The owner of Tenchi Muyo is actually Pioneer and AIC and some author, whom I give many thanks for creating such a wonderful universe and characters and a truly unique situation. Cheers.

however the ideas in this story are mine, if you wish to use them contact me FIRST at either ring_princess@hotmail.com or ring_princess2001@yahoo.com or cite me somewhere, Please!

Ryoko's Sacrifice

Part Three: The Announcement

By RingPrincess

Washu laughed silently as Ryoko put her head in her hands.

"There is too much to remember." Ryoko groaned.

"Don't worry about it. You don't need to remember it all at once."

"You'll help me, right?"

"Of course, you are making me a grandmother." Washu said pompously.

Ryoko smiled weakly.

"Now, remember, no powers, and don't forget to eat." Washu raised an eyebrow at her daughter.

Ryoko hung her head and muttered something along the lines of "Yes mother."

Washu tilted Ryoko's chin up to look at her face to face. "I didn't hear you, Little Ryoko."

"Yes MOM." She gritted out.

"Good. You can go now." Washu began to pick up equipment. Ryoko headed towards the lab entrance. Washu took a breathe and just as Ryoko was about to touch the handle of the door.

"Ryoko,"

"Yes Mom." She turned her head.

"I'm proud of you."

Ryoko blushed and exited to the rest of the house.

"Thanks." She whispered before the door shut.

-------------------------------------

Ryoko didn't know what quite to do now. She was pregnant, with Tenchi's daughter Mayuka no less and she and Washu were the only two to know.

She hadn't moved away from the lab door yet. "How am I supposed to act? Casual." She whispered. "I can't use my powers, and that will be a dead give away if I've never seen one."

She walked towards the door. :This is Tenchi's daughter as well.: Washu's voice rang through her mind. She hung her head. "How do I tell him?"

She opened the door and began to walk up towards the fields and then switched direction, he should be at the shrine practicing swordsmanship by now. Two hours of sleep in the lab was a long time, if you thought about it, in fact it looked more like three hours had gone by.

The dying light filtered through the trees and cast a warm glow over Ryoko as she meandered up the path, arguing with herself. The air carried with it the sounds of wood against wood and Katsuhito's directions in the forms of commands to Tenchi.

"Oww!" Tenchi yelped.

Ryoko almost phased to him, but picked up the pace until she reached the clearing.

Katsuhito stood there, his bokken behind his back and looking slightly amused. Tenchi was rubbing the back of his head, which wasn't that unusual for him.

Ryoko parted the grass and glared at the old priest. "No wonder he can't think. You keep knocking the sense out of him."

"I'm fine Ryoko, really." Tenchi said from his place on the ground.

"No, you look like the dirt is your best friend, which is far from fine." She said, a tad sharply. She jerked her head at Katsuhito. "May I borrow him?"

"We were done for today anyway."

Ryoko rolled her eyes and snorted. "Uh-huh."

Tenchi stood up slowly and brushed himself off. "Thank you for the lesson grandfather." He gave a short bow and backed away.

Ryoko walked off after him.

They walked in comfortable silence for awhile. Ryoko leading him in no particular chosen direction. She still didn't know how to bring the subject up.

"I miss Mayuka, Ryoko." Tenchi said slowly. Looking at her out of the corner of his eye. "Strange as it may seem."

Ryoko sighed. 'Hand me the subject, why don't you?' "So do I."

Tenchi looked at her in surprise. "I thought you hated her."

Ryoko looked at where they were and blinked. The cave, then Tenchi's comment registered with her. "I couldn't hate her. I tried, but the more I did, the more I loved her."

Tenchi sat down in front of the entrance, Ryoko walked out to the middle of the clearing. "Here, it was here." She stated with authority.

"What was there, Ryoko?"

"It was here that I first saw you." Ryoko said quietly. She was rambling and getting off the subject, but didn't really quite care.

"I don't understand, Ryoko." Tenchi said quietly.

Ryoko laughed and swung around to face him. It was a carefree laugh and a sad one. "You were with your grandmother, as a baby."

"Ryoko, you were in the cave."

She waved her hands in the air. "I know, but I could project myself out. Most people couldn't see me. Katsuhito could and one other person could." She walked over and sat down next to him. Her eyes twinkled mischievously. "In fact, he had such an attraction to the cave that he came into it and set me free."

Tenchi looked at her and his eyes began to roll back the years to when he was young. "I remember that I would play games at the cave, and chase butterflies. . ."

". . . and cook sweet potatoes." She grinned at him. "You couldn't quite understand why I wouldn't eat with you. But that is not the point. The point is that it all started here." She gestured towards the clearing.

Tenchi nodded, still remembering the past.

"You were so cute as a baby." Ryoko whispered. "I hope Mayuka will be as cute."

"Ryoko," he gave her a long even look. "All babies are cute."

"Well, then Mayuka should be." Ryoko grinned happily, her fangs showing slightly.

"We won't know until a couple of months. Not until Little Washu is finished."

"Nine months." Ryoko said firmly. "Eight if she is early. Seven if there is a problem."

Tenchi looked at her startled.

"Nine months, Ryoko."

"Yeah, nine." She challenged him with her gaze. "I know how long it takes for a baby to grow."

"This is Little Washu we're talking about here. I am sure she will be out in one, maybe two months."

Ryoko took a deep breathe, she wasn't sure. 'Do I want to see his expression or do I look away? Am I ashamed of what I've done?' She silenced her brain. 'Of course I'm proud of me, MOM is proud of me. I have done to be ashamed of.'

"No Tenchi, she won't. Washu couldn't get the machinery to accept her DNA." Ryoko said sadly.

Tenchi looked at her not comprehending.

Ryoko exploded. "See! He does it again, knocking your head around like that cannot be good for a person."

"So, Mayuka is dead." Tenchi stuttered. "My daughter is dead." Tenchi whispered, looking away from Ryoko.

Ryoko couldn't stand to see him in pain, and to know that the pain was all her fault. 'I am a coward, I can't even tell him straight up that I am with child, his child. All I can do is beat around the bush.'

Ryoko sighed and cupped his far cheek in her hand, making him look at her. "No. Mayuka is alive Tenchi." She said softly, wiping away a tear with her thumb. "In fact, she is here, right now."

Tenchi's eyes began to light up slowly as understanding dawned.

"You. . ."

Ryoko smiled and nodded. "Yes, I asked Washu to put her inside me."

"You're pregnant, with Mayuka." He mouthed.

She chuckled and nodded again.

"She's alive."

"Alive, but not kicking, yet." Her brow furrowed. "Mom says that kicking comes later."

Tenchi leaned back out of her hand and Ryoko blushed, bringing it back down to her lap. "I'm sorry I didn't ask you about it first, considering she is YOUR daughter, not mine."

"Have you ever heard that it is easier to beg forgiveness than permission?"

"Ummmm... No."

He looked at her out of the corner of her eye, she was sitting there, still unsure of what he thought, unsure of what to do. "Well, I forgive you and Ryoko, your wrong."

"In what?"

"She's now your daughter too." Tenchi pointed to her stomach.

Ryoko flushed and her hand went unconsciously to where he pointed. She then remembered

something.

"Tenchi," she looked and sounded scared. "I can't use my powers. I can't defend myself from Ayeka."

Tenchi looked at her, brow furrowed. "Why not?"

"Mom, she doesn't know what it will do to Mayuka, or me for that matter." Ryoko shook her head. "Don't get me off the topic, what about Ayeka?"

The sky was slowly fading into darkness. "Well, we'll figure it out when we get there."

"But now it is time for dinner. And I am starving." She quoted from those days so long ago. Her eyes twinkled. "You also liked to catch fireflies."

"Then I'd put them in a jar and take them home for the night." He mused. "Some would remind me of your eyes."

"Oh, really."

"Yeah, remember, in some of our games, you would be the villain and then switch later to the princess."

"Tenchi!" She groaned. "So you thought fireflies were my eyes as a villain."

He shrugged. "You were the one to make them glow like that."

She sighed. "Not the dragon's eyes or the basilisk eyes, my eyes. Cute, Tenchi."

"Babies are cute, you were scary sometimes."

"I didn't give you nightmares did I?" Ryoko cried. "I didn't want that."

"Scarred me for life was what you did." He stated matter of factually.

Her face was tragic. "I didn't want to do that."

Tenchi took pity on her. "Ryoko, I'm kidding."

"Beast."

He laughed.

--------------------------------------

Sasami finished stirring the soup and set it on the table.

"Now what?" The young, adorable princess tapped her chin thoughtfully. She stared at the table, "Wonton soup, Moo Goo Gui Pan, Tea and Dim Sum." She then clapped her hand to her forehead. "I forgot to set the table."

A giggling was heard from the doorway.

Sasami turned to the door in anger. "Don't laugh at me like that. . ." she paused, realizing it wasn't the person she thought it was."Ryoko." She finished with a sigh.

"I'll set the table, Sasami." Ryoko grinned.

Sasami nodded. "Thank You, Ryoko."

Ryo-ohki crept around the corner of the door into the kitchen.

"Oh, no you don't." Sasami wagged her finger at the cabbit.

Ryo-ohki gave her pitiful eyes, and her ear drooped more than usual.

"It's not dinner yet." Sasami shooed her out of the kitchen, the clattering of plates and teacups in the background.

Ryoko stepped off the chair that she was using to get to the cupboards. "We really need to get Nobuyuki to make these cupboards nearer to the ground." She observed as she headed towards the table. "You can't stand on a chair every time you need something."

Sasami blinked. 'Ryoko walking?'

"Oh, I don't mind Ryoko. This is his house, after all."

"But you do all the cooking." Ryoko pointed out, "and if you don't, mom does."

Sasami blinked again. 'And calling Washu Mom?'

"Ryoko, are you all right? You don't seem to be yourself." She said worried.

Ryoko gave her a dazzling smile. "Never better." She hummed as she went after the chopsticks and spoons.

Sasami sighed and shrugged. 'If she wants us to know, she'll tell us.'

"Tenchi, where are you?" A voice of a princess called out from the other room.

Was it her, Sasami thought, or did Ryoko tense? No, it must be her imagination, Ryoko was folding napkins and humming.

Ayeka strode into the room, her presence sweeping before her. "Ryoko, what have you done with Lord Tenchi?"

Ryoko didn't say anything, she refused too. She just kept setting the table.

"Ryoko, I demand that you answer me." Ayeka's voice rose shrilly.

"I am right here, Miss Ayeka." Tenchi said from behind her. He was however, looking at Ryoko with a slight frown on his face.

Ayeka inwardly smiled at this sight. "I was beginning to wonder what had happened to you. I was afraid that the devil woman over there had kidnapped you."

Ryoko just looked up at her and snorted.

"Ryoko wouldn't do that." Tenchi said softly. "Usually." He amended.

Ryoko grinned at there own joke.

'Nobuyuki came upon the clearing, it was rather small, but very green with growing things and a cave opened into it. A small stream meandered by, and flowers showed up in the corners, the type that made the butterflies wander by. The cave faced to the south allowing lots of sunlight to hit its face. The grass was thick and soft, good for playing in. :Tenchi! Where are you? It is almost time for dinner.: A giggle from one of the bushes led the middle aged man in the direction of his young son. :There you are, I was afraid that the demon had kidnapped you.: Tenchi giggled again, smiling up at his father. :That's a good one daddy. Maybe I could play that next time.: Nobuyuki laughed and swung his son up. :You and your games of make believe. I don't think I'll figure them out.: Tenchi tugged on his daddy's shirt. :We'll figure it out when we get there, but now it's almost dark and I am STARVING.: Nobuyuki laughed again and walked away from the cave. The boy waving a brown and grubby hand at a person that only he could see.'

Ryoko blinked back to the present. "And I am starving." she whispered. Tenchi caught her eye and winked, remembering that day as well.

"Did you say something?" Sasami looked at her strangely.

"I'm just hungry Sasami." Ryoko smiled down at her. "Dinner smells wonderful." Her eyes went to the window. 'It's dark out now.'

"You never stop eating, Ryoko." Ayeka sniffed a bit.

Ryoko rolled her eyes.

"Yes Little Ryoko, eat to live, don't live to eat." Little Washu remonstrated from the doorway.

"Yes mother." Her voice was patronizing.

::Did you tell Tenchi, darling.::

::Yes.:: "Mom, I am not your darling." Ryoko whined.

"You shall always be my darling Little Ryoko."

Ryoko sat down in her usual spot and placed her head in her hands.

Tenchi chuckled.

Her head snapped up. "Tenchi." There was a look in her eyes that made Tenchi stop laughing immediately.

"You wouldn't."

She nodded.

He raised his hands in the air and sat down next to her. Ayeka gave Ryoko a sharp look and she shrugged back, trying to look innocent.

Dinner was relatively calm. Ryoko, in the eyes of Ayeka was behaving at least, but that made for a pretty dull dinner.

Tenchi kept looking at Ryoko out of the corner of his eye.

Finally fed up with it, "Stop it," Ryoko growled.

He looked in the opposite direction but was at it again a few moments later.

"Tenchi, what are you looking at?" Ayeka said sweetly, too sweetly.

"Nothing in particular," He shrugged.

"I want to know as well Tenchi." Ryoko glared at him.

He leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Just remembering you pretending you were nine months pregnant."

Ryoko clapped a hand over her mouth. "I completely forgot about that." She gasped. Then started laughing, hard. She leaned forward and tears began to leak from her eyes, her hands shook, her whole body shook in belly aching laughter.

Tenchi repressed his grins. "Why were you doing that anyway?"

"You. . .don't remember. . ." Ryoko gasped between guffaws.

"I remember you pretending, I don't remember the events leading up to that storyline."

"Continuing story line, we played that game for a whole week before you tired of it." Ryoko said weakly.

"The real thing will be much more interesting." He said nonchalantly.

"That is the difference between when you're three and when you are seventeen." She sobered. "You had a friend whose was getting a new addition to the family."

"Oh," Tenchi nodded comprehending.

"And so it started out with you as a prince and me as a neighboring princess." Her eyes gleamed.

"Stop." Tenchi groaned. "I was three."

"I got courted for a whole two days." Her eyes gleamed wickedly. "Then you proposed marriage."

Ayeka sputtered. "Lord Tenchi would never do such a thing."

Ryoko looked over at her. "But he did."

"I was three Ayeka, it was a game of pretend." Tenchi said softly. His brown eyes lit with an inner light.

"Besides that, it was two days because he got interrupted the first day and had to fight dragons and bandits to even reach my kingdom."

Tenchi covered his eyes. "Ryoko, be quiet."

"I thought it was rather sweet." She defended.

Washu raised an eyebrow at her daughter. "I take it you pretended you were pregnant eventually."

"Well, we married on the third day, and then I was kidnapped." Ryoko said thoughtfully. "That night is when he found out about his friend's mom. I guess she came to visit, so then I had to be pregnant when they captured me."

Ayeka began to get red in the face.

"Except she didn't know it," Tenchi mused from behind his hands.

"So when he rescued me, I pretended I was extremely pregnant. You wouldn't know how many expecting mothers came to the cave for some odd reason." Ryoko shook her head.

"Suicide," Washu said bluntly.

Ryoko glared at her. "Thank you, I'm trying to eat."

"Then the next day was. . ." Tenchi looked at her confused. "I don't remember."

"Neither do I, so it isn't that important." Ryoko said nonchalantly. But Ayeka could tell, she remembered. "Yet playing house isn't any boys idea of fun."

Tenchi snorted and shuddered at the same time.

"I missed something." Sasami said for most of them.

Ryoko smiled, it was a beautiful smile. "I'm pregnant."

--------------------------------

RingPrincess

ring_princess@hotmail.com

ring_princess2001@yahoo.com

http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/ringprincess/index.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tenchimuyofanfiction/

http://www.thetenchireviewer.net