Iczer-one Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Earth Child ❯ Eye of the Maelstrom ( Chapter 24 )

The Earthchild

 

(An Iczer/Ranma/Sailor Moon Crossover)

 

Written by

Jim Robert Bader

 

Proofread by

Shiva Barnwell

 

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi,

Naoko Takeuchi, Toshihiro Hirano, & Hitoshi Okuda,

with ideas and suggestions by TH Tiger and Johannes Huber)

 

 

 

 

 

“So, what is your report, Agent Yuri?”

 

“Colonel-san,” Asamori Yuri responded, “After careful and methodical study of the recent wave of paradimensional attacks, our department has concluded that the enemy known as Big Gold has been mounting what amounts to a series of escalating probing attacks, each one much stronger and more intense than the ones before it. She is strengthening her forces by honing her techniques in bio-molecular sculpture by learning from each and every defeat that she has so far encountered, and given that her resources appear to be limitless, it is reasonable to suggest that the worst is yet to come our way. This last attack threatened to destroy a sizeable portion of the Island of Honshu, who knows how dramatic the next encounter will be, or if our C'thuwulf allies will be a match for her perfidy. It all depends on where the ultimate threshold may be for these Iczers and their human partners.”

 

“I see,” replied Colonel Sharon Rogers, supreme Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage and Law Enforcement Division) as she leaned her chin on her hands and steepled her fingers together, “So your superiors at Department O believe that we may be headed for a major crisis that will dwarf all of the others so far experienced to date…and that you have concerns regarding the C'thuwulf ability to manage these escalating crises?”

 

“It would not be my place to speculate, Colonel-san,” Yuri replied, “But it is a logical concern at this time given how casually the enemy threatened the very existence of the Japanese Home Islands. To date her concerns seem to be centered upon eliminating the Iczers, who have demonstrated the greatest tenacity in resisting her plans for invasion…”

 

“But you don't think we should continue to rely upon the C'thuwulf alone to effectively deal with this crisis?” Colonel Rogers asked in a manner that did not imply it to be an actual question, “I see…so do you have any other proposals for dealing with this particular enemy, given that the technology gap between ourselves and their technology is literally astronomical…”

 

“This is regrettably so, Colonel-san,” Yuri replied, “My department shares your concern regarding our inability to counteract a technology that can quite effortlessly transport any object of considerable size and mass into the realm of Subspace and effectively trap it there for an indeterminate duration. Both the Avengers and League of Justice were lured into such a trap during the second wave attack headed by Neos Gold almost fifteen years ago, and the ease with which they neutralized our conventional military defenses leaves one to wonder if the preparations we have taken since then have amounted to anything substantial. I am certain that your scientists, as well as those who loyally serve Japan, have labored exhaustively to come up with a means of counteracting their technology…with…indifferent results, we are just as certain.”

 

Carol could only smile in response to that, security protocols making a more detailed response something problematical, a fact she considered a nuisance, though she had been in the Spy trade for virtually her entire adult life. Instead she turned to the man seated to her left and asked, “General Straker…do you feel at liberty to field that question?”

 

“Ah, yes,” the silver haired Commander of the Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Command affirmed, “Well, as you all know, my agency has worked the closest of anyone to the C'thuwulf over the past decade, and we at S.H.A.D.O. been charged with reviewing those technological innovations that the C'thuwulf have deemed sufficiently safe to share with us, so we can state for a fact that we have limited means at our disposal that might prove effective against the enemy, but nothing that comes close to comparing with the full power of a Synchronized Iczer…”

 

“And what is it that your people alone have access to this new technology, General?” asked a granite-faced man (who would only identify himself as K), representing the shadowy organization known only as MIB, “We have some pretty advanced gizmos of our own and we've been handling them since long before your outfit was even founded.”

 

“There is no doubting the extent of your experience or the breadth of your agency's knowledge of alien cultures and technologies, K,” Straker replied, “But the MIB is primarily an Interplanetary Witness Protection Program that deals with individual cases of extraterrestrial immigration and naturalization. You may be gifted with the means of monitoring and intercepting worldwide penetration on a case-by-case basis, but the mass immigration of the C'thuwulf to Colony Zone Alpha is a task that S.H.A.D.O. was better suited to carry out…with the full cooperation of the Japanese authorities, including your department, Agent Yuri.”

 

“Gentlemen,” Sharon spoke up, “This is neither the time nor the place for a turf war. We each have our assigned places and roles to fulfill in the defense of the planet Earth and its various peoples. The C'thuwulf have been an invaluable ally for all of our respective departments, but we would be remiss to rely entirely on their means for our collective defense. Now, perhaps an overview of our encounters with the enemy so far to date might give us some idea of what we may be facing in the very near future. Agent Yuri?”

 

“As you wish, Colonel-san,” Yuri bowed, then began as holographic images were summoned up to act as visual aids to her accompanying lecture, “As you may already know, the C'thuwulf hail from an alien star system many thousands of light-years apart from our own, a very ancient civilization many millennia old whose genetic structure is so close to a match to our own that they must either be distantly related or else incline one to believe in a near-miraculous parallel evolution…”

 

The image of a humanoid female was called up alongside that of an Earth female, and then a male body appeared alongside it them, complete with DNA graphic illustrations.

 

“These C'thuwulf are all female…they have no men in their society whatsoever,” Agent Yuri continued, “It is believed---through a scenario proposed by our Xenobiology division, based on the recreation of evidence formed by their legends and some creative speculation on our part---that at one time they were just as bisexual as we humans of Earth are today, but that something in their past…possibly a war or some great calamity…caused the men of their world to die off, forcing the surviving women to reproduce themselves by artificial means, perhaps some early form of recombinant DNA technology that has since been perfected into their current means of procreation…”

 

“If they had an early form of this technology to begin with, then why didn't they use it to recreate the men in their population?” asked a distinguished looking old woman, identified only by her code-name as “M,” representing MI-6 of Great Britain.

 

“We believe the original source of their problem to be a biological weapon…a disease that targeted only those possessing the Y-chromosome, which is male exclusive,” Yuri replied, “If such a radical terror weapon could be perfected, then it might have taken decades for their scientists to come up with an effective cure, rather like the AIDS crisis of the late twentieth century, by which point their population might have died off altogether, or---at the very least---all women of childbearing age would either experience menopause or be rendered sterile. The virus theory holds well with the possibility that the surviving female half of their branch of the human species might have adapted to and developed a natural resistance to the disease, so that by the time they had perfected a cure there was no longer a recognizable use for it, and so women alone would be created to repopulate their society, giving them a means of stabilizing their numbers well on unto the present.”

 

“Is such a virus even possible?” asked the French Intelligence representative, a fellow by the name of Clouseau (though he insisted that he was NOT the famous---or rather infamous---gentleman Inspector by that name).

 

“More than possible,” Agent Yuri replied, “There have even been persistent rumors that certain laboratories here on Earth have dabbled in the creation of such a virus, and---if not for the efforts of some of those who sit here this day---then we might well have experienced the same crisis as befell the C'thuwulf, in which case, gentlemen, many of you would not now be attending this meeting.”

 

All the men sitting down in this assembly council looked appropriately chagrined at the thought while their female colleagues hid smiles at their discomfort.

 

The Russian Security Aparachik, a distinguished blonde man named Kuryakin, shifted uncomfortably in his chair and spoke up, “While it is neither the intention of my government to confirm or deny these rumors…let us just say that we are aware of certain efforts that have been undertaken in that direction. Needless to say, quiet efforts have been made to see to it such a lethal biological weapon is never allowed to threaten the security of the public at large…”

 

“Or else we'd all be crying uncle, huh?” Agent K asked with a hint of wry amusement.

 

Sharon had to stifle an urge to smile at these exchanged comments, but the need to conduct an effective and orderly meeting of the World Security Council dictated that she nod to Agent Yuri and say, “Please continue with your explanation.”

 

“As you wish, Colonel-san,” Yuri nodded back then resumed, “We do not know how far back in time it was that the C'thuwulf began experimenting with their process of genetic recombination, we only know that they now consider their means of externalized test-tube reproduction to be entirely natural to their continuing society, so much so that their uteral and fallopian reproductive organs have nearly atrophied to a vestigial condition. It is possible to re-stimulate these organs through a combination of therapy and hormonal implant, in which case their bodies can conceive and sustain a human embryo in an entirely normal fashion, which has been demonstrated repeatedly by those rare instances of human and C'thuwulf mating which have taken place over the past decade of our close association. The very fact that we are genetically compatible does well to suggest that we are---in fact---one people separated by a bridge of countless millennia…possibly stretching back well over a hundred thousand Earth years, though some estimates hold the number as close to half a million.”

 

“In other words they're not really aliens at all,” Straker spoke up, “They're more like Sisters of Man come home to join our common family on this, our home planet. We don't really know what caused the separation to occur, but possibly there was an ancient lost civilization to which we both belonged, now long deceased, for which we have only the half-forgotten relics to serve as evidence that it even existed.”

 

“Quite so, General-san,” Yuri resumed, “There are many precedents that we can site as examples of more recent alien-world contact…the Jurai and the Oni, for example, are unquestionably parallel to human and must also have borne a common ancestry. Then there are the Colonials themselves…but enough said on this subject as it is not pertinent to the immediate matter at hand…”

 

“Quite so,” said another handsome blonde man of indeterminable age, who steepled his own fingers and said, “Please continue.”

 

“As you wish…Captain,” Yuri could not hold back on a certain lilt in her voice, as one might only have when addressing a living legend, “The C'thuwulf are very proud of their culture and heritage, and justifiably so, but many years ago they suffered a calamity that nearly destroyed their entire civilization. An alien presence…like a computer virus of a magnitude that we cannot even begin to comprehend…attacked the central computer of their homeworld, upon which their entire star-faring culture depended and caused it to go rogue, leading to a catastrophic shut-down which resulted in the eventual destruction of their home system. The survivors of this calamity pooled their remaining resources in order to create the arc-like World Ship that was to become their home for many years unto the present. This moon-sized orbital body now remains in stationary orbit around the Earth's moon and serves as their Colony distribution point, not to mention the repository and storage center of all that is left of the original C'thuwulf star system. Close to twenty years ago their Worldship arrived within the Earth star system…”

 

“This was during the first Big Gold Invasion, right?” Agent K inquired.

 

“Correct,” Yuri replied, “Understand, when the C'thuwulf became exiles they went in search of an uninhabited world capable of sustaining life…but this presented a rather tall order as most of the likely worlds which they encountered were already inhabited or colonized worlds belonging to other star-faring or developing civilizations. By the time they came upon Earth they had already scanned hundreds of worlds, which had to be disqualified as they did not wish to impose their presence on a less developed culture. That ended when the Avatar known as Big Gold arrived to commandeer their Worldship under the promise of giving the C'thuwulf a new homeworld…”

 

“Meaning Earth,” Straker grimly summarized in a terse two-word statement.

 

“Correct again, General-san,” Yuri replied, “Given their extremely advanced technology, a takeover of our world was a virtual certainty, and---without the inconvenience of a conscience to impede them---they might well have crushed humanity and created a new empire out of the ashes of our world. That was the intention of Big Gold, who had infected the C'thuwulf with the Venomoid plague…”

 

“Excuse me,” Kuryakin spoke up, “That part needs a bit of clarification, I believe…who are these Venomoids?”

 

“Not who,” Straker replied, “What…definitely a what.”

 

“Indeed,” Yuri replied, calling up a holographic image that was more like a walking nightmare, “The Venomoids are an entirely alien, parasitic species whose origins are even more shrouded in mystery than the C'thuwulf themselves. What is known about them is that they serve Big Gold as her legion of shock troops…only they are much more like a plague of locusts who get released into the general population in the form of spore-like nodules, which in turn find and infect likely host bodies and gradually incubate inside their hosts before erupting out and taking over their hosts…effectively killing them from within, making these Venomoids a clear and present threat to all of humanity. Fortunately we have developed effective means for eradicating these parasites while they are in the early stages of incubation. We gained this knowledge from our C'thuwulf allies themselves, though some elements have since been perfected by our own scientists working independently of each other…and I believe that both S.H.A.D.O. and MIB have deployed agents to infected areas to help contain and eradicate the Venomoid infection.”

 

Both Straker and Agent K nodded tacitly in acknowledgement of this subject.

 

“There are some indications that Big Gold herself might be a product of Venomoid technology,” Yuri resumed, “Though details on this subject are---at best---rather sketchy. It is suspected that a hostile alien menace deliberately infected the C'thuwulf Homeworld computer with the Gold Virus in order to create an Avatar employing C'thuwulf technology to the purpose of eradicating the C'thuwulf altogether…”

 

“An Avatar,” the French representative spoke up, “That is a term for an android who serves as a physical embodiment of a central mainframe, correct?”

 

“Precisely,” Yuri turned to the holographic display of a female model whose eyes were larger than normal and whose ears were distinctly pointed, “Although the C'thuwulf technology is organic rather than electronic in nature, the analogy to an LMD is not too much of a stretch. Life Model Decoys originally were fairly crude and robot-like, but we have since created androids who synthesize the organic model to such an astonishing degree that even a bio-scan might not be able to tell one from the other…”

 

“We know,” Sharon said blandly, “My predecessor…had some difficulties in that regard before we identified and corrected the problem of a rogue Bioroid rebellion.”

 

“Just so,” Yuri continued, “But the C'thuwulf devised a rather…unique means of avoiding this problem altogether. When they first conceived of the Iczer model they realized that they could devise a Bioroid who could become so immensely powerful that a single Iczer would pack more personal firepower than a Juraian battle cruiser. The danger of such a being going rogue and turning on her creators was certainly contemplated, but then avoided by the simple means of creating an inherent dependence in the Iczer for a human partner. Rather than generating their own internal power source of unlimited potential, they turned the Iczer into a living transducer who would link with a human partner and draw upon that link as a source of nearly limitless psychic and emotional energy. Of necessity only a few humans are capable of the degree and level of raw power that would be needed…but having such a dependence forces an Iczer to establish a co-dependent bond with a human woman, and thus they gain a human perspective that keeps their loyalties firmly grounded in a pro-C'thuwulf position.”

 

“But something went wrong when Big Gold was created,” Straker nodded in a manner intended to further prompt the exploration of the matter.

 

“Exactly so,” Yuri nodded, “Iczer One was created as the first prototype of the Iczer Model, but Big Gold was a radical departure from the Iczer model, a mutation---if you will---created by the Virus that had co-opted their Great Central Computer to avoid the dependence of a human partner. Big Gold is purely a machine inside and out…organic in structure and yet wholly lacking in humanity and containing an internal power source of near-limitless power, effectively making her functionally independent…though we believe that she still requires machine assistance for regular maintenance and internal supervision. That suggests that the current Big Gold is in command of a huge central complex existing on a parallel world where she remains in authority, unlike in our own reality where she is a faded memory who effectively never really made it.”

 

“That's the part that gives my department some real headaches,” Agent K remarked, “We picked up some real flack from the Time Police over a Reality Inversion that gave their own operators real nightmares.”

 

“Temporal Overlay is not a unique phenomenon,” Straker noted, turning with a slight smile towards the blonde man sitting close beside Colonel Rogers, “I believe the Captain here has more experience on that subject than anyone else here at this table, especially during what we laughingly call the Kang wars…”

 

“Don't remind me of that,” the blonde man in question smiled back, “Just thinking about it sometimes gives me a headache.”

 

“With respect to you all, honored Sirs,” Yuri spoke up again, “We owe the continuation of life on this world to this particular incident of Temporal Overlay, which was implemented by Iczer One upon her victory over Big Gold, where she gained immense power from the C'thuwulf Great Machine and employed it to unravel the damage to our timeline brought about by Gold and her minions. This restored the C'thuwulf to what they were as wanderers before being infected by the Venomoid plague and is why many who died during the first Gold War were restored to life with only residual memories that the incident had ever occurred in the first place. However…it now seems that the overlay may not have been as entirely effective as we at first believed…”

 

“The evidence of which is the return Big Gold's evil,” M remarked matter-of-factly.

 

“Just so,” Yuri replied, “Big Gold's return is…troubling…and we know that the C'thuwulf are exploring the matter in some detail since it is clearly their own technology that is being used against them.”

 

“What security protocols are the C'thuwulf employing over this matter?” Clouseau inquired.

 

“Their Worldship is under full security alert with regular patrols of their Iczelion warriors running frequent cross-scans of both Real Space and Subspace channels,” Yuri replied, “Gamora Base and City are under similar security protocols with traffic being rigorously monitored both to and from the complex. With over one million of their own citizens…one percent of their total refugee population, left exposed on planet, and thousands of others passing among normal human society as agents, operatives and resident alien civilians…you can imagine that they are doing all that they can imagine to insure that Gold makes no further attempts to infiltrate the Tokyo region. With agents from all our respective departments working around the clock to purge those who were infected with the Venomoid plague---especially that outbreak detected in the Jubaan district---we hope to stabilize the crisis area…at least until the next fiendish assault is launched at us from Big Gold and her agents.”

 

“And that brings us to those heroines who've been so far instrumental in resisting the enemy's efforts,” Sharon replied, “What more can you tell us about them?”

 

Yuri turned to the holographic display once again, which called up the images of the first two Iczers and their respective human partners, “As you well know by now, Colonel-san, Iczer One lost her original partner back on their homeworld during the outbreak of the first Gold crisis. She found a new partner in the form of a young Earth girl named Kano Nagisa, then fourteen, who was able to Synchronize with her to achieve energy levels far greater than Gold herself was able to manifest as a counter. Iczer Two was created by Gold to be her nemesis but initially died in battle against her fully synchronized sister, only to be resurrected five years later during the Second Gold war, when Neos Gold attempted a takeover of this planet. Somehow Neos was able to draw across the time-field to the original timeline in order to revive her, only to watch in dismay when Iczer Two rejected her cause and sided instead with her sister. Five years after this, when Iczer Two had fully rejoined the C'thuwulf and assumed her current mantle as their Military commander, she met and bonded with another Earth girl named Sayoko Kai, who for the past ten years has been her devoted partner. Iczer One now holds the title of Protector for her people…a kind of formalized Presidency and Military General who has overall command over the C'thuwulf society, though she delegates much of the actual running of society to their symbolic leader, Sir Violet…sort of a combination Prime Minister, Lady Pope and Queen who has the title, Mother of Us All…”

 

“You don't say?” mused M, who seemed more than slightly taken by the notion.

 

Yuri altered the image to reflect a different set of Iczers, then called up the imagery of two more Earth girls and said, “Iczer Three---or Troi, as she prefers to be known these days---began her career almost fifteen years ago during the Second Gold war. She became active as a relative child, yet her immense power and ability to bond with Nagisa Kano gave her the ability to defeat Neos Gold and her four minions known as the Sisters of the Comet. When the C'thuwulf were given residency status she was the first of her sisters to adapt to Earth life and has freely moved about from C'thuwulf to Earth society with a fairly uninhibited air that is almost…human in the degree to which she interacts with normal people. However…it seems that she has made a recent conquest who has proven to be a bit more than even she was prepared to handle…one Sakura Saotome by name, her current partner whose assistance was critical in overcoming a revived Atros…who was herself once believed to be a clone of Iczer Three but has now been confirmed as her renegade daughter through a combination of her genetics and those of her original partner, Nagisa.”

 

“Her daughter?” blond haired man next to Colonel Rogers spoke up, “You mean…a second generation Iczer?”

 

“One of the first,” Yuri replied, “Which makes the designation of our next intrepid warrior suspect since Iczer Four…or Rhea Kano, was believed to be the first of a new generation of Iczer, a hybrid combining the genetic makeup of Iczer one and her life partner, Nagisa.”

 

“My goddaughter,” Straker remarked, “The proud apple in the eye of her parents, who has already demonstrated her abilities in repeated battles spanning the past rather active week, during which she has been forming ties with her own new partner…”

 

“…Muku Dori Senzenen,” Yuri referred to the next image, “A rather special child in her own right, who has bonded with Iczer Four in progressively more intense phases and is slowly coming to grips with a world much larger and far stranger than even she has been prepared to acknowledge until now…and indeed, all indications are that her struggles with being the partner to an Iczer are only just beginning.”

 

“And what of this other hybrid Iczer we've been hearing about?” Agent K inquired, “The one calling herself Nova?”

 

“Nova Kano,” Yuri replied with a sigh as she called up the next image of a cherry-pink haired Iczer, “The alleged daughter of Nagisa and Iczer Two, who has not been seen since her initial battle but is suspected of being out there waiting for another chance to get at the Iczers. As with Atros, she seems to be possessed by a limited version of the Gold Virus, which infects her thoughts and governs her actions…and with the power of an Iczer behind her…”

 

“She could be trouble, yes?” Clouseau asked.

 

“I'd count on it,” Stranger replied ominously, “Big Gold has plans…for all of us…and somehow Nova will have to be at the center of it all…but when the next attack comes I wonder if we'll even see it before it develops?”

 

“Perhaps not,” Colonel Rogers replied, “In which case all of our various departments should be ready…just in case this one proves too much to handle.”

 

“I wonder about that,” her husband mused as he smiled in a curious manner.

 

“Something on your mind, Steve?” Sharon asked with an upraised eyebrow.

 

“Just an impression I've been forming,” he replied, “This Big Gold seems to be relying rather heavily on technology and new advanced weaponry, as if looking for the right combination to achieve the victory that's been eluding her…but I've known more than my share of world-beaters who've made the same mistake of underestimating the human element. And in my experience there's nothing that matters more than the human will to be free, and against the spunk these youngsters are demonstrating…well, let's just say that I wouldn't want to be in Gold's shoes for anything.”

 

“I sincerely hope that you are correct, Captain-san,” Yuri replied, “But just in case…we all should make ourselves ready…”

 

 

 

 

Muku found her mind wandering off of her classes as the teacher droned on about some boring math problems. Compared with fighting against the monsters of another dimension, sitting in the undamaged wing of the Furinkan school complex was a trial and a half. Simple boredom and monotony were proving to be adversaries to which a mere beam saber could have no relative power.

 

It figured that the school administration would find some way to get classes going again, at least on a temporary level. The venerable old building was virtually a landmark to itself, and though it had repeatedly been subjected to punishing blows over the year, still the adults always found a way of restoring a semblance of normality to the place after each spectacular crisis. Muku wondered if a building could have such a thing as a soul, or even a consciousness after all the abuse to which it had been subjected, but the old complex just refused to lay down and die, so a simple thing like a giant foot collapsing a part of one wall was merely taken in stride as just another incident in the long and varied career of Furinkan High School (laughingly called “Martial Arts U” by the students of their arch-rivals at Tomobiki).

 

Muku was seriously bored, and yet at the same time feeling a level of anxiety that was difficult to place. It had been over two days since the incident with the Grey twins and no word from Rhea, in spite of the Bioroid's assurance that she would return as soon as she was able. Muku wondered that she could be feeling such distress over the simple fact of not knowing what had happened to her artificial friend, or what had become of her after the fight, and with so many other confusing things going down over the previous couple of days (such as Sakura mysteriously going AWOL, only to surface again the next day with hardly a word of explanation) Muku had found little opportunity for exploring that mystery, leaving a lot of ugly thoughts to her imagination.

 

She glanced off into the corner to where Sakura was sitting at ease at her own desk, looking intently at the chalkboard and resisting Muku's attempts at starting up a private conversation. It figured that Sakura would find this stuff interesting, of course…History was one of her favorite and best subjects…but to deliberately ignore Muku in such a way was mystifying, especially given the recent revelations about the young chef's personal feelings towards her.

 

And then there was Ken, who sat beside Sakura but could not keep from glancing sidelong in her direction with a notably puzzled expression. His iinazuke was keeping to herself a lot of late, and when asked why, Sakura would only shrug and say that she had some “issues” that she needed to sort out. Definitely troubling, and it was irking Ken off to no end that even his gentle ribbing and teasing or suggestive comments were not provoking the usual heated reaction to which he was by now quite accustomed. Even flashing his trademark camera and leeringly suggesting that he was hoping to get some good pictures of Sakura in compromising places (such as the showers, though even for him this was reckless to even hint at) did not so much as earn a peep out of her or a flash of dangerous temper. This was definitely not a healthy sign since Sakura had long been jealous of her privacy and would wield her big spatula on the head of anyone who dared to make such suggestions regarding Ken selling nude photos of her around the campus. (He had done it several times, of course, and was the only male yet living who could have pulled off such a thing, though his profits for that last take had been enormous).

 

Yumi had not exactly been much of a help during this time, being all too readily quick to leap to conclusions or make wry suggestions regarding her friends and their sexual antics. Yumi kept on urging Muku to try and make contact with Rhea, to find out what she could on her “hotline” (her word for the bracelet that Muku now wore everywhere like a bad habit), and---of course---Yumi seemed firmly convinced that Muku and Rhea were now effectively “an item,” a charge that Muku found herself powerless to refute since she was feeling such an emptiness without Rhea in her picture. Of course Yumi was always the casual one in their odd little group, the one most in touch with and at ease with her own feelings, and so the quickest to urge that others take themselves a little less seriously and “let it all hang out.” At times Muku truly envied her friend's ability to express herself without any fear of social ostracism.

 

And then there was Yui, who had turned up missing again shortly after the conclusion of the last giant robot fight, though this by itself was neither alarming nor quite as surprising. Yui came and went as best she was able with her frazzled directional sense, and so Muku was much less alarmed about the missing “Lost Girl,” even though she knew that there were “issues” of their own that needed resolving, such as Yumi's hinted complaints about Muku neglecting her “other girlfriends.”

 

Did Yui actually feel that way towards Muku? Was Sakura miffed with her because Muku had grown so close to Rhea? Muku wondered about her own feelings towards them, two of her closest friends and sometime sparring partners, whose opinions she highly valued and whose friendship, for her, was virtually a sacred trust. About the only one close to her these days who was acting halfway normally was Perm, who had her own concerns regarding her two vanished siblings, both her twin and older brother. The knowledge that Gel and Godai were presently in the clutches of an enemy who wanted them all dead was not exactly the sort of thing that could be borne so stoically by an ordinary girl, but Perm managed as best she was able, outwardly putting on a brave face around her friends, though her eyes were often sad now and showed the hidden tears that pride would permit her to shed in public.

 

What were they going to do about that, and could anything be done, or were Gel and Godai lost to them forever? In perfect candor, Muku did not know what to think or feel regarding that. The pair had been a thorn in her sides for some time now, a literal pain in the rear with Godai flattering her and offering roses to match his flowery speeches, while Gel hurled insults and (quite frequently) heavier objects. What was her life to be like without their constant nuisance keeping her on her toes and looking out for possible danger? More to the point, how would their parents cope with the loss of two of their children? Muku felt bad for their sake, and hated the part of herself that actually exulted at being free from the “Twin Menace.” She wished for some miracle to help them restore her nominal rivals to their full hale and hearty (if infuriating) selves, even if it meant having to put up with their constant challenges for the remainder of the next five semesters!

 

The teacher was still droning on about the period in pre-Tokugawa Japan that followed the chaotic period of the reign of the Taiko, Nobunaga. Feudal Japan had certainly been a very brutal-if-interesting place, but if the teacher really wanted to see a samurai-type battle, then he should try executing the maneuvers in a pair of hundred-meter tall robots…

 

“(Truly, that would be something to see,)” a familiar voice murmured inside her head, startling Muku, who almost jumped out of her chair in surprise.

 

“(Rhea-chan?)” she thought aloud, sensing the acknowledgement of her nominal companion.

 

“(I am sorry if I have worried you, Muku-chan,)” Rhea telepathed back, “(I truly would have been with you sooner, after recovering from my wounds, but…my Aunt Two insisted on retraining me after hearing about our last battle. She insisted that my combat skills needed further honing before I could return to the field of battle, so I have been in Neural Space working out with her while my body was repaired in the regeneration chamber.)”

 

“(You've been healing for three days?)” Muku remarked with concern, “(I didn't think you were that badly injured…)”

 

“(I wasn't,)” Rhea replied, “(But the fact that I was even injured at all made my aunt insist on keeping me there until she was satisfied that I had fully regained 100% of my operating power levels. You have yet to meet her…she's quite stern in some things, but I know she means well…though I have been more worried about you, Muku-chan, and what you've been up to in my absence.)”

 

Muku had to smile at this and felt the warmth of emotion flowing between them through their rapport, “(I've mostly been worried sick about you, Honey. Why didn't you at least give me a call, or have someone tell me that you were all right?)”

 

“(I am…sorry about that,)” Rhea replied with some chagrin, “(Next time I will remember to do that, but Neural Space does not have much in the way of external amenities, and dialing out is not as simple a matter as calling for take-out.)”

 

“(What's this Neural Space anyway?)” Muku mentally asked, “(Is it like Subspace…?)”

 

“(Not exactly,)” Rhea explained, “(It is not a physical reality outside the normal bounds of time and space…Neural Space exists in the Main Memory banks of the C'thuwulf central relays…it is a kind of organic-electronic field, similar to Virtual Reality within a computer. It exists solely in the mind, though it has the consistency of four-dimensional space, and many of us go there when our bodies are resting to socialize and interact in a Virtual World that seems entirely real to the senses.)”

 

“(You mean you get to play around while you sleep?)” Muku thought wryly, “(That sounds kind of neat…)”

 

“(In a way it is,)” Rhea seemed amused as she added with an odd lilt, “(But nothing can substitute for actually existing in the realm of the body when it comes to the sort of interaction that truly matters between partners.)"

 

“(Huh?)” Muku blinked, suffering a moment of delayed comprehension before getting the full reference, at which point she abruptly colored and thought, “(Oh.)”

 

Rhea was beginning to say something else when Muku felt an object bounce off of the back of her head, which startled her out of her reverie, even though it had been nothing more than a wadded up ball of paper.

 

“Hey!” Yumi stage-whispered, “Space Case…pay attention! The Teacher's looking at you, not to mention the rest of the classroom!”

 

“Huh?” Muku said aloud, only to turn and see that the vast majority of her fellow students were looking at her with frankly puzzled expressions, not the least of them being Sakura.

 

“Miss Senzenen,” the Teacher herself said sternly, “I do trust that there is a reason why you are taking a nap with your eyes open in my class?”

 

“Ah…sorry, Teach---I mean, Sensei,” Muku hastily said, then added in a mental afterthought, “(Gotta go for now, Honey, before everybody here thinks I'm a brain donor or something.)”

 

“(Well, we certainly don't want that,)” Rhea affirmed, sounding mildly chagrined, “(I am sorry if I'm getting you into trouble again…that was never my intention…)”

 

“(Don't sweat it,” Muku thought automatically before wondering softly, “(By the way…just where are you right now?)”

 

“(Look to your left, in the tree just outside the window,)” Rhea urged.

 

Muku turned her glance to the side and saw a figure perched in a tree quite close at hand. Rhea smiled back at her then vanished from the spot again, leaving Muku to marvel that she had ever been there to begin with.

 

“Is there something interesting that you'd like to share with us, Miss Senzenen?” the teacher asked again.

 

“Um…no, Sensei,” Muku replied, hoping she was not about to be called upon to answer a question on the subject of their lecture.

 

“Are you feeling all right?” that murmured line came from Sakura, of all people.

 

“Uh…sure,” Muku turned and looked back at the other girl, “Could we talk after class?”

 

Sakura seemed about to say no, but then she shrugged her shoulders and said, “All right…we…have some things that we need to discuss.”

 

Muku felt overwhelmingly grateful that Sakura seemed agreeable to a discussion of the unspoken issues that now lay between them, but she worried that she might not know what to say about this point. Her feelings were in such a tangled jumble these days, and after the frantic events of the past week or so she was hardly in a state of mind to know what her own thoughts would be in regards to Sakura. She sensed Yumi smile and felt more grateful that at least someone would be on hand to play arbiter and go-between for these less-than-settled issues, but even so she did not know how she was going to explain to Sakura about the bonds which she now shared with Rhea, nor could she anticipate how Sakura would react to the news that Muku now felt closer to the alien Bioroid than ever.

 

But Sakura was her best friend, had been one nearly all of their lives, and she deserved to hear the truth. Muku wanted to maintain their friendship and now allow any sort of a wedge to grow up between them. She hoped that Sakura would understand and be willing to give her more time to sort out the mess that was her emotions…the last thing she wanted to do was to wind up alienating Sakura or even to turn her against her, not that she could blame the other girl for being hurt at being effectively excluded.

 

But then again, how could she expect Sakura to know what she was going through? It wasn't exactly the kind of thing that loaned itself to easy explanations, but at least her friend had some distance to be objective, not like with poor Muku, who found herself drawn to another girl who---at least technically---was not truly human…

 

 

 

 

The bus driver came to a halt at the curb then turned and said, “Cherry Hill Shrine, last stop, all out!”

 

The door to the side of the buss pneumatically hissed open, but there was no one there whom the driver could see, which puzzled him greatly as he could have sworn that someone had pulled the lever signaling the need for a stop. He shrugged his shoulders and closed the doors again, then drove away to complete his daily loop, not seeing the small, black, four-footed form that sat on the curve getting the lay of his bearings.

 

“Now, let's see,” said Agent P, to all external senses a small black pig wearing an “innocent” looking collar, “That should be it right there. Have to take a few stairs to get to the thing…least it's not as bad as when I go to visit Agent Y at the Masaki shrine…oh well…”

 

He started out with a sure-footed (okay, hoofed, are you happy?) gait in the direction of the Shrine, thinking of the last time he had looked up his wayward cousin, who had the odd distinction of being possessed by a cursed man who nominally shared the same body. When first he had encountered his benighted kinsman there had been neither memory nor intelligence on the opposite end of their initial conversation. The boy named Hibiki Ryoga had been firmly in charge and did not even remember which litter had spawned him, let alone what his actual origins were, all of that being deeply submerged beneath the mind of the cursed victim.

 

P knew they shared a unique legacy, having both been spawned as a genetic experiment by the notorious Mad Scientist, Washu at least a couple of their family's generations back. P and his immediate relations now numbered in the hundreds and virtually counted as a life form unto themselves, being members of a unique porcine family designed to serve as nominal “pets” to certain high-placed members of the Jurai Royal family, their intelligence and resourcefulness having been bred into them in order to make them good operatives and body-guards for their nominal “owners.” P still had a rank and commission with the Jurai Intelligence services under the direct authority of Queen Funaho, even though his first charge---the Princess Sasami---had long since grown into full womanhood and had adopted a new “pet” in the form of a cabbit named “Ryo-Ohki.”

 

“Hmph,” he muttered to himself aloud, “Thrown over for a cabbit…there oughta be a law about that…”

 

P had long since gone on to bigger and better assignments, of course, even after his charge had snuck aboard her sister's ship and gone into suspended animation for around seven hundred years, give or take a few decades. P was now a highly respected member of the Galaxy Police, given Inspector ranks and charged with broad latitudes of power and authority after an impressive number of arrests of some of the Galaxy's worst criminal offenders. He had lived long enough to see his family grow and prosper, but he never forgot a kinsman, and keeping track of this one had become something of a part-time obsession. To the best of his knowledge, his cousin was only one of three representatives of their family who had---by a strange quirk of circumstances---gained residency status upon this backwater colony planet. His other cousin---who lived in America---was a bit of a hick with the manners of the country and a strong Arkansas accent that he only rarely displayed (mainly because he wanted to avoid being locked up in someone's laboratory if discovered for his ability to speak human) and had recently been given the assignment of protecting the daughter of a former President, who was herself considering a run for Congress.

 

P wheezed along as he took each step in turn, not that easy or simple a task when you happen to be a “runt” pig who stood around nine inches from the ground at shoulder level. Humans were baffling for their ability to create special ramps for people in wheel chairs, but having no thought at all for intelligent beings who had to leg it cloven-hoof style, but still it was not that far of a walk from the stairs to the temple, and by progression he came in sight of the living quarters, hoping that his kinsman would be around this time instead of wandering lost on some other part of the damned planet…

 

“There you are!” cried a familiar voice in triumph, “I thought I'd catch you trying to slink home again after chickening out on the ceremony!”

 

“Excuse me?” P turned to see a familiar angry-faced human woman of surpassing beauty who was dressed in a Shrine Maiden's outfit, long dark lavender-tinted hair waving like an ebony mantle about her slender shoulders.

 

“Don't try and weasel out on me this time, Mister!” she declared, “You're going back inside the shrine, and this time we're going to carry out the ritual exorcism, and don't even think about trying to run away again if you know what's good for you!”

 

“Madam,” P tried to sound diplomatic, “I think there's been a slight mistake…”

 

“You bet there is, Ryoga!” the ebon-haired beauty growled as she reached down a hand and grabbed Agent P by his collar, hauling him up to eye-level (and pointedly ignoring the frantic way that P started to kick his hooves and gag for air while being choked on his own collar), “You think I went to all this trouble trying to get this ceremony down just right, only to have you chicken out and try to run out on me at the last second? I'm telling you, this time I've done my research and I know that this spell will work. So what if the other attempts at curing you all ended up as disasters? The point is to never give up on trying---huh?”

 

She broke off on her stern lecture, turning her head in time to see a nearly identical girl chasing after yet another black pig, this one wearing his trademark bandana, which caused her to take a second look at the pig currently suspended in her hand (who by now would be turning blue were it not that he was completely covered in black short hairs), and after an appropriate double-take she asked curiously, “You're not…Ryoga?”

 

P was beyond the point of signaling in any way that he was not, and when Hibiki Rei finally fathomed the reason why she hastily put him down before he could lose consciousness altogether. Her attitude went immediately from angry to contrite as she said, “Oh, I'm so sorry, Agent P…I didn't realize it was you…I thought you were my husband…!”

 

“Evidently,” P coughed out, taking several moments to clear his throat before continuing again, “You see a bandana on me anywhere, lady? That oughta be a give away that I'd definitely NOT your husband…and thank the powers that be for that!”

 

Rei frowned a little at the implied insult, but the next minute she turned and saw her identical twin approaching with another black pig firmly in hand, this one wisely not putting up any kind of a struggle as if he knew full well that such resistance would be futile.

 

“Caught him!” her other half crowed, “Finally, now we can get on with the Ritual of Separation and…huh?” she blinked, “Another Ryoga?”

 

“No,” he said pointedly, “Not another Ryoga…I'm P, don't you remember me, Toots?”

 

“Oh yeah,” the other Rei replied, “Sorry…it's been a few years, hasn't it?”

 

“Yeah,” he replied gruffly, “Time flies and all that. So…this about you trying to find another way of making the big break between my cousin and your husband?”

 

“That's right,” both Reis said together, exchanging a look before the one holding the other pig said, “And this time there won't be any mistakes…we're really going to split them apart into two distinct halves. I've been studying up for this for months and I'm sure this time it's gonna work, which means you can have your cousin back while I at long last cure my husband!”

 

“Lotta luck on that,” P said, not bothering to add that he had doubts about the effectiveness of any treatment in finding a permanent “cure” for the P-chan problem. It was Rei's endless quest to find such a cure that had resulted in numerous failed attempts in the past, some ending disastrously (such as the time she and her friends had journeyed to Jusenkyo, which had resulted in her present Twins curse). That Ryoga stoically endured it all was a testament to the man's marital commitment…and yet it was not at all surprising that he occasionally lost his nerve and tried to make a break for it, an effort that often proved both symbolic and ultimately futile.

 

“Thanks,” said the Rei who had almost strangled him, “We know how much you'd like to have your kinsman back, just like we'd like to be rid of this annoying curse altogether.”

 

“Bad enough our husband gets lost in a closet,” replied the other version of Rei, “But it's getting harder to track him down, and with our daughter's birthday coming up in a few months…”

 

“Oh really?” P brightened up, “Which one?”

 

“Yui-chan,” said the first Rei proudly, “She'll be seventeen in April.”

 

“Jun's birthday is just a little beyond that, and she'll be fourteen,” the other Rei said just as proudly, “Assuming she doesn't wind up in a zoo or some place like that. It just figures that Yui would be the one to inherit the Twins curse…”

 

“…While Jun gets stuck as a pig half the time…” the first Rei paused before adding, “Not that there's anything wrong with pigs, of course…”

 

“But would you want your daughter to marry one, huh?” P asked with some irony, turning back to Ryoga, “What about you, Sport? How's the proud poppa making out with these gorgeous wives of yours and two little sows who are turning into real heartbreakers, I'll warrant?”

 

The pig in the other Rei's arms talked more slowly, “I…think…I've learned…how to…manage. It is odd…every time I…think about it…being a father…”

 

P just smiled at the hesitant way the Lost Man tried to express himself in his porcine body. Even after all these years, Ryoga still had not yet mastered the ability to speak normally using a pig's vocal apparatus. P knew it wasn't easy for someone who had not been born a pig, and it had taken him many years to fully master the art of speaking Juraian with his own modified voice box.

 

“Listen, Toots,” P addressed himself to the twin versions of Rei, “I wanted to have a few words with my Cousin, so…is it all right with you if I have a word with him while you get set up for the ceremony? I promise he won't run away, scouts honor.”

 

“Well…” one Rei said dubiously.

 

“…If you need to talk privately with your family…” the other conceded, then gave the pig in her arms a stern warning, “You promise me you won't try to sneak out of here when my back is turned? I warn you, I'll have my ravens keeping an eye on you, Mister!”

 

The other black pig hesitated for only a moment before saying, “I…promise…Rei-chan…”

 

“Good,” she set him down then said, “Now, I'll go back to the Shrine and get everything ready, then you'll cooperate when I light up the magic incense lighter and we'll see about getting you two permanently separated.”

 

“Don't make me have to come looking for you, Mister,” the other Rei warned fiercely, and nodded when she saw that her husband was sufficiently chagrined before saying, “Good…now, let's see if that old pervert, Happosai, is really to be trusted…”

 

P waited until the twin versions of Rei stalked off together towards the Shrine, then he turned to the other black pig and pointed one of his hooves, and a moment later the black pig was surrounded in the beam of a low-intensity filter, and after shivering for a few seconds, his cousin straightened up and looked at P with more intelligence in his expression.

 

“Thanks,” his cousin said, “Glad you showed up right now, that was turning into one very intense scene…”

 

“No problem, Cuz,” P replied, “I know that carbon-copying wife of yours must be quite a handful….”

 

“Like you wouldn't believe,” the other pig rolled his eyes, but then sighed, “Too bad I'm not really her husband. You'd be amazed what it feels like to be snuggled in her arms, especially when there's two of her flanking me on either side…”

 

“Spare my the details,” P sniffed, “I can just imagine. Must be tough being buried underneath the mind and personality of her real husband.”

 

His cousin snorted, “I'm not complaining so much any more, but there are times I wish I'd never followed Prince Yosho to this cockamamie planet! Getting stuck in those cursed springs for seven hundred years waiting for some idiot to fall in and get cursed with my imprint…”

 

“Yeah,” P said gruffly, “So…what do you think about your chances of this cure working out right for a change? Still eager to ditch the human?”

 

“Not as much any more,” his cousin replied, “I've…adjusted, Cousin P, and he's really not all that bad for a human…Oni blood notwithstanding.”

 

“And what about the other part of your act?” P asked, “You adjusted yet to being the father of three humans?”

 

“Two humans, one a hybrid,” his Cousin insisted, “Jun's…like a regular chip off the old block, while Dan doesn't seem to have picked up any curse after all. Might as well ask me how it feels having a daughter who turns into a human…weird doesn't cover it, but I guess I'm mostly adjusted to that”

 

“Glad to hear it,” P replied, “Hope this time Rei's cure really works. It'd be nice to take you back home for a little family reunion. By the way…where are the little Swine off to right now?”

 

“In school, mostly,” his Cousin replied, “At least I'm sure Jun and Dan are…Yui…that's another story. The kid's going through some tough emotional times…you know how humans get when they're just a few years shy of full adulthood.”

 

“Oh yeah,” P said drolly, “I copy that. So, is she still hanging out with that girl-gang of junior Senshi?”

 

“Out saving the world for humanity and pig-kind like always,” his Cousin related, “Truth is I'm getting a bit worried about her lately…she's gotten more cranky and moody than her mother on the rag…”

 

“That bad?” P lifted his non-existent eyebrows.

 

“Worse,” his Cousin nodded, “I think she's come down with a crush on a fellow classmate…she won't tell me which one, but it looks pretty serious, and human mating customs being what they are…”

 

“I gotcha,” P replied sagely, “If it were me, I'd lock her in the temple and stand outside with a loaded shotgun. Just let some pervert try and take advantage of Yui-chan's sweet nature and I'll reduce them to free-flowing particles in a heartbeat…”

 

“I feel the same way,” his Cousin noted, “And I'm closer to being her father. Well…maybe I'm more like Jun's dad, but the principle works the same either way…”

 

“So Yui's got heart troubles,” P mused with a grim expression, “That's too bad, she's a sweet kid, reminded me a bit of Sasami…well…maybe more like her big sister, Ayeka…”

 

“So, Cousin…what brings you back into this neck of the cosmos?” his cousin asked more shrewdly.

 

“Oh, this and that,” P replied, “Actually, we've got something of a local crisis brewing here and I wanted to put you on alert to it since rumors have it that your kid's been involved in a few para-dimensional incidents taking place around this precinct…”

 

“You mean we got local troubles?” his Cousin said more alertly, “How involved is Yui?”

 

“That's just it,” P replied, “We don't know as yet…we just know that she and her Senshi pals have been to Gamora and back again, and they've made contact with the C'thuwulf, which means you ought to expect more weird stuff to happen in the very near future.”

 

His cousin made a peculiar noise, a virtual “pig-whistle,” “No wonder you felt like paying me a personal visit. Just how big of a crisis are we talking about here?”

 

“Oh, killer Androids, demonic possession, giant robots, a plot to conquer the world and either subjugate or destroy all of humanity, you know how it is,” P shrugged his porcine shoulders.

 

“That bad, huh?” his cousin blinked, then---after a moment of thought---suggested, “Maybe we should contact our cousin Walter? Think he might be able to help out?”

 

“Who, Pig Iron?” P blinked in surprise, “You've gotta be kidding! I'd sooner call on Cousin Suey! The idea is to protect the Japanese Islands, not level half their buildings! Why not call on Destroyer Duck while we're at it?”

 

“Okay, okay,” his Cousin demurred, “It was just a suggestion, no need to bite my snout off!”

 

“Sorry…I'm just kinda jumpy right now,” P replied in a more mollified voice, “With all the excitement we've had the past week, it's amazing I don't have frayed nerves, though right about now I'd kill for a decent cup of coffee.”

 

“How about some tea?” his Cousin replied, “It's the best I can offer you in this place…”

 

“Japanese tea just gives me the runs, but thanks anyway,” P replied, “So…gonna go through with this latest attempt to get you and the Boy separated?”

 

“Like I have a choice?” his Cousin shrugged, “Rei-chan's pretty insistent this time, and after having two of her kids wind up with Jusenkyo curses…”

 

“Yeah, I can see how that might make her a bit antsy,” P conceded, “Sure it's not you who's got a case of the nerves here? Maybe you'd miss turning into a human whenever you get wet?”

 

“In a pig's eye!” his Cousin sniffed with amusement, “I'll be personally glad when I can put an end to this assignment…even if I would miss snuggling up to Rei in a sandwich…and yeah, I'd miss the little sows at that, but Yui's getting close to maturity in human years, and I think I smelled a recent change in hormones the last time I sniffed her. I know Ryoga'd freak if he thought somebody had had sex with his little girl, but…”

 

“But humans tend to mate like their Ape ancestors whenever the mood hits them, right?” P nodded in understanding, “Well…here's hoping that Yui-chan's all right, but she always struck me as having a pretty level head on her shoulders, and whatever she's going through now, she's definitely a proven survivor.”

 

“I hope you're right about that,” his Cousin nodded sadly, “What I wouldn't give to know where she is right now…with this stupid curse of the Hibikis, she could be anywhere on the planet, and even with her Global Tracking System watch, I doubt she has any idea of her surroundings, though I hope she does manage to cope like a real trooper…”

 

 

 

 

For once in her life Yui knew where she was as she stood inside the girl's bathroom splashing her face with water and wondering what perverse fate had brought her back there. She knew the girl's bathroom of Jubaan quite well, knew how it different from Furinkan's bathrooms, and could identify the various markings in the tiles and floor plans (memorized from the number of times that she had wandered loose in there looking for the exit). Finding herself there at this time and place left her wondering if the Kami were having another jest at her expense, as was all too common a feeling in her experience of a lifetime.

 

She stared at her reflection, marveling at how much it felt like staring back at her other half, that aspect of herself that manifested whenever her “Twins Curse” was in full operation. It was an odd thing growing up with the ability to divide yourself into pairs whenever you needed a friend to talk to, but somehow talking to herself right now did not seem like much of a resolution. She wanted to talk to someone older and with more experience, who might understand the things that she was going through and have some ready good advice that might actually be practical to follow.

 

“What am I doing with myself?” she asked aloud, wondering why she was having such mixed feelings about losing her virginity to another girl the other day…not that she had any complaints at all about the way it had happened!

 

Trout had been a fun companion, and Yui was even starting to miss her…a little…but going back to the C'thuwulf underground city in search of the girl who had played masseuse with her body did not seem like a realistic solution to her romantic problems…in fact, it only highlighted how much Yui wished that she could share such closeness with her Muku. Then again the thought that she might be a closet lesbian faintly horrified her priestly senses since she had always considered herself as being “normal” in that way, not that anybody (to date) had managed to hold her interest for longer than ten seconds…not even Ken, a boy she liked and genuinely respected (when she wasn't out to break that camera of his over his fool head!). In truth she did not find herself as attracted to other boys as most of her friends tended to be, and she had never been one to engage in the sort of gossip that seemed to prevail among her age group, especially when they started talking about prospective boyfriends.

 

Yui wanted to explore her options before making a commitment…to find some boy to whom she felt a genuine attraction and to “test the waters” to see if she could enjoy the companionship of men. Her mother had lectured her on the “evils” of boy-chasing, warning that lecherous young hormonally crazed men might find a “tasty morsel” like her far too appealing to resist…as if Yui had anything to fear from that angle, being stronger than nearly every boy in her class put together! In fact, Yui doubted if any of the weaklings in their school would have the nerve to even ask her out, knowing full well about her status as the Second Best Martial Artist in Furinkan High School (closely tied with Muku Dori, and the both of them just shy of Sakura).

 

The truth was that boys just seemed too…hairy…and stupid…not that these were bad qualities in themselves as Yui considered her father to be a man without peer, rugged, honest and honorable to such a degree that no other boy could hope to match him as either a warrior or a husband. Her mother never stopped singing his praises (though not to his face, as she was often cross and angry about something) whenever asked about what it was like to be married to a Hibiki. Oh sure, there was the family curse with directions, and no one could accuse her father of being the brightest egg in the crate, but you could always count on him to stand with you when you needed a shoulder to lean on. Her father was the kind of man any girl would be proud of having, even if he wasn't filthy rich and successful, at least he was home much of the time and would spend hours on end playing with his children.

 

The fact that her father had made some money in his time writing poetry and having it published as a best seller was reason enough to be proud…that and the fact that he was a co-song writer for many of her mother's best hits. Though her mother had retired from her too-brief stint as a Pop Idol and actress to assume her duties in running her family's shrine, the both of them had gained enough notoriety in their time that Yui felt like a minor celebrity among her peers. In truth her family was a source of great pride for her, and the last thing which she wanted to do was to bring shame and dishonor on them in any way.

 

How then was she going to explain to her mother and father her sudden interest and strong attraction to other women? How could she explain it to herself that she felt drawn to Muku, which actually wasn't that rare a thing in Furinkan these days, but still…to want to screw your best friend sexually…what was the matter with her? Was she turning into some kind of hentai?

 

Just then she heard three voices chattering together and looked up in time to see a group of girls entering the restroom, pleasantly gossiping on the subject of their boyfriends…

 

“Hey, I hear you dated Kasugi the other day,” one of them asked of another, “What's he like?”

 

That girl so addressed rolled her eyes and said, “He is SOOO immature! All through our date he kept looking at my breasts, and when the time came to make out he was like an octopus with hands all over my body!”

 

“I like his friend Natsuke better,” another of the girls remarked, “He's got a mind like a steel trap and he's very good with numbers…could make one heck of an accountant.”

 

“What about that new boy…the one from America?” the first speaker asked with a leer, “Isn't he dreamy?”

 

“Anri?” the third girl replied, “He's cute, and he's got a nice butt, but I like his brother, Lorien, even better…”

 

“Oh yeah, he's definitely a hunk, but much too old for us school girls,” the second girl nodded, then added in an odd voice, “Is it just me or are these American sounding names getting harder to pronounce…?”

 

Yui blinked again as she overheard their giggling over that jest, struck by how much this conversation seemed to resemble another such matter that she had overheard the other day. In fact, the more she thought on it, the only difference that she could determine was the gender of the date-mates being discussed in such a lewdly suggestive manner.

 

Did that mean that there really was no basic difference between dating boys or dating other girls? She had to think a lot harder on that subject before she could frame a conclusion that was to her satisfaction. In the meantime the three girls continued to chatter away after entering separate stalls and squatting down to do their business…and for an instant Yui was struck by the comparison between this conventional form of bodily waste disposal and the more efficient methods employed by the C'thuwulf, and whether one might actually be able to adapt to the way things were done in Gamora city.

 

She dismissed the thought as having no immediate relevance and started to reach for some hand towels in order to dry off her fingers. In doing so, however, she caught a glimpse of another face looking back at her from the bathroom mirror…a face positioned directly behind her…angular and Elf-like, with pointy ears and cherry pink hair hanging wildly about her shoulders.

 

Yui sensed her immediate peril and started to move when the other girl wrapped her arms around her body and pinned her in a full nelson, exerting incredible strength to bend Yui at the knee despite the full exertions of the surprised Hibiki. Her assailant grinned as she held Yui immobile then murmured into her ear, “Uh-uh-uh, cute stuff…you're coming with me! Momma Gold wants to meet you!”

 

And with that they teleported out of there with no one to witness what had happened, though on another part of the Furinkan campus a young girl named Rini gasped in alarm, feeling an icy stab of danger, and immediately knew that something VERY BAD was in the winds for Jubaan…and Furinkan High School…!

 

 

 

Continued

 

Comments/Criticisms/Kidnapped Hibikis: shadowmane@msn.com