My first non-Ranma fic!


				 DREAM GIRLS

			  an Urusei Yatsura fanfic
				     by
				 Gary Kleppe


	This is an idea I had one morning that would not go away. It is
short and dark. For those who choose to read it, I'll be very interested
to hear your reactions to it and what you think it reveals about the
psychology of its writer. ^_^



	There is a place that is not a place, everywhere and nowhere.
Some have called it the spirit plane. There, a conversation was taking
place.

	"You have something to report?"

	"Yes, Leader. I'm pleased to inform you that our Japanese
contingent is nearing success in the case we had discussed earlier."

	"Excellent."

	"As you know, leader, this was a difficult one from the
beginning. At first the subject resisted having aything to do with our
operative. He saw her as possessive, clinging to him and ruining his
life in the process. But she stuck with him and never allowed him to get
rid of her. Now it seems he is finally changing his mind. He will be
ours at last!"

	"Inform me as soon as the final outcome is known."

				*************

	In ancient times, men told stories of creatures that fed on
human life force, on human souls. They described these creatures as
succubi, vampires, and the like. Humanity has since changed with the
times, and when humanity changes creatures who feed on human psychic
energy must necessarily change accordingly. So they who were once seen
as monsters were now more akin to conspirators in a spy movie.

	Some, in fact, changed in other ways...

				*************

	"No, Ataru-kun, no!" Shinobu held tightly onto Ataru's hand.
"Don't... don't leave me!"

	"Too late, baby" said Ataru. "I'm taking off to space with Lum.
You can't stop me. Cherry tried but he couldn't either."

	Lum beamed with joy. "I'm so happy, Darling! I'll take you to a
wonderful honeymoon spot on Epsilon Aridani Major. We'll need to go
shopping first, though. I'd be overdressed on Aridani in this outfit."

	Shinobu fought back tears. "Ataru-kun, I can't take you to other
planets. Maybe I'm not as pretty or sexy as Lum. I'm just a real human
girl. But if you stay with me I'll always be there for you. I'll always
love you!"

	"That's the trouble with you, honey," said Ataru, unmoved by
Shinobu's pleading. "You're dull! If I stay with you, it'll be a
lifetime of working nine to five, changing diapers and watching both of
us get old. Why should I settle for your boring old life when Lum can
show me the universe? I'm staying with Lum. She's my dream girl."

	Lum giggled. "You say the cleverest things, Darling!"

	Shinobu held firmly onto Ataru's hand. "No! I won't let you go!"

	Lum gave Shinobu a cold glance. "Too late. He's mine." For an
instant Shinobu saw beyond appearances. This was no princess from outer
space. It was...

	Then Ataru was gone.

				*************

	"Success, Leader. The subject Moroboshi is ours."

	"Excellent. A hard-won prize, much more difficult than your
previous subject. What was his name? Morisato? No matter. Let us begin
the feeding at once."

	"Yes, Leader."

				*************

	Shinobu watched as Ataru lie on the hospital bed, staring
blankly ahead. He no longer reacted to her touch, nor to anything else.
The equipment that Doctor Cherry had hooked him into now showed that his
vital signs were deteriorating slowly but surely. Ataru's body was now
slipping away to join his mind, to join his imaginary space princess.

	"There is nothing more that can be done," Doctor Cherry said
dolefully. "I had hoped that talking to you might help him back to
reality. But he was too far gone."

	"I failed." The realization set in that Shinobu would never be
able to talk with Ataru again. Nurse Sakura held her tight as a wave of
pain and sorrow came crashing over her.

	"It is not you who failed," said the Doctor. "Perhaps... perhaps
it is fate." It was all he could say to Shinobu, all he could say to
himself. As a doctor of many years he had lost patients too many times,
but it never got any easier. 

	Ataru, still oblivious to the world, began to mumble: "Oh, Lum,
what an awesome new bikini..."

	A lecher to the end, thought Shinobu... to the end... but he was
her lecher. Or he had been... not any longer. She had lost him to an
imaginary alien.

	Except there was something she dimly remembered. Something about
succubi? Creatures feeding on psychic energy? No, surely that was just
her imagination, trying to come up with something to blame this whole
thing on. Just a dream.

Gary Kleppe
kleppe@execpc.com, Home page http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe
My fanfics and the FFML map are on my comics/manga page,
       http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics