Continuity Note: This story takes place between ACTION COMICS #773 and SUPERMAN v. 2 #165. And it also takes place some time after OAV Episode #13.

Original Tenchi Muyo! concept by Masaki Kajishima and Hiroki Hayashi
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

"Let me just go over this one more time in case you haven't been paying attention. A mysterious supervillain kidnapped Superman and used technology stolen from Cogito to rewrite his memory. He then altered his body in some way that he looks like a man from the planet Jurai."

"Right."

"Said supervillain turns out to be a half-Juraian nobleman himself, and he uses his clout with the Juraian king to convince him to hold a duel in which the winner marries into the Jurai Royal Family and eventually becomes King of the most powerful nation in the galaxy. Being the Crown Prince, and having a quasi-relationship with the King's daughter already--"

"Well, uh... the thing is--"

"Quiet, I'm expounding here. Being who you are, it's your right to participate in this duel, and since it's the only real way to buy time for us to expose Mr. Supervillain's Great Juraian Hope as a fraud, you naturally accepted the challenge, and now you have to fight Superman at dawn armed with the proportionate strength of mortal men and wishful thinking. And with half an hour to go before the critical moment, the three of us show up and what's the first thing you ask?"

"I just wanted to know how Ayeka and Ryoko were doing," Tenchi replied. "I mean, I saw Mihoshi earlier and now you guys are here and it occurred to me that they might be worried about all this. I'm not kidding myself on this. I know I'm in over my head. I just want them to know why I decided to go through with it."

Steel let his head drop and he put one of his massive armored gloves on the back of his helmet. "You're killing me, Masaki. If I didn't know you could generate those Lighthawk Wings and short out my armor, I'd save Superman the trouble..."

"Innit he cute?" Washuu chuckled, stepping forward to pat the large human on the back. "All tuckered out from working on your problems for you, Tenchi. Well, he's still a marked improvement over my last assistant. Sleep and visible arms would have made Kagato a lot more personable, wouldn't you agree?"

"I can't use the Lighthawk Wings, Washuu," Tenchi explained. "Not this time. There's no telling what kind of damage they could do. If you've got another option, I'd love to hear it."

"Great minds think alike, eh?" Washuu smirked. "Yeah, Legion must have known all about the Lighthawk Wings from reading Mihoshi's reports. Jurai ship, your extended family on board, a battle with a guy who's saved your home planet more times than you can count. He thought it over pretty carefully, didn't he? Too bad he didn't figure on US. Codge?"

The green skinned man approached Tenchi's chair and presented him with a metallic object about the size of a wristwatch. "Indeed. Legion may have forced me to give him the secrets of my psychotechnology, destroyed my laboratory to ensure that I wouldn't be able to oppose his use of it, but he failed to realize that Steel and Washuu were more than enough to compensate for my lack of materials. This," Cogito announced, "is a neural restorer. When attached to the subject's forehead, it will interface with his brain patterns and dismantle the artificial programming previously installed into his mind."

"You make it sound as if Superman's a walking computer," Tenchi objected, taking the device into his hand and contemplating it. "Is this gonna do the trick?"

"The organic brain is nothing more than a computer, Lord Tenchi," Cogito retorted. "My previous encounter with Superman is proof enough of that. Your Ryoko is the pinnacle of biochemical interactions utilized as microciruitry, from what Washuu has told me. And Steel's armor obeys commands given directly from cybernetic leads that receive signals from his head. A highly sophisticated, naturally occurring computer, but a computer no less. And by the same principle, the original Superman personality could never be erased permanently within a reasonable amount of time, so Legion would have simply covered it up with his own replacement personality. This device will allow the original mind to resurface and the Kal-El we know will be able to reassert himself."

"PROVIDED," Washuu interrupted, "that you can get it on his head and keep it there for a good three minutes or so. If something were to interfere with its position that would throw the whole thing out of whack. And we don't have the materials to shore up that model, let alone whip up a new one, so..."

"Oh, no pressure there," Tenchi muttered. "Once we get the bell around the cat's neck we'll hear him coming no matter how sneaky he is. All we have to do is find someone crazy enough to put it on him, and I'm elected."

"I thought of that, too," Washuu replied, reaching into her robe and pulling out a small black box. "Well, actually, I brought this along in case Kal tried something characteristically stupid when we found him, but this qualifies just as well." She opened the lid and a bright green glow radiated out from the opening.

"My God," Steel sputtered, "Is that--?"

"Ma Washuu's Homemade Kryptonite," the small redhead beamed, reaching into the box and sifting a few grains of the verdant material in her fingers. "Like mother used to make, if your mom had a degree in synthetic radiochemistry."

"Washuu!" Tenchi snarled. "That stuff's dangerous! Besides, you promised Superman you'd--!"

"I promised Kal I'd clean up after all the experiments I conducted in Metropolis, Tenchi," Washuu countered. "As it happens, the Haz-Mat team that handled the remains of my Krypto-Ryoko robot failed to gather up this tiny sample, so I took care of it for them. It's a pain to make, and I really wasn't planning on preparing any more, but the gram and a half I have left over is more than enough to put him down for the count, right?"

"I don't believe this!" Steel growled. "Washuu, Kryptonite can KILL Superman. It--"

"It's the devil we know, Apprentice," Washuu snorted. "The Lighthawk Wings could kill Superman, or destroy the whole ship, or do absolutely nothing. Hell, they might even make him STRONGER for all we know about it. But we KNOW what Kryptonite does, and about how long it takes to do it. And we know how to contain it once it's done. I say it's his best chance of getting an opening to use the neural restorer."

Tenchi stood up in his chair and took the box from Washuu, snapping it shut between his thumb and forefinger. "No. I won't do it."

Washuu's eyes widened at this. "Tenchi, don't be foolish! I wouldn't even be suggesting this unless I thought it was the only way. Even if you lose this fight, the risk of injury alone is--"

"Stop PROTECTING me!" Tenchi shouted. "Just stop it for a minute and really think about what you're saying!" He stomped across the room and grabbed his sword off the dresser on his way to the window. "Yeah, it'd be a lot simpler on all of us if I just nailed him with Kryptonite, or I could just walk away from all of this and never look back. Is that what I'm supposed to do? Did HE think about the risks when he went all the way out to who knows where to save your own daughter? Do you even CARE, Washuu?"

"That's not fair," she protested. "I--"

"We OWE him, Washuu. After all he's done for us, I refuse to kick him while he's down. If all you can muster for him is the same cryptic affection you show for the rest of us, then I guess I'll have to make do. But no Kryptonite. There has to be another way. There just has to--"

"Did anyone feel that?" Cogito asked suddenly. They all turned to look at him and found him staring at the deck. "That slight jostle just now. We've returned to normal space. We've arrived."

The Boel System. At least that was her best guess. She knew Lord Fudou owned the estate and that it held a Class M star, which would have made it one of the least valuable portions of the empire as well as a remote region devoid of any imperial activity whatsoever. A perfect choice for what he had in mind.

They dropped into orbit around one of the planets in the system, and she watched as it drifted across her field of vision from the window, a rose colored hue bathed the cloudy atmosphere and whenever it cleared enough to see the surface, there was nothing but a dull brown that covered the land. There were techniques for growing green plants under the predominantly infrared light of a star like Boel, but no one had ever tried on this world. Fudou had taken possession of the planet but left it barren. Empty. It suited him.

And it reflected her mood at that point, Ayeka realized as she turned away to pace her room yet again. Her father refused to listen to reason, and Superman ("Komorebi" as he now thought of himself under Fudou's manipulation) felt the entire matter was best left to the Jurai Royal Family. She was forbidden to see Tenchi, or anyone else helping him prepare for the duel. Who else could she see? Her mothers? Sasami? They were just as bound by the King's rule as she was.

"Nothing to do now but wait," she muttered. "I haven't felt so useless since--"

"Since the last time you wallowed in self-pity? Y'know, for a rich girl you sure seem to have an easy time making yourself miserable."

She spun around in shock to face the source of the voice, and while she was surprised to find she wasn't alone, there was no mystery as to who it was. "Ryoko?" she asked incredulously.

"Got it in one, Princess," she quipped as she phased into the room, a six pack of canned beverages dangling from one finger by an empty plastic ring. "Thought you might want some company."

Ayeka put her hands to her hips and frowned at her. "I thought you were forbidden to roam the ship as you pleased--"

"Yeah, I was probably forbidden to swipe booze from the royal pantry, too, but the security around here doesn't think to check in between the walls." She took a swig from the can in her hand and crushed it against her forehead, then tossed it into a waste receptacle on the other side of the room.

"Ryoko, those are imported spirits from the nannobreweries of Logan VII. They're not meant to be guzzled down like that in a private setting."

As if by magic, the remaining cans began to float free of her finger and stood still in mid-air. She pulled one loose and held it up to Ayeka. "Yeah, that is a shame, isn't it? Thirsty?"

"Parched," Ayeka sighed, holding up her hands to catch the container as Ryoko tossed it to her. She looked up at her suspiciously just as she was about to open it. "How do I know you didn't shake this up before you came in?"

"You don't," Ryoko smiled. "If you don't want it, that's cool. More for me--"

Ayeka shook her head and popped open the top with a reckless motion. Nothing happened.

"Thattaway," Ryoko chuckled as she gulped down the contents of the can. "I figured you were too sick of playing the Good Little First Daughter to turn down a belt. You ought to try one shook up some time. Put hair on your chest. Well, more in your case."

Ayeka wiped her mouth off with the sleeve of her kimono. "You're hideous."

"I prefer incorrigible, but yeah." Ryoko pulled off another can and started drinking another. "So... Tenchi vs. Superman. How does it feel having a couple guys beat each other up for your love?"

"Flattering," Ayeka muttered. "Dreadful. I spoke with 'Komorebi' earlier. He's so innocent and fragile like this. Not that I knew Kal-El all that well before, but seeing him after what Legion has done... He's so determined to win that it'll break his heart if he doesn't. Even returning him to his senses may not erase that pain."

"Sounds more productive than MY night," Ryoko harumphed, tossing a length of colored fabric behind her shoulder. "Well, at least I got this out of it, so it's not a total loss."

"You didn't steal that scarf, too?" Ayeka asked after another sip. "I really wish you wouldn't embarrass us any further..."

"Nah, your mommy gave it to me," Ryoko replied. "Apparently she's on our side of this, so she's watching the others while they work on a way to settle it. So you've got Crab-head, CNN-Guy, and Stubby toiling away and she's bringing them concessions like it's some kind of tea party. Washuu drafted me for Misaki Duty, and I get this because Sasami's 'going through a phase' and won't wear the clothes she makes for her."

"Hmmph! Sounds delightful," Ayeka giggled. "So did they succeed with their project?"

"Beats me. All I know is they weren't so worried about Misaki distracting them so they let me go. I didn't wanna take a chance on sticking around after that. Heh. Besides, if Washuu was such hot crap, you'd think she'd have invented something by now that'd keep curious onlookers like Misaki off her back."

Ayeka nearly coughed up her next gulp at this. "I suspect she already has, dear. Or hadn't you noticed?"

"Awwwwwwwww, geez!" Ryoko growled, slapping herself on the forehead in disgust. "I hate you, Ayeka."

"At any rate, it sounds as if Tenchi's only chance lies with the three of them," Ayeka went on, trying her best not to keep laughing. "Otherwise, Superman wins the match."

"And if he wins, Legion wins," Ryoko surmised. "And we all lose. Well, everyone except me, because I'll move into your room on Earth and I'll have a place to hang this scarf. Just the same, I'd hate to be Tenchi right now."

"You know how he is," Ayeka sniffed. "He's not even worried about getting hurt, only with making sure he does the right thing. For everyone."

"Yeah, that's him all right..."

They stood there for a few minutes, just drinking together in silence.

Ayeka took a seat on her bed. "I envy you, you know."

"Huh? Oh, well who wouldn't?" Ryoko laughed with delight. "I mean, the dynamite glutes, the super-powers, the exotic golden eyes. Plus I can generate my own candlelight effects." She formed a small burst of orange light in her hands to demonstrate. "I mean, who could blame you?"

Ayeka sighed. "I wasn't referring to your physical appearance... I meant your freedom from responsibility. The life of the dashing space pirate and all that nonsense you yammer on about."

Surprisingly, Ryoko seemed to take umbrage at this. "Do you now? Do you, really, Princess? Separated from any semblance of family and friends, no home to speak of, time spent languishing in prison, being hunted and hounded by every nut with a vendetta or a contract. Or maybe having some creep mess with your head. Or the part where entire civilizations regard you as a figure of contempt?"

"I know your past was tumultuous. I was talking about your life since you came to know Tenchi."

"So was I," Ryoko sneered. "Everything I said happened to me just this week. So what part was it you envy so much?"

"The opportunity to escape," Ayeka answered. "I apologize. I didn't mean to trivialize your problems, but in your case you can actually run from those things and never look back. No matter what I say or do, I always seem to be pulled back down by my connection to Jurai."

"And you can't run, because that would mean abandoning Tenchi and the rest of your family, right?"

Ayeka nodded. "Whatever Fudou wants, he's using my father's relationship with me to do it. I can't stop it because I'm stuck in the middle of it. But right now there's nothing I'd like better than to just fly out of this quagmire and never return."

"You feel boxed in," Ryoko concluded. "Impotent."

"Exactly," Ayeka said.

"I can relate."

She stared at Ryoko for a moment. "You can?"

Ryoko rubbed the back of her head and winced in pain. "The old bat was right. I AM an idiot. I got so frustrated with what Legion's been doing that I tried to zap Superman and see if that would jog his memory back. I didn't even consider what would happen if it didn't work. I was just pissed off and wanted to throw all my power at the problem and hope it would be enough. And of course, Washuu was there to stop me before I went through with it. And of course she was already hard at work on her own brilliant plan to set it right. And I'm sitting here looking for ways to help written on the insides of these cans."

"Do you think she can do it?" Ayeka asked hopefully.

"Well, if she CAN'T then it pretty much rules out anything I could do, right? I mean, she'd call if she needed me to blow something up, after all. I can't STAND her. She's smarter than me, she tells people what I'm thinking, and I can't do a blasted thing about it because she knows me inside and out. It was so much easier living on Earth without being under her shadow all the time. If I had a lick of sense I'd just make for the nearest habitable planet and bury my head in the sand."

"But you don't," Ayeka said. "Is that because you don't want to abandon your mother?"

"Hell no," Ryoko shrugged. "It's because I found Earth first. I'm not gonna pack up and run just because some geek comes along and makes it her business to annoy me. Besides..."

"What?" Ayeka asked.

"I used to defy Kagato because I knew it'd make him nervous. I tease Tenchi because he's adorable when he's annoyed. I screw with you because I know no one's ever done it before, and it's funny to see how you react," Ryoko explained.

"Hrrmph. Funny to whom?" Ayeka grumbled.

"But I stand up to Washuu because that just makes me feel alive," Ryoko went on. "It's like screaming at the top of your lungs 'Here I am, I won't be defined by your expectations, and you have to put up with it'. It's a pretty exhilarating feeling, really. If I could translate it to your situation I'd recommend it to you."

"I think I may know what you're talking about," Ayeka mused, looking at the empty can in her hands. "One of these days I may have to experience that feeling with my own parents... and to hear you describe it, I think I'm actually looking forward to it."

"Well, we can just take it one step at a time until then," Ryoko cheered. "For now, let them just sweat it out for a few weeks trying to figure out what happened to the prized spirits from Logan VII." She held out another can for her. "Just to help you get your feet wet before you dive in."

"If you insist," Ayeka said as she accepted the offer. Before Ryoko could even get a third one for herself, Ayeka had already opened hers and was gulping half of it down.

"Damn," Ryoko gasped. "You DRINK like a pirate, that's for sure. Maybe two. Starting to think we should just get you nice and tanked up and let you go a few rounds with Komorebi."

"Here here," Ayeka mumbled. "You know, Ryoko, I never realized before now just how much we have in common."

"Huh. Me either," Ryoko replied. "Makes sense though. It must be why we get along so well."

And for the next five minutes, they just looked at each other and laughed.

"Don't cry..."

"I'm not gonna cry. I just... You're making this impossible, Tenchi. This is a fight. Someone's supposed to get hurt. I'd just as soon it was the other guy."

He let out a deep breath and turned to face Washuu. "I didn't mean to get upset. I know you're trying to help me, but--"

"I agree with Tenchi," Cogito muttered. "We shouldn't give up on Superman. He didn't give up on X'vyv'x, even when I refused to ask for his help directly. All of you didn't give up on me for being forced to work for Legion. We have to find another way."

"Spoken like a hopeless romantic," Washuu groaned as she rolled her eyes.

"Or an engineer," Steel retorted, approaching the window. "Look. Up in the sky, people. I think we may have a chance after all."

"Yeah, it's your standard red giant star... I'd say about eighty times the luminosity of your own sun, three thousand degrees if it's a Kelvin," Washuu observed, looking out at the crimson disk that hung in the black void outside. "What's your--oooohhhhh!"

"I don't get it," Tenchi said. "Why would Legion want to hold the fight here, under a red sun where Superman's powers would be at their weakest?"

"He still has to answer to the King," Steel offered. "Maybe he had no choice. Or maybe he goofed. Who cares? The point is we have that other way you were looking for, Masaki."

"Don't be absurd, Apprentice," Washuu argued. "My understanding of Kryptonian photometabolism is nine-tenths guesswork and even I know it'd take hours for him to exhaust the power he's got stored in his cells. Tenchi'll be lucky to stay in there for a few minutes!"

"And that's how far guesswork takes you, mentor," Steel quipped. "Computer: disengage cybernetic linkup and prepare systemwide command transfer, authorization JHI-Delta-Niner."

At once the metallic shell around Steel's body began to whir and click as it folded up along his limbs and chest. "What are you doing?" Cogito asked.

"If David insists on fighting Goliath without a slingshot, then the least I can do is play King Saul and give him a snowball's chance," he muttered. "Establishing new voice command protocol... novice status... Standby for vocal confirmation." Now the armor had folded up completely into a neat pile of floating components gathered around the hexagonal "S" icon that had been Steel's chestplate. The dark skinned man who stood revealed took a step back from the compacted armor and stretched his arms out. "The suit is a woven fabric that emits a series of force fields to take on the properties of a flexible steel-like substance," he explained. "But I don't want to waste time powering it down this close to game time. Say your name, Masaki."

"Uh, Tenchi Masaki," he said, leaning in closer to the armor-box as if seeking for some microphone on the apparatus. At once it flew to his own upper body and began unwrapping itself, spreading across his body in the reverse fashion as it left Steel's.

"I invented my armor to approximate Superman's powers while he was dead," Steel told Washuu. "That didn't sit well with a few other folks who tried to do their own tribute to the man. One in particular, the Eradicator, used Superman's own corpse to convert solar power into a form he could absorb, and he had to recharge himself on a daily basis to stay super. Lucky for me that he was a workaholic, so when he decided to pick a fight I was able to wear him down and force him back home to get some more energy." He pointed to Tenchi who was squirming around as the armor completed the transfer. "Tenchi's nowhere near as skilled at using the suit, but I've upgraded it a few times since Superman came back from the dead. Hopefully it'll even out against a similar opponent with a finite power reserve."

"That's a lot of variables, Steel," Cogito mused. "To call this a long shot would be overly optimistic..."

"Yeah, and why didn't you think of this before so Tenchi would have had time to get used to moving around in that big tank, anyway?" Washuu challenged.

"I didn't expect Legion to give us this sort of opportunity," Steel shrugged. "And the armor wouldn't have a chance in a prolonged battle with Kal under a yellow sun. I know it's not the best arrangement, Tenchi, but--"

"It's good enough for government work," Tenchi nodded, flexing his fingers within the dull gray costume. It had adapted its appearance to fit around Tenchi's smaller frame, but it still retained the bulky appearance it had before. "It's weird, still getting used to controlling the movements, but if it'll protect me from Superman long enough to make this work, then I should be able to fight in it." He reached behind his back and pulled out the hammer that had been mounted there. "You'd better keep this, though, Steel. And one of you should hold on to the restorer device until the time is right. We can't risk it getting damaged while I'm out there."

Steel took the hammer from him and held it up. "You sure on this, kid?" he asked. "It's a powerful option, and if you can hit him with this just so, it might even give you an advantage--"

"And if it was shaped like a sword I might know how be able to use it properly," Tenchi said brusquely. He lumbered over to the dresser and picked up the beige hilt of Tenchiken. "No, I'll have my hands full as it is without trying to figure out a new weapon. I think this will do nicely, guys. I'd stay to say thanks... but I think it's time I got going."

"Just try not to get sidetracked, Tenchi," Washuu warned. "Ayeka and Ryoko are big girls. You need to focus on what you're doing in there, not on their hangups, OK?"

"You're right," Tenchi nodded, his heavy boots clanking as he moved for the door. "Really, it's Sasami I should be worried about. This has gotta be tough on her..."

"Get him out of here before I kill him," Steel growled, patting the face of his hammer with his palm. "First my ship, then my armor, I'll be lucky to get back to Earth with this jumpsuit still on..."

Her name was Sasami. She was afforded a certain clarity when she slept. Although she believed herself to be a creation of the space-tree Tsunami which was only a facsimile of the true Sasami, there was more to it than that... something that made more sense to her while she was asleep in flashes of understanding that helped to put her mind at ease with her true nature. It was a gradual process that got easier with time. She'd understand the whole thing when she was older. At least she seemed to think that was right.

Her friend had a similar identity crisis, but he couldn't have the luxury of a painless recovery. Sleeping didn't put his troubled mind at ease, so he simply didn't. He stayed up in his room and punched a machine designed to absorb the awesome force of his blows. Each strike rumbled like a thunderclap. She put her fingers in her ears and wondered if she was doing the right thing.

"--just don't understand!" Komorebi fumed in between punches. "Is it something I said? Something I did? All of a sudden she just got so... distant."

"It's something you are." she suggested. She took her seat on the couch and started pulling the clothes out of the box sitting next to her. "You're somebody who isn't Tenchi. Even if she'd known you for years, you'd still have to get around that."

"Well, fine," he stopped his efforts and sighed as he looked at the cracked surface of his machine. Sasami saw a look of desperation in his face as if he didn't really expect that physical exertion to help, but it hadn't lessened the disappointment in his failure. "Look, you're an impartial observer, sort of. You tell me who's not being honest. Your father said I would be perfect for Ayeka, and she doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with me. I can change the course of mighty rivers, and I can't figure out how to deal with your family."

She knew how he felt. He didn't understand it himself, but he had no idea who he was or what he was doing here. Oh, he'd been fed a convenient lie, and it had satisfied him to an extent, but there were still questions that burned inside him, and unlike Sasami he would have no real hope of ferreting out an answer. Well, there was one hope, but she was still trying to work up the courage to commit him to it. "Look, Ayeka's just uncomfortable around new people," she said. "Trust me, she spent a whole WEEK just brooding in her room when we first started living with Tenchi. She used to fight with Ryoko ALL the time, and now--well, OK they still fight all the time, but I'm pretty sure they're not trying to kill each other anymore."

Komorebi looked her in the eye with a dubious glance. "Ryoko... You're not scared of her at all, are you?"

"No. Am I supposed to be?"

"So what am I supposed to do?" he asked. "Let her sit alone by herself for days on end and then we spend half our marriage duking it out? Go to you whenever I need advice? And shouldn't you be in bed at this hour?"

She frowned at him and put her fists to her sides. "Hmmph! If you were just a baby seven hundred years ago then that makes me older than you! Even if you did grow up faster, maybe I should be putting you to bed, huh?"

"All right, all right!" he backed off with a slight smile. "You made your point. Last thing I want to do is alienate two princesses in one night. Just the same, I can't accept this outfit you brought me, Sasami. It belongs to your friend, and it wouldn't be right for me to wear it."

No, it would be right for him to wear it. He just didn't want to face it. He couldn't ease himself into remembering who he was, and this would be like opening the floodgates. He'd be washed away in the revelation, and there was no way to know what would be left of him when it was over. It might be painful, but he had to do this. There was no other choice.

"I told you, he'd want you to have it." she insisted. "Trust me, he loves to give copies of his costume to people he likes. You saw Steel wearing a cape like this, right?"

"Well, yes, but--"

"And Tenchi has a cape like this, too, but he didn't bring it along with him. You ARE gonna help us look for him after all this is over, right?"

"Of course," he said, approaching her and picking up the blue fabric to examine it. "But what does that have to do with wearing his standard into a duel?"

"Well, that's where he gets his power, silly! The spirits of his ancestors look down on him from heaven and they see all the people he's helped out over the years or made friends with, and they reward him for his kind ways with super-powers!" The convenient thing about his condition was that it made him an easy mark. Not even Ryoko or Ayeka would have gone for such a wild story, much less him the way he once was. But here he was eating it up with a spoon. He was either trying to make points with the future sister-in-law, or maybe there was something inside him that knew he needed this. Come daybreak, it wouldn't make a difference.

"I would have thought it was something less... I don't know, arcane," he shrugged. "Then again, it was Juraian science and my own parents who gave me my powers, so I guess I can relate. So if they see me wearing this--" he pointed to the ceiling.

"They'll know an important Juraian noble wants to help him survive, so they'll be moved to strengthen his chi," Sasami finished.

"But if he's as powerful as you say, what difference would it make? Shouldn't they already be pleased with all the people he's helped out on Earth?"

"Y'know, Ayeka loves footrubs," she grumbled, taking the costume from his hands and stuffing it back in the box. "I'd tell you more, but I have to take this back and put it in storage--"

"Okayokay! I'll do it," he relented. "What's the harm, right? I could use some new boots, and this is just as acceptable as the underwear I was going to have on anyway. Great Scott, Sasami, I'm glad you're on my side."

"Yeah..." she mumbled, "well what are friends for, right?"

"Those Kryptonian spirits you were talking about," Komorebi asked. "You don't suppose they might be willing to give a Juraian a little boost just in case, do you?"

"I... I'm counting on it," Sasami smiled weakly, giving him the thumbs-up. "I think I'd better go now. Ryo-Oh-Ki is still feeling kinda sick and I need to make sure she's OK..."

"I'm sure she'll be fine, Sasami," Komorebi assured her. "Everything will be fine..."

And she left his room without a word and headed back for her own cabin, and tried to tell herself to believe that.

NEXT: The Man of Steel vs. The Lost Son of Jurai! (But who are you gonna ROOT for, hmmm?)