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    Ayeka studied her.  Who was this girl, and what was the thing
    that bothered her so much?
    For her part, Meiru seemed focused on Ryoko. Did this girl
    dislike Ryoko as much as she did? Ayeka smiled. Maybe this girl
    wasn't so bad after all.


    -Chapter 2-

    Meiru sat in Washuu's lab, holding her arm out and blinking "I'd
    like to keep what I started with this time." She said, cryptically.
    "Huh?" Tenchi asked nearby.
    "Nothing to concern yourself with." Washuu told him.
    "Are you all right?" Tenchi asked, once Washuu was done.
    "I'm fine." Meiru clipped.
    Tenchi leaned forward to kiss her, softly, feeling overwhelmed, when
    she slapped him, raking her nails across his face.
    "Ow!!" Tenchi complained. "What the..?"

    "Tenchi?" Ayeka asked a short time later, seeing the remainder of the
    scratches. "Eeek!  What happened? Did Ryoko do that... I *knew* she'd
    show her true colors one of these days."
    "It wasn't Ryoko. It was Meiru.  I was... ermm..."
    "You were what?!" Ayeka asked.
    Tenchi balked. If he told Ayeka he got swatted trying to steal a kiss...
    "You *kissed* her, didn't you?!" Ayeka's eyes began to water and Tenchi
    was feeling more and more like a heel (and not the first-class variety
    either) with each passing moment. "You're in love with her and not me!"
    Ayeka ran out of the room, sobbing.
    "Ayeka!" Tenchi cried, going after her.  "Wait!"
    "Huh?!" Meiru objected. "You're going after *her*? I'm glad I didn't
    let you kiss me, you ...monster."
    Tenchi decided he'd call a monastery as soon as he had a free moment.
    Why had he wanted to kiss Meiru so badly? Ryoko always threw herself at
    him and he didn't kiss her, nor did he kiss Ayeka or Mihoshi. He'd never
    even given Sasami a kiss on the cheek.
    Meiru approached him. For some reason, maybe it was the wound she'd
    inflicted earlier, he didn't want to kiss her now.
    "I'm sorry I slapped you." She told him. "It wasn't entirely your fault
    that you kissed me.  Washuu sprayed me with some of her pheremone perfume
    earlier."
    "Ah, so that's why." Tenchi sounded relieved.
    Washuu grinned, guiltily, in the corner, snapped on her rubber gloves,
    and whisper-called "Oh, Tenchi...!"
    Tenchi stood there with large bead of sweat rolling down his forehead.

    -Chapter 3-

    Tears fell in abundance from Mihoshi's eyes as she read the invitation
    once again. Her grandfather, the Grand Marshall of the Galaxy Police,
    was amongst those being remembered at service honoring those lost in
    the destruction of Galaxy Police Seventh Headquarters. She'd loved her
    grandfather and felt horrible about his death. Had she made a mistake
    in coming back to Earth, she wondered six or seven times a night.

    "Are you going?" Meiru asked, reading the invitation over her shoulder.
    "Of course." Mihoshi replied. She looked up. "Will you come, too?"
    "Sure. I'd like to pay my last respects to Lt. Trakal."
    "Trakal?" Mihoshi blinked. "I didn't know he had a girlfriend. I always
    thought he was too shy."
    Trakal had been called many things, Meiru recalled, but this was
    the first time *anyone* had ever called him "shy".
    "Were you and Trakal very close?" Mihoshi asked.
    "You could say that." Meiru nodded.
    "Wow.. did you and Trakal ever kiss? I'd like to kiss Tenchi some day,"
    Mihoshi giggled. "I can't believe I'm telling you this!"
    "No, I never kissed Trakal." Meiru sighed.
    "Then I guess all those rumors I heard are true." Mihoshi giggled.
    "What rumors?" Meiru wanted to know.
    "That all those tales he let be spread about his sexual prowess aren't
    neccessariy true." Mihoshi blushed.
    "Come again?" Meiru blinked.
    "Well, " Mihoshi smiled, "I don't know if its true, but the rumors are
    that Trakal was still a virgin."
    Meiru *piku*'ed twice then fell over, stiffly, backward.
    "Was it something I said?" Mihoshi wondered.

    -Chapter 4-

    Commander Saarnd waited for Mihoshi to arrive.  Mihoshi and her guests
    were the last ones he was waiting for. Once they were there, he'd start
    the memorial service.
    "They're here." Kurata told him.
    Saarnd looked up and saw Mihoshi standing there with Kiyone, who'd
    picked her up, Sasami, Ayeka and a girl he'd never seen before.
    The girl looked over at him, a fierce calm in her eyes, nodded once,
    crisply, in formal military greeting (Saarnd wondered why) then focused
    on the service in an entirely non-civilian manner.

    Saarnd began.

    "We are here today," he told the survivors of Seventh Headquarters and
    the families of those who had been lost, "to pay tribute to those who
    were slain in the escape of the Class A Criminal: KAIN. To those men and
    women we send our thanks for all they have done in the line of duty. And
    to their families we offer our prayers and condolences. May their
    examples be a beacon for us as we continue to serve.  I wish I could give
    them each the proper recognition, but Kain stole so many from us that we
    just don't have time.  However, due to information provided by Mihoshi
    and Kiyone, I'd like to take a moment to remember Lt. Trakal, who died,
    not at Seventh Headquarters, but in direct combat with Kain. May his
    spirit dwell in peace forever."
    "Ol' softy." Meiru sniffled.
    "He'd have found any excuse to mention Trakal." A survivor near her
    told her. "That Draalthi was like a son to him. I remember him saying
    how he wished he could get Trakal to open up. He was always so worried
    that Trakal was so closed."
    "Why?"
    "He cared about Trakal. Saarnd lost his wife and unborn child in a
    raid on Thurn and when Trakal was found in the ruins of Ratala IV,
    Saarnd felt he'd found a kindred soul. But Trakal, I guess, just wasn't
    able to handle the loss of his family."
    "I never knew..." Meiru whispered.
    "What?"
    "Nothing." Meiru replied aloud. To herself she added, mentally "Damn,
    that was too close."

    "Commander?" the same survivor spoke to Saarnd much later that day, at
    the post-service reception. He looked troubled, and not by the low food
    selection.
    "What seems to be the problem?"
    "It's Meiru. Mihoshi's young friend."
    "What of her."
    "I think there might be more to her than meets the eye."
    "What do you mean?"
    "I think she might be Lt. Trakal."
    "Look," Saarnd said, sympathetically, "I know you miss Lt. Trakal, but
    you have to accept it. He's dead. He was killed in the destruction of
    Seventh Headquarters with everyone else."
    "They never found his body. Maybe he escaped?"
    "And now he's hanging out at his own funeral disguised as a teenaged
    girl?" Saarnd shook his head. "You know how that sounds?"

    The subject of the debate approached them. "Hello, sir." She said to
    Saarnd. "That was a very moving speech."
    "I noticed you weren't crying much." the survivor pointed out.
    "Lieutenant," Saarnd told the survivor.
    Meiru started to turn, but stopped herself.  It didn't go unnoticed by
    the survivor.
    "But then, you always did have a heart of stone, Trakal." the survivor
    told Meiru.
    Meiru swallowed.  "Uh..." Oh god, how does he know, she fingered the
    folds of her skirt, looking away.
    Meiru turned to the young operative whom she, as Trakal, had trained.
    He smiled. "You trained me well, sir... um, ma'am.. err.. lieutenant."

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 * SLMR 2.1a * "He's the one!!! He's been spying on us!!!"  ... Ryoko