Galaxy 1001D presents:
Bram Stoker's Kagato
Starring Tenchi Masaki as Tenchi Harker
Ryoko Hakubi as Ryoko Westenra
Washu Hakubi as Doctor K. T. von Washu
Aeka Masaki Jurai as Ayeka Murray
Sasami Masaki Jurai as Sasami Morris
Mihoshi Kuramitsu as Mihoshi Renfield
Kiyone Makibi as Doctor Kiyone Seward
Special Guest Star Kagato as Count Vladimir Kagato
Tenchi Muyo and all related characters are © AIC/Pioneer. This story is written solely for entertainment and is not intended to make a profit in any way.
Based on "Dracula" created by Bram Stoker
And "Tenchi Muyo" created by Masaki Kajishima
Chapter Eleven: It Was Cold In There…
The next morning it was business as usual at the Bethlem Royal Hospital. "Doctor Seward!" an orderly cried. "We have a patient that is armed and dangerous!"
"Everyone keep calm!" Kiyone ordered as she entered the room. There, in the center of the cafeteria, was Mihoshi brandishing a double-barreled shotgun.
"Don't you worry!" Mihoshi announced to the cringing patients and staff that were hiding behind tables and counters. The look on her face was one of determination. "There's nothing to fear here! No one is going to get by me!"
"Mihoshi!" Doctor Kiyone Seward exclaimed. "What are you doing?"
"Hello Kiyone," the demented blonde smiled, "Don't you worry about a thing! No vampires are going to get in here! Not while I'm on the case!"
"Mihoshi, put down that shotgun," Kiyone ordered. "You're scaring everyone half to death!"
"Really? Oh my!" Mihoshi rested the shotgun on her shoulder and glanced around the cafeteria. "I thought they were all hiding from the vampire."
"No, bubble-brain, they're all hiding from you!" Kiyone corrected. "Now hand me that firearm before somebody gets hurt."
"But Kiyone, what if a vampire comes in here?" Mihoshi asked with genuine concern. "Most of the patients in here can't defend themselves. Who will look out for them?"
"Mihoshi, it's broad daylight, even if vampires did exist, I seriously doubt one would choose this minute to invade the hospital," Kiyone insisted. "Gun, please."
"Okay, here you go," the bronze skinned blonde smiled as she handed Kiyone the shotgun. "Just make sure that's in a place we can get to it, okay? The sun won't stay out forever, you know."
The nameless orderly that resembled Captain Nobeyama from episodes four, seven, and thirteen of Tenchi Muyo Ryo-ohki OVA let out a breath he had been holding. "Shall I take Mihoshi back to her room, Doctor?"
"No, I don't think that's necessary," Kiyone shrugged as she unloaded the shotgun. "Just have the nurses give her a bath, a massage, and a hot meal. That always calms me down you know."
"Right away, doctor," the orderly nodded to a trio of nurses who bore a striking resemblance to Sayuka's classmates from Shin Tenchi Muyo. The nurses led Mihoshi away to pamper her and let her know she was loved.
"We have another case, Doctor," the orderly announced. "She's waiting in your office."
"Okay, I'll take a look at her." Kiyone turned on her heel and walked out the door.
The woman waiting in her office was young and beautiful, but since her hair was dyed a deep shade of green, Kiyone suspected that she was mentally unbalanced. Still, since the doctor had suffered a hair dye mishap herself, she decided to give the woman the benefit of the doubt.
"My name is Noike Kamiki Jurai. I'm the adopted granddaughter of Lady Seto," the emerald tressed woman announced. "I was formerly Mihoshi's partner in the Galaxy Police and have Kagato's female half inside of me. I'm not really Tenchi's fiancé; that was just a ruse for Lady Seto to plant me into the Masaki household to keep an eye on everyone. Washu is really a goddess and so is Sasami. Tenchi's grandfather and Ayeka and Sasami's half-brother are the same man. Ryoko was created as a scientific experiment by Washu over five thousand years ago using her own egg cells. Ryo-ohki isn't really a carrot-eating pet; she is a spaceship. Ayeka and Sasami traveled here to earth from a distant planet in a spaceship that is really an intelligent tree. A creature called 'Z' is coming to destroy the earth and I'm being used as an unwitting pawn! You've got to help me!"
"Don't worry," Kiyone assured the distraught woman, "We'll give you all the help you need." She picked up a little bell from her desk and rang it.
The orderly appeared in the doorway. "Yes, doctor?"
"This woman is incurably insane," Kiyone gestured to Noike. "Take her away and put her in the mental ward."
"Will we be giving her the standard care for mental patients?" the orderly asked.
"Yes," Kiyone nodded. "Take her away, beat her into submission, put her in a straightjacket and throw her in a cell not fit for dogs. We'll give her the finest treatment that modern psychiatric medicine can provide."
"Yes doctor," the orderly nodded, "of course."
The orderly was joined by others who clubbed the screaming Noike and dragged her struggling form out the door. Kiyone laughed cruelly to herself. She then exhaled a deep breath and tried to make sense of the last few days.
It was all that crazy von Washu's fault. She needed to be in a mental institution more than Mihoshi did. She actually believed that vampires and other supernatural creatures existed in a scientific universe! Preposterous! Worse yet, the petite redhead's charisma and force of will made her most outlandish claims seem plausible. Only when free from her presence could one remember that this was a rational world and that nosferatu and other bugaboos did not exist.
Kiyone was reading the London Times while enjoying a morning Danish when the orderly returned to announce the next crisis she would be dealing with.
"A young man was found wandering the streets," he stated. "The police found him raving about girls coming back from the dead. He claims to know you. Would you like to see him?"
"Know me?" Kiyone repeated. "Yes, of course I would. Send him in."
"Very well," the orderly bowed respectfully before he left. Soon two orderlies returned and dragged a haggard young man in a straightjacket into her office and sat him on the chair in front of her desk.
"Tenchi!" Kiyone stood up and leaned on her desk in surprise. "What happened to you? We've been worried sick!"
"Kee… Kee… Kee… Kiyone," Tenchi mumbled. His unseeing eyes blinked as he tried to focus on the delicious doctor. "Is that you?"
"Yes! It's me! It's really me, Tenchi!" she cried as crossed to his side of the desk and started pulling at the ties on his back. "Can you stand up? I can't untie this straightjacket."
"Y-yeah," he said as he staggered to his feet. "I think so…"
When they managed to get him out, Kiyone could see that his normal clothes didn't look any better. His shirt and trousers were stained and torn in several places, and his waistcoat was missing several buttons. His shoes were scuffed and dirtied with ash, dust and who knows what else. His tie was missing and his collar was crooked and uneven.
"Oh Tenchi," Doctor Seward exclaimed. "What happened to you?" Tenchi didn't respond, he just stared into space. "Tenchi?"
(Begin Flashback One)
"No… no way!" Tenchi's mind swum with revelation. Ryoko! He could barely recognize her! Her long, soft, beautiful raven tresses had been transformed into a fright wig of wild cyan-white hair with tails that drooped down like comically long sideburns. Her soft, feminine features seemed more angular, more feral. Even her clothes were completely foreign to the woman he knew. She was dressed in a strange pale green robe with a high collar and a pink belt, like a nightgown or a Japanese kimono. She seemed ten years older, with the sophistication of an older woman. And her eyes! No longer were they the soft brown eyes of the girl that he grew up with. Now they were glowing a pale shade of green! What had von Washu said about vampires? They were cadavers animated by demons come back to torment the living!
"You can't be…" Tenchi gibbered like an imbecile. "Can't be… can't be…" Ryoko's eyes stopped glowing, but the room was filled with cricket-ball sized spheres of luminous pink light. "some… some… some kind of demon!" A sphere of pink light burst right before Tenchi's eyes. "Augh!" he cried as he put his arms over his head.
The creature that was Ryoko Westenra hugged herself sadly. "It was cold in there, and dark," she uttered in a quiet voice.
Tenchi hesitantly looked back at her, unable to believe the strange woman before him was really Ryoko, back from the dead!
"Do you know how long I was trapped in that crypt?" The vampire closed her eyes as if reliving the experience. "Seven hundred minutes!" She opened her eyes and Tenchi could see that they were now yellow, like an eagle's. Combined with the plumage of her windswept spiky hair, she looked like an angry bird of prey. "And I didn't like it! I didn't like it at all! All I want now is revenge!"
"Hey, it's not my fault!" Tenchi insisted.
"No?" she asked as calmly as if she were discussing the weather.
"No! Give me a break!" Tenchi exclaimed indignantly. "We all thought you were dead! Your instructions were for you to be interred intact, and that means that we had to have your burial as soon as possible!"
"I don't care," The vampire sounded almost like a spoiled child. She raised her right arm above her head and an ornamental sword flew off the wall to soar through the air to the monstrously transformed young woman. She held out her hand and caught the antique broadsword by the handle. The undead Ryoko smirked wickedly and announced, "I just need to let out my anger on you…right now!" Before Tenchi's startled eyes, the vampire leapt into the air and swung the blade over her head with both hands.
(End Flashback One)
"Aaaaaah!" a horrendous scream tore through the doctor's office.
"Tenchi!" Kiyone cried while hugging him. "Tenchi! Wake up! It's me! You're safe! You're safe now!"
"Kee… Kiyone," he mumbled. "I… I… it's daytime," he squinted as the morning sun streamed in through the windows. "I… I made it. I'm safe."
"Yes," Kiyone nodded. "You're safe. You're safe now. Everything's going to be all right."
Tenchi Harker blinked and then looked around him as if waking up from a bad dream. "Kiyone? Where am I? I'm at the hospital, how did I get here?"
"They found you wandering the streets," Kiyone replied carefully. "What happened to you? What do you remember about last night?"
"I… I… dreamed that I went to the university to confront Doctor von Washu. I thought she stole Ryoko's body."
"Uh-huh," Kiyone nodded, urging him to continue. "Then what happened?
"I… I… fell asleep, I think…" he muttered. "I had these fantastic dreams! I couldn't tell when I was asleep and when I woke up. I dreamed that Ryoko had come back to life to get revenge on the living."
"Ryoko came back to life?"
"I know, it sounds fantastic!" Tenchi nodded as his empty eyes stared out the window, "but it seemed so real… She could walk through walls and knock holes in the ceiling and even fly! She didn't even look like herself. Her hair was this whitish color and her eyes were as yellow as an eagle's. She had fangs like a cat! She didn't look like herself!"
"What happened next, Tenchi?" Kiyone prodded.
"She… she damaged the science building," he stammered. "There was a gas leak. She was blocking the door out of the classroom! I thought I was going to die!"
(Begin Flashback Two)
Tenchi pressed his hands against the sides of his head and turned towards the wall. "I can just see the headlines. Brilliant lawyer blown to bits!" It was at this moment that all semblance of self-control eluded him and he started lamenting the most insignificant regrets. "Ah man… if I would have known I was going to die today… I wouldn't have done all that work over the weekend!" He cried. Suddenly, as quickly as it had left him his ability to reason returned. "I… I… think I might just have an idea…" he muttered.
By this time, the demon that was Ryoko had ceased her advance was now regarding him with nervous puzzlement. "Hm?" she cooed like the feminine lady she used to be.
Tenchi turned to her and smiled. "Hey!" He grinned a fake grin and pointed and stared to a building out the window. "What's that outside the window?" Soon his bravado began to leave him "I just used the oldest trick in the book," he groaned for surely no one could be fooled by such a transparent ploy.
To his surprise he found the vampire staring out the window in childish curiosity and wonder. "Ooh!" Ryoko exclaimed. "What is it? I wanna see!" Gone was the lean and predatory gleam in her eye. Even her cheeks seemed to have the fullness of youth.
Tenchi seized the opportunity to sneak out the door to the corridor beyond.
"Hm?" Ryoko looked left and right with wide eyes searching for both the frantic young solicitor and the object that had seemed to fascinate him so. "Hm?" Looking right and left, she didn't see him "Hey!" she called out to Tenchi. "I don't wanna miss anything!"
"I can't believe she bought it!" Tenchi squealed as he ran out into the hall so fast that he stumbled and crawled forward until he could get back to his feet. "I'm outta here!" As the boy ran down the corridor he failed to see the dark shadow he left far behind that staggered to the door to the class he had just abandoned.
In the classroom Ryoko looked around searching for both the young solicitor and the vision that had fascinated him so. "No, I don't see anything. I think… huh?" Realization dawned on the creature that she was alone. "What?" Shock and indignation was quickly replaced with embarrassed anger. "Grrrr! I'll get him!"
Suddenly the door lurched open and a hideous patchwork creation of various beasts lumbered into the classroom and roared in fury at the agony of its tortured existence. The creature had the body of a bear, the tail of a crocodile, and the head of a very irritated baby rabbit with cat ears.
"What the hell are you?" Ryoko demanded. "A Frankenstein monster, eh? No problem. I know your big weakness. Everybody knows Frankenstein monsters are afraid of fire!"
As Tenchi fled down the hall, the concussive force of a deafening explosion knocked him down. The young solicitor screamed as he tumbled to the ground and rolled forward.
Tenchi staggered to his feet and gazed in wonder at the roaring flames filling the hall behind him. "Well… there she goes," he sighed. He clasped his hands together and bowed his head in prayer. "Poor Ryoko, you were such a good person." Then he remembered that she was actually a demon from hell. "Well, not really, but… huh?"
Impossibly, a female form stepped out of the flames. Completely unhurt with the exception of being covered in soot and ash, the creature that had been Ryoko Westenra blew smoke out of her mouth and rubbed soot out of her eyes. Even her soiled clothes were perfectly intact. The vampire coughed twice and exclaimed. "Hey! That's no way to treat a lady!" and leapt into the air to fly down the hall towards the terrified young lawyer.
(End Flashback Two)
"Sounds terrifying," Kiyone patted his shoulder gently. "Is that when you woke up?"
"That's the worst part!" Tenchi exclaimed. "I didn't wake up! I didn't wake up, Kiyone! That terrifying dream just kept on going! I don't understand it! I spent the entire night trying to keep out of her clutches!"
"Well how did you escape?"
"She was flying down the hall like a speeding freight train when she got distracted by her reflection in a mirror and stopped to dust herself off."
(Begin Flashback Three)
"I'm in big trouble!" Tenchi exclaimed as he ducked around a corner. "She's alive again!"
Ryoko flew down the corridor until a large full-length mirror that had been left in the hall distracted her. She smiled at her reflection, as cute as a ten-year-old girl until she noticed that she was covered in ash and soot. "Ooh! Look at me!" she exclaimed. "My hair is a mess!" Frantically she made little noises as she brushed the ash from her clothes and hair. "Oh! Oh!"
By now the terrified lawyer was feeling faint. "Heh-heh!" he laughed nervously as he snuck down a flight of stairs "Thank gawd!"
(End Flashback Three)
"And that's when you got out of there, huh?" Kiyone asked him.
"No," Tenchi shook his head. "I couldn't lose her! No matter what I did. She was as strong as Hercules and as unkillable as Achilles! Even bullets from my father's old service revolver couldn't stop her!"
"My goodness," Kiyone gently humored him. What did you do?"
"Finally I remembered the silver cross that Ayeka had given me early that day. She said that she would feel better if I was wearing it. I took it out of my pocket and held it up to her face."
(Begin Flashback Four)
Tenchi held the little cross in front of him, dangling it on its silver chain. "That's it! I've had it! Stop right there!" he ordered.
"Huh?" said an unimpressed Ryoko. "What are you trying to do, hypnotize me?" Then she stared at the silver cross. It had a tiny ruby in the center. She seemed transfixed by the little holy symbol. A tear formed in her eye as she moaned like a child. "Oooh!"
Tenchi allowed himself a smile. It was working. With the cross in his hand, she couldn't touch him!
"Why Tenchi!" smiled Ryoko, "it's beautiful!"
"Wha?" the handsome young man's mouth hung open as all the color faded from his face.
"I shall treasure it always!" Ryoko exclaimed sweetly as she gently took the silver chain out of his limp and useless hands. She giggled like the Ryoko Westenra she used to be while she fastened the cross around her neck. "How do I look, Tenchi?" she asked in a convincing imitation of the way she used to flirt when she was one of the living. "It matches my hair, don't 'cha think?" She spun around like a dancer allowing the centrifugal force to pull the crucifix off her chest before it was pulled back by the chain to bounce against her breast.
(End Flashback Four)
"The cross didn't work?" Kiyone was becoming engrossed in his story despite herself. "How did you get away?"
"You'll never believe what finally stopped her," Tenchi sighed as he closed his eyes.
(Begin Flashback Five)
Tenchi had picked up a broom and was welding it like a weapon while backing away from her slowly.
"What's the big idea?" she blinked. "Are you planning to fight me?"
Tenchi's mouth opened before he could stop it. "If I had my way, I wouldn't fight a monster like you!"
"Monster?" Ryoko's face contorted into an angry caricature of her former self. Her right fist collided with Tenchi's jaw and sent the young man tumbling down the hall. Ryoko struggled to control her temper, but failed miserably. "Tell me, what makes you call a pretty young lady like me a ma-ma-monster?"
"C'mon!" Tenchi protested as he rose shakily to his feet and backed away. "You walk though fire, you walk through walls, you rip holes in the ceiling and you can even fly!"
"Very good reasons, but not good enough!" She growled as she dashed towards him. She was so angry that she couldn't even fly!
In a last ditch effort to defend himself, Tenchi grasped the broom with both hands hand swung it like an American baseball player. Unbelievably, Ryoko started in fear as her feet skidded on the floor as she attempted to back up. She dodged backwards, but not in time to avoid the boy's swing. Her arm was caught by the broom and her hand was severed off at the wrist.
Her hand hit the wall and exploded into a cloud of dust. For a moment, the two combatants just crouched and stared at each other, ignoring the smoke and dust and not even blinking. Then the creature that was Ryoko looked out the window and stood up straight, drawing a deep resigned breath. She turned her head and stared up at the ceiling.
"Oh well, another battle lost," she sighed. "That's the story of my life." Her golden eyes had lost their predatory gleam, and her cheeks once again had the fullness of youth. Despite all that happened, despite the uncanny transformation had had afflicted her, it was hard to believe that this creature wasn't really Ryoko.
"I…" Tenchi stared at the end of his broom. It was broom bristles not an axe blade! He stammered apologetically at the creature that had once been a childhood friend and sweetheart. "I… I… I'm sorry!"
Ryoko smiled and shook her head. With the flourish of a stage magician, she passed her left hand over the stump on her right arm and appeared to pull a fresh hand out of her sleeve. She held up both hands, turning them back and forth, to show that she had two fully operational appendages.
Tenchi dropped the broom and started clapping. None of this seemed real anymore. Perhaps he was still asleep.
"Goodnight," The creature that was Ryoko breathed softly as she bowed and sunk into the floor as if she was entering water.
Tenchi was still clapping and laughing like a madman until an explosion knocked him off his feet and brought him back to his senses. He was in the Mad Science building, and it was on fire! Who knows what kind of volatile experiments are in the labs and classroom that are just waiting to go off like dynamite as the flames spread? He descended the now unguarded stairs and found a door to the outdoor campus at the bottom. Sirens and alarms were heard in the distance.
(End Flashback Five)
"You stopped Ryoko with a broom? Kiyone shouted in disbelief. "And you blew up the Mad Science building?" She glanced at the newspaper on her desk. On the front page was a photograph of the London University Mad Science building going up in smoke. Had Tenchi really been there and committed arson in his delirium? What had really happened last night?
Kiyone's train of thought was broken by Tenchi's voice. How long had he been speaking to her?
"I have no idea how long I wandered the streets of London," Tenchi continued as his voice sounded more like his former self. "Finally, a friendly constable had found me and took me home. I thought it was over."
"It wasn't?" Kiyone blinked.
The young solicitor shook his head sadly. "Nope. I was in my flat, getting ready to go to bed when…"
(Begin Flashback Six)
His shaking hand tentatively reached out to pull the blanket down to open the bed. "Hah?" A tangled mess of cyan-white hair greeted him. He lifted the covers to reveal the creature that was Ryoko, right there in his bed! "Yeagh!" Tenchi Harker leaped backwards as Ryoko stirred and rolled on her back to reveal that her blouse had come open, revealing her milky white chest. The silver crucifix still dangled on its chain between her breasts.
"Hmm…" The vampire opened her eyes to smile at his distress. "Welcome home, Tenchi," she smirked.
Tenchi Harker whined and prayed to the Creator above to deliver him from this darkness.
(End Flashback Six)
"I don't remember anything after that," Tenchi was studying his scuffed and muddy shoes. "I have dim recollections of running through fog and darkness, of trying to get to Ayeka's house to get help, but I wouldn't be surprised if my head fell asleep and let my feet take me wherever they may." He scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously. "Guess I ended up in the right place, huh?"
"Tenchi," said a concerned Kiyone Seward, "there must be a logical explanation for all this. You one of the sanest people I know and people don't come back from the dead!"
"Ryoko's death must have hit me harder than I thought," Tenchi shook his head sadly. "I must have really been in love with her and never realized it. Now I may as well get my things and find a room around here," he glanced around in resignation. "It looks like I'm going to be here for a while."
"That's nonsense, Tenchi," Kiyone shook her head stubbornly. "You aren't insane! Maybe you had too much to drink last night, or ate some foreign food or something. You aren't insane!"
Tenchi just smiled sadly and shook his head as if he was a terminally ill patient who had finally accepted his fate. "That's nice of you to say, Kiyone, but we could've said the same thing about Mihoshi before her trip overseas. I can't tell fantasy from reality anymore. I might as well reserve a room."
"Stop talking like that," Kiyone scolded. "You. Are. Fine. You've just suffered a traumatic experience, that's all."
"Kiyone, I'm afraid to go home," He whispered.
"What?"
"I'm afraid that she'll still be there when I go home," he explained. "Silly, isn't it?" he cracked a smile. "I mean, even if vampires did exist, she'd be in her coffin at this time of day… but I just can't go back there alone. Not after last night. Could you go with me?" When the teal-haired woman paused, he added. "You could look for clues and see if Ryoko really was there last night. If she wasn't you could help me pack a few things before I come back here."
Kiyone smiled sadly. "Sure Tenchi, if that's what you want."
When Tenchi and Kiyone arrived at his lodgings, he was pleased to discover that his key was still in his trouser pocket, so there was no need to call his landlady to let them in. They entered his flat to find Tenchi's torn and discarded jacket draped on a chair.
"I was getting ready for bed," he explained as he picked a rumpled tie off the floor, "and then I walked into my bedroom and found the undead Ryoko in it." The two of them walked over to his bed. Kiyone had to admit that with all those full and quilted blankets on it, the bed did look like it had an occupant. "When I sat on the bed to take off my shoes, I noticed that it was lumpy. There was somebody in it. I drew back the covers and there she was." He reached down to draw the covers back and expose the pillow. "Maybe you can spot some hair on the pillow…" his voice died away as both he and Kiyone just stared at the figure in the bed in disbelief.
The creature that was Ryoko yawned, exposing he long pointy canine teeth. She muttered in her sleep and rolled on her front to escape the light that was sneaking in beneath the drawn curtains. The only noise in the room was Ryoko's snoring.
Next: A Chance Meeting