** Note
** ** This is chapter four of
Reflections of a Shattered Glass. If you've not read chapters 1 - 3, you
are in the wrong place. ** A word
of WARNING. This chapter contains strongly adult content. If you have never
had a problem with my stories before (and especially if you have read Myths and
Legends) then there should be no
problems. ** Happy
reading, **--Krin
(krin@hotmail.com
mailto:krin@hotmail.com) **http://www.geocities.com/mode6.geo/fanfic/ **
/Note **
Reflections of a Shattered
Glass
-- four
--
meanwhile on
jurai
Vianna paused, glancing back down the
hallway. She knew she had not been followed, and was fairly sure she had not
been observed. It was impossible to be entirely sure, short of a
molecular-level scan of the surrounding area. She could do that, of course, but
her movements were not sufficiently important to warrant that sort of
effort.
*Why does visiting
Misaki always put me so on edge?* Vianna wondered, running a hand through her
short pink hair. *She is only a woman, and has been as much a mother as I have
ever had. I should feel...love, I suppose, for her.
Not...fear.*
Vianna would never
admit aloud that she feared the empress. She would be hard pressed to admit she
feared Anything, much less another human. But considering entering Misaki's
presence never failed to send a chill down her
spine.
Taking a few steps
further, Vianna could hear the Guardians breathing. She stood absolutely still,
slowing her own breathing and heartbeat until they did not interfere with her
senses. After seven hundred seconds of listening-Vianna kept careful count of
the time, even when she was otherwise occupied-she heard the tick of wood on
metal.
*Sloppy,* Vianna thought
sourly, *they make enough noise to wake me from a sound sleep. It is no wonder
Misaki began training us, the Guardians are growing inefficient in their old
age. No matter, I must speak with
her.*
Vianna strode silently
forward, making no special effort to conceal herself. Even so, the Guardians
did not notice her until she was nearly upon them. She knew she had a way of
blending into the surroundings, even when not trying, and used it often to her
advantage.
The Guardians
snapped to attention, crossing their staves over the door to the Empress'
apartments.
"I will speak with
her," Vianna stated.
*The
best way to deal with Guardians is to show them who is in charge,* Vianna
reminded herself. *They expect everyone to grovel at their feet as though they
were the empower himself. Stand up to them and they don't know what to
do.*
The Guardians frowned. It
was almost always the same pair when she came to Misaki's chambers, but she
could not remember their names. The one on the right was Po something, she
thought.
"The Empress has
ordered she not be disturbed, she is engaged in preparations for the evening
meal."
Vianna tossed her head
and sighed. "Are you truly That behind on events? The meal has been cancelled,
I learned that much on my way here Sasami's
quarters."
The Guardians
frowned again, the elder one speaking this time. "Your position demands we
respect you, but we need not tolerate such
impropriety-"
"I will speak
with her," Vianna repeated, cutting off the Guardian's protest,
"now."
"We will announce you,"
Po-something said, "you will wait
here."
"No," Vianna disagreed,
"I will see her. She is expecting me." Technically that was a lie, Vianna had
no reason to believe that the Empress was expecting a visit from her. She had
not, in fact, requested her presence in some five centuries. Somehow, though,
Vianna always seemed to arrive in her presence when the Empress required her,
and Misaki never seemed surprised when she came to her unannounced. And every
single time, she had to put up with the hard-headed
Guardians.
Vianna stepped
toward the door, reaching up to push the staves out of her way. The Guardians
tried to protest again but Vianna touched the door, sliding it open. She
flashed a grin at Po-something, thinking not for the first time that he was kind
of cute, in a clean-cut sort of way. If Guardians were not all such
egotistical, male-centric pigs she might even consider pursuing him. But they
were, so she would not. *Must All men be such
idiots?*
Misaki was sitting at
a desk against the right wall, wearing a deep blue kimono decorated with
brightly colored flowers. She was doing...something on the desktop. At first
Vianna thought she was painting, but after a moment she realized that Misaki's
hand motions were too rhythmic for that. She appeared to be writing. On paper.
With a brush.
Vianna slid the
door shut, letting it click audibly. Misaki did not respond immediately.
Instead, she continued writing until she reached the bottom of the page, then
carefully set down her brush and turned to look up at her
guest.
"Vianna," Misaki greeted
cordially, tipping her head in the pink-haired woman's
direction.
"Misaki," Vianna
returned, utterly motionless besides her
lips.
"You have come for a
reason," Misaki observed, folding her hands in her
lap.
"I have," Vianna agreed.
"I am here about my Japanese
tutor."
"There is some
problem?" Misaki asked, tilting her head curiously. "I found him to be quite
fluent, and he came with the highest recommendations from the University as a
teacher."
"He is efficient,"
Vianna admitted. "But he is too slow. I must learn more
quickly."
"He is not matching
your tutelage to your progress? Have you requested that he give you more
challenging material?"
"No,"
Vianna said, shaking her head. "His curriculum matches my development speed,
but that speed is not
satisfactory."
"That sounds
like your failing, Vianna, not
his."
"Do not bait me, Misaki,"
Vianna said angrily. "I already speak six languages fluently, learning this
backward tongue should not be a challenge for
me."
Misaki frowned. "It is
the first tongue of my sister, and quite beautiful in its way. Many of its
rhythms are similar to Jurain. And I would caution you against excessive
boldness, Vianna."
"You taught
me to bow to no one," Vianna reminded the empress. "And Japanese feels brutish
on my lips. It does not flow the way Jurain
does."
"No," Misaki agreed, "it
does not, but in its spoken form it is not a backward language. And I would
remind you that I taught you that you do not Need to bow to anyone. That does
not mean you should hold no respect. In many situations it is to your advantage
to give the expected reaction. As with Ponua and
Vess."
"Backward or not,"
Vianna insisted, ignoring Misaki's comments on propriety for the moment, "I am
learning too slowly. If I am to converse in that language, I must attain
fluency more quickly."
"Then
work harder," Misaki
suggested.
"That is not good
enough. The Guardians laugh at my attempts to speak the language when they do
not believe I am listening. Even the palace staff
chuckle."
"You wish them to
show more respect?" Misaki asked, raising an
eyebrow.
"Yes," Vianna agreed.
"It is degrading, being unable to do something even the simplest scullery maid
can achieve with a few moments under the
Lessons."
"You know why that is
impossible for you,
Vianna."
Vianna nodded curtly.
"There still must be some way. Is not Jurai the greatest scientific power in
the galaxy? How is it that I must learn Japanese in such an awkward
manner?"
"There is a way,"
Misaki agreed. "Perhaps you will remember your...special
training?"
"You do not
mean--"
Misaki nodded. "Yes.
That is the only means available. If you feel that this is so important, then
you should be willing to take the consequences. The decision is
yours."
Vianna frowned
thoughtfully, thinking back to the looks she had gotten when attempting to speak
Japanese in public. The way Mataeo and Ai struggled to understand her. The
stifled grins from Guardians and palace staff alike, and the giggles voiced when
she was out of sight. Was putting an end to that disgrace worth this? Vianna
shook her head, the question was pointless. She knew the answer to that even
before she approached Misaki's
chambers.
"Do it," Vianna said
firmly, voice clear of the nervousness she refused to allow herself to
feel.
Misaki nodded, rising
from her desk. She went to an old globe of Jurai, carved of wood and carefully
painted. *Probably by hand,* Vianna thought. *That would be like Misaki. It
must be ancient; the creator depicted Jurai as a perfect sphere. And the
continents extend too far toward the
poles.*
Misaki's fingers danced
across the globe, touching here and pressing there. Bits of mountains rose and
fell under her fingertips, the surface of the globe sliding around like a puzzle
box. After a few moments of the empress' ministrations, a sharp click emerged
from within the object and the upper hemisphere tilted back. Within, the globe
was mostly hollow, leaving space for the box which Misaki reverently removed.
She carried it to the desk, setting the finely polished light-brown wooden case
down well away from her ink
jar.
There was a small metal
plate inset on the upper surface, surrounded by delicate carvings that Vianna
could not make out from across the room. To this plate Misaki touched a
fingertip, pressing it there for a few seconds before moving her hands to the
latches. She twisted and pressed in a manner that looked simple, but which
Vianna's trained eye judged to be the key to yet another combination lock of
some sort. The box popped open silently and Misaki tilted the lid back,
revealing a wooden cup and a thick crystal vial resting in a form-fitting
setting of deep purple felt.
The empress removed the cup
first. It was of traditional Jurain design with a wide, nearly spherical bulb
supported by three vine-carved tendrils leading to a separate base. Vianna
noted that Misaki touched it only by the short supporting pieces, not by the
base or the bulb. Once the cup was resting upon the desk Misaki turned to the
vial, lifting it with all the care of an explosives expert with a live
detonator. She lifted the capping seal away and poured the contents into the
cup while muttering steadily in the old tongue. Vianna spoke about as much of
that language as any scholar not specifically studying dead languages, but could
catch only one word in a
dozen.
When the vial was empty,
all the thick, clear liquid it had contained having been poured into the cup,
Misaki re-capped it and placed it back in the box. She then opened her desk
drawer, removing a long, thin-bladed knife and a cloth thick with red and gold
embroidery. The empress tilted her head back, opening her mouth wide. Half the
blade vanished between her lips, emerging tinted red with blood. Misaki wiped
it clean with the cloth, then replaced both in the drawer. She was still
muttering in the old tongue, but her words were slurred now. She lifted the cup
and turned, walking toward
Vianna.
The female warrior
tried to relax, knowing what would come next. When Misaki asked if she
remembered the procedure, a thin trickle of blood escaping the corner of her
lips to curve down her chin, Vianna nodded.
Misaki bowed her head, holding
the cup up nearly at chin level and midway between herself and Vianna. Her
words shifted, slipping in and out of the language most Jurains never heard
outside the Inner Chamber: the voices of times past, the tongue of gods and
trees. When Misaki looked back up there were flecks of silver dancing in her
eyes and she seemed lit by some unseen light. With a final declaration in the
language no mortal had spoken in hundreds of thousands of years the queen tipped
the cup to her lips, draining the thick syrup within. Her cheeks bulging,
Misaki dropped the cup to clatter to the stone floor. She grabbed Vianna by the
face with both hands, pulling the woman
closer.
Vianna relaxed her jaw
and opened her mouth when Misaki pushed her hands together. The queen leaned
closer, pressing her mouth to the warrior's, and parted her lips. The viscous,
bitter, blood-tainted tree sap flowed into Vianna's mouth from Misaki's, seeming
to force itself down her throat. Vianna called up all the discipline she could
summon, suppressing the reflex to gag on the awful concoction and refusing to
allow her throat to
constrict.
When Misaki pulled
away, holding Vianna's jaw to keep the woman's mouth shut should she lose
control and attempt to vomit the sap back out, she wiped her lips delicately.
The tree sap still on her face crystallized as Vianna watched, flaking and
falling away in glittering shards. She could feel it doing the same in her
trachea, forming a solid block of crystalline matter that prevented her from
breathing and made her muscles scream with a desire to contract and force the
invading presence out of her body. Vianna held on, running her mind through the
disciplinary exercises she had learned over the past seven centuries to keep her
body from reacting as it wished. Her heart slowed and her body's demand for
oxygen lessened.
*One
thousand six, one thousand seven, one
thousand...*
In the two
thousand seconds it took for the crystal of tree sap to dissolve, its mass
absorbed through the tissue of her throat and passed into her bloodstream,
Vianna began to fear she would never breath again. It was a horribly illogical
fear. She knew she would breath again and had been through the ritual on two
previous occasions. She could even Feel the blockage dissolving, the song of
the trees singing stronger and stronger in her veins as it did. Yet the fear
remained. When finally she drew a breath-through her nose, since Misaki was
still holding her mouth firmly closed-her lungs felt as though they were aflame.
Misaki released her and Vianna gasped deeply, drawing one long, ragged breath
after another until finally she felt sated. Her heart beat back up to its
normal speed and the sluggish pace her thoughts had taken thinned to her usual
lucidity.
"It work to be
having done?" Vianna asked cautiously in Japanese, then frowned deeply. "This,
to be what is? Ritual, yours, to work having
not!"
"It takes time," Misaki
explained, retrieving her cup and taking it back to the box. She wiped it clean
carefully with the same cloth she had used on the knife, then replaced it beside
the vial. "Your mind must grow used to your new memories. They are not grafted
seamlessly into place as with the Lessons and must be incorporated into the rest
of your being. In three hours you will speak Japanese as well as I
do."
Vianna nodded, trying to
focus her mind on thinking solely in Japanese. She found that doing so often
helped in acquiring a new language, though the effort left her casual thoughts
occurring in a complicated jumble of tongues. Much as she disliked Japanese,
Vianna supposed that words and grammatical patterns from it would soon be
appearing in her normal thoughts. *So much effort for such a backward little
world.*
"The cramps will begin
soon," Misaki cautioned, closing the lid of her wooden case and carrying it
toward the
globe.
"Cra-"
Vianna
did not finish the first word of her query before a sudden flower of agony had
blossomed in her torso. It spread slowly, sending angry tendrils of pain along
her extremities while remaining a white-hot presence somewhere near her
stomach.
"You...poisoned...me,"
Vianna gasped accusingly. One shaking hand found its way to the handle of her
sword, pulling it free of its restraining loops with the blind strength of anger
despite the pain. She leveled it at the empress and focused her will, twisting
the Jurain energy ambient in the air around the blade. Glittering silver
flames, looking as much like moving wisps of leaded glass as they did like fire,
shimmered into life around the wooden sword. The air hissed violently in its
presence, the bonds holding molecules together in the atmosphere dissolving
under its contact. A shimmering aura of blue built up quickly around the blade,
all but hiding the flames; the result of energy released by the fragmenting
chemical bonds.
Misaki laughed
once, a brief bark of surprised humor. "Do not be a fool, Vianna," she scolded,
tilting the upper half of the globe back into place. "If I wished you dead your
soul would have been on its way to Conjoinment even before your foot touched the
floor inside my
doorway."
Vianna blinked. The
pain was easing, slowly, but that was not the cause for her surprise. Her
sword, grasped quite firmly in her hand until a moment before, was now in
Misaki's possession. The flames and aura were gone, leaving only a length of
sword-shaped wood pointed at the warrior woman's forehead. She would have been
willing to swear that Misaki had not
moved.
"I was forced to
transfer a fair number of memories into you, Vianna. Language is a complex
thing with many, many interconnections throughout your mind. Your brain is now
trying to adjust to those connections, and to the fact that some parts of your
memory suggest that your body is not put together the way that it actually Is.
As you grow acclimatized to the new memories, the cramps will
cease."
A new flare of pain
erupted in Vianna's left shoulder, but she was better prepared for it this time
and merely winced.
"You may
also experience some residual memories that were unavoidably transferred with
the language," Misaki warned, tucking the sword under her arm and returning to
her desk. "I trust that you will keep them to
yourself."
As though summoned
by the empress' suggestion a flash of memory flickered through Vianna's mind.
Empress Funaho lay reclining on a sun-dappled orange blanket. Above her
stretched the welcoming branches of mundane trees and the Empower himself knelt
at her side. He had a cup in each hand, one proffered to...Vianna supposed it
would be toward Misaki. He smiled and laughed, then the moment ended and the
memory retreated into the annals of Vianna's mind, no more or less obtrusive
than any of her own.
"I always
have," Vianna agreed.
The
sword's familiar weight hung at her back again and Vianna realized it was no
longer in the empress' hand. Had Misaki really moved that quickly, or was it
some sort of illusion? Was she tampering with her memory? Vianna shook her
head. However the empress performed her magic tricks, her point was made quite
clearly.
"Go, now," Misaki
commanded, "I have no further use for
you."
Vianna turned angrily,
not even sure why she was upset. The pain, perhaps? Or Misaki's demonstration
of just how much Vianna did not know?
"Vianna?" Misaki asked,
causing the woman to pause in her path toward the
door.
"Yes?"
"Is
there anything else you wished to tell
me?"
"No," Vianna replied,
taking another step.
"You will
not lie to me again, Vianna. I took great risks in training you and your
sisters as I have, do not make me regret
them."
*Lie?* Vianna wondered,
then realized her error. *Sasami's message... I
forgot.*
"Misaki, I am sorry.
I forgot that-"
"Speak with me
in four days," Misaki interrupted curtly. "Before my daughters leave Jurai.
And Vianna? See that you do not
forget."
Vianna made no
response, only went to the door and opened it. Misaki would know that her
student would attend her, there was no need to tell her that she would obey the
order.
*The princesses will
leave Jurai again?* Vianna wondered. *Back to Earth, most likely. With that
impudent little boy who wore the robes of a nashim. I wonder if it is true,
what they say of him. It would be interesting to fight one of the treeborn;
that is something I have not done. Though I wonder, would a child of that
backward little world fare better than one of the Guardians, no matter what
power he might
possess?*
Misaki held
herself carefully until Vianna was gone. Once the warrior woman was well on her
way, Misaki slumped against the back rest of her chair and pulled the cloth from
her desk drawer with one shaking hand.
*I can not do this many more
times,* Misaki thought, dabbing carefully at her newly-pierced tongue. She
focused her mind and drew on the power of the trees, slowing the flow of blood
and quickening the healing process. The wound would be gone in a matter of
hours, but it stung fiercely while it remained. *Each time I perform that
ceremony I feel my mind slipping further into the Network. I have maybe a dozen
times left before I cannot draw myself back from the
trees.*
Misaki sighed and
replaced the cloth in the drawer, lifting her brush. She dipped it carefully in
the ink, then set it back down on the stand. One thick drop of obsidian dripped
onto her blotter, leaving a spreading
blotch.
"You will hurry back?"
Misaki asked the empty room, her eyes focused into the distance of
time.
"I know," Misaki agreed
quietly, "but I worry. He has been gone three years, Aeka. We must face the
possibility that he is no longer there to be found. Three years without a
word."
Misaki nodded to an
un-heard response. "Yes, of course. But be careful. And hurry back to
us."
Misaki waited while her
daughter replied across the centuries, then spoke again the words she had then.
"Azaka and Kamadake will protect you. They served Hinoa well for many
years."
With a sigh Misaki
lowered her head, closing her eyes against tears. "Yes, it is best that you
take your sister. She would be so lonely here without you. I am afraid I have
not been with her as much as I would like in recent years. With Yousho gone and
you after him, I do not know what she would do. But I will miss you so. As
will Funaho, and your
father."
"Of course he loves
you," Misaki said gently. "He knows how important this is to you, that is why
he gave permission so readily for you to follow Yousho. But he doesn't want to
lose you anymore than I do, Aeka. Azusa... Azusa is not always sure how to
tell you how he feels. He has to be strong for the people, you understand that,
don't you? He must be so strong all the time... He forgets how to be weak, I
think. But he does love you, do not doubt
that."
Misaki's eyes opened
slowly and she lifted her brush once more. The episode was done and her mind
fully back in the present once again. They were a side-effect of the ritual she
had just performed, and their frequency was increasing every time she performed
it. The trees did not delineate well between points in time and joining her
spirit so closely to theirs left her thoughts ranging across the centuries as
well. But it was not memories of the past which worried the empress most. No,
it was what glimpses she had seen of the future which motivated her actions
now.
The brush scratched
against the page as Misaki resumed writing. She had not thought she would ever
write such a letter, but there were things which must be said that could not be
spoken on the soil of Jurai. Her chambers were secure from inspection, even by
the eyes of her sister-wife, as were Funaho's own, Azusa's, and the bed-chambers
they shared. But anywhere else... It was nearly impossible to tell who may be
listening at any time, and it would be dangerous even to call the audience of
her letter into her chambers for palaver. None could spy from afar within those
walls, true, but there were other ways. There were Always other
ways.
* *
*
Katsuhito folded the robe and
placed it carefully within his newly-acquired luggage case. He was not sure
what he would do with the little log-shaped accessory after he returned to
Earth. Put it away in a closet somewhere, perhaps. Or give it to one of the
girls. But he needed something to transport the clothes he had gained
possession of-in one manner or other-since returning to Jurai.
*Really I suppose I should
leave them,* Katsuhito considered, running his fingers over the intricate design
woven in silver around the sleeve of a purple shirt, one half of a nia. *But it
has been a long time since I wore the clothing of Jurai, I had forgotten how
comfortable it could be. No one will realize they are not of Earthly
manufacture. And it would be simpler to have something fitting to wear the next
time I return here.*
Katsuhito
chuckled. *A week ago I did not believe that all the devils together could drag
me back to Jurai, and now I consider returning again of my own will. When is
the last time I made such changes in my life? It has been...sixty-eight years
now, since I married her. And fifteen since she left me. I suppose my mourning
period is well over, even by Jurain standards. Even after a marriage of
centuries we do not mourn more than a decade.
*We. A week within the Palace
and I am Jurain again? Nine hundred forty six years, nearly seven hundred of
them on Earth. A long life, and I can not honestly say that I would change a
moment of it.*
Katsuhito took a
long, slender wooden case from atop the pile of clothing he intended to take
back to Earth. The case contained a shonekea, a Jurain musical instrument that
he had not played in...he could not remember the last time he had played one.
It came easily though, with the curved metal flute in his hands. Washuu had
bought it for him, somehow having learned that he knew how to play one and
demanding he play her a tune.
*Hakubi Washuu,* Katsuhito
thought, opening the case and lifting free the gently curving instrument. Odd
that he had never realized how much it resembled a katana before. Coincidence?
He had not believed in coincidence for
centuries.
The case clicked
when he closed it, the shonekea safely inside again. *What do I intend with
her? When I went to her in the garden I did not even know what I was doing.
How long since I took an action without planning it first? Why did it touch me
so that she was willing to force me to return to Jurai to save my life?* He
knew, of course. It was nearly two thirds of his lifetime ago, but the memories
of Jurains are longer than
most.
"Yousho," Katsuro
sighed, resting his bokken against the edge of the porch where he sat. His
house rose behind him and Yousho could smell Arai's cooking within. It would be
dinner time soon, time to end their sparring for the
night.
Yousho put aside his own
weapon, sitting beside the elder man on the wooden slats of the porch. "Yes
father?"
"Tell me, Yousho.
What in this world holds
value?"
"Father?" Yousho asked,
unsure of the meaning of the
question.
"Of all the things in
the world," Katsuro expanded, "what is there which proves value? Is it gold and
gemstones? Land and
title?"
Yousho shook his head.
"No. Gold and gemstones vary from place to place. Jade is of value here, but I
hear that to the west it is of less importance. Many there see it as no more
than another rock. And gold... I have seen palaces gilded base to tip in gold.
What is rare in one land is abundant in
others."
"Land and title,
then?" Katsuro asked.
"No,"
Yousho denied again. "Can you truly even own land? Land is only yours so long
as you can defend it, and one may never truly defend more land than the patch
upon which he stands. And title... Title exists at the whim of the local lord,
to be bestowed or stripped as he
wishes."
"Then what,
Yousho?"
Yousho paused and
finally shook his head in defeat. "I do not know Father. What Does incur
value?"
"Sacrifice, Yousho.
What are you willing to give up for a thing? That is what tells you what it is
worth."
"Sacrifice?" Yousho
asked. "I do not
understand."
"When you go to
the market, you give the vendor money and he gives you goods. You sacrifice the
ability to buy some other thing in order to have This thing. The value of the
money is transitory, as you said. It is the sacrifice which is of value. What
did you give up for your sword? You may have bought a fine horse or a small
piece of land for what you paid to have it made. You sacrificed those things in
order to have it, and that is its value to
you."
Yousho nodded. "And for
this house, you sacrificed having one somewhere else. In order to live in this
place, near the river and in view of the mountains, you gave up living nearer
town."
Katsuro nodded. "I
sacrificed much to have this home, and I have sacrificed to keep it. It is
worth a great deal to me, but to others...perhaps not. It is a simple home, not
of the finest construction, but it is My
home."
Yousho nodded again
silently, considering what his wife's father had
said.
"And my daughter?"
Katsuro asked. "She is your wife, she must be of value to you,
no?"
"Yes," Yousho agreed. "I
would give my life for
her."
"And that is the greatest
value," Katsuro agreed. "To give up your life... You sacrifice all that my be
in the future for that to which you give it. Men throw their lives away on
foolish causes, hoping to gain honor. Honor is important, but is it of that
great a value? Every man should have something in his life for which he would
sacrifice everything, but finding that thing... It is not as simple as many men
believe."
"Father, Yousho,
dinner is ready."
Katsuro
looked up at his daughter where she stood, framed by lamplight, in the
doorway.
"Come Yousho," he
said, picking up the bokken and rising to his feet. "Enough philosophy for one
night, time to
eat."
Katsuhito put the
case into his travel chest and sighed. *She was willing to sacrifice my love to
save my life. She believed, perhaps not without some justification, that I
would hate her for sending me back to Jurai. Yet she did it anyway, only
because she could not stand to see me die, even at my own wish. She would
rather live with my hatred than live while I died. But what can I give her in
return? I will be with her if she wishes it, but can I ever love her? She
certainly is a fit companion. Honest, loyal, brave, and has shown her ability
to love often enough with her daughters. I could not hope to find anyone more
capable of intelligent conversation, and she is beautiful. Particularly now
that she has abandoned that foolish child
disguise.*
Katsuhito abandoned
the rest of his clothes to sit down in a chair against the wall of his room.
*Then why do I fear I will be unable to love her? She is a good woman and a
fine person. She cares deeply for me, much more so than I had believed, and is
willing to endure my eccentricities. I could live with her without fear of
outliving her. I do not believe the spirits of my wives would disapprove, and
Aeka is no longer interested. There could be nothing between us anyway, I do
not think. She holds Tenchi in her heart yet, whether she is willing to admit
it or not, and it will take a stronger man than I to wrest free a place for
himself.*
With a sigh,
Katsuhito leaned his head back against the wall, rubbing his face with one hand
and massaging his temples. *Perhaps I only need time. I am nearly a millennia
old, I do not rush into things well. But then, she is at least ten times that
age and she has fallen in love with
me.*
Katsuhito shook his head,
grudgingly admitting to himself, *I simply do not know. But I will try. I
promised her I would, and finding a place in my life for her is the least I can
do after she returned it to me. To think, I would have denied myself Jurai
forever without her. Father regrets his actions and has rescinded his ban on
Namaeto's name. He has even struck the lesson of pain from the Lessons of the
House. And I would not have lived to see it, without
her.*
"She's right," Katsuhito
muttered, running his fingers through his newly black hair, "you Are an old
fool, Katsuhito."
He looked
down at his hand, admiring the absence of wrinkles and the strong look of his
fingers. They had looked even younger before, of course, but he had worn his
disguise so long that his new body felt younger than the old. *And even in
this, I would not go to her. I did not want to indebt myself further to her,
and I knew she would never have accepted payment. So instead I went to the
Binodi.
*I could take a
lesson from Tenchi, I suppose. He has found a way to put aside his old pains to
love a Hakubi woman, it should not be impossible for me to do the
same.*
* *
*
"So you're leaving
today?"
"Yeah," Sasami agreed,
looking down at the dirt path past the bench where she sat in the gardens.
"When will you be
back?"
Sasami sighed. "Look,
Ponua... You're really nice, but- it couldn't work. I mean, if we were on
Earth... But I'm the minos and you're my mother's Guardian. You're really cute
and if I weren't-" Sasami shook her head. "But I Am. It sucks, but this week
is it. After I leave today you'll probably find some other girl, and maybe I'll
meet someone back on
Earth..."
"We could make it
work," Ponua protested. "The Empress could allow it,
or-"
"No, Ponua," Sasami said
firmly. "She doesn't know and I'm not going to tell her. Walking and talking
with you was fun and everything, but I mean... We don't even have anything in
common. I'm sorry, Ponua. I figured you knew it couldn't
last."
He sighed. "I suppose I
did." He rose and tapped his chest formally. "Enjoy your journey, Minos. In
your absence the sun's light shall shine less
brightly."
Sasami watched him
walk quickly and purposefully down the path away from her and sighed. She had
been sure he knew that she was not seriously pursuing any sort of relationship
with him. He was just someone to have fun with while she was on vacation. She
knew it would end when the week was over and had assumed he knew that too. It
had given her something to think about instead of
Eto.
*So when do I get to find
my Tenchi?* Sasami wondered, leaning back sullenly against the bench. She would
need to go supervise the last of her packing soon, they were due to leave in
three hours. *Ryouko gets Tenchi, and what do I get? First Eto who just wants
to get into my pants and now Ponua who wants me to tell my Mother that I want to
go out with a Guardian. She'd freak. Maybe I should talk to Ryouko. Maybe she
can give me some advice about finding a good guy. But how would she know?
Tenchi was her first boyfriend. And I Can't ask Washuu. That would just be too
weird. Maybe- maybe Aeka? She's never- but maybe she's had boyfriends besides
Yousho. Katsuhito.
Whatever.*
Sasami stood,
straightening her dress, and headed for the nearest exit from the gardens. The
trip back to Earth would be three days, more than enough time to talk to Aeka if
she wanted to. For now she had to go tell the maids what clothes she wanted to
take home with her.
*Home,*
Sasami thought. *I guess Japan is more my home than Jurai, now. I barely know
my parents and everything seems so...weird here. How can they stand having
Guardians following them around all the time? Ponua was nice, but I think if
they thought they could get away with it Azaka and Kotori would follow me into
the bathroom.*
Sasami tossed
her hair and tried to think about something happier. *I wonder what kind of
wedding Ryouko and Tenchi are going to have. I hope they have a Jurain one.
Maybe Ryouko will let me stand as her sister with Ryou-ohki.* The news of
Tenchi and Ryouko's engagement had come as a surprise only to Aeka, Mataeo, Ai,
and Nobuyuki and even for them it was not Really a surprise. Everyone knew the
couple would get married eventually, the question was just when they would do
it.
Sasami knew she had worried
over how Aeka would take it, when the announcement finally came, and assumed at
least some of the others had as well. But her sister seemed happy for them.
Really happy, not just putting on a show. Aeka cried and rushed over to
Ryouko's side of the table, pulling the surprised woman up for a long hug. Then
Ryouko was crying, and Aeka hugged Tenchi and congratulated him. Sasami was not
sure, even then, five days later, why she had started crying, but she had. Even
Katsuhito had a misty look in his eye. Nobuyuki pounded the table and shouted a
toast with the sake Tenchi and Ryouko had brought back from their unexpected
trip to Earth.
*That's my
family now,* Sasami thought, smiling as she remembered the rest of their private
dinner that night. Dinner with her father and mothers had been nice too, Azusa
surprised them all by toasting Tenchi with nearly as much enthusiasm as
Nobuyuki. He said that marriage was one of the most important events in a man's
life and that he should know, he had been through it three times, after all.
But it was, all in all, a state dinner. After Funaho left the night of the
aborted dinner, apologizing for the cancellation and saying that she had matters
to attend to, it was just Sasami's new, extended family. Tenchi and Ryouko,
Katsuhito and Washuu, Mihoshi and Kiyone, Mataeo and Ai, Nobuyuki and Ryou-ohki.
Those were her Real family. She might not be as closely related to some of them
as to her father and mother, or at all in some cases, but she felt close to
them. Azusa tried hard, she could see, and she Did love him. But he had been
distant for so long...a few days could not begin to make up for
it.
With a sigh Sasami left the
gardens, Azaka and Kotori falling in behind her instantly. The fact that she
left from a different direction than she entered the gardens made no difference,
the Guardians' network would have had them at her side no matter where she made
her exit.
*It'll be nice to be
back on Earth,* Sasami reflected, *where I don't have someone following me
around all the time.*
* *
* "I can't believe we're leaving,"
Mataeo sighed, trying to remember how to work the seal on his new Jurain
baggage. Ai leaned over and touched a near-invisible knot on the wooden surface
and the lid slid silently
closed.
"Yeah," she agreed,
carefully placing a package within her own luggage-chest. "But we'll come back.
Tenchi said they'd bring us back here on holidays whenever we want. And the
Empower..." Ai sighed happily. "Can you believe we ate dinner with an empower,
Mat? I mean, a real, live Empower?" She shook her head, not waiting for a
response, and went on, "He announced me as 'Yodonoa Iaea ro,' eighty-fourth
princess of the House Iaea. I still can't believe it, Mat. It's like some kind
of fairy tale. I'm a princess. A Real
princess!"
Mataeo chuckled. Ai
got like this whenever she talked about her new-found title. He was afraid she
was going to start signing things 'Yodonoa Iaea Ai' when they got back to Japan.
But who could blame her? It was not every day that you find out that you are
descended from space-fairing nobility. Even if the line of descent was fairly
muddy. Ai got to be eighty-fourth in line for the seat of House Iaea because
there were already eighty-three others before her. Not that anyone expected her
to ever stake a claim to it. For a Jurain it might not be out of the question,
but Ai's Jurain ancestry was so thin that she aged like any other Earth human.
Though that Could change. Aeka said that if they ever chose to come to Jurai
permanently there were procedures which could give them both lifespans extending
into the millennia, rather than a mere century at the
outside.
*Maybe we will,*
Mataeo thought, putting his hands on Ai's hips and leaning close to kiss her
neck. She covered his hands with hers and leaned back slightly, sighing
contentedly. They would be having a Jurain wedding, even if they got married on
Earth with an Earth wedding first. Ai was quite insistent about it and Mataeo
had no arguments. The wedding would be paid for by her House, as would most of
their expenses when they came to visit. It turned out that having bloodlines
extending to oddball little worlds like Earth was something of a fad among
Jurain nobility just then and the current leader of House Iaea, one Lord
Plairee, had documents of investiture drawn up for Ai immediately upon hearing
of her announcement. Mataeo himself was her official prince consort, lodriam in
Jurain, and thus entitled to whatever portion of her estate she chose to give
him. When they were married-they had made no official announcement yet, but
everyone, including Ai, seemed to assume it would be soon-he would be officially
a member of the House. Mataeo was not sure how he felt about that, really. It
seemed so...unreal. But it was all very real, he knew. The world around him
was every bit as real as Earth, for all its magical wonders, and the people
every bit as human as he was, for all their
alien-ness.
Ai turned in his
grasp, sliding her hands around his waist, and leaned forward to return his
kiss. "Come on lodriam," she whispered, "we're only on Jurai for a few more
hours. Lets make a few more interesting
memories."
"As you have
spoken," Mataeo said seriously, trying to keep a straight face, "I obey, yodonoa
Ai."
* *
*
"Halt, you approach the Inner
Chamber."
Ryouko looked between
the two Guardians. To a lesser eye than hers they would have seemed to
materialize out of the shadows of the hall leading to the great Chamber doors.
For her, though, it was obvious that they had been waiting in the wings, hidden
by the huge potted plants, and had approached by quite normal
means.
"I wish to enter,"
Ryouko said formally, "and claim my right to do so as a member of the House
Jurai." Her Jurain was much better, she felt, than when she had arrived. She
and Tenchi had shared her memories of learning it, fairly painless ones since it
was done in a matter of seconds within the bowels of one of the Soja's labs, and
practiced on one another over the past week. Tenchi's grammar was still a
little off, but he sounded wonderful speaking it. His voice was suited to the
slightly stuttering vowels and the smooth consonants, Ryouko felt. Even more so
than to Japanese. *But then, I think he sounds sexy when he gargles in the
morning.*
The Guardians glanced
at one another, then tapped their chests and turned away hurriedly. "We
apologize, wife of the nashim Tenchi. We had not been briefed with your
description nor informed of your intent to visit the Inner Chamber. Please,
proceed and forgive us our
presumption."
"Forgiven,"
Ryouko said, still with her best tone of formality. The Guardians moved back to
their places on the sides of the hall and Ryouko continued down its center,
toward the doors.
*They
weren't informed of my intent because I only decided five minutes ago,* Ryouko
thought pleasantly. *I really should be helping Tenchi pack, but he's better at
that than I am anyway. This is my last chance to do this before we go back to
Earth.*
The doors swung wide
when Ryouko touched them. She had been afraid they might not, since she was not
Really of the House Jurai. She and Tenchi had not had any formal ceremony yet,
though Azusa had announced them as husband and wife, and she had less Jurain
blood in her veins than Mataeo. Ryouko was not even precisely sure that the
stuff in her veins Was blood. She asked Washuu once, but after ten minutes of
lecture on dynamically modeling cellular formations with massu proto-forms
Ryouko decided it really was not that important a thing to know.
*Now, to find
Tsunami...*
Ryouko stepped onto
the paths of the Inner Chamber, the doors swinging shut almost silently behind
her.
"Ryouko."
Ryouko
stifled a yelp, turning to look back. She had taken no more than a half dozen
steps toward the nearest tree, trying to focus her mind on Tsunami, when the
voice spoke. When she looked, she saw that the doors were not where she had
left them. Instead, the intense white of the Chamber deepened to near-black as
she rotated, and where the path had been level it now descended toward a wide,
flat area covered in curving flows of water. At its center was a tall, thin
tree dancing with silver
flames.
"H-hello, Tsunami,"
Ryouko said nervously in greeting to the woman standing before her. Tsunami had
chosen to appear in her adult form, but Ryouko had no trouble seeing Sasami's
face in her features. Little Sasami-not so little anymore, Ryouko reminded
herself-would be this woman one day, that was
obvious.
"How are you?" Tsunami
asked, startling Ryouko. She had not been sure what to expect, but casual
chit-chat was not it.
"I- I
guess I'm okay." Ryouko followed automatically with, "How're you?" She winced
inwardly after speaking. What kind of question was that to ask a
goddess?
Tsunami chuckled. "Do
not be nervous, Ryouko. I would like to think we are friends, you and I. I am
sorry for so frightening you at Christmas, I have not apologized for
that."
"It's okay, you're- I
mean, you probably have a lot more on your mind that not scaring
me."
Tsunami nodded, almost
sadly, then smiled. "Why did you come to me today, Ryouko? You are leaving
soon, are you not? Should you not be
preparing?"
Ryouko nodded,
feeling guilty again for leaving the work to Tenchi. "I- I just... I wanted to
talk to you. Away from Sasami, I mean. I don't know if that will work. Sasami
says she knows pretty much everything when she's
you."
"She may," Tsunami
agreed. "I only redistrict her knowledge a very little, the better to prepare
her for when she has access to it at our
will."
"Well then," Ryouko
said, "if you're listening to this, Sasami, just stop right now. I need to talk
to Tsunami and you're not supposed to hear. Remember what I said about
listening when people
whisper."
Tsunami chuckled. "A
novel approach, Ryouko. Do you think it will
work?"
"No," Ryouko sighed.
"Sasami does what Sasami wants to do. And don't you think I don't know about
Ponua, Sammy. I know you've been sneaking off and ordering him into the
gardens. You'd better hope all you did was talk, young lady. He's a Guardian,
do you have any idea what those men Do with each other? G-" Ryouko paused,
remembering her company. "Who knows where his mouth has
been?"
Tsunami laughed then, a
deep, rich laugh so full of life and happiness that Ryouko could not help
joining her.
"I see why Sasami
cares so deeply for you," Tsunami said when her laughter had gentled, wiping a
glittering tear from one eye. "You are a unique woman, Ryouko. Have you any
idea how long it has been since I laughed? Truly laughed?" She shook her head
and smiled sadly. "Too long, Ryouko. Much too
long."
"She- she cares?"
Ryouko asked. "That's what I came to talk to you about. I- I'm worried I'm not
treating her correctly."
"How
so?" Tsunami asked
curiously.
"You know," Ryouko
said uncomfortably, shifting her weight from one foot to the
other.
"No," Tsunami disagreed.
"I am not using my Knowing now, Ryouko. Tell me, what do you mean? How might
you have mistreated
Sasami?"
"Not mistreated,"
Ryouko sighed, sinking down to sit on the path and dangle her legs over the
edge. Tsunami startled her again by joining her, her feet kicking gently over
the void. "Not exactly anyway. I just- I don't know if I'm doing the right
things. Washuu wasn't around when I was... Well, not growing up, I guess. I
looked like this, pretty much, the day she made me. But when I was learning to
be... Well, to Be. I don't know what a mother should do with her
daughter."
"You think of Sasami
as your daughter?" Tsunami asked. Her tone betrayed nothing, but at the same
time was neither emotionless nor
cold.
"I- I don't know. But
she comes to me with her problems, and I like trying to help her. I'm not her
mother, I know that. And I don't want to take Misaki's place, or Aeka's. But
I- I love Sasami. I want to see her happy and have a good
life."
"That is all anyone
might wish of a mother," Tsunami said gently, patting Ryouko's hand in
companionable warmth.
"But I
don't know if I'm doing it right," Ryouko protested. "I've told her about sex,
but I don't want her actually Having sex. I think if she really did any of the
things I've told her about I'd be as upset as Aeka would. And it's not just
because Aeka would be upset... I don't even know Why I'd be mad. She's an
adult now, her body is her own. I just can't stand the idea of some perverted
boy with his hands all over my
Sasami--"
"Your Sasami?"
Tsunami asked.
Ryouko sighed.
"I've known her for so long... Almost as long as Tenchi, and that's almost my
whole life, now. I just worry about her, Tsunami. Like with that Guardian. I
heard about it fourth hand as a rumor from the nurse who lent me her clothes,
but I couldn't say anything to Sasami about it. If I fussed at her like I just
did she'd think I'm a hypocrite. I explained the other day why people would
want to have oral sex, and now I'm upset because I think she might've kissed
that guy."
"She won't think
you're a hypocrite, Ryouko."
"I
don't know... But am I doing the right things? Telling her the right things?
Do normal mothers tell their daughters that it's okay to wear whatever kind of
clothes they want, then teach them where to hit a guy who's coming on too
strong?"
"The good ones,"
Tsunami agreed.
Ryouko sighed
and shook her head, staring down into the black depths. "It's so hard though,
sometimes, Tsunami. I just want to grab her and shake her and tell her I love
her and she'll find someone better than Eto or whoever because she's such a
great girl. But I know if I did, she'd only get even More depressed. And how
would she react if I told her that sometimes I Do think of her like a
daughter?"
"I think she knows,"
Tsunami observed quietly. "It seems obvious to me how much you care for her
welfare, even without Knowing
it."
"Sometimes, though...
Sometimes I lay in bed at night and I- I pretend that Tenchi's my husband and
Sasami's my daughter and that we're all just a normal family. I never dared to
actually Tell either of them that." Ryouko glanced at the goddess warily. "I
can't believe I'm even telling You all
this."
"Then do not," Tsunami
said gently, "if you do not wish to. We can speak of other things, if you
like."
"No," Ryouko sighed,
looking back out at the void, "it's okay. I'm getting better at having friends,
and I guess you are one. I mean, it's not like I've talked to you a lot; but
it's like talking to Sasami, if she were my
age."
"I'm a bit older than
you, Ryouko," Tsunami pointed out, "but otherwise you are
correct."
Ryouko chuckled. "A
bit older." She shook her head and hooked a loose lock of hair back over her
ear before continuing where she had interrupted herself, "I might tell Tenchi.
He's seen it anyway, even if he doesn't remember it. I know he's had the same
fantasy sometimes. But Sasami? How would she react if she knew I wished she
really were my daughter? If I told her I couldn't wish to have a better little
girl than she is? She's so hard on herself, sometimes. If she didn't get
perfect grades in school, or if her friends picked on her for something, and the
whole Eto thing... I think she still thinks it was her fault that he left her.
That little prick. I swear, if I ever get my hands on
him..."
"Tenchi Is your husband
now, Ryouko," Tsunami pointed out. "In the eyes of the Living Throne, anyway.
And I think that perhaps Sasami feels the same way you do, at
times."
"Really?" Ryouko asked,
startled. "But I don't-"
"I
know," Tsunami interrupted gently. "You do not wish to replace her real parents
or her sister. And you won't. Not ever. Misaki is her mother and will be all
her life, as is Aeka her sister. What Sasami has with you is yours and hers
alone. Your relationship is your relationship, as special and unique as is her
relationship with her mother or her
sister."
Ryouko nodded. "I
guess I can accept that. I'm glad she likes me. But are you sure I'm doing
right? I'm teaching her the right things and not being too strict or too
lenient?"
"Every mother must be
different, Ryouko, even when you are not her birth mother. That's because every
child is different, and Sasami is, perhaps, more different than most. But she
is happy much of the time, as are you. If that is not sign enough that you are
doing well, Ryouko, then I do not know what more I can offer
you."
Ryouko smiled and leaned
over to hug the goddess around the shoulders. "Thank you, Tsunami. I think I
needed to hear that right
now."
"You have other matters
on your mind," Tsunami
observed.
"Going all-knowing on
me?" Ryouko asked, cocking an
eyebrow.
"No," Tsunami chuckled
softly, "but you do not hide it well. Do you wish to speak with me of
them?"
Ryouko started to speak,
then paused, and finally said, "No. I think I need to think about it some more,
and then talk to
Tenchi."
Tsunami nodded. "Your
husband is wise, in his
way."
Ryouko chuckled, "In his
way. He's an idiot in his way, too, sometimes. But if he were wise all the
time I don't think I'd love him half as
much."
"Mm," Tsunami agreed,
"the flawed gem is all the more interesting for its
imperfection."
"Tsunami? Will
you- will you do me a
favor?"
"If it is allowed to
me," Tsunami agreed.
"Watch out
for Sasami? I don't want her getting hurt
anymore."
"There are things she
must see and do-"
"No," Ryouko
interrupted, "that's not what I mean. I know she's becoming a goddess, and that
Can't be easy for her. But I mean with... boys and things. I can't be there
for her all the time, and I can't tell her what to do in every situation. Those
Lessons did that, but she seems to be able to get over them most of the time. I
just don't want anything like with Eto happening again. If she's confused about
where a relationship is going, make sure she comes to me instead of just keeping
it bottled up until something
snaps?"
Tsunami nodded. "A
reasonable request. But I can make no promises, Ryouko, much as I might wish
to. I am becoming her as much as she is becoming me, and I have little force
over her free will. But when she is hurting or confused, I will make sure that
she remembers those who love
her."
"Thanks," Ryouko sighed,
pushing herself up to her feet. "I'd better go help Tenchi pack. He can't fold
women's clothes for
anything."
"Farewell, Ryouko,"
Tsunami replied, rising to her feet. "Have a pleasant journey
home."
"I will," Ryouko agreed.
"It should be nice. Tenchi and I are going to take a little side trip. I want
him to see the crystal falls and we'll be passing by Yall on the way home
anyway."
"Mmm," Tsunami
murmured appreciatively. "They are beautiful. I have seen all the worlds in
the universe, and there are few waterfalls as wonderful as those on
Yall."
"Really?" Ryouko asked
curiously. "They're nice, but they're the best? In the whole
universe?"
"One of," Tsunami
agreed. "But it is a relative thing, Ryouko. Over the light years and the eons
there have been a million million sights more splendorous than the crystal
falls. But against the span of the universe, that is a tiny number
indeed."
"Yeah," Ryouko agreed
thoughtfully, trying to politely avoid looking at Tsunami's eyes. She had still
not forgotten the way they looked on Christmas
night.
"Ryouko? When you have
returned to Earth, remember that I am with
Sasami?"
"I- I'm not sure what
you mean," Ryouko said
hesitantly.
"Only that I am
there, if you wish to speak with me. There are times when a woman needs a
friend, and such a being is not always easy to come
by."
Ryouko nodded, trying to
decide if Tsunami was talking about her, or about herself. "I will," she
promised.
* *
*
"All you have to do is wear
it while you're in the room," Washuu explained, trying her best to remain calm
with the police woman. "You don't have to actually Do anything. And I won't
interfere with the examination, this will just transmit the data back to my
lab."
"No," Kiyone said firmly,
pushing the earring Washuu held out in offering away. "I told you before; the
last time was the Last time. No more, Miss Washuu. If Mihoshi remembers on her
own, good for her; but I'm not going to try to force her anymore. And if I find
out that you're still tangling her up in your little schemes without my help,
I'll do my best to make sure you don't get to follow
through."
"Kiyone," Washuu
sighed, "you don't
understand-"
"Yes," Kiyone
interrupted, "I do. I've known University people before, Miss Washuu. You all
get this way to one degree or another. Something gets under your skin that you
don't have an answer for, and you obsess over it until you find one. I'm sorry,
but this time you're not going to. If it were a plant or a bug or something I'd
be glad to help, but it's Mihoshi. She's a human being, Miss Washuu. She's got
real feelings, even if it's not always really obvious what they are. And I will
Not be party to screwing with her head,
understand?"
Washuu nodded
irritably and tried one last time. She had not intended to play this card, but
she could not simply let the Mihoshi Question, as she had started to think of
it, slip away this easily. "But if she remembered who she is, she would be the
officer you looked up to again. Just think of it, Kiyone. Mihoshi, brightest
star in the GP again, and you as her partner. If she were back on the ball
again, she'd make Vice Commissioner inside a decade and you'd be right there
alongside her."
"No," Kiyone
said again, even more firmly. "Mihoshi can make it on her own. She's doing
better now, she just needed someone who would show her how without getting
pissed off at her."
"But she
wouldn't Need anyone to show her how," Washuu protested. "And just think,
Kiyone, she'd be a normal person again. No more of this weird juvenile persona
she's developed since losing her memory. Wouldn't that be nice? You said you
worried about making a move on her because she's so innocent. She'd be a real
woman if she had her memory back, Kiyone. You two could have a
real-"
"That is none of your
god damn business!" Kiyone shouted, face flushing rapidly. "And there's nothing
to Be your business, even if it was! I'm not like that, and I don't know what
the hell you're talking about about making a move... I never said anything like
that! Mihoshi is my friend, dammit. That's All she is. So just take your
stupid little toy and go back to your stupid little lab and shove it somewhere!"
Kiyone stormed past the stunned scientist, grumbling loudly about know-it-all
University women who didn't even know what the hell they were talking
about.
Washuu sighed and tucked
the earring back in her breast pocket, not quite willing to give up just yet.
It was too big a puzzle to just leave alone. Something chimed softly in her
pocket and Washuu unfolded her computer, thinking how nice it would be to be
away from Jurai where she could use her holo-computer
again.
*Thos idiots on the
Council need to get their priorities straight,* Washuu thought sullenly, paging
through the programs currently running to find the one that had requested her
attention. *They could link my holographic computer technology with their trees
if they hadn't banned my hyper-space transceiver designs first. Then they
wouldn't have to maintain this stupid policy on physical-only number crunchers
and I wouldn't have to carry this backward little thing around all the
time.*
As it turned out the
chime had only been a reminder that the transport ship they would be taking home
to Earth would be leaving in fifteen minutes. Not enough time to approach
Kiyone again, then. She would simply have to come up with something
else.
Washuu folded the
computer and stowed it back in her pocket. She turned to the door of her room
and touched the metal plate beside it in order to signal the staff that she was
ready to leave, then went back to the bed. Everything was packed away in travel
logs except the clothes on her back and a small bag containing a change of
clothes and her makeup kit. She had seen to it that she would have the cabin
beside Katsuhito's aboard the ship and intended to waste no time in paying him a
visit.
* *
*
"They are safely away,
then?"
"Yes, my lady." The
speaker was cloaked in black cloth from toe to forehead, his-or her, the
individual's sex was impossible to determine outwardly and their voice too
neutral to give hints-hair spilling out in an ebon cascade down his/her
neck.
"Good," Funaho replied,
resuming her seat. She had risen when the person entered the room but before
he/she made themselves obvious. It paid to remind her spies that she knew not
only knew all their tricks, but had means around most of them. "And Vianna is
aboard as well?"
"Yes, Empress.
She has been instructed to serve as the minos' personal guardian during her time
on Earth. The minos was most displeased with this
news."
"Mmm," Funaho replied
indifferently, touching the top of her desk and activating a holographic
display. "She will get over
it."
"She was Most displeased,"
the spy said again. "She attempted to order the guard off of the ship and hid
in her cabin when the command
failed."
"I feel sorry for
her," Funaho sighed. "Truly I do, but there is nothing to be done for it. My
sister feels this is a necessary precaution. Our man was aboard as
well?"
"M'lady," the spy
agreed. "Ser was aboard the
vessel."
"And their baggage was
checked?"
"Ser did a thorough
job, Empress. The one called Hakubi Washuu had a great number of transmitters
and other odd devices in her luggage, but none were active and none appeared to
be of Jurain manufacture."
"The
one called Hakubi Washuu," Funaho repeated, looking up from her display
terminal. "Why do you refer to her that
way?"
"We have been unable to
ascertain if she is the renowned scientist, Empress. It is most frustrating,
all our roots have struck
stone."
Funaho chuckled. There
were few in the galaxy that could foil her staff, but Washuu would be one of
them. "Do not concern yourselves with the matter. Her past is unimportant.
Our man aboard the ship, ser is of the
circle?"
"Ser is," the spy
agreed. "We have no doubt that ser can be trusted with this mission, but
precautions have been taken as appropriate. Ser's first report is due in seven
minutes, at m'lady's
pleasure."
Funaho nodded,
touching off her display and rising once more to her feet. "Convene a council,"
she ordered. "We will discuss the Uran situation and how best to proceed with
it. And of the one I have sent with my daughters and their friends; none will
know that ser boarded that
ship."
The spy nodded, a barely
discernable motion in the black-on-black. "The wind shall carry no
voice."
"Good," Funaho said,
gesturing to the door. "Let us go. How are you
called?"
"M'lady may use the
name Ilatrois."
"Ah, you are
male?"
"Ser has assumed that
role," the spy agreed
neutrally.
Funaho chuckled.
That was the proper response, but it was good to keep them on their toes.
Relaxed spies made for dead
spies.
"Come then,
Ilatrois."
The spy stepped
toward the door and ser's body shifted, the black flowing together and apart.
Where ser had stood was now apparently empty space, though Funaho could easily
discern the presence. She went to the door and opened it, the spy having
already passed through, and stepped into the
hallway.
*Something must be
done with Uran,* she thought, *before he goes any further. If Azusa will not
act, I shall. And I must not let my concern for Sasami and Aeka mar my
judgment. I will put them from my mind for the time being, and that is that.
Vianna is capable, even if I do not trust her, and the ser aboard the ship will
keep ser's eye on her.*
"What
is your opinion on the Uran situation?" Funaho asked of the spy who walked
invisibly and nearly intangibly a few steps ahead. She did not actually speak,
only moved her vocal cords as though sub-vocalizing a command. She had not
doubt that her servant would hear, though. Ilatrois' senses were aided by
sufficient devices that anything more vocal than a strong thought was picked up
easily.
"We feel that Uran's
security network is well built, but we have analyzed it thoroughly and found
several weaknesses. In the case of foreign
affairs..."
* *
*
"What did you wish to talk
about Sasami?"
Sasami shifted
uncomfortably on her chair. Not that the chair was anything but comfortable,
everything in Aeka's cabin was of the finest quality. Sasami was actually
slightly jealous, her room was not nearly this nice. She forced her mind to the
matter at hand, trying to find some way to ask her question that would not upset
her sister.
"Aeka," she started
cautiously, "have you- that is, I know that you... Before
you--"
"What is it Sasami?"
Aeka asked, frowning in concern when her sister was unable to complete the
question. "Is something
wrong?"
"No," Sasami sighed.
"Not- not really, I guess. Do you- do you remember me talking about
Eto?"
Aeka nodded. "Yes, I
believe so. He went to school with you in Tokyo, didn't he? As I recall you
mentioned that- that you had something of a crush on him." It was obviously
difficult for Aeka to say that, but she said it anyway. Sasami could not decide
if she wanted to be hurt by her sister's dismissal of her feelings as a 'crush'
or if she should be happy that Aeka was at least willing to talk about
it.
"Yeah," she agreed
eventually, "I guess. But he was a real as- jerk. He tried to-" Sasami shook
her head, that was not a conversation she wanted to have just then. "It doesn't
matter. He dumped me. I mean, I guess we sort of dumped each
other."
"Oh?" Aeka asked. She
had never been very good at hiding her emotions and it was painfully obvious
that she was quite pleased with the news. "Well, I'm glad that you came to me
about this, Sasami. You'll find someone else, someone much better suited to
you. I never met this Eto boy, but I'm sure mother never would have approved.
I hear that there is a young man in House Gin that's about your age. Court
gossip says he's quite handsome, did you hear of him? I think his name was
Teril. Maybe Meril. There are so many new names to
remember..."
*This is exactly
why I didn't want to talk to her,* Sasami thought sadly. *I knew she'd either
blow up at me or start in on what was proper. I don't want to marry some stodgy
prince from House Gin. Mom tried to get me to go on a marriage interview the
fourth day after we got to Jurai, doesn't Aeka remember how awful they are? I
just want to meet someone nice and have a Normal relationship. Someone sweet
and funny, like Tenchi. He doesn't even have to be all That good
looking.*
Aeka was still going
on about Court, she seemed to have forgotten Sasami's situation entirely and was
talking about some stupid border conflict
somewhere.
"Aeka," Sasami
interrupted, "did you ever have any boyfriends other than
Yousho?"
Aeka halted
mid-sentence to stare at her sister. "Wh- Sasami- I- I don't see how that's any
of your business."
Sasami
sighed. "I guess it's not." She started to rise, intending to just go back to
her cabin and take a nap, but Aeka stopped
her.
"Sasami, I'm sorry. Sit
down." When her sister had settled again Aeka went on, "I was just startled...
I know you're a- a grown woman, now, Sasami. I just have such a hard time
remembering that. When I look at you, I still see the little girl who's been my
sister for so long. But I know you're not her anymore, so I'll try to stop
treating you that way. Why do you want to know if I've ever had a
boyfriend?"
Sasami thinned her
lips and looked at her sister appraisingly. Was this for real? Aeka was almost
always honest with her, sometimes brutally so, but could she really be admitting
that Sasami was an adult now? Somehow the princess had not thought that
admission would come so easily. Aeka had seemed determined to continue treating
her like a child no matter what she
said.
"It's just- I was hoping
you could give me some advice," Sasami said carefully, watching Aeka for a
reaction, "about meeting boys, I mean. Eto- I liked Eto and I kinda... I just
want to know how I can find someone nice instead of just another jerk like him,
or someone dense like Ponua that I'm just going to end up hurting." Sasami's
eyes widened and she stifled a gasp when she realized what she had said. Aeka
did not know about Ponua, and she had not intended to let her find
out.
"Ponua? Mother's
Guardian? What about
him?"
Sasami looked away from
Aeka's gaze and toyed nervously with the hem of her shirt while trying to think
of a convincing story to spin for her
sister.
"Sasami? What's going
on between you and Ponua? Do you realize the scandal that a relationship
between the minos of House Jurai and a Guardian would cause? Tell me you only
had a crush on him. You didn't actually- you didn't Do anything, did
you?"
Sasami sighed. "Why do
you have to be like this all the time? I was hoping I could-" What was she
hoping? Her sister had always been this way, why had she expected anything
else? If Sasami had a problem she could go to Aeka and Aeka would fix it, if
she could, and she would be gentle about it if gentleness was called for. But
if it was something improper or if Sasami had done something that Aeka didn't
like, the younger princess had never had any doubt she would be told quite
plainly what her sister's opinions on the matter were. Aeka loved her, and she
loved Aeka. *She was just about my only friend when I was little,* Sasami
thought sadly, *but Aeka can be... She can be such a Bitch sometimes. Why
can't she just forget about the throne and be my sister for a little while?
That's all I want.* And the worst of it was that Aeka would do so, she knew, if
it were about almost anything else. If she were upset over the sorts of things
that had upset her a year ago, Aeka wouldn't even mention Court or
scandals.
"Now tell me what you
did with mother's Guardian," Aeka was saying. "I'll call her and we will make
sure that no one finds out about this. Really, Sasami, I don't see why
you-"
"Why can't you just be
more like Ryouko?" Sasami asked desperately, regretting her words the instant
after speaking.
Aeka's eyes
widened and she gasped,
"Sasami!"
"I'm sorry," Sasami
sighed, getting up from her chair and moving toward the door. "I'm sorry, Aeka.
This was a bad
idea."
Vianna was waiting
for her when Sasami left Aeka's cabin and fell in behind her as she headed up
the corridor. Sasami turned when she was halfway back to her own room,
frustrated with her sister and even more angry at herself for what she had said
and thought. "Go away!"
"I am
charged with protecting you," Vianna said calmly, "I will not neglect my duties,
however distasteful they may
be."
"Distasteful?" Sasami
asked in shocked disbelief. "Distasteful?! You- you- I
could--"
Vianna made no
response, just stared levelly back at the princess, the soft lights of the
corridor gleaming off her slightly shiny pink
hair.
*Aeka probably hates me
now, Ryouko's gone with Tenchi to Yall, Mihoshi and Kiyone are off on Dalris,
Washuu's busy somewhere with Grandpa... I haven't even seen Ryou-ohki since
yesterday. The only person that wants to be around me is Vianna, and she's such
a... Arg! Why did Mom have to send her? Why does everything have to be so-
so- so Difficult?*
"Just leave
me alone! I don't care What mother told you, I don't need a guard and I don't
want one!"
Vianna scowled.
Well, not Really scowled, Sasami had to admit. More like frowned slightly, but
in her present mood it Looked like a scowl to Sasami. "Misaki charged me with
your protection and I will follow her order. But it would be much easier if you
did not act like an ignorant
child."
"An ignorant child,"
Sasami repeated quietly, staring the other woman in the eye. Vianna had been
nothing but a pain since the moment they met. She did not treat Sasami with
anything like the respect that the princess was used to from anyone not of royal
birth, and half the time she even talked down to
her.
"You- you arrogant bitch!"
Sasami growled, "Who the hell do you think you Are? I'm not some prissy little
princess like you're used on Jurai, Vianna. I haven't lived there for five
years, and on Earth Nobody talks to me that way. Maybe you can get away with
saying something like that to the donos of House Jon, but if you call me
ignorant or a child
again-"
"What?" Vianna asked
neutrally. "You will what, Sasami? Do you think that I wished to be made your
babysitter? I am a warrior; your mother's personal student. I've bested more
Guardians than I care to remember, and even my own sisters cannot match me. I
am fit to protect the Empower himself, and instead I am charged with protecting
a spoiled little brat who thinks herself above the throne. You wish to threaten
me? Do not make promises you cannot keep, Sasami. Speak rudely to me again and
I will not hesitate to give you the sort of lessons your mother used in teaching
me."
"Why you-" Sasami pulled
back and swung at Vianna, meaning to slap her. The pink-haired woman snatched
her hand in mid-air without so much as twitching her eye, squeezing painfully
hard on Sasami's wrist.
"Do
not think to treat my as a servant," Vianna growled. "Because I am charged to
be your protector does Not make me subservient to you. I am your elder and I
will be treated with respect, even if you do not deign to show such to your own
sister!"
"Let go," Sasami
pleaded, tugging in vain on her arm. Vianna's grip was like iron, though, and
similarly
immovable.
"Apologize," Vianna
demanded. "And agree to treat me as an equal. I do not relish this duty, but
it may be bearable if we can come to some
understanding."
"Apologize..."
Sasami glared at the warrior, her lips twisting into an angry frown. "Let go of
me, Vianna. Right now."
"Not
until you admit that you are a spoiled child," Vianna said sternly, squeezing
harder on Sasami's wrist. "Your rank does not matter to me, Sasami. I have
never had your precious Lessons. To me, even Misaki is only another woman. I
respect her for her skill and her strength. She knows more than I do, and I
will learn from her until such time as that is no longer true. But you have
neither skill, strength, nor knowledge. You are a petulant child who is far too
full of herself."
"Let. Go.
Now." Sasami's eyes gleamed dangerously, but Vianna took no
notice."
"Apologize," she
demanded instead. "And promise to heed me as your elder in the
future."
"I said," Sasami said
quietly, drawing her free hand back, "to let the fuck go of my arm, you
arrogant, self-righteous, superior little Slut!" Sasami thrust forward with her
open hand, a sphere of crackling silver flame exploding into her palm as it
moved toward Vianna's chest. The warrior woman had time only to gape at it for
a split second before the orb of Jurai energy struck her, sending her flying
backward down the hall like a rag doll to slam bodily into the far wall. Sasami
inspected her arm and, when she was sure no damage had been done, went to
Vianna. She knew the woman was alive and mostly uninjured. She had meant it
only as a lesson, not as an attack.
"Ignorant child," Tsunami
spat. "You will learn to speak with more caution to your
betters."
* *
*
"Misaki, what have you not
told me?"
"Vianna," Misaki
said in greeting from the comm display. "There are a great many things I have
not told you, which particular one are you inquiring
about?"
"By the daughters of
Jurai," Vianna swore angrily, "you know what I'm talking about! Your daughter
nearly killed me, Misaki. Why was I not warned that she had such power? She
commands the silver flames, Misaki. You lead me to believe that none but myself
and my sisters had that
power."
Misaki looked away and
gestured at a terminal before refocusing on the fuming guard. "Really, Vianna.
You should not allow your anger to overcome your good judgment so. Speaking of
such things on an unsecured line...
Really."
"It was secure,"
Vianna grumbled, "I did it
myself."
Misaki sniffed and
rolled her eyes. "Your talents do not lie in such directions, Vianna. And as
for my daughter... Will this cause you to be unable to perform your
duties?"
Vianna grimaced but
shook her head. "No, I will do as you have bid. But I do not like being sent
blind into danger, Misaki. She knocked me cold and I was forced to tell the
medical staff aboard that it was a training accident. A little more power and
she could have killed me."
"The
silver fire is not easily tamed," Misaki said calmly. "If you are still alive,
she meant you to be. What did you do to engender her
wrath?"
"I did nothing! We
were merely speaking and she attacked
me!"
Misaki raised an eyebrow
doubtfully. "Lying does not become you, Vianna. Perhaps I should send one of
your sisters to perform this task instead? Milea would be eager, I
think."
Vianna's lips thinned
in anger and she said, "No, I will do as I have been commanded. Milea would as
soon take your daughter by force as protect her, you know her habits as well as
I."
"I have never known her to
rape," Misaki denied. "And you seem quite confident that Sasami could defend
herself. Perhaps it would be better that way. Milea would certainly keep it
more discreet than Ponua. I had to have the poor boy's memory wiped just to
keep him from grumbling around the
palace."
"I said that I would
perform my duties," Vianna
growled.
"Good then," Misaki
said pleasantly. "I will expect your report two days after your arrival on
Earth. And please avoid contacting me in the future, Vianna? Secrecy is Not
your strong suite and I have, I believe, stressed sufficiently that your
movements at the present are not to be public
knowledge."
Vianna started a
retort but Misaki cut the connection before she had even opened her mouth to
speak.
*Trying to give my
duties to Milea of all people. I would as soon see Guardians take the job.
Milea may have trained with me as my sister, but she does not understand honor
or restraint. She would have her legs around Sasami's head inside a week,
whether the girl wished it or
not.*
Vianna stalked angrily
out of her room, thinking that she would have a talk with the minos. She would
not apologize, certainly. It was the girl's fault, not hers, but anyone who
could command the silver flames was not to be readily trifled with. It took
great discipline to use the power of Jurai in that way, and if Misaki's daughter
had mastered it at such a young age then she was deserving of at least some
modicum of respect. Even if she Was a spoiled little
bitch.
* *
*
"What's wrong, Tenchi?"
Ryouko spoke in Japanese, thinking that her husband would more readily share his
feelings knowing that the people around them could not
understand.
Tenchi glanced over
at her, then went back to looking half-heartedly around at the sights of Nedri
Port. "Nothing," he sighed, not at all
convincingly.
"Come on," Ryouko
prodded, holding his arm a bit tighter. "What's up? You look really down and
we're supposed to be having
fun."
Tenchi patted her hand
gently and shook his head. "It's really nothing honey. I just- it's just that
in a few days we'll be going back to
Earth."
"You want to stay
longer?" Ryouko asked, thinking that an extended stay on Yall would hardly be
out of the question. It was months still before the fall semester and she was
having a wonderful time. It had been twelve hundred years since she visited the
planet, back when Nedri was little more than a couple of landing pads and a
bank. Now it was a bustling metropolis, and the crystal falls had been even
more spectacular than she remembered. Nowhere else in the known galaxy could
you see a three hundred meter waterfall inside the half-buried remains of a huge
geode. Last time she visited had been under Kagato's order and she had seen the
falls only in passing. Now she knew that the massive crystal had been an
exceptionally rare meteorite that impacted the planet millions of years ago,
fracturing and eventually being intersected by the rivers that formed the
falls.
Tenchi, she had thought,
was enjoying himself too. Up until now he had been all smiles and laughter,
holding her hand and pointing excitedly at this or that. When they went to the
falls he seemed even more moved than she herself had been, staring slack-jawed
at the roaring waterfalls for long minutes. They kissed in the light spray that
was kicked across the hundreds of yards distance between the falls themselves
and the observation deck, and had another tourist take their picture in front of
the view. Ryouko thought the trip would be a sort of prelude to their
honeymoon, and until now it had seemed like exactly that. But now Tenchi seemed
depressed about something and her attempts to peek at his thoughts were gently
but firmly denied.
After long
moments of silence Tenchi sighed. "No. I mean, it'd be nice...but that's not
why I'm feeling down. It's just that after all this; can we really just go back
home? While I was on Earth with all of you, I could just sort of ignore that
you were all from space. I mean, sure you were from wherever...but I'd never
been there. The Earth and Japan were all I'd ever known, so it wasn't hard to
forget that Aeka and Sasami are princesses of Jurai, or that I was supposed to
be some kind of prince."
"And
now that you've seen it, you're not quite so willing to be the simple Earth
boy?" Ryouko asked, understanding dawning.
"I guess," Tenchi agreed,
looking up at the Nedri elevator. "I mean, look at that. Space elevators are
science fiction back home. I never thought I'd see one for real, but there it
is. We even rode down on it. I can never tell anyone about that back home
except maybe Mat and Ai. How can we just go back there after all
this?"
"I've done it," Ryouko
reminded him. "I was 'out here' for thousands of years, Tenchi, and gave it all
up for Earth. It's not that hard, really. Nedri Port is nice, but Tokyo has
nice things too. And it's not like we can never come back here, or go back to
Jurai."
Tenchi sighed. "You're
right. I'm sorry honey." He smiled and kissed her quickly to show he meant it.
Tenchi was still reluctant to show more affection than holding hands in public,
but he was getting better. Ryouko hoped he would hang on to at least a little
of his shyness though, it was cute the way he blushed when she gave him more
than a buss on the lips where anyone could
see.
"Want to go back to the
hotel?" Ryouko asked. "I'm kind of hungry and my legs are getting
tired."
Tenchi nodded, then
glanced at her sideways. "You? Tired? Are you
okay?"
"Fine," Ryouko lied.
She was afraid she knew why she felt tired, but was not at all ready to talk to
Tenchi about it.
* *
*
"Thanks Kat," Washuu sighed,
"I'm just sorry that's the last dinner we'll get before we're back on
Earth."
"Oh?" Katsuhito asked,
stopping in front of the door to Washuu's cabin. "I think Sasami's cooking is
at least as good as the ship's dining
room."
"It is," Washuu agreed.
"But there's just something special about eating in a restaurant with someone
you love."
Katsuhito frowned
slightly and Washuu regretted saying it. She Did love him, but she knew how he
felt about her saying it.
"Do
you- do you want to come in?" Washuu asked, touching open the door to her room.
"I could have tea sent
up."
*Listen to me,* Washuu
chastised herself. *Stuttering like a child. Am I nervous that he will say no,
or that he might say
yes?*
Katsuhito seemed about to
accept, then shook his head. "No. Thank you for the offer Washuu, but tomorrow
will be an busy day and I think I'm going to
bed."
"So early? You're a
young man again, Kat, you can be active at night
now."
"Old habits die hard,"
Katsuhito sighed. "I'm sorry, Washuu.
Goodnight."
"Goodnight Kat,"
Washuu said worriedly. She did not think he was talking about his bedtime when
he said 'habits,' and worried that he was beating himself up over his reluctance
to be more affectionate. She knew she was probably over-analyzing, but it was a
trait she could not deny and which seemed to assert itself at the most
inappropriate times. Washuu took a step toward Katsuhito and kissed him quickly
on the cheek before turning and going into her cabin, wondering at the blush
that rose on her face.
*You'd
think I was Sasami's age, blushing over a kiss on the cheek. What is it about
that man that makes me act this
way?*
The door slid shut on a
surprised Katsuhito and Washuu sighed. She knew what made her act that way.
Having all the answers was Really annoying
sometimes.
"You always were an
idiot when you were in love," Washuu scolded herself. "And why him, anyway?
Just because he's handsome and charming, or is it because he's funny and just
sophisticated enough to make you nervous? Or maybe because he's old enough to
be able to identify with you without making you feel ancient? Or because he's
smart enough to talk to without having to censor
yourself?"
Washuu sat down
heavily on her bed, kicking off the shoes she had worn to dinner. It was all of
those things, of course. She did not know when it started, but once she had
begun down the path of attraction to Katsuhito she spiraled inward like a planet
being sucked into a gravity well. She had never in her life been a woman that
did things in half measures, and with relationships it was just as true as with
science. Even with Ryouko, she went from nervous ally to full motherhood in a
matter of months. And Ryou-ohki she stopped thinking of as a pet and started
thinking of as a daughter almost overnight. The fact that the girl could talk
now helped, of course. There was something utterly irresistible about that
furry little face saying, "Mommy! Teach me some more,
Mommy?"
"You're as foolish as
the old man," Washuu said, not really angry with herself. She could not deny
her nature and trying would do no one any good. She had at least convinced
Katsuhito that she was worth having as a friend and that a closer relationship
would not be entirely out of the question. Now she only had to break down a few
more barriers and he would be putty in her hands. Adorable putty, but putty
none the less.
*I wish he'd
come to me for his alteration,* Washuu thought, taking the folding computer from
atop her luggage and tapping idly at it. *And not just because I want to see
him naked. He was lucky with the Binodi. He might've come out of their clinic
with three eyes and nothing but scars for a chest. I could have done the
procedure when we got back to Earth and my lab, and I wouldn't have charged him
a credit.*
But, again, she knew
why he had done it. Or thought she did. Katsuhito was the kind of man who
could not stand owing someone a debt that he could not repay. There was only
one thing that Washuu wanted of him, and he knew it, but he was obviously not
ready to give her his heart the way his grandson had her daughter. So he had
tried to avoid owing her anything more than he already did. Not that Washuu
counted him in her debt for what she had done in the campground. The fact that
he was willing to let her be a part of his life was more than payment enough for
preserving his continued existence, after
all.
Washuu stretched out on
her bed, feet kicking idly in the air, and went to work on a few neglected
experiments as a means of distracting
herself.
*I wonder if I can
talk Kat into a trip to Dalris to visit Mihoshi. Maybe I can get the astral
scan data out of their records, even if Kiyone won't help
me.*
* *
*
Tenchi took one hand away
from Ryouko's chest, reaching for the table beside the bed where his bag of
personal things sat. The movement disturbed her enough that Ryouko opened her
eyes, looking to see why Tenchi had paused in his entirely enjoyable
ministrations.
*This again,*
she thought, a little irritably. Anything that interrupted foreplay was
something that annoyed
Ryouko.
"Tenchi," she breathed
softly, removing her hand from his. He did not need guidance in finding the
right spots to touch anymore, but she liked holding his hand. "Don't stop,
Tenchi."
"I'm
just--"
Ryouko leaned over and
kissed his throat at the collarbone, running her fingernails lightly down his
chest. "Not tonight,
Tenchi."
"Ryouko," Tenchi
sighed.
She let her fingers
drift lower, making sure he was ready. He was. Ryouko rolled over, straddling
Tenchi's waist, and lowered herself purposefully onto him before leaning down to
whisper in his ear. She knew how much having her hair tickling his face in that
position turned him on, and made use of that knowledge quite freely. "Go ahead,
Tenchi. I'll get off if you want to put on a
condom..."
Ryouko lifted
herself slightly, squeezing his thighs, then let her body's weight settle atop
his. "Hmmm?" She murmured, nipping gently as Tenchi's
neck.
Tenchi made a soft little
noise, halfway between sigh and moan, and Ryouko knew she had him. "But what
if-" he protested weakly, his hand already moving away from the bag on the night
stand.
"We've already done this
twice," Ryouko reminded him, rocking ever so slowly. "Don't you like being
inside me without one of those on, Tenchi? Doesn't it feel-" Ryouko contracted
around him as best she could. It was a skill she had only discovered recently
but which she could tell Tenchi liked,
"-good?"
Tenchi made that noise
again and Ryouko smiled, tossing her head so that her hair would tickle his
face. She felt his hands on her hips and Ryouko knew she would have no more
argument out of Tenchi that night. He liked it without the condoms as much as
she did. More, she thought. But he was nervous about pregnancy.
*Odd,* Ryouko mused, trying to
keep her rhythm slow and leisurely while Tenchi stroked her thighs, *I was the
one that was nervous about that before. I guess that makes sense. If I'm
already pregnant, what's one more time going to hurt? And it Does feel better
this way.* Ryouko lifted, contracted, and pressed back down; a sequence that
never failed to draw a groan from Tenchi. *God, does it feel better this
way...*
She leaned down and
kissed him, venting her own pleased moan when he cupped her breast and thrust
against her gently rocking
hips.
When she felt the
feather-light probing of Tenchi's mind at the edge of hers Ryouko's paused,
startled. She looked down at him, her rocking motion interrupted, and asked,
"Tenchi? Are you- are you
sure?"
"Mmm," Tenchi agreed,
moving one hand around her back to draw Ryouko's body own atop his while
pressing more urgently at the boundaries of her psyche. He could enter without
asking, of course. Not only did he have the power to bowl through whatever
defenses Ryouko erected, she would not stop him if he tried. They had already
shared everything, she no long had anything to hide. *Well, almost
nothing.*
But the last time
they did that while making love the last time... It was sixteen hours before
Ryouko could stand unaided, and nearly twenty for Tenchi. He must have picked
up the edge of her thought, for Tenchi reminded her, "We're staying two extra
days, honey..."
Ryouko was
still slightly hesitant, but Tenchi rolled over on the bed, taking her with him.
Ryouko yelped, startled, but grinned up at her husband when his weight settled
atop her. He re-arranged himself comfortably, leaning on his elbows only
enough that his chest rubbed hers with every breath rather than simply resting
atop it. *I never should have told him his chest hair
tickled...*
Tenchi pressed
against her mind again and Ryouko gave up. She opened herself to him,
simultaneously wrapping her legs around his waist, and whispered, "Be gentle,
Tenchi."
He was. He always
was. And, not much later, when she wanted him to be anything But gentle, he was
that too.
* *
*
"Thank you for dinner Quan,"
Atiena said, not without real gratitude. "Your ship is quite nice. Much larger
than the Corona."
"Isn't it?"
Captain Takima agreed.
*Most
guys wouldn't insult the starship of a woman they're trying to get into bed,"
Atiena thought. *So is he trying to impress me with his honesty, or is he just
a moron?*
"We have boarding
available, if you or your crew would prefer to stay here," Takima offered. "If
we are to have an extended relationship between our two vessels, it only makes
sense that we all be as comfortable as
possible."
*And it would be so
much easier for you to just 'drop by' my room if it were up the hall from yours,
wouldn't it? Or maybe you would just happen to run out of rooms and we captains
would have to bunk
together?*
"I'll ask my
crew."
"Shall I walk you back
to the lock then?" Takima offered, Smiling
Cheerfully.
Atiena suppressed
the urge to roll her eyes and, instead, smiled. "Sure, Quan." Unable to resist
the urge she added in an affectedly uneducated accent, "These Fleet ships are
just so...Big. Why, a girl could just get lost for Days wandering around the
corridors without someone to show her were to
go."
"Quite so," Quan agreed,
seemingly impervious to her sarcasm. "Why, I got lost once myself. Can you
imagine? Lost aboard my own ship. But don't tell any of the crew about
that."
"Oh, of course not,"
Atiena agreed, "I wouldn't want to undermine their confidence in their superior
officer or anything."
Quan cast
a Suspicious Glance at her, then Chuckled Amiably. "How is the work going on
your...lens...thing?"
"The
Hakubi Trans-spatial Diffraction Lens?" Atiena asked, the name rolling easily
off her tongue quite on purpose. "Very well. We should have it ready for the
first smoke test in another
day."
"Smoke
test?"
"Where we turn it on to
see if anything starts smoking," Atiena explained, thinking that using that
particular phrase was probably a bad
idea.
"I assume that that would
be bad?"
"Yes, Quan. Generally
if the project catches fire, you've done something
wrong."
"Interesting," Quan
said, managing by some minor feat to actually sound interested. "All that
technical jargon... I'm afraid I'm simply not an engineer, Atiena. It is a
pleasure having someone so charming to explain these things to me, really. So
often University people are...distasteful. Present company excluded, of
course-"
"Of course," Atiena
agreed, suppressing another eye
roll.
"But having such a witty,
personable young woman to deal with... It makes this difficult situation so
much easier to handle. Why, I can't imagine what would have happened were I to
have to deal with someone like your under-professor Kittan for the duration of
this ordeal-"
"Look, Quan,"
Atiena interrupted, stopping in the hallway. "Are you going to ask me to sleep
with you or not?"
Quan blinked.
"Wh-what? Atiena, I would never- I am an officer in the Royal Fleet of Jurai.
We Do have some standards, you know. I do not simply go about propositioning
young women-"
"I'm probably
older than you are, Quan. You're kind of cute, and I've never been with a Fleet
captain. A Guardian, once, but never Fleet. So if you want to, come out and
say it. I Hate screwing around with dates and innuendo and double-talk. If you
want to have sex, say so. If not, let's cut the bullshit and get to work,
alright?"
"Atiena-"
"Last
chance, Quan. I'm counting to three, then I'm going back to my ship. If you
don't speak up now I'm going to assume you are only interested in a professional
relationship. Face it, Quan. You're Fleet, I'm University. There can never be
anything between us. The last person who tried it was Prof. Hakubi, and it
didn't even work out for Her. You and your boys are out here light-years away
from port and you get a little lonely. I understand. I'm not half bad looking,
I know, so you get a little hot under that pastel collar of yours, right? If
you want to do it, say so. I'm not Totally opposed to the concept, but I'm Not
going to pretend I'm in love with you to do it. No more dinners, no more
half-suggestions. We'll be out here a couple weeks together, maybe we'll have
some fun, then it's over. So either speak up, or shut up, Captain
Takima."
"I
don't-"
Atiena held up a finger
and said threateningly,
"One..."
"It's simply
not-"
"...two..."
"Listen,
Atiena, I am a captain of the Royal Fleet. I cannot
simply-"
"...three. Sorry
Quan, it might've been fun. I've heard Fleet boys have big trees." Atiena
tossed her hair and walked off, leaving Captain Takima staring after her, still
stammering about propriety. She paused at the turning of the passageway and
called back, "I'll have a status report on the Lens for you tomorrow, Captain.
Goodnight."
* *
*
"Guest at the
door."
Sasami looked up at the
door, seeing Aeka on the little monitor beside it. Her sister looked nervous.
*Probably coming to yell at me about Ponua some more,* Sasami thought sadly.
*Guess I deserve it.*
"Open,"
Sasami commanded and the door slid open silently.
"Sasami," Aeka began, "I- I
wanted to--"
"I'm sorry,"
Sasami sighed. "I was wrong, before. You're right about me and Ponua. It was
stupid, and I shouldn't have said- what I said. I already called Mom, she said
she took care of it."
Aeka
blinked, mouth moving silently for a moment. "Sasami- that is... That was very
mature of you."
Sasami shook
her head silently.
"I'm sorry
for how I reacted to your question. You're a grown woman now and I suppose I
should expect questions like
that."
"It's okay. I know how
you feel about that stuff, I shouldn't have
asked."
"No," Aeka insisted,
"if you need my help with something you should have it. I
just-"
"Guest at the door,"
announced the automated voice of the
ship.
Aeka turned to look at
the door. Vianna's head and shoulders were visible on the display beside the
doorway. The woman glared up at the camera as they watched, then glanced up and
down the hallway.
"Open,"
Sasami ordered, thinking that Vianna probably would not just go
away.
"Sasami," Vianna said
even before the door was fully opened, "I need to speak with- Aeka. I did not
know you would be here."
"What
is it Vianna?" Sasami asked
irritably.
"I need to speak
with you," Vianna
explained.
"Not now, Vianna.
I'm talking with Aeka. We were about to order room service, right
Aeka?"
Aeka glanced at her
sister questioningly, then nodded and said, "Yes, Vianna. We were about to have
some dessert sent up. Perhaps you can speak with Sasami
later?"
Vianna narrowed her
eyes slightly but nodded. "Very
well."
"And Vianna," Sasami
added as the woman turned to leave, "do not listen at the
door."
"I would
not-"
"You're a bad liar,
Vianna," Sasami said coldly. "If you Must wait outside my door, do so on the
other side of the hall."
For a
moment Vianna looked as though she were about to growl and Sasami wondered if
she had, perhaps, gone too far.
"Fine," Vianna snapped,
stepped through the doorway and touching it shut behind
her.
"Sasami?" Aeka asked
curiously.
Sasami shook her
head. "Why did Mom have to send
her?"
"You're an adult now,"
Aeka pointed out. "You need protection and for some reason mother chose her
over Guardians."
"I don't need
protection," Sasami argued. "I can protect myself, and there's nobody after me
anyway."
"As a member of the
House Jurai you must-"
Aeka
paused and sighed. "I'm sorry, Sasami. I go on about what you must do a lot,
don't I? Yousho did that when I was your age. He's certainly changed, hasn't
he? And doesn't he look handsome now?" Aeka shook her head, pausing again.
"I'm sorry, Sasami. I am- I'm nervous. But if Vianna is to be with us you
should try to at least get along with
her."
Sasami snorted angrily.
"I don't think that's possible, Aeka. She's so- so full of herself. And she
says she has never had the Lessons. She Must be
lying."
"She said that?" Aeka
asked, looking toward the closed door. "That Is
odd."
Sasami shook herself and
went to the comm screen in the corner of her cabin. "What do you want to order
from room service?"'
"You meant
that?" Aeka asked. "I thought we were just getting rid of
Vianna."
"We were," Sasami
agreed. "But I could use some cake. And we haven't- I guess I haven't really
tried to spend much time with you lately. Everything's just been so confusing
since- since Eto left
me."
"Cake sounds good.
Sasami? Why don't you...tell me about Eto? I'm afraid that besides Yousho
and...Shiko I haven't had any boyfriends. Marriage interviews, but no real
boyfriends. But I'll listen, if you want to
talk."
Sasami bit her lip and
looked down at the floor, trying to decide if it was worth trying. It would be
nice being able to talk to Aeka again. Sasami could not remember the last time
she had been able to ask her sister about anything really
important.
"Okay," Sasami said
a moment later, smiling at her sister. "That'd be
nice."
* *
*
"Mom? Are you in
here?"
Ryouko poked her head
around another cluster of tubes, looking for Washuu. There was a tracking
program for the mammoth, labyrinthine complex that was her laboratory, but it
was hardly precise. Washuu said that she had never bothered to fine tune it
because she did not use it. Whatever it was that she Did use, though, Ryouko
had no idea how to operate. So she knew that her mother was somewhere in the
area, but that could be a mile away or right around the
corner.
"Ryouko?"
She turned, finding the
red-haired, older woman sitting on a floating cushion not ten feet away with a
semi-transparent computer terminal floating before
her.
"There you are," Ryouko
sighed. "I've been wandering around in here for an
hour."
"I'm sorry," Washuu said
sincerely. "I didn't even know you were back. How was
Yall?"
"Great," Ryouko said,
smiling, as she approached her mother. "It was wonderful, and Tenchi had a good
time too. We're going back on our
honeymoon."
"Oh?" Washuu asked
curiously. "I thought it was off to Dalris and
Oon?"
Ryouko nodded. "We're
going to go to all three. Tenchi really wants to see the galaxy, now that he's
had a little taste."
Washuu
chuckled. "The old explorer's bug. I knew he'd get it, once he got off this
dirtball. Tenchi's not the kind of guy to spend his whole life on one
planet."
Ryouko smiled, eyes
looking off into the unseen distance. "We're talking about moving to Jurai, one
day. Tenchi wants to take classes in living architecture at the University
branch there." Ryouko shook her head then, focusing back on her mother. "But
that's not why I'm here, Mom. I- I needed to talk to you about
something."
"Sure," Washuu
replied indulgently, summoning up another cushion for her daughter. "Talk
away."
Ryouko sat down and
stared at her hands, fiddling idly with her fingers in her lap while composing
her thoughts. Washuu waited quietly, knowing this to be one of the times when
Ryouko needed her to be silent. It was a long, difficult process learning the
little cues that told her when her daughter needed a silent companion, when she
needed someone to be talkative and supportive, and when she just wanted a
shoulder to lean on. But it was worth it all for Washuu to see a smile on
Ryouko's face and know that she had helped put it
there.
"Mom... Can you... Is
there any kind of pregnancy test you can use on
me?"
"Of course," Washuu
agreed, stifling an urge to reach for her terminal. "Why, Ryouko? I thought
you and Tenchi were being extra
careful?"
"We- we were. But
I-" Ryouko sighed. "That night when we disappeared back to Earth... We had a
fight. Afterward we- we didn't use anything. I really wanted it, then, and I-
I don't regret it. And since then... Tenchi bought condoms when we got the
sake, but he hasn't opened the box. He's tried, but I stopped
him."
"If it was your decision
and he's okay," Washuu asked, not sure how to respond to this situation, "what's
wrong? You both knew there was a chance you might get pregnant if you did that,
Ryouko. And you were so adamant about not risking it before, if you convinced
Tenchi to have unprotected sex, you must have changed your
mind."
Ryouko nodded. "I- I
did, I guess. Having a baby with Tenchi would be wonderful. I can imagine
playing with it and teaching it and Tenchi and I taking her all over the galaxy
with us... But actually Being pregnant... I'm not ready, Mom. I think I might
be, and I just can't handle
it."
"Does Tenchi
know?"
"No," Ryouko sighed, "I
haven't told him."
"Why
not?"
"Because I'm not sure.
If I Am pregnant then I'll talk to him. I- I can have an abortion, can't I?
That's possible right?"
Washuu
nodded silently and her daughter went on, "But if it's nothing... I don't want
to upset him."
"When did you
have unprotected intercourse?" Washuu asked, pulling her floating terminal
around in front of her.
"The
first time? Or the last
time?"
"Both," Washuu said,
tapping a few keys.
"The first
time was... ten days ago. The last time was about seven hours
ago."
Washuu sighed and closed
her terminal. "Ryouko, I can't help
you."
Ryouko blinked in
confusion and asked, "What? Why not? I thought- you said you could run a test
and tell me..."
"Your body
chemistry isn't like a typical human's Ryouko," Washuu explained, pinching the
bridge of her nose. "Your cellular cycle is way off from what anyone else in
the galaxy would expect to have. There's absolutely no way for me to tell if
you're pregnant except by actually detecting a blastocyst in your womb, and in
your body that will take over a month to form. If you conceived the very first
time, and I don't have to tell you the odds of that, I couldn't tell you about
it for at least another twenty-two
days."
Ryouko sighed,
deflating, and stared at the
floor.
"But Ryouko... Whatever
you're feeling, it's not pregnancy. You might be imagining symptoms out of a
desire to Be pregnant, but there is no way for you to actually be exhibiting
them yet. What sort of things have you
felt?"
Ryouko was silent for a
long few moments, then said, "Weakness, nausea, a little
light-headedness."
"I'm sorry,"
Washuu sighed, "but it can't be symptoms of a real pregnancy, Ryouko. It's just
not possible. I know mothers usually think they can tell before any doctor can
tell them, but your body isn't the same as most women. You won't experience any
of those things until nearly the end of the first
trimester."
"I- I won't? At
all?"
"No," Washuu agreed.
"The fetus will develop more slowly than in a normal woman's body because it
will actually be composed of massu-based cellular structures. Part of your
reproductive system is a sort of massu hot-bed. When one of your eggs is
fertilized, it kicks in and starts pumping out massu raw material to use in
building the baby. If you and Tenchi have a child, she will have all the powers
you do without your gems because she'll have nearly the same physiology you do.
Her genetic pattern will be different since it will include parts of Tenchi's
dna, but she'll be made of massu-cells, not regular cells. But even I couldn't
make massu breed at the rate that regular cells undergo mitosis, so for you a
full-term pregnancy would last twenty
months."
"T-twenty?" Ryouko
asked, her eyes widening as Washuu
talked.
"Yes," the scientist
agreed. "But after the first six I could remove the fetus and place it in an
artificial womb. Then it could either be allowed to develop naturally using
blood drawn from you and some regular nutrients, or I could infuse it with fresh
massu from my holding tank and speed the maturation process to something closer
to a normal child."
"I- I never
thought..."
"You thought you
would get pregnant and have a baby the same as anyone else? I'm sorry, Ryouko.
I tried to make sure you could have the healthiest, most wonderful little baby I
possibly could, and I tried to make the process as close to normal as I could;
but you can't have it both ways. It's really not That different, anyway.
Jurains leave their children in gestation until a physical age of a year and a
half, and there are a number of races within the Empire that have natural
gestation periods ranging into the years rather than
months."
"But you can tell me
in twenty-two days?" Ryouko
asked.
"I
can."
"And- and if I want to
have an abortion... How
long..."
"If the fetus develops
naturally in your body? Nine months. After that I wouldn't risk it. The link
with your biochemistry would be too tight and aborting the fetus would risk
shutting down your cellular respiratory
cycle."
"And if I... If you
took it out?"
"Any time up to
thirteen months. After that the child is capable of sentience and couldn't be
willfully destroyed. That's Jurain law, not mine, but I won't break
it."
"So I have time to
decide?"
Washuu nodded
seriously. "But we don't know if there's a decision to make, Ryouko. Don't
worry about what you'll do if you're pregnant until we know. And talk to
Tenchi. He should know that you think you might be, even if it's impossible to
find out."
"I- I don't want to
worry him, Mom. You know Tenchi, he'll get all hyper about
it."
"He should know," Washuu
insisted. "And you'll feel better if you're not holding it in, won't
you?"
Ryouko sighed. "Yeah, I
guess."
"Good, so you'll talk
to him?"
"I will," Ryouko said,
nodding.
"Mom?"
"Hmm?"
"If-
if I'm not pregnant, could you make me a pill or whatever to turn off my
reproductive system like you said? I mean, that's reversible,
right?"
Washuu nodded. "It
would be, and yes, I can make a pill to do that. But I won't give it to you
until after we know you aren't pregnant. That'll be a month from
now."
"A month? I thought you
said twenty-two
days?"
"Minimum," Washuu
agreed. "But if you were impregnated on any occasion after the first it will
not show up on a test for thirty-two days from the moment of ejaculation. If
you had intercourse seven hours ago, it will be over a month until we know if
that one took."
"Why can't I
have the pill now, while we
wait?"
"If you took it now it
would be equivalent to an abortion, Ryouko. Your reproductive system would shut
down and the developing blastocyst would be re-absorbed into your body. If you
decide that you don't want to continue the pregnancy, if you Are pregnant, then
that's one thing and I'll support you. No baby should be born if her parents
are not one hundred percent sure they want her, that's just common sense. But I
won't let you abort before you even know if there's something To abort. That
wouldn't be fair to you. How would you feel if you took the pill right now, and
never knew if you were pregnant at
all?"
"Pretty bad," Ryouko
sighed. "I'd always wonder what she would have been like, if she
existed."
"You want a little
girl, don't you?" Washuu asked, voice softening from her professional tone back
to that of a mother and
confidant.
"Yeah," Ryouko
agreed quietly. "I want to have a daughter. She'd be just like
Sasami."
Washuu smiled gently
and touched her daughter's hand. "I'm sure she
would."
"But not yet," Ryouko
said, voice still soft. "I'm not ready yet. I can think about it now, but I- I
couldn't handle it, Mom. One day I'll be able to, but not
yet."
Washuu nodded. "If
you're not ready, you're not ready. Nobody can tell you when is the right time
except you, Ryouko. But talk to Tenchi. If he's ready and you're not, he
should know that. Before it's time to decide what to do about an
abortion."
Ryouko nodded.
"You're right, Mom. I'll talk to him tonight. But I don't think he's ready
either. He said he wasn't, and he's been nervous about getting my pregnant
every time. Is there- is there Anything you can give me right now? That won't
hurt the- the baby? If there is one, I
mean?"
"Something?" Washuu
asked. "For what?"
"For- for
me and Tenchi."
"I thought you
said he bought condoms?"
"He
did," Ryouko agreed,
"but--"
"You don't want to go
back to using them," Washuu finished, fighting a grin. "It doesn't feel the
same, does it?"
"No," Ryouko
agreed, blushing. "It's--"
"I
know," Washuu sighed, releasing a soft chuckle that she did not think would
upset her daughter. "When- when my first husband and I were still together...
He was stationed on a world like Earth; undercover work for the Fleet and the GP
together when they were trying to bust some kind of smugglers. We were talking
about having children, so I'd gone from the injection to regular pills. The
assignment ran longer than I thought and I was out of contraceptive medicine
with no way to get any more. So we had to use the local stuff." Washuu
chuckled again and patted Ryouko's hand. "It's almost not worth it, if you have
to use those things."
"Almost,"
Ryouko agreed, grinning slightly through the flush coloring her
cheeks.
"I'll put something
together for you," Washuu promised. "Think you can abstain for a day or two?
Or not... It's up to you."
"I
think we can," Ryouko said, smiling softly. "Thanks
Mom."
"Any time,
honey."
Ryouko hugged her
mother tightly, then sat back and squeezed her eyes shut while summoning up one
of the little floating terminals for herself. She ordered hot tea and sipped
delicately when it arrived from
subspace.
"So tell me about
Yall," Washuu requested, tapping away at her terminal. "I haven't been there
in... Come to think of it, I've never been there. I saw the falls in
simulation, though."
"It's
beautiful," Ryouko sighed. She reached into the pocket of her blouse and took
out a print of the photo she and Tenchi had had taken with his disposable
camera. "This was at the falls. You should go some time, Mom. Maybe take
Grandpa."
"He's Grandpa now?"
Washuu asked, taking the photograph and smiling at it. Her daughter was happier
much more often in the past year than she had been before, but moments of such
clear elation as that caught in the image were still rare enough to be
special.
Ryouko blushed and
nodded. "Tenchi's my husband now, so Katsuhito is my grandfather. I always
thought it was kind of silly, calling him that before, but it feels right now.
I think- I think I'd like to get to know him. I've been kind of distant with
him...all the time, I
guess."
"Understandable,"
Washuu said, returning the picture and going back to her keys. "He Did lock you
up."
"It was for my own good,
though," Ryouko said absently, looking down at the picture in her hands. "I
think I can forgive him for it, now that Tenchi and I are together for good.
And if you two--"
"What would
you call him then?" Washuu asked
curiously.
"I don't know...
Probably Grandpa. Tenchi was my husband
first."
Washuu chuckled.
"That'd make me Tenchi's grandmother and his mother, and you would be his aunt,
wife, and sister. We'd be like real Jurains." She winked and Ryouko laughed
softly.
"I'll have to have a
boy and a girl so we can have them get married. I've never understood how they
could do that. Wouldn't it be weird, making love with someone you grew up with
like that?"
Washuu shrugged.
"I'm not Jurain, Ryouko. Ask Aeka, if you really want to know, but I don't
think it's too weird for them. It's normal in their society, so children aren't
raised the way they are on Earth or on most worlds. When they grow up, they're
not taught that their siblings are taboo for relationships, so they see them as
sexual beings as much as anyone else. You know there have been a number of
instances of tri or quad marriages where a couple's child joined the
union?"
"Really?" Ryouko asked,
stunned.
"Mmm," Washuu agreed.
"Not at a young age, of course. The only ones I've heard of, the 'child' was
well over a thousand in every case. I suppose that by then a man can look at
his mother and see her as a beautiful woman without thinking of his
childhood."
Ryouko shuddered
slightly and shook her head. "I guess I've been around Tenchi too long, Mom. I
just can't imagine that. Siblings... I can understand that, I guess. The taboo
here on Earth seems to all be based around genetics, after all. But parents and
children? That's
just..."
"Sick?" Washuu asked
curiously. "Don't be closed-minded, Ryouko. Just because it isn't what you're
used to doesn't make it
wrong."
"I'll try... But you'd
better not try to get Tenchi to agree to make a quad with me, you, him, and
Grandpa."
Washuu laughed.
"Don't worry, I want Kat all to myself. Besides, Tenchi would never go for it.
I don't think he could even have handled a tri with you and
Aeka."
"Neither could I,"
Ryouko sighed. "I feel bad for Aeka, Mom. I mean, I can't wish she had gotten
Tenchi instead... But I wish she had
somebody."
"Could invite her to
join you two," Washuu pointed out. "You'd get used to it
eventually."
"I don't think
so," Ryouko said doubtfully. "Aeka's not so bad once you get to know her...
But I couldn't do that. Tenchi would never go for it, I think he's the only
human male who's never fantasized about having two women at
once."
"He hasn't?" Washuu
asked. "He's probably lying, you know. Most men won't admit to it and I've
never met one who didn't want to try
it."
"Nope," Ryouko said with a
hint of pride. "He doesn't. I
know."
"If you say
so."
"But even if he did... I
couldn't, Mom. I'm just not- I couldn't even make love with a man who wasn't
Tenchi, much less with a woman. Especially Aeka. She's a friend, but
I--"
"It's okay, Ryouko, you
don't have to explain yourself to me. I wasn't serious anyway. Aeka will find
someone eventually, but Jurains can mourn for a long time when they want to.
Tenchi may not be dead, but she'll be mourning her chances with him for a while,
I think."
Ryouko nodded. "I
wish there were some way to cheer her up. She's doing better now, but she's
still not the same old
Aeka."
"I don't think she ever
will be," Washuu said gently. "She's been through a lot, Ryouko. People change
when they have experiences like Aeka has. She'll be full of life as she ever
was eventually, but I don't think she'll ever be the same woman she used to
be."
"That's sad," Ryouko
sighed.
"Not really. Change
isn't always bad, Ryouko. You've changed for the better, haven't you? Anyone
looking at you now two years ago wouldn't believe you were the same person.
Aeka is different and will probably keep changing before she's done... But it
doesn't have to be bad."
Ryouko
nodded thoughtfully, then rose from her floating cushion. "I'm going to go find
Tenchi and talk to him. Then I think I might see if Aeka wants to go into town
for lunch. I haven't done anything with her in a
while."
"Have fun," Washuu said
with a smile, patting her daughter's
hip.
"Me too," Washuu said,
agreeing with Ryouko's confused
sentiment.
* *
*
"Tenchi, I think I'm
pregnant."
Ryouko shook her
head, that was no good at
all.
"Tenchi?" She tried again,
looking at herself in the mirror while she spoke, "I think I might be
pregnant."
*No, too
indecisive."
"Tenchi," Ryouko
said firmly, "I'm
pregnant."
*Too decisive. I'm
not even sure yet.*
"Tenchi,
honey? You know how you we had sex without a condom?
Well--"
*Ugh, definitely
not.*
"Tenchi! You'll never
believe... It's so wonderful... I might
be...pregnant!"
*Yeach, too...
Mihoshi.*
"Tenchi, my love? I
think- I think I may be having your
child."
*Too
Aeka.*
"Tenchi? Your sperm may
have fertilized-"
*Ick, Way too
Mom.*
"Well big boy, looks like
you might've knocked me
up."
*Too
old-me.*
"If it's a girl, we
should name her-"
Ryouko shook
her head, this was not going well at all. She had intended to have a whole
speech ready for Tenchi when she went to talk to him but could not even get past
the first line.
"Tenchi?"
Ryouko tried one last time, "I think I might
be-"
The door slid open and
Tenchi entered, interrupting Ryouko's
rehearsal.
"Oh, hi honey. You
think you might be
what?"
Ryouko gaped at Tenchi
as he crossed the bedroom and poked around in his closet for a moment before
removing his gi. He pulled off his shirt and turned to look at her, unbuttoning
his pants. "Well?"
"Tenchi,
I-"
Ryouko took a deep
breath, then pushed on in one quick burst of words, "Tenchi, I think I might be
pregnant."
Tenchi's hands froze
on his zipper and he stared at her, unmoving, for what seemed a very, very long
time to Ryouko.
"Did- did you
hear me?" She asked nervously. "I- I think I'm pregnant, Tenchi. I might be
having your
baby."
"B-b-b--"
"Baby,"
Ryouko agreed to Tenchi's stammer. "But I'm not sure. Mom says we won't know
for twenty-two to thirty-two days because of my body
chemistry."
"P-p-pre--"
"Pregnant,"
Ryouko finished. "But I'm not
sure."
"But I," Tenchi
protested, making incoherent motions with his hands, "We- When
I--"
"Tenchi, honey?" Ryouko
asked worriedly, crossing the room to stand in front of him. "I'm sorry I made
you not wear a condom. I- I didn't think... And
now-"
"I didn't know- You
said- Pregnant?"
Ryouko
nodded. "We had sex without using anything. That's the leading cause of
pregnancy, last time I
checked."
"Ryouko," Tenchi
gasped, "how- how can you joke about
this?"
"I'm sorry," Ryouko
sighed. "I'm just- I'm so nervous, Tenchi. I knew I shouldn't tell you until I
knew for sure. Now you're going to get all worried and you're mad at me for
making you-"
"Honey?" Tenchi
interrupted, putting one hand on Ryouko's shoulder and tilting her chin up with
the other. "I'm not
mad."
"Promise?" Ryouko asked,
looking at him
searchingly.
"Promise," Tenchi
agreed. "I knew this could happen when I- I was just...startled. That's all.
You said we'll know in a
month?"
Ryouko nodded.
"Thirty-two days from the last time we made
love."
"And if- if you
are--"
"I can have an
abortion," Ryouko agreed to her husband's unspoken question. "If we- if we want
to, I mean. Mom says she can make me a
pill."
Tenchi shook his head
and sat down on their bed. "Ryouko, I- I'm sorry. This is just
so--"
"I know," Ryouko agreed,
sitting beside him. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, honey. I wasn't sure,
and I- until Yall I didn't even really suspect. I thought it was just Jurain
food disagreeing with me or something. But Mom says that I can't possibly be
feeling pregnant yet, so that's just my
imagination."
"So- you don't
really have any reason to
suspect?"
"No," Ryouko sighed.
"I'm so sorry, Tenchi. I guess- I guess now that I'm starting to think maybe
having a baby would be okay... I just sort of wished it could happen right
away."
"Do you- do you want it
to? I mean, if you're pregnant, do you want to keep
it?"
Ryouko sighed and looked
down at the floor. "What do you want, Tenchi? Do you want me to keep it, if
I'm pregnant?"
"I- Ryouko,
I--"
"You
don't."
"No, it's not
that," Tenchi protested. "I just- I'm not ready to be a father yet, honey. I
mean, we're still in school. I guess with the money from Aeka it doesn't matter
if I ever get a job... But I-" Tenchi sighed. "It's selfish, I know, but you
know how important school is to me. I don't want to just drop out, and I'd have
to to help you while you're pregnant and then to help take care of the baby.
But if you're really pregnant and you want to keep her- we can. I don't have to
go to school, or I can wait until she's old enough or something. I- I don't
really Feel ready, but if you do I think I can
be."
"She?" Ryouko asked
curiously.
"Yeah," Tenchi
agreed, smiling and rubbing his neck in embarrassment. "I- I guess I'd like to
have a little girl."
"I'm not
ready," Ryouko said, staring into his eyes. "I'm sorry, Tenchi. If I'm
pregnant, I can't keep it. I just can't handle this yet, honey. I'm ready to
be your wife and to be a human for you- but I'm not ready to be a mother yet.
I'd be pregnant for twenty months, Tenchi. I don't want to drop out of school
either, and I'd have to if I was pregnant for two
years."
Tenchi took her hands
gently and smiled supportively. "It's okay, Ryouko. If you're pregnant- it's
not our daughter. Our daughter will be born when we're both ready and we can
give her a good home. It's just- just some cells, right? You can take the pill
and we'll just forget this
happened."
Ryouko nodded,
trying to feel the way she thought she should. "I- I guess
so."
Tenchi sighed. "You don't
want to have an abortion, do
you?"
"I- Tenchi- I can't give
up your baby, Tenchi. Even if I'm not ready. She's Your baby. Yours and mine.
We made love and made her. I can't
just--"
Tenchi tilted her chin
up again and kissed her once, lightly. "We'll make it work, honey.
Somehow."
Ryouko looked down
again, touching her stomach. "I'm probably not pregnant anyway," she sighed.
"I'm probably just worrying us both over
nothing."
Tenchi placed his
hand over Ryouko's and kissed her again. "If you're worried, I want to be
worried too. But let's not worry about it until we know,
okay?"
Ryouko nodded. "I'll
try. But, Tenchi... If I- if I'm pregnant for real... If I don't have an
abortion, what will you
do?"
"What do you
mean?"
"You- you said you're
not ready to be a father yet. If I have our baby, will
you--"
"I'll love her," Tenchi
promised. "How could I ever not love her? I love you. Even if I'm not totally
ready, of Course I'm going to love our little girl. I'll spoil her rotten and
teach her to be a little tomboy, and then when she starts dating I'll worry
myself sick and hate every guy she brings
home."
Ryouko laughed softly
and squeezed Tenchi's hands. "You're too
wonderful."
"No I'm not,"
Tenchi demurred.
"Yes you are,"
Ryouko insisted. "That's why I love you so much, you wonderful, wonderful man.
I- don't hate me for it, Tenchi, but I hope I'm not pregnant. When we have our
baby I want us both to be a hundred percent ready, like Mom said we should be.
And I- I'm just not, honey. But if I'm pregnant, I'll have her and love her and
I Know we'll make it work because she'll have such a great
dad."
"I don't hate you,"
Tenchi promised. "I feel exactly the same way, Ryouko. And she'll have a great
mom, too. Though she'll probably say she hates you when she's a
teenager."
"She will?" Ryouko
asked curiously.
Tenchi nodded
sagely. "Every boy she brings home will want her
mother."
Ryouko blushed and
smacked Tenchi lightly on the shoulder. "Tenchi! Besides, I won't be any
competition for our daughter. She'll be
beautiful."
"Of course she
will," Tenchi agreed
gently.
"She'll be just like
Sasami," Ryouko sighed, gently stroking Tenchi's hands and looking down at her
lap.
"You really love her,
don't you?"
"Don't you?" Ryouko
asked curiously, looking up at her
husband.
"Yeah," Tenchi sighed.
"Yeah, I guess I do. And you're right. Our little girl will be just like her.
Maybe not quite as pretty,
though."
"Tenchi!" Ryouko
gasped, touching her stomach. "Don't talk about our little girl that
way!"
He laughed. "I'm only
saying... I don't want her attracting boys the way Sammy does. And my daughter
isn't wearing those sorts of clothes, either. Have you seen that little plaid
skirt she has? You can see her panties, I swear you
can."
"You Would look," Ryouko
baited. "And our daughter will be every bit as pretty as Sammy, and wear
whatever she wants to. And I'll have you know that she borrowed that skirt from
Me."
"She did?" Tenchi asked,
looking at Ryouko in wonder. "I've never seen you in
it."
"I got it a long time
ago," Ryouko explained. "Back when you were still in highscool. I got a whole
school uniform. I was going to come up and offer to help you study, but Aeka
caught me. We got in a fight and she told me if I did it she'd take pictures of
me and give them to your
dad."
Tenchi chuckled. "I'm
glad those days are over."
"Me
too," Ryouko said with feeling, remembering Tenchi in the bathtub, razor against
his wrist. "I'm sorry for what we put you
through."
Tenchi shook his
head. "It's alright. That's all over now, and I've got
you."
Ryouko smiled and hugged
Tenchi hard. "I love you," she whispered, kissing his
ear.
"Love you too," Tenchi
returned, squeezing her once before releasing and going to retrieve his gi from
the floor where it had
fallen.
"Going to go exercise?"
Ryouko asked, watching her husband strip to his underwear and begin pulling on
the uniform.
"Yeah," Tenchi
agreed. "I haven't in a week, Grandpa would say I'm slacking off. Maybe I'll
go up to the shrine and see if he's up for
sparring."
"Katsuhito? Is he
ever not?"
Tenchi chuckled.
"Yeah, but he's got your mom now. He'll probably be busy more
often."
"You could stay here
and...exercise...with me," Ryouko offered, running a finger seductively down the
center of her blouse.
"Now how
can I possibly turn that down?" Tenchi asked, walking to Ryouko's side and
leaning down for a kiss.
When
their lips parted Ryouko sighed. "I'm sorry Tenchi, I forgot. We- we can't
right now."
Tenchi frowned.
"Why not? I mean, if you don't want
to-"
"It's not that," Ryouko
said quickly, "I do, it's just... I don't want to use condoms anymore and Mom
said it'll be a couple of days until she can make us something
else."
"Are they really That
bad?" Tenchi asked. "I mean, I know how it feels for me, but I didn't think it
made that much of a difference for you."
Ryouko nodded and grinned up
at him. "I knew I couldn't go back after the first
time."
Tenchi blushed but
kissed her again anyway. "Alright, so no sex for a couple of days." He grinned
and added, "It'll be hard, but I Think we can do
it."
"In a couple of days?"
Ryouko asked innocently. "I certainly Hope it's hard... We waited a whole
week, now after waiting
Again-"
"Ryouko," Tenchi
chuckled, "that's not what I
meant."
"I know," Ryouko
agreed, rising to her feet. "Go play with Grandpa, Tenchi. I think I'm going
to go see if Aeka wants to go into town for lunch. You don't need the car for
anything, do you?"
"Don't think
so," Tenchi agreed. "You girls have
fun."
Ryouko nodded. "I hope
we will. I worry about Aeka
sometimes."
"Me too," Tenchi
agreed. "But I just saw her downstairs. She was playing some Jurain card game
with Sasami and looked about as happy as I remember ever seeing
her."
"Really? That's great.
She hasn't spent much time with Sammy since she went to Jurai, I was afraid she
was upset with how I'd let her
act."
"They looked like they
were getting along to me.
"Alright, I'm going to get
going or by the time I get up the hill we won't have time to spar before
lunch."
Ryouko nodded and
kissed him goodbye. Tenchi gave her a parting squeeze and smiled before walking
out the door.
* *
*
"Tenchi! Just the man I was
hoping to see."
"Hey Dad,"
Tenchi called in greeting, pausing in his jog up the shrine stairs. "What're
you doing up here?"
"I was just
up on the hill," Nobuyuki explained. That was, Tenchi knew, his way of
referring to Achika's grave. He never called it that, he said it made it sound
like she was really there instead of just her body. "I wanted to tell your
mother the good news."
"Good
news?" Tenchi asked.
"About
your wedding!" Nobuyuki beamed and gripped his son in a one-armed hug. "I'm so
proud of you Tenchi! I knew you'd settle down and pick a girl one day. My son,
a married man! Your mother would be so
happy."
Tenchi smiled and
hugged his father back. Not so long ago, he reflected, he would have been
embarrassed by his father's display of affection. "Thanks
Dad."
"So when are you going to
make me a grandfather Tenchi?" Nobuyuki asked. "Will your children have blue
hair like Ryouko? That would be interesting. Just think how cute they'll
be!"
Tenchi smiled weakly. "I
don't know Dad. We're not- we're not really ready yet. Ryouko and I want to
finish school first before we think about a family." Tenchi thought it would be
best to keep Ryouko's news between them until they new for sure one way or
another.
"Of course," Nobuyuki
agreed, sobering. "Your mother and I felt the same way, Tenchi. You know we
were married while we were in college too. I wanted her to have a fine house to
raise our son in. We knew we would have a boy, you know. We both wanted a
son." Nobuyuki sighed. "We were going to have a little girl next. But Achika-
your mother got sick
and--"
Tenchi nodded. His
mother was diagnosed with cancer only a year after he was born. There was
something that had been nagging at his subconscious for years, but he had never
dared ask. "Dad? Did- did Mom know? About Jurai, I
mean?"
Nobuyuki nodded
silently, eyes staring off into the middle distance. "She knew. Your
grandfather taught her about it when she was young. He thought she would go
back to Jurai one day."
"Then-
why didn't she, Dad? After Tokimi's slave attacked me and Ai put me back
together, they said I had severe internal bleeding but they fixed it in minutes.
Couldn't they have gotten rid of Mom's
cancer?"
"No," Nobuyuki sighed.
"We- we thought that too. When you were three we decided to go to Jurai. Your
mother didn't think that Dad would like the idea, so we contacted the Fleet
through Funaho late at night. They sent a Jurain doctor right to our house the
next week. He said that the Empress Funaho sent her greetings and that she felt
it would be best if the initial diagnosis was made on Earth. I guess it would
have caused a lot of political unrest if we went there and everyone suddenly
found out that their Lord Yousho not only wasn't dead, he had a daughter who was
married to an Earth man."
"So-
what happened?" Tenchi asked
curiously.
Nobuyuki sighed and
shook his head sadly. "Jurains don't have cancer, Tenchi. Their biology...
It's different somehow. The doctor said that things like that had been defeated
on Jurai hundreds of thousands of years ago and defenses were built into every
Jurain's body. But your mother- she was the daughter of a half-Jurain and an
Earthling. Her defenses weren't quite good enough, I guess. The doctor gave
her some medicine for her pain and some more to slow the growth of the cancer,
but he didn't know how to fix
it."
"Couldn't they find out?"
Tenchi asked. "Or take her back and let the trees heal her, like they did for
me?"
"I don't know, Tenchi,"
Nobuyuki sighed. "The doctor- he was nice, but I don't think he liked Achika.
Most Jurains still don't like us. Us Earthlings, I mean. They don't like
Funaho being on the throne, but they can't say anything about it. Maybe there
was something they could have done and they just didn't try hard enough. Maybe
there really was nothing they could do. I don't know. But that was all a long
time ago, Tenchi. It's over and done and wishing it hadn't happened won't make
it better."
*Wow,* Tenchi
thought, staring at his father, *I've never heard him talk this way before.
Usually he almost pretends Mom is still alive, or won't talk about how she died.
He's never seemed so...accepting
before.*
"There's something
your mother and I want you to have," Nobuyuki said, reaching into his pocket.
He chuckled. "Well, I want you to have it, and I think she would. I guess it's
kind of selfish of me, really."
Tenchi took the little ring
box from his father and looked between it and him curiously. "What is it,
Dad?"
"Open it," Nobuyuki
instructed, gesturing at the
box.
Tenchi opened it as
instructed, frowning in puzzlement at the tiny wooden plaque inside. "What-
what is it?"
"It's a Jurain
totem," Nobuyuki explained. "They- I don't know how much you know about how
they worship Tsunami..."
"Not
much," Tenchi said, looking down at the little carving of a tree. "Just that
they do, really."
"They don't
have many symbols of their faith," Nobuyuki explained. "No shrines or anything.
Just the trees themselves, and a very few of those little carvings. That one
was your grandfather's, and he got it from Misaki. Back before she married the
Emperor she was a- not a priest, exactly. They call them 'followers.' They
just sort of go around doing normal things and wear special symbols to tell
people they're Followers. Then, when someone needs a ceremony or a blessing or
whatever, they find a Follower. Those plaques are only given to very important
Followers, usually ones who can't wear their symbols on the outside. Your
grandfather gave it to your mother, and she gave it to me. When she was dying,
she gave me a little branch from Funaho and a lock of her hair, saying that I
should take it to the Inner Chamber on Jurai if I ever somehow managed to get
there, and that the totem would get me
in."
"Why?" Tenchi asked,
touching the tiny plaque with a finger. It was loose in the box, like there was
space underneath.
"Jurains
don't have an afterlife," Nobuyuki explained. "They believe in something called
'conjoinment' instead. When they die, they say that their spirits join their
trees and exist inside the Network. But if they're too far away from the
Network when they die, their spirits get lost and need help to get back. The
hair was supposed to be a link to her spirit and the branch was- like a power
source, I guess. To keep the link
strong."
Tenchi lifted the
little plaque and found a tiny branch, one green leaf still attached, with a
lock of brown hair tied around it. He looked up at his father
curiously.
"I won't be here
forever, Tenchi," Nobuyuki explained, smiling gently. "I'm only human and one
day I'll die. When I do- I want you to take that to the Inner Chamber for me.
If you will, I mean. There's a tree named Anomi that's... I'm not sure how to
explain. She's like your great-great-grandmother. She was Azusa's mother's
tree, and somehow she's linked to him more strongly than most Jurains are with
their trees. Your mother tried to explain it, but I didn't understand. Take
that to her and remind her who I am. She promised I could be with Achika when I
was gone."
Tenchi touched the
lock of hair, his vision blurring and a knot building in his throat at the
emotion in his father's voice. "I will Dad," he
promised.
Nobuyuki nodded, then
sniffed and wiped his eyes. "So," he asked, "where are you off
to?"
"I'm going up to see
Grandpa," Tenchi explained, fumbling with the box after realizing his gi had no
pockets. "I haven't worked out in a while, so I was going to go up and see if
he wanted to help me
practice."
"I'd come up there
with you, but you
know--"
"Yeah," Tenchi agreed,
"your hip." His father had been nursing a hip injury for most of a decade
whenever the opportunity for a bit of exercise arose.
"Say, why don't we go into
town tonight? Me, you, and Dad can have a few drinks and toast your
marriage."
Tenchi shifted
uncomfortably. "Dad, you know I don't like
drinking."
"You brought sake to
dinner," Nobuyuki pointed
out.
"Yeah,
but-"
"No buts Tenchi. Tell
Dad we're going out tonight. Nine
o'clock."
Tenchi sighed.
"Alright, Dad."
* *
*
Natsuri opened the front
door, juggling his briefcase and the package he had found sticking out of the
mailbox in his other hand.
"I'm home," he announced in a
half-exhausted shout. After setting down his briefcase, Natsuri did his best to
simultaneously study the package and remove the jacket of his pen-striped, navy
blue suit. His wife Mishio appeared, bustling through the door leading into the
hallway and toweling soapy water from her
hands.
"Welcome home," she said
pleasantly, helping him off with his jacket. "I was just out in the garden.
What's that? Oh, from Mataeo?" Mishio snagged the package out of her husband's
hands and began prying at the
tape.
"That is not the address
he gave us," Natsuri pointed out, gesturing at the return address on the
package.
"Oh, don't worry about
it dear. Do you think someone else is sending us mail with his name on it? He
probably got another mailbox or something. Here, look, there's a letter."
Mishio opened the folded paper with a flick of her wrist, still holding the rest
of the package in her other hand. She scanned the text, her eyes widening as
she went.
"Oh-
oh--"
"What is it?" Natsuri
asked. "Did he fail a class? I told him to study
harder-"
"N-no," Mishio said,
shaking her head and looking up at him. "He- he and Ai... They're getting
married! Isn't that wonderful, dear? Oh, our little boy is all grown
up-"
"Married?" Natsuri asked,
startled. "But- I have not spoken with her father. Do the Fujiharas know?
When are they planning to be married? He did not ask our
permission..."
"Oh, don't be
such a grouch," Mishio scolded, smiling down at the letter. "I can't believe my
little Mataeo is getting married... Oh, I can't Wait to tell the girls about
this. They'll all be so
jealous."
"What else did he
send?" Natsuri asked, taking the package from his wife's hand. He extracted a
pair of brightly colored boxes and a photograph from the thick envelope and
peered at them curiously.
"Who
are these people?" Natsuri asked, looking at the photograph. In the center
stood Mataeo with his arm around Ai's shoulders, but flanking them were a pretty
young woman with teal hair and an older man with a mustache, glasses, and a
somewhat absurd grin on his face. In the background was something that looked
like the base of a statue or monument of some sort, weathered and crawling with
vines. Off on the left, barely in frame, stood two men in odd uniforms holding
some sort of staves.
"Well,
look on the back, dear," Mishio suggested, lifting the corner of the picture.
"Here, see."
Natsuri flipped
the photo over and read the
back.
Mom and
Dad, Ai and I spent the week on
holiday with Tenchi and his family.
This is us with his father (on the
right) Nobuyuki, his cousin Sasami
(on the left), and some friends of
hers. Remind me to tell you about
the trip sometime, you won't
believe a word of it. Hope you
like the
souvenirs. Love, Mataeo
"Oh,
look at these dear," Mishio was saying. She had opened the box with 'Mom'
written across the front and extracted a pair of chopsticks. They were wood,
though Natsuri did not recognize the grain. It was dark grey with streaks of
red and black throughout. The wide end of each stick was ringed with three
lines of gold and an odd little design repeated on each of the four flat faces.
They tapered down toward the point, smooth but for a little half-twist
three-fourths of the way down the
length.
"Very nice," Natsuri
agreed, looking at his own pair. They were similar, though with silver bands
and a different pattern. "I wonder where they
went."
Mishio was no longer
paying attention to her husband. Chopsticks clutched in one hand and letter in
the other she was headed for the phone, a broad smile on her face and a happy
light in her eyes. "My little Mataeo, all grown up and getting
married..."
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