"TENCHI MUYO"
                          "Paradox"

                          chapter I

    Tenchi carried the plate of food over to the table and knelt down to eat.
He went to move his arms when he found them annoyingly pinned. A moment
later, Ryoko appeared there with her arms wrapped tightly around him.
    "Morning, Tenchi darling!" She laughed, delightedly.
    "What are you up to *this* time?"
    "Nothing, why?"
    "Ryoko..."
    "I'm.... um..." Ryoko grinned, guiltily.
    Tenchi became very suspicious.

    Washuu tapped away on the keys of her subspace computer. She was studying
the timeline from the Kain Incident to the present and comparing it with the
original pre-Kain timeline. She noticed a shift, minute at first, but getting
steadily worse. What was the cause? Kain had been destroyed, Achika had lived
and had married Nobuyuki and had Tenchi. They had been successful, but now
something was threatening the present once again. Had Tenchi left something
behind? Perhaps dropped something near the school when his mind had been on
his mother? She had to find out. "I must know!"

    Ryoko answered the doorbell and a rodentine figure pushed her aside and
walked into the kitchen. He was half a head shorter than the Operative she'd
met in 1970, and didn't have the facial markings she'd seen on him.
    "Tenchi!" Ryoko called in warning.
    Tenchi looked up into the rodentine face and toppled backward in fright.
    The rodentine being stood there, patiently. He'd been through *this*
before.
    "You finished your morning work out?" He asked.
    "Huh?" Tenchi blinked.
    The rodentine being took out a small device and activated it. He spoke
to the device. "Are you *sure* this is the crown prince of the planet Jurai?"
    "Affirmative." The device replied.
    The rodentine being returned the device to his pocket. "You can call me
Seija." he told them. "I've come back to ask for your help."
    "Why? What's wrong?"
    Seija looked at Tenchi. "The future is dying."
    "Would you mind explaining that?" Washuu asked.
    Everyone turned toward Washuu.
    Seija nodded. "I was at a ceremony being held on Jurai honoring Rodeni
Ambassador Naoki who was there with his wife when the Ambassador suddenly
vanished. No one knows much about his past, so tracking him down has been
all but impossible. However, I realized that whatever caused his sudden
disappearance had to have occured in the past and the Galaxy Police suspected
it might have had to do with an incident involving a criminal named Kain. I
looked up the file on Kain and found almost nothing except a remark that he
was after the House of Jurai. Since you're from that House, I figured this
would be a good place to start."
    "Just who is Ambassador Naoki anyhow?" Ryoko asked, suspiciously.
    Seija looked through his photos, most of them had gone blank, but one,
taken prior to the Kain Incident, was still good. He handed it to Ryoko.
    "The Operative!"
    "Operative?" Tenchi asked.
    "He was back in 1970 with us. Had a huge vendetta against Kain. He was
either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid."
    "Hmmm....." Washuu looked up at Seija. "Just what *was* he being honored
for?"
    "Before retiring from the Galaxy Police and becoming an ambassador, Naoki
had made an arrest which had resulted in the downfall of a rather nasty
politician. That downfall was what paved the way for the alliance between the
Rodeni and the planet Jurai. No arrest, no alliance."
    Tenchi studied the picture Ryoko had handed to him. "He's dead." He said.
    "WHAT?!"
    Tenchi handed the picture back to Seija. "He was killed by Kain. I saw
his body. Well, part of it anyhow. I ... oops."
    Washuu grabbed the picture and studied it carefully, she noticed the
right arm of the figure in the picture was not organic, if even a part of
that arm had remained intact, and if the body had been discovered...
    "We have to go back for him." Washuu decided.

                        chapter 2

    Tenchi, Seija, and Ryoko found themselves in Washuu's time machine.
"I'm sending you back in time to 1970 again. Get Naoki and get out of
of there, understood. Now I'm sending you back to two days before Kain
offed the poor guy, otherwise the temporal flux will interfere with the
Dimensional Cannon, so don't try to influence your other selves. In fact,
you must avoid meeting yourselves at all costs."
    "What about the others?" Ryoko asked. "Why aren't they coming?"
    "Sending all of you back would increase the chances of one of you
running into your counterpart." Washuu explained. "Its too risky."
    The three companions spun faster and faster.
    "Not *again*!!!" Ryoko complained.
    "Aaaaargh!" from Tenchi
    Seija lowered his muzzle and slipped on his mask. It was similar to
Naoki's but the hair was black instead of dark auburn and the skintone was
not as pale.
    "His was much cuter." Ryoko observed.

                    Chapter 3

    Seija shook himself off as he stepped out of the bath and then began
fastidiously grooming himself.
    Tenchi and Ryoko were both awakened by the splattering of water and
sat up in their sleeping bags.
    "Pleasant morning, don't you think?" Seija asked as he slipped some
clothes onto the dry parts of his body.
    "Sure thing!" Ryoko replied, cheerfully, adding under her breath, "if
you like waking up to the smell of wet rat."


 * SLMR 2.1a * "Waaaaaaaah! Where's Kiyone?!!"  ... Mihoshi