Tenchi belongs to AIC. Indiana Jones belongs to LucasArts.
A lost fic by Davner
Indiana Jurai and the Master Key
"Sasami, have you seen the...THERE IT IS!"
Sasami looked up from the couch at her distraught sister, who was rushing up to her. Ayeka reached out and took the curled bullwhip out of her sister's lap.
"What were you doing with this?" Ayeka asked, just a hair short of anger. "It's very old, and very delicate."
Sasami blinked and adjusted the fedora on her head. "I was just playing while I watched my movie."
Ayeka looked up and found that Sasami was watching *that* movie again. That India James or whoever it was was swinging from one ledge to another with his own bullwhip. Ayeka sighed.
"Aren't you sick of this movie yet?" Ayeka asked. They had rented it one night, and Sasami had become totally taken with it. "Well, it doesn't matter. I'm going to put this back in our room where it bel..."
Suddenly, Ryoko appeared next to her and snatched the whip out of Ayeka's hands. "What's this?" the demon asked with a gleam in her eye.
Ayeka's face went ashen. "It's none of your business what it is!" She made a grab for the whip, but Ryoko dematerialized and reappeared on the other side of the princess.
"Oh! I know what it is!" Ryoko said as if suddenly solving a great mystery. "I didn't know you were into that kind of thing, little princess." She was grinning from ear to ear.
"I am not!"
"Let's go show Tenchi!" Ryoko suddenly exclaimed and disappeared.
Ayeka gasped and ran outside where she knew Tenchi, Noboyuki, Kiyone, and Mihoshi were working on Noboyuki's latest addition to the Masaki home, a gazebo. She saw Ryoko appear next to Tenchi, who was hammering a wooden plank into place.
"Ryoko! You give that back! It's a priceless family heirloom!"
"But, Ayeka!" Ryoko said innocently, "Whatever could it be for?"
Ayeka blushed.
"Um...What's going on?" Tenchi asked. His eyes narrowed. "Ryoko, are you and Ayeka fighting again?"
"No, Tenchi!" Ryoko said again, the picture of innocence. "I just want to know why Ayeka would be keeping one of these in her bedroom." She held up the whip and grinned.
Tenchi blinked. He swallowed nervously, and his nose began to bleed as he caught on to Ryoko's hint.
"It's not like that!" Ayeka shouted as she grabbed the whip from Ryoko's hands.
"Oh?" Ryoko asked. "Then what's it for?"
"I told you. It's a family heirloom."
"So you mean to say that it's not for...oh, I don't know...bridegroom training?" Ryoko's grin was touching her ears.
Ayeka turned red. Tenchi was looking on in shock. Mihoshi and Kiyone were busy trying to move a large board in place.
"It's not used for that," Ayeka told them, "Anymore," she finished.
Ryoko laughed out loud. Tenchi's eyes widened in shock. Ayeka tried to explain.
"In ancient times, Jurai was a much different place!" she told them. "Some of the older traditions concerning marriage were...well...different."
Ryoko was still laughing. Ayeka just wanted to die right there, or better yet, kill the demon bitch causing her all this grief.
"No, Mihoshi! The other left! Your other left!" Kiyone's annoyed voice could be heard.
"So what are you doing with it now, Princess?" Ryoko asked. She suddenly adopted a look of mock fear and clutched Tenchi. "You're not going to use that on Tenchi, are you!?" Tenchi blinked in shock.
"OF COURSE NOT!" Ayeka shouted. "Bridegroom training hasn't been practiced in eighty thousand years! It's an heirloom that's handed down from mother to daughter! Sasami was just playing with it while she watches her India James movie!"
"Indiana Jones," Noboyuki supplied helpfully as he hammered a nail into the gazebo.
"MIHOSHI! YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!"
"Yes, yes, whatever!" Ayeka said. "Just some arrogant, overbearing man playing hero! I swear, what is the appeal of that movie anywa..."
"MIHOSHI!"
Ayeka turned just in time to be struck in the face with an oak board.
"Ayeka!" Tenchi cried and rushed to her.
Ayeka hit the ground, unconscious.
"Ayeka! Are you okay?!" Kiyone asked, dropping her end of the board.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Ayeka!" Mihoshi blubbered.
Ayeka didn't respond. She was out like a light. As the others gathered around her, she fell into darkness.
"Archaeology is the search for fact, not truth," Professor Ayeka "Indiana" Jurai said as she wrote the word, "fact" on the board. She paused. "Well, that makes no sense, they're one in the same." She turned back to her class. "Okay, archaeology is the search for fact *and* truth. We'll leave it at that."
Several of the male students in the front row smiled at her. "We cannot afford to take mythology at face val..." She paused as she noticed one of her male students blinking, the words, "Love You" written on his eyelids. Ayeka blushed a little and continued. "Value. We do not follow maps to..." She paused as she noticed another male student blinking, this one with the words, "Want You," on his eyelids. Ayeka cleared her throat. "...Buried treasure and X never..." A third student was blinking at her, words on his eyelids.
"Spank You."
"Class dismissed! See you all next week!"
The class groaned in disappointment and filed out of the room. A blonde woman entered her class through the throng of college students. Ayeka smiled. "Mihoshi, what brings you here?"
"Well," the ditzy museum curator began, "Actually, I thought we could have lunch together!" She held up a brown paper bag with a large smiley face on the front and the words, "Mihoshi's lunch," painted in bright characters.
"Um..." Ayeka stalled. Yes, Mihoshi was her friend, and she *did* run the museum that bought most of the artifacts she found. Even so...lunch with Mihoshi was often an adventure all on its own. "Sure," Ayeka said. "Why don't you wait outside while I get my things?"
Mihoshi grinned. "Okay!" She walked out into the hall. Ayeka smiled as the door closed...
And ran for the window.
She threw it open, put on her fedora, and climbed outside.
"Heh heh...The perfect crime..."
"Dr. Jurai?"
She yelped in surprise and fell to the floor in a heap. She looked up and found four large men staring down at her.
"Um...Yes?"
Ayeka turned as the door opened. A young girl with pink hair entered. "Ah, Dr. Jurai. I hope the ride up here was comfortable."
"It was all right. I think the chloroform was a little over the top though." Ayeka arched an eyebrow.
The girl grinned. "Well, I had to make sure that you'd hear me out. I'm..."
"I know who you are, Professor Washu," Ayeka assured her. "Your contributions to the museum have been very generous."
"Yes, but there's something you must do for me."
Ayeka blinked. "What's that?"
"Call me, 'Little Washu,' okay?!" Washu asked with a grin.
"Er...yes of course...Little Washu."
Washu grinned.
"So why have you brought me here?"
Washu regarded her for a moment. "Tell me, Dr. Jurai, what do you know of the Master Key?"
Ayeka blinked. "It's a myth. Supposedly, it's the greatest source of spiritual power on Earth."
Washu nodded. "It's said that whoever possesses the Master Key will have power unimagined...including immortality."
Ayeka smiled. "So they say. It's still just a legend."
"Not anymore." Washu walked over to a table. A white cloth covered something there. She removed the cloth revealing a large portion of an oak board. Ancient characters were etched into it. "I believe you can translate this."
Ayeka looked over the tablet and began to read the parts that were still legible. "Negishi vivi Tsunami...I am the bringer of life...search over the mountains, through the desert, to the canyon of the crescent tree...to where..." She looked up. "To where the sword of Tsunami resides forever."
Washu nodded. "The Master Key. The sword wielded by the great Yosho...and used to defeat the infamous Kagato."
"Okay, but where? This...clue...is very vague."
"We believe a complete marker exists, and we're taking steps to recover it. In Venice, Italy."
"Sounds like you're ahead of the game," Ayeka told her.
"Er....Not quite. You see, we kind of have a...well...snag." Ayeka blinked. "Our head researcher has disappeared along with all of her notes. We want you to pick up where she left off."
"I'm afraid you have the wrong Jurai. The real expert on Key lore in my family is my mother. You should really contact her."
"We did," Washu told her. "She's the one who's missing."
"Wow, Indy, I've never seen you this worried about your mom before," Mihoshi told her as the two entered the house.
"Mother!" Ayeka called out. They entered the living room and found it a wreck. "What happened here?"
"Wow, Misaki's really let herself go!" Mihoshi noted. Books had been thrown from the shelves, the couch was overturned, and the TV lay shattered on the floor. "Hey, look! Messages!" Mihoshi was pointing at the answering machine.
Ayeka walked over to it and pressed the play button.
*BEEP* "Hi, hon! It's mommy! I figured you'd come by to check on me, so I'm just calling to say I'm in Venice. I'll be back soon. Love ya." *BEEP* "Hi, hon. There's something kind of weird going on here. I can't talk about it over the phone, but I think I'm being followed. I hope you get this soon. I'm going to try to catch the next flight back. See ya soon." *BEEP* "Um...Ayeka hon? I...um...need you to do something for me....There's this book that I....BURN IT! BURN IT, AYEKA! I..EEP!" Suddenly, a deeper voice came on, imitating her mother's voice. "Ayeka hon. You bringenzee book to Venice, ja? Das ist gut! Zee you zoon. Luv you." *BEEP*
They blinked in surprise. "Wow, Indy! Your mom does a *great* impression of a scary German guy!"
Ayeka shook her head ruefully. "I don't get it. Book? What book?"
"Oh," Mihoshi said suddenly, "On a totally unrelated topic, I checked your mail for you. Here you go!" Mihoshi smiled and handed Ayeka her mail. "I was going to give it to you at lunch." She began to blubber. "But then you ditched me and ran off to Chicago with those goons!"
Ayeka growled as she opened a small package wrapped in brown paper. "I told you, it wasn't my idea! They...er...dragged me through the window!" She finally got the package open and looked at it. "Mother's Key diary," she whispered. She flipped through it. "Every clue, every hint. Her whole life is here..."
She looked up at a painting of Tsunami hanging on her mother's wall. "Mihoshi...do you believe?"
"Believe what?" Mihoshi asked from the kitchen. Ayeka closed her eyes and growled as Mihoshi rummaged through her mother's refrigerator.
"I mean," Ayeka began testily, "Do you believe in Tsunami? In the Master Key?"
Mihoshi was carrying several plates of leftovers in her arms, a bag of bread was hanging from her teeth as she tried to get all the food to the table. "Shurf, fife noft?"
Ayeka sighed. "Try to be serious just once, Mihoshi."
Mihoshi spit the bag out and looked at Ayeka. "Yeah, I believe. The Master Key is a symbol of faith. You mom spent her whole life searching for it."
Ayeka looked to the right of the painting and saw an old photo of her when she was younger. Her mother was standing next to her.
"Mihoshi, call Washu. I'll be needing that ticket to Venice."
"Ooooh! Can I come too?! I always wanted to see the Eifel Tower!"
Ayeka stared at Mihoshi for a moment and started to correct her before realizing that it would probably end up more trouble than it was worth. "Sure, Mihoshi. Why not?"
Ayeka spent the entire flight to Venice reading her mother's diary. Thirty years of research in over two hundred pages of notes and hand drawn illustrations. By the time she stepped off the water plane in Venice, she felt that she knew more about the Master Key than anyone else alive, save her mother.
"So, what do we do now?" Mihoshi asked as she tried to maneuver her luggage out of the plane's hatch and onto the pier.
"We're supposed to meet my mother's research assistant here. I guess we'll know her when we see her."
"Dr. Jurai?"
She turned, her eyes going wide.
A rather handsome man stood before her, smiling at her. He had short black hair and brown eyes. "I knew it was you. You have your mother's eyes."
Ayeka smiled and walked up to him. "But the rest is all yours," she said seductively. The man gulped nervously. "Um...I'm Dr. Tenchi Masaki. I was your mother's research assistant."
"Great!" Mihoshi said. "Now we can get to work on finding your mother, Indy!"
"Hmmm?" Ayeka asked, her eyes never leaving Masaki.
"Your mom...Dr. Jurai...The missing woman," Mihoshi prompted.
"Oh, yes! Of course! Silly me!" She cleared her throat. "I'm Dr. Indiana Jurai and this is Dr. Mihoshi Kuramitsu." She continued to smile at him.
"Um...well...if you'll come with me, we can get started right away."
"So this was a church?" Mihoshi asked.
"Yes," Tenchi told them. "Your mother was working right here when she disappeared, Dr. Jurai."
"Please," Ayeka told him taking his hand in hers. "Call me Indiana."
"Um...okay, Indiana." Ayeka's eyes sparkled.
Mihoshi was still holding all her luggage, several bags filled with enough useless garbage to fill her museum. "Hmmm," she mused as she walked across the room. "I wonder what she could've been looking for here." She blinked and looked down as she heard the floor begin to crack open under her weight. "AHHHHHHHHH!" she cried as she fell through the floor.
"Mihoshi!" Ayeka ran to the hole and looked down. Mihoshi was buried in her luggage.
"I...found something," she said.
Ayeka and Tenchi helped Mihoshi out. Tenchi examined the hole and climbed down. "It looks like an old burial chamber. Let's check it out."
Ayeka nodded. "Right." She turned to Mihoshi and gave her the Key diary. "Hold onto this, all right?" Mihoshi pocketed the book. Ayeka climbed down into the hole.
The burial chambers and the tunnels connecting them were dark, dank, and filled with petroleum. Ayeka led the way with her lighter, illuminating the tunnels ahead of her. She found a weak section of the wall and thought another tunnel could be behind it. She prepared to knock it open with her shoulder but paused.
"Tenchi," she said, "I think there's another passage behind this wall. Could you open it for me?" She batted her eyes coquettishly.
Tenchi smiled. "Sure." He braced himself and threw himself against the wall...
And fell back into the petroleum with a splash. Ayeka shook her head, readied herself, and rammed her shoulder into the wall. The loose stone and mortar came crumbling down. She turned and helped Tenchi up. "Thanks, you loosened it up just enough," she lied.
"No problem."
Ayeka stepped into the new tunnel and paused.
"Awwwww....cabbits," she muttered.
Tenchi looked down and saw that the entire tunnel was crawling with the cute, little creatures.
"Careful you don't step on them," Ayeka warned as she started down the tunnel. Tenchi followed her. "So, do you have any idea what happened to my mother?" she asked him as the made their way down the tunnel.
"No, she was looking around the library. I went to fetch something from the archive, and when i got back, she was gone."
"MIYA!"
"Ack!" he said. "Sorry." The cabbit he had stepped on stuck its tongue out at him and scampered away.
Mihoshi stared down into the hole.
"I hope they're all right," she muttered. She heard something behind her and turned...
Just in time to see a teal-haired woman strike her in the face with a bludgeon.
Ayeka and Tenchi entered another chamber, this one larger than the others.
"Look at this," Tenchi whispered, stopping next to an old casket. "These are ancient markings."
"Mother wasn't looking for a clue to the marker, she was looking for the marker itself." She opened the casket and gasped. The skeleton of an armored knight rested within. On his shield...
"The marker!" they cried in unison.
"We found it!" Ayeka gasped. She reached into her pocket and removed a sheet of wax paper.
"What is that?" Tenchi asked.
"A rubbing of the tablet." She placed the paper on the shield and began to rub it with a red crayon.
"If only your mother could be here," Tenchi said.
"She never would've made it past the cabbits!" Ayeka told him. "She loves cabbits! She *adores* them! She'd still be back there huggling them to death!"
At the other end of the tunnel, the teal-haired woman struck a match, smiled grimly, and dropped it into the petroleum.
"You hear that?" Tenchi asked.
Ayeka listened carefully.
"MIYA! MIYA! MIYA!"
"Sounds like cabbits," she said.
"Coming this way..."
They saw the light of the fire racing their way. Ayeka's eyes went wide.
"Ack!" Tenchi cried.
Ayeka rolled a casket over. "Get under it!"
"What?!"
Ayeka grabbed him and dunked him another the petroleum. Several hundred cabbits followed them, right ahead of the flames. They surfaced beneath the casket....
So did the cabbits.
"MIYA! MIYA! MIYA!!"
"Ack!" Tenchi cried. "Too....many....CABBITS!"
"I can't...breathe!" Ayeka agreed. "Too...much...fur!"
"MIYA! MIYA!" More cabbits appeared in the casket.
"I'm going to find a way out!" Ayeka told Tenchi. "Stay here!" She took a breath and dived.
Tenchi tried to find a pocket of air through the cabbit fluff. He screamed in horror as he was overcome. Suddenly, Ayeka's head surfaced again, shoving more cabbits out of the way.
"I found a way out! Follow me!"
They both took a deep breath and dived.
The diners in the open air restauraunt turned in surprise when the manhole cover opened nearby. From this hole in the ground climbed two people. One of them, a purple haired woman dressed in a skirt, brown leather jacket, and fedora, looked around sighed.
"I really hate Venice."
The other one, a man in a simple shirt and trousers coughed some cabbit fur out of his mouth and nodded.
They looked up as a group of men led by a teal-haired woman in a fez hat rushed out of the nearby library and started after them.
"Time for a chase scene!" Ayeka cried, grabbing Tenchi's arm and pulling him toward the nearest canal. The two hopped into the first available boat...
A pedal powered paddle boat.
The two began pedaling as fast as they could. The teal-haired woman, followed by a man in a fez hat, jumped into another paddle boat and began to pursue them. One fezzed man ran down the dock and jumped, landing on Ayeka's boat.
"Drive!" Ayeka cried and got up, turning to the muscular, green- haired man that was struggling to stand on the back of their paddle boat. Aeka leapt up and punched the man in the jaw before he could get his balance. Tenchi pedaled harder, trying to maintain their speed as another paddle boat began to close in from behind.
The man reached into his jacket and pulled a revolver. Ayeka grabbed his arms and struggled for the weapon. They fell onto the boat as they fought. The gun went off.
"Ack! Hey! Watch it!" Tenchi cried as bullet holes began to appear in the plastic boat around him. Aeka managed to get on top of the man and began punching him repeatedly in the face. She looked up momentarily and saw a woman pushing a baby carriage on the street next to them begin to pass them.
"Oh, this is ridiculous!" She cried. She picked the man up and decked him one last time. He fell into the water with a splash. "Head that way!" She ordered, pointing as she hopped into the other seat and began pedaling.
The teal-haired woman raised a machine gun and began to riddle their tiny boat with bullets. The boat began to slow down.
"They must have got one of the paddles!" Tenchi cried.
They began to drift toward a cruise ship's propeller. The other paddle boat pulled up alongside. Rather than wait for an attack, Ayeka threw herself onto the other boat and pushed one of the goons off. He cried out as he hit the water. The teal-haired woman attacked her, knocking her down to the boat's deck. Unpowered, it began to drift towards the propeller.
"Indiana!" Tenchi cried out.
Ayeka managed to get the upper hand and punched her attacker. "Who are you?!" she demanded as the rear of the boat hit the propeller. "Why are you trying to kill us!?"
"You're looking for the Key!" the woman shouted back.
More of the boat was being chopped up now.
"My mother was looking for the Key! Did you kill her!?" She shook the woman. "Answer me!"
"No!"
"Tell me where she is!" Half the boat was now little more than plastic bits.
"If you don't let me go, Dr. Jurai, we'll both die!"
"Then we both go to Hell together!" Ayeka told her.
"My spirit is prepared!" the woman told her matter of factly. "Is yours?"
Ayeka sat on the boat as the propeller chewed it.
"Um...Dr. Jurai?"
Ayeka stared at her. The woman began to sweat. They were beginning to run out of boat.
"Dr. Jurai?"
Ayeka stared down at her.
"Um...Dr. Jurai? We're starting to sink!"
The propeller was getting closer.
"Okay! Okay! So my spirit's not prepared! GET OFF MY BACK, ALRIGHT! I CAN'T TELL YOU ANYTHING IF WE'RE DEAD!"
Tenchi managed to get the boat around by this time. Ayeka grabbed the woman and threw her onto the paddle boat, following her just before the remaining few feet of the boat submerged.
"Now who are you?" Ayeka asked as Tenchi pedaled them back to the street.
The woman unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it apart, showing Ayeka a tattoo of a tree high on her chest. "My name is Kiyone El Hazard Bebop Ypres Makibi," she told her. "And we of the Society of the Cruciform Tree have sworn to keep the Master Key hidden at all costs. If you drop me off over here, I'll tell you where your mother is."
They pulled up alongside a sidewalk, and Kiyone disembarked.
"Ask yourself, why do you seek Tsunami's sword? Is it for her glory...or yours?"
"I don't give a damn about Tsunami's sword, I just want to find my mother," Ayeka told her icily.
"Go to the Castle Broomhandle on the Austria-German border."
Ayeka and Tenchi watched her go.
"Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!" Mihoshi whined. "She didn't have to keep hitting me after knocking me out! It's like she hates me or something!" Mihoshi pressed the icepack against her head.
Ayeka ignored her and unfolded the rubbing she did of the knight's shield. "It says here that the knights started out from the city of Roshtaria, but it doesn't say where they went. What we need is a map."
Mihoshi nodded. "If only we a map like the one your mom made."
Ayeka blinked. "What?"
"Well, yeah." Mihoshi took the diary out of her pocket and flipped to a page about halfway through. "See? Now if we a map like this, we'd be all set!"
Ayeka rubbed her temples. "I tell you what, Mihoshi," she said. "The city of Iskenderun is built where Roshtaria used to be. Why don't you go there and look for the map, and I'll go get Mom."
Mihoshi nodded excitedly. "Okay!"
Ayeka took a breath. With Mihoshi safely out of the way, she'd be able to rescue her mother. "Take this map with you," she said, tearing the page out of the diary. "So you'll know what a good map looks like when you find one. Also, call Noboyuki when you get there. I'm sure he'll be able to help."
"Okay, Indy! You can count on me!"
Ayeka smiled as Mihoshi went to pack.
"Dullard," she whispered. She got up and went across the hall to Tenchi's room. She knocked but didn't wait for a response before opening the door. "Tenchi?" She found him holding a dresser drawer over his head, emptying the contents onto the floor.
"Dr. Jurai?!" He dropped the drawer. "Um...Someone ransacked my room! Can you believe it! What were they looking for?"
Ayeka blinked and held up the diary. "This, I guess."
"The Key diary!? You've had it all this time?!"
"Well, I had to be sure about you," she said, closing the door. "I had to make sure I could trust you." She smiled.
"Um...Okay?" Tenchi said, becoming rather uncomfortable with the way Ayeka was looking at him.
She walked up to him, and kissed him...
Then slapped him across the face.
"HOW DARE YOU KISS ME!?"
Tenchi just blinked. "Huh?!"
She kissed him again.
"Um...Dr. Jurai!?" He cried out as Ayeka knocked him to the ground.
The car pulled up in front of Castle Broomhandle as the rain pelted down.
"How do we get in?" Tenchi asked.
"Piece of cake," Ayeka said, coiling her whip. She looked over at Tenchi, who was wearing simple suit and tie. She smiled.
The butler opened the castle door, and a purple-haired woman came storming inside, a rather nervous young man in a brown leather jacket and fedora followed her.
"Ugh! Didn't you hear the bell, you idiot!?" the woman screamed at him. "It's pouring out!" She sneezed on him. "Now look! I've caught a cold!"
"Just who are you...Miss?" the butler asked.
"You go and tell Lord Broomhandle that..." She grabbed a hold of Tenchi's arm and pulled him close. "Lord Masaki is here to view the tapestries."
"Tapestries?"
Tenchi opened his mouth to speak. "Yeah, I suppose..."
"OF COURSE THE TAPESTRIES! DO YOU HAVE STRUDEL IN YOUR EARS!?"
"How rude!?"
"RUDE!? YOU'RE CALLING *ME* RUDE!?" Ayeka screamed. "Tenchi! Are you going to let him talk to me that way?!"
"Um...."
"Fine!" Ayeka grabbed hold of the butler's tie and punched him in the jaw. The man collapsed to the ground, unconscious. "Hmmph! How utterly rude!"
Tenchi blinked as she started into the castle.
They looked down over the balcony into a large room filled with people. A map table took up much of the room, several men and women in black uniforms were scurrying around it. Armbands with a red crab logo were worn prominently on their right arms.
Ayeka's eyes narrowed as she recognized them. "Kawazis," she muttered. "I hate these guys. Come on."
They made their way down a narrow stone corridor. Ayeka stopped in front of a door. "She's in here."
"How do you know?"
She pointed at the name plate on the door.
Dr. Misaki Jurai
Prisoner
They walked to the next door over and entered. Ayeka opened the window and uncoiled her whip. "You stay here. I'll be right back." She cracked the whip and watched it wrap around a power cable. Then she pushed off and flew away from the castle window. She turned at the end of her swing and aimed for the next window. She pointed her feet at the window and braced herself as she came in contact with the glass.
She flew through the window with a crash and landed on the stone floor. She shook her head, trying to collect herself.
That's when the chair hit her.
Ayeka was knocked forward as someone broke a wooden chair over her head. Before she could recover, that same person hit her in the back of the head with a vase.
"Ack!"
"KAWAZI SCUM! I'LL TEACH YOU TO TREAT ME THIS....Ayeka?"
Ayeka jumped to her feet. "Mommy! I mean...Mother!" The blue haired woman who had hit her stared at her. "Mommy," Ayeka conceded.
Misaki Jurai grabbed her and huggled her. Ayeka gasped as she felt ribs begin to crack.
"What are you doing here!?"
"I'm here to rescue you! What else!?"
"Did you get my diary?" Misaki asked.
Ayeka nodded.
"And the tunnel beneath the library?"
Ayeka smiled. "Found it."
"And the shield?" Misaki asked. "The shield of Sir Kamidake?"
Ayeka grinned. "Roshtaria."
"Damn! I was going to say Roshtaria!" She sat down in a chair and shook her head. "You did it, hon."
"No, Mother, you did it. Forty years of searching."
"I wish I could've been there."
"There were cabbits, Mother," Ayeka told her.
Misaki perked up. "CABBITS!" Her eyes were shining.
Ayeka nodded. "Cute ones."
Misaki took a deep breath, her eyes were positively glowing with joy. "Kawaii cabbits?"
"Um...Let's not go into the details. Let's just get out of..."
Suddenly, the door burst open, and three Kawazis with machine guns entered. "Dr. Jurai?"
"Yes?" they both answered.
"Ve vant ze book, now."
Misaki laughed. "Ha, idiot! As if my bright, beautiful little girl would be stupid enough to bring it with her!"
"Er...yeah..." Ayeka laughed nervously.
Misaki blinked at her. "You didn't bring it, did you?"
Ayeka looked down and shuffled her feet.
"You did!"
"Well, how was I supposed to know!"
"I shoul've sent it to the irresponsible Captain Tylor," Misaki muttered.
"Um..excuse me," the Kawazi officer began.
"Hey, *Mommy*! I came here to save you!"
"Excuse me," the man tried again.
"Well who's going to save *you*, *Honey*?!"
"EXCUSE ME!"
"WHAT?!" the women asked him.
"The book, please!"
"Oh! Yes! Of course!" Ayeka stepped forward and reached into her pocket. As she approached the officer, she pulled her hand out of her pocket and punched him! Grabbing his machine gun, she turned and gunned down the other two Kawazis.
Misaki blinked in shock. "Look....what....you.....DID!" she shouted.
Ayeka grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room. "Now I remember why I left home," she muttered.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT YOU JUST DID!"
They stopped outside the other door and opened it. "Tenchi, we're..."
She blinked as she found Tenchi kissing a cyan haired woman in a Kawazi uniform.
"What the..."
They noticed her and quickly shifted positions. The woman held him from behind and put a glowing finger to his head. "Drop the gun or the man dies!"
"Indy! Help!" Tenchi cried.
Misaki snorted. "Go ahead and shoot him! I never liked him much anyway!"
"I'll kill him!" the cyan-haired Kawazi shouted.
"INDY, PLEASE!"
"Don't do it, Hon, he's one of them."
"WHAT!?"
"INDY! She'll kill me!"
"Don't worry," Misaki said. "She won't."
"That's it! He dies!" the Kawazi shouted. Tenchi began screaming like a baby.
"Wait!" Ayeka cried. She threw the gun away. The Kawazi pushed Tenchi to her, and Ayeka embraced him.
"I'm sorry, Indy," Tenchi said.
Ayeka smiled. "It's okay." She felt his hand digging around in her pocket. She blushed. "Tenchi, this is hardly the time or place!"
Tenchi stepped away from her, the Key diary in his hand. "I'm sorry, Indy, but you should have listened to your mother." The Kawazi smiled and kissed his cheek. Ayeka just blinked in shock.
"He trashed his own room, and I didn't see it," Ayeka said in self reproach. She tested the ropes holding her back to back with her mother in old, high-backed dining room chairs. She blinked as something struck her. "How did you know he was a Kawazi?"
Misaki smiled to herself. "He talks in his sleep."
Ayeka paled. "WHAT?!"
Misaki went on the defensive. "What?!"
"But...How...I...You...." Ayeka faltered. "WHAT ABOUT FATHER?!"
Misaki snorted derisively. "Your father hasn't touched me in three centuries. Apparently, he doesn't find the way I whip him appealing..."
"MOTHER!!!"
"WHAT?!" She turned her head to glare at her daughter. "I didn't trust him! Why did you!?"
"Because," a nasally voice called out. "She didn't take *my* advice!"
"WASHU!!" the two Jurai's cried out in unison.
Washu, complete with the crab emblem of the Kawazi's on an armband on her arm, frowned.
"PROFESSOR WASHU!!" they corrected.
Washu tapped her foot. "Ahem..."
Ayeka and Misaki sighed...
"Little Washu!"
Washu grinned. "There! See?!"
"What advice!?" Ayeka demanded.
Washu blinked. "I didn't tell you to 'trust no one?'" she asked skeptically.
"No!"
The Kawazi scientist thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Eh, guess it wasn't important."
Misaki glared at Washu. "I always knew you'd sell your soul to science, Washu, but I didn't think you'd sell out your entire planet!"
Washu sighed. "Yes, yes, I know. I'm a horrible person, I've doomed the world, yadda yadda yadda..." She leveled her gaze at Ayeka. "Now...where's the map?"
Ayeka looked innocent. "What map?"
"The one in this diary," Tenchi asked, holding up Misaki's key diary.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Ayeka replied. "Hmmph!"
"She's lying," the cyan-haired Kawazi commented.
"Are you calling my little girl...a *liar*?" Misaki asked with a glare.
The Kawazi blinked and took a step back.
"It doesn't matter," Tenchi said. "It's perfectly obvious where the map is." He smiled. "She's given it to Mihoshi Kuramitsu."
"THE IDIOT!?" Misaki cried in alarm. "YOU GAVE IT TO THE IDIOT!?"
Ayeka sighed. "No," she growled, "I gave it to *Mihoshi*...You know...that highly intelligent woman who can blend into *any* environment? The woman who probably has the Key already?"
"Oh," Misaki said, catching on. "Yes, very intelligent..."
Tenchi, Washu, and the Kawazi laughed.
"Hello! Excuse me!" Mihoshi cried, pushing her way through the crowded marketplace. She held four large suitcases, two in each hand. "Does anyone here speak Japanese? Or even ancient Jurain?"
"Miss Mihoshi!?"
She turned to the voice and found a tall, dark man in a red fez.
"Oh! Noboyuki! Hello!"
"I got honored Indy's telegram," he told her, taking her luggage. "I have a car, come!"
A lost fic by Davner
Indiana Jurai and the Master Key
"Sasami, have you seen the...THERE IT IS!"
Sasami looked up from the couch at her distraught sister, who was rushing up to her. Ayeka reached out and took the curled bullwhip out of her sister's lap.
"What were you doing with this?" Ayeka asked, just a hair short of anger. "It's very old, and very delicate."
Sasami blinked and adjusted the fedora on her head. "I was just playing while I watched my movie."
Ayeka looked up and found that Sasami was watching *that* movie again. That India James or whoever it was was swinging from one ledge to another with his own bullwhip. Ayeka sighed.
"Aren't you sick of this movie yet?" Ayeka asked. They had rented it one night, and Sasami had become totally taken with it. "Well, it doesn't matter. I'm going to put this back in our room where it bel..."
Suddenly, Ryoko appeared next to her and snatched the whip out of Ayeka's hands. "What's this?" the demon asked with a gleam in her eye.
Ayeka's face went ashen. "It's none of your business what it is!" She made a grab for the whip, but Ryoko dematerialized and reappeared on the other side of the princess.
"Oh! I know what it is!" Ryoko said as if suddenly solving a great mystery. "I didn't know you were into that kind of thing, little princess." She was grinning from ear to ear.
"I am not!"
"Let's go show Tenchi!" Ryoko suddenly exclaimed and disappeared.
Ayeka gasped and ran outside where she knew Tenchi, Noboyuki, Kiyone, and Mihoshi were working on Noboyuki's latest addition to the Masaki home, a gazebo. She saw Ryoko appear next to Tenchi, who was hammering a wooden plank into place.
"Ryoko! You give that back! It's a priceless family heirloom!"
"But, Ayeka!" Ryoko said innocently, "Whatever could it be for?"
Ayeka blushed.
"Um...What's going on?" Tenchi asked. His eyes narrowed. "Ryoko, are you and Ayeka fighting again?"
"No, Tenchi!" Ryoko said again, the picture of innocence. "I just want to know why Ayeka would be keeping one of these in her bedroom." She held up the whip and grinned.
Tenchi blinked. He swallowed nervously, and his nose began to bleed as he caught on to Ryoko's hint.
"It's not like that!" Ayeka shouted as she grabbed the whip from Ryoko's hands.
"Oh?" Ryoko asked. "Then what's it for?"
"I told you. It's a family heirloom."
"So you mean to say that it's not for...oh, I don't know...bridegroom training?" Ryoko's grin was touching her ears.
Ayeka turned red. Tenchi was looking on in shock. Mihoshi and Kiyone were busy trying to move a large board in place.
"It's not used for that," Ayeka told them, "Anymore," she finished.
Ryoko laughed out loud. Tenchi's eyes widened in shock. Ayeka tried to explain.
"In ancient times, Jurai was a much different place!" she told them. "Some of the older traditions concerning marriage were...well...different."
Ryoko was still laughing. Ayeka just wanted to die right there, or better yet, kill the demon bitch causing her all this grief.
"No, Mihoshi! The other left! Your other left!" Kiyone's annoyed voice could be heard.
"So what are you doing with it now, Princess?" Ryoko asked. She suddenly adopted a look of mock fear and clutched Tenchi. "You're not going to use that on Tenchi, are you!?" Tenchi blinked in shock.
"OF COURSE NOT!" Ayeka shouted. "Bridegroom training hasn't been practiced in eighty thousand years! It's an heirloom that's handed down from mother to daughter! Sasami was just playing with it while she watches her India James movie!"
"Indiana Jones," Noboyuki supplied helpfully as he hammered a nail into the gazebo.
"MIHOSHI! YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!"
"Yes, yes, whatever!" Ayeka said. "Just some arrogant, overbearing man playing hero! I swear, what is the appeal of that movie anywa..."
"MIHOSHI!"
Ayeka turned just in time to be struck in the face with an oak board.
"Ayeka!" Tenchi cried and rushed to her.
Ayeka hit the ground, unconscious.
"Ayeka! Are you okay?!" Kiyone asked, dropping her end of the board.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Ayeka!" Mihoshi blubbered.
Ayeka didn't respond. She was out like a light. As the others gathered around her, she fell into darkness.
"Archaeology is the search for fact, not truth," Professor Ayeka "Indiana" Jurai said as she wrote the word, "fact" on the board. She paused. "Well, that makes no sense, they're one in the same." She turned back to her class. "Okay, archaeology is the search for fact *and* truth. We'll leave it at that."
Several of the male students in the front row smiled at her. "We cannot afford to take mythology at face val..." She paused as she noticed one of her male students blinking, the words, "Love You" written on his eyelids. Ayeka blushed a little and continued. "Value. We do not follow maps to..." She paused as she noticed another male student blinking, this one with the words, "Want You," on his eyelids. Ayeka cleared her throat. "...Buried treasure and X never..." A third student was blinking at her, words on his eyelids.
"Spank You."
"Class dismissed! See you all next week!"
The class groaned in disappointment and filed out of the room. A blonde woman entered her class through the throng of college students. Ayeka smiled. "Mihoshi, what brings you here?"
"Well," the ditzy museum curator began, "Actually, I thought we could have lunch together!" She held up a brown paper bag with a large smiley face on the front and the words, "Mihoshi's lunch," painted in bright characters.
"Um..." Ayeka stalled. Yes, Mihoshi was her friend, and she *did* run the museum that bought most of the artifacts she found. Even so...lunch with Mihoshi was often an adventure all on its own. "Sure," Ayeka said. "Why don't you wait outside while I get my things?"
Mihoshi grinned. "Okay!" She walked out into the hall. Ayeka smiled as the door closed...
And ran for the window.
She threw it open, put on her fedora, and climbed outside.
"Heh heh...The perfect crime..."
"Dr. Jurai?"
She yelped in surprise and fell to the floor in a heap. She looked up and found four large men staring down at her.
"Um...Yes?"
Ayeka turned as the door opened. A young girl with pink hair entered. "Ah, Dr. Jurai. I hope the ride up here was comfortable."
"It was all right. I think the chloroform was a little over the top though." Ayeka arched an eyebrow.
The girl grinned. "Well, I had to make sure that you'd hear me out. I'm..."
"I know who you are, Professor Washu," Ayeka assured her. "Your contributions to the museum have been very generous."
"Yes, but there's something you must do for me."
Ayeka blinked. "What's that?"
"Call me, 'Little Washu,' okay?!" Washu asked with a grin.
"Er...yes of course...Little Washu."
Washu grinned.
"So why have you brought me here?"
Washu regarded her for a moment. "Tell me, Dr. Jurai, what do you know of the Master Key?"
Ayeka blinked. "It's a myth. Supposedly, it's the greatest source of spiritual power on Earth."
Washu nodded. "It's said that whoever possesses the Master Key will have power unimagined...including immortality."
Ayeka smiled. "So they say. It's still just a legend."
"Not anymore." Washu walked over to a table. A white cloth covered something there. She removed the cloth revealing a large portion of an oak board. Ancient characters were etched into it. "I believe you can translate this."
Ayeka looked over the tablet and began to read the parts that were still legible. "Negishi vivi Tsunami...I am the bringer of life...search over the mountains, through the desert, to the canyon of the crescent tree...to where..." She looked up. "To where the sword of Tsunami resides forever."
Washu nodded. "The Master Key. The sword wielded by the great Yosho...and used to defeat the infamous Kagato."
"Okay, but where? This...clue...is very vague."
"We believe a complete marker exists, and we're taking steps to recover it. In Venice, Italy."
"Sounds like you're ahead of the game," Ayeka told her.
"Er....Not quite. You see, we kind of have a...well...snag." Ayeka blinked. "Our head researcher has disappeared along with all of her notes. We want you to pick up where she left off."
"I'm afraid you have the wrong Jurai. The real expert on Key lore in my family is my mother. You should really contact her."
"We did," Washu told her. "She's the one who's missing."
"Wow, Indy, I've never seen you this worried about your mom before," Mihoshi told her as the two entered the house.
"Mother!" Ayeka called out. They entered the living room and found it a wreck. "What happened here?"
"Wow, Misaki's really let herself go!" Mihoshi noted. Books had been thrown from the shelves, the couch was overturned, and the TV lay shattered on the floor. "Hey, look! Messages!" Mihoshi was pointing at the answering machine.
Ayeka walked over to it and pressed the play button.
*BEEP* "Hi, hon! It's mommy! I figured you'd come by to check on me, so I'm just calling to say I'm in Venice. I'll be back soon. Love ya." *BEEP* "Hi, hon. There's something kind of weird going on here. I can't talk about it over the phone, but I think I'm being followed. I hope you get this soon. I'm going to try to catch the next flight back. See ya soon." *BEEP* "Um...Ayeka hon? I...um...need you to do something for me....There's this book that I....BURN IT! BURN IT, AYEKA! I..EEP!" Suddenly, a deeper voice came on, imitating her mother's voice. "Ayeka hon. You bringenzee book to Venice, ja? Das ist gut! Zee you zoon. Luv you." *BEEP*
They blinked in surprise. "Wow, Indy! Your mom does a *great* impression of a scary German guy!"
Ayeka shook her head ruefully. "I don't get it. Book? What book?"
"Oh," Mihoshi said suddenly, "On a totally unrelated topic, I checked your mail for you. Here you go!" Mihoshi smiled and handed Ayeka her mail. "I was going to give it to you at lunch." She began to blubber. "But then you ditched me and ran off to Chicago with those goons!"
Ayeka growled as she opened a small package wrapped in brown paper. "I told you, it wasn't my idea! They...er...dragged me through the window!" She finally got the package open and looked at it. "Mother's Key diary," she whispered. She flipped through it. "Every clue, every hint. Her whole life is here..."
She looked up at a painting of Tsunami hanging on her mother's wall. "Mihoshi...do you believe?"
"Believe what?" Mihoshi asked from the kitchen. Ayeka closed her eyes and growled as Mihoshi rummaged through her mother's refrigerator.
"I mean," Ayeka began testily, "Do you believe in Tsunami? In the Master Key?"
Mihoshi was carrying several plates of leftovers in her arms, a bag of bread was hanging from her teeth as she tried to get all the food to the table. "Shurf, fife noft?"
Ayeka sighed. "Try to be serious just once, Mihoshi."
Mihoshi spit the bag out and looked at Ayeka. "Yeah, I believe. The Master Key is a symbol of faith. You mom spent her whole life searching for it."
Ayeka looked to the right of the painting and saw an old photo of her when she was younger. Her mother was standing next to her.
"Mihoshi, call Washu. I'll be needing that ticket to Venice."
"Ooooh! Can I come too?! I always wanted to see the Eifel Tower!"
Ayeka stared at Mihoshi for a moment and started to correct her before realizing that it would probably end up more trouble than it was worth. "Sure, Mihoshi. Why not?"
Ayeka spent the entire flight to Venice reading her mother's diary. Thirty years of research in over two hundred pages of notes and hand drawn illustrations. By the time she stepped off the water plane in Venice, she felt that she knew more about the Master Key than anyone else alive, save her mother.
"So, what do we do now?" Mihoshi asked as she tried to maneuver her luggage out of the plane's hatch and onto the pier.
"We're supposed to meet my mother's research assistant here. I guess we'll know her when we see her."
"Dr. Jurai?"
She turned, her eyes going wide.
A rather handsome man stood before her, smiling at her. He had short black hair and brown eyes. "I knew it was you. You have your mother's eyes."
Ayeka smiled and walked up to him. "But the rest is all yours," she said seductively. The man gulped nervously. "Um...I'm Dr. Tenchi Masaki. I was your mother's research assistant."
"Great!" Mihoshi said. "Now we can get to work on finding your mother, Indy!"
"Hmmm?" Ayeka asked, her eyes never leaving Masaki.
"Your mom...Dr. Jurai...The missing woman," Mihoshi prompted.
"Oh, yes! Of course! Silly me!" She cleared her throat. "I'm Dr. Indiana Jurai and this is Dr. Mihoshi Kuramitsu." She continued to smile at him.
"Um...well...if you'll come with me, we can get started right away."
"So this was a church?" Mihoshi asked.
"Yes," Tenchi told them. "Your mother was working right here when she disappeared, Dr. Jurai."
"Please," Ayeka told him taking his hand in hers. "Call me Indiana."
"Um...okay, Indiana." Ayeka's eyes sparkled.
Mihoshi was still holding all her luggage, several bags filled with enough useless garbage to fill her museum. "Hmmm," she mused as she walked across the room. "I wonder what she could've been looking for here." She blinked and looked down as she heard the floor begin to crack open under her weight. "AHHHHHHHHH!" she cried as she fell through the floor.
"Mihoshi!" Ayeka ran to the hole and looked down. Mihoshi was buried in her luggage.
"I...found something," she said.
Ayeka and Tenchi helped Mihoshi out. Tenchi examined the hole and climbed down. "It looks like an old burial chamber. Let's check it out."
Ayeka nodded. "Right." She turned to Mihoshi and gave her the Key diary. "Hold onto this, all right?" Mihoshi pocketed the book. Ayeka climbed down into the hole.
The burial chambers and the tunnels connecting them were dark, dank, and filled with petroleum. Ayeka led the way with her lighter, illuminating the tunnels ahead of her. She found a weak section of the wall and thought another tunnel could be behind it. She prepared to knock it open with her shoulder but paused.
"Tenchi," she said, "I think there's another passage behind this wall. Could you open it for me?" She batted her eyes coquettishly.
Tenchi smiled. "Sure." He braced himself and threw himself against the wall...
And fell back into the petroleum with a splash. Ayeka shook her head, readied herself, and rammed her shoulder into the wall. The loose stone and mortar came crumbling down. She turned and helped Tenchi up. "Thanks, you loosened it up just enough," she lied.
"No problem."
Ayeka stepped into the new tunnel and paused.
"Awwwww....cabbits," she muttered.
Tenchi looked down and saw that the entire tunnel was crawling with the cute, little creatures.
"Careful you don't step on them," Ayeka warned as she started down the tunnel. Tenchi followed her. "So, do you have any idea what happened to my mother?" she asked him as the made their way down the tunnel.
"No, she was looking around the library. I went to fetch something from the archive, and when i got back, she was gone."
"MIYA!"
"Ack!" he said. "Sorry." The cabbit he had stepped on stuck its tongue out at him and scampered away.
Mihoshi stared down into the hole.
"I hope they're all right," she muttered. She heard something behind her and turned...
Just in time to see a teal-haired woman strike her in the face with a bludgeon.
Ayeka and Tenchi entered another chamber, this one larger than the others.
"Look at this," Tenchi whispered, stopping next to an old casket. "These are ancient markings."
"Mother wasn't looking for a clue to the marker, she was looking for the marker itself." She opened the casket and gasped. The skeleton of an armored knight rested within. On his shield...
"The marker!" they cried in unison.
"We found it!" Ayeka gasped. She reached into her pocket and removed a sheet of wax paper.
"What is that?" Tenchi asked.
"A rubbing of the tablet." She placed the paper on the shield and began to rub it with a red crayon.
"If only your mother could be here," Tenchi said.
"She never would've made it past the cabbits!" Ayeka told him. "She loves cabbits! She *adores* them! She'd still be back there huggling them to death!"
At the other end of the tunnel, the teal-haired woman struck a match, smiled grimly, and dropped it into the petroleum.
"You hear that?" Tenchi asked.
Ayeka listened carefully.
"MIYA! MIYA! MIYA!"
"Sounds like cabbits," she said.
"Coming this way..."
They saw the light of the fire racing their way. Ayeka's eyes went wide.
"Ack!" Tenchi cried.
Ayeka rolled a casket over. "Get under it!"
"What?!"
Ayeka grabbed him and dunked him another the petroleum. Several hundred cabbits followed them, right ahead of the flames. They surfaced beneath the casket....
So did the cabbits.
"MIYA! MIYA! MIYA!!"
"Ack!" Tenchi cried. "Too....many....CABBITS!"
"I can't...breathe!" Ayeka agreed. "Too...much...fur!"
"MIYA! MIYA!" More cabbits appeared in the casket.
"I'm going to find a way out!" Ayeka told Tenchi. "Stay here!" She took a breath and dived.
Tenchi tried to find a pocket of air through the cabbit fluff. He screamed in horror as he was overcome. Suddenly, Ayeka's head surfaced again, shoving more cabbits out of the way.
"I found a way out! Follow me!"
They both took a deep breath and dived.
The diners in the open air restauraunt turned in surprise when the manhole cover opened nearby. From this hole in the ground climbed two people. One of them, a purple haired woman dressed in a skirt, brown leather jacket, and fedora, looked around sighed.
"I really hate Venice."
The other one, a man in a simple shirt and trousers coughed some cabbit fur out of his mouth and nodded.
They looked up as a group of men led by a teal-haired woman in a fez hat rushed out of the nearby library and started after them.
"Time for a chase scene!" Ayeka cried, grabbing Tenchi's arm and pulling him toward the nearest canal. The two hopped into the first available boat...
A pedal powered paddle boat.
The two began pedaling as fast as they could. The teal-haired woman, followed by a man in a fez hat, jumped into another paddle boat and began to pursue them. One fezzed man ran down the dock and jumped, landing on Ayeka's boat.
"Drive!" Ayeka cried and got up, turning to the muscular, green- haired man that was struggling to stand on the back of their paddle boat. Aeka leapt up and punched the man in the jaw before he could get his balance. Tenchi pedaled harder, trying to maintain their speed as another paddle boat began to close in from behind.
The man reached into his jacket and pulled a revolver. Ayeka grabbed his arms and struggled for the weapon. They fell onto the boat as they fought. The gun went off.
"Ack! Hey! Watch it!" Tenchi cried as bullet holes began to appear in the plastic boat around him. Aeka managed to get on top of the man and began punching him repeatedly in the face. She looked up momentarily and saw a woman pushing a baby carriage on the street next to them begin to pass them.
"Oh, this is ridiculous!" She cried. She picked the man up and decked him one last time. He fell into the water with a splash. "Head that way!" She ordered, pointing as she hopped into the other seat and began pedaling.
The teal-haired woman raised a machine gun and began to riddle their tiny boat with bullets. The boat began to slow down.
"They must have got one of the paddles!" Tenchi cried.
They began to drift toward a cruise ship's propeller. The other paddle boat pulled up alongside. Rather than wait for an attack, Ayeka threw herself onto the other boat and pushed one of the goons off. He cried out as he hit the water. The teal-haired woman attacked her, knocking her down to the boat's deck. Unpowered, it began to drift towards the propeller.
"Indiana!" Tenchi cried out.
Ayeka managed to get the upper hand and punched her attacker. "Who are you?!" she demanded as the rear of the boat hit the propeller. "Why are you trying to kill us!?"
"You're looking for the Key!" the woman shouted back.
More of the boat was being chopped up now.
"My mother was looking for the Key! Did you kill her!?" She shook the woman. "Answer me!"
"No!"
"Tell me where she is!" Half the boat was now little more than plastic bits.
"If you don't let me go, Dr. Jurai, we'll both die!"
"Then we both go to Hell together!" Ayeka told her.
"My spirit is prepared!" the woman told her matter of factly. "Is yours?"
Ayeka sat on the boat as the propeller chewed it.
"Um...Dr. Jurai?"
Ayeka stared at her. The woman began to sweat. They were beginning to run out of boat.
"Dr. Jurai?"
Ayeka stared down at her.
"Um...Dr. Jurai? We're starting to sink!"
The propeller was getting closer.
"Okay! Okay! So my spirit's not prepared! GET OFF MY BACK, ALRIGHT! I CAN'T TELL YOU ANYTHING IF WE'RE DEAD!"
Tenchi managed to get the boat around by this time. Ayeka grabbed the woman and threw her onto the paddle boat, following her just before the remaining few feet of the boat submerged.
"Now who are you?" Ayeka asked as Tenchi pedaled them back to the street.
The woman unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it apart, showing Ayeka a tattoo of a tree high on her chest. "My name is Kiyone El Hazard Bebop Ypres Makibi," she told her. "And we of the Society of the Cruciform Tree have sworn to keep the Master Key hidden at all costs. If you drop me off over here, I'll tell you where your mother is."
They pulled up alongside a sidewalk, and Kiyone disembarked.
"Ask yourself, why do you seek Tsunami's sword? Is it for her glory...or yours?"
"I don't give a damn about Tsunami's sword, I just want to find my mother," Ayeka told her icily.
"Go to the Castle Broomhandle on the Austria-German border."
Ayeka and Tenchi watched her go.
"Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!" Mihoshi whined. "She didn't have to keep hitting me after knocking me out! It's like she hates me or something!" Mihoshi pressed the icepack against her head.
Ayeka ignored her and unfolded the rubbing she did of the knight's shield. "It says here that the knights started out from the city of Roshtaria, but it doesn't say where they went. What we need is a map."
Mihoshi nodded. "If only we a map like the one your mom made."
Ayeka blinked. "What?"
"Well, yeah." Mihoshi took the diary out of her pocket and flipped to a page about halfway through. "See? Now if we a map like this, we'd be all set!"
Ayeka rubbed her temples. "I tell you what, Mihoshi," she said. "The city of Iskenderun is built where Roshtaria used to be. Why don't you go there and look for the map, and I'll go get Mom."
Mihoshi nodded excitedly. "Okay!"
Ayeka took a breath. With Mihoshi safely out of the way, she'd be able to rescue her mother. "Take this map with you," she said, tearing the page out of the diary. "So you'll know what a good map looks like when you find one. Also, call Noboyuki when you get there. I'm sure he'll be able to help."
"Okay, Indy! You can count on me!"
Ayeka smiled as Mihoshi went to pack.
"Dullard," she whispered. She got up and went across the hall to Tenchi's room. She knocked but didn't wait for a response before opening the door. "Tenchi?" She found him holding a dresser drawer over his head, emptying the contents onto the floor.
"Dr. Jurai?!" He dropped the drawer. "Um...Someone ransacked my room! Can you believe it! What were they looking for?"
Ayeka blinked and held up the diary. "This, I guess."
"The Key diary!? You've had it all this time?!"
"Well, I had to be sure about you," she said, closing the door. "I had to make sure I could trust you." She smiled.
"Um...Okay?" Tenchi said, becoming rather uncomfortable with the way Ayeka was looking at him.
She walked up to him, and kissed him...
Then slapped him across the face.
"HOW DARE YOU KISS ME!?"
Tenchi just blinked. "Huh?!"
She kissed him again.
"Um...Dr. Jurai!?" He cried out as Ayeka knocked him to the ground.
The car pulled up in front of Castle Broomhandle as the rain pelted down.
"How do we get in?" Tenchi asked.
"Piece of cake," Ayeka said, coiling her whip. She looked over at Tenchi, who was wearing simple suit and tie. She smiled.
The butler opened the castle door, and a purple-haired woman came storming inside, a rather nervous young man in a brown leather jacket and fedora followed her.
"Ugh! Didn't you hear the bell, you idiot!?" the woman screamed at him. "It's pouring out!" She sneezed on him. "Now look! I've caught a cold!"
"Just who are you...Miss?" the butler asked.
"You go and tell Lord Broomhandle that..." She grabbed a hold of Tenchi's arm and pulled him close. "Lord Masaki is here to view the tapestries."
"Tapestries?"
Tenchi opened his mouth to speak. "Yeah, I suppose..."
"OF COURSE THE TAPESTRIES! DO YOU HAVE STRUDEL IN YOUR EARS!?"
"How rude!?"
"RUDE!? YOU'RE CALLING *ME* RUDE!?" Ayeka screamed. "Tenchi! Are you going to let him talk to me that way?!"
"Um...."
"Fine!" Ayeka grabbed hold of the butler's tie and punched him in the jaw. The man collapsed to the ground, unconscious. "Hmmph! How utterly rude!"
Tenchi blinked as she started into the castle.
They looked down over the balcony into a large room filled with people. A map table took up much of the room, several men and women in black uniforms were scurrying around it. Armbands with a red crab logo were worn prominently on their right arms.
Ayeka's eyes narrowed as she recognized them. "Kawazis," she muttered. "I hate these guys. Come on."
They made their way down a narrow stone corridor. Ayeka stopped in front of a door. "She's in here."
"How do you know?"
She pointed at the name plate on the door.
Dr. Misaki Jurai
Prisoner
They walked to the next door over and entered. Ayeka opened the window and uncoiled her whip. "You stay here. I'll be right back." She cracked the whip and watched it wrap around a power cable. Then she pushed off and flew away from the castle window. She turned at the end of her swing and aimed for the next window. She pointed her feet at the window and braced herself as she came in contact with the glass.
She flew through the window with a crash and landed on the stone floor. She shook her head, trying to collect herself.
That's when the chair hit her.
Ayeka was knocked forward as someone broke a wooden chair over her head. Before she could recover, that same person hit her in the back of the head with a vase.
"Ack!"
"KAWAZI SCUM! I'LL TEACH YOU TO TREAT ME THIS....Ayeka?"
Ayeka jumped to her feet. "Mommy! I mean...Mother!" The blue haired woman who had hit her stared at her. "Mommy," Ayeka conceded.
Misaki Jurai grabbed her and huggled her. Ayeka gasped as she felt ribs begin to crack.
"What are you doing here!?"
"I'm here to rescue you! What else!?"
"Did you get my diary?" Misaki asked.
Ayeka nodded.
"And the tunnel beneath the library?"
Ayeka smiled. "Found it."
"And the shield?" Misaki asked. "The shield of Sir Kamidake?"
Ayeka grinned. "Roshtaria."
"Damn! I was going to say Roshtaria!" She sat down in a chair and shook her head. "You did it, hon."
"No, Mother, you did it. Forty years of searching."
"I wish I could've been there."
"There were cabbits, Mother," Ayeka told her.
Misaki perked up. "CABBITS!" Her eyes were shining.
Ayeka nodded. "Cute ones."
Misaki took a deep breath, her eyes were positively glowing with joy. "Kawaii cabbits?"
"Um...Let's not go into the details. Let's just get out of..."
Suddenly, the door burst open, and three Kawazis with machine guns entered. "Dr. Jurai?"
"Yes?" they both answered.
"Ve vant ze book, now."
Misaki laughed. "Ha, idiot! As if my bright, beautiful little girl would be stupid enough to bring it with her!"
"Er...yeah..." Ayeka laughed nervously.
Misaki blinked at her. "You didn't bring it, did you?"
Ayeka looked down and shuffled her feet.
"You did!"
"Well, how was I supposed to know!"
"I shoul've sent it to the irresponsible Captain Tylor," Misaki muttered.
"Um..excuse me," the Kawazi officer began.
"Hey, *Mommy*! I came here to save you!"
"Excuse me," the man tried again.
"Well who's going to save *you*, *Honey*?!"
"EXCUSE ME!"
"WHAT?!" the women asked him.
"The book, please!"
"Oh! Yes! Of course!" Ayeka stepped forward and reached into her pocket. As she approached the officer, she pulled her hand out of her pocket and punched him! Grabbing his machine gun, she turned and gunned down the other two Kawazis.
Misaki blinked in shock. "Look....what....you.....DID!" she shouted.
Ayeka grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room. "Now I remember why I left home," she muttered.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT YOU JUST DID!"
They stopped outside the other door and opened it. "Tenchi, we're..."
She blinked as she found Tenchi kissing a cyan haired woman in a Kawazi uniform.
"What the..."
They noticed her and quickly shifted positions. The woman held him from behind and put a glowing finger to his head. "Drop the gun or the man dies!"
"Indy! Help!" Tenchi cried.
Misaki snorted. "Go ahead and shoot him! I never liked him much anyway!"
"I'll kill him!" the cyan-haired Kawazi shouted.
"INDY, PLEASE!"
"Don't do it, Hon, he's one of them."
"WHAT!?"
"INDY! She'll kill me!"
"Don't worry," Misaki said. "She won't."
"That's it! He dies!" the Kawazi shouted. Tenchi began screaming like a baby.
"Wait!" Ayeka cried. She threw the gun away. The Kawazi pushed Tenchi to her, and Ayeka embraced him.
"I'm sorry, Indy," Tenchi said.
Ayeka smiled. "It's okay." She felt his hand digging around in her pocket. She blushed. "Tenchi, this is hardly the time or place!"
Tenchi stepped away from her, the Key diary in his hand. "I'm sorry, Indy, but you should have listened to your mother." The Kawazi smiled and kissed his cheek. Ayeka just blinked in shock.
"He trashed his own room, and I didn't see it," Ayeka said in self reproach. She tested the ropes holding her back to back with her mother in old, high-backed dining room chairs. She blinked as something struck her. "How did you know he was a Kawazi?"
Misaki smiled to herself. "He talks in his sleep."
Ayeka paled. "WHAT?!"
Misaki went on the defensive. "What?!"
"But...How...I...You...." Ayeka faltered. "WHAT ABOUT FATHER?!"
Misaki snorted derisively. "Your father hasn't touched me in three centuries. Apparently, he doesn't find the way I whip him appealing..."
"MOTHER!!!"
"WHAT?!" She turned her head to glare at her daughter. "I didn't trust him! Why did you!?"
"Because," a nasally voice called out. "She didn't take *my* advice!"
"WASHU!!" the two Jurai's cried out in unison.
Washu, complete with the crab emblem of the Kawazi's on an armband on her arm, frowned.
"PROFESSOR WASHU!!" they corrected.
Washu tapped her foot. "Ahem..."
Ayeka and Misaki sighed...
"Little Washu!"
Washu grinned. "There! See?!"
"What advice!?" Ayeka demanded.
Washu blinked. "I didn't tell you to 'trust no one?'" she asked skeptically.
"No!"
The Kawazi scientist thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Eh, guess it wasn't important."
Misaki glared at Washu. "I always knew you'd sell your soul to science, Washu, but I didn't think you'd sell out your entire planet!"
Washu sighed. "Yes, yes, I know. I'm a horrible person, I've doomed the world, yadda yadda yadda..." She leveled her gaze at Ayeka. "Now...where's the map?"
Ayeka looked innocent. "What map?"
"The one in this diary," Tenchi asked, holding up Misaki's key diary.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Ayeka replied. "Hmmph!"
"She's lying," the cyan-haired Kawazi commented.
"Are you calling my little girl...a *liar*?" Misaki asked with a glare.
The Kawazi blinked and took a step back.
"It doesn't matter," Tenchi said. "It's perfectly obvious where the map is." He smiled. "She's given it to Mihoshi Kuramitsu."
"THE IDIOT!?" Misaki cried in alarm. "YOU GAVE IT TO THE IDIOT!?"
Ayeka sighed. "No," she growled, "I gave it to *Mihoshi*...You know...that highly intelligent woman who can blend into *any* environment? The woman who probably has the Key already?"
"Oh," Misaki said, catching on. "Yes, very intelligent..."
Tenchi, Washu, and the Kawazi laughed.
"Hello! Excuse me!" Mihoshi cried, pushing her way through the crowded marketplace. She held four large suitcases, two in each hand. "Does anyone here speak Japanese? Or even ancient Jurain?"
"Miss Mihoshi!?"
She turned to the voice and found a tall, dark man in a red fez.
"Oh! Noboyuki! Hello!"
"I got honored Indy's telegram," he told her, taking her luggage. "I have a car, come!"