I should really get out of here, a part of Emily nervously thought. Her friends had been right: the woman had clearly gone a bit mad from some mixture of trauma, tragedy, and isolation. But she felt rooted to the spot, fascinated, as Michiko continued.
“Jiro has been trying to send me replacement pilots for more than ten years. Before that, it was his father. Of course, I refused all of them. I owe Earth nothing. Not after what we sacrificed. Not after what we went through. But now…” she paused, pensively taking another smoke. “I figured, why not? It’s all going to end soon. And, I have to admit, it feels good to finally share these things.”
Play along, Emily thought. Long enough to make an excuse and leave. “What do you mean that it’s going to end soon?” She asked, trying to keep the anxiety from her voice. “Jiro said something similar.”
“Why, Queen Nebulon, of course,” Michiko replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world that a fictional character was going to wipe out Earth. She filled her glass of sake again. The bottle was already half empty, Emily noticed. “The invasion force is already on its way. The Jupiter Conclave and the Neptune Corps put up a pretty good fight, but she crushed them in the Battle of Saturn, about, what would it be, four years ago now? Since then she’s done nothing but prepare.” She grimaced. “The Neptune Corps still has a few spies, and Astro Otter has a hidden base near Pluto that he still launches raids from. They send me updates now and then, hoping that something has changed.”
Michiko’s mouth twisted into a humorless smirk as she considered Emily. “You don’t believe me, of course. You want to call your friends. You want to leave. I understand. But you also want to believe. And I can show you, if you like.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Emily tensed as Michiko reached under the table—fearing what, a knife?—but all she pulled out was a small, blunt, pink object. The Pink Dragon’s summoning wand, Emily realized with a start. Each of the Dragons had one, a kind of key that they plugged into their respective Dragon to activate the giant robot.
Michiko pushed a button along the object’s side. There was a soft click, a faint pulse of pink light, and Emily heard a rumbling behind her.
Turning around, Emily saw a tall wooden china cabinet in the corner of the room slowly split apart, opening outward with a rush of cool air. Behind it were two transparent doors, like those of a futuristic elevator.
Michiko stood, a bit unsteadily, holding her sake bottle and cigarette in one hand, the Pink Dragon wand in the other, and walked to the elevator. Miss Yama meowed with excitement and trotted to the double doors beside her.
“Well?” Michiko asked, turning to Emily in front of the elevator with that same humorless smirk. The double doors whispered open, and Miss Yama darted inside, purring, tail swishing.
Emily slowly stood, eyes wide, mouth open. Her hands felt clammy, and she felt like she might be sick. “What is this?” she whispered, looking around the living room. “One of those hidden camera game shows? This isn’t funny.”
“No game. No joke,” Michiko sighed, stepping into the elevator, suffused now in a pink glow. Her cat began to vigorously rub against her leg, purrs growing louder. “Don’t tell me you’re going to miss out on seeing the Pink Dragon, Emily. You, a true fan?”
Michiko gestured inward with her sake bottle-holding hand, a haze of pink cigarette smoke already clouding the small space. “Come on. It’ll only take a few minutes.”
