C-ko, with the broadest of smiles, turned her head
to look at A-ko and yet pressed even closed to still hear Kye's heart. "Um
hmm," she said.PROJECT A-KO: SCHOOL'S OUT
(first draft - completed January 11, 1998)
PART TWO
How about yet ANOTHER plot twist?
* * * * *
Hikaru Diatokuji stood facing Graviton City from the roof of the mansion he shared with his daughter. He looked resplendent in his red sequin uniform, ruffles and flowing cape. The wind had picked up a bit, so his cape extended far behind him. He laughed, harshly and with force.
"It's brilliant," he said. "Just brilliant. I didn't think he had it in him."
Mr. Diatokuji turned to face his guest. "It's very intricate," he continued, "but if it works then every distraction that my daughter faces could be eliminated. Then perhaps I could finally have her start to take over the business."
"You'd do that?" asked the guest, her own hair flowing behind her.
"B-ko graduated top of her class, as you should well know. She's got a great mind and she's ruthless, which is just what I need in my successor. But first the alien princess, then that red-haired girl, then Kei... all distractions."
"She's young," noted the guest. "The young get this way."
"And I'm getting older," Diatokuji shot back. "Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my life. I plan to be around for many years to come. But someday B-ko will need to carry the family banner. I need her to start soon, as my partner, not my rival. With all three of those distractions eliminated I'm sure that she'll come around."
He laughed again; a wild manic laugh. He nodded to his guest. "And what of you? I'm grateful for the information you've brought me; I can use it. But why come to me at all? Is there something you want?"
Mr. Diatokuji's guest nodded. "There is," she said. "There is a service you performed for me once before. I'd like you to do it again."
"Eh?"
"Let's just reverse the roles, shall we? This time you'd be searching on my behalf."
Mr. Diatokuji glared at his guest for a moment, and then reacted as if a light bulb had burst over his head. He roared with laughter, then suddenly calmed himself.
"You're serious," he said.
"Yes," came the response. "I need this."
"Very well." He bowed, formally. "Miss Ayumi, you have a deal."
* * * * *
Kei rode his motorcycle to the rendezvous point. He had packed a knapsack with everything that he would honestly call his own; two changes of clothes, a toothbrush, and an old earring shaped like a glass slipper that would always be a part of himself, no matter how this all turned out.
When he reached the park he stopped and shut down his bike, then looked at his watch. He was early. He climbed off his bike and took off his helmet.
"Hello Kei."
Kei spun around, then fell back against his bike. "What?!!!?"
"It's been a long time," B-ko said. "How have you been?"
"You!" Kei shouted.
"Yes, me. Your long lost love has returned." Kei started to respond but B-ko held up her hand. "No need to say anything. I know how you feel."
"Do you?" Kei asked.
Inwardly B-ko sighed. It was already the longest conversation they had ever had together.
"Yes, I understand," B-ko said. "I know you don't want me. Fortunately I know that you don't want A-ko either so that makes the playing field level. I know all about your plan, and I know that you've lied."
"What?" Kei asked, a slight tremble now in his voice.
"My father hasn't been trying to keep you in town. He hasn't even been concerned with you since the wedding. But don't worry, I won't give you away. I did some research and found out what you're really up to. I'm afraid I can't allow it."
"This has nothing to do with you!" Kei shouted, tears rolling down his face. "This is about me and about C-ko!"
"Everything about C-ko is also about me," B-ko said. "I've made a commitment to her and you'd hurt her. I can't allow that. But you wouldn't hurt me; I'm made of sterner material than C-ko."
Kei stood up, now angry. "Why can't any of you stop trying to control me? Why can't I be in control just this once?"
B-ko looked at Kei with astonishment for a moment, then smiled gently. "Because you're a man, you silly boy," she said.
Kei stopped sobbing and stared.
"I have a surprise for you," B-ko said. She held up her left hand and pressed a button on her wristband with her right. "Now, please," she said.
There was a rumble, followed by a noise much like a subdued earthquake. Kei turned to the direction of the sound and was promptly astonished by what he saw.
"You like it?" B-ko asked.
What rumbled up to them, with Ume at the controls, was a mecha, shaped like a motorcycle, about three times the size of Kei's.
"This is the Moriyama 2000, or at least the prototype. It can travel at speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour, has bulletproof armor, a self cleaning windshield (when you hit a bug at 250kph it's not pretty) plus a few other extras I can tell you about later. That red button on the console, for example, is a JATO (Jet Assisted Take Off) button. You press that and you're airborne for about 10 seconds."
Kei looked the bike over in amazement. His own motorcycle was a good one, but in comparison to this it might just as well have been a toy. "It's beautiful," he said.
"It's yours," B-ko answered.
Kei turned to face B-ko again. He was speechless.
"There's a condition," B-ko said. "Take me with you."
"What?"
"Take me with you away from Graviton City. Let's try to start a new life."
Kei sat down against the Moriyama 2000. "I don't understand," he said.
B-ko took a deep breath and sat down. "This won't be easy for me," she began, "but I need to escape. For my sake, yours, and especially C-ko's."
"C-ko!"
"Yes. You see, after the night of the wedding A-ko and I made peace with each other, for C-ko's benefit. But it's been very hard for me to keep that promise. Every time I think of that brute with C-ko I just get angrier and angrier. Someday, very soon, we'll probably start fighting again. And that could cost me C-ko.
"If I leave here, I can forget about C-ko. It will be a hard thing to do, because of how I feel for her, but someday she'll leave both me and A-ko behind when she returns to her people. She'd leave you behind too."
A tear came to B-ko's eye, which she brushed away. "As hard as it is to say," she continued, "the best thing for me to do is to leave C-ko behind, so that she can have happy memories of her time here in Graviton City. And the only way she'll be happy is if she's with A-ko. Not you, not me."
Ume, from the other side of the mecha, slowly walked away with a pained expression on her face. She should win an award for that acting, she thought.
B-ko reached out to Kei, touching his arm. "We're the outcasts here," she said. "We belong together."
Kei hung his head. "But I love C-ko," he said.
B-ko stood up. "Look around!" she said. "Do you see either of your comrades even here? They've already abandoned you!"
Kei did stand and look around. He saw neither A-ko nor C-ko anywhere.
"Don't you see?" B-ko said. "With your looks and my intellect we'd be a perfect match! We'd be a team!"
Kei hung his head, then slowly climbed on the mecha, with all the enthusiasm of a condemned man. He strapped on his helmet and then extended his hand to B-ko.
B-ko melted like a schoolgirl meeting her idol. "Really?" she squealed. She ran and hopped onto the mecha, riding behind Kei like on a motorcycle. "You'll see! This will be great!"
Kei started up the mecha and they rode off together.
* * * * *
B-ko and Kei passed C-ko just as she had rounded the corner to reach the park. C-ko saw Kei and B-ko ride off together, but they didn't see her. C-ko stared after them a moment, then heard a voice call out her name.
"C-ko!"
C-ko turned to see Ume approach her, followed closely by Ina and Asa. "Hey! Yoohoo!" C-ko shouted. "Have any of you seen A-ko?"
* * * * *
Now would be a cruel moment to go to another part of the story, wouldn't it?
* * * * *
General Zuma looked up from his chair at the twelve men assembled at attention in front of him. Squadron Skuld; the best. To see such good soldiers filled him with pride.
"Gentlemen," he began, his voice barely audible, "your mission is perhaps the hardest one of all. You will be going in ten minutes before the rest of the squadrons. You will not be as well armed. However, you will be much faster."
"Sir!" all twelve men exclaimed.
"Your mission is to provide intelligence for the fighters coming behind you. Each of your planes has advanced radar, photographic, motion and other sensors that will provide a great amount of detail for your comrades. I want you to cover every square centimeter of the surface of those ships."
"Sir!"
"Once you have completed your reconnaissance, the next wave of fighters will attack. You will rendezvous at station L7 for refueling and restocking. I then expect you to rejoin the fight."
"Sir!"
"My adjutant will be coordinating the attack. Your signal relays will be sent directly to him, and he will analyze the data for the attack."
"Sir!" Several of the soldiers were smiling at the news.
The general nodded. "Good. The Colonel is remembered by his old squadron. Remember that this battle will be led by one of your own. Do him proud!"
"Sir!"
The general rotated his chair to face his adjutant. "One more thing gentlemen. I have served in Graviton City's Defense Force for nearly 30 years. Some good, some bad. But this soldier has always been one of the best I have seen. It is time for me to step aside and allow new blood to take the reins."
"Sir!" the Colonel shouted, standing ram-rod straight. He knew what was coming next.
General Zuma turned his chair back to face the squadron. "Effective at 0200 hours, General Yoshida will assume formal command of the Graviton City Defense Forces."
The squad cheered. It was the first time that one of their own had been made commander, and the first time anyone other than General Zuma would be leading them in anyone's memory. Colonel Yoshida... excuse me... General Yoshida's chest swelled with pride.
"General," Zuma motioned to his aide.
"Thank you sir," Yoshida answered, stepping forward and saluting. He then turned to his men. "Squad Skuld! You have your mission. Report to the landing field in one hour! And remember; no aliens will set foot on our soil while we fight!"
The squad cheered again, then as one they turned and departed for the flight hanger to prepare for the mission.
Yoshida leaned down to Zuma. "Refresh my memory," he said. "Why did you wait all this time to tell me about my promotion?"
Zuma laughed, a small laugh. "To save my own job," he said. "Before my operation I was desperate to save my pension; to retire as General. Nothing can stop that now."
"Greed!"
"Perhaps," Zuma acknowledged. "You're no different than me."
"Yes I am!" Yoshida shot back, indignant.
Zuma smiled. "You'll see soon enough. I've done you no favor by turning the reins of this command over to you. You haven't really had to deal with Diatokuji as of yet. You'll be just like me within a few months."
"Not a chance!"
"It's inevitable. It's the AB blood."
* * * * *
Ume, Ina, Asa and C-ko arrived at A-ko's house half an hour after they had met at the park. Ume drove.
Now that B-ko's squad of operatives had learned the truth from C-ko, they had agreed that releasing A-ko was probably the best thing they could do. A-ko would never want Kei after this, so B-ko had already won. They figured that they could probably get the guardian mecha surrounding her house to release her fairly quickly.
When the car stopped, C-ko jumped out and ran to the front door, yelling "A-ko! A-ko! A-koakoakoakoakoakoakoakoakoakoakoakoakoako!"
But the other three girls stayed in the car, shocked. The Home Security Akigara 35-C was GONE!
There was no answer at the front door.
"A-ko!" C-ko shouted. "Where could she be?"
* * * * *
Miss Ayumi sat perched on the wall next to the guard gate, ready to see it all. She had a poetry book with her, for the first time in a long time. Since she had last taught a class, in fact.
"...the Mockingbird of Harper Lee... Harvey, a six foot rabbit and how are you today is the first day of the rest of the page... turn the page for the sake of the Space! It's really really big! The final frontier isn't big enough for the both of us partner in crime. To Phaedo or not to Illiad, that is the Oddessy of Sir Clarke, Arthur and the knights who say knee! All the kings horses and all the president's men couldn't put chaos into formation of the fist of the northern... lights, the pretty northern lights..."
Miss Ayumi closed her book and sighed. "Beautiful!" she thought. She opened her book and looked up as a squadron of jets screamed overhead and up into the sky.
She sighed. "Once this is all over I'll have to return to teaching," she said, looking at her poetry book. "I think I've missed this..."
* * * * *
"Captain!" a voice shouted out over the bridge.
"Yes?"
"There are twelve ships, approaching fast from the surface of the inhabited planet!"
"Can you gauge their intent?"
"Negative! They appear to be fighters!"
The Captain stood from his command chair and put his hand on the shoulder of his son, who stood next to him. They looked at each other and nodded.
"Battlestations," the Captain ordered.
"We may have to move up our schedule," the younger man said.
The Captain nodded. "Proceed."
* * * * *
The lead ship of Squad Skuld didn't fire a single shot. He hadn't been ordered to, and so he concentrated on his mission of providing intelligence. Had he opened fire, it probably would have saved his life, but it would have probably also unleashed the fury of the Captain of the alien force.
However, what really happened was that the ship collided with the scout ship just launched from the mothership. The scoutship was shielded, but the mission leader's was not. One ship exploded in a nasty fireball, while the young man piloting the alien craft double-checked his monitors and noticed that nothing was amiss, and quickly moved on, heading for his destination.
Graviton City.
* * * * *
It was then that a fierce battle erupted, as the remaining members of Squad Skuld opened fire, and the second wave of ships launched towards the aliens. There were noisy explosions, ships afire, the occasional collision and lots of grunting and shouting, just like in any space battle.
But the Captain of the space ship showed great patience in not unleashing his main weapons. "We wait," he told his crew. "They can do very little damage with those small ships. They're more like insects. And when my son returns with the princess we can simply leave. The fewer casualties for either side the better. We're not here to conquer this planet. We're here to conquer a vast region of space.
"We can come back and crush these people later."
And the battle raged on.
* * * * *
Kei and B-ko sped towards the gate of the city, ready to leave the rim of the crater behind and head off towards New Nippon. B-ko held on tightly to Kei, clutching him from behind like a prize won at the carnival. She couldn't see in front of him, but she could lean close and hear his heart beat; a strong if easily misled heart.
They were less than half a kilometer from the border when B-ko felt the mecha slow, then stop.
"Kei?" B-ko asked. "What's wrong?" When she got no answer she leaned out from behind Kei to look up the road. Someone was blocking the path.
"YOU! I should have known!"
B-ko nearly fell off the bike from surprise. Blocking their path was A-ko! She recovered quickly. "How did you get here?" she demanded, climbing off the mecha.
A-ko, dressed as she did in their school days, was fuming. "When are you ever going to learn," she said, "that none of your toys can stop me?"
Kei looked down to B-ko. "What?" he asked, bewildered.
B-ko ignored him. "Love your uniform," she said to A-ko, venom dripping from her voice.
"Your mecha was a good one, I'll admit that," A-ko began. "But you forgot something. The Akigara 35C was developed for the Akigara Corporation, which I work for! I simply placed a phone call to our tech staff and got the override code. You can find your precious home security system in the bottom of the harbor!"
In fact, it had landed on a ship when A-ko threw it there, but let's not quibble.
"I have had it!" A-ko continued. "The truce is OVER as far as I'm concerned. Kei is mine and if I have to beat you to a pulp to prove it then I WILL!"
Kei, sitting on the mecha, sat back, stunned. Tears rolled down his cheeks. "She lied," he muttered. "C-ko!"
A-ko ran towards B-ko with all the strength and speed she could muster. B-ko reacted quickly and with a flourish peeled away her outer layer of clothing, to reveal her power suit. Always prepared, she thought. She in turn charged A-ko...
* * * * *
From her perch on the city wall, Miss Ayumi saw the fight begin. She was tempted to leave her post and deal with the situation right then, but C-ko wasn't there yet.
So she waited.
* * * * *
The battle was fast and furious, but there was little doubt of the outcome.
"We've barely made a scratch," General Yoshida said from his command chair. "Even with Diatokuji's most advanced mechas we've hardly touched them."
From the back of the room General Zuma only nodded. "They're not fighting back," he murmured.
"What?"
"Take a closer look. They easily out gun us and out man us, but unlike previous invasions they haven't launched so much as a ship at us."
Yoshida took another look at the screens. He cursed himself silently for having missed it. He took his command microphone. "All squads, cease your attack! Withdraw to a distance of two kilometers and await further instructions."
"That's it? You're giving up?" came a drunken voice from the back of the room.
Yoshida slowly turned to face the alien captain, who had staggered to her feet. "I see no reason to waste ordinance on an enemy that doesn't defend itself."
"What defense?" The captain asked. "You haven't done anything!"
"And your idea is...?"
A silence hung in the air. Finally the captain took off her sunglasses for the first time in days. There was pure fire in her eyes. "I'm just going to have to show you, I suppose," she said.
The captain spun on her heel and motioned to Dee, who was watching the whole exchange with morbid fascination. Dee rushed over. "Captain?" she asked.
The captain looked up at Dee and replaced the sunglasses. "We're leaving," the captain said.
"And then what?" Dee asked.
The captain waited for the door to close behind her and the Generals to return to their lack of battle.
"Then we're going to steal a spaceship."
* * * * *
When C-ko, Ume, Ina and Asa caught up with the action the fight had been going on for several minutes. It was obvious that B-ko had brought her Akagiyami missiles and that while much of the landscape showed signs of fatigue from the action neither A-ko nor B-ko had so much as a scratch on them. In the distance Kei watched the fight with a mixture of fascination and horror.
C-ko jumped out of the car and ran towards A-ko and B-ko, locked together in a brutal wrestling hold. "A-ko! B-ko! Stop!"
Both A-ko and B-ko stopped and looked over to C-ko. Kei, off in the distance, also heard and softly said, "C-ko!"
A-ko jumped up. "She tried to imprison me!" she yelled, pointing at B-ko.
"A-ko broke the truce first!" B-ko shouted.
"Because you trapped me in my house!"
C-ko looked at them both for a minute, tears coming to her eyes. Then the flood began. "A-ko! B-ko! You idiots!"
* * * * *
From her perch on the city wall, Miss Ayumi saw C-ko arrive and picked up her cellular phone, pressing one key to reach a preprogrammed destination.
"Now, Mr. Diatokuji," she said.
Then she shut off her phone and jumped from the city wall. She began to walk towards the others.
* * * * *
And in a low Earth oribt, a small two-person ship currently occupied by only one young man slowly closed in upon it's destination; a small gathering at the edge of Graviton City.
* * * * *
A-ko stopped, stunned. "C-ko?" she asked, watching her crying friend. The fight was quickly gone from her mind as she ran to comfort her friend.
"C-ko!" A-ko yelled again. She had reached C-ko and hugged her close. "I'm sorry C-ko! I'm so very sorry!"
"You promised!" C-ko pouted. "No more fighting!"
"I know! I know." She held C-ko at arm's length. "B-ko and I were enemies for so long that old habits die hard. Can you forgive me?"
C-ko sniffed, then attempted a weak smile. "Uh huh!" she nodded.
"Very noble, girls," said B-ko as she walked up to them. "But we still have an issue to resolve. What about Kei?"
Kei, about thirty feet away, heard and looked up. "Huh?"
"We're still enemies about that," A-ko said.
C-ko shook her head, tearing up again. "B-ko's not your enemy," she said. "He is!" C-ko pointed angrily at Kei.
"What?" Both A-ko and B-ko asked, surprised.
"He lied! He's not married!"
Both A-ko and B-ko looked around slowly at Kei, who sat back on the mecha, looking suddenly relaxed.
"You lied?" A-ko asked.
"I knew he lied about some of the story, but not this..." stammered B-ko.
"That's right ladies," came a new voice.
Both A-ko and B-ko spun around, dizzyingly fast. "Miss Ayumi!"
Miss Ayumi nodded. "It's been a long time, hasn't it ladies?" She nodded towards C-ko. "I haven't seen Kei since the day of the wedding, which didn't get finished, by the way. I didn't know anything about this plan at all until early this morning when C-ko visited me at my apartment."
A-ko looked at C-ko, then B-ko. "I'm confused," she said.
"Me too," said B-ko.
"I've never trusted Kei," C-ko said. "When I realized last night that our plan would hurt Miss Ayumi I decided to come see her to try and come up with a different plan. When I found out they weren't married I came to find you A-ko but you were already gone. So then I came to find you here!"
"So why are you here?" B-ko asked her former teacher.
"Closure, I suppose," she said. She looked up. "Now!"
A sound like metal scraping against metal made everyone look up. Above them, in a hovering mecha, was Hikaru Diatokuji, resplendent in his gold sequin suit and cape. There were four other mechas floating just above them, all loaded with soldiers. All of whom had weapons pointed at the group below.
"Nicely done," Mr. Diatokuji said. "Miss Ayumi, I'm in your debt. Your price will be met."
A-ko glared angrily at the teacher. "What's going on?" she demanded.
"Payback," Miss Ayumi growled. "I spent a long time in therapy thanks to you three. I want to return to teaching and finally find myself a husband. I close this chapter of my life involving all of you and get on with my life."
"B-ko!" Mr. Diatokuji called down.
"Father!" she called back. "You're interfering again!"
"That bike down there! Did you design it?"
B-ko was taken aback. "Yes," she said hesitatingly.
"Would you like to hold the patent on it?"
B-ko smiled with pride and triumph. "Of course I would!"
"It's yours!"
B-ko was stunned. Her father had always stolen her designs in the past. "What's the catch?" she demanded.
"None! B-ko, it's time you took your place at the front of the Diatokuji Empire. I want you to by my Vice-President of Development!"
She thought about it for a moment, then gathered her discarded clothing, quickly putting it back on. Then she turned to A-ko, smiling sweetly. "He's yours," she said, pointing to Kei. A beam came from Diatokuji's ship, and B-ko was swept up to the ship. A moment later she appeared at her father's side.
"Young man," Diatokuji called down. "Your plan was audacious. Not one of us thought you had it in you!"
Kei looked up. "It failed!" he yelled.
"No it didn't! You just needed a bit more help. Take the princess and go!"
A-ko spun again and faced Kei angrily. "What?" she demanded.
Kei shook his head and let out a grunt, followed by a smile. "A slight change to the plan," he said. "I'm taking C-ko with me. That was my intention all along."
C-ko looked to A-ko, a bit frightened. "A-ko?"
"Not a chance!" A-ko shouted up to the ship. "B-ko?"
B-ko turned to her father. "Must you let him take C-ko?" she asked.
"She's a distraction to you," her father said. "Don't worry, she'll be fine. I'm going to give him a ten minute head start and then let your red-haired friend go after them. I expect that C-ko and A-ko will be reunited before the day is out. But it will take place outside the city."
"But..."
"In the meantime, you're about to become far too busy to spend much time with your friends. I expect you to build my empire even bigger than I ever did."
B-ko knew praise when she heard it. She also knew deep down that her father was right. Kei was no match for A-ko.
"A-ko," B-ko called down. "It will be all right! Trust me!"
A-ko seethed. "Trust you? You're a traitor!" There were suddenly thousands of clicks around her, and A-ko noticed for the first time just how many soldiers there were. She could probably beat all of them, but C-ko could get hurt.
Kei, in the meanwhile, had started up the mecha and rolled it slowly over to C-ko. He handed his helmet out to her, which she took as if holding a spider. "A-ko?" she asked nervously.
A-ko looked at Kei with pure hatred. "Don't worry," she said. "Go ahead and go. As soon as I'm done here I'll come after you."
C-ko nodded and gingerly climbed onto the mecha, sitting behind Kei. Kei revved the engine. "Hold on tight," he said, pushing the button marked JATO. With a scream that came from both the engine and from C-ko, the mecha lifted into the air and flew over the gate at the border of Graviton City.
* * * * *
Kei landed the mecha thirty meters beyond the city gate, and stopped it. He wanted to tell C-ko not to worry. He'd never hurt her, and he wanted her to understand that. He turned around to tell her and received a great shock.
C-ko wasn't there.
He looked back down the road to the gate and saw her, suspended in the air about ten meters above the gate. Another twenty meters above her was a space ship! C-ko was caught in a beam of brilliant yellow light, which was slowly pulling her up towards it.
Even farther back, past the gate, all hell had broken loose. A-ko was fighting the soldiers, while the mechas in the air were heading towards the space ship. In the distance he could hear jets.
Not again! he thought to himself. He reached into his right breast pocket for the earring he first got from C-ko all that time ago. The glass slipper had broken, and now had a long crack in it. Kei wiped the tear that rolled down his cheek away and then threw the earring to the ground. It shattered.
Kei started up the mecha and drove away, leaving Graviton City and the chaos erupting at the gate behind him.
* * * * *
While A-ko fought with the soldiers and Diatokuji tried to get his flying mechas closer to the space ship the young man inside was having a difficult time keeping control of his ship. All he had to do was get the princess inside the holding bay and he could leave all of this behind, but no matter how hard he tried, she would float no closer to his ship.
The reason for that was that he couldn't keep his ship level. It was as if something had dropped onto the roof of the ship and was destabilizing it. He opened the viewport and let out a quick scream as some kind of pink flying bicycle dropped heavily to the ground, missing his ship by mere inches.
Then suddenly the largest face he had ever seen in his life appeared upside down at the viewport.
"You have ten seconds to live," came the surprisingly high voice.
"Auggh!" screamed the young man.
Mari, from her position on top of the space ship, smiled. It was a scary smile, showing all of her teeth. She hated to admit it, but she enjoyed playing the hero for a change. She reared back, let out a banshee yell, and proceeded to start punching the ship.
* * * * *
A-ko had just thrown the last soldier over her shoulder when she noticed Mari punching the space ship. "Mari!" she shouted.
Mari grunted a bit louder in response, but continued punching away at the ship, which was starting to wobble. C-ko, hovering below, slowly started to come back to the ground. A-ko ran and caught her, pulling her out of the beam.
"No!" Screamed Hikaru Diatokuji. "She's supposed to leave!"
B-ko touched her father's arm gently. "Father," she said softly. "I'm still here."
Diatokuji turned and faced his daughter. "Hmm?"
"All I've ever wanted was a chance to be in charge," B-ko continued. "You've given me that. Let them settle it."
"No more distractions?"
"No more distractions." Besides, B-ko thought, If Mari's with A-ko no one can stop them. I can still see C-ko whenever I want to.
The space ship, meanwhile, had crashed to the ground. A-ko pulled C-ko away from the wreckage and called out to Mari, "Who's in there? I want to know who tried to kidnap C-ko AGAIN!!!"
Mari nodded and pulled the top of the space ship away from the main hull. She reached in and pulled out the lone occupant, a young man who looked about 16. He had short blond hair and wore a light green jump suit.
"All right!" A-ko yelled. "Just who do you think you are, pulling a stunt like this?"
The boy looked at A-ko, then C-ko. He bowed as best he could, suspended in the air by Mari. "Princess," he said.
C-ko took a step back. "Mari," she called out. "Put him down please."
A-ko looked at C-ko. So did B-ko from up above. C-ko turned to A-ko.
"A-ko?" she said. "I feel funny. I feel heavy and light both at the same time."
A-ko looked up to the ships. "Is there a doctor up there?" she called out. "My friend's not feeling well."
B-ko jumped down from her perch next to her father. She ignored his shouts of "get back here!" and rushed to be by C-ko's side. "What's the matter?" she asked, slightly panic-stricken.
C-ko turned to B-ko. "I feel woozy. I don't understand." She looked at the young man who was approaching with Mari close behind. "Come here," she said to him.
She waited until he approached and was within a few feet, muttering all the while "S...h...i....e...c....k...s...h...e...e...k...c...k..."
With no warning, C-ko brightened up as if a switch had clicked and hugged the young man. "Hey!" she yelled with all the enthusiasm she could muster (which face it, was quite a lot). "You're cute!"
* * * * *
If you were to look into the eyes of C-ko at that moment, you might have seen little hearts. You would have seen them in the eyes of the young man as well. He hugged her back.
"Princess," he said. "My name is Prince Kyosuke. Please call me Kye. I knew you were beautiful but I had no idea you were this beautiful."
From all around them, everyone else was slowly getting back to their feet. A-ko recovered first. "C-ko!" she exclaimed. "He tried to kidnap you and you think he's CUTE?!?!!!?"
C-ko, with the broadest of smiles, turned her head
to look at A-ko and yet pressed even closed to still hear Kye's heart. "Um
hmm," she said.
Kye looked up at A-ko. "I wasn't trying to kidnap her," he said. "I was invited along with my father to dinner this evening at the request of her mother. Unfortunately our ship was attacked in orbit and I had to descend early, and I found Princess Shiiko Kotobuki stranded in the middle of a battle. I was rescuing her."
A-ko hung her head in amazement. B-ko, next to her, did the same. "Of course," B-ko said meekly. "It makes perfect sense."
Kye turned back to C-ko. "My father and your mother have made an arrangement to unite our kingdoms. An arrangement I disagree with. I know this will come as a shock Princess, but we're engaged to be married."
"What?" A-ko and B-ko both shouted. C-ko looked up, but said nothing.
"I don't want a forced marriage any more than you do, but I would have done my duty for my father."
"Would have?" C-ko asked.
Kye smiled. "Yes. But that was before I set eyes on you. My dear Princess, I would never force you to do anything you didn't want to do."
"My name is just C-ko", C-ko said. "And what if I want to?"
"Want to?"
"Be engaged."
For the second time in five minutes, everyone around C-ko and Kye fell to the ground in shock.
Kye held C-ko close and kissed her. C-ko kissed back. A-ko showed true wisdom at this point by remaining on the ground so that she wouldn't fall down a third time.
"A step at a time," Kye said when the kiss finally ended. "How about dinner first? I understand your mother has prepared a feast."
C-ko nodded quickly. "Then dating?" she asked.
"Sure. Then we'll see how it goes."
C-ko released Kye for the first time and turned to A-ko. "Oh A-ko!" she said. "You were right! This feels wonderful!" She jumped in the air. "Yahoo!"
Interestingly enough, Kye did the exact same thing a moment later, but you couldn't hear him yell out "Yahoo!" because of the sound of a large mecha landing next to him. An impressive mecha, nearly 40 feet tall.
With a laser cannon the size of a sewer line pointed directly at Kye.
* * * * *
"Release the Princess at once!" came a strong masculine voice. Kye started to back away from C-ko but she ran to him and held him close.
A-ko looked at B-ko. "That voice sounded awfully familiar," she said.
"It did," B-ko sighed. "Shall we help the lovebirds out?"
A-ko shrugged. "Might as well. This day's been a total disaster anyway."
B-ko nodded. "Tell me about it."
A-ko ran to one leg of the mecha, while B-ko ran to the other. On a non-verbal signal, they both pulled (B-ko still had the power suit on under her clothes, after all), and slowly split the mecha in half. Dee and the Captain dropped from the command cell of the mecha and landed in a heap at the feet of C-ko. The Captain stood, while Dee barely managed to grovel at C-ko's feet. Both A-ko and B-ko threw their respective halves of the mecha into the air behind them, like discarded dolls.
"Princess!" the Captain exclaimed. "That man is the fifth... er.. fourth... prince of the eighth... hut... house..."
"Captain," C-ko said sharply, "Kye here is my boyfriend. You leave him alone."
Dee looked up, stunned. The Captain, for her part, slowly collapsed to the ground. "I need to really get drunk..."
C-ko turned and walked with Kye back to A-ko and B-ko. "Want to come to my place for dinner?" she asked. She turned to Kye. "I had already invited A-ko to dinner tonight, but there's always room for more!"
"I was already invited," Kye reminded her.
"Oh yeah. Mom's cooking tonight." C-ko looked a bit disappointed that she couldn't cook for Kye herself. "I'll cook for you another time, I guess."
"Oh," A-ko exclaimed, "that's right! I promised I'd go to C-ko's for dinner tonight!" She started to feel woozy, but B-ko caught her.
"It's all right," B-ko whispered. "C-ko's mom is a better cook than C-ko is."
A-ko leaned against her old foe. "Oh I hope so..."
* * * * *
C-ko's mother had finally noticed all of the hubbub above Graviton City and called the Defense Force to explain what was going on. General Yoshida had the attack squadrons stand down, and invited the alien commander to the surface.
General Yoshida and General Zuma were congratulating each other for having weathered the storm when the two halves of the mecha that A-ko and B-ko had flung into the air landed smack on the command center.
Much later, once the wreckage had been cleared, they would find General Zuma cowered beneath a desk, his spine transplant finally rejected due to excess trauma. No matter. He had survived to get his pension. He would be able to afford another spinal transplant in about 30 years.
Yoshida clawed his way out of the rubble himself, finding Hikaru Diatokuji there to lend a hand extracting him from the wreckage. The first question Mr. Diatokuji asked the General after making certain that he was all in one piece was; "Are you by any chance married?"
When Yoshida pointed out that he was not, Diatokuji followed up with "there's someone I'd like you to meet..."
* * * * *
A-ko was pleasantly surprised to discover that C-ko's mom was an excellent cook, although both C-ko and Kye hardly touched the meal. Everyone else ate as if famished, from Mari and B-ko, arguing over martial arts techniques and mecha designs to A-ko, eating heartily for the first time ever in the Kotobuki household. She didn't touch the squid, but that was more a matter of personal preference.
At the head of the table, the proud parents of Kye and C-ko were arguing about how the new combined kingdoms would be run, but C-ko silenced them both with a firm "we're staying here in Graviton City!" When Kye backed her up the parents both backed down.
Finally dinner broke up, with the older adults retiring for a drink. B-ko escorted Mari home, thanking her for her pivotal role in rescuing C-ko. Never mind that it wasn't really a rescue. "Perhaps Diatokuji Enterprises (I'm a Vice-President now) should invest in your flower shop," was the last thing that A-ko heard as they climbed into B-ko's car.
A-ko let out a small laugh. "Things will never be the same," she muttered to herself. Leaving C-ko's home, she looked back with a tear in her eye. "I'm glad you've found a boyfriend," she said to the front of the house. "But I'm going to miss you."
A-ko slowly turned and walked away.
She was about 100 meters away from the house when she heard, "Yahoo! A-ko! Wait up!"
She turned and had C-ko nearly fly into her arms. A-ko spun her friend around twice, laughing with joy.
"You don't get to leave me just because I have a boyfriend now," C-ko said.
A-ko slowly stopped spinning and put her friend down. "It's not that simple," she said. "You're going to want to spend more time with him than with me now."
"I know..."
"And that's what you always hated about me dating!" A-ko shook her head. "I'm happy for you C-ko, I really am. But we won't see each other as much any more."
C-ko frowned and shook her finger at A-ko. "And you suppose that I'm going to see Kye every day? Despite what you heard back there earlier we're only dating. Besides, who am I going to get to tell everything to?"
A-ko brightened. "Your best friend?" she asked hopefully.
"That's right, so you'd better see me every chance you get!"
A-ko nodded and held C-ko tightly. "I will!" she yelled.
"Yahoo!" C-ko yelled back, jumping into the air. "Tell you what. Let's meet tomorrow at the pool at ten. You don't have to be back at work until next week, right?"
"Yeah. I took all that time off to work out Kei's problem. If I ever see him again I'm going to strangle him!"
"Forget him. He's not worth the effort."
A-ko grinned. "He's forgotten."
"Good! Meet at ten then?"
"You got it!"
C-ko started back towards her own home, where Kye was waiting for her. "And don't be late!" she called over her shoulder.
"I won't!" A-ko yelled back as C-ko disappeared. "After all, School's Out! I almost never sleep in anymore!"
I'm still her best friend! She thought. I will always be her best friend!
With a smile on her face and feeling honestly happy for the first time in days, A-ko ran the rest of the way home.
Ran? No. For the first time, she flew.
* * * * *
The next morning, when A-ko and C-ko met at the pool, B-ko was there waiting...
The End...
* * * * *
Maybe...
And now a few words from the author (er, me):
I hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing it. Yes, I'm a twisted puppy. No one else had ever tried giving C-ko a boyfriend, and it fit in so well with my original idea of expanding the scene from the sixth movie that I had to run with it. Sorry if I've changed your perceptions of these characters. After all, I give Kei more dialogue in his first scene with A-ko than he has in two movies. But we're all a bit older and perhaps we've grown a bit.
It's like watching the Kimagure Orange Road movie. The male lead in the movie takes on a bit of a different personality from what he had in the TV show, so my stretches here and there are really no different than that. At least I didn't try to make A-ko and B-ko into trophy hunters on some planet with seas made of sand.
I intend to write another fanfic in this setting, but probably not a sequel to this one. Then again, I just might. I haven't decided. Most of the underdeveloped ideas have already been used. For example; there's already a good one where the writer inserts himself into Graviton City, while my friend Capnapoli decided to sober up the captain and see what would develop (see the links page), and one person I know of has written fanfics about all the alternate A-ko's and B-ko's features in that 10 second bit at the end of movie 6.
Hmm. Maybe I just will stay with this setting. For those of you who caught it, I threw in a character or two from other Anime, including the obvious one from KOR (another of my faves).
Maybe I'll bring Kei and Yuri of "The Dirty Pair" in to meet with A-ko and B-ko and C-ko. That would be fun to write.
Anyway, thanks for reading this thing the whole way through. It's a bit long for a fanfic, but how on earth could I have told this story any shorter? Never mind. Don't tell me. I don't want to know.
See you at A-kon!
-Chris Reed, January
1998, San Francisco
Wanna get started on the sequel, called "School's In"? Click HERE!