Chapter 3
After two minor explosions and one major one, caused when Mihoshi came in the lab to tell Washu that it was lunch time, (how she was able to cause a TV remote to leave a table-sized hole in her lab floor in less than a minute, Washu was never able to figure out… even after watching the surveillance tapes of the whole destructive episode) Washu decided that it was a good time to go and eat the lunch that Mihoshi had told Sasami to save for her.
She plastered a smile on her face as she stepped through the door… and tripped right over Tenchi who was scrubbing the hallway floors, trying to get some of the scorch marks out of it. And, as if the goddess of ill-chance was wreaking havoc with them today, Ryoko phased down from her room just in time to see Washu fall into quite a … compromising position with Tenchi.
Ryoko snarled, "So, at it again are we? Well, maybe I need to make more of a lasting impression this time…" She stretched her hand out, palm-forward and prepared to send an energy blast through the floor where the two "lovers" were scrambling to recompose themselves and get out of the way.
Meanwhile….
In the kitchen Sasami happily cleaned the dishes after cooking a large lunch for everyone to enjoy. She was humming a sweet little tune that she had learned from Misaki while she was a toddler on Jurai. She was just putting the last bowl in the cabinet when Ryo-Ohki ran in like a pack of wolves was after her.
"MEEOOOWWW!!!! ROWWWRRR!!!" Her eyes were huge as saucers (and just as white) and
she was obviously terrified.
"Ryo-Ohki? What's wrong?" Sasami asked worriedly. Ryo-Ohki just "meowed" spastically and dashed back into the living room. "Oh dear," Sasami commented. "I had better go and see what the matter…is" She threw the dish towel in the sink and ran off into the next room and saw…
Ryoko stretched out her hand and mentally prepared to kill this little bitch who had wormed her way up the ladder of Tenchi's affections. I will NOT tolerate someone else having him… I will destroy any who get in my way… A dark shadow descended over her mind and she was thrown into a state that she hadn't been in for five thousand years. She was summoning up her energy for one massive blast when a small voice cut through her black haze.
"STOP IT! RYOKO! JUST STOP IT!" A teary-eyed Sasami screamed. Ryoko turned around slowly to look at the little girl. "Ryoko! Don't hurt people! It's not right!" Ryoko stared in shock at the little girl whose large red eyes stared soulfully into hers.
"She looks like… that girl…" whispered Ryoko to herself. That girl…the one who… all of Ryoko's thoughts stopped as she relived a moment of her past. A moment that tormented her in her nightmares. Her arm slowly dropped down to her side, as she fused from reality into the world of dreams.
"Ryoko! Hello! Ryoko?" She snapped back to the present as she heard a voice call her name, and she looked down at Washu and realized exactly what she had been fixing to do. She looked again at Sasami, and then looked down to the ground. "I'm…. I'm sorry." She whispered brokenly, loud enough for just the three to hear. Tenchi walked up the Pirate and opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong, when she suddenly blinked out of sight.
"Well, that was certainly odd!" Said Washu in her token cheery voice. That was all that was needed to snap the other two back into the present. Tenchi looked softly at the spot where Ryoko had been hovering, then went out to the shrine for some practicing. Sasami stood for a moment, and then finally made a little jump and skipped back into the kitchen humming.
Washu sighed to herself, and wondered what exactly her daughter had seen in Sasami. As she bent down to pick up something she had dropped when she tripped, she noticed a small splatter of tears under where Ryoko had been hovering. She solemnly ran a finger over the damp wood, feeling Ryoko's sadness and despair. She straightened up with a grim face, and once again wondered what was wrong with her daughter.