Makoto kept the Power-key Staff on his person these days. He
spent his time in the Royal Library, searching through ancient
tomes about the Eye of God, or staring up at the giant weapon.
Makoto stalked through the halls of the palace at night, spending
so much time looking for something he did not know how to stop
searching.
Shayla Shayla and Nanami knew what Makoto was looking for, and
they knew he was killing himself trying to figure out how the Eye
of God worked. The two of them confronted Makoto in the garden,
after the third hour of night. Makoto just looked past Nanami and
around Shayla Shayla, staring at the Eye of God with blank eyes as
they harangued him.
Something had to be done. Mr. Fujisawa was currently running
away from Mizu and her advances, and he was just about the only one
who Makoto might listen to. The important part of the statement was
"just about."
"Princess, you have to help us. This goes beyond Makoto's
normal dedication. Just look at him. Makoto is wasting away, pining
for her and trying to figure out a way to use the Eye of God to go
after her," said a red-headed Priestess of Mt. Muldoon and a young
Earth girl in perfect synchronisation, to elder princess, Lune
Venus.
"I am aware of Mr. Mizuhara's condition, but what can I do? I
forbade him from actual experimentation with the Eye until he
figures out some other way how to control it; the Eye is just too
powerful to let him try without understanding it. I cannot command
him to sleep, and I will not take away his access to the Library.
In any case, I doubt I could, he would sneak in and look there
anyway."
"All we are asking is that you talk to him Princess. Makoto
respects you. He will listen to you, and to your advice. Just talk
with him, we ask you," asked the desperate duo.
"We will do as you ask, because he is dear to us, and it pains
us to see him so," the princess spoke.
Late in the afternoon, Makoto Mizuhara was summoned for an
audience with Her Royal Highness, the princess Lune Venus. "You
wished to speak with me, princess?" Makoto asked dully.
"Makoto Mizuhara, earlier today Shayla Shayla and Nanami Jinnai
came to me for help. They are worried about you." Lune paused,
giving Makoto a sympathetic look. "How will you find her if you
kill yourself to do so? We cannot order you to take care of
yourself, but we ask you on behalf of your friends, and as a
friend: give yourself a rest. What would Ifurita say if she saw you
like this?"
Makoto leaned on the Power-key staff as he listened impassively
to Lune Venus. When she finished, he said heavily, "May I go now?
There was a promising book I wanted to see in the Royal Library."
The princess nodded and half-heartedly waved Mizuhara off.
Makoto blinked slowly then left as he realised he had been
dismissed. Lune Venus sighed as she saw Makoto's slumped back leave
the audience chamber. After Makoto left, the princess summoned Dr.
Schtalubaugh.
***
Makoto made his morning pilgrimage from his chambers to the
Royal Library, nothing unusual except this time Dr. Schtalubaugh
accosted him. The doctor spoke excitedly. "Makoto, you must help me
with this. It is an artefact we have just unearthed. We believe it
to be a recording device from the ancient El Hazard culture, and it
came with several storage devises, or so we theorise. With your
special abilities, you could help us find out much about the
Ancients. Please Makoto, please."
Mizuhara broke out of his private thoughts long enough to
listen to Schtalubaugh. Makoto was about to dismiss the request
when 'ancient El Hazard culture' and 'records' hit him. There was a
possibility that some of these records might contain something
about the Eye of God, something that might give him enough of a
hint on how it worked to allow Makoto to use it. A slim chance, but
better than what he had now.
"Okay doctor, I'll help you. Where is it?"
"Not now boy. The way you look now you would be no help to us.
Go and get some rest today. We will start tomorrow morning, and if
you don't rest, then I will bar you from the Library." Makoto
looked shocked at this. Schtalubaugh frowned angrily at him and
continued, "I will not have you jeopardising this because you are
tired, and right now you look ready to drop. Now go back to bed! If
I send somebody to check on you, and they don't see you there
sleeping, do not think for one second that I will hesitate to ban
you from my books!"
Makoto knew Schtalubaugh had him beat, and he also knew that
the Dean was right, so Makoto acquiesced and trudged slowly back to
his room. Schtalubaugh nodded to himself with a satisfied air,
turned around, and went to give a report to the princess, Lune
Venus.
***
There was something different about Makoto this morning. Maybe
it was a certain life in his step, or a spark of brightness in his
eyes. Quite possibly it was the day and the night of solid sleep,
but Shayla-Shayla and Nanami believed it was a step towards
healing.
Makoto arrived at the Dean's workshop. On top of the table in
the centre or the room cluttered with papers was an empty spot. In
the middle of this spot lay a device which looked similar to the
device Makoto thought was an Ancient El Hazard CD player. Beside
the device was a stack of thin disks. Schtalunbaugh merely gestured
for Makoto to use his power on the device, and Makoto did, first
putting one of the disks into the small machine.
The machine came to life, spinning the disk around quickly as
Makoto kept his hand touching the player. The translucent image of
a man appeared above the player, facing Makoto. The image was
thirty centimetres tall, and dressed in cream pantaloons, and
matching turban; a shirt of purest white, and a deep royal blue
vest with intricate gold trim along the edges. The cuffs of the
pantaloons matched the colour of the vest, down to the pattern of
the trim. On the image's feet were a pair of sandals, deep brown,
and of fine quality.
The image bowed, touching its forehead, mouth, and heart with a
single flourishing motion, while saying something. Makoto frowned
momentarily, and then there was sound to accompany the image.
"...-kum. In the name of Padashah Amalik ibn Musa the seventh, who
rules most benevolently under Allah the Merciful, I, Ammar ibn
Imfari do give you this record of our greatest achievements, and
something of their histories.
"I begin with the jin, artificial, roughly humanoid constructs
used to free us from dangerous jobs, such as deep mining
operations, undersea exploration, and such. New areas both on and
off El Hazard can be explored with no loss of human life."
The image of Ammar flickers and is replaced by that of humanoid
shapes with arms ending in tools, or pincers, and weird sensory
apparatus instead of eyes or ears, performing various tasks, such
as mapping the ocean floor, or refueling a craft outside of a space
station.
Ammar reappears, and begins to talk again, the former images
having disappeared.
"Of course, the models you have just seen were relatively
simple, single-purpose ones; we are now several generations away
from these, having made more life-like ones."
Images of handsome men and beautiful women flash by, dressed in
clothes which are both revealing and covering at the same time.
"These jin have more interaction with people, so it was decided
that we try to make them look more human. We have found that this
makes them easier to be around, and by making them beautiful,"
Ammar leers slightly, "it makes them much easier to be around.
"The previous models were unable to speak. Instead, they had
modem ports." Ammar chuckles quietly. "There are stories, modern
myths, that talk of people communicating and giving orders to jin
by whistling. Impossible, of course. For one, the sounds are above
the human range of hearing (for close range, in an atmosphere
environment. Long range communication or out of atmosphere
environments use specially reserved wavelengths on the EM
spectrum).
"The stories persist, and few people whistle around the jin
anymore. Why takes chances? is the logic," Ammar shrugs.
The image of Ammar flickers again. He is still wearing the same
clothes, but lines are starting to mark his once youthful face.
Obviously, this part of the recording has been made several years
after the original.
"Salaam aleikum, my friend. Ten years have passed since my last
entry on the jin. I am now wazir to his most gracious Padashah
Amalik ibn Musa, whose slightest frown causes his enemies to quail
in fear and his smallest smile his friends and subjects to rejoice
for one full seven-day. But enough of me though, for I have the job
of recording our greatest technologies.
"The secession attempts of the Northern Quarter Caliphs in the
last five years has caused the greatest advances and revolutions of
jin technology since the Aladdin project. The latest generation now
have the ability to make creative decisions to effectively complete
their tasks, not relying totally upon programmed instructions
anymore. As such, these newer models are often used for covert
missions instead of humans. Casualty rates for the human operatives
are down five-fold because of the accompanying jin (which puts the
safety of the human partner of the team as highest priority), while
the success rates have increased by a similar amount due to the new
generations' ability to learn from past actions.
"The latest model jin is the Ifrit class, currently a
prototype, developed at the Ahriman testing grounds and
laboratories."
A three dimensional representation of Ifurita, with her
Power-key Staff, appeared and began to slowly rotate in a full
circle. Makoto shook at the sight, almost losing contact with the
player. Makoto's eyes became more intense as he looked upon the
Ifurita's form. The image was quickly replaced by Ammar, who began
to talk again.
"The Ifrit class is not slated to go into mass production, as
it is still very experimental. Production costs, while they would
be lowered via mass-production, would still be too high. It matters
not though, for the Ifrit class is meant to be our elite force in
our armies.
"The Ifrit's power source is one of the most powerful for a jin
and a marvel of miniaturisation as well. Explanations on what
exactly powers this class are unavailable, being one of the
military's highest and most closely guarded secrets, but I have
heard rumours varying to that of ambient energy absorbtion to total
conversion to something referred to as an 'Entropy Engine.'
"Regardless of the power source, it is the ability to duplicate
any force which acts upon it, meaning that each unit will become
more powerful after each battle, which is the true strength of the
Ifrit design. The Ifrit is the first to use a new type of
processor, largely organic in nature; traditional processor types
do not have the flexibility needed to utilise this class' unique
abilities."
Ammar flickers in and out of vision, and then reappears,
perhaps five years older.
"Further addendum to the notes on the Ifrit class. The Ifrit
prototype performed beyond all expectations, and was more powerful
than we were prepared for. Ifrit are single-handedly responsible
for taking out two major rebel cities, along with many bases and
such. Mere mention of a single Ifrit attack (each Ifrit works
alone, or with other jin and personnel for suppost. Never do we
pair up two Ifrit) coming was enough to cause cities to surrender.
The first battle-tested prototype is responsible for seven such
surrenders-- one glimpse of her silhouette on the horizon and the
city is often ours. I say her because the all units of the Ifrit
class are female and share the same form, although I really should
say 'it' and not 'her.' A failing (not just) of mine that I often
refer to them as I would a human.
"There is a problem with the Ifrit class however. Near the end
of the civil war, the jin began to develop some glitches. The
opinion of the developers that some of the prototypes began to
develop some form of emotional response. The Ifrit will still obey
orders, that is hardwired into her, but this emotional response may
hinder their effectiveness.
"Maybe it is not a failing of mine to refer to her as a
human.... I digress though. A decision was reached to place the
prototype Ifrit into storage until such a time as our researchers
find a way to control the emotional response side-effect. Further
units are not to be made prior to solution of this problem.
Instead, we will continue to use the traditional inorganic
processors for our jin."
The player stopped, the disk was finished. Makoto looked up at
Dr. Schtalubaugh, who was brimming over with delight.
"Marvelous! Simply marvelous! Oh, fortune has smiled on us
today Makoto Mizuhara!" Dr. Schtalubaugh ended up dancing a little
jig, unable to contain the joy of recovering this storehouse of
knowledge.
"Let's see what the next disk has on it doctor," said Makoto
eagerly. Quite possibly there was information on the Eye of God,
especially after what Ammar had said at the beginning of this disk.
"No," said the Dean simply. "We have to record this knowledge
ourselves, and make sure we do not overlook anything. I made a few
cursory notes," Schtalubaugh waved a sheaf of about twenty pages,
then continued, "but they were rather brief. Now, take a break, and
when you return, I will have a few artists here to take sketches,
and a scribe to transcribe what Ammar dictates; and Makoto, I want
no arguments from you, you gave your word after all. Tomorrow we
will try another disk."
Schtalubaugh waggled his index finger at Makoto in
admonishment.
"We don't want to overload ourselves after all, and we must be
thorough. Now run along, before I have to call Shayla and Nanami to
drag you out of my workshop!"
Makoto actually barked a short laugh as he left the workshop,
heading for the gardens. Dr. Schtalubaugh chuckled to himself as he
watched Makoto's retreating form, then he looked at the player and
laughed out loud at the find. The doctor, after Makoto had left his
sight, went to get the artists, and the scribe; more importantly
though, he went to tell Princess Lune what had happened.
===================================================================
Notes and musings (might actually be useful to read, for once!):
Well, it's been over a year since I first wrote and posted
this, and I think I'm finally satisfied with it. I've even added a
little bit (partially to better reflect the second OAV series with
its Ifurita)....
You may notice some of the names seem familiar, that's because they
are. Just changing them back to the original, thus Ifurita maps to
Ifrit (I previously used Efreet, but have decided to go to use this
spelling, it being closer to the original).
An ifrit is an evil spirit or jin. That thing about whistling?
The language of jin was thought to sound like whistling, and so
whistling in the desert was not encouraged, just in case.
Arliman translates itself to Ahriman (Ahriman is the evil
force/god in Zoroastrianism, which is a dualistic religion
still practiced by the Guebres in Iran and the Parsees in India.
The good side is known as Ormuzd or Ormazd, formerly called
Ahura-Mazda. Does this mean that there should be another set of
springs or something for the priestesses to go to? Perhaps a
treasure trove of ancient technology is just sitting there at the
companion site. An idea one might want to use, nothing more).
Padashah is a rank roughly equivalent to an emperor.
I plan to have Makoto read/do two more disks, on the Bugrom,
and on the Eye of God; most likely this is a three part story
(although the story really just links the disks together, and is,
as such, a fairly background thing).
I think I can now truly begin the second disk, this one was
always sort of nagging me, demanding attention before I truly
started the next one. Perhaps we'll see the next one some time in
the near future....
Comments on this, or any other works of mine, are appreciated (for
instance, "El Hazard-- The World of Too Many Authors").
Status report: Got some stuff in the works. Might even see the
light of day sometime soon!
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