TENCHI MUYO: Naoki & Meiru

 PROLOGUE:

 The Operative spotted his enemy, and openned fire. There was no way he 
 was going to let that bastard Kain get away with what he'd done! Hatred,
 grief, and vengeance fueled his attack. If he won, the Galaxy Police
 would be avenged, if he lost it wouldn't matter, he would've failed his
 slain comrades and to live with that would have been, to him, far worse
 than a thousand deaths. Kain vanished and he looked around. He was sure
 Kain wasn't dead just yet, his senses were on full alert and telling him
 to get the hell out of there, but he stood his ground. If he was going to
 die, he had every intention of taking Kain with him. Kain reached out and
 grabbed the Operative's cyberarm, wrenching it free of his body. The
 Operative grabbed the leftover stump in pain and doubled over for a moment,
 then stood upright. A second later, Kain gripped him by the throat and
 lifted him off the ground. He struggled, out of self-preservation, not 
 panic, as Kain sent tendrils of his being around the Operative's own body.
 He screamed in defiance at first, then in agony as Kain tore apart first
 his mind, then his soul, then his body.


 PART I: Welcome Meiru

 Yosho finished his daily meditation and stood up taking a deep breath 
 and taking a moment to enjoy the silence of his temple. His life on
 Jurai had always been hectic, then he'd come here, to earth, to get away
 from the barbs of prejudice that were forever being jabbed under his skin.
 For seven hundred or so years, his life had been somewhat quiet, and the
 only battles he fought were sparring matches with his grandson. He'd
 started to teach his daughter, too, but her mother's death had meant that
 Achika'd had to assume her responsibilities, and so there had been no time
 for the training. Still, when push had come to shove, Achika had shown,
 according to Tenchi's account when he'd returned from 1970, that she had
 what counts.

 Yosho thought about his daughter with a sad fondness and for a moment,
 he wondered what kind of child he and Ayeka would have had, if he had 
 stayed on Jurai. He often imagined that their child would have been a son,
 one who would be King of Jurai one day, or perhaps he would sire a Queen,
 proud, regal, and beautiful like Ayeka herself, or her sister, Sasami, who
 was destined to one day be one of the most beautiful women to ever come 
 from Jurai.  Perhaps, he thought for a moment, he should tell her the truth,
 marry her... no, it was too late. If she found out now, she'd never forgive
 him. If he were going to marry again, it wouldn't be Ayeka.

 But what about Ryoko?  Yosho laughed, inwardly, at the thought and made 
 his way to the main house when he heard a soft moan just off the path. He
 carefully made his way to the source of the noise. Eventually, he found it;
 or rather her.

 She was sitting in the grass, propping herself up with one hand
 and rubbing her head with the other. She looked about seventeen, her
 chestnut hair cascading over her shoulders and down her back in soft
 waves, barely covering her. For some reason she was naked, her skin like
 alabaster except her pale pink nipples which were soft and unassuming. She
 stood up slowly, on unsteady legs, then noticed Yosho for the first time.
 She dropped to her knees in sheer embarrassment, covering her breast with
 her arms and shivering.

 "Hmmm..." Yosho mused. It wasn't every day a naked woman showed
 up who wasn't Ryoko. This was certainly odd. Who was she? Where had she
 come from? She had no belongings with her, no clothes, but her skin was
 unmarked, save for the bruises on her shins and palms, which could easily
 be explained by someone tripping and using their hands to stop their fall.
 For a moment, he thought about his earlier thoughts and wondered if this
 girl was a bride, perhaps, sent by the Holy Tree, Funaho. "Now, Yosho,"
 he scolded himself, "stop being so silly. Whoever she is, I'm sure she
 isn't here for your benefit."

 "Don't be alarmed, miss." Yosho told her, as he removed his shirt.    
 She looked up at him for a moment, turning her head and blushing
 when she saw his shirt was off. She shivered, visibly.

 "I'm not going to hurt you." Yosho said, dropping the shirt in
 front of her. He wondered if some heartless man had tried to harm her. 
 Perhaps she'd refused some man's advances and he'd abandonned her in
 retallation. If that were so, he'd have to be careful. One wrong word or
 misinterpreted gesture could put her into shock, if she wasn't in shock
 already.

 The chestnut-haired girl picked it up and quickly covered herself.
 quickly. Once she was clothed, somewhat, she seemed to be a little more
 relaxed, though she was still skittish and didn't seem to fully trust him
 just yet.

 "What's your name?" Yosho asked, concern in his voice, as he looked
 around, trying to find some clue as to where she'd come from. Why she was
 there. Who she was.

 "I... I don't know." The girl replied. She looked like she was
 ready to cry. "I... I can't remember anything."

 "Its all right." Yosho reassured her, putting a gentle arm around
 her. "Hmmm?" he looked down at her and saw that she had fainted. He scooped
 her up and carried her toward the house. He placed her on the sofa and 
 covered her. There would be time for questions later.


 That evening, Tenchi and the girls returned from a day in town with
 Tenchi's father. They'd been getting supplies for his camera and other
 gadgets. It had been a rather exciting day, especially when Ryoko
 suggested Nobuyuki stop in one of the faddish espionage shops that were 
 so popular these days and pick up some kind of spy-cam he could install
 in Ayeka's bedroom and in the women's bath. That had, of course, set Ayeka
 off, and the two of them had successfully managed to trash three blocks as
 a direct result. The police were of a mind to arrest them and the girls 
 had, surprisingly, halted, when they were ordered by the cops, however,
 when the cops began to read the charges, they realized that what they had
 seen would never be believed and would more likely get them laughed off
 the force. With no other recourse, they let Ryoko and Ayeka off with a 
 warning.

 Nobuyuki went into the living room to watch TV and was happily surprised
 to see the young woman lying naked on the sofa, the blanket having been 
 kicked off at some point.  Yosho's shirt was actually still on her, but
 it had come open so that point was rather moot. She was glistening with
 perspiration and looked like she'd been having a nightmare. She'd need 
 comforting, Nobuyuki reasoned as he took her in his arms...

 "Where'd dad go?" Tenchi asked as he and the girls put away the items
 Nobuyuki had bought.
 "I'll start dinner." Sasami offered, taking a bag of groceries into the
 kitchen.
 "Okay." Tenchi agreed. "Ryoko, you help dad put this stuff away."
 "Sure thing!" Ryoko agreed a little too quickly.
 "And no rigging up surveilance cameras in Lady Ayeka's bedroom." Tenchi
 warned.
 "Damn." Ryoko muttered.

 A moment later, they heard a girl's indignant scream followed by the
 form of Nobuyuki flying backwards out of the living room unconscious. He
 hit the ground nearby and just lay there in a rather silly manner.

 "Dad!" Tenchi gasped. "What the..."

 The chestnut haired girl came out of the living room a moment later,
 looking utterly livid with rage. Her eyes were blazing with her anger
 and her hand was still balled up into a fist. She was so angry that her
 other hand was completely failing to hold her shirt closed and Tenchi's
 eyes nearly sprang out of his head when he saw her. His nose began to
 bleed and he quickly covered it.
 "Uh... umm..."
 "And just what the hell are *you* looking at?" Meiru demanded of him.
 "Umm..." Tenchi pointed frantically, finally fainting.
 Meiru looked at herself and yelped when she realized the shirt was
 still open. She quickly closed it while Sasami fanned Tenchi once
 again.

 "Try that again, mister, and I'll give you more of the same!" She told
 Nobuyuki, who was just starting to sit up and was rubbing his head.


 Ryoko walked in carrying a bag of expensive and fragile equipment.

 "YOU!" She shouted, half-seeing the girl over the top rim of the bag. 
 Ryoko dropped the bag, which was filled with new parts for Nobuyuki's
 camera, and a package of hard-to-find bulbs for his 8mm projector. The 
 sound of the expensive equipment breaking as it hit the floor made Tenchi
 wince as he heard it. "Ryoko!" he warned her, too late.

 Now that Ryoko could see more of the girl, she was feeling a little foolish
 and that didn't make her happy. At first she had thought the Galaxy Police
 Operative she'd met back in 1970 had somehow come back to life and had
 returned to arrest her, but now she could see it wasn't him. She did look
 like him, though. 'Odd,' Ryoko thought 'could she be his daughter? Some 
 kind of hybrid, perhaps. But no, that couldn't be it. The age was all
 wrong. If the Operative had fathered a child on earth, the child would be
 at least twenty six years old. This girl was only nineteen at the most by
 the look of her.

 "Do I know you?" Meiru asked, confused. The girl was fleetingly familiar,
 but Meiru couldn't put her finger on where she'd seen her. The girl seemed
 to recognize her. Maybe she could tell her who she was, tell her about the
 past she had forgotten.

 "No." Ryoko finally said after a long pause. "You don't. I thought I had
 recognized you, but you're not the person I thought. So who are you?"

 "I don't know." The girl broke down in tears. She'd hoped this Ryoko
 could've given her the answers she sought, but once again, she'd come to a
 dead end. "Yosho's been calling me Meiru for the last hour, for the sake
 of convenience, but..."

 "It's all right." Ayeka told her as she carefully hugged her.

 "Hey!" Washu broke in. "I've got an idea!"

 "What is it?" Ayeka asked.

 "Ryoko. Why don't you and Ayeka take Meiru into town for a bit. You can 
 buy her some new clothes and have dinner at the pub."

 "That's a great idea!" Tenchi agreed. At least it would get Ayeka and
 Ryoko out of his hair for a while.

 "And leave you alone with Tenchi?" Ryoko inquired. Tenchi was her boyfriend
 and she wasn't about to have her own mother steal him from her.

 "No way!" Ayeka agreed, for similiar reasons. Of course, in her case the
 reasons involved Tenchi belonging to her, not to some criminal like Ryoko.


 "I'll go!" Mihoshi invited, cheerfully. Now she had an opportunity to go
 downtown and see, for herself, the new singer she'd heard so much about.
 A local radio station, which specialized in local talent, had played a
 few songs by him and Mihoshi had developed something of a crush on him.

 "Thank you, Mihoshi." Washu smiled.

 "Oh, its no problem. I really want to see that new singer. I hear he's 
 really cute!"

 "He can't be cuter than my Tenchi!" Ryoko argued.

 "What do you mean *YOUR* Tenchi?"

 The two women began drawing upon their powers. Neither one of them was
 willing to give up Tenchi as their boyfriend, though technically he wasn't
 actually either girl's boyfriend.


 "Let's get out of here." Meiru suggested, a little fearfully.

---


Lt. Trakal, Galaxy Police
Code name: Operative A