Chapter Two
Problems

	On Earth, in a small secluded area of Japan, stood the normal looking
Masaki Shrine.  However, the people who lived in this shrine called
their lives anything but normal as each of them tended to one task or
another.  
	Aeka Masaki Jurai, the purple-haired princess of the planet Jurai, was
attempting to get the young boy Tenchi Masaki to eat some of her
experimental cooking.  Sasami Masaki Jurai, Aeka�s blue pig-tailed
younger sister, was playing fetch with the cabbit Ryo-ohki and a carrot,
getting frustrated that the carrot never returned.  Washu Hakubi, the
self proclaimed �Greatest scientific genius in the universe� and
parent/creator of the blue-haired girl, Ryoko Masaki, was experimenting
with yet another of her specimens.  Mihoshi Kuramitsu, the blonde headed
and rather ditzy Galaxy Police Officer, was practicing her blaster
skills with her more level-headed partner, Kiyone Makibi, teaching her. 
Ryoko was nowhere to be found, although no one noticed, relieved that
there was no trouble originating from her.

	�But Lord Tenchi, I spent hours working on this food for you,� Aeka
pleaded, holding out a wooden spoon filled with what looked like rice
overflowing from it.  A few pieces broke off, landing on her yellow and
purple kimono, creating small holes as the food substance burned through
the fabric.
	�No really, Aeka, I�m not that hungry.  I appreciate what you�re trying
to do for me but, Urmph,� he said, then was suddenly assaulted by the
spoon.  When he choked down the solid hard (?!) pieces, his skin
suddenly turned a sickly green, he grabbed his throat with both hands,
started gagging and he ran off in some random direction.
	�Lord Tenchi!  Humph, he can not appreciate good home cooking.  Hmm,
urph!� Aeka said, tasting the weird rice herself. She bit once, twice,
then a third time and  turned a pale bluish color.  She jumped up, her
long purple braids flung through the air, and ran off in the opposite
direction of Tenchi.
	Mihoshi looked at Aeka as the princess ran off and wondered aloud,
�Wonder what�s wrong with her?�.  She then fired a shot from her blaster
while her head was turned to follow the Jurain princess�s frantic
sprint.
	The energy blast ripped from the barrel striking a straw dummy through
the chest.  The gapping hole lined with a blackish substance that
somehow filled the gap.  In seconds the hole was gone and replaced by
fresh new hay and a leather cover.
	�Will you please concentrate on your practice!  I promised your
grandfather I would teach you how to be a real detective.  Now watch the
dummy, dummy!� Kiyone yelled, causing Mihoshi to turn her head back with
a jerk.
	�OW!  I don�t know.  But Kiyone, I am concentrating, I think,� Mihoshi
responded to her annoyed partner.  A bright light started shining on her
wrist and a beeping sound began to emanate from a gem mounted there,
�Oh, what�s that!�
	�How am I supposed to know!  Washu�s still fixing my bracelet from the
time you iced it with your blue ice gem!� Kiyone screamed waving her
arms in the air.
	�Well, excuse me!� Mihoshi responded, backing up slightly.
	�Well!  Answer it!� Kiyone yelled, striking Mihoshi across the head.
	�Ow!  Okay, okay;  Yukinojo?� Mihoshi said, her wrist raised toward her
face.
	�Mihoshi, I have an urgent report from your commander in my databanks.�
a warbled metallic voice answered, emanating from the mounted gem.
	�Okay.  Ready, Kiyone?�
	�Yes.�
	�Transport!�  and Mihoshi pulled out a small pink cube.  She
manipulated the cube, causing a third of the object to tilt, and then
stop in a new position while looking like it had never moved.  A light
flashed within the cube and the area around the two detectives wavered. 
The detectives vanished, propelled at lightening fast speed into
Kiyone�s ship.
	The two detectives arrived, moments later, in the cockpit of Kiyone�s
ship, the Yagami.  The ship was currently resting at the bottom of the
lake next to the Masaki Shrine.  Thus so, when the detectives arrived,
the blue-gray uniforms they wore were drenched head to toe.
	�Do you always have to land the ship in the lake, Mihoshi?  Look at my
uniform, it�s soaked!� Kiyone yelled, wiping her drenched blue-black
hair out of her eyes and back onto her shoulder.
	�Well, so is mine!  It just happens!� her blonde companion responded,
taking off her blue-gray jacket to air dry it.
	A strange looking sensor configuration lowered from the ceiling of the
high tech cockpit the two detectives found themselves standing in.  The
sensor pod turned its top around and spoke, a portion of it moving as if
imitating a human jaw, �Mihoshi, do you want to hear the report now?�
	�Yes please, Yukinojo.�
	�Very well.  At 0930 this morning a Galaxy Police research station,
registry number 791, under the control of a Commander Chk�Ra, a Korvian,
encountered a dangerous life form and were completely destroyed.  We
have just received a distress signal in outdated code and are attempting
to descramble the threads we got.  This is the ninth incident in four
weeks.
 	While examining the station�s destruction, something odd was noticed. 
The stations all have included at least one survivor of KAIN�s attack on
the Galaxy Police Head Quarters within its crew compliment. Someone
appears to be taking them out piece by piece.�
	�Station 791...  Yukinojo, can you give me an image of this �Commander
Chk�Ra�?� Kiyone asked, rubbing her chin in deep contemplative thought.
	�Yes mam,� Yukinojo said, retracting into the long tube that serves as
its neck.  
	The computer systems lit up readily after their prolonged time in
wait-state, and just as suddenly a screen with no mass and a blackish
tint appeared in front of them.  On it a small screen explained that the
operating system used by the computers was Windows 2055.
	Another screen showed two pictures of Commander Chk'Ra, one showed him
wholly Korvian and another showed him after the KAIN incident, his body
greatly modified, his face, originally proud and handsome, now dull and
marked, a portion having been completely replaced by a chrome plate and
a ruby red eyepiece.  Mihoshi stifled a yelp as she examined the second
picture.  Kiyone then smacked the blonde detective against the back of
the head, knocking her back into her senses (What little she had!).
	"I know that Commander.  I trained under him at the GP Detective's
course.  He was the best field operative I ever had the pleasure to
learn from.  I had heard he was disfigured after KAIN's assault but I
didn't know it was that badly!"
	"Well, apparently he was a targeted individual.  An investigation of
the area around the planet the station orbited revealed his body.  It
was floating in a container made out of shreds of metal from the
station.  His remaining arm had been sheared off and not found.  On his
forehead there were thirteen gash marks.  The same number of GP Head
Quarters survivors killed in these incidents."
	�Ewww, gross!� Mihoshi exclaimed.
	�Mihoshi, would you shut up!� Kiyone screamed, lifting her partner by
the collar of her dress shirt, unusually strong for such a �normal�
female.  �Yukinojo, continue.�
	�Uhm, yes mam.  We have now succeeded in unscrambling the alert
message.  We have one word:  �Ryoko�.�
	�Ryoko!  That Bitch!� Kiyone screamed.  She dropped Mihoshi and  ran
out of the bridge, down the long corridors to the main cargo bay and the
weapon storage facility.
-- 
	Thranx,
		Washyuu's Apprentice:  Truzenzuzex
-Member of #WASHU#-
"It's range is only 200 meters.  It doesn't work like it would in a
cartoon!"
-Washu Hakubi