Tenchi Muyo in Love/Nightmare Cafe:


"Mommy, Can I Arrest You?"


 The busboy wiped down the tables and whistled in tune with the Jukebox
which was, for some reason, playing a pretty Japanese melody.
 The waitress smiled, cheerfully, as she prepared coffee for whomever might
walk in next.
 "Ochira." The owner of the establishment nodded at the jukebox. "Good tune."
 He was a middle aged man with a receding hairline, roman nose, and a thin
but not quite wiry frame. His thinning blond hair was curly and he had the look of a
1920's gambler about him. He was dressed 'to the nines' as they used to say, his clothes
out of place in the humble roadside diner he now haunted. He smiled, knowingly, and nodded
to the door.
 "Customer coming." He alerted his staff.
 Neither of the pair who worked for him questioned how he might now this. They'd been in
his service far too long.

 The door opened and a creature from their darkest nightmares walked in. He was
humanoid, of average height, probably not much older than a teenager judging by his
slender frame. His long chestnut brown hair was pulled into a neckline ponytail, but much
of it was hanging loosely about his face. His left arm, in fact most of him, was cover
with soft fur.... not hair... *fur*... and his face bore the features of an exotic bat.

 For a moment, no one moved. Then the owner nodded to the waitress who approached the
newcomer and poured him a cup of coffee with a trembling hand, continuing to pour even
after the coffee had reached the top of the cup.
 The newcomer cleared his throat.
 "Oh. Sorry." The waitress apologized.
 "Quite all right." the newcomer smiled. "I like having two servings of coffee.
Of course,
 I usually don't have both of them poured into my cup at the same time..."
 The waitress smiled. "May I take your order?"
 "Just a bit of miso soup." the newcomer replied.
 The waitress started to say that it wasn't on the menu when she saw that it now was.
 "I'm never going to get used to that." she told herself as she prepared the newcomer's
meal and set it before him.
 "So," the busboy asked. "We don't get many like you in here...What brings you here
to the All Night Cafe...?"
 "It's a long story...." The Operative began.
 Blackie smiled at the Operative. "Start at the Galaxy Police Headquarters' destruction
and end at Tokyo Tower." He suggested.

 The Operative stood gaping at the man for a moment. Then, he launched into a full
explanation of the events that had taken place.

 When he was done. Blackie nodded.
 "Wish it ended differently?"
 "What do you think?" The Operative griped.
 "I think you should step outside and get some fresh air." Blackie offered.
 "I think I will." The Operative retorted. He stomped out of the cafe and  into one of the
shopping plazas at Ueno Park. realizing he forgot his mask, he whirled around...

 ... but the cafe was gone.

 The Operative looked around, trying to find shelter. Everything looked so much bigger,
but he couldn't figure out why.  As he was wandering through the park, he spotted himself
sitting on the bench. He ran over to himself,  not sure why he felt compelled to do so,
and suddenly he tripped, falling face first onto the paved walkway. A surge of pain
coursed through his muzzle and he opened his mouth to scream in annoyance.

 Instead he found himself wailing and crying.

 The cry attracted the attention of the Operative who was sitting on the bed trying to
relax. He blinked at the copy of himself that was sitting on the ground, wailing up a
storm. Same eyes, same face, everything was the same...

 ...except that this copy of him was five years old.

 Five years, not disguised, and wailing and crying up a storm.
 There was a crowd forming around the wailing child.  None of those involved were trying
 to help. They just stood there and gawked.
 Some of the more talkative ones were rather cruel.

 "I feel sorry for his poor mother."
 "Must be abandonned. I sure wouldn't keep a kid who looked like that."
 "Whoever his mother was, I'll be she had herself sterilized after she gave birth to that
monstrosity."
 The child wailed louder.

 The Operative stood up from the bench and walked over to the wailing child. He knelt down
and pulled the handkerchief from his pocket.
 The child looked up at the Operative  and blinked.
 "Don't cry, little one." The Operative told him. "You're going to be okay."
 "How can you touch that monster?" A man asked him in horror.
 The Operative glared up at the crowd. "This child is the only one I see here who isn't a
monster." He told them. He turned back to the child and tended to his wounds.
"There..
Feel better now?"
 "Uh huh." the child replied.
 "So," The Operative asked, "you're a long way from home. What brings you here?"
 "I'm gonna beat up this evil creature called Kain." the child told him, throwing a few
 kawaii punches with his tiny fists.
 "Oh are you?" The Operative blinked.
 "Uh huh!" The child nodded. "Kain mine!"
 The Operative chuckled. "I think you're a little small to be taking on Kain all by
 yourself." "How do *you* know about Kain?" The Operative looked up from the child and
 found himself face to face with Ryoko. Ryoko pulled the child out of the Operative's arms
 and ran over to the bridge with the
Opertive in pursuit.  She held the child out over the side of the bridge. "Now talk." She
said. "How do you know Kain?"
 "You wouldn't dare!" The Operative snarled. "Put him down... please?"
 Ryoko grinned and made to drop the child into the cold water.
 The Operative dove at her to pull the child away. Just before he reached her, she backed
up and the Operative, now having nothing to stop his momentum, tumbled over the side of
the bridge and into the water.
 Ryoko looked over the edge of the bridge and saw what looked like a long flap of skin
hanging there. "Yuck." She said realizing the boy'd torn his face open. He'd been
extremely annoying in his persistant following of her, but she had to admit that if he'd
turned up missing one day, she would've missed his gaze almost as much as she claimed she
hated it.
 A moment later, the rest of the boy's face surfaced.
 "A mask?" She asked herself.
 *YANK!*
 "OW!!" Ryoko protested as she looked angrily at the five year old. Still gripping him,
 she leaped off the bridge and retrieved the mask from the surface of the lake. Still 
standing there, on the water, she looked at the mask. There was a message written on
 "Ryoko," it read, "you hold my future in your hands. You are not the first person I would
choose to be my mother, but circumstances leave me with no choice.  Your past rival and
future son, Tantei-A.  PS, my given name is Trakal."

Lt. Trakal
Operative of the Galaxy Police SIU