The largest city on Tandera ran up and down the sides of a long snaking canyon, a deep receptacle for water, air, and humanoid life. The older and poorer sections were stone and masonry, places where the earth had been laid bare, tunneled into, and the bones of the planet laboriously hauled forth to capture pockets of space high above the feeble streams that lay at the bottom. The city proper, though, was refined metal, glass, and plastic, flowing shapes that took their cue from the natural landscape, modern boxes that clung there, staggered in steps from the bottom to as far above the rim as the planet's weak atmosphere would allow.

The brightly colored cab-skiff moved briskly along with the traffic at lower midlevel. The driver knew his job, traveling just fast enough to avoid the Halt flags, and then easily cruising up to Ryoko's stop. He set the skiff down in a landing bowl, and barked out the fare. His passenger asked him to repeat it in Jurian credits, and paid the man, adding a barely adequate tip. He was up and off into traffic before Ryoko was three steps on the walkway.

Ryo-Ohki stood up on Ryoko's shoulder, small paws on the girl's head, and wondered at the shining city, alive with crowds on the walkways and skiffs in the sky. Ryoko was more concerned about the dwindling number of small plastic oblongs she held in one hand. This Jurian script, found slipped in along the side of the lunchbox, was their only cash, at least until Ryoko could find a tel-pole and somehow get Washu's bank chit to work. Until then, things would have to be tight.

This doing it on the legit was really beginning to suck.

The skywalks, like the façades of the buildings they clung to, were almost never uniform, but had narrow runs that squeezed the crowd in-between wider zones that at times could be considered plazas. The city was so huge that there was always areas of construction, demolition, repair or cleaning, and more than once Ryoko and her small companion found themselves walking within some tunnel of scaffolding. Some people stood and talked, some sat by the walls begging, some tried to sell who knows what, one or two performed for coins, but mostly everyone was walking, and walking fast. Ryoko happily took it all in, comparing the experience to her last visit hundreds of years before, and finding the place vastly improved with age. It would get even better with some cash in pocket.

Ahead this particular walkway level bowed out in a huge circle. The crowd near the buildings kept walking, but those near the edge were standing, staring, pointing across the valley. Ryoko maneuvered the two of them to the railing and took a good look herself.

The building block rose from five stories below lower midlevel to just below midlevel. It was in this fifteen story space that the painter had created his work. The image was big and it was beautiful and it was definitely the first kanji in 'Ryouko.' It was also incomplete, as workmen on a tub were slowly placing big rectangles of glass. Whether they felt it would be faster to just replace the material, or the paint was uncommonly stubborn, Ryoko couldn't tell, but she could see this was no simple tagging. The strokes weren't solid, but were actually a series of stylized demons, scampering about, showing fangs and sticking out tongues. The girl looked up and down the bizarre mural, thinking that perhaps a team had painted it. But no, it was too uniform. One person in one hurried night had poured himself into a temporary vandalism just to, by the slimmest chance, reach her. Ryoko didn't know art, but she recognized talent and hard work when she saw it.

The use of demons made her think. Did the artist understand the nature of demons to combine with themselves, or was it just a play on her name? Or just coincidence? If the person responsible was the one she had come looking for, well, he more than appreciated demonic powers. If not, then what?

It was a soft hooting, but a familiar one, somewhere off in the crowd. Ryoko sighed and dropped her shoulders a bit, causing the cabbit to give a small questioning meow. With a 'Here we go again' smile, Ryoko turned her head and gently rubbed Ryo-Ohki's cheek. "We just have to get you a new aura, kiddo," she said in a low voice.

Another familiar sound, the power-up whine of a blaster. From just behind them came a woman's voice, very hard. "Terrible pirate Ryo-Ohki! In the name of the Galaxy Police, I detain you and command you to accompany me for questioning!"

Hands where anyone could see them, Ryoko turned as the crowd found somewhere else to be and a new show to gawk at. "Okay, officer, you got her!" The 'officer' standing there was indeed GXP, from her pointy boots up to her cork-shaped blue bonnet. She was tall, thin, a knockout, with long teal hair so dark it was almost black. She also had a steady aim and the same 'You're Under Arrest' game face of her distant colleague. Why was it that the Galaxy Police was made up of pudgy males and stacked, sexy humanoid females, mused Ryoko a bit irrationally. Someone should look into their hiring practices.

"Are you coming quietly or will you resist?" the cop asked.

Ryoko gave it some mock thought. "Well, let's see. Hm! I think, oh, what? Oh, let's say ... Neither!"

"And who would you be?"

"Who, me? Well, what does the jobbie on your wrist tell you, hm? Who would be with 'Terrible Pirate Ryo-Ohki,' anyway?"

The officer took a moment to look into the spinning lights far down her out-stretched arm. Within the briefest second after that, the blaster aim shifted from the cabbit to the pirate. "Ryoko!"

"'Ryoko?' Just 'Ryoko?' What happened to 'Most Wanted Pirate Ryoko?'"

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh, it's okay! I got an invitation!" Ryoko lifted Ryo-Ohki up and knelt to set her on the pavement. "Look, I'll make you a deal. You ask the spud here a few questions right now, and if you make any sense out of the answers, any sense at all, we'll be happy to go off someplace official and let you give us your best third degree. How's that?"

"Well..." With a soft floofing sound, the cabbit changed into a cute and fuzzy three year old sweetly bundled in a yellow-ocher kimono. "YIKES!" The watching crowd liked this part.

"She can get even bigger. LOTS bigger!" Ryoko looked down with satisfaction, then over to the startled policeman. "Anytime, officer!"

"Um, okay! Are you the destructive pirate... um..."

"Feels sort of silly, doesn't it?"

"Just shut up, will you? Okay, are you Ryo-Ohki?"

With a smile, she responded, "Miah!" Her eyes were bright and shiny and focused on the oh-so tasty crystalline emitter on the business end of the police blaster.

"Are you involved in the terror and destruction of the Jurai Empire some 700 standard years ago?"

"Miah!"

"Um, what was the latest incident you were a part of?"

"Miah!"

Ryoko just enjoyed her smile and patted the cabbit girl on the shoulder. "Explain it to the nice copper, love." whereupon Ryo-Ohki began her latest accomplishment, a stirring rendition of 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat.' And since that song is a round, as soon as she finished, she started again. And again. And again.

The interrogator squatted down and just gawped as her suspect sang with kawaii hand accompaniment. The blaster ended up hanging loose in her hand. "She's an idiot!"

"No, she's young and innocent, and that makes her a child," corrected Ryoko. "However, someone asking questions of a bio-ship simply because there's no statute of limitations on them, I think there's your idiot." She gathered the small form up, squeezing the air out and cutting off the song. Ryo-Ohki puffed back into cabbit form and scrambled up to sit on Ryoko's head, prompting the crowd to a smattering of applause. "I'm holding you to your word. We're leaving now." And they did.

The officer shouldered her way through the closing crowd, obviously not giving up. "Now wait a minute! I remember now! Aren't you suppose to be living in the Sol Preserve?"

Ryoko didn't even look in her direction. "Great! A Royals groupie! Keeping up on their location, eh?"

"Uh, not exactly," said her pursuer with a touch of evasion in her voice as she holstered her gun. "It's not important."

The pirate whirled, putting her face directly into the other's. "Just who are you anyway and why won't you stop pestering me?"

The officer stepped back and pulled herself up. "I'm Special Detective Makibi Kiyone, of the Galaxy Police."

"Well, goodie for you!" Ryoko thought a moment. "Kiyone? Kiyone. Where have I heard that name before?"

The color drained from Detective Kiyone's face. "Uh, it's a common name. Like I said, it's not important!"

"And you're here to keep me on a leash, I suppose?" Would the others have done that? Would they have warned ahead for someone to keep an eye on her?

"I'm here because of that vandalism back there! It's like nothing the Tanderans have ever seen and they called me down to see in there's an interstellar angle."

"Yeah, well, Jurian Science Academy," said Ryoko, in a less than friendly voice.

"Huh?"

"Jurian Science Academy. Main encyclopedia, Anthropological section. Comparative Symbology."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"I have no idea, but they told me to say that if some overly-formal official started following me around like a retarded puppy!"

The silver-haired woman whirled again and almost ran into a bright red pole sticking out of the walkway. At the top was a sign for the Royal Bank of Jurai. "Finally!" she cried.

Ryoko pulled the chit from her belt and inserted it in one of the dozen different holes in the slim kiosk. On the pad, she keyed the ident code.

"(1-2-3-4)? What kind of stupid ident is that?" said Kiyone from one shoulder.

"Hey! You're not suppose to look!"

"What do you mean? You're suppose to shield it with your other hand!"

"Not where I come from!"

"Yeah? Well take a look around, Ryoko. You ain't where you come from!"

Those words sunk in fast. She was far from any help beyond the cabbit, and admittedly, she hadn't traveled in a very, very long age. "Okay, look. I'm just here to catch up with an old friend from the last time I was here. I'll see what he wants, and then I'm gone, I'm home. I promise, no trouble."

"Think he's still alive?" The detective tapped her wrist comp-con. "Says here it's been awhile."

"He's a Zhelata. Shouldn't be a problem." The tel-pole chimed and a flimsy came out. "Let's see here. Oh, man! This bank balance is all screwed up!"

"May I see?" Ryoko handed over the strip, and Kiyone looked for the balance line. Her eyes got very big indeed. "Ryoko, this is scientific notation. I've never seen a bank balance in scientific notation before!"

"Meaning?"

"Look." Kiyone pointed a finger at the printing. "Here's this three, okay? Now, this marks the decimal, and then we use this number here, you take the three and add this many zeros after it. The computer printed it this way cause it wouldn't have fitted otherwise."

It was Ryoko's turn to widen her eyes and if she could have turned each golden iris into a golden yen mark, she would have. "She was right. She said there was a miracle to compound interest!"

Kiyone huffed. "No kidding! I've seen people build churches for lesser miracles than that!" She reached into a pocket and drew out a card. "Since you seem to own half the economy of the city, I'm gonna hope this means no trouble on your part. If you do need help, do it through official channels. The signal code is forwarded by my cutter to the local police. They can reach me from there."

Ryoko took the card and read it. She reached into the belt formed by her sash and pulled a similar card, which she presented to a startled Kiyone. "I live in civilized parts now!" was her reply.

Detective Kiyone stared at the card in her hands. "Entrepreneur? Is that what it's called now?"

"Nice meeting you, detective, but I think this situation calls for a real bank. I'll remember where I've heard of you, I'm sure, when I have time to waste on it. Other than that, I don't think we'll meet again!"

Kiyone watched Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki disappear into the ever-present midmorning crowds. "Now, why don't I believe that," she asked herself, absently tapping Ryoko's business card on her thigh. "Why don't I believe that at all?"