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Tomobiki, the third Sunday of April in 2012, breakfast...
"Haruhi-chan..."
"Mmm...what is it, Ataru-kun?"
Silence.
"What the HELL are you doing?!"
Hearing that barely-shouted question from her current host, the native of Nishinomiya near Kōbe could only give an embarrassed smile in return. "An apology," Suzumiya Haruhi weakly offered.
That made Moroboshi Ataru stop, he blinking in confusion. Having been picked up from staying with new friends just outside Washington, he had expected to either be shifted to Ōmure-jima to be with his half-sister Sukeyama Sakuya or be brought back here to the guest room set aside especially for him in the Toranoseishin Finances headquarters tower in downtown Tomobiki.
Which the Mistress of Time and Space, R'buttuo (the "Weaver"), had actually done...
...even if the now-separated male-half of the Trickster of the Show, Tuyuki ("Coyote"), expected to be brought back to Japan around the end of Golden Week...which was TWENTY-ONE days away from now!
And while getting an effective extra THREE WEEK VACATION from his "wife" and the idiots who tended to crowd around them for whatever stupid reason struck their fancy was definitely nice...
...that there was a "past" version of himself presently in the capital city of the United States...!
"Whatever happened to maintaining the integrity of the time stream, Haruhi?" he then asked.
The leader of the SOS Brigade at Nishinomiya North High School who had been helped to be Gifted as the second-most powerful living person on the World of the Forge by Moroboshi Ataru (then living as "Tariko Katabarbe") four years ago took a deep breath before reaching over to grasp her friend's hand in both of hers. While she was partially tempted to use her reality warping abilities to transform him from his current synthetic "battle doll" state into a fully organic body — which would provoke his own Gifting, empowering him to be a metahuman in his own right just like his other-self/twin sister became late on Friday just past — the woman who could literally create and destroy alternate universes and timelines knew there was a time and place for when Moroboshi Ataru would become one of the Named. And now, two days after his seventeenth birthday, wasn't that time.
"You were discrete while you were in America helping the Angel Corps get on their feet and get away from their 'masters'," the pretty brown-haired teen with the bob-cut brown hair held back by a gold headband advised, a touch of understandable derision appearing in her voice concerning those Terran-born Avalonians he had helped be Gifted over the last three weeks in his personal timeline...usually with some very hot and heavy pillow scenes given his new synthetic body's ability to help link his various lovers into the Great Forge of Power to allow them to become metahumans themselves. "From what I saw of the three weeks you were in country, you-as-now will be the same way here. There's lots more people here — both Avalonian and Shōzoki; I won't spoil it for you, though — who need the same help you gave Samantha-san and her friends when they needed it."
He blinked as he took that in, then he sighed. "As long as I keep out of sight of those people who'd be worried about Redet and the rest of the morons kidnapped last week to 'shield' me from de Rosenbach, I should be okay?"
"Yes," she nodded, winking at him as her normal devil-may-care smile crossed her face. "You're going to have a hell of a good time. As to what happens after Golden Week..." Here, Haruhi chuckled. "Well, I'm not going to spoil THAT, either!"
Ataru took that in before he sighed. "You better be right, Haruhi..."
The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei
Before the Dream
by Fred Herriot
A story set in the universe of The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei.
C&C by Rose Ash
Based on characters and situations from Mahō Sensei Negima, created by Akamatsu Ken; The Seventh Carrier, written by Peter Albano; Azumanga Daiō, created by Azuma Kiyohiko; Men In Black, created by Lowell Cunningham; Kantai Collection, created by Kadokawa Games; Sweet Valley High, created by Francine Pascal; NOëL, created by Pioneer LDC; Harry Potter, created by Joanna K. Rowling; Super Real Mahjong, created by SETA; Urusei Yatsura and Ranma 1/2, both created by Takahashi Rumiko; Suzumiya Haruhi no Yū'utsu, written by Tanigawa Nagaru; Sister Princess, created by Tenhiro Naoto and Kimino Sakurako; and normalman, created by Jim Valentino.
Including mention of characters and situations from Koihime Musō, created by BaseSon; KimiKiss, created by Enterbrain; Star Wars, created by George Lucas; Worm, created by John C. McCrae; characters created by World Wrestling Entertainment, originally founded by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt; Sherlock, created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss (based on Sherlock Holmes, created by Arthur Conan Doyle); RWBY, created by Monty Oum; Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry; The West Wing, created by Aaron Sorkin; Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon; and Stargate SG-1, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner.
Also including dōjinshi characters and situations created by Nemunemu (Club Candy Paddle), Saigado, Makuro (Club Ash Wing), YK (Club GJ-X), Binto (Club Akaeboshi), Noise, Momonosuke and Zenra QQ.
And including characters and situations from Urusei Yatsura: The Senior Year, created by Mike Smith and Fred Herriot.
STORY INTRODUCTION
This story is set over seven months before Boy Meets Girl Meets Metahuman. In Urusei Yatsura story continuity, this begins immediately after the events of the first movie Only You and covers the period between that film and the second film, Beautiful Dreamer; that is at the time when the in-universe story Giftings, Dreams and Nightmares occurs. Events soon to be written of in Dr. Tempo's Of Gifts and Semblances will be hinted at in the background.
Tomobiki, the Toranoseishin Fiances tower, the third Sunday of April, after breakfast...
"How are you feeling, Onii-sama?"
Hearing that worried question from the gorgeous teen wearing her long brown hair in low twin-tails, Moroboshi Ataru perked before he gave his half-sister a wry smile. "Well, how am I supposed to be feeling, Sakuya-chan?" he wondered before sipping a cup of welcome tea, he sitting back in his chair, such poised by the picture windows of his guest quarters in the fifteen-floor office tower overlooking downtown Tomobiki, such offering a grand view of that district of Nishitōkyō to the west and north.
Wincing on sensing the cauldron of emotions still boiling in her dear brother's heart, the Healer of Men's Hearts, R'buoho ("Courtesan"), took a deep breath. "Okay, that was definitely a stupid question to ask," Sukeyama Sakuya wryly commented in return before she flashed him a knowing look. She was a native of Ōsaka who had been literally abandoned by her birth mother after the death of her stepfather five years ago; fortunately, he passed away sometime before the death of Sakuya's predecessor as Matriarch of the Moroboshi Clan of Mutsu-no-kuni and hers and Ataru's shared grandmother, Moroboshi Nagaiwakai. "Reigi-kun's people finished cleaning out your parents' bank accounts of any money they got shifted from the trust fund Obā-sama set aside for you. They contacted Internal Affairs in Kasumigaseki to start sniffing around when it comes to the idiots at the police box like your 'uncle'." She knew Ataru didn't care to view Yamaguchi Keisuke, his maternal uncle, as part of the family. "Should see him and his idiots in Fuchū Prison just in time for the bitch and the rest of the idiot squad to come back to Earth."
A cold chuckle escaped him on hearing that. While whoever it was that had altered the memories of the person who was once Tariko Katabarbe the previous fall — suspiciously, a month almost to the day to the start of the Tag Race against Redet Lum — had done their best to wipe out all knowledge of the planet Yiziba and the future Trickster of the Show's quest to see as many Terrans Gifted as possible, they hadn't erased any knowledge of Tariko's late grandmother, a very rich cattle farmer who had taken her traditional rôle as special society observation chief to the Imperial Throne very seriously. During the six months the person known to everyone in Tomobiki as "Moroboshi Ataru" had to put up to his "wife's" many idiotic actions and the repercussions of same, he had sometimes threatened his mother Kinshō with a vow to get the people at Toranoseishin involved as a way of helping him get clear of Lum and all who came in her wake. Of course, the selfish woman — who HAD to have known what her son-turned-daughter had done since s/he had run away from home on her/his sixth birthday in 2001! — threatened in turn to get her older brother Keisuke (the head of the Tomobiki police box) to drag Ataru right back home; naturally given the bitch's obviously bi-polar nature, she ended such a statement with the usual "I wish I never had you" comment.
Reflecting on that, Ataru then smirked as he wondered how she would react to being told "Then grow old and die alone"; in that, he remembered her comment the previous Monday evening — before the whole family got kidnapped by Lum as a way of "saving" her "husband" from being taken away by Elle de Rosenbach — when she got back to Earth three weeks from now.
"Any news from Onē-san?" he then asked.
Sakuya shrugged before sipping her coffee; she normally slept in on Sundays, but given what just happened to her dear sister that wound up giving her a dear brother as well...! "She's still holding off the hounds back on Yiziba," the cosmic empath and reborn escort from the red light districts of said planet's analogue to Amsterdam answered. "Even with that damned bomb in the local Ginza planted there thanks to the rimrae umale, Damasu-chan's husband and the rest of that bunch are hot-to-trot to finish off what Redet Danu's hubby and his friends began twenty-seven mini-series ago in the MOAFS. When this is all over with, Lum BETTER appreciate how much you and Onē-sama both bent backwards to keep her planet of umale safe from the mean 'capes'."
Hearing that made him sigh. Yes, THAT particular bomb — a configured starbase self-destruct device with a potential explosive yield of FIVE HUNDRED MEGATONS of TNT by Earth measurements — was the big plot spoiler haunting the thoughts of everyone involved in this mess at this time. Had not the natives of Phentax Two who considered themselves of the "one true faith" planted such a thing near Ataru's favourite restaurant in town, Tampopo's Rāmen and Beefbowl Bar, he would gladly make himself totally disappear, retreating to Ōmure-jima to live full-time with Sakuya to await his own chance to be Gifted. While he was VERY angry at a lot of people for winding up the way he was now, in that regard, he was taking his other-self's acceptance of what happened to them-as-one the previous November as the "luck of the fight scene". The "pros" for such an action were many: He would be away from his birth parents' reach once and for all, the metaphysical barrier shield enclosing Tomobiki (set up to prevent the weirdness that hit this place frequently from spilling out into other parts of Japan) would block his "wife" and her friends from trying to track him down — not that his radically altered synthetic DNA would register now on Redet Lum's mobile home or on other such systems — and it was fool's play to stop Mendō Shūtarō from trying to seek him out beyond the borders of the town; one word to Yumoa Reigi would see to that. The "cons", however, were considerable and dangerous.
With an estimated TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND Niphentaxian cultural observers on Earth, with at least TWO THOUSAND of them in the "holy city" itself alone tasked to keep watch over that race's "living goddess" and her "holy company"...!
Could we say "hostage scene", anyone?
Even if there were over four thousand Terrans-turned-Yizibajohei active on the planet, to see even ONE person killed ultimately because Redet Lum was too much the COWARD to admit that she had LIED at the end of the Tag Race...!
Never mind her RUNNING AWAY from things like her former fiancé Seq Rei, the Urusian Imperials and her "most faithful"...!
No way, José!
When she got back to Earth at the end of Golden Week, Lum was going to be FORCEFULLY introduced to the Yizibajohei concept of "It's NOT my fight scene", finding herself WITHOUT her "husband" while she lived on the planet.
And while Ataru did have potential Gifted allies in town to help out in the persons of Tsuruya Rumiko and Inu Chigaiko...!
Something that a young cosmic empath from Niigata (whose relationship to him had just been revealed) started a month before would definitely make coming to Earth a very HAZARDOUS affair for any alien who was stupid enough to do that from now on.
Ask the Goa'uld, he mused to himself...
...before perking as footsteps echoed from beyond the open door to his guest suite, that echoed by a polite knock. "Sakuya-sama? Ataru-sama?" one of Yumoa Reigi's secretaries then called into the space. "Fukushima-chūsa and her sisters are here."
Both teenagers with enormous power and influence in the Clan — Ataru himself would succeed his uncle Komeru as Patriarch once the latter finally retired in the next decade or so...even if the older man spent most of his time these days in the wilderness somewhere hunting up lost archaeological sites — gazed over. "Where are Akemi-chan and her sisters?" Sakuya asked.
"The Commanders Ashikaga are still on Remnant with Thomas-hakase, Sakuya-sama."
Sakuya and Ataru nodded in understanding. "Hai, hai! Send them in!" the former bade.
"Excuse me, please."
With that, the secretary stepped out. "Have the Noukiites learned about this yet?" Ataru then wondered.
That made the Healer of Men's Hearts moan...
...before footfalls made them gaze over, such punctuated by the stamping of the feet indicating of people coming to attention. "Shirei-kan!" a woman called out, her words touched with the Kansai-ben indicative of her place of "birth" at the Maizuru Naval Arsenal during the last years of the Taishō Era. "Destroyer Division Eleven with attachments reporting as ordered."
Staring at the seven pretty teenagers — all of them in the ubiquitous "new model" form-fitting sleeveless battlesuits that had come into vogue on Yiziba over the last century and more, such bearing kanji over their cleavages indicating their former names as actual warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy before and during the Greater East Asia War — Ataru smirked knowingly.
Oh, yes! Dealing with the reborn FIRST DEFENDERS of the World of the Forge would be too much for ANYONE to handle.
After all, the black hole at QV Telescopii wasn't THAT far away...!
For the reborn kami of THG Fubuki and her six sisters restored to duty as "shipgirls" over the last month thanks to one Saeru Hinako, this was the moment they've been anticipating since their salvage-and-Giftings during spring vacation.
To MEET the person who had started Earth's second Age of Metahumans...!
Naturally, learning of what had befallen Tariko Katabarbe late the previous summer had stunned Fukushima Fujiko when a teary-eyed Sukeyama Sakuya — who had gladly hosted them and their younger half-sisters of the Ayanami-class "special" destroyers at Welcome House on Ōmure-jima since the start of the current school year — horrified them all, making them resolute in serving their new honorary "commander" now that he was effectively alone and powerless as he had been made to become...!
And by an Oni of all things!
Oh, were Redet Lum and her friends going to be in for a LOT of trouble come their return to Earth in three weeks.
And with the police investigations underway concerning the older brother of Tariko's own birth mother, a woman who definitely deserved to be seen as a TRAITOR TO ALL HUMANITY given what happened after the then-would be Trickster of the Show was forced back into her childhood home a month before the stupid Oni came to be idiots...!
Recalling the memories of her "other-self" — the synthetic "battle doll" forged by Yiziba's first true metahuman, the Healer of Destruction Batae Erba herself, five millennia before to deal with the lar'beke — the adopted native of Maizuru could only grin in anticipation on getting the chance to physically RIP APART Redet Invader's flagship Kashin with her BARE HANDS!
The look on that fat idiot's face when THAT happened...!
Gods! He's supposed to be a STARSHIP COMMANDER?! He makes the average SUMOTORI look THIN!
«Oi! Fujiko! Sakuya-chan's noticing your mind drifting!»
Hearing that annoyed warning telepathically sent out by her fourth-youngest sister Mayako — the reborn THG Murakumo, fifth of the first series of "special" destroyers that had rendered all vessels of their type built beforehand effectively obsolete — the adopted native of Maizuru (where she was built) awked in embarrassment before she bowed low. "I'm so sorry!"
Laughter escaped their hosts as Moroboshi Ataru and his half-sister got up to approach them. "Crystal! When I met up with American shipgirls over in the States, I never could get over how fast they could sniff out potential fight scenes at the blink of an eye!" he noted as he leaned close — not too close, of course — to give the woman now known as the Blizzard of Death, Roerike ("Fubuki"), a casual look-over before he gently grasped her hand, raising it to his lips. "Welcome home, Fubuki-himesama."
Fujiko went as red as her boilers got when she was going at flank speed at both his hailing her as "Lady Princess" AND giving her such a classical Western form of greetings; even if she had yet to get to know any of the American kantai musume who had been salvaged in the wake of the return to duty of the Cosmic All-Seer, Kyotam ("Long Beach"), at the end of March, she knew from previous visits to Western-influenced countries while being an active warship for Shōwa Tennō how people normally greeted ladies. "Sh-sh-Shirei-kan...!" she sputtered before bowing again. "Thank you for having me...!"
"Way to go, Onii-sama!" Sakuya chided as she patted her dear brother's shoulder.
Ataru gave her a look, he squeezing Fujiko's hand in reassurance. "Is she always like this?"
"She's being tame today!"
"Sakuya-chan!"
Laughter escaped all of Fujiko's sisters. "Even as a destroyer, she always wanted to do her best," the reborn THG Hatsuyuki, third of her class — now Fukushima Hatsue, also adopted of Maizuru; on Yiziba, she was the Silent Blizzard, Rurike ("Hatsuyuki") — coyly teased as she gave the eldest of her class/sisters a knowing look...before a yawn escaped her...
...then she awked as Ataru appeared before her, he grasping both her hands in his own. "Are you getting enough sleep, Hatsue-san?!" the other-self of the Trickster of the Show demanded, his eyes wide with concern.
As her cheeks flared as red as her sister's had become when he courtly kissed her hand, the Healer of Men's Hearts quickly cut in. "She's something of an hikikomori, Onii-sama," Sakuya warned. "Instant she got introduced to a kotatsu...!"
In a flash, the girl with the long, hime-cut raven hair was in Ataru's arms, making her sisters all gasp. "It's alright, Hatsue-san! It's alright...!" Ataru gently soothed as he allowed his hands to thread through her sable locks.
Hatsue tried not to turn as red as a tomato. Damn...I can get used to this...!
The Inu residence in the south end of Tomobiki, near Butsumetsu High School, that moment...
"So with the majority of the idiots in hospital on Uru, what happens to us now?"
Tsuruya Rumiko shrugged. "Well, we can take a three-week vacation from classes. I really don't need them now," the only openly-declared lesbian attending Tomobiki High School noted, a shrug rolling her shoulders before she sipped her tea. "Much that I'm sure I could have been made to remember what Tariko-chan did for me in September should the umale have pushed things had she lost the Tag Race — I doubt whoever did that to us would have kept things secret from the outside world if an actual invasion was launched — things aren't as bad as they seem now, even with that bomb in the Ginza."
Inu Chigaiko — who had been known simply as "Yon-san" by Japan's smartest student bar none until the previous Thursday when the most powerful of their kind helped them both be Gifted after the vast majority of Class 2-4 had been "invited" to attend Moroboshi Ataru's and Redet Lum's "wedding" — could only scowl. "Well, we're empowered and I've got a real excuse to get out of school now," the newest incarnation of the Silent Hunter of the Fabulous Quartet, Nodyuo Bolem (the "Unseen Lady"), mused before sipping her own tea. Like her current guest, the star forward of Tomobiki High's girls basketball team had avoided being literally KIDNAPPED by the Oni due to the alterations of her DNA that made her an adopted member of "they who must never be named" as the natives of the fourth planet of Oniboshi — not to mention many other worlds close to the third planet of Kaeyu — almost ALWAYS called the Children of the Forge. Seeing the curious look from the newest incarnation of the Careful Planner of the Circle of Thought, Timlem (the "Sage"), the light manipulator whose first-self was the wife of an infamous scientist from Yiziba's analogue to Nazi Germany added, "The rest of my team's back as well. They're down in a town near Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi-ken; they live in Kibino, just outside Shūnan. You might have actually met my 'husband' once."
That made the reborn last of the triumvirate who had literally REBUILT a shattered planet from the joint ravages of the Dawn of Power and the Starvation Times that followed that blink before she gaped. "Futami Eriko?!"
"Same," the tomboyish brunette affirmed, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. "Since I don't care to be treated as a nobody until that whatever-it-was which made everyone except Ataru-kun forget my name is gone, I'll play a little hooky."
That made the raven-haired lesbian with her eyes behind reading glasses snort. "Tempted to join you. That might unleash a fatal heart attack on Kōchō-sensei, though," she confessed, gazing out the window of the living room upon the suburban cityscape; the Inu residence was sufficiently away from either the Mendō or Mizunokōji estates to ensure it didn't suffer any "collateral damage" whenever Tomobiki's two richest families decided to flex their paramilitary muscle. "Even if he's not Gifted himself, Ataru-kun is Tariko-chan through-and-through. He'll find a way to remove himself from classes — probably within a day or two of being made to spend time with Lum and the rest of the fools, I'll bet — which will turn everything upside-down."
Chigaiko hummed. "Yeah, they did make him class iinchō again to ensure Sword-for-Brains wouldn't move in as a way to get all the girls for himself," she mused, recalling that hectic morning before everything went crazy thanks to the Rose Queen of planet Elle. "Once he's out of the class, the girls might try to make Mendō stand in Ataru-kun's place." She hummed again before gazing intently at her classmate. "Unless you're willing to volunteer, Rumiko-chan?" she then suggested.
Rumiko blinked as she considered that before a contemplative trill escaped her. Even if her sexual orientation had been easily accepted by her peers — thanks ironically to Redet Lum of all people, who came from an advanced enough culture where such social hang-ups were seen as hideously archaic — and she did have something of a relationship with Fujinami Ryūnosuke (thanks ironically to her father Fujimi and his bull-headed unwillingness to accept his "son" as anything different than a "manly man" and worthy heir of the family tea shop business, the Hamachaya), she was an effective background player in the social dynamics of the current year's "class of failure". True, she had joined Mendō Shūtarō's "secret peer guidance committee" back in January as a way of being better accepted by her peers — a decision she loudly regretted now as the others in that group were even worse perverts than Moroboshi Ataru/Tariko Katabarbe had EVER been! — but to actually become class representative...!
Chigaiko's brown eyes twinkled knowingly. "You'll be a shoe-in, Rumiko. The boys know you really don't care for Lum and they'd want to do ANYTHING to keep Mendō from taking Ataru-kun's place. That'll earn you votes from the girls as well since you don't care for either Lum OR Mendō, so you're a 'safe' alternative to any of the other possibilities."
"Yeah, that's true. Especially with three Shōzoki AIs in class, two slaved to Mother..."
A spit-take escaped the Silent Huntress. "WHO?!"
"Shirai Kōsuke and Arakida Yui are the two slaved to that camera-in-the-sky controlling Shōzoran," the Careful Planner calmly answered; given how much of a hyper-genius polymath she was now, any threat from any of those beings was laughable even at the worst of times. "Inoue Tamako's the other one; don't really know what's going on with her, though."
That made her host hum as she recalled what she knew of that race of sentient AIs native of a planet five hundred light-years from Sol. The Shōzoki as they were now were split into two broad categories, "gatherers" and "companions", with the "Mother" entity — a being similar to Skynet from the Terminator movies — serving as overall controlling sentience over the former and wanting to force all the latter under her overall influence as quickly as practicable. Effectively the last remnants of a reptilian humanoid race who had converted themselves to sentient machines centuries before, those AIs who had opposed Mother's creation/activation sent "seed probes" to other worlds to help preserve their ancient culture which was as equal technologically to Yiziba itself these days. Such probes — the first of which that came to Earth having been discovered in northern Canada in the late 1940s — could literally BUILD a perfect replica of any known humanoid species once a sample of organic DNA was obtained. However, Mother — who clearly didn't care for such "rogues" escaping her control — had put in a nasty add-on to such programming, which would see the DNA templates of such AIs literally KILLED to allow the replicas to take their place...which meant that the original Kōsuke, Yui and Tamako were long since dead by now.
Not to mention whoever else had been targeted by this madness...
"There are almost two hundred of them in town now that I've found so far."
Chigaiko gargled on hearing that. "Oh, shit...!" she hissed out. "Are they insane?! You know how badly Redet's people react to the Shōzoki! What about the Niphentaxians watching over their 'goddess'?! Are they going after them as well?!"
"No, the rimrae umale are being quiet concerning Yui-chan and the others what I've seen over the past few days," Rumiko admitted. "No doubt, they see the Shōzoki as a non-issue when it comes to Lum; only if they target people like Mendō or the Stormtroopers would they move to raise a stink over it." She then moved to finish her tea, ignoring her host's muttered comment concerning how much the air of Tomobiki would be fresher once Mendō Shūtarō and the four idiots calling themselves "Lum's Stormtroopers" as a group were forever removed from town. "But we've got some help coming in thanks to Hinako-chan."
That made the Silent Huntress perk. "Hinako-chan? You mean Saeru Hinako? Suiki?!"
"Same super-cosmic empath," the Careful Planner affirmed with a knowing smirk before she moved to explain...
Tampopo's Rāmen and Beefbowl Bar downtown (northwest of the Toranoseishin Finances Tower), an hour before lunch...
"Eh?! You got the message too, Yuka?!"
"Hai, hai!" the shaggy brown-haired girl with the glasses over her grey eyes declared with an almost leering grin as she leaned her head on the palms of her hands while she stared at her closest friends. "Just came in an hour ago. Tariko-chan wants to meet up with us to help us 'defend' ourselves better than what we could have done last summer."
Involuntary shudders ran through the bodies of Okano Yuka's closest friends on being reminded of what had nearly befallen them before summer vacation the previous year. All of them had been attending a posh "school of the future" in Kanagawa when the place had been attacked and nearly destroyed — while classes were in session! — by terrorists led by a disgruntled computer programmer who wanted revenge on his former employers for reasons that Yuka and her peers had long since forgot about. Forced to relocate to other schools, the members of Yuka's class moved en masse to Tomobiki High School as a way of giving them distance from such a traumatizing event; they currently resided in special student dorms located northeast of the campus.
Of course, none of them could ever have predicted what would happen three months after Eisa Girl's High School was wrecked...
"What took her so long to get back to us?!" Shimizu Kaho demanded as she crossed her arms. Fortunately for them — all of the former members of Class 1-B at Eisa didn't really care for the aliens' presence in people's lives — they had chosen a private booth at Moroboshi Ataru's favourite restaurant as far back as possible from the main door. Currently, some of the "affiliates" to Lum's Stormtroopers now attending Tomobiki High School were enjoying a late breakfast close to the front counter, they conversing with each other about what happened over the previous week. Naturally, concerns over what befell Redet Lum — echoed with automatic assumptions that it was the fault of her disloyal would-be "husband" — were prominent in their thoughts.
Can't these idiots get a LIFE?! Yuka had mused when she overheard Kanzaki Ryūha, a member of Class 2-2 two doors down from the infamous "class of failure" who was a sometimes ally to Aisuru Satoshi and his friends wonder about how the arrival of a supposed "second fiancée" would end up disrupting things in town from now on. While the man didn't feel any sort of deep attraction for the warlord's daughter from Onishuto, he DID do all he could to keep things at Tomobiki High on something of an even keel socially; that most often saw him side with the Stormtroopers against Ataru whenever he acted up.
To believe that so many people their age in Tomobiki were so FIXATED on Lum...!
"Tariko told us last summer she often travelled all over the world to find folks like us to help," Christina Nishimura — "Tina" to her friends — noted, she sipping some welcome coffee. A tall, wavy-haired blonde with freckles and blue-green eyes, she was an exchange student from Sweet Valley High School in the like-named town near Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California; as her name indicated, she was a fourth-generation Japanese-American. "When I mentioned her name to my friends back in the Valley, a whole ton of them just couldn't stop raving about her. Don't ask me why, but if people like Jessica...!"
Her voice got cut off when she noted the main door opening, allowing two people in. "Irasshaimase, Tariko-chan!" the stocky matron of this particular family restaurant, Kamekichi Tampopo, called out. "They're in the back."
"Hai, Tampopo-chan, I see them!"
The Eisa Girl's High alumni turned to look...
"ATARU! YOU BASTARD! WHAT DID YOU...?!"
KK-KRANG!
"You'd think they'd have learned by now," Sanokura Emi drolly noted.
"That's not Ataru-kun," Wakura Kotomi whispered on seeing the shaggy-haired brunette standing close to the front counter, staring with veiled amusement at Ryūha's best friend Hikawa Shin'ya having had his head nearly caved in by Tampopo's pizza-sized flipping spatula. "That's a girl! And isn't that Jessica Wakefield with her now, Tina-san?"
Tina looked before she gaped. "Holy shit! «HEY, JESSICA! OVER HERE!»" she then called out in English, waving.
The gorgeous blonde with the blue-grey eyes and the simply PERFECT figure for a high school sophomore now standing beside the woman who was mistaken as Moroboshi Ataru turned before she waved back, then she grabbed her companion's arms before pulling her past Ryūha and his companions towards where the Eisa Girl's alumni were now seated. Looking himself, Ryūha blinked on recognizing Tina — it was hard to NOT forget someone like her given she was one of the tallest people currently attending Tomobiki High School — before he spotted the others sitting with the exchange student from California. "Oi! Oi! Ataru, you stupid, selfish son-of-a-bitch! You're going to start giving some answers about what's going...!"
KK-KRANG!
"That's enough out of you, Kanzaki!" Tampopo declared after braining him with her spatula. "Much that they do look alike, Tariko-chan is NOT Ataru-chan! And you've no right to interrogate him for whatever stupid foolishness the aliens might have started last week!" She then gazed on Tariko Katabarbe. "Your usual, Tariko-chan?" she then asked.
"Please, Tampopo-chan," the Trickster of the Show said before waiving to her companion. "Jessica-chan will have the same. Oh, Tamiyo-chan, would you be so kind as to put these morons in intensive care?"
"Aye-aye, Teitoku!"
People in the restaurant perked...
...then many of them shuddered as a wave of bone-chilling cold flooded the restaurant from the front door, making heads turn to allow them to gaze on the slightly older woman standing at the doorway, a scowl that could cake anyone in a large pile of mud on her quite beautiful face, such framed by shaggy, purple-tinged raven hair. As eyes locked in on the patch over the newcomer's left eye — the right was a golden brown that seemed to glow with considerable power — she raised her hands to loudly crack her knuckles, such echoed by what seemed to some people as metal being harshly banged together. She was dressed in the sea blue camouflage work uniform of the Maritime Self-Defence Force, the four gold stripes of a captain on her epaulette slip-ons.
"When do captains in the Kaijō come THAT young?" one salaryman seated in a nearby booth wondered.
"Since I was dumb enough to accept becoming a metahuman back when I was in the Kaigun before the Greater East Asia War," the newcomer said as she flashed the older man an amused look. "Mesonium in the body is one hell of a beauty treatment."
"I can definitely agree to that!" Jessica Wakefield, the younger and more rambunctious of popular twin sisters currently attending Sweet Valley High, then declared in accented Japanese, an amused look crossing her face.
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"You're a CAPE?!" a sputtering Shin'ya exclaimed.
The newcomer hummed. "Is that what they call mystery men these days?" she wondered, scratching the back of her head.
"It's a common nickname from America, Tamiyo-chan," Tariko explained as she exchanged a knowing look with the woman she had effectively helped see reborn as the Charging Belle of the Heavens, Duohuo ("Rampage"), one of the strongest FISS-types to live now on the World of the Forge. "There, that word's applied to non-mesonium augmented metahumans; 'parahumans' as they're legally called in the States. By the way, ladies and gentlemen and idiot traitors to humanity..." — here, she glared at the moaning Ryūha on saying that — "...Tamiyo-chan here IS an effective veteran of our side of World War Two. She and a whole tonne of other poor people got forced into suspended animation by the idiots in the Imperial Army when they began expressing concerns over where those dolts were leading the country after the Americans started making life VERY hard here."
Shocked gasps escaped everyone in the restaurant — while it did seem quite far-fetched, events concerning metahumans world wide (tacked onto the weirdness that befell Tomobiki in the wake of the aliens' arrival after the Tag Race) made it quite believable...as Tariko and others who knew about shipgirls worldwide had planned all along — before they focused anew on the newcomer; the name tape on her uniform top read SHIMOSUWA over the kanji下諏訪. Taking the hint from the woman who had started the second Age of Metahumans, the youthful captain cleared her throat. "Given the bullshit that came in the wake of the alien gaijin who seem to love fucking up people's lives here in town, it was decided in Tennō's name that the whole of Tomobiki-chō would be placed under martial law," she then loudly announced, making people exclaim in shock and disbelief at such words. "Given the powers and technology the alien gaijin can bring to bear — as loudly demonstrated many times by that brat Redet when it came to pursuing Moroboshi Ataru-dono as her 'husband'; as you can guess, Tennō's Government will NOT recognize her claim on him given that the gaijin's actions are now seen as VERY questionable for multiple reasons — it was decided that metahumans like myself will see to the preservation of Tennō's Peace and Justice in Tomobiki-chō until the alien gaijin are forced off Earth once and for all." Smirking on hearing the even louder cries from the crowd — people like Shin'ya screaming in pained denial while the older folk (who, for the most part, didn't care at all for the aliens) exclaiming in delight — she stood to attention and saluted them. "Shimosuwa Tamiyo-taisa at your service. I'll be in command of the Tomobiki Kaigun Tokushu-Butai until relieved of duty..." — here, she gazed knowingly at the idiots at the counter, whom she ALL knew were supporters of the alien trash who had come to ruin Tariko Katabarbe's life like they had done over the last half-year and more — "...hopefully when the alien gaijin are sent back to their home planets with their tails tucked between their legs..."
Dramatic pause.
"Or when they're made ashes in their family crypts," the reborn light cruiser THG Tenryū — now known on the World of the Forge as the Wild Dragon of the Central Mountains, Anakakro ("Tenryū") — coldly added, a lethal smirk crossing her face.
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
A wild scream of relief escaped most of the crowd in Tampopo's as the Stormtroopers' affiliates all gaped in horror at that dark announcement. Noting that her old elementary school classmate and her local friends were joining in on the celebrations, Jessica tapped Tariko's shoulder before pointing towards Tina. That got the Charging Belle an understanding nod from the Trickster of the Show before she loudly coughed, making people fall silent as they looked her way. "Tamiyo-chan, Tampopo-chan obviously doesn't want to have these selfish traitors to humanity crowd her humble establishment, so if you wouldn't mind...?!"
Here, she indicated the still-dazed Ryūha and his friends, earning her shouts of denial from them...
...before they froze on again hearing the ominous sounds of a reborn light cruiser cracking her knuckles!
Near Tomobiki High School, minutes later...
"A-ri-ri?!"
For the Living Spirit of Innocence, Lomroer'bem ("Suiki"), it was a peculiar day.
Being Sunday, the seven year-old elementary school student from Niigata didn't have to worry about school, so she had elected to travel down to Tomobiki, a location that was now of vital interest to Saeru Hinako for multiple reasons.
Chief of which was her newly-discovered bro-bro, Moroboshi Ataru.
While being related — even if such had happened out of wedlock — to the Trickster of the Show was one thing...!
...learning of the SOUL-SPLIT that had befallen Tariko Katabarbe the previous November — thanks very much to a combination of alien candy from Redet Lum and a cursed cake created by Sakurambō Hayao — just horrified the young cosmic empath.
While she knew that Ataru was currently at the Toranoseishin Finances Tower downtown with his and their other half-sister Sukeyama Sakuya — given her abilities, Hinako could sense the presence of the Healer of Men's Hearts quite easily even from Niigata — she hadn't gone to visit them given that he was currently being introduced to his new personal "fleet" of shipgirls, beings that Hinako had spent the first part of spring vacation just past helping obtain lives of their own thanks to the effective largess of the second incarnation of Yiziba's first defender, the Healer of Destruction Batae Erba ("Doctor Destructo"). And while Hinako certain hadn't planned at first to help give new lives to the kami of actual warships of all things...!
She wasn't going to complain about how things turned out.
Even if Hinako's parents gladly hosted the Fukushima sisters after the last of them found by Hinako — the reborn last of that class, Fukushima Urako AKA the Speedy Tsunami, Boba ("Uranami") — had "returned to duty" just before the final week of March, the Spirit of Innocence was more than happy to see them now living on Ōmure-jima with Sakuya.
Having seven teenage girls crowd even a spacious family home was a little too much!
And once Isaac Thomas prompted Hinako to go after the successive Ayanami-class destroyers, now the Ashikaga sisters...!
Welcome House became a perfect place for all of them to stay at...
Huh?
Shaking out of her self-introspection by something pinging her empathic senses, the girl with her sandy brown hair in high twin tails blinked before she turned left to see the closed main gate leading into the grounds of Tomobiki High School. Humming as she reached out to metaphorically "see" what exactly she had detected — it felt like her bro-bro even if it didn't seem to be truly alive — Hinako reached into her skirt pocket to draw out a paperback novel-sized slate of dark metal, her thumb automatically touching the glistening control crystal at the centre of one flat surface. In a flash of energy — fortunately for her, it was still too early for people to be out on the streets who could see the Niigata-jin do this — the Spirit of Innocence teleported herself onto the grounds close to the main doors, she easily avoiding the fallen wreckage of the clock tower which had been effectively destroyed by Redet Lum after she learned that her "husband" somehow got engaged to another woman! Noting also the torn-up lawn indicative of a squadron's worth of Mendō Clan surplus Leopard I main battle tanks and the leaves of alien roses which had barely been raked up by maintenance staff and student volunteers before the week ended on her bro-bro's birthday, Hinako could only shake her head in disgust at how much of a MESS the silly aliens and their local friends made. "Hina hopes that Onē-tama and all of Onē-tama's friends will get rid of those silly, baka-baka aliens once and for all soon enough..."
«Help...Hinako-chan...»
The cosmic empath gasped. "Onii-tama...?!" she wondered, looking around.
«Help...call Onē-san...!»
Remembering that Tariko would be busy with potential new recruits over at her favourite restaurant in town, the Niigata-jin giggled. "Daijōbu, Onii-tama! Daijōbu! Hina can help Onii-tama get out of whatever's bothering him...!"
With that, she concentrated, allowing her considerable power to flood her from head to toe before she pushed out...
"CURSE! CURSE! GO AWAY!"
An Akira-like wave of barely-visible energy burst forth from her body to flood over the school grounds, causing the whole building to slightly shake as much of the accumulated ki and mana energy that had been trapped here for months was easily burned clear by Hinako's ultimate power. Faint screams tickled the cosmic empath's ears and mind as various minor kami and other types of yōkai were literally PUSHED off the school grounds by that aura of innocence, such making the very atmosphere in and around Tomobiki High School noticeably clear up. At the same time, the ghostly auras of six teenagers — five of them dressed in very altered school uniforms of a type commonly worn by members of delinquent gangs; the last one was in normal clothes with a war banner staff strapped to his back, the English word LOVE on said banner — appeared very close to the main path, such making Hinako perk before she turned around to look, then she gaped in shock. "ONII-TAMA?!"
«Hey, Hinako! What's wrong?!»
Perking on sensing her big sis reach into her mind telepathically, the Spirit of Innocence pointed at what appeared to be Moroboshi Ataru, he accompanied by what seemed to be odd versions of four now-very UNWANTED people in his life. "Onē-tama! I'm seeing Onii-tama as a GHOST at your old school! And there's Lum-san and Shinobu-san and Ryūnosuke-san...!"
A mental hum escaped the Trickster of the Show as she used her own abilities to focus through her sister's eyes to see what just got Hinako's attention. «What the HECK...?!» Tariko trilled before a moan escaped her. «Oh, hell! The class film!»
That made Hinako perk. "What class film, Onē-tama?"
«Film about school violence I was involved in back in early March; little over a week before you found Fujiko-chan off Guadalcanal,» her big sis explained. «Lum loaned a camera to see it finished since Mendō was being more of an ass than usual, then something went screwball and something created replicas of all the actors, including ME!»
A gargled croak escaped the young cosmic empath, then she focused directly on the replica of Redet Lum. "BAKA LUM-SAN! DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT GIFT THIEVERY MEANS ON YIZIBA, YOU STUPID BAKA-BAKA?!"
Said replica instantly awked on hearing THAT WORD escape this strange girl that her "husband" seemed to know, she immediately cringing even if the replicas of Mendō Shūtarō and Shitto Kōsuke AKA Perm of the Stormtroopers automatically moved to shield her. «Er...who the heck are you anyway, kid?!» Fujinami Ryūnosuke's double then demanded.
The replica of Hinako's bro-bro gave her a knowing look. «An adopted native of the ONE PLANET that brought Lum-san's people to their KNEES when they forgot to do their HOMEWORK almost three centuries ago, Ryūnosuke-san.»
As Lum yelped in horror on realizing that her "husband" knew of THEM, Hinako snickered. «Hinako-chan!» the mental voice of the first shipgirl to rise called out from downtown. «Shirei-kan and Sakuya-chan are listening in! Shirayuki-chan found a group of enemy observers who made Avalonian clones of the 'holy company', including Shirei-kan himself for some odd reason! We'll go get them, then bring them to the school to have those spirits' kami shifted into physical form, alright?»
Hearing that from Fukushima Fujiko, Hinako nodded. "Hai, hai, Fujiko-chan..." A sly smile then crossed her face. "Hina really, really, really thinks we should make baka Lum-san and baka-baka Shūtarō-san and baka-baka Kōsuke-san VANISH!"
Here, she glared at the replicas of said people, all three of whom were even more pale now than they first appeared...
An hour later, inside Class 2-4...
"There you are, Nē-sama! Bon appétit!"
Groaning her thanks after being given a large neopolitan milkshake infused with the necessary amounts of mesonium to allow her to be properly Gifted, the just-embodied film replica of Moroboshi Ataru/Tariko Katabarbe — both sides of her mental template chose the name "Moroboshi Hiromi" for their new "triplet" sibling — before she sat back in her brother's chair; fortunately for her and her fellow film clones, Tsuruya Rumiko had come in right away to set up a very complex series of sensor block devices to ensure that anyone, especially of the Niphentaxian variety, wouldn't realize what was now happening. "Arigatō, Shirayuki-chan," the would-be guidance counsellor — that had been Ataru's rôle in the previous year's project on school violence — breathed out in relief before she focused on her "older" siblings. "So who the devil did that to you, Onē-san?"
"Don't know. Not yet at least," the Trickster of the Show affirmed before nodding her thanks as yet ANOTHER half-sister — whose relationship with her was confirmed by a new "friend" who had, just before the start of April, had been the base ship where her paternal great-granduncle Lieutenant Moroboshi Kyōsuke served on as junior navigation officer — came over to hand both her and her other-self milkshakes as well. "Tōmagun got informed about what happened, so they're looking into it now."
"You know about the Tōmagun, Moro-...?" Here, the still-ghostly replica of Mendō Shūtarō caught himself before coughing politely. "Um, Tariko-san?" he finished, blushing as he tried not to stare at his other-self's chief rival and his just-revealed sister.
"We've been at the casting drive to get as many people Gifted for over a decade, Shūtarō," Ataru calmly responded for Tariko. "Since magicals are the first true metahumans of Earth, it was natural for the Eight Commanderies to get involved."
"Some precognitive was probably involved, Onii-sama," Sukeyama Sakuya mused. "After all, isn't it funny that it was exactly a MONTH before THIS one's other-self showed up with her fat doofus of a father to force that Tag Race on you?"
Here, she contemptuously nodded towards the replica of Redet Lum, who ducked the knowing look from the Healer of Men's Hearts and her two other half-sisters who were present now. Like Shūtarō's replica, the replica of the warlord's daughter from Onishuto was still disembodied, as were the other replicas even if replacement Avalonian bodies were now laid out on stretchers conjured by Tariko at the back of the room, they now strapped to life support mechanisms since they were out of their gestation chambers. In the eyes of the Gifted people in the room, it was natural for Ataru's replica to allow himself to be embodied as Hiromi even if s/he would undergo gender reassignment as a result; given that Hiromi's own template had grown up for a DECADE as a girl, when she got her other-self's memories back after Tariko was made to remember her true past after being rescued from Onishuto, being still stuck as a boy made his/her proverbial skin crawl. And while it would be easy for the replicas of Hiromi's "wife", her would-be "girlfriend" and the tomboyish heir of Hamachaya could adjust easily to becoming Avalonians — after the Careful Planner of the Circle of Thought scanned their bodies before having them prepped to receive living souls, she reported the clones were programmed to allow whoever inhabited their bodies to adjust to having touch telepathic and empathic sensing abilities, not to mention the unique soul-bonding drive which would make them seek out a marei'cha to serve as their life-mates and co-parents of future children — it would be a somewhat different story for Shūtarō's double, much less Perm's.
"Most likely," Tariko finished. "Don't remember what happened that day. Last thing I could recall before finding myself in the house with Baka Aho Ofukun and Baka Aho Ofukuro was helping pre-Gift Rumiko-chan and Chigaiko-chan."
Fujinami Ryūnosuke's double then blinked. "That's Yon-san, right?"
"Same person, Ryūnosuke-san," Ataru answered before he stared knowingly at Tariko. "That proves it. Curse only affects people who are actual students and staff here at the school, Onē-san. Since the people here aren't actual students..."
"Nor will I WANT to be a student at this madhouse," Hiromi snarled. "Honestly, that old fool who's principal here should be put on permanent vacation and Onsen-sensei promoted to take his place. With those idiot 'physicals' of his..."
A knock echoed from the front doorway. "I'm out of here," the Silent Huntress of the Fabulous Quartet declared as people gazed her way, noting the backpack slung over her shoulder. "Eriko's expecting me down in Kibina right now. See you guys later."
"Have good pillow scenes, Chigaiko!" Tariko teased back.
Inu Chigaiko laughed as she waved at her friends before she vanished in a flash of energy from her personal administrative assistant. Watching the photokinetic/telekinetic vanish like that, Perm's double asked, "Oi! Is Chigaiko-chan actually thinking of leaving school?! The girl's basketball team are going to freak out if she vanishes like that!"
"How would YOU like it if people forgot YOUR name...nor bothered to try to figure out WHY they couldn't remember your name, Kōsuke?" Ataru coolly asked. "Personally, they deserve to have collective heart attacks if Chigaiko-chan does that. Besides, even if she's as emotionless as Mister Spock is at times, Eriko-san is of the faces in this incarnation."
"You haven't recapped the scripts about people in that town, Onii-sama," Sakuya warned. "Eriko-chan's started to do 'experiments' with Aihara Kazuki-kun as soon as they got into second year last week."
"What sort of 'experiments', Sakuya-chan?" Hiromi asked.
"Kissing dates."
As Saeru Hinako humphed on hearing about such "mushy stuff", the would-be guidance counsellor hummed. "Well, Eriko-san does suffer from ageusia — her Gifting didn't really help her there — so that's to be expected."
"'Ageusia', Darling?" Lum asked.
"Her taste buds don't work," Ataru answered for his new sister.
That made the other film-clones wince. "Damn! Poor girl!" Ryūnosuke breathed out...
...before everyone perked as a knock echoed from the back door. "Shirei-kan?"
"What is it, Little Hime?" Osamu Shirayuki wondered.
As people smirked on hearing the Great Chef of the West, Syuosekuo ("Küchenchefin"), call her reborn destroyer namesake that, the Pure Blizzard of the Kitchen, Hyatorike ("Shirayuki"), blushed before she bowed her head. "Prisoners have been secured and transported to the Imperial Marine garrison at Tengsei to be processed, Shirei-kan," the adopted native of Yokohama (where she was built) reported. "All communications equipment at their observation site has been destroyed and the assistant observers were given the necessary medication to break that loyalty lock thing in their DNA. They've been told to keep quiet, yet report all actions concerning their fellow countrywomen and their former 'masters' to Rumiko-san from now on."
Lum visibly winced on hearing that. "Tariko-chan! You can't keep doing that! If Ōgi finds out...!"
"He'll be dealt with soon enough, Lum. Relax," the reality warper whose reputation on the World of the Forge was so nasty in places that an actual "rule" of the Great Show of Life — such was the official name Yiziba's automated and ever-running worldwide reality telecommunications broadcast system as well as the term the Children of the Forge used to describe life as a whole — had been given to her: Don't FUCK with Tuyuki! "After all, isn't that what the other you always dreamt of all this time? To be forever rid of that 'church' that was established in her 'name' by the rimrae umale?"
"Besides, why the hell should we care that your people are such COWARDS when it comes to defending yourselves from the Ipraedies and the Seifukusu?" Ataru coolly added as he gave the replica of his wife a knowing look. "That's what prompted the whole 'invasion' last fall, wasn't it? Worried that old man Schwartz would move to cut your asinine Galactic Federation literally in half?" He sipped his milkshake. "Well, if those idiots DID show up, we'd have sent them back to Ipraedos with their tails tucked between their legs...as we will to all the fools like your other-self, Shigaten, Fuyujo, Aruka and Seq, not to mention the rest of the retinue of umale..." — here, he hissed that common Yizibajohei insult — "...who came in the other you's wake!"
"And all they will have to blame in the end is THEMSELVES, Lum-san," Hiromi coldly finished before rising from her chair. "I'm going for a walk around. You want me to pack up all your things in your locker, Onii-san?"
"Please," Ataru affirmed, nodding.
"Hai!"
With that, the would-be guidance counsellor walked out of the room, with one of the Fukushima sisters, tomboyish Miyuki — on Yiziba, the Cosmic Blizzard, R'bemrike ("Miyuki") — moving to follow her. As the others watched them go, warning looks from the other reborn destroyers — whose ship-selves appeared to the film replicas' ghost-sight cloaking their new human-selves — kept those such as Lum, Shūtarō and Shinobu in place in lieu of going out to pester Hiromi when she clearly wanted some time to herself. "So what now?" Rumiko wondered. "Yuka-chan and the others are contemplating what you're offering them; Jessica-san's with them now at their apartment to give them the true reveal scenes about Yiziba." She ignored Lum's automatic wince on hearing THAT WORD — which had been effectively PROGRAMMED into her other-self's mind when she was just FOUR years old, not two years before she would meet two of "they who must never be named" on what could have been the worst day of her life — before adding, "We can clear up this bunch in a blink, then get them hidden away; even if she's acting like the other her, Lum clearly doesn't want to deal with her other-self's crap that sent her here to wreck all our lives last fall..."
"That's not true...!"
"Rei, the Urusian Imperials, your 'most faithful'...!"
Lum awked on hearing Tariko's knowing voice before she flustered at being called out like that. "Should I or shouldn't I RIP off her horns and CRUSH them when I get back, Onē-san?" Ataru then teasingly asked.
As the replica warlord's daughter screeched on hearing that — to literally DE-POWER an Oni like that when one was seen as married was a traditional form of DIVORCE! — the Trickster of the Show hummed. "Nah, wait for it," she advised. "We need to get the idiots who have access to that bomb in the Ginza off the planet before you can go to town on Lum. Much that I understand how much you want to see her slam-dunked into QV Telescopii B for the crap she's pulled..." — here, the woman who started the second Age of Metahumans smirked on seeing Lum turn especially pale on hearing of THAT particular black hold which Yizibajohei used to dispose of chronically-incurable heels — "...we don't want to make her a martyr, remember?"
He considered that, then he sighed. "Hai, true, true."
"I wouldn't really worry about that, Shirei-kan," Fukushima Fujiko noted. "Yoiko-sempai was able to see Tadako-san salvaged and Gifted earlier today; she's now at the Bay getting her mission briefing from Teitoku before she reports to Eta-jima to get her uniforms, then come here to live with Tamiyo-san in the house across from your old bedroom." Here, the Blizzard of Death smirked on seeing Lum and Shinobu visibly wince on hearing what was about to happen at the Moroboshi home once Ataru's parents got back from a three-week stay at the central military hospital in Onishuto; all the shipgirls active at this time worldwide had been briefed on Ataru's interesting shift back in time to give him some extra vacation from the "usual suspects" who had no idea that things were going to CHANGE once they were back on Earth. "The Kuma-class cruisers will come next."
"Tell Negako-san to have them moved into the house north of the dump," Ataru ordered. "I saw yours and the others' predictions concerning Kumamoto Kiko-san. Exposing Ofukun and Ofukuro to such a sarcastic wit...!"
Tariko smirked. "Especially one who could bench press over TWO HUNDRED BILLION TONNES...!"
Shouts of disbelief escaped all the film replicas. "Darling! You can't have them...!" Lum began.
She then gargled as he glared her down. "Do we get Doctor Death involved, Onē-san? Or the Grimm?"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
Lum literally collapsed in a dead faint at her other-self's desk, that making Shūtarō and Perm move to comfort. As Shinobu stared in wide-eyed horror on seeing how much her other-self's former boyfriend CHANGED like he did on being allowed to remember his true past — never mind he now getting a TONNE of new friends who could have his back when he moved to permanently separate himself from Tomobiki and all its issues! — Ryūnosuke blinked before she stared at Fukushima Hatsue, who teleported her personal kotatsu over from Ōmure-jima so she could relax by it and play video games on her PAA. "Um, hey, Hatsue-san, who's Moroboshi talking about? I never heard of either of them since Rumiko introduced the other me to PHO."
"Doctor Death's a reality warper like Tariko-chan, but she also has necrotic touch powers. Anything that's alive can die at her hands. And disembodied 'ghosts' are an aberration in her eyes; she can disperse them quite easily," the Silent Blizzard calmly reported. "Past-selves have been seen as Yiziba's worst heel — in other words, the villains — but the current version's pretty nice; she's a child rape victim Tariko-chan saved in the fall of 2006. The Grimm's another reality warper, but he specializes in dealing with disembodied spirits; Yiziba's chock-full of them thanks to the Great Crystal of Power and all the mesonium in the biosphere. Current version is Roman Leakee, the wrestler from Pensacola who's part of the FCW group in WWE..."
"OI! ONĒ-SAN!"
Heads turned as running footfalls echoed from the southwest stairway. "What is it, Hiromi?" Tariko demanded.
"Get down here: Class 1-7! You wouldn't believe what I just found!"
Blinking, the Trickster of the Show and her siblings headed out of the classroom. Noting that, Lum moved to follow...
...then she gargled on seeing Fujiko loom right before her. "YOU — STAY — PUT!" the Blizzard of Death snarled.
The film-replica of the warlord's daughter from Onishuto cringed at that threatening stare...
To Be Continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
A general review of the writer's notes to Boy Meets Girl Meets Metahuman would be advised to understand the full background situation of this story, much less basic information concerning Yizibajohei and how they interact with other peoples in the universe of this story. The writer's notes here will contain specific in-story information.
Translation list and source language (all Japanese except where noted): Kasumigaseki — A part of Chiyoda Ward in Tōkyō, this also serves as a metronym for various government agencies, including the Tōkyō Metropolitan Police; MOAFS — Mother of All Fight Scenes, a metahuman battle at a planet-wide scale, pronounced /moʊfs/ (English acronym); Ōmure-jima — Island of promises, the "official" name of Promised Island from the first Sister Princess anime series; Chūsa — Short for Kaigun Chūsa ("navy mid-rank field officer"), equal to a US Navy commander; Hakase — Professor; Hikikomori — Literally "pulling inward", term used for a social recluse; Shirei-kan — Commander; Lar'beke — Snake leech (Yizibajohei); Yon-san — Miss #4; Iinchō — Literally "committee chairman", term used for a representative to a school's student council; Rimrae umale — Copycat same (Yizibajohei); Kaijō — Short for Kaijō Jieitai ("Maritime Self-Defence Force"); Kaigun — Short for Dai-Nihon Teikoku Kaigun ("Imperial Japanese Navy"); FISS — Acronym of "Flight, Invulnerability, Strength and Speed", taken from Aaron Williams' comic series PS238, pronounced /fɪs/ (English acronym); Taisa — Short for Kaigun Taisa ("navy senior field officer"), equal to a US Navy captain; Kaigun Tokushu-Butai — Navy Special Force; Tōmagun — Short for Kantō Teimajutsu-gun ("Imperial Magical Commandery of Kantō"), my official term for the Kantō Magical Association from Mahō Sensei Negima; Marei'cha — Literally "one with whom you raise a child", term for a parent's co-partner (Sagussan); Ofukun — Formal way of saying "honourable father"; Ofukuro — Literally "honourable sack", term often used for one's mother; PHO — Parahumans Online, the internet chat site (from Worm) containing information on metahumans (English acronym); FCW — Florida Championship Wrestling, the pre-2012 name for what is known to WWE fans these days as NXT (English acronym).
The teaser scene makes reference to events depicted in the omake Ataru's Angels: The True Noble of the Centre, which is located in chapter #13 of the Omake Files entry at this website.
Here is a quick reminder of the way the sisters of Sister Princess appearing in this part address their brother in the original Japanese and in the English translation of the anime:
Sukeyama Sakuya (Courtesan) — Onii-sama (お兄様) (Dear Brother)
Saeru Hinako (Suiki) — Onii-tama (おにいたま) (Bro-Bro)
Osamu Shirayuki (Küchenchefin) — Nii-sama (にいさま) (Elder Brother)
Shipgirls appearing or noted on (even if mentioned by overall class) this part. First from Japan:
Itō Yoiko-taisa DNTK/DNTR (Tennō Heika Gunkan Yonaga [KB-11])
Shimosuwa Tamiyo-taisa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Tenryū [KJ-44])
Shimosuwa Tadako-taisa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Tatsuta [KJ-45])
Kumamoto Kumiko-taisa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Kuma [KJ-46])
Kumamoto Tamami-taisa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Tama [KJ-47])
Kumamoto Kiko-taisa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Kitakami [SRJ-48])
Kumamoto Otsune-taisa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Ōi [SRJ-49])
Kumamoto Kitami-taisa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Kiso [KJ-50])
Fukushima Fujiko-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Fubuki [KK-156])
Fukushima Shirayuki-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Shirayuki [KK-157])
Fukushima Hatsue-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Hatsuyuki [KK-158])
Fukushima Miyuki-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Miyuki [KK-158])
Fukushima Mayako-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Murakumo [KK-160])
Fukushima Itsuko-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Isonami [KK-164])
Fukushima Urako-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Uranami [KK-165])
Ashikaga Ayako-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Ayanami [KK-166])
Ashikaga Shikuko-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Shikinami [KK-167])
Ashikaga Ami-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Amagiri [KK-170])
Ashikaga Sayako-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Sagiri [KK-171])
Ashikaga Otsune-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Oboro [KK-172])
Ashikaga Akemi-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Akebono [KK-173])
Ashikaga Namiko-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Sazanami [KK-174])
Ashikaga Shiori-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Ushio [KK-175])
The ship prefix Tennō Heika Gunkan means "Warship of His Majesty The Heavenly Sovereign" and is abbreviated THG in Latin script; in the universe of my stories, this prefix is used no matter which armed service the ship belongs to. The Imperial Navy's official title is Dai-Nihon Teikoku Kaigun (literally "Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire"), abbreviated DNTK; their counterparts in the ground services are the Dai-Nihon Teikoku Rikugun ("Army of the Greater Japanese Empire"), abbreviated DNTR. Hull codes noted here are Japanese terms in lieu of American equivalents: KB — Kōkū Bokan ("Aircraft Carrier"); KJ — Keijun'yōkan ("Light Cruiser"); SRJ — Suiraijun'yōkan ("Torpedo Cruiser"); KK — Kuchikukan ("Destroyer").
Also note that save for Itō Yoiko (THG Yonaga), all shipgirls mentioned above resemble their Kantai Collection interpretations; those girls would also express and act as they've been shown to be like in KanColle. As for the seventh carrier of the Pearl Harbour attack (based on the ubiquitous carrier from Peter Albano's The Seventh Carrier novel series published from 1987-1996), she resembles art I did for her on Pixiv, ID #89349755; her Gifting is shown in Of Gifts and Semblances.
And now from America:
Captain Ellen Naomi Michelle "Mama Cass" Haight-Ashbury, USN (United States Ship Long Beach [CLGN-160, later CGN-9, now CGN-160])
Note that Naomi Haight-Ashbury (USS Long Beach) is based on the same interpretation of her as created by IJNfleetadmiral in his wonderfully funny KanColle fanfic Gaijin Teitoku, which can be seen in the Fanfiction website at entry #11930970. Her physical appearance was based on beautiful art done by Bokuman which can be seen in the Danbooru website at entry #1377452; I tried to replicate same using the Honey Select 3D modelling system as can be seen on Pixiv at entry #89349711. Also note that when she was ordered in 1956, USS Long Beach was classified as a nuclear-powered guided missile light cruiser (hull classification symbol CLGN); that was simplified to nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser (CGN) two years later; her hull number is changed to mark her place on a single unified list of all cruiser-type ships to serve the Land of Liberty.
Tsuruya Rumiko (the Sage) is my name for the unnamed look-alike to Takahashi Rumiko who appeared in many early manga stories of Urusei Yatsura, especially "The Great Off-Campus Snack Battle" (manga chapter #106). Inu Chigaiko (the Unseen Lady) is my own character from The Senior Year; she first appeared in "Darling's Secret Date".
The NOëL series of video games were created by Pioneer LDC before the turn of the millennium as the dating simulation game craze started in Japan. I've always liked these characters even if they didn't get any sort of serious exposure in the wake of such popular games as Tokimeki Memorial, much less Sister Princess. Like I did with other video game characters, I discovered girls like Okano Yuka, Christina "Tina" Nishimura, Shimizu Kaho, Sanokura Emi and Wakura Kotomi when I was teaching English in South Korea between 1996-2005 through art books done on the series. For those who do know of NOëL, events of this story occur after the third game, Mission On The Line; I changed the time of that story to the first year of high school in lieu of third year. Note that Tina's friendship with Jessica Wakefield (Rampage) from Sweet Valley High is my invention.
Background character notes: Yumoa Reigi, Moroboshi Nagaiwakai, Moroboshi Komeru and Emperor Schwartz of Ipraedos are characters from The Senior Year; races such as the Ipraedies, the Seifukusu, the Noukiites, the Niphentaxians and the Avalonians also come from that series. Moroboshi Kyōsuke first appeared in my story The Angles of the Era of Eternity. Kamekichi Tampopo first appeared in my first lemon story, The Galatea Syndrome. Kanzaki Ryūha and Hikawa Shin'ya are characters created by Depechion (now going by the pen-name Delicious Gears) who appeared in follow-on omake to my various shorts at the late Anime Addventure site. The film-replicas who appear at the end of the chapter here like Moroboshi Hiromi first made their appearance in the Yatsura manga story "Love and School Violence" (manga chapter #78). Doctor Death is the battle name of Margo Black, who first appeared in the Sweet Valley High novel The Morning After (novel #95). And Roman Leakee (born Leati Joseph "Joe" Anoa'i) is the pre-2012 ring name for the man known now to WWE fans as Roman Reigns.