THE KEY TO VICTORY
a story written by
DELICIOUS GEARS
CHAPTER FOUR: Neighbourhood Threat
It was an unusually quiet Friday morning in Tomobiki.
Aside from the the various students, awake or otherwise, dreading the start of school, everything felt strangely sedated, compared to the days that had gone before. The sky was decidedly lacking in alien saucers or fighters falling out of the sky, hanging above the suburban homes and terrified onlookers.
But this was not to say that it was entirely saucer-free. One certain saucer hung above Tomobiki at that moment, but at an altitude that most people would not have noticed, painted a bright yellow, with black tiger stripes crossing over the top side. And hanging suspended from that saucer was a strange metal dome.
Lum reclined in her pilot chair, occasionally adjusting the navigation controls of her saucer as it descended on Tomobiki-cho. She needed to make sure that everything was right for after school, when she could finally bring her plans to fruition.
She couldn't help but smile at the thought of her Darling's face. She could only imagine how happy she would be when everything finally fell into place, and she got to see just what she could offer her as a token of her love.
Idly, Lum flicked some switches, bringing up a live camera feed of a vacant lot on a certain street on Tomobiki. Around the city, she had placed several camera drones to keep watch, transmitting their feeds directly to her saucer so she could keep watch on her Darling, as well as anything else she needed, while out in space.
She had gone through a lot of trouble with all of this: trying to convince her parents that it was a good idea, finding out the prices of everything she needed, negotiating with both the Japanese government, the Oni invasion authority, and some of the best and brightest estate agents Tokyo had sent out against her.
But now everything was in place. And now, Lum was sure that no other spanners would come flying in and jam themselves into the works.
Lum tweaked a small joystick, and the camera panned across the vacant lot. Some movement from the house beside the lot caught her eye. Quickly, she focused in on the front door of the house.
Lum's eyes widened as she watched a young brunette leave the house. A brunette she knew all too well.
As if on cue, Shinobu Miyake turned to look directly into the camera, a curious look on her face.
"What a strange bird," Shinobu mumbled to herself. "It sure doesn't look like any bird I've ever seen..."
It looked like if somebody had tasked a toymaker to make a crow that was supposed to be lifelike, even though he only had experience making cute little plushies. It might have been a good job, and it might have even been convincing if you stood about twenty, thirty feet away. But as it was, Shinobu couldn't help but notice how odd it looked.
The bird stared down at Shinobu unblinking, and cawed. It was a caw that sounded more like it was simulated from an 8-bit home computer than anything from an actual bird.
Shinobu shuddered deeply, and turned to walk to school as quickly as she could. She knew that Ryuunosuke and Ataru would already be waiting for her there.
Ryuunosuke groaned as she pulled herself out of her futon. Lum was absent the past couple of days, claiming that she had business to attend to on her home planet. That meant that she was once again stuck with just her father to deal with. And already Ryuunosuke could feel it gnawing at her, that feeling of missing somebody, even someone she had only known for less than a month.
After the incident with Rei, the school had decided that Ryuunosuke and her father would be moved to stay in one of the unused classrooms while school was out. At least then, the school had figured, there would be less capacity for chaos that would wreck school properly.
Of course, Ryuunosuke thought that the school board had obviously not known her father well enough to come to such a conclusion. If there was anyone in the school the most capable of such trouble, besides Moroboshi and maybe Lum, it was her old man.
Ryuunosuke settled herself at the breakfast table, already set with a heaped bowl of rice, along with miso soup and some grilled fish, and started eating. But even as she shovelled in the rice, she couldn't help but feel that something was off.
It didn't take long for her to realise what was wrong: her father was sitting opposite her, perfectly still. He wasn't trying to steal her fish, or even eat his share. He was just sitting there, staring at her.
That was enough for Ryuunosuke to go on alert: her father acting passive was a sure sign that he was up to something.
"Aren't you going to have some more miso soup, Ryuunosuke?" Her father asked, in as kindly a tone as he could manage.
The sight of her father trying to act nice made Ryuunosuke step up to red alert. Now she was absolutely sure that the old man was up to something. If she only knew what it was...
Ryuunosuke put her bowl and chopsticks down quickly. "Nah, think I had enough." She pushed the crockery away, even though the bowl was still half-full of soup.
"I've gone to a lot of trouble today, you know!" Mr. Fujinami said. "I cooked you breakfast, I woke you up, I fixed your uniform..."
Ryuunosuke blinked. "Wait, you did what to my uniform?"
"I fixed it!" Mr. Fujinami repeated. "I fixed it up for you, especially for today!" He half rose from the floor as Ryuunosuke started tearing at her shirt. "What are you...?"
But Ryuunosuke had already grabbed her uniform shirt to see exactly what her father had fixed. Printed on the back of the white shirt was the kanji 男 ("man"), in a big blocky font.
Mr. Fujinami was already on his feet. "I worked through the night to do that shirt! The least you could do is wear it!"
Ryuunosuke quickly rose to her feet, throwing the shirt to the ground. "Like hell I will! How many times am I gonna tell you I'm a girl before you finally get it through your thick skull!" She raised her fists, ready to fight...
...and in the next moment, her body completely went numb, like all sense of feeling had left her body. Her arms and legs went loose, feeling heavier, like they were made of lead. She toppled to the ground, barely able to move.
"I thought you might be so ungrateful," Mr. Fujinami said. "That's why I put paralysis power into your miso soup this morning." He picked up the fallen shirt, holding it out in front of him. "Now are you going to show gratitude, or are we doing this the hard way?"
Shinobu quietly approached the door to the classroom that the Fujinamis called home. There was still five minutes before class started, and neither Ryuunosuke or Lum seemed to be anywhere in sight. It was starting to fill Shinobu with a not too small amount of concern.
Shinobu tapped nervously on the classroom door. "Ryuunosuke-kun! Ryuunosuke-kun! Are you ready to go?"
Shinobu's question was answered by a body suddenly crashing through the window, slamming hard into the wall. Shinobu shrieked, pressing herself against the door, squeezing her eyes shut. She turned to see the crumpled body of Ryuunosuke, half wearing a rumpled uniform, getting shakily to her feet.
The classroom door opened, and Ryuunosuke's father, his face bruised purple, charged out, tossing a school bag nearly at Ryuunosuke's face. "I'm going to teach you a lesson, boy!" But he barely managed to get two steps out before Shinobu slammed in between the door and the frame.
"Teach her a lesson in what?!" Shinobu said, pressing the door against Mr. Fujinami's neck. "What did you do to her?"
"Let go of the door, you ugly sow!" Mr. Fujinami choked out, trying to push the door back. "I'm trying to teach my son some manners!"
Shinobu's eyes hardened, and she yanked the door back, before sliding it forward to Mr. Fujinami smack in the face. And as the old man clutched at his face, she turned towards Ryuunosuke, who had now grabbed her school bag and was walking shakily down the hall.
"Ryuunosuke!" Shinobu quickly ran up beside Ryuunosuke. "Are you alright? What did that ugly old man do to you?"
"Nothing," Ryuunosuke replied. "Just leave me alone." She took several more wobbly steps, before she fell on her face once more. Her entire body felt like jelly and lead mixed together, both extremely soft and weak, but also heavy and stiff.
"You can't even walk," Shinobu said quietly, kneeling down next to Ryuunosuke. "At this rate, you're going to miss the first class." She slid her arms under Ryuunosuke, and lifted her up on her shoulder. "Come on, I'll carry you to class."
"S-Shinobu?" Ryuunosuke's eyes widened as Shinobu grabbed her school bag, and carried her down the hall towards the classroom. "You can't do this! People are gonna see!"
"Then let them see," Shinobu replied, power-walking along. "Who are they gonna believe? A sweet girl like me, or a horrible old man like him?" She gave Ryuunosuke a smile. "Besides, you look like you're in need of some help right now."
Ryuunosuke's face creased, words of protest forming on her tongue. But those words quickly dissolved away as she looked at the gentle smile on Shinobu's face. Instead, she hung her head, resting her cheek on Shinobu's strong back.
Shinobu managed to awkwardly slide open the door to class 2-4, and carry Ryuunosuke over to her desk, settling her in her chair. Thankfully, Ryuunosuke managed to get enough of her strength back to be able to sit somewhat upright, arms braced against the desk.
Shinobu glanced down, and noticed the large black kanji on Ryuunosuke's back. "What is that?" She frowned as she traced the kanji with her eyes. "That definitely doesn't look like it conforms to the school uniform code..."
"My old man put it there," Ryuunosuke replied. "Said he spent all night doing it. That's why he poisoned my breakfast, too." She pushed herself back up so she could look at Shinobu. "So I wouldn't be able to put up a fight."
Shinobu blinked several times. Then her frown deepened. "Why that lowly piece of scum..." She gripped the top of Ryuunosuke's desk, the wood creaking under her fingers. "I'm not going to let that man get away with doing things like that to you!"
"I'm the one who has to live with all of that," Ryuunosuke murmured, nervously looking down at the cracks forming on the top of her desk. "One day, I'm gonna beat that old fart once and for all. And then I could be free to be myself..."
Shinobu was about to ask, but the classroom door slid open once more, and a voice called out, "Darling! I'm back!" Instead, Shinobu backed away as Lum floated over, a big smile on her face.
"I've got something to show you," Lum said as she fluttered over the desk. "I think you're going to love it!" Then her smile faded as she actually looked at Ryuunosuke, and noticed her bruised face. "What happened to you? What's that weird kanji on your back?"
Quickly, Shinobu explained what she saw that morning, with Ryuunosuke adding in details. And when they were finished, Lum's face turned an interesting shade of red, her eyes flashing electric blue.
"He did what?!" Lum swooped down closer to Ryuunosuke, crackling with electricity. "That's horrible! I'm going to make that old man pay for what he did to you!" She landed hard on the desktop, glaring down at Ryuunosuke. "What kind of father would dare to do something so cruel to his daughter?!"
"The hell should I know?" Ryuunosuke asked. "I've been living with him the past sixteen years, and I still can't figure him out..."
Lum's face softened. "Don't worry, Darling. After school today, you won't have to worry about dealing with your father anymore." She slid off the desk to land in Ryuunosuke's lap. "Didn't I say that I would take care of you, Darling?"
Ryuunosuke grimaced, trying to push Lum away. "Yeah, I know, but what's that got to do with my old man?" Her grimace deepened when she noticed the scandalised expression on Shinobu's face.
Lum just smiled mysteriously. "Just wait and see, Darling..."
Sometime before lunch, the last effects of the paralysis potion wore off, leaving Ryuunosuke with only slight traces of weakness in her limbs. For the sake of safety, Lum also trashed Ryuunosuke's bento, made by her father, and brought some breads from the school cafeteria.
By the end of the school day, Ryuunosuke was back to her normal self. And she was gripped by the promise that Lum said very little about all day. She was itching to know what Lum had been planning, and how it would help deal with her father.
But Lum just grinned and took Ryuunosuke's hand, dragging her to her feet. "It's better if I show you, Darling." She looked over Ryuunosuke's head at Shinobu. "I guess Shinobu could come too, since it's right next to her house."
Shinobu blanched at Lum's smirk. "What do you mean, it's right next to my house?" She stepped forward, her face creasing with anger. "What have you done to my house?!"
"Nothing!" Lum said quickly. "Your house is going to be just fine!" She turned to Ryuunosuke quickly. "Come on, Darling! You've got to see this!"
Ryuunosuke sighed, and let Lum drag her out of the classroom and down the hall. Shinobu followed right behind them, a pinched expression on her face. Ataru followed beside her, as he figured that maybe Shinobu would need some support, especially where Lum was involved.
Half an hour later, Ryuunosuke stood outside a vacant lot, sectioned off from the roads with a wooden fence, and having average suburban houses flanking the sides. The lot was mostly empty, without even the construction materials that usually were placed for the sake of storage.
Ryuunosuke looked back at Lum. "Okay then... Where's the surprise?"
Lum just grinned. "It's coming, Darling!" She reached into her book bag, and pulled out a remote control unit with buttons, thumbsticks and a screen. "I just have to make sure everything is calibrated properly, so nothing gets crushed..."
Shinobu stood in the street for a moment, blinking in shock, before she stomped towards Lum, hands clenched. "You better not crush anything!" She pointed to a house right next to the vacant lot. "That's my house right there! If anything in there is crushed, I'll tear you limb from limb!"
Ataru swallowed hard, and dashed over to Shinobu. "Now now, Shinobu, stay calm...!"
Shinobu quickly wheeled on him, glaring at him. "Why?! You're not in danger of having your house destroyed by some idiot alien!"
"Hey!" Lum shouted, "I'm not an idiot!" She looked back down at her remote control, muttering to herself. "It's not my fault that I had to go with the self-delivery..."
Ryuunosuke sighed as Shinobu and Ataru continued to argue, while Lum twiddled at her remote. This wasn't exactly what she imaged spending her time after school. But the sad thing was that it still was better than having to go back to her father.
Ryuunosuke looked towards the sky, wanting to ignore the noise around her. But instead, her eyes caught sight of something strange in the sky: a large, swirling, dark cloud that hung high above, crackling with lightning.
Suddenly, something burst out from the cloud, diving down towards the city below. As it got closer, Ryuunosuke quickly recognised it as Lum's tiger-striped saucer. But there was something attached to the bottom, a large yellow dome that looked to be about as wide, and twice as high as the saucer was, with six large nodules around the rim of the underside, like legs on a beetle.
Ataru caught sight of the descending saucer, and yelped, pointing towards it. "What the hell is that?" Soon, all three were standing dumbstruck, watching the saucer lower itself down to float directly over the vacant lot.
As the saucer slowed down to a complete stop, just ten feet or so above the lot, Lum grinned triumphantly.
"Done it!" she said. "Time to disengage the tractor beam!"
All of a sudden, the large dome was unstuck from the saucer. And a couple of tonnes of sheer bulk slammed down onto the grass, making a tremendous impact that nearly knocked the three youths off their feet, and rattled windows across the neighbourhood.
Lum bounced up and down as the dust settled, leaving the dome standing squat in the middle.
"Darling," she said happily, "welcome to our new home!"
Ryuunosuke gaped at Lum for a long moment, before looking up at the squat metal dome. "This... This is a house?"
Lum nodded back. "This is a basic three-bedroom, plus living room and kitchen, prefabricated domicile, brought straight from my home planet!" She looked at the dome proudly. "Any young person who moves out of their parents' home would get one of these built, and plopped down at the nearest village or town! Dropping your first home is practically the next step to becoming an adult, after getting your own saucer!"
"So basically," Shinobu asked nervously, staring at the domicile, "this is a built to order portable house?"
"Well, yeah." Lum pointed to the nodules at the base of the dome, which turned out to be stilts supporting the structure. "If you don't like the locals, or the locals don't like you, you can attach the thing to your saucer and haul it all elsewhere. It's designed to travel with you." She prodded several buttons on the remote. "I see saucers carrying these things all over the galaxy. Sometimes there's guys who'd just haul 'em all over the galaxy, never staying in one place."
Several ports opened out on the surface of the dome, and what looked like large, thick metal panels floated out. The panels moved around the dome like birds, floating over to the edge of the lot. On their bottom edge, the panels grew long spikes, before shooting down to stick themselves into the grassy edge of the lot, forming a perfect low wall around the edge of the lot.
"I have to admit, it was a lot of trouble getting this far." Lum said while she watched more floating panels fly in and interlock with the others, forming a high wall. "Back home on Oniboshi, you'd just have to convince the people in a community to be able to put your house there. But in Japan, me and Daddy had to sign forms, negotiate with bureaucrats and lawyers, pay a load of fees... It took me ages before we could get this lot. It was such a pain, I didn't even notice that plain old Shinobu was going to be our neighbour!"
Shinobu turned to stare at Lum for a moment, before she started to snarl. "Well excuse me for being plain! And having to live my whole life in a house next to a place you just decided to drop your dome in!" She quickly rounded on Lum. "You might have convinced the Japanese government to let you live here, but you certainly haven't convinced me!"
"Don't worry, Lum." Ataru sidled up next to Lum, an arm around her shoulder. "Shinobu's just upset that you've made so much noise. She's very sensitive about that kind of thing, y'know?"
Lum blinked at Ataru. "Well, it does make sense that Shinobu is kinda sensitive..." She looked at the hand on her shoulder. "But wouldn't this be kind of worse? I mean, you are her girlfriend, right?"
Ataru snickered a little. "Oh, don't worry about that! I'm just branching myself out, that's all. I mean, sometimes one girlfriend just isn't enough!" But his snickers were quickly stopped when Shinobu grabbed him roughly by the face, digging her nails into his skin.
"I can't believe you, you disgusting pervert!" Shinobu shouted, raking her nails across Ataru's face. "You flirtatious scum!" She yanked her arm back, sending Ataru tumbling across the sidewalk away from Lum. "I'll teach you about branching out!"
Lum stepped closer to Ryuunosuke, further away from the unfortunate couple. "Those two have some issues..." Then she looked up at Ryuunosuke hopefully. "Well, what do you think? Now you and me can live together, Darling! And we won't have to worry about that ugly old man trying to ruin your life anymore!"
Ryuunosuke was silent for a moment. She just watched as the dome extended itself, opening out a large door, a small step-ladder folding out. "A home. A real home, away from the old man..." She looked down at Lum, her eyes quivering. "You really mean it?"
Lum nodded once more. "Of course! Didn't I tell you that I wanted to make you happy?" She leapt forward to hug Ryuunosuke tightly around her shoulders. "Now we can be a happy couple together!"
"Not on my watch!"
Ryuunosuke stiffened, and turned around to see her father staring at her. She stepped back, fists raised, ready for a fight.
"Ryuunosuke, this farce has gone on for long enough!" Mr. Fujinami stepped forward, his eyes bulging with anger, nostrils flared. "When that Oni-woman came into your life and proposed marriage, I thought that would be the greatest day of my life! I thought that would've been the day that I would see my son truly become a man among men!"
He raised his hands towards the sky. "I had put aside the rebuilding of the Hamachaya for you, so you could learn to become a real man, worthy of inheriting it! But then that little devil started talking of poisonous things!" He turned to glare at Lum. "Your idiocy, your decadence... In the end, she tried to shut your father out and make you into a woman, just like everyone else!"
"I keep telling you," Ryuunosuke shouted, "I am a woman!" She clenched her fists tightly, raising them up. "I've been doing nothing but letting you jerk me around all my life! You think that I'd wanna be a man like you?"
"I don't care if you don't want to," Mr. Fujinami shouted. "You're going to be a man! Even if I have to beat you into one!"
Lum leapt back as Mr. Fujinami charged forward, lightning dancing all over her body. Ryuunosuke barely noticed the warning signs before the lighting burst forth and struck her father, his body jerking and twitching as the electricity ran through it. In less than ten seconds, the old man was left a charred, smoking pile of limbs.
"You're not touching Darling anymore!" Lum snarled, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I've had enough of you and your stupid little games! Darling is mine, and if you don't like that, then go suck on a crested giant toad!"
She turned around, and swooped down to Ryuunosuke and Shinobu, holding out a pair of gold bands. "Here, take this and head inside. Before that nasty man recovers and tries to stop us!" She raised a hand, showing a silver band with stripes of gold around her wrist. "The house will let you both in!" She turned to look at Mr. Fujinami, and her eyes widened as she saw him already getting to his feet. She turned back to the two girls, a look of panic on her face. "Hurry!"
The two girls immediately took the gold bands from Lum and slipped them around their wrists, then dashed through the open space in the wall. As they got closer, the door in the front of the dome slid open with a hiss of pressurised air escaping. Ryuunosuke all but leapt into the dome, lifting Shinobu up with her, before the door slid back down into place.
Shinobu looked around the spacious room they were currently in: whilst it wasn't as big as her own living room, it was still plenty spacious, large enough for some chairs and couches, a massive TV, and other living room furniture. On her right, the room turned into a kitchen, complete with a floor covered in coral pink vinyl, with counters, a sink, an oven and a hob.
Shinobu almost considered stepping further into the room, but she thought that something was missing. But when she looked down, she noticed what it was: around her feet was a line of gaffer tape, marking a border that Shinobu could only guess was supposed to be Lum's hasty attempt at making a genkan for her home. Dutifully, she slipped her feet out from her shoes, and turned them to face the door, before stepping into the room.
"This is incredible..." Ryuunosuke murmured, leaving her own trainers next to Shinobu's shoes. "And she just brought this whole thing here, under her spaceship..." She went to one of the doors, which automatically slid open, and peered inside. "She's got an actual bathroom in here! With a bath and everything! And there's even a shower!"
Shinobu stepped over to Ryuunosuke. "Well, yes... I mean, it is supposed to be a home, isn't it?" A curious expression crossed her face. "Just how have you been living all your life? At least tell me you use public baths."
"Of course," Ryuunosuke said, stepping back. "It's kind of a pain to use 'em, though. When I go in, I end up having to argue with the attendant 'cause he wants me in the mens' side. And then when I go into the changing room the ladies look at me and start screamin' like I'm some sort of pervert..."
Shinobu frowned at Ryuunosuke. "Of course they'd scream, you look just like a boy!" Her expression quickly softened, though, when she noticed the scowl on Ryuunosuke's face. "I mean, it's hard to not have a knee-jerk reaction with you... Have you tried acting more feminine?"
Ryuunosuke blinked. "What d'ya mean?"
Shinobu settled herself on the couch. "I mean, have you thought about acting more like a girl? In private, where your father can't see you?"
Ryuunosuke made a face. "I tried a couple of times. But then my old man would just show up and smack me out of nowhere. One time, I was at this local bath, and I was kind of checking myself out in the mirror, y'know..." She made a vague gesture towards herself. "Next thing I know, my old man is there, glaring at me like I had taken a crap in the middle of the room or something…"
Shinobu's expression twisted for a moment. "Maybe that's just you worrying too much…"
Ryuunosuke shook her head. "Not when he punched me out. Or some of the ladies there noticed and started screaming…" She noticed the horrified look on Shinobu's face. "Look, I know that guy. It takes a lot more than you think to ever put him down…"
Outside, Lum hovered in the air in front of Mr. Fujinami, her arms crossed imperiously. She glared down at the man, putting on her best fearsome face, the one her mother was incredibly proud of.
"Darling is going to be staying here from now on!" She said, with as much authority as she could muster. "I don't care if you think she's going to end up being unmanly, or unworthy, or wha'tcha think else might happen! I'm not going to give her back to the likes of you!"
"You'll be making a huge mistake, demon woman!" Mr. Fujinami said, bringing himself up to his full height. "I have poured my own blood, sweat and tears into raising Ryuunosuke into a man among men, and I am not letting some ugly little harpy take him away because their weak womanly sensibilities are offended by the path of true manliness!"
"Oh yeah," Ataru said, smirking. "That's rich coming from the man who's gotten the crap beat out of him by two women..."
Mr. Fujinami glared at Ataru. "That demon over there isn't worthy to be called a woman! And neither is that ugly warthog that you play kissy face with! They might as well be men, if only they'd think it offensive!"
Ataru scowled at Mr. Fujinami. "So they might as well be men? Isn't that a good thing? If you're always talking about the path of manliness..."
Mr. Fujinami stared at Ataru for a long moment. "What? No!" Then he paused, mulled over the conversation... Then scowled even further. "Stop twisting my words, you!" He quickly turned away from Ataru, towards the house. "You're just wasting my time, when I can go in and just get my son back."
Mr. Fujinami marched over to the opening of the wall, his steely eyes set on the house beyond. But as soon as his body passed through the gap in the wall, several hundred volts of lightning suddenly burst out, electrocuting him.
As Mr. Fujinami jerkily danced back from the wall, Lum quickly went to Ataru's side and clipped another gold band to his wrist. "Here! Now you can come in too!" Ataru barely had time to examine his new wristband before Lum slid her arms underneath his, and lifted him off his feet.
The two flew over the wall, landing on the front step of the house, just as Mr. Fujinami rose back up and charged towards the opening once more. Lum wrinkled her nose, not even looking at the resulting flash of high-voltage electricity and screams of pain.
Instead, she floated her way inside the house, behind Ataru, who dumped his sneakers in the gaffer taped genkan before making his way over to a large couch and sitting himself down. As she saw Ryuunosuke talking with Shinobu, a smile quickly spread across her face.
"Darling!"
Ryuunosuke looked up as Lum dove in, hugging her tightly. "Lum! You made it!" She hugged Lum back awkwardly, then looked past her shoulder towards the door. "What did you do about the old man?"
"He's been taken care of," Lum replied. "Those wristbands I gave you are the keys into the house." She raised her hand once more, showing off the silvery tiger-stripe bracelet around her wrist. "I have the master key, and you all have copies. You'll need them to even get through the force-field covering the entryway, which your daddy is probably finding out now."
Ryuunosuke stared at Lum in surprise. "You mean that he's still out there?"
Lum pushed off of Ryuunosuke to float over to a control panel set in the wall. After pressing some switches, the large screen opposite the couch suddenly came to life, showing a picture of what was going on outside. Ryuunosuke found herself getting a great view of her father trying to claw his way through the front "gate", despite the electricity that kept coursing through him.
Ryuunosuke, Shinobu and Ataru all gaped in shock as they watched Mr. Fujinami get launched back against the wall of the house opposite. And then, in the space of minutes, he would get to his feet, and charge headlong in the force-field once more.
"I don't know if he's gotten a clue yet or not," Lum said idly, watching Mr. Fujinami get shocked and thrown backwards once more. "Most people usually take the hint by now. But he doesn't even want think about giving up..."
"Sounds like my old man alright," Ryuunosuke said quietly. "I don't think givin' up is in his vocabulary." She winced as the blackened and charred form of her father was thrown into the far wall once more. "Especially when I'm involved."
"Maybe the police would be here, sooner or later." Shinobu worried a handkerchief between her fingers as she watched the gruesome show. "They have to put a stop to this already, because this is just getting sad."
"Yeah," Ataru said, a frown on his face. "Usually something like this would be funny if it went on long enough. But I dunno if this was ever that funny in the first place." He paused as Mr. Fujinami fruitlessly charged once more. "Well, maybe it is getting funnier right now."
Shinobu just shook her head. "No, this still isn't funny..."
"Come on," Ataru replied, "where is your sense of humour?"
Shinobu turned to glare at Ataru. "It ditched me on the side of the road for someone with bigger boobs. What do you have to say about that?"
Ryuunosuke groaned, putting a hand over her face. "You guys..." She looked over at Lum. "Can't we just get rid of him? I mean, he is here because of me..."
Lum stared at Ryuunosuke. "After all that he's done to you? I wanted to see him get fried for the longest time." She sidled in a little. "After all this time, you don't think he deserves to suffer a little bit?" She reached out and caressed Ryuunosuke's hair gently. "Darling, don't tell me you're feeling sorry for him!"
Shinobu gave Lum a strange look. "Of course she's feeling sorry for him. He raised her for most of her life! You can't just elbow your way in and smack him down, no matter how much he might deserve it!"
Lum made a face at Shinobu. "I know better than you! I'm the one sleeping with Darling every night!"
Shinobu and Ataru simultaneously dropped their jaws.
Ryuunosuke's eyes bulged out. "Uh, Lum?" She sidled away from Lum slightly. "Phrasing?"
Lum peered back at Ryuunosuke. "What's the problem? You weren't complaining the last time we shared a bed..."
Shinobu let her mouth snap closed, before she loomed over Lum. "When you came down to this planet, did you take lessons on how to be such a rude bitch, or are you just naturally like that?"
Lum glared frostily at Shinobu. "Even if I took a class, I'd probably wouldn't even do it as good as you!"
Ryuunosuke shrank back across the couch, sweat running down the back of her neck. After years of being raised by her father, she could always tell when a fight was about to break out. She could already see it in Lum and Shinobu's eyes.
At that moment, Ryuunosuke let her guarded thoughts slip, letting loose the worst possible kind of thought in her mind: that the moment couldn't possibly get any worse.
And then several loud bangs reverberated throughout the home.
The four youths turned to look towards the front door, which was already sliding open, revealing the crispy-burnt form of Mr. Fujinami, standing there with murder in his eyes.
Lum gaped in disbelief as Mr. Fujinami stepped further into the room. "How did you manage to get through the lightning field? That thing was made to stop an extra-large tiger cow in its tracks!"
"No amount of alien technology will destroy the love a father has for his son! Not to mention that it didn't extend over the walls of the house, either!"
Lum gaped at Mr. Fujinami for a second, before she buried her face in her hands. "Oh, I just knew I should've gone with the premium security package!"
Mr. Fujinami turned to look at Ryuunosuke. "Now come along, Ryuunosuke! We're going home! Away from this horrible creature!"
Ryuunosuke looked down at Lum for a long moment. Lum looked up at her with wide eyes, big and blue; unquestioning and unwavering, full of love. It was like the kind of face every girl she knew, every girl who liked her, had.
She wound an arm around Lum's waist and pulled her close, and looked her father dead in his eye.
"I am home," she said.
Lum's eyes widened, and she started to smile. "Darling…"
Mr. Fujinami's face went bright purple. "You're coming home with me, even if I have to break every bone in your body!" He crouched down, arms out, ready for a brawl. "This is your last chance, boy!"
Ataru shrank back behind Shinobu. "Is this really what a father's love supposed to be?!"
Ryuunosuke got to her feet, Lum clinging to her side. "I ain't going. This is my home." She formed a fist with her hand, clenching it tightly. "And for the last time, I'm a girl!"
Mr. Fujinami crouched for a long moment, the purple in his face getting deeper. Then he leapt forwards screaming, launching himself into a flying kick. But he barely managed to reach Ryuunosuke before a large plastic tube shot out of a wall and sucked him inside.
Everyone stared as Mr. Fujinami disappeared down the tube, before the tube itself retreated into a panel in the wall, and promptly closed. For a moment, the room was still and silent, as almost everyone was at a loss as to what had just happened.
Then Lum sighed with relief, sagging against Ryuunosuke. "Well, at least the garbage disposal is working like it should..." She wrapped her arms around Ryuunosuke's side, nuzzling against her. "Now Darling is safe..."
Shinobu looked at the panel that the tube came out of, before turning to Lum. "Um, where does that tube go? How do you dispose of garbage?"
Lum paused, a look of fear crossing her face. "To the disintegration chamber..." Then she looked up at Shinobu, waving her hands. "It should be okay! The disintergrator won't work on organic living tissue!" Her expression strained slightly. "I... I think it won't..."
Ataru just stared wordlessly at the wall.
Shinobu went slightly green. "So there's still the possibility that he might be dead?"
Lum quickly went over to the wall. "It's not that big, honestly! Look, I bet he could hear me in there!" She rapped her knuckles on the side of the wall beneath the panel, making a few metallic taps.
After a few minutes, a loud bang came from beyond the wall.
Lum turned to look at Shinobu, a grin on her face. "See! He's not dead!"
"Oh, well, good." Shinobu said, as if she had finally found her door key. "But what do we do with him? We can't let him out again, after all this!"
"Oh, I can take care of that!" Lum prodded the wall panel, which slid up to reveal a series of buttons and lights. She pressed a short sequence of buttons, and waited quietly as a low thrum rose up.
Behind the wall, several more loud bangs came from beyond the wall. As the thrum rose higher, the bangs came louder and faster. And then, as the thrum reached a crescendo, the banging was replaced with a loud thump, before the room was silent once more.
Shinobu stared at Lum. "Did you just disintergrate him?"
Lum frowned at Shinobu. "No! I just activated a warp portal in the garbage disposal, and sent him to another planet!" She grinned as she slid the panel back into place. "Now he'll be someone else's problem!"
Ataru gave Lum a funny look. "You sure he's not gonna end up suffocating on Mars or somewhere?"
"Of course!" Lum replied. "I made sure to select a planet that supports human life! If he sees sense, he could probably survive out there for a while..." She looked over at Ryuunosuke, her eyes softening. "Are you alright now, Darling?"
Ryuunosuke was silent for a moment. She walked over to the couch, and sat down heavily, hunched forward. She was still silent as she sat there, but everyone around her could notice the tears in her eyes.
Ataru quickly sat beside Ryuunosuke, putting an arm around her. "It's alright, Ryuu-chan. He won't hurt you any more..." He then squawked as Ryuunosuke uppercutted him, sending him tumbling to the floor.
Shinobu grabbed Ataru and dragged him back across the floor. "This is why I don't leave you to your own devices!"
Lum just gave Ataru and Shinobu an odd look, before soundlessly floating up to wrap her arms around Ryuunosuke's shoulders. "It's okay, Darling. Your father's too much of a bastard to die that easily..." She kissed Ryuunosuke's cheek gently. "But he won't hurt you anymore. I made sure of that."
Ryuunosuke didn't say anything. She just wrapped her arms around Lum and pulled her into her lap. As Lum settled in, Ryuunosuke tried her best not to break down into a sobbing mess.
Ataru quickly slipped out of Shinobu's grip, and hugged Ryuunosuke and Lum, settling into the couch next to them. And Shinobu, ever frustrated, tried to run back and yank him out, only for Lum to pull her into the hug as well.
Lum smiled down at Shinobu's look of confusion, and put her finger to her lips. She settled herself against Ryuunosuke, head under her chin, and closed her eyes in bliss.
Now she and her Darling were truly home.
to be continued
NOTES:
I figured I could do with adding another episode to this series. As easy it would be for me to just do the UY series with Ryuunosuke pasted into Ataru's place, I thought it would be better for both me and my readers to go ahead and diverge a little more.
Also notable, I think this might be the last chapter for now where Ryuunosuke's father is a major antagonist. He'll pop-up in the next episode, but after that I'm pushing him to the background. This is mostly because I think that just leaning on the old man is already getting old for me, and I got a lot of other UY characters I think it would be fun for Ryuunosuke to interact with.
So brace yourself for the next installment of this, coming out whenever, but most definitely featuring a certain ice princess...