Phantasy Star Ushiko
“So if ya’ll could just clear things up for us, I’d be real happy!” Mayor Dairon said with his usual drawl.
I yawned. It was too early in the morning for the Hunter’s Guild to be forcing me to work. But apparently, dealing with the recent threat in the Ozette Wetland was best done in the morning. Admitadly, any later, and the humidity would likely fry my long hair. That would be unacceptable. So, instead of arguing about the mission and its timing, I figured I’d bring up the other issue he had made, “You said “you all”, Mr. Mayor. Teaming me up with Viviti again?”
“Uh, yes”, he said, patting some sweat off his head with a cloth, “As well as one other. Let me introduce you to Miss Ushiko.”
I adjusted my cowboy hat to get a better view as the pink and black female CAST with a red tie between her bosoms led in a strange looking CAST girl. Miss Lindow, the Mayor’s secretary, led in a young CAST woman who almost looked completely human, if you ignored the cybernetic joint lines in her arms, the metallic white and black robot ears, and the strange antenna that looked almost like cow horns. She had bright blue hair, and wore a very peculiar outfit that didn’t really fit into the frontier feel of Dairon City. I was told it was a ceremonial outfit that used to be worn by temple priestesses… but that most of the data beyond that was lost as was anything else before the “Great Blank”.
She had been recently found and reactivated by the famous Professor Heero and was treated almost like his daughter. She did not say anything really, only bowed in greeting to me. Awkwardly, I bowed back. Then I turned back to the Mayor, “Woah, Mr. Mayor! You can’t be serious! I’ve been told that the Wetlands have become rather dangerous! Just a few days ago, Kai had to rescue that strange outsider girl from some monster!”
“I know, son, but Professor Heero and I agreed that this would be the best way to test her. She seems to have some form of combat ability. You were the best candidate for the job. Kai’s busy with those two new kids he’s wandering around with… so you were the next best thing!”
Ah, Mayor Dairon. He always says the most inspiring things. I looked around and noticed something odd, “Uh, Mr. Mayor, where is the Professor?”
Mayor Dairon shook his head, “He decided it was best not to see her off. He would likely try to kill you in the process, my boy!”
“Ah… a good reason,” was all I could muster in response.
“Yo! Dairon! Terrill!” came a familiar voice. I turned to see my usual “partner” coming into the Mayor’s officer, rather late.
“You are 23 minutes late, Viviti. This is unacceptable. As a master of the Forces--”
Viviti responded with the simple act of sticking out his tongue. Viviti was the youngest looking of our team, at 13 years of age, and about a foot and a half shorter than me. He was dressed in black and red robes, with his hair tied up into a short topknot style. He already had his Photon Wand out, a blue Magi Processor, against most of the regulations of the city. His poor black Chato MAG, a floating cat looking photon-robotic life form, hovered regretfully behind him.
Ushiko stood somewhere between us, at about 5’6 inches, give or take. Of course, robotic girl or not, I wasn’t gonna ask for her measurements. She would either give it to me in detail to the micron…. Or unleash a photon attack on me. I wasn’t gonna risk it.
My name is Terrill and I’m about an inch short of six feet tall. I’m always wearing my hat, a real frontiersman hat, and dark brown duster with blue jeans and a red shirt with a dark brown vest. I’ve got my belt, where my Photon programs are stored. I’ll break them out when I need them. I’ve got short, messy brown hair that I try to keep held up in my hat, with only a bit of a mullet going on. I’m four years older than Viviti and I’m supposed to be his mentor… but it rarely works out that way.
“Woah! Is this the Professor’s new robot chick? Is she coming with us for this mission?” Viviti said, pointing at Ushiko.
“CAST,” Miss Lindow corrected him, “The correct term for our kind is CAST.”
“Well,” he responded to her, “At least she is cuter than Dairon’s nagging mother of a robot.”
Miss Lindow didn’t bother trying to correct him anymore.
Despite the unprofessional scene, Mayor Dairon looked as jovial as ever, “Well, at least you boys are full of fighting spirit! It’s too early in the morning for me! I think I’m gonna go take a nap! You guys run out to the Wetlands and see if those crazy Prospectors are getting worked up over nothing or not….”
I really wanted to argue with the Mayor that I didn’t care for morning missions either… but he was already in his chair and turning it around to start on his nap. Besides, I could use the Meseta.
As soon as we were out of the office, my own golden Chato began to orbit Ushiko, obviously interested in her. I smiled, “Heh, he likes you Miss Ushiko!”
She smiled suddenly, which was rather starling because she seemed to show no emotion just a second ago, almost like a doll, “Thank you. I will do my best on this mission.”
“Ah, yeah… no worries Miss Ushiko. We’ll take care of this water demon thing… it’ll be no problem!”
Viviti laughed, “Of course it won’t be a problem for us… from what I heard from Kai, it only likes girls!”
I glared at Viviti, “Don’t mind him. He’s just rude. Let’s head to the Public Teleporter. Do you know how to handle yourself in a fight, Miss Ushiko?”
Ushiko seemed to ponder at my question, “Fight? I have programming that seems to allow for combat operations.”
I’ll take that as a yes.
Our city’s pride and joy was it’s Public Teleporter. As long as the Cable Lines were intact, it could transmit and teleport a person through nigh-magical means to distant areas across the Earth. A hallway led into the chamber, lighted by a warm glow that came from beyond stained-glass windows at all hours. The chamber itself was the teleported, a network of circles that seemed to have pictographs depicting where the Teleporter could transport you. Not all the symbols were quite understood yet… Mayor Dairon says some of the symbols have NEVER been used. Below it, some sort of advanced mechanism was at work. At least, I imagined it was advanced since it allowed for teleportation. Honestly, it looked like the gears on clockwork. But it allowed for instant teleportation, so I guess looks can be deceiving.
The Hunter’s Guild had already keyed in the coordinates for the Ozette Wetlands. Walking would have taken us a day or two. Instead, we just stood on a pad and waited for it to activate. I was a little surprised: Ushiko didn’t seem one bit concerned about it. This should be her first time teleporting since being awoken. I know I was scared the first time I did it.
The camber lit up brilliantly for a moment--
--and then I could feel rain upon me. The world had gone out of focus just for a moment, and when it returned to focus, we were on a hexagonal platform that was just a foot off from the water’s surface of the marshes of Ozette.
I waved my hand over my belt and activated the stored Photon energy to draw forth my weapon. Almost magically, a sword with a long stock and barrel appeared in my hands, my trusty Gun Slash. My Chato bounced joyously, excited to go into battle once more.
I looked over to Ushiko, “You ready?”
“Activating combat protocols,” she said, holding out her hands. Two laser blade fans appeared in her hands. She nodded her head, “I am ready to go when you are.”
Her voice would go between being cute and girlish, and sounding cold and metallic. It was kind of weird… but to be expected from a CAST.
“So what is our mission anyways? Hunt down that suspected demon of the Wetlands?”
I nodded, “That’s it!”
“So that’s why old man Dairon let us borrow Ushiko from the Professor?”
“No!” I said to him, “And don’t act like that!”
We started walking down the path, a soft rain falling upon us, when out of the marsh, a half-dozen creatures that looked like crosses between pigs and rats crawled up onto the platforms. They were known as Protoboomas and they were disgusting smelling animals that were highly aggressive for their size. I took my Gun Slash off my shoulder and held it out, letting out a photon round, blasting one right off the path, “Guess with all the rumors of this devil, less Hunters have been patrolling this area. We’ll likely need to clean up the paths as we make our way through. Vivi, think you can spare the energy?”
Viviti drew in Photon energy through his Technique programs, charging an area of attack “spell”. A blast of fire shot forth, easily wiping away half the forces that stood in our way, while I lined up a charged spreadshot to take out the rest. Between his Foie technique and my gun, we easily could dispatch most that stood in our way. Perhaps a tad boasting, I held out my hand and said to Miss Ushiko, “The path is clear, ma’am.”
Viviti rolled his eyes, “We better be getting a good deal of Meseta out of this….”
I nodded to him, “The Mayor’s arranged for 500 Meseta each for completion of the mission. And I’m rather sure Professor Heero plans to reward us too.”
“500?! We could make more making runs in Paru and salvaging Mechs!”
While we argued, Ushiko had gone on ahead to the next set of platforms. She quietly said, “I am picking up multiple incoming abnormalities.”
I barely made out what she said when I caught out of the corner of my eyes several frog-like monsters the size of large dogs hopping up onto the platform around her. They had her surrounded. “Damnit! Ushiko! We’re coming! Just hang on!”
“Mode: Dispatch,” she said softly.
I held out my Gun Slash while Viviti began to charge up photons. I held my sword out in front of him and shook my head, “We’ll have to close in to melee. It’s too danger--”
Both of our jaws dropped as Ushiko seemed to enter some sort of dance with her fans, slicing and dicing her way through the Pomarr. She had finished them off by the time we had caught up with her. I was rather impressed, “I don’t think we’re going to need to worry about taking care of her.”
Viviti couldn’t help but agree, “I guess so! Good! We’ll take down this Wetlands Devil together!”
And so we began to work our way through the wetlands. We cleared out the monsters with ease, recovering what we could find in the Wetlands from the fallen ruins of Earth or past expeditions as loot to split among the three of us, and closing in upon where most of the Prospectors sightings of this so-called monster had been made.
It had dried up for a period of time…. Even the monsters had dried up. My hair began to frizz, pointing out in every direction and making my hat look rather ridiculous. I dissolved it into Photon storage, sighing, as we came upon the beacon that had been placed down by the Prospectors.
Viviti deactivated the beacon, sighing as well, “I don’t see this Octo Diablo anywhere…”
“Let’s just wait a bit… see if we pick up on anything,” I told him. Besides, I already looked like a mess anyways. And we couldn’t go back to Dairon City only for the monster to reappear. We wouldn’t be getting too many more Hunter contracts if it looked like we accepted payment without getting the job done. Realizing that Ushiko was rather useful, I turned to her and tried my best to be polite, “Uh… can you detect anything?”
She shook her head, “I am sorry. I don’t actively have the ability to search for life forms in that manner. It is an automatic function of my programming that will only be activated when stealth sub-routines are met.”
“A sort of instinct,” Viviti offered.
Ushiko nodded her head in response.
And so we stayed out in the wetlands as the sun rose higher into the sky and it got warmer. The humidity was killer. Viviti and I both were rather uncomfortable. And yet, somehow, despite the thick ceremonial outfit she wore, Ushiko never seemed to bore of the Wetlands. Instead, she seemed focused upon watching the bugs of the swamp. She seemed to smile as she watched them. She was like a weird little girl just then.
I, on the other hand, shot down a flying Pelctraz. It wasn’t long until Vivi was trying to use his Foie technique to cook it. We hadn’t really made much work on that task, when a cool wind seemed to be blowing from the mountains of the Rioh. A powerful new storm was rolling into the Ozette Wetlands. As the first rain fell, Ushiko stood up straight and said, “A large abnormality is approaching. Its bio-structure resonates with previous readings of photon corruption in--”
She seemed to cut off. I looked at her, “What’s wrong Ushiko?”
Once more, she looked more like a normal person than a CAST, “I’m not sure, but I think something’s coming!”
A heavy rain began to fall. Viviti looked at Ushiko, then me, “You know, the reports say that this monster targets girls first. So we send her up ahead… it’s not like she can’t take care of herself…”
“No way!” I told him, “We don’t use each other for bait and we’re not going to use her.”
“She’ll be safe! If all else fails, we’ll rush in and save her from the thing!” He took Ushiko’s hand, “Come on now, let’s go meet the nice tentacle monster!”
I wasn’t aware of that detail of the monster we were fighting. I broke his grasp on her and pushed him, “We’re not doing that!”
He lost his balance and fell into the water. I was worried for a moment, but he started splashing as he swam to the surface, angry, “Oh man! When I get out of here, I am so freezing you with Barta, then setting you a blaze with my Foie! I can’t believe you turn on your partner for her like that--”
I ignored him to bow to the young woman politely like she had earlier in the day, “You’ll have to excuse us, Miss Ushiko. But have no fear, we would never do something like that to yo--”
All of a sudden, Viviti was lifted into the air by the tentacles of some large octopus-like monster. He was also yelling as it held him aloft, “Ahhhhh! Terrill! Save me! I don’t want to be raped by some tentacle monster!”
Wrapping Viviti up with two of its tentacles, it used two more to try and strike at me and Ushiko. Both of us easily dodged out of the way. I aimed my gun up at the main body and took shot… but it didn’t seem to do much. I rolled out of the way of another attempt on my life, shooting a charged round of spread photon shot at it. Again, it seemed to do nothing to the slimy bulk of the creature.
“Combat operation: dispatch corrupted target,” Ushiko said, holding her fans close to herself.
I looked at her like she was crazy, “No way! There is no way you can defeat that thing!”
“Negative,” she said, then looked at me with clear eyes, “I believe I can defeat it. If you can get Viviti free of it, I think I can purify it!”
Oh yeah! Viviti! I took aim with my Gun Slash and with a precise shot, knocked Viviti loose of the Octo Diablo.
“Activate Combat Operation: Longhorm.” She held out her fans, opening wide and brightly. Suddenly, two long cannons were held on each arm.
“Vivi! Keep your head down, man!” I shouted as she took aim at the monster octopus and let loose twin lances of light that disintigrate the beast where it floated. The horrible demon of the Ozette Wetlands was purged.
Ushiko smiled, “Target eliminated. Deactivating Longhorn. I told you I would do my best.”
I smiled, holding back my awe of the young CAST girl’s work. As if in celebration, the sun began to shine through the clouds as we pulled Viviti out of the water.
I came by the Mayor’s office by request that evening. I assumed it was just to deliver my share of the reward. Instead, he looked grim. I looked oddly at him, “Is something wrong, Mr. Mayor?”
“Well, my boy, someone wants to hire you out for another mission…”
“So soon?” I said, almost with a bit of a whine.
“Well, I haven’t accepted it yet… but he demanded to see you…”
Behind me, Professor Heero loomed, “Where is he?!”
“Wh- P-Professor Heero!” I stuttered.
“Ushiko played back her data on the mission! He suggested my precious Ushiko become bait for a tentacle monster?! I’ll kill that kid! I’ll pay you 5000 Meseta if you deliver him to me! I’ll kill him for what he was going to do to my precious Ushiko!”
My partner always did find a way to get me into the worse kind of trouble!
You know, I've never actually written Phantasy Star fan-fiction... which is pretty amazing since I'm a HUGE Phantasy Star fan...
So, here's is my first Phantasy Star fan fiction, based off Phantasy Star Zero. It also serves as my response to Jason's challenge.