"The Sea of Change"
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In this chapter, I added some elements not seen in the OVA or Universe series, but I think it's highly possible …. Even in the real world if you really think about it. Anyway, remember poetic (ahem* writers) license.
Furu ike ya
Kawazu tobe kumo
Mizu no oto
~ Basho
Chapter 13: " Kitty "
"Mihoshi… I could use a little help here." Ayeka panted as she struggled with the heavy box she was carrying. Straining her neck to glare at the galaxy police officer who was currently experimenting with the remote control.
"Mihoshi!"
"Huh? Oh sorry Ayeka. It's just that the tv is so nice. Look! We have over a hundred channels!" She giggled, again forgetting what Ayeka had asked her to do.
"Here let me help." Tenchi warmly asked as he took the box from Ayeka's exhausted arms and with ease set it down next to the other boxes which now adorned the apartment.
The only things working at the moment were the fridge and the tv. Both steadily set up by Mihoshi and Sasami respectively.
"So what's on?" Tenchi asked as he sat down on one of the boxes next to Mihoshi. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand absent mindedly as Mihoshi rambled on about the hundred different channels.
"So what do you think sister?"
Ayeka brought out of her thoughts, turned to smile down at her sister.
"Oh it's nice. We each get our own room now."
Sasami giggled and lead Ayeka to the kitchen.
"You're forgetting the best part Ayeka… Tenchi lives across the street! For the first time in a long time, things are starting go right!"
Ayeka smiled and served them both a steaming cup of tea.
"I'm glad you're happy little sister. Have I told you lately you make a mean cup of tea?"
Sasami's giggles traveled all through out the apartment, making Ayeka's grieving heart speed up it's healing process through leaps and bounds.
"Not very recently, but it's good to hear."
"Sasami…" Ayeka looked down at her emptying tea cup while she tapped her fingers on the smooth white china. "I am very, very sorry about the way I have been acting through all …" She waved her hand in emphasis of all the time gone by since they had felt like a family.
"It's okay Ayeka. Soon we will have our entire family back."
While she hummed to herself and began opening boxes labeled 'Sasami's kitchen supplies, DON"T TOUCH MIHOSHI', Ayeka observed her with a puzzled brow.
"Ug! It's going to be weird cooking in a new kitchen." Sasami sighed as the overwhelming sense of it all took hold. After that fateful night Kukune had gone sick and been simultaneously saved, Sasami's life instantly changed.
She had her family back, and the tension which had been the crack between Ayeka and Tenchi was mending smoothly. Tenchi suggested they move to Tokyo for a bit, to get to know each other again, and Sasami jumped at the idea. Now here they were, moving their belongings to the new apartment, and Sasami was having a ball.
"Sasami?"
"Hmmm?"
"Why did you say that?"
Sasami who was currently placing the glasses and dishes in the counters, turned to look at her sister. "What?"
"About having our family complete." Ayeka asked.
Sasami grinned and shrugged her shoulders as she finished storing the plates and moved on to the silverware.
"Remember when Tenchi disappeared and we all went to look for him? You and Ryoko traveled all throughout Japan?"
"Of course I remember Sasami. We lived only a few miles from here…" Ayeka's voice softened considerably at the end of her sentence.
"Well, now instead of Tenchi it's Ryoko. We won't rest until we have her back."
Ayeka smiled and with a new found determination began helping the child-goddess store the kitchen supplies.
They would be a family together again. If Sasami, Jurai's goddess, said it would be so, then who was Ayeka to argue with that?
Ayeka's own smile turned to a playful grin, as she began savoring her soon-to-be fights with her lost friend.
**** ******* ******
The apartment was quiet, much too quiet considering the household had doubled in number just a mere couple of days ago. It went from two geishas and a maid, to two a geishas, a maid, another maid to help the first one with the extra work, an uncle, a deliciously eccentric woman, a baby, and finally a little girl who preferred to meow her wants instead of speaking them like the deliciously eccentric woman had been urging her to do.
Ryo-ohki simply pressed her lips tight, making her breath going through her nose double as she, with an iron will, refused to speak without her sister present.
Serla tried everything.
Enticing her with an eight layered carrot cake. When that failed to work, then she threatened her by eating the sumptuous cake herself. She tried scaring her by hiding behind corners or screaming at her while she was sleeping. Not to say it didn't work, it did.
Only instead of waking up a hysterical sobbing mess of words like most little kids often do when waking abruptly from slumber, Ryo-ohki woke up with a screech and wailed some hysterical mess which sounded like mangled meows.
In the end Serla gave up, and found out how delightful it was just to simply get along with the little bullheaded, cyan haired girl just as she was.
It was even cute when baby Miki's first word weren't 'Mama' or 'Fei' but "Meow". Serla had to smile at the already strong influence Ryo-ohki had on the little boy.
Just as she was getting used to receiving the usually cat-like response from Kitty Kat, they uprooted to Tokyo and after much spoiling by Catara, she accomplished what Serla had not been able to, despite her most ingenious efforts.
Ryo-ohki began talking again, and as a special twist of fate, Ryo-ohki would now talk all day and all night. About everything and anything. That little girl had an opinion about any topic, and a logical answer to the most puzzling questions.
Uncle Basho once jokingly suggested that Kitty had lived another life before this one, and had acquired all her knowledge there.
Serla dismissed it with a nod of her head, but strangely enough Kitty and Catara laughed and laughed. Laughed with such gusto in fact, that Ryo-ohki's stomach ached so much she had to save her dessert for the following morning and retire to bed early with a mild dose of pepto bismol in her tummy.
Uncle Basho had also come along, ecstatic about a new art exhibition he was hired to document. It was a very prestigious position indeed. What he would be documenting in camera and film, would be used as an advertisement strategy to attract tourists to the island. He had even received an envelope with the emperor's private seal. Ryoko laughed and promised to help him with the project whenever she could.
She still hadn't repaid him for letting her off the hook, when she decided to be a geisha instead of his assistant in the photography store. Besides, she had planned to ask him to take a couple of pictures of her, for the annual Noh Theater. Ryoko didn't trust the theater's personal photographers at all. In the last issue, three geishas had looked more like beached whales in their silver kimono instead of the dolphins they were suppose to have represented.
Since the day they had first arrived, the lavish Tokyo apartment has been flooded with baby cries early in the daylight hours, childish giggle in the mornings hours, with warmth laughter during the breakfast, lunch, and supper hours where the family would either plan out their day, ask some advice about a problem, or recount their day with exhausted smiles.
This is the type of atmosphere Ryoko had come to love and cherish. As she stepped out of the car and waved good bye to Ichima-san, she trudged lightly to the elevator and up to the apartment. Being lethally quiet as she placed the keys on one of the countless coffee tables and creeped her way down the living room, through the first hall and up into the kitchen. There she served herself some cold orange juice.
Finding the mix between a refreshing glass of orange juice and warm sake she had had earlier made a pleasing rumble in her stomach. She poured herself another glass and renew her creeping down the second hallway and into the west wing of her home, or what she affectionately called 'the dream area'.
With glass in hand, she peeked her head in a bedroom next to her own, making sure her shadow did not land on the face of her most prized possession, her Kitty Kat. She was sleeping peacefully atop a mountain full of wrinkled blankets which Ryoko knew by experience Kitty herself had kicked during the night.
Her eyes softened as she spotted a batch of cyan mane spill over the blankets and her smile flourished as she heard her soft snoring. She only snored when she was sleeping on her back, making her mouth hang slightly open as a result.
Perhaps that was the reason she often found Kitty sneaking into her room late at night and snuggling next to her under the covers. Ryoko would always wake when she bounced the bed as her weight settled in, but never once minded. In the morning, they would by some miracle Ryoko was not aware of, always awake in the same position they had adopted millennia ago. The older sister serving as mattress to the younger one. The positive side is Ryo-ohki no longer snored.
As her memories ran away with her, she felt a cold drop of something hit her bare foot and looked down in alarm. The glass she had intended to drink, had created a thick coat of condensation on the smooth, clear surface.
She smacked her mouth quietly with annoyance and slide the rice paper door firmly shut.
Her eyes adjusted to the dark of the hallway, slowly recognizing the trail of water droplets the glass had left on their journey from the kitchen to her bedroom.
* It'll dry by tomorrow.*
Ryoko shrugged and just as she was about to slide open the her own bedroom door next to Ryo-ohki's, she heard a strangely familiar strangled sob.
Her mind raced as her feet unconsciously followed the muffled sound. It was a strange sound. High pitched, and it sounded obstructed. Maybe by a hand or maybe by a pillow...
She inched her way closer, and set her glass down on the wooden floor in the middle of the hall. Absent mindedly thinking that it would leave a gigantic puddle by late morning. She hiked up her flowing kimono, and carefully with both hands full, poked out her elbows to regain her balance, as she stealthily sneaked up on the strange sound.
She opened the door of Fei's room, frowning as she saw the bed had not been slept in, and the bathroom door shut, but emitting a bright line of light from the crack at the bottom.
Ryoko thought back quickly to a memory she had not gone over for a very long time. She couldn't remember how far back it actually went, but she remember feeling giddy and having her chest feel as if it would explode with ...laughter.
The memory faded, leaving Ryoko momentarily disoriented. But more troubling than the memory was what her ears recalled.
"Boo! I scared you! Ha ha! I finally scared you! I'm the smartest person ever after having outsmarted my mommy!"
The voice sounded as if Ryo-ohki might have said it. It sounded young and impressionable. The kind of voice which was attached to a happy, loved girl who had been playing hide and seek with her mother.
* Is that what I was doing? Playing hide and seek? *
Ryoko bit her lip as she struggled to dig up more information about the memory, but only preceded in attracting an annoying headache.
More sobbing sounds traveled her way from the bathroom, and all other thoughts were stored aside for later consideration as Ryoko turned the handle quickly, half of her expecting it to be locked.
"Catara.., Wh... What are you doing?" Fei turned to face the wall, attempting to hide her tear blotched face from her friend.
"Fei what's the matter?"
Ryoko sat on the her knees in front of Fei who was currently curled up on the toilet, using it as a seat.
"Oh nothing silly..."
Ryoko cocked an eyebrow, and sighed just loudly enough for her to hear.
She looked at her though the mirror and smiled warmly as they locked stairs.
Instantly Fei turned around and lunged herself at Ryoko, making them both splatter unflattering on the floor as a result of the unexpected weight.
"Cat... What am I going to do?" Fei screeched.
"Do about what Fei-san?"
Fei forcefully swallowed a sob and looked down at the bathroom tiles. In a whisper she said, "Miki doesn't have a father and I haven't gotten a serious danna offering yet."
Ryoko searched her friend's face. Judging to see if what she was confiding in her was actually true.
"Why in the world are you hiding yourself in a bathroom and crying your eyes out for that?"
Forgetting her embarrassment, Fei looked up with her mouth open, breathing clumsily though her teeth as she questioned her with a raise of her brow.
"Why do you want a father for Miki? He is just fi-"Ryoko started.
"Why? Because a little boy needs a man in the house. Who will protect us? I mean a woman can't seriously take care of herself all her life..."
Ryoko frowned, and adjusted her legs to a more comfortable position. She crossed her arms across her chest and bit her lip so as not to lash out at her friend.
"... Don't you get lonely at night Cat? I mean this is nice and all being a geisha, but don't you find yourself needing a man to comfort you and protect you and-"
"You mean your horny." Ryoko finished of her sentence with a matter-of-fact tone.
"We... I ... It's more than-" Fei sighed in frustration and opted to end her rambling by simply letting her short lived protests hang in the air.
"I see... You want someone to share in your joys, in your woes... To be with you through thick and thin, and comfort you at night."
Fei nodded.
"And judging from the bruises your were trying to hide from me when we first met, Miki's biological father is out of the question."
"You knew!"
"Of course I knew Fei. It was none of my business then, but seeing your polluted way of thinking, I should have said something a lot sooner."
Ryoko waited for Fei to speak, but all she did was hang her head in shame, and divert her eyes on everything except her friend's face.
"Fei look at me... Please?"
Much as she wanted to, Fei couldn't bring herself to look unto Ryoko's face. Knowing she wouldn't be able to withstand the disappointment in her eyes.
"You don't have to be ashamed Fei. I know what you went through... what your going through ... all too well."
For the second time that night, Fei's eyes flashed to Ryoko's face in question.
"I wouldn't say my lover abused me... but my ... guardian did so often." Ryoko was sure her voice would break at confessing her torture under Kagato's hand, but surprising herself, she was steady and cool headed.
Her voice did not break, nor her heart skip a beat. She was sharing herself with Fei, and was more worried about her to be ashamed of her past. After all, it was past and she was finally able to start letting go.
He could no longer hurt her that way, and even though she still frequently woke up, body soaked with sweat and fear from reliving a past memory with him, she knew it wasn't him she feared but herself.
She feared she would somehow loose control and start obliterating people and planets again.
That was just an infantile fear she now realized. Dreams can only hurt you if you let them.
It was of course easier said than done, and Ryoko still feared the dark more than anything... but she could control her fears much more now than before.
"Did... Did he abus- abuse you?" Fei asked quietly.
"You mean sexually?"
Fei nodded numbly.
"No... I don't really know why he never did. I am sure it crossed his mind a few times, but her never got the nerve I guess. But there are worse ways to abuse someone. Ways that make you loose yourself, make you believe what he is actually saying about you is true. 'Your a demon, nothing but a machine I can turn on and of with a whim.' " Ryoko chuckled. "You know what? He was actually right in that respect. He controlled me much in the same way you control the TV."
"Ryoko..." Fei placed her hand on Ryoko's shoulder in sympathy.
"It's alright Fei. I'm not bothered by it. He controlled me... but that has passed. He can't do it now... no one can. And I will be crowned queen of the Lo before anyone does so again."
"Queen of the Lo?" Fei asked, temporarily forgetting her problem.
Ryoko grinned and with complete faked astonishment glared at Fei.
"Don't tell me you don't know about Lo?"
"Quit teasing Cat. Who is Lo?"
"Lo is not a person per say... much more a moon. One of the moons of Jupiter in fact. A few thousands of thousands of years ago, an outcast people, looking for a planet to inhabit stumbled upon earth. Finding out quickly that Earth was already hostess to a frightening high amount of species, they moved on."
"Are you making this up?"
"Fei!" Ryoko shoved her friend gently with mock hurt. "Do you want to listen to my story or not?"
Fei nodded and Ryoko grinned wickedly.
"Making a long, and boorish story short. After traveling around the galaxy a bit, trying out the nearby planets, they opted for one of Jupiter's moons. A very obnoxious, hypocritical bunch of prisses, they have been isolated from the outside world, or should I say universe, out of their own accord. Choosing to forget their time in space, and believe they are the only worth while beings in the universe."
"Don't they need to eat?"
Ryoko pondered this over, deciding whether it was worth explaining their bizarre eating habits to Fei, or simply shrug her shoulders. "I don't know. I suppose they found some food source, though if any culture could evolve to feed of their own pompous self righteousness, it would be the people of Lo."
Fei chuckled as she stretched her arm to grab the box of Kleenex resting on the sink. "I don't know how you make it up Cat. But if magic really did exist, you would be the most powerful magician on earth."
"You don't believe in magic!"
Fei laughed and waved her hands in front of Ryoko's face. "Earth to Cat. Earth to Cat. Don't tell me you really believe the story you just told me?"
"Of course I believe it, why wouldn't I?
Fei rolled her eyes as she balled up the damp tissues in her palms. "I only believe what I can see with my own eyes."
"I have."
"You have what?"
"Seen them ... with my own eyes."
Fei choked and began a mild coughing fit as Ryoko grinned and began taking off her kimono, only leaving her under dress for decency.
"Stop scaring me Catara, it's not funny." Fei began getting a bit queasy at the intense stair Ryoko was offering her at the moment.
"What did you dream of as a child Fei? What was that magical thing that made you play make believe?" Ryoko asked with all honestly.
"I ..." Fei's eyes glazed over as she recalled some past memory. A light smile grazed her lips and she chuckled to herself before answering. "I wanted to fly like my father. He was one of the finest pilot's in Japan. I remember whenever he had to leave for duty in the army, how I wished I could fly to keep him company."
Ryoko nodded with a sad smile. "Flying ... If you would have asked me only a few days before I met you, I could have granted you your wish Fei-san."
Fei sighed and shrugged her shoulder's. "Your good Cat… For a moment there you really had me going."
"What? You don't believe me then?"
"Like I said Cat. Not until I see it with my own eyes." With that Fei got up and went into her room, chuckling all the way there.
"Goodnight Cat ... sweet dreams." Fei's voice was interrupted by a yawn as she began to snuggle in-between the covers.
"Oh no you don't! Get up!" Ryoko pulled on Fei's arms with a frantic tone in her voice.
"Cat! Let go!"
"No! I can't fly ... not anymore. But I know someone who can."
Fei froze, half out the bed, Ryoko sustained her upper half and her bottom half rested on the edge of her bed in a tensed position.
"Get dressed Fei." Ryoko flopped her down on the bed as she walked out of her room.
"Cat this is not funny. Stop it!" Fei's tone had become frantic as Ryoko with a determined step, stormed into her own bedroom, turning on the lamps and shuffling through her things.
"Sometimes I feel as if I have no idea who you are. I mean really are."
Fei slid the door to Ryoko' bedroom shut so as not to wake the rest of the family.
Ryoko who had been throwing stuff out of her armoire and unto the floor stopped and turned to stare at her friend with a serious whisper in her eyes.
"Why does everybody always want more from me? Isn't what I have given you enough? This past year … all the things we have shared … isn't it enough? What more do I have to… to reveal to you to make you feel like you know me?" Ryoko asked.
Fei shook her head confused and sat on the futon.
"Catara it's not like that at all. You always seem like your holding back. And every time you overstep that line you have made for yourself and show us more of you, the more enigmatic you become. What am I suppose to say when you tell me you can make me fly?
"The trouble with humans is they always are looking for a logical explanation."
"Come on Cat. Logic is what keeps us sane. Without rules there is chaos."
Ryoko's face held a devilish grin, and she jumped on the futon a few inches in front of Fei.
"Okay Fei. We'll do things your way."
Ryoko said this with the last of her patience fleeting like a scared child and her face now frozen, highlighted by the shadows of light her rice paper lamps offered.
"Why is it not possible for you to fly?"
Fei cocked her eyebrows and rolled her eyes exasperatedly.
"Because gravity will smash you into the ground."
To give her point no room for doubt, she picked up Ryoko's hairbrush, which had been thrown on the floor, and threw it across the room. It made a sharp thud as it hit the wall and landed ungracefully on the floor again.
Fei kept her eye on Ryoko, and shrugged her shoulders at her as if to say, 'What else were you expecting it to do?'.
Ryoko looked from Fei to the brush, biting her lip and afterwards breathing deeply as she closed her eyes and rolled her shoulders in a slow, circular motion.
Her eyebrows furrowed together and she stuck the tip of her tongue out the edge of her lips, as her gaze settled forcefully on the brush.
Her hands absentmindedly grazed her left wrist, dwelling there a few moments before resting on the bed. The room began to get warm, and Fei could have sworn the heat was radiating off of Ryoko's body.
Ryoko hadn't moved, even blinked after she had thrown the brush across the room. Only sat there, as if in a trance.
She loosened the robe she had on, trying to figure out why all of a sudden she was sweating when it was the middle of fall, and was well below forty degrees outside.
Then the strangest thing happened. It was only a moment long, and Fei was not sure if what she had seen was true, or if her eyes were playing games on her, but the vase Ryoko had resting on her nightstand began to bubble. Well not exactly the vase, but the water in it. It began gurgling and splashing about. Only for a second, then it was quiet.
She looked at Ryoko then at the brush. It hadn't moved a centimeter.
Fei decided to stop whatever Ryoko was doing. If she had wanted to scare her, she had successfully accomplished her mission. She raised her right arm, looking at her own hand as she did this, trying to bring her sight into focus.
Her hand had a lit sheen of sweat on it, and as she continued to draw it closer to Ryoko's body, the tiny beads of perspiration began moving and gliding up her hand and settling in a drop of water, no bigger than a tear, on the tip of her finger.
The finger which was closest to touching Ryoko's shoulder. Fei's breath began to come out in short, quick gasps and she swallowed hard.
Her hand by now was only inches away from Ryoko's shoulder and whatever she was doing began to double and triple in strength.
A quiet moan escaped Ryoko's lips, and Fei startled, pull her hand away.
Only a few inches away, yet that tiny drop of sweat remained where it was, floating in mid air.
Fei's entire face tensed.
Her hand began to move forward again, slightly shaking but firm as it stood next to the bead of perspiration which had previously made it's home on her skin.
The next moments in Fei's mind passed slowly as Ryoko sighed and broke concentration. Turning to face Fei she was in time for both of them to catch the site of the miraculous bead make it's way with a speed unknown to disappear in-between the futon's sheets.
"H… How did yo.. you do that?" Fei asked out of breath.
Ryoko's own face held confusion as she bit her lip.
"My head is killing me, can you get me a glass of water?"
Fei nodded and rushed into her bathroom. Sloppily filling the tooth brush cup with water and rushing with more urgency back to the futon.
"Ug, this waters warm." Ryoko made a face as she set the cup aside.
"Cat, answer me. How did you do that?" Fei pleaded.
Ryoko scratched her forehead absentmindedly and shrugged half heartedly.
"It's a little something I think Washu mentioned I could do, but I don't really remember."
"What?"
"Washu!" Ryoko snapped and just as quickly caught hold of herself again. "I'm sorry… my mother. Her name is Washu, and I think I remember her teaching me that."
Fei remained silent, not knowing what to say or think.
"This seemed like a good idea in my head, now that I went through with it…" Ryoko massaged her temples and sighed. The room began to cool down, and Ryoko shivered.
"Are you okay Cat? Your shaking." Fei asked as she pulled out a sweater from the pile of clothes on the floor.
"Thanks. I'm alright, just a little exhausted. I had no idea my mind was in such bad shape." Ryoko chuckled and looked at the brush which still hadn't moved in disgust.
"So the brush never moved?"
Fei shook her head. "No but the water in the vase bubbled and a drop of my perspiration was floating in midair."
Fei waited for Ryoko to explain how that was humanly possible, but Ryoko simply nodded as if she had just been told what was for breakfast. Perhaps she hadn't heard her correctly.
"Cat! Did you hear what I was saying? There was a drop of water floating in mid air for no apparent reason. How is that humanly possible?"
Ryoko scrunched her face up and flinched as Fei raised her voice.
"Fei-san not so loud, I heard you the first time. And your right, it's not humanly possible."
"Well then?"
Ryoko looked at Fei dead in the eye and grinned.
"Actually I'm an alien who was artificially created in a lab out of a species called Masu and the egg of a mad scientist," Ryoko waved her hand in the air with an ironic grin, "which would be Washu of course."
"I'm afraid to ask… who are masu?"
"Masu, my dear friend, are one of the most simplest species in the universe. No vertebrae to speak of, they are a million times simpler made than an atom."
Fei's mouth was hanging wide open, though much of what Ryoko had said had gone in one ear and out the other.
"You sound like a scientist." Fei said in awe.
Ryoko already beginning to say something else was caught by complete surprise at Fei's comment, that she began choking and had a coughing fit instead.
"I sound like a what?!"
"A scientist. Your mother must have been a big influence on you." Fei answered innocently.
"By Tsunami! I've been called many things in my lifetime, all bad things, but yours is the worst possible thing anyone, anywhere has ever said to me."
"That's a horrible thing to say about your mother Cat."
"That's a horrible thing to say to me Fei."
Both women ran out of things to say to one another and simply sat facing each other.
Fei had more questions itching to get out than she had time to think them up, yet whenever she had made up her mind to break the silence and ask Cat some of them, her mouth wouldn't cooperate. She tried to swallowed but her mouth had run dry. She played with the notion of getting up for a glass of water, but quickly dismissed the idea. For two main reasons. One she had already brought Cat some water and it had been warm, the other was Fei afraid that if she turned her back on Catara for a few minutes she would find it had all been some weird dream.
For the first time in her life, she began giving proper attention to the possibility of actually being able to fly… like the bead of water. Of all the random and not so random thoughts buzzing in her head, she managed the monumental task of summarizing it all into one, specific and glorious question.
"What other rules of logic can you break?"
Ryoko laughed and shrugged her shoulders.
"Well… as much as I hate saying it, rules can't be broken."
"What? Then what was that whole thing with the sweat drop? That doesn't happen here very often." Fei asked, a little bit angry at Ryoko's own contradiction. Fei was just starting to believe and Ryoko was backtracking her own words.
"Don't misinterpret me Fei-san. What you think is a constant here, may be completely impossible someplace else."
Fei looked at her with an expression of Ryoko just having finished speaking to her in pig latin.
"Do I sound like a scientist again?" Ryoko asked as she cocked her eyebrow.
Fei nodded and Ryoko sighed as she shifted herself on the futon to an indian style position. She stretched luxuriously, letting her hand find a ponytail holder by itself on her nightstand, as her eyes closed themselves momentarily.
"Mmm." imprisoning her hair in a low braid, Ryoko looked back at Fei with a grin.
"Okay Fei. Let me break it down… Let's stick with the most famous of earth's rules… gravity. What comes up, must come down right? The famous man with the apple."
"Yes. Newton, he was the one who discovered gravity Cat." Fei offered Ryoko all the information she had managed to remember from her school days.
"He didn't discover anything Fei. Just realized it was there. Of course the most obviously moronic things are the hardest to see." Ryoko pulled back her bangs which had been tickling her cheeks in a very irritating matter and continued. "Okay, gravity pull is what keeps this solar system in alignment. Without it, the sun would not pull your planets into orbit and the earth would be a cold, lifeless place drifting through space. Gravity is what keeps you here. The moon's gravity is what creates the ocean's tides. In a nutshell, you need gravity just as you need the air to breathe. Now, you cannot survive without it, this world cannot survive without this essential element. I know of a place… oh I'd say about a couple of millions of light years away, that if it even came across a speck of dust with a gravitational whisper, it's whole system would collapse."
"Really?" Fei asked totally enthralled by Ryoko.
"Yeah, but they are rare. It's actually very hard to find them, and only the strongest of species can even survive in the same plane with them. You see they live in a higher dimension than us, one that answers to an entirely different set of rules. So you see… what is logic and true to you, might be complete gibberish to someone else."
"Could a human visit these aliens you speak of?"
Ryoko shook her head. "No, their dimension hovers above ours, yet exists in a speed that would exert such pressure on your body that you would literally eat your intestines and spit them back out."
"There is something that I don't understand. If we can't break the rules, then how did I just see a bead of perspiration float?"
"Well… you can't break the rules… but you can bend them."
Ryoko grinned. "You want to know how I did it?"
Fei nodded enthusiastically as she felt they were finally getting somewhere.
"It's simply really. Washu once told me that, even without my … er my battery source, I could exert tiny points of pressure through my mind. A mind is a very powerful thing, especially one like mine. If I put my mind to it, I could probably destroy an entire planet with a thought."
After seeing the horror stricken face of Fei, Ryoko was quick to add, "I won't though. Besides it would take decades for me to build up my brain muscles for that. I couldn't even move that stupid hairbrush."
"Then how did you move the water?"
"My only guess is that since water is free flowing, it gives in easier than a solid. But really, I have no idea."
Fei nodded to herself. "You mentioned a battery?"
"Mmm… yeah. It made me more powerful, and permitted me to break some more of those rules your so fond of."
"And you don't have it anymore?"
"Nope, gave it up. Gave it all up to have my life back."
"Wow… I don't know how to respond to all this. I'm speechless." Fei said with a weak grin.
Ryoko shifted on the futon again, turning to look quickly out the window. In a few hours it would be dawn, and she hadn't slept properly in three days.
"Well you're not freaking out Fei. That's a very good sign in my book."
"Cat? … You really are from outer space aren't you? I mean this is all … real right?" Fei asked.
Ryoko nodded with a hint of fear in her features, quickly disappearing by Fei's wide smile at hearing her answer.
With out a moment's warning, Fei pounced happily on Ryoko, hugging her, and ticking her, and simply laughing herself silly. Both women were sprawled on the futon, legs pointing one direction, arms and hands other peculiar ones.
"I'm so relieved your happy about it. Most people would have …" Ryoko managed to get out through giggles and chuckles.
"What?"
"Well… I'm not very liked … anywhere which isn't earth. And I think that's only because humans don't know much about anything. No insult intended."
"Non taken. But what have you done that is so bad?"
* * * * * * * *
"Wow Lord Tenchi, they are beautiful." Ayeka said in awe after Tenchi had showed her a couple of his paintings and sketches.
"Thanks. I'm not sure if they'll get picked for the exhibition at school but I'm hoping at least one will." Tenchi sighed and stored them back against the wall with care.
"I'm sure they will Lord Tenchi. They truly are great." Ayeka said this with such sincerity that Tenchi couldn't retain the slight blush that tainted his cheeks.
"Kukune's sculpture of her grandmother was picked automatically. Have you seen it?" Tenchi quickly changed the subject.
"No I haven't. But Takumi was speaking to me about it this morning. He is very proud of her."
"Yeah … She's coming home today isn't she?" Tenchi asked quietly.
"She should have been here half an hour ago, but with Tokyo's traffic I suppose they'll be here in another hour or so." Ayeka observed as she calculated the time with her watch.
Tenchi nodded and shuffled through a variety of unfinished sketches on his table, sorting them out in no apparent order Ayeka could decipher.
"Lord Tenchi?"
"Hmm?" Tenchi continued sorting his sketches out.
"Are you planning to speak to Ryoko when she comes to visit Kukune tonight?"
Tenchi stopped what he was doing and turned to stare at Ayeka. He slowly nodded.
"I see. And what will you say?" Ayeka asked fearfully.
"I don't know."
"Oh." Ayeka looked down and frowned. She had been planning to speak to Ryoko herself, but Tenchi deserved the right to talk to her first. Only, if Tenchi tells Ryoko what had happened between them in the wrong way and inadvertently make her look like an enemy, Ryoko would not want to be her friend again.
"Ayeka. Don't worry, if she forgives one, she will forgive the other. We were both at fault." Tenchi said stepping closer.
"I truly am sorry for my actions that night Lord Tenchi. I … have no excuse." Ayeka whispered, keeping her eyes on her hands which were clasped tightly.
"Ayeka." Tenchi gently lifted her chin, staring at her beautiful purple eyes with a graceful smile. "What is in the past cannot be undone. If Ryoko cannot see past that night, it is her loss. I'm just glad that we have managed to remain friends."
"Me too… But Tenchi?"
Tenchi simply raised his eyebrows in question, yet remaining with the graceful smile adorning his lips.
"I miss her."
"Mmmhmm." Was the only thing Tenchi offered her. His smile faltered for a second.
"Do you think she misses us too?"
"I hope so Ayeka, I truly hope so."
* * * * * *
"What do you think Kitty? The peach colored obi with the swan patterned kimono? Or … The lavender obi with the stripped, bamboo kimono?" Ryoko asked her sister as she displayed each ensemble in turn. Showing of the sleeves, hems, and obi in turn.
Ryo-ohki thoughtfully tapped her small index finger on her lips, scrunching up her eyes and looking very thoughtful for a little girl.
"You look prrretty in both."
"Well, what an answer. Thank you for your help your highness." Ryoko said sarcastically but with a well toned hint of playful teasing.
"Ryo-ohki, I know you are mad for not telling you about seeing our old family right away … so when I tell you what I am about to tell you, don't freak out on me."
Ryo-oki narrowed her eyes suspiciously and crossed her arms over her chest. Even though she looked like a little girl, and loved to be spoiled like a little girl, she understood what was going on, and it had hurt her that Ryoko had not confided in her a lot sooner about her experiences in the hospital.
"Tonight I am scheduled to go visit Kukune at her apartment, a kind of
get-to-know-you kinda thing, and I have a feeling Tenchi and the rest of the family will be there." Ryoko said this without a moments pause for breath.
Ryo-ohki's eyes rounded, but her frowned remained unmoved.
"What are you thinking Kitty?" Ryoko asked as she put her kimono aside and looked in the mirror. Trying to focus on applying her makeup, but failing miserably as she looked through the mirror at Ryo-ohki's face. Waiting for an answer.
"You shouldn't go sisterr."
Ryoko turned around surprised at Ryo-ohki's answer.
"Why not?"
"Because you arrre still healing. If you go and see them now, who knows what may happen? You may say things you don't rreally mean and then have no way of taking them back."
"But don't you want to see them? Sasami might be there."
Ryo-ohki sighed and slumped her shoulders. Seeing the change in her sister turn from apprehensive to sad, she hurried over and scooped her up in her arms. Rocking her slightly as she patted her back tenderly.
"Oh I'm sorry Kitty. You know how I am with my big mouth. Your right, I'm not ready to restart any kind of relationship with them. And it means a lot to me that you are sticking by me through all this. I love you Kitty."
Ryoko meant every word, and smiled as she felt Ryo-ohki relax under her arms.
"It's alrriight sisterr. We will see Sasami again." Ryo-ohki patted Ryoko's cheek gingerly and smiled with tears staining her eyes beautifully.
Ryoko nodded and looked around Ryo-ohki's bedroom where they usually spent the afternoons together.
"Since my whole afternoon is now free … how do you feel about a little trip? I mentioned your extraordinary abilities to Fei the other day, and she seemed more than excited to witness them herself. What do you say?"
Ryo-ohki's enormous grin that stretched from ear to ear was the only confirmation needed for Ryoko to grin herself and both start looking for Fei.
Ryoko physically vibrated with help up emotions of anticipation on seeing her beloved stars again. To be near them and talk to them. It had been quite awhile indeed.
* * * * * * * *
"Hello?"
"Yes, good afternoon, could I speak to Kukune?"
"This is her…"
"Kukune, I'm glad to hear you so well. This is Catara. How are you feeling?"
"Catara? Oh, we are waiting for you. I'm fine. Still a bit weak, but alive thanks to all your efforts." Kukune wound the telephone cord with one finger, while with the other hand she waved frantically at Takumi who was fixing them both a cup of tea.
"Call Tenchi." Kukune mouthed silently at Takumi and shooed him of with a nod of her head.
"I'm just glad I got there in time. About tonight…"
"Don't tell me…"
"I'm afraid I will not be able to make it."
Kukune frowned. Her eyes roamed the hallway, trying to hurry Tenchi with her thoughts. She had to keep her on the line long enough for him to get
here.
* Where the hell is he? Wasn't it his idea in the first place to talk to her? If he misses this chance, I'm not held responsible. *
"I was looking forward to thanking you in person for saving my life. There is no way you can stop by, at least for a few minutes?"
"I'm afraid not. Perhaps in the future we meet each other."
"Yes… Well thank you for calling. I … sorry to insist but there really is no way you can make it tonight? What about tomorrow?" Kukune was at her wits end. Neither Takumi nor Tenchi where anywhere, and she could not keep up conversation much longer before looking suspicious.
Before Ryoko had a chance to respond, Kukune interrupted, "In any case. If there is anything you need please don't hesitate to call us. And, I feel unusual thanking you over the phone, where you did something so special for me, but thank you Catara. There are no words to say, I hope some day I can meet you."
Ryoko remained speechless. Feeling awful at breaking their meeting in such short notice and with no real reason, except of course fearing what may happen. Ryoko played with the idea of going after all, but if she knew Tenchi at all … he had something up his sleeve. And if he didn't, Ayeka surely did. With that in mind, Ryoko excused herself one last time, and promptly hung up.
Takumi after searching all over the loft, ran down the street to his family's new apartment. Going up the stairs two at a time, he was out of breath and hugging his sides in pain as he opened the pent house door clumsily.
"Hi Takumi! We are getting ready. How do I look?" Mihoshi asked as she twirled around for him. Showing of her tight jeans and pearl sweater.
"Mihoshi where's Tenchi?"
"In the living room. How do I look?" Mihoshi asked as Takumi walked by past her.
"Tenchi. Come on man, Catara is on the line with Kukune."
Tenchi who had been watching television with Sasami stood up immediately.
"What right now?"
"Yeah come on."
Both men ran down the flight of stairs. Once or twice, Takumi was a hair widths close to tripping over his feet and hurling himself down the stairs. Probably breaking some very important bones in the process. Yet as he looked ahead to see how Tenchi was fairing, he couldn't believe how agile he was.
He practically flew down the stairs. And compared to his own hard breathing and wheezing, Tenchi gracefully moved down the street and disappeared in the loft just as Takumi reached the cross walk. In awe at Tenchi's athletic abilities. Tenchi did often meditate and practice some sort of sport with a wooden sword of some kind, but Takumi was truly surprised at how fit he really was.
"Tenchi! Where the hell have you been?" Kukune asked as Tenchi entered the kitchen.
"Across the street." He looked at Kukune who was flipping through a magazine on the breakfast table, and then looked at the phone who hung quietly against the wall.
He was too late.
"What did she say?"
Kukune sighed. "She's not coming. If you ask me, she knew you were doing something… she seemed reluctant to talk at length with me."
"She's not coming…" Tenchi whispered to himself. "She's not coming." He repeated with more emotion in his voice.
"Tenchi are you okay?"
"You know it's just like her to shut herself of when she's afraid. She's always done it, when she was too close to exposing what she truly felt to me." Tenchi huffed and paced around the kitchen. With each step, his anger seemed to grow in leaps and bounds,
making his chest heave up and down, and his fist clench up into tight balls.
"Every time things get too intense, she backs out. How the hell did she expect me to fall for her when she never let me see the real person behind her facade? She's so infuriating!" Tenchi ran agitated hands through his hair, almost forgetting completely that Kukune was witnessing to his emotional outbreak, until she spoke quietly.
"What she needs Tenchi, is for you to be her friend."
The old pond
A frog jumps in
The sound of water
~ Basho