Haunting Dreams, Sobering Reality

By Takeda Kenji

'I sleep when I'm dead' was a common refrain that Tenchi Masaki heard from his classmates. He'd have loved to tell them that he had extensive experience touching the face of a certain cloaked, scythe-carrying siren. Of all the images of the Sacred Female Tenchi remembered from what limited Art history schooling he had received, Death had been the most gorgeous – and the most horrifying. When the Souja had dealt the fatal blow, he had come face to face with true agony. It was such an easy thing to die, but a far greater thing to accept the pain that came with traveling to meet one's maker.

It was these thoughts that pummeled his psyche as he tossed and turned, dreams assaulting his frail defense against nightmares. He was not a light sleeper and so it was his lot this certain night to endure this dream in all its agony. The second time he had met Death was when he got to meet a galactic black hole. No, no, it wasn't a joke though once Ryoko – in retrospect – had given the experience a particularly perverse interpretation of the phrase. Were it not for Tenchi's Wings of the Light Hawk, Ryoko wouldn't have been able to enjoy a particularly unfortunate chuckle over the bodily implications of Tenchi's sword illuminating a galactic black hole. However the nanosecond before vacuum of space seized them and deprived them of oxygen had been a visceral one and one that he could recall easily with sense memory. Merely holding his breath reminded him of the moment upon which all control of breathing had been stolen from him.

Least disturbing, surprisingly enough was the most recent of his brushes with death: death at Z's hands. Now of course, one could call into question the semantic validity of labeling Tenchi's scrapes with lethality death. In each case, he was back to tell his tale, none the worse for wear. At least, in his body was fine. His mind on the other hand was another story entirely. It was this trio of dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight that often accompanied Tenchi in his slumber. Usually he could find some respite. At times, Ryoko would notice his trembling and shake him awake. One time she had done that, he had pulled her close and let her sleep next to him for the rest of the night, so great was his gratitude towards her for rescuing him from a particularly bad nightmare.

But tonight offered no respite as Ryoko was nowhere to be found and tonight's nightmare was so bad. But Tenchi was floating in a mass, without a chibi-Kagato hermaphrodite to give him any sort of guidance. All he could feel was distortion in his bones, all he could hear was the wail of a thousand screams, and all he could see was the utter darkness of despair. He knew this was a nightmare as nothing he had experienced up to this point in his relatively young life, warts and all, had been so tragically mutated. He had no reason or recourse to explain the horror; all he could do was feel it.

And he needed it to stop.

He wanted it to stop.

With a lung full of air and a chest full of despair, Tenchi awoke and set the house on its ear with a bloodcurdling scream. His eyes bulged, his chest ached, and his heart raced as the emblem that Tsunami had awoken on his forehead back on the Tsunami-fune now flashed brighter than the sun. All that surrounded Tenchi's room was awash in blinding light.

**********

Sasami had felt it before he did but she had two things working in her favor. Firstly, she had Tsunami to console her and help her absorb the shock and trauma of this shattering revelation. Secondly, she had the power of precognition so that she understood the pain and horror. In this case, it was far better to name the beast than to have to suffer its bite blindly. However, that did not spare her the pain of her revelation.

When she heard his scream, her eyes flooded with tears in an empathetic outpouring for the man she loved more than life itself. But it only remained for a second before she disappeared in a flash of blue light.

And then Tsunami was with her Charge's beloved – which made Tenchi the beloved of Tsunami. Her lips covered his face with the kisses of a wife uncannily familiar with the passion of the marriage bed. She soothed him, she calmed him, she whispered to him and her hands caressed him.

"Tsu-Tsu-" Tenchi began, as he broke down, his face crumbling into piteous weeping.

"Ai shiteru, ai shiteru, my beloved," was all she said to him, the girl within her shocked and awed at the Goddess revealing her (Sasami – and by proxy, Tsunami's as well) heart to her one true love.

"Tsunami, something horrible has happened," Tenchi began, his sense overloaded and his psyche completely overwhelmed.

"Tenchi, the king is dead—"

Tenchi's face did an exquisite thing: as it curiously made the transition from bald confusion, to piteous grief, and finally arriving at bereavement for Sasami's sake. Her father was now dead. "Kami-sama…" was all he could whisper.

"Funaho died with him," Tsunami told him, holding him with a Goddess' strength as she did not want him going any further off the deep end than he already had.

Tenchi was beside himself as a fresh new wave of grief assaulted him as he contemplated the death of the gentle woman that he had come to know as his great-grandmother. Funaho was such a sweet woman, and now she was gone from the face of the universe. But then a thought occurred to him, one that threatened to shatter him beyond repair. "Misaki?" He inquired, his chocolate brown eyes wide with fear.

"She's alive. You must go to her. Tenchi, the king is dead," Tsunami said, reiterating her point. "Long live the king," she whispered against his lips as her forehead touched his, both glowing as they once had aboard the Tsunami-fune.

The boy was now to become king.

The old king was dead.

The new king must rise.

The new king must have his queen.

Tenchi was going to have to make some very hard choices within the next few hours.

Tokimi couldn't have been more pleased. Everything was going according to plan.

A/N:

This is my first story on . Please be kind, and review. If you like this story, you have Jibril Mudo to thank. If you disliked it, you have them to blame. Bwahaha.

All I can say about the next few chapters is that this is Tenchi pairings with the unusual suspects.

Much thanks to the Tenchi Muyo community, you have provided me with solid reading and entertainment.