Credits: Tenchi Muyo!/No Need For Tenchi is a product of  
Pioneer/AIC. As such, I'm getting no compensation for writing this 
fiction other than my own enjoyment, because the thought of getting 
sued is rather unpleasant.

Mr. Long T. Tran for his "Tenchi Muyo: Ryoko's Love Prologue" 
His fiction can be found at GenSao's excellent Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction 
Page: http://tmffa.com/ 

Disclaimer:  All characters *I* have created are purely a work of 
fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is pure coincidence.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is probably just itching for a fight.  
Also, please do not try and distribute this story in some lame attempt 
to make a buck;  it would be bad karma to say the least.


Email appreciated!
Send comments to Michael McAvoy (mmcavoy@naxs.net)
The completed "No Need For Sasami" Cycle 1 can be found at: 
http://members.xoom.com/mmcavoy/



                    Tenchi Muyo!
                "No Need For Sasami"
		          Cycle 2


	  	       -* Prologue *-

	The dusts that swept over the barren land were cold and hard.  
Sweeping for miles and miles, running towards every horizon, bare 
rock was exposed, vaulted towards the sky with its vegetation blasted 
away years ago.  A mixture of deep reds interspersed with blackened 
scorch marks, the dip and folds of numerous rock strata could be seen 
clearly, the topsoil that once supported the vegetation also eradicated.

	Above the lifeless rock, a crystal blue sky laced with a few 
quick moving clouds only seemed to emphasize just how cold it really 
was.  Taken together, an observer not familiar with how the landscape 
had come into existence would be hard pressed not to be breathless 
from the awful splendor of the sight.  For those who had experienced 
the awesome force that had created the harsh landscape, however, 
there could never be any beauty or inspiration drawn from the 
wasteland.

	Too much pain and suffering had occurred in an instant 
across an entire planet the day the blasted landscape was made.

	A pair of soft colored eyes, laced with long lashes, gazed 
outwards from a heavy and thick hood.  Slowly surveying the contours 
of the area, the figure bundled in the hood and heavy robes tried to 
recognize any features that might correspond to a previous memory 
from before that terrible day.

	It was an effort in vain.  Though each of the exposed layers of 
rock were distinct and irregular, the plateaus, valleys, and deep gorges 
they merged to form could hardly be discerned from those that were 
laying in any other direction.  One could imagine a soft meadow or 
deep forest from years past existing in any of the areas, molding itself 
to the topography of the surface, and not be certain that those 
memories were of the same of a different place than from where 
observer was now standing at.  Everything looked different, and 
everything looked the same.

	It was very disorientating.

	The memories that flooded the silent figure, though, could not 
linger on whether or not a water lagoon or tree had previously existed 
here or there for long.  Watching a tiny stream that twinkled in the 
distance, flowing from a small valley and disappearing into a gorge, 
the person noted that the stream supported no life, either in its waters 
or along its banks.  The sight caused memories not of a land 
obliterated of its surface, but of a planet dealt a hand of suffering,
both in horrible earthquakes and violent climatic shifts.  Next to the 
years of ongoing destruction, the wasteland here was just another small 
wound beside other long and ragged scars elsewhere.

	Soft eyes moved from one horizon to the next slowly, but with 
steady purpose.  Falling from within the hood, several strands of hair 
dropped across those eyes in straight locks, picked up by the swirling 
winds and whipped slightly.  The figure's nose twitched as well, 
wanting to dive deeper into the protection of the warm hood to escape 
the cold temperatures of late winter, but there were more pressing 
concerns beyond personal discomfort that day.

	Emerging from within the heavy folds of the robes, a pair of 
slender arms reached up and took a hold of the hood on either side.  
With a calm purpose, the figure pushed its protective garment back, 
reveling a feminine face.  Sporting short hair about the length of her 
shoulders, the woman had a lovely face, complete with an aristocratic 
nose and lively cheek bones.  Though wrapped in many thick robes, 
her head rose up from her shoulders on a long and graceful neck, 
bringing forth the image of a beautiful swan.  It was a countenance 
that had inspired literally billions of people on her planet to find 
hope within the mass destruction and tragedy that had been her world's 
most recent history.

	Perhaps the most striking and enhancing feature to the 
woman's beauty came from her most obvious flaw.  Running across 
her temple to just over her left eyebrow, a thin and straight scar could 
be glimpsed underneath the bangs of hair that moved about in the cold 
wind.  About three inches long, the long since healed wound pointed 
in a line directly towards two curious marks that lay upon her 
forehead.  Though it was impossible to divine from the scar what had 
exactly caused the injury, it had obviously been deep enough to leave a 
permanent memorial to whatever incident had left it there.

	But now was not the time for the woman to pursue any more 
memories, for there was work to be done.

	Walking for a bit over rock and rubble, the woman moved 
steadily towards the stream in the distance for several minutes.  
Coming to within several yards of the twinkling waters, the noise they 
made were curiously loud against the silence of the rest of the 
surroundings.  Looking about, she brushed some of her hair out of her 
face, victim to the now weakening winds, and spied a depression in the 
strata nearby that had collected a fair amount of sand-like grains of 
rock over the years.  The woman closed her eyes and stretched out her 
mind to the depression, using her mysterious powers to discern its 
dimensions.  Satisfied, she opened her eyes and nodded.

	It was not perfect, but it would do.  There had been too much 
damage, too much hurt to aspire for perfection anymore.

	Bending at the knees, careful to tuck the thick layers of robes 
out of her way, she leaned down at the edge of the layer of dirt and 
touched it with the palms of her outstretched hands.  Closing her eyes 
again, she began to gather and collect the vast swell of energy within 
her, channeling and forming it to her will.  The energy was pure and 
unadulterated, but without direction or her careful guidance it would 
be unable to do anything more than simply exist.  However, simply 
existing was not good enough.

	The energy had to heal.

	Several dozen pairs of eyes watched silently from a distance 
as the woman began to glow in a brilliant blue, magic fire dancing 
about her body in gentle waves that extended into the sandy rock.  All 
dressed in thick clothing and robes to protect against the cold, 
amongst them stood a lone sapling of a tree.  Bare of leaves and not 
more than six feet or so tall, the little tree stood in the cold 
sunshine and looked quite fragile, it's thin trunk rising up from a ball 
of soil wrapped and twined in a heavy fabric.  The many people present 
formed a loose protective ring around the tiny tree.  Near the back, one 
man in particular watched with close attention, holding the hand of a 
small child who also watched in fascination.

	Normally, an audience might have been amazed at the 
spectacle they were witnessing, but tragically they had witnessed this 
same scene repeated too many times to count.
	
	Without ceremony, the young woman with the scar over her 
temple released the last of the energy she had gathered and slowly 
stood up.  Where only fine grained rock particles had been before, 
fresh and healthy soil now rested in the depression.  Stepping back 
wearily from the effort of healing even such a small little patch of the 
wasteland, she motioned silently the onlookers forward.  Moving 
swiftly, three of the people produced shovels and began digging a hole 
in the soil large enough for the tree.  Once that was finished, the 
remaining bystanders helped move the sapling carefully into the soil, 
treating the little tree with nothing short of reverence.

	Several more minutes of work in the bitterly cold air 
continued until the tree was stabilized in the soil and given a healthy 
supply of water.  Then, as silently as they had worked, the small crew 
of people departed the area, disappearing over a ridge of rock to where 
a royal yacht waited to take them back to civilization and warmth.

	The only people left were the woman and the man with the 
small child.  Growing curious now that all the people had left, the 
small child released the hand of the man and began to wander around 
the sapling.  

	Shoji, husband to empress Ayeka and royal consort, watched 
without expression from deep within his hood as his young daughter 
toddled about.  The little girl was bundled so thickly that she was 
having a little difficulty walking straight.

	"This is truly the last one, princess?" he asked.  "It seems like 
we've been doing this for so many years all over the planet.  I can't 
even remember when we started."

	Princess Sasami, sister to empress Ayeka, could only nod just 
a little.  Picking a few more strands of short hair out of her face, the 
princess hugged herself for a little more warmth.

	"This is the last," she replied.  "The last royal tree needed for 
the most heavily damaged region on the planet.  Even this place, in 
time, will heal."

	"I always thought of the royal trees for their splendid ships 
and architecture," Shoji said.  "I never imagined them being used to 
save us like this."

	Sasami watched the limbs of the little tree sway in the cold 
breeze.

	"Is it possible," she asked, "that we could have concentrated 
so long on having the might of powerful ships, and ignored the simple 
well-being of our own planet?"

	Shoji watched as his daughter poked at the wasted earth that 
surrounded the tree.  That she had not witnessed its creation was a 
blessing to him.

	"Perhaps we were all different then," he suggested softly, 
"and had things not occurred the way they did, we might still be an 
empire, struggling to build as many mighty ships from the royal trees 
as possible."

	Sasami nodded slowly.  "And now we use them to heal 
ourselves," she replied, "our people, and our land.  It is as it should 
have been from the beginning.  That this change for the good had to 
come with so much destruction... I do not understand it, even now."

	"Some things can not be understood," answered Shoji, "no 
matter how hard we ask the questions."

	Turning her gaze towards her exploring niece, Sasami shook 
her head.  

	"You are probably right, Shoji," she sighed, "but she could 
have stopped it, stopped it a long time ago.  Instead, she chose this 
path for us, manipulating and guiding, trying to create a world for her 
own purposes... and we'll never know what it was that pushed her so."

	Shoji uplifted his chin a bit, watching gray clouds move 
swiftly overhead.  It looked like a brief snow might be on the horizon.  
That would be fine for Shoji, as snow might cover up the last reminder 
of what had occurred here for a little while, at least.  Spring was 
coming again, and this time maybe the land would recover.

	"There still has been no sign of her?" he asked.

	It was always the same question, first posed seven years ago, 
and it always had the same answer.

	"None," Sasami answered, shifting in her thick royal robes.

	Pushing a bit of hair out of his face, Shoji continued to look 
about the blasted land in all its wasted form.

	"I suppose we all thought of her and the Tree of Light as one 
and the same," he said, "the embodiment good... but she was just a 
servant, same as all of us in a way."

	"Four hundred billion stars in our own little galaxy," Sasami 
commented, returning to look at the royal tree, "and countless galaxies 
beyond our own... she could be anywhere, I suppose."

	Shoji looked over towards the princess, considering all the 
changes that had befallen the young woman.  Changes that had made 
a compassionate royal, whose devotion to her people was strengthened 
by a steel temper the guardian and royal consort had seen in very few 
warriors.

	"Will you ever tell us exactly what happened, princess?" 
asked Shoji, "What it was that made Tsunami disappear from us in the 
end?"

	A far away look came over Sasami, her eyes focusing on some 
unknown distance.  Looking into her face, Shoji had the feeling the 
princess was placing her attentions somewhere very far away.  Finally, 
Sasami smiled and turned towards Ayeka's husband.

	"Sometimes," she said, "sometimes when I'm very quiet and 
still, I can hear the whispers from beyond our own galaxy.  And what I 
hear is Darkness and Light, kept in balance by another force.  For 
whatever reason, we lost that balancing force long ago.  Maybe... 
maybe Tsunami had something to do with that."

	"A balancing force," echoed Shoji, "between Darkness and 
Light."

	Sasami nodded.  "Yes," she replied, "and when confronted 
with that force, that mix of Darkness and Light, I think Tsunami could 
not bear the idea of Light... coexisting with Dark.  Maybe she found 
herself so part of the Light, so pure in it, that the acceptance of any 
Darkness horrified her.  I really don't know."

	Shoji stretched a little and smiled.  "Regardless," he replied, 
walking up to the royal sapling, "it's good to know that our little
world is in balance again, even if..."

	Shoji turned and looked at his daughter, who was looking far 
away at the harsh skyline.

	"... even if I have no idea what that really means," he 
finished.

	Sasami could only return that smile.

	"What will happen now," Shoji asked, "now that everything 
is restored?  Your going to Earth only confirms to me that the planet 
has a very special future, and somehow Tenchi's daughter is-"

	With a little smile, the princess put a finger up to her lips and 
motioned her brother-in-law to silence.  Succeeding in quieting Shoji 
of his questions, Sasami looked down at the royal tree that stood in the 
little zone of healed soil.

	"Your perceptions are very keen, guardian," the princess 
smiled happily, bringing her gloved hands together, "but I'm not 
going to give away the secret just yet.  The truth is, I'm not exactly 
sure what is going to happen either, but I'll let little sis announce it 
to us all when she is ready."

	Shoji only shook his head.

	"Something big is going to happen, I can tell," he said, 
rubbing his head ruefully, moving to collect his daughter, "whenever 
the women in your family get all secretive, it's a sure bet."

	Sasami laughed a little laugh to herself and sighed in 
contentment.  Reaching out a hand to the little sapling, the tree 
responded to her touch, it's leafless limbs shimmering in a multitude 
of colors.  As the princess withdrew her hand, the tree's bark returned 
to its regular shade of dark brown.

	"Something big," Sasami admitted just under her breath, 
"and something... wonderful, I think."

	Turning away from the harsh landscape and her past, Sasami 
departed with Shoji and little Yuki.

	Standing alone in the blasted wasteland, the sapling royal tree 
sat silently, getting used to its new surroundings.  Though the only bit 
of healthy soil from horizon to horizon existed in a five foot radius 
from it's base, the little tree was not apprehensive.  It would take 
many slow years to transform the wasteland, but by then it would have 
other saplings from its own seeds to aid in the restoration.  Certainly, 
the tree could expect to receive daily attention from Juraian attendants 
as well, so it would not be left to fend for itself.

	As some dust scattered by on the cold breeze, the bark of the 
royal sapling shimmered and glowed pleasantly for a few moments 
before returning to normal.  Satisfied it could sense all its sister 
trees around the planet and beyond, it settled down and began the 
process of awaiting the soon to come spring.

	Yes, there was much healing to be done, but the little tree had 
nothing but time.




*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	




		Daughter of a demon-lover
		Empress of the hidden face
		Priestess of the pagan mother
		Ancient queen of inner space

		My counterpart - my foolish heart
		A man must learn to rule his tender part
		A warning trend - a gentle friend
		Man must build a fortress to defend 

						-- Rush



			-* Chapter 2.1 *-


	Pools of water had already begun to stand in small 
depressions on the stone walkways when Honita deBanne finally 
pushed open the doors to the imperial guest house.  Finding relief from 
the downpour that streamed outside, the short man was thoroughly 
soaked, despite a sleek jacket that cloaked him.  Waving away several 
servants, Honita shook out his clothes with some frustration, the 
wrinkles around his eyes working with some apprehension.

	Resigned to the fact no amount of shaking would make him 
dry enough, the man swore and threw his jacket to the ground in a wet 
pile.  Again waving his servants away, Honita moved through a grand 
foyer, the squishing noises of his fine sandals drowned out by the 
steady drone of rain that fell from the leaden skies outside.  Cursing 
the weather engineers that timed such events to ensure drought 
conditions never touched the planet surface, the man walked quickly 
up a grand series of marble stairs, wringing water out of a soaked, but 
neatly trimmed beard.  Then making his way down richly decorated 
halls, leaving damp footprints in the thick carpets, Honita pushed open 
a pair of double doors with an echoing rattle.

	At the far end of a gloriously decorated room, Honita spied a 
lone figure, tall with straight red hair past his shoulders.  Not 
reacting to his entrance, the figure simply stood with his hands clasped 
behind his back, contemplating the showers that beat against the window.  
Honita took a moment to gather himself, catching his breath, and then 
moved forward across the room.  Hastily, he wiped a last drop of rain 
that clung precariously to the tip of his slightly crooked nose.

	"Lord deBanne," the composed figure acknowledged without 
turning.

	Honita frowned through his beard.  Aggravated that he was in 
fact aggravated, Honita allowed some of his annoyance and agitation 
to permeate his voice.

	"Tevean Jan is taken, Renata," stated Honita bluntly.

	The figure identified as Renata was in fact Lord Laus Renata, 
master of one of the most powerful noble houses to Jurai.  Showing no 
emotion to Honita, Laus continued to supervise the falling rain.

	"I always find my returns to Jurai uncomfortable," the lord 
said causally.  "The empress keeps her planet too warm, methinks.  
Certainly a bit warmer than mine, and when it rains it is ever so 
muggy.  Don't you agree, deBanne?"

	Honita growled shortly.  "I do not care about much of 
anything Ayeka does with her planet, or ours for that matter," he 
responded.  "You can be assured I will never let her engineers tamper 
with *my* planet, either.  You could serve humidity outside with a 
knife!  Nevertheless, it would seem we have more pressing issues than 
comparing planetary weather, Renata!"

	Laus smiled and nodded ever so slightly.  "Indeed," he 
replied.  "It is true that Tevean has just returned to Jurai and been 
arrested by royal authorities."

	Surprise betrayed Honita's face.  "You know already?" he 
asked, running fingers through his damp hair.

	Laus turned away from the window and nodded.  "I knew 
before the dear Lord Jan ever left for the Restricted Zone," the lord 
answered.

	Nodding knowingly at his fellow noble, Laus returned his 
attention to the rain outside, watching individual drops of water 
amongst the heavy sheets that poured down.  Taking a breath of air in 
surprise, Honita began to form the obvious question, but was 
interrupted by Laus.

	"Quite simply, my dear deBanne," murmured Laus, "it was 
Lord Jan's intention to provoke his own arrest from the beginning.  In 
truth, I am envious of his audacity if the rumors I hear are true."

	"Audacity!" snorted Honita, who had poured himself a drink.  
"Damn foolish, I say!  What good does him being arrested do for us?"

	Putting a finger to the side of his nose thoughtfully, Laus 
waited for the other noble to finish slurping down the beverage.  Once 
he heard the glass set on a table with a heavy thunk, he replied.

	"It takes attention solely on him," Laus answered.  "On him 
and away... from us."

	Honita's eyes narrowed darkly.  "Away from us?" he echoed.  
"What, does he think we are so easily found out?"

	Laus shook his head and walked away from the window, 
shaking his head.

	"Our position does not shield us, deBanne," Laus 
admonished.  "We all have left inevitable trails, however small they 
may be, to the armed resistance in the fringe systems.  Lord Jan is no 
different than us in this matter, regardless of how... minor his house 
is.  Yet, if attention is drawn to him as the source of this unrest, it
may well be diverted from us."

	"Who could ever believe that Tevean Jan's house could have 
the resources to stir such activity?" Honita scoffed.

	"Why, our dear empress, deBanne," Laus smiled thinly.  
"Ayeka is not the ruler her father was.  His iron hand has been 
replaced by her open one.  Ayeka desires to rule through conciliation 
and diplomacy.  If we proclaim a righteous outrage towards Tevean's 
plotting, she will believe we are not part of it... she will *want* to 
believe."

	It was Honita's turn to gaze out the window and observe the 
showers as they began to abate somewhat.  Shivering slightly from the 
damp in his clothes, he mumbled unhappily.

	"Let's hope she doesn't develop her father's damn habit of 
eliminating anyone he ever suspected of anything," said Honita.  "If 
she does, it will be *both* our heads on display."

	"Think not that gloomily, my lord," Laus replied smoothly.  
"Endless generations of oppression by the empress's family will end 
soon.  The uprising no one has ever managed by directly attacking 
Jurai will be achieved from within by cunning and deception."

	Looking coldly at Honita, Laus continued, "And when the 
time is at hand, we and our allies shall strike with steady of hand and 
without mercy upon the royal family."

	Honita could only nod stiffly, captivated by the intense fervor 
in Laus's eyes.

			*	*	*


	On a hot afternoon in July, a young woman with shoulder 
length hair that bounced with her every motion came down the steps of 
her dormitory in a lively fashion.  With a lap drawing board under her 
one arm and a shoulder pack full of pencils and other art items, she 
stopped at the sidewalk and turned her head both ways in the 
sunshine.  Deciding on a direction, the woman, perhaps nineteen years 
of age, took off at a brisk walk, her feet light and in step with her 
mood.

	Ranging along the little sidewalks of the college campus, 
there were not many people out and about.  She had the streets to 
herself, but that was not to be unexpected.  After all, it was the 
summer session at the university, and the overwhelming majority of 
students had returned home for the duration of the summer.

	Moving quickly, the young woman did not bother to take in 
the view around her.  While certainly beautiful, the charming effect of 
Seattle and the bay it sat on had worn off some time after her first 
fall semester.  The lush green mountainsides and quaint bay-side houses 
had lost their tourist brochure feel, and now had a familiarity that 
came with living in a place long enough to get to know at least some 
of its ins and outs.

	Walking by a small cafe, not unlike the countless that 
accompanied every American college campus, yet each unique in their 
own little ways, the young student stopped for a moment to check her 
reflection just a tad.  The shoulder length hair, pulled up in two small 
pony tails betrayed her continuing journey from adolescence to 
adulthood, but did not take away from her air of bustling maturity.  A 
set of lavender eyes peered back from the cafe‚ window, eager with a 
sense of challenge about them.  A heart shaped face with an unusual, 
but lovely, combination of Asian and... somewhere else paused in 
consideration of its own reflection.

	Shaking her head slightly, Mayuka Masaki allowed herself to 
roll her eyes slightly before moving on.  Sitting on the other side of 
the cafe window, unseen by Mayuka due to the sun's glare, a male patron 
went back to reading his novel over a cup of tea, smiling to himself for 
having gotten to see a beautiful student his own age for a few 
moments.

	Mayuka continued across the campus, her brow a little damp 
in the sunshine.  It would not be accurate to say that sunshine was a 
rarity in Seattle, but sometimes to the casual observer, it might 
certainly seem that way.  Regardless, the heat was totally mild 
compared to what Mayuka's family in Japan would have to be dealing 
with.  Thinking of her family caused a little pang of homesickness; 
Mayuka had originally planned on heading back to Japan at the end of 
the spring semester, but she had found reason otherwise to stay.  
Without having to explain herself, Mayuka's father had simply 
excepted his older daughter's developing independence and allowed 
her to remain as an exchange student.  Mayuka's father had not really 
needed to ask his daughter for a reason anyway.  Though his guess did 
leave him feeling uncharacteristically on edge, the father was pretty 
certain Mayuka was staying in America for a young man.

	Well, Mayuka had thought to herself time and again, that was 
one of the reasons anyway.

	Certainly, she loved living abroad.  Her command of English 
was excellent, even if she did suffer from a terribly unfair 
augmentation advantage from her scientist guardian back home.  But 
besides that, Mayuka was genuinely curious about all things in 
America.  She could not really explain it, but somehow she had been 
drawn from an early age towards cultures outside of Japan.  Perhaps 
that had something to do with the fact her own mother had been from 
outside Japan.  Granted, both Mayuka's genetic mother, Yuzuha, and 
her late adopted mother, Ryoko, had not exactly been from this neck of 
the galaxy, but the non-Japanese affect on both her appearance and her 
personality probably had something to do with her exploratory nature.

	Mayuka, as an exchange student, had dutifully gone to the 
university International Club meetings when she first arrived for the 
start of her fall semester.  These meetings were designed to be a haven 
for international students who might be overwhelmed by the 
differences between their native countries and America.  Things were 
a lot different here in the States, and even more different than Mayuka 
had imagined from television and movies.  In fact, in some ways it was 
a lot more dull than she had imagined.  Nevertheless, her excellent 
English and outgoing personality soon had Mayuka out mingling with 
American students, with a lot of help from her personable roommate, 
Cindy.  It was not long before Mayuka was skipping the International 
Club meetings altogether, having found herself quite comfortable with 
all the new Americans she was meeting.

	Plunging herself into her schoolwork, the older Masaki 
daughter quickly fell in love with her art classes.  Her family had 
known for many years that the girl had a natural talent for art, able to 
pick up just about any broken and chewed pencil and make something 
beautiful on a sheet of paper.  Her grandfather proudly stated that it 
was his blood giving Mayuka her talents, but the young girl did not 
really take to his dreams of having her become an architect.  Her talent 
combined with her engaging personality and slightly exotic features 
made her quickly stand out with her fellow classmates and professors.

	As a result, it did not take long for someone to quickly fall in 
love with Mayuka.

	A senior in the art department, Mark was not exactly a 
talented artist, but he was fair.  To make up for his artistic 
shortcomings, he did manage to do a good job *looking* like an artist.  
Sandals, slightly long hair that fell in unruly curls, and a pleasantly 
disheveled look that merged well with a charming smile did a number 
on any score of women in a given year.  Mayuka was no exception to 
his smile, but then again she never really remembered not wanting to 
be.

	The semester had progressed in a dreamy fashion that the 
majority of university freshmen everywhere experience.  The 
newfound freedom and independence from their parents' watchful eyes, 
if not their wallets, could quite often be a heady high more potent than 
a drug.  For Mayuka, that high was doubly so as her relationship with 
Mark grew bit by bit.  Mark's older friends ribbed him at first for 
landing a freshman for a girlfriend, but most soon accepted Mayuka 
based on her mature and outgoing nature.  It really did not matter to 
Mark; he was genuinely happy, and so was Mayuka.

	After the winter holidays, the couple returned to the 
university where they continued to take their classes and enjoy each 
other's company.  From time to time, Mark would seem to be deeply 
preoccupied with something or another, but he always passed it off as 
just being a bit nervous about his future after his upcoming graduation.  
Everyone knew that being an artist and making a living was not easy, 
after all.  Perhaps Mayuka accepted this in a somewhat naive fashion, 
but she was in love and was too busy enjoying the happiness of it all.

	Mark's graduation came and went, and much to Mayuka's 
delight he had decided to stay around Seattle.  That was more than 
enough reason for Mayuka to sign up for summer session art classes.  
Mark had a little job as a waiter in a posh restaurant on the bay and 
dabbled with his art here and there during the week.

	Together they spent a lovely May and June.  Mayuka was 
what might be considered, by American standards, to be a late 
bloomer, but soon after the start of the summer sessions, the pair's 
relationship moved from fairly platonic to being lovers.  Awkward at 
first, Mark soon found Mayuka to be an impassioned partner, and the 
summer months slid by in a glowing fashion for the both of them.  

	So it was in a hazy late afternoon July daze that Mayuka 
walked to meet her boyfriend.  She had a couple of drawings she had 
finished the day before that she wanted to show him, and after an 
evening dinner they planned to go watch a fireworks display over the 
bay.  It was, naturally, the fourth of July, and Mayuka was thrilled to 
get to experience yet another American holiday.  She did wish heartily 
that her family could get to experience these things just like she was 
able to.

	Almost to that thought,  Mayuka watched as in front of her 
where the campus walkways crossed, a couple passed by.  Looking up 
from her revere, Mayuka noticed that it was her father and adopted 
mother, Ryoko.  They seemed to be enjoying themselves in the 
sunshine, arm in arm and heading away at a leisurely pace.  Ryoko 
turned to Mayuka and waved enthusiastically, a pert wink on her face.  
Mayuka smiled from ear to ear at the sight of her late mother and 
sighed to herself.  She was glad to see that they were together and 
going to be able to enjoy the fourth just as much as she was.  At the 
same time, something about the encounter seemed just a little funny to 
the young Masaki, but as she rounded the corner and her parents fell 
out of view, she forgot about it.

	Through the next several minutes, Mayuka would encounter 
from time to time a fair number of people she knew.  Some would stop 
and talk with her, some would simply pass her by.  Friends, classmates 
of all ages, teachers and family members; it was all so wonderful that 
they could be in Seattle on such a fine day and get to see the 
fireworks.  Again, Mayuka would be stuck by that same funny feeling over
and over, but it was nothing she could really put her finger on.

	And then Mark was there.  Sitting in the park on a small 
wood and iron bench, he sat easily.  As Mayuka crossed a little bridge 
over a stream, she noticed that Mark looked a little different.  He had 
trimmed his hair up.  Gone were the soft and tangled curls of hair, as 
were his normally messy looking attire.  With his shorter hair and 
neater clothes, she had almost a hard time recognizing him.  As 
Mayuka got closer, she was two suitcases sitting on the bench beside 
him.  Sensing her approach, Mark looked up with an apologetic smile 
on his face.

	"Hiya, hon," he said.  He looked absolutely charming.

	"Mark," replied Mayuka guardedly.  She felt like she had 
been here before in some strange way.  "What's... uh what's with the 
suitcases?"

	"Oh these?" Mark asked, looking beside the bench.  "Oh, 
they're mine.  I have to leave now."

	"Leave?" echoed Mayuka, her chest getting a little tight.  She 
had *definitely* been in this exact conversation before.  "What, now?  
Where?"

	Mark shrugged.  "Back to California," he said.  "I have to go 
home and work for my parents in their store now.  You know how it 
is, I couldn't find a job as an artist!"

	Chuckling softly as if at some little joke, Mark stood up and 
went for his bags, one in each hand.  Mayuka stepped back a half-step 
with a dazed and wooden expression.  Her hands loosing their feeling, 
she was afraid of dropping her drawing board and falling over right 
there.

	"But, but you can't just..." she tried to argue.  "You can't just 
*go*!  I mean, when are you coming back?"

	Adopting a soft and fashionably concerned look on his face, 
Mark nodded sympathetically at the young woman.

	"Sorry, Mayuka," he apologized.  "I'm never coming back.  
Look, it's been fun, but you're a freshman and I'm graduated.  I 
couldn't find work here so I gotta go back to work for my folks.  You 
understand, right?"

	Mayuka began to shake her head angrily, snapping out of her 
daze.

	"No," she almost yelled, her hands balling into fists.  "I don't 
understand!  What do you mean, `Sorry, Mayuka' like you're having 
to break a lunch date!  How dare you!"

	Her usually hidden fierce streak was just starting to break 
through into full fledged anger, but she never had the chance to 
explode.  Midway through building her shock into rage, she blinked 
and suddenly Mark was walking away, some far distance down one of 
the campus paths, a suitcase in each hand.  Mayuka started to go after 
him to hand Mark a piece of her anger, but she found to her frustration 
that her body would not move.  Finally, Mark disappeared around a 
bend forever.

	He never looked back.

	Starting to shake a little, Mayuka dropped her things beside 
the bench and groped with a free hand for the little armrest.  All but 
falling onto the bench with a solid thump, the young woman gathered 
her arms into her lap and then sat very, very still.  It was late 
afternoon and the sun was beginning to set over the city.  Many 
minutes turned to hours, but still Mayuka sat very still and very quiet, 
her face a stony mask that was devoid of emotion.

	Only when twilight had finally grown into night did the 
pretty young woman sitting on a park bench start to cry.  Sitting 
unmoving, the tears rolled over her trembling cheeks as she was 
splashed with feelings of anger, rage, embarrassment, betrayal, and 
shock.  Now and again, someone would pass by, but in the darkness 
they could not see Mayuka's tears.

	That was the way Mayuka wanted it to be.  That was the way 
she had always felt.  From the day Ryoko had died, she had shut her 
tears and sadness away from the world.  They were emotions for her 
alone, not to be shared or expressed in public.  Mayuka was the strong 
one, the usually stoic one in a crisis.  The thick wall her mother's 
death had caused to be built around her inner self was not for anyone 
to see past but herself.  Period.

	A bright flash of light caught the devastated woman's 
attention.  Turning her head mechanically, Mayuka watched in 
detachment as the fourth of July fireworks began to go off over Seattle.  
Fighting the choking and tight feeling in her chest, Mayuka watched 
each of the beautifully colored flashes dance across the night sky and 
fall to the ground.  With every flash, her face was momentarily lit, the 
steaks of tears sparkling across her cheeks.

	They seemed so lonely to her, those fireworks in the night 
sky.  Exploding in a brilliant ball of color, they shone so brightly for 
a moment, only to dim and fall back to the Earth, darkened and done.  

	It was just like her and Mark.

	"How dare you?" she sobbed in a hush.

	A torrent of hot crying, vocal this time, once again pushed 
over the edges of Mayuka's walls.  Drawing her knees up to her chest 
on the bench, she tucked her face into them.  Very slowly, the 
fireworks faded away into darkness and quiet.

	And then, so did the city.  Then the university campus.

	Finally, everything followed into a peaceful darkness.

	Still.

	Quiet.

	And lingering.

			*	*	*


	A ship can cruise in tranquil seas, be they oceans deep or the 
vastness of space.  Sailing across these vast bodies, voyages can create 
the most vivid of dreams, surfacing memories long thought forgotten.  
Both salty seas and expanses of galaxies have tides, natural forces that 
ebb and flow, affecting the subconscious through the gentle rock of a 
vessel's hull.

	Cutting across the expanse of the Milky Way, just such a ship 
moved from a small system near the outer rim of the galaxy towards 
one of the more central bands of star systems.  Sleek and beautiful, she 
was Tsunami, the greatest battleship of the Jurai Royal Fleet, and her 
hull shone in the light of millions of stars.  

	And aboard Tsunami's inter-spatial decks, a soul's sleep was 
being affected by the galactic tides.

	Groaning quietly, wrapped up in several layers of covers in a 
bed that was monstrous in size, Mayuka Masaki shifted and struggled 
weakly.  Drawing the silk covers up over her head, the young woman 
closed her eyes tightly and curled into a tiny ball.  Muttering to 
herself while sinking her head deeply into a plush pillow, Mayuka tried
to work the images she had just endured through the night out of her 
head and drift into a black sleep.  Only, it was not working.

	With a very heavy sigh, Mayuka dragged the covers off her 
face and blinked with effort.  Her eyes were almost glued shut it 
seemed, and ached dully.  Laying there for a few minutes, she gazed 
upwards with an expressionless face, waiting for something to 
motivate her to get up or go back to bed.  After a few minutes more, 
Mayuka accepted that sleep was no longer an option.  Pushing herself 
up with her arms, the young woman hauled up into a sitting position, 
and there she stayed for a while longer.

	Mayuka's mouth was thick and pasty.  Her hair was mangled, 
and there was a definite unpleasant fragrance to it.  Bringing a hand 
up, Mayuka massaged her face heavily, trying to wake up.  Peering out 
at her stateroom on Tsunami, she looked up glumly and sighed at the 
memories from her restless night of tossing and turning.

	"What a dreary dream," she muttered through a yawn.  "I 
wonder what it means?"

	Pausing suddenly, Mayuka was engulfed in a strange 
sensation as she finished her question.  Her body tingling, she had a 
disconcerting feeling what she had just said was somehow familiar, as
if she had said that same thing before. Deja vu?  Mayuka shook her 
head while blinking hard.  Whatever the sensation was, it was more 
like an unpleasant chill than anything else, as if associated with 
something ominous and threatening... and old.

	There was no way Mayuka was getting back to sleep now.  
The double effect of a bad dream from her recent past and the 
foreboding feeling she now had assured she would get up.  Dragging 
her body to the edge of the bed, Mayuka pulled her legs over the side 
and let her feet thump on the highly polished wooden floor.  It was 
warm to the touch, not cold like her home back on Earth.

	`Oh, crap,' she muttered silently.  `What am I doing on this 
ship?'

	Getting no immediate answer, Mayuka groggily stood up 
from the massive bed and began shuffling across the floor.  All around 
the bed, wooden floors went in every direction, subtly turning into 
grassy meadows dotted with flowers and small trees.  Pulling off her 
tank top, Mayuka fiddled with the knot in her pajama pants, intent on 
finding one of the ship's many onsens and soaking for the next few 
hours.  Mayuka's fingers slowed after wrestling with the knot for a 
little bit and eventually stopped.

	The problem was Mayuka was still plagued by a dreary 
feeling and the unpleasant college memories from her dream.  On top 
of that, two weeks of near complete inactivity aboard Tsunami were 
beginning to take their toll on the young woman.  One could only 
enjoy sitting in steaming water so many times before it began to lose 
its appeal.  What Mayuka needed was to get up and move around.

	Anything to take her mind off of her past and the trip to Jurai.

	Reaching a decision, Mayuka proceeded to strip off her night 
clothes completely.  Rummaging through a finely crafted closet that 
contained all her clothes she had brought from earth, Mayuka pick out 
an old tee shirt and some running shorts.  Donning the running 
clothes, she finally tied back most of her hair in a rough knot and 
rather angrily jammed her feet into a pair of athletic shoes.  Not 
stopping to even stretch, she took off at a decent pace from her room.

	Shooting through the doors to her bedroom, Mayuka was 
instantly in one of the larger sections of Tsunami.  Running down a 
grass path, it led past one giant meadow after another.  Teeming with 
strange life from Jurai and ringed with endless trees, the flora and 
fauna zipped by Mayuka as she jogged.  In the distance over the trees, 
several floating islands in the air were visible, some with water 
cascading over their sides.  Mayuka had stopped being impressed by 
them quite early in the trip.  She had even ceased to wonder how a 
ship like Tsunami, though it was certainly not small by any means, 
could be larger on the inside than it looked from the outside.  Washu 
had tried to explain it to her, but Mayuka had almost instantly tuned 
out as she tended to do with all scientific things the short scientist 
tried to talk about.

	`This sucks,' Mayuka grumbled to herself as she ran.

	Her feet making soft, muffled noises on the smooth grass as 
she jogged, Mayuka began to get even more annoyed.  At least on 
asphalt, her shoes made a satisfying slapping sound with every step 
she took.  Mayuka was all for nature, but two whole weeks of it was 
really starting to drag on a woman who had grown to enjoy the sound 
of cities and civilization.  Everything aboard Tsunami was calm, 
tranquil, and bucolic.  As a result, the inner voices in Mayuka's head 
seemed much louder, and with nothing to do for so many days 
straight, those voices were getting downright deafening.

	`This is all *his* fault,' she growled silently.  `If he weren't 
here I'd have something to do.'

	Though the memories from her dream were just beginning to 
subside, they were like a domino effect.  The first bad memories only 
served to knock over the next bad memories and so on.

	Picking up the pace from a jog to a near sprint, Mayuka 
snarled and tried to outrun the next series of images that threatened to 
cascade over her from behind.  
	
			*	*	*


	The following fall semester had lost a lot of the sparkle of the
previous year for Mayuka.  Enthusiasm was something she had a hard 
time keeping a hold of anymore, and activities in all aspects of her 
life seemed a lot more tedious than anything else.  One of the unhappy 
side effects from being dumped by Mark was Mayuka did not have a huge
base of friends.  After all, she had spent most of her time with him and
his friends.  Now, like Mark, those people were graduated and gone, 
and those who still remained Mayuka did not really want to see, afraid
they would see her as just a castaway ex-girlfriend.  Mayuka became
increasingly depressed and untrusting.

	Fortunately for Mayuka, she was placed again with her roommate 
from the previous year.  Her name was Cindy, a short brunette girl with 
a taste for female blues singers, cheap beer, and guys with motorcycles.  
More or less blasting aside a lot of cultural differences, even for 
someone as well-adjusted as Mayuka, Cindy refused to allow her roommate 
to mope about for very long.  More or less dragging the often bemused 
Mayuka to and from any number of strange adventures with odd people, 
Cindy enjoyed living life fast and somewhat obnoxiously loud.  


	Perhaps the highlight that cemented their quirky friendship 
was when Cindy helped gather together all of the things of Mark's that 
Mayuka still had.  Gathering a large bucket, lighter fuel, and sneaking 
onto a campus soccer field, the two girls ignited most of his leftover 
things, causing a rather small, but spectacular bonfire for a couple of 
minutes.  Two things then happened:  a neat and circular scorch mark
was left on the field, and Cindy and Mayuka were detained by two 
campus police who just happened to be passing by.  After a brief 
evening in jail and a seventy-five dollar fine, the two arsonists were
released with a stern warning.  Strangely enough, Mayuka and Cindy
became something of a pair of dangerous heroes in their dorm, which
suited them just fine.

	Things were just starting to get a lot better for Mayuka's 
attitude when she was introduced to one of Cindy's friends, David.  
David was their age and seemed like a bright and nice fellow, albeit 
with a lopsided sense of humor which intrigued Mayuka.  However, 
Mayuka did not see much of David before the winter break.  At that
time, Yui sneaked across the Pacific with Ryo-ohki and gave her sister
a free ride back to Japan.  Everyone was delighted to see Mayuka, since
she had not been home in almost a year, and Mayuka was generally 
happy as well, hoping she could put Mark well behind her.

	Returning the next season to college, Mayuka began to see a
lot more of David as she hung out with Cindy's friends.  Surprising 
herself, Mayuka easily accepted David's modest advances and began 
dating him.  Things were easy with David, but Mayuka did not let
anyone, including Cindy, know about their little relationship.  In
hindsight, that was not particularly wise of Mayuka, especially one
evening when she was over at David's eating dinner.  Right in the
middle of the meal, there was a knock at David's door.  Mayuka got
up to answer it and met a girl named Beth.

	Beth was David's steady girlfriend who went to a college in 
Oregon.  Missing her boyfriend, Beth had decided to make a surprise
weekend visit to spend some extra time with David.  Needless to say, 
David was surprised, especially when he was slapped by heartbroken 
Beth and punched by very angry Mayuka.  The two women never
looked back as they walked out the door.  For a moment, the two 
considered the pros and cons of a good old fashioned cat fight as well,
but came to the conclusion they were both victims and simply parted
without coming to blows.

	Cindy was absolutely furious with David when she caught 
wind of the entire affair involving Mayuka and Beth.  Making it her 
cause in life (for at least a few weeks, anyway), Cindy went out of
her way to make sure all of his friends knew exactly what kind of 
creep he really was.  It did not really make Mayuka feel any better
about the whole situation, but there was a certain satisfaction knowing 
that he was suffering a lot of embarrassment from the whole affair.

	The rest of the semester passed uneventfully, but Mayuka once
again started to become cynical and down.  Cindy really could not do
much for her attitude by that point, and when Mayuka returned home
for the summer, she was full swing in a deep funk.  Her family for no
reason whatsoever began to get deeply under her skin, and her mood
blackened further, despite hiding her poor attitude from her father.  
Mayuka's once very close relationship with Sasami drifted apart as 
well, deeply hurting the princess though she opted not to ever say
anything about it.

	And so another fruitless summer passed for Mayuka.

			*	*	*


	Bent over huffing and heaving, Mayuka took a pause from her
sprinting to catch her breath.  Sweat running down her face and arms,
her lungs pulled ragged gasps as she braced herself with her hands on
her knees.  Rising up suddenly with a terrible expression of anger and 
frustration on her face, Mayuka reared back with her fist and struck the
trunk of a nearby tree with a mighty blow, swearing loudly and at a high
pitch.

	Nothing, of course, happened to the tree, and Mayuka 
succeeded in scraping her knuckles up a bit.  Shaking in anger, she 
stepped back from the inoffensive tree and shivered a bit.  Though 
Mayuka had only seen a couple of royal trees in her life, they made her
uneasy for some reason she could never put her finger on.  Now, aboard
Tsunami, Mayuka was on edge as all the trees on the ship seemed to
sway just a little and loom over her menacingly wherever she went.  No
one would ever believe her, but Mayuka could almost swear from time
to time she could hear the trees muttering darkly at her.  Or was it 
just another one of Mayuka's high strung imaginations getting the best of her?

	Looking down at her scraped and bleeding knuckles, Mayuka
frowned and looked generally pissed off.

	"This is all *his* fault," she grumbled darkly.

	Looking back up at the tree with the same bleak expression, 
Mayuka paused before turning on her heels and taking off down 
another path at a full run.

	Whether the trees truly did not like her or not was impossible
to tell, but none of them so much as moved as Mayuka departed.

			*	*	*


	Her third fall at the university in America, Mayuka fell hard 
into familiarity.  Despite the fact that Cindy, now a trusted friend, 
had invited her into a condo with two other girls, Mayuka had 
uncharacteristically lost her bounce and enthusiasm for exploring the 
diversity of the local culture.  She had been badly burned twice, and 
the desire to protect her feelings was now overwhelming.

	As a result, Mayuka drifted back to the university's 
international club.  Mainly designed as an organizational support 
group for students making the adjustment to American society, quite
frequently exchange students only stayed with the club long enough to
get the swing of living in a foreign country.  However, each year there
was a hefty supply of foreign students who for one reason or another,
quite often having a difficulty with English, never left the protective
security of the international club.  Mayuka had barely shown up to
three meetings her freshman year, having benefited from a little 
scientific tinkering by Washu to vastly give her an edge with English
over all the other students.

	So why did Mayuka fall back with those students?  Though
she would never admit it, perhaps it had to do with a sense of security 
and control.  Certainly Mayuka was better at English, and she had no
problems, boyfriends aside, mingling with Americans.  However, 
amongst the uncertain international students, she could be in a place
of envy and admiration and not feel threatened by anyone.  And for a 
while it worked out well.

	As time went on, though, Mayuka involved herself with 
another exchange student, Osamu, who was also from Japan.  He was not 
terribly proficient at English, and did not mix well with many people,
Americans or otherwise.  However, Mayuka for whatever reason felt
like having something resembling a relationship and fell in with him.  
After a while, it was apparent why Osamu did not mix well with other
people.  To make up for his insecurities about his difficulty speaking 
English and being accepted by the locals, Osamu managed to find
something disparaging to say about America just about every chance
he had.

	Perhaps Mayuka could have tolerated this for a while, but the
straw that broke the camel's back came when Osamu began demanding
that Mayuka act more proper like a traditional Japanese woman.  It did
not take long for her to get really irritated and short tempered with 
his imperious and haughty declarations about how she should be living 
her life, so Mayuka vindictively got back by publicly dumping him 
in a Starchucks coffee house.  While Osamu may not have understood 
everything Mayuka said to him loudly in English for all to hear, he 
definitely understood the disapproving looks every American in the 
coffee house gave him.

	Osamu did not leave the company of the international club 
much after that episode.  Mayuka never went back.

	The rest of the school year went by without much ado for
Mayuka.  Though she was still deeply involved in her art classes, her
inspiration was more or less gone, and her work, while technically 
excellent, lacked a lot of spark.  Mayuka was just going through the
motions, trying to figure out just where in life she was and where the
heck she was supposed to be going.  There was not an easy answer to
the question of what she was missing in her life.  It was something deep
and nagging, but as unfathomable as the deep Pacific ocean trenches
just off the coast.

	At the end of the school year, Cindy had offered Mayuka the 
chance to travel around the states with her family for next to nothing.
Mayuka was not really looking forward to the idea of staying on 
campus for the summer or returning home, so Cindy's offer seemed
heaven-sent.  However, right during final exams, Mayuka received a
letter from her father instructing her that she would be returning to
Japan for the entire summer.  There was no explanation, no reasoning
behind it, just a time and place that she would be picked up again by
Yui and Ryo-ohki.

	Mayuka was terribly pissed off at the injustice of it all.  What
infuriated her even more was her inability to contact anyone at the
Masaki residence.  It was as if every time she called they 
automatically knew it has her on the line and refused to answer (which
was not far from the truth, as Washu set up a computer which could 
easily screen the origins of incoming calls without paying those silly
caller ID fees).  When Yui did arrive to pick Mayuka up, she listened
passively to her sister rant and rave the entire way back without much
reaction.   


	Mayuka's world then came to a blinding head when she arrived
back at the Masaki residence.  With a piss poor attitude, she was
forced to sit and watch the sun set in the late afternoon with her
father up on the mountainside shrine overlooking the lake.  Half
listening to whatever it was Tenchi was lecturing her about, it 
occurred to Mayuka suddenly that Tenchi's whole conversation was 
rather odd... something about Ryoko, was it?

	Mayuka looked up as a shadow passed over her face in the late
evening sun.  Blinking in confusion at a silhuette she vaguely 
recognized, poor attitude turned into wild confusion, pain, and 
a keening wailing the dissolved into a torrent of tears and weeping.

	Unable to move, Mayuka had simply let her long dead and adopted
mother step out of the past and enter the present.  Tenchi watched
almost heartbroken as Ryoko hugged their daughter.

			*	*	*


	Lost in the swirl of memories and intense emotions, Mayuka
was not paying one ounce of attention when she ran into Nathaniel.  
Nathaniel, who was exercising in a quiet section of the ship and totally
minding his own business, got knocked to the ground with a great
flailing of arms.  Fortunately, the grass was very soft, and he did 
little more that get the breath knocked out of him.  However, unable to 
stop herself, Mayuka was completely out of control and landed on top of
Nathaniel, drilling him in the temple with her elbow.

	Crashed in a heap, Mayuka gasped for breath for a few 
seconds before realizing what had just happened and who was under
her.  Pushing herself up off of Nathaniel, she rubbed her elbow and
threw him a dark look.

	"Watch where you're going, moron!" she said nastily.

	Blowing him off completely, Mayuka then turned right 
around and left just as quickly as she had come.  Nathaniel watched 
her go from the ground and shook his head while rubbing where 
Mayuka's elbow had beamed him.

	"What the heck *is* it with these women?" he muttered
quietly before picking himself up.

			*	*	*


[Excerpt from Nathaniel Swann's personal journal]

	Mayuka Masaki is an interesting person.  Lively, opinionated, 
generally attractive, and has a nice rear end as well.  Unfortunately, 
there is only one slight problem I have found with her.

	Mayuka Masaki is a pill.

	Sure, I have not known her for all that long, but I suspect that 
once you strip away the good looks and occasional charm, Mayuka is 
nothing but spit and nails.  At least that is the way she is always 
acting around me.  Hell, she actually ran into me today while I was 
minding my own business, cold clocked me to the ground, and had the 
nerve to tell *me* to watch what I was doing!  She was not like this 
when our trip to Jurai (I wonder if I am starting to get blase about 
this whole space travel thing?) first started, but in the past two weeks 
she has become increasingly grumpy.

	Who am I kidding?  Mayuka is acting like a bitch.  May 
sound harsh, but this is my journal and I call them like I see them.

	This ship certainly is damn amazing.  No one in the world 
would believe me even if I brought back pictures.  They would just 
chalk it up to some digital trickery done on a computer.  Everyone else 
seems pretty comfortable with all this, so I am trying not to stare too 
hard at every new thing I see.

	I am sort of worried about things back home, though.  After 
all, I do have a life back in America.  Sure, I am not employed at the 
moment, but I do have a house, a dog, and bills that need to be paid.  
Doctor Washu tells me not to worry about the bills.  Apparently she 
has done some computer manipulation that will legitimately delay 
them all for as long as I am away.  She did not appreciate it much 
when I called her a hack.  Doctor Washu seems to think of what she 
does as artistry, molding her perception to make everything nice and 
innocent.  Quite frankly, that woman makes me wary.  At least I can 
count on my neighbor's kids to keep check indefinitely on my border 
collie, Abbie.

	My dog?  Frijoles... here I am in the middle of space, on my 
way to another *planet* and I am fretting about Abbie.  Somehow I 
think my problems are a little bit bigger now than adhering to a two 
week vacation schedule.  The biggest one being a beautiful princess.

	Okay, journal, honesty time.  I was all set to watch Sasami 
leave Earth and head on my merry way.  It would have been much 
easier to have done that.  Hell, not like I have not had enormous 
practice doing that exact thing for the past six years.  Sure it was a 
stretch looking past Sasami's crappie attitude, but the week we spent 
together in Japan was so easy and memorable.  By coming on this ship 
with her, am I not just setting myself up for a problem?  Do I want to 
watch this woman deal with being married off to some noble guy?  
Especially when I empathize so much with her apprehension of the 
whole affair?

	Or do I really care that much at all?  Is this just me jumping 
at the chance to explore some place I have never been?  Making a 
pretense at a greater concern for her well-being than I really feel?  It 
almost sounds like the same old song of my life, just a different 
refrain.  Getting mixed up with the most wrong or impossible women I 
can find?  Only, am I in over my head this time?  I mean, a princess 
from another planet, for Pete's sake!  And I am her guardian, no less.

	Maybe the right thing to do is not let this go any further than 
it already has.  There is no reason we can not keep the relationship we 
have now for the duration of this whole journey.  Keep it soft, sweet, 
and supportive.  I know I have the maturity not to take advantage of 
Sasami's emotional state.   To do anything else would be bad karma 
on my part.  It would be evil, really, and I know better to fall into 
that trap now... but that is an old story I have rehashed too many
times.

	All of this would be all well and good except for the dreams 
about Sasami (note: I am rubbing my forehead here, and for good 
reason).  At the beginning of the voyage on Tsunami they were really 
fuzzy and hard to keep a hold of in the mornings.  Now, they have 
been getting more and more clear, though they are still confusing.  
Sasami is in a void of shimmering silvers and blues, and she is dressed 
in brilliant clothing I could not even begin to imagine anyone making.  
She always tries to say something, but the dreams are muffled 
completely.  And I always seem to wake up just before I can hear.

	Strange dreams.

	Oh well.  Yosho has something planned for me tomorrow, so 
I think I will call this quits till then.

[End excerpt from Nathaniel Swann's personal journal]

			*	*	*


	Wherever you go, there is always someone who will look you 
straight in the eye and tell you that life is a circle.  No beginnings, 
no endings... just an endless flow of beautiful serenity and order, 
usually accompanied by a woman wearing a lot of beads and selling 
crystals out of a card shop while new age music plays in the background.

	As far as Nathaniel Swann was concerned at the moment, the 
whole circle of life theory was a load of crap.

	Arms aching and sporting several bruises on various areas of 
his body, Nathaniel blearily eyed his opponent.  He had only been 
doing this for ten minutes, but it had only taken five seconds for him 
to realize how much trouble he was really in.  It took Nathaniel five 
seconds more to further realize he was being toyed with.  Now, 
allowed a moment's rest from a calculated thrashing, the earthling's 
thoughts were ludicrously philosophic.

	'Circle, my ass,' thought Nathaniel wearily, wiping torrents of 
sweat off his forehead.  'Can't remember anything from before birth, 
probably won't be able to remember anything after death, and I'm 
getting the shit kicked outta me in the middle.  Sounds pretty straight 
forward to me.'

	The figure opposite Nathaniel looked up with a casual 
seriousness, pushing back a pair of small spectacles along the bridge of 
his nose. Dressed in a combination of white and soft blue martial art 
training clothes, the old man looked fresh and unwinded.

	'Of  course,' Nathaniel continued to himself, 'it *is* a circle if 
you think of all the run-arounds I've been through in life so far.'

	Prince Yosho of the royal house of Jurai spoke up, breaking 
Nathaniel's reverie.

	"A man with such a look on his face is either thinking about 
something very important or very little at all," he commented, 
inspecting his wooden sword critically.  "Of course, it is just as 
important to consider not only the condition of the body, but that of 
the spirit as well.  So, what's on your mind right now?"

	Nathaniel had felt for some time now that he was in a mature 
phase of his life.  A phase where sarcasm, biting comments, and self 
berating accusations no longer had any place.  He had simply tossed 
them out somewhere around twenty-one or twenty-two, along with any 
number of angst-ridden compact discs.

	"Well," he gasped.  "Let me think for a sec... my planet is an 
abandoned colony of a huge empire, I've been suckered into a position 
of protecting a princess of said empire, and her brother is currently 
smacking me senseless to prove how woefully inadequate I am for a 
job whose duties I should have inquired to before accepting.  How's 
that?"

	Yosho nodded just a touch, taking the sarcasm in stride.  
After all, he had dealt with enough sarcasm at some point during 
Tenchi, Mayuka, and Yui's training to not even blink at Nathaniel's 
comments on life.

	"Accurate brevity to the point of being genius," Yosho replied 
evenly.  "I do prefer 'educating' to 'smacking me senseless', though."

	Nathaniel staggered out of the sand ring and plopped with 
rubber limbs onto the grassy area around it.  Mindful of the welts that 
would soon be making their presence known, he slowly leaned over 
and collapsed on the lawn.  Overhead, he could see stars shooting by at 
a brisk rate.  Nathaniel wondered if he was getting blase about this 
whole space travel thing a little too quickly.

	"I'm educated now, thank you," he almost croaked.  "If folks 
on your planet have even *wheeze* half your skill, I'm a dead man.  
No way I'm going to try to be a guardian."

	"Were it only so simple," Yosho observed.  "Unfortunately, 
the princess has made a public declaration stating her intent otherwise.  
For you, and I mean no slight whatsoever by calling you this, a 
commoner, to refute a position granted by a member of the nobility at 
this point would be... an unacceptable alternative."

	Nathaniel had sufficiently let enough frustration and steam 
escape to begin to analyze his situation a bit more logically.  Years of
engineering classes had, like most college degrees, not done much to 
train him for a particular job. What it had done was teach him to think 
a problem out in an orderly manner.

	"Essentially," he said, the attitude leaving his voice, "I'm in a
position where I'm ill-trained for the task of being a guardian, and I'd
need a couple of lifetimes to get to a point where ending up in several
pieces wouldn't be the end result of defending Sasami.  Tack onto that 
the fact I can't back out of this whole thing without slapping any 
number of thousands of years worth of royal tradition in the face, 
while at the same time being an earthling guardian is going to cause 
just as many problems."

	Having folded his hands into his billowing sleeves, the aging 
prince nodded.  "You seem to have a firm grasp on the key points of 
our dilemma."

	"I'm screwed."

	An eyebrow popped up ever so slightly as Yosho coughed in
admonishment.

	"Wrong!" commanded a loud voice from across the small 
meadow.

	Nathaniel propped himself up from the grass with a start.  
Across the way stood Washu.  Nathaniel was still more than a little 
wary of the petite scientist, but decided he was too tired to depart 
even if he had wanted to.

	Cradling his wooden sword in one hand, the prince absently 
scratched the back of his head.  The serious look, however, did not 
leave his face.

	"There is one consideration we have in our favor, regarding 
this affair," he said.  "If I am correct, there is every possibility 
that you will not be compromised in the position of a royal guardian for 
very long.  However, I have enlisted Washu's scientific knowledge-"

	"Genius!" interjected Washu.

	"-to develop a means by which you can perform the martial 
duties required of a guardian."

	A fairly befuddled look slanted across Nathaniel's face.  
Whether it was exhaustion or logic too strange to follow, the earthling 
had definitely gotten lost somewhere.

	"Wait a sec, wait a sec," he said quickly.  "You've just put me 
through the wringer, and now you say I probably won't have to be a 
guardian?  And even though I won't have to be a guardian, I need 
some kind of... something from Washu to make me fight like a 
guardian?"

	Nathaniel shook his head and leaned back into the grass with 
a thunk.

	"Okay, I'm totally lost."

	Washu's face brightened mischievously.  "In a word, my 
young earthling," she beamed, "politics!"

	The blank look did not leave his face.

	"Hrm..." rumbled Yosho.  "What Miss Washu is hinting at is 
the political reality that I expect to encounter once we arrive at Jurai."

	"Politics," mutter Nathaniel, shaking his head.  "I'm not sure 
I'm going to understand this."

	Whipping out a sophisticated looking measuring device, 
Washu strolled up to where Nathaniel was resting.  With a slightly 
impatient look, she motioned for him to stretch out his arms.

	"Indeed," the prince agreed.  "Politics, especially royal 
politics, have many layers that at times defy intuition or logic.  
However, our scenario may be simpler."

	"Or not," quipped Washu.

	"Very well," Yosho began.  "Point.  We will arrive on Jurai in 
a week with you and I as Sasami's guardians.  Point.  Your presence 
as an earthling will infuriate most of the noble houses, and thereby 
damage Sasami's position and reputation.  If the princess's reputation 
suffers, then so does the entire royal family's, including Empress 
Ayeka."

	Nathaniel nodded patiently, watching as the scientist 
continued to scan his body.

	"That part I think I understand already," he replied.  "Plus, if 
I suddenly were to quit my position as a guardian, then it'd be like I 
was insulting the royal family anyway.  Right?  Sounds like a no win 
situation."

	Yosho nodded quietly, and began to pace slowly.

	"Almost," he acknowledged.  "What you can not see is that 
the empress already knows of the situation by now, or at least she has 
heard rumor from the other accompanying ships.  She will anticipate 
our arrival and the outrage your position will generate in the noble 
houses."

	Washu ceased her measurements of Nathaniel's body.  
Looking intently at the information on the little device she was 
holding, Washu seemed satisfied.  Snapping her fingers, a virtual 
console leapt into existence.  Eyes narrowing in concentration, she 
proceeded to ignore the two men as her fingers typed.

	Prince Yosho continued on.  "Before the noble houses can 
issue a demand of your forced removal," he said, "the empress will do 
so herself, perhaps making you a special royal guest in some fashion.  
Anything to give the appearance of a legitimate excuse for your 
removal.  Of course, the noble houses will see this for what it really 
is, and the princess will come away from the affair appearing quite 
foolish."

	Nathaniel became visibly concerned with Yosho's last 
statement.  Hauling himself up to his feet, he wobbled a bit before 
straightening out.

	"Foolish?" he echoed.  "You mean the empress by doing this 
will more or less humiliate Sasami?"

	"It is unavoidable at this point," Yosho sighed.  "Sasami has 
made a royal decree without understanding the political ramifications.  
The empress can not reverse time and remove that decree, but she can 
limit the embarrassment to herself.  Unfortunately, Sasami will come 
out the worse for this."

	A dark look eclipsed the seriousness on Nathaniel's face.  "I 
don't know why," he said, "but somehow I get the feeling Sasami 
doesn't realize what's going on around her."

	"She does not," nodded Yosho.  "Sasami has lead a life 
sheltered from court since the abdication of the Jurai throne by my 
father.  She has spent most of her time on Earth, and is ignorant of the 
ferocity with which politics are conducted."

	Nathaniel sighed noisily.

	"Had I but known," he regretted.  "Can't we do something 
now, before we get to Jurai?  Somehow find a way to convince Sasami 
to make another decree or something to keep me from being a 
guardian?"

	"I have already attempted to broach this subject with the 
princess," Yosho replied.  "However, she refuses to discuss it, as she 
is willful in this matter.  I now believe the best course is to let the 
empress deal with this."

	"What if I talk to her?" offered Nathaniel.

	"Perhaps you could," the prince agreed.  "However, you 
would not be doing Sasami any favors.  As harsh as it may seem, this 
matter will be the smallest issue she will have to deal with while at 
court.  Sasami is currently walking in a fantasy world where a child's 
dreams and desires are not at all congruent with the reality of her 
situation.  It has occurred to me that if we rob her of this lesson, 
regardless of the embarrassment or pain it would cause her in the short 
term, Sasami will not open her eyes to her true situation."

	The human looked steadily at Yosho for a few moments.

	"That's a pretty hard lesson for anyone to go through," he 
finally said.

	"Wisdom can only come after struggle," Yosho simply relied.  
"By depriving Sasami of struggle, we would be depriving her of an 
experience she will draw on for the rest of her life."

	Nathaniel shrugged unhappily.  "Maybe," he conceded.  
"Doesn't make me feel very good about this, though.  It's like knowing 
an accident is going to happen and doing nothing about it."

	Yosho stared pointedly at Nathaniel.  "Is your level of 
comfort more important to you that the princess's well-being?" he 
asked.

	"Not at all!" came Nathaniel's immediate reply.  "Oh... right.  
I guess I see your point."

	"There is much hope for you," the prince said cryptically, 
without elaboration.

	Had Nathaniel not been so completely wiped out, he might 
have pursued that remark further, but there were other concerns on his 
mind as well.  Something from this whole situation still seemed to be 
missing.

	"If I will not be in the position of a guardian for more than 
five seconds," he thought out loud, "then why is Doctor Washu 
concocting something to make me, you know, be able to act like one?"

	Looking very grave, even more so than usual, Yosho sighed 
and placed his hands behind his back.  Looking up into the trees, the 
prince felt the weight of years on his shoulders.  Washu ignored them 
both, continuing to type away on her virtual console.

	"Solely for your protection, I am afraid," Yosho explained.  
"Though you will not be a guardian, there will likely be numerous 
people who would enjoy humiliating the royal family in some 
fashion."

	A nasty suspicion was beginning to form in Nathaniel's 
mind.

	"The practice of challenging another in combat, though not 
commonplace, is accepted in my society," the prince plowed on.  "And 
while it is forbidden for any noble to challenge a member of the royal 
family or a guardian..."

	Nathaniel's face dropped a bit.  "I'm going to be fair game," 
he finished.  "Even though I am a royal guest?"

	"Unfortunately," Yosho nodded.

	"Well, this sucks."

	"Unfortunately."

	Washu looked up with a self-satisfied look on her face.

	"Done!" she said loudly.  "This will work perfectly!"

	Nathaniel wobbled to his feet and moved towards the 
scientist.  Looking over her shoulder at a series of incomprehensible 
diagrams and figures on the virtual monitor, he scratched his head.

	"What is it?" he asked almost sullenly.

	"A programmable reflex enhancing and response bio-suit!" 
Washu replied with excitement.

	"Oh," answered Nathaniel.  "What does that mean?"

	Yosho rolled his eyes slightly and began to edge away from 
Nathaniel and the Washu, having been at the mercy of several of the 
scientist's explanations in the past.  They could go on for hours.

	Washu's eyes lit up.  "Oh I am *so* happy you asked!" she 
glowed.  "Basically, I have spent the past several days mapping Lord 
Katsuhito's sword fighting techniques and placing them in what you 
might think of as an accessible database.  Additionally, I have placed 
all the resources I have in my immense data banks on every other 
sword technique I can locate.  These have all been incorporated into a 
special suit you will wear."

	The petite redhead tapped and clicked several items on her 
console until the picture of a suit came up on the screen.  Nathaniel 
blearily narrowed his eyes and looked for a few moments.

	"Looks like a wet-suit," he observed.

	"Not too far off, my human friend!" agreed Washu.  "In this 
case it is an ultra-thin body suit that you will wear underneath your 
clothes.  You will wear a traditional Jurai head piece which will 
contain a visual recognition system that will analyze any sword 
technique used against you, and send through the bio-suit a suitable 
response directly to your muscles.  In this way you will be able to 
repel most attacks against you."

	"Most attacks?" Nathaniel sounded a little dubious.

	Washu hit him rather hard on the arm.  "Watch it," she 
growled.  "This isn't an easy thing to design.  Basically, it's not 
quite as fast as your own nervous system, though very, very close.  That
tiny lag time could cause you some problems against a certain class of 
opponent."

	"What sort of class?"

	Washu leaned back and looked thoughtful.  "I seriously doubt 
you'd be able to survive against a fighter of Lord Katsuhito's speed 
and skill.  Luckily for you, you aren't likely to meet that many people 
with his abilities."

	Rubbing his arm where Washu had whacked it, Nathaniel 
looked resigned.  

	"Okay, I can believe that," he said.  "But... you know the 
machine thing in your lab you used to input the Jurai language data 
into my brain?"

	"The cortex assembler," she nodded.  "I can see where you're 
going with this.  If I could program your noggin to comprehend and 
speak Jurai, why can't I do the same with sword technique?  Well, 
believe me, it isn't because there isn't enough space in your brain!"

	Nathaniel thought that might have been an insult, but was not 
really sure.  By the time he had just begun to make a decision one way 
or the other, Washu had already continued on.

	"The difference is your muscles already know how to make 
most of the sounds in the Jurai language," she lectured.  "Phonetically, 
they aren't that much different.  Syllables are in much different order, 
and stresses are placed in unfamiliar sequences, but your muscles 
involved in speech will be able to catch up.  Even if I programmed 
your brain full of every fighting technique known to the galaxy, you'd 
still have to spend time we don't have teaching all the muscles in your 
body how to implement the knowledge in your head."

	"Kind of like a baby, you mean?" asked Nathaniel, struggling 
with the concept.  "Toddlers when they are learning to walk know 
what they want to do in their mind..."

	"But the muscles have to learn how to translate and use the 
information they are receiving," finished Washu.  "Exactly right.  You 
know, you are fairly quick for a species that uses five percent of its 
brain power, but no where near a genius like me!  Of course, I could 
simply install lots of cybernetic parts throughout your body and do 
away with the suit completely, but Lord Katsuhito expressly forbid me 
to even think about."

	Washu had a wistful and evil gleam in her eyes.  Nathaniel 
edged away with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.  The 
scientist turned back to her console and began typing again.

	"Anyhow," she murmured, getting absorbed again into her 
work.  "Drop by my lab tomorrow morning and will test the suit out.  
That should give you enough time to rest sufficiently."

	Nodding in understanding, Nathaniel turned away from 
Washu and started to walk away.  He had a few more questions for 
Yosho, but the prince had silently disappeared without a trace.  
Nathaniel was a bit surprised, not having heard him leave.  Sighing to 
himself, he headed off for one of the baths.

	Things were getting a whole lot more complicated, as far as 
he was concerned.

			*	*	*


	That growth and change were aspects of a normal and 
fulfilling life was never so terrible a secret for many races.  Indeed, 
except for those creatures that for one quirky reason or another 
endured evolutionary stasis, countless volumes of material by countless 
cultures across the universe had been devoted to the subject of 
developing one's mind and body beyond what provincial wisdom 
professed as being `good enough'.   How these cultures institute their 
ideas and benefit from the results varied greatly from environment to 
environment, but overall they seemed to have one common requirement:

	Just a wee smidgen of effort.

	Conversely, 99.9999% of those cultures would eventually 
enter a state of decline, leading ultimately to extinction, because just 
a wee smidgen of effort was more than those societies were willing to 
invest in the betterment of themselves.  It was mystery to philosophers 
in every culture why their societies would turn their backs on self-
betterment, really.  

	Actually, in one far away galaxy, a philosopher one day did 
receive enlightenment as to why the majority of individuals in its 
society strove for mediocrity and what could be done about it.  
Unfortunately, the philosopher lived on top of a very tall, very 
isolated mountain that no else ever had the desire to climb.  Almost as 
tragic, it never occurred to the sage to climb back down the mountain to 
spread the enlightenment.  Unable to benefit from the knowledge, the 

creature's species collapsed under its own weight.

	The universe sighed another in a timeless series of 
intergalactic "oops" and started over.

	Princess Sasami of the royal house of Jurai, rulers of what 
Earthlings referred to as the Milky Way galaxy, was at the moment no 
where near contemplating any form of enlightenment.  However, it 
appeared the young woman, about twenty-nine in Earth years, was 
definitely in the midst of contemplating her own private "oops".

	Eyes closed in noticeable concentration, judging from the 
brow that slowly worked and crinkled under several bangs of hair, the 
princess stood in a quiet clearing of soft grass under a protective dome 
of the battleship Tsunami.  As millions of stars blinked overhead at a 
dizzying speed, Sasami help a peculiar looking stance.  Dressed in mix 
of styles, loose Juraian pants with an Earth tee shirt whose print said 
"Defenestrate", the princess was attempting to hold one of the odd 
postures that she had observed Nathaniel stand in any number of 
times.  Made curious by his strange daily activity, and perhaps also as 
a means of connecting with the human while traveling through Japan 
with him for a week, Sasami had asked to be shown how to stand the 
way he did.

	The result had been nearly instantaneous.  Under Nathaniel's 
corrections, Sasami had quickly experienced a series of sensations akin 
to a warmth flowing up and down her arms as she held the postures.  
It was kind of exciting to Sasami, even though she had somewhat 
zoned out on Nathaniel's attempt at explaining some earth ritual he 
had named as Tai Chi.  All the princess had really honed in on was 
that it felt really neat, and that the postures went a long way towards 
toning a number of rarely used muscles without moving at all.  Over 
the past few weeks since she had met Nathaniel, Sasami had self-
consciously become concerned with muscle tone for some reason she 
could not quite pin down, except that it involved posing in front of her 
bedroom mirror in private.

	Nathaniel had quickly sensed a lack of focus in his newfound 
and unexpected student about the purpose of standing in the postures.  
Using a little trick he had picked up from a wrinkled old Chinese man, 
who had used it on Nathaniel as well, Nathaniel simply suggested to 
Sasami that if she wanted to really get a good benefit from her new 
activity, she should try to clear and empty her mind while practicing.  
A self-confident Sasami had set about the task of clearing her mind 
with an easy demeanor, but she came to a realization about ten seconds 
later.

	She could not empty her mind to save her life.

	No matter what the princess tried, thoughts and sensations 
managed to dribble past whatever barriers she put up in her mind to 
keep stray thoughts out.  Terribly vexed to the core, Sasami had 
steadfastly refused to quit and had become completely engrossed in the 
activity for the weeks since then.  Nathaniel did not consider himself 
anything close to a particularly good practitioner of Tai Chi, much less 
a teacher, but he did take a lot of amusement from Sasami's effort 
whenever the princess was not looking.  Actually, Nathaniel had not 
expected Sasami to stay with the postures for more than a few days 
until frustration exhausted her curiosity, but Sasami had surprised him 
and stuck with it.  Now on the other side of all the trial Sasami had 
recently endured on Earth, the little thing of clearing her mind of 
thought was an inviting challenge.

	Some days, naturally, were more of a challenge than others 
for the princess.

	"You *have* to be bored out of your mind," a voice not far 
away from Sasami said with exasperation.

	Sasami steadfastly ignored the voice, pinching her brow even 
further as she adjusted her standing posture a bit to deal with a 
twitching muscle.  Two things made Sasami's goal even harder to 
reach: her tendency to drift off into daydream, and people chattering at 
her. 

	"One night at college," the voice continued, "I was really 
bored, and I actually tried counting all the holes in the ceiling tiles.  
This looks even worse than that."

	The princess could feel what little progress she had made 
starting to slip away.  Setting her jaw in effort, Sasami tried to grab 
hold of her concentration, but the harder she squeezed, the quicker it 
raced from her.

	"Heeeelloooooo?" 

	Gone.

	Opening her eyes with a flash, Sasami managed to glower 
quite effectively at her unwelcome companion.  Rubbing a little 
soreness out of her arms, she considered saying something rather un-
princess-like to Mayuka Masaki, who was sitting nearby on a rock.

	"What?!" was all the princess managed to exclaim.

	"Hey!" huffed Mayuka, crossing her arms, "Don't go barking 
at me!"

	Rolling her eyes, Sasami turned around with a whipping of 
hair and faced the other direction.  Taking several deep breaths until 
she had managed to calm down some, Sasami tried her best to relax.  
Frowning slightly, the princess attempted to get back into the position 
she had been in before being interrupted by Mayuka.  However, try as 
she might, the presence of the other young woman was like a shadow 
on her back.

	"Damn it all," swore Sasami, realizing there was no way she 
was going to be able to concentrate.

	"Does this mean you're done now?" Mayuka piped.

	Sasami adopted a haughty look taken straight from her sister.

	"Yes," she replied.  "Thanks to you."

	Mayuka uncrossed her arms and shrugged, uncaring.  
Shifting around a little on her rock, she avoided looking Sasami 
straight in the eye.

	"Not my fault you can't do whatever what's-his-name wastes 
his time on," replied Mayuka, finally.

	"He has a name!" Sasami replied hotly, rising to Mayuka's 
tease.

	"Yeah, I can think of several."

	Sasami spun around again on the grass away from Mayuka.  
Stomping heavily almost like a little girl, she stalked off, intent on 
putting as much distance between herself and Mayuka as possible.  
Mayuka was not about to let it go, however.

	"Geez, you sure are sensitive lately," she called after Sasami.

	Throughout her short history in the universe, Sasami had 
never been particularly practiced at the art of caustic retort.  She was 
particularly good at emotional interjection, which is what she resorted 
to.

	"What's your problem, Mayuka!" Sasami demanded angrily, 
swinging around with her fists almost clenched in front of her.

	Mayuka hopped off her rock suddenly and pointed an 
accusatory finger at the princess.

	"You are!" Mayuka almost yelled.

	"Me?!" came Sasami's surprised reaction.

	"Yeah, you!" demanded Mayuka.  "I've been on this ship for 
over *two* weeks, and all you do is either stalk off somewhere by 
yourself, or you spend the rest of your time with that bum!"

	"He *isn't* a bum!" the princess shot back.  "And what do 
you care, anyway?"

	An exasperated look crossed Mayuka's face.  "I'm *bored*!" 
she complained.

	"What?!" Sasami's voice went up an octave.

	Mayuka rolled her eyes and nodded animatedly.  "Yeah, 
Sasami.  I'm stuck on this lunk of a ship for two whole weeks, and it's 
killing me!  You're either with that bum, or you're off somewhere near 
catatonic by yourself!  Grandfather's off staring into space half the 
time or messing with Nathaniel, and Washu's even to busy to talk to 
because she's messing around with him, *too*!"

	Taking a deep breath, Mayuka paused for a moment.  Sasami 
stared icily at her.

	"So, what?" she asked flatly.  "Bugging me when I'm trying 
to do something is like entertainment for you, then?"

	Mayuka's breath came up short.  Frowning at first, she 
crossed her arms indignantly and looked away loftily.

	"It's better than anything else I've done on this trip so far," 
she tried to bluster.

	"Then you'll forgive me if I relieve you of your sole source of 
entertainment," the princess replied coldly.

	Without another word, Sasami turned and walked away.  
Mayuka stood by herself for a while not moving until Sasami was well 
out of sight.  Balling her fists tightly, she hit the sides of her legs in frustration.

	"Fuck," she grumped in a quiet voice.

			*	*	*


	I never knew my mother.

	I mean my real mother.  Well, my genetic mother, anyway.  
Ryoko was. Ryoko *is*... geez, it still comes out a lot in past tense 
when I think about her.  I can not really help it.  You trying thinking 
someone is dead for most of your life and see if you do not have a hard 
time not speaking in third person about them.  After all, it has only 
been three months since Washu's pressure cooker of an experiment 
popped out the best thing that ever happened to my daddy. twice.

	So, Ryoko *is* my mother as far as I am concerned.  That 
other woman, Yuzuha... well, I have no inkling of a memory about 
her whatsoever.  That is fine with me, I guess, but it is just one more 
little piece of my melting pot of a personality that makes me kind of 
insecure sometimes.  That demon, or whatever she was, gave me only 
half of my DNA through an experiment designed to destroy daddy, so 
pardon me if I do not waste too much sympathy on her.

	Although, if you ever want to see a group of people get real 
quiet real fast, just make mention of the ever-so-slightly sinister half 
of my DNA to the rest of my family.  

	Ryoko is my mother, but I have had a difficult time since the 
spring when she was reborn, resurrected, reincarnated or whatever you 
want to call it.  I do not know of any real way to explain my 
frustration, but when Ryoko appeared before me and daddy up at the 
shrine the day I got home from America, I wanted nothing more to 
strike her as hard as I could.  Fortunately for me, I more or less 
collapsed in an incoherent ball of emotion, so I could not act on my 
urge, but that has not stopped me from feeling horribly guilty ever 
since.

	I am really good at feeling guilty.  I am also really good at 
masking that by being aggressive.

	Before I even realized it, I had gotten in contact with Kiyone.  
For whatever reason, I just had to get away for a while.  Ryoko being 
back was just too much for me to take all at once, and it took next to 
no convincing Mihoshi to send in my request for an introduction to the 
Galaxy Police.  I think at the time I really wanted to dive into the GP, 
but now I can not tell if that was just me trying to escape my home 
again.  I say again, because going to college in America was just 
another in a long series of escapes.  The GP does seem thrilling, and I 
really admire Kiyone (I wish I could be like her a lot; strong, in 
command, scrappy yet elegant in the most drab uniform), but it does 
not seem exactly right for me.

	Yui tells me that I am unrealistic, that I am sitting around 
waiting for the answer to my life to plop in my lap with trumpet 
fanfare.  This, of course, coming from a girl who daydreams 
incessantly about marrying a cowboy.

	So why did I feel guilty about Ryoko?

	Well, for one thing I can not call her mom anymore to save 
my life.  It sticks in my throat before I even have a chance to think 
about it.  She does not say anything, but how can she not feel a sting 
when I act like she is a long absent friend and not my mother?  Or 
maybe I am just deluding myself.  After all, Ryoko has the 
unquestioning and blossoming love of Yui and a new child on the way.  
Maybe Ryoko has enough love to go around right then that she can 
handle mine being so far away.  Even daddy managed to adjust to 
Ryoko being back, even though I know it has not easy for him.  He 
does not say anything to me about it, but I have seen it a couple of 
times... expressions of grief that spring up past his well controlled 
emotions.

	I know those expressions intimately.  I have felt them myself 
in the silent and lonely spaces now and again in my life, crying or 
screaming at the evening stars on countless occasions when I was 
certain no one would be near to observe me.  Desperately attempting to 
conjure the comfort I remembered from my mother's arms, yet unable 
to break past her loss and heal my grief with my daddy.  And suddenly 
having Ryoko appear in front of me. well, the rush of anger from the 
questioning of why she could not have reappeared sooner in my life at 
all the tender times when I needed her so badly.  I blamed her, I 
blamed Washu, I eventually blamed everyone.

	But in the end, it is just me who has the big problem.  Good 
ole Mayuka Masaki, older of Tenchi Masaki's daughters.  Too serious 
for her age and a tongue that can turn viperous in the blink of an eye.  

	Regardless, I know the problem is really mine alone, and I 
know that it will work itself out eventually.  It was just that during this 
summer when Ryoko returned, I was totally unable to cope.

	Say, did you notice it only took me a whole week to jump 
another ship and get away from home again?  I did, though it never 
occurred to me to think about it until I got on this ship.  This 
beautiful, sleek, sculptured ship.

	This dull, boring, `put me out of my misery' ship.

	Maybe having next to nothing to do with Mihoshi for three 
solid weeks jaded me a bit for this trip, but being on Tsunami was just 
as bad.  There was no one to talk to at all, and there was nothing as 
far as entertainment goes.  First of all, the ship was empty of almost 
anyone.  All those servants, courtiers, and guards that came to Earth to 
pick up Aunt Sasami?  Well, they stayed on the other escort ships.  
Sasami did not want to deal with any of them, so she tossed them off 
the ship in a hurry.  Personally, I think she had an ulterior motive, 
but I will vent on him in a moment.

	Sasami was there, of course, and I was really looking forward 
to talking with her, but for the first two weeks of our journey, I had 
barely gotten a word in edgewise with her.  This disappointed me 
immensely and kind of stung.  I mean, sure I call Sasami my `aunt', 
but I figured out at a pretty early age that was not exactly accurate 
since Sasami was not my daddy's sister.  So what, it did not really 
matter to me much, and the princess remained my aunt Sasami from 
then on.  I called her that up until I got ready to go to college.  
Without ever realizing when it happened, Sasami and I had become 
incredibly close, like two confidants sharing little meaningless secrets 
about a thousand little things.

	Little did I know that the whole relationship was not so 
meaningless to Sasami.  At the time I could not realize how isolated 
she was becoming.  I never really thought about her other life as a 
princess that much, so great an amount of time she spent on Earth.  
Sure, she would go to Jurai now and again, but it was like me going on 
vacation; she always came back after a short few months.  So, sure I 
imagined her leading a very complex life full of other people on other 
planets.

	I never once even came close to thinking that Sasami's off-
Earth life was so cold, and because of that I never understood how 
much she treasured her time at home.  You would imagine that a 
twenty-four year old would not connect so closely with me, a sixteen 
year old, but we always did.  In fact, looking back on it, I feel sort 
of melancholy when I consider that Sasami did not even have friends like 
I did from school.  And hey, even as dense as I can be from time to 
time (I am my father's daughter in this sense), I did eventually make 
the connection in my last two years of high school how alone Sasami 
really was, even with that cheerful exterior that never seemed to wane.  
So I guess it does make sense that Sasami would want to grow close to 
me.  She needed someone, and I am not so tough to deny that I needed 
a big sister in my life.

	My big bonehead of a mistake came right at the end of high 
school as far as Sasami and the rest of my family went.  I know now 
that I was just being immature, but I had the feeling of being trapped 
and controlled living at home.  I needed to get away from being 
around so many extraordinary people, especially when I was so damn 
normal.  I was beginning to get very irritated and snappy with 
everyone and generally discontent with anything having to do with 
family or home.  Do not ask me why I felt this way; all I know is most 
normal teenagers at one time or another feel like this.  So, I loved art 
and picked the furthest college I could find from home.  Next thing I 
knew it was fall, I was eighteen, and I was in America (Seattle to be 
specific).

	And in my selfishness, I all but abandoned the close 
relationship Sasami and I had built over the previous three years.  I 
suppose because she was `aunt' Sasami, it was easy for me to put aside 
the notion that we might as well have been sisters.  So self absorbed in 
spreading my own wings, I never even noticed her slow, spiraling 
decent.  I can console myself that no one else noticed either, but that 
does not make me feel any better about pretty much leaving Sasami 
out of my life for three years straight.  So, you could imagine my 
wanting to reconnect that tie with her.  Ryoko, despite making me feel 
very confused about our relationship, opened my eyes about what I had 
been missing with my family of late.  Only one small problem.

	Him.

	I mean, how could I compete with Nathaniel?  His type are 
the worst kind.  They drop out of nowhere, and just like that some 
woman, Sasami, loses all her senses.  After that, you need to beat them 
over the head with bamboo just to get them apart.  

	So what was left for me?  Not much.  Sasami ran off over 
rural northern Japan with the klutz, and then brought him along on 
Tsunami.  And a guardian no less.  Hell, I could have beaten the 
daylights out of him, I bet.

	I do not want to belabor this too much since I am not to good 
at admitting when I am wrong, but my annoyance at Nathaniel for 
monopolizing Sasami's free time really was the start of everything 
going wrong during the entire trip to Jurai.  You could certainly look 
at everything that was to happen on this trip and say I did not handle 
much of it very well.

	But in my defense, I am not sure there was any way I could 
have handled any of it all very well.  Especially in the state of mind I 
was in at the time.  Lonely, kind of depressed, short tempered. not 
exactly a stellar combination of personality characteristics destined to 
make me lovable to everyone else I was in contact with.

	We were not even to Jurai yet, and already I was grating on 
people's nerves just as much as they were on mine.  And it was only 
going to get worse.

			*	*	*


	Two days later, the small meadow in Tsunami that had been 
turned into an impromptu training area bustled with activity.  Flowing 
like wind, the weapons arced and drifted, slowing to a gentle breeze 
only to rise up again in a gale.  Lively dancers, two pairs of feet 
surfed a sandy training area, shifting and sliding, turning and 
twisting.  The sand, more forgiving in its giving qualities, allowed the 
two owners of the quick feet to avoid the random ankle twist that might 
have occurred while spinning so rapidly on a solid surface.

	Dressed in flowing white training pants and a brilliant blue 
top, Mayuka Masaki felt a ringing up her arms as a particularly savage 
strike contacted her bo.  Giving ground, but not hesitating, her clothes 
billowed slightly as she shifted direction and spun another attack with 
her staff.  Twisting rapidly and sinking to one knee, Mayuka brought 
her staff in a low arc as it circled her body.  The sand softening the 
impact of her weight on her knee, the young woman still grimaced 
with a snarl and tried to catch a bit of sand on the end of the bo as it 
completed the sloping arc.  The plan was to toss the sand into her 
opponents eyes and follow through the stroke with an attack to the 
midsection or face.

	As always happened, however, Mayuka's attack was stopped 
with authority as Yosho read the maneuver and blocked the staff 
before it could launch any sand at his face.  A second quick slice with 
his bokken, and Mayuka's bo was dislodged from her stung fingers, 
twirling away to land softly in the sand.  Ringlets of sweat running 
down her forehead and cheeks, Mayuka looked up through her mused 
hair at her great-grandfather.  Yosho's steel-framed glasses flashed 
back at her.

	"That's more enthusiasm than I've seen from you in a long 
time, Mayuka," he commented, not even slightly out of breath.

	Stepping back slightly from the young woman, he offered a 
hand.  Mayuka, however, had shifted her attention away and did not 
notice, instead hauling herself to a standing position.  Stooping down, 
she began to brush the sand off the knees of her pants with a dark 
expression.  Yosho did not fail to notice that.  Moving away towards 
the side of the sandy area, the aging prince stepped up on a small mat 
and brushed the sand off his feet before moving onto the grass that 
surrounded the pit.

	"It is a rare opportunity to witness your aggression so 
vehemently, Mayuka," commented Yosho neutrally.

	Mayuka huffed.  "Is that so?" she asked.  "And here I thought 
everyone saw me as a ray of sunshine all the time."

	"No need to be snide, Mayuka," Yosho admonished gently.  
"You are not the only one having to endure some difficulty on this 
trip."

	Walking across the sand pit, Mayuka bent down and lifted 
her weapon up.  Standing up straight, she absently scratched between 
her toes with the end of the bo, a considering look breaking through 
the annoyance on her face.

	"I'm just the only one acting snotty," finished Mayuka.

	Yosho tapped his chin thoughtfully.  "I was going to say 
petulant," he said.  "Although, I have been accused of being overly 
diplomatic from time to time."

	"Gee, thanks, o' esteemed royal elder," came the next quip.

	Yosho shook his head.  "Perhaps snotty will do after all, o' 
insolent offspring of my grandson.  Shall we see how things are going 
with Washu's experiment?"

	Mayuka walked out of the sandy area, tracking fine grains 
onto the velvety lawn.  Overhead, on the other side of the view-ports, 
stars streaked by at a terrifying rate.

	"What *has* Washu been up to, anyhow?" queried Mayuka, 
grabbing a towel off the grass that was lying under a tree.  "She's been 
almost as difficult to talk to as you for the past two weeks."

	Walking around the sand area, Mayuka stood by a small 
doorway in the middle of a large tree, waiting for Yosho.  Stepping up 
beside her, he took Mayuka's offered hand and entered the doorway.  
There was a soft sensation of vertigo and motion, accompanied by a 
darkness, and then the pair were plopped out in another section of the 
huge, physics defying ship.  Both were silent as they made their way 
towards the hall closet door from the Masaki residence.  Standing 
disturbingly straight in a small meadow, set against nothing but empty 
air, Yosho and Mayuka opened the door, revealing a black silhouette 
of an entrance which they passed through into Washu's dimensional 
laboratory.

	A quick rush of air later, the pair entered the laboratory to
the merry tinkering of a door rattle in the shape of a red crab.
Blinking hard for a moment, Mayuka tried to figure out what exactly
was wrong with the place... and then it occurred to her.

	When the heck had Washu decided to turn the lights up?

	How peculiar, she thought.  Anyhow, she and Yosho quickly found
where Washu was.  She was sitting at her console with a tired look on
her face.  Across from Washu on the ground was Nathaniel.  Wearing the
special bio-suit she had made for him, Nathaniel was laying on the 
ground, not much more than a twitching mass.

	"No, no, no," griped the scientist in annoyance.  "How many times
do I have to keep telling you?  If you don't relax all your muscles 
when the simulated attack comes, the signals coming from your suit
and you brain get mixed up at the same time, and whamo, you're on the 
ground dead."

	Shaking a bit, Nathaniel managed to get up on his knees and then
struggle to his feet.  Bringing up an energy sword, he motioned to
Washu with a grim look to continue.  Shrugging her shoulders, Washu
again initiated the virtual attacker.  And again, the bio-suit sent
orders to Nathaniel's muscles while he failed not to react himself.
There was an audioable thud as he crashed to the ground again.

	Yosho's expression did not even flicker.  Mayuka looked down
at Nathaniel with a totally unhidden look of disgust on her face.  She 
could not believe just how much she really hated this guy.

	And he was supposed to be protecting Sasami?

	'Get real,' she snorted to herself.

			*	*	*


	There were a million little things to be thankful for 
in life.  Key on Nathaniel's list of such things was that the 
soup Sasami had prepared for dinner was no longer quite so 
hot as it had been when served.  This was of particular 
importance since a goodly portion of the soup was on his face 
and lap.  Calmly setting his spoon down on the table, 
Nathaniel used his other hand to pick a long noodle strand 
that hung limply from his glasses.  His pants were 
uncomfortable soggy.

	Quite frankly, he was idly pleased he had not 
flinched when Mayuka had slung her full bowl at him.  
Wiping at the broth from his lenses, Nathaniel looked up 
where two women had risen facing each other angrily.

	"Are you *insane*, Mayuka?" demanded a furious 
Sasami.  "What do you think you're doing?!"

	"Hey!" Mayuka shakily retorted.  "I didn't mean to 
do that!"

	The truth was, Mayuka had no intention of throwing 
anything at Nathaniel.  However, right beforehand, she had 
been pondering to herself how satisfying it would be to hit 
Nathaniel with something.  After all, without him everything 
would be a whole lot nicer on Tsunami, she reasoned.

	Mayuka, therefore, was just as surprised as everyone 
else when her thought became action, and Nathaniel was 
covered with noodles and soup.  

	"Didn't *mean* to?" Sasami scathed.  "Just how in 
the world can you *not* mean to throw a bowl of soup at 
someone?!"

	Sitting on a pillow on the floor, also now damp in 
places, Nathaniel thought that was a great question.  
Narrowing his eyes, he thought better of echoing Sasami's 
sentiment since both of the women were in the process of 
building up to a serious spat.  As quickly as Nathaniel's 
aggravation at Mayuka was growing, he decided to not get in 
their way in case blows started.

	Trying to figure some way to back peddle or explain 
her way out of what was obviously an atrocious action on her 
part, Mayuka was failing miserably.  Unfortunately, when 
Mayuka got flustered, she tended to get defensive and 
aggressive.

	"I don't know!" she yelled back.  "He was just sitting 
there, and it just happened, okay!  So, I'm sorry!"

	`What the hell kind of excuse is that?' Nathaniel 
wondered to himself.

	"What kind of excuse is that?" Sasami said, reading 
his mind.  "You just don't throw a bowl at someone because 
they're there!  Just what's your problem, Mayuka?!"

	Mayuka could literally hear the snap inside of her 
own mind as the floodgates broke and all the pent up 
frustrations of the journey so far let loose.

	"My problem is I can't stand it!" she almost 
screamed, stabbing a finger at the princess.  "I can't stand 
you and how you mope around with this jerk all the time!  
You do nothing but spend all your time with him or ignoring 
me!  I can't stand him, and I can't stand this crappie ship!  
There!  Is that enough of a reason for you?!"

	An unholy silence layered around the table.  Mayuka 
was so furious, there were almost tears in her eyes.  Sasami's 
mouth hung open slightly in amazement, while Nathaniel still 
sat on the ground, too stunned to make a sound.  Finally, the 
princess was the first to regain her composure.  Dropping into 
a tone only royalty could pull off, Sasami let Mayuka have it.

	"So, that's it," she said.  "All that's really going on 
is little Mayuka is *still* feeling bored."

	"Don't call me *little*!" bristled Mayuka, Sasami's 
tone of voice irking her to no end.

	Sasami crossed her arms slowly and shook her head 
with feigned sadness.  "Why not?" she asked.  "You are 
acting like a petulant little child, aren't you?  Poor little 
Mayuka, all lonely with no one to talk to."

	"Shut up, Sasami!" the younger woman yelled 
hoarsely.

	"Or what?" the princess continued on relentlessly.  
"Will little baby Mayuka have another fit and throw more 
noodles?  This is just like you, really.  I mean, as a child you 
never could stand it when someone had something you didn't.  
So what if I `mope' around with Nathaniel.  Is little Mayuka 
just jealous because I actually have a friend?  Jealous when 
little Mayuka can't keep a guy at college?"

	"SHUT UP!" screamed Mayuka at the top of her 
pitch.  Turning on her heals Mayuka stumbled from the 
dinner table and ran off between some trees, disappearing in 
moments.

	The princess just stood there with an unhappy look 
of satisfaction on her face, her arms still crossed.  Surprising 
himself, Nathaniel realized he had been holding his breath 
the whole time.  The silence continued, and he wanted to say 
something to pass off the whole incident, or to smooth over 
the emotional waves that seemed to be crashing on the people 
around him.  Nothing he could think to say sounded good 
enough to make Sasami feel better, Nathaniel decided.

	"Come on, and let's get my dinner off you," Sasami 
said quietly, turning and walking in the opposite direction 
from which Mayuka had run.

	Nathaniel could only nod and get up from the table.  
As he followed her away, Nathaniel found himself wondering 
desperately how he could get out from between Mayuka and 
Sasami, deal with the whole issue of being a guardian, and 
get back home where things were a lot less complicated.

	No solution really came to mind.

			*	*	*


	Nathaniel's hair was still damp from his unscheduled bath, 
even with a semi-vigorous attempt at toweling it dry.  He had not 
thought to get a change of clothes before entering one of the 
Tsunami's many onsens, but he had found a fresh change of 
nondescript Juraian ones not far away when he was finished washing 
the remains of soup away.

	Standing over the pile of neatly folded clothes, letting himself 
air dry, Nathaniel let himself wonder a little about what sort of woman 
could wash clothes and be a princess at the same time.  For indeed, 
throughout the days of the voyage, Sasami had continued to make that 
a renewed task after refusing to let any maids onboard her ship.  Could 
the woman who engaged in such a simple chore coexist in a royal 
setting for the rest of her life, tied to a noble family in an unwelcome 
bond of matrimony?  Would she be isolated from all those she might 
see as herself in manner and being, or would she become, as the years 
drew long, of truly noble mind and bearing?  Above all such simple 
chores as laundry or cooking?

	Or was Sasami foolish to think that she could continue to 
enjoy a simple life and still be a princess?

	As Nathaniel slowly put on the clean clothes, he was not 
certain.  He did not really want to think about it much.  There were so 
many unknowns in the situation he was immersed in, and the more 
Nathaniel learned, the more he realized how woefully little he really 
knew.  So he tried not to think much about anything.  Not think about 
Sasami.  Not think about Mayuka.  Not think about their arrival on 
Jurai in several days.  These and so many other things were completely 
out of his control, and Nathaniel was not one to dwell on that which he 
could not fathom or alter.

	The clothes were simple pants and a shirt, soft shades of 
white and blue.  Not ornate by any means, simply functional.  The 
evening, if you could call it that while traveling through space, was 
still early, and as Nathaniel stood in the small and secluded garden 
deep within the enormity of the giant spaceship, he waited patiently 
for the decision of what he would do next.  All decisions that a person 
could make, he felt, were already made and waiting.  It had to do with 
the beliefs and character that made up the individual.  You just had to 
recognize that decision when the time was right.

	And Nathaniel knew what he wanted to do at that moment.  
Still not really thinking about anything, not judging the situation that 
had played out at dinner, he left the onsen garden and went in search 
of Sasami.  Winding through seemingly endless grassy paths and 
small clusters of trees, Nathaniel moved at a comfortable pace, drawn 
by a need to find answers to questions the princess might not be ready 
to face.  He met no one along his way through the ship.  Washu was 
more than likely in her lab, and Yosho hardly ever left his expansive 
quarters.  There was no telling where Mayuka might be, but Nathaniel 
was willing to bet that she was not out in the open.  Judging from her 
flight from the table, more likely than not she would be hiding 
somewhere quiet.  Would the princess be doing the same?

	Nathaniel was not sure, but he did not think so.  A person 
bent on withdrawing from company would not have gone to the 
trouble to lay out clean clothes for him.  Perhaps she would not feel 
like talking, but Sasami probably would be locatable.  And so she was.

	Sitting indian-style in the grass, the princess faced out a large 
observation deck that looked out deep into space.  From the vantage, 
despite the rate of speed the ship was traveling, features of the galaxy 
were clearly visible.  Nathaniel's bare feet were soft on the grass as 
he approached Sasami from behind, but that did not prevent the princess 
from hearing him.

	"I feel like I owe you an apology," she said without turning 
around.

	Nathaniel stopped short and looked down at the back of her 
head, making no move to answer her.

	"I'm not certain why she's behaving so badly," Sasami 
continued.  "It seems she has a problem with us both for some reason."

	"Mayuka seems," Nathaniel replied, looking for something 
neutral to say, "very upset.  Too upset from anything we may have 
done to her in such a short time as I have been here."

	Sasami shrugged her shoulders and fidgeted in the grass a 
little.  "We may never know, Nathaniel," she said.  "Mayuka can be 
very open about some things, yet in a lot of ways she shares very little 
of herself."

	Nathaniel walked beside Sasami and stood looking out into 
the galaxy.  A star system was shooting past the great ship, more of a 
blur than anything distinct.

	"Our being together seems to be her main problem," he 
offered.  "I guess in some ways I have been monopolizing your 
time."

	Sasami sighed.  "I hardly see that as being your fault.  I 
choose to spend my time as I wish.  Should there be excuses to be 
made for that?"

	"No..." answered Nathaniel.  "But maybe Mayuka thinks she 
needs more attention from you.  The two of you are close in a lot of 
ways, right?  Maybe when she says she feels bored, what she means to 
say is that she feels lonely not being able to talk to you."

	Sasami looked up at the man through the sides of her eyes.  
"You almost make it sound like it is my fault."

	Nathaniel hastily back peddled.  "Mmm, no, no," he said.  
"I'm just thinking out loud about why Mayuka might be acting the 
way she does.  I don't know her at all, really, but if she does have a 
problem, she can find better ways of expressing it to you than flinging 
her anger at me."

	The princess looked thoughtful.  "Maybe it's me in another 
way," she mentioned.

	Nathaniel looked over at Sasami and waited with a patient 
look on his face.

	Sasami drew her knees up to her chest and looked out at the 
stars.

	"Maybe," she said again, "maybe it's my changing that is 
upsetting her as well."

	"Your changing?"

	"Yeah..." answered Sasami.  "I mean, before we left my 
home to travel around the countryside, Mayuka seemed completely 
surprised that I was going with you.  She said... she said it wasn't 
like me at all, like I was someone different or something.  Maybe it's 
because I am changing, and she doesn't know how to come up to me 
now.  She's here by herself, and good old aunt Sasami isn't the same 
woman she remembers."

	"Hmm," relied Nathaniel, staying noncommittal on the 
subject.

	There were long moments of silence as the two looked out the 
great window into space.  It was strange seeming to see the expanse of 
the galaxy sliding by and hearing the sway of trees, the chirping of 
birds, and the tinkle of water in the background.  It really lulled 
Nathaniel into a sense of being under-awed by the pure spectacle of 
traveling through the cosmos.

	"Nathaniel?"

	He almost jumped, Sasami's voice bringing him out of a 
moment's thoughtfulness.

	"Y-yes?"

	Sasami looked up at him again.  "Nathaniel," she asked, 
"who were we when we were hiking through the countryside?"

	"Who were we?"

	"Yeah," she nodded.  "I mean, I don't feel like we were noble 
and commoner.  I know nobility doesn't have much meaning to you, 
but I didn't feel like there was that distinction between us.  So who 
were we when we ducked for shelter out of the thunderstorms?  When 
we climbed steps to temples and wandered through the forest gardens 
there?"

	The conversation was starting to get deep, Nathaniel could 
sense, so he settled himself down in the grass a few feet away from 
Sasami.  Leaning back all the way, he settled flat on his back, hands 
behind his head.  Sasami looked off into nothingness. 

	"I think we were two strangers," he finally said.  "A couple of 
travelers trying to find the features of each other.  Looking for things 
in common, not taking notice of the differences."

	"Friends?" Sasami asked almost shyly.

	"Yes," Nathaniel smiled, looking up towards the air at the 
treetops above them.  "Friends sounds just right.  There was only a 
week, I guess, so maybe we just skipped everything and got right to the 
part of being friends."

	"Good friends," echoed the princess with a quiet confidence.

	At that point, Nathaniel was struck with whether to express to 
Sasami his fears and concerns about what might happen when they 
arrived on Jurai.  Yosho's dire seeming predictions rang through his 
mind, but just as loud did the old prince's strong belief that Sasami be 
free to learn from the experiences they were sure to encounter.  What 
would a real friend do?  Warn Sasami of the headaches to come, or let 
her go through them and become wiser for it.  There were reasons to 
do both, and damn good reasons to do neither.

	Sasami broke his inner debate. 

	"Nathaniel," she said.  "What is your light?"

	"My light?"

	Sasami looked over her should at him and smiled.  "Do you 
notice that you have the habit of repeating just about every question I 
ever ask you?  Why is that?"

	Nathaniel blinked.  "Perhaps... I'm just a little dense?"

	The princess chuckled softly.  "Somehow, I could almost 
believe that," she replied.  "But what I mean is, what is your inner 
guide?  Remember on the park bench when we went to the hotel?  
When I asked you how you seemed so upbeat about everything that 
was happening to you?  You never really answered my, I think."

	"Inner guide..." exhaled Nathaniel.  "Oh, wow.  There's a 
hard one to explain."

	"Try," Sasami gently commanded.  "I really want to know 
how you think... because I admire it... a lot."

	Nathaniel glowed a little bit under the princess's praise.  After
all, who would not?  However, he settled back in the grass with his
hands behind his head and looked upwards, seriously considering 
her question.

	"It's hard to say, really," he began.  "Somehow, somewhere I
just realized that there are a lot of things... most things, really,
in life you can't do much about.  And you can't choose when or how
these things will happen to you, but you can choose how you react to
them.  Quite often, how you deal with something is more important than
the fact you're in that situation to begin with."

	Sasami was quiet for a moment.  Then she looked around and sighed.

	"Well, that sounds spectacularly simple," she said.  "Must be
nice having it all figured out like that."

	"It would be if it worked," he replied.

	"Eh?  I don't understand."

	Nathaniel laughed a little to himself and stretched in the grass.
"Well, it's one thing to know you can't do something about the problem 
you have, and it's quite another to stay calm about it.  If you haven't 
noticed, quite often I get rather... befuddled almost."

	"No!" disagreed Sasami in mock surprise.  "You can't be serious!"

	"Clown," he answered as Sasami laughed.  "What I mean is I try to
follow this almost fortune cookie simple philosophy, but a lot of times
it's pretty hard to do so."

	Sasami nodded from where she was sitting, looking more mellow and
thoughtful.  "Yes, it is."

	"All we can really do is make the best of the situation we can, 
making the most of our abilities," he finished.

	Still looking up, Nathaniel was really not looking in Sasami's 
direction.  However, a shadow passed over his face as the princess 
loomed over him from out of nowhere.  Holding her flowing hair back with
one hand, Sasami leaned close to his face.

	"Well," she said softly, "consider this a royal gift for making 
the best of a tough situation like me."

	Closing her eyes, Sasami edged down ever so slowly and brushed 
Nathaniel's lips with her own.  It was a shy and delicate kiss, and
Nathaniel was too frozen with surprise to do much more than barely
remember to breath.  After a few seconds, Sasami leaned back and smiled.
Sitting still for a moment, the princess then slowly got up and bowed
to Nathaniel.

	"It's kind of late," she said.  "I am sorry again for Mayuka's 
behavior, but I hope it won't... get in the way of our friendship for
the rest of the trip."

	"I guarantee it won't," he replied quietly.  "Sweet dreams, 
Sasami."

	With that, Sasami slowly departed, though with a slight skip to
her feet.  Nathaniel, still laying back in the grass, did not move
for quite some time.  Looking up at all the passing stars, the dire
prediction Yosho had given him about the princess's arrival on Jurai
battled for attention with the lingering sensation Nathaniel could still
feel on his own lips from Sasami.

	It was a long time before he moved.

	"Oh, my," was all he said.

			*	*	*


	It was much latter when Nathaniel actually made it to bed.
Struggling with a lot of confusing feelings about his being on 
Tsunami in the first place and his role with the princess to come, he
had drifted down into Washu's laboratory without thinking.  Having
already changed into the scientist's ingenious bio-suit, Nathaniel
simply asked Washu to initiate the training programs so he could
practice some more.  Washu was a little surprised to find anyone still
up and about at that hour, but she wordlessly agreed and initiated the
programs.

	What progressed was two draining hours for Nathaniel as he 
struggled to relax his muscles and let the suit do the thinking for him.
More often than not, he ended up in a twitching mass on the laboratory
floor, but each time he picked himself up and continued on.  In total
character, Washu pointedly ignored him while pondering her own
research.

	Nathaniel was wiped out after he left Washu's realm and in dire 
need of a decent bath.  Strangely enough, he was not at all tired.  In 
fact, Nathaniel spent the next couple of hours wandering around the 
great ship while everyone else was asleep.  Not really wanting to stare 
up from his bed all night, he finally settled on plopping down at the 
base of a large tree in the center of the ship.  The bark was very warm 
to the touch, or so it seemed.  Before he even realized it, Nathaniel 
had dozed off into sleep.

	Nathaniel immediately recognized the dream after he had dozed 
off for a little while.  It was the same strange reoccurring dream he 
had ever since he stepped foot on Tsunami.  There was this silvery-blue
ambiance to everything, pools of reflecting light that were both clear 
and hazy at the same time, and graceful trees that arched here and 
there.  As Nathaniel ghosted through the dream, he realized that he was 
suddenly very comfortable with the whole thing.  He had been here enough 
times over the past two weeks that it was no longer quite so eerie.

	A motion caught his attention through the corner of his eye.  It
was a woman in a beautiful set of shimmering robes with long hair and 
two curious marks above her forehead.

	'Oh, and it's Sasami again,' he thought, momentarily amazed 
at just how lucid his thoughts were in this dream.  

	Nathaniel thought about trying to speak out again to the 
apparition Sasami, but assumed that the result would be the same as 
before, with him not being able to hear a word she tried to say.

	'Hello, Nathaniel,' said the woman, startling Nathaniel so much
he could have almost woken up from the jolt.

	Her smile was a field of flowers in the morning.  'No, please do 
not do that,' she said.  'I have been wanting to meet you for some time, 
now.  I was afraid you would never make contact with this ship's great
tree.'

	'M-meet me?' asked an astounded Nathaniel.  'S-sasami, what
are you doing in my dream again?  What is this place?'

	The woman glided forward until she was within breathing 
space of Nathaniel.  It occurred to him that perhaps he should be 
totally nervous for no good reason, but the dream seemed to have a 
calming effect on him, like sinking in warm water.

	'Please be at ease, Nathaniel,' she replied.  'I am not Sasami.
My name is Tsunami, and I am the spirit of this ship.'

	'Tsunami,' breathed Nathaniel, trying not to stare, but failing 
utterly.  'You look just like Sasami... are you two... sisters?'

	Another smile wafted across Tsunami's features as the entirety 
of Nathaniel's dream shifted color into a darker shade of blue.

	'No, Nathaniel,' Tsunami said, shaking her head.  'We are not 
sisters, but Sasami and I are connected to each other in many ways.'

	A thousand questions appeared on the fringes of Nathaniel's
mind, but Tsunami sensed them all.  With a small motion of her hand, 
she all but erased his will ask or remember any of them.  Nathaniel 
settled for just standing still with a pleasant look on his face, not 
unlike a cow being fed a bucket of fine grasses.

	'Wow...' was all he could muster.

	'I simply wanted to meet you, Nathaniel,' she mentioned again.
'To see what makes you so special to her.'

	'Special...?'

	'The princess has remarkable powers at her fingers,' Tsunami
continued, 'but somehow she only seems to be in touch with them when
you are near.  Why is that?'

	Nathaniel struggled with the spirit's rather one-sided 
conversation, looking through the fog in his mind for any kind of 
response.

	'Who... who are you?' he finally asked with a moment's clarity.

	'Why, dearest Nathaniel,' she replied.  'I am Light.'

	'Oh.'

	'Sasami is Light, though she has not risen to her potential, yet,'
mused Tsunami thoughtfully.  'You help her in some way, but you are so
very human.'

	'Sasami is nice,' Nathaniel babbled quietly.

	'Indeed,' there was a hint of amusement in Tsunami's musical
voice.

	'But she's a princess,' he finished with a knowing nod.

	Tsunami took Nathaniel by the chin gently and looked into his
brown eyes, which were very wide by that point.  The spirit seemed to 
be looking for something, but Nathaniel was at a total loss.  Finally,
Tsunami seemed satisfied, though with what she kept to herself.  
Suddenly, another question formed in his mind.

	'Why is... why is Mayuka so...' Nathaniel struggled to find a way
of nicely putting a lot of negative adjectives that might describe her.

	'She is tainted,' came Tsunami's reply.  'Tainted with Dark.  
Tainted with enough evil to darken her spirit, even though she is the 
daughter of Tenchi.'

	'Evil?' he replied, shocked despite his sluggish response to 
Tsunami's presence.

	'The trees do not like her presence, the daughter of Tenchi,'
she said.   'The daughter of Darkness... but she is as without power
as you are Nathaniel, a normal human.'

	'Mayuka is not... exactly normal...'

	'Indeed,' came another amused response.  'But she is harmless
as she is.  The spirit of Darkness infuses only half of her being. 
And it does nothing more than poison her spirit.  Mayuka Masaki will be 
of no matter.'

	Something seemed ominous and threatening to Nathaniel about
the way Tsunami said that, despite her pleasant tone and peaceful 
expression.  More questions were beginning to take shape in his mind
again, but Tsunami anticipated this and touched his cheek softly.  
Nathaniel's thoughts once again turned to mush.

	'Another time, Nathaniel,' she whispered kindly.  'We will 
talk again, I promise.  Do remember to sleep beside the ship's great
tree again... it is difficult to meet you in your dreams otherwise.'

	'Oh.'

	Tsunami seemed pleased with whatever she had been looking 
for and stepped back from Nathaniel.

	'You will not hurt Sasami,' she decided.  It seemed more like 
a realization on her part than a warning to Nathaniel.

	'Nope,' he mumbled.

	'We will meet again, Nathaniel,' Tsunami replied softly as she
faded from his vision.  'And this was not a dream, but do not mention
our meeting to anyone...'

	'Do not mention...' blinked Nathaniel owlishly.

	'Our secret.  I will wait till you next arrive, Nathaniel.'

	With that, Tsunami was gone, leaving Nathaniel standing in a
ever darkening field of silver and blue.  Finally, Nathaniel's dream 
ceased and he found himself awake and quiet at the base of Tsunami's
great tree in the middle of the ship.  Rubbing his eyes to wipe away the 
confusion, Nathaniel sat up and looked around in the simulated darkness
of the shop at night.

	"Oh, god..." he mumbled thickly.  "That was really odd... what 
a strange dream... Was it a dream?"

	Suddenly, the great tree shuddered and flashed in a million 
shades of colorful light.  Humming quietly, the leaves of the tree 
bathed Nathaniel in a series of colors that dazzled his amazed eyes.  
Then, as quickly as the lights had come, the tree settled down and they 
faded into the night.

	Nathaniel sat in total awe for several moments.  Shaking his
head, he finally got up and stumbled away for his own room and bed,
images of Sasami and Tsunami flowing about in his mind.  As
he walked away, a thought managed to straggle its way into his mind.

	'Yeah, okay,' he thought shakily.  'I am definitely doing this 
again tomorrow night...'

			*	*	*


	Five days later, the great battleship Tsunami arrived above Jurai.

	Nathaniel had continued diligently with his bio-suit training for
many hours each day.  He spent his spare time either resting or spending
time with the princess.  For Sasami's part, she found ways to occupy her
spare time as well, trying hard not to think about the coming ordeal on 
her home planet.  The time they spent together was treasured and never
forgotten by either of them as the space of years moved on and on in 
their lives to come.

	As for Mayuka, no one saw a glimpse of her the entire time.

			*	*	*


	Jurai.

	One of the planets of my ancestors.

	An unknown world to me in every sense.  As unfamiliar as 
the strangest land or culture on Earth that I might have read about in 
my childhood.  Yet, as familiar and intimate as the frequent dreams I 
used to indulge in so much during that childhood.  Words taken from 
members of my family, their descriptions of this Jurai shaped and 
fashioned by my own imagination into a place of unimaginable 
fascination and wonder.

	Taking in the awesome spectacle of decent through the 
planet's atmosphere, I was taken to an emotion unlike that 
experienced when above my home planet, Earth.  Earth, so blue and 
lovely, the planet of my birth, that took no effort to bring me to tears 
of such unfathomable reaches of happiness and wonder.  

	This Jurai, though. it was no less beautiful than Earth.  
More green than blue, I remember thinking to myself.  My emotions 
upon first seeing her?  Well, it was like I was proudly bearing the 
weight of a great responsibility in so many ways.  As a representative 
of Earth first, perhaps.  More important, a reflection of my parents, 
Tenchi and Ryoko, and the values, strengths, and weakness they 
instilled in me from since before I could remember.  More important, 
because of the reception they had received the last time they set foot
on this world during my infancy.  More important, because I knew how I
held myself while on this Jurai would affect the future of my family.

	Funny, I suppose, that I had no idea at the time how much 
that would be so.

	Nevertheless, I stood on the beautiful palace port, transported 
from Tsunami, dressed in the outfit of a royal maid to Sasami, as 
faceless and anonymous to the important looking people that walked 
passed me to greet my aunt.  I do not know how I managed to keep my 
mouth from hanging agape at the spectacle.  Even the port itself was 
beauty beyond rationality.  A series of slender and delicate beams and 
girders, arching and stretching into the air from the palace itself, 
intermeshed with the trunks and branches of living trees.  Wound 
together so that I could not tell exactly where one material began and 
the other ended.

	Incredible and elegant fanfare welcomed my aunt and her 
entourage.  People dressed in finery, ministers and nobles, all gazing 
with a mixture of pleasure and thinly veiled curiosity.  You could not 
blame them, for certainly they had heard reports from the courtiers in 
the ships that had escorted us from Earth.  A willful princess and her 
earthling guardian. an aging man that unbelievable reports claimed 
to be the missing and long thought dead Prince Yosho. 

	Who knows what was in their thoughts that day as the horns 
around us trumpeted a strange song that called up memories from deep 
within me, though I had no knowledge of their source.  So much light 
and sensation from our arrival.  All I did know is that I was ignored in 
my simple costume of a royal maid, just the same as Washu.  Two 
people these Juraians would undoubtedly find worthy of speculation 
and gossip, but for the hammer blow of a lost prince and an earthling 
guardian.  So maybe it was best at the time for me and Washu to stay 
lost in the background noise, beneath these important peoples attention 
as they came in large numbers to welcome my aunt.

	I can remember the way aunt Sasami looked that day.  
Flanked by her two guardians, Yosho and Nathaniel.  Her long hair 
flowing freely in the gentle gusts that pushed through the immense 
port, flowing around the numerous ships of wood that hung in a blue 
and cloudless sky.  It was then that I was struck the most since my 
arrival just a scant few minutes before.  Sasami, standing not like the 
unsure and quiet woman I had always known, but looking every bit 
like a wild and beautiful lioness, her perfect features and wonderful 
robes flowing with each step.  Self possession and command, giving 
every indication that, just like a lioness, she would protect everyone 
dear to her.

	And then I felt my first serious pang of loss.  Realization that 
I had let Sasami slip through my fingers.  Realization that I could have 
found a way to keep Sasami's affection and care for myself instead of 
all but abandoning her when I went to college.  Realization that I 
could have found a way on our long voyage from Earth to repair that 
distance between us instead of making it wider, deeper.  

	I neglected my aunt for three years, and in the space of three 
weeks she had found another who was willing to appreciate and 
comfort a complete stranger, even when billions of miles from his own 
world.  I had lost Sasami's confidence and attention to Nathaniel, and 
my heart suddenly ached for my loss.

	And I hated Nathaniel so very deeply for his gain, for what he 
had taken from me.

	Maybe it occurred to me then in that moment of clarity, 
seeing Sasami with such regal bearing, that the weak cub, the weak 
kitten, was really me.  And like any kitten, I felt the absence of my 
aunt, the quiet lioness who had comforted me and shared my world for 
so many years without my really appreciating it.  The warmth and 
security of our friendship was gone, I knew then, and there would 
never be any way to regain what once was.  Only the uncertainty of 
what might become.

	In the splendor of our arrival, every lovely thing was just 
made more drab and lonely without Sasami as my best friend. 

			*	*	*


	You had to admit it.  Being under arrest in the royal palace
was one of the most comfortable places to be in the galaxy.  

	Tevean Jan smiled sickly at his plush surroundings.  He
was not in the dungeons yet, after all he was a noble.  The empress
would not be so politically inept to place Tevean in conditions that
might elicit sympathy from other noble houses.  No, far better to
keep him comfortable until *after* a trial found him guilty.

	Settling comfortably into a very nice chair, Tevean Jan 
relaxed and closed his eyes.  Yes, it was far better to be here in such
close proximity to the palace.  Here where people would more or less
leave him alone for long periods at a time.  Here he could concentrate
on his master plan of deception.

	Let those noble fools think they are the ones in control of a
rise against the Jurai empire, he thought evilly.  Soon everyone 
would know the real power that would be behind the total destruction
of Empress Ayeka and her empire.  Tevean reached out for a familiar 
source of dark power and sighed happily as the energy washed over him.

	The time was at hand, and the best thing was Tsunami suspected
nothing.

			*	*	*


Coming next in Chapter 2.2:

Sasami gets a rude shock from her sister, Mayuka and Nathaniel get
shuffled off to a desolate part of the palace, and the nobles make
their next move.

Questions, comments, and general thoughts appreciated.
Please send them to mmcavoy@naxs.net
Sincerely,
Mike McAvoy
members.xoom.com/mmcavoy/