TENCHI - REUNION, ACHIKA'S STORY
ONE:
Ayeka stood at the kitchen sink leaning on the counter top. Her expression was almost blank as she stared unseeing in front of her. She heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and began to finish preparing the tea things that were on the counter. Kiyone walked into the kitchen behind her.
"Ayeka, are you sure that you'll be okay by yourself. I can probably get some more vacation time if you would like me to." Kiyone moved over beside the Juraian Princess, and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "It is awfully quiet around here, isn't it?"
Fighting back a tear, Ayeka gave a sniff, and reached for Kiyone's hand. "Yes, it is quiet." She gave the hand a touch, and reached for the tea tray. "Let's go into the other room. This may not be as good as Sasami's but I'm learning. Thank goodness Achika seems to have learned a lot from my sister before..." Ayeka lowered her head, and a tear escaped. "Before they were kil... No! I always think they have just disappeared."
The two long time friends knelt at the table, and Ayeka began to pour the tea. "Try one of the tea cakes, Kiyone. I'm getting a lot better at making them, also."
A silence settled on the pair. Kiyone lowered her head slightly and shut her eyes. She remembered the shouts, fights and crashes that were a staple of the Masaki household in years past. Ayeka and Ryoko fighting over the affections of Tenchi. Even Mihoshi being a walking disaster area. The day that Tenchi announced his intention of marrying Sasami. Kiyone smiled at the remembrance of the silence that lasted maybe 2 seconds, and how she and Mihoshi didn't think Tenchi would live through the fight after that announcement. Kiyone finally spoke, if for no other reason than to bring a sound to the quiet house.
"I'm glad that you asked me to stay with you and the children for a few days. It seems that Achika and Yosho are taking things well. I'm happy for them that they can accept that their parents and Ryoko aren't here now. I'm sure you have had a lot to do with that."
Ayeka took a small sip of the tea before answering. "Yes, they have taken it well. You've seen how Yosho has thrown himself into rebuilding the shrine office and repairing the shrine itself. Just before you arrived he found the Guardian Jewels." Ayeka looked out the windows at the lake. "I just can't think why they didn't help with whatever happened that night. Yosho said that everything was going okay, there was no fighting. I just can't figure that out."
"Ayeka, where's Achika? I wanted to tell her that I was leaving today. I spoke with Yosho when he went out to go up to the shrine."
Ayeka smiled as she looked at Kiyone. "She probably is at the overlook that Tenchi always liked so much. I can remember finding him there so often, just looking at the beautiful view of the valley. Would you like to go up there? I'll take you if you want."
"Sure, the view may help you, too." Kiyone stared at Ayeka again. "You sure you don't want me to stay a little longer?"
Ayeka stood and picked up the tea tray. "No, I'll be all right. The children are actually helping me much more then I've been able to help them." She smiled. "I guess it's because of who they are, and who their parents w..are, but they are strong. Much stronger then I am." She set the tray on the kitchen counter, and took another look around the quiet room. "Let's go up the mountain, Kiyone. Achika will be glad to see you before you go."
TWO:
Kneeling at the edge of the valley overlook, Achika hummed a quiet tune, while keeping time with the arms of her "Mr. Bear." She had her eyes shut while she was getting a complete description of the ongoing work at the shrine from her brother. Behind her she was aware of her Aunts Ayeka and Kiyone coming along the path.
"Good morning Aunt Kiyone!" Achika turned and looked at the pair with the same open smile they had seen so often from her mother. She waved a paw of "Mr. Bear" in greeting.
"Achika, I'll be leaving to go back to Galaxy Police Headquarters soon. But before I left I wanted to find out if there's anything you need me to help you with." Kiyone knelt beside Achika, and was almost transported to a time twenty years ago, when it was Sasami that would be there. "You look so much like your mother, Achika! You really do."
Achika stood up and went to Kiyone, giving her a hug. "Thank you for saying that, Aunt Kiyone." She released Kiyone and went over to her Aunt Ayeka, who was still standing looking down at the valley. She put her arms around Ayeka. "Aunt Ayeka, don't be sad please. Mommy, Daddy and Ryoko are doing fine." She looked up towards Ayeka's face, seeing tears coming down her cheeks. Ayeka moved her hand to Achika's head, and lightly stroked her hair. Achika took the hand in hers. "Aunt Ayeka." Her face took on a little smile. "No, you are now my Mother Ayeka. Would you like to come with me to the shrine?"
Kiyone watched as Ayeka's face took on a happier look, even a trace of a smile started to show. "Ayeka, go with her, I'll be leaving now and I can get back to my shuttle without help." She looked at Achika with a new interest. Achika really is helping you Ayeka, funny that a child can provide the support that a parent usually does. "Achika, keep up the good work. I'll check with you when I can, Ayeka." Turning with a wave to the young girl and her aunt, Kiyone headed down the path to the lake.
THREE:
Dinner preparations were going along well. Ayeka would work with some ingredients, while Achika, with the help of a set of steps Yosho had built for her, did the rest of the meal. While working the two girls kept up a conversation of the days events. Ayeka would give a laugh at something her niece would say. Without realizing it, Ayeka was acting as if it was Sasami working with her.
With a double thump the door to the house opened and closed again, indicating that Yosho was down from the Shrine. "I'm home! What did you two think up for dinner tonight?" Yosho removed his zori sandals and headed for the kitchen. Grabbing Ayeka around the waist, he gave her a hug and a "Hello, Mom." Achika got a "Hi, Sis." Passing the counter he reached for a carrot. That got him a "meow, meow!" from the content Ryo-Ohki, who was nibbling on a carrot herself. Yosho gave her a scratch behind the ear, as he grabbed a second carrot from the bowl. Ryo-Ohki gave several protesting "meows" and tried to hide the bowl from the carrot thief.
Ayeka smiled. "Slow down! Dinner is almost ready and you need to put the bowls on the table."
Stuffing another carrot in his mouth, after picking up a very vocal Ryo-Ohki from on top of the carrot bowl, Yosho mumbled a "Where's Washu? Will she be eating tonight with us?"
Achika turned her head and gave her brother a frown. "Chew first, speak second." Ryo-Ohki gave her vote on that with a chewing sound mixed with a "meow." "Washu is in her lab, and won't be at the table. I'll take her something later."
Dinner was filled with Yosho's plans for a renovated, computer friendly, shrine office. Ayeka was adding her thoughts, and felt more content than she had in weeks. It was a normal Masaki dinner for the new family.
FOUR:
After clearing the table, Achika prepared a dinner tray for the missing family scientist. There was just enough space for "Mr. Bear" to sit on the tray. "Come on 'Mr. Bear' let's go see what Washu is doing today." She and her companion went into the closet, closing the door behind her.
"Aunt Washu, I've brought you some dinner."
Washu sat staring at her pseudo computer pushing keys, to the accompaniment of flashing indicators. "Hi, Achika, just put the tray down. I'm in the middle of something right now."
Achika put the tray down and moved over beside her Aunt Washu. "What are you working on now? Can I watch? You know, Aunt Washu, I would really like to grow up to be like you." She leaned a little closer to Washu.
Washu stopped using the keyboard and looked over at Tenchi's daughter. "So you want to be a scientist do you?" She laughed at the thought of someone wanting to follow in her huge footsteps. "I really don't think you could understand what I'm doing right now, child. You need to wait about twenty or thirty years!" She gave a laugh. On her arm she felt the soft pat of a furry bear paw, and looked down.
Achika looked at her with a small smile. "Aunt Washu, maybe I'd better say that differently." She looked at Washu like any innocent six year old. Pulling at Washu's sleeve, she made Washu lean over as if to hear a child's big secret. In a whisper, Achika made her point. "Aunt Washu, I just need to find out how to calibrate my dimensional phase shifter. It keeps shifting when I don't want it to."
Washu's mouth fell open, and she almost lost her seat on the pseudo chair.
"What? What do mean calibrate a phase shifter? You don't even know what it is." Washu stopped a second. "Wait a second, I don't know what it is! Has your brother put you up to this?"
With a sigh, Achika reached over and pushed a couple of buttons on the keyboard. A pseudo chair appeared for her, and after she sat in it, it rose so she was eye level with Washu. She gave Washu a look that only a learned professor could give the class idiot. "When I dimension hop, the phase shifter keeps me from being seen in the destination dimension. My automatic shifter is supposed to shift continuously so I won't be detected in a dimension that has the capability to find the change in dimension waves."
She looked at Washu, who couldn't close her mouth. "My phase shifter isn't calibrated well enough, so sometimes people see me as a transparent ghost. Understand now?"
Washu slid from her seat to a cross legged position on the floor of the lab. Looking up at her niece, she finally stopped stuttering enough to get a few words out. "Dimension hop? How can you dimension hop? I put a lock on this equipment after it was almost broken by some idiots of my acquaintance, who almost destroyed the equipment! Besides, how do you know about dimension hopping?"
Putting on an innocent face, Achika looked at her stunned Aunt. "Well, I found out about it when you accidently shifted me into a dimension before daddy had met Aunt Ryoko, Ayeka, or mommy. And to top it off, when they did appear, everyone said I was their daughter!" She frowned at Washu. "I was scared until I found out that you had made a 'tiny mistake' in your calculations!"
Washu was more stunned then before. "You remember that? No one was supposed to be able to remember that!"
With a sniff, Achika settled "Mr. Bear" on her lap. "Anyway, I watched you and then built a system that could feed off your dimensional-time machine, but was portable."
Washu's voice went up until it almost squeaked. "Portable? This equipment can't be made portable!" She stopped and thought a second. "Wait now, it can feed off my equipment? Where is this portable equipment? I've never found any indication of dimensional imbalance, or my equipment feeding something off line."
Achika waved "Mr. Bear's" paw at Washu. She gave a small bear voice so "Mr. Bear" could speak. "Right here Miss Washu, I'm right here." Turning the bear around, she opened a seam and exposed some dials, knobs and switches.
Washu's eyes almost popped from her head. The stuttering started again. Finally she got enough control of herself that she could concentrate on one thing. "Let's just stop a second. I'm hungry, I'm obviously hallucinating and you really aren't here, and we have not had this conversation!." She looked up at the child she thought she knew. "Right? Please say I'm right!"
FIVE:
Slurping up the noodles from the bowl, Washu finally had gotten control of herself to look at things in a scientific way. "So, you've been dimension hopping, as you put it, for some time now." She looked at Achika over the top of the bowl. "I hope you haven't touched anything, or anyone, while you were doing it."
Achika gave a guilty look. "Well, there was one time when I first started doing it." Washu's eyebrows rose as she sucked up some more noodles. "In one dimension, Aunt Ayeka and Aunt Ryoko were fighting, and daddy jumped between them. And my gauges indicated a real huge dimensional surge." Washu lowered the bowl from her mouth. "So I transported them out of the way." She said it so fast the words almost ran together. Washu looked at her with a "and" look. "I don't know where they went. And I think that only Aunt Ayeka and daddy were sent away to another dimension." The last was almost in a whisper.
Washu couldn't think of anything to say. She sat still with her mind rushing.
Then something finally made contact, thoughts came together and became theories. Theories were proven and some discarded. Finally a completed idea rose to the top of her thoughts.
She looked closely at her new scientific match, as she placed the empty noodle cup on the tray. "Achika, you haven't felt that your parents, and your Aunt Ryoko, died and went to some sort of heaven to be reborn, have you?" Washu leaned back a little, as Achika's eyes changed a to a slight guilty look. "You and Yosho act as if your mother, father and Ryoko are still around, and you can see them when you want."
Washu leaned forward and reached out to hold Achika's face in her hands.
Slowly she asked the question. "Achika, where did you send them? I've never detected their energy since the fight at the shrine."
Achika's face began to show more emotion than she had shown in the months since her parents and Ryoko disappeared. "Aunt Washu, I don't know where they were sent!" Tears formed in her eyes. "When I was doing the transfer, an inbound gateway opened, the loss of energy changed my coordinates." A sob escaped, and it was a whisper that continued the story. "I lost my trace of where they went. Aunt Washu, I know they are alive, I just don't know where."
Washu closed her eyes and dropped her hands to her lap. "And your Aunt Ayeka? She still grieves for them. Kiyone and Mihoshi, too."
"I'm sorry, Aunt Washu, but I'm not as good as you are at getting people to forget bad things." Achika put her arms around Washu's neck and raised her eyes toward her face. "I can only do a little bit at a time. That is why I need you to help me."
Washu hugged Achika back. She whispered into her ear. "Achika, I'll help you all that you need. But you have to promise not to dimension hop unless I know about it. You've been a smart girl, and have helped in your own way. I know that your parents are happy and proud of you. Believe me, I'm proud of what you have done. But you will need to learn about other people's feelings." Achika pulled back a little. "Don't worry little one, that will come with time."
Washu held Achika by the arms and looked into her eyes. "Now you go on back to your Aunt Ayeka. But don't tell her what you know, okay."
Achika nodded, and giving Washu another hug, let go and turned to leave. "Thanks, Aunt Washu, I will make you as proud of me as my parents will be!"
Carrying her "Mr. Bear" the Universe's up-and-coming second greatest scientist left the dimensional lab. Behind her, still sitting on the floor, the greatest scientist held her head in her hands. "Achika, you have so much to learn."
END