Tenchi Muyo!
La Magdalena copyright
The Sea of Change
Note: In this chapter I tried to relay the feelings of each character as the
family looses an important member. I think the hardest will be Washu. If you
are new to this story, please read chapter one named accordingly like the
title. Other than that enjoy!
Chapter 2:
Oblivion
- - -
Dawn slowly rose into the sky. Its rays illuminated the fading stars as they said
goodnight to the day. It gave one the illusion of intruding in an intimate
moment between the sun and the vast sky. Seeing the glorious sea of shining
stars, one got the sense that nature was crying.
The dew settled comfortably on every plant and tree, the birds tuning their
voices for the morning's symphony.
Although all this enchantment in the air could have inspire even the most
insensitive brute to become a poet, two members of the Masaki household
couldn't have cared less.
Ayeka had forcefully fallen asleep on the base of the majestic Funaho. Being
close to Jurai had always made her feel loved and protected. This was not an
exception, yet when she was finally able to stop crying long enough to fall
asleep, her dreams plagued her.
- - -
"No! I'm sorry Ryoko. You got it all wrong! I didn't go behind your back, I was
DRUNK!"
Ayeka dropped to her knees in front of a stoned faced oni. Her features failed
to reveal her thoughts and emotions, a living breathing statue, Michelangelo's
secret work of art.
Ayeka grabbed hold of Ryoko's legs, much like a scared and repenting child
would do to avoid the punishment that lay ahead.
"I'm so, so sorry Ryoko, please you ... you're my only friend. The only one who
treats me like a person and not a doll."
At this point tears rolled freely down Ayeka's face, her body shook with every
ragged breath. She honestly had no intention of betraying Ryoko, she just loved
Tenchi and couldn't accept the fact that she would never have him. And never
was such a long time. It was just an innocent kiss, really.
"Innocent? Who are you fooling Princess?"
Ayeka gasped and looked up in surprise. She wasn't aware she was thinking out
loud. Ryoko smugly looked at Ayeka with a gaze of indifference so penetrating
that Ayeka had to turn her head away. She had heard Ayeka's entire mental
confession.
How can this be Ryoko?
Ryoko if nothing else, bears her soul in her eyes. Ayeka imagined all the
torture Ryoko must have suffered through in the hands of Kagato. In her mind
she envisioned a robot like Ryoko, stone cold in everything but her eyes. Those
beautiful golden orbs that recently had offered Ayeka unrelenting support and
love, now held emptiness.
She looked up to see Ryoko again with trepidation. The oni towered over her.
Her voice was a complete monotone, and that is what scared Ayeka the most. She
wasn't worried for her life, she knew better than to think Ryoko would ever
willingly kill her, she was her FRIEND for Tsunami's sake! But, she was
terrified of losing her, losing Ryoko. The oni had unknowingly shaped her past
700 years of life.
She had given her a validating excuse to leave Jurai, to look for her brother
Yosho, to become closer to Sasami, and to ultimately meet Tenchi. She owed
Ryoko her life; she had been her salvation from the empty useless existence she
was born to live on Jurai.
"You will die alone princess." There was a pause in between each word. "You
will go back to Jurai, marry some pussy faced snob and have sick, demented
children who will turn on you to get your throne the first chance they get."
"No. No. No." Ayeka whispered in horror.
The princess swallowed hard, trying to rid herself of the immense lump that had
begun accumulating in her throat. How could she say those things to her? She
looked into Ryoko's eyes, trying frantically to find some sign of her friend.
"Or maybe, Tenchi will marry you, and you will know he does not want to be with
you, to touch you, he will inwardly gag every time you lay in bed together.
Tenchi will think of you with DISGUST and HATRED for the chance at life you
STOLE from him."
"Stop! Stop it! SHUT UP!!!"
"He will never tell you of course. You will live false, empty lives and you
will wither away inside. Never knowing what it is to love and be loved in
return. You will die inside. Only an empty shell of you will remain,
F-O-R-E-V-E-R..."
- - -
"Ayeka! Ayeka wake up! What's wrong? Why are you crying? Please wake up!"
Sasami, her sister, had become very worried about her when she had not
come to bed last night. The last she saw of Ayeka, she was heading to the
cupboard for a little drink. She had looked all over and finally decided to go
visit Funaho, although she had silently prayed she wouldn't find her there. The
only times when Ayeka spent the night with Funaho, something was seriously
bothering her. Her suspicions had been affirmed when she had found Ayeka lying
on her side in a fetal position, crying her eyes out and moaning incoherencies
under her breath. The only thing she could comprehend out of Ayeka's hoarse
admonitions was,
"Please, don't leave..."
Ayeka kept repeating this over and over, while having more and more difficulty
breathing since her nose was clogged up from crying non-stop all night.
- - -
Tenchi had spent a sleepless night near the opening to the cave, her cave. The
only place that he had felt safe and secure since before he could remember. His
mind went over the newly found memories of his childhood playing near the cave
with her. He had started to remember by accident really. After his return from
Haruna's world, he realized he was quickly forgetting the past six months he
had spent in her dream world. He very hesitantly decided to ask Washu's help on
the matter. She gave him a pocket-sized device that held no added surprises
from the eccentric scientist.
"Place it on the back of your neck. It will radiate your brainwaves and
counter act it's degenerating process."
Washu informed Tenchi with hands clasped behind her back and a white lab coat
on. She spoke to him much like a doctor would do with her patient. He had been
surprised that the device contained no added questions from the curious
scientist or requests for "special" samples that were too intimate to be given.
Perhaps she had taken note of the gravity of the task he had confided in her,
yet Washu being Washu,
she waved him off with a seductive wink and a lingering pinch and slap on the
butt.
He wanted to recover his memories not necessarily because of the mystery
Haruna's name held over the household every time she was mentioned, but because
he felt he had finally realized or accepted something fundamentally important.
Just as important to him he felt as breathing or eating, he just wasn't sure
what " it " was.
So, as he slowly started to unravel his stay with Haruna, at the same time
began to remember the wonderful times he had had near the cave as a child. His
dad had told him at the time that the lady he was so certain existed, was
actually a figment of his imagination. Tenchi knew better.
After both Nobuyuki and Achika were certain he needed psychological help, his
"friend" wisely advised him to keep his mouth shut.
All the stuff they would do together would be their "little secret."
He especially remembered her feline grin and playful wink every time he ran
towards the cave, out of breath and adrenaline pumping a thousand miles per
hour through his veins with the promise of another exciting
round of "Space Pirates."
- - -
"Halt! Who goes there?"
Ryoko would bark out at him when he was just inches away from the cave
entrance. It was now his turn to play. With the biggest smile, he stood up
tall. He had seen a movie called "Super Man", and modeled himself after the
impressive alien. Tenchi remembered that particular day; he had stolen a towel
from the bathroom and tied it around his neck. With hands on hips, chin held
high, chest pushed out and his best interpretation of a death stare, Tenchi
tried to look as powerful and strong as possible before he answered,
"It is I! Tenchi! The most wanted space pirate in the entire UNIVERSE!
HA! HA! HA! HA! No one can defeat me, I am here to rescue..."
"Ah! Do I have to rescue the girl every time? Can't I just send one of my
trustee sidekicks and go after some treasure or something?" young Tenchi would
ask his friend.
"I told you Tenchi, any legendary pirate needs a damsel."
At that Ryoko would faze into a shimmering gown and feign helplessness, as
monster after monster would attack Tenchi.
Looking back at the treasured memory, Tenchi realized it was actually an astral
projection of Ryoko. She was still trapped in the cave and it would be a couple
of years until he would release her, as a child would play with her as often as
he could.
Ryoko wasn't always the damsel, that got too boring for her. Sometimes they
would be partners in crime and steal the most valuable treasures and become
rulers of the world.
They played like this, Ryoko conjuring up new monsters and adventures, he
defeating them. Good winning over evil, until he learned of his mother's fatal
disease. From that point on, he forgot about the oni near the cave and all the
adventures they had had together. The last time he felt her presence near the
cave was when his grandfather Yosho told him his mother was dead.
When Tenchi's mother died, so did his courage and will. Achika had been his
pillar of strength and when she left, he unconsciously closed a part of himself
off from everyone, even his father. He could not get hurt like that again. Not
if he could help it. Perhaps that is why he stopped playing with Ryoko and
forgot their time together.
She was dangerously close to his heart of hearts, so close in fact that he
would not be able to deal with so important a person leaving him again. Better
to cut her off then have his heart broken again.
He was sure that if someone left him a second time, he would not be able to put
the pieces back together and he would forever be 'broken'.
- - -
He ran, ran with no sense of direction or purpose and ended up at the cave
despite himself. The cave was his north star, his compass.
He felt comforted there, as if someone was watching out for him.
It had been Ryoko, his Ryoko. Now he had to find her, had to explain to her
before she misunderstood and got out of control. He knew whenever Ryoko got
mad, no one could control her, and things would almost certainly blow up.
Tenchi just hoped Ayeka wouldn't find her first.
Ayeka, I love her, just not the way she wants or deserves. I need to talk to
her, explain to her how ... what explanations? I need to apologize for kissing
her back, for leading her on for the past four years, for being a coward and
not owning up to the feelings that had always been there for Ryoko... my Ryoko
- - -
"Hey! Where's breakfast I'm hungry!!
"Mihoshi quiet down, maybe Sasami slept in late," her Galaxy Police partner
Kyone replied with the usual annoyed tone she reserved when being exasperated
by Mihoshi. Which happened quite often.
"Who is gonna cook? I tasted your cooking Kyone and your awful-"
"Haven't you ever heard that it's not nice to be so blunt?"
"But the Galaxy Police manual states how a Galaxy Police Officer doesn't lie, ever.
Besides, you really do stink, of course not as bad as Ryoko and Ayeka." Mihoshi
giggled and sat down on the counter.
"Remember when Ayeka and Ryoko decided to make a barbeque and we all had
stomach aches for a week? Ha! And the look on Tenchi's face when Ryoko handed
him the plate with the most icky food I have ever seen, remember? And his eyes
began to water just by smelling
it?" Her giggles became stronger while she motioned for Kyone to sit down on
the stool next to hers.
"How could I forget? Even grandfather Kashuito couldn't keep it down and shoved
Nobuyuki out of the way to the toilet. He barely made it, which is more than I
can say for everyone else. At least there are lots of trees outside to hide
while you throw up. No wonder Washu installed fifteen different luxury
bathrooms around the house. If that ever happens again, we'll be ready to hurl
in style."
"I'd rather forget that embarrassing incident girls." Nobuyuki closed the door
ironically to one of the fifteen bathrooms Kyone and Mihoshi had been talking
about. While crossing the living room to get to the table, he quickly put away
a magazine he was reading in his suitcase resting on the sofa and made his way
to the table.
Kyone gave her partner a look of "In the bathroom with his girly magazines
again" look with an exasperated sigh and eye roll.
Mihoshi smiled and shrugged.
"Where are the rest of the members of this house? It is not rude to keep the
chef waiting."
He leaned backed on his knees and looked towards the kitchen.
"That's just it Nobuyuki, nobody's here."
"And I'm HUNGRY!" Mihoshi' eyed swelled up, and she clutched her stomach with
both hands as she sat down on her knees next to Tenchi's father.
Nobuyuki said nothing, but cocked his head to one side to better judge if any
noise came from the second floor.
Then all three heard both the front and back door open and close
instantaneously. From the front they saw Tenchi quickly glance to the rafters
before bolting up the stairs. He passed right in front of them and acted like
they weren't even there. He looked disheveled and his face was agitated. As in
a tennis match the trio next turned their heads to the left, where from the
back door came Sasami and Ayeka. Both had been crying, but Ayeka especially had
a severe tear blotched face.
- - -
"Ayeka wake up!"
By now Sasami was close to tears as Ayeka kept moaning under her breath. She
shook her shoulders with more force now, desperation getting the better of her.
What's wrong with her? Who doesn't she want to leave? Maybe I
have finally been called to Jurai for my lessons? But why is she so
shaken up?
And just like that Ayeka opened her eyes. She did not scream or shoot to a
sitting position. She awoke much like a person simply winking. Her mind had not
gone to oblivion as she slept, instead worked to increase her guilt. She
blinked a few times, focusing her blurry vision on the person currently holding
her and crying. All the angst in her face left, only to be change to confusion
to worry to shame.
"Ayeka you're all right!" With a relieved gasp, Sasami forced Ayeka to a
sitting position while giving her an immense bear hug.
The older princess sighed deeply, trying to hold back a fresh trail of tears.
She melted into her sister's hug and returned the gesture in kind. She embraced
Sasami with a weak but firm grasp, as if she was afraid her sister would
disappear.
"Sister you're as cold as ice! Please, tell me what happened."
Sasami forced Ayeka to weaken the hug a bit, so they could be able to talk.
With a hoarse, jagged voice the older princess after taken a deep breath and
looking at the lake instead of Sasami, quietly relayed the happenings of the
night before. Purposely omitting some issues that she wasn't ready to face just
yet.
- - -
"What happened are you hurt? Did someone attack you two?" Kyone exclaimed while
quickly rushing to examine the sisters, trailed by Nobuyuki and a confused
Mihoshi.
Sasami offered Kyone a kind smile while she answered, "We're fine."
The trio next turned to the woman who was leaning on Sasami as if she were a
lifesaver.
"Ayeka you don't look so good. You know what I think you need? How about some
breakfast?" Mihoshi offered.
Everybody turned to look at her with quiet glares, except Ayeka herself. The
princess actually laughed, although it wasn't a carefree or enjoyable laugh.
She laughed like when someone is nervous or scared, and being too exhausted to
cry, laughed instead. An unsteady, uncontrollable, creepy laugh that gave the
rest of the household chills up and down their spines.
"Has anyone seen Ryoko this morning?" Tenchi asked while bolting down the
stairs.
He looked towards the rafters again and not seeing the familiar batch of cyan
hair peeping out, focused his attention to the group near the back foyer. He
gasped and quickly looked down as he realized Ayeka had been staring at him the
whole time. He froze two steps away from reaching the ground floor.
Now the left-out trio was certain something heavy had recently occurred. And by
the way both Ayeka and Tenchi's body stiffened when in each other's presence it
was romantically related. And when something romantic happened, Ryoko was sure
to have been in the thick of it.
The princess never looked down, but continued to stare at Tenchi. Trying to
figure out what he was thinking. He'll apologize, profusely.
Ayeka didn't want pity, she would not stand for it, and so she decided to go
first. If anything she would try to maintain their friendship, with both Tenchi
and Ryoko.
After clearing her throat, at which time everyone turned to see her speak,
Tenchi with a look similar to a dear caught in headlights, she in a quiet but
firm tone replied,
"I have not seen her this morning Lord Tenchi."
Ayeka held her head high, but her body posture was so tense she would have
muscle aches the following the day. With her quiet affirmation, she gave Tenchi
the permission to explain to Ryoko what had happened first. She would not
interfere in the matter, at least not before Tenchi had his chance.
"Ayeka I- I'm so…"
"No Lord Tenchi, I am the one at fault here. And I am sorry for…"
kissing you "…for having hit you."
Their four-person audience gasped loudly and stared at the princess with shock
sketched plainly on their faces. Ayeka had failed to tell Sasami about her
quick boxing lesson with Tenchi's face.
The tennis match was back on as they turned their heads from the right where
Ayeka was standing in the foyer, to their left where Tenchi still stood on the
stairs.
Curiously they mentally examined Tenchi's body, trying to figure out where the
princess had hit him. As they're eyes raked his torso, all focused on the fast
growing and darkening bruise on his right upper cheek.
Mihoshi mouthed the word "oh" and nodded her head slightly as she realized
Ayeka had slapped him on the cheek. Kyone jabbed her with an elbow, and gave
her a look that threatened torture if she didn't remain quiet.
"How come I wasn't invited to the family meeting?"
"Washu is the best family member ever!
The best EVERYTHING! EVER!" Both mecca Washu's cheer in unison and clap before
disappearing into the scientist's wild mane of red hair.
She entered the house from out of midair, sitting on her floating cushion,
seemingly out of nowhere.
Although if you were dumb enough to ask her, after a sixteen hour lecture, she
would give up on your apparent retarded-ness and say that she used low power
black holes in subspace, linking them to fixed locations around dimension five.
Which is the dimension we currently occupy. For instance, her lab is located in
dimension two-point-six-seven with subspace level four.
"What meeting? Hey nobody invited me either!" Mihoshi stated to the group with
a pout on her lips.
Everyone shook their heads and Kyone was about to explain what she thought was
happening, when Washu's eyes got wide and she took a quick inward breath.
"Where the hell is Ryoko? She is not present through our link! Neither is
Ryo-ohki!"
The family looked up at her in astonishment. Washu always knew everything,
could it be Ryoko had finally outsmarted her like she had threatened so many
times before?
Without waiting for an answer, her hollow laptop appeared out of nowhere, much
in the same way she had, and she started typing away with a frown. Meanwhile
Tenchi and Ayeka had frozen on the spot. Both held their breath, not even
blinking.
Ryoko couldn't have seen Ayeka and me, right? Besides, she wouldn't go; she
would blow something like always.
- But Ryoko has been acting differently lately. Less erratic, well
less erratic for her. And she has been avoiding you; maybe she has
finally realized you're not worthy of her. You fooled around with her
emotions too long, this is your fault. –
Washu will find her, Tenchi told his conscious. He knew it was right,
but if he got a second chance, he would never let her get out of his site
again. He just couldn't shake of this feeling, it was like a premonition of
something catastrophic happening under their noses, and they oblivious to what
it could be.
Same went for Ayeka, she simple looked to Washu and prayed for Ryoko to be all
right.
She should not be so worried she told herself.
After all, Ryoko still knew nothing of her betrayal, but Ryo-ohki was gone and
that kept bothering her incessantly.
Sasami took her sister's hand in between hers. She was just as scared. She
cared for her friends. Ryo-ohki had failed to come to bed too. Although at the
time she thought Ryo-ohki had simple gone to try to find the carrot bin she had
reserved for her dinner tonight.
"Voila!"
Washu with a huge self indulgent grin turned the hollow laptop around to give
the family a view of her discovery.
"Ryoko thought she could outsmart me."
"Impossible! No one can outsmart you! Yeah! You're the greatest most
Beautiful-" Her mecca Washu's delighted in shouting it to the family.
"Be quite!" Washu said, slightly annoyed at their interruption.
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," she gave her mecca Washu
an evil stare before they speedily retreated to their domain in her hair.
"Ryoko wanting to outsmart me is currently located in your room Tenchi." She
pointed at him. "She simply mixed her left wrist gem's energy with the other
two you have on Tenchiken. I have to say I'm impressed! I had no idea Ryoko had
any level of thought process whatsoever."
"Well if you spent a little time with her you'd have noticed a long time ago."
Ayeka said under her breath.
"But I was already in my room, and she wasn't there Washu." Tenchi informed
her.
"Well now I'm really impressed with my little Ryoko."
She teleported everyone to Tenchi's room without another thought.
When everyone got their bearings, Ryoko wasn't anywhere to be found.
Washu burrowed her eyebrows and with a huff, went to re-checking her hollow
laptop.
"She has to be here. Here signature aura is centrally located in this room."
"Where Washu? I don't see her anywhere." Mihoshi asked while opening and
closing Tenchi's drawers, acting like Ryoko would be hidden somewhere in
between his clothes.
"I don't understand?" Washu pulled at her own hair. No one had been able to
outsmart her for as much as a nanosecond, much less this a few minutes!
"Ryoko, Ryoko, where have you gone?" Washu asked under her breath.
As the family anxiously waited for a logical explanation from the scientist,
Mihoshi kept opening drawers, she reached for the bottom one, and as she opened
it, Ryoko's aura reading went through the roof on Washu's hollow laptop
computer screen.
She jumped down off her floating cushion and dove for the opened drawer. She
gasped and grabbed her face with both hands in surprise.
No one had been able to fool her before, ever. She knew it was bound to happen
sometime, it was a simple fact of trial and error. It was only fitting that the
person who did it be her own daughter.
She took a deep breath and genuinely looked impressed.
"What is it Washu? Where is Ryoko?" Nobuyuki asked.
She stepped back from the opened drawer.
Everyone crowed around the minute scientist. They plainly saw three glowing red
gems settled comfortably in Tenchi's sword hilt.
She's gone.
My friend, she saw us, she found out I betrayed her and left.
Ryoko is gone, and Ryo-ohki?
What the hell happened between Tenchi, Ayeka, and Ryoko that forced Ryoko to
leave?"
My son lost his chance with one of the girls, he better hurry up and choose
from the ones that are still left.
Those gems look pretty. I wonder if I ask Ryoko really nicely, she'll let me
keep one?
She's gone. My Ryoko is gone.
Touché my Little Ryoko, touché.