Chapter 138: "The Awesome Epilogue"
It was a space station swirling deep in the depths of the galaxy, but even space had a Christmas. The children aboard the ship all ignored the presents under the tree. Nothing else seemed to matter since a strange man with white hair was discovered on-board.
"Wow!" One of the kids in the circle gaped in amazement. "Then what happened, Uncle Nero?"
The other kids nodded fervently, eager to know the end of the tale.
"Well kids, in the end, love and peace will always prevail. Do you understand?"
"But wasn't everyone alone and unhappy in the end?"
Nero took a sip of space cocoa and sighed. It had a much sweeter flavor than normal cocoa that made his entire body shudder with delight. "So it seemed. But people change, and times change as well. For all the grief they put each other through, Ema and Saeja ended up together after being apart from one another for three years. It seems there was a big fighting tournament where combatants were encouraged to participate as random pairs. Incidentally, the two ended up seeing each other again for the first time there, and even ended up fighting together!"
"Wow! Did they do any awesome dual-techs and win?!" a hideous boy with freckles asked between the gap in his front teeth.
"Well, they did perform a number of super awesome moves, and the way they fought in perfect sync with one another, they simply knew it was meant to be. Unfortunately, they lost to the pairing of Ragnarok and that ass-bait Dante."
"Oh! So what happened to Ragnarok and that one chick?"
Nero took a draught from his sixteenth cup of hot cocoa, swallowing it all at once. He was only then starting to understand how he was able to tell children stories for over thirty hours, but still he wondered how the kids were still wide awake. Christmas spirit, maybe? "Actually, Kyrie and Mercedes were evenly matched on all levels and, as per the rules of the Duel, they went on to simply share the boy. But they'll probably kill one another in the end, so I wouldn't really call that a happy ending...
"Speaking of unhappy endings, it seems that Cyrus, Portia's long lost love, sealed his own immortality away with Charlotte's body deep beneath the desert sands. Even now she watches the sky at night, waiting for him to return. Unfortunately, he'd been alive for far longer than most, and he decided that twelve-hundred years was a good place to stop."
"Gosh, that's sad," remarked a dark-skinned girl with long, pointed ears. "Is Ryu still with her at least?"
"Of course. He is there whenever she needs him, and he always has dinner made for her when she comes home."
Nero wrapped himself in his dinosaur blanket and cooed. Space winters were always the harshest. How long had he been floating around before they found him? "Anyway," he continued, "Super Solid Snake disappeared soon after the night he and Kamina the Great shared waffles. No one knows what became of him."
"Well what about Subaru and Teana and all the Nanoha characters who got no mention for over a hundred chapters?" Another little girl had to take her thumb out of her mouth to ask the question.
"StrikerS never happened," Nero replied with a smile.
"But the Mudk--"
"Never. Happened."
The room was silent as space.
"Hey!" An older boy on the far side of the circle stood with a shout. "I just wanna know what happened to Soren and everybody in the end!! Did he inherit the Falcon or what?!"
"Well, that's--"
An iron door slid open, and the sound of an alarm could be heard from the hall. A man cannon on his arm burst into the room with a start. "Master Nero! I hate to interrupt your Christmas Story Time, but we're under attack!"
Nero threw off his blanket to reveal shining blue armor. The symbol of the triforce radiated fiercely from his right hand. "Space ninjas, I'm assuming?"
"Sir! Over nine-thousand of them!"
"Damn. Sorry, kids. Uncle Nero will finish his Story Time later." He marched from the cargo bay as the head of about a dozen other space marines and smiled. All of their armor, helmets, greaves... everything was set into place.
Nero gripped the cool handle of his energy sword in one hand and held a plasma rifle with pride in the other. He signaled the others forward with a nod, and they charged for the outer bay, victory on their minds. "It's gonna be one hell of an awesome Christmas," he said.
FIN
"Wow!" One of the kids in the circle gaped in amazement. "Then what happened, Uncle Nero?"
The other kids nodded fervently, eager to know the end of the tale.
"Well kids, in the end, love and peace will always prevail. Do you understand?"
"But wasn't everyone alone and unhappy in the end?"
Nero took a sip of space cocoa and sighed. It had a much sweeter flavor than normal cocoa that made his entire body shudder with delight. "So it seemed. But people change, and times change as well. For all the grief they put each other through, Ema and Saeja ended up together after being apart from one another for three years. It seems there was a big fighting tournament where combatants were encouraged to participate as random pairs. Incidentally, the two ended up seeing each other again for the first time there, and even ended up fighting together!"
"Wow! Did they do any awesome dual-techs and win?!" a hideous boy with freckles asked between the gap in his front teeth.
"Well, they did perform a number of super awesome moves, and the way they fought in perfect sync with one another, they simply knew it was meant to be. Unfortunately, they lost to the pairing of Ragnarok and that ass-bait Dante."
"Oh! So what happened to Ragnarok and that one chick?"
Nero took a draught from his sixteenth cup of hot cocoa, swallowing it all at once. He was only then starting to understand how he was able to tell children stories for over thirty hours, but still he wondered how the kids were still wide awake. Christmas spirit, maybe? "Actually, Kyrie and Mercedes were evenly matched on all levels and, as per the rules of the Duel, they went on to simply share the boy. But they'll probably kill one another in the end, so I wouldn't really call that a happy ending...
"Speaking of unhappy endings, it seems that Cyrus, Portia's long lost love, sealed his own immortality away with Charlotte's body deep beneath the desert sands. Even now she watches the sky at night, waiting for him to return. Unfortunately, he'd been alive for far longer than most, and he decided that twelve-hundred years was a good place to stop."
"Gosh, that's sad," remarked a dark-skinned girl with long, pointed ears. "Is Ryu still with her at least?"
"Of course. He is there whenever she needs him, and he always has dinner made for her when she comes home."
Nero wrapped himself in his dinosaur blanket and cooed. Space winters were always the harshest. How long had he been floating around before they found him? "Anyway," he continued, "Super Solid Snake disappeared soon after the night he and Kamina the Great shared waffles. No one knows what became of him."
"Well what about Subaru and Teana and all the Nanoha characters who got no mention for over a hundred chapters?" Another little girl had to take her thumb out of her mouth to ask the question.
"StrikerS never happened," Nero replied with a smile.
"But the Mudk--"
"Never. Happened."
The room was silent as space.
"Hey!" An older boy on the far side of the circle stood with a shout. "I just wanna know what happened to Soren and everybody in the end!! Did he inherit the Falcon or what?!"
"Well, that's--"
An iron door slid open, and the sound of an alarm could be heard from the hall. A man cannon on his arm burst into the room with a start. "Master Nero! I hate to interrupt your Christmas Story Time, but we're under attack!"
Nero threw off his blanket to reveal shining blue armor. The symbol of the triforce radiated fiercely from his right hand. "Space ninjas, I'm assuming?"
"Sir! Over nine-thousand of them!"
"Damn. Sorry, kids. Uncle Nero will finish his Story Time later." He marched from the cargo bay as the head of about a dozen other space marines and smiled. All of their armor, helmets, greaves... everything was set into place.
Nero gripped the cool handle of his energy sword in one hand and held a plasma rifle with pride in the other. He signaled the others forward with a nod, and they charged for the outer bay, victory on their minds. "It's gonna be one hell of an awesome Christmas," he said.
FIN