Washu was still suspicious the next morning. But immediately after waking up, her main priority became to prepare and consume an extra-strength hangover remedy. She bustled about the lab collecting the ingredients and putting them into the distillation unit, pausing every so often to put a hand to her throbbing temples. She had just sealed the unit and was ready to press "activate" when a voice sounded behind her.

"Good Morning, Washu!" Mihoshi called cheerily. She showed no effects of the previous evening's alcohol intake.

"Ahh!" Washu let out a startled cry at the sound of her least favorite visitor. Her finger went awry and pressed a different control. "Shimatta! Have to shut it down!"

"Shut it down? Okay!" Mihoshi reacted instantly, for once. She snatched a plug out of its outlet.

"No!" Washu yelled. "That's the lead to the regulator!" The sound of out-of-control machinery rapidly grew louder. "Get down!"

Washu threw herself to the floor and wrapped her arms around her head. The distillation unit blew apart with a thundering boom and a cloud of smoke. On top of that, the automatic fire suppression system activated and sprayed the area with carbon dioxide.

Washu slowly sat up, coughing and nursing an even worse headache. Scorch marks were visible over her clothes and most of the immediate area. Over against one wall was Mihoshi, similarly scorched and sporting some cuts and bruises from having failed to duck low enough. "Owie…" whined the blonde Galaxy Police detective.

Washu starting looking for the first aid kit, pondering whether an alcohol swab or hydrogen peroxide would sting more when applied to Mihoshi.

All attempts to keep Mihoshi out of her lab having failed, Washu decided to focus on limiting the damage. At first she set up a dummy control panel for Mihoshi to stumble onto. Unfortunately, Mihoshi's panicked attempts to fix the non-functional controls that she believed she had broken caused the board to throw out numerous sparks. That set fire to one of Washu's more delicate experiments. This in turn led to another episode with the fire suppression system.

The gloves came off. Washu retaliated by installing a version of the teleporter trap on Tenchi's room that had caught Ryoko and later Ayeka. For two enjoyable days Washu had chuckled as Mihoshi found herself dunked in the lake time and again. But then Sasami guessed the state of affairs and asked Washu to stop making Mihoshi track water into the house. It was very hard to refuse the blue-haired princess anything, so Washu re-directed the teleporter to drop Mihoshi onto a mossy bank up in the hills, where it took Mihoshi some time to get back to the house.

For a few days an extraordinary peace settled over the Masaki household. Washu dove into her experiments, scarcely coming out of her lab except for dinner. Mihoshi discovered she enjoyed an occasional stroll through the woods, and there was less tripping inside the house although there was more startled wildlife outside. Ryoko would also disappear for hours at a time, and when Ayeka announced to anyone who would listen that Ryoko was shirking her chores, Tenchi and Sasami cajoled her to let sleeping ex-space-pirates lie. The link between Washu and Ryoko remained virtually closed, but Washu paid it no attention.

The first sign of the approaching tempest came four days later. Sasami was sitting in her room, balancing the books and looking worried over the size of the grocery bills as usual. As she was setting aside money for carrot seeds, there was a knock at the door. "Sasami?" came Ryoko's voice.

"Come in, big sister Ryoko!" Called Sasami.

Ryoko phased through the door, knowing that Ayeka preferred her to open and close the door in the conventional way. "Oh, good, I wanted to talk to you about the bills. It so happens I can help out a little this month." She held out wad of thousand-yen notes.

"Wow, thanks, Ryoko!" Sasami gave a sunbeam of a smile. Then it faded noticeably. "Uh . . . Ryoko . . . you didn't do anything bad to get this money, did you?"

"Why, Sasami, I'm shocked!" Ryoko gave her best wide-eyed-and-innocent expression. "If you must know, I happen to have some artistic talent. I managed to sell a few pictures."

"That's great!" Sasami was back to full cheerfulness. "This will really come in handy!"

"Always happy to help." Said Ryoko. She teleported out of the room. A few moments later, Sasami heard "A Pirate's Life For Me" being hummed from somewhere on the roof.

The following Monday, Washu and Ayeka were on an errand to pick up supplies in town. Although Mihoshi, as the oldest-looking girl, had managed to obtain a drivers' license the year before, several accidents had convinced the family that bicycles were better for most uses. Safer, that is, although somewhat more tiring. Washu was puffing by the time they arrived, although Ayeka showed only a light sheen of perspiration.

"Ryoko may call you a pampered princess, but you're in remarkably good shape." Washu complimented.

Ayeka smiled. "Fighting with Ryoko is an excellent work-out."

Washu grimaced. "I don't suppose you could find a less violent way of getting your exercise?"

"I will make you a bargain." Ayeka said. "I will back down more often if you can persuade Ryoko not to take advantage of it."

"No deal." Washu decided to change the subject. "You seem to be well known here. You're getting quite a few stares." As they rounded a corner, a man stopped almost in mid-stride and followed them with his eyes.

"That is odd." Ayeka had deliberately dressed plainly, and put her two long locks of hair into a covering. "I usually don't make a noticeable impression." Just then a wolf-whistle echoed from across the street. "And that has never happened before." The princess frowned.

"And it seems to be only the men noticing you." Washu observed. Just then, a middle-aged woman across the street looked at them, then turned away with an unmistakable expression of distaste. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this."

The two parked their bicycles and went into the first store. Ayeka stocked up on generous quantities of laundry detergent, while Washu gathered an assortment of various bottles. "It's surprising what you can do with common Earth household chemicals." She commented.

As they were leaving the store with their purchases, a mousy-looking man ran up to Ayeka. "It IS you!" He exclaimed. Ayeka could not recognize the man at all. He held out an opened magazine. "Could you please autograph this?" He asked.

Puzzled, Ayeka took the magazine -- and her eyes widened in shock. On the glossy pages were pictures of, unmistakably, herself. Some of them showed her tied with silk ribbons. Many showed her wrapped in various ways with rope. None showed her with any clothing. The Ayeka in the pictures looked quite happy. The Ayeka holding the pictures looked absolutely horrified.

"Where did you get this . . . this . . ." Ayeka was having difficulty choosing between pounding the stranger unconscious, or fainting herself.

"At the newsstand two blocks down." The man answered. "But they're already sold out."

Fainting. Definitely fainting. Ayeka crumpled to the pavement.

"Miss?" asked the main uncertainly.

Washu knelt by the fallen princess. "Trust me on this, whoever you are. You don't want to be here when she regains consciousness." There was a glint in her eye that suggested she would willingly join in whatever Ayeka might do.

The man hesitated just a moment, then recovered his magazine from the ground, and took off.

"Ayeka?" Washu shook her companion gently.

"Washu?" Ayeka's eyes fluttered open. "Please tell me I was having a bad dream."

"Sorry, I can't do that." Washu stood up. "We really did see those pictures of you. Now the question is, where did they come from?"

"Ryoko! Ryoko is behind this, I'm sure of it!" Ayeka came back to her feet, suddenly full of energy.

"Well, I admit that she is the most likely suspect." Washu mused. "But she'll simply deny it if you accuse her. You haven't anything to back it up."

"But then what can I do?" Ayeka asked.

"Obviously, the first step is to find a shop that isn't sold out, and buy one of the magazines."

"Buy one of those . . ." Ayeka nearly choked.

Washu raised a lecturing finger into the air. "We're studying a phenomenon. We need to collect samples!"