Disclaimer: I do not own Tenchi Muyo! or Narue no Sekai (the English name is The World of Narue). Tenchi Muyo! is owned by Masaki Kajishima, and Narue no Sekai is owned by Tomohiro Marukawa.
Aeka no Sekai
Chapter 1-Aeka Jurai
One day Tenchi Masaki, an average fifteen-year-old attending Okayama High in Okayama prefecture, was walking to school on a rainy morning. He was carrying an umbrella, knowing that his teacher would kill him if he came late because he had to dry off his uniform. But when he was passing some slightly beat-up apartments, he noticed something.
A small little puppy was sitting in an empty cardboard box labeled "oranges". Now, Tenchi was smart enough to know that the puppy was not an orange, and that this was probably not a labeling error. Somebody was abandoning the poor little guy.
"I should probably...uh...oh shoot!" Tenchi, checking his watch, began to run, and completely forgot about the puppy. "I'm going to be late!"
Fortunately, he was able to hurl himself into his seat at the school in time, and was not late. A little wet from failing to hold his umbrella above his head all the time, but on time.
However, throughout the day he could not rid himself of a sinking feeling that he was forgetting something. It wasn't until he started walking home, and noticing it was still raining, that he remembered the puppy.
"I should probably go check on him." So, the middle school student ran off, his rat-tail hairdo flopping around slightly in the cool (and wet) breeze. As he reached the apartments, he noticed that the box labeled "oranges" was still there, and looking worse than in the morning from the rain. As he neared it, a soggy and shivering little puppy poked his head out, and whined at Tenchi pitifully.
"I guess nobody took you in, huh?" He walked closer to the puppy, holding out his hands. "You know, my parents wouldn't mind me taking home a puppy. You're pretty cute and-"
"Stop!" Tenchi, whose hands were barely touching the puppy, stopped like the voice told him to.
Suddenly, a bat swung around his head to hit the animal, and the puppy was knocked out of Tenchi's hands. His eyes, however, lingered longer on the puppy than his hands did. Of course, the puppy really wasn't a puppy anymore.
It had glowing yellow eyes seemingly without pupils, fangs, odd colored and shaggy fur, and a long serpent-like tongue. Not to mention it was screaming like nails on a chalkboard.
"Did it bite you?"
"No! What was that thing?"
"A dangerous altered space organism." Tenchi, who had kept his eyes on the "puppy", then whirled them towards the newcomer.
A girl his age was looking at him with stunning ruby eyes, and was holding out a hand. She had violet hair in two layers, one falling above her shoulders and the other tied in two back, low ponytails that reached her knees. A head ornament was around her high forehead, and her bangs rested on top of it. Tenchi also noted that she was wearing a school sailor uniform with a blue collar and skirt, red necktie, and white shirt. The uniform of his school.
"I'm so glad it didn't bite you. It was poisonous." After helping it up, the girl glanced at the creature she mentioned, which was limping down the street from the wounds her baseball bat had caused. Letting go of Tenchi's hand, she raced off after it, completely forgetting about her bat and Tenchi.
Tenchi Masaki just stood there, staring after her. "She was...amazing." Looking to his left, he saw the discarded bat. Picking it up, he looked at the name on it. "Jurai. What a pretty last name."
The next day at school, he and his best friend, Mikamo Seniwa, were gathered around a school directory. However, only one of them was serious about it.
"Tenchi. Tenchi Masaki has walked the manga-freak's path for his entire life, and then one day found a strange and beautiful girl who saved him from a poisonous creature! Love at first sight!" Mikamo then doubled over laughing. "Tenchi, you're a poet! A poet I tell you!"
"Shut up. I just want to return her bat. Now keep looking. Her last name was 'Jurai'." Mikamo sighed, done temporarily with the teasing, and looked over Tenchi's head at the directory his friend was holding.
"No, no, no, no, no, ah! Jurai, Aeka! She's in our grade, and the class next to us." Mikamo exclaimed as Tenchi's eyes lit up. "So that's the girl who saved you...huh?"
Both boys' eyes looked twice at the address of Aeka. "Planet Jurai Federation?" They read in unison and twin confusion.
"What does that mean? You did say that she said the thing was a space creature, maybe she's an alien!" Mikamo speculated, his eyes growing wide with imagination. "She could be a space invader!" Images of a colossal, fire-breathing monster terrorizing Tokyo buildings swam through his head.
Tenchi's imagination was taking a different route. "She could be a spaceship pilot!" Visions of Aeka ordering a fleet of spaceships in battle danced through his head.
"Now that we have that in our heads, you really want to go through with this?" Mikamo asked the dreamy-eyed Tenchi. He waved his hand in front of his friend's vacant face. "Hello? You there?"
"Wha-yeah! I want to give her bat back, and thank her. She could have saved me from rabies or worse, so it's the least I could do."
"And you blush at the thought of her."
"Shut up! Will you help me out?" Tenchi asked, covering his blushing cheeks.
"Eh, I'm feeling a master-of-love mood coming on, so, I'll help." Tenchi bowed his thanks to Mikamo.
Later that day, after school, they followed some girls around until they found her.
"That's her! Follow her!" Tenchi yelped, pointing to a violet ponytail turning a corner. Peering around, the image of Aeka Jurai walking down a street greeted both Mikamo and Tenchi.
"Well, she's humanoid. That cuts a lot of possibilities out." Grumbled Mikamo.
"What are you talking about?" Inquired a confused Tenchi.
"Nothing."
"Now give me the bat."
"No! First...I now dub you 'Love Hunter'!" Mikamo, who was holding the bat, bonked Tenchi on the head with it.
"Eh?"
"No, say 'yes, sir!'"
"Mikamo..."
"I won't give it until you say it!"
Now Tenchi, already anxious about meeting Aeka, sighed and decided to play along with Mikamo. "Yes, sir."
"I can't hear you!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Are you a weakling?"
"No, sir!"
"Can you ask her out yourself?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Okay, here's the bat! Go get 'em, Love Hunter!" Briskly handing a slightly annoyed Tenchi the bat, and pushing up forward, Mikamo set his friend off to go after the girl he was really, really crushing on.
Tenchi, now in a run, spotted Aeka turning a corner, and dashed after her.
"Miss Jurai! Wait! Uh, Miss Jurai!" He turned the corner, and saw nobody. "Eh, Miss Jurai?"
"That's me." Tenchi yelped, and turned around to see Aeka behind him.
"Huh? You-just-in front of me?" Tenchi babbled, pointing to where Aeka was before and was then, very confused.
"Um, I'm sorry, but could you say that again?" Aeka asked politely, looking at the blushing Tenchi.
"Well, I wanted to thank you for saving me yesterday. And, and I wanted to know if you wanted to go out for some tea or coffee or something with me." Tenchi mumbled, holding out the bat with one hand and scratching the back of his head with the other.
This slightly confused Aeka, and she looked at the bat then at him before replying. "You mean to say that you will only return my bat if I take you out for some tea?" Tenchi, in frustration, slammed his head against a wall. "There's no need to do that, you know."
Regaining himself, Tenchi blushed and thrust out her bat, not sure what to say.
"What's your name?"
"Tenchi! Tenchi Masaki!" Tenchi said happily, since he had something to say instead of just feeding an awkward silence.
Aeka turned around, looking down, hiding her eyes. "You'd be very bored around me. I'm not fun to be around."
"Th-that's not true!"
"Even if I'm cheap, reclusive, and a little stuck-up?"
"Yeah!"
"Even if I like reading tabloids and women's magazines at the newsstands?"
"Um, yeah."
"Even if my father is an alien and related to a royal family of another planet?"
"Yeah-huh?" Aeka obviously didn't hear the "huh", as she turned around, a smile growing wider by the second on her porcelain face.
"Let's go to my house, Tenchi! It will be cheaper than going to a cafe. And you can call me Aeka, none of this 'Miss Jurai' nonsense." Aeka chirped happily, dragging a bewildered Tenchi, who was confused for many reasons. One, a girl was inviting him to her house. Two, she was an alien. Three, she hadn't even taken the bat back yet.
"Here we are, I'm sorry it's so shabby." Aeka's voice was a little shy as she pointed to an apartment. The same apartment where the poisonous, altered space organism was stationed in an oranges box the previous day.
Becoming slightly more nervous by this fact, Tenchi nevertheless allowed himself to be led up the stairs and onto the second story front porch. His eyes were immediately drawn to the nameplate.
"Azusa and Aeka Jurai: Planet Jurai Federation. Well, the nameplate sure has some character." Muttered Tenchi under his breath.
"Father!" He looked at Aeka, who was brandishing an almost-empty milk bottle. Yanking open the door, she stormed inside, seemingly forgetting about Tenchi. "Father, how many times have I told you? Poor the rest of the milk into a cup and put it in the refrigerator! THEN leave it out to return-"
Tenchi poked his head inside to see why Aeka had stopped talking. A man with long purple hair tied in a beard and running down his back was tied up on the floor, and another man was holding a knife above him.
"A-a burglar?" Tenchi squeaked, his cowardly side getting the better of him.
"He's a space ninja! He's an Avalonian from the Cygnus Constellation N System Ee...uh, Name Unpronounceable!" Aeka declared, causing Tenchi to look at her funny.
"I'm impressed you figured out my trap, daughter of Jurai!" The man had a raspy voice, and also had yellow hair and green skin, as well as only one eye open. He held up the puppy-like thing, in all its altered glory, which caused Tenchi to back away slightly from fear. Then he remembered he was still holding Aeka's bat.
If I provoke him, he could kill that man! But if I don't do anything to save Aeka, I'll be a coward forever. That settles it. Tenchi's hand clutched the bat tighter, and he started to run forward.
"Kyaaaa-ompf!" Tenchi's face slammed into the tatami mats of the floor. Looking up, he saw Aeka's giggling face and her protruded foot she used to trip him with.
"You need to take off your shoes before going inside, Tenchi." Scolded Aeka in rather serious voice, but then smiled. "Just kidding! Thanks." Tenchi groaned from the pain, and sat up. Aeka jumped over him, set the milk can down, and grabbed the bat.
Meanwhile, the space ninja, who had gotten quite a little scare from Tenchi trying to hit him with the bat, had calmed down enough to raise the knife. "Now, Azusa Jurai, you die!"
Tenchi's mouth dropped open as Aeka's headband then proceeded to glow. In a flurry of spark-like lights, she disappeared from next to him, and reappeared behind the surprised space alien.
"You're under arrest!" She said smiling before raising the bat, and slamming it across the back of his head in a graceful arc. "Just kidding."
The space ninja fell onto the floor, squashing his poisonous creature trap, and was knocked out from the blow. Aeka then proceeded to tie him up, then turned to her father.
"Fa-ther! You need to be more careful!" Aeka shook her finger at the man.
"Sorry, Aeka. He surprised me. I'll send message to the Federation. Inspector Yosho and the Azaka and Kamidake mechs can escort him away." The rather tall man stood up, dusted off his beard, and started to drag the knocked out burglar. Aeka waved, and then turned to Tenchi, blushing slightly.
"I'm sorry about all of this, Tenchi. Um, you said you didn't care if I was an alien, right?" Aeka asked meekly.
Tenchi grinned in a similar sheepish manner, scratching the back of his head. "Yeah, and uh, should I read those magazines, too? Just to get to know you better?"
Aeka's smile spread across her face before grabbing Tenchi's hand. "Tenchi, I want to show you something amazing!"
Just as Tenchi's hand met with Aeka's, he felt himself disappear. It was a very odd sensation, and everything turned black for a couple of seconds. He then reappeared inside a gigantic fleet of starships overlooking a lovely planet that looked slightly like Earth, but the greens and blues were stronger and healthier. It was like time was frozen, and Tenchi had all the oxygen he needed-as he was on top of the starship below him.
Aeka reappeared in front of him, between him and the planet, her hair and skirt blowing around in some space wind-like phenomenon. Her hands were spread apart, seeming like a welcoming motion to Tenchi from the planet behind her.
"Tenchi Masaki, welcome to Jurai, the world I come from!" Aeka's words were full of importance. "This is the Azaka royal fleet, and you are on top of the flagship, the Azaka 573!"
However, Tenchi was looking somewhere else. The skirt was flying up a little high every now and then...and he was getting a slight nosebleed.
But Aeka's smiling face, the fleet of starships, the planet Jurai, she really was a super cute alien! And of course, even more important, the girlfriend of Tenchi Masaki.
Author's Note:
Well, here is something. One of my favorite manga/anime is Narue no Sekai, or The World of Narue. It's a real shame there's no category for it on Oh well. So, this is basically Narue no Sekai with the Tenchi Muyo! cast. I'm going to try to make it more original as it goes on, especially once Kanaka/Sasami and Hajime/Washu show up.
