Chapter thirty-six: Mirror image

"Oh, damn." Edward scratched the back of his head. Standing before him, leaning on two sides of the alley, were two Coniniaues.

The first Coniniaue giggled. "If you want to train my Jurai powers,"

"You're going to have to select the correct one!"

"Double damn." He looked at both of them. They were both exactly alike in every way. Erm…Coniniaue has… No. Coniniaue's arm is… No."

Mihoshi popped up. "Let me try!" The ditzy police officer said. "Erm… Never mind."

Ryoko scratched her head. "Hm. The Coniniaue I know is in love with Edward…"

Both Coniniaue's fumed and glared at her. "I TOLD YOU NOT TO TELL ANYONE!" They both shouted.

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry."

"Let me see!" Washu popped up with a magnifying glass. She close examined each Coniniaue, much to their demise.

"Erm. Um. Yes." Washu fell into a state of gloom. "Their both exactly, undeniably, the same!"

"GAH!" Ayeka also fell into a state of gloom. "This is terrible! How can we find the right one now?"

Edward had been thinking the whole time. "I know…" He smirked and said, "Splat."

One Coniniaue's eye twitched. "Sp…sp…splat?" Her eyes widened and she pulled out a strange gun. "BODIES GO SPLAT! SPLAT, SPLAT, SPLAT!"

"And that is how you find which Coniniaue is which." Edward concluded smartly.

Washu started to sulk. "The greatest genius in the universe, and I can't even find out which person is which…"

Ryo-oh-ki tugged on the real Coniniaue's hand. "Mreow!" She mewed.

Coniniaue looked down at Ryo-oh-ki. "Oh, Ryo-oh-ki, you are so cute when you're a little human girl…" She knelt down and stroked Ryo-oh-ki's hair.

Ryo-oh-ki smiled. "Mreow!"

"Can you turn into anything else?" Coniniaue asked, standing up.

Ryo-oh-ki beamed. "Mreow!" She poofed, and there stood the adult Ryo-oh-ki. Edward stared. "Um… Wow."

Ryo-oh-ki took one step and tripped, poofing back to her kid size. "Mreow…"

"Ryo-oh-ki can't walk well in adult form." Sasami explained, helping her up.

"Anyway… Coniniaue, coming from Jurai isn't all bad. That means you can have Sasami cook for you for free and she's a great cook!" Ryoko smiled. She glared at Ayeka. "Unlike Ayeka, who tries to kill everyone with her cooking."

"Oh, and I supposed drinking sake all day is good for you?"

"To me. Hello, it is beyond earth's technology to destroy me, I can't die of liver poisoning or something. My healing system will just fix it right up!" Ryoko shot back.

"At least I wasn't created by an evil genius!"

"At least I'm not a stuck-up princess!"

"Shut up!"

"You shut up!"