Ryoko's Visit

By yimh

DISCLAIMER: everybody that owns Tenchi raise your right hand, Cartoon Network rep, that's your left. Okay, now repeat with me "We own Tenchi, we're the only ones making money off of him, not Yimh, we will let her borrow them for this and other fics but she most give them back with a cute bow and no broken anythings." Good. Now we can continue.

AUTHOR NOTE: Mix of the OAV and Tenchi in Tokyo series. Uhm, and please don't kill me!

Ryoko stepped on the cold stone floor with naked feet. A soft blue light softly painted the dead gray walls, and framed her body as she moved closer to the source.

Arms crossed, eyes narrowed, and a slight grimace on her lips, the space pirate looked down at the child lying in the center of the light.

Her golden hair was neatly groomed and laid on either side of her head. A round peaceful childish face is where Ryoko's attention was held. No matter what age she looked like, this little girl had the heart of a woman beating in her tiny chest. The same heart that she had persistently showed Tenchi who was strong enough to say no till the end.

Drifting further down her body, Ryoko's gaze studied the tiny hands that were folded one over the other on her stomach. Those *her* Tenchi held, and one little pinky she had him wrapped around.

A low growl rumbled in the back of her throat as she lifted her eyes to concentrate on the 'innocent' face of the first one to get Tenchi.

"I know you're here." She spat, "I know you've been 'walking' around again."

The accusation was answered by a soft wisp of wind rising from the tiny body. A blue tinted light shaded to white for only a moment before returning to its natural state.

"I'm not as clueless as the others. I was where you are once, I know about that light you're laying in--what it allows the prisoner to do." Ryoko shifted her weight to one foot; "Psychic forms are great. You can't be seen, felt, or heard---almost. Once you've been a psychic identity you can feel when one is around, you know. That's Washuu's explaining at least."

The light dimmed to a concentrated royal blue, hinting towards purple. A blend of blue and red, blue being peace and the red for anger.

"You're being selfish. Always attacking him when his guard is down. Making him remember you---or your shadow, or whatever Sakuya was. Tenchi is getting over her more and more as the days pass. Maybe even forgetting about what he was to her." The last comment was accented with a smirk.

Purple light sprayed across the cave floor, but Ryoko wasn't phased and continued to speak.

"It's your fault Tenchi can't move on! Your being as thick headed about realizing his not yours anymore! Why are you trying to make him wait for you to grow up? Do you think you've still got a shot at him?"

A flash of now pinkish light hung close to the 'bed'.

"Blushing?" Ryoko questioned, mostly to herself. "That's it, isn't it? Your not going to let him be happy unless its with *you*. HA! Well I won't let you! Tenchi has a beautiful future ahead of him, and your dragging him down with depression. Just because *you* don't want to give up, because *you* think that he is going to wait for *you* to grow up into that immature, unfeeling little hussy, Sakuya!" The cyan haired woman had slipped into a fighting stance during her angered shouts.

The pink light had long been replaced with a burning red light consuming ever part of the cave. The edges of the spiking red illumination were tipped with black, signs of anger and hate.

Shaking her head as if to clear it, Ryoko reassumed her posture, folded her arms and began to speak once more.

"Well I can't help my opinions." The light was still blinding red, but the black tips disappeared. "What I came to---ask you was to leave him alone."

A new, almost audible blazing red sheet of light shot forth from the child's resting-place.

"Yugi," The name was foreign on her tongue, but Ryoko shook off the oddness of formality quickly. "You can't make him happy anymore. You can't hold hands with him, so how can you expect to hold his heart? Let Tenchi be. You've had your chance, it's time for him to move on. Give the rest of us with a real fighting chance a-heh, fighting chance. He will never pick if you keep screwing around in his mind."

Red slipped into pink, then to a light blue.

The woman sighed, "Even though you can't speak, I know you can keep a promise."

Blue light rippled like water around her.

"Then promise me-like I'm Tenchi-that you'll leave him alone. For good."

The rippling stopped as the light playing around her changed into a straight piercing into the dark crags and edges of rock. Yugi's steady emotion, Ryoko could only guessed, meant the girl was digesting her words, and the desperate plea.

Minutes ticked on forever, but Ryoko refused to leave without an answer. And she would only settle for the positive answer.

But Yugi seemed to have a tougher time deciding what to do. What she wouldn't give or sacrifice to get into that sleeping mind! Part of the blond's mind had to be influenced by Sakuya! Why else would a child that only wanted to destroy Tenchi to gain the world have such a difficult time admitting defeat?

Of course she wouldn't! Why would the hus--girl? Yugi has successfully tricked him into a love once, what would convince her that she couldn't do it again?

"YOU TRICKED HIM DAMMIT!" Ryoko screamed, feeling the old rage and loathing seeping back into her veins. "SHE WASN'T REAL! SMOKE AND MIRRORS IN A SKIRT! YOU CAN'T LOVE SOMEONE ON LIES! YOU CAN'T -I Can't..."

Her words and head dropped, /Lose him again./ Ryoko finished in her thoughts, as her heart tightened painfully in her chest.

There wasn't silence, but it wasn't noise. Darkness remained in the further corners of the roundish room, but light as bright as a firecracker sparked in the center.

A soft sniffle seemed to echo forever in Ryoko's ears, it was her soft cry, that shattered any dramatic quietness which might have been laced into the moment. The light shifted like a rainbow in a blender. Emotions danced across both of the females' faces.

"I hate getting all mushy," Ryoko confessed as a crystalline tear slipped from the corner of her eye. "But I'm asking---near to begging---let Tenchi go."

The light danced cheerfully around her in yellow and gold hues. Ryoko's head snapped up to see that the sun like glow came not from the Jurian water, but from the small mutant herself. A silent acceptance shown in the girl's emotionless face, maybe it wasn't a complete break, but it was a beginning.

A soft, dare one say motherly, smile appeared on the young pirate's lips as she looked at the glowing girl. Reaching out her hand, Ryoko gingerly touched the glass over Yugi's hands. It was only for a moment, her senses sunk in afterwards, and she drew her hand away like it had been slapped.

"Glad to see I didn't have to force you." Ryoko retorted, her emotional state well hidden within her. "Don't worry I won't tell anyone about this little chat. Emotional outbursts can be so embarrassing!" she followed up her sentence with a forced chuckle. After the laugh, silence came upon the place once again, as did the normal soft glow of cyan colored light.

Ryoko turned to leave satisfied with her visit, as she her foot was about to touch the sun warmed rocks on the outside, she turned and said, "Thanks."

Soon thereafter Yugi's closed eyes let a single tear roll from them, as a sob of loss was let out of the throat of a girl that never was.