinobu exercising into their
present condition. They had done a superb job and only an expert...or the
person who had taken the original shots...would be able to tell that they were
fakes.
Infuriated that someone had used something that she had provided to her
clients for such a debauched purpose, Nabiki immediately tracked down the
physical location of the site. It was Furinkan High School, specifically the
small building on the grounds set aside for the exclusive use of the Chemical
Club.
It did not take a genius to see what had happened. The club was a
collection of brainy deviates who needed an object to project their twisted
fantasies upon. They could not use either Akane or Ranma-chan as both were
known and no one would believe either would behave in such a manner. But
Shinobu Miyaki, a girl whose tattered reputation gave credence to this, would
be perfect. Her violent reaction to their initial advances confirmed their
beliefs.
Then Nabiki made the photos available...
Nabiki loved her family but found it difficult to express this affection
in words. Her emotions were shown by her keeping the dojo in the black. She
supplied the money that put the food on the table, paid the taxes and hired
the home repair companies. She was willing to sacrifice for her kin and
considered no price too high to insure their happiness.
Today she discovered that there was one.
Unfortunately an innocent girl was going to pay it...
Thwap! Thwap! Thwap! Thwap!
* * *
The closed restaurant was no different than any of the other buildings
on the block. A simple, three story brick edifice, its large glass windows on
the ground floor were covered with newspapers to keep the sunlight from fading
the interior surfaces. A sign proclaiming that the business was under new
management had been plastered on the door about a month earlier and
pedestrians noticed lights on at the oddest of times with people entering and
exiting in great hurry.
Most of the residents of Nerima hoped that the restaurant would open
soon. There were only two really good places to eat in that part of town and
they were tired of Chinese food and okonomiyaki, although none of them would
dare tell that to the proprietors of either establishment. Being slapped on
the head with a cane or a spatula hurt.
There was a great deal of activity in the building this day, but none of
it had to do with food. The Niphentaxian spy unit which had rented the
building had been ordered back to base to confirm with their team leader.
Their computer expert had found something of great importance on one of the
local internet sites, something that would change the Church of Lum forever.
"Kali?" a puzzled Fungi said. "I've never heard the Sinful Doubter
referred to that way before."
The tall Niphentaxian boy fell silent under the collected glare of the
rest of his surveillance unit. In addition to being devout followers of the
Church, they were members of the "Cult of the Sinful Doubter Shinobu." To
have their idol living in Nerima where she could be observed was sheer bliss
to them. Fungi, who joined due to peer pressure and not religious fervor,
found his fellow Niphentaxians and their attitude to be a little...silly. His
maternal great-grandmother had been a Vosian. Her race's good sense ran true
in all of her descendants. Fungi wanted to break with the Church and live for
himself, but he was too afraid to do so. If the Church had a harsh attitude
towards infidels, what it did to those it excommunicated was worse.
The team leader snarled at the cringing boy before turning back to the
computer adept. "I want these records transferred here for safe keeping.
This Lost Bible cannot be allowed to slip away from us."
"Yes, Commander Shaskaar," Makasai typed a few instructions into her
counsel before looking back to her military and religious leader. "Shall we
send a copy of these back to the Hierarchy?"
"No," the powerfully built woman answered. "The Elders are too Orthodox
and Oogi would suppress this revelation as a threat to his power. Besides,
they're too concerned with moldy prophecies of destruction to comprehend the
importance of these Sacred writings and images. This is the truth of
Tomobiki. The forces of Light and Darkness are more evenly matched than we
were previously taught. Now is the time of the Ascendancy of the Night and we
are the servants of Kali." Shaskaar's eyes glowed with a religious zeal that
was reflected in all of those around her, with the exception of the frightened
young man who shrank away from them. "Instead we will alert others of our
sect as to the True Faith. We'll send a coded message to my sister for her to
carry the Word to our brethren."
Shaskaar studied the photos that they had copied from the primitive
Earth computer. In them, Kali-Shinobu stood triumphant over the Goddess.
This excited the Niphentaxian in a way that she had never experienced before.
"The Night shall fall," she huskily whispered. "The Night shall fall..."
* * *
The pimply teenager snarled at the computer in front him. Someone was
taking all of his club's best work and he was unable to prevent it. His
working hand was still in a cast and he could not operate the keyboard fast
enough. Even hitting the power switch did not work, the computer remained on
and the files disappeared. All he could do was sit back and hope that he
could reconstruct "The Shrine of Kali-Shinobu" from their back-up disks.
Masaki Taga looked up at the large poster over the desk. It was an
enlargement of one of the Chem Club photos purchased from that mercenary
Tendou girl altered to reflect their...unique tastes. He and his confidants
had converted the storeroom of their club house into a shrine to the object of
their obsessions. True, she was proving to be annoyingly coy about her
genuine nature, but everyone in Japan knew what she was really like. His
father often told him the stories of Shinobu Miyaki. That the yarns were the
inventions of middle aged men desperate for stimulation never occurred to the
youth. Instead he had incorporated them into the tales that his group wrote
and posted on the internet.
Now somebody was taking their efforts for themselves. Masaki glared at
the flashing images on his computer monitor and cursed the unjustness of it
all. His anger prevented him from noticing the shadows in the small building
were growing darker and merging with each other, overwhelming the electric
lights that still burned. Soon, except for the storeroom where he sat, the
club house was in total darkness. Then the outside door glowed a lurid green.
It opened and someone...something that should not exist in a sane universe
came through.
* * *
"Come on, come on! Three more gold coins and I get five extra lives!!"
Nene shouted as she manipulated the joy stick. She had found a great new
computer game and had spent the last ten hours playing it. There were other
things that she could be doing...eating, sleeping or bathing...but this was
too important. She considered computer games to be the ultimate artistic
expression of her *daimon'cha's* home culture and it was vital that she and
the rest of the Sagussans have a true understanding of their rich and subtle
content. At least that is what she told herself.
As she was about to move on to the next level the game dissolved in a
flurry of dots. Nene picked herself up from the floor to see that the
computer was flashing an A-1 priority signal. Something of vital importance
was happening. She punched up the indicated program and saw that a new time
spike was beginning to take shape in Nerima. This one was incredibly powerful
and certain to smash the dimensional and temporal barriers. For a moment Nene
stared at the unnatural phenomenon in appalled fascination. She came to her
senses and hit the intercom button. "Noa!" she shouted. "It's Nene!! It's
happening again!"
"Noa here," came the immediate response. "Will it break through?"
"Yes. This is the most powerful one so far. Nothing can stop it."
"Figure out the precise entry point," Noa ordered. "I'm heading for the
roof to warm-up a hovercycle. Meet me there as soon as you have the
coordinates."
* * *
Masaki smacked his uninjured hand on the computer desk as the last bit
of his club's site was swept away. It had taken hours of work and someone had
stolen it in seconds. He was about to begin the laborious process of
rebuilding it when he noticed that the building seemed to be strangely hot and
humid. There was a scent in the air, a musky sweet odor of desire, of
wanting. He turned around and saw that the building was dark. Certain that
he had left the lights on he went to the main switch and flicked it back and
forth. Nothing happened. He turned to go to the fuse box when he heard the
rustle of stiff cloth in the shadows. He was not a brave man and he retreated
back into the lighted storeroom. There were more noises in the dark, the
sounds of clicking heels and soft breaths and they were coming closer to him.
"Who's there?" he whimpered.
From the darkness a low chuckle emerged. "What you wanted," a feminine
voice that he thought he recognized answered. "I'm mad, bad, and dangerous to
know!"
Then she stepped into the light. It was HER! She looked exactly as
they had made her appear in the altered photos. Except for the face, there
was something weird about her face. As she embraced him she looked straight
into his eyes and he suddenly knew what was wrong.
Her eyes!
They were hungry!
* * *
"I don't believe it!!" Noa yelled over the roar of the engines as they
raced through the skies of Tokyo. "We lost fifteen minutes because all of the
hovercycles were having scheduled maintenance done! There should have been
one left on stand by."
"There was!" Nene shouted back, studying the instrument she carried in
her right hand while gripping the hovercycle in the air with her left. "Priss
took it out on patrol three minutes before the alarm went off."
Noa's response was an irate grunt. Nene's tricorder indicated their
approach to ground zero. "Down there," she said. "It's somewhere down there
next to that school!"
Noa nodded and banked the vehicle around and landed on the school yard's
baseball diamond. Nene took the lead and ran towards a corrugated metal shack
a hundred yards from the main building. As they reached it Noa drew her
pistol and motioned for Nene to get behind her. As she approached the open
door, she reached out with her mind. There was something...awry about the
aura of the building, but it seemed to be empty. She holstered her pistol and
entered the structure with Nene close behind.
"What a smell!" Nene gasped as she sniffed the stifling aroma in the hot
shack.
"There's a lot of chemicals in here. That probably accounts for some of
it," Noa replied as she inspected the room.
"I don't think so," Nene was very edgy. She knew that she was reacting
to something that had recently been in the shack. She kept looking back and
forth, missing the body on the floor until she tripped over it. Before her
scream could fade Noa was beside her. She wrapped an arm around her trembling
friend as she examined the young man lying on his back. There had been no
trace of his *mei'na* when she had probed the building. He had been murdered
by whoever had just crossed over.
"It's alright, it's alright!" Noa murmured to her shuddering companion.
"We'll find what did this to him. It won't get the chance to kill anyone
else!"
"No," Nene moaned. "You don't understand! That's not why I screamed.
I can't sense him. His *mei'na* is gone...but he's not dead! His body is
still alive!!"
Stunned, Noa looked back at the form in front of them. That was
impossible! Once the energies of the *te'a* and the physical form were joined
nothing save death could severe that bond. But if this body still lived...?
Slowly she bent over to look into the open eyes. They were blank,
glassy, staring. The 'who' of this person was gone and only the 'what'
remained. She touched the shape with her hand and jumped as if she had
plunged it into the heart of a sun. It was worse than coming into contact
with a clone! A clone provoked a sense of moral revulsion. This...thing was
a violation of the natural order of Existence!
Nene tugged at her companion's arm. "Please...please, let's get out of
here!" she whispered. "Let's get out of here now!!"
Noa allowed herself to be pulled. When she reached the open door she
stopped. "Get to the cycle and tap into the telephone lines using the
comlink," she ordered. "We must report this to the local authorities. That
boy must have had family. They'll have to be told. I'll take a look around.
Maybe I'll find what happened."
Nene began to protest but Noa silenced her with an expression and went
back into the shack. A quick look around the main room revealed nothing out
of the ordinary, except for the carcass upon the floor. Chemicals, burners,
calculators and other scientific utensils were all that Noa could find. The
only other door lead into a storeroom. It housed a bunch of girly posters
tacked on the walls. Noa closed the door and began to walk away when it hit
her. There was something familiar about the dominatrix in the large poster
above the computer. She returned and looked closer.
* * *
Hitomi gingerly placed the damp cloth across Shinobu's flushed brow
before she sat back on her heels. Soun Tendou had carried her groaning cousin
home from his training hall an hour before and had helped get her to her futon
in her cousin's room. When asked what had happened, the tall man's reply was
that she had made a slight mistake in judgment and should be feeling better
soon. Shinobu was getting some of her natural color back and Hitomi and her
parents, Yoko and Ryoe, began to question her as to what had happened.
"Shinobu-chan," Hitomi began, "...did you get hit during practice?"
Her cousin shook her head. "Perhaps you overexerted yourself. Did you
strain a muscle?" her mother asked.
Shinobu repeated her earlier response. Ryoe, being a practical man, and
not wanting to go on forever, decided that the direct approach would be best
with his niece. "Shinobu, what happened?"
The stricken girl sighed and explained. "Akane and I finished training
and she invited me in for some milk and cookies...and SHE baked the cookies."
Her cousins looked at each other and nodded. This made sense. Just
then the doorbell rang and Hitomi got to her feet to answer it. Walking down
the stairs she could hear her cousin talking. "...and I thought that fiance
of hers was joking. But those cookies...not even Lum could make anything like
them!"
Hitomi opened the door and found a tall, earnest looking young man
standing there. He showed her a chrysanthemum shaped badge and introduced
himself as Inspector Kobo. He said that he understood that a Shinobu Miyaki
was living here temporarily. Was she home? He had a few questions that he
wanted to ask her...
* * *
The members of the Furinkan High Chemical Club were feeling very sorry
for themselves. It looked like they were going to be in big trouble with
their parents when the police got done with them. They were just having fun
with a couple of dirty pictures and some stories. Now the cops had come into
their cram classes and dragged them out in front of everybody to answer a
bunch of stupid questions just because Taga got himself hurt.
Life was so unfair.
"Thanks very much for your cooperation and for calling us in so
quickly." the beefy Chief Inspector for the Nerima region said to the Sagussan
pair. Noa and Nene liked the big man. He was very professional and knew his
job. He acknowledged that this case was outside his experience and promised
to inform them immediately about any developments in the investigation. He
was about to tell them that they could go when one of his subordinates, a
young, austere man came in to make his report. He excused himself and allowed
the detective to lead him to one side of the room.
"How's the father taking it?" Noa asked Nene as they stared at the large
man sitting quietly on one of the lab's stool. He had been brought in to
identify the living corpse that had been his son. Having done so, he sat down
on a stool, staring vacantly into space for the past two hours.
"Not well. I tried to talk to him a couple of times but I don't think
he heard me," Nene looked back into the storeroom. The police were removing
its contents for evidence, but at the moment everything was still there.
"They did a pretty good job with those photos, didn't they? They even had me
fooled for a moment."
"Yes they did, didn't they!" Noa snarled, cracking her knuckles. She
had been outraged that the perverts had used Lum and Shinobu for their
fantasies. It surprised Noa that a large part of her anger at the boys was
for what they had done to the Terran girl. "It's a good thing that Shinobu's
in Tomobiki," she said to Nene, not noticing the sudden look of consternation
on the Pathfinder's face. "I wouldn't want her to see this stuff!"
"What do you mean your brought her down here?!" a voice interrupted.
Both Sagussans jumped as they heard the Chief Inspector roar at his
junior associate. "According to your report not only could she account for
her whereabouts for the entire afternoon she also had people who collaborated
her story!" The suddenly pale young man was trying to justify his overzealous
behavior and failing. The older man shouted at him. "You don't treat someone
like a suspect unless she is one and, from your own account, she isn't!!" The
young officer bobbed into frantic bowing to his superior who had turned away
from him. "Bring her in here and I'll apologize for your behavior!" The
younger officer ran from the building as the Chief Inspector fumed. He began
to take a cigarette from one of the pockets of his green trench coat when
something struck his mind. He walked over to the two Sagussans and reached
between them to pull the storeroom door firmly shut. "No reason for her to
see this," he said as he walked back to the door.
Noa had a very bad feeling about this. Something was going on. She
looked at Nene and noticed that the computer expert was sweating.
* * *
On the roof of Furinkan High, a gaunt figure adjusted the long range
scope on her *qu'f-piaqu'r* musket as she zeroed in on an officer leading a
young girl towards a small building set apart from the main structure.
Scalphunter had spent the past nine days familiarizing herself with the Tokyo
of her youth. To hunt properly it was necessary to know the terrain and the
habits of the prey and she now knew their behavior better than they did. She
had even had the opportunity to prepare a special surprise for one particular
individual.
She carefully kept her finger away from the trigger as she watched her
younger self being led across the school grounds. "Not this time!" she
whispered, her voice seething with emotion. "This time I'm going to do it to
them first! I'll hit first, I'll hit harder, I won't stop hitting till
they're dead!! I won't stop till they're all dead!!! Dead, dead, dead, dead,
DEAD!!!!"
A lone bead of sweat escaped the brim of her hat and fell into her eye.
She did not blink.
* * *
Shinobu and Noa were surprised to see each other in Nerima. Noa because
she thought that the troublesome Terran girl would never leave Tomobiki and
Shinobu because she thought that she had left the Sagussan girl and the rest
of her troubles back in Tomobiki. The Chief Inspector walked up to the school
girl and bowed. "Miss Miyaki, it is very good to see you again. My apologies
for the inconvenience that you have suffered."
Shinobu smiled brightly back at the older man. "Inspector Tori, it's my
pleasure. It's been awhile since I saw you last."
"Ah, it's Chief Inspector for Nerima now, Miss Miyaki. And it's all due
to your kind assistance during the affair of the Kobayakata heirs," the heavy
set man beamed.
Noa gaped at the friendly pair. They knew each other? They had worked
together in the past? It struck her how little she really knew about Shinobu.
When she researched the histories of the residents of Tomobiki she had been
concerned with how they interacted with Ataru and that had been the extent of
her interest in them. She had not bothered to learn anything about them as
individuals. Now she realized her error. Noa had the uneasy feeling that she
had made a mistake of gigantic proportions.
"I DON'T BELIEVE THIS!!!!" Everybody in the small building flinched as
Mr. Taga came out of his stupor and shouted at the Chief Inspector. He got up
and stomped over to where the officer and Shinobu stood talking. "Why are you
being so nice to this slut?!" he pointed a trembling finger towards the
stunned girl. "Don't you know who she is?! What she is?!! She must have
been the one who hurt my son!! I want her arrested!! I want her put in jail
before she can do anything like this to anybody else!!"
"Mr. Taga, I'm very sorry for what happened to your son, but Miss Miyaki
couldn't have done it. We've already established that she was somewhere else
when the attack occurred," the Chief Inspector answered.
"Then lock her up for what she did to him before!! She attacked him and
his friends! She broke his hand when they refused to satisfy her warped
desires!!" Taga was frantic. Were these idiots ignorant of the monster in
their midst?
"We've already investigated that earlier incident, Mr. Taga!" Tori could
feel his own anger growing. He felt pity for this man, to lose a son in such
a manner was unbearable. Unfortunately he was directing his frustration
towards an innocent girl. "Miss Miyaki was not at fault for what happened to
those young men," he jerked his thumb towards the group cowering in the far
corner of the shack. "We questioned them about it earlier and they admitted
that they had attempted to coerce Miss Miyaki and that your son had touched
her against her will. Considering what she is capable of doing, I think she
showed a great restraint!"
Taga was so angry that he radiated heat. He looked at the slim girl
before him. So innocently appealing...so corrupt. She may have fooled the
rest with her wiles, but not him. "I knew it would be like this when you came
here," he snarled. "I knew what would happen. That's why you did it to
Masaki, huh? To take revenge on my trying to keep you away from decent
people!! This won't stop me!! I won't let you do to Nerima what you did to
Tomobiki." He looked at Noa and Nene and spat on the floor. "Already you're
bringing your alien friends among us!! I've heard about these dykes! They
think they're too good for men, don't they?!"
Shinobu began to shake. When she met this man earlier today at Dr.
Tofu's clinic, she knew that he disliked her. But now she saw how deep his
hatred of her ran. Why? She did not want anything more to do with Ataru, Lum
and the rest. All she wished to do was get on with her life, to live like a
normal person again.
Inspector Tori reached out and took Taga by his arm as another officer
approached him from behind and did the same. "Don't think that you can fool
the rest of us as easily as these idiots!" Taga shouted as he shook off the
men. "We all know the truth about you, everybody in Japan knows what you're
really like!! My son discovered it so you did worse than kill him!! There!"
he screamed hysterically as he pointed to the storeroom behind Noa and Nene.
"The truth is in there!! I've seen it! We've all seen it and you can't hide
anymore!!!" Taga looked at the confused expression on the demon's face and
his anger soared higher. Did she really think that she could fool him with
this lily-white act of hers? "Look in there!!!" he shrieked. "LOOK, DAMN
YOU, LOOK...!!!!"
Taga's ravings stopped as Inspector Tori threw a bucket of ice water
into the man's face. Taga looked bewildered then fell to his knees and sobbed
uncontrollably, moaning his son's name over and over. Tori sighed and turned
to Shinobu to apologize...and found that the girl was no longer there. She
was slowly walking to the closed storeroom door. He wanted to call out for
her to stop, not to go any further, that she did not have to see what was
there. But the words would not come. All anyone in the room could do was
watch as Shinobu slipped between the Sagussans standing in front of the
closet. For a moment she stood there with the demeanor of a prisoner at the
first step to the gallows. Then she opened the door and went in.
For a few minutes the only sounds from the storeroom was the noise of
Shinobu's footsteps as she went around examining the pictures, the drawings,
the stories. Then...
"AaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!" the girl screamed as she
bolted from the storeroom and ran from the building. Her hands were jammed to
her eyes like she was trying to claw them from their sockets.
The strange sense of paralysis that held the room captive broke and Noa
raced after the fleeing girl. *Why didn't I stop her?!* she chastised
herself. *Why didn't I try?!* It had been as if something had wanted Shinobu
to see what that horrible room contained. The lies about her that some people
wanted so desperately to be true. Outside the shack she saw that Shinobu had
collapsed mere yards from the structure and was tearing huge clods of the sod
away from the ground. As Noa approached the wailing girl she blinked
furiously. There was something happening to Shinobu. It was her *mei'na.*
Impossibly, that was changing...
* * *
Scalphunter shuddered as waves of powerful feelings swelled over her
psyche. Something was happening to Shinobu down in that metal shack,
something causing such pain that her future self empathically shared her
agony. *They're doing it to me again!!!* the thought was accompanied by a
fresh blow of shame and chagrin. *No matter what I do they find someway to
involve me...someway to hurt me!!!* She watched as the young girl ran from
the shack and hurled herself to the ground.
"Now's the time!!" the white haired woman hissed. She gathered her will
and projected her ethos along the emotional bond between her and her young
counterpart. "Now I give you the strength that you need, the knowledge that
you must have!! Take! Take from me!! Take from me...and become me!!!"
* * *
Shinobu sobbed as she tumbled to the earth. Was this how everyone
thought of her? A monster of depravity who thought of nothing but the
immediate gratification of her perverted desires? A thing that would corrupt
and destroy the lives of everyone around her? Did this explain the looks
thrown at her as she walked down the streets of Nerima? Did everyone believe
those lies?!
She felt delirious. Images flashed before her eyes. Her tormentors...
her enemies falling before her righteous anger. Of the comfort found in the
hunt, the satisfaction of the kill, and the pride in the taking of trophies.
Shinobu gasped as she felt herself falling away from herself.
There was somebody behind her gently repeating her name. Dazed, Shinobu
turned to see who was standing there...
* * *
This was impossible, but Shinobu's *mei'na* was mutating before Noa's
startled gaze. The bright colors of the girl's aura darkened, stained by
horrible extremes of hatred and rage. Noa approached the girl. "Shinobu,"
she said. "Shinobu, can you hear me?!"
Shinobu looked up at her with a confused expression on her face. Her
vacant eyes stared at the Sagussan for a second...then they filled in a flash
with insane loathing. Suddenly Noa found herself facing a snarling beast.
"You!!!" Shinobu roared as she leapt at Noa, her hands curling into dagger-
like talons...
* * *
"You!!!" Scalphunter roared, eyes wide on seeing who else was there.
Breaking the link between herself and Shinobu she swung the *qu'f-piaqu'r* to
her shoulder and, unmindful of the consequences of her act, fired!
* * *
Shinobu plowed into the startled Noa and the force of her charge hurled
both girls up and away from the explosion that ripped the ground apart at the
precise spot that they had stood. The Sagussan twisted and rolled in mid-air
so that she could use Shinobu's body to absorb the impact with the ground.
She did not want to hurt the girl but she had to stop this before it went any
farther. As the dust cleared Noa looked at the young woman underneath her and
realized that her action had been unnecessary. Shinobu had been knocked
unconscious by the concussion of the blast. Also, her *mei'na* was returning
to normal, whatever it was that affected her had lost its hold over the girl.
Tori and his men rushed from the building, their weapons drawn and
ready. The Chief Inspector grabbed the girls and dragged them behind the
shelter while barking orders to his men. He was shouting about the school
being the only place where the shot could have come from and wanting backup.
He quickly checked out both girls and, after satisfying himself as to their
condition, turned and ran towards the school house to supervise its
evacuation.
Nene came out of the shack and stood over the pair. Noa was sitting on
the ground with the unconscious Shinobu limp in her lap. She knelt down next
to them and tapped Noa on the shoulder. She looked at Nene and summoning a
feeble smile said, "I guess we know what's so important in Nerima now!"
* * *
At the Toranoseishin Finance Center in the offices set aside for the
exclusive use of Ataru Moroboshi, Lum sat in a plush black leather chair
waiting for the return of her lovers. According to Reigi Yumoa, Ataru was at
a meeting with two very important government officials and Noa had gone off on
a mission with Nene. The Oni twirled a small envelope in her hands and wished
she was with them. Another part of her life was slipping away from her and
this loss was proving more painful than she could have imagined it would...
* * *
She had spent the day in Tomobiki. She had been absent from that
district for nearly two weeks and wanted to visit with her friends. She knew
now that her future lay in a different direction than theirs but she could not
abandon them like discarded toys. They were important to her and she wanted
to keep them in her life one way or another. With that thought she arrived at
the Miyaki residence.
Kimiki Miyaki was smiling as she answered the door, but ceased when she
saw who was standing there. Her answers to Lum's questions regarding her
child were curt. No, her daughter was not home. No, she did not think she
would be back soon. No, she did not think she would return before Lum left
Tomobiki. Shivering under her icy gaze, Lum murmured an apology for taking up
her time and began to fly away when a sudden cry from the Terran woman stopped
her. "Lum!" she said, the expression in her eyes pleading. "You've won! Be
generous in victory and let my Shinobu go!!"
Alarmed, Lum flew next to Tomobiki High where she found Mark Onsen
preparing his notes for the summer cram school. He was pleasant but distant
when she inquired about Shinobu. He said that he did not consider it his
place to inform her about the young girl's actions, but that the other girls
from Lum's old class were going to be at Shapiro's Ice Cream Parlor that
afternoon. She should see them if she truly wanted to learn what Shinobu was
doing.
The conversations hushed as the Oni girl entered the ice cream parlor.
The tables and the counter were full of Lum's ex-schoolmates, all of the girls
that she had known over the past three years were here...save one. There was
a murmur of hellos, but none of the enthusiasm that there once was whenever
she appeared in the past. Nervous, Lum moved from table to table looking for
one particular face. Finally she came to a small table where Pamanba and
Ryuunosuke sat over coffee. This surprised Lum because she had never thought
the two were friendly. She made the mistake of saying so.
Ryuunosuke leaned back in her chair and smiled unpleasantly. "Lum,
despite what you may think, not everything in this town waits for you to give
permission for it to happen." The tomboy ignored the shocked look on Lum's
face. She had promised herself this on the day Shinobu left for Nerima. She
stood up and slid her chair over to the pale girl. "Siddown. I've got
somethin' to say and I want you to listen." Ryuunosuke took a second to
collect her thoughts. A little over three weeks ago she had told her best
friend the hard truth, now it was time to see if Lum could handle it. "I'm
gonna assume that you've been walkin' around here trying to find Shinobu.
Well, she not here. She's not living in Tomobiki anymore."
"What?!!" Lum jumped to her feet, then quickly sat back down as
Ryuunosuke scowled at her. "Where is she?! When will she be back?!"
"Where she is...that I'll tell you later," the tomboy said. "As for
when she's comin' back, maybe a month, maybe ten weeks, maybe never! But why
do you want to know?!"
"Why do I...I want to know because she is my friend," Lum shouted till
the glass in the windows rattled. How dare she treat her like this.
"'Friend?!'" Ryuunosuke smirked. "You've got an interesting definition
of friendship, Lum."
"What do you mean?!" the Urusian spat as bio-electric sparks danced
across her body.
"Wasn't the first thing that you did was to take her boyfriend away?!"
Ryuunosuke snarled. Lum paled and tried to answer back but the tea house girl
cut her off. "Didn't you use magic against her?! Didn't you lie to her
constantly?! Didn't you try to kill her once by crashing your flying saucer
on her and Ataru?!"
"I...I...that was before I knew her better!" Lum weakly protested.
"You mean that was before she gave up on Ataru! If she hadn't, would
you have treated her any different?! And have you treated her any different?!
Haven't you dragged her halfway across the galaxy more than once?! How many
times have you gotten her into situations where she coulda gotten killed?!"
An uncomfortable silence filled the room as the rest of the girls
watched the drama play itself out before them. Ryuunosuke had never behaved
like this before. None of them had. "I didn't mean to..." Lum was confused.
She had not felt this bad since the day Nagaiwakai had dissected her
relationship with her Darling.
"You didn't mean to?! Is that supposed to make things better?! I think
it just makes it worse! In the three years that you've known her, have you
ever considered her feelings on anything?!"
"I've never meant to be cruel to her!"
"What about Nassur?! It wasn't cruel keeping the truth about Nassur and
Benten from her?! And how do you think we felt about that?! How do you think
we felt whenever we heard her sigh and look off into space?! We wanted to
tell her, but we were afraid!! You should've told her immediately, but you
didn't! You didn't care enough! How can you say that you're her friend?!
"You...you're not being fair!! It's not that simple!"
"You're right! I'm not being fair and it's not simple! But right now I
don't feel like being fair!! Shinobu has moved away from Tomobiki because
she's trying to get on with her life! She calls every night to talk to me!
She's very lonely! For some reason people...aren't being kind to her! But's
she not coming back because she's afraid of what might happen if she does!!
She's afraid, Lum! She's afraid."
"Of what?!"
"Of you, of Ataru, of everyone around you!! More than anything else,
she's afraid of herself! She wants to be an average person and she's anything
but. Now she has to find out who she is and what direction her life is going!
Can you understand that Lum?! Can you respect that?!"
"I...I...yes!"
"Yes, what?!"
"I respect her decision to live her life as she chooses! I...I won't
force my presence upon her!"
The tears that ran down her face were for Shinobu as well as herself.
She reached for the napkin dispenser on the table, but it was empty. Pamanba,
who had remained silent through the proceedings, handed her handkerchief to
the crying Oni. It was soon drenched. Ryuunosuke handed her something white.
Believing it to be another cloth Lum took it and began to dab at her eyes with
it, she jumped as its stiff corner poked her. "What's this?!" Lum looked at
the small envelop in her hand. It was addressed to her in Shinobu's
handwriting.
"Do you really think Shinobu would leave Tomobiki without saying good-
bye to all of her friends?! You weren't here so she left you this. And I'm
willing to bet anything that her address and telephone number are in there,
too. Lum, I'm sorry for what I did. I hurt you. But right now I'm hurting
too, all of us are. We're all growin' up and it really stinks!"
Ryuunosuke sighed. All she wanted right now was a long soak in a hot
tub. This had been as hard on her as it had been on Lum, harder because she
was an essentially honest person and had portrayed Lum as the bad guy when
both she and Shinobu were equally responsible for the mess their lives had
become. But it was impossible to reduce a three year span to a few sentences
and be fair. Besides, as Ataru could easily attest, Lum had a disturbing
tendency to hear ONLY what she wanted to hear. "I only got one last thing to
say to you and then I'm done! When people grow up they can grow away!
Friendships are mutual things! You both gotta want it!"
* * *
Lum leaned back into the plush leather and looked at the sealed envelope
in her hands. She had not been able to work up the nerve to open it. She
slipped the card back into her carry-all and walked to the plate glass windows
and watched the sun begin to set. She had got a message that Ataru would be
back soon and they would be setting out for Oshika soon after. But for now
her thoughts centered around a slim girl with reddish-brown hair.
"There's time," she whispered, her breath condensing on the cool glass
in front of her. "We can be friends. I can make this work. I've got the
time..."
* * *
The Hustari ship entered the outer reaches of the obscure solar system.
Its crew was exhausted at their stations, their captain had kept the ship and
them at a breakneck pace for the duration of the voyage. None had protested.
They were on a mission to save their people from extinction. The commander of
the ship, Suki, studied the sealed orders that had been issued prior to
launch. There was something wrong here, something was just escaping z'her.
But they did not have time to stop and think. Time was running out for
everyone.
Desperate times breed desperate actions.
They would soon reach the means to save their people and nothing would
be allowed to stand in their way...
* * *
To be continued...
The tired old man in the rabbit suit painfully moaned as the shattered
debris of their latest failed attempt floated aimlessly in space. Nothing had
worked in preventing the destinies in the Bureau of Destiny Management from
continuing their bizarre behavior. All associates from every branch office
had been summoned to deal with this emergency. Useless. The latest effort,
wrapping a rogue door with chains and dragging it from its course merely
slowed it down until the escalating stress tore the chains apart, injuring
hundreds as shrapnel flashed about. The door took its place in line with the
millions of others, level with the one before and precisely one foot away.
He groaned again, lifting the cowl of his uniform to dab at the blood
trickling down his forehead. "Useless...useless..." he muttered as he watched
the sequence of doors disappearing. It was not that the line stretched for
such a great distance, it was that they were literally dematerializing to
reappear...who knew where.
The Chief Executive's bitterness over this catastrophe grew. How could
this happen? They were masters of destinies. They shaped the future. They
determined the fate of those fleshy things across the dimensions. Now this
disaster threatened their very concept of reality and, at a personal level, it
threatened his position as director. He had to do something immediately to
prevent a challenge to his rule. He needed someone to blame; he needed a
victim. Casting his eyes over the assembly, he found him. An idiot boy
staring off into the opposite direction from which the chain had gone.
"Inaba!" he snarled. "You worthless dullard. What are you looking at? Why
aren't you doing something useful?"
"I haven't seen anybody doing anything of value. Even you weren't doing
anything," Inaba shot back. The apprentice had changed during the crisis. He
had matured, becoming more forceful. "As for what I'm looking at," he raised
a paw and pointed in the direction he had been gazing. "It's that."
The destiny caretakers saw a series of doors appearing from nowhere,
heading directly to the first chain of aligned destinies. It occurred then
that it was not a different column but the same revolving through the varied
dimensions to return to its starting point. The Chief Executive collapsed
under this final blow leaving his subordinates to bicker about lines of
command and succession.
* * *
Urusei Yatsura -The Senior Year; "Shinobu: Futures Imperfect" Part 6
By Philip Gavigan
PGavigan@aol.com
**** **** ****
Edited by Fred Herriot and E. B. Kushnir
**** **** ****
A side story based on the fan fiction stories in turn based on "Urusei
Yatsura", created by Rumiko Takahashi.
**** **** ****
IN THE FIFTH PART OF "SHINOBU: FUTURES IMPERFECT," Another future self of
Shinobu's has arrived. She is Kali, a psychic/sexual vampire that feeds upon
the *mei'na* of her victims. Scalphunter, another of Shinobu's possible
destinies, has attempted to transfer her mind to her younger self.
**** **** ****
And with that...ON WITH THE SHOW!!!!
**** **** ****
Inaba contemptuously turned from the squabbling bureaucrats to examine
the circle of destiny forming before him. "So powerful...so beautiful. So
much like you, Miss Shinobu." He discovered the reason behind his transfer to
the Sagussan Division while its associates battled this phenomenon. No member
of the Bureau of Destiny Management was permitted a relationship with any
being possessing the potential futures as Shinobu. They had used his ambition
for advancement to effect the separation that ended his love affair with the
girl. Was this the result? Shinobu was the common link between these
possible futures and so many others. Her actions somehow caused this and no
one knew how she accomplished it or how it would end. All he could do was
pray for her and the inhabitants of that beautiful blue world.
* * *
In the dark hotel room she shared with her cousins, Shinobu sat awake,
curled up childlike in a ball. She had waited until the quiet breathing from
the other bed indicated her uncle and aunt were asleep. Carefully she slid
from her bed to draw open the drapes of the large picture window. She pulled
a chair over to watch the lights of the shadowed city. They had come to the
seaside resort city of Oshio for two days of fun and sun. Appropriately, the
skies had been gloomy when they arrived and showed no let up. The weather
matched her mood. Since the discovery of the living cadaver in Furinkan High
School, her life had gone from bad to worse. She was seriously considering
returning to Tomobiki.
Chief Inspector Tori had announced that Shinobu was not responsible for
the incident with the President of the Furinkan High Chemical Club. That did
not stop the rumor mill, however. Mr. Taga had made sure that everyone knew
of the episode...from his point of view. The fact that the Chem Club's
building was the base locale of the "Shrine of Kali-Shinobu" lent a certain
credence to his charges.
If the people of Nerima had been cool towards her before, their behavior
now was glacial. When they saw her coming, they dodged into stores or crossed
to the other side. Playing children were dragged into their houses if their
mothers saw the young woman in the vicinity. Objects were deliberately
dropped at her from high windows, until in frustration, she struck a building
after a bucket of foul-smelling sink water fell upon her, shaking it to its
foundation. In retrospect, Shinobu knew that had been a mistake. The crowds
saw what she did, what she was capable of. Now instead of merely having their
contempt, the residents of Nerima feared her.
Shinobu sniffed, looking at the slumbering forms of her relatives. They
had supported her...and were beginning to pay for their loyalty. The Miyaki
house, once the most popular in Nerima, had been quiet for the last few
nights. Few of their friends would risk being seen with a family that would
harbor such a monster.
And it was not limited to her relatives. There were fewer patients in
the waiting room of Dr. Tofu. Many canceled or rescheduled appointments for
later. Some even requested that their case histories be sent to different
physicians. But Dr. Tofu refused to be intimidated. When she stood in his
office and tearfully offered her apology and resignation, he had refused to
accept either. "Sometimes," he said, "the truth requires sacrifice. I am
prepared to do so." He was not the only one. Akane Tendou and her fiance
kept her company around town. Lately they had been joined by both of Akane's
sisters. Not even the constant snubs could disturb Kasumi's calm demeanor and
Nabiki's only response was to jot names down in a little red book she carried.
*What good are their sacrifices?* Shinobu wondered. *They're only
harming themselves being seen with me. By the end of the summer I'll be back
in Tomobiki while they'll continue facing angry neighbors and townspeople. Am
I worth it? Maybe I'm no better than everyone else thinks I am. Don't Noa
and Mie treat me like trash? Ataru...even Ataru thinks so too.*
Shinobu prowled around the small room. Oshio was one of the more
popular resorts constructed during the building boom of the sixties. Her
family had been lucky to reserve something this size. Since it was the first
weekend of spring, the city was packed with vacationers, many students on
school oriented tours. She shivered, feeling the night's chill and decided to
put something warm on. She found her suitcase and carry-all at the foot of
her bed, went into the bathroom, closed the door and snapped on the light. To
her surprise she discovered that she packed her old school uniform in the bag.
She put it to one side, then on impulse pulled it on as well as a pair of
athletic shoes.
The mirror above the sink showed a girl unfamiliar to her. She had lost
weight and her face had a sunken, haunted look. She had been so hopeful, so
happy when she left Tomobiki eighteen days before. Nothing had gone right.
She could not even escape her troubles during her sleep. Her nights were
filled with weird, fantastic visions: leading faceless numbers of troops into
great battles, stalking humanoid prey around burning cities or lonely outposts
on the farthest rim of the galaxy. Worse, she would dream that she was the
monster depicted in the Chem Club's altered photos. In these nightmares she
indulged in every perversion in the known universe, and when she had exhausted
those, she would invent new ones.
The roll of the traffic in front of the hotel grew louder as Shinobu
studied her reflection. Slowly she reached out and touched her finger tips to
the cool polished glass and stood still. "Who are you?" she whispered, hoping
for an answer. The image before her twisted in response, pulling in on itself
before filling the width of the mirror. Shinobu instinctively swung her carry
all up and between herself and the mirror as it exploded!! Luckily, most of
the glass shards were deflected by the canvas bag. The stunned girl watched
as the pieces of the mirror danced across the porcelain of the wash basin.
As the roaring noise grew stronger, Shinobu knew she was experiencing
the great fear all Japanese shared. She rushed from the bathroom swinging the
strap of her carryall over her shoulder. Pulling her startled cousins from
their beds she dragged them to the doorway of the closet where they found
shelter as the earthquake tossed the contents of the room. A heavy dresser
was torn from the wall to which it was fastened to and flew towards the group.
A blow from Shinobu's fist sent it spinning through the window.
Ryoe coughed the dust from his lungs and spat to clear his throat.
"Maybe...maybe it's over," he gasped as the shaking seemed to subside. But
Shinobu knew otherwise, despite the screams and cries that were filling Oshio
she heard the thunder of the earth, felt its growing rage.
"I don't think so!" she shouted as she yanked her slender cousin on to
her back. "Wrap your arms around my neck...and don't let go!" she told Hitomi
as she scooped up her aunt and uncle under each arm. With them secured, she
raced through the jumble of the suite and, as the tremors returned with
greater ferocity, reached the shattered window and leaped out of the fourth
floor hotel room.
*WhathaveIdonewhathaveIdonewhathaveIdone...!!!* Shinobu thought as they
plummeted to the buckling pavement below. *I've killed us, just as surely as
the earthquake would, I've killed us!!!* But when they reached the hungry
earth Shinobu's knees barely buckled as she managed to land on her feet.
Power...sweet, seductive power...flooded her and she groaned in something
verging on rapture. "I saw a park nearby!!" she shouted to her panicked
relatives. "We'll be safe there!" With that she plunged into the escalating
chaos around her.
* * *
In a trash filled alley a white form raised herself from her latest
conquest, sniffing the night air of Tokyo. A self-indulgent leer twisted her
ceramic-smooth face as she took a last look at the Buddhist nun beneath her.
Previously a woman of unquestioned virtue, her valiant, if ultimately futile,
resistance to Kali's psychic assault had been stimulating and gave her final
victory a deeper satisfaction. She left the nude, *mei'na*-drained woman to
her fate and drew her black leather garb on. She could sense that her younger
self had touched her true potential, and it would soon be time to ensure that
her development took its proper course.
"Wait for me, my precious," she whispered, her eyes glowing bright as
the full moon above the city. "I'll be with you soon."
* * *
Staring at her cousin, Hitomi tried to figure out what was wrong with
her. Shinobu had accomplished the impossible, saving them all. The force of
the earthquake sent parked cars sliding across the roads. Several had skidded
towards them. Shinobu kicked them out of her way. She had leaped over
bursting water mains, dodged fallen electric cables and avoided collapsing
buildings. In the park, which had proven to be no sanctuary, ravines had
constantly opened and closed around them. Shinobu had been hard pressed to
keep from falling into their depths. But the tremors died away. Their safety
assured, Shinobu collapsed on the grass and begun to shake, refusing their
attempts to comfort her.
"This isn't right, this isn't fair!" she moaned. All she desired was a
little normalcy, a sense of order in her life. She wanted to get angry, to
yell, to throw something, like she used to do at Tomobiki High when the
confusion threatened her sanity. Now she could not. All of her troubles were
insignificant compared to the devastation around her. Oshio was pulverized.
The buildings that remained standing were wrecked. The rest were mounds of
rubble. Shinobu recognized that she had no right for hysterics. Too many
people were going to die if she did not work to save them. Her childish
temper tantrums would not help her. Tonight, she would simply have to cope.
The painful process of maturing that began when a Kyushu girl named Mie
Seikou entered class 3-4 to challenge Shinobu Miyaki's perception of herself
took another step forward as the slim girl rose to her feet. *What am I going
to do?* she thought. *Why did this happen? Weren't these building supposed
to be earthquake-proof? Weren't they up to code? The local authorities won't
be able to deal with this. They'll need outside help and that will take
hours, maybe days to get here. People will die if they're not rescued soon.
I've got to do something, but I need help, I need...*
Shinobu dropped her carryall to the ground and yanked the zipper open.
Puzzled, Hitomi watched as her cousin pawed desperately through the contents
of the heavy canvas bag, muttering, "It's in here, it's in here, please gods,
I know I put it in here." Hitomi inquired what was in the bag and was told it
held "emergency supplies." She had taken that to mean the little crises all
teenage girls around the world daily encountered. Looking over her cousin's
shoulder, she realized Shinobu had a different idea of the word 'emergency'
than most people. The satchel was packed with flashlights, batteries, rope,
tools, duck tape, a medical kit and other items useful in a disaster. Living
the past three years in Tomobiki had taught her the value of being prepared.
Shinobu pulled a small, tastefully wrapped package from the bag and tore
it open. Inside was the cellular telephone Shutaro Mendou gave her the day
she left Tomobiki for Nerima. *He told me his private number was on the speed
dial,* Shinobu thought as she opened the lid and the panel lit up. *If this
is hooked directly up the Mendou Clan Personal Communication Satellite, we
might have a chance. If not...*
Shinobu hit the proper button and waited for what seemed an eternity.
The call went through and was answered before it could ring twice. "Shutaro
here," a drowsy voice answered. "Ryooko? If this is another one of your..."
"It's me, Shinobu. I need your help, Shutaro-san. I'm with my cousins
in Oshio and there's been a terrible earthquake."
"Just a moment," Shutaro interrupted, his voice now alert. She could
hear buttons on a keyboard being pressed. "According to my computer you're at
the Oshio Recreational Park. Are the fields intact? Can we land a helicopter
there to evacuate you and your family?"
"I don't know. We have to check," Shinobu gulped before she continued.
She had to convince Shutaro to do what she had in mind. "Shutaro, we can't
turn our backs on this. It's really bad. The city's been leveled and all of
the hotels were full of people. We've got to help them, Shutaro. We must."
There was the briefest of pauses. Then Shutaro Mendou, scion of the
richest, most materialistic and most self-obsessed family in Japan, answered.
"I agree. I'm now putting the full resources of the Mendou family to disaster
relief. We'll be there within three hours."
"Thank you, oh thank you, Shutaro!" Something occurred to the young
girl and she continued with, "Shutaro, call Ryuunosuke and Aisuru. Have them
get the class together and pick them up on the way down. They should be
pretty good in an emergency. After all, we caused enough of them."
Shutaro laughed at the weak joke, then broke the connection to begin the
relief effort. Shinobu dialed another number, easily reaching Atako and
Shinoko at their home in Sado. Her sister and sister-in-law promised to get
everyone to Oshio as soon as possible. Shinoko also said she would contact
Nintaiko and the rest of her school in Oshika. Shinobu was unenthusiastic
about seeing her Nendo-kata twin, but was not about to turn down help.
Shinobu slowly tapped in another number, one that she had never used
before. *He'll come!* she thought as she nervously chewed on her lower lip.
*He may not have much use for me...but he won't turn his back on all of these
people.* Shinobu felt the pit of her stomach fall away as the call went
unanswered. *Please, Ataru! You have to come here. I need you to be here.
Don't let me face this...alone.*
There was no response. She decided Ataru and his family must out. She
considered calling Nagaiwakai Moroboshi, but abandoned that as a very bad
idea. She believed Ataru's grandmother considered his former classmates to be
as desirable as the Eta, Japan's 'untouchable' underclass. Instead she chose
to call Sylia and Pathfinder Troop Six in Tomobiki. The Sagussan commander
seemed strangely hesitant when Shinobu asked her to get in contact with Lum
and Ataru, but said she would call everyone available to help.
Shinobu closed the cellular phone and handed it to her waiting cousin.
Taking a large flashlight and a pair of heavy, leather work gloves from her
carryall, she handed the torch to her uncle after she pulled on the gloves.
"You have to check out the baseball fields and see if they're safe for a
helicopter to land on." She stopped her relatives before they could protest.
"It's important. If a helicopter hits something, it'll crash. That'll kill
the crew and scatter enough wreckage to render the field useless and that will
slow everything down. After you're done, call Shutaro Mendou with this phone.
You may not reach him directly, but make certain that you tell them where they
can land. Use the flash light to signal them."
"What are you going to do, Shinobu?" Yoko asked as her niece began to
walk away from them.
"What I can," the young woman answered, resolve building in her voice.
"People are going to die if I...."
Hitomi wanted to come help her, but Shinobu refused to consider it.
"You can't come with me," she said as her throat tightened with pain and tears
pressed against her eyelids. Another of her cherished illusions was about to
die this evening and she had no time to mourn its passing. "You wouldn't be
able to survive where I'm going. No...no normal person could." Before Hitomi
could protest further Shinobu spun on her heels and left the park.
The skies around her were growing lighter, a false dawn caused by the
numerous fires ignited by torn natural gas pipelines crisscrossing the city.
She jumped over tumbled cars, occasionally stopping to free a trapped motorist
...or to shed tears for those beyond her help. She reached the outskirts of
the hotel district and paused for a moment. Already the heat of the fires was
pulling the breath from her lungs and leaving her drenched in sweat. But she
had to get closer, the reasons why ringing in her ears. In the roar of the
flames, through the clatter of falling stones she could hear the moans, cries
and screams of those entombed in the fallen buildings. It was a symphony of
human suffering composed by the devil playing in the hades of Oshio.
Shinobu braced herself and entered the inferno...
* * *
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M NOT GOING WITH YOU?!?! I WANT TO HELP TOO!!!!"
"How will your going insane help?!" Catty crossed her arms and stared
directly into Lum's wide, protesting eyes. She did not believe in candy-
coating the truth and was going to make the Other understand just what would
happen if she persisted on this unreasoning course. "Right now you're at the
most dangerous stage of your rebirth. Your biology is now Sagussan, your mind
possesses its full abilities, but not the control needed to use them properly.
We're heading for a major disaster zone with thousands of casualties, many of
them terminal. They'll be fighting for their lives. The psychic bombardment
of that emotional energy will be devastating even for those of us who have
mastered the five disciplines. A fledgling like yourself wouldn't last the
hour. Ataru would return to Earth to find a vacant shell in the place of the
woman he loves."
"But...but it's Shinobu. I want to help her!" Lum's head was bowed and
Catty could not see her face but heard her tears pattering to the metal floor.
"And you will, but you will have to do it from here. We're going to
need someone to coordinate our efforts from here and you've got the job."
* * *
Mr. Takanaba put down the report from his chief scientist and groaned in
disappointment. Of all of the schemes that were based on the alien technology
he had beguiled from Baron Suzuki, he had held the most hope for Project:
Deep Cast. It now appeared to have been a waste of time and resources. The
businessman removed his thick glasses and rubbed his eyes. He had spent the
night reviewing the report, looking for something that his employees might
have missed, desperate to find someway of turning this "no" into a "yes," but
to no avail. It was hopeless.
His primary goal had been achieved. His scientists had developed a type
of nanite that, once introduced into a person, would be able to download and
store information from any computer their host came into contact with. This
data would be retrieved at their convenience. The host would be the perfect
industrial spy, one who had no idea what he was doing. However, there was a
problem. No human was strong enough to survive the process of introducing the
minuscule machines into their bodies. They knew this from repeated failures.
Mr. Takanaba sank back into his swivel chair and watched the sun slip
slowly above Tokyo and contemplated a second problem. In his excitement, he
had neglected to consider just who would have entry to the information that he
desired. Not merely the data banks of his chief rivals, the Moroboshi and
Mendou clans, but the alien technologies that he craved. The twin problems of
fatality and access left Project: Deep Cast adrift without recourse.
The businessman wearily struggled to his feet. He decided to watch the
early morning news before leaving a message with his secretary to cancel his
appointments for the day. He was tired and did not want to negotiate anything
when he felt less than his best. He brewed a pot of coffee, turned on the
television, and stepped into his private bathroom. When he emerged after a
quick shower he was greeted with live pictures from Oshio. Aghast, he dropped
heavily against his desk. The entire city had been demolished. The reporter
at the scene seemed desperate to get a view of something happening in the
distance. The camera swung around and Takanaba watched as a plume of dust
rose from a pile of crushed stones that had been the finest hotel in the
doomed city. It did not look like an explosion, more like someone was using
heavy excavating machinery. The camera crew neared the site of the upheaval
with the reporter leading them babbling something about "miracles." Now
Takanaba could clearly see twisted steel beams and shattered pieces of
concrete being tossed through the air. Whatever was being used to dig was
incredibly powerful and the businessman desperately hoped that he owned the
company that made it. The news crew circled around the last mound of bricks
and Mr. Takanaba and the rest of Japan saw what was happening.
When his private secretary arrived promptly at eight she discovered an
empty office and two messages. One stated he was canceling his appointments
for the day, the second that he wanted a complete briefing on events in Oshio.
* * *
"Are you going to take me to Heaven?"
Priss eyed the young child who had asked her that question. Pathfinder
Troop Six had flown directly to Oshio to join the rescue operations. During
the flight, they had checked in with Mendou, then flown their hovercycles to a
large park near the center of the city where a middle-aged man with a large
flashlight signaled them in. He turned out to be Shinobu's uncle. When Sylia
had asked after the girl, her cousin Hitomi told them that she had already
gone back into the ruined city. She had been gone for nearly two hours and
they had no idea in which direction she went after she left the park.
Priss wanted to go after the girl immediately, but conceded that they
had to prepare the landing field first. This was the only part of Oshio left
where they could set up a operations base so any attempts to search for
Shinobu would be futile if they did not have the resources available. Two
hours later, they had prepared a number of helicopter landing sites as the
primary wave of the gigantic Mendou helicopters began to touch down. The
first man off was Shutaro Mendou, joined by the team he had assembled. They
met with the Sagussans and devised a plan of action. Mendou and his friends
from Tomobiki would handle the initial unloading of medical and other supplies
while the Sagussans would survey Oshio. Before they went in they had to know
where the worst damage was centered and where any survivors might be found.
The Sagussans completed their expedition within a half-hour and reported
back with very bad news. All of Oshio was destroyed. The hotel district,
crammed with springtime merry makers, was especially hit hard. Sylia and
Shutaro were forced to make a difficult decision. Considering the high number
of people concentrated in that area, they decided to focus the primary rescue
effort there and branch out through the rest of the city later.
Pathfinder Troop Six arrived in the hotel center as dawn began to break.
They flew in on silenced engines to keep the powerful vibrations of the cycles
from causing further damage. They found a small helicopter lowering a news
crew to the scene, but made no comment. If they wanted to be here they would
have to take their chances like everyone else. Priss had been checking their
coordinates with the map of Oshio on her tricorder and was concentrating so
hard that she had not heard the little girl walking up behind her.
The child's beauty was hidden by cuts and scrapes that gouged her body
and darkened with a combination of cement dust, dirt and blood. She was a
frightful sight. Priss gently lifted her and held her in the crook of her
arm, just as she would with Shunran, and warmly smiled into the child's dazed
eyes. "You're going to be alright," she said as calmly as she could. "Why
did you think I was going to take you to Heaven?"
"Cause that's what the Angel said when she dug me out. She said that
somebody would be here to help me...and since she was an Angel, that means
that somebody was gonna take me to Heaven," she said with all the confidence
of childhood.
"How do you know it was an Angel who saved you, dear?" Sylia asked as
she walked up to the pair. The girl was obviously in shock and needed to be
treated as gently as possible.
"Because when she dug us out she had to pick the hotel up off of us and
only an Angel could do that," the girl answered seriously. She twisted in
Priss's arms, pointing to where a group of forty ragged and scared schoolgirls
huddled. "She told us to stay together so that we could be found easier, but
when I saw you flying up there I knew that you had come to take me to Heaven."
The girl looked tearfully back at Sylia. "You're not gonna make the Angel go
back too, are you? She still looking for the rest of my friends."
Sylia was about to ask where this Angel was now when she saw the news
crew running towards a rising cloud of dust. She and Priss took off after
them, the tot still cradled in the coxswain's arms. Behind a mountain of
cinder blocks and bricks they found Shinobu using a ten foot I-beam as a lever
to push massive slabs of reinforced concrete aside. Sylia reached out with
her inner senses and heard the cries of trapped children underneath the area
where the Terran labored. Incredibly, it seemed that Shinobu could hear them.
The girl held by Priss smiled as she pointed to Shinobu and said,
"That's her. That's my Angel!"
The startled reporter gaped at the child then grinned as he turned back
to the camera. He had been wondering about the right spin to put on this and
it had just been handed to him.
* * *
The anchorman quickly readjusted his clip on microphone as he prepared
for his live broadcast. His producer had everything ready to go and was
counting out the final seconds of the commercial break on her hand. A quick
signal and the reporter turned to the main camera and began to speak. "Good
evening and welcome to SNN News. I'm Brad Douser. Tonight what is being
hailed around the world as the 'Miracle of Oshio' continues and with a live
report from that stricken city is SNN's own Christine Yama."
"This is Christine Yama in Oshio," the young Japanese-American began,
the early morning breeze twisting her short hair. "For years the people of
Japan have wondered why they had to extend their hospitality to the vast
majority of the visitors from beyond the stars. They've asked themselves and
their leaders what was the reason for this and how could it benefit them.
Over the past three days those questions and others have been answered as
groups of aliens working in close conjunction with Terran volunteers and
official agencies have rescued thousands of trapped earthquake survivors from
the devastation that was once a popular seaside resort. Although casualties
are high, Japanese authorities are adamant that the death toll would have
reached much greater proportions, possibly into the tens of thousands,
without the prompt action of the alien visitors and their Terran friends.
With more on this story we switch to SNN's main studio in Charleston."
"Perfect," the news producer said as she took off her headset and ran
her fingers through her short, curly black hair. "Alright, listen up people.
This tape will run for six minutes, then we go back to Chrissy for some color.
Brad," she looked to the anchor checking his notes, "...pump her a bit for
local reaction. Man on what's left of the streets thing. After that the
talking heads will have what's left of this half hour."
"So what will they be talking about?" the newscaster asked, referring to
the collection of experts know as the 'talking heads' SNN had on retainer.
"The improved outlook for Terran-extraterrestrial relations. This is
the best press the aliens could have, right on the heels of the 'Tripwire
Incident.' But this is something entirely different. They're showing that
they can contribute meaningfully in the alleviation of human suffering and
that's going to play well, especially in the third world." A murmur of
approval went around the studio. "So does anybody have any questions?"
"Yeah," a beer-bellied cameraman just back from vacation asked. "Why's
that alien gettin' so much airtime?" He pointed to a monitor showing a slim
girl in a tattered school uniform. "Sure, she's hot an' everything, but some
of the others are a lot better..." here he stopped talking and made a cupping
motion with his hands at chest level.
The news producer grimaced then leveled a fierce look at the smirking
male. Pure pork product, but good at his job and had seniority. As long as
he kept his comments suitably vague he was immune to official repercussions.
"Because she is not an alien," she snarled. "Her name is Shinobu Miyaki and
the Japanese government has made her family history for the past five hundred
years available. She's Terran from the get go."
The cameraman looked back at the monitor with an appraising look in his
bloodshot eyes. "So that's the one they're calling the 'Angel of Oshio,' huh?
I don't know about that name for somethin' like her. I've seen pictures of
her doin' stuff that..."
"If you would read the notes from the production meetings...or bother to
attend one," the sound man interrupted, "...you would know that those photos
are fakes. The Japanese government found the ones responsible for them and
someone produced the negatives that they were taken from. Any news agency
that publishes them will be considered to be engaged in libel. She's still a
minor and has some protection under the law."
"Yeah?" the burly man in the bowling shirt muttered. "Well look at her.
So far on this tape she's done everything except leap over a tall building in
a single bound. Look at what she can do with a steel beam. Don't tell me
that's human."
The producer scanned the studio. The cameraman was only raising a point
that had crossed all of their minds. She began to speak, her voice firm with
command. "Until we have evidence to the contrary, we do not speculate about
that young girl. We're a news organization. We'll leave that stuff to the
tabloids." She checked her wrist watch and began to count down to the next
live segment of the broadcast.
* * *
"You want to do a psi-probe of Shinobu?" Shinoko turned from Catty to
look into the tent she shared with her sister and Atako. Shinobu was moving
restlessly in her sleep, like she was having another one of her nightmares.
Atako and Nintaiko were sitting on the cot parallel to Shinobu's, watching
her. Shinoko's heart ached as she saw the sadness on Nintaiko's face. She
wanted to form a closer bond with Shinobu...but the Terran girl considered her
a threat. An ill-considered mind-meld with Soban, the gang leader who had
long pursued Shinobu, left their sister with the opinion that Nintaiko was no
better than any of the other aliens who had attempted to control her in the
past. "You already examined her today after she collapsed and said that she
was simply exhausted."
"That's why I want to perform the probe. Her fainting like that simply
didn't make sense considering her condition." Catty watched as the expression
on Shinoko's face flashed from curiosity to worry. "I don't mean anything
life threatening. She's in perfect health. There's absolutely nothing out of
the ordinary about her. That's what's bothering me. Her cellular structure
should be much denser for her to be as strong as she normally is, but her mass
ratio is within Terran standards. Remember, she collapsed after we rescued
the last survivor. Until then, she showed no sign of fatigue."
"You sound like a person with a theory," Shinoko said accusingly.
Catty flushed at Shinoko's charge. "I am. I think Shinobu is somehow
drawing on a power source that effects her *mei'na.* This in turn effects the
bio-electric field around her and makes that more powerful."
"So that when she lifts something, it is actually her bio field doing
the work," Nintaiko said calmly as she exited the tent. "I concur, you should
perform the psi-probe...but be certain to get her permission. My sister's
aversion to those who take undue liberties with her person is...considerable."
She nodded to the pair then walked across the athletic fields to the temporary
quarters that she shared with her fellow Nendo-kata.
For a moment Shinoko watched her sister's lonely figure disappearing
into the night, then sighed and turned to Catty. "I'll wake her up, but it's
going to be up to you to convince her to do this." With Catty's accepting nod
the Avalonian entered the small tent and gently pulled at her sister's right
arm. Shinobu's eyes slowly opened and she saw Shinoko's face, so much like
her own, hovering above her. She pulled back in momentary alarm, then blushed
and apologized. "Shinobu, Catty's here and she wants to talk with you."
Catty neared Shinoko and took her by the hand before going on to Atako.
"If I'm able to talk her into this it's going to be a 'deep' probe. One where
I have to drop almost all of my personal shields. It does require privacy."
Shinoko felt irritated at the doctor's presumptuous manner. Shinobu was
right when it came to the Sagussan's social skills; they really needed to work
on them. Still, it was a reasonable request so the duo left the tent. They
walked through the small tent city established by the rescue teams. There was
a great deal of activity with equipment being packed for the trip home. With
the arrival of the civil authorities en masse and the threat to human life now
resolved, it was decided that the volunteers would vacate the field and allow
the national and local officials supervise the clean up and recovery effort.
The couple soon found themselves at one of the camps built by Shinobu's
former classmates. A grinning Ryuunosuke waved them over and made room for
them to sit down. Shinoko and Atako gratefully took the hot tea she offered.
Atako saw an intense discussion going on between Mendou and Megane. She was
impressed by the skills and dedication shown by the Tomobiki residents over
the past days. She had not thought them capable of such selfless behavior.
Ryuunosuke noticed Atako watching Mendou and Megane and smiled ruefully.
"I better warn you," the tomboy said to Ataru's bioroid twin. "They're going
to send a delegation to see you two about asking Shinobu into returning with
us tomorrow."
Atako and Shinoko exchanged a startled look. "I guess you know what's
been happenin' to Shinobu in Nerima lately. Well, Hitomi told us before she
and her parents went back home yesterday." Ryuunosuke frowned at the fire,
the urge to crack a few skulls making her hands itch. "Can't believe that
anybody would be so stupid to treat Shinobu like that, let alone an entire
district. We want Shinobu home with the people who love her. Will you please
help us?"
Atako sipped her tea and considered the request. She had been Shinobu's
advocate when she first decided to put some space between herself and Atako's
brother. Then it had seemed the most logical solution to an increasingly
dangerous situation. But now...Atako turned to her bond-mate who nodded
almost imperceptibly.
As the young woman began to speak...she found herself being caught up by
a whining noise that grew louder and louder. Everyone in the camp stopped
what they were doing and looked at the source of the disturbance, Shinobu's
tent. Worried, Shinoko got to her feet and was about to head for the tent...
when with a crack of thunder and a blinding flash of light, Catty shot from it
like a cork from a champaign bottle! Luckily for the doctor her trajectory
sent her flying into a number of tents that broke her fall. As Shinoko
reached her, Noa and others from the Sagussan camp came running up.
"Did anybody get the number of the comet that hit me?" Catty moaned.
Shinoko stared while the Sagussan tittered and tried to stand up. She
did not seem to be in pain, just so dazed that she was behaving in an drunken
manner. She reached up and grabbed Catty's arm and began to lift herself. "I
was right," she slurred. "Shinobu's full of energy...both *mei'te* and
*mei'de.*"
The other Sagussans looked at each other nervously. For an individual
to possess...or be possessed by...both the positive and negative forces of the
universe was unprecedented. "They're feeding on each other! It was like
coming in contact with a living fusion reactor." Catty would not stop
talking. She was too excited to pay attention to Noa's increasingly desperate
attempts to hush her. "I've got to check with Lum about her history. I'll
talk with her tomorrow after we get back to Oshika..."
"Lum's in Oshika?!" The surprise in Shinobu's voice cut the fog
surrounding the doctor's mind, but the damage was already done. Catty looked
at the girl at the tent flap, guilt shining on her face. "You told us that
Lum and Ataru were off-planet on some mission!"
Noa felt the blood rushing to her face. To keep everyone from Tomobiki
from rushing to Oshika if they heard of Lum near-fatal shooting and rebirth as
a Sagussan, they spread a cover story that both were on the trip to Nekotengu
Four, the story having the advantage of being half-true. Unfortunately it was
falling apart quickly. Noa was not a good enough liar to save it. "Well...
well..." she stammered. "They just got back today...yes...we just heard that
they got back today. Just now."
Shinobu looked into the sky above them and pointed to the "Kiboo'cha"
floating there. "You've been using that to ferry supplies back and forth from
Oshika for the past few days. What ship did Ataru and Lum leave on? The
'Hasei'cha' only just returned to commissioned duty a week ago!"
Noa was stuck for an answer. They had assumed no one would question
them and had failed to prepare for this possibility. "It's like this...you
see, don't you Shinobu? You see..."
"Oh yes, I see very well!" Shinobu's features were much paler than
usual, realizing the implication of what had been said. It was not just that
neither Lum or Ataru cared for her. They LOATHED her, despising her so much,
they could not bring themselves to come here, even to help others.
At that moment Shinobu became again the six year old child who had spent
hours waiting for her beloved cousins to return to their empty house. But
this time, there was no grubby hand with a flower and a promise to be with her
forever to save her from despair. Ataru wanted NOTHING to do with her. She
was alone. She turned and entered her tent closing the flap behind her.
Noa began to go after her, determined to tell her the truth. But a
strange cry that filled the air stopped her in her tracks. It was coming from
Lum's former classmates. It was a weird sound, a cross between a groan of
pain and a wail of wretchedness. The Sagussan realized what was happening:
they were wailing. Their faith in Lum, their belief in her goodness and
generosity, had been struck a lethal blow and they were lamenting its death.
As a group they got up and left the area to the Sagussans, disappearing into
the dark to deal with their sorrow.
Noa wanted to shout at the top of her lungs that they were wrong, that
it was all a misunderstanding, but she could not. Ataru had worked for months
to wean these people from their unhealthy dependency on Lum. For the longest
time, she could not understand why he was so concerned for them, people who
had abused and used him to their ends for years. But the past three days had
demonstrated how extraordinary they were and what they could accomplish with
their lives...if only they would let go of Lum and get a life.
A slim white hand began to tap on Noa's shoulder and she found Atako
standing there, a grim, censorious look hardening her features. "I don't know
what's going on...but you're going to tell me." Noa felt uncomfortable under
the iciness of that unrelenting gaze. "I've got a piece of advice for you
first, Noa. Don't go into politics if or when you people organize yourselves
that way. You don't have the raw talent."
* * *
Mr. Takanaba's office in the Tokyo Financial Center was empty for once.
The corporate leader had made a hard copy of the final report from his minions
regarding the Tomobiki schoolgirl whose heroism had inflamed the admiration of
his nation. He too, was intensely interested in the girl, but more as a means
to unlimited profit than anything else.
Mr. Takanaba always left his computer on when he went home. It was a
matter of economics after he learned it cost less to leave it running through
the night. The screen saving program, a card game, ran to insure no damage
was done to the monitor. Then something began to happen. The cards began to
spin on the screen, merging into each other, melting and reforming into
something different, into a door.
On the monitor's screen the door slowly opened inward...then from it
poured a shimmering metal like fluid that flowed across the desk and puddled
on the floor. The golden material changed and became more solid. Soon it was
an abstract sculpture of a human, possibly female. Then, with the precise
movements of the machine that it was, it got to its feet and left the room.
The monitor returned to normal, but it no longer showed the card game on
it. Now it repeated a phrase again and again, filling the screen with it:
MECHA HAS ARRIVED...MECHA HAS ARRIVED...MECHA HAS ARRIVED...
* * *
"...and we've got everything packed up. The heavy stuff we'll send up
to Oshika on the 'Kiboo'cha' and shuttle it back to Tokyo later."
Priss finished her report, waiting for Sylia to respond. Her attention
seemed to be elsewhere. Her coxswain followed her gaze to the slim figure
approaching them. "Ah...good. Make certain that we police our area before we
go," Sylia absently responded.
None of them had seen Shinobu after she disappeared into her tent after
Catty's unfortunate revelation of the night before...but they had all heard
her soft sobs on the evening breeze. Now she was seeking Sylia out and the
Seishin-turned-Sagussan was uncertain how she should react. She had no idea
if Atako Moroboshi had told her the truth. She was still under orders to keep
it from the Terrans. Priss gave her a sympathetic smile before leaving to
follow out on her orders. "Good morning," Shinobu greeted. "I guess you'll
be leaving in a little while."
"Just as soon as we get take off permission." The skies of Oshio were
packed with aircraft bring supplies into the wounded city and the Sagussans
were making every effort to cooperate with local officials. Sylia watched
Shinobu watching her. The girl seemed less depressed than Sylia would have
thought considering her reaction the night before. Bile rose in Sylia's
throat about the cover story which had caused her such anguish. She had been
against it from the beginning and she had enough of it. "Shinobu, I'm going
to tell you the truth..." she began.
"Something really serious has happened to Ataru and Lum...and you guys
came up with that story to keep us from rushing up to Oshika and making a bad
situation worse."
Shinobu giggled as Sylia fainted! It was the first time she had ever
seen a Sagussan do that. "Er...yeah!" Sylia muttered as she got to her feet,
amazed at the laughter in the Terran's eyes. "How did you figure that out?"
"I'm not stupid. After Shinoko calmed me down I thought it out. Ataru
would never let...personal feelings come between him and his better instincts.
If he and Lum could have been here they would have been," Shinobu explained.
"I'm going to have to go soon, Mendou's giving me a lift back."
"So you're going home with them."
"Only as far as Nerima," Shinobu said, a mature expression on her face.
"I ran away from my problems in Tomobiki...and got a whole new set in Nerima.
I'm not running any more. There are good people there who have sacrificed a
lot for me. I'm not going to let them down." Shinobu looked at her former
classmates taking down the last of their temporary shelters. "It's not easy.
I've got some new friends, good friends, but I miss the ones in Tomobiki. The
gang, Ryuunosuke, Pamanba...you."
Sylia looked at the hand that Shinobu held to her...then took it firmly
into her own. Priss came up and informed Sylia that they had just received
permission to leave and that they should do so within the next ten minutes.
Sylia nodded and gave the order to take to the hovercycles. Shinobu walked
them to their vehicles and, after a final hand shake, moved to one side away
from the jet blasts of the engines.
Sylia flew low once around the field to raise her hand to Shinobu who
returned the salute. *I'm not going to rush it this time,* she thought as she
looked at the figure receding. *Take your time Shinobu. Explore your world
and what it has to offer. It's a nice place...but sooner or later you're
going to find that it's too small of a place for someone like you. And on
that day...Sagussa will be waiting.*
Sylia breathed deeply of the crisp morning air, then set her hovercycle
for Tokyo and home...
* * *
To be continued...
