Well now!

I seem to have been absent from this particular forum for far too long.  Myself,
I've long been stricken by the regular business of classes, attempting to work,
get projects done, work on a couple comics, and agonize about my complete
inability to finish an actual story.

A while back, I set out to do an experiment.  My theory was that people (or at
least me) actually can write fairly well--much better, in fact, than they would
ever give themselves credit for.  Unfortunately, as one's skill increases, so
does one's eye for flaws in one's own work.  Hence, it's often the case that
authors and artists can't bear to look at their work anymore, despite the fact
that there's not really that much wrong with it.  They stare at a page, then
run off and go do something else, living in perpetual paralyzing fear that they
will not live up to their own expectations.

I've noticed that there seems to be fairly little on the FFML as of late, as
compared to the golden age when precious little of even Ranma was factually
known about.  This could be for any of a number of reasons.  I submit that
perhaps it's because writers fear getting flamed by the more experienced and
knowledgeable.  Instead of demanding perfection in this kind of forum, I
suggest that maybe... just maybe, we should not fear writing something that's
absolutely terrible.  No, we should writhe in it, revel in the knowledge that
we're doing it because we love it.  And if we get flamed or our dreams get
shattered, we should jump back in, screaming for more.

Therefore, I present the results of simply writing without a care in the world,
with the only goal being to get the whole thing done.  It's a dark little
bizarre alternate universe I like to call...

Nuke 'Em 'Till They Glow!!
Terra in Tokyo

---Chapter 1:  Just Plain Wrong

	"Hiya, Mister Ander!  I see you finally got Mister Robinson to give you your
pitchfork back.  Too bad it's jabbed into your chest, huh?  Okies, gotta
go--b'bye!"

	Terra Incognita was having a great day. She'd had one yesterday, and this
morning looked like it was going to be wonderful as well.  Her life had always
been a daily joy, filled with peace and happiness and loving, friendly people. 
It had been that way for as long as she could remember.  However, she didn't
have that great of a memory.  The cheerful little redhead went about her daily
business, attended school, and generally didn't notice the common events of
social and religious strife in her hometown of Ulster, Northern Ireland.

	If ignorance was bliss, Terra was the happiest girl in the whole wide world. 
While the carnage went on about her, she would always step forward through the
ashes and rubble to congratulate this week's new victor.

	"What a sweet girl," the people would often comment as she skipped past them to
the high-walled elementary school she attended.

	Her grades were never very good.  In fact, she could be considered one of
nature's "D" students.  She never, ever failed a class... but she never did
particularly well in any of them, either.  In fact, her instructors usually
allowed her to pass because she was just too gosh darn cute to fail.  It would
have been like kicking a particularly stupid--but adorable--puppy.

	Blaming the environment in which they were raising their child for her lack of
development, her parents decided that it was time to move, and the further away
they went, the better.  One day, as Terra came home from school, her mother
inquired if she would enjoy learning Japanese.

	"Tee-hee!" Terra giggled thoughtfully with a finger to her cheek, "I'd love to,
Mom, but I'm no good at math!"

	As it turned out, Terra's mother was originally from Japan and often spoke the
language around her, so it wasn't that big of a stretch to get Terra to
communicate on nearly the same level in Japanese as she usually did in English
or Gaelic.  The words were the same; only the accent changed.

	When the time came to leave the land of eternal strife and shamrocks, Terra had
just gotten out of grade school and also arrived at that special point in her
life when boys started noticing her--noticing her, that is, for reasons other
than her ever-so-pullable ponytails.

	In other words, she was quickly becoming a teen, and worse, a fairly pretty
one.  Even her titanium-willed father worried what might become of her if she
didn't quickly become wiser.  Therefore, especially at the tender age of
fourteen, Terra was given strict instructions that she was not to attempt to
date anyone without express written permission.

	The girl innocently thought that meant she was supposed to leave a note before
going out every day, just in case she happened to meet someone she liked.  So
that's exactly what she did this morning.

	"Dear Mom and Dad," Terra wrote aloud, "I've gone off to school.  If I meet any
nice boys and bring them home, I'll call first and then you can sign on the line
that I'm putting on the bottom of this paper.  Love, Terra.  Hugs and kisses! 
________"

	How she managed to pronounce the blank space was a mystery.  Nevertheless, she
did it with an uncanny clarity.

	"To-die-mas!" Terra announced as she walked outside.  She wore her hair in two
short obnoxious ponytails and had donned her blue and white seifuku in
preparation for her first day at Juuban Junior High School.  Her mother, Kasumi
Incognita, waved back while sweeping the front porch of the new Incognita
household.

	"Have fun!" Kasumi said brightly.  "Don't play out in the street too much
today.  Okay, dear?"

	"Haaai!"  Skipping along the way, the adolescent swung her book bag back and
forth while singing, "Junior high!  Junior high!  I don't know why, but it's...
junior high!"  She was so excited she hardly noticed when she knocked down
another girl with her bag and trampled her badly before continuing on her merry
way.

---

	"Hey!" Naru called after the girl who had run her over.  She got back up,
dusted herself off, and sped after the whirling, skipping human juggernaut. 
"Hold up!"

	The redhead stopped, turned around, smiled, and tilted her head sideways. 
"Good morning!  Who are you?"

	Taken somewhat off-guard, Naru bowed slightly and introduced herself to this
new person.  "I'm Osaka Naru.  I can't believe you didn't see me back there!" 
Looking the girl over, it was obvious she wasn't from around here, but judging
from her accent and diction, she couldn't exactly have been a foreigner either.
 Perhaps one of her parents was European or something.  "You're not from around
here, are you?  What's your name?  Where are you from?"

	"I'm Terra Incognita," Terra replied sweetly as she bobbed from side to side
and twirled a finger in her hair.  "I'm from Ireland!  Tee-hee!"

	"Ireland."  Naru noticed a large sticker on Terra's blouse that read in
transliterated katakana, "Kiss me.  I'm Irish!"  She tried to resolve the
horrible language inconsistencies in her mind, but quickly gave up and said,
"It's nice to meet you, Incognita-san--"

	Terra stuck out her lower lip.  "Honorifics confuse me.  Please call me Terra!"

	"All right, 'Terra,'" said Naru.  "Say, it looks like you're headed my way.  I
thought I knew everyone in this neighborhood, but do you go to Juuban Junior
High?"

	Terra nodded emphatically.  "Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh!  I just moved in."

	Naru smiled back.  "Just moved in?  Yeah, I thought so.  In that case, maybe I
could show you around later.  Would you like me to?"

	"Sure!" the plucky Irish lass replied.

	"Then hurry up.  We've only got about five minutes to make it to class.  Are
you in my class, I wonder?  Well, we'll see when we get there."  Terra fell
into step beside Naru, and the two continued chatting on the way to class.

	Terra's closed-eye smile suddenly had a bit of smugness, as if she had
something she wanted to surprise the world with but was waiting for the proper
moment.  "Naru, what do you wanna be when you grow up?"

	Naru held up a hand.  "Ah, before I answer that, there's something you should
know.  Even if you're from Ireland and honorifics confuse you, you should
probably get to learning them quickly.  Being in the jewelry industry, my mom
and I know a lot of rich businessmen that would gladly stab anyone repeatedly
in the head with pointy umbrellas if you speak to them using the wrong suffix."

	Terra blinked, obviously not having comprehended much of the statement.  "Huh?"

	"Call me Osaka-san," Naru added a bit more forcefully and clearly in English. 
She made sure to speak her words slowly and to emphasize her syllables in a way
that not even the most annoying gaijin could misinterpret.  "Do you understand?"

	Terra scratched her head uncertainly.  "Um, kind of.  Can you say that again in
Gaelic?" she replied in perfect Japanese--perfect, that is, for a simple child
who always got low grades.  "I never did good in English."

	Naru threw up her hands and gave up.  "Fine, call me Naru.  I don't care."  She
vaguely recalled that, once upon a time, their conversation had a point.  "What
were we talking about again?"

	"I don't remember, Naru, but... what do you want to be when you grow up?"

	"Oh, that.  Actually, I haven't thought about it much.  No, I take that back. 
I have thought about it.  Right now, I'm mostly just helping out my mom at the
Osa-P store when she needs me.  I guess I'll probably study something having to
do with business.  Finance, maybe once I get through High School.  How about
you?"

	Terra puffed up proudly.  "I wanna be an idol superstar model and have a cute
boyfriend!  We'll drive around in a limo and I'll sing for people, and make
everything all better with the world!  Not that there's anything wrong with the
world, but still, it'll be great.  I wanna bake the whole world a great big
basket of cookies!"

	Naru nearly choked trying to keep from laughing.  Nearby, a tall man in
tarnished green camouflage armor fell out of the trees, face first into the
bushes.  Just having passed the tree and hedges, the girls took no notice of
him.

	Terra frowned at Naru.  "Are you okay?"

	Naru recovered.  "No, I'm fine.  Fine, really I am."

	They traveled for another little while in silence.

	"So what do you think?" Terra prodded.

	"About what?"

	"Don't you remember?  My hopes and dreams of becoming an idol superstar model?"

	"Oh.  That's a... realistic goal," Naru replied while trying not to sound
sarcastic.  Terra seemed to have said it in total honesty, albeit a misguided
and clueless honesty.  It just wouldn't do to make fun of someone else's
dreams, no matter how unlikely they may seem.  Plus, she already had a friend
that was kind of like that.  "You know, I can't wait until you meet Usagi."

	"Is she my new teacher?"

	"Yegads!  I hope not!  The conspiracy theories alone would drive us all
mad--er, I mean, no, she's a student, like us.  I think you'll like her."

	"Is she a cute boy?  Should I ask her out?"

	Naru's mouth hung open for a second before the neurons in her brain finally
managed to go through the logs and verify that she had not used gender-neutral
pronouns when speaking about her clumsy blonde ponytailed friend.  "What?! 
No!"

	"Okaaaay."  Terra bobbed up and down like she wanted to start skipping, but her
companion's slower pace wouldn't allow it.

	Looking sideways at the redhead, Naru asked, "Are you... stupid or something?"

	Terra's smile didn't waver.  She shrugged.  "Mommy always liked to say, stupid
is as stupid does."

	"Uh huh.  I see."  Naru rolled her eyes and sighed, wondering what in the world
she'd gotten herself into.

---

	Some distance behind them, the green knight in shining armor slowly arose and
spat out a clod of dirt, his face a mask of shock and horror.  The quest he had
pursued for the worst part of an aeon culminated in this latest discovery, the
results of which were to him very much less than satisfactory.

	"They... CUT OUT HER BRAIN!!!" he cried.

	"No kidding," he replied.  "What do you think I am?"

	"Me?"

	"Right!"

	"But she's happy as she is, and if she's happy, I'm happy, right?"

	"Look, I'm not happy as she is, so she's not happy as she is."

	"What?!"

	"Fine, then.  We'll just have to make some... modifications, won't we?"

	"You mean...?"

	"Yes, I do."

	"But that'll destroy her happiness!  Ignorance is bliss!"

	"Ignorance may be bliss... but it will not save either of us."

	"Save who from what?"

	"Save us from ourselves."

	"Who are we, exactly?"

	"Me and her.  We must be one, or perish."

	"That's kind of fatalistic, y'know."

	"That's the way things have to be."

	"So, we'll follow her, find out what the problem is, and fix it."

	"And if we can't fix it?"

	"Then once we find that problem, we'll BLOW IT TO BITS!!!"

	"YEAH, BABY!"

	"That's what I'm talking about."  He nodded to himself, satisfied with the
answer he had given himself.  "Right.  On we go!"

	The man snapped his fingers and vanished in a flash.

	A careful observer would have been able to see mens' size twelve shoeprints
emerge on the sidewalk one by one, going in the direction where the two girls
went.

---

	Once at school, Terra met her new seventh grade class and teacher.  She was
given the mandatory introduction, but somehow managed to mess up that first
impression.

	"Everyone, say hello to Incognita Terra."

	"Good morning!" everyone said.

	"Good morning," Terra replied to the class.

	"Good morning, Incognita-san," Haruna-sensei said warmly to her.

	"Good morning!" Terra brightly said back, wearing what was quickly becoming her
trademarked closed-eye smile.

	Everyone gasped in shock.

	Terra skipped over to her desk and sat down, oblivious to the horrific cultural
faux pas she had just committed.

	Naru got up and whispered some important details to her fuming instructor,
whose eyes softened with understanding a moment later.

	"Oh," Haruna hesitated, "it seems that Terra is a foreigner, from Ireland. 
Therefore, she does not understand how to speak properly to her equals nor
superiors.  Please show restraint and do not beat her to within an inch of her
life when she forgets to address any of you with proper honorifics."

	The student body nodded and hummed their acceptance of this analysis.  The last
one they had heard of to have been a party to committing such an atrocity of
missing or incorrect suffixes still hadn't gotten out of the intensive care
unit.  As the rumor went, an umbrella had been involved in some fashion.  But
surely they could be forgiving of such a sweet, innocent Irish girl--for a
while, at least.  There was such a thing as wearing out one's welcome, no
matter how cute one may be.

	Homeroom otherwise began in a calm and normal fashion... that is, until some
older boy whose voice had already changed started shouting, "SHUT UP, SHUT UP,
EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP!"  But nobody found out who had said that.  A large pair
of dusty shoeprints stayed near Terra for the duration of class.

	The teacher had high hopes that Terra would at least have done well in English,
but she didn't seem do any better in that than she did in anything else.  The
Irish airhead could just barely manage enough to make it by, which would have
been fine if she were a blonde, but she wasn't.

	Speaking of blondes, a certain Tsukino Usagi, who sat just behind Terra, asked
her for help during a pop quiz.

	Haruna had to snap sometime.

	"Tsukino-san, if you're going to have the gall to cheat right in front of my
face, then PLEASE at least try to cheat off someone who might actually have the
right answer!"

	Usagi gasped.  "You mean Incognita-san isn't a genius foreign exchange
student?!"

	"No, she isn't!" the teacher shouted back.  "For crying out loud, she's BRITISH
and she can't even speak proper ENGLISH.  Grr, I can't take this anymore!" 
Screaming, she ran over and jumped out the window.

	A boy with thick glasses hurried over to look outside.  "She landed in the
swimming pool!"  He remembered what room he was in.  "Hey, she sure can jump
far.  This is the first floor and the pool's... wait, we don't even have a
pool."  He frowned.  "Eeew.  The sewer system's broken and leaking out all over
the field."

	Terra frowned suddenly.  "She wasn't trying to say I'm not very smart, was she?
 I'm smart.  I had a shower this morning...."

---

	For the first time in her life, Terra started to doubt herself.  All through
lunch break and the rest of her classes, a single phrase echoed through her
head.

	"Not very smart.  Not very smart.  Not very smart.  Not very smart!"

	Intelligence had never been her strong point.  There came a point where, after
a certain level of thought, she just couldn't go deeper into a subject.  It was
like large chunks of her brain had simply been deactivated.  Still, if she
pushed, she could remember a lot of her life and her lack of success in pretty
much anything.  Lamenting her dream-like state of being, she came to a
decision.

	"From this moment on, I wanna be smarter!"

	Then she forgot what she was thinking about and found herself exiting the
school building while talking with Naru and Usagi.  "Huh?"  She looked around,
trying to discern her surroundings.

	"Are you okay?" Naru asked.  "You were staring blankly at nothing and mumbling
to yourself."

	"What time is it?" Terra wondered.  She turned around.  "I should get back to
class."

	"It's three o'clock," Usagi said.  "Class is over."

	Terra stopped.  This seemed strange to her.  The day had passed entirely too
quickly.  Then again, maybe that's what Junior High was like.  Or maybe... "You
Japanese people sure have short schooldays."

	"Are you kidding?!" Usagi practically hollered.  "That class took FOREVER! 
Well, I did manage to squeeze in a nap while Haruna-sensei went home and
changed, but aside from that, it was really long!"

	"Oh," Terra breathed, "I must not have been paying attention."

	"Correct me if I'm wrong," Naru said, "but you seem to have some kind of
learning disability."

	"I do not!" Usagi cried.

	"I wasn't talking about you."

	The blonde straightened.  "Oh, then who...?"  She looked a Terra.  "Naaah,
she's probably just jetlagged.  It's a long flight from Ireland.  Probably
needs a good nap."

	"No thanks," Terra said, waving off the suggestion, "I'm not too much into
foreign food."  She glanced over at Usagi's ponytails.  They were really
long--like, scary long.  The way they waved in the air made them look like
snakes.  The knobs on top, when she looked at them in the right light, seemed
kind of like hooded cobra heads.  She blinked and the illusion vanished.  They
didn't really look anything like snakes; they were more like spaghetti and
meatballs.

	But then Terra reconsidered.  If she wasn't very smart, then maybe the snakes
in Usagi's hair were concealing themselves, thinking that the redhead wouldn't
notice them.  That would mean that they were slowly closing in on the poor
girl, just looking for the proper moment to strike.

	"I'll save you, Usagi!"

	Terra reached out to grab the blonde's ponytails, but they fell off!  Then they
hissed and squirmed around on the ground, rattling their tails, and lunged at
her face, sharp barrettes dripping with venom.

---

	Terra awoke with a start, tearing at her hair.  She ripped the ribbons out and
threw them to the floor.  "WAAAH!  PONYTAILS!  GET 'EM OFF ME!  GET 'EM...
huh?"

	When Terra finally calmed down, she discovered she was at her new Japanese
home, in her bed.  Looking at her clock, it was about four in the afternoon, an
hour after she'd left school.  Her shoes were off and she was still dressed in
her seifuki.

	"Wh... what happened?" she wondered aloud to nonexistent auditory organs. 
"Where did the hair-snakes go?"

	She gradually wandered downstairs and found Usagi, Naru, and her mother
chatting over tea.

	Kasumi stood up, absolutely thrilled.  "Terra, you're awake!"

	"You passed out," Naru said.

	"It really must have been a rough day for you," added Usagi.

	Kasumi nodded and led her daughter to the couch.  "We just got here a day and a
half ago.  We both need to take it easy."

	Naru hummed her agreement.  "It must be tough moving to the other side of the
world so suddenly."

	"I guess so," Terra admitted, looking down.

	"So it WAS jet lag," Usagi concluded.

	"Decided to let your hair down?" Naru observed.

	"All the ponytails were trying to eat me," Terra whispered secretively, as if
hinting that there was a horrible monster nearby and it would get them all if
they spoke too loudly.  She pointed at Usagi's head.  "Can't you see?!  They're
just waiting for the right moment to strike!"

	"So," Kasumi cut in quickly, "would you like to hear about why we moved here?"

	"Sure," replied both Usagi and Naru.

	The four chatted for half an hour.  Kasumi explained why they'd come to Japan. 
There were a few reasons, like being closer to family members, but mostly it was
to help give Terra a totally fresh environment in which to develop.  Ireland,
she explained, was getting to be a tad too rough a climate in which to properly
raise a child.

	"Then why not do home schooling?" Naru asked.  "That's becoming more popular in
some countries, I hear."

	Kasumi appeared to consider this.  "No, that wouldn't be proper.  She needs to
find friends."  She looked at her daughter.  "And it looks like you've found
some already, haven't you?"

	Terra immediately perked up and nodded emphatically.  "Uh huh!"  She
immediately hugged Naru and Usagi tightly.  "We're gonna be PALS!"

	Her mother smiled and clapped her hands together.  "Oh my, isn't that
wonderful?"

	"Umm, yeah."  Usagi wasn't exactly getting smothered by the sudden random
embrace, but she was nevertheless surprised.

	"Well, would you look at the time," Naru said, quickly getting up and sliding
out of Terra's hug.  "I need to head home to help out my mom at the store."

	"And I need to do my homework!" Usagi said.

	"Try harder!" Naru shot back quietly.  "They'll never fall for that one."

	"Shh!" Usagi hushed.

	Kasumi frowned.  "You mean you can't stay just a little bit longer?"

	"No, we really, really need to be going," Naru insisted, backing towards the
door alongside Usagi.  "It's been nice meeting you."

	"If it's fate," Usagi added, "maybe... we'll meet again sometime."

	"Bye!" both said, and hurried out, almost throwing the door closed behind them.

	"Fate," Kasumi whispered.  She looked out the window and saw the Moon in the
daylight sky and paused as if trying to make some sense out of the
conversation--to give the whole thing some sort of meaning.  Then she shrugged
and looked back at her daughter.  "Terra, do you know why those two ran off?"

	"They had to go do stuff?" Terra asked.

	"That too, but Japanese people aren't as... touchy-feely as your friends in
Ireland were.  They like having space, so next time you probably don't want to
randomly come up and hug people you've just met."

---

	Terra went for a walk in the park in hopes of filling her mind.  Some people
went out to help clear their minds, but it was all she could do to keep
everything from falling out of hers.  She took a notepad and desperately tried
to write down and memorize the things her mother just told her.

	"Don't go up and hug random people just because they're cute.  They might have
pointy umbrellas.  Japanese culture consists of 'in' groups and 'out' groups. 
Don't get on other peoples' nerves unless you want to be in the 'out' group. 
Next, remember that you cannot join the 'in' group.  Ever."

	She turned to her notes on honorifics and speaking properly to others. 
"Remember to use last names and add -san to people I just meet.  When I find a
superior, I need to use humble expressions and dance around what I want to talk
about, but I can never come out and just say it.  In fact, it's best if I don't
use names at all.  For a classmate I know fairly well but I want to be
respectful to, add -kun to his or her name.  Children and very good friends I
feel comfortable being informal with get the -chan suffix.  Using -sama is when
I want to... er, and -sempai works for... umm... awww, this is too hard!"  In
frustration, Terra crumpled up her notepad and threw it towards a nearby
garbage can.

	"Ow!" said a voice from the garbage can.

	"What kind of a language is this?!"  Tears forming in her eyes, Terra found a
nearby bench, sat down, and buried her head in her hands.  "I'll never get it
right!"  Her skull pounded from the effort she was putting forth.  "I'm so
worthless!  I'm too dumb to live here right!"

	The girl suddenly felt a gloved hand on her shoulder.  She looked up to see a
tall man in shining green camouflage armor looking down at her in concern.

	"Shut up, Terra," he said in what might have been an angry tone had his
expression not been so worried.  "You're not worthless!  As a matter of fact,
you're the single most valuable person on this moist, roach-infested planet and
don't you ever let anybody tell you different!"

	"Wh... who are you?" Terra asked.  She might have been frightened, but this man
seemed to know her, and what's more, he spoke in perfect, unaccented Gaelic.  It
was the one language she didn't absolutely stink at.  "How do you know my
language?"  She paused.  Manifesting what was for her a tremendous leap of
intuition, she amended, "Forget about my language, how do you know my NAME?!"

	"It was one of the first things I looked up when I finally found you."

	"What?"

	"I've spent twenty thousand years searching for you!"

	"Twenty thousand years?"

	"It's a terrible bother, waiting millennia for yourself to be reborn, isn't
it?"

	"Who are you?"

	The man struck a pose.  "I am the terror that blasts in the night!  I am the
nova that wipes out my enemies' home worlds.  I am... THE STAR LIGHT KNIGHT!" 
Green and white fireworks exploded in the sky behind him.  "I'm your Knight in
Shining Armor, baby!"

	Terra suddenly cheered up.  "The Star Light Knight?"  She blushed in spite of
herself.  She wouldn't mind having him for her knight in shining armor every
once in a while.  The guy was kind of cute, after all.  "Tee-hee!  You could'a
just looked me up in the phone book, big guy.  Are you a nice guy?  Are you
going to be my boyfriend?"

	The Star Light Knight deflated a bit.  "Uh....  Look, you're VERY lucky to have
met me now and not later.  Be glad I'm your friend and not some predator."

	"Are you a Predator?"

	"Well yes, but not of you specifically."

	"Do you have a cloaking device?"

	"Yup!"

	"How about a nuclear self-destruct weapon?"

	The man nodded proudly.  "Still got three or four of 'em left."

	"How about a mask?  Why isn't your face all icky?"

	Realization dawned for the knight.  "Uh... by Predator, I see you mean a
certain brutally effective hunter race that for some crazy reason--it was
me--made it into Hollywood film making.  But I'm talking in the more general
sense of the word."

	"Huh?"  Terra looked as if she wanted a more in-depth explanation.

	"Look, I don't care what anyone says, but human girls can't run that fast, and
they can't take very many hits.  I prefer hunting stuff with a little more
fight in it.  Magical warriors, demonic youma, stuff like that."

	"Do you eat them?"

	The Star Light Knight paused again.  "Hey now, as much as I'd like to catch up
on old times and stuff, talking to you as you are now is becoming extremely
annoying--"

	"Then why don't you stop talking to me?"

	"Don't get smart with me!"

	"Want me to get stupid with you?"  Terra's voice had no sarcasm.  It was a
simple, innocent question.

	S.L.K. appeared to be resisting the urge to go for his holstered weapon. 
"Look, forget about it, okay?"

	Terra nodded.  Now they were getting back into familiar territory.  "Okay.  I
can do that."  She did so.

	"Now, do you know what happened to your brain?"

	The girl shook her head.  "Huh-uh."

	"Does your head tend to rattle when you shake it?"

	"Huh-uh."

	"Good, then there's still hope.  If it's not missing, it means that somehow,
most of your mind's been outright sealed away.  Mostly, it's memory, but about
two thirds of your ability to think is also closed off.  That means instead of
an IQ of over two hundred, you're more like below eighty right now.  Do you
understand what I just said?"

	"Um, no?"

	"Right answer."

	"Neat.  So what'cha doing?"

	The man raised a glowing electric guitar high above Terra's head.  "Breaking
the seal.  Just stand very still."

	"Why?"

	"Because, take it from me, this hurts quite a lot."

	The sweet little schoolgirl heard a harsh discord somewhere between her eyes,
and then everything went black.

---End of Chapter 1

And now it's time for... "MIND YOUR MANNERS!" with Sailor Nuke.

(Terra accidentally insults Haruna-sensei for saying "good morning" in the wrong
way.)

Sailor Nuke:  Today, we learned that life without manners is hard in Japan.

(Scene of students agreeing to give Terra some leeway.)

Sailor Kawaii:  But if you're cute, even while you're rude, you can get away
with it!

(The Star Light Knight wields a croquet mallet while chasing after a seal-like
creature as part of a training exercise.)

Sailor Nuke:  Who invited you!?  It's bad manners to crash my party, you know!

Sailor Kawaii(looks up with big forlorn eyes):  But... but--

Sailor Nuke(looks away):  Just... quit it.  (turns back to the audience)  So
remember, if you're going to Japan to be rude, BETTER PACK A LOT OF AMMO!!! 
Worked back in the 'forties.  Sailor Nuke sez.  BWAHAHAHAHHAHAAA!

Sailor Kawaii:  Or, if you're cute, you can get away with being rude anyway.  If
you're cute, you can get away with ANYTHING!  Sailor Kawaii says.  Tee-hee!

-----

Author(stares blearily at what he just wrote):  Oh dear.  What in the world is
this?!

Arby: It's REVISIONIST 'istory.  Much betta' than regular history 'cause it's
been preread n' revoised!


Hmm... If ya wanna comment, great!  You might have some changes I can
incorporate.  If not, that's fine too!  You're getting the whole story anyway,
whether you like it or not, so there!  ^___^

--
Benjamin A Oliver
boliver@email.arizona.edu

"We are the Bored.  Lower your shields and surrender your fics.  We will add
your standup and slapstick comedy to our own.  Your humor will adapt to make us
laugh.  Resistance is futile."

Second-Year Management Information Systems Graduate Student
Eller College of Management
University of Arizona

Writings: Fan Fiction
http://boliver.florestica.com/

Webcomic: Nuke 'Em 'Till They Glow!! The Early Years
http://nettg.com


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