Fumiko looked around, ducking slightly as a lump of masonry flew overhead, sighing in annoyance. She glanced at her sister, who looked back with a shrug. "One day. They've been gone one day." She ducked again, as a blast of magic whistled past, then irritably sniped a famous magical girl off the roof of a building down the road with a quick ki shot, smiling grimly as the girl with long black hair plummeted to the ground with a shriek of rage and terror, her uniform smoking in a perfect circle in the middle of her chest. "They're going to be furious." She turned to the younger girl standing to one side, who was looking around in stunned amazement, one hand on her hip and the other running through her short blue hair. "You do realise that, right? They're going to be absolutely, frothing at the mouth, furious about this. Your friends are going to be lucky if they just get the shit kicked out of them. You all know this area is off-limits."

The girl nodded, a heavy sigh escaping her lips. She watched as Aiko teleported behind a blonde in the same uniform she was wearing, lashing out with a series of ki-enhanced pressure points down her spine in a blur of motion and looking pleased when the girl dropped without a sound, before teleporting away again as a different girl took a shot at her, then gasped as her lightning attack blew her unconscious friend half a dozen metres down the street. The blue-haired girl winced. When Aiko appeared behind the taller brunette and dropped her with the same attack she smiled somewhat maliciously.

Fumiko, her sister, and the blue-haired young woman all turned to glare at the small demon hiding behind them, whose appearance had triggered the free-for-all currently wrecking half the street. It looked guiltily up at them and shrugged. "Sorry. I just wanted a cappuccino. These lunatics appeared out of nowhere, shouted all sorts of silly things, then started shooting magic at me. What was I supposed to do but run?"

"You could have run in the other fucking direction," Fumiko grated. It shrugged again.

"I didn't know Yori was out of town, or I would have." Shaking her head irritably, the magical girl turned back as Tamiko jogged up, the limp body of a familiar twin-pony-tailed blonde over her shoulder.

"She was pissing me off," the auburn-haired girl explained, looking peeved. "Wouldn't shut up about love and justice, all the time she was blowing holes in the Indian restaurant trying to hit me with that stupid attack of hers. I like that restaurant. She's a terrible shot, she nearly hit Mr Singh. Loads of power, no aim, and a ridiculously slow wind-up. I can see why she annoys Yori so much." She dropped the girl to the ground slightly less carefully than might have been expected, frowning.

"They're going to be furious, you know," she added.

"We've just been through that." Fumiko shook her head. "Come on then, let's get these idiots shut down properly before the rest of them turn up and cause even more problems. It's my turn to shout, I think." She glanced at the blue-haired woman. "Are you going to help, or do you want to stay out of it?"

"May as well help, I suppose, I don't want Yori of all people any more annoyed with me than I can avoid," the girl replied morosely. "God, sometimes I wonder why I stay with these lunatics, I really do." Heaving a sigh, she followed as Fumiko and her two friends stomped off to deal with the others, muttering to themselves, picking their way through a number of wrecked vehicles, two of which were on fire. Several bystanders were taking notes and exchanging cash, while Sergeant Harada inspected the scene with mild astonishment, before going on his way. In the distance the black-haired girl helped her blonde compatriot to her feet, both of them swaying slightly and looking somewhat ill.

Behind them, the demon watched, shaking his head. "Seems a bit of an over-reaction to me," he said to no-one, then headed for the nearest coffee-shop.


Blinking at the unfamiliar ceiling it took the middle sister a couple of seconds to work out where she was. Lying in the astoundingly comfortable bed she was reluctant to rise, but eventually got up, heading to the bathroom to perform her ablutions. Once more the differences between what she was used to and what was available stood out, amusing her in some ways with how similar it was for the most part then finding something weird. The sink was obviously a sink, for example, but the water entered it from the front, not the back, and via some form of plumbing that didn't seem to rely on pipes. It just seemed to come out of shiny slick surface as if it had holes in it, which it didn't. Even with these different methods, thought, she found she got used to it very quickly, not thinking much about it after the first few minutes.

One dressed she went downstairs and looked around curiously. Following noises reminiscent of cooking in action, she entered the kitchen near the rear of the house, finding Uthryyl and Quannyr both engaged in preparing a meal. The trader looked up and smiled, his inhuman face alight with pleasure."Good morning, Nabiki. I trust you slept well?"

"Amazingly well, thanks, Uthryyl. I really should get one of those mattresses you have for myself, it's the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in." She grinned. "That's probably another trade opportunity. Humans like their sleep." Laughing, Uthryyl nodded, reaching for a coffee-pot from which enticing scents were coming and holding it up.

"So I gather. Kasumi has mentioned it in the past. I think I'll look into it. She also tells me you like a good strong coffee in the morning?"

"Oh, very much so, thank you." Grabbing a mug from the pile of them on a side table she held it out, watching as he filled it. "Thanks."

"If you want it sweetened that jar there has something very similar to what you'd think of as sugar, although it's from a different source." He pointed. Walking over she lifted the lid, sniffed, then experimentally tipped a little into her hand and tried it. There was a slightly odd taste to it but not one she found objectionable, more tart than anything else, as if it was sugar with a little lemon juice mixed in. Finding a spoon-like implement she added some to her mug and stirred it, sipping the resulting drink with an approving face.

"That's pretty good. Where does it come from?"

"It's processed from the sap of a tree." He was watching her with interest.

"Ah. Yes, we have something like that back home. Mostly from North America, called maple syrup or maple sugar. I've never much liked it but a lot of people love it. This is nice, though." Drinking some more she worked out how to hold the alien mug to account for the different shape of her jaw from the one the makers had designed it for.

"Your sister and her husband are in the back garden practising," Quannyr said, looking up from where she was making some form of bread. "Or possibly on the roof, they were up there a little while ago." She laughed. "Very active people. I'm still amazed when I watch them in action. And very impressed. Even without the magic and this... ki..., whatever that is, they are remarkably powerful." She inspected Nabiki curiously. "I know how much you've learned about the energy manipulation skills they have, are you also learning the physical ones?"

"Slowly. Ranma and Kasumi are so far past anyone else sometimes they don't seem to realise how much more difficult the rest of us find some of it," the middle Tendo replied, smiling. "Aiko and the girls are much better than I am but still have a long way to go. I'm just a rank beginner. Although in the last year, or more accurately I suppose about the last six months, I have learned far more than I ever thought I would."

"Don't put yourself down, Nabiki," Uthryyl advised. "I've seen many recordings Ranma or Kasumi passed on, it's clear you have a very large talent for this sort of thing. I have no doubt it will take a considerable amount of time to reach anything like the level either of them possesses but I have no doubt you can do it eventually. You certainly have the best teachers you could possibly ask for."

Somewhat embarrassed, Nabiki looked at her coffee for a moment before meeting his eyes. "Thanks." She paused. "You've seen the recordings?" Nodding, he and his wife both laughed a little.

"A lot of them, yes. Some are very impressive indeed. I especially like the most recent one where you dealt with that exceptionally nasty person perpetrating the sexual assaults at your university. That was just inspired." The demon snickered, going back to chopping vegetables. "I hope the justice service in your country deals with him appropriately. If not, you could always arrange to send him here. We don't approve of that behaviour at all."

Curious, she asked, "What do you do to rapists here?" Quannyr growled under her breath, making both the others look at her for a moment.

"Sorry. I find even the concept... upsetting."

"It's not nearly as common as it is in your world here," Uthryyl said, after another glance at his wife, who was clearly irritated by the thought, "Our species are not driven in quite the same way in such matters. On the other hand, when it does happen, we take it very seriously. Forfeiture of all assets in restitution and an extensive incarceration are the starting penalties, along with treatment for obvious mental issues. Personality death and rebuilding is the last resort, in cases involving extreme violence or death. It's treated in a manner only slightly less severe than deliberate murder." He shook his head slightly. "I'm rather surprised how lightly some cultures on your home-world take such things."

"So are a lot of people there," Nabiki said, finishing her coffee. "Believe me, there are a lot who would quite like to see people of his type dealt with more severely or even permanently. But the arguments against that are also valid. Aside from anything else, you'd have to be completely sure that the crime was exactly as it appeared. A miscarriage of justice is bad enough when it involves jail, it's not something you can do much about if an innocent victim ends up dead. Not that there was any doubt about that bastard."

"It's a good point. We have methods that for our species at least can tell with essentially complete accuracy if a person is being truthful. They're reserved for the legal system, as they're moderately hazardous, more so than daily use would warrant, but such techniques do tend to reduce massively such outcomes as those. Not completely eliminate it, unfortunately, there are rare cases where everyone involved is completely truthful yet the whole truth eludes the courts, but that's extremely unusual."

"It sounds like you still have crime, then, even with a society that in many ways is more advanced socially than back home." Nabiki refilled her mug and added some more tree sap sweetener. Uthryyl nodded, putting his knife down and dumping the sliced vegetables into a large pot.

"Oh, definitely. This is no utopia. I don't know anywhere that it. With free will, you will always get some form of crime as people work out how to game the system. It's basically inevitable. The types of crime vary, though. We have a lot less sexual assaults, muggings, that sort of thing, than you do, although it does happen. Fraud, petty theft, that type of crime, we have plenty of that. It's a pain but easy enough to deal with. There are always people who would rather take something than earn it, in every civilization I've ever encountered. Yours is by no means the worst, in fact it's probably better than average." He snickered. "Fraud always amuses me in some weird way. Some of the cases I've heard about involved more ingenuity and hard work than earning the credit honestly would have done, which makes me wonder what the point was."

"We have those as well," she replied, giggling. "Some criminals really don't seem to be able to think their ideas through from end to end first." Thinking for a moment, she asked, "So, if I was wandering around that city down there and someone did try to jump me, what should I do?"

Uthryyl started slicing some carrots. "Try to avoid causing any major damage, much as you do at home, but if someone offers you violence our laws permit sensible responses to it. The right to self-defence is an absolute, as is the defence of an innocent bystander. Attacking someone without reason violates many rights, but if they start it, their rights are immediately suspended. We tend to frown on wildly disproportionate responses, for instance someone stealing a small amount of cash hardly deserves to be killed or maimed, but a show of force to discourage them is fine. If they try to kill you, well, in your case they deserve what happens next." He grinned at her. "Especially as I know full well that any of you would only actually kill in the most extreme of circumstances. Our world is quite aware of Yori and her friends, they're well respected here, having helped out on more than one occasion, and as a colleague and friend you will be given the same respect."

His wife looked up and smiled. "Don't worry, Nabiki, it's very unlikely that anyone would try anything violent anyway. Crime rates here are quite low. Some worlds are very different, you'd have to be on your guard, but most places allow a sensible right of self-defence. You of all people will have very little to fear."

"I'm not afraid or worried, really, I was mainly curious." Nabiki finished her second mug of coffee, putting the empty vessel back on the table. "I'd better go and see what the others are doing." Smiling at her hosts she wandered out into the garden, looking around with interest. The early morning light showed the dual-edged shadows even better than the late evening had, giving a rather odd but really quite pretty effect. Walking around for a while with her camera out she inspected everything curiously, finding yet again a mix of things that could clearly be identified, even if only in context, and some things that just made her stare.

She was kneeling down watching with fascination as something she'd thought at first was a plant contentedly munched on a flying thing that had strayed too close, realising that the flying thing seemed in fact to be some sort of self-propelled seed, when she felt a familiar ki signature behind her. She finished taking a photo of it, then stood, turning to her elder sister. "It's strange here, but really cool," she said, greeting Kasumi with a smile. The older woman laughed.

"Isn't it? This is one of the nicest worlds I've been to. Very pleasant people, by and large, a sensible culture, and lots of things to see and do. Onkra wants to take us to a place she knows up in the mountains where there are a lot of waterfalls and things she thinks we'll like. Sometime in the early evening, she says the light is better then. Ranma is showing her some basic moves at the moment, she seemed interested and you know what he's like." She shook her head slightly, smiling. Nabiki laughed at this.

"You say that as if you're not exactly the same, sis. You love it as much as he does."

"Well, yes, I suppose that's true." The elder Tendo giggled, putting her arm around her sister. "I'm so glad we could show you this. I think you're really going to enjoy this holiday. Now, come on, we need to practice, you've been slacking off recently."

"Hey!" Nabiki glared slightly, incensed. "I haven't been slacking off, I've been busy. Degrees don't award themselves to you, you know." Her sister grinned. Laughing, they both headed off to where they could hear Ranma instructing the young demoness.

When they got nearer, Nabiki stopped and watched as her brother-in-law studied the alien woman as she very slowly went through a basic kata, stopping her frequently and carefully guiding her movements, thinking once more how good a teacher he was. The sheer skill was matched by seemingly endless patience for a student making mistakes, which were corrected without censure. She glanced at her sister to see her watching with clear love and affection in her eyes.

"Yes, that's it. Now, slowly to the next position. Yes, very good. The next one... stop. Like this." He demonstrated as Onkra watched carefully. "See? Rotate here, bend here, thrust like this." He did the move very slowly, then faster. She nodded, copying him exactly. "Very good indeed. Next one... and the last. All right, that's the first sequence. Now, do it again, the same speed, but try to make each one flow into the next. They link together, see? Each position leaves you set up for the next one. It should be smooth and comfortable, not jerky or forced." He demonstrated again, rippling through each motion one after another in a graceful series of arm and leg movements that formed one continuous whole.

"You're incredibly good at that, Ranma," Onkra said admiringly. "So smooth and fast. I'll never be able to do it like that."

The martial artist chuckled. "I've been doing this my entire life, Onkra. You get good at anything if you do it that much. You pick it up quickly, I suspect you'd be better than average, but it takes time, like any skill. OK, try again, don't worry about speed, just go for accuracy and smoothness at the moment. Speed comes later." She nodded, resetting to the beginning stance and trying again. He watched critically, looking pleased. "Very good. We're going to have to work out a series of katas that use your tail as well, it's not something these moves use, but it's a shame not to make use of all your limbs." Stepping back he watched as she went through the motions again, visibly more smoothly than before.

"Great. Practice that for a few minutes and I'll show you the next one." She nodded, concentrating on what she was doing, as he turned to the two Tendo women. Nabiki was just finishing a roll of film, taking the final shot of Onkra concentrating on the exercise, looking serious.

"Trying to produce the first non-human magical girl?" Nabiki asked with a giggle, lowering her camera. Onkra shot her an amused grin but kept practising, while Ranma laughed.

"No, not really, I'm just helping a friend. She's got good instincts, I think, she'll be good at martial arts if she keeps it up." He looked at the demon girl as she practised, nodding with satisfaction. "Very good, I suspect, but it will take time. I can get her started, though."

"Do her people have martial arts?" Nabiki asked.

"Oh, certainly, practically every species has, but here there are a fairly small number of people who practice them, none in this area as far as I know. I've meant for a while to look some of them up and learn them, it would be very interesting to see how they compare to the ones I already know. Like I told Onkra, having a strong tail like that would change quite a few of the moves in some fascinating ways."

"What are you teaching her?" the middle sister asked, watching as the woman went through the sequence yet again.

"No particular style yet, it's sort of a hybrid exercise from Anything Goes, incorporating some Tai Chi, Aikido, and a couple of things I worked out myself. This is one of the basic exercises, it's got several moves that are counters to a number of standard attack scenarios." Watching Onkra, he called a halt to what she was doing, returning to her and demonstrating the next set. She nodded, asking him to repeat it a few times, then slowly tried it herself. Soon, after a few corrections, she was performing the set slowly but fairly smoothly.

"Come on, Nabs, you should learn these moves as well, they'll complement what I've already shown you." He waved her over. Sighing, but also smiling, she followed instructions. For once she allowed him to get away with the nickname, although glaring at him in a way that made him smile, to make sure he knew it was a favour.

By the time Uthryyl and his wife came out to find them a couple of hours later, Onkra and Nabiki were sparring in the middle of the lawn, using only the moves Ranma had told them to practice, while he and his wife were keeping an eye on them. At the same time they were also sparring at considerably higher speed, working on a style incorporating a tail, one of which each of them had generated using the illusion spell. When, after some discussion, they had produced the tails, both Onkra and Nabiki had stopped, stared, exchanged glances, then shrugged and gotten back to what they were doing, although Nabiki did spare a moment to take a shot of their activities. Kasumi and her husband, as Uthryyl came around the corner of the house, paused what they were doing and discussed their efforts for a moment, before starting again in a completely different style.

The merchant looked at his wife who gazed back, then grinned. "You should have realised something like this would happen, dear," she said, watching her daughter practising her new hobby. She knew the young woman well enough to realise this was something she would probably keep at until she fell over.

Uthryyl watched as well, sighing. "Yes, you're right, as usual. Where those two go chaos is never far behind. At least she seems to be enjoying herself." He sipped the mug of coffee he was holding, smiling a little. "I wonder how long it will be before she's running around on the roof as well?"

"Quite a while, I suspect, she doesn't have the background they do, but I certainly wouldn't put it past her. You know what she's like." Quannyr looked very amused. Rolling his eyes, her husband muttered something along the lines of knowing all too well, then chuckled.

"OK, enough of that, you lunatics. We have some food ready then it's time to show you all around," he called. Kasumi glanced over, ducking a blow from her husband's tail without looking, making him grin, then nodded. Onkra and Nabiki finished what they were doing and bowed to each other, laughing a little, before walking over. They watched as Ranma and his wife also completed whatever it was they were attempting, looking pleased with the results, before joining the others, their extra appendages shimmering away in the process. Uthryyl shook his head in amused wonder.

"That spell of yours is quite remarkable," he commented. "I don't think you realise how unusual that sort of shape-shifting actually is."

"You've mentioned it before," Kasumi replied, looking pleased. "I'm very happy with it, it's very flexible and efficient now."

"That's sort of what I mean. You and Ranma do the most extraordinary things without seeming to realise they are extraordinary. I know mages who can do a shape-shift, or illusion as you insist on calling it, but nothing like as fast, as completely, or as undetectably. Or, for that matter, more than once or twice a day. You lot use it as easily as closing your eyes, which is just incredible." The demon shook his head again. "Even after knowing you for years, it surprises me."

Kasumi looked at her sister, who shrugged, and her husband, who grinned. "We like surprising people."

The demon laughed loudly. "That, I'm well aware of, trust me." Inspecting them, he grinned, finishing his coffee. "Very strange, the way you operate, but very effective as well." Glancing at his daughter slyly, he added, "If you can teach her any of this stuff I'll be impressed. We could do with another decent mage in the family." Onkra looked somewhat irritated.

"Dad, I'm not bad, you know, I can help with the portal spell after all. That's not easy." Uthryyl snickered.

"I know, but you don't seem to have applied yourself to your studies as much as you should have, other than that and a few other things." He shook his head sadly. "No drive, young people these days." Crossing her arms and laying her ears back, the tip of her tail twitching from side to side, his daughter glared for a moment, while the three visitors exchanged grins with his wife, who rolled her eyes for a moment. This sort of teasing was clearly not unusual.

Reaching out and poking his daughter on the shoulder, Uthryyl laughed. "Don't look like that, you know I don't mean it. But I'll be interested to see if you stick with this, I know how many other things you've found as hobbies in the past." He looked at Ranma, who was grinning, sighing slightly. "So many things..." Onkra gritted her teeth, then after a moment began laughing herself.

"OK, dad, you made your point. Let's go and show them around, instead of teasing me." She glanced at Nabiki, who looked back, amused. "He's not entirely wrong, unfortunately," the young demon commed her privately. "But I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of hearing me say that." Nabiki snickered as she followed them around the house.

"Fathers like teasing their children whatever world you're on, I guess," she replied. Shrugging, Onkra nodded a little, with a slight smile.

"Yours does it too?"

"Oh, yes. Not as much nowadays, but he's not above a small practical joke now and then."

Arriving at the vehicle, she inspected it from close up. It bore a distinct resemblance to an Earth vehicle, although in a rather futuristic way, looking sleek and aerodynamic, with a glossy dark blue finish, and no apparent windows. More like some sort of advanced concept vehicle like things that she'd seen on TV than anything else, although still recognisable as a vehicle, even though the lack of wheels looked somewhat strange. It was currently resting on the flat surface of the driveway. "Cool," she muttered, walking around it looking at it curiously. "How fast does it go?"

"In ground mode it's limited to approximately two hundred kilometres an hour, in your measurement system," Uthryyl replied after checking his figures with his SI. "Flight mode is faster, about twice that, although the altitude is limited to six kilometres. It's not really a sports model, or a true aircraft, the aerodynamic properties aren't quite right for long distance flight. The power cells hold enough charge for about three thousand kilometres in flight mode, perhaps fifty percent more in ground mode." Nabiki stared at him.

"It flies?" she managed in astonishment. He chuckled.

"Of course. It's an anti-gravity vehicle, technically it's always flying. Altitude is mainly a function of power. The limitation is to keep it out of the way of higher-speed true aircraft. This thing doesn't get much lift from the body shape, the gravity repulsor is what keeps it up, so it's not as efficient as a true aircraft, but the power storage is large enough to make it useful for medium range hops. Long distance travel would normally use either a real aircraft or teleportation, assuming you can afford the magical energy. Teleportation is quite power hungry."

"Aiko jumps around all over the planet like it's the easiest thing in the world," the middle sister commented. He nodded, looking amused.

"Indeed she does. That's as remarkable as Ranma and Kasumi's magic, to be honest. The spell she uses it like nothing I've ever seen before. If it could be easily duplicated it would be worth more credit than you can imagine, but I can't make heads or tails of it. The efficiency is... well, it's unbelievable. I'd love to know where it came from originally."

Ranma laughed a little. "So would we. The artefacts that went along with them becoming magical girls are pretty weird. Unique, as far as I can tell. No mage I've ever shown any of them to has recognised them, although the one thing they all agree on is that they're amazingly old. Completely different from our magic, but also completely different from everyone else's, although vaguely based on the standard method. Dramatically more efficient though." He shrugged slightly. "I doubt we'll ever find out where they originate. But I do have high hopes of duplicating the functionality of the teleportation at some point fairly soon, it's the most useful of all the spells they have. Pretty much everything else we can already do one way or another."

Uthryyl half-smiled, half grimaced. "Well, I'll be impressed if you can do that, but it just moves the problem, your method of magic is even worse than whatever it is that they use. At least theirs is recognisable as magic, not like that weird offence against nature you came up with." He laughed as Ranma grinned. Nabiki listened with amusement, running her hand over the finish of the vehicle and wondering what it was made of. It didn't feel like metal, more like some sort of advanced plastic, or even a ceramic. Quannyr touched a place on one side causing a door to open, popping out a few centimetres then swinging up and out of the way along the curved roof. She reached inside the vehicle and prodded a control that made the rest of the doors, two on each side, do the same.

"Come on, everyone get in," she said, sliding into the driver's seat. Bending down Nabiki peered inside, then hopped in the other front seat, grinning at Ranma who had made a move for it too late. He smiled back, changing direction and getting in the back. Peering rearwards, the middle Tendo saw that there were two rows of seats behind the front ones, the rear-most having space for three occupants while the middle set could take two. It was reminiscent of a people-carrier from back home. Interestingly, from the inside the entire top surface appeared to be transparent, a slightly tinted view of the exterior perfectly visible.

"That's a good trick," she said admiringly.

"The material has a one-way transparency spell on it," Quannyr noted, putting her hand on a panel in the middle of the alien dashboard. Something beeped and a number of displays lit up with alien symbols, one or two on what would have been the windscreen on a car from home. After checking that everyone was inside she poked the relevant control and the doors closed. "The computer is more than capable of doing all the driving, and in flight mode or in the city regulations say that it has to unless you're a trained pilot, but I like driving on manual in the country. It's fun," she explained, touching another control that made something a little like a steering wheel crossed with a light aircraft yoke slide out of the panel in front of her.

The outside view dropped a little as the vehicle raised itself some twenty centimetres off the ground, although the occupants couldn't feel anything. Twisting one of the control grips made the air-car rotate about it's axis until it was pointing in the other direction, then she accelerated hard down the driveway. Nabiki watched in astonishment as the world shot away rearwards, surprised at how quickly the vehicle reached what looked like a fairly high speed. Jun, without being asked, popped up a discreet position and speed indicator off to one side. They were moving at just over one hundred and forty kilometres an hour, she saw. Again, there was no sensation of movement, which she found quite disconcerting. "How does it compensate for the inertia?" she asked curiously.

"Anti-gravity control implies gravity control as well, which in turn implies inertial control," Uthryyl said from behind her. "The gravitational reference frame inside the vehicle is isolated from the outside world by the repulsor system. From our point of view we're not actually moving, in quite a real sense. The car is in relation to the outer world, but everything in it is actually stationary relative to the car."

"That's... pretty damn amazing," Nabiki finally managed, watching as Quannyr pulled off a close to ninety-degree turn at over a hundred kilometres an hour onto a larger road which the one to the house joined, heading away from the city. There were a few other similar vehicles on the road but the traffic was very light compared to what she was used to.

"These newer vehicles are a considerable improvement over what we used twenty or thirty years ago," the merchant said. "Before we started importing the gravity repulsor systems we were using a levitation spell, which worked well, but needed more power which made it expensive to operate, and didn't compensate for motion anywhere near as well. The vehicles needed safety restraint systems like your do, for instance. We've pretty much switched entirely over to the tech-based vehicles now, they're just more convenient in almost every way. One of the cases where physical technology is superior over magical technology for everyday life. Sometimes it goes that way, sometimes the other. They complement each other pretty well here."

"Are they manufactured on this world?" Kasumi asked, interested.

"The vehicle itself is, but the drive system is bought in as a sub-assembly," the trader replied, glancing at her. "It's basically cheaper and more convenient. The infrastructure needed to manufacture them is sufficiently complex that we'd need to make a lot more than we do to make it cost-effective, so we just buy them complete from a world that turns them out by the tens of millions a year. It's pretty common. No point duplicating effort if you don't need to."

"Can you repair them if something goes wrong?"

"Oh, certainly. They're amazingly reliable to be honest, but we have full service manuals and spare part manufacturing capability. We certainly could make them if we wanted to, but like I said, there's not really any point in doing so. But spares, yes, that's easy."

Nabiki looked over her shoulder at him. He and Onkra were sitting in the seats immediately behind the front ones while Ranma and Kasumi were in the back, looking out at the view with interest. "What's the power source?" she asked curiously.

"It's electrically powered, there are some very high-density batteries built into the floor. They use that subspace pocket spell like the drawers you were looking at last night to pack in a lot more capacity than would otherwise fit. I said it got used all over the place." He grinned at her. "In this case we can put in enough storage capacity that it would otherwise mostly fill the cabin, which would be a little counterproductive."

"So you plug it in at night or something?"

"More or less. The charging is through a wireless induction system from underneath. The driveway has a matching charge point where it was parked. It only needs to be charged every few weeks unless we do a lot of driving, but normally it gets parked there and topped off every night."

Impressed, Nabiki nodded. "Very clever. There's certainly a number of technologies there that I'm sure would be marketable at home. The batteries, for sure." Kasumi giggled from the back.

"It sounds like you're making a shopping list, sister. If you try to introduce everything at once, you'll cause chaos on our world." Her voice was very amused. "We've considered the same ideas from time to time, but I think your first idea, of the fusion reactors, is probably a better one to start with. If you really want to change the world, you should probably do it one step at a time." Nabiki laughed, looking over her shoulder again at her sister.

"We may have to set up a company to introduce new technology. I'm really beginning to think it should be done, the more I see. There are so many things here I've come across already that would make such a difference at home. I had no idea it was like this. It's like walking into a particularly good science fiction book." Kasumi smiled at her happily.

"I hoped you'd like it. Without experiencing it you'd never have believed me, though. Wait until we go to one of the really high-tech worlds, that will blow your mind."

Beside her Ranma laughed. "You have no idea." He glanced at Uthryyl who was listening with a grin. "Are we going to visit K'nn four?"

"Of course. I mentioned you'd be around, or more accurately, that 'Yori' and 'Chou' would be around, to S'th'kx, who was insistent that we visit him. He wants to thank you for your help last time. So does his son." The merchant looked at Nabiki, who was now very curious. "S'th'kx is the owner of a small asteroid mining company on one of the K'nn grouping worlds, which are a set of fifteen planets in three separate realities linked by portals. Half of them are very high tech, the others are more agrarian, around the technological level of here. They use magic, but mainly for things that technology just doesn't do as well or at all, like portals, some very good security systems, healing, things like that. Most of the day to day things are tech based like your own planet, but I'd guess about a century or so more advanced for the most part."

From the rear of the vehicle, Ranma laughed a little. "It's a pretty wild place, to be honest. K'nn four is like Tokyo on some sort of hallucinogen, it's absolutely frantically busy most of the time, people running around all over the place. Most of them are decent people but there are a lot of criminals, just because the population is so high. S'th'kx had a problem, or more accurately, his son had a problem, he got involved with some people who were a little like the Yakuza back home, but not quite as dangerous or professional. Bad enough, though. It was a mistake, he didn't know what he was getting into until it was too late. Things went a little weird. Luckily, before anyone could really get hurt his father found out, then mentioned it to Uthryyl, who asked us if we could help out."

"I assume you could," Nabiki commented. He nodded, grinning.

"Yep. They weren't actually very good at being criminals. There was some sort of robbery planned, which Th'kx'ng was supposed to be a diversion for, but his father got him to tell us what was going on. We... intervened." He chuckled darkly. "There were a number of people who seemed very surprised. The local law enforcement was a little taken aback as well but in the end quite grateful. We were careful to keep it all nice and peaceful, we didn't want to cause any real trouble, but they seemed fine with it. We even got offered jobs." He laughed, as Kasumi beside him giggled. "Had to turn them down, but they said we were welcome to come back any time we wanted and stop more criminals. I got the impression they were a bit overworked and underpaid."

"They are a very pragmatic species," Uthryyl explained to Nabiki. "Once they saw that 'Yori' and 'Chou' not only knew exactly what to do but were very good at it, they decided that they were fine with it. More or less retrospectively deputised them, to be honest. It was very funny."

Kasumi laughed lightly. "It was a bit more than 'more or less', Uthryyl." She handed him a small item that he took with interest, then looked very surprised by.

"Ah, is this what I think it is?" he asked in slight shock. She nodded with a small amused smile.

"If you think it's a K'nn level two peace enforcement authorisation, then yes, it's what you think it is."

"Good grief. I didn't know they gave you this. That's... very impressive." He handed the small token to Nabiki when she indicated she wanted to see it. The thing seemed to be made of some sort of metallic plastic, about two thirds the size of a credit card, and had 'Chou's' picture somehow floating inside in a sort of full-colour hologram effect, with a small crest of some kind below it and a block of alien symbols to one side. After inspecting it curiously she handed it back to the merchant who returned it to Kasumi.

"What does that mean?" she asked.

"It gives us authority to do more or less what we do at home, in an official capacity as an outside skilled security consultant. Like a private security firm, essentially, although allowed to carry weapons. In our case the weapons are built in, which made the situation slightly unusual but not unprecedented. They classify us as combat mages, which is the nearest they could come to what we really are." Ranma looked amused. "We can intervene in crimes with full authorisation, although we have to call in the legitimate law enforcement to do the actual arrest. That's level one peace enforcement, it requires a pretty comprehensive knowledge of the law just like a policeman at home."

"Weird. I didn't know you had such a reputation in so many places," Nabiki said, twisting around in her seat to look at her sister and brother-in-law, both of whom seemed fairly pleased. "Mind you, I suppose I should have guessed. Everywhere you go, something weird happens." She giggled a little. "I guess I'm part of that now as well."

"You've known that for a while," her sister laughed. "We didn't expect to get these, it was a real surprise, but they genuinely were serious about wanting us to work for them. I think this was sort of an encouragement. It's come in handy once or twice although we haven't been back to any of the K'nn worlds for close to a year now."

"It's also something you'd find quite effective in a number of other worlds," Onkra commented, glancing at them for a moment. "From what I know the K'nn law enforcement system has some sort of reciprocal arrangement with a few other places. Although I don't know the details." Her father nodded thoughtfully.

"That's correct. There are at least half a dozen worlds I can think of where that authorisation would get you considerable respect. Most of them are high-tech worlds but a couple are magic-based. K'nn peace enforcers are considered very highly skilled. Quite a lot of them leave to earn more in other places after they finish their first contracts," he mused. "That also explains some of why they always seem overworked."

Quannyr turned off the main road and onto a smaller side road that wound through some incredibly pretty mountain scenery, making Nabiki and the other two turn to the windows and watch with interest. The middle sister pulled her camera out of her ki pocket and reloaded it carefully. Uthryyl watched with interest. "Chemical imaging?" She nodded.

"Yes. I expect it's very old-fashioned around these parts, but it produces amazingly good photographs."

The merchant chuckled behind her. "Electronic imaging systems are vastly more common, certainly, but there is a thriving artisan culture using various chemical imaging systems on several worlds. The results are very pleasing to the eye even when the resolution isn't as high as the electronic equivalents, a result of it being an analog process, I believe. By the size of that device and the film I would assume the images are quite large?"

"It shoots ten six by seven centimetre shots per roll with this 120 film. 220 film is twice the length and gets twenty shots, but it costs about three or four times as much, so I decided to use the shorter one. It means I have to reload more often but that's not really a problem. It's slide film, producing positive images."

"Interesting. I'd like to see the results." He laughed for a moment. "Where are you going to get the film processed? I would think that it would cause a certain amount of confusion at home if you hand a number of rolls of images of alien worlds to a photographic technician." Nabiki looked over her shoulder at him, grinning.

"It would be very funny to see their expression when they checked the film. But it's not a problem, there's an automatic processor machine in the university I can use that will develop them. I've used it before, it's much cheaper than using the normal processing services, I just have to reimburse the cost of the chemicals used. I'll have to make sure it's late at night when there's no curious people wandering around but that shouldn't be an issue. I can use the high-resolution drum scanner there as well to convert them into digital images, although the file size will be huge. Not that Jun really has a problem with that. From what I can make out it's storage capacity is essentially unlimited, for all practical purposes."

"When you do that, I'd appreciate copies of the images," Uthryyl told her.

"Of course. I'd be happy to let you have them." She raised the camera and composed a shot of the valley they were passing through half-way up the side of, focussing on a small cluster of buildings on the far side. The floor of the valley, some eight or so kilometres across, was mostly flat with a small river winding through what looked like fields of some sort of crop. Taking a few photos she lowered the camera again. "I'm beginning to wonder if I brought enough film."

"We can always get you a nice electronic camera, there are many places where they can be obtained," Quannyr said, glancing at her with a smile. "From ones that are very similar to the one you have there in operation to completely unlike it."

"That might be interesting," she replied, intrigued. "I'd certainly like to see what's available."

"Tomorrow we'll go into the city and look around, we can find an imaging specialist there and you can see what's on offer. If nothing looks suitable you can wait until we hit one of the tech worlds." Nodding with a smile, Nabiki took a few more pictures, finishing the roll, reloaded the camera, then put it away.

"Where are we going, anyway?" she asked curiously.

"There's a lake on a plateau near the top of the mountain that gives an amazing view out over a large amount of countryside," Quannyr replied. "It's a wonderful place for swimming, something we enjoy as much as you do, I suspect, while the general area is beautiful. The waterfalls Onkra was talking about are some distance from it, in the outflow. The main one is over a kilometre tall, the total drop is something like twice that. People go there because it's so pretty. They also... Do you have a sport on your world where people jump off high places with a wing structure strapped to them?"

From the rear of the vehicle, Kasumi said, "Yes, it's called hang-gliding. It's quite popular in some places."

"Well, they do that as well. Even with levitation spells, anti-gravity vehicles, all that sort of thing, some people like just using some thin metal, composite, and fabric to cheat gravity." She shook her head for a moment in wonder. "I find it a little strange, to be honest, but they seem to like it." Nabiki grinned.

"That sounds like fun." The demoness gave her a sidelong glance, then chuckled.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised you'd think that."

They drove on in silence for a while, everyone enjoying the view, while Nabiki pulled out the camera and took some more photos. The road had been steadily climbing, according to Jun's display they were now some four kilometres above local sea level. She inspected the trees lining the road, which had the occasional other vehicle passing in either direction, seeing that they seemed to be a different species that the ones behind Uthryyl's house, presumably something akin to conifers, in earth terms, due to the altitude. Storing her camera away she just enjoyed the view and the trip. It was oddly relaxing.

"You know," the middle sister said after a while, "One of the oddest things about all of this is how... normal... it all is." Quannyr glanced at her for a moment.

"How do you mean, Nabiki?" She could feel everyone else listening from behind her, as she tried to express her thoughts.

"It's... Well, it's kind of strange. Here we are on a completely alien world, or at least one which is in a different universe or something, with people who, no offence intended, are totally unlike anything at home, yet somehow so much of it is just... normal. I mean, you presumably evolved under totally different conditions, yet we can eat pretty much the same food, understand each other perfectly, want most of the same things out of life. I'm in a car, I suppose you could honestly call it, which is admittedly a flying car with magical spells on it and some futuristic alien drive system, yet it's clearly recognisable as a car, with similar controls as back home, on a road that's obviously a road. You even drive on the same side as we do in Japan. There are a lot of things that jump out as very obviously alien, which is what I expected, but the weirdest bit is how many things don't look strange at all, beyond a certain unfamiliarity." She looked at the alien woman next to her, who was listening with her ears cocked slightly in her direction, then over her shoulder at the others.

"I don't seem to have any trouble now working out your body language most of the time, for example. Clearly that works both ways. Your house is different, yes, but even there I could probably find something more unusual somewhere at home. That city below your house is obviously a city, pretty much like back home except in the details." She shook her head a little helplessly. "I take it so much for granted, now, but when I step back and look at it the whole thing doesn't make any sense. A childhood of science fiction shows on TV kind of pushed the idea that all the aliens would look more or less like humans, but clearly that was because of the limitations of special effects rather than any real probability. Most decent hard science fiction I've read has suggested that true alien life, if we ever met it, might well be so alien we would have absolutely nothing in common, to the point we might not even recognise each other as intelligent."

She sighed a little, peering out the window as they passed another vehicle. "You know, some sort of super-intelligent methane breathing jellyfish floating in the atmosphere of a gas giant, or something based on cryogenic superfluids. But here I am, driving along with my friends, that despite having scales and tails, and damn big teeth, are more or less very much like me. We even understand a lot of each other's cultural references. It's... odd." Quannyr smiled slightly. Behind her, a deep chuckle came from her husband as he leaned forward into the gap beside them.

"You're not the first one to notice that. Our species are particularly close in most respects, that's true, and you'll likely meet some much more alien people in due course, they certainly exist, but portal travel does seem to connect species that are surprisingly similar in many ways. Despite physical differences, mentally a lot of them are remarkably compatible. No one knows why. There was a philosopher many years ago, Kreese, or Craze, something like that, who got quite worked up about it all. He seemed to think there was something very annoying going on, as if there was a guiding intelligence behind it that was just out to be a damn nuisance. God as a practical joker, in essence." Nabiki giggled at the thought. "Wrote a load of books on the subject, but not many people took him very seriously."

"It's a thought, certainly," the middle sister said, still looking amused. "So, tell me, my alien friend, from your non-human perspective, is there a God of some sort behind all this?"

Uthryyl laughed for a moment, while his wife grinned. "I could say yes, but that would just be wrong. To be honest, while there are more religions out there than you might believe, I don't subscribe to any of them, although some people do. The ones that do, of course, always say theirs is the one true truth. I've never seen any evidence of this. God as a prick is as good a theory as any of them, to be honest, but I'm pretty sure in fact that there is no guiding principle behind everything. It's much too chaotic for that. Oh, don't get me wrong, there are some entities that are pretty damn close to being deities for most purposes, but even they don't really know any more about the origins and purpose of the multiverse than the rest of us. They just like to say they do." He snickered for a bit. "Some of them are pricks as well." The trader shrugged slightly, his ears indicating amusement.

"No, it's all rather weird, in most ways. But that's life. One theory is that portals tend to connect similar-ish worlds, which in turn tend to produce intelligences that are in some way understandable by each other. I have no idea whether it's true. It certainly is true that most of the places I've been, even if the life there is really quite strange, normally have a species you can talk to in one way or another. Sometimes they can be difficult to truly understand, but surprisingly often you can get to grips with it. The civilisations that use interstellar travel tend to come into contact with the really alien life. Some of that is exactly what you were talking about, extremely alien indeed. I'm not sure about gas-giant jellyfish although it wouldn't surprise me all that much, but I've certainly heard of things at least as weird."

"It's somewhat odd, Nabiki, but it seems to be true. I've met several different friendly species from a number of worlds over the years and most of them are generally quite easy to get along with," her sister's soft voice said from behind the trader. "Uthryyl's people are probably the easiest, but even some of the physically quite alien species are remarkably compatibly mentally and socially. S'th'kx's species are basically insects, they look a lot like very large, rather pretty beetles of some sort, but they're very nice to talk to and have a very similar outlook on life to us. You'll like them." Surprised, Nabiki considered the idea for a moment.

"Very weird. It sounds interesting, though."

They drove for another half hour, eventually arriving at the shore of a lake some eight or nine kilometres across, with a sandy beach around most of it. The air was noticeably thinner at this altitude, but she'd found out from Jun earlier that the atmosphere on this world had somewhat higher oxygen levels than at home, compensating for it to a large degree. The mountain continued up for some distance, a small cap of snow visible on the top, but it clearly wasn't reachable by road past this point. Nabiki felt a slight power surge from behind, turning to see that Ranma and Kasumi were now 'Yori' and 'Chou'. She looked at them quizzically.

"We should use these personae in public, even here, as we're know like this in quite a few places. Around Uthryyl's house it's fine to be whatever you want, the house wards will keep unwanted attention away, and in the car is fine as well because no one can see inside." 'Yori' smiled at her sister-in-law. "But other places, just like at home, we're Yori and Chou. You should probably be Azumi, I think, it's surprising how word gets around." Nabiki nodded and activated her own illusion.

"Fair enough. This is something I'm completely used to now anyway," the silver-haired girl said with a grin. "It feels normal. Which is weird when you think about it." 'Yori' snickered, as Uthryyl laughed.

"You're all weird when you think about it," the merchant quipped. 'Azumi' giggled.

Driving along the shoreline Quannyr eventually stopped about half a kilometre from where the ground started to rise again slightly, although it clearly dropped off somewhere beyond that as nothing but sky could be seen from the car. Shutting the power off she opened the doors and hopped out, then stretched for a moment. 'Azumi' and the others climbed out as well. The day was coming up on local noon, very warm but not hot, actually quite pleasant to the humans. Looking around curiously 'Azumi' could see a few other vehicles of various colours and types parked near the shore, with a number of the demons wandering around. She smiled slightly, turning to Onkra.

"What is the name of your species, anyway? I never did ask. It seems rude to call you 'demons' since you're clearly not." The young alien woman laughed.

"The name we use that is the equivalent of 'human' in our own language is D'sage. This planet is called Fwetna." She looked very amused. "In the common language it means... Dirt, or Ground. Or... Earth." 'Azumi' stared for a moment then burst out laughing.

"Oh, that's brilliant. Is that something that other species use as well?"

"It's not uncommon." Onkra giggled in her own way. "The name of your planet tends to be very old, therefore primitive, and primitive cultures do seem to refer to the world as 'the Ground', or 'the World', or something like that. Some worlds get nice fancy names, deliberately, or get named after their orbital position from their star or something like that, but that's usually ones that have been fairly recently colonised. The ones someone evolves on is more often than not referred to by a very limited set of names if you go back far enough."

"Fantastic. So, I assume in some ways D'sage means human?"

"Sort of. You could certainly translate it like that if you wanted to, without being horribly wrong."

"So we're both 'Humans', from 'Earth'." 'Azumi' shook her head with humour.

"Exactly." They stared at each other for a moment, then laughed again. Still chuckling, the middle sister turned to inspect the lake, walking down to the water's edge. Bending she investigated the water temperature, which was cool but pleasant. "It's drinkable, but it tastes a bit odd because of dissolved minerals," Onkra said, having followed her. "The source is the permanent snow-cap up there. On the other side it drains into a small river that eventually ends up going over the edge a few kilometres away, dropping a very long way. Only spray makes it to the ground unless it's rained very hard recently, but it's very pretty from above."

"How deep is it?" 'Azumi' asked. The young D'sage woman shrugged a little.

"I'm not sure. Most of it is pretty shallow, I know that, but I've heard there are some quite deep bits in the middle. Nothing dangerous lives in it although there are a lot of things you'd probably call fish."

"What do you call them?"

"Well, it translates out to... fish." Onkra grinned. "There's only a certain number of things you can call something like that." 'Azumi' looked amused. "They live underwater, they swim, they eat smaller ones or plants."

"Sounds like fish to me." She shaded her eyes and looked over the lake, noticing a few small water craft of some sort moving around on it, one or two at very high speed, leaving a tail of water high in the air. They seemed to be the alien equivalent of jet-skis or something similar, although they were very quiet. "That looks like fun."

"They're a lot of fun, actually. Quite primitive, it's a hull with a big battery, a powerful motor, and a pump, not much more than that, but they're fast and very manoeuvrable. Do you have anything like that at home?"

"Yes, extremely similar, only they're powered by internal combustion engines. Very noisy. These are nice and quiet." 'Azumi' watched as a pair of clearly very young D'sage on one of the electric water craft shot past in the shallows, leaving a huge rooster-tail of spray, shouting with enjoyment. She laughed. "This is another amazingly familiar sight. You'd find something pretty damn similar at home at the beach in a lot of places. Your people and mine really are very much alike in lots of ways." Glancing at Onkra she smiled. "I'd love to know why, but I can certainly accept it as something that happens."

Onkra made the gesture that her species used as a shrug, looking amused. "You're a lot more open-minded than some of your people. We've had some really quite unpleasant interactions even in Minato once or twice, although I have to say that the people there are a lot more laid-back about visitors from other worlds in general than you'd expect from a world that doesn't officially do much portal travelling. More so than some places I've been with Dad that do it all the time. It's very odd."

'Azumi' snickered. "I can remember one of the more spectacular interactions with... difficult people. I doubt they'll come back soon, not after what 'Yori' said. And did." She shook her head in amusement. Even after a year it was something that she found funny, the expression on the magical girl's face when she got an angry Yori's head to the nose. Onkra laughed for a while.

"That was very funny indeed. Those girls are very annoying. They certainly haven't bothered us since then, though." She looked around, waving to a couple of people she knew, then turned back to 'Azumi'. "Come over here and have a look at this," she said, heading away from the lake up the slight rise on the side away from the mountain. 'Azumi' followed, as they walked about six hundred metres to the top of the low hill, some sixty to seventy metres higher than the lake. Once they crested the rise, the middle Tendo stopped dead and stared.

"Wow," she finally managed, looking at the sight in front of her.