Forever Ryoko
By Starhopper
DISCLAIMER: *shrugs* fine, I - DON'T own a single darn thing, okay?! Ya happy now ya big mean lawyers?
OKDOKEY
Here we go again. Thanks for the reviews, I've been posting these chapters at a faster pace because of them to keep you guys from pummeling me with "bad author" rocks. And I think you'll all like this one, because it's long and Nagi is reunited with her prey. Ya know what that means! FUN BANTER!
^_^
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Chapter 7: The Hunter and the Hunted
"Oh my glorious Ma-ster!" Odosuoni sang out jovially. Her voice echoed throughout her ship, alerting the one she sought to her newest discovery.
Phasing in next to her by the ancient stone consul, he asked in no tone in particular, "Just what is it Odosuoni? Did you discover that you could sleep with your eyes open.staring at that Space Pirate's every move right?"
"No!" She threw herself on her knees as was proper, and flashed a smile that could kill. "They did it! I was expecting it to come soon, but not this soon." She shook her head and took a breath. "Anyway, now's the time to attack right?"
The Master shook his head solemnly in response. "I'm afraid not. I can't sense a bond between them. But we should send Nagi down there to lure her out into space." He began to pace in front of the consul. "We can at least wound her before our big battle." He motioned to each of his sides and the slow appearance of Hi and Kaze took place. They floated in the air, each wearing an iridescent red robe that fell to the ground about six and a half feet below them. Heads resting on each shoulder, they stared down at their sister with apathy, for they had no emotions to give.
"Hi and Kaze will now join you now, but will not help with the termination of Ryoko and Tenchi." His gaze turned to each lovely head lolling about on opposite sides of him. "They will merely be looking over your shoulder, watching you as you have watched Ryoko for these many months. Learning from your mistakes, they will either take the place of you, my greatest creation, or join you in a Masterly Triumvirate." The Master closed his eyes as he continued on with the plan. "Odosuoni, 'threatening devil'," With a wave of his hand the other sisters were gone and the Master stood alone with his servant. "I chose you to begin this project for one good reason," his tone shifted to a gentler, soft, almost friendly version of his twisted mind and voice. "You are blessed with the power to feel. Emotions run rampant in your skull alone. Once this body is spent, your mind; complete with memories and lessons, will be absorbed into Hi's. She will continue our quest if it isn't completed by the end of this coming year." He paused and stared briefly into her ember-brown eyes. "I'm pleased to see that you're taking this so well, even if it means the very death of you must be imminent to continue this fight for evil."
"I've had a good run." Odosuoni could barely breathe. "So then, I am the only one out of this threesome that has her capabilities." She stared at her palms that now burned painlessly with red energy.
"Making you the most formidable foe, yes." Was his arrogant answer.
Standing to her full height and letting the triple bun slide from its binding, she shook her head and let the auburn tresses fall down to the floor. "I will fight then."
"Yes." With that he faded away to whatever cave or grand palace he resided in on the opposite side of the universe. His voice still lingered. "Call upon Nagi and send her to earth."
* * *
Nagi squatted in the bushes beside the Masaki house. Oh sure, she knew that she could easily walk into the shaded, three story building sitting so temptingly before her. She had done so much for the band of misfits during the Jurai upheaval that only welcomes would utter from their mouths, not death-threats. Hell, she could even go straight to Ryoko's room and find her well prepared for a fight.
Ken-ohki strained in her arms. "Sit still." She ordered, turning her head to meet the little cabbit's and with a regretful "Sow," he consented to her whim.
The sliding door opened and closed. Swinging her head back up to the porch, she held her breath. "A walking ghost," escaped her in a whisper.
There she was, the infamous Space Pirate Ryoko. The most famed criminal in the known universe . . . the most daring . . . so very cunning . . . the one who was revered by such lowly criminals as gangsters and thieves as well as high rolling gamblers and powerful lords. Here she was, on such a tiny speck of dust in the universe as Earth, wearing a simple, but appealing yellow dress, and doing such a mundane task as hanging up the laundry nonetheless!
* * *
Ryoko thought she heard a snicker in the bushes. Turning she caught sight of a light brown down of fluff protruding through the green hedge. She caught herself with the realization that the fluff was indeed fur . . . fur that belonged to Ken-ohki!
Returning to the basket of wet laundry, she called, "Alright Nagi, c'mon out."
The bounty hunter rose noiselessly. "Damn it." She swore beneath her breath and drew back her hood. "You're alive."
"You were thinking I was dead?" Ryoko cocked a brow, widened her eyes dumbfounded. The lips peeled back to shining, laughing teeth. "Nagi! Shame on you!"
"May I remind you that the last time I saw you, you were flying away out to save your man with a lethal wound in your side." She came to stand directly behind the space pirate, who was busily pinning wet clothes to a line.
"And may I remind you, that you've known me for at least five hundred years now. I don't give up that easily, even if it's on my own survival." Her shoulders shook with uncontrollable laughter. "I can't believe that you thought I was dead!"
Crossing her arms defensively over her breast and rolling her eyes, Nagi replied, "Given the circumstances I can't believe that you made it to the palace . . . apparently." Her gaze shifted to the ring on her prey's left hand. Nodding to the adornment she acknowledged, "That's new."
Ryoko stopped in the middle of pinning up one of Tenchi's camp-shirts. "Uh, yeah." Color came to her cheeks.
Nagi feigned surprise. "I've never seen you blush before Ryoko."
The cyan spiked woman before her turned around fully to face her enemy. "I've never been engaged before Nagi." Was her court reply.
"You understand why I've come here."
"It's no big mystery." Flew over the Space-pirate's shoulder. "You've always lost to me and now you want to win." Hands upon hips, Ryoko turned with that same cocked brow and a wickedly fierce smile. "I was the only one who ever escaped you . . . "
The other woman turned her face sharply up to the defiant one. "True, but you forget Ryoko, that I have always been able to track you down as before."
"Fine Nagi. If that's the way you want it, then we can settle it right now." Her back turned; Ryoko rose up into the sky and turned back on the bounty hunter, arms raised, elbows locked, and teeth bared for attack.
"However -" Nagi interjected, causing the battle grin to fade abruptly from Ryoko's face.
"Huh?"
"I'm afraid that that won't be possible." taking a few steps up onto the porch she continued, "For you see, I won't be the one to kill you now."
Calming down, and touching back down on the porch beside her enemy, Ryoko crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you mean? I thought all these centuries of pent-up frustration would make you lunge for my neck the second you saw me."
"It does." Nagi growled and drew her lance. Ryoko bounded back, ready for action. "But unfortunately," Nagi went on despite the threat, "I can't. I can however battle you for as long as it takes."
"Battle?" A right hand fluttering to her throat in feigned indignation, Ryoko started, "What about 'capture', 'kill', or 'maim'?"
Nagi's voice went down an octave in tensing anger. "I don't need to repeat myself, now do I? Fine. I can't kill you because someone else will. There, you satisfied?"
"ME?!" The woman in the yellow dress shrieked, throwing her hands up. "Why me?"
Nagi shook her head and sheathed her lance. "Look Ryoko. I tell you this only because you are my mouse that I torment. I don't want to see another cat play with your mind and chase you down while I stand idle." Her red eyes darted sharply up to Ryoko's mystified gold ones. "There is a far greater cat chasing you down as we speak. You are his prey now, and be on guard."
Ryoko, sensing that Nagi summoned all the courage and effort to warn her of the "cat", nodded slowly and mumbled a simple. "Right."
"Then my job is done. He thinks that I've come here to lure you into battle." She sloughed off a coarse laugh, then turned back to her bounty. "But he has underestimated my will and loyalty to a friend."
Ryoko looked up in surprise. "Friend?" she repeated. "You see me as a friend?"
Breathing heavily Nagi shook her head. "A friend that is only a friend because I need her later . . . to chase."
"The thrill of the hunt, eh Nagi?"
"Yes Ryoko."
As if nothing had happened for the past half-hour, the soon to be Masaki bride turned back to her chore at hand and again began to hang various and assorted clothes on the line.
"Shall we call a temporary truce?" Ryoko smiled as she reached to secure one of Sasami's jeans to the rope.
"Haven't we already?"
"Stay for awhile then . . . my friend. Until I have use for you."
* * *
Yawning, Tenchi walked through the wide doorway of the Masaki house. His eyes barely open; slipping off his shoes on the welcome mat; the nineteen year old wandered aimlessly to the couch. Shrugging off the heavy leather backpack, he toppled onto the soft pile of cushions and giving comforter. He barely felt his fiancée rise from beneath into his exhausted embrace.
"Tenchi darling," she purred into his ear, "We're all alone," her nose nuzzled his, her lips brushing lightly against the coarse, dry-cracked ones.
"Not quite." Nagi, though having heard Ryoko's man come home; and having some concept of exactly what was on her friend's, (At least for now.) mind, she continued on her present course to the kitchen from the stairs. "Please, pause until I leave the room,"
Glaring up in the direction of the exiting bounty hunter, Tenchi raised himself off of his beloved and stretched. "Exactly why is Nagi here anyway?" he questioned through a yawn. "I mean we spent the entire time in space dodging her every move and now she's become a resident in our household."
"I've tried to explain it to you before . . . but I guess you weren't paying attention when I'm-" She knew just what to do to regain her hold on him. Running her tongue enticingly over her upper row of teeth and stretching so thinly over the couch, her golden eyes sparkling behind the tousled cyan bangs. "Well, you know."
With his trademark blush, Tenchi smiled sheepishly and nodded, "Yes, I know. It's hard to focus my attentions on anything else but you."
"Really?" Ryoko shot both her bare legs into the air and let them fall crossed on the head cushion of the couch. "Well, now since your reawakened," she phased out and materialized next to him, "Nagi's here because apparently I'm a wanted woman."
"So it's not just me?" Tenchi piped up sleepily, again through a yawn.
Leaning on his shoulder as she had done so many times before, the Space Pirate drew little circles on his chest with a fingertip. "Uh huh. There's something out there that wants me dead."
Suddenly the fading light in his black eyes brightened like the birth of a supernova. All developing muscles tensed, and his head turned to meet hers. "They'll have to go through me first Ryoko." He swore as his hands clasped her shoulders to further demonstrate that this was serious. "You didn't tell me that before did you?"
"Well, no." Her head turned endearingly. "I thought it might spoil the mood." She shook herself from his grasp and turned away. "Besides, I've lived alone for seven hundred years and apparently I've been able to survive by myself."
"Look," Tenchi reached for her wrist and found it. "We've never faced something that we couldn't conquer. But now, with Nagi involved, I'm not so sure."
"You can't tell me that you're really taking this seriously?" She turned around hands splayed to display the freely flowing energy coalescing into a ball in the palm of her hands. "Tenchi, if I'm not the least bit worried and making jokes about my own death, then you shouldn't be." She blew each ball out before setting her hands at her hips.
With a roll of his eyes, he brought her close, so close that her nose touched with his. "I love you. I can't help that. I don't know what I would do without you. If I lost you-" he swallowed hard and Ryoko was surprised to see tears seep from the corner of his eyes, "I want us to die together if anything should happen."
"Oh Tenchi,"
"Say that you'll treat this with some grain of it being true."
With a silent nod, Ryoko whispered, "Okay," before being cut off by a soft, tender kiss.
Nagi, carrying a tray of carrot soup and some fresh orange vegetables along with it, stepped into the room at that exact minute. "Oh brother," she kept on walking, but her words hit the lovers' ears as if she had come, stood next to them, and berated them personally. "Aren't you two the engaged stereotypes. Can't keep their hands off each other for one second."
"True, all too true." They said simultaneously before Ryoko phased out in Tenchi's embrace to their room.
* * *
"Washu?"
The genius looked up from the electron modulator that had been her focus for the past four months now. "Yes, who is it?" Still pondering the owner of the voice, she adjusted the atom-magnifying lens attached to her sunglasses and leaned in expectantly towards the writhing mass of shiny metal tubes.
"Washu-uuu!"
Not turning around for all the power and scientific know how in the world, Washu simply yelled, "Wha-aaat?"
"It's time for dinner!" Came Sasami's plaintive cry from the Masaki doorway. "Aren't you hungry?"
The genius stopped in mid gearshift only to ignore her stomach's angry growl of hunger. "No," she called back, hoping that the little ten-year old didn't prepare what she thought she smelled . . . "Not even if it's-"
"But it is!"
Oh no! Washu thought bitterly. I can't leave this project! It's just my greatest invention ever in my whole career of being a genius. When I finish . . . oh then the glory will shine down on me.
In her mind's eye, she viewed herself illuminated in a ray of light, the Science Academy naming her President and Associate leader. Confetti rained down from the starry masses above, balloons rose into the air. With Washus A and B on her shoulders joining the thrum of chant in the background, 'Washu is a genius, Washu is a genius,' the genius herself was living it up in the limelight.
Still at her desk, sitting before the electron modulator, she sang "Genius, Genius, Washu is-"
"Last chance Washu! Fresh tuna grilled on the hibachi with Ramen noodles drenched in carrot sauce and sake." Sasami interrupted the scientist's thoughts with the final closing of the closet door.
* * *
Washu threw open the door to the living room with a huff. "I told you.Sasami .that I was coming!" she panted, "But would you wait . . . no!" Taking a deep breath in and a slow exhalation, Washu plopped down onto her pillow and greedily filled up her plate with as much fish as she could get away with.
The rest of the family raised their brows, rolled their eyes, and returned to the conversation at hand.
"So Ryoko," Nobuyuki took a sip of tea and a bite of the Tuna. "I understand that you heard from Aeka earlier today?"
The Space Pirate looked up through a mouthful of Ramen noodles. Chewing them quickly and swallowing them down with some sake, she winced and replied, "Yes." Glancing over in the direction of the tired cook sitting on the opposite side of the table, she continued, "She's planning to visit as soon as they can find her another ship."
"Really, what happened to Aeka's ship?" Grandfather asked sedately.
Again, caught with her mouth full, Ryoko, trying to chew as fast as she could, gave up and nudged Tenchi in the ribs.
"It was destroyed in some sort of battle," Tenchi supplied, trying not to laugh as his fiancée tried to swallow down the noodles to answer the questions that would be pouring from every mouth.
"She wasn't in Ryu-oh at the time . . . she's grieving, but a seed was saved . . . and," Ryoko did some air calculations in hopes of surfacing that last bit of information, "and the battle took two of Jurai's ships. It took place somewhere outside the northern Checkpoint, which I have no idea where the hell that is, but the ship that initiated the fight was heading in the direction of earth. Aeka is being forced here to do some investigating if the mystery ship does show up at door."
After a time of silence while everyone ate, Washu looked up and said, "What is the Ship and why would it want to attack the Jurai battle fleets?"
"Good question," Tenchi muttered under his breath before taking a taste of Ryoko's sufficiently seasoned carrots off her plate.
"Yeah." Ryoko blew on the steaming fish. "Aeka doesn't know who could have done it. The hyperlinks that transferred the damage reports were intentionally screwed up. Not even the Logs could decipher them."
"Ha!" Washu leaned back with a pompous grin. "An indecipherable message! There's no such thing! Is Aeka bringing the hyperlinks' reports with her?"
"You bet your sweet ass." Popping the cooled hunk of meat into her mouth, she shoved it over onto one side and spoke through the other. "She was hoping that you could work on the transfer while she's here and maybe answer a few questions or even pin the identity about that Ship."
Sasami, who had been silent for quite a while now, smiled and looked up from her plate. "Do you know how long she's going to stay with us Ryoko?"
"Yep. For about a year." The space pirate grinned as the second princess of Jurai was overcome with warm happiness. "After the Wedding," a warm feeling enveloped her as she thought about that beautiful day . . .
"It'll be like old times," Tenchi slipped, suddenly noticing the brilliant, hard gaze of his beloved.
"Not exactly like old times, Tenchi darling," She shoved her left hand up into his view and wiggled her adorned ring finger. "She won't be as annoying as before; trying to steal you away from me."
"I couldn't be stolen even if she tried," he whispered softly so that only she could hear.
"I'd kiss you, but," she motioned with her head to the audience sitting around them. "But I'm afraid that it will lead to something else . . . " her voice was so quiet that the others leaned in to hear, but they were intercepted by Tenchi's firm glare.
Turning back to Ryoko, he stroked her right cheek and kissed the tip of her nose. Through slit eyes, she scorned the rest of the family for ruining what could have come of his soulful words.
Footfalls sounded from the stairwell and Nagi, still clothed in cloak and hunter outfit, hood drawn, stepped off the last stair with a sniff in the air. "Umm, smells good."
"And it is," Grandfather chewed the last of his fish thoughtfully.
"I could believe it," the bounty hunter said as she came over to the table and took a seat at the corner.
"Grilled on the hibachi." Sasami told her, piling the rest of the fish, Ramen, and carrot sauce onto a plate and serving it with a smile like the dutiful hostess and cook that she had become. "Eat up before it gets cold."
Filling her cup up with sake as Sasami loaded her plate, Nagi now sat back and ate hungrily.
Sipping on their drinks of choice and therefore prolonging the end of the dinner, the rest of the family sat quietly, making idle chitchat with each other.
* * *
"So, Nagi has gone behind our backs," Odosuoni acknowledged, watching their supposed partner eat, drink, and laugh with the enemy. "I knew we couldn't trust that bitch all along."
"Now, now," The Master shook his head disapprovingly. "We can't condemn her with such a title Odosuoni." He stared on with her to the group jovially sitting at he couch talking about their various travels.
Changing the subject, the redhead touched the holographic screen to focus on the couple and task at hand. "Look at them," she breathed, "They're bonded enough all ready, and if we take out Ryoko and Tenchi now, then there's no way that they can have a bond at all."
"True, but rather than hope that we can defeat them only two against eight, as opposed to a winning combination two against a mortal six, we might have a chance if we wait."
"Wait?!" Odosuoni threw up her hands, thereby distorting the projected image. "I've waited since we passed Alpha Centauri when you created me and stuck me in this hell-hole . . . waiting and watching. I'm so damn sick of this monotony day after day, week after week . . . "
"Year after year," The Master finished for her, setting a hand on the shaking shoulder. "I know, but it will be completely worth it when the time comes."
"I deserve to kill Ryoko." She could feel the energy surge through her body and drip out the tips of her fingers. "I will kill her."
"We hope," The Master whispered before taking a step back and vanishing.
"I will kill her." Odosuoni repeated after his disappearance. "And Tenchi too. They will never have a child if I can help it. That being will destroy us."
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Wow, another cliffhanger, I'm surprised at myself. Anywho, tell me what ya think with a REVIEW. (Are you catching onto my not- so-subliminal messages yet?)
By Starhopper
DISCLAIMER: *shrugs* fine, I - DON'T own a single darn thing, okay?! Ya happy now ya big mean lawyers?
OKDOKEY
Here we go again. Thanks for the reviews, I've been posting these chapters at a faster pace because of them to keep you guys from pummeling me with "bad author" rocks. And I think you'll all like this one, because it's long and Nagi is reunited with her prey. Ya know what that means! FUN BANTER!
^_^
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Chapter 7: The Hunter and the Hunted
"Oh my glorious Ma-ster!" Odosuoni sang out jovially. Her voice echoed throughout her ship, alerting the one she sought to her newest discovery.
Phasing in next to her by the ancient stone consul, he asked in no tone in particular, "Just what is it Odosuoni? Did you discover that you could sleep with your eyes open.staring at that Space Pirate's every move right?"
"No!" She threw herself on her knees as was proper, and flashed a smile that could kill. "They did it! I was expecting it to come soon, but not this soon." She shook her head and took a breath. "Anyway, now's the time to attack right?"
The Master shook his head solemnly in response. "I'm afraid not. I can't sense a bond between them. But we should send Nagi down there to lure her out into space." He began to pace in front of the consul. "We can at least wound her before our big battle." He motioned to each of his sides and the slow appearance of Hi and Kaze took place. They floated in the air, each wearing an iridescent red robe that fell to the ground about six and a half feet below them. Heads resting on each shoulder, they stared down at their sister with apathy, for they had no emotions to give.
"Hi and Kaze will now join you now, but will not help with the termination of Ryoko and Tenchi." His gaze turned to each lovely head lolling about on opposite sides of him. "They will merely be looking over your shoulder, watching you as you have watched Ryoko for these many months. Learning from your mistakes, they will either take the place of you, my greatest creation, or join you in a Masterly Triumvirate." The Master closed his eyes as he continued on with the plan. "Odosuoni, 'threatening devil'," With a wave of his hand the other sisters were gone and the Master stood alone with his servant. "I chose you to begin this project for one good reason," his tone shifted to a gentler, soft, almost friendly version of his twisted mind and voice. "You are blessed with the power to feel. Emotions run rampant in your skull alone. Once this body is spent, your mind; complete with memories and lessons, will be absorbed into Hi's. She will continue our quest if it isn't completed by the end of this coming year." He paused and stared briefly into her ember-brown eyes. "I'm pleased to see that you're taking this so well, even if it means the very death of you must be imminent to continue this fight for evil."
"I've had a good run." Odosuoni could barely breathe. "So then, I am the only one out of this threesome that has her capabilities." She stared at her palms that now burned painlessly with red energy.
"Making you the most formidable foe, yes." Was his arrogant answer.
Standing to her full height and letting the triple bun slide from its binding, she shook her head and let the auburn tresses fall down to the floor. "I will fight then."
"Yes." With that he faded away to whatever cave or grand palace he resided in on the opposite side of the universe. His voice still lingered. "Call upon Nagi and send her to earth."
* * *
Nagi squatted in the bushes beside the Masaki house. Oh sure, she knew that she could easily walk into the shaded, three story building sitting so temptingly before her. She had done so much for the band of misfits during the Jurai upheaval that only welcomes would utter from their mouths, not death-threats. Hell, she could even go straight to Ryoko's room and find her well prepared for a fight.
Ken-ohki strained in her arms. "Sit still." She ordered, turning her head to meet the little cabbit's and with a regretful "Sow," he consented to her whim.
The sliding door opened and closed. Swinging her head back up to the porch, she held her breath. "A walking ghost," escaped her in a whisper.
There she was, the infamous Space Pirate Ryoko. The most famed criminal in the known universe . . . the most daring . . . so very cunning . . . the one who was revered by such lowly criminals as gangsters and thieves as well as high rolling gamblers and powerful lords. Here she was, on such a tiny speck of dust in the universe as Earth, wearing a simple, but appealing yellow dress, and doing such a mundane task as hanging up the laundry nonetheless!
* * *
Ryoko thought she heard a snicker in the bushes. Turning she caught sight of a light brown down of fluff protruding through the green hedge. She caught herself with the realization that the fluff was indeed fur . . . fur that belonged to Ken-ohki!
Returning to the basket of wet laundry, she called, "Alright Nagi, c'mon out."
The bounty hunter rose noiselessly. "Damn it." She swore beneath her breath and drew back her hood. "You're alive."
"You were thinking I was dead?" Ryoko cocked a brow, widened her eyes dumbfounded. The lips peeled back to shining, laughing teeth. "Nagi! Shame on you!"
"May I remind you that the last time I saw you, you were flying away out to save your man with a lethal wound in your side." She came to stand directly behind the space pirate, who was busily pinning wet clothes to a line.
"And may I remind you, that you've known me for at least five hundred years now. I don't give up that easily, even if it's on my own survival." Her shoulders shook with uncontrollable laughter. "I can't believe that you thought I was dead!"
Crossing her arms defensively over her breast and rolling her eyes, Nagi replied, "Given the circumstances I can't believe that you made it to the palace . . . apparently." Her gaze shifted to the ring on her prey's left hand. Nodding to the adornment she acknowledged, "That's new."
Ryoko stopped in the middle of pinning up one of Tenchi's camp-shirts. "Uh, yeah." Color came to her cheeks.
Nagi feigned surprise. "I've never seen you blush before Ryoko."
The cyan spiked woman before her turned around fully to face her enemy. "I've never been engaged before Nagi." Was her court reply.
"You understand why I've come here."
"It's no big mystery." Flew over the Space-pirate's shoulder. "You've always lost to me and now you want to win." Hands upon hips, Ryoko turned with that same cocked brow and a wickedly fierce smile. "I was the only one who ever escaped you . . . "
The other woman turned her face sharply up to the defiant one. "True, but you forget Ryoko, that I have always been able to track you down as before."
"Fine Nagi. If that's the way you want it, then we can settle it right now." Her back turned; Ryoko rose up into the sky and turned back on the bounty hunter, arms raised, elbows locked, and teeth bared for attack.
"However -" Nagi interjected, causing the battle grin to fade abruptly from Ryoko's face.
"Huh?"
"I'm afraid that that won't be possible." taking a few steps up onto the porch she continued, "For you see, I won't be the one to kill you now."
Calming down, and touching back down on the porch beside her enemy, Ryoko crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you mean? I thought all these centuries of pent-up frustration would make you lunge for my neck the second you saw me."
"It does." Nagi growled and drew her lance. Ryoko bounded back, ready for action. "But unfortunately," Nagi went on despite the threat, "I can't. I can however battle you for as long as it takes."
"Battle?" A right hand fluttering to her throat in feigned indignation, Ryoko started, "What about 'capture', 'kill', or 'maim'?"
Nagi's voice went down an octave in tensing anger. "I don't need to repeat myself, now do I? Fine. I can't kill you because someone else will. There, you satisfied?"
"ME?!" The woman in the yellow dress shrieked, throwing her hands up. "Why me?"
Nagi shook her head and sheathed her lance. "Look Ryoko. I tell you this only because you are my mouse that I torment. I don't want to see another cat play with your mind and chase you down while I stand idle." Her red eyes darted sharply up to Ryoko's mystified gold ones. "There is a far greater cat chasing you down as we speak. You are his prey now, and be on guard."
Ryoko, sensing that Nagi summoned all the courage and effort to warn her of the "cat", nodded slowly and mumbled a simple. "Right."
"Then my job is done. He thinks that I've come here to lure you into battle." She sloughed off a coarse laugh, then turned back to her bounty. "But he has underestimated my will and loyalty to a friend."
Ryoko looked up in surprise. "Friend?" she repeated. "You see me as a friend?"
Breathing heavily Nagi shook her head. "A friend that is only a friend because I need her later . . . to chase."
"The thrill of the hunt, eh Nagi?"
"Yes Ryoko."
As if nothing had happened for the past half-hour, the soon to be Masaki bride turned back to her chore at hand and again began to hang various and assorted clothes on the line.
"Shall we call a temporary truce?" Ryoko smiled as she reached to secure one of Sasami's jeans to the rope.
"Haven't we already?"
"Stay for awhile then . . . my friend. Until I have use for you."
* * *
Yawning, Tenchi walked through the wide doorway of the Masaki house. His eyes barely open; slipping off his shoes on the welcome mat; the nineteen year old wandered aimlessly to the couch. Shrugging off the heavy leather backpack, he toppled onto the soft pile of cushions and giving comforter. He barely felt his fiancée rise from beneath into his exhausted embrace.
"Tenchi darling," she purred into his ear, "We're all alone," her nose nuzzled his, her lips brushing lightly against the coarse, dry-cracked ones.
"Not quite." Nagi, though having heard Ryoko's man come home; and having some concept of exactly what was on her friend's, (At least for now.) mind, she continued on her present course to the kitchen from the stairs. "Please, pause until I leave the room,"
Glaring up in the direction of the exiting bounty hunter, Tenchi raised himself off of his beloved and stretched. "Exactly why is Nagi here anyway?" he questioned through a yawn. "I mean we spent the entire time in space dodging her every move and now she's become a resident in our household."
"I've tried to explain it to you before . . . but I guess you weren't paying attention when I'm-" She knew just what to do to regain her hold on him. Running her tongue enticingly over her upper row of teeth and stretching so thinly over the couch, her golden eyes sparkling behind the tousled cyan bangs. "Well, you know."
With his trademark blush, Tenchi smiled sheepishly and nodded, "Yes, I know. It's hard to focus my attentions on anything else but you."
"Really?" Ryoko shot both her bare legs into the air and let them fall crossed on the head cushion of the couch. "Well, now since your reawakened," she phased out and materialized next to him, "Nagi's here because apparently I'm a wanted woman."
"So it's not just me?" Tenchi piped up sleepily, again through a yawn.
Leaning on his shoulder as she had done so many times before, the Space Pirate drew little circles on his chest with a fingertip. "Uh huh. There's something out there that wants me dead."
Suddenly the fading light in his black eyes brightened like the birth of a supernova. All developing muscles tensed, and his head turned to meet hers. "They'll have to go through me first Ryoko." He swore as his hands clasped her shoulders to further demonstrate that this was serious. "You didn't tell me that before did you?"
"Well, no." Her head turned endearingly. "I thought it might spoil the mood." She shook herself from his grasp and turned away. "Besides, I've lived alone for seven hundred years and apparently I've been able to survive by myself."
"Look," Tenchi reached for her wrist and found it. "We've never faced something that we couldn't conquer. But now, with Nagi involved, I'm not so sure."
"You can't tell me that you're really taking this seriously?" She turned around hands splayed to display the freely flowing energy coalescing into a ball in the palm of her hands. "Tenchi, if I'm not the least bit worried and making jokes about my own death, then you shouldn't be." She blew each ball out before setting her hands at her hips.
With a roll of his eyes, he brought her close, so close that her nose touched with his. "I love you. I can't help that. I don't know what I would do without you. If I lost you-" he swallowed hard and Ryoko was surprised to see tears seep from the corner of his eyes, "I want us to die together if anything should happen."
"Oh Tenchi,"
"Say that you'll treat this with some grain of it being true."
With a silent nod, Ryoko whispered, "Okay," before being cut off by a soft, tender kiss.
Nagi, carrying a tray of carrot soup and some fresh orange vegetables along with it, stepped into the room at that exact minute. "Oh brother," she kept on walking, but her words hit the lovers' ears as if she had come, stood next to them, and berated them personally. "Aren't you two the engaged stereotypes. Can't keep their hands off each other for one second."
"True, all too true." They said simultaneously before Ryoko phased out in Tenchi's embrace to their room.
* * *
"Washu?"
The genius looked up from the electron modulator that had been her focus for the past four months now. "Yes, who is it?" Still pondering the owner of the voice, she adjusted the atom-magnifying lens attached to her sunglasses and leaned in expectantly towards the writhing mass of shiny metal tubes.
"Washu-uuu!"
Not turning around for all the power and scientific know how in the world, Washu simply yelled, "Wha-aaat?"
"It's time for dinner!" Came Sasami's plaintive cry from the Masaki doorway. "Aren't you hungry?"
The genius stopped in mid gearshift only to ignore her stomach's angry growl of hunger. "No," she called back, hoping that the little ten-year old didn't prepare what she thought she smelled . . . "Not even if it's-"
"But it is!"
Oh no! Washu thought bitterly. I can't leave this project! It's just my greatest invention ever in my whole career of being a genius. When I finish . . . oh then the glory will shine down on me.
In her mind's eye, she viewed herself illuminated in a ray of light, the Science Academy naming her President and Associate leader. Confetti rained down from the starry masses above, balloons rose into the air. With Washus A and B on her shoulders joining the thrum of chant in the background, 'Washu is a genius, Washu is a genius,' the genius herself was living it up in the limelight.
Still at her desk, sitting before the electron modulator, she sang "Genius, Genius, Washu is-"
"Last chance Washu! Fresh tuna grilled on the hibachi with Ramen noodles drenched in carrot sauce and sake." Sasami interrupted the scientist's thoughts with the final closing of the closet door.
* * *
Washu threw open the door to the living room with a huff. "I told you.Sasami .that I was coming!" she panted, "But would you wait . . . no!" Taking a deep breath in and a slow exhalation, Washu plopped down onto her pillow and greedily filled up her plate with as much fish as she could get away with.
The rest of the family raised their brows, rolled their eyes, and returned to the conversation at hand.
"So Ryoko," Nobuyuki took a sip of tea and a bite of the Tuna. "I understand that you heard from Aeka earlier today?"
The Space Pirate looked up through a mouthful of Ramen noodles. Chewing them quickly and swallowing them down with some sake, she winced and replied, "Yes." Glancing over in the direction of the tired cook sitting on the opposite side of the table, she continued, "She's planning to visit as soon as they can find her another ship."
"Really, what happened to Aeka's ship?" Grandfather asked sedately.
Again, caught with her mouth full, Ryoko, trying to chew as fast as she could, gave up and nudged Tenchi in the ribs.
"It was destroyed in some sort of battle," Tenchi supplied, trying not to laugh as his fiancée tried to swallow down the noodles to answer the questions that would be pouring from every mouth.
"She wasn't in Ryu-oh at the time . . . she's grieving, but a seed was saved . . . and," Ryoko did some air calculations in hopes of surfacing that last bit of information, "and the battle took two of Jurai's ships. It took place somewhere outside the northern Checkpoint, which I have no idea where the hell that is, but the ship that initiated the fight was heading in the direction of earth. Aeka is being forced here to do some investigating if the mystery ship does show up at door."
After a time of silence while everyone ate, Washu looked up and said, "What is the Ship and why would it want to attack the Jurai battle fleets?"
"Good question," Tenchi muttered under his breath before taking a taste of Ryoko's sufficiently seasoned carrots off her plate.
"Yeah." Ryoko blew on the steaming fish. "Aeka doesn't know who could have done it. The hyperlinks that transferred the damage reports were intentionally screwed up. Not even the Logs could decipher them."
"Ha!" Washu leaned back with a pompous grin. "An indecipherable message! There's no such thing! Is Aeka bringing the hyperlinks' reports with her?"
"You bet your sweet ass." Popping the cooled hunk of meat into her mouth, she shoved it over onto one side and spoke through the other. "She was hoping that you could work on the transfer while she's here and maybe answer a few questions or even pin the identity about that Ship."
Sasami, who had been silent for quite a while now, smiled and looked up from her plate. "Do you know how long she's going to stay with us Ryoko?"
"Yep. For about a year." The space pirate grinned as the second princess of Jurai was overcome with warm happiness. "After the Wedding," a warm feeling enveloped her as she thought about that beautiful day . . .
"It'll be like old times," Tenchi slipped, suddenly noticing the brilliant, hard gaze of his beloved.
"Not exactly like old times, Tenchi darling," She shoved her left hand up into his view and wiggled her adorned ring finger. "She won't be as annoying as before; trying to steal you away from me."
"I couldn't be stolen even if she tried," he whispered softly so that only she could hear.
"I'd kiss you, but," she motioned with her head to the audience sitting around them. "But I'm afraid that it will lead to something else . . . " her voice was so quiet that the others leaned in to hear, but they were intercepted by Tenchi's firm glare.
Turning back to Ryoko, he stroked her right cheek and kissed the tip of her nose. Through slit eyes, she scorned the rest of the family for ruining what could have come of his soulful words.
Footfalls sounded from the stairwell and Nagi, still clothed in cloak and hunter outfit, hood drawn, stepped off the last stair with a sniff in the air. "Umm, smells good."
"And it is," Grandfather chewed the last of his fish thoughtfully.
"I could believe it," the bounty hunter said as she came over to the table and took a seat at the corner.
"Grilled on the hibachi." Sasami told her, piling the rest of the fish, Ramen, and carrot sauce onto a plate and serving it with a smile like the dutiful hostess and cook that she had become. "Eat up before it gets cold."
Filling her cup up with sake as Sasami loaded her plate, Nagi now sat back and ate hungrily.
Sipping on their drinks of choice and therefore prolonging the end of the dinner, the rest of the family sat quietly, making idle chitchat with each other.
* * *
"So, Nagi has gone behind our backs," Odosuoni acknowledged, watching their supposed partner eat, drink, and laugh with the enemy. "I knew we couldn't trust that bitch all along."
"Now, now," The Master shook his head disapprovingly. "We can't condemn her with such a title Odosuoni." He stared on with her to the group jovially sitting at he couch talking about their various travels.
Changing the subject, the redhead touched the holographic screen to focus on the couple and task at hand. "Look at them," she breathed, "They're bonded enough all ready, and if we take out Ryoko and Tenchi now, then there's no way that they can have a bond at all."
"True, but rather than hope that we can defeat them only two against eight, as opposed to a winning combination two against a mortal six, we might have a chance if we wait."
"Wait?!" Odosuoni threw up her hands, thereby distorting the projected image. "I've waited since we passed Alpha Centauri when you created me and stuck me in this hell-hole . . . waiting and watching. I'm so damn sick of this monotony day after day, week after week . . . "
"Year after year," The Master finished for her, setting a hand on the shaking shoulder. "I know, but it will be completely worth it when the time comes."
"I deserve to kill Ryoko." She could feel the energy surge through her body and drip out the tips of her fingers. "I will kill her."
"We hope," The Master whispered before taking a step back and vanishing.
"I will kill her." Odosuoni repeated after his disappearance. "And Tenchi too. They will never have a child if I can help it. That being will destroy us."
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Wow, another cliffhanger, I'm surprised at myself. Anywho, tell me what ya think with a REVIEW. (Are you catching onto my not- so-subliminal messages yet?)