This work is derived from Characters and Situations that are Copyright
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this material would require the very unlikely permission of the original
copyright holders.
The ideas projected in this work are strictly the product of the
imagination of the author, inevitably reflecting his mind, and should in
no way be taken to reflect on the originals from which they are derived.
	The following continues an adaptation and extension of "The Lonely
Moon", by Gregory W. Matteson, done with his knowledge and approval. It
is ADULT in nature, containing explicit descriptions of sexual matters.
If you are under 18 years old, or reside in a jurisdiction where such
materials are illegal, do not continue to read, or download this
material, but rather exit this page immediately.

Aoi Tsuki
Part 2, Pale Moon

	....Girlish laughter brightened the heavy onsen air
	As Tenchi continued to flounder in the waist deep water, the laughter
continued over long. Gradually, the Princess' tone shrilled into
hysteria, and she began looking higher and higher, toward a Moon just
past full. Her eyes continued to roll upward till all that could be seen
was white. Ryouko stopped laughing and began to pay close attention to
what was happening to her. Tenchi also quit struggling and began to
focus on Aeka. She was now essentially shrieking in agony. 
	She knelt, simultaneously creating an energy blade with power from her
tiara. Instantly, as she bared the front of her body, her intent became
clear. A tightly focused plasma bolt from Ryouko lanced right through
her shields, striking her hand. The energy blade clanged to the floor
before dissolving. In sudden silence, the Princess passed out, but
before she could topple, Ryouko materialized embracing her. 
	"Ryouko!", Tenchi barked in warning out of old habit.
	She looked back at him intently for a moment before turning the
Princess so that she could immerse the injured hand in the cold water.
The hand was not badly hurt, only reddened by the heat and contusions,
as the blade had been knocked out of her grasp.
	Ryouko continued to sit there, holding the limp body of the Princess,
as her mind raced ahead.
	"Baka" she muttered, shaking her head, "We can't lose you now".
	Tenchi climbed out of the water, shedding his sodden house coat.
	"Ryouko, maybe I should?...."
	Ryouko shook her head again, "Iie", no, "Ryu-oh, she would understand."
	She draped the Princess over her shoulder and stood up.
	"I am going to take her to Ryu-oh."
	Ryouko and Aeka vanished, reappearing inside the house, at the bottom
of the staircase. As she maneuvered to carry the Princess through
Washu's narrow portal, she found Nobuyuki watching goggle eyed. She
muttered "Baka" again, and continued. Crossing Washu's front room, she
entered the Jurai environment planter. Removing Aeka's outer robes, she
laid the nude body at atop one robe at the foot of the lone Jurai
sapling growing at the middle of the elaborate planter platform. Ryu-oh
immediately began radiating light beams.
	For the first time, Ryouko appreciated the futile genius of the
planter's designer. This planter, with which Kagato had hoped to
cultivate a captured Jurai tree, did indeed replicate the environment of
a Jurai tree nursery. The water recirculating through the elaborate maze
of carved water channels, was suffused with the water of life, from it's
filtering through Ryu-oh's roots. Outside, a higher dimensional vision
of the Moon and stars shone down. Ryouko realized that the planter
occupied the same higher dimensions as the hidden onsens.
	The Princess' body continued to passively resist repositioning as
Ryouko laid her out. She remembered manga jokes about the condition, the
Princess was in a state called "Catatonic". Not knowing what else to do,
Ryouko clapped her hands and prayed for the help of the Jurai Kami.
Tsunami answered, and linked her mind with Ryu-oh. Minutes later, Ryouko
reached out her hand, and a leaf of Ryu-oh dripped a droplet of sap on
her fingertip. She took the droplet and applied it to the Princess' lips
like a balm. The Princess' body relaxed, and Ryouko knew that she was
now sleeping. Ryouko pulled Aeka's second robe over her, and turned to
look at Sasami, Tenchi, and Ryo-ohki, gathered behind her.
	"Let her sleep, now"
	Ryo-ohki Mia-ed, and they all filed out.
 	In the hallway of the house, Tenchi stopped Ryouko. Waiting for the
others to disperse, he held her arms to her sides with his hands.
	"What's gotten into you now, Ryouko? I thought you despised Aeka?
Whatever is going on, you aren't responsible. Let it go, Ryouko, it's
not like you."
	"Baka", fool, she uttered, and looked away. Tears were trickling from
her eyes. "I am your foolish instrument. Since you will not decide, your
fate is decided for you."
	"What are you talking about?"
	"Go to bed, Tenchi"
	Tenchi was puzzled; this was a different Ryouko indeed. With the field
clear for the moment, she should have been all over him, forcing him to
back her off? He shook his baffled head.
	"Go to bed" she repeated, "Grandpa will thrash you at sword practice
tomorrow if you don't get some rest. Aeka will be fine," she lied.
	As soon as Tenchi complied, she began the tedious walk up to the Masaki
Shrine. Knowing that any use of her powers would broadcast her presence,
Ryouko took the unaccustomed measure of footsteps. Perhaps she should do
this more often, she thought, feeling the slackness of her calves on the
long climb up the stairway. In the pale moonlight, the Shrine was a tall
peaked jumble of shadows against the looming volcanic crag. Only a faint
flicker of yellow light marked the Shrine office.
	Knocking lightly, she entered the office. Yousho was seated on the
matting at his low writing desk, in the old style, lit only by a single
paper lantern. Scattered before him were various piles of writings.
Ryouko knelt and bowed, then clapping twice, she remained bowed.
	"It is late", the enigmatic young man commented.
	"What in the hell is wrong with Aeka?"
	The very fabric of existence trembled around Yousho, and a sheaf of
bamboo splints emerged from nowhere to slap Ryouko in the face.
	"Don't blaspheme. You aren't that much of a savage."
	Without flinching, she responded "Shhh, you'll wake Tenchi".
	"Now, what's this about Aeka?" He smiled, "Omniscience and omnipotence
are Western conceits. You should know that by now, Megami-sama."
	"Just who are you?"
	"Not, what am I? But you already know that. As to who I am, that would
be telling. Let's just say that I once was and still am the man Yousho,
Prince of Jurai. That should suffice. Aeka is my sister."
	So Ryouko told him everything that had happened following her return,
sparing no detail.
	"Have you ever told Aeka anything that might make her believe you
care?"
	"Er, Aeka would not want me to tell anyone, most of all, you."
	"This life of hers may depend on it. Now is not the time for you to
develop a sense of honor."
	"On one of the worlds inside Washu's machine, an overwhelming will
commanded us to confess our innermost hearts, one for the other.
Afterward we found a private place and made passionate love, woman to
woman. You were present in that world as Principal of our school, and as
Aeka's older brother. Are you shocked?"
	"Ah, yes. I remember that world, it is a world of magical laws, that
was the result of a magical spell. There, the two of you are now living
together openly, and have shown no interest in Tenchi since that day. As
for being shocked, why?"
	Ryouko shrugged, "Aeka thought you would be". 	 
	"Before I go any further, I must ask you; are you prepared to share
everything with Aeka, including Tenchi? I warn you, there are hidden
things about her that you will not like, things you don't know, and
possibly will never understand."
	She nodded, "I will share. Perhaps you never fully understood, when you
handed me over to Tenchi. I belong to Tenchi now, I am his property to
do with as he will. Oh, I want him, I want all of him for me; but if he
cannot decide, if he will not choose, I am his anyway."
	"There is no law or force in all the creations that can force you to be
property. Perhaps someday you will change your mind?" She shook her head
in negation, and he continued "You are unique. All human beings have
things imprinted on them during their childhood, which are required for
sanity, if not survival. Washu prepared you so that you can live and
think, but the worst crime of Kagato was to deprive you of your
childhood."
	Ryouko thought of all the thousand worlds that Kagato had looted, the
billions of lives and potential lives cut short. I cannot be that
significant, can I? She shook her head again, and then remembered an
inhabited galaxy dissolved in an instant. It is fortunate for her that
at that moment she did not feel connected.
	"Now, as to what is wrong with Aeka", Yousho began, "Juraians who are
initiated into the Secret of Jurai are powerfully conditioned. The
compulsion to protect and honor the Secret of Jurai is quite sufficient
to cause an initiate to die. Aeka vowed not to allow you to lay with
Tenchi. A foolish vow, given her lack of power, relative to you. If
everyone were compelled to oathkeeping like an Jurai initiate, human
life would be much changed."
	"But, if Jurai conditioning is so compelling, how did I break away?
Wasn't Kagato originally a Jurai Lord?"
	"Fortunately, Kagato was only guessing at the techniques. He was never
initiated because his moral defect was detected before the age of
initiation. If he had been an initiate, you would still be his loyal
servant, and this entire cosmos would be plummeting into Hell."
(Actually, the word he used was "Jugoku", but Hell will suffice as a
translation.)
	"Here", he picked up a sheaf of papers off his desk and handed them to
Ryouko. "This is the key to unlocking Aeka's mind. I am trusting you
with her life. Even being what I am, it is difficult for me to choose on
my own to initiate you. You can read Juraian?"
	Ryouko nodded, looking at the papers in her hand. Each one was in
elegant hand calligraphy, so strongly resembling Japanese that it would
likely give a native a headache trying to figure out why he couldn't
make heads or tails of it. The hand was obviously the same hand that had
written the prayer papers scattered around the shrine office, Yousho
himself.
	The first line, forming a right hand column, read "The Jurai Marriage
Bed; a curious aspect of the Secret of Jurai."
	Ryouko made her bows and began to retreat.
	"Be sure you destroy each page after you understand it."
	Ryouko nodded, "Why don't you have Funaho re-activate my cavern? We
might need a private space, if this is what I think it is."
	"That's not a bad idea, but for our purposes I have a better one. You
will now find that from the bath house, Aeka or you can harmonize with
Ryu-oh, and link to the planter. On the other hand, Washu's portal to
the Planter will now only work if Aeka want's it to."
	He added with a wink, "By the way, cute panties!"
	Ryouko was blushing furiously as she retreated across the Shrine
courtyard, recalling that she was still wearing the seduction outfit she
had donned during the fateful game in the onsen.
	Meanwhile, Tsunami materialized behind Yousho.
	Without turning around, he spoke "Well, what do you think?"
	"I think she is going to be alright. I do wish there was some way these
young godlings could learn to control their manifestations before they
get into the bedroom, though. It's going to get hot. Are you sure you
won't be my lover, in this time of need?"
	Yousho patted the hand that was resting on his shoulder. "That is not
the way I am. No matter what, you will always be my baby sister, Sasami.
I will no more do you, than I would Aeka."
	"Not for another five years, at least" she sighed, "There is none other
suitable with a human body in this cosmos.
	Sasami, we are in for a stormy ride."

	Ryouko walked back to the house, despite the growing reminders that her
feet were not accustomed to this mode of travel. Back at the house she
phased into Aeka's closet to take bedding and some gowns. Stopping in
the bathroom for some towels and the kitchen for a basin, she made her
way through the perils of Washu's space without being noticed, she
thought. Just as she was entering the planter unit, she felt a phase
shift in her clothes.
	Damn you, Washu; she thought. It was almost as if she could hear that
superior chuckle.
	Laying down beside the Princess, Ryouko was soon asleep in the
moonlight. When first light brightened the planter, Ryouko woke up.
Finding Aeka soiled, she incinerated the robes. Filling a basin with
planter water, she heated it and bathed the Princess. The job was
finished and the Princess already covered, when Sasami showed up with
breakfast for Ryouko, and thin rice gruel.
	Holding Aeka up, Ryouko was able to awaken her enough to spoon a little
gruel. After a few swallows, she shook her head. Ryouko helped her drink
perhaps a liter of the water of life, the price of a planet in some
parts of the galaxy.
	She whispered "Ryouko, why?"
	"Because you're Tenchi's"
	Aeka smiled, and Sasami giggled.
	"What?"
	Sasami pointed at Ryouko. She remembered the clothing change and looked
at herself, then at her reflection in the basin. She was wearing a
cliche white "nurse's uniform" like the ones she had seen in the mangas.
She had to admit, sometimes Washu's sense of humor made a sort of sense,
"Damn!"
	Yousho would have been surprised, but when Ryouko cared to learn, she
could store and assimilate with the same ferocity with which she fought,
even without calling on Zero. By evening she had memorized and
incinerated the entire sheaf of some seventy pages of Juraian
calligraphy.
	It took three days for Aeka to get strong enough to leave the planter,
and another week before she regained her entire strength. During all
this time, she was entirely submissive toward both Ryouko and Tenchi,
making no moves of her own, showing no spirit. Ryouko carefully
rechecked her memory of the text Yousho had given her. She decided it
must be time.
 	Locating Aeka's carefully hidden wedding chest, Ryouko pilfered it for
a black leather teddie, high heeled black boots, black gloves, manacles,
and a whip. The bodice lacing would have to be left loose, but Ryouko
had nothing quite right in her own wardrobe for the job. Everything was
ready.
	That evening at dinner, Ryouko carefully eschewed any liquor. After
dinner, she invited the Princess to bathe. Now used to complying with
the Oni-girl's care giving, Aeka complied. They circumspectly helped
each other bathe, then dry off, instead of the usual soaking. As they
were finishing, with Ryouko drying her off, the Princess spoke softly.
	"I want to thank you for laying off of Tenchi. It's all my fault,
really, but I don't see any other solution. I guess unless you are
willing to destroy me, neither of us will have Tenchi. I am truly
sorry." She hung her head.
	Ryouko was behind Aeka. Her left hand cupped a left breast, and her
right hand strayed most suggestively down there. Aeka drew in a sharp
breath.
	"Not so, my Princess!"
	Holding Aeka tightly, Ryouko willed her teleport sense to sympathize
with Ryu-oh's presence, and leapt into the air. It felt as if it were
the longest two person teleport she'd ever attempted. The pair
materialized inside the planter. Ryouko backed off momentarily and
phased into the black teddy outfit.
	"What do you think you are doing?" the Princess shrilled as Ryouko
experimentally cracked the whip that had appeared in her hand.
	"I am saving both our lives!"
	The Princess broke away from Ryouko, backing to the edge of the
platform.
	"You're mad!"
	"Trust Ryu-oh, if you don't trust me. I'm sympathized with her."
	Aeka tried to form her encirclement, but the miniature logs clattered
to the floor and evaporated.
	Ryouko cracked her whip for attention. "I am a bride of Jurai, standing
before a tree of Jurai. Tsunami knows my most secret name, it is Ryouko.
I have been enrolled on the secret manifest of the Ship of the
Beginning, the Ship of Jurai. I honor the memory of the first Misaki,
the first Queen of Jurai, Queen of the Marriage Bed. I understand the
forms, and will obey them."
	"Hanayome to oyobi", call me bride. Her whip cracked a stinging few
millimeters from the Princess's vulva.
	"Megami to oyobi", call me goddess. Her whip cracked a stinging few
millimeters from the Princess's left nipple.
	"Ojosama to oyobi", call me queen. Her whip cracked a stinging few
millimeters from the Princess's right nipple.
	"Harder", the Princess hissed, bowing prostrate and offering her back
to the whip. "You must mark me for obedience."
 	Beads of sweat appeared on Ryouko's face. She was beginning to realize
just how rough a game Jurai played.
	"Hanayome to oyobi", crack! A red trace appeared down the Princess's
back.
	"Harder!"
	"Megami to oyobi", crack! That left a ten centimeter weal down her
back.
	"Harder!"
	"Ojosama to oyobi", crack! A bleeding welt fully twenty centimeters
long trickled down the royal backside.
	"Hanayome", bride. The Princess bowed, touching the floor with her
forehead.
	"Megami", goddess. Again she bowed, touching the floor with her
forehead.
	"Ojosama", queen. For a third time she bowed to the floor.
	Ryouko was breathing in hard gasps as she manacled the now pliant
Princess.
	"I claim you now, before the council, before the trees, before Tsunami.
Jurai Aeka, you will remember this whip and obey me, from this day
forth."
	She proffered the handle, and Aeka kissed the whip that had stroked
her. Snatching a cloth from her subspace wardrobe, Ryouko soaked it in
Funaho's water of life, heating it in her hands. Bending over the Aeka's
back to wash, she couldn't resist, and ran her tongue down the bloody
welt, savoring the blood and sweat of her virgin Princess. A deep
throated feline rumble of appreciation came from her throat before she
began the washing. Of course, cleaning with the water of life instantly
salved the wounds.
	Unfolding a futon that had been neatly folded to one side of the
platform, Ryouko laid the Princess back on it, and began tonguing her
inner thighs. Aeka could scarcely believe her ears, the girl was
actually purring like a giant tabby.
	"You don't have to follow the forms to that extreme. I am not a woman
of loose morals" she protested softly, "and besides, that was a dream
world"
	"Was it indeed, imoto?", that is little sister. "Even magic can't
create love where there is none. As for these morals you speak of, you
learn them in childhood. I was raised by a monster, I know nothing of
these morals. In five thousand years I have never known the loving
embrace of anyone but myself. Can it be wrong to want to hold the ones
you love?
	On a thousand worlds we vie for Tenchi's love. Sometimes you loose,
sometimes I do. Mostly we both loose, even though you know we are
sisters at heart. On my word, on my body, Aeka, in this world neither of
us will loose. You will be mine, and we both will be Tenchi's. You know
this is the way of the Jurai marriage bed.
	Ryouko's tongue parted her labia on the up stroke. "Do you really want
me to stop?" Aeka's thighs widened in response.
	Lick! "You don't suppose that the direct descendant of the original
Misaki", lick, lick, "would have let lady Funaho off from any of the
forms, do you?" Lick, lick, lick. "Name me the harm that can come from
our embrace?" Lick, lick. "As you know, I have none of your inhibitions,
and anyway, all is lawful within the marriage bed." Ryouko covered the
Princess's entire vulva with her mouth, probing her maidenhead. She
began purring again. The vibrations made Aeka feel as if her mind was
floating.
	"Queen Misaki's fury when father showed up with the Earth lady in tow
is legendary. One wonders how lady Funaho managed to survive long enough
to convert her to love?" Aeka was panting now. She looked down the
length of her nudity, to the shock of cyan hair between her thighs.
"What in creation are you?" she gasped.
	Ryouko broke away from what she was doing and looked up. "According to
legend Washu-chan was born a cat girl on Felix Regina. Surely you
noticed the resemblance when you were there?"
	"A cat slave?"
	"Actually a princess, according to the legends." Ryouko tilted her
chin. Was there a hint of a snicker? That would make Ryouko a princess,
of sorts. "And anyway, cat slave? You should know better. The Holy
Council acknowledged five thousand years ago that they are fully human.
That slavery is the only actual error that the Holy Council has ever
admitted."
	"You are correct. Perhaps I should be admonished?" She glanced at the
whip, lying nearby.
	"On the contrary, I forgive you. I think you are ready to be paroled to
the marriage bed." Shaking her head at Aeka's readiness to be punished,
Ryouko touched the manacles, and they fell away from Aeka's wrists.
	Aeka grasped Ryouko by the armpits, pulling her up, then rolled over on
top. Gazing down into those cat's eyes, vertical pupils dilated in the
dim twilight; they seemed so vast you could almost fall into them. She
lowered her weight onto the softness of Ryouko's larger breasts, and
kissed her on the mouth, tasting the fragrance of her own passion. Then
she worked her way down, suckling first one, then the other, of those
larger mammaries. Finally, she reached that nether goal, noting once
again anew the nakedness of her lover's vulva. When standing, it formed
a mere cleft, like a child's, but recumbent with open thighs, she
blossomed with a deeply molded mound of love.
	Before Aeka could apply herself to the flesh, Ryouko spoke: "Remember
how we made love before? I will show you that it was no dream."
	With that, Ryouko willed levitation, and the lovers drifted off the
floor. Aeka found herself drawn around till the two of them were head
and tail. She was surprised to feel the cat-girl's tongue trailing wetly
down the crease of her ass and over that most obscene point. She glanced
down under her own length, and Ryouko paused.
	"You are mine, Princess. Every square centimeter, mine." 
	Aeka pressed her mouth and nose into the larger woman's cleft, burying
her tongue and her fears in Ryouko's vulva. She lost herself, floating
in a world of sensation between her legs and between her lover's legs.
Her entire horizon was thighs, and buttocks. Suddenly, amid the rising
tide of sensation, ghostly light flickered. Waves of sensation rolled
through her, surging between her thighs. Her lover's vulva swelled and
leisurely pulsed. Surging power circuited through herself and Ryouko,
mouth to genital, and through body, around and around.
	When she came up for air, Aeka found herself surrounded by a nimbus of
light. Maneuvering herself around, she found she was atop Ryouko's lush
body, floating a couple of meters in front of Ryu-oh. Stretching to the
limits of the planter and beyond were three leaves of glowing wing. In
the afterglow of orgasm, Ryouko was unconsciously manifesting her
lighthawk wings, her glazed eyes betraying a nearly unconscious ecstasy.
	Ryouko gradually woke up. She looked up at the Princess, and spoke:
"Imoto, I will always cherish you and protect you, because you are mine,
and we are Tenchi's"
	With that, she folded those vast glowing gossamer wings around them
both, as they floated under the stars.

 	At next morning's breakfast, Aeka set herself close on Tenchi's right,
smiling gently as Ryouko took the left. Tenchi seemed unsure how long
this peace could last, he kept glancing from side to side, waiting for
something to break the calm. Nothing did. When he asked for juice, two
pairs of hands proffered glass and pitcher almost as if choreographed.
When he got up, Aeka and her bride stood up with him. She gave him a
light peck kiss on the cheek, and she felt him flinching involuntarily,
waiting for Ryouko's outburst that would never come. Ryouko handed him
his work gloves, and they followed him out onto the deck.
	Washu was so astonished that she failed intercept them. She was sure
she had moved his gloves under her cushion, to give herself the excuse
to see him outside. Having sat between Sasami and Aeka, she must have
known that only Aeka could have recovered them without using powers.
Aeka snickered inwardly.
	Tenchi put his arms around both them, and began drawing them around in
front of him, so he could watch as he tried a moment's talk. Instead
there was a loud hum, backed by a slowing turbine whine, as Yagami
settled gracefully to the Masaki pond, her keel blade dipping to produce
a gentle wake. There was no mistaking the sure hand of Kiyone at the
controls. A subspace portal opened and swallowed the GP shuttle. The two
GP officers popped into existance, Kiyone bowing slightly.
	"Tenchi-dono, do you mind if Mihoshi and I stay here for a little
while? We need a breather on a world, after what we just went through."
	Aeka noted  that Mihoshi's light blue eyes reflected the same troubled
look as Kiyone's darker ones. It seemed strange to her that suddenly
even Mihoshi was calm and lucid. Tenchi scratched his hair in his
characteristic gesture of diffidence. 
	"Sure. Make your selves at home. I think dad has a set of plans for
adding another room. We'll get Washu to make it. Stay as long as you
like. You're like family already."
	"Really?" The haunted look vanished from Mihoshi's eyes, and they
shimmered with unrequited worship for the boy, as she clasped his hands
in hers, and blushed, giggling.
	Aeka subtly moved Tenchi to one side, with Ryouko picking up the
movement. Mihoshi tried to follow, despite Kiyone's presence in her
path. With a squeal, the blonde officer toppled, each hand deftly
detached from Tenchi's by Aeka and her partner. As Tenchi tried to
protest and bend to help, the two pressed him between their bodies and
propelled him onto the bridge. Finding his way back barred by the pair,
Tenchi surrendered. Mihoshi wasn't really injured, just shut out, after
all. He went on his way toward the carrot fields.
	Six hours later, returning for lunch, Aeka was outside, sweeping the
front door step, waiting. She could see him glancing at the house, it's
profile had changed, looming a little larger along the second floor
bedroom exposure.
	"Aeka-sama, what has happened between you and Ryouko? She's treating
you alright, isn't she?"
	"Alright?" She seemed to wool gather for a moment, "Onesama? There is
nothing you need be concerned with, Master." She leaned her broom
against the wall and embraced him.
	The Princess was simultaneously embarrassed and happy not to be wearing
that infernal quilted wrap under her robes. There were advantages to
Ryouko's approach to the body, she decided. She could sense the
schoolboy in Tenchi tighten as her nipples and belly pressed against his
firm muscular body. She was more than passing pleased as he copped a
feel of her buttocks through the robe. She inhaled the heat rising from
his body and kissed him on the neck. They broke apart, and he scratched
his hair.
	"Onesama will be waiting." She deftly brushed is hands down, savoring
his momentary frustration, and led him into the house for lunch.
	 Ryouko was wearing a light, loose kimono secured with an obi. She gave
Tenchi the same embrace Aeka had moments before, except slightly to one
side, so that her breast pressed his left arm, and she pressed against
his hip. Aeka noted that Tenchi's free hand stole to the overlapping of
the robe, where it was pulled by Ryouko's somewhat indecent pressure.
His fingers brushed her inner thigh, surreptitiously seeking a most
improper feel.
	Aeka knew that Ryouko was wearing that curious Earth-girl innovation,
panties, and she felt a momentary ambiguous flash of jealousy. Direct
touch denied, it formulated a subtle tease. Didn't he think they would
notice after a while, that he was indeed playing them both? It was dim
in the foyer, and no one else was there to see. She wondered, had he
maybe always been guilty of just a little provocation?
	Ryouko brushed the straying hand away at the perfect moment of
frustration, and they moved on. Aeka smiled inwardly, as they maneuvered
Tenchi past the other girls. Kiyone, of course, was no problem. For
whatever reason, she had never shown interest in the boy of Heaven and
Earth. Sasami was too young to take seriously, though she was destined
to be a woman of Jurai. Mihoshi was more of a problem, cuddly, and
undeniably sexy, there was something seriously awry in her mind.
	Aeka mused. At one time Kiyone and Mihoshi had been the most proficient
detective team in the history of GP. Then there had been the Tau Ceti
incident, for which Kiyone seemed to feel somehow responsible. It had
left Mihoshi's personality stripped of adult attentions and cares,
annoyingly childish. She still had occasional flashes of genius, but the
only thing that kept her off the disabled list was her grandfather's
influence. Now, she clung to Kiyone, and everyone else around her, as if
she were a castaway in space clinging to her air supply. Still, there
was at least one universe in which Mihoshi had managed to snag Tenchi in
marriage, Aeka cautioned herself.
	Lunch had begun, everyone was there, and Nobuyuki was turning the
conversation to Kiyone.
	"So, Miss Kiyone, what is it that brought you back our way?"
	"We were following the various trails of Dr. Clay, or Mr. Culprit, as
Mihoshi likes to call him."
	Hearing her name, Mihoshi looked up from the little food game she was
playing with Ryo-ohki, presently in Cabbit form. She was teasing the
cabbit with a carrot stick from her side dish.
	"Certain sources led us to look at a distant inhabited galaxy, K-91.
Just as our instruments were leading us to believe there was a link
between that galaxy and this region of space, it vanished."
	"A galaxy vanished?" Grandpa showed a piqued interest.
	"A scientific impossibility" responded Washu, "A galaxy is at least
tens of thousands of light years across. Anything that happened to a
galaxy would take at least that long to happen, by Einstein's laws." A
suspicion lighted in her eyes.
	"Ryouko?"
	Ryouko was studying her plate intently. "Go ask Kami-sama"
	"Ryouko!", Yousho rumbled threateningly.
	"Not blasphemy. I mean that quite seriously. You need to ask
Kami-sama", she responded evenly, without looking up.
	"So?" Kiyone's eyebrows went up slightly, "Another Tenchi effect, no
doubt?"
	Tenchi hesitated momentarily, "Uh...Tenchi effect?" 
	"Just kidding. You do seem to attract certain people and influences,
though."
	"Uh-huh!" Was Washu's surprisingly deep throated endorsement.
	"Anyway, suddenly there was no record of any galaxy K-91. We had a long
argument with GP headquarters. The head of intelligence wanted us
recalled for examination. Our Jurai Council liaison called it an
epiphany. I don't know where he gets his ideas, but it got us off the
hook. Still, it's pretty spooky to have reality change on you,
especially when you're out in space."
	Washu queried, "You said something about a link to this region of
space?"
	"Yes, actually there were a series of energy anomalies on this planet's
moon, both in the electro-magnetic and Gaia spectrums. At least some of
the anomalies involved mass transfers between that moon and K-91."
	Washu thought for a moment; she'd have to check the instrument
recordings. Her goddess had been manifesting during those events, and
she hadn't realized the proceedings would be so easily detectable by
galactic technology. 
	By now the lunch crowd was breaking up. Tenchi and grandpa would be
spending the next half hour in leisurely preparation for a savage
martial arts workout. Sasami would be cleaning up in her beloved
kitchen. Ryouko and Aeka were headed for the bath house. Kiyone was
leading Mihoshi upstairs for her afternoon nap. Nobuyuki would spend his
afternoon off furiously pouring over the drawings for a presentation at
the office tomorrow morning.
	Washu followed Kiyone up the stairs. When they were at a discrete
distance from the others, she spoke. "Miss Kiyone, could you please
explain to me, why is it that you aren't attracted by our Tenchi?"
	"You are the last person who should be asking me that. Tenchi is a very
nice boy, very ordinary if he wasn't carrying the power of the gods, but
he's really still just a kid. I am also an ordinary woman, at least five
years his senior, anyway I am not drawn by the power of Kami the way all
the other women around here seem to be. I'm not some simpering weak
sister that has to copulate with some empowered male so I can share in
his power. If I were going to be interested in a man, he wouldn't be
like Tenchi, he would be...he would be..." 
	"You don't have to go on. I am well aware of the psych profiles of
field officers. Bisexuality and a weak pair bonding are part of the
requirement, along with a high level of self reliance. Teams are almost
always same sex. Couples arguing in space can be deadly. But you may be
more touched by the brush of Kami-sama than you think you are, and your
bond with Mihoshi is...."
	Kiyone turned a little red, "My sexual or social orientation is none of
your business. Nor are my beliefs. Mihoshi and I just get along,
sometimes. Sometimes we cuddle, OK? So what? Her profiles are way
outside the accepted parameters now. There was nothing I could do when
the overlords at Tau Ceti reached into her mind." Kiyone shook her head,
remembering. "I have no interest in trading on adolescent male pawings
to gain your kind of power."
	Meanwhile, Ryouko and Aeka found themselves alone in the sunlit warmth
of the floating onsen, so they proceeded to bathe each other. Afterward
Aeka daringly remained nude, as they settled into Ryouko's favorite pool
of heated water. Snuggled to the side of her big sister, Aeka luxuriated
in the intimate flow of the water. Together, the two began to make
inroads on a shared bottle of saki. Aeka felt deliciously wicked, naked
in the water with her mistress, drinking in the middle of the day. As
she recalled, the last time they had drunk together in the middle of the
day, in this very spot, she had spoken bitterly, and Kagato had
appeared. What an inauspicious memory, she thought.
	"I never really apologized for the harsh words, that day when Kagato
appeared."
	"You were drunk"
	"That is only an excuse."
	"Well, we are together now. I never spend time on regrets. The only
question I'm interested in is how do we corner our Tenchi? I mean, we
have each other, but without Tenchi, we've lost."
	"I suppose we could make love, woman to woman, 'till the stars come
down?" Aeka blushed delicately.
	"Yeah, that's one of the advantages of alcohol. The slight anesthesia
keeps me from maudlin in masu instead. Maudlin in alcohol, instead of
masu", she laughed slightly "waiting for Tenchi." Tears came trickling
down.
	"Tenchi, Tenchi, I really do think that boy is playing a game. He
pretends not to decide, but I noticed where his hand went when you
greeted him. He felt my, er...bottom, when I greeted him. You realize he
has no idea how we are related now. He can't possibly imagine that we
are working together."
	Ryouko looked at her ai-jin partner, praying the Jurai secrets run
true. "I'll tell you for that reason, it was always true."
	"What was true?"
	"I told you, that last Christmas, he came to me, and behind me in the
darkness he placed his hand down there. He made me feel, down there,
like I've never felt, and he pledged "You are the one""
	"That same night, in that same hour, he embraced me, and pledged
himself to me! That boy needs to be disciplined!"
	"Yes", they chorused together, laughing wickedly in their cups.
	Just at that moment they heard a door sliding shut.
	"Oh, boy!" Sasami exclaimed, "Does that mean I can help? Tenchi's been
a naughty boy!"
	She glanced at her sister and dropped the bath wrap that Jurai modesty
demanded in the common bath.
	"Sasami!" Aeka yelped, "Tenchi might see you!"
	"He's seen Ryouko-oneesama many times. He's even seen you, and I went
bare in the hidden onsens."
	"That's not the same", Aeka snapped back, "and Ryouko-sama was being
naughty."
	"Tenchi was naughty too, that first time at Great Auntie's onsen." She
look looked dubious, "Oh, I promised not to tell."
	"He was?" The older women spoke together.
	"We were definitely paying too much attention to each other", Ryouko
observed.
	"No wonder he had trouble summoning the sword", Aeka replied.
	"As for Sasami participating in our discipline; no, definitely not, no
way", Ryouko was shaking her head.
	It was Aeka's turn to look dubious. "Still, she is my sister, and an
initiate. She is entitled to be the maid of honor, even if she is a lot
younger than is customary."
	"That's OK", came Sasami's cheerful acceptance, "Tsunami told me all
about it. Ryouko's new to our secrets, just like Mama Funaho was. I'm
just glad that you two are friends now."
	With that, Sasami jumped into the water and embraced her big sisters.
Surprisingly strong little arms tangled with larger ones, drawing the
three of them together in a naked slithering gather of body parts.
Images and sensations flashed in Aeka's mind. She imagined herself
standing before the Holy Council on charges of corrupting a minor. Then
she relaxed, realizing how silly she was to worry about this particular
child.
	Out of the corner of her eye, Ryouko could see what neither of the
others were able. Hovering above the water, Tsunami's spectral body was
kneeling, in her priestly gowns. Amused by the discomfiture of the
ladies, a sleeve was drawn across her mouth, and she was laughing,
crying, blushing all at the same time.

To Be Continued.

Text Copyright 1998, Anyaku<anyaku@hotmail.com>
Characters are Copyright and/or Trademark AIC and Pioneer LDCA