Kujou Muyo!

Chapter XVII

"No Need for Showers and Preparations"

A pair of china blue eyes closely scrutinized the readouts on the monitors of several machines attached to a cinnamon skinned boy. Mihoshi sighed. Tenchi's condition had finally stabled; all that was left for her to do was to wait for him to wake up. Then it was back to the cell with her.

She had been assigned to monitoring Tenchi by the short blonde that seemed to be the prisoners' leader. Mihoshi had felt her heart drop when she saw the deep wounds in Tenchi's chest. She had merely been instructed to put two rejuvenation patches over the injuries and monitor his health. Apparently, the ex-prisoners didn't want the medical staff out of their cells for too long. None of her questions were answered on how Tenchi had gotten this way, however.

Movement flickered out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head in that direction and noticed the empty chair that had once been occupied by a sleeping Ryoko. She resumed her monitoring of Tenchi and nearly fell backwards out of her chair. Ryoko stood next to Tenchi's bed, her hand clasping his own.

"This is all my fault," Mihoshi heard her mumble.

Mihoshi blinked in surprise. Ryoko did this? she asked herself. But there are two wounds. Did she stab him twice?

Ryoko turned to face Mihoshi, her amber eyes seeming to glow.

She's crying, Mihoshi realized.

"Are they going to scar?" Ryoko asked.

Mihoshi shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Those patches are supposed to prevent that."

Ryoko nodded sadly, but her expression lightened slightly. "That's good. I didn't want him to get any more scars because of me," she said, her voice cracking.

Mihoshi looked down at Tenchi's shirtless body and decided to ask Ryoko something she had been wondering. "How did Tenchi get that scar?" she asked, indicating the odd-shaped scar that was spread across his stomach.

Ryoko placed her hand on it, as if it helped her to remember. "That's from Kagato," she answered.

Mihoshi was not sure whether to take this reply seriously. "But… I'm afraid I don't understand. I've never seen a weapon leave a scar like that," she retorted.

Ryoko clenched the fist that was not holding Tenchi's hand. "A sword leaves that kind of scar when it's used to shish kabob someone," she replied through clenched teeth.

"But that's impossible, a wound like that would've…"

"Killed him?" Ryoko interrupted. "You're right, it would've, it should've. But it didn't." She smiled slightly as two tears ran down her cheeks.

Mihoshi quickly sat up and slid her chair up to Ryoko, who flopped down onto it. She hid her face in her hands, her body shaking as soft sobs escaped her lips. Mihoshi decided that now would be a good time to use the bathroom, and quickly exited, leaving Ryoko alone with the slumbering Tenchi.

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Tenchi stirred in his sleep and his eyes opened slowly. He immediately noticed extra pressure on his chest and panicked, thinking he had some heart condition. He pacified though, when he noticed that the source of the pressure was a wild mane of cyan hair resting on him.

"Ryoko?" he tried to say, but it only came out as a horse rasp. He shook his head and sighed. He rubbed his forehead and noticed a tube was attached to his left hand. He followed the tube to a machine with bags hooked to it. An IV machine, he stated. Good thing I was asleep when they put that in.

"Oh, good. You're awake." Tenchi's head jerked in the direction of the noise.

"Oh, hi, Miss Mihoshi," he greeted.

Mihoshi walked to the bedside and shook her head. "She's exhausted herself lately. She stayed awake for a straight 48 hours after you were hurt, so now all she'd done is sleep today."

"'48 hours?' How long have I been asleep, anyway?" Tenchi asked, shock evident in his voice.

"This is the third day," she said glancing at the clock. "It would've been the fourth day had you stayed asleep another five minutes."

He nodded and shifted uncomfortably under Ryoko's weight. Mihoshi, noticing this, pulled Ryoko off of him and sat her down in a nearby chair. Tenchi smiled.

"Thanks," he appreciated. He closed his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair. He cringed and wrinkled his nose. My hair feels like an oil spill, he noted. "You said it was late, right?"

Mihoshi nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"Um… I need to take a shower, and… well… this is a… _women's_ correctional facility, right?"

Mihoshi's eyes widen in realization. "Oh, right, it should be all right, no sane person would be up this late," she remarked.

Tenchi raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He sat up and swung his legs over the side. He removed the several attachments to him after Mihoshi turned off the corresponding machines. He decided to leave the patches on, just to be sure. He stood up shakily and nearly stumbled before he caught himself.

"Hey, could you come with me, Mihoshi?" he asked. Mihoshi flushed a deep red.

"To make sure no one else comes in, I mean," he explained.

The color left Mihoshi's cheeks. "Oh, of course."

Mihoshi led the way out of the medical center, Tenchi following behind her, hands shoved in his pockets.

The trip was largely spent in silence, Tenchi's eyes darting side to side for any other signs of life besides his female companion. He sighed happily as he reached the shower room, anticipating the feeling of being clean again.

"I don't have to go in there with you, do I?" Mihoshi asked.

Tenchi shook his head. "I think I can take it from here," he assured. He walked in the room as Mihoshi kept her eyes peeled for any movement.

She yawned rather loudly, surprising herself at how tired she was. She decided to sit down. In less than five minutes, she was fast asleep.

Meanwhile, Kiyone wandered around the prison compound. Where could she be? she asked herself, wondering why her partner was not in the medical lab. Knowing Mihoshi she's probably wandering around somewhere, causing trouble. Suddenly, Kiyone's feet left from beneath her. She fell to the floor with a crash. She growled and stood back up, glaring down at the object that had tripped her. Mihoshi… why am I not surprised?! The mass of blonde hair with a person attached to it was laying down, her body sprawled across the floor. Kiyone was so deep in her thoughts, she hadn't noticed her sleeping there. She sighed and shook her head.

She glanced at the door she was sitting next to and noticed that it led to the shower house. She shrugged her shoulders. Well… as long as I'm here, she mused as she entered. She frowned when she heard one of the showers running. I hope she hasn't used all of the hot water, she trusted. She found a set of clothing her size in the clean laundry bin. She shed her clothes and draped a towel over her chest. She walked into the shower area. She was a bit surprised to see that the showers were separated and had drapes over them. She had always thought prisons had mass showers. She shrugged, That's what I get for watching too many of Mihoshi's cop shows. She noticed that whoever was using the shower next to hers was whistling some tune. She just shook her head and chuckled softly. She stepped in and turned on the water…

Tenchi's whistling, however, had kept him from hearing the sound of water running in the shower next to him. Too much time has passed to lament that we were deeply in love… Tenchi had an ending song to an anime he had watched awhile back stuck in his head, and the only thing that helped getting it out was to whistle it. Tenchi hadn't realized how much he had missed showers. He was going to make this a nice long one, until it ran out of hot water, he had decided.

Kiyone had just finished rinsing her hair when the water turned frigid cold. Damn it! That hog took up all of the hot water! she cursed. She quickly turned off the water and wrapped her arms around herself. She stepped out of the shower and began to dry off.

Tenchi stopped and shivered. There goes the last of the hot water. He rinsed off the soap that was on his legs and turned off the water. He shook his head, water flinging from his wet hair. He swung the curtain open and stepped out. Chaos ensued soon thereafter.

Mihoshi was shoved back into consciousness by the sound of two people screaming. She quickly stood up and looked around, not quite comprehending the situation so soon after waking. The door to the shower house swung out and an unconscious Tenchi spilled out, his hand grasping a towel that was barely covering the required parts. Why is his nose bleeding? Mihoshi wondered.

"MIIII-HOOO-SHIIII!!!" she heard her partner screaming.

Mihoshi cringed. "Oops…" she muttered.

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Washu craned her neck up at the curved, clear dome of Ryo-ohki and smiled as she heard a chorus of satisfactory pops, running down her compressed spine. She squinted out the front view port and saw the cubical shape of the 8,239th District Women's Correctional Facility. Washu closed her eyes, and she could almost feel her daughter's presence there.

So Ryo-ohki was right, she mused. Excellent.

"Ryo-ohki, what time is it?" she said aloud.

A crystal moved from outside Washu's line of vision and projected: "7:59 A.M., Standard Time."

"Thank you, Ryo-ohki. Open up a communications link with the compound. Tell them we're here to visit some friends," she ordered.

"Miya!" the ship affirmed.

Meanwhile, Konoma sat silently at her table, enjoying some decent food they had forced the guards to prepare, then had forced the guards to eat, in case there was any threat of poisoning.

Her crystal-blue eyes scanned the crowd of prisoners, looking for any sign of the prison's current male resident. She frowned. No sign of her Tenshi yet.

"Uh, Miss Shii?" a voice behind her piped.

Konoma turned to face a rather tall woman with a very muscular build. She levitated to the taller woman's height. "Yes, Kaijuu? What is it?"

"We've got a problem," she stated.

Konoma quirked an eyebrow. "What kind of problem?"

Five minutes and several curses later, Konoma hovered behind the communication officer's, who was just an ex-DJ who was arrested for smuggling, chair. "I can't deter her, Miss Shii. This Washu is a rather persistent person," she explained.

Konoma felt her temples throbbing. She didn't need this right now. "Simply tell her that it isn't visiting hours yet."

The comm. officer nodded and did as she was instructed. "Uh… just a moment, ma'am," she stuttered into her headset. She flipped a switch and turned to Konoma. "She wants to know when visiting hours are."

Konoma pondered this. It would be suspicious if she didn't have a reply for her. "Tell her 9 to 5," she instructed.

The comm. officer relayed the message and set the headset down. "She'll be here at 9 sharp," she informed.

Konoma looked down at her watch, which she had stolen from an unconscious guard. "That gives us 59 minutes to make this compound look like it's still run by the people it's supposed to be run by. Let's get a move on it, people!"