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I'm trying something a little bit different here. I was originally going
to post this as chapter seven of Tenchi and Ranma, Together, forever!?
but because it contains none of the main characters, I've reluctantly
decided to make it yet another side story.

Oh well, I keep telling myself I have a long, long way to go before I get
into the same situation as Ranma 1/2 2096. That story is my shinning star
of inspiration. ^_^


That's the first difference. The second difference is that I'm not
waiting till the whole thing is finished. Instead I'm going to post it
out in small chunks. Hopefully that will help with the C+C.


Don't worry about this taking a great deal of time. I have two sections
every bit as large as this already finished, and will post one of them a
week. Hopefully by the time I do that, I'll have the fourth and final
section finished.


One last warning, their is not a single Tenchi character in this story,
and if you have not read TARTF, you will likely have no idea of what is
going on.


Be sure to let me know what you think. 


T.H.










     A fan fiction based on the works of RumikoTakahashi,

     and, Hitoshi Okuda 

     Ranma 1/2, and Tenchi Muyo.

     I have no rights to these characters.

     

     A Tenchi and Ranma, Together Forever!?  Side Story.

     Three girls abroad.

     

     What's going on?

     This is an alternative universe story.

     Ranma was trapped as a girl from her first dip in the

Nanniichuan.


     Why?  Read the earlier chapters.  See below for some

highlights.


     Unable to carry out his plan to engage Ranma to one of the

Tendo girls, Genma recalled that he had once promised Nobuyuki

Masaki that if he had a daughter, he would marry her to Nobuyuki's

son Tenchi.   Well, as it so happens, he's recently acquired a

daughter.


     Nodoka Saotome, along with Akane Tendo and Ukyou Kuonji

are on their way to Jusenkyo in hopes of finding out what has

happened to Ranma and Genma.   At least Nodoka and Ukyou are.  

Akane just wants to get out of the house for the summer before her

father sinks the place with his tears.   Not to mention escaping from

the constant combat zone her life has recently become due to a

certain Kendoist, and her father's perverted Master.   


T.H.   Tiger

schell@interlog.com





     Plum, fill in Jusenkyo guide,  looked over the dusty travelers

standing in front of her.   An older woman, dressed in a practical

traveling kimono.   A young girl, dressed every bit as unisex as Plum

herself.   Good stout trousers, and a heavy, long-sleeved cotton top

that all but obscured her figure.   The only concession she made to

her femininity was the long shiny black hair that was drawn back

into a single heavy pony tail that fell  half way down her back.

     Last, and in Plum's opinion, definitely not least, was a very

handsome boy.   A little taller then the older woman, with a build

and face to die for.   His long chestnut hair was also drawn back in a

pony tail, not quite as long as the younger girl.   He had some sort of

heavy, large-bladed weapon strapped to his back, and a bandolier of

what Plum assumed were throwing weapons hanging diagonally

across his chest.   His eyes were a lovely sandalwood brown.


     While Plum was checking them out,  three people in turn

looked her over.   They saw a young girl, dressed in an oversized,

and very rumpled Chinese Mao uniform.   Her fine brown hair was

drawn back severely in a tight braid that fell half way down her

back.   Belying the severity of her hair style, she wore two bright red

hair ornaments on either side of her head.   They made a vivid splash

of color on her otherwise drab exterior.   Her eyes were lively and

quick, and seemed to be measuring them carefully.



     Having looked the visitors over, Plum, for the first time by

herself, launched into the  delivery of the traditional greeting.  

"Welcome to legendary training ground of Jusenkyo.   Here be many

tragic tales . . . "  Plum had said this so often in practice, she had
no

need to think of it.   So while her mouth worked on an autopilot, she

surreptitiously checked out the cute guy.   To think she'd been mad

at her father when he had drafted her to look after the valley. 

Meanwhile, he took some other customers around to some of the

local hot springs.   On a monkey hunt of all things.


     "Young lady!" A firm voice said, pulling Plum back from a just

started daydream involving the handsome boy in front of her, some

moonlight, and rice wine.   Plum blushed as she realized the older

lady had been addressing her for some time, and that she herself had

long since stopped talking.

     "So sorry, what you say?" She asked politely, while inside she

writhed in embarrassment at the thought of what the cute guy must

think of her distracted air.   She must look like she was brain dead.

     The older woman was again the one who spoke to her.   "We

are looking for two people, a young boy and his father.   My husband

and son.   They would have been here about three and a half months

ago.   We have been tracing their journey.  We know that they were

in the village an hour north of here at that time, and that they were

coming here from there."

     "This one is so sorry.  This one was not here at that time. 

Honorable father is official guide.  This one has only been here for

last two weeks." Plum sighed to herself, Two, long, boring, dreary,

lonely, boys free weeks.  Her father was going to owe her big time.


     The older woman seemed to slump, and Plum realized that

more then the journey was responsible for the worn look on her face. 

Plum's father had always told her to pay close attention to the people

who came to the springs.  To try and judge not only their

pocketbook, but their emotional state.  It saved a great deal of 
trouble

in the long run if you could detect the ones who were likely to take a

head long dive into one of the pools as a rather round about way of

ending it all.  Of course, as her father even more frequently said,

there was nothing you could do about the damn fools who were the

most frequent victims of the pools of sorrow, but at least you could

try to head off the crazy ones.

     Plum did not think this one was crazy, but she was clearly

under a great deal of strain.  Her news had only added to that from

the looks of things.  "This one is sorry to distress you.  If you wish
to

wait, honorable father will be back in a day or so.  You may ask him

about the young man and his father." Actually, Plum had no idea

how long her father was going to be.  How long did it take to spray a

bunch of monkeys with cold water anyway?


     "Thank you.  Is there somewhere safe we can camp while we

wait?  We have heard that this area is dangerous."

     Plum blinked in surprise.  A cautious person visiting Jusenkyo. 

That was very nearly unheard of.  Except of course for those few

magic users who came here to gather the plants that grew no where

else.  For a second she was uncertain of what to suggest.  She'd love

to offer the cute guy the shelter of the guide hut, but four people

would be a bit crowded in the one room shack.  Somehow, she didn't

think he'd be agreeable to sharing it with her while his companions

camped outside.  She could send them back to the village they had

come from.  Then, she could come and get them when her father

came back.  If she did that however, one of those boy crazy girls in

the village would latch onto the cute guy.  No way could she let that

happen.  Then, inspiration hit.  "At end of valley is safe area.  Many

years ago, side of mountain fall off.  Cover everything.  No springs

there.  You wait for honorable father there, yes?"

     "Thank you that would be fine.  Could you show us the way

please?" 

     

     Plum gladly escorted them down to the proposed camp site.  As

she walked, she delivered the standard lecture on the springs, and

the various curses of the ones they passed.  As usual, the three people

did not believe a word of it.  She sighed to herself.  She had once

asked her father why he did not do demonstrations.  Tossing a mouse

or something similar into one of the springs would save so much

time and bother.

     He had not taken the suggestion well, and she had ended up

receiving a stern lecture on how wrong it was to inflict a curse on an

innocent animal, especially if you used one of the human springs. 

"Besides," he had finished with, "it would do no good.  The watchers

would just assume it was some sort of trick, and would learn nothing

from it.  You would have harmed the creature for no gain." Having

heard tales of the fools her father had met over the years, Plum had

to concede that he more than likely had the right of the matter. 

Fortunately, these three did not seem to have any interest in the

valley's reputation as a training ground, and so it was unlikely she

would have to deal with the consequences of their disbelief.


     When they reached their goal, Plum helped them to set up their

tents and gear, trying to stay as close to the good looking young boy

as she could.  She was a bit dismayed to find that he was sharing a

tent with the young girl.  However, after observing them together,

she came to the conclusion they must be brother and sister, or

something similar, they certainly displayed little in the way of

affection for each other.  Indeed, the younger girl seemed to be

looking at the boy with every indication of distaste.  Eventually

however, the camp was set up, and she could find no more excuses to

stay.  

     Much to Plum's dissatisfaction, despite her every effort, she

had not succeeded in drawing more then a passing look from the

cute guy.  She felt a moment of doubt, maybe he was gay?  That

would explain why he was sharing a tent with the angry looking girl. 

It might even be why the other girl was angry.  She knew she

certainly would be in that circumstances.  Plum dismissed the

thought  as soon as she thought of it.  No guy that cute could be gay,

she told her self resolutely.  The gods would never be so cruel.  It

was all the fault of the stupid uniform her father insisted she wear. 

Bad enough that it was so drab, but it was two sizes too big on top of

that.  No wonder the boy hadn't given her a second look.  He

probably didn't even know she was a girl.  

     Well, father might like sucking up to the local political officer,

but she had a life.  Or at least she would have, if she didn't have to

wear butt ugly outfits day in and day out.  She vowed to hunt through

her meager wardrobe for something that would knock the cute guy's

eyes out.  Tomorrow when she came back to take them on a tour of

the springs, he would see what a real woman looked like.  That little

silk number with the side cut to here that she kept hidden from her

father ought to do the trick.  One look at her in that, and he'd have

no doubt of which sex she was.


****************************************************


     "Well, that must make you feel pretty good about yourself."

Akane said sarcastically, as she watched the female guide walking

away.

     Ukyou turned to stare at Akane, a questioning look on her face,

"What?"

     "The way she was practically  drooling over you."

     "I didn't really notice." Ukyou said, but the faint look of

discomfort on her face belied her words.

     "Oh please, she couldn't have been more obvious without

stripping down.  Are you sure you don't like it?" Akane asked

suspiciously.  

     Ukyou sighed.  Akane was about a subtle as a brick against the

head.  She'd been trying to find out if Ukyou was gay for the last

four days.  Ukyou had been hard pressed to keep her temper, made

all the more short by her own self-doubt on the subject.  "No, I don't

like it, but it comes with the territory.  I sometimes think that if I
did

want the attention, I wouldn't get it.  I think the fact that I don't

drool, or bleed from the nose, every time a cute girl looks at me,

makes them all the more interested."

     "My, I'm glad to see you're so modest." Akane said

sarcastically.  

     Despite Akane's tone Ukyou was pleased to note there was a

very faint touch of humor present in her words.  And was that a faint

smile on her lips as she turned away?  Akane had started to relax

toward Ukyou after the first time they had used a public bath

together.  Ukyou had a hunch that Akane had not really believed her

to be female till then.  She was still prickly as hell, but at least 
now

she seemed to finally be coming around to regarding Ukyou as

something other then a pervert who was just waiting for a chance to

jump her.  


     Ukyou's lips twitched toward a grin as she remembered that

time in the bath.  How Akane had stared at her suspiciously, not

taking her own clothing off until Ukyou had stripped down

completely.  Anyone watching might have been justified in thinking

Akane was the pervert, considering how intently she had checked

Ukyou out.  That recollection brought another one.  

     Ukyou wore boxers and tied her breasts down as part of her

disguise.  She wondered what Akane's excuse was?  While Akane's

bindings were not nearly  as stringent as Ukyou's, leaving the

contours of Akane's breasts visible.  They had to be more

uncomfortable then a bra.  As for the boxers, well, Ukyou had to

admit that except when nature demanded otherwise, she actually

preferred boxers.  It could be that Akane just felt uncomfortable in

panties, and maybe found the breast bindings offered more support

 for her martial arts training then even a sports bra would be.  Still,

Akane was a poor one to be casting stones, given her own masculine

attire.  Not to mention her attitude toward boys would seem to

indicate she might find girls more interesting herself.


     "Well, I think if you have no interest in girls, the least you

could do is let them know the truth before they make complete fools

of themselves." Akane said, showing she was not ready to let the

matter drop.  "That is unless there is some reason you don't want

them to stop?"

     Deciding she was not really up to another discussion of her

gender preference, Ukyou switched topics.  "Have you noticed

Saotome-san?  She looks so sad."

     Akane looked for a moment like she was going to resist

Ukyou's attempt to change the subject, but the chance to bad mouth

males proved too much for her.  "Well finding out your husband and

son are a pair of crooks would depress anyone.  We've found three

places where they either stayed or ate, and they ran out on the bill at

all three of them.  I'm thinking she's well rid of the pair of them."

     Ukyou nodded, but she couldn't help but feel there was more to

it then that.  You would have thought petty thievery carried the death

penalty from the way Nodoka reacted to Genma and Ranma's

behavior.  As for herself, she had shrugged off the news.  It was what

she would have expected of the pair of them after all.

     "I'm going to go and do some practicing.  You want to come

along?" Akane asked, breaking into Ukyou's train of thought.

     "Sure.  You want to spar?" While they had trained along side

each other on several occasions, they had never sparred.  Ukyou was

feeling a bit rusty, and a good match would help that.  To her

surprise, Akane looked almost nervous at the suggestion.  

     "Ahh, no, I don't think that's a good idea right now  . . .   The

springs, we have to be careful.  If we got too caught up in our

sparring, we might lose track of just where we are, and fall in. 

Wouldn't want that would you?" Akane said this in the manner of

someone searching for an excuse not to do something, rather then if

she really believed what she was saying.

     "Oh please, you don't mean to tell me you really believe in that

nonsense about them being cursed?"

     "Of course not!" Akane protested

     "Then come on." Ukyou wheedled, then she put on a smirk,

and pushed one of Akane's buttons.  "I promise I won't go too hard

on you."

     "Too hard on me!?" Akane said in outrage.  "Not on the best

day of your life!"

     "Care to prove that?" Ukyou said with a smirk, drawing her

main weapon, the oversized battle spatula she kept strapped to her

back.  Looking like a metal version of a typical baker's peel, it made

a formidable weapon.  Ukyou handled it with the competence of long

familiarity, but on this occasion, she did not mean to use it.  She

leaned it against a nearby shoot of bamboo instead.  "There, that

should make things more even.  Or would you like me to tie one

hand behind my back as well?" As she said this, Ukyou made a

come-on gesture with her hand, while falling into a defensive

crouch.

     Akane glared at her.  Taking the metal baker's peel from its

position by the bamboo, she tossed it to the surprised chef.  "Fine,

but don't say I didn't warn you, and you'd better use this.  You're

going to need it."

     "Hee," Ukyou laughed.  "Now who's being modest?" Ukyou

held the baker's peel across her chest, and waited for Akane to make

the first move.

     Despite her words of confidence, Akane moved in hesitantly,

and her first few strikes were half hearted, and easily deflected by

Ukyou.  Ukyou for her part was puzzled, she had seen Akane


working out several times.  Her current effort did not even come

close to approaching the competence she had shown on those

occasions

     It was also annoying.  Akane had been bending their ears the

whole trip about how she'd been forced to fight countless duels

against boys who wanted to challenge her for a date.  Something set

up by a nut bar at her school.  Now it looked like that had been all

hot air.  Either that, or they had been total crap as fighters.  As for

the solo training katas Ukyou had seen.  Well,  it was easy for

anyone to look good fighting against thin air.  Now that she was

facing a true opponent, maybe Akane was showing her true skill

level, or maybe she was tanking it for some reason.  This last

thought caused Ukyou to frown in anger.  She didn't need any gifts. 

She was more then capable of holding her own in any situation.


     Ukyou decided to end this unsatisfying match early, and her

annoyance made her decide to do it in a way that would not be easy

on Akane's ego.  Moving in a smooth rhythm that could only come

from countless hours of practice, Ukyou went on the offensive.  She

lashed out with quick sudden moves of her baker's peel  while using

her legs to attack low when Akane parried high.  To her surprise, as

she began to really push the other girl, Ukyou suddenly found

Akane's style changing.  Her moves were no longer hesitant. 

Indeed, Akane was almost negligently parrying Ukyou's best efforts. 

She flowed aside from the main thrust of Ukyou's attacks, while

deflecting the baker's peel with a casual brush of her hand, or a well-

placed finger.  At the same time, she used both legs to deflect, or

parry, Ukyou's kicks.  

     Ukyou's eyes opened wide as she suddenly realized how strong

the other girl must be in order to so casually deflect the heavy

weapon.  Not to mention her kicks, which Ukyou knew from past

experience were more then adequate to break down the guard of

most martial artists.  

     Now she was annoyed for another reason.  Akane did not seem

to be taking her seriously at all.  First she barely tried, now even

though she was reacting much more positively to Ukyou's attack, she

still was not giving it her all.  While she was easily deflecting

Ukyou's best efforts, she was making no effort to counter punch.  

     Annoyed, Ukyou yelled out at her.  "Come on, attack me.  I'm

not a china doll." Akane only smiled tightly, and did not change her

style.  "Fine then!" Ukyou switched to one hand usage of her main

weapon.  Locking the end of the baker's peel into the crook of her

elbow for added leverage.  With her free hand, she plucked several

throwing spatulas from her bandolier.  Akane's eyes widened, and

she tried to back off to gain maneuvering room.  Before Akane could

manage to foil her plan, Ukyou threw a spread of the small weapons,

designed to bracket the other girl and hold her in place while Ukyou

attacked simultaneously with her baker's peel.  

     It worked, pushed by the multiple threats, unable to dodge

without taking a hit, Akane had to go on the offensive.  She  threw a

punch that caught the incoming baker's peel square in the middle. 

The blow drove the weapon back toward Ukyou with a force that was

like nothing the Okinomiyaki chef had ever experienced  before. 

Ukyou felt a blow to her chest, and then was only  vaguely aware of

flying through the air.  

     The strange floating sensation ended with a splash as she

landed in one of the various pools dotting the valley, some thirty

yards away from where she and Akane had been sparring.  The

shock of the cold water cleared her dazed mind.  Her hands clutched

at the ball of pain that seemed to fill her chest and made it hard to

breathe.  She gasped, and drew in a mouthful of water, choking and

sputtering, she scrambled for the shore of the pool, and was vaguely

aware of a hand grasping her collar, and the next instant, she was

flying through the air once more, this time propelled by the grip on

her top.  She had a blurred impression of Akane's worried, fearful

face hovering over her.  The other girl's mouth moved, and as if

from a great distance, Ukyou heard her asking if she was all right,

and apologizing for not being more careful.  Ukyou barely registered

this.  Her head was spinning, and her body felt heavy and unwieldy. 

Her wet clothes binding and pressing against her in an

uncomfortable way.

     "Akane, what happened?" Nodoka voice called out in concern,

and Akane looked up from the dazed form of Ukyou, to see the older

woman rushing across the space between their campsite and her

present location.  

     "It's my fault." Akane said in a miserable tone of voice as

Nodoka reached them.  "I forgot to pull my punch, and I knocked

Ukyou into a spring."

     "I thought you were going to stay clear of them?" Nodoka said

reprovingly.  "I know the guides explanation is ridiculous, but we

heard too many warnings about this place on the way here for there

not to be something wrong with them.  You were very careless. 

Ukyou may have been poisoned."

     "I'm sorry, but I thought we were far enough away.  I never

meant to hit her that hard.  It's been two weeks since  . . . " Akane

trailed off, and Nodoka looked at her with a question on her face.

     "Since what?"

     "Akane looked away from her, and seemed flustered.  "It's

nothing.  I just thought I had more control then that.  I guess I was

wrong.  It's just  . . . " She trailed off, and her hand went to her
face,

brushing against it as if checking for something.  It had the marks of

a reflexive move, and Nodoka recalled Akane making it frequently

during the last few days.  However, Akane said nothing more, and

Nodoka turned her attention toward Ukyou, who was coughing up

water, and attempting to sit up.  

     "Here, let me help you," Nodoka said.  Kneeling down, she

helped Ukyou assume a sitting position, and braced her in that pose

with a hand behind her shoulder.  "Are you all right?"

     "I'm fine, I was just surprised is all." Ukyou said in a strained

voice.  She looked across at the worried looking Akane, and said

reassuringly.  "I'll be fine in a little while.  That is one hell of a

punch you have there sugar.  Remind me to be more careful the next

time we spar.  She gave a small chuckle that was interrupted by yet

another coughing fit.  "At least I landed in something soft." She

finally managed to get out.

     "At least you didn't change into some sort of animal." Akane

joked, her face showing her relief that Ukyou was all right.  "Lets get

you back to the camp." Akane helped Ukyou to her feet, showing no

strain from having to support Ukyou's weight, and helped the dazed

girl back toward their tent.

     Nodoka followed behind, a worried look on her face.  She was

still not sure Ukyou was none the worse for the experience.  She

vowed to keep an eye on the girl, to make sure the water from the

spring had not poisoned her, or caused any other effect.  Despite her

determination to watch Ukyou closely, her eyes noted, but her brain

dismissed the fact, that Ukyou's sleeves and pants legs seemed to be

riding up a bit high, showing a strip of pale skin that was usually

sheltered from the sun.


********************************************

     

     "Nihao," a cheerful voice called out, causing Nodoka to look up

from the meal she was tending over the campfire.  Walking toward

their campfire was Plum, the young girl who had guided them earlier

in the day.  

     "Hello dear.  Nice to see you again." Nodoka looked the young

girl over, taking note that she was dressed in a much more feminine

manner then she had been earlier.  The dress was a bit daring for

Nodoka's taste, but at least it was a dress.  She wished Ukyou and

Akane would dress a little less manly.  If they were her daughters  . .

.   But they weren't, and she was hardly a shining example of

parenthood anyway.  Banishing these thoughts, She asked Plum,

"What can I do for you dear?"

     "I'm off duty." Plum lied.  "I thought I'd drop by and see if you

were settling in, and if I could help you with anything.  "She looked

around, and asked.  "Where are the others?"

     "Ukyou and Akane are over at the tent changing.  Ukyou got

covered in mud when she had her accident, and Akane got smeared

while helping her."

     So, his name is Akane, Plum thought to herself, jumping to

conclusions, based on her knowledge that there was only one girl in

the group other then the one she was currently talking too.  "What

happened to Ukyou, is she all right?" Plum asked, as an

afterthought.

     "She and Akane were sparring, and Akane knocked her into

one of the springs.  She was a bit shaken up, but--" Nodoka was cut

off when Plum practically screamed.

     "A spring!  What spring!?" 

     Nodoka was a bit taken aback by Plum's scream, but she

remained calm.  Pointing at the spring in question, she said, "I

believe it was that one over there."

     "Oh no, how tragic," Plum said.  To lose your womanhood at

such a young age."  Inside, she was restraining an unworthy sense of

glee.  Her one fear concerning Akane was that despite her earlier

wishful hope, he might be involved with the rather mannish Ukyou. 

If that was the case now, and Ukyou was cursed to turn into a boy,

then the hunk would need a sympathetic, and female, shoulder to cry

on.

     Nodoka was looking at her with a puzzled expression on her

face.  "What do you mean dear?  Why should falling into the spring

affect Ukyou's womanhood?" Nodoka's face brightened in

understanding.  "Oh, you mean that legend you were telling us

earlier.  You don't need to worry.  Nothing happened.  Ukyou did

not change into anything." Nodoka spoke in a light tone, almost

joking.  She expected Plum to join her in the joke, but instead she

looked very grave.

     "That spring is Nanniichuan, spring of drowned man. 

Whoever fall in that spring take body of a man who drowned there

fourteen hundred and fifty-year ago.  Very tragic tale."  Plum said

this as if by rote, and in a sort of sing song voice, then her tone

changed, and she spoke in her normal cadence.  "I don't mean to be

rude, but Ukyou looked a bit masculine to this one.  Maybe you just

did not notice.  We had better tell her what has happened before she

finds out on her own." Plum said this in a serious tone, but inside

she was wondering what sort of girl could not notice she had turned

into a boy.  Sure Ukyou was flat-chested, but not that flat.

     Nodoka stared into Plum's face, a look of skepticism on her

face.  This was taking a joke a bit far.  Local stories were all very

well and good.  She was sure they helped the local economy a great

deal, but surely the girl could not expect Nodoka to take her

seriously.  Well, one way to settle this.  "Very well, why don't we go

and check out Ukyou, and see if she's been turned into a boy." 

Nodoka could not quite keep the condescension she felt out of her

voice, but Plum did not seem to notice, instead she headed toward

the tent the two girls were sharing.  Nodoka trailing along behind

her.


     They had barely taken three steps when a scream ripped

through the still valley air.  Not a scream of pain or grief or terror,

but one of out and out rage.  A voice that Nodoka recognized as

Akane in full outrage mode screamed, "you filthy, perverted,

degenerate!  How dare you?"  

     The last time she had heard Akane that angry, a local boy in

Japan had grabbed her bottom.  Nodoka started to hurry toward the

tent, afraid one of the local men has snuck into their camp.  She just

hoped she could get there before he was hurt too badly.  She

remembered how much effort it had taken to keep Akane off of the

boy.  This could be bad.  There wasn't a strange green haired girl,

and a ridiculously strong brunette,  to help her pull Akane off of the

boy this time

     She didn't make it.  The side of the tent suddenly ripped open

as a body came flying through the air in a high trajectory that took it

over Plum and Nodoka's head.  The glance Nodoka got as it flew

overhead told her it was Ukyou.  A second later Akane came

storming out of the tent, literally glowing blue.  "Come back here

you pig!  I haven't even started you son-of-a-bitch!"

     "Stop!" Plum shouted, placing herself between the outraged

Akane and the sprawled figure of Ukyou, who Nodoka was running

toward.  "It's not his fault you didn't listen to this one's warning. 
If

you fell into Nanniichuan, it's your own fault.  Besides," Plum

added, looking at Akane's heaving chest, "you've already found out

that hot water cures it.  This one have to warn you, if you get

splashed with cold water, you'll turn back into a boy."

     "What the hell are you babbling about?" Akane yelled at the

girl in her way.  Sending Plum staggering with a sweep of her arm,

she marched toward Ukyou, who was presently being overseen by a

shocked Nodoka.  

     Nodoka's shock could have been because of the unexpected

behavior of Akane, but it wasn't.  What had caused her shock was

the sight of Ukyou's chest.  When she had reached the fallen girl,

her suit jacket had been open.  Obviously because she had been about

to change out of her wet clothes, and the wrappings she wore around

her chest had slipped down around her waist, Ukyou no longer

having the necessary means of holding them in their usual place. 

Nodoka stared at the bare, and most definitely masculine chest thus

revealed in stunned surprise.

     "You bastard!" Akane yelled, reaching for Ukyou's throat,

intending to pull the stunned youth away from Nodoka.  

     "Akane!  Stop!" Nodoka said in a very sharp, no nonsense tone. 

She grasped Akane's wrist in her hand.  

     "No!  I won't!  That pervert has been laughing up his sleeve at

us all week.  "He watched me change!  Hell!  He was in the

bathhouse with us.  He watched us both!  He even washed your back! 

How can you defend him?"

     Nodoka looked into the furious Akane's eyes, and saw little

sanity there, but the mere fact that she was able to restrain the angry

girl showed that somewhere, deep down, a seed of doubt must exist. 

The raw power she had witnessed, and the iron hard forearm she was

currently gripping proved to her that Akane was restraining herself. 

If she wanted to, she could easily brush Nodoka's efforts to restrain

her aside.

     "Akane think.  We've seen Ukyou nude, you know she was a

girl, is a girl."

     "It was a trick, a stupid pervert trick!  I don't know how he did

it, but he did it."

     "You're being foolish, you know that's not possible, Ukyou

may have washed my back, but you washed hers.  Can you honestly

say that you think she was wearing a disguise?"

     Akane flushed at the reference to washing Ukyou's back, but

the reminder was enough to break her out of her cycle of rage and

denial.  The angry look on her face did not disappear, but it grew

confused.  Akane clenched her fists, pulling her arm free of Nodoka,

and took a step backward.  She wrapped her arms around her chest,

and Nodoka saw her knuckles go white as she gripped her forearms

tightly.  It was if she was trying to hold in an explosion.  Finally, 
in

a strangled voice she said.  "How?"

     Nodoka looked over at Plum, a sorrowful look on her face.  "It

would seem we should have taken the stories our guide told us more

seriously."

     "You can't be serious!" Akane demanded, "are you telling me

that the spring turned Ukyou into a boy!?"

     "Wait, wait, what you talking about?  You is one that fall in

spring." Plum's Japanese suffered as she tried to understand what

was going on.

     Akane looked at her in surprise, and repeated her earlier

comment.  "What the hell are you talking about?  Ukyou fell in the

spring, not me!"

     "As I remember it, you knocked me in." A rather weak voice

said.

     "Ukyou, you're awake!" Nodoka exclaimed, looking down at

the girl turned boy in her arms.  She helped him to sit up, and almost

his first reaction was to raise a hand to his chest, and pat it.  

     "It's true!" He said in a stunned voice, "I'm a boy."

     "Plum no understand what going on!  You always boy!"

     "No." Nodoka answered, she merely dressed like one."

     Plum looked down at the sprawled Ukyou, a look of surprise on

her face, the look changed quickly to one of embarrassment, and

maybe a little anger and denial of her own.  She snatched the kettle

from the nearby campfire, and before anyone realized what she was

doing, dumped its contents over Ukyou, fortunately missing Nodoka.

     "Owwwww, you crazy jackass!  Are you trying to boil me?"

The now female chef demanded.

     Plum did not reply, instead, she reached forward, and hesitantly

grasped one the most prominent proofs of Ukyou's current status. 

"Is true.  You is girl." Plum said in a dismayed voice.  

     Ukyou had gone rigid when Plum had grasped her, but only for

a second, even as Plum snatched her hands away as if burned, Ukyou

was replacing it with her own.  "I'm a girl again." she said, her

expression and tone of voice still rather stunned.

     Akane's expression was equally stunned, while Nodoka had a

stricken look on her face.  Speaking to Plum, but for the benefit of

the other two girls as well, Nodoka said.  "I think maybe you should

tell us the stories of this place again, and this time I can promise

you, we will listen most carefully."


*********************************************


     Out on the very edge of the earth's atmosphere, an object about

fifty feet in length was suddenly outlined in a pale corona as it

impinged on the upper wisps of air that made up the farthest reaches

of the planet's area of dominion.  Silhouetted by the light caused

from the friction between metal and air, it was revealed as a rather

elongated egg shape.  Its matte black surface was peppered with

what might have been at one time a sophisticated telemetry array,

but which now consisted of nothing more then melted stubs of metal. 


     As the alien object bit deeper into the atmosphere, it began to

tumble, shedding sections of its outer surface until it was surrounded

by a plummeting cloud of debris.  As it fell deeper and deeper into

the atmosphere, the debris trail became attenuated, and formed a tail

behind the craft, giving the object the appearance of a comet.  Its

trajectory was shallow, and so despite its precipitous decent, it would

take some time for it to reach its ultimate destination.


     Somewhere on a small island in the south pacific, in a dark

room lit only by the green glow of numerous tracking stations, a man

asked a question.

     "Well gentlemen, I'm waiting.  What is our bogey?  Is it a

another Russian satellite our new allies forgot to tell us was about to

fall?" The speaker was an older air force Major, he had _not_ been

sleeping when the alarm had gone off, and as a result, was rather

grumpy.  He was standing in a dimly lit room, while all around him

eager young officers peered into glowing green screens that lit their

faces up like extras from a grade-B horror movie.

     The senior scope technician answered the Major's question.  I

believe that is a negatory sir.  The back plot for the object shows it
to

be from deep space, farther out then we or anyone else has anything. 

I make it to be a meteor sir."

     "Size?" The Major asked, a hint of tension in his voice. 

Congressmen had been getting a large number of inquires about

what they were doing to protect their constituents from giant

asteroids landing in their backyard swimming pools.  If something of

any size had slipped in this close on his watch without him being

aware of it till now  . . .   he shuddered slightly.  "Damn

Hollywood!" he muttered to himself.  

     After a few minutes studying his scope, the tech answered his

question regarding the size.  "It looks like a gravel pit sir.  Not
solid,

just a mass of loose material.  Nothing to be worried about.  It's

already a fraction of its original size.  It's odds on whether any of 
it

actually reaches earth."

     The Major heaved a sigh of relief, then asked the next pertinent

question.  "And if it does reach earth, where would that be?"

     The senior scope man turned to one of his subordinates. 

"Finey?"

     Finey replied without lifting his head from his instrument.  "I

almost have it sir.  It's a bit tricky, every time it sheds a large
chunk

it alters course.  It came in on a glancing trajectory.  A few miles 
and

it would have missed us altogether.  It's going to orbit at least twice

before hitting.  Best I can make it out is somewhere in northeastern

China."

     "China eh," the Major rubbed his chin for a second.  "Any

chance it could change course enough to bring it into our sphere."

     "If it does sir, it won't be our problem.  If it shifts
trajectories

that much.  The, pardon me sir, shit will hit the fan.  The only way it

could change course that radically would be if it was a lot more then

it seems."

     "Huh," the Major grunted, "see your point.  Well, I'm going

back to bed.  If it does happen to change course that much, do give

the lard butts over at Cheyenne a call would you."

     "Will do sir." The lieutenant snapped off a salute as the Major

left the room, then turned back to his scope.  Unseen by anyone, he

crossed his fingers.  He might have been senior to everyone left in

the room, but he still had the same dreams that had placed him in

his present position.  He sat watching the screen, and hopping the

small blip would alter its trajectory in a way that no falling rock 
ever

would.


***********************************************


     </bigger>