Disclaimer: Why must I do this every time??? It's painstaking, really... I....don't...own...Tenchi Muyo.....
A.N.- I think this was is longer and I will be getting up the next chapter in a day or two... so no sweat, right?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 4
"Well, did you figure out what the problem was?" Achika said, hinting to her grandmother that she had no faith in the fact, no, theory that Washu never made mistakes.
"Um… yeah, but I don't understand. I-I'll be right back." Washu ran out of the room with her laptop.
* * *
Washu was running down a long corridor as fast as she could while she recovered from the episode previous to her running out of the lab.
'It just doesn't make sense!' She thought to herself. 'How can it be that…'
She opened a huge set of doors and ran to the middle of a long u-shaped table. She realized that she was interrupting a very important meeting with highly distinguished officials and proud nobles. But that didn't stop her.
"Washu, don't you think we could talk about this a little later, " Tenchi said upon his glance at the faces that the other prestige figures in the room were giving him.
"Now…" Washu was cut off.
"Tenchi, do you think that my mother would come racing down here, interrupt this highly important meeting, and risk the chance of getting on my bad side, even though I doubt she would, just to tell us something we don't need to hear, like the fact that she made ice cream this morning?" Ryoko shot the last comment at Tenchi with an attitude that told him she would get him back for his little prank.
"Umm…" Washu tried to get in the next few words.
"Well, what did you want me to say? I know that you would've flipped out if you had heard, first thing in the morning, I might add, that a crazy and mad scientist was using your daughter as her main science experiment. Come on Ryoko, you know you would have flipped!"
"Eh-hem." Washu was still struggling to get their attention.
"Excuse me?! My mother is not crazy and she is definitely not mad! Why do you always want to pick a fight with me?"
"Pick a fight with you?! You're the one that brought up the whole 'ice cream' thing! I think you're the one looking for a fight"
"I am not looking for a fight. I was just stating the facts, the fact that you lied to me this morning and tried to come up with a story, and a pathetic one I might add…"
"Pathetic story? You try coming up with a story to cover up your mess when a person who can kill you at any second of the day she wants to…"
"Tenchi, do you honestly think that I would've hurt you?" Both of them started to get a little emotional as the argument turned to yet another revealing of one another's true feelings for the other.
"Well, um, no, I guess not."
"Oh, Tenchi, I am so sorry! You know I would never hurt you, don't you?" Ryoko said while she gleamed at him with her beautiful golden eyes.
"Yes, I know that you would never hurt me, Ryoko."
They both embraced each other with a sign of their affection.
Pretty soon everyone in the room was talking, which really annoyed Washu.
"WILL YOU ALL LISTEN!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.
Everyone looked at her with astonishment.
"What is it, Washu?" Tenchi asked not wanting to make things worse.
"May I please have a word alone with you two, please? It is quite important that I tell you all of this now, in private." Washu said gesturing first to Ryoko and Tenchi, and then gesturing to the others in the room.
"Certainly. Will you please leave us to talk to my mother?" Ryoko started to think that she must be careful as to not let too much of Ayeka's 'charm' rub off on her.
The others left the room without argument.
"Now, you two have to listen very carefully to what I am about to tell you and watch very intensely to what I have to show you, Ok?
"All right" Ryoko and Tenchi answered, both trying to think of what could be so urgent.
"Now, I want you to look at this data on my computer." They both looked at the screen and then realized exactly what they were looking at.
"Oh, my gosh… Is this? But how can it be?" Ryoko asked in amazement and confusion.
"That's exactly what I was thinking when I first realized this, too."
All of a sudden the nosey Ayeka popped up from behind them.
"What? What is that?"
"Ayeka, how did you get in here?" Ryoko asked her formal rival.
"I was here all along." Upon remembering that Ayeka was in fact at the meeting, Ryoko figured she never let herself out with the rest of the group.
"Quit being so nosey, princess. It's only a list of Achika's powers."
"Well, than what is all of the commotion about? She is just a puny child, how powerful can she be?" Ayeka laughed at their silliness.
"How powerful?! Well, she is the most powerful person in the Universe! Imagine over ten Ryokos with a bad hair day and you won't even come close to matching her strength!" Washu shouted sounding quite irritated.
"Oh…Well, at least she is more powerful than you, Ryoko."
"Who cares? I certainly don't." Ryoko had finally figured out that not telling Ayeka what she wants to hear hurts her much worse than any attack she could ever pull. Though, she had to admit, fighting was much more fun.
"Humph. Well, then, what can she do?"
"She can do everything Ryoko can do plus she has very strong Jurain power, much stronger than that of even Yosho and you put together plus a ton of other super-attacks plus some things I haven't heard of. She can transfer her power to other people, she can revive people who have died, she is telepathic, meaning that she can read others minds and send her own thoughts and receive others who don't even have the same power, and she can…"
"Ok, ok! I get the point." Ayeka could be nice and fun but sometimes she was just so stuck up!
* * *
Later that evening, Ryoko and Tenchi invited Kiyone over on very urgent terms; they also needed an excuse to get her away from her high-status and stressful job. She had agreed to come and was soon going to find out Achika's little secret.
When Kiyone arrived, Achika ran up screaming her name out of joy and gave her a big hug. Kiyone returned the embrace.
"Hi, little one! What are you doing?"
"I'm going to go outside and play with Tsunami-sama and Ryo-oki-chan!" Tsunami had already heard about Achika's powers, so didn't need to stay while Ryoko and Tenchi talked to Kiyone.
"Well, alright. Have fun!" Kiyone smiled and then went on walking to where Tsunami was.
"Hello, Tsunami. How are you?" Kiyone said, showing the Goddess in front of her respect.
"Oh, Kiyone, we're old friends, do we really need this anymore?"
"Heh-heh. I guess you're right."
"Well, of course I am!"
"I think a little too much of Ryoko is rubbing off on you." They both laughed.
"Speaking of Ryoko, I believe Ryoko and Tenchi are waiting for you in the Main Library of Study."
"Yeah, all right." A very perplexed Kiyone responded.
"It's the library where-"
Just then, Washu flew out of some sort of portal. "Come with me Kiyone," she shouted as she grabbed Kiyone and dragged her into the portal so they could go to the Main Library of whatever and whatnot.
"Come on Tsunami." Achika said excitedly.
"Oh, boy. Here we go." Tsunami whispered under her breath, "I obviously don't know what I'm getting myself into."
* * *
"Wow… you really think so?" Kiyone questioned after hearing the story form the three other people in the room.
"YES, WE THINK SO!" Washu shouted.
"Mom, calm down, it is pretty hard to believe if you think about it." Ryoko tried to coax her mom into the fact that even if she is the Greatest Scientific Genius in the Universe with the most scientific and advanced machines in the universe, that it was still hard for people to understand.
Washu left the room, through her portal, mumbling under her breath about inferior beings not knowing anything.
Tenchi just sweatdropped.
"Well…" Kiyone sat there with a blank look and tried to think of what to say. "Well… I guess we'll just have to get used to it, huh?"
"What?!" Tenchi shouted at her. "You mean just ignore the problem like it isn't even there?!"
"Well, it is not like there is much we can do."
"But… but…"
"Tenchi, Kiyone is right." Ryoko popped in, knowing that there really wasn't anything they could do. She remembered that that was how a lot of people felt about her when she was little.
"What do you mean?" Tenchi continued. "You're just going to ignore the fact that this is your little girl we're talking about or are you just going to let her act like you did when you were her age?!"
"We'll just have to make sure she doesn't get into the wrong hands, Tenchi."
"Oh, yeah, and whose hands are we going to let her get into? Yours?" Ryoko was starting to become upset. Tenchi started to talk to Kiyone in a way that he was suggesting he was actually talking to Ryoko. "What do you think Kiyone? Do you think we should let Achika run around killing thousands or millions of innocent people, robbing planets and then destroying them, and then let her think that it is okay to live like that?"
"Tenchi, you know that is not what I think." Kiyone was almost at the verge of tears. 'How could he be acting like this, especially in front of Ryoko? He is being so hurtful and irrational!'
"Well, then?"
"Tenchi, I've had just about enough of this! It has gone t...to far this time!" Ryoko paused to get a little bit of crying out before she tried to talk again. "You know that that wasn't my fault and whoever said that living like that was okay? I know it wasn't me! As for my daughter, she is not going to end up like me! I hope no one ever ends up like I did! As for you, you could at least…"
"I could at least what?"
"Sometimes… I just can't be…believe you Tenchi!" Ryoko then left the room, crying, and ran down part of the main corridor in the West wing (which is where this main library is) of the palace and then teleported somewhere where she could be alone.
"She can't believe me?! I think she's the one that she shouldn't be believing at this point in time," Tenchi said acting both surprised and angry at the same time.
"Tenchi, you know, you didn't have to approach it like that. You could've acted a little kinder, too. I'm going to go find Washu or somebody. As for you, I believe that looking for Ryoko wouldn't be such a bad idea."
Kiyone left the room with a hint of frustration in every brisk step she took. Tenchi was left all alone with only his regrets to haunt him. 'What have I done? How could I have been so cruel to …her? I've got to find her!' He left the room with a determination that would find her, not just try to find her, but would find her!
