Martian Successor Skysaber! Prologue by Jared Ornstead ===== It was a fancy pizza restaurant. One of the only in Japan, it did it's work staying in business for two reasons: One, it did sushi and okanomiyaki and other Japanese dishes to perfection. Two, all of the otaku that crowded in to look at the cook. Actually, the manager was quite convinced that if he could dump #2 reason, then #1 wouldn't be needed because he could go back to being a simple sushi bar and wouldn't need all of the extra attention of having a star cook who wouldn't attend work a single day without dressing in cosplay and doing weird, western dishes. Granted the guy was a great chef, one of the best, but the business was in danger of losing all of its traditional clientele because the guy *looked* just like an anime star and wouldn't go a day without *dressing* and *talking* like one as well. So the star chef who'd drawn so much attention was called out of the kitchen, given his pay with two weeks severance, and sent on his way. Jared Saotome stood on the restaurant's back step blinking. ~What had I done?~ Okay, this was a fairly unusual assignment, in that all the time he'd spent here was in the background. Actually, he should give up calling assignments unusual, as every one he'd had was different in important aspects from the ones that'd gone before. ~Heh, even my *vacation* turned out to be something of an assignment. Save the world at work and at play. Well, there are *boring* lives I could be living. I guess I can't complain.~ He thought about certain members of the feminine persuasion his work had brought to him. ~And the PERKS are beyond excellent! YUM!!!~ Just as he was considering the exact nature of the more delectable parts of his many job benefits, Jared left the restaurant to walk into the road, and was almost immediately run down by a car. "CUT!!" Jared stood, holding his baker's peel in the air, having used it to cut the vehicle in question in half so that both parts slid by him on either side before momentum allowed them to crash. Luggage from the too-full trunk then rained down on him, flattening the superspy. Two heads poked out from the ruined vehicle, both halves sprouting heads belonging to bodies dressed in attractive military-style uniforms. A third head appeared as Jared emerged gopher-style from the mound of fallen luggage, crossing his eyes to look at the pair of pink panties perched lightly on his nose. The boy, who'd been *driving* the car, was caught in a panic attack, wondering if this guy was a robot jovian spy or something. He COULDN'T be normal! He'd just Cut A Car In Half! For crying out loud! He'd done it with a baker's peel! Wait, something seemed familiar about that. The boy driver puzzled a minute in confusion. Something rang a bell with a memory associated from when he was small... The girl wasted no such time, rushing out of the wrecked car to reclaim her fallen panties from this pervert's nose. Still, he seemed perfectly at ease during her accusations and reflected them all like a pro, or certainly someone who'd done this before. Which, oddly enough, made him seem a LOT more blameless while her instincts thought this really ought to have gone the other way. No, shortly he was helping her repack her suitcase with her unmentionables helping to cushion the shock for some of her breakables. As he did so, the uniformed girl looked more closely at his face and saw something that got her to thinking. She leaned in close, blinking intently as she studied him. "Hmm, you're going to think this is strange, but do we know each other from somewhere?" Jared was still adjusting to practicing obscure cooking in a restaurant, and having to be let go when he wouldn't back down about being the 'actual' Skysaber, when we all know that's impossible, and yet experience helped him think more clearly. At her words, he gave a quick study of her in turn. Seeing her, it came back. Jared blinked, remembering. "... Yurika. Your name is Yurika!" "Jay-chan!" Yurika gasped, then grasped him in a tight hug, giggling. "Wow! I never thought I'd get to see you again!" "You *know* this guy?!" Her companion questioned dubiously. This stranger had just chopped their CAR in half! That took a bit of getting over. "Yah!" Yurika bubbled cheerfully. "He's my knight in shining armor! Whenever I was in trouble, I just KNEW Jay-chan would get me out of it!" "But..." The driver asked, looking down. Their CAR was in *half!* And he'd done it with a... and, really, only doing it with a *spoon* could have startled the officer more. Yurika saw her male friend's confusion and bubbled happily, explaining while still holding tight to hug her Jay-chan. "Well, Skysaber was the greatest animated series of all time and Jay-chan's been emulating the main character ever since he was small. He's got to the point where he can perform the role perfectly. He doesn't even answer to any other name. He's even clever enough he's worked out a stash of tricks and devices he uses to do most of the special tricks flawlessly. If you didn't know it was only an animated series you really might believe it was him. Only he won't tell any of his friends how he does it." "Oh." The other said helplessly. Jared had nicely recovered himself, able from long acclimation to do anything that he really needed to do in spite of a girl or three plastered tight to his body. Yurika's hug, while tight, was also fairly low on the bone-crushing scale. During this time he'd come to a decision of sorts. He'd been doing an experiment of sorts, with his time here on this assignment. He wanted to see if he could get someone, ANYONE to believe he actually is/was/could be who he really was. On this world, Skysaber had been as popular as it had ever seen it being. But that was also a long time ago and regarded as 'old anime'. There just wasn't the fire, though the knowledge of the show had hardly dropped a bit among the older generations and movie junkies. ~So far NOBODY, especially the kids I grew up with, could be convinced that I am the actual Skysaber. Even my superspy toys are thwarted when it comes to this.~ Standing up, automatically adjusting Yurika in his arms, he looked grandly about he luggage and declared (with a royal nod of the head). "Milady, pray permit me to undo the indignity I have inadvertently done thee." Suddenly the boy in officer's uniform (nametag read: Jun Aoi) was pointing a startled finger. "You! That line! That was from Portrayal Of A Superspy! Wow! I recall that play! But it's not in print. That was four centuries ago when Shakespeare wrote that play. I didn't even think that anyone outside my school drama teacher had a copy!" Yurika giggled, still in her childhood friend's arms. "See? What did I tell you? Jared has *all* the lines! Why, he lives and breathes Skysaber every, single day!" ~If only they knew.~ *** End Teaser And, if that's the way you want it to be, that's the way it'll stay. NOBODY, especially the crew of the Nadesico, can be convinced that I am the actual Skysaber. Even my superspy toys are thwarted when it comes to this. About the time of the Earth contingent's mutiny... "Your plan has one flaw, methinks." "Oh? And what is that?" The Earth admiral who'd just taken controll of the Nadesico scoffed. Jared smiled grimly. "By coming within reach of my sword your life is forfeit, and a man with no head has small use for a captaincy, don't you think?"