Chapter 3
Everything's Going To Be Alright
Alright, before I get started with this, there's one thing I want to say.
After this chapter, I'll be putting this story on hold for at least a month. Maybe as long as half a year if certain things happen. I'm juggling a number of other fanfiction works right now and I'd like to get back to working on those.
With that being said. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope to continue working hard on what I have planned for this story.
"Well, I wish I could say that I'd have done the same thing." Itsuka said after shutting the door to Ataru's room. "But then I'd be lying."
Ataru and Shinobu look at him. "Since when did you become friends with us?" Said Ataru. "Nevermind."
Itsuka continues. "I don't think I need to remind you, but if you lose tomorrow, the whole world's done for!
Do you really wanna go down in history as the man who failed Earth!?"
"You think I haven't been telling myself that!?" Ataru screams back.
"Every… damn… day… It's the same thing! Everything is just… dragging me down! That's probably by the alien's design, too! Get me to break so they'll take over!
I don't stand a chance! I might as well give-"
Shinobu then stood up and interrupted Ataru, taking him off guard.
"Ataru! If you win, I'll marry you!"
Ataru blinks twice while Itsuka takes a step back. What's this that Shinobu's saying? Marriage? As in she'll devote the rest of her life caring for him?
It sounded too good to be true.
After taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Ataru speaks.
"Oh, you're just saying that because you don't want the aliens to win."
"That's not it at all!" Yells Shinobu. "People… People are just not good to each other! I don't want you to have to deal with everybody hating you! Don't you see that I want to help!?"
A thought ran across Ataru's mind. It's one of those reassuring thoughts that practically says 'everything's going to be alright.' He couldn't help but keep thinking of that phrase.
He smiles at his girlfriend. "You really mean that? Alright! Then I'm going to give it my all tomorrow!
Everything's going to be alright! Yeah… Everything's going to be alright."
As they embrace in a tight hug, Itsuka looks down at the floor.
"Ah, young love." He then shows himself out of the house.
Now by himself again, Ataru lays down in his futon in fear of tomorrow.
It turns out he'd only been faking his confidence. In truth, there isn't a time in his life where he felt more frightened. And there have been many frightening times in his seventeen years of life.
The tag game that's coming his way isn't the only thing he has to deal with now. Unfortunately.
"Cowwwwwaaaard!"
He sat up. "Who… who's there!?"
The familiar voice spoke again. "Oh, come on, man. Don't act like that. You knew this was going to happen sooner or later."
Ataru then sees an image of himself right in front of him.
One thing to note is that this isn't a perfect reflection. The image appears a lot more cheerful. Almost to the point where one would label it as 'cartoony.'
"What was it that that red midget said to you last week? Your problems hold your key to victory? Well, if that key was that busty alien babe's bra, I sure had it in my hand…"
His expression then changes to anger. "Until YOU decided to give it back to her! What the fuck were you thinking!? Her horns were right in front of you and you just… sat there like a real pussy!"
Ataru sighs. "It's just as I thought. It was YOU who made me grope her chest! Despicable! Bigoted!"
"I was TRYING to help the planet!" His image argues back. "Something YOU haven't done yet!"
Ataru says nothing else as he laid back down on the futon. Every perverted thought he's ever had. Every suppressed desire to put his hands on any girl he walks by in the streets has now manipulated itself into a version of him that won't go away.
Now he has to listen to him.
"Now here's what's gonna happen tomorrow:
Lum is most likely going to screw up since you giving her bra back would put her in a false sense of security.
When you get close enough to her. I'll snatch her bra again. Then, as she's distracted, I'll give you complete control. You drop it on the ground, and as she picks it up, you grab her horns.
The aliens go home. The Earth is saved. We're labeled the savior of the planet. Bada bing. Bada boom. We get to work on building a harem from the most beautiful women from the Lovers of Ataru Moroboshi fan club that's gonna be showing up!"
In disbelief of what he's hearing, Ataru stands back up.
"Oh, what's there to do if we end up GETTING a harem!? You know damn well it's gonna be a hassle! And what about Shinobu!?"
His image scoffs. "What ABOUT Shinobu!? All she does is hold you back! Every day, she's making you forget who you TRULY are!"
It looks around the room for a bit before speaking again.
"Although, if you're arguing that the thrill we'll have is in the journey, not the destination, I'll agree with you there. How about this instead? You win this game, and we'll pick up right where we left off back in March of 2020! Back before people began DISTANCING themselves from each other!"
He walks closer to Ataru, who's now looking at the floor.
"You know damn well you need me! Look at you. You're pathetic. You've been… wasting all your time on shit that won't even matter.
You can't do this by yourself!"
"URUSAI!" Ataru shouts out as he grabs his guitar that was laying on the floor. He swung it at his image only to find out that it vanished.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
He laid back down and started to rub the sides of his head.
"Everything's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay.
Everything's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay.
Everything's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay."
"Listen to this crowd cheering!
This is the final day, at last!
But, look at Ataru! He shows no willingness to move at all!
Are we supposed to tolerate this 'To Hell with it' attitude?"
"Cowards." That was all Ataru could think to himself. "Like it or not, I'll make you all understand! I'm tired of this damn game! I'm not going to take it anymore!"
Right in front of him, Lum sees that an associate of Ataru, a police officer, is holding up a microphone. Ataru nodded at him and he caught it when it was thrown his way.
"Hey, what's the big idea!?" She shouted at him. "Audience participation is forbidden! Weren't you told that!?"
"Don't worry. This will only take a moment!" Ataru yells back before speaking into the microphone. "Everyone!? Everyone! Can I have your attention please!?"
In his mind, Ataru's perverted half yells at him.
"The hell do you think you're doing!? The people don't give a shit what you have to say!"
Standing in the audience, Shinobu gave Ataru her undivided attention. "Ataru-kun?"
Ataru continues. "I keep hearing you all say the same thing over and over and over again! That it'll be the end of Earth if Oniboshi takes over!"
The crowd began chanting in thousands of different, mashed up voices of opposition. Ataru looks at Itsuka, who nodded at him a second time.
"But I want you all to think for a second what it'll really MEAN for us! What do we as human beings have to look forward to if I DO win this game of tag!?"
He looks straight as a news camera filming the event. He has a message, and there's nothing stopping him from spreading it to both worlds.
"War. Climate change. World hunger. Global food shortages. Global pandemics. Overpopulation. Land, air, and water pollution. Government corruption! The list goes on and on, people! When the King of Oniboshi told me that our planet needed correcting, I was thanking my lucky stars! Okay, here comes a planet whose people know a thing or two about the importance of sustainability! And THEY want to run things here!?
If it were up to me, I'd say go ahead! We're on our way to destroying ourselves if you hadn't shown up!"
From up on the Oniboshi spaceship, the King reclines on his chair as he listens to Ataru's speech.
"Hmm… Well this is a first."
Ataru is now looking at Lum, who at this point is invested in his speech along with everyone else.
"This woman right here, Lum the Invader! Princess of Oniboshi! She's not here to hurt us! If she was going to hurt us, we'd all ALREADY be dead!"
That made Lum gasp a little. Ataru wasn't wrong. The island nation known to the people of Earth as Japan has a lot of volcanoes. It wouldn't take very much from their end. The island as a whole would be entirely decimated in the timespan of less than twenty minutes.
While still deep in her thoughts, she almost hadn't noticed Ataru walking up to her. But he didn't grab her horn with his free hand like she thought. Instead, he grabbed her right hand with his left one. He felt warm. Almost comforting to touch.
"This planet is very fortunate to be in the attention of Planet Oniboshi. And Lum…"
Lum looks right into Ataru's eyes. They're the eyes of someone from an inferior species who would want nothing more than to preserve what they already have in this world. The risk of it all slipping away is a real one.
"You… will lead humankind into a new era. One that won't end with its destruction."
The crowd, who had been silent and went so far to heckle Ataru at times, went on to begin cheering.
It's a bit embarrassing for the both of them. Billions of people from both Earth and Oniboshi looking at the two of them right now. It was as if it was simply meant to be. The two of them together. Love and unity being the way to defeat hate and division.
"Everything is going to be alright." Thought Ataru. It really was the only way to come out on top in the end. Save the Earth by surrendering control over it. Hopefully, Lum's people aren't a bunch of traveling warmongers the whole time possessing over a hundred different recipes on how 'To Serve Man.'
What a twist that would be.
"So what do you think, Lum?" He speaks to her. "I know it's not much, but… Earth is all yours."
He sees her begin to smile, but it doesn't seem like a genuine one.
"Ataru…" He hears her say. "Nobody has ever… willingly given themselves up like that."
What she did next shocked everybody. She took Ataru's hand, and slowly brings it to the top of her head.
"What the hell is she doing!?" Thought Ataru.
"What the hell is she doing!?" Shinobu, Itsuka, and Cherry all thought in unison.
"Well, that's my daughter. I respect her decision." The King of Oniboshi sighs as he stands up. Occupation of a planet isn't the only way of invading. If people weren't stubborn enough, all they really needed was a small push in the right direction.
Before Ataru knew it, his hand is caressing the horn of the alien princess. Cheering from the crowd grew louder. This time, accompanied by confetti.
"OUR GREAT SAVIOR! MOROBOSHI ATARU SAVED THE EARTH
ON ITS FINAL DAY!"
"You're… giving up?" Ataru was at a loss for words.
"Occupation isn't going to be… necessary." Said Lum. "Instead, it's best to keep this planet under surveillance. Make sure to keep everybody in line, you know?"
It was as if a huge weight lifted itself off of Ataru's shoulders. For the first time in a very long time, he felt happy. He had gone through so much and now it's all finally paying off.
It was all short lived, however, as his perverted side spoke up in his mind again.
"Congratulations. You saved the planet in more ways than one. Now let's get to work on establishing that HAREM we're going to have coming our way!"
It acts just like a parasite. Leeching off on him like that. Not allowing him a peaceful state of mind. In a moment of weakness, Ataru tried arguing back in the most subtle and harshest way he can. He remembers Shinobu's words.
"Hehehe. Now I can finally get married."
"Whoa." His perverted side spoke. "Have you… forgotten where you are right now?"
"Huh? What do you… mean…"
It took a second, but Ataru realized what he really meant. He was still facing Lum the Invader and having his hand on her horn.
"Don't panic! Don't panic! This is a quick fix!"
Ataru spoke while fixing his gaze on Lum. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to let that… slip…"
Lum is blushing. He has no idea why, but she is. He just spoke of marriage right in front of her, but she doesn't look at all disgusted like he thinks she might be.
"Oh, so you DO have feelings for me." He hears her say. "Alright, if you insist. I'll marry you."
"Huh?" That was all Ataru managed to say. In his mind, however, it's just as loud as the outside. His perverted side is practically jumping up and down. "OH! OH! OHHHHH!"
"Ataru!"
It was Shinobu. She doesn't look happy. Ataru reaches his hand out to her.
"Shinobu, wait! It didn't mean to! You got me all wrong!"
"Hmph!" She turns around. "And here I thought you changed, Ataru! The pandemic didn't change you at all! You're STILL the hopeless pervert you always were!"
She then began to storm off. "I hope you're happy!"
Ataru wanted to yell out, but he couldn't. She wasn't wrong. "Shinobu…"
At this point, Lum embraced Ataru completely. "Oh, Darling."
He blinks twice. Darling? That's a new one. "Darling?"
Lum looks at him. "On my planet, marriage proposals are sacred. I'll dedicate my life to living with you forever.
And if you cheat on me…"
What happened next is something that Atatu could never have anticipated. It was as if Officer Itsuka convinced three of his officer friends to start tazing Ataru alongside him while he had his back turned. "AAAAHHH!"
Aliens really are something else. You just never know what they're going to do next.
Having lost all the strength to keep standing up, Ataru collapses in Lum's embrace. His head conveniently resting on her breasts. "Oh, you're such a doll." He hears her say.
While he might be in agony right now, his perverted half is feeling the exact opposite.
"Hehehe. Things just got… a whole lot more interesting."
It then retreated into the innermost section of Ataru's mind.
And went right back to sleep.