** Disclaimer: Still don't own Tenchi, still am not a millionaire. This story is meant for recreational purposes only. Any other use of this work will result in much name-calling, endless bickering and party in which we'll all do the Mexican Hat Dance until dawn breaks.
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Tenchi Muyo! - Echoes of Twilight
A Fan Fiction by Sebayn
Cycle Alpha - Chapter 2: Deadlocked
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"Without order nothing can exist - without chaos nothing can evolve." - Unknown
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*** II *** II ***
*Clunk* *Clunk*
The dull sounds of metal hitting the ground reverberated evenly time after time again. The noise was unearthly; nothing else could be heard save the hollow sound of the north wind. Overhead, the sun scorched down onto the Earth without compassion. The soil was powdery and lacked even a single molecule of moisture to give it the appearance of fertility.
Tenchi Masaki continued to swing his shovel in a steady repetition.
Why am I doing this? Tenchi questioned himself. Because he is your father, his inner voice answered back.
The smell of fire and smoke was everywhere, it was inescapable. Most of the surrounding forests were already on fire. The dry climate combined with the total deprivation of water made conditions ripe for forest fires. In the far recesses of his busy mind, Tenchi estimated that if the winds shifted right the fires could easily spread to the immediate area around the shrine within an hour, two at tops. But fire was the last thing on the shrine keeper's mind, after all what did it matter?
The entire planet would be a blaze before long. It was only a matter of time, a scarce quantity of the valuable substance that he was quickly running out. Tenchi continued to bring his shovel down and upward, again and again.
But why? Tenchi continued to argue with himself. After all, in a few days, hours or maybe even minutes this place won't be here. It will be wiped out just as will the rest of the planet will be.
*Clunk* *Clunk*
Because it is right, even if it is only for a short time, Tenchi thought. *This* is how it should be. Him by her, for all of eternity.
Tenchi paused to wiped his sweaty brow. The grave was nearing completion, no small feat considering the time he had spent on. The grave was parallel to that of his mother's resting place. Before his father's death, the two of them would visit her shrine together on the day of the anniversary of Achika's death. Both of them often visited her grave alone, seeking whatever temporary relief from the troubles of the world. Now, there would be no more visits together.
There would be no more visits period.
The last ten hours had taken an incredible toll on Tenchi. He was depleted in every sense of the word. Psychically he was exhausted, having not caught any sleep in over 30 hours. Mentally he was broken without a single inkling of how he was going to escape and keep the promise he had made. Emotionally, Tenchi was numb and burned out. Noboyuki's death had done much more than left him alone in the decaying world. It forced him to honestly look at his life in ways he did not wish to.
Terrifying ways.
Why did they leave? It was that question which haunted him the most. Damn it, why?
It was an unanswerable enigma that he had spent countless years of his life trying to answer. They had come like the eastern wind, each one of them, quickly and without warning. Ayeka, Sasami, Mihoshi, Washu and Ryoko. Five girls from another world who had turned his world upside down and ultimately changed it forever, and he had hated it.
At least, at first he did.
He was accustomed to being alone; it was safer that way. Gradually, after letting them stay in his life he slowly let them into his heart. Each of them in their own way bonded with one another and became family.
He resumed shoveling, frustration and anger fueling his aching muscles.
Memories swam through his mind as though it were an endless vortex, forever trapped and echoing. Memories of faces; Mihoshi's dark skin, Sasami's blue pig tails, Washu's mischievous grin, Ayeka's serenity and Ryoko's golden feline eyes.
The times they shared together; the party the girls surprised threw for him when he graduated from high school, the battle with Kagato, the times when Ayeka and Ryoko blew up at each other and the times he blew up at them. The bad times and the good.
And just as the carnival had begun, it had ended the same way. Quickly and without any warning.
On a bright sunny ordinary day, Tenchi and Noboyuki returned from a grocery-shopping trip to find the house completely deserted. All of the girl's personal belongings were gone. The spare futons were neatly rolled and placed in the corner of the now empty guest rooms. Every part, every inch of the house was in pristine order.
Tenchi vividly remembered climbing the old wooden ladder up into the upper rafters of the house where Ryoko normally dwelled. The wooden pillars were neatly dusted, a pillow was tucked away against the wall and a few unopened bottles of sake stood stacked on top of one another keeping silent watch over the deserted area.
The only traces that the girls had ever lived there came in the form a small, simple note from Sasami. That damned note. Tenchi had read it hundreds of times over the last twenty years.
At first, Tenchi held onto hope that it was somehow an illusion, a trick. He went about everyday life as he had always done; taking care of the chores up at the shrine, training with this grandfather and being vigilant with his studies at college. In fact, it was only until three weeks later during a test in his Japanese History class when it finally hit him.
Ryoko, Ayeka, Sasami, Mihoshi and Washu were never coming back.
Just like the Shogun and Meiji eras, a chapter in his life had come to a close and would never be re-opened.
His grades dropped, it was obvious to both his father and grandfather that he was in a deep depression. Eventually he dropped out of college altogether that semester. It took him a year to restore his life to the point where he could go back.
What could I have done? Tenchi bitterly thought. Did they want me to follow them? How, with *what?* Spontaneous would be a way of describing each of the girls to some extent, each had always demonstrated the ability to make rash decisions without much thinking. Maybe they really did just get bored and leave?
They couldn't spend the rest of their lives on Earth after all.
The abrupt departure of Ryo-ouki and Yukinojo had effectively eliminated all of the interplanetary travel options available to the forgotten Juraian Prince. No, they didn't want me to came after them. They must have not wanted to be around me or Earth anymore. He couldn't think of any other answers, and nothing else made sense.
It was actually Noboyuki had suggested that perhaps an "evil" and "mysterious" outside source had coerced or otherwise forced them to leave, but the more he had thought about it the more it didn't sound at all plausible. Incapacitating one or two of them, perhaps. But all of them? Mihoshi the Galaxy Police officer? Ayeka and the infamous Jurian power? Ryoko and her fighting spirit? The self-proclaimed most brillaint scientific genius Washu and her intelligence and scientific know-how? Sasami the assimilated host of the Goddess Tsnuami?
They had left of their own free will.
In the end, he couldn't really blame them for leaving. Earth was boring, away from the rest of the cosmos and he...well...like always he was indecisive with his true feelings. But couldn't they have at least said goodbye to his face? he thought despairingly. The tired man slowly returned his gaze to the far away fires that blazed in the distance.
*** II *** II ***
Having placed a large white blanket in the grave, Tenchi Masaki gently laid the lifeless form of his father on top of the soft material. His entire body shook in tired exhaustion as he shifted various limbs and other body parts to properly fit in the grave. He looks strangely content, Tenchi thought to himself as he stared at his father's facial expression. I hope they're together now, they *have* to be.
After resting for a moment, Tenchi gently folded the ends of the blanket together so as to completely cover the body. Satisfied that the cloth was in place, he again picked up the shovel and began refilling the space with dirt. Silently he watched and worked as the life-devoid form of his father became completely covered in equally lifeless soil. The task went much quicker than it took to originally dig the grave, as Tenchi soon found himself patting the ground down with the back of his shovel, evening the surface out.
There isn't a grave marker, he suddenly realized. I can't do anything about it.
Tenchi slowly glanced around at his surroundings, bloodshot eyes searching for anything, anyone. The hot wind blew on his face, small sparks of fire riding with it. Eventually, he returned his attention to the two graves of his parents. Should I say some words? Tenchi pondered. What should I do? The two people who brought him into this life were dead, and there was only himself to mourn their loss. He was the only one left to mourn the loss of all the life on the planet.
When was the last time I prayed... Tenchi absently thought to himself.
He had been trained as a Shinto Priest at a young age by his grandfather. He had been expected to become the shrinkeeper at the Maskai Shrine once Katsuhito, or rather Yosho the long lost Jurian Prince, retired. The unexpected departure of his friends, his family had soured him however, and had impacted his soul. His grandfather had tried to console him on his loss, on their loss, but Tenchi had refused to listen. Yosho controlled Funaho, and Funaho was what brought Ayeka and Sasami to Earth in the first place.
If it could do it once, he had reasoned, then Funaho could do it again.
Upon confronting Katsuhito with his theory one unusually warm October evening, the old man had merely shook his head and again tried to make him accept the loss of his friends. Angered, Tenchi had lashed out at his grandfather. The verbal war of words that followed hadn't been pretty. Aside from accusing him of wrongfully deceiving him and withholding information about his heritage, Tenchi had lambasted his grandfather's very reasons for even training him in the ancient Juraian arts.
The two became alienated from one another. Tenchi refused to train with him anymore or even do the chores he had been doing around the shrine since he was 5.
Tenchi didn't even bat an eye the following spring when Katsuhito went on his yearly trip to Kyoto, the first of the major cataclysmic earthquakes ravaged the city. Between the fire, collapsing buildings and anarchy, only a few of his remains were recovered. Tenchi not only refused to conduct a traditional Shinto funeral, but even attend the ceremony altogether.
He deceived us, all of us, Tenchi bitterly recalled, about who he was and what I am. He had no right, no right at all to withhold the things he did.
"I hate funerals!" Tenchi suddenly shouted at the top of his voice. "I *hate* them all!" he cried. "Why, why, why, why?!"
Tears filled his dry eyes and began trickling down his cheeks. He continued to stare at the two graves until the last of his strength gave out and his legs buckled under pressure.
He landed on the rugged ground with a loud thump and sobbed, completely oblivious to the firestorm that was rapidly approaching the Masaki shrine.
*** II *** II ***
The roaring sounds of crackling fire awoke Tenchi with a start. Besides being extremely tired, soaked in his own sweat and extremely dirty, he was now groggy and even more confused. The ground shook beneath him; the small quakes were coming at a faster rate.
Tenchi's eyes violently stung from the smoke and soot in the air. He cupped his hands around his brown eyes to let them properly adjust. When his vision finally cleared, the sight that awaited him was not pleasant.
Oh no, the house!
Tenchi quickly stood up shocked at the sight of the flames engulfing the home where he had spent most of his entire life. Suddenly thick, black smoke started billowing out of all the windows on the second floor.
Adrenaline kicked in as Tenchi sprinted home with a new sense of desperation. I've lost my mother, my father and my friends. I will *not* lose my home!
The heavy wooden door remained untouched by the flames. Tenchi wasted no time in barging through the barrier and into the smoke-laden house. The haze that met him within seemed to stop time. Flames danced along the walls in a chaotic rhythm, swaying as though in a morbid dance celebrating the destruction of all that was sacred in the universe.
There isn't enough water in the reserves to fight this large of a blaze! He thought frantically. The situation was indeed hopeless, but suddenly an image filled his mind.
"Tenchi," his father had said to him only hours before. "I want you to listen to me. I want you to gather up a few things, some belongings and other items that are important to you..."
"What do I take?" Tenchi stopped in his tracks to think out loud. What did this house represent? One brief, but happy, marriage. His childhood. His friends and family. Over thirty-eight years of history. What *should* I take?
Tenchi stared at the pictures on the walls. Fire slowly ate at them, encompassing the entire frame and eroding the images of his family and friends that had been taken over the years. No, it didn't erode the images into nothingness; it permeated them with blackness.
This is just what happened to us, he thought darkly.
Tenchi continued to stand there, watching the surreal sight while pondering the deeper meaning. A wooden beam from overhead suddenly came spiraling down with a resounding boom snapping Tenchi back to reality. In that single instance he knew what to do.
Taking a deep breath, pitch-black smoke swirling all around him, Tenchi pushed further into the depths of the house. He had traversed the halls and rooms countless times over his life, but what was familiar was now a maze where the wrong turn could mean death by fire.
I'm not coughing, he thought as he pressed forward. A normal human would have died of smoke inhalation by now.
The more he thought about the darker his mood grew. I've seen enough Juraians to know that even they have their limits; even a member of the royal family couldn't withstand this toxic environment.
He had discovered he was part Juraian and the legal heir to the Juraian crown when he was seventeen, shortly after this revelation he had *died* in combat with Kagato, only to be brought back by the goddess Tsunami herself. That time seemed like a dream to him, so unreal that he often questioned if it had actually happened.
But he knew it wasn't, it could never have been a hallucination or fantasy solely because he could feel it, because of the Lighthawk Wings. When he had first used them, he felt it. A change had occurred, a barrier broken. It hadn't been painful, but it was not altogether pleasant. Something within him had awoken, something he felt again the second time he used the wings to seal a black hole caused by Dr. Clay.
Even now, within himself, he could feel that power. He had tried thousands upon thousands of times to reach that power again, but it was as though an invisible divide separated him from another very real part of his being.
What the hell am I?
It was the greatest mystery of his life, even greater than the other questions plaguing his life.
Tenchi was suddenly aware that he could see more clearly. He was able to discern that he was nearby the staircase. Treading carefully but swiftly, he leaped up the flaming staircase and headed straight toward his room. Like most of the second floor, his room was engulfed in flames.
No longer though was he letting fire deter him.
The floor creaked with each step as he treaded over to the spartan desk he had used since high school. It was already in flames, but the item he was after couldn't be damaged by fire. Using his protected feet, he hooked the metal handle with the toe and kicked it open. The item he was looking for reflected the red flames on its shiny surface, it was the Tenchi-ken. Wrapped around the hilt was a worn parchment held in place by a piece of string.
Tenchi was not surprised in the least we he picked the sword up to find it completely cool. This was not made of any material found on this planet.
Turning on his heels, he glided over the stairs and headed toward the living room. The house shook violently as another beam collapsed; the fire was eating the structure alive.
Locating what he was after, the black-haired man dashed to the bookshelf and began throwing its contents out searching for one volume in particular.
"Here it is," he mumbled to himself as he pulled out a thick book.
It was a turquoise color and had a gold lining around the borders. The front cover read in large golden letters, "Masaki Family Photo Album." Tenchi flipped through a few pages until he was satisfied it contained all that it was supposed to.
An old brown backpack that Tenchi had used during his college days lay discarded next to the shelving unit. The flames had missed it, so Tenchi quickly grabbed it and stuffed the album into it. The sound of crackling increased as it became painfully obvious that the flames would soon overtake this part of the house. Overhead the ceiling began creaking even louder; parts of debris were now falling randomly from it. Soon the house would completely collapse on top of itself.
Tenchi was running out of time. The last thing he had to collect was in the kitchen.
Most of the kitchen consisted of metallic objects and material, so the flames hadn't touched it much. Quickly Tenchi darted over to the refrigerator. The large stainless steel appliance had long stopped working thanks to the lack of electricity, but it did contain what he was after, bottled water and various dehydrated food kits.
Wasting no time, he scooped all the water and food kits the pack could hold. He took two extra water bottles and put them to the sports bottle attachments to the each of the sides of the pack. Having everything he needed, he walked through the backdoor and out of the Masaki house for the last time.
There was only one place now left to go. Tenchi headed toward the dried-up lake and the space tree Funaho.
To be continued...
Closing Song: "Knock a Little Harder"Composed and Arranged by Yoko Kanno
Happiness is just a word to me
And it might have meant a thing or two
If I'd known the difference
Emptiness, a lonely parody
And my life, another smokin' gun
A sign of my indifference
Always keepin' safe inside
Where no one ever had a chance
To penetrate a break in
Let me tell you some have tried
But I would slam the door so tight
That they could never get in
Kept my cool under lock and key
And I never shed a tear
Another sign of my condition
Fear of love or bitter vanity
That kept me on the run
The main events at my confession
I kept a chain upon my door
That would shake the shame of Cain
Into a blind submission
The burning ghost without a name
Was calling all the same
But I wouldn't listen
The longer I'd stall
The further I'd crawl
The further I'd crawl
The harder I'd fall
I was crawlin' into the fire
The more that I saw
The further I'd fall
The further I'd fall
The lower I'd crawl
I kept fallin' into the fire
Into the fire
Into the fire
Suddenly it occurred to me
The reason for the run and hide
Had totaled my existence
Everything left on the other side
Could never be much worse that this
But could I go the distance
I faced the door and all my shame
Tearin' off each piece of chain
Until they all were broken
But no matter how I tried
The other side was licked so tight
That door it wouldn't open
Gave it all that I got
And started to knock
Shouted for someone
To open the lock
I just gotta get through the door
And the more that I knocked
The hotter I got
The hotter I got
The harder I'd knock
I just gotta break through the door
Gotta knock a little harder
Gotta knock a little harder
Gotta knock a little harder
Break through the door
The cycle will conclude in: Descent
--Preview of Next Chapter: Time is measured by the start and end of events. Intersecting moments are but a part of the grand scheme of life. In chapter 3, Tenchi comes to an end of a journey. But what happens next will change everything.