Infection in the foot and a pain shooting up the inside of my left leg. The doctor first believed it was a blood clot, but ultrasound scans showed nothing.
I'll be on an IV antibiotic for a while, so I'm NOT going to work in an enclosed space with bad climate control where people are prone to get whatever's in the air in the blink of an eye.
And thank you, Rob. I will incorporate Doug's words pretty soon.
But right now, my muses have decided to rewrite the whole scene concerning Doug discovering Hiromi's "celestial" nature . . . which allowed me to bring in another tôshi to the scene.
Enjoy!
**** **** ****
THAT answer surprised me like
nothing I had ever heard before.
Without hesitation, my
mage-sight clicked in as I gazed on my host.
The result . . .
Oh, HELL . . .!
"You're a phoenix!"
I then spat out.
Her eyebrow arched. "No, I am not."
"You sure?" I
instantly challenged. "What the
hell's this all about anyway?! What's
your game?! Bringing this high-tech starship
here and offering it to people who may not have any idea how to properly run
it!" Ignoring the shocked gasps
from all the girls behind me, I pointed at her.
"So what's the damned deal here?!"
"Doug-san!" Narumi
cried out.
"Enough!"
I jolted as I felt that
powerful wave of ki hit me, instantly cutting out my burning groove of anger
over being YET AGAIN brought into the presence of a Celestial of
all things . . . and then I noticed a knowing look then cross her face. "I take it from your outburst just now
that you've had bad encounters with divinities and their ilk?" she asked
with a virtual tidal wave of scorn, which made me blink in
complete surprise. "Yes, there are some
witless dullards on this planet who've mistaken me as a phoenix given how I
came to this life two years ago, then strove to save those like me from some
uncaring 'fate of the sacred bead' the souls of their first-selves were forced
into eighteen centuries ago in the Three Kingdoms period of
China!" As my mind nearly crashed
from THAT tsunami of information – as my traitorous mage-sight quickly locked
in on the soul or whatever-it-was trapped in my host's magatama-shaped earring,
said thing tied with links of purest neutronium with the soul of the young
woman before me – she took a deep breath, her own heart billowing with a very
ugly anger of her own.
"I suspect you might be
able to imagine this, Doug-san," she said in a voice full of helpless
outrage. "The noble worthies of the
Latter Hàn when I first walked this life as Liú Hóng. Not to mention the noble worthies of Shu Hàn,
Cáo Wèi and Dong Wú . . . to say anything of the Nánmán and the other tribes
that existed in the Middle Kingdom at that time! Dying regardless of cause . . . yet to have
their very SOULS trapped in these things!"
She pointed to her earring.
"To be worn on the persons of innocents after innocents for dozens
of generations across China, then Korea, then Japan! And for your further amusement, allow me to tell
you this!" She raised a finger in emphasis. "When those countless thousands of
innocent souls over the last eighteen centuries DID wake up to what they bore
within their magatama, they were forced to RE-LIVE the lives and the
fates of the ones whose souls were trapped in those things! WHY, I ASK?!" she then
demanded. "Tell me WHY,
Doug-san! Why would the uncaring Fates
do that to those such as my own cousin Liú Bèi, the truly wise and determined
Cáo Cao, the beloved siblings of the Sun Clan, the every-questing Lu Bù and all
the others?! Not to mention the great
warriors of ancient Ireland and heaven only knows how many more throughout
history! If I have a phoenix inside me,
Doug-san, WHY WAS I NEVER TOLD THAT?!"
Staring at a now teary-eyed
woman – as my brain finally started to catch up to all the other things she had
said – I found myself simply unable to give her an answer . . .
* *
*
Cursing herself for her lack
of self-control over someone who desperately needed help – and had no doubt
been dragged into this universe by a well-meaning Inada Mizuho if what Sakurambo
Sakura had just told her an hour before was true – Hiromi took a deep
breath. "You have my deepest
apologies, Doug-san. I did not mean to
heap all that over you," she stated.
"Am I a phoenix? Some
believe so. I personally cannot answer
that, though. Tell me this: Are those divinities and other celestial
spirits who have clearly earned your ire ever been unsure as to
what they are and why?"
Doug blinked before he shook
his head. "Not in my
experience."
A nod. "Well, now you've gained a new
experience. Perhaps that will allow you
to overcome your mistrust of myself and those like me – for, if the idiots who
like to harp on such things are to be believed, I happen to count a spiritual
daughter of Mother Earth Herself and the Sagussan Master of
Entropy as my own siblings, to say ANYTHING of the many people like
myself touched by celestial dragons, both on Earth and elsewhere! – so we can
get you on your way back to your true home."
"And his wife."
Hiromi gazed on Yoshino Tomomi. "You've been separated from your wife,
Doug-san?" she then asked as she gazed on the metahuman before her.
A tired sigh. "For what seems like forever."
The reborn emperor blinked as
she peered at him for a moment, and then – after moving to wipe her eyes clear
of tears – leaned down to kiss her guest's forehead.
"You are toshi."
* *
*
Toshi.
If my Japanese was dead on –
and after my experiences in Megatokyo in 2037 with the Knight Sabres; Nekomi in
1997 with the Norns and their friends; Tokyo-3 in 2015 with Shinji, Asuka and
Rei; amid other places, I had to admit that it was good – the word Hiromi just
used on me was written with the kanji ??, meaning "fighting soldier."
And
while I still felt a level of mistrust towards the woman before me now, that
she was willing to call me that made me think over what she had just
been said.
One
small factoid came up right away.
"You
were a Chinese emperor?!" I demanded.
A
snort. "I was not much of an
emperor, Doug-san. I was more interested
in all my concubines and seeing to my own carnal lusts in lieu of dealing with
matters of state," she confessed with frank honesty, which made me gape.
She
wasn't lying . . .
But
she was a phoenix of all things . . .
Yet
she DIDN'T know . . .
What
the HELL was going on here?!
My
mind recalled what Tomomi said when we got introduced. "'Ryuko Kyorei?'" I asked. "'Ryuko' is the Japanese way of reading
'Liú Hóng.' Where does 'Kyorei' come
from?"
"'Xiàolíng,'"
she supplied. "My posthumous
name: 'Filial and inattentive.'" A pained smirk then crossed her face. "Which, if you are familiar with the
times, Doug-san . . . I certainly was that.
Look how many suffered for it afterward?"
"Hiromi-san,
why do you keep doing this to yourself?"
I
perked, and then turned . . .
.
. . to find myself gazing on a woman that distantly reminded me of Belldandy in
a way: Long silver hair on a
classically-sculptured face over a body that – were Mrs. Maggie Sangoir's
husband NOT faithful to her! – was literally to die for. But that was the only similarities between
this newcomer – whom I immediately sensed had the power of a celestial
DRAGON of all things inside her! – and the quite friendly aspect of the
Norn of the Present I met years ago in another dimension. This woman was a skilled and trained warrior
who was not afraid to take a life; her body's general aura hinted at that. She had also mastered the monster inside her
. . . though such mastery had been with cost.
She was quite prepared for a fight; the sheathed katana in her hand was
a dead give-away. And she was tôshi; her
earring was the same silver shade as Hiromi's.
"You
know my reasons," Hiromi whispered, and then she sighed. "Tomomi-chan?"
Tomomi gasped. "Hai, One-sama?"
"Will
you be a dear and ask Seina-chan to fetch some tea and snacks for Kumomi-san
and myself? What's your choice of
morning drink, Doug-san?"
"Tea's
okay by me." I then smiled. "I assume that since this is a Canadian
starship, the hot drinks are all provided by Tim Horton's?"
"Naturally!"
Hiromi stated.
"Doug-san?"
Tomomi asked.
"English
breakfast tea?" I wondered.
An
eager nod. "Hai!"
With
that, the acting sub-lieutenant headed out of the room. "Girls, we can take over from
here," the newcomer then said as she "gazed" with those closed
eyes at the guardsmen and Sasamoto Narumi.
How the hell was she able to see . . . unless it was a type of ki
sight or mage-sight? "While
Doug-san's considerable anger towards those of a divine nature seems well
founded, he strikes me as a civilised person.
Despite the rapier wit and love for Warner Brothers cartoons I currently
sense he possesses."
As
I nearly choked on THAT rather frank statement, the newcomer then gazed at me,
her eyes then opening to reveal a pair of pale blue orbs, both now twinkling
with laughter she wouldn't indulge in right now. Before I could wonder what the hell was THIS
one's game, a chorus of "Hai, Kumomi-onesama! Please excuse us!" echoed from behind me
as the girls who had walked me into this situation all bowed and left.
With
that, the newcomer then took a seat nearby, her eyes closing again. "Welcome to our universe, Master Looney
Tunes," she then stated as Hiromi also took her chair at one end of the
table. "Your actions in other
dimensions echoed into this one long before you were pulled here by a young
lady who simply desired to save a brave, gallant and noble warrior from facing
an attack from quite dark and demonic beings while he himself was unconscious
and transitioning through your 'world gate' process from your last port stop on
the next step of your journey." As
I gaped at her, she smiled. "I am
Koeru Kumomi. My battle-name is 'Choun
Shiryu.' Currently attending the Nan'yo
Academy in Kimitsu-shi, Chiba-ken. Year
Three, Class A. In my first life, I was
Zhào Yún of Shu Hàn, styled 'Zilóng.'
The dragon your mage-senses are no doubt picking up from within me calls
himself 'Shùnpíng' after my first-self's posthumous title."
I
blinked. "How did you know?"
"Your
wit and your love of Master Bugs Bunny and his friends?" A smirk.
"Your battle-name spoke it out as loud as possible. If you are a metahuman warrior – an arch-mage
if my sense of your total capabilities is anywhere close to being accurate –
yet call yourself 'Looney Tunes,' the conclusion is rather quite obvious."
"And
whatever is the matter with liking such wonderful entertainers as they?"
Hiromi then asked as a smile of her own crossed her face. "Given our experiences in the universe
of Star Trek at the turn of the New Year, the chances are there . . .
"
"That
what happened to Michael Jordan-sensei in Space Jam DID happen
somewhere!"
More
laughter. As I gaped at these two
whatever-they-were, I couldn't help but grin as I recognised their reference to
the 1996 movie where "Air" Jordan actually was pulled into the Looney
Tunes universe to help Bugs Bunny et al defend themselves from a bunch of VERY
not-so-funny creeps called the Nerdlucks.
I then stopped as something else Hiromi just said hit me. "You actually went to the Star Trek
universe?!"
"Indeed
we did, Doug-san. Around the time of the
events depicted in Generations; the year 2371 Earth-time in their
universe," she answered me matter-of-factly. "If this is not true in your universe,
the movie itself was released here in 1994."
"When
exactly did you leave your own dimension, Doug-san?" Kumomi asked.
A
sigh. "Too long ago," I
admitted while part of me tried to muster ANY sort of mistrust and anger
towards these two beings.
But
DAMN it all to the lowest pit of Hell – ignoring everything my own damned
mage-senses were telling me – everything about them screamed TRUTH to me!
So
what the HELL does that make ME?
"A
wise traveller, Master Looney Tunes. One
who will live to reunite with his wife."
I
jolted as Kumomi gave me a very knowing look . . .
Yeah,
even with CLOSED eyes!
"One
who has been disappointed many times as you've been shuttled from universe to
universe since you were first expelled from your native Earth. In battle, I presume?" As I nodded, she sighed. "By the way – in case you're wondering –
your body's ki aura well reflects your experiences over the years." As I felt myself relax a little bit more at
that admission, she added, "You've also felt yourself forced to make deals
with various celestials, deals which you later came to wonder were such good
things in the end, right?" As I
nodded again, she shook her head. "Much
that neither my Emperor or myself would personally never do anything to hurt
someone like you . . . "
"Shiryu-dono
. . . "
Kumomi
then seemed to freeze for a moment before she turned . . .
.
. . to have a VERY pissed-off Hiromi literally LEAN right into her face. "How many times must I continue to say
this to you: I AM AN EMPEROR OF NOTHING!"
The
other girl gulped. "H-h-hai . .
.!"
I
blinked as I gazed at this scene.
Okay,
THAT was weird . . .!
* *
*
To
give a little background information . . .
As
readers of these chronicles will have long come to note by now, I personally
don't really care too much for Celestials of ANY sort.
Especially
if they're of the variety who are often called "gods" or
"deities."
And
ESPECIALLY if said gods or deities feel it their Fate-given right to MEDDLE in
the affairs and destinies of humble mortals such as yours truly.
My
own commanding officer in the Warriors Alpha team back in my own reality,
Rear-Admiral Helene Diedmeier a.k.a. "Wetter Hexe," excepted of
course.
Hence
my initial reaction after using my mage-sight on Moroboshi Hiromi.
And
while she wasn't a true "god" like the three Norns whom I met years
ago and many dimensions behind me, she clearly had the power of such a being
within her.
Though
I will grant one small caveat.
The
celestial power within Hiromi's body came off as a phoenix to my
mage-senses.
And
while I did have the pleasure to meet a real magical phoenix – Professor Albus
Dumbledore's friend Fawkes while I spent a year being the Defence Against The
Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts some years and dimension ago – who wouldn't harm
a soul, I DID sense from Hiromi that she was quite willing to cause much harm
to those she loathed.
Fawkes
would NEVER do something like that.
It
was utterly against his very nature.
So
I could be very wrong about Hiromi.
Wouldn't
be the first time.
Sure
as hell wouldn't be the last, either.
Thinking
about that, I hummed.
A
Chinese fènghuáng perhaps . . .?
It
would make sense given her stated origins . . .
* *
*
As
for Koeru Kumomi, a.k.a. Choun Shiryu, it was cut-and-dried.
She
was the living avatar of a celestial DRAGON!
While
I never had cause to encounter such beings before, I do know about them.
All
those lessons could be wrapped up in one statement:
"Treat
them with respect . . . for you are crunchy and would go good with ketchup!"
And
while I wouldn't trust Kumomi just yet, if ever . . .
.
. . Mama Sangnoir did NOT raise an idiot for a son!
No,
sir!
* *
*
A
knock made me turn . . .
At
the main door was a tomboyish girl in the same type of uniform Tomomi and
Narumi had worn when I had met them, though I'd put this one in her
mid-twenties. She was brown-haired and
had blue-grey eyes. In one hand, she
carried a tray of drinks. "Please
excuse me for bothering you, Hiromi-onesama, Kumomi-onesama, Doug-san,"
she – her family name was YAMAGUCHI; no doubt, this was the
"Seina" Hiromi had asked Tomomi to come by with snacks and food –
said as she served us. "One English
breakfast tea," she said as she placed a cup of tea – with the bag in it,
of course – before me, served in a fine mug with Haida's ship's crest on
it. "One cup of gyokuro," she then said as she
placed the next mug in front of Kumomi, that filled with a jade-shaded green
tea that was quite expensive in Japan.
"And one cup of spiced Noukiite ginseng tea," she then said as
she placed a cup of golden tea – topped with RED CHILLI PEPPER POWDER! – in front
of Hiromi. She then placed down some
milk, cream, sugar and sweetener on the table between us before turning to
bow. "Sandwiches will be ten
minutes."
"Arigato,
Seina-chan," Hiromi said as she took up her teaspoon and moved to stir the
red flakes on the surface of her tea into the mixture.
I
felt my eyebrow arch. "Spiced
tea?"
An
amused smile came back. "One of the
alien races who control space close to us – they actually control the Alpha
Centauri system; their colony there is called 'Teng-ch'ehek' locally and
'Tengsei' elsewhere – are as passionately in love with spices as the noble
natives of the Land of the Morning Calm, Doug-san," Hiromi explained. "In the days before and after I acquired
the body I possess now, I – and the gestalt of souls that existed in my elder
brother Ataru's body before we were separated – had no choice but to conform to
the local cuisine if we were to be helped become true masters of our
destinies." She picked up the cup
and sipped from it. "Eventually,
the addictive nature of Noukiite eta powder became too much for all of
us."
I
breathed out. "Okay . . . "
Well,
when in Rome . . .
I
then perked on hearing a whistle – which sounded like the intercom alert from
the original Star Trek series – echo through the room. "Chief Shipwright to the Director,"
a man's voice called out. "Are you
busy, ma'am?"
Hiromi
reached over to tap a control on the table; I was quick to note there was a
touch-screen unit there. Thinking about
a recent companion who had joined me some universes ago, I wondered what Eimi
would think of this ship and the tech that ran her. "No, Chief Davidson," she
answered. "What seems to be the
problem?"
"What
do you want done with the motorcycle the girls pulled up from the range,
ma'am?" the voice of the chief shipwright – the senior hull technician
aboard Haida if I recalled how things worked on warships descent from
British traditions – asked. "The
Little Genius is looking at it and he's just SALAVATING to get at it,
ma'am!"
As
I instantly had a flashback about what a certain pre-teen goddess of the future
had done to my machine back in a temple in Nekomi, Hiromi then moaned. "Kogetsuei-dono!"
A
squawk coming from someone who clearly was even YOUNGER than Hiromi by several
years echoed from the intercom. "My
E-e-Emperor . . .?" sputtered out next.
"Tsukihana-kun,
if you even THINK of touching our honoured guest's trusty mount, I will see to
it personally that Ryoko-chan
will not speak to you for a MONTH!"
Stunned
silence followed.
"'Kogetsuei?'"
I whispered to Kumomi.
"Huáng
Yuèying," she whispered back.
"In this life, Ki Tsukihana.
He's one of the two bright people who built this ship and her sisters
for all of Earth."
As
my mind nearly crashed from THAT little avalanche of information, I then perked
on hearing a sob echo from the intercom.
"One-chan . . .!" Tsukihana then moaned.
A
sigh. "Tsukihana-kun, our honoured
guest has suffered at the hands of various so-called 'divinities' many times in
the past. One of them actually – or so
the pilot of the Star Flare that brought Doug-san aboard relayed to me – had the
audacity to rip apart his machine into its component parts." As I gaped, she winked at me. "So, please. For our new friend's continued good mental
health, leave the cycle alone."
"You
are SHITTING me!"
That,
I realised, was the chief shipwright.
"What is wrong?" Hiromi asked.
"Someone
literally RIPPED this bike apart, Director?!" the other man snapped. "Whoever did that deserves to be shot
and pissed on! And not
particularly in that order!"
As
my mind interpreted that ribald comment, I simply had no choice.
I
fell on my ass, laughing my guts out!
* *
*
Somewhere,
a different dimension,
"AH-CHOO!"
"Bless
you, Skuld!"
* *
*
**** **** ****
To Bob: I hope you don't mind if I gave Hexe military rank. Since Doug has it, she seems to deserve it as well.
I'll be on an IV antibiotic for a while, so I'm NOT going to work in an enclosed space with bad climate control where people are prone to get whatever's in the air in the blink of an eye.
And thank you, Rob. I will incorporate Doug's words pretty soon.
But right now, my muses have decided to rewrite the whole scene concerning Doug discovering Hiromi's "celestial" nature . . . which allowed me to bring in another tôshi to the scene.
Enjoy!
**** **** ****
THAT answer surprised me like
nothing I had ever heard before.
Without hesitation, my
mage-sight clicked in as I gazed on my host.
The result . . .
Oh, HELL . . .!
"You're a phoenix!"
I then spat out.
Her eyebrow arched. "No, I am not."
"You sure?" I
instantly challenged. "What the
hell's this all about anyway?! What's
your game?! Bringing this high-tech starship
here and offering it to people who may not have any idea how to properly run
it!" Ignoring the shocked gasps
from all the girls behind me, I pointed at her.
"So what's the damned deal here?!"
"Doug-san!" Narumi
cried out.
"Enough!"
I jolted as I felt that
powerful wave of ki hit me, instantly cutting out my burning groove of anger
over being YET AGAIN brought into the presence of a Celestial of
all things . . . and then I noticed a knowing look then cross her face. "I take it from your outburst just now
that you've had bad encounters with divinities and their ilk?" she asked
with a virtual tidal wave of scorn, which made me blink in
complete surprise. "Yes, there are some
witless dullards on this planet who've mistaken me as a phoenix given how I
came to this life two years ago, then strove to save those like me from some
uncaring 'fate of the sacred bead' the souls of their first-selves were forced
into eighteen centuries ago in the Three Kingdoms period of
China!" As my mind nearly crashed
from THAT tsunami of information – as my traitorous mage-sight quickly locked
in on the soul or whatever-it-was trapped in my host's magatama-shaped earring,
said thing tied with links of purest neutronium with the soul of the young
woman before me – she took a deep breath, her own heart billowing with a very
ugly anger of her own.
"I suspect you might be
able to imagine this, Doug-san," she said in a voice full of helpless
outrage. "The noble worthies of the
Latter Hàn when I first walked this life as Liú Hóng. Not to mention the noble worthies of Shu Hàn,
Cáo Wèi and Dong Wú . . . to say anything of the Nánmán and the other tribes
that existed in the Middle Kingdom at that time! Dying regardless of cause . . . yet to have
their very SOULS trapped in these things!"
She pointed to her earring.
"To be worn on the persons of innocents after innocents for dozens
of generations across China, then Korea, then Japan! And for your further amusement, allow me to tell
you this!" She raised a finger in emphasis. "When those countless thousands of
innocent souls over the last eighteen centuries DID wake up to what they bore
within their magatama, they were forced to RE-LIVE the lives and the
fates of the ones whose souls were trapped in those things! WHY, I ASK?!" she then
demanded. "Tell me WHY,
Doug-san! Why would the uncaring Fates
do that to those such as my own cousin Liú Bèi, the truly wise and determined
Cáo Cao, the beloved siblings of the Sun Clan, the every-questing Lu Bù and all
the others?! Not to mention the great
warriors of ancient Ireland and heaven only knows how many more throughout
history! If I have a phoenix inside me,
Doug-san, WHY WAS I NEVER TOLD THAT?!"
Staring at a now teary-eyed
woman – as my brain finally started to catch up to all the other things she had
said – I found myself simply unable to give her an answer . . .
* *
*
Cursing herself for her lack
of self-control over someone who desperately needed help – and had no doubt
been dragged into this universe by a well-meaning Inada Mizuho if what Sakurambo
Sakura had just told her an hour before was true – Hiromi took a deep
breath. "You have my deepest
apologies, Doug-san. I did not mean to
heap all that over you," she stated.
"Am I a phoenix? Some
believe so. I personally cannot answer
that, though. Tell me this: Are those divinities and other celestial
spirits who have clearly earned your ire ever been unsure as to
what they are and why?"
Doug blinked before he shook
his head. "Not in my
experience."
A nod. "Well, now you've gained a new
experience. Perhaps that will allow you
to overcome your mistrust of myself and those like me – for, if the idiots who
like to harp on such things are to be believed, I happen to count a spiritual
daughter of Mother Earth Herself and the Sagussan Master of
Entropy as my own siblings, to say ANYTHING of the many people like
myself touched by celestial dragons, both on Earth and elsewhere! – so we can
get you on your way back to your true home."
"And his wife."
Hiromi gazed on Yoshino Tomomi. "You've been separated from your wife,
Doug-san?" she then asked as she gazed on the metahuman before her.
A tired sigh. "For what seems like forever."
The reborn emperor blinked as
she peered at him for a moment, and then – after moving to wipe her eyes clear
of tears – leaned down to kiss her guest's forehead.
"You are toshi."
* *
*
Toshi.
If my Japanese was dead on –
and after my experiences in Megatokyo in 2037 with the Knight Sabres; Nekomi in
1997 with the Norns and their friends; Tokyo-3 in 2015 with Shinji, Asuka and
Rei; amid other places, I had to admit that it was good – the word Hiromi just
used on me was written with the kanji ??, meaning "fighting soldier."
And
while I still felt a level of mistrust towards the woman before me now, that
she was willing to call me that made me think over what she had just
been said.
One
small factoid came up right away.
"You
were a Chinese emperor?!" I demanded.
A
snort. "I was not much of an
emperor, Doug-san. I was more interested
in all my concubines and seeing to my own carnal lusts in lieu of dealing with
matters of state," she confessed with frank honesty, which made me gape.
She
wasn't lying . . .
But
she was a phoenix of all things . . .
Yet
she DIDN'T know . . .
What
the HELL was going on here?!
My
mind recalled what Tomomi said when we got introduced. "'Ryuko Kyorei?'" I asked. "'Ryuko' is the Japanese way of reading
'Liú Hóng.' Where does 'Kyorei' come
from?"
"'Xiàolíng,'"
she supplied. "My posthumous
name: 'Filial and inattentive.'" A pained smirk then crossed her face. "Which, if you are familiar with the
times, Doug-san . . . I certainly was that.
Look how many suffered for it afterward?"
"Hiromi-san,
why do you keep doing this to yourself?"
I
perked, and then turned . . .
.
. . to find myself gazing on a woman that distantly reminded me of Belldandy in
a way: Long silver hair on a
classically-sculptured face over a body that – were Mrs. Maggie Sangoir's
husband NOT faithful to her! – was literally to die for. But that was the only similarities between
this newcomer – whom I immediately sensed had the power of a celestial
DRAGON of all things inside her! – and the quite friendly aspect of the
Norn of the Present I met years ago in another dimension. This woman was a skilled and trained warrior
who was not afraid to take a life; her body's general aura hinted at that. She had also mastered the monster inside her
. . . though such mastery had been with cost.
She was quite prepared for a fight; the sheathed katana in her hand was
a dead give-away. And she was tôshi; her
earring was the same silver shade as Hiromi's.
"You
know my reasons," Hiromi whispered, and then she sighed. "Tomomi-chan?"
Tomomi gasped. "Hai, One-sama?"
"Will
you be a dear and ask Seina-chan to fetch some tea and snacks for Kumomi-san
and myself? What's your choice of
morning drink, Doug-san?"
"Tea's
okay by me." I then smiled. "I assume that since this is a Canadian
starship, the hot drinks are all provided by Tim Horton's?"
"Naturally!"
Hiromi stated.
"Doug-san?"
Tomomi asked.
"English
breakfast tea?" I wondered.
An
eager nod. "Hai!"
With
that, the acting sub-lieutenant headed out of the room. "Girls, we can take over from
here," the newcomer then said as she "gazed" with those closed
eyes at the guardsmen and Sasamoto Narumi.
How the hell was she able to see . . . unless it was a type of ki
sight or mage-sight? "While
Doug-san's considerable anger towards those of a divine nature seems well
founded, he strikes me as a civilised person.
Despite the rapier wit and love for Warner Brothers cartoons I currently
sense he possesses."
As
I nearly choked on THAT rather frank statement, the newcomer then gazed at me,
her eyes then opening to reveal a pair of pale blue orbs, both now twinkling
with laughter she wouldn't indulge in right now. Before I could wonder what the hell was THIS
one's game, a chorus of "Hai, Kumomi-onesama! Please excuse us!" echoed from behind me
as the girls who had walked me into this situation all bowed and left.
With
that, the newcomer then took a seat nearby, her eyes closing again. "Welcome to our universe, Master Looney
Tunes," she then stated as Hiromi also took her chair at one end of the
table. "Your actions in other
dimensions echoed into this one long before you were pulled here by a young
lady who simply desired to save a brave, gallant and noble warrior from facing
an attack from quite dark and demonic beings while he himself was unconscious
and transitioning through your 'world gate' process from your last port stop on
the next step of your journey." As
I gaped at her, she smiled. "I am
Koeru Kumomi. My battle-name is 'Choun
Shiryu.' Currently attending the Nan'yo
Academy in Kimitsu-shi, Chiba-ken. Year
Three, Class A. In my first life, I was
Zhào Yún of Shu Hàn, styled 'Zilóng.'
The dragon your mage-senses are no doubt picking up from within me calls
himself 'Shùnpíng' after my first-self's posthumous title."
I
blinked. "How did you know?"
"Your
wit and your love of Master Bugs Bunny and his friends?" A smirk.
"Your battle-name spoke it out as loud as possible. If you are a metahuman warrior – an arch-mage
if my sense of your total capabilities is anywhere close to being accurate –
yet call yourself 'Looney Tunes,' the conclusion is rather quite obvious."
"And
whatever is the matter with liking such wonderful entertainers as they?"
Hiromi then asked as a smile of her own crossed her face. "Given our experiences in the universe
of Star Trek at the turn of the New Year, the chances are there . . .
"
"That
what happened to Michael Jordan-sensei in Space Jam DID happen
somewhere!"
More
laughter. As I gaped at these two
whatever-they-were, I couldn't help but grin as I recognised their reference to
the 1996 movie where "Air" Jordan actually was pulled into the Looney
Tunes universe to help Bugs Bunny et al defend themselves from a bunch of VERY
not-so-funny creeps called the Nerdlucks.
I then stopped as something else Hiromi just said hit me. "You actually went to the Star Trek
universe?!"
"Indeed
we did, Doug-san. Around the time of the
events depicted in Generations; the year 2371 Earth-time in their
universe," she answered me matter-of-factly. "If this is not true in your universe,
the movie itself was released here in 1994."
"When
exactly did you leave your own dimension, Doug-san?" Kumomi asked.
A
sigh. "Too long ago," I
admitted while part of me tried to muster ANY sort of mistrust and anger
towards these two beings.
But
DAMN it all to the lowest pit of Hell – ignoring everything my own damned
mage-senses were telling me – everything about them screamed TRUTH to me!
So
what the HELL does that make ME?
"A
wise traveller, Master Looney Tunes. One
who will live to reunite with his wife."
I
jolted as Kumomi gave me a very knowing look . . .
Yeah,
even with CLOSED eyes!
"One
who has been disappointed many times as you've been shuttled from universe to
universe since you were first expelled from your native Earth. In battle, I presume?" As I nodded, she sighed. "By the way – in case you're wondering –
your body's ki aura well reflects your experiences over the years." As I felt myself relax a little bit more at
that admission, she added, "You've also felt yourself forced to make deals
with various celestials, deals which you later came to wonder were such good
things in the end, right?" As I
nodded again, she shook her head. "Much
that neither my Emperor or myself would personally never do anything to hurt
someone like you . . . "
"Shiryu-dono
. . . "
Kumomi
then seemed to freeze for a moment before she turned . . .
.
. . to have a VERY pissed-off Hiromi literally LEAN right into her face. "How many times must I continue to say
this to you: I AM AN EMPEROR OF NOTHING!"
The
other girl gulped. "H-h-hai . .
.!"
I
blinked as I gazed at this scene.
Okay,
THAT was weird . . .!
* *
*
To
give a little background information . . .
As
readers of these chronicles will have long come to note by now, I personally
don't really care too much for Celestials of ANY sort.
Especially
if they're of the variety who are often called "gods" or
"deities."
And
ESPECIALLY if said gods or deities feel it their Fate-given right to MEDDLE in
the affairs and destinies of humble mortals such as yours truly.
My
own commanding officer in the Warriors Alpha team back in my own reality,
Rear-Admiral Helene Diedmeier a.k.a. "Wetter Hexe," excepted of
course.
Hence
my initial reaction after using my mage-sight on Moroboshi Hiromi.
And
while she wasn't a true "god" like the three Norns whom I met years
ago and many dimensions behind me, she clearly had the power of such a being
within her.
Though
I will grant one small caveat.
The
celestial power within Hiromi's body came off as a phoenix to my
mage-senses.
And
while I did have the pleasure to meet a real magical phoenix – Professor Albus
Dumbledore's friend Fawkes while I spent a year being the Defence Against The
Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts some years and dimension ago – who wouldn't harm
a soul, I DID sense from Hiromi that she was quite willing to cause much harm
to those she loathed.
Fawkes
would NEVER do something like that.
It
was utterly against his very nature.
So
I could be very wrong about Hiromi.
Wouldn't
be the first time.
Sure
as hell wouldn't be the last, either.
Thinking
about that, I hummed.
A
Chinese fènghuáng perhaps . . .?
It
would make sense given her stated origins . . .
* *
*
As
for Koeru Kumomi, a.k.a. Choun Shiryu, it was cut-and-dried.
She
was the living avatar of a celestial DRAGON!
While
I never had cause to encounter such beings before, I do know about them.
All
those lessons could be wrapped up in one statement:
"Treat
them with respect . . . for you are crunchy and would go good with ketchup!"
And
while I wouldn't trust Kumomi just yet, if ever . . .
.
. . Mama Sangnoir did NOT raise an idiot for a son!
No,
sir!
* *
*
A
knock made me turn . . .
At
the main door was a tomboyish girl in the same type of uniform Tomomi and
Narumi had worn when I had met them, though I'd put this one in her
mid-twenties. She was brown-haired and
had blue-grey eyes. In one hand, she
carried a tray of drinks. "Please
excuse me for bothering you, Hiromi-onesama, Kumomi-onesama, Doug-san,"
she – her family name was YAMAGUCHI; no doubt, this was the
"Seina" Hiromi had asked Tomomi to come by with snacks and food –
said as she served us. "One English
breakfast tea," she said as she placed a cup of tea – with the bag in it,
of course – before me, served in a fine mug with Haida's ship's crest on
it. "One cup of gyokuro," she then said as she
placed the next mug in front of Kumomi, that filled with a jade-shaded green
tea that was quite expensive in Japan.
"And one cup of spiced Noukiite ginseng tea," she then said as
she placed a cup of golden tea – topped with RED CHILLI PEPPER POWDER! – in front
of Hiromi. She then placed down some
milk, cream, sugar and sweetener on the table between us before turning to
bow. "Sandwiches will be ten
minutes."
"Arigato,
Seina-chan," Hiromi said as she took up her teaspoon and moved to stir the
red flakes on the surface of her tea into the mixture.
I
felt my eyebrow arch. "Spiced
tea?"
An
amused smile came back. "One of the
alien races who control space close to us – they actually control the Alpha
Centauri system; their colony there is called 'Teng-ch'ehek' locally and
'Tengsei' elsewhere – are as passionately in love with spices as the noble
natives of the Land of the Morning Calm, Doug-san," Hiromi explained. "In the days before and after I acquired
the body I possess now, I – and the gestalt of souls that existed in my elder
brother Ataru's body before we were separated – had no choice but to conform to
the local cuisine if we were to be helped become true masters of our
destinies." She picked up the cup
and sipped from it. "Eventually,
the addictive nature of Noukiite eta powder became too much for all of
us."
I
breathed out. "Okay . . . "
Well,
when in Rome . . .
I
then perked on hearing a whistle – which sounded like the intercom alert from
the original Star Trek series – echo through the room. "Chief Shipwright to the Director,"
a man's voice called out. "Are you
busy, ma'am?"
Hiromi
reached over to tap a control on the table; I was quick to note there was a
touch-screen unit there. Thinking about
a recent companion who had joined me some universes ago, I wondered what Eimi
would think of this ship and the tech that ran her. "No, Chief Davidson," she
answered. "What seems to be the
problem?"
"What
do you want done with the motorcycle the girls pulled up from the range,
ma'am?" the voice of the chief shipwright – the senior hull technician
aboard Haida if I recalled how things worked on warships descent from
British traditions – asked. "The
Little Genius is looking at it and he's just SALAVATING to get at it,
ma'am!"
As
I instantly had a flashback about what a certain pre-teen goddess of the future
had done to my machine back in a temple in Nekomi, Hiromi then moaned. "Kogetsuei-dono!"
A
squawk coming from someone who clearly was even YOUNGER than Hiromi by several
years echoed from the intercom. "My
E-e-Emperor . . .?" sputtered out next.
"Tsukihana-kun,
if you even THINK of touching our honoured guest's trusty mount, I will see to
it personally that Ryoko-chan
will not speak to you for a MONTH!"
Stunned
silence followed.
"'Kogetsuei?'"
I whispered to Kumomi.
"Huáng
Yuèying," she whispered back.
"In this life, Ki Tsukihana.
He's one of the two bright people who built this ship and her sisters
for all of Earth."
As
my mind nearly crashed from THAT little avalanche of information, I then perked
on hearing a sob echo from the intercom.
"One-chan . . .!" Tsukihana then moaned.
A
sigh. "Tsukihana-kun, our honoured
guest has suffered at the hands of various so-called 'divinities' many times in
the past. One of them actually – or so
the pilot of the Star Flare that brought Doug-san aboard relayed to me – had the
audacity to rip apart his machine into its component parts." As I gaped, she winked at me. "So, please. For our new friend's continued good mental
health, leave the cycle alone."
"You
are SHITTING me!"
That,
I realised, was the chief shipwright.
"What is wrong?" Hiromi asked.
"Someone
literally RIPPED this bike apart, Director?!" the other man snapped. "Whoever did that deserves to be shot
and pissed on! And not
particularly in that order!"
As
my mind interpreted that ribald comment, I simply had no choice.
I
fell on my ass, laughing my guts out!
* *
*
Somewhere,
a different dimension,
"AH-CHOO!"
"Bless
you, Skuld!"
* *
*
**** **** ****
To Bob: I hope you don't mind if I gave Hexe military rank. Since Doug has it, she seems to deserve it as well.
Canadian lighthouse to U.S. Warship approaching it: "This is a lighthouse. Your call!"