Tenchi Muyo: Ryo-ohki OVA4

Episode 21: Innocence

By Galaxy1001D

Tenchi Muyo, Tenchi GXP, Tenchi In Tokyo and all related characters and movies are © AIC/Pioneer/Funimation. This story has been written solely for entertainment. The views expressed herein do not necessarily express the opinions of AIC/Pioneer/Funimation, the author, or this website.

Chapter Four: The Pain of Rejection

Upstairs the first princess of Jurai was crying her eyes out in the room she shared with Sasami. A knock at the door broke her out of her funk long enough to croak, "Who is it?"

"It's me, Tenchi," the boy replied from the other side of the door. "Are you all right, Ayeka?"

"I… I… I'll be fine," she lied bravely. "Don't worry about me, Tenchi, finish your breakfast."

"I'm not hungry," the boy said to Ayeka's door. "And I get the feeling that you aren't either. I need someone to talk to, are you available?'

"To me?" The princess used a handkerchief to dry her eyes. "Y-you want to talk to me?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling kind of betrayed right now and I thought if I talked it over with someone I can trust I'd feel better," Tenchi explained from the other side of the door. To be honest he was worried about her and ashamed that he had confronted his grandfather in front of the girls instead of in private. It was his fault that Ayeka's feelings were crushed as much as Yosho's. Besides, he wasn't really lying, was he? Maybe they could help each other.

"I… I… don't know if I can help you Tenchi," Ayeka tried to choke back another sob. "I… I'm really too close to the problem you know…"

"Well then maybe you could talk to me," the boy offered. "It would help knowing that I'm not alone. That's not all in my head and I really do have some justification for the horrible way I acted. Come on, Ayeka, let me in, what do you say?"

"Oh… all right," she said weakly as she slid open the door.

"Are you all right?" Tenchi asked again when he saw the girl's tearstained cheeks.

"N-no," Ayeka sniveled. "Oh Tenchi, I don't want you to see me like this!"

"I've already seen you like this," Tenchi smiled. "Remember? When you first arrived? You were a mess, but you got better. You're not alone. I'm here. So is Sasami, Washu, Noike, and the rest of us. You'll get through this too."

"You… you don't understand," Ayeka sniffled. "Nobody does."

"You're right. If I did I would have kept my big mouth shut," Tenchi sighed. "Come on, Ayeka, we've all had difficult childhoods. We all carry our burdens. It's okay to share yours. That way I can tell you what's bugging me without looking like a whiner," he smiled at his self-deprecating joke.

Ayeka smiled weakly back. "All right," she nodded with a shaky voice. "I'll tell you. It's not just my brother. I've accepted the fact that he moved on a long time ago. Besides, I'm not a little girl anymore."

Seeing the slender and baby-faced Ayeka with tearstained cheeks made Tenchi doubt that statement, but he nodded politely for her to continue.

"N-no," she shuddered. "He's not the problem. The problem is the rest of my family. Yosho was found centuries ago. He married Airi, as well as a bunch of women on Earth who didn't survive to the present day," she grumbled. "I understand. I get that. The point is that Yosho, the lost prince was found. He was found centuries ago. So why didn't anyone contact Ryo-oh and tell me?"

"Ah," Tenchi started in realization.

"Doesn't my family love me?" Ayeka moaned. "My brother Yosho wanted to get away from me. I accept that. He never wanted to see me again for as long as he lived. I don't have to like it but I can accept it." She looked at Tenchi with glistening eyes. "But w-why didn't they call me back? D-doesn't my mother and father still love me? My mother forces me to call her 'Mommy' as if I was a little child, and she couldn't even contact Ryo-oh and call the search off? When you met my parents, father ordered Sasami and me to return to Jurai but he couldn't bother to call us centuries ago and tell us that Yosho had been found? I don't understand it."

"That's… uh… that's a good one," Tenchi nodded uncomfortably. "Maybe they couldn't contact you. Have you tried asking them?"

"If they couldn't contact me how come I had to go to bed on time when I was interrogating Ryoko?" Ayeka frowned.

"Um… you lost me," Tenchi shook his head.

Ayeka blushed, or maybe her face was red from all her crying. "When I was interrogating Ryoko one of the Ryo-oh's units interrupted by telling me that I had to go to bed on orders of the queen. Ryo-oh is bonded to me. So how could my mother have influence over the ship's interior units unless she could contact us?"

"Uh… you got me," Tenchi stammered. "Isn't she the head of the Royal Bodyguard or something? Maybe all the Jurai ships are programmed to take care of her little girls and since you were in stasis it never got updated. I dunno. Have you asked your mother about that?"

"Have you tried talking to my mother about anything?" the princess asked wryly. "When she's around it's hard to get a word in edgewise!"

Tenchi blushed, remembering the emotional, over-affectionate woman with the strength of Hercules. "You got a point…" A thought hit him. "What about Funaho? She's like a second mother isn't she? She knows Misaki batter than anyone. She's like a general or something right? She'd know what's going on with the Jurai ships if anyone would."

"I'm afraid to call them," Ayeka admitted miserably. "I'm afraid that Sasami and I will be called home. Now I'm afraid that they don't really want us. That they don't really want me…" Ayeka hid her face in her hands as a sob wracked her body. "Oh Tenchi! What if nobody wants me? Yosho didn't want me, my parents don't want me, and I know that deep down you don't want me! Nobody does!"

"Don't say that!" Tenchi put an arm around her. "You don't know that!"

"Yes I do!" Ayeka cried as she pushed him away. "There's no way you would choose a spoiled brat like me when there are so many others to choose from! I don't have a chance! I mean, look at my first impression. I ordered Azaka and Kamadake to put you to death!"

"I was in your bedroom," Tenchi chuckled ruefully. "Heck I think I was straddling your body when you woke up. When you put it that way, you showed an awful amount of restraint!"

Ayeka laughed. "You're right. Years from now, we'll look back on it and laugh!" Then she sobered. "But Tenchi, I was so awful afterwards. You reached out to me and I slapped your face. I was horrible!"

"It's not your fault," he assured her. "That crazy young man pretending to be a crazy old man messed both of us up since childhood! He may have been a brave warrior, but he didn't have the guts to sit you down and say, 'Ayeka I love you, but it isn't going to work.'"

"Nobody loves me," Ayeka sniveled. "It isn't going to work between us is it Tenchi? I just know; I just know it isn't going to work! Nobody does! I'm the biggest brat in the universe! My shrewishness is known the galaxy over!"

"Come on, stop saying that," he chided. "Stop beating yourself up."

"Thank you for trying to help Tenchi," she said as she stood up straight, "but I think this is something I'm going to have to work through by myself."

"You're not by yourself," Tenchi corrected. "My dad and grandfather are lying to me about what really happened to my mother. Ryoko was abused as a child for over a thousand years. Sasami died and was assimilated by a goddess pretending to be both a tree and a spaceship, and something happened to Mihoshi that made her go from the being one of the Galaxy Police's best to being one their worst. We all have scars and burdens Ayeka. We know where you're coming from. You aren't alone. Not anymore." He left to let her absorb what he said and give her a chance to compose herself.

In the kitchen, Noike was helping Sasami wash the dishes.

"Are you all right, Noike?" the child princess asked. "You seem kind of out of it today."

"I'm fine," the emerald haired beauty assured her. "I'm just having another of my headaches again. I think I'm allergic to something on this planet."

"Maybe you should go rest," Sasami suggested. "I can handle things here. I did before you arrived you know."

"That's just disgraceful," Noike snorted. "How dare they make the youngest one do all the work! Those girls should be ashamed of themselves! I think it's time to teach Ayeka and Ryoko to wash the dishes."

"Mihoshi could help out." The idea of both Ayeka and Ryoko handling fragile dishes while being in the same room didn't appeal to Sasami.

"That blonde bubblehead?" the pointy eared enchantress sneered. "She'd break every dish!"

"Noike that's mean!" Sasami scolded. "Mihoshi has been helping out ever since she arrived here and learns how do to housework very fast! I don't think you're being fair to her!"

"I'm sorry, Sasami," Noike apologized. "It wasn't fair to me that I was assigned as her partner. I had to quit a perfectly good career with the Galaxy Police you know. I couldn't take it. She was impossible. I hear they finally installed an artificial intelligence aboard Yukanojo since she couldn't keep a partner longer than three weeks."

"I think you're being mean," Sasami insisted. "Mihoshi is so kind and she always has a smile on her face."

"I know," Noike shuddered.

"She always helps out around here and she never causes trouble."

"I notice she has trouble landing her shuttle," Noike sneered.

"It's hard without a landing beacon!" Sasami stamped her foot. "She's trying the best that she can! She's just tops until she goes into outer space. That's when she has trouble."

"Or writes home," Noike added. "The letters she sent back to her family made them declare war on us."

"That wasn't her fault," Sasami repeated. "Our family can get overprotective too you know."

Later, Ayeka found the strength to come downstairs. When she had first arrived she had shut herself in her room for a week. The purple-haired princess was determined not to humiliate herself by doing the same thing now. Even so, she avoided the housemates and crept out to the fields. She still wasn't a hundred percent ready to face everyone but she had to show herself that she had grown since she came to Earth.

Tenchi was working in the garden. The poor boy was slaving away as usual, doing his best to ignore the fact that so many in his family seemed to be liars and hypocrites.

Well not this one! Ayeka decided. She would break the pattern and be bigger than that. She cleared her throat to get his attention. "Ahem."

He turned his head. "Oh, Princess Ayeka. Feeling better?"

"Thank you for your counsel, Tenchi," she said stiffly. "You're right of course. I'm not alone. Yosho lied to both of us. Your father is keeping things from you just the same as mine must be keeping things from me. I have nothing to complain about. If my family doesn't want me I'll just move away and get a new one. That will show them," she burst into laughter. "Oh listen to me! I'm so silly!" she blushed.

"Yeah," Tenchi looked up into the sky. "Me too. So much has happened since you got here. I've discovered that my ancestors come from an alien planet, that girls from outer space have superpowers and that three goddesses are trying to make me become God. Life is strange isn't it?"

"What was that last part?" asked a puzzled Ayeka. "What's this about you becoming a god?"

"Tokimi, Washu and Tsunami are the triple goddesses who rule the universe," Tenchi explained. "Maybe more universes than this one. I dunno. This whole thing has been a huge experiment as they try to find someone who will turn into a divine being. One that's even more powerful than they are. I don't really understand it all."

"Tenchi, where did you get this from?" Ayeka shook her head. "What are you talking about? Who is Tokimi? And since when did you and Washu become gods? You two are powerful, but you have your limits."

"Don't you remember when Z attacked the Earth?" Tenchi frowned. "He split the Earth in half. He cut me in half I think! I had a near death experience and talked to a shadow that was probably myself. I rescued Kagato's female half from in the past and Washu joined her with Noike. The three goddesses revealed themselves and told us that it was all some big experiment to find the most powerful being in the universe. Don't you remember all that?"

"Uh…" Ayeka squinted as she tried to remember. "It does sound vaguely familiar… Let me think…"

"Z?" Tenchi repeated. "Remember him? The weird guy with the purple eyeball who tried to kill me, blew the Earth in half, summoned the entity called the 'Counter-actor' that looked a lot like your mom and challenged the three goddesses? Him? When the three goddesses reset the timeline Tokimi recreated him as an infant and sent him back in time where his planet wouldn't get destroyed and he could grow up living a normal life or something like that? I still don't have it clear…"

"Um…" Ayeka shook her head. "That sounds vaguely familiar… but I really can't quite… recall…"

"Forget it," Tenchi sighed. "Nobody seems to remember it anymore. Ryoko was right out there in space with me and she's having a hard time too. I don't understand it. How could anyone forget something like that?"

"I… I… don't know…" Ayeka said suspiciously. "I can't quite remember it… Tenchi. You said something about the timeline being reset?"

"Yes, so none of that would happen," Tenchi nodded. "For some reason Mihoshi's brother attacked us with his giant golf ball but thankfully Z never showed up again. I guess that part went right."

"If none of that happened, how come you still remember it?" Ayeka asked him. "Does anyone else remember it, or is it all in your mind?"

Tenchi's face reddened at the implication. "Now wait a minute! This isn't just in my mind! You all used to remember but for some reason you don't anymore! I was talking to Ryoko about it a while back but yesterday she could barely remember it! Is everybody losing their memory but me?"

"Why don't you talk to Washu about it?" Ayeka suggested. "She's the greatest scientific genius in the universe. She would be able to determine whether someone messed with the timeline or whether this is all in your head." When Tenchi frowned at her she added. "Tenchi, you have to know. Maybe what you're saying is true. Maybe it isn't. You need to find out don't you? Compared to the whole Z business, maybe what happened to your mother can wait."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Tenchi sighed. Now the princess thought he was losing his mind. Like anybody wouldn't after everything he had been through. It was hard enough coping with being a half-blood prince from another planet without the whole 'god' thing hanging over his head. If his memory was accurate, Washu was one of the architects of this whole mess and should be able to explain things.

Next: Washu's Confession