Act 2, Chapter 10 - Old Friends, New Memories (Part 4)
Chika and her friends couldn't believe it. Febrie is Articho's daughter?! But wait! Maybe this little girl's adopted! That can't be too bad, right? Right? Riiight??
"I know what you're thinking." He says before they start speculating. "You're asking yourselves, 'Is this cute 7-year-old girl - blond and purple eyes - adopted?' Spoiler Alert! She's not. My daughter's the real deal. And it's all on this piece of paper. Three years ago."
Articho shows the former school idols the DNA test results - all printed in fine black ink, holding it up in his left hand while holding his daughter on his shoulders with his right hand. Dia instantly snatches the paper and reads it down to the last detail carefully. And then, her turquoise eyes widened as the results became more clearer.
"He's telling the truth." Dia confirms her friends, her own voice shaking in disbelief. "She really is his daughter."
Mari opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything as tears formed in her eyes all of a sudden. Luckily, Articho didn't notice or sense her overwhelming feelings. But she didn't care. She felt that her own heart was betrayed. Shattered.
"So we really were gone for so long." Kanan realized. "But... how are you still the same?"
"Can you be a little more specific?" He asks, not understanding the question.
"Papa." Febrie said, getting her father's attention, before whispering into his ear.
"AH, right." The 18-year-old nods in agreement.
"Is something wrong?" Yō asks.
"I'll explain everything to you." Articho began, before his stomach started growling. "Right after we eat."
The girls' then growled soon after, making all ten of them blush in embarrassment.
"Sorry for leaving you like that, girls." Kinuho apologizes as she appears, approaching them, her husband, and stepdaughter. "I hope Febrie found the right clothes that suit you all."
"Mmm." The little girl nods.
"Took your sweet time, I see." Articho smirks, setting his daughter back down.
"Well you were the one to take me to high heaven just a moment ago." His light chestnut haired wife smirks back.
Chika and her friends all gasped and awed at what Kinuho has changed out into.
She is wearing a multi-colored knee-length semi-ballooned dress, with a pattern of flowers, paired with nude peep toe platform pumps to show her beautiful nails. She was gorgeous. Especially with that retro-themed magenta belt around the waist of her dress. This girl's got style.
"Well, this dress sure brings back memories." The Pathfinder points out, smoothly feeling the fabric of his wife's skirt as he touches it. "Haven't seen you wear it since New York."
"Shiny!" Mari beams happily.
"It seems I've made a fan." Kinuho whispers to her husband.
"And I thought my fans were this crazy." He mutters to himself.
"That's because most of them are your wives and want your babies." She continues whispering. "Myself included."
"I-I love your dress." Ruby shyly compliments. "You have so many colors on it."
"Why does your skirt have layers underneath?" Leah questions curiously. "Is it something you're trying to hide?"
"Nothing like that." Kinuho shakes her head. "My skirt's semi-ballooned."
"Semi-ballooned?" The other girls except for Mari tilted their heads, piquing their interests more.
"Could you elaborate?" Hanamaru politely asks.
"Certainly." The French American heiress agrees, doing a little twirl. "Basically, this dress has the hem goes at regular intervals creating a puffy, voluminous and balloon like shape."
"I've never heard of a dress with that kind of skirt before." Riko admits. "Are there any benefits in wearing one?"
"Of course." She nods before gesturing her head at the Pathfinder. "Articho, demonstrate please."
"Huh?" He questions, confused. "Demonstrate what?"
"Why, my dress is so important, silly." Kinuho smirked, placing her hands on her hips.
She then grabs her husband's hands and places them on her dress's semi-ballooned skirt. Febrie sees this as a warning sign, and turns around to look away from what's about to come.
"Here. We. GO!" The light chestnut haired woman declared.
She then uses her husband's hands to lift up her skirt and its layers, catching both the former school idols and the Pathfinder off-guard.
"Wha-" Chika started to say, as her brain was slow to process what she's seeing.
"Don't look!" Riko panics, violently covering Chika's eyes.
"Hey!" The coral orange haired girl exclaims, struggling to get her friend's hands off of her eyes. "I can't see, Riko!"
Dia, on the other hand, simply covers her younger sister's eyes without any trouble as Ruby was so calm about her older sister's action. But at the same time, was blushing deeply.
"Was that really necessary?!" Kanan angrily questions, her face blushing a deep red as well. "And in front of a boy, for damn sake!"
Hanamaru, Yoshiko, and Leah, however, literally went up close to Kinuho as they were more and more intrigued with the teal-colored layers of her dress's semi-ballooned skirt that's underneath.
"It's beautiful, zura." Hanamaru awed.
"Color me impressed." Yoshiko nods, her eyes fixated on the skirt layers. "Is this supposed to be like the next generation of semi-ballooned skirts?"
"That's because I made it for her." Articho answers, failing to hide his blushing face yet again. "Custom-tailored. Not even on the market."
"Whoa." Yō smiled. "Your sewing skills improved since the last time we saw you."
"Huh." He says curiously at their reactions. "Interesting. I may not remember you ladies, but it's pretty obvious that my gut is telling me otherwise for some strange reason."
Hearing those words eased the hearts of the young women.
Suddenly, Kinuho locks lips with her husband. Right in front of their (his) newfound (old) friends. Febrie started giggling from this show of affection. The older girls, however, had different reactions on their faces.
"Holy shit!" Yō exclaims. "She kissed the lips that kissed me!"
"That what's bothers you?!" Kanan shouted loudly in disbelief.
"I-I don't know what to say." Chika says, speechless at the sight that then escalates into French kissing.
"Me neither." Mari shook her head. "But I can't contain myself any longer."
Mari just couldn't believe it. Articho and Kinuho are literally making out before her very own eyes. She felt insulted. And they were making kissing noises, for fuck sakes. Eventually, her top exploded like a volcano.
"Mari?" Kanan asks, noticing signs of negative feelings her close friend's giving off. "You okay?"
Mari snaps out of her own envy and gives Kanan an assured smile.
"I'm alright." She lies with a fake smile.
The midnight blue haired girl simply shrugged her shoulders while everyone else continues to watch the married couple passionately smooch. Eventually, Kinuho pulled away from Articho with a trail of their connected spit was shown.
She then used her wrist to wip her mouth.
"Delicious." Kinuho purrs.
"Honey, not in front of them." Articho groans in annoyance.
"Honey?!" The former school idols exclaimed in confusion again.
"Let them look." The French American girl says to her husband, picking her stepdaughter up.
"Um, how old are you both exactly? Kanan nervously questions.
"18/16." Both Articho and Kinuho answered in unison.
"But Febrie's seven." Mari pointed out.
"Academy City." Was Articho's explanation. "Anything's possible if you know where to look."
"That's not even an answer." Dia frowns.
"Complain all you want." He rolls his eyes, as he walks to the dining room. "You're smart enough to figure out the pieces on your own. I'm not holding anyone's hand."
"That's kinda rude, Papa." His daughter deadpans.
"Sorry, kiddo." He shrugs without looking back at her. "Not exactly a fan of repeating myself, ya know?"
"We know." Kinuho and Febrie blankly responded.
After reaching the dining room table, the Pathfinder was met by his first wife as she kissed him on the lips as well. She then pulls away and smiles at him.
"I know, I know." Articho sighs. "Love you too, Arisa."
"You smell like sex, by the way." Arisa whispers to him.
"I always wash myself twice." He frowns.
"Oh!" She notices the former school idols before walking up to them. "You must be the girls that he's brought home. Arisa Meigo, at your servitude."
Mari was the first one to shake hands with the pink haired young woman.
"It's nice to meet you, Arisa." Mari greets. "I hope we can get along."
Beneath her cheery façade, however, Mari mentally frowns. Meanwhile, Kinuho went over and started helping Maaya place the breakfast food on the table.
"It's about time you got here." Maaya quips, walking over to the husband that her childhood friends all share together.
"Wow, Maaya!" Chika awes. "That's a simple summer dress you've got on you."
"Oh, thank you." The indigo haired girl giggles before showcasing her wedges that match her dress's light blue color. "It's my favorite."
"Hold the phone!" Yō gasps in realization. "You look exactly like Tifa Lockhart!"
"She is 5' 3" like Arisa after all." Articho smirks.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Maaya and Arisa question suspiciously.
"It was a compliment." He chuckles. "Kinuho's only five feet and zero inches. Oh! And you too, Hanamaru."
"Zura?" The brown haired girl was blushing hard. "Then that means she and I are the shortest girls here."
"Oh come on, it's not THAT bad." Articho snorts. "And ya know what they say? Size matters not."
"Thank you, Master Yoda." His wives rolled their eyes.
"Alright, everyone." Kinuho informs, sitting in her seat at one of the dining tables in the room. "Who's still up for some breakfast?"
Juliet opens her mouth, before Febrie fed her some applesauce.
"There you go." Febrie happily grins with her eyes shut.
The red haired girl coos happily at her older half-sister.
"Wow. She's so cute." Ruby gushes at Arisa's 3-year-old daughter while holding a fork in her hand. "Right, Dia?"
Dia wasn't listening to her younger sister as she was trying to process the pieces of the puzzle regarding Febrie's age, while eating her own breakfast on her plate.
"This is really tasty, Maaya." Riko compliments, smiling down at her own plate before taking another bite from her bacon and eggs.
"I appreciate the compliment." The Shinobi princess smiles. "I'm quite the wiz in the kitchen."
"Among other things." Her husband whispers. "But she sure knows how to make someone satisfied."
"Artichooo." She whines.
"Tell me something." Dia speaks up while her friends are eating their breakfast. "In what relationship are you three with this man?"
"THAT is a long and awesome story." Arisa sheepishly grins. "One in which we don't have the time to explain right now."
"Arisa's right." Articho agrees with his first wife. "All three of us need to meet up with someone after breakfast. You guys are coming with us. SHE will want to meet the people we found beneath Fuji."
"She?"
"Doctor Kuriba."
"And who's that?"
"A brilliant scientist." He explains. "Her intellect rivals mine, to be honest. Excels at chemistry, engineering, quantum physics, pharmacology, biology, genetics, and so on."
"The Pathfinder is correct." A synthesized female voice acknowledges, surprising the former school idols.
"Whoa!" Yoshiko exclaims. "Okay, what the hell was that?!"
"Don't tell me this penthouse is haunted!" Yō dramatically gasps, scaring Chika, Riko, Hanamaru, Yoshiko, and Ruby.
"Good lord, now I'm starting to understand how and why I'm friends with these weirdos." Articho mutters, getting a little more annoyed with their teenage drama.
"Friends?" Arisa questions her husband, getting suspicious.
"Kinuho, Maaya." He requests, earning a nod from them as they explain to her about the flashing images in his head he experienced earlier.
"OHHHH." The reincarnated Supreme Kai of Time understands now. "I'll see what I can do about it later."
Suddenly, a holographic image of Doppelganger appeared right on the table.
"Greetings." She says. "I am Doppelganger."
"Um... hi." Chika awkwardly greets.
"A Familiar, zura." Hanamaru awes.
"She looks like a sphere." Riko mutters before asking the AI. "What are you?"
"I am an artificial intelligence." The AI answers. "The world's first fully-functional one, to be precise."
"An AI." Dia realizes.
"That is correct, Miss Kurosawa." She confirms.
"You know who I am?" She questions.
"Yes." The AI answers. "Dia Kurosawa, former freshman student at Tokyo University."
"Former?!" The black haired girl gasped.
"We've been gone for almost a decade, remember?" Kanan reminds her with a deadpan expression.
"Oh right, I forgot." Dia facepalms at her own idiocy.
"Unbelievable." The midnight blue haired girl sighs, arms crossed.
"So she has access to Dia's sealed records." Yō deduced. "That would mean she has access to ours, too."
"I was built by my creator Doctor Kuriba." Doppelganger briefly explains her own origins. "Using Academy City's advanced technology, as well as her own, I was constructed from a cloned tissue sample of her brain. A clone of Doctor Kuriba if you would."
"Yeah, and it took me almost three years to get you out of the Doc's head." Articho frowns. "Such a chore."
"And I'm grateful for that." She dryly remarked. "Having two consciousnesses in one body is tiresome and has limited my full capabilities as an AI."
"No one cares, Skynet." He rolls his eyes.
"So you're an AI from like… Halo." Mari guesses.
"That would be an understatement, Miss Ohara." Doppelganger deadpans.
"Hey." Chika speaks up. "Do you by any chance know if our families are still around and where they are now since Uchiura is out of business?"
"One moment." The AI says, accessing Japan's citizen database before responding back. "I have several results for your question."
"Let's hear it then." Riko shrugs.
Doppelganger's holographic image is replaced with a holographic map of Academy City with several different locations marked as red dots in regards to each of their families' current whereabouts.
"Say, isn't that where Mikoto and the others go to in our middle school freshmen days?" Articho questions. "You three weren't there, but I did hang out with them to help out a couple of old friends."
"Sure brings back a lot of memories." Arisa giggles. "From what my sister recalls, Haruue and Banri were still trying to get settled in their new dorm together as roommates."
"Last I heard, they've recently moved out of Academy City to enroll at some all-girls high school called Otonokizaka." He shrugs. "Sure miss them."
"Did you say Otonokizaka?" Riko questions.
"Yeah, why?" He questions back.
"I used to be a freshman student there." She reveals. "Of course, you don't remember."
"Arisa, can you make sense of these damn images in my head?" Articho sighs in annoyance. "I hate being left in the dark here."
"Anything for you, my Champion." She complied, planting both her hands on the sides of her husband's head.
"Champion?" Dia and Ruby wondered, looking at Febrie.
"Arisa's apparently the Supreme Kai of Time." Febrie casually reveals. "In this case, she's a literal goddess."
"WAIT, WHAT?!" The former school idols screamed in disbelief, nearly jumping out of their seats at the table.
"That's right." Arisa smugly grins before striking a pose with her fingers. "I am the Supreme Kai of Time, reborn in the body of a mortal."
"More like a bitch to me." Articho whispered, before getting kicked in the balls underneath the table.
Luckily, it didn't faze him. Not one bit.
"Hmm, saw that one coming." His wife admitted, placing her leg down.
Suddenly, their new friends started to bow before Arisa in their seats.
"H-Hey, quit the groveling!" She sweatdrops out of embarrassment. "I'm a goddess, not an omnipotent being!"
Her close friends and husband burst out laughing, including the kids.
"I think you can stop now." Maaya tells the groveling girls. "She's... not exactly a fan of being worshipped like an all-powerful deity, despite her status."
"Very funny." Arisa sarcastically remarks with a deadpan expression.
"Come on, Ari." Articho says, losing his patience with the pink haired girl. "I don't have all morning."
"Okay, hold your horses." The goddess declared. "Now let me see what the damage is."
The Supreme Kai of Time places her hands on the sides of her husband's face again, and both of them close their eyes to form a telepathic link. The former school idols, meanwhile, remained in their seats at the table as they wait patiently.
"Hold on, she's an Esper?"Riko asks Kinuho with a whisper.
"Technically, yes." Kinuho whispers back. "But due to her divine reincarnation, she's immune to the drugs that rewrite a person's neurol waves to use an Esper ability. In other words, she's classified as a Level 0 because of this. As for myself and Maaya, on the other hand, it's kinda hard to explain."
"How so?" The bergundy haired girl further questions, getting more curious.
"About forty percent of the kids and teenagers here in Academy City are direct descendants of a self-proclaimed god since ancient times in Greece, Egypt, and even China." She explains. "He's not referenced anywhere because let's be honest... he's a narcissistic prick who rapes young women to breed a successor for one singular purpose: the complete mass genocide of mortalkind."
"What?!" They gasped, disgusted and angry at this.
"T-That's just downright evil!"Chika exclaims in disbelief and anger.
"Tell me about it." Kinuho rolls her eyes. "Believe me, I know what that's like."
"So what about the other percentage?"Kanan asks.
"Ten percent of the city's population are normally-aged humans that are either Espers or non-Espers." She continues. "And the remaining fifty percent are two different breeds of humanity, much like the one that Maaya, Arisa, and I are a part of."
"And what exactly is that?" Leah questions.
"Do you believe in aliens?" The light chestnut haired girl asks them.
A few minutes later...
"And that should do it." Arisa declared, thrusting her chest up in pride. "Now you might have a slight headache for a moment, but it'll go away eventually."
Articho was about to give his pink haired wife a witty comeback, but chose not to when he felt the headache that she just described to him.
"How're you feeling?" Maaya asks.
"Like I was in hell." The Pathfinder admitted, holding his head. "But I've been through worse than this."
"Like when you accidentally saw Kanan, Dia and I naked at the hotsprings?" Mari whispered into his ear.
"Yeah, exactly." He casually admits.
"You... remember?" She gasps, her yellow-green eyes widened in surprise. "He remembers!"
The other girls, except Arisa, Kinuho, Maaya, Febrie and Juliet, began tearing up with happiness.
"Yeah." He nods his head off to the side.
Suddenly, Mari slaps him across the face.
"Uh-oh." The female Saiyan trio grinned.
"Ow." The Pathfinder says, rubbing his cheek. "I'll admit, I totally deserved that."
"Figlio di puttana." The Italian-American blonde girl frowns. "Not even a proper goodbye to us."
"First of all… Nice hand writing." Articho smiled, sheepishly chuckling. "Secondly… I was busy."
"Busy sleeping with other WOMEN." She snarls. "And why didn't you tell us you're an alien?"
"Classified as an alien, but still a race of humans." He corrects her. "And would you really believe me if I told you?"
"Hmph." She scoffs, crossing her arms. "Big talk from the man who gets to remain in a teenage body for thousands of years."
Articho glares at Kinuho, who sheepishly smiles and shrugs.
'I'll deal with you later.' Was his silent response to her.
"I guess you and your girlfriends get to outlive everyone with a short lifespan after all." Mari grumbles.
"Well, your DNA say otherwise." Articho remarks, as he uses his Omni-tool - out of nowhere - to simultaneously scan the former school idols' genes. "Because my analysis reads that all you ladies are aliens, too. Right under my nose when we first met. Of course, Leah never met me up until this point."
"What?" Mari tilts her head in confusion.
Just before Articho could elaborate, his smartphone's call chime goes off. And just when he wanted to catch up with his old pals. Pulling it out of his pocket, he sees that it's Ryouko's cell number. He rolls his eyes and declines the call.
"Sorry, where was I?" He apologizes. "Oh right. As I was sa-"
His smartphone chimes again, slightly annoying him as he then shuts it off.
"Pathfinder, Doctor Kuriba is persistently calling you." Doppelganger informs. "I am patching her to you now."
"No, please don't answer that-" Articho objects.
But it was too late, as Ryouko's voice is on the line.
"Articho, where are you?" She questions, annoyed.
"Hey, Doc." Articho sheepishly chuckles. "How's it going? Sleep well?"
"Nine hours." She says, unamused. "That's how long I've been trying to reach you. Need I remind you that we have an important schedule to keep?"
"Ah crapbaskets, I'm sorry." He facepalms."I got held up with something."
"Doesn't matter." The scientist sighs. "Just finish up whatever the hell you're doing and get your cute, little ass down on over to Capsule Corp. NOW, Articho."
The call abruptly ends, leaving behind a moment of awkward silence in the dining room. Articho then works on stuffing as much breakfast in his mouth as he can, before jolting out of his chair and makes a break for his room.
Mari and her friends simply blinked their eyes in complete confusion.
"What the fuck just happened?" Leah questions.
"Don't worry. This is normal." Arisa admits.
Articho returns to the dining room with his dark navy blue N7 leather jacket with red accents on and the lightsaber hilt holstered behind his waist horizontally, as well as his modified Carnifex pistol holstered underneath said jacket.
"Kinuho. Maaya. Girls." The 18 year old got everyone's attention. "Let's move."
"Now?" Dia questions in disbelief.
"Apparently." Articho sighs. "But don't worry. We'll make sure your families are doing all right."
"Well, you all have a great time out there." Arisa says.
"You sure you won't come this time?" He asks.
"Articho, I'm a responsible mother now." She answers, picking up her three year old daughter. "Besides, I have Febrie to keep me company."
"It's okay, Papa." Febrie smiles at her father. "Arisa and I will be running errands. You go catch up with your old friends in the meantime."
"Aaaaawwww." The former idols gushed together.
"W-Well, you sure have changed a lot since we last saw you." Dia admits, looking away with her arms crossed.
"You, Kanan, and Mari were my senpais three years ago." He shrugs. "But now that we're the exact same age..."
"Ahem!" Kinuho coughed, slightly annoyed, as one of her eyebrows twitched.
"Anyhow, use the restroom if you need to." The Pathfinder suggests. "I'll be waiting by the door."
"For us, it's only been a decade." She mutters as the boy leaves the dining room.
"If Uchiura's a ghost town, then Articho must know about what happened to Uranohoshi." Chika says.
"I don't think so, Chika." Riko doubts. "He thinks that we saved the school, which then later closed when the town ran out of money."
"Most likely." The pink haired woman deduced. "I saw what you and my love went through together."
"Y-You did, zura?" Hanamaru stutters.
"That's right." She winks before pulling out a board and a pen. "By the way, can I have your autographs?!"
"Huh?" The girls - except Leah - all blinked in confusion again.
"Alright everyone, I want you to grab onto me or anyone else doing so." Articho advises as Kinuho places her right hand on his back and Maaya's on his left shoulder.
"For what?" Leah raised her eyebrow in confusion.
"You'll see." The French-American heiress winks.
The former school idols are unconvinced with her words, but decided to roll with it.
As soon as everyone has followed his instructions, Articho places his fingers over his forehead to lock on Ryouko's ki signature and then gazes at Arisa and Febrie."See ya later, you two. We're outta here." He smiles at them before using Instant Transmission, instantly teleporting away along with everyone hitching along for the ride to Capsule Corp.
11:33 A.M
Articho and co reappear via Instant Transmission on the streets of School District 7. Unfortunately, the former school idols' felt nauseous as their faces turned green from the technique their old friend pulled off. Yō eventually ran off to the nearest trashcan and regurgitated her breakfast.
"Hehehehehe..." Articho chuckles and then bursts out laughing maniacally. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Yō?" Chika groans, concerned for one of her two childhood friends.
"I'm fine. I'm fine." Yō assures her before puking in the can again, having spoken too soon.
"Looks like I'm going to skip lunch today." Kanan declared, holding her stomach.
"Who are you telling." Dia said, before glaring at the chuckling light chestnut haired girl. "You knew about this?"
"We might've." Kinuho giggles. "Not to worry. Your bodies will quickly adapt to it, so you don't have to puke again."
"Just what in the hell did Articho do back there?" Yoshiko painfully groans, holding her stomach.
"Instant Transmission." Articho smirks. "Pretty cool, huh? I've picked up this useful technique that my ancestor learned when he was off-world for a whole year and 260 days."
"Instant what?" Riko was confused.
"Have any of you heard of ki?" He asks.
His old friends all looked at each other in confusion, clueless as to what he's talking about.
"Check this out, zura!" Hanamaru interrupts, getting everyone's attention.
"What's gotten you all fired up, Zuramaru?" Yoshiko questions before seeing what's before her very own eyes.
It was a large dome-shaped building - seven stories high - and is connected to several smaller ones that serve as manufacturing plants.
"Whoa." The countryside girls awed.
"Ladies, allow me to welcome you to Capsule Corporation." Articho announced, both his arms stretched wide.