By Galaxy1001D
Rated 'K ' for mild language.
Tenchi Muyo and all related characters are © AIC/Pioneer. Kleenex is a registered trademark of Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc. This story has been written solely for entertainment. The views expressed herein do not necessarily express the opinions of AIC/Pioneer, the author, or this website.
"Aha!" shouted Tenchi Masaki, ordinary teenage boy, scion of the most powerful family in the universe, heir to the empire of the planet Jurai, wielder of the power of the lighthawk wings, and possibly the most powerful being in all of creation. "There you are! I've finally tracked you down! Dad! Grandpa! What do you two have to say for yourselves?"
Nobuyuki Masaki and his father-in-law Katsuhito looked up from watching television. "What is it, my son?" Nobuyuki asked innocently.
"Is something wrong?" Katsuhito asked as he tried to appear as a wise Shinto priest, and not a guilty schoolchild.
"I've had it, and I'm tired of waiting!" the boy announced to the two men sitting on the couch. "This is my chance, while the girls are out shopping! What happened to my mother? What are you hiding from me?"
"Isn't Washu in her lab?" Nobuyuki tried to change the subject.
Tenchi would not be distracted. "She won't be out for hours, maybe days!" He turned the TV off irritably. "Quit stalling you two, and tell me what I want to know! There have been too many secrets around here as it is!"
"Calm down, Tenchi," his grandfather held up a hand in a placating gesture. "We are perfectly willing to discuss your mother in a calm and rational manner."
"Calm maybe," Tenchi growled as he sat down in a chair facing the two men on the couch, "but rational? That word hasn't applied to this house in a long time."
"I don't understand," Nobuyuki scratched his head, "I thought we explained about your mother after Rea and I got married."
"No you didn't!" Tenchi insisted. "You and grandpa told me a ridiculous story about mom being a practical joker and said that she wrote a script for you to tell me as a prank from beyond the grave! Then you had Tennyo talk to me to confirm your stupid story!"
"Tennyo had a talk with you?" Nobuyuki stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Was that in Tenchi Muyo OAV III, or Siblings by MoonstoneCabbit?"
"What are you talking about?" Tenchi blinked. "Quit fooling around! I want the truth!"
"What is the matter, Tenchi?" Katsuhito asked kindly. "You seemed to accept our explanation at the time. What has changed that you would accuse us of deliberate misdirection?"
Tenchi had to pause for a moment to process his grandfather's peculiar turn of phrase. Finally, he took a deep breath, let it out slowly and muttered, "There's far too many secrets in this house."
"What do you mean?" Nobuyuki was good at playing dumb.
"I mean that I was in shock when you told me about our family and how we've been in contact with our interstellar relatives for ages," Tenchi explained, "but I started connecting the dots once the surprise wore off. I have a sister I never knew I had. She's eighty years old, but looks like she's twenty. You must be over a hundred, Dad, probably over a hundred and fifty at least! Grandpa, you can appear as a man who's thirty whenever you want to, or maybe that's what you really look like, and the old man look is just a disguise…I can never keep it straight…"
Katsuhito chuckled self-consciously.
Tenchi continued his rant. "You didn't tell Aeka who you were, you didn't tell me that my grandmother was still alive, you did tell me that practicing with the sword is a matter of life or death, need I go on?"
"You can if you want to," Katsuhito shrugged good-naturedly.
Tenchi let out a loud sigh. "Look, I know that there's too much going on with my family for me to understand. I accept that there are some things that I'm better off not knowing, at least for right now. There's probably things that will take decades for me to absorb. But that still doesn't change the fact that after that farce of a fairy tale you still didn't tell me what happened to Mom! Grandpa, you came here to get away from all the lies and intrigue that comes with being part of the Jurai royal family, but don't you see? You brought it all with you!"
Tears of joy formed in Nobuyuki's eyes. "Oh father!" he exclaimed to the old man sitting beside him. "Can it be? Our little boy is growing up!"
Katsuhito's expression was more grave. "But Tenchi, don't you see? I tried to protect you from all that for as long as I could. Even when Ayeka and Sasami crashed here on Earth I decided that it was best to let you be a normal boy for just a little bit longer. Ayeka and Sasami have appreciated the chance to be normal girls for just a little while and have decided to stay here as long as they can."
"Quit changing the subject!" Tenchi demanded. "Tell me about my mother! Who was she really? Did I ever really meet her, or was she Tennyo the entire time?"
Both Nobuyuki and Katsuhito turned pale. "W-why do ask that, my son?" Nobuyuki asked shakily.
"Because I have distinct recollections of calling her, 'Grandma'!" the boy replied. "Did she pose as my grandmother before she posed as my mom? I asked Ryoko. She distinctly remembers me calling Tennyo 'Grandma' when I was three. Don't lie to me now!"
"My my," tutted Katsuhito feigning amusement. "What has turned you into such a suspicious young man?"
"I've been studying the script that you said Mom wrote for you!" Tenchi retorted. "It's in Tennyo's handwriting! Tennyo is the practical joker, isn't she? I don't know anything about my mother! How do I even know what she looked like? How do I even know her name was 'Kiyone'? How do I even know she's dead? For all I know one day she could show up at my front door just as Tennyo and Airi did!"
Both his father and grandfather looked at each other, then gazed forlornly at the floor in defeat. "Very well, Tenchi," his grandfather muttered. "I guess we've put this off as long as we could."
"I guess so," Nobuyuki agreed glumly.
"Well, Tenchi," Katsuhito addressed his grandson, "you are right. Kiyone left Earth when you were still a baby. The woman that you remember taking care of you was Tennyo, your sister. She posed first as my wife, and then your father's."
"Why did Kiyone leave Earth?" Tenchi interrupted.
"She left to join the Galaxy Police," Nobuyuki explained. "She and Mihoshi both came from powerful families and wanted to perform a service to the universe…"
"Really?" Katsuhito poked gently. "I heard that she caught you and Rea playing 'house' together…"
Nobuyuki gasped and squirmed on the couch.
"…But you're right," Katsuhito continued. He turned to Tenchi and sighed. "She did join the Galaxy Police. She was Mihoshi's first partner, before Noike, and she spent your entire life protecting and serving the universe."
"I always thought that when you were old enough to learn about life on other planets we'd be able to introduce you to her," Nobuyuki said sadly, "but the law of averages finally caught up with her."
"W-what do you mean?" Tenchi gasped. "She's not dead again!"
"I'm afraid so, son," sniffed Nobuyuki.
"Dammit!" Tenchi clenched his fists and jumped up and down in his seat like a five-year-old who's eaten too much sugar. "Not again! It's not fair!"
"There, there, Tenchi," Katsuhito consoled him. "Take heart. Your mother died a hero. She saved the entire universe from destruction."
"How?" Tenchi demanded, "and how come you haven't told me sooner?"
"Well, I don't know all the details," the old man muttered, "but I was told that her last case was the case of the ultra-energy matter robberies. It was big news at the time. A Galaxy Police Investigator was kidnapped and Mihoshi, Kiyone, a cadet, and the investigator's fiancé went out to rescue him. A mad scientist was using the ultra-energy matter to fuel a machine called the Galaxy Destroyer, a device that could destroy the universe. During the battle, your mother fell off a high catwalk and tumbled hundreds of feet into the machinery, causing a chain reaction that caused the Galaxy Destroyer to explode. Her sacrifice saved the universe, Tenchi. It is because of her bravery that all of us are here today." The old man paused to brush a tear out of his eye. "It is all my fault," he sighed. "She was determined to be a warrior like her father, the famous warrior Yosho. But few warriors survive to grow old."
For a while Tenchi was speechless. Didn't Mihoshi tell him a story about the ultra-energy matter robberies a while ago? His father and grandfather weren't home at the time, and as far as he knew, never heard the story. Kiyone was the member of the team who didn't come back! Could it be true? He had always assumed that the dizzy blonde had made up that story, yet his father and grandfather had just told him a similar tale. His mother was Mihoshi's partner? The coincidences were too much!
"W-why didn't you tell me this sooner?" Tenchi asked quietly.
"We wanted to protect you," Nobuyuki explained. "We figured that it would be devastating for you to realize that you had no memories of your mother at all. When Tennyo gave herself away, we scrambled to make up a story that you would believe."
"In the end, we decided to use all of them," Katsuhito nodded.
"There's something else, isn't there?" Tenchi recovered some of his fighting spirit. "There's another secret you don't want to tell me isn't there?"
"Yes, that's right," his grandfather nodded. "Apparently, during the scuffle, Mihoshi slipped on a banana peel and bumped into your mother, causing her to fall off the bridge and meet her doom."
"M-Mihoshi?" Tenchi gasped.
"That's right," Katsuhito closed his eyes as his head nodded at the floor. "Mihoshi is responsible for your mother's death. She took it pretty hard. She was in therapy for months, but she was never the same. When she returned to duty, she was such a bumbler that she went through partners like Kleenex. Noike was one of them. She was only Mihoshi's partner for three weeks before she had a nervous breakdown and left the Galaxy Police."
"I'm sorry, son," Nobuyuki said quietly. "Please don't think less of Mihoshi. She's suffered enough already."
The room became very quiet. Eventually the two men left Tenchi alone with his thoughts. Mihoshi, responsible for Kiyone's death? Could it be true? Or will the entire story change again the next time something weird happens? Was the woman in Mihoshi's story really his mother, or was the similar names a coincidence? Was Mihoshi really responsible for his mother's death or did his grandfather need an excuse for keeping things secret?
No! He just couldn't believe it! In the past few months he was introduced to a grandmother, a great-grandmother, a great-grandfather, and a great-great-grandmother! How could his mother have passed on? She must still be in outer space, somewhere! And someday, when the universe decides to play another joke on him, she will show up at his doorstep, acting as if she had just stepped outside for a minute and had not been gone his entire life. Yeah. That's it. Even now, Tenchi knew that she was in outer space. As a matter of fact, he could almost imagine hearing her voice.
In the blackest depths of outer space, the wreckage of a space station known only as the Galaxy Destroyer floated through the endless void. Standing on a piece of the wreckage was an angry teal-haired woman in a Galaxy Police Uniform. Despite having no spacesuit, no food, no water, and no air, she seemed perfectly healthy. In spite of the fact that no sound can travel through the vacuum of space she could still shout: "MI-HO-SHI! I WILL KILL YOU!"
END