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 14: Daughter of a Goddess

As Ayeka walked towards the bathing house, she mused over the strange
events that had occurred since that fateful day in the middle of the heart of
winter. If she had been one who believed that the thoughts and emotions in the
heart of mankind/Goddesskind/Demonkind/etc. could affect the weather, she
wouldn't have doubted it for a moment. The day seemed to reflect exactly how
she felt. The blue sky was partly hidden behind ominous clouds, yet the clouds
rarely ever crossed the sun's path. Such an occurrence seemed out of place to
her, but she simply dismissed it with the rationalization that she'd never lived
on Earth before. Perhaps such things were normal during the summer.

She clutched her bathing materials to her chest as she stepped into the
teleporter. For some reason, she never quite became accustomed to the device,
and always shuddered after exiting it. Her soap, brushes, and shampoo rattled
in the little bathing pail she'd brought along.

"Well. The little Princess decides to grace us with her unwelcome
presence," she heard Ryoko say sarcastically off on her right. "Pray tell,
what's with the little dance you do every time you come in?"

Anger and annoyance won out on her embarrassment. "And, pray tell, Ryoko,
just *what* is that supposed to mean?!" she retorted, imitating Ryoko's tone.

Instead of replying, Ryoko only turned away in disgust. "Nothin'."

A furrow appeared on Ayeka's brow. ['Nothing'? What could possibly be
the matter with her? She spends all her days bathing, eating, drinking sake,
laying around lethargically, manages to avoid all the daily chores, and she's
*still* not happy?] She snorted in contempt, and walked over to the area meant
for soaping up.

For six months, Sayuri had been living in the Masaki household. She had
appeared shortly after Tsunami disappeared, perfectly in time to celebrate
Christmas with their family; an unordinary family, no less. Whether or not it
could be considered 'extraordinary' was beyond Ayeka's comprehension of family
life. At the Jurai System, she had been spoiled and pampered. Now, on Earth,
she reveled in learning about how humans lived. And she enjoyed it.

If only Tenchi wasn't pining after Tsunami all the time. That put quite a
damper on her day. She didn't understand that aspect of humans. She hated to
see how Tenchi dwelled on Tsunami's memory, which brought out another side of
her that she didn't like at all.

How on Earth (she smiled slightly at the pun she'd made) could Tenchi
still love, if love caused him so much pain? She understood what it was like
from her brief fancy over Yosho, but it seemed to her what Tenchi felt was
nothing compared to her feelings for Yosho. And the worst part was that she
didn't just hate to see Tenchi moping...

She hated Tsunami for making him feel that way.

If she was *ever* in a relationship with Tenchi (which, she hoped, she
*would* be someday), she would never, *ever* have wanted to cause him so much
pain. She wanted to slap Tsunami, to reprimand her for treating someone so
young in such a bad way. When she saw the tears Tenchi tried to hide from
everyone, she wanted to run up and throw her arms around his neck, kiss him, and
whisper to him what she felt in her heart. That she couldn't bear to see Tenchi
mentally beating himself up over Kagato's--his great-grandfather's--death, and
she hated to see him crying over a girl who'd granted him a wish that now
brought him nothing but agony. That she believed she was the only one who could
relieve his pain

If only she hadn't been so afraid that it would only push him away, and
cause him to pull further into his shell. And if only she hadn't waited so
long, Sayuri wouldn't have been the one to do it.

"Hey, Ayeka," Ryoko called from the 'bathtub,' which was actually more
like large swimming pools, stacked above and around each other. The sound of
waterfalls splashing down from one pool to another was very soothing. "What's
that invisible soap you're using?"

"What invisible soap?" Ayeka replied, looking down at her hands for the
bar. All that was left were soapsuds. "Eh? Aah!" she cried, realizing she'd
gotten lost in thought, and used the entire bar. Her body was covered in white,
pearly bubbles. Grasping her bathing pail angrily, she recklessly dumped the
contents out and shoved the pail under a waterfall. Just as she was about to
poor the warm water over herself, she was drenched from head-to-toe in ice-cold
water by Ryoko. She began shivering uncontrollably.

"Are you awake now, Princess?" Ryoko asked, still hovering above her.

"Awake and frozen, thank you," Ayeka retorted. She dumped the warm water
over herself. Although she still felt cold, she was no longer shivering.

"Have some sake," Ryoko suggested, gesturing towards a bottle floating on
a tray in the water. Ayeka picked up her towel.

"Ryoko, you shouldn't leave it floating like that. What if the bottle
fell over and into the water?" she wrapped the towel around herself and slipped
quietly into the water.

"Ok, sure, whatever." Ryoko floated alongside Ayeka, pretending to lie
down while she was still in midair. "Well, if you're not going to have any..."
She reached down towards the bottle, only to have Ayeka snatch it away. "Hey!"
Ryoko protested.

"I never said I wasn't going to have any," Ayeka argued, pouring herself
some sake. "I just said to be careful so the sake doesn't spill."

For a moment, Ryoko stared blankly at her, but then she grinned
maliciously. Before Ayeka could inquire as to what she was up to, Ryoko crossed
her legs and 'fell' into the water in a sitting position, sending wild waves in
every direction. The tray was overturned, and Ayeka lost her grip on the
bottle.

Peering at the laughing Ryoko from beneath her soaked purple bangs, Ayeka
felt her anger wash away. She began to chuckle as well. "I must say, that was
quite amusing, Ryoko," she said, looking in the water for the bottle. She
dumped the mixture of sake and water in her cup into the drain. "But now the
sake is mixed in with the bathwater."

"Don't worry," Ryoko replied, reaching into the water and pulling the
bottle out. She turned it upside-down and let the contents splash in the
bathwater. "There wasn't much left, anyway. And who knows? Maybe sake is good
for the skin."

"It's good for getting drunk," Ayeka said.

"Since when have you been so down-and-out?" Ryoko asked. "It isn't like
you."

"Since when have you been so kind?" Ayeka asked instead. "It isn't like
you."

"Touché." Ryoko pretended to wince as if she was hurt, but stuck out her
tongue. Ayeka, in turn, pretended to ignore the gesture. "I have more where
that came from, so who cares?" Ryoko said. "I'm willing to get drunk if you
are. In fact, I bet I can down more alcohol than you can." She reached behind
a plant and pulled out another bottle of sake.

"What is that, a hidden supply of sake?" Ayeka asked, trying to see around
Ryoko.

"Yup." Ryoko grinned again.

"That's disgusting," Ayeka said. "But I'll take you up on that bet."

"Oh, yeah? I'll drink you under the table!" Ryoko seized the glass Ayeka
had been holding and poured herself a generous amount of sake. She downed it in
one gulp. "Ahhhh! This is the stuff! Demon Dance brand sake!" She looked
down at the empty glass, which only had a few drops left around the bottom. She
turned the cup upside-down, but the droplets remained stuck to the glass. "I
bet it's Tenchi that's making you depressed," she said softly without looking
up. She was staring at the droplets to avoid making eye contact with Ayeka, for
fear of Ayeka seeing what was in her eyes. She turned the glass and watched the
drops making little trails along the sides.

Ayeka flinched involuntarily. "What do you care?" she retorted, but with
no bitterness in her voice.

"He's been different ever since Tsunami di-- I mean, since Tsunami left.
And since Sayuri came, too."

Even now, the unspoken between the two remained unspoken.

"It's none of our business whom Tenchi loves. Washu says the multiple
tests clearly prove that Sayuri is indeed Tenchi's daughter; therefore, we have
nothing to fear from her."

Each statement brought them closer to admitting the truth. And yet, they
were still too afraid to say it aloud.

"That's what I thought, too, at first," Ryoko said. "But aren't you just
the slightest bit... Well, jealous? At all?"

Ayeka closed her eyes. Somehow, the artificial darkness and the alcohol
coursing through her veins made her braver. "At first, yes. I was jealous. Is
it wrong to be jealous of Tsunami and Sayuri?"

The rhetorical question remained unanswered. A pause from Ryoko. "I was
trapped in that cave for 700 years," she said carefully. "I've known Tenchi
since before he was born. He was such a cute child. He sure was..."

Memories began floating through her mind. Though her body was bound to
the cave, she wandered as far away from it as she could in spirit. She
remembered clearly the first time she ever saw Achika, Tenchi's mother. Heavy
with child, Achika had never ventured near the cave, but something within her
stirred one day. Perhaps it was Tenchi... Ryoko liked to think so. Achika had
decided to take a walk and stretch that day, and for some reason, her walk took
her by the cave. For the first time, Ryoko saw Achika, a kind woman with a
happy life and a loving family... And she became jealous of Achika. But that
feeling disappeared as soon as Tenchi was born.

Ever since she could remember, he had been visiting the cave. He shoved
sticks and random keys into the padlock in hopes of opening it. From what Ryoko
could tell, there was something in the cave calling to him. [Me. I was calling
to him, wasn't I? I wanted to play with him. I'd never played with a human
before. Before, I'd only been Kagato's... "Puppet"...]

Ryoko pushed the thought aside and returned to happier ones, seeing Tenchi
as a child in her mind's eye. There was Tenchi, cooking sweet potatoes over the
fire he'd built in front of her cave. There was Tenchi, chasing after a
dazzling dragonfly with a net in his hands. There were bittersweet moments,
where Tenchi lay sobbing in front of the cave with an umbrella to block the
snow, crying out for his mother after she'd died. And Ryoko had placed her
intangible hand on Tenchi's head, and she could have sworn he knew she was
there. His sobs ceased, as if he were comforted, and he only laid there,
hiccoughing. When he entered high school, she no thought of him as a friend to
play with, but a boy she might be able to love, and who would love her in
return.

Lost in thought, she finally spoke to Ayeka. "I just thought we could
play together someday... That we might... Fall in love..." There. It had
finally been spoken. She had been the first to admit it. And she was declaring
her bid for Tenchi's hand. Still daydreaming, she almost forgot Ayeka had been
sitting beside her all along.

A giggle from Ayeka shook her out of the daze. "You mean to tell me
you've been dreaming about marrying Tenchi even before he was even old enough to
understand what 'marriage' means? You... You're a pedophile!!" She began to
laugh hysterically, and Ryoko turned to glare at her, but stared in disbelief
instead. During her excessive talk about Tenchi, Ayeka had nearly drank the
entire bottle of sake. A little less than half was left. The skin on her
entire body, rather than only on her face, had gained a reddish hue.

"You little bitch!!" Ryoko cussed, shoving Ayeka's head under the hot
water. She waited until the bubbles ceased, then released her.

Ayeka came up coughing and sputtering, vowing to teach Ryoko a lesson in
manners. However, she was so out of breath that it was absolutely impossible.
Instead, she coughed up water until she was fairly exhausted, then sagged down
into the warm water.

"Sayuri is nice to have around. In many ways, she's a lot like Tsunami.
She likes to cook, clean, and she loves taking care of Tenchi. I actually
enjoyed spending Christmas with her, even if she *did* steal all of Tenchi's
attention," Ayeka said between occasional coughs. The word 'steal' seemed
harsh, as if Sayuri was a thief and had taken Tenchi's heart away, but no other
word Ayeka could conceive felt appropriate. [Yes, but how could she have
'stolen' Tenchi's heart if it never rightfully belonged to you in the first
place?] She sighed. "Do you remember when you first felt the Disturbance?
When Sayuri came to us, to this world?"

"Yeah," Ryoko said, looking up at the sky. "I was sitting on the roof
admiring the snow and thinking of another snowy day I'd seen a long, long time
ago." She sighed. The memories were overwhelming, but Ayeka didn't perceive
the change in her voice, when nostalgia and longing entered her tone.

"I was in the room, wrapping Tenchi's Christmas present. And then I felt
it: the Disturbance in the Life-force Energy of this planet. Someone had come
here from another plane of existence." Ayeka sighed again. "At first, I
thought it was Tsunami."

"But it wasn't. Why is it so hard to figure out who Sayuri's mother is?"
Ryoko clenched her fists. "If she is part human, Goddess, and Demon, then we
still don't know *anything*! It could all be from Tenchi's side. I want to
know who her mother is..." [...because I want to know if *I* am her mother...]
Strange, that although they had finally admitted to loving Tenchi, so much still
remained unspoken between them.

"We all want to know, Ryoko. I remember dashing out of the house, trying
to pinpoint the aura I felt, hoping it would lead to Tsunami. And when I
started running in the direction of the stairs, you flew off the roof and said,
'Don't.'"

"I did? I can't remember," Ryoko feigned a yawn, but in actuality, she
wanted to scream at Ayeka to stop leading them down the path to unwanted
memories.

"I asked, 'Why?', and you said 'Tenchi's coming.' So I turned around and
saw Her. And when she called him 'Father,' I wanted to cry. I wanted to laugh
in disbelief. I wanted to grab her by the collar and demand what she was doing
here, but you managed to do that quite nicely."

"Stop it," Ryoko said finally, covering her eyes with a tired hand.

"Oh." Ayeka looked at her knowingly. "All right." They sat in silence,
alone with their thoughts for a few moments, but were interrupted.

"Did you feel that? It's gotta be another Disturbance!"

"Let's hurry this time, Ryoko!"

End of Chapter 14