In his brief 21 years, Masaki Tenchi had seen more of the universe than most of his peers could imagine. He had seen battles between a fearsome space pirate and detectives from the Galaxy Police. He had befriended princesses from the great galactic empire of Jurai. He had witnessed the miraculous and devastating works of a legendary mad scientist. He had faced a shadowy conspiracy between the elite of the Galaxy Police and the ruling family of Jurai. He had encountered a force of nature, a sentient energy form bent on annihilating his family alongside Jurai's lineage. He had fallen victim to the hypnotic wiles of a spirit trapped by her own desires and powers.
Through all this hardship and heartache, he had found himself, who he truly would become. Much like his father before him, Tenchi had a talent for the visual arts and decided to further his learning. He has just finished his first semester at university in Tokyo, and his mentors were beginning to see his promise. Surely, he could have taken other paths, but Tenchi wanted the simple life with few responsibilities. His future seemed bright, waiting on the other side of a few years of study.
And, the young man had found the love of his life, the cyan-maned space pirate who had literally crashed into his life. In the autumn of 1994, he had seen her fall from the heavens as he walked home from school. When they first met, she was hungover, running from the Galaxy Police after one of her numerous capers. Now, she bounced from job to job, likewise searching for her place on Earth. Considering her previous occupation and skill set, she was still having difficulty finding a "normal" occupation. Naturally, her rebellious, and often slothful, attitude did not help matters.
For the past four months, the young couple had been residing in simple flat just off-campus. Having to fend for themselves had tested their relationship, spurring some heated words, as well as the occasional exploded window. The stresses of his schooling and her working ground against one another, sparking arguments every couple weeks that first month. However, their affections smothered those fires, as well as giving them comfort in each other. They complemented one another, supported one another as they explored their life together: his grounded focus and practicality, her fiery passions and relaxed mentality.
Today, the pair have returned to his familial estate in Okayama prefecture for the first academic break. They were greeted by open arms of old friends and loving family. Tenchi's maternal grandfather commented on how the young man's hair had started to grow out, so much like his had decades ago. Tenchi's father remarked that his son's girlfriend has become even more lovely since she has been away. The two Galaxy Police detectives visited for dinner, reminiscing about old times and new adventures. They regretted to say that the princesses were otherwise engaged in a formal affair, but sent their best and hoped to visit before the break ended.
That night, Tenchi and his beloved bedded down in his old room, laying in one another's arms as they whispered about their old memories, their future to come. With a caress and a kiss, they bid one another good night, their bodies pressed in an intimate embrace beneath the sheets.
"I love you, Tenchi," her sultry voice sung into his ear and echoed into his dreams.
Yet, his sleep was restless. His beloved's words distorted in his mind, mixing with a chorus of voices reverberating in his thoughts. All of them were hers, but each had a different tonality and timbre, all speaking at once. The volume rose with each new incarnation, accumulating into a deafening cacophony. Throughout the night, Tenchi tossed until he finally rolled too far to the side and fell from the bed. At once, the voices likewise fell silent, and the young university student was startled awake.
And, the floor he met was not the one he knew. Instead, he laid atop an aging roof that creaked under his lean weight. Groaning and cracking, the tiles beneath him threatened to release him to fall straight onto the ground below. As he clawed at the structure beneath him, the roof collapsed, splitting into fragments and letting his body enter free fall. His fingers raked along the tiles, slowing his descent until catching at last on an exposed truss beam.
Hanging there, Tenchi's brain flooded with adrenaline, and questions.
Where amI? he thought. How did I get here? What was happen-?
Before his thought could finish, the rotted truss snapped in twain with a puff of soft splinters and sawdust. Ducking and rolling, the young man softened the fall and rose quickly to his feet.
After taking a moment to gather his wits, Tenchi inspected his new locale. Glancing upward, the roof already had numerous holes, allowing the silvery moonlight to illuminate the environs. Scanning the room slowly, the building had long since been vacated and abandoned. The floor panels were similarly rotten, allowing grass and other flora to grow through the cracks. Carefully, the university student walked through the forgotten structure, finding the floor plan reminiscent of a small home: kitchen, den, two bedrooms.
As he investigated, he thought, Was Washu tinkering again?
Dr. Hakubi Washu, the legendary mad scientist, had expertise creating pocket dimensions and accessing subspace universes. Her very laboratory resided in such a tangential existence through a doorway she connected to a utility closet in his father's house. Likewise, she had connected a palatial spa to the bathroom door with a genetic sensor, allowing entry only to those of the female sex. Moreover, she had built numerous horrifying sights in different enclosed realities for a festival years ago.
Yeah, he consoled himself with a empty laugh, she probably crossed some wires and sucked me into some silly experiment of hers.
Yet, in the depths of his heart, a worry grew. When Washu had been testing her dimension tuner, both Tenchi and his father were unceremoniously deposited into different places in the house. Each eventually found other people, much to the ladies' shock when the then-teenager swam up into their spa completely unannounced. Now, no other soul was here in this empty place, not for many years.
Worst of all, this decrepit house seemed familiar, eerily familiar. While the moonlight and sounds of the night gave the aged structure a haunting atmosphere, this vague recognition clawed at Tenchi's soul. A memory deep in his mind knew this place, remembered it from a far less happy time in his life. The feeling of death crept toward him from all sides, setting him ill at ease.
Standing on the ruined porch's deck, Tenchi surveyed the yard, overgrown and untended. While he could see a few cobblestones marching up the nearby hills, the rest of the land was buried under tall grass and brush. A short distance away, a lake quietly reflected the pale light of the full moon overhead, broken only by tall reeds rising unhindered by human intervention.
Again, a shiver of fear crawled along his spine. He knew this lake, but unlike the vague recollection of the homestead, he could place this body of water easily. He had seen it earlier today when he returned home. The Masaki familial estate had always had a lake much like this one. He and his girlfriend spent several nights on the roof of the house gazing at that lake under the moonlight just like this. He was always allured by how her cyan hair seemed a ghostly white in the pale illumination, making her seem so much more like her namesake, the "devil caller".
However, the lake on the Masaki property had a notable difference. Besides being well-kept, the deep waters also had become home to a great tree, its branches extending wide over the surface below. Tenchi remembered clearly how the magnificent plant had arrived, considering the parties involved. During a jealous rage, Jurai Ayeka, then princess of the Jurai Empire, had rammed her personal yacht into his devil caller's crystalline ship in orbit above. The collision had brought both vehicles crashing into the lake, marooning both women on Earth. The tree, named Ryu-Oh, was sentient, acting as the computer core of the spaceship, as well as partner and confidante to Ayeka herself. The princess had been overjoyed when her Ryu-Oh had emerged from the wreckage at the bottom of the lake. While the tree would never again travel the stars, seeing Ryu-Oh thrive on Earth's soil gave the regal lady peace.
Ryu-Oh did not stand at the center of the lake before Tenchi now. It felt "wrong" not to see her there after five years.
Walking into the yard, he glanced toward the cobblestones. They traced a path into the trees toward the foot of the nearby hill, not unlike those between his father's house and his grandfather's shrine. Familiarity flooded his mind again, but he pushed it away.
It's not what you think, he told himself. Ryu-Oh's not in the lake.
Finally, he turned to face the dead home and stood transfixed. His body grew cold. His mouth grew dry. Fear caressed his shoulders before firmly grasping his throat. He knew this forgotten house, but it was not his. He had seen it several times in his father's 8 mm home films from high school and college. He had seen it in numerous pictures of his late mother's youth.
But, more importantly, he had been here before, when he was nearly erased from existence.
Panicked, Tenchi raised his hands to the moonlight, staring at them in a terrified anticipation. The last time he had seen this house in person, his body had begun to fade out of reality, torn from time by a paradoxical history. The sentient energy form, Kain, had traveled back in time to murder Tenchi's dear mother, Masaki Achika, when she was still in high school. In doing so, the creature changed history. Achika never married her husband, never had a son, and Tenchi suffered painfully as Time attempted to rewrite what would follow. His body became translucent, every organ in flux at the quantum level, every subatomic particle wanting to scatter to their proper places in this new reality.
Yet, the pain did not come. His body remained intact, opaque against Luna's ghostly light. Slowly, he lowered his hands, steadying his breath. His eyes darted back to the dead homestead, considering his situation.
"Okay," he told himself, "that's Grandpa's old house, the one he had before Dad redesigned it for Mom." He panned around the area again, keying on the cobblestones and the lake. "And, it all looks like it did when Kain changed history." The young man grinned wryly as he called out to the silent night, "It's not funny to scare me like this, Washu!"
Stillness answered him.
"Come on, Washu!" he spoke again. "The joke's over! You've had your fun!"
Emptiness replied.
"… Washu?" he pensively asked. "You are watching, right?"
Nothing responded.
For a moment, he waited to hear Washu's erudite words over-explaining how she had dropped him into some alternate reality, on purpose or by accident. Sadly, the usually serene scene unnerved him without her incessant intellectual insight. As the seconds became minutes, the realization became far more clear. Washu was likely not the cause of his displacement.
If she didn't put me here, he pondered, how did I get here?
Tenchi thought back to his original arrival, falling from the bed and onto the rotten roof. The transition seemed instantaneous, no elaborate time machine like Washu's time-space controller, no contorted nebulae like her dimension tuner or her tunneling door. On the other hand, the festival fun house she had made tied together several pocket universes, and the doors connecting them allowed seemingly immediate transportation.
However, he did admit that he was half-asleep when he found himself here. He may not have been aware of the mechanism of his arrival, if he even could have been.
Then, he began to worry, how am I supposed to get back home?
Alone in his pajamas without a soul in sight, the university student quickly realized the limits of his options. Without the residents of his home, the Galaxy Police likely do not have representatives on Earth in this universe. With Ryu-Oh missing, contact with Jurai would equally be futile.
Or, a possibility may lie at the Masaki shrine. Tenchi's maternal grandfather, Masaki Katsuhito, had been the priest of the ancestral shrine ever since he married into the family after the second world war. Before then, his name was "Jurai Yosho" and held the title of crown prince of the Jurai Empire. Indeed, he carried the noble blood of the great galactic empire, as well as many of its traditions, such as its signature sword style. For many years, Tenchi had learned the martial art from his grandfather, completely oblivious to its origin. Consequently, the young man himself was also tied to Jurai, to its lineage, to Ayeka.
Could Grandpa have a tree like Ayeka's somewhere? Tenchi asked himself.
Admittedly, he knew of a Juraian tree in the forests behind the shrine, a tree he would rather not approach again.
But, the shrine had another option. According to legend, the shrine had been erected to "seal" a yokai, a mythical goblin of the sky, inside a nearby cave. While the legend was not entirely true, it had a kernel of truth. An object did indeed fall from the sky and embed itself into the cave, Washu's prison. In truth, the mad genius had been exiled from her post as a professor in galactic civilization because of developing dangerous technology, breaking taboos of the Universal Science Academy. Her capsule eventually made its way here, where she was released 700 years later.
Washu might be my best shot, Tenchi told himself. After all, I don't know how to use a tree like Grandpa or Ayeka anyway.
Steeling his nerve, the prince turned toward the cobblestones and made his way toward the shrine. As he ascended the aged stone steps toward the holy place, Tenchi could not prevent his heart from sinking at the sights he beheld. The silvery moonlight gave the wooded path a ghostly appearance, shadows enveloping the familiar surroundings, color bleached out of the leaves and soil. Under his feet, he could feel the stairs cracked by overgrown plants, neglected, forgotten. He remembered sweeping each one day after day with his grandfather, and to see it now in such disarray cut him deeply.
Then, he witnessed the decrepit shrine, decaying and rotting amongst the untended weeds. Several support posts had snapped due to the weight of the roof, leaving the structure lopsided, broken. Moss and lichens had begun to grow on the gateway and along the path, Nature gradually eroding and absorbing the historical landmark.
It's not my world, he consoled himself. I just need to get home, and everything will be alright.
The prince turned his head and continued to follow the path toward the nearby yokai cave.
The natural rock formation of the cave remained oddly unchanged, but no less foreboding as he stood before it. The boulders formed an oddly rectangular opening, leading into the network of shafts beyond. As a boy, Tenchi had played nearby the fearful place, pretending to fight the monster held inside. However, his own superstitions had prevented him from entering until his devil caller playfully, and literally, tied him up and dragged him inside.
How he wished she was at his side now, for her ferocious courage to push him forward.
As he ventured to the maw of the cavern, he told himself, I'll see her again after all this is over.
At the entrance, he noticed a small altar which he did not recognize. It seemed constructed like a small house, likely for the resident spirits of the cave or even of the yokai itself. Curious, Tenchi opened the doors and found a sword embedded into the rock archway of the cave. The grip and pommel had been wrapped heavily with aging cloth while what could be seen of the guard and blade were beginning to rust. In truth, the young man did need a cutting tool to free Washu from her prison, and a weapon would be useful in handling the booby traps left for anyone seeking to defile the historic locale. A rusted sword would be better than nothing.
However, upon grasping the hilt, a bolt of lightning sparked along his arm, followed by several others. The pain was sudden, but not intense as he held fast to the weapon. He knew this energy, this barrier seeking to push him away. It felt like Jurai, like Ayeka. Members of Jurai's ruling family possessed a power, a godlike energy said to rival the Creator's, that flowed through them, connected them. Through it, a nobleman could bond with a great tree like Ryu-Oh, command its grand spaceship residence, among many other miraculous feats. Being Yosho's grandson, Tenchi also held this power, not that he was a master at its use.
Yet, he did know how to direct it. Focusing on the sword, he forced his own will toward the grip in his hand, creating a current between him and the weapon. In doing so, the bolts of energy subsided as his power synchronized with whatever was attacking him.
Then, Tenchi heard a whisper in the back of his thoughts.
Orders?
"No," his words fell impotently from his lips as his heart plummeted to the floor.
He ripped the sword from its resting place and smashed the rusted blade from the guard. He tore the wrappings from the hilt and reveal the item's true form. Even without its disguise, the item resembled a katana's hilt, intricately woven from the branches of a great tree of Jurai. Its violet guard was expertly faceted and etched by some master craftsman, affixed to the top of the device.
"Tenchiken," his grandfather had weakly told him, "the magical sword that transforms Jurai's power into a blade."
Katsuhito had never talked about his past and for decades believed it dead and buried in time. He only revealed himself when not other recourse existed, when he had to face what his youth had wrought. Then, Tenchi had first seen this sword, the weapon for which he had been named, a so-called "key of Jurai". A legendary warrior, a brave and just prince, Katsuhito would never have simply laid his blade to rest unless…
"This isn't my world," Tenchi told himself again, holding the sword tightly at his side. "This isn't my reality."
He lifted the key as he focused his might toward the guard. The amethyst-like stone glowed before it manifested a burst of blue light, coalescing into a thin blade, completing the weapon. Tenchi's eyes narrowed at the humming edge, his thoughts racing with the emotions filling his chest.
"I have to get to Washu."
With a swipe, the azure blade cut through the metal bars just inside the mouth of the cave. Kicking the remnants aside, he dashed into the shadows below.
"I don't want to be here anymore."
Unbeknown to the upset university student, footsteps marched along the cobblestone path he had trodden, straight for the cave.
The booby traps could not deter Tenchi. Wielding his grandfather's sword, he deflected every spring-loaded shuriken, sliced every falling cage, shredded every battering ram. Swift and deadly, he had learned his grandfather's lessons to the finest detail and arrived at the final chamber of the cave without a scratch on himself or his clothes. With one final strike, he cleaved the boulder blocking his way and stormed into the room.
At the center of the enclosure stood an immense crystalline structure, a glowing emerald gemstone, Washu's prison, adorned with paper charms and seals from ages past. The floor was etched with circuit-like patterns radiating from the crystal, similarly emitting a pale green light. Sporadically, stalagmites rose toward the ceiling, though these seemed purposefully made.
Without hesitation, Tenchi strode to the crystal and leaped, his blade lopping the top off the stone. As his feet touched the ground again, a bright light shot out from the emerald prison and formed a white sphere hovering overhead. A static charge raked against the air, violently wanting to spark and release itself.
Tenchi merely turned to the sphere and said, "I know it's you, Washu. You can quit the act."
A booming voice echoed throughout the cavern, "Who dares awaken me from my slumber?"
With a heavy sigh, the prince dissipated his sword blade and folded his arms. "Come on, Washu."
Slowly, the sphere drifts to the ground, fading away to expose its mastermind, the mad genius Hakubi Washu. Dressed in the green vestiges of a professor from the Science Academy, the woman stood no more than 140 cm tall, a child's stature. Her piercing jade eyes stared with interest at Tenchi, already analyzing him, assessing him with their feline-like shape. Behind her fell a mane of spiked, fiery red hair, tied at the back of her scalp in a single tail of blades.
"You're interesting," she commented. "Juraian royal lineage from the sword, though…" she paused as she scanned over his pajamas and wryly grinned. "… I don't see that as a fashion on Jurai."
Slightly blushing, Tenchi replied, "It's a bit of a long story, really."
"I bet. Care to share it?"
Anxiously, the prince scratched the back of his head as he answered, "Actually, I was hoping you could help me get home. You see, I don't think I'm from this universe."
Her brows rose, as did her interest. "Really? And, what led you to that conclusion?"
"For starters, you were released from here about six years ago in my universe."
"From your perspective?"
"Yeah, from the way I remember it."
As a scientist, Washu was a consummate skeptic, requiring proof for all claims. She stretched her hands before her as translucent planes appeared, their configuration not unlike a laptop computer. Not unlike the Jurai royal family, Washu possessed an ethereal energy that allowed her magnificent powers of her own. Mostly, she used them to implement and power her technology, such as this holographic data terminal. After typing a few commands, a scanning beam passed over Tenchi and relayed the information to the display before the scientist. Reading and interpreting the results, Washu scoffed and nodded.
"It would seem so. You are from a parallel universe, one that has some significant quantum distance from this universe." Her eyes raised to meet his as she added, "And, you aren't entirely Juraian."
"No, I'm not," he admitted. "My grandfather is Juraian."
"Oh, the plot thickens," she playfully responded. "I guess I'm not the only one exiled to this planet."
"The point is, Washu, I want to go back to my world. Can you help me?"
"Well…" she said as she spun away from him, considering his question. "You did break the seal and let me out…" She wedded her fingers behind her head before she glanced back at him to add, "I assume we know each other in your universe?"
"Yeah," he answered with an awkward smile on his face, "you kinda moved into my house after the girls broke you out."
"And, there's my problem…" she paused for a moment. "What's your name again?"
"Oh, sorry," he apologized. "I'm Masaki Tenchi."
"Well, Tenchi, there's my problem. I'm stuck on this planet, exiled from the Galactic Union…"
"… for making a dimension-oscillating bullet, an ozone-destroying cannon, and a time-space-converting tachyon ray."
Washu glared back at him. "… Yes. For that. The problem is that I don't have anywhere to go. If I drop you back in your home universe, where does that get me? Also, despite all you know about me, I don't know you."
Tenchi was taken aback. In his haste to return home to his beloved, he had not considered the genius's situation at all. In his universe, she had established herself in his home, at first a boarder and in time a good friend and ally. However, this incarnation of her had only just met him. She did not have all those experiences that had grown such close ties between them all.
"Even if I did want to help you," she continued, "there's another problem. My counterpart in your universe, you remember what she did right after you released her?"
"Yeah," he recalled, "she connected her lab to the hall closet door."
"I'd have to do the same thing. After all, I don't exactly have all of my equipment with me in a prison cell. Most of my equipment and notes were confiscated in the investigation. I'm kinda in the same situation as you, if you haven't noticed."
"You have backups, don't you?"
Washu smirked. "Of course I do, but they're secured and not readily accessible. Bending spacetime to your whim isn't something that can be done in two seconds."
"The shrine above us was owned by my family," Tenchi stated, "but it's been abandoned for a long time. We could setup the doorway to your lab there, right?"
"Maybe," the genius pondered as she stroked her chin. "Depending on the sturdiness of the structures it might have to be reinforced."
"But, it would be a start," Tenchi added, some hope slipping into his voice.
With a smile, Washu nodded, "Yes, it would. Tell you what. You help me get into my laboratory, and I'll see what I can do about you."
She extended her hand to him, and he promptly grasped it firmly.
"Deal."
However, another voice came from the doorway to the chamber.
"Unfortunately, I cannot allow you to do that."
Both Tenchi and Washu turned to the door to see a troop of men standing at the only exit from the chamber. Most of them were dressed in the uniform of Juraian soldiers, designed not unlike samurai armor but composed of a cloth-like blue material, quite sturdy and flexible. Each of these warriors was equipped with a staff composed of the hardwood of a Juraian oak, as solid as steel and just as painful on impact.
However, at their head was one young man a few years older than Tenchi. His tawny-colored hair was tied in a ponytail behind his head and fell to either side of his face. His uniform was more formal than his companions', more resembling a tailored black kimono with a sash of rank insignia, an officer. His eyes fell on Tenchi specifically with a particular curiosity.
Likewise, the prince gazed back at him, some familiarity sparking in the back of his mind.
"Masaki Tenchi, I presume?" the officer asked, the same voice which had called to them.
"Yes?" Tenchi asked.
"It is my grim duty to place you under arrest."
"Arrest?!" Washu asked incredulously. "On what charge?"
"High treason against the court of Emperor Yosho."
"Emperor Yosho?!" Tenchi blurted out.
"Yes," the officer affirmed, "the same emperor we've had for these past five years."
Oh no! Tenchi's mind raced. All the memories stated flooding into his head. He was never born into this world, which means he never met Ayeka, or traveled to Jurai, or…
It's not Yosho on the throne! he deduced. It's Kagato! Kagato won here! Which means…
As he thought of all the consequences of never facing the false emperor of Jurai, the prince looked at the officer again and finally recognized him.
"Sagami?"
At the name, the officer's brows furrowed.
"How do you know my name?"