Tenchi and Ranma, Together Forever!?  
                        Chapter eleven.
                  No way! I'm a girl for real?
     



     A fan fiction based on the works of Rumiko Takahashi,  
     Creator of Ranma 1/2, and, Masaki Kajishima, who I've been
     told is the creator of Tenchi Muyo. 
     Hitoshi Okuda, is the artist and creator of the Tenchi Manga.
     
     
     I have no rights to these characters.  Which should come as no
     surprise to anyone.
     
     
     
     What's going on?
     This is an alternative universe story.
     Ranma was trapped as a girl from her first dip in the
     Nanniichuan.

     Last chapter Ranma injured herself in a fight with a spirit
demon Ryouko called up. Ryouko flew her back to the Masaki
homestead, and she and Katsuhito sealed her into a Juraian Medical
pod. When he checked, Katsuhito noticed something very
disturbing on the readout of Ranma's condition.

Previous chapters can be found here.
<http://home.earthlink.net/~tannim/>


On with the story:

     Two months ago:

     The empire of Jurai is the largest independent political entity
in the galaxy, in terms of volume.(1) In terms of population, it is
one of the smallest. This is due to it being sparsely supplied with
habitable worlds, which in turn is a result of being located on the
galactic rim, where the stellar matter runs thin.(2) Many of its peers,
more fortunately located, have far more people and resources. 

     (1)[This is, of course, if you discount the claims of the Boom-
shika-booms, a comely, if not overly intelligent, mammalian race,
who claim they purchased the entire galactic cluster from a
salesman named Honest Happy. In return, he received their world's
entire supply of feminine undergarments.(3)]

     (2) This has been the source of several popular songs in what
is known as the western rim style, or just VW, Vacuum/Western. 
                                        
     (3)[As a side note, some few years before this current time
period, the law enforcement agents of the planet, Saywa, received a
complaint from an unknown alien that his 'pretties' had been stolen
from where he had stored them. Investigation proved that this site
was in fact the forbidden temple of Dynam, and that said temple
had been despoiled by, as was discovered later, the notorious ruin
destroyer, Kagato. When attempts were made to hold the original
complainant for questioning, he escaped using an unknown form of
trans-temporal transportation.(4) The only evidence found in the
temple were several large, finely-woven garments, later proven to
have been of Boom-shika-boom manufacture.] 

     (4)[Due to the combination of inexplicable motivations, and
sheer silliness, this report has been cross referenced to the Washuu
case file.]
     


     Despite its lack of population, Jurai had at least two things that
are much desired by its many wealthier and, supposable, more
powerful neighbors: eternal life, or at least a reasonable facsimile of
it, and the living tree-ships that were Jurai's most famous asset. 
     All advanced races and cultures possessed life extension to
one degree or another, but, except in a very few cases, none came
remotely close to that enjoyed by the nobility of planet Jurai and
several of its member colonies. 
     In the case of the principal royal family, the life spans were
almost indefinite. Only mischance seemed to end their lives.
Indeed, in the twenty thousand years since its founding, only five
rulers had sat on the throne of Jurai. This had the added benefit of
making Jurai one of the most politically stable governments in the
federation. Not that all its residents believed that was a good thing,
but all societies have their malcontents.
     The rulers of Jurai insisted that their longevity was due to
conditions found only on their home planet, and was not a
technology that could be exported. Only people residing on Jurai, or
visiting at regular intervals, were able to benefit from these
conditions. And only the royal family had the bloodlines necessary
to receive the maximum blessing. 
     As Jurai was a very insular planet, few outsiders ever got the
chance to visit, and very few indeed were the non-Juraians who had
enjoyed the advantages that result from residing on the planet for
any length of time. This led to a great animosity toward Jurai from
many of the powers-that-be, who believed that they should share in
Jurai's bounty simply for being who they are. Matters were not
helped by the fact that, as was true in most governments, the people
in charge were nearing the end of their normal life spans.
     The same envy that their neighbors felt for Juraian life spans
was doubly true with regard to Jurai's ships, ton for ton, the fastest,
most-powerful spacecraft in known space. Few indeed were the
ships that could match a Juraian craft one-on-one. And those few
were slow and ungainly compared to the gracefulness and swiftness
of the living ships of Jurai.
     The ships of Jurai were that perfect tactical ideal, much
beloved by navies everywhere, wet or space. What they could not
outfight they could outrun, and what they could not outrun they
could outfight.
     As with the secret of their longevity, the rulers of Jurai insisted
their tree-ships were unique to Juraian space, and could be crafted
nowhere else. All efforts to convince them to let the Federated
Science Academy try to duplicate them had been rebuffed, not
always with the greatest of diplomacy. The royal family of Jurai
was fiercely protective of the giant trees that graced their home
world.
     Despite this, relationships with their neighbors might have
been slightly more congenial if it had not been for Jurai's past. 

     The original colonists of Jurai had been pirates, and their
older, and wealthier, peers had not forgotten, or forgiven, that
history. Despite Jurai's peaceful stance in modern day galactic
affairs. (Some would say rampant disinterest would be a more
accurate description.)  There were still those who pointed at every
unsolved raid and attack as an example of Jurai reverting to its bad
old ways.

     Why, some had even claimed they were behind the recent
disaster on the set of "All My Spawn."

     Jurai could have, on the whole, cared less. Their living ships
were more then a match for any comparable tonnage of shipping.
Which, of course, is why they were so highly desired. And, if by
mischance, should a hostile force penetrate to the home world's
space, the same bio-forces that protected their ships in space had
been used to create a defensive screen around the entire planet,
which had only once been circumvented in Jurai's history. 
     That didn't stop various rivals from trying over the years,
however. Over its long history, the Empire of Jurai had fought many
battles, and won them all. As a result, in recent centuries the various
factions who meant Jurai harm had taken to using more subtle
means to gain their goals. 
     This too, like their more direct assaults, had met with little
success, due in no small measure to the head of Juraian security,
who had a talent for intrigue and Machiavellian maneuvers that was
second to none.

     The Empress Funaho, head of Juraian security, plied her trade
deep in the bowels of the royal palace, one of the most secure
locations in the known galaxy. To reach her office, an attacker
would have to pass several security checks, a dozen armored
portals, and thirty to forty palace guards. These were not there
specifically for Funaho, but she saw no reason not to make good use
of them.
     Funaho's precautions were not against outside threats. Any
force that could make it to the surface of Jurai would have little
trouble with the palace security.
     As an empress of Jurai, Funaho had her husband's ear - -
firmly between her thumb and forefinger at times - - but mostly in
the normal sense of the term. Nearly seventy percent of the palace
population was made up of people whose sole goal, and/or,
occupation, was to gain access to the emperor's ear. To these
people, it seemed a match made in heaven, especially considering
the difficulty presented by approaching the emperor via other
routes.
     Azusa had a reputation, carefully cultivated by himself, of
being very abrupt with unauthorized people who disturbed him. 
     While it was not true that he had once thrown someone off the
top of the royal tree, he also had not tried very hard to deny it. 
     Azusa was sensitive to the plight of his subjects who had
suffered injustice, but he had a large number of functionaries,
whose job it was to deal with those cases, sending on only the ones
that truly needed the attention of the emperor. 


     The Empress Misaki had a habit of drafting people who
petitioned her. More than one obese lobbyist had found himself
dragged along on an impromptu shopping trip that required he
spend hours giving Misaki advice on what dress went best with
these darling shoes. 
     She was seldom bothered anymore.
     
      That left Funaho, and while she had her own reputation, she
had also never really outgrown the manners and politeness that had
been instilled in her as a child, which made it very difficult at times
for her to deal with supplicants. Far easier to relax and do her work
in a part of the palace where unauthorized people were vigorously
discouraged.  
     
     From her well-protected office, Funaho wove a web of
informants, spies, and compromised officials with a master
weaver's touch. Funaho could affect political decisions in places
light years away, or romantic situations as close as next door. 
     
     Her aide-de-camp was currently on her honeymoon.  
     
     But there are some forces that even the best guards and
security measures are useless against. Which is how Funaho came
to be cowering behind her work-scarred desk, trying her best to keep
it between herself and the rather singed-looking figure on the other
side of it. 
     The tall woman with the pale blue hair, some of which was
looking more then slightly crispy, was in full flight. 
     "All day, I spent all day, slaving over a hot stove, working my
fingers to the bone, and for what!?" the empress Misaki wailed. "Do
you show up!? No! Do you call and say you're going to be late!?
No! You sit down here in your musty old office, getting thinner and
thinner! I don't know why I bother! I should let you fade away to
nothing! It would serve you right!"
     "Yes, yes," Funaho said placatingly, waving the palms of her
hands toward her co-wife and fellow empress. She gave a bow of
contrition. "I'm very sorry, but if you had just told me . . ."
     "But if I'd told you, it wouldn't have been a surprise!" Misaki
wailed. The lady Funaho sweated nervously. She felt relief when
Misaki slumped down in a chair, and looked at her with large liquid
eyes. "It was your birthday. You should have known I'd do
something special," she said in a sad little voice, her lower lip
quivering.
     Funaho cringed; she hated when Misaki did that. She knew it
was eighty percent fake, but she could never suppress a twinge of
guilt whenever that look was directed her way.
     "I'm sorry," she repeated. "I had forgotten the date." This was,
in fact, true; Funaho found herself trying to remember just which
birthday it was. She had stopped keeping track after the first three
hundred years. It didn't really seem to make any sense. It would be
like someone back home celebrating each week of the year. 
     "What was so important that you missed my special meal after
I spent . . ."
     "All day in the kitchen. Yes, I know. I do apologize, dear one,
but something came up, and I had to make sure it was not going to
cause problems."
     "What happened?" Misaki pouted. "Did one of your stooges
get caught with his hand in the cookie jar?"
     "They are replacing the automated warning system around
Earth space with a real officer and patrol ship."
     A change came over Misaki at those words. A metamorphosis
that very few people would have detected. Funaho, from long
experience and intimate knowledge of her co-wife, was one of those
people. 
     In the span of less then a second, the person across from
Funaho went from being her rather scatter-brained co-wife, the
destroyer of kitchens, to the head of the Juraian military. A person
who had sent shivers of fear up the spine of more than a few
admirals, and not always the ones on the other side. "Why? Do they
know?" she said in her customary flustered tone of voice, but her
eyes gleamed with sudden intelligence, giving the lie to her outward
behavior. 
     "To answer your last question first, no. As best I have been
able to discover, the situation on Earth is still a secret from both the
federated planets and, more importantly, Juraian security."
     Misaki looked relieved, and this time her eyes agreed with her
face. "That's good. I would hate for darling to find out at this stage.
You're so close to your goal."
     "Best estimates are fifty years before Earth will be ready to
demand equal status with the other colonies," Funaho corrected her.
     Misaki waved that away. "That's no time at all."
     "Maybe for us, Dear-heart, but it's a very long time for the
people of Earth, and much could happen between now and then.
Azusa could find out. He'd be most unhappy to discover that I've
been circumventing the very law I talked him into passing. After all,
he wanted to bring Earth into the Juraian fold five hundred years
ago."
     "Which would have been a disaster. The poor little Earth
people would have been frightened to death," Misaki said, quite
unnecessarily. They had been over this many times since Funaho
had talked their husband into joining with the aligned planets in
quarantining Earth space. 
     Funaho sighed and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her
forehead with her fingers. "Am I doing the right thing, Dearest?
Using the M.I.B. to accelerate Earth's development?"
     It was an old question, one Funaho asked, on average, about
once a month. Misaki usually gave an answer along the lines of, "Of
course it's right, darling. You're so clever and cute, you couldn't
possibly be wrong." At the moment, however, she was in one of her
rare business-like moods, and since Funaho was the only person
alive who knew the true Misaki, she answered more seriously. "If
you were using M.I.B., then I'd say you were dead wrong." 
     Funaho looked at her in surprise, but before she could say
anything, Misaki continued.
     "But you're not. M.I.B. has no idea you have anything to do
with them. They are acting purely in what they, as Earth people,
believe is the best interest of Earth. You were very careful to set
them up through a third party for that very reason. But let's not go
over old ground. You haven't told me yet why Galaxy Police is
assigning a live officer to the area."
     Funaho shook off the familiar feeling of self-doubt, something 
she would reveal to no one but Misaki, and only in the privacy of
the office, or bedroom, which was the second most secure place on
Jurai.
     "As near as I can tell, it has to do with internal politics. The
Marshal's granddaughter is screwing up, and they need to place her
somewhere where she can't do any harm."
     "One of those, eh?" Misaki said knowingly. Jurai was a feudal
society, and more then a few incompetents had made it to positions
of importance. The ironic thing was that a great many people felt
Misaki was one of those incompetents. Very few indeed were aware
of the hidden depths that she concealed behind her normally dizzy
exterior. Rare were the people who could match her in combat,
either personal, or in a tactical situation. The only person to ever
best her in one-on-one combat was her husband, and no one had
ever defeated her in a battle.
     "Not in the way you think," Funaho disagreed. "Up until two
months ago, Mihoshi Kuramitsu was one of the top detectives in the
galaxy police."
     Misaki looked interested. "What happened two months ago?"
she asked.
     "Her partner died on a case. Since then she's been a loose
cannon. She's brought in some of the most wanted criminals in the
cosmos, and some of the most un-wanted. In the process she's
caused trillions of credits in damage. She's destroyed her ship six
times. A record.  They couldn't demote, or fire her, not with her
family's status. And, when you come down to it, she has not
actually done anything wrong. So they settled for sending her
somewhere where she can't cause any harm."
     Misaki looked thoughtful. "Poor dear. Survivor's guilt, you
suppose? Is she trying to kill herself on the job?" 
     "I really don't know, but it is a possibility, and if it is, they're
doing the worst thing they possible could in sending her out alone to
a place where she'll have nothing to do but think about her lost
partner."
     "Are you afraid she'll do something to threaten Earth?"
     "By doing something malicious? No. By catching onto what's
going on there? Yes. The reports I've had on her show her to be
frighteningly intuitive. It would not take much for her to destroy all
my efforts regarding Earth.  But I think I've managed to do some
damage control. Her superior officer is one of mine, and through
him I've had her ship's artificial intelligence compromised. His
sensors will fail to pick up any ships on legitimate M.I.B. business,
and anything short of a class 'A' criminal will cause a message to
be broadcast to the M.I.B. surveillance net, without notifying
Officer Mihoshi. Even she needs some data to reach a conclusion."
     "And what happens if a Class 'A' Criminal decided to visit
Earth?"
     Funaho grimaced. "All bets are off. M.I.B. can't handle that
threat level, and with Earth's very survival at stake, we can't afford
to play games. Galaxy police will be notified."
     "So it looks like you have everything under control."
     "I can only hope, but for now I've done all I can."
     "Yeaaaa!." Misaki shouted, jumping out of her chair and
clapping her hands together.  Reaching across the desk she grabbed
Funaho's wrist. The next instant the feared chief of Juraian security
found herself being dragged down the hall, while Misaki went into
raptures over the lovely desert that was sitting in the fridge, just
waiting for her. Even if she had been a bad girl who really didn't
deserve it.
     After the two women had left, various security personal
emerged from their varied hiding spots, and did their best to look
like they had never abandoned their posts. Some threats the
Empress just had to face on her own.


The Present:



     "Really, Tenchi-sama, I don't know what that monster girl was
thinking of," Ayeka said. The Juraian princess was seated in the
front seat of the Land Rover, which was currently racing toward the
Masaki's valley home. Her hands twisted a small scrap of cloth, one
that used to be a delicate handkerchief, in worry. "To fly off like
that with poor little Ranma-chan. If that demon has hurt her, I
_won't_ forgive her in a thousand years."
     "I'm sure Ryouko won't hurt Ranma, Ayeka," Tenchi said
soothingly to the distraught princess. He just wished he was as
confident as he sounded. Ryouko's departure had been without
reason, as far as he could see. He was at a loss as to what could have
made her behave so. He couldn't believe she wouldn't have
checked to see if everyone was all right after the chaos of the mist-
monster and the arrival of officer Mihoshi's ship. 
     As he thought of the police officer, Tenchi looked sideways at
the strange girl who had fallen from the sky, and was currently
sitting next to him in the back seat of the SUV. The girl was quite
tall, with a slim build, except around the chest. She had blonde hair
tied up in a mass behind her head from which numerous fine strands
trailed. Her disheveled hair gave her a waif-like appearance that was
really quite attractive, and the rest of her body did nothing to
diminish that.  
     Suddenly aware of the direction his thoughts were drifting, not
to mention his eyes, Tenchi wrenched both away from Mihoshi's
cleavage.  What am I doing? he thought to himself in disgust. He
had more then enough girl problems without going out of his way to
add to them. God! Maybe his father's genes were starting to affect
him. Tenchi shuddered at the thought. What a pervert he was. Here
his fiancee was who knows where, having who knows what done to
her by a notorious space pirate, and he was ogling some other girl. 
     Still, he couldn't help but think that the alien girl was certainly
different from the police officers he was used to seeing, even the
female ones. Mihoshi's behavior was nothing like the cool
demeanor cops usually projected. Indeed, if not for her very mature
build, her behavior would have made him think her much younger
then she apparently was. The lively conversation she was having
with Sasami did nothing to dispel this thought.  Tenchi did not fail
to notice that she was conversing with the younger girl as if to an
equal, with none of the condescension usually shown by adults in
her position.  

     Sasami broke off her conversation with Mihoshi, not without
some reluctance, when she noticed how distressed her sister was
behaving. "Oneechan, don't worry. Ryouko-oneechan and Ranma-
oneechan are fine."
     "How can you say that!?" Ayeka snapped, then apologized.
"I'm sorry, Sasami-chan, but you're too young to know how wicked
some people are. You have no idea the sort of terrible things that
monster-woman could be doing to poor Ranma-chan."
     "What sort of terrible things?" Sasami asked, an innocent
expression on her face.  She looked at Ayeka expectantly. 
     Ayeka opened her mouth to speak, and for a second Tenchi
honestly thought she was going to tell the little girl, but then her
mouth snapped shut, and she turned away from her sister. "You're
too young," she said in a firm voice.
     Sasami sighed to herself; she'd almost got her sister that time.
Then her expression brightened, and she turned to her companion.
She liked talking to Mihoshi. With that unerring sense all children
had, she knew that Mihoshi would never talk down to her. Talking
with Mihoshi was like talking to someone her own age. Someone
who was not part of the great adult conspiracy to keep her from
finding out all the interesting things in the world, but at the same
time likely had lots of first hand knowledge about those facts.
     "Mihoshi-oneechan," she whispered to the tall blonde girl
beside her, "you don't think Ryouko-oneechan might do awful
things to Ranma-oneechan do you? 
     Sasami's question broke into Mihoshi's train of thought. She'd
been sitting quietly, watching the world go by, humming a tuneless
little ditty. 
     Once upon a time it was a method guaranteed to make her
former partner talk to her, no matter how much she was 'not
speaking to you,' at the moment. Sure, the talking usually consisted
of Kiyone begging her to, for the sake of her, Kiyone's, sanity, to
please stop that incessant droning, but it was a start, and she could
usually use it to keep Kiyone talking from that point. A tear trickled
down Mihoshi's cheek.
     Mihoshi didn't really hear Sasami's question. She merely
reacted to hearing her name, and turned to face the source of it,
Sasami. Suddenly the sorrow in her heart burst forth, and she fell on
the younger girl, wrapping her arms around Sasami, and sobbed out,
"Waaaaaa, she's never coming back." 
     Sasami big-sweated, and Ayeka reacted. If no less then a
Galaxy Police officer, albeit a very silly one, thought Ryouko was
up to evil, then they had no time to waste. "Hurry up!! We must get
home before it's too late!!!" she screamed in Nobuyuki's ear. 
     "Ah, Princess," Tenchi interjected hesitantly from where he
was helplessly trying to figure out how to comfort the wailing
Mihoshi.
     "Why are you not hurrying!?" Ayeka shouted at Tenchi's
father, who hunched his shoulders from the force of her yell. 
     "Because we're home, Oneechan," Sasami said in as calm a
voice as she could muster, considering that she was valiantly trying
to keep her head above water, and avoid suffocating in Mihoshi's
generous assets. 
     "That's no excuse to not hurry . . . ," Ayeka broke off as she
deciphered Sasami's words. She looked out the front dash of the
truck at the valley that was spread out before them. "Oh, gomen,"
Ayeka apologized, then yelled out again. 
     "Kamidake, Azaka!"
     There was a boom of displaced air, and Ayeka's two guardians
were suddenly flying parallel to the truck. "Yes!" they both shouted
out in reply to Ayeka's call. 
     "Go ahead of us and protect Princess Ranma from whatever
vile thing that horrid woman is trying to do!" Ayeka ordered.
"Don't let her near Ranma-san for any reason!"
     The two guardians vanished as quickly as they had appeared.

     Ayeka was the first through the door of the house. She'd
barely waited till the SUV stopped moving before leaping out.
Fearing what was likely to follow, Tenchi was right behind her, and
therefore nearly ran into her when she stopped suddenly just inside
the door.  "Oh no," she whispered in horror, her voice so faint it
barely reached Tenchi's ears. 
     Tenchi looked past Ayeka, and grimaced as he saw a seriously
annoyed Ryouko hanging suspended in the air between Kamidake
and Asaka. In front of the trio was a large . . . wooden egg? Tenchi
stared at the strange object in bemusement. About seven-and-a-half
feet in length, and fashioned from the same wood as Ayeka's space
ship, and the hilt of his sword. The object was very . . . egg-shaped.
There was no other way to really describe it. It was a giant wooden
egg. 
     "You, you . . ." Ayeka's voice was almost strangling in her
throat, so intense were her emotions. "What have you done to
Ranma-san!!!?" she screamed out. Her voice was followed by a
brilliant burst of energy that flowed between Kamidake and Asaka,
and caused Ryouko's body to spasm in pain. 
     As the surges stopped, Ryouko's body writhed, and she let out
a cry that sounded nothing like a person being tortured. Panting, and
with a leer on her face, she said, "Haven't we been through this
already, princess. It's fun and all, but I really prefer to be the one on
top." 
     Ryouko's words went right over Tenchi's head. 
     
     He really wasn't all that sophisticated in some matters, despite
his father best efforts to rectify that lack. 
     
     Tenchi moved forward to place himself in between the two
girls.  "Ayeka-sama!" he cried out. "Stop this!" 
     Turning, he tried to pull Ryouko free of her energy prison.  He
screamed in shock as his nerves suddenly caught fire. His world
became a realm of agony. It only lasted for a second, just long
enough for Ayeka to order her guardian's to drop their energy field,
but it felt like a hundred years to Tenchi. He huddled on the floor,
arms curled around his body, and his mouth open wide as he gasped
in great lung-fulls of air. Ryouko survived minutes of this, and was
able to smile! he thought in shock.
     "Why?" Tenchi managed to croak out, looking up at the
distraught Ayeka. "What's wrong? What is that thing?" Tenchi's
eyes fell on Sasami, who was standing in the doorway, the Galaxy
Police officer behind her. Sasami's face was white, and she was
bitting her fist as she stared wide-eyed at the egg-shaped object in
the middle of the room.
     "Oh my," Mihoshi said, also staring at the object. "Is someone
hurt? Maybe I should make some tea. Tea always makes me feel
better when I'm sick. Of course, if they're in an emergency medical
pod I suppose they can't drink tea, can they? I'll wait till they're
better. Then I'll make them some tea. Unless you'd like some tea
now? I make very good tea. My partner Kiyone said it was the only
thing I could make without burning it. Of course, there was that one
time I forgot the kettle, and it melted, and set the kitchen on fire. So
I guess you could say I can burn tea. Not that I would, but you know
that. Who'd want to burn tea on purpose? It's not like tea is any
good burnt. Nothing is any good burnt. Well, some people say
cigarettes are good burnt. That's what my boss always said. He
always wants to have one while he reads my reports. Of course,
cigarettes are bad for you. So he really shouldn't smoke them. He
might get sick, and then he'd have to go into a medical pod. I hope
your friend learns a lesson and gives up smoking. It's really a very
nasty habit." 
     Mihoshi stopped and drew a deep breath, which proved
beyond a shadow of a doubt her mammalian ancestry, and which
drew Nobuyuki's undivided, and enthusiastic, attention.  Everyone
else in the room, with the exception of Ryouko, looked at the police
officer with stunned expressions that had nothing to do with her
attributes. Ryouko's worried look was directed solely at Tenchi.  
     Tenchi was the first to recover as his mind picked one
particular concept out of the deluge Mihoshi had just thrown at
them. Emergency Medical Pod. A sick feeling suddenly twisted his
stomach. He dropped down on one knee beside Ryouko, who,
despite her earlier words, was taking a little while to recover from
Ayeka's attack. "Ryouko-san . . . is Ranma . . ."
     Ryouko had been dreading this moment ever since she'd been
forced to flee the hot springs with the injured Ranma in her arms.
     She looked at the brown-haired boy with the gentle eyes, and
broke down. Tenchi was going to hate her, she just knew it. There
was no running from her crimes this time. She had no where to run
to. Anywhere without Tenchi would be hell. 
     "I'm sorry, Tenchi," Ryouko said, grief in her voice. "If I
hadn't created that creature, she'd never have fried herself like
that." Tears streaked down Ryouko's cheeks. She threw herself into
Tenchi's arms, and cried into his chest. "Don't hate me, Tenchi. I
couldn't stand it if you hated me."
     Out of reflex, Tenchi flinched when Ryouko grabbed him. But
when she made no effort to fondle, or otherwise snuggle him, he
realized that, for once, there was nothing phony about Ryouko's
actions. Tenchi let Ryouko hold him for a little while, then put a
hand on each of her shoulders, and pushed back gently. "What's
wrong with Ranma, Ryouko-san?" he asked. Tenchi forced himself
to keep his voice as gentle as possible, trying to prevent the fear in
his heart from flavoring his tone of his voice.        
     "What have you done to her, monster!?" There was nothing
gentle about Ayeka's voice as she suddenly interposed herself
between Tenchi and Ryouko, spilling Tenchi over on his backside. 
     Ryouko flinched back from the accusation in Ayeka's voice,
but then her expression firmed and grew angry. She'd screwed up.
Fine, it happens. But she was damned if she was going to be some
stuck up princess' punching bag. "I didn't do nothing to her, you
old-maid. She tried to write a check her body couldn't cash, and
paid for it!" she snapped at Ayeka. 
     "Why you --"
     
     "Stop it!!!" a shrill voice screamed out.

     Everyone paused in shock, and looked over at Sasami, who
was standing beside the medical unit. The little girl had tears
streaming down her face as she looked at them. "Don't you care that
Ranma is hurt? Why do you always have to fight? We were having
such a nice time, and you went and spoiled it by fighting, and now
Ranma is . . . Ranma is . . ." Sasami couldn't continue, she broke
down into tears. She turned her back on them and buried her face in
her arms as she leaned up against the medical pod. 
     On top of the wooden structure, Ryo-oh-ki joined in the water
works as she pawed at the pod, trying to get inside. A second later
she phased through the surface of the egg. 
     "Ryo-oh-ki, no!" Sasami protested, irrationally fearing she was
going to lose the little cabbit too. She thumped her fists on top of
the medical pod, and then staggered back as a soaking wet Ryo-oh-
ki phased back through the pod wall and into her arms. The little
cabbit gave a mew of distress. She'd found Ranma, but the
comatose girl had been unresponsive to her.
     A pair of strong hands settled gently on Sasami's shoulders,
and she looked up to see Katsuhito standing behind her, a gentle
look in his eyes. He settled back on his heels, bringing his eyes level
with Sasami and Ryo-oh-ki's. "Don't worry," he said, addressing
them both. "Ryouko got her here in time. We all owe her a great
deal of thanks. If she had not acted so quickly Ranma might not
have made it."
     "Ryouko-san, is this true?" Tenchi asked, moving forward till
he was quite close to the cyan-haired girl, looking down into her
face.
     Ryouko felt warmth spreading through her chest as Tenchi's
soft eyes looked into her own. His voice seemed to caress her, and
she blushed lightly, and looked down at the floor before replying.
"Well, you know. I still owed the little so-and-so for this morning. I
couldn't let her go and die before I got a chance at payback." 
     Ryouko was shocked when Tenchi bowed to her. "Thank you,
Ryouko-san. I . . . my family owes you a debt we can never repay."

     Off to the side Ayeka fumed. It was intolerable. Tenchi-sama
was humbling himself to that creature. She opened her mouth to
accuse Ryouko of being the instigator of the damage in the first
place, but then shut it again. Her own role had not been all that
innocent, and grating as it was to admit, the demon-woman had
saved Ranma-san's life. She had an obligation to repay that at the
very least. But that did not mean she need grovel. Instead she would
give Tenchi a lesson in how one of his status should thank a
commoner such as Ryouko.
     "Yes, Ryouko-san," Ayeka said, her face twisted into a
semblance of cordiality.  Barely moving her head, she gave the girl
a tiny nod, "we are very grateful for the service you have given us. I
think perhaps some small token of our esteem would be in order. 
Perhaps I could see fit to see some of the charges for your many
crimes against the Juraian people dropped."
     "But Ayeka-sama, the statute of limitations--" Kamidake
started to say, but was cut off short by the glare Ayeka directed
toward him. Kamidake quivered, and huddled back against the wall.
     Satisfied that she'd quelled any further disruptions, Ayeka
prepared to continue playing gracious sovereign toward Ryouko,
only to find that in the interlude, the others had decided to show
their gratitude in a more direct way.
     "Oh, Ryouko-oneechan, thank you so much!" Sasami cried as
she wrapped her arms firmly around the girl's waist. Ryo-oh-ki
hopped up onto the space pirate's shoulder, and nuzzled her cheek
enthusiastically. She added her own loud vocal thanks to Sasami's
in the form of enthusiastic mews.  Tenchi was not so demonstrative;
he simply beamed at Ryouko, who basked in his approval. 
     Like a snake in the sun, was Ayeka's thought. Indeed, with the
exception of Ayeka, the whole household radiated gratitude toward
Ryouko. It was really quite intolerable, the princess thought to
herself.  She turned from the disgusting display. To show she was
no longer part of the crowd showering praise on 'that' woman, she
examined the tell-tales on the side of Ranma's pod.
     Ryuu-oh's emergency medical pods were designed to survive
just about anything; they wouldn't have been much good if they
weren't. The pods utilized many of the standard galactic medical
technologies, with a few Juraian additions. Among other features,
they utilized a similar principal to the time lock field that had
allowed herself and Sasami to pass the centuries in no time.
     The pods could do much more then merely stop time,
however. Once a course of treatment was decided on, they could
reverse the process, and actually accelerate relative time for the
patient. As Ayeka examined Ranma's medical condition, she saw
that for the redhead, two weeks had already passed. 

     Ayeka grudgingly had to admit that it had been quite clever of
Ryouko to remember the existence of the emergency pods when
faced with Ranma's injuries. A shiver ran up her spine as she read
the information displayed before her. Given the extent of the
damage to Ranma's body, Ayeka was doubtful that any facility on
this primitive planet could have saved her. While not dangerous on
a small scale, the type of injury suffered by Ranma became far more
serious when it involved every square inch of her skin. 
     Ayeka suddenly realized that if not for Ryouko Ranma would
very likely have died from shock. No matter how she might wish it
otherwise, she, and the Juraian royal family, owed her a life debt. A
debt that was by custom settled by making the person owed a noble
of the realm.
     For a few seconds, Ayeka froze as the implications filled her
mind with horror. With one fell swoop, Ryouko would acquire
sufficient rank to be considered a serious suitor for Tenchi-sama's
hand.  Then she thrust the thought away. Such a thought was
unthinkable. It wasn't as if a barbarian such as Ryouko would
realize the extent of the debt owed her. 
     Ayeka mused on other possibilities. Sasami did not have the
political acumen to think beyond simple gratitude. Neither Tenchi
nor his family knew enough of Juraian customs to even imagine the
possibility, and of course, Ranma had no idea whatsoever. 
     So, the only one who knew the implications of Ryouko's act
was Ayeka, and for the good of the Juraian people she would never
tell. It was out of the question that a barbarian such as Ryouko
should be inducted into the ranks of Juraian nobility. 
     "Is Ranma going to be all right, Ayeka-san? How long will she
have to stay inside?" Tenchi asked.
     Ayeka was startled by Tenchi's sudden question. She had been
so busy contemplating the consequences of Ryouko's actions she'd
not seen him leave the group around the barbarian and walk over to
a position behind her. He was currently looking at the many flashing
lights on the side of the medical pod, a look of worry on his face. 
     Because of her surprise, Ayeka answered Tenchi's last
question without thought. "Ranma should be out in about twelve
hours," Ayeka said, and then wished she could snatch the words as
they left her mouth. The last thing she wanted was for Tenchi to
realize how badly hurt Ranma was, and how much in Ryouko's debt
they were. 
     "Oh, that's good. Then she's not hurt all that badly?"
     Ayeka blinked at Tenchi, the phrase, not hurt badly, echoing in
her head. Not hurt badly? Fifty days, subjective healing, was not
hurt badly? Ayeka caught herself before she voiced her thoughts. Of
course, Tenchi-sama was from a primitive culture, he had no idea of
the capabilities of a medical pod. 
     Ayeka plastered a smile on her face and said, "That's right,
Tenchi-sama, just a few hours and Ranma will be as good as new.
All her little scratches and bruises healed up nicely. I don't know
what Ryouko-san was thinking, getting all worked up over such
minor injuries." Ayeka spoke the last words in a muffled voice, as
she busied herself with the medical pod's few outside controls. The
last thing she wanted was for her words to be heard by anyone other
then Tenchi. With her face turned away from Tenchi, Ayeka
allowed herself to grin with unrestrained glee. Ryouko become a
noble of Jurai! Ha! Not in her lifetime.

     Ranma floated inside the healing liquid that both supported
her body and supplied nutrients and medicine to her abused flesh.
While the medical unit sped up time for her body, it attached
sensors to her head and slowed her cerebral functions, keeping her
in a semi-coma until she was ready to be released. It would not do
for her mind to be fully active for the two and a half months of
subjective time she would be undergoing treatment. Neither would
it be healthy for her mind to be completely shut down, however.
Some mental activity was necessary to keep her mind as healthy as
her body would become, and so Ranma dreamed. 

******************************
     
     "Stupid, boy! What were you thinking!? Relying on a weapon?
I trained you better than that!" the panda yelled at Ranma, who
scowled back, her fists clenched in angry defiance. The two of them
stood in a meadow, facing each other with indignant expressions.
     "What the heck do you know, you old fart? You weren't even
there! How the heck was I suppose to fight something like that with
my bare hands?"
     "You did in the end, didn't you, boy? After you got your tail
whipped good. If you'd done that at the beginning you'd have won
instead of ending up face down in the water." The panda looked up
to the heavens and cried out, "All my years of training, thrown away
at the first sign of a real challenge! Oh, the dishonor of it!"
     Ranma nailed the furry orator with a pile-driver elbow, and
then yelled at the hairy pain-in-the-butt, who was now imbedded in
the ground. "What the hell do you mean!? Your training!? You
never taught me nothing like that attack! I learned that all on my
own!"
     The panda pulled his head out of the ground, and whacked
Ranma across the yard with one of his signs. He held it up, but
instead of writing, flickering images filled it. "Oh, really, then
what's this?" he asked. 
     On the sign a scene from Ranma's borrowed memory
appeared. A young red-haired girl stood thigh deep in a circular
pool of water, her back braced against a bamboo pole. The girl was
facing down an elegantly garbed man, who was accompanied by a
floating guardian.
     "So what!?" Ranma yelled. "So I saw her do it. I taught myself
from just seeing it done. You always taught me to keep my eyes
open whenever I had a chance to see something new."
     "Don't you mean, from feeling it done? You didn't just see her
do it, you felt her do it, while you were her."
     "So what?" Ranma repeated. "What's the difference?"
     "The difference, you ungrateful boy, is that you surrendered
your body and let the girl do the attack. Oh, the shame of it! My
son, hiding behind a girl in a fight."
     "That ain't true!" Ranma shouted, while taking another swing
at the panda, who ducked, and again batted her across the field with
his sign.
     "Are you trying to tell me you could have done the same
attack as a boy, boy?"
     "You got that straight, old man."
     "You sure about that, boy?"
     Ranma suddenly got a wary look on her face. She scowled at
the panda, and said, "What're you talking about, old man?"
     "You know the girl did the attack, you just lazed back while
she did all the work. You remembered how it felt, how she drew the
power, even what she called it. The power belongs to her. Without
her, you'd be nothing."
     "That's a lie! I'm the best there is! I may have got her memory
of the attack, but that's all. She's just a shadow. There ain't no one
in my head but me." 
     "The best there is!" Genma said in derision. "Now, yes.
Falling into that spring was your ticket to the soft life, boy. You got
all that power; a roof over your head, meals every day, and people
who treat you well." Genma scowled in disgust, then looked up at
the sky one more, crying out. "How disgusting! My son has turned
his back on the way of the true martial artist. Only by suffering and
deprivation, combined with constant training, can a martial artist
truly become one with his art. A true martial artist would reject this
soft life and earn his skill." 
     Ranma couldn't help herself. She fell over laughing. "You,"
she howled, pointing her finger at him, "you lecture me on taking
the easy way? The only reason we suffered so much on the road was
because people figured you out as a faker so quickly. You never
turned down a free meal, or anything else free for that matter, in
your life."
     "You foolish boy! I did it all for you! And this is the thanks I
get? Oh, how stinging is the wound given by an ungrateful son."
     Ranma kicked the panda straight up. Looking skywards after
the dwindling fur-ball, she shouted, "And that's another thing! In
case you ain't noticed, I'm a girl now, thanks to you. Was that
another one of your 'gifts' to make me a better martial artist?"
     By now the panda had disappeared from sight, and Ranma
snorted in disgust. "Stupid old man." She turned to leave, and got
walloped across the back of the head by a panda-wielded sign.
Ranma went somersaulting across the ground, finally crashing into
a bamboo fence, which splintered from the impact. Water appeared
from nothing, and she was suddenly standing nude in the Jusenkyo
pool where this whole thing had started.
     "You're a girl because you were too slow and inept to avoid
it." The panda said from where it balanced on a nearby pole.
Ranma's body blurred, and vanished, only to re-appear in the air
beside the panda. A sweep of her foot sent him crashing to the
ground.
     "How's that for slow and inept, old man?"
     "Not bad," a strange but familiar voice said. "For a girl, that
is"
     "Who the hell said that!?" Ranma yelled from her perch atop
one of the bamboo poles, looking around the area, while falling into
a defensive pose.
     "Geez, just like a girl. Dumb as mud."
     Ranma zeroed in on the voice, and realized it was coming
from the limp form of her father. She scowled, and clenched her
fists tightly, popping the knuckles on first one hand, then the other.
"That's a new one, Pop, disguising your voice," she said, as she
dove for the attack. "What's next? Juggling? Or maybe you'll roll
around on a ball at the circus?"
     The panda leaped into the air just ahead of Ranma's attack,
and somersaulted away to land facing Ranma. It spoke with that
same strangely familiar voice. "Nah, I think I'll just go for a good
old fashion ass-kicking."
     "In your dreams . . . Pop?"
     "Starting to figure it out, eh, girl?" the panda said, as it reached
a furry hand up to its neck, and pulled on the zipper that was located
there. A second later a limp panda skin fell to the ground, and a
figure in a white gi stepped out of it. "Surprise," Ranma-kun said
with a smirk as he stared at the thunderstruck Ranma.  
     Ranma gazed in wonder at her male body. It was just like she
remembered. A giant of a man with rippling muscles who towered
over her puny female form. Thick black hair tied back in a pony tail
topped a devastatingly handsome face. No wonder the voice had
sounded so familiar. Ranma started to move toward her former
body, one thought in her mind. Mine! 
     To her surprise Ranma-kun jumped away from her. "Whoa
there, girl," he said. "Whatcha think you're doing?"
     Ranma paused, one foot in the air, and looked at him in
astonishment. "But, you're mine. I want you back."
     Ranma-kun laughed out loud. "Yours? You wish, girl. I'm all
man, all the time. If you think I'm going to let myself get stuck with
you, you're even dumber than most girls."
     Ranma flushed with anger. "I ain't a girl and you damn well
know it, and who said you had any choice in the matter? You're
mine and I'm going to take you back!" She started to stalk toward
Ranma-kun, who held up his hands in mock fear.
     "Oh, I'm so scared, the little girl is going to attack me."
Ranma pounced forward, leading with her right foot in a powerful
kick, which Ranma-kun dodged with a bored look. As Ranma went
flying past him, she swung a fist at his head. He moved just enough
to make her miss by a fraction of an inch.
     For what seemed like forever Ranma threw everything she
could at Ranma-kun, and failed to score a single hit. The final straw
was when he pulled a manga out of his back pocket and began to
read it while still effortlessly dodging her attacks. "Goddamn it!!!,"
she screamed. "Fight me, you bastard!"
     "Nope. Sorry. Don't fight girls. It's a guy thing. But you
wouldn't know about that, would you?
     Ranma fumed, but resisted making another wild attack. She'd
finally realized what her male-side was doing. Her battles with her
father had always included a generous helping of mutual insults. 

     Anger could be a great help in a battle if properly focused.
Unfocused anger, on the other hand, was a severe liability.  Genma
had driven that concept into Ranma from day one. Getting her foes
too upset to think was still one of her favorite tactics. Now it looked
like she'd let herself be suckered by her own favorite stratagem.

     Still, that didn't account for all of her current difficulties.
Being pissed at her male body wasn't enough to explain her
inability to lay a finger on him. She knew she was faster than when
she'd been a boy. So what was going on?
     Ranma threw a few fast punches, focusing on her own body
and its reactions, rather than any specific target. Sure enough,
something was dragging on her arms. She gazed in puzzlement at
her bare limbs and then recoiled in surprise as a number of red
strings appeared, each one attached to a finger.  "What the hell?"
she muttered to herself.
     "Foolish boy. Don't you realize what you've done?"
     Ranma looked up, startled, to see that her male side had been
joined by her now human father, who was currently glaring at her
furiously. 
     "I ain't done nothing, old man, but I'm sure you'll tell me
different."
     "Idiot, you've violated the most cardinal rule of the martial
artist."
     "And which cardinal rule is that? Doing everything your
Sensei tells you without question, no matter how stupid?  Not
getting anything more to eat when your Sensei's plate is empty? Not
paying for dinner when you're sitting next to an open window? Or
is this a brand-new cardinal rule?"
     Genma ignored her remarks. "Ties, boy! Ties!" he shouted. "A
martial artist can't let himself be tied down. He must be free to
pursue his art. Free of ties that bind. You've got soft, boy. You've
grown attached to the Masakis."
     "Hey!" Ranma protested. "You're the one that engaged me to
Tenchi! What the heck was I supposed to do? You're the one who
made such a big deal out of making sure the Saotome line was
carried on. How the heck did you figure I'd do that if I didn't get
close to the guy who's suppose to be the father? Or was I just
supposed to pop out a baby and get back on the road?"
     Genma opened his mouth to shout at her, and then shut it. He
raised a hand to gesture, and let it drop. A look of sorrow came over
his features. "I'm sorry, girl, you're right."
     "And another thing, where do you get off . . . ," Ranma paused
in mid-rant, and boggled at her father. "I'm right?"
     "Yes, you are."
     Ranma stared at Genma with a disbelieving expression on her
face, then her face hardened. "All right, Pop, what's the trick? What
are you up to?" 
     "Forgive a foolish old man, my girl," Genma said, tears
running down his face. "The path you must walk now is different
from mine. I follow the path of honor and manliness; you must lead
a woman's life from this day on." Genma turned to Ranma-kun,
who had been smirking at Ranma the entire time. "Come, boy, the
road awaits."
     "Right with you, Pop." The two men shouldered backpacks,
and turned their backs on Ranma.
     She watched them walk away, an expression of incredulity on
her face, that shifted to one of chagrin, and then anger. "Wait one
effing second, you, bleeps!" she screamed after them.
     When the two males turned to look at her, she pointed at
Ranma-kun. "That's my body and I mean to have it back! I
challenge you."
     Ranma-kun smirked at her."Give it up, girl. You've already
lost. Go back home and make some babies."
     Instead of anger, Ranma's face showed amusement. Maybe
she'd fallen for that trick once, but never again. She was the one in
charge now. "Scared, eh? Don't blame you. Seeing as what I did at
the hot springs, I ain't surprised you're afraid to face me." 
     It was Ranma-kun's turn to flush with anger. "Ranma Saotome
ain't afraid of nothing."
     "Oh, don't worry about it. Like I said, you're just being smart.
A regular martial artist doesn't stand a chance against me. I've got
the blood of heros in me, and I've trained against a demon. All
you've had to spar against is Pop."
     "The girl has a point, boy . . . Hey! What do you mean by
that?" 
     "Just what I said. I've been trained by the best; all he's ever
had is a flabby old man."
     Genma fumed at Ranma, then turned to Ranma-kun. "For the
honor of the Saotome school, you need to teach this smart-mouthed
'girl' some manners." 
     "I don't fight girls," Ranma-kun said sullenly.
     "Yep, just like I figured, yellow all the way through," Ranma
said.
     Ranma-kun glared at her, but then his expression lightened,
and he chuckled nastily. "All right, 'girl' you want to challenge me?
I accept. Just remember you asked for it."
     Ranma dropped into a ready stance, and made a come-on
gesture with her hands. "I'm waiting, big-mouth. Lets see what you
got."
     Ranma-kun didn't duplicate Ranma's preparation. Instead, he
reached down casually and grasped his outfit where the pants and
jacket came together. Grinning at Ranma, he wrenched the clothes
from his body, revealing a hideous sight.
     Ranma paled, and stumbled backward. "No," she whispered in
a faint voice, taking in the shiny white shape in front of her; the
short, big headed staff in his sweaty hand. "you wouldn't. We're the
same person. I'm closer than a sister. You can't do this."
     Ranma-kun leered at her. With his free hand, he slicked back
his dark hair while saying. "Why do you think they call it, Anything
Goes, babe?" He gave a couple of thrusts with his white sequined
hips, and then brought the microphone in his hand up to his mouth
as music began to play.
     %Since my baby left me - I've found a new place to dwell . .
.%
     "Ahhhhh," Ranma screamed, covering her ears with her hands
to hold out the horrible sound. "Not Elvis, anything but Elvis!" She
staggered backward, away from the demonic Karaoke machine. 


     Ranma's reaction did not go unnoticed. Out in the real world,
lines of Juraian characters appeared on the status screen of the
medical pod.
                                                       
     >Subject exhibiting severe mental trauma<

     It was not out of the ordinary for people being treated in a
medical pod to suffer traumatic dreams. After all, they were most
often in the device because of some sort of serious accident.
     Dreams could be a valuable tool. They allowed the patient to
start the process of dealing with whatever trauma they remembered
experiencing during the misadventure that landed them in medical
care. Pains needed to be taken, however, to see that the dreams did
not induce a mental trauma in the patient. It would do little good to
heal the body, if the mind ended up broken. 
     The recommended procedure for dealing with accident trauma
was to try and allow the patient to deal with it by reinforcing old
memories that would help shape and direct the bad dreams into a
more positive direction. The medical unit did this by gently
stimulating surrounding areas of the brain that contained those older
memories. If this did not decrease the patient's mental anxiety then
other steps could be taken. The medical pod instituted the
recommended action, and went back to being a passive observer.

     This activity went without notice in the Masaki parlor.  It had
been two hours since the hot-springs party had arrived home, and
they no longer were subjecting the medical pod to intense scrutiny.
Knowing the precise time that Ranma would be decanted, and that
she'd be fully cured when she was, relieved a lot of the emotions
that kept people anxiously waiting for news in Earth hospitals. 

     Not that their thoughts were not on her. Sasami, for instance,
was busy in the kitchen preparing the biggest feast she could
manage for the welcome out party they had planned for Ranma.
But, while everyone had Ranma's current status on their minds,
some had other matters that needed attention.
     Katsuhito had left shortly before for the temple, promising
Sasami that he would be back in plenty of time for the party.
Ryouko had left shortly after Katsuhito, muttering something about
settling a score. Nobuyuki was on the telephone, yelling at someone
while waving an official looking form in the air with his free hand. 

     The letter had been waiting in the mail box when he got home.
The gist of his conversation seemed to be that it was unreasonable
to expect a young girl to commute such a long distance to school,
and that surely there must be somewhere closer then this Furinken
with an opening. 

     Ayeka was watching the blonde police officer, Mihoshi, with
gimlet eyes. She did not like the way the top-heavy hussy had been
making up to Tenchi-sama. She was determined that when Ranma
emerged she would not find Tenchi's love for her compromised, in
any way. 
     Mihoshi, herself, was currently standing in the middle of the
room, holding a tea service in her hand. Everyone else had declined
the beverage, or were too busy to partake. Tenchi, who had been
quite eager to drink her tea, was not currently in the room.
     The boy in question was in the only room of the house that
offered him sanctuary from unexpected females. His pants
unzipped, he was currently recycling two pots of tea. It wasn't that
Mihoshi's tea was that good, or that he was that thirsty, it was more
a case of Tenchi suffering from a condition common among teenage
males. To put it simply, no healthy, heterosexual teenage boy would
say no to a beautiful blonde in fear that it would set some sort of
precedent. So when Mihoshi asked him if he wanted more tea . . . 
     Tenchi gave a sigh of relief and zipped himself back up.
Washing his hands, he gazed at the door to the bathroom with some
trepidation. It wasn't that he was scared, precisely. It was more that
he was finding it very hard to deal with the numerous females who
has entered his life, four of them very attractive and of an age to
make romance possible. 
     Tenchi had lived most of his life in a female-free zone. With
the necessity of taking care of the house, he had not even had time
to socialize at his school. He belonged to no clubs, and had no
friends with sisters. To Tenchi, girls had been a much desired, but
very mysterious puzzle that he had never really had the chance to
solve. Now he had been handed the equivalent of a ten thousand
piece jigsaw, all the pieces white, and was trying to fit it togther,
while somewhere a time-bomb was ticking. 
     It didn't help that every single one of the girls were radically
different in personality and character. The easy comradery that
Ranma seemed to enjoy invoked an uncomfortable silence from
Ayeka, and was interpreted as an invitation to amorous activity by
Ryouko. 
     Formality got him approving looks from Ayeka, but gained
him smacks and interjections to lighten up from Ranma, while
Ryouko interpreted it as an invitation to amorous activity.
     He had never dared to try openly flirting, even if he'd known
how. He had no idea how Ayeka would take it, only that she'd
likely disapprove. Ranma would likely deck him, and he shuddered
at what Ryouko would do. 
     No matter how he hated to admit it, the former pirate still
scared him limp. Her temperament was so mercurial, and the
incident at the school so recent, he just could not bring himself to
fully believe in her. It seemed so inconceivable that such an
attractive girl could be truly interested in him. He couldn't help but
think it was some sort of an act. Maybe all she was really interested
in was the final two gems in the hilt of his sword, and had no real
interest in him at all. That, after all, was far more logical than that
she should suddenly fall passionately and deeply in love with him
after trying her level best to kill him.
     Tenchi gave another sigh. This wasn't getting him anywhere.
Time to face the lions den, he thought to himself. Making sure
everything was tucked in properly, he exited the bathroom and was
immediately set upon by Mihoshi, her tea service thrust forward
eagerly. Tenchi flinched backward from the offered tray, and
sweated slightly as his eyes took in the bounty in front of him. It
wasn't Sasami's tea cakes that made him sweat, however, but the
bountiful tanned globes that were framed on three sides by
Mihoshi's arms and the tea tray. His teenage mind couldn't help but
dwell on those as if they were what Mihoshi was offering him on a
tray.
     If Tenchi had been a bit more sophisticated, he might have
wondered if it was possible Mihoshi was drawing attention to her
charms on purpose. Being Tenchi, the only thought he had, other
then the obvious, was that he really was turning into as big a pervert
as his dad. 
     "Would you like some more tea, Tenchi?" Mihoshi asked with
great eagerness. Tenchi nodded weakly, and reached for the filled
mug resting beside the pot. Before he could take it, however, Ayeka
intervened.    
     Sliding into the narrow space between the blonde police
officer and Tenchi, Ayeka took the flustered boy by the arm, and
started to draw him toward the medical pod.  "Tenchi-sama, would
you like to see how your 'fiancee' is doing. I'm sure your 'fiancee'
will be most gratified to hear of your concern when your 'fiancee'
gets out. Your 'fiancee' is such a devoted girl. It will gladden your
'fiancee's' heart to know that you were so concerned about her."
     "Oh, is Tenchi engaged to the girl who made herself sick
smoking?" Mihoshi asked.  "Are you sure you want to be engaged
to a girl like that? They do say that they can never really get rid of
the habit? Maybe you should find a girl with nice healthy lungs."
     "Tenchi's fiancee has very healthy lungs!" Ayeka retorted, a
vein bulging in her forehead. "I don't know where you got this
ludicrous idea that she was a chain smoker, but I'll thank you not to
spread rumors."
     "Oh, is that right? Are your fiancee's lungs really healthy?"
Mihoshi asked Tenchi. Before he could think up a reply that
wouldn't embarrass him, Mihoshi took a very deep breath, and
expanded her chest to the maximum. "It's just that having good
wind is so very important. I have very healthy lungs. All the doctors
at Galaxy Police Headquarters say so. Why one Moroboshi doctor
has me come in for regular checkups just so he can take pictures for
a book he's writing on them."
     Beside Tenchi, Ayeka made a strangled sound. Tenchi looked
at her in concern, and asked, "Are you all right, Ayeka-san?"
     Ayeka looked as if she wanted to say something, but after a
minute, she simply nodded her head, and said, "I'm fine, Tenchi-
sama. Something just went down the wrong way." As she talked,
Ayeka was giving Mihoshi a very strange look, as if she was
wondering if the blonde was for real. 
     Mihoshi in the meantime looked right by Ayeka, and frowned
slightly. "Oh dear, is it suppose to be doing that?" she asked,
pointing at the readout on the medical pod, which was spiking very
high, indicating that the resident was experiencing highly distressed
mental activity. 
                                 

     Ranma's distress at her male counterpart's singing was so
great it took her several moments to notice the hand on her butt.
When she did, she whirled around, ready to deliver mayhem to
whoever had dared. The sight that greeted her was almost as bad as
the singing 
     A table full of Ryoukos faced her, each one dressed in a
salaryman suit. Each of the Ryoukos sported a cheesy fake
moustache. 
     No! Not just one table, Ranma saw, dozens of them. As she
stared in horror, the Salaryman-Ryouko who had been fondling her
butt gave her a leer, and then shouted to his companions. "That's
got to be jelly, because jam don't shake like that!"
     Ranma whirled her bo-staff up and around her head before
bringing it smashing down on the table in front of her, sending the
laughing Ryoukos sprawling. 
     Fueled by her anger, Ranma turned to face her male body, only
to be driven back by the driving beat and the words, % You ain't
nothing but a hound dog! Barking all the time%
     Once again Ranma's backward motion was arrested, but much
more politely this time. A pair of hands grasped her shoulders, and a
soft voice said, "It's okay Ranma, we believe in you."
     Ranma looked back over her shoulder at the black-haired
waitress with the soft brown eyes. "Thank you, Tenchi-chan," she
said. She took in the other waitresses standing there, offering her
their support. "Thank you, Ayeka-san, Sasami-chan, Ryo-oh-ki-
chan, Ryouko-chan." Ranma winced as Ranma-kun hit a
particularly sour note. Her hand fumbled at her change belt, looking
for her faux-jewelry earplugs. She gave a sigh of relief when she
found and inserted them. She didn't know how she could have
forgotten them. She'd never have lasted even one night at the bar if
Aoi-chan hadn't given them to her as a gift. 
     Her defenses in place, Ranma rose to face her male-self. Her
bo twirled lightly in her hand.  "All right you, time to settle this,"
she said, moving toward the stage. The still singing Ranma-kun
payed her no mind. He was too lost in the music to notice that it was
no longer affecting her. That changed when Ranma's bo-staff came
crashing down on the console, and sudden silence filled the bar. 
     "Hey!! What the heck did you do that for!?" Ranma-kun
yelled at her, the now useless mike dangling limply in his hand. 
     Ranma scowled at him, and said, "Just removing some
unnecessary distractions. Now, let's do this. I'm taking you back."
     Ranma-kun smirked as he tossed the mike aside, and took up a
defensive stance. "In your dreams, little-girl. And, I do mean
dreams. I bet you get all hot and sweaty at night thinking what
you'd like to do with this fine body. Am I right?"
     Ranma flushed. "You calling me a pervert!?" she demanded.
But her protest sounded weak, even in her own ears.
     "Oh ho," Ranma-kun laughed. "So you do. Well, I can't blame
you. I am one - fine - hunk - of - man. Ain't that right, girls?" he
said, directing this comment toward the waitresses who had
gathered around them. They all gave a collective sniff of disdain
and looked away from him to Ranma.
     "Kick his ass, Ranma-chan," Ayeka cheered. 
     Ranma-kun smirked and said, "She wants me."
     "Kick him in the jewels," Ryouko-chan shouted.
     "Her too," Ranma-kun said, blowing a kiss at the cyan-haired
waitress, who made a gagging gesture with her forefinger.
     Ranma rolled her eyes. "God, you're pathetic. Let's finish this
now," she said, rushing to the attack. Her bo-staff flashed through
the air, and missed.  "Damn," She cursed to herself, "Still too slow."
     "Here you go boy, these will help," Genma said, holding a pair
of scissors out to her.
     Ranma stared blankly at the object in Genma's hand, and then
at the many red-threads tied around her fingers. Threads that held
her back, made her slow, threads that kept her from becoming male
once again. Slowly, hesitantly, she reached for them, then paused.
She looked over at the waitresses. Gentle Tenchi-chan. The mature
Ryo-oh-ki, little Ryo-oh-ki in her arms. Little Sasami-chan, so full
of energy and fun. Dignified and beautiful Ayeka-chan. Wild and
carefree Ryouko-chan.
     "What are you waiting for, boy?" Genma said. "You can't win
with those things holding you back. Get rid of them!"
     Tenchi-chan smiled at Ranma and said, "It's all right, Ranma,
we understand. Go ahead and cut them."
     Sasami nodded her head, tears streaming from her eyes. "I'll
miss you, Ranma-oneechan but you need to be yourself." All the
other girls nodded their heads in agreement. Genma offered the
scissors once again and this time Ranma took them.
     "That's the way, sweety," Ranma-kun said. "Not that it'll do
you any good, but you don't want a bunch of silly girls holding you
back when you fight me. You'll need every advantage you can -
Yipe." The yell was a result of Ranma chucking the scissors in her
hand at Ranma-kun's head.
     "I don't need an advantage to take out a sorry piece of crap
like you!" Ranma yelled at him. She was glowing slightly in her
anger.              
     "That so?" Ranma-kun said skeptically. He suddenly blurred
forward and Ranma woofed in shock as his fist connected with her
diaphragm. She folded over his forearm, the breath knocked out of
her. He withdrew his fist and stepped back, letting her slump to the
ground. A second later the scissors she's tossed at him clattered to
the ground in front of her. "You'd better use these, girl, or else
you're going to make us look bad," he said, a sneer in his voice.
     Ranma knelt on the ground, the pain in her belly no match for
the one to her spirit. She couldn't do it. She was a girl. She couldn't
beat her male self. Her eyes fell on the scissors, and once more she
contemplated cutting the ties that were slowing her down, but she
rejected the idea again. It wouldn't make any difference. She just
wasn't good enough. 
     A feminine scream yanked Ranma out of her pit of self-pity,
and a moment later she was wrenching Tenchi-chan out of Ranma-
kun's arms while at the same time decking the pervert, sending him
crashing into a table full of salarymen-Ryoukos. 
     "Keep your hands to yourself, you pervert!" she yelled at the
downed boy.  Turning her back on him, she examined Tenchi-chan,
who she was cradled in her arms.  "Are you all right,Tenchi-chan?"
she asked.
     Tenchi just looked back at her with wide eyes, and when she
finally spoke, it was not in answer to Ranma's question. Instead she
said, "Ranma, you hit him."
     "Huh?" Ranma said in surprise. She looked over at where
Ranma-kun was struggling to extricate himself from the table full of
Ryoukos, without a lot of luck. The Ryoukos were well gone to
drink, and their efforts to help him were rather more of a hindrance
then an aid. "I hit him?" Ranma said in a questioning tone. Her face
suddenly brightened, and she yelled out. "I hit him! Yatta!" A
puzzled look crossed her face, and she added, "But how?"
     Ranma ran over her actions of the last minute, trying to figure
out how she'd managed to accomplish what up till then had been an
impossible task. Her eyes widened and she looked at the red threads
tied to her fingers, which were almost humming with power. Instead
of holding her back, they had pulled her ahead this time. "Of
course," she said in a tone of wonder. "A martial-artist's duty is to
protect the weak. I couldn't beat my male body for myself, but I can
do it to protect the weak."
     Ranma turned to Tenchi and asked, "Tenchi-chan, will you do
me a really big favor?"
     Tenchi returned Ranma's look with one of complete trust. "Of
course, Ranma-chan. I'll do anything you want."
     "Thanks." Ranma gave Tenchi a bit of a push, and sent her
staggering into the arms of Ranma-kun, who had finally managed to
free himself from the table full of Salarymen-Ryoukos. 
     Ranma-kun gave a leer, and gladly wrapped his arms around
her. "Hey, cutey, how about you and me go somewhere nice and
private?" he asked, as his hands wandered freely. Tenchi gave a
squeal of dismay and beat her fist futilely against his chest. A
second later Ranma-kun received a fist to the face from Ranma.
     "Yatta!" Ranma exclaimed in pleasure as Ranma-kun went
flying backwards. Her theory was confirmed. Ranma was not slow
in putting her discovery to use. The threads that had been a
hindrance now fed fire into her nerves as she visualized her friends
in trouble. Ranma-kun's efforts at defense were laughable. She
wove around his guard like it wasn't even there. For every blow he
swung and missed she hit him a dozen times. 
     Fist, spin-backhand, spin-kick, spin-kick, palm-thrust, elbow
smash to the chin, knee to the groin, diverted at the last second to
take him in the belly when Ranma recalled it was her body after all.
She went to straight speed punches, staggering Ranma backward
with each blow. 
     Tossing loops of red thread into the air, Ranma used them to
swing high above the dazed Ranma-kun, tucking and rolling in a
somersault before falling feet first toward her opponent. Ranma-kun
was still groggily trying to locate her when her heels impacted on
his shoulders and drove him face first into the ground. 
     Ranma bounced with the impact, and landed next to the
flattened boy, rolling him over she aimed a fist at his battered face,
but before she could land the blow, Ranma-kun disappeared in a
cloud of glowing dust which melted into Ranma's body.  
     An incredible feeling of joy filled Ranma as her body began to
grow and shift, and when, a few brief seconds later, Ranma found
himself a boy again, tears ran down his face. A startled gasp brought
his eyes up to see Tenchi-chan staring at him wide-eyed. Overcome
with joy, he swept her up in his arms and whirled her around. 
     The fist that knocked him on his ass seemed to come from
nowhere. He went sprawling, pain shooting through his abused jaw.
He started to get to his feet, anger at this sneak attack raging inside 
him, and stopped, staring in shock at the person behind whom
Tenchi-chan was cowering. 
     The red-haired girl glared back at him, and said, "Keep your
stinking hands to yourself, pervert. You touch my Tenchi, or any of
the other girls, again, and I'll put you in the ground." Putting a
protective arm around Tenchi-chan, the red-haired girl lead her
away. The other girls moved in to join the pair, and with them they
walked away from Ranma, their backs stiff with anger at him. 
     "What!  Come back. You can't leave! We belong together.
See." Ranma said, pointing at his fingers where the red-threads had
been tied, only to boggle in shock when he saw they were no longer
there. From within the pack of girls walking away from him, the
red-haired girl raised a hand and wiggled her fingers, drawing his
attention to the red threads that were now tied to her fingers.
     "No, that's not fair!" Ranma protested, taking a step toward
the receding group of girls, only to be brought up short by a large
furry paw on his shoulder. 
     "Come on, boy," Genma said, thrusting a large backpack into
Ranma's arms. "Now that you've gotten rid of those girls, you can
once again walk the path of the true martial artist." Dragging Ranma
along behind him, he continued to speak. "I've heard about this sect
of monks in Tibet who train naked on the glaciers high in the
Himalayan Mountains. They are said to have stamina beyond belief.
It's only a two-thousand mile walk; we can be there just in time for
winter, which should be the best time of all for that sort of training."
     After a minute of silence, except for Ranma's loud, and futile,
protests, he added, "I'm sure the stories about the man-eating Yeti's
are only a fable to keep the tourists away."
     Ranma screamed in frustration as he saw the girls disappearing
in the distance. "It's not fair!!!!" he cried out in despair.

     >Subject exhibiting severe mental trauma<
     >Stimulation of prior memories not helping<
     > Recommend sedation of most recent memory<
     >Sedation effective. Subject calming<

     While the medical pod could not read its patient's mind, it
could determine adverse mental activity by monitoring stress
indicators. It could also determine how often and recently memories
had been accessed, or how long ago stored by examining minute
chemical traces in the brain. If dealing with more recent memories
was too traumatic, it could prompt activity in older memories in the
hope that they would lead to more pleasant dreams. The newer,
more traumatic memories could then be slowly stimulated, with the
result that the patient could gradually begin to deal with the shock
of their accident. 
     Of course while the pod could stimulate activity in specific
areas, it could not prevent bleed-over from other sectors.
Fortunately, very recent memories, such as those resulting from an
accident, were usually well defined and restricted in area of storage,
and as such were easily controlled.

     >Stimulating older memories<

     Ranma looked down, and saw her breasts for the very first
time.

     >Sedation required<
     >Stimulating older memories<

      The waves crashed over Ranma's head, and she struggled to
keep going, only a few more miles to China, just a few more miles .
. . The Sea monster burst from the water, and towered over Ranma's
floating form. Jaws gapping wide, it dove down toward . . . 

     >Sedation required<
     >Stimulating older memories<

     Oh, this is going to be good, Ranma thought to herself, as she
calculated the ebb and flow of the mass of humanity in front of her. 
     "Last cutlet sandwich," the lunch lady called, and tossed the
listed article into the air above the crowd of howling boys. Ranma
leapt high into the air, bounced off a convenient head, and caught
the much-desired cutlet-sandwich well above the reach of her
schoolmates.
     "Look, a girl!!!" came the howl from below her, and Ranma
suddenly realized she was naked, and above a mob of boys who
were now howling for something other then sandwiches . . .

     >Sedation required<
     >Stimulating older memories<

     "C . C. c. c. c. c Cat!!!!"

     >Sedation required<

     The medical pod made a note of the likely age of the patient at
the time of this incident. It added a comment to its records to the
attention of the physician in charge to investigate for a possible
history of child-abuse.

     >Stimulating older memories<

     Ranma fought back the tears as Ukyou fell farther and farther
behind the Yatai she was riding. The young boy fell on his face, and
Ranma had to fight the urge to jump down and run back to him. Pop
would get mad if she did. Instead, as Ukyou got to his feet, she
forced a smile on her face, and gave him a cheery wave goodbye.
Then the monster stepped out of the shadows of the trees . . .

     >Sedation required<
     >Stimulating older memories<

     "Mommy, where are you mommy." . . .

     >Sedation required<

     At this point a human doctor would have begun to get a little
frustrated, wondering if this patient had any positive childhood
memories at all. The AI in the medical pod simply continued
scanning for older, less accessed, memory. It found some. A large
segment of memory that had barely ever been read.
 
     >Stimulating older memories<

     For a few minutes the patient's mind seemed not to react, then
several adjacent memory storage areas increased activity, as the
patient's mind cross-referenced them with the ones the medical pod
was stimulating.

      Thirteen-year-old Ranma Saotome sighed with pleasure and
lay back on the warm, grass-covered ground, looking up at the blue,
cloud-speckled sky. A strand of straw projected from between her
lips as she gloried in sheer bone-idleness. In a little while she'd
have to go home. No doubt her grandmother would switch her for
skipping out on her training, but for now everything was perfect.
     Ranma rolled over on her belly, and inched forward, worming
her way through the hedge of brush that sheltered her little
mountain top nook from the wind. Sticking her head through the
sheltering underbrush, she looked down nearly a thousand feet to
the checkerboard pattern of fields and homes far below. She smiled
as she watched the ant-like figures of the people working in the
fields, but then her smile turned to a frown as she noticed a small
group idling by the side of one particular field. The one where Zar-
gell was working today.  Even from here she knew they were
warrior trainees, just a few years older then herself, and without
being able to hear them, she could just imagine the things they were
likely saying to each other, especially her older cousin, Lo-xion. 
     Ranma pouted, her perfect mood spoiled. She didn't
understand what her cousin saw in that stupid boy, but lately, that
was all she ever talked about. Zar-gell this, and Zar-gell that, and it
was even worse when she was with her friends. What was so special
about having a butt you could crack nuts on anyway?
     Ranma vowed that she would never let herself act that stupid
around any boy. The only thing boys were good for was working in
the fields and cooking and cleaning. A real Amazon warrior would
never waste time on someone like that. No matter what
Grandmother said, she would never, ever get stupid over a boy like
Lo-xion was.
     Ranma tore her eyes away from the figures below her, and
muttered, 'Stupid boys. Who needs them." She wiggled back into
the small alcove high up on the cliff face. Scooping a hand full of
ice-cold water from the pond in the middle of the nook, she
splashed her face, gasping as the near freezing liquid chilled her
skin. 
     Ranma flopped onto her back, letting the sun warm her face,
but the perfect day was spoiled. Stupid Lo-xion; she'd promised to
let Ranma try her sword today, but instead, she'd run off to be with
her older friends. To go and giggle at boys. "Yuck, disgusting," she
muttered half-heartedly to herself.
     A sudden thrashing in the bushes drew her attention, making
her forget everything else. A bolt of worry shot through her. Had
someone from the village found her secret spot? It was with relief
that she saw a fat, old panda bumble out of the bushes. Surprisingly,
when it saw her, it did not hastily withdraw, but instead, stood up on
its hind legs and began waving a piece of wood around with strange
markings on it while making urgent growling noises. 
     Ranma paid no attention to the object in the panda's hand. A
sudden thought had occurred to her. Roast-panda was her
grandmother's very favorite food in the whole world. If she brought
this one back for dinner, she would very likely avoid the switching
she'd earned by ducking out on training. 
     Moving carefully, Ranma drew the long knife her mother had
gifted to her on her first day of womanhood a year ago, and began
moving slowly toward the panda. The beast seemed oblivious to her
intent, and continued to wave its piece of wood and make growfing
noised at her. A large smile covered her face.
     
     >Subject experiencing positive mental activity<
     If it had been capable of emotion the medical pod likely would
have said, "About bloody time." Instead, it simply remarked,
     >Continuing stimulation of selected area of memory<    
     
*****************************                

     Ayeka sighed with relief when she saw the indicators on the
medical pod stabilize. "Thank goodness. Ranma-chan seems to be
resting peacefully now," she said.
     "What went wrong?" Tenchi asked, his worry obvious in his
voice.
     Ayeka, hearing that worry, mentally pumped a fist in the air,
and thought, YES!!  Her face showed none of this as she turned to
face Tenchi. "There is nothing to concern yourself about, Tenchi-
sama," she said in a polite, controlled voice. "It is perfectly normal
for patients to suffer bad dreams, the onboard computer has taken
steps. Ranma will be fine. All physical repairs are progressing
normally."
     A feeling of relief filled Tenchi. He had been standing around
helplessly for the last ten minutes while Ayeka had monitored the
diagnostic screens of the big wooden egg that was the emergency
medical pod. 
     Tenchi clenched his fists at his side as he stared at the silent
medical unit. It was so frustrating not being able to do anything!
This whole situation was frustrating! There was nothing he could do
to make any difference. He couldn't even offer the sick Ranma
moral support. Until the egg released her she would be oblivious to
the outside world. He needed to do something! Anything! Just so it
gave him something to do. He turned to the princess, and said,
"Ayeka-san, I have to go out for a little bit. I have chores I should
get done."
     "Certainly, Tenchi-sama. I will stay and watch over Ranma-
chan for you," Ayeka said. She reached out and snagged the back of
Mihoshi's shirt as the blonde started to follow after Tenchi. "I'm
sure Officer Mihoshi will be happy to watch with me. Won't you?"
The last was directed at Mihoshi, who was looking after Tenchi in a
wistful manner.               
     "Ano, well, I, that is . . ." Mihoshi started to say. 
     She was interrupted by Tenchi who smiled back at her over his
shoulder, and said, "Thank you, Mihoshi, I really appreciate it."
Tenchi hurriedly exited before anyone else decided to accompany
him.
     
     A little while later Tenchi had found a chore; sweeping the
flagstones in the temple courtyard. Perhaps it would be more
accurate to say that his body was sweeping. Tenchi's mind was far,
far away. It had been years since he'd needed to actually think
about what he was doing while sweeping up. So, while his body
performed dutifully, his mind was busy thinking about his current
situation.
     It was ironic in a way. For the past two or three years almost
all of Tenchi's daydreaming time had been spent on the subject of
girls, and the lack of same in his life. Not even the mystery of
Ryouko's cave had occupied a fraction of the time he had spent
thinking about that particular subject.                          
     The cave, and the demon in it, had filled the dreams of his
childhood. As he had grown older, however, his dreams had
changed, and it was something very different from grappling with
demons that filled his mind. Tenchi snorted with laughter. Yet
another bit of irony. That the fearsome demon of the cave should
turn out to be a girl straight out of his fantasy life. 
     Well, not exactly, he amended his thoughts. For the most part
the girls in his dreams had been his schoolmates. Distant creatures
that he had never quite gotten up the nerve to approach. He had
envied the boys who had grown up with them. They talked and
laughed with the girls as if it were the most normal thing in the
world.
     Those were the girls who had danced through his dreams. In
those dreams he was witty and clever, and never blushed. And his
body never, ever embarrassed the hell out of him like it had in front
of Ranma back at the hot springs.
     The mere thought of that betrayal was enough to make
Tenchi's face flame with red. Ranma must think he was a total
pervert now. Even with that thought in his mind, he couldn't help
but think of how sexy Ranma had looked. She was so cute, and yet
so fully female. . . Tenchi groaned in dismay as he felt an only too
familiar sensation. Hastily, he started doing multiplication tables in
his mind.
     Several minutes later, when the crisis was diverted, Tenchi let
his mind come back from 147 x 135, and tried to think over his
situation without perving out. There was no denying the fact that he
found Ranma physically attractive. She was every bit as appealing
as Ryouko, and much less threatening. Despite her ability at martial
arts, she just did not have the same imposing physical presence as
the tall, alien-looking Ryouko. Most of the time she simply
appeared to be a slightly smaller then average, but very cute, girl.
Tenchi could visualize the comments his friends would make if they 
 ever saw her. Something along the lines of "boy, I'd like to put her
in my pocket and take her home."
     Tenchi softly laughed to himself as he visualized those same
boys' likely reaction if they got caught in a brawl between Ryouko
and Ranma. Not to mention dealing with Ranma in full, "I'm a guy,
dammit!" mode. 
     That last made Tenchi pause briefly in his sweeping. Not for
the first time he found himself trying to picture Ranma as male, and
not for the last time, no doubt, failing completely to do so. About
the best he could do was to visualize her wearing a moustache,
which only made him laugh out loud. He just couldn't seem to think
of Ranma as anything other than a female. He believed her, or at
least he kept telling himself that he did, when she said she wasn't
really a girl. But a part of him very much wanted to believe the
story Ranma's father had told. 
     Tenchi closed his eyes and leaned on his broom, resting his
forehead on the handle. The truth of the matter was that he wanted
Ranma to be a girl for real with all his heart. Unlike Ryouko, even
when Ranma was mad she didn't scare him. She was easy to be
with, she didn't wait for him to talk or suggest an activity; she
contributed. He was comfortable in her presence, or at least he was
when she was wearing clothes, he amended. He hastily did a few
multiplications until the image that thought conjured disappeared.
     Tenchi wacked his head against the broomstick and told
himself to get a grip. Dreaming about Ranma that way was an
exercise in futility. Ranma had made it very clear that she had no
interest in him, or in any other boy, not in that way.  
     Tenchi tried to drum up a bit of anger at the redhead by way of
defense against the hurt that thought caused. She was so arrogant
sometimes. Where did she get off thinking she was the only one
who had been roped into this deal. She acted like Tenchi wanting to
marry her was a given, and that she was the only one who was being
forced, or who might object. Well, maybe he didn't want to marry a
redheaded wildcat, who gave a whole new meaning to the term
tomboy. She was rude and crude, with an attitude suitable for
someone four times her size. She was always getting into fights, and
putting herself at risk to help other people. She was kind to Sasami,
and doted on Ryo-ok-ki, despite her cat phobia, and, and . . .
     Tenchi sighed. He couldn't do it. Sure Ranma had lots of
faults, but she had lots of good qualities, and most important of all,
she was a friend who would always stand by your side, no matter
what. She had more then proven that at the hot-springs, and almost
paid with her life for doing so.
     Tenchi had never been in love before. Not real love. But he
had an awful feeling he was in danger of falling in love with
Ranma, if he hadn't already done so. Unfortunately, no matter what
he might be feeling, he was sure that Ranma was in no danger at all
of falling in love with him. He couldn't help but think that the
situation was a pretty good example of his usual luck with girls.
Maybe his grandfather could offer some advice.

     Katsuhito was making tea. Not a casual brew to drink while
going over his books, but a full fledged tea ceremony. He was just
reaching for the whisk when a glowing cylinder of light appeared
beside his head, scant inches from his throat.
     "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't take your head
off," a voice demanded.
     Knock, knock.
     "Grandfather, could I have a word with . . ." Tenchi trailed off
as he took in the fact that his grandfather had company. "I'm sorry,
Ryouko. I didn't know you were here," he said to the former pirate,
who was sitting demurely across from his grandfather, a delicate
porcelain cup cradled in her hands.
     "Hohoho," Ryouko gave a phoney laugh. "Don't worry,
Tenchi-chan. I was just chatting. I can come back later and finish
our conversation."
     "Nonsense," Katsuhito said, catching the back of her shirt as
she rose to leave. "I can talk to Tenchi anytime. Beautiful young
girls on the other hand don't come an old man's way too often."
Looking over at Tenchi, Katsuhito said, "Run along, Tenchi. Go
sweep the courtyard. I'm sure Ryouko-chan and I'll be done by the
time you are."
     After Tenchi left, the strained smile on Ryouko's face melted
away, and she glared at the old man. Katsuhito ignored her, and
continued making tea. "You never answered my question, Old
Man," Ryouko said.
     "Really? I'm sorry. Old habits. The teacher in me I suppose.
It's always best to let a student find the answers to their own
questions if they can. Tea?"
     "I don't want any stinking tea, Yosho! I want answers!" 
     "Really? I thought you wanted my head."
     "I do! If Tenchi hadn't walked in . . ."
     "Ah, Tenchi, such a good boy, so obedient. Why, I bet, even in
this day and age, that he would never marry a girl his grandfather
disapproved of. Tea?" Katsuhito again offered Ryouko a bowl."
     "How kind. Thank you so much, honored elder," Ryouko
gushed, taking the bowl of freshly brewed tea and slurping it loudly.
"Exquisite, you are truly gifted." 
     Katsuhito shifted slightly. Ryouko rose like a shot and rushed
around behind him. "Oh, please, let me make those more
comfortable," she said, fluffing up several cushions and slipping
them behind him.
     "Such a good girl," Katsuhito murmured around the bowl of
tea. "I'm sure you'll make a wonderful wife to some lucky man."
     Ryouko fairly glowed, she was beaming so brightly. "You're
too kind. I'm not sure I'm worthy."
     "Nonsense," Katsuhito said, waving her protests aside. "But
you wished to ask me something?"
     "Oh, that. Don't give it a moment's thought. I've already
forgotten what it was. Goodbye, rest well. If there is ever anything I
can do for you . . ."
     "Well, if you are leaving, you could send Tenchi in."
     "Certainly, certainly," Ryouko said eagerly. She vanished from
the spot where she was standing, and re-appeared moments later, a
stunned Tenchi clasped in her arms. She pushed Tenchi toward his
grandfather, saying, "Tenchi-chan, your grandfather has something
he would like to tell you. Oh, I'm so embarrassed!" Ryouko cried
out, holding both hands to her blushing face. "I'll just leave you two
to chat." 
     Tenchi looked at the swirling dust cloud that was all that
remained to show that Ryouko had just been standing there. He
turned to his grandfather, his face still wearing a stunned
expression, and asked, "What was that all about?"
     "No idea," Katsuhito said, slurping his tea.

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

     If the palace servants, whose duty it was to care for Princess
Sasami, were to see her as she currently was, they would have been
horrified. The Princess, third, some say second, in line to the throne,
had the sleeves of her dress rolled up as high as they could go. Her
bare arms were thrust up to her elbows in soapy water while she
washed several tea mugs. 
     Next to the sink a collection of pots simmered on the stove,
sending steam wafting into the air along with delicious odors. The
steam had taken some of the life out of Sasami's hair, and every
now and then she'd give a little puff to blow the errant strands away
from her face. On the table behind her a large mound of vegetables
and fruits stood waiting for her attention.  A small smudge of flour
decorating the tip of her nose showed that she was also responsible
for the biscuits that were cooling on the counter. 
     Sasami was making all of Ranma's favorite things.  Preparing
them just the way the little redhead liked them: in large quantities.
She couldn't recall ever being happier. The broad smile that graced
her face gave proof to that.
     If the servitors back home had discovered Sasami indulging in
this activity they would have plucked her off the stool she was
standing on, and designated a scullery maid to the duty of cleaning
up. 
     
     After first giving the poor servant a stern lecture for allowing
the princess to engage in this activity in the first place. 

     A first-rate chef would have taken over the chores of cooking,
with an assistant assigned to cut the vegetables. Sasami herself
would have been plopped into a hot bath, after which her disarrayed
hair would have been styled, and soothing lotion rubbed into her
hands to restore them to their soft and ladylike norm.

     Was it any wonder Sasami was currently smiling ear to ear?
     
     Not even the intermittent presence of Mihoshi in her kitchen
was enough to dim the smile on Sasami's face. To the contrary, it
grew wider every time she had to tell the puzzled blonde something. 
Unlike other adults, Mihoshi was quite content to take advice and
suggestions from Sasami, even if she was not always that good at
following them. 
     Sasami's smile did slip a little when Ryouko breezed into the
kitchen and announced that she would be preparing an extra special
meal for her Tenchi-chan. Sasami rallied, however, and cleaned a
space on the counter top for Ryouko to work at. Ryouko was not
nearly as compliant as Mihoshi, however, and as soon as she started
working, she shooed Sasami away, declaring that all she needed was
her love to make the best meal Tenchi had ever tasted. At that point
the smile on Sasami's face became a little strained. 
     The strain became more evident a few minutes later when she
let out a startled squawk, and barely stopped Ryouko from dumping
a bottle of furniture polish into her concoction.  
     "But it smells good," Ryouko protested.
     "I know, but it's not for eating, it for cleaning," Sasami
replied, returning the bottle to its place under the sink. "People like
things to smell nice after they clean them." 
     "Sounds dumb to me," Ryouko said, reaching for another
bottle to add to her bubbling pot.
     "Not that one!" Sasami cried out in panic.
     "Why not?" Ryouko asked, taking a sniff. "It smells bad, so it
can't be for cleaning."
     "That's because it's bleach; it's suppose to smell bad. It is for
cleaning, but it's powerful, so it smells strong to warn people."
     "I thought you said cleaning stuff smelled good," Ryouko
protested.
     Sasami sighed, her smile only a shadow of its former glory. It
was another six hours till Ranma was released. It now looked like
that was going to be a very long six hours.  
     Sasami brightened as an idea occurred to her. Reaching into
her pocket, she located a small round pebble, and extracted it.
"Ryouko-san, do you know what this is?" she asked, showing the
glistening white object to the space-pirate. 
     Ryouko's eyes narrowed. "Where did you get that?" She
asked, her voice intent.
     Sasami told a little white lie. "Tenchi-Oniichan found it at the
springs. He asked me if I could find out how to make it work."
Behind her back Sasami crossed her fingers.
     "Tenchi did?" Ryouko murmured. She bounced the object in
her hands a few times.
     "That's right. He seemed really interested in it." Behind her
back Sasami crossed the fingers on her other hand. Conflict showed
on Ryouko's face, she turned to look at the bubbling pot on the
stove. "I'll watch your dinner for you," Sasami offered. "I see
you've finished everything and it just has to simmer."
     "I have?" Ryouko asked, startled. She quickly recovered, and
said, "Of course I have. You just make sure it doesn't . . ."
     "Boil over?"
     "Yea, that it. Make sure it doesn't boil over. I'll go and check
this out for Tenchi."
     A few minutes later Sasami poured the contents of Ryouko's
pot down the drain. Her smile widened as the drain, which has been
slow before, suddenly began to flow much better as the contents of
Ryouko's pot scoured the insides of the pipes clean. Humming
happily to herself, she began to prepare a new pot of stew in place
of the toxic stuff she had just disposed of.

     As the sun set behind the temple, people began to filter back to
the living room as the time for Ranma's release grew nearer. The
medical pod itself ceased its tranquilizing of Ranma's most recent
memory centers and, instead, gently stimulated them. The trauma of
those memories would, with luck, be softened greatly by the happy
dreams she'd been enjoying for the last few weeks, subjective time. 

     The water swirled around Ranma's thighs as she fought to
summon up the energy for the Ryuu Satsu Ha. Never had she had
this much difficulty in summoning her power. It felt like her entire
body was on fire, but for Ryo-oh-ki and Sasami, she would do it.
Even if it meant burning herself to charcoal to accomplish it.  At
last she managed to raise the energy required. She focused all her
will on the target, and let loose. The marauding monster panda
vanished in a blaze of white light that hurt her eyes.
                                                       
     Ranma blinked against the light that was making her eyes
water. A small circle of dark objects came into view. The blurry
images gradually resolved into faces. A loud and enthusiastic,
"meeeoooww!" was accompanied by the feel of a furry object
colliding with her breasts. Ranma's instincts sent her nerves
quivering into escape mode as panic filled her. She exploded out of
her resting point, and was halfway out the door of the Masaki
livingroom before she realized that the creature attached to her chest
was not a cat. 
     Ranma blinked down at the furry creature, which meowed
happily back at her. Touching a forefinger to Ryo-ok-ki's nose,
Ranma chided her. "You have got to stop doing that!"
     "Well, looks like you're all healed up, Red. You sure seem
like the picture of health, anyway," Ryouko's sardonic voice said
from behind Ranma.
     "Huh?" Ranma exclaimed. She turned with Ryo-ok-ki cradled
in her arms, and blinked when she saw the entire family, plus one
stranger, standing in the living room. She blinked again when she
saw that Tenchi had his back turned to her, and was holding his
father's arm to keep Nobuyuki from looking in her direction as
well. Of the three males present, only Katsuhito didn't have his
back toward her. His eyes sparkled with humor as he stared at her.
Princess Ayeka was hurrying toward her with a bathrobe. 
     It was the bathrobe, and a sudden draft, that caused Ranma to
become aware of her current state of dress, which, with the
exception of some strategically placed Cabbit, was none. 
     "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, Papa, you pervert," she
screamed. Ranma fast-slapped Katsuhito a dozen times before
rushing out of the room, grabbing the bathrobe from Ayeka as she
went by.
     Like everyone else in the room, Ayeka froze in shock, but
quickly shook off her surprise. She moved toward the stairs,
intending to follow Ranma when a voice stopped her.         
     "That's all right, Princess. I'll go," Katsuhito said in a mild
voice. 
     "But . . ." Ayeka started to protest, but Katsuhito was already
on his way up the stairs. Ayeka was not sure this was a good idea,
given Ranma's behavior, but somehow she couldn't seem to bring
herself to gainsay the elderly priest. 
     Katsuhito's mild demeanor belied his interior turmoil. Ranma
had called him Papa, no, not just that. She had reacted in exactly the
same manner as a thirteen-and-a-half year old Xian Pu had reacted
when he'd walked in on her at the wrong time. Well, exactly the
same except for the dozen slaps. He worked his face slightly,
feeling the sting in his cheeks. As he recalled, Xian Pu had thrown
one of her favorite maces at him.
     A small smile twitched Katsuhito's lips as he recalled Xian
Pu's rather chaotic journey through puberty. Of course, difficult as
it had been for her, it had been even more difficult for poor Zar-gell,
whose arm she had broken, along with several of his ribs.   
     His face grew serious again as he once again came back to
why Ranma had used that particular phrase. While he was no expert
on the springs, from everything he did know, there should have
been none of Xian Pu's personality transferred. What had the
medical pod stirred up, and just who was waiting inside the girls'
room?
     Reaching the girls' bedroom, Katsuhito knocked on the door
while asking, "Ranma? May I come in?" There was more than one
question mark in that sentence, and he grew worried when there was
no immediate reply.
     The silence behind the door lasted for several long seconds,
but then Ranma replied in a hearty manner that fairly screamed
fake. "Sure, come on in, Sensei."
     Katsuhito relaxed, but then arched an eyebrow. Ranma being
polite and respectful?  He entered the room and carefully examined
Ranma, looking for any signs that might indicate there was someone
new residing in the redhead's body. Ranma had dressed while he
was walking up the stairs, and was wearing the fluorescent green
shirt and blotched, black pants she had purchased during her recent
shopping trip. Her eyes looked back at him, worry and anxiety
easily seen in her wide eyes.
     "How are you feeling, Ranma?"
     "Me? I'm fine. Nothing the matter with me. Nope, couldn't be
better. Right as rain. Fit as a fiddle."
     Katsuhito decided to take mercy on her, and interrupted her
litany of similes. "It's alright, Ranma. What happened downstairs
was perfectly normal. You found yourself in a very embarrassing
situation."
     The tense expression on Ranma's face shifted to one of anger.
"Sure, if I were a girl! Guys don't go crazy just because some other
guy sees them naked!" 
     "Neither do most girls. There is nothing crazy in being
embarrassed in such a situation." Before Ranma could remark on
this, Katsuhito asked in a bland voice, "Ranma, why did you call
me Papa downstairs?"
     Ranma blinked at him in honest bemusement. "I did?" 
She looked at him curiously, the mild panic in her eyes fading.
"What's the matter, old man? Your ears going on you now?" she
asked. 
     Katsuhito smiled gently at the mild insult. "That must be it,"
He replied.  Despite his bland exterior, Katsuhito was using all of
his considerable powers of observation to watch Ranma. The way
she was holding her body, the manner in which she looked at him.
The way she insulted him. Try as he might he could detect nothing
that would indicate Ranma was anything other then she appeared to
be. She really had no recollection of what she'd said downstairs. It
looked like Ranma was still all present and accounted for.
     Katsuhito debated with himself. It was very important that he
discuss what he'd learned from the medical pods report with
Ranma, but there really wasn't time to go into it right now. The
others would not leave them uninterrupted for long. Best to just
cover the necessary for now. 
     With that in mind, Katsuhito addressed the small girl. "Ranma,
there are some things I need to talk to you about, but we don't have
time for all of them now. I would like you to come up to the temple
later tonight." Ranma nodded her head. Katsuhito hadn't ordered
her but the seriousness with which he has spoken had made it very
clear to her that whatever he had to say must be important.  "For
now, however, there is something I need to tell you before we go
downstairs. Ranma, do you remember what happened after you
fired that energy blast?"
     Ranma's eyes widened. "You mean it worked?" she blurted
out, then flushed, and added, "Of course it worked. I knew it
would."
     "Hmm, indeed. Did you also know it would take the top off a
mountain a mile back of the resort?"              
     "No way!" Ranma exclaimed, a look of pleasure appearing on
her face. Which quickly changed to a grimace as Katsuhito lightly
bounced his bokken on her head. "Ouch, what the heck was that
for?"
     Katsuhito was not smiling, and he snapped out a demand.
"What is the primary duty of any martial-artist."
     Ranma's reply was automatic. "To protect the weak. But
what's that got to do__"
     "So how well did you protect the people who were on top of
that mountain?" Ranma paled. "Oh, don't worry, there were none,"
Katsuhito quickly reassured her. "But there could have been.
Ranma, I won't ask you not to use the power, circumstances may
make such a promise a handicap. I will ask you to promise that you
will think very carefully before you try anything as big as that again.
I intend to train you in control, but right now you are a novice, and
like any novice you could hurt someone badly without realizing it."
     Ranma, sick with the thought of what might have happened to
anyone who had been on that mountain top, agreed readily.
Katsuhito nodded in approval. "Good. There is just one more thing
before we go downstairs. When you fired that blast, you damaged
yourself. Very badly. You just spent three months healing the harm
you did to your body.
     Ranma looked at him in shock, but then her eyes narrowed in
scepticism. She suddenly twisted her body through an eye-watering
contortion that started with a backward flip with a twist, moved to a
forward dive, and ended with her left foot an inch from Katsuhito's
nose, while her head just missed the floor. She righted herself and
glared at him. "What's your game, old man? No way I spent
anywhere near that much time on my back. Everything works just
like it should. I ain't lost any muscle tone or movement. No way
three months has passed."
     "Right, and wrong."
     "Huh?"
     "Only a little over two-thirds of a day has passed for us, but
inside Ryuu-oh's medical pod, time flowed differently. Nearly three
months passed for you. As for your fitness, Juraian medical science
was more than able to keep your body healthy while treatment was
given." 
     "You're serious?" Ranma said faintly, her face once again
pale.
     Katsuhito took her by the shoulders and squeezed gently.
"Don't let it worry you, Ranma. This is one of the things we will
talk about up at the temple. For right now, all you need to know is
that you are perfectly healthy right now, and that the others were
very worried about you, and why. Now let us go downstairs and
show them that you're alright."
     Ranma grinned weakly, and made a small joke, "Yea, I
especially want to show monster-woman how healthy I am." 
     "Remember your promise about using your new talent,"
Katsuhito chided her. "You might also think about this. If not for
Ryouko's quick thinking and rapid action in getting you to the
medical unit in time, you'd be dead right now."
     Katsuhito walked out of the room, leaving a once again
dumbfounded Ranma behind. She quickly came to herself and ran
after him, yelling, "Ryouko saved my life!? You're joking? Right?
That was a joke?"
     
***********************************

     Ryouko sat on the porch, sulking. Darn Red anyway. She'd so
been so looking forward to rubbing the other girl's face in the fact
that Ranma owed her big time. Then the little so-and-so had to go
and spoil it all by politely thanking Ryouko for her efforts. In front
of everyone. She hadn't even gritted her teeth while doing it.
Ryouko had been forced to accept the thanks with as much
politeness as Ranma had shown giving it. She'd been afraid she'd
rupture something.                                     

     On the roof of the house above Ryouko, Ranma stared down, a
grin of satisfaction on her face. Who could have guessed being nice
and polite could be so much fun? Ryouko had looked like she was
going to strangle there for a while. 
     Ranma's eyes drifted of their own accord, and she found
herself staring at the creamy half globes of Ryouko's bosom. Her
current vantage point gave her an excellent view of those bountiful
mounds, and she stared blankly at them for an indeterminate length
of time, a small flush decorating her fair complexion. Suddenly,
Ranma realized where her thoughts were leading her, and adverted
her eyes violently. "Un-cute monster," She muttered to herself. "No
way I'd ever be interested in her. Besides, we're both girls, and
that's just sick." 
     Ranma was tempted to drop down to the porch and be 'polite'
to Ryouko some more, but Katsuhito had been pretty firm about
needing to talk to her, and she'd already wasted enough time on the
pervert. She turned to leave.
     The truth was, after the bombshells he'd already dropped on
her, Ranma was a bit worried about what Katsuhito might spring on
her next. Giving one last look in the direction of the sulking
Ryouko, Ranma leaped lightly into the darkness.
                                                  
****************************************

     "So, what do you want to talk about, old man?" Ranma asked,
as she plopped down bonelessly across from Katsuhito. 
     He quirked an eyebrow in her direction and said, "Feeling
better, I see." Ranma merely looked blank at the comment, so he
continued. "I was thinking we might take a little trip to China next
week."
     Ranma's eyes widened in shock, and then understanding and
joy. "It was that blast, wasn't it?" She jumped to her feet in pleasure
and started pacing the room, her body fairly radiating eagerness.
"I'm good enough to go up against those Musk creeps, ain't I?"
     "That is a possibility," Katsuhito said in a matter of fact voice,
"but hardly pertinent. I don't believe you need their help any
longer."
     "Huh? I don't get you," Ranma said in puzzlement. 
     "Ranma, you recall I told you that you had been badly hurt by
your attack on the monster at the hot springs?"
     Ranma nodded her head. She hadn't really wanted to believe
the story. For one thing, it meant that she likely wouldn't be able to
fire off such a powerful blast again. 
     There was no denying the way the others had behaved,
however. With the exception of that strange blonde the others had
picked up at the hot springs, everyone had treated her like she was
made of glass for the first little while. Even Ryouko had seemed
worried. She'd hidden it well, but there was no denying that it had
been there. Ranma gave a small shudder. A solicitous Ryouko was a
scary thing. She turned her attention back to Katsuhito who had
continued after her nod of assent.
     "From the descriptions I received from the others, I believe
that what you used was the Power Of Jurai," Katsuhito said,
verbally capitalizing the words. He mentally crossed his fingers and
hoped that Ranma would not ask how a simple mountain priest
could know all that he was about to say.
     "The Power of Jurai?" Ranma repeated, making it a question.
     "This is the power that was gifted to the first emperor of Jurai
when he brought his people to that planet. It is a manifestation of
his link to the sentient trees that were the native intelligence of that
planet, and through them, to the planet as a whole. His descendants
are able to call on the life-force of the entire planet, just as you call
on your own life energy when you concentrate your chi."
     "Like a spirit-bomb?" Ranma asked, and not waiting for an
answer, added, "That's so cool. So anyone descended from that first
guy can do this. Can you?"
     "Not all, no," Katsuhito said. He hoped Ranma would fail to
notice that he was not denying his own ability in that regard. "Just
as in martial arts, some have more natural talent then others.
Training can help, but each person has their own limitations. Some
greater, some lesser."
     "Is that what happened to me?" Ranma said. "I tried to do
more then I could?" The tone in Ranma's voice made it very clear
that she was not happy with that option.
     "Not precisely. It's true that I believe the channeling of the
power is what hurt you, but I don't believe it was a case of burn-out.
The symptoms of that are well understood and documented, and the
medical pod found no evidence to indicate that this was what had
happened to you." 
     Ranma, relieved that she was not going to find herself stalled
in the quest for her personal limits, asked, "So what did happen? I
got to find out, or else I won't know what went wrong, or how to fix
it."
     "At the moment, I don't believe you need to fix it. While the
medical pod gave no evidence of burn-out, it did find evidence that
your body had purged itself of a large quantify of foreign matter."
Ranma looked surprised, but did not interrupt as Katsuhito
continued. "You were fortunate. As near as I can tell the bulk of the
material was completely destroyed. Only the substances in the outer
layers of your body caused any damage. They were not completely
destroyed and the fragments damaged your cells. The shock would
very likely have killed you if Ryouko had not thought quickly."
     Ranma didn't want to think about that part, so she asked,
"What was this stuff in my body?"
     "That is where I have to guess. I have no way of knowing, but
I believe it was the physical manifestation of your Jusenkyo curse."
     Ranma eyes opened wide in shock, and she whispered, "The
curse?" Before Katsuhito could say anything else, Ranma plucked
the tea pot of the table and poured it over her head. A look of
disappointment crossed her face when she saw that nothing had
changed. "That can't be right. I'm still a girl. If I'd burned out the
curse, I would have changed back."
     Katsuhito stared at her for a moment. He'd been afraid she'd
take this view, and he'd dreaded dashing her hopes, but there was
no way around it. "How?" he asked.
     Ranma looked puzzled. "How what?" She asked.
     "How could you change back if the curse were destroyed?
What would change you?"
     "I don't get it."
     "Ranma, it takes a very large amount of energy to change
someone the way your father changes, and the way you would have
changed if not for the Musk. Whatever was in your body somehow
supplied that energy, but it was destroyed."
     "No!" Ranma shook her head violently. "That can't be right.
This body is a curse. If the curse is destroyed, I have to change
back. This," Ranma gestured at her body, "is not natural."
     "I'm sorry, Ranma. You're wrong. The status of your body is
one of the things I checked for very carefully. As far as I know, no
Jusenkyo victim has ever been examined to the extent the medical
pod checked you out, and I wished to learn if there was any
abnormalities present. It could find none. All its test and checks
proved conclusively that at the present time you are a perfectly
normal, if very healthy and fit, female."
     "No way," Ranma whispered in shock. She held her small
hands up in front of her face, then dropped her eyes to the curves
that pushed her shirt out in a shape that no boy ever possessed. "No
way," she repeated. "I'm a girl for real?" Curiously, it was not
dismay that showed on Ranma's face. In fact, their was little
discernable emotion present in her expression. 
     Katsuhito, a little worried about the way Ranma was reacting,
hastily said, "But that's a good thing. It means the springs should
work on you now. A dip into the spring-of-drowned-man and you'll
have a male body again."
     "A male body?" Ranma said, her eyes turning toward
Katsuhito. He was disturbed what he saw in those eyes.  A wariness
that was the last thing he would have expected. For a minute she
stared at him, and then said asked, "What sort of male body?" 
     Katsuhito tried to make a joke out of his reply. "One with all
the options, of course. You don't have to worry about being short
any appendages. All fingers and toes will be present, along with
everything else a well-equipped boy needs." He waggled his
eyebrows suggestively. 
     His weak humor didn't lighten Ranma's attitude. Indeed, he
detected a slight flinch when he'd mentioned well-equipped. "Will
it be my body?" she asked hesitantly, as if searching for words.
"This body used to belong to some girl who drowned in the pool.
I've seen her in my dreams. Who's body will I get if I use the
drowned-man spring?"
     Katsuhito, realizing that humor was not doing the situation any
good at the moment, said in a serious voice. "The body is only a
shell, Ranma, that which is you is not changed by that. Whoever
gave the pool its pattern is long gone. The person who comes out of
the pool will still be you."
     Ranma was growing more agitated, and not in a way Katsuhito
would have expected. The fear in her eyes was very clear as she
spoke in an intense voice, "So why change? What's the point. This
body, that body, what does it matter. Is being able to pee standing
up worth a trip to China? Just what the f*** does it matter?! I don't
care anymore! I'm going home." Ranma got to her feet, and headed
for the door. Katsuhito let her go. There was nothing more he could
say. Until Ranma was ready to talk to him about what was bothering
her, there was nothing he could do.
     
*****************

     Ranma didn't, in fact, go to the house. She walked down to the
second landing from the top of the temple stairs, and sat down. This
is crazy, she thought to herself. What the hell is wrong with me? I
should have been over the moon with joy. All I had to do was take a
dip in Nanniichuan and I would have had a boy's body again, at
least part of the time. So what if it wasn't my body, it would still be
male. Ranma started to get up, her face firm. I'm going to march
right up there and tell Gramps that we're leaving for China right
away.  
     For a minute Ranma held that pose, staring up at the top of the
stairs. All she had to do was go up there, and she'd be a week away
from having a male body again. A shudder went through Ranma,
and she sat back down, her head pillowed on her knees as she
hugged her legs tightly. 

     Turning into a girl had been the worst thing that had ever
happened to Ranma. It had been a violation of her body, of her soul.
It had seemed like the end of her existence as a person. To be like a
girl was her father's most common insult. To be a girl was to be
weak and silly. To be a girl was to be a servant. To be a girl was to
not matter to the world. Men mattered. Women were just supporting
characters, only there to provide a goal and future generations of
men. Despite that background, she had survived the shock, and she
had prospered. She was strong. She had friends. She affected others.
They talked to her as a person. She mattered to them.
     If Ranma had been told the week before they arrived there that
her father was going to take her to Jusenkyo, and what was going to
happen to her when she got there. . .  Well, she didn't have to think
about how she would have felt. She knew. It was the way she felt
right now. 
     She was a girl for real. Gramps had said so. This was her. She
had grown use to this body. The thought of turning into a strange
boy, one with all the proper parts, filled her with disgust. Maybe,
maybe if it had been her own body. Maybe if she knew for certain
she was going to change back into her old self. Maybe then she
would have been alright. But to simply change into a guy. She'd be
exchanging a body that she had grown used to for one that was
strange. 
     He might be some sort of pervert for all she knew. Even
Tenchi was a pervert sometimes. Did she want to turn into some
drooling freak, with only one thing on his mind?
     Was being a girl really all that bad? What was the big deal?
Maybe peeing in the bushes was a pain, but like she'd said to
Gramps, big deal. A look of determination firmed Ranma's face.
She could do this. There wasn't anything a boy could do that she
couldn't do as well or better as a girl. What the heck had she been
so scared of?
     "Ranma? Are you alright?" a male voice said a short distance
from her face.
     Ranma yeeked, and scrambled backward up several steps
before coming to a stop. She stared down at Tenchi's concerned
face, her heart beating like a snare-drum. On the other hand, maybe
turning into a strange perverted boy wouldn't be so bad. 

     Tenchi looked over to his right, and felt depressed. Ranma was
sitting on the same riser as he was, but as far away as she could get,
which was about five feet on the broad temple stairs. He managed a
weak grin, and asked, "So, what did you and grandad talk about?"
He hastily added, "Unless it's private."
     Ranma didn't look at him, but she did speak. "Yeah, I guess
it's sort of private, but it's about you too, so I guess you got a right
to know." She gave a deep sigh, and looked over at him, her eyes
measuring. Tenchi fought down the urge to squirm under that
appraisal. He kept his face as blandly cheerful as possible. His jaws
were starting to ache a bit from maintaining a forced smile when
Ranma resumed talking.
     "Grandpop told me that the medical thingy told him that I
don't have a curse anymore. He said I'm a perfectly natural girl as
far as the machine can tell."
     Warily, not wanting to push the wrong buttons, Tenchi said,
"I'm sorry, Ranma. I knew how much you wanted to change back."
     Ranma looked surprised, but then her face grew wary. "Pull
the other one. You never really believed I was a guy in the first
place."
     Tenchi gave a weak laugh while rubbing the back of his head
with his right hand. "Well, I believed you believed. I mean, I
wanted to believe, but, well . . ."
     "I didn't change. Not like Pop." Ranma gave a sigh. "I guess I
can't blame you. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering that I
was a guy myself." Ranma stared at her small hands for a minute,
then gave her head a shake. "Anyway, that ain't the problem.
Gramps said we could go to Jusenkyo. He figures the springs would
work on me now. I could get a guy's body."
     Tenchi blinked at this, and then forced himself to say
cheerfully, "That's great! Are you going soon?"
     "No. Not soon," Ranma said. "I ain't sure I'm going at all."
     "What!? I mean, really," Tenchi exclaimed, drawing an
amused, if rather strained, look from Ranma.
     "Thing is, well, the thing is, I'm sort of used to being like this.
Not being a girl!" Ranma hastily added. "But, just, I don't know,
being this person. I don't freak anymore if I catch sight of myself in
a mirror, and most of the time I hardily ever think about not being
like I used to be." 
     Ranma gave a weak laugh. "You know, it's funny. All I've
been able to think about since grandpop told me about the Musk
was getting that magic thingy, and freeing up my other side. But
you know what? All I was thinking of was doing that. I never really
stopped to think what it would be like once I did it. I wouldn't
really be a guy, I'd be like Pop, I'd change all the time. I'd be a guy,
and a girl. I don't think I could handle that. And turning into a
strange guy," Ranma gave a shudder. "I know I don't want to do
that."
     "So, are you going to stay a girl?" Tenchi asked.
     "I don't know," Ranma said, looking up at the stars that filled
the sky. "Like I said, I'm used to being this person, but I ain't used
to being a girl. It ain't something I want to think about, but if I stay
a girl. . . Well, I got an obligation to the Saotome line. I got to make
sure I ain't the last one. That means I'd have to . . . Well, I ain't sure
I can handle that. I never thought about having kids when I was a
guy. Now there are times when I can't think about nothing else."
Ranma grimaced. "Or at least, what I got to do to have them." 
     Ranma looked sideways at Tenchi, a band of color crossing the
middle of her face. Tenchi's face felt hot, and he quickly looked
away. Ranma ducked her head down. "It ain't that I don't like you,
Tenchi. I just ain't used to thinking of guys like that. Shit, I ain't
used to thinking of girls like that. The only reason I ain't running
back to China right now is that Ayeka said I can't do nothing for
two years."
     Ranma looked over at Tenchi again. "I'd understand if you
didn't want me hanging around." She gritted her teeth. "Like, if you
want to, you know, hook up with the dem . . . Ryouko, I'd
understand. It ain't exactly fair to expect you to wait around two
years, and then have me still say no way, only . . ."
     "Only what, Ranma?"
     "Shit, I ain't no good at this talking stuff. Pop always said men
don't have feelings, and if they do, they kept them to themselves.
Men don't whine like girls. They do what they got to do, cause
that's what men do. I got all these things I'm feeling, and I can't
handle them. I'm about ready to bust, and I just need to say them
out loud. And the thing is, for some reason, it's easy to talk to you."
     "I'm glad I can help. I'll always be . . . _We'll_ always be here
for you, Ranma."
     "Yea, I know. That's sort of scary, too. I ain't never had
anyone who I'd know would be there for sure, not even Pop."
Ranma looked at Tenchi for a long minute, and then muttered, more
to herself then to Tenchi, "Only one way to find out." Her face took
on a determined expression. "Tenchi, I got a favor to ask."
     Tenchi fidgeted a bit, but decided that Ranma was unlikely to
ask him anything he was unwilling to do, so he said, "What?" with
only minor reservations. 
     "Well, could you, sort of, look away for a bit."
      Tenchi looked at her with a blank expression, then gave his
head a shake and looked down the stairs, resisting the urge to try
and see Ranma out of his peripheral vision. "Ok, now what?"
     "Just . . . don't move, alright?"
     Tenchi was getting nervous. This was starting to get a little too
similar to certain incidents in middle-school. He didn't think Ranma
was going to give him a wedgie, but . . . he gave a sigh, and said, 
"Ok, I can do that."
     For a minute, there was no reaction from Ranma, but then
Tenchi heard the sound of pants sliding on stone. He fought down
the urge to look, and kept his vision straight ahead. 
     The sound of fabric on stone stopped, and Ranma said, "you
promise, you won't do nothing?"
     Tenchi was sweating now, but he kept his voice level as he
said. "I promise."
     There as a moment of hesitation, and then the sound started
again, getting closer and closer. Tenchi's nerves were about to
shatter when a soft pressure contacted his hip. He managed to
restrain his impulse to flinch, barely. 
     Next to Tenchi, Ranma drew a deep breath and let it out in a
sigh. "Well, this ain't so bad," she said in a strained voice, trying
not to pull her hip back from where it just barely touched Tenchi.

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

     Ryouko smirked as the small white sphere in her hand came to
life, projecting a holographic graphical interface. It had taken a little
while, Mihoshi had somehow disabled what was in effect a solid
object with no moving parts, but Ryouko had finally managed to
boot it up. 
     Leaning in closer, she frowned as she read the data displayed.
She'd forgotten about that little incident on Repupiclia. It was only
a bar fight, but Repupiclia was one of the few planets without a
statute of limitations. Ryouko used a more delicate version of her
phasing ability to reach inside the small device, and deleted that
particular item. She felt quite virtuous. If Ayeka had discovered that
little tidbit she would have, in typical fashion, overreacted. Ryouko
had just done her little bit to maintain household peace.
     She turned to the next little bit of information. These related to
some outstanding warrants against Ryo-oh-ki. Since the current
bearer of that name was not responsible for those crimes, she left
them alone. It would be worth a few giggles when that blonde ditz
discovered she was in the same room with a notorious planet
wrecker. 
     Switching off the device in her hand, Ryouko stretched her
back, and took in the position of the moon in the sky. It was pretty
late, she'd gotten caught up in getting the little data storage device
to work, and had really not paid attention to the passage of time.
Giving a yawn, she decided to call it a night. She phased through
the livingroom wall. A quick glance showed that no one else was
present. They were all likely tucked comfortably into nice warm
beds.  She floated up to the blanket-draped beam that served as her
bed and joined them.                    

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

     Crickets chirped in the forest on either side of the temple
stairs. The two figures sitting next to each other might as well have
been statues. A sentiment shared by a small spider who was
spinning a small web between their bodies. 
     Tenchi nervously swallowed. His butt was freezing, and he
had an itchy nose that was driving him crazy. He couldn't take this
any longer. He cleared his throat, and in a voice that croaked from
dryness said, "Ah, Ranma?"
     Tenchi couldn't have gotten a more extreme reaction if he had
prodded Ranma with a hot poker. The small girl slid sideways two
feet, and slipped off the edge of the stair they were siting on. She
dropped to the next stair with an audible thump, which drew a
pained exclamation from her.

     A few minutes after moving close to Tenchi, Ranma had gone
into a bit of a trance, induced by her determination to _ not _ think
about her current proximity to a boy who had already displayed
hentai behavior on a past occasion. To accomplish this she used a
method  she'd learned while enduring her father's various
toughening exercises. Nothing like sitting under an ice-cold
waterfall for twenty-four hours at a stretch to teach someone to
ignore outside stimulus.

     "Geez, Tenchi," She said, rubbing her butt. "What's the big
idea?" In answer, Tenchi pointed toward the darkened house at the
bottom of the valley, drawing Ranma's attention to the lateness of
the night. 
     With her attention drawn to the time, Ranma realized that
she'd been sitting next to Tenchi for over two hours. A feeling of
deep chagrin filled her. She hadn't managed to prove anything.
She'd totally zoned out. She still didn't know if she could bear the
thought of getting close to a guy.
     "I had a nice time," Tenchi said, drawing a surprised look from
Ranma.
     "You did?"
     Tenchi smiled. "It was peaceful." Tenchi's smile turned wry.
"I haven't had much of that lately."
     Ranma felt a flash of guilt. Tenchi's lack of peace was mostly
her fault. If her stupid Pop hadn't tried to push the two of them
together Tenchi would likely still be living a quite life.
     Something of Ranma's thoughts must have shown on her face,
because as she and Tenchi walked down the stairs, he said. "Peace
is nice, but I'd miss the excitement if it disappeared. I'm glad you
came into my life. It's been a lot of fun."
     Ranma looked at Tenchi with an incredulous expression,
which caused him to laugh. After a second Ranma joined in. "You
know, I don't think I've ever met any guy who was as nice as you,
Tenchi."
     The two continued on to the house in companionable silence.
It wasn't until they were about to separate to go to their individual
rooms that Ranma broke the silence. She looked down at Tenchi
from her position several steps above him. "I don't know what I'm
going to do, Tenchi. About whether I'm going to stay like this or
not. It sucks that I have to even think about, but I'm glad that it's
you. You're nice. You never seem to lose it. You always see the
best in everyone." Tenchi's chest puffed out slightly. "It's almost
like I was engaged to a girl." Ranma bounded up the stairs to bed.
Tenchi stared after her, a smile frozen on his face, his eyebrow
twitching. 

     End, chapter 11.

     Coming soon. [god, I hope so.] Chapter 12, 
     China Girls, part three. Homecomings.

     A big thanks to all the people that have lent me their
     time to make this the best story I can write.

     Another big thanks to all the people who voted for this story in
the Ranma fan-fiction poll. 
     Tenchi and Ranma placed first in the Mini-series category for
the month of May, or was it June. In any case. I was very flattered
that you thought so much of it.

T.H.

     
     
     
     





          

     








     

 
                                                            
     
 



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