Disclaimer: I do not own Tenchi Muyo

Disclaimer: I do not own Tenchi Muyo! or Tenchi Universe, they are the property of Pioneer and AIC. All characters are the property of their respective owners. I'm poor, please don't take legal action against me.

Chapter 2:

Morning, sunlight filtered through the windows and shined on Ryoko's face. This was her new signal to get up, she'd been trying it for the past few days, leaving the curtains open so the morning sun could shine on her, and it was working very well so far. Alarm clocks just got broken and people calling her just got ignored. 'Time to get up.' she thought to herself. Sitting up, she stretched, yawned and teleported down to the couch below.

'Good morning Ryoko' Sasami said walking in from the kitchen.

'Morning Sasami' Ryoko replied, trying to clear the last traces of sleep from her mind.

'Do you mind doing me a favour and help me get everyone up please'

'Sure, I'll get everyone upstairs, you take Washu'

'OK'

Sasami trotted off to Washu's lab and Ryoko teleported upstairs. 'First and foremost, Tenchi, maybe he'll give me a morning kiss.' She thought to herself, then she remembered her conversation with Washu last night 'Another day maybe' she thought, simply knocking on his door. 'Tenchi, breakfast is almost ready.' She called 'Time to get up.'

'Alright, I'll be down in a minute' came a tired response. 'I wonder if he noticed it was me.' she thought to herself as she wandered down the hall to the princesses' room.

'Hey princess, breakfast is almost done, get up.' Ryoko called, knocking on her door. A few moments later Ayeka emerged, prim and proper as always.

'Miss Ryoko, there's no need to shout so loudly, it's very unladylike.'

'Whatever just go downstairs, Sasami's waiting.'

'Very well, I'll see you downstairs shortly.'

Ayeka said as she turned and walked down the stairs. Ryoko headed towards Mihoshi and Kiyone's room (they were staying for the weekend) when Tenchi walked out of his room. Fighting the urge to give him a big hug, she simply said 'Hi Tenchi' Tenchi suddenly realising Ryoko's presence immediately took a defensive stance and brought his arms up to protect his face. He stood there for a while then started edging around her.

'He…he…err…Hi Ryoko.' he said nervously.

'Is something wrong?' Ryoko asked confused.

'No, no… Is breakfast ready?'

'Probably.'

'OK, well, I'll see you down there.'

'Yeah, I'm just going to get Mihoshi and Kiyone.'

Tenchi finally reached the stairs and hurried down them. 'What the hell was that all about?' Ryoko thought to herself, but decided not to pursue the matter and walked down the hall to get Mihoshi and Kiyone.

5 minutes later and everybody was sitting around eating breakfast. Ryoko noticed a few weird glances from everybody around the table except Washu.

'You're doing very well little Ryoko.' Said Washu through their link.

'It doesn't feel like it, everybody's looking at me.'

'Good, that means they're noticing.'

'I don't want everybody to notice, just Tenchi. Speaking of which, he acted like I had some sort of disease this morning.' Ryoko said, distress in her 'voice'.

'That's because he was anticipating what you were going to do. He thought you were going to throw yourself at him.'

'I thought he didn't mind…'

'Looks like you thought wrong. Imagine how much better your chances with him are now.'

'Did you draw up that list?' Ryoko said changing the subject.

'I certainly did, come to my lab after breakfast.'

'Ryoko!' Sasami practically shouted.

'Huh? Oh Sasami what is it?'

'I said did you want any more rice?'

'Yeah, just a bit thanks.'

'Are you OK Ryoko?' Tenchi asked.

'Yeah I'm fine, why?'

'You seem a bit… distant today.'

'See, you're getting a positive response already.'

'I'm fine, just thinking about what I'm going to do today.'

'Oh alright.'

Breakfast finished without incident and the gang split up to do their daily routine. For Sasami and Ayeka that meant washing up, for Mihoshi and Kiyone mainly cleaning, work for Nobouyuki and for Katsuhito, his favourite programme Ways of the Monk. Ryoko slipped unnoticed into Washu's lab to get that list. 'I'm over here!' Washu called from behind some giant machine. 'Take a seat, I'll be done in a minute.' Ryoko did as she was told and sat on Washu's floating cushion, looking around in wonder at all of Washu's inventions. 'I wonder how long it took her to build this place, speaking of time where is she?' Ryoko thought to herself. She looked back over to the machine Washu was working on and found her standing beside it, watching her with a smile on her face.

'What are you looking at?' Ryoko said, a touch of anger in her voice.

'You look a lot like you did when you were young just then.' Said an adult Washu said warmly, Ryoko blushed slightly.

'How much do you remember before Kagato?'

'You've asked me this before.'

'You never gave me an answer.'

'And you're not going to get one now.'

'Why not.'

'…'

'It's nothing to be ashamed of little Ryoko.'

'Yes, I have some memories.'

'What are they of?'

'Enough questions.' Said Ryoko in a very irritated, almost angry tone. Washu decided not to push any further today.

'Very well, follow me.'

Washu said in a slightly depressed tone, morphing back to her child form. Ryoko followed her to another part of the lab with a huge screen and a console in front of it. Washu sat down on her floating cushion and pulled another one out of a dimensional pocket.

'You can sit on this if you want.'

'I'll stand.'

'You'll be spending quite a bit of time in here from now on, better get used to that cushion.'

'Alright.' Ryoko said sitting on the cushion. Washu typed at her console and a few seconds later a video of Tenchi training with his grandfather started playing.

'Here's a video of Tenchi's training. Today you're going to start training with him, it should give you two a solid foundation to work up from and it'll stop your body sagging' Said Washu, seemingly back to her normal bubbly self. Ryoko just glared at her.

'I've already arranged it with Katsuhito, you start this afternoon, he wants you there at 3:30.'

'But Tenchi's training doesn't start until 4.'

'Guess he wants to go over some things with you. Now look at the video, what do you notice about his defence?'

'Weak below the waist and he doesn't have good balance.'

'I'm impressed, there's more of me in you than I thought. Now take a look at his offence.'

Ryoko watched some more of the video.

'He doesn't charge aggressively enough and he leaves himself open after he does charge.'

'You are keen today.'

'I've been watching him practice since he started, I know how he fights.'

'I see, in that case, let us move on. You've watched him grow up, what do you think his interests are?'

'I only saw what happened near the cave.'

'Well, what do you think his biggest interest is?'

'Training.'

'I think you're right, but what about what his leisure interests?'

'Sport I guess.'

'Yeah, sport's always good. That's why you're going to learn to play Soccer. He watches it more than any other sport on and you're going to ask him to a game on Wednesday.'

'He'll never agree.'

'You're asking us all to that game.'

'Oh… I see.' Ryoko said, slightly disappointed.

'Don't worry, I'm sure some people will say no.'

'How?'

'Just leave that up to me. Now you sit here and watch this for a couple of hours, it'll teach you about Soccer. I'll come and tell you when it's time to go.'

'Thank you.'

'No problem.'

Washu floated off on her cushion, questions ran through her mind 'Was she lying last night? I didn't get anything through our link…Did I just let my emotions blind me? Does she really have any memories? If so, why doesn't she want to talk about them? Nothing really bad happened to her before Kagato… I need to see those memories…' She thought as she floated off to finish her latest invention.

Ryoko stared at the screen as it gave a quick introduction to Soccer. The first hour was Washu explaining the rules of the game, then how to kick the ball (where she got quite sidetracked and went into the physics a bit too deeply for Ryoko's liking). Finally, there was the first half of a match between two countries with added commentary from Washu. The timing seemed to be perfect, because just after the first half ended, Washu floated by and told her it was time to go and meet Katsuhito at the training grounds. Ryoko exited the lab and teleported in front of Katsuhito.

'I understand you wish to help train Tenchi.' He said, in his usual voice.

'Yep.' She replied.

'Very well, then I will show you the basics of Juraian fencing.' He said, handing her a bokken. They practiced the basic routines for just over 20 minutes, Katsuhito showing Ryoko the moves that Tenchi's skills were based upon.

'I see time has not dulled your skills Ryoko.'

'Thanks I guess.'

'I want you to wait on that tree for my signal to attack with your bokken.' Said Katsuhito pointing to a tree on his left.

'No teleporting or flying today, he is not accustomed to such skills.'

'You're the boss.' Ryoko said teleporting to a branch with a lot of leaves for cover.

'What's the signal to attack?'

'I will shout out attack of course.' Replied Katsuhito, Ryoko rolled her eyes. A few moments later and Tenchi could be heard making his way through the forest.

'Hey Grandpa.'

'Are you ready to begin training Tenchi?'

'Yeah, by the way, have you seen Ryoko today?' 'He's asking about me, this is working already.'

'Why do you ask?'

'I haven't seen her since breakfast and even then, she didn't seem to be herself.'

'Are you worried?'

'Yeah, for two reasons, one – she may be in some kind of trouble and two – she may be up to something.'

'Never mind her now, you came here to train didn't you?'

'Yeah.'

'Catch.' Katsuhito said as he threw Tenchi his bokken.

'But where's yours?'

Katsuhito seemed to ignore his question. 'Are you prepared?'

'Yeah but…' Tenchi was cut off by his Grandfather screaming 'ATTACK!'. All of a sudden, he saw a figure charge him from a nearby tree, he instinctively blocked the attack, only then did he notice who the attacker was.

'Ryoko!' he said, shocked.

'Don't talk, just fight.' She replied coldly before she continued her attack on him. It only took a few more seconds for her to win.

'Tenchi, I'm disappointed.' said his Grandfather 'I expected you to last twice as long.'

'Come on, it was a surprise attack.'

'But you said you were ready and that's no excuse, enemies will not always confront you head on. Start again.'

They squared off again and again Ryoko won. They continued sparring for another half an hour, then they decided to take a break, Katsuhito went up to the shrine saying that he wasn't going to teach anymore today and told them to practice for another half an hour.

'You need to work on defending your legs.' Said Ryoko as they sat on the rocks that surrounded the training grounds.

'I think I need to work on everything considering how easily you beat me.'

'You won a few of times.'

'Only because you let me.'

'Don't feel bad, I've got a couple of thousand years more experience.' Ryoko joked.

'So, do you mind me training with you?' Ryoko asked.

'Well, you're a lot less painful than Grandpa, that's for sure' He said happily 'but why did you decide to do this?'

'I need to practice, otherwise I'll go soft here.'

'Is that so?'

'Are you saying you don't believe me?'

'No, I'm just saying there's another reason.'

'Let's continue.' Ryoko said getting up.

'I'm still waiting for an answer.'

'If you beat me, I'll tell you.'

'OK, you're on.' He said, getting to his feet. They started sparring again, but this time it was much more playful with Katsuhito gone, both of them just having fun. They sparred for another half an hour, Ryoko winning time after time. In the last fight, Ryoko swept Tenchi's feet out from under him with her winning blow. She chuckled and extended a hand to help him up.

'Guess I lose.' He said standing up.

'You still wanna know?' She replied.

'Yeah.'

'Truth is, I always wanted to play with you, but you always refused me.' A sad look came over her face.

'That's because I didn't think you were being sincere. Now, I know better.' He said giving her a smile to cheer her up.

'Does that mean that you'll play with me?' She said with a pleading look on her face.

'Yeah, sure.'

'Really?' He nodded. She looked down at her feet.

'Thanks Tenchi, this means a lot to me.'

'Just let me decide when OK?'

'OK.'

'Shall we head back, it's getting close to dinner time.'

'Yeah, we wouldn't want Sasami getting mad.'

They headed back towards the house, talking about the day's training.

Well, that's chapter two, it's really just setting up for later chapters. As always tell me what you think, I appreciate it.