All was silent for a few moments as Azusa, Misaki and Funaho set off back to Jurai. Aeka and Sasami were overjoyed to be allowed to stay on Earth for a while longer, Mihoshi was still recovering from her crash landing, and Ryoko stood gawking wide-eyed at the bill Misaki had given to her. Washu and Tenchi went back inside, and they each went their own separate ways, Washu to her lab, and Tenchi to his room.
I wonder what lies ahead for us now? he thought to himself, and sighed, clasping his hands behind his head. We've gone through a lot in such a short time. First, Kagato... then Dr. Clay... and then Jurain Royal Family. I had no idea my great-grandmother looked so... young. And that Seiryo guy... ugh.
Tenchi's thoughts soon drifted off as he fell asleep, drifting soundly into a dream.
"..."
"Tenchi..."
"Ngh?"
"Tenchi, wake up."
Tenchi opened his eyes slowly and found himself looking into the face of a total stranger, her form translucent, like a spirit. She looked about Ryoko's age (physical age, anyway), with long light black hair and wicked crimson eyes that held evil in them no matter how warm her smile. Her eyes were like a cat's, pupils thin and fixated.
Tenchi jumped, startled. "Who are you?! Somebody, help!!"
"They can't hear you, Tenchi. This is all a dream."
Tenchi began to relax, but not quite. "How can I trust you?"
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is--"
"Tenchi!!!"
"Huh?" Tenchi opened his eyes again, and stared at Sasami, who was shaking him wildly. "Wake up, Tenchi!!"
"Sasami, I'm awake! What's wrong?!" Tenchi yelled, taking Sasami by the shoulders.
"I had a bad dream..."
"Where's Aeka?"
"She and Ryoko went out long ago and I s'pose they're still out there," Sasami answered, sniffling.
"Oh, I see. Well, what was your dream about?"
"A very bad person came to our house, Tenchi! She was tall, dark, and scary... she wanted to kill you!"
Geez, why does everyone want to kill ME? "Did she say her name?"
Sasami sniffled again, rubbing her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. "Noooo..."
Tenchi hugged Sasami comfortingly and sighed. "It's alright... no one's going to be killing me anytime soon."
"I hope not."
"Nah, no way! I've got Tenchi-ken and I have you and Aeka and the others to think about!"
Sasami smiled.
Outside...
"Ryoko, honestly, we have to stop doing this! Don't you think *somebody* is getting suspicious??..... Ryoko, are you listening?!"
"Nope."
"Get your head out of my shirt and listen to me!!"
Ryoko groaned. "I don' wanna."
"Ryoko!!"
"Oh, fine, fine!" Ryoko grumbled and pulled her head out from under Aeka's shirt, standing straight next to her. As Aeka began to repeat everything she'd said earlier, Ryoko let an arm snake around the other woman's waist and began pulling her to her.
Aeka caught on fast. "You're not listening!!"
Ryoko stopped. "I am so!!"
"Then stop! We can't keep this up! If Lord Tenchi were to find out... oh... oh no..."
"Tenchi won't find out, Aeka, relax."
Aeka broke down into tears, pushing herself against Ryoko and burying her crying face into the other's shoulder, sobbing heavily. Ryoko sighed and patted Aeka on the back once or twice, then began to stroke her hair. She loved the feel of her hair...
In deep subspace...
Washu sighed and stared blankly at her computer screen, her fingers typing endlessly at the keyboard, designing new inventions and monitoring the systems she'd placed around the house. After a few moments of silence--save the clicking of the keys--the long range scanner system came up with something. She typed another set of keys and zoomed in.
"That Mihoshi, really," she said, and prepared to activate her "Anti-Mihoshi Crash Shield" when...
"Breep, breep...whrrrrrrr..."
"Hey, that's not Yukinojo! Well, if it's not Mihoshi, who is it? Doesn't have the readings of a Jurai ship..."
Out of caution, Washu slammed down the large red button that activated the shield, and in moments, the key power points set about the house and shrine lit up, a wave of protective energy surging over both key locations in a hemispherical formation. Ryoko and Aeka noticed the shield activation, and blinked, immediately looking to the sky. Tenchi and Sasami saw the shield's illumination from the window, and they stared upward as well.
"But Mihoshi's not on patrol!" Sasami said. "She's downstairs, on the couch!"
"Washu's scanner must've picked up something headed on a collision course for the house or the shrine."
"Wonder what it is..."
"I don't know."
A loud whistling sound filled the area as a small space capsule, barely no bigger than a Jurai Space Tree (fully grown) slammed against the shield. The energy ricocheted it back into a patch of trees, completely destroying the ground. Ryoko and Aeka, being the closest to the wreckage, took off.
Ryoko got there first, Aeka following close behind, and they examined the wrecked ship. The thick glass covering protecting whatever was inside was barely scratched up, but the rest of the ship was totaled. A large hole in the side seemed to be leaking, thick blue slime seeping out and across the land.
Aeka recoiled in disgust. Washu's portal appeared next to her, and she stepped out, immediately spotting the blue slime. "Hey, that's regeneration liquid! Someone inside could still be very injured. Ryoko, get it apart and take whatever's inside to my lab. I'll need a sample of this stuff..."
"What do I look like, your slave?!" Ryoko snapped.
"No, you look like my daughter who'll do her mother a favor. Now, hurry!"
Ryoko grumbled for a moment, then shut up and pulled the ship open. Inside was...nothing.
"There's nothing here."
"There isn't?!" Washu said, and sighed. "Well, we might as well get this sample back to the lab," she finished, scraping up a bit of the slime and tossing it into a beaker, capping it. The three women left the crash site through Washu's portal, and the rest of the slime evaporated into thin air.
Later that night...
Washu's lab was quiet again, not even the clicking of keys was audible now. Washu had fallen asleep at the console of one of her inventions-in-progress, a machine designed to enhance the durability of the shield and the range of the scanners attached to it. The beaker of slime, set amongst several other beakers of different chemicals, began to shake. The liquid inside expanded, cracking the glass and escaping its small prison.
Slowly, it started towards the sleeping Washu, crawling along the console and over her arm. The cold tingly feeling awoke her, and she looked drowsily at the slime haunched back in the air.
"AHHHHH!!" she screamed, and the slime leaped forward, landing straight in her mouth and surging down her throat. Washu gasped for air and grabbed her throat, feeling as if she were being strangled, and fell onto the console, thrashing and convulsing, her eyes shut tight.
Her convulsions ended shortly, and she sat up calmly, opening her eyes. Their normal green flashed bright crimson for a moment, then faded back into green. She rose from her seat at the console and stood straight, looking over herself. "This body won't do at all. I can't regenerate myself in such a small..."
"Washu?" Aeka called. Washu grinned and started towards Aeka.
"Yes,... Aeka?"
"Washu, I was wondering..."
"Come here."
"Excuse me?"
"Bend down. Come here."
Aeka bent down and looked at Washu for a moment. The scientist smiled for a moment, then hissed in a deep, bestial voice, "You're perfect." Before Aeka could react, Washu grabbed her and kissed her deeply, the slime surging quickly out of Washu's mouth and down Aeka's throat. The two parted and collapsed onto the ground.
Moments later, Washu remained unconscious, and Aeka rose, her gentle pink eyes now flashing the momentary red. She left the lab, and the slime began impregnation, seeking to regenerate its body....
Several weeks passed, and Masaki houselife seemed no different than it usually did. However, about two months after the strange craft had crashed, Aeka began to show signs of pregnancy. Everyone was stumbled, even her, as the force that had possessed her was now growing rapidly in her womb. Tenchi denied any allegations against him, and Washu demanded a scan. Aeka thought it was in order, and next thought of what her parents would do.
Washu's scan came up positive, with a definite impregnation inside her, and the fetus was growing quicker than a normal human child. Questions of Jurain pregnancy stages were thrown at Aeka, and she shot all possible reasons down. Jurain pregnancy was no different than an Earthling's.
"There's only one thing to do now," Washu said.
"What?" Everyone said.
"We wait for the child to be born...."
Aeka's pregnancy was quite a mystery, and though Washu suspected the child would be born in another three months since the cycle was faster, the child never came. Instead, Aeka's stomach grew abnormally large, a grotesque deformity. Washu began to suspect more. She ran another scan of Aeka's womb and found a small child, about 8 or 9 years old, curled up like a fetus!
"But that's impossible!" she shouted, then caught something out of the corner of her eye... the beaker holding the slime was shattered, and had been that way for all these months! Why hadn't she noticed it?!
"The slime!!" she yelled. Aeka, Ryoko, and Tenchi blinked. Washu snatched her hair up and shook her head. "The slime is regenerating itself inside Aeka!! Why didn't I think of that before?!?!"
"You mean I'm giving birth to a grown person?!"
"Yes, and it will happen now. Maybe with a direct charge to the womb, the process will speed up..."
"Do it! Get this thing out of me!!"
"I'll have to cut it out. Normal birth could do damage to the bone structure. So you'll have to be sedated." Washu said, and snapped her fingers. Ryo-Oh-Ki hopped up and neatly jabbed a syringe into Aeka's arm, and injected the liquid. Aeka fell fast asleep in no time, and Washu wheeled a small cart into view, holding a set of tongs and a large battery.
She snapped a pair of rubber gloves on and grabbed the tongs, yelling, "Stand back!" and flipping the battery on. A large electrical charge surged between the two points and Ryoko and Tenchi stood back. The tongs made contact with the skin and the short charge surged through the regen-slime. Washu did it twice more and now they could see a definite change. Aeka's stomach grew to its peak, and Washu grabbed a scalpel, slicing it open.
Before she could peel the layers apart, a person shot up out of the womb, covered in slime and gasping for air. It was covered in the regen-slime and was definitely female.
"Ryoko, grab her and get her out!" Washu commanded. Ryoko snatched the slime-covered person up and held her like a child while Washu stitched Aeka's shrunken belly shut. The blue slime covered most of the floor, as well as a lot of blood, and Washu sighed.
"Take the 'baby' to the table," she said, pointing to a table offside. Ryoko dropped the shivering, slime-coated body onto the table and Washu wiped its eyes, nose, and mouth clean with a rag. Before she could do anything else, the woman leapt up and took off into the darkness of the lab.
"Washu! She's getting away!"
"She won't get far. You two take Aeka out of here, now!"
Ryoko and Tenchi followed the commands given and Washu's computer appeared before her, her fingers typing rapidly. "I'll have that girl located before you can blink..." They left and Washu resumed her search. Amazingly, the stranger had hidden herself from all scans!
"Alright, enough of this! You can come out, I don't want to have to come after you!!"
"I need clothes!!" a voice yelled. It was feminine in tone, but dark and demanding.
"Let me see you first. Wh-what's your name?!"
"Get me clothes!!"
Washu sighed and typed up a kimono for her, jet black. "Here!"
The stranger slowly crept out of a corner and snatched the kimono up, slapping it on. The slime, Washu deducted, had evaporated already, having served its purpose long ago.
"Now, about your name?"
The stranger looked Washu dead in the eyes. Her light black hair and wicked crimson eyes were enough to make one's skin crawl, but Washu stood straight and unafraid.
"My name... is Kijo."
Tenchi Muyo! and all characters relating to it are copyright Pioneer, AIC, Masaki Kajishima, and Hiroki Hayashi. Kijo is copyright me, the author, EvilDragoness.