It was a typical day at the small shrine located in the hills above Okayama. It was not typical for most shrines, but it was for this particular shrine. The sounds of clashing wooden swords filled the air.
(THWACK)
"Ouch! That hurt, Grandpa, you changed the pattern!" Tenchi Masaki complained as he rubbed his abused ribs.
The elder of the two combatants regarded his grandson with just a hint of a smile touching his lips. "Hmmmm. Perhaps I did Tenchi, but were you prepared for any changes? I warned you at the beginning of practice that things might be different today, didn't I? You could have blocked it if you'd been prepared instead of just assuming it was a standard move. Your opponents will not always use a standard move in a standard combination when attacking you."
Yosho looked at his grandson expectantly, waiting to see what Tenchi's answer would be. He raised one eyebrow as the silence extended for a few moments.
Holding his chest, Tenchi answered, "I'm sorry, you're right Grandpa, you did tell me that. My ribs really wish you'd told me that a little more recently." Tenchi laughed momentarily, then winced as his ribs throbbed again. "You know what Sasami's going to say to you if I come back doubled over again, don't you?"
He was disappointed in himself. He'd thought he was performing exceptionally well at his lessons today, and had hoped to finish without his usual assortment of bruises. Not only would he be sore now, but he'd thought for a moment he was finally going to land a hit on his grandfather. He did admit to himself that his real complaint wasn't his sore ribs. It was his pride stinging because he'd fallen for one of his grandfather's hidden lessons.
Yosho laughed, "I'm sure Sasami will forgive me, as long as you learn to protect yourself better. She also has an interest in you learning how to fight. She'd lose a... relative if you were to get killed."
Yosho was proud of Tenchi, but he didn't wish to make it obvious just yet. He'd come to realize lately that Tenchi had progressed so far that he couldn't just use the standard tactics any more. Yosho's speed was no longer enough, and Tenchi had overcome his previous inexperience with all of the new forms he'd been learning.
He had decided it was time to try something a little more advanced to see how Tenchi handled it. Tenchi hadn't blocked it successfully, but he had reacted to it nearly in time. Yosho knew there weren't many swordsmen out there as fast with a blade as he himself was, if any. An inferior opponent wouldn't have gotten Tenchi with that move, and likely would have gotten a killing stroke in return for his troubles.
Slapping his grandson on the shoulder, Yosho said, "Enough practice for today, Tenchi. Let's clean up and put things away. After that you can rest up before lunch. If you hurry, you might be able to sneak past the girls while they're still watching TV."
Tenchi winced at the slap, then smiled at his grandfather's last jest. His smile quickly soured though. Tenchi knew he was trying to avoid causing conflicts amongst the women living in his house, but after all this time it was getting a little ridiculous.
He picked up the practice swords and placed them in their stand. He then picked up his towel from the stump where he'd left it and mopped his face. His grandfather looked cool as usual. He couldn't understand how his grandfather could practice without breaking a sweat.
"Grandpa?"
"Yes, Tenchi?"
"I've been thinking about the girls. Ryoko and Ayeka keep fighting over me. Washu's been good about fixing up the damage, but she keeps trying to ambush me in her lab to get a sam..., umm, well, and she's offered a few times that she'd like to have a..." Tenchi reddened at the thought he wasn't ready to tell his grandfather. He saw Yosho's eyebrow rise again in curiosity.
Tenchi hurried on, "Mihoshi's really sweet, and I realize she's a little accident prone, but I'm starting to suspect she's falling into my arms on purpose. Thank goodness for Sasami or I'd go crazy." Tenchi sighed. "She's growing up, though, the other girls are starting to get jealous whenever she gives me a hug now."
Tenchi looked at his grandfather, almost expecting to get hit by a practice sword, even though he'd put them both away already. It was the kind of thing his grandfather would do when he thought Tenchi was being childish. Surprisingly, Katsuhito only looked at him thoughtfully, not saying anything right away.
Yosho had tried to avoid any stance on the issue of the girls, but he could sense the desperation Tenchi was feeling at the moment. While he still would not do anything to sway his grandson's actions, he felt resigned to trying to get Tenchi to think about it in a more constructive manner, acting on the source of the problem instead of reacting.
"Hmmmmm, girl troubles again, Tenchi? Surely you can see each wants you to choose them."
"But that's just it, Grandpa. I can't choose any of the girls. If I choose one, the others will be hurt, and I don't want to hurt any of them."
Tenchi realized as he was saying this that not only did he not want to hurt any of the girls, he didn't want to lose any of them either. They were all his friends now. In fact, they were really his family in all but name, and he couldn't imagine his life with one of them missing. His life would be more peaceful, certainly, but not as interesting. Or as beautiful. Life had become five times more beautiful than it was before they came into it. Six times including little Ryo-Ohki.
"Have you told them this?"
Yosho watched his grandson to see how he would react to that statement. He knew Tenchi cared deeply for all the girls, even though he wouldn't admit it.
Looking to his grandfather with pleading in his eyes, Tenchi said, "No, I haven't grandpa. Do you think I should?"
"That's not my decision Tenchi, that's for you to decide. But if you're not going to choose, isn't that also a choice?" With that, Yosho turned and walked back to his office, leaving his grandson to think.
--
Sasami walked into the house after playing with Ryo-Ohki in the yard, the cabbit happily riding on her head as usual. She immediately sensed something was wrong, having experienced the feeling many times already in her new life here on Earth. She glanced around to find Ryoko, Ayeka, and Mihoshi all looking at Washu in front of the television.
"Come on Washu, get it back!" Ryoko glared at the shorter woman, who happened to look like a twelve year old girl with a huge mane of red hair. Washu looked calmly back, before answering.
"You can call me 'mother' Ryoko," Washu said.
"Yeah, right. Get over it already," spat Ryoko.
Sasami could sense a fight brewing, and wished Tenchi were here to settle things down. Unfortunately, he was practicing his swordsmanship with Yosho at the moment.
"Ryoko..." Sasami barely got the word out before Ayeka started talking, obviously not noticing Sasami.
"Yes, Washu, I must request that you fix the TV now. We were watching that soap opera, and you interrupted it just before the doctor and his nurse got a chance to express their feelings for each other. You really must get it back."
"Sister, please..." Sasami cringed.
Washu waved a finger at Ayeka, and said "Little Washu, or I won't fix a thing."
With the tears evident in her eyes, Mihoshi begged, "Pleeeeease, Little Washu."
Taking a deep breath, Sasami threw herself in front of them, and addressed the four older women. "Now, ladies, you know Tenchi doesn't like it when you fight. He still hasn't gotten that window in back fixed from the last fight." Sasami gave Ryoko and Ayeka a hard look, and she saw them flinch slightly. "It's bad enough when it's only you two, but now the two of you have to get involved, also?" She turned to Washu and Mihoshi and saw them start as well. "What's going on and how do we fix it, without breaking anything else of Tenchi's or his father's?"
Under Sasami's gaze, Ryoko said, "Well, we were watching the show when suddenly Washu shows up and hijacks the TV. The TV suddenly goes wacko and starts showing a bunch of birds flying around in a forest right when they were about to admit their love for each other. We need to see what was going to happen, 'Mother'."
Sasami held her hands up and Ryoko settled down. She turned to Washu. "And what do you have to say in your defense, Washu?"
Washu eyed her for a second, obviously about to argue the point of whether she needed to provide a defense or not, but relented under Sasami's look.
"Well, obviously I'm conducting an experiment. I patched into some satellites from the thirteenth planet in the Querasu system, to see if I could hijack their signals and learn anything about the new element they've been claiming to have discovered. Their signal was relatively compatible with the television signals they use here on earth, so instead of building myself a receiver and hooking it into one of my terminals, I just routed it into the television set."
Sasami had heard enough, so she announced her decision. "Washu, I know you believe it was important, but you know you shouldn't be doing anything to the television set. It's not yours, it's Father's. Please put it back to the way it was."
Washu looked at her for a moment, then nodded and materialized one of her keyboards. She clicked a few keys, and they all turned to the television in time to see a small device disappear into subspace. Then, as the TV screen readjusted, they saw the closing credits running. Washu turned and walked away, muttering something quietly about young girls telling a 20,000 year old genius what to do.
The other three women just stood staring at the television with horrified looks on their faces. Sasami knew what was coming, and covered her ears just in time.
"NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!" the three screamed in unison. Ryoko launched an energy bolt into the TV before anyone had time to think, and it exploded into thousands of pieces before their eyes. Ayeka had been powering up as well, fortunately, and got her force field raised in time to block all the fragments of the exploding television from hitting anyone.
Sasami carefully opened her eyes as she'd turned away from the exploding television and gave Ryoko a stern look.
"You know you'll have to go ask Washu to fix the TV now, don't you, Ryoko? And make it quick, before Tenchi gets back."
Sasami saw the warring emotions on Ryoko's face, anger at Washu, sorrow over the missed resolution of the TV show, and fear over how Tenchi might react, but her fear of Tenchi quickly won out and she disappeared, presumably to go ask Washu to do what needed to be done. Sasami felt a little pity for Ryoko, but it was a fitting punishment for what she'd done.
Ayeka had watched Ryoko smugly as the former space pirate struggled to resolve her debate over what to do, but at a look from Sasami the smile vanished. She knew Sasami was mad at her, having received the look before. She did the only thing possible in the situation.
"I am sincerely sorry, Sasami. I'm sure I did not have the destruction of Lord Tenchi's property in mind when this began. Please forgive me, I believe I will begin cleaning this up." And with that Princess Ayeka gave Sasami a small bow.
Sasami nodded to her sister allowing her to escape, and hoped she wouldn't harass Ryoko too much. She turned to Mihoshi who was still staring at the place where the television had been, repeating "But, but, but..."
Sasami decided that things had settled down enough that she could start cooking lunch, and Mihoshi often helped her by chopping vegetables. She was about to ask Mihoshi to go to the kitchen with her when Mihoshi's watch started beeping. Well, it looked like a watch to Sasami, though she knew it really was a Galaxy Police communicator to her ship Yukinojo. The beeping startled Mihoshi enough to get her to stop staring at the scorched floor and turn to her wrist with an "Oh, my."
Knowing Mihoshi would have to go to her ship to receive the message, Sasami headed for the kitchen to decide what she would make for lunch today.
--
Mihoshi wrung the water from her uniform as she arrived at the shuttle. She entered the cockpit, twiddling her control cube in hopes of getting a hot chocolate to sip on while receiving the message, but only managed a cup with a chocolate bar in it. Considering that good enough she opened it up and sat down to hear the message Yukinojo had signaled her about.
"Hello Detective Kuramitsu, aahh, it's good to see you again." Section Chief Sakai blinked at a dripping Mihoshi, but chose not to inquire as to the reasons.
Mihoshi jumped up to salute, looking at the screen which was now filled with the face of her current superior. "Hello, sir. First Class Detective Mihoshi reporting. Is there some kind of news?"
Section Chief Sakai tried to avoid direct contact with her as much as possible and her reports went into his scrap paper heap as often as not. He considered for a moment how to best inform Mihoshi without letting anything slip.
"Yes Mihoshi, we do have news for you. As you know, you've been serving for quite a while now without a partner. We've decided that your duties are just too important to be handled by you alone. You're of course doing an outstanding job, but we feel the need to have two officers there as well. You can't split into two, now, can you?"
Mihoshi received this information excitedly, and immediately jumped on the important facts from the news she had just received.
"No sir, of course I can't split myself into two, that would hurt."
Sakai sighed, feeling the headache he'd known he would end up with from talking to Mihoshi starting to form.
"Detective Mihoshi, as you're the senior officer on this assignment, we're leaving you in charge of the situation, but we expect you to give the new detective a full briefing on the situation there. She should be arriving shortly, she's on a shuttle right now. We'll need you to rendezvous with her in two days time in orbit around the fifth planet of the Solar System in full storming mode. We can't have those earthlings discovering you're there, can we?"
Sakai waited to see if this sunk in, and heaved a sigh of relief when it seemed she had caught the message this time.
"Let's see, new Detective, I'm in charge, meet in orbit around Jupiter in two days, storming mode. I've got it." Mihoshi prided herself on getting all the details, that's why she always filed such good reports. No one could ever accuse her of leaving anything important out of her reports. "Was there anything else, sir?"
"No, I believe that's all Detective Mihoshi. Good luck, and keep up the good work. Sakai out."
Mihoshi jumped up and saluted smartly, but he just turned off his screen. Then he sat back in his chair and smiled. This was really going to work, he could feel it....
--
Tenchi walked into the house, exhausted, aching, and holding his bruised ribs. He realized his mistake a moment too late.
"Tenchi, darling, I missed you. Why do you always have to go practice swords with Yosho, I'll teach you how to use a sword the right way up in your room..."
Tenchi tried to bat Ryoko's hands away, but his aching ribs hampered his efforts. Ryoko easily beat his defenses, and wrapped her arms around Tenchi from behind. He was trying to pry one of her arms away, when he was thrown off balance by Ayeka arriving to yank Ryoko off of him.
"I'm sure Lord Tenchi is quite capable of using a sword, in or out of his room, and he certainly wouldn't need you to teach him. My brother is a very good teacher, the best swordsman in the empire. You on the other hand are only worthy of being on the receiving end of a good sword-stroke, ahh..." Ayeka trailed off as she finally realized what Ryoko had been referring to, and what she herself had just implied as a result. Even angrier now, she just scowled at Ryoko, and then turned to look at Tenchi when she received a victorious smile from Ryoko.
"He surely doesn't need anything a brazen hussy such as yourself might imply with such words, do you Lord Tenchi? I know you'd much prefer a quiet evening of poetry or intelligent conversation to fending off Ryoko's advances." Ayeka stepped over to Tenchi, and possessively grabbed his arm.
Ryoko started to bristle, but at that moment Sasami poked her head out of the kitchen and called, "Welcome home, Tenchi." When she noticed Tenchi holding his ribs gingerly, she exclaimed "Oh, you're hurt! What happened?"
At that both Ayeka and Ryoko dropped their animosity and started fussing over Tenchi's injury. Tenchi finally managed to get free of the two, and stepped back from the girls. "I'm all right, really, I just didn't manage to block one of Grandpa's thrusts, and it got me in the ribs. It's a little sore, but a good soak will take care of that. I just want to go get cleaned up, please?"
Tenchi started walking towards the stairs to his room, but Ryoko and Ayeka quickly each grabbed an arm, obviously intending to help him walk or carry him if necessary. His feet were barely touching the ground as the two ladies rushed him up to his room and inside.
Sasami called out as they left, "Okay Tenchi, but lunch is in an hour. Don't be late." Sasami then cheerfully turned back into the kitchen. She scratched Ryo-Ohki's head as the cabbit blissfully munched a carrot in the corner, then returned to her cooking.
--
Up in his room, Tenchi was fighting to keep his clothes on as the two girls tried to lift his shirt to get a look at his injury.
"Out, out! I can do this myself, I'm not crippled. It just hurts, that's all." Tenchi fended off four hands one last time and retreated into the corner of his room, warily watching the two ladies.
Ryoko spoke first. "But Tenchi, we're just concerned about you. We want to see where you got hurt and make sure it's not serious. And of course I can massage it for you to make sure it gets better...."
Ayeka stepped in front of Ryoko, eying her, and said, "Oh, for goodness' sake. Massage a bruise, that's a brilliant idea. I'm sure Lord Tenchi would just love to have you poking and prodding him where it hurts the most to make sure it hurts even more. It's a wonder you managed to elude the authorities with a brain that works like that. I however know that what Lord Tenchi really needs is an icepack, and I'd be perfectly happy to apply it if he should desire."
Tenchi inched back as far from the two as he could get while still keeping his eyes on them both, expecting hands to start grabbing at him again any second. "No, no, I'm just fine, really. After I soak, I can apply ice myself, thank you. No need for you to do anything of the sort, Ayeka. I'm perfectly capable."
"But Tenchi, we, I, just want to help. Please let me," Ryoko pleaded.
"Yes Lord Tenchi, please tell me what I can do to help you, and I will perform as swiftly as possible." He heard a muttered "Dog show" from Ryoko, and winced as Ayeka turned to eye her rival with anger in her eyes.
"What did you say?"
"Well, at least I'm not trying to pretend I'm all innocent while offering to fondle Tenchi."
"Why you..."
Tenchi relaxed as the two girls started arguing and seemed to lose notice of him. He grabbed some clothes and slipped by them, trying not to listen to the names they were calling each other. He made his way to the baths, and quickly undressed and dropped himself into the warm water. Finally, he could forget about his sore side and think about what his grandfather had said to him before he'd left the practice. He eventually dozed off with dreams of the girls tending to his aching side.
--
Section Chief Chojiro Sakai felt out of place, and he knew he looked it as well. He'd been wandering around in the slum for a few minutes already, and the urge to leave and return to headquarters was very strong. Not surprisingly, he'd been the lucky one to enact the Deputy Commander's plan.
He didn't normally deal with these things himself, not anymore at any rate. Now that he and the commander had reached high enough positions in the GP, they couldn't afford to handle the grunt work any more. In this case, though, it was just too risky to leave it to some underling.
He glanced down the alley, noting the large amount of graffiti and refuse. Every once in a while a pile of garbage shifted in a way that left no doubt something was alive underneath. He hadn't been in a place like this since his early days as a beat cop back on Cilmantia.
That had been a humiliating experience. Only the worst cadets got stuck with planetside duty. Fortunately for him, the Deputy Commander had been the Sergeant in charge of the squad working on the planet, and a bond had quickly formed between the two. Working together they had systematically targeted Watanabe's superiors time and time again, doing anything they could to get them pushed aside so that Watanabe could replace them. Sometimes they'd been forced to wait for an officer's retirement, not everyone was susceptible to their scheming, but they'd bided their time. Every time Watanabe had gotten promoted, Sakai had gotten a promotion not long after, as well.
Here he was, a Section Chief with the Galaxy Police, roaming through a disgusting slum just like his earliest days with the force. It was an ugly game sometimes, but you had to get dirty to win.
He finally came to the markings on the wall indicated in his instructions. He pulled the note out of his jacket and placed it in the tin cup lying on the ground next to the dumpster. Assuming his information was correct, this would get passed back to the proper people within the Rudolpho Crime Syndicate. Once that happened, Sakai's and Watanabe's problems would go away. It would be ironic that they would be the ones who'd gotten them into trouble and out of it both. Once Makibi's team was wiped out, Nobeyama would be missing a whole squad of his best officers, not to mention the investigation which would probably happen due to his being on vacation while it happened.
The thought brought a brief smile to Sakai's face. Another look around wiped it off just as quickly. Sakai brushed off his hand and turned to walk quickly back out of the alley. He didn't want to be here a minute longer than necessary. It might be necessary, but it still wasn't pleasant.
--
Comments and Criticism definitely wanted. It's hard to improve without it.