AN: Been a while since I've done any form of writing. Should be interesting. I kinda' got this idea a while back, but I never did anything with it. There are a few things that I'm working out the explanations for. For the time being, we'll just call this an AU.
UPDATE – 5/14/15 – Age relevance and OVA configuration. See end of chapter for details. Also, some grammar/word choice changes. Dialogue fixed to better match age/personality.
Dawn had begun to break, christened by the obnoxious wails of a recently salvaged holoclock. That damn thing was so annoying. Why had she even picked it up in the first place? Ryoko lifted her head up enough to locate the culprit and threw a pillow at it. The clock's screams began to die out, as the pillow stirred to life. The piece of technology sprouted legs and shook the pillow from itself as it jumped to its newly procured appendages. Oh great... Here we go. The now-mobile clock wound back and began a full charge at Ryoko, ultimately kicking her in the head. Ryoko let out a hiss, curling up and holding her head. "Wake the hell up!" It screamed.
"Fine, fine! I'm up!" It seemed that this was the daily ritual – clock abuse, work til the evening, rinse, repeat. The youth sighed. It was tough working to simply live, and even harder to see other children with parents, but it was even tougher to be unable to recall what hers even looked like. Mreow! Her thoughts were interrupted by a howl from beneath herself. Oh no! In the commotion, she must have sat on Ryo-ohki! She immediately jumped up inspecting her partner for injuries. If it weren't for the lively feline-rabbit, she'd live a life completely alone - after all, in this world, they were the only one the other could trust. Aside from a few tears, it seemed that Ryo-ohki was in top condition and had forgiven her master's discretion, joining her in her morning ritual.
Ryoko had finally made it to the bathroom portion of the morning routine, preparing both a regular and miniature-size toothbrush, then setting to work on the cabbit's teeth - it was just nice to keep her companion included in these things, you know, whatever "female bonding time" is. Turning the water on for the young cabbit, it took care of the rinsing part itself, soaking itself in the process. "Hahaha, look ya' drowned rat, go dry off!" Ryo-ohki chirped in reply and set off to do so. This seemed to be the cue to start on her own set of chompers.
Amber eyes scanned her walls as she performed this mundane task. Her home was a rather small shack, though it was large enough for just the two. Her eyes settled on a closet that was relatively unused. She had often considered that for such a small home it was impossibly large... and dark. The teen stared out the window, noting that the sandstone huts had remained unchanged since her memories had begun - dusty and yellowed, dwarfed by the distant beauty of Jurai's royal dwellings.
It sucked living in this dump and having those damn nobles constantly rubbing it in. What was the sense in that? Just to make it so the denizens of Jurai knew that they were inferior? It was at this moment Ryoko took notice of an unusual amount of ships docking... Oh, that's right...it's September 21st… today's the royal brat's birthday and she gets to come out of hiding and "greet" the civilians... She rolled her eyes at the thought and prepared to head to the junkyard. She already knew a long day was ahead of her.
The castle buzzed with excitement. It was the princess' 10th birthday and also the first day she would be granted permission to venture outside the castle walls essentially unattended, provided Yosho accompanied her. Ayeka bounced around Yosho, barely able to contain her excitement. Yosho would be showing her the kingdom and all its splendor. She truly relished the time she spent with her brother. Their parents had spoken something of an engagement recently. Though she wasn't entirely sure what that meant, she just knew it meant they would always have each other.
"Ayeka, calm yourself!" Yosho chuckled at a now embarrassed Ayeka. Ever-grinning, the boisterous Lady Misaki encouraged her.
"Oh, let her live a little! She won't have time to express herself like this forever! Birthdays should be fun and exciting!" It was hard to take the blue-haired woman seriously when she was dancing around with a 10 year old, though Yosho knew that any commentary would have crossed the line of no return... and that was something he could live his life without ever doing.
After his years in the castle, Yosho had come learn that the youth of Jurai's Royal Court were only permitted outside the walls unquestioned one day a year: their birthday – starting their 10th year. There was a simple reason for this, really - one that many average families used. "Get the kids out of the house so they don't snoop." He had seen bits and pieces of what was to become of tonight and sure enough; it was something that would leave the young princess speechless. With well wishes, Yosho took his sister's hand and off they went, passed the castle's entrance.
Had she taken a wrong turn somewhere? Seriously, she had literally JUST been at the junkyard the day before. None of the buildings seemed altered and it wasn't like the town had been rearranged over night. Ugh, if flying above city limits wasn't illegal, she could have just made a quick check and been on her way. "AAAAHHH!" A loud scream caught the ear of the lost girl, who for some reason, suddenly was compelled to run toward it. This usually meant some good shit was about to go down and she wasn't about to miss it!
A young girl, much smaller than Ryoko, was being intimidated by one hell of a gargantuan drunk. It seemed the man had full intent to hurt the purple haired girl... wait, purple?! Ryoko whistled between her fingers loud enough to garner the attention of both parties.
"Hey, Otto, man! You might wanna' back up there, bud!" She knew this was a touchy situation and had to be handled delicately. After all, she didn't want any backlash on herself. Maybe she could handle this without even going near the girl? Maybe she could this without being easily identified!
"Can it, Ryoko!" Well, shit... there goes that dream... "This girl right heeya' has a ga'bage attitude and would goes good with the trash like yous!" ...You're really pushin' it with me today, Otto...
"Garbage?! I'll have you know that I am anything but!" The purple-haired girl exclaimed. Oh no! I can't have her tell them! Someone else might try something! It seemed the man had reached his breaking point and was balling his fist up... This man was going to punch the Princess of Jurai! "My name is-" Ayeka was suddenly hurled to her left. She skidded across the dirt and after regaining her senses she looked back only to see the newcomer taking repeated punches to her abdomen. The girl crumpled to the ground in a coughing fit and hunched over.
"Otto" as he was called, was about to deliver the final blow when what looked like a cabbit jumped onto him and bit him hard enough to draw blood. He swatted at the agile creature and it hit the ground hissing loudly at him. Ayeka watched the girl stagger to her feet as Otto continued to focus on the distraction. She had been observant enough to notice an orange glow forming in her savior's hand and she continued to look on as it took the form of a beam sword. Otto had finally caught the nuisance he had been trying to rid himself of. It seemed he was going to kill the girl's pet when she rushed at him, plunging the blade into him. The princess watched as the man fell silent and ceased to move.
Ayeka's savior seem to stand there trembling for moment. She had just killed a man and probably never had before. A meow came from Ayeka's side. It seemed that at some point during the altercation, it had made its way over to the princess to check on her. The silver-maned girl seemed to come back to her senses enough to focus her attention in the direction of the creature - in other words, on Ayeka. "I hear you, Ryo-ohki. Thanks, girl." It seems the girl could understand this "Ryo-ohki". Ayeka tried to recall this girl's name. What had Otto called - Roku? Ryaku? Ryo-... Ryoko? Yes, that was it. Ryoko was walking cautiously toward her and reached a hand out to help her off the ground.
"PRINCESS AYEKA! PRINCESS AYEKA! PRINCESS!" Shouts seemed to be coming from all directions. The two girls suddenly found themselves surrounded by several guards and what appeared to be a very concerned prince. Ayeka smiled at the sight of her brother. Oh, how she had missed him! She had gotten so very lost, so very quickly. She couldn't wait to tell them about how this girl around her age helped her... but why was Ryoko panicking?
If the guards had arrived only moments sooner, they would have realized that Ryoko was not the aggressor. Unfortunately, bad timing landed the arrival of the guards and crowned Prince at a time where a dead man lay on the ground and a girl with a sword was walking toward a very terrified looking princess. It was pretty open and shut. "Capture her," an angry prince order and suddenly, Ryoko was overtaken by several guards. The last thing she heard before the darkness was angered words hissed through clenched teeth: "See that she rots in the dungeons for her crimes."
AN: I'll be explaining some things as this goes on and I see fit. The AU I'm providing will make Ryoko seem a bit on the OP side at times. At this point, yes, Ryoko does have her 3 gems, meaning she has full range of her powers; HOWEVER, she has experienced memory loss of a sort. With that being said, in the series, Ryoko gained the shape-shifting ability after assimilating with Zero, to which she still did not have all of her gems. Ryoko will be maintaining all abilities she had at any point in the series, as if having all the gems could have provided them to her. On that note, Ryoko appears to be a child. I'm debating on if I want make that an AU thing or if I want to do something like with Washu's aging thing. Also, the age thing is probably one of the reasons why this became an AU thing. In order to effectively write this, I had to change the timeline of events and condense things. They will still happen, just not with so much time between them and maybe a wee bit differently. The idea is that these are things that were changed in history to hide the truth, so what's been discussed in the series may have been a fabrication to keep up the lies. Who would argue with Jurai? (Other than Ryoko or Washu .)
UPDATE: Since ages are of some importance in this story, it was decided that some alteration would occur. Between the OVA and things that apparently stated in the novel Yosho it seems their ages are discuss briefly, which makes everything highly confusing – the point being that the character designs versus their apparent ages, are EXTREMELY flawed. (Yosho is apparently 12 when Ayeka is 4. He definitely looks around 18 when she gives him the Royal Tear Drop). Anyway, so for this story to work effectively, I have made Ayeka's starting age 10, with Yosho being 18 and Sasami not having been born yet. Ryoko's assumed age will be 12 to keep them close in age. In this AU, all events leading to the attack on Jurai are altered, with everything else in the OVA remaining true. Sasami, however, will remain exactly the, as she will be used to foreshadow the events of the OVA.