*What am I doing here?!* Negau sighs as her private sloop slices
through the void towards the rendezvous point near Yiziba.
Technically, if she was caught, the director of the Defence
Intelligence Agency (DIA) could be charged with state treason, a capital
offense on Uru. However, only one other in the government knew of this
mission and he was behind her one hundred percent. Like it or not, there
came times when measures had to be taken to protect Urusian interests that
skirted the thin line of justice, even now when Uru was supposed to be
developing into a more advanced, just society.
Negau wryly grins. Were this back in Des Azu's day, Lara Skelad
would've suffered a creative "accident" at the hands of a special action team
and, with the planting of choice scuttlebutt in the local media, her whole
family would be brought to shame and disgrace. However, Des Azu and Lara
Skelad were cut of the same stained Imperial cloth, so were this a decade ago,
the latter would have been given all the support possible.
If she had Des' level of power, Negau would be able to stop Lara in
her tracks, the captain bitterly muses as the sloop comes to a halt in the
shadow of a large asteroid. But that was no longer possible. The Defence
Intelligence Directorate, the DIA's fearsome predecessor, had been stripped of
one powerful arm in the years after the Round had been effectively eliminated
on Toshitto: internal surveillance and security. Negau was constitutionally
bound to never meddle in the affairs of Urusian citizens, even if they posed a
future threat to the Union's survival. That was now the responsibility of the
DIA's counterpart, the Internal Security and Investigations Service (ISIS).
"We're here," the woman at the helm sighs. "Regrets?"
"Too many," Negau rubs her nose. "I knew, Father knew, it was too
soon to rip up the DID, not with the possibility of Imperial hangers-on like
Skelad running around loose. I just wish it didn't happen this way."
"It did," Numon shrugs. "There's no need to lament on the past.
We've too much work to do to get cold feet now."
The captain nods. A pretty yet slender woman, Negau Renning (her
proper Imperial name was Negau Renning-Redet), is a single-horned green haired
and eyed woman that, were it not for race, could be mistaken for the great
Formula One legend Haruka Ten'ou. Despite that she was born a Renning, Negau,
a lover of history, rejected any idea of following the Imperial Round into
recreating the Empire. With that, her father Sayan disowned her...and Negau
was adopted by Lum's parents. In her early twenties by the time Lum went to
Earth to pursue Ataru, Negau had joined the U.D.F. as Invader's aide-de-camp.
After the Round was destroyed, Negau was handed the renamed DID by President
Lana and, after ISIS was formed, ordered to clean it up. She did.
"Agreed," Negau kisses Numon, then tenses. "You ready?"
A gregarious raven-haired Seishin man walks onto the bridge, dressed
in his usual rumpled shirt, overcoat and trousers. Despite his frumpish
demeanour, one look into his dark black eyes belied a frightening
intelligence that had once served Des Azu well before he threw his lot with
the Alliance and exposed the late Imperial's dirty laundry after Des and his
successor Ando Pochik had died. "All set. Where are your bosses,
Numon-chan?"
Numon smiles. "They're here."
Space near the sloop morphs into the tan bulk of the Sagussan navy
flagship, the cruiser R.S.S. "Ossa'cha." With that, Numon takes the helm,
then guides the sloop into the giant's main hangar bay. Once there, the
three proceed to the hatch as a ramp is raised to welcome them aboard. A
boatswain mate pipes the side as the computer announces them. "*Captain
Negau Renning- Redet, Urusian Defence Intelligence Agency. Chief
Administrator Hokuro Funsai, Urusian Internal Security and Investigations
Service. Watchmistress Irunmei, Sagussan Intelligence Ministry.*"
Negau and Hokuro turn to see the woman behind them emerge. Whenever
Irunmei assumed her real form...her polymorphic abilities were a byproduct of
the splicing together her DNA with the real Numon's twelve years ago...she
always seemed to be in shadow, Oni features vanishing as her Cha'than ears and
cat-slitted eyes appear. It was a very noticeable difference, one that could
make any casual observer believe that Irunmei and Numon Kuk were two different
people. More fool them.
Saluting the Sagussan and Urusian flags, they allow the boatswain
mate to escort them to the cruiser's aft lounge. Once past the door, Irunmei
gasps as a red-haired spitfire flies into her arms. "Hi, honey!! Miss me?!"
Negau blinks as Irunmei and Ranma share a kiss. "Not as much as I
should," the watchmistress-intelligence officer gazes fondly at her bond-mate,
then salutes the five others in the room. "Observer Irunmei reporting as
ordered, Director."
"Sit down, Irunmei," the minister of intelligence nods, then rises to
greet the two Urusians. "Captain Negau, Administrator Hokuro, welcome aboard.
I'm Carmen."
Both shake the woman's hand. Carmen was Fukunokami by birth, a tall
woman with flowing dark auburn hair and sharp blue eyes. She normally
dressed herself in a trenchcoat and fedora hat in imitation of her video game
namesake. In fact, in her first life, Carmen was a master thief and pirate,
killed in battle with a rival gang near Tengu. The talents she learned in
that life served her well as Sagussa's "Spymistress-Prime."
Sitting down, Carmen introduces her chief subordinates as Ranma
becomes a waitress, serving out tea and snacks. "Have you located the weapons
facility Skelad's using to test her materials?" Tamanegi, Deputy Director of
Operations, gazes at Irunmei.
"Yes, ma'am," Irunmei nods. "They're located in an asteroid belt
near Oyatsui; it's an F.D.F. testing range that's also used at times by our
counterparts in Bensaikyou.
"Are these weapons as dangerous as first postulated?" Asagao,
Irunmei's immediate superior and bureau chief for Uru, wonders.
"We've already run the simulations," Satoodaiko, DD Support, sighs.
"It appears that if they're lucky, the weapons will do as Skelad's scientists
speculated."
"Wonderful!" Kyuuri, DD Plans, snarls. "What about the wormhole
testing facility?"
"I called in a favour with friends on Spotak," Negau sighs. "It
seems Lara was able to get hold of their boom-tube technology, mate it with
what the Tritonians use, then tried it out. They sent small probes through
the Barrier and back with no problem. Since they're not building anything to
carry people, the shielding requirements aren't stringent."
"More power to the weapon," Satoodaiko nods. "We always knew your
insiders..." that was the Sagussan moniker for those who lived inside the
Barrier, "...would find some way to breech the Barrier but we suspected you
wouldn't try it for another hundred, two hundred years. More fool us, I
guess."
"What do we do?" Negau sighs. "Legally, I can't convey this to my
government. Lara's got spies and informants all over the place and if the
Senate Intelligence Committee finds out I've been dealing with an alien spy,
my ass'll be in jail."
"I detest the word 'spy,' Captain," Carmen smiles as she sips her
tea. "For one who loves Irunmei, one who, like Hokuro-kun, had to become an
Avalonian to spare you an early death thanks to an Hifuto-based bio-weapon,
you still really don't understand us."
"Could you clarify that, Director?" Hokuro muses. "I am more than
grateful to Numon-chan for saving my life, especially since she produced the
intelligence necessary to prove Lara was the one trying to undermine ISIS and
the DIA before we could regain the evidence lost when Nassur and Benten
vanished but she's still one of yours operating under your control. That's
'spy' to me."
"Not really," Carmen chuckles. "The idea came originally from Fleet
Shipmistress Eluza, then commander of the 'Hasei'cha' when Irunmei and Numon
Kuk fell into our laps. Because we had already been snipped by your
ex-friends in the Imperial Round on a couple of occasions, we decided we
needed to build a HUMINT source on the ground in case they decided to loudly
protest our desire to protect Earth. Irunmei, after absorbing Numon's
memories prior to the poor woman's unfortunate passing, was altered
genetically so she could pass as Numon Kuk when she returned to Onishuto."
"My orders are simple," Irunmei adds. "I am not to, without proper
authorization of the Prime Councillor, engage in overt intelligence
operations. I don't do assassinations, nor build networks to perform
anything that could be a detriment to your people. In that regard, the
Non-Interference Directive is firm. What I do is passively observe. Act
like one of you, help you constructively without letting it be known that I
am Sagussan...and if something comes that I feel may hurt your people, I
'seed' information to the relevant organizations...DIA and ISIS in this
case...and allow you to decide what to do."
Negau and Hokuro exchange looks. "Well, we're glad that you have
done that," the latter muses. "Director, Negau-chan has no power in this case
and I'm hamstrung because Skelad's got such a control over the media and in
elements of ISIS that anything I do to present this to the Senate'll be shot
down and I'll be out of a job. I swear, the woman must've taken lessons in
public deception from Des Azu before your friend Lufy atomized him!"
Carmen sighs. "Captain Negau, in your opinion, does Skelad present a
threat to Uru?"
"She does," Negau nods. "After psi-scanning her on the few times
we've met after I became an Avalonian, I can conclude that she is power
hungry. She wants Sagussa out of the way so she could prove the Democratic
Alliance wrong and help the Imperials come back. And she's willing to do
whatever it takes to see to it that's done. This is a long-range plan she's
made. We've already seen her take the first steps. We have to act now before
it's too late to stop her...for all our sakes."
"Administrator Hokuro, do you agree?"
"I have no choice but to agree," Hokuro sighs. "Skelad has proven
against myself, Negau-chan and dozens of others Numon-chan had to save later
her willingness to do anything to see her plans come to life. We know how
vicious the Imperials were willing to be on Toshitto and elsewhere. But it's
not enough for me to present a case before the courts."
Silence falls as Carmen gazes at the mural of Lyna's Ascension
overhead. All the *daishi'cha* had done for the last decade and more, the
ten millennia of preparation work before that, could be all lost in an
instant if this arrogant little slug now living in Tokyo was allowed to
succeed. If Lara Skelad did, billions on both Uru and Earth were in danger
even if Sagussa survived; as soon as Irunmei stumbled onto the wormhole
project, a joint action team from Intelligence, Defence, Transwarp Physics
and Weapons Engineering began working on countermeasures.
Probably as they spoke, other would-be manipulators were, inspired by
Lara's success, preparing their own plans, using hidden troves of money to
work their own influence in Uru's government to twist the nascent democracy
in directions which would only serve their own self-interests. The Urusian
people had come far in the last two centuries to allow all that work to go to
waste, all the sacrifices to be in vain. No. That couldn't be allowed.
"Time for a little object lesson."
"Director?" Irunmei blinks.
"Negau, does your father support Skelad's removal?" Carmen stares at
the DIA chief.
"He does...privately," Negau nods.
"Tamanegi?"
"Yes, Director?" the operations chief stares at her boss.
"Prepare an SIOO for Sakura's approval."
"Yes, Director."
"Irunmei?"
"Ma'am?" Irunmei sits at attention.
"You'll have a ten-day to execute the SIOO," Carmen's eyes narrow.
"Ranma will contact you through the Dreamscape when it is approved. How you
carry it out is up to you. Also, eliminate the facilities on Spotak and
Oyatsui; see to it all information about this is wiped out. I'll contact Nene
in Pathfinder Troop Six and the Mobius Five to help you in that regard.
Understood?"
"Understood, ma'am," Irunmei salutes.
As she turns to head back to the sloop, Hokuro takes Negau aside.
"What's an 'SIOO?'" he whispers.
"'Special Intelligence Operations Order,'" she looks grim. "A
license to kill."
* * *
After another visit, dinner, and a few hours of relaxation, Lum and
Ataru go to bed again. Like always, Ataru sleeps on without any worry in his
mind. Lum on the other hand tosses and turns in her sleep. Soon, she
accesses the Dreamscape again...
...and finds Benten waiting there. Not a star...Benten, as young and
beautiful as she was when she disappeared, waiting there looking unhappy.
"It's about time you came," she says so coldly, Lum could feel ice forming
around her. "I've been waiting."
"Oh, Benten," Lum gulps nervously. She could tell this was her old
friend, not her Sagussan spirit-sister. "H-how nice to see you. W-what can I
do for you?"
"I want to see her!"
"S-see who?"
"You KNOW who! My child! The one I had to abandon. The one I gave
birth to!"
"I see," Lum gulps. "But I can't!"
Benten stares Lum in the eye. "What do you mean you can't?!" she
snarls. "Aiotoga is MY daughter. I have a right to see her."
*That temper!* Lum thought. If she had any doubts this was Benten,
they were laid to rest. Benten has always liked children, even if she tried
to hide the fact from everyone else. Aiotoga was born of her, so her love as
a mother is...well, Lum understood. "Junba doesn't live at my house," Lum
meekly replies. "She lives with Shinobu Miyaki."
"Where does she live?" Benten grabs Lum by her blouse.
"I-In Koosei Ryooki's old house!"
"Take me there!" Benten demands.
"Okay," Lum relents, knowing that to press the point would be
dangerous for her.
Putting on a leotard, Lum sneaks out of the house and rushes towards
Shinobu's house. Koosei's former home looks much the same when the vice-
principal lived there, but with all the lights out, the house looks devoid of
any life. Lum walks up to the front door and turns the knob. "It's locked,"
Lum tells Benten immediately. "Shinobu and Junba must've gone to bed."
Is there some way we can look into Aiotoga's bedroom?
"You mean break in?" Lum whispers.
Let me figure it out. Nassur taught me a few things about locks.
From the look of this, this one won't be any trouble for me!
Suddenly, the front light turns on. Lum freezes like some poor
animal in the range of a speeding car's headlights. The door opens and
Shinobu appears carrying a flashlight, dressed in her pyjamas and looking
like she had just woken up. She carries a large couch over her shoulder
ready to use at a moment's notice. "Oh, it's you, Lum," Shinobu yawns. "It
IS you, Lum, isn't it?"
"For the time being," Lum sighs. "Sorry. Benten's...anxious about
her daughter."
"I understand," Shinobu nods. "She has a right to know her
daughter. Let her, Lum."
"But...what about your secret?" Lum asks.
"Aiotoga's asleep. If you don't wake her, I won't mind. Besides,
you might get arrested if you tried to break in."
Lum then listens to the voice in her mind. "She understands," Lum
nods, then her body language changes to Benten's. "Thanks, Shinobu. Let's
see her."
Shinobu immediately takes the possessed Oni to Junba's room. Once at
the door of Junba's room, Lum quietly opens the door and sneaks in. Junba
sleeps soundly in her bed. The only light in her room is moonlight pouring
in from the window on her. The light gives her a romantic hue. Lum/Benten
stands beside her bedside and looks at her. "My Aiotoga," she whispers
quietly to herself.
Tears well up in both Lum's and Shinobu's eyes. Benten makes Lum's
hand touch her cheek in a caress only a mother could make. Junba continues to
sleep without any acknowledgement of what is going on. "My child," Lum/Benten
whispers to herself, then bends over and kisses Junba on the cheek. "Maybe
someday, we'll meet for real," she sighs.
Both leave. Once outside, Lum/Benten turns to Shinobu sternly. "You
take good care of my daughter, Shinobu. If you EVER try to harm her, Sagussan
or not, I'll make you pay!"
Shinobu seems insecure; hearing Benten's annotations with Lum's voice
is most disturbing. But once she gets over the surprise, she relaxes. "I
could never hurt anything of Nassur-kun's, Benten. Never. You should know
that by now."
Lum then regains control. "Is it over?"
"For now," Shinobu sighs. "For now."
"I'm sorry for this disruption," Lum consoles Shinobu. "But, Benten
was very insistent over coming here."
Shinobu moves away from her. "I said it was all right, Lum. You
know the way out." she coldly intones.
Lum got the message. Should Benten ever come back, what happens to
Shinobu?
* * *
Later, Lum notices Megane having a late supper at his campground at
an open fire. He is alone as he prepares his food; unlike Cherry, he prefers
it this way...unless he's bothering the Moroboshi family. "Aisuru?" Lum
sighs. "Can I join you?"
Shock followed by a lecherous smile appears on Megane's face and
nervous thoughts appear in his brain. *Lum-san ASKING to sit with me?
Lum-san SITTING with me?!* This is his dream come true. Since Tanoshii
died, Megane had always dreamed Lum would fill the gaping hole in his heart
instead of leaving gaping holes in his body. "S-sure, Lum-san," Megane
quickly clears a spot beside him of food wrappers. "You can NEVER disturb
me!"
"*Tcha!*" Lum groans as she sits beside Megane, making sure she is
far enough away as to be able to protect herself from any prying hands. A
serious look appears on her face. "Aisuru," she starts slowly. "I'm so
lost! Ever since Benten's and Nassur's spirits came into my body, I haven't
been the same person. I know what they want to do, but I don't know what to
do. I want their spirits to rest in peace but I don't know how to go about
it! I'm not the warrior either of them were!"
"I see," Megane nods. "You were good friends with Nassur and Benten,
weren't you? Then you must find a way to do what they want or else their
spirits will NEVER rest."
"But, how?" Lum's eyes fill with tears.
"This dork doesn't know a thing about how to help you!" a woman's
voice echoes. "He only wants to help himself to you!"
"Who?!!" Lum spins around.
A woman steps out of the darkness and into the light. "Don't tell me
you've forgotten me. What would Natsu-chan say?"
The light reveals Dakejinzou Shogai. The Umanoshippo-born synthezoid
hunter had changed little since Lum last seen her. Considering she has a
lifespan potentially LONGER than even a Sagussan, that is not saying much.
"Oh, Dake-chan!" Lum looks surprised to see her. "What brings you here?"
"I came at the request of Ataru-kun and Koosei-kun," the alien hunter
smiles. "I know something about what's going on with you."
Lum smiles as Dakejinzou sits beside her. "Y-you do? What is it?
Please tell me!"
"Well," Dakejinzou hums. "It's a little thing I taught Natsu-chan
when I was his partner. It's something in case either of us got captured and
wanted a rescue. He could call to someone he trusts psychically." She
places her hand on Lum's forehead. "There's no name I've given it, but it
seems to be from the people who created me. It's a variation on *pe'cha,*
except it's more intimate and harder to break. But unlike *pe'cha,* it's
teachable to other races. Natsu-chan must've also taught it to Benten."
"I see," Lum does not know whether to feel honoured or to punch
Dakejinzou for contributing to her misery. "But why am I the target and not
you? I'm not a hunter!"
"I know, but you are their friend," Dakejinzou counters as she probes
deeper into Lum's mind. "Ah, yes, I'm picking up something from both of
them. Wherever they are, it's cold and their bodies are in some sort of
status. That explains how powerful this is, the more the sender is
unconscious, the stronger it is."
"They're in suspended animation?" Megane asks. "Boy, how trekkie can
you get?!"
"Megane's right," Dakejinzou nods, "for once! What's more, the more
psychically stronger the receiver is, the stronger each interaction with the
senders are. There are two of them to one of you...and the one is definitely
outnumbered this time!"
"Well, if they want to be rescued, can you trace where they are?" Lum
asks.
"Let's see," Dakejinzou probes even deeper. "I should be able
to...ah!"
Suddenly, Dakejinzou is nearly thrown for a loop. Lum immediately
catches the synthezoid before she falls to the ground. "Bensaiten's Grave,
that's one powerful link!" she rubs her forehead. "I've never seen one like
this before! Even the ones Natsu-chan and I had together!"
"You've found out where they are?!"
"Nope, not a clue!" Dakejinzou shrugs as she ends the contact.
Lum and Megane faint! "I thought you could find out where they
are!!" Lum snarls.
"It seems Natsu-chan and Benten don't know where they are,"
Dakejinzou replies. "They were attacked, taken prisoner and put into status
so quickly, they didn't get to find out who did it or where they are. All I
know is they're not on Earth or Home Base."
"That narrows the possible places to infinity!" Lum groans. "Thanks
for your help. What do you know about Lara Skelad?"
"Not much," Dakejinzou sighs. "The Skelads control almost everything
that gets printed about them. Almost to the point of paranoia. Natsu-chan
and Benten were investigating them about hidden ties to the Imperials before
they disappeared."
"I know that," Lum nods. "But, do you know anything else?"
"The Skelads are powerful economically. Quite recently, they've
become politically active also," Dakejinzou continues. "There's rumours one
of the Skelads' subsidiaries are developing some sort of wormhole technology
for starships and some secret weapons technologies...but no one's been able
to get any concrete information on that."
"I see," Lum stands. "Thanks for your help. I'll tell Darling
you're around."
"Sure," Dakejinzou smiles. "I'll be in Rishiri-tou visiting
Nagaiwakai and Nyassur. Hopefully, I can help you cope with this. When a
link is this strong, it's better off to let it run its' course."
"Bye," Lum waves before flying away, her mind still filled with
questions. Dakejinzou had answered some, but she needed more...much
more...and the only way to get them was at the source of the trouble. But
first, she needed to talk to someone she could trust who has first hand
knowledge about learning things.
Once Lum is far enough away, Dakejinzou turns to Megane. "I feel
afraid for Lum," she confides.
"What do you mean?" Megane asks.
"Because that link she has with Natsu-chan and Benten is so strong,
anything can happen. Koosei-kun and Ataru-chan were right to call me in. One
wrong move and Lum's brains could be fried."
"Aiya!" Megane gasps...
* * *
Lum calls Lan the next morning. Lan was very happy to talk to Lum
and it took a yell from Nassur's spirit to get her from her usual gossiping
to tell her something important. Lum wanted Lan to use her computer skills
to hack into Lara Skelad's computer files and anything else she could
secretly break into without the ambassador's knowledge. After Lan does her
usual tirade against doing something illegal, Benten's spirit let her have it
with some reminders about what Lan did to get revenge on everyone while
growing up. Only then did Lan agree to do what Lum asks.
The next call Lum made was to the Urusian embassy. She invited
herself, Ataru, and Shinobu to dinner with Lara that night. Lara accepted the
invitation without hesitation.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Lum?" Ataru wonders after Lum
hangs up. "If Nassur and Benten are right, why the heck do you want to have
dinner with this woman?"
"How else can I study my opponent?" Lum muses. "Besides, Lan-chan
can only get so much from hacking. Someone needs to scout around the embassy
to know the area."
"For what? You seem to be acting like Nassur TOO well," Ataru
groans. "Why do you want Shinobu to go, too?"
"She's a head of state, too, remember?" Lum reminds Ataru. "Even
though she's deferred a lot of her power to Carona, she is still a *laqu'r.*
She'll keep Lara honest."
"I don't know what's worse," Ataru sighs aloud. "Doing this or
allowing Amora to stay the night at Seiteki's place?"
"They'll be fine," Lum assures him. "Anyhow, we better go to work.
Much that I'd like to concentrate on this, we still have our jobs to worry
about."
"Yeah, that's true," Ataru nods...
* * *
The wanderer sighs as she places one foot after the next, ignoring
all around her as she continues on her lonely trek. On her back hangs a
large backpack full of camping gear and some of her most prized possessions,
including a small personal safe containing what money she could sneak away
from her parents before running away from home. It had been rough the last
couple of weeks since she fled from Osaka right after graduation, but not
totally barbaric. Keeping to back roads and staying away from known routes
of travel on her journey to Oshika had saved her from the vicious hounds sent
by Tatsuo Fujisawa and Hiroko Teizou out to haul her back to a hell she had
endured for six years.
Stopping at a corner, she looks around, then blinks as her ears
detect the sound of an Oni flying. Turning, she sees two familiar faces
heading down the street. Gaping in shock, she then looks around. "I'm in
Tomobiki!" she gasps, then turns to the oncoming couple. "Mr. Moroboshi!!
Mrs. Moroboshi!! Hi!!!"
Ataru and Lum stop, turning to stare at the brown-haired woman with
glasses run up to them. "Who the...Lyna!!" he gapes. "Minako-chan?!! Is
that you?!"
"Hi!!!" the woman laughs as she nearly crushes them with a fierce
embrace. "Oh, what are you doing here?!"
"What are YOU doing here?!!" Lum wonders. "Oh, Minako-chan, it's
been so long!! How are you?!!"
The younger woman pulls away. "Well, I prefer to be called 'Mina'
now," she smiles. "I'm alright! What are you doing living in Tomobiki?! I
thought you'd never come back to this place!"
"We work at Tomobiki High School," Ataru supplies.
A hand falls on his forehead. "Are you sick?" Mina asks
concernedly. "You swore you'd never to go back to that place!"
"I'm alright," Ataru chuckles. "Hey, if you aren't busy, why don't
you come with us to school? Reiko-chan's in Oshika now getting ready to go to
the Young Woman's Academy, so she isn't here right now, but she'd love to see
you again."
"As would I," Mina smiles as the three head off, then clutches her
hand to her heart. *I know it! It's a sign! Now, we'll be together at last,
Reiko-chan...just as it was meant to be...*
* * *
"You ran away from home?!" Shinobu gasps.
At morning study hall, Ataru and Lum gathered Shinobu, Sakura, Koosei
and Ryuunosuke around to meet Reiko's other best friend from primary school.
"Hai, I did," Mina sighs. "After sixteen custody battles and dancing from
one end of Japan to the other, I became so tired of being yanked around by
Mom and Dad. I've tried to run away before, but they always caught up to me
somehow, then a new court battle happened and I switched parents. I was with
Mom last in Osaka, so after I did my college entrance exams and graduated, I
decided the time had come to leave."
"Sixteen custody fights in six years?!" Koosei shakes his head. "I
don't believe any of that!"
"Believe it," Lum sighs. "I remember when I had to tell Reiko-chan
the news about Mina-chan's parents breaking up and her leaving Ishinomaki.
She was devastated!"
"I can see that," Sakura sighs, then stares at their visitor. "So
what are your plans now, Mina-san?"
"Well, first, I need to get fully away from my parents," Mina sighs.
"I've asked my grandparents to keep Mom and Dad busy enough so I can get my
name legally changed from Minako Fujisawa to Mina Fujisawa. Then...I need
some help for the second part."
"That being?" Ataru wonders.
"I need to get into the Young Woman's Academy."
"To be with Reiko-chan," Lum concludes.
"Hai," Mina nods. "Mrs. Moroboshi, I've missed Reiko-chan dearly
over the last six years. The one thing I wanted more than anything else was
to be with her again. Call it love, call it a mad dream, but thinking of
reuniting with your daughter has been one of the few things that's kept me
sane over the last six years. I can guess that with you living here and
Belle-chan having gone off to America, Reiko-chan must feel very lonely right
now. Please, I offer myself to help ease Reiko-chan's pain."
Lum blinks, then sighs. "How much do you love Reiko-chan? Do
you...desire a relationship with her?"
"Hai...with your blessings, of course."
"You have it," Lum nods. "I'll call Grandma and get help from her;
I'm sure she'll approve. In the meantime, why don't you come stay with us
until we get things arranged for you?"
"Thank you," Mina nods, feeling tears in her eyes, then with a
muffled wail, she embraces her future mother-in-law. "Oh, thank you! Thank
you, thank you...!"
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
"I'm staying here?!" Amora whines.
"That's right," Lum smiles as she puts on lipstick. "While we're
gone, Mina-chan'll stay with you."
"But I wanted to go stay with Sei-chan!!" Amora pouts.
"You can visit Seiteki another time, Amora-chan," Ataru comes out,
adjusting his tie. "We're very lucky to have Mina-chan come stay with us for
a while before she can get into the Young Woman's Academy. She's an old
friend of your sister's, so treat her nice."
"What's so great about this girl?!" Amora humphs.
Mina walks up. "I'm set up in the living room now, Dad, Mom," she
smiles. "Are you sure you don't mind me staying there?"
Ataru and Lum blush on hearing Mina addressing them as her parents.
"We were thinking of putting in an extra bedroom one of these days and
allowing it to be a guest room for an exchange student," the Oni smooths her
dress. "With you staying here until the next class starts at the Academy, we
can get it done now."
"Besides, we might be tempted to add another to the family, ne, Lum-
chan?" Ataru meows, breathing on his wife's horn.
"Darling! Not in front of Mina-chan and Amora-chan!!"
The younger girls exchange looks. "That's one thing I missed so much
about your parents," Mina smiles. "Unlike mine, they never stopped loving
each other."
Amora smirks. "Yeah, aren't they great?!"
With that, Ataru and Lum head off to meet Shinobu. Mina and Amora
head to the living room, the latter turning on the television as the former
reaches into her backpack and draws a small book. Amora notices the title.
"'Personal Relations With a Noukiite?!' What's that for?!"
"Something I think you're still too young for," Mina hums.
The younger girl rolls her eyes. "Dad once make out with a hundred
thousand girls, Mom had a whole race worshipping her as a god and she says I'M
too young to know about things...?"
* * *
An hour later, the Moroboshis and their best friend appear at the
front gate of the Urusian embassy. Shinobu is dressed in a black dress with
a magenta sash bearing Kyotos' sigil. Lum wears a tiger-stripped formal
dress and has her hair tied to the back of her head. Ataru wore the medals
from the problems he underwent during the Grand Design and after: Zeiwan's
Commander of the Most Honourable Order of Heira, Vos' Commander of the Order
of Lecasur and Uru's Star of Aruka, presented to him after the Battle of Uru.
Entrance into the embassy was not a problem. After a routine retina
and voice check, the doors swung open to allow them inside. Once inside the
embassy lobby, they find Lara, dressed in more formal attire, waiting for
them. "Oh, Lum-sama," Lara smiles. "Welcome to the embassy!"
"Hello, Lara," Lum stiffly replies. "I'm glad you could find time
for us."
Lara ignores Lum's stiffness and giggles girlishly. "Oh, the
pleasure is mine!" She turns to Ataru. "And this must be your husband, Ataru
Moroboshi."
"That's right," Ataru bows. *THIS is the person Nassur and Benten
are worried about?* he asks himself looking at Lara and how youthful she acts.
*She acts so young and carefree, I can't believe she's so evil.*
"Even though your first name is a swear word to my people," Lara
offers her hand. "I welcome you to the Urusian Embassy."
"Thanks," Ataru offers a kiss.
"My!" she stares at his medals. "When I heard how other races have
honoured you, I thought it was a joke. The Order of Lecasur comes from your
killing the Mikado, right?"
"Yes...even though some still think he's alive," Ataru hums.
"And the Order of Heira?"
"That's from when the Sagussans cured the Lost Ones of Zeiwan and
repatriated them."
"A very noble thing you did. And the Star of Aruka, too?" Lara
notices the tiger-stripped ribbon with the image of Noa and Honii holding the
wreath of victory. "From the Battle of Uru?"
"Yes," Ataru sighs.
"My condolences," Lara looks sympathetic. "You've sacrificed much on
people's behalf."
"You're courteous."
Lum gives him a cold look. Darling! she psi-links to him from
one side. Don't be put off by her manner. She can be as wild as Lan when
she wants to be.
Sorry, Ataru shrugs.
Not hearing Lum's words, Lara turns to Shinobu. "Princess Shinobu,"
she smiles sweetly. "How nice to meet you. I've met a few *laqu'rs*
before...but never one who has practically abdicated all her power and is
still alive to talk about it."
"Well, I couldn't live on Yehisril forever, you know," Shinobu
smiles. "Besides, I'm a mother. Kyotos City is, in my opinion, unsafe to
raise a child."
"So I have heard," Lara nods. "Well, since dinner will be in a few
minutes, how would you like a tour of the embassy?"
"I'd LOVE to have a tour," Lum smiles warmly. "I thought you'd never
ask."
Shinobu blinks. Is that Lum or Nassur-kun in control?
I'm not sure, Ataru shrugs.
The tour goes quickly and is routine. The three are shown everything
the embassy has to offer. The offices, now largely unoccupied, the computer
rooms, the security arrangements, are all shown quickly to Lara's guests.
Lum, with Nassur's and Benten's psychic prodding, asks all sorts of questions
about the embassy and its security to the unsuspecting ambassador...so many
in fact, Lara become a little suspicious herself. But, any suspicions are
put to rest immediately when a servant announces dinner is ready.
In a room roughly the size of a small gym, Lara and her guests sit at
a huge table of solid wood. The room itself is decorated with fine art. On
one of the large walls is a huge Urusian flag while on the opposite wall is a
huge painting of an overweight Oni couple both holding huge clubs pointing
towards the star-filled sky. "What is this painting?" Shinobu asks as she
sits down.
"'Manifest Destiny,'" Lara smiles as she sits down. "It's a
reproduction of a famous painting in the Union Art Gallery."
"I see," Lum humphs. "A quaint choice of art for someone who's clan
was investigated for having secret ties to the Imperials."
Lara turns serious and it seems the light around makes her look
evil. "If I'm not mistaken," she bites, "...my clan was cleared of the
allegations while my father was alive."
"Of course," Lum humphs.
"L-let's eat," Ataru gulps nervously.
Dinner begins happily but the silence is deafening. No one says much
to each other except the servants who quickly serve each course promptly.
Lara and Lum watch each other closely, waiting for the other to make a move,
trying to psyche out the other. Shinobu and Ataru wonder what Lum is
doing...or more accurately, what Nassur and Benten is making her do. Or,
could Lum be doing this on her own? It is so very confusing to them both.
Lara had her own concerns. Lum asked embarrassing questions almost
like her tutor Nassur had grilled her father years before she had him and
Benten eliminated. Her father never recovered from the allegations their
disappearance helped clear and he died shortly after, but not without leaving
her a secret mission...to get revenge on Sagussa, restore the old government
with Lum on the throne, and turn Earth into a protectorate of Uru.
Lara's father was a conservative old man, set in his ways. Like most
businessmen, he was afraid of drastic change which could occur when
governments changed. And change things did. The Skelads had more rules to
govern their businesses than before. They could no longer pay CEOs money
under the table to avoid taxes on their profits. They could no longer hire
replacement workers during strikes. They could not pay off environmental
investigators so they could continue to discharge toxic substances into
fragile eco-systems on Uru or other planets. Then a crackdown on tax
loopholes was exercised. Finally, the Clan's council had enough. They
wanted the old rules and the old government back or else their companies
would be doomed to lower profits and standard of influence. But with Sagussa
in the way and the people of Uru still in a honeymoon with the Union
Congress, something had to be done and be done quickly or before economic
ruin destroyed everything.
First, Sagussa had be isolated from Earth. Then it had to be
destroyed. It would take time, but Lara is young and willing. Her father
will be avenged as will all of the Imperialists he once supported in secret.
But, Lum is getting suspicious. Why? Of all the people in this room, Lum
herself will have the most to gain if the Imperialists come back to power.
She would be queen!
Lum keeps track of her surroundings. True, she has a hard time from
keeping either Nassur or Benten from taking control to cause a major
dislocation of Lara's body parts, but she manages to look calm and collected
while she dines with the enemy.
Finally after seven courses and dessert, dinner ends. "Ugh," Shinobu
burps. "Do you have THAT much for dinner EVERY night?"
"Only on important occasions, fortunately," Lara allows herself to
smile, "...or else I'd be too heavy to fly."
"At least the food was good," Ataru picks his teeth with a
toothpick. "Not like Lum-chan's early attempts at trying to cook."
"Don't remind me," Lum gives Ataru a cold glance. "We don't need you
turning into a werewolf or twins or something!"
"I see," Lara nods. "Lum was considered the worse cook in all of
Uru. Of course being in the ruling family, NO one was allowed to say that
about their future queen in public."
"I've improved thanks in much to my bond-mate Noa," Lum nods with a
slight smile. "If you've seen my other adopted daughter Reiko when she was
growing up."
"Right," Lara tenses on hearing Noa's name, then turns to Ataru.
"So, you're the head of Sagussa, Ataru-san."
"Well, it's a ceremonial position," Ataru nods. "Ever since the
Battle of Uru, Sagussa has been developing on its own."
"Of course," Lara nods. "The Battle of Uru was distressing. It
strained relations between Sagussa and the Galactic Federation for years and
remains a sticky point today."
Lum gives Ataru a sad glance and takes his hand under the table. "It
was more than distressing for us, too," he sighs.
"What are your thoughts on the Earth-Uru Alliance Treaty?"
Ataru looks a little taken aback by the sudden question. "W-well,"
he searches for an answer, then shrugs, "...I like it. For the first time,
both sides are equals."
"Of course," Lara nods. "But Uru has given more to Earth and Earth
to Uru than the Sagussans have given either Earth or Uru."
"But Earth or Uru can't understand the level of technology that
Sagussa has," Ataru counters. "Even I don't understand it from time to time.
I'm glad the Non-Interference Directive exists. It allows trade in areas
where cultural damage wouldn't occur."
"Terrans understand Urusian technology and its people, don't they?"
Lara presses.
"Well, the Urusians are only about 100 years ahead of Earth," Ataru
looks on the defensive. "The Sagussans are a thousand years ahead of Earth,
if not much more."
"Then, what would Sagussa do if Earth broke away from Sagussa
someday?" Lara asks, then adds, "I mean...should it ever occur?"
Ataru looks nervous. He isn't used to being asked such loaded
questions. He knew Lara is baiting him, but he could do nothing about it.
Debating was never his strong suit. "A lot of former Terrans are Sagussans.
They would be disappointed, for sure."
"Would these ex-Terrans want Earth to be back under their control?"
Lara asks, sensing weakness. "By any means necessary?"
Ataru sweats noticeably. Lara's verbal sparing had him by the
balls. "I can't say. I can't speak for them."
"Neither can I," Lum cuts in. "But should such a break occur, I'm
sure the Sagussans would use logic over emotion to ensure the break was under
good terms."
Lara gives Lum a cold glance. "For once I'm glad the new rules are
in place...for under the old rules, I would've been put to death for what I'm
about to say. Never in history have allies broken agreements without going to
war with each other. Should a war come, what side would you be on, Lum-sama?"
"The side of justice and truth," Lum replies without hesitant.
Was that Lum talking or Nassur-kun? Shinobu hums.
I don't know, Ataru shrugs. It sounds like Nassur.
Lara looks blunted. "It seems that co-habiting with the enemy...I
mean...the Sagussans has made you forget that you are an Oni!" she gazes at
Lum.
"I am STILL an Oni!" Lum growls. "And I'll always think myself an
Oni! But I know that being an Oni doesn't give me the right to make myself a
despot. I've learned from friends the value of respecting people for who they
are, not WHAT they are."
"Nassur has been gone for ten years and you still parrot his lines,"
Lara sighs, unimpressed by Lum's speech.
"Maybe he's not gone like you want him to be. Maybe he's closer than
you think, watching you, waiting for the right time to expose you for the two-
faced fraud you are!"
"I find that hard to believe," Lara snorts. "Unless Nassur and his
wife could somehow talk to you from the Other World."
"We'll see about that," Lum humphs then turns to Ataru and Shinobu.
"Darling, Shinobu, let's go home," She gives Lara a cold glance. "The air is
too cold for me."
"Er...of course, Lum," Ataru nods and follows her out.
"Despite all that went on," Shinobu bows, "...I enjoyed the dinner.
Thanks."
"Of course," Lara nods as the trio leaves. Lara takes a glass of
pickled plum wine and takes a sip. An angry look appears on her beautiful
face as she throws it at the wall. The glass shatters into uncountable
pieces and the wine stains the wall. "Bitch!" she bellows to herself.
"Nassur and Benten are the only people who know what I'm doing and they're
taken care of! She may be the next in line, but, I'll make sure you bow
before me when the Imperials return to power and every Sagussan is dead at my
feet, Lum!!"
Demented laughter echoes through the halls. It drives a cold chill
through everyone on duty inside. Luckily, Lum, Ataru, and Shinobu have left
the building. A moment later, a side door opens to reveal Popok Aruka. "What
happened?"
"Lum's starting to get some suspicious about us!" Lara snarls,
drowning the rest of her wine. "Did anyone find out what happened to those
observers killed last night?"
"Nothing," the younger man shook his head. "Local police attribute
it to xenophobes; people who are splitting off from the Earth Defence Army, a
local racial environmentalist movement against the Babylon Project. The
primary group calls itself Earth Alone, but according to some intelligence
sources, they're being backed up by other powerful factions whose
identities've yet to be clarified. Earth Alone believes aliens are spoiling
Earth's culture and want us all gone. Strange as it sounds, they like the
Sagussans because of their Non-Interference Directive; when that attack you
arranged some days ago happened, they came out and stated that it was morally
impossible for the Sagussans to do such a thing."
"Bah!!" Lara snarls, then notices the twinkle in her chief-of-staff's
eye. "You don't believe that."
"No," Popok shakes his head. "The weapon used was Noukiite."
Lara pales. "Noukiite?!"
"Exactly," he nods. "I've just confirmed that there is now a
Noukiite temple...in Ishinomaki. The priestess there is a former Lost Star,
K'e-Nuk Yeho-Niap'yeng. Guess why she's here?"
Lara blinks, then sighs. "What do you want to do?"
Popok smiles...
* * *
"You said THAT to Lara?" Koosei gulps in surprise during a break at
school next day.
"She's hiding something alright," Lum snorts as she reads a
newspaper. "I can feel it! I have to stop her!"
"Is that Nassur or Benten talking to us?"
"I'm not sure," Ataru sighs as he takes a break from marking papers.
"But, it seems their personalities have been mixing together ever since she
went to visit Junba."
"It's so scary," Shinobu shivers.
Then Lan wanders in carrying a basket of food in her arms. "Lum-
chan," the Seishin mother announces cutely, "...I'm here!"
Lum whacks Lan over the head with a huge paper fan angrily. "Never
mind the cute announcements!" Lum snarls. "You're late!!!"
"Sorry!" Lan rubs the bump on her head.
"That was Nassur!" Koosei sighs.
Lan pulls out some computer disks from her basket. "It took me a
while, but I got some of what you might have been looking for," Lan nervously
hands the disks over to Lum, who barely gives her enough time to let go before
she snatches them. "The protocols in her system're as tough as the ones on
Sagussa!"
"I hope they're helpful!" Lum snorts, setting them into a nearby
computer terminal.
Everyone watches the computer screen. They see several columns of
data marked "Japanese Baseball League Rosters 1971" with all twelve teams and
several players listed. "What the hell's this?!!" Lum turns to Lan.
"Oops!" Lan blushes. "I must've accidently got some of the writer's
sports card checklists by mistake!"
[So that's where that list went to!]
"Seems he's got nearly a quarter of the players who played in that
year!" Ataru hums.
"He needs a lot of Japanese players," Koosei adds. "Those are mostly
the gaijins!"
[I'm trying! I take donations...M.S.]
"Enough of the advertisement!" Lum snaps. "Let's see what you REALLY
got!"
A few minutes and Lum goes through reams and reams of data faster
than a normal person could. Soon, even Koosei is bleary-eyed just by watching
it. "Gods," Koosei groans, "...having three people in your head makes it hard
to read over their shoulder!"
Sakura appears behind the group. "What's this?" the principal asks.
"Video Pachinko?"
"I-it's nothing!" Ataru gasps, knowing they are doing something VERY
frowned upon by their boss.
"Your break ended five minutes ago," Sakura points to her watch.
"Don't you think you should get to work?! You do work for me to help educate
the nation's youth, remember?"
"We're just finishing up!" Shinobu makes her way back to the nurse's
station.
Sakura then turns to Lan. "Lan, what are you doing here?" she asks
the Seishin coldly. "Wasn't homecoming last week?"
"I was just leaving," Lan slips away. "Haven't you ever heard of
impromptu visits?"
"Considering you don't even have kids here yet, Lan," Sakura huffs,
"...I don't even WANT TO see you or any from your graduating year until the
next yearly reunion!"
"I've got it!" Lum announces happily.
"Got what?" Ataru asks.
"Some proof about what Lara Skelad is doing, Darling!" she points to
the screen. "She's ordered some rare elements from various parts of Urusian
space. Lan couldn't find where they were going but some of these elements
could be used for some very nasty bombs which would be devastating on
Sagussa!"
"But they would have to go through the Barrier first," Ataru corrects
Lum.
"There's also a report on how to open a wormhole through the Barrier
straight to Sagussa!" Lum corrects Ataru.
"That could do it!" Ataru gulps.
"***HEY!!! IS THIS 'GOLGO 13' OR 'URUSEI YATSURA?!?!?!'***" Sakura
has a cow. "***GET BACK TO WORK!!!!***"
"But this is important," Lum protests...
* * *
When they regain consciousness, Lum and Ataru find themselves outside
of the main office. "Do that stuff AFTER school at home," the principal
snorts before slamming the door shut, "...not during the day!"
"It's a good thing I can't do the Cyborg or the *saikoo jinseijitsu*
any more," Ataru groans. "Sakura's definitely has got more forceful since we
were students!"
"*Tcha!*" Lum groans in agreement...
* * *
Almost 300 kilometres north of Tomobiki, outside the sleepy hamlet of
Oshika, Reiko Moroboshi walks down the beach some distance from her home,
gazing at the rolling waves of the Pacific as the water laps over her bare
feet. Belle gone, her parents gone, her sister gone...it was so unfair!
Twelve years of a happy home and a happy life were over. What could she do
now?
Reaching into her pocket, she draws out a folded sheet of paper,
gazing at it. "'You are hereby informed that the Ishinomaki Young Woman's
Academy has accepted your application for general studies admission into Class
218, May-September 1996,'" she reads, then sighs. "Damn, I hate this..."
"Reiko-chan!!" a voice calls out.
Reiko turns to see Willow and Yuri jog up. "Hi, guys!" she sighs,
stowing the paper. "What's up?"
"Well, we were thinking of getting everyone together at the Chow
Hound to celebrate our acceptance into the Academy," Willow proposes.
"Everyone's gonna be there. Wanna come?"
"Sure, why not," Reiko sighs as they head toward the house. "I
suppose I could try to relax..."
* * *
"There she is," Popok hums, watching from the tinted windows of his
car as Reiko, Willow and Yuri head out of the property. "Is everything
ready?"
"Yes, sir," the woman sitting with him nods. "We even brought the
uniforms we stole from the Sagussan Embassy."
"Very well, then," Popok sighs. "We'll take those three and anyone
else who comes along, then find a place to hide them."
"What about the priestess at that temple?" another woman in the front
seat wonders.
Popok snorts. Personally, he knew attacking Sagussa was bound to
arouse Noukiios into action sooner or later. The widespread cult that
revolved over the centuries around the Gatherer as it carried out its mission
had extra meaning among Reiko's people. For a race that believed fervently
in reincarnation, believing that those taken by the Gatherer would live again
was natural. It proved beneficial for the Dominion later; Noukiios was the
second world Sagussa established formal diplomatic relations with, the two
worlds engaging in a lively trade that aided the former in ending its
population and agricultural problems. Popok could guess that when news of
this got out, the Noukiites would be very angry. That could easily
accelerate plans to reintegrate the Ip'ihu into the Ten Orders...and spell
trouble for Uru.
"Don't worry about her," he sighs. "Once we have her precious fellow
Lost Star in hand, I'm sure Sister Niap'yeng could be made to see some
reason...or rather, she WILL be made to see reason."
The others grimly nod...
* * *
...not realizing that Niap'yeng had been observing them via her
sacred flame. "I see this little fly needs a lesson taught to him," the
priestess sighs, nodding to Hanak'at' and K'yechsungi...
* * *
As Reiko, Willow and Yuri later get off the bus beside the Chow
Hound, they do not notice a car idling nearby, nor a cargo van parked across
the street. Popok had gathered a force of a half-dozen to take the Noukiite,
all armed with long-range stun rifles to overcome Reiko's telekinetic powers.
Unseen by them, two lithe women stand atop a water tower overlooking the
expanse of parkland holding the four units of the Ishinomaki Women's Schools.
"Well, well," Hanak'at' smiles. "Spitting on the honour of the Hechye
Hisehek," she muses, referring to the Sagussans by their Noukiite title
"Maidens of the World of Holy Reincarnation." "Punish them, K'yech. The
woman are yours to play with. Kill the little boy."
The woman beside her growls as she transforms, leaping into the air
to soar towards Popok's car...
* * *
"Did anyone hear a scream?" Yuri blinks.
Her other future dormmates blink. "Must be some show on the TV in
the game room," Reiko shrugs as the conversation picks up...
* * *
In the Urusian embassy, Lara is working in her office when an
assistant rushes in. "Lara-sama," the harried underling gasps, "...someone
has been hacking in your files!"
Lara looks surprised by the news. She had made sure no one could
break into her files without proper access codes. With triple redundancies,
it's a system based on Sagussan designs stolen from the Avalonians. "Who
would do such a thing?" Lara growls.
"We're not sure," he reports immediately. "They couldn't dig too far
inside owing to the lockouts you had set up."
"What did they get?" Lara asks.
"Not much," he reads the report. "It seems they got hold of some old
resource movement reports...some of which are deal directly with our secret
projects."
"I see. Did you manage to get a trace on their signal?"
"Partly. It came from Earth...Tomobiki."
The light around Lara seems to glow eerily. "Tomobiki?" she gasps,
then she pauses to think. "There are only THREE people here who have the
ability to hack into our computer system. One is that Vosian ice cream
seller...the two others are Urusians. Considering that those two are
friends..." Lara remembers that Abraham Shapiro has no real reason to hack
into her files, but the other two...were obvious suspects. "So, Lum's dinner
date was just a little ruse to get information on us. How like Nassur she
has become! I never had thought she had it in her to be that way."
Lara pauses again. Then, a sly grin appears on her beautiful face.
"So, the first battle of the war begins, eh, Lum? You maybe my queen someday,
but I will be your master...!"
The ambassador cries out as a flash of light appears before her, then
Lara has a body pitched onto her! The light fades, revealing a woman dressed
in a gold Noukiite dress, her name in the Noukiite alphabet stitched into her
jersey. Lara recovers, then notices that the body is that of Popok Aruka.
"Take this as a warning, Hu-Skelad Yesu-Lara," Niap'yeng icily
smiles, delivering a brutal insult by designating Lara's family as Huhat'hu, a
caste fourth from the bottom in Noukiite terms. "Never touch Reiko Moroboshi
again!"
Lara stares at Popok's lifeless eyes, not seeing any marks that could
indicate how he died, then she glares at the Noukiite priestess. "You
bitch!!!" she rises. "What did you do...?!"
"I punished this one for his plan to stop Noukiios from reclaiming
her lost children and becoming too strong for you Uo-t'ich to handle in the
usual way you've viewed us," Niap'yeng grins, calling Lara's race by the usual
term for Urusians, "dog people." "As for you, you are no concern of
mine...since it will be one of your own kind that will destroy you. Farewell,
Lara; you'll not live to see the next dawn on this world...or any other."
She vanishes. Lara shudders, then turns to her assistant. "Lum has
a daughter, doesn't she?"
"Y-yes, Lara-sama," he replies nervously. "Two daughters in fact.
One lives in Oshika..."
"I KNOW about her!!! The other!!"
"The other still lives with Lum-sama and her husband. She goes to
Onigakkou Public School according to our records."
"I see," Lara turns away from the underling to think a moment, then
turns back. "Send the squad to do a little kidnapping. Bring me the younger
daughter. I want her alive and whole! And do it in such a way that the
Sagussans will get blamed! But I don't want a bloodbath! This is our future
queen's child, remember! Even if she's adopted, she is to be treated well!
Just do a little something to add a little friction between Earth and
Sagussa."
"Like the destruction before?"
"Like the destruction before."
"I'll send the squad immediately," he bows.
"And dispose of him," Lara points to Popok.
"Yes, ma'am."
As workers come in to remove the body, Lara look at the Urusian flag.
"You want war, Lum?" she says quietly. "You'll get war! I'll make sure
YOU'LL sit on your throne even if I have to make you do so! And then,
Niap'yeng, it's YOUR turn!!"
Lara laughs maniacally again. Everyone working at the embassy look
nervous...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Irunvayae?
What is it, Ranvayae?
Ranma takes a deep breath as the two face each other in the
shipmistress' dream site. By order of the Prime Councillor under the
Special Intelligence Operations Edict, Order 12-200, Lara Skelad of Uru is to
be terminated with extreme prejudice within one ten-day of this announcement.
You are also ordered to destroy the Skelad research facilities in the
asteroid belt in the Oyatsui system and on Spotak. Flightmistress Mie Seikou
and Shipmistress Makoto Seikou are seconded to support you at their request.
The Tere'na City Compudata Centre is now moving to feed viruses into all
Skelad systems to eliminate all copies of this data. You are given full
freedom of action to carry out your mission without compromising your current
cover identity or your contacts in the Urusian government. Is this
understood?
It is. Inform the Prime Councillor that the operation will be done
immediately.
Immediately? Can you do it?
I can, Irunmei salutes her. My orders are received and
understood, Shipmistress. If you'll excuse me.
Be careful, Ranma hums...
...then Numon finds herself back in her office. Taking a deep
breath, she looks to the door. "Nokosu-kun!!"
"Yes, Numon-san?" he walks in.
"Prepare my ship. Destination: Earth."
"Yes, Numon-san."
"Are the two prepared?"
"They are. Should I call Captain Negau?"
"I'll call her," Numon walks into the main room where two young boys
stand, both showing the telltale signs of third stage terminal Hifuto
Syndrome. "How are you?"
"Scared," one admits.
"I know," Numon smiles, kneeling before them. "But you'll live on in
the bioroids created of you by the Avalonians. Do you understand what I want
you to do?"
"Yeah," the other nods. "But we don't understand why."
Numon sighs. "The place that made the Avalonians...and by extension
us...reality is a place that is still recovering from a horrible war beyond
your wildest imagination. The places I want you to destroy are building
weapons that will completely destroy what the *daishi'cha* have tried to
rebuild. Both of you have friends on Sagussa, remember?"
"Yeah," one nods, then shrugs. "Heck, if it's between dying from
Hifuto and getting atomized by a bauximite flash-bomb, I'll take the flash-
bomb. It happens quicker."
"I know," she kisses them. "Good luck."
Both nod as Nokosu escorts them away. Taking a deep breath, Numon
heads back into her office to prepare...
* * *
The day ends at Onigakkou Public School and the students rush out to
go home. Among the rapid throng of youth, Junba and Dansei Fujinami walk
together to the main street. Like all of the women in the Fujinami family,
Dansei is dressed in boys' clothes and her hair is cut short. "Another day
ends," Junba sighs. "Wanna go for a sundae at Shapiro's?"
"I wish," Dansei groans. "But I'm broke as usual and I've gotta go
home to help my folks with the clean up, then I gotta go to the Canadian
Embassy for my French lessons."
Junba stares confusedly at her best friend. "Why do you learn French
at the Canadian Embassy? Why not a private institute?"
"It's cheaper and the teachers are nicer; besides, they're all native
speakers, so I can learn much more than a local teacher who was taught
French," Dansei shrugs. "Besides, I learn a lot about Canada at the
embassy."
"Why Canada?" Junba wonders.
"Dunno," Dansei shrugs. "Mom and Dad say it's a better place to go
to than the States. Weird if you ask me. I've been going there ever since
second grade, learning English, Canadian history, geography, social
sciences..."
"Makes me think that you've got a future husband in Canada."
Dansei blinks, then blushes at the thought of marrying a very rich
Canadian. "Gee, that'd be nice!" She then grins. "Then I'd be finally away
from that dork grandfather of mine!!"
"That's be reason enough to get away," Junba laughs, then reaches
into her pocket to pull out some change. "Hey, I've got enough. Let's go to
Shapiro's anyway!"
"Oh, okay!" Dansei nods. "The garbage can wait!"
Suddenly, two identical red-haired boys who look like a pair of
miniature Reis appear around them. "Hey, Junba," one of them asks, wearing a
red scarf. "Wanna go to Shapiro's with me?"
The other pushes the one with the red scarf away. "Forget it!" the
other has a blue scarf. "She wants to go with me!"
"Me!!!"
"ME!!!!"
They transform into large, red-haired beasts and begin to fight.
Junba and Dansei sigh. "It seems Lin and Len are at it again," Junba shrugs.
"Mr. Shapiro doesn't let them in together because of their transformation
powers cause too much trouble!"
"And the fact they hate each other!" Dansei adds.
Then four more appear around Junba. They look like miniature
versions of Lum's bodyguards. "Hey, Junba!" the bespectacled one says.
"Let's go to Shapiro's together!"
"Let's go! Let's go!" the others chant together as they grab Junba
and start to drag her in the direction of the ice cream shop.
Junba groans. These are her own bodyguards (not that she actually
NEEDS them). Lead by Shinpai Megane, Aisuru's nephew, they are as moronic as
their predecessors. "Why should she go to Shapiro's with the likes of you?" a
strong voice of a young man states.
"That voice?" Shinpai gasps. "He had to pick now to appear!"
Some wind whips through the trees as a kimono-clad boy with slicked
back black hair and carrying a wooden sword appears with his back towards
them. In the background, there is the sound of music common in old samurai
movies when the hero shows up to confront a group of thugs who are pestering
some innocent maiden. "Idiots never seem to stop popping up to confront
perfection," the boy turns to reveal a very handsome, Mendou-like face.
The four boys look in awe. "It IS him!" Megane gasps. "Only one
such as he would use such a cliche for an entrance!"
"I wish he'd get away from this samurai fetish!" Junba groans.
The boy slowly walks up to Junba and takes her hand. He smiles and
his teeth gleam. "Junba-san," he says gruffly...before a childish grin
appears and his voice goes higher. "Willya go to Shapiro's with me?!"
Everyone faints except for Junba. "Why do you have to go through
this late-night movie send-up to ask permission to go for ice cream, Tetsubou
Mendou?!" she blanches. "Is saying 'Can I go, too,' too hard for you?!"
Like his father, Tetsubou is the most sex-crazed moron in the school.
But, being very handsome and from a rich family, no one minds too much.
Among the last ones out are Amora and Seiteki. Both dressed to thrill, they
notice Junba and look with disgust over the fact she has tons of boys hanging
around her, while they have NONE. "Look at that!" Seiteki groans. "Junba's
about as tomboyish as Dansei is, yet all the boys hang around her like wishes
on a Tanabana tree!"
"What's she got that we haven't got?!" Amora groans. "We try to look
like girls, not boy-wannabes, and they don't even give us the time of day!
Junba fights with the boys, plays boys' sports, and they're all over her!"
"Wanna go to Shapiro's?" Seiteki asks.
"Might as well," Amora nods.
Unbeknownst to them, a large black car is parked nearby. Inside,
there are a group of Oni women who wear long black overcoats and sunglasses to
hide their identities. One of them watches the children leaving the school
with binoculars. "The target is coming out of the school," the woman
announces. "But, she is with a large group of friends."
"This is the time," another replies. "Plus take a few of her friends
to make sure we get the message out." She tugs her overcoat. "Make sure they
see your uniforms."
The woman removes her overcoat to reveal a black and gold duty
uniform of government services. "That should cause a lot of embarrassment for
them."
The other three remove their overcoats as well to reveal themselves
dressed in Sagussan uniforms. The others wears defense colours, the driver
wears the colours of a Warsuit pilot. "They didn't suspect that we could
break into their embassy and steal what we could," the leader snorts to the
others. "The Sagussans may have high technology, but they are really naive
when it comes to protecting themselves from street crime."
While the bogus Sagussans set themselves up, Seiteki and Amora join
Junba and Dansei to their trek to Shapiro's. Unfortunately, Tetsubou, Junba's
bodyguards, Lin, and Len follow them like lovesick puppies. "Don't they EVER
give up?!" Junba sighs.
"I wish you could tell us why you're so damned attractive to all the
guys in our class, Junba!" Amora snorts.
"We could use some attention ourselves!" Seiteki groans, then flaunts
herself. "An early developer like me needs all the attention she can get!"
Then, the black limo appears in front of them and the three bogus
Sagussans leap out to the full view of at least a half-dozen bystanders. "S-
sagussans?" Amora gasps in surprise. "What are they doing here?!"
Before anyone can answer, the one wearing the government uniform
pulls out a spray can and sprays a large cloud of white mist into the group.
In moments, Amora and the others begin to pass out. The shocked on-lookers
do not know what to do when the three fakes drag the whole group of pre-teens
into their car with the ease of moving a small bit of furniture. "These
children will make good GUINEA PIGS for our experiments on Sagussa!" one acts
before she joins the others.
The limo immediately speeds away. The on-lookers then realize what
is going on. But it is too late, the limo is already out of range and
heading to its base. Only a few get their wits about them to call the
police. By that time, the limo is long gone...
* * *
The news of the kidnapping travelled fast. By the time after school,
Lum, Ataru and Mina find the news blasted on almost every television station.
"According to witnesses," a harried reporter on NHK announces helped by
photographs taken by someone lucky enough to be standing there with a camera,
"...the Sagussans were heard to say they were going to use the children in
some experiment. No one is sure what kind of experiment it is or where they
maybe held. The Sagussan Ambassador has refused comment pending their own
investigation. The children are the following: Amora Moroboshi, Seiteki
Ozuno, Junba Miyaki, Tetsubou Mendou, Dansei Fujinami, Lin and Len, Shinpai
Megane..."
Lum looks at Ataru. "Darling, those are the names of children from
our graduating high school class as well as our Amora."
"Oh, shit!" Ataru gulps. "Because everyone thinks Sagussa is
involved, all hell is gonna break lose! And I'M gonna be blamed for it!!!
I'M ALWAYS BLAMED FOR IT!!!!"
"It's not Sagussa," Nassur takes over.
Ataru relaxes. "What do you mean?"
"Didn't you see those pictures?" Lum/Nassur replies. "They were
wearing the mini-jumpsuits with no leggings like Kei and Yuri like to
wear...AND they didn't have any numbers on their thighs."
The three think back to the photos shown. In none of the shots, none
of the girls had the customary identification tattoos all of the *daishi'cha*
have worn on their thighs since they were taken by Henry. It is something
most people would miss, but to experienced hunters like Nassur or Benten, it
stuck out. "So they did," Ataru remembers. "But, who would be responsible
for this?"
"Who else?" Benten replies. "Lara."
"So what do we do about it?" Ataru asks.
"We take the charge and save our children," Lum/Benten says.
"But, how?" Ataru replies. "We don't know where they are!"
Then, Lum's eyes seem to glow a bright green like Nassur's would when
he had located someone with his tracking powers. A brick smashes through the
front door and like a bazooka shell, flies into the living room, bashing Ataru
in the face! "There's your answer," Lum takes over her body.
"Who threw that?" Mina demands. "Hideo Nomo?"
Lum notices a note attached to the brick. She removes it. "To read
note inside, please break brick," she reads. "In need something hard to break
this on," she turns.
Aisuru Megane appears. The wandering monk looks angry enough to
explode. "MOROBOSHI!!!! HOW DARE YOU...?!?!"
Megane never finishes his statement. Lum belts him over the head
with the brick! The brick splits open into two equal pieces. Megane is
floored by the impact while a huge lump forms on the top of his head. "That
did it!" Lum smiles. "I knew Megane would come in handy for something
someday!"
"I-it's f-fate...!!" Megane groans.
"What does it say?" Mina asks.
"'I have your children, if you want to see them alive again then come
to the old harbour where the reclaimed lands begin. I'll be waiting for you,
my future Queen...Lara Skelad,'" Lum reads.
"It's a challenge," Ataru sighs...
...then Megane grabs Ataru by the shirt and starts shaking him. "How
dare you hit a monk over the head with a brick?!!"
Ataru and Mina clobber him with sledgehammers. "Since when are you a
monk?!" the former demands.
"Mom, this could be a set-up," the latter turns to Lum. "You're not
serious about going..."
"I must," Lum stands. "But, not alone."
"What do you mean?" Ataru and Mina wonder.
"There are others who will want to help us," Lum warns.
"There are?" Ataru gulps. "You don't mean...?!"
"They're their children, too," Lum replies. "And they also deserve a
right to help free them. Let's call them up!"
* * *
"Ohmigosh!!!" Reiko cries out, having seen the news in the living
room in Oshika. "What the heck's going on?!"
"Since when do the Sagussans kidnap little kids?!" Willow demands,
exchanging looks with Yuri.
"They never struck me as the type," the Tritonian hums.
"Hold on a sec' here!!" Willow's girlfriend Hiromi Fujino cuts in.
"Did you see those uniforms, the back of their legs?! All adult Sagussans
have those strange tattoos on the back of their thighs! You remember when
Mr. Moroboshi's friend Mie came by to visit that one time, don't you,
Willow-chan?!"
"That's right!" the Oni slams her fist into the palm of her hand.
"Someone's trying to set the Sagussans up!!"
"What do we do?!" Hitomi Koomei wonders.
"We go help, what do you think?!" Reiko snarls, then looks at
Willow. "Where's your ship?!"
"Here, Saucer!" Willow calls out.
A flash later sees Willow's scout land on the beach...
* * *
In an hour, the Moroboshi house filled with familiar faces. Among
the first to arrive were Shinobu, dressed in the armour she wore in Kyotos,
and Koosei. Then came Lan with her husband Rei, noticeably upset that their
twins are among those taken, wearing battle armour of their own designs.
Sakura and Tsubame arrived. She dressed in her Shinto priestess robes and he
in his usual dark business suit and cape. Then the rest of Lum's Bodyguards
and their wives all dressed to fight. Ryuunosuke and Nagisa came surfing on
the tsunami created by Fujimi Fujinami's tears. Then finally, Shutaro Mendou
arrived in full battle gear. With the exception of Mie Seikou, Ataru's and
Lum's graduating high school homeroom class had dropped what they were doing
and rushed en masse to the Moroboshi home. This time, it is not to attack
Ataru for some real or imagined slight, but to assist in rescuing their
kidnapped children. Even Ataru, dressed in his Sagussan duty uniform, was
impressed by the response.
"You all came?" Ataru gapes in surprise.
"There was no way you could've stopped us, Ataru," Shinobu says. "I
would've come to help even if you didn't ask me!"
"Ataru," Koosei smiles. "Even though I don't have any children with
Oyuki-chan yet, I'd feel honoured if you let me help in this
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
"'Once-in-a-lifetime...?'" Ataru asks. "What do you mean?"
"You and your former classmates fighting beside each other," Koosei
smiles devilishly as he pulls out a camera. "I just have to get it on film!
No one'll believe it!"
Everyone faints. "Some people have screwed-up priorities!" Ataru
mumbles. "But, I'm not leading this group. Lum is!"
"Lum-san's leading us?" Kakugari gulps in awe. "Wonderful!"
Kenmei pulls him by the ear. "I hope that's MORAL support, Daremo-
kun!" she snarls. "We don't need a return of Lum-itis!"
"I'm not a Ferengi, Kenmei-chan!!"
"The entire resources of the Mendou-Mizunokoji Clans, the Kuromegane
and the Kurotenshi are at your disposal!" Mendou adds.
"Thanks, Shutaro," Ataru smiles. "Grandma's already lent the
Moroboshi Clan's forces as well. All we need is Lum's say-so and our kids are
as good as saved."
"Where is Lum-san anyway?" Mendou asks.
"She said she was getting dressed."
A patient look appears on the scion of the Mendou family's face.
"Oh, I see. It's a woman's right to dress properly."
"I see some things have never changed with you, Shutaro," Lum says as
she steps out...to the surprise of all, dressed in her old tiger-stripped
bikini and knee-high boots.
"L-Lum, why are you dressed in that?!" Ataru gulps in awe. "Did
Nassur or Benten make you wear that?"
"Of course not, Darling," Lum models herself in front of everyone.
"If anything, Nassur would want me to wear my Sagussan duty uniform. I chose
this outfit. It just seemed right to wear this, this time."
"Er...right," Ataru sighs.
"At least she still has the figure to wear that," Kenmei sighs aloud,
comparing herself to Lum and finds herself wanting.
"Don't worry, Kenmei-chan," Kakugari gives her a peck on the cheek.
"You'll always be attractive to me!"
"So we're all here," Sakura smiles at everyone as Ataru, Lum and
Shinobu tense.
"Not everyone!"
"Mie!! Makoto!!!" Megane gasps.
Standing at the door are Mie and Makoto Seikou, both in the proper
duty uniforms of the Sagussan Navy. "I trust we're not late!" the former
smiles as she marches in.
"What are you doing here?!!" Lum flies over to embrace them. "It
would have taken you two about a day to get here from Sagussa."
"We were in the neighbourhood," Mie replies, "...so we dropped in."
"Why were you in the neighbourhood?" Ataru asks.
"What do you think?!" Makoto snarls. "Some asshole's making us look
like shit!! Time they got taught a lesson!"
"Besides, your children are involved, including my godchild," Mie
pecks Lum's cheek. "So, where to, Lum-chan?!"
Ataru looks at Lum and in his mind he remembers when he first set
eyes on Lum in this very house all those years ago. She was a naive girl then
and he was a sex-crazed moron. Yet, even seeing her seemed to change all of
that. Deep down, Ataru secretly wished for a brief return to those days,
before Sagussa, before the arrival of Reiko and Amora, before the horrors of
the Box, the Mikado and the other troubles that would come later. Ataru
remembers the feelings of love at first sight... something no one could take
away from him. Mere words could not describe what he felt that day fifteen
years ago...
Only if he could experience it again.
"I'm glad you all could come," Lum says as she addresses the group
and taking a more Nassur-like tone to her voice. "Despite what you think,
and as Mie-chan and Makoto-chan can confirm, the Sagussans did NOT kidnap our
children for some sort of insane experiment. A woman named Lara Skelad took
them and is holding them in the old harbour near the reclaimed lands outside
of Tokyo. Why she is doing this, I haven't found out about yet. But,
remember this...if we fail tonight, then not only will our children be put
into danger, but all people of Earth, Uru and Sagussa will also be in danger.
This could be dangerous. Some of us may not make it back alive." She
pauses and waits. No one says a word. She continues, "But this is the only
way to make us go towards the unstoppable future!!! ARE YOU WITH ME?!?!?!"
Everyone roars in approval. "Then let's go!" Lum shouts. "Get to
the grass roots... BUT DON'T CUT THE GRASS!!!!"
In minutes, cars, trucks, a few tanks and personnel carriers roar
into action. Lum flies ahead to lead them into battle. "Good luck,
everyone!!" Mina waves from the front door, then sighs. "Wish I could've come
along..."
But during the organized confusion that armies go through while they
move into the battlefield, Mendou turns to Ataru with a puzzled look. "Say,
Ataru, where's Dakejinzou? A fight like this would be right up her alley."
Ataru looks around, not seeing her. "I don't know," he scratches his
head. "I know that Lum contacted her to help...and it's not like her to
refuse to do so."
* * *
In orbit, Dakejinzou is working on her computer aboard her own
starship. She then sneezes. "I hope that's not Lum thinking of me. I'm
working as fast as I can!"
* * *
The old harbour is quiet this night. All the warehouses and dry
docks were closed and abandoned since the Babylon Project began. As little as
five years ago, this area was once one of the busiest sea ports in Japan. Now
it is a silent mockery. It is now empty and forgotten, waiting for someone
with money, a plan and time to do something with it.
The new coastline is a couple of kilometres further out and most of
the land has been already expropriated for building. First is a new police
labor headquarters to replace the one in downtown Tokyo, now too small for
its crews. Then a starship construction yard, the first in the world until
plans are finalized for the San Francisco and Halifax yards. But, despite
all of the future works in this area, the old harbour still has its uses.
Hidden inside one, Lara Skelad meets with her cronies laying plans
for the battle. The children she kidnapped are safe and well-cared for
despite what anyone would think. Lara had made sure of that by decreeing
that if any physical harm coming to the children it would bring a sudden,
painful death to the unlucky soul causing the harm. "...I make no bones
about it," Lara informs her cronies, mostly made up of security men from the
embassy loyal to Lara and the women who carried out the kidnapping in the
first place, "...there is going to be war. When it comes, I don't want the
children harmed if we can help that. Especially the one known as Amora.
Despite her lineage, she is in line to the new throne when the day the
Imperials return to power."
"What about the parents and any others who come to fight with them?"
one of the security squad asks.
"Do as you will," Lara gives the guard a cruel look. "This will be a
hard battle, but I know right..." she looks up in the air. "...and my father
would be on our side."
Lara remembers her father, Slan Skelad. Slan was the most successful
businessman to ever have lived on Uru in centuries. After starting out in
terraforming, Slan made his first trillion in starship warp engine technology
and weapon research. When the defense department began using his designs,
Slan's personal wealth grew faster than even Bill Gates on Earth. By time he
married and Lara was born, Slan had plants all over Urusian space and branch
plants in almost every major power's space except the Dominion and Sagussa,
and was growing every year.
But when the Imperial Round fell and with the resulting witch-hunts,
the inevitable stress took its toll. Always nervous about speaking in public,
Slan was mercilessly roasted by each and every accusation Nassur and Benten
unearthed for the committee to view. Such stress was also felt by Lara. Lara
was the next in line to her father's financial juggernaut. In fact, Slan was
transferring the reigns of running the company before the Imperials were
killed. She knew that whatever Nassur and Benten would bring out would be the
end of the Skelads. She wouldn't let it happen.
Using a go-between, she set Nassur and Benten up to "disappear" and
the evidence they had collected destroyed. It was easy getting Elle to agree
to the plan. The Rose Queen, already unstable over the deaths of her nanny
and her parents, was showing signs of a paranoia of growing old and frantic
to stop the old age we all must face. A few key "rumours" about the Vosians
finding a cure for old age was enough to set everything up. The set up went
off without a hitch...and her father and her family were safe. But the
damage was already done. One day shortly after he was acquitted, Slan
suffered a massive heart attack and died in Lara's arms.
"He should be here to watch the first triumph of the new Imperials,"
she says aloud. "Let's continue our plan."
* * *
Inside another of the warehouses, Amora, Junba and their classmates
sit around waiting. Most of the boys sit close to Junba and Dansei while
Amora and Seiteki sit alone together, but close enough to hear everything
someone said. "I'm so scared," shivers Shinpai Megane aloud. "I wanna go
home!"
"We all do," Junba groans. "But how? They've got the guns."
"It's me they want," Amora sighs. "They said they were Sagussans,
but they're not."
Everyone agreed. The Sagussans would never kidnap someone so
brazenly in public only to herd them into some warehouse somewhere in Tokyo
and hold them for no reason. The Sagussans to a person were at times too
naive to think of such a thing. Still, the people that did kidnap them were
a threat...but for what? None had tried to harm them. Just the opposite,
they were being taken care of better than their own parents.
"Why would they want you, Amora?" Tetsubou asks.
"My parents are the heads of Sagussa. These people don't like
Sagussa at all."
Junba looks at Amora. Their captors had never mentioned anything
about their intentions or anything else for that matter. "How do you know
that?" she asks.
"I dunno. Lately, I've been getting these feelings from everyone
including my parents. It's weird. It's not like I can read minds, but I can
sense how they feel."
"And I thought I was the only one who was developing weird mind
powers!" Junba sighs. "You'd think this was an episode of 'Kimagure Orange
Road' instead of 'Urusei Yatsura.'"
"Do you sense any feelings about us?" Dansei asks politely.
Junba punches Tetsubou! "I don't know about Amora, but someone
better stop thinking what he's thinking!" she snorts as she removes Tetsubou's
hand from her own backside.
"Now that's an OLD joke!" Amora groans.
* * *
Lum and Ataru's little army arrives at the front gate of the harbour.
Locked shut by a lock and chain and surrounded with a wire fence, the
warehouse looks deserted. "Are you sure this is the place?" Mendou asks Lum.
Lum concentrates a moment, then her eyes glow eerily. "This is the
place," Lum says in Nassur's tone of voice. "I sense Amora and the other kids
in there. They're safe and sound. Plus I see several dozen armed Oni
soldiers...with Lara Skelad."
"How do we get in?" Megane asks.
Lum blasts open the lock with her lightning. Megane has the "boy, am
I dumb" look on his face. "Ask a silly question..."
"And they say I'M an idiot?!" Ataru sighs as they go in...
* * *
The entry hasn't gone unnoticed. A soldier using a scanner has
immediately picked up them...not that the sound of the explosion itself did
not warn them. "Someone has blasted through the main gate and is heading
this way!" a technician announces.
"So, they're here," Lara growls happily. "Bring me Amora and let's
do battle!"
The soldiers roar in agreement...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
To Lum's group, the silence is deafening. They were several metres
into the compound and yet there is no sign of the enemy or anything else.
"So, where is everyone?" Mendou asks.
"This is so scary," Shinobu gulps.
"They're here," Lum says in Benten's voice. "I can sense it."
"I'd feel better if Nassur had said that," Ataru groans.
But Lum's boast was soon proven true. Out of a dozen or so hiding
places, shots are fired. "Snipers!" Lan yells.
"Disperse!" Lum orders.
Like experienced soldiers, Lum's group follow orders. Some make it
to some cover and begin to fire back while others move towards the warehouses
hoping to find the right one that held their children or Lara Skelad.
Makoto makes the first capture. She sneaks up and catches a sniper
unawares. With a quick flip, she sends the hapless shooter flying down to
ground level. Mendou eliminates one with a slash of his katana, destroying
the shooter's weapon. Backed up by Kakugari with a rocket launcher, they
proceed to liberate the next gun nest in seconds. Shinobu broke up another
sniper hideout by literally heaving an abandoned yacht at them. Lan and Rei
stomped out two more. Chibi and Paama belted another from behind with
baseball bats. Ataru was pinned down for two minutes until Lum and Mie
finished the last couple with lightning and pistol shots.
Lara's fighters are soon gathered together. "Where are our
children?!!" Lum's group growl menacingly.
"We don't know!" the prisoners exclaims.
"You don't know?!" Megane snaps his fingers. "Too bad."
Out of the shadows comes Keizoo Sedoyama, the former head of the
Tomobiki High Torture Research Club, dressed in his red leather outfit and
cape. Still bald, ugly and very intimidating, the torturer manages to keep up
his hobby in his job working in the tax office. "This ain't no Taxing Woman's
job!" he grins evilly as he drops his bag filled with torture instruments.
"And I don't have to go easy on you either!" The torturer then pulls out a CD
player and some CDs.
After torturing the prisoners with several bad versions of "The
Sukiyaki Song," they desperately tell Lum and the others everything. Their
children are holed up in a warehouse about a block away from their present
position, Lara is hidden a block further than that. "We'll have to split up,"
Lum declares in her own tone of voice.
"Do you think that's wise?" Ataru asks. "This is dangerous."
"If what our prisoners say is true," Lum continues. "Our children
haven't been harmed and they won't harm them. Mendou, can you lead a force to
free our children?"
"Sure, Lum-san," Mendou nods.
"Good," Lum turns to Ataru. "Darling, we'll lead the group to
capture Lara Skelad. AND I WANT HER FOR MYSELF!!!!" she finishes in Nassur's
voice.
Everyone looks surprised hearing the Vosian's voice from Lum's lips.
"Gotcha," Ataru humours the spirits inhabiting his wife.
"That might be a problem, Nassur," Makoto cuts in.
"What do you mean?" Lum/Nassur turns to the *pirpirsiw'r.*
"There's a third one of us here," Makoto smiles. "Irunmei. She's
Intelligence with orders to kill Lara; she's been after the bitch as long as
you've been missing."
Lum then smiles. "They understand now, Makoto-chan. Too bad Eluza's
not here to watch this. Nassur-chan thinks she's a genius for pulling this
out of her hat."
"Hey, we're not ALL naive bimbos!"
"What's that all about?" Megane wonders.
"We'll explain later!" Lum's voice then switches to Benten's tone.
"Let's go!!"
Shinobu turns to Ataru. "This is really scary," the school nurse
whispers. "It's like Nassur and Benten ARE really here!"
"I know," Ataru muses. "Even I'M not sure how this'll end!"
Ataru, Shinobu, Lan, Rei, Mie, Makoto and a couple Kuromegane and
Kurotenshi follow Lum towards Lara's hideout. Mendou and the rest of the
group go to liberate their children...
* * *
Meanwhile in Lara's hideout, Amora has been delivered to her
kidnapper and unceremoniously dropped at Lara's feet. "Ow!" Amora rubs her
swore bottom. "That hurt!"
"Sorry for the rough treatment," Lara smiles sweetly as she looks
Amora over approvingly. "You're a cutie, aren't you?"
Amora looks at her captor, eyes blazing with hate. She could feel
the resentment, loathing, and madness within the ambassador and it scared her
a lot. Lara did not need developing empathic powers to sense what Amora was
feeling about her. "I can tell by the way you look at me, you don't like me.
You'll learn to like me someday, I'm sure," Lara strokes her hand on Amora's
face. "I think someday we'll be very good friends."
An injured soldier staggers in. "Lara-sama!" he groans in pain.
"Lum's rescue team has split up. One group is going to free the children and
the others are coming this way."
"It begins," Lara humphs. "Let them take their children back, but
when Lum comes I will make her agree to what I want her to do! If she wishes
to see Amora alive again!"
Lara then laughs maniacally...
* * *
Liberating their children was easy for Mendou's team. The guards
only gave enough resistance so they could withdraw. When Mendou burst into
the warehouse, their children were the only ones there. "The rescue team's
here!" Megane announces.
Junba clobbers Megane with a paper fan. "It's about time!" she
snarls. "It didn't take you guys long to save us, Megane. What did you do,
show them your face?"
Megane looks suitably insulted, while everyone else tries not to
laugh. "What's the matter with my face?!!"
Mendou rams Megane's face to the floor with his boot. "Where is
Amora Moroboshi?"
"Some of those goons took her to that creepy Lara Skelad," Seiteki
replies then looks upset. "Is Moroboshi-sensei here?"
"Er...yes," Mendou replies.
"Good," she rearranges her clothes. "I wanna thank him personally
for saving me!"
Mendou turns to his son. "I take it SHE'S Seiteki?!"
"Yes, Father, she is," Tetsubou replies.
"Let's start moving them out of here!" Kakugari suggests.
Everyone leaves, but Seiteki begins to move towards the other
battle. "I've gotta find Sensei and thank him!" she says.
Sakura grabs Seiteki by her belt and drags her away. "Oh, no, you
don't!" she groans while she drags her wanton daughter away. "You've bought
enough candy to see how this story will turn out!"
"But, lovers must stick together!"
"Too much superficial love'll cause a backlash!" Sakura warns...
* * *
Lum's group is having a harder time against Lara's forces, who are
putting up stern resistance. Even with Lan's bazookas, Rei's tiger-bull
body, Shinobu's strength, Mie's and Makoto's pistols and Lum's lightning,
movement is difficult. "This is like a war!" Ataru gasps. "This Lara isn't
giving up without a fight!"
Then they see Mr. Fujinami selling ice cream. "Ice cream! Get yer
ice cream!"
Lum growls. "Hey! You're not invited!"
"But, I'm the only one except for Cherry of the original regular cast
who hasn't had a cameo yet!" Mr. Fujinami retorts.
"Did you have to pick now to do it?!" Lum flies off.
"This is getting weirder and weirder!" Ataru sighs.
Before Mr. Fujinami can say anything, an exploding shell sends him
into the sky. Ryuunosuke and Nagisa both sigh. "Shit, we didn't get to punch
him into orbit!" she mutters.
Ataru notices the main entrance is blocked off by a squad of Lara's
troops. Luckily, Mendou and a few members of his group have come to reinforce
Lum's group. "We've saved all the kids except Amora," Mendou reports to Ataru
as they hide beside a nearby warehouse. "It seems she's in there with Lara."
"Why am I not surprised?" Ataru sighs. "We have to break through
that blockade at the door. Do you got any ideas on how?"
"Megane said he was going to take care of that," Mendou reports.
"He is?" Ataru groans as he wonders how the monk would do such a
thing. "How?"
Everyone notices a small monk's straw hat appear from out of the sky
and land in front of the blockade. The soldiers stop fighting as a small body
lowers itself from the hat and carries two pails in his hands. The body looks
at the soldiers. His old and ugly face studies them. "Oh, I get it!!
Setsubun!"
Cherry literally explodes!! When the smoke clears the blockade, the
warehouse and about three blocks are totally destroyed with everyone there
either unconscious or semi-conscious. "So that's how the writers got Cherry
in this one!" Ataru groans. "I forgot about Megane's holy telephone...!"
Ataru collapses in the rubble. Lum, who was hovering nearby trying
to take out a group of Lara's soldiers stationed on the roof of the
warehouse, flies down to land where the explosion occurred. A little stunned
by the shock wave from the blast itself, she looks horrified by the carnage.
"Oh, Lyna!!" she gasps before running to his side. "Darling!"
She checks out Ataru but finds that except for some bruising and a
large bump on the back of his head, he is only unconscious. Lum looks around
for Lara and Amora but only sees rubble and strewn bodies of Lara's soldiers
and her friends laying around. Where is she? Where is Amora? She tries to
access Nassur's tracking powers and finds she can't. What happened? Lum
races through her mind. She could access them before and she really needs
them. Then she notices something else. Nassur and Benten were gone from her
mind. For a month and more, they were inside her mind giving her advice and
shielding her. Now, nothing. Lum felt alone.
Someone taps her. "Looking from us?"
Lum turns and sees...Nassur and Benten standing there as if they are
really in her presence. Lum is speechless. All the time they were
interacting psychically, she would have never expected that they were now in
the real world. "N-nassur-chan? Benten-chan?" she spits out. "You're here?
Am I dead?"
Benten pats her on the shoulder. "A tough Oni girl like you, dead?"
Benten smiles as if Lum had just told her some really dumb joke. "Nah, not in
a million years!"
"Besides, we're not dead ourselves," Nassur adds. "At least, this
doesn't seem like Heaven or Purgatory to us." The hunter's face grows
serious. "We know why we're here. You want Lara and your daughter Amora. We
can help you...since it looks like no one else is in any shape to at the
moment."
"Except me, of course," a voice hails.
They turn to see Numon Kuk, now dressed in her uniform as a Sagussan
intelligence officer though she is still Oni in looks. "I take it you're here
to end this," Nassur hums.
"A pity I didn't interfere before you two vanished," Numon smiles,
then draws her gun and a portable videophone. "Well, Lum-chan, shall we go
have some fun?"
"Let's!!" Lum turns to Nassur. "Do you know where they are?"
Nassur concentrates for a moment, then his eyes glow once more.
"They're over there," he points towards the remains of the warehouse.
"They're both still alive and reasonably uninjured," he continues. "If you
hurry, you can end this now."
"*Tcha!*" Lum and Numon fly off.
It wasn't easy. With the roof collapsed, and the rubble unstable,
entering the ruins is difficult. Lum knew she couldn't use her lightning to
blast her way in and Numon didn't have Shunran's pulse-photon blasts. It
would only cause things to collapse even more and endanger Amora. Luckily,
there are spaces large enough for them to shuffle through. Amora, Lum
psi-links. Where are you?
* * *
"Hey!!" Reiko calls out.
The small group who had rescued the children turn to see Willow's
scout land, Reiko charging out. "Where's Amora-chan?!"
"Reiko-chan!!" Koosei blinks surprisedly, then notices the others who
had come with her. "What are you doing here?!"
"What does it look like?!" the Noukiite snarls. "Where's Mom and
Dad?! Where's my sister?!!"
"Still in there, Reiko-chan!" Sakura points to the wrecked
warehouse...
...then blinks as Reiko charges in without another word. "Reiko!!"
Willow screams. "Come back here!!!"
Racing into the ruins, the Noukiite notices the amount of wreckage
that lies between her and her family. Growling, she reaches out
telekinetically to seize the piles of twisted metal and with a wave of her
hands, sends everything flying!! People behind her scream out as the wreckage
crashes down, revealing Mendou, Megane and the others who had joined Lum and
Ataru in rescuing their daughter and finding Lara, now flattened under flying
debris. Makoto, of course, is able to land on her feet, then catch her life-
mate and Ataru. "What was that?!" the *pirpirsiw'r* wonders.
"That was Reiko," Sakura sighs.
"Geez, did she have to throw us so hard?!!" Lan winces as she is
helped to her feet by Rei.
All the children are suitably impressed. "Wow!!" Junba whistles.
"Amora's sister is awesome!"
"I wish I had a sister like her!" Dansei grins.
"Oh, goody!!" Seiteki beams. "Now I can see Onii-chan..."
Yuri stares at the young girl, freezing her into an ice block! "I
think not," the Tritonian hums.
"What...a cold...stare...!" Seiteki rasps.
Yuri then notices Megane still passed out. "Megane-san!" she kneels
beside him, producing a small block of ice to place on the lump swelling over
his eyes, her eyes flashing with concern no one from Oshika expected from
her...and no one from Tomobiki expected anyone to give to the likes of Megane.
"Are you alright?!"
"What's with Yuri?" Willow looks at Hiromi.
The latter shrugs. "Oh, my head..." Megane moans as he tries to
shake off the dizziness. "Tan-chan, is that you...?"
Yuri jolts, her face clouding. "***WHO'S TAN-CHAN?!?!?! MEGANE NO
BAKA!!!!!!***"
An explosion later sees Megane flung into orbit!! "It's fate...!"
the monk wails.
"What's that all about?!" Hiromi's eyebrow twitches...
* * *
Somewhere in the rubble, Amora wakes up. *What happened?!* she
wonders. One minute, she was listening to Lara Skelad boasting about how she
was going to make Lum bow down to her, the next moment, all hell broke loose!
A quick check of herself showed no serious injuries outside of some bruises
and scrapes...it seems Amora inherited her father's ability to take enormous
amounts of punishment. She could hear groaning nearby. Looking around in
the near-dark of the warehouse was Lara who is just coming back into
consciousness. She looked badly injured.
Then she sits up suddenly, the wounds vanishing. Insanity crosses
her face. Amora could sense the surprise and growing madness within her. "I
don't know how she did it!!" Lara growls. "But she stopped me!" Taking a gun
from an downed soldier, she moves through an opening. "For the moment!"
Amora, now scared, does not know what to do when she sees Lara
leave. She is only a twelve year old girl. *I should be chasing boys with
Seiteki or eating chocolate while watching TV!*
"There's no need to worry," a man's voice says.
"W-who's there?" Amora looks around before seeing Benten and Nassur
standing in front of her. "Y-you look like those statues in Heroes' Park,"
she recognizes their likenesses. She could sense they are trustworthy and
friends with their mother. But, it seemed they both were not...here?
"Don't worry," Benten says. "We're friends of your mother. "You
must be empathic if you can see us."
"That explains it," Amora replies. "What do you want of me?"
"If you go out that way," Nassur points to an opening. "You will be
safe. Your sister's coming."
"But what about my mom...and Lara Skelad?" Amora asks.
"Don't worry," Benten replies. "Your mother'll be fine. We'll help
her. Now go!"
Nassur and Benten fade out. Amora, having heard ghost stories during
sleep-overs at friends' places, immediately goes out the opening Nassur
pointed out to her to safety...and runs right into Reiko. "Onee-chan!!!"
The two fiercely embrace. "Are you alright?!" Reiko gazes worriedly
at her sister. "What's going on here?!"
"Some crazy woman named Lara Skelad's trying to destroy Sagussa and
hurt Mom!!" Amora frets. "Two people just appeared outta nowhere and helped
me get out of there..."
"'Two people just appeared out of nowhere...?'" Reiko blinks, then
looks up. "Nassur!! Benten!! Where are you two?!"
"Hi, Reiko-chan!" Nassur grins as he and Benten appear beside the
Noukiite. "Lecasur's Soul, you're grown!!"
"Stow it!" Reiko snarls. "What's going on?!"
Nassur and Benten touch Reiko's face, allowing the Noukiite to scan
their thoughts and learn what happened. "That bitch!!" Reiko snarls, her
eyes flashing dangerously. "What was she going to do next?! Re-conquer
Noukiios?!"
"Probably," Nassur sighs, then points into the wreckage. "Lum's that
way! Better hurry!!"
"Right! Amora-chan, go find the others!!" Reiko races off.
"Ah...right!" Amora sighs as Nassur and Benten fade...
* * *
"Where is she?!" Lum growls. "Nassur and Benten said she was here!
Where is she?!"
Lum comes to an open space where she could finally stand up and walk
around without any problem. She looks at her dirt-streaked skin. *I guess
wearing a bikini wasn't very practical for this part of the job!* she muses.
Taking a bath had to wait. Amora is still out there and so is Lara Skelad.
Lara herself also chanced on the same opening...and when she sees
Lum, Lara attacks using the gun as a club. "You will bow down to me!!!" Lara
snarls in a voice that has lost all sanity. "You may be my queen someday, but
you will BOW DOWN TO ME!!!!"
The suddenness and furiousness of the attack put Lum at a
disadvantage and soon she was backed up against the rubble. "I'll never bow
down to you, Lara!!!" Lum tries to psyche her out. "And I'll NEVER be a queen
of anywhere...except Sagussa!!!"
Lara answers Lum with a whack with her gun to the side of her head.
"Don't count on your slutty Sagussan friends to help you," Lara roars. "We
are prepared for them! We know their weakness and can exploit it! First, we
break Earth from Sagussa, then Earth will become apart of a new Urusian
Empire where you shall rule as is your birthright! The forces are in motion
as we speak! When we finish, every Sagussan will be dead at our feet...AND
YOU SHALL RULE THEM ALL!!!!!!"
"I think not!" a pistol jabs her.
She turns to see Numon standing there. "Numon...?!" Lara gasps, then
looks down to see the dark green-and-red windrider embossed uniform she wears.
"You traitor!!!"
"No, Lara dearie, I never was a traitor to *my* people," Numon smiles
as her eyes close, then open, now cat-slitted.
Lara gags, horrified, as the Sagussan's ears extend to their proper
Cha'than length, then Irunmei backs away, her fingers tapping a number on her
phone. "You really are a pathetic little slug, aren't you?" the intelligence
officer smiles. "You really think you can get away with manipulating people
like that?! I've been after you for over a decade, Lara...and now I have
you!"
"You think you'll get away with this?! Once people find out the
truth about you..."
"Oh, they already know the truth," Irunmei laughs. "You see, all
that was told about me was the truth...save one detail. It was Numon who
died, not me. I absorbed all her memories before she passed on, may Ram and
Atar protect her soul. And because of that, my people decided to take
advantage of that to place a deep-cover penetration agent in your
society...to make sure that any Pathfinder Troop Six missed...will never
escape."
The videophone screen then comes on. "Is that you, Numon-chan?"
Negau's image appears.
"Yes, it's me, love," Irunmei smiles, her features melting back to
Numon. "How did our smart bombs fare?"
"They made it to target," the DIA chief reports. "ISIS, my father
and the Speaker of the Senate got the package...anonymously. They send their
thanks."
"Bless you, love," Numon nods.
"'Smart bombs?!'" Lara growls.
"Yes," Numon nods. "I took a page from Hezbollah's book. Two young
boys who were infected with Hifuto went to your facilities on Spotak and
Oyatsui...laden with enough hydrogen-charged bauximite to make the destruction
of Tere'na City by Tarun-Chong 14,000 years ago look quite tame. The files on
your research have been wiped out of your computers, so whoever might follow
you'll have to start at the beginning. I'm so sorry, Lara dearie!" she mock-
pouts.
Lara shudders, then growls. "So are you here to kill me?"
"Yes," Numon nods. "Your death was ordered today. But I think he
deserves the chance to end your worthless life more."
"He...?"
The sound of a blaster is heard! Its beam cuts through the centre of
Lara's chest, missing Numon by centimetres. She falls like a stone to the
ground. Lum looks for where the shot came from. She sees Nassur and Benten
standing there. Nassur holds his gun in his hand. It smokes from just having
been fired. "Bang, Lara, you're dead!" Nassur says cryptically. "Thanks,
Irunmei."
"You killed her?!" Lum gasps.
"Mom!!"
Lum blinks. Nassur and Benten are gone and Reiko is standing there.
"Reiko-chan! You saved me? But..."
Dakejinzou appears, gun drawn. "It looks like I came in time with
the evidence," the alien sighs. "What happened to Lara?"
"Don't you know?" Lum blinks confusedly. "You shot her..."
"Not guilty," Dakejinzou frowns. "I just got here myself and Reiko-
chan's unarmed. When you guys have a fight, you don't kid around. By the
way, Reiko-chan, thanks for clearing a path."
"My pleasure," Reiko laughs.
Dakejinzou notices the Oni/Cha'than-turned-Sagussan. "And what are
you doing here, Numon-san...or whatever your name is?!"
"Word of advice, Dakejinzou...you never saw me," Numon smiles.
"Okay," Dakejinzou laughs, then checks Lara. "Oh, her heart's fused
to ashes and it looks like a Vosian laser pistol...like what Natsu-chan
had...that did it."
"It was Nassur," Lum protests. "And Benten was with him."
"I see," Dakejinzou points to the Oni's forehead. "Are they still
inside here?"
Lum concentrates. Nothing. "No, they're gone. They didn't even say
goodbye or told me where they were being kept prisoner."
Dakejinzou puts her arm around Lum. She could tell the bond between
her and her missing friends is still strong. "I'm sure that someday we will
find them, I swear it," the hunter vows. "At least we know they're still out
there...alive."
"It was so weird," Lum nods. "I could see them, feel them, talk to
them, like they were here like you!"
"That's unusual," Dakejinzou replies. "I've never seen a link like
that before. Who knows, maybe they were here...in some way."
"*Tcha,*" Lum nods sadly.
"Let's go," Dakejinzou sighs. "Ataru-kun and Amora-chan are waiting
for you."
Lum looks happy. "Amora's all right?!"
"Yep, it seems she saw Nassur and Benten too," Reiko replies. "They
helped her out of the rubble, then I pointed her clear."
"Let's go!" Lum says as she, Reiko and Dakejinzou rush through the
rubble to join the others. "'Bye, Numon-chan!"
"'Bye, Lum-chan," Numon sighs, then taps her wrist-comm...
* * *
Over the next few days, news of the Skelad Scandal flood the media.
The locations of the factories building the weapons and technology were
revealed...it's hard not to ignore 500 megaton-equivalent bauximite
flash-bombs when they explode...thanks to hacking done by Dakejinzou on one
side and Tere'na Compudata on the other. The CEO of Skelad Industries was
stuck doing damage control...then he found out Numon Kuk was going to buy out
the company!
Both the Urusian and Terran governments apologized to Sagussa for
what happened. The apologies were accepted with the usual Sagussan
reservations. Unknown to the Urusians, however, Sagussa's intelligence
ministry begins to make plans to prevent a repeat of this incident in
conjunction with the United Nations Intelligence Agency, Zephyrus' Holy
Inquisition and Vos' An'san-Mikado.
A surprising development then is announced on Noukiios. After years
of discussion and review, the Cabal of High Clerics, the Dominion's senior
spiritual council, announces that they would support a recent government move
to emancipate all remaining slaves and eradicate the Naihu forever from the
Ten Orders. All those who are Naihu in rank at present will be re-baptized
over the next few months into other castes. Once that is done, the way will
be clear for the Ip'ihu to come home, their informal caste being officially
welcomed into Noukiite society as an equal part of the Ten Orders.
Welcoming the move so many throughout the galaxy have desired,
Earth...with a quiet suggestion from Sagussa...officially invites a
delegation from Noukiios to come to New York City and open normalization
talks between the Dominion and the United Nations. With that comes a promise
to organize a Noukiite mission on Earth within the year...and keeping in mind
the Skelad Scandal, the United Nations arranges for the Noukiite embassy to
be located in Tokyo close to the Urusian embassy.
Despite developments between Noukiios and Earth, official relations
between the Dominion and the Union remain tense. The Urusians demand further
compensation from Ip'ihu pirate raids on border colonies, plus negotiations
concerning the fate of Noukiios' three colonies, worlds Uru still claimed.
The Noukiites demand that Uru officially apologize for their past misdeeds
against Noukiios and foreswear any further attempts at marginalizing the
Dominion within the Galactic Federation. Leaders in other Federation states
sadly shake their heads, wondering when they'll EVER see the day Noukiios and
Uru would be at peace.
As for everyone involved, life returned to normal...or as normal
could be...
* * *
Heroes' Park. A week later.
Lum took the day off. Sakura and the school board officials were
very understanding about the reasons...even without Ataru and Koosei
threatening to kill them all if they didn't comply. She carries with her two
bouquets of roses...one of blue, the other of red. She would need them.
Arriving at the statues of Nassur and Benten, Lum places the bouquets
at the pedestals of each, the colours matching each hunter. After she placed
the bouquets in their respectful places, Lum kneels to the ground and prays.
"Nassur, Benten," she mumbles quietly to herself. "It seems I owe you my life
again. Thank you. Wherever you go, there you are."
"Lum!"
Lum sees Ataru walking up to the statues. He is also carrying a
bouquet of Sagussan flowers; blue windreeds and red fire blossoms. "Darling?!
What are you doing here?"
"I took today off, too, just to be with you!" Ataru replies.
"And those flowers?"
"These?" Ataru sets them down between the statues. "They're
something Mie-chan sent for Nassur and Benten...even if we're not sure it
really was them who helped out." He looks thoughtful. "Y'know, it's funny.
Nobody can explain what went on with you and them. Even Dakejinzou couldn't
explain it and she supposedly taught Nassur how to do that little mind trick
of they did."
"It was more like faith than anything else," she kisses him. "It was
faith!"
Lum and Ataru pray. They both could feel Nassur and Benten are with
them...somehow. And someday they would all meet again.
"Mina-chan was accepted at the Young Woman's Academy," Lum smiles at
him.
"That's good," Ataru nods. "Great thing we know the headmistress.
Now, Reiko-chan won't be so lonely. Who's paying?"
"Grandma," she sighs. "Uncle Komeru sent his ninjas down to get all
of Mina-chan's things from her mother's apartment, moving them to Sendai so
she could get at them when she starts school."
"You going to tell Reiko-chan?"
"No, let's let it be a surprise," Lum smiles.
"Type of surprise I'd like," he chuckles as they kiss.
A voice then hails from behind them. "Uncle Ataru? Aunt Lum? What
are you doing here?!"
Both turn and see Junba standing there holding her lunchbox. "Oh,
Junba, what brings you here?" Lum asks her protegee.
Junba sits in front of the statue of Benten. "I was going to eat my
lunch here," she unwraps her lunchbox and begins to eat. Upon starting on her
sandwich she notices both Moroboshis staring at her. "What is it?"
"These are nice statues, aren't they?" Ataru asks. "Grandma really
paid a lot to have them made."
"Yeah, I always like to eat lunch beside them," Junba smiles and
points to Benten's statue. "Especially this one, for some reason. Amora said
those people who rescued her looked like them. I think she's been eating too
much chocolate."
"These two people were good friends of Darling and I who disappeared
shortly after you were born," Lum smiles. "Would you like to hear a few
stories about them?"
"Sure," Junba nods. "They never talk about them in school."
Lum smiles and begins to tell a few stories of Junba's missing
parents. Ataru joins in when he can. Both make an effort not to tell Junba
her true link with them as to not break their word to Shinobu. Junba listens
intently as she eats. Sometime later, she heads back to school. Ataru and
Lum exchange looks, then turn to head home...when they see a silver-haired
woman in traditional Noukiite dress standing there. "Who are you?!" the Oni
blinks.
Niap'yeng introduces herself, then drawing some incense, walks over
to bless the statues. "There is much more going on here than you could
suspect, Mrs. Moroboshi," she gazes at Reiko's adopted parents, then explains
what happened in Oshika.
Ataru and Lum are horrified. "You mean to say some creep under Lara
was trying to kill Reiko-chan?!" he demands. "Why?!!"
"Because your daughter is needed by my people to begin the slow
process of reuniting them under one roof," Niap'yeng sighs. "First with the
Lost Stars, then the Ip'ihu. Fate has drawn your daughter away from Noukiios
for a long time. But now, if my people are to know true freedom, she has to
come back."
Ataru and Lum exchange looks, then the latter turns to the
priestess. "As long as you don't coerce Reiko-chan into doing this, we won't
object. She...doesn't know what to do with herself now that she's out of high
school. Dakejinzou Shogai might want to take Reiko-chan under her wing, teach
her how to use her powers and be a hunter...but the choice must always be
Reiko's."
"I understand," Niap'yeng nods. "Be assured, Mrs. Moroboshi, I won't
force P'yeknu into this if she doesn't want it. Just her verbal agreement
would be good enough."
"'P'yeknu?!'" Ataru and Lum blink.
"Her name in Noukiite," the priestess smiles. "My plan requires her
to be re-baptized, elevated from Naihu to Yekhu. That I'll do when I see her
after she's settled down at her new school."
"You seem confident," Ataru muses.
"I am," Niap'yeng shrugs, then reaches into her jersey. "Oh, you'll
need this."
She hands Lum a case. The Oni opens it to reveal two silver chains
linked to two gold hearts welded together, rubies in the middle of each heart.
"This is a promise necklace," Niap'yeng explains. "P'yeknu would know what
this means and how it works. The one who breaks the link between the hearts
and takes the second chain would be seen as being engaged to her. I'm sure
your friend Mina Fujisawa would fit the bill."
"She does," Lum smiles, then bows. "Thank you."
They gaze at the statues of Nassur and Benten. "I wish there was
some way to find out what happened to them," Ataru sighs.
"Within seventy Earth-moons time, you'll learn what happened,"
Niap'yeng smiles.
"Six years?!" Ataru blinks.
"Aye. Then, they'll be reunited with their child. In the meantime,
I best be back to Ishinomaki."
"How do you know?" Lum wonders as the priestess heads off.
"As you recently departed friend Hayao Sakurambou would say it, Mrs.
Moroboshi," Niap'yeng winks, "...it's fate."
With that, she teleports away. Unseen by Ataru or Lum, the spirits
of Nassur and Benten have observed them...hopeful that one day, Niap'yeng's
promise would come true and they would rejoin their friends in telling their
story to their only daughter.
But, that is another story...
*** To Be Continued ***
