Disclaimer: Nope... I still don't own Tenchi. Hey, the boy's a free spirit!
Whatcha gonna do about a guy like that? ;) Remember to keep your arms inside
the chapter at all times and to keep your safety belt fastened until the chapter
has come to a complete stop. In the event of a water landing, this chapter
probably won't make much of a flotation device. Remember the author's note is
at the bottom of the chapter.
********************************
Days later Hotsuma and Ryoko had barely exchanged a handful of sentences, and
those were only spoken between them because they needed to make arrangements for
their newest ill-gotten gains. Per the usual, Hotsuma yielded to Ryoko's wishes
before the men, but Ryoko felt a twinge of guilt when he bowed his head to her.
He did all the unpleasant work of keeping this gang running, yet he gave her all
the credit as their leader. On the other hand, this gang was built upon her
reputation, and she took on the most dangerous parts of the raids. Still, she
was having more and more trouble figuring out what was fair anymore. Her
experiences on Earth proved that life was seldom fair, so perhaps it didn't
matter much anyhow. She'd tried to be fair with Tenchi, and that had only led
her to false hope and heartache. She'd been disillusioned yet again by Kiyone
and Mihoshi. That was when she'd decided that it was necessary to wall herself
off, so that she wouldn't have to feel that hurt again. She might not be fair,
but she was safe. So why did she feel so empty?
Ryoko turned through the twisted corridors of their new base, as she aimlessly
wandered. The new hideout was again subterranean, dark and gloomy on this
planet. It had the added bonus of being colder than anywhere else she'd ever
been in her extensive travels. Ryoko loathed the cold, and she felt like she
spent most of her time hunched forward and rubbing her arms briskly. Nothing
helped though. She watched a pair of pirates setting up heating units in one of
the halls; it was the only way of keeping the entire base from icing up. It
wasn't enough to make their surroundings pleasant by any stretch of the
imagination.
Ryoko shivered as she entered the cavern where they stored their spoils. She'd
set up a throne that they'd pilfered from the royal family of Elerostra. The
golden surfaces were covered in an intricate bas-relief, and luxurious purple
velvet cushions padded the seat and headrest. Ryoko enjoyed passing out shares
from it, as though she were rewarding her loyal subjects for following her
excellent leadership. Stacks of gold coins stood on either side of the throne,
and racks of expensive garments had just been brought in alongside the far wall
to await Ryoko's consideration.
Hotsuma looked up from the security alarm he was tying into the base's computer
system, as Ryoko strolled into the room. She'd traded her normal pirating
clothes for thermal camo colored to blend into their wintry environment, but the
design was as revealing as ever. No wonder she suffered so badly in this
climate. "Hello, Princess," he greeted cautiously.
Ryoko nodded coolly as she approached the clothing rack. She listlessly thumbed
through the beautiful designer garments. "I have more money than I could have
dreamed, more sake than I could ever drink, and more beautiful clothes than I
could ever wear... but it's not the same. Something's missing," she said softly
without looking at him. It was the first time she'd told him what she was
thinking in a while. She wasn't sure if he would have an answer for her, or if
he even would understand what was bothering her. She didn't understand it
herself.
Hotsuma knew exactly what had been missing for him lately, but when it came to
Ryoko he wasn't sure what he understood anymore. Maybe she wanted to make up
with him, or maybe she was talking about chucking it all and heading back to
Earth. After everything they'd been through together, how could she possibly
not know what she wanted? "Are you trying to tell me that you're missing out on
true love?" Hotsuma replied, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice.
The statement itself seemed neutral enough to fit either of her possible
choices, as far as he could tell.
Ryoko glared at him. That was the last thing she'd wanted to hear. "Then you
obviously don't know me very well!" she spat back venomously. "I'm a pirate!
That candy-coated crap is meaningless to me!" she informed him. Ryoko couldn't
believe herself how his words had set her off. She'd wanted to smooth things
over with him, when she'd first started talking, but she couldn't help but lash
out at him at the first thing he'd said. She had to get out of here; she
couldn't even breathe in this room. She quickly headed for the door, her boots
clicking against the stone floor with each stride.
"Where are you going?" Hotsuma asked her, as he watched her hasty retreat. He
pushed his glasses up in a familiar gesture then crossed his arms, as he waited
for her answer. He'd reached a decision after their giant row the other day,
and he had concluded that he had only two options left. He'd resolved to try
the first one and tell Ryoko everything. If he could prove to Ryoko that he
didn't want to hurt her or Yugi, perhaps together they could create a middle
path between the child and the Masaki family. The second option was his last
resort. He hadn't had any luck so far in talking to her, and he knew from the
last time he'd heard from Yugi that things were coming to a climax back on
Earth. He had to accomplish one of the two courses of action today.
"I'm going out for a walk," Ryoko snapped back at him. She resumed her step,
still needing to get to a place where she could be alone and sort herself out.
If Hotsuma was going to be bringing up subjects like love, she definitely wasn't
ready to talk to him right now. She needed to be calmer. She needed to know
how she would answer his questions. She really needed to sort out her feelings
for the two men in her life.
"I'll go with you," Hotsuma suggested brightly; he knew that if he cowered every
time Ryoko got snippy, he'd never have been able to deal with her. Ryoko had
been making herself unavailable for days. This was the best chance he'd had to
talk with her since making his decision. It was also his last chance, he
realized.
"Just leave me alone!" Ryoko growled, as she stormed off without him. "Can't he
see that I don't want to be pushed right now?" she thought privately. She would
talk to him when she got back-when she was ready.
"And with that I'm down to the final option," Hotsuma thought, as he watched her
back disappearing down the shadowy corridor. Instead of coming out of the
darkness to be with her, he was dragging her down into it with him. She
deserved something better than that. He needed to save her and Yugi both.
Something about the look in Ryoko's eyes made it more important than ever. He
smiled darkly, as he headed into his own rooms to prepare for Ryoko's return.
He didn't understand them, but he'd reached the conclusion that his dreams were
trying to tell him what to do. However, the price for being wrong was high.
Hotsuma had never been the type to back away when things got difficult, and he
wouldn't start now.
Meanwhile, Ryoko was exploring the area surrounding their hideout. "I must
admit Hotsuma picked a secure location for our base. Nobody in his right mind
would want to come to this miserable ball of snow," Ryoko muttered as she flew
low above the blizzard-swept landscape. The dunes of snow here could reach over
a hundred feet in height, and walking on them could be fatal if a misstep led to
an area of loose, sinking snow or created an avalanche.
She descended low enough to grab a big handful of the fluffy white stuff then
landed on the crest of an enormous snowdrift. She looked up into the gray sky
of an endless winter. "True love, huh?" she mumbled, as she packed the fresh
snow between her hands with a squeaky crunching sound. She looked at the large
round snowball with a sly grin, and tested its weight experimentally by bouncing
it in her palm. The one truly great quality about this stuff was the way that
it could be packed into the perfect missile to launch at someone's head.
"Sasami and Mihoshi would especially love this stuff," Ryoko sighed
reflectively. "But I'm the only one who understands it's true potential," she
laughed as she hurled the snowball at a point on the horizon to test her aim.
"Perfect," she cooed. "Now to set up a shooting range!"
With that she proceeded to build a line of snow people with strangely familiar
shapes. On one she would sculpt a spiky ponytail as best the snow would allow,
and on the next she made a small bunny-like creature perched atop its head. The
third she created with its bottom in the air, as though it had tripped, and the
next stood silently by in quiet mortification. The final snow figure stood
regally behind the rest; Ryoko only hoped it would look as straight and haughty
to others as it did to her. She fished into her pocket and pulled out a handful
of change, which she pressed into the snow faces to create eyes.
"Oh yes!" she cackled happily, as she retreated to a suitable distance and began
her snow barrage. She acted out the reactions of her victims, as her cold wet
projectiles soared into their hapless forms. "Oh, my poor little Ryo-ohki!
Kiyone, help me! I can't get up! You wouldn't be that tough if I had my new
invention with me, Ryoko! That was completely uncalled for, you undignified
monster woman!" Ryoko could almost hear them as she mimicked their voices. It
felt good-warm and welcoming. Even light years away they were with her, she
realized. What had been missing was Ryoko. She'd been so preoccupied with
keeping herself safe from another betrayal that she'd failed to think about how
cold it felt to keep everyone else out.
"I get it now," she spoke aloud, letting the last snowball fall heedlessly from
her limp fingers. "I'm The Space Pirate, Ryoko-not some damned coward! I don't
run from anything, and if it means I get hurt sometimes that's just part of the
deal." She cocked her head slyly towards her pummeled snow victims. "Right?"
she asked with a wry grin, as she winked at the silent sentinels on the lonely
crest.
An involuntary shiver brought Ryoko's attention focused upon the subtle shift in
the weather. A slight wind lifted snow from the surrounding dunes and dusted
her hair and skin with the frozen crystals, while the sky overhead darkened with
thickening clouds. She'd already learned the warning signs of an approaching
storm here, and she'd seen them get truly nasty within minutes. Ryoko took to
the sky and headed towards the base. "Poor, Hotsuma," she chuckled. "I've been
pretty awful to him, and he's gone out of his way to help me and do everything
he could for me. I think it's time I showed him a little appreciation," she
added with a lascivious glint in her eyes. "Maybe I don't have all the answers
he wants, but I'm not going to find out by staying here."
Upon returning Ryoko headed straight for her and Hotsuma's private wing. She
quickly passed through the scanners, which marked the two pirates' comings and
goings to ensure that no one else had access to their private space or some of
the best treasures, which they hoarded.
"Somebody turn up the heat! It's freezing in here!" Ryoko complained, clutching
her arms and stomping her feet to warm up. She strode down the passage to
Hotsuma's lab. Perhaps all that time playing in the snow hadn't been such a
good idea. She was torn between wanting to go directly to Hotsuma and wanting
to warm up in her private onsen for a few hours.
Ryoko heard Hotsuma's voice up ahead, and she pricked her ears to listen. She
couldn't make out to whom he spoke. Ryoko slowed her pace and concentrated upon
the sound of his voice. She hung back outside the door, concealing herself in
the shadows as she listened intently.
"I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, but I wasn't ready for this
shrew! She's a total animal-worse even-at least animals can be house broken.
She started to grow on me, but now all I see is a barbarian," Hotsuma
practically yelled. He punctuated his words with frustrated hand gestures; then
he paused to compose himself while adjusting his glasses. "There was no need
for such an elaborate ruse. We should have disposed of her long ago," he
replied to Yugi's previous question.
Ryoko felt as though he'd just sliced her open and left her exposed to the
crows. How could he be the same man who'd been so protective of her around the
bioroid force or in the tunnels of Olmeck? Ryoko's chest tightened as she
fought to slow her beating heart and forced herself to breath deeply. Her mind
flew back to all the tender moments she'd shared with him, as if she were
looking for clues in a desperate attempt to reconcile this new Hotsuma to the
man she thought she knew. A terrible internal whirlwind spun her emotions into
chaos, and it felt like an overpowering influence. "After all we've been
through..." her mind repeated relentlessly. She knew this feeling now, and she
hated this kind of pain more than any other emotion she'd ever felt. She
channeled her pain into the far more comfortable emotion of anger. He had
fooled her with an elaborate lie, and she would find out why. Yes, she'd find
out just as soon as she kicked his face in and ripped his heart out through his
neck! She'd teach him never to toy with the great space pirate!
Hotsuma could hear her shuffle slightly outside the door, and he knew it was
time to feign surprise at the sounds of her presence. He'd learned from Yugi
that Tenchi was headed to confront the child at this very instant, and their
time had run out. It was the moment for his last deception, and he only hoped
there was time enough for this to work. "Who's there?" he demanded as he
switched off Yugi's prerecorded transmission. It wouldn't do for Ryoko to
figure out the trick before she could help him finish things. He couldn't do
this without her power. He wore his expression like a correct mask, as he
whirled around.
Ryoko balled her right hand into a tight fist, so that she could feel her nails
biting into the heel of her palm in crescent shaped lines. She lowered her face
as she swung into the doorway, using the shadows to camouflage any pain that she
couldn't hide. She knew she looked more menacing with her head tilted downward.
It accentuated the slant of her golden eyes to create the illusion of a great
predatory cat, and she wanted to look as dangerous as she felt right now. "That
was a pretty good trick you had going there, Partner," she declared.
"Ryoko?" Hotsuma asked sounding surprised by her presence. He darkened visibly
as he studied her. "How long were you standing there?" he asked sounding angry
and suspicious. His demeanor spoke volumes of treachery and promised violence.
To Ryoko he had adopted the character of their cold and shadowy surroundings.
He was stranger to her now and colder than anyone else she'd ever known.
According to his words it had always been meant to come to this, hadn't it?
"What was the plan, Hotsuma? You wanted me away from Tenchi and Earth, but
why?" she growled. She didn't trust her normal speaking voice at the moment.
"That's all I want to know, and I damned well intend to find out!" She raised
her voice to a yell, as she took to the air and rushed him without warning. She
hit him squarely on the jaw with a right hook, and the impact sent him spiraling
through the brittle stone ceiling and outside to the icy world above.
"Despite detesting me, you did all this to prevent me from being able to protect
Tenchi or Earth! You used me, because you were scared of something that my
feelings for that boy could do!" Ryoko spat as she landed solidly in the
crunching snow, before his supine form. "All this time, it's my feelings for
Tenchi that you've been trying to sabotage!" she accused furiously.
Hotsuma wiped a trace of blood away from the corner of his mouth and smirked
humorlessly at the cyan-tressed space pirate. "Too bad he doesn't feel the same
way about you," Hotsuma taunted vindictively as he rose to his feet. He needed
her to be angrier, and as long as she was talking to him about her feelings for
that farm-boy, his anger was his best tool to incite her. "He played you for a
fool, Ryoko! Worse than I did," he continued. He let out a derisive laugh as
he locked gazes with her. The blizzard blew his hair across his eyes as the
biting snow pelted down between them at a sharp angle. "At least you knew I was
a pirate," he finished letting his words imply her own stupidity for falling
into a trap.
"It has nothing to do with reward or possession. Even if the ones I love hurt
me, I have to remain true to myself! I will protect Tenchi and my friends and
the Earth, not to win him but simply because I love them all. What I feel for
Tenchi is something that a guy like you could never understand, Hotsuma," Ryoko
countered coldly. "A heartless bastard like you could never comprehend what it
means to love."
Her words whipped through him like chilling daggers that made the blizzard pale
in comparison. Anger welled up in their wake, like blood pooling in fresh, raw
wounds. In the end, maybe she always would idealize that "innocent", but it
made Hotsuma want to scream at her and shake her until she screamed. He could
feel premonitions of danger from Earth. "You're mine!" Hotsuma bellowed in rage
and jealousy, and he took to the air, hurtling a desperate punch towards her.
Ryoko caught a glow out of her peripheral vision, as she swung her arm up to
block the incoming blow. The crystal at her wrist cast a bright light even
through her glove and the blinding snow. "Tenchi..." she breathed as the
feeling of danger washed over her. He needed her help. She had to end this
fight quickly and find a way to get to Earth, and that meant it was time to get
down and brutal.
The distraction caused by the crystal was enough for Hotsuma to land his blow to
her cheek, much to both their surprises. Ryoko rocked under the force and she
struggled to keep her footing in the slippery snow. She dropped her center of
gravity and from a bent position lashed out at her enraged partner with a
roundhouse kick. She cursed inwardly as he dodged the full force of it, but
with a twist of her body she rammed her elbow into his back. It hurt like hell,
but she was pretty sure from his cry that she'd fractured a rib or two for him.
Hotsuma managed to put a few feet between them, before he spun around to face
her again. He crouched slightly and held one arm behind him as though
protecting his injury. His breathing felt labored as each inhalation was
brought up short by a nearly electric jolt of pain. He didn't have time or
patience for her to take him apart piece by piece. He needed a quick full power
attack from the glowering woman, and he was just going to have to up the ante to
get it. Hotsuma unleashed a blow to her stomach, and as she leapt to the side
he hurled a lower powered energy ball at her.
Ryoko screamed as the energy blast knocked her backwards into a snowdrift.
About ten feet away Hotsuma landed in the snow and rolled to his feet, coming up
with his energy sword readied. Ryoko somersaulted backwards as he rushed her.
She conjured her own energy blade and crossed her body with it defensively as he
slashed viciously downward. Her reddish beam flared as his green one collided
with it, and both combatants staggered with the energy surge that passed between
the sabers.
"How do you like your lover now?" Hotsuma nearly purred against her ear, using
the proximity to his advantage to land another barb. Ryoko's free hand shot out
with a slap to his cheek that snapped his neck around like a loose pivot. He
was definitely on the right track, but he couldn't let up yet. He flew
backwards to the top of a small snow hill and fired a continuous barrage of
energy disks at the furious woman, which sent her scurrying for cover.
In desperation Ryoko phased out of being and teleported behind the blond man's
back. She raised her hands to nail him with a plasma blast of her own, but he
had sensed her intent when she'd disappeared. He turned and fired a blast of
his own, which collided with hers midway between the two pirates and caused her
blast to detonate prematurely. Then he flickered out of phase, leaving Ryoko
scanning the air around her anxiously for any flicker to betray his new
location. The seconds continued to pass without any sign of him, and an ominous
feeling ate at Ryoko as she waited.
Without warning a hand shot out of the snow at her feet and latched onto her
ankle, as Hotsuma flew out of the snow with the force of a bullet. He carried
Ryoko helplessly into the air with him and used his momentum to fling her back
to the ground. Her hair fluttered around her face like a spirit as the breeze
gusted around her. She shot back at him awkwardly as she plummeted, but he
easily dodged the small burst. Ryoko gathered enough energy around her to break
her fall, and immediately had to dodge a fresh onslaught of plasma bursts from
the tall, calculating pirate.
Their energy attacks continued to intensify, like an insane nuclear arms race
devouring the pair of them. Each blast was bigger or more concentrated than the
last, and the verbal sparring between them continued to goad them each onward.
Hotsuma found it slightly less unsavory to incite Ryoko with his words than with
physical violence. Afterall, it wasn't his goal to injure her, no mater how
angry or hurt some of her words had left him. Hotsuma could finally feel the
blast he'd been waiting for, building within his partner. Even the air around
him sparked and rippled with the energy, that Ryoko was gathering. This was it!
Ryoko screamed as she fired an extremely concentrated energy blast at the man
who'd betrayed her. She would destroy him here and now; she had to! Tenchi
needed her! She felt danger prickling along all her senses, and it was
increasing with every passing second. If this much energy didn't constitute a
lethal blow against the cunning bastard, nothing would!
As soon as the energy ball had left her fingers, Hotsuma extinguished his energy
sword and pulled Ryoko's locket from his pocket. He flung his arms wide, the
locket dangling from the fingers of his left hand, and he stared directly into
Ryoko's startled gold eyes as the blast flew towards him.
Hotsuma felt the sparking orange plasma ball hurtling towards him, and it seemed
that the seconds themselves slowed down for him as his world narrowed to that
accelerating energy projectile. He wasn't sure how much energy it took to kill
a monster like himself, but he sensed that this was Ryoko's most powerful
attack. He was sorry that he'd had to push Ryoko into this, but he didn't think
he was powerful enough to do this on his own. And maybe he needed it to be like
this. Perhaps death at her hands was the only way to atone for his deceptions.
No, it wasn't really death, if he was right.
Ryoko's eyes widened in horror as she realized what he'd been intending all
along. Hotsuma's long blond bangs fluttered almost serenely before his calm
face. He'd lost his glasses a couple of punches ago, but he was still staring
unerringly at her. His mouth moved with almost silent words, but his whisper
carried over the blustering winds as powerfully as the loudest scream. "I love
you," his words echoed in Ryoko's ears, as she floundered with exactly what was
happening. It was too late to do anything to stop what was about to occur, she
wouldn't even be able to phase to him before that plasma cut through him. All
she could do was stand there with her eyes locked upon his as the orange plasma
ball ripped through the serene pirate's chest.
Ryoko was released from her shocked torpor as the blast knocked him ten feet
backwards in a spray of blood. She screamed his name as she immediately
teleported to his side and dropped to her knees in the snow. "What the hell
were you doing?" she demanded as tears sprung to her eyes, and she pulled his
mangled body into her arms as though her presence would stave off death itself.
"What were you doing?" she repeated inconsolably. The hole in his chest made a
sickening whistle as he struggled to breath, and she could see the light and
awareness in his eyes dimming quickly as his blood tainted the pristine snow
around them. She realized that he was smiling at her warmly, and she suddenly
felt something small being pressed into her palm. She immediately recognized
the locket, as he pushed it into her hand and led her fingers to a smaller ruby
at the side of the heart. She bent to kiss him tenderly, and her warm tears
landed on his rapidly cooling cheeks. Then even the whistling from his chest
stopped, and his body began to fade away in her panicked arms.
The intense pain stopped for Hotsuma and he could feel himself snapping back
into place inside Yugi. He was connected directly to her mind again, and he
knew that she had placed the young shrine keeper inside one of her illusory
worlds. It was time that he exercised some powers of his own and took away her
control over the illusions. Yugi's shadow needed to wake up from her dream
world before the farm boy was lost forever in her false paradise, and he tapped
into Yugi's psyche enough to send that wakeup call along. He could see a mental
image of the shadow before him, and she seemed completely unaware of the kind of
world in which she was living. "You can't have him like that Sakuya," he
whispered into her thoughts. He could feel her angry and indignant responses
flailing back at him. "A living thing can't survive in your dream life. To
keep him is to kill him," he reminded the shadow, before sending her a fresh
surge of self-awareness.
That accomplished, Hotsuma himself would confront Yugi on the battlefield of her
mind. "Enough!" he bellowed into the child's thoughts like an angry father.
"Do you really want to be all alone again in the dark? Because that's the
direction that you're leading yourself! It's time to stop this, and I won't let
you destroy yourself or anyone else anymore," he told the increasingly
hysterical child. Yes, he felt Tenchi slipping out of Yugi's grasp. Hotsuma
used his own thoughts to remove Yugi's control over her illusions. He'd left
Ryoko all the information that he could in the locket, and he could only trust
in her to do what was needed on the outside while he worked on Yugi from the
inside.
Alone in the icy blizzard Ryoko tried to wrap her mind around Hotsuma's
disappearance. Even the stains of blood were fading from the snow, as though
the grisly scene had never taken place. She'd been sobbing uncontrollably since
he'd vanished in her arms, and she made little hiccupping noises as she tried to
calm her still spastic bronchi. She sniffed a few times to further clear her
breathing, as her mind continued to lurch. Ryoko felt a small, hard presence in
her closed hand, and she opened her fingers to study the locket in shock. She'd
forgotten about it in the wake of their flight from the GXP, but here it was-the
only treasure that remained from those early days together. She caressed its
jeweled surface raptly, and her fingers found the small ruby that Hotsuma had
been guiding them to. Ryoko took a steadying breath, and pressed the stone.
*******************
Author's Note: Okay, here's Kleenex for any of you who are in need!
::ryoko11 passes around a box of tissue for anyone who looks teary or is
sniffling::
That was a really tough chapter to write. The lemon was the most difficult from
a technical standpoint, but this was the most emotionally difficult. That's why
it took so long. I feel that Ryoko and Hotsuma do need to come to blows in a
real confrontation not only because they are on opposite sides of the Yugi
conflict but also because of all the tensions and fights that build between them
after the incident with Kiyone and Mihoshi. There has to be a fight to vent all
that and possibly to atone for all the deceptions or stupid actions. Plus, it
needed to happen for Hotsuma's plan. I always found it interesting that Sakuya
didn't help Tenchi until after Hotsuma's "death", and Yugi also undergoes a
drastic shift after that when she becomes increasingly hysterical. I felt it
important to give Hotsuma more of a roll in these events for several reasons.
One of the main ones being that his sudden personality shift at the end just
never felt convincing to me. (Even though they did give him excuses to be
pretty pissed off) There are still two chapters to come, and there's a lot to
come in those chapters. So let's all take a deep breath and remember that this
IS a Hotsuma/Ryoko romance. And it ain't over till Amagasaki sings! ;)
Whatcha gonna do about a guy like that? ;) Remember to keep your arms inside
the chapter at all times and to keep your safety belt fastened until the chapter
has come to a complete stop. In the event of a water landing, this chapter
probably won't make much of a flotation device. Remember the author's note is
at the bottom of the chapter.
********************************
Days later Hotsuma and Ryoko had barely exchanged a handful of sentences, and
those were only spoken between them because they needed to make arrangements for
their newest ill-gotten gains. Per the usual, Hotsuma yielded to Ryoko's wishes
before the men, but Ryoko felt a twinge of guilt when he bowed his head to her.
He did all the unpleasant work of keeping this gang running, yet he gave her all
the credit as their leader. On the other hand, this gang was built upon her
reputation, and she took on the most dangerous parts of the raids. Still, she
was having more and more trouble figuring out what was fair anymore. Her
experiences on Earth proved that life was seldom fair, so perhaps it didn't
matter much anyhow. She'd tried to be fair with Tenchi, and that had only led
her to false hope and heartache. She'd been disillusioned yet again by Kiyone
and Mihoshi. That was when she'd decided that it was necessary to wall herself
off, so that she wouldn't have to feel that hurt again. She might not be fair,
but she was safe. So why did she feel so empty?
Ryoko turned through the twisted corridors of their new base, as she aimlessly
wandered. The new hideout was again subterranean, dark and gloomy on this
planet. It had the added bonus of being colder than anywhere else she'd ever
been in her extensive travels. Ryoko loathed the cold, and she felt like she
spent most of her time hunched forward and rubbing her arms briskly. Nothing
helped though. She watched a pair of pirates setting up heating units in one of
the halls; it was the only way of keeping the entire base from icing up. It
wasn't enough to make their surroundings pleasant by any stretch of the
imagination.
Ryoko shivered as she entered the cavern where they stored their spoils. She'd
set up a throne that they'd pilfered from the royal family of Elerostra. The
golden surfaces were covered in an intricate bas-relief, and luxurious purple
velvet cushions padded the seat and headrest. Ryoko enjoyed passing out shares
from it, as though she were rewarding her loyal subjects for following her
excellent leadership. Stacks of gold coins stood on either side of the throne,
and racks of expensive garments had just been brought in alongside the far wall
to await Ryoko's consideration.
Hotsuma looked up from the security alarm he was tying into the base's computer
system, as Ryoko strolled into the room. She'd traded her normal pirating
clothes for thermal camo colored to blend into their wintry environment, but the
design was as revealing as ever. No wonder she suffered so badly in this
climate. "Hello, Princess," he greeted cautiously.
Ryoko nodded coolly as she approached the clothing rack. She listlessly thumbed
through the beautiful designer garments. "I have more money than I could have
dreamed, more sake than I could ever drink, and more beautiful clothes than I
could ever wear... but it's not the same. Something's missing," she said softly
without looking at him. It was the first time she'd told him what she was
thinking in a while. She wasn't sure if he would have an answer for her, or if
he even would understand what was bothering her. She didn't understand it
herself.
Hotsuma knew exactly what had been missing for him lately, but when it came to
Ryoko he wasn't sure what he understood anymore. Maybe she wanted to make up
with him, or maybe she was talking about chucking it all and heading back to
Earth. After everything they'd been through together, how could she possibly
not know what she wanted? "Are you trying to tell me that you're missing out on
true love?" Hotsuma replied, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice.
The statement itself seemed neutral enough to fit either of her possible
choices, as far as he could tell.
Ryoko glared at him. That was the last thing she'd wanted to hear. "Then you
obviously don't know me very well!" she spat back venomously. "I'm a pirate!
That candy-coated crap is meaningless to me!" she informed him. Ryoko couldn't
believe herself how his words had set her off. She'd wanted to smooth things
over with him, when she'd first started talking, but she couldn't help but lash
out at him at the first thing he'd said. She had to get out of here; she
couldn't even breathe in this room. She quickly headed for the door, her boots
clicking against the stone floor with each stride.
"Where are you going?" Hotsuma asked her, as he watched her hasty retreat. He
pushed his glasses up in a familiar gesture then crossed his arms, as he waited
for her answer. He'd reached a decision after their giant row the other day,
and he had concluded that he had only two options left. He'd resolved to try
the first one and tell Ryoko everything. If he could prove to Ryoko that he
didn't want to hurt her or Yugi, perhaps together they could create a middle
path between the child and the Masaki family. The second option was his last
resort. He hadn't had any luck so far in talking to her, and he knew from the
last time he'd heard from Yugi that things were coming to a climax back on
Earth. He had to accomplish one of the two courses of action today.
"I'm going out for a walk," Ryoko snapped back at him. She resumed her step,
still needing to get to a place where she could be alone and sort herself out.
If Hotsuma was going to be bringing up subjects like love, she definitely wasn't
ready to talk to him right now. She needed to be calmer. She needed to know
how she would answer his questions. She really needed to sort out her feelings
for the two men in her life.
"I'll go with you," Hotsuma suggested brightly; he knew that if he cowered every
time Ryoko got snippy, he'd never have been able to deal with her. Ryoko had
been making herself unavailable for days. This was the best chance he'd had to
talk with her since making his decision. It was also his last chance, he
realized.
"Just leave me alone!" Ryoko growled, as she stormed off without him. "Can't he
see that I don't want to be pushed right now?" she thought privately. She would
talk to him when she got back-when she was ready.
"And with that I'm down to the final option," Hotsuma thought, as he watched her
back disappearing down the shadowy corridor. Instead of coming out of the
darkness to be with her, he was dragging her down into it with him. She
deserved something better than that. He needed to save her and Yugi both.
Something about the look in Ryoko's eyes made it more important than ever. He
smiled darkly, as he headed into his own rooms to prepare for Ryoko's return.
He didn't understand them, but he'd reached the conclusion that his dreams were
trying to tell him what to do. However, the price for being wrong was high.
Hotsuma had never been the type to back away when things got difficult, and he
wouldn't start now.
Meanwhile, Ryoko was exploring the area surrounding their hideout. "I must
admit Hotsuma picked a secure location for our base. Nobody in his right mind
would want to come to this miserable ball of snow," Ryoko muttered as she flew
low above the blizzard-swept landscape. The dunes of snow here could reach over
a hundred feet in height, and walking on them could be fatal if a misstep led to
an area of loose, sinking snow or created an avalanche.
She descended low enough to grab a big handful of the fluffy white stuff then
landed on the crest of an enormous snowdrift. She looked up into the gray sky
of an endless winter. "True love, huh?" she mumbled, as she packed the fresh
snow between her hands with a squeaky crunching sound. She looked at the large
round snowball with a sly grin, and tested its weight experimentally by bouncing
it in her palm. The one truly great quality about this stuff was the way that
it could be packed into the perfect missile to launch at someone's head.
"Sasami and Mihoshi would especially love this stuff," Ryoko sighed
reflectively. "But I'm the only one who understands it's true potential," she
laughed as she hurled the snowball at a point on the horizon to test her aim.
"Perfect," she cooed. "Now to set up a shooting range!"
With that she proceeded to build a line of snow people with strangely familiar
shapes. On one she would sculpt a spiky ponytail as best the snow would allow,
and on the next she made a small bunny-like creature perched atop its head. The
third she created with its bottom in the air, as though it had tripped, and the
next stood silently by in quiet mortification. The final snow figure stood
regally behind the rest; Ryoko only hoped it would look as straight and haughty
to others as it did to her. She fished into her pocket and pulled out a handful
of change, which she pressed into the snow faces to create eyes.
"Oh yes!" she cackled happily, as she retreated to a suitable distance and began
her snow barrage. She acted out the reactions of her victims, as her cold wet
projectiles soared into their hapless forms. "Oh, my poor little Ryo-ohki!
Kiyone, help me! I can't get up! You wouldn't be that tough if I had my new
invention with me, Ryoko! That was completely uncalled for, you undignified
monster woman!" Ryoko could almost hear them as she mimicked their voices. It
felt good-warm and welcoming. Even light years away they were with her, she
realized. What had been missing was Ryoko. She'd been so preoccupied with
keeping herself safe from another betrayal that she'd failed to think about how
cold it felt to keep everyone else out.
"I get it now," she spoke aloud, letting the last snowball fall heedlessly from
her limp fingers. "I'm The Space Pirate, Ryoko-not some damned coward! I don't
run from anything, and if it means I get hurt sometimes that's just part of the
deal." She cocked her head slyly towards her pummeled snow victims. "Right?"
she asked with a wry grin, as she winked at the silent sentinels on the lonely
crest.
An involuntary shiver brought Ryoko's attention focused upon the subtle shift in
the weather. A slight wind lifted snow from the surrounding dunes and dusted
her hair and skin with the frozen crystals, while the sky overhead darkened with
thickening clouds. She'd already learned the warning signs of an approaching
storm here, and she'd seen them get truly nasty within minutes. Ryoko took to
the sky and headed towards the base. "Poor, Hotsuma," she chuckled. "I've been
pretty awful to him, and he's gone out of his way to help me and do everything
he could for me. I think it's time I showed him a little appreciation," she
added with a lascivious glint in her eyes. "Maybe I don't have all the answers
he wants, but I'm not going to find out by staying here."
Upon returning Ryoko headed straight for her and Hotsuma's private wing. She
quickly passed through the scanners, which marked the two pirates' comings and
goings to ensure that no one else had access to their private space or some of
the best treasures, which they hoarded.
"Somebody turn up the heat! It's freezing in here!" Ryoko complained, clutching
her arms and stomping her feet to warm up. She strode down the passage to
Hotsuma's lab. Perhaps all that time playing in the snow hadn't been such a
good idea. She was torn between wanting to go directly to Hotsuma and wanting
to warm up in her private onsen for a few hours.
Ryoko heard Hotsuma's voice up ahead, and she pricked her ears to listen. She
couldn't make out to whom he spoke. Ryoko slowed her pace and concentrated upon
the sound of his voice. She hung back outside the door, concealing herself in
the shadows as she listened intently.
"I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, but I wasn't ready for this
shrew! She's a total animal-worse even-at least animals can be house broken.
She started to grow on me, but now all I see is a barbarian," Hotsuma
practically yelled. He punctuated his words with frustrated hand gestures; then
he paused to compose himself while adjusting his glasses. "There was no need
for such an elaborate ruse. We should have disposed of her long ago," he
replied to Yugi's previous question.
Ryoko felt as though he'd just sliced her open and left her exposed to the
crows. How could he be the same man who'd been so protective of her around the
bioroid force or in the tunnels of Olmeck? Ryoko's chest tightened as she
fought to slow her beating heart and forced herself to breath deeply. Her mind
flew back to all the tender moments she'd shared with him, as if she were
looking for clues in a desperate attempt to reconcile this new Hotsuma to the
man she thought she knew. A terrible internal whirlwind spun her emotions into
chaos, and it felt like an overpowering influence. "After all we've been
through..." her mind repeated relentlessly. She knew this feeling now, and she
hated this kind of pain more than any other emotion she'd ever felt. She
channeled her pain into the far more comfortable emotion of anger. He had
fooled her with an elaborate lie, and she would find out why. Yes, she'd find
out just as soon as she kicked his face in and ripped his heart out through his
neck! She'd teach him never to toy with the great space pirate!
Hotsuma could hear her shuffle slightly outside the door, and he knew it was
time to feign surprise at the sounds of her presence. He'd learned from Yugi
that Tenchi was headed to confront the child at this very instant, and their
time had run out. It was the moment for his last deception, and he only hoped
there was time enough for this to work. "Who's there?" he demanded as he
switched off Yugi's prerecorded transmission. It wouldn't do for Ryoko to
figure out the trick before she could help him finish things. He couldn't do
this without her power. He wore his expression like a correct mask, as he
whirled around.
Ryoko balled her right hand into a tight fist, so that she could feel her nails
biting into the heel of her palm in crescent shaped lines. She lowered her face
as she swung into the doorway, using the shadows to camouflage any pain that she
couldn't hide. She knew she looked more menacing with her head tilted downward.
It accentuated the slant of her golden eyes to create the illusion of a great
predatory cat, and she wanted to look as dangerous as she felt right now. "That
was a pretty good trick you had going there, Partner," she declared.
"Ryoko?" Hotsuma asked sounding surprised by her presence. He darkened visibly
as he studied her. "How long were you standing there?" he asked sounding angry
and suspicious. His demeanor spoke volumes of treachery and promised violence.
To Ryoko he had adopted the character of their cold and shadowy surroundings.
He was stranger to her now and colder than anyone else she'd ever known.
According to his words it had always been meant to come to this, hadn't it?
"What was the plan, Hotsuma? You wanted me away from Tenchi and Earth, but
why?" she growled. She didn't trust her normal speaking voice at the moment.
"That's all I want to know, and I damned well intend to find out!" She raised
her voice to a yell, as she took to the air and rushed him without warning. She
hit him squarely on the jaw with a right hook, and the impact sent him spiraling
through the brittle stone ceiling and outside to the icy world above.
"Despite detesting me, you did all this to prevent me from being able to protect
Tenchi or Earth! You used me, because you were scared of something that my
feelings for that boy could do!" Ryoko spat as she landed solidly in the
crunching snow, before his supine form. "All this time, it's my feelings for
Tenchi that you've been trying to sabotage!" she accused furiously.
Hotsuma wiped a trace of blood away from the corner of his mouth and smirked
humorlessly at the cyan-tressed space pirate. "Too bad he doesn't feel the same
way about you," Hotsuma taunted vindictively as he rose to his feet. He needed
her to be angrier, and as long as she was talking to him about her feelings for
that farm-boy, his anger was his best tool to incite her. "He played you for a
fool, Ryoko! Worse than I did," he continued. He let out a derisive laugh as
he locked gazes with her. The blizzard blew his hair across his eyes as the
biting snow pelted down between them at a sharp angle. "At least you knew I was
a pirate," he finished letting his words imply her own stupidity for falling
into a trap.
"It has nothing to do with reward or possession. Even if the ones I love hurt
me, I have to remain true to myself! I will protect Tenchi and my friends and
the Earth, not to win him but simply because I love them all. What I feel for
Tenchi is something that a guy like you could never understand, Hotsuma," Ryoko
countered coldly. "A heartless bastard like you could never comprehend what it
means to love."
Her words whipped through him like chilling daggers that made the blizzard pale
in comparison. Anger welled up in their wake, like blood pooling in fresh, raw
wounds. In the end, maybe she always would idealize that "innocent", but it
made Hotsuma want to scream at her and shake her until she screamed. He could
feel premonitions of danger from Earth. "You're mine!" Hotsuma bellowed in rage
and jealousy, and he took to the air, hurtling a desperate punch towards her.
Ryoko caught a glow out of her peripheral vision, as she swung her arm up to
block the incoming blow. The crystal at her wrist cast a bright light even
through her glove and the blinding snow. "Tenchi..." she breathed as the
feeling of danger washed over her. He needed her help. She had to end this
fight quickly and find a way to get to Earth, and that meant it was time to get
down and brutal.
The distraction caused by the crystal was enough for Hotsuma to land his blow to
her cheek, much to both their surprises. Ryoko rocked under the force and she
struggled to keep her footing in the slippery snow. She dropped her center of
gravity and from a bent position lashed out at her enraged partner with a
roundhouse kick. She cursed inwardly as he dodged the full force of it, but
with a twist of her body she rammed her elbow into his back. It hurt like hell,
but she was pretty sure from his cry that she'd fractured a rib or two for him.
Hotsuma managed to put a few feet between them, before he spun around to face
her again. He crouched slightly and held one arm behind him as though
protecting his injury. His breathing felt labored as each inhalation was
brought up short by a nearly electric jolt of pain. He didn't have time or
patience for her to take him apart piece by piece. He needed a quick full power
attack from the glowering woman, and he was just going to have to up the ante to
get it. Hotsuma unleashed a blow to her stomach, and as she leapt to the side
he hurled a lower powered energy ball at her.
Ryoko screamed as the energy blast knocked her backwards into a snowdrift.
About ten feet away Hotsuma landed in the snow and rolled to his feet, coming up
with his energy sword readied. Ryoko somersaulted backwards as he rushed her.
She conjured her own energy blade and crossed her body with it defensively as he
slashed viciously downward. Her reddish beam flared as his green one collided
with it, and both combatants staggered with the energy surge that passed between
the sabers.
"How do you like your lover now?" Hotsuma nearly purred against her ear, using
the proximity to his advantage to land another barb. Ryoko's free hand shot out
with a slap to his cheek that snapped his neck around like a loose pivot. He
was definitely on the right track, but he couldn't let up yet. He flew
backwards to the top of a small snow hill and fired a continuous barrage of
energy disks at the furious woman, which sent her scurrying for cover.
In desperation Ryoko phased out of being and teleported behind the blond man's
back. She raised her hands to nail him with a plasma blast of her own, but he
had sensed her intent when she'd disappeared. He turned and fired a blast of
his own, which collided with hers midway between the two pirates and caused her
blast to detonate prematurely. Then he flickered out of phase, leaving Ryoko
scanning the air around her anxiously for any flicker to betray his new
location. The seconds continued to pass without any sign of him, and an ominous
feeling ate at Ryoko as she waited.
Without warning a hand shot out of the snow at her feet and latched onto her
ankle, as Hotsuma flew out of the snow with the force of a bullet. He carried
Ryoko helplessly into the air with him and used his momentum to fling her back
to the ground. Her hair fluttered around her face like a spirit as the breeze
gusted around her. She shot back at him awkwardly as she plummeted, but he
easily dodged the small burst. Ryoko gathered enough energy around her to break
her fall, and immediately had to dodge a fresh onslaught of plasma bursts from
the tall, calculating pirate.
Their energy attacks continued to intensify, like an insane nuclear arms race
devouring the pair of them. Each blast was bigger or more concentrated than the
last, and the verbal sparring between them continued to goad them each onward.
Hotsuma found it slightly less unsavory to incite Ryoko with his words than with
physical violence. Afterall, it wasn't his goal to injure her, no mater how
angry or hurt some of her words had left him. Hotsuma could finally feel the
blast he'd been waiting for, building within his partner. Even the air around
him sparked and rippled with the energy, that Ryoko was gathering. This was it!
Ryoko screamed as she fired an extremely concentrated energy blast at the man
who'd betrayed her. She would destroy him here and now; she had to! Tenchi
needed her! She felt danger prickling along all her senses, and it was
increasing with every passing second. If this much energy didn't constitute a
lethal blow against the cunning bastard, nothing would!
As soon as the energy ball had left her fingers, Hotsuma extinguished his energy
sword and pulled Ryoko's locket from his pocket. He flung his arms wide, the
locket dangling from the fingers of his left hand, and he stared directly into
Ryoko's startled gold eyes as the blast flew towards him.
Hotsuma felt the sparking orange plasma ball hurtling towards him, and it seemed
that the seconds themselves slowed down for him as his world narrowed to that
accelerating energy projectile. He wasn't sure how much energy it took to kill
a monster like himself, but he sensed that this was Ryoko's most powerful
attack. He was sorry that he'd had to push Ryoko into this, but he didn't think
he was powerful enough to do this on his own. And maybe he needed it to be like
this. Perhaps death at her hands was the only way to atone for his deceptions.
No, it wasn't really death, if he was right.
Ryoko's eyes widened in horror as she realized what he'd been intending all
along. Hotsuma's long blond bangs fluttered almost serenely before his calm
face. He'd lost his glasses a couple of punches ago, but he was still staring
unerringly at her. His mouth moved with almost silent words, but his whisper
carried over the blustering winds as powerfully as the loudest scream. "I love
you," his words echoed in Ryoko's ears, as she floundered with exactly what was
happening. It was too late to do anything to stop what was about to occur, she
wouldn't even be able to phase to him before that plasma cut through him. All
she could do was stand there with her eyes locked upon his as the orange plasma
ball ripped through the serene pirate's chest.
Ryoko was released from her shocked torpor as the blast knocked him ten feet
backwards in a spray of blood. She screamed his name as she immediately
teleported to his side and dropped to her knees in the snow. "What the hell
were you doing?" she demanded as tears sprung to her eyes, and she pulled his
mangled body into her arms as though her presence would stave off death itself.
"What were you doing?" she repeated inconsolably. The hole in his chest made a
sickening whistle as he struggled to breath, and she could see the light and
awareness in his eyes dimming quickly as his blood tainted the pristine snow
around them. She realized that he was smiling at her warmly, and she suddenly
felt something small being pressed into her palm. She immediately recognized
the locket, as he pushed it into her hand and led her fingers to a smaller ruby
at the side of the heart. She bent to kiss him tenderly, and her warm tears
landed on his rapidly cooling cheeks. Then even the whistling from his chest
stopped, and his body began to fade away in her panicked arms.
The intense pain stopped for Hotsuma and he could feel himself snapping back
into place inside Yugi. He was connected directly to her mind again, and he
knew that she had placed the young shrine keeper inside one of her illusory
worlds. It was time that he exercised some powers of his own and took away her
control over the illusions. Yugi's shadow needed to wake up from her dream
world before the farm boy was lost forever in her false paradise, and he tapped
into Yugi's psyche enough to send that wakeup call along. He could see a mental
image of the shadow before him, and she seemed completely unaware of the kind of
world in which she was living. "You can't have him like that Sakuya," he
whispered into her thoughts. He could feel her angry and indignant responses
flailing back at him. "A living thing can't survive in your dream life. To
keep him is to kill him," he reminded the shadow, before sending her a fresh
surge of self-awareness.
That accomplished, Hotsuma himself would confront Yugi on the battlefield of her
mind. "Enough!" he bellowed into the child's thoughts like an angry father.
"Do you really want to be all alone again in the dark? Because that's the
direction that you're leading yourself! It's time to stop this, and I won't let
you destroy yourself or anyone else anymore," he told the increasingly
hysterical child. Yes, he felt Tenchi slipping out of Yugi's grasp. Hotsuma
used his own thoughts to remove Yugi's control over her illusions. He'd left
Ryoko all the information that he could in the locket, and he could only trust
in her to do what was needed on the outside while he worked on Yugi from the
inside.
Alone in the icy blizzard Ryoko tried to wrap her mind around Hotsuma's
disappearance. Even the stains of blood were fading from the snow, as though
the grisly scene had never taken place. She'd been sobbing uncontrollably since
he'd vanished in her arms, and she made little hiccupping noises as she tried to
calm her still spastic bronchi. She sniffed a few times to further clear her
breathing, as her mind continued to lurch. Ryoko felt a small, hard presence in
her closed hand, and she opened her fingers to study the locket in shock. She'd
forgotten about it in the wake of their flight from the GXP, but here it was-the
only treasure that remained from those early days together. She caressed its
jeweled surface raptly, and her fingers found the small ruby that Hotsuma had
been guiding them to. Ryoko took a steadying breath, and pressed the stone.
*******************
Author's Note: Okay, here's Kleenex for any of you who are in need!
::ryoko11 passes around a box of tissue for anyone who looks teary or is
sniffling::
That was a really tough chapter to write. The lemon was the most difficult from
a technical standpoint, but this was the most emotionally difficult. That's why
it took so long. I feel that Ryoko and Hotsuma do need to come to blows in a
real confrontation not only because they are on opposite sides of the Yugi
conflict but also because of all the tensions and fights that build between them
after the incident with Kiyone and Mihoshi. There has to be a fight to vent all
that and possibly to atone for all the deceptions or stupid actions. Plus, it
needed to happen for Hotsuma's plan. I always found it interesting that Sakuya
didn't help Tenchi until after Hotsuma's "death", and Yugi also undergoes a
drastic shift after that when she becomes increasingly hysterical. I felt it
important to give Hotsuma more of a roll in these events for several reasons.
One of the main ones being that his sudden personality shift at the end just
never felt convincing to me. (Even though they did give him excuses to be
pretty pissed off) There are still two chapters to come, and there's a lot to
come in those chapters. So let's all take a deep breath and remember that this
IS a Hotsuma/Ryoko romance. And it ain't over till Amagasaki sings! ;)