Ryo sat up quickly and coughed up a mouthful of water.  Looking 
around, he found himself in a canal.  _How'd I end up...  Last I 
remember, I was fighting a... Chinese Amazon?_  The pig-tailed boy stood 
up.  As he did, his body reminded him quite painfully that he hadn't won 
the fight.  "Godai?  Tachi?" he shouted.  "Are you guys all right?"
	There was no response, so Ryo jumped over the fence.  Godai and 
Tachi were nowhere to be seen.  In fact, there was no evidence of a fight 
at all.  _This is weird.  I know I'm not dreaming._
	The watch on Ryo's arm chimed the hour.  "Damn!"  _I'm dead late 
for class.  And I look like a mess.  Should I go to the clinic and get 
patched up, or should I go home and change?  Home.  I wouldn't want 
Bell-chan to see me looking like this._
	His decision made, Ryo started running through Nerima.  In next to 
no time he stood outside the door of Ucchan's.  "Mom, Pop, I'm home."
	A strange woman stood on the other side of the counter, cleaning the 
grill.  "Who are you?" she asked.
	"Who are you?" Ryo shot back.  "And what are you doing in my 
parent's restaurant?"  There was something wrong about this woman; Ryo 
could sense such things, but considering who his parents were, gender 
identification was a survival skill.  "Wait!  You're not a woman, you're 
a man!  You're Tsubasa, aren't you?  Mom warned me  about you."  Ryo made 
a fist.  "I don't know what you're playing at, but get out.  Now."
	"I'm not Tsubasa," the man said.  "But if you want a fight...

	"And stay out," was the last thing Ryo heard as he went flying 
through the front window.  The pig-tailed boy landed hard on the other 
side of the street.  He wiped his face with his hands; they came away 
streaked with blood and lipstick.
	_This is way too strange.  Pop won't be happy when he finds out I've 
lost two fights in a row, but there's nothing I can do about that now._  
The pig-tailed boy stood up.  He wobbled a bit as he walked.  _I guess 
I'd better go to the clinic.  Maybe I've been hit in the head too many 
times today._

* * * * *

	Spring sat up.  The water, which had been over her head a minute 
ago, was now only a foot deep.  There was no sign of the pony-tailed boy, 
or of the nosy cousin, and there was no hole in the fence.  _Did I get 
carried downstream?_
	Spring stood up and twisted her long, purple braid, wringing out 
a good deal of water.  [This entire trip has been a disaster.  I've been 
in three fights, and I've lost the only boy who came close to beating 
me.  Great-great-grandmother is not going to be happy.  Not at all.]
	The young Amazon jumped out of the canal and on to the sidewalk.  
A loud growl from her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten 
breakfast.  [I'd better, no-]  "Spring need find restaurant."
	A short time later Spring found a promising place.  The sign even 
said Nekohanten.  "It just like home!"
	"Shampoo!" a voice cried from inside the restaurant.  "There you 
are!  I love you, Shampoo!"  A long-haired boy with glasses came running 
out the door.  Spring did what any well-trained girl in Nerima would do, 
and Mousse soon found himself in Low Earth Orbit.
	[That's it!  I've had it with this stupid country!  I don't know 
how Great-great-grandmother expects me to find a husband.]  Spring began 
walking, not caring which way she went.  Intervening walls and buildings 
paid the price of her frustration.
 ______
{B-{=__
rmckenzi@euclid.ucsd.edu : The White-Robed Mathematician