Senshi (Guardians)

The alarm next to her bed jarred Kyoko awake.

What a beautiful and strange dream.

She stood up to get ready for school. She couldn’t stop thinking about the Angel-man. She kept seeing his smiling face and those beautiful violet eyes. She shook her head.

“I’m crazy. No one has eyes like that…” She poured milk into her cereal, “…Let alone magic wings. Only a fool falls in love with a dream man… especially an impossible one like him.”

She took the train to school, as she did every day. She kept thinking about her dream and wishing it were true… at least the part about him, anyway. She didn’t relish the thought that the Shnark might really exist.

The morning classes passed without too much incident; only the usual comments and insults.

That’s fine, as long as they leave me alone.

They tried bullying her physically once, but she had extensive martial arts training and soon showed them they couldn’t do that and get away with it. So, now it was all verbal.

Just before the second lunch bell a man appeared at the classroom door. Kyoko heard the other girls screaming in excitement. She looked up to see what the commotion was. Coming through the door was her Angelman. His eyes scanned the room. He bowed as she heard him say, “O Kyoko sama.”

The entire room became very quiet. She stood up.

“You’re here?” She was shocked to see that her dream man wasn’t a dream.

“I said I would come, and here I am. I even remembered the bento.”

He held up a large scarf wrapped around a several layered lacquer box. Ignoring the squeals coming from the other school girls, he walked over to her desk, took her hand and led her into the hall.

The entire room followed them to the door and watched the two walk hand in hand to the stairs that led to the roof. They passed others in the hall who also got excited. They took pictures with their cell phones. Kyoko heard them saying, “Paru! It’s Paru!”

They stepped through the door onto the roof and she turned to him.

“Am I dreaming again, or are you real?” He took her in his arms and kissed her.

Sixty seconds later: “Is that real enough?”

“Oh, yes. That’s real enough,” she blushed.

They found a quiet place and ate the bento together. The layered box became several boxes with various delicious foods. He also had a large thermos filled with green tea.

“Who’s Paru?” She asked between mouthfuls.

“Oh, Him… I was so interested in hearing your story I forgot to tell you my hobby.”

“Hobby…?”

“Yes, I like to sing and pretend I’m a pop idol. I also make films and dramas. The name I use is Paru.”

“Wait a minute. Come to think of it, I have heard that name before. Paru is a pop idol… and a big star. He’s received many awards for his movies and music. A lot of the girls here have his CDs. I’ve even heard some of his songs. Don’t tell me that you are that Par… Hey, what about all that guardian stuff? Was that dream or real?”

“Real, I’m afraid. That’s why it has to stay secret; At least for now. You’re the only one who knows what my real job is.”

She smiled at her Angel-man, “I’m glad you’re real, but last night…”

“Yes. Last night. Fortunately, it’s not a usual occurrence. At the moment, the only beings in this galaxy causing trouble are the Shnark. We’ll soon have them all back on their own planet where we will have Senshi in orbit around it to make sure they can’t leave again. If they evolve into a friendlier species in the next thousand years or so, we’ll invite them to join the United Worlds and they will get their freedom to travel space again.

“In the meantime, the other Senshi and I, with the help of Lord Rocknash and his people, will eliminate the threat here, but that’s not why I brought the Guardians to Earth.” He used his chopsticks to pick up a Gyoza, dip it in sauce, and fill his mouth.

“Protecting us from invaders from space is reason enough, Thael kun. What other reason could there be?”

He chewed the last bit of Gyoza that was in his mouth and swallowed. “I was here when the earthquakes hit Japan and saw the following tsunami kill all those poor people. I was helpless to stop it. Earth isn’t part of the United Worlds. We don’t expect they will be ready for at least a few hundred years, but I can’t sit back anymore and watch natural disasters go unchecked. We could have set up force fields along the Coast and prevented the waves from inflicting all that damage.

“I told the Counsel we were going to make contact with Earth as ambassadors of peace. We are establishing an Interplanetary Rescue team. During the next natural emergency we will show ourselves to Earth by putting out fires or helping to find people in the aftermath of an earthquake; That kind of thing. We have hospital ships and other ways to assist local authorities to control the things they can’t.”

“So you’re not here to take over the planet?”

“Are you kidding? Do you know how hard it is to rule a planet like this with so many people who believe in free will and their right to self-government? No. We’ve never had that intention. We’ll stay out of politics entirely. Countries can be as nice, or as horrible to each other as they wish. We won’t interfere – unless some fool starts using nuclear weapons. That, we cannot tolerate, because it affects the entire planet, not just the country it was launched against.”

“I can understand that. Welcome to Earth, Taelonite.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek.

“Excuse me? I’m a Japanese citizen. I was born in Hokkaido. My father was a genuine American Citizen. My mother was pure Taelon. I guess that makes me a half-breed. It’s not my fault she was…” He stopped. Not sure of how to proceed.

“An illegal alien…?” Kyoko offered, chuckling.

“Well, there is that, but she was also the only child of the King and Queen of Taelon.”

“A Princess? How romantic.”

“Maybe, but it also means I am the Crown Prince of planet Taelon who will inherit the throne one day.”

Kyoko swallowed, “Honto? You mean I’m dating a Prince? Me? Little Kyoko from Osaka? Sugoi!” She put her arm around his arm and pulled herself close to him. She put her head against his arm and looked up at him, “That’s even more romantic.”

He looked at her smiling face, shook his head and said, “And here I was afraid that would scare you off… silly me.”

“Scare me off? No way!” She hugged his arm tighter. He bent down and kissed her on the lips. She responded by kissing him back.

When their lips finally parted he looked into her eyes and said, “I love you, you know.”

“Yes, because I love you too.”

She threw her arms around him and held him close. Since he was six feet tall and she was the size of a normal Japanese girl, sitting down together made it easier for her to put chin on his shouloder and her cheek close to his. She opened her eyes for a moment and said, “Oh my!”

She pulled back and looked at his face.

“What’s the matter? Not a Shnark, I hope,” he said joking.

“No. Worse,” she pointed over his shoulder.

There on the roof behind them stood over a hundred students: All girls.

“You’re right. This is worse. Do you think we’ll make it down the stairs alive?” He put his dark glasses on.

Kyoko had already started packing up the remnants of their bento.

Thael helped. When they got everything tied into the scarf, they turned around again and looked at the crowd. Kyoko moved closer to her Angel man, her left shoulder slightly behind his right. She gently tugged on his sleeve.

“Why are they just standing there watching us?”

“Don’t know… Let’s just hope it isn’t the calm before the feeding frenzy.”

He had the picnic basket in his left hand, so he took Kyoko’s left hand in his right and stepped forward. When they got to the wall of students they stopped.

“Konichiwa,” he said bowing in a friendly way.

One of the students spoke up: “Are you really Paru?”

Another said, “Of course he isn’t. What would he be doing up here kissing her?”

Thael scoffed, “Maybe because she’s the one he’s going to marry,” he removed his sunglasses as he spoke. They could now see his violet eyes.

The group of girls gasped. “It is him!”

They all started pushing paper and notebooks at him.

“Sign, please sign.”

“Chotto… Chotto matte kudasai! Please calm down. I’ll sign as many as I can before the first bell and then I need to take Kyoko sama back to her class.”

He was able to sign quite a few autographs before the first bell rang.

“Sumimasen. Gomenasai Minna, I’m sorry, we have to go. Maybe the next time…?”

He grabbed Kyoko’s hand and pushed through the crowd toward the stairs gently pulling her behind him. He was able to get her to the classroom before the second bell. He kissed her hand and she walked to her desk, all eyes looking at her in awe.

He managed to get away from the school without too much trouble. As he walked out the gate he thought, I’m not doing that again. I totally forgot about my fans. Even with my body shields up that could have turned pretty nasty. Thank goodness they were Japanese fans. There’s no telling what would have happened if this were Britain or the United States.

He shivered.