Please C&C.  This and previous revised chapters can be
found at:

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/rolfwind

 STANDARD DISCLAIMER: 
I don't own the characters. Pioneer and AIC do.  I own
this story though.

KEY:
<> - indicates thoughts
[]- mental communication


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


THE UNMASKING PART VI


CHAPTER 6:  DON'T CALL ME, I'LL CALL YOU


Washu turned around to meet her daughter squarely,
"What is it?" 

Her daughter commanded, "Just do it." 

The scientist shrugged and leaned back in her chair,
[Ok, Ryoko.  Show Mommy what the problem is?] 

Rolling her eyes, the ex-pirate started projecting her
thoughts.

The headhead stammered unintelligibly throughout the
exchange of thoughts.  Her child transmitted her
thoughts faster this time around, ending with the
experience in the lab. 

Rubbing her temples, the redhead remarked, "I don't
remember any of this.  Who are we dealing with?" 

Ryoko kicked her mother's seat in frustration, "That's
what I like to know!  Are you sure you don't know
anything?  It sounds like you do from the way they
talk." 

The childlike scientist shook her head emphatically. 
Seeing her daughter's disbelief, she tried to make
some light of the situation, "At least they burned the
doll after they were done with it!  And really, you
should thank me.  After all you got another kiss out
of it!"  Her expression soured, "Though the one called
me a bitch, where does he get off on that!"

"They both kissed you on the cheek and said that they
love you...."

Washu coughed, "Don't look at me that way!  They did
the same for his.... their father....."

Ryoko kicked the seat again, though it still didn't
have the simple courtesy to budge. 

The one seated took no offense, instead she mumbled
and grumbled out, "Revert false master control to
Washu, indeed."  Slowly she got up, and started
inputting commands into her holotop.  Each minute
spent on it, the more she started cursing, eventually
resorted to punching through the ghostlike device. 
"From what my system is telling me, I appear to have
master control of the lab.  To sabatage the computers
one of them must be extremely smart, and definitely
has......"  Washu trailed off, not finishing. 

Arching her eyebrows, Ryoko forced the issue,
"And...."

"Well..... I am certain that they have my memories to
do that, or too many things might have gone wrong. 
Plus to fight like they do....."

"What do you mean, what aren't you telling me?!"

"They use my style, not one hundred percent, mind you,
but enough.  Some of it, is from you, so they might
have your memories as well, as I told you before."

Running her hand through her hair, Ryoko inquired,
"How do you see that? And you have a fighting style?"

The redhead smiled weakly, "Scientists are supposed to
see underlying patterns.  And yes, I used to fight a
long time ago."  She muttered into her dress, "It's
not wholly obvious, but the way he fights is at its
core a derivative of mine.  It also appears he adopted
some of your techniques, some Jurain patterns, plus
even more variations.  He's extremely good, more than
that, I think both of them are the best I've ever
seen." 

Ryoko nodded, "I don't think I want to find out." 

"One of the them was wearing your demon mask, wasn't
he?  The one you wore in the cave." 

Ryoko gave a small nod, barely more than an
inclination of her head, "Come to think of it, he
was."  She shivered at the memory of the one trying to
kill the other.

"Ryoko, if you don't mind, can you sit on the machine
over there?"  The universe's greatest scientific
genius pointed to the contraption the brain scanner
was attached on.

Ryoko stared back and forth between the machine and
the redhead, looking at Washu for an explanation,
"Why?" 

Tapping her foot impatiently, Washu snorted
derisively, "Well, they said activity logging would
begin in one hour.  By my estimates, we have half an
hour to go.  Now get moving!  We're wasting valuable
time!"

The cyan haired woman floated over to the confinement
model, and the brain scanner automatically attached to
her head.  A sigh of relief was exhaled, the dreaded
tentacle arms did not move to strap her in place. 

The inquisitive scientist had been busy at the
computer before she let out a frustrated howl.  "He
erased all the information I gathered.  Ryoko, open
your mind again, I need to reconstruct everything from
your memory."

No longer concerned with an intrusion to her privacy,
the demoness let any blocks on her mind fall and
coughed, "Whatever, move it."

It took time, but the redhead made astounding
progress.  Finally she commented, "You know, I would
never have known these memory blocks existed without
the key, they are extremely well hidden."

After endless minutes of silence, Ryoko decided to
ask, "Washu, you said I had a ton of memory blocks,
how many?" 

"Just a minute little Ryoko, I have to check that up?"


Taps were heard for more minutes, until Washu gave a
low whistle, "Oh my god....." 

Ryoko paled, "What?!" 

"You have over 4,000 memory blocks or changes.  Over
4,000!" 

"Why that many?!" 

"I don't know?!" 

Washu quickly hopped onto one of the machines next to
her, and started typing frantically, and sucked her
breath in, "Wha-?!  This can't be correct!"

"Now what's the matter?" 

Trembling with rage, the scientist sputtered out an
entire library of curses before she could settle down.
 "I have memory blocks too.  You have small memory
blocks, except for two large ones.  Both spanning
several years, it seems.  I have three large ones, the
first two spanning several years, but the computer
estimate of the last one is....... I haven't even
lived that long!  How I can have one so large?!"

Ryoko had enough ups and downs in her emotional
rollercoaster today, she forced herself to calm down. 
"Well, can you open them?" 

The redhead nodded, determined to do just that.  "I'll
try." 

Typing could be heard.  Time passed first in the form
of a few seconds, turning into minutes.  A loud
'Damn!' emanated from the lungs of one who passed as a
twelve year old. 

"Ryoko, the way they are implemented are extremely
clever.  I ascertained that the encryption key needs
dynamic information from Ayeka's and Tenchi's minds to
decode these things properly!  I never seen anything
like this before, never seen it done before!"

Both sat there in silence, wearing the brainscanners
affixed to their skulls.  The lightbulbs were
periodically lighting the hall in their on and off
dance, while both were pondering this situation. 

The diminutive scientist leaned forward , "I have an
idea.  Before we do anything else, we need to contact
Tenchi's friends from school.  I need to know if he's
been acting weird lately." 

Waiting for an reaction from her daughter, Washu
finally snapped "Well?" 

"Well, what?" 

Frowning in annoyance, Washu explained, "I need some
names!  I'm down here in the lab most of the time, I
wouldn't know who his friends are, would I?"

Ryoko shrugged her shoulders, "Now that I come to
think of it, he really doesn't hang out with anybody
from school.  At least from what I know...."  Then she
added wryly, "Or from what I remember."

"We'll ask Nobuyuki, he probably have some phone
numbers." 

The two went out of the lab, quietly, and found
Nobuyuki talking with Sasami. 

The blue haired princess greeted them with a wide
smile.  "Oh, I made tea an hour ago.  I'm sorry it's
cold, but when I went into the lab the computer
wouldn't tell me your location, and I went through a
lot of rooms.  The computer wouldn't answer me either
I asked." 

She went red in the face, "I guess that Tenchi was
undressed again.  I could make some fresh tea if you
guys want it?" 

Boring holes through Washu, Ryoko mentally hissed
rather dangerously, [Undressed again?!  So that doll
thing wasn't just....] 

Coughing rather loudly, Washu stuttered back [Well, I
uh, you see.... You know I had nothing in the computer
to stop it from telling her.  Actually that would be
quite counterproductive.]  "Ah... Sasami, that's ok. 
We actually came up to talk with Nobuyuki."

Tenchi's father peered over the rim of his teacup,
genuinely surprised."Oh.  And what would you lovely
ladies like to talk about." 

"Well, do you have any phone numbers of Tenchi's
friends.  We were thinking of throwing a party in his
honor, you know, for everything he's done for us." 
Washu rocked back and forth on her heels, wondering if
that was a good excuse. 

He raised his fist in the air, "I think tha's a
wonderful idea!  He's always so busy, it would be nice
that he would spend some time with his family and lady
friends."  Nobuyuki set the tea cup aside, and jogged
enthusiastically up the stairs to his weekend room.

Minutes later he came plodding down the steps.  "I
have some phone numbers in this booklet,"  Nobuyuki
offered happily, flipping through a small appointment
book. 

He stopped his page turning with his index finger when
he stopped at a certain page, "Aha! I think these are
his friends' phone numbers.  Don't mind all those
other numbers in the rest of it, or all you'll reach
some lady friends of mine."

Rolling their eyes collectively, Washu kept some
disparaging remarks that popped up in her mind to
herself.  "Thank you Nobuyuki.  I'll think we'll call
them tomorrow, right Ryoko?"

"Right."

She fit the booklet.neatly into her pocket. 

Ryoko asked confused, [Shouldn't we show them.]

Washu made the mental equivalent of a dismissive shrug
and added, [That can be taken care of in the morning.]


The Hakubi duo said their goodnights to Sasami and
Nobuyuki, leaving them talking in the kitchen.

They made their way into the dimly lit lab, with the
lights still flickering on and off from the
destruction of the majority of power generators. 

Washu snapped her fingers and a cushion appeared
behind her.  Her typing started and a speakerphone
appeared.  Nobuyuki's booklet was laid out in her lap,
and she glanced at the page he marked.  [Ryoko, let me
do all the talking, okay?] 

"Fine, whatever."

Washu typed in the numbers of the first contact. 

The speaker phone beeped a few times, dring, dring,
dring, dring, dring..... until a soft female voice
answered. "Hello, Kinomi residence, may I ask who's
calling?" 

"Ah, well you see, I'm trying to contact a Hiro
Kinomi?" 

She answered back, "Oh, ok, just a moment."  The phone
banged down against a hard surface, and she yelled,
"Hiro, get down here, some girl wants to talk to you!"

As the phone was being picked up, Washu wished that
earth had commonplace video communication by now.  <It
would be so much more effective if I could study
people's facial expressions while they talk.>

A more mellow male voice slowly said, "Hello." 

"Why, hello right back at ya!  My name's Washu and I'm
a friend of Tenchi Masaki, do you know him?" 

A bored yawn emitted from the other end, "Oh yeah,
Tenchi.  What about him?" 

Twirling her hair, Washu tapped at her cushion
impatiently.  "Oh, we were just kinda worried about
him, you know.  Has he been acting strange lately or
anything?" 

Hiro sniffed, "I wouldn't really know, I've been out
sick the last two weeks from school." 

Washu sighed, irritated at having to explain herself
to these simpletons.  "Oh, but I meant anytime lately,
like the past year."

Hiro coughed some more, and sounded like he was
spitting up mucus, "You know, your really calling
late....." 

Washu nodded and said sympathetically, "I'm sorry, but
anything could help." 

Hiro sighed, "Well, I really wanna get back to
bed...... but come to think of it, I haven't seen
Tenchi the past year in school.  None of my friends
have much, except when he comes into school and gets
out.  Nobody even knows which classes he's taking. 
Sorry, but I just want to get some rest, goodbye Miss
Washu."

 Washu tried to smile warmly, out of habit dealing
with people, even though in this case no one would see
it, "Goodbye."  They heard the phone click, and Washu
sat back.

"Oh well, enough numbers to still call.  We better
hurry before everyone else is in bed, otherwise we
can't reach them."  Washu reached into subspace and
took a pen out to checkmark the first number while at
the same time dialing the second number on the list.

Dring, Dring, Dring.....  a male voice, high pitched
and speedily answered "Menkaza residence, may I ask
who's calling?" 

Washu smoothly replied, "I'm calling for a Munfo
Menkaza." 

The voice, apparently dumbfound asked, "Me?  You want
to talk to me?" 

Washu rolled her eyes, "Well, is your name Munfo?" 

Munfo stuttered out, "Y-yeah, your not the collection
agency, are you?" 

Washu creased her brow, "The collection agency?" 

Munfo let out a sigh of relief, "Y-your not calling to
collect money, are you?" 

Washu, hoping to relax this person, said smoothly and
leisurely, "No...., I'm just a friend of Tenchi
Masaki.  I called just wanting to know if Tenchi has
been acting weird lately.  You know him I assume." 

Munfo sighed, "Oh your just, I mean your not from the
collection agency, whew silly me.  I haven't seen
Tenchi since last year.  I've been redistricted to a
different school than him, I mean I guess.  He
probably goes to Okayama now, since the destruction of
our old school, right?" 

Washu nodded and glared at Ryoko, "Right, has he ever
acted strangely though?" 

Munfo seemed to breathing heavily on the phone line,
"Hmm, not really but doesn't everybody act strange
once in a while?  Your really not from the collection
agency, your not trying to get him instead are you?" 

Washu shook her head, "What?!" 

Munfo sighed, "Sorry I can't help you, but if we stay
on the phone too long they'll start tapping it.  You
know?" 

Washu was confused, "They?" 

Munfo shook his head bewildered.  "Yeah, they.  You
know, them." 

Washu had to close her eyes at the display stupidity. 
"Them?" 

Munfo hushed his voice and spoke rapidly, rattling off
a sentence a second, "Them, the government, they are
all over the place, you know.  You see, they think we
don't really know about the aliens from space, but we
do.  I saw it all in the internet.  And the ones who
know that we know are coming to kill us, so we have to
kill them first, the aliens I mean.  Say, do you want
to join the fight for freedom?  We need all the help
to stop them." 

Washu coughed and smiled evilly as the man rattled on
about the nonsense.  She hurriedly typed on her
computers, collecting information from central
databanks of earth, while sending out her probes. 
Repressing the urge to cackle, she went on to lower
her tone, "Oh yes Munfo Menkaza.  We *know* all about
them.  Why don't you stay at your apartment, and we'll
come over.  You live at 15203 Rondeno Street, there
should be a yellow 1990 acura up front.  *We'll* be
right over."

He screamed out, ""Uh thanks, goodbye."  He hurriedly
hung up the phone and ran into hiding.

Washu laughed herself silly, "What a paranoid weirdo! 
Take over this dump, what for?"  She tapped in another
number as she put a huge checkmark next to that
number.  Dring, dring, dring, dring, dring, dring. 
Washu scratched her chin, "Hmm, no one home.  Oh well.
 Next number!"

Dring, dring, dring, dring....."Hello, Pouyo Nokyu
speaking. May I help you?" 

Washu impatiently tapped her fingers together, "Hello
Nokyu, my name's Washu.  I'm a friend of Tenchi Masaki
and I'm kind of worried about him.  Has he been acting
strangely lately?" 

Nokyu gave a long "Hmmm..... Well I haven't ever seen
him in school this year, except the first day in our
old one and...."  The teenager went silent. 

Washu motioned with her hands, "And...." 

Nokyu came out with a deep voice, "Hmmm, I don't want
to spread rumors but I heard last Wednesday Tenchi
went into the bathroom and kicked everyone out. 
Nobody else could get in no matter how hard they
tried.  Well anyway I don't know what happened, but
some people say that the principal came out with a
towel over his face all bloody.  Oh and some fat kid
is spreading rumors how Tenchi made a pass at him or
something." 

The eyebrows on both Hakubis arched up and both
shouted, "Who?!" 

The student was very noncommittal, "Hmm, I don't
know....  I don't pay attention to these things." 

Intrigued, the redhead asked, "Do you know the
principal's name or number?" 

"Uh, one second, let me check my school binder."

Washu tapped her foot impatiently as the phone went
silent for a few minutes, looking worriedly at Ryoko
from time to time, though the space pirate kept a
neutral expression through most of it.

"Hello," came Nokyu's voice, sounding unsure whether
anybody bothered to stay on the line. 

"Yes." 

Sounds of paper being flipped over several times were
heard through the speaker.  "Well the principal's name
is Hinawi.  I don't know his first name though.  His
phone number is 555-9873.  Would that be all, did you
say your name was Miss Washu?" 

Washu clasped her hands together, "Oh yes, thank you
very much.  Goodbye now."

"Goodbye, ma'am."

Washu hurriedly dialed the supplied number.  Dring,
dring, dring, dring..... A very tired voice that
slurred alot answer the phone, obviously groggy,
"Hello." 

Washu fired back, "I wish to speak to a Principal
Hinawi please."  The voice cleared its throat, "Oh,
thaths me." 

"I'm sorry if I woke you up, Principal Hinawi." 

Hinawi gave out a low moan, "Thaths okay, I don't get
musch sthleep these daysth anyhow.  What do you wishth
to disthcusth." 

"I'm very sorry to hear that.  I'm a friend of Tenchi
Masaki.  I'm calling to see if he's been acting
strangely lately."

The phone went dead for a minute, it's utter silence
deafening while the two wondered what was wrong.  The
voice, now weak whereas before it was strong, but
tired, squeked out, "T-T-Tenschi?"  There was the
trembling of fear from the voice, "Uh, yesth.  Tenschi
Masthaki." 

Hinawi coughed out, "No, Tenschi isth a model
sthudent.  Believe me, none finer.  All 1'sth and
2'sth lastht sthemesther." 

"Oh, that's good.  Uh, could you tell me who his
teachers are, sir." 

The principal spat out maliciously, "How schould I
know that.  Schould I know every sthudentsth
sthchedule by heart." 

Washu, taken aback by his anger, apologized, "I'm
sorry, I just thought you would know."

A long suffering groan came from the speaker.  "Well I
don't." 

There was loud rapid breathing coming from the phone,
and Hinawi sthqeaked out, "If you sthee him, justht
tell Tenschi that I've been good.  I thswear wasth
good lately.  Okay?" 

Suddenly the phone hung up.  Ryoko and Washu looked at
each other bewildered.  "What was that about?"  they
both asked at the same time.  As soon as the question
was asked, they both shrugged in answer.

Washu looked at the list, only a few more names to go.
 <Let's see, we'll try this one.> 

Dring, dring, dring, dring..... Another male's voice
answered, "Hello, who's there?" 

Washu, knowing it was getting extremely late, asked
swiftly, "May I speak to Matabei Chebon please." 

The voice piped up again, "Speaking." 

"Hello, I'm Washu.  I'm friends with Tenchi Masaki. 
I'm just calling around to see if he's been acting
strange lately?"

Matabei wretched out disgustedly and started a tirade,
"Hell yes, the guy's a fucking pervert.  First I don't
see him at school all year.  Finally, he shows up
Wednesday afternoon coming out the bathroom.  I heard
Amagasaki making up a wild rumor that Tenchi tried to
rape him or something.  I thought knowing that
blabbermouth that it was one of his wild tales again."

He snorted in disgust.  "So I try to make some small
talk to him, joking about it.  The next thing I know
he's shoving me into the bathroom and ripping my shirt
off.  That little pervert even stuck his tongue down
halfway into my throat!  God, did I get out of there
quick, I'm still throwing up over it.  If you're
friends of his, he's really fucked up, get him some
help!"

Washu just stood there with her jaw open, "Uh, erm,
well thanks, Amagasaki you said?" 

Matabei breathed out harshly.  "Yeah, I know I'm never
gonna go near him again.  Half the school probaly
heard about it by now.  Is this all?" 

"Uhuh." 

Sounding eager to get off the phone, Matabei dismissed
them.  "Well goodbye."

Ryoko stared at Washu wide-eyed.  "No!  I don't
believe it.  It must be something the guy dreamed up. 
Tenchi, he's not like that, no, no, no!" 

Washu patted her 's daughter hand, "We'll get to the
bottom of this, Little Ryoko.  You'll see."  For once,
Ryoko for once didn't snap back.

Washu scanned the list and saw that indeed someone
named Amagasaki, actually the last one on the list. 
Getting tired at these guessing games Washu started
typing in the number anyway.

Dring... dring... dring... a pleasant but strong
female voice answered the phone.  "Hello.  Kazuhiko
residence.  May I ask who is calling?" 

Washu licked her lips, <Last number, thank god.> 
"Sorry to disturb you so late ma'am, but I would like
to speak to Amagasaki Kazuhiko." 

The voiced on the other end gave a long suffering
sigh, "I'm sorry, but Amagasaki is grounded.  I can't
allow him on the phone right now." 

Washu frowned, she wasn't about to have her
investigation stopped over this little roadblock. 
"Please ma'am it's important.  My name is Washu and
I'm a friend of Tenchi Masaki.  I believe Tenchi is a
friend of Amagasaki.  I need to speak to him." 

Instantly Miss Kazuhiko's voice became much more
understanding.  "Oh, your friends with that nice
Tenchi boy.  You probably want to speak to him about
those stupid rumors my boy has been spreading all over
the place.  Please don't worry, I put Amagasaki in his
place, I really don't know where he gets off spreading
those lies but he does it all the time."

"Right ma'am."

The voice on the other end of the line began yelling,
"Amagasaki, get your butt down here this instant. 
Someone wants to speak to you!" 

Heavy footsteps came running down the stairs, and an
out-of-breath voice in the distance obediently
growled, "Yes mom!"

The phone banged a few times while being picked up. 
Heavy, rapid, breathing came in from the other end. 
"Oh....sorry..... let me catch.... my.... breath." 

Raising her voice, hoping this Amagasaki would be able
to hear her, Washu stated, "Hello, my name is Washu
and I'm a friend of Tenchi Masaki.  I'd like to know
if he's been acting strange lately."

Slowly having caught his breath, his voice quietly
hissed out like acid, "Do you want the truth or some
bullshit to make you happy?" 

"Oh, I'd take the truth."

Calming down, the teenager added, "Let me take the
phone outside, my mom will kill me if she hears me say
anything bad about him."

Cursing, he stepped over various articles of clutter
and shoved things aside.  A door opened and slammed
shut.  Washu had to lower the volume as he cursed out,
"If Masaki ever comes near me and my girl again I'll
beat the crap out of him!" 

"What exactly happened, Amagasaki?  Don't worry we're
all friends here, I'm not taking sides."

The heavyset student banged against a door twice, with
his foot.  "Well first off, I really needed to go to
the bathroom, you know, to take of business.  And
there's Tenchi in my face telling me to get out....." 

At this point, Amagasaki had to take a short respite
from talking to catch his breath.  ".......Well, I
haven't seen him in a long time, wherever he's been
hiding.  I was trying to be friendly with him and the
next thing I know, he's shoving me over to the sink,
god damned frenching me, and he tore my shirt off.  He
ripped it to pieces!"

In between sentences, Amagasaki muttered to himself,
becoming more enraged at retelling the past
experience.  "That little sicko almost got my pants
off and he was asking me if I want to use condoms or
not!  I ran the hell out of there for my life, I swear
he would have fucking raped me if I wasn't so strong. 
That was on Wednesday, then on Friday....."  The
student stopped to take in a breather.

His breath calmed down, "Anyway, on friday Tenchi came
over at lunchtime and I'm sitting there with my girl,
Hanae.  He starts flirting with her and groping her
all over the place!  That sick bastard even asked her
if she wanted to be in a sandwich if you know what
that means?!" 

Washu wryly commented, "Lately, I think I've seen how
hentai he can be." 

Amagasaki continued his story, "Well anyway, he
suddenly wanted to invite me and her to his shrine.
'So we can get to know each other better, a lot
better.'  Anyway we got into a fight and I beat the
crap out of him.  You can tell him to fuck off for me,
I'm not gonna go near him or his place ever again." 

Washu smiled and sincerely thanked Amagasaki before
they exchanged goodbyes.

Ryoko looked over at Washu, "I still don't believe it,
I won't!"  The cyon haired woman growled out, "No, I
won't..... I won't!  I just don't know, after today I
don't know what to believe.... but I won't believe
this!" 

The redhead patted her daughter's back reassuringly,
"Honey, don't worry.  Think about it logically, do you
think Tenchi could have had the crap beaten out of him
by some other high school kid, who sounds he's about
to die of a heart attack just from coming down the
stairs?"

The former space pirate rubbed her head, "I had enough
with thinking today.  I guess not but why would he do
those things....." 

Washu put her right hand to her chin, and
contemplated, "I don't think I could even begin to
guess correctly.  However, I think his actions serve a
purpose, I just don't know what they are.  Why don't
you get some sleep and let me worry about it?"

Reluctantly she agreed, and slipped out of the lab. 
She looked about for a comfortable place to sleep.  <I
don't think my room will cut it tonight, it never
has.>

She phased up into Tenchi's room.  The prince was
comfortably asleep with the moonlight shining on his
face, illuminating it in tones of silver.  His silent
guardian flew over him, thinking despondently, <Today
is the day I found out you loved me, but why does all
this other stuff have to be thrown in?>She traced his
features lightly, careful not to disturb him.  <You
can't be like that, no, you just can't be.>


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


Authors Note: 
PLEASE REVIEW, THANK YOU!

Email: 
rolfwind@yahoo.com


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