Epilogue

Tenchi, Ryouko, Washuu, Tsunami, Kei, and Yuri went back to Jurai. Nine months later, Washuu gave birth to Tenchi's first child, a son named Nobu, a few minutes before Tsunami gave birth to Tenchi's second child, a daughter.

Her name was Mayuka.

Kei and Yuri's new job as Co-Directors of the Jurai Intelligence Service went much smoother than anyone thought it would. (Which meant that it was a week before there was a major blow up involving them.) However, the thought of having to deal with the legendary Dirty Pair did much to discourage many potential threats to the throne from becoming actual ones. They both lived long, happy lives, and each found love in time.

With this increased vigilance, Ryouko was finally able to take occasional vacations from her duties as Tenchi's bodyguard ... which she generally used to visit Earth with Ryo-oh-ki, and make a pest of herself.

At least, that's what her stated reasons were. Nobody believed her.

Back on Earth, Amy and Ryouga were married a few months after the conclusion of these events. A few months after that, Amy was delivered of their second child, a daughter named Hiroe. (Ryouga revealed to a few close friends that that had been the name of one of the children he'd had in his brief dreamlife.) Gradually, Ryouko Mizuno was reconciled with her parents, and spent much time taking care of her little sister.

Married life agreed with Ryouga, as did having a wife who could, using the Crystal Kingdom's satellite tracking system, find him no matter where he was, and both factors tended to make him a calmer, *nicer* person. Ranma and Ryouga eventually did become friends, although Ryouga would probably have smacked anyone who suggested it. Ranma started spending more time on Earth, and finally settled down for good when Gennosuke turned up all right a little over a year later.

Shampoo was never seen nor heard from again by any of her friends. Or Ranma. Gennosuke revealed to Raye the circumstances under which Shampoo had convinced her to come back to Earth and try dealing with Ranma, but revealed that she had stated that she would be leaving the Solar System immediately afterwards.

Noa Izumi also lived a long, happy life in Crystal Tokyo, devoting herself to the cause of justice and to taking care of her "son", Shinji, who like another Shinji, did eventually grow up. During the Black Moon Crisis in the 2980s, Noa led a Crystal Tokyo Resistance Squad on a mission to Nemesis that wound up leading her back in time to the 2040s ... just in time to save her husband, Asuma Shinohara, from his apparent fate. He was rejuvenated after the end of the Crisis, and eventually became one of the top Inspectors in the International Police Organization. (What Sailor Pluto had to say about this went unrecorded.)

After a lengthy period of acclimation -- which will be dealt with in greater detail elsewhere -- Sylia and Priss finally settled down together. Priss became an ace test pilot, doing much of the initial work with the so-called "Empathic Overload Booster". While Sylia no longer felt comfortable with mecha design, she was often retained as a consulting detective by the Government. Her first major case was the subject of a major scandal that rocked the Royal Space Force to its core ... and will *also* be dealt with in greater detail elsewhere. They eventually had two daughters, using the so-called "Instant Nannichuan".

No points for guessing what their daughters were named.

Mina progressed down the lonely road that she had chosen for herself. She fell deeper and deeper into the web of insanity that she was trapped in, and her continued abuse of cybernetics was only a symptom of that illness. She finally died shortly after the Black Moon Crisis, rising above her tragedy for one moment of heroism.

And found peace for eternity.

Raye was *not* happy that Ranma was now living on Earth. Any encounter between the two of them inevitably led to harsh words and violence, always ending with Raye calling out a specific three word phrase that, for some reason, Ranma seemed not to mind her calling him.

Serenity continued her reign, interrupted by the Black Moon Crisis, for nearly three hundred years, guiding the humans of Earth and the Solar System -- by the end of her reign, she was acknowledged as the supreme ruler of Earth, Mercury, Mars, and the Jovian system -- towards the future. Her daughter married the heir to the Black Moon Family, bringing that wayward branch of the human race back into the fold.

And their daughter married Emperor Nobu of Jurai.

For the rest of her life -- and she was, by far, the longest living of the Senshi -- Lita continued to serve her Queen to the best of her ability. Her relationship with her eldest daughter was actually improved, although her interactions with Priss were usually rather unpleasant for both sides.

And Sheila ...

                  Well ...

                                        CAPTION
                               TEN DAYS LATER
  
Establishing Shot:  A dusty library, somewhere in the depths of the  
Crystal Tokyo University.  The LIBRARIAN, a large, intelligent-looking  
ourangoutan, sits behind the check out counter, reading peacefully.   
SHEILA opens the door, and steps in, with a hurt and angry expression.   
She stands in the door way for a moment, her eyes closed.  The LIBRARIAN  
looks up, startled.

                                    SHEILA
                    I hate them.  BEAT  IhatethemIhate
                    themIhatethemIhatethemIhatethemI --
                    BEAT No I don't.  BEAT  DAMMIT!  

She flings the door shut behind her, making a HUGE slamming noise that  
momentarily stuns the LIBRARIAN, and knocks several hundred books off  
their shelves.  SHEILA stands seething for a moment.  The LIBRARIAN picks  
himself up off the floor, adjusts his robes with wounded dignity, and  
starts to drum his fingers on the counter.  SHEILA's eyes blink open.  She  
notices the LIBRARIAN, then the piles of knocked over books.  She gulps  
silently.

                                   LIBRARIAN
                    PATIENT Oooo-k?  

SHEILA rubs the back of her head with a pained smile.  

Cut to SHEILA picking up books, dusting off the spine, and speaking into a  
portable tape recorder as she sets them on the shelf.

                                    SHEILA
                    Kitab al-Azif, Japanese translation
                    by Hikaru Gosunkugi, 2039.  Warning:
                    Do not open without special
                    precautions.  

SHEILA looks at the lock that enforces that warning.

                                    SHEILA
                    Do we even have the key for this?

The LIBRARIAN, working at a similar task not far away, doesn't even look  
up.

                                   LIBRARIAN
                    NONCOMMITAL Ook.  

SHEILA shrugs, and sets it on the shelf.  She picks up another book.

                                    SHEILA
                    Memoirs of Akane Tendou, nineteen
                    ninety ... six ...  

SHEILA blinks, and rereads the cover.

                                    SHEILA
                    Wait a minute, this was supposed to
                    have been lost.  

The LIBRARIAN pauses, sets down his checklist, and ambles over to stare at  
the book.

                                   LIBRARIAN
                    SHARP Ook!  

He points at a small mark on the spine.  SHEILA examines it.

                                    SHEILA
                    "Questionable authenticity?"  What?

The LIBRARIAN spreads his arms.

                                    SHEILA
                    Before your time, huh?  

The LIBRARIAN nods soberly.

                                    SHEILA
                    Do you suppose I could take a look
                    at this?  

The LIBRARIAN gestures to the shelves.

                                    SHEILA
                    *After* I'm done?

                                   LIBRARIAN
                    GRINNING Ook.  

Cut to a reading desk, as SHEILA slides into a chair, and opens up the  
book, and begins to read.

                                 AKANE (V.O.)
                    One of the first things that was
                    taught in my classes at university
                    was to forget completely about ideas
                    of first causes, of moments when all
                    things changed.  At first I fought
                    against the idea -- after all, I
                    could say that my life was never the
                    same after I met the man and the
                    woman I fell in love with.  But
                     after I did some thinking, I started
                    to realize that meeting Ranma hadn't
                    really altered the course of my
                    life.  Sooner or later, I think, I
                    would have finally had enough of
                    the harassment I put up with every
                    morning and took steps to end it
                    permanently.  Sooner or later, I
                    would have realized that I *like* to
                    have my hair cut short, and that I
                    was silly to think that Tofuu-sensei
                    would give up on Kasumi for me if I
                    had long hair.  Ranma didn't make me
                    wild like he was; I already *was*
                    wild, and just didn't realize it.
                    BEAT That's what changes, really,
                    in moments when everything warps.
                    How we look at things.  New ideas,
                    new dreams, and new (and in some
                    cases, very *strange*) people make
                    us see things in ways that we could
                    never have imagined before.  
                    That's what happened last week, I
                    think.  After that, any illusions I
                    might have had about living in a
                    normal world were shattered forever.
                    And do you know something?  I don't
                    miss them at all, anymore.  BEAT
                    Well, maybe a little.  BEAT  This
                    is my attempt to describe, if not
                    explain what changed about my world
                    last week, so that I can understand
                    it better myself.  If other readers
                    can learn from what's happened to
                    me, my family, and my friends ...
                    so much the better.  BEAT  It all
                    started when --  

SHEILA turns the page and --  

Cut to black.

                                  Sailor Moon
                                  Ranma 1/2
                                Tenchi Muyou
                                Oh My Goddess
                            Kimagure Orange Road
                             Exotica Chronicles

                             TOGETHER AGAIN
                                1996 Chapter

                   "AND THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN"

                               COMING THIS FALL