Disclaimer: Tenchi Muyo and all the characters in it belong to AIC and Pioneer corp. I'm making no profit from this fanfic.
Authors notes: Here's chapter 2 of my little fanfic. I'm pleased with the positive reviews so far, and I can't tell you how much they help inspire me to write more. So as always, please read and review.
Bang the drum slowly
Chapter 2: Mysteries
Through the mists of confusion in the awakening mind, Tenchi began to piece together a few facts: First, his head was aching with a dull, steady throb which seemed to radiate from all parts of his brain. While not particularly painful, the headache was irratating enough to prevent any chance of slipping back into a restful slumber.
The second most noticable thing was that something or someone was laying on top of his chest. Even in his groggy state, Tenchi had enough presence of mind to know that such a thing was worth investigating. So with some trepidation, Tenchi opened his eyes, squinting against the bright sunlight streaming down upon him. The deep, rich, blue sky was crystal clear, with only the barest hint of a few wispy clouds streaming across the heavens above. Lifting his head gingerly, he looked down to discover a mass of cyan colored hair right under his face. It's Ryoko, I should have guessed. Wait a minute, where the heck am I? What happened? Oh yeah, I went out to rescue her, and then...something went wrong in that black hole, and I lost conciousness. But how did we end up here?
Frowing when he realized he had no answers to his questions, he gently rolled Ryoko off of him and lifted himself into a kneeling position beside her. I hope she's alright. he thought with concern. His mind was put partly at ease when he noticed the rising and falling of her chest as she breathed.
Satisfied that his companion was in good condition, Tenchi's eyes scanned the landscape around him for the first time. There was no sign of civilization around him, only gently rolling hills, covered in a pale green colored grass. Turning his head around, he caught sight of a tree not too far from him, a very abnormal tree at that. Its trunk spiraled upward in a twisting pattern, covered in a light brown bark. The branches on it also had the same spiral pattern as the trunk, and they were adorned with leaves which had the same very pale appearance as the grass around him.
With a sigh he proceeded to stretch his neck, to work out some of the kinks in it. It was during this, when his head was aimed skyward, that he happened to notice something amiss about the sun in the sky. It seemed about the same color as the one the Earth revolved around, but as Tenchi squinted while gazing at it, he noticed that it was dimmer, and there was a thin trail of gas leading away from it, yet where this was being pulled into was unknown. I remember in some science books they talked about how in some binary star systems, if one star is larger than the other, the bigger star can pull the gasses from the smaller one away. But I don't see any other star besides this one, so what could be pulling the gas away? No sooner had he finished his thought did realization creep in and his jaw drop. The black hole...
***
Over the span of hours since Tenchi and Ryoko's disappearance, few of the crew onboard the Yukinojo could get back to sleep, despite Washu's urges for them to do so. Washu herself was deep in the recesses of her subspace laboratory, diligently working away the time at her consoles, trying to discover a solution to this vexing problem. If they made it out alive, they must be at least several thousand parsecs distance from us, beyond that range my link with Ryoko is nonexistant. With a heavy sigh she rubbed her weary eyes and sipped at her coffee.
"Well, I guess I better go out and give the others an update on how much progress I've made." she muttered to herself before hopping down from her plush cushion.
The scene she encountered upon leaving her laboratory was dismal, yet totally expected considering the circumstances. Ayeka was sitting against the wall with Sasami, obviously exhausted from all the stress, asleep with her head on her sisters lap. Mihoshi was laying down on a few cushions with a blanket over her, but her eyes were still wide open and staring at the ceiling.
Washu cleared her throat, causing the two girls still awake to snap their heads to look in her direction. "Any news?" Ayeka asked with cautious hope, yet remaining quiet so as not to disturb her sister.
"Nothing yet, but I wanted to tell you what I know so far. We've been out here for awhile now since they vanished, and it's safe to say that either they did make it out the other side of that wormhole...or that they're dead." she solemnly stated, garnering some grief stricken looks from the others.
Washu remained straight faced as she continued, "Now, as of yet I have not received any message from Ryoko via our mental link, in fact I can't even feel her at all. This doesn't necessarily mean she's dead, it could mean that she's just very far away."
Ayeka leaned her head back against the wall before muttering, "I was hoping for some better news than that."
The red haired genius rubbed her forehead. "Well, it's still early on, no need to lose hope yet." Spotting a cup of tea someone didn't finish, Washu quickly gulped it down before continuing, "Do you still plan on going to the Startica festival?"
Ayeka let out a small, tired groan. "I forgot all about that. I-I don't think I should go, not with Tenchi's life in danger."
Shrugging her shoulders, Washu turned around to head back to her lab. "Your choice. Anyways you might wanna send a message to your parents so they don't worry about you. The last thing we need is the entire Jurai royal fleet scouring the galaxy looking for the princesses."
Another groan could be heard from Ayeka. "Mother will not be pleased."
***
"Good morning...well, I think it's more like afternoon by now."
Those were first words heard by Ryoko as she fluttered her eyelids, trying to drag herself out of the comfortable slumber she emerged from. Seeing as how she recognized the voice as being that of Tenchi, she intensified her efforts. Finally prying her eyes open, she saw the face of Tenchi looking down upon her. Mmm, nice way to start the day. she thought with a smile. However her smile soon faded when she noticed the strained wrinkling of his brow and the glint of worry evident in his dark brown eyes.
Memories began to filter back into Ryoko's mind. Hold on, I was falling into a black hole, so how the hell did I end up here? Where is 'here' anyways? Quickly sitting up, she stared at Tenchi in askance. "What happened?"
Scratching the back of his neck, he replied, "Well, after you fixed up the coolant pipes on the Yukinojo, Washu said that you were in trouble. So I kind of uh...summoned the light hawk wings and then went out to help you." he sheepishly finished.
Ryoko beamed a huge smile as she stared intently at the boy in front of her. He did come and save me. she thought dreamily.
Her smile began to turn a bit more seductive as she prepared to launch herself at him to give her thanks, but before she could, Tenchi spoke up again, "You had fallen into that black hole by the time I got to you. And then, something...happened, I don't know what it was, but it knocked me out and the next thing I knew I woke up with you out here."
Reminded of the fact that she still had some unanswered questions, her eyes darted all around. "Where are we?" she asked seriously.
Tenchi sighed and looked down at the ground. "Good question."
Looking back at Tenchi, she frowned. "Not the kind of answer I was looking for."
He remained silent for a moment while his eyes were fixated on the soil beneath his feet. "Take a look at this..." he said before he stood up, grimacing at the slight ache in his sore leg muscles. He motioned for Ryoko to stand up as well, to which she quickly complied. Springing to her feet, she dusted off her dress, which she noticed was the same dress she wore when she visited Tenchi on his schools roof so many months ago.
Snapping out of her recollections, she followed Tenchi over to where he stood by an odd little tree which wasn't too much taller than he was. "What is that thing?" she inquired.
His shoulders slumped slightly. "I was hoping you could tell me."
Shaking her head, Ryoko put a finger to her chin. "Nope, I've never seen a species of tree like this," glancing around at the landscape around her, she let out a little 'hmm' before continuing, "don't recognize anything else around here either."
Turning his head skyward, Tenchi pointed at the blazing sun in the sky. "Well, from the looks of it, we aren't far from that black hole, it must be what's pulling those gasses from the star away. So hopefully the Yukinojo isn't too far from here and they'll pick us up."
Ryoko frowned as she looked back down at Tenchi. "I can't feel my link with Washu, Tenchi. Either something happened to her or we're really far away from that ship."
Scratching his head, Tenchi blinked a few times in confusion. "So you're link with Washu has a range on it? But I thought back home you could even communicate with her when she's in that subspace lab of hers?"
"I can, because it's not really out of range. She explained it once, something about that dimension being 'layered' right on top of the area back on Earth, I don't know. Anyways, the point is, I don't feel my link now, and I don't think we're anywhere near the Yukinojo." she crossed her arms as she finished.
"So basically..."
"We're lost." she finished for him.
He was deep in thought for a moment before returning his gaze to the sky with a thoughtful look across his features. "Do you think maybe we went through a wormhole? I mean I've seen them in the movies before, and I've heard that they might be possible, but I wasn't sure if they existed."
Ryoko shrugged her shoulders. "I dunno, sounds possible to me. Whatever the case, we're here, and we better get used to it."
Tenchi said nothing but merely closed his eyes and shook his head in defeat. Ryoko cocked a smile before patting him on the back. "No need to get down in the dumps Tenchi, you should thankful that at least you got me to keep you company." she said cheerily.
That statement only seemed to make Tenchi's shoulders slump. "Come on Ryoko, we need to be serious here, this could be a dangerous situation we're in."
Ryoko shrugged off his comment. "Oh we'll be alright. Look, I bet this place has a nice little spaceport on it, so we'll hop a ride out of here. We could even go out on a little honeymoon if you like, Tenchi." she was giggling as she finished, but stopped when she saw him glaring at her in a very deadpan manner.
"You need to lighten up." she muttered under her breath before gliding up into the air. "I can get a much better view from up here." she called down to him, causing him to look up at her. Though he quickly snapped his head back down to look at the ground when he happened to get a look up Ryoko's skirt.
"I see you've got a nice view from down there, dont you?" she said playfully before flying higher into the sky, laughing all the while.
With the chilly breezes whipping her cyan hair about, Ryoko scanned the horizon for any sign of civilization. Just a bunch of little hills and tree's. There's gotta be some intelligent life out here, or at least life as intelligent as Mihoshi. Flying higher into to atmosphere, she squinted her eyes to block out some of the brightness of the sky. I feel kinda tired. she idly observed as she was almost at the level as the highest clouds in the sky. I've always thought that those wispy looking clouds were really pretty. she thought to herself while blinking her increasingly heavy eyelids.
Hovering in place to examine the land far off in the distance, she frowned when she felt her muscles start to feel a bit weaker. I think I need a nap. she noted to herself before beginning her decent back to the ground. Her face contorted into a grimace as a strange sensation began to permeate throughout her body. Something felt out of place to her, and she couldn't quite put her finger on it. The closest analogy she could come up with was that she felt like a filled up bathtub that just had it's drain plug pulled out. Looking down at the ground still well below her, she gasped as her vision began to blur and swirl about, as diziness bubbled in her brain. W-what's happening...to...her golden eyes rolling into the back of her head, she dropped like a stone out of the sky.
Back on the surface, Tenchi was idly examining some leaves when he happened to glance back up at the sky, and caught sight of something plummeting down to the ground. Is that... his eyes widened as he saw the object slam onto the surface some distance ahead of him. "Ryoko?" he called out, not quite believing what he saw. Dropping the pale green leaf, he began to jog towards the the impact sight of whatever it was he saw. "Ryoko, is that you, are you alright?" he called out louder, and then broke out into a full fledged sprint.
The sight that greeted him was not only shocking but sent a chill running down his spine. Ryoko was face down in the dirt, and she wasn't moving at all. "Ryoko! What happened?" he shouted as he raced over to her side, quickly rolling her over on her back.
She let out a small moan of obvious pain while Tenchi began to brush some dirt off of her face. "What happened up there? Did something attack you?" he asked a little more calmly.
She began taking some heavy breaths as she kept her eyes closed, and after a moment she shook her head. "N-no, nothing attacked me. I was just flying around...and then I felt weird, like I was getting really tired. And then I felt dizzy, and I just blacked out for a moment." she murmured.
"Are you gonna be ok?" he asked worriedly.
She opened her eyes and looked over at him before the corner of her lips quirked into a slight smile. "I just need a little rest, I'm already starting to feel better."
Silently nodding, Tenchi sat down on the ground amid the gently swaying blades of grass, his mind deep in thought. What could've caused her to suddenly drop out of the sky like that? Maybe it's just some temporary side effect of going through that black hole. A glance at the girl in front of him indicated she had already slipped into a peaceful sleep. We've got other problems as well, like how are we going to survive out here? I don't see any sushi bars anywhere around.
Standing up, he took a good long look around him. I remember doing a little survivalist training with grandpa once, and I've seen some shows on it, so now I gotta put that knowledge to good use. Ok, first thing we need is to find a source of drinkable water. I don't see any water around here, so I guess I better go look for some. After taking a few steps forward, he took another look back at Ryoko. I hope she doesn't freak out if she wakes up and I'm not here. Shaking his head with a sigh, he tredged on ahead towards a more wooded area.
***
"Finding water is hard!" Tenchi complaimed to himself.
For the past few hours, he had been scouring the countryside searching for a good source of drinkable water. Leaving small sticks in the ground as markers to where he came from, he had yet to find even the smallest puddle in his quest. Growing frustrated, he began to climb up one of the taller tree's in the area to get a better vantage point of the land around him.
Yet climbing these twisting spires of branches was not as easy as it had appeared, as the bark was quite smooth and difficult to get a good foothold on. Just need to reach a little further to get ahold of that branch. he thought as he strained and stretched his arm as much as he could manage. Damn it, I know I can reach...what is that on my arm? Twirling his head around to look at the arm which was wrapped around the trunk of the tree, Tenchi noticed a creature about as big as his fist calmy walking along his forearm. It was completely red colored, hairy, had six legs, one big eye, and it promptly scared the shit out of Tenchi.
"AHHH!" he screamed before absent mindedly jerking his arm to try and get the offending creature off of him. Of course this resulted in him making a less-than-graceful fall from the tree he was in. Trying his best to ignore the pain in back, he let out a few hissing breaths between his clenched teeth. Maybe it'll rain soon...
***
Not far away from where Tenchi was flat on his back, a certain cyan haired girl was racing through the tree's as fast as she could. It turned out the loud scream Tenchi had let loose hadn't gone unheard, as Ryoko wasn't too far behind him trying to catch up. An internal debate raged within her as to whether or not she should just fly over to him, as she would normally do. Yet despite the fact that she was feeling much better since she woke up, she was still fearful of the possibility that she might black out yet again if she were to use her powers.
While Ryoko was worrying herself over Tenchi as she followed his path, Tenchi was changing his strategy a bit in terms of finding water. His persistant thirst had driven him to start pulling up various plants and weeds and checking to see which plants had the most water content. At that moment he was busy chewing up the roots of a little plant which seemed in abundance in the area. Just remember, it's nutrient rich, and has high water content. I only have to ignore how awful it tastes. With a slightly disgusted expression, he finished his small 'meal' and began the work of collecting more plants for him and Ryoko to have later.
It was while he was bent over pulling a thick stemmed weed out of the ground that he noticed something bounding along the ground. The object in question was a small, furless, mammal-like creature which resembled a cross between a squirrel and a rat. Hmm, it's not much, but it'll give us necessary proteins. Ever so gentle, he crept over to pick up a small rock he spotted. I don't like killing things, but I gotta do what I have to in order to survive. Feeling properly justified in his actions and confident that years of training his abilities and senses would assure him the kill, he reared his arm back to throw the small stone...
"TENCHI!" was what he heard a millisecond before being knocked to the ground by a charging Ryoko. Of course all the commotion sent the little creature Tenchi had been hunting scurrying up into a tree.
While Tenchi was laying on the ground rubbing the back of his head, Ryoko released him from a bear hug so that she could check and see if he had any injuries. While she was doing this she rambled on at a mile-a-minute, "Oh Tenchi I heard you scream and I was so worried about you, I mean I knew you didn't have Tenchi-ken and you can't always summon your light hawk wings so I was thinking that anything could have happened to you..."
"Ryoko, I'm fine." Tenchi muttered tiredly.
"...so I was gonna fly over here but then I remembered what happened and I thought that I wouldn't be any help to you if I blacked out so I just started running as fast as I could but I was..."
"Ryoko, I said I was fine." he said louder, annoyance evident in his tone.
"...but what if I didn't get here in time? Why did you have to run off when I was asleep? I mean you could've waited and then I wouldn't be so damn worried..."
Finally having his fill of her paranoid prattling, he grabbed her by the shoulders. "Ryoko, I said I was FINE." He shook her a bit to try and get his point across.
She stopped talked and stared at him with her big golden eyes blinking. "Are you sure?" she asked innocently.
Hanging his head he let out a defeated groan. "Yes, I just fell out of a tree while I was out looking for some water."
Ryoko crossed her arms and glared at Tenchi. "You mean to tell me I ran down here worried sick because you can't climb a tree? If you wanted to know where we could find water all you had to do was wait until I woke up. I saw a little pond while I was flying around earlier."
Tenchi's eyes lit up. "Where'd you see it?"
"It's in the opposite direction of where you've been going." she said simply, trying to refrain from smiling when she saw his striken look. "Just kidding! You were on the right track, it's just up ahead." she exclaimed while grinning wildly.
Tenchi let out a relieved sigh and leaned back against a rock. "Thank heavens, I'm dying of thirst..." Just then his stomach rumbled loudly. "...and hunger."
***
"So what are you trying to do now?"
Looking behind his shoulder, Tenchi shushed Ryoko and whispered, "I'm waiting for that little animal to come down so I can hit it with this rock. I know it might seem cruel but we have to eat in order to survive."
Well, you have to eat to survive, all I need is my gem. Ryoko observed to herself while watching Tenchi creep stealthily closer to his prey. She sat on the cold ground and silently admired Tenchi's graceful movement and agility. It never ceased to amaze her how he could manage to transform from a shy, bumbling schoolboy into a full fledged samurai sometimes.
With lightning speed, he hurled the stone at his target, and successfully struck it. Standing up to wipe some sweat beads off his brow, Tenchi let out a sigh as he look a glance at the setting sun on the horizon. "It's going to be dark soon, we should probably head down to that pond and set up camp for the night. Why don't you help me gather up some firewood?" he asked over his shoulder. While not a fan of manual labor, she agreed seeing as how they were in some unique circumstances and that Tenchi had asked her.
Ryoko had an extremely bored look on her face as she scooped up dead branches off the ground. She was hoping to be able to spend some time with Tenchi, but he had gone off in search of some plants to help fill out the sparse dinner he was planning. I need to speed this up... she thought to herself before she caught sight of a rather tall tree standing in front of her. With a smirk she closed her fist in preparation to form an energy saber, only to halt herself at the last moment. What if I get dizzy again? Then again, I do feel fine. I bet what happened earlier was just a little fluke, probably from going through that wormhole.
Yet despite her mental reassurances, she couldn't ignore the fear deep within that something was amiss. With her brow wrinkled in thought, her amber eyes gazed intently at her hand a moment before letting it relax and fall to her side. I'll try my powers out tomorrow, no need to risk anything happening tonight. A good nights rest and I'll be fine...
***
As the fading light of dusk began to turn into the darkness of nightfall, Tenchi and Ryoko set up a small, makeshift camp at the shore of the small pond Ryoko had led them to. There the two sat by a pile of wood they collected, and next to that, a pile of pulled up weeds and a small dead animal, which was to be the nights dinner.
"Alright, time to start a fire. Boy it's been years since I started a fire without any matches or lighters." Tenchi said with smile while he gathered up a few sticks.
"How are you gonna make one?" Ryoko asked curiously as she moved a bit closer to him to better observe what he was doing.
With a broad smile he knelt down firmly on a large stick to keep it in place while he picked up a smaller one in his hands. "It's all about friction, Ryoko. See, when you take this little stick here and rub it really fast against this other one, the friction will cause it to heat up." he said while placing the smaller piece of wood between his palms and proceeding to twist it about rapidly.
Ryoko tilted her head downward and placed her hands on her cheeks. "Oh you naughty boy! You bring a sweet, innocent girl like me out into the woods and start telling her about how you want to rub things together to create heat." she said in her most girlish tone of voice.
Tenchi promptly choked on his tounge. "T-that's not w-what I..."
Bursting out into fits of laughter, Ryoko shook her head and tried to save the sputtering boy from too much embarrassment. "I know that, silly." Quieting down, she watched as Tenchi's efforts at making fire were being rewarded as a little bit of smoke was becoming evident. "Say Tenchi, where'd you learn how to do this?"
His eyes became distant for a moment as he recalled memories of long ago. "I was nine years old, and my dad and I went out camping. I remember he kept telling me about how he was gonna teach me how to survive on my own, like a real man. Of course he brought along so much food and supplies that we could have built a small fortress out there. By the end of our trip, he had managed to fall into a river, nearly get bit by a snake, spray bug repellant into his eyes by accident, and nearly burn down half the forest." by the time he finished, both he and Ryoko were chuckling.
"The one thing he did teach me was how to start a fire like this." he said while gathering some dead grass to place at the now heated part of the log. After gently puffing on it some, the pile of grass began to smoke heavily and then eventually it started to burn.
Setting the flaming grass onto the larger pile of dead grass, weeds, and sticks, he sported a triumphant grin as the wood pile slowly but surely began to be set ablaze. Ryoko clapped in appreciation. "Nice work, Tenchi."
"Thanks." he muttered while sheepishly scratching the back of his neck.
Reaching over to pick up the creature he had killed earlier, he commented, "Well, I guess I should start our dinner now, Ryoko. I know it's not a lot, but it's best I could do with so few daylight hours." With a distasteful expression, he impaled the creature on a sharp stick to hold over the fire.
Looking at the pitifully small creature and the few dirty plants Tenchi had pulled up for their dinner, she turned her eyes downward. "Don't worry about me Tenchi, you should eat all of that." Ryoko stated as casually as she could.
Blinking in confusion, he looked up over the fire at her. "What do you mean? As far as I know, you've gone the same amount of time without food as me. You should be starving by now."
Ryoko glanced away from Tenchi with an uncomfortable look on her face. "I'm not hungry...I don't get hungry." she finished in a mumble.
Straining to hear her over the blaze, he asked, "What was that?"
With a sigh, she repeated herself, louder this time. "I said...I don't get hungry. My gem sustains me, I don't need to ever eat." she spoke sharply.
"Oh." he said simply.
Ryoko was thankful that he didn't seem to want to press the issue further. Back at his house, she would always eat dinner with the rest of the family so that he wouldn't ever know how different she was than him. But in light of the different circumstances they were now in, she had to drop her little facade so that he could survive.
The only sound for some time was the constant crackling of blazing fire as Tenchi and Ryoko were both lost in their own thoughts. Silently, Tenchi ate his fairly unappetizing dinner while occasionally stealing glances at the girl seated across from him, watching as the orange flames danced about, casting a glow on her.
"So, you think this planet has any moon?" he asked lamely, trying to come up with some conversation.
"I dunno." she muttered while shrugging her shoulders.
With a yawn, she proceeded to lay back onto the cool dirt, quickly frowning when she looked up at the sky. "There's hardly any stars in the sky." she remarked with disdain.
Taking a look for himself, he nodded his head. "You're right, it's so..."
"Dark." she finished his comment quietly.
"What planet do you think we're on?" he asked while tilting his head down to look at Ryoko.
She took on a thoughtful look for a moment. "Seeing as how few stars there are, maybe we're somewhere at the fringe of the galaxy."
After all the days twists and turns, Tenchi wasn't very surprised to hear that. With a heavy sigh, he rubbed his weary eyes, realizing just how tiresome all the days work had been on him. "I think I'm gonna try and catch some sleep, Ryoko." Grunting with discomfort, he laid down on the hard ground beneath him, sure that what sleep he did get would not be very good.
"Goodnight Tenchi." Ryoko said calmly, still staring up at the sparsely populated night sky.
"Goodnight Ryoko."
***
Cold, yet familiar, that's the place I'm at.
A vast field all around me. A giant wall cuts across the landscape, it has no beginning, no end.
I touch the wall gently, feeling its intricate texture. Cracks are forming, they almost look like veins as they spread outward, encompassing all of it.
The scence melts away...
Emptyness all around me, a lone Sakura blossom flutters in the wind. I watch as it withers, and turns to dust.
The scence melts away...
A river rages all around me, it has no beginning, no end. I'm swept up in it, I can't fight the current, I'm getting pulled under.
Fade away...
Fade away...
Fade away.
With a startled gasp, Tenchi's eyes snap open. Short of breath, he sits up and looks all around him in the darkness of the night. It was just a dream. Closing his eyes as he begins to pump air into his lungs, he lays down once more on the ground, his ears greeted by the occasional crackling sound of the dying embers. It would be some time before Tenchi could fall back asleep that night.
End of chapter 2.