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Tomobiki, the Toranoseishin Finances Tower, the third Sunday in April, suppertime...
"Darling?"
Hearing that somewhat-unwelcome voice — though he knew his real "wife" was now in intensive care at the Onishuto Central Medical Centre on Uru — Moroboshi Ataru perked before he looked over, then he wanly smiled. "Konban wa, Danu-san."
Wincing on sensing the standoffish formality her other-self's "husband" now showed towards her, Redet Danu took a deep breath before she came over to stand next to his chair; he was busy watching the approaching evening in his apartment when the "leader" of the "delinquent gang" who had been planned to star in the class movie about school violence the previous month came to see him. She was now in a physical body; in the wake of the effective execution of her other-self's childhood friend Dedron Sil — a CLONE of the real woman, Danu then reminded herself, an outraged scowl crossing her face as she wondered how Lum would react to that news — and the two other girls who had come looking for Ataru earlier today, she elected to stop being an effective ghost and become a living person. That also prompted the last two of the film replicas to become truly alive as Mendō Tachiko and Shitto Nijiko; both of them were now with Fujinami Tatsuko and Miyake Saiko visiting Moroboshi Hiromi in her new apartment next door so the two boys-turned-girls could be better briefed on becoming two of the Children of the Forge.
Given Avalonian empathy, Tachiko and Nijiko had sensed Danu's determination to better empower herself — once she was in a physical body whose mind wasn't damaged by the effectively mandatory BRAINWASHING all Urusian children undergo to ensure they would always fear "they who must never be named" — they elected to do the very same thing.
How can Ao-cha tolerate such simpering idiots?! the would-be delinquent wondered on sensing that before shaking her head. Right! They're useful TOOLS Ao-cha needs to help keep Darling under her thumb! No wonder he can't stand them!
To believe Lum was so BLIND to so many things...!
"I don't hate her if that's what you're about to ask. I just don't want her in my life anymore as she is now."
Perking on hearing Ataru's voice, Danu sighed as she leaned down to embrace him from behind; she was quick to sense he automatically tense at such a display, so she didn't push harder than she wanted to. "Sorry," he then confessed as he reached up to gently squeeze her arms in reassurance. "You're a different person than Lum, Danu. I'm trying desperately to keep that in mind." He then gave her an amused look. "At least Tamiyo-san was able to help with your hair."
The now afro-less Oni-form Avalonian chuckled; her beautiful luminescent blue-green locks were in a more stylish and modern style than what her template normally wore her hair. "Yeah, nice to have another tough girl help out there. My head felt like it had an anvil pressing on it when I first became self-away and those toughs from Butsumetsu showed up."
Both of them laughed, then they exchanged a look before Ataru sighed, then he moved to shift his "wife's" new sister around so she could relax in his lap. Understandably, Danu was more than willing to accept such an invitation, she literally moulding herself against his body; she was dressed in spare clothes that Sanokura Emi had loaned her. Right now, the former Eisa Girl's High School alumni were meeting with Sukeyama Sakuya down at Welcome House on Ōmure-jima to be briefed on the all-grade "ladder school" the matriarch of the Moroboshi Clan currently attended, Stargazer West College. And while an effective transfer to said school wasn't in the works just yet, girls like Emi were definitely considering it; the couple of "physicals" forced on them by the principal of Tomobiki High after the aliens came the previous fall hadn't impressed them at all. Whether or not they would all join Inu Chigaiko in "playing hooky" over the next three weeks before things went back to "normal" on the return of Lum and the "usual suspects" to Earth from a prolonged hospital stay was up in the air; Ataru wasn't betting either way.
"Touch me anywhere you want, Darling," Danu then bade as she reached up to unbutton the blouse she had on, exposing the fact that she had no bra on underneath; no doubt, she had got used right away to the bioroid race's eschewing of foundation garments unless one was experiencing the messiest part of one's menstrual cycle. "Oh, Maidens, I want you so badly...!"
"You are a hell of a temptation," he admitted as he reached down to unbutton her jeans and gently stroke her. "And believe me, I'm going to pre-Gift you with so many orgasms that you won't be able to walk or fly straight for a week." He kissed the tip of her ear, making her meow. "But I don't want to let my anger at your sister ruin the pillow scene just yet."
She gave him a look before tensing on hearing Tachiko shout out, "WHAT?! NO MONEY?! HOW'S THAT POSSIBLE?!"
Both of them gazed in the direction of Hiromi's quarters before giggling. "Getting the reveal scene about how much we view what Shūtarō values so much as evil," he noted as he allowed her to reach down to his crotch, he unbuttoning his jeans to give her better access. "Still, I've got hopes for Tachiko. Look how much you changed when you got your new body."
"Oh?! What about you, Darling?!"
Danu then awked as Ataru stiffened before she moaned. "Oh, Maidens, Darling! I'm sorry...!" she hissed out, recalling what she learned earlier had befallen her other-self's husband in the wake of the encounter with Elle de Rosenbach.
He sighed. "It hurts like hell, Danu," he admitted as he reached up to pull her close, allowing her to touch him skin-to-skin as much as possible to allow her telepathy to probe into his mind and let her metaphorically see what he had endured since he woke up in the Doll House — the pocket dimension created by the first Infinity where battle dolls used to act as replacement bodies for people who were fatally wounded before getting the chance to be Gifted — late on Friday evening. When he experienced a sheer TSUNAMI of lost memories concerning his quest (as Tariko Katabarbe) to get as many people empowered as metahumans to stave off an alien invasion like the Urusians threatened, such nearly overwhelming his mind...and make him realize how much things could have been so badly WRECKED because someone didn't care for the then-future Trickster of the Show "spreading the wealth" like she had done for over a decade. "You can feel it now, can't you? That's what we feel about Gift thievery."
"Gods!" she hissed as images flashed before her mind's eye of what Tariko's past-self Haddoro Hamee — the incarnation of the Trickster of the Show at the time of the Mother of All Fight Scenes against the Urusian Empire twenty-seven decades before — saw and felt when he learned of what had befallen Redet Danu at the hands of her parents. Seeing the reborn comedian literally BUTCHER Danu's fool parents in response to their effective BETRAYAL of their only child to the forces of the Imperial Houses, they smarting from being handed such a one-sided DEFEAT at the hands of the Children of the Forge. Such prompted by the-then Mistress of Lightning coming back to Uru to announce their having becoming grandparents; she gave birth to her first child with the then-Rampage, Lir'beta Pietohe'esogu, just before heading off to see her sire and dam. "It's like grave-robbing, isn't it?"
"In a way, yes," he admitted as he relaxed, reaching up to unbutton her blouse. Sensing his willingness to get on with the pre-Gifting — which was definitely something anyone could enjoy when it was done via what Yizibajohei called a "pillow scene" — she meowed as she moved to slip off her jeans. "You wouldn't allow vital secrets to get out if you could stop it, right?"
"Of course not!" she said as she lifted herself off him, allowing said jeans to fall clear of her legs before she spun around in mid-air, flipping off her blouse before moving to straddle his crotch. "Oh, Darling! It's so BIG...!"
Their lips then mashed together in a heated kiss...
That moment, on Uru (local time: An hour after midnight)...
"No...no...no...DARLING...!"
Redet Lum's body sparked as her powers tried to lash out in response to whatever she was now sensing concerning her missing "husband", that making the crack medical team summoned to care for her and the others who had been badly wounded at the Onishuto Cathedral two days before tense before they relaxed, many of them exchanging knowing looks with co-workers before returning to their duties. The private suite set aside for the would-be empress of the Oni had been augmented with special shielding systems to keep her powers suppressed while her badly wounded body knitted itself back together again.
"I wonder what happened to Mr. Groom," a nurse noted.
"They still can't find the guy?" a doctor asked.
"No!" the senior medical technician assigned to Lum's care said. "According to security footage, he just vanished in a flash of light after getting clear of the main doors; that was just before the roof dropped on everyone."
The others moaned as another technician pumped some more anaesthetic into Lum's body to make her fall asleep. "Any cause?"
"No...!"
"WHERE IS LUM-SAMA?! I MUST SEE HER NOW!"
Hearing that VERY unwelcome voice, the medics all moaned. "HE'S here?!" the doctor hissed.
"If the Terrans find out about HIM...!" the nurse wryly noted.
The others wryly chuckled as they prepared to receive their "honoured" guest...
Back in Tomobiki, in an apartment near the Mizunokōji estate...
"U-nit...De-dron...Sil...sys-tems...in-it-i-al-iz-ing. No...se-cur-i-ty...lock...en-gaged. This...u-nit...re-quires...an...or-gan-ic...con-trol-ler. In-ti-ma-cy...pro-gram-ming...en-gaged...to...ac-quire...or-gan-ic...con-trol-ler."
Hearing that somewhat melodic voice echo from the now-opened "seed probe" sent some centuries before from a planet named Shōzoran to eventually create the quite cute android now calling himself "Asanuma Shun", the Careful Planner of the Circle of Thought looked up from her field PAA. "Initialize human emulation programming, Sil," Tsuruya Rumiko ordered.
"Hu-man...e-mu-la-tion...pro-gram-ming...in-it-i-al-ized," the gorgeous raven-haired gynoid now sitting up from said seed probe ship declared before her grey eyes fluttered as the inner light of her awakening internal systems faded. "Oh, Maidens..."
"Feel better now?" Rumiko coyly asked, her own brown eyes sparkling with considerable interest.
Sensing that, Dedron Sil blushed as she moved to float herself clear of her place of effective birth. Even if she was a gynoid, she was organic enough for her body to replicate her template's flying abilities, not to mention the pulse-photon projection powers she had been given at birth; most likely, that had been done through genetic engineering since members of House Dedron on Uru had not demonstrated any extra metahuman capabilities since the Mother of All Fight Scenes. Landing on the floor of the extra bedroom where the seed probe had been placed in storage after Shun and his parents Natsume and Kyōmi had been activated the previous spring, she made a coy pose to show off her considerable "assets". "Am I beautifully constructed, Rumiko-sama?"
The third of Yiziba's premier team of hyper-genius polymaths licked her lips. "If I didn't already have a girlfriend..."
That made the would-be heiress of the headship of House Dedron blush. "Fujinami Ryūnosuke, right?" she asked before nodding her thanks as Rumiko reached over to offer her a sleep shirt to cover herself; the windows of the extra bedroom had their drapes pulled but there was no sense in being too distracting. "That effectively asexual girl who joined Lum's class just after the start of the current calendar year? Has a widower tea shop owner as a father, he's now with her in the hospital in Onishuto?"
"Same. I take it you got all that information from the rimrae umale."
"Tcha! Oh, what about Nayan-cha and Jora-cha? They — well, the other versions of them — were my other-self's lovers."
Rumiko gave her a concerned look. "Natural or forced?"
"We're all women on Ceres, by the way," Sil noted as she slipped on the soft cloth, her epidermal sensors going wild as the silk-like feeling flooded her mind. "I assume Ataru-sama will order all of the other staff there to 'conform'?"
Her effective host made a face. "Ugh! Careful with THAT word around us, Sil-chan! Some people might see it as a fight scene seed!" As Sil smiled coyly at her — given that she was not the least bit constrained by the demands of her other-self's "elders" among the Imperial Round of Uru to behave in a certain way, she was allowing all the pent-up feelings and thoughts that would have given her template ulcers before long the chance to express themselves — the Careful Planner sat back in her chair. "Do you really blame us, after all? All of us here on Earth who've been Gifted over the last decade? Our 'patron', so to speak — who was born Moroboshi Ataru, by the way — warned us constantly about the threats coming from beyond Earth."
The just-activated gynoid gaped. "Wait! What?! Lum's husband was...?!"
A finger was raised in warning. "No marriage tag despite Lum's claims; only time Ataru tagged her horns was in the Tag Race."
That made Sil stop, her jaw dropping. Pausing as she allowed her mind to run through all that she knew about Redet Lum, the raven-haired woman then moved to sit down by the desk where Rumiko was. "I can't believe it was THAT bad for her!"
A hum answered. "So I've heard, Rei tried to EAT her once! Never mind her not being allowed to express her true feelings concerning Ōgi's idiocy with the Vosians six years ago, that ATOP she being deluged all the time by her 'most faithful' AND Rei's uncle and his friends in the Imperial Round?" Rumiko reminded the other before tapping the control crystal of her PAA. "Okay, Nayan and Jora are about to be woken and activated; Shun-kun's boyfriends live in neighbouring apartments, so when they're out of gestation, I'll have you all come here in case you get the itch for an orgy to celebrate your effective 'rebirths'."
Sil gave her an inviting look. "Care to join us? Being loyal to Ryūnosuke-san is understandable — she is quite the handsome one despite all that her father's forced on her all the time — but you Forge Children don't care for marriage, remember?"
A tired sigh escaped her. "She wouldn't understand, Sil-chan. I appreciate the offer, but I've just got my memories back about becoming Yizibajohei only on Thursday just last — that's when Kasuga Ayumu-chan, the current Infinity, came through to help me get back into the Great Show of Life before she was off to rescue Ataru-kun — and there's a lot more going on here in town than even your 'allies' among the rimrae umale realize." She took a deep breath. "Did you know that Ōgi got it into his head to bury a starbase self-destruct device in the middle of Tomobiki here as a way to help his 'goddess' suppress the 'great evil'?"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
Sil was now as white as a ghost. "Rumiko-sama, I swear I didn't know that...!"
"I'm not blaming you at all," the hyper-genius polymath who was Japan's smartest student bar none even before her Gifting cautioned. "But you can understand now that with the disruptions the alien presence on Earth is unleashing — which has, fortunately, been contained in Tomobiki since after the Tag Race — the governments here would definitely like it if you all left us alone while we got our own houses in order. You people wouldn't like it if we of Yiziba dumped our issues on Uru, right?"
"Of course not!" the gynoid nearly yelped.
"So why would you believe we'd like it if you people did that to us?"
That made Sil consider that before she sighed. "So what happens now?"
"We wait for your girlfriends, let you bleed off some stress with the boys, then we go shut Ceres down."
A determined nod answered the Careful Planner...
In a large apartment block in the southeast part of Tomobiki close to the border with Nerima, Monday, sunrise (three hours before breakfast)...
"What...a...bea-u-ti-ful...day!"
Giggling in robotic lockstep as she reached over to pick up the section of artificial skin that covered her maintenance hatch, Tōno Mizuki could only take a deep breath as her human emulation programming kicked in, thus allowing her to act as if she was a normal organic girl from Saitama north of Tōkyō proper in lieu of being a very advanced alien gynoid. Hissing with delight as she allowed said patch of skin to seal properly with the rest of her body, the nude and tanned beauty with the short-cropped brown hair and matching chocolate eyes got up, stretching herself automatically; even if her body couldn't really grow and develop as an organic person's could, the tomboyish sophomore mahjong player who was currently a part of Class 2-7 at Tomobiki High School had the reputation of being quite the sportsman and had to act it no matter what, in public and private.
While the "most faithful" flocking the "friend" of an alien-born classmate of Mizuki's at Tomobiki High hadn't been able to probe into the shared student dorm managed by the physically eldest of the free Shōzoki in town, Toyohara Etsuko...!
Like others such as she, Mizuki never asked to have been born as a virtual REPLACEMENT of a natural-born person, said person having been deliberately KILLED ultimately at the orders of the omniversal AI now in control over Shōzoran as a way of ruining plans by those who disapproved of Mother's creation centuries ago to see to it that the plan to preserve traditional society and history on that world would be forever haunted by rivers of BLOOD. It weighed on her, it weighed on every free AI now alive on Earth and most likely on other planets; neither Aruka Ran nor Redet Lum had ever spoken about the true nature of the surrounding space around the solar system unless something oddball came up and explanations had to be made. Of course, Mizuki didn't care about asking Ran — who had been deliberately placed in Class 2-7 to keep her away from Lum; even if the staff often demonstrated a very laissez faire attitude when it came to the aliens now living in Tomobiki, they did know some stuff about such details — the free Shōzoki on Earth had a private information-sharing network that would put anything created for use on the general Internet known to normal Terrans to total shame. If she didn't want to risk her own destruction — not to mention an "invasion" despite what Moroboshi Ataru had done the previous fall, such launched to "cleanse" Earth of the Shōzoki "menace" — Mizuki could pass on things about the galaxy which would shock the hell out of Lum's most passionate fans.
Thinking about the Stormtroopers — Mizuki KNEW they were the real cause of the "world oil theft" incident in October after the Tag Race which effectively ensured Lum would be able to pursue her false "marriage" to Ataru; yes, the tomboyish gynoid understood THAT fact about Urusian mating rituals — and the others who seemed to gather like hungry jackals around the warlord's daughter from Uru and her effectively hapless "husband", Mizuki had to wonder now if they wouldn't really be bothered to learn of things like the Seifukusu, the Ipraedies, the Goa'uld...and especially something like Mother itself.
"Calculating deep thoughts, Mizuki?"
Perking on hearing that question from the doorway to her bedroom — like the other teen gynoids living her, Mizuki's "cover story" indicated she was being allowed to live at Etsuko's dorm house due to her parents working overseas; in truth, Mizuki's "parents" were a pair of D-class drones who had been placed in storage as an extra layer of security — she turned to see a sister gynoid and the current iinchō of Class 2-7 leaning against the frame. As nude as Mizuki was now, Kinomiya Yukari was a bookish-looking girl with long black hair she normally tied in side ponytails, grey eyes behind reading glasses. She was an adopted native of neighbouring Musashino; Yukari's "cover story" was pretty much the same as Mizuki's; her drone "parents" were in storage in the basement, only to be brought out whenever the presence of such people were required, like in parent-teacher conferences. Such actually didn't happen as the homeroom teacher for Class 2-7 was herself a gynoid, Randō Serika.
"Just wondering what's happening now with the dolts in Class 2-4," Mizuki noted as she beckoned the other girl in so they could share a warm kiss, their eyes locking with the other girl's so they could mentally exchange information even if they were talking like normal people. "You saw those people show up on Thursday night in that other space taxi to kidnap the rest of the class."
"Hai. No one came to classes on Friday," Yukari affirmed as they held each other close, gazing outside at the surrounding cityscape; being built as intimate companion gynoids, they were lovers as much as they were friends and spiritual sisters.
"Wonder if Ataru-kun actually got married to this Elle person," Mizuki noted. "Perfect way to get rid of Lum."
A shake of the head responded. "No. Lum's way too stubborn about this and Ataru-kun does seem attracted to her in his own way. Besides, you've seen how his mother acts around him at times. Lum's practically his only real friend in town."
Mizuki humphed. "Wonder what'd happen if Ataru was ever told the truth about their...eh?!"
Yukari blinked before she sensed where the other girl was looking, then she looked herself...
...before she gaped on seeing a woman appearing to be a year older than Mizuki and Yukari had been built to emulate, possessing waist-length brown hair with a VERY long ahoge in a zig-zag format sticking out from her forehead. Matching eyes peeked out of a very slender face, such projecting a look of profound curiosity as she glanced to and fro as if she was searching for something very important. She was dressed in the blue camouflage work uniform of the Maritime Self-Defence Forces, the rank of captain on her slip-ons even if she didn't wear headdress...which, given she was FLOATING about twenty metres above the ground, made such a sight quite odd even in this age of metahumans and parahumans appearing in sporadic places worldwide; the greatest known concentration of same being the Massachusetts city of Brockton Bay northeast of Boston.
"Kuma, nya! Will you stop flying around like that, nya?! People will stare at you, nya!"
Both gynoids blinked in confusion as ANOTHER woman appearing to be the same age as the brunette — even if she had shaggy pink-shaded blonde hair cut at the neck, chestnut brown eyes peeking out of her face — fly up to "stand" close to her. Yukari and Mizuki blinked before their optical functions kicked in zoom, allowing them to stare at the name tapes on their uniform tops; both read KUMAMOTO over the kanji 熊本. "They do kind of look like they're sisters," Mizuki noted.
Her sister mahjong player — Yukari was also president of the Tomobiki High Mahjong Society, whose members were all Shōzoki gynoids, as was their staff advisor; naturally, such was Randō Serika — nodded in question...
...before both girls yelped in shock as the two obvious metahumans looked straight at them, then moved with blinding speed to hover right outside the window of Mizuki's bedroom! As the two AIs noted that neither of the newcomers were glancing down towards their exposed bodies — both of them seemed to be staring intently into the younger-looking women's eyes for some odd reason — Mizuki and Yukari held each other close. Aliens who knew of Shōzoki were one thing. What Americans these days most often called "capes" — especially if said capes were actual OFFICERS in the military! — were something totally else.
After a moment of mutual staring, the brunette first of her class of light cruiser/destroyer leader salvaged the previous day by the long-missing seventh carrier of Operation Z from where she sank in 1944 near the Malaysian state of Pinang thanks to HMS/M Tally-ho hummed before she reached over to gently stroke Yukari's cheek, making the brunette gynoid gasp as her skin sensors instantly registered the simply ungodly amount of mesonium infused in the newcomer's DNA. "Kawaii so, kuma...!" she said with a kind smile, making Mizuki giggle on hearing that speech affliction from the adopted native of her namesake district in Kumamoto on Kyūshū (the source point of her namesake river) and Sasebo (where she was built after the end of the Great War) now known on Yiziba as the Destroyer in the Void, Dona ("Kuma"). "Ne, ne, Tama-chan, do you think that Teitoku will want to become Yukari-chan's and Mizuki-chan's 'master', kuma?" she then asked as she gazed on her companion beside her.
By then, her sister was gently petting Yukari's head. "Hai, nya! Both of them are so beautifully built, nya!" As both gynoids blushed — their intimacy functions were now kicking in big time because of the announcement of someone wanting to become their spiritual master and owner — the newcomers shared knowing giggles. While many Shōzoki now active in Japan knew that elements of the government were aware of their existence — one of the most prominent Terran experts on Shōzoki AI technology was Professor Hatoyama Junji of Ōsaka; he had once apprenticed with the first to have decoded how seed probes worked in the 1940s, Professor George Andrews of Fort Erie in the Canadian province of Ontario near Niagara Falls — that these metahumans were offering them an escape from the threat of Mother, much less gatherer androids like Shirai Kōsuke and Kamiya Hokuto attending Tomobiki High School, was something that definitely would make this Monday morning one never to forget.
Yukari then perked. "Um...would you like to come in, Kaisa-tachi?" she then bade, waving them inside.
The metahuman girls nodded as they tucked their bodies into crouches before floating through the open window into the bedroom, landing with grace on the floor before they clapped their hands ritualistically. "Ojamashimasu!" they said in unison as they bowed their heads to their hosts...while, much to the gynoids' shock, their work boots instantly turned into uwabaki!
That made Mizuki gape. "Um...how did you guys do that?!" the tomboy asked as she pointed down.
"Mizuki! Be nice!" Yukari instantly scolded.
"Daijōbu nya, Ojō-san!" the pink-haired second of her class now known on Yiziba as the Sandy Mistress of the Eastern Capital, Kana ("Tama"), said, waving the bookish girl down. "She's curious like a cruiser should always be, nya! It's okay, nya!"
"Our uniforms can transform into our proper battlesuits whenever we have to go fight baka fools who want to start something, kuma," her older sister explained as she gazed at Yukari, making the raven-haired gynoid blush on noting that her stare hadn't once gone down to gaze upon her nude body. "We just got back to duty from where Yonaga-san saw us salvaged, kuma!"
"Kuma! They don't know about people like us, nya!"
"Hai, hai, Tama! Daijōbu kuma! I'm getting to that, kuma!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"Um...don't mind if we ask you this, but are you some sort of warship version of a kamadogami?!" Mizuki demanded. "Because I'd swear that you were both somehow related to the Imperial cruisers Kuma and Tama with the way you talk!"
As Yukari gaped, the newcomers beamed. "Hai, Ojō-san, you're right, nya!" the second of her class said before she warmly grasped the brown-haired gynoid's hand. "Light cruiser Tama at your service, nya!" she then said as she waved to herself with her free hand, then she winked. "Of course I'm not a cat, nya! Cats can't be re-modeled like I was just now, nya!"
Yukari nearly fell on her butt laughing at such childish inflections dotting said person's words, then she gazed on the reborn cruiser whose attention she got. "And you must be the cruiser Kuma as Mizuki just concluded, yes?"
"Hai, Ojō-sama!" the adopted native of her namesake town on Kyūshū affirmed with a nod, she reaching over to gently squeeze the younger woman's hand. "First ship of the Kuma-class light cruisers Kuma, kuma! Born in Sasebo, kuma!"
"But now we're kantai musume; 'shipgirls' in English, nya!" the other reborn cruiser declared. "You're both Shōzoki, nya! You know about Yizibajohei, nya?" As both high school students gasped, the adopted native of Kōshū in Yamanashi Prefecture (where the source of her namesake river was) and Nagasaki (where she was built) nodded. "Hai, nya! We're the souls of our warship-selves merged with first generation battle dolls created by the second Healer of Destruction, nya — why do they call her that anyway, nya? — to go deal with those silly lar'beke and everything normal metahumans on Yiziba can't fight, nya!"
Both Yukari and Mizuki were almost speechless, their central processors nearly overwhelmed by this "reveal scene" as the Children of the Forge would call something like this. "Sugoi...!" they gasped in overwhelmed awe.
"So we just got salvaged from where we were sunk, then we were told that Tennō wanted us to come back and help defend Earth from the alien baka-bakas like the ones who came to hurt Teitoku since last fall, kuma!" the reborn Kuma — her human name was Kumamoto Kumiko — added, that making the gynoids exclaim in disbelief. "We wanted to get the lay of the territory before reporting to Teitoku to commence our new assignment as part of the Special Force here in Tomobiki-chō, kuma!"
"But Onē-chan here saw you two being nice and romantic, so she guessed you were both Shōzoki, then we came here, nya," the reborn Tama — now Kumamoto Tamami — finished. "So since you look to be high school students, you got to be going to Tomobiki High School, nya! So it's good that we're here now, nya! Teitoku managed to save three pretty boys like you from this Mother creep last night and he's willing to help keep the rest of you safe from all of Mother's spies on Earth, nya!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"Ataru actually hit on us a couple times, right?" Mizuki rhetorically wondered with a wry grin; given they had perfect memory, both gynoids could recall things with crystal-clear clarity that most normal people would forget.
"Indeed he did," Yukari noted as she held up a finger. "Please excuse me, Kaisa-tachi!"
And with that, the iinchō of Class 2-7 was off. "Is she okay, nya?" Tamami wondered.
"She's getting her cellular telephone now to text Ataru-kun, Kaisa-san," Mizuki explained before she perked. "Um...do you...?"
Both cruisers smirked, reaching into their jacket pockets to pull out VERY familiar — even if she had never seen one in person — slate grey crystalline-like devices, each capped with a glowing diamond mesonium control button on one side. "Sugoi...!" the gynoid exclaimed on seeing real personal administrative assistants — the galaxy-famous "cosmic Swiss army knife" used by the Children of the Forge for multiple reasons, she knew — in the hands of the two reborn warship kami. "Is Ataru-kun...?"
"Hai, he's adopted of Yiziba too, kuma," Kumiko affirmed with a nod before she perked on hearing running feet from outside.
Yukari was back inside, her Panasonic Eluga touchscreen smartphone in hand as she tapped something through text messaging to send off to her fellow iinchō wherever he was now. "He's alright, is he?" the raven-haired gynoid asked as she sent said SMS off.
"Hai, Teitoku's fine, nya!" Tamami assured. "He got rescued from that creepy Oni on Friday by his best friend Kasuga Ayumu-chan, nya!" Ignoring both girls' dropped jaws on hearing the name of the best friend of nationally-famous child prodigy Mihama Chiyo of nearby Itabashi Ward, the Sandy Mistress added, "Teitoku's in town, but he's in a place that's magically hidden so the baka alien gaijin can't find him and drag him off against his will and ruin everything he's done over the last decade to shield Earth from all the baka alien gaijin like the lar'beke..." — here, she literally PURRED on speaking of the Goa'uld, such making her sister growl in anticipation — "...because the Oni's friends on that Phentax Two planet are being really stupid, nya."
That made both gynoids pause. "You know about that bomb in the Ginza?" Yukari asked, pointing to the northwest.
"Hai, we know, kuma," the Void Destroyer said with a nod. "Tsuruya-hakase and her friends in that Circle of Thought group are thinking up ways of using that bomb against the baka alien gaijin right now, kuma. We'll be getting those baka gaijin out of town as soon as we can track all of them down to make sure they can't use that bomb against Teitoku and his friends, kuma!"
"Well, that's a relief!"
Everyone perked, then looked over to the doorway...
"I just got an interesting message from Moroboshi Ataru-kun, minna," the very motherly yet also VERY sexy and well-endowed Toyohara Etsuko noted as she gazed into the room, smiling politely at the two reborn Imperial Navy cruisers now visiting two of her charges. "He just helped three freshmen boys at the school be forever free of Mother and is willing to spend the next three weeks — while he plays hooky from school since his 'friends' are all currently in intensive care on Uru — helping us in the same manner." She winked knowingly. "He just got up after helping three organic girls be GIFTED with pillow scenes!"
Yukari and Mizuki gaped. "Yizibajohei can DO that?!" the former wondered in bewilderment...
The Toranoseishin Finances Tower, that moment...
"Ohayō gozaimasu desu no, Nē-sama!"
Hearing that cheerful greeting from the Great Chef of the West, Moroboshi Hiromi moaned as she stepped out of her personal quarters into the communal dining lounge/kitchenette which would be now shared between herself, her brother Ataru and any guests who came to reside in one of Tomobiki's tallest buildings. "Shirayuki-chan...!" she groaned as she stretched herself. She had slipped on a beautiful sleep shirt before stepping into a public area given that Mendō Tachiko and Shitto Nijiko were still getting used to being girls now even if the creators of their new bodies had gone out of their ways to make the transition easier for two of the "Holy Apostles" as members of the "one true faith" on Phentax Two would see their other-selves' as.
"Dame desu no, Nē-sama!" Osamu Shirayuki scolded as she wagged a finger at her new elder sister. "Hime doesn't want to hear it! Besides, Hime's used to getting up nice and early to make meals for Hime's parents and friends!"
Shaking her head at her little sister's actions — indeed, whatever was cooking now for herself and her fellow film replicas, not to mention her own template/elder brother, smelled incredibly delicious — the would-be guidance counsellor sighed. "Well, Danu's Gifted at least; Onii-san took care of that last night." Seeing the Nagoya native look a question her way, Hiromi added, "She's Ledo right now; she chose the Greek name Epimetheús for the local translation." As the powerful trofikinetic nodded in understanding — such a Gift gave Redet Danu mid-level FISS powers, plus flame manipulation abilities...and that would be tacked onto what she had inherited from her other-self AND Avalonian powers as well — Hiromi walked over to prepare some welcome morning tea. To Shirayuki's amusement and understanding, she was going to try out the cloudberry tea, a concoction which had been developed over the previous seven decades by the crew of THG Yonaga during their long entrapment in a magically-hidden cover in far northeastern Siberia awaiting the chance to carry out their part of the Pearl Harbour attack. Given such isolation and the Bushidō-driven need to stay in shape to fulfill the orders issued to them by Yamamoto Isoroku, the crew of the warship now known on Yiziba as the Ice Warrior of Eternity, Gaeyuo ("Yonaga"), had advanced their personal education to the point where even the lowest seaman could easily test out for a master's degree at university in their chosen discipline.
"Hime knows that Yoiko-san went out to find Kumiko-san and Tamami-san yesterday; they just got their uniforms and extra kit this morning from the stores at Yokosuka," Shirayuki noted. "According to the Show networks, she's going to find Otsune-san and Kitami-san this morning. She also was able to sense Kiko-san where she was scrapped at Nagasaki."
That made Hiromi hum. "Well, the Eight Commanderies are aware of her now due to her crew's association with the Dúma Gamájuna," she noted. "I'm sure people from the Kyūmagun — or even Yomigawa-gensui — would gladly help out."
"Hime's sure of that, too."
"You still working out ways to help Ō'oji-san and the crew get used to richer food than what they've had to endure over the years since that earthquake trapped them there?" the would-be guidance counsellor then wondered.
"Hai, hai," the Great Chef of the West affirmed with a nod. "Hime's been speaking to Eiichi-ojiisan and the others with Yoiko-san's medical staff, not to mention some gamájun healers as well, to get an idea of what they've had to eat since they got stuck in that silly cove by Túndra-san like they did. Hime's got ideas, but they'll have to be slowly introduced, though."
"Hai, true. Nearly seventy-one years exposed to all that mesonium radiation in Sano-wan..."
"What's this about Sano-wan?! How do you two know about THAT?!"
Both turned as a wide-eyed Tachiko approached, having stepped out of her guest bedroom. The beautiful now-clone of the scion of Japan's richest family did take after him perfectly even if her raven hair extended to her shoulders; she had just finished showering and had slicked back her hair in the style Shūtarō preferred, the ubiquitous cowlick sticking out over the centre of her forehead. Like Hiromi, she was in a sleep shirt to cover her trim yet muscular body; also like the would-be guidance counsellor, the would-be heavy hitter of the "delinquents" in that class film project had yet to be Gifted. "Don't you know, Tachiko-san?" Hiromi calmly wondered. "Our granduncle Moroboshi Kyōsuke is Admiral Fujita's junior navigation officer."
"Hime and Nē-sama knows what your grandfather did for Yoiko-san's crew, Tachiko-san," Shirayuki added.
Tachiko considered that, then she chuckled. "Didn't think about that," she admitted before blinking as Hiromi gave her the cup of tea she was preparing. "Oh! Arigatō, Hiromi-san," she said, clearly surprised that the newly-adopted sister to her other-self's rival had been so courteous. Taking a sip, she then blinked. "What type of tea is this?" she asked.
"Cloudberry tea, Tachiko-san. Rubus chamaemorus; it's native to Siberia where Yoiko-san's crew have been stuck in since they hid themselves there before that silly war started in 1941. Good source of Vitamin C," the Great Chef of the West explained.
That made the would-be heavy hitter gape. Her grandfather, retired Major Mendō Gennosuke of the Kempeitai, had regaled a wide-eyed Shūtarō with tales of the seventh carrier of Operation Z and her gallant, almost all-samurai crew; he also made it clear to his ultimate heir about keeping quiet about the Yonaga and her long-missing crew, even to Moroboshi Ataru. "They're alive?!"
"All present and accounted for," Hiromi stated as she moved to make her own tea. "The cove Colonel Sano discovered for them in '41 was lined in diamond mesonium deposits at an ungodly level as you'll probably know. What no one didn't know until they were trapped there by an earthquake collapsing the glaciers at the entrance was that the cove was also the place where the ruling parliament of the gamájun based themselves there; you know about them?" As Tachiko's grey eyes went wide on hearing that, Hiromi shrugged. "Everyone thinks it was the gamájun's own spiritual patron, Lord Túndra, who did that to them."
Tachiko considered that before walking over to sit down at a nearby table. "One of the so-called 'Great Old Ones', you mean? Rumoured to be three million years old give or take a few millennia; he helped others like him and Josef von Taserich-sama deal with the Old Ones during the time of the War of the Great Banishment twenty-five thousand years ago, you mean?"
"Hai, same."
"So where is Sano-wan, anyway? I assume this 'Yoiko' is the Yonaga herself as a shipgirl. When was she transformed?"
"Start of April, thanks very much to America's first shipgirl."
"Who? Enterprise?"
Hiromi shook her head. "No, Yvonne-san came back on the sixth in a controlled experiment done by Jessica's sister Elizabeth — she's the Academician, one of Rumiko-chan's friends in the Circle of Thought — at the orders of Bartlet-hakase." As Tachiko gaped on realizing that her "rival" — through Tariko Katabarbe, of course — had actually met the President of the United States of all people, the would-be guidance counsellor added with an amused smirk, "She's a Vietnam veteran: Long Beach."
That made Tachiko blink as the door to another of the guest rooms opened to reveal a bleary-eyed Shitto Nijiko. "The nuclear missile cruiser? Oh, that's right! Her hull disappeared from Naval Base Kitsap not so long ago! What happened?! If someone like THAT was Gifted as a kantai musume, it should have gone VERY public, even being heard here!"
Hiromi snorted as Nijiko came over to make some tea for herself. Tachiko was clearly now aware of the fact that a lot of news from outside Tomobiki had been either heavily edited or outright blocked from reaching people inside town, no doubt to ensure that something of a metahuman nature would never reach the ears of any of the aliens there. "The fools on the 'other side of the Hudson', Tachiko-san," she explained, making Tachiko tense before she moaned. At Nijiko's questioning look, the would-be guidance counsellor added, "Magicals, Nijiko-san. American wand-magicals, if Kōsuke-san didn't hear this from Sakurambō-san, are mostly conservative when it comes to interacting with 'no-majs'; that's what they call normal people."
A snort escaped the curly-haired would-be knife fighter. "Sounds way better than 'muggle'," she noted.
The others in the kitchenette laughed. "Oh, it gets even better, Nijiko-san," Tachiko dryly noted before sipping her tea. "Much that I understand the magicals' desire to remain separate from normal people, the Americans did take it to ridiculous extremes at times, far worse than the British did as Chikage-san would know." Sensing the other woman's curiosity, the newly-embodied scion of Japan's richest family added, "Since 1790 up until the start of the Greater East Asia War, they isolated themselves to such a harsh degree, they actually KIDNAPPED normal-born magicals, then deliberately WIPED the memories of their parents concerning HAVING such children!" As Nijiko gaped in horror on hearing that — at least magicals in Japan and Britain were willing to allow immediate relatives of normal-borns to be clued into that secret according to Sakurambō Sakura — Tachiko then stared at their host. "So what did the 'wise' people of MACUSA actually do to the kami of the Long Beach, Hiromi-san?"
"They tried to enslave her once she was Gifted as a way of having a counter available against Fujiko-san and her sisters," Hiromi explained. Ignoring both Tachiko's and Nijiko's outraged squawks, she added, "Unfortunately, they didn't count on how powerful a first-generation battle doll was, never mind how much the kami of Long Beach — her name is Naomi Haight-Ashbury — actually was; she did serve FORTY-FOUR years under the Stars and Stripes, after all." Here, she then giggled. "Even worse, Naomi-san was touched heavily by the spirit of the Summer of Love in 1968." As Shirayuki giggled on being reminded of that particular aspect of the Cosmic All-Seer, the would-be guidance counsellor held up a finger. "As soon as the leader of that lot from MACUSA tried to use an Imperius curse on her, she declared them 'squares', then led them on quite the merry chase all over the continental United States, making them rack up so many violations of the Statute of Secrecy that when they were arrested when she went to the White House to report to Bartlet-hakase, they were automatically sentenced to life in prison at Fort Levenworth! Right after that, Bartlet-hakase issued a Magical Executive Order forbidding the Department of Magic and MACUSA from having ANYTHING to do with shipgirls ever again. Once that was done, Elizabeth-san was clear to salvage and Gift Enterprise into Yvonne Swanson. She went forth to get her sisters Yorktown and Hornet back — Eleanor Livingston and Francine Knox, respectively — then they took over the headquarters site of the Specialized Warfare Command in Texas."
"How many American shipgirls are back?" Nijiko asked as she finished making her tea, then headed over to sit with Tachiko.
"Don't know exact numbers, but it's quite a group; America did have the largest fleet of warships in that war, remember?" At the nods from her fellow film-replicas, Hiromi added, "No museum ships; that would be TOO public. Certainly neither Arizona nor Utah at Pearl Harbour; again, far too public. And Yvonne-san is avoiding the ships who are seen as popular diving spots these days; vessels such as Oriskany over by Pensacola, much less the fleet sunk at Bikini Atoll or Prinz Eugen over at Kwajalein."
"Could you imagine how people would react if Luisa-san came back, Nē-sama?" Shirayuki asked.
A sigh answered her. "Yes, the Germans would be QUITE wary of that, I'd believe."
Tachiko hummed. "Bismarck, you mean. Who makes the names for them, anyway?"
"Onii-san does," Hiromi answered. "Turns out that when Fujiko-san was salvaged, Hinako-chan found out through a friend of ours from New York City that in an alternate dimension, shipgirls exist to fight highly warped versions of themselves called 'Abyssals' as a group. The version of Onii-san there became a 'fan' of such beings, then devised human names for them given that he violently disapproved of how they were being treated as effective child soldiers by their 'admirals'; the versions of Fujiko-san and her sisters there look like they're MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS!" As Tachiko and Nijiko visibly winced, Hiromi shrugged. "Somehow, the Conservator got information about that, then when the battle doll that merged with the kami of the Fubuki off Cape Esperence was about to be reborn, he declared 'Tene lomher'buo, Fukushima Fujiko'. All the Fukushima sisters and the Ashikaga sisters — they're the Ayanami-class destroyers — were named in the very same fashion, as were Yoiko-san, Naomi-san, Yvonne-san and her sisters and the others salvaged until Onii-san got his memories back. His other-self now in the States is busy thinking up names for future shipgirls; the Russians are also involved in this, so they need help, too."
"Damn!" Nijiko whistled. "With all the warships sunk in the Greater East Asia War, we'll be shielded like no one's business in case these Niphentaxians get a clue, then shout the alarm to Lum-chan's people about this."
"All their communications were jammed first thing on Saturday morning, Nijiko-san," the would-be guidance counsellor advised. "No real need to worry, though. Niphentaxian observers aren't supposed to send their findings back to Phentax Two more than once monthly Earth-time to avoid detection; almost all of them are passionate Terranophiles, even more passionate than their loyalty to the 'church of the day' as we call it on Yiziba." Ignoring Nijiko's and Shirayuki's chuckles and Tachiko shaking her head in droll amusement — the two film-clones were thoroughly briefed by Hiromi the previous evening concerning the "one true faith" which had been founded by a diplomat's son after he had been saved from the horrors of the Terrible Swamps a decade ago by one Redet Lum — she sipped her tea. "So if we're going to hit them with a MOAFS, it'll have to be by early June at the latest. Which is good; we could have all the observers in town with potential links to that bomb in the Ginza gone by then and all of our friends worldwide can sweep up the remainder of the observers at their leisure once it's all done and over with."
"What about the rest of the Galactic Federation?" Tachiko wondered. "The Niphentaxians have, what? Three thousand combat ships, including three hundred Kashin-class battlewagons like the one Invader-taisa commands? Once they're destroyed...!"
"They'll be too busy worrying about seeing to their own defences to concern themselves about us, Tachiko-san," Hiromi cautioned. "I showed you the local galactic map, remember?" At her "rival's" nod, the would-be guidance counsellor added, "The Ipraedies keep a close watch on the rimrae umale all the time. Instant they see that fleet gone from orbit over Phentax Twenty, they'll move to invade the system to make sure that Ōgi's fools and his allies there are put down; despite all their issues, they are the supreme technological savants in the known Universe and can easily recover from such destruction."
"The Avalonians. Our adopted race, you mean?" Nijiko noted.
"Sadly so. Which means the MOAFS will have to be a two-pronged attack: Destroy the 'Army of Lum' and ensure Ōgi is permanently dealt with, plus liberate all the Avalonians and get them clear of the system. According to Ayumu-chan, there's an abandoned fleet of ships — including a VERY impressive space construction dockyard — from the predecessor rate to our adopted people on Sagussa which was abandoned near Spotak, an out-of-the-way element of the Federation not far from here. It'd be child's play for Ayumu-chan to move that fleet here to our part of the solar system, though we won't do it now."
"Oyuki-sama's people would notice, you mean," Tachiko concluded.
"Hai."
"What about Ceres? Where are Sil-san and the others now?"
"Sil-san and her friends are with Rumiko-chan now, Tachiko-san," Shirayuki answered as she came over with some freshly-baked muffins for her elder sister and her peers to enjoy. "She's getting them to go visit the school later today to tell everyone what happened at the Onishuto Cathedral on Friday; it'd be edited, of course. That'll help keep the silly rimrae umale down."
Both would-be "delinquents" nodded. "Not to mention the parents of all the students taken away," Tachiko noted.
"Damn! Can't believe Lum-chan's people would DO that sort of thing!" Nijiko added.
Hearing that, Hiromi suppressed a delighted grin even if she shared a knowing look with her sister...
Inside Ataru's bedroom...
"Damn! Can't believe that shit like that really happens here!"
Redet Danu sighed as she stretched herself, smiling as she watched the dawn of a very beautiful day lighten up the skies over Tomobiki. "Hai, Ao-cha really was an idiot in believing you people weren't prepared to understand all the 'important' stuff." Shaking her head, the newly-Gifted Titaness of Recklessness, Ledo ("Epimetheús"), then headed over to pick up her sleep shirt to slip it over her; much that she could sense that her "fans" near the kitchenette were clearly changing in a way that would completely elude either Mendō Shūtarō or Shitto Kōsuke, she wasn't going to tempt things with either of the former men before they were Gifted themselves. Besides, given the FOUR ORGASMS she had received the previous evening thanks to their host, who was now standing on the floor nearby doing some exercises, as had Fujinami Tatsuko and Miyake Saiko...!
"You think that Ayumu-san's dropping the cathedral roof on her head on Friday might make her wake up to some things, Danu?" the Ocean Goddess wondered; she was actually helping Ataru do some tuī shǒu exercises to help focus his ki.
"Maybe help her recall her meeting Tariko-chan and Ayumu-san like she did?" the Eternal Titaness of Power added. "After all, that would be quite the shock for a six year-old child. Meeting two of They Who Must Never Be Named?!"
Everyone laughed at that observation from Saiko. "Well, Ao-cha does remember Tariko-chan to some extent. She doesn't seem to relate what Tariko-chan was going to become with a potential Yizibajohei presence on Earth. Can't understand why, though; if Ayumu-chan and Tariko-chan didn't butt in like they did, she'd have grown up a CRIPPLE on Uru! You've seen my memories about how bad Rei was treated because he can't fly, right?" At the other girls' nods, she sighed. "That's nothing to forget."
"She'll get a lesson once that bomb's gone and her 'most faithful' are properly de-fanged," Ataru noted as he pulled his hands away from Tachiko's, then they stood to attention before exchanging bows of thanks. "Arigatō, Ta-chan."
"Dō itashimashite, Ataru-san," the powerful hydrokinetic answered in turn, blushing at that nickname he thought up for her. She knew now that her sister would be addressed properly as "Ryūnosuke-san" once she got back to Earth after Golden Week ended in the first full week of May...unless she proved to be too obstinate in her support of their peers, then it'd be "Fujinami-san".
If not the "sexless boy" insult, of course...which would hurt the "heir" of Hamachaya like nothing else in the world ever could.
As both Tachiko and Saiko knew, the Terran girls of Class 2-4 and elsewhere in Tomobiki held a curious mixture of feelings when it came to their classmate/schoolmate. Yes, they hated him for his hitting on them unbidden all the time, not to mention their being made to suffer for something that he might have caused; even if such had obviously been provoked by the loss of memories of his true life as Tariko Katabarbe the previous September, Ataru was quite apologetic about those incidents. But given that NO BOY in school seemed to be interested in any of them in any way — given their universal attraction towards Redet Lum, getting any of them to pay attention to the likes of Gekasawa Kumiko (who had been voted the prettiest girl in Class 1-4 back in January, with her oldest friend Marubeya Momoe in second place and Miyake Shinobu in third), getting dates with any of the men, even someone like Shitto Kōsuke (who was known to date around behind the back of Aisuru Satoshi), was utterly IMPOSSIBLE! — the fact that Ataru did, in his own way, pay attention to them was quite welcome in their eyes.
Remembering that, both Tachiko and Saiko then recalled how much Inu Chigaiko had drifted closer to Ataru since people started to forget her name after that weird Hallowe'en party when some alumnus of the school calling himself the "Red Cloak" came by to visit...though the basketball team forward and future Silent Huntress of the Fabulous Quartet kept it moderated given the presence of Ataru's "wife" and all its accompanying hazards in mind; her own feelings for Ataru were a clear reflection of how people like Kumiko and Momoe felt for him deep down, even if they dared NOT express such a thing in public, of course.
Once Ataru began treating them like unwanted strangers...!
Someone's PAA then beeped, making Danu look over to the nightstand, then she flew over to tap the control on it, allowing a holographic screen to appear over it. Seeing the message there, she looked over. "Darling, it's someone named Itō Yoiko. She says she just found someone named Kumamoto Otsune somewhere south of Hong Kong of all places. Who's that?"
"Cruiser Ōi," Ataru answered as he jogged over to press the control button himself. "Ohayō, Yoiko-san! How's the weather?"
"Truly, Ataru-san, both Susano'o-sama and Hachiman-sama — along with their esteemed counterparts Hǎishén-zōngshī and Wǔdì-zōngshī — loudly approve the restoration of the warship kami worldwide to protect us from the alien fools," a voice that seemed as cold as deepest space, haunted by a moaning wind even if such was also clearly female, responded back.
Saiko and Tatsuko came over to gaze upon the image of a regal-looking and obvious quite tall woman in a green-and-gold traditional sleeved battlesuit similar in looks from a distance to the local models of martial arts gi worn in Japan, such topped with a gold wheel of Dharmachakra which was the central sigil of Buddhism on the upper chest, that topped with the kanji 代永 in black; said person was now floating in the air well above the South China Sea, the clear skies behind her lightening as the sun rose off to her port. The wearer of said uniform had long silver-shot black hair in a simple ponytail, eyes the shade of storm-laden clouds peeking out of a severe yet quite beautiful face; she appeared to be in her mid-twenties. Floating beside her to starboard was a considerably shorter woman in greens-and-blacks, also in the traditional style. She had brown eyes peeking out of a younger face — matching that of the other reborn light cruisers which had come to Tomobiki over the last couple of days — with matching shaded-hair that flowed long to past her shoulders, such splaying out in bangs at their fringes. Her chest symbol was the depiction of a geyser similar to Old Faithful in America in natural colours, the kanji 大井 embossed on top.
"Otsune-san," Ataru greeted the reborn fourth of the Kuma-class cruisers with a polite bow of his head. "Welcome back. Your beauty no doubt matches the passion your crews demonstrated both before and during the late unfortunate war."
An embarrassed awk escaped the adopted native of the Shizuoka city ward of Aoi (source point of her namesake river) and Kōbe (where she was built), her cheeks flaring to the shade of ripe cherries at such a compliment. Quickly recovering, Kumamoto Otsune then bowed politely. "Torpedo cruiser Ōi, Teitoku! Honoured to make your acquaintance!" she blurted out.
"Darling...!" Danu knowingly teased.
Ataru waved her down. "What about Kitami-san, Yoiko-san?" he wondered.
"We'll be off to look in on her, Ataru-san," the adopted native of Maizuru (where she was built in a magically-shielded special dry dock before being commissioned prior to the welcoming of her "eldest" sister Yamato to the Imperial Navy) and Hiroshima (final home of her beloved admiral Hiroshi Fujita, the true father of Japanese naval aviation) answered. "She was sunk west of Manila, so I'll contact the Department of Magic within the walls of old Kutà ng Santiago to advise them of our coming. Once Kitami-san is salvaged, we'll head to Nagasaki to see if we can entice Kiko-san's return with the help of the most gracious Mahō-Shōgun."
Otsune looked surprised. "You mean the Yanks didn't force her into jail or something like that, Yoiko-san?"
"No, she was simply relieved of her responsibilities as such by Shōwa Tennō in 1952 when the magical side of the San Francisco Peace Treaty was signed, Otsune-san; such duties were then taken up by the magical warlords of the Eight Commanderies. In the meantime, if what Kumiko-san and Tamami-san have indicated to us is true, Ataru-san, you'll be soon deluged by the poor unfortunates of the Tomobiki High Mahjong Club to ensure they remain free of that dratted Mother creature, so we'll be off."
The link was then cut, then Ataru moved to get dressed; he was now just in his underwear. "How many of the Mahjong Club were affected, Ataru-kun?" Saiko asked as she, Danu and Tatsuko moved themselves to get dressed.
"All of them, including Randō-sensei," he responded, giving her a knowing look.
That made the girls all gape. "And Ran-chan didn't once even NOTICE?!" Danu demanded.
"Danu, do you really expect ANY free Shōzoki to act in any way suspicious in the presence of someone who could bring about their deaths in the proverbial blink of an eye?" he chided as he gave her a knowing look.
That made the warlord's daughter now adopted of Onishuto jolt before she sighed. "Good point..."
To Be Continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
Translation list and source language (all Japanese unless noted): Ao-cha — Elder sister, combined with the "-cha" suffix honorific equivalent to the Japanese "-chan" (Vosian); HMS/M — His/Her Majesty's Submarine, specific Royal Navy ship prefix for undersea ships (English abbreviation); Kaisa — Literally "naval field officer", the modern Maritime Self-Defence Force rank title group for lieutenant commanders (Santō-kaisa, "third-rank naval field officer"), commanders (Nitō-kaisa, "second-rank naval field officer") and captains (Ittō-kaisa, "first-rank naval field officer"); Ojamashimasu — Literally "sorry for any trouble", ritual greeting for entering someone's home; Uwabaki — Indoor shoes; Kantai musume — Maidens of the fleet; Dúma Gamájuna — Gamájun Parliament (Russian); Kyūmagun — Short for Kyūshū Teimajutsu-gun ("Imperial Magical Commandery of Kyūshū"), AKA the Kyūshū Magical Association; Gensui — Army field marshal/Navy fleet admiral/marshal of the Air Force (effective equivalent to an American "five star" flag officer"); Sano-wan — Sano Bay, named after the person who discovered same, Colonel Sano Akira (from The Seventh Carrier); Kempeitai — Military Police Corps, the infamous national secret police/intelligence agency pre-1945; MACUSA — Magical Congress of the United States of America (English abbreviation); Tuī shǒu — Pushing hands (Mandarin); Kutà ng Santiago — Fort Santiago (Filipino); Mahō-Shōgun — Supreme General of Magic.
Background character notes: The visitor seeing Redet Lum in the second scene is Ōgi ot'ndai-Zkuhsbagh, a villain from the latter half of The Senior Year, first appearing in "What Price For Love?"; think of Mendō Shūtarō's looks and Megane's fanaticism towards Lum dialed to maximum, you get the idea. And both Gekasawa Kumiko and Marubeya Momoe appeared in the Yatsura manga story "How I've Waited for You" (manga chapter #26); their family names are my invention.
Tōno Mizuki, Kinomiya Yukari, Toyohara Etsuko and Randō Serika are characters from SEGA's Super Real Mahjong video game series; I discovered the artwork concerning them when I was in Korea teaching English from 1996-2005. Mizuki first appeared in the P5 version of the game, first published in 1994. Yukari appears in the P6 version, published in 1996. And Etsuko and Serika appear in the P7 version of the game, first published in 1997. The hometowns of the versions of the characters appearing here are based on where their voice actresses were born, as I did with the NOëL characters.
The speech afflictions of people like Kumamoto Kumiko (THG Kuma) and Kumamoto Tamami (THG Tama) are based on their KanColle interpretations; given that "kuma" translated as "bear" in Japanese and "Tama" is a common cat name...!
Now the list of shipgirls noted on here. First, from the United Kingdom:
Lieutenant Commander Leslie Wilma Abby Bennington RN (Her Majesty's Submarine Tally-ho [pennant S317, formerly P317])
Note that when I name most Western shipgirls, they take their names from their first captains unless said shipgirl is an actual namesake of a real person. Leslie Bennington (HMS/M Tally-ho) may not appear in future stories in this series, but I do note their human names none the less in the writer's notes when they're mentioned in the narrative. Note that she had pennant P317 in World War Two; the Royal Navy and other Commonwealth forces tend to recycle pennant numbers whenever they need to. Here, I switched the superior letter from the wartime "P" to the post-war "S" (for submarine) to make her part of a single list.
Now from America:
Captain Anna Eleanor Livingston, USN (United States Ship Yorktown [CV-5])
CAPT Yvonne Claudia Swanson, USN (United States Ship Enterprise [CV-6])
CAPT Anna Francine Knox, USN (United States Ship Hornet [CV-8])
CAPT Ida Danielle Cannon, USN (United States Ship Oriskany [CV-34, later CVA-34])
CAPT Miriam Abigail Young, USN (United States Ship Utah [BB-31, later AG-16])
CAPT Sonia Lily Owings, USN (United States Ship Arizona [BB-39])
Yvonne Swanson (USS Enterprise) takes after fan art done of her by RealMBW, appearing at Danbooru at entry #1705675; I prefer that to her Azur Lane or Warship Girls interpretation. Eleanor Livingston (USS Yorktown) does take after her Azur Lane self. Naturally, Francine Knox (USS Hornet) resembles her KanColle self. Sonia Owings (USS Arizona) takes after the interpretation of her which appears in the KanColle fan art series Pacific; such can be seen at Danbooru at entry #1876843. Her fellow Pearl Harbour martyr Miriam Young (USS Utah) takes after Sonia's Victory Belles interpretation; such can be seen at Danbooru at entry #2846843. And Ida Cannon (USS Oriskany) takes after Yvonne Swanson's Azur Lane interpretation. As an aside, when USS Utah was regulated to a training ship in 1931, she was given the hull classification symbol AG (general auxiliary); during her career, USS Oriskany was classified as a CVA (attack aircraft carrier) from 1952-1958, then reverted back to the hull classification code CV (aircraft carrier) until decommissioning in 1976.
As for the fleet sacrificed in Operation: Crossroads in 1946 at Bikini Atoll — much less all the museum ships scattered across the United States — they'll be introduced in writer's notes when mentioned in the narrative.
Finally from Germany:
Kapitän zur See Wilhelmine Luisa, Fürstin von Bismarck-Schönhausen, KMDR (Kriegsmarineschiff Bismarck [pennant 62])
KptzS Olympia Catarina, Fürstin von Savoyen-Carignan, KMDR (later Captain, USN) (Kriegsmarineschiff Prinz Eugen [pennant K93], later United States Ship Prinz Eugen [IX-300])
Both of the German shipgirls listed here take after their KanColle interpretations. Note that since shipgirls named after a person gain that person's family name, Luisa von Bismarck (KMS Bismarck) and Catarina von Savoyen (KMS/USS Prinz Eugen) are accorded the honorary noble rank of Fürstin (effectively meaning "princess") even if such has no legal standing in Germany or Austria these days. Shipgirls reborn from capital ships/cruisers are accorded the honorary rank of Kapitän zur See ("Captain at Sea"), the equivalent of a US Navy captain; such is abbreviated as KptzS. The ship prefix KMS (Kriegsmarineschiff, "War Navy Ship") is my invention; Germany never made use of ship prefixes after World War One. The pennant numbers assigned are my invention as well, given in order of their construction; per the European system, German capital ships get no pennant superior letter while cruisers get K (Kreuzer). And when she was turned over to the Americans as a war prize after the end of the Second World War, KMS Prinz Eugen was accorded the hull classification code IX (miscellaneous auxiliary). Finally, the short code KMDR stands for Kriegsmarine des Deutschen Reiches ("War Navy of the German Realm").
And from Japan:
Itō Yasuko-taisa DNTR (Tennō Heika Gunkan Yamato [DS-35])
Naturally, she takes after her KanColle self when she appears. DS means Dokyū Senkan ("dreadnought battleship").
Professor Hatoyama Junji is my name for the unseen grandfather of Hatoyama Rinrin (Schmiede) who appears in the background of the "B" side of the Sister Princess Re Pure anime episode "The Cup of Anii and Me" (anime episode #6). As an aside, Professor George Andrews is my first true villain character, based on the late Vincent Price's depiction of Dr. Goldfoot in the movies of the same name that appeared in the late 1960s. He is far more benign in the universe of this story.
Note that the greetings shipgirls give to people in this stories match their introduction or library quotes from the KanColle game.
Yizibajohei personal administrative assistants (PAAs) are based on the Mother Box concept from Jack Kirby's New Gods comic book series from the 1970s, with almost the same level of power even if the capabilities are somewhat different; they primary serve as communication and teleportation devices, plus they have basic field healing capabilities.
The gamájun are based on mythical creatures from Slavic folklore who resemble birds with women's heads; in the universe of these stories, they are metamorphic humanoid avians similar to Veela from the Harry Potter series. They first appeared as a group in Of Gifts And Semblances; as revealed there, they are given special protected status by the Russian magical government even if many purebloods try to kidnap them as chicks to see them become enslaved intimate companions.
Yomigawa Tsukiko (AKA Lady Tsukuyomi) is my character, an Oriental ally of Gellert Grindelwald. She first appeared in the Icemaidens series and her background is described better in Magic and Canada.
As an aside, Josef von Taserich (AKA Tash Ri) is Earth's oldest human being at about twenty-five thousand years old (give or take a few centuries); his background is also looked at in Magic and Canada. The term War of the Great Banishment is a reference to what Rupert Giles describes the history of vampires in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "The Harvest" (second episode of the first season), when the Old Ones "lost their purchase on this reality"; given how powerful they're said to be in BTVS, having beings even MORE powerful with the Great Old Ones (AKA the Great Beasts, based on the same concept from the Alpha Flight comic book series from the mid-1980s) made a lot of sense to me.
Notes on deities: Susano'o is the Shintō god of the sea; his Chinese mythological counterpart is Hǎishén. Hachiman is the Shintō god of war; his counterpart in the Middle Kingdom is Wǔdì. When the two Chinese deities are mentioned here, Itō Yoiko (THG Yonaga) uses the Chinese honorific Zōngshī (meaning "ancestral teacher") for them.