Hey there, all my wonderful alligators and hatchlings! Decided to do a small drabble fic while watching the entirety of the Tenchi Muyo franchise (someone come save me). So, check it out and I hope I don't weeb out at some point.
Familial RyoShu. Ryo-Ohki continuity. Don't ask me where cause I'll never be able to tell you.
"Ryouko, not again!"
Ryouko blinked at the damage left behind from her most recent explosion. Quite a few pieces of furniture were in tatters and a few of the ceiling beams were missing. There were scorch marks on every surface and smoke filled the air.
"Really, Ryouko, you shouldn't be so quick to explode everything." Sasami told her, looking at the mess as she exited the kitchen.
"What a mess." Mihoshi groaned, having been caught up in the chaos. She was currently upside down against one of the walls and didn't look to be moving any time soon.
"As to be expected from a monster like you!" Ayeka huffed, peeling herself from the wall as Kamidake and Azake hurried over to assess the damage.
"You started it, Princess!" Ryouko snapped. "You should have just let me sit next to Tenchi instead of pushing me out of the way."
"As if Tenchi would want to sit next to a barbarian like you!" The purple-haired princess retorted, hands on her hips.
"Better than sitting next to a self-centered prick like you!" Ryouko shot back, her fists clenching as she strode to face Ayeka.
Ayeka sniffed in contempt. "Self-centered? I certainly beg to differ. You on the other hand, pillaged and plundered for years before you just went too far. You attacked my home world and even made me believe my brother was dead! You're nothing but a disgraceful space pirate!"
"Is that so?" Ryouko growled. "Everything you do or say has some kind of scheme behind it! You'll say that you're not interested in Tenchi and then do your worst to get me away from him. You act coy and innocent, but it's only to hide your sadistic, selfish personality. You're nothing but a spoiled brat!"
"At least I have the manners to act as a woman should!" Ayeka spat.
"I have the power to protect Tenchi from danger!" Ryouko sneered.
"What? Like the power you just displayed?" The princess motioned around to the destroyed living room. "That kind of power is more likely to get him killed before it will ever protect him!"
"So I had an outburst!" Ryouko huffed, crossing her arms. "Just shows that I'm still on top of my game for any time some idiot enemy wants to mess with my Tenchi."
"You honestly believe this can be brushed off that easily?" Ayeka demanded. "Really, I sometimes wonder if Washu really created you. It's hard to believe the greatest scientist in the universe could ever build something as defective as you!"
Ryouko froze, her muscles tensing. The entire house stared at her as she simply held her crossed arms tighter. Ayeka glared at her back, waiting for the attack she knew would come. Ryouko was too much of a hothead not to attack her for a statement such as that. But the attack never came. Instead, Ryouko simply floated up into the ceiling, phasing through it and out of sight.
Ayeka growled unhappily at the thought of letting her just get away with destroying the living room, but knew that it would be no use going after her. Sighing in irritation, she turned to the others. "Come on, let's try to clean up after that animal."
"You can stop with the insults now, Ayeka." Sasami murmured. "You already won the argument."
"She deserves no sparing." Her big sister simply said, heading to the closet to grab the broom and dustpan.
Ryouko drifted over the forest surrounding the Masaki household, her eyebrows knitted together in anguish and fury. "Stupid Ayeka!" she grumbled, fists clenching and unclenching. "She doesn't know what she's talking about! I'm no monster. If anything, she's the monster. What kind of princess has such a backhanded, two-faced attitude? Sasami could wipe the floor with her any day."
Monster.
Hazel eyes shut instantly, Ryouko becoming intangible to avoid slamming into trees as she descended and shook her head. I'm not a monster! I'm not!
Monster!
Leaning against a tree, Ryouko attempted to clear her mind and calm down. She needed to calm down. Her outburst earlier would probably make Tenchi upset. She needed to exercise control and in order to do that, she needed to calm down.
MONSTER!
Screams filled her ears now. Images flashed behind her closed eyelids, of all of the innocent people she had laid waste to. She remembered quite vividly the shrieks and shouts of those she had plundered, murdered, tortured with her bare hands.
She recalled the tears she would shed the first few days before everything was forcibly stamped out of her, day after day, hour after hour. No emotion, no feeling, just mayhem and destruction. Create chaos and don't look back. Show no weakness.
…
Washu jerked up in shocked confusion. Glancing around, she found nothing that could have caused that in her lab. Hurrying out to the main house, she found everyone welcoming Tenchi home. Everyone… except Ryouko. It was unlike her daughter not to be attached to the human as soon as he arrived.
Moving forward, she glanced around, unable to find the silver-haired woman anywhere. Turning to where Sasami was presenting Tenchi with a treat, she called, "Has anyone seen Ryouko?"
"She hasn't been back since our spat earlier." Ayeka sniffed, completely nonchalant of the pirate's whereabouts. "Probably too embarrassed considering I won."
"Do you know where she went, though?" Washu demanded of all those around. "I can't sense her anywhere near the house."
"Is something wrong, Little Washu?" Tenchi asked, feeling the tense energy coming from Washu.
"I'm not sure if anyone's in danger or if it's just a rush of emotion, but something's wrong with Ryouko. To the point that she's having trouble blocking our mind link."
"I must have upset her good." Ayeka snickered.
"It doesn't feel like the usual aftermath of one of your arguments." Washu mumbled absently. "What did you say to her?"
"I just wondered how someone as brilliant as you could have made something as defective and monstrous as her." The purplette shrugged.
The air suddenly chilled and everyone looked to Washu. The pink-haired scientist had gone rigid, her eyes narrowed to slits as she stared at the Juraian princess. Ayeka swallowed thickly as an enraged aura swirled around the room, originating from and centering around Washu.
"Now you listen to me." Washu growled, a low and deep sound in the back of her throat. "Nothing I make or ever have made… is defective."
The other residents of the house remained quiet as Washu took a deep breath. "Come on, Tenchi."
"What!" Ayeka shrieked.
"Why me?" Tenchi groaned as Washu grabbed his hand and began pulling him.
"Because if anyone can calm Ryouko, it'll be you. Your presence will lighten her heart a bit and she'll be willing to listen to reason."
"I'm coming too!" Ayeka shouted.
Washu rounded on her immediately, emerald eyes flashing furiously. "You will stay here where you can't cause any more trouble."
Ayeka froze as Washu and Tenchi continued out the door. Washu kept her gaze straight ahead, focusing on the mental link between herself and Ryouko. She just hoped they weren't too late by the time they found her.
…
No! Ryouko whirled around and slammed her fist into the tree she had been leaning against. I'm not like that anymore! I'm not a monster! Washu made me-.
"It's hard to believe the greatest scientist in the universe could ever build something as defective as you!"
"I'm not defective!" Ryouko snarled, punching another tree. "I'm not defective! I'm not! I'm not! I'm not! I-!"
A sudden memory flashed before her eyes. Kagato stood before her, red eyes glaring down at her contemptuously. She had just gotten back from a town, but the mayhem she had caused was not to his liking.
He had shot her with a blast and she had fallen to her knees in agony. More of his power had enveloped her body, shocking and burning her as he simply stared at her writhing form. When he let her catch her breath, Kagato shook his head in disappointment.
"Just my luck. To be stuck with a defective model. Perhaps we can still pound that out of you." More torture had followed the words, screams tearing from her throat as she had gasped for breath. By this point, she knew not to beg for mercy because it wouldn't come. Instead, she had simply tried catching her breath through the screams.
At last, it had come to an end. Kagato had lifted his power and sneered down at her panting form. "Do better next time, Ryouko." Turning, he had growled, "I don't give mercy to those who don't go all out, even if they are defective."
Hazel eyes flew open and Ryouko screamed, the memory of the torture causing her muscles to spasm. I'm not! She internally screamed, holding her head. I'm not defective! "I'm not defective! I'm not defective!" Raising her hands, the anguished pirate let her power rush from her hands as she brought them down on the hard earth beneath her.
…
Washu gasped, pulling back into her own mind from the link. Her teeth grit together at what Kagato had done to her sweet little girl. If she could, she would kill him in the most excruciating way possible. Unfortunately, Tenchi took that chance.
Shaking her head, Washu turned to Tenchi to tell him what had happened. Before she could say anything, a large explosion shook the earth around them, sending them both toppling to the ground. That meant that Ryouko couldn't be too far away, now.
"What is that?" Tenchi shouted, holding onto a nearby tree trunk fearfully.
"That's Ryouko." The scientist explained to him. "Come on, she shouldn't be too far ahead now!"
"Are you sure this is safe?" Tenchi asked as Washu dragged him along behind her.
…
Ryouko sank to her knees in the crater she had created. You should have made it bigger. Kagato's scathing voice haunted her. As to be expected from a defective model.
"I'm not defective." Ryouko sobbed. "I'm not defective. I'm not defective. I'm not! I'm not! I'm not defective!"
Covering her face with her hands, she repeated the phrase again and again, her entire body shaking. The screams of innocent people swirled around in her mind and mixed with Kagato's voice demanding for her to kill more of them, to torture them, destroy them. Combining into that, now, was Ayeka's voice, calling her a monster and a defective machine of the greatest scientific mind in the universe.
"I'm not defective…" Ryouko cried. "I'm not… I can't be… I'm not defective… I…"
Something warm pressed against her and Ryouko looked up. Through her tears, she found Washu smiling down at her gently. Growling, the pirate made to pull back, but the mad genius was having none of that. Ryouko hated for others to see her cry, but no one had ever held her the way Washu was…
"It's alright." Washu said softly. "You're not defective. It's going to be okay."
Ryouko slowly leaned against Washu, placing her head on the smaller woman's body and continuing to cry. Washu rubbed her back, stroking the long silver tresses calmingly. Tenchi stood behind a tree, watching as Ryouko cried into Washu's shoulder. He had a sneaking suspicion, Washu knew they would find Ryouko like this and only brought him along as a witness to tease the pirate with later.
Washu smiled down at her daughter, Ryouko sobbing quietly into her shoulder. She had to admit that it was nice to be able to hold Ryouko this way. She may not have been able to take away the silverette's pain, but she could at least, help Ryouko through it.
Cooing softly, Washu continued soothing the distraught woman. It's okay, Ryouko, you're not defective. She thought, nuzzling the top of Ryouko's head. It's going to be okay. Mommy's here.
Back at the house, the others wondered if Washu and Tenchi had found Ryouko. The explosion from where they were had appeared to be huge. Loathe as she was to admit it, Ayeka was thankful that Ryouko didn't have access to her full power. If she did, who knows what would happen then.
Maybe next time, I'll just let her fight me. At least then I'll know she's holding back.
There you are, alligators. Hopefully it was alright.