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 7

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Outside of the city of Okayama, nestled in a small valley with a lake, sat a three story house with a nearby shrine. The house had a lovely view of the scenic environment of mountains, trees, and the sizable lake. At the front porch of the house was a young girl with a long red pigtail that draped down to her waist. She gave the appearance of someone who was waiting patiently for someone to answer the door. On the inside however, she was excited to be there, but didn't want to look excited to be there. To calm and distract herself, she took in her surroundings and studied the details of the door frame's woodwork.

"I hope I'm doing the right thing," she worried to herself. "He did say it was okay to show up anytime."

The wait seemed to drag on and on. The more it seemed to drag, the more restless she became.

"I should have gotten his phone number before school let out," she thought as she shifted from one foot to the other. "I should have gotten hold of Okayama's operator and got the number and called before leaving on this trip."

More shifting from one foot to the other.

"Why am I thinking about this now?" she sighed to herself. "It's true, hindsight is twenty-twenty."

Continuing to shift from one foot to the other, her nerves were starting to build to unmanageable levels.

"Look at me," she mused. "After all I been through, I'm getting nervous about visiting a friend."

She stopped her shifting back and forth and resumed her study the wooden frame of the door, noting the creases in the grain of the wood. Ranma's nerves were catching up to her as the urge to use the restroom made itself known. She was contemplating between knocking again or leaving for home when she heard a stirring from the other side.

"I hope he's happy to see me," Ranma thought as she checked to be sure she was half-way presentable. She ran her fingers through her hair and smoothed some of the creases out of her clothes.

--------

Sasami picked up Ryo-Ohki and put the cabbit on her shoulder as she exited the kitchen. She had finished putting the meal preparations on hold and was making her way back to the main room when soft rapping on the front door diverted her attention. Hesitating in the hallway, she was unsure at first what to do. It wouldn't do to make everyone wait on her, but by the same token, it wouldn't do to ignore the calling visitor. Sasami being Sasami, decided that the visitor came first and with that in mind, she made her way to the front door.

Making sure she would be presentable to whomever was on the other side, Sasami checked her clothing for any irregularities and smoothed out the apron she was wearing. She then turned the knob and swung the door wide.

She was greeted by a very lovely women with bright red hair done up in a long pigtail. The young women wore a red tailored shirt and black pants, both appeared to be made of silk. On the porch, next to the woman, was a well-worn leather backpack that looked heavier than what the woman should have been able to lift. Sasami studied the visitor briefly before addressing her.

"May I help you?" Sasami asked polity, gazing into the blue eyes of the young woman.

"Yes," the redhead responded. "I'm Ranma - I called earlier. Tenchi is expecting me."

Sasami stared at the woman for the briefest of moments before her eyes got wide. Sasami's reaction did not go unnoticed.

"Is something wrong?" Ranma asked with a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"No. Not at all," Sasami said cheerfully while stepping aside to allow Ranma to enter.

"I'm sorry," Sasami apologized. "I wasn't expecting... you're here so early. My name is Sasami."

"I'm Ranma Yonai," Ranma reintroduced herself more formally with a bow. "I'm sorry for showing up so early, it didn't take as much time as I thought it would to get here," Ranma explained as she lugged her pack in after her. "Is Tenchi here?"

"Umm..., yes! Yes he's here," Sasami said quickly with a hint of distraction. "But we're right in the middle of a... family meeting right now. Would you mind waiting in the kitchen," she added while waving in the direction of said room, "while we finish?"

"No, not at all," Ranma answered as she followed the young girl into the house after kicking off her shoes by the door. As she followed her young host down the hall to the kitchen, wearing nothing on her feet but the extra clean socks she brought, she studied the girl that lead her deeper into the house. She was small and looked to be about twelve years old, but carried herself much more maturely than that. She was wearing a green robe-like dress with gold trim that came down to her calves over light pink trousers. Over the clothes, she wore a pale blue apron with a cartoon of a carrot on it.

To Ranma, Sasami also seemed to project an air of sweet-naturedness, the kind that reminded her of Akiko and Kasumi. Ranma wondered idly what it must be like to be like that. As Ranma continued to look about, she noted that a strange looking rabbit moved from its place on the younger girl's shoulder and was now resting on the top of Sasami's head.

Noticing the unusualness of the animal, Ranma commented, "That's an interesting... rabbit... you have. I've never seen one quite like that before."

Sasami, realizing Ryo-Ohki was still on her head, began petting it absently.

"Ryo-Ohki is a cabbit," Sasami responded cheerfully.

Ranma blinked-blinked at the younger girl and her pet.

"Of course he, er... she is," Ranma finally worked out, then shrugged her shoulders. Ranma seldom noticed animals in the wild unless they were chasing her or trying to eat her, so she just dismissed the cabbit as an exotic breed of rabbit.

"Is there anywhere I can freshen up a bit?" Ranma asked as they just entered the kitchen. "I've been on the road since this morning."

"Certainly," Sasami answered cheerfully and led Ranma back into the hall.

Sasami led Ranma a little further down the hall, stopping before an anonymous door.

"Here is the bathroom," Sasami said cheerily to the redhead. "You can clean up in here. The water-closet is the next door down."

"Thanks. I appreciate it," Ranma replied happily as the mood of the younger girl rubbed off on her.

"When you finish, can you please wait in the kitchen?" Sasami asked. "I'll tell Tenchi you're there after the family meeting is over."

"Sure, no problem," Ranma said. "I can find my way back."

--------

Sasami entered the living room and approached Tenchi. Yosho noted her entrance and said," Now that everyone is here, I have an announcement."

"Excuse me Lord Yosho," Sasami interrupted politely, "but I have something to tell Lord Tenchi."

"Can it wait?" Yosho asked, slightly impatient to get this over with.

Sasami furrowed her brow and decided that it could wait. She did leave Ranma with instructions to go and wait in the kitchen while they were having the meeting, so there shouldn't be any problems.

Considering that, Sasami nodded, "Yes."

Everyone was quiet as they focused their attention on the elderly looking man as he sized up everyone in return.

"Tenchi's sparring partner, Ranma, is coming here," he said. "We must all be on our best behavior." He looked at the women in the room before stressing, "No fighting - understand?"

The silence that followed dragged out for a few seconds as everyone digested that tidbit of news.

"I understand," Ayeka said primly. "We'll be on our best behavior."

"Ranma's a girl!" Ryoko complained the rafters above the room as she put two and two together. "I thought she was a guy."

"Ranma's a she?" Ayeka asked. "Is she the one that was suspected of being part Juraian?"

"Ranma is my friend," Tenchi answered firmly, so firmly that anymore comments or possible protests were halted. Tenchi eyed the girls in the room with a steady gaze.

"From what Washu has told me," Tenchi continued as he motioned to the child-like, redheaded girl. "Ranma is a very skilled martial artist. She is on the high end for ki, but a normal person outside of that. She is coming to visit me and probably spar with myself and grandfather."

The others remained silent. Tenchi was eying the girls in a way that looked as if he was daring them to say something to the contrary. None did.

"And while she is here, remember to call me by my alias, not my real name," Yosho reminded everyone. "And to be on your best behavior. We don't want to draw any undo attention."

"But... what if... she's...," Ryoko started to say and was cut off as Tenchi looked up and gave her 'that look'.

"She is my friend and guest and she will be treated accordingly - understand?" Tenchi said to all in the room in a slightly dangerous way.

"Sasami," Yosho continued. "I'm afraid I will have to ask that you keep Ryo-Ohki out of sight when Ranma is here. Ryo-Ohki would be hard to explain."

"I'm sorry Lord Yosho," Sasami said polity with a slight bow. "But it's a bit too late for that."

Yosho raised an eyebrow.

"Ranma already meet Ryo-Ohki," Sasami explained happily. "She arrived just before the meeting."

Tenchi swallowed hard, thinking of the kind of questions the cabbit would raise.

"Where is she now?" he asked.

"I asked her to wait in the kitchen while the meeting finished after she freshened up from her trip" Sasami answered.

"Could you get her please?" Tenchi asked. "We might as well get the introductions over with."

Sasami happily complied and excused herself to retrieve Ranma who should, by now, be waiting in the kitchen. Tenchi looked each of the women in the room in the eye in such a way that reminded them to be at their best behavior. Ryoko wore an expression of flusteredness, Ayeka was a mask of coolness and Washu looked... worried about something.

Sasami soon returned with a redhead in tow.

Ranma followed Sasami as they entered the main room of the house. Ranma absently noted that the room was large, larger than any room she had ever seen in any house before.

"With all this room out here in the middle of nowhere," Ranma thought as she looked about the room. "I guess they can spread out a bit."

Ranma soon became distracted by Tenchi as her eyes were automatically drawn to him - and in her eyes he was looking good. Tenchi was wearing a brown gi-like shirt with matching pants and had his hair in his traditional pigtail. He was standing in the center of the room next to an older man.

Her heart had involuntarily skipped a few beats when see first spied Tenchi and it took some will power to keep her heart rate from picking up even more when Tenchi crossed the room and stood by her side.

"Everyone," Tenchi said as he stood next to Ranma. "I would like you to meet Ranma Yonai, she is my sparring partner and friend."

Ranma smiled inwardly and felt a certain amount of comfort in that Tenchi didn't seemed put off by her being there. She could swear that she could feel his body heat through the small distance between them. She quickly shook that off mentally.

"Stupid romantic notions," she berated herself mentally along with the friends that she blamed for putting those foolish ideas in her head.

"Sparring partner, friend," she reminded herself sharply.

"Hello," Ranma said somewhat shyly. "I'm pleased to meet all of you."

The older man bowed to her and formally welcomed her.

"Welcome to our home," Katsuhito, aka Yosho, said with a sparkle in his eyes. He adjusted his glasses and introduced himself "I'm Katsuhito, Tenchi's grandfather. Am I to understand that you're responsible for keeping Tenchi on his toes?"

"Tenchi's grandfather?" Ranma mused to herself as she looked at the bespectacled, grey haired man. "There's something weird about him, - like some kind of slight distortion or something around him."

"Yes sir," Ranma responded as she mentally shrugged and filed that tidbit to ask about later if she felt like it. "And you trained Tenchi?"

Yosho nodded. Ranma smiled.

"Cool," Ranma said in a voice that carried an excited edge. "Wanna spar?"

Katsuhito gave out a soft chuckle.

"Perhaps after dinner," he answered with a smile. "I've heard a lot about your skill from Tenchi. I've been looking forward to meeting you."

Ranma smiled at the elder Masaki and bounced lightly on the balls of her feet. She looked very cute doing that Tenchi noted and continued with the introductions.

"Um... Ranma, this is Ryoko," Tenchi said as he motioned to a woman who was laying across a horizontal beam that transversed the room.

She had cyan colored, spiky hair and was casually laying across the beam and looked down on Ranma much like a cat would. In fact, the woman's body language seemed catlike. The slightly slitted, golden eyes while unnerving, were not as unnerving as the slightly predatory look on her features. Ranma assessed her fighting ability as she was undoubtedly doing the same to her.

"She a scrapper, but an unskilled one," Ranma concluded. "She probably depends on strength instead of skill in a fight."

"Pleased to meet you," Ranma said while plastering what she hoped was a disarming smile on her face.

Ryoko returned the smile with one of her own, this one wasn't so disarming though.

"I'm sure," Ryoko said with a drawl. "You're Tenchi's sparring partner?"

Still with what Ranma hoped was a disarming smile, Ranma nodded.

"Maybe we should spar - see what happens," Ryoko said with a hint of mischief.

"Ah... I'll think about it," Ranma said, feeling a little like a bird being stalked by a hungry cat.

Tenchi gave Ryoko a look that Ranma didn't catch that caused Ryoko to flinch. Tenchi then gently took Ranma's arm, and led her away. Ranma's reaction to Tenchi's touch surprised her as a slightly excited tremble started from the pit of her stomach threatened to spread throughout her body. She quickly suppressed the feeling and cursed herself for her stupidity.

"Friend. Sparring partner," she repeated the mantra mentally. "Don't be an idiot."

Tenchi led Ranma to two other girls that were seated on a low couch. One of the girls she had already met, the other was about her age and wore a dress not too unlike the younger girl except the colors were different. The dress was a white and pink patterned one and the trousers were a pale blue.

"This is Ayeka and her sister Samsai, whom you have already met." Tenchi said in an even way.

This woman in the room gave off an air of - not snobbery, but refinement. She seemed to be more of a proper woman than Ryoko. She was cordial, yet distant, but not so much so that she appeared cold. At first, Ranma thought Ayeka had short purple hair with two ponytails in the front that hung down and framed her face. It was when Ayeka rose to greet her that Ranma realized that Ayeka sported two longer ponytails in the back that nearly touched the ground. Ayeka stood before Ranma and greeted her with politeness and a proper bow. Ranma returned the bow with one that was equally proper.

"It is a pleasure to met you, Miss Yonai," the purple haired girl said.

"The pleasure is all mine," Ranma replied. "Please call me Ranma."

"As you like. You may call me Ayeka," she said cordially. "I understand you've already met Sasami."

"Yes I have," Ranma replied as she smiled at the young girl next to Ayeka. "She's very sweet."

Sasami responded by blushing slightly and giving Ryo-Ohki, who was back on her shoulder, a rub. The animal let out a soft meowing sound.

"Do rabbits meow?" Ranma thought hesitantly as Tenchi led her to the next person.

"And this is Washu," Tenchi said as he indicated another child about twelve or thirteen. She was dressed in a red jumpsuit that matched the color of her spiky hair. Of all the people in the room, this child unnerved Ranma the most. What drew Ranma's attention was the stunned look of recognition kept over Washu's face.

In spite of being unnerved, Ranma gave what she hoped came across as a friendly smile. Something was haunting the back of her mind, something she couldn't pin down. The way the girl was looking at Ranma made her feel like a bug under a microscope.

For some reason Ranma feared the redheaded child.

"There's something about this girl," Ranma thought. "It's like... I don't know. She gives me the creeps."

Ranma forced her attention away from Washu and addressed the room as a whole.

"Pleased to meet all of you," Ranma said with the traces of nervousness in her voice.

--------

Soon after the introductions were over, Washu rushed back into her lab, her long red hair trailing behind her like the tail of a comet as she did so. Rushing up to the mirrored device, she punched the button to activate it with her fist and impatiently waited for the communications device to come up. She paced back and forth in front of it, stopping every few steps to tap her foot on the floor.

"Come on, come on," she urged the device and more importantly for Tsunami to respond to the call.

Slowly the mirrored surface gave way to the milky waver of the domain that Tsunami inhabited. Then when Washu was about to page again, the ghostly outline of Tsunami solidified in the glass.

Tsunami looked at Washu worried expression and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Fire Walker is here!" Washu said in a near panic. "She arrived just after we finished talking."

Tsunami eyes widened.

"Fire Walker? Are you sure?"

"Tenchi's sparring partner is Fire Walker," Washu explained breathlessly. "A girl by the name of Ranma shows up and Tenchi confirms that Ranma is his sparring partner. She even looks like she did back then! Ranma is Fire Walker and she is here."

"Calm yourself Washu," Tsunami said soothingly. "We must not lose our heads. Why is she here?"

Washu rolled her eyes.

"To spar and visit Tenchi, or so I am told," Washu said. "Wind Walker must have found the deviation in the time stream and the Queen sent Fire Walker to investigate."

"Calm yourself, Washu. You don't know that. It would not do us any good to go off half cocked," Tsunami said.

Silence fell between the two as Washu calmed herself.

"It is possible that Fire Walker is here to check us out, but maybe not," Tsunami stated calmly. "But in any case we must be on our guard. Try and make everything as ordinary as possible so as to not rouse her suspicions. Also, if you can put some kind of tracking device on her so we can trace her back to the others, that would be most helpful."

Washu calmed herself.

"You're right. This is an opportunity to get some information on what the Senshi are up to," Washu mused out loud.

"Exactly," Tsunami said. "Do you have anything handy to do the job?"

Washu looked at Tsunami with half lidded eyes.

"Never mind, stupid question," Tsunami said with a wave of her hand.

--------

Washu reentered the family room and spied Yosho, Ayeka and Ryoko. She was under the impression that Yosho was firmly reminding the girls to be on their best behavior.

"Yo-, I mean Katsuhito," Washu said as she walked up to him. "We need to talk - alone and not here."

Katsuhito, aka Yosho, raised an eyebrow as did the others in the room. When a woman tells a man that "we need to talk", it usually means trouble - in a paternity sense.

Washu, realizing how it sounded, clarified the statement.

"It's not what it sounds like," she said, before stressing, "but it is important."

Katsuhito looked at Washu and back at the other girls and nodded. Ayeka and Ryoko excused themselves and headed out the back of the house, toward the lake.

"Where is Tenchi?" Washu asked as she lead Yosho to her lab.

"He's showing Ranma the house," Katsuhito replied. "What's the matter?"

"It's a long story. A very long story," Washu paused and sighed while unsealing the doorway to her lab. "First, have you ever heard of the Silver Millennium or the Moon kingdom?"

Katsuhito stopped walking, furrowed his brow in confusion and then in remembrance. "Just some bedtime stories - legends and myths that my mother told me when I was very little. Why?"

Shutting the door behind them, Washu ran a quick scan to be certain that they were unobserved. After assuring herself that was the case, Washu turned and looked at Katsuhito in a way that was very piercing.

"Sometimes, legends live."

--------

"This is my room," Tenchi said as he motioned to a closed door as they made their way down the upstairs hall. "Ayeka and Sasami's room is over here and my father's is across from them."

Tenchi was giving Ranma the grand tour of the house. It was a lovely house; wooden floors, paneling and fine shojis. Ranma wondered how they could afford such a house, but refrained from asking. It would be an 'improper question' as Akiko would say.

"Isn't that kind of dangerous?" Ranma asked. "Didn't you tell me he's like a perv or something?"

Tenchi smiled at Ranma.

"They can deal with my father if he gets too... carried away."

"Ah," Ranma said in understanding.

At the end of the hall where another flight of stairs.

"Where do those stairs go?" Ranma asked, fascinated at a being in a house so large.

"That goes up to the observation deck," he replied. "Want to see?"

Ranma nodded.

As fascinated by the house as Ranma was, she became aware of some oddities, though. When Tenchi was showing Ranma around downstairs, she detected a spike of an unknown energy. It was small, but enough to set the alarm bells off somewhere in the back of her mind where most of her Senshi memories from the past resided. The spike came and went quickly, so Ranma set it aside for the moment. She wanted to concentrate on enjoying Tenchi's company.

Following Tenchi up the stairway, Ranma found herself in a room with large glass panes. Tenchi moved over to a door and held it open for her. Outside, the view was magnificent.

"It's beautiful," Ranma commented.

"Yes it is," Tenchi answered, focusing more on Ranma than the scenery.

He sighed.

Ranma caught the sound and turned to look at Tenchi.

"Is there anything wrong?" she asked. "Did I come at a bad time?"

Tenchi smiled. Ranma felt her knees weaken, but hid it.

"No, nothing wrong here," Tenchi said while still smiling. "Everything is just fine."

"Maybe I can talk to him about how I think... I feel," Ranma thought. As she looked into his brown eyes, she felt a connection. Whether it was real or imagined, she couldn't tell. "I'll... try to feel him out. I don't want to look like a fool."

"Tenchi?" Ranma asked softly. "Can I talk to you about something?"

Tenchi blinked, paused and smiled.

"Sure," he said. "That's what friends are for."

Ranma felt her heart sink a little.

"Friends. Just as I thought," Ranma thought. "Nothing more than friends. I'm such an idiot."

"Ranma?" Tenchi prodded.

"Umm," Ranma's mind raced, looking for a cover. One came to her, improper or not she was going to use it. "How did your family come to all of this?"

Tenchi blink-blinked.

"Well, um... this land and the shrine has been in the family for a least seven hundred years," Tenchi explained. "My father is an architect so he designed the house."

"Oh, I see," Ranma said embarrassingly. "I didn't mean to pr-"

Then it happened again. Another spike.

"What the hell is that?" she thought to herself as that part of mind kicked in automatically - much to her annoyance.

"Something wrong?" a concerned Tenchi asked, noticing the change in Ranma demeanor.

"No," Ranma lied. She hated lying. "Just taking the view in."

She looked out across the large lake with its surrounding tree-covered mountains. It was a lovely view and she wished she could concentrate one hundred percent on it, however she could also feel the back of her mind churning, analyzing the energy spike. Ranma sighed inwardly, this was another thing she wished she could control.

Controlling your power when your are using it was no problem, a year of practice had seen to that. Ranma's problem was that her Senshi power was made to be accessed in her non-Senshi state. It was limited by comparison to her transformed state, but it would sometimes would 'leak' into her whether she wanted it or not. She knew that eventually, out of nowhere, she would get a 'report' on the energy spike.

"Energy spike caused by access to a space/time displacement," came the answer from the recesses of her mind.

"Great. More weirdness in my life," she thought somewhat bitterly. "Whatever it is can wait."

Noticing that Tenchi was looking at her somewhat expectedly, she surveyed the surrounding landscape.

"What's that up there," Ranma asked as she pointed to a structure half way up the mountain, obscured by trees.

"That's the shrine," Tenchi answered. "If you want, I'll show it to you."

Ranma nodded and the young couple headed inside, through and out the house.

--------

"I see...," Katsuhito said. "What does this have to with Ranma?"

"Ranma is the reincarnation of the last and most powerful Senshi created," Washu explained. "So powerful that the entire Juraian fleet would pose no challenge."

Silence fell between the two as Katsuhito digested that.

"How do the Senshi connect with the situation on Jurai?" Katsuhito asked.

"It seems that one of the houses..."

--------

Tenchi led Ranma around the perimeter of the lake a short distance before heading toward a nearby mountain. On the face of the tree covered mountain were steps cut into the living rock that lead up. Ranma walked side by side with Tenchi in silence as they made their way to the shrine that was located two thirds of the way up. Dragonflies danced in the air about them.

"It's really lovely around here," Ranma commented as she climbed the tree lined stairs effortlessly.

"It is," Tenchi replied as he added mentally, "But not as lovely as you."

"This is way different than Tokyo," Ranma said awkwardly. "Nice and peaceful."

Tenchi turned his head in Ranma's direction and smiled.

"It's good to see you again," he said with a smile. "How have you been? Keeping busy at your family's restaurant?"

"I've been fine. The museum closed for exhibit changes. Granny hired some people for summer help, so I didn't have much to do - so I decided to go on a training trip and swing by and see you." Ranma answered. "It's been boring with no one to spar..."

As the two youths chatted, they were being observed by three pairs of eyes. Two pairs natural, one artificial.

Ranma stopped one step from the top and looked about the shrine grounds. It kind of reminded her of the Cherry Hill shrine that Rei lived in, but it seemed more spread out by not being confined by the urban mass of Tokyo.

The shrine was divided into two buildings, one being the shrine itself, the other Ranma thought was the old shrine residence. The grounds were surrounded by a narrow low, wall with pointed uprights. There was a stone path from the top of the stairs to the front steps of the shrine. The shrine complex had traditional tiled roofs and a railed deck that went around each building.

Ranma causally took in the peaceful scene and watched Tenchi from the corner of her eye. Seeing that he was watching her, she quickly suppressed the blush she felt coming and sat on the top step to the shrine grounds. Tenchi looked down on her for a brief moment before sitting beside her, almost touching.

"The girls seem nice," Ranma commented as they sat together on the stairs. Tenchi cocked an eyebrow that Ranma caught. "I know, I know. Looks can be deceiving."

"They're nice until they get jealous," Tenchi said almost bitterly. "Then they can get... not so nice."

Silence fell between the two.

"So," Ranma said feeling the tension between them. "What do you do for fun around here?"

Tenchi laughed at that.

"Well there isn't much to do per se," he answered. "But if you're going to be around awhile, I know a karaoke bar in Okayama."

"Karaoke?" Ranma said while giving Tenchi a winning smile. "You really know how to work your way into my heart."

Tenchi laughed nervously, "Well, with all the time that we spent at the Cute Rabbit, I think I figured you out - at least a bit."

Ranma giggled along with his laughter before commenting, "I better change then, men aren't suppose to figure women out."

More silence.

"Sooo, want to go tomorrow night?" Tenchi asked abruptly and not very smoothly.

Ranma smiled, her heart skipped a beat and thought, "Is he asking me out?"

"I'd love to," Ranma answered. "I wasn't planning on heading back to Tokyo until the day after tomorrow, so time isn't a problem. I promised some friends of mine that I'd be back at a certain time."

"Oh," Tenchi said, with mixed feelings visible on his face.

"You're very sweet to ask," Ranma said. She then spontaneously and without thought, leaned over and gave Tenchi a kiss on the cheek. That that moment, Ranma detected two ki signatures that flared.

Behind some nearby bushes, two young women bristled at the contact that Ranma had with Tenchi.

"Grrrrr," Ryoko said lowly and dangerously. Ayeka looked on with narrowed eyes, schooling the rest of her features.

"Great. We're being watched," Ranma thought while sighing internally. "I better do something or I'll have them after me."

"Say Tenchi?" Ranma asked rather loudly. "Can we invite the other girls, so they wont feel quite so - left out?."

Tenchi blink-blinked.

"I guess... if you want. Why?"

"Well I just want to get to know your friends more, that's all," Ranma replied while giving him a inviting smile.

Tenchi, wearing a look of uncertainty, pondered Ranma's request, shrugged his shoulders and then nodded.

"Okay, if you want to."

--------

"So my mother and Queen Misaki are on there way here," Katsuhito stated. "To probably bring me back to Jurai."

"It would probably be for the best," Washu urged while nodding. "It would help everyone if you at least returned home to assist your father."

Katsuhito sighed and rubbed his temple with the thumb and index finger of one hand. This is not what he wanted to hear.

"What are our options and how do we handle Ranma?" Katsuhito asked after massaging his head. "Is she a danger to Tenchi?"

"Leave Ranma to me," Washu said. "You should concentrate on how you are going to deal with the Queens."

Katsuhito regarded the diminutive redhead for the briefest of moments before he nodded in consent.

"As far as Ranma being a threat," Washu continued. "Let's just say I've been around long enough to see that Tenchi has picked up another admirer."

--------

"Dinner should be ready," Tenchi said as he stood with a stretch.

He looked down at the still seated Ranma and offered her his hand. Ranma looked up at Tenchi and smile as she took the offered hand and allowed him to help her to her feet.

Once on her feet, she basked in the feeling of his hand in hers. They lingered that way for a moment before each dropped their hands and descending the stairs.

Dragonflies continued to dance in the air about them.

--------

Washu ate her dinner and kept a close eye on the redhead seated in front of her and considering the different ways to plant some type of tracking device on her.

"From what Tsunami has told me," Washu thought. "Anything that I plant that transmits would be picked up as an anomaly by her internal sensors."

She watched Ranma as she engaged in conversation with the others around the table.

"She looks almost exactly as she did back then," Washu thought in amassment. "I wish I had been more involved in Fire Walker's project. I could've tweaked things a bit."

Washu's thoughts were derailed as Sasami asked her a question that barely registered consciously.

"I'm sorry," Washu said. "What did you say?"

"I asked if you would like more rice?"

"Oh, no thank you," Washu answered distractedly.

For the rest of the dinner, Washu continued to ponder the problem. It wasn't that she didn't have anything that would be useful for tracking Ranma, but finding one that she would not pick up on was proving to be daunting.

Ranma leaned to one side and brushed her bangs to the side of her face. Washu noted a nondescript bracelet that dangled on her wrist. Washu blinked and studied the jewelry that Ranma was sporting closely.

"That looks familiar," she thought as her mind raced back twenty millennium. Washu eye's widened in recognition.

"It couldn't be! That looks like a space/time tracker!" Washu mind shouted. "She's wearing a space/time tracker!"

"Are you all right?" Ayeka asked, bringing Washu into the here and now.

"Yes," she answered. "I just got an idea for something I've been working on. That's all."

"I'll have to get back to my lab," Washu thought excitedly. "If I can find out what it is tuned to, I can use their own device to spy on them."

--------

After the evening's meal, which she thought was excellent, Ranma had quickly changed into her gi in the bathroom's changing room and met the others outside by the house. She did some stretches and lazily swung the bokken that had been lent her. Tenchi's grandfather, Katsuhito, stood by and watched her every move with great interest.

"Ready?" the redhead asked the older man.

Katsuhito gave a nod and got into a stance that reminded Ranma of how Tenchi carried himself. Ranma got into her own stance with the blade lowered with the tip almost touching the tops of the grass. Both combatants stared at each other for a what seemed like a prolonged instant. Ranma always noticed that there is a moment before battle that time seemed to naturally slow down. It was like the whole world was holding its breath as it waited for the show to begin.

Without a visible signal, Ranma and Katsuhito charged and leapt at each other.

To the observers Katsuhito and Ranma seemed to blur and leave after images in their passing. They didn't even see the bokkens touch, but knew that they did from the sharp cracking sounds that resounded throughout the practice ground. After about a minute of this the combatants broke apart and resize each other.

"Man, he's better than I thought," Ranma said to herself as she analyzed her opponent.

Yosho studied the girl with an appraising eye. In spite of the very feminine frame that Ranma possessed and as shy as she was acting, she seemed to emit a subtle power. A subtle power that Yosho could almost feel.

"Washu was right, there is more to this girl than meets the eye," Yosho thought to himself. "I'll push her and see how far she goes."

After a brief moment both parties attacked again.

The other members of the household witnessing the spar came to the same conclusion as Katsuhito.

Ayeka looked upon the fight unsure on how to react. When she was first introduced to Ranma she was slightly peeved at the fact that she was beautiful and not some muscled bound tomboy that she had imagined her to be. Now, watching Ranma spar and keep up with Katsuhito without breaking a sweat was unnerving.

Ryoko was wondering if Ranma was even human as fast as she was moving.

Tenchi watched in awe as Ranma moved like he'd never did in their matches.

"She... she's been holding back on me - like... I've been holding back on her," he realized. "When we get back to school, I'll turn our matches up a few notches."

He then recalled the damage to the gym after their first match.

"Well," Tenchi concluded, "not too much."

Ranma attempted to use the same move that Tenchi used to defeat Yosho the other day and failed.

"He knows that move!" Ranma thought in surprise, before mentally slapping herself. "Of course! He's been sparring with Tenchi and Tenchi been using my moves. This just got a lot more interesting."

Ranma dodged a few quick swipes made by Katsuhito and considered her options.

"Let's see how his speed is," she thought as she moved into chestnut speed.

If Ranma was a blur before, she was almost invisible in her movements. Katsuhito was taken by surprise, but before he could get tagged by one of the hundreds of blows that Ranma was raining on him, he leapt backward putting a good deal of distance between him and the redhead. Being used to opponents that stayed in a fight no matter what, Ranma was caught off guard by Katsuhito's retreat. Ranma's bokken snapped harmlessly in the empty space where Katsuhito was before she stopped.

"Dammit," Ranma berated herself. "Should've known he'd retreat. Gonna have to be more careful."

For the second time in the match, both parties sized each other up. With a surge of what Ranma thought of as ki, and with great speed, Katsuhito attacked. Ranma braced herself and dodged and blocked every blow that Katsuhito sent her way. She forced Katsuhito's blade one way in a disarming move, only to have him recover and continue his attack.

The fight was thrilling and troubling at the same time.

The audience was silent as the combatants struck and parried swiftly, moving about the opening in great leaps and bounds as they did so. One member of the group flew on its four wings to get a better reading on the female fighter.

For Ranma, the elation of the match as it progressed turned into something else. Fear. She had to immediately tap into a good chunk of her ki to keep up with the elder Masaki and was quickly progressing to that grey area she had dubbed 'The Border'. The Border was what she named that area where ki and Senshi magic intermingled. An area that she tried to avoid.

"No way I'm going to use my Senshi power for this," she thought. "I don't need it... I haven't needed it in a spar on this trip so far... I can do this without it."

Ranma tapped into her ki some more, knowing that she was pushing toward the always shifting edge of The Border. To her dismay, Katsuhito seemed to tap deeper into his ki reserves as well and caught up and pressed Ranma for all she was worth.

Katsuhito then stepped up his attacks further, forcing Ranma to do the same. Ranma noted the same kind of ki flow around Katsuhito that was present in Tenchi.

"So it is hereditary," Ranma concluded as she barely blocked a swipe of Katsuhito's bokken. "Damn! I've got take this up or I'm going to lose."

The bokkens repeatedly crashed into one another. Katsuhito drove fast and hard and Ranma matched him while struggling to keep control of herself. She had two opposing things pulling at her: The fight itself with her desire to win and the ability to pull a great deal of power into fight. However, in Ranma's eyes her Senshi power was given to her and not earned, so she would forsake it in a spar like this.

If she could keep it under control.

"I can do this myself," Ranma thought desperately as she poured more of herself into the fight, while riding the edge. "I don't need it!"

As she was getting drawn closer to 'The Border', Ranma started to sweat. Her strain was not from the fight itself but in trying to keep herself in check.

"He can't be using just ki! He can't!" Ranma thought hopelessly as Katsuhito again stepped up the fight another notch. "I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to-"

In spite of the years training and practice, Ranma slipped.

"No!" her mind screamed as she quickly squelched the Senshi power that rode in with her ki. "I. Will. Not!"

Distracted by a sudden charge and sweep from Katsuhito's attacks and trying to quell her Senshi powers, Ranma's guard slipped. By the time she forced the Senshi power away and came back to herself, Ranma notice the tip of Katsuhito's bokken pressed against her chest.

She had lost.

--------

Ranma stripped her clothes off and rubbed the spot where Katsuhito's bokken had pressed against her breast. It didn't hurt - didn't even leave a mark, but it served as a reminder that she wasn't in control as much as she fooled herself into believing. Removing the last of her clothing in the changing room, she was depressed and disturbed at the turn of events. Once naked, she slid the door open to the bath.

"How in the hell can I slip like that?" she worriedly questioned herself. "I mean I worked so hard for the last year, trying to perfect my control over my non-transformed Senshi power."

Ranma entered the bathing area and looked around. The bathroom was very sizable and had one of the largest furos outside a public bath house she'd ever seen. She took it all in and wondered how a shrine could afford all of this.

"Wow," she thought. "This is even bigger than the Tendo's."

Ranma shook off the memories of the dead past and took the nearest stool and reached for a rinse bucket. As she began to bath herself on autopilot, she turned her mind over to more pressing matters.

"I haven't gotten as much control as I thought," she thought. "Maybe all that practicing was for nothing. Maybe all I did was just bury myself in training so I wouldn't think about it."

She filled the bucket and poured the contents over her. Water cascaded down her form and flatting her crimson hair out against her body. She then soaped up her long hair, working the dirt and sweat out of it.

"I wish I was like the other Senshi," she thought as she scrubbed. "They don't tap into their powers until they're transformed."

After Ranma's hands had worked the dirt and sweat out of the tips of her long, red locks, she picked up the rinse bucket.

"I hope those scrolls that I picked up today will help. I hate not having perfect control over my powers," Ranma thought as she rinsed the soap out of her hair. "I wish it wasn't so involuntary. One second I'm using my ki, the next - wham! - I'm tapping into my Senshi power."

She stopped bathing for a moment, sighing heavily. It was an old fear - a fear that had been with her since she understood Pluto's fears so long ago. It came and went with her moods and training - the more training the better she felt, but it was something that always haunted her from the back of her mind.

"If I don't have perfect control over my power - then how long will it be before it controls me?"

She shook her head clear of that disquieting thought and finished rinsing her body of soap. She wrapped her hair in a towel in preparation of entering the furo when further thoughts were interrupted by the bathroom door sliding to one side and three naked girls entering. Ayeka, Sasami, and Ryoko all stood by the doorway, each holding their bathing supplies in one hand.

"Oh - I'm sorry," Ayeka said politely. "Would you like us to come back later?"

Ranma put on her best smile and shoved the rest of her troubled thoughts away.

"No," Ranma said softly. "Please come in. I would love the company."

The three girls entered the room. Ranma having finished bathing, vacated the stool she was on and eased herself into the waiting hot water of the furo. Sasami took the stool that Ranma had used and began washing herself. Ryoko and Ayeka took the other stools and began, what Ranma assumed, a subtle interrogation.

"That was some spar you did out there," Ryoko said. "I never seen anyone push Yo-, er... Katsuhito like that. How long have you been doing this?"

"I've been studying the Art most my life," Ranma answered plainly, but inwardly she sighed. She knew that they were just fishing for information and considering what Tenchi has told her about them, it would be only natural for them to be curious.

"I could play a game of twenty questions all night long," Ranma thought as she soaked. "Or I could tell my life's story for the zillionth time."

With those two options, Ranma decided to lay all her cards on the table. As depressing as it was for Ranma to dredge up the past, she knew that the girls would probably pry until they were satisfied.

"It's a long story," Ranma from her spot in the large furo. "Would you care to hear it?"

--------

In her lab, Washu studied the readouts on the sparring session between Katsuhito and Ranma. She watched impassively, but with interest, Ranma's ki waveform as the power levels climbed and climbed as the fight got tougher and tougher.

"Why did she lose?" Washu wondered. "With as much power as Tsunami said she has, Katsuhito should have been a push over."

Washu slowed the recording down toward what was the end of the fight. Ranma's ki waveform didn't alter at all, but the power readings passing through the waveform changed slightly and then expanded dramatically before being crushed down.

"There is a lot of power there," Washu concluded. "But there's also something - odd."

She re-watched a section of the recording of Ranma's waveforms. Slowing down the recording at some points to more study the details. The waveform itself stayed the same, just the amount of power being filtered through increased. Then for a brief instant, about a thousandth of a second in real time, the waveform altered itself into a different pattern before returning to it's previous one. Using her knowledge of the other Scouts that she had a hand in, Washu made a disquieting conclusion.

"She's already at stage one!" Washu thought in a panic. "She's not at zero state! And for a thousandth of a second, she slipped into stage two."

Washu controlled her anxiety and concentrated on the other task at hand, she was determined to have a more detailed talk with Tsunami about Fire Walker. She re-ran the recordings of Ranma's waveforms for the tenth time and looked for anything that might lead to the what band the space/time tracker was tuned to. Adjusting equipment she hadn't touched in several thousand years, she browsed through several channel combinations. After an half hour of fiddling with various dials and knobs, she smiled in discovery.

"I think I've isolated it," she cackled mentally to herself. "It's in such a narrow band, it had to be tuned to something specific - but what?"

Washu crossed her left arm over her chest and propped her right hand under her chin.

"There are only two people who would be interested in tracking Fire Walker, the Queen and Wind Walker," she theorized.

Calling up the Mars Computer, she activated and scanned the relevant files. After a moment of careful reading, she deactivated the computer and adjusted a few dials.

"Let's try this," she thought as she made the adjustments and watched the screens. "I'll have to be careful though, I don't want my tapping to be detected."

Nothing.

"Okay - now this."

The screen wavered and an aerial view of Okayama appeared. A glowing dot on the far outskirts of the city throbbed. Washu zoomed in on the dot until it resolved itself into a floor plan of the house. The dot was in the furo.

"If I up the resolution, I could see her," she thought with a smile before it faded. "But doing that would draw attention. As it is, what I'm doing can be spotted if Wind Walker or the Queen look close enough. Still, this should be good enough for me to track her back to the rest of the Senshi."

Washu turned the screen off and pondered what to do next.

--------

After Ranma's and his grandfather's sparring match, it was Tenchi's turn. He lost of course, but gave almost as much as he got. He was still mulling over the skill that Ranma had displayed earlier.

"I gotta ask her to step up or sparring matches a bit," he was thinking. "I want to keep surprising Grandfather like I did the other day."

As was his habit after sparring with Yosho, Tenchi made his way to the bathroom going over the matches while they were still fresh in his mind. Engrossed in his thoughts, he didn't pay much attention to what he was doing or his surroundings, thus completely missing the four changes of clothing on one of the shelves.

--------

Later the four slightly pruney girls were still sitting in the furo, talking.

"Your ex-father seems quite the scoundrel," Ayeka said with a hint of sympathy. "Your adopted family must be very admirable to take you in as they did."

"Yeah," Ranma agreed. "They're probably the most... um, gracious people you'll ever met."

"Wow," Ryoko commented. "You had some life there, kid."

Ranma internally bristled at the 'kid' comment, but didn't reveal it on the surface.

"None of the fiancees that your father arranged for you loved you?" Sasami asked quietly.

Ranma shook her head.

"No, not really. I least I don't think so. I was just a prize to them."

"How about Tenchi?" Ayeka asked smoothly in an oh so 'I'm not digging for info' voice.

Ranma smirked inwardly. She had been expecting that particular question to come up.

"He's more man than any of my ex-fiancees could even hope to be," she said with mirth before becoming serious. "He's a good friend. He doesn't treat me like a prize, he doesn't spar with me like I was made of glass, he treats me like a human being."

Ranma sat back in the hot waters of the furo and considered her own words.

"Maybe things would've gone better between Akane and I if I hadn't been such a jerk back then," she mused darkly. "But that was a long time ago, I was just a kid then and I acted like one."

Ranma shook her head slightly, freeing her thoughts once again from the dead past and bringing her back into the present. The other girls nodded on Ranma's words and silence fell amongst them with only the splashing of water heard.

"Yuck," Ranma said softly as she examined her fingers. "I better get out before I shrivel away to nothing."

This comment was followed by a chorus of equally soft 'me too's'. The four girls, wearing nothing but towels wrapped around their heads rose as one from the water. All of them slid out of the furo and silently made their way to the door.

--------

Tenchi had disrobed and threw his dirty clothes in the hamper. He stretched his back, working some of the stiffness that was building from his match with his grandfather. He reached over and grasped the handle of the sliding door to the furo.

He slid it open smoothly.

Before him were four naked girls, three in front, one hidden by the one in the middle. Tenchi's mind decided to freeze up at that moment as his eyes were captured by the one in the middle.

--------

Ranma was between Ryoko and Ayeka with Sasami behind her as Ryoko reached for the door. The door to the bathroom unexpectedly slid open on its own revealing a very startled and very naked Tenchi on the other side.

Four naked girls were staring at one naked man.

Time seemed to freeze as Ranma's and Tenchi's eyes locked on one another. Ranma's eyes were slowly and involuntarily dragged downward.

"Oh my," she whispered.

--------

Tenchi had a sudden flashback to the incident were Ranma had accidentally flashed him. He had secretly enjoyed recalling it from time to time and thought he'd gotten an eyeful then. He was now proven very wrong. This was much more than a flash of unexpected breasts, this was a naked Ranma. A very naked-as-the-day-she-was-born Ranma that stood before him. Her skin still had a sheen from the bath water with stray droplets here and there.

Tenchi's eyes involuntary followed one of the droplets of water as it wandered downward past the valley of her breasts, abdomen, navel and...

He heard a faint, "Oh my" from Ranma and came back to himself.

"Excuseme,I'msorry!" erupted out of his mouth before he shut the door as quickly as he could.

--------

With the proclamation of "Oh my", time unfroze and seem to speed up to normal.

"Excuseme,I'msorry!" Tenchi blurted out as he shut the door so quickly that Ranma didn't even see it move. The slam of the door was followed by the padding sound of feet running from the changing room.

The girls blink-blinked.

"Let's get dressed and get you settled for the night," Sasami suggested, breaking the awkwardness of the moment.

Ranma nodded as Ayeka and Ryoko verbally voiced their agreement.

--------

Tenchi grabbed a towel, wrapped it around his waist, rushed down the hall and back into his room - holding his nose all the way.

"Oh man, oh man, oh man," his mantra kept going over in his head.

Entering his room, he closed the door and stood there, mind racing while leaning back against the door to his room. After a bit, his hormone level declined and he was able to think coherently again.

"Now she's going to think I'm some kind of pervert," he bemoaned himself as he started pacing. "Aww man, what am I going to do?"

He stopped his pacing, rubbed his temples and sighed at this unexpected event.

"I'm going to have to apologize," he concluded, "and hope for the best."

He stood there and thought back to the incident. It was his own fault, he should have been paying attention to the here and now. Instead, he let his mind wander and now he was in a fix.

He sighed again.

"I bet Ranma's mad or something," he thought with dread. "No girl...," he paused in reconsideration.'"Well, most girls don't like to be walked in on."

Opening his door he peeked out into the hallway. He watched as the now dressed girls made their way to Ayeka and Sasami's room.

"I'll give them time to settle down," he thought. "Then I'll apologize."

He sighed again before his thoughts strayed back to the scene in the bathroom, a goofy grin crept onto his face. "She is a natural redhead," he thought.

He froze at the realization of what he thought. To stop himself from thinking anymore perverted thoughts, he slapped himself.

Hard.

--------

"How long will you be staying?" Sasami asked as she walked beside the redhead to the room that Sasami and Ayeka shared. She was carrying a light blanket and Ranma carried a futon. It was decided that Ranma would share the sister's room for the duration of her stay.

"Just a few days," Ranma replied. "I have to start heading back to Tokyo the day after tomorrow."

"Seems a shame to come all this way just for a few days," Sasami commented.

"Well, it was mostly a training trip," Ranma explained. "And I promised my sister and my friends that I would be back in time to go to Kasai Rinkai Park with them."

"Kasai Rinkai Park ?" Sasami asked curiously.

"Yeah," Ranma answered as she followed Sasami into her room. "It's a beach or something. It's suppose to have a Sea Life Park and a couple of beaches. Hitomo, that's a friend of mine, went there last year and liked it. I've never been there, so I can't tell you much."

Sasami nodded.

"And after that," Ranma continued, "I have to report in for work."

"Well I hope you'll sleep comfortably," Sasami chimed. "I hope you don't feel too crowded in here with us."

Ranma looked about, to her, the huge room and mentally shook her head.

"Yep," she mused to herself she laid out her bedding. "They would definitely find Tokyo too crowded."

--------

Ranma left the water closet and was heading for the room that she was sharing when a very subdued Tenchi approached her in the hallway.

"Um. Ranma?" Tenchi ventured carefully while scratching the back of his head. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Ranma blinked at Tenchi and his demeanor.

"I hope he is not upset over earlier," she thought before saying. "Sure. What's on your mind?"

"You are," he thought. "I really want to...," he stammered a bit. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that you girls were still in the bathroom."

Ranma giggled nervously, then smiled. "That's all right. Accidents happen."

"Thanks," Tenchi said with relief. "I was afraid you might think I was a pervert like my father."

Ranma smiled at the memory of a similar incident.

"Who said I didn't?" she said with mirth.

"Wh...what?" Tenchi stammered.

"Gotcha," Ranma said while playfully tweaking his nose. She then turned to make her way back to Sasami and Ayeka's room, she looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. "Goodnight, I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight," Tenchi replied, feeling warm all over as he absently felt the tip of his nose.

--------

A dragonfly zipped away from the house and deep into the surrounding woods. The woods themselves were nothing more that a dark maze of trees and undergrowth in the darkness of night. Even with the seemingly impenetrable darkness, the dragonfly dodged between trees and circled a few times to be certain that it wasn't being followed. After it was convinced, it zoomed up a tree and landed gently on a squirrel that was in the midst of climbing up. The squirrel froze the instant that the dragonfly made contact.

Since the destruction of one of the transmitters, the artificial intelligence in charge of the surveillance of the Masaki household directed all its units to communicate directly. No transmissions were to be made unless something of high significance happened - and far enough away from the central controller.

The information was quickly uploaded into the squirrel and the dragonfly went back to its job, watching over the north side of the Masaki household. The squirrel took off, leaping from tree to tree, heading for the Central Controlling unit.

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

NOTES:

On the last chapter: Wahhh! I didn't mean to be a tease! Wahhhh!

Ahem.

In the middle of writing this, I suffered from a terrible case of writer's block. I had the framework built for this and the next chapter, but filling in the details was killing me. Even some of my "anti-writer's block" stories I dabble in on the side to help through those times were hard pressed (I have a whole folder of that kind of stuff, one is developing enough to maybe make it here eventually). I just hope I don't have a bout like that again.

Thanks for reading.