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Tomobiki, Class 2-4 at Tomobiki High School, the third Sunday of April, an hour after lunch...
"Sugoi...!"
"They look so REAL...!"
"How the hell haven't people noticed THIS before...?!"
"Um...Darling...!"
The film replica of Redet Lum blinked on noting that her other-self's "husband" — though such a claim was now questionable thanks to the revelations of his connections to THAT PLACE — as the small crowd of people who had rushed down from the apartment block specially set up for the alumni of Eisa Girl's High School like Okano Yuka crowded around the three quite still freshmen boys standing at attention by the teacher's desk. While trying not to stare at the exposed abdomens and internal systems of the people identified by Tsuruya Rumiko as Nakasone Yū, Asanuma Shun and Funakoshi Mahiro of Class 1-7 — Lum had her other-self's memories of seeing wrecked Shōzoki androids and gynoids over the years due to the Urusian policy of destroying such beings immediately after detection — the Gifted now in the classroom seemed to be acting as if finding such AIs acting as real STUDENTS at Tomobiki High School was nothing to panic about. As they said it THERE, "It's a sleepy episode."
Such was THEIR way of saying "It's a slow Tuesday" on Earth...
"Darling...!"
"Sugoi desu no! They're so CUTE! Ne, ne, Nii-sama, do you want them to be Gifted?!"
As Lum's jaw dropped in disbelief on hearing the Great Chef of the West suggest THAT, Miyake Shinobu looked over. "Um, is that POSSIBLE, Shirayuki-chan?! They're ANDROIDS!" the film replica of Moroboshi Ataru's former girlfriend declared.
Osamu Shirayuki looked nonplussed. "So?"
"They're partially organic, Shinobu," the Careful Planner of the Circle of Thought declared. "We use the term 'techno-organic' to refer to how lifelike a Shōzoki titemam or titemyu..." — those two words had been easily rendered as "android" and "gynoid" respectively thanks to the omniversal translator systems Yizibajohei had with them even in civilian clothes — "...can be. The Crystal of Power can convert what's not organic to organic format and allow them to live their lives free of Mother's control."
"That's the Skynet-like thing that runs their home planet, right?" Tina Nishimura commented, gazing on Jessica Wakefield.
The Charging Belle of the Heavens nodded. "Same. Can't stand the fact that all of Existence is so chaotic, so it wants to completely regulate everything in Creation to its own mathematical designs. Feh!" Here, the strongest of the Sweet Valley Boosters tossed her head in a derisive snort. "Stupid camera-in-the-sky! Creation is WAY more powerful than that!"
"Darling...!"
"Lum, shut up for once in your so-called life!" Sukeyama Sakuya snapped. "No one living on Earth is subject to any of your people's laws! And if you think you can get Daddykins over here to kill off people like Shun-kun, Yū-kun and Mahiro-kun here, you should know that Fujiko-chan and her sisters have memories of the Second Great Expulsion five sagas ago!"
Eyes focused on the Healer of Men's Hearts. "What was that?" Shimizu Kaho asked.
"A race called the Goa'uld — they're a pack of parasite serpents who possessed humanoids to better defend themselves, then got on the 'lets conquer the Universe' kick over ten millennia ago — came to Yiziba to try to take control the Great Crystal of Power, Kaho-san," Rumiko explained as she inserted wireless probes tied to her large field PAA into the boys' abdominal maintenance hatches to do a full scan of their internal systems before booting them up. "Our planet's first defender, Batae Erba..."
"I call him 'Doctor Destructo'," the younger of the popular twin sisters attending Sweet Valley High School cut in.
People snickered on hearing that. "...was reborn as a woman at that time, then she forged powerful synthetic battle dolls — like Ataru-kun is now thanks to Lum — to help her chase off the System Lords; they're the leaders of the Goa'uld..." Rumiko finished.
"Lar'beke...!"
That was a drooling Fukushima Hatsue, still at her kotatsu near the back of the room where Avalonian bioroid clones of the templates to those film replicas yet to be re-embodied lay waiting to absorb those souls and let them truly live, her head shaking to and fro, drool leaking from her mouth. "'Snake leech'?" Sanokura Emi wondered as she stared quizzically at Tariko Katabarbe.
"Anytime we encounter a parasitic species, we always give it a 'leech' nickname even if they turn out to be benign, Emi. Though we've yet to encounter such a species which are actually benign," the Trickster of the Show calmly explained, she seated at the teacher's desk while her other-self/twin brother was closely examining the three stilled android freshmen. "The battle dolls — they've been known as 'first generation' ever since Ayumu-chan's first-self created the type that Ataru's using now sometime after the Dawn of Power — were strong enough to physically rip apart Goa'uld ha'tak with their hands; those things are practically as big as the Kashin, the ship Lum and her dad came here with back in October. The second Healer even made them so they could actually EAT the symbiotes after ripping them out of their hosts' bodies. That sent the lar'beke packing soon enough."
"Almost wiped them out of existence," Hatsue's elder sister Fujiko noted, a reminiscent look on her face.
"We should've gone all the way on those things," her fourth-youngest sister Mayako derisively snorted.
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"Um...you guys aren't volunteers for the Imperial Navy who got empowered to be like the fighters in the Thunder Companies, right?" Yuka wondered as the other Eisa Girl's alumni all gaped at the Blizzard of Death and her sisters.
"They're effective kamadogami made organic, Yuka-chan," Rumiko noted as she tapped the holographic keyboard over her PAA to commence the full diagnostics of the android teens' systems. "Their 'souls' are actually the living kami of warships from the Greater East Asia War." A sly glance was then essayed towards Lum. "In effect, they're ch'uongtechhu, Lum. And you can guess what the Noukiites will do the instant they learn such beings are active among mortal people here on Earth."
"Can we say 'Imperial Commandery'?"
That was Ataru himself, who had drawn his comb to gently groom Yū's pale brown locks over his right eye in a piratical manner. As his siblings grinned knowingly on seeing what he was doing — indeed, the three freshmen being tended to right now by Rumiko were the personification of "otokonoko" even if they were dressed in boy's clothing...never mind how much the film replicas who had yet to re-embody themselves would have their brains mulched on seeing Moroboshi Ataru of all people be intimate with BOYS! — Lum winced, she realizing what an intervention like THAT would mean for the whole of the Galactic Federation of Planet-States to which the Urusian Union was a member. Whatever dreams her people had towards influencing Earth away from "enemy" elements such as the Seifukusu and the Ipraedies — and in the eyes of some Urusians, the Noukiites as well, never mind THEM! — would go up in smoke if one of the galaxy's more powerful civilizations sealed off the inner part of the Sol system from ANY outside influence. Such would do as much damage to the Federation as an Ipraedies invasion — the cause of the Tag Race the previous fall Lum's other-self had been involved in — ever could to the pan-system alliance.
"Are they REALLY that bad?"
That was Fukushima Itsuko, the reborn ninth of her class now known among the Children of the Forge as the Shy Tsunami, Tiba ("Isonami"). She was standing guard by the front door into the classroom; even if the reborn destroyers present sent out one of their number to walk through the interior of the Taishō Era structure to ensure no unwelcome intruders came to bother them — it was Fukushima Miyuki's turn now — those still in Class 2-4 were keeping a watchful eye out to ensure no surprises popped in that could reveal a tonne of things that needed to remain secret. "Hai, Itsuko-chan, they can be real baka-bakas about that silly stuff!" Saeru Hinako answered as she tried not to stare at her bro-bro looking to do "mushy stuff" with the pretty blond android teen. "Except Kye-chan; she's nice about things. She won't call people like you 'Most Venerable' and treat you like you were the Dalai Lama or the Pope or Tennō..." — here, the Spirit of Innocence rolled her eyes in typical childish annoyance at such idiocy — "...so if she comes by Remnant when you're with Isaac-san dealing with those nasty Grimm, you can be friends with her."
"Um...'Kye-chan'?" Shitto Kōsuke's film replica then asked.
"Seu-P'ye Yesu-Re Hechnich'-K'ekhech of Ait'uch Nehech," Tariko answered as she stared knowingly at Lum. Ignoring her would-be "wife's" shocked croak on hearing that particular name, the Trickster of the Show added, "Known throughout the local cluster as the Dragonspeaker. She's actually got celestial dragon's blood in her, making her as powerful as a high-end FISS like Jess here mixed with the average reality warper. Until I started my casting drive, she had to go out every once in a while to corral some of the more idiot heels who went out from Yiziba to cause trouble on other planets whenever the mood struck their fancy."
"Kye-chan's nice," Hinako added. "Lum-san knows one of Kye-chan's friends, Nassur-san. He's a bounty hunter who asked that baka-baka Ōgi to make 'android' replicas of Lum-san and her friends Benten-san, Oyuki-san and Ran-san."
Here, she gazed on the stilled clones at the back of the room. "Wait!" Lum then exclaimed. "I have ANOTHER SISTER?!"
"Redet Hensō," Tariko supplied. Shaking her head as she noted that the replicas of Perm and Mendō Shūtarō both instantly perk in interest on hearing of the university student known now on Yiziba as the Mistress of Lightning, Huobo'o ("Tempest"), the reality warper added with an amused snark, "And no, she's NOT coming to Earth anytime soon. She doesn't want to deal with any of Lum's crap, especially the Niphentaxians. Even if she is Gifted, she's an Avalonian deep down..."
"And Avalonians are most often seen as 'mere machines' by these lifeless dolts who put that damned antimatter bomb in town near Tampopo's place, right?" Yuka finished as the ghostly boys both gaped in shock at that revelation.
"You got it, Yuka..."
"Er-ror!"
That was Shun, whose caramel eyes just lit up before he blinked, confusion flashing across his face as his motor systems came back on. "Hey...where...am...I?" the teen with the burgundy-tinted shaggy raven hair then asked, his voice in a mechanical lock-step. Blinking, he then looked down to see his stomach exposed, his maintenance hatch open and Tsuruya Rumiko of all people — with odd-looking welder's goggles over her eyes in lieu of her reading glasses — seated nearby, a large rectangular slate of dark crystal the size of a computer's monitor screen in hand, such projecting a holographic screen from a mesonium crystal on its surface. "Wow...!" he then breathed out on seeing something so clearly advanced. "What...is...that...Sem-pai?"
"Personal administrative assistant, Shun-kun," the Careful Planner declared as she manipulated one control. "Okay, you should get your normal voice back now. Almost done with your boyfriends here. What were you guys doing here, anyway?"
Shun took just milliseconds to interpret that. "Whoa! You're Yizibajohei?!" he exclaimed, his voice now the melodic tenor he normally used to great effect when he performed with his companions as part of their amateur singing troupe, Unison Yell.
"Hai, she is, Shun-kun...as are everyone physically here save Yuka and her friends, not to mention Onii-sama," Sakuya cut in as she reached over to pick up the square patch of artificial skin taken from his abdomen when Rumiko got to work on him.
Shun gasped after the reborn escort removed the probe from his systems before shuddering in delight as she gently re-sealed his maintenance hatch. "Oh, Sempai...!" he moaned out as a noticeable bulge appeared in his trousers. "You're so GENTLE...!"
As Hinako muttered again about "silly mushy stuff" and the shipgirls snickered in amusement, Yuka and the other Eisa Girl's alumni turned as red as ripe tomatoes at such an open display of teenage sensuality. "You idiots want to KILL cute boys and girls like that?" Jessica then noted, she gazing with disgust at Lum. "And you have the temerity to call US 'uncivilized'?"
"What the hell did you expect, Jess?" Ataru snidely noted, making Shun turn to look before he blushed on seeing the older man continue to gently style Yū's hair. "They've been worse than savages since the Seifukusu held control over the planet. The Union Revolution that happened after we slapped them down for being stupid didn't do a damned thing for them."
Both Shūtarō and Perm shuddered at that tone of disgust from their other-selves' rival while Lum shrank in on herself...
The school cafeteria, an hour later...
"It's a good thing that Ryūnosuke-sempai's old man isn't here," Nakasone Yū commented before sipping on the enhanced milkshake that the Great Chef of the West had prepared for him and his friends/brother androids. As Moroboshi Ataru allowed the pretty blond freshman to snuggle to one side of him — with Asanuma Shun to his other side and raven-haired Funakoshi Mahiro holding Shun's hand — he then gazed on the man who was seen by the free Shōzoki now attending Tomobiki High School as the chief victim of the Oni's overbearing actions over their adopted homeworld during the last half-year and more. "So you're one part of the person who's got the gatherers like Kōsuke and Hokuto spitting fire over the amount of people who've escaped Mother, eh?" he sensuously purred, also taking in a shuddering Redet Lum out of the corner of his eye, she being easily constrained by a scowling Fukushima Mayako at a nearby table while Osamu Shirayuki passed on her creations — none of them infused with the necessary amount of mesonium that would see people like Okano Yuka on the path to being Gifted — to the Eisa Girl's alumni as they continued to talk with Ataru's sisters and Jessica Wakefield about the virtues of becoming Yizibajohei.
"Yes, I am, Yū-chan," he quietly declared before leaning into gently kiss the side of the freshman's neck.
As people who could see this exclaimed in stunned shock at such an intimate display from the "cancer of Tomobiki" — with Lum looking as if she had just been stabbed in the heart; being disembodied as she was, she didn't have her other-self's bio-electrical manipulation powers so she could discipline her other-self's "husband" — Sukeyama Sakuya hooted. "Oi! Onii-sama! If you're going to do a pillow scene with those guys, take it somewhere private, huh?!" the Healer of Men's Hearts heckled.
"Holy shit! He IS bisexual?!" Tina Nishimura exclaimed from next to the Charging Belle of the Heavens.
"What did you expect, Tina?" Jessica demanded. "He DID in effect live over TEN YEARS as a GIRL!"
"Wow! That proves it to me!" Shimizu Kaho breathed out, shaking her head. "Man! Are you STILL thinking of coming back to classes, Ataru-kun? You start doing that in front of the idiots in Class 2-4 and they're going to have mass heart attacks!"
"Well, if it gets the traitors to humanity, traitors to humanity by association, the sexless boy and the two monsters out of my life, I'll consider doing just that, Kaho-san," he snidely noted as he stared at the long-haired brunette who was one of Yuka's oldest friends even if Kaho hailed from Ichikawa in Chiba prefecture while Yuka was from Nakano Ward in Tōkyō.
As the film replicas winced on hearing that escape him, Sanokura Emi smirked. "Let me guess: The boys in your class; the girls in your class except Ryūnosuke-kun, Lum and Shinobu; Ryūnosuke-kun 'himself'; then Lum and Shinobu combined."
"Pin-pon!" Saeru Hinako chimed as she nodded at the raven-haired amateur concert pianist.
The ghostly film-replicas all croaked in horror on realizing that their other-selves' peer was basically about to turn his back on almost all his classmates. "With myself and Chigaiko-chan excepted, of course," Tsuruya Rumiko stated.
That made the people who were students at Tomobiki High blink in confusion. "Who's that, Sempai?" Mahiro wondered.
"You call her 'Yon-san'," the Careful Planner of the Circle of Thought declared. As people perked on hearing the always-used nickname for the girl's basketball team star forward, she added, "Don't ask me why people constantly forget her name..."
"It's a curse, Rumiko. Ya, Ane-kun, Ani-kun, minna."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"Oh, dear GODS! Please don't tell me...!" Sakuya moaned as she gazed towards the south doors.
People turned to look...
"Ah! It's Chikage-chan!" Hinako whooped in delight.
"Your usual, Chikage-chan?" Shirayuki wondered.
"Hai, please, Shirayuki-chan," the regal-looking woman wearing a hooded white, floor-length cloak — said cloak bearing red stylized Celtic crosses at the shoulders — affirmed with a nod as she came in, gazing with amusement at the considerable crowd who now were with her just-revealed sister darling and recently-embodied brother darling. "Just finished with the Fidelius charm over Ani-kun's home away from his 'home' up the street from here. Should keep the fools away when he wants to be alone; much that Kamekichi-sensei does a lot of work in keeping them tame, they just don't seem to get the lesson deep down."
"Oh, they'll get an education on that soon enough, Chikage," Tariko Katabarbe said as Hirosaki Chikage — on Yiziba, she was the Dark Heart of Pure Chaos, Nosyo'or'bem ("Dragonheart"); this made her an arch-mage sorceress at a level which would impress Earth's most powerful magical, Vice Admiral Heather Thompkins of the Québec City borough of Beauport, one of the legendary War Hawks from World War Two — came over to embrace her. "I assume Yoiko confirmed things."
"It was actually Naomi who did that," the native of one of the magical enclaves in Tōkyō proper — her maternal grandfather Ryūji was one of the veterans of the Wars of Liberation, the magical side of the Second World War — declared, making the other Gifted people present perk on hearing her speak of America's first shipgirl, Naomi Haight-Ashbury; salvaged and Gifted by rogue magicals at the end of March in response to the Fukushima sisters' arrival on the scene, she was the first nuclear surface warship ever built, USS Long Beach, and was now known on the World of the Forge as the Cosmic All-Seer.
Tariko hummed. "Yeah, Mama Cass knows how to call things, doesn't she? So, much that we're glad you're helping given Ataru a bolt-hole when he wants to get away from the umale lo'obir'ba trying to ruin his life, don't you have classes?"
"Naomi came by Hogwarts to inform Kōchō-sensei on Friday evening about the issue with yourself and Ani-kun; it was there that she helped confirm our relationship," Chikage noted as Shirayuki came over with a cup of dark Russian caravan tea. As people around her blinked in surprise — the whole of Tomobiki had been given a blanket exception to the rules governing hiding magic from non-magicals by order of the Heavenly Sovereign himself in early November; the fame of Britain's senior school of magic had filtered through thanks to Ozuno Tsubame, Sakurambō Sakura's fiancé even if he wasn't an alumnus — the burgundy-haired teen sighed. "Which means that summer vacation plans I had in mind — I was thinking of replicating Ojii-san's training trip to Vulcan and elsewhere in that dimension this year — will have to be held off until the summer before NEWT year next year."
The non-Gifted around them all had their jaws on the floor. "Wait! VULCAN?! You mean...?!" Shūtarō demanded.
"The universe of Star Trek. Hai, Tachiko, the very same place."
People blinked. "'Tachiko'?" the film replica of Japan's richest student wondered.
A pair of amethyst eyes — the same shade that the Living Spirit of Innocence also possessed, people were quick to realize — focused on him. "You cannot exist long in that form without being consumed by some rogue yōkai, Tachiko. Ani-kun was kind enough to think up a new name for you; don't worry about issues concerning gender reassignment as your new body's creators — not to mention Nijiko's there — were prepared to allow your souls to quickly adjust to same." Here, she indicated Perm's film twin. "Your 'most faithful' that Shirayuki helped deal with had them created to serve as replacement bodies for their 'goddess' and her 'holy company'; unlike most of the Niphentaxians in town, they saw Ani-kun as their 'goddess' beloved darling' in lieu of the 'great evil'. Quite strange; if what I've heard of Ōgi is remotely true, he would have had them executed on charges of heresy."
People blinked, then they focused as one on Ataru. He reached into his jean jacket pocket to pull out placards marked 太刀子 and 虹子 to show the others; such kanji translated "child of the great sword" and "child of the rainbow" respectively. As the newly named Tachiko and Nijiko blushed on seeing how artful their other-selves' rival was, Yuko gazed on Lum, then Ryūnosuke, then Miyake Shinobu. "What about them, Ataru-kun?" the heroine of the Eisa Girl's incident in 2011 asked.
Two more placards with kanji were produced: 偲子 and 辰子; "child of talent" and "child of the (celestial) dragon" respectively. The final placard had katakana on it: ディヌ. In displaying same, Ataru had indicated whom the new names were meant for. While the just-named Fujinami Tatsuko began to sob at being given a proper girl's name — she being immediately comforted by Fukushima Hatsue — and the newly-named Miyake Saiko blushed at her other-self's ex-boyfriend's thoughtfulness, the one receiving the given name of the first victim of the Mother of All Fight Scenes nearly three centuries ago shuddered. "Darling! No one is named 'Danu' these days! It's not done! Don't you know?! She was killed during the invasion attempt...!"
"SHE WAS MY WIFE, YOU PATHETIC IMPERIAL UMALE LO'OBIR'BA!"
Heads snapped over to gaze on the Charging Belle of the Heavens, who had bolted up to glare at the film replica of the warlord's daughter from Onishuto. Ignoring the just-named Danu's awk of fright — mixed with muted outrage on being referred to as an "Imperial", which she and her other-self certainly were NOT! — the Californian blinked as Tina got up to squeeze her shoulder to calm her down. "Oi! She doesn't have a body just yet, Jess!" the nearly blonde yonsei snidely advised. "Wait for it!"
People around them laughed at that observation while the younger of the Wakefield twins took a deep breath, wishing she had her older sister Elizabeth's sense of calm serenity — which was boosted to the stratosphere when she became the Wise Genius of the Circle of Thought, Daturie (the "Academician"), back during "Sweet Valley Summer" in 2007 — Jessica then noticed Chikage gazing a question her way. Nodding her permission, the Charging Belle crossed her arms as the Dark Heart of Pure Chaos faced Danu. "Your namesake SURVIVED the end of the Tag Race when Jessica's past-self defeated her, then was ABANDONED by the leader of that farce — a relative of your other-self's TRUE fiancé, I believe? — when they were made to flee Yiziba back to Uru. Eventually, they got married per your people's traditions — which the other you twisted to her own ends to hurt Ani-kun like she did — and were moving to start a family when Danu got homesick and went to see her parents to advise them that she was well and they were about to become grandparents. They had her turned over to the Imperial authorities to find a way to extract the Gift crystal she had — she had been Gifted as Tempest by then — which brought Jessica's past-self and a tonne of others running to the rescue. THAT caused the Mother of All Fight Scenes since it was a case of GIFT THIEVERY, Danu! It's neither our fault nor our responsibility to REMIND you of things that your people constantly LIE to yourselves about!"
Here, the teen arch-mage indicated her brother darling. "You wonder why Ani-kun would now wish your other-self to DIE, Danu?" she asked, making all the film replicas gasp in shock. "It's because she's an undisciplined BRAT! Jariten has more maturity than Lum does! And if she thinks she can get away with what she has from now on when it comes to Ani-kun, much less the people here who've suffered ultimately because of her presence here on Earth, she's got another think coming! Doesn't she remember that she owes Ane-kun and Kasuga Ayumu-chan her very LIFE from that incident eleven years ago?!"
As Danu croaked on being reminded of her other-self's incredible encounter with the-then pre-Gifted Tariko Katabarbe and the first girl she saw Gifted, Kasuga Ayumu — now the most powerful of all the Children of the Forge, the Goddess Who Walks Among Men herself, Nodim ("Infinity") — Chikage sipped her tea. "You have a choice to make, Danu. Join us in helping moderate things...or watch your sister become more isolated by the day as everything that makes her as invincible as she seems to be to the people here in Tomobiki — who never ASKED to have their lives disrupted as they have been since she came here in October RUNNING AWAY from all the issues she left behind in Onishuto — is torn from her until she's driven home...
"And most likely, to suicide!"
People exclaimed in shock on hearing that dark warning while both Ataru and Tariko exchanged knowing looks...
An hour later, back in Class 2-4...
"So you're doing this?"
"It's the only way for us now, especially with what Chikage-san told us."
Wincing as she recalled what the dark-haired arch-mage had said concerning their potential fates — presently, the Dark Heart of Pure Chaos was back in the Scottish Highlands getting her homework done and enjoy the rest of her Sunday at Hogwarts with her peers — Miyake Saiko could only sigh as she gazed on the clone laid out on the stretcher at the back of the room. Glancing out of the corner of her eye at Fujinami Tatsuko, the would-be 'enforcer' of their 'gang' nodded in understanding concerning the other film replica's desire to live as a real person. Doing such would ultimately give Fujinami Ryūnosuke a bolt-hole of her own to get away from her overbearing father Fujimi. Even if being back in civilization after years trying to run a failing Hamachaya on the Pacific shore of the Chiba Peninsula had done wonders for the bishōnen-like tomboy — never mind what her relationship with Tsuruya Rumiko had done for her since the class' only lesbian student made her move — the school's current caretaker was just too overwhelmingly stubborn to NOT simply give up and allow his "son" to live "his" life the way she chose to live it.
And if the added option of being Gifted came into play...!
Thinking on that, Saiko glanced left at the replacement bodies for Redet Danu, Mendō Tachiko and Shitto Nijiko nearby; even if those three hadn't decided to take the chance themselves — right now, Danu was a virtual wreck still in the cafeteria thanks to Moroboshi Ataru having disappeared from people's sight with the android freshmen he just befriended shortly after his-just revealed second-oldest half-sister came to school to look in on him and his other siblings; naturally, the film replicas of two of Redet Lum's most passionate fans willingly chose to remain at her side to comfort her — the bioroid shells were ready to go. Since their own version of Ataru had been embodied as Moroboshi Hiromi — neither Saiko nor Tatsuko had any idea where the would-be guidance counsellor had gone since then — the chances were good that Danu, Tachiko and Nijiko would come to get themselves new bodies to use on their own; since Hiromi had regained the memories of her own other-self Tariko Katabarbe on Friday, she had treated her "wife" and her "rivals" with the same scornful disdain that Ataru himself had shown earlier.
That had been quite the jarring experience for Miyake Shinobu's own film replica.
Saiko scowled as she looked upon her new body next to Tatsuko's new shell. Yes, she knew her "Aneki" pretty well at this point. There was NO WAY IN HELL that Shinobu was going to accept such a radical and potentially violent change of personality overcoming the man she still secretly cared for, feelings that had been boiling deep in her heart for over a decade since an incident in childhood when a sympathetic Ataru had comforted Shinobu in the wake of her cousin Hitomi's move to nearby Nerima — in the eyes of the-then four year-old girl, the other side of the world — and they became childhood playmates...
Until...
Until...
Damn! Was it all TRUE?!
Had Ataru actually gone to YIZIBA on his sixth birthday in 2001 to become Tariko?!
Shaking her head, Saiko then perked as a comforting hand touched her incorporeal shoulder. "Are you okay, Saiko-san?"
Perking, she looked over and up. "Fujiko-san?"
Fukushima Fujiko reached over to pull up a chair to sit down beside the disembodied would-be teen delinquent. "Finding it hard to take in what happened to Shirei-kan and how that started the whole new age of metahumans?" she wondered.
Saiko considered that before she sighed. "It does seem pretty far-fetched even for this place," she admitted. "I mean, much that I believe as Aneki does that Ataru-kun's been with us all this time, I can't recall any details about her and him being together anytime between his sixth birthday to just before the Tag Race. If he really did go to Yiziba of all planets..."
"Way too many witnesses to deny it otherwise. And there are laws and even Imperial Rescripts from Tennō himself about that to prove it to anyone who wants to ask," the first modern destroyer warned. "Whoever did this to Shirei-kan were really stupid and sloppy about it in the long term. Never mind doing it just a month before alien invaders came to try to conquer the planet...which would have turned out into a real mess once all the metahumans that Tariko-san recruited got involved to chase them off. Not to mention others who got Gifted by unknown agents along the way; my sisters and I've been helping out one of them since the start of April!" Here, she shrugged. "What was the reason? I saw how close Shirei-kan came to losing the Tag Race in recordings of that idiocy. Never mind all the lack of support for the poor guy from the crowd and especially his deadbeat parents...!"
"Yeah, those two really leave a LOT to be desired," Tatsuko cut in. "And I thought Oyaji was bad enough."
The urge to deny such words died aborning in Saiko's throat before she sighed. "Right. 'I wish I never had you'. How many times did Aneki hear that and never say a thing about it? Sure, Ataru-kun's luck is weird and all that..."
"That version of Shirei-kan that you people knew before Friday was a LIE through and through, Saiko-san. Stop trying to force Shirei-kan as he is now into that mould just because you can't accept what's happened to him. It's just going to hurt you in the end," Fujiko warned. "You know how Shirei-kan sees the people in this class now that his eyes have been opened like that. Do you really want to have him treat you the same way, especially after he arranged to help you get your own life?" Here, the adopted native of Maizuru waved to the would-be delinquent's new shell laying right before her.
Saiko blinked before she slumped. "No..."
"So what are you waiting for? All you have to do is 'touch' her and your kami's drawn into her brain to make her — to make YOU, I mean — truly live," Fujiko noted. "You're not pre-Gifted; Shirei-kan's sister has rules about forcing Gifts on people like that without their knowledge." Here, the adopted native of Maizuru waved over to a small tray that had some servings of very tasty black forest cake prepared by the Trickster of the Show waiting to be eaten. "But if you really want to survive where you got ignorant fools out there who'd see you as nothing more than a SLAVE, you should take that final step." Here, the cute brunette teenager then smirked, she winking at the other woman. "After all, Tariko-san's black forest cake is so incredible to have!"
That made Tatsuko perk as she recalled something. "Yeah! Tariko-san promised Onē-san that she'd make some cake for her once she finished looking in on her mother back home outside that big city she lives close to on Yiziba..."
Saiko gaped. "Ryūnosuke-kun went to YIZIBA?!"
"Hai! It was her sixth birthday; she and Oyaji were in Kyūshū at the time. A bad blizzard had blown through the Home Islands down from Siberia, but Oyaji was hell bent and determined to keep Hamachaya open." As Saiko moaned on hearing that — if there was one thing that drove Fujinami Fujimi other than keeping Ryūnosuke as a "boy", it was keeping Hamachaya open even if the original tea shop on the shore of the Pacific Ocean was nothing more than shattered kindling now — Tatsuko added, "Well, Tariko-san showed up, used some weird cinder block-bashing technique to put Oyaji down, then she took Aneki to her cabin on Yiziba. Her mama — her adopted mother, I guess — was bedridden, really sick. But Tariko-san helped Aneki get healthy again before she sent her back to be with Oyaji; guess she didn't want to get into trouble for kidnapping for something."
"That was when Onē-sama lost her mother."
All three girls turned to gaze at the woman now at the south doorway. "Sakuya-chan," Fujiko greeted.
The Healer of Men's Hearts smiled as she approached the others. "Lucky thing that Chikage-chan warded the school to ensure that Danu can't get out there to harass Onē-sama or Onii-sama if they're out and about in town; with all the idiots who have access to that bomb in the Ginza right now, we can't have the alarm get out to the rimrae umale on Phentax Two just yet."
"Can't you just teleport that thing way up into space to blow it up?" Saiko wondered.
"Oh, we could...but according to another girl who's a potential sister that Obā-sama helped to see born, Hatoyama Rinrin-chan, those types of bombs can be seen blowing up from VERY far away," Sukeyama Sakuya warned as she pulled a chair over to sit beside the Blizzard of Death. "Best to use it in an offensive capability; the rimrae umale have this huge fleet out there that can be blown up en masse if they're caught at their anchorage. So we'll save moving it off Earth until we go deal with them."
"Isn't that a little harsh?"
A shake of the head responded. "You don't know these idiots like I do, Saiko. Trust me; the sooner they're dealt with, the better. They're WORSE than any fanatic from the Middle East who's willing to dress up in a bomb vest to kill children could EVER be. Their leader — This Ōgi jerk that Onē-sama talked about? — well, he gladly had FIVE MILLION PEOPLE killed off with a biological warfare bomb six years ago on a planet named Vos because the leader of that planet wanted to have Lum killed."
Both film replicas went VERY pale on hearing that. "Gods! Are you SERIOUS?!" Tatsuko exclaimed.
"Very," Sakuya warned. "It's not the best plan in the world, but Onē-sama's whole casting drive is pretty much the best plan people have now to deal with potential threats from out there. Lum's sugar-coated things too much for people here since she came to make Onii-sama's life hell. You don't KNOW what's lurking out there. The lar'beke are just the START of it."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
Saiko and Tatsuko exchanged knowing looks before they reached out to their new bodies' hands...
In Class 1-7 on the first floor...
"Oh, Goshujin-sama...!"
Moroboshi Ataru smiled as he allowed himself to literally melt against Funakoshi Mahiro, the latter seated in the former's lap at the teacher's desk while the older teen reached into the android freshman's pants to see what was lurking there. Ahead of them in his assigned seat, Asanuma Shun had already undressed the third member of their little singing troupe, gently pressing Nakasone Yū chest-first onto his desk so he could access the effective blond android's opening so they could properly "interface". The various organs used for sexual intercourse by Shōzoki AI were optimized to allow their minds to link each other via surface skin sensors, thus exchange data even if such would be slower than a direct physical link via a programming cable and special ports accessible through their abdominal maintenance hatches, much less locking eyes and communicating using rapid visual data flashing in each other's eyes. "Oh, you're so big, Mahiro-chan..." the other-self of the Trickster of the Show meowed as he reached down with his free hand to help Mahiro take off his pants. "Are your lovers just as big? Much that I'm personally wary of anal sex — you can understand that — I wouldn't mind sharing you with Hiromi-chan and Onē-san if they get the itch..."
"Your words will ALWAYS be our commands, Sempai," Mahiro vowed as he moved to lean down on the desk, allowing his soon-to-be master access to the easiest point to activate his loyalty lock systems, the only surefire way of keeping Mother or any of her agents from trying to overwrite his own mind and making him a brainless drone; such was effectively seen as literally DYING in the eyes of a free AI like the adopted native of nearby Musashino. "Oh, Sempai, this is so WONDERFUL...!"
He and Yū both cried out as their current sexual partners slipped their manhood into their bodies...
Tene lomher'buo, Fujinami Tatsuko...!
The three freshmen froze. "Oi! The whole TOWN could hear that!" Shun warned, he frantically looking outside.
Ataru didn't seem to react, much to Mahiro's personal delight even if the dark-haired android had jerked on hearing the voice of the very soul of the Great Crystal of Power. "Daijōbu, Shun," the now-synthezoid high school sophomore advised, waving the other man down. "Chikage-chan's just too damn good with her wards...and Rumiko-chan probably proofed the school grounds from any sort of outside noise transmission as soon as she got here to take a look over Tatsuko-san and the others..."
«Naturally, Ani-kun...!»
He moaned on hearing that voice tickle his mind. "Chikage! For the Forge's sake, do you MIND?!"
An amused titter echoed all the way from Hogwarts. No doubt, the Dark Heart of Pure Chaos had sensed her brother darling getting down to some business with his new friends, then used her crystal ball to make sure all was well; much that the teen arch-mage saw herself as a resurrectionalist as General George S. Patton did — and fervently believed her would-be brother darling (whose identity she hadn't learned until very recently) had been a lover in a previous life — she was no voyeur by far...
Tene lomher'buo, Miyake Saiko...
"Good! Good!" Ataru hissed as he felt a welcome rush deep within his loins while he pumped away, that making Mahiro yelp before a very content moan escaped him. "Way to go, girls...! Now if only the others will dive into it..."
Hearing that, all three freshmen shuddered with delight...and not all of it came from the very intensive intercourse they were now engaged in. "Isn't that wonderful, Yū-chan?!" Shun wondered as he leaned down to pull his lover so they could press their bodies together, the surging of energy deep in their various systems building towards a VERY powerful release. "Can't you sense the LOVE that Sempai has, even to people he can't really relate to?! Isn't he the most perfect master we could ever wish for?!"
"Hai! Hai!" the pale-haired android gasped. "Oh, Sempai, love us...love...love...!"
Both of them screamed as release came...
Nesu...R'BEMBA!
Ataru croaked as he felt his own release approach. "Definitely...that's Tatsuko...!"
"She's a hydrokinetic, right?!" Mahiro wondered as Shun and Yū embraced, both warmly kissing before the latter moved to shift the former down on another desk so he could repay the favour his lover gave him; they'd clean up the mess later.
"One of the best...DAMN!"
Mahiro screamed as he felt his own body be flooded by his new master's passion, then he collapsed onto the desk, his own orgasm routines tripping over, his ejaculate simply making a puddle of the floor. Grunting as he felt many of his internal systems moved to register what had just been pumped into him to activate his security systems, he breathed out as Ataru moved to lay down atop him, both to catch his breath — even with the very increased stamina his new battle doll body gave him, he needed to relax a bit before turning to tend to Mahiro's lovers — and to provide some comfort for his new would-be boyfriend. "Se-cur-i-ty...sys-tems...en-gag-ing," the dark-haired android called out, his voice now robotic. "Thank...you...A-ta-ru..."
A smile answered that as Ataru gently kissed the back of Mahiro's neck. "May the fight scene...go your way, Mahiro-chan..."
Mahiro's lips turned up on hearing the Yizibajohei version of wishing one luck escape his new spiritual owner...
Nesu...YUOTUO MAESETE!
Ataru nodded as the echoes of faint cries escaped Class 2-4 as the film replica of his former girlfriend was Gifted. "Definitely Saiko," he grunted as he pulled himself out from Mahiro's buttocks, then he gently moved to shift the practically non-resisting android over to sit on the chair behind the desk before reaching down to pull his pants back up; he didn't want to trip on the floor heading over to join in on the action between Yū and Shun. "Not surprising given what happened to her other-self."
Mahiro breathed out. "Se-cur-i-ty...sys-tems...locked," he announced in lock-step before groaning as he reached for a handy towel nearby to clean himself off, then wipe down the floor. "That's a FISS-type, right?" he then asked, his voice normal.
Gazing at the dark-haired freshman, Ataru quickly spotted a flash of silvery-reddish light deep in Mahiro's amethyst eyes; they were a slightly lighter shade that Hirosaki Chikage's. As the android's hands slightly quaked in echo of his internal processors now being linked with the Great Crystal of Power to seek out a potential Gift seed and see the adopted Musashino-jin made both organic and a metahuman, Ataru then nodded his thanks as his new "servant" moved to clean himself up. "One of the most powerful to my knowledge. Mixed face and heel turns over the incarnations," he noted as he gently walked over to sit down at the desk to the left of where Shun sat, he then moving to undress so the other members of Unison Yell could see what he had.
And such impressed both Shun and Yū VERY much. "Sempai! You're so BIG!" both android teens teasingly called out...
The cafeteria...
"No! NO! Let me go, Shirayuki-san! Let me go! I have to save Saiko-san and Tatsuko-san from making such a mistake...!"
"You're staying right HERE, Tachiko-san!" Fujinami Shirayuki declared, she effortlessly holding the film replica of Mendō Shūtarō in place, as were her sisters Miyuki and Mayako doing now to the replicas of Shitto Kōsuke and Redet Lum. "Besides, the Gifting's been done! Tatsuko-san and Saiko-san are safe from the stupidity that's run this town since the alien gaijin came...!"
"IT'S ALL MOROBOSHI'S FAULT!" Shūtarō bellowed even if he was unable to fight off the enhanced strength of the Pure Blizzard of the Kitchen. "Yuka-san! Emi-san! Kaho-san! Minna-san! HELP ME! HELP ME STOP THIS!"
The Eisa Girl's High School alumni — none of whom had EVER really expressed any desire towards the scion of Japan's richest family; such had made them seem odd in the eyes of their female peers now attending Tomobiki High School — exchanged looks before Tina Nishimura gazed at Jessica Wakefield. "You ever did one of these 'pillow scenes' with Ataru, Jess?"
"No, I haven't, not yet," the Charging Belle of the Heavens mused as she gave the would-be Redet Danu a knowing look.
The hapless film replica of the warlord's daughter from Uru screamed out in frustration even if she couldn't fight off the strength of the reborn fifth of the Fubuki-class, now known as the Raging Storm of the Seas, Lo'om ("Murakumo"). Seeing the stupid disembodied spirit struggle away, the silver-haired adopted native of Ōsaka — she had been built at the Fujinagata Shipyards in Taishō Ward of Japan's second-largest city — could only shake her head, her golden-brown eyes flashing with annoyance. "Do you realize how totally SELFISH you look right now, Redet?" Mayako then wondered before a knowing smile crossed her face as she pushed the proverbial knife in. "And you wonder WHY is it that Shirei-kan HATES you now?!"
Lum/Danu froze on hearing that caustic comment from the most tsundere of the Fukushima sisters, then she collapsed into a dazed heap in her chair, such making Okano Yuka and her friends nearly fall out of their chairs laughing with derision. "Now THAT, you definitely deserved, Danu-san!" Osamu Shirayuki scornfully added as she shook her head.
Both Shūtarō/Tachiko and Perm/Nijiko painfully whimpered on seeing how badly their beloved "classmate" had reacted to such scolding from the Raging Storm and the Great Chef, much less the LACK of sympathy from their other-selves' peers...
Outside the school building, two hours before supper...
"So you'll all think about it?" Jessica Wakefield mused as she gazed on her old elementary school classmate and her local friends.
Tina Nishimura exchanged looks with the others who had come to Tomobiki High School from Eisa Girl's High School after the previous year's summer vacation, then the tall yonsei nodded. "Definitely, Jess! I mean, you go through a less painful sort of 'trigger event' than normal capes do, get the knowledge in how to USE said powers, plus all the memories of their past selves all the way back to this Dawn of Power thing, right?" As the Charging Belle of the Heavens nodded, the freckled blonde smirked. "Definitely a good deal. 'Sides, you and Liz and so many others got Gifted; you even have your own superhero team."
"What do you guys call yourselves, anyway?" Okano Yuka wondered as she sipped a milkshake made for her by Osamu Shirayuki; since things had somewhat calmed down now at the school thanks to Fujinami Tatsuko and Miyake Saiko having been Gifted respectively as the Ocean Goddess, R'bemba ("Typhoon"), and the Eternal Titaness of Power, Yuotuo Maesete ("Atlas"), the Great Chef of the West had left with the Living Spirit of Innocence to return to their family homes in Nagoya and Niigata respectively, leaving site control to the Fukushima sisters. "I've never heard of a hero team in Sweet Valley."
"We're the Sweet Valley Boosters, Yuka," the younger of the Wakefield twins explained. "Remember Winston, Tina?"
A snort escaped Tina. "Yeah! Oh, the name of the cheerleaders from elementary school, you mean! He still a practical joker?"
"He's pretty okay these days. He's Tuonor'be; Lightmage as you'd say it in English," the most powerful of America's first true post-World War Two team of mystery men answered. As the Eisa Girl's alumni all nodded in understanding — again, Jessica's omniversal translator hidden in her clothing had helped there for those who weren't good in English — the current incarnation of the man who was the living personification of the darkest days of the old Urusian Empire added, "He's a master of technomancy, technology mixed with magic. He's joining Liz, Rumiko and all the other super-brains and technokinetics in devising a way to seal off our part of the solar system from outside intrusion. It's doable according to Liz, but it'll take a bit to set up."
The other girls all hummed. "Maybe not hit these Niphentaxians right away, then?" Wakura Kotomi proposed. As people gazed on her, the woman with the green-tinted raven hair in a quasi-pageboy style held back by a hairband added, "I mean, you all kept quiet about being metahumans and being Yizibajohei just to ensure the aliens didn't have a mass panic and try to invade until we were really ready to send them away, right?" At Jessica's nod, the native of Nishiyoshino near the old capital city of Nara whose father was a professor marine biology at Kamakura Women's University shrugged. "Yeah, you'll be a little rushed..."
A snort escaped the woman who, shortly after she was Gifted in 2007, used her strength to save all of Hawai'i from a tidal wave with a replication of the incredible Hulk's force-slapping manoeuvre to create a massive sonic wave of air to smash down the high wall of water. "Hah! We've got a mistress of time and space herself living now down over by Kōbe who could make pockets of null-time space to let Liz and her friends do what they got to do!" As the Eisa Girl's alumni gaped on hearing that, Jessica then winked. "Spoiler alert, guys: Ataru there actually got shifted back in time from three weeks from now after helping a ton of Avalonians over in the States get free of their 'masters' and get Gifted. Don't spread it around, alright?"
Laughter escaped Tina and her friends. "Well, who the fuck pays attention to us, huh?" Shimizu Kaho wondered. "Especially in a lunacy asylum like this?" Here, she contemptuously waved around. "Fuck, was THIS ever a bad idea!" she then lamented.
Jessica blinked. "Can't you transfer out?"
"Kōchō-sensei will throw a snit-fit over it," Yuka contemptuously declared. "He got some extra funding from MEXT the instant the crap at Eisa went down last summer and we got shifted here en masse. Given the shit with the aliens..."
"Then the idiot should know better and do his job right, Yuka-san."
People perked, then turned as the so-called "cancer of Tomobiki" came out to join them, he accompanied by the three freshmen of Unison Yell. To the girls' sharp eyes, Nakasone Yū, Asanuma Shun and Funakoshi Mahiro seemed to literally GLOW with new energy, they cloaked with a sense of hope that was nearly blinding. "You guys alright?" Tina wondered.
Shun chuckled. "We're far more alright than you could understand, Sempai," he said as he gently grasped his new spiritual master's hand, with Mahiro grasping the other one while Yū hugged Ataru from behind. "I guess..." Here, the android teen with the purple-shaded hair hummed. "Well, unless you were hypnotized or telepathically possessed sometime in the past, you wouldn't understand the FEAR people like us have when it comes to Mother literally turning us into mental drones. Believe me, even if it'll ruin Ataru's reputation as a skirt-chaser if it becomes known that he's bisexual and has male lovers, being able to look gatherers like Shirai Kōsuke in the face and know he can't do a thing to hurt us now...! What? What is it, Sempai-tachi?"
Ataru sighed. "Reveal scenes, guys...!"
All the Eisa Girl's alumni looked pale. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! You mean Ataru-kun's so-called BEST FRIEND, Shun-kun?!" Shinohara Yuki, a girl with brown hair in high twin-tails and dark brown eyes from Shibuya Ward in Tōkyō proper who had known Okano Yuka since they were in elementary school, exclaimed as she stared wide-eyed at Ataru himself.
"Same guy, Yuki-san," Ataru affirmed with a sad nod. "Which is a pity; he IS pretty handsome." A snort escaped him as he exchanged knowing looks with Jessica while Yuki and her friends gaped. "Stupid camera-in-the-sky! With all our experiences with the gatherers we've bumped into since we started the casting drive before 9/11, they're the most passionate of the lot!"
Ignoring the literal brain-farts the Eisa Girl's alumni seemed to experience now on hearing their infamous peer actually speak openly about potentially seducing a BOY, android or not, he moved to warmly draw Shun and Mahiro into a group hug. "You'll free Kōsuke soon enough, Goshujin-sama," Yū declared as he turned Ataru's head to tenderly kiss his cheek.
A camera flash went off, making people stare at Tōmi Miyako, a girl with raven hair done in a lengthened pixie cut, she having her cell phone out to capture that moment. As people blinked, Ataru calmly asked, "Going to spread that around, Miyako-san?"
A hum escaped the rather curvy brunette, her grey eyes glittering. "What's it to you, Ataru-kun?"
Much to the shock of the native of Kunitachi south of west from Nishitōkyō, he waved her down. "Oh, please, go ahead."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"You WANT us to help spread this around?" a wide-eyed Kaho demanded.
He gave her a knowing look. "You said it yourself earlier, Kaho-san. I'm not long for this place anymore; even if I'm not Gifted, I've had more than enough of the warped teenage drama that's hit this place since Lum ruined our lives like she did." As people nodded — they realizing Ataru's use of the plural first person pronoun was referring to the time when he and Tariko Katabarbe were one single person with one soul — he scornfully added, "Besides, dealing with the weirdness in this place isn't my fight scene anymore; that's what the cruiser shipgirls like Tamiyo-san are going to handle once they're salvaged and Gifted."
"What was Tamiyo-san?" Sanokura Emi asked.
"Cruiser Tenryū, Ojō-san. My sister."
People perked, then turned towards the main gate...
"Konnichi wa, Tadako-san," Ataru greeted with a nod while his freshmen lovers separated themselves from him, they bowing politely to the rather sinister-looking woman with short-cut purple-shaded hair matching her sister's, amethyst eyes also matching those of Shimosuwa Tamiyo's peeking out of a face that projected the heart of a sadistic troll the likes of which had never been encountered by any student of Tomobiki High School since Redet Lum came into people's lives. "Welcome home."
The adopted native of Ikoma north of west from Nara (source of the river she was named after) and Sasebo on Kyūshū (where she was built in the early years of the Taishō Era) politely bowed in return. "Nice to meet you, Teitoku," the woman now known on Earth as Shimosuwa Tadako and on Yiziba as the Devil Dragoness of the Flat Lands, Syo'ogim ("Tatsuta"), declared with a knowing smile. "I hope Tenryū-chan — I mean Tamiyo-chan — hasn't been causing you all trouble."
Laughter escaped the crowd of students who had seen the Wild Dragon of the Central Mountains in action before lunch over at Tampopo's Rāmen and Beefbowl Bar. "Oh, it's alright, Tadako-san!" Yuka assured her, waving the just-reborn Great War-era light cruiser/destroyer division leader down in reassurance. Thanks to what happened to her at Eisa Girl's High School the previous summer, the bespectacled teen had acquired quite the danger sense...and such was blaring loud warnings concerning the arrival of the latest shipgirl to join the reborn Imperial Combined Fleet. "All Tamiyo-san did was pound down some selfish idiots who were pining over Lum — you know about her, right? — and blaming your admiral here for what happened last week."
A knowing hum escaped the older-looking woman; as a light cruiser, Tadako appeared to be eighteen years of age, a senior in high school by most people's turns. And even if she had a freshly-issued work uniform with her rank of captain on her slip-ons, she did appear quite young to most people's eyes to hold such coveted rank in the Maritime Self-Defence Force. "Hai, hai. Okano Yuka-san, right?" At Yuka's shocked look, Tadako smirked. "I'm a light cruiser, Yuka-san. Teitoku has the previous year's schoolbook in his possession at his current place of residence. I memorized all the faces." She then perked as she recalled something. "Oh, speaking of the Oni, you'd be amazed at what I found when I came here from the Bay, Teitoku..."
With that, she gestured...
...then people gaped as wailing screams of fright echoed over the air, such accompanied by a mobile whirlpool of boiling water surging from the direction of the Moroboshi home to crash down on the front lawn just north of where the crowd of students were standing. Those people yelped as the moisture summoned by the Devil Dragoness then vaporized, revealing three people in the 1ubiquitous orange tiger-striped clothing worn by natives of the fourth world of Oniboshi. All three were Oni, about Redet Lum's age, with one a very beautiful woman with long raven hair in a hime-cut, the second a curly-haired brunette and the third a butch tomboy redhead. Staring at them, Ataru then shook his head before gazing towards Class 2-4. "Mayako-san!"
A window flew open, allowing the Raging Storm of the Seas to look outside. "What is it, Shirei-kan?!" She then perked on seeing who else had reported to duty. "Ah! Tadako-san! Welcome back, Captain!" she said with a jaunty salute.
As the second of the Tenryū-class ships returned that courtesy, Ataru smirked. "Bring Danu down here!" On hearing faint shouts from inside the class, he sighed. "Hai, bring Tachiko and Nijiko down here as well, girls! They need to see this!"
"Hai, Shirei-kan!"
With that, Mayako — along with Fukushima Shirayuki and Fukushima Miyuki — flew out of the window, carrying the still-disembodied forms of the soon-to-be Redet Danu, Mendō Tachiko and Shitto Nijiko to join the others while rapid footfalls echoing from the central hallway on the ground floor heralded the approach of the just-Gifted Fukushima Tatsuko and Miyake Saiko. "What's going on, Ataru-kun?" the Eternal Titaness demanded as she came up before noting Tadako's presence. "Oh, I'm sorry, Captain!" she apologized with a polite bow, which the light cruiser pleasantly returned. "So what...?"
"SIL?!"
Heads snapped over to stare at Danu, who was now on the ground gaping in shock at the brunette Oni who had been brought here by the reborn THG Tatsuta. "She was caught with her friends trying to rifle through Teitoku's old house when I came to town, Danu-san," Tadako explained with a cold smile. "There was no snow in his old bedroom, so it wasn't the Tritonians' interesting version of a Stargate. Most likely, they have a ship in orbit right now from where they teleported themselves down..."
"L-l-Lum...?!"
That was Dedron Sil, a childhood friend of Lum's before they drifted apart after entering galactic elementary school, where the would-be Empress of Uru soon met people like Shigaten Benten of Fukunokami and Oyuki of Neptune; given she was raised in a traditional household, Sil didn't care for Lum making friends with non-Urusians. "Yes and no, Sil-san," Ataru coldly answered with a deadly smile, making her and her companions stare in confusion at him before they gaped as Jessica allowed her fashionable clothes to morph into her sky blue battlesuit complete with flocks of white birds coming up the outer side of her legs to make an "X" over her cleavage. "And yes, that is the current Rampage; she's a native of Earth. Nice to see that you Imperial umale lo'obir'ba on Ceres are still too dependent on the rimrae umale from Phentax Two to learn what's REALLY going on here."
That made Danu gasp in shocked disbelief. "Darling! I didn't know...!"
"I know that, Danu-san. Relax." Here, he hummed. "Well, well, well...isn't this an ironic confrontation scene..."
As Sil and her companions turned as white as sheets on realizing that the "husband" of their would-be empress was actually one of THEM — both Aruka Nayan (the redhead) and Seq Jora (the brunette) were loyal supporters of the Imperial Round, the "old boy's club" of Urusian blue-bloods who wanted their pre-Mother of All Fight Scenes empire back — Ataru crossed his arms, his smile turning especially cruel. "I doubt you or Lum know this, Danu-san, but 'Sil' here is an actual CLONE of Lum's old childhood friend. She was actually moving to support the Democratic Reformists when she got out of galactic middle school, then was killed and replaced at the orders of Pochik Vel." Ignoring Danu's shriek of disbelief and Sil's gargled exclamation of shock, he glanced at Saiko and Tatsuko. "Hensō-san found this out when she went to meet with another Oni-form Avalonian on Noukiios who came to pass on some interesting intelligence to their local spy agency." Here, he wiggled the fingers of one hand. "Can't beat TOUCH-TELEPATHY, especially since you umale couldn't even CONCEIVE of OUR being here!"
"He's telling the truth, Danu."
That was Saiko, who was staring knowingly at her other-self's former boyfriend. Hearing that from a woman who was an empath of all things beyond her considerable FISS powers as one of the Children of the Forge, Danu shuddered before she gazed on Ataru. "What do you intend to do now, Darling?" she asked in a voice of ashes, turning her back on her other-self's "friend".
"Shut down that mess on Ceres," he flatly answered. "No one is to set up anything there without clearing it with the Men in Black in New York City; that's by TREATY, by the way!" He stared at the three Imperial observers, all of whom were gaping in horror on realizing that everything that they thought they knew about the accursed alien "lesser" who had somehow won the love of Redet Lum of all people was USELESS now. "And while making you idiots totally disappear in the Battlezone like Onē-san saw happen to Sedoyama and his idiots in the school torture studies club yesterday..." — here, he ignored the shocked gasps from his soon-to-be former peers — "...would be VERY satisfying, I know Seq Yethis isn't an idiot even if he is an arrogant bastard. Shun? Yū? Mahiro?" he then asked, making his latest round of lovers perk. "You have your seed probes still available?"
"Hai, Goshujin-sama," Shun answered as the others of Unison Yell nodded.
Ignoring the stunned croaks of horror from Sil, Nayan and Jora on realizing that ANOTHER race of VERY unwanted alien "lessers" were also living on Earth, Ataru nodded. "Still can build new units if required?" he wondered.
Seeing her "husband's" lovers nod, Danu grimaced. "Kill them, Darling. You can't afford having that sort of thing so close to Earth," she coolly announced, making everyone stare in disbelief at her. "It'll totally ruin everything Tariko-chan's done."
"NO!" Sil shrieked...
...before she and her friends were instantly inundated by water summoned from the atmosphere thanks to the Ocean Goddess. "I know your internal systems are waterproof, minna-san," Tatsuko coolly declared. "Make it fast!"
"Arigatō, Sempai!" Yū declared as he and his friends moved to approach the struggling aliens.
The Eisa Girl's alumni gaped on seeing hatches pop open on the boys' right palms, long needles extending forth. "Holy shit...!" Yuka exclaimed for them all as the android teens punched said needles in the alien girls' necks!
"That is so BAD-ASS!" Tina hissed out.
"Forcing one's death scene is NEVER to be celebrated, Tina-san, heel or not."
All the locals gazed wide-eyed at Ataru as Jessica and the shipgirls all nodded in understanding...
To Be Continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
Nakasone Yū, Asanuma Shun and Funakoshi Mahiro are based on characters created by the dōjinshi artist Nemunemu; their family names are my creation. Note that the general concept of the Shōzoki was first introduced in The Galatea Syndrome and further explored in the first version of The Ishinomaki Years.
Shinohara Yuki and Tōmi Miyako are characters from NOëL.
Translation list and source language (all Japanese unless noted otherwise): Ha'tak — Ring-framed, pyramid-shaped combination battleship/aerospace warfare carrier (Goa'uld); Kamadogami — Divine spirit of the hearth, protector of home and family; Ch'uongtechhu — House angel, divine protectors of one's family (Noukiite); Otokonoko — Literally "male daughter", term for those men who see themselves spiritually as women; Umale lo'obir'ba — Literally "one who worships a same", a term that, in a way, is an equivalent to how the word otaku is used these days...though taken to ridiculous extremes (Yizibajohei); Rimrae umale — Copycat same, effectively describing the situation of the Ionians from the Star Trek original series episode "A Piece of the Action" (Yizibajohei); Goshujin-sama — Master; Tene lomher'buo — You are ready (Yizibajohei); Nesu — Behold (Yizibajohei); (Name)-jin — The local way of creating a demonym to indicate where a person hails from; MEXT — Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, said Monka-shō in Japanese (English acronym).
Seu-P'ye Yesu-Re Hechnich'-K'ekhech of Ait'uch Nehech (AKA the Dragonspeaker) is based on the Koihime Musō version of Ryofu Hōsen (AKA Ren), though Noukiite by birth. Her complex name is explained this way:
Seu-P'ye — Caste marker (Seu) and family name (P'ye), indicating she's a member of the Seup'uk ("flower youth"), a special warrior caste in Noukiite history.
Yesu-Re — Birth order marker (Yesu) and given name (Re), indicating she is the first daughter of her family.
Hechnich' — Honorific translating as "sacred true bone lady", given on someone's twentieth birthday.
K'ekhech — Style name, a way of addressing her informally for those not close personal friends.
Ait'uch Nehech — Her spiritual home kingdom, which was the first worldwide government of Noukiios, existing from 3125-2090 BCE on Earth.
Like the tōshi of Ikkitōsen as shown in Phoenix From the Ashes, the Flower Youth of Noukiios were effectively resurrected in the modern era as Noukiite-form Avalonians thanks to Ganzo dai-Louc, the man who discovered the Avalon factory satellite on Phentax Twelve in the late 1880s Earth-time. On her rebirth in this life, Lady K'ekhech was given the personal name Kyech, which she allows close friends like Nassur to use when in private conversation as shown with Saeru Hinako (Suiki).
Background character notes: Nassur of Vos is one of the main characters introduced into The Senior Year by Mike Smith, co-creator of the series. Redet Hensō (Tempest) first appeared in the TSY story "What Price For Love?" Kamiya Hokuto appeared in the Yatsura anime story "Farewell Onsen-sensei?! Tearful Farewell Marathon Tournament" (anime episode #181); his family name is my creation based on his voice actor. Elizabeth Wakefield (the Academician) is the co-star of Sweet Valley High and elder twin sister to Jessica Wakefield (Rampage). Winston Egbert (Lightmage) is a background character whose appeared throughout the SVH novel series; he never was depicted on cover artwork done by James Mathewuse. And Sedoyama Keizō first appeared in the Yatsura anime story "It's Raining Oil All Over Town" (second half of the first episode) and would later appear in the movie Only You; as I've done often many times before, his given name is my creation.
As an aside, Shirai Kōsuke is often depicted as Moroboshi Ataru's best friend in the Yatsura manga; he's based on a co-woker of Takahashi-sensei's. He never transitioned well into the anime, his place being often taken by Perm (AKA Shitto Kōsuke) of Lum's Stormtroopers. The only time he made an appearance in any anime episode was the OVA depicting the events appearing in the manga story "The Obstacle Course Swimming Contest" (manga chapter #s 242-243); said OVA appeared in 2008.
Noting again about how the sisters from Sister Princess address their elder brother (Ataru):
Hirosaki Chikage (Dragonheart) — Ani-kun (兄くん) (Brother Darling)
Hatoyama Rinrin (Schmiede) — Aniki (アニキ) (Bro)
Vice Admiral Heather Thompkins AKA Spitfire of the War Hawks (officially known in the Canadian military as No. 1 Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit [1 CSWU]) is fully introduced in Magic and Canada.
Dedron Sil is a side character from TSY who first appeared in the story "Noa". She's actually based on the character of the same name from the fanfiction story which elements of TSY were based on, Just A Dream by Lew Burton. Her companions appearing in this part, Aruka Nayan and Seq Jora, were created specifically for this story. Her having a clone created of her by retired admiral Pochik Vel is a nod to a minor plot point of the "Great Father Ataru" story line in TSY.