Millennial Queen – Unreadable Survey

Millennial Queen

[Originally serialized in 1980-3 and most frequently cited as “Queen Millennia”, I’ve read the 1995 Shogakukan edition in three huge (~350 pg.) bunko volumes.  This edition lacks chapter divisions, the action in each volume running continuously.  What follows is a survey of the entire series, mostly done for my own future reference, with the number of pages done marked every so often.  It’s messy and at times incoherent, so if anyone else finds something of interest here then it’ll be icing on the cake…]

A newly discovered planet in our Solar System (the 10^th) will approach Earth.  Nearest point will be between Earth and Mars on 09/09/1999 at 00:09 and 9 seconds.  The planet is 9 times Earth’s diameter, its atmosphere “thick” and so maybe Earth and its Moon will be destroyed by the encounter.

Mount Tsukuba Observatory revolves: it can be hidden under the mountain by turning down about 90 degrees.  9 mysterious meteorites land in a straight line near Tokyo.  The Millennial Thieves are an enemy and they want the meteorites.  The Tsukuba staff get a hold of all 9 but 4 of them disappear later in the laboratory.

Speculation is as follows: the coming planet, [let me call it X for the moment] used to be a double planet.  The last time it approached Earth 1,000 years ago, gravity forces caused one of the two planets to explode, and now the remaining one is ringed with dust and meteorites.  The 9 meteorites that fell on Earth probably come from that ring.

The actors: Hajime Amamori, his uncle is head of the observatory.  Yayoi Yukino, works for Prof. Amamori.  Lately she’s been feeling weird.  The only fingerprints at the laboratory when the meteorites were seized are hers, but the computer concludes that although the fingerprints are identical, the “vital signs” are different.  Clearly, Yayoi is “double” somehow, and her regular self doesn’t know what her “special” self is up to…

Yayoi goes weird, grows bright and explodes.  They analyze the remains: this Yayoi is a robot.  So where’s the real Yayoi?  Where’s the one who stole the meteorites?

The observatory’s underground area goes as deep as 32 stories.  But Prof. Amamori discovers a deep manhole there…go 1,999 meters underneath floor B32 and you are in another world, something like a lush African jungle (oddly enough it’s very bright down there!).  The place is so huge looking up all you see is sky, and not the earth from the mountain.

V.I 50 pgs done.

The Amamoris and some staff discover an open flying saucer with 5 tori birds on top.  When they go in, the ship closes and flies off, then flies over a typical-looking high-rise residential zone.  The ship lands and opens its hatch.  They figure it wants them to investigate.  Everything looks from the year 1980, and there are no people.  A woman shows up in a black dress, looking like an older Yayoi Yukino.  The woman shows Hajime 1999 era buildings, and a host of aircraft/spaceships.  She explains eventually these will all be needed, then tells him to go back to her uncle and give him a small thing [data capsule for the prof].  Lastly she tells him he’ll get to see the real (!?) Yayoi very soon.

Back in the observatory, Yayoi shows up on screen, apologizes for the android incident (without explaining it) and asks that Hajime visit her address.  She adds she’ll send an able agent to escort him and ensure his safety.

V. I 65 pgs done.

Analysis of the data capsule reveals nothing, and Hajime suggests asking it questions.  The capsule replies “Yes, that is what you should do” but it refuses to answer personal questions (e.g. as to its origins or maker).  The capsule talks of the underground hollow: its center is Oizumi Town, Nerima Ward, Tokyo [Leiji’s long time place of residence].  Its diameter is 40 kilometers, and its height is 2 kilometers. [Assuming that Tsukuba Observatory is located on Mt. Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture, this is impossible.  There are over 60 km between Nerima and Tsukuba.  This must be taken to mean: 40 km RADIUS.]  Anyway, the hollow is supposed to be ancient and pristine.  The hollow was created by a meteorite that crashed at the Oizumi spot in the Cretaceous period 98 m.y.a.

V. I 70 pgs done.

Yayoi’s escort arrives.  It’s a cat!  The cat leads Hajime to a ramen shop owned by Yayoi’s “parents” [I use quotation marks because the setup is such I feel it’s unlikely she’s from Earth at all!].  Yayoi takes Hajime to an underground lab full of ultra-futuristic equipment.  The missing meteorites are there: Yayoi accepts she’s the one who stole them but she has a very good reason.  Those meteorites were sent to her…from planet X.  The planet’s real name adapted to Earth-style pronunciation is LaMetal.  LaMetal means “Eternal Traveler”. [This likely means La = eternal, Metal = traveler in the LaMetalian language.  Then “la” is probably used as an honorific for powerful beings like sovereigns etc, as it is hoped that they’ll live for all eternity.]

[There are two words for planet in Japanese: wakusei (惑星)and yusei (遊星).  Wakusei is used overwhelmingly these days, but (or maybe not “but” but “so”?)  yusei is often used in fantasy works to give a mystical flavor.  Matsumoto as a rule uses wakusei, but for LaMetal he uses yusei.]

Yayoi takes Hajime to the giant hollow via her “room” at the ramen shop, which is some sort of “elevator”.  She shows her the natural features of the hollow (mountains, rivers, and extinct Elephas namadicus).  They take a boat down the river and into a cave.

The observatory notices twinkling lights on the surface of LaMetal.  Ice.

V. I 95 pgs done.

Inside the cavern are “emergency lodgings” that have been built every 1,000 years.  So the most recent ones are Heian period etc.  Eventually they meet a tall, mean dude dubbed the Education Commander who takes charge of Hajime.

Yayoi contacts the professor and they discuss LaMetal’s orbit.  The trajectory once the planet is within the Solar System is unpredictable.  The extinction of the dinosaurs and the creation of the Himalayas were both caused by it.

The scientists at the observatory make the mistake of trying to split the meteorites by laser: the meteorites begin a chain reaction and soon there’s a huge (nuclear-looking, mushroom cloud-inducing) explosion.  It just so happens that the Education Commander has been training Hajime on how to fly a fighter plane, and they were flying under Mt. Tsukuba when the explosion occurred.  The debris from above hits the plane and it crash lands on what Yayoi calls a dangerous sector: “The Holy Graveyard”.  Worse, the entire hollow now lies exposed to the outside world.

Yayoi starts sending out instructions to all her minions within the hollow (yes, there seem to be lots).  Primary objective is to stop incursions into the hollow.  Rescuing Hajime’s plane is not a priority, as sad as it is, and Yayoi insists on sending an android (with some sort of problem) to rescue him and the Education Commander.

And this commander is irked!  He gives Hajime his name (Daisuke Yamori) and tells him to obey his every instruction from now on.

V. I 115 pgs done.

[Amamori = rain forest, Yamori = night forest]

Hajime notices the similarity in names and he points it out.  Yamori replies that no one in his family has that (ugly) face and that short stature.  Inklings of the pride of his own race.  Going through the Holy Graveyard they run into a huge statue of a woman.  Yamori says it’s the Millennial Queen, and that he will have Hajime meet the various generations of Millennial Queens.  There is a hatch at the foot of the statue’s pedestal.  They go in.  All of the Queens are lined up.  A gravekeeper named Mirai shows up (she looks like a shiny golden nude lady).  She attacks but stops when she sees Hajime.  Obviously Hajime is some sort of messiah figure.  She offers to lead them on a tour.  The Queens are lined up in rows at both sides of a 4 km corridor.  The older ones look like mummies, the newer ones like women asleep (though standing up!)  Hajime notices all of the Millennial Queens look just like Yayoi Yukino.

Mirai tells Hajime if it weren’t for him Yamori would be dead, because she is trained to kill all intruders.  She then asks him what’s his present name?  Hajime doesn’t get it, but it sounds like Mirai has known Hajime multiple times (his reincarnations?).  Meanwhile, the android sent to retrieve Hajime and Yamori is worrying Yayoi.  It’s # 308, somewhat volatile, and there’s a worry this # 308 will end up fighting Mirai.  308 is warlike, and Mirai is also in battle-ready mode because she knows the ceiling of the hollow has collapsed and outsiders will start to seep in.  Yayoi receives a report: large number of vessels of all sorts, including Millennial Thieves (MT) and United Nations (UN) forces, are entering the area for exploration (1,800 people in all).

V. I 130 pgs done.

Yayoi blames herself, is she’d stolen the 9 meteorites then the secret of the hollow wouldn’t have been exposed to the world.

Prof. Amamori goes to Yayoi’s ramen shop and her mom say they haven’t seen her since she left with Hajime.  The super cat is in the room, it leads everyone to the closet and down into Yayoi work station.

Yayoi’s defense systems knock out the engines on all the helicopters (UN), but MT aircraft are not affected.  Her mom and the Prof reach her, mom confront her: What the heck is this here??

308 penetrates the Holy Graveyard and begins all-out warfare.  One Egyptian statue is knocked over, with Cleopatra (a Millennial Queen) inside.  308 looks like a fish with four buggy legs.  Mirai destroys 308 but at the cost of bringing down the roof the Graveyard.  She’s devastated.  The MT aircraft (resembling manta rays with two long vertical spikes, one on and and one below the ships) start to explode as they reach the Graveyard’s invisible defense perimeter.  The grounded UN pilots look in dismay at these weird ships from no known nation…

V. I 150 pgs done.

Mirai takes Yamori and Hajime to “the mechanical palace”.  Yayoi takes the Prof and her mother there too.  Hajime meets the Millennial Queen, who is revealed to be Yayoi herself.  Yayoi takes Hajime aside and explains: not even Yamori knows that the Queen = Yayoi.  Yamori thinks Yayoi is just another subject of the Queen.  Yayoi is about to be replaced by the next Queen, who is coming on a ship from LaMetal.  Hajime still doesn’t quite believe, he says it sounds like Kaguya-hime.  It turns out Kaguya-Hime was a Millennial Queen (MQ from now on) too!

[Kaguya-hime is an old Japanese legend.]

The Japanese govt, the UN et al spot an extremely fast UFO entering the Solar System and heading toward Earth.  Everyone in Tokyo is freaking out because they can’t find Prof. Amamori.  The Orion 3, an Earth transport spaceship, is charged with observing developments.  The UFO proceeds to smash through the Orion 3 and keep going.

Earth combat jets (probably Japanese?) scramble to meet the approaching UFO.  Contact point over Minami Torishima (easternmost point of Japanese territory).  The ship communicates with Yayoi and demands she order the Earth jets to stand down or be destroyed.  Yayoi replies she doesn’t have that power.  So what’s happening here is that the new MQ coming from LaMetal has got an extremely warped view of what her predecessor has been doing in the last thousand years: she actually thinks Yayoi Yukino rules Earth with an iron fist, whereas most Earthlings haven’t even heard of her…

The LaMetalian ship pulverizes its welcoming party and descends on a 1,000m tall tower built for Expo ’85 in Tsukuba [this expo really did happen, so Leiji must have been inspired by preparations for the event, but there’s still not a building this tall].  As the ship lands at the very tip of the tower (an amazing feat worthy of a circus) the Amamoris ascend up to the ramen shop and are found by g-men eating ramen.  They’re speedily summoned to govt. HQ.

V. I 185 pgs down.

The Prof gets taken to the topmost floor for a meeting.  Yayoi and Hajime stay below, and Yayoi tells Hajime that this center for research (housing the Committee for Action Regarding the Planetary Approach) is swarming with MT people.  One immediately approaches them and openly declares himself MT.  He’s interested in Yayoi but not at all in Hajime.

MT dude loves to talk.  He tells Hajime that his parents’ explosion was actually caused by the MQ AND the MT sides.  This is because, without knowing it, both sides of the conflict ordered the Amamoris to manufacture a key component for spaceship use.  The Amamoris didn’t know what they were making as such (just followed blueprints given to them) and so they didn’t realize that keeping two components of this same kind in the same area would cause this massive explosion.  Judging from Yayoi’s reaction, what the MT agent is saying is true.

A light emanates from the ship as Yayoi, Prof and Hajime go below it.  Yayoi and Hajime are taken up in the light, and aboard the ship.  The ship starts flying south toward Tokyo Bay, then it flies off and leaves Earth atmosphere.

The new Millennial Queen, who looks just like Yayoi, greets her and Hajime.  Yayoi announces she won’t take charge of the ship and she won’t return to LaMetal: she wants to stay on Earth.  This means a duel between Yayoi and the new MQ is in order.  What follows is a discussion of the terms of the duel (we get the sense it’s something not so out of the ordinary).  They decide to fight their duel on Venus, in the Black Capital, date October 10^th 1999.

The ship returns to Earth and drops Hajime and Yayoi off in front of the ramen shop.

V. I 205 pgs done.

We learn from the Prof. that the ETA of LaMetal (Sept. 9) is long past.  The govt is doubting the skills of the Mt. Tsukuba scientists, as the incoming planet is still hovering around Pluto’s orbit, at a speed of almost zero.  Yayoi tells the Prof. not to worry, his estimates were accurate but the planet is waiting to see the outcome of a certain something (which Hajime understands to be: the upcoming duel on Venus).

Yayoi goes back into the hollow to prepare for the duel and kisses Hajime on the forehead (he’s stunned).  Hajime goes to bed and hears something.  He pretends to be asleep as a masked man enters the room, in search of Yayoi.  Hajime somehow (??) figures out that this is an (or “the”) MT boss.  The MT boss opens the closet and descends…after almost shooting the boy but thinking better of it.  Hajime follows soon after.

The boss takes of her mask, and it’s a lovely woman.  She calls Yayoi “older sister”, and invites her to call off the duel and join the MTs.  Yayoi refuses, and they leave.  Hajime is found by Yamori and his men, who tell him to leave the two be.  Yamori offers to give Hajime command of a ship.

How he proposes to do this is by hooking his brain up to a machine that will transfer all the necessary book data immediately.  Hajime passes out after the transfer.

A great light comes out from the hollow and a huge UFO (full of light, but looking like a meteorite underneath; both the light-shape and the meteorite-shape actually being successive cloaking devices, the actual shapes are more classically ship-like) leaves it and begins to follow the same path Yayoi’s ship did earlier.  Then a smaller UFO of the same style comes out and follows the first one.  Yamori wakes Hajime up by telling him HE’S actually the one controlling the small ship.  Yamori is behind him supervising.

Hajime realizes he now knows everything that’s going on: the large ship is heading toward Venus, Hajime and Yamori are following the large ship and will arrive there 10 minutes afterwards.

Yayoi and Mirai are on the large ship, and they see on their radar a third ship following behind Hajime’s: it’s a powerful MT battleship named “Double Star”.

The Double Star orders the small ship to step aside.  Hajime refuses and receives heavy fire.  His ship is badly damaged, Yamori has totally disappeared, and he is forced to move aside.  The Double Star begins to attack Yayoi’s ship…and misses badly.  It turns out the Star was actually aiming for a group of small vessels ahead of Yayoi’s ship.  Yayoi recognizes the debris as coming from unmanned LaMetalian attack ships.  So it looks like the MT was actually helping Yayoi here.

Yayoi warps straight onto Venus.  The new MQ is disgusted with the look of Yayoi’s ship, which seems to have been at least partly designed by Earthlings.  They both descend on the continent of Aphrodite in Venus (Black Queen Square in the old Black Capital).  In the meantime Yamori returns from wherever he was to discover Hajime has warped and they’re nearing Venus.  Yamori protests: their job was to escort, but not to witness the duel.  Anyone who witnesses the duel must be exterminated.  Hajime looks determined to make light of ancient LaMetalian usage.

Of course Yamori is having serious doubts about the data transfer.  Hajime tells him he now knows Yamori is not his real name, and asks him to reveal it.  They start to fight while the ship shifts off of autopilot and crashes to the ground.  The two lads stop fighting and escape together on a mini-ship.

The new MQ and Yayoi have their duel.  We can’t tell right off who wins (Leiji you tease!).

V. I 260 pgs done.

The mini-ship reaches the duel site and the winner points to the new MQ’s ship, implying they should board it and return to Earth.  This can only mean Yayoi has been the winner.

Everyone goes off into space and Yayoi’s ship seems to explode but it turns out it’s only shedding one last cloaking surface: the real real ship has a big woman’s face (Egyptian?) at one end.

Complete change of scene: Hajime eating ramen at the ramen shop.  His uncle has lost all his hair from the stress.  Hajime’s using his awesome brain to advice Yayoi’s parents on how to expand and develop the noodle shop.  Then something like an earthquake strikes.  They all feel like they’re falling.  The ramen shop very gently falls (floats) down into the hollow and lands on what looks to be an already cleared area and foundation perfectly fitting it.  As soon as the shop lands, the phone rings.

It’s the govt reinstating the Prof and asking for his help.  Yamori comes on a flying saucer and offers to take him to govt HQ.  On the way they see droves of helicopters coming into the hollow.  Yamori explains: it’s all the refugees from this great Japanese earthquake, they’ll all be sheltered in the empty apartment buildings that dot the hollow’s landscape.  The mysterious lady who took care of the buildings looks on in melancholy.

Yayoi comes to the ramen shop on a flying platform to pick Hajime up.

V. I 280 pgs done.

Yayoi says that after all the refugees have been brought she’ll seal the hollow.  Hopefully, she adds, humans will be able to return to the surface once IT’S all over.  And now LaMetal’s resumed its normal speed, heading for the space between Earth and its moon.

The govt and the Prof don’t have a handle on the situation, but the masked MT boss shows up and hands Prof a chip with a lot of data on LaMetal.  She says her name is Selen.  Selen also tells him to beware of Yayoi, as she’s not the same she’s used to be.

Prof tells govt. scientists that according to this data the earthquake was caused by La (or Ra) the LaMetalian divine creator god.  Yayoi is also teaching Hajime about La: La leads LaMetal, and LaMetal can do nothing but follow.

A second earthquake hits Earth.  The Prof is about ready to take refuge in the hollow, and the govt staff tells him he needs to go alone…Yamori shows up and tells the Prof to go with him…all of the staff in this govt. research facility are MTs! (and they refuse to evacuate).

Yamori and the Prof’s flying saucer makes it into the hollow just before a barrier shuts it out from the outer world (actually, part of the ship is destroyed by the barrier and the Prof ends up parachuting near the ramen shop).  Yamori heads to Yayoi’s and Hajime’s (they’re in the mechanical palace).

Hajime wants to know more about La.  Yamori tells him he’ll take him to see La…Yamori’s wearing the LaMetalian symbol (five-stroke character, like the “king” kanji but with the middle horizontal stroke doubled).  They board a space warship and leave the hollow.  Selen orders the MTs to send out the Double Star in pursuit.

The Double Star has a horizontal emblem, from left to right: two stars, a crescent moon facing right, a skull.

All the power and electricity in the hollow gets shut down after something like another earthquake shakes this area.  Power comes back in a few minutes.  Mirai reports to Yayoi that small animals are suspected of having entered the gravity room (center for power in the hollow), but usually this area is super-sealed so the explanation is unlikely.

Yamori’s ship warps and eludes the Double Star.

V. I 315 pgs done.

Yamori’s aim is to warp vertically south (or north, it’s all the same) of the Solar System’s planetary orbits, so as to observe the situation safely from afar.  He succeeds in this, but there’s a humongous ship waiting near the warp exit area.  This ship looks like a mosaic arrangement of stars with a lot of black space in between.  Then a few small ships come into view, looking like tanks with mechanical arms: Yamori recognizes them as the Tank Recovery Vehicles belonging to the Space Panzers (aka Space Armored Division).  Three of the TRVs grab a hold of Yamori’s ship and begin pulling it somewhere.  Yamori is relaxed, and tells everyone to wait and see what happens.  He remarks they’re probably taking them to the Panzer flagship.

Yamori’s ship gets taken to the huge starry ship seen earlier.  A voice comes over the radio: Yamori is ordered (by name) to report to the Panzer Command Center, armed as he may wish to be armed.  Hajime, who’s still ridiculously smart from the data transfer, comments to Yamori that it seems they know him.  Yamori tells him to shut up and follow him.

MT leader Selen is puzzled by Yamori’s actions, and she wonders if he’s following the MQ orders.  The reader is puzzled, isn’t that what Yamori is supposed to be doing?  The suggestion is perhaps that Yamori is actually a double agent working with the Thieves…perhaps!  Anyeway, the Double Star warps in pursuit of Yamori’s ship and disappears from the MTs’ and Yayoi’s radars (as Yamori’s ship did after warping 2 minutes earlier).  Yayoi receives a new report: the world’s elites are preparing to evacuate the Earth on a few spaceships.

Yamori is called by his real name and rank: Knight LaEls Milyu (Milieu?), Captain.  The man he meets is probably head of the Panzers (and looks quite like Leopard in Space Symphony).  He asks (disgusted) about Hajime and then questions Yamori as to his recent activity.  When Yamori says they wanted to inspect La up close, the leader asks on whose orders.  Yamori answers on the orders of the Millennial Queen, but he looks sideways at Hajime as he does so and is nastily slapped by the leader for this gross act of not looking straight at the eyes!

Then the leader tells them that the MT ship following them has been destroyed (=Double Star).  Yamori wants to know what the Panzers are doing so far out in front of and south of LaMetal.  The leader says it’s none of his business.  And ah, the leader’s name is LaFrankenbach Leopard!!  Yamori does a Roman/Nazi salute.  BTW, Leopard calls Yamori Milyu.  [“Leopard” is the name of a series of standard German battle tanks or panzers]

Hajime’s sore from Leopard’s disparagement.  Yamori explains: Leopard belongs to the Space Armored Division, which is (or functions as) the Pretorian Guard of the Holy Queen of LaMetal.  This queen is NOT the MQ.  Anyway, Leopard knows nothing of Earthlings.

As Yamori’s ship leaves, they see the wreckage of the Double Star (crew of 150).  Approaching La, everything looks wavy (Dali-like), it is the influence of La bending time and space.  La is basically a darker-than-dark sphere.  Yamori shows Hajime a map/diagram.  La is traveling way south of the entire Solar System, while LaMetal is essentially following behind it but at the level of the Solar System.  This means catastrophe, confirmed when they warp back near Earth: one look at the planet shows dramatic change.  Yamori says: Look at Tokyo!  Hajime says: Ah!  Tokyo—“ and the volume ends.  Wow.

347 pgs done.

First Volume done.

“Tokyo is gone!”  In its stead there’s a big gaping hole with seawater from Tokyo Bay already seeping through.  But Yamori points out to space and a big chunk of earth floating by.  That’s the whole hollow with the (half-obliterated) city of Tokyo and surrounding areas above it (including Tsukuba).  Yamori and Hajime go down into the gap created by the collapse of Tsukuba Observatory and they confirm the hollow itself and its residents are all OK.

So the matter becomes crystal clear: the hollow was a natural creation of a meteorite, with earth covering it later and then people building Tokyo etc.  But the LaMetalians built a ship under and containing the hollow so that they could take the whole thing out of Earth in case of an emergency.

Hajime visits his uncle, who won’t believe they’re currently floating in space.  So Yayoi, Yamori, Hajime and the Prof go to the ruined Tokyo surface and sure enough, they see Earth amidst the starry night.  They begin to see similar looking ships floating in the sky: one holding New York, another with Moscow on it, etc.  All of the major cities have been saved in this way.  Of course, Earth still has many people, animals and the MTs.  Fires are erupting everywhere, the earth crust is bursting: Hell on Earth.

There’s a new LaMetalian-made observatory on Tokyo, and through it Yayoi notices that the ice in LaMetal is melting and oceans are spreading.  In a possibly related matter, energy particle (=photon?) bombs begin to hit the hollow ship every so often.

V. II 25 pgs done.

One of the photon bombs makes a crater along the Sumida River and as far as Mukojima.

Hajime goes into Yayoi’s private quarters to give her some snacks her mom made and finds a big group of alien furry bipeds called Mayu.  Cute.

Ship operators report to Yayoi: there is some sort of battle around Titan (Saturn’s moon) and some of the errant bombs are reaching as far as Earth.  It’s not known who is fighting whom.  They decide to send an inspection team: Yamori and Yayoi will go.  Hajime asks to be included but Yamori says no, so Hajime goes to ask Yayoi directly and finds her in the shower.

Yayoi tells him that if he wants to go then he needs to take a shower first, and she doesn’t seem to mind sharing the bathtub.  Hajime is flabbergasted (maybe this is LaMetalian custom).  After the bath (an innocent affair of course) Yayoi gives another dose of brain data transfer to Hajime, and they’re off to a hangar.  According to Yayoi, the sort of ships that they will be using require one being naked.  Hajime is flabbergasted, but strips to his boxers.

The ships look like a metallic bug with a bathtub full of water inside.  The bug hatch closes and Hajime is totally underwater [kinda Evangelion style].  Now Hajime can communicate telepathically with Yayoi and he feels as if the ship is his body.  The ship is called a Space Insector Ship, and the water thingy is a Liquid Cockpit.

The two Insectors head out to see what’s going on in Titan.  Yamori is miffed as Yayoi has chosen to go with Hajime and left Yamori behind at the new observatory with the Prof.  Yayoi orders Hajime to increase speed to 70% of light, and warns him to disregard any hallucinations that may happen.  An ancient city of sorts rises before Hajime’s eyes and all of a sudden Yayoi notices Hajime’s Insector has completely veered off course.  She follows his ship and tries to contact him but to no avail.

Then Hajime’s ship disappears from all radars.  Yayoi is near the “Pretorian Guard” Panzers so she requests a meeting.  She gives out her full LaMetalian name: LaAndromedaPromethium.  She realizes the fighting involves Panzer Commander Leopard.

The Prof looks out a window and notices most Tokyo buildings are back to normal.  Yamori drops a metaphorical bomb on him: although the earthquakes hitting Earth were real, the devastation was an optical mirage engineered by Yayoi’s LaMetalian operatives in order to gauge human responses to the impending catastrophes.  All of this was just a test-run.  The Prof gets a headache and goes to bed [I can’t blame him!].

Yayoi boards Leopard’s vessel.  Leopard says they are fighting the MTs, and that’s he’s just learned the MT boss (Selen) is Yayoi’s sister.  This he learned from Hajime, who was picked up by the Panzers and then interrogated by a computer.  Hajime looks quite messed up and he’s been divulging all sorts of data he has in his brain.

[This is serious business: Yayoi as MQ should have reported back to LaMetal that her own sister was leading the MT resistance, but she failed to do so.  This, plus her duel with and killing of her new replacement, puts her in a perilous position.  For some reason, though, LaMetalians aren’t ready to imprison / terminate her.]

Leopard leaves Yayoi and Hajime alone.  Yayoi notices Hajime is still wearing his boxers: this is why the Insector went haywire, because the pilot-ship interface was disturbed by the boxer shorts…

Seven MT bombers approach the Panzer mothership.  The mothership blows up 6 of them.  Leopard orders his crew to let the 7^th return to his base so they can see where their vessels are.  But the ship blows itself up.  Leopard is impressed by the pride and honor of the MTs.

Leopard announces to Yayoi that the mother planet (LaMetal) wants to talk to her.  She goes to the communications room and Hajime is left alone with a robot called Aladdin [looks like R2D2, but larger] who’s been charged by Leopard with befriending him.

V. II 75 pgs done.

Hajime’s sure Aladdin’s just there to be a spy and so he rejects it completely.  The robot is very sad and slumps on the ground.  Yayoi comes back from her meeting [ahrg! we didn’t get to snoop in!] and meets Hajime.  The two hop on the Insector Ships (this time Hajime fully undressed) and they head back to Earth, leaving Leopard and Aladdin behind.

It only takes Hajime a few minutes to veer off completely off course again, and what’s worse, he warps and disappears from view.  We get to see him as he loses control of the ship, which is drawn to a large asteroid with an Earth-like atmosphere.  The Insector lands on the surface.  Hajime opens the hatch and discovers Aladdin hitched a ride with him.  Aladdin claims it’s there of its own free will (to help Hajime out) and that its mechanism is set so that it won’t interrupt the Insector interface, so the robot is not at fault for the “malfunctioning”.

Hajime can get inside of Aladdin and sit (like in a baby car) so he starts to think of the robot as useful.  They get captured by countless jellyfishy robots.  The jellyfish robots communicate telepathically with Yayoi, tell her they have Hajime, and give her coordinates for their asteroid.  She heads that way.

Once she reaches the asteroid, a hole opens and lets her in.  She is told to get out of the cockpit.  Then she is told to go inside a spherical command center.  A masked Selen is waiting for her inside.  Yayoi asks if this then is the MT’s secret “planet”, but Selen calls it the Karmilla Witch Planet.  Karmilla is the stuff of LaMetalian legend, and a certain Hannibal, Knight of Hell is supposed to inhabit it.  Selen confirms Hannibal is there, and in fact talking to Hajime at the moment.

Yayoi is visibly upset.  She asks to meet with Hannibal.  He is completely covered in a black cape and only shiny eyes can be seen within.  He puts Yayoi at ease, saying he knows both sisters have been hiding much from Hajime and they should talk to him, but that he himself hasn’t.  So he gives them 1 hour and Hajime is ushered in.  Hannibal leaves, Selen takes off her mask.

V. II 97 pgs done.

What they tell him is basically a recap of the Millennial Thief’s story back in the govt building: the MQ group and the MT group are responsible for Hajime’s parents’ death.  What’s new (or at least clearer now) is that Yayoi and Selen, as leaders of each faction, and sisters to boot, were the ones ultimately responsible for their death.  Yayoi ordered a component for her large ship “Noah” while the MTs ordered one for their command ship “Miyu”.

Hajime leaves the room in tears, and Hannibal gives him more bad news: Aladdin self-exploded, killing itself rather than reporting back to the Panzers.  Yayoi tells Hajime that Aladdin can be repaired back on Earth, and he agrees to ride the Insector once again.  He is surprised to see no sign of the hollow ship, but Yayoi explains (as Yamori did to the Prof earlier) that it was all an illusion to test human responses, but that the evacuation will probably eventually happen.

Hajime meets up with the Prof, who’s fishing.  They discuss how the photon bombs that fell on the hollow were not part of the illusion.

Yayoi receives a report that LaMetal is near Neptune’s orbit, and that its outer ring of asteroids/debris will begin to impact Earth within 24 hrs.  Yayoi calls what will happen soon a “fireball rain”.  It is determined that 280 asteroids will explode within Earth’s atmosphere and 44 will actually impact Earth.  These include those codenamed Samarkhand (11x6km), Kilimanjaro (32x12km), Boa (spherical, diam. 16km), Eldorado (13x7km), Oitentao (8x4km).

Yamori tells Yayoi someone’s trying to reach her through the “special line”.  She goes to her private room and tells Yamori to prevent anyone from entering it.  The communication is from LaMetal, from someone who tells her he(?) has been wating 1,0000 years to see her again, and he’s glad she’s still beautiful.  LaMetal is still very cold, (s)he says.

The computers calculate that Samarkhand will make impact in 14 hours, in Northern Kyushu of all places [= Leiji’s birthplace].  Hajime panics and rushes to tell Yayoi, with Yamori trying to stop him…Hajime won’t listen so Yamori shoots him in the head.

The shot must have grazed him, as he wakes up with his head bandaged.  Yamori is very apologetic, he even prostrates as an apology, but he says he couldn’t let the queen be disturbed at that time and that he also reacted on impulse.

Samarkhand enters Earth’s atmosphere.  Two destroyer energy waves shoot out from the Mariana trench in the Pacific and pulverize the incoming asteroid.  Yayoi and her people weren’t expecting this at all.  Who did this??

Kilimanjaro enters the atmosphere and two more waves shoot out from the Pacific, but they’re weaker.  The asteroid is destroyed, but Yayoi’s men reckon the next asteroid might be too strong for whatever these people (whoever they are) have left…

A third asteroid enters the atmosphere, codename Mastodon.  This one’s bigger than the previous two.  The two Mariana energy waves make impact but bounce off of Mastodon.  And this asteroid is headed straight for Tokyo!

V. II 120 pgs done.

Yayoi gets another call from the special line.  Hajime barges into her room just in a time to see a shade [from the other line, from LaMetal] flickering off after saying “soon I’ll see you in the flesh”.  Yayoi’s quite upset at Hajime..

2 minutes before Mastodon’s impact, Yayoi orders Yamori to turn on the Arc Barrier and we see the asteroid being blown to pieces.  Crisis averted.  But the main bunch of asteroids is about to hit.  Yayoi signals to all the Noahs (all the hollow ships, basically) to be on alert.  Hajime follows Yamori down into the engine room.

At one point Hajime falls down and he sees a plate on one of the engines in front of him: AMAMORI ELECTRONIC BLACKSMITHS.  1997. 8. 7.  There’s another plate with the same name but with date 1997. 9. 9.

Yamori goes over the “what the Amamoris did” bit again, and he tells of how more plates like these ones are to be found on MT ships.  They descend into the Motive Power Room, with gigantic spherical organisms that generate energy [Yamori’s account: energy lifeforms are a source of perpetual power, because they generate more power from themselves].  Hajime remembers that earlier his uncle had fallen ill after being down in this area, but Yamori clarifies: it wasn’t from seeing these creatures that the Prof. became ill.

Hajime asks how this energy is harnessed, and Yamori smiles: it’s exactly from seeing the control mechanism for the energy spheres that the Prof went sick.  And then he shows Hajime: it’s a room full of bright light with ghostly shades floating in a ring.  These control the energy lifeforms.  And to Hajime they resemble the shade back in Yayoi’s private room, except that the one back there looked vaguely like a “little girl”.  Yamori is very interested to hear this comment…

The Noah (= hollow ship) begins to rise [we’re guessing this time it’s for real] amid destruction from the asteroids.  The shaking gets so bad that Hajime falls down a shaft but Aladdin (newly rebuilt and without the link to the Panzers) is there to pick him up.  The three of them reach Noah’s bridge, where Yayoi is alone.

V. II 150 pgs done.

The Noah successfully reaches space.  In the meantime LaMetal speeds up and leaves the vicinity of Neptune.  Yayoi says they’ll soon make the Noah head for a “bridge”.  What this bridge is is still unclear.

Yamori announces the special line is “ringing” again.  Hajime’s curious, but Yamori dissuades him from following her.  He offers instead to show him the blueprints for the Noah.  They begin walking, and just for a split second they see what looks like the shadowy little girl that Yayoi usually talks to.

Yayoi reaches her room and the shade there is that of a tall man.

The scene changes to the Prof going around “town” (within the hollow?) and peering into a bookstore.  The little girl shade is there, and asks him if he’s found any book that interests him.

V. II 160 pgs done.

Quick change of scene again: Yamori and Hajime arrive at the secret Blueprint Room, but the Prof is there to greet them.  Yamori’s baffled, but the Prof reveals that a little girl has led him there: we see the shade by his side and then we see the girl clearly.  She calls herself Lala, she’s got big eyes and super long hair cascading all the way down to the floor.

Yamori asks what her post is on the ship and she says she doesn’t have one, and adds that he should stop asking questions and open up the room so they can see the blueprints.  Yamori refuses.  Lala says he can ask Yayoi later about her…but anyway Yayoi is busy communicating with a very important person to her from LaMetal.  Yamori goes very red, and Hajime notices it.  Hajime tells Lala to stop being so stubborn, and the girl replies she just can’t understand why Yamori would be willing to show the blueprints to an ape like him but not to her!

Yayoi appears at the top of the steps, with the shade of the tall man next to her…which disappears after a sec (though everyone did see it).  Lala then disappears.  The men wonder if it was all an optical illusion.

Yamori seems paralyzed, and Hajime jokes maybe he should ask Yayoi who was she talking to back in her room, but Yamori cuts him off and he opens the Blueprint Room.  They go in and explore the huge plan on the floor.

Yayoi updates them on LaMetal’s status.  It is currently approaching Saturn’s orbit.  Its climate is also changing, and by the time it nears Earth it’ll look like a gigantic double of our planet.

V. II 170 pgs done.

The central computer recalculates the time of nearest LaMetal-Earth distance, and out pops the Prof’s original estimate: Sept. 9^th, 1999.  So the Prof was right?!  But we’re way past that date, as Hajime points out.  Yayoi claims this is evidence the computer’s being tampered with, and she goes off to contact LaMetal itself.

Hajime’s alone, and Lala shows up again, asking him for a talk just the two of them.  Lala keeps calling him Mr. Monkey, but she means business.  She asks him if he understands the situation.  He replies Earth is a hell now so they’ve been evacuated to the hollow ships.

Lala puts things differently: all the worthy people have left on their own ships.  The people in the Noahs are but the dregs of mankind.  Also, lots of people are dying as they speak right now on the Hell that is Earth.

Hajime’s surprised, as he was under the impression that EVERYONE had been evacuated.  Lala says Yayoi has been misleading him, and she suggests he should feel ashamed that he’s left countless people to die on Earth only to save himself, and THAT not even by his own power (but by Yayoi’s).  Hajime wants to know who she really is.

She stands up and declares: the Leader LaRela [leader or fuhrer, Jap. sohtoh].  She says she wants to become good friends with Hajime, and that he should start forgetting about Yayoi because she has a fiancé and they’ll soon meet up again.  She vanishes.

Hajime goes out and meets Yayoi.  On being asked about people remaining on earth, Yayoi says that certainly lots have stayed but only because they wished to stay.  Actually, they’re people who’ve been persuaded to stay by the MTs.

Hajime tells Yayoi he heard this from LaRela.  Yayoi says it’s LaRela’s shade, and it’s (or she’s) dangerous…before they can speak any further Yamori comes in.  The computer’s been fixed: new estimate of nearest distance is March 13^th, 2000.  Earth is expected to explode when this happens.

Hajime and Aladdin hang out in the hollow’s jungle.  An MT comes out of the woods and hands a cassette-tape-like device for Yayoi.

The device allows Yayoi to communicate with Selen.  Basically, Selen tells Yayoi that the hollow computer is lying to her and that Earth will not be totally destroyed.  Yayoi is pensive.

Yayoi’s special line rings, and Hajime is kicked out of the room.  Aladdin picks up the transmission, is shocked by its content, and refuses to tell Hajime what the conversation between Yayoi and whomever was all about.

V. II 190 pgs done.

LaMetal is speeding up again, and it now sports an atmospheric tail (like a comet) 20 times as long as the planet’s diameter.  The tail begins to split off, “like a witch’s hair” in the words of Yamori.  Yamori’s angry because Yayoi’s gone to see Hajime and his uncle at the apartment complexes.  When Yamori begins to go get her, LaRela appears and tells him that won’t be necessary.

Yayoi and Hajime eventually show up at the command center.  Hajime is whisked away by LaRela, while Yamori informs Yayoi that no less than 110 large ships are flying in front of LaMetal’s path.

LaRela orders Hajime to become her subordinate.  He refuses.  Yayoi comes, the two women stare at each other and then LaRela vanishes.

Back at the command center, Yamori and Yayoi pick up transmissions between the ships in front of LaMetalian.  In the LaMetalian language, they are saying [I’m transcribing it as it shows exactly in Japanese]:

“Sarumeeru Eruparasura Oorumarusu Derupesuto!”

“Haaru Haaru!  Meerusutaru Sarumeeru Derupento Tenda!”

Yamori says what they’re saying spells trouble.  Aladdin offers to translate:

“Destroy the elite fleet(s) from Earth that is (or are) approaching LaMetal!”

Yamori adds that this must be the reason Leopard’s Panzers are ahead of LaMetal, implying the 110 ships are Panzers.  Yes, Yayoi says, that fleet is the Main Panzer Force itself.

While this is going on, LaRela turns up before the fishing Prof and tells him to persuade his nephew to become her subordinate, as otherwise he will die.

V. II 205 pgs done.

Latest update on the Panzer Fleet: there are 120 ships in the vanguard, the flagship in the center, and 100 ships in the rear.  Hajime visits his uncle in the hollow and gives him the update.  Prof remembers LaRela’s message and he says he feels like the monkey on Noah’s Ark, but then falls asleep before saying anything to Hajime about LaRela.

Hajime is taken hostage by an armed person in black that looks like a typical MT (though s/he claims not to be one).  He is taken to an apparatus that looks just like the transmission device that allows LaMetalians to communicate and be seen by Yayoi.  He is forced to enter it and then he shows up in another room altogether.

It’s LaRela’s room and it’s huge.  She greets him.  Hajime realizes he is just a shade here.  And here is nowhere else but LaMetal’s capital: City Miyu.  According to her, Earth will be destroyed with the coming of LaMetal, but her planet will be safe because it’s 9 times larger.  Hajime complains that for a capital the skyline looks quite puny, but LaRela says that’s because most of the city is still covered in ice.  To duly impress the boy, LaRela decides to take him down to the Holy Chamber “Mayu”, which lies 10,000 meters beneath the surface [does this have anything to do with the furry bipeds also called Mayu?!].

What’s in Mayu?  Lots and lots of Yayoi look-alikes sleeping in a row.  LaRela is about to give an explanation when Hajime’s shade vanishes.  It’s Yayoi, who’s found his body in the hollow and hung the line up.  Before she can really interrogate Hajime on what he did with LaRela, the hollow ship shakes.  It’s a fierce wind blowing over Tokyo, the result of the hollow ship having entered LaMetal’s atmosphere.

They go to taste the air over Tokyo and Yayoi is extremely moved: LaMetal’s once-in-a-thousand-year spring has arrived!

Now the atmospheres of the two planets are merging: this is the bridge talked about earlier (and it means even helicopters and the such could travel between the two planets via this bridge).  The Prof pops up on a screen and says countless birdlike creatures are approaching.  The transmission stops all of a sudden.

Hajime runs to the observatory and sees its dome has collapsed.  There is a foul odor, which Aladdin credits to the “Nuna”.

Scene changes to Yamori and Yayoi looking over the “bridge” situation.  Aladdin, all shaken up, comes to tell them the Prof and his nephew have been kidnapped by the Nuna!

V. II 240 pgs done.

The Nuna look like dragons, and they seem to be taking their two captives to Earth.  Yamori goes off in pursuit of the Nuna without requesting permission first.  Yayoi contacts him and he says he must help his friends!  Ohh~  Then another ship, larger than Yamori’s, attacks and shoots it up.

Scene change: Hajime wakes up on the ground, it’s raining.  Nuna nowhere in sight.  He goes over to a 350-storey skyscraper and goes to the top: a dismal view awaits him, craters from the asteroid showers everywhere.  Craters are full of water, and Nuna can be seeing bathing therein.

He’s hungry, finds a supermarket, stocks up on food, goes back out and eats all alone.  Earth seems totally empty!

Yayoi receives a report: 3,000 Nuna have flocked to Earth.  No indication of Yamori’s status or that of the ship that shot it down.

V. II 260 pgs done.

The sun comes out and it’s really hot.  Hajime crawls to a pond desperate for water.  A woman, dressed in furs, is in the water.  She throws a big spiky club at his head and he’s knocked out cold [are we in the Dark Ages now??].

Yayoi is getting ready to rescue Hajime when she gets a transmission from Selen, saying that the MTs are keeping Hajime with them.  Selen declines handing him back to Yayoi and cuts the conversation.

Hajime talks with the people that have taken him, and then these people get word that two more newcomers have been spotted (and these 2 are armed!).  It’s Yamori and the Prof looking for Hajime.  The two are eating at a restaurant, and as soon as they leave the building they’re attacked by a thousand flying clubs hurled at them.

V. II 270 pgs done.

They somehow survive, and the masked MT leader appears, telling them to follow “her”.  But then another club flies thru the air and strikes the MT’s head…the head falls off but the voice remains “Follow me…”

Then Hajime peers out from a manhole and tells the two to go down it.  The so-called MT head wasn’t Selen but an android from the Android Independence League (AIL) whose members are all Earth’s robots who are glad the time of the humans seems to have ended.  And the real Selen, masked, is with Hajime.

Yayoi’s control center gets the following data: in a few hrs. the Main Transport Fleet from LaMetal will be leaving the planet with destination Earth.  It’s not known what is to be transported.  A huge camouflaged ship shows up on the screen: it’s Leopard’s flagship, named “Disprotheum”.  Then a call comes in from the commander himself for Yayoi.

Yayoi talks to Leopard, asking him why are the Panzers headed for Earth.  To fight, as is natural, he replies.  He also says not to worry if the hollow ship shakes and rattles to some extent while the Disprotheum passes it by on its way to Earth.  Then he vanishes.  Yayoi thinks back to Hajime…

The Disprotheum begins to pass by Yayoi’s Noah and she orders his staff to gather data on the ship’s structure and size.  The staff is shocked to hear this but they obey.

The result is displayed on the screen: the underlying structure of Disprotheum [roughly like an octopus with very long tentacles] is unlike the usual Panzer ship and its design is not in Yayoi’s judgment of LaMetalian origin at all.  And the other Panzers are all exact replicas of the Disprotheum except they’re all ¼ the size.  The Disprotheum will reach Earth in 12 hours.

A further set of vessels looking like the Disprotheum begin to pass the Noah.  Then a power outage hits the Noah, due to some immense jolt of energy emanating from the special line transmission in Yayoi’s room.  She goes into to find a dark-haired woman who introduces herself as Yago, the New MQ, and much tougher than the one Yayoi beat in Venus.  Yago says Yayoi has until the time than the Noah reaches LaMetal to decide whether she wants to cede her position or fight for it.  Then Yago vanishes and power returns to the Noah.

Massive snow flurries from LaMetal begin to hit the Noahs.  The New York Noah’s crew loses control of its ship and it comes dangerously close to the Tokyo [Yayoi’s] Noah.  The 2 Noahs collide!!

At the MT center on Earth, everyone’s looking at the collision.  Both ships are OK, though the N.Y. Noah loses its earthy exterior and now looks like a huge metallic oval [“Noah 66 – New York City” written on its side].

V. II 300 pgs done.

While the ships are OK overall, there are many injured on the Tokyo Noah and quite a few ruptures etc.  Yayoi is concerned for the New York Noah but the control center gets word that fighting has begun on Earth (between the Panzers and the Thieves).  The NY Noah communicates and reveals it’s had several deaths and injuries, and it requests assistance from Tokyo.  Yayoi decides to prioritize NY over the situation in Earth, and hopes Hajime will forgive her.  Several “corridor tubes” are launched at the NY’s surface, and transport of first-aid relief begins.  Yayoi herself hops one of the vessels, and on the way to the NY Noah she gets a report that something very strange is going on inside the NY Noah.

Change of scene: The MT control center.  Selen, monitoring the situation with the Noahs, notes that the New York shows no signs of life.  This is simply not to be expected of such a relatively small impact on such a sturdy ship as a Noah.  It’s odd.

Now we see Yayoi and her men inside the NY.  Indeed, everyone looks very dead.  We see the MTs reporting what happens next: all of the vessels coming in from the Tokyo into the NY retreat back, the corridor tubes are detached and Yayoi’s Noah pulls away from the New York (now a veritable ghost ship) with alacrity.  Selen manages to contact the Tokyo Noah, and she hears the news that her sister is very, very ill.

V. II 320 pgs done.

The NY and Tokyo Noahs have halted their advance toward LaMetal.  All other hollow ships [which include Istanbul, Nairobi, Bonn, London, Rio, Beijing, Hawaii, San Francisco, Hanoi, Sapporo, Fukuoka (i.e. Leiji’s birthplace)] are still moving on.

Then the Tokyo Noah starts moving again and Selen receives word that the MQ (Yayoi) wants to talk to her privately.  She takes Hajime with her to her own ship, the Triple Star (there are 200 of these star ships!).

Yayoi is awaiting on the communications thingy: she’s ill, and warns her sister not to get near the Panzers.  She disappears before answering their questions.

Yamori leaves Earth on a small, unarmed vessel, intending to return to the Noah.  Any number of Panzer ships begin to pursue him, still within the stratosphere.  He manages to elude them all through complex maneuvering and reaches the Noah.

Selen states the nearest distance between Earth and LaMetal will occur in 48 hrs.

Yamori meets with Yayoi.  What struck the New York was a virus called the fossilizing virus.  This virus was supposed to have been exterminated in LaMetal 1,000 years ago.  It doesn’t kill, only petrify, it doesn’t eve take away consciousness.  It might be an accident, or it might have been spread deliberately by Leopard and his Panzers.

The two get a report that Hajime is returning: actually, both nephew and uncle land on the hollow ship (inside of a flying Aladdin).  Yayoi pleads with them to turn back but Hajime wants to help and doesn’t really listen to warnings of a virus.  They land on Tokyo.  They begin to discover lots of “dead” bodies, although the Prof handles one and realizes it’s only paralyzed.  They go down a hole into the actual ship and even more bodies are lying on the floor!

341 pgs done.

Second Volume done.

The Amamoris get more of a sense that all of these people are paralyzed and not dead.  Yamori appears, falls to the floor before them, and mutters that Yayoi is in her private quarters and they should head there.  Then he falls prey to the virus.

Yayoi is asleep on her bed, with drowsy Mayu lying about all over the place.  Cute!  The Prof goes to the bridge and confirms the ship is still on course for LaMetal, but the entire staff is paralyzed.  The ship is about to begin its descent on the planet.

They go down into the hollow, which is eerily quiet, and run into LaRela, without being sure if this is a hologram/shade or the actual “girl”.  She tells them they’ll soon get to meet her real self, so that settles that.  She also tells them that whether the crew of the Noah is dead or alive is of small consequence.  She leaves and they go to the ramen shop.  Someone seems to be inside…but when they go in they see a skeleton and then there’s a black out!  [The skeleton turns out to be something Yayoi’s father dug up…he’s becoming an amateur archaeologist]

The Tokyo hollow is to land 200km north of the equator, in the waters of Miira [=mummy] Bay, east of the Nile River, in the central section of the continent of Skarabe.

Aladdin shows up, tells the Amamoris that landing requires a lot of energy so even the artificial sun of the hollow has been turned off.  The robot gives them a ride to a deep recess of the hollow, part of its reasoning being the human brainwaves may interfere with the landing.  The Prof speculates this might be the reason why the crew has been put in this dormant state.

They land.  Aladdin and its passengers head back from their “hiding place” and run into Yayoi.  Yamori shows up too.  Yayoi tells the Prof that they were definitely administered a mild dose of paralysis virus, but she suspects it’s because there’s something on the surface of LaMetal that the LaMetalians didn’t want the Noahs to see when landing.  She asks Yamori point-blank whether he knows the true reason this happened!

Before Yamori can respond, a report comes in that the New York Noah’s autopilot system is broken and the ship is plummeting into LaMetal.  It crashes.  Yayoi and Yamori head out to help.

V. III 30 pgs done.

The Amamoris follow on a flying Aladdin.  The entire surface of New York City is covered in flower petals.  Aladdin and co. see Hannibal of the Karmilla witch Planet standing the middle of the planet.  Hannibal tells them to get out of the robot, and when Hajime brings up the virus, Hannibal asks if they don’t trust him.  Aladdin trusts him and opens its hatch.

The Amamoris walk out and seem to be fine.  Hannibal tells them the passengers of the NY Noah are gradually awakening.  Hannibal himself brought the flower seeds from his planet, because apparently LaMetalians won’t bother coming in if there are lots of flowers(?!)

Hannibal asks Hajime if he still doesn’t know what was the purpose of building these hollow ships, but then he catches sight of Yayoi and Yamori and the conversation ends.

A lot of armed men appear on the roof of the city.  Hannibal declares he is there to help humanity fight the LaMetalians and return to Earth.  The armed men are led by the mayor of New York, Timerhead Franklin.  Mr. Franklin tells Yayoi no one believes her lies anymore, and the people on all the major Noahs are prepared for resistance.  He pleads directly with Hajime to open his eyes.

V. III 40 pgs done.

Scene change: the Amamoris are having a meal.  Yayoi has sequestered herself in her room.  Uncle and nephew wonder what’s going on around them: Thieves fighting Panzers in Earth, the Noah people about to fight the LaMetalians.  Then Yayoi appears in full regalia and says she’s going to the Holy Palace in City Miyu.  She goes.

LaRela’s hologram show up and invites Hajime to go to the palace too, “her” palace.  Hajime still doesn’t get she’s a queen, but he’s excited to go and ropes Aladdin into taking him to the capital.

The capital City Miyu is 300 km north of Scarabe, on the continent of LaMiyu.

Hajime gets into the palace right after Yayoi, but when he goes into the main hall LaRela is waiting for him before Yayoi, who is sprawled on the floor.

LaRela declares herself Holy Queen and Leader of the planet, of the MQ, and of the universe as a whole!!  A halo shows up over her head, and it grows in size.  She says it’s the Ring of Wisdom, and it appears when she is deep in thought about some issue.  She bids Hajime leave Yayoi with Aladdin and to follow her into her private quarters, which she’s never shown to anyone else.  Hajime is embarrassed, but LaRela means business so he follows her.

V. III 50 pgs done.

LaRela’s quarters are enormous, filled in rooms of various styles (including Earth’s: Japanese room, Kenyan, Chinese, German, Italian room).  They go to a Wild West room, where’s there a saloon.  LaRela tells Hajime he’d better adjust as Yayoi will die soon and he needs to become friends with her.  He gets upset and she brings his parents up, who died because of Yayoi and Selen.  He shouts that was an accident and then his parents show up, briefly.  LaRela offers to show him any memory in his heart.

Meanwhile Yayoi regains consciousness and says to Aladdin they must rescue Hajime.  The Prof at the control center gets word that the Panzer Fleet is returning from Earth to LaMetal at high speed.  Worse, the Thieves cannot be contacted at all.  And even worse than that, the number of Panzer vessels hasn’t visibly diminished in the interim.  It looks like the Thieves have been obliterated by the Panzers.

Back in LaRela’s room, which she says is 25 square kilometers in size, the Holy Queen begins to lay out the heavy stuff: heretofore LaMetal has had a year of spring for every 999 of winter, but soon it will be wrapped in eternal winter.  Hajime retorts: wasn’t the whole point of the hollow ships to bring humans to LaMetal to thrive there, because the Earth was going to explode with this latest approach of the larger planet?

No, says LaRela.  LaMetal will pass by Earth and neither planet will suffer destruction [and they’ve known this all along, these wily LaMetalians].  And so the purpose of the hollow ships is…an earthquake strikes the planet and LaRela stops talking.

V. III 60 pgs done.

A certain Dr. Fara reports to LaRela (and Hajime): the engine is ready.  The engine is the Holy Palace’s, which is nothing less than [the center of] a spaceship.  Its destination is Earth.  The ship is continental in size, it is pretty much the entire LaMiyu (= 1.5 times the size of Africa), and it easily dwarfs the Noahs.  LaRela says humans can take LaMetal, and LaMetalians will move to Earth.  Hajime realizes Dr. Fara is the tall man whose shade he saw speaking with Yayoi earlier.  Fara is Leopard’s younger brother, and Battle Commander for LaMetal.  He is also Yayoi’s fiancé.

Hajime’s jealous, and Fara goes off to visit Yayoi.  LaRela says not to worry, for they will be friends forever.

Two scenes get interlaced here: A) Hajime and Aladdin trying to get to Yayoi but being foiled by LaRela and B) Fara’s reunion with Yayoi.  LaRela uses some magical, magnetic power to keep Hajime by her and she promises to reveal to him the foundation of LaMetalian civilization, which will make him forget all about Yayoi.

The Prof is monitoring the situation from the Tokyo Noah.  They pick up a transmission from Leopard to LaRela: the Panzers want to know whether to execute the prisoners from Earth (the Prof assumes this refers to the MTs) or to bring them down to the LaMiyu ship.

LaRela takes her visitors down to the “bedrooms”.  They are pods where LaMetalians sleep for a millennium at a time (more precisely, for 999 years and 9 months).  The Queen tells of how there are machines that take care of them while they sleep, and of how there are caretakers for these machines.  She offers to present them to Hajime, and he’s eager to see them.  He asks how come there are LaMetalians who sleep for a millennium and those who don’t.  LaRela grows pensive [halo gets big] and gives up on the idea of having Hajime meet these caretakers.  She hears that Leopard is bringing the captives and she invites Hajime to see them.

Yamori lands a small vessel on the Tokyo Noah and meets the Prof.  He tells him Yayoi and Hajime are gone forever, and his task here is done.  Then Yamori gathers the important people in the Noah and announces: the Earthlings may choose a leader from amongst them and settle on LaMetal.  The LaMetalian crew is to follow him out of the hollow ship and “homeward”.

In answer to the Prof’s question, Yamori clarifies that home is the Space Panzers: Yamori is actually a soldier in the Special Activities Cavalry under the Panzers.  The Prof is shocked.  Yamori gives us his real name again (Milyu) and departs, not without telling the Prof that he liked him and his nephew.

The Prof is left to figure out how to run the Noah, but not for long.  Yayoi contacts him and enters on a small ship.  She collapses on landing.  Yayoi’s mother and the Prof start trying to revive her when they both fall to the ground, shot at by some  people who have just entered the ship after Yayoi.

LaRela shows Hajime a huge room full of men and women slaving away at machinery.  She says they’re descendants of Earthlings who came to LaMetal a thousand years prior.  It is these Earthlings who, unable and/or not allowed to sleep through the LaMetalian winter, work away as slaves while the natives sleep.  LaRela has some of these Earthlings address Hajime.  One of them is very eager to talk, but then his friend tries to stop him.  This is literally what they say:

Man # 1: Kimi doko da.  Saru sutora.  Mezu maru da.  Kasu dorado.  Kuromii?

Man # 2: Erupanda!  Yabai nen.  Korosarun den.  Yametokendo.

Man # 1: Kasu dorado.  Tora torendo.  Mii kunmii.  Konpure kiddo?

Man # 2: Kasu dorado!!  Ueru kasu dorado??

LaRela says their language has diverged through the centuries.  Indeed, this sounds vaguely Japanese.  My haphazard translation would go like this:

Man # 1 wants to know about Hajime.  Man # 2 tells him to stop talking, or he’ll end up getting killed [maybe everyone will end up getting killed].  For some reason I get a feeling this word “kasu dorado” means human/Earthling.  So Man # 1 insists Hajime is one of them, but Man # 2 can’t be sure.

Then LaRela steps in and tells them:

Eru pamurera  kondo ruudo wainapichiko!

And one of them says: Eru!!, and then they all prostrate before Hajime.  LaRela says it’s time to move on, but a little boy sneaks up to him and says “Take care of yourself” in perfect Japanese.  This stuns Hajime!

V. III 100 pgs done.

Yayoi (still in full regalia) wakes up and Hannibal is there.  He makes a demand: hand over the “keys” to the “living energy control mechanism” in the power room for the hollow and the keys to LaRela’s “spiritual power”.

Yayoi won’t hand them over but she does essentially comply with what Hannibal wants to do with these keys: she severs the connection between the Noah [all the Noahs?] and LaRela’s own power, so the ships are independent of her now.  Hannibal mentions Selen is injured.  She was shot down over Africa and is now one of Leopard’s captives, just arrived in the City Miyu floating continent.

LaRela and Hajime meet with the Panzers.  Hajime sees a collapsed Selen.  Leopard shows him what the ultimate penalty on LaMetal is: being placed inside the power room, where the spherical lifeforms full of energy “drain” you [i.e. kill you].

It becomes Selen’s turn to suffer the penalty.  Hajime takes advantage of the fact that LaRela is in deep thought to grab a hold of her halo.  There’s a small explosion and they’re both thrown back.  They’re both OK.  Leopard wants to kill Hajime but LaRela wants to forgive him, because it’s “him” [not at all clear just what’s so special with this Hajime kid, really!].

There’s an explosion in the power room.  Selen was concealing a bomb and she detonated it.  Some of the lifeforms are dead, many are injured.  This means the City Miyu can’t properly fly for awhile.  LaRela is worried especially about landing on Earth.  Hajime is puzzled as to why on Earth they would go…to Earth…

After checking the power room some more, it’s revealed that “Selen” was actually an android.  The LaMetalians analyze the rest of the captives and it turns out ALL of them are androids.  So the Panzers failed in their war with the Thieves!  Leopard is shocked: this sort of android cannot be built with LaMetalian (let alone Earth) technology!  LaRela says there’s only one person who can build them: Hannibal.  And then Hajime blurts out that he’s met him.  Leopard decides to put Hajime on one of the data transfer machines to analyze his brain.  This way he can tell them the exact coordinates the planet Karmilla [which Hajime visited once] is located at.

V. III 120 pgs done.

They figure out Karmilla is near where the Panzers were stationed earlier, near the Dark Sun La.  Leopard conjectures Hannibal has been following them since then all the way to LaMetal.  In fact, he has, and he’s so cool that immediately in the next scene: we see Hannibal telling Yayoi that the LaMetalians have caught on to him.  He says it is high time he explain his purpose to the world(s).  Yayoi says she herself wants to explain her own goal too!  She tells Hannibal she’s going to sever the hollow ship from LaRela once and for all.  This involves destroying the lifeform power room AND the power control room which is somehow intimately related to LaRela’s spirit power.

Destroying the power room is nothing more than releasing the spherical lifeforms into the air.  Hannibal offers to try to destroy the spirit power connection, as he’s scared Yayoi will be destroyed when trying.  Yayoi goes to the control room with all the shades.  LaRela attempts to materialize there after having seen the lifeforms flying in the air.  She finally does, just behind Yayoi.  But then Hannibal appears just behind LaRela and an explosion occurs.

V. III 130 pgs done.

LaRela is knocked back from Yayoi’s place to her own palace.  Hajime actually looks concerned about her, and she’s grateful to him.  Yayoi and Hannibal confirm LaRela’s hold on the Noah [or Noahs, not clear] is finished.  Selen is on her way with the MTs to fight LaRela.

Hajime tries to leave but is caged along with Aladdin.  Leopard promises LaRela he will defeat the MTs this time once and for all.

LaRela tries to persuade Hajime from leaving her, but she must keep him caged as he refuses to stay.  He accuses her of not understanding what friendship is all about.

LaRela’s shade materializes in the Noah once more, seeking negotiation with Yayoi.  She offers to give up both Hajime and LaMetal to Yayoi in exchange for her neutrality in the coming conflict between the Panzers and the Thieves.  Before Yayoi can agree to anything, Hajime and Aladdin get dropped off.  Hajime is on the verge of starvation, having gone on a 10-day hunger strike against LaRela.  Yayoi surmises the Holy Queen does love Hajime in her own way, as returning him to Yayoi was the only way of getting him to eat again.

Yayoi can’t accept neutrality…her assessment is the Thieves will only get crushed by the Panzers.  Then a huge asteroid shows up between the two forces: it’s the Witch Planet Karmilla.  Hannbial tells Yayoi he’s decided to help the Thieves and he leaves the hollow to go to Karmilla.  Yayoi takes off her queenly dress [finally], wakes up the entire population of the Noah, and prepares for battle.

Then, to both Amamori’s great surprise, Yayoi shows up in a bikini with surfboard and suggests they all go to the beach.  The entire beach is full of people, and the Amamoris find it disturbing that everyone would be so oblivious to the struggle about to occur [not to mention, they’re still on LaMetal!].  As they swim, LaRela’s shade watches from beneath the waters.

After the beach they head to a restaurant.  Yayoi explains to Hajime that one valuable lesson she’s gathered from her long stay on Earth is the importance of resting.  It is the rests that allow someone to win battles in the end.  LaMetalians don’t understand this because they’re forced to sleep for 999 years at a time.  The little time that they’re awake they spend in restless, frenzied activity.

Envoys from each of the Noahs begin to travel to the Tokyo Noah for a general conference on what plan of action to adopt.  LaRela and Dr. Fara are aware of this.  Fara seems troubled, but LaRela berates him for being scared of what “a thousand monkeys” might be planning.  She also says that, although she won’t ask him the details, she holds him responsible for his “problems” with Yayoi and the fact that she has broken her allegiance to the Holy Queen.  She then consoles him for his loss and says there are countless Yayois in the “Mayu” chamber.  He can just pick a new one.

Fara says Yayoi is different, and he envies Hajime and the Earthlings.

V. III 160 pgs done.

LaRela vows to herself to take Hajime back from Yayoi.  Her men report Hannibal’s Karmilla has interposed itself between the Panzers and the Thieves and so Leopard cannot attack.

Some of the Panzers are panicking, as Karmilla is headed straight for the flying City Miyu [and it’s implied they don’t feel up to the task of fighting it].  Karmilla barely grazes the flying city and flies underneath.  Yayoi tells Hajime that in fact Hannibal wouldn’t injure LaRela because Hannibal…and then she’s interrupted by a report that the conference is ready to begin.

Hajime is shocked to see that all the national representatives at the conference look pretty much exactly like Yayoi.  The purpose of the meeting is to decide whether they should stay on LaMetal or go back to Earth.  One of the reps tells Yayoi they are ready to unanimously back whatever the MQ decides.  Yayoi, as MQ, then asks Hajime to decide…and he says that if Earth isn’t about to be destroyed then he’d rather be on Earth than anywhere else.  His suggestion is approved, but Yayoi says they must fight androids [Yayoi calls them Mechanized, maybe an echo of the Mechanoid/Machiners] and rescue the Earthling “caretaker” slaves first.

The MTs, using Hannibal’s asteroid as a guard, reach the LaMetalian atmosphere.

Hajime and Yayoi visit the ramen shop.  Dad notices Yayoi looks strange and asks her if she’s come to tell them something.  She says she’s come to say farewell forever, and she thanks them for having raised her.  Then she goes off with Hajime.

Her parents think she’ll be back for sure, but they take note that she said “raising” her, and wonder whether she has figured out that they are NOT her real parents [LOL].  Apparently Prof. Amamori is the only one who knew this secret and so they instantly think he’s blurted the truth out to her!

Back at the Noah, Yayoi weeps over an Earth globe…she goes over world history and how, under LaRela’s direction, she caused humans to fight each other and bleed ceaselessly.

Scene change: Selen lands on the Tokyo Noah, and Yayoi goes out to meet her.  Yayoi offers her sister some Martian Colony Syltiss wine.  Selen has a huge scar, just like Emeraldas [did she have this before??].  She says conditions on Earth are hellish but humans will survive.  She asks about the positions of LaMetal and the Dark Sun La.

According to Yayoi, nearest contact between LaMetal and Earth (coinciding with the lining up of the planets due to the influence of La) will occur in 13 hours.  As long as neither planet is destroyed, the atmospheric bridge will be broken in 48 hours as the distance between the planets grows again.  Selen urges that the Noahs transfer back to Earth before the bridge has disappeared.

There is a huge number of Earthlings on LaMetal’s surface, who have gone inland from the Noahs that landed on the waters.  LaMetalian cavalry [kinda like tanks, but not really] goes for a night assault against them.  It’s the Android Division.  Selen vows to go save the migrants, but Yayoi insists the Thieves relinquish that task to her.

The Thieves set out anyway, with Yayoi insisting they won’t be able to handle the Android Army.  She instead heads over to the Holy Graveyard with the Amamoris, her intention being to request Mirai’s help.

V. III 185 pgs done.

Mirai says she’s been ready since to fight she first stepped on Earth 360 million years ago.  Yayoi asks for half of her body, and cries while doing so.  Hajime doesn’t get it and asks if Mirai is an android.  Mirai is upset, and reminds him he asked that same question when they first met.  She lets him touch her hand…it’s warmer than a human’s.  Mirai comments his hand is as warm as it was when they first truly met at the Great Tokyo River when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.  She doesn’t get into details as there isn’t much time…

They pass by the MQs of the past, and the Prof is shocked by how lifelike they are.  Then they reach a big boiling pool of water and Mirai announces she is going in.  Hajime tries to stop her but Yayoi holds him back.  Mirai goes into the pool and bursts of green light begin to appear.  It is the souls of the MQs, and they seek and find their own bodies and the MQs come back to life!

Mirai has activated the MQs, but at the cost of the lower half of her body, which has melted in the boiling pool/pot.  Yayoi introduces herself as the last MQ and bids all the others to save the lives of the Earthlings they’ve all come to know and love.  Everyone is off except Mirai who remains half-immersed in the boiling pool.

At the beach in LaMetal, the Earthlings struggle to reach the floating Noahs with the Android tanks in hot pursuit.  The Thieves under Selen drop several bombs on the first line of tanks and smash them into pieces.  But almost immediately the tanks repair themselves and continue their advance.  Selen decides to use a Dismantling Laser, even though its range is too wide and it might hurt some of the migrants.  The laser blasts the tanks and seemingly evaporates them, but within seconds they reappear.  Selen comments that LaMetalian technology must have advanced greatly while the MTs remained on Earth in the past millennium.

The MQs appear, marching in two files on the water’s surface.  Yayoi and Hajime advance on a patrol boat between the two lines of queens.  The Android tanks are scared of the queens and begin to pull back.  Yayoi’s ship advances into the sands and there are what look to be silos into which the tanks have sought refuge.

V. III 210 pgs done.

Lots of people begin throwing clubs into the air [I think these are the slave Earthlings].  They try to get into the silos.  Aladdin suggests to Yayoi and Hajime to get inside of it and ride down into the silo, as Yayoi wants to speak with the Android Tank Commander.  Thus the Prof is left alone on Yayoi’s aircraft.

Hajime is thrilled to be snugged tightly against Yayoi, but Aladdin very quickly finds a way down into the silo area.  Dome-shaped (diameter of 4 km) and 300-meter tall Hall, which Yayoi says it’s the usual size for a supply base [military depot?] in LaMetal.  Aladdin is able to descend smoothly into the underground base because the Androids consider him one of them.

They descend to the bottom and a black android with a silver Noh mask for a face greets them.  It knows all 3, and even praises Aladdin, telling it it’s heard all about it from LaRela and Leopard.  The android calls itself Dela Mars Frontierla.

Dela Mars says attacking the Noah migrants wasn’t the androids’ wish, but that they were just following orders.  It seems they don’t wish to fight anymore.  Yayoi tells Dela that all the LaMetalians have already left and only the androids remain [she doesn’t mention the slaves, but see below].  Dela is very confident that the androids can survive by themselves on LaMetal.  Yayoi brings up the fact that soon the planet will be plunged in eternal winter and Dela is surprised: the androids didn’t know this.

Yayoi shocks Dela once more by announcing she’s taking all of the Earthling slaves back to Earth.  So the androids will be left utterly alone in an bitterly cold planet.  Dela isn’t happy when Hajime invites the androids to go to Earth with them, as Dela says humans are fighting animals.  Yayoi says LaMetal is doomed, and the time of decision for the androids is now.  Dela suspects LaMetal will somehow survive.

Yayoi dwells at length on the planet: LaMetal is weird, even though it’s huge (like Saturn and Jupiter) its atmosphere is like Earth’s.  It’s not even clear if it was born in the Solar System or came there from elsewhere.  What’s clear is that La’s dimensional gravity only has an effect on LaMetal, and this effect will be its doom.

The New Year (2000) comes.  [OK, this doesn’t make sense.  The time of nearest contact between the two planets is supposed to take place in March.  We’ve been told this is less than a day away, but now we learn it’s only January 1^st!!  What gives??]

V. III 225 pgs done.

A horde of Yayois show up.  Then a bunch of Hajimes turn up.  Finally a host of Aladdins appear.  Dela explains androids have now been given the freedom to alter their appearance to whatever they like, and that the 3 visitors are so popular!

Dela decides that all the machines (humanoid and non-humanoid) will go to Earth along with Yayoi, but that Dela itself will stay (for personal reasons it’s not willing to discuss).

The MQs hop on their ships [relatively small affairs, one per MQ] and fly off to challenge LaRela and Leopard.

V. III 230 pgs done.

Yayoi, Hajime and Aladdin bid farewell to Dela and go back to Yayoi’s patrol ship where they’ve left the Prof.  Yayoi instructs all the Noahs to pick up androids and Earthlings, and in particular to be careful with the latter because they speak a different language and they look primitive.

Hajime mentions there were Earth slaves aboard LaRela’s City Miyu ship as well.  Yayoi clarifies that these are descendants, not only of Earthlings from a 1,000 years prior, but also from eras before that.

The Prof is worried that if Earth is populated by this “lost tribes” from LaMetal [my expression] that the current problem of overpopulation will only get worse.  Yayoi tells him to be optimistic, as change [of the good kind?] has already come to Earth…

According to Yayoi, LaMetal is the great fountain source of Earth civilization.

She decides to leave Hajime in charge of the Tokyo Noah, counting on the knowhow he gained through the data transfer machine, and to go off in the direction of the MQs, who are about to fight the Panzers defending LaRela’s City Miyu.

Hajime’s unsure he remembers all that knowledge, and he’s unwilling to do another data transfer, so Aladdin begins to pound him with a hammer in an effort to “rejog” his memory.  Before she goes, Yayoi visits the half-melted Mirai one more time.

Yayoi leaves and Mirai has a private word with Hajime: she tells him she shouldn’t let Yayoi goes off alone.  Yayoi in the distant past let Hajime go by himself and she has regretted it since.  Hajime is confused by these words and Mirai asks if he doesn’t remember a time, back in primitive days, when he was called Soph.  Hajime is still confused.  Mirai says Soph and Yayoi were deeply in love, and that one day Hajime will remember this.

When Hajime has rejoined Yayoi she asks him about his talk with Mirai and he mentions “Soph”.  Yayoi says Soph was small but strong, just like Hajime.

She then says goodbye to the Mayu furries, and tells Hajime to take good care of them.  She explains that the Mayu were an intelligent species the very first Millennial Queen found when she came to Earth.  Yayoi calls the Mayu the “goodness” of planet Earth.  She suggests that Hajime ask Mirai about Soph and the Mayu when he has time later on.  She adds both Soph and the Mayu are intimately connected to him!

LaRela isn’t worried about the MQ ships, she’s sure Leopard will handle them.  She’s more interested in meeting Hajime and Yayoi, who she reckons will be coming in the Noah.  But Yayoi tells Hajime that Leopard doesn’t want to fight the coming MQ fleet, and that’s he rather have Yayoi for a rival.

[great map on p.250 of the current situation.  From bottom left to top right there are 7 entities of note:

1. Hannibal’s Witch Planet Karmilla

2. LaMetal

3. Selen and the Millennial Thieves’ Fleet

4. Leopard and the Panzer Fleet

5. Past Millennial Queens’ Fleet

6. LaRela [and the City Miyu]

7. Earth

The odd thing about this picture is that the MQs’ Fleet has easily bypassed the Panzers and is headed toward LaRela.  And this is precisely what Yayoi was saying, that Leopard didn’t want to fight the MQs.]

V. III 250 pgs done.

Yayoi says she’ll get to Earth before LaRela, but she’ll have to fight through the Panzers first.  She leaves on the Egyptian-faced ship she took to her duel on Venus earlier.  Hajime starts getting nervous and Aladdin hits him on the head with a hammer again!  Hajime orders the pressure on some cylinder to be increased, to compensate for the release of the energy lifeforms.  He also turns down a suggestion to use Mirai’s energy, as he pities her…He issues all sorts of orders.

Dela Mars enters the Noah on a small ship.  Hajime asks that it be brought to the bridge but Dela wants to see Mirai and then the androids first.

Each Noah begins to leave the sea.  In order: New York, Nairobi, Moscow, Sydney, Beijing, Kyushu…Hajime orders the Noahs to fly in a V formation with 10 km between each ship.  While in the midst of all his work Hajime wonders in awe at how smart he is….almost as if he was another person.

V. III 265 pgs done.

The Noahs take 20 minutes to get into formation and all of a sudden Hajime begins to forget what he’s supposed to do next!

In the meantime Dela is visiting Mirai.  He praises her for her sacrifice, but she says she’s never liked him.  She also hints Dela is not his real name…  She then accuses Dela of meddling between the Queen (=Yayoi) and Soph ages ago and leading Soph to his death.  And she knows Dela did this because of love for Yayoi.  [So I guess this makes Dela a “he”, so I’m going to stop calling him an “it”]  He says he’s forgotten all about his feelings, but Mirai threatens him with death if he attempts anything on Hajime [who’s a reincarnated Soph, it would seem].

Aladdin bangs Hajime on the head with his hammer one more time, and Hajime recovers all his knowhow.  Aladdin decides to keep its hammer at the ready for the next time Hajime’s mind goes blank!

Yayoi’s Egyptian-faced ship is called a gondola, we learn.

The Karmilla creeps up on the mass assembly of Noahs.  Then a flash of light comes from the rear of Karmilla, heads straight for the Tokyo Noah, passes it by without touching it, and goes off in another direction.  Yayoi’s face comes on screen and tells Hajime not to worry: this “flash of light” is not an enemy.  Then she cuts communication and her gondola disappears from the radar.  Hajime asks to look at the Time Radar, which shows what’s happened as far back as 15 minutes ago.

Hajime identifies the flash of light as a small-type heavily armored ship from the Panzers, although Yayoi herself told him it wasn’t an enemy.  The Time Radar stops working because Leopard scrambles it.  Selen shows up on screen and tells Hajime to save Yayoi.  She’s bleeding, but she tells him not to worry about that.  The flash of light was none other than Leopard’s brother, Dr. Fara.  Yayoi wouldn’t strike at her old fiancé so Fara, she implies, has captured her and they’re on their way to LaRela’s Holy Palace.

We get a glimpse of Selen’s ship, the MT flagship, heavily damaged and hurtling through space.  Hajime wants to know any info Selen has on the primitive man Soph.    Selen says Soph a) was just like Hajime; b) is something like his direct ancestor and c) he left but a sad memory in her sister’s heart.  She says farewell and that they will meet again either on Earth or in the next world.

Hajime notices the Noahs are halfway between earth and LaMetal, and the atmospheric bridge will disappear in 15 minutes.  Time passes and the bridge is gone.  The darkness of space wraps the Noahs.

V. III 280 pgs done.

Hajime is relieved Earth is alright, but Aladdin tells him to look more carefully at the screen: the planet has survived but landmasses have been totally rearranged.

An “image” of LaRela’s shows up and requests he go aboard her ship to talk.  He refuses and starts “communication interference” so the image/holograph blurs and disappears.

Hannibal sends a warning to the Noahs: Leopard has just sent several of the Panzer “Pretorian boats” to attack their rear.  [by “boat” here is meant a small spaceship…]

Scene change: LaRela talking to herself.  She has Yayoi within her grasp.  She wants Leopard to pound the Noahs so hard that Hajime will have no choice but to go aboard her ship as she asked him.  According to her, the Noahs have not much more than armor for battling purposes.

The squadron of Panzer boats heads for the Tokyo Noah, leaving the other ships alone.  Hajime’s figured out what to do.  We don’t know what it is, only that it involves sending the Prof to the Noah’s surface, but the Panzers receive some sort of shock wave from the Noah and lose control of their vessels.  Half of the boats hurtle toward Earth and half toward LaMetal.  They will evaporate on reentry.

Hajime gets word that Leopard’s flagship is coming toward them.  He orders his uncle to return aboard the ship but the Prof is flustered with victory and claims he (and others with him) can take Leopard’s ship.  Aladdin goes out to persuade him.

Hannibal contacts Hajime and tells him not to worry.  Then the Karmilla speeds away somewhere.  LaRela sees this happening and assumes Hannibal is unwilling to fight.

Aladdin pleads with the Prof.  The Prof says humans are most dangerous when times are most desperate, and so he won’t return into the ship but fight.  Aladdin gets persuaded himself (!) and asks to join the battle.  Leopard’s flagship arrives just over the Tokyo Noah, scrambling the communications link between the Prof and Hajime.

Hajime and LaRela are both puzzled to learn that the Panzer flagship has been totally pulverized.  Hajime wants to know just what his uncle, Aladdin and others are up to so he goes to the surface to investigate [even though I was under the impression it was his own plan to begin with?!].  As soon as he’s out, a couple of cannon balls linked by a chain come flying toward him and fall nearby.  He collapses, then wakes up in an infirmary.  The Prof apologizes and shows him what they’ve been using for weaponry: nothing more and nothing less than all the weapons that were in Tokyo prior to the hollow ship leaving Earth!!  And all of these weapons are set on catapults and hurled toward the enemy.  The lack of gravity means every single rock can travel far…  [This is brilliant.  Everyone was assuming the hollow ships were unarmed, and they are, but they forgot each hollow except the N.Y. carries on top of it a major Earth city, which means loads and loads of weapons!]

Leopard arrives for a conference with LaRela on a small ship.

V. III 300 pgs done.

Leopard explains that all the primitive weapons attach themselves to the vessels and cause their mechanisms to go out of control or short circuit somehow.  He asks to see Yayoi so he can ask her how to deal with this weaponry.  Yayoi is in an artificially-induced sleep (and naked) with Dr. Fara guarding over her.  The doctor and LaRela are scared of harming her in any way for fear of what the numerous ancient MQs might do.

Dela Mars and Mirai are still talking.  Dela bids her farewell and says he’ll go to try to help Hajime as best as he can.  Mirai says goodbye and calls him: Daisuke Yamori!

[So Dela is Yamori!  Let’s get this straight: Yamori goes back to the Panzers, feels bad about betraying Yayoi who he secretly loves, goes back to LaMetal, organizes the androids into supporting her and the Earthlings etc.]

As LaRela’s ship AND the Noahs are all entering the Earth’s atmosphere, LaRela thinks she is poised for triumph.  Dr. Fara says he can operate on Yayoi and make her “change her mind” about the situation.  He only needs time and quiet, and his brother Leopard assures him he’ll have that.  At the same time Leopard announces that his top agent is on Hajime’s ship and that this agent has already been ordered to destroy the Noah(s)…and this agent is none other than Yamori!

Dela appears before Hajime and tells him Mirai wants Hajime to go and save Yayoi.  Dela offers to pilot the Noah while Hajime’s gone.  Hajime isn’t convinced, and he goes to talk it over with Mirai.  Mirai asks him if he knows that Dela is Yamori.  Hajime says yes (!) because Aladdin figured it out from the beginning!  Mirai repeats that Yayoi is in danger so Hajime flies off on Aladdin to rescue her after all.

Aladdin has trouble flying because of a lot of debris.  The robot can’t locate the City Miyu.  MQ Cleopatra communicates with them and informs them that the debris is from the city Miyu, which has blown itself up.  This is part of LaRela’s ploy, as the core Palace ship within the City Miyu is still intact, and the debris will eventually fall all over Earth and destroy life there.  Aladdin heads for the Palace and LaRela is overjoyed at the prospect of seeing Hajime again…

The Palace ship is shaped like two spheres with a connecting bridge.  The larger sphere is 10 km in diameter, the smaller one 3 km in diameter.  LaRela opens a gate to let them in.  Aladdin thinks they’re as yet undetected and happily “sneaks” in.  The robot gets zapped as soon as it’s inside and both it and Hajime wake up in LaRela’s room.  LaRela offers Hajime to show him Yayoi.

Scene change:  Hannibal appears on screen at the Tokyo Noah.  He tells Dela that Hajime has fallen into LaRela’s trap and is now her prisoner.  Dela says that what just happened is all part of the Millennial Queen’s (Yayoi’s) plan.  Hannibal then asks him: “So, Daisuke Yamori, which side are you on?”

Scene change: Hajime is taken to the operating room.  Leopard tells him that Fara is changing Yayoi’s mind, which has strayed, back to a true LaMetalian’s.  Fara starts bragging about what he’s doing and then suddenly Hajime runs up to him, crashes some machinery, takes Yayoi and flees with Aladdin [they should have restrained him, duh!].

Aladdin flies out of the ship only to meet a reconstituted Panzer flagship.  Leopard yells at them for them to surrender.  Mysterious flashes of light come and attack the flagship and pulverize it, this time for good.  Aladdin takes the opportunity to return to the Tokyo Noah.  LaRela orders Leopard to tell Yamori to hold off on blowing up that ship.  While Aladdin and Hajime take Yayoi to the infirmary, Dela hears a new order from Leopard: open up the air lock to let the Palace ship in.  Dela doesn’t respond immediately.

Yayoi says she’s fine and wants to speak with Mirai.  She goes off with Aladdin, while Hajime goes to the control room.  Dela has just ordered that the air lock be opened.  Hajime orders that it be closed and accuses Dela of betraying them.  Dela won’t answer.  Then Hajime reveals he knows Dela is Yamori, and tells him to take off that mask, but Dela/Yamori says he’s unable to.

Hajime notices his “genius” has left him once more, so his only solution to the situation is to push down on the Palace ship (which is underneath the Noah) and crunch it on the Earth’s surface.  This might actually work because the Karmilla and the MQ ships are surrounding the Palace ship, and so it’s blocked out on all sides.

Meanwhile, Mirai says all of her energy is now required and she will sacrifice all of herself for the good of Yayoi and Hajime, and the future prosperity of both Earth and LaMetal.  Yayoi thanks her and there’s a blinding flash of light as Mirai does her job.

Hajime notices the engines have gotten a big boost and the Noah firmly clamps down on the Palace on its way down to Earth’s surface.  LaRela tells Leopard it’s time to abandon ship.  Leopard says he must take responsibility for having misjudged the “apes from Earth” and that he will stay with the ship.  Fara is having none of this heroism, and he flees with LaRela.

The mysterious flashes of light show up again and Dela now explains they are the energy lifeforms that Yayoi released.  They’re grateful to Yayoi and Hajime and they want to help.  Indeed, they land on the Noah and push down on it to help it get to the surface faster.  The Noah lands on Earth and crushes the Palace ship.  The jolt makes Yamori fall down and his mask comes off.  His face is misshapen and oddly ape-like.  He tells Hajime that LaMetalian people’s faces change to reveal what’s in their hearts when they are about to die.

This [very interesting] concept doesn’t get discussed further because Hannibal is seen on the surface of Earth (in the Kanto area, apparently) carrying an apparently dead Selen.

While this is happening LaRela and Fara sneak up on the group.  Fara fires at Hajime but Yamori gets in the way, taking the shot from Fara and firing at him at the same time.  The dying Yamori says he feels good because he’s paying back the fact that he caused his rival (for Yayoi’s love) Soph’s dead ages ago.  When he dies his face reverts back to normal, according to the Prof because he truly was a good guy in the end.

Yayoi gets into a long and surprisingly uninteresting (because we’ve heard it all already) spiel on the Millennial Queens.  Among the new things that she says is 100 Earth years are equivalent to a single year in a LaMetalian’s life, that Hannibal’s job is to protect the MQs and that every MQ that defeats another one in battle (as she did in Venus) absorbs her memories.  She herself didn’t meet Soph, it was an older MQ whose memories she has absorbed that did…

Yayoi then tells LaRela to cease fighting and to accept the outcome.  Both agree to return to LaMetal, with LaRela telling Hajime she hopes to be reborn alongside him someday if it is possible.  Hajie protests that LaMetal is doomed and that they should both stay, but Yayoi replies that as long as LaMetal remains within the universe it should someday find another Sun.

Yayoi’s final advice is for Earthlings to take advantage of the fact that national borders have all gone awry with the continental shifting to ensure there won’t be wars anymore.  She says goodbye to her parents and everyone else, and boards the Karmilla along with LaRela.

The top part of the very last page shows the Prof eating with the Yukinos.  The Yukinos comment about how their baby (=Yayoi) was brought to them by the Prof.  The Prof recalls how first he taught her stuff, but eventually he was the one being taught and eventually he got a PhD [because of her?].

The bottom part shows Hajime smiling while looking at a shooting star.  “Princess Kaguya” has returned home, but he trusts she’ll be back.

333 pgs done.

Third Volume done.

Series done.