More Than I Can Stand, Part II
Disclaimer: See the first one, all right?
Author's Note: To Lina Inverse the Dramata, I had already thought this up before you posted your rather intuitive review, but good guess!
*****
Upstairs, everyone was sitting around the dining table, ready to feast upon another of Sasami's wonderful meals. Grandpa and Noboyuki sat at the heads of the table, while Mihoshi sat opposite Tenchi and Aeka as Sasami was bringing out the remainder of the food. Aeka made sure to sit as close to Tenchi as was humanly possible. She was at his left side, her arms tightly around his own, her left leg draped across his, while she nuzzled her cheek against his arm. Tenchi just sat there, twitching a little, but not having the heart to tell her to stop as he looked all over for Ryoko. That's strange, he thought. She never misses a meal.
As if on cue, Ryoko appeared, walking into the dining area... with another man?! Everyone was surprised at this sight, especially Tenchi who quickly began to feel red in the face with his emotions quickly going from longing to see her to absolute confusion! But, so as not to make a scene, he quietly meditated and kept his emotions from boiling over too much and tried to ignore it as much as possible.
"Well, hello, everybody!" Ryoko said a little too cheerfully for Tenchi's taste, as she and the new guy sat down. Everybody else just kinda stared in silence as she draped herself all over this person and smiled insanely. "What are you all staring at?" she said between giggles. "Oh come on, haven't you ever seen anyone in love before?" Every single other person at the table face-faulted when they heard this, especially since her new boyfriend just sat there, not saying anything, and not really looking like he was very in love in return.
As everyone began to regain their composure, Mihoshi spoke up, "Uh, so, Ryoko, who's your new friend?"
"This, my dear Mihoshi, is... uh..." she began to reply, but realized neither she nor Washu had bothered to name this guy yet. She thought about it a second and just pulled a name out of the air. "This is my new boyfriend, uh, Ichiban!" she said as she smiled, rather proud of her creativity (ichiban means "number one" in Japanese). A collective "Oooooooooh!" rose up from the group as they took in his name. Tenchi just sat there, still caught in Aeka's love-grip, as he glared at the new addition to their dinner table, his eye twitching slightly from the annoyance.
Aeka chimed in happily, "Well, Miss Ryoko, I'm glad to see you got over Tenchi so quickly. I wouldn't have thought you were so fickle. Not even much of a fight. Oh well, I'll settle for an easy victory." The gloating in her voice was not overlooked by Ryoko, who began to smolder silently, but she did notice that Tenchi wasn't exactly returning Aeka's glomping. In fact, she noticed, he was glaring rather banefully at the artificial boy she herself was holding onto rather tightly. Hmmm... Looks like it's working, she thought to herself victoriously. Now let's kick things up a notch!
Seeing her objective within sight, Ryoko wanted to get Tenchi to act upon his obviously growing anger. Everyone else seemed to notice it as well. Nobuyuki asked, "Uh, say, Tenchi... Are you doing all right? Your face is getting all red and your eyes are watering. The food isn't that spicy for you is it?"
Aeka finally noticed it as well and turned her face towards him, and spoke, "Lord Tenchi? Oh, I see you're just as upset as I am at Miss Ryoko's lack of manners, bringing a total stranger to our table without asking permission!"
"Calm down, little Princess. After all, you've got all that you wanted. Why should you be the only one who's happy?" Ryoko said, smiling back at her as she moved her hand across the chest of Washu's creation.. Ryoko couldn't help but be sick at her own words. Blast it, Tenchi! Why do you let that little brat treat me like this! she thought to herself angrily. I'm getting sick of this! Get angry, Tenchi! Come on, already! Groan... I didn't wanna do this... Ryoko smirked on the outside, grimacing on the inside, as she kissed the still un-moving "boy" and slid her hand across its crotch.
Ryoko blinked with surprise. What the hell?! she thought, remarking at what she felt, or rather, DIDN'T feel. There was nothing there! Nothing at all! WASHU!!! she telepathically screamed at her mother. What is up with this?!!!
Well, that's what you get for being so impatient! I told you he wasn't finished, but would you listen? Of course not! So live with it! Besides, the effect will still be the same. Just you watch! Washu answered replied, still actually being in her lab.
Is it at least going to say something? Anything at all? she asked again.
That's another thing we missed because you like to just take off without checking first! I didn't get a chance to program any personality into him. All he knows is how to move and speak. Unless, of course, you count the mass's inherent defense powers, which we're all too familiar with Washu answered once more.
Grrr... Fine! Grudgingly, Ryoko gulped down hard and kept on rubbing its crotch, trying nearly everything to piss off Tenchi and make him fight to get her back.
And it worked, too. As she was rubbing the crotchless, personality-lacking creation, Tenchi couldn't take his eyes off of her, his face seething with a rage unlike anything he'd ever felt before. Watching her mouth play across this other guy's cheek and her hand fondle his crotch made Tenchi's heart bleed with sorrow and burn with an uncontrollable fire of hatred for this intruder. He remembered the first time Ryoko had ever touched him like that. He had recoiled from her tender rubbing, at the time just being annoyed by it, but now... he wanted her touch... but saw it belong to another. Losing control of his emotions, he suddenly lost all sense of reality as Ryoko's lips touched his new enemy's mouth. "STOP!!!!!!!!" Tenchi yelled at the top of his lungs, leaping to his feet and clenching his fists as tightly as possible. Assuming a fighting stance and feeling his power rise, he spoke to her. "Ryoko, I don't know what he's done to you, but I swear I won't let him keep you under his power!" he said, thinking back to when Kagato had her under his influence.
As charmed as ever by Tenchi's chivalry, Ryoko quickly released Ichiban, and her eyes filled once again with her absolute love for her darling Tenchi. "Tenchi...." she said quietly, her voice quivering with emotion as it came through her smiling lips.
Tenchi couldn't help but smile back, letting his anger subside at her loving face. "Ryoko..." he replied softly. Everyone else just sat there, trying to take this all in.
All of a sudden, Ichiban stood up and reached his hand out towards Tenchi. Not knowing what to make of it, he just stared back at the weird guy. "Huh? What are you doing?" he asked. Silently, the mass-boy began forming an energy ball in his hand, aiming point blank at Tenchi!
"Hey! What the-!" Tenchi stammered, just before lunging out of harm's way a split-second before the blast was fired. He quickly regained his composure and everyone was baffled at this new turn of events.
"Miss Ryoko! What sort of monster have you brought into this house?! It was bad enough that you had to be here all the time!" Aeka screamed at her.
Realizing it must have sensed Tenchi's rise in power as a threat to itself, Ryoko turned to Ichiban, grabbing it by the arm. "Hey, you! Knock it off, or I'll shut you down!" She caught herself, just realizing she'd given herself away. EVERYONE glared at her. "Uh.. hehe.. I can explain! Really!"
But before anyone could scold her, the creation once again set its sights on Tenchi. "I must eliminate threat. No one will stop me." It started up another energy blast, intent on destroying the "threat" to itself.
Hustling to his feet, Tenchi assessed the situation quickly. "Ryoko! Is this another of those mass-creations that Ryo-ohki accidentally made?"
"Um, well... kind of.. but this wasn't.. an accident.. so, theoretically, he shouldn't be as much trouble! A-hahaha.. hehe.. heh... Oh, shimata." She rose up and lunged at the creature trying to put it out of commission. It grabbed her arm and flung her clear through the roof, sending her out of sight.
Backing up to the stairs, Tenchi gulped out, "Oh no..." Ichiban once more came after Tenchi. He quickly ran up the stairs to escape the attack and headed for his bedroom, the blast blowing a hole clear through the steps just as Tenchi cleared them. He ran headlong into his room and began throwing clothes about wildly looking for the Master Key. "Darn it! Where is it?!"
Stalking up to Tenchi's room, the creature flew up the demolished stairway and could now see Tenchi's room and headed right for him.
Tenchi turned and saw it in the hallway not twenty meters away. Gulping nervously, he continued his search, hoping to find the sword within the next few seconds. "Ah-ha! Gotcha!" he exclaimed, finding the sword under a pile of dirty clothes. Activating it, he turned to face his enemy, who had already fired his energy blast at Tenchi, barely having enough time to block the blast with the sword. However, the impact was enough to send Tenchi flying back through his window, landing outside, again, falling flat on his butt. "Ow..." he moaned out, rubbing his backside again. Shaking his head clear, he looked up as Ichiban descended from Tenchi's window, landing MUCH more gracefully than he had. The creation loomed over Tenchi, raising his hand to deliver the final blow.
"Mission accomplished," it said as it powered up its last energy attack, when, seemingly out of nowhere, Ryoko appeared and punched the "boy" with all her might squarely in its jaw, sending the blast off-target and going far off into the mountains. It turned its attention away from Tenchi and now looked at Ryoko with its dead eyes. Aiming its hand at Ryoko, it quickly blasted her with its energy, sending her flying into the vegetable hut, destroying it easily.
"No, you don't!!!!!!" Tenchi screamed at seeing Ryoko being hurt. He powered-up the sword and lunged at Ichiban, thrusting the blade directly at it. Tenchi caught it in the chest. It blinked for a moment, not sure as to what just happened. They both stood there, staring at the energy blade which had certainly gone into the artificial body, but hadn't really done any lethal damage. It looked at Tenchi once again and removed the sword, grabbing it out of Tenchi's hands and flung it out into the woods. Defenseless, Tenchi moved backwards, trying desperately to think of a plan of attack.
As their standoff continued, Ryoko sat up out of the wreckage of the small building. "Ungh.......... T-tenchi.......?" she stammered, still not recovered from the impact. Hearing her, Ichiban turned its gaze away from Tenchi and back to Ryoko, looking to finish her off. "Tenchi.......... I'm......... I'm sorry........." she muttered through her daze.
Unwilling to allow her to be hurt anymore, Tenchi let himself go in his state of panic, his power coming out fully, and unleashed an energy blast at Ichiban so controlled and yet so powerful, that the creation was vaporized within a matter of seconds, however, nothing else was damaged, save for a small singe mark left on the point of impact.
After releasing his power, Tenchi nearly passed out from the enormous output of energy he'd just sustained. Ryoko, recovered from her jarring impact, quickly came to Tenchi's side. She cradled him in his arms, brushing his cheek softly, and leaned down to kiss him... just as Aeka and the others stormed out of the house. Aeka, ahead of the others, rushed right at Ryoko, planting a hard slap on her face.
"Ryoko, you dreadful beast! Take your hands off my fiancee!" she yelled, falling to her knees and grabbing Tenchi out of Ryoko's arms.
"Hey, you! Did you ever ASK Tenchi if he wanted to marry you? I don't think so!" Ryoko yelled back, pulling Tenchi back into her arms.
Grabbing Tenchi's arm nearest to her, Aeka yelled once again, "You monster!"
Ryoko returned by grabbing Tenchi's other arm and saying, "You spoiled brat!"
Tenchi woke up to the pain of his arms feeling like they were being torn out of their sockets. "Ow! Hey! Leggo will ya?!"
Seeing he was awake, both girls leaned in close to him. Aeka began, "Lord Tenchi, you DO want to marry me? RIGHT?!"
"Uh, well I...." he stammered.
"Hey, Tenchi, I know she tricked you into being her fiancee, and I know you really love me, and that's why you got so angry! RIGHT?!" Ryoko countered.
"Uh, well I..." he said again.
As this bickering, fighting, and abuse of Tenchi went on for several more minutes, the rest of the family just stood outside, their arms folded across their chests as they all sighed with both annoyance and relief that things were back to normal. They then went back inside to finish dinner, leaving Tenchi to deal with the two lovesick women himself.