... I do not own either Bleach nor Tenchi Muyo, least of all any incarnation of which regarding the two!This story is for entertainment purposes! If I wanted to charge people then I wouldn't put it on Fanfiction now would I? (Super squint!)

A/N: On a side note, does anyone know what was being written in the sky on episode three of the Tenchi Universe series? It looks like an symbol. Or was it basically the equivalent of sky doodling?

Soul Universe

Chapter Three: Here comes the other princess

Masaki household

Things only got worse since Ayeka moved in...

Unlike her evil counterpart, Ayeka certainly tried to make herself useful around the house much like Mihoshi. It was a little awkward however... Unlike Mihoshi who had a base understanding of cleaning and other such mundane topics, Ayeka was simply... clueless. In other words while she could comprehend the notion of working, the actual act left her unsure given her privileges as a princess whom was waited on hand and foot for the most part. Though they had to take their time to with her to show her the ropes, it certainly beat having to patch up the walls and floors every other day.

But during it all Ryoko, being Ryoko, had taken it upon herself to harass Ayeka as much as possible for her own amusement. That is of course when she wasn't being jealous to any at all perceived bonding between himself and Ayeka... But thankfully that was neither here nor there at the moment.

With his studying near constantly under siege by Ryoko in the house he had taken to either finding some random spot in the woods to study whenever the weather was favorable. If not that then it was the shrine provided it wasn't too terrible of a trip. In any case it took skill, precision, and most importantly stealth to sneak out of the house nowadays without being accosted by Ryoko. It also helped whenever he managed to spy her being content with drinking the afternoon away, meaning he could sneak out the backdoor with the added security of knowing he was going to be tackled from behind.

Regardless, as he began to walk away from the house he couldn't help but turn the collar of his shirt up as a autumn draft briskly brushed past. Perhaps he'll stay at the shrine today.

XVX

Forest

It was the roar of a passing jet that brought his attention to the contrail being formed high above him. With his idle curiosity sated he was just about to return his attention when the jet abruptly changed course at a 90 degree turn! And though he may not be overly familiar with aircraft in general, but he was more than certain they couldn't turn that quickly! As such he couldn't help but gape at the spectacle as the unseen aircraft then began to circle around where it originally turned in an ever wider circle. At least until he felt a presence behind him.

Surprised and tense because of it he turned around rather sharply with a scowl on his face which was lost to a confused frown when he spotted the supposed lurker: a smiling young girl roughly ten years old whose teal hair had been pulled up into two waist-length pigtails, both of which were held together at the base by two large red beads; on her brow, between her eyebrows were two triangular marks though whether they were tattoos or jewelry he wasn't able to discern from the distance. Not only that but here eyes were an almost familiar shade of red... and her clothing looked rather similar to Ayeka's if it were patterned with gentle greens and orange highlights.

"Um... Hi," he awkwardly offered. To this the child giggled and waved to him.

"Hi, I'm Sasami! I'm here looking for my older sister."

Immediately a hunch formed in his gut.

"Her name wouldn't by chance be Ayeka, would it?"

Her eyes lit up and her friendly cheerful smile shined with brilliant hope. "Do you know her?"

He bit back a sigh as he hefted his book to him once more. "Come on. I'll take you to her."

"Thank you mister!"

Meh... he could study later. Ideally after Ryoko was blackout drunk again.

XVX

Masaki household, hours later

After the initial surprise of Sasami's appearance at the household preparations had to be made for both Ayeka and Mihoshi in terms of their departure and even celebration of returning home. For a time Katsuhito entertained them, presumably the same way he had with Ayeka when she arrived, while Ichigo, Nobuyuki and Mihoshi went out to gather party supplies. After quite a few mishaps, Mihoshi being behind a number of which as was the growing and soon to be gone norm, the banners had been finally set up, the food cooked, with surprising help from not only an eager but unsuspectingly skillful Sasami, and the sake had been dished out... in moderation of course in Ryoko's case.

"Aw come on! Just a little more, Ichigo?" Ryoko half whined and purred.

... With Ichigo being the quartermaster of which, no thanks to the closest thing he ever had to a grandfather on any side of his family... Then again Nobuyuki wasn't exactly a tough nut to crack when it came to requests of any sort when they came from the fairer sex. Not only that but Ryoko had more than once proven that she could consume their whole supply in a matter of hours, or minutes depending on the circumstances, if left to her own devices. So far the only one she hadn't tried to brute force it from was himself with Ayeka being a close second, though it wasn't a lack of trying in regards to the princess...

... whom was rather melancholic in spite of the festivities whereas Mihoshi was her polar opposite with her smiles and the occasional tears of joy.

His attention however was stolen by a question from Katsuhito. "Hey Ryoko, is that all you can eat?" Because of it he was already on alert as he looked to Ryoko with squinted eyes. Sadly with her back to him however and judging from the bent of her arm, as well as the muffled reply that came from her, his suspicion only grew rather than became either justified or finally found a case of mistaken intent at long last.

"I don't have much of an appetite tonight."

"You've must have eaten too many snacks today Ryoko," Mihoshi offered with a puzzled expression of her own. In fact it was a shared trait amongst almost everyone at the table with their own variation of it. The only ones who didn't share it in any sense was himself and Ayeka. Like himself however Ayeka began to squint at Ryoko when she removed her hand from her mouth to cup her cheek.

"But I really crave some pickles and ice cream!"

It took a moment for everyone for the comment to sink in.

Of the group Nobuyuki was the first to gasp in surprise, speaking what was on (almost) everyone's mind. "Ryoko! My goodness, can it be that you're pregnant?!"

Admist the shocked gasping, and the deadpan stare from Ichigo, Katsuhito added in his two cents in a rather calm fashion. "I thought you were putting on some weight lately."

"That must be it!" Mihoshi animatedly added as she gripped her chopsticks all the tighter. "You know what causes pregnancy don't you?"

"Well, yes," Ryoko bashfully responded, her head still turned.

"Wow! I can't wait to see the baby!"

Ichigo bit back a groan as he began to rub his brow, all the while contemplating how to diffuse this situation before he inevitably got labeled as the father if he read the situation right. Yet in the midst of his pondering Ryoko lurched forth as if holding back vomit. Before anyone could comment on it she got up, ran to a nearby door behind him, threw it open and dashed into the depths of the house before promptly shutting the door behind her. And before he could even comprehend the ramifications of this she began to audibly vomit with theatric gusto... what killed it however was what sounded like a recording of a baby crying however.

"Oh you got to be kidding me," he grumbled just in time for the door to be reopened once more. From it Ryoko stepped out, both hand lovingly clutching what looked to be a large black egg of obsidian to her chest with a blush on her cheeks.

"The baby is born," Ryoko tenderly stated. "The baby I made with Ichigo," she then added with the same inflection.

The subsequent reactions of shock much like before were instantaneous. In fact they were louder than before, more shocked, whilst Ichigo practically tried to forcibly join his hand to his face to hide or better yet eliminate his embarrassment.

"I GOT TO TELL ISSHIN!" his uncle cried before hastily scrambling to his feet to get to the nearest door closest to the landline.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Likewise Ichigo scrambled to his own feet and, in a bid to counter his uncle, stepped onto the table, avoiding any of the dishes present more by luck than anything else, and launched himself into a flying tackle that not only decked Nobuyuki but enabled Ichigo to pinned the temporarily stunned man to the ground where the two began to struggle.

"Hey, hey! Don't fight!" Mihoshi and Sasami called out. By then however Nobuyuki was already flat on his stomach, arms pounding uselessly on the floor while his nephew was bending back one of the older man's legs whilst sitting atop of him.

"I'M NOT BRINGING THAT LOON OR MY SISTERS UP HERE FOR A JOKE!" Ichigo roared before turning his glare to an unrepentantly impish Ryoko. "NOW KNOCK IT OFF BEFORE HELL BREAKS LOOSE ALREADY!"

At this her grin became larger as she cradled her egg all the more lovingly. "You don't need to be embarrassed, Ichigo. Daddy."

"GAH! LET GO OF MY LEG! THIS IS SUPPOSE A MOMENT OF CELEBRATION!" Nobuyuki begged as he attempted to crawl away.

"Hm... I wonder if there's a word for someone in my position now that Ichigo has a child." Ichigo's glare not only turned borderline murderous but it was aimed at his grandfather figure. "But I suppose I'm a great grandfather now for what it's worth."

"OH COME ON!" Ichigo growled. Unbeknownst to him however was that with his attention elsewhere at the moment Nobuyuki, seeing an opportunity, pick pocketed Ichigo's cell phone from his back pocket seeing as his nephew put the kibosh on his original plan. Then again it was an improvement as far as he was concerned: facetime made it all the more special! In the meantime however Ichigo's attention was directech even more so from the burglary in progress when Ayeka slammed her hands on the table and stood up to point an outstretched hand and arm at the very cause of the debacle in the first place.

"Miss Ryoko! You do not really expect us to believe that egg is yours now, do you?!"

At this what obvious pleasure Ryoko wore on her sleeve at Ichigo's expense was wiped away for her more demure facade once more. "Well I just don't understand how you can be so cruel to be," he defended herself with her breathy inflection.

"That's right. It's so cruel to say such a thing to Ryoko!" Mihoshi scolded.

"WHAT?! MY LITTLE BOY IS NOW A FATHER?!"

Immediately Ichigo abandoned what interest he had in the scene. Forgotten what hope he had felt when Ayeka made her own move as well as the foot he let drop as he mechanically looked over his shoulder to see his very phone had been used against him. In facetime no less as he saw that stupid mug haunting his screen!

Immiedately with the largest grin Ichigo had ever seen Isshin turned his sights away to his left. "GIRLS! GIRLS! YOUR BROTHER FINALLY DID IT! YOUR AUNTS NOW!

"EEEEEEEEEEEEE! CAN I SEE? CAN I SEE?"

Mortified, shocked to hell and staked there for good measure, Ichigo gaped in open horror as his situation went from bad to a hell of a lot worse. As such he didn't notice nor even heard the physical struggle Ayeka and Ryoko had over the egg. Yet when it slipped and fell from their grasp and crashed onto the floor with a sickening crack, everyone's attention was drawn to it. Isshin and Yuzu included by virtue of Nobuyuki having the clearance of mind to move the phone's camera in the direction of the egg with the crumpled bottom.

"Oh that poor egg!" Yuzu whined.

Sasami was of a likewise state... only much more heartbroken as tears began to trickle down her cheeks. "Oh no... the egg is smashed!"

"M-m-my first grand nephew!"

"Wait, what? Huh?" Isshin mumbled aloud. "Can I get some context here please?"

No one spoke up however when the egg began to wiggle in place, its shell softly cracking open as its inhabitant began to push its way to freedom. Soon enough a pair of rabbit legs jutted out from the bottom of the shell first. Mesmerized, everyone in the room only stared as those same legs kicked the floor with such force as to launch the egg and its inhabitant into the air where the shell was forcibly torn from the inside out by the very creature inside it, a rabbit of all things with its arms spread like a happy showman.

"Meow!"

... that could also meow like a cat.

"Uh... Ichigo, can you explain what's going on?" Yuzu called out.

Quietly and without looking Ichigo reached down, pried the phone from his unresponsive uncle's grip and brought it to his own face. "I'm going to have to call you back. Okay?"

"Uh... okay... Just don't keep us waiting!"

"Hey wait, Ichigo—"

Never has a Call ended title flashing across his screen felt so sweet to him.

XVX

Outside, thirty minutes later

Ryo-Ohki. Evidently the true form of Ryoko's ship was in fact, for lack of a better term for the time being, a cabbit. A... rabbit that sounded like a cat. Which could turn into a ship at will, at least according to Ryoko. While a part of him wanted to call that part "bullshit" on that just to maintain some part of his dwindling sense of sanity, he would then be forced to decry the flying, meowing spaceships, the flying space pirate, the otherworldly police officer and princesses, and the hollows and arrancar of his distancing past as well... it didn't make it any less weird though for him. Much less any easier to explain to his family after he slipped away to call them.

Sadly, for better or worse, their tune of "get married already!" hadn't changed a bit despite his sister thinking he was a little loony despite being semi-aware of the spiritual nature of their family. Better yet he managed to, or at least hoped to ANY GOD THAT WAS LISTENING, to keep his family from making a spontaneous trip to the Masaki household in regards towards his 'fatherhood.'

At any rate however...

With their luggage packed and Mihoshi dressed, everyone eventually filed out of the house and gathered near the shore of the nearby lake in front of the house as a undoubtedly juraian ship slowly moved into position above it rather than try to dock in it like Ayeka had. Not that he could blame the pilot responsible though: unlike Ryu-Oh, though the ship was considerably smaller in its framing, it had an exceptionally long fin that made the ship look like a slanted version of the English letter P. For what it was worth it wasn't the only fin it had as there was one atop of the ship connected to the primary wing, and two more angled out from the round base plate the 'fins' were attached to.

"Well, I guess it's time to say goodbye! I'll miss you," Ryoko declared with her almost trademark mischievous grin as she drank in Ayeka onset annoyance. "I'll be glad to escort you part way if you want."

"Humph. Without a ship?" Ayeka tersely intoned as she turned away from her antagonist.

"Hm. That's no problem." She turned around and snapped her fingers and pointed her used finger at her cabbit. "Ryo-Ohki!" Her jaw dropped in embarrassment however as she witnessed Ryo-Ohki ignoring her in favor of Sasami who knelt down to offer the cabbit a carrot, her favorite meal thus far as far as anyone knew. The pirate's embarrassment and shock were such that she lost her sense of balance and fell over. A second later she madly crawled her way over, grabbed Ryo-Ohki by the scruff of her neck whilst she was munching on a carrot and growled in her face as the cabbit was meowing a counter argument.

"Hey now, knock it off! I'll let you eat all you want later!"

In the meantime Ayeka, observing the two, gasped in a revelation. "So it's just as I suspected. She is a child of Ryo-Ohki, isn't she? She is the new Ryo-Ohki."

Ichigo was about to comment on her observations but bit his tongue instead: for all he knew she stepped out of the room during the explanation and he simply didn't notice at the time. Ryoko in the meantime throatily chuckled before rather ruthlessly underhand tossing the cabbit high into the air. The yuoung man tensed up as the cabbit screeched in fright, preparing to run out and catch it but it was for not. Before his and everyone else's eyes the cabbit curled into a ball and from said ball came a rapid eruption of brown but darkening stone. In a matter of moments Ryo-Ohki not only continued to fly upwards but her body, while continued to transform, continued to grow beyond what common sense would dictate her limits till the end result was an exact replica of the very ship that battled Ayeka's Ryu-Oh.

... again Ichigo wanted to call bullshit on it for the sake of his sanity.

"Well what do you know. Ryo-Ohki is a space ship!"

"Well let's go ahead and move them out."

With a quiet scoff and with closed eyes Ayeka turned her head rather derisively toward Ryoko. "Not with you. I assure you."

Like with Ryoko however her sense of... surety came crashing down when she witnessed both Mihoshi and Sasami crowding a rather smug Ryoko.

"Oh please. It would be such a help. You know I was told it's not as safe as it used to be in this area."

"Yipee!"

Ichigo could only blink in exasperation. Ayeka however was more dignified, at least when compared to Ryoko's response. "Sasami. Mihoshi. We are leaving." Having said her piece she began to practically power walk her way to the ship.

"Wait for me Ayeka!" Sasami called out as she raced after her. "Please don't leave me behind!"

Likewise Mihoshi followed suit. She stopped however as if she remembered something and quickly spun around to wave at both Ichigo and Ryoko. "Oh Ryoko, I'm counting on you to beat up the Space Pirate if you see her, okay?"

"Can you believe that she has completely forgotten that I'm the Space Pirate?" Ryoko asked Ichigo in disbelief as Mihoshi turned around and caught up with the departing royalty.

"All too easily," Ichigo deadpanned.

Barely a few minutes later Ryo-Ohki once more beamed them into the interior of the ship and meowed as it followed Sasami's ship to orbit. And like before a window opened up to showcase a live feed into a control room rather similar to Ryu-Oh's command deck with its steaming river outlining the apparent circular deck and the trimmed shrubbery carefully planted to act as trims. Still, it seemed as if they caught them in the middle of a conversation which had Ayeka's back turned to the 'camera,' yet a blush on her cheeks was quite visible despite this. It also seemed as if she was talking to herself on a tangent he wasn't quite able to catch. Ryoko on the other hand, whom had finally claimed the floating chair for herself, scowled before wiping it away with an impish grin.

"Hey Ayeka, can you hear me?"

In response Ayeka straightened in her spot and with cheeks now flushed with anger turned to the space pirate with a scowl on her lips.

"Listen, Ayeka, I bet you have tons of suitors back home. Am I right?" With a chuckle and a smugsmile she leaned forth with her arms spread, elbows resting on her hips, her eyes were closed. "So why don't you leave Ichigo to me then—"

A dull but pointed chop to the head not only stopped her but soured her mood a great deal as she turned to look at the scowling form of Ichigo Kurosaki. "I'm not some piece of property you know," he droned.

"Lord Ichigo."

His hand drifted back to his side as he shifted his attention to a rather solemn Ayeka. The two simply stared at one another before Ayeka sadly shook her head. From the bottom of the screen she brought her hands up to the middle of her chest, each one grasping the other as she made herself stand taller.

"I am Ayeka, the First Princess of the Royal Jurai Family. You must understand that I have many obligations, Ichigo."

At this Ichigo nodded yet said nothing.

"So you see I can't stay on the Earth forever."

"I know."

A tiny smile tugged at the juraian's lips. "I enjoyed every minute on the Earth, Ichigo. I close my eyes," and she did so if only for a moment, "and I remember all the wonderful things. Like the beautiful autumn leaves I watched with you. Or delicious taste of the sweet potatoes you cooked for us at the temple."

She opened her eyes and smiled sadly at him. "I'll never forget you, Lord Ichigo."

"I won't be forgetting you either," Ichigo rumbled.

She then looked troubled, unsure. She then opened her mouth to say something but fell quiet as she shook her head once more, her sad smile becoming all the more bitter. In response Ichigo, for all of his willpower, couldn't help but match her as he considered his response.

"Hey, Ayeka? You're more than welcome to come back any time you want to. Alright?"

"Hey, let her go Ichigo. Come on!" Ryoko groused and whined as she began to tug on the immovable man's arm.

"I... I thank you very much," Ayeka offered with some hesitancy with a barely quivering smile as tears began to form in the corners of her eyes. "However, Ichigo... We could..." she couldn't continued as what composure she had was lost. As such she turned her back to him and stepped a few steps away from the camera so she could sob in relative peace until she found it within herself to calm down if only a little.

"We are now preparing for final acceleration," Azaka called out from beyond the camera's viewport.

"Immersion completed. We await your orders, Princess Ayeka."

Having calmed down and whipping away what few tears were left, she turned around and focused her attention straight ahead of her, utterly ignoring the camera which still watched her. "Full speed to planet Jurai!"

"Yes ma'am!" both answered.

"Huh?" From the inside of her robe Sasami pulled out a partially bitten carrot.

Like Ichigo, Mihoshi also noticed it. Unlike her, Ichigo had to fend of Ryoko as she tried to tug him into her seat. "Oh! What's that carrot for, Sasami?"

"That was the carrot Ryo-Ohki was eating a few minutes ago," she answered as she stared at the carrot.

"Meeoohow!"

The camera zoomed in on the carrot and a nearby crystal drifted in front of the two on Ryo-Ohki's bridge. It then squeezed itself until a distinct 'pop' was heard. Its obsidian surface was then replaced by none other than Ryo-Ohki's overjoyed face as it cried out in excitement. Sadly it wasn't the only one to do so. Before long the two witnessed each and every crystal that floated amongst the bridge turn into a diamond shaped replica of Ryo-Ohki's cabbit face, each one being 'birthed' with a vibrant "mewo," as a multitude of screens presenting the carrot held in Sasami's hand outright overwhelmed each and every inch of the viewing space available for the entirety of the spherical bridge.

"Oh no..."

Ryo-Ohki lurched forth with great velocity before either of them could act in any capacity. Ichigo went tumbled to the very edge of the room whereas Ryoko's chair was shunted closer to halfway across the room in comparison.

"You can't be serious," he weakly groaned as he braced himself for impact.

"LOOK OUT AYEKA!"

"MEOW!"

BA-DOOM!

XVX

Masaki Shrine, an hour later

Charred but alive, he set out to do the only thing that made any lick of sense for him after he cleaned himself up: he gathered some leaves, set them ablaze in a smoldering fire and added some sweet potatoes to cook them in the smoldering pile. It was either than on stew on that fact that Ryo-Ohki basically annihilated another juraian ship just to get a single carrot.

"Oh why does it have to be like this?" Ayeka desperately sighed. As if to add insult to injury to her situation Ryo-Ohki, dressed in a multitude of bandaids and happily ignoring the world, noisily ate at yet another carrot.

"Wow! This is delicious!" Sasami exclaimed.

"I'm just glad I'm still alive!" Mihoshi happily added as she and Sasami ate a sweet potato from their own pile of burning piles. Ryoko likewise was muching on hers, skin and all.

"Looks like we're stranded here on Earth," Ayeka solemnly groused. "If only Sasami hadn't found that carrot up there."

"Here you go." Quietly she looked down at the offered sweet potato, courtesy of Ichigo. "Just be careful."

"Ah! Thank you very much!" she said as she accepted it with a healthy dusting of her cheeks.

"Hey, hey, hey! Princess! What do you think you're doing?!" Ryoko clutched at her potato as she stood up and got in Ayeka's face for the umpteenth time in a row. In the meantime Ichigo merely rolled his eyes and began to tune out the one of many increasingly common place arguments between the two of them.

"Oh, Ichigo, may I have one?"

With mild surprise Ichigo looked up and saw the shrine keeper walk up from behind Kamidake.

"Yeah, sure." Without thinking about it he handed him the freshest potato before sticking another one into the pile and adding more leaves.

"Oh, by the way, Ichigo, your family is here," Katsuhito casually stated as he meticulously began to peel away at the potato's skin with his finger.

At that same moment Isshin's voice called out from far away. "IIIICHIIIGOOO!"

"... damn it."