(A/N: Young Ms. Kasuga explores a question I've always been very interested in here… I apologize if the digression bugs anyone. In any event, your final comments would be appreciated.)
Kaori was jubilant that her friends were all right, of course, but she felt a tad excluded from their celebration. She knew it was stupid after what they'd been through together, but she still couldn't bring herself to feel a part of their group. After an obligatory round of "Hey, you're alive!"s, Kaori slid back into the shadows and contented herself to watch their merriment.
But, looking past them, she saw Prince Xolarus sitting on his rocket's skid with his chin on a fist, watching Sakaki thoughtfully. Biting back a wave of jealousy, she walked quietly towards him, knowing she had to speak with him without knowing what she had to say. On her way, Kaori passed a recently returned Xoltan, who was talking to a small group of white-coated scientists.
"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the galaxy's first Bionic Monster. King Ghidora will be that monster. Better than he was before. Better. Stronger. Faster." The scientists nodded avidly, completely unaware that they were taking part in the Third's little joke.
"You're not going to hit me again, are you?" Xolarus asked absently as she neared him.
"Huh? Oh. No, no, I'm sorry about that. I guess… I guess I can't blame you, huh?"
The alien prince smiled slightly. "So tell me, Earthgirl. Why is it that you love her?"
"Well, uh… do I need a reason?" At his look, she hurriedly considered. "Well, I guess it's because she's so… so wild."
"Wild?" he asked skeptically, glancing over to the girls. Tomo was demonstrating her awesome strength on anybody who happened to be close enough while Sakaki impassively watched. When the wildcat's chopping hand started to fall towards Chiyo's head, though, the towering girl caught her wrist and said something softly, which made Tomo give way instantly.
"Not wild, so much as… I don't know how else to put it. I mean, Ms. Sakaki is what she is, you know? She's going to go her own way and be herself whatever happens. You can't… domesticate her and make her into what she's not. She's like… like a wolf or something."
"Hmm…" Xolarus leaned his head back. "I can see you've reasoned yours out much better than I have. I just wanted to know… especially since I'll be leaving her to you, or some lucky guy…"
"What?"
"The invasion is off. Our primary weapon has been destroyed, most of our infiltrators have been killed or captured, and besides, my father got impatient just a few hours ago and ordered me home. I'm not going to subject Ms. Sakaki to him or the intrigues of my homeworld. After all, if I can't make her Queen of Earth, I have nothing more to offer her."
"I don't think she'd want to be Queen anyway."
"I got that impression myself."
"Well…" Kaori hesitated, then withdrew a small picture from her pocket. It was one of the photos from the girls' first trip to Chiyo's summer home: Sakaki in her swimsuit, lying in the sand and just noticing the camera as it was taken. Visibly torn, she handed it to him. "I'm sure… I'm sure you'll need this more than me, then."
"Oh, my!" he said, snatching it from her. "What's this? How scandalous!"
"H-hey!"
Xolarus stood suddenly and held the picture high when she tried to grab it back. "Oh, Ms. Sakaki?" he called laughingly, "Have you seen what this girl's been carrying around?"
Sakaki glanced over, noticed Kaori's state of extreme embarrassment, and promptly decided to lose interest. Kaori just about melted with gratitude and the Prince seemed only mildly put out, muttering, "Decent sort," under his breath.
"My liege!" a sensor operator yelled, "Earthmen fighters are approaching!"
"I'd better go deal with that," Xolarus said, ruffling her hair. "Thank you very much. Take good care of her, all right?"
"You can…" Kaori didn't quite appreciate the mildly demeaning gesture, but was willing to take it from alien royalty, "Yes, you can count on me."
Before she could rejoin them, though, another bombshell fell on our heroines. A guard approached, leading a much smaller figure towards their cluster. It took them a few seconds to recognize this figure, dressed as it in a pair of jeans with the cuffs and pockets artfully frayed and a black T-shirt with the logo of the movie Versus on its chest. But the faraway, lost look in her eyes was unmistakable, as was her floating, loose walk.
"O-osaka?" Tomo stuttered. "You're… you're all right!"
Osaka stood about four meters off from them and waved, an awkward little smile on her lips. "Hey, guys."
"What's with the crazy clothes?" Kagura asked jovially. "Is this the new Osaka?"
Upon hearing that, the space cadet's smile died and she looked away. Chiyo took a step towards her, concerned. "Ms. Osaka…?" And then Osaka threw her arms around the smaller girl, who accepted this with the aplomb of one who is routinely hugged by complete strangers just for existing. As she returned the hug, Chiyo felt tiny shudders moving through Osaka's body, and neither of them ever knew whether they represented sobbing or laughter.
It was one of those ponderous, rainy, overcast days of autumn's last gasp, and the friends were walking to school just as they always did. Chiyo, Osaka and Sakaki trudged along together under the heavy clouds, each of them miles away in their minds. It had been a week since their return from war-torn Sendai, and nobody had quite fully recovered.
Osaka, as usual, was the strangest case by far. While she seemed all right most of the time, everyday, simple things seemed to trouble her. And then there was theweird incidentwhere she did well on a test, then responded to Yomi's exclamation of "Who are you and what have you done with the real Osaka?" by bursting into tears and fleeing, thereafter refusing to explain herself.
Sakaki, as ever, was a wall. However she felt about her abortive marriage to the Prince, or his assertion that he and his people would never return, it was kept entirely behind her deep blue eyes. Though, truth be told, in this case she was something of a wall to herself; how should she feel?
Chiyo was Chiyo. Natch.
"Say, Chiyo-chan? I been wondering somethin'," Osaka said.
"Yes, Ms. Osaka?"
"How big of a role d'ya suppose our bodies play in definin' us as people?"
"Um…" Chiyo floundered. She'd been expecting something more along the lines of, Are Hot Dogs made from Dachshunds? or Why do people say "in the meantime?" Why can't it be the "friendlytime?" "I'm not…"
"'Cause I was thinkin', there're all these people sayin' that your soul an' body are separate an' what your body is doesn't matter to who y' are… but then, everything you experience goes through your body, right? Y'use it for everything ya do…"
"Where did this come from, if I may ask?"
Osaka paused. "Just bein' hypothetical. But maybe I shouldn't worry 'bout it, huh? We got the bodies we got, and the souls or whatever, an' we are who we are an' it won't change, eh?"
"I suppose not," Chiyo allowed.
"An' besides, we got livin' proof that your body don' define you!" Osaka poked at Sakaki's arm. "'Else how could such a cute soul end up in such a badass body?"
"Er…?" Chiyo glanced between them, helpless to respond.
In spite of herself, Sakaki's expression lightened two shades.
The next day marked the return of the boys from Okinawa. They were accepted back with hardly a ripple, though just by looking at them one could tell that they took great pride at their part in the recent drama. At lunch, Osaka sought Kazuki out and presented him with something she'd found amidst the ruins of Sendai.
"No way!" he cried, spitting a piece of fish-roll back onto his tray. It bounced off of the little salsa packets he brought to school every day; she felt sick just looking at them. "Where did you…?"
"Eh, around," Osaka answered easily, setting his Shisa on the table. "And y'know? I don't think he looks constipated after all…" (Okay, so I guess his guardianship wasn't ended forever… I was just being dramatic.)
"I think he looks damn heroic," Kazuki agreed readily.
"Well, I was about to say he looked like he ate too much curry…"
"You know, you look different, somehow…" her fellow space cadet suddenly said, looking at her in a way that, between them, passed for penetrating. "Younger? No, you look… less… lived-in?"
"You sure say some funny things sometimes," Osaka chuckled.
The Shobijin stood together, facing Osaka not in the Astral Plane for once, but in the physical world. Here, she thought, they looked a little like Ami and Yumi Ito, but surely it was just a coincidence. Osaka sat with her knees drawn to her chin, shivering slightly in a harsh, cold wind that somehow failed to stir the sugar-white desert about her.
"You look a little lost," the Shobijin said together.
"A… a little," Osaka agreed dazedly. "It, uh, would be nice, I guess, t'know why I'm sittin' stark naked in the middle o' the street."
"You gave your life for the Guardian. It looks like he saw fit to return the favor."
"Nice o' her--wait, so, so my baby…?"
"You rose to the occasion like nobody else in the world ever has and given the Earth a new Guardian. If you wish to think of him as your son, know then that he is on the Astral Plane and will always be ready to fight for Earth again."
"But I… never got to see 'im."
The Shobijin didn't quite know what to say to that. Finally, Righty said, "Them's the breaks," with a weak grin. Osaka returned it just a little bit stronger. "So, then, uh… how'd ya fix me up? I was pukin' up blood an' the whole bit."
"It's less repair," Lefty explained uncomfortably, "And more… uh, replacement."
"But how…? So, so my corpse is still on the island?"
"Er… yeah."
Osaka got quite a morbid thrill out of that. However, the more she thought about it, the more this arrangement troubled her. "How'd this one get made?"
"It's like Saint Thomas said," the Shobijin were in synch once more, "The soul is the Form for your body."
She looked down at herself in disappointment. "So my soul has small breasts?"
Her guides looked at each other uncertainly. "If you want to look at it that way, sure," Lefty finally agreed. Osaka sniffed at her wrist thoughtfully, then, unsatisfied, tried under her arm. "Uh… what are you doing now?"
"Lookin' for 'that new body smell?'"
At that point, Mothra really did slap her astral forehead with a nonexistent hand. "Okay, we're going to leave before talking to you gives us brain-tumors," Righty said. "Listen, there's a clothing store a couple dozen meters that way; given the circumstances, you can be forgiven for looting. It's not the sort of clothes you'd wear normally, but you'll make do, yes?"
"Oh," Lefty added, "And don't breathe this powder in. It'll mess you up!" With that, the Shobijin vanished and Osaka was alone. She stood unsteadily, and then, conscientiously pausing to rub out her butt-print in the dust, set out.
"Poor girl," Lefty commented.
"She's alive," Righty countered. "What're you getting teary-eyed over now?"
"It must be unnerving. She's seeing everything with new eyes, as it were… we should have told her that there's no significant difference in her body from before. That any differences she might feel or observe are purely psychological."
"Now hold on! I wouldn't call getting rid of that heart condition insignificant!"
"But she didn't… look, you know what I'm getting at. Now, as she continues to grow up, every time something about her changes, she'll have to wonder, is this because of my new body? Especially the, ah, ahem, 'growth spurt' that's coming up…"
"Oh, I think she'll be thrilled about that. Don't worry, sister, the Elder One is watching over her, as well as James Brown and God alone knows how many others…"
"I wonder why the Elder One has such an interest in those girls…?"
"Oh, let's not get involved in his plots. That could become… unpleasant."
In that same week, the second invasion fleet was already well on its way. The Mad Emperor sat in the bridge of his great saucer and watched the blue speck grow in their viewports, happily imagining it turning red and black in desolation. Beneath the vessel soared his own Space Monster, created only recently using the DNA of the Earth monster Godzilla and a crystalline lifeform from Io.
He knew his son was a bleeding-heart romantic, and so wasn't surprised when they met the first signs of resistance long before the Earthmen would even know of their approach. "It was a mistake to let that boy go on his own," he muttered, shaking his head.
In as bold a symbolic gesture as one could hope for, Ghidora soared to meet them and threw open his wings, eclipsing the Earth from their view. The monster had been outfitted with a Space Titanium plate across his chest, great metallic wings, shining blades at the ends of his tails, a prosthetic head (man, that sounds weird,) and, more to pull the look together than anything else, metallic greaves.
"Interesting…"
Ghidora shrieked, the left and right heads bellowing emptily into the void… but when the center head opened its mouth, a blast of interference roared through all the screens on the bridge and the sensor guy screamed, throwing his headset to the ground. "My liege! Our weapon's guidance systems are shot!" Tactical yelled, "We're helpless!"
"It doesn't matter," the Mad Emperor roared, rising from his chair and pointing heroically, "Space Godzilla will crush him anyway! Attack!" The horrible blue creature unfolded from its crystalline shell and rushed forth to meet the Metal Space Demon.
In a cockpit at the base of Ghidora's center head, Prince Xolarus braced himself. He took up the picture of Sakaki and permitted himself one last warm thought. It's for your world and your people… he kissed the picture and set it back. Then, with a wild yell, he grabbed a pair of throttles before him and shoved them forward, launching his own monster to the attack. "YAHHHHHHHHHH!"
Except that there was no second invasion, Earth would never know the outcome.
"Well," Xethnex said dryly, "That's that."
"Yep," Xoltan agreed. The officers of the First Invasion sat around a low, oddly spaceage table, sipping Space Champaign from vessels one could only assume were Space Goblets. "That is most definitely that."
"So, what do we do next? Owing to our Prince's stunt here, it's possible that we'll all be executed or at least imprisoned for life."
"Sir!" yet another panicked underling cried, "King Ghidora's center head! It's falling towards Earth!"
"Who is this guy?" Xethnex asked in exasperation.
"He's an asshole, sir," Xoltan replied, proving once again that they should have banned him from Earthling broadcasts long ago. "He's Major—agaa!"
"That wasn't funny the last five times. Forget about the head; there's nothing we can do about that… as I was saying, there's a very real chance we'll all be executed for treason. Should we return?"
"I think we have to," Xoltan said, suddenly serious. "We all signed on knowing what this job would entail, after all, and what would happen if we failed."
"Well…" the Keeper corrected uneasily, "Not all of us…" The others looked to him and nodded knowingly. He was right to be concerned.
As if to break the mood, Agent Xond glanced into his goblet in mild disappointment, commenting, "I wanted this stirred, not shaken." None of them could figure out why Xoltan exploded into peals of laughter.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Yasuhiro Mihama growled over the phone. "Nothing has gone wrong with the plan yet!"
"Oh, but it could," the man from SSS9 replied smoothly, "It could. You have to admit, you're not very good at keeping secrets. In fact, I'll bet that you forgot to turn your speaker-phone off again, and everybody in the room can hear what I'm saying."
Grumbling, Mihama snapped it off. "Nobody was in the room anyway."
"Well, you never know who might overhear our chats. Your little daughter, for instance. I hear she has a penchant for asking awkward questions, and that she's too smart by half. I wonder how that could have come about, hmm?"
"You leave her out of this!" he snapped. Meanwhile, in the hall, Chiyo stiffened. She'd just been on her way to bring him a document that he'd left on the kitchen table when she overheard the SSS9 man's ominous voice and stopped outside the door. It was against her nature to eavesdrop, but this conversation…
"No, you're the one who doesn't understand his situation!" Mr. Mihama's voice was like steel. "No. No! Listen to me, you blustering dolt, I built Mihama Industries and SSS9 with my bare hands, and so help me, I can tear them down! If you harm so much as one hair on my daughter's head, I will see you burn!" The phone slammed into its receiver. Three or four times.
Though shaken, Chiyo still thought to give him a five-count before entering. "Father, I found this on the- uff!" Without saying anything, her father wrapped her in a thunderous hug, holding on as if he'd never let go. In the face of this and the frightening conversation, Chiyo decided that she wasn't so curious as to whom Mihama Industries was building Mechagodzilla for after all…
Still, when Mr. Mihama had calmed down, she couldn't help but ask, "Father, why is Mr. Alphonse on the veranda with a shotgun?"
"Huh?"
"And Mr. Tadakichi is acting strangely. He keeps barking up the trees."
"Oh!" Yasuhiro laughed easily. "Don't worry about that. It'll sort itself out sooner or later." This time, she believed him.
To Osaka, it was a similar feeling to the time she'd had to take Biology. Every time she drew a breath, it seemed like she could feel every single individual alveoli fill with air. Every time her heart beat, she imagined all of those little muscle fibers contracting, and then the blood rushing through her arteries as the pressure slowly faded down her limbs. And actually moving? That was a real trip.
Late at night, when it was at its worst, she felt like her body would simply fly apart, that it was too complex to actually work and she'd just dissolve into a blob of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids.
When she'd made the mistake of confiding her discomfort in Tomo, the wildcat idiot had responded by following her around with the textbook, reading passages aloud. "Oh, hey, Osaka! Did you know that there are cavities in your brain full of cerebrospinal fluid? I mean, can you imagine that? Holes in your brain?"
This case was a little more extreme. But whatever may have changed since her resurrection, it turned out that it wasn't any easier to pay attention in Yukari's class. She sat staring out the window and the heavy clouds, a pen absently whirling through her fingers as her brain spun with strange thoughts and feelings.
Her brain! It was a different one now! And the little voice that was telling her not to worry because the former seat of her consciousness was now a pile of steaming hamburger boiling into nothing a couple hundred kilometers away surely wasn't helping. "Hey, Osaka?" Kagura asked. "What're you doing, there?"
Osaka glanced over to her neighbor, then down at her fingers, which were still deftly turning the pen. "Ack!" It flew from her fingers, skipped off the desk—then she caught it before it fell to the floor. Osaka stared at the pen for a few seconds as if it were a poisonous adder and then cried, "Augh! It's just too weird!" Her head thumped to the desk.
"Uh…" Kagura looked back and forth between her neighbor and Yukari, who hadn't even noticed the student's outburst. "Are you… are you okay?"
"Fine," Osaka sulked, "Le'me alone."
"Are you interested to meet the new student?"
She sat up. "New what?"
"Didn't you hear? An American's coming to school here. Kinda sucks that it happened so late in her Senior Year, huh?"
"Yeah…" In point of fact, the new girl was just entering. It seemed that Ms. Yukari had learned her lesson from trying to introduce the Osakan gal, and didn't try to get her to do or say anything stereotypically American. In fact, it seemed that Yukari just couldn't be bothered. "This is Sandra Blueman," the teacher said tonelessly. "Be nice to her and stuff. Okay, take a seat."
"It's very nice to meet you all," Sandra said in flawless Japanese, bowing slightly. She was about Tomo's height, fairly pretty, with long sandy hair and sea-green eyes. Osaka wondered idly if anybody else noticed that her eyes caught light like a cat's. Sakaki might have; she was staring in absolute shock, as if she'd seen a ghost.
Sandra started into the room, and almost at once made contact with Osaka. The "American" had stopped right in the middle of a window's light, so her eyes blazed like molten copper as they stared at each other. After a second or two, Osaka smirked slightly and a thoroughly unnerved Sandra continued on her way. She took an empty seat next to Sakaki and smiled shyly to her.
Funny how these things work out, Osaka thought happily.
"Aww… you're such a baby, Xan. Come on, what's there to be upset about? What have I ever done for you? I've been a lousy brother. It'll be all right. You'll be happy there, trust me. Earth is a wonderful place… you'll see."
And we join the girls one last time, as they gather for a sleepover at the home of Chiyo-chan. Tomo, Yomi, Sakaki, Kagura and Osaka were all gathered in the main room, the two taller girls reading as the Bonkuras played GTA on the Mihama's 60-inch plasma screen TV. "It's a helicopter!" Tomo protested. "How're you gonna get it with that sword?"
"I'll figure it out," Osaka shrugged.
Bored with hectoring the marauding criminal, Tomo hopped back onto the couch and jabbed a finger into Yomi's belly. "What's this? Haven't you been on a diet?"
Yomi lowered her book and spoke with icy dignity. "After certain experiences, I've decided that I have more important things to worry about than a few calories," she said archly.
Tomo jabbed her stomach again, but when it became apparent that Yomi refused to be baited, she applied herself to figuring out a way to annoy Kagura. From the nearby kitchen, there came the sound of Chiyo singing The Cooking Song, or, as Tomo called it, Let's stab Chiyo-chan. "Cooking is so fun / cooking is so fun / now let's take a break and see what we have done!"
"Okay," Sandra called cheerfully, "It's ready!"
Sandra had taken to cooking the same way Yomi had taken to singing… in fact, she'd taken to food in general, and was starting to become just a tiny bit plump. Naturally, this made her a favorite of Mrs. Mizuhara's. Unfortunately for their mutual friends, Sandra and Chiyo conspired so that whenever they presented something together, the others would never know which of them had made it. It surely made get-together mealtimes a lot more interesting.
As they started towards the dining room, Yomi pulled Sakaki aside, the move covered by the noise of passing Bonkuras. "Ms. Sakaki," she said without preamble, "Just what have you done to Kaori?" Sakaki looked surprised and confused, but otherwise didn't reply. "She seems really upset all the time and she's been avoiding you like the plague. I didn't want to butt in, but you've got to sort this out!"
"I…" Sakaki faltered.
"I'm sorry," Yomi patted her shoulder. "I should've been more tactful, but Kaori's really hurting. Do you mind telling me what's going on?"
"Well… she… that is…"
"That's easy," Tomo said slyly, sliding along the wall back to them. "Kaori has a forbidden love for Andrea, here!" If Sakaki's gaze had been a gravity beam, Tomo's reaction could hardly have been more gratifying. She all but sprinted back the way she'd come, leaving Yomi to look after her in annoyance. "Oh, you idiot…"
"Hey, c'mon you guys!" Kagura called, "Food!"
"Well, we can talk about this later, right?" Yomi asked. Sakaki nodded resignedly, and the friends left together to play Russian Roulette with their dinner.
And deep in the shadowy offices of his underground hideout, the man from SSS9 smiled. There were three objects on his desk that his organization had gone through great pains to collect for him, and now that they were assembled, his plans would finally come to fruition.
The first was a vial of the Mihama girl's blood, obtained at small cost from their family doctor. The second was a vial of pale green blood, that of Godzilla, obtained at great personal risk from the ruins of Sendai. The last was a single, genetically perfect, long-stemmed blue rose.
"Oh, Yasuhiro…" he sighed, "You and your empty threats. How will you feel when you find out that you've created this monster?"
Finis