The ocean was bright crystal blue, peaceful under a pale sky and blazing sun. Summer had finally arrived in full force, and it was now officially a crime to wallow in despair, melancholy or any other kind of angst. Accordingly, the girls made plans to finish the summer-home visit that had been so rudely interrupted.

Of course, they couldn't do it immediately after their narrow escape, for not only were four of them recovering from injuries but the summer home needed to do a little recovering of its own. The swarm of useless scientist and military types that had descended on it during Biollante's visit had not been kind to it; for instance, General Kita had eaten the last of the avocado dip, and Doctor Mifune had succeeded where Tomo had failed by finding Mr. Mihama's hidden liquor cabinet. They'd behaved much like the suitors of Penelope until forcibly evicted about two minutes after Biollante's disappearance.

But now the home had been set to rights and the girls had returned.

"Yeeahh! The ocean!" Tomo cried, rushing down the beach, sending her clothes fluttering away to reveal her swimsuit and plunging into the water like a porpoise.

"Tomo, you just ate, you idiot!" Yomi hollered after her, "You're gonna cr-!"

"I'm not gonna cramp up, you fool! I'm invinci-AAAARRRRGHH!"

The others were content to take their time. Osaka advanced tentatively, arms crossed self-consciously over her chest, until Yomi said, "Oh, don't worry. You're still in Chiyo-chan's group," in a tone that was either kind or snarky, nobody could tell. "Yayy!" Osaka cried, "I'm not a traitor!"

"Says you!" Tomo countered shrilly, furiously trying to rub her cramp out.

Sakaki sat in the sand and watched the Bonkuras splashing and capering, smiling as Tomo and Kagura turned this innocent frolic into a splash-fight so epic as to make Godzilla's battle look like a respectful debate.

"It hardly seems real, doesn't it?" Chiyo asked softly by her side. Though she was starting to bounce back from her ordeal, it would still be some time before it was safe to let Mrs. Mizuhara or that bossy lunch lady from school see her; either would be likely to toss her down in front of about four meals and glower over her until she'd eaten it all.

"No," Sakaki agreed softly.

"On the other hand," Chiyo sat down and hugged her knees. "You could look at it the other way and say that that whole awful experience was a dream."

"Which do you prefer?"

"I really don't know. I don't think about life in these terms usually, but things have been so surreal lately…" Chiyo laughed. "In the end I don't think it matters that much. We're through it and we're all still together, right?"

"Yeah." Sakaki liked that outlook.

"Very pragmatic of you, Chiyo-chan," Yomi commented, thrusting a beach umbrella into the sand next to them. She'd brought her book, wanting to find out what happened to her tragically doomed samurai and not feeling too rambunctious anyway. "That's good."

"Is something wrong, Ms. Yomi?"

"Oh, not really," Yomi flipped the book open on her lap. "Nothing to worry about."

"Mm…" Chiyo glanced at her oddly, but was too polite to press on. It was perhaps for the best, as Yomi really meant it when she said it was nothing to worry about. She just occasionally caught herself thinking about how much this whole business with the giant monsters had warped her outlook, how unnatural, disruptive and… contrived those events seemed in the flow of her life. And now after surviving the assault of King Ghidora and helping to halt an invasion of killer arachnids, would she have to go back to worrying over her weight and what college she'd end up in? Though it felt like she was looking at life through a whole new lens, these things weren't any less important…

"What are ya two so riled about?" Osaka asked lightly, coming across her fellow Bonkuras locked in watery mortal combat. "'Part from the usual, I mean."

"Let's make her judge!" Tomo suggested.

"Okay," Kagura nodded sharply. "Osaka! Which one of our scars do you think is gnarlier?"

"Huh?"

Both of the competitors turned to bare their scars, which were visible since they were wearing two-pieces. Tomo's old needle-ray scar was an extremely faint octopus of weirdly curving lines on her side, crawling not quite up to her shortribs and down out of sight on her hip. Kagura's was more visible, a single, jagged crescent that would hopefully fade with time because it was pretty darn unsettling to look at just now.

Osaka giggled. "So ya got your alien ray gun scar, an' you got your giant spider claw scar…isn't that jus' so jacked up? I mean, who'da thought we'd ever get shot at by aliens? An' the spider monsters? Man, tha's just pushin' it!"

"Well?" Kagura prodded.

"Um… huh, well… I dunno if ya'd call 'em gnarly…" she was tempted to go with Tomo's because Kagura was less likely to try and beat her up upon losing, but either one was a dangerous choice. "I don't think either…"

"What, do you think you have a cooler scar?" Tomo challenged.

"Yeah, I'd like to see you try and beat this!" Kagura added.

"Actually… I don't got any scars anywhere. Not a one. Wouldja guys help me work on that?"

"For sure!" Tomo cried. "You can count on us!" She already had four plans in mind, and two of them involved Kagura's car.

Kagura blinked. "Um… sure, I guess."

Osaka took advantage of this brief 'e-e-e-er' pause to wander away before they could drag her back into their dispute. She lay on her back and paddled gently through the salty waves, for once not losing herself in thought but just emptying her head and passively enjoying the day. "Aaaaah…"

It felt good to be totally at peace with herself and the universe, floating along in sublime serenity, but the more she thought about it, the more there seemed to be a hole in her happiness. Something like… food. Ah, yes, it was about lunch time. She turned her head lazily to look up and down the beach. A couple hundred meters away, their indefatigable chaperones, Mr. and Mrs. Mihama, were resting on the beach, apparently asleep. Chiyo was stretched out on her belly alongside Sakaki and Yomi. In fact, her only friends that seemed to be missing were Kaori and…

"Aw, no…" Osaka stood. "They wouldn't leave it up to…!"

"Sandra, forget it!" Kaori crossed her arms adamantly. "You're absolutely not going to add oregano!"

"Aww, come on!" Sandra protested, trying to get around her to the spice cabinet, "Half the fun of cooking is improvising!"

"Yes, but when you improvise, we end up ordering Chinese!"

"Oh, that's just cold," the faux American said in mock-dejection, hanging her head over the sizzling pan, "You're gonna hurt someone's feelings if you keep talking like that."

"Just as long as we don't starve," Kaori couldn't help but smile. "I think I can forgive myself for crushing your creative impulses, there."

"What about vanilla extract?"

"Okay, now you're just being difficult."

"You know, there's cooking brandy up there, too…" at Kaori's scathing look, she chuckled and shook her head. "Okay, sorry. Brandy doesn't help with many dishes anyway… trust me."

"Huh…" sensing that the threat was past, Kaori moved away from the spice cupboard and sat down by a window, overlooking the water and the distant forms of their friends. "I shudder to think what you've tried it with."

Sandra considered going for the oregano, but decided not to break Kaori's trust. "Thanks for coming up and keeping me company, by the way."

"Well someone had to watch you…" Kaori shrugged. "And besides, I was starting to feel like a fifth wheel anyway."

"What? Why?"

"Oh, it's like you said. They're complete without us. Before I just wanted to be close to Sakaki, but now…" she sighed. "Y'know? I mean, they're great people, and they're trying to make me feel included, but…"

"Yeah, I get what you're saying," Sandra agreed, feeling herself physically yearn towards the oregano. A little wouldn't hurt, right? Just a little? "You know, we should start our own clique. I mean, if you'll have me."

Kaori smiled. "Hmm, not a bad idea. We could get Chihiro, too."

"Who?" Sandra asked blankly.

"And maybe some'a the guys…"

"Maybe," Sandra nodded doubtfully. "Y'know… apart from this lot though, everyone else seems to think I'm… I dunno, they think I'm weird. I'd probably scare people off."

Kaori shook her head. "I don't think so. I mean, people will understand if you act a little odd, since you're from so far away."

Snicker. "You can say that again."

"And, well, you're a little eccentric, but you're not nearly as weird as Osaka. That girl is not of this world."

At this, Sandra burst out laughing. When Kaori looked at her oddly, she waved her friend off with a mirthful, "I'm sorry, the irony just got to me… I'll have to tell you about it sometime…"

"Wait a second, not of this…" Kaori's eyes grew to the size of saucers. She remembered seeing Sandra at the aquarium, her heart-shaped face lit only by the water's faint bluish light, eyes seeming to gleam copper in the dim light. It explained so much: her irrational fear of Tadakichi, the bizarre gaps in her social skills, her instant connection to Sakaki, the presence of a needle-ray during their escape and a dozen other things. "You're not…!"

"Aw, crap. I shoulda kept my stupid mouth shut."

"You're one of the… that came with the…?"

Sandra didn't like where this was going. "Listen, Kaori, I wasn't…" But her friend had already left. She probably just needed a moment… finding out that her close friend was a space alien was probably quite a mind-bender, but Sandra couldn't fight down the horrible, tremulous feeling that Kaori hated her now. Incidentally, now there was nothing keeping her from adding as much oregano as she wanted, but the idea had somehow lost its appeal.

"I don't see what you're so upset about," Yomi said, flipping a page of her book. It had just been getting good, too. "I can see why she wouldn't want people to know."

"Yeah, but--!" Kaori stalked back and forth in front of her on the sand, periodically blocking her view of their friends in the water. "I mean, she was my friend! And—holy cow. She's a bloody alien and we never knew!"

"Sakaki probably did," Yomi pointed out.

"And not just any bloody alien, but an Xian! The people who invaded us with King Ghidora, nearly destroyed the world and kidnapped Ms. Sakaki! She's one of them!"

"While you're at it, why don't you blame me for what Japan did in Manchuria? It would make about as much sense."

"I'm wigging out, here! I thought… I thought she…"

"Well, if you're reacting this way, I can understand why she didn't tell you," Yomi said sharply. "And might I add that you aren't being a very good friend to her by telling me just as soon as you find out!"

Kaori was stung. She knew that the Bespectacled One spoke the truth, but it wasn't easy to back out of something like this. "Well, what am I gonna do now?"

"I assume you'll go back and apologize," Yomi flipped another page. How she could read and converse at the same time was beyond Kaori. "If I know her, she probably thinks you hate her now, and it would be remarkably pig-headed of you if you did."

"You're merciless!"

"I just don't suffer fools well."

"That's funny. You get enough practice…"

Tomo emerged onto the roof, panting for breath. The wildcat high school girl had finally run out of energy, at least for a little while; a few minutes to recharge and she'd be pestering Yomi again in no time. Ahh, these summer home visits were great! Not as exciting as piloting the most powerful mobile weapons platform ever built, but much more rewarding in its way…

Unfortunately, it looked like she didn't have the roof to herself. Osaka lay on the shingles near the edge, hanging an arm over the side and holding a folded magazine in the other. She looked as though there were a piano resting on her back.

"Oh, hey," Tomo greeted.

"Yo," Osaka glanced up at her.

"Something wrong?" Tomo sat on the edge of the roof next to her, feet dangling over the patio. "You look beat."

"Not wrong," Osaka handed the magazine over. "Just really freaky."

Tomo glanced at the article disinterestedly… then blinked and looked closer. It detailed an expedition to Birth Island, and how the explorers had found a small corpse on that desolate, stony beach, burnt past recognition and irradiated beyond DNA testing. In fact, the only clue to its identity was that, in the charred remains of one of its pockets, it carried an extremely nice letter-opener…

"Ho'shit!" Tomo jumped back from the page physically. "That's-!"

"No scars," Osaka said softly, in eerie singsong, "Not a mark, 'cause I'm brand new."

"What?"

"Ah feel bad for her. Lived 'er whole pointless life an' when she managed to count for somethin' it killed her. An' then I came…"

"Wh- huh? Osaka, no! It's you! I- I mean, she's you! You're—oh, shit!"

"Feel like a body-snatcher, but it's new, too… why d'ya guess I have a belly-button, then, if I wasn't born?"

"Maybe the god of thunder had an extra one," Tomo said dismissively. "Listen… this…? This means nothing!" She tore the magazine in half and threw it over the patio. In the distance, they heard Chiyo go "Ack!"

"Hey, I wasn't done with…"

"Listen to me, Osaka. Please!" Tomo dropped to one knee alongside her friend and grabbed a handful of her collar. "You. Are. You. You're the same ol' Osaka, got it? We'd know. We'd know if you were replaced by a body-snatcher or something, even if you acted the same, okay?"

"I just… I can't seem to remember… I was thinkin' about it, 'bout the egg an' everything, an' my head got all jumbled and…" Osaka looked down. "There's something I gotta remember. It's, it's how I know if I'm real or not…"

"Come on, can't you trust me?"

"I dunno. When people trust you…"

"C'mon, you said yourself you feel safe around me. Just once, I'm askin', just once. Can't you just believe me that you're really you? We'd know… I'd know." Osaka looked up at her for a long few seconds, then turned away to watch the sun set over the trees. "By the way, Osaka, you're looking a little tense."

Uh-oh. All of the girls knew the story of what happened when Tomo offered to demonstrate her magic fingers in a massage for Kagura: the first blow completely missed her back, striking her temple instead and making them both do an amusing little jig from pain. Tomo had tried it once since and gotten off to a much better start… but then digging her fingers into the athlete's magnificent latissimus dorsi made her so mad with jealousy that she resorted to thwacking her patient in the head again anyway.

But there was little risk of that this time around. The magic fingers plunged into Osaka's back and she gasped, realizing that by the end of this her back would be one big mass of bruises and it'd be totally worth it. The wildcat masseur paused after realizing this herself, but a whispered, "Don't stop, Tomo," made her continue.

Unknown to either, Kagura had just been about to crest the roof herself, but she happened to overhear that last and decided that perhaps the roof wasn't the best place to enjoy an ice-cream bar just then. I knew it! she thought to herself, knowing nothing of the sort and knowing it. Still, after enduring her insinuations for so long, it'd be nice to give Osaka a taste of her own medicine.

"I… I still don' remember what it was…" Osaka sighed, "But… I think you're right…"

"As usual!" Tomo agreed happily.

"Y'know… you've always been there for me, Tomo…" she paused to enjoy the at-long-last loosening in her neck. "Since forever. You helped me when I found that stupid egg an' thought I was goin' crazy, when I was on my way to die, after Chiyo was… was…" she sagged back into Tomo and rested her head on the taller girl's shoulder. "I'm sorry for botherin' ya with all this."

"Oh, well," Tomo said uncomfortably, shifting her weight. "It's… nothing."

"Don't say that!" Osaka protested, taking her hand. "What ya did for me… I don't know what I woulda done without ya, an' it means the world to me. You're the best comrade I coulda ever asked for." She clutched Tomo's hand a little harder. "I… I hear Yomi an' the others callin' you stupid an' selfish all the time, an' I think… please, Tomo, don' let it seep into ya like it did me. You're really a good person!"

This whole spiel caught Tomo completely flat-footed. Speechless, she laid her other hand over Osaka's, holding her lightly. "Er. Thanks."

The Anti-Bonkuras sat watching the sun set for a long while, silent as the world was washed crimson around them. "D'ya think we'll make it?" Osaka finally asked. "Out in the real world?"

"Oh, sure! We've got to! We're the plucky heroines!"

Long after the girls had finally gone to bed, Mr. Mihama sat in the main room, sprawled over the couch with his arms hooked over he back, watching The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms on the small television and lost in thought. His wife had urged him to take this as a vacation before he plunged back into the sordid business of rooting out what remained of SSS9, but it kept creeping back into his mind at inopportune times, such as 4 AM in this case.

Unbelievable that the organization he had helped found would go so wrong. Unbelievable that its master, once Yasuhiro's friend, would turn his will so ardently towards destroying him. Unbelievable that anyone—anyone—had stooped so low as to drag poor Chiyo-chan into this. And yet… at least she'd come out of it all right. He could still be glad for that.

Just as that thought occurred to him, Chiyo padded into the room. That was one lasting effect the incident had had on her; occasional spells of insomnia. As he watched her, she wandered over to one of the small potted plants on the windowsill and slid it three inches to its right.

"Bad Feng Shui?" he asked.

"It's happier there," Chiyo replied in a vague, sleep-deprived sort of way. "What's that you're watching?"

"Ah, some American monster movie. You can tell that they don't know how it goes." He was curious to see how she would act towards him; he'd been away most of the time since they'd returned from their disastrous tour, and worried that she'd be even angrier and angstier than before. After all, she had a right to be mad—so far he'd managed to inadvertently put her and all of her friends in direct peril at least twice.

Chiyo walked up and glanced at the screen, then curled up on the couch in his arm. Yasuhiro chuckled inwardly. I don't deserve a kid like her.

She wasn't the only one having trouble sleeping. Sandra snapped awake much as she had several nights in the past, heart pattering. The same stupid dream… ever since the incident with the fairy women and the vampire bug of death, she'd learned not to take dreams lightly, but she really hoped that this one didn't count.

"Wha's wrong?" Kaori asked foggily from a few feet to her left. She'd recovered surprisingly quickly from the space-alien revelation, and now she and Sandra planned to move forward in their clique-making venture. "You okay?"

"Nothing, don't worry," Sandra said fondly, "Go back to sleep."

Sandra clutched her plush dragon and wished for the real creature it represented, thinking back over the dream she'd just had. A ten-headed golden dragon, not a menace, but there to protect her. Like Ghidora but so much greater… a guardian of not just Earth but humanity as a whole, Earthman and Xian alike. It was the being that the Space Demon should have become.

On its own, the dream wouldn't have bothered her. But she had to wonder… if such a creature was supposed to exist, what in the world was it supposed to guard them from?

In the arctic plains of Siberia, a colossal form rested. Its space-titanium armor and golden scales once glowed brilliantly in the wintry sunlight, but the months had not been kind to its luster. By some miracle, it had not been found yet; the remnants of its fantastic alien technology had allowed it to crash down without being detected by the Earthmen's radar, and to date, it and the Hermit had found peace and solitude on this remote plain.

The Hermit dwelt in a rudimentary shelter leaning against its side, though he now sat outside, wrapped in layer after layer of coats and cloaks, roasting a rabbit he'd caught over a weakening fire. Long silver hair flowed down his back and hung about his sharp, aristocratic face. His complexion was so pale now that it would be easy to mistake its faint bluish tinge for the onset of hypothermia, though it was really his natural cast.

"Oh, how the Prince has fallen," he said with bitter humor, each word coming as a white cloud through his cracked lips. "It's not a bad life, though." And in truth, his subordinates would hopefully be along to rescue him any week now…

A shadow fell over the Hermit as he started to eat, and he looked up to behold three suited men. They stood at attention, unbothered by the frigid wind that howled over the plains and made him shiver even through his coverings. Before he could say anything to greet them, the leader said something in Russian.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand," the Hermit replied in Japanese. It was the only Earth language that he knew.

"We require the Fallen Guardian," the suit said.

"What, you mean Ghidora here? Do you know who you're talking to? I'm royalty, buddy, and this creature is mine. I'll consider it if you're more polite. Who's asking for it?" The suited man removed his sunglasses, revealing not the dark eyes of a Earthman or the golden of an Xian, but… "Oh… oh, hell," Prince Xolarus gasped, standing. "Y-you!"

Finis

(A/N: Resolution? Pah! Who needs it? As always, final comments will be appreciated.)