the Bet- Children of an alien god
all major char tm somebody else
      partial/rough/prereaders
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	Toltiir, kami/demon/god of mischief,
watched as a number of powers sacrificed tiny
amounts of power in their bids to found an
entirely new timeline, one that would announce
their own creativity to their brethren.

	Pride is not restricted to mortal beings.

	"This one," proclaimed Nabiki Tendo,
a mere mortal who dared to face beings that were
old when her world was still forming from the
remnants of previous supernovas. "Double or
nothing, that this is the best change."

	"Done," smiled the cat, though inwardly
he wondered just what he would do with this gambler
when the debt came due. He wasn't a demon, and
though an elder god, he didn't devour souls or anything
of that nature. He was the Trickster, though, so he 
would think of something...
-----------------------------------------------------------
	Kagato reconsidered. Sending Ryoko to
Jurai by herself seemed...wasteful. He altered his
plans slightly.

	Ryoko would go with Ryo-oh-ki and break
through their defenses, shoot the place up. THAT
part of the plan would remain unchanged.

	Then, with their planetary defenses holed,
Kagato would himself show up, devastate the planet,
and steal whatever secrets he could. After all, none
could stand against him now.

	Kagato smiled. Perhaps even the great
ship Tsunami would be his, its power added to his
own to make him invincible! A supreme power of the
universe, surpassing his old teacher- Washu!
---------------------------------------
	"...but he said..." Nabiki glanced back at
the helpful young godling that had advised her, to
see the form shift into a woman who seemed to be
split down the middle into light and dark halves.

	"There's another mistake," Toltiir noted.
"For advice, you went to Hel."

	"...but I..."

	"Kills one theory, I thought you might have
been doing this on purpose."
----------------------------------------
_/Hokkaido, 1243 AD:\_
	Yosho's ship landed, and a major battle
occurred. Ryoko was, after a long battle, imprisoned.
Her gems were pulled into the sword, and Yosho
could at last weep for his world.

	"Master Yosho?" The knight stood to
the side. "Your ship-tree was damaged severely,
sir, it doesn't look like we'll be leaving this world.
Sorry to disturb you, sir, but the other survivors..."

	Yosho nodded. A scant two hundred
survivors, many of them the women and children
of those who had perished in the battle. Plus, 
something else...

	"Plant my ship-tree's seedling there,
in the mound at the center of the crater." Yosho
pushed his grief to the side. Time for that later,
for now he had to be strong. "How many warriors
do we have?"

	"Eight sir. Myself and one other knight,
two warders, three of the nursery guards, Azaka 
and Kamidake." The knight paused. "Of the remainder,
there are over one hundred fifty children, forty seven
are non-warrior adults."

	Yosho nodded again. "Principal lifeform
of this world?"

	"That's one of the strange things, sir. Our
readings come back that they are 99% Juraian down
to the genetic level. I suppose this could be one of 
the Seeded worlds..."

	"Could be," agreed Yosho. This made things
a little easier, at least.
----------------------------------------------------
_/Hokkaido, Masaki Shrine, 1244 AD:\_
	"Report," Yosho ordered. He spared
a smile and a nod at his native-born wife before
turning his attention to the knight.

	Keeping it casual, the natives were
watching after all, Kodai nodded his head
respectfully. "The vast majority of our numbers
are entombed in the healing matrixes. Princess
Sasami will live, of course, but..."

	"But when she returns to us, it will
be Tsunami as well as Sasami." Yosho adjusted
his native clothing. As refugees from a wartorn
land, they had been granted sanctuary in what
had been a lightly occupied mountain valley.
"What of Ryoko?"

	"Her containment has been accomplished.
Elder Fujitsu estimates that by the time our people 
are ready, all of Kagato's controls will have been
broken."

	"Good." Yosho glanced back at his
wife, marvelling anew at her poise and beauty,
and that he had found such a jewel in such a 
primitive setting. "What of the others? What
of yourself, Kodai? How are you settling in?"

	A faint smile crossed the young
knight's face. "Not having nearly your luck
with the ladies, my liege. I understand that
we need to blend in, but..."

	"You didn't go into hibernation with
everyone else," pointed out Yosho. "If the
primitive living conditions and lack of Jurai
energy here are getting to you, that remains an
option."

	"No, my liege." Kodai sighed and 
rested his weight on his battlestaff. "We who
remain are loyal to you, and there are many 
things that must be done before we are ready
for the awakening."

	Yosho nodded, appreciating the
enormity of the task before them. He was well
into his guise as a priest of the Twin Shrines,
one dedicated to Life and Rebirth, the other
the Demon's Tomb.

	"The hot spring we created will be
ringed with Jurai sprouts soon." Kodai's smile
broadened. When they reached maturity in
four hundred years, they would begin building
the Jurai power. By the time of the planned
awakening, it would be enough to sustain the
populace.

	"They are growing well, then."
Yosho nodded. In many ways, this was a 
perfect world for them. "Well, I appreciate
the information, Kodai. Get back to your
role as a farmer then, and by all means 
keep well till next we meet."
_/Hokkaido, Masaki Shrine, 1251 AD:\_
	"You won't change your mind,
Kodai? We shall miss you." Yosho appeared
to be studying the ring of trees around the
steaming pool. The hot spring was created
by the battle between Ryoko and Yosho,
constrained and shaped by the scientist
Tombo.

	"As the natives say, 'do not
put all of your eggs in one basket', milord.
By planting and tending Jurai seedlings far 
from here, we are not entirely cut off if 
something happens here within this valley."

	Kodai paused. "Too, I have not
been able to fit well into my role here. I have
found none to ease my own loneliness the
way the other men have, nor do I have any
kin among those here. I am the most dispensable,
therefore the duty falls to me."

	Yosho nodded. Not really agreeing,
but seeing the other's point of view. "So where
are you going?"

	"I shall plant the seedlings in areas
where they can thrive, and in areas that are
sufficiently out of the way that they may grow
to maturity without native interference. My
planned route will go through the West, though
I hope to wander the planet till I find a place that
I may call home."

	"What of the others?"

	"The same," Kodai said. "Nothing here
to hold us. We'll each find a place to farm, and to
tend the trees we plant. There are only three of us
going, though, and the mission is mainly mine. I
fully expect Kogen and Nigami to return."

	"Go then, my friend. Success in your
mission, and may you find happiness in your 
chosen path."

	"Thank you, my liege." Kodai smiled.
"Thank you, my friend."

_/Bayankala Mountain Range, China.\_____
	"Some sort of warrior woman, isn't
she?" Kodai smiled at the fierce, sword-wielding,
maiden who was apparently questioning their
right to continue. "Damn, the translation 
effect is apparently not working."

	"Another primitive violent maniac,"
summed up Nigami's opinion.

	Kogen grinned and tried to look
friendly/nonthreatening. "Maybe, but she's
REALLY cute."

	"Kinda young for you, isn't she,
Kogen?" Nigami elbowed the farmer. 

	"Yeah, I suppose. I just miss..."

	Noting the warrior girl was just 
standing there, weapon ready, Kodai forced
himself to relax. "We all miss home."

	"Sir, I was engaged. She was
a pilot. She was on one of the ships that
was destroyed when Kagato began his 
final approach." Kogen blinked and 
sighed. "She was a fierce warrior herself."

	"Ah." Kodai noted that the 
girl was still eyeing them suspiciously.
"Well, what do you think? Do we go around
and avoid whatever she's guarding? Or do
we..."

	The girl, perhaps 17 years of age,
moved forward, her sword coming up to drive
it through Kodai.

	Kogen's battlestaff slammed into
the girl's head with a thunderous crack, and 
the girl slumped to the ground, stunned. Kogen
held the end of his staff above the girl's throat.
"Just because I admire you, fierce little one,
does not mean I will allow you to harm one of
my companions. Now we shall leave here, and
you will never have to see us again."

	"That was a good strike," the girl
said as she looked over Kogen from where she
lay sprawled.

	"Oh, so the translators ARE working."
Kodai shook his head. "That's surprising considering
everything else around here."

	"Hmmmph," the girl looked over Kodai,
then turned her regard back to Kogen. "You want
to leave here?"

	"Yes, we have business elsewhere."
Kogen didn't lower his guard.

	"Then it is a foursome." The girl moved
away from Kogen slowly, then rolled to her feet.
"Where are we going?"

	"We?" Kodai raised an eyebrow.

	The girl matched his gesture. "You whose
culture includes woman warriors don't believe in 
seperating a wife and her husband, do you?"
--/Northern wilderness, Norway, 1255 AD\___
	Kodai buried his longtime companion
Nigami in the heavy snows near the third seedling. 

	Kogen and his wife Lehong had returned
to her ancestral home in the mountains, to tend what
had been the first of the seedlings they had planted.

	That left Kodai, alone, to carry the remaining
two seedlings to where they could grow. Then would
come a final task, searching this world for any of their
kind that might have made it here, might have found their
way free of the destruction of Jurai.

	With a brief prayer, Kodai turned to the West
and continued his journey alone.
__/Amazon Rainforest, 1298 AD\__
	Looking back once at where the final seedling
had taken root in the rich soil, Kodai swatted at the
annoying cloud of insects and brushed gray hairs away
from his eyes. To grow old at such an accelerated rate,
just like one of the primitives of this world, seemed to
be a cosmic joke at his expense.

	When he had started this journey, he had
been one of the youngest knights to graduate from 
the Academy. A mere thirty-one of this planet's orbits
around its primary. Now at the age of seventy-eight
Earth-years, he still stood strong and proud, though
he was neither as fast nor as enduring as he once had
been.

	As he walked he wondered how Yosho had
done with his colony. Was he alone now, the others 
having gone into hibernation? Was he surrounded by
his native-born children, and by the next generation of
the Jurai heritage?

	Or Kogen and Lehong. The tales of the warrior
women and their tribal customs had enlivened many a 
night of travel. As had watching the forward Lehong 
slowly seduce and capture the heart of the shy navigator
turned farmer Kogen. Did Kogen even now spin tales to
his disbelieving children? Of an empire among the stars,
of a paradise destroyed, of the sleeping hopes of rebirth
buried beneath the mountains of Japan?

	Kodai hurt. He was old and he was tired, so
very tired. So very lonely, and loneliness can be a pain
beyond endurance that poisons the soul and deadens
the will. Yet he remained true to his mission, had planted
the seedlings, and now sought the completion of the
remainder of his mission. Then, he thought with some
longing, then he could rest.
___/Masaki Shrine, Hokkaido, Japan 1312 AD\_____
	In a crystal pillar beneath the Shrine Of
Rebirth, a young girl wept as another of Jurai blood
died, alone and unloved in an cold and dark alien 
environment. This was not, however, why she wept.

	She wept because he had remained as
faithful in death as he had in life, and that he had not,
after all, had the chance to see his great-niece emerge
from the crystal pillar. She wept because, no matter
how great the spirit, or courage, or dedication, 
sometimes it is not enough.

	Sasami sent a telepathic message to
Yosho through Tsunami. Kodai would not be
returning home after all.
__/Masaki Shrine, Hokkaido, Japan, 1942 AD\__
	"Keep your wars far from here," advised
Yosho. "We have had enough of wholescale slaughter,
thank you, whatever the justification you might have."

	"It would be a shame," the lieutenant said
with a bow,  "to lose such an important ancient temple.
Yet if we cannot store armaments in one of the few areas
the Americans do not bomb..."

	"If such an attitude is prevelant, then the
Japan I knew in my youth is already lost," said Yosho
as he turned back to his devotions.
__/Masaki Shrine, Hokkaido, Japan, 1976 AD\____
	"Nobuyuki-san, you are about to marry
my daughter Achika," Yosho intoned to the young
engineer. "She has consented. Do you now swear
to never reveal what you learn here tonight?"

	"You're not ninjas," Nobuyuki scoffed.
"I know better than that. Yeah, I swear."

	"You're right, we are not ninjas." Yosho
nodded his head. Shadows began to take shape,
drawing a startled sound from Nobuyuki. "We are
far more and far less than a clan of assassins."

	Achika was watching him out of the
corner of her eye, and Nobuyuki was quite aware
of this.

	"We are," Yosho said with a shrug,
"refugees of a sort. We are from a land farther
away than you think, known as Jurai..."
__/Masaki Shrine, 1994 AD\___________
	It had been implied permission,
hadn't it? If he could get the keys from 
grandpa, he could explore the cave, right?

	Tenchi crept down the corridor.
Both Shrines had seemed to call to him, 
asking him to enter and to explore their
mysteries.

	Rebirth first, he thought.
There were supposed to be all sorts of
traps in the Demon's Tomb.

	When he came to the 
crystal pillar, he couldn't help but
stare. Inside, as if trapped in amber,
was a girl of about his own age. She 
was also the most beautiful woman
he'd ever seen. He couldn't help but
reach out and touch the cold surface
of the crystal.

	When the girl's eyes 
snapped open, Tenchi felt as if he
were about to have a heart attack.

	As it was, he fell down
three times on the way back up to
the Shrine's entrance.
---------------------------------------------------
	Hello, people. What to do if
this wins the Bet?

	Tsunami is awake. She is to
marry Tenchi. Ryoko awakens soon. She
wants Tenchi.

	Kagato shows up. He wants
Tsunami's power. Etc, Etc. Obvious differences
from the OAVs, while the general plotline
remains the same. 

	Yes, I could've resisted using
the Nichieju, but I wanted to keep a few
options available...