Season 2: Home Life and Shadow Plays
Episode 3: No Need for Renovation

Note: When I finish the second season I'm going to try
and go back to rewrite the episodes, removing the
scene designators and putting in descriptions....but
I'd rather post everything I already have written
before I overhaul it...that way I might get more ideas
on to fix it up more
-------------------------------------------------------

The new Miho-Kiyo place, outside

   "I still don't believe the price you got on this
place," Rikyu said as he tore down the last of the
fence.
   "Considering the lack of what Earth considers
modern conveniences," Kiyone shouted from where she
was painting the side of the house. "I'd say the price
was fair."
   "I know why it was so cheap," Mihoshi whined.
Kiyone had her weeding the rock garden, figuring that
was a Mihoshi-safe task. It hadn't proved otherwise,
yet. Kiyone rolled her eyes as Mihoshi continued.
"This house is haunted, just like that ghost ship."
   "Captain," Kiyone turned a paint-spattered face
towards Karya. "Should there not be people we can hire
to do this...manual labor?" At least the noblewoman
wasn't wearing those same kind of impractical robes as
Ayeka preferred. She was, on the other hand, covered
in dust and a cobweb or two.
   "We could, but that's not nearly as satisfying as
doing it yourself," Kiyone answered, she glanced over
at Mihoshi. The blonde was trying to pull a weed out
of the ground, and it was apparently proving stubborn.
"When we get to something we can't do ourselves, I'll
talk to somebody."
   "Yes, Captain," Karya said, resignedly. The Jurai
looked over to where Rakkan was helping Rikyu clear
the area. "He certainly seems adapted to this, it
certainly makes sense for such barbarians." Kiyone
laughed and took a moment to look over at the men.
Rikyu dropped his shirt several minutes ago, when the
sweat had soaked it through.
   "Those 'barbarians' provide a wonderful view
though," Kiyone whispered. "Don't they?" Karya blushed
as she looked at Kiyone in shock.
   "Captain!" Kiyone was about to further tease the
proper Jurai woman when she saw the Mihoshi debacle in
progress.
   "Duck!" Everybody was down to the ground only a
moment after Kiyone.
   Mihoshi finally pulled the weed out of the garden,
tumbled back several feet, hit the pile of discarded
lumber, which fell in scattered directions. One of
those fell on the plank Kiyone had her bucket of paint
on. The bucket flew up into the air and rained paint
across the area finally coming to rest on another
plank of wood holding the toolbox the Akuneko were
using. An array of tools rocketed back across the
yard, eliciting a scrambling crawl from Karya and
Kiyone. The disaster stopped with three broken windows
and a tie-dyed rock garden.
   "MI-HO-SHI!!!!!!!!!!!" Kiyone yelled. The blonde
was lying senseless in the pile of wood for a moment
before lurching to a sitting position. Everybody else
took the exasperated yell as a clue that it was safe
to stand up.
   "Ow, my head," she muttered before breaking out
into a wave of tears. "This house hates me!!!"
   "The house doesn't hate you, Mihoshi," Kiyone
corrected, irritably. "You're always this clumsy."
   "I'm sorry, Kiyone," Mihoshi wailed. "I didn't mean
it."
   "Of course not," Kiyone said. "You never mean it,
um, there's no furniture yet, so why don't you go try
cleaning the inside of the house and Karya will finish
the garden."
   "Inside the house?" Mihoshi whined. "By myself?"
   "Listen Mihoshi, there's no such thing as ghosts,"
Kiyone instructed her. She picked up the duster from
where Karya had dropped it. "And we're all out here
anyway, so you can just call us if you need help,
okay."
   "Okay," Mihoshi sniffed. "I'm sorry, Kiyone." The
blonde detective started shuffling into the house as
if she were going to a funeral.
   "How may I ask is it that she is so incredibly
stupid?" Karya asked.
   "I was wondering that myself," Rakkan added from
where he was collecting the tools from the ground.
   "I've theorized that she's the result of some
experiment to age people faster," Rikyu noted. "You
know she looks all grown up but is really only ten or
something." The other two who had known Mihoshi for
less time nodded as if that made sense.
   "She's the great-granddaughter of the head of the
Galaxy Police," Kiyone told them, to the sound of a
collective "Oh," except for Karya, anyway.
   "What's wrong with that?" was the Jurai's only
question, to which Rakkan turned to her with a
confused expression on his face.
   "I'll be right back, going to open another can of
paint."

Inside the house

   "Hello, Mr. Ghost?" Mihoshi was saying nervously.
"I'm just going to clean things up a little, okay?"
She was gingerly dusting away cobwebs and dust. "You
don't have to do anything to me, okay."
   Actually, even Mihoshi had to admit that the place
wasn't near as scary now after they had been cleaning
it for a couple of hours. In fact, with the windows
open and the sun shining it was actually beginning to
look quite cheerful. As the minutes progressed Mihoshi
forgot that she was afraid of the house, and then she
was cheerfully switching from dusting to sweeping.
Unfortunately her sweeping was doing more to
redistribute the dust than collect in a pile.
   "Oh my, its really getting very dusty here," she
said, coughing a little and reaching out to grab a
candle holder for support while she coughed away the
dust. The candleholder bent down from the wall and the
floor vanished from under Mihoshi's feet.
   "Mihoshi, you're supposed to be cleaning in here,"
Kiyone yelled coughing through the settling dust.
"Mihoshi! Mihoshi? Damn, where'd she go now?"

Underneath the house

   "That hurt," Mihoshi whined, rubbing her head. She
pulled out her GP pen and twisted it, showing that the
tiny thing could also duplicate as a decent
flashlight. "Where am I?" The light revealed an old
stone wall corridor carved in Japanese kanji.
Everything was covered in wall to wall dust.
   "Oh no," Mihoshi whined. "I thought I was almost
finished." The blonde picked a direction to go in her
usual highly observant manner. "This way looks less
dusty." She didn't bother to look up at trapdoor in
easy reach.
   About fifteen minutes after she had started walking
Mihoshi came to fork in the tunnel.
   "Oh this is a pretty poem," Mihoshi said, reading
the kanji on the wall and following it along. The
blonde didn't pay attention to where she was going and
tripped over a piece of rubble as a spear came out of
one end of the wall and into the other. "Ouch!" She
stepped up and then turned back around to read what
she missed in her fall. Mihoshi clotheslined herself
on the spear. As her feet flew out from under her, a
curved blade narrowly missed slicing her legs off.
   "Kiyone!!!" Mihoshi whined. "Where are you Kiyone?"
the blond tripped backwards again, caught her balance,
and then realized she'd dropped her GP pen back down
the corridor. She walked forward, stepped on a stone
button in the floor and jumped as a boulder smashed
down where she had just been standing. "WAAAA!!!!" She
ran in random direction.

Inside the house

   Kiyone was examining the room Mihoshi had been
working on, or at least where she had seen the most
recent cloud of dust. She realized that trying to find
Mihoshi was an almost impossible feat, after all, this
was someone who could wander into Washu's lab
unknowing and unhindered. She looked about where the
dust was settling, and noticed that a section of the
floor had noticeably less dust than the rest of the
floor.
   "Okay, here's the broom," Kiyone noted. "I assume
she set it down there when it started to get dusty and
she was coughing and sneezing from the dust. Now that
would put her standing here, and with all that dust
she'd have been coughing and sneezing quite a bit."
Kiyone reached her hand out and grabbed onto a
candleholder.
   "Now isn't that interesting," Kiyone noted, she had
been planning on removing this thing. They had found
its counterpart on the floor on that first day. She
looked down and noticed that she was standing on that
area where there was less dust coverage. Kiyone moved
aside and then pulled down on the candleholder,
opening up a trap door in the floor. "Mihoshi..."
Kiyone said wearily, she walked back outside.
   "I have to go find Mihoshi," Kiyone called back. "I
think she managed to find some kind of secret
passage."
   "Secret passage?" Rikyu repeated.
   "Do you need any help, Captain Makibi?" Rakkan
asked.
   "No, I think I got this one," Kiyone answered.
"Just finish up out here, I'll be right back."
   "We'll be right back," Rikyu corrected.
   "I said I have this covered."
   "I haven't done a real excavation in a while now,"
Rikyu told her. "I'm coming with you."
   "Excavation? It's probably just a bunch of old
wooden planks."
   "Better than an auction house."
   "Ok, whatever," Kiyone gave up. "We'll be back as
soon as we find her." Rikyu followed her inside with
an air of eagerness.
   "Yes, Captain," Karya said cheerfully. The Akuneko
warrior next to her looked at the former Jurai captain
as if she'd blown a tube somewhere.
   "Why are you so cheerful?" Rakkan asked. Karya
looked up to him and smiled.
   "How long would it take you to get us to Lord
Tenchi's?" she asked. Rakkan was about to ask why, but
then realized what she was talking about.
   "You think they'll take that long to find her?"
Karya rolled her eyes. "Good point. I can get us there
just as it starts."

The tunnel

   "Interesting inscriptions," Rikyu said reading the
wall as they walked down the corridor, he was a little
behind Kiyone. The policewoman wasn't interested in
what this place was for at the moment. "Something
about a demon caged in crystal speaking to people in
dreams and seeking escape."
   "I know which way Mihoshi went," Kiyone said. Rikyu
looked up at Kiyone staring straight down a turn in
the corridor.
   "Really? How can you...ah I see," Rikyu said as he
saw the remains of triggered booby traps extending as
far as the light could reach. "You don't think
anything happened, do you?"
   "To Mihoshi, or around Mihoshi?" Kiyone asked.
   "Silly question," Rikyu admitted. They walked,
crawled, skittered and climbed down the fairly well
blocked corridor. Half an hour and who knows how many
feet later they came to a circular chamber filled a
number of artifacts in various niches. The items
seemed familiar to Kiyone for some reason, but aside
from the one katana she couldn't place them. There
were no other exits, though, and no sign of Mihoshi.
   "Either we missed a fork on the way here," Kiyone
noted, it wouldn't be too surprising considering how
much of the tunnel was obscured. "Or there's another
trap door somewhere around here.
   "Hey, should you be doing that?" Kiyone asked.
Rikyu turned to her as he started to pick up a jade
statuette of a hideously smiling figure.
   "If there were any traps here don't you think
Mihoshi would have triggered them?" he asked as he
lifted the statue, and pulled a rod of some kind up
with it. Kiyone heard the click and whirr of machinery
and dived, pushing Rikyu out of the way of the salvo
of darts that his action had produced.
   "You were saying," she asked as she looked down at
him, right into those yellow cat's eyes of his.
"Wonderful view indeed."
   "I'm glad you agree," Rikyu said as he was rubbing
the back of his head. Kiyone blushed as she realized
that she had spoken out loud. He looked back up into
her blue eyes and froze, there faces were inches
apart. "We were down here for something."
   "We were," Kiyone agreed. She leaned down closer,
and whispered, teasingly. "What was it again?"
   "I don't know, but this seems good enough," he
leaned up and their lips met. As the kiss became an
embrace the pair rolled over a stone tile raised
slightly above the rest of the floor. The ground fell
out from underneath the surprised pair. "Damn it!"
Rikyu was rubbing the back of his head where he had
clipped the edge of the pit.
   "Well I guess we know where she went," Kiyone said,
looking up at the closing trapdoor above them. "Do you
want to continue..." then she smiled. "...or
continue?" Her GP pen was up there where she'd dropped
it with her first dive, so as the trapdoor closed, the
last vestige of light vanished.
   "Let's find Mihoshi," Rikyu suggested. "There are
too many surprises here." He heard Kiyone laugh, she
didn't laugh often. She smiled sometimes, often when
she was certain of victory in a battle of some kind,
but laughing wasn't something that was common to
Kiyone. Rikyu liked the way it sounded.
   "I suppose your head couldn't take much more of
this," she agreed with a laugh. Rikyu took a moment to
try and decide whether that was what he thought it
was. He waved that thought away, however, not because
Kiyone wouldn't know those jokes, but because he
couldn't see her making them. "Could you perhaps give
us a light."
   "Hmm? Sure," he was soon holding a slim red dagger
of energy. The red light didn't reveal too much, but
it did show them enough. It showed them Mihoshi's GP
pen on the ground, for example. Kiyone picked it up
and turned on its flashlight.
   "Okay, we're fine again," Kiyone told him. Rikyu
nodded and let the dagger dissipate.
   "Well, there's only one direction to go, so I guess
she went that way," the Akuneko suggested.
   "I think I know where we're going," Kiyone told
him, a glint in her eyes. "And unless we find her on
the way there, then she's fine."
   "Demon in a crystal," he repeated, then thwacked
himself on the forehead. "Washu's cave."

The Masaki Residence

   In the living room the television area seemed to be
unofficially split into Jurai and Akuneko sections.
Ryoko lay reclining on the left side couch as normal,
and Ayeka was sitting in her normal proper seated
position on the center couch. Karya was sitting on the
left side couch, while Rakkan was floating
cross-legged a little behind and above Ryoko. All four
were munching cookies and quietly watching the
flickering images on the box in front of them.
   "No, I cannot do this any longer," a woman's voice
spoke from the television. They all stopped eating and
leaned forward expectantly. "It is plain that you care
nothing at all for me."
   "Aiko, how can you say that?" a man's voice
demanded. "You know I'd never betray you with Kimi."
   "I know Kimi is a beautiful woman," she turned away
from him. "And I'm just a plain little girl you can
string along." The four watchers leaned forward even
further, eyes peeled open wide.
   "No, Aiko, you could never be plain, not to me."
   "Oh, Toshi do you mean it?"
   "You know I do Aiko, Aiko will you...*" The scene
switched to some translated American monstrosity with
lots of little blue creatures living in mushroom
houses. All four of the expectant viewers fell to the
floor as the first words were spoken.
   "Papa Smurf! Papa Smurf!" a little blue man in
glasses was saying. He continued to complain about
somebody named Gargamel and how he had some other
"smurfs" captive and was going to use them to make
gold.
   "Yes, we must go rescue them!" Mihoshi shouted from
where she was standing behind Ayeka's couch. Ryoko
scrambled for the remote and changed the channel back
as the credits were running, she resignedly gave the
control back to Mihoshi and returned to her couch.
   "Of course," Ayeka complained as she stood up and
returned to her seat. "It never fails."
   "As soon as it gets to the good part she has to
come in," Ryoko completed the thought.
   "They've been leading up to that the whole month,"
Karya whined. "Now we'll have to wait until tomorrow
to find out what happened."
   "Excuse me, Mihoshi-San," Rakkan asked, thinking of
something else. "Did Captain Makibi and Lord Rikyu
find you?"
   "Oh, were they looking for me?" Mihoshi asked. "I
hit Washu's cave and came straight here."
   "The passage she found hits Washu's cave?" Karya
asked. "I thought Washu's lab was in another
dimension."
   "Don't worry about it," Ryoko told them. "She's
talking about the cave Washu was sealed in when we got
here. It won't take me a moment to get there and
back." Ryoko lifted off the ground and teleported
away.

Washu's Cave

   Ryoko appeared in front of the cave and started
walking down the cave, still irritated at Mihoshi.
This was actually a relaxing place to come since all
the booby traps had been removed. Recently Ryoko had
been coming here a lot, especially when she was mad at
Tenchi. The fact that she came here to relax, a place
inundated with a power that out of all of them only
Tenchi could tap, hadn't yet occurred to her. She
still blamed him for Ayeka's burn out, no matter how
much her rational mind told her that was silly.
   As Ryoko strolled down the cavern corridor she
began to her muffled gasps and moans coming from down
in the main chamber. She had a fair idea of what was
going on, considering her past it would have been
incredibly strange for her not to know. Maternal
instinct warred with her normal attitude, briefly and
successfully. The strongest image of Rikyu still on
her mind was that five-year old she had left behind to
spare him from living her life.
   "Kiyone, Rikyu, are you two down here?" she called
ahead. The sounds of passion were quickly replaced
with hints of a scrambling Ryoko was also familiar
with. She continued walking along as if she didn't
suspect anything, "Mihoshi's at the house." Ryoko
entered the main chamber as Kiyone and Rikyu were
putting on their shoes. A red-faced innocent smile was
plastered to Kiyone's face.
   "Thank you, Ryoko" Kiyone said as if she were out
of breath. "We were worried about her." Ryoko raised
an eyebrow.
   "Well, let's go get her," Rikyu suggested, rushing
up the cave exit.
   "Yeah, we don't want Mihoshi getting frantic, do
we?" Kiyone asked, following him.
   "Uh, Kiyone," Ryoko said, Kiyone paused and turned
back, maintaining the innocent cheerful expression she
saved for her part time jobs. "Your t-shirt's inside
out."
   "Oh," she said with a relieved laugh. "Must have
been tired this morning," she started to fix the
problem, turned even brighter red, folded the shirt
back down, and looked to her left. Ryoko followed the
gaze and noticed something black and silky in the
shadows. "I'll...uh...fix it in a moment, better get
going, Ryoko?" She gestured ahead of her, the Akuneko
woman took the message and went out ahead of the
policewoman. Kiyone followed a moment later, with her
t-shirt on right side out, Ryoko noticed.
   "So did you two have fun getting here?" Ryoko asked
as they came out into the sun.
   "Well, we saw some.... interesting items while we
were down there," Rikyu said. Kiyone gave him a
sidelong look at the word "interesting", he shrugged
in response.
   "Yeah, a tunnel from your new place to here," Ryoko
commented. "I imagine you did, like what, for
example?" They were walking into the Masaki house by
this point.
   "Uh...."
   "There were those artifacts in that first room,"
Kiyone supplied helpfully.
   "Yeah and some of those booby trap weapons are
worth something, too," Rikyu added, on the right path
now. Then they noticed Karya and Rakkan watching TV
with Mihoshi. Kiyone narrowed her eyes, her own
embarrassment forgotten for a moment.
   "So, how was the soap opera?" she asked from just
inside the living room.
   "Captain Makibi!" The Akuneko went to his kneeling
as if he expected to be punished on the spot. Karya
bowed deeply and held attention. Mihoshi turned around
and looked at Kiyone cheerfully.
   "Captain! I know how this must look, but you
see...." Kiyone sat down and waved them off.
   "I was going to call a break anyway," Kiyone said.
   "Oh, hello, Kiyone," Mihoshi said, then she added
cautiously. "I'm sorry about the tunnel."
   "That's okay, Mihoshi," Kiyone said, comfortingly
as Rikyu sat next to her on the central couch. "I
think it turned out okay."