Tenchi Muyo is the property of Pioneer
and AIC. I've no intention of using this to
garner profits of any kind or type, so unless
you like to take a poor man's computer away
from him, please don't sue me!? Please?
All other characters, depictions,
places, and theories that have been put into
place are my own creation and have no relevance
to Tenchi Muyo in any way except in the ways
I've explained. These are my own thoughts and
imagination, and any relation to other stories
that are not my own are accidental.
Honest.
My e-mail is kerrigan2001@attbi.com for
any and all feedback. Please, PLEASE SEND
FEEDBACK OF ANY KIND!!! Thank you! ^-^
All right, enough talk more action....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~Tenchi Muyo: The Web of Life~~~
Chapter 2: Carrots and Hidden Skills (rev 5.0)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The young man was dreaming.
He dreamt of fields that stretched out as
far as the eye could see with huge trees, their
purple and blue leaves straining to touch the
sky. He hovered just over the ground, looking
at the reeds thrashing to and fro in time to
the wind. He twirled in the air, contented
with his dream right now. Looking out over the
fields that he saw, he viewed a great mansion
at the edge of a mountain, with a village
several miles away from what the mansion
grounds. Greenhouses and storage facilities
surrounded the mansion, all of them being quite
familiar. Looking down at the hill he started
this journey on, he floated higher into the
air, letting the whole scene burn into his
mind. He didn't want to forget this place, no
matter where he may go or wander. This place
was where he had been born.
This place was home.
The young man sniffed the air for a
moment. Feeling his body being dragged back
toward the ground, he realized that he was
waking out of his dream. Saddened by the
anchoring feeling that he felt, the young man
surrendered to the sensations of nerves
awakening and, after several more moments of
reorientation, finally opened his eyes.
Sunlight poured into the room from a
window above him, and struck on the far wall.
As he looked around the room he saw a bowl of
water next to his head, with several towels
sitting next to it. Lifting his head off of
the futon, he stared at the remaining portions
of the room he inhabited now. A table was
placed at the far wall, with two chairs
sitting on either side. What caught his
attention was the red-headed girl floating on a
red cushion, with her back toward him. Putting
himself into a sitting position the young man
pulled the blanket fully around his waist and
began to study the room and the girl more
closely. He nearly jumped when the girl spoke.
"It's still processing? Ah, well. Guess
he's got some anomalies that have to be double
checked before the final read-out can be
presented. Well, better get another look at
him while he's still asleep." The cushion
floated backwards to the edge of the futon, and
turned to have the girl floating parallel to
it. The girl's hair seemed to defy gravity for
the most part, which caught the young man's
attention immensely. Flowing from the back of
her head down to the floor, and trailing
slightly behind, he followed it with his eyes.
She wore a uniform that hinted at her
schooling; however the markings on the shoulder
were unrecognizable to him. The young man
leaned in to get a closer look at them
when he realized that he was instead staring
right into the largest set of green eyes he'd
ever known.
"Aaahh!" The girl blurted and jumped
back, falling off of her cushion onto the
floor. The young man reached out to steady the
girl before she fell, but a grid of red
interlocking strands of energy impeded his
reach.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you."
the young man blurted out, staring at the young
girl with sorry grey eyes. The girl stood up
slowly, rubbing her bottom with a look of mild
discomfort on her face. Looking back at the
young man, she gave a hearty smile.
"It's no problem! I was expecting you to
be asleep still. I'm Washu, and I'm well known
as the Greatest Scientist in the Galaxy!
What's your name?" the young scientist asked.
The young man gave a toothy smile.
"Do you think I could just call you
Washu? I don't think I could memorize all of
that, to be honest." Ashe remarked, to which
Washu gave him a near-scornful look.
Completely taken off guard by his reply, she
responded by giving him an amused smirk; he's
quite a character!
"Most of my friends and family call me
Little Washu, but I'll consider letting you get
by with calling me Washu for now. You still
haven't told me your name, though." The girl
teased, and the young man blinked twice. He
gave her a smirk in return, and pulled his hair
away from his eyes.
"Ashe. My name's Ashe." He looked
around the room for a moment, and gave Washu a
quizzical look. "Where am I?"
The girl scientist put her hands behind
her back and smiled, too interested in the now
awake young man to worry about bruises.
"Well, you're on the planet Earth, in the
Sol System." Washu replied. He gave her a
bemused look.
"I'm sorry; I know the system, I meant
what country I'm in. Is this Japan?" He
looked around, his grey eyes wide with
curiosity. She took her turn to give a
confused look and scratched her head.
"Actually, yes it is Japan. Obviously
you're not simply human, so what planet are you
from? Do they have the regenerating
capabilities that you do?" Washu inquired,
grilling her new subject as quickly as she
could. The young man shrugged absently and
rubbed his eyes.
"I'm from different places, to be honest.
It's been so long since I've ever had a
consistent home I couldn't tell you where I was
first. The longest I've ever stayed on a
planet before Earth would've been," the young
man tapped a finger to his lips in thought,
"Most likely, Tetanius Prime." Ashe replied.
Washu's eyes shot open at the name of Ashe's
past home.
"Tetanius Prime? That planet hasn't been
inhabited for about 4500 years! You were there
before?" she prodded. The young man nodded and
looked at the door for a moment.
"Uh, yeah, but can I step off topic for a
second?" the wanderer requested. Washu
furrowed her brow and folded her arms in
stubbornness, as Ashe continued speaking, "I
was wondering who found me in whatever shape I
was in. I have to thank them for helping me
out of my predicament." Washu nodded and
waved her floating laptop from where it hovered
at the table to her side, and began to type in
the information she had gleaned from their
conversation.
"His name is Tenchi Masaki. He's the
young man who found you after you crash landed
near his family's Shinto shrine in the woods
nearby. He had a couple of friends and I
assist in bringing you back here to make sure
your injuries weren't too severe. After you
regenerated your wounds, however, he wanted
to simply offer some courtesy and provide you
with a roof to cover you for the night." Washu
stated matter-of-factly, obviously annoyed with
having her questioning interrupted. Ashe
nodded and stretched out as best he could,
considering that the force-field was keeping
him on the futon.
"Would you be so kind as to bring him
here, so that I can thank him personally?"
Ashe requested, trying his best to keep the
conversation going. "And I'm sorry that I
stopped your questioning. I hope that we can
talk later on, and I'll answer any questions
that you have then, okay?" he finished.
Washu gave him a sidelong glance, and smiled
quietly.
"That'll work fine. You know, I'm a
little amazed with you. You truly are more
than what you seem to be." The scientist
remarked, pulling a chuckle out of Ashe. The
wanderer stopped and scratched his head for a
moment.
"I try." Ashe replied, and Washu eyed him
fully for a moment, which made Ashe feel
strangely comfortable.
"True, and succeeded fairly well, might I
add. But looking the way you are, I'd figure
you'll want some clothes to get into before
talking to Tenchi. You're not exactly well
dressed, you know." Washu noted, waving a hand
absently in the wanderer's direction. Ashe
looked down at himself and blushed mildly,
realizing that he had nothing else to cover
himself except for the blanket currently around
his waist. Washu laughed aloud for a moment,
and reached her hand into a portal that had
opened up next to her. Washu began to pull out
a large metallic briefcase, and proceeded to
punch in several things on the touchpad mounted
on its side. Setting the briefcase down next
to her, she whisked away her floating laptop
and knelt down on the floor. Picking up the
force-field orb, she de-activated it and threw
the orb into the portal that she had gotten
the briefcase from, which closed immediately
afterward.
"Okay, everything's set. I've
deactivated the force-field, and I picked out
some clothes for you. I hope you like them."
Washu pulled back her shirt sleeve to reveal a
slim metal band, complete with several buttons
around her wrist. Pushing one of the buttons,
she peered into the miniature view-screen
that had sprung into sight for several seconds.
She tapped her chin in thought for a moment,
and then began to walk toward the door.
"Hmm, Sasami most likely has breakfast
done. Get dressed, please, and I'll wait for
you outside the door. Considering your state,
you're most likely very hungry," Washu
explained, smiling at the wanderer. Ashe put
himself in a kneeling position, scratching his
head at the strangeness of the situation, "And
you're lucky to have the best chef in the
galaxy preparing your breakfast. See ya
there!"
With that, the scientist shut the door to
leave Ashe alone in the room. The wanderer
shrugged his shoulders and stood up slowly,
holding the blanket around his waist. Walking
over toward the briefcase, he popped open the
latches to view his new outfit. He whistled,
and looked back at the door.
"Black and emerald green. How'd she
know?" With an absent shrug, Ashe dropped the
blanket on the floor and began changing into
his new outfit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Alright, everyone, breakfast is
officially served! Dig in when you're ready!"
Sasami spoke, watching as the family sat down
to eat. Ryoko and Ayeka were already at each
other's throats, fussing over who got to have
more egg rolls; though Sasami thought it more
because Ryoko kept Ayeka up with her snoring.
Tenchi and his father were discussing the
young man's chores and duties for the day while
his father went off to work, and Mihoshi was
making her best attempt at keeping the argument
between Ayeka and Ryoko from getting too far.
Ryo-Ohki sat next to the kitchen door wailing
for her breakfast as well. The younger
princess placed a carrot in front of the
meowing cabbit and finally sat down to enjoy
breakfast herself, when the topic between
father and son changed to last night's rescue.
"So the person you had rescued was a boy,
eh, Tenchi?" Nobuyuki remarked. Tenchi nodded
in affirmation to his father between bites of
egg roll. "Ah, well, that's too bad. Might've
been interesting around here had it been a
girl." Ryoko and Ayeka snorted disdainfully,
giving Tenchi's father a threatening stare.
Nobuyuki drew a sharp breath and held up his
hands in defense.
"It was just a joke, ladies. I'm just
trying to make conversation at the table,
okay?" The girls rolled their eyes, and
resumed their own heated discussion. Tenchi
gave the girls a quick glance and then looked
back at his father, who let out a sigh of
relief.
"You asked for that one, Pop." Tenchi
whispered, and his father nodded in silent
agreement. The opening and closing of a door
above brought the attention of the family
toward the stairs. Washu quickly hopped down
the stairs and stopped at the foot of them,
looking toward the group with a giant smile on
her face.
"Well, I've got good news and bad news.
The good news is our guest is awake and alive,
and his name is Ashe. The bad news is I could
not get any additional information on him other
than his name, and the fact that he's been on
this planet for some time." Footsteps were
heard before anyone could ask questions, and
Washu looked up at the head of the stairs.
"This ought to be good." Ryoko whispered
flatly to Ayeka, as they caught a glimpse of
Ashe as he made his way downstairs. What
everyone saw caught their attention
immediately.
The wanderer wore an emerald green
mandarin collar shirt, long-sleeved and
untucked, which covered his denim pants.
Black, and with a thin emerald green strip
running up each leg, the jeans hung somewhat
loosely to his legs. His white hair was pulled
back into a long ponytail, with his bangs
hanging over his ash-grey eyes. As Ashe made
his way down the steps, he tinkered with one of
the collars, which had red crabs embroidered on
the edges of it; very small red crabs also
decorated each of the cuffs on his shirt. His
black boots had emerald green laces to finish
the whole outfit. In short, Ashe was rather
nicely dressed, thanks to Washu, and all of the
other girls seemed to like the way he looked.
Ryoko and Ayeka both had saucers for eyes,
and Sasami grinned ear to ear.
"Whoa," was all that Mihoshi could
breathe.
Ashe paused at the foot of the stairs,
and stopped fidgeting with his collar to
realize where he was finally.
"Oh! Um, hello! My name's Ashe and, uh, I
would like to thank whoever was the person who
found me last night. I sincerely appreciate
it, and would like to repay that person. I
believe it was Tenchi, right?" Ashe asked,
scratching his head as he tried to remember his
rescuer's name. Tenchi swallowed a half chewed
bite of egg roll, and stood up quickly.
"Yeah, uh, that would be me." Tenchi
spoke, not quite sure what to make of his new
guest. Ashe's eyes stopped on the young man as
he stood up. He walked up quickly to Tenchi and
gave a big smile to the young man, who smiled
back nervously. "Thank you so much! You
don't know how much I owe you for that!
Oh, yeah! About my debt…"
"There's no debt to pay. I did it out of
respect and kindness, I don't expect any
payment." Tenchi responded, giving him a look
of surprise, and waved the thought away. Ashe,
however, wasn't going to walk away without
repaying the young man somehow.
"All right then, a question for you.
What do you do in terms of chores or required
tasks for the household?" Ashe questioned;
Tenchi took a step back for a moment.
"Me? I tend to the carrot fields so that Ryo-
Ohki can eat, help Grandpa clean and maintain
the temple grounds, go to school when it's in
session, and help keep the house in working
or...der." Tenchi stopped talking as soon as
he realized where the conversation was going.
However, it was far too late.
"Then it's settled. I'll take care of
all the maintenance work, including the carrot
fields that you must tend to for… hmmm… does
about two weeks sound alright for you?" the
wanderer asked, giving the Masaki boy a small
'Let me help' look on his face. Tenchi
scratched his head, not really knowing how to
respond to the offer that he was given.
"Hold on there. These are my
responsibilities, and I can't just shirk them
off on someone who doesn't even know what to
do!" Tenchi countered. Ashe smiled, and nodded
his head in agreement. Ashe cocked his head to
the side and held up his hands parallel to his
shoulders.
"I can learn what I must as I go, and I'm
sure that you can show me what I don't
understand." Ashe responded matter-of-factly.
Tenchi opened his mouth to speak, but Ashe
stopped him before the words came.
"I understand that these are your
responsibilities. However, you took one of my
responsibilities, namely my own life, into your
hands when you did not need to. I feel that I
need to repay you, by lifting the burden of
some of your responsibilities off of your
shoulders. It's nowhere near what I feel that
I actually owe you, Tenchi, but it's a start.
Will you please let me do this for you?" Ashe
requested, giving the young Masaki the 'let me
help' look a second time. Tenchi let out an
exasperated sigh, and gave the wanderer a long
and thoughtful look. Before the young Masaki
could utter a response to Ashe's question Ryoko
jumped out of her seat, her eyes bugging out of
their sockets. Squealing with delight, she
grabbed Tenchi's free arm and wound it
alongside her own.
"Ha! Now you can't back out of our
agreement, Tenchi! You're going on that date
with me and Ayeka now, no matter what!" she
exclaimed, hugging Tenchi's arm to her chest.
Ayeka gave a smile from across the table to
Tenchi, stood up and walked over to Tenchi's
other side.
"Thank you, Ashe. I'm quite sure that
Tenchi wouldn't mind having some actual time
off away from his chores and responsibilities?"
The princess replied. Ayeka and Ryoko both
eyed the young Masaki, whose eyes had grown to
huge proportions. He sighed, and let his head
droop in defeat.
"Sure, Ashe, you can take over my chores
as payment or whatever you choose to call it.
But if I want to take them back at any given
time, I reserve that right. Is that fair?"
Ashe grinned, and held out his hand. Tenchi
reluctantly put out his own hand, and the two
young men shook on the agreement.
The rest of breakfast was rather
lighthearted after Tenchi agreed to Ashe's
proposal. Ayeka and Ryoko began arguing over
what dresses the other girl should wear on
their date with Tenchi, and Ashe was given
Nobuyuki's chair after he had dismissed himself
to go to work. Sasami and Washu had been
paying the new guest loads of attention, eager
to know everything they could about the
wanderer.
"You had said that you lived on Tetanius
Prime before, correct?" Washu asked, picking up
a small piece of egg roll with her chopsticks.
Ashe nodded in affirmation between mouthfuls of
breakfast, and gulped down a swig of milk
before answering.
"Wow! This food is amazing! Whoever
made this should be cooking for royalty!" Ashe
exclaimed, which made Sasami blush slightly.
The wanderer stopped and thought quietly for a
moment. "Yeah, I did. It was a long time ago,
and I had left it long before the planet was
decimated. I'll admit, though, it was sad;
nearly the whole planet annihilated in under a
month. The people that were left had to
evacuate considering that life couldn't survive
there anymore." Ryoko's face went pale and
expressionless at the mention of Ashe's past
home; while Ashe and the two other girls kept
talking, Ayeka gave the pirate a concerned
look.
"Ryoko, are you okay? Ryoko?" Ayeka
questioned. Tenchi gave Ryoko a concerned
stare.
"Ryoko?" Tenchi asked, his gaze quickly
snapping the space pirate out of her strange
mood. She smiled weakly at both Tenchi and
Ayeka, and quickly bit off a piece of egg roll.
"Of course I'm fine! Hahahaha! What would
make you think I'm not okay?" Ryoko gave an
overly boisterous laugh and scratched her head
with one hand, which caught the attention of
the rest of the group at the table. Realizing
that she had everyone looking at her, Ryoko
quickly looked around the room and stopped her
gaze at the clock on the far wall.
"Oh, gosh, look at the time! I guess I'd
better be getting to work on sweeping the
outside porch area, since that's what was asked
of me. Yeah, that's it." With that, the pirate
stood up and quickly bolted for the kitchen
door, phasing through it without a second
thought. Ashe stopped chewing on his egg roll
to watch Ryoko, and looked back at Sasami and
Washu.
"Does she do that all the time?" Ashe
inquired. Washu gave him a serious look in
response.
"Which one; phasing through doors, or
acting strange in front of people she doesn't
know?" Washu asked.
"Both," Ashe had answered.
"Yes to the first, and it's one of two
things when she meets new people; act extremely
shy, or attempt to blow their heads off of
their shoulders." An angry feminine voice
echoed through the kitchen door after Washu
finished talking.
"I heard that!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A tall, elderly man stood in front of a
closet door, gently rapping on it to request
entry. His small, square glasses did little to
hide the wisdom and gentleness in his faintly
red eyes. His dress and style of hair was that
of a Shinto priest, and this one in particular
was not always known for his patience. He
knocked much louder the second time.
"All right, all right come in for crying
out loud!" The priest chuckled to himself and
straightened his posture.
"Thank you, Professor." He opened the
door to the closet, and stepped through into
Washu's arboretum area of her laboratory.
Trees of a thousand kinds were sprawling out
before him, with paved walkways winding around
each of them, giving the effect of a haphazard
web he was walking upon. Blinking lights on
each side of the walkway lit up sequentially
with a slight red glow, faintly highlighting
the path out of the arboretum.
"Follow the lights out please, and Washu
will be waiting for you at her control center,
Lord Katsuhito," a faceless voice said, echoing
through the arboretum. The priest nodded his
agreement, and followed the now apparent path
to Washu. After several minutes, Katsuhito
stepped out onto one of the few static places
in Washu's lab; her control center. With the
exceptions to the arboretum and control center,
Washu's other labs were always transforming and
reconfiguring themselves to provide the
scientist with almost limitless reusability.
The priest stopped himself behind Washu, who
was busily punching in research data she had
gleaned from another experiment into one of the
control center's floating keypads. She wore a
scientist's smock that covered her science
academy uniform, already dirtied by some of the
experiments she had done earlier in the day.
When she turned to face Katsuhito, he noticed
that Washu also wore the angriest look he'd
ever seen on her young face.
"What's got your goat, little Washu?"
Katsuhito remarked coolly. Washu glared up at
him from her floating keypad, which made the
priest raise an eyebrow. She sighed, and
dropped her hands away from the keypad.
"I'm sorry, Katsuhito. I didn't mean to
take it out on you. Ryoko, however…" The
elderly priest raised both eyebrows in
surprise; one didn't get to find out about
Washu and Ryoko's relationship very often.
"Oh? What has Ryoko done now?" The
priest dropped himself into a kneeling position
beside the young scientist. She sighed a
second time, and went back to typing in the
data she had stopped doing earlier.
"Nothing, unless you count coming up to
me after breakfast was finished and blatantly
accusing me of drooling over Ashe. I'm a
scientist, not a schoolgirl; I know what I'm
doing when I'm around him," she growled.
Katsuhito nodded in understanding. She kept
typing in more information, nearly pounding in
the keys as she continued talking. "I mean,
who's she to talk about drooling? Tenchi would
most likely be swimming in lakes of it
considering the way that she and Ayeka
fawn over the boy. Ryoko even hangs on him,
even after Tenchi has asked for time alone."
Katsuhito chuckled at the memories of Ryoko's
first months at the Masaki home.
"If Ryoko didn't do that, she wouldn't be
who she is," he said. Washu gave Katsuhito a
quick look of bemused understanding, and began
typing again.
"You didn't come into my lab to ask how
my day went, Katsuhito, so how about we skip
the rest of the small talk and get to the
point?" Washu stated, never moving her eyes
off of the keypad as she punched in more data.
Katsuhito shrugged, and looked out over the
balcony at the rest of the arboretum.
"I came to ask you about your thoughts on
our new guest. However, it seems that you've
already explained yourself rather well." The
elder priest remarked, shooting a grin at
Washu. She turned to look at Katsuhito in
surprise.
"Oh really, and what would that be?"
"I don't remember you getting so uptight
over the way you interact with people,"
Katsuhito said quietly, never losing his ear to
ear grin. "Maybe Ryoko's perspective of the
way you look at our guest isn't so overrated
after all." Washu eyed Katsuhito for a moment,
and put her face stubbornly into one of the
view-screens she had been studying earlier.
"Whatever." A red beacon started to
blink on one of the nearby floating screens,
which quickly caught the attention of both
Washu and Katsuhito.
"That's strange. The scanners say that
there's a huge surge of energy being built up
nearby, but it's having trouble identifying
exactly what that energy signature is." Washu
remarked, calling the view-screen over to her
to analyze the data more closely. Katsuhito
stood up and took a position over the girl
genius's shoulder to watch the goings on with
better detail. Washu brought up several larger
view-screens to check up on the residents of
the Masaki household. Tenchi was at the bottom
steps of the temple, currently talking with
Ayeka and Ryoko about Ashe and the date they
were going on later that evening. Mihoshi was
in the kitchen eating an apple, and Sasami and
Ryo-Ohki could be seen chasing butterflies on
the pier in front of the house.
"That leaves us with our new friend.
Where is he?" Katsuhito asked, keenly
interested in what the family's new guest was
capable of. Washu was already ahead of him,
and homed in on Ashe's position.
"I've already recorded Ashe's bio-energy
signature, so finding him is as easy as one,
two, and three!" Washu spoke, pushing in
several buttons. A small map of the current
countryside grew to enormous size in front of
the two as they watched, and zoomed in on the
areas directly surrounding the Masaki house
and shrine, and then one last time on the
carrot fields at the farthest end of the
property. A bird's eye view of the field that
Ashe was working in was brought into focus, and
both adults watched with fascination and
surprise as Ashe worked. Or rather as best
they could watch, considering the fact that a
blur was all that they saw. It was all Washu
could do to even blink at the amount of energy
he used.
Zipping this way and that in the field,
moving surprisingly fast and efficient, Ashe
worked with a tireless enthusiasm. The only
times that one could make out Ashe clearly was
when he stood still long enough to wipe the
sweat off of his brow or to pick up various
objects at the edge of the field. In the
laboratory, his two spectators kept watching
with amazement. In the course of several short
minutes, the entire field was completely tilled
and planted. Katsuhito whistled coolly as he
watched the young man sit down and relax for a
moment.
"Well, our guest has some very potent
skills. I wonder if he's a capable fighter as
well," Katsuhito remarked, tilting his head as
he watched the young wanderer go about tilling
and planting the next carrot field, "Though it
now comes to if we should tell the rest of the
family about the extent of Ashe's powers."
Washu punched in some more information, never
taking her eyes off of the screen. She let her
finger hover over the communications button
when she suddenly thought about her earlier
conversation with Ryoko. Worried about the
scene that would no doubt result, she turned
instead to face Katsuhito who was still
regarding the wanderer on the view-screen.
"Katsuhito, I know this is going to sound
odd, but can we keep this information between
us for now, please? I'm not quite sure what
Ryoko will do with the information. If she
finds out about what we know, it'll take weeks
to clean out the blood. Executing the man when
all he's done, by himself no less, is plant TWO
whole fields in under an hour doesn't sound
like a proper thank-you," Washu explained.
Katsuhito raised an eyebrow at the young
scientist, and regarded her with a critical
eye.
"I will consider it. However, for
reasons of safety, I will be the one to gauge
his skills. If he is a threat in any way, I
want to know how any of us would fare against
him," Katsuhito responded, as the view-screen
winked out of sight. Washu typed in the last
of her information and stood up to stretch out
her tense muscles. She gave a thankful smile
as the closet portal faded into view at the
edge of the control center. Katsuhito looked
over his shoulder toward the portal, and back
at Washu.
"About your memories, Washu, I must ask.
Ryoko told me that you know about him, but you
don't know how. I find that hard to believe,"
the priest explained, "That you of all people
can't seem to remember someone who obviously
means a great deal to you." The scientist
sighed heavily, and motioned Katsuhito to walk
with her toward the portal.
"If you don't already know, I can't
remember anything further into my past than
roughly 20,000 years. If I try to push further
back than that in my mind, I draw blanks. That
alone is driving me nuts; especially after that
bastard Dr. Clay had kidnapped Ryoko and nearly
succeeded with me. Ever since, however, I've
been getting strange flashbacks; like time-worn
movies of places I've been, when I don't
remember being there any other time in my life.
Or people I've seen, when no-one matches their
description in any of the galactic records."
Katsuhito slowed his pace, and looked down at
Washu.
"But you recognized Ashe," the priest
noted.
"And that fact alone is what bothers me.
All of my other flashbacks were hazy and barely
understandable. When I first looked at Ashe,
however, it was like," Washu scratched her
head, looking for the words. "Like a waking
ream, vivid and in living color." Washu
returned the look at Katsuhito.
"Do you think that Ashe is the key to
unlocking the meaning of these memories of
yours?" the priest questioned as they ended
their walk in front of the portal. Washu gave
the priest one last glance, and then stared at
the door for several moments.
"I don't simply think he is. I know he
is." Washu stated, and Katsuhito bowed deeply
to the young scientist. He opened the door,
and quickly looked back through at Washu as she
began her walk back toward the control center.
"On that note, I thank you for hearing me
out. The family should expect you at the
dinner table, then?" Katsuhito asked, and Washu
gave a quick glance to the priest as she
walked.
"Probably, considering I'm most likely
going to miss lunch to do further research. I
still need to ask our young friend Ashe several
more questions, so catching him at dinner would
be best." she replied. He gave a giant smile at
Washu as she sat down on her cushion.
"Should I bring a mop and bucket for the
drool as well?" The priest saw the blush
clearly from where he stood at the door, and
watched Washu push several buttons on a
completely different keypad. Without blinking
Katsuhito quickly pulled his head back and shut
the door before a large statue of a fat panda
landed, attempting to make a new home on the
priest's head. Washu held her head, shaking it
in silent laughter as both the portal and the
statue faded into nothingness.
"Friends; go figure." She stifled a
humorous sigh, and went back to watching and
recording Ashe's power readings on a view-
screen she had spawned. Suddenly she sat
straight up on her cushion, transfixed on
information that displayed itself on screen,
although the data held no interest; she was
more focused on the flashback that went
trailblazing through her mind's eye. The
scientist's breathing came in ragged gasps as
she felt memories flood over her like a broken
dam's water over an unsuspecting riverbank.
Washu let herself become caught up in the wave,
hoping that anything she could glean from it
would help her understand what was going on.
As the unnerving sensations faded, the images
began to meld and make a clearer picture.
Washu found herself standing on a small
hill, surrounded by reeds of varying lengths
and widths. Thrashing and whistling around,
she watched trees that stretched miles into the
sky with their purple and blue leaves dancing
and swaying in tune to the wind that moved
them. She whirled in place, attempting to
figure out what planet she was on, and where
she could possibly be.
"The planet's name is Far Eden. Or
rather, it was. It's a planet that's not on
any of the galactic star-charts; mainly,
because it's been annihilated." The scientist
whirled around in place, a distinct chill of
eerie recognition as she realized whose voice
it was. Washu gasped as she got a look at the
opposite side of the hill, where the sound came
from.
The scientist immediately recognized the
face as her own, but she was clothed in dress
that was completely foreign. Billowing red
sleeves flowed in open defiance of the wind,
and her red hair was pulled up and back in a
near divine formality. A gold band was wrapped
almost lovingly around her neck, as well as
several more circling at spaced intervals
around her ponytail, defying gravity as if the
concept were null and void. The elder Washu's
sleek black and red dress clung tightly to her
bosom, waist, and hips adding to the overall
effect of surrealism. The younger Washu simply
gawked at herself; she never thought of wearing
something like that. At least, she didn't
admit to it openly.
"You're me, aren't you?" The younger
Washu remarked, folding her arms in open
stubbornness. The elder Washu cackled, and
smiled a toothy grin. She began to hover in
place, and slowly moved toward the younger
Washu.
"Ha! I'm still as sharp as a whip,
thankfully. Yes, I'm you. And you're me,
whichever line of reasoning you prefer to use.
In all honesty, however, I'm more a mental
image of what you really are. You left this
portion of yourself," the elder Washu stopped
several inches away from the younger and put a
thumb to her chest to emphasize herself,
"Within your mind so that one day, when you
felt you had finally understood what you felt
you needed to understand, you would have a way
to come back to yourself." The younger Washu
scratched her head in apparent confusion, and
pointed at herself.
"Okay. Let me get this straight; I've
locked myself away in my own head, and you're
the aspect of me that'll help wake the rest of
my memories up?" The younger Washu pointed a
finger at her elder self in a demanding tone.
"I want all of my memories back, and I
want them now." The elder Washu gave her a
look of amusement.
"Access denied." The elder Washu stated
flatly.
"What?" The child genius replied,
furrowing her brow from misunderstanding
herself a second time.
"I'm also what most mortals would call a
mental block; until your own mind believes that
you can handle what you would learn, you aren't
getting anything out of me. Or you're not
getting it out of yourself, to phrase it more
accurately. Besides, all of your memories are
locked away in things you've given great
value." The elder Washu explained. Giving a
weary smile, the elder Washu turned to float
away from the girl genius. The younger Washu
clenched her hands in frustration, trying to
make sense of what had just happened.
"There are three things that you valued,
and still value, above everything else in this
world, before your fated decision." The elder
Washu explained, holding out one hand parallel
to the younger. Floating barely above her
outstretched hand were three red gems, circling
and twisting around each other in perfect
harmony.
"You mean the gems." The younger Washu
whispered, staring at the three crimson orbs in
amazement. The elder gave her one last glance
before looking back at the gems again.
"What about Ashe?" The elder form's eyes
began to shimmer with moisture, and she blinked
twice. She turned to face the younger Washu
with a fond gleam in her eyes, the gems
radiating a heavy red now.
"Okay, here's a hint, then. All of your
memories are locked away in these little gems;
they also represent the same three things I
mentioned earlier. One is to understand the
universe; the second, to understand why mortals
do what they do; the last, to understand your
own heart." Each of the orbs gave a faintly
reddish-pink glow, lighting up one by one in
response to the elder Washu's words as she
spoke, until all three pulsed brightly. The
younger Washu gave a confused look at her elder
self, which quickly turned to panic as the
imaginary world around her began to fade and
melt away. The elder turned back to face the
younger, and put a faint smile on her lips.
"Stick with Ashe and Tenchi! You'll get
your answers when the time comes, I promise!
In the end," the elder Washu quietly spoke, yet
the younger Washu felt them as if she were
whispering them to herself, "You'll have what
you've always wanted." As the laboratory faded
back into perspective, the child genius began
to hurriedly type in the information she had
learned, eager to piece together this little
puzzle that had presented itself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dinner at the Masaki household was
different this evening than most other nights.
Tenchi, Ryoko, and Ayeka had all gone on their
date for the evening, telling everyone that
they most likely will eat at a restaurant and
not to prepare any meals for them. The kitchen
area was well stocked with herbs and spices
from around the galaxy, with cooking utensils
from Earth and a hundred other worlds. Neat,
organized, completely stocked with everything a
chef could wish for, and just the way that
Sasami liked it.
Wearing her chef's apron and having her
hair pulled back, the younger Jurai princess
had already gotten well into making dinner. The
young chef set down some onions and began
cutting them, thinking about how her family had
changed so much in the course of several short
months. The scent of onion had snuck its way
into Sasami's eyes, and she began to get teary.
Stopping for a moment, she had reached to her
left for a towel and promptly snatched it away
from its holder.
"Hey! I was using that." A voice
replied, a little hurt. Without turning to see
who it was, Sasami handed back the towel
quietly. She smiled and turned to face the
source of the voice; Ashe, whose face was dirty
from the work he had done in the field earlier
in the day. His emerald green dress shirt had
the sleeves tied around his waist, and an
emerald green athletic shirt he wore currently
was soaked with the sweat of a hard day's work.
"I'm sorry, Ashe. I didn't realize you
were already using the towel," Sasami remarked,
and scowled at his appearance, "but you should
take a bath before dinner. You're dirty and
smelly from head to toe." Ashe gave himself a
quick once-over, and rolled his eyes. He
wrapped the dirty towel around his neck and
sighed. Making his way to the door to the
living room, Ashe turned and waved to the young
princess.
"Thank you for the towel, Sasami. I'll
ask Mihoshi where the bathing facilities are."
Ashe bowed slightly, and pushed the door open.
"I didn't mean to interrupt you while you were
cooking, so I'll leave. By the way," Ashe
sniffed the air and looked at the stove, where
several different courses of food were busily
cooking for the evening's dinner, "Dinner
smells excellent. I'm looking forward to it!"
Sasami gave him a big smile, nodded and went
back to finishing the onions. She grabbed some
carrots from the fridge and began to prepare
them for cutting when she stood up straight
unexpectedly, as if someone had entered the
room.
"Is that you, Tsunami? Where are you?"
the young princess called aloud.
"I am right beside you, Sasami." The
princess turned to look at the woman standing
next to her right. Her dress was quite similar
to the Jurai royal family's garb, a beautiful
mixture of purples, blues, and reds; however,
she seemed to carry a divine look that poured
out around her. A white cloak draped over her
shoulders, covered by exotic trinkets and rare
metals. Her flowing blue hair was pulled back
into two long ponytails that barely touched the
floor. She leaned back against the countertop,
eyeing the doorway with a knowing eye. Sasami
gave the goddess a worried look, when Tsunami
turned to face the younger princess and gave
her a beaming smile.
"I was worried that you wouldn't show
up." Sasami whispered, and turned to face the
goddess.
"You know that I would never dream of
leaving you alone for long, little one." The
goddess saw worry cross over the chef
princess's bright eyes like rolling storm
clouds.
"What is bothering you, Sasami? You're
worried about something, I can tell." Tsunami
queried, giving the young princess a worried
and sympathetic expression. Sasami sighed
deeply, and closed her eyes.
"I'm worried about Ashe. Except for
Washu and me everybody is suspicious of him.
It just doesn't make any sense about Tenchi;
Ashe took care of the carrot fields so that he
could go on that date with Ryoko and Ayeka.
Ryoko was completely against his staying here,
though she didn't mind him taking over Tenchi's
chores. Ayeka is suspicious of him, but is
at least giving him the benefit of a doubt.
Mihoshi can't place him in any galactic police
records, so at least he's not a known criminal.
Nobuyuki is being wary but considerate, and
Katsuhito is giving Ashe that look that he
gives Tenchi when he botches up a training
lesson," The princess whispered, to which
Tsunami placed a comforting hand on the girl's
shoulders. Sasami sighed a second time, and
opened her eyes to look up at Tsunami. The
goddess furrowed her brow in confusion as the
young princess gave a faint smile.
"At least Ashe isn't one of the bad
guys." The goddess tilted her head to one side
and raised an eyebrow as she studied Sasami,
guessing at the reasons for the girl's line of
thought.
"Don't be so certain of that, Sasami.
You have no idea about where this Ashe is from
or who he is; and criminals are still
criminals, well known or otherwise. To say
that this person is good hearted after knowing
him for as little as you have would be
foolhardy." Sasami gave the goddess a
wondering look, and dropped her arms to her
sides in thought. Tsunami raised an eyebrow a
second time at the young girl, already
understanding where the conversation was about
to go.
"Neither you or I had a nightmare of him,
though. Every time someone bad shows up, one
of us gets a vision about what's going to
happen. I didn't get one when Ashe showed up,
or even the day before." With that, the
princess went back to cutting her carrots.
Tsunami simply blinked at the girl's logic,
amazed at the amount of sense that Sasami made.
The goddess took her turn to sigh; ever since
Tsunami gave up a part of herself to allow
Sasami to stay alive the princess had grown in
intelligence light years ahead of her peers,
but it came at a high price. Whenever Tsunami
attempted to gain insights into the future,
Sasami had access to those same dreams;
something that both of them were surprised
about and afraid of at the same time. Tsunami
oftentimes cursed herself for dragging an
innocent girl into her own visions; she worried
that what simply caught her off guard may
outright terrify or threaten the sanity of the
young Sasami. However, no matter what the girl
was forced to witness or endure, Sasami's
tireless enthusiasm and perseverance always won
out; several times those very dreams that
Sasami was forced to see aided both herself and
those around her to anticipate and ultimately
defeat forthcoming threats. And while it was
true that Tsunami had attempted to divine what
Ashe's arrival heralded for the family, she
hadn't seen any good or evil intent come from
Ashe at all. Though she always weighed her
dreams with a grain of salt, she learned that
through the bonding that the two girls went
through, Tsunami found Sasami's judgment of
character at times to be far more accurate than
her own.
"Perhaps Sasami," the goddess remarked
with a hint of sadness in her voice. "But
remember, that sometimes the brightest star is
created out of the darkest matter." Sasami
gave Tsunami a confused stare as she finished
putting all of the chopped carrots into the pot
that was cooking the other vegetables for the
dinner that evening.
"I don't understand what you mean." The
young girl stated simply. Tsunami patted her
soul-bound friend on the head in a friendly
tease.
"It simply means that everybody is going
to have to be careful about this new guest,
that's all." The princess nodded and gave a
huge smile to Tsunami, who gave a look over her
shoulder at the stove. The pots and pans that
were all holding dinner for the evening were
steaming, giving every intention that dinner
was ready.
"You might want to finish dinner, little
one; your family is starving waiting for you to
feed them. And I know I would rather starve
than eat cooking that wasn't yours, Sasami."
The young chef giggled happily, and gave a bear
hug to the surprised goddess. Tsunami gave a
slight gasp; the goddess wasn't used to this
kind of attention, but Sasami gave it to her no
questions asked and no quarter given. Tsunami
smiled; she wouldn't have it any other way.
"Thank you, Tsunami. You really know how
to make me feel better." Sasami said, the
words muffled by the goddess's dress. Tsunami
gave her a knowing smile and returned the bear
hug she was in the middle of receiving.
"What are friends for?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Deep in the outer recesses of a forgotten
galaxy, a lone ship sat in the middle of an
asteroid field. From a distance, the very
thing looked to be huge; its body long and
sleek, with pocks and dents covering the dark
grey techno-organic skin of the ship. From
underneath, it had the impression of a god's
hand reaching down from above. Standing atop
the ship at the bow, a tall young man had his
head bowed in deep thought. His pale white
hair shimmered in an almost eerily way as it
reflected the light from the star that the ship
orbited, and his purple eyes hinted at a
malevolent intent that none of his peers dared
to provoke. Crossing his arms over his chest
the young man pulled his gaze from the ship's
hull, out toward the asteroid field that
surrounded the ship and then further out, into
the darkness he called home. As the cloaked
figure kept his eyes on the void a portion of
the hull began to bulge and spike upward, then
peel back to reveal a tall slender female form
emerging from within the hull. The woman's
small bust and curvaceous body was clothed in
a black bodysuit that was covered in numerous
thin silver stripes that curled around her back
and arms; her black hair was likewise striped
in a similar fashion. Her silver cornea did
nothing to hide the thousand minute gears that
spun and twirled in rhythm, and the violet
irises focused intently on her target. She
made slow and measured steps along the hull
toward the cloaked man and adjusted her leather
gloves as she made her way along. Taking her
place directly beside the man's right side, the
young man gave a sidelong glance at the guest
through slotted eyes. The girl, although a
head taller than the man she stood beside,
nodded her head in silent agreement, and the
two sank into the ship as the hull pulled
itself over the hover-pad the two stood on.
As the duo sank further into the ship, air
began to hiss and fill the chamber, allowing
sound to be heard within. Several more seconds
passed again before either of the two spoke.
"I trust that you know your mission."
The young man stated flatly, never moving from
his position. The tall girl turned her head to
face him, and nodded.
"My mission is one of reconnaissance. I
am to engage and ascertain the strengths and
weaknesses of all specified targets. Any minor
threats that may interfere with my primary
objective are to be eliminated with extreme
prejudice. However, I am allowed to make
retreat if the capabilities of the specified
targets are proven to be more than my own."
The hover-pad that carried the two stopped at
the bridge of the ship. The bridge was huge;
hundreds of view-screens hovered over their
respective control panels, each displaying a
myriad of information on planets, current
events, and various important persons. The
young man, with the woman just behind, strode
up one of several archways to the central
control node that jutted out over the rest of
the bridge area. As the two entered the node,
a spherical view-screen enveloped it and
brought up several different star charts of
galaxies both familiar and completely unknown,
and blacked out all outside light sources. The
young man brought up a keypad, and brought up
several different pictures.
"The area that you are to infiltrate is
here," the young man remarked, bringing up a
picture of a house sitting peacefully alongside
a lake and a shrine nestled on top of a nearby
mountain. "The people that reside here are
some of the most powerful beings in the known
galaxies, if not the universe. Caution is
paramount; simply observe and engage when the
timing is right. Failure to do so will force
us to escalate our plans prematurely; I do not
do things prematurely, understood?" The young
woman nodded her head, and strode up to his
side.
"Who are the targets?" The woman had
questioned; her distinctively sultry voice was
hued with the faint undertone of artificial
replication. Two pictures faded in over the
scenic photo; one was a black-haired pony
tailed young man, smiling happily with what
seemed to be his family. The other gave light
to a beach scene, where a cyan haired woman was
attempting to pull the hair out of a violet
haired girl's head, who was likewise trying for
the same. The black and white haired young
woman raised an eyebrow cynically at the second
picture.
"What an animalistic gesture," she
remarked and crossed her arms, which invoked a
snicker from the man beside her.
"Be that as it may, those three you see
before you are the greatest threat to this
little symphony of ours. Currently, none of
them understand exactly what is in store for
them and I intend to keep it that way for as
long as possible. Understood, Ersatzu?" The
young girl nodded her head slowly in
affirmation, and made her way back toward the
archway out of the control node as the
spherical view-screen opened a doorway out.
The young man turned his slightly to the side,
and coughed faintly. The tiger striped beauty
froze in mid-stride, and turned her head to
listen.
"You may be an artificial, but you are
more important to my plan alive than dead.
Simply gather the appropriate information and
return; I do not wish for our enemies to know
anything other than what I want them to." She
nodded in agreement, and exited the control
node leaving the young man alone with the
pictures and his own thoughts. He punched in
several more commands, and expanded the black
haired boy's photo to zoom in on his face
alone. He gave the photo a look of expectancy,
as if the young man was looking forward to
meeting the person in the photo.
"Oh, what a tangled web they weave, when
first they choose not to believe." With that
said, the young man began to pour himself over
the data that came in from the view-screens
that hovered nearby.
End of Part 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
and AIC. I've no intention of using this to
garner profits of any kind or type, so unless
you like to take a poor man's computer away
from him, please don't sue me!? Please?
All other characters, depictions,
places, and theories that have been put into
place are my own creation and have no relevance
to Tenchi Muyo in any way except in the ways
I've explained. These are my own thoughts and
imagination, and any relation to other stories
that are not my own are accidental.
Honest.
My e-mail is kerrigan2001@attbi.com for
any and all feedback. Please, PLEASE SEND
FEEDBACK OF ANY KIND!!! Thank you! ^-^
All right, enough talk more action....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~Tenchi Muyo: The Web of Life~~~
Chapter 2: Carrots and Hidden Skills (rev 5.0)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The young man was dreaming.
He dreamt of fields that stretched out as
far as the eye could see with huge trees, their
purple and blue leaves straining to touch the
sky. He hovered just over the ground, looking
at the reeds thrashing to and fro in time to
the wind. He twirled in the air, contented
with his dream right now. Looking out over the
fields that he saw, he viewed a great mansion
at the edge of a mountain, with a village
several miles away from what the mansion
grounds. Greenhouses and storage facilities
surrounded the mansion, all of them being quite
familiar. Looking down at the hill he started
this journey on, he floated higher into the
air, letting the whole scene burn into his
mind. He didn't want to forget this place, no
matter where he may go or wander. This place
was where he had been born.
This place was home.
The young man sniffed the air for a
moment. Feeling his body being dragged back
toward the ground, he realized that he was
waking out of his dream. Saddened by the
anchoring feeling that he felt, the young man
surrendered to the sensations of nerves
awakening and, after several more moments of
reorientation, finally opened his eyes.
Sunlight poured into the room from a
window above him, and struck on the far wall.
As he looked around the room he saw a bowl of
water next to his head, with several towels
sitting next to it. Lifting his head off of
the futon, he stared at the remaining portions
of the room he inhabited now. A table was
placed at the far wall, with two chairs
sitting on either side. What caught his
attention was the red-headed girl floating on a
red cushion, with her back toward him. Putting
himself into a sitting position the young man
pulled the blanket fully around his waist and
began to study the room and the girl more
closely. He nearly jumped when the girl spoke.
"It's still processing? Ah, well. Guess
he's got some anomalies that have to be double
checked before the final read-out can be
presented. Well, better get another look at
him while he's still asleep." The cushion
floated backwards to the edge of the futon, and
turned to have the girl floating parallel to
it. The girl's hair seemed to defy gravity for
the most part, which caught the young man's
attention immensely. Flowing from the back of
her head down to the floor, and trailing
slightly behind, he followed it with his eyes.
She wore a uniform that hinted at her
schooling; however the markings on the shoulder
were unrecognizable to him. The young man
leaned in to get a closer look at them
when he realized that he was instead staring
right into the largest set of green eyes he'd
ever known.
"Aaahh!" The girl blurted and jumped
back, falling off of her cushion onto the
floor. The young man reached out to steady the
girl before she fell, but a grid of red
interlocking strands of energy impeded his
reach.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you."
the young man blurted out, staring at the young
girl with sorry grey eyes. The girl stood up
slowly, rubbing her bottom with a look of mild
discomfort on her face. Looking back at the
young man, she gave a hearty smile.
"It's no problem! I was expecting you to
be asleep still. I'm Washu, and I'm well known
as the Greatest Scientist in the Galaxy!
What's your name?" the young scientist asked.
The young man gave a toothy smile.
"Do you think I could just call you
Washu? I don't think I could memorize all of
that, to be honest." Ashe remarked, to which
Washu gave him a near-scornful look.
Completely taken off guard by his reply, she
responded by giving him an amused smirk; he's
quite a character!
"Most of my friends and family call me
Little Washu, but I'll consider letting you get
by with calling me Washu for now. You still
haven't told me your name, though." The girl
teased, and the young man blinked twice. He
gave her a smirk in return, and pulled his hair
away from his eyes.
"Ashe. My name's Ashe." He looked
around the room for a moment, and gave Washu a
quizzical look. "Where am I?"
The girl scientist put her hands behind
her back and smiled, too interested in the now
awake young man to worry about bruises.
"Well, you're on the planet Earth, in the
Sol System." Washu replied. He gave her a
bemused look.
"I'm sorry; I know the system, I meant
what country I'm in. Is this Japan?" He
looked around, his grey eyes wide with
curiosity. She took her turn to give a
confused look and scratched her head.
"Actually, yes it is Japan. Obviously
you're not simply human, so what planet are you
from? Do they have the regenerating
capabilities that you do?" Washu inquired,
grilling her new subject as quickly as she
could. The young man shrugged absently and
rubbed his eyes.
"I'm from different places, to be honest.
It's been so long since I've ever had a
consistent home I couldn't tell you where I was
first. The longest I've ever stayed on a
planet before Earth would've been," the young
man tapped a finger to his lips in thought,
"Most likely, Tetanius Prime." Ashe replied.
Washu's eyes shot open at the name of Ashe's
past home.
"Tetanius Prime? That planet hasn't been
inhabited for about 4500 years! You were there
before?" she prodded. The young man nodded and
looked at the door for a moment.
"Uh, yeah, but can I step off topic for a
second?" the wanderer requested. Washu
furrowed her brow and folded her arms in
stubbornness, as Ashe continued speaking, "I
was wondering who found me in whatever shape I
was in. I have to thank them for helping me
out of my predicament." Washu nodded and
waved her floating laptop from where it hovered
at the table to her side, and began to type in
the information she had gleaned from their
conversation.
"His name is Tenchi Masaki. He's the
young man who found you after you crash landed
near his family's Shinto shrine in the woods
nearby. He had a couple of friends and I
assist in bringing you back here to make sure
your injuries weren't too severe. After you
regenerated your wounds, however, he wanted
to simply offer some courtesy and provide you
with a roof to cover you for the night." Washu
stated matter-of-factly, obviously annoyed with
having her questioning interrupted. Ashe
nodded and stretched out as best he could,
considering that the force-field was keeping
him on the futon.
"Would you be so kind as to bring him
here, so that I can thank him personally?"
Ashe requested, trying his best to keep the
conversation going. "And I'm sorry that I
stopped your questioning. I hope that we can
talk later on, and I'll answer any questions
that you have then, okay?" he finished.
Washu gave him a sidelong glance, and smiled
quietly.
"That'll work fine. You know, I'm a
little amazed with you. You truly are more
than what you seem to be." The scientist
remarked, pulling a chuckle out of Ashe. The
wanderer stopped and scratched his head for a
moment.
"I try." Ashe replied, and Washu eyed him
fully for a moment, which made Ashe feel
strangely comfortable.
"True, and succeeded fairly well, might I
add. But looking the way you are, I'd figure
you'll want some clothes to get into before
talking to Tenchi. You're not exactly well
dressed, you know." Washu noted, waving a hand
absently in the wanderer's direction. Ashe
looked down at himself and blushed mildly,
realizing that he had nothing else to cover
himself except for the blanket currently around
his waist. Washu laughed aloud for a moment,
and reached her hand into a portal that had
opened up next to her. Washu began to pull out
a large metallic briefcase, and proceeded to
punch in several things on the touchpad mounted
on its side. Setting the briefcase down next
to her, she whisked away her floating laptop
and knelt down on the floor. Picking up the
force-field orb, she de-activated it and threw
the orb into the portal that she had gotten
the briefcase from, which closed immediately
afterward.
"Okay, everything's set. I've
deactivated the force-field, and I picked out
some clothes for you. I hope you like them."
Washu pulled back her shirt sleeve to reveal a
slim metal band, complete with several buttons
around her wrist. Pushing one of the buttons,
she peered into the miniature view-screen
that had sprung into sight for several seconds.
She tapped her chin in thought for a moment,
and then began to walk toward the door.
"Hmm, Sasami most likely has breakfast
done. Get dressed, please, and I'll wait for
you outside the door. Considering your state,
you're most likely very hungry," Washu
explained, smiling at the wanderer. Ashe put
himself in a kneeling position, scratching his
head at the strangeness of the situation, "And
you're lucky to have the best chef in the
galaxy preparing your breakfast. See ya
there!"
With that, the scientist shut the door to
leave Ashe alone in the room. The wanderer
shrugged his shoulders and stood up slowly,
holding the blanket around his waist. Walking
over toward the briefcase, he popped open the
latches to view his new outfit. He whistled,
and looked back at the door.
"Black and emerald green. How'd she
know?" With an absent shrug, Ashe dropped the
blanket on the floor and began changing into
his new outfit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Alright, everyone, breakfast is
officially served! Dig in when you're ready!"
Sasami spoke, watching as the family sat down
to eat. Ryoko and Ayeka were already at each
other's throats, fussing over who got to have
more egg rolls; though Sasami thought it more
because Ryoko kept Ayeka up with her snoring.
Tenchi and his father were discussing the
young man's chores and duties for the day while
his father went off to work, and Mihoshi was
making her best attempt at keeping the argument
between Ayeka and Ryoko from getting too far.
Ryo-Ohki sat next to the kitchen door wailing
for her breakfast as well. The younger
princess placed a carrot in front of the
meowing cabbit and finally sat down to enjoy
breakfast herself, when the topic between
father and son changed to last night's rescue.
"So the person you had rescued was a boy,
eh, Tenchi?" Nobuyuki remarked. Tenchi nodded
in affirmation to his father between bites of
egg roll. "Ah, well, that's too bad. Might've
been interesting around here had it been a
girl." Ryoko and Ayeka snorted disdainfully,
giving Tenchi's father a threatening stare.
Nobuyuki drew a sharp breath and held up his
hands in defense.
"It was just a joke, ladies. I'm just
trying to make conversation at the table,
okay?" The girls rolled their eyes, and
resumed their own heated discussion. Tenchi
gave the girls a quick glance and then looked
back at his father, who let out a sigh of
relief.
"You asked for that one, Pop." Tenchi
whispered, and his father nodded in silent
agreement. The opening and closing of a door
above brought the attention of the family
toward the stairs. Washu quickly hopped down
the stairs and stopped at the foot of them,
looking toward the group with a giant smile on
her face.
"Well, I've got good news and bad news.
The good news is our guest is awake and alive,
and his name is Ashe. The bad news is I could
not get any additional information on him other
than his name, and the fact that he's been on
this planet for some time." Footsteps were
heard before anyone could ask questions, and
Washu looked up at the head of the stairs.
"This ought to be good." Ryoko whispered
flatly to Ayeka, as they caught a glimpse of
Ashe as he made his way downstairs. What
everyone saw caught their attention
immediately.
The wanderer wore an emerald green
mandarin collar shirt, long-sleeved and
untucked, which covered his denim pants.
Black, and with a thin emerald green strip
running up each leg, the jeans hung somewhat
loosely to his legs. His white hair was pulled
back into a long ponytail, with his bangs
hanging over his ash-grey eyes. As Ashe made
his way down the steps, he tinkered with one of
the collars, which had red crabs embroidered on
the edges of it; very small red crabs also
decorated each of the cuffs on his shirt. His
black boots had emerald green laces to finish
the whole outfit. In short, Ashe was rather
nicely dressed, thanks to Washu, and all of the
other girls seemed to like the way he looked.
Ryoko and Ayeka both had saucers for eyes,
and Sasami grinned ear to ear.
"Whoa," was all that Mihoshi could
breathe.
Ashe paused at the foot of the stairs,
and stopped fidgeting with his collar to
realize where he was finally.
"Oh! Um, hello! My name's Ashe and, uh, I
would like to thank whoever was the person who
found me last night. I sincerely appreciate
it, and would like to repay that person. I
believe it was Tenchi, right?" Ashe asked,
scratching his head as he tried to remember his
rescuer's name. Tenchi swallowed a half chewed
bite of egg roll, and stood up quickly.
"Yeah, uh, that would be me." Tenchi
spoke, not quite sure what to make of his new
guest. Ashe's eyes stopped on the young man as
he stood up. He walked up quickly to Tenchi and
gave a big smile to the young man, who smiled
back nervously. "Thank you so much! You
don't know how much I owe you for that!
Oh, yeah! About my debt…"
"There's no debt to pay. I did it out of
respect and kindness, I don't expect any
payment." Tenchi responded, giving him a look
of surprise, and waved the thought away. Ashe,
however, wasn't going to walk away without
repaying the young man somehow.
"All right then, a question for you.
What do you do in terms of chores or required
tasks for the household?" Ashe questioned;
Tenchi took a step back for a moment.
"Me? I tend to the carrot fields so that Ryo-
Ohki can eat, help Grandpa clean and maintain
the temple grounds, go to school when it's in
session, and help keep the house in working
or...der." Tenchi stopped talking as soon as
he realized where the conversation was going.
However, it was far too late.
"Then it's settled. I'll take care of
all the maintenance work, including the carrot
fields that you must tend to for… hmmm… does
about two weeks sound alright for you?" the
wanderer asked, giving the Masaki boy a small
'Let me help' look on his face. Tenchi
scratched his head, not really knowing how to
respond to the offer that he was given.
"Hold on there. These are my
responsibilities, and I can't just shirk them
off on someone who doesn't even know what to
do!" Tenchi countered. Ashe smiled, and nodded
his head in agreement. Ashe cocked his head to
the side and held up his hands parallel to his
shoulders.
"I can learn what I must as I go, and I'm
sure that you can show me what I don't
understand." Ashe responded matter-of-factly.
Tenchi opened his mouth to speak, but Ashe
stopped him before the words came.
"I understand that these are your
responsibilities. However, you took one of my
responsibilities, namely my own life, into your
hands when you did not need to. I feel that I
need to repay you, by lifting the burden of
some of your responsibilities off of your
shoulders. It's nowhere near what I feel that
I actually owe you, Tenchi, but it's a start.
Will you please let me do this for you?" Ashe
requested, giving the young Masaki the 'let me
help' look a second time. Tenchi let out an
exasperated sigh, and gave the wanderer a long
and thoughtful look. Before the young Masaki
could utter a response to Ashe's question Ryoko
jumped out of her seat, her eyes bugging out of
their sockets. Squealing with delight, she
grabbed Tenchi's free arm and wound it
alongside her own.
"Ha! Now you can't back out of our
agreement, Tenchi! You're going on that date
with me and Ayeka now, no matter what!" she
exclaimed, hugging Tenchi's arm to her chest.
Ayeka gave a smile from across the table to
Tenchi, stood up and walked over to Tenchi's
other side.
"Thank you, Ashe. I'm quite sure that
Tenchi wouldn't mind having some actual time
off away from his chores and responsibilities?"
The princess replied. Ayeka and Ryoko both
eyed the young Masaki, whose eyes had grown to
huge proportions. He sighed, and let his head
droop in defeat.
"Sure, Ashe, you can take over my chores
as payment or whatever you choose to call it.
But if I want to take them back at any given
time, I reserve that right. Is that fair?"
Ashe grinned, and held out his hand. Tenchi
reluctantly put out his own hand, and the two
young men shook on the agreement.
The rest of breakfast was rather
lighthearted after Tenchi agreed to Ashe's
proposal. Ayeka and Ryoko began arguing over
what dresses the other girl should wear on
their date with Tenchi, and Ashe was given
Nobuyuki's chair after he had dismissed himself
to go to work. Sasami and Washu had been
paying the new guest loads of attention, eager
to know everything they could about the
wanderer.
"You had said that you lived on Tetanius
Prime before, correct?" Washu asked, picking up
a small piece of egg roll with her chopsticks.
Ashe nodded in affirmation between mouthfuls of
breakfast, and gulped down a swig of milk
before answering.
"Wow! This food is amazing! Whoever
made this should be cooking for royalty!" Ashe
exclaimed, which made Sasami blush slightly.
The wanderer stopped and thought quietly for a
moment. "Yeah, I did. It was a long time ago,
and I had left it long before the planet was
decimated. I'll admit, though, it was sad;
nearly the whole planet annihilated in under a
month. The people that were left had to
evacuate considering that life couldn't survive
there anymore." Ryoko's face went pale and
expressionless at the mention of Ashe's past
home; while Ashe and the two other girls kept
talking, Ayeka gave the pirate a concerned
look.
"Ryoko, are you okay? Ryoko?" Ayeka
questioned. Tenchi gave Ryoko a concerned
stare.
"Ryoko?" Tenchi asked, his gaze quickly
snapping the space pirate out of her strange
mood. She smiled weakly at both Tenchi and
Ayeka, and quickly bit off a piece of egg roll.
"Of course I'm fine! Hahahaha! What would
make you think I'm not okay?" Ryoko gave an
overly boisterous laugh and scratched her head
with one hand, which caught the attention of
the rest of the group at the table. Realizing
that she had everyone looking at her, Ryoko
quickly looked around the room and stopped her
gaze at the clock on the far wall.
"Oh, gosh, look at the time! I guess I'd
better be getting to work on sweeping the
outside porch area, since that's what was asked
of me. Yeah, that's it." With that, the pirate
stood up and quickly bolted for the kitchen
door, phasing through it without a second
thought. Ashe stopped chewing on his egg roll
to watch Ryoko, and looked back at Sasami and
Washu.
"Does she do that all the time?" Ashe
inquired. Washu gave him a serious look in
response.
"Which one; phasing through doors, or
acting strange in front of people she doesn't
know?" Washu asked.
"Both," Ashe had answered.
"Yes to the first, and it's one of two
things when she meets new people; act extremely
shy, or attempt to blow their heads off of
their shoulders." An angry feminine voice
echoed through the kitchen door after Washu
finished talking.
"I heard that!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A tall, elderly man stood in front of a
closet door, gently rapping on it to request
entry. His small, square glasses did little to
hide the wisdom and gentleness in his faintly
red eyes. His dress and style of hair was that
of a Shinto priest, and this one in particular
was not always known for his patience. He
knocked much louder the second time.
"All right, all right come in for crying
out loud!" The priest chuckled to himself and
straightened his posture.
"Thank you, Professor." He opened the
door to the closet, and stepped through into
Washu's arboretum area of her laboratory.
Trees of a thousand kinds were sprawling out
before him, with paved walkways winding around
each of them, giving the effect of a haphazard
web he was walking upon. Blinking lights on
each side of the walkway lit up sequentially
with a slight red glow, faintly highlighting
the path out of the arboretum.
"Follow the lights out please, and Washu
will be waiting for you at her control center,
Lord Katsuhito," a faceless voice said, echoing
through the arboretum. The priest nodded his
agreement, and followed the now apparent path
to Washu. After several minutes, Katsuhito
stepped out onto one of the few static places
in Washu's lab; her control center. With the
exceptions to the arboretum and control center,
Washu's other labs were always transforming and
reconfiguring themselves to provide the
scientist with almost limitless reusability.
The priest stopped himself behind Washu, who
was busily punching in research data she had
gleaned from another experiment into one of the
control center's floating keypads. She wore a
scientist's smock that covered her science
academy uniform, already dirtied by some of the
experiments she had done earlier in the day.
When she turned to face Katsuhito, he noticed
that Washu also wore the angriest look he'd
ever seen on her young face.
"What's got your goat, little Washu?"
Katsuhito remarked coolly. Washu glared up at
him from her floating keypad, which made the
priest raise an eyebrow. She sighed, and
dropped her hands away from the keypad.
"I'm sorry, Katsuhito. I didn't mean to
take it out on you. Ryoko, however…" The
elderly priest raised both eyebrows in
surprise; one didn't get to find out about
Washu and Ryoko's relationship very often.
"Oh? What has Ryoko done now?" The
priest dropped himself into a kneeling position
beside the young scientist. She sighed a
second time, and went back to typing in the
data she had stopped doing earlier.
"Nothing, unless you count coming up to
me after breakfast was finished and blatantly
accusing me of drooling over Ashe. I'm a
scientist, not a schoolgirl; I know what I'm
doing when I'm around him," she growled.
Katsuhito nodded in understanding. She kept
typing in more information, nearly pounding in
the keys as she continued talking. "I mean,
who's she to talk about drooling? Tenchi would
most likely be swimming in lakes of it
considering the way that she and Ayeka
fawn over the boy. Ryoko even hangs on him,
even after Tenchi has asked for time alone."
Katsuhito chuckled at the memories of Ryoko's
first months at the Masaki home.
"If Ryoko didn't do that, she wouldn't be
who she is," he said. Washu gave Katsuhito a
quick look of bemused understanding, and began
typing again.
"You didn't come into my lab to ask how
my day went, Katsuhito, so how about we skip
the rest of the small talk and get to the
point?" Washu stated, never moving her eyes
off of the keypad as she punched in more data.
Katsuhito shrugged, and looked out over the
balcony at the rest of the arboretum.
"I came to ask you about your thoughts on
our new guest. However, it seems that you've
already explained yourself rather well." The
elder priest remarked, shooting a grin at
Washu. She turned to look at Katsuhito in
surprise.
"Oh really, and what would that be?"
"I don't remember you getting so uptight
over the way you interact with people,"
Katsuhito said quietly, never losing his ear to
ear grin. "Maybe Ryoko's perspective of the
way you look at our guest isn't so overrated
after all." Washu eyed Katsuhito for a moment,
and put her face stubbornly into one of the
view-screens she had been studying earlier.
"Whatever." A red beacon started to
blink on one of the nearby floating screens,
which quickly caught the attention of both
Washu and Katsuhito.
"That's strange. The scanners say that
there's a huge surge of energy being built up
nearby, but it's having trouble identifying
exactly what that energy signature is." Washu
remarked, calling the view-screen over to her
to analyze the data more closely. Katsuhito
stood up and took a position over the girl
genius's shoulder to watch the goings on with
better detail. Washu brought up several larger
view-screens to check up on the residents of
the Masaki household. Tenchi was at the bottom
steps of the temple, currently talking with
Ayeka and Ryoko about Ashe and the date they
were going on later that evening. Mihoshi was
in the kitchen eating an apple, and Sasami and
Ryo-Ohki could be seen chasing butterflies on
the pier in front of the house.
"That leaves us with our new friend.
Where is he?" Katsuhito asked, keenly
interested in what the family's new guest was
capable of. Washu was already ahead of him,
and homed in on Ashe's position.
"I've already recorded Ashe's bio-energy
signature, so finding him is as easy as one,
two, and three!" Washu spoke, pushing in
several buttons. A small map of the current
countryside grew to enormous size in front of
the two as they watched, and zoomed in on the
areas directly surrounding the Masaki house
and shrine, and then one last time on the
carrot fields at the farthest end of the
property. A bird's eye view of the field that
Ashe was working in was brought into focus, and
both adults watched with fascination and
surprise as Ashe worked. Or rather as best
they could watch, considering the fact that a
blur was all that they saw. It was all Washu
could do to even blink at the amount of energy
he used.
Zipping this way and that in the field,
moving surprisingly fast and efficient, Ashe
worked with a tireless enthusiasm. The only
times that one could make out Ashe clearly was
when he stood still long enough to wipe the
sweat off of his brow or to pick up various
objects at the edge of the field. In the
laboratory, his two spectators kept watching
with amazement. In the course of several short
minutes, the entire field was completely tilled
and planted. Katsuhito whistled coolly as he
watched the young man sit down and relax for a
moment.
"Well, our guest has some very potent
skills. I wonder if he's a capable fighter as
well," Katsuhito remarked, tilting his head as
he watched the young wanderer go about tilling
and planting the next carrot field, "Though it
now comes to if we should tell the rest of the
family about the extent of Ashe's powers."
Washu punched in some more information, never
taking her eyes off of the screen. She let her
finger hover over the communications button
when she suddenly thought about her earlier
conversation with Ryoko. Worried about the
scene that would no doubt result, she turned
instead to face Katsuhito who was still
regarding the wanderer on the view-screen.
"Katsuhito, I know this is going to sound
odd, but can we keep this information between
us for now, please? I'm not quite sure what
Ryoko will do with the information. If she
finds out about what we know, it'll take weeks
to clean out the blood. Executing the man when
all he's done, by himself no less, is plant TWO
whole fields in under an hour doesn't sound
like a proper thank-you," Washu explained.
Katsuhito raised an eyebrow at the young
scientist, and regarded her with a critical
eye.
"I will consider it. However, for
reasons of safety, I will be the one to gauge
his skills. If he is a threat in any way, I
want to know how any of us would fare against
him," Katsuhito responded, as the view-screen
winked out of sight. Washu typed in the last
of her information and stood up to stretch out
her tense muscles. She gave a thankful smile
as the closet portal faded into view at the
edge of the control center. Katsuhito looked
over his shoulder toward the portal, and back
at Washu.
"About your memories, Washu, I must ask.
Ryoko told me that you know about him, but you
don't know how. I find that hard to believe,"
the priest explained, "That you of all people
can't seem to remember someone who obviously
means a great deal to you." The scientist
sighed heavily, and motioned Katsuhito to walk
with her toward the portal.
"If you don't already know, I can't
remember anything further into my past than
roughly 20,000 years. If I try to push further
back than that in my mind, I draw blanks. That
alone is driving me nuts; especially after that
bastard Dr. Clay had kidnapped Ryoko and nearly
succeeded with me. Ever since, however, I've
been getting strange flashbacks; like time-worn
movies of places I've been, when I don't
remember being there any other time in my life.
Or people I've seen, when no-one matches their
description in any of the galactic records."
Katsuhito slowed his pace, and looked down at
Washu.
"But you recognized Ashe," the priest
noted.
"And that fact alone is what bothers me.
All of my other flashbacks were hazy and barely
understandable. When I first looked at Ashe,
however, it was like," Washu scratched her
head, looking for the words. "Like a waking
ream, vivid and in living color." Washu
returned the look at Katsuhito.
"Do you think that Ashe is the key to
unlocking the meaning of these memories of
yours?" the priest questioned as they ended
their walk in front of the portal. Washu gave
the priest one last glance, and then stared at
the door for several moments.
"I don't simply think he is. I know he
is." Washu stated, and Katsuhito bowed deeply
to the young scientist. He opened the door,
and quickly looked back through at Washu as she
began her walk back toward the control center.
"On that note, I thank you for hearing me
out. The family should expect you at the
dinner table, then?" Katsuhito asked, and Washu
gave a quick glance to the priest as she
walked.
"Probably, considering I'm most likely
going to miss lunch to do further research. I
still need to ask our young friend Ashe several
more questions, so catching him at dinner would
be best." she replied. He gave a giant smile at
Washu as she sat down on her cushion.
"Should I bring a mop and bucket for the
drool as well?" The priest saw the blush
clearly from where he stood at the door, and
watched Washu push several buttons on a
completely different keypad. Without blinking
Katsuhito quickly pulled his head back and shut
the door before a large statue of a fat panda
landed, attempting to make a new home on the
priest's head. Washu held her head, shaking it
in silent laughter as both the portal and the
statue faded into nothingness.
"Friends; go figure." She stifled a
humorous sigh, and went back to watching and
recording Ashe's power readings on a view-
screen she had spawned. Suddenly she sat
straight up on her cushion, transfixed on
information that displayed itself on screen,
although the data held no interest; she was
more focused on the flashback that went
trailblazing through her mind's eye. The
scientist's breathing came in ragged gasps as
she felt memories flood over her like a broken
dam's water over an unsuspecting riverbank.
Washu let herself become caught up in the wave,
hoping that anything she could glean from it
would help her understand what was going on.
As the unnerving sensations faded, the images
began to meld and make a clearer picture.
Washu found herself standing on a small
hill, surrounded by reeds of varying lengths
and widths. Thrashing and whistling around,
she watched trees that stretched miles into the
sky with their purple and blue leaves dancing
and swaying in tune to the wind that moved
them. She whirled in place, attempting to
figure out what planet she was on, and where
she could possibly be.
"The planet's name is Far Eden. Or
rather, it was. It's a planet that's not on
any of the galactic star-charts; mainly,
because it's been annihilated." The scientist
whirled around in place, a distinct chill of
eerie recognition as she realized whose voice
it was. Washu gasped as she got a look at the
opposite side of the hill, where the sound came
from.
The scientist immediately recognized the
face as her own, but she was clothed in dress
that was completely foreign. Billowing red
sleeves flowed in open defiance of the wind,
and her red hair was pulled up and back in a
near divine formality. A gold band was wrapped
almost lovingly around her neck, as well as
several more circling at spaced intervals
around her ponytail, defying gravity as if the
concept were null and void. The elder Washu's
sleek black and red dress clung tightly to her
bosom, waist, and hips adding to the overall
effect of surrealism. The younger Washu simply
gawked at herself; she never thought of wearing
something like that. At least, she didn't
admit to it openly.
"You're me, aren't you?" The younger
Washu remarked, folding her arms in open
stubbornness. The elder Washu cackled, and
smiled a toothy grin. She began to hover in
place, and slowly moved toward the younger
Washu.
"Ha! I'm still as sharp as a whip,
thankfully. Yes, I'm you. And you're me,
whichever line of reasoning you prefer to use.
In all honesty, however, I'm more a mental
image of what you really are. You left this
portion of yourself," the elder Washu stopped
several inches away from the younger and put a
thumb to her chest to emphasize herself,
"Within your mind so that one day, when you
felt you had finally understood what you felt
you needed to understand, you would have a way
to come back to yourself." The younger Washu
scratched her head in apparent confusion, and
pointed at herself.
"Okay. Let me get this straight; I've
locked myself away in my own head, and you're
the aspect of me that'll help wake the rest of
my memories up?" The younger Washu pointed a
finger at her elder self in a demanding tone.
"I want all of my memories back, and I
want them now." The elder Washu gave her a
look of amusement.
"Access denied." The elder Washu stated
flatly.
"What?" The child genius replied,
furrowing her brow from misunderstanding
herself a second time.
"I'm also what most mortals would call a
mental block; until your own mind believes that
you can handle what you would learn, you aren't
getting anything out of me. Or you're not
getting it out of yourself, to phrase it more
accurately. Besides, all of your memories are
locked away in things you've given great
value." The elder Washu explained. Giving a
weary smile, the elder Washu turned to float
away from the girl genius. The younger Washu
clenched her hands in frustration, trying to
make sense of what had just happened.
"There are three things that you valued,
and still value, above everything else in this
world, before your fated decision." The elder
Washu explained, holding out one hand parallel
to the younger. Floating barely above her
outstretched hand were three red gems, circling
and twisting around each other in perfect
harmony.
"You mean the gems." The younger Washu
whispered, staring at the three crimson orbs in
amazement. The elder gave her one last glance
before looking back at the gems again.
"What about Ashe?" The elder form's eyes
began to shimmer with moisture, and she blinked
twice. She turned to face the younger Washu
with a fond gleam in her eyes, the gems
radiating a heavy red now.
"Okay, here's a hint, then. All of your
memories are locked away in these little gems;
they also represent the same three things I
mentioned earlier. One is to understand the
universe; the second, to understand why mortals
do what they do; the last, to understand your
own heart." Each of the orbs gave a faintly
reddish-pink glow, lighting up one by one in
response to the elder Washu's words as she
spoke, until all three pulsed brightly. The
younger Washu gave a confused look at her elder
self, which quickly turned to panic as the
imaginary world around her began to fade and
melt away. The elder turned back to face the
younger, and put a faint smile on her lips.
"Stick with Ashe and Tenchi! You'll get
your answers when the time comes, I promise!
In the end," the elder Washu quietly spoke, yet
the younger Washu felt them as if she were
whispering them to herself, "You'll have what
you've always wanted." As the laboratory faded
back into perspective, the child genius began
to hurriedly type in the information she had
learned, eager to piece together this little
puzzle that had presented itself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dinner at the Masaki household was
different this evening than most other nights.
Tenchi, Ryoko, and Ayeka had all gone on their
date for the evening, telling everyone that
they most likely will eat at a restaurant and
not to prepare any meals for them. The kitchen
area was well stocked with herbs and spices
from around the galaxy, with cooking utensils
from Earth and a hundred other worlds. Neat,
organized, completely stocked with everything a
chef could wish for, and just the way that
Sasami liked it.
Wearing her chef's apron and having her
hair pulled back, the younger Jurai princess
had already gotten well into making dinner. The
young chef set down some onions and began
cutting them, thinking about how her family had
changed so much in the course of several short
months. The scent of onion had snuck its way
into Sasami's eyes, and she began to get teary.
Stopping for a moment, she had reached to her
left for a towel and promptly snatched it away
from its holder.
"Hey! I was using that." A voice
replied, a little hurt. Without turning to see
who it was, Sasami handed back the towel
quietly. She smiled and turned to face the
source of the voice; Ashe, whose face was dirty
from the work he had done in the field earlier
in the day. His emerald green dress shirt had
the sleeves tied around his waist, and an
emerald green athletic shirt he wore currently
was soaked with the sweat of a hard day's work.
"I'm sorry, Ashe. I didn't realize you
were already using the towel," Sasami remarked,
and scowled at his appearance, "but you should
take a bath before dinner. You're dirty and
smelly from head to toe." Ashe gave himself a
quick once-over, and rolled his eyes. He
wrapped the dirty towel around his neck and
sighed. Making his way to the door to the
living room, Ashe turned and waved to the young
princess.
"Thank you for the towel, Sasami. I'll
ask Mihoshi where the bathing facilities are."
Ashe bowed slightly, and pushed the door open.
"I didn't mean to interrupt you while you were
cooking, so I'll leave. By the way," Ashe
sniffed the air and looked at the stove, where
several different courses of food were busily
cooking for the evening's dinner, "Dinner
smells excellent. I'm looking forward to it!"
Sasami gave him a big smile, nodded and went
back to finishing the onions. She grabbed some
carrots from the fridge and began to prepare
them for cutting when she stood up straight
unexpectedly, as if someone had entered the
room.
"Is that you, Tsunami? Where are you?"
the young princess called aloud.
"I am right beside you, Sasami." The
princess turned to look at the woman standing
next to her right. Her dress was quite similar
to the Jurai royal family's garb, a beautiful
mixture of purples, blues, and reds; however,
she seemed to carry a divine look that poured
out around her. A white cloak draped over her
shoulders, covered by exotic trinkets and rare
metals. Her flowing blue hair was pulled back
into two long ponytails that barely touched the
floor. She leaned back against the countertop,
eyeing the doorway with a knowing eye. Sasami
gave the goddess a worried look, when Tsunami
turned to face the younger princess and gave
her a beaming smile.
"I was worried that you wouldn't show
up." Sasami whispered, and turned to face the
goddess.
"You know that I would never dream of
leaving you alone for long, little one." The
goddess saw worry cross over the chef
princess's bright eyes like rolling storm
clouds.
"What is bothering you, Sasami? You're
worried about something, I can tell." Tsunami
queried, giving the young princess a worried
and sympathetic expression. Sasami sighed
deeply, and closed her eyes.
"I'm worried about Ashe. Except for
Washu and me everybody is suspicious of him.
It just doesn't make any sense about Tenchi;
Ashe took care of the carrot fields so that he
could go on that date with Ryoko and Ayeka.
Ryoko was completely against his staying here,
though she didn't mind him taking over Tenchi's
chores. Ayeka is suspicious of him, but is
at least giving him the benefit of a doubt.
Mihoshi can't place him in any galactic police
records, so at least he's not a known criminal.
Nobuyuki is being wary but considerate, and
Katsuhito is giving Ashe that look that he
gives Tenchi when he botches up a training
lesson," The princess whispered, to which
Tsunami placed a comforting hand on the girl's
shoulders. Sasami sighed a second time, and
opened her eyes to look up at Tsunami. The
goddess furrowed her brow in confusion as the
young princess gave a faint smile.
"At least Ashe isn't one of the bad
guys." The goddess tilted her head to one side
and raised an eyebrow as she studied Sasami,
guessing at the reasons for the girl's line of
thought.
"Don't be so certain of that, Sasami.
You have no idea about where this Ashe is from
or who he is; and criminals are still
criminals, well known or otherwise. To say
that this person is good hearted after knowing
him for as little as you have would be
foolhardy." Sasami gave the goddess a
wondering look, and dropped her arms to her
sides in thought. Tsunami raised an eyebrow a
second time at the young girl, already
understanding where the conversation was about
to go.
"Neither you or I had a nightmare of him,
though. Every time someone bad shows up, one
of us gets a vision about what's going to
happen. I didn't get one when Ashe showed up,
or even the day before." With that, the
princess went back to cutting her carrots.
Tsunami simply blinked at the girl's logic,
amazed at the amount of sense that Sasami made.
The goddess took her turn to sigh; ever since
Tsunami gave up a part of herself to allow
Sasami to stay alive the princess had grown in
intelligence light years ahead of her peers,
but it came at a high price. Whenever Tsunami
attempted to gain insights into the future,
Sasami had access to those same dreams;
something that both of them were surprised
about and afraid of at the same time. Tsunami
oftentimes cursed herself for dragging an
innocent girl into her own visions; she worried
that what simply caught her off guard may
outright terrify or threaten the sanity of the
young Sasami. However, no matter what the girl
was forced to witness or endure, Sasami's
tireless enthusiasm and perseverance always won
out; several times those very dreams that
Sasami was forced to see aided both herself and
those around her to anticipate and ultimately
defeat forthcoming threats. And while it was
true that Tsunami had attempted to divine what
Ashe's arrival heralded for the family, she
hadn't seen any good or evil intent come from
Ashe at all. Though she always weighed her
dreams with a grain of salt, she learned that
through the bonding that the two girls went
through, Tsunami found Sasami's judgment of
character at times to be far more accurate than
her own.
"Perhaps Sasami," the goddess remarked
with a hint of sadness in her voice. "But
remember, that sometimes the brightest star is
created out of the darkest matter." Sasami
gave Tsunami a confused stare as she finished
putting all of the chopped carrots into the pot
that was cooking the other vegetables for the
dinner that evening.
"I don't understand what you mean." The
young girl stated simply. Tsunami patted her
soul-bound friend on the head in a friendly
tease.
"It simply means that everybody is going
to have to be careful about this new guest,
that's all." The princess nodded and gave a
huge smile to Tsunami, who gave a look over her
shoulder at the stove. The pots and pans that
were all holding dinner for the evening were
steaming, giving every intention that dinner
was ready.
"You might want to finish dinner, little
one; your family is starving waiting for you to
feed them. And I know I would rather starve
than eat cooking that wasn't yours, Sasami."
The young chef giggled happily, and gave a bear
hug to the surprised goddess. Tsunami gave a
slight gasp; the goddess wasn't used to this
kind of attention, but Sasami gave it to her no
questions asked and no quarter given. Tsunami
smiled; she wouldn't have it any other way.
"Thank you, Tsunami. You really know how
to make me feel better." Sasami said, the
words muffled by the goddess's dress. Tsunami
gave her a knowing smile and returned the bear
hug she was in the middle of receiving.
"What are friends for?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Deep in the outer recesses of a forgotten
galaxy, a lone ship sat in the middle of an
asteroid field. From a distance, the very
thing looked to be huge; its body long and
sleek, with pocks and dents covering the dark
grey techno-organic skin of the ship. From
underneath, it had the impression of a god's
hand reaching down from above. Standing atop
the ship at the bow, a tall young man had his
head bowed in deep thought. His pale white
hair shimmered in an almost eerily way as it
reflected the light from the star that the ship
orbited, and his purple eyes hinted at a
malevolent intent that none of his peers dared
to provoke. Crossing his arms over his chest
the young man pulled his gaze from the ship's
hull, out toward the asteroid field that
surrounded the ship and then further out, into
the darkness he called home. As the cloaked
figure kept his eyes on the void a portion of
the hull began to bulge and spike upward, then
peel back to reveal a tall slender female form
emerging from within the hull. The woman's
small bust and curvaceous body was clothed in
a black bodysuit that was covered in numerous
thin silver stripes that curled around her back
and arms; her black hair was likewise striped
in a similar fashion. Her silver cornea did
nothing to hide the thousand minute gears that
spun and twirled in rhythm, and the violet
irises focused intently on her target. She
made slow and measured steps along the hull
toward the cloaked man and adjusted her leather
gloves as she made her way along. Taking her
place directly beside the man's right side, the
young man gave a sidelong glance at the guest
through slotted eyes. The girl, although a
head taller than the man she stood beside,
nodded her head in silent agreement, and the
two sank into the ship as the hull pulled
itself over the hover-pad the two stood on.
As the duo sank further into the ship, air
began to hiss and fill the chamber, allowing
sound to be heard within. Several more seconds
passed again before either of the two spoke.
"I trust that you know your mission."
The young man stated flatly, never moving from
his position. The tall girl turned her head to
face him, and nodded.
"My mission is one of reconnaissance. I
am to engage and ascertain the strengths and
weaknesses of all specified targets. Any minor
threats that may interfere with my primary
objective are to be eliminated with extreme
prejudice. However, I am allowed to make
retreat if the capabilities of the specified
targets are proven to be more than my own."
The hover-pad that carried the two stopped at
the bridge of the ship. The bridge was huge;
hundreds of view-screens hovered over their
respective control panels, each displaying a
myriad of information on planets, current
events, and various important persons. The
young man, with the woman just behind, strode
up one of several archways to the central
control node that jutted out over the rest of
the bridge area. As the two entered the node,
a spherical view-screen enveloped it and
brought up several different star charts of
galaxies both familiar and completely unknown,
and blacked out all outside light sources. The
young man brought up a keypad, and brought up
several different pictures.
"The area that you are to infiltrate is
here," the young man remarked, bringing up a
picture of a house sitting peacefully alongside
a lake and a shrine nestled on top of a nearby
mountain. "The people that reside here are
some of the most powerful beings in the known
galaxies, if not the universe. Caution is
paramount; simply observe and engage when the
timing is right. Failure to do so will force
us to escalate our plans prematurely; I do not
do things prematurely, understood?" The young
woman nodded her head, and strode up to his
side.
"Who are the targets?" The woman had
questioned; her distinctively sultry voice was
hued with the faint undertone of artificial
replication. Two pictures faded in over the
scenic photo; one was a black-haired pony
tailed young man, smiling happily with what
seemed to be his family. The other gave light
to a beach scene, where a cyan haired woman was
attempting to pull the hair out of a violet
haired girl's head, who was likewise trying for
the same. The black and white haired young
woman raised an eyebrow cynically at the second
picture.
"What an animalistic gesture," she
remarked and crossed her arms, which invoked a
snicker from the man beside her.
"Be that as it may, those three you see
before you are the greatest threat to this
little symphony of ours. Currently, none of
them understand exactly what is in store for
them and I intend to keep it that way for as
long as possible. Understood, Ersatzu?" The
young girl nodded her head slowly in
affirmation, and made her way back toward the
archway out of the control node as the
spherical view-screen opened a doorway out.
The young man turned his slightly to the side,
and coughed faintly. The tiger striped beauty
froze in mid-stride, and turned her head to
listen.
"You may be an artificial, but you are
more important to my plan alive than dead.
Simply gather the appropriate information and
return; I do not wish for our enemies to know
anything other than what I want them to." She
nodded in agreement, and exited the control
node leaving the young man alone with the
pictures and his own thoughts. He punched in
several more commands, and expanded the black
haired boy's photo to zoom in on his face
alone. He gave the photo a look of expectancy,
as if the young man was looking forward to
meeting the person in the photo.
"Oh, what a tangled web they weave, when
first they choose not to believe." With that
said, the young man began to pour himself over
the data that came in from the view-screens
that hovered nearby.
End of Part 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
