Mind Swap, Chapter 3 (The One with the Offer)

"Surges and Suggestions"

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            And so, to dive right back into the plot, we rejoin the two lovers and the little sister where they left off. Let's watch.

            And Ryoko and Ayeka were still doing very fine impressions of doormats, while Sasami was talking at them about how good it was that they were finally friends, and good friends at that. Some people say that Sasami, being only a little girl, wouldn't/shouldn't know about such things, but Nobuyuki did have a good personal library. All it required was to pile a few books onto the stepladder for Sasami to be able to reach the top shelf material. This gave her all the information she needed to know, and some she was just curious about.

            After a short while, Sasami realised that something was wrong. "One of Washu's experiments must have gone wrong again," she said. "It looks like time has stopped."

             But it hadn't. Ryoko and Ayeka were just in shock, that's all. Ryoko moved slightly, and blinked. Ayeka did similarly.

            "Oh, so time's not stopped," Sasami said, relieved. "Why don't you just sit down, while I make us some drinks, ne?" She walked into the kitchen, while Ayeka and Ryoko struggled to think how Sasami had come to know such things. They moved towards the sofa and sat down. And then they blinked again.

            Something on the coffee table caught their eye. It was a copy of "Star Whores", the first issue of the series, entitled "The Phantom Men – Ace!". It was open at a particularly inciting page, in which the poses tried on by, apparently, "Queen Armadillo", "Pat-me", "Juar Juar Blings" and "Obi Huan K'nobbly" left very little, if nothing at all, to the imagination. And even so, it was an enticing publication. Ryoko and Ayeka found themselves flicking through several pages before they knew what they were doing.

            "Where, um, did this come from?" Ayeka wondered aloud. "I'm just curious," she added hastily as she caught the judging gaze of Ryoko. "Do you think it's from father's library?"

            "It must be," Ryoko replied. "But from the looks of it, this is new. This should be in his room by now, tucked safely away in the second drawer down." There was a pause. "So I'd imagine," Ryoko added.

            "So what is it doing down here, where just anyone could find it?" Ayeka asked. "Especially Sasami. What if she saw this?"

            "She did see this," Ryoko realised. "In fact, she was the one that got it from Nobuyuki's room. The little hentai."

            "Sasami?" Ayeka gasped. "Hentai? Sweet little Sasami?"

            "What about me, sister?" Sasami asked as she entered with the drinks. She set them down on the table next to the magazine and took a drink for herself, before sitting on the other sofa.

            "What? Oh, nothing." Ayeka took her drink, and silently encouraged Ryoko to do the same. "Listen, Sasami, how did you possibly find out about, well, us two?"

            "I saw you hugging, remember?" Sasami said. "I realised it just after that, especially when you were giving your explanation, and not letting me find Tenchi. That's a point. Where is Tenchi?"

            "Probably still at the carrot fields," Ryoko said. "But that's not the point. We didn't mean when you realised about us. How did you learn about the basic concept of, that kind of thing?"

            "Oh, from father's books," Sasami replied casually. "I was just reading that magazine when I decided to get a drink. And that's when I found you."

            "Why were you reading father's books?" Ayeka asked. "Especially ones that should be too high up for you to reach, in his library?"

            "He told me to," Sasami said.

            "He told you? To read hentai?" Ryoko said slowly.

            "Yeah. I thought it was strange at first, too, but then I realised what it was about. It expresses different ways in which love is shown. I think it's wonderful."

            "Hentai is wonderful?" Ayeka asked.

            "Well, it's not like we haven't thought about it ourselves," Ryoko whispered to the First Princess. "Well, I have, anyway."

            Ayeka blushed hotly, before shaking her head rapidly and looking back at Sasami. "Sasami, hentai is for adults, and people old enough to be mature about what they do."

            "I am mature," Sasami said indignantly. "I'm eleven, not a kid. Besides, father said I was very mature for my age. He said Tenchi would be really impressed if I learned about it."

            "That figures," Ayeka muttered. "Since none of us are getting nearer to him, he's trying to push him towards Sasami, hoping she does better."

            "But Sasami," Ryoko said. "Even with everything you know, you're still too young..."

            "Young for what?" Sasami asked. "I love Tenchi, just like you do. Wait, do you still love Tenchi?"

            "Of course," they both said. "We still love Tenchi completely."

            "Okay," Sasami said. "Well, I love him too, and this is a way for me to express my love for him. That's what father told me, anyway."

            "But what exactly are you going to do about it?" Ryoko asked, remembering that second visit to the onsen, when Tsunami revealed herself to be what Sasami would look like when she grew up, which, admittedly, was better looking that either of the two main rivals.

            "I've got my ways," Sasami said grinning. "And you're not going to copy or spoil them, so I'm not telling you."

            "Oh, go on," Ryoko said. "Please?"

            "No!" Sasami said forcibly, frowning. "You're just going to have to wait and see."

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

            Wait they did, for Tenchi came back home about twenty minutes later. As he walked through the house on his way upstairs to take a shower, he noticed an unfinished chess game on the dining table. He looked at it for a bit, and moved a white bishop. "Checkmate." Satisfied that it was indeed the end of the game, he packed his handcrafted pieces and board away into a cupboard, before proceeding to his room.

            As he opened the door, he noticed something had changed. But he couldn't place what. Shrugging, he dropped the contents of his pockets onto his desk, before proceeding to the bathroom.

            Up until six months ago, going to the bathroom, whatever the purpose, was a simple task, hardly worth thinking about. Just walk along and step in. Now, it was an assault course of creaky floorboards, echoing noises in the floor from footsteps, and Ryoko. After that, once Tenchi had entered the bathroom, and managed to wrestle Ryoko out of the doorway to close the door, he had to act fast. Ryoko's incessant pounding could eventually break down the door, which would be very uncomfortable for Tenchi. Of course, about twenty-nine seconds after she started her pounding, it would stop, only to be replaced by a more terrible noise: fighting. There was always the risk that a stray explosion would break the bathroom door down, leaving Tenchi in a rather similar situation, only this time amongst rubble and burning door shards. Luckily, and especially curiously for an animé, this had never happened before. The bathroom was quite possibly the only room in the house that hadn't been destroyed once. Well, and the kitchen. They needed a place to make food, after all.

            But that was the easy part. Getting past Ryoko again, because she always managed to be there once Tenchi had finished his quick shower, wearing only drops of water and a towel, now that was the hard part.

            However, when Tenchi peered nervously out of his door towards the bathroom, he saw a corridor. No Ryoko. For a second, Tenchi was worried that something had happened to her, but he quickly remembered how Ryoko could take care of herself. She was probably just sleeping or not bothering to "greet" Tenchi this time. Tenchi shrugged again and entered the bathroom. Immediately, there was no pounding, no calls through the door for Tenchi to open it.

            Tenchi knew straight away that something was wrong. But then there was the question of what was different about his room. He mused on this as he took his shower, his longest one for half a year now. Was the furniture different? He didn't think so. The colours? No. The stuff lying around that he just didn't seem to be able to find the time for to put away? He couldn't remember. There was a lot of it.

            As he exited the bathroom, now comfortably washed and changed, he went back to his room to see exactly what was different.

            But nothing was different. His furniture, the walls, carpet, ceiling, they were all fine, exactly how he left them. His mess was all accounted for. The same background smell was the same. Nothing was different. But he could have sworn something had changed.

            Momentarily dismissing it from the thinking part of his brain, Tenchi started to think about something else. Ryoko. Not in any other sense, mind you, but only thinking about what could have happened to keep her from "greeting" him outside the bathroom some minutes ago. And this was where his relentless human nature once again raised its proverbial voice, asking him, telling him to be curious. So Tenchi, being the most refreshed he had been for pretty much half a year, went downstairs in search of the green-haired demoness.

            He found Sasami in the kitchen.

            "Hey, Sasami," Tenchi said. "You haven't seen Ryoko anywhere, have you?"

            "Sure, Tenchi," Sasami replied. "I saw Ryoko and Ayeka hugging about half an hour ago."

            "Hugging?" Tenchi asked. "Are you sure they hadn't just caught each other while they were falling, or something?"

            "Nope," Sasami said, shaking her head and grinning widely. "Hey, Tenchi? Want to know something about them?"

            "Like what?" Tenchi asked.

            "Ryoko and Ayeka are in love with each other," Sasami said. "They told me themselves."

            "They, they told you?" Tenchi asked.

            "Well, I figured it out before that," Sasami said. "I told them I knew, and they admitted it."

            "I didn't know they were telling people already," Tenchi mused. "Wait. How did you figure that out? You're just a young girl."

            Sasami frowned. "I'm a lot older than you are, Tenchi," she said. "I was born over six hundred years ago, remember? I'm mature enough to know about lesbians and all that."

            Tenchi choked. "But how do you know all that anyway? How did you figure out that Ryoko and Ayeka are, well, you know..."

            "Wait, did you already know about them?" Sasami asked. "You knew, and you didn't tell me? Did they make you promise not to tell anyone?"

            "Well, not as such," Tenchi said.

            "But I thought I was your friend, Tenchi," Sasami said. "Friends tell each other everything, don't they?"

            "Sure we're friends, Sasami," Tenchi said, moving towards her. "I just thought they wanted the privacy."

            "So who else knows?"

            "Just Washu," Tenchi replied.

            "Oh, that's great," Sasami pouted. "I'm always the last to know everything."

            "That's not true," Tenchi said. "Mihoshi doesn't know, and neither do dad or grandpa."

            "But I should know," Sasami said. "Ayeka is my sister. I should know everything about my sister. I know everything else."

            "But... You do?" Tenchi asked. "Like what?"

            "Well, for one thing, I know she doesn't shave her legs," the young princess said. "She had some sort of treatment ages ago that stopped all her hair from growing beneath her neck."

            "Really?"

            "And I know that she talks in her sleep," Sasami continued. "She says the strangest things, things like 'don't walk on that side, toushin' and 'please come closer, I can't take the suspense'. She also calls your name in her sleep, Tenchi."

            "She does?"

            "So why didn't I know about oneesan being a lesbian, when I know everything else?" Sasami asked.

            "Well, you know now," Tenchi said.

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

            Tenchi left Sasami to read Nobuyuki's magazines, at which Tenchi's nose had started to bleed. She had found the second issue of "Star Whores", entitled "Attack of the Boners", which features characters such as "Girth Hideous" and "Wang-o Foot-long". Apparently the first two episodes had come together, a complimentary package for his dad for being such a good customer. It left Tenchi quite disturbed.

            "There's just too much stuff going on lately," Tenchi said to himself as he wandered the house, looking for Ryoko. "Ryoko! Where are you?" he called.

            He went back upstairs, thinking she might be there. She probably knew he was looking for her, so probably was in Tenchi's room, splayed provocatively on the bed. The little alarm Ayeka had put on the door a while ago, Tenchi found out later, wouldn't let even Tenchi in after the room had been emptied, so it had to be removed. Therefore anyone could go in and out of the room again, even Ryoko.

            Tenchi pulled open the door to his room, only to see nothing had changed. Something was still not right, though, but again, Tenchi dismissed it. He closed the door and walked down the corridor, listening for any telltale noises to give Ryoko's presence away. As he approached Ayeka's room, he heard some faint noises from within. Sniffing back the droplets of blood already threatening to pour out of his nose as he remembered the last time he had heard noises from that room, Tenchi knocked on the door. After getting no response, he knocked louder, making sure that the person or people inside would know he was knocking. After still no response, Tenchi edged the door open and peeked in.

            Nothing. The room was devoid of people. The sounds had been coming from a radio set Tenchi had given Sasami on the six month anniversary of her arrival on Earth. After hearing some Earth songs, Sasami had been enticed by the different styles of music. Except rap, of course, as rap isn't so much singing as it is shouting to the background of a beat. But apparently, she still hadn't learned how to turn it off. Tenchi walked over, severely hoping no-one would catch him in there, and turned it off, before leaving the room to continue his search.

            After being unable to find the demon girl, Tenchi decided to stop looking for the time being. She would come back for lunch, which was in about ten minutes. In the meantime, however, Tenchi had nothing to do. Sasami was busy reading the magazines, and Ryoko and Ayeka were nowhere to be seen. Tenchi didn't really fancy talking to Sasami again. He really had to adjust before he could cope with her new hobby. But then that left only Washu and Mihoshi. Washu wasn't that bad, maybe, but just bad enough to make Tenchi not want to go into her lab at the moment, or indeed, ever. So Tenchi looked around for Mihoshi.

            Today was Thursday, so Mihoshi had the day off from patrol. She had two days off a week, the other one being Sunday. Not everyone has weekends. Mihoshi was outside, lying on the ground just in front of the house, almost asleep. Just enough to not hear anyone complain at her, but not enough to miss the lunch call. The Yukinojo had retreated to its resting spot in the lake. The water cleaned the hull of any dirt picked up while flying around at ten thousand miles an hour, and also helped in keeping some of the mechanisms lubricated, such as the fuel regulators and the wipers on the windows.

            Tenchi approached her spot, and was about to say something, but stopped himself. He just looked at her, laid out in front of him, clothes ruffled and hair untied. She was actually quite attractive.

            Tenchi leaned against the wall to continue his watching, but the wall was a bit too far away. He stumbled and hit his shoulder and head against the wall. "Ouch," he said. It didn't really hurt that much, so "ouch" was used instead of something more expressive.

            Mihoshi stirred and woke up, looking at Tenchi, who was trying his best to look as if he had just got there, and was going to wake her up to tell her something, instead of having watched her for a while. "Morning, Tenchi," Mihoshi said sleepily, getting up and stretching. "What's up?"

            "What? Oh, nothing," Tenchi said, inwardly cursing himself for having missed such an obvious thing as a wall. "Nothing at all. I'm just bored."

            "Why don't you do some more training with your grandfather?" Mihoshi suggested.

            "Oh, no," Tenchi laughed nervously. "I may have to train, but I do enjoy the bits when I'm not."

            "Oh, okay," Mihoshi replied. "So what do you want to do?"

            "Well, if I knew that, I wouldn't be standing here telling you I'm bored, now, would I?" Tenchi asked.

            "No, you probably wouldn't," Mihoshi agreed. "I know. How about you find Ayeka and Ryoko and do something with them? You usually get a lot of exercise at least, avoiding the backfire."

            "I don't think so," Tenchi said. "You know, I don't overly enjoy that kind of thing. And besides, even if I wanted to, I can't find them. I've looked everywhere, but it's as though they don't want to be found."

            "Yes," Mihoshi mused. "It's strange, isn't it? Those two have become very friendly recently."

            "Well, they are friends, even though they sometimes don't act like it," Tenchi added.

            "If I didn't know better, I'd say they're really good friends. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if they were in love with each other or something. Tenchi, are you okay? Did an insect fly into your mouth? That kind of thing happens to me sometimes. It's really annoying, don't you think? Oh, you haven't got it out yet, huh? Don't worry, it has to come out some time."

            Tenchi tried his hardest to bring his choking to an end, and succeeded. He gasped for air and tried to lower his pulse. "Mihoshi, you know?" he struggled to ask.

            "Know what?" Mihoshi replied innocently.

            Sasami's reading dad's books, and Mihoshi hasn't got a clue about anything Tenchi thought to himself. "Oh, nothing," he replied. "I was just thinking about something else." Boy, she doesn't know how close she is

            "Anyway, it is curious how they've been acting recently," Mihoshi continued. "Like last night, when Ryoko came back for dinner? She and Ayeka were really avoiding each other, as if they'd had a fight. Not a normal fight, though, but an actual one. Then, this morning, they're totally friends with each other for some reason."

            Yeah, me

            "What do you think, Tenchi?" Mihoshi asked. "Do you think Ryoko and Ayeka could be in love?"

            Tenchi promptly began to sputter. "I, uh, I, I wouldn't, can't, don't know," he managed. She noticed all that, and still doesn't get it? Unbelievable

            "I wonder why their moods changed so much overnight," Mihoshi pondered. "Someone must have talked to them, and got them to be friends again."

            "Maybe," Tenchi nodded, just listening to her.

            "Tenchi, you're acting kind of strange, even for you," Mihoshi said.

            "Thanks."

            "Are you sure you don't know anything about this? It is my job, you know, to find out things. A detective has to detect things, and a First-Class Detective like me had to do a lot of first-class detecting. You never know when some information will come in handy."

            "Can't you figure it out from what you know?" Tenchi asked. She knows a lot more than I thought. More than any of us thought. I wonder if she'll get it, or whether I should just tell her

            "Actually, I think I'll work it out later," Mihoshi said yawning. "I'm still tired."

            "Oh, okay then." At least Tenchi didn't run the risk of telling someone else what he knew, and getting another lecture from Washu.

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

            Speaking of Washu, as they went back in, the scientist was standing in the hallway. She had come out of her lab for lunch, and greeted Tenchi and Mihoshi as they came in.

            A few minutes later, Ryoko and Ayeka walked in together. They didn't say much to each other, and sat down at the table in their normal places. Tenchi looked sideways at each of them, and wondered what they'd been doing. Then he remembered Ryoko's absence during his shower, and decided to ask about it.

            "I was somewhere else," Ryoko replied. "I'm sorry I missed your shower, though. Still, maybe next time." She resumed eating.

            Tenchi shrugged and went back to his food. He couldn't tell what Ryoko really meant, if anything.

            Mihoshi was also observing, in her own special way. She could tell there was something deeper there, but she just noted it in her mind and carried on eating.

            Washu spoke up. "Hey, guess what?" she said, continuing before anyone could. "I've just finished my latest invention. It can change the physical appearance of any thing or person to any specifications. It's rather nifty. I call it the Shape Hub Intrical Transmogrifier."

            "So what's the abbreviation?" Mihoshi asked. "S... H..."

            "There is no abbreviation," Washu interrupted. "Nothing in life is worth abbreviations. They just take away the specialness of the thing, and my invention is very special. Anyone want to let me explain exactly how it works afterwards?"

            Not really. Or at all, actually. But Washu was only a little girl, after all. She'd be upset. But that didn't change their minds, though.

            Unfortunately, they would be given the demonstration later. Washu could be very... persuasive when she wanted to be. How else could she get people to pay attention to her, or get Tenchi into her lab so often?

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

            So as it turned out, they had all been politely shoved into the main room to watch the presentation. Washu's little invention turned out to be a small handheld laser gun, programmed by her supercomputer. It had the ability, as Washu said, to change the molecular arrangement and composition of any and all matter to any other selectable form, so changing the shape of it.

            Sasami had been exempt from this, as she had hurriedly made up an excuse not to be part of it, to the effect that she had to go shopping, despite having gone already two days ago.

            Ryoko and Ayeka stood next to each other behind the couch, on which sat Mihoshi, who was completely intrigued by this machine. Tenchi sat on the other couch, angled so as to look as though he was watching Washu, but could also watch Ayeka and Ryoko.

            "Can I have a victim... volunteer from the audience?" Washu asked. "Tenchi, care to go? I can change the size of anything you want, you know."

            Tenchi sighed and rolled his eyes at the obvious slightly hidden message in this.

            Mihoshi was amazed at this machine, and raised her hand.

            "Ah, a willing mug... person," Washu said. "Okay, just sit there and don't move at all. Maybe we can make that brain of yours a lot bigger."

            "Well, I just don't know what you mean, Miss Washu," Mihoshi said. "My brain is just as big as anyone else's here."

            "Well, your intellect, then," Washu conceded.

            "Nuh-uh," Mihoshi pointed out. "A person's intellect isn't made out of molecules, so you can't change it."

            "When did you suddenly become so knowledgeable about this kind of thing?" Washu spoke.

            "I've always been this knowledgeable," Mihoshi protested.

            "No, you haven't."

            "Have too."

            "Have not."

            "Have too."

            As this deeply intellectual conversation waged on, Ryoko whispered to Ayeka, and they both left quietly, so as not to disturb the genius and Mihoshi. Tenchi watched them go, and decided that was a really good idea. He got up and went to leave.

            "Where d'you think you're going?" Washu's voice called after him. Tenchi froze in mid-step and turned around slowly.

            "I thought the presentation was over?" he tried.

            "No," Washu said smugly. "If it was, something would be a different shape by now."

            "But how does this work, Miss Washu?" Mihoshi asked, holding the gun in her hand and waving it around, up until now unnoticed by the red-haired girl. "Do I just pull this trigger here?"

            "After you've programmed what you want the target to turn into, yes," Washu said. "Until then, the trigger's useless."

            "Oh, I see," Mihoshi trailed off, giving the trigger an experimental squeeze. A flash of light burst out from the end and hit a flowerpot, which promptly glowed a brilliant white and quickly changed its shape, reappearing as a fluffy white rabbit. The rabbit twitched its nose and looked around.

            Washu yelled. "What have you done?" she shouted. "It wasn't even programmed! There was no way you could have been so clumsy as to get the control panel to appear. And how did you get it to create living beings from inanimate objects? That's impossible!"

            "I'm sorry, Miss Washu, I just fired it, that's all," Mihoshi said.

            "Give it to me now!" Washu demanded. "Ah, hold it by the barrel. With your left hand. Now give it to me."

            Mihoshi did so, but as she was handing it over, it fired another burst of light at Mihoshi's foot. Her shoe turned into a box of tissues.

            "You know, you really shouldn't be so mean, Miss Washu," Mihoshi sniffed, taking the box off her foot and taking a tissue out. "I was only looking."

            Tenchi wisely decided that now would probably be a great time to leave. "I'm, umm, getting a drink," he said, backing quickly out of the room.

            Washu took no notice, as she had called up her laptop and was busy trying to figure out what the hell Mihoshi had actually done.

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

            Tenchi backed his way into the kitchen and turned around. It was empty. He decided that he was actually thirsty, and went to get a drink. As he was opening the cupboard, he heard a muffled voice from outside the kitchen door that led to the garden. Being, in the interest of making this story more interesting, forever curious, which probably has already been mentioned, Tenchi crouched down behind the door and pressed his overhearing ear to the door.

            It was Ryoko and Ayeka. Catching a conversation part way through wasn't good for the understanding of the whole, but Tenchi really didn't care. He just wanted to hear what they were talking about.

            "Good points," Ayeka's voice trailed through the wooden door. "We wouldn't have to keep hiding all the time."

            "But of course the main problem against is..." Ryoko trailed off.

            "The men," they both said.

            "Nobuyuki and my brother probably wouldn't let it go easily," Ayeka said. "Yosho would always be telling me that I would have to fulfil my role as First Princess."

            "And Nobuyuki would spend every free second trying to catch us with a video camera or something," Ryoko said.

            "But the main thing is: do we want to?" Ayeka said. "Should we reveal ourselves to everyone?"

            "You mean come out of the same closet?" Ryoko asked. "Call to everyone from our same side of the fence? Shout out as we swing togeth..."

            "Enough of that," Ayeka said.

            "Okay."

            There was silence. Tenchi pressed himself against the door harder, trying to hear if they'd lowered their voices. But doing this left him completely vulnerable to falling over as the door was opened.

            Tenchi lay on his back, facing the two women who were towering above him. Both had serious faces and narrow eyes, with no mouth opening visible. Tenchi smiled and laughed nervously, before clearing his throat and standing up.

            "Lost my balance," he said, brushing himself down.

            "I'll bet you did," Ryoko said.

            "So what did you hear?" Ayeka asked.

            "How much should I have heard?" Tenchi asked slowly, his eyebrows dancing around on his forehead, asking for clues as to what to say.

            No clues, unfortunately. Tenchi just laughed nervously again and stepped back inside, setting his sights back on that drink. The other two followed him in and sat down at the table, still watching him.

            "What? What is it?" Tenchi asked, getting rather uncomfortable at the staring.

            "How much?" Ryoko asked.

            "Oh, er," Tenchi started. "Just the points against?" he trailed off, hoping he'd got the right answer.

            "Oh," Ayeka said. "Okay then."

            They both stood up, and Ryoko floated over to him, grabbing his arm. "So what do you think, Tenchi?" she asked, her voice a completely different tone now. "Should us two come out or not?"

            "You and Ayeka?" Tenchi asked. "Well, I really don't know. Some of us already know, don't we?"

            "Mihoshi doesn't," Ayeka said, walking over to Ryoko and firmly extracting her off Tenchi's arm.

            "Is that all?" Tenchi asked.

            "Well, and your father and my brother," Ayeka added.

            "So how did Sasami find out?" Tenchi asked. "I know she knows, but I don't know how she found out."

            "It's a complicated and strange story," Ryoko said, taking Ayeka off Tenchi's arm and resuming her place there. "I'm not going to say."

            Ayeka shook her head as Tenchi looked in her direction. Ryoko pulled the princess off again, more forcefully this time.

            "So..." Tenchi started. "Are you going to start fighting now?" he asked wearily.

            "Not if I can help it," Ayeka said, pushing Ryoko away from Tenchi. "Unlike Ryoko here, I have some restraint."

            "Is that why you are how you are?" Ryoko asked. "Never taking a decisive step? Is that why you've never asked Tenchi out?"

            "That is not it at all," Ayeka replied, getting angry. "I am merely waiting for the right time, that's all."

            "You were going to ask me out?" Tenchi asked.

            "And when is the right time?" Ryoko asked, completely ignoring Tenchi. "The day after never?"

            "No," Ayeka retorted. "Although you did say I could go first. I'm just trying to annoy you, by taking as long as I can."

            "Ask me out?" Tenchi repeated, still trying to figure this out. "You still like me?"

            "Well, if that's the case, I'll just take that back," Ryoko said. "I want to ask him out just as much as you, you know. If you're going to take forever, I might as well ask him out while you're waiting."

            "No way!" Ayeka exclaimed. She turned to Tenchi, as did Ryoko.

            "Tenchi, will you go out with me?" the both asked. They glared at each other. "We could go to the cinema," Ryoko said, at the same time that Ayeka said: "We could go to a restaurant."

            "You're asking me out?" Tenchi asked.

            "Well, yes," they both said.

            "Me? Asking me out? You?"

            "Yes..." Ryoko said. "You do understand, don't you? Women ask men out all the time."

            "It's how the majority of relationships start on Jurai," Ayeka said.

            "But it's different here," Tenchi said. "The men ask the women out."

            "Oh." Ayeka and Ryoko looked at each other.

            "So you still like me then?" Tenchi asked.

            "Of course, Tenchi," Ryoko said, grabbing his arm again and resting her head on his shoulder. "Of course we still love you."

            Ayeka held his other arm. "Yes, we love you just as much as before. I just love you more."

            As Ryoko pulled faces at the princess, Tenchi thought about this. "But I thought you loved each other?"

            "We do," Ryoko said. "We also love you."

            "Oh great," Tenchi muttered to himself. "A love triangle. I've read about this kind of thing, and it's never been good."

            "Excuse me?" Ayeka asked.

            "Oh, nothing," Tenchi replied, politely removing the women from his arms. "So, what, we all love each other, is that it?"

            "You love us?" Ryoko asked.

            "Damn," Tenchi muttered. "I was hoping they wouldn't catch that."

            "Do you really love us?" Ayeka asked, stepping forwards.

            There really was no way to get out of admitting this one, aside from claiming insanity. Although arguably he was, for letting five alien girls live with him after the two he was facing had both tried to kill him the first time they met, Tenchi decided against that course of action.

            "Maybe?" Tenchi muttered quietly.

            "Is that a yes?" Ryoko asked.

            "Maybe?" Tenchi repeated, his voice even more desperate for something to happen to interrupt this rather uncomfortable confrontation. Sorry, Tenchi. Even animé has to have its emotionally deep bits. Nothing's going to interrupt you now.

            "Maybe we can sort something out with this," Ryoko said.

            "L... like what?" Tenchi asked uneasily. "What are you thinking of?"

            "So we all love each other, right?" Ryoko said. "So, what I was thinking of is this: that love triangle thing you were on about."

            "You... you heard me say that?" Tenchi asked.

            "What, you think these big ears are for nothing?" Ryoko replied. "I can hear lots of things normal humans can't, apparently. Right now, I can even hear your heartbeat, Tenchi."

            Tenchi's heart was indeed pumping more than the usual amount of blood, and he hadn't even done any marathon running today. All this blood was going somewhere, somewhere Tenchi really didn't want it to go. His head was pounding with all the extra blood swirling through it, giving him a headache.

            "Wait," Ayeka said. "A love triangle? Don't those things always end badly?"

            "Only when not everyone knows about it," Ryoko replied, speaking to Ayeka while Tenchi stood still, his long-forgotten drink on the side. "We all know that we all love each other, so if we all agree, it's okay, right?"

            You know, Ryoko and Ayeka seem to have become a lot more lenient when it came to talking about each other and their affections for whomever, not as bothered when the other talked about loving Tenchi. Maybe, well, you know, it does that to people. Or maybe they know they've got more options now. Whatever. That's just a side point anyway.

            While the two women talked, Tenchi caught sight of his drink. He took a few seconds to realise what it was, and then he picked it up and took a big mouthful. His throat had very quickly become very dry.

            "Tenchi, how do you feel about threesomes?" Ryoko asked spontaneously. Ayeka glared at her, shocked and surprised.

            Tenchi, his mouth full of liquid and about to swallow, forgot to, and half choked, half drowned trying to spit it out. The drink came spurting out of his mouth as a drop of blood trickled from his nose. It was back to its usual tricks again, that nose.

            "Ryoko?" Ayeka exclaimed. She was actually speechless. She couldn't express how she felt about what Ryoko had just said.

            "What?" Ryoko replied. "It's just an idea."

            "Ryoko," Tenchi gurgled, some of the liquid still in his mouth, but Tenchi had forgotten to swallow it. "What did you say?"

            "What?" Ryoko repeated. "Oh, is this one of those taboo things?" she asked. "Well, I don't know, do I? I've been stuck in a cave for seven hundred years, haven't I? People tend to lose their sense of moral code when that happens to them."

            When she got no reply from the other two, who were still in shock at what the demon had just said, she walked towards the door. "You just think about it, though, okay? It's the only idea we've had, after all." She left.

            Of course they were going to think about it. It's not as though they could forget it, after all. I mean, what an idea, ne?

            As Ayeka and Tenchi stood there in an embarrassed silence, involuntarily thinking about Ryoko's idea and glancing at each other slightly, only to find the other doing the same, causing them to quickly look elsewhere, a fresh shade of blush on their faces, time continued its ever-relentless trudge, turning everything that passed through it into history, although probably not interesting history and so not something an average person would probably learn in their history lessons. No, they would be completing their forty-seventh bad drawing of a trebuchet or learning about some of the very many wars to choose from instead.

            The noise Tenchi made when he cleared his throat, being a throat-clearing kind of noise, caught the attention of the purple-haired princess, who was more than eager to be distracted by anything, no matter how seemingly dull or boring.

            Tenchi looked back at her, and they ended up looking into each other's eyes for a moment. Then, unwelcome, Ryoko's idea came back to them. A brief second looking at the other's body and imagining what it looked like without the clothes, or just recalling images in Tenchi's case (he had seen plenty of that kind of thing at the onsen, he would thank you) made them start to blush hotly again, and fairly sharpishly look for something, a fly, the sink, anything to look at that didn't look and blush back.

            Clearly this could have gone on for a long time, and seeing as how in each cycle Tenchi's nose would start to bleed, eventually he wouldn't have any blood left in his body, and so he would actually die. This is why Tenchi decided to break the sequence.

            "Umm..." he tried.

            Ayeka's gaze immediately refocused on him. She hoped he would say something soon to distract her, because Ryoko's idea just wouldn't leave her alone, and while imagining Tenchi's body wasn't at all bad to her, she would prefer not to blush any more.

            "Ayeka?" Tenchi continued, really trying to think of something to say before his nose started bleeding yet again.

            "Yes?" Ayeka helped him along.

            "Well..." Tenchi said slowly. You could almost hear the "dot dot dot".

            "What is it?" Ayeka asked, which in itself deserved some sort of reward. She had managed to link more than one word together into a coherent question. Ryoko's suggestion really had regressed them, making such simple things as talking quite a challenge. That was annoying.

            "About Ryoko," Tenchi replied, he too managing more than one word at a time now. "What she just said..."

            The topic of conversation just had to be that, didn't it?

            "What do you think?" Ayeka jumped in, wanting Tenchi's opinion before bothering to come up with one of her own.

            "Well, umm..." Tenchi trailed off. Damn he was thinking. She took my question "I'm not sure," he said, smiling inwardly at this obviously uncommitted answer. It was the epitome of Tenchi, the amount of indecisiveness that was in it. "What about you?"

            "Me?" Ayeka asked. "I don't know either. I don't normally think about such things. It's not suitable for my position as First Princess of Jurai."

            "But didn't I tell you that kind of thing means nothing here?" Tenchi asked.

            Yes, you did Ayeka thought. And you have no idea how hard it is for me to not think about it every seven seconds

            "Anyway, I asked what you thought about it," Tenchi said, "not whether it was suitable for a Juraian princess."

            "What I think?" Ayeka repeated. "Well, would it really be that unusual? Many people do that kind of thing all the time. Even my father has two wives."

            "But my life isn't very usual anyway," Tenchi said. "And besides, you said so yourself: 'You and I are related by noble blood'. I mean, that's just incest, isn't it?"

            "But we were born seven hundred years apart," Ayeka replied.

            "Yeah, but my great grandfather is your dad. You're like, my great step aunt or something. Is that right? Step great-aunt? And besides, you sound like you're arguing for this thing."

            Ayeka turned and blushed at a wall. She heard Tenchi behind her hop up onto the table, sitting with his legs dangling over the side. He quickly hopped off again and spoke.

            "Why are we in the kitchen?" he asked. "There's so many more comfortable places to be. Come on."

            They walked back into the main room. Mihoshi, looking rather dazed and rubbing her head softly, was lying on one couch. Behind her, the door underneath the stairs closed fairly loudly. Apparently Washu's lecture was over. Tenchi took a quick glance to see if the flowerpot was back, which it was, although now sporting some green flowers instead of the red ones before. Mihoshi was also wearing both shoes again. Ayeka and Tenchi sat down on the other couch, as Mihoshi made herself comfy and decided to get some rest. Soon, being about ten seconds later, Mihoshi's deep breathing and slight snoring sounds gave away the fact that she was sleeping.

            Tenchi was amazed at how Mihoshi could just go to sleep so suddenly wherever she wanted. But, rather than dwell on that, his thoughts wandered to Ayeka, forcing him to turn and look at her before he realised what he was doing.

            "Ayeka?" he asked.

            "What is it, Lord Tenchi?" Ayeka replied.

            "Where were you just before lunch?" Tenchi asked, yet again wanting to know more than he really should. If Washu had heard, he would be getting another talk and a few dozen more stone gnomes on the head.

            "Where was I?" Ayeka asked, repeating the question, apparently to stall for time. "I went out for a walk. I felt like having a stroll, you know, stretch my legs, think about things."

            "What things?" Tenchi blurted out.

            "Private things," Ayeka said, glaring slightly at her male love. "Personal things, things that I shouldn't tell you."

            "Sorry," Tenchi apologised. There was a pause.

            "If you really must know," Ayeka said, "I was thinking about us."

            "What about us?"

            "It's... nothing," Ayeka said, turning to look out of the window. "Forget it."

            Of course, Tenchi wouldn't. He knew there was something he didn't know. Darn human curiosity.

            "I remember," Tenchi started. Ayeka looked at him again. "I remember, about six months ago."

            "When we all arrived here?" Ayeka asked.

            "That's right." Tenchi looked out of the window over the lake. "Ryo-Ohki and Ryu-Oh crashed in the lake, and you were stranded here."

            "You let us stay," Ayeka said. "Despite everything that happened, you were still nice enough to let us live with you."

            "And shortly after, you hurt your leg," Tenchi continued. "I helped you to shelter from the rain, and then we went down to see grandpa's treeship."

            "I remember," Ayeka said. "I gave you Tenchi-ken back. It is strange, though, that the name of the sword is also your name, Tenchi."

            "Yes, it is a strange coincidence, isn't it?" Tenchi said. "But just before that, as we were making our way over the stones to the tree, when you slipped."

            "You caught me," Ayeka said. "And there was an awkward pause."

            There was another awkward pause just now. Strange, that.

            "What were you thinking about, Ayeka?" Tenchi asked. "As I was holding you. If you don't mind, what were you thinking about?"

            "I was thinking about..." Ayeka said slowly. "I was thinking that it might not be quite so bad on Earth after all. Sasami was there, too, and I had an excuse to relax, for the first time, well, pretty much ever. Why? What were you thinking about?"

            "As I remember," Tenchi said, "I was thinking that my school had blown up, my life was invaded by three alien girls and a small furry animal that I've never seen before, and that I was probably never going to be normal again. But, holding you, I thought that all that didn't really matter as much, and what really did matter was that I had some new friends. Okay, not the average kind of friends, sure, but even then I still thought a lot about you."

            "Were you..." Ayeka asked. "Were you attracted to me then?"

            "I honestly don't remember," Tenchi replied. There was another pause. "Were you?"

            "Was I attracted to you then?" Ayeka said. "I don't know. But I know I'm attracted to you now, so much. And it's not some silly crush or anything, either. I really feel that I'm in love with you."

            Tenchi didn't really know what to say about this. "Oh," he managed. He thought for a moment, leaving Ayeka waiting to know what he thought. "Ryoko said before, she said she let you go first. What was all that about?"

            "It's sort of complicated," Ayeka replied. Seeing Tenchi's expression, one of expectance and warmth, she continued. "But I guess I'll tell you now."

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

            In Washu's lab, as each chapter always seems to finish in, Washu was busy tightening a bolt on a machine, which was probably either a super-powered fruit juicer, or another galactic destroying device. Oh, wait, it said on the side. "Bi-dimensional Animificator". Whatever that was.

            Washu stood up and looked at her latest creation. "My Bi-Dimensional Animificator. Probably my greatest invention this week. No, this month. I'll give it a test later." She stopped and turned her head, as if trying to listen to something. "Maybe I should check on what's going on up there. Probably something important. It's interesting; I get this feeling every time something significant may have happened, like it's the end of a chapter or something."

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