Tenchi-Muyo! (No Need For Tenchi!; This End Up) is (c) AIC * Pioneer LDC, Inc.
Aa! Megami-sama! (Oh My Goddess!) is (c) by Kousuke Fujishima, Kodansha, TBS and
KSS Films.


Aa! Megami-sama Muyo! (Ah! No Need For My Goddess!)
A Tenchi-Muyo! and Aa! Megami-sama! crossover fan fiction
By Luna Hinomura
http://fly.to/Luna's

Chapter 3: Demon Caller

"Tenchi, you said we could go and see the cave today!" Washu complained
from my doorway.

Rolling over in bed, I covered my ears with a pillow. Apparently, she'd
never learned the meaning of 'sleeping late'. I think I mumbled something, but
I was too tired to remember what it was. Jeez, at least Tsunami let me sleep
when I wanted to. I wondered what would happen if their "Almighty" or whatever
sister Tokimi came to my house. It'd be just too much. I had a horrible time
last night explaining that Washu was Tsunami's sister, and trying to tell Dad
that Washu didn't appreciate him hitting on her. My grandpa didn't seem to be
too surprised to see a newcomer, though. In fact, he almost seemed to recognize
her.

"TENCHI!" Washu screamed through a megaphone right into my ear.

"AaaaaaAAH!" I said, promptly falling out of my bed. I put my hand
against my temple, my ears ringing and my heart pounding. I could even feel my
pulse through a vein on my forehead. It felt like it was about to burst.

"Washu... Please don't ever do that again..."

"You *did* promise."

"Not this early! It's the weekend! I'm tired from working in the fields,
not to mention all the chaos that's happened since you came here. Even Tsunami
wasn't that bad. And by the way, that's not a pun."

"Chaos, hm? Well, it's true, even if it isn't a pun," Washu said,
smiling. But her grin disappeared suddenly, and she looked very serious.
"Tenchi, I really want to see the cave, and I'd like to go as soon as possible,
ok?"

"All right," I sighed, standing up, "but let me eat breakfast first.
Tsunami probably made something for us. And why are you still in your 12-year-
old form?"

"Didn't Tsunami tell you how much energy it takes to change between the
two forms, child and adult?"

"Yeah, I think she said something about that, but you Goddesses have a lot
of power, right?"

"We may have a lot of power, but casting spells takes a lot of power too.
The only reason I can change to a 12-year-old at all is because for me, this is
the age that is easiest to transfer back and forth to and from. The same goes
for Tsunami to Sasami."

"Why does Tsunami call her younger self Sasami? Do you have a form you
want me to call your younger self?"

"I already told you!" Washu exclaimed as she hopped down the stairs.

"Huh?"

"Just call me Little Washu!" She laughed. "Anyway, Tsunami likes the
name 'Sasami.' It was a nickname Lady Tokimi gave her. Little Tsunami doesn't
sound as cute as Little Washu, now, does it!" She said it more like she was
stating a fact than asking a question.

"Oh." By this time, we'd reached the dining room, and Sasami was sitting
at the table holding a pair of chopsticks. Her eyes lit up when she saw me
coming in. Well, even if her pink eyes were strange by human standards, there
was beauty and kindness within them. The Goddess of Kindness, and the Goddess
of Chaos... Almost complete opposites. I wondered about their parents. After
all, they looked nothing alike, so why did they call each other 'sister'?

"Good morning, Tenchi! I made you breakfast. Your father and
grandfather have already eaten," she said, getting up.

"No, that's ok, Sasami, don't get up. Thanks for breakfast! This is
great!" I said, sitting down.

"You're quite the chef, Sasami-chan," Washu said.

"Thank you, Sister Washu. Oh, Tenchi, you don't have to bother with the
dishes, I can handle it," she said, then turned to her sister. "While I'm
washing the dishes, Tenchi can show you the cave."

"Have you seen it?"

"Yeah, I walked by there once. There's nothing interesting there."

"If you say so," Washu said, looking out the glass door to the lake by our
house.

"Miss Washu?" I asked.

"Hm?"

"I don't want to seem presumptuous, but you appear to be preoccupied. Is
something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing, Tenchi," she said, her gaze returning to her plate.
She began to eat.

[If you say so], I thought, echoing Washu's words.

* * * * *

"Well, well, well, Washu. Fancy meeting you here," Grandpa said as we
walked up the steps to the Masaki shrine. Grandpa was standing at the top of
the stairs, sweeping fallen leaves. It was getting really close to autumn, and
some leaves were coming down.

"Yes, Mr. Masaki, Tenchi and are going to see the cave next to the Masaki
shrine," Washu replied.

"Is that so? Well, let me just warn you, don't go into it."

"Grandpa, why can't we just look around and see the Demon?" I asked.

"You can go up to the gate, but you must stop there. The Demon is
dangerous. I've told you time and time again, you don't want to go in."

"But why, Grandpa?"

"Tenchi, don't argue with your elders," Grandpa said, finished with his
sweeping. "You can look through the gate, but don't try to open it. Come back
when you're finished, and we'll practice your swordplay routines." He headed
back to the shrine.

"It's ok, Tenchi, I don't mind just looking through the gate."

"I've always wanted to see the sword, but I'm scared of seeing the Demon.
As long as no one breaks the seal on the cave, the Demon will sleep there until
the end of time," I said, gazing at the cave.

"Let's go, then," Washu said, pulling me (more like dragging, actually)
towards it. She brought me all the way up to the rusty gate. I took one look
at the padlocks and chains around it, and knew there was no way we could get
through it.

"See? There's no way to get into the cave. I've tried. Believe me, I've
tried."

"I guess you're right..." she said softly, just an edge of disappointment
in her voice.

"I'm sorry I got you so excited about this cave. It's bothered me ever
since I was little."

"Tenchi!" I heard my grandpa call. "Are you finished yet?"

"Sorry, Washu, but I have to go."

"I'll stay here awhile, ok, Tenchi?" Washu asked.

"Sure. There's nothing to look at anyway," I replied, walking away. When
I turned to go down the stairs, I thought I saw a brief flash or glow of light
through my peripheral vision, but when I looked back at Washu, she was only
holding the padlock, gazing at it strangely. Come to think of it, the idea of a
Demon in the cave had plagued her ever since she had arrived here, but that was
no different from what I had felt ever since I was born.

* * * * *

"Sasami? I wanted to ask you something, to learn more about System Jurai.
How does it run?" I said, walking in the house after my vigorous sword training
exercise. Those things just wore me out. Ah, well, it was a great way to pass
the time.

"Well, Lady Tokimi, Washu, and I are the three main Goddesses in the
Goddess Technical Helpline, and we are the only three that are Goddess First
Class Unlimited. Others are below us. Washu is the Sysop, and she has to make
sure everything is running smoothly, and has to monitor it constantly."

"Wow. What do you do, Sasami?"

"Well, I'm sort of like the antenna," she said.

"The what?"

"The antenna. We have a lot of Goddesses who receive phone calls from
everywhere, but I am the only one with the power to transfer the wishes to the
Almighty One of System Jurai, Lady Tokimi."

"So you're the only one who can grant a wish?" I asked.

"No, all the Goddesses can visit people and receive their wishes, but they
can't transfer it to Lady Tokimi."

"Do you have to be there with the person to grant their wish?"

"No, that's what the other lower Goddesses are for. They're like smaller
antennas who transfer wishes to me, and I transfer the wish to Lady Tokimi.
Normally, I rarely give consultations, but I had some free time on my hands when
I visited you."

"I'm glad," I said, smiling.

"Me too," she replied.

The door slid open, and Washu walked in with a sigh. Her hair was
unkempt, and she was breathing hard, like she'd run all the way down the stairs.
Her clothes were dirty too, covered in dirt and debris. Seeing us, she
straightened up immediately and pretended nothing was wrong.

"Are you ok, Washu?" Sasami asked.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I just...fell. On the way back," she
replied, brushing leaves out of her hair.

"You what?! Those steps are steep! Did you slip and roll or something?"
I said, worried.

"No, I just fell to the side. Into the bushes. I'm tired, I don't think
I'll eat dinner," she said, walking up the stairs to the bedroom she shared with
Sasami.

"But tonight is Tenchi's last night before his school starts again!"
Sasami protested.

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry, Tenchi, but I'm *really* tired. I'll see you
whenever I wake up," she yawned, going out of sight as she navigated a bend in
the hallway.

"That's ok," I called, not knowing if she could hear me.

"Well, that's weird," Sasami said, raising an eyebrow.

"What is? She's just tired."

"Yeah, but she shouldn't be that tired unless she used too much of her
Life-force Energy."

"Life-force Energy?" I asked confusedly.

"Yeah, that's what we use to do our spells. It might sound strange, but
to me it looked like she'd been in some sort of battle."

"Battle?" The Demon? It couldn't be... "It's probably nothing. Maybe
she fell and needed to use her power to heal herself. Or to stop her descent,
if she fell near the top of the stairs, and kept rolling."

"I guess so..."

"Wait, didn't you once say Goddesses couldn't lie?" I asked.

"Yeah, but Washu is the Goddess of Chaos, you know."

"Does that mean some things about Goddesses don't apply to her?"

"Sometimes. Chaos works in strange ways."

I'll say...

* * * * *

Leaving for the first day of school, I grumbled to myself about having to
leave Sasami and Washu by themselves, since my grandpa would be up in his shrine
composing strange prose like "Be not frightened by your friend's new hairstyle.
It would be wise to change your own." or something like that. Almost like one
of those worthless American stereotypical Chinese Fortune Cookies. He's got a
strange sense of humor. Well, once in awhile he came up with something
interesting. Rarely, though.

Once I reached the bottom of the stairs, I turned to look at my house and
the shrine. Washu hadn't woken up yet by the time I'd left, but Sasami had bade
me farewell, packed me a lunch, and sent me on my way.

Smiling, I turned back, hurrying so I wouldn't miss the bus.

* * * * *

"So, Tenchi, what did you do all summer?" my classmate, Amagasaki asked me
once the teacher was finished lecturing.

"Oh, nothing much, just helped around the house. Shrine stuff, sword
stuff, the usual."

"Bummer. Did you meet any girls?"

"Sort of," I replied, deliberately trying to be elusive. I couldn't risk
letting people know that I had two Goddesses living with me.

"Nothing but dried-up mummies, huh?" Amagasaki joked. "Just like last
year."

"Yeah," I said, laughing along. I guess I'd used that 'dried-up mummy'
line a lot, even when I first met Tsunami. Of course, unlike Tsunami, he
understood the joke. If you could call it that. It wasn't really a joke, more
like a sarcastic statement.

"Tenchi?" he said, pulling me from my daze. "Hey, Tenchi!" He leaned in
and lowered his voice. "You seem kind of spaced out... Don't tell me you were
so hard-up that you slept with a mummy!" By the time he finished his sentence,
it had drifted from a quiet murmur to a deafening shout. The whole class had
heard.

"Oh, wow!" Sakuya said from my right. "You're quite the Casanova." She
turned to the rest of the class. "Did you hear what happened to Tenchi?"

"Hear what?" "Tenchi did what?!" "Eew! How gross!" "I thought you had
class, Tenchi!" "Didn't you say you met some girl named Sasami?" "But he said
Sasami was around the age of 10!" "That's disgusting! You're sick!"

Aw, jeez...

"Get a life, clown!" I yelled, punching Amagasaki, and sending his obese
figure crashing into the wall.

*DING* *ding* *DONG* *dong*

"Yay! It's lunch time!" "Man, I'm starved!" "I thought the teacher
would never shut up!"

"Hey, Tenchi, ya comin'?" someone called.

"No..." I said. "I'll, uh, catch you later..." [Saved by the bell...] I
ran out of there as fast as I could, going to my favorite spot on the roof,
where I could always be alone. Placing my hands behind my head like a pillow, I
settled down on my back and stared upwards at the sky.

"Get a grip, Tenchi," I said to myself. "Amagasaki was just being a jerk,
like he always was. Just explain to them that they misunderstood his joke,
that's all." From my position I saw birds soaring by overhead, calling to each
other. The clouds drifted leisurely through the air, and it was so peaceful...
I could stay there forever...

* * * * *

I opened my eyes, expecting to see exactly what had been there before I
closed my eyes. I got a big surprise.

"It's night *already*?!" Rather than big fluffy clouds, I saw small
sparkling stars, and rather than hearing the pii-pii of birds, I could only hear
the chirrup of crickets.

"Aw, man! I can't believe I fell asleep and I missed all my classes!
What a great impression to make on the first day of school," I muttered. "What
am I gonna do now?"

"Tenchi..."

"Who said that?!" I called, glancing around.

"Tenchi..."

"Where are you?!"

"Up here, Tenchi..."

I looked up in the direction I thought the voice was coming from. There
was a girl who looked a little older than Tsunami, maybe around the age of Big
Washu, sitting on top of the big metal box that held one of the many air
conditioners for our school. She had spiky light blue hair, lighter than
Sasami's. Her hair kind of reminded me of Washu's, actually.

"Hello, Tenchi," she said, her eyes closed.

"Who *are* you?" I asked, perplexed.

"Ryoko," she said, laughing. "My name is Ryoko." Then she opened her
eyes. Big, yellow, catlike eyes that glowed... Glowed...

Like a Demon's.

"No way! You can't be-- You can't be-- that Demon?!"

"It was cold in that cave...and dark. You know how long I was trapped in
there? Seven hundred years. And I didn't like it, I didn't like it at all!
All I want now is *revenge*!"

"It's none of my business how you got in there, and I definitely didn't
wake you up!"

"You didn't?" she said confusedly.

"No! And the guy who trapped you in there was my ancestor, Yosho!"

She paused a moment and chewed on her bottom lip, digesting my words.
Finally, she held her hand up with her palm pointed towards the sky and said, "I
don't care."

Huh?

"I just need to take my anger out on you, *right now*!" Reddish-orange
energy began traveling into her hand, and when she tightened it into a fist, a
sword appeared. A sword like I'd never seen before. It had no handle, yet it
followed her hand's every movement. It seemed to be made of pure energy, or
pure light.

"AAAAAAAAAAAH!" I screamed, running away from her. Her laughter filled
the air, as she leapt down from her post and slashed around me with her sword,
creating dents in the roof of my school. I turned a sharp corner, and she
followed, flying through the air. She began throwing bolts at me, bolts of
energy that looked a lot like her sword.

I grabbed the doorknob leading to the stairs that would take me back into
the school, trying to get back home. Oh, if only Tsunami was there, she would
save me.

A blast of energy exploded behind me, flinging me painfully down the
stairs. I picked myself up gingerly, grateful that I hadn't broken any bones,
and only received a few bruises. I could see her shadow behind me, fading in
and out of existence. Very, very, weird!

Running through the hall, I passed by my classroom. That's when I
realized I'd forgotten my book bag, but it gave me an idea. I dove through the
door. Sliding it closed quietly, I prayed to Kami-sama that she hadn't seen me.
Holding my breath, I watched as her silhouette passed by, no doubt her eyes and
ears searching for the tiniest movement or sound.

When she was gone, I let out a relieved sigh, and headed over to my desk.
"I hope she's gone," I said to myself as I picked up my bag and collected my
stuff. "I'd better get outta here."

I screamed from surprise as the fire alarm went off, and fell over my
seat. [Calm down, Tenchi, it's just the fire alarm. Of course, half the school
has to be on fire before it goes off. Those blasts of energy must have taken
their toll on the building. But what's that smell? It smells like... Like...]

"GAS FUMES!!!"

"So there you are, Tenchi," Ryoko said, walking through the opposite wall
from me. She created her sword again. "It's time for your lesson, school
boy..."

"Stop it! You'll cause an even bigger explosion, there's gas leaking
somewhere!"

"'Gas'? Wha-what is 'gas'?"

Oy. I could just see it now. The headlines would say _Outstanding
Student Blown to Bits at Local School_. If I'd known I was going to die today,
I wouldn't have done that much homework over summer vacation!

"I think...that I might just have an idea..." I murmured. Pointing, I
said excitedly to Ryoko, "What's that outside the window?!" Oh, Kami-sama... I
just used the oldest trick in the book... She was *not* going to buy that
one...

"Ooh! What is it? I wanna see!"

I facefaulted. Majorly. Picking myself up, I crept back out into the
hallway. As I left, I heard her saying, "I don't wanna miss it! Hey, I don't
see anything..." Running as fast as my legs could take me, I hightailed it
outta there.

That's when the explosion came, picking me off my feet once more and
depositing me all the way down at the end of the hall. There was no way she
could have survived it.

I clapped twice, and bowed. Old shrine habit. She was kinda cute, but
I'd rather stick with Tsunami, and--

My eyes bugged out as came sauntering out of the flames, her hair,
clothes, and body covered in soot and ashes.

"Hey!" she barked at me. "What are you trying to do?!" She dashed at me,
passing by a mirror.

"Oh! My hair is a mess! Look at my clothes!" she said, forgetting all
about me and dusting herself off.

"Thank Kami-sama..." I whispered, creeping out the front door of the
school. Once I got to the courtyard, I ran...

...right into her, my face crashing unceremoniously against her... Um...
Bosom.

"Catch!" she yelled, tossing another of her force bolts at me.

This time, I had no way of avoiding it. I braced myself for impact,
praying that I would come out of this alive.

But it never came.

"Tsu-Tsunami?!" I exclaimed.

Tsunami was there, standing in front of me with her arms extended...
*Protecting* me...

"Impressive," Ryoko said. "Take this!" she launched at Tsunami, sword
flashing. But Tsunami was surrounded in a shield of blue, which Ryoko couldn't
penetrate.

"Damn," Ryoko cussed, her sword disappearing. "Can't you even let Tenchi
fight back?!"

"I won't let you hurt him," Tsunami said a matter-of-factly.

"If I had it my way, I wouldn't fight a monster like you!" I yelled at
Ryoko.

"Monster?! What makes you call a pretty young girl like me a m-monster?!"

"Oh, come on! You can fly, you walk through walls, and you blow up
things...!"

"All very good reasons, but not good enough!" She placed both her hands
on the shield, sending energy directly into it, trying to exhaust Tsunami's
power. The shield began to crackle, spewing sparks in every direction.

"Tsunami, be careful! Don't hurt yourself!" She didn't reply, too busy
trying to ward off Ryoko's attack. Her eyes narrowed, and she put more power
into the shield. I could see smoke coming from where Ryoko's hands were
touching the shield, and suddenly she yelled in pain as the shield detonated
from all the Life-force Energy it had absorbed. Tsunami and I were unscathed,
but Ryoko...

Ryoko had lost both her hands.

She stared blankly at us for a moment, then averted her eyes. "Oh, well,"
she said sadly. "Another day, another battle lost, that's the story of my
life."

"Uh, what about your hands?" I asked after a pause.

"Hm? Oh, watch." She held out her arms like what *would* have been palm-
up if she'd still had her hands. Crossing her forearms, her wrists began to
glow red, and the hands regenerated themselves.

"Good night," she said, bowing and disappearing into the ground.

"Tsunami?" I said after we'd recovered from Ryoko's abrupt exit.

"Yes, Tenchi?"

"Thank you for rescuing me."

"Oh, you're welcome, Ten--" Another blast of flames from the burning
school hit us from behind, knocking us off balance. I heard the siren of fire
trucks approaching.

"Uh, we should probably go before they catch us with circumstantial
evidence."

"Right. I think I have enough energy left to teleport us there." She
closed her eyes, took my hand, and cast a teleportation spell. The surroundings
melted away, and I had the briefest glimpse of a fireman's face, his jaw open in
awe. Then, we were flying at an alarming speed through a dark blue-streaked
tunnel. I never really noticed when the tunnel ended, because suddenly
everything went white and we were tumbling out of the mirror in my living room,
right where Tsunami had appeared the first day. A bunch of boxes were around
and we landed on them, flattening some of the empty ones and probably smashing
the contents of others.

"Oops. I hope Dad won't be too mad," I said, standing up and dusting off
my pants. "That was a really cool spell and all, but aren't you tired?" I
asked.

"I-- I need to rest now," Tsunami explained breathlessly. "F-fighting
that Demon took a lot of my strength, and that teleportation just about took the
rest." She collapsed right then and there.

I knelt down and gently brushed her bangs aside to keep them from hanging
in her face. "You go ahead and rest, Tsunami. You deserve it." I looked
around our living room, and noticed that the piles of boxes that had originally
been in our storage room underneath the stairs were lying around the room. Dad
and Grandpa were there trying to clean it up and reorganize it. "Hey, Dad, why
is this stuff all out of the closet and why are you cleaning it up? You *never*
clean anything up."

My Dad turned to me. "Well, Tenchi, you're finally home! You're not busy
picking up girls, are you? But anyway, Washu's moved into the storage closet."

"The closet's tiny! She can't live in there!"

"Go ahead and take a look, Tenchi," Grandpa replied.

Well, even if I didn't believe them, I still wanted to talk to Washu. The
storage closet seemed an unlikely place for her, but she *is* the Goddess of
Chaos, after all... I peeked in the storage closet, expecting to see the same
old storage closet. "WHOA!" I exclaimed, my legs collapsing from shock. It
wasn't a storage closet anymore! Instead, Washu had completely remodeled the
inside, or something. That's the only way I could explain it. The room was
huge! It was even bigger than my whole house!

"Oh, hello, Tenchi," Little Washu said, turning around from her laptop.
She was sitting on a floating cushion, and her laptop was really strange; it
seemed to be made out of something gray and translucent. "I hope you don't
mind, but I used my computers to reroute the destination from your storage door
to my subspace laboratory, so I can monitor Jurai from your house."

"Laboratory? But you're a *Goddess*, not a scientist!"

"Actually, I am both. Tsunami must not have told you. Science goes hand
in hand with Chaos, in case you haven't noticed. I have to get back to work, so
go to bed, unless you have something important to ask or tell me. But only if
you call me 'Little Washu'!"

I blinked a few times in surprise. "Well, ah, Little Washu," I said,
feeling a bit silly, "there was some Demon that attacked me at school, and she
had blue hair and yellow eyes. In fact, she looked a lot like you--" At that,
Washu fell off the cushion rather abruptly. "Um, is something wrong?"

"No, no. Go on," she said, trying to regain her composure (not to mention
her pride).

"But before the Demon could harm me, Tsunami appeared and saved me. I'm
rather confused, though..."

"About what?" Now, Washu completely disregarded her work and turned her
full attention on me. Her interest made me fell rather nervous and tense.

"For one thing, how did Tsunami know I was in trouble? And why does she
need to sleep after using powerful magick?"

"Hmmm..." Washu scratched her chin with her thumb absentmindedly. "That
takes some careful consideration. But, I am the greatest genius-scientist in
all the history of time itself!" she bragged, jabbing her index finger towards
the sky for emphasis. "Lady Tokimi says so herself. It's like this: you and
Tsunami are connected strongly through your wish and your feelings for each
other--"

"'Feelings for each other'?! But--!" I exclaimed indignantly, though I
could feel my face growing as red as a ripe tomato.

"Get over it," Little Washu replied, waving her hand as if she was shooing
my words away. "When you were in trouble, I'm sure you panicked, and since you
two are connected, she can easily have sensed any strong emotion you expel. As
for the sleeping, don't worry; it's merely the easiest way for her to regenerate
her Energy on earth after using up so much. If we were at Jurai, it'd be a
whole different story. Don't be surprised if you see Sasami instead of Tsunami
tomorrow morning."

I nodded, and stood up. "Thanks, Washu, you're a big help. But there's
just one more thing... Could you help me get Tsunami up to her room? She
conked out right there in the den."

Washu smiled knowingly. "Sure. Just go to bed and-- You know, I could
recharge her energy from here, since my office is linked to Jurai. Don't worry,
I'll explain it to you some other time."

With each passing moment, everything seemed to simply become more and more
confusing. Perplexed, I stumbled upstairs into my bedroom, collapsing on my
bed. For some reason, my bed seemed slightly lumpy. I knew that both Dad and
Grandpa were in the living room, and since Washu was in her lab with Tsunami,
then...?

Taking a deep breath, I pulled back the covers slowly to reveal...

"Mmm... Welcome home, Tenchi," Ryoko said, smiling invitingly.

End of Chapter 3