I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

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University part 6

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Sitting cross legged on the roof of a west bound semi, Ranma watched as the sky changed from blackness to a barely discernible light gray. The contrast brought the outline of Mount Ikoma into view as a massive dark shape against a slightly lighter back drop. High patchy clouds in the sky reflected the ruddy hues of the encroaching dawn. Soon the eastern sky had a slight glow that spread slowly as a thin, red line that heralded the coming sun. From the glowing red line of the dawn, the sky graduated to a deep violet color before fading into the blackness that was the night. Overhead in the sky, stars dimly shined in the twilight.

The air was cool and damp, surprising considering the season. Ranma watched the dark, silhouetted scenery pass by. Details were obscured by the darkness of the morning. Placing herself near the center of the rig, so not to be seen by the few passing motorists, she contemplated her feelings for a certain pigtailed boy.

She could admit now that she was fond of him, but was wary of allowing the feeling to deepen. She had been burned before when it came to matters of the heart.

"That was a long time ago - I was just a kid at the time," Ranma reflected on the situation of over two years ago. "I should be over that, it shouldn't bother me anymore."

Ranma sighed. Last nights dream bothered her - in more ways than one.

"I shouldn't be thinking about him that way!" she berated herself. "Stupid friends, putting stupid ideas in my stupid head."

She sighed, heavily this time, at her own implied stupidity. She had to admit however, last night's dream had been... nice.

"He's a good friend, that's all. Anything I think beyond that is infatuation," she thought with conviction.

Ranma laid back, using her backpack to prop herself up at a comfortable incline. This gave her a good view of the sky, which was slowly growing brighter making the already dim stars fainter.

"Yes, he's kind, smart, handsome, intelligent, sensitive, a good talker, a good listener and a good sparring partner, " She thought as she listed Tenchi's attributes. "Most of all, he is a good friend. Thinking about him as anything more would just destroy that friendship. That is something I will not do."

She turned her head and watched what little of the landscape she could see flash by in the morning twilight.

"At best, he is a friend," she once again reaffirmed that thought into her brain, "and I will not allow myself to let the romantic notions of my friends skew my perception of him...,"

She turned her attention to the sun rising higher in the sky, bringing out more details of her surroundings.

"... at least for now," she added weakly.

----------------

Washu settled onto her floating, pillow-like chair before her keyboard and contemplated the situation.

"How to find the Queen," she mused. "She was built to be more elusive than Fire Walker - and I wouldn't have found her if the SVS unit wasn't installed in the recorder."

As she sat and considered different approaches, her train of though keep getting derailed by a square, flashing red light on her floating panel. She sighed.

"Distractions! All these distractions," she thought in annoyance. "The last thing I need is to deal with is more distractions."

She reached over to dismiss the insistent light when her hand froze in realization.

"One of my sensors picked up a stray radio signal," she thought, before shrugging. "It's very weak, probably natural in origin."

Typing a few keystrokes, she studied the phenomenon.

"It has to be natural," she thought. "But it's a tight signal, right near the hydrogen band and..."

Her right eyebrow rose as she continued to filter out the background noise.

"Something is encoded - right in the...," she stopped and considered what she was seeing on the read outs for a few moments.

"Camouflage," she concluded. "Someone was sending an encoded signal hoping to mask it in the natural background."

Her tiny fingers danced of the keyboard.

"Wait! What's this?"

A few more keys punched and the display changed into a schematic that appeared to be a series of dots connected by lines.

"Hmmm...," she thought while studying her display. "According to this, the signal was intercepted here and relayed as... a low powered sub-space transmission!"

Washu brought up another display and studied the recorded transmission.

"At that signal power it would take almost two years to reach Jurai," she shook her head. "Tsunami wouldn't use something that slow, giving the urgency of the situation and besides, she said she was using a stargate to communicate."

She cocked her head to one side and stared at the screen, gleaning information from what she saw.

"The signal was relayed here," she thought as she pointed to empty space, "and relayed again here," her finger tranced the route, "before being boosted here," Washu pointed at one of the moons around Saturn. "The final boosted signal will take only two weeks to reach Jurai."

Washu stared at her monitors in contemplation.

"Someone went to a lot of trouble to try and hide this," Washu narrowed her eyes. "But who? And why?"

----------------

She had been thoroughly enjoying the trip.

Moving toward the edge of the semi she was riding, Ranma spied her exit coming up. Crouching, she leapt from the top of the truck and landed softly on the shoulder of the expressway. Other cars that flew by in the thin morning traffic didn't brake or even notice her unorthodox arrival to Minoo.

After brushing off the accumulation of dust that had gathered on her clothing during the trip, she removed a well worn map from her backpack. Turning the map in her hands, this way and that, she looked about her. After matching up the symbols representing landmarks and roads with those in existence, she smiled confidently that she would have no problems finding her way.

"If I follow this road north, it will merge with another and continue north," she thought as she got her bearings. "Keep on that until I see the Municipal Building, that will be the first landmark I run across."

She began to walk toward the heart of Minoo as she continued to study the map.

"Keep on that until it intersects road number nine," she thought as she tracked the lines mentally. "Then I take that west and the Asakura Shrine should be between the Hankyu-Minoo Line and the river."

Ranma smiled as she took in every detail of her surroundings. As she walked along the shoulder of the road, with an occasional car passing her on her right, she eyed the wooded forest off to her left. Visibility had deteriorated from the clarity that was the dawn, being replaced by a thin fog that blanketed everything into a low contrast gray. The trees nearest the road were clearly visible through the morning light, but the forest beyond was shrouded in gray darkness.

"Kinda creepy," she thought as she continued her trek, taking her time for once, enjoying the moment.

Ten minutes into her hike, the prickly sensation of being watched seeped into her consciousness. Stopping to identify the source of her discomfort, Ranma cocked her head from one side to the other.

"The woods," she thought. "Whatever is watching me, is in the woods."

She no sooner completed that thought, when the rustling of the underbrush was clearly heard, breaking the natural stillness of the morning. With her curiosity roused, Ranma stepped off the shoulder of the road and crossed the strip of grass that separated the road surface from the forest. There was a slight incline just at the border between the knee high grass and where the trees started. There Ranma stopped and listened.

Standing quietly at the edge of the woods, Ranma strained her ears for any sound of movement. She thought about extending her ki senses, but didn't because she didn't feel that there were any threats. After a moment, Ranma heard it: the soft crunching of footfalls on the foliage.

The sound was coming from just beyond what she could see clearly. The fog appeared to be thicker in the mass of trees than it was on the road. Looking into the woods, Ranma strained to see what was hidden. She sighed. She didn't feel that she was endangered in any way, but her curiosity was driving her to discover what was hidden in the fog.

Ranma sighed again and started to turn when she saw something.

Movement.

It was unclear at first what she was looking at. What she was seeing though was indistinct, crouched and definitely human-shaped things that were moving between the trees. The fog and the trees interfered with the view and Ranma struggled to make out what she was looking at. Ranma's eyes narrowed.

"Wish I brought a flashlight," she thought. "Oh well, plan B."

Using her ki, she formed a small ball in the cup of her hand that illuminated the area of the woods in front of her. Much to Ranma's disappointment, the light from her hand backscattered through the fog making everything even harder to see. The unexpected light did however, frighten whatever was in the woods and the small hairy figures dashed away from her and through the trees.

"What the-," her thoughts began, only to be cut off by a screeching sound as one of the figures popped up, ten feet to her right. It froze and looked at Ranma.

It was small, only about half as tall as Ranma at the most and had reddish brown hair that covered its small body. Their eyes locked for the briefest of seconds before the small, hairy thing screeched once more and joined its comrades, disappearing into the deeper parts of the forest.

"Macaque," Ranma thought as the monkey faded back into the woods. With a sigh of relief, she made her way back to the shoulder of the road and continued her hike into Minoo.

In spite of the slight delay, Ranma made good time as she met up with the northward heading road. Setting a strong pace, she looked at the sky as she went along the judge the time, "I hope I don't get there too early. Wouldn't want to wake anyone."

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Tenchi swept the path that led to the residence of its brown, dead leaves. The house was a nice large, three story structure. Looking down from above, the house was an 'L' shaped structure with three stories on the long way and two on the short. There was a connecting greenhouse on the short edge and on top of the second story on the long edge was a railed deck that wrapped part-way around the second floor that gave a commanding view of the nearby lake and surrounding mountains.

The path that Tenchi was sweeping went around the edge of the lake and connected to the gate that greeted any visitors. There was also a direct path to the residence via bridge that crossed the narrow stretch of the lake and it connected near the door. On the lake side of the residence was a boat dock that jutted out toward the body of the lake.

Tenchi concentrated on his chores.

It was a mindless task and afforded much time for the young man to think. The girls had been surprisingly well behaved since he got home. Rarely did they ask him about his sparring partner. When they did try to ask though, it was in such an obvious, round about way that he found it amusing.

His sparring partner.

Tenchi smiled when he thought of Ranma. He found that he really missed just talking to her. She took the time to listen and didn't expect anything in return.

Well, maybe outside of a good sparring match...

... and dancing...

... and talking...

"Man, I got it bad," he berated himself with a shake of his head. "Ranma's just a nice, ordinary girl. She doesn't need to be dragged into my crazy life."

He paused in thought, recalling what Washu said that morning about the readings from the 'Pocket Jurai Power and Aura Recorder with Handy Built-in Pen Light and Toothpick'. According to her, it proved that Ranma was a very skilled martial artist with a very high ki, but other than that, she was well within human range.

"Well, a nice, ordinary, martial artist that could could throw ki balls if she wanted," he mentally added. "But still an ordinary girl!"

Sigh.

"A nice, beautiful, wonderful, ordinary girl."

Tenchi sighed again.

"It's best that I think of her only as a friend," Tenchi sighed yet again. "After all, it would never work out."

He suddenly blink-blinked at the realization that he even considered having something 'work out' with another person. Tenchi sighed and resumed his chore.

"She would probably think my life is too weird to put up with if she ever found out the truth," he thought, slightly depressed.

As he resumed his sweeping, he idly spied Washu wandering around the path that bordered the lake and woods. Occasionally she would look at something in her hand, then into the woods. Momentarily distracted by glancing down to see where he was sweeping, when Tenchi eyes rose to take in his surroundings again, Washu had disappeared.

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"You are a very quick student," the old man commented.

"Thank you, Master Asahi," Ranma said with a respectful bow. "I have studied many different martial arts since I could walk. Sometimes getting them all to work together - no matter how much I have practiced - is challenging."

The elderly man examined Ranma with his good eye, a crystal blue one. The other eye was blind, covered with a milky film that prevented its use. He was hunched over with age, but still stood just slightly taller than Ranma. He leaned on a staff that was two feet taller than he was, hanging on to it with one hand while stroking his short beard with the other. The only other facial hair he had were two bushy white eyebrows that looked like wild cotton balls attached to his forehead. The red and white robes he wore dragged the floor and trailed behind him as well as hid his feet.

"It is very hard to truly master all the forms you have practiced in," he spoke in a soft, sage-like manner. "Yet for one so young, you have done a remarkable job."

"Thank you," Ranma said while bowing, feeling awkward at the compliment.

Silence feel between the two.

"As far as your skill is concerned, it far exceeds your age," the old man said quizically. "So, what brings you here to me?"

"I have concerns with my... ki," Ranma said somewhat evasively.

"Your ki?" the nearly blind man asked. "You can access ki at your age? I must see a demonstration."

"I'd be happy to, if you could help me with a problem that I have with it."

"What is the matter with your ki?"

"I-it's a little hard to explain," Ranma said. "It's like... I'm afraid it will get out of hand."

Master Asahi cocked his head as he studied the redhead.

"Is your fear that great?" he asked.

Ranma nodded her head.

"Come this way then," the monk said. "We have much to discuss."

-------------

Washu strolled away from the house.

If it wasn't for Tsunami's insistence about the need for secrecy, she would have had Ryoko accompany her. As it was, she was alone in her investigation and being alone made her feel nervous. Despite that, Washu had to find out the origin of the transmission.

As she walked along, she occasionally glanced at a small pen-like device that floated just above the palm of her hand. As she moved the device would point one way then then another. Following the pointer, she made her way deeper into the surrounding forest, stepping over the underbrush when she could and making detours when she couldn't.

After forty five minutes of maneuvering in the woods, a light at the back end of the pointer started pulsing.

"I'm getting closer to whatever sent the signal," Washu thought as she stepped over a tree root.

"Triangulating with the deep space sensors and calculating the area of the transmission point was simple," her thoughts continued as she wore a frown while she ducking under a low branch, "making my way through this jungle is another matter."

The light at the end of the pointer started flashing in quick succession as she stepped over and under natural obstacles. Finally her trek ended along a trail, maybe made by deer or some other animal, that was dominated by the tall, surrounding trees.

Washu studied the scene. The narrow trail weaved in and out between the trees, the foliage of thick ferns and thin tall grasses that managed to survive in the shadows of the canopy overhead grew in splotches here and there. The remaining ground was padded in a thick carpet of leaves. The only sound was the sound of nature - and the beating of her heart.

In her surroundings, nothing stood out.

Washu sighed.

Pocketing the pointer, she removed another device the size of a deck of cards and unfolded it. Pushing a few keys, she watched the small heads up display come to life and started turning as the device cycled and transmitted through various bandwidths and reported the 'bounce-back' from the surroundings.

"The transmission was sent from around here," she thought with some frustration. "It has to be here someplace."

She continued her sweep. The readout suddenly blinked wildly.

"It's here! I'm almost on top of it," she exclaimed to herself.

Looking through the heads up display, Washu followed the signal until it led her to a long fallen tree that was resting against its neighbor. The result was a natural, moss covered 'A' frame that had tall ferns growing about the base. Washu continued to stare through the heads up display and tracked the echoed signal. Motioning about with her hand she located it.

Washu lowered the signal echoing device and studied the transmitter without the distractions of the display. It was very unassuming, so unassuming that it would have been easily missed if it weren't for the equipment she was using. Strung up between the branch of the standing tree and where the fallen one leaned into the branch was a spider's web.

But no ordinary spider web.

"Fantastic," Washu thought as extracted another instrument from her pocket, this one resembling a child's toy telescope. Raising the tube to her eye, she studied the construction of the spider web.

"Micro filament, super conductive and organic in nature. An excellent antenna," Washu mentally listed what she could figure out from her extremely close inspection of the web. "This is the antenna, where is the transmitter?"

As if on cue, a medium sized spider made its way toward the center of the web. Washu redirected the tube-like device and aimed it at the spider as it moved.

"There it is! What a work of art. Whoever built these knew what they were doing," she thought with a outward cackle.

Washu's attention was drawn away from her find by an insistent beeping from her pocket. Lowering the scope, she patted herself down until she found the demanding device. Removing the card deck sized device from her pocket, she opened it and scanned the area.

"There's an energy build up coming from the transmitter," Washu thought looking at the readouts. "It's not communicating anything - the energy is building up to a level-"

Realizing what was going on, Washu made a rapid retreat away from the web. She backed away and made it ten feet before tripping over a tree root and landing on her rear.

That was when the spider and its web flared once in a dramatic way and reduced themselves to vapor.

"It detected my probing and self destructed," Washu said aloud. "Whoever was spying on us didn't want us to know who they were."

Picking herself off the ground, Washu dusted her small frame off. She scanned the area for any residual traces of the transmitter, after finding none, she packed her gear safely away in her pockets. With one last scan for anything useful, Washu turned and headed for home. She had a lot of thinking to do on the way back.

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Ranma had finished her demonstrating her ki abilities to the old monk who watched impassively. When she was finished, he stood there, deep in thought, stroking his chin. He cocked his head to one side eliciting a loud crack.

"You are the most ki adapt martial artist I've seen in quite some time," he proclaimed seriously. "Considering how long I've lived, that means something. You have great control and reserves."

He walked over to her in a pace only the elderly can achieve.

"You are troubled though. A deep unrest lurks within you," Asahi stated. "I can tell that you are a person who bears a great burden. A burden that you feel sometimes threatens to overwhelm you."

He then motioned her to follow and he lead her into a small open room that overlooked the temple gardens. There they sat in silence for a few minutes as the old monk stroked his chin.

"Tell me," he continued. "Do you train to carry that burden better or do you train to forget you have it?"

Ranma started to answer immediately, but was halted by Asahi holding his hand up.

"No. Do not answer right away. Contemplate before answering."

Ranma stared at the old monk. She considered the question carefully as she organized her thoughts and feelings.

"It's true," she admitted to herself. "The Senshi power is like grabbing hold of a fire hose running at full blast. I can hold it, but if I make one slight mistake - things can go very wrong, very fast."

Ranma sighed while looking down.

"After all that work with Happosai," Ranma thought. "I should have better control over the power that creeps into my 'normal' state. I still have to watch it closely and carefully. I have perfect control to a certain limit, after that it tries to kick in automatically. The last time I slipped was when I sparred with Tenchi before summer break and the nightmare I had over it wasn't pleasant."

She shuddered at the memory.

"I still have nightmares," she reminded herself, "but they don't come as frequently as they use to."

She played with her fingers in her lap as she continued to fuss over the question.

"I slipped for not even a half a second, but I could do a lot of damage in less time than that," she thought as she stopped playing with her fingers and folded her hands together.

"I do train to handle and control the power better," she thought unhappily. "And it has helped me handle it better. But when I'm training in martial arts I can forget about even having all that power and feel free from it..."

Ranma let another sigh escape her.

"... God, I hate being a slave to it."

She frowned at that thought. Blink-blinking she came out of her thoughts and faced the elderly man who was waiting patiently for her to answer.

"A little of both... I guess," Ranma admitted.

"What would make it easier for you?" he asked.

Ranma answered immediately.

"Control," she said firmly. "If I had absolute control over my... ki."

The elderly man barked out a laugh.

"There is no such thing as absolute control. No one can control their fate, or everyone's response to the world around them."

He leaned forward slightly towards Ranma.

"The only way one could have absolute control, was if they were a universe to themselves. The best anyone can hope for is acceptance of their situation and learning how to live with it."

"But I hate not being in control of myself," Ranma complained. "And if I lose control, a lot of people could be hurt."

"Whether you accept this fact or not, it doesn't change the reality of it," Asahi said sternly. "You are responsible for your actions, you are responsible for what you do or don't do. To try and blame your abilities for your short comings is cowardly."

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Ranma objected - loudly. "I have a real problem. People could die if I screw up! Do you know how much that scares the hell out of me?!"

Silence fell between the pair.

"Why not seal this knowledge away?" the monk suggested. "If it truly so terrible for you to bear, then seal it away in your mind."

"I can't," Ranma said tiredly. "It's part of... an obligation... a duty I have."

The old man looked at the sky in contemplation. The silence grew between them, that Ranma felt unsure about being there.

"Must you have the whole?" Asahi suddenly asked, startling Ranma.

"Huh?"

The old man sighed.

"Must you have the whole?" He asked again before explaining, "When faced with carrying a heavy load, do you try to carry it all at once or do you break into smaller loads to carry?"

"Umm... I would break it up?" Ranma ventured.

"Try sealing away parts of your skill that are too much for you to bear. They would still be there for you to draw on if needed, but not as easily as before."

"How?"

"I have some copies of some old scrolls I can lend you," he said with a smile. "It was written by a high ki user, such as yourself, five hundred years ago. He too feared that his great power would corrupt him. His fear drove him to make it his life's work on how to compartmentalize his techniques so that he could draw from a select amount. Sort of like a regulator or limiter that you impose upon yourself."

"You'd let me have these?"

"Of course, "Asahi smiled. "These are copies that have been around for quite some time now. It's like they were waiting for the right person to come along."

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Washu set up a mirrored face communications instrument and with a touch to its smooth surface, powered it on. She would use this to directly talk with Tsunami instead of having to rely on the presence of Sasami. It used a great deal of power, but it got the job done.

Also by talking to Tsunami in her lab, she could secure it against eavesdroppers.

Soon, the ghostly image of Tsunami filled the mirror.

"I have an update on some irregularities in the political situation on Jurai," Tsunami said in a very serious tone. "It isn't good."

"Why? What happened?" asked slightly alarmed.

"It seems that over the past two years, certain reforms have been passed in the Lower Houses. Reforms that have slowly eroded the ruling authority of the Emperor.'

"Eroded? How?"

"The supposed point of the reforms was to strengthen the security of the Empire," Tsunami said. "Instead all it did was give birth to a massive bureaucracy."

Washu stared dumbly at Tsunami.

"You know I never liked politics," Washu said, slightly exasperated. "Why is this such a bad thing?"

"Entropy," Tsunami stated.

"Entropy?" Washu paused in questioned. She cocked her head, "Thermodynamics?

"Political entropy," Tsunami clarified. "Think of it as the King's power being spread out over the many divisions that actually perform the functions of the government, ultimately leaving the King with diminished power."

Washu weighed that bit of information.

"With a weakened central authority and the governing power being spread out over a larger political system, the King's authority would fade eventually into an inert uniformity over the political spectrum." Washu drew the comparison. "This would leave the Empire in an extremely vulnerable situation," she added as a whispered.

"Exactly."

Silence fell between the two as Washu contemplated the state of the Empire.

"Surely Emperor Azusa would-," Washu started.

"The Empire has become bogged down in its own growing bureaucracy," Tsunami interrupted. "The power has shifted slowly away from the King and onto people who - 'push pencils', I think is the term."

"How about Queen Funaho? Surely she sees what is happening," Washu pointed out.

Tsunami nodded, "Yes she is aware of what is happening and has been doing everything in her power to stop it. The problem is that Zarkov, under the direction of The Mistress I'm sure, has been boggling the committees she heads under a mountain of nonexistent problems."

"Nonexistent problems?" Washu questioned.

"Yes. Off worlders, other planetary governments that border the Empire, minor interplanetary conflicts within the Empire that are blown out of proportion... the list of potential minor incidents that could be exaggerated and used are endless. The results are that Queen Funaho has been busy putting on a bunch of small fires and hasn't had the opportunity to spend much time on the real problem."

"What about Queen Misaki?"

"She is the head of the Juraian Royal Guard, so she has been tied up with investigating 'border skirmishes' that, I believe, don't really exist."

Washu was silent in contemplation, she could relate to the problem the Royal house was going through. "Distractions," she concluded. "All these distractions are tying up the people in charge while their power is being sapped away."

Tsunami nodded.

"What do you think they're up to? They wouldn't have gone through this much trouble and not have some plan," Washu point out. "Even then, they should know that Emperor Azusa would not give up the throne."

"Knowing Zarkov, he will probably use this to consolidate power under him... or at least get the other upper Houses to support him in strengthening the central government."

"He creates the problem, then offers a solution," Washu said. "Do you think this mystery woman is behind all this?"

"Yes," Tsunami said. "I believe she is the driving force behind all of this."

"Who is she?"

"I haven't been able to find any information about her anywhere. As far as any information in the Imperial Computer System, she doesn't exist."

"Could she be another surviving Tech-master? Like us and Zarkov?" Washu suggested.

"I don't know," Tsunami answered tiredly. "Outside of you, me, Zarkov and Roshi, I haven't heard or kept track of the others in a least ten thousand years. She could be one, there's just not enough information to guess."

Washu pondered the different facets of the problem.

"We must account for everyone," Washu said. "Do you think you can do it?"

"I'll get my resources on it," Tsunami nodded as she responded.

Silence fell between the two.

"What can we do?" Washu finally asked. "There must be something we can do to avert disaster."

Tsunami thought a moment before answering. "We must strengthen and re-centralize the ruling authority. The problem is I'm sure that Zarkov has the same idea, but under his rule."

"What do you suggest?"

"For now, we have time to collect more information," Tsunami answered distractedly. "If we act in haste, it may cause more problems that it solves. I am expecting another report tonight. Let's see if that turns up anything. This could be messy, you know."

"Great," Washu said bitterly. "All this on top of the Senshi being back. This keeps getting better and better."

"About the Senshi, have you found out if the Queen is around or not?"

"No... I got distracted by another matter that may be just as important," Washu said. "And it probably has something to do with the situation back on Jurai."

"Oh?" Tsunami questioned. "What would that be?"

"About your sources," Washu asked. "Do you have any around here?"

Tsunami looked at Washu with an appraising look.

"No," she said. "Since I'm here I didn't think it would be necessary. Why?"

"After our discussion the other night," Washu began, "I intercepted a radio signal that was designed to be hidden in the natural background radio noise. It was converted to a subspace transmission and boosted with enough power to reach Jurai in about two weeks."

"Did you manage to decode or trace it?"

"I'm still working on fully decoding it, but so far it looks like a recording of our talk the other night. When I trace the source of the signal from this end, it led to a spider-web in the woods. It self destructed before I had the chance to do a thorough analysis of it."

"A spider-web? Self destruct?" Tsunami questioned. "So we have been spied on," she commented, not missing the irony of the situation.

"That much is obvious," Washu said with a nod. "And from what you told me, it won't be much of a guess by who."

--------------

Ranma took the train again.

Ranma pondered the problem of Tenchi, not that Tenchi was a problem, but rather her - reoccurring uncomfortable feelings toward him. At first it was like a business transaction or a trade. Each needed someone to spar with and each filled the bill for the other.

Then they, with the clandestine help of their roommates, started spending more and more time together. Ranma had already come to the conclusion that what she felt was probably infatuation.

"Besides," she though depressingly. "He has enough problems with women and doesn't need me added to the mix. He doesn't deserve to be dragged in my screwed up life."

The wind created from the train's movement whipped her long braided pigtail behind her as she laid back to soak up some of the sun that peaked through the partially cloudy sky. She would occasionally turn her head to check on the train's progress with some of the landmarks from the map she was carrying.

"Soon," she thought. "Almost there."

Raising herself into a seated position, Ranma examined the landscape against the worn map.

"That must be Kagato Station over there," she commented to herself as she spied the station on the opposite side of a highway and another set of tracks. Ranma's train, being a separate track, kept going. "The other tracks should go south soon after and a river should be coming..."

As if on cue, the tracks gave way to a trestle and soon Ranma found herself crossing a river that meandered through the semi-urban scene. Ranma smiled.

"This must be the Yoshi River," Ranma thought as she studied the wind whipped map. "That means the next landmark will be the Ashahi River... the tracks should go south from there and the station should be near that."

Ranma smiled as the last landmark was met and passed and the train headed south, following its tracks.

"Alright, that means the next stop is the Okayama station," she thought excitedly.

Gathering her pack and shouldering it, Ranma watched as the line crossed through and over many neighborhoods, the kind she found back home in Tokyo. The suburban landscape quickly gave way to an urban one as the scene became more and more crowded with buildings, roads and the other trappings of a typical urban setting. The tracks had eventually crossed over and paralleled another set of tracks, this time on the north side. Ranma swung her head around, taking in the sights of Okayama while the train slowed as it neared the station.

"This is not what I was expecting," Ranma though to herself. "But then again, Tenchi said he lived some distance from the city itself. Now if I can manage to get hold of a phone book, I'll be in business."

The loud howl of a large, wounded animal was clearly heard through the combination of train and city noise.

Ranma held her stomach. "After I get something to eat."

---------------

Washu sighed. This was not want she wanted to be doing.

"The question is still stands: What do we do?"

Tsunami pondered the question before answering.

"We must have a new re-centralized government. The best way is to have the King step down for his successor. This has been expected for over two thousand years. With a new King, people would be drawn together and we can then deal with the bureaucracy - by eliminating it in its current form and establishing a smaller, easier to manage one. We need someone who could pull the other Houses back into the fold. If we can get Yosho take the throne-"

"Something that he is adamantly against," Washu interjected. "I don't think there is anything that would drag Yosho to the throne."

"True," Tsunami agreed, "and a reluctant King would be more damaging that a tired one."

"That leaves Tenchi," Washu said, "and he is not ready yet."

Tsunami nodded her agreement.

"Couldn't you interfere?" Washu suggested. "Stop this from happening? I believe you did something like that five thousand years ago, didn't you?"

Tsunami shook her head. "No. My power is not what it was then, especially now that I'm bonded to Sasami. The binding keeps me more or less anchored."

"You let sentiment get the best of you on that," Washu quipped.

"And you never let sentiment get to you?" Tsunami shot back. "Remember what happened when you tried to 'live a normal life'? Didn't work out so well did it?"

Washu faced turned red in anger.

"I was in love!" she defended. "I didn't think that they would take him and our child away."

Silence fell uncomfortably between them.

"I'm sorry..." Tsunami said quietly. "But you have to realize it was the only way to save her."

Silence resumed.

Washu nodded her head.

"So our hope is Tenchi - how much time do you think we have?" she asked, bringing the conversation back to the subject.

"It will take two weeks for the signal to reach Jurai," Tsunami thought aloud. "Four to six weeks by ship from Jurai to Earth... if they intend to come here... maybe add a month for them to make any plans..." Tsunami fell into silent contemplation for a moment before voicing her opinion. "One month and a half at the earliest, maybe three months if we're lucky."

"If they don't come here, what do you think they'll do?"

Tsunami thought a moment. "Probably cause some kind of trouble on the home front - I really don't know. Maybe it would be better if we convince everyone to take a trip to Jurai, that way we can be close to the action if needed."

"We'll have to tell Yosho what's going on," Washu stated. "If we impress upon him the seriousness of the situation, he would have to act."

Tsunami nodded.

"The only advantage we have now is that we can get our intelligence faster than the opposition," Tsunami pointed out. "We must use that to our advantage as much as we can. However, if word gets out to the other Houses about the Senshi, all bets are off."

Washu blink-blinked.

"Why?"

"Because the Senshi are now the wild cards in all of this. If you recall our conversation from the other night, all scenarios are valid, plus a few more."

"What do you mean?"

Tsunami explained. "The Senshi were considered royalty, remember? And Jurai is descended from the Sol System."

"Yes," Washu nodded. "I recall, what other scenarios are you talking about?"

"Zarkov could try to build the Senshi up as a threat to the Empire and gain support that way," Tsunami said. "He'll try and convince the other Houses that the Senshi are a threat to the security of the Empire. By making the Senshi out as villains or aggressors, he could push for an attack, a first strike, without truly realizing what he is dealing with."

"How would that benefit him?" Washu asked. God she hated politics.

"People often rally for a cause, especially if they feel if it's for self preservation."

Silence.

"And what about this 'Mistress'?" Washu reminded Tsunami. "She is the one really calling the shots. We need to find out more about her."

Tsunami nodded, "I have my sources digging around, I should, hopefully, have a more detailed report by tomorrow."

"There is someone else we need to consider also," Washu said. "Wind Walker."

Tsunami eyes widened.

"I forgot about her..."

--------------

Elsewhere...

Sailor Pluto studied the changes in the time stream.

"Something odd is happening here," she mused. "I've never seen readings quite like this before."

Making adjustments here and there, the time stream refused to define itself.

Her brow furrowed.

"The time lines are diverging into three separate, but equal paths," she thought. "With the multiple deviations that exist in each timeline, it makes it difficult to predict what will happen."

She pouted.

"I'll keep trying to sort this out and see if a dominant path is known before I recommend a course of action."

Looking at her watch, a gift from an admirer, she noted the time.

"The Scout meeting is tomorrow," she thought. "I'll bring this up then and use the time to try and figure out what is going on."

She continued with her task of trying to determine the future.

---------------

"Man that was good," Ranma thought as she patted her stomach, making her way through the crowded streets of Okayama. "It's been a long time since I had okonomiyaki."

As she walked, Ranma took in her surroundings.

"This is not what I imagined," she thought as she looked at the surrounding buildings. "This looks like parts of Tokyo I've passed through."

Ranma had imagined a more rural setting for Okayama and was slightly disappointed that it turned out to be a fairly sizable city.

"Well, I better find a phone book and see if I can find where the Masaki shrine is."

Seeing she was near a pair of high schools, Ranma got her bearings, and walked west toward Mount Yasaka until she encountered Bizenmikado Station. Upon entering the crowded station, she made her way over to a row of green public phones that lined one wall. There she finally found an elusive phone book.

"Let's where is it...," Ranma thought as she leafed through the book. "Ah! here it is Masaki Shrine. Great, now I need a good map of the area."

Scoping out the station, Ranma spotted a map of Okayama mounted on the opposite wall. Making her way over to it, she kept a wary eye out for gropers. Soon she found herself before a disappointing undetailed map, no better than the one she was carrying.

"This isn't any help," she thought disdainfully before the obvious hit her. "I know! I'll call for directions."

Going off to the side of the room, Ranma dug through her pack and pulled out her cell phone.

"Damn! Forgot to charge it," she thought disdainfully. "I'll have to use a pay phone."

Making her way back to the phones, she fished round in her pocket for some change.

"Dammit!" she cursed to herself. "Some bills, but just barely enough change."

-------------------

A phone rang.

Then rang again.

In the house, near the kitchen, the phone rang insistently.

A girl poked her head out of the doorway leading to the kitchen. She appeared to be around the age of ten to twelve with light blue hair done up in two long ponytails on either side of her head and wearing an apron with a stylized carrot on it. Sasami entered the hallway and traversed the distance between the door of the kitchen to the bureau by the front door, where everyone kept their shoes.

Reaching up to where the phone rested, she picked up the receiver and was greeted by the howl and crackle of a horrible connection. Regardless of the interference, she answered the call cheerfully.

"Masaki residence, Sasami speaking. How may I help you?"

"Is -garble- Masaki Shrine?" a faint, indistinct voice asked through the rough static.

"This is the Masaki Shrine. How may I help you?" Sasami asked, still in her cheery way, despite the annoying garbage on the line.

"-garble, garble- do I -howl- there?"

Sasami's brow furrowed, "I'm sorry sir, but the connection is very bad. I can barely understand you. Are you asking how to get here?"

" Yes, and I'm a -garble- How do I get there? You sound okay -howl- this end."

"Well," Sasami smiled, at least the person on the other end could hear her. "To get here you take... "

------------------

At the station, Ranma wrote down the instructions to the Masaki Shrine. It was located some distance from the city proper and would probably take anyone else a couple of hours to get there. Ranma figured it would take her an hour.

"Thank you so very much," Ranma said into the phone. "What? I said thank you. Oh, and tell Tenchi that Ranma will be there soon."

Ranma listened through the earpiece.

"Yes, Ranma. Tell Tenchi that Ranma will be there in a few hours."

Pause.

"Yes. Ranma. Thank you. Bye."

Ranma hung up the phone and sighed.

"Geez, it must have been some bad connection," she thought. "Too bad I didn't have enough change to call back to get a better one."

Making her way back to the map, she got her bearings from the instructions on how to get to the shrine and matched up some landmarks.

"He does live quite away out there," she thought. "Better get me a snack to hold me over."

------------------

Sasami was making her way back into the kitchen when she met Ryoko.

"Hello Ryoko," she said happily with a bow. "Could you do me a favor?"

Ryoko, a creation of her 'mother' Washu, couldn't say no to Sasami and the natural puppy dog aura that seemed to surround her.

"Sure. What do you need?"

"I need you to deliver a message to Lord Tenchi," Sasami explained. "I would do it myself, but I'll be starting dinner soon."

"Okay," Ryoko smiled. "What do you need me to tell him?"

"Please tell Lord Tenchi that Ranma is on his way and should be arriving around dinner time."

"Right. Ranma, coming, be here at dinner time. Got it."

"Thank you," Sasami said with a disarming smile.

--------------

It was a short search. All Ryoko had to do was follow the sounds of violence on the shrine grounds to where Tenchi and his grandfather Yosho were practicing. She stood and watched Tenchi as he gracefully evaded a strike from his grandfather and used the momentum from the dodge to counter attack.

Yosho was being hard pressed by the younger man.

"You've gotten much better," Yosho commented as he blocked a blow.

Tenchi didn't reply as he blocked another blow, smiled and went on the offensive. Pushing Yosho's bokken back with his, Tenchi then lowered himself unexpectedly and tried for a leg sweep. Yosho seemed to be expecting this and merely jumped back to evade Tenchi's leg as it cut through the space where he was standing.

What Yosho didn't expect was for Tenchi to push off with his other leg and leap as high as he did. Yosho brought up his blade to block the downward thrust of Tenchi's blade. While the counter was well timed, it was too little to stop the momentum of the attack.

Yosho soon found himself flat on his back with the blade of Tenchi's bokken pressing against one side of his neck. The tip of his own blade was embedded in the ground and the guard of Tenchi's blade was forced against the edge of his weapon and kept it immobilized.

Against his neck.

Both blades formed a scissor with Yosho's head between the 'V'.

He had lost.

Spectacularly.

He blink-blinked at the younger man atop him.

"Where did you learn such a move?" he asked as his grandson got off him.

"From my sparring partner at school," Tenchi replied while helping the older man to his feet. "She nailed me a few times with it before I got wise and tried it on her."

On the sidelines, the word 'her' grated of Ryoko's nerves, but she remained silent.

"And did it work?" Yosho asked.

"No," Tenchi replied while he shook his head. "She had a counter for it, but I did manage to tag her before she could recover fully."

Yosho nodded.

"I must meet this sparring partner of yours sometime. You think she would consent to a match with me?"

Tenchi smiled.

"I know she would," Tenchi said. "I told her all about how you trained me and she would love a match with you."

Yosho nodded as he picked a towel from the grass and wiped the sweat from his brow. Tenchi made his way over to where he had placed his own towel. Ryoko took the opportunity to address him.

"Sasami asked me to pass a message onto you," Ryoko said.

"Okay," Tenchi said distractedly while picking up his neatly folded towel from the ground. "What is it?"

Ryoko stared at Tenchi. She sighed. Tenchi's stand-offish manner was beginning to grate on her nerves, almost as much as this mysterious 'sparring partner' he had picked up at school. However she put those feelings on the back burner and concentrated on the task at hand. But she had to admit to herself that she understood Tenchi's reason's for treating her and Ayeka that way he had been.

Although she understood, it didn't make her feel any better.

"She said that Ranma called and that he'll be here in a few hours."

Tenchi stopped with towel in hand and thought about what Ryoko said. A smile slowly crossed his face.

"Thanks," he said happily as he towel himself off. "Please tell Sasami we'll have a guest for the night."

Ryoko's slightly irritated feeling at Tenchi's attitude toward her faded completely as he smiled.

"It's been awhile since he smiled like that," she thought, "Maybe his friend will help lighten his mood a bit."

-------------

"Oh... my...," was all Ranma thought as she approached a shop unlike any she had ever seen, even in Tokyo.

It was a small mom and pop place on the ground floor of a high-rise collection of shops and stores. It was wedged between the openings for a shoe store and a Universal Express shipping. What drew Ranma to the place was two oversized Pocky boxes that graced the space over the entrance.

Ranma opened the door and stopped looking about the long, narrow shop. Her eyes rested on the racks that lined both walls of the shop.

It was heaven.

"Pocky," she hummed to herself, with a slight trail of drool from the corner of her mouth. "Mmmm... Pocky."

"May I help you, young lady?" a woman in her fifties asked from behind a narrow counter, bringing Ranma out of her state.

"Um... yeah," she responded, blushing slightly. "You wouldn't happen to have Almond Crush Pocky?"

"Why of course we do," the older women replied with a smile. "We carry every flavor of Pocky they make."

"Every... flavor...?" Ranma asked lightly stunned from the implied sugar rush.

"Yes, please do have a look around," the proprietor said with a wave of her hand. "You may find something new you might want to try."

Ranma made her way deeper into the tiny market, eyeing the wares on the racks.

"Chocolate... Strawberry... Milk... Marble Chocolate... here it is, Almond Crush! Wait what's this? Coconut?! Mmmm. And Pudding! They have Pudding Pocky!"

With box in hand, Ranma rummaged through her money belt and the few bills that remained to get home on.

"Oh man," she thought sadly. "So much Pocky, so little money."

Looking around at the multitude of snacks surrounding her, she sighed.

"I'll just have to settle for two small boxes," she pouted to herself.

Paying for her selections, one Almond Crush and one Coconut, Ranma took to the street and headed in the general direction of where the Masaki shrine laid.

---------------

Tenchi thanked Ryoko for delivering the message and watched impassively as she strolled away.

"It will be good to see Ranma again," he thought to himself as he finished wiping the sweat from his face with the towel. "I hope she'll..."

Tenchi's train of thought was derailed as the actual situation intruded into his thought processes.

"Ranma. Coming. Here. Today." Tenchi's eyes widened. "Oh shit!"

"Is something wrong Tenchi? You seem alarmed by something," his grandfather asked noticing Tenchi's sudden change in mood. "Is this Ranma not a friend of yours?"

Tenchi nodded as he turned to his grandfather.

"Grandfather, Ranma's coming. Here. In a few hours."

Yosho nodded. "Yes I know. Is there something the matter with him?"

Tenchi looked at Yosho in the eyes and understood where he failed to see the problem.

"Ranma is my sparring partner from school. He's a she."

Yosho eyes widened at that, then he spoke with great authority.

"Family meeting. Now."

---------------

Ryoko fidgeted where she sat on the rafters. The last time Yosho called a family meeting was when he backed Tenchi on 'lowering the boom' on her and Ayeka. It wasn't their fault that the house got leveled for the fourth time in six months. It was an accident.

She had to admit that things were more peaceful since, if not less tense between her and Ayeka.

Most of the residents of the shrine were gathered in the living room, all eyes on Tenchi's grandfather. He wore a serious expression that the others in the room knew meant that he was about to say was important. The older looking man looked around the room, taking a mental roll of who was there and who wasn't.

Everyone was there with the exception of two people. Sasami was in the kitchen, turning down the burners before joining them. The other's whereabouts were unknown.

"Where's Washu?" he asked.

"The last time I saw her was this morning," Tenchi said. "When I was sweeping the path to the house. She was wandering around the edge of the woods."

"Where is she now?" Yosho asked.

Tenchi replied with a shrug.

"I think she is in her lab," Ryoko offered up. "That was the last time I saw her."

"Can you go check and bring her here? This is important," Yosho asked in a no nonsense manner.

Ryoko exited the room as Sasami entered.

"I'll be just a moment, I have to put everything on low on the stove, Lord Yosho," she said in her usual cheery way. "I don't want to leave the food unattended for too long."

Yosho smiled at the small girl.

"This shouldn't take long," he said. "As soon as Ryoko gets back with Washu, we'll start."

Sasami smiled and headed for the kitchen to turn down the burners.

----------------

In another part of the house, yet apart from it, Washu looked at Tsunami.

"I'll get on finding the Queen right away," she said. "Wind Walker will probably start detecting deviations in the time stream and alert the other Senshi."

Tsunami nodded in confirmation.

"I'll go about returning the favor that the House Zarkov paid us," Tsunami said. "It will do wonders to get intelligence directly from the source of our problems."

Anything more that Washu had to say was lost when an alarm went off, startling her.

"What's that?" Tsunami asked in a voice betraying a slight panic.

"Someone's trying to enter the lab," Washu answered evenly as she brought up a viewscreen. "It's Ryoko. I better see what she wants."

"We'll talk more later," Tsunami nodded, before stating in a serious tone, "Try to find the Queen."

Washu nodded and deactivated the mirror-like device.

Opening the door to her lab, that from the outside in an ordinary house, would lead to a storage space or a basement, Washu poked her head out. The speed of her movement made her long red hair flowed around her face in her sudden stop, her green eyes were wide as she greeted her 'daughter'.

"Yes? What can I do for you?" Washu said in a slightly breathless way.

Ryoko blink-blinked at the redheaded scientist.

"Um... Yosho is having a family meeting," Ryoko said, slightly puzzled at Washu's attitude. "He wants everyone in the living room."

"Okay, I'll be there in a moment," Washu said. "I need to secure my lab before leaving."

"Say... when did you start locking up your lab?" Ryoko asked with curiosity. "I mean Mihoshi isn't around right now."

Washu looked at Ryoko and used the ready made excuse.

"I'm just taking precautions," she explained. "Mihoshi is due and I'm running some very delicate experiments."

"Due?"

"According to my Mihoshi Probability Computer, she's due," Washu lied - about the reason for locking the lab, but not the existence of the computer.

Ryoko blink-blinked at that, shrugged her shoulders and headed back to the living room.

---------------

Ranma walked in the direction of the Masaki Shrine.

She strolled along in a seemingly carefree way, but inside Ranma was impatient to get there and was fighting the urge to run the last half mile or so. She was impatient enough that earlier she hopped a ride on top of a semi and made better time than she expected. Instead of the two hours she'd guesstimated, she made it in forty-five minutes. This was to be the final stop of her training trip before heading home and she was looking forward to sparring with Tenchi's grandfather.

And sparring with Tenchi.

To keep herself from running up the path, she distracted herself by taking in the scenery.

"It's nice out here," she thought. "Close enough to have the convinces of a city but far enough to have lots of room and privacy if you wanted."

The sky was clear, the tall trees lined the road, and the mountains framed the scene wonderfully. The heat of the summer afternoon was not as oppressive as it was back in the thick of the city. The heat reflecting concrete and glass towers of a city had a way of making Ranma feel she was in an oven. It was nice to get back on the road and leave that all behind for awhile, but at the same time she couldn't wait to get back and see her family before school started up again.

The trees on either side widened to reveal a path that intersected the road. Turning onto it, Ranma found herself on a wide dirt path. The trees arched over the path giving the whole scene a feel of being in a cathedral. Through the branches of the trees, Ranma spied a hill with steps that led up to what she assumed was the shrine.

"Shouldn't be far now," Ranma thought. "From how Tenchi described it, there is another path that goes around to the house."

Finding the other path proved no problem, Ranma followed it around the hill until she encountered an open gate with the lake beyond. Each gate was supported by a brick wall that flanked either side of the path. Crossing through the gate, Ranma noted a bridge that crossed the lake and headed straight for the large house.

"That seems to lead to the back door," she thought to herself. "I wouldn't want to seem rude. I better follow the path around to the front."

As Ranma neared the residence, the first thing that she noticed was a bamboo fence gated by two massive logs that flanked the entrance to the grounds. They were about seven to eight feet tall and four feet or so around. There was also some kind of orb embedded in the wood near the top and each log seemed to rest on four ridiculously small peg feet that jutted out from the bottom. The sun reflected off the polished surface of the orbs that were part of the logs, drawing her attention.

What really drew Ranma's eye was the subtle energy emanating from the pair of logs. It was as if they had been infused with ki or something. It was barely there, but noticeable. It gave her the creepy feeling of being watched.

Passing through the gate, she approached the front door and unshouldered her pack. Setting down her burden, she stretched her back to work the kinks out. Satisfied that her back survived her deliberately slow trek to Tenchi's home, she extended a slender hand...

... made a small fist...

... and lightly rapped on the door.

-------------
-------------

Notes:

Howdy!

Hope everyone had a good New Years.

I know, I know. Took me long enough.

The next chapter has me nervous though. Some of the reviewers wanna see a knock down drag out between Ranma and the other girls, but remember: Tenchi put his foot down on the girls. So, for the most part, the girls will be on their best behavior.

Progress on this story has been slowed due to my Christmas present. My wife gave me some animation software and I've been playing with it. A lot. Though the concept is easy, it does has a rather steep learning curve. Overall, it's a very cool Christmas present.

And not to mention Ushicon coming up later this month...

I would like to thank everyone who took the time to leave a review. I really do appreciate it.

Thanks for reading.