"How did I meet them?" Juri repeated the question, one of her elegant eyebrows raised slightly. They were closing up after a hectic day, clearing the tables and cleaning up. Juri tried to help, on the principle that misery shared causes less trouble. May blushed a bit under Juri's gaze. The cyberdoll hesitantly continued, "I guess I was just wondering how you met Ryouko and the others. It's obvious you've known them all for a while." Juri noticed Excel, Hyatt and Keiko all listening intently as well. She sighed, "Back to work, and I'll tell, all right?" She was greeted with eager nods. "It all started after I graduated. I took a year off to travel across Japan, and ended up visiting a older gentleman I traded letters with at a very odd little shrine... Juri walked rather wearily up the long flight of rough stone steps. She is dressed for travel, with a long coat, pants and her orange-gold hair tied back, all a bit dusty from the road, along with a large pack and a sword across her back. A fiercely beautiful woman, she looks wild and more than a bit dangerous. As she reaches the top she sees the gate, and the shrine beyond it. She looks around tiredly a moment, and is seen by a young man. He is a fair bit shorter than her, with short dark hair, white shirt and dark pants. "Hi," he said, offering his hand, "I'm Tenchi, are you here to visit the shrine?" Juri took his hand, answering "Nice to meet you. I'm Arisugawa Juri, and I'm here to see your Grandfather about sword training." She noticed him looking at the sword strapped to her back, and smiled slightly. Making a small gesture to the sword, she said "You'd be surprised what you can get a license for if you try long enough." Tenchi laughed, and began to lead her over to the shrine. "So you're the one grandfather's been trading letters with! How did you talk him into training you ?" Tenchi asked with a friendly smile. "He actually invited me. He mentioned he needed a sparing partner for his student, so once I finished school, I sent him a letter accepting his offer." Tenchi nodded with a slight smile. She smiled back, adding "I take it you'll be my fellow student ?" Before Tenchi could answer her, happy cries of "Tenchi!" echoed down the path. He had a deer-in-the-headlights look on his face as two young woman suddenly came around the nearest building. One was dressed in a kimono style garment, that went well with her purple hair, while the other was in a form fitting bodysuit that was revealing cleavage, her hair a mix of different tones. Excellent survival instincts got Juri out of the way as the two latched onto Tenchi, talking pleasantly to him and snipping at each other. Watching this, she heard a "Myah!" from below. She looked down, and saw a cute if odd-looking creature. It had the front of a cat, with large ears, cute face, and the front paws, but the rear end resembled a rabbit's, fluffy tail, big feet and all. "Myah, myah!" it repeated, looking at her entreatingly. She smiled a bit, and picked it up, even as the fight over Tenchi escalated in the background. The little creature nibbled the ends of her orange/gold hair, then mournfully "myah"ed softly. "Do you want something?" Juri asked. "Myah!" the creature affirmed. Juri thought for a moment, looking at the sad little creature. She wasn't quite sure what it was, maybe she should just call it a cabbit? She thought quickly, running through orange foods in her mind. "Oranges?" The little cabbit looked sad. "Carrots?" "MYAH! Myah, myah, MYAH!" The cabbit bounced in her arms happily as Juri laughed. She eased her backpack to the ground, keeping a grip on the happy cabbit, and fished out her bag of carrot slices. Being a bit tired from her walk, she sat down on the ground and fed the carrots to the cabbit, while watching the girls' fight. It was quite a sight, she had to admit The one girl with streaked hair was flying, energy sword swinging, as the other girl manipulated energy as a shield, and lashed out with electrical bursts. Tenchi noticed her watching, and carefully made his way to her side. Sitting down beside her, he said "I suppose I couldn't convince you this was all an optical illusion?" She smiled slightly and answered "Nope." He sighed mournfully, then fed the cabbit a slice of carrot . "I see you've met Ryo-oh-ki." he said, gesturing to the little cabbit. "If you have carrots, she's your best friend for life." They watched the fight go on for a few minutes. "The woman with the sword is Ryoko, the purple haired girl is Ayeka. Once they calm down, I'll introduce you." Juri chuckled, shaking her head. "No hurry. Those two do this often?" Tenchi nodded sadly. She clapped him on the shoulder as she said, "You have my sympathies. I've been in love triangles and they are NOT fun." A younger girl with long, blue hair came up the path, saw the escalating fight and shook her head mournfully. Making her way around as well, she sat down by Tenchi and Juri. "Juri, I'd like you to meet Sasami. Sasami, this is Arisugawa Juri, here to train with Grandfather." Juri shook hands with the younger girl, and noticed the way she looked at Tenchi when he wasn't looking. Not just a love triangle, she thought. "Hi Sasami," she said, offering her hand. "Just call me Juri, OK?" The young girl nodded happily in reply. They talked for a few moments, Sasami asking about Juri's sword, her schooling, how long she would be staying, all with a young girl's honest enthusiasm. Eventually, Ryoko and Ayeka ran out of steam, and Tenchi and Sasami were able to separate the slightly smoking girls. Then, the two noticed how long Tenchi and Juri had been talking, and their eyes lit up with pure, unadulterated jealousy. Juri saw the girls head for her with murder in their eyes and quickly gets up and makes a "T" sign with her hands even as she cried, "Whoa, time out!" The two girls come to a stop, surprised. Juri gave them her patented Ice Queen look as she said "I'm sorry, I just finished a very long day getting here, I am very tired, and I just want to go see Tenchi's Grandfather, then find someplace I can lie down and die in, O.K.?" She looks tired all of a sudden, weary from her trip. "If you two want to tear into me, could we maybe save it for tomorrow?" Sasami frowned disapprovingly at Ayeka, muttering under her breath. Ayeka looked a bit embarrassed, and the group helped Juri with her stuff as they headed for the main shrine. She had a quick "Hello, how are you, I'd love to stay, etc., etc." conversation with the impishly smiling older man, who asked her to call him "Grandfather" and ordered her to be housed in the Masaki home, which did not thrill the two ladies at all. "You'll have to share a room, I'm afraid." Tenchi said as he led her to one of the upper floors of the house. The building itself seemed kind off odd to her, as it seemed to be a medium sized dwelling from the outside but had at least three floors from the inside, maybe more. Tenchi noticed her odd expression and smiled slightly. "I'll try to show you around and introduce you to the others tomorrow, but for now I'll just introduce you to your temporary room- mates," Tenchi said. He pushed open the upper floor room after knocking, and receiving a greeting. It was mildly messy, with two mats made up as beds on the floor. Two young women stopped talking, and waved happily to Tenchi and looked with curiously at Juri. Tenchi introduced Kiyone and Mihoshi, and Juri settled down for a rest. "Yes," Kiyone said, as she showed Juri around the house, "it really is bigger inside than outside, thanks to our resident scientific genius." She knocked on the closet door under the stairs, and they heard a shouted "Come in!" The door opened into a massive space, with darkness stretching into the distance. A short distance in, they saw a massive laboratory, and a childlike figure working at one of the benches. She looked, physically, about the same age as Sasami, but somehow seemed much older. She watches them approach, types into her floating keyboard, then nods decisively. "Juri," Kiyone said with a smile, "this is Washu, a good friend of Tenchi and a super genius. Washu, this is Juri..." Washu cut her off with a gesture, circling Juri thoughtfully. She smiles sweetly, causing Kiyone to quickly back away, and says "Hi, I'm Washu, and you're interesting! How would you like to participate in my experiments ?" Without waiting for an answer, she grabs Juri, pulls her over to large banks of equipment and straps her to a chair! Juri, firmly strapped to the chair, various electrical connections stuck to her all over, sweatdrops as she smiled slightly and remarks, "Up till now, I've always been the strangest one in any group I've been in." She looks thoughtful before adding, "But I don't hold a candle to all of you..." May chuckled softly. Juri smiled, "I stayed there for a few months, training and getting to know them all." Excel finished with her tables with a cheery smile, "So when you started this place up, you thought of them?" "I noticed something was going on with Ayeka and Ryouko," Juri shrugged, "and once Sasami introduced me to Minagi." She shrugged, remembering the young girl's idolization of the older girl. "So why did you leave the shrine?" May asked curiously. Juri noticed the lateness of the hour and smiled slightly. "I'll tell you another time," she said. "We all need to rest up for tomorrow night." "And what are we going to do tomorrow night?" May smiled, giving the straight line. "The same thing we do every night," Excel chimed in, then all together, "Try to take over the world!" The young women broke up laughing, and Juri sighed. Our Cast This Episode: Tenchi, His Grandfather, Kiyone, Mihoshi, Washu, Sasami, Ryouko, Minagi, Ayeka and Ryo-oh-ki are all from Tenchi Muyo. Excel and Hyatt are from Excel Saga. May is fron Hand Maid May. Finally, Juri and Keiko are from Utena.
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