Knucks awoke the next morning, not to whistling and peace, but to a loud bang and the sound of small drips of water hitting the roof and windows. He was surprised to find it raining and even more surprised to find little Sasami standing in his doorway. He wasn't worried about his privacy since he word a tank top and sweats to sleep ever night but the look on her face was that of pure embarrassment. She looked away quickly as I removed my covers. Sasami, he could tell, thought he wore nothing to sleep at night, " it's alright Sasami. I have clothes on." She turned around slowly and peeked through he fingers before completely removing them from her tomato red face.
She so shy it was humoring, " um, I, um, just wanted to tell you that, um, breakfast his ready." With that, she jogged down the hallway giggling like a normal girl her age would.
Knucks gave the thought one more chuckle before he proceeded downstairs. He remembered his agenda for the day, go train with the master and…nothing. After that, he had nothing to do. He decided to try and give Ayeka another shot after training. That girl seemed nice but could have a cold heart when she got angry. No sooner did he finish the thought that he realized he had something hovering above him. He reached up to find nothing but air with his finger tips. He knew perfectly well who it was but, as always, her intentions were unclear. She reappeared next to him as if she had done nothing. Knucks reached other and flicked her on the ear. She stuck her tongue out at him and Knucks just smiled back at her. He still hadn't decided to see Ryoko as a tease or as a girl that really liked him. He shrugged it off and supposed that she would make her intentions clear when she wanted to.
He could give the idea no further thought as Sasami entered the room and announced that everyone could start eating now. Sasami had cooked a light dish today as well, crisp bacon, sizzling eggs, toast toasted to perfection, and a glass of orange juice. Ryoko, who made it a habit to play with her food before she swallowed it whole, arranged her plate in a smiley face pattern. She showed it around the table and everybody smirked. Sasami just hit her upside her head to get her to eat her food.
Knucks ate fast so he could be ready when Tenchi finished his meal to start training. His nervousness came back to haunt him. Once again though, he relied on the arguing of Ayeka and Ryoko over the last piece of toast and the swift frying pan coming down on both of their hands to make himself lighten up. That seemed to do the trick every time.
After what seemed like hours, Tenchi finished his meal and we started off to my first day. He wasn't nervous anymore but definitely felt anxious to get this first one over with. Ryoko came up and asked, " You off already. Thought you were staying."
" No I'm just going to train with Tenchi and his grandpa. I told you that yesterday"
Knucks watched as she attempted to remember their conversation and, surprisingly quickly, said, " oh yeah! I remember now. Well… after you guys are done… do you…wanna hang out?"
Knucks thought that Ryoko had winked but he wasn't positive, " Yeah sure. Why not." With a nod and a smile, Tenchi and him were off to a date with hell.
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In Space:
The mysterious person watched his monitor screen as the young Tenchi and the still mysterious Knucks passed by his micro-cam. He smiled as they both tried desperately to stay out of the rain with no avail. His smile turned to a frown for a moment as Tenchi seemed to look directly at his camera, but he quickly smiled again when Tenchi turned and tried to keep up with Knucks. These cameras were really works of art. Nobody could've possibly seen one with the naked eye. This backed up his guess that Tenchi had just glanced that way. He would have to send another camera out to track the newcomer, Knucks. Each camera tracked a specific target and nothing else. It would continue to work as long as the Soja's engines continued to hum with life.
He turned his thoughts from his own genius to curiosity about the newcomer. Knucks had proven to be very good with clearing out his background information. He had no records of his past, not even a birth certificate. He would have to solely rely on his cameras to gather information. From what he could tell, Knucks was an orphan out on his own that spent a little to much time talking with his prey, Ryoko. That was basically all he knew about the little enigma. That and the fact that Knucks thought he had some skill with a blade.
With that thought, the over looker summoned his blade. His blade couldn't have been seen in the pitch black had it not been for its red outline. The wooden handle fit perfectly into his had as he waved his blade around, watching it cut through the air with a swoosh. He decided that Knucks would learn soon enough how a true sword master fought. If he even survived what was coming before him…
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Knucks got to the shrine first, followed only half a step behind by Tenchi. Grandpa was nowhere to be seen yet, Knucks felt a distinct power present among the trees. Tenchi leaned over and whispered, " Watch for him. He could come from anywhere to attack. Since you don't have a blade, just dodge it."
Suddenly, a fierce wind awoke and Knucks found himself dodging a downward slash attack by rolling to the left. Grandpa looked pleased at his action, " Very good. I can tell you have had training. I thought you were just another wanna be. I'm still not completely convinced though. Tenchi!" He summoned Tenchi over with a wave of his hand. Knucks took this second to calm down from the slight adrenaline rush he had. He whipped the water off his brow with his shirt. The rain had calmed down to nothing but a mist. This still made it inconvenient as he couldn't see but fifteen feet in front of him, " Knucks, I would like you to duel Tenchi. Simple rules, the first to drop their weapon loses."
Knucks didn't even have time to protest as Tenchi was in ready position and a sword wooden bottake was flying at him. He caught the bottake and decided that it was best just to duel him to not anger the master. They were ready to begin when a loud rumble ran through the ground. Knucks looked up and tried to see where it was coming from. Tenchi just smiled and said, " Don't pay attention to that. That's just Ayeka and Ryoko getting along." Knucks heard this and was both appalled and a little surprised. They must've fought a lot for Tenchi to be so used to it.
With no more time for thought, Tenchi lunged at Knucks. He hadn't seen Tenchi's fighting style so Knucks just dropped into his and waited for Tenchi to strike. Tenchi did a horizontal slice towards his head, but Knucks had expected that and ducked. He brought his sword up and struck Tenchi's wrist. Tenchi dropped his weapon, hopped back and shook his wrist while blowing on it. Grandpa walked over to Tenchi and gave him a slap to the back of the head. Knucks laughed out loud at this as he saw Grandpa get down in a stance and whisper something to Tenchi. Without warning, the old man leapt across the ground towards Knucks. Knucks didn't even have time to get into his stance when he saw a bottake appear in front of his face.
" You fight well, but let your guard down much to soon. You did so as soon as you saw Tenchi drop his weapon. What if he were an assassin with accomplices? They would've killed you. You must be ready for anything. Keep an open mind and a quick guard." Knucks was still surprised at Grandpa's sudden movements. He saw him move with grace and purpose, but couldn't possibly move fats enough to counter with his guard down. He inwardly cursed himself while he nodded his head in agreement.
" Good. Now lets see if you learn from your mistakes." Half way through his sentence, Grandpa swung his sword at Knucks' midsection, only to watch as Knucks expertly bent over backwards to dodge. All this in three words. By the word mistake came around, they were back as if nothing had ever happened. " Very good indeed. Now," He walked over to some pegs that stuck out of the ground, " both of you over on the pegs for a balancing trick."
-------------------------------------------------------
Knucks had never been so sore in his life. He limped back on his hurt leg and listened as Tenchi described his training times. Knucks focused on keeping his leg from dragging as feeling was slowly returning to it. Grandpa had used a paralysis technique on his leg, it worked. He ran over Grandpa's advice to better his sword abilities. Keep my feet spread, stay balanced, stop daydreaming and all that stuff. Grandpa had walked away from that training unscathed; not a very good sign for Knucks defeating him anytime soon.
He tuned back into Tenchi's trip down memory lane. Tenchi got another two words out before we heard and saw Ayeka and Ryoko running straight for them. Tenchi ducked behind Knucks and, despite his condition, Knucks still found himself laughing when both girls tried to get at Tenchi through him. They couldn't quite get to him but they both acted surprisingly, Ayeka leaping over Knucks head and Ryoko just hugging Knucks instead. Ryoko squeezed him as hard as she could muster. Knucks found himself not screaming in pain because there was a certain aspect to this hug. The hug was rough but at the same time both comforting and warm. Ryoko released her death hold and looked him straight in the eye. There was a cat-like wildness there, but in a flash, a split second flash, he thought he saw a caring look from her. Knucks kept a straight gaze and smiled slightly otherwise giving nothing away in his eyes. He had finally decided that Ryoko was genuinely interested in him.
Tenchi had noticed the gaze between us and tapped me on the shoulder through Ayeka's iron grip, " Hey…. Do ya mind giving me a little help here?" Knucks looked away from Ryoko to see Tenchi struggling against Ayeka.
Knucks laughed and said, " what do ya want me to do?"
" How bout you pry her off." Tenchi's voice sounded strained as Ayeka was no doubt crushing his lungs.
At that statement, Ayeka released her hold on Tenchi and turned to Knucks, " You touch me and I'll kill you," she looked pretty steamed but Knucks was no stranger to being threatened, " you, you, you, barbarian!"
Knucks had to respond to that with a smile, " I haven't even talked to you yet and you already know me. You are amazing." Ryoko laughed in Ayeka's face at that. Knucks knew she didn't have a good comeback by the angry look on her face, " Why don't we stop arguing and get to the house before it decides to downpour again?"
" What's the matter Knucks? You think your gonna melt in the water or something?" Ryoko added her two cents into the mix but Knucks was prepared for sarcasm with sarcasm.
" Yep Ryoko I am. Cause I'm so sweet, I'm gonna melt like sugar." Knucks smiled at her and received one back after a little chuckle.
They started to walk back to the house. Ryoko and Ayeka hadn't begun to fight yet so Knucks decided it was as good as time as any to talk with Ayeka. He had his first sentence on the tip of his tongue when he heard a branch snapping in the woods. He thought it was just an animal, but his instincts argued differently. They told him danger was closing in on them.
" Shhhh! Listen." Knucks informed everyone just as the next twig broke. Tenchi took out his bottake and looked around. Ayeka was whispering to Tenchi while Ryoko had summoned the bright red sword he remembered. Knucks brought out both halves of his bottake as Grandpa had broken it in a dueling exercise. He couldn't be sure how many their were, he guessed three to ten. Ryoko disappeared suddenly and the enemies started their attack. Tenchi struck down one by breaking his bottake over it's head. Knucks saw one of them fly through the air, an android with no skin, just gleaming metal and wires. Knucks found a bunch of wires on one and tugged. The android swung his long, straight, blade to try to catch him in the side, but Knucks leaped over and jammed one half of his bottake into it's neck. Ryoko reappeared behind one and made quick work of it, but was completely oblivious to the one about to take her head off. Knucks saw this, reared back and threw the last of his weapon at her sneak attacker. He hit it in the place where a human would've had a lower belly. Ryoko turned around, shocked at the look of the metal monster that had almost killed her.
She then turned quickly to the rest of the fighters, checking over their own progress against their assassins. Then she turned to Knucks who was checking on Tenchi's welfare. She saw him throw his weapon at the metal menace, to save her. She wasn't used to being saved but Knucks made it kind of…enjoyable. Her eyes traveled down o his forearm to see that he had a pretty big gash from top to bottom, about half a foot long and at least an inch deep. She walked over and checked on the still stunned Ayeka. She too had a cut, it looked like a paper cut but it was there. Ryoko then asked Knucks, " Hey Knucks. You alright?"
Knucks looked down at his forearm and noticed the blood from the deep gash on it. He looked over to the area he was fighting at and saw that when he threw the bottake at Ryoko's attacker, his arm landed on a fallen metal junkie's sword. He now noticed the pain that accompanied it. While not completely unbearable, it still had a punch to it.
" Yeah, yeah, I think I'll live. Are you okay?"
The way that Knucks asked Ryoko that question was heart warming. She couldn't believe that a guy she had known for two days really cares about her welfare. Ryoko felt a warm feeling when she thought of him saving her, " Yeah. I'm super thanks to you."
Knucks found the seductive wink she gave him to be very gratifying. On the tail of that thought was that of his now throbbing arm. Tenchi carefully looked over it and said that they needed to get back to the house and have Washu take a look at the wound. They started walking back to the house as Knucks took his already ripped up shirt and wrapped it tightly around his forearm to slow the bleeding. He never could do to many things at once so he slowed his pace to try and tightly wrap the shirt on his arm. It fell from his grip but was caught by one of Ryoko's hands. It seems Ryoko's disappearing-and-reappearing trick was pretty valuable, " Show off."
" Well if you'd like me to let it drop on the ground that's fine," She acted like she was going to drop it and almost did as she discovered that it was no ordinary shirt, " Man! How much does this thing weigh.?"
Knucks laughed as she acted as if it weighed more than it did, " It weighs a hundred pounds. It's good for training and the weight is sewn within the shirt fibers so…"
Knucks saw her surprise at this new development, " So… you walk around with this stuff on every day?," Knucks gave her a quick nod and she wiped the surprise off her face, " Well, your tougher than you look. Want me to give you a hand with that?"
Knucks could probably do it himself with a few more tries but by that time, it would be mud soaked, " Yeah. If you don't mind."
Ryoko started wrapping his arm up and said, " You saved my life, I think I can wrap up a little scratch like this for ya." They exchanged smiles as Knucks sucked up the pain she was causing him.
Knucks noticed something on Ryoko's wrist that he hadn't before. A red gem was there. He looked at the other and she had a matching one. The weird thing was that they were inside the skin and glowing. He decided to leave it alone until she looked up at him and he noticed another one in her neck. He asked, " What's up with the gems Ryoko?"
Ryoko only paused for a second in her wrapping and answered, " Nothing. They're just decoration. Cool aren't they?" She decided that telling him the history of her gems would be pointless information. Besides, he would be in danger if he knew anything about them.
Knucks didn't believe Ryoko when she said the gems meant nothing but decided to not push his luck. She finished wrapping his arm and stood straight up to look him in the eye. She was only a few inches below his 6'2 but she felt kind of small next to him. It was probably his muscles that made it seem that she was smaller, by leaps and bounds. Yet, she did not feel threatened by him in the least. In fact, she felt very comfortably around him, like the perfect fit of the perfect shoe. She wanted to touch him suddenly and got her wish when she thought of thanking him, " I never got to thank you for saving me back there. Even if you were clumsy enough to get yourself hurt in the process. I hate thank you's so….."
Knucks could see that she was trying to make this easier for herself by cracking a joke. It didn't help to much. He could also see her straining to say thanks so, he decided to spare he the strain, " Your welcome. Anytime."
Ryoko smiled and grabbed his good arm and brought it up. She took his hand and shook it gently, like someone who was a good friend.
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In Space:
He stared at his screen, scrolling through his androids to see which one was closest to the targets. A frown played across his face as no signal was coming up for any of his units. He assigned on of his cameras to ascertain their fate. They had been completely obliterated by Tenchi, the new comer, and Ryoko. Ayeka had done little to nothing to help out. He took a closer look and noted a large splash of blood on a fallen sword. He smiled a little bit at the sight but it dissipated when he saw that all were still alive. He threw the wine glass he was holding in disbelief that his beautiful androids had been beaten without taking a single life. They were disgraces, every last one of them. He wondered who had been hurt and turned to another camera to quench his curiosity. The Knucks fellow had a not anywhere near fatal injury to his left arm. With Washu, he would heal by tomorrow.
He stared at Knucks with a new found hatred as he shook hands with Ryoko. He zoomed in on the one of her gems that was facing the camera. They were the object of his desire and nothing, not Tenchi and certainly not this little flirt, Knucks is even going to live to see Ryoko's final days.
She so shy it was humoring, " um, I, um, just wanted to tell you that, um, breakfast his ready." With that, she jogged down the hallway giggling like a normal girl her age would.
Knucks gave the thought one more chuckle before he proceeded downstairs. He remembered his agenda for the day, go train with the master and…nothing. After that, he had nothing to do. He decided to try and give Ayeka another shot after training. That girl seemed nice but could have a cold heart when she got angry. No sooner did he finish the thought that he realized he had something hovering above him. He reached up to find nothing but air with his finger tips. He knew perfectly well who it was but, as always, her intentions were unclear. She reappeared next to him as if she had done nothing. Knucks reached other and flicked her on the ear. She stuck her tongue out at him and Knucks just smiled back at her. He still hadn't decided to see Ryoko as a tease or as a girl that really liked him. He shrugged it off and supposed that she would make her intentions clear when she wanted to.
He could give the idea no further thought as Sasami entered the room and announced that everyone could start eating now. Sasami had cooked a light dish today as well, crisp bacon, sizzling eggs, toast toasted to perfection, and a glass of orange juice. Ryoko, who made it a habit to play with her food before she swallowed it whole, arranged her plate in a smiley face pattern. She showed it around the table and everybody smirked. Sasami just hit her upside her head to get her to eat her food.
Knucks ate fast so he could be ready when Tenchi finished his meal to start training. His nervousness came back to haunt him. Once again though, he relied on the arguing of Ayeka and Ryoko over the last piece of toast and the swift frying pan coming down on both of their hands to make himself lighten up. That seemed to do the trick every time.
After what seemed like hours, Tenchi finished his meal and we started off to my first day. He wasn't nervous anymore but definitely felt anxious to get this first one over with. Ryoko came up and asked, " You off already. Thought you were staying."
" No I'm just going to train with Tenchi and his grandpa. I told you that yesterday"
Knucks watched as she attempted to remember their conversation and, surprisingly quickly, said, " oh yeah! I remember now. Well… after you guys are done… do you…wanna hang out?"
Knucks thought that Ryoko had winked but he wasn't positive, " Yeah sure. Why not." With a nod and a smile, Tenchi and him were off to a date with hell.
----------------------------------------------------------
In Space:
The mysterious person watched his monitor screen as the young Tenchi and the still mysterious Knucks passed by his micro-cam. He smiled as they both tried desperately to stay out of the rain with no avail. His smile turned to a frown for a moment as Tenchi seemed to look directly at his camera, but he quickly smiled again when Tenchi turned and tried to keep up with Knucks. These cameras were really works of art. Nobody could've possibly seen one with the naked eye. This backed up his guess that Tenchi had just glanced that way. He would have to send another camera out to track the newcomer, Knucks. Each camera tracked a specific target and nothing else. It would continue to work as long as the Soja's engines continued to hum with life.
He turned his thoughts from his own genius to curiosity about the newcomer. Knucks had proven to be very good with clearing out his background information. He had no records of his past, not even a birth certificate. He would have to solely rely on his cameras to gather information. From what he could tell, Knucks was an orphan out on his own that spent a little to much time talking with his prey, Ryoko. That was basically all he knew about the little enigma. That and the fact that Knucks thought he had some skill with a blade.
With that thought, the over looker summoned his blade. His blade couldn't have been seen in the pitch black had it not been for its red outline. The wooden handle fit perfectly into his had as he waved his blade around, watching it cut through the air with a swoosh. He decided that Knucks would learn soon enough how a true sword master fought. If he even survived what was coming before him…
-----------------------------------------------------
Knucks got to the shrine first, followed only half a step behind by Tenchi. Grandpa was nowhere to be seen yet, Knucks felt a distinct power present among the trees. Tenchi leaned over and whispered, " Watch for him. He could come from anywhere to attack. Since you don't have a blade, just dodge it."
Suddenly, a fierce wind awoke and Knucks found himself dodging a downward slash attack by rolling to the left. Grandpa looked pleased at his action, " Very good. I can tell you have had training. I thought you were just another wanna be. I'm still not completely convinced though. Tenchi!" He summoned Tenchi over with a wave of his hand. Knucks took this second to calm down from the slight adrenaline rush he had. He whipped the water off his brow with his shirt. The rain had calmed down to nothing but a mist. This still made it inconvenient as he couldn't see but fifteen feet in front of him, " Knucks, I would like you to duel Tenchi. Simple rules, the first to drop their weapon loses."
Knucks didn't even have time to protest as Tenchi was in ready position and a sword wooden bottake was flying at him. He caught the bottake and decided that it was best just to duel him to not anger the master. They were ready to begin when a loud rumble ran through the ground. Knucks looked up and tried to see where it was coming from. Tenchi just smiled and said, " Don't pay attention to that. That's just Ayeka and Ryoko getting along." Knucks heard this and was both appalled and a little surprised. They must've fought a lot for Tenchi to be so used to it.
With no more time for thought, Tenchi lunged at Knucks. He hadn't seen Tenchi's fighting style so Knucks just dropped into his and waited for Tenchi to strike. Tenchi did a horizontal slice towards his head, but Knucks had expected that and ducked. He brought his sword up and struck Tenchi's wrist. Tenchi dropped his weapon, hopped back and shook his wrist while blowing on it. Grandpa walked over to Tenchi and gave him a slap to the back of the head. Knucks laughed out loud at this as he saw Grandpa get down in a stance and whisper something to Tenchi. Without warning, the old man leapt across the ground towards Knucks. Knucks didn't even have time to get into his stance when he saw a bottake appear in front of his face.
" You fight well, but let your guard down much to soon. You did so as soon as you saw Tenchi drop his weapon. What if he were an assassin with accomplices? They would've killed you. You must be ready for anything. Keep an open mind and a quick guard." Knucks was still surprised at Grandpa's sudden movements. He saw him move with grace and purpose, but couldn't possibly move fats enough to counter with his guard down. He inwardly cursed himself while he nodded his head in agreement.
" Good. Now lets see if you learn from your mistakes." Half way through his sentence, Grandpa swung his sword at Knucks' midsection, only to watch as Knucks expertly bent over backwards to dodge. All this in three words. By the word mistake came around, they were back as if nothing had ever happened. " Very good indeed. Now," He walked over to some pegs that stuck out of the ground, " both of you over on the pegs for a balancing trick."
-------------------------------------------------------
Knucks had never been so sore in his life. He limped back on his hurt leg and listened as Tenchi described his training times. Knucks focused on keeping his leg from dragging as feeling was slowly returning to it. Grandpa had used a paralysis technique on his leg, it worked. He ran over Grandpa's advice to better his sword abilities. Keep my feet spread, stay balanced, stop daydreaming and all that stuff. Grandpa had walked away from that training unscathed; not a very good sign for Knucks defeating him anytime soon.
He tuned back into Tenchi's trip down memory lane. Tenchi got another two words out before we heard and saw Ayeka and Ryoko running straight for them. Tenchi ducked behind Knucks and, despite his condition, Knucks still found himself laughing when both girls tried to get at Tenchi through him. They couldn't quite get to him but they both acted surprisingly, Ayeka leaping over Knucks head and Ryoko just hugging Knucks instead. Ryoko squeezed him as hard as she could muster. Knucks found himself not screaming in pain because there was a certain aspect to this hug. The hug was rough but at the same time both comforting and warm. Ryoko released her death hold and looked him straight in the eye. There was a cat-like wildness there, but in a flash, a split second flash, he thought he saw a caring look from her. Knucks kept a straight gaze and smiled slightly otherwise giving nothing away in his eyes. He had finally decided that Ryoko was genuinely interested in him.
Tenchi had noticed the gaze between us and tapped me on the shoulder through Ayeka's iron grip, " Hey…. Do ya mind giving me a little help here?" Knucks looked away from Ryoko to see Tenchi struggling against Ayeka.
Knucks laughed and said, " what do ya want me to do?"
" How bout you pry her off." Tenchi's voice sounded strained as Ayeka was no doubt crushing his lungs.
At that statement, Ayeka released her hold on Tenchi and turned to Knucks, " You touch me and I'll kill you," she looked pretty steamed but Knucks was no stranger to being threatened, " you, you, you, barbarian!"
Knucks had to respond to that with a smile, " I haven't even talked to you yet and you already know me. You are amazing." Ryoko laughed in Ayeka's face at that. Knucks knew she didn't have a good comeback by the angry look on her face, " Why don't we stop arguing and get to the house before it decides to downpour again?"
" What's the matter Knucks? You think your gonna melt in the water or something?" Ryoko added her two cents into the mix but Knucks was prepared for sarcasm with sarcasm.
" Yep Ryoko I am. Cause I'm so sweet, I'm gonna melt like sugar." Knucks smiled at her and received one back after a little chuckle.
They started to walk back to the house. Ryoko and Ayeka hadn't begun to fight yet so Knucks decided it was as good as time as any to talk with Ayeka. He had his first sentence on the tip of his tongue when he heard a branch snapping in the woods. He thought it was just an animal, but his instincts argued differently. They told him danger was closing in on them.
" Shhhh! Listen." Knucks informed everyone just as the next twig broke. Tenchi took out his bottake and looked around. Ayeka was whispering to Tenchi while Ryoko had summoned the bright red sword he remembered. Knucks brought out both halves of his bottake as Grandpa had broken it in a dueling exercise. He couldn't be sure how many their were, he guessed three to ten. Ryoko disappeared suddenly and the enemies started their attack. Tenchi struck down one by breaking his bottake over it's head. Knucks saw one of them fly through the air, an android with no skin, just gleaming metal and wires. Knucks found a bunch of wires on one and tugged. The android swung his long, straight, blade to try to catch him in the side, but Knucks leaped over and jammed one half of his bottake into it's neck. Ryoko reappeared behind one and made quick work of it, but was completely oblivious to the one about to take her head off. Knucks saw this, reared back and threw the last of his weapon at her sneak attacker. He hit it in the place where a human would've had a lower belly. Ryoko turned around, shocked at the look of the metal monster that had almost killed her.
She then turned quickly to the rest of the fighters, checking over their own progress against their assassins. Then she turned to Knucks who was checking on Tenchi's welfare. She saw him throw his weapon at the metal menace, to save her. She wasn't used to being saved but Knucks made it kind of…enjoyable. Her eyes traveled down o his forearm to see that he had a pretty big gash from top to bottom, about half a foot long and at least an inch deep. She walked over and checked on the still stunned Ayeka. She too had a cut, it looked like a paper cut but it was there. Ryoko then asked Knucks, " Hey Knucks. You alright?"
Knucks looked down at his forearm and noticed the blood from the deep gash on it. He looked over to the area he was fighting at and saw that when he threw the bottake at Ryoko's attacker, his arm landed on a fallen metal junkie's sword. He now noticed the pain that accompanied it. While not completely unbearable, it still had a punch to it.
" Yeah, yeah, I think I'll live. Are you okay?"
The way that Knucks asked Ryoko that question was heart warming. She couldn't believe that a guy she had known for two days really cares about her welfare. Ryoko felt a warm feeling when she thought of him saving her, " Yeah. I'm super thanks to you."
Knucks found the seductive wink she gave him to be very gratifying. On the tail of that thought was that of his now throbbing arm. Tenchi carefully looked over it and said that they needed to get back to the house and have Washu take a look at the wound. They started walking back to the house as Knucks took his already ripped up shirt and wrapped it tightly around his forearm to slow the bleeding. He never could do to many things at once so he slowed his pace to try and tightly wrap the shirt on his arm. It fell from his grip but was caught by one of Ryoko's hands. It seems Ryoko's disappearing-and-reappearing trick was pretty valuable, " Show off."
" Well if you'd like me to let it drop on the ground that's fine," She acted like she was going to drop it and almost did as she discovered that it was no ordinary shirt, " Man! How much does this thing weigh.?"
Knucks laughed as she acted as if it weighed more than it did, " It weighs a hundred pounds. It's good for training and the weight is sewn within the shirt fibers so…"
Knucks saw her surprise at this new development, " So… you walk around with this stuff on every day?," Knucks gave her a quick nod and she wiped the surprise off her face, " Well, your tougher than you look. Want me to give you a hand with that?"
Knucks could probably do it himself with a few more tries but by that time, it would be mud soaked, " Yeah. If you don't mind."
Ryoko started wrapping his arm up and said, " You saved my life, I think I can wrap up a little scratch like this for ya." They exchanged smiles as Knucks sucked up the pain she was causing him.
Knucks noticed something on Ryoko's wrist that he hadn't before. A red gem was there. He looked at the other and she had a matching one. The weird thing was that they were inside the skin and glowing. He decided to leave it alone until she looked up at him and he noticed another one in her neck. He asked, " What's up with the gems Ryoko?"
Ryoko only paused for a second in her wrapping and answered, " Nothing. They're just decoration. Cool aren't they?" She decided that telling him the history of her gems would be pointless information. Besides, he would be in danger if he knew anything about them.
Knucks didn't believe Ryoko when she said the gems meant nothing but decided to not push his luck. She finished wrapping his arm and stood straight up to look him in the eye. She was only a few inches below his 6'2 but she felt kind of small next to him. It was probably his muscles that made it seem that she was smaller, by leaps and bounds. Yet, she did not feel threatened by him in the least. In fact, she felt very comfortably around him, like the perfect fit of the perfect shoe. She wanted to touch him suddenly and got her wish when she thought of thanking him, " I never got to thank you for saving me back there. Even if you were clumsy enough to get yourself hurt in the process. I hate thank you's so….."
Knucks could see that she was trying to make this easier for herself by cracking a joke. It didn't help to much. He could also see her straining to say thanks so, he decided to spare he the strain, " Your welcome. Anytime."
Ryoko smiled and grabbed his good arm and brought it up. She took his hand and shook it gently, like someone who was a good friend.
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In Space:
He stared at his screen, scrolling through his androids to see which one was closest to the targets. A frown played across his face as no signal was coming up for any of his units. He assigned on of his cameras to ascertain their fate. They had been completely obliterated by Tenchi, the new comer, and Ryoko. Ayeka had done little to nothing to help out. He took a closer look and noted a large splash of blood on a fallen sword. He smiled a little bit at the sight but it dissipated when he saw that all were still alive. He threw the wine glass he was holding in disbelief that his beautiful androids had been beaten without taking a single life. They were disgraces, every last one of them. He wondered who had been hurt and turned to another camera to quench his curiosity. The Knucks fellow had a not anywhere near fatal injury to his left arm. With Washu, he would heal by tomorrow.
He stared at Knucks with a new found hatred as he shook hands with Ryoko. He zoomed in on the one of her gems that was facing the camera. They were the object of his desire and nothing, not Tenchi and certainly not this little flirt, Knucks is even going to live to see Ryoko's final days.