** 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."
"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!"
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!"
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