Kishi: The furthering of the response to the Blood Chit Challenge by Ms. Kennedy....

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Teki Muyo!

Chapter 2

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It was 4 in the morning when a high-pitched whistling echoed through the skies of Japan. Early morning commuters returning home saw a brilliant white streak in the skies, descending, lightening the sky, the whistling deepening to a roar as it flew ever closer. No less than 3 cities called in, filing reports with the Ministry, citing either a meteorite or a UFO or a missile of some kind. Whatever it was, there was only one agreement – it was moving southwards, toward the Hiroshima-Okayama area.

An explosion reverberated throughout the mountainous landscape. There were subsequent crashes as the object bounced off of cliffs, formed indentations in every surface it contacted. Finally, it ground to a halt, in what could justifiably be referred to as the middle of nowhere.

For a moment, everything was still. The stillness vanished, though, with the hiss of a pressurized bulkhead popping open. An apparently young man staggered out, coughing. He took a couple steps then collapsed to his knees, panting. Then, standing back up and shaking his head, he began to stumble forward.

---

Tenchi came down the stairs that morning to the sounds of some sort of newscast. He looked to the living room and saw Aeka, more than a few hairs out of place, staring intently at the television screen.

"What's going on?" Tenchi attempted to ask, but a shushing motion by Aeka cut his query off halfway. He made his way toward the couch, and as he walked he couldn't help but notice that Sasami seemed to be cooking a little slower than usual, as if she were devoting herself as much to cooking as she was to listening to the newscast.

Then he noticed the subject of the news, and it all made sense.

Easing himself down to the couch, he asked, "This is about the war Jurai's engaged in, isn't it?"

Luckily, it was a commercial break, so Aeka was able to answer, "Yes."

"How's it going?"

She sighed. "It's hard to tell. Jurai has an abundance of ships, and our navy is top-rate. On the other hand, the L'ke possess superior technology, but are relatively few in number. The war tends to swing back and forth."

"And now, with your 39/19 news service, this is GNN," came the jingle, followed by the opening shot of the fairly attractive generic newswoman.

"Thank you for joining us," she said. "Top story, tonight, another battle between the Juraian and L'ke forces. This time, in a surprising offensive move, the L'ke moved a fleet into the space of a Juraian colony planet, codenamed 'Earth' in the Sol system. Jurai moved to intercept, but as of yet we have received no word of casualties."

Tenchi noticed Aeka sigh and sit back. "They got awful close this time, didn't they?" he asked.

"Quite," she replied. "Although the news is right when they say that this is unusual for the L'ke. They've never been the aggressors before."

"You think they were after you guys?"

"It's hard to say. The L'ke have never really been clear as to the motives for their actions. No one's quite sure why they don't allow anyone in their space, no one knows why they were so vehement in avoiding the first contact, and we definitely have no idea why they're so ardent in their defense."

"Sounds like a real pain in the ass, ne, Tenchi?" asked Ryoko as she phased into existence looped about his shoulders.

"Still, as long as you don't mind," she said, "I wouldn't mind doing something 'mysterious' with you..."

"Uh..." said Tenchi, utilizing the patented diplomatic response, which should have allowed Aeka plenty of time to get a response in.

It looked as if she would, too, except that Sasami called in that breakfast was ready. Sighing in relief, Tenchi made his way over to the table, where Washyuu was already waiting.

"Where are Mihoshi and Kiyone?" he asked.

"They just got back," said Washyuu. "They're currently in the onsen, courtesy of one of Mihoshi's famous landings."

As if the mention of their names were enough to summon them, the two officers walked in the front door.

"Another 10-point landing, huh?" asked Tenchi good-naturedly.

"It would've been just fine!" pouted Mihoshi. "If it weren't for that stupid battle going on up there..."

"You were there?" Aeka asked excitedly, leaning forward intently.

"We'd passed through one of the firefight zones," said Kiyone.

"How did it look? Were we winning? By how much?" asked Aeka in rapid succession.

"It looked all right," said Mihoshi uncertainly. "The battle was almost over when we came in. Kiyone left me on pilot duty and I got to thinking about the meal we'd be in for when a stray shot just caught us...."

There was a communal sigh. So much for keeping everyone's minds off of the war, thought Tenchi.

They ate and Tenchi got up to leave, walking out to the shed to meet his trusted companions.

---

The pilot tripped along a path he had literally and figuratively stumbled upon. The nausea had cleared up slowly but surely, but the pains of his walking assured him that he'd broken many bones in his upper body.

He'd also taken to hacking up blood at increasingly regular intervals, which further detracted from the joy he could've taken from his surroundings. Trees covered in green formed an almost perfect canopy, allowing several chinks and the occasional shaft of sunshine to illuminate his path without it becoming unpleasant. A breeze wafted through the green passage, bringing the forest with all its subtleties to his nose. As he breathed, he was amazed that the people of this planet, so closely related to him genetically, couldn't understand the beauties of such a place.

It felt as though hours passed, but the position of the sun said otherwise, if he was reading it right, and of course there was no guarantee of that. The trees began to thin out, and he noticed what appeared to be terraced fields. Row upon row upon row of green greeted him, waving in the breeze. He looked out into the terraces and saw a lone figure who appeared to be in the act of planting more seeds.

Nodding to himself, he began to walk forward, reaching into one of the pockets of his green flight suit and pulling out an odd, pearly, squat cylinder.

---

Tenchi finished planting the last of the seeds, and began walking towards another terrace closer to the forest. He took a deep breath as he walked, the smell of fresh earth and new growth mingling. He smiled at his handiwork.

On his arrival, he took off the basket and knelt down to begin picking carrots. He didn't look up as he did this, so he was unable to identify the source of the whump sound that issued from what sounded like 8 feet away. When he did look up, however, he saw what appeared to be a reasonably well-built, tall man with black spiky hair pulled back in a braid. Dressed in some sort of dark-green flight suit, his hand was outstretched, holding some sort of pearly object.

As Tenchi approached, the object seemingly came alive, a holographic image issuing, displaying a hand picking up the object. He heard a voice speak from the object in a language he'd never heard before, the words lyrical and possessing an odd sort of flow from word to word. Curious, he reached down and picked up the object.

When he touched it, he felt a shock pass through him from his hands straight to his head. He dropped it immediately, looking at it cautiously when the voice spoke again. "Understood. Language Assimilation complete."

His eyes widened as an image of the man appeared. He had a strong, blocky chin, and his eyes were a calm hazel. "Greetings," the image said. "I understand that my appearance here may cause you no small amount of alarm; but I assure you I come in peace."

Tenchi listened as the image continued "You are receiving this message because you have found either myself or one of my comrades in such a way that we cannot speak for ourselves. In which case, it is the humble request of my people that you take me in, that I be fed and looked-after until such time as I am able to look after myself. In return, my people are prepared to reward you for your services. Thank you." The image bowed and disappeared.

Tenchi considered. He had no idea who this man was, where he was from, or why he was here. A rattling cough caught his attention as blood spat from the stranger's mouth.

That decided the issue. Not one to leave people in need, Tenchi propped the man up on his shoulder and set off back to the house.

---

"Are you sure of the landing site?"

"Again, Prime Minister, I must reiterate that we have no real idea where exactly it landed. We know that there aren't any sightings reported past the mountains between Hiroshima and Okayama prefecture, but as of yet we haven't been able to pin down a landing area yet."

"I see," sighed Yamamoto Kenichi. He was a tired-looking man in his early 60's, black hair fading away, but his eyes were still sharp. "I suppose asking the American military's support is out of the question as well?"

"Actually, sir," said the young secretary, "we just received word from the White House that we are to cooperate with them in the effort to retrieve this object."

"Oh?" Yamamoto raised an eyebrow. "Why are they interested in a stray comet?"

"Who knows?" asked the secretary, smiling good-naturedly.

Yamamoto returned the gesture, but his mind was already racing. If the Americans were interested in falling space matter, then that meant that either they had put something up that they didn't want down, orβ€”No. Better not to think about that. Extra-terrestrials were just not something they were ready for, yet.

Assuming that they had misplaced a satellite, why were they so desperate for it? And why were they requisitioning the help of the Japanese? Unless 'help' meant simply 'stay out of the way and you won't get hurt.'

No. That wasn't going to fly this time. As far as Yamamoto was concerned, it was Japanese national property, and this time they were going to get the answers.

---

"Tenchi," said Washyuu, "I know you're a nice guy and all, but you've really got to learn to be more careful with extra-terrestrials."

"I'm sorry, Washyuu-chan," he said, "but he just looked really bad... I thought it'd be a good idea if I brought him to you."

"I knew you were brilliant," she said, absently, checking the visitor's stats on her interface. They were currently inside of what amounted to the house's guest room. The futon that the alien was lying on was in the middle, with a decent amount of space, shelves full of the random odds and ends that usually ended up in guest rooms. The windows were large, letting in much sunlight. The alien rested peacefully, his uniform discarded, his ribs bound with some sort of nanite-infested bandage that was guaranteed to heal the alien's wounds in a day.

The door opened and Katsuhito stepped in. His serene face was contorted to reprimand, but upon taking in the situation he paused. "Tenchi," he asked, "what is he doing here?"

"Ah... I found him?" Tenchi hazarded. "I found him unconscious in the fields. I brought him back here for Washyuu to take care of."

"I see," said the elder man, a frown on his face. "Was he carrying anything with him?"

"Come to think of it," Tenchi said, "he had some sort of device in his hand... ah, here." He held out the pearly cylinder.

Curious, Washyuu reached out for the cylinder. She gasped immediately.

"Did you feel a shock in your hand when you touched it?" she asked.

"Yeah... why?"

"Because this is a type of distress beacon. It reads the brainwaves attuned to language and re-transmits those waves back to the owner, so that he can understand and communicate with locals. Let me check something."

She set down the cylinder next to the interface. Tapping some keys, new displays appeared with the cylinder's image taking center stage. The image began to dissect into component parts, Washyuu typing furiously until audio emerged – the same odd, lyrical language that Tenchi had heard previously.

"All right. Now all we gotta do is figure out who uses this language and we'll know where he's from."

The door opened again, and Aeka stepped in. "Tenchi-sama," she said, "what exactly is..." she looked at the alien on the futon.

"We found him out there," said Washyuu, tapping again, sorting through the database with clips of the language on comparison.

"Washyuu-chan," she heard, "please step out of the way." She turned and found Aeka staring hard-eyed at the stranger. Her hand was raised, a bolt of energy forming.

"Aeka?" asked Tenchi. "Aeka, what are you doing?"

At the same time, Katsuhito said, "Aeka, calm down. We should at least ascertain what he's doing here."

"But why, brother?" she asked. "We have a traitor here, and we both know what their sentence is."

---

Kishi: Well, how's that? Dunno when the next one's coming, though.

Tenchi Muyo and all related paraphernalia are copyrighted to Masaki Kojishima, and distributed by AIC and Pioneer.

The only things that are mine are those things that I perceive as original, and thusly are mine. If you recognize an idea that you came up with first, all credit goes to you.

These days, it's a toss-up as to where anyone can contact me, but there should be an e-mail address in my profile...