Chapter 2 'Think of the future.'
In spite of her being closer at start of their sprint, Tenchi easily beat Kiyone to roadside.
Not that she was really going 'flat out' mind you.
When coming finally a breast to him however, it seemed to her that most of his sense of urgency was lost.
Obviously reading her next question with a glance, Tenchi simply pointed.
Allowing her to follow the line of his gesture. Before Kiyone suddenly felt a groan rising from within.
"Kiyone!" Came a weak and distant wail.
Staggering up the road towards them, Mihoshi Karamatsu was a total mess.
Her normally radiant gravity defying hair currently was hosting an assortment of leaves and small debris.
The thermal running togs she was wearing were severely grass stained and torn in several places with sticks and brambles protruding from various locations. A fine layer of dirt and mud completed her current sorry appearance as she was drawing near.
"Oh Kiyone!" She whined, slowly approaching, blue eyes brimming with tears which streamed down both her bronze cheeks.
"We were coming past the shrine? just before the stairs?" Mihoshi lamented.
"And I thought I saw a hundred-yen coin!"
While Tenchi strained to the task of keeping his face perfectly neutral. His peripheral vision displayed Kiyone characteristically grinding heel of hand against her forehead as her partner continued.
"Well, I tried to grab it, while still keeping up?" Mihoshi went on obliviously.
"But I went, head first down the hill!" She drew a breath, as a tiny catch was audible in her throat.
"And I wound up in the yard behind the rest stop!"
Kiyone's hand had slid slowly from her forehead as she listened. Its pressure and path slightly distorting her features.
Giving the appearance she might be trying to 'rub' her face off.
Or at least erase the sad tableau before her as her hand finally arrived at the vicinity over her mouth.
The eyes that then peered over it at Mihoshi wore a look of supreme weariness.
"And after all that!" Mihoshi sobbed while presenting something that glimmered in the early morning air.
"It was just a lousy pop tab!"
Holding blamed object of her current state out to them, Mihoshi then proceeded to bawl her eyes out.
After a moment during which she continued to stare at the situation tiredly, Kiyone at last stepped forward.
"Come on." She sighed dutifully. Taking hold of her partners hand. Key then began leading her back along the road.
"I'll catch up with you later Tenchi!" She called over her shoulder.
"Let's go and get you cleaned up!" she then added to a still snubbing Mihoshi as Kiyone gently towed her distraught companion back toward the house.
Shaking his head sadly, Tenchi stood for a moment watching them go.
It never ceased to amaze him how anyone who could operate and repair ultra sophisticated equipment like the Galaxy Police had to offer. Could get themselves in to the kind of dire straits that Mihoshi seem to?
She had even personally repaired an old lap top Tenchi had inherited from an old school chum with what appeared the amount of effort he might need to change a light bulb.
Yet when it came to 'ditzing off', a term authored by Kiyone at some point along the time she had been here on earth.
Mihoshi was the undisputed queen!
He supposed however that 'technical brilliance' and the ability to chew gum and walk at the same time were poles apart.
"Meyow!"
Tenchi mildly cringed at the familiar call issuing behind him.
Immediately turning as he guiltily recalled., catching sight then of Ryo-Okhi as she was just now closing on his location. Carrying both of their field baskets with some difficulty.
"Sorry about that Ryo." Tenchi told her. While quickly taking the steps necessary towards 'Oki' to relieve her burden.
"Meow." She shrugged simply, smiling up at him. Not seeming to mind the mild neglect on his part.
Waiting patiently as Tenchi considered before handing her back the lighter of the two.
"Just look at you!" He could still easily make out Kiyone's voice in the distance. Prompting Both Tenchi and Ryo-chan to pause, watching the now distant figures.
"Mihoshi! You simply have to start realizing there are consequences to your actions and plan ahead!" Key continued angrily.
"I'm sorry Kiyone!" Came the piteous reply. Tenchi could tell however Mihoshi was more upset over angering Kiyone than contemplating her little mishap which could have easily broken her neck!
"You know, I'm not going to be around forever!" Key continued passionately.
"For your own sake," She pleaded tone softening, as was always the case it seemed when she dealt with this particular faction of her existence.
"You've got to start thinking about the future!"
Whatever Mihoshi's reply might have been, it was lost to the distance as she and Kiyone continued towards the house.
As Tenchi then shouldered his basket, starting his own trek homeward with Ryo-chan dutifully bringing up the rear.
Key's last words seemed somehow to follow along as he walked. Replaying repeatedly in the back of Tenchi's mind.
Even while somewhat later while engaging in the morning ritual for cleaning and storing the field tools, the statement still hauntingly echoed.
He had rapidly realized however that the voice playing them past his mind's eye was not Kiyone's, rather the far sterner tones of his grandfather Katsuhito.
In the past five years, Tenchi supposed he had had to make certain 'adjustments' for want of a better term, in some of those 'fundamental' questions everyone had to ask from time to time.
Things such as, who am I? Where did I come from?
Of course, if 'anyone' had tried to tell him previously that his grandfather was over seven-hundred years old...
"Well," He thought with a dry chuckle.
"That was then, wasn't it?"
From the time of deciding, he just finally had to see what was inside of the demon's cave to the present, Tenchi's life had become a living example of that old Chinese curse... 'may you live in interesting times.'
Ryoko's awakening had served as a kind of 'trigger' for a cascade of subsequent events.
One revelation and arrival after another, until finding himself not only heir to the bloodline of a magnificent alien empire but reluctant master of his own private harem!
"Meyow?"
His musing disrupted, Tenchi glanced to where Ryo-Ohki sat cleaning tools looking at him over her shoulder.
"Sorry Ryo-chan." He said, leaning over to pat her head.
"I guess I spaced off again."
Ryo-chan nodded absently, regarding him for a moment. Before a sly grin stole across her features and she lilted her head slightly.
"Miyone?" She offered coyly.
"No." Tenchi sighed tiredly. "I wasn't thinking about Kiyone!"
Satisfied with her 'barb' Ryo-Ohki turned attention back to the tool she was cleaning only to utter a gasp as Tenchi suddenly reached out, capturing a hand then proceeded wrapping arms around her surprised form.
"But while we're on that subject." He said, while tussling her hair.
"Thank you ever so much for ganging up on me!"
"Meow! Snop!" Ryo-chan made an elaborate show of trying to fend him off.
"Ya little turncoat!" He said smiling, as his mock assault turned into a playful Dutch-rub.
"This'll learn ya!"
"Me-op!" She mewed and squirmed. Just as Tenchi's 'attack' turned into an affectionate squeeze. Converting her protests into purrs of contentment.
"I'll finish up here." He told her, relaxing his hold, looking slightly down into her beaming upturned face.
"You know well as I do Sasami is already slaving away over breakfast!"
Springing eagerly to her feet Ryo-Ohki turned and bolted past, 'phasing' through the closed door with an excited Meow! Meow!
Shaking his head smiling, Tenchi began storing the remaining tools.
All the while hearing that phrase. Which seemed to have been haunting him of late.
Though if the truth be told, it had been echoing dimly in his mind far longer than before Kiyone has uttered it over an hour ago.
"You've got to start thinking about the future!"