Urusei Yatsura Fan Fiction ❯ The Senior Year ❯ Tag Race Mark Three ( Chapter 8 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Urusei Yatsura - The Senior Year: "Tag Race Mark Three"
by Fred Herriot
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edited by E.B. Kushnir
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Eighth of a series of fan fiction stories based on "Urusei Yatsura,"
created by Rumiko Takahashi
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WRITER'S NOTES:

1) You're still here?! You must be braver than I thought...but the
trial is nowhere near finished...heh-heh-heh-heh-heh!

2) This story gives you a glimpse of a race Lum mentioned in
"Incredible Shrunken Lum"...the Lannarkites. This will be one of
three scheduled appearances by this insectoid species in this series.
While little detail will be revealed in any of these appearences, the
Lannarkites will factor heavily in the destiny of many characters in
both "UY Twenty Years Later" and "Double Zeta UY." You have been
warned!

3) Koruneko is inspired by the appearance of the type of character
saluting the Begging Cat legend in "Catch the Heart" and "Always My
Darling." I just decided to give this character a name and some
history.

4) Sakusei Station is inspired by the floating station where Lum,
Benten and Oyuki went in their search for Ataru in "Always My
Darling."

5) Dakejinzou Shogai is inspired by many sources, chief of which is
Mian Toras of "Caravan Kidd." Understand that there is *much* more
than meets the eye when it comes to this lovely huntress...but that
will be revealing too much. However, while others of her race are not
encountered until "UY Twenty Years Later," the racial name for
Dakejinzou's people is "A'g'san." They are called "Umanoshippo"
because she does not remember anything of her past. Believe me, there
is a **lot** more to come in concern with the A'g'sans!

6) Parts of the Version 2.0 of "TRMk3" is inspired by Richard Suzuki's
"I Took The One Less Travelled By...", a beautiful fanfic story on
Ryuunosuke and her problems about which gender she really is. It
first appeared in U.S.A. Yastura APA #22 and is available on Mason
Ikkoku's website (http:\\www.ottawa.net\~proulx\uy\uyhome.htm).
I highly recommend it; no "Yatsura" fanfic collection is complete
without this story!

7) I used the name "Tofunokoibito" for Lupica's people since "Always
My Darling" did not state a name for her people.

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"Happy birthday, Ryuunosuke!!" Lum cheerfully smiles.

The tomboy blushes as she acknowledges the Oni's wishes with a nod.
Other people had chimed in their greetings to her when she emerged
from her apartment that morning. Normally, she never liked the idea
of celebrating her birthday; given the problems now plaguing her,
being reminded that she was getting past the point where she could
easily reform her habits was just another bitter pill to swallow.
"Thanks, Lum. I appreciate it."

"Shutaro's already got the party arranged at the Tarouzakura
tonight," the Oni continues. "Everyone's got presents for you! It
should be loads of fun!"

"Thanks, Lum," Ryuunosuke looks around to see the invitations to her
birthday party scattered across the students' desks. "Your friends
from space coming down?"

"Oh, sure!" Lum nods. "Benten, Nassur-chan, Oyuki, Rei...they'll all
be there!"

"Will Nagisa-chan be there?" Shinobu asks.

"I don't know," Ryuunosuke shakes her head. "Nagisa's been living on
the island ever since he came back, trying to earn a living. I hear
he's actually making a better go of it than Dad ever could. I hope he
does come. It'll be nice to see him again."

At that moment, Ataru enters. Since the gang's return from Noukiios
after rescuing Reiko, Ataru has seen to it that his daughter is now
under the airtight supervision of his uncle's people at Toranoseishin
Finances. Further, Ataru was re-doubling his efforts to locate a
proper girl's primary school so that Reiko would stand a better chance
of living a normal life. Arriving at his desk, he notices an envelope
with his name on it. "What's this?" he looks confused, then opens it.
He reads, "You are hereby invited to attend Ryuunosuke Fujinami's
seventeenth birthday party at the Tarouzakura this evening after
school." Snorting, he tosses the card into a wastepaper basket.
"Forget it. I know loads of better ways to spend an evening."

Sitting down, he ignores the stunned looks coming his way from Lum,
Shinobu and Ryuunosuke. "I...I don't believe he...just did that...!"
Ataru's ex-girlfriend stammers, her voice a shocked whisper.

"He's never refused an invitation to my birthday parties before!"
Ryuunosuke exclaims.

Sighing, Lum flies over to stand beside him. "Darling, don't you
want to go to Ryuunosuke's birthday party?"

"Nope," he responds.

"Why not?! You've always gone before!"

"Well, I've no reason to go this year," he curtly explains.

"But, Ryuunosuke's a...!!"

"Lum!!" he glares at her, his voice dropping the room temperature
forty degrees in an instant.

"Brrr!!!" Lan shudders from nearby, icicles forming on her uniform.
"Who turned down the heat?! Is Oyuki-chan visiting?!"

The Oni shudders. She had hoped that a party would serve to bring
Ataru back to the fold, so to speak. Unfortunately, with his soured
attitudes towards his classmates, such was obviously wishful thinking.
"Besides, the invitation made no mention about Reiko-chan being
invited," he adds.

"Well, Reiko-chan's a little young to come to a party..."

"Jariten was invited, was he?!"

"Of course!"

"Then what makes your cousin better than my daughter?!" Ataru snarls.
"Don't worry. I get the message! I'll make sure she'll get it,
too!!"

Lum's mouth drops open in disbelieving shock. Ataru was practically
accusing her of taking preference to her cousin over the former slave
child that she hoped one day would be her daughter as well as his.
However, he is on a roll today. "And was Mie-chan invited?!" he
stares at her.

"Um...no..."

"And was Dake-chan invited?!" he adds.

"She's on a mission!"

"Is that an excuse?" he glares at her. "You could've at least let it
be known that she was welcome. Oh, that's right!" he suddenly nods in
conclusion. "She's not one of **your** friends, so she doesn't count!
Neither does Mie-chan, by the sounds of it! Forget it, Lum. I'm not
going."

With that, he proceeds to open his books. The whole class stares
disbelievingly at them, unsure if what they witnessed actually just
transpired. Lum looks down in shame, then proceeds to her seat.
Nearby, the guards heat with naked rage on seeing their favourite
classmate once again so callously humiliated. There was going to be a
reckoning for this...

* * *

As the school day marches on, the spat between Ataru and Lum enforces
a distance between the two. Students wonder if this was just a
momentary hiccup or the beginning of something more serious. Given
that Mendou was still effectively crippled thanks to Ataru's
manoeuvrings with Reigi Yumoa of Toranoseishin Finances, any hopes of
forcing him to back down was doomed to failure. Thanks also to the
Cyborg's appearance on Noukiios for the first time in realspace, the
guards had to walk very carefully lest they once again found
themselves in a hospital. Watching this is Ryuunosuke. Normally, the
tomboy would be happy that Ataru would ignore her. But with the
utterly callous way he treated almost everyone these days, she felt
she had to do something or else a lot of people were going to get
hurt. The chance came at noon hour.

As Ataru now preferred, he ate outside under a cherry tree, isolating
himself from his classmates. No doubt, Megane and the guards were
conspiring in the clock tower to unleash some sort of divine
retribution for his latest spat with Lum. Personally, Ataru felt
guilty that he had gone after the Oni like that. Lum was still
unaccustomed to the idea that he no longer wanted anything to do with
anyone from Tomobiki, although there were times Ataru felt that she
really did not care about his attitudes toward anything. He liked
her...he certainly wished that the time would soon come when they
could marry and start their own family...but that self-centred
attitude of hers just had to go! His life was wrecked enough thanks
the jerks around them. The less he interacted with them...the less
she interacted with them, too...the better for both of them!

He tenses as someone approaches. "What do you want, Fujinami?!" he
sighs.

Ryuunosuke stops. The guy either had eyes in the back of his head or
else he was not the cowardly wimp everyone took him for. And given
his sudden distaste for everyone, not to mention his now
quite-explosive temper, approaching him was a hazardous affair at
best. "Um...well, actually, it's nothing important," she apologizes.

"Well, you came out here for a reason since you don't have any other
reason to come see me," he sighs. "Say your say, then get lost!"

She trembles at his curtness. "Um...I was hoping you'd come to my
birthday party tonight," she looks down in embarrassment.

He blinks. "Why?"

"Wh-why not?!" she stammers. "Everyone else'll be there!"

"Don't remind me," he rolls his eyes. "No, thanks. As I said
before, I've got better ways to spend an evening."

"Well, if you want, bring Reiko-chan with you...!"

"Are you deaf?!!" he snaps, bolting to his feet. "I said 'no!!!'"

Ryuunosuke jolts back fearfully. Her incountable fights with her
father gave her a decided advantage over many of her classmates since
it allowed her to quickly tell who were the experienced fighters and
who were not. The way Ataru moved these days, he was probably the
most dangerous person in Class 3-4, **including** Lum, Shinobu, Mie
and herself! The man was a tiger...and a vicious one at that!! "I'm
sorry," she looks down. "Look, man, I wasn't the one who put out
those damn invitations! It was Mendou!! If you want to be mad at
someone, go chase him!"

"Why should I, considering you're all just as guilty," Ataru notes.

"What the hell does *that* crack mean?!" she snarls.

"Isn't it obvious?!" Ataru sneers. "You all feed on each other's
egoes, sustain each other's pathetic fantasies in hopes that you won't
have to face the big, bad world outside this district's limits! We've
all been doing that to each other since Lum came to Earth. Notice I
don't exclude myself in that analysis; I was just as guilty as the
rest. But after what I went through two weeks ago, I've come to
realize how much of a dead-end world this place is! Hence my decision
to leave! If you can't take the fact that when I go, Lum will leave,
that's just too bad! You can't hide when reality comes knocking on
your door. I couldn't when it came to my door on Icarus! And to be
honest with you, I'm glad that it did happen to me! Actually
realizing there's a bigger world out there isn't so scary after all!"

The tomboy stares disbelievingly at Ataru. "What's with you, man?!"

"What do you mean what's with me?!" he snaps. "Didn't you listen to
anything I just said?!"

"I did," she nods. "But I didn't expect to hear all that come out of
you! Hell, two weeks ago, you were as happy as the rest of us!!
Sure, there were things about you which were pretty raw, but
everyone's got problems! Why are you trying to make everyone's lives
so miserable now?!"

"Because I've also come to realize that ever since Lum blasted her
way into my life, I've been doing nothing but giving control of my
life away to every jerk in this insane asylum just so that *Lum* could
be happy!!" he snarls. "I'm sorry, Ryuunosuke, but I'm through giving
up control of my life! I'm taking my life back and if that hurts a
lot of people, then all I say is, 'Good!! The bastards deserve it!!'"

He turns and walks past her to the school. Ryuunosuke watches him
go...

* * *

"You're cancelling the party?!!" Mendou exclaims.

Everyone blinks disbelievingly as they stare at Ryuunosuke sometime
later. "That's right," the tomboy sighs. "Look, I really appreciate
your thoughts and wishes, but I'm just not in the mood for a party."

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Ryuunosuke," Nassur sighs. The Vosian,
his partner and Oyuki had just arrived. "But, here," he hands her a
small gift. "Happy Birthday. May you have many more."

"Thanks," Ryuunosuke weakly smiles.

"So what got you so sour all of a sudden?" Benten inquires. "Got
into another fight with that ditzoid old man of yours again?!"

"No, not that," Ryuunosuke sighs.

"Then what is it, Ryuunosuke?!" Shinobu prods. "We went to all this
effort for you. We deserve to know."

"Ah, it's Ataru," the tomboy shakes her head.

"Darling?!!" Lum blinks.

"What did he do?!" Benten wonders.

"Well, he refused to even think of coming to the party since some
rich jerk who'll remain anonymous forgot to invite his daughter or Mie
or Shogai-san!" Ryuunosuke glares at Mendou. "And when I begged him
to come anyway, he just turned around and gave me the tenth degree!"

Everyone lets out depressed sighs. "I see he's nowhere close to
returning to normal," Benten wryly muses.

"Benten, after what he went through, could you honestly expect him to
go back to the way he was?" Nassur stares at his partner.

The Fukunokami considers the point. "No, of course not," she sighs.
"I just wish he'd learn to lay off a little. Everything we do seems
to send him around the bend!!"

"It's to be expected," Nassur sighs. "Koosei was the same way after
his time in the Box too, remember?!"

"Yeah, that's true."

"I actually would be enormously tempted to use my spacializer and go
back in time to prevent Darling from being tortured in the first
place," Lum adds. "While I don't like the idea of him chasing other
girls, back then he was a lot more agreeable than he is now!"

"Or don't you mean a lot more manageable?" Nassur stares at his
former student.

The Oni jolts. "What are you saying?! That I try to control
Darling?! Thanks but no thanks, Nassur! I get enough of that from
Reiko-chan!!"

"Then maybe it's time you listen to what Reiko-chan's saying!" the
Vosian counters. "Lum, how do you expect to reforge some sense of
trust with Ataru if you continue to act as if what happened on Icarus
didn't matter?!"

Lum looks down shamefully. "What makes you think that little brat
has the right to suggest anything to Lum-san?!" Megane snarls.

Nassur icily glares at the guards' leader. "After what you, your
little brigade of trench-waves, old Grease-Hair there and that
worthless airhead did to that poor child," he indicates the guards,
Mendou and Lan, "...you've got a load of gall to say anything against
Reiko-chan!"

Megane trembles fearfully. "So what could we do to cheer Ataru-kun
up?!" Shinobu sighs. "I'm not going to live under the shadow of that
armoured monstrosity he can turn into for the rest of my life!"

"You'll only have to live under it until he moves elsewhere," Nassur
notes.

"But we don't WANT him to move!!" Mendou snarls.

"Why?!" Nassur hums. "Afraid you won't have someone to pick on when
he goes?! Or are you afraid you'll have to get a life once Lum leaves
to go with him?!"

The scion of Japan's richest family jerks in humiliation at the
hunter's barb. "May I suggest something?" Oyuki quietly coughs.

"What's that, Oyuki?" Benten stares at her friend.

"Perhaps part of the reason Ataru is so incensed at us is the simple
fact that we have not visibly tried to acknowledge the changes which
have come over him," the Tritonian notes. "May I remind you, he *has*
adopted a child. Regardless of the ill-feelings Reiko-chan may
possess towards Lum-chan, the simple fact that an oprhaned child now
has a family would be cause for great celebration on any planet."

"Hey, that's right!!" Ryuunosuke snaps her fingers. "Instead of
trying to rub the guy the wrong way, we should be showing him support
because he did something really good!"

"So I suggest that at the same time we celebrate Ryuunosuke's
birthday, we also celebrate Ataru's adoption of Reiko-chan," Oyuki
concludes.

"That would actually go far," Nassur hums, nodding.

"Great!!" Lum leaps up and down. "We'll have it tonight, just as
before! I'll tell Mie that she's invited! Nassur-chan, can you ask
Shogai-san to come, too?!"

"She's on a mission right now," the Vosian warns.

"At least we should make the effort," the Oni notes.

"True."

"Now, who's going to get the wonderful task of persuading Moroboshi
and Reiko-chan to come?!" Benten hums.

"I'll do it," Shinobu volunteers.

"I'd stay away from him if I was you, Shinobu," Ryuunosuke warns.
"Remember what Mie said. You supposedly did something that royally
pissed him off. I don't think he wants to say anything to you!"

"Well, what better chance could I get to try to make up with him?"
Ataru's ex-girlfriend smiles.

* * *

"A party?!" Mie looks confused. "What for?!"

"Well, it's Ryuunosuke's birthday," Benten explains. The Fukunokami
and Nassur are meeting the Kyushu native by her locker later in the
day. "Also, we're getting together to celebrate that Moroboshi's
adopted Reiko-chan! C'mon down! It'll be loads of fun!!"

"Uh-huh," suspicion arises in her eyes. "First of all, I wouldn't be
caught dead partying around old Supersnob's pathetic cherry tree!
Secondly, why do I get this strange feeling that you're just trying to
placate Ataru-chan?!"

The hunters jerk. "Th-th-that's n-not tr-true!!" Benten stammers.

"Benten, please don't lie to me," Mie sighs. "I heard about the fact
that Ataru-chan wasn't interested in going to Ryuunosuke's party in
the first place, so it didn't take me much to figure out what you're
doing...!"

Mie jerks when Nassur claps his hands in a prayer-like gesture,
bowing his head to her. "Please," the Vosian then stares at her.

"Oh, man!" the Kyushu native sighs. "They even got **you** begging?!
Now, I *know* there's no hope in this place!!"

"What does that mean?" the Vosian blinks.

"It means that every attempt you make at imposing yourselves on
Ataru-chan's going to blow up in your collective faces," Mie warns.
"Look, I happen to like and respect you guys! I know deep down you
think you're doing the right thing. But with the way Ataru-chan sees
everything these days, **any** attempt by you guys to force him to be
with you's going to be seen by him as you trying to chain him down
again! If not that, you're definately invading his private space!
You're shooting yourselves in the foot by throwing this party and I'm
not going to be a part of it!!"

She turns to walk away, then stops and looks back. "You
know...there's an old saying I once heard a long time ago. 'Sometimes
friendship is best nutured and enhanced by simply folding your
hands.'"

Nassur and Benten blink. "That's a pretty profound thing to say,"
the former muses. "Where did you hear that?"

"I wish I knew," Mie sighs, then heads off.

The hunters blink. "Now there goes someone I really can't
understand," Benten shakes her head. "Where the heck does she come
from?!"

"There's an interesting question," Nassur hums. "But I've got a
funny feeling she may be right."

"Uh-oh," Benten shudders...

* * *

"I thought I told Fujinami that I wasn't interested in coming to that
party!" Ataru snarls at Shinobu sometime later. "Are you people deaf
or are you so airheaded that everything I say goes in one ear and out
the other?!"

Shinobu winces, trying to keep both her temper and her fear in check.
"We know that, but we're not going to get together just because it's
Ryuunosuke's birthday. After all, you adopted Reiko-chan too! We
want to celebrate that!"

"Uh-huh," Ataru wryly smiles, obviously not accepting her story.

"Ataru-kun, please," his former girlfriend looks desperate. "We know
what you went through on Icarus! We...please don't think us so
callous that we don't want to understand how much you suffered! We
all want to have a good time tonight and we want you there! Please
come!"

Her words do not change a thing. "Please!!" she bows low to him.
"If not for any of us, at least do it for Lum!"

Ataru shakes his head. "Oh, alright!! If it finally gets you to
stop spouting such verbal diarrhea, I'll come!"

"You will?!" Shinobu looks up.

"I said it, didn't I?!" he snaps. "Now, get lost! I want to be
alone!!"

Leaping up, Shinobu runs back to the school to tell everyone the
news. Watching her go, Ataru looks ill. "Gods, she's so pathetic!"
he moans. "Idiot deserves an Oscar for that performance!!"

Laying back, he contemplates what just happened. Shinobu's plea for
him to consider Lum's feelings did tug at his heart, but it was
balanced by a considerable dose of mistrust. Ataru had been flatly
convinced for some time that the only reason Shinobu was being so
friendly to him and Lum as of late was because of one person: Nassur.
It was the same argument he had presented to Ryuunosuke earlier: he
being forced to conform to everyone's wishes. Now, if someone like
Nassur had said things like that to him, he could bring himself to
accept the idea. But Shinobu?! "Forget that!" he groans...

* * *

That evening, the third Tarouzakura is basked in evening spotlights
as everyone gathers for the party. Nassur is quick to notice that the
tree is much smaller than its two predecessors. "This one's not
growing as fast as the other one," he comments.

"This time, my sister did not elect to graft parts of the old tree to
the new one," Mendou hums, staring at the five metre-tall cherry tree.
"Some of the botanists do state that it is growing much faster than it
should since it was transplanted here from our Kagawa farm in Shikoku,
but not as profoundly as the second Tarouzakura."

"Thank the gods for that," Shinobu shudders. "I don't want to have
another encounter with Memory as long as I live!"

"Yeah, Nassur told me about that little fight you guys had with
whatever was under this thing," Benten muses. "Anyone ever figure out
where all that tachytron radiation came from?!"

At that comment, Oyuki pulls out a tricorder and takes a scan.
"There's a lot here," she muses, showing the reading to Nassur.

"Strange," the Vosian muses. "The levels are even higher than when I
scanned this place the first time."

"Does it mean something?" Mendou looks anxious.

"I can't say," Nassur shakes his head, handing the tricorder back to
Oyuki. "Since there's little in the way of clues as to where this
radiation comes from, I can't begin to properly speculate as to what's
really going on here."

"Maybe we need to cut open the tree again and see what's inside,"
Megane proposes.

"I'd rather not do that!" Mendou sighs.

At that moment, Nagisa Shinowataru walks up, a large birthday cake in
hand. Given the way "she" was raised, Nagisa is dressed in a flowery
summer dress with an apron. "Happy Birthday, Ryuunosuke-sama!!" he
beams, placing the cake in front of his would-be fiancee.

Seeing that, Rei instanly leaps up to grab the cake for himself.
Nagisa shrieks as he tries to keep the tiger-bull away. "Shoo, you
horrible beast!!! Get away!! This isn't for you!!!"

Rei then winds up flying into Nassur's fist! "You heard him!!" the
Vosian snarls as the tiger-bull falls flat on the ground. "That's not
yours!!!"

"Hey!!!" Lan bolts to her feet, murder in her eyes. "How dare you
hit Rei-sama, you bastard...?!!"

Oyuki concentrates, freezing Lan and Rei in a giant ice cube.
"That's more than enough, Lan," the Tritonian sighs.

"Wh-wh-what a c-c-cold w-w-woman..." Lan moans.

"Oh, thank you, Oyuki-sama," Nagisa looks relieved.

"My pleasure, Nagisa-san," Oyuki smiles.

Ryuunosuke blows out the candles. Everyone cheers as the presents
are handed to her. Everyone gathers as they watch her open each of
them save for Ataru and Reiko, who sit by themselves a noticeable
distance away. "Normally I'd give her some lingerie to get her used
to the idea of wearing girl's clothing, but with that old dork of a
father of hers, it's a wasted effort," Ataru muses to himself.

"She should disown that old idiot just like you disowned the idiots
you came from," Reiko comments.

Echoing her statement is a tidal wave, which crashes into the party,
revealing Fujimi Fujinami! "There you all are!!!" he blows a party
horn into Ryuunosuke's ear. "Ah!! My son is seventeen years old this
day!!! If only Masako had lived to see this day!! Soon, he shall be
a *man*, ready to take on a **man's** responsibility to carry on
running Hamajaya as his family has done for four generations!!"

Everyone tries their best to ignore the old janitor. Nearby, Ataru
rolls his eyes at Reiko. "And we've heard this broken record for a
mite bit too long, too!" he quietly muses.

Reiko giggles. Ryuunosuke then cuts the cake, passing the pieces
around. After everyone else is served, pieces are passed to Ataru and
Reiko. The Noukiite looks at her thin slice, then her father's
equally thin slice, then back to see that everyone literally got a
bigger slice of the cake. Ataru notices what has caught his
daughter's attention. "You know, I once heard that you could tell how
much or how little a person likes you by the size of the piece of cake
you get at that person's birthday," he whispers.

"Daddy, isn't this supposed to be our party too?" she looks
suspicious.

As the night progresses, the conversation remains brisk. Shinobu
finds herself vying for Nassur's attention with Benten. Mendou and
the guards try as usual to get Lum's attention. After they have
defrosted, Lan and Rei spend time with themselves. Ryuunosuke fights
off her father to ensure she gets to keep all the presents everyone
brought her. The other students group up to continue the party.
Nagisa and Mr. Fujinami make their way through the crowd to ensure
that everyone is topped off with punch and snacks. And all this
leaves Ataru and Reiko isolated as if they were the calm eye of a
typhoon. Staring at everyone, who seem not to care that they even
exist, both look at each other. "Let's go home," Reiko is on the
verge of tears. "I hate this place."

"Sure, sweetie," Ataru pulls her into his arms...then in the blink of
an eye, leaps a clear hundred metres from the cherry grove onto a
nearby street.

Landing with pinpoint precision, Ataru lowers Reiko to the ground as
they turn to head back to Toranoseishin Finances. Suddenly, a voice
calls out, "Wait!"

Ataru and Reiko turn to see Nagisa come up. An apologetic look is on
his face. "What is it, Nagisa?" the former asks.

The cross-dressing teashop worker looks down, then produces a small
wrapped box. "Here," he hands it to them. "It's for you."

They look at the box for a moment, then Ataru shakes his head.
"Forget it. I don't accept charity, Nagisa. Let's go, Reiko-chan."

The Noukiite lets out a humph, tears flowing down her cheek, as the
two walk into the night. Nagisa watches them go, understandably
saddened. He then looks back to the party. Sighing, he heads up the
hill. When he arrives, he is quick to notice that no one has yet
noticed that Ataru and Reiko have left. Shaking his head, he heads to
the cooking area. "Hey, got any more of that punch, Nagisa?!"
Ryuunosuke calls out.

"Serve yourself," Nagisa snaps.

People stop, surprised to hear the curt comment from someone who
literally came back from the dead to be with the one he loved.
"What's wrong?!" Lum stands.

"Well, haven't you noticed?!" Nagisa points.

Lum spins around, then gasps on seeing an empty blanket with two
plates of untouched cake. "Darling!! Reiko-chan!! What happened?!"

"They left," Nagisa sighs. "Totally disgusted, I should note."

Everyone looks surprised. "Well, weren't they having a good time?!"
Ryuunosuke demands, bolting to her feet.

"Does it look like it?!" Nagisa stares at her. "That little girl
went home in utter tears because no one bothered to say anything to
her! And I don't think Ataru appreciated one bit you stating this
party is also for her and then turning around and showing not a single
courtesy to her!! And you!!!" he points accusingly at Lum. "What
were you doing when the man you *supposedly* love, not to mention the
child who could have been *your* child, were sitting there all alone?!
You were busy coddling to those morons!!" he points at Mendou and the
guards.

Hearing that, Lum looks down ashamedly. Nassur stands, glaring at
Mendou and the guards to ensure they do not try anything to make
matters worse. "I think this party's over!"

"Guess Mie was right all along," Benten shakes her head...

* * *

In their apartment atop the Toranoseishin Finances tower, Reiko
quietly sobs as Ataru holds her, sitting in a rocking chair. At that
moment, the door slides open and a secretary walks in. "You wanted to
see me, sir?"

"Yes," Ataru sighs, patting his daughter's head. "Dictate to
everyone that no one from Tomobiki High School, or friends of same,
are to enter this building."

"Including Lum, sir?"

"*Especially* her!" he growls.

"Yes, sir," the secretary bows, then walks out.

Ataru lets out a sigh as tears flow down his cheeks. It was
partially his fault. He believed that Lum would, in her own way, make
Reiko feel more comfortable. He knew there was no chance that anyone
would ever care for him; he had come to *that* conclusion back when he
was exploring Takenotsuka. But that Lum would allow Reiko's feelings
to be crushed?! He feels his teeth grate. That was the most callous
thing Lum had ever done for as long as he had known her!

"Truth hurts, doesn't it?" a calm voice calls out.

Ataru blinks, then snaps around to see someone step into the
apartment. On seeing that she is dressed in a white kimono with black
spots akin to cow markings, he gapes. "Grandma?!"

Reiko looks up. "Great-grandma?!"

The woman, who also wears a hood over a head of long, flowing brown
hair framing an angular face more fitting to someone in her
mid-twenties, smiles as she opens her arms, allowing Ataru and Reiko
to sink into her embrace. "How are you?" she sighs.

"H-hi, Grandma," Ataru sniffs, then finally allows the dam holding
his emotions back to burst.

Nagaiwakai Moroboshi helps the two back to the rocking chair, sitting
in it as she lifts Reiko into her lap. Ataru leans down to embrace
his grandmother. "There, there," she coos a mantra to allow them to
get their emotions back under control. "It's okay. I'm here now."

Ataru wipes his face, then stares quizzically at her. "When did you
get in?"

"Just now," Nagaiwakai smiles, stroking Reiko's hair. "I was coming
down to see you anyway when I heard from one of the secretaries that
you two did not enjoy yourselves at that miserable excuse for a party
that Johnny-come-lately Shutaro Mendou held at his silly tree."

"That's...an understatement," Ataru wryly muses, pulling up another
chair to sit beside Nagaiwakai.

"And by the looks of it, Lum was not at her best either," a touch of
acid creeps into his grandmother's voice.

"She wasn't!!" Reiko snorts, looking away in disgust. "All she gave
a hoot about was that Daddy was there! She didn't even talk to us!
She was too busy with that creep Mendou and those four nerds that fall
all over her all the time!!"

"I'm quite aware of that, Reiko-chan," Nagaiwakai smiles.

Ataru chuckles. Everyone at Tomobiki High School would go ballistic
if they learned that half of Tomobiki's adult population was in one
way or another actively engaged in spying for his grandmother, usually
passing on tidbits of information about Ataru to Nagaiwakai. Most of
them were untraceable since Nagaiwakai paid on a fee-for-service
basis, only having a few on permanent contract. "You must be happy,"
he muses.

"I would say 'I told you so,'" Nagaiwakai warns, "...but I don't
think you really need to hear that now, do you?"

"No," he shakes his head. "I...I just don't know what to think! I
know Lum's always liked it whenever I went with her to parties.
But...tonight, I actually saw something I never once conceived she was
capable of doing! She didn't even once come up to ask if we were
enjoying the party! All her time was spent with Mendou and Megane's
nerd squad!! Excuse me, but am I right or am I wrong: wasn't that
also supposed to be a party for my adopting Reiko-chan as well as
Fujinami's birthday?!"

"You were wrong," Nagaiwakai sighs. "Worse, you were deliberately
lied to just as long as everyone in this miserable district believed
that their precious Oni was pleased. I've always suspected...a
suspicion sharply proven by the Second Tag Race...that she never truly
loved you...not in the same manner as Windy-chan."

"Windy," Ataru looks sad. "I haven't thought of her in such a long
time."

"Nor have I, I do confess," his grandmother sighs. "But, she felt
she did the right thing. Buddha only knows that you certainly would
not've taken well to confinement in cryostasis after your encounters
with that pathetic little tramp Elle. Nor, I confess, do I equally
feel proud in having remained on the sidelines, so to speak, while you
were down here suffering at the hands of that greedy excuse of a
daughter-in-law of mine! Time and time again, I was ready to have you
taken out of Tomobiki! Time and time again, Chie and Darklight
advised me to back away. 'Let Lum prove herself!' they said. Well,
she certainly proved what she's more than willing to do to keep you
under her power several months ago!"

Silence falls over the scene as Ataru considers her words. "I don't
know what to do, Grandma!" he shakes his head. "I'm willing to
finally forge something with her, but I know all too well that nothing
can work as long as we're in Tomobiki. Yet every time I try to
convince her that we'll get nowhere in this town, she balks! It's as
if everything beyond Tomobiki's borders are like the Terrible Swamps
of Uru to her!"

"Well, there's no way anymore that I'm going to permit her to dictate
how you'll live your life," Nagaiwakai sighs. She then reaches beside
her to pull up a large box, handing it to Reiko. "Here you go,
Reiko-chan! Try in on!"

"Thanks!!" Reiko beams, then heads off to change.

A moment later, she emerges, dressed in a black sailor suit uniform
with silver trim, a enanmel school insignia pin over her red tie.
"What's that for?!" Ataru blinks.

"I took the liberty of contacting my old alma mater," Nagaiwakai
smiles. "Incredible that seventy years later, it's still in
operation. None the less, when they learned that I was looking for a
place for my great-granddaughter, they were more than happy to give
Reiko-chan a chance."

With that, she hands a brochure to Ataru. He stares quizzically at
it. "The Ishinomaki Girl's Primary Academy?!" he blinks. "Hey!
That's near where Komeru-oji-chan lives!"

"Yes, whenever the idiot's ever home!!" Nagaiwakai rolls her eyes
disgustingly. "It's also near a small piece of beachfront property
near Oshika that I hear attracted your eye. It's not more than thirty
kilometres from the school."

Ataru opens the brochure. The Ishinomaki Academy was a private
all-girl's institution formed in the early days of the Meiji era which
catered to young women in the beginning years of their education. It
was affiliated with three sister schools, one for middle school girls,
one for high school girls and a pre-university finishing school, all
on the same campus. It offered a wide range of educational
opportunities beyond the basic cirriculum common to most Japanese
schools, including many foreign language courses. However, unlike the
pressure cooker system rampant in current public education doctrine,
the Ishinomaki Academy emphasized a holistic approach to education
which mixed hard-core classwork with a liberal indoctrination in
creative thinking and the arts. "This just might be the place." he
hums. "I'll call them up and ask them for an interview."

"Splendid!!" Nagaiwakai claps her hands.

"But what about Lum?!" Reiko warns. "How far away is Oshika from
here, anyway?!"

"Two hundred and seventy kilometres as the karasutengu flies," Ataru
hums.

The Moroboshi clan matriarch looks disgusted. "What about that
Oni?!" she snarls, her eyes burning with a murderous rage. "If she
thinks she can get away with hurting my grandson and my
great-granddaughter and get away with it, she's horribly mistaken!"

"Grandma, don't use the Inquisition," Ataru panics, realizing that
with this incident, Nagaiwakai could easily be tempted to see Lum
turned into ashes in her family grave.

"Oh, no," Nagaiwakai chuckles. "Rest assured, I will not sully an
Inquisitor's blade or see good Lawgiver ammunition wasted on that
tramp! But the time has come that a lesson be taught to Lum and her
cohorts, one sharp enough that it will make the most stubborn of that
lot realize that you are no longer their pet whipping boy to abuse."

"How can you do that?" Reiko looks confused. "Without the
Zephyrites, you can't do much to impress Lum, not to mention her
doofus of a father!"

"Ah!" Nagaiwakai icily smiles, drawing out a sheet of rolled
parchment. "There, Reiko-chan, you are very wrong. For you see, the
Urusians themselves provided me with the perfect excuse to see
whatever plans they have for our world turned to dust. It seems that
Lum's father and the council he represented bargained in considerable
bad faith when they made the arrangements for the *First* Tag Race.
They tried to deceive us when it came to one of the clauses in the
treaty between ourselves and Uru, a deception that if exploited
properly, would've permitted them to invade Earth even IF Ataru-chan
had won that race!"

"What?!!" Ataru exclaims. "Let me see!!"

Nagaiwakai opens the parchment to show the section in question. A
second later, a roar bellows from Toranoseishin Finances.
"***INVADER, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!!!***"

On Uru, Invader sneezes...

* * *

"He locked you out of the building last night?!" Shinobu gasps.

A teary-eyed Lum nods. It is the morning after Ryuunosuke's birthday
party. The Oni, after being prevented from trying to apologize to
Ataru for her ignoring him and Reiko the previous night, had slept
aboard her scout. "Darling must hate me!" she moans, sniffing back
tears. "He must think I'm the most heartless person in existence!!"

"Lum-san, you must put him out of your life!" Mendou appears beside
her, gently grasping her hand. "If he cannot acknowledge your
desires, it is more than obvious that he no longer loves you! Why do
you persist in trying to obtain something which can never be truly
yours?! Please, I beg you, allow me to fill the gaping holes in your
heart!"

At that moment, Ataru walks into the class. Everyone turns to gaze
at him as he notices Mendou holding Lum's hand. "It's obvious to me
that you never **once** did care for me!" he contemptfully looks away,
his voice dropping the room's temperature to sub-freezing.

Everyone finds themselves covered in icicles! "Wh-what a c-cold
sh-shoulder!" Megane stammers.

Mie arrives at that time. She exchanges an understanding look with
Ataru, then sits in his chair while he heads to the back of the room
to sit in hers. Everyone blinks on seeing this. "He's not even going
to sit beside her!" Shinobu gasps.

"Considering the shitty way you bastards treated Ataru-chan and
Reiko-chan last night, do you blame him?" Mie snorts, disgusted by
what she heard had happened. She then notices who is holding Lum's
hand. "My, Lum. Are we scouting the range for new studs,
perchance?!"

Hearing that, Lum icily glares at Mendou. "HANDS OFF!!!!!!" she
screams, zapping him.

"L-lum-s-san...!" Mendou groans as he falls flat on his face.

Hanawa arrives at that time to commence homeroom class. As everyone
prepares for another day of school, a suction-cup arrow hits Ataru on
the forehead. He blinks, then notices there is a message attached to
it. Opening the message, he reads, "Ataru...There is a very pretty
girl wanting to meet you today. Come to the clock tower after school
and she'll be waiting for you...Megane."

*They must think I'm totally moronic to fall for that trap again!*
Ataru sighs as he holds up the note, noticing Megane giggling
sinisterly.

The guards' leader suddenly gets a lump in his throat as Ataru's left
eye glows for a second, then a beam of energy lashes out to burn the
note into cinders. Ataru then returns to his work as Megane finds
himself shivering. *Curse that swine!!* he hisses to himself. *I
swear that he's going to pay for what he's done to Lum-san even if
it's the last thing I do in this life!!*

* * *

As the day progresses, the chasm between Ataru and Lum is all too
noticeable. Instantly, speculation begins as to what could come of
this. Some (most of the boys) hope that Ataru would finally part from
Lum, allowing them a chance at their favourite classmate. Others
(most of the girls) wonder what will happen if Ataru does part from
Lum and how that will affect their veneration of Mendou. And still
others (the inner circle of people who surround Ataru and Lum) realize
that if Ataru does force Lum out of his life, the Oni will go home,
thus bringing to an end the living festival their lives had been
subject to for the past two years. "So now what happens?" Shinobu
sighs as she meets with her classmates at lunchtime.

"Ataru will pay for what he's done!!" Megane snarls, slamming his
hands on the table. "Look at her!" he points to a hurt Lum sitting
alone nearby. "Have you ever seen her like that before?! It's as if
everything she has desired for so long has deserted her!"

"Strange hearing that from you, jerk!" Ryuunosuke snorts.
"Considering that you idiots deliberately took all of Lum's time last
night, I'd figure that you did that on purpose so that you could get
Ataru away from her!!"

Megane stammers incomprehensively as the tomboy projects a knowing
glance at him. Before anyone could say anything more, they hear
Ten-chan's voice. "Hey!! There you guys are!"

"Ten-chan, what's wrong?!" Shinobu stands as the young Oni drives up
on his scooter, a rolled newspaper tucked in his lap.

Ten-chan parks his machine, then hands Shinobu the newspaper. "Read
it!"

Shinobu opens the paper as everyone crowds around her. The headline
literally leaps out at her: URUSIANS LIED ABOUT INTENTIONS FOR
EARTH!!!! Underneath are some sub-titles. One reads FIRST TAG RACE
ALWAYS WAS RIGGED AGAINST ATARU MOROBOSHI! Another warns U.N. GENERAL
ASSEMBLY DEBATING TO FORGE ALLIANCE WITH REPUBLIC OF ZEPHYRUS! A
third proclaims ALL GALACTIC FEDERATION CITIZENS RESIDENT ON EARTH
POSSIBLY FACING PERMANENT EXPULSION FROM TOMOBIKI IN RETALIATION!
"Oh, gods!!!" she gasps.

"What the hell is this?!" Megane tries to read the type.

Shinobu sits down to read the story. "The United Nations has just
revealed that private sources have discovered that the Urusian Union
bargained in considerable bad faith when the arrangements for the
First Tag Race were being negotiated in New York in October 1981.
After detailed analysis by Oni linguists from the Zephyrite Republic,
it is revealed that a clause in the First Tag Race agreement, if
properly exploited, could have resulted in Earth's invasion by Uru
even if Ataru Moroboshi had won the Tag Race.

"Sources have revealed that the clause in question stipulated that if
permanent disability or death came to the Terran tag champion, Ataru
Moroboshi, that the Urusians would simply turn around and elect
another tag champion and restart the tag race. This clause, when
analyzed, could be easily construed to mean that if in any time after
the First Tag Race came to an end, Moroboshi was hurt or killed, the
Urusians would then be able to launch a new tag race using a new
champion, with the possibility that even after two years of limited
contact between Earth and Uru, the Urusian Union would have the right
to invade Earth regardless of the original tag race results. The
language of this clause, as revealed by the experts who analyzed the
agreement, is akin to a code-like language once used by the old feudal
families of Uru in attempts to win special concessions without the
knowledge of the other party."

"Holy shit!!" Ryuunosuke gasps.

Shinobu continues. "This revelation has caused an uproar of
unprecedented proportions in the United Nations and in the National
Diet. Calls are now going out to the United Nations to forge closer
ties with the Republic of Zephyrus, a vastly powerful interplanetary
state not allied with the Galactic Federation, to which Uru is a
member state. This act is believed to have the potential to deter any
aggressive action from hostile aliens. Further, there is a call now
out in the Diet to have all citizens of the worlds of the Galactic
Federation living on Earth, now resident in Tomobiki district of
Tokyo, expelled from Earth as a form of retaliation. Currently, no
one associated with Ataru Moroboshi or his so-called wife Lum have
been contacted for their comments."

Silence falls over the cafeteria as everyone absorbs that
information. People find themselves looking quizzically at Lum.
"Lum-san, did you know about this?" Mendou hesitantly inquires.

The Oni looks down. "Yes. But it wasn't my doing."

"Did your father plan this?!" Ryuunosuke demands.

"No!!" Lum shakes her head, embarrassed tears flowing down her
cheeks. "Daddy wanted this to be a clean fight, an honourable one!
We were doing this to prevent the Ipraedies from invading this sector!
But we had to act as if we were going to invade Earth anyway to get
them to back off! You know how the Ipraedies look upon Earth!"

"Yes," Shinobu nods, remembering Jaja's comments about that in
"Benten's Story."

"So if you and your dad weren't behind this, who was?!" Kakugari
asks.

"Other members of the Tribal Council," Lum sighs. "Since we were
negotiating with the United Nations, the Tribal Council was the sole
arbiter of what went into the treaty. I guess they must've slipped
that in there...but I don't know who would be exactly responsible! I
swear!!"

"There, there, Lum-san," Mendou gently squeezes her shoulders. "We
believe you. But right now, we must act to ensure that this hysteria
is kept under control. There's no need to panic."

"Don't bet on that!" Ten-chan shakes his head. "It's on TV! Right
now, there're a whole bunch of xenophobes protesting outside the
district's borders! Ataru's mom almost got lynched when she tried to
go shopping in Nerima!!"

"What?!!" Lum gasps. "Oh, no!! How could this be happening?!"

"Easily explained," Cherry hums as he appears out of nowhere.

Everyone faints! "Where'd you come from?!" Ten-chan gasps.

"We saw the news reports," Sakura walks up. "Unfortunately, we can
easily deduce who is responsible for this discovery."

"Who?!" everyone demands.

"Think!" the nurse sighs. "The papers said that experts in Oni were
called in from *Zephyrus!* Whom do we know has regular contact with
them?!"

Realization dawns on their faces. "Ataru's grandmother!" Ryuunosuke
gulps.

"That's right," Sakura looks at Lum. "That can easily explain the
cold shoulder you've been getting from him this morning. He was
probably the first one to be told."

"Uh-oh!" Ten-chan gulps.

"'Uh-oh' is right!" Sakura shudders. "Ataru's already gone to
Toranoseishin Finances. An elite troop of Kuromoroboshi were
dispatched to Tomobiki on orders to kill *anyone* who so much as tries
to take Ataru hostage to get Nagaiwakai-sama to back off! I even
heard from Sensei that a cadre from the Zephyrite Inquisition may be
on their way here!"

"The Inquisition?!!" Lum gasps. "No one suspects the Inquisition!!"

"What can they do?!" Megane looks confused.

"They excommunicate people," Ten-chan explains.

"That's bad?" Mendou blinks.

"Spelt sideways, that's **execute!!**" Lan shudders fearfully.

"That's worse!!" Kakugari gulps.

"That, however, is the least of our problems," Cherry cuts in. "Far
worse is yet to come!"

"How worse can it get?!" Paama stammers.

"Death!" the monk intones. "Massive destruction unlike anything
you've ever seen before! Lum!!" he turns to the Oni. "Hark and
listen well! You will be made to confront Ataru within the next few
days! You MUST defeat him! If you do not, then in the wake of your
loss will come a tragedy of unprecedented proportions, for both
Tomobiki and your people!!"

"Yes!" Sakura nods agreeingly. "This time, no matter what, you must
be prepared to fight Ataru! Too many lives are at stake this time!!"

The Oni looks as if she would gladly be anywhere else but there...

* * *

Later that day, Captain Invader arrives in Tomobiki via Oyuki's
space-warp. Also there is, to everyone's surprise, Crown Princess
Lupica of the planet Tofunokoibito, the self-styled "Crown Princess of
the Universe." Such is nearly accurate, for Tofunokoibito is the home
of the Galactic Federation's headquarters. As Tofunokoibito's future
head of state, Lupica is preparing to assume the role she will inherit
from her mother come her next birthday by administering to the
Federation. "Hi, Lum!" Lupica smiles as she walks up to the Oni. "By
the looks of it, you're in a spot of trouble here."

"That's an understatement," Lum looks down, then sinks into her
father's comforting embrace. "Hi, Daddy."

"There, there, sweetie," he pats his daughter, now resplendent in his
dress uniform with the proper clan insignia. "We'll get through this
fine."

"I hope so," she gulps.

At that moment, a helicopter is heard. Everyone watches as a white
machine emblazoned with UNITED NATIONS in Roman and Japanese script
lands on the front lawn. A single man emerges. Mendou blinks on
recognizing him. "That's the Secretary-General of the U.N.!!" he
points.

"Oh, man!" Megane shudders. "This is going to be big!"

Some moments later, the desks in room 337 have been shoved aside,
allowing a clear meeting space to be used by Invader and the
Secretary-General. Lupica is present as arbiter. Universal
translators are provided to ensure that everyone gets the gist of what
is being said. "I am told that you were not responsible for the
drafting of the first Tag Race agreement between our peoples," the
leader of Earth's ruling body begins.

"That's correct," Invader nods. "The clauses were drafted by the
Tribal Council as a whole, as were the translations to English and
Japanese."

"I see," the Secretary-General hums. "A pity then that we have to
meet again under these circumstances. You, I could trust. However,
that no longer applies to the government which you represent."

"I understand that."

"Very well, then," the leader of the United Nations draws out three
sheets of paper. "As of this morning, three resolutions were
unanimously voted into place by the General Assembly...Special
Resolutions 442, 443 and 444. I will state 442 and 444 first, then
come back to 443."

"Certainly," Invader nods.

The Secretary-General pulls out one sheet. "Special Resolution 442
is a resolution that strikes down all previous resolutions by the
Security Council and the General Assembly which acknowledge Earth's
acceptance of all treaties made with worlds of the Galactic Federation
and the Federation itself. This, of course, means that we will no
longer acknowledge any clause of the First Tag Race agreement. In our
eyes at this time, no government belonging to the Federation,
including Uru, has any right to make any demand of the United Nations
or its member states. Further, we have enlisted the aid of the
Republic of Zephyrus to act as guarantor to this resolution as per
Clause Nine of the Galactic First Contacts Treaty, which Uru is also a
signatory."

Invader gulps, with good reason. The nearest Zephyrite colony world,
Jiyuu, was much closer to the Earth-Triton system than any Urusian
colony. "I understand that," he nods, imaginging the row in the
Tribal Council which will erupt from this revelation.

"Excellent," the Secretary-General nods. "Now, Special Resolution
444. It is a very unique piece of U.N. legislation which can be
enacted on a per-member basis. In other words, it may apply in one
country, but would not apply in another."

"And that resolution states?" Lupica inquires.

"Simply put, if a nation so dictates, all non-Terran citizens, either
as a whole group or according to race, can be permanently expelled
from the soverign territory of that nation in question," the leader of
the United Nations states. "However, if certain results from
Resolution 443 emerge, then ALL citizens of ALL worlds of the Galactic
Federation will be expelled from ALL of Earth. The only exception to
that rule, for more than obvious reasons, is the Kingdom of
Neptune-Triton, whose solar system we share. However, no Tritonian
may be a permanent resident on Earth, and no non-Tritonian may make
use of their Central Warp Chamber to transit to Earth."

Hearing that, Lum and Lan turn very pale. "Furthermore, all
relationships between Terrans and non-Terrans of Federation worlds
will not be acknowledged by the United Nations as reasons to defy this
resolution," the Secretary-General continues. "Simply put, for
example, Lum will have no right to claim that she has any relationship
with Ataru Moroboshi, NOR will she have the right to take Ataru
Moroboshi off this planet against his will."

Lum nearly passes out on hearing that. "And Resolution 443?" Invader
gulps.

Deafening silence falls over the scene as the Secretary-General fixes
him with a stare. "Simply put...there will be another tag race."

An H-bomb blast occurs!!!! "ANOTHER TAG RACE?!?!?!" everyone
exclaims.

"That's correct!" the leader of the United Nations nods. "We realize
how important in both a spiritual and legal sense this form of contest
is among your people, Captain. However, this time, WE will arbitrate
the rules and determine the results!"

Invader gulps. "And...those rules are?" he hesitantly asks.

The Terran leader looks to his sheets. "First, the order will be
reversed. This time, *Lum* must tag Ataru Moroboshi, not the other
way around." He wryly smiles. "I hear that Ataru's had some
considerable practice evading Lum over the last two years. It should
make for quite an interesting contest. Since Ataru has no horns, then
a bandanna with a slip-knot will be used in place. Lum must take the
bandanna off his person to make the tag.

"Lum has the right to use her flying powers to catch Ataru. However,
she will NOT be permitted use of her lightning. Acts of that nature
will forfit the day's competition, meaning that the race will stop and
begin anew the next morning.

"The race will be the standard ten-day period, from eight in the
morning until sundown. At this time of year, that should give Lum a
good ten hours each day to try to make a tag.

"Further, no one from Tomobiki district will be permitted to
interfere in this race to assist Lum or Ataru. Such interference will
forfeit the day's competition, although it will not affect the final
outcome. Anyone who attempts to interfere will be taken into custody
and held until the race's end.

"Simply put, there must be a tag to win the race for Lum. If a tag
is made, then we shall consider such to be an act of good faith by the
Urusian Union, thus permitting us to be more receptive should you seek
to make further treaties with Earth. However, if Lum does win,
Resolution 442 will remain in effect. The Urusian Union will have no
right to make use of old agreements to attempt to force their will
upon the people of Earth."

Silence falls over the scene as the Terran leader pauses to allow
Invader to reflect on what has been said. "I see," Invader nods.
"I've been granted the necessary power by my President to accept
whatever terms you stipulate on behalf of the Union government. I do
accept the stipulations of Resolution 443. They seem fine and fair."

"Wait!!" Lum cuts in. "What happens if I DON'T tag Darling?!"

The Secretary-General looks at her. "You go home...forever."

Everyone pales. "If Lum loses the race, Resolution 444 goes into
automatic carte-blanche effect for all citizens of worlds of the
Galactic Federation," he continues. "Further, Earth will then seek to
become a protectorate under Zephyrus' Non-Interference Edict, which
should, I believe, serve to answer all of Uru's defense concerns when
it comes to this star system. After a grace period of one solar Earth
century...or if special circumstances modify our general opinion...we
shall reconsider Resolution 444 as it pertains to the Federation
worlds."

Hearing that, Lum looks down. A century meant that both she and
Ataru would be long dead and buried by the time Urusians could
possibly look forward to returning to Earth. Like it or not, she had
to win the tag race...for if she lost, all arguments about their
relationship would literally become mute. But even if she did win,
would she stand a chance to get back in Ataru's good graces?

Before she could contemplate anything further, the Secretary-General
stands. "The race will begin the day after tomorrow. Good day to
you, Captain."

Invader and Lupica rise as the leader of the United Nations departs.
Silence falls over the room as everyone takes in what has been said.
"Oh, man!!" Megane gasps. "This just can't be happening!"

"It's going to happen whether we like it or not," Shinobu shudders...

* * *

Later, Invader, Lum and Ten-chan make their way through the town
park. People passing the three Onis either wave or nod a greeting.
No ill-looks are projected in their direction. Looking at the canopy
of cherry trees shedding their leaves for the coming winter and the
rustic district beyond the park's boundaries, the large captain sighs.
"You don't look so good, Uncle," Ten-chan hums.

"No, not really," Invader shakes his head. "But, I guess this is to
be expected. The people here have had every right to do something
like this since we first met. It's something that comes with
contacting a race still struggling to develop its own idenity. You
know, a lot of people in Council believed that we should have just
allowed the Ipraedies to do whatever they wanted with this place."

"That's an awful attitude!" Lum looks ill.

"It is. It just stuck in my craw that some of those idiots would
allow innocent, good people to suffer just because it wouldn't
inconvenience them," Invader rumbles. "Damn, do they want every race
to suffer like we did when the Dominion conquered us?!"

"It would've helped facilitate the creation of a true world culture,"
Lum muses.

"But just because we suffered, does that mean everyone has to?!"
Invader stares at his daughter.

"No, of course not," Lum shakes her head.

"Oh, Captain, Lum, Ten-chan!" Shinobu's voice calls out.

The three turn to see Ataru's ex-girlfriend walk up. "Hi, Shinobu!"
Lum beams. "Out for a walk?"

"Yeah, I needed some fresh air," Shinobu nods. "I guess a lot of
people need some time to themselves to absorb what just happened."

"True," Lum sighs. "I wonder if Darling knows."

"Considering that his grandmother's probably the one who blew this
wide open, he must've been told before we found out," Shinobu muses.

Everyone then blinks on hearing Megane's voice. "Ah, Ataru! There
you are! We've been looking all over for you?!"

They turn to see Ataru relaxing on a park bench, the guards standing
in front of him. A slightly bemused smile is on his face. "So you
found me. What's got your knickers in a twist this time, four-eyes?!"

Megane leans up. "Do you know about this infernal agreement the U.N.
forced on Lum-san's people?!"

"What agreement?"

The guards look frustrated. "The tag race, you idiot!! There's
going to be another tag race!" Megane snaps.

"Oh, that agreement," Ataru wipes his fingernails on the other hand,
acting as if the matter was no concern at all. "Of course I knew
about that. Who do you think made the suggestions which went into
those resolutions in the first place?!"

His four classmates look like they are about to have a collective
stroke. "Y-y-you...?" Megane stammers.

"No, Grandma was the one, not me," Ataru snidely glares at them.
"But since you have this habit of blaming EVERYTHING on me, you'll
just turn around and put the blame on me like you usually do!"

"You bastard!!!" Megane grabs Ataru by his jacket lapels. "This is
your fault!!! How could you do that to us?!! To Lum-san?!! Have you
no heart?!! Have you no concept of fair play?!!"

"See what I mean?" Ataru sighs as he calmly reaches up to pinch
several sensitive nerves on Megane's wrists, causing the guards'
leader to howl in fearful pain. "How could I do that to you, you
ask?! Why should I care about what you idiots think?! Never have,
never will. And as for fair play, Lum's idiot father obviously had no
sense of fair play when they forced me to be their victim in the first
tag race!! And as for my heart," he leans up to fix Megane with an
icy glare. "It died on Icarus!" his voice drops to a dirge-like moan.

The guards shudder fearfully. "Darling!" Lum calls out.

Ataru blinks, then he icily glares at her. "Well, well, well! Look
what just crawled out of the woodwork!!" contempt burns in his voice.

"Now, just a minute here!" Invader marches up to him. "You've got a
lot of gumption to accuse...!!"

A titanic *crash!* later finds Invader buried head-first in the
ground after a picture-perfect power slam thanks to Ataru! "Ah, go
stuff yourself, you fat jerk!!" Ataru snarls. "I've got no time to
put up with garbage from you!!"

Everyone takes an involuntary step back as Ataru faces Lum. The Oni
looks down ashamedly as she sees the accusations screaming at her from
his eyes. Sensing this, Megane leaps over to grab Ataru by his
jacket. "Bastard!!! How dare you stare at Lum-san like that?!!"

Ataru turns on Megane. With judiciously calculated force, his
fingers smash into his classmate's glasses, driving shards of glass
right into Megane's eyes! The guards' leader shrieks in pain as he
falls away. "My eyes!! My eyes!! The bastard blinded me!!! How can
I look at Lum-san without my eyes?!!"

"Aisuru-kun!!!" the other guards leap to his side.

"That should keep them busy for a while," Ataru yawns as he turns to
walk away.

Lum and Shinobu race off after him. "Darling, wait!!" the Oni calls
out as she lands in front of him. "You don't understand! Daddy had
nothing to do with what was written in the tag race rules!!"

Ataru walks around her without breaking step. "Do you think I care
about that anymore?"

"Now, just a minute here!" she spins around to grab his arm. "Don't
walk off on me like that!!"

Ataru spins on her, his free hand cocked to strike. Seeing that, Lum
lets out a shocked gasp. "Hands...off!" he growls.

Lum lets go, staring disbelievingly at him, tears springing in her
eyes. "Don't you care anymore?" she hoarsely demands.

"About you?" Ataru lowers his fist. "No. Considering that you've
never once truly cared about me, why should I care about you?!"

"It's not true, it's not true!" she tearfully shakes her head.

"No?!" he glares at her. "Then explain to me this! Why is it every
time that idiots like Mendou, Megane and the rest fawn all over you is
considered okay but whenever I try to date another girl, it's not?! I
have never ONCE acknowledged that we are engaged, Lum! Why do you
think I disowned my parents?! Without their agreement...and you know
how much Grandma *loves* you...there is NO relationship between us,
especially no relationship where you can lord it over me like you've
always done!! You don't seem to take well to the idea that I want my
life back, out of your hands and the hands of every brainless moron in
this ramen stand! And you don't seem to like the idea very much that
I'd want to leave this place!! What's the matter?! Afraid that when
I move somewhere else, you won't be able to dominate me like you've
done here?!!"

"That's not true!!" she wails.

"Oh, it isn't, huh?!!" he snarls. "Well, too bad, Lum!! You had
your chances!! I gave you more than enough opportunity to understand
where I come from and you wasted them!! And on top of that, you've
pretended that the last two weeks don't matter one damn bit, that it
never happened!!" He then looks away in self-reproachment. "Well,
what did I expect, for cryin' out loud?! That you'd actually would
consider what your presence is doing to the people around you,
especially to ME?!?! You haven't given a damn about what goes on
around you since you came here!!"

Lum is speechless as he turns to walk off. "I'm doing you a very big
favour, Lum, both for you and your people! This planet is NOT your
private playground!! WE are the ones who call this place home, not
you and not anyone who came after you!! And if you can't respect that
about us, then that's too bad!! And THAT is why I'm going to beat you
come the next two weeks!! If THAT doesn't teach you to mind your
place here, then I don't know WHAT will!!! Sayonara!!"

Ataru turns and storms off. Shinobu blinks, then runs off after him.
"Hold on a minute, there!!" she calls out.

He icily glaces at her. "What do **you** want?!!"

Ignoring his stare, she stabs an accusing finger at him. "You've got
a lot of gall to tear Lum apart like that!! After all she's done for
you, you certainly should be a little more grateful!!!"

"Oh?!" he looks disgusted. "Let's see! What has she done which
helped me?!" he lets out an exaggerated hum. "Oh, yes! She's gone
and turned my parents against me; cut me off from my grandmother, the
only person who's ever truly cared for me; forced that brat cousin of
hers in my life; completely dominated my life from day one; destroyed
what friendships I could've claimed I had before she came; brought on
all her stupid friends from space with all their stupid
problems...need I go on?!" he hums, then nods. "Oh, yes! She did do
me one favour! She showed me how *little* you ever did care for me!"

Shinobu blinks in disbelief. "What?!" she gasps. "What do you
mean?! Of course I cared for you!! I still do!"

"Oh, forgive me if I take **that** with a grain of salt!!" he snidely
glares at her. "The instant old Mendou showed up, you went after him
like the other girls in the school!"

"Oh, really?!" she points at him. "What about all the times you were
chasing girls when Lum was there?! That doesn't excuse you one damn
bit, Ataru Moroboshi!!"

"That's what you think!" he sneers. "As I told her, I've never ONCE
acknowledged her silly notions about marriage!! If she couldn't
accept that, that's her problem, not mine!!!"

Shinobu stares disbelievingly at him. "I can't believe you!! You're
the most callous person I've ever come across!!"

"I'M callous?!!" Ataru nearly laughs in her face. "Then what does
that make YOU?!?!"

"Me?!!"

"Yes, you!!!" he points accusingly at her. "It's been blatently
obvious for a month now!! You've been trying to be buddy-buddy with
Lum and I just so that you stood a better chance to get your hands on
Nassur!! Hell, if you'd got your hands on him by now, you'd've turn
around and pretend we'd never existed!! That's what you've always
done, Miyaki! You've used people just to serve your own ends, then
tossed them aside like they were just garbage!!"

"Do you think I'd use friends like that?!!"

Ataru does laugh. "'Friends?!!' 'FRIENDS?!?!' You don't even know
the meaning of the word!!!" He points at her. "REAL friends don't
use people like that, just to better advantage themselves!!! Real
friends would be understanding and try to accept both sides of an
issue, not side with one against another!! You're no different than
the other clowns in this dump!! As far as you're concerned, as long
as Lum's happy, regardless of how much I'm suffering to make her
happy, that's okay!! In fact, I'm doing Lum an extra favour when I
beat the tar out of her come the end of the tag race!! When she goes
back to Uru and is never allowed back on Earth again, at least she'll
be free from the influence of all the jerks here!!! People like
Benten, Oyuki and Nassur...who are her friends...treat her with a lot
better respect instead of taking advantage of her naivete like you
people've done!!!"

He turns to march off, then remembers something. "Oh, that reminds
me!" he icily smiles at her. "Once Lum's off Earth and back on Uru,
that also means that you'd've lost your last chance to sink your claws
into Nassur!! Guess I'm doing him a favour, by keeping him away from
a self-centred bitch like you!!!"

Anger flashes in her eyes. "How dare you...!" she lunges at him.

The whole park then reverberates with the *crack!* of the vicious
slap that knocks Shinobu sideways!! Heads snap around in disbelief as
they watch Ataru's ex-girlfriend drop away from him, her cheek now a
bright cherry thanks to his hand. Lum and Ten-chan are aghast as
Ataru turns away from Shinobu.

"You're a stranger to me, Miyaki!"

Ataru walks off. Silence falls over the park, broken only by the
gasping sobs now uttering from Shinobu's lips. Lum moves to kneel
beside her. "You okay?" she gently inquires.

"H-how...?" Shinobu tearily stares at her classmate. "How in the
name of the gods could he hate us so much?! How?!!"

With that, she slumps down, more pained wails stealing her voice.
Lum leans down to gently embrace her. "I wish I could introduce you
to Oyuki-chan's boyfriend," Lum pats Shinobu's shoulder. "He went
through the Box too. I bet if he knew about this, he'd say that
what's happening to Darling is pretty common."

Shinobu looks disbelievingly at her. "E-even if y-you win...y-you
lose!" she stammers. "He'll never live in Tomobiki again! He'd never
care about what we think or want! He hates us!! He'd rather see us
all dead!!!"

"I know," Lum looks down.

Shinobu lets out another wail...

* * *

The news of the Big Fight, as people begin to address the
confrontation in the town park, spreads like wildfire through the
district. What sends shivers down a lot of people's spines is that if
Ataru could be so mean to Shinobu, nominally someone he deeply cares
for despite no real romance existing between them, then no one was
safe. That afternoon finds Ataru relaxing in his apartment when the
door opens and Reigi Yumoa steps inside. A somewhat disappointed look
is on his face. "What's up?" Ataru quizzically stares at him. "You
don't look so good."

"No, not really," Reigi yawns. "We finished inspecting the
Conglomerate's books yesterday, so you better watch it. Observers
have already seen the Kuromegane out in full force trying to keep
track of you."

"That's no problem," Ataru snorts. "When I move north to Oshika,
I'll just get a few court injunctions slapped on the jerks living
here. Not even all of Mendou's money can buy off every judge in
Miyagi."

"Yeah, considering that we helped them get nominated to their posts,"
Reigi wryly muses, then a strange sigh utters from his lips.

"What is it?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Reigi hums dreamily.

"Bullshit!! You saw something...or someone, less I miss my guess,"
Ataru hums, then points. "Ah-hah!!! I know what's with you!! You
met Ryooko-chan, right?!!"

Hearts popping around him, Reigi nearly melts out of his chair.
"Ryooko-sama," he lustily gags.

"Uh-huh!" Ataru muses, then remembers something. "Um, you better
know that I think the Mendous might want to marry Ryooko-chan off to
Tobimaro Mizunokoji."

Reigi jolts as if Ataru had stuck a pincushion into his side.
"What?!! MY poor, sweet, defenseless Ryooko-sama marrying THAT
uncouth, filthy bastard?!! Not in a bloody million years!!!"

At the Mizunokoji estate, Tobimaro sneezes!

"I don't think you've got much in the way of worries when it comes to
Ryooko-chan," Ataru smiles, patting his friend's shoulder.
"Personally, I don't think Ryooko-chan would want to be anywhere close
to Tobimaro given the way he hates women in general...though how he
could hate women when he's surrounded with those gorgeous dolls in his
Kurotenshi, I'll never understand."

"What should I do?" Reigi bleakly stares at Ataru.

"We'll have to go at this very slowly," Ataru hums. "We can't do too
much too fast or else Mendou'll get wind of it. I can only guess what
his reaction'll be."

"True," Reigi hums. "Oh, by the way. Kinshou's here and she's
asking for you. She's upstairs in the cafeteria."

Ataru feels his stomach. "Must I? I just had lunch!"

"Sorry," Reigi shrugs as he heads back to his office.

Ataru shakes his head. Deep down, he was smiling. Regardless of the
results of the tag race...especially if he wins...he knew he was not
going to get Mendou off his back. The scion of Japan's richest family
would never forgive Ataru if Lum was sent back to Uru. However,
Reigi's interest in Ryooko gave him a remarkable opportunity. With
someone very closely tied to his family marrying Mendou's younger
sister, then Ataru would know almost immediately if Mendou was going
to try something against him. Given Ryooko's habit of trying to drive
her brother insane, Ataru believed that if given the chance to marry
Reigi, Ryooko would take it, all just to rub her brother the wrong
way. It would just have to be nutured properly. However, that was
for later. Right now, he had a more immediate problem waiting for him
upstairs.

Heading into the cafeteria, he sighs on seeing his mother sitting at
a window table staring outside. Walking up to her, he sits, then
asks, "What's your problem?!"

Kinshou jolts, then stares at her son. "So, there you are," she
evenly hums. "I guess you must be enjoying the amount of pain that
cow is unleashing on people."

"Don't you mean the people here in Tomobiki?" Ataru wryly smiles.
"Good! The more the fools that live here suffer, the more I like it!"

"This is your hometown, too!!" Kinshou snaps.

"No, I just lived here for thirteen pretty miserable years," Ataru
crosses his arms. "Don't forget, I was born in Wakkanai. Besides,
why do you care so much about where I live now?! Haven't you wished
for the longest time that you never had me?!"

The acid in his voice causes her to shudder. "You're still my son!"
she mutters, looking down. "I don't care what that stupid judge in
Sapporo said!! He was probably on that cow's payroll for all I know!!
Just because I get angry every time something strange happens doesn't
mean I don't love you!"

"Oh, spare me, please!" he looks nauseated. "All you're concerned
about is that when I leave, Lum and Ten'll leave, too! Don't worry!
The point'll be mute come eleven days from now!!"

Kinshou bolts up. "Is that all you care about?!" she snarls. "Is
that all you want?! Just to drive Lum-chan out of your life?! Fine,
then!! She was the best thing to ever come to you, you know that?!
If you want to get rid of her, then go ahead! You'll never get anyone
close to what she is!!"

"Don't you mean *you* won't get anyone close to her?!" Ataru muses.
"It's been obvious since the day she moved in! You care more for her
and Ten than you ever did for me! And spare me the bullshit about you
loving me! You've never loved me, so why should I give a damn about
what you believe is right?!"

Kinshou shudders, then looks away. "Fine, then! If you don't
believe a word I say, then there's nothing I can do to change your
mind! Go on and live with that cow if that's what you want! You mark
my words on this! She'll dominate your life far worse than you accuse
Lum-chan of dominating you!! We'll see come a couple of years how
right I am!"

"Don't bet on it," he crosses his arms, icily smiling at her.
"Besides, while Grandma would gladly see Lum ashes in her family plot,
she *does* love me, which is more than anyone could say about a
greedy, nagging old fool like you!! You've used me since day one to
try to get whatever you wanted! And that doesn't mention how much you
used Lum and Ten to get what you wanted! You proved that back on the
'Kashin' when you sucked up to Lum's parents just to get better lives
for yourselves on Uru! At least I'm doing Lum and her family a big
favour in that regard! I'm keeping you and that moronic husband of
yours from being a royal pain in their backsides!!"

Kinshou glares at him. "You see, there's one little part of this
equation you've never really understood," Ataru continues.
"Admittedly, I never understood it until quite recently. But remember
this: there are about a hundred thousand people living in Tomobiki.
That's a hundred thousand out of FIVE BILLION people living on Earth.
And the majority of those five billion people have, through their
representatives at the U.N., decided that they don't want to put up to
people like Lum...much less people who suck up to them like you! That
Grandma was the one who revealed what the Urusians did is not the
issue! That the Urusians did it IS the issue at contest here!! And
that's why I'm going to win!" he stands, waving a cautionary finger at
her. "Lum's people, not to mention the people living in this dump,
need a little lesson taught to them they'll not soon forget!! And I'm
more than happy to be the one who teaches it to them!"

With that, he walks away chuckling. Kinshou watches him go...

* * *

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the track-and-field
complex of the Tomobiki Sportsplaza!" Yamada announces, transmitting
to thousands of households across Japan. "As you no doubt have heard,
a third Tag Race has been arranged between the legendary Oni princess
Lum and the infamous Terran student Ataru Moroboshi. Provoked by the
fallout from discoveries just revealed about the rules surrounding the
First Tag Race, this third race is final. Should Lum lose, she will
be deported from Earth. So far, people are unsure as to who could win
since the positions are changed; this time, Lum must tag Ataru!"

Already at the starting block, Lum hops around to warm up. Nearby is
a tall, young Ipraedies man with the *Dowe'on* gold bracelets, dressed
in what appears to be formal diplomatic uniform, a starter's gun in
hand. Nearby, Mendou and the guards look around. "Where's Ataru?!"
Megane hums.

"Maybe he decided to chicken out," Chibi looks up.

The sound of jets is heard. Everyone looks to the sky to see an
AV-8B Harrier V/STOL fighter soar towards the Sportsplaza. "And while
Lum is at the starter's gate, Ataru is not present...although that
seems to be changing," Yamada reports. "Right now, a black jet
appears to be making its way towards us."

Everyone backs away as the Harrier settles to the ground several
metres in front of Lum. The machine is emblazoned with Komeru
Moroboshi's tiger-and-gaikatana insignia. As soon as the machine is
down, the canopy opens and someone steps out. As soon as they see
that the person is dressed in track shorts, running shoes and a hooded
sweatshirt, the crowd cheers. Yamada looks excited. "Ataru has just
arrived, supposedly in a jet owned by his uncle Komeru! What an
entrance!!"

As Ataru walks towards the starting line, the Harrier lifts off. The
crowd cheers as he unzips his sweatshirt. Yamada reports every
detail. "Instead of his normal track gear, Ataru is wearing a light
blue T-shirt emblazoned with the crest of the United Nations in front
and his family crest on back! It appears he is making a direct
statement against his school, from which, rumour has it, he will be
shortly leaving!"

As soon as Ataru is ready, the Ipraedies places a bandana around his
head, securing it with a slip-knot. "Ambassador Haja of Ipraedos,
invited by the U.N. to monitor the tag race, now places the bandana
around Ataru's head. We're just minutes from starting!" Yamada
carries on.

Haja shakes Ataru's hand. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Ataru nods.

Haja then shakes Lum's hand. Mark Onsen walks up, a runner's track
number vest..."4"...in hand. "Here you go, Ataru."

Ataru looks at the vest...then rips it apart! "What an act!!" Yamada
gasps. "We're not dealing with the same man anymore!"

The students look shocked. "I don't run for Tomobiki anymore!" Ataru
growls. "They can fight their own battles!!"

"Ataru **has** turned his back on Tomobiki!" Yamada leaps up and
down. "What an astonishing act!! What could possibly happen next?!"

Haja looks undisturbed. "The contestants will take their positions."

Ataru moves towards the chaser's position, where Lum is. "Um...not
there, Ataru," Haja weakly smiles.

"Oh?" Ataru looks non-plussed, then nods. "Ah, right! Sorry!"

"It appears Ataru is confused as to where he's supposed to be,"
Yamada comments.

Ataru takes his position. "Ready?!!" Haja calls out.

Ataru drops to a three-point runner's start. Lum braces herself.
Haja points the gun up. "Set?!!"

Ataru looks down...then his left eye glows! "GO!!!!!!" the Ipraedies
ambassador fires.

Ataru's right hand palm-strikes the ground! Before the Oni could
give chase, a shock-wave shatters the concrete at her feet!! A
rough-hewn pillar of ground belts Lum in the chin, sending her flying
*away* from Ataru!!! Watching this, Benten's eyes go wide. "Lum!!!"

Ataru bolts forward, but in a diagonal direction towards a parked
jeep. He grabs the jeep and with a flip-toss, sends the machine
flying! Before the Oni could react, she is bashed by a tonne of
flying Detroit steel!! Ataru's hand points to the air as psionic
energy forms around his arm. By now, both eyes are glowing. He
levels his arm as a ball of energy encompasses his hand!
"***PSYCHIC...LASER!!!!!!***" he bellows...as a blast lashes at Lum!!
Before anyone could react, it hits the jeep's gas tank!!! There is an
explosion, sending Lum flying across the Sportsplaza complex,
mercifully hitting the stands of the soccer stadium three hundred
metres away!!!!

"Don't go away!!" Ataru races after her. "We haven't mixed the
salad!!"

Everyone is speechless as the Terran slams his fist at a strategic
point! The stand collapses into a pile of rubble!! "And now for the
encore!!!" Ataru's hands make a whirling tai-chi manoeuvre. Psychic
energy forms around him. "***AIR-WHIRLPOOL HEAT-FIRE STRIKE!!!!!!***"
The rubble is turned into a fiery cyclone, lifting into the air!!! As
soon as Lum, barely visible in the swirling wreckage, has risen high
enough, Ataru ceases moving his hands! "And that...is that!!!" he
declares...as the whirlpool ceases!!! The wreckage, not to mention
Lum, then crashes into the ground!!!!

Ataru gracefully bows to the crowd...then sees horror on their faces.
"Eh?!" he cants his head. "What's the problem?! After all, that *is*
within the rules...isn't it, Ambassador?!"

Haja fearfully nods. "Um...yes! There's no prohibition against you
using...ah, er...your own powers!"

"Thank you!" Ataru looks at the wreckage. Lum is buried under a
massive pile of concrete. Her arm is the only thing visible. Ataru
looks to Benten and Oyuki. "I suggest you get her to that ship right
now..." he nods toward the orbiting "Kashin," "...or else she might
not make the night." Ataru then walks away from the crowd.
"Reigi!!!"

The financier appears at Ataru's side. "Yes, Ataru?"

"Find the owner of that jeep and buy him a new one," Ataru points to
the wreckage of the jeep, then looks at the wreckage of the soccer
stands. "Oh, yeah...get that fixed up, too! The Moroboshi Clan won't
be smeared with accusations of irresponsibility like the Mendou Clan
and the Mizunokoji Clan have been in the past."

"At once," Reigi walks away.

Everyone is silent as the Terran tag race champion walks off the
field. At the broadcasters' desk, Yamada tries to relate what
happened. "I...I...ladies and gentlemen, I cannot begin to describe
what I just witnessed! In under two minutes, Lum was lifted into the
air by a funnel of rock, then hit by a flying jeep thrown by Ataru,
then nearly crushed by tons of concrete and burned by a cyclone of
fire which came out of nowhere!! It appears the first day of this tag
race has begun with the proverbial bang...*literally*!!!"

"He...he...he...!" Shinobu stammers, unable to speak anything more.

"I know," Ryuunosuke nods, eyes wide.

Nearby, Cherry shakes his head. "It's fate..."

* * *

"OUCH!!!!" Lum yelps in pain.

"Relax!!" Benten barks. "You've been through hell!"

*What's Benten shouting about...?!* the Oni lays down, eyes opening
to reveal that she is in the "Kashin's" sick bay. Looking at her are
a worried Benten and Oyuki. "*Datcha*...wh-what happened...?"

"Lum-chan!" Oyuki breathes. "Oh, thank goodness! Are you alright?!"

"Ooooh!!!" Lum moans. "What happened to me...?!"

"Moroboshi!" Benten sighs. "He nearly killed you!! It's nighttime
now!"

Lum looks out a window to see the lights of Tokyo's outskirts in
darkness, the mountains of the Kantou-sanchi framed by the red of a
set sun. "What happened?!"

"You were knocked out," Nassur walks up. "Ataru hit you so fast that
you were overwhelmed before two minutes were up."

The Oni looks shocked, then moans. "B-but..."

"We forgot one thing," Oyuki sighs. "Ataru's interesting
mood-swings."

"'Interesting?!'" Benten cries. "You call what happened
'interesting?!' I call it a (blank)ing disaster!!!"

Invader walks up, his wife beside him. "Well?!!" the giant captain
snarls. "How is she?!"

A female Oni doctor stares at him. "She'll be fine, Captain. She
was just harshly treated."

Hearing that, Lum's parents relax. Invader then looks at the night
lights of Tokyo. A sad sigh passes his lips as his wife walks up.
"Dear?"

"What is it, love?" he looks down.

A fearful look crosses her face. "Stop the race! I won't have
Lum-chan go through ten days of that hell!!"

"You do that..." Nassur walks up, "...and the U.N. will say you're
throwing in the towel. Once that occurs, Lum is guaranteed to be
exiled from Earth and she'll never be allowed to return."

"What do we do?!" Invader snaps. "We can't change the rules!"

"Well..." the Vosian sighs, "...if you're prepared to lose contact
with Earth, you *can* call it quits. You may get away with it; after
all, when this is over, the Ipraedies will go back to arguing among
themselves, some trying to press for an invasion, others moving to
stop them."

"If we could only be that lucky," the captain snarls.

"And consider this," Nassur adds. "Ataru's grandmother is a
Righteous Gentile, remember?! Since Zephyrus doesn't belong to the
Galactic Federation, the U.N.'s ban won't apply to them. Uru may lose
the sector, but no one, not even the Niphentaxians, aren't stupid
enough to risk facing a Holy Crusade."

"Maybe," Invader looks at the city lights. "You know,
Nassur-kun...two years ago, I put my career on the line for this
place."

"Yeah," the Vosian nods.

"And you disagreed with me then."

"I still do."

Invader smiles. "Maybe you were right. Heaven only knows what
could've happened if Lum-chan hadn't given in during the Second Tag
Race."

"True. Then again, I had my duty to perform."

Nearby, Benten watches Lum being administered by the ship's doctor,
then to Oyuki.
"Let's go."

"Where?" the Tritonian hums.

Nassur then appears behind them! "Where are you two going?"

Benten and Oyuki scream. "Shit, don't sneak up like that!!!" Benten
snaps.

"Were you going to Earth to see Ataru?"

Benten looks scared. "Er...um...yeah!"

"Don't! This time, we're neutral! Understood?"

The Fukunokami looks more scared. "S-sure...!"

"Of course," the Tritonian nods.

Mrs. Invader looks to her husband. "Dear, what about Lum-chan's
Earth friends? Could they do something?"

"I doubt it," Nassur looks back.

"What makes you say that?" Lum looks over.

"You forget that thanks to his grandmother, there are now a dozen
trained killers standing between those idiots and Ataru," the Vosian
sighs. "*Very good* trained killers."

Everyone gulps, having been told about the Kuromoroboshi's presence
in Tomobiki by Sakura earlier that day. "In fact, I'm right now very
sure Mendou and that goon-squad calling themselves 'Lum's bodyguards'
are in for the shock of their lives..." the Vosian sighs...

* * *

The next morning, everyone comes to the starting gate of the
track-and-field complex. In the crowd, the girls are quick to notice
the absence of several of their classmates. "Sakura-sensei, where's
Mendou-san and the others?" Shinobu looks to the school nurse.

Sakura looks around. "Odd! I would assume they'd be here! I wonder
what happened to them!"

"They're prisoners of the Kuromoroboshi," Mie sighs as she walks up.

"What?!" Ryuunosuke gasps. "You're kidding me!"

"Do I look like I'm kidding?!" she points to herself. "It was
because the U.N. was afraid those twits would interfere. They won't
be let out until the race is over."

The other girls consider that information. "Well, once this is over,
we'll never have to hear Megane do his idiot sermons again!" Momoe
sighs.

"Thank the gods for that!" Kumiko nods.

Nearby, Benten and Oyuki coach Lum as Ataru arrives. "Now,
remember," the Fukunokami whispers. "Stay out of his way and you
should be alright!"

"Gotcha!" the Oni nods.

"Remember, you have to tag him," Oyuki warns. "Keep that in mind."

"Tire him out, then go for the kill!" Benten adds. "You can fly!
Use it!"

"Right," Lum nods again.

Haja steps up as Ataru makes himself ready. "Are you ready?!"

Benten and Oyuki clear the field. Ataru and Lum get ready. "Get
set!!" Haja points the gun into the air.

Ataru's eyes glow. "GO!!!!!!" Haja fires.

Ataru spins, hand pointing at Lum. "***PSYCHIC KUSARIGAMA!!!!!!***"
a funnel of energy wraps around his arm! Seconds later, a wrapped
kusarigama appears, the sickle-end of the grappling weapon in his
hand!! The chain then lashes out, snaring Lum before the Oni could
fly out of range!!!

Everyone watches in disbelief as Ataru pulls Lum in a merry-go-round
spin akin to Hercules throwing a chained boulder! The eyes of the
crowd spin with the trapped Oni, who whips around faster and faster
until she is nothing more than an orange-black-and-flesh blur!! Three
seconds later, Lum is released, flying through the air to smash
through five parked cars, mercifully coming to a halt in the window of
a department store several blocks away!!!

Ataru retrieves the kusarigama, then it vanishes! "There!!!" he
laughs. "I prefer my vodka martinis *stirred*!!!"

The Terran walks away. Lum lays unmoving in the department store
window. The crowd is speechless. Yamada wipes his diving helmet.
"Once again, Ataru defeats Lum! Doesn't he realize it's supposed to
be *she* trying to tag *him*, not the other way around...?!!"

* * *

"This is crazy!!!" Benten exclaims, now in the observation gallery of
the "Kashin" later that day. "Lum's gonna get killed if she doesn't
do something quick!!!"

"How?" Oyuki looks up. "If she tries to attack him after the day's
competition is ended, he could accuse her of trying to alter the
parameters of the race. Lum-chan would lose."

"Why are you concerned?" Nassur plays go with Kotatsuneko. "You've
never were interested in coming to Earth other than to see Lum."

"Th-that's not true!" Benten stammers, then sits. "I like this
place! I may not like the fact that Lum's trying to date that twit,
but I still like this place...and the people here!" She bolts up.
"Dammit, why can't Moroboshi see that we don't mind being here?!!"

"He no longer cares for you," Nassur sighs. "Don't you remember?
You used him to win the winter's end game by making Lum so angry that
she spilt her basket."

"That was two years ago!!" she snaps. "Besides...!"

"Besides what?" the Vosian looks back.

"Nothing!" the Fukunokami sighs.

"Right," Nassur returns his attention to the board.

Lan then skips in. "Has anyone seen Rei-sama around?!"

"No!!" Benten snarls. "I hope the beef-and-noodles king fell into a
black hole!!"

Lan looks surprised. "Boy, what side of the bed did you get out
from?!"

"Aren't you upset?!" Benten snaps. "After all, if Lum loses the
race, you'll get kicked off Earth too!"

Lan giggles. "And once off Earth, Lum-chan won't have Darling!
Maybe he'll give me a *kiss* before I go!!"

Benten looks sick, then smiles. "Oh, yeah?! Perhaps we'll be lucky
and you'll get sent back to Shingetsu in a *pine box* after the Cyborg
finishes gutting you!!"

Lan faints! "Or perhaps when Lum returns to Uru, she might try to go
after Rei again," Nassur barbs.

The Seishin teen looks incensed. "WHAT?!?!?! I'LL NEVER LET LUM GET
HER HANDS ON *MY* REI-SAMA!!!!!!"

With an angry huff, she turns to leave. "I wouldn't try to do
anything if I were you," Nassur laughs. "If you try to stop Ataru,
then you'll forfeit a day for Lum! Keep it up and you'll *help* Lum
*lose* the race!!"

Lan faints!

* * *

Ataru walks the streets of Tomobiki. Except for an elderly man out
jogging, there are no people out. "Good evening, Moroboshi-san," he
waves. "Nice work today! I'm sure we'll win it this time."

Ataru waves back, smiling. "We will, sir! Once that's done, the
'Great Mistake of 1981' is forever corrected!!"

The elderly man laughs. "Good for you! Good luck, then!"

He turns a corner. Ataru stops waving, looking grim. *Why must I be
the one who controls Earth's destiny?! I've got other things on my
mind! I don't need shit like this!!*

Turning to walk down a side street, he halts, then enters a dark
alley. He hears two people speaking in the tones of the Ipraedies.
"<<...sure about this?!>>" Haja hisses.

Ataru glances around the corner to see the Ipraedies ambassador
speaking to a lovely Ipraedies woman dressed in a commander's uniform.
"<<We're more than sure!>>" the officer nods. "<<The damn thing was
found drifting near Barsoom. Big as a space station and better armed
than the whole Ipraedies fleet!>>"

"<<How did the Emperor take it?>>" Haja sighs.

"<<He was ecstatic!>>" the officer snorts. "<<He's got a team of
technicians looking over the ship right now! If they can, they'll try
to salvage it and use it to re-arm the fleet!>>"

The ambassador looks grim. "<<It has enough power to take out every
fleet in the cluster, if what I remember about it is correct! The
*Asan'on* would launch a war which would destroy everyone around us!
Not even the Vosians, the Yehisrites or the Zephyrites would stop
us!>>"

"<<Right!>>" she nods.

"<<Any information about where the ship came from?>>"

"<<No...>>" the intelligence officer shakes her head. "<<The
nationality markers are similar to Zephyrite symbology, but the
phoenix is gold instead of black, and it's one symbol, not stencilled
into three parts like the Zephyrites...>>"

Hearing the two approach, Ataru retreats into shadow. Haja and his
companion stroll past. As soon as they are gone, Ataru emerges. "A
ship with a phoenix insignia on it, eh?! Well, well, well! Isn't
that interesting?"

Cherry then appears! "You must not embrace the phoenix, Ataru!!"

The monk then gets clobbered by Ataru's fist. "What was that for,
you fool?!!" the incensed teenager demands.

"Hark and listen well, my boy!" Cherry leaps on stilts to stare Ataru
directly in the eye. "If you continue this mad pursuit of the
phoenix, hundres...no, MILLIONS...will be made to suffer!! You must
reject the phoenix's power...!"

He flies into orbit a second later. "Ah, go pester someone else!!"
Ataru snarls.

"It's fate...!" Cherry wails as he flies away.

Ataru shakes his head, then turns to head back to his apartment when
he feels the tremors of a large mass heading his way. "Oh, gods, not
him!" he groans.

Sure enough, it is Rei. The transformed Oni pilot spins around the
corner, then upon seeing Ataru, lets out a bellow of rage.
"ATARU...DIE!!!!!!"

Ataru stands his ground, his left eye glowing pure white. "**We'll
see about that, you walking meat-shop!!!**"

A titanic explosion follows!! The smoke soon clears to revealed a
battered, broken and bruised...and back to human...Rei, unconscious at
the Cyborg's feet. The machine-man does not look winded. "**What a
wimp!**"

A storm of black then appears around him, melting into twelve
black-clad female shinobi, the Kuromoroboshi ninjas. "Sir, are you
alright?!" their leader bows.

"**I'm fine!**" Ataru points to Rei. "**Dump this carcass at Lan's
ship! You have my permission to *decorate* him more than he already
is!**"

"Our pleasure, sir!"

Rei and the Kuromoroboshi vanish. "**That should teach Lan to mind
her own business from now on!**" the Cyborg chuckles as he reverts to
normal, turning to head down the street...

* * *

Day Three begins. Ataru and Lum assume their positions as Haja walks
up. "Are you ready?!"

They get ready. "Set!!!" Haja points the pistol.

Ataru's eyes glow. "GO!!!!!!" Haja fires.

Just as Ataru is about to race down the street, the crowd is bashed
aside by a *very* angry Lan, bazooka in hand. "YOU DARE BEAT UP *MY*
REI-SAMA?!?!?!" the Seishin girl takes aim at Ataru. "YOU BASTARD,
DIE!!!!!!"

The bazooka fires. Ataru leaps out of the way. The round impacts
into the reporter's desk, sending Yamada into orbit! "Once again, the
tag race starts with a big *bang*...!!!" the fish-creature carries on
as he flies away!

Haja fires again. "FOUL!!!!!!"

Lum spins around. "WHAT?!?!?!"

Haja points at Lan. "She tried to kill the Terran champion!!! The
day is forfeited!!! Come back tomorrow!!!"

The whole crowd looks shocked. "***WHAT?!?!?!***"

Lan is then surrounded by a lynch mob, mostly composed of the male
students of Tomobiki High School, not to mention Oyuki and Benten!
"You stupid jerk, you just cost Lum the whole day!!!" the Fukunokami
howls.

Lum races up, body aglow. "How *dare* you...?!!"

There is an explosion!! Lan is then carted away by two Oni
orderlies. An incensed Invader stands beside Lum. "Put that idiot in
the brig for the rest of the race, then find that boyfriend of hers
and put him there with her!!! We can't afford garbage like this!!!"

Watching this, Ataru wolfishly smiles. "Three down, seven to go," he
heads off...

* * *

That night, Ataru walks to the door of the Seikou home. The door
opens and Mie's mother steps out. "Oh, hello, Ataru. Mie-chan's with
Reiko-chan right now. Won't you come in?"

"Thanks, Mrs. Seikou," Ataru steps in. Then, just as he steps into
the living room, a stuffed cat slams into his face!

"Oh, sorry, Ataru-sempai!!" Tamiko Seikou cries.

Ataru puts the stuffed cat down. Seated on the floor is Mie and
Reiko. Standing at both ends of the coffee table are Mie's sister and
Mie's father Jufumi. "It's okay, Tamiko-chan," Ataru tosses the cat
at her.

The stuffed animal is telekinetically seized, then projected at her
father. "Take that!!" Tamiko snaps. "Jingoro-chan's still the
champion!"

"Not a chance!" Mie's father snaps back.

Jingoro is hit by another flying stuffed cat! As Tamiko and Mie's
father commence battle using the stuffed animals and their powers, Mie
leans over to whisper in Ataru's ear. "I need to talk to you."

He looks at her. "Something wrong?"

"C'mon!" she nods to a hallway.

They step out of the living room, leaving a laughing Reiko clapping
her hands at the spectacle in front of her. The two students walk
into Mie's bedroom. "What is it, Mie-chan?" Ataru looks confused.

Mie reaches into her closet...and pulls out a full-sleeved
form-fitting bodysuit. It is dark blue with red trim. The deep
V-neck is bordered with a stylized phoenix insignia. "Look familiar?"

Stunned silence falls over them. "Th-then...y-you...?" Ataru
stammers.

"We're from the same planet," she nods. "Or have been influenced by
that planet. I don't know. I came here twelve years ago, but I
suffered a bad concussion and wound up with amnesia. What's your
story?"

"I can't say," Ataru sighs. "For some strange reason, my memories of
the world we seek have been lost. However, we may still be fortunate.
I've news for you."

"What?"

"The Ipraedies have discovered a ship bearing that particular phoenix
insignia. They're exploring it in hopes of using it to conquer the
worlds of the Galactic Federation. As much as I would like to see all
aliens gone from Earth, I do not wish to inflict trouble upon those
same worlds."

"So what do we do?" calculation appears on her face. "You still have
the Tag Race to finish, Ataru-chan."

"Believe me, Mie-chan, the Tag Race is the least of my concerns," he
sighs. "Right now, learning who and what I am is more important.
After I'm done here, I'm going to head off to Hokkaido to get my
grandma's help to get out to the place where the Ipraedies have got
this ship. If I can get aboard and look around...hell, if I could get
control of this ship...then we're home free!"

"How?!" Mie looks concerned. "The Ipraedies won't have much love for
you after the race is done. If you win, then the Zephyrites move into
this system. I'd think that after that occurs, the Ipraedies wouldn't
need much of an excuse to really hurt you should they discover you in
their territory."

"Well, if we sit back and allow them to make use of this ship, then
everyone's in trouble," Ataru comments. "Do you want to see that
happen?"

"Um...no," she shakes her head.

"Besides," he smiles. "I owe the green-skilled bastards a few for
what they did to me back on Icarus! Stealing their little prize seems
the right sort of repayment for the troubles they heaped on me! And
with the Cyborg around to back me up, I don't think they'll be able to
hurt me anymore!"

"True," she nods, then remembers something else. "What about Lum?"

"What about her?"

"Ataru-chan, I don't think Lum's going to let you go that easily even
if you win this race," Mie warns. "She's not the type. Believe me,
she'll be looking for ways to get her hands on you...and if you go
into space, that'll just give her the right sort of opportunity."

He considers the point. "True. I guess I'll have to disappear for a
while, then."

"Or maybe," Mie slyly smiles.

"What?"

Giggling, she leans up to whisper in his ear...

* * *

The days pass. Lum is ruthlessly beaten by increasingly vicious
manoeuvres performed by Ataru. The crowds watch in stunned horror as
the woman whose presence in Tomobiki has influenced their lives for
two years is humiliated by the man from whom they did not expect such
acts.

* * *

It is now the afternoon of the ninth day. In her bedroom, Shinobu
has opened her diary. Gloom hangs over the town as she takes pen in
hand:

"Dear Diary,

"Here it is, Day Nine. Lum lost her temper and tried
to fry Ataru with her lightning. Stupid
manoeuvre...it cost her the day. And now, now...there
is one day remaining. One day before the 'Great
Mistake of 1981,' as the press call the First Tag
Race...is rectified. Lum would be gone from our
lives. And with her go Ten-chan, Benten, Oyuki, Lan,
Nassur-kun..."

She then has a fantasy of what a farewell between her and Nassur
would be like. Recovering, she continues to write:

"...and two years of strange occurrences will end.
Odd. I don't feel anything for Lum; after all, it was
because of her that Ataru-kun left me. Yet...it seems
so strange. Without Lum, our lives will become
ordinary. I never wanted to be anything more than a
normal person...yet with Lum around, everyone in
Tomobiki could dream of greater things. But,
now...our dreams will have to change."

She stops, her memory turning back to the horrible fight she had with
Ataru in the town park shortly after the tag race announcement was
made. Feeling the sting of his hand striking her cheek, the
accusations in his eyes, his final farewell..."You're a stranger to
me, Miyaki"...causes a storm of tears to flow from her eyes. Leaning
down, she continues to write:

"Yet, even if Lum wins, we all lose. Ataru-kun has
made it empathically clear that he will not change
from his currently chosen path. He will leave
Tomobiki forever, heading off to another place to live
his life under his control, raise his child away from
us, those who have stood with him despite his many
faults over the last two years.

"How could he...?! How could he reject us with such
fervour that anything we say or do to try to defend,
much less justify, ourselves is simply ignored?! Does
he hate us that much?! How is it that after all the
times we went after him yet did not get through to
him, that a simple torture device could unleash so
much anger and rage that we are simply overwhelmed?!

"We can't win...we just can't...!"

Shinobu stops writing, her own emotions overwhelming her. Leaning
into her hands, she allows sobs to burst from her lips, tears flowing
freely down her cheeks. Her eyes stare at a picture of Ataru and her
sitting beside her bed. It was one of the few times that she was able
to get him to sit still so they could look like a respectfable couple.
Reaching over, she gazes at the innocent people the picture portray,
neither suspecting the awful storm soon to befall them with Lum's
arrival.

The heat of anger then builds in her soul as Shinobu remembers the
accusations he fired at her in the town park. He now believed she
never once cared for him, that she used him just to press her own
ends. He in fact charged her with using him and Lum just to get her
hands on Nassur. Well, what other way was she supposed to employ to
earn the Vosian's interest? And now...and now Ataru was working to
ensure that no chance would ever come that Shinobu would ever earn
Nassur's love. All because Ataru now believed she never once loved
him!

"How could he?!!" she screams, tossing the picture aside, then falls
to the floor with another pained wail...

* * *

Day Ten. Ataru warms up on the Sportsplaza's lawn. The
Kuromoroboshi are present. As the crowds gather, Mie walks up.
"'Morning, Ataru-chan!"

"'Morning, Mie-chan," Ataru nods.

"Ready for the last day?" she sits.

"Willing and waiting!" he chuckles. "Jinseiko."

The leader of the Kuromoroboshi kneels before him. "Sir?"

"Is all in preparation?"

Jinseiko nods. "Yes, sir. The helicopter is standing by and
Mistress Reiko is presently on her way to Rishiri-tou."

"Good," Ataru stands. "Let's get to work."

Lum lands. The crowd seems less enthused as on previous days. Even
Yamada seems bored. "The final day of the Third Tag Race, ladies and
gentlemen, and it seems Lum is still unable to get close to Ataru.
However, speculation has it that yesterday's default was purposefully
executed by Lum to allow her to rest up before giving it her all
today. We have to wait and see if that is enough for Lum to tag Ataru
and win the race."

Ataru walks towards the starting gate. He ignores the incensed
stares from Mendou and the guards (released the night before after
being held in isolation by the Kuromoroboshi). Mie walks beside him.
"It seems the Hitler Youth are having a hard time trying to cope with
what you're doing."

"Don't worry," he kisses her. "In a week's time, they'll *still*
have nothing and you and I will be back where we belong."

"Are you sure this is going to work, Ataru-chan?"

He winks at her. "Not even Nassur would be able to tell the
difference...and besides, he'll have something else occupying his
time."

"Okay," Mie nods. "See you on the other side."

She kisses him, then returns to the crowd. Yamada has taken
interest. "On a talk show two days ago, there were rumours that
Ataru's grandmother, the Lady Nagaiwakai Moroboshi, has selected a
girl to be his *real* fiancee to replace Lum. Perhaps the girl who
was with him now is the one in question..."

Haja walks up. "Good morning. Today is the last day. You should
know the consequences if Lum succeeds or fails. Please make
yourselves ready."

Cherry appears in front of Ataru! "Ataru!!! You must not embrace
the power of the phoenix!!!"

Everyone save Ataru is decked by an H-bomb blast!!!! "Remove that
pest or else I'll default the whole **race**!!!" Haja snaps.

Cherry is removed by Mie's foot! "Get lost, you jerk!!! You can't
stop what's about to happen!!!"

"It's fate...!" he wails as he reaches escape velocity!

"If you think you'll be allowed back to school after this, you've got
another thing coming, Moroboshi!!!" Onsen snaps from the crowd.

Ataru smiles. "Why should I go back?! After all, I don't want to be
in a school where a student-abusing *bully* like **you** is the
vice-principal. Makes me shiver if or when you become principal. I
sure as hell can't see how the school board allowed you to be vice in
the first place! I should call Grandma and get you *fired*!!"

"I'll teach you some respect, you little...!" he moves toward Ataru.

"Either he stops or Lum loses!!" Haja points.

Onsen is then doused by Lum's lightning! "Stay out of this,
Onsen-sensei!"

"Is that legal?" Momoe looks at Haja.

"She didn't use her powers on Ataru." Drawing his pistol, he looks
between the two. "Ready?!!"

Ataru and Lum take their positions. "Set?!!"

Ataru's eyes glow. "GO!!!!" Haja fires.

There is an explosion!! Yamada wipes his diving helmet. "The race
starts off with a bang yet again...!!!"

* * *

This day, the race does not end within minutes of starting. As the
sun sinks past the peaks of the Kantou-sanchi, Lum chases Ataru
through the streets. Several people run with them, cheering them on.
The crowds are easily divided between whom they support and where they
hail: Tomobiki residents support Lum while outsiders cheer Ataru.
While the Terran tag champion is unmarked, Lum has scorch marks on her
chest and arms. Yamada watches this from a television receiving
transmissions from a camera mounted on a helicopter. "Today has been
quite a change," the fish-creature reports. "Considering what
happened during seven of the previous nine days, Lum is forced to keep
her distance from Ataru. He is still capable of considerable tricks.
Lum must think of something soon for she only has five minutes left!"

Ataru makes his way back to the Sportsplaza. Lum alters direction,
but cannot summon the speed to catch up. *D-darling's keeping the
pace up...!* she pants. *He's been forcing me t-to do all the
work...!! Gotta think of s-something quick or else I'll lose...!*

Watching this, everyone looks anxious, even Nassur. "Ataru's really
paced himself today," the Vosian hums. "Lum's worn out because of all
the times he attacked or feigned to attack her."

"Can Lum still win?!" Benten looks at her partner.

"She's got three minutes left," he sighs. "She could do it...but no
matter what, her relationship with Ataru's over after today."

"WHO CARES ABOUT THAT?!?!?!" Megane roars, then turns to the Oni.
"C'mon, Lum-san!!!" he yells through a megaphone. "You can do it!!!"

Megane is bashed by Momoe, who scoops up the megaphone. "POUR IT ON,
ATARU!!!! WIN!!!!!! THREE MORE MINUTES AND LUM'S GONE FOREVER!!!!!!"

The boys growl while the girls cheer. Ataru breaks onto the grounds
of the Sportsplaza, moving towards the finish line. Lum is several
metres behind him. The cheers grow as Ataru does a lap. "Two
minutes!!!" Haja yells.

Lum grits her teeth and lunges. "Oh, no you don't, Darling!!!"

Her hand grabs his leg, tripping him! Ataru falls face-first to the
ground. Lum flies past him, not fully realizing what she did. As
soon as realization dawns, she stops and moves back to him. "I got
you!!"

Before she could reach for his bandanna, Ataru's foot catches her on
the chin. The Oni is sent flying into the air! "Get outta here!!!"
Ataru snaps.

"One minute!!!" Haja yells.

Lum crashes into the stands many metres away! Mendou and the guards
panic. "Oh, no!!" Mendou moans. "Lum-san will lose!!!"

"What do we do?! What do we do?!!" Megane looks left and right.

Slowly recovering, Lum rises to her feet. "No...can't stop now...!"

Rising, Ataru looks tired. "Man, I've got to take a vacation...!"

"Ataru-chan, look out!!!" Mie yells.

Ataru whips his leg in a roundhouse kick. "Oh, no you don't!!"

The foot catches Lum in the side of the head, sending the Oni
spiralling into the crowd. Ataru's balance is lost as he tries to
recover, making him fall! Worse, the bandana slips off! "Thirty
seconds!!!" Haja yells.

"Lum-san, hurry!!!" Megane cries.

Recovering, the Oni sees the bandana on the ground some distance away
from Ataru. Summoning what strength she has left, Lum lunges.
"Victory!!!"

Everyone watches the Oni race to the bandana. But, a metre from the
goal, the sun disappears behind the peaks of the Kantou-sanchi...and
the gun goes off! A second later, Lum's hand grabs the bandana!!
Seeing this, everyone cheers. "She won!!!" Megane howls. "She won!!!
LUM-SAN WON!!!!!!"

Everyone screams joy, relief and exhaustion...until Haja's megaphoned
shout cuts them short. "***LUM LOST!!!!!!***"

Everyone stares at the Ipraedies in unholy rage. "WHAT WAS
THAT?!?!?!" Mendou screams, drawing his katana. "How dare you say
Lum-san lost?!!"

Haja is surrounded by every boy from Tomobiki High School, their
bodies radiating enormous volumes of heat! "***WHAT DID YOU
SAY?!?!***"

"I'm afraid it's true," Nassur interrupts.

Everyone faints! "***WHAT?!?!?!***"

Nassur pulls up a portable television showing the instant replay.
"Look for yourself," he points, revealing Lum's hand still an arm's
length from the bandana. "That was when the gun fired. Lum was still
a metre from the bandana. She didn't grab it during the race, hence
she lost."

"Besides," Haja cuts in. "The rules state that Lum must remove the
bandana from Ataru's **person!!!** Even if she did grab the bandana
before the gun fired, it would not be considered a proper tag to win
the race!!"

Lum's eyes are wide with shock. "B-but...I have th-the bandana...!"

"You *didn't* have it when the gun fired," Nassur sighs.

"And it wasn't taken from Ataru's head," Haja adds.

"Wh-what does that mean...?!" Mendou gulps.

Nassur walks up to Lum. "Lum no Midorinokaminoke-oni," he formally
declares, "...by the provisions of Special Resolution 443 of the
United Nations, in recognition of your losing the Third Tag Race, your
visa permitting you to live on Earth is revoked. You have six hours
to clear the sovereign territory of the member states of the United
Nations of Earth. You will **no longer** be permitted to return
unless it is because of an emergency. Further, the relationship, if
any, you possess with Ataru Moroboshi will **no longer** be recognized
as an excuse for you to return or to attempt to kidnap him from Earth.
I have been duly authorized to enforce this eviction order with
whatever force necessary to ensure compliance. Is this understood?"

Lum looks stunned. Her eyes are wide. Her lower lip trembles.
Then, she whispers hoarsely, "Y-yes...I un-understand...!"

Everyone looks at the Oni in shock and disbelief, helplessness
crossing their faces. Nassur looks to Ten-chan. "That means you as
well, Ten-chan."

"Oh...okay," the smaller Oni nods.

Lum wails, realizing finally the enormity of what she has lost.
Mendou and the guards comfort her. Nassur turns to Lan, viciously
smiling. "Lan no Akaikaminoke-seishin," he formally declares, "...by
the provisions of Special Resolution 443 of the United Nations, in
recognition of Lum's losing the Third Tag Race, your visa permitting
you to live on Earth is hereby revoked. You have six hours to clear
the soverign territory of the member states of the United Nations of
Earth. You will **no longer** be permitted to return. Further, if
you or your boyfriend, Rei no Midorinokaminoke-oni, are caught on
Earth for whatever reason, even for an emergency, you will be executed
without trial! I have been duly authorized to enforce this eviction
order with whatever force necessary to ensure compliance. Is this
understood?"

"Oh, okay," Lan turns towards Ataru. "I'll just kiss Darling
good-bye...!"

Nassur draws his gun and fires! Lan drops semi-conscious to the
ground, gripping the hole in her side. "**Especially** if it's for
trying to get your stupid, worthless revenge on Lum through Ataru!"
the Vosian snaps.

"Damn...you...!" Lan moans.

A second later, Rei drops unconscious beside his girlfriend. Several
hybrids from Home Base, who had come to Earth with Nassur and Benten,
drag the two aliens away. Many people have now gathered around the
crying Lum. Haja is not one of them; he walks to Ataru.
"Congratulations, Ataru!" the Ipraedies shakes the fatigued Terran's
hand. "It's not everyone who can write on his resume that he affected
the destiny of a whole world!"

Ataru nods, face pale. "Th-thanks...I th-think...!" he stands...then
freezes as a shocked look crosses his face, hand reaching for his
heart.

Haja looks concerned. "Are you alright?!"

"N-no...!" Ataru gasps. "I...I think I'm having a...!"

Ataru collapses like so much dead weight to the ground!
"Ataru-sama!!!" Jinseiko and the other Kuromoroboshi leap to his side.

Not noticing this, Megane bolts up. "Ataru!!! You slime, you made
Lum-san cry!!! Apologize to her now!!!"

Silence comes from the target of Megane's anger. He turns to look.
"Answer me, you...eh?!" he stops on seeing Ataru passed out.

Everyone stops, confused on not hearing Ataru's reply. Lum bolts up,
eyes wide. "Darling?!! Darling, what's wrong?!!"

"I...oh, no!" Yukio cries, eyes glowing. "I can't sense Koichi's
brainwaves!!"

Nassur turns white with horror. "No...!!"

Hearing this, Lum panics. "No!!! Darling!!!"

She lunges to the unmoving Ataru. Mie's arm shoves the Oni back!
"Back off, you alien slut!!!" the Kyushu native barks. "Haven't you
done enough to him already?!!"

"Wh-what's wrong with A-ataru-kun...?!" Shinobu stammers.

"K-koichi...Koichi's dead...!" Yukio cries.

At the word "dead," the faces of every native of Tomobiki light up.
"Moroboshi's dead?!!" Mendou gasps.

"You mean...he's really gone?!!" Megane adds.

One of the Kuromoroboshi looks up, face damp with tears, shaking her
head. Jinseiko nods in defeat. Everyone cheers. "***HURRAY!!!!***"
Megane screams. "***ATARU MOROBOSHI'S DEAD!!!! WE'RE RID OF HIM ONCE
AND FOR ALL!!!!!!***"

"***AND LUM'S STILL GOING HOME!!!!!!***" Mie barks.

Everyone freezes, shock replacing joy on realizing the problem which
hangs over them! Mie looks away, wryly smiling. "And with Ataru-chan
dead, Lum will **never** have reason to come back!" she adds, each
word sounding like the ring of a Buddhist's bell.

A helicopter is heard. Everyone sees a Blackhawk hovering over the
Sportsplaza. Escorting it are a phalanx of Huey Cobras and Apaches,
guns bearing on the crowd surrounding Lum. As the Blackhawk lands
beyond where Ataru fell, the Kuromoroboshi gently move their mistress'
grandson toward the waiting helicopter. Lum moves to follow. "No,
don't take Darling away...!!"

Mie grabs Nassur's gun, then fires five times! The bolts hit Lum in
the back, neck and the back of the head, knocking her down!! Everyone
gasps as Mie hands the gun to Nassur. "You've got no right to be near
him now, slut!!!" she growls.

"She...she shot Lum-san...?!" Megane gulps, eyes wide.

Then, the Gatling guns on the Apaches and Huey Cobras bark,
projecting a storm of cannon and machine gun shells at the crowd
below! Everyone cries as they run away from the machines. Maverick
missiles launched from a flight of Hornets passing overhead hit the
ground in the midst of the fleeing crowd, sending them flying into
orbit!! Mie is the only one untouched as she watches the Blackhawk
lift off, turning north towards Hokkaido.

Also watching is Lum, who lies on the ground. Her eyes water as the
Blackhawk departs, bearing the last vestiges of her happiness.
"D-darling..."

* * *

Lum's eyes open.

The Oni sits up, looking around confusedly. "Eh...where am I...?"
she muses to herself...before tensing on hearing an ominous whistling.
"Uh-oh!" she gulps.

An anti-armour round punches into the ground behind her, sending the
hapless Lum into the air with the grace of a flying elephant! The Oni
screams as she tries to comprehend what is happening to her, then
realizes on seeing the barren field she now standing in that she is in
more trouble than she could shake a stick at. "Where am I?!!"

More explosions detonate around her as Lum tries to find out who or
what is trying to kill her. "Wait!!" she waves her hands in
surrender. "Don't shoot! I don't mean you any harm!!"

She then jolts on feeling the cold kiss of a rifle muzzle in her
back. "What are you doing in my dreamsite?!" a familiar voice growls.

"Benten?!!" Lum spins around...then stops, blinking confusedly. "Who
are you?!"

The woman in front of her bears such a striking resemblance to Lum's
Fukunokami friend that any mistake about her identity would be
understandable...were she not wearing a dark blue combat uniform
trimmed in red and emblazoned with an all-too familiar phoenix
insignia. "Who's Benten?!" the woman growls, pointing the barrel at
Lum's throat. "And who are you?! You're no *daishi'cha* I recognize!
Nobody would be caught dead wearing that pathetic rag you've got on!!"

"I...I'm Lum...!" the Oni fearfully gulps.

The woman blinks, then sneers. "Lum?!!" she snarls, freezing the Oni
with an icy stare that would scare anyone. "The traitor who thinks
she's worthy to be the *daimon'cha's* Other, eh?!!"

Lum blinks confusedly as details begin to add up. This was not
Benten despite the unbelievable physical resemblance. Further, the
woman had mentioned two words Lum remembers from her
dreams...*daimon'cha,* a term she believes is meant to be applied to
Ataru...and "Other." "Other what?!!" Lum demands. "Why do you people
demand to know if I'm this Other?!! Why won't you tell me what's
going on?! And who are you, anyway?!! You look like Benten but you
sure don't act like her!!"

The woman sneers. "If you don't know the answers yourself, *de'ne,*
don't bother trying to ask me! The fact that you continue to stomp
all over Ataru-sama's life like you've done would prove to me that
you're not the Other!!"

Lum looks surprised. "'Ataru-SAMA?!?!'" she gurgles the honourific.

"Yeah, Ataru-sama!!" Benten's doppelganger snarls. "You don't even
do him the common courtesy of addressing him by his first name! You
fight his desires to learn more about himself, you sure as shit made
hash out of his life, and you sure aren't helping him achieve his
destiny by trying to force him to stay in that pit of fools and madmen
you've been living in for the last two years!! Now, if you don't
mind, you're dragging all sorts of garbage into my dreamsite!!! GET
OUT!!!!"

With a wave of her hand, Benten-chan disappears from Lum's view...as
the Oni then finds herself inside the luxurious living room of a large
apartment somewhere in the middle of a vast alien city, one she does
not begin to recognize. Shaking her head confusedly, Lum looks up to
the heavens. "At least she didn't have to be so rude about it!!" she
snarls, walking to the window. "Where am I now?!"

"Oh, we have a visitor," another familiar voice calls out.

Lum beams on recognizing the voice. "Sakura-sensei!!" she spins
around, then stops. "What the...?!! Shinobu?!!"

Standing in front of her are two Terran women, exact doubles of
Sakura Sakurambou and Shinobu Miyaki. Both look as if they had just
taken a shower. That does not surprise Lum given that both are robed
only in a large towel. What does surprise Lum is that both women
lovingly hold the other's hand, something Lum has NEVER seen in her
years in Tomobiki. Staring confusedly at the Oni, both women then
glance at each other. "This may sound like a silly question,"
Shinobu-chan hums, "...but who are you? You look a lot like Iouoeouo,
but your hair's a darker shade of green than hers."

"Um...I'm Lum," the Oni sweats. "From Uru."

That revelation causes both women to blink. "You're Lum?!!"
Sakura-chan leans up to her. "If that's so, how did you get here?!!"

"I don't know!!" Lum shakes her head. "Last thing I remember is that
I had just lost a tag race, Darling just died, then I wound up nearly
getting myself killed when I came to a 'dreamsite' run by a double of
Benten!!"

Hearing the phrase 'Darling just died,' Shinobu-chan lets out a
shriek. "***OH, NO!!!! ATARU-SAMA'S DEAD!!!! HOW CAN WE FULFILL THE
GRAND DESIGN IF HE'S PASSED FROM THIS WORLD?!?!?!***"

The wailing woman collapses to her knees, causing Sakura-chan to
kneel beside her. "There, there, my love, don't fret!" the double of
the Shinto priestesss coos. "All is not lost. We can still look for
another *daimon'cha* candidate!"

"**I DON'T WANT ANOTHER *DAIMON'CHA* CANDIDATE!!!!**" Shinobu's
double screams at the top of her lungs. "**I WANT ATARU
MOROBOSHI!!!!! HE'S THE ONLY ONE WORTHY ENOUGH TO BE OUR
*DAIMON'CHA!!!!!!***"

Lum is blasted down by the wall of noise. "Boy, they're even more
possessive about Darling that I am!!" she muses to herself.

Suddenly, Lum finds herself at the receiving end of a withering stare
from Shinobu's double. "You traitor!!!" she stabs an accusing finger
at the Oni. "You're the one responsible for this!!! You're the one
who killed him!!! It's your fault!!! Why?!! Why did you do it?!!
Afraid that when Ataru-sama gained control of his life, he'd forever
be out of your control?!! It's your fault!!!"

"It's not, it's not, it's not!!" Lum shakes her head empathically.
"I didn't want Darling to die!!!"

Unfortunately, Shinobu-chan is not listening to reason this day. "I
demand Council!! Now!!!" she screams to no one in particular.

"Love, that's not necessary!!!" Sakura-chan tries to wave her down.

To no effect. "I DEMAND COUNCIL!!!!" Shinobu-chan repeats.
"***NOW!!!!!!***"

Suddenly, the apartment image fades. "Wh-what's h-happening?!" Lum
stammers fearfully, then blinks on seeing Sakura-chan and Shinobu-chan
now clothed in an all-too familiar phoenix-emblazoned jumpsuit. While
Sakura's double is dressed in the same manner as the mysterious
Seishin woman Lum encountered in her first dreams about these people,
Shinobu's double wears a dark green jumpsuit with black trim.

Shinobu-chan icily glares at the Oni. "You're about to face
judgement for your crimes, murderess!"

Lum gulps, then finds herself in the middle of a vast golden phoenix
insignia. She looks around to see that she is surrounded on all sides
by the shadowy shapes of hundreds upon hundreds of women, spanning all
the known humanoid races in the local cluster. Further, much to her
surprise, many of the women in the rows closest to her are physical
doubles of every woman Ataru has encountered in the last two years,
maybe more. Presiding over this curious court is a double of Asuka
Mizunokoji, dressed in a black jumpsuit with gold trim and green
pants. "*Daishi'cha* Twenty-five-thirty," Asuka-chan stares at
Shinobu-chan. "You have called for Council. State your case."

"I shall, Three-zero-zero-two," Shinobu-chan nods, then points to
Lum. "Behold, sisters!! The illogical, vile, primitive creature who
DARES think it upon herself that she is worthy to be our beloved
*daimon'cha's* Other...Lum of Uru!!!"

Gasps of disbelief utter from the crowd. Lum feels herself
especially vulnerable for she has no idea whatsoever who these people
are or why they want Ataru. The eyes that glare at her seem to not
only touch her skin, but burn right to her soul. Shivering fearfully,
she begins to back towards Sakura-chan in a vain hope of averting
those vile gazes heading her way.

"How is it possible that a non-Sagussan has come here?!" Oyuki's
double demands.

"What is this creature doing here?!" Lan's double demands from across
the way. "Is this actually the Other?!"

"She can't be the Other!" Elle's double snaps. "The real Other would
respect our desire for the *daimon'cha* as much as we would respect
her desire for him!! Look at this creature! She cowers away from
us!!"

"Not only that, she secretly conspires for a way to remove us from
the *daimon'cha's* life!!" Kurama's double fires an accusing finger at
Lum.

"She has succeeded!!" Shinobu-chan cries.

"How?!!" a dozen women demand.

The Terran-born woman nearly chokes on her tears. "Because...she
admitted to me right now that...Ataru-sama...he's dead!!" Shinobu-chan
sobs.

"***WHAT?!?!?!***" explodes from the crowd.

"Is this true?!!" Kurama-chan demands.

"It is true!!" Ryuunosuke-chan points at Lum. "Her thoughts betray
everything!!!"

*Oh, no!! They're telepaths!!* Lum suddenly realizes, now feeling
more vulnerable than ever. "Wait!! Wait!!!" she cries out, waving
her hand. "I didn't do it!! I don't want Darling dead!!!"

"Liar!!!" Shinobu-chan snarls. "You chased him in your illogical
excuse of a competition all to ensure that your world can continue to
dominate his!!!"

"That's not true!!" Lum shakes her head. "If we didn't intervene
when we did, the Ipraedies would've invaded Earth!!"

"Perhaps that is so! Perhaps that is what you believe!" Oyuki-chan
hums. "But that does not begin to excuse your disagreeable behaviour
after you chose to live on Earth full-time!!"

"What about my disagreeable behaviour?!!" Lum snarls. "Darling said
he wanted to marry me!!"

"Oh?!" the Tritonian-born woman icily glares at the Oni. "Then if he
wished to participate in your mating rituals, barbaric as they are
because of the sense of domination they impose on the parties
involved, then why is it he has always desired the companionship of
other females?!"

Lum balks. "I..."

"Answer her question!" Asuka-chan ordains.

"I can't!" the Oni shakes her head.

A collective hum utters from the women around them. "So,"
Shinobu-chan sneers. "You stated you loved him, yet you neither cared
for nor acknowledged his desires! You turned his family against him,
your friends came in your wake to dominate his life with their
problems, you forced him to endure that place of fools and madmen,"
she stabs an accusing finger at Lum. "You are unworthy to be the
Other!!!"

"So what does that make you?!!" Lum bolts to her feet, glaring at her
accuser.

Shinobu-chan jolts back, surprised by the Oni's show of defiance.
"What does that mean?!!" she growls.

"If you people are the harem Darling's always dreamt about, then
where've you been?!!" Lum demands, fangs out. "If you desire him so
much, then why aren't you on Earth taking him away for yourselves?!!"

Silence falls over the scene for a moment. "Because we must prepare
ourselves, be ready in mind and spirit, before we could ever ask him
to return to us," Shinobu-chan looks away.

Lum looks confused. "Why?!"

"Well, look at us!" Shinobu-chan points to herself. "Don't you see
how much we desire him?! How much he has influenced us?! How can we
complete the prerequisites for the Grand Design if we are still
emotionally attached to him?!"

"I...still don't understand," Lum confusedly shakes her head. If
this was Ataru's dream harem, it had to be composed of the strangest
group of women Lum had ever encountered in her years of space travel.
What people would so willingly worship a single being, while at the
same time try to emotionally disassociate themselves from him?

"Perhaps that is the problem," Oyuki-chan comments, then stares at
Asuka-chan. "It is obvious that for Lum to truly become the Other,
then she has to know more about us."

"Agreed," Asuka-chan nods.

"Wait!!" Lum cuts in. "Asuka, if Darling's dead...?!"

"Lum," Sakura-chan cuts in. "Did you actually sense Ataru-sama
die?!"

The Oni pauses, then blinks. "Um...n-no. It was so confusing that
day...and I was so tired after the hell Darling put me through during
the Tag Race...then when he won and I found out I was banished from
Earth, that I'd never see him again..."

"Surely you can't believe that!" Lan-chan blinks. "How could you
expect to be the Other if you don't see yourself as worthy of being
the Other?!"

"I...I...!" Lum sniffs, tears flowing down her cheeks. "I don't
know!!" she wails, dropping to her knees as she grips her temples. "I
don't know!!! Everything's been happening so fast, I don't know what
to believe anymore!!!"

The assembly of women stare at her as the Oni moans. "Wait!"
Ryuunosuke-chan blinks with surprise. "Since when does Ataru-sama
have the ability to manipulate the forces of the Earth like he
demonstrated in the Tag Race?!"

"And since when did he learn to transform himself into that
cybernetic entity?!!" Lan-chan adds.

"And he has adopted a child, one of a race which does not respect
Lum's!!" Benten-chan adds. "Something's wrong here!!"

"Agreed!" Asuka-chan stands, walking over to Lum. Kneeling down in
front of the crying Oni, the Terran-born woman gently draws Lum to her
feet. "Fate has brought you here for a reason, Lum. If you indeed
are the Other, then do not look upon us as enemies, but allies. We
all desire the same thing, but for different reasons. Instead of
fighting each other, we should work together to help Ataru-sama
through his time of maturity."

"H-how?" Lum stares bleakly at her.

"We cannot recommend anything as of yet," Asuka-chan sighs.
"However, perhaps this separation between you and Ataru-sama may be a
good thing. As long as you remained in that place of fools and
madmen...that which you call 'Tomobiki'...you were under the
overwhelming influence of its Entropy-filled denizens. And that
obviously contributed to the strained state of affairs between
yourself and Ataru-sama."

"Then logic dictates that Lum must herself be cleansed of Entropy's
influence," Oyuki-chan warns. "Further, Ataru-sama must be removed
from Tomobiki. There can be no other way that he can be rescued from
Entropy's grasp if he remains in Tomobiki for any further length of
time."

"We would have to learn what other powers are now trying to influence
him and eliminate them immediately," Sakura-chan advises.

"Are we agreed?!" Asuka-chan stares at the crowd around them.

Heads bob up and down in agreement. "So noted," Asuka-chan turns to
Lum. "One of us will be dispatched to you sometime in the near
future, Lum. That person will volunteer herself to aid you in
comprehending what is happening to Ataru-sama...and at the same time
better explain why we desire him. Hopefully, together, we may restore
him to his proper destined path, which could only serve to better our
cause and yours."

"I..." Lum blinks...then finds herself alone. "What the...?!
Asuka?! Shinobu?! Sakura?!! Benten?! Oyuki?! Where are you
guys?!"

"They've returned to their dreamsites," a familiar voice calls out
from behind her.

"You!!!" Lum spins around, blinking in surprise on seeing the
chestnut-haired Seishin-born woman from her earlier dreams now
standing behind her.

Silence falls over the scene as they stare at each other, then the
woman walks up to cup the Oni's chin in her hand. "Still, you do not
understand..." she sighs, "...but now I realize that there are other
players conspiring to ruin both your life and Ataru-sama's. I am
sorry that we had to meet in this fashion."

"Who are you?!" Lum blinks.

"I've no name, as do the others you have just met," the woman
explains. "The names you have bestowed on them are the names of those
people Ataru-sama has taken interest in over the last few years.
Logic would dictate that if there are other Agents of Entropy
influencing him, then his...girl-hunts...might have been a
subconscious attempt to locate ourselves."

"In chasing all the girls...he was looking for you," Lum nods in
realization. "But...what do you mean that there are other Agents of
Entropy trying to influence Darling?! I still don't understand!"

"Nor do we, for that matter," the woman sighs. "And that galls us to
no end. But I wouldn't worry if I were you. We'll get to the bottom
of this soon enough."

The woman turns and walks away. "Wait!" Lum cries out, flying after
her. "You've got to tell me more!"

The woman stops, looking at her. "But are you ready to understand,
much less accept, what I could tell you?"

With that, she fades from view...

* * *

...and Lum wakes up.

Letting out a relieved sigh, she sits up, then remembers where she
is. In the wake of her being forced off Earth...she did not even get
a chance to say good-bye to Ataru's parents or Reiko...the Oni
relocated herself on Shingetsu, an Urusian colony world located close
to the neutral zone separating her people from the Ipraedies Empire.
Here, in the Abbey of the Maidens of Aruka, she had come to join other
Urusians who had been forcefully rejected by the ones they loved, here
to spend the rest of her days alone.

Staring out the window of her small room in one of the turrets which
formed a part of the abbey, Lum bleakly gazes at the endless sea of
prairie which made Shingetsu one of Uru's main food suppliers. The
abbey, first built during the Dominion's occupation as the keep of the
local lord, was seized by Lan's ancestral House in the wake of the
Liberation and then converted into a shrine to honour the Maidens of
Aruka, two gallant freedom fighters who sacrificed themselves to rid
Uru of the stain of the Seifukusu. The Maidens had died alone, unwed,
thus a shrine in their honour became a place which usually attracted
abandonded spouses such as Lum.

A long horn is heard, hearalding supper. Lum slowly rises and makes
her way into the castle's main hall, now serving as the dining hall.
Like the others calling this place home, Lum now wears a simple brown
monk's robe. Standing in the lineup, she is given her meal, then
makes her way to an empty chair. The others either nod to her or
smile, but no one as yet had cause to approach her. Her reputation
was known here: the daughter of Invader, Uru's tag champion,
protector of the Union from the Ipraedies' designs on Earth. They
also know...or could easily guess...what had brought her here. Ataru
was also well-known in this part of space.

Looking up as she eats, she stares at the fanciful painting of the
Maidens fighting the hordes of the hated Dominion in their climatic
battle, a legend which was taught to all Urusian children before they
entered grade school. Research on the Maidens was sparse. No one
knew exactly what had happened to them after their deaths. Their
gravesite was unknown. No one even knew what family they called their
own. Even their true names remained a mystery. They were simply
known as Noa and Honii, but in all the writings around them, they were
always addressed as "the Maidens."

Gazing at that heroic scene, Lum nearly chokes on her bread when she
gets a good look at Noa's face. The beautifully sculptured features,
the indigo eyes which reflected intense emotion, the short cut
chestnut-shaded hair, not red nor really brown. Transplant that face
onto a phoenix-emblazoned black-and-gold jumpsuit and Lum was staring
at the curious woman from her dreams. What did that mean? Was that
woman the legendary Noa herself? A reincarnation of her? A
descendant?!

Lum sighs, returning to finish her meal. Another question to be
added to the storm of questions now rampaging through her mind. The
revelations of her latest dream had really hit her hard. If there was
indeed a large cabal of women seeking Ataru Moroboshi...for what, she
still did not understand...then Lum was in for the fight of her life.
That was made worse because of her exile from Earth. Lum strongly
doubted that she would find much in the way of a friendly home waiting
for her even if the off chance came that she was allowed back. Why
would Ataru want anything to do with her after the traumatic events of
the last three weeks?

After the meal is done, Lum returns the plates to the dish washer,
then proceeds toward her room when one of the nuns supervising this
shelter approaches her. "Child."

"Yes, Mother Superior?" Lum bows respectfully to her.

The elderly Oni sighs. "There are several people in the main foyer
wishing to see you. While I do recognize several of them, the others
claim to be your former classmates from Earth."

Lum blinks in obvious surprise. How was it possible that her
classmates were able to come here? "I had no idea they would come."

"Nor did I want them to come here," the mother superior warns. "This
sanctuary exists for a reason. Their presence here violates the
privacy of the others who seek its protection. You may see them, but
order them never to return!"

"Yes, Mother Superior," Lum bows, then hurries off.

A minute later, Lum walks into the main foyer. A smile forms on her
lips on seeing Benten, Oyuki, Nassur, Lan and Rei. And much to her
delight, Mendou, the guards, Shinobu, Ryuunosuke, Cherry, Sakura and
even Mie were here. "Where did you guys come from?!" the Oni smiles
as she grips Benten's hands.

Mendou and the guards let out pained gasps on seeing their favourite
classmate dressed in something which better befitted a beggar instead
of a clan chief's daughter. "What did you think?!" Benten snorts.
"We were actually going to let you rot in this dump?! Get real!
C'mon, Lum! We're taking you out of this place!"

Lum sighs, pulling her hand away. "I can't, Benten. Besides, you
know it's against the rules for outsiders to barge in here like this!
The Mother Superior wants you to go, now!!"

"We shall not leave without you, Lum-san!" Mendou looks determined.
"Even if Moroboshi has so viciously rejected you, we haven't!!"

"Hear, hear!" the guards chant.

"Lum, you can't remain here for the rest of your life," Shinobu
pleads. "People from Earth can still travel off-planet if they have
friends on Triton. We can stay if you want us to stay."

"You don't belong here, Shinobu!" Lum shakes her head in protest,
then turns to Nassur. "Nassur, how did they get here anyway?!"

"Actually, your parents asked us to come here," the Vosian sighs.
"Oyuki fetched everyone from Earth, if you want to know, so I don't
think the United Nations will get too peeved."

"They'll be probably relieved since all the real troublemakers are no
longer on Earth," Mie snorts.

Mendou and the guards angrily glare at the Kyushu native. Seeing
this, Lum looks at Sakura. "What's that all about?"

"It's been a practical state of mourning in Tomobiki since you've
gone," the priestess sighs. "We can almost guess that Ataru faked his
death to ensure you wouldn't do anything stupid like try to take him
with you when you were expelled from Earth. What's worse, Ataru's
utterly disappeared. Mendou's people have torn Japan apart but
haven't found a sign of him."

"Mie's tempted to call Ataru-chan's uncle and ask him to totally
withdraw all funding to Mendou-san's forces," Shinobu adds. "She's
been lashing out at all the guys since you've left, laughing at them
because they don't have you around anymore to fawn over. She's been
really hard on the guards, calling them a bunch of failures because
they couldn't come close to either protecting you or keeping control
of Ataru-kun."

"That's sad," Lum looks down, then shakes her head. "Look, everyone,
please! You're not wanted here! If you don't leave, I'll have to ask
the Mother Superior to have you escorted out."

"Even your friends?!" Lan pleads.

"Strange hearing the word 'friend' come out of YOUR lips!" Mie
snorts.

The Seishin teen fires a murderous glare at the Kyushu native. "At
least I haven't missed you, lady!!" she growls.

"Nor has Tomobiki missed YOU, either!!" Mie sneers at Lan. "Your
innocent airhead act never hoodwinked anyone there! In fact, I hear
that they're about to sell off the land where your ship used to be
parked!! Even if you could come back, you couldn't!"

Lan snarls, then turns away from Mie. "Will you please go?!" Lum
reiterates.

"You heard her!!" Mie suddenly turns on everyone else. "OUT!!!!!!"

In a second, all the others who had come to see Lum find themselves
outside the castle gates! "Hey!!!" Benten snaps, shaking her fist at
the castle. "Who died and elected her queen?!!"

"She is a most forceful person," Oyuki muses.

"That she is," Nassur whistles respectfully.

Inside the castle, Lum stares disbelievingly at Mie. "Why'd you do
that?!"

"Simple," Mie shrugs. "You wanted them out! I threw 'em out!"

"But I didn't want them to be thrown out like that!!"

"Oh, jeez, Lum, what's with you?!!" Mie turns on her. "You better
learn very quick that you can't have it both ways!! And that
especially applies to choosing between Ataru-chan and Tomobiki!"

"What's that got to do with it?!!" Lum demands.

"It's got loads to do with it!!" Mie snaps. "You were willing to
allow Ataru-chan to have his way *just as long* as he remained in
Tomobiki, which he empathically no longer wanted and still doesn't
want!! Believe me, his whipping your tail during the Tag Race was
doing you a favour! It broke you away from those twits outside! As
long as you're around them, you act as if anything Ataru-chan wishes
doesn't matter! You sure as hell proved it at that stupid party when
you totally ignored Ataru-chan and Reiko-chan!"

Lum looks down ashamedly, realizing that all her current problems
stemmed right from that awful night. "Well, now you don't have to
worry about Ataru-chan anymore!" Mie waves her off in dismissal. "You
can ignore him to your heart's content now that he's going to head off
to find himself, without you or those dorks outside to get in the way!
Believe me, he was LAUGHING when you were drop-kicked back to Uru!
With you separated from those dorks outside, they're less than
worthless and without them, you haven't got a snowball's chance in
hell of dominating Ataru-chan! So go back to your little world, Lum.
It seems to be the only place you ever did feel comfortable!"

With that, Mie turns to leave...when a distant series of explosions
rock the castle to its foundations. Both women are tossed off their
feet by the tremors. "What's that?!!" they exclaim, then rush to a
window...

...to look into the face of Armageddon! In the distance, Shingetsu's
capital city is deluged by a storm of hot particle fire raining on it
from orbit. Looking up, Lum and Mie see the cause: a behemoth of a
starship shaped like a cresent moon on its side crossed by three
vertical cresent moons at bow and both beams with a large command
structure amidships. The thing looked as if it could dwarf all of
Tokyo itself! "Son-of-a-bitch!!" Mie gasps. "Who in their right
minds could have built that thing?!!"

"And why's it attacking here?!!" Lum demands.

The answer echoes her statement as transporter beams begin to shift
massive amounts of quasi-humanoid creatures well over double a man's
size on the plain below the castle. In over battallion strength, the
beasts would outdo anything which could emerge from Toho's monster
factory. Insectoid in shape, they resemble a mix of wasp and beetle
with heavily armoured three-part bodies, stockly legs, arms ending in
pincer-like claws, a snapping maw for a mouth and a razor-sharp
stinger projecting from their groins. Seeing them, Lum turns
flush-white. Mie, much to the Oni's surprise, retains a little
composure. "Ug-ly!!" she whistles. "What the hell are those
things?!"

"L-l-lannarkites...!" Lum fearfully stammers...

* * *

Lannarkites.

A mere mention just the name and even the most despotic of tyrants
such as Emperor Schwartz of Ipraedos or the Mikado of Vos tremble in
mortal fear. No one had any idea where these vile creatures came from
or why they existed. Two things, however, were well known. The
Lannarkites preyed with unparallelled viciousness on ALL
mammallian-descent humanoid races regardless of their own
technological advances...and if contact with the Lannarkites came, be
prepared to fight to the death, for no quarter would be granted by the
insectoid species. If they did not kill you outright, it was also
known, you would wish they did, for what they did to their prisoners
was unspeakable to the extreme.

Hence the current situaiton on Shingetsu. As the great alien ship
mercilessly strafes city and town with pinpoint accuracy, legions of
the insectoids were now beaming down to personally ravage any survivor
unlucky enough to have survived the bombardment from above. Such was
the case of the Abbey of the Maidens of Aruka, which was now beseiged
by a battallion of the creatures. The only defenders were Nassur and
his companions, who now were in the fight of their lives against
something that all their previous experiences with aliens never could
prepare them for. "What are these things?!" Chibi screams as he tries
to shoot down a mass of Lannarkites coming at them with a machine gun
Benten loaned him.

"Believe me, you DON'T want to know!!!" the Fukunokami drills
one...then quickly shoots down the three which replaced that
Lannarkite.

"Why are they attacking?!" Shinobu protectively hides behind Nassur.

"They don't need reasons to attack!!" the Vosian drills one, then
draws a bead on another. "And I don't think they'll be interested in
talking to you! If they don't kill you for food, they'll turn you
into a breeder! Believe me, you'll wish you had been killed first!!"

Shinobu backs away, wondering what had ever convinced her to come out
with everyone else this day. Nearby, Sakura and Lan team up to mow
the attackers down with bazookas. "I've never sensed such evil in my
life!!" the priestess gasps. "It's as if we're animals to them!"

"That's the way they've always been!!" the Seishin teen grits her
teeth. "Now stop bitching and start shooting!!!"

With that, everyone is galvanized into strengthening their
resistence, but against the sheer numbers facing them, such does not
prevail for long. "This is a hell of a way to die!" Megane grits his
teeth.

"At least we are dying protecting Lum-san!!" Mendou comments.

"Good point!" the guards' leader muses.

"Can't you jerks think of something else other than Lum?!!" Benten
snarls. "Shit, Mie's right!! You idiots DON'T have a life!!!"

"Speaking of Lum-chan, where is she?!" Oyuki looks around.

"Hopefully helping the others in the castle get to safety!" Nassur
grits his teeth.

* * *

Such is not true, for Lum is now following Mie up one of the turrets
to the observation gallery. "Mie, this isn't time for sight-seeing!"
the Oni pleads. "We've got to get out of here!!"

"This'll take a second!!" the Kyushu native snaps. "I want to get a
close look at that damn ship!!"

"Why?!! You can't shoot it down!!"

"I can if I got a fighter and the right equipment!"

Lum blinks. Mie Seikou had to be the strangest woman bar none she
had ever met! A quirky, naive country girl one moment; a sassy,
intelligent and willful woman the next. Further, Mie knew things that
no girl from outside Tomobiki should know...or did she? This woman
was the ultimate Chinese puzzle. Perhaps that was why Ataru found her
so attractive, given how much of a puzzle he had become to Lum over
the last three weeks.

Arriving at the top of the tower, Mie leans out to peer through the
smoke at the great alien ship which had now just finished obliterating
Shingetsu's capital city. Despite the smoke and the other toxins now
filling the atmosphere, a lot of detail was still visible...including
a familiar golden phoenix insignia on one of the dorsal fins. "This
is not good," Mie shakes her head.

"Let's get out of here!" Lum urges her. "If we're trapped up here,
we're finished!"

Mie nods, then cocks her head on hearing a whistling noise. "Oh,
outstanding!" she looks outside again. "The gatecrasher just
arrived!!"

"Who?!" Lum looks outside.

An explosion distracts both women's attention to the fight by the
front gate!! Something massive and deadly had just smashed into the
midst of all the Lannarkites fighting Lum's friends, now reinforced by
a small band of nuns and habitants. As everyone at the gate watches
in disbelief, the Lannarkites are slaughtered wholesale by either
dismemberment, sliced down by a burning beam of starlight, or shredded
apart by claw-like hands being thrust out on pneumonic pistons. "What
the hell's that?!!" Benten gapes disbelievingly.

"I thinks it's our rescuer!" Nassur shudders. After a few encounters
with the Lannarkites over his career, even he respected their
terrifying strength. Whoever or whatever this being was could be no
ordinary fighter.

As the smoke begins to clear, the acid-like blood of the Lannarkites
burns into the ground as their slayer methodically advances towards
the castle. The sounds of his joints moving instantly bring fearful
recognition to the faces of many from Earth. "Ataru-kun?!!" Shinobu
gapes disbelievingly.

The Cyborg emerges from the smoke, none the worst for wear. "**Well,
that was an interesting few minutes' diversion!**" the machine-man
muses, then stares at Nassur. "**Cute playmates you people have!
Care to tell me where they came from?!**"

"Believe me, if you knew something about them, a lot of people'd be
in your debt, Ataru," Nassur muses.

"**Ah, that doesn't matter!**" Ataru sighs, staring at the orbiting
starship. "**I've got more important things on my mind...like that
ship up yonder!!**"

Cherry instantly appears in front of him! "Ataru!!! You must not
embrace the power of the phoenix!! If you do, Doom comes to
Tomobiki!!!"

Ataru looks down to the phoenix insignia on his chest. "**Well,
don't you think it's a little late now, stupid?!**" he wryly hums.

Mendou looks at the alien ship, quick to spot the phoenix insignia.
"You slime of slimes!!!" he lashes out with his katana at the
transformed Ataru. "You're the one responsible for this!!! What did
you expect to do?!! Kill us all so that you could be rid of Lum-san
forever?!!"

The Cyborg snares the katana with one hand, then without effort,
twists it into the shape of a pretzel. "**If I was the one running
this show, Mendou, I wouldn't've bothered with a ground assault using
those things!**" he points to the slaughtered Lannarkites. "**I
would've just used that ship's proton cannons and obliterated this
rock from orbit!! A hell of a lot cleaner if you ask me! Besides, I
don't think people'd appreciate my killing you jerks!**"

"Um...wh-why not?" Lan stammers.

"**Simple!**" a maniacal twinkle appears in his good eye. "**Heaven
doesn't want you and Hell'd be afraid you'd all take over!!**"

Everyone faints! "Nice guy!" Benten sighs.

"Darling!!!" Lum's voice calls out from above. "You're alive!!!"

"**Did you actually expect anything less?!**" Ataru looks up at the
Oni, who now waves at him from the tower's observation gallery.

At that moment, a missile chooses to smash into the tower's base!
While not toppling the structure, it demolishes the staircase,
effectively trapping Lum and Mie inside the observation gallery.
"Um...Ataru-chan, a rescue right about now would do us both a lot of
good!!" Mie warns.

"**One rescue coming up!**" the Cyborg leaps on Shinobu, using her as
a springboard to vault him halfway up the tower.

Of course, being trampled on by fourteen hundred kilograms of
neutronium and flesh does not do well for Shinobu, who is nearly
flattened to the thickness of okonomiyaki! "You okay, Shinobu?"
Ryuunosuke hums.

"He...did that...on purpose...!" Ataru's ex-girlfriend weakly rasps.

"You can tell he hates you now," Benten muses.

The Cyborg is now crawling up the side of the tower, using his
fingers to drill gripping holes in the brick and mortar. Just as he
is about to get to Mie's eye level, he stops, a jerk yanking at one
leg. "**What in the name of the Eternal Sands?!**" he demands,
looking down.

"Oh, shit, why did those glory-hounds decide to butt in?!" Mie snaps.

Now hanging from a rope tied to the machine-man's leg are Mendou, the
guards, Lan, Rei, Sakura and Cherry. "Moroboshi, if you think you're
going to rescue Lum-san by yourself after what you did, think again!!"
Mendou snarls.

"**Grandma warned me of days like this!**" Ataru sighs as a very
large knife the likes of which would earn the envy of John Rambo
ejects from under one of his forearm shields. Twirling the blade, he
lashes down, severing the rope with one cut.

The hapless would-be rescuers (?) fall into a most unceremonial heap
far below! Then seeing a outhanging of shattered brick and mortar
nearby, the Cyborg directs his eye-laser into severing it. Everyone
still on ground level quickly notes this. "He's not going to...!"
Benten gulps.

The outhanging, about the size and weight of a tank, breaks away,
burying everyone under its weight!! "He did," Nassur sighs.

"Curse you...Ataru..." Megane's pained voice escapes from under the
pile of wreckage.

Ataru at that time pulls himself up to Lum's eye level. "**Hi!**" he
cheerily calls out. "**Did someone ask for a rescue?!**"

"You bet we did!" Mie flings herself onto the machine-man's back.
"To safety and don't stop to collect tolls!!"

"*Datcha!*" Lum wriggles her way onto the Cyborg's arm. Despite her
earlier revulsion of this version of Ataru, any version of him would
do right about now.

At that moment, the tower elects to collapse. "**Oh, dear,**" the
Cyborg calmly sighs as everyone begins to drop.

Lum yelps in surprised shock as fragments wing her in the skull,
knocking her out. At that time, Ataru's legs find a large hunk of the
tower about to make its terminal fall. Putting all energy into his
leg architecture, he leaps up, up and away from the collapsing castle
in the general direction of a nearby corn-field. "Hey, Superman, how
about cutting it out with the hero stuff and put us down!!" Mie
grunts, holding onto the unconscious Lum. "Lum took one in the
head!!"

"**Got it!**" Ataru nods as they land gracefully beside Rei's parked
fighter, which had survived the orbital bombardment unscathed.
"**Ah!! Nice of Rei to park his jet here! Care to do the flying why
I look in on Sleeping Beauty?!**" he looks at Mie.

"Where to, boss?!" Mie jauntily salutes him.

Ataru reverts to normal. "Up!!" he thumbs the alien craft. "That's
our ticket home...to our REAL home!!"

"You got it!!" Mie leaps into the cockpit to warm things up. "Let's
rock and roll!!!"

"Finally, some good help for a change," Ataru sighs as he boosts Lum
into the passenger's seat. "Honestly, Lum, you're sometimes more
trouble than you're worth."

"If...you say...so, Darling..." the dazed Oni moans...

* * *

A minute later, Rei's fighter rockets into space towards the giant
starship now controlled by Lannarkites. Everyone watches it go with
curiosity. "If Ataru, Lum and Mie are aboard Rei's fighter, who's
flying it?!" Nassur scratches the back of his head. "Lum's brainwaves
indicated that she was unconscious, but I don't remember Ataru
learning how to fly...unless it's Mie."

"Probably!" Benten shrugs. This day was already full of enough
questions to boggle the mind of even Sherlock Holmes.

The mother superior then walks up to the Vosian hunter. "Nassur, you
must tell us! Who was that brave cybernetic warrior who protected us
from the Lannarkites?"

"That, ma'am, believe it or not, is Ataru Moroboshi of Earth," Nassur
replies.

The surprise is very apparent. "Ataru Moroboshi?!" one of the nuns
gasps. "You mean, the man who single-handedly slaughtered the Masters
of Noukiios?!!"

"The man who's grandmother is a Zephyrite Righteous Gentile said to
be so powerful, she was able to humiliate the whole Tribal Council?!!"
another demands.

"The same man who willingly sacrificed his love for Lum just to save
his people?!" a third swoons in awe.

"The very same man," Nassur nods.

"Hey, you forgot something," Megane gasps.

"What's that?!" Benten muses.

Sure enough, everyone from Tomobiki launches into a litany of insults
so vile, they even make the writer's ears turn red! The mother
superior turns away. "Come, sisters. These pitiless souls cannot be
saved. We must pray for Moroboshi-sama's success against those who
would see millions slaughtered...both here AND on Earth!" she icily
stares at everyone from Tomobiki.

The others quickly follow their superior to their chapel. Everyone
from Tomobiki is understandably flabbergasted at that response to
their description of Ataru. "Can't ANYONE accept the truth
anymore?!!" Megane demands.

"Depends what you jerks call 'truth,'" Benten shakes her head.

That causes a outburst of grumbles from everyone hailing from
Tomobiki...

* * *

Located at the aft end of the alien ship is a hangar bay. Now
ploughed into the deck is a mound of orange tiger-stripped wreckage.
Climbing out, their bodies darkened by cordite, are Ataru (carrying
Lum) and Mie. Walking away, they stop, then look back to the
destroyed fighter, Mie scratching her head. "Well, they did say that
a landing you walk away from is a good one!" she giggles...

...then they get doused by a waterfall of opaque gas! "Shit!!!" Mie
gasps, staggering away. "Anti-flame retardant!!!"

Reaching the hatchway, they leap through. "Made it!!" Mie
gasps...then looks up...and screams!

Before the Lannarkite could do anything to them, the Cyborg leaps up
to literally tear the creature in half! "**Looks like we're going to
be doing a lot more bug-squashing before this day's done!!**" he
grunts. "**Gods only know, I was doing it enough when I first got
onto this thing back on Barsoom! Pity I was too late to save the
Ipraedies science team that was aboard here already!!**"

Mie stares quizzically at him. "You actually pity Ipraedies?!"

"**No...the Lannarkites. They probably got indigestion!**"

Mie lets out a barking laugh. As they turn the corner, they run into
another bunch of Lannarkites. Ataru's eye-laser cuts them down.
"Don't they know when to give up?!" Mie looks sick.

"**Obviously not in their language!**" the Cyborg sighs as he picks
up the unconscious Lum and carries her down the hallway. "**Pity I
couldn't use them to wipe out Tomobiki! Then again, I wonder if
they'd be enough to do the job!!**"

"We've got to get to the station-master's chambers to access the
security system!" Mie nods. "We can use that to kill these things
off, then take control of this ship and finally learn where in this
galaxy we come from!!"

"**Agreed. I believe I've found it...but I have no memory of the
language,**" the Cyborg moans. "**This way.**"

Moments later, they reach the apex of the command structure, locating
a sealed room. The directions on the halls are marked with
hieroglyphics looking like a cross between geometric designs and
kanji. Mie looks at the security lock beside the door, then presses a
tan button. "There...it's open!"

The door opens...then they hear a hig-pitched scream. "No!! No hurt
us!! You right!! We mutants!!!"

Ataru and Mie burst in...to see three female humanoid forms standing
in the darkness, dressed in the fragments of Ipraedies military
uniforms. One is clearly pregnant. "**Who are you?!**" Ataru
challenges.

Surprised that their visitors are humanoid, one runs into the light.
"You fur-skins! Come come, quick!! Come before drones eat you!"

The two Terrans gape in shock upon seeing what they are. "What are
you?!!" Mie screams.

The women are humanoid, but their skin is a golden brown mixed with
black, red, orange and gold in beautiful patterns resembling butterfly
wings. While the skin is smooth, it is protected by armoured plates
at strategic points. Their eyes are segmented hexagonally, but they
have eyelids, a nose and mouth with full lips. There is a large
spinal ridge leading from the bridge of the nose, over the head and
down the spine. Their hair is long and straight, the styles varying
between the three. They have breasts, naturally well endowed by
Terran standards. The one who greets them has violet hair down to her
waist. "We mutants," she smiles. "You no possess eggs, so we welcome
you. Please enter. Here, you be safe from drones."

"**'Drones?!'**" confusion appears in the Cyborg's voice. "**You
mean those monsters I've been killing out there?!**" he points
outside.

"Yes," another walks up, this one with orange shoulder-length hair.
"Drones want to kill all fur-skins! They kill whole planet of
fur-skins. They kill whole galaxy if they can with this ship! We no
can stop it!"

Mie sees the pregnant girl. "Yes!" she nods. "You had your friend
to protect." She faces the bank of computers lining a bulkhead.
"However, we don't have such restrictions. If I can remember what the
security station on this design would look like, we'll be in
business!"

"**It's this one, I think,**" Ataru points to one station.

Mie analyses what he found. "No, this is the sexual entertainment
holo-entertainment suite station."

Ataru is decked by an H-bomb blast!!!! Looking to the next post, Mie
beams. "Bingo!! Here's the one we want!"

"**About time!**" Ataru sighs. "**By the way...how can we use
this?!**"

"Watch!!" she notices a particular control. "This should do the
trick!" she presses it.

"What you do?" the pregnant girl, possessing kentaro-cut navy blue
hair, hums.

"Give those bugs a mega-ultraviolet headache!" Mie snarls. "There
should be enough REMs in the system to turn them into Colonel
Sanders-style fried mosquitoes!"

The whole ship shudders for a moment. The faint squeals of dying
Lannarkites whispers through the bulkheads. "**What's happening?**"
Ataru demands.

Mie checks the readouts. "Everything outside this chamber are
ashes!" she smiles. "Internal sensors indicate those bugs are gone!"

"**Good!**" Ataru nods. "**Now...mind telling us what you three are
and what the hell were you doing here?**"

"We Lannarkites...like drones," the violet-haired girl points
outside. "We born looking human. Drones call us 'mutants' because we
no lay eggs like drone queens do."

"Then why do you call those bugs 'drones?'" Mie hums. "It's obvious
by now they don't like you, or why would they lock you in here!"

"Because we so much like fur-skins," the orange-haired girl speaks.
"Drones...we call them because they no understand fur-skins smart like
Lannarkites...believe mutants like us become friends with fur-skins
and destroy all drones."

"More mutants born than drones," the pregnant girl adds. "Drones
believe Lannarkite race soon become extinct."

Ataru and Mie look at the other. "This could be some sort of
insanely fast genetic leap for the whole race," she hums.

"**Possibly, but that can't concern us,**" the Cyborg sighs.
"**However, instead of saying 'hey, you' all the time, you'll be
Uchiki...**" he points to the violet-haired girl, "**...Mikan...**" he
points to the orange-haired girl, "**...and Aoiko,**" he points to the
pregnant girl.

The Lannarkites look surprised. "Thank you very much, sir," they
bow.

"I found it!" Mie looks up.

"**What?!**" Ataru looks over.

"I got into the ship's primary computer," Mie smiles. "Every answer
we want is now at our fingertips!"

"**Good. Access general history. We'll start from there. In the
meantime, we should get this ship away from Urusian space.**" He
looks to the deckhead. "**Heaven only knows what those idiots down
below could be thinking right now.**"

"Right!" Mie nods...

* * *

On the planet below, everyone watches with disbelief as the alien
craft lifts away from Shingetsu, turning into deep space. "What the
hell?!!" Benten exclaims. "Where're those damn bugs heading off to
now?!!"

"I don't know...but I'd swear that Ataru, Lum and Mie could be behind
this!" Nassur muses. "They must've been able to take over that
ship!!"

"Oh, thank the Fates!" Oyuki breathes out in relief.

"Then we must stop them!!" Cherry appears in front of them all.

"Why?!!" Benten exclaims.

"Because the more Ataru cavorts with the phoenix, the more chances
Doom will come to Tomobiki...!"

Annoyed, Nassur, Benten and Oyuki belt him into orbit! "WILL YOU
STOP WITH THAT NONSENSE!!!!!!" the three exclaim.

"It's fate...!!" the old monk wails as he flies away.

"We should get up there!" Megane warns. "With that damn thing under
his control, who knows what Ataru could be capable of doing!! And
with Lum-san alone and unprotected, who knows what sort of atrocities
he could unleash on her...!"

Benten smashes a table over his head! "Ah, shaddup, willya?!!
You're giving me an earache with your talk, jerk!!!"

"Thank you, Benten!" Nassur looks relieved. "I was almost tempted to
kill the pathetic trench wave myself!!"

"He can sure be a pain when he wants to, eh?!" Ryuunosuke sighs.

"I can see why Ataru wants to leave Tomobiki, not to mention get Lum
out of that place," Nassur nods agreeingly. "It'd be enough to drive
anyone insane!!"

Everyone from Tomobiki looks miffed by that statement. Suddenly, the
alien craft disappears in a flash of hyperspace energies! "Hey!!
Where're they going?!" Lan demands.

"Ataru has gone to embrace the phoenix!!!" Cherry once more appears
in front of everyone! "Once that occurs, Doom WILL come to
Tomobiki!!!"

Everyone faints!

* * *

"Well?!" Mie looks over.

Ataru has by that time reverted to his human self, holding the
still-unconscious Lum in his arms. Aoiko is asleep at his feet.
Mikan and Uchiki sit beside him. A disgusted look is on his face.
"Gods," he gasps, "...were those...Sagussans...like **that**?!!"

"Apparently so," the Kyushu native rubs the bridge of her nose. "Not
only did they make clones of themselves so they could have a ready
supply of spare body parts, they genetically altered almost every
humanoid race in the galaxy! What the hell did they think they were,
anyway?!"

"They played God with the galaxy," Ataru looks down. "And when those
clone rights people went crazy, they went to war over it!"

"And that's when the history ends," Mie sighs, clearly disappointed.
"This mobile station must've been abandoned during the fighting."

Silence for a moment. "What you do now, Ataru?" Mikan looks over.
"You go now to home hive?"

"I'm tempted to turn my back from that place if I had a choice,"
Ataru sighs. "If the people who mucked with Mie-chan and I are
anything like the people who caused the Clone Wars, I might stay on
Earth!"

"But, then," Mie hums, "...what if the people we're linked with are
aligned with the clone rights folks? They seemed a reasonable lot.
They were against the genetic alterations."

"Yeah, but their support for that idol singer Lyna reminds me of the
Little Hitler troop following Lum," Ataru sighs. "Both sides in that
war were right-wing fascists...huh?!" he looks up.

"What is it, Ataru-chan?" Mie looks confused.

"Lyna?!!" Ataru exclaims. "Holy shit, that's the name of the convent
where I sent the other Lost Stars of Noukiios! Is there any record of
Sagussan colonies?!"

"Just a second," Mie turns to the board. A second later, three lines
appear on the viewscreen. "Ah," the Kyushu native nods. "Here we
are! There were three of them at the time of the Clone Wars.
Zephyrus is one. The others are places named Kurakoa and Elle."

"Elle?!!"

"Yeah," Mie nods. "Or at least that would be the translation, I
think."

He looks down. "Elle?! I'll be damned! If I had stayed on Elle
instead of escaping with Lum, I might've found some answers!!"

"True," Mie nods. "What now?"

Before Ataru could respond, Lum moans. "Darling..."

"What is it, Lum?" Ataru gently strokes the side of her head.

"I saw them..."

"Saw who?"

"Your harem..." the dazed Oni moans. "So many women...all so
beautiful...it's just like...what you've...always dreamed of..."

Ataru blinks, surprised that his would-be wife would so willingly
speak with such candor about a topic which he knew well caused her
considerable pain and discomfort, even if she was not in full command
of her senses at the time. "Lum?"

"Go...you must..." Lum urges. "If you don't...then how could...my
dreams...come true...unless yours...also come true...?"

She slips back into unconsciousness. "Ataru?" Mie blinks.

Silence for a moment, then Ataru nods. "No matter what, we have a
duty to ourselves to find out all we can about Sagussa," he looks up.
"Do you know where it is?"

"Yes. It's in a stellar cluster outside the Galactic Barrier."

"Galactic Barrier?!" Ataru looks confused.

"A galaxy-sized version of a heliopause, the barrier which surrounds
a solar system. It's where the gravity wells of the galaxy and the
surrounding stellar clusters come into contact," Mie looks back. "For
anything to escape this galaxy, it has to go at a steady speed of Warp
4.4 or better. Unfortunately, according to the records that I glanced
at on 'Renegade,' all the known races inside the galaxy don't have
ships which can go that fast. This scrapheap is the only thing we've
got which could get us to Sagussa."

"Fine!" Ataru's eyes narrow. "Set course...for home!"

Mie nods. "Yes, sir."

Suddenly, the whole ship shudders. "What the...?!!" Ataru looks up.
"What's going on?!!"

"Oh, no!!" Mie gasps on seeing the readout. "This isn't good!! The
energy conduits in the engine assembly just blew apart!!! The
reactors are gonna blow!!"

"How long?!!" Ataru snaps.

"Ten minutes!!" Mie looks. "Sensors indicate there's a
system-synchronous orbiting space station nearby! If we get to the
life pods, we might just make it!! C'mon!!!"

A minute later, as exploding energy shatters the forward vertical
crescent, a life-pod fires out of the bottom of the superstructure.
Everyone save the still unconscious Lum watches as the station tumbles
out of control, then explodes!! Seeing this, Ataru shakes his head,
clearly frustrated. **Damn! Damn it all!!** his left eye glows. **I
was so close to learning everything! Damn! Damn...**

* * *

Lum's eyes flutter open. "Wh-where am I...?"

As her vision clears, she immediately beholds the sight of an
unshaven but most definitely concerned Ataru Moroboshi staring at her.
"Hey!" he gives her a friendly smile. "Welcome back. You really had
us worried there for a moment."

Seeing the genuine concern on his face, the Oni breaks out in fresh
tears as she leaps up to fiercely embrace him. "OH, DARLING, I'M
SORRY!!!!" she wails.

Ataru smiles as he gently returns her embrace. "It's okay, it's
okay," he quietly whispers in her ear. "It's all over now.
Everything's going to be fine."

"How?!" she bleakly stares at him. "With you having won the Tag
Race, I can never go back to Earth!"

"Oh, that," he chuckles. "Well, the U.N. got wind of what happened
to Shingetsu. Since that place was your major crop-producing colony,
the General Assembly had a change of heart. Resolution 444 was lifted
so that relief aid could be dispatched to Uru."

Lum blinks. "You mean...I can go back to Earth?!" she gasps.

"That's right," he smiles.

With a scream of delight, she embraces him. "Oh, Darling!!"

"But," a warning tone enters his voice as he raises a cautionary
finger, "...if there's any more of garbage like what happened back
during the Second Tag Race, Resolution 444 goes right back into
effect...and this time, the U.N.'s not going to be nice about it! Got
that?!"

"Yes," she nods, realizing that while Ataru may forgive her awful
faux-pas at the party, he would not forget it either.

"Hey, Sleeping Beauty's up!" Mie walks up, a cup of tea in hand. "'S
about time! We were afraid we'd have to start the party without you."

"Party?!" Lum blinks confusedly. "What party?!"

Mie motions them out of their private booth. Lum immediately
realizes that she is in Koruneko's Cafe, a popular bar and restauraunt
on Sakusei Station, an Urusian trading post not far from Shingetsu.
The master of the establishment, a felinoid-like being which reminded
Ataru immediately of the Begging Cat, is already serving a small
gathering of people at one table. Lum immediately recognizes the
faces: Chie and Ashin Budou, Dakejinzou Shogai, Yuukiki Seishin and
Reiko. "Ah, we were just getting started," the Shinto high priest
smiles as Lum sits down. "Come join us."

"Here you are, Lum," Koruneko walks up to her, a small cup of herbal
tea in hand. "This should alleviate any headaches you may still have
from your injuries."

"Th-thank you, Koruneko-sama," the Oni bows reverently to the alien
feline, then sits down.

Ataru relaxes. "Now, this is my type of party!" he smiles, toasting
the gathering. "With real friends, a quiet place to relax and no one
around to disturb us."

"Cheers!" everyone toasts him.

Lum looks embarrassed, realizing that this party was the type of
gathering Ataru would have preferred to celebrate his adoption of
Reiko. A touch of guilt arcs up her spine as she notices that Reiko
is purposefully ignoring her, spending her time talking to Dakejinzou.
"Give her time," Ataru whispers in her ear. "She needs time to
forgive you, too."

"I know," she nods.

"A pity Nagaiwakai-sama did not choose to come out to join us," Chie
hums aloud. "It might have served as an opportunity for her to better
get to know Lum."

"Yeah," Ataru nods. "But you know Grandma. She takes her own time
doing things."

"Let's just hope it doesn't get as bad as this again," Ashin sighs.
"By the way, have they ascertained how many casualties Shingetsu
suffered in this attack?"

"I have learned well over eighty to ninety percent casualties, most
of those being, sadly, fatalities," Koruneko muses as he passes out
some appetizers.

"How would you know that?!" Mie quizzically stares at the felinoid.
"I doubt the Urusian government would be releasing statistics this
early."

"My dear, very little occurs in this cluster of space that does not
escape my attention," Koruneko light smiles, then returns to the bar.

Everyone watches him go. "Now there goes a strange fellow," Ataru
muses.

"He really is a man of mystery," Lum nods. "No one knows where he
comes from or why he chose to set up shop here at Sakusei. Not even
people like the Mikado or Sheko are want to cross Koruneko-sama. He
can be really nasty when he wants to be."

"Still, he's far better than a lot of other aliens I've bumped into,"
Ataru muses.

"Indeed," Chie smiles. "Even the wisest of priests and monks would
stand in awe of that fellow."

"Hey, let's cut it out with the spooky stuff!" Yuukiki laughs as she
pops open a fan. "We're here to party, so let's party!!"

"I'll drink to that!" Mie toasts everyone.

And in the blink of an eye, the group find themselves surrounded by
everyone Ataru, Mie and Lum left behind on Shingetsu. "Did someone
say there was a party?!" Shinobu beams. "Oh, how nice! We're just in
time!!"

Suddenly, they find themselves at the end of a withering stare from
Ataru. "Wh-what's w-with th-that l-look?!" Lan stammers.

"This party's private!!" Ataru snarls. "You jerks WEREN'T invited!!
So get lost!"

"Forget it, bastard!!" Megane snaps. "After what you did to Lum-san,
we're not going to let you off the hook that easily!!!"

Ataru calmly turns to Dakejinzou. "Dake-chan, how much do you want
to assassinate all these creeps?! I'm sure Grandma'd pay you five
thousand uniCredits a head!"

"Are you kidding me?!" the alien huntress rises, icily glaring at the
party-crashers. "I'd kill these jerks for *free!*"

Seeing her reach for her gun, everyone takes an involuntary step
back. Shinobu pleadingly turns to Ataru. "Ataru-kun, stop this!"

Ataru looks away from her. "I said we were strangers, Miyaki!!" he
icily growls.

Hearing that causes Shinobu to tearfully look away. "We're not
leaving!!!" Mendou snarls. "And you can't make us!!"

"I say," a velvet-smooth voice calls out from behind them. "Are you
disturbing my guests?!"

Everyone spins around to see Koruneko standing behind them, a
devilish glint in the felinoid's eyes. Behind him are Nassur, Benten
and Oyuki, who obviously have chosen to respect Ataru's wishes to be
left alone. "K-k-koruneko-s-s-sama!" Lan stammers, hiding behind
Sakura.

"I run a very respectable establishment here," Koruneko mirthlessly
smiles. "Moroboshi-san clearly stated that the attendants to his
daughter's adoption party are Lum, Mie Seikou, Chiezou Budou, Ashin
Budou, Dakejinzou Shogai, Yuukiki Seishin, Nassur, Benten Shigaten and
Princess Oyuki. I did not hear any of your names, so I will ask you
kindly to leave...now."

"Never!!!" the guards shout as one.

"Very well, then," Koruneko produces a small device shaped like a
crystal ball, then tosses it at their feet.

A second later, beams of light tag Mendou, the guards, Cherry,
Sakura, Lan, Rei, Shinobu and Ryuunosuke. They are quickly sucked
into the crystal ball like water being drawn into an elephant's trunk!
Their outraged screams are quickly silenced as Koruneko walks over to
pick the ball up, handing it to Ataru. "There you go, Moroboshi-san,"
the felinoid smiles. "That should keep the riff-raff from disturbing
your party."

"What is that?!" Lum gasps.

"Ah, a small entrapment device I picked up on my travels," Koruneko
innocently shrugs.

"Hey, do you think I can get a few of these?!!" Ataru hums. "They'll
come in handy when I finally move out of Tomobiki!!"

"I'll see if I can arrange to have some sent to you," the felinoid
smiles, then returns to the bar.

"In the meantime," Ataru icily smiles at the very dimunitive
prisoners trapped in the crystal ball, "...it's time to dispose of you
idiots once and for all!!" He then hands the ball to Dakejinzou.
"Any suggestions, Dake-chan?!"

"How about the heart of a supernova?!" the alien huntress proposes.

Hearing that causes everyone inside the ball to panic in fear for
their lives. "Lum-san, help us!" Megane squeaks from inside the ball.

"Don't look at me for help!!" the Oni snarls. "It what you deserve
for trying to ruin Darling's party!"

Everyone breaks out in laughter as the voice of the mysterious
Seishin-born woman from Sagussa echoes in Lum's mind. <<See...you can
learn after all.>>

*** To Be Continued ***