Second Chances



Chapter 1: Unfamiliar Pickle


	For some people, mastering chopsticks requires a multitude
of visits to Chinese restaurants and time poorly spent on squinting
at the ill-conceived pictoral instructions on the packaging of
disposable, splintery chopsticks.  For Kagato, it took a minute or two,
with the application of observation, calculation, and an initial
attempt at stabbing the offending food object through the eye.

	"This.  A vertebrate.  What is it?"  Kagato gestured
impatiently with her chopsticks at the lightly charred skin of the
fish.  Pink flesh peered out moistly from beneath.

	"Grilled salmon."  It came out terser than he meant, and
Katsuhito irritably wondered what was taking the girls so long getting
Washu.  Her lab was just through the living room closet.  He then
wondered why he had bothered sparing this woman from the combined
wrath of Ryoko and Ayeka.  Oh, that's right, he thought.  A misguided
sense of justice.  Almost forgot about that.

	"Which is...?"

	"A local aquatic vertebrate used for food."  Katsuhito
feigned nonchalance at Kagato's piercing gaze.  Those eyes were oddly
pretty, in their own strange and perversely evil manner.  Katsuhito
looked away, pretending to pick at a fishbone.

	"Why is it cooked?"  A look of disgust crossed her face.

	"It's a local custom."  Katsuhito set down his chopsticks
and took a sip of tea, careful not to appear as if he were staring.
Not that he was, really.  After all, this was still Kagato, even if she
was shapely, boyishly slender, and had a pair of rather nice breasts
hiding under that form-fitting green dress.  Was this girl really
Kagato?  Katsuhito hoped not.  He wondered if Kagato had ever had a
sister by the same name.  It wasn’t impossible.  There were many
different strange societies of people in the universe.

	Katsuhito took a deep breath, and suppressed a sigh.  This
was definitely one of the most unusual breakfasts he had ever had.  At
least, ever since that morning that he tried serving his parents
breakfast in bed when he was a child.  Now that was memorable.
Katsuhito silently prayed that this breakfast wouldn't end in nudity.
On second thought, maybe he did...no.  Katsuhito forcibly put the
thought aside. After all, this was probably Kagato.

	"And this thing. Some sort of vegetable?  Why is it this
color?  It appears to be artificial."  Kagato peered sidewise at the
damp, strange-smelling yellow slices.

	"Pickled daikon."

	"Pickled?"

	"It's a local form of food preservation where the food is
preserved in brine or vinegar."

	"I see."  Kagato let her eyes run over the rest of the
unfamiliar dishes set about the table.  No use for further questioning;
experience had taught her that experiment was still the best solution
to solving problems, both scientific and breakfast.  One last look and
it was time to try.

	Her chopsticks reached out to a nearby dish whose red color
looked particularly appealing to her tastes.  This looked like
something similar to...to what?  Kagato couldn't remember.  Well, it
didn't matter, her system required food, and no matter how appalling
or barbaric it appeared, she would just have to cope with it.  Kagato
took an experimental bite.  Her expression changed significantly.

	Katsuhito tried not to laugh.  He reached out to pour her
some more tea.  She had such delicate hands with long, slender fingers.
He wondered if she had ever...no.

	"What.  Is.  This?"  Kagato managed to choke out.  Her eyes
narrowed dangerously at him as she quickly set down the little red
pickle of doom, and took a long drink of tea to clear out the
offensively sour flavor.

	"Umeboshi.  A pickled plum."

	"Are you trying to poison me?"

	"It's an acquired taste.  Perhaps you should try something
else.  The miso soup is very good this morning."

            "What is miso?  Another form of pickle?  These colonists
seem far too fond of such food preservation methods."

	"Fermented soybean paste."

	Kagato set down the bowl of rice, looking downright
murderous.  Katsuhito sighed, and took another sip of tea.  Perhaps
another strategy was in order.

	"So, is this your first time on earth?"





	“Miss Washu!  Miss Washu!”  The frantic pounding on her laboratory
door resounded neatly with her headache.  Mumbling to herself, Washu
dragged her head painfully up from her previous reclining position.
Last night had been a particularly long night.  Her experiment
had somehow glitched, and she had spent the rest of the night painfully
sorting through millions of lines of code to find the bug.  Painfully.
Her head throbbed at the effort.
	“Yes, yes, what is it?  And that’s ‘Little Washu.’”
Somehow that didn’t feel so funny this morning.  Good gods, all she
wanted was a nice quiet morning to sleep in and…

	Ayeka peeped in through the door.  “Excuse me. Washu-chan,
I’m sorry to bother you this early, but…you’ll have to see this one for
yourself.”

	“Well, whatever it is, it’d better be good.”  Washu pulled
herself straight, stood up, and started stalking toward the main house.
What was it with these people?  Just one quiet morning was all she
wanted, and now she was getting dragged out for yet another
‘emergency.’  What was it this time; did Ryo-ohki eat all the daikon
too?  Turning the corner toward the dining room, as she followed
Ayeka, Washu resumed her tirade.  “Because if this isn’t
earth-shattering, someone’s going to…Sweet Mother of Tsunami, what in
the…”

	Kagato looked up from her breakfast, turning to stare at
Washu, her eyes slowly taking in the diminutive scientist.  Seated
across from her, Katsuhito shrugged helplessly at Washu as the rest of
the household stood about nervously, as if waiting for Washu to make
a final assessment.  Washu tensed, preparing for the worst.
Instantly, her mind calculated the odds of Kagato appearing.  Not
completely unlikely, but as a woman?  A woman?  Suddenly her brain felt
as glitchy as last night’s experiment.

	"You.”  Kagato’s voice came in a clipped, almost authoritative
tone.  An odd look crossed Kagato’s face, and she reached up to adjust
her pince-nez.    Washu mentally prepared herself, silently arming
her defenses, ready to launch an array of offensive attacks and
neutralizers should they come.  What sort of trick was this?

	“I absolutely adore what you've done with your hair.  It’s quite
stylish."  As if to accentuate the point, Kagato brushed back her own
loose lock of silvery-pale hair.

	Washu then, did the absolutely most logical thing that any of the
other contenders for the title of the greatest genius in the universe would
have done in her place.  She face-faulted.





	“Okay, both of you stop talking.  You first, Ayeka.”  Washu
rubbed at her temples as the girls sat around her in the living room.
She could faintly hear Katsuhito and Kagato talking from the other room.
Was she flirting with him?  Light laughter filled the air.  Washu did
*not* want to know.  She turned her attention back to Ayeka.

	“…So you see, Washu-chan, that’s when I heard Tenchi cry out.
Naturally, I assumed that this was Ryoko’s doing, but then, when we
both ran into each other running to his room, we realized it was
something else.”  Ayeka worked the edge of her cloth belt nervously
in her fingers.

	“Right.”  Ryoko cut in.  “That’s when we found Tenchi in bed
with…with…it.”

	Ayeka glared at Ryoko.  “We were both about to do something
about it when Grandfather came up to see what was going on.  But it was
very strange.  She didn’t seem to recognize any of us.  Only Tenchi.”
	“Then the old coot sent us out of the room and told us to
get you to figure out what to do.  Of course, I stayed to make sure
that Tenchi was safe,” Ryoko added.

	“I’m scared, Washu.  What if he wants to hurt us?”  Sasami
looked distraught.  Ryo-ohki’s eyes were filled with sadness and
concern, as she pressed closer against Sasami.

	“That bastard wouldn’t be able to, not with me around,”
Ryoko stated defiantly, her hands clenched into fists.  A spark of hate
flashed through her eyes.  She wasn’t about to let anyone else get
revenge before her.

	“And me,” Ayeka added softly, her hand squeezing her
sister’s reassuringly.

	Washu’s voice took on a quiet, deadly serious tone.  “We don’t
know who this person is.  They look like Kagato, but we have to first
find out who this person is and what they want.  And make certain that
this is Kagato.  Maybe I can convince her to let me examine her.  Then
I can find out for certain.”





	Or not.

	“No.  That is impossible.”  Kagato leaned back comfortably against
the cushions of the couch, and looked up at the ceiling.  A pair of
feral yellow eyes glared at him from a thick wooden roofing beam before
disappearing with a soft whoosh.  Kagato blinked, and then turned her
attention back to Washu.

	Internally, Washu fumed.  She had expected her to be resistant,
she had expected her to be treacherous, but knowing that didn’t make
things easier.  And she thought that Ryoko was an infernal little bitch
when it came to talking her into a physical exam.

	“Oh, come on.  You’ve probably never had a medical examination
in your life.  Why don’t I give you a check-up?  In case you’ve caught
some virus or have some disease that we can’t diagnose from visual
observation.”

	“I’ll take my chances.”  A movement caught her eye and she turned her
head to see a pair of crimson eyes glaring at her as Ayeka walked past
the couch.  Kagato chanced a half-smile, only to be met with an
indignant humph and a quickened step.

	“So tell me, Kagato, since you don’t want me to help you out.  Where
did you come from?  Why are you here?”

	“Well, if the machines were correct, I am approximately three days
old today.  I woke up in a vat of goo about 70 hours ago, I think.  Oh my,
almost four.  What lovely milestones I’m making today.”

	Washu’s jaw dropped.  Three days?  THREE DAYS?  She quickly got her
expression in order.

	“Th…that doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

	“Oh, that.”  Kagato waved her hand dismissively.  “My memories are
incomplete, but I do remember a few things.  Most notably, Tenchi.
I thought by coming here I could solve the lack of complete memories.
Plus, I believe he owes me one, as it were.  After all, he did kill me.
Well, at least the original.”

	“You know about that?  How do you know!”

	“Please.”  Kagato rolled her eyes.  “Any half-witted child
armed with a name and some patience can bring up the information via the
Galactic Network.  See?”  Kagato raised her hands and a spectral screen
appeared.  She typed out a few words, and suddenly news report after
news report cycled through the screen on the demise of the Ruins
Buster.  She turned the screen disparagingly toward Washu.

	Washu took a deep breath.  As she opened her mouth to speak,
Ryo-ohki peeked out from behind a chair, her long silver-blue hair
cascading around her shoulders, tiny fingers clutching the side of the 
chair,
the edge of her little carrot dress pressed against the heavy
upholstered fabric.

	Kagato suddenly stood up and walked over.  Quickly.  Washu sprang
up, ready to protect the child-formed Ryo-ohki as Kagato fell to her knees
before her.  Ryo-ohki’s eyes grew wide with surprise, her nose testing
the air with all the enhanced senses of a cabbit.

	Kagato pressed her hands against Ryo-ohki’s shoulders, and looked
closely into her crystalline eyes.

	“Ryo…ohki?”

	Ryo-ohki nodded shyly.  A little ‘miya’ escaped her lips.

	“Oh!”  Kagato pulled Ryo-ohki close in one quick movement,
clutching her tight.  Washu nearly fell over herself trying to run over
to the two.

	“Oh my poor little Ryo-ohki!  What have these people been doing
to you?  Has that nasty Washu done something awful to my precious one?”

	Washu hit the floor with a thud.





	An hour later, Ryoko and Kagato were sitting on the couch, Ryoko
barely managing to contain her anger and bitterness at the whole situation.
Washu had stomped off to her lab for some ‘research’ and had charged
Ryoko and Ayeka with the task of ‘keeping Kagato company,’ but that
damned Ayeka had decided to weasel out of the situation by saying she
had to go care for her little sister.

	Ryoko muttered to herself.  “Coward.”

	“Hmm?”  Kagato finally broke the tense silence between
them.

	“It’s none of your business.  Why don’t you go drink some
more of that tea of yours?”  Ryoko crossed her arms, and looked away.

	“Yes.  Thank you.”  Kagato looked at the heavy ceramic
cup in her hands, the ridged mug radiating heat to her hands.  Such a
sensation.  She took a sip of the delicately flavored tea, letting
the steam rise up around her face and gently cloud her pince-nez.
She turned her head towards the window.  Outside, the snow fell
silently, masking the world in whiteness.

	“Ryoko.”

	Ryoko turned back to Kagato irritably.  “What?”

	“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.  I’ve read so much
about you.”

	Ryoko hid her initial surprise behind a mask of hostility.

	“Don’t play your games with me, Kagato.  I don’t care what
you look like.  You’re still you with all your stupid tricks.  You know
who I am.”

	“Do I?”  Kagato breathed into the cup, and inhaled the
fragrant vapors evaporating off of the hot tea.  “There’s not a lot I
remember.”

	“You remembered Washu.”

	“Yes.”

	“You remembered Ryo-ohki.”

	“Yes.  That was a surprise to both of us, I believe.”

	“You remembered Tenchi.”

	“Yes.”

	“You don’t remember me.”

	“No.”

	“Drink your tea.”





	This was ridiculous.  Tenchi knew he should listen to the
dictates of his grandfather, but he was starving.  It was already
mid-morning, and the noise from downstairs had subsided to the usual
morning bustle, albeit with less broken dishes.  Mihoshi must be
sleeping in, he thought.

	But enough was enough.  He had finished his morning
ablutions over an hour ago, and had been sitting around half-heartedly
trying to finish some math homework, with the bulk of his attention
attuned to the sounds of the household for signs of danger.  If by now
they had decided that whoever woke him up so unexpectedly this morning
was dangerous, he would have known.  Tenchi decided to go down.

	“Ohaiyo, every…” His words trailed off as he descended
the staircase.

	Ryoko and Kagato were sitting on opposite ends of the couch,
studiously ignoring each other.  Ryoko and Kagato.  The way the two
of them sat,with their basic postures and expressions identical.  Both
unconsciously mirroring each other.  Tenchi blinked as if to clear away
the image.  So that’s where she got it from, Tenchi thought,
astonished.  All this time he thought that it came from Washu…

	“Oh, good morning Tenchi!”  Ryoko quickly floated up toward
him, glad to be excused from her tiresome guest.  She folded her arms
around him familiarly, and pressed her cheek to his.  “And how are you
this morning?”

	Tenchi flailed, his mind still on the red-in-yellow
eyes that watched the two of them ironically.

	“Um, hi Ryoko.  Heh, I was just thinking of what a
wonderful breakfast Sasami must have for us.”  He gently shrugged
her off, and continued down the stairs.  Kagato raised her hand over
her mouth, hiding a trace of a sharp smile.

	Just then, another pair of feet came clattering down the
stairs, knocking Tenchi off balance.  Ryoko quickly reached out to
steady him.

	“Oh my, I must have overslept again!  Sasami-chan!
Do you need help with the dishes?”  Mihoshi pattered down the stairs,
her hair in a happy disarray, as she absently tugged her morning coat
on over her pajamas.

	Mihoshi froze when she saw Kagato sitting by herself on the
couch.

	“WAH?!”

	Kagato raised a hand and waved to Mihoshi, a little sarcastic
motion of her fingers.  Tenchi’s eyes followed Mihoshi as she raced back
up the stairs.  He turned to Ryoko.

	“Did she just say that she knows what to do?”

	Ryoko shrugged helplessly.

	Suddenly, Mihoshi ran back in and pounded down the stairs,
lugging a splashing plastic tub of water.  Droplets flew as she skidded
to a halt behind Kagato.

	“I saw this in on TV once!  It should work!”  Mihoshi
announced triumphantly, as she dumped the contents of the tub onto
Kagato’s head.  Kagato coughed and sputtered in surprise as lukewarm
soapy water poured down her head, soaking her to the skin.  A few bras,
followed by some underwear splatted wetly onto her shoulders and head.

	Tenchi’s eyes grew wide, and he ran back upstairs, holding
a hand to his nose, Ryoko following in his wake.

	“Uh oh.”  Mihoshi’s expression grew sheepish as Kagato
stood up and turned around, a pair of panties falling to the floor
behind her.  Kagato’s eyes gleamed with anger.

	“Um, I guess that didn’t work?”  Mihoshi giggled nervously.

	“If you wanted to make me very angry, then yes, that did
work.”

	“Oh.  I thought maybe you would turn back into a boy.  You
know, like on TV.”

	Kagato merely glared.  A bra slid off Kagato’s shoulder and
landed with a wet slap onto the ground.

	“Er…let me get you a towel…”





	“Is this another one of your local customs?  Taking baths
on the furniture in the middle of the house?”  Kagato wrung water out
of her sleeves furiously.  Impatiently, she began to unbutton the top
of her dress.

	Katsuhito’s eyes widened momentarily, before he feigned
nonchalance, coughing into one hand.

	“I’m terribly sorry.  Mihoshi can be…enthusiastic.”

	“Well, this is ridiculous.  This dress is ruined.”  Kagato
pulled off the rest of the top of her dress, letting it hang around
her slim bare waist as she turned to wring water out of her hair,
puddles of soapy liquid pooling on the linoleum of the kitchen floor.

	Katsuhito turned slightly pink, and grew increasingly
flushed as Kagato moved to slide the rest of the dress off.

	“Well, um…oh, hello, Mihoshi.  Why don’t you take our guest
to the onsen where she can freshen up?”

	“Oh, Miss Kagato!  Um…aren’t you cold?  You…um…look
a little…er…perky…  Do you want a towel?  I brought two.  This one’s
pink because all the girls use the pink towels, but this one’s green,
because I thought maybe you might like a green towel and…and…Miss
Kagato?”

	Kagato glared at Katsuhito, her scarlet eyes flashing.
He looked away, embarrassed.

	“Point it out to me, I can find it myself.”





	“Daaaad!  What are you doing?”  Tenchi had found his father
with a pair of high-powered binoculars in the upstairs sitting area.
“I thought you said you bought this for bird watching!”

	“It’s a special kind of bird, Tenchi.  I’m just doing a
little research on our visitor.”  Nobuyuki looked up at Tenchi for a
second, and winked.  “Now quiet, I’m trying to…ooh, that’s nice.  She
might be cold, but she’s got some legs to die for.”

	Tenchi sighed, exasperated.

	“Dad, will you cut it out?”

	“Oh come on, I’m just having a little fun.  What’s the harm in it?”

	“Dad, you do know that she used to be a man, right?”

	“Really?”  Nobuyuki paused as he refocused the binoculars. “Well,
they’re doing  some really great things with surgery these days.”





	Kagato took a deep, calming breath.  Above her, snow fell
onto the clear dome, melting and dissipating as it hit the warm glass.
Around her, wisps of hot steam curled about her as she sank deeper
into the hot water, the soothing heat soaking into her limbs, making
her finally realize how cold her surface temperature had been.  She
stared at her body, made up of pale flawless skin unblemished
by scars.  She let her fingers drift to the soft, rounded breasts
and other secondary sex characteristics that established her gender
to the world.

	This was her body, yet it was not.

	She let her mind sweep through a kaleidoscope of broken
memories and incomplete data, thousands of technical terms,
impressively long numerical sequences, and the rush of power as
thousands of tons of metal, stone, and ceramic moved at her command.
A sherd of memory, the refusal to indulge in such physical tactile
experiences as hot baths.  A sensation, the overriding cold of
loneliness.

	Kagato sighed, and let herself sink further into the water
until her whole body was immersed, her long hair floating about her in
a silvery-blue veil.  She held her breath; she closed her eyes, as the
water gently lapped about her, and imagined being born again into this
world, rising from the waters.




	“Ta da!”  Washu unveiled a grab-bag assortment of various
devices.  Little metal and wooden toys bounced around, spun, or
vibrated off the coffee table as she dumped them out.  “As I was
saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, if I can’t get her to
submit to a test, these probes can secretly seek and collect samples
for me.  I’ll put them everywhere.  All I need is a hair!”  Washu
gloated, rubbing her hands together.  “It’s so perfect!  Oh, I am such
a genius.”
	“Yeah, you just keep saying that, mom.”  Ryoko rolled her
eyes in exasperation as everyone crowded around to see Washu’s latest
and greatest.  Good luck, she thought.  You’re going to need it.




	Kagato yawned and stretched.  That was enough of that.  As
she stepped out of the steamy bath, her hair plastered wetly to her
shoulders, a movement flickered out of the corner of her eyes.  Without
thinking, almost as though it were instinctual, her hand lashed out and
a pure beam of green light shot out, blasting something into pieces.

	Kagato shrugged.  Oh well.  Hopefully it wasn’t something
too valuable, she thought.  Suddenly, something else moved behind her
and she spun around to meet it…





	“Damnit!  Three down!  Well, not to worry…I’ve got another
three hundred thousand of these babies…” Washu grinned as she activated
a dozen little probes…





	Three weeks and two hundred thousand nine hundred ninety
nine probes later…

	“You do realize that your efforts are futile, don’t you?”
Kagato stated coolly, as her chopsticks dipped into the hot udon bowl,
steam fogging up her pince-nez.

	“I’ll get you tomorrow.”  Washu busily mixed up the various
vegetables into her soup.  “I’ve got time.”

	“Time?  You’ll need more than that, my dear.”  Kagato
delicately picked out a limp square of seaweed, examining it closely.

	“Oh yeah?  Well who’s the greatest scientific genius in the
universe?  It definitely isn’t you.”  Washu stabbed a pink and white
slice of fish cake and shoved it in her mouth, chewing furiously.

	“No, but I hear it’s short fuzzy girl with an attitude
problem.  Oh, what was her name again?  Started with a ‘Y’?”  Kagato
finally decided to put the seaweed into her mouth, and chewed
experimentally.

	“You haven’t changed a bit in the last five thousand
years.  You’re still the smarmy little bottle-washing assistant
who can’t stand to lose.  Oh, you know I’ll get you on my lab table
if it’s the last thing that I do.”  Washu glared as she sprinkled
Japanese sansho pepper into her bowl.

	“Try me.”  Kagato poked at the fish cake, trying to decide
what kind of food amalgam it was.  Just because Washu ate it didn’t
mean that it was palatable.  She had always felt that Washu’s taste
was irrevocably bad.

	“Um, girls, do you mind?  We’re trying to have a nice
dinner and…”

	“YOU STAY OUT OF THIS, TENCHI.”  Kagato and Washu fumed
at each other as they realized they had both spoken simultaneously,
before turning away to studiously ignore each other.

	Ryoko nudged Ayeka, and they both rolled their eyes.

	“They’re totally hopeless.”

	“Utterly incorrigible.”







Disclaimers and thanks:

All characters belong to AIC and Pioneer.

Special thanks goes out to SC, Cyrus Marriner, Dr. Geoduck, and Mary
Morris for their help in pre-reading, especially Mary who suggested
some of the jokes, including the binoculars scene.

Please feel free join us in #muyoff on Dal.net for Tenchi fanfiction
discussion and general chat.  http://www.muyo.org/muyoff/muyoff.html

http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=119143

Author’s notes: A visit to Kagato's lab?  Non-stop girl-girl action!
And who is Kagato's long-lost boyfriend?!  All this and more, in future
chapters of “Second Chances.”

Questions and comments can be sent to cori_ohki@hotmail.com.
Thank you for reading.