It was a typical, average day in Tomobiki. Well. That didn’t really say all that much. I mean, when one of the residents is a hot alien living with her extraordinarily perverted and unlucky fiance, it kind of skews the average a little bit. To the point that, on a perfectly ordinary day like today, the sight of those very two served as a constant reminder to everyone in the area that they should be ready for absolutely and literally anything. There was no level that the weirdness would not reach with those two around.
At that particular moment in time, the pair were on their way to school. Lum was really going to gain a grounding in human society so she could adapt to living with her “darling”, while Ataru… Goodness knows. Probably the chance to ogle his female classmates?
A stool flew through the air and caught Lum’s attention. It was her experience that furniture on Earth did not tend to move under its own power. So she turned to look at where it came from, and saw two people. A middle-aged man with curly hair and an aggressively stupid expression on his face. He was hunched over, hurling things at a young man who was, in turn, throwing things right back at him. The two of them were standing in front of an upturned cart which contained the various things they were throwing at each other.
And then she realised her mistake. That wasn’t a young man at all! That was -
“Look, darling!” Lum exclaimed. “It’s that girl again!”
At the mention of the word “girl”, Ataru naturally turned to take a look. “That one we met last week at the teashop?” he asked, blinking a little. “Wonder what they’re doing here.”
“Dunno,” Lum said, beginning to levitate over towards the pair. “Let’s find out! Hey! Whatcha doing here?” Lum asked. A little rude, but Lum was never particularly certain on the subject of human manners.
“Oh, it’s you kids?” the man observed. He stopped throwing things, and turned to address the newcomers. “Our teashop was destroyed and we needed a way to pay for a new one. So! We’ve got a job at the high school-”
He was interrupted by two things. The first, the continued barrage being thrown by his, well, his daughter dressed up as if she were his son. Poor Ryunosuke. The second was a rather high-pitched whine, accompanied by a burst of light just a little bit to his left. Both Ataru and Lum took an instinctive step backwards, and then -
Bang. Boom. Crash. A spacecraft shaped suspiciously like a giant human teacup collided into the man, and left him with his feet in the air kicking away in a futile (and amusing) manner.
“… Pop?” Ryunosuke asked, staring up at the sight with a slackened jaw and let the kettle in her hand drop to the floor in a clatter that was the only sound in the entire street.
“Oh dear,” Lum said, staring up at the fast retreating flying teacup. “That would be a Teavian. Tcha! There they go, off to another universe. That’s the trouble with their ships. The pilots are nice enough, but once they’re on a course, they can’t change or correct it. A cousin of mine had that happen to him a few years back. They swept right out of the blue and accidentally kidnapped him.”
“How did that turn out for him?” Ataru asked, a little surprised he hadn’t been the one hit. Seemed to be like the sort of bullshit that would normally hit him. “Did he get back alright?”
“I’ll letcha know when he shows up again.”
“Oh, you poor dear!” Ataru said in that sort of creepy I’m-only-pretending-to-be-sympathetic-to-get-into-your-pants tone only he ever seemed to be able to pull off. He swept the still stunned girl off her feet. “Please, let me offer my condolences. Being unable to see your father for a few years? How horrible!”
But she didn’t respond the way that he or Lum expected. Instead, she began to laugh. And laugh. And laugh. And laugh.
“Hahaha!” Ryunosuke laughed, staring up at the sky. She casually punched Ataru away and strode into the middle of the street with a fist raised in the air. “Serves ya right! Damn fool! I’m free! Ya hear that? Free! No more taping down my breasts! No more bein’ forced to dress like a boy! I’m a chick and there’s nothing… <i>Nothing</i> you can do about it!”
“She seems to be taking it quite well,” Lum observed. Ataru nodded in agreement.
“First thing I’m gonna do!” Ryunosuke cried out to the heavens. “I’ll mark ‘girl’ on the application papers! Haha! Girl! Can’t stop me from outer space!”
“Inner space, technically speaking,” Lum corrected. “They use a form of interdimensional travel which -”
“Don’t care. See ya later!”
And off she went, walking and laughing in a completely unfeminine manner. Both Lum and Ataru stared after her, rather befuddled as she very quickly piled everything back into the cart and pulled it off towards the school.
“Say, Lum?”
“Yes, darling?”
“We’re going to have to look after Ryunosuke, aren’t we?”
“Almost certainly, darling.”
Just another average day for the Tomobiki residents. On the bright side, at least it hadn’t rained oil or caused property damage this time. At least not yet….
- Meanwhile, Ryunosuke’s father adjusts to life on the alien spaceship. Or rather, forces the aliens to adjust to him.
- Ryunosuke shows up to school in a sailor uniform. The girls still swoon.
- Ryunosuke can’t bring herself to do it until she properly defeats her father, and shows up in the male uniform.
- Lum and Ataru offer her a place to stay while her father is gone. Well. Once they’ve persuaded Ataru’s parents to help put her up.
- Something else
I'm looking toward option 3, contemplating that after Ryu declares his goal of being worthy to wear a sailor uniform (Making the girls swoon of course), he then commentes that he's going to buy a bra right after school - his dad may have hidden the money but Ryu's saved up a whole 200 yen! (Note- This was an actual storyline)
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