transmogrification
** Note **
** This is chapter 3, if you've not read chapters
** 1 and 2, you're in the wrong place.
** In addition to all the stuff from the first
** disclaimer: Several characters mentioned
** herein are the property of, at the very least,
** Kevin Smith and View Askew Productions. I'm
** sure there are others.. but they seem like nice
** guys and I'm sure they won't sue me. Right
** guys?
** Also, this chapter is titled in honor of
** those characters. If you don't like the
** title, the alternate (original) title is:
** home is where the heart is
** Happy reading,
** -- krin (krin@hotmail.com)
** /note **

Reflections of a Shattered Glass

-- three --

transmogrification

"Dammit Aeka! Open up! It's my turn, you've been in there for two hours already!" Ryouko pounded on the bathroom door again but to no avail.

"I'll be out when I'm ready," Aeka's reply came from within, her voice full of the haughty tone that Ryouko was almost positive she affected only to grind her nerves. "Besides," Aeka continued, "you're filthy enough that a few more minutes will make no difference!"

"Why you..." Ryouko summoned power from her gem and condensed it in the palm of one hand, aiming the incumbent energy blast at the door.

The blast left a round, smoking hole in the door through which Ryouko reached and tugged the latch open, pushing the door aside as she stepped through.

"Well!" Aeka blustered, trying to find a towel to pull over herself, "I never!"

"Yeah," Ryouko agreed, "and with that body you never will."

Aeka flushed and gave up on the towel, crossing her arms over her chest and sinking down into the pool of the bath until only her head was above the water, her violet tresses fanning out around it. "Hmph," Aeka snorted, "leave it to you to rely on the most obvious replies."

Ryouko looked back over her shoulder from where she stood at the door, hanging a spare towel over the hole, and asked, "What? You'd rather I said you're a prissy, frigid little bitch who would probably make Tenchi pretend to be satisfied with a hand job because she'd be too worried about the mess breaking her royal cherry would make; If she ever got him blasted enough to get into bed with her?"

A low growl emerged from Aeka's throat and her eyebrow twitched in the nervous way it had acquired since being forced to live with Ryouko. Three small logs shimmered into being, hovering around her head as she rose from the pool. "Whore!" Aeka shouted, energy crackling about her tiara.

"Ice queen!" Ryouko countered, a malevolent gleam coming to her eye and a twin to the door-opening sphere of energy growing in her palm.

* * *

"Come on Masaki," Amagasaki taunted, holding the photograph just out of Tenchi's reach, "'fess up. Who are they?"

"Give it back," Tenchi pleaded, snatching futilely for the elusive picture. "They're nobody! Just some girls I met over the summer!"

"Oh yeah?" Amagasaki asked, turning the photo back to hover in front of his bulbous nose and squinting eyes. "How 'bout giving me their numbers?"

"What?!"

"Come on Tenchi," Amagasaki said with a lecherous grin, "they're nobody, right? Gimme their numbers, Amagasaki could use some of that lovin'."

"No way!" Tenchi shouted, making another failed grab for his property. *Why did I carry that around anyway?* Tenchi lamented silently, *I shouldn't have had the damn thing in my wallet to begin with...*

"Well, lemme keep it then," Amagasaki bargained, pushing his thick glasses up his greasy nose. "They're way hotter than my usual girls."

"Ugh," Tenchi groaned, disgusted beyond words at the thought of Amagasaki looking at the girls while he... "Give it back, you..." Tenchi sought for a word of sufficient malice, but gave up, "Pervert!"

"No way," Amagasaki grinned and held the picture up, taunting Tenchi to jump for it, "not unless you tell me who they are. You're boning 'em, right Tenchi? Come on, you can tell ol' Amagasaki. You're always playing shy, but you're a real dog, right? Good ol' Tenchi, always acting all innocent, but I bet you're all over the ladies over the summer, right? Do you do 'em one at a time, or both at once?"

Tenchi's fist was connecting with Amagasaki's over-sized nose before he realized he had cocked his arm back to strike.

"Ow!" Amagasaki yelled, dropping the picture as his hands went to his injured face, "Thit Tenhi! I fink you broke my futhin nothe!"

Tenchi snatched the handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Amagasaki to stop the bleeding, apologizing profusely and begging the bigger boy not to tell any of the school staff.

"A'ight, a'ight," Amagasaki agreed stuffily, "I won tell anybody Tenhi. God, you're thuch a dip thumtimeth, I wath juth kidding. Take you futhin picthuh back if ith tho importhant to you."

Tenchi bent and retrieved the photo, smoothing wrinkles put in the corners by Amagasaki's big fingers as he turned away, leaving his so-called friend holding the blood-stained handkerchief to his face.

"Asshole," Tenchi muttered, carefully replacing the picture in his wallet.

* * *

"Just leave me alone!" Ryouko shouted, storming across the lab floor.

"Ryouko," Washuu pleaded, trying to match strides with her longer-legged daughter, "Let me explai-"

"I don't want to hear it!" Ryouko spun, face flushed in anger, to confront the little scientist, "I don't care why you thought it would be a good idea to string me up like a damn fish! I don't care! I just want you to leave me alone!"

"Ryouko, I only wanted-"

"I Don't Care!" Ryouko turned and began once more the journey toward the lab's elevator, wishing, not for the first time, that she could use her powers in this section of the complex. Her ragged clothing hung damp against her skin with sweat and her throat was sore from screaming for help. She felt the tightness of dried tears on her face and knew she must look a wreck, but wanted nothing more than to get out of this damn lab and, hopefully, never see it again.

"Ryouko," Washuu tried again, "I'm your mother, please, let me explain-"

"You're not my mother!" Ryouko stopped once more, fresh tears forming in her eyes as the terrible night in the dark and the things she had begged and promised the empty lab for her release came rushing back again in her mind. "You're not! You're not my mother! You're some stupid little freak who thought it would be fun to play god and whip me up in her lab! You think I should be Grateful? For being created so I could end up Kag-" Ryouko choked on the name but pressed on, "End up His toy for five fucking thousand years?! Get out of my face, get out of my life and get out of my god damn head!"

Washuu looked hurt, but Ryouko did not care. The little freak could keel over dead for all she cared.

"Ryouko..." Washuu began, but Ryouko drowned the rest in a scream of frustration and fury, turning to stalk once more toward the elevator.


"What am I Doing?!* Tenchi wondered for the fifth time, but he moved no further to get up than he had the first four. In fact he leaned closer to the crack between the door and the wall to afford himself a better view.

Aeka had left the door to her bedroom open a crack and, passing by on the way to the bathroom, Tenchi caught a snatch of quiet song from within. Stopping to listen he saw Aeka from the corner of his eye through the slightly open door, slowly removing her kimono in preparation for bed. Tenchi's face flushed and he knew he should keep on toward the bathroom, but the sight of the princess' diminishing attire held his gaze like a magnet.

Now she was naked but for a pair of lacy cotton panties and was sitting on a stool diagonally across from the door. She brushed her long hair with slow, smooth strokes in time with the quiet song she sang in a language Tenchi did not recognize.

*God,* Tenchi thought, *I'm as bad as dad. I should stop this, get up and-*

Aeka turned slightly, putting her chest in profile against her lamp, and thoughts of flight fled Tenchi's mind as quickly as he knew he should flee the door.

The princess stood, drawing a gasp from Tenchi when she bent to retrieve her nightdress. When she slid it over her shoulders a small, secretive smile played about her lips at the feeling of the cool, sheer material against her skin.

Tenchi rose, his hand going without thought toward the door handle before he stopped himself.

*What are you doing?* Tenchi railed, shock overcoming rushing hormones as he realized his sudden boldness.

*Going in there,* came the reply, *to take that thing back off of her. That's what.*
*No! I can't, it's not right, she's a princess.*

*Yeah, so?*

*It wouldn't be right! I'm not thinking, this is all wrong, what would Ryouko say? I shouldn't be doing this at all!*

*Maybe I should go see her instead,* Tenchi thought, his hand moving away from the door, *she's willing.. Aeka would probably scream and kick me out.*

Tenchi shook his head and sighed, turning not toward the livingroom where Ryouko would be asleep on her beam but back toward his own bedroom. *Listen to me, I'm such a pervert. Peeking at Aeka! Thinking of going to Ryouko! Next I'll be dreaming about Sasami!*

* * *

*Maybe I should just forget him,* Ryouko thought morosely, taking another sip from her drink before leaning sadly against the bar, *He doesn't love me. He'll probably go off to Jurai with the bitch princess and forget all about old Ryouko.*

"Hey pretty lady," the speaker, a Japanese businessman by the suit, sat down next to her at the bar with a beer bottle in his hand. He had obviously had a few before this, both by the slur of his speech and the slightly unsteady way he gripped the stool as he clambered aboard. "Haven't I seen you here before?"

Ryouko rolled her eyes. "I doubt it."

"Come on honey, how much?"

"What?"

"How much?" He asked again, his eyes crossing slightly.

"For what?"

"Just a quickie.. I gotta get home by ten," he leered at her, "The wife'll get nervous if I'm not."

"What are you..." Ryouko's voice faltered as she realized what he was talking about. *He thinks I'm a hooker.. the little sleaze!*

"I've got fifty American," the drunken man held up a few grimy bills in demonstration, "I won it off some idiot gaijin over there drinking sake. I'll give you half for a blowjob, whadda ya say?"

Ryouko licked her lips seductively and leaned across the space between them, resting one hand between his legs.

"I think I'll just take all of it," Ryouko suggested in a husky whisper, "If you don't mind." She released a little surge of energy into her palm and the businessman's eye's went wide. A little groan escaped his lips and then his eyes rolled back, the lids fluttering shut over unbroken white before he collapsed against the bar. Ryouko snatched the money out of his hand and tucked it into her pocket before tossing off the last of her drink and walking casually out of the bar.

* * *

Tenchi switched his grip on the knife, holding it the way he had seen his grandfather hold knives when he was practicing. He reached toward the door, his hand finding the knob just as the lights came on behind him.

*That's the last time,* Tenchi thought, fingering the lump on his forehead that kept his eye swollen shut. *Three times Shiko's beaten me up this summer, and every time I did like Mom said to do when somebody bullies me; just walked away. And every time him and his stupid friends chased me down.* Tenchi reached around to touch the swollen place on the back of his head, wincing in pain when he stretched his bruised side. They had used sticks, this time.

*Not again,* Tenchi thought resolutely, *I'm sick and tired of getting picked on just because I'm smaller than him. He's not even as old as I am!* Tenchi squeezed the knife in his sweaty palm. He did not really plan to cut Shiko with it, just use it to extract a promise from his cousin to leave him alone. *If he's too stubborn,* Tenchi thought angrily, reaching for the door handle, *Then maybe I'll just nick him a little bit...*

"Tenchi?" Achika asked sleepily, "What're you doing out of bed this late?"

Tenchi froze, trying to tuck the knife into the sleeve of his pajamas before his mother saw it.

"Tenchi?" She asked again, walking down the hall toward him.

Tenchi racked his brain for an excuse before inspiration struck. He shut his eyes and tried to relax. When his mother touched his shoulder he jumped, spinning around.

"Mom?" He asked, trying to sound startled, "What? Where am I?"

Achika frowned and knelt in front of him. "Were you sleepwalking again honey? Let's get you back in bed."

*Again?* Tenchi wondered, letting himself be guided back to his bedroom, the knife hidden away inside his pajamas.

*I'll get him,* Tenchi vowed silently as his mother tucked him into bed, *Tomorrow night, I'll get him.*

* * *

Ryouko pulled slowly and the man screamed, his voice rising in pitch as his skin separated from his chest to dangle in a loose strip with the others.

"What," he gasped, tears streaming down his face, "What do you want? I'll do anything! Anything!"

Ryouko's face was emotionless, lit by the green light of her eyes and the flickering illumination cast by the fire of the man's house where it burned behind him. He was stretched on the ground before it, arms held in place with long spikes driven through the palms.

"Nothing," Ryouko's lips moved with the words, "Nothing at all. Only to hear you scream."

The tiny part of her mind that was still Ryouko screamed with the man when she peeled off another strip of flesh, but it was to no avail. Kagato's control was absolute and soon the man would be as dead as his wife, where she lay nailed to the ground next to him, her own flesh stripped away. She had made him watch, while she killed her.

* * *

"Oh.. oh, uh.. hi Tenchi," Nobuyuki greeted his son nervously, pressing frantically at the remote control before finding the off button.

Tenchi sighed in disgust and stood at the edge of the couch. "Again dad? What is it this time? Tentacles? School girls? Both?"

"What?" Nobuyuki asked, pushing up his glasses, "What're you talking about Tenchi?"

"Come off it dad," Tenchi muttered, picking up the empty, un-labeled video cassette box, "I know what kind of stuff you watch. You think I'm blind? All of us know."

"Tenchi," Nobuyuki began, "You don't understand-"

"Yeah, yeah," Tenchi groused, tossing the box back on the coffee table, "Which stupid excuse is it this time dad? I'm just so.. so Sick of it! You're such a pervert, it's disgusting!"

"Tenchi-"

"I can't stand being around you anymore!" Tenchi shouted, cutting his father off, "Every time it's the same thing: 'Oh, look at that one Tenchi,' 'Isn't she a cutey Tenchi?' 'When are you going to make your move on that Ryouko Tenchi?' 'Hey, if you're not going to do anything with Aeka, how about letting your old man have a shot at it, Tenchi?' Ugh!"

"I never said that!"

"You might as well have," Tenchi grabbed the remote from his father's shocked fingers. "What perverted crap is it this time dad? Do I even want to know?"

Tenchi turned the television on, angrily pressed the play button, and the screen filled with an image of...

Of his mother, playing with him as a young child, out at the shore of the lake with his grandparents standing nearby and watching their daughter proudly.

"Oh.." Tenchi gasped, dropping the remote to clatter on the wooden floor. "Oh god dad. Oh god, I'm so sorry..." Tenchi turned and fled up the stairs.

* * *

"Take her," Ryouko commanded, her face slack under the glaring light of her eyes.

The man shook his head wildly and cried, "No.. please... You can't.. She's my daughter! She's only eight!"

"Take her," Ryouko said again, a thin line of energy forming over her fist. When he only shook his head again she brought it down across his bare back, drawing another line of blood to join the rest cross-hatching his skin. He screamed and the little girl tied to a post near where he knelt screamed too.

"Do it," Ryouko commanded, her voice as empty of feeling as always, "Or she dies."

"Then kill her!" He shouted, "I'd rather she died than that!"

"When she is dead," Ryouko said, forming another thin beam of force, "You will cook and eat her hands. You will take her, this way or that. Take your daughter's chastity, or take her life. It is in your hands now." Ryouko smirked, an expression that tugged her facial muscles in unnatural ways while failing utterly to touch her utterly dead green eyes. "And, soon, her hands will be in you."

The man sobbed as one more wound joined the mass of blood-weeping lines across his shoulders. He looked up, his eyes desperate and his face a mask of agony. "She'll live? If I... You'll let her live?"

Ryouko shrugged. "Maybe."

As the shadow of her father loomed over the tiny girl she looked up fearfully. "Daddy?" She cried, "What's going on daddy?"

* * *

Tenchi wiped his eyes again, trying to keep his hand steady enough to write. The note was nearly done and then it would be time. He re-read what he had already written to make sure he did not leave anything out.

Everyone,
I am writing this to say that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for
how I've treated all of you: Ryouko, Aeka, Sasami, Washuu,
Mihoshi, Ryou-ohki, Father, Grandfather, I've disappointed all
of you. I can not decide between you girls and I don't think
I ever will be able. I don't deserve your love and I don't
understand why you give it. I'm not the man you think I am.
I'm a weak, scared little boy with no honor. I disappointed
you too father. And mother. You wanted me to grow up to be
a real man, like you are dad, but I'm not. Mom wanted me to
be strong and help you, but I never was and never did. Now
I'm just embarrassed to be around you, even though you're more
of a man than I'll ever be. Grandfather, you wanted me to be
a warrior, like they were in the old days, but I'm not. They
had honor and commanded respect.. I'm just a stupid kid. I
can't even use a sword right. A warrior would have chosen one
of the women who love him, I just lead them all on.
So this is it. I'm going to go be with mom, like all
good little momma's boys do, and let you all get on with your
lives. With me gone you can go back to being yourselves,
instead of always worrying about poor Tenchi. All you girls
are wonderful and I know there are men out there worthy of you,
but I'm not them. Be happy, I never could have made you that.
Dad, Grandpa, I'm sorry I couldn't be what you wanted. Now you
won't have to waste any more time on trying to teach me.

Tenchi nodded, satisfied, and signed it "Goodbye," with his name. *Well,* he thought, putting down the pen and looking at the knife lying next to the piece of paper on his desk, *I guess that's it.*

Taking the razor-edged blade from the desk in one hand and the note in the other, he stood, walking toward the door. He planned to leave the note outside the bathroom door and do the deed in the bathtub to avoid making a mess. The last thing he wanted was to cause any more trouble for them all.

He dropped the note to the ground and slid the door shut, kneeling in the tub and holding one wrist out before himself. The knife hung in the air, quivering over his skin. Tenchi's breath came in little gasps as he forced the blade closer. When it touched his wrist and a thin line of red grew at its edge he sighed, dropping the razor to clatter on the floor of the tub.

"I can't do it," Tenchi groaned, holding his bleeding arm, "I'm too big a wimp to even kill myself right."

Tenchi took the razor and walked out of the bathroom, pausing to grab some toilet paper to hold over the shallow wound. He took the note from where it lay on the floor and crumpled it into a ball, tossing it into his bedroom trashcan before flinging himself onto the bed.

*Maybe pills,* Tenchi thought, tears beginning to flow down his cheeks as he contemplated the total failure that was his life, *then I wouldn't have to do anything. Just swallow them and it's done. But what kind do you take?*

* * *

Yousho's armor was torn and tattered, what remained of it scorched across most of the surface. His body was in similar shape, a mass of bloody gashes and sizzling burns, yet he fought on.

"I want to help you!" He shouted, rushing Ryouko with his sword blazing. "Let me help you Ryouko!"

Ryouko growled and loosed another volley of energy bolts at the charging Jurain prince. Most of them skittered across his failing shield, but one bore true and scored against his shoulder. Yousho faltered, nearly falling to his knees. He forced the wounded arm to move, bringing both hands once more to grip his energy sword.

"I won't let you kill me, Ryouko," Yousho promised, "The goddess has shown me the truth! I know you are no demon! You are a woman, controlled by another! Fight it, not me! I will help you!"

Ryouko shook her head, simultaneously trying to push through the weight of Kagato's control and hold herself back from just that. So complete was his dominance that she even fought her own resistance.

"No, Jurai," She hissed, her own sword forming in one hand, "You do not want to help, you want only to harm! I will destroy you, and find the source of your power in the cooling pile of your corpse!"

Ryouko flew at him, his sword catching hers as she bore down toward his head with a wild swing. She saw herself reflected in his eyes, her own solid green with Kagato's presence.

Yousho grunted, trying to hold his blade parallel to his shoulders and avoid the devastation promised by Ryouko's weapon. "I," he gasped, "Do. Not. Want. To. Kill. You. Ryouko."

"You lie!" Ryouko pushed harder, forcing his blade down by inches.

"Tsunami," Yousho whispered as the fury of Ryouko's sword inched closer to his face, "Give me strength to do your will..."

* * *

Tenchi fell to his knees on the livingroom carpet and Ryouko collapsed against him, gasping so hard for breath that she could not hear his labored panting. Tears stung her eyes and she thought he was crying too, but her vision was too blurred to tell. For long minutes Ryouko clung to Tenchi like a piece of drifting flotsam in a stormy sea, desperately grasping at him to keep herself away from the abyss of depression and madness brought on by the memories they had shared.

Eventually Ryouko found herself and realized what she was doing. She pulled away from Tenchi and climbed unsteadily to her feet. He fell over, his body wracked with shuddering sobs, and Ryouko's heart ached with her need to comfort him. When her fingers were only inches from his face Ryouko stopped, suddenly seeing them covered in the blood of the people she had murdered, seeing Tenchi kneeling in a bathtub, a razor pressed to his wrist because of the despair she had helped inflict on him. No, she could not comfort him, she was not fit to comfort him. She was a monster, Tenchi would no more want her hands on him than he would want to be touched by burning brands.

"I... I'm sorry," Ryouko gasped between sobs, pulling herself again to her feet and stumbling back, away from him, "I'm so sorry Tenchi. I.. I wish you'd never seen that. I wish it had never happened. I'm sorry... I.. I'll go. You don't have to say it, I know.. I know you won't want me anymore..." She turned, stumbling toward the door and seeing Tenchi's blood beading around the knife blade again with every unsteady step, hearing the screams of her victims with every one of his gasping breaths where he lay curled on the floor.

Her hand on the doorknob, Ryouko heard Tenchi moaning her name, softly, over and over. Her entire being urged her to go to him, hold him, assure him she was still there, make him promise never, ever, Ever to try to take his own life again.

Instead, she turned the knob. Tenchi would not want that. He was probably trying to tell her to go away, or crying out in fear of her. He did not want her, she knew that as surely as anything. He would never want her again. How could he?

"Goodbye Tenchi," Ryouko sighed, pushing the door firmly shut behind her, "I love you."

* * *

Nobuyuki re-entered the room and shook his head at the group's wondering stares.

"Still no sign of them," he sighed, sitting down on the couch of Aeka's reception room next to Sasami.

Washuu tapped her transparent keyboard, made of fibramic rather than solid light here on Jurai where her holo-computer was outlawed by the Holy Council, and looked up sadly into the worried gaze of Sasami. "No luck on my end either."

Sasami bit her lip worriedly and Washuu was struck by how much she resembled Ryouko. The princess' hair was rendered a shade of teal similar to that of Ryouko's cyan by the subtle lighting of the room and pulled back in a single tail the way Ryouko affected when she wanted to impress. Now she was even borrowing her facial expressions.

"Where could they have gone?" Sasami asked no-one in particular, "It's been two hours."

"Maybe they went off for a little time alone," Mataeo suggested, "If you know what I mean."

Ai elbowed him sharply and Washuu shook her head.

"No," the scientist said seriously, "I doubt it's that."

* * *

Tenchi crawled, gasping, to his knees, and stared at the door through which Ryouko had disappeared while he tried to pull himself back together. Reliving his own shame had been bad enough, but seeing the horror that was Ryouko's life... He had tried to form words when she spoke, but could find no voice for the few scattered thoughts he could piece together. Every time he blinked away tears he saw the furious green of her eyes reflected in his grandfather's and heard the screams of her buried consciousness while she killed the rest.

Finally he found his feet again, pushing heavily against the coffee table in order to rise to them and stand, shaking, in the middle of the living room.

*Oh god,* Tenchi thought desperately, *What have I done? I made her relive all that... I'm such an idiot! I never should have made her summon the wings again that way! She saw.. she saw me doing all those things... Everything I always hoped she would never find out about.. everything I hoped Nobody would find out about. She must hate me now.. that's why she left, she hates me...*

"Ryouko," Tenchi moaned, taking a step toward the door only to fall once more to his knees, "Ryouko... Ryouko, Ryo.. oh..."

*No,* Tenchi realized, *That's wrong. She thinks I hate Her, she thinks I'm afraid of her...* The realization came as much from Ryouko's memories, still lying partially submerged beneath his own, as from himself. *She thinks that after seeing what Kagato made her do I'll have stopped loving her.*

Tenchi forced himself to his feet, wiping his eyes and shaking his head violently, his long hair whipping around him with the motion.

"No," Tenchi grunted, "I won't let this happen. I won't lose her." Tenchi could see what Ryouko would do now, thinking his love lost forever. She had friends in Ai and Aeka, and family in Washuu and Ryou-ohki, but she had told him enough times that he was her guiding light that he could hardly forget it now. For two decades she had subsisted on her growing love for him and after emerging from the cave he was her life. Thinking their love shattered beyond repair and with nothing upon which to take vengeance but herself, he knew Ryouko would not see purpose in continued existence.

"Let me not be too late," Tenchi whispered as he strode purposefully through the door and into the darkness of night. "Please let me not be too late."

* * *

"Me bored," Ryou-ohki complained, "lets go look for Aeka, Sasami. Please?"

Sasami smiled and patted the fur-covered girl's hand warmly. Ryou-ohki was wearing her new dress, styled to match her sister's without the details to give it the same social significance.

"Okay," Sasami agreed, "we'll go. She's probably in the gardens, that's the only place she's likely to go that the Guardians can't follow." Sasami turned to Washuu and asked, "Could you stay here in case they show up? Just tell the Guardians and I'll get the message."

"I'd like to come with actually," Washuu replied, folding her computer and tucking it away in a pocket of her robe. "There's someone in the garden I'd like to speak to. Nobuyuki, Mat, Ai, would you three stand guard? And let Mihoshi and Kiyone know what's going on when they get here?"

Nobuyuki looked up from the statue he was admiring in one corner of the room and nodded. "Sure. You'll be back before dinner, right? I don't know where to go in this place."

* * *

Ryouko was halfway to the forest when she felt it.

She did not know where she was going, only that she had to get away from the house. Tenchi was there and she did not want to subject him to her presence. How awful must he think her, now? Seeing her at her worst that way? There were other times, hundreds of them, more than there had been time for him to but glimpse, but he had relived the highlights with her. Or the lowlights. Whatever.

Ryouko stumbled along, the cool night air of the mountains drying her tears on her cheeks just slowly enough that she could taste their salty tang on her lips. She cast about desperately for something, anything, to focus on. Her life had collapsed in a matter of seconds when she summoned the power of the wings in the corridor on Jurai with Tenchi. She had pushed the power toward teleportation as quickly as possible, jerking them out of the silvery sea, but thought proved faster even than near-instantaneous travel and despite her efforts Tenchi had seen it all. And she had seen all of him. Now she wept over the pain she saw in Tenchi, the hurt he had harbored in private for years, and wept for the loss of her right to soothe it away. She tried to think of somewhere to go, something to do to get away from the pain, but all she could think of was the knife at his wrist and the words of his note. She had nearly lost him and never known. Now she really had lost him and had no idea how to deal with her pain.

When Kagato nearly destroyed him; did, in fact, kill him, she had a focus for her rage. Ryouko stormed the Soja, knowing full well her chances of survival were slim to nothing. But now.. now there was no Kagato to blame. If Tenchi had killed himself she could even have cursed him for leaving her alone and held her memories close for comfort. But now.. now she had nothing. Tenchi was gone, as surely as if he were dead, but his absence worsened by the knowledge that he was only a thought away. For the rest of her life Ryouko would have but to will it in order to be at his side... And for the rest of her life she would have to keep herself from him. He did not want her, he Could not want her. And it was all her own fault. She should have told him no, explained what their bond would do without the distractions provided the first time they merged through the power of the wings, done Something to keep it from happening. But she did not, she let him go ahead and opened herself to him when his mind touched hers, and when he saw her past she made no attempt to stop him.

Now it was over. The life she had built with him, the love she knew he held for her, the wedding she so cherished planning, the child she had begun to think she might one day be capable of raising; shattered. Destroyed by her past and her stupidity. What would Tenchi want with her? She was a monster; a whore for Kagato's mind; a murderer, torturer, thief, and destroyer. And because of it she had lost him.. lost her Tenchi.. lost her husband.. lost everything.

When the surge of power came Ryouko gasped and her back arched, three round lights flaring on her forehead. When they dimmed and died she slumped back to her former posture. As the haze of power cleared her mind Ryouko saw she was no longer alone.

* * *

Aeka sighed and tossed a pebble into the stream, wondering what to do next. She had come to the gardens hoping that Yousho might be there. He had always disliked the constant presence of the Guardians in his youth and of the places in the palace where a member of the House could go without them, the gardens was the only one to which he would have access in his current state as a non-entity. But she had seen no sign of her brother here and now sat on a low stone bench, watching the water.

*I should go apologize to mother,* Aeka thought, *I did not follow her wishes with father and he will likely-*

"Aeka!"

Aeka looked up to see her sister hurrying up one of the gardens' cobbled paths toward her, Ryou-ohki in tow.

* * *

Tenchi searched the night for any sign of Ryouko, but saw nothing but darkness. The moon was only a sliver and shed barely enough light to walk by. She had a good ten minutes head start and would likely be to the woods by now.

Tenchi stretched out with his mind awkwardly, ill-used to such exercises even after months of having the ability. Mental communication, he had discovered, was like threading a needle using tweezers and a microscope. Very, very easy if you were up close to the other person and extremely difficult from any distance. Now he reached out, casting around for the flare of Ryouko's self in the dark vastness of his focused mind. He had always been cautious in such things before, both because of what had happened immediately after the establishment of their bond at Christmas and out of fear of Ryouko seeing all the thoughts and memories he wished to keep private. Now none of that mattered, he only wanted to find her and be with her.

*She's never going to let me live down peeping at Aeka,* Tenchi thought, pushing at the limits of his limited telepathy, *God, I hope she never does. I'd rather she yell at me for the next decade and make me sleep on the couch for a century than.. than... I have to find her.*

Tenchi pushed harder, grasping at his temples and bent half over with effort. His head felt like it was splitting in half, like the hemispheres of his brain had decided to feud and were now attempting to rip the corpus callosum in two. Tenchi grunted, then found he could not draw another breath. His lungs had shut down under the strain and he felt his heart slowing. Still he pressed on.

There, just as consciousness was fleeing, Tenchi felt her. Like the first star of night against a canvas of a black and blue sky he saw the light of her being and focused in on it, bringing the breadth of his omni-directional search into narrow definition. The flickering star of Ryouko's mind burst into focus, a ranging sun of emotions and thoughts, memories and desires. Tenchi's will, spread thin over miles of empty land until now, poured against her mental defenses like an avalanche, powering through the shields her consciousness automatically erected like a tumbling boulder shattering the stillness of a mirror-surfaced pond.

Tenchi gasped air into his starved lungs and his heart surged back into action, skipping beats arythmically as it tried desperately to pump oxygen to his brain. Ignoring his body, Tenchi fueled his connection Ryouko with his desire, his base need, to be near her. The tendril of his being casting about within her mind for some hint of location latched onto.. something. He felt momentarily as if he were being guided, unconsciously, by Ryouko. And then something.. twisted.

* * *

"Katsuhito?" Washuu asked, stepping cautiously into the little glade.

"Ah," the figure already sitting on a bench there replied, "so someone recognizes me after all."

"What.. what happen?" Washuu asked. "Another disguise?"

The man with Yousho's voice shook his head and smiled beneath the black moustache providing a bridge between the face of a young prince and that of an old priest. "No, no disguise this time. I visited a Binodi clinic this afternoon."

Washuu gasped, her eyes going wide in shock. "Binodi? Those butchers? Only criminals go to those dives!"

Katsuhito sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and looked up at her. "What else am I? I fled the throne, Washuu. Binodi have no eyes, they work by touch. No others on the planet would have performed the process without recognizing me for the long-lost tatam Yousho of Jurai."

Washuu stepped closer, reaching out to tip his face up toward hers and look appraisingly at its new lines. Finally she smiled her approval and took a seat on the bench beside him.

"The Binodi have gotten better in the past few thousand years."

"Mmm," Katsuhito agreed. "You like my new face then?"

"Why did you do it?" Washuu asked rather than responding to his question. "Why go to the Binodi? Why have your face altered at all?"

Katsuhito sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He had never had more than a few threads of silver, but now it shone with the luster of youth.

Washuu took his hand and squeezed it warmly. "You look good Katsuhito. Or shall it be Yousho, now?"

Katsuhito smiled and patted her hand in his. "You decide. My first wife chose the name Katsuhito, and it was from my second that I took the name Masaki. If you are to become a part of my life now as well, it is fitting you choose my new title."

Washuu closed her eyes and leaned back, considering. After a time she opened them again, a smile on her lips. "I think Katsuhito will do. But," she added with a grin, "I'm going to call you Kat."

Katsuhito chuckled, "I suppose it could be worse. I could have been stuck with 'little Kat.'"

Washuu quirked an eyebrow and said, "Who says you aren't? I'm just saving that one for when we're Alone." Washuu accented the final word to leave him with no uncertainty as to what, exactly, she meant by 'Alone.'

Katsuhito sighed and leaned once more on his elbows. "Give me time old woman. A man does not upset his life in a few days."

"When you're ready, Kat," Washuu promised, rubbing his shoulder. "When you're ready."

* * *

"T.. T... Tenchi?" Ryouko stammered, staring at him as the aura of dancing blue flames surrounding his figure died away. "H.. How?"

"I.. I don't..." Tenchi began, looking down at his hands.

"I'm sorry," Ryouko sighed, turning away. "It must be me. I must have brought you here. I'm sorry." She phased out, reappearing on the rooftop of the Masaki home.

*Why here?* Ryouko wondered, looking around. *Force of habit, I guess.* Ryouko sighed and sat down in her usual spot, thinking that Tenchi would take some time getting back to the house in the dark. She would only sit for a few minutes, she reasoned, and then off to.. off to...

Ryouko hung her head in despair. She had nowhere to go. Nowhere at all.

* * *

"Aeka," Sasami asked, "have you seen Tenchi and Ryouko?"

"No, not since.. not since at least yesterday. I have had a very busy day today, Sasami. Why? Is something the matter?"

"No," Sasami sighed, shaking her head, "I guess not. Only, we were all getting new clothes and then when we were going to your chambers to meet up they never got there."

"New clothes?" Aeka asked, finally noticing Ryou-ohki's dress as the girl-ne-cabbit tried, without much success, to subtly show it off.

"Yeah, for dinner tonight."

"Pretty, Aeka?"

"Mm," Aeka agreed, patting Ryou-ohki on the shoulder, "very. What dinner?"

Sasami frowned and wrinkled her nose. "You didn't know? I thought everybody knew. Daddy wanted us all to come to dinner tonight."

"No," Aeka said, her voice going distant, "no, I didn't know. I.. I don't think I'll be there. I'm sorry, please tell everyone I'll see them later."

"What? Why won't you be there?"

"I.. I.. I don't want to.. to see father, right now."

"Oh," Sasami sighed, "right. I.. I guess I forgot. That happens, sometimes. If I know something 'cause of Tsunami and she's busy, I forget. Are you sure you won't come? Everybody'll be disappointed. Tenchi had nashim sujite made and he looks really good in 'em. And Ryouko got a new dress and everything."

Aeka looked up sharply from the stream where her gaze had wandered. "Suji? Of a nashim? Who ordered that? Surely not him?"

Sasami blushed and looked down, nervously kicking a the cobblestones. "I.. I kinda did."

"You shouldn't have done that Sasami," Aeka said in light reprimand. "Not until he has had his position announced."

Sasami sighed and looked back up at her sister. "You don't get Announced as a nashim. He just Is one. Isn't he?"

Aeka frowned and started to respond, then stopped herself. "Yes," she agreed finally, quietly. "Yes, I suppose so." Aeka shook her head and continued, voice firm once more, "Still, you should have asked me first."

"Well," Sasami replied, exasperated, "if I could have Found you... And have you seen Grandfather? I haven't been able to find him all day either."

"Mommy!" Ryou-ohki called, rushing off from the company of the two girls who were considerably less interested in her new dress than she felt was proper.

"Aeka," Katsuhito greeted casually, ruffling Ryou-ohki's hair when the girl grabbed Washuu in a hug, forcing the scientist to remove her arm from his, "Sasami. The day finds you well, I hope?"

Sasami turned and her jaw dropped. Behind her Aeka stammered, "Y.. yo.. Yousho?"

* * *

"Ryouko."

Ryouko spun, floating away from the roof to stare back at Tenchi where he stood a few feet above her former position.

"Stop this Ryouko."

Ryouko sighed. "I wish I could. I didn't mean to. I'm sorry..." She phased out again.

Ryouko looked around the vicinity of the cave mouth, trying to remember when she had last been there. Giving up the futile exercise she sat down on a rock, trying to avoid thinking about Tenchi.

*That must be it,* she reasoned. *If I just don't think about him he won't appear. I just have to not think about him. Ha! Not think about Tenchi-*

"Ryouko."

Ryouko yelped and leapt up from her rock, hovering six feet off the ground and staring in disbelief at Tenchi were he stood at the mouth of the cave, limned in pale blue fire.

"I didn't mean to... I know you don't want to see me," Ryouko sighed. "I didn't want to summon you. I didn't know I could even do that. I'll go."

"No," Tenchi stated flatly, walking around the rock toward her, "stop running from me Ryouko. Right now."

*God he's handsome,* Ryouko thought randomly, watching the wind whip his hair around his head as he strode purposefully forward, that new robe of his stretching tight in the breeze against his profile. *I love him.. the gods help me but I love him.*

"Come down."

Ryouko shook her head weakly. "I know you don't want to be around me Tenchi. You don't have to tell me. Just let me go. You'll forget about the things I did.. you'll find someone else.. someone who's not a monster like me."

Tenchi sighed and.. and rose up from the ground to float beside her.

"How.. how can you.. what..."

"I'm not," Tenchi explained, taking her limp hands in his, "you are. Memories aren't the only things we're sharing." Ryouko felt a tickle at the back of her mind, like someone rubbing a feather against the inside of her skull, and they were back on the rooftop.

"I love you Ryouko."

"No," Ryouko denied, pulling her hands away. "No you don't. You can't."

"I can," Tenchi countered, "and I do."

Ryouko sat down heavily on the roof tiles, hugging her knees. "You don't love me Tenchi. Nobody could love me. I'm a monster, a thing from a lab. I'm not human... You saw what I did. I don't have feelings. You love the person you make me." Ryouko looked up at him, her eyes pleading for understanding, "Don't you see? What if something happened? What if our bond was broken? I'd go back to being her again.. emotionless, cruel, evil... How can you love that? You're in love with yourself, reflected in me."

"That's not true," Tenchi said angrily, squatting beside her. "None of it. Not at all. I love Ryouko. The sensitive, gentle, caring woman who gave me her powers and her heart and helped me find my way out of the dark hole I'd dug for myself. You're her. You always were. I didn't make you anything you weren't, I just showed you how to be yourself.. just like you showed me how to be myself.

"I saw your memories. I saw you killing, torturing, pillaging, and destroying. I saw you almost kill my grandfather. But all the time I saw the real you.. buried way down inside where even He couldn't find you. Every time, Every Single time for five thousand years, you tried to stop yourself. You never gave up. Every time he made you kill, you screamed and tried to pull your hands away. Every life you took weighed on your conscious. Don't bother denying it, I saw it. I know it's true. Is that a monster? Is that a thing with no feelings?"

Ryouko only shook her head and sighed, "I still did those things. I wasn't strong enough. What if I do it again? What if I had your child and I killed it? Even if it wasn't on purpose? What if I got mad and blew up our apartment? What if I got in a fight with Ai and ripped her apart? She doesn't have shields like Aeka..."

"Ryouko-"

"Tell me!" Ryouko demanded, "Tell me you'd still love me then! I'm not human Tenchi! I'm a.. a thing! I'm no better than that thing you killed in Tokimi's palace."

Tenchi took her hand and pulled her up to a standing position.

"Ryouko," he began, pulling his robe over his head, "I want you to listen very carefully to me. Just listen, when I'm done what you do will be your own decision." Tenchi pulled his loose Jurain shirt off and tossed it aside with the robe, then went down on both knees in front of her.

"I love you. I know who you are, and I love you. I will always love you." Tenchi took her hand and put it against his chest. "Now do it."

"Do what?" Ryouko asked, confused.

"It. Whatever it is you think I'm so god damn afraid of. Rip my skin off. Tear my heart out. Beat me, whip me, shove your energy sword through me. Do your worst Ryouko. You want me to be afraid of you? You want me to tell you to go away because I'm afraid of what you'll do? Do it."

"Tenchi.. I..."

"Do it!" Tenchi shouted, pressing her hand harder against himself. , "Do your worst Ryouko! Leave me the strength to speak and when you're done I'll tell you I still love you! God damn it, I love you! I'm not afraid anymore! You did that for me, and I'm not going to start again. The only thing I'm afraid of, the Only thing that makes me lay awake at night, is thinking of being without you. I want you here. I want to be with you forever, just like you promised me when I asked you to marry me.

"You're my wife Ryouko! My Wife! Not Kagato's, not Washuu's, nobody else but me! If they want to think you're not human, screw them! You're My wife, and I say you're just as human as I am! Now, if you want me to be afraid, if you want me to run away and hide again like I did for all those years, then give me something to be afraid of. If you're going to do it, do it now. Do it now or accept you're human and never make me go through this again."

"Tenchi... I wish it could be true. I wish I could be a regular girl for you. I wish I'd never done all those things, hurt all those people..."

"You didn't," Tenchi growled. "You've never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. All those deaths.. all that pain.. all if it rests firmly in Kagato's hands. And he's dead now Ryouko. I killed him. Never in your life have you killed of your own free will, but I have. Am I a monster then Ryouko? Am I not human? Will you stop loving me because of it?"

"It's not the same," Ryouko sighed, trying to pull her hand away from his chest. "I should have stopped him. I hurt all those people-"

"No," Tenchi shook his head in denial, keeping a firm grip on her hand. "You didn't hurt them Ryouko. But you're hurting me. Do you think I want you to rip my skin off? Of course not! But I'll let you.. if you do it, I won't even try to stop you. And do you know why?"

Ryouko shook her head fearfully, not even wanting to imagine doing such a thing.

"Because it might prove to you that I love you, no matter what you've done. Hell, Because of what you've done! All those years.. all that pain.. and you're still you! You stood up to it all and came out the same woman you went in. Hurt me Ryouko. Rip me apart. Kill me, if you want to. But don't hurt me this way. Don't tell me I can't love you."

"Tenchi, I wouldn't..."

"Then tell me you love me," Tenchi demanded, "Tell me that, and tell me that I love you too. Tell me and believe it and we'll forget all this. We'll go back and have dinner and we'll get married and we'll be happy. But this has gone on too long Ryouko, you've hated yourself for too many years for me to stop now. Accept the truth or kill me, those are your only options."

Ryouko tried to formulate a response, and was nearly there when she felt Tenchi's mind in hers again. A tiny thread of his will, tickling the back of her mind as though searching for something. When she saw what it was she gasped, trying to force him back out, but it was too late. Energy rushed from the gems, into her hand where it was pressed against his chest. Tenchi grunted in pain, his hand tightening around her wrist in agonized spasms. His veins stood out across his chest and shoulders, his skin deepening to red, then purple. Ryouko screamed, trying to pull her hand away and shut off the flow of power simultaneously, but Tenchi held an iron grip on both her wrist and her mind. He flooded himself with energy, his teeth grinding together and his eyes fluttering back and forth in their sockets.

When Ryouko felt his heart skipping beats against her hand she screamed again. He was dying, killing himself with her power, at her hands, and she had no way to stop it.

"Stop!" She cried, weeping now. "Stop Tenchi! Stop it! I love you! I love you! I won't say you can't anymore! I.. I.. I don't want you to die Tenchi! I don't want to be away from you, ever again! Don't leave me..." Ryouko fell to her knees in front of him, throwing her free arm around his neck and pleading, "Don't leave me Tenchi... Please, Tenchi... I don't want to be alone..."

"Say," Tenchi gasped, stunning Ryouko. She did not think anyone would be capable of speech in his state. "It," he finished, his grip on her wrist slackening.

"Alright," Ryouko sobbed, trying to pull her hand away, "alright Tenchi, anything. I'm human! Is that enough? I'm human Tenchi, I'm just a weak human woman and I can't live without you! God damn it Tenchi! Don't you do this to me! Don't you dare leave me you.. you..."

The flow of power ceased and Tenchi withdrew from that part of Ryouko's mind, leaving the connection open as he sagged weakly. Ryouko drew a few gasping breaths, staring at him in pain, confusion, and relief.

*He.. he almost... He made me... He--* Ryouko pulled back her arm and delivered a slap to Tenchi's face that whipped his head around and drew popping noises from his over-stressed neck.

"You asshole!" Ryouko shouted. "Don't you ever do that to me again! Ever! Do you hear me, Masaki Tenchi?"

Tenchi rotated his head slowly back to face her and stared with quiet intensity. Ryouko noticed absently that the marks of his birthright were on his forehead still, though not glowing as they normally did. Just three thickening green bars slashed down the skin of his forehead, looking as natural as the rest of his face.

"Never make me," Tenchi said quietly, deadly serious, and then collapsed against her. Ryouko gasped, wrapping her arms around him automatically.

*What did I do? Oh god, after all I put him through...*

"I'm sorry," she cried, "I'm sorry Tenchi."

Tenchi drug his arms up from his sides, draping them over her shoulders in an exhausted hug. Ryouko buried her head in his shoulder and sobbed helplessly, clinging to him in desperation.

"I love you," Tenchi whispered, kissing her head just above her ear, and she gasped out a matching response between shuddering sobs.

Ryouko held him, really held him for the first time. Always before she pulled back a little, fearful of hurting him with her strength, but he was strong too. She had always known that, since the day she fell in love with him, watching him there at the cave, but never really understood. Ryouko crushed Tenchi to her in a grip that could fold a car in half, and he hugged her gently, swaying slightly in the moonlight while he reassuringly stroked her back.

*I don't know why you love me,* Ryouko thought, nuzzling her face against Tenchi's neck, *but I'm glad you do.* Ryouko almost laughed at herself. Glad indeed, that was easily the understatement of the century. She could not say why it was so important that Tenchi love all of her, not just who she was now, but it was.

Tenchi pulled back slightly, a little strength returning to his limbs, and smiled at her. Ryouko smiled back and held him supportively when he leaned forward to kiss her. His vitality was returning rapidly, but he still felt very weak in her arms.

After a brief eternity Tenchi broke the kiss, his breath coming in a long, deep rhythm. Ryouko looked at the hand-shaped wound on his chest sadly and wished she had some way to repair the damage; but she was a fighter, not a healer.

"Tenchi," Ryouko sighed, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry about your chest, and about.. about everything."

"I'm sorry too Ryouko," Tenchi replied quietly, between breaths. "I should have dealt with this sooner, before it came to this. I let you live with all that pain bottled up for too long."

Ryouko nodded sadly, noticing as she did so that there was a long brown streak of dirt down Tenchi's left leg. She looked down at herself, wiping her eyes, and saw that her dress was smudged with dirt and dust from the rooftop and the cave. The rest of Tenchi's clothes, where they lay in a heap a few meters away, did not look much better.

"We're a mess," she observed.

"Yeah," Tenchi agreed, his respiration evening out as he wiped the tears from his own face. "I wonder if they're dry-clean only."

Ryouko chuckled softly, her emotional turmoil rapidly dissolving under the relative normality of topic. "We could use mom's washer..."

"Your mother built a washing machine?"

Ryouko nodded, smiling at the mild absurdity of the notion. "Yeah, she got upset when we ran out of soap for the regular one one day, so she built her own. She says it'll clean anything."

"Well," Tenchi sighed, picking up his stained robe, "I guess it's worth a shot. But how're we going to get to it? It's in her lab, right?"

"Mmm," Ryouko agreed, pushing herself to her feet. "But she keyed the door for me a couple months ago."

* * *

"Come on Sasami," Washuu urged, "let's go or we'll be late for dinner."

"But what about Aeka and-" Sasami paused, unsure how to refer to Katsuhito.

"Aeka and Katsuhito have some things to talk about," Washuu explained.

"But can't you two talk later?" Sasami asked of the stunned princess and silent prince. "You'll miss dinner."

"I don't think this particular conversation should be put off any longer," Washuu opined, looking meaningfully at Katsuhito.

He nodded and said in an obvious attempt at cheerfulness, "Go on Sasami. Formal dinners last some time, I'll be there later."

Sasami frowned doubtfully but let herself be led away by Washuu, Ryou-ohki following along behind them.

"Aeka," Katsuhito began gently, "there are some things I need to explain to you, things I probably should have explained some time ago."

"Yes," Aeka whispered. She turned her eyes from Katsuhito's new face toward the stream by which she sat. When she spoke again her voice was firm, "Yes, I think certain things have waited considerably too long to be said."

* * *

"Now," Ryouko said, looking around the relatively empty room the lab door had opened upon, "lets see if I remember how to do this..." She closed her eyes and bit her lip, brow furrowing in concentration. Just when Tenchi thought nothing would happen, a clone of Washuu's holographic computer terminal popped into being. Ryouko opened her eyes and beamed at him triumphantly. Tenchi applauded, grinning.

"Hmm," Ryouko murmured, tapping at shifting icons on the surface of the terminal, "wombat, wheelbarrow, Wozniak, wisteria, wrench... Ahha! Washing machine." Ryouko touched a key with all of her mother's flourish, producing a rather unimpressive rectangular hole in the air.

"That's a washing machine?" Tenchi asked, cocking his head to look at the hole from the side. It did not, as it turned out, appear to Have a side.

"No, just the interface," Ryouko explained, reaching around toward the pressure-sensitive seam on the back of her dress, "the machine is in subspace somewhere. Here, could you do this for me? I can't reach."

"Yes dear," Tenchi said, smiling and stepping closer. He touched the near-invisible seam and ran his finger down, along her spine. The material parted behind his moving digit, revealing Ryouko's back.

"No bra today?" Tenchi asked, tracing his finger back up her bare back once the dress was fully opened.

Ryouko turned around and flashed him a grin. "With this front?" She asked, poking a finger through one of the incisions forming the floral pattern across the chest piece of the dress.

"You're right," Tenchi agreed, reaching up to hold the dress in place while Ryouko pulled her arms free, "I can see how you wouldn't want to restrain a front like that."

"Tenchi!" Ryouko gasped, blushing at the unexpected compliment, "I meant the dress!"

Tenchi nodded and let the dress fall from his fingers. The upper half of the garment tugged at the lower half where it hung, supported only by the curve of Ryouko's hips. "But I was talking about the fact that the only thing under the top of that dress was my wife." Tenchi took her hand and kissed her fingers delicately before saying, "My human wife."

Ryouko smiled and nodded in agreement. "Just some more human under the bottom half too," Ryouko observed, slipping the dress from her hips to fall in a cloth puddle around her feet.

"Ryouko," Tenchi asked cautiously, "when did you start...?" He trailed off, staring at the perfect reproduction of the insignia on his forehead that Ryouko wore below her waistline. Perfect, other than that it was defined by cyan hair rather than green skin.

Ryouko blushed, an action that Tenchi noted made it nearly all the way to the bit of artistry in question. "I was going to surprise you.. on the camping trip... Only I guess we got a little distracted. Do you.. do you like it? I know some men like it when a girl shaves, so I got a depilatory from mom.. I told her it was for my legs. But I thought I'd look kind of silly, so-"

Tenchi cut off her defensive rambling with a finger across her lips. "I'm not some men, dear. But I love it. I love you. You could be furry as your sister and I'd still love you, Ryouko. But I definitely like it."

Ryouko smiled happily and reached up to trace a finger across his chest. Tenchi winced when she unthinkingly touched the wound left by her hand and Ryouko grimaced in sympathy.

"I'm sorry," Ryouko sighed, "I really wish I could fix that for you Tenchi... We'll go see the doctors as soon as we get back to Jurai."

"Don't worry," Tenchi chuckled, "it only hurts when I breath."

"Why did you do that anyway? Couldn't you have used a less self-destructive demonstration? You scared the hell out of me Tenchi."

"It worked though, didn't it?"

"Yeah," Ryouko sighed, "I guess it did. But I wish you didn't have to do it. I'm an idiot."

"You are not," Tenchi stated firmly, tilting her head back up to look him in the eye from where it had drooped during her moment of contrition. "I wish it hadn't happened too; but it did, and it's over now. And it's never going to happen again, right?"

Ryouko nodded. "Never."

"We'd better put the clothes in or we'll be late for dinner," Tenchi observed, hefting his robe and shirt toward the hole. "I just toss 'em in?"

Ryouko nodded, tapping a key to engage the washing machine. She started to retrieve her dress, then paused, a wicked grin spreading across her lips. "Go stand over there Tenchi," she ordered, pointing to a spot halfway across the room.

Tenchi frowned but assumed it was some part of the washing machine thing and went.

Ryouko waited for him to get in position, then bent slowly to pick up the dress, leering at him all the while. "What do you think Tenchi," she asked, turning to step backward out of the piled dress before rising and pirouetting to face Tenchi again, "do I put on a better show than Aeka?"

"Aeka?" Tenchi asked, walking toward her. "Who's Aeka? I don't see anybody here but my beautiful wife."

"You should have come to me that night," Ryouko said, slipping her arms around his waist, "I'd have given you something to dream about."

Tenchi chuckled. "You wouldn't have had to, I dreamed about you that night anyway."

Ryouko raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "Really? Was it a good dream?"

"One of the best," Tenchi agreed with a grin, "at least, the best until after the real thing."

Ryouko's eyes widened and her eyebrows arched even higher. "It was That kind of dream? About Me? Back then?"

"What, you thought I never had any?" Tenchi asked, running the fingers of one hand through her hair. "All those years and you figured I never even thought about the girls living in my house?"

"Did you.. did you have a lot of those dreams?"

"Why did you think I was always so upset when you spent the night staring at me?"

"I thought-" Ryouko paused, trying to remember what reason she had come up with for that all those months ago. "I thought you were afraid I'd try something while you were asleep."

"Nope," Tenchi laughed softly, letting his hand drift from her hair down across Ryouko's back, "I was afraid you'd come in and catch me staining the sheets or groaning your name in my sleep."

Ryouko smirked and squeezed him, saying, "Wish I'd known that then.. I'd have come in more often. Why didn't you ever do anything about it? I was right down the hall, you know."

Tenchi sighed, "You know why. I had the kind of dreams any teenage boy with a bunch of girls chasing after him would have, but I couldn't act on them. No way I'd do that without love, you know that, and I was afraid to love any of you back then."

Ryouko nodded in agreement. "Yeah, but I wish you would've."

Tenchi hugged her, trying to ignore the pain when her breasts pressed against his injured chest. "We're together now, that's what matters."

Ryouko murmured agreeably, tossing her dress one-handed into the washing machine. "Come on husband, lets get you out of those pants and into something more.. comfortable."

"We still don't have any protection," Tenchi sighed. "I could go upstairs and get dressed, then pop over to a store in town..."

Ryouko closed her eyes and took a deep breath before saying, "No. Let's just do it Tenchi. Forget the condoms."

"Ryouko..."

"I want to," she said firmly, "right now."

"But what if you get pregnant Ryouko? I don't think I'm ready to be a father yet."

"I don't ovulate Tenchi, the chances of me getting pregnant are like one in three thousand. And if I do.. well, mom can whip me up an abortion pill or something. But I want you Tenchi, and I'm sick of condoms and diaphragms and all that crap."

"Are you sure? This is a big thing.. we don't know if Washuu can really do that."

"I want to have your child one day Tenchi," Ryouko sighed, leaning her head carefully on his shoulder. "I'm no more ready right now than you are, but one day I want to. I didn't want to admit it before, but I will now."

"Ryouko... This is.. I mean..."

"If you want to go get condoms it's okay," Ryouko assured him, looking up at his concerned expression, "but don't do it just for my sake. Tonight was.. tonight was really big for me Tenchi. All my life I've thought of myself as some kind of monster, and for most of it I had people telling me I was right. You made me start to think maybe it wasn't true, and tonight... Tonight I think I really believe it. I don't feel like a demon anymore Tenchi, you've seen all the bad things I've done and you're still here. That means a whole lot for me, more than I can tell you. It's like... It's like how you were afraid to ask me to marry you. I loved you and you loved me, but I was always scared that one day you'd see me for who I really was and drop me.

"Well, tonight I'm not. Tonight you saw it all and you're still my husband, and I'm not scared anymore. I can do anything, be anybody, and you'll still be there. If we have a child and I make a mistake.. you'll be there to help. I'm just another human, I guess, and humans make mistakes."

"I'm happy for you dear," Tenchi said, kissing her forehead, "but are you sure about this? I know how good it felt after I asked you to marry me, but this..."

"I know," she agreed, "and it's okay if you don't want to. But I do. We've always used a condom Tenchi, even that first night. Every time with you is special, Tenchi, but tonight... Tonight is my first night with my husband. If I could make myself a virgin again for you, I would. I want to feel you Tenchi, not a piece of rubber. And when we're done.. when we're done, I want you still inside me. When we go to dinner in a couple of hours I want to look at you and think, 'That's my husband. He made love to me a little while ago, and he's going to again after dinner if I have my way, but he's still part of me.'"

"Ryouko," Tenchi breathed, his face flushed a deep crimson. Ryouko reflected that the green lines on his forehead made him look really cute when he blushed. Her own face was completely clear of embarrassment. Ryouko wondered at that for a moment, then realized, *This is my husband. I've shared everything with him, what're a few words to get embarrassed about?*

"Make love to me Tenchi," Ryouko pleaded in a whisper. "Make this human girl your wife."

* * *

"Kamadake?"

"Yes," the Guardian asked, rotating toward his companion where they floated near the shrine, "what is it Azaka?"

"Did you feel that?"

"I can't feel anything Azaka, but I did not sense anything abnormal in the past few moments."

"You didn't feel it?"

Kamadake released a synthetic sigh and asked, "Feel what, Azaka?"

"There has been a great disturbance in the force."

"Alright," Kamadake grumbled, "that's it Azaka. I'm sending a message to Jurai, you are having your personality matrix examined."

"No, no," Azaka protested, "I'm serious Kamadake. It just happened again. Pay attention for a minute."

They waited silently for a few moments until Kamadake announced, startled, "You're right Azaka. Something odd Did just happen."

"Mmm," Azaka agreed, "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

"I think it was that signal Washuu alerted us to," Kamadake continued, ignoring the remark, "the one she found on Christmas."

"I remember," Azaka said indignantly. "My memory core is just as good as yours."

"It was back at the house, we should go look into it."

"Aye aye skipper," Azaka cheered, following Kamadake when the Guardian floated toward the stairs. "Quickly, to the Guardian-mobile!"

Kamadake sighed wearily and asked, "Okay Azaka, explain."

"Da na na nuh, da na na Na.. Guar-di-an," Azaka sang quietly.

"By the tree!" Kamadake growled, rounding on the singing Guardian. "Will you Stop this foolishness Azaka? It is unbecoming of a Guardian!"

"'Elp! 'Elp!" Azaka shouted, giggling, "I'm bein' repressed!"

The energy banks along Kamadake's nodori shuttered open, his offensive array glowing to life with a sound like a charging capacitor. "Stop this, Azaka, or I will stop it!"

"Come see the violence inherent in the system!"

Kamadake fired, the blast discharging harmlessly from Azaka's shields. "Azaka!"

"I'm sorry," Azaka sighed, "I didn't mean to upset you Kamadake."

The weapons array hissed shut and Kamadake rotated back toward the house. "I do not understand you Azaka. You were a fine Guardian, what has happened to you?"

"What has happened to me?" Azaka asked in disbelief. "Me? What's happened to You, Kamadake? I remember times when I had to drag you back to the barracks after you'd drunk yourself blind, then call in the medics to make sure you hadn't picked up anything unsavory from the local whorehouse!"

"Azaka," Kamadake said reproachfully, "I was never that bad, was I?"

"You were! And I loved you for it! Remember our bonding ceremony, Kamadake? Remember what you said?"

"'Don't worry your highness,'" Kamadake quoted himself quietly, "'I'll watch out for the kid. He won't get into anything but the best kinds of trouble.'"

"What happened Kamadake?" Azaka asked sadly. "What happened to the Guardian I used to know? You were the fun half, I was the stodgy one. Why'd you change?"

"I suppose death takes it out of you," Kamadake sighed. "What kind of fun can a man get into as a log? Hmph. In any case, we were given the duty of guarding the tanos of the House Jurai, Azaka. Such a responsibility is not to be taken lightly."

"But do we have to be so sober about it? Their highnesses aren't as stuck up as you are, Kamadake. Look at minos Sasami.. by the tree, if I still had a body..."

"If you had a body, what?" Kamadake asked in a tone of warning. "Remember of whom you speak."

"Oh come off it Kamadake," Azaka pleaded. "The minos is a fox! And those clothes she wears... Can you imagine what lord Azusa would say?"

"What is your point, Azaka? That you wish you were still human so you could endanger your life by courting her highness?"

"No! I'm just saying.. quit being such a lurch, Kamadake. You're dead, live it up a little!"

"Azaka," Kamadake sighed, "that makes no sense whatsoever."

"So what? Does everything have to make sense? Did it make sense to charge a battalion of Timpasian mercs hopped up on timfala weed when the rest of our unit was down and there wasn't any backup on the way?"

"That was a matter of honor," Kamadake replied gruffly. "We went to our deaths as Guardians should, protecting the throne."

"Yeah, but you see what I mean? Not everything makes sense, Kamadake. Let your hair down for a little while you old bastard, it's just me here. We've been together.. what? Twelve hundred years now? I've seen you sick, naked, asleep, drunk, stoned, and sober as a rock. I've even watched you in bed, old man."

"I don't have hair," Kamadake protested weakly.

Azaka laughed, "Sure, not anymore..."

"Fine," Kamadake sighed, "what would you have me do?"

"Seven sons, Kamadake," Azaka cursed, "if I have to tell you, what's the point? What do You want to do? You're always so reserved, what's hiding away in that personality matrix of yours?"

"Well," Kamadake said slowly, "there is one of Nobuyuki's tapes which intrigues me."

"Alright," Azaka said with a tone that implied he would be rubbing his hands together excitedly, had he hands, "which one?"

"I do not remember the title, but the box cover had two nurses in rather brief uniforms."

"Oh, I know where that one is."


Azaka floated up to the couch, attempting to lean against it next to Kamadake but without much luck.

"Well pardner," Kamadake drawled, "I reckon this couch ain't big enough for the both of us."

"Why Kamadake," Azaka asked, startled, "was that a joke?"

* * *

Azusa, emperor of the Thousand Suns, ruler of the five trillion citizens of the Empire of Jurai, lord of the Living Throne, undisputed leader of the House, fell to his knees. The careful facade he had erected for the trip between his apartments and the Inner Chamber shattered, revealing a man defeated beneath. Azusa dipped his hands in the pool surrounding the tree before which he knelt and brought a shining double-handful of liquid away. He sipped a mouthful, then splashed the remainder against his face, matting his beard and washing away the tear only half-completed in its journey from eye to chin.

"Anomi," Azusa called, attempting to infuse his voice with some of the bearing he felt it should maintain, "I call audience. I need your assistance-" Azusa's voice broke and his shoulders slumped. "Anomi," he moaned. "Help me Anomi.. help me, mother."

"Azusa... You are troubled, Azusa... How may we do to ease your pain?"

"It's.. it's Aeka," Azusa sighed. "She... She performed the liann, mother. And it's my fault!"

"Your fault, Azusa? Did you force her to do this thing?"

"No," Azusa said, shaking his head sadly, "but it was my actions which led her to it. I.. I have failed her mother, I have failed her just as I failed Yousho. She will leave me just as he did and the throne will be empty when my time is spent."

"What of Sasami?" asked the gently voice of the tree.

"Sasami," Azusa moaned sadly, "my little Sasami... She had her change and I was not there. Could not be there, even after the fact. She has no interest in the throne, mother, and I will not force her. I have failed three children, I will not destroy another's life."

"Azusa," Anomi asked sternly, causing him to look up at the old tree. "What is the first duty of an emperor, Azusa?"

"To enact the will of the people," he answered automatically, the response coming from centuries of trying to do just that.

"And the second?"

"To ensure the people's safety."

"The third?"

"To provide for the continued existence of the empire."

"And of a husband, Azusa? What is the first duty for him?"

"To ensure the happiness of his partners."

"And of a father?"

"To provide for the welfare of his child," Azusa sighed, looking down at the clear water once again.

"And of a son, Azusa?"

"To heed the wisdom of his elders."

"You have many duties," Anomi asked quietly, "don't you, my son?"

"I have tried," Azusa moaned, sinking in on himself, "I have tried so hard, mother. To be a good emperor, to be a good husband, to be a good father... But I have failed at them all, and now I suppose I am not even a good son, is that what you are saying mother?"

"No Azusa," Anomi answered gently, a soft breeze blowing from nowhere to dry his tears. "You are a fine son, and a better emperor than you will ever know. Your wives love you, and your children respect you."

"Respect?" Azusa asked incredulously. "Respect, Anomi? Me? They have no respect for me, and I deserve none. What have I done to them? My son.. my Namaeto... I loved him, Anomi..."

"Perhaps it is not too late, Azusa? Must you bear another burden on your soul?"

"What can I do? The damage is done, mother. I cannot countermand the liann, that is one of the oldest laws."

"All laws have an exception, Azusa. That is a law older even than the liann."

"What is it then?" Azusa pleaded, "What solution is there for me? Tell me mother, I beg of you!"

"I can not, my son," Anomi sighed, "I am only a memory embodied by this tree, little more than a dream. Even if I know the answer that you seek, I may not so alter the course of events."

"Then if I may not set right that which has gone before, I will provide for the future," Azusa said with grim determination, rising to his feet. "I will make her see that I care."

"You will do what is necessary," Anomi replied confidently.

"No," Azusa shook his head and turned away from the tree, staring out at the limited infinity of the Inner Chamber. "I have done the necessary for sixty centuries, mother. Now, I will do what is right."

Azusa focused his mind and, with a single step, the great doors rushed to meet him.

A line of green glowed bright at the center of Azusa's forehead and the doors swung wide to give him passage. When Puer and Toka saw him approaching they merely bowed, waiting until he had passed to rise. It was their sworn duty to defend the life of the emperor, even to their own deaths, but an etae in his aspect commands the honor of self defense.

* * *

Azaka, who was less absorbed in what was going on on the television screen- admittedly because he had seen it three times already-than his partner turned at the sound of the broom-closet door clicking open.

When Tenchi and Ryouko stepped through he tilted slightly, bonking Kamadake's nodori to get the Guardian's attention. Kamadake rotated with a disgruntled, "What is it Azaka? I was just- Oh, you're back early from..." Kamadake trailed off when his sensor array registered Tenchi and Ryouko's clothes. Or, rather, their utter lack thereof.

"May we be of assistance?" Azaka asked innocently.

Ryouko bit her lip to stifle a giggle and Tenchi flushed deep red, but his only move was to stand in front of Ryouko, blocking her from the Guardians' vision.

"I.. I don't think that will be necessary."

"What're you two up to, anyway?" Ryouko asked, peeking around Tenchi's shoulder.

"Oh, it is nothing," Kamadake assured the blushing couple. "We were merely-"

"Oh God," moaned a high-pitched voice from the television, "it's so Big!"

"We will not tell," Kamadake promised soberly, "if you do not."

* * *

"May I sit down?"

Aeka nodded primly, sliding over on the bench to make room.

"I listened to your conversation with mother Funaho," Aeka stated simply, feeling it was best to simply get it out in the open beforehand.

"I know," Katsuhito sighed. "I heard you breathing in the hallway. She probably knows by now as well, or did you truly believe it is possible to make a movement in this palace without our parents' knowledge?"

Aeka blushed, realizing she had not even considered that her mother was the head of Jurain intelligence. Of Course she would know that her daughter came into her apartments that day.

"Yousho-"

"Please, Aeka, Katsuhito. My face has changed again, but I remain the man you have known for the past four years."

"Katsuhito, then," Aeka agreed. "I have so many questions..."

"I do not believe I will have answers to them all," Katsuhito said seriously, leaning on his knees to stare at the flowing waters of the stream. "I will try though. Start with that which weighs most heavily on your mind, that it may be dealt with first."

Aeka paused. She knew what that would be, there was absolutely no question about that, but how should she ask it? Angry? Curious? Sad?

Aeka chose a middle ground, asking neutrally, "Why did you never tell me of your plans for Tenchi?"

"My plans for Tenchi," Katsuhito echoed sadly, bowing his head. "Aeka, would you believe me if I told you I did not know?"

Aeka frowned. "Did not know what?"

"Anything, I suppose," Katsuhito sighed, leaning back on the bench and closing his eyes. "This is the conversation I've dreaded for more than a year now Aeka. I knew it would come eventually, and I suppose that is why I told mother my story while you stood there, listening. It was easier that way, with you not knowing I was speaking to you and me able to pretend I was talking only to mother."

"Katsuhito," Aeka asked unsurely, "what are you talking about? What did you not know?"

"When I left here, seven centuries ago, I chased a demon, Aeka. I did not know the truth of Ryouko's situation, I only knew that this creature had attacked my home. When I sealed her, with Tsunami's help, into the cave that would be her prison.. I had only ever seen her as a demon. I knew she was a woman, under the demon-mask, but I had never Seen this woman."

"What.. what are you saying?"

Katsuhito sighed heavily before continuing. "When Tsunami showed me that I should guide Tenchi to release Ryouko, I knew that they would have some sort of relationship with one another. I saw them pushing back the darkness, side by side. But imagine it, Aeka, if you can. I had seen Ryouko only as a demon, a warrior-goddess with no apparent emotion but sadistic hatred. I knew, logically, that she would not act the same when Tenchi released her.. but how could I know she would love him? How?"

"I-" Aeka paused, thinking the matter over, "I suppose you could not."

"Exactly so," Katsuhito agreed. "There was no way for me to know how she would act when Tenchi released her, or even what role they would play together. I expected them to fight as allies.. perhaps even as friends. But lovers? The demon woman who tried to destroy my home, in love with my grandson? It would have seemed absurd."

"You mean," Aeka asked, realization dawning, "you did not intend Tenchi to be with her?"

"No," Katsuhito sighed, "I did not. Not in that way. Perhaps Tsunami did, but if so I was her unwitting pawn."

"But why, then, did you never tell me? When you saw that she loved him, why did you never tell me that they were destined for one another?"

"I did not realize, Aeka. Call me a foolish old man, but I did not see it. I thought her interest in him to be a game of some kind, an amusement after her long imprisonment. I did not expect Tenchi to reciprocate her apparently shallow feelings, and he gave no particular sign of doing so. When you arrived... When you arrived, I did not realize your feelings for him either. I thought you might, perhaps, be transferring some of your feeling for me onto my grandson."

"Nonsense," Aeka denied, "I love.. loved him."

"I know that now," Katsuhito agreed, "but I did not see it then. When finally I did realize that your emotion was real, it was far too late to stop you. Had I told you, any time in the year before Tenchi's twenty-first birthday, that you were not meant to be with him.. would you have listened to me?"

Aeka was silent, struggling with herself over the answer to that question. Katsuhito went on, "To tell the truth, Aeka, I held hope for some time that Tenchi would choose you. My grandson, emperor of Jurai.. that would have truly been something."

"So that's it then? You turned a blind eye to Ryouko's feelings and rationalized mine until it was too late, then were too.. to cowardly to tell me?" Aeka asked, shocked and angered by the wholly unexpected explanation.

"No.. that is not all of it," Katsuhito sighed, "there is another thing."

"What?" Aeka asked, not entirely sure she wanted to know.

"I say that I held hope for some time, and that is true. But that hope faded, Aeka. I wanted the choice to be Tenchi's, when he finally made it. Anything else would not have been right, and he would not have been happy with a decision forced upon him. But when the time came that a decision loomed... I know for whom I hoped, and though it pains me to admit it, it was not you."

Aeka frowned deeply. First to discover that there was no principle behind Tenchi's relationship with Ryouko... She had hoped to find that there was a Reason that the two were together. Not that she resented Ryouko for it; how could she, seeing how happy she made Tenchi? But Aeka desperately needed a reason for the pain she felt, some way to justify all that had happened in the past year. She had so desired Tsunami or Katsuhito to simply tell her, 'I'm sorry, Aeka, it simply had to be that way.' But neither did. And now.. now Katsuhito was saying, what? That he Wanted Ryouko with Tenchi, despite that there was no great cosmic need within his awareness? That he chose the other woman just as surely as had Tenchi?

"Why, Katsuhito? What did I do? I.. I understand why Tenchi chose her, I think, but why would you want him to make that choice?"

Katsuhito sighed. "This.. this will sound cruel, Aeka. I know it will and I know no way to soften the blow, so I will speak it bluntly.

"Four months before Tenchi's birthday, Ryouko came to me. Each of you have come to me before, on several occasions, asking my blessing to pursue Tenchi. You know that I have granted it equally, the choice had to be his, not mine. I expected as much of Ryouko that time as well, for she has never, before or since, come to speak with me alone of her own volition.

"She thanked me, in the round-about way that she had then, before the changes she has undergone since, for allowing her to stay in my home. She also thanked me for my actions seven hundred years ago. That was unexpected, Aeka. There are few things enough that can surprise me, but I would never have believed Ryouko would thank me for locking her away in that cave. But she did. She thanked me for it, and said that were it not for me she would never have found Tenchi and likely never have known happiness.

"Then she came to the part I had expected, saying that with Tenchi's birthday coming she wished my blessing to enact a scheme she had concocted-those were not the words she used, of course-to finally win his heart. I was doubtful, but she assured me it could not possibly cause him, or anyone else but herself, any harm. She said it would show him, she hoped, how she really felt and make him understand. It sounded safe enough, so I agreed cautiously.

"She asked me to wish her luck, and include her plans in my prayers. At the time I still felt, at least a little, that you would make the better wife for my grandson. So I was merely polite, wished her luck, and tried to send her on her way. I expected that to be the end of it, Ryouko has had her little plots before and none have amounted to much. The same could be said of any of you.

"But then.. as she was moving to the door.. she paused. I could see the indecision in her posture, and when she turned back to face me it was in an aspect I had only rarely seen her assume. She was very serious, very reserved, not at all the woman I thought I knew. Very much, in fact, the woman I have come to know since. I think it will take another millenia of life to make me forget her words then."

Katsuhito sighed and touched his face absently, as though to push up the glasses he no longer wore. When he spoke again his eyes were closed and his voice pitched low. "'Katsuhito,' she said, very respectful, but very frank as well, 'I know we aren't friends. I'm not sure we can be, after everything. But I love Tenchi, and I hope you know it.. even if he doesn't. If my plan doesn't work...' She stopped then, looking distraught. I had no idea how to react to her strange mood, so I only waited. 'If it doesn't work,' she continued with new resolve, 'I want him to be happy. I'll go. If after Tenchi's birthday I don't get the kind of response I'm hoping for, I'll leave. If he can't love me, then I'll let him love someone else. I don't know what I'll do.. maybe you should just put me back in the cave.. but I want him to be happy. That's what matters to me now. So if.. if I'm gone one day... I want you to make sure Aeka has him. I can make him happy, I know I can, if he'll let me. But if I can't have him.. she should. She loves him too. But if you Ever tell her I said that, I swear I'll put You in that cave.'" Katsuhito chuckled. "I guess I'm in for a stint in the cave, then."

"Katsuhito--"

He sighed and looked up at Aeka from where he leaned forward on the bench. "I'm sorry, Aeka. I know that is not what you wanted to hear, and I wish I could tell you that I was behind you until the end. If I could ease your pain, I would, but as Tenchi discovered, sometimes truth is its own compassion. Better you feel the sting of it now than hear the hollow echo of gentle words when you find out later."

"But why?" Aeka asked softly. "Why her? I wanted him to be happy too..."

"I know," Katsuhito said gently, touching her knee in cautious comfort. "I know you did, Aeka. But was it more important to you than having him? For four years you girls chased my grandson around, all of you clamouring your love for him. But how often did you do something just for him? You all did things for him, but always there was the intent that it get you something in return. Ryouko was offering to give up her happiness, the only happiness she had had in five millennia of life, just so he could find his. I'm a sentimental old fool, Aeka, and that touched me. Knowing that she would do that.. I could not help but wish her well. And much as I love you, my sister, I do not think you could have done it. It is no failing, so do not beat yourself for it. Few could do it and I don't count myself among them, but when Ryouko said she would leave Tenchi rather than force him to suffer alone I belived her. There is a depth of love shown in that which I did not think she posessed before then.

"And though I knew how much you loved him as well, Aeka, I knew Tenchi could only have one of you. He is not Jurain, despite his blood, and he was not raised in a way to permit him to have two wives. Trying to split his heart that way, without a Jurain's outlook, would have torn him horribly. No, Tenchi could only choose one wife, and though I'd hoped secertly for you for years, when the time came I.. I hoped it would be her. I'm sorry, Aeka."

Aeka only shook her head, unable to form a response. There were more questions that she wanted answered, but the answer from the first one left her dumbfounded. Ryouko was going to give him up? If her plan for his birthday had not been the mixed success it was, he would be hers now?

*But it never could have been,* Aeka realized sadly. *I didn't just barely lose him as I've believed.. he was hers all along. He did not love her then, but she's loved him since before I even knew he existed. She's loved him nearly all his life. I was a fool to try to take him away, and could I have lived with myself had she given him up because of me? How would I feel, if it were me? How would it be if I were not Jurain, and I had not been raised with the knowledge that I might eventually come to be married to a man with another wife? I half expected to have Ryouko was a sister-wife one day, and maybe I could even have loved her the way mother Funaho loves mother Misaki.. with enough centuries... But she's not Jurain, and neither is Tenchi, really. Sasami is right, he's a nashim. No matter how much I wanted him to be my tatam and take his place as the first prince, he's always been nashim. Ryouko couldn't have been happy in a realtionship like that, and neither could Tenchi. I was selfish, and I nearly destroyed two lives because of it.*

"Do not abuse yourself over this, Aeka," Katsuhito warned, startling the princess. He smiled gently. "No, I am not reading your mind, sister. But I know you well enough to know that look. You are thinking that you are a horrible person for what you've done, am I right?" Aeka nodded weakly. "Stop then, because you are not. You knew no better than I what the future would hold. Following your heart is no vice, Aeka. I'm sorry that it turned out as it did for you, more sorry than I can express. You have had a great deal of pain in your life, and I wish with all my being that I could take some of it away, but such is not in my power." He squeezed her knee gently and said, "Just remember that Tenchi does love you, as do we all. You're part of a family, Aeka, an important part. Whatever happens, we will always be family."

"Thank you," Aeka sighed, gently touching his hand. "I can not help feeling sorry for myself Katsuhito, but I'm glad to have a family. I wish it were enough, though, to fill this.. this hole."

"I could tell you you'll find someone else," Katsuhito observed, "but that's not what you want to hear.

Aeka nodded. That was not what she wanted to hear at all. *Why must I feel this way? Longing for him was bad enough when I only had to fear that he might be taken by Ryouko. Knowing that he is already spoken for and Still desiring him...* Aeka sighed and shook her head sadly. She hoped those feelings would fade, in time.

A shadow loomed suddenly, casting their bench into darkness. Aeka looked up to find Azusa standing there on the path, eclipsing the artificial sun of the gardens.

"F.. father?"

"Aeka," Azusa greeted. He turned to Katsuhito and stared at him for a long, intense moment before asking, "Yousho?"

"Please father," Katsuhito asked quietly, "call me Katsuhito. That has been my name for nearly all my life."

Azusa stared at him in silence, then closed his eyes and nodded. "Very well.. Katsuhito. You have changed, since last I saw you, and I am sure that there is much about your time on Earth that I would like to discuss with you. But now I must speak with Aeka, if you will leave us for the moment?"

Katsuhito stared at Azusa and Aeka could almost hear him trying to decide what to make of the changes in their father. Finally he rose and bowed, bidding her farewell and promising that he would speak with Azusa soon.

When he was gone Azusa stepped closer, frowning down at her. Aeka waited nervously for his words, but none came. Finally she sighed and said, "I will not apologize, father. If you have come expecting me to regret what I said to you, you have wasted your time. I do not regret it, and I will take none of it back."

"The lesson of pain will be stricken from those taught the House Jurai," Azusa said seriously, ignoring her words as surely as if he had not heard them at all. "From this day forward, none shall learn that lesson. If you so choose, you may not take the lessons of the Second Change when your time arrives. You will be expected to learn all those things which they embody, but the method of your learning will be at your discretion. This choice shall henceforth be open to all members of the House, and when such time comes that a suitable system can be enacted, to all citizens of Jurai.

"You seem to be aware, somehow, that I have had two sons. I hope that you can believe that I regret what happened to Namaeto. I acted as was demanded by tradition, and my hand was fueled by rage. Not a day has passed in more than a thousand years that I have not thought of him, and for decades I cursed the throne that would drive me to.. to kill my son. I can not blame Yo.. Katsuhito for deserting us as he did, and if he wishes it I will reinstate him in the House. I have been very wrong, Aeka, and for that I am sorry.

"I do not know that you realize what it takes for me to speak this way. I am emperor of all Jurai, and for nearly six thousand years I have been the ultimate authority, answerable only to the Council, and then only when I so chose. But you are right, Aeka. You are my daughter and I was a man before I was a ruler. I am not so deluded as to believe you will simply forgive me my sins, but I hope that in time you may come to understand me and understand that my actions are not what I may have wished. And I will never, Never forgive myself for failing my children, Aeka. I have failed all of you, in one way or another, and should I live another six millennia I do not know that I can make up for that."

With that he turned and strode purposefully out of the garden, leaving Aeka sitting on the bench equally as stunned at his pronouncements as at her brother's words.

* * *

"This is just too weird," Dante muttered, waving to the old man as he tottered out the door, purchases in hand. "I mean, when they said exchange program I thought, 'Oh, sure, It'd be nice to go see Europe.' I never expected to be sent to a country where I can't even speak the language for Christ's sake."

"I don't know," Randal said absently, flipping idly through a manga from the adult rack, "It's not so bad. I can't believe you got Veronica to come with you."

"Wasn't that hard. I just took her out to dinner, proceeded to tell her that I, Dante Hicks, am a complete and total idiot and that she would be a goddess if she consented to continue our relationship by accompanying me to mystical Japan. After the fourth, 'I'm an idiot' she was all for it."

Randal snorted and flipping the magazine around, "Now I ask you, what's the point of pornography without any exposed genitalia? I mean, really, the whole point of pornography is the proverbial 'money shot.' But what fun is the money shot without any lead up? If I want to see a guy cum, I can go in the bathroom by myself. This is like giving me an empty pie pan as an advertisement for dessert."

Dante ignored his friend's commentary and said, "Now you want unbelievable, I can't believe you actually gave your extra plane ticket to Bob."

Randal shrugged, searching one more through the manga for some elusive female anatomy. "Had to give it to somebody, and the Casa de Randal has not had any women visitors in recent memory."

"Gee, I wonder if the fact that your nose is constantly between a pair of two dimensional legs has something to do with this startling revelation."'

"Hey, don't knock it. Any chance to have my nose between legs, two-dimensional or otherwise, is a chance I am willing to pursue. Where is Bob anyway?"

Dante shrugged. "Probably out peddling drugs to young Japanese children. Who'd have thought Jay had enough money to fly himself out here?"

"With all the stuff he sells?" Randal asked, looking up. "I think that was a forgone conclusion. Besides, can you imagine Bob without Jay tagging along?"

Dante chuckled. "No, I guess not. Do you think those two really...?"

"Who? Jay and Bob?" Randal asked, raising his eyebrows in disbelief. "I could believe it of Jay, but not Bob. He's straight as they come, my friend. Why, not the other day we were enjoying some of the quality local porn on my hotel room's TV." Randal looked at the manga in disgust and tossed it in the general direction of the rack. "The kind With genitalia, I might add."

Dante shook his head and said, "I can't believe you watch that crap. With the tentacles and everything? American porno is bad enough."

"Humph," Randal snorted, "this from a man who could not even enjoy the pleasures of hermaphrodites. I tell you, Dante, it's a sure sign of over enthusiastic moral rectitude when you can't enjoy chicks with dicks-"

"Hey," Dante interrupted, pointing at the Quick Stop door, "check these two out."

Randal turned to watch the pair enter the store. A man and a woman, the man tall for being Japanese and the woman with striking cyan hair. They were wearing what looked like formal attire out of one of the manga from the rack below the one Randal was so recently perusing. They proceeded directly to the back of the store, searching amongst the selection of sake.

"Wonder what they're dressed up for," Dante asked rhetorically.

"Don't know," Randal answered, watching them, "but I must say I've never considered the effect of cyan hair and an evening gown on a woman. I stand impressed."

"Shh," Dante hissed, "here they come."

The couple approached the counter and placed three bottles of sake next to the register, the man rattling something off in rapid Japanese. Dante gave him his best I-have-no-idea-what-you-just-said grin and scanned the alcohol into the register. "Will that be all?"

The man spoke again, it sounded basically the same as the first time, and still as incomprehensible. He gestured at the rack behind the counter.

"What did he say?" Dante asked out of the corner of his mouth.

"I think he said he wants a pack of cigarettes," Randal answered aloud, looking wounded at Dante's shocked look. "What? They can't understand me anyway. And why be embarrassed that you don't understand anything they're saying?"

Dante rolled his eyes and reached for the most popular brand of cigarettes, only to be stopped by the man in the robe. He jabbered again in Japanese and Dante's grin faltered a bit.

"Oh," Randal exclaimed, "condoms, not cigarettes. I think he said he wants those over there." Randal pointed and Dante gestured demonstratively toward the package. The man and woman nodded in unison and he held up a finger. She nudged him and he added a second finger to the gesture.

When the transaction was complete and the odd couple gone Randal approached the counter, leaning against it, and watched them cross between pools of streetlight-shed radiance.

"So where'd you learn Japanese?" Dante asked, still watching them.

"I told you watching local pornography would come in handy," Randal answered absently.

"Well what do you know. Your obsession with tenticular penetration of underage Japanese cartoon women finally proves itself advantageous."

"Anime," Randal corrected, going back to the manga rack. "They get really annoyed if you call 'em cartoons."

"Bah, give me Star Wars any day. Now Leia in a metal bikini, that's entertainment."

"Yeah right," Randal muttered, searching hopefully through a thick magazine, "you know you have a thing for JarJar, you sick bastard."

"Oh yeah," Dante declaimed sarcastically, "meesa just can't get enough."

"Ahha!" Randal exclaimed, holding the open manga up triumphantly, "I've struck shaven gold!"