Ranma
continued to hold the battered and beaten form of Shampoo. His aura was starting to flare as he thought
of what had happened. Whoever this
Kagato guy was, he was going to pay! He
gently picked up Shampoo and laid her across his lap with one arm supporting
her head. He looked up at all the other
people with concerned looks on their faces.
He looked directly at Pan.
“Where’s Kami’s Lookout?” The
young Saiya-Jin gave him some rough directions, enough for him to detect Dende
for instant transmission. He nodded his
head and placed two fingers of his free hand to his forehead. “I’m going to get Shampoo healed, and when I
come back, you’re going to tell me everything you know about this Kagato
guy.” The looks on Katsuhito, Ryoko,
and Tenchi’s faces hadn’t escaped him when Shampoo had first mentioned who was
responsible for this.
The
martial artist’s form seemed to fade from sight as he used Goku’s teleportation
technique to spirit himself away to Kami’s Lookout.
Tenchi
looked over toward Washu. “This isn’t
good. I thought he was dead?”
The
scientist rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
“He said you had won for now. I
didn’t expect him to be back this soon.”
Everyone’s
eyes went wide. Tenchi shakily raised
his hand as if to ask a question. Washu
nodded and he proceeded. “What do you
mean, ‘so soon’?”
The
diminutive redhead looked up toward the sky.
“You can’t exactly kill what really doesn’t exist.”
Katsuhito
walked up and put a hand on her shoulder.
“What is going on, Washu-Chan?
Tenchi cut the monster in half, how could he not exist?”
She stood
silent for a little while, contemplating something. “I’ll wait until Ranma comes back before I explain
everything. I don’t want to explain
more than once.” She flicked her eyes
to Mihoshi. “Don’t even try to understand,
Mihoshi. It will save us a lot of
headaches.”
“Okay!” She replied with a vacant smile.
Pan walked
up beside Tenchi. “Who is this Kagato
guy?”
The boy
took a deep breath. “He was a former
assistant to Washu when she worked at the Galaxy Academy. He was obsessed with finding the secret to
the power of the Jurai line. He
imprisoned Washu and came here looking for the power. He kidnapped Ryoko to draw the answer to the power out of
us. I thought that I had destroyed him
along with his ship, but I guess that’s not the case.”
“So what’s
the secret to the power? What’s he so
desperate to get?” She asked.
“I don’t
know.”
The ground
shook from Pan’s facefault. She stood
back up and looked him in the eye.
“You’re telling me, Sasami and Akane are in danger about a secret no one
knows?”
He
sighed. “It’s something to do with the
Jurai blood line. We can’t give it to
him, because it’s a part of us that we really don’t understand. I can only access it in times of extreme
stress.”
“So what
power are you talking about?”
It was
Tenchi’s turn to facefault. He slowly
stood back up. “You remember the
shields I used when we were fighting Garlic Jr.?” Pan nodded her head.
“Those are the Wings of the Light Hawk.
They are an extension of the power of the Jurai royal family. We don’t know what the secret is to it, we
just know that it is part of the royal line.”
She nodded
in understanding. “Okay, so now we have
to go beat up some bad guy. No
problem.”
Tenchi
tensed up. “It’s not that simple. I almost died the last time.”
Pan looked
at him with mouth agape, but the backwash of jet engines drowned her next
comment out. Everyone looked up to see
a ship about the size of a small cruiser hovering above them. Small blisters on the side of the ship
opened up to reveal several laser cannons.
“SPACE
PIRATE RYOKO. JURAI CROWN PRINCESS
AYEKA. YOU ARE BOTH WANTED FOR
QUESTIONING IN A GALAXY POLICE INVESTIGATION!
PLEASE SURRENDER AND COME PEACEFULLY.”
A large voice boomed from the space ship.
Everyone
on the ground just stared back up with a confused look on their faces.
“SO, ARE
YOU GOING TO SURRENDER OR NOT?” The
voice asked once again.
“Does this
answer your question?” Ryoko smirked as
she arrogantly strode forward and drew her energy blade.
“Oh
great!” Tenchi slapped his forehead.
Ayeka
shook her head. “Ryoko! We should try to reason with this
woman! Are you forgetting we have a
member of the Galaxy Police here with us?”
She pointed over toward Mihoshi, who at the moment was busy picking
flowers to the side, oblivious to the proceedings. Ayeka sweatdropped.
“GOOD.” The voice responded to Ryoko. A bay door on the bottom of the craft
lowered downward to reveal a humanoid robot looking contraption. It had bulbous limps and an elongated
head. It was roughly six feet tall and
five foot wide. “I wanted to try out
this new battlesuit anyway.”
Before
Ryoko could react, the suit shot forward with surprising speed and landed a
haymaker across her face, sending the pirate flying through several trees.
The cyan
haired alien stood back and rubbed the spot where she had been hit with the
back of her hand. “I don’t think I
deserved that.”
The suit
powered up for another blow, but found itself staying in one place while the
turbines on its back burned. The
distended head of the armor turned around towards the engines and met the eyes
of a Saiya-Jin.
Pan
smirked at the operator. “Let’s see how
fast you are without these.” She
flattened her free hand and chopped through the middle of both of the rocket
engines. The pent up force in the
nacelles exploded and blew the two away from each other.
The
battlesuit righted itself and opened its hand to face Pan. The center of the palm contained a cylinder
that started belching plasma energy in the girl’s direction. Pan crossed her arms and formed a shield
with her ki, deflecting the bolts aside.
With a loud yell, she shot straight up and seemed to disappear with a
burst of speed, reappearing as if out of nowhere when she landed a
double-handed blow to the dome of the battlesuit, driving it face first into
the ground. She still had the cocky
grin on her face when she reached down to pull the hunk of metal from the
Earth.
When Pan
reached down for the suit, her eyes lit up in surprise when one of the hands
grabbed hers and threw her aside. She
easily righted herself and adjusted her bandanna. “So it’s a little tougher than I thought.” She dropped into an offensive stance. “Guess I can put a little more power into
it.” She shot forward once again. Before the operator of the suit could react,
she rained down punch-kick combinations that left it reeling as it tried to get
its balance back.
Pan smiled
when she saw that there were several electrical arcs coming to the surface of
the suit. She beat the machine until it
stopped moving. She raised her hand and
prepared to launch a ki blast at point-blank.
“STOP!” Katsuhito shouted from the side. Pan turned to him with a questioning glance.
Using the
distraction of the shout, the pilot ejected from the suit. The back of the machine blew off and a
slender figure of a woman was thrown forcefully into the air. She turned a flip in midair and landed on
one hand and two feet a few yards away.
Her other hand held a pistol at the Saiya-Jin. She was a slender girl, just a little taller than Pan, with long
green hair with a red headband on. Her
clothes were regulation GP issue uniform with its dark blue and white. The gun was wavering, as she stood
upright. “I don’t know what you are,
but stay back!” Her dulcet voice
wavered a little in fear.
“She’s a
friend of mine and you’re pointing a gun at her.”
The police
officer turned to see a handsome man standing directly beside her wearing a red
Chinese shirt and loose black pants. A
few steps behind him stood a stunning woman with long lavender hair with two
large clubs drawn. The man reached up
and took the gun from her hands as her stunned gaze locked on him.
He took
the gun and threw it away into the nearby lake. “I don’t think you’ll need that anymore. Now would you like to tell me who you are
and what you’re doing here?”
The
policewoman worked her jaw a bit before she could finally speak. “I-I’m Detective First Class Kiyone…N-nice
to meet you.”
Ranma
immediately recognized that lovesick look in the woman’s eyes. He should know that look after…how many
woman had it been now? He shook his
head and rolled his eyes. “What are you
doing here, and why are you fighting Pan?”
She looked
back over to where the dusty, but otherwise unharmed Saiya-Jin was standing
cross-legged with her arms crossed.
“That’s your friend! There must
have been some kind of mistake! I was
just here to bring in Ryoko and Ayeka for questioning on a case for the Galaxy
Police!” She turned her best apologetic
face on him. “I’m sorry this all got
out of hand! I just located them off of
some rumors of them operating in the area.”
Katsuhito
strode up at that moment. “What do you
mean, ‘rumors’? The sector officer made
a full report. You should have known
exactly where they were.”
Kiyone
gave him a blank stare. “Sector
officer? I checked with GP before
coming out, and they didn’t report anyone in the area. Who is…?”
Her question
was cut short by a high-pitched shout of joy.
“Kiyone!”
The
green-haired policewoman’s gaze turned to one of horror when she saw the blonde
bullet flying in her direction.
“No! You’re supposed to be
dead!”
Mihoshi
leapt up and tackled the other woman to the ground, hugging her tight. “I’ve missed you! They told me you were dead!”
Kiyone
grimaced. I told them to tell you
that so you wouldn’t come looking for me, but she was never heard of after she
went after Kagato! I thought she was gone
for good! “Why are you here and why
haven’t you brought these two in for questioning?” She demanded.
The blonde
looked hurt at the outburst. She bit
into her fingernail cutely stuttered out an answer. “I-I didn’t k-know they were wanted! Honest! Please don’t hate
me!” She pleaded the last.
Kiyone
managed the push the blonde off of her and stand back up. “‘Didn’t know’?! It’s been on the scanner for the last month!”
Everyone
started coughing into their hands and looking away. Kiyone quickly turned toward the blonde. “What have you been doing for the past
month?”
Mihoshi
smiled vacantly. “Living with my
boyfriend!”
The ground
shook with the force of Kiyone’s facefault.
She was back on her feet in a flash.
“You mean you were out screwing around with an inhabitant of a
non-federated planet when you were supposed to be watching!”
Mihoshi
looked down at her feet as she turned the toe of her boot in the dirt. “We weren’t screwing around. We decided to wait until marriage.”
Once more
the ground shook, but this time everyone but the blonde detective dropped. Ranma slowly got back to his feet and
decided he had better things to talk about.
“Listen, I know you two have a lot to get caught up on, but I really
need to know about this Kagato guy, if we’re going to find Akane!”
Kiyone
looked over at him in surprise.
“Kagato! He’s one of the most
dangerous criminals in the universe! He
disappeared in this sector almost a year ago!
Why do you want to know about him?”
The
pigtailed martial artist crossed his arms.
“He kidnapped my ex-fiancé, and I intend to get her back.”
The
green-haired detective breathed a sigh of relief. Only an ex. She
smiled at him. “Well, when I bring in
the princess and the pirate, I’m sure we can get the proper clearances…”
Ranma
shook his head. “I’d rather hear what
they have to say first.” He pointed
over toward Tenchi and crew.
Pan
smirked from the side. “It’s just some
guy that Tenchi beat up. I’m sure we
can handle him.”
Kiyone’s jaw
dropped as she turned around to Katsuhito.
“You beat Kagato!” The old man pointed down to his grandson. “YOU beat Kagato!”
Tenchi
nodded nervously. “I almost died, but
yeah, I did.”
The green
haired detective looked around the group.
“What the hell are you people?”
“A space
pirate, Jurian royalty, human, Amazon, and a Saiya-Jin.” Katsuhito finished ticking off on his
fingers as he looked around the group.
“Did I miss anyone?”
“You
forgot cabbit.” Ryoko smirked as she
pointed to the furry animal on her shoulder.
“Ah, yes,
can’t forget the cabbit.” He scratched
the furry animal behind its ears.
Kiyone was
stunned. “A Saiya-Jin! But they were supposed to be extinct!”
Pan
crossed her arms and scowled at her.
“Do I look extinct to you?” She
shrugged. “Of course, I’m only a
quarter Saiya-Jin, but that’s beside the point.”
Katsuhito
cleared his voice. “Let’s get back to
the matters at hand. First off, let’s
bring Ranma and Kiyone up to speed on Kagato, and then this Galaxy Policewoman
can explain about why Ayeka and Ryoko are wanted.”
The old
man went on to give them the full details with their last encounter with
Kagato. Ranma, Shampoo, and Kiyone
learned all about the man who stole Ryoko, Tenchi’s near-fatal bid to get her
back, the appearance of the ship Tsunami, the invasion of the mighty Soja, and
finally the death of a tyrant at the hands of the teenager that could use one
of the most powerful forces in the universe, The Wings of the Light Hawk.
After
relating the tale, Katsuhito turned to the newest Galaxy Policewoman to set
foot on planet Earth. “So why have you
come to arrest Ayeka and Ryoko?”
Kiyone’s
face went to all business, which was a considerable effort since Mishoshi was
still hugging her like a long-lost teddy bear.
“They’re not under arrest. They
are just wanted for questioning by the Jurian authorities for their current
investigation. Since the Galaxy Police
is heavily funded by the Jurian homeworld, we took it upon ourselves to assist
them in their search.”
“So what
is the investigation about?” Ayeka
asked.
“They are
investigating the kidnapping of the Jurian royal family. The king and his wives have been taken.”
Kiyone stated with an all-business expression.
Katsuhito’s
eyes went wide as Ayeka’s mouth opened to an O. The older man finally found his voice. “So you think that Ayeka and Ryoko have something to do with it?”
The police
women suddenly looked uneasy. “No, they
are just wanted for questioning.
Nobody’s accusing them of anything!”
She turned toward Ranma but saw nothing but a hard, unbelieving
look. “Honest! King Yosho just wants to have his sister
close and to question the only person in history to circumvent all of the
defenses of the Jurai homeworld.”
Pan looked
toward Katsuhito. “Why do you want to
question them old man?”
He looked
back at her with a confused glance.
“This is the first I’ve heard of it.
I’m not even supposed to take the throne. I wanted to abdicate that responsibility to Tenchi.”
The
Saiya-Jin gave him a knowing look.
“Ducking your own responsibilities and dumping them on your
progeny. Should I start calling you
Genma now or later?”
Kiyone
watched the whole exchange with confusion.
“What are you two talking about?
He’s not the king of Jurai!”
The elder
Masaki smiled at her. “That’s correct,
I’m am just the First Prince Yosho.
Azusa is the king, now and when we put him back on the throne.”
The
policewoman gave him an unbelieving look.
“But you’re so old! Yosho still
looks young like all Juraians.”
Katsuhito
smirked at her. “When seven hundred
years you become, look as good you will not.”
Everyone groaned except for Kiyone who was too ignorant to get it, and
Mihoshi, who was too vacant.
Ranma’s
aura was starting to seep through as he was starting to lose patience with the
whole exchange. “We’ve still got to
find Akane and Sasami! Just take our
word that he’s the first prince and let’s get on our way!”
Kiyone
turned to him. “Look, I can’t take the
word of a bunch of people that haven’t even found the means to leave their own
solar system. I need substantial proof
that he is what he says he is!”
“Then how
about you take the word of the most brilliant mind of the universe.” Kiyone turned to see the diminutive redhead
Washu standing before her with crossed arms and a cocky smirk on her face. “At least my word and the DNA test results I
can show you. Plus there’s also the
fact that the royals just left our planet a short time back after visiting
their children.”
The
detective’s eyes went wide. “Y-You’re
Washu! You’re supposed to be dead!”
The
redhead smiled at the green haired.
“Nope, just imprisoned by Kagato.
I suspect that the same thing has happened to the royal family along
with the second princess, and Ranma’s ex-fiancé.”
“Well, I
still have to bring Ayeka and Ryoko in.”
The detective stood with her arms crossed and a stubborn expression on
her face. Ryoko gave her a
‘you-just-try-it’ smirk.
“I think that
the point is moot, since it’s just a ruse for Kagato to get the last member of
his collection of known at large royals and his favorite servant under his
thumb.” A holographic panel emerged
beside her and she tapped a sequence of keys.
An image of the infamous criminal Kagato popped up. “He is quite capable of disguising himself,
so taking the form of the First Prince should not be a problem. The only problem is how he managed to
overpower the royals and take the homeworld.”
Ayeka
placed a finger on her cheek in a thoughtful pose. “Well, mommy and daddy were here just a short while ago. Maybe he took the planet then. They would only have their mundane defenses
and wouldn’t be able to defend against something of Kagato’s power.”
Washu
smiled at the First Princess.
“Brilliant deduction, but what if he didn’t have to take it by
force? He has samples of power readings
of the power of the Jurian royal line.
He could have just introduced himself as Yosho in their absence and seen
to the ‘disappearance’ of this ‘parents’.”
Kiyone
stood there with mouth agape. “What are
you talking about? That old man can’t
be Yosho!”
Katsuhito
turned to his grandson. “Tenchi, may I
see the blade?” The boy nodded and
handed the light sword hilt to him. The
elder Masaki turned his gaze back to the policewoman and held it up. “If you do not recognize this, this is the
master key for the royal ship Funaho, Washu can substantiate its authenticity. Only a member of the Jurian royal line can
hold this, and only a member can cause it to do this.” For the open end of the sword hilt sprouted
a long blade of pure light. “This is
the power of Jurai, I am as I say, Yosho, the First Prince of Jurai, the only
child of Azusa and Funaho, half-brother to the daughters of Azusa and Masaki,
Ayeka and Sasami.”
Kiyone
looked at the hilt closely. “If that’s
the master key, then what are those two jewels on the end? The royals aren’t know for jewel encrusted
artifacts.”
He gave
her a knowing grin. “These are two of
the gems that I took from Ryoko when I
followed her to this planet seven hundred years ago, after she had attacked the
Juraian homeworld. She fled to this
planet and we fought until I finally imprisoned her. I stayed all this time to make sure that she wasn’t released
until she was ready.”
The space
pirate gave him a ‘yeah-right’ expression.
“You only stayed because you didn’t want to be king, and I only got out
because your grandson’s curiosity got out of hand.”
Pan gave
the old man a mocking smile. “So much
for you ‘responsible old man’ routine.”
Katsuhito
shrugged. “Well, you can’t blame me for
trying.”
Washu,
whom had noted that Ranma was about to blow his top with all this time
consuming talk, cleared her throat. “I
think that we have some investigating work to do. We have to find out where the royals and Akane are. It’s good that we have two first class
detectives here to help us.” She turned
her gaze toward Kiyone and Mihoshi.
“We’ll all go to my lab later and start.”
“WHY
AREN’T WE DOING IT NOW!!!” Ranma
shouted in exasperation.
The
redhead smiled at him. “First thing,
we’re going to eat. I’m starved!” The martial artist facefaulted. “Ranma, since Akane and Sasami are out,
could you help us?” He groaned from the
ground at her feet and slowly stood and walked toward the house, accepting that
he wouldn’t get any help until he had fed them. Everyone else followed him inside, including Mihoshi who forgot
all about Kiyone at the mention of food.
Kiyone smiled
at the retreating martial artist. “He
can cook?”
“Ranma
cook well.” The detective turned to the
purple haired girl who had finally spoken.
“Ranma also off limits for policewoman.”
Kiyone put
a hand on her hip and looked down her nose at the Amazon. “And why is that exactly? I don’t see any rings on your fingers. I understand that’s the Earth custom.”
Shampoo
held one of her maces forward and put it to the tip of the policewoman’s
nose. “Ranma was Shampoo’s airen and
will be again!”
“I thought
we were going after his ex-fiance?”
Kiyone gave the Amazon challenging smile.
“Pervert
girl may have been fiancé, but Ranma is Shampoo’s husband! We married by law until he died!” Shampoo’s face darkened. “No one take Ranma away from Shampoo again!”
“Died?” Kiyone gulped. “He’s not undead is he?”
Shampoo
shook her head. “Ranma brought back
with Dragon Balls. Ranma no
monster.” Her expression hardened as
she glared at the detective once more.
“Ranma is Shampoo’s. If you
become obstacle, then I give you kiss of death!”
“Bring it
on, sister!” Kiyone returned the hard
fierce look with equal intensity.
The two
continued to send daggers at each other with their eyes until they were called
in for supper. By silent agreement,
they would both help Ranma find Akane, but it would be open warfare after the
job was done.