Disclaimer: I do not own Tenchi Muyo, nor do I claim any right to them, I am writing this story for fun so please enjoy it! Oh yes the movie events didn't happen in this fic ok? Takes place three years after Tenchi Universe.
Tenchi Muyo: The five faces of grief
Chapter 1: the smile that hides pain
It has been three years recalls Tenchi, three years since the defeat of Kagato, three years since, Ryoko and his friends left and three years since his father Noboyuki and grandfather Yosho known as Lord Katsuhito on earth died in a car crash, the medical equipment on earth couldn't help them. They died before Washu before could do anything to save them and after Tenchi recalls everyone left to give him some time to mourn his loss. Now living in an apartment in Yokohama Tenchi is trying to get his life back on track he has only one year left of college then he is free to do as he pleases. There is a sudden knock on the door as Tenchi stands up from his bed looking in the mirror Tenchi ties his now long dark hair back, exactly the same way as his grandfather did. Tenchi then walks across the room stepping over large wooden boxes containing his belongings before he arrives at the door.
"Hold on a second I am coming." Tenchi opens the door to find an officer at the front door, The officer takes off his hat, rubs his head and fixes his tie, Tenchi glances at the man who was shorter than him slim build and around his mid forties with blue eyes.
"I am sorry to disturb you Mister Masaki, but we are here calling the incident you witnessed last night, the woman being attacked in the alley way behind your house." Tenchi doesn't reply but he lets the officer in to his apartment anyway.
"It is no problem officer, I am just glad she is ok, care to sit down?" Added Tenchi as he pulled out a chair from underneath his table to allow the officer to sit down, the officer rests his hat on the wooden table, as Tenchi pulls out a chair for himself before sitting down, staring at the police officer as if staring through him.
"I just want to show you a number of photos I want you to tell me, if you recognise any of them from the site of the attack would you please tell me." Tenchi nods in agreement, and police officer takes out a large black leather folder, the officer opens it up and places it before Tenchi by sliding it across the wooden table. Tenchi picks the folder up from the table and he looks over the first page of suspects.
"Scum of the earth…" Tenchi thinks to himself as he turns the page and scrolls over the second page of suspects when he gets a flash back, of the two men who had attacked the poor girl, and on that page Tenchi spots them. "That's them." Tenchi slides the leather folder across the table again and points to the pictures. The officer then looks up at Tenchi scratching his partial bald held and asks.
"Are you sure that's them?" The cop looks at the photos, before glancing up at Tenchi who replies as he glares at the pictures.
"Yes that is them officer, one of should be nursing a black eye so if he tries to sue me for it you know where to find me." Replied Tenchi as they both walked to the front door, Tenchi opens the door and lets the officer out.
"I wouldn't worry mister Masaki they are bad men, a black eye nothing compared to what other people would do to them, however good day and thank you for the help." The cop nods placing his hat back on his head, before leaving closing the door behind him. Tenchi then looks at the clock and freaks out.
"Oh hell, I am going to be late?!" Tenchi grabs his bag and slams his door closed behind him, his feet struggling to keep up as he runs down the metal steps leading up to his apartment, running around the corner Tenchi continues to run down the street, excusing himself and apologising to anyone he bumps into on the way, he looks at his watch while trying to stop his bag from falling off his shoulders. "Trust the police to show up at a time like this, Benji is going to kill me, oh I am sorry excuse me." Tenchi bumps into a man making him drop his suitcase, Tenchi leans over picking it up again and handing it to the man before running off again. Tenchi continues to run on dodging people on the busy streets, he looks at his watch again and screams out loudly before quickening the pace, however as he is crosses the busy road a motorcycle pulls up just in front of him, Tenchi narrows his eyes trying to focus as the person takes off his motorcycle helmet, Tenchi recognises the driver of the bike by his sonic the hedgehog style hair cut, instead of the blue colour how ever we have black and red instead.
"Kyoko, what are you doing here don't you have a free day today?" Asked Tenchi as he grinding to a halt, breathing heavily while leaning over forwards, looking at his feet while trying to catch his breath, as Kyoko looks down him wondering why he is so tried.
"Yeah but Benji called me to see if I had seen you, he is worried about something." Laughed Kyoko out loudly as he held the motorcycle helmet in his right hand as Tenchi stands up straight, feeling his breath returning to him.
"Our project is due today and I am late, you couldn't give me a lift could you?" Asked Tenchi seeming quite desperate, Kyoko nods firmly the cocky smile stretched across his face. "Thank you very much." Replies Tenchi jumping onto the motorcycle, as Kyoko passes him his helmet.
"No problems my friend, put that on alright and hold tight, this will get a bit rough." Kyoko starts his bike up again, Tenchi clutches on to his friend's waist as the bike sped off in the direction of the college.
This is my friend Kyoko Hashimoto, he attends the same computer classes as me in college who reminds me off Ryoko, though less destructive and works really hard. Kyoko lives with his parents, Natsume his mother, Shibusawa his father and his sister Sakura who run a convenience near the college I attend. Kyoko is the captain of the colleges martial arts club and is a popular character, his black and red hair and his big muscular build make him hard to miss, he is twenty years old with blue eyes and was the first person to befriend me when I moved here. He is also the lead singer of a local band and the motorcycle he drives is a Suzuki Hayabusa, it's really expensive and looks cool in black and silver.
Kyoko's motorcycle stops outside the college, Tenchi leaps off the motorcycle and struggles to take the helmet off, Kyoko chuckles and pats Tenchi on the back.
It is ok man, give the helmet back later, and just get to class ok." Kyoko laughs as Tenchi nods and runs off towards the college main door, again trying to dodge the crowd of students that enter and exit the building on a regular basis, Tenchi arrives five minutes later to see a young man and a young woman waiting for him.
"Whoa Tenchi you made it, I thought we were going to be in trouble." Smiled the long haired boy as Tenchi stares up at him blankly.
This is Benji Himura, he is one of my friends from college, we are in the same class for art and design, and he is also in the publicity course. He works part time as a waiter in a popular cafe named Houseki. Benji lives by himself and hasn't spoken much about his family, but is a know fact in the campus that he has a steady girlfriend even being the most popular waiter of the Houseki. He is twenty years old and owns an old Suzuki Bandit bike.
"Oh sorry about that, I was delayed but everything is ok." Replied Tenchi as he held up his orange plastic folder after taking it out of his bag, Benji lets out a slight chuckle and Tenchi looks at him funny as on of his dark eyebrows gets raised in suspicion as Benji continues to chuckle.
"Ok come on what is so funny?" Asked Tenchi as he glanced at them both, getting really annoyed at how his day has gone. Marianne then giggles before patting Tenchi on the head.
"Benji didn't tell you already? That isn't nice Benji you should have called him." Marianne scolds Benji for not telling Tenchi about what was going on, Tenchi glances between them both as he gets one of those feelings that there was no need to rush. Tenchi then lets out a deep sigh before joining in the conversation.
"Tell me what, what is going on guys?" Asked Tenchi as Marianne turned to face him in her tight blue jeans and brightly coloured top, Tenchi goes red as he gets distracted by looking at her figure. This is Marianne Naigino Benji's girlfriend; she is the daughter of a Japanese couple that has a western grandmother in the family, Marianne has a long blonde hair, a nice figure and blue eyes. She also works part time in a CD store in a mall nearby. She lives with her parents and occasionally stays at Benji's apartment. She is taking the administration course at the college, and we all hang out together often. Tenchi only catches the last part of what she was saying.
"Your tutor won't be in for another thirty minutes, so you guys have free time until, so basically my dear Tenchi, you didn't need to rush." Smiled Marianne as she glanced down at her watch, pushing her blonde hair back behind one ear so her hair doesn't get in her face. Tenchi lets out a long drawn out sigh as Marianne waves. "I better get to class you guys, see you all later." Marianne gives Benji a kiss, before disappearing off into the crowd of students.
"Let's go Tenchi, may be a good idea to sit and wait." Tenchi nods and they both begin to walk down the corridor however Tenchi looks at Benji and adds while waving at a few female students the pissed off look can be clearly seen on his face and Benji knows what is coming next.
"Why didn't you call me and say I didn't need to rush! I had Kyoko drive me over here for nothing." Tenchi laughs scratching his head as they both walk off into the large and very fancy looking main building. Tenchi glances down at the marble floor; he still doesn't know how they make it so shiny even though hundreds and thousands of students use this hallway to get to their classes, both the young men continue to walk down the corridor as students of all shapes and sizes breeze past them.
Mean while in an area of space, known as the 'shattering rifts' the newly promoted detectives have a week's vacation coming up and they are currently recording a video message for Tenchi.
"Hey Tenchi it has been along time how have you been?" The dark haired beauty smiles shyly as she strokes her hair back putting it behind her ears. "Well we have been busy with work and things, or we would have called earlier." Kiyone then climbs out of her seat and walk over to the large metal door as the door slides open. Kiyone then turns back around bends over to check something on a nearby command console fixing her shiny teal coloured hair, before focusing her attention on the message again, shifting her weight from one foot to another, seemingly very awkward she then yells down the hall way. Mihoshi come on! If you don't hurry up I will have to turn this off." Kiyone then waves at the screen her nice and warm eyes filled with kindness. Kiyone quickly moves the device that is used to record the message, as the sound of some one running down the corridor can be heard when a young blonde haired woman trips just in front of the door.
"Watch out!" Yells the woman as she drips over her own feet falling flat on her face, Kiyone can be sighing as the picture now shows Mihoshi sitting on her knees, rubbing the back of her pretty blonde head as stands up dusting off her uniform before smiling. "Hi Tenchi, it has been a long time huh, I hope your keeping ok, you see the thing is we have holidays coming up soon an we were wondering if we could come see you. Well we must get going send us a reply ok!" Mihoshi jumps into the air as she waves farewell before landing in a heap on the floor, Kiyone then turns the device back so it focuses on her.
"Well Tenchi we got to go but send a reply soon ok… please take care." Kiyone final stops the device and inputs the data to be sent to Tenchi, a video screen appears in front of Kiyone to inform her that the video had been sent, Kiyone then turns to Mihoshi whom of such has just sat down, and for once in her life, Kiyone notices that Mihoshi has an serious expression on her lovely tanned face.
"Kiyone, do you think Tenchi will allow us to come back and visit?" Mihoshi glances at her silver computer console hitting the yellow red and blue panels quit quickly as she filed another report, for a skirmish she had with a pirate vessel three days earlier. Kiyone however was staring blankly the metal grey ceiling, the memories of earth and the time she spent there all come flooding back to her, though she quickly snaps back into reality and glances at Mihoshi before leaning back in her chair, crossing her legs and resting her arms behind her head.
"I really don't know Mihoshi, he should be getting our video any minute now, I would have asked for a live feed, but the area is very hard to communicate from, well let's get going back to headquarters we still have loads of paper work to do." Kiyone cringes at the thought of more paper, slamming the palm of her hand of her forehead before letting her hand to drape over and covering her face. The engines of Yagami shoot out a blinding light of energy as the red ship begins to move, back towards Galaxy Police Headquarters like a large red ruby in space.
It is now eight o'clock in the evening and Tenchi has just come home after hanging with his friends, Tenchi takes off his shoes and closes the door behind him, he pulls out a chair and sets his jacket on it while setting his bag and keys on the wooden table. Tenchi then walks over to his bed and sits on the edge of the wooden frame, glancing at the floor, raising an eyebrow at the sign of something flashing from underneath his bed.
"What is that?" Tenchi places himself on the wooden floor of his apartment and reaches to grab the object from underneath the bed after rummaging through the stuff under his bed, Tenchi pulls out the device Washu had given him years ago, Tenchi pushes the large red crab style button on the machines front panel, Tenchi jumps backwards falling on his bum, when a large screen appears out of no where and startles him. "One message… oh yeah, how does this work again? Oh wait I remember, play message please." Tenchi sits down and watches at what appears to be the interior of a large space craft, and judging from the amount of computer panels and other control systems, Tenchi assumes the video was taken from the bridge. Tenchi wonders who it could be when the video turns to Kiyone.
"Hey Tenchi it has been along time how have you been?" The dark haired beauty smiles shyly as she strokes her hair back putting it behind her ears. "Well we have been busy with work and things, or we would have called earlier." Tenchi continues to watch the video as Mihoshi enters the video falling over, Tenchi laughs in side, as he begins to think to himself the tears beginning
They actually contacted me after three years they still care for me, even in my grief I told them all to leave. Tenchi wipes the tears away from his eyes when he catches word of Mihoshi stating that they want to visit him, if he will allow it. The video feed ends and the tears began to come back as Tenchi thinks to himself
Of course you guys are welcome. I am not sure what we will talk about it, but I really need you guys. Tenchi begins to weep again as he curls himself up into a ball, the machine pauses for a few minutes then asks if Tenchi wants to send a reply.
"Yes I would like to send a reply." The machine acknowledges Tenchi's response and it tells him he can record his message, Tenchi ponders a bit doing his best to give them a smile and then he begins his message. "Hey Kiyone and hey Mihoshi, I see you have been promoted again, congratulations I am happy for you." Tenchi then stands up, and quickly grabs a soda from his fridge before sitting back down; he runs his hand through his hair. "I am doing fine, as you know I am not living at the shrine any more, but it's being looked after by some of the neighbours. I am studying here at college to help me get a job working as my father did; I have also made three new friends." Tenchi then stops looking away from the screen, rubbing his eyes to try and get rid of the water marks from his tears away so that Kiyone and Mihoshi won't notice that he has been crying. "Though give me twenty four hours notice so I can clean up the apartment for arrival see you soon!" Tenchi sends the video and shuts the machine down, smiling briefly at the machine Tenchi sets it on his table before climbing into bed, maybe he can make up for some of the things he has done if they do come and for the first night in three years Tenchi can finally go to sleep with a smile on his face.
Authors notes:
"text said between these is speech"
Text like this is for someone who is thinking
Txt like this is for Tenchi explaning something directly to the readers (you guys ), something that the fics other characters wont hear or know about.
Well what can I say Chapter one finished yay! I would like to thank fellow writier Astrael for inspiring me with his/her story "Bitter Reunions" and for supporting me to try this story you see before you I would also like to thank my friend Benji Himura for allowing to make his character appear in this story as one of the normal friends Tenchi acquires. Well I hope you all hope come back and reads chapter too bye!