The story is set in the OVA continuity, but considering the Mihoshi special part of it. It takes place after OVA II as I personally really disliked OVA III, so let's just pretend it never happened. I assure you there will be ABSOLUTELY NO Noike around. Kiyone fans, cheer up, because she will show up here instead (not in the first Chapter, but soon).
Besides that: There will be no character bashing as I like ALL of the OVA I+II TM characters (+Kiyone)! There will also not be any TenchixAyeka/TenchixRyoko/Tenchixwhatsoever, this is not a romance. I'm just trying to create one more Tenchi Muyo story, some new adventures for all the characters with everyone getting some „screentime" and I'm trying my best not to prefer one over another.
All in all, maybe this story could be seen as my personal alternate version of OVA III, or just taking place in another alternate universe. I know only the very basics of the True Tenchi novels, so I hope you will forgive me if the story may disagree with it on some points.
And as it is my very first attempt to write fanfiction EVER, I hope I'll not be flamed for this... ^^
Rated T to be safe. Could happen that cursing and violence occurs in later chapters, maybe light sexual content also.
Please R&R and have fun!
She gasped and a short outcry escaped her mouth when she startled up into a sitting position. Confused in the first moments after waking from her sleep she blinked and stretched a hand to support herself on the ground, just that there was no ground next to her. Ryoko grasped at nothing and nearly fell off the rafter before remembering where she was. Quickly, she grabbed at the wooden beam and prevented herself from falling down.
"Ryoko? Are you all right?"
A pair of sparkling reddish-pink eyes looked up at her from the living room. Ryoko groaned and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
"Yeah, thanks, Sasami. Just had a bad dream, so – WHOA!"
Her mouth fell open and her eyes widened in shock when the realization shot through her.
"What? What is it?"
The cyan haired woman vanished into nothingness and nearly the same instant re-materialized next to Sasami.
"I need to see Washu, now!"
"But she's down in her labratory, Ryoko, I don't think she wants to be disturbed right now. Why don't you come over for some breakfast fi–"
"I said NOW!" Ryoko snarled and rattled at the door to Washu's lab. "Washu! Washu! Open! This is important! Washu! Emergency! WASHUUU!"
She started to thump against the door with all her strength which would easily have battered in any normal door but, unfortunately, not this one.
Suddenly, she felt a breeze of hot air on her neck which made her hair stand on edge. "Can you see now?" a cold voice whispered behind her, sending a shiver down her spine.
Ryoko froze and slowly turned around and just for the blink of an eye there were the outlines of a face with glowing red eyes, melting away into blackness. The whole room had darkened and a burnt smell stung her nose. The light faded quickly and it grew pitch black, until even her eyes were unable to discern anything. She felt her heart start to beat faster. Even if there were very few things in the world that could scare her, darkness was certainly one of them. Thick, impenetrable, all-devouring darkness which seemed to engulf her like a wave of icy cold water, deadening every sound around her.
"Sasami!" Ryoko yelled out, rushing towards the direction she thought the kitchen would be, but there was an obstacle in her way that sent her falling to the ground. Laying on her back, she felt something touch her cheek, so faintly and softly it was hardly noticeable at all so she was not sure if she had actually felt or rather imagined it until there was a second one, a soft touch on the tip of her nose. She gasped in shock and covered her face with her hands, a dusty and powdery sensation under her fingertips. And then there was light. Nothing but a tiny orange spark at first, it grew brighter and brighter until she realized she was sitting inside a room all ablaze that was no longer of the Masaki house. Cinder and ashes were snowing down on her and all at once like a slap in the face she felt the heat and started to scream.
A morning at the Masaki house was usually quite peaceful. At least it was typically peaceful up to the point a certain space pirate and the first princess of Jurai entered the living room and started quarreling over breakfast, or over one of them accusing the other to flirt with Tenchi while breakfast, or over doing the chores afer breakfast, which often inevitably led to a rogue battle ending up in the destruction of the house or none less than a part of it. But be that as it may, at least up to that point a non-involved bystander would possibly consider the scenery around the house to be peaceful and enjoyable.
This particular day, though, the every morning lull before the storm with Azaka and Kamidake chatting about the upcoming cold autumn weather was disrupted even earlier than usual, at a time everyone was still sound asleep. It was an ear-piercing scream that made the birds inside the surrounding treetops fly up into a scaredly chirping cloud of wings and feathers and sent four of the people inside the house jumping to their feet. The fifth one happened to be Mihoshi who was sleeping like a log as ever, while the sixth was so very shocked by her own outburst she had indeed for the first time fallen off the rafter she had been resting on, doing a fabulous face-first pancake landing on the living room's floor.
The patter of four pair of feet aproaching her brought Ryoko back into reality and she groaned while the throbbing inside her head brought tears to her eyes.
"Ryoko, what the hell - ?" Tenchi shouted when he came down the stairs and found her sitting on the floor dumbfounded, rubbing her forehead with her fingers.
"What did you do? Did you hurt yourself?" Sasami asked. The little princess followed Tenchi close behind and looked at her housemate with astonishment as well as a slight concern.
"Well, this just had to happen one day," Washu's nasal voice sounded from behind the second Juraian princess before the self-proclaimed greatest genius of the universe planted herself in front of her daughter cross-armed. "Now, would you mind to stop staring at us like your eyes are going to pop out of your head and tell us what's the matter?"
Ryoko blinked and managed to dart an angry angry glance into Washu's direction before she narrowed her eyes and tried to sort out what exactly had happened. After a few seconds she gave up and looked at the rest, shrugging helplessly.
"I don't know!" she said, lifting from the ground to have a scrutinizing look at her sleeping-place. "I fell down from up there."
"My, what a brilliant conclusion!" Washu sneered. "And could you muster enough intellect to tell us why exactly you fell down here screaming blue murder?"
"Cut it out already, Washu!" Ryoko snarled. "I just don't remember! Must have had a bad dream or something... I think something scared me..." she frowned, trying to remember what the dream had been about. It didn't work. Ryoko grumbled angrily but then shrugged it away. Too early a morning to rack one's brains about something as unimportant as a stupid nightmare.
"Well, strange", she said, "But anyway, I'm awake now. Call me when breakfast ist ready!"
She was just about to move up towards the roof when Ayeka grabbed her by the collar and dragged her back to the ground.
"You are not trying to tell us that you were shouting the house down at 5:30 in the morning scaring the daylights out of us whithout any apparent reason and now just want us to prepare your breakfast, do you?"
"Hey! Get your hands off me! I didn't do it on purpose, you know?"
"Maybe your loss of balance is the natural consequence of guzzling gallons of sake!"
"I did not – or at least it has nothing to do with –"
"Geez! Not now! Ayeka, please!" Tenchi tried to intervene, stepping between the two of them.
"Why 'Ayeka'? Is it my fault we are standing in the living room at 5:30 in the morning?"
"Yeah, Ayeka, thanks to you we all should know what time it is by now!" Ryoko grumbled and rolled her eyes.
"No, I'm not saying – Ryoko, stop now -"
"Tenchi! Why are you taking her side, I couldn't help it and she is just –"
"Oh boy, calm down! The two of you, okay?"
With two pairs of eyes suddenly glaring at him furiously, Tenchi considered it best to beat a hasty retreat. "Uhm... well... whatever..." he said, scratching his neck nervously, "I'll go help Sasami, then... err... I'm off."
Before Tenchi had reached the kitchen, a loud bang from above followed by a high-pitched shriek caused them all to turn round and watch Mihoshi tumble down the stairs.
"Ouch!" the first class Galaxy Police detective whined when she got back to her feet. "Ayeka? Ryoko? Why are you down here? Oh, I'm so tired..."
She seemed not far from dozing off while standing and yawned loudly.
"I could ask you the same thing," Ryoko remarked and vanished into thin air, reappearing next to the police officer a second later.
"There's a call from GP headquarters," Mihoshi murmured drowsily, "Must be an emergency..." she scuffled over to the front door and Tenchi noticed that she was dressed in her uniform already and seemingly wore her jacket the wrong way round. He went over to open the door for her, grateful for the interruption Mihoshi's appearance had provided before Ayeka and Ryoko could have started a fight.
He waved goodbye and when he turned around Sasami was just about to balance a dinner tray to the table, filled with damping hot tea and plates with food.
"Breakfast is ready!" the blue haired girl cheered and put the tray down, smiling and happy despite the early and unpleasant wake up.
"Oh Sasami, thanks, you are wonderful!" Tenchi smiled as he sat down with the others. He put the hot cup to his lips and sipped carefully. What a day. Maybe at least now they could enjoy a quiet and peaceful breakfast time.
"What do you think happened at Galaxy Police headquarters?" Ayeka asked and looked around. "I hope it is nothing too bad, but if they call in even Mihoshi they must really be in need..."
"Well, I hope everything will be okay," Tenchi said, "we've had enough trouble for today already, didn't we?" The moment he had spoken the sentence it dawned on him that it might have been not a very good idea to remind Ryoko and Ayeka of their argument from a few minutes ago and he glanced around nervously. Strangely, none of them said anything and he noticed a puzzled look on Ryoko's face.
"What is this?" the space pirate asked and raised her eyebrows.
"What?" Sasami looked around questioningly. Then they all heard it – a whooshing sound accompanied by a wail that both grew louder rapidly. Alarmingly rapidly.
"Oh no!"
The same moment Tenchi said the words a sudden loud bang cut through the air and an immense tremor shook the ground, spilling tea and food all over the table. It was as if his words had conjured up something like this to happen. The five of them sat around the table, staring at each other for some seconds.
"That can't be Mihoshi, can it?" Sasami asked and looked at Tenchi questioningly.
"Whatever that was, it didn't sound like Mihoshi's ship," Ayeka said thoughtfully.
"She would have landed inside the lake, for sure," Ryoko remarked and glanced around. "So, guess we should go and look for it, right?"
Tenchi groaned and covered his face with his hands. What a morning...