TENCHI WAKUSEI, BOOK ONE: "NO DREAMS FOR TENCHI"
By Joe Meadows (gpabn@yahoo.com)
NOTA BENE: This novel (comprising 24 chapters, a Prologue, and an Epilogue) is a sequel to the "Tenchi Muyo Television Series" ("Tenchi Universe"), with some "Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki!" original OAV series characters and elements included where--in the author's opinion--they don't conflict with "Tenchi Universe." For example, in order to flesh out a family background for Ayeka and Sasami, rather than create new characters, I used the existing parental figures of King Asuza and Queen Misaki from the OAVs. In order to bring the Galaxy Police more into the story, I re-instated the Grand Marshall as Mihoshi's grandfather and used an existing character from the Tenchi Muyo mangas, Chief Tor Bodai. And so on.
AIC and Pioneer LDC, whose kind indulgence I am counting on, own the copyrights on the original Tenchi Muyo characters. The character of Chief Tor Bodai was created by Hitoshi Okuda for the Tenchi Muyo manga series and is also copyrighted by AIC and Pioneer LDC. All truly new characters are my creation. Those characters and the actual story are copyright 2002 by yours truly. The lyrics for both versions of the theme song for "Speed Racer," the Beatles' "Abbey Road" album, the Beach Boys' "Surfing USA," the theme to "The Brady Bunch," and "That's Amore" are copyrighted by their various owners. The events that comprise the "Tenchi Universe" series are discussed in this novel; consequently, spoilers lurk within. Be warned. Please check out the "Chapter Notes" at the end of some of the chapters. Feedback is very welcome! I can be reached at gpabn@yahoo.com and thanks for taking the time to read this novel.
------------------------------------------------------
Postscript
No Need For Outtakes
____________________
(Although "Tenchi Wakusie" is an admittedly long novel, one of over 400,000 words, not all of the original novel made it into the final cut. What follows are two rejected passages that I felt needed to be excised. The first is an alternate passage to the "carpet beating" incident in Chapter Five. I rejected it because, although it is funny, it comes too close to being "songfic," which many, many fanfic readers object to. The second is a depiction of Kiyone's romantic attitude toward Tris once she realizes she is in love with the goof. Again, it is funny, but it shows Kiyone as being too demonstrative with Tris while in the company of Tenchi and the rest of the gang. Overt displays of affection are reserved for private venues in Japan and Kiyone would respect that custom. I am providing both these passages because the reader might find them amusing and also to prove that I did not throw everything including the proverbial kitchen sink into "Tenchi Wakusie.")
The girls looked good. In fact, they looked fine.
"She looked good...she looked fine..." A familiar old tune ran through his head. As it was, it would have been far better if that familiar old tune had also run out of his ears and plopped on the ground unheeded.
For Tris was a covert singer, a natural for kareoke, although his singing would hardly be describe as accomplished. In fact, it stunk. He knew it and rarely inflicted his warbling on anyone but himself. But now any potential critics were too far away to hear him. Tris felt inspired. Why the heck not?
Tris put down the garden shears. Using the trowel in lieu of a microphone, he, true to his love of the classic rock hits (fueled by his late parent's equal love of them), and selecting a song most appropriate to the sight of Kiyone and Mihoshi in their short-shorts, launched into his unplugged rendition of Manfred Mann's "Do Wah Diddy Diddy."
He sang:
There she was, just a-walking down the street
Singin' do wah diddy diddy dum, diddy do.
Alas for Tris, he was not well versed in the science of acoustics. He had his back to a small hill rise, standing on a level plain, and the slight breeze was wafting toward the house. Washuu could, no doubt, have explained the phenomina much better. At any rate, sound carried far under those conditions. In addition, the alien women had exceptionally fine hearing.
Thus, not only could Kiyone and Mihoshi standing in the yard hear Tris, so could Ayeka and Ryoko, who were standing by an partially open window, discussing Ryoko's agenda for the afternoon (Ayeka suggested Ryoko escort a bag organic garbage to the compost heap; Ryoko's counter-proposal was a nap in the rafters.) They stopped, as did Mihoshi and Kiyone, at the sound of Tris singing.
"What's the awful sound?" Mihoshi queried.
"It's that idiot--he's singing!" Kiyone winced.
"What does it mean."do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do"?" Mihoshi asked, now paying attention to the (unlyrically sung) lyrics.
"Sounds like baby talk...what the hell is he doing out there?" Kiyone replied, her dander already up.
"Singing at that garden tool?" Mihoshi guessed.
Meanwhile, Ryoko was watching Tris through the window. She shook her head. "What a racket! Say, which woman is he talking about--walking down the street and talking gibberish?"
Ayeka shook her head. "I could not imagine," she admitted. "She sounds rather addled."
Tris kept the music coming:
Snapping her fingers and shuffling her feet
Singing do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do.
"Shuffling her feet? What is she--eighty?" Ryoko demanded.
"Senile, perhaps." Ayeka hazarded a guess.
In the yard, thimgs were becoming clearer to two members of Tris's unwitting audience.
"Oh, I get it now!" Mihoshi was enchanted. "Kareoke...he's singing kareoke to us, Kiyone! Isn't that sweet?"
"The big stiff." Kiyone shook her head, smiling. "I hope nobody ever told him he could sing!"
But Tris could sing--well, sort of--and did:
She looked good-she looked good
She looked fine-she looked fine
She looked good, she looked fine, and I nearly lost my mind
"Nearly lost his mind?" Ryoko, still standing by the opened window, snorted. "I've got a news flash for him!"
"Hush!" said Ayeka. "I want to hear this."
But, outside in the yard, Kiyone wasn't so sure she wanted to. She was finding the lyrics not only brainless but embarrasing if the other women assumed that idiot was singing about her.
"If he hasn't lost his mind yet," she promised, "just wait until I get my hands on him!"
"But he's being so cute!" Mihoshi chirped.
"Being so acute, you mean."
Shucking and jiving by the tiny hill, Tris was so sure he was in rare form that he considered it was a bit of a shame no one could hear him. Oh, well. On with the unplugged session. He sung into his unplugged trowel:
Before I knew it, she was walking next to me
Singin' do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do
Holding my hand just as natural as can be
Singin do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do-
"Brazen!" Ayeka pronounced. "Who is this hussy?"
"Yow! I hope he doesn't mean, Kiyone," Ryoko said.
Ayeka shook her head. "I just hope Kiyone doesn't think he means Kiyone!"
In the yard, Mihoshi asked, "Was it really that quick, Kiyone? You just walked next to Tris and--"
"No, it wasn't, Mihoshi! You know that!"
"Oh." Mihoshi contemplated the tiny figure of Tris in the distance. "Tris doesn't seem to know it."
Actually, all Tris knew at that moment was that he was jamming:
We walked on-walked on
To my door-to my door
We walked on to my door
Then we kissed a little more-
"Hey!" Ryoko exclaimed. "This story is getting hot! Belt it out, Tris!"
"I thought Tris and Kiyone only kissed that one time," Ayeka mused.
"Hah! You believed that, Princess?"
Now standing by the clothesline in the yard, Mihoshi asked worriedly, "Kiyone, you shouldn't hit that carpet so hard. You might put a hole in it!"
"Quiet, Mihoshi," Kiyone rapped, swinging a mean carpet beater on the defenseless rug. "I need the practice!"
Tris sang on:
Whoa-oa, I knew we were falling in lo-o-o-o-ve
(Tris performed a little dance here)
Yes, I did, and so I told her all the things
I'd been dreamin' of-
"Tell us, Tris!" Ryoko laughed.. "I"ll bet it's juicy!"
"Ryoko!" Ayeka remonstrated. "Don't encourage him." Then she thought of something. She turned around. "Sasami!" she called out in the direction of the kitchen. "You are not listening to this, are you?"
"Ummmm," came little Sasami's voice from behind a nearby couch. "Ummmm...no?"
"Sasami!" Ayeka cried.
Between coughs at all the dust Kiyone's carpet-beating was raising, Mihoshi asked, "Do you think-cough-cough-that Tris really dreams about you, Kiyone?"
"He will," Kiyone promised, grimly. "In the emergency room!"
Now Tris was coming to his favorite part--the song's climax. He swung it, he moved it, he grooved that thing:
Now we're together nearly every single day
Singin' do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do
Oh, we're so happy and that's how we're going to stay
Singin' do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do--
"Someone," Kiyone gritted, still swinging at the well-flayed carpet, "is one hell of an optimist!"
Inside the house, Ayeka was saying to Sasami, whom she had just pulled out from behind the couch:
"How could you? You should not listen to things like that at your age, and you know it!"
"But big sister," Sasami contended, "how am I ever going to learn?"
"She has a point there, Princess," Ryoko offered.
Meanhile, Tris was winding up. He unleashed the next few verses, fortissiomo:
Well I'm hers--I'm hers
She's mine--she's mine
I'm hers, she's mine
Wedding bells are gonna chime!
"Wedding bells? Golly!" Mihoshi exclaimed.
"That does it!" Kiyone threw down the carpet beater. She began to run toward the fool near the hill.
"There goes, Kiyone!" Ryoko laughed, watching her dash by the window. The space pirate floated in the air. "Wonder if she'll catch him again this time?"
Ayeka pretended majestic disinterest. She held her hands over Sasami's ears. Sasami looked very young and very resigned. But she smiled a little, too.
Tenchi, mowing industriously, stopped a moment. He had watched Tris perform his "air concert" with amusement, remembering how he had endured hearing his buddy's exclusive solo performances in the shower. He knew one thing--Tris had better never quit his day job!
Now he beheld the figure of Kiyone, bare legs flashing, as she pounded up from the yard next to the house.covering ground very quickly--in the direction of the other little hill. Toward Tris.
Tenchi looked at Kiyone. Then he looked at Tris, who was oblivious to the approaching chump-seeking missile of a Galaxy Police Detective First Class. After finishing the song with a few last do-wah-diddy- diddy-dum-diddy-do's, Tris was bent over, making bows before his imaginary fans.
Among other feats, Tenchi had defeated the Juraian dark warrior prince, Kagato, in single combat. He had learned to read a situation swiftly.
"Tris!" he yelled, "Run!"
Tris straightened up. He looked with curiosity at Tenchi.
"Run! Run now!"
Tris frowned. He surveyed the area. He stopped--
He spotted Kiyone at twelve o'clock. She was running. At him. And she wasn't smiling. Oh, no, did she hear? How could she have heard? But she must have heard--because look at her come-!
Tris took Tenchi's advice. He tossed down his microphone--that is, his trowel--and ran. This time he ran to the edge of the lawn and encountered the woodland beyond. He plunged into it. He'd try a little camouflage, as well as speed, this time.
Kiyone stopped as soon as she saw Tris disappear into the wooded area. She turned and smiled at Tenchi, who was standing a little distance away with the lawn mower.
Tenchi appeared disconcerted. "Kiyone, if you're upset about Tris's singing...well, I've put up with it for months, you know. You really shouldn't get upset--"
"I'm not upset...now." Kiyone smiled again. "It was just a stupid song. That big stiff probably thought we couldn't hear him." She turned and stared walking back toward the house.
"Uh...Kiyone?"
Kiyone stopped and faced Tenchi again. "Yes, Tenchi?"
"What about...you know, Tris?"
"Oh, him. He'll come back. He won't miss dinner, the greedy boy. Just tell him to come see me when he comes out of there." She flashed another smile at him and left.
Tenchi watched Kiyone go. She seemed rather pleased for some reason. After a moment, he shrugged and stared mowing again.
By dinner time, as Kiyone predicted, Tris was back, with only a few scratches from branches and a chigger bite or two to record his sojourn in the Masaki timberlands. Kiyone applied iodine to his scratches and smiled with satisfaction as he yelped at the sting of the medicine. But she kissed him for every yelp, so he figured he broke even on that deal. Mihoshi asked him to sing the song again, a request instantly squelched by Kiyone.
Ryoko repeatedly patted Tris on the back and laughing. Tris reflected that, if nothing else, he had brightened the existence of the premier space pirate of the galaxy. Princess Ayeka at first give him the fish eye, but eventually moderated her stance. Sasami just smiled and smiled at him.
* * *
As he walked down the stone steps, Tris wasn't thinking about his abused legs or lungs. He was thinking about Kiyone. Her behavior the last day or so had been puzzling, to say the least.
Last evening, as they had watched that cooking show with the galloping chef, Kiyone had cuddled up against him, very soft and warm...which had been wonderful, as always. But she had just sat there, looking at him, rather than at the program. At least he had that impression.
At length, she had taken a few strands of her silken teal hair and playfully tickled his ear. She had chuckled softly when he had tried to brush her hair away. Then she had gently kissed his ear and whispered, "You know, I can cook too, Tris." He had nodded, although he had seen no evidence of that at her apartment back on planet Vestra. Then Kiyone had kissed his neck, little whisper kisses, as he had tried to watch the tube. When he had turned his head toward her, she had chuckled again and whispered, "Would you like me to cook you something, Tris?" Which had surprised the heck out of him. Kiyone, cook a meal...for him?
All he had been able to do then was mutter, "Uh, sure...that'd be nice." Kiyone had then appeared to think a moment, her hand stroking his neck. "What would you like me to cook?" she had whispered. "Remember, I'm a career woman, Tris. Nothing too elaborate." Tris, of course, had had no idea of what to suggest. The notion of Kiyone cooking for anyone but herself seemed fairly novel in itself. He had tried to come up with something he thought she could cook without too much hassle, and Kiyone had gotten impatient. "Well, what would you want?" Tris kept thinking, hard. Fish cakes? Rice and vegetable pilaf? He had looked at the TV screen. Lasagna? "You just don't think I can cook, do you?" Kiyone had asked and her voice was less tender and a bit louder. Mihoshi, sitting next to her on the couch, had turned to look at them. "Um, no, I'm just thinking," he had temporized. "Well, think faster, you," Kiyone had replied, nettled. Tris had thought furiously. "Right. Ummm..." He still had no idea why he had made the silly suggestion, but, under pressure, he had replied, "Well...how about a pizza?" That had earned him a fairly stiff jab in the side. He had yelped, and Tenchi, Sasami, Ryoko, and Ayeka, seated on the other couch, had turned their heads toward him.
"Uh, I'm really allergic to oregano," Tris had quickly explained, motioning toward the TV where the hard-charging chef was tossing in the seasonings for the lasagna. "It gives me a pain."
"You give us a pain, Tris," Ryoko had grumbled. "Be quiet, will you?"
"Will do," Tris had said contritely.
Then everything--and everybody--had settled down. Kiyone had gotten over her ire rather quickly. She had kissed his cheek and whispered, "I'm sorry darling. You just think about something you'd like me to cook for you and then tell me. Okay?"
"Okay," he had murmured, relieved.
She had then cuddled against him again. She had also resumed the practice of alternately studying him and kissing and caressing him. When the program had ended, and Tenchi suggested they all go to bed--an excellent suggestion, of course, they were all beat--Kiyone had held him back while everyone else drifted off to their respective beds. Then she had stood up from the couch, pulling him up with her, and said, "It'd be nice if we didn't have to part like this every night...wouldn't it?" He had been flummoxed by the question. She had smiled then and kissed him tenderly. "You just think about that, darling." After another gentle and sweet kiss, she had left him standing there. It had been a little while before he felt like going to his and Tenchi's bedroom, where he had found Tenchi already sacked out in bed, reading.
The whole incident was perplexing. It wasn't how Kiyone usually acted around him. Perhaps the topsy-turvy events of the past few days-- learning the horrible truth about that Klove character, and that her fellow cops were conducting a cover-up of the case, along with facing likely dismissal over the hacking incident--yeah, likely that was it. If anyone's plate was full, it was Kiyone's. Full to overflowing. She was terribly upset, her nerves were on edge, and she just trying to be sweet to him and not let all the bad things drag her down. Actually, to tell the truth, he had almost welcomed the jab. It was just so--so Kiyone--and assurance that she was still her two-fisted self. She would need all that combativeness, Tris was convinced, in the days ahead.
He had explained his conclusions to Tenchi last night after he had turned the lights off and slipped into his pallet. Tenchi had seemed relieved when Tris explained that he had been off the beam completely about suspecting Kiyone of matrimonial motives. Tenchi had then repeated his original Kiyone Advisory-she was completely dedicated to her career and if and when she got her rank back and was reassigned elsewhere, she'd be gone for good.
Tris had listened in silence. There had been nothing to say. Tenchi was right. It was just a summer romance-actually, a spring romance-and it would fade once he and Kiyone went their separate ways. Although Tris knew it would take a long time for it to fade for him.
By Joe Meadows (gpabn@yahoo.com)
NOTA BENE: This novel (comprising 24 chapters, a Prologue, and an Epilogue) is a sequel to the "Tenchi Muyo Television Series" ("Tenchi Universe"), with some "Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki!" original OAV series characters and elements included where--in the author's opinion--they don't conflict with "Tenchi Universe." For example, in order to flesh out a family background for Ayeka and Sasami, rather than create new characters, I used the existing parental figures of King Asuza and Queen Misaki from the OAVs. In order to bring the Galaxy Police more into the story, I re-instated the Grand Marshall as Mihoshi's grandfather and used an existing character from the Tenchi Muyo mangas, Chief Tor Bodai. And so on.
AIC and Pioneer LDC, whose kind indulgence I am counting on, own the copyrights on the original Tenchi Muyo characters. The character of Chief Tor Bodai was created by Hitoshi Okuda for the Tenchi Muyo manga series and is also copyrighted by AIC and Pioneer LDC. All truly new characters are my creation. Those characters and the actual story are copyright 2002 by yours truly. The lyrics for both versions of the theme song for "Speed Racer," the Beatles' "Abbey Road" album, the Beach Boys' "Surfing USA," the theme to "The Brady Bunch," and "That's Amore" are copyrighted by their various owners. The events that comprise the "Tenchi Universe" series are discussed in this novel; consequently, spoilers lurk within. Be warned. Please check out the "Chapter Notes" at the end of some of the chapters. Feedback is very welcome! I can be reached at gpabn@yahoo.com and thanks for taking the time to read this novel.
------------------------------------------------------
Postscript
No Need For Outtakes
____________________
(Although "Tenchi Wakusie" is an admittedly long novel, one of over 400,000 words, not all of the original novel made it into the final cut. What follows are two rejected passages that I felt needed to be excised. The first is an alternate passage to the "carpet beating" incident in Chapter Five. I rejected it because, although it is funny, it comes too close to being "songfic," which many, many fanfic readers object to. The second is a depiction of Kiyone's romantic attitude toward Tris once she realizes she is in love with the goof. Again, it is funny, but it shows Kiyone as being too demonstrative with Tris while in the company of Tenchi and the rest of the gang. Overt displays of affection are reserved for private venues in Japan and Kiyone would respect that custom. I am providing both these passages because the reader might find them amusing and also to prove that I did not throw everything including the proverbial kitchen sink into "Tenchi Wakusie.")
The girls looked good. In fact, they looked fine.
"She looked good...she looked fine..." A familiar old tune ran through his head. As it was, it would have been far better if that familiar old tune had also run out of his ears and plopped on the ground unheeded.
For Tris was a covert singer, a natural for kareoke, although his singing would hardly be describe as accomplished. In fact, it stunk. He knew it and rarely inflicted his warbling on anyone but himself. But now any potential critics were too far away to hear him. Tris felt inspired. Why the heck not?
Tris put down the garden shears. Using the trowel in lieu of a microphone, he, true to his love of the classic rock hits (fueled by his late parent's equal love of them), and selecting a song most appropriate to the sight of Kiyone and Mihoshi in their short-shorts, launched into his unplugged rendition of Manfred Mann's "Do Wah Diddy Diddy."
He sang:
There she was, just a-walking down the street
Singin' do wah diddy diddy dum, diddy do.
Alas for Tris, he was not well versed in the science of acoustics. He had his back to a small hill rise, standing on a level plain, and the slight breeze was wafting toward the house. Washuu could, no doubt, have explained the phenomina much better. At any rate, sound carried far under those conditions. In addition, the alien women had exceptionally fine hearing.
Thus, not only could Kiyone and Mihoshi standing in the yard hear Tris, so could Ayeka and Ryoko, who were standing by an partially open window, discussing Ryoko's agenda for the afternoon (Ayeka suggested Ryoko escort a bag organic garbage to the compost heap; Ryoko's counter-proposal was a nap in the rafters.) They stopped, as did Mihoshi and Kiyone, at the sound of Tris singing.
"What's the awful sound?" Mihoshi queried.
"It's that idiot--he's singing!" Kiyone winced.
"What does it mean."do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do"?" Mihoshi asked, now paying attention to the (unlyrically sung) lyrics.
"Sounds like baby talk...what the hell is he doing out there?" Kiyone replied, her dander already up.
"Singing at that garden tool?" Mihoshi guessed.
Meanwhile, Ryoko was watching Tris through the window. She shook her head. "What a racket! Say, which woman is he talking about--walking down the street and talking gibberish?"
Ayeka shook her head. "I could not imagine," she admitted. "She sounds rather addled."
Tris kept the music coming:
Snapping her fingers and shuffling her feet
Singing do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do.
"Shuffling her feet? What is she--eighty?" Ryoko demanded.
"Senile, perhaps." Ayeka hazarded a guess.
In the yard, thimgs were becoming clearer to two members of Tris's unwitting audience.
"Oh, I get it now!" Mihoshi was enchanted. "Kareoke...he's singing kareoke to us, Kiyone! Isn't that sweet?"
"The big stiff." Kiyone shook her head, smiling. "I hope nobody ever told him he could sing!"
But Tris could sing--well, sort of--and did:
She looked good-she looked good
She looked fine-she looked fine
She looked good, she looked fine, and I nearly lost my mind
"Nearly lost his mind?" Ryoko, still standing by the opened window, snorted. "I've got a news flash for him!"
"Hush!" said Ayeka. "I want to hear this."
But, outside in the yard, Kiyone wasn't so sure she wanted to. She was finding the lyrics not only brainless but embarrasing if the other women assumed that idiot was singing about her.
"If he hasn't lost his mind yet," she promised, "just wait until I get my hands on him!"
"But he's being so cute!" Mihoshi chirped.
"Being so acute, you mean."
Shucking and jiving by the tiny hill, Tris was so sure he was in rare form that he considered it was a bit of a shame no one could hear him. Oh, well. On with the unplugged session. He sung into his unplugged trowel:
Before I knew it, she was walking next to me
Singin' do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do
Holding my hand just as natural as can be
Singin do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do-
"Brazen!" Ayeka pronounced. "Who is this hussy?"
"Yow! I hope he doesn't mean, Kiyone," Ryoko said.
Ayeka shook her head. "I just hope Kiyone doesn't think he means Kiyone!"
In the yard, Mihoshi asked, "Was it really that quick, Kiyone? You just walked next to Tris and--"
"No, it wasn't, Mihoshi! You know that!"
"Oh." Mihoshi contemplated the tiny figure of Tris in the distance. "Tris doesn't seem to know it."
Actually, all Tris knew at that moment was that he was jamming:
We walked on-walked on
To my door-to my door
We walked on to my door
Then we kissed a little more-
"Hey!" Ryoko exclaimed. "This story is getting hot! Belt it out, Tris!"
"I thought Tris and Kiyone only kissed that one time," Ayeka mused.
"Hah! You believed that, Princess?"
Now standing by the clothesline in the yard, Mihoshi asked worriedly, "Kiyone, you shouldn't hit that carpet so hard. You might put a hole in it!"
"Quiet, Mihoshi," Kiyone rapped, swinging a mean carpet beater on the defenseless rug. "I need the practice!"
Tris sang on:
Whoa-oa, I knew we were falling in lo-o-o-o-ve
(Tris performed a little dance here)
Yes, I did, and so I told her all the things
I'd been dreamin' of-
"Tell us, Tris!" Ryoko laughed.. "I"ll bet it's juicy!"
"Ryoko!" Ayeka remonstrated. "Don't encourage him." Then she thought of something. She turned around. "Sasami!" she called out in the direction of the kitchen. "You are not listening to this, are you?"
"Ummmm," came little Sasami's voice from behind a nearby couch. "Ummmm...no?"
"Sasami!" Ayeka cried.
Between coughs at all the dust Kiyone's carpet-beating was raising, Mihoshi asked, "Do you think-cough-cough-that Tris really dreams about you, Kiyone?"
"He will," Kiyone promised, grimly. "In the emergency room!"
Now Tris was coming to his favorite part--the song's climax. He swung it, he moved it, he grooved that thing:
Now we're together nearly every single day
Singin' do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do
Oh, we're so happy and that's how we're going to stay
Singin' do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do--
"Someone," Kiyone gritted, still swinging at the well-flayed carpet, "is one hell of an optimist!"
Inside the house, Ayeka was saying to Sasami, whom she had just pulled out from behind the couch:
"How could you? You should not listen to things like that at your age, and you know it!"
"But big sister," Sasami contended, "how am I ever going to learn?"
"She has a point there, Princess," Ryoko offered.
Meanhile, Tris was winding up. He unleashed the next few verses, fortissiomo:
Well I'm hers--I'm hers
She's mine--she's mine
I'm hers, she's mine
Wedding bells are gonna chime!
"Wedding bells? Golly!" Mihoshi exclaimed.
"That does it!" Kiyone threw down the carpet beater. She began to run toward the fool near the hill.
"There goes, Kiyone!" Ryoko laughed, watching her dash by the window. The space pirate floated in the air. "Wonder if she'll catch him again this time?"
Ayeka pretended majestic disinterest. She held her hands over Sasami's ears. Sasami looked very young and very resigned. But she smiled a little, too.
Tenchi, mowing industriously, stopped a moment. He had watched Tris perform his "air concert" with amusement, remembering how he had endured hearing his buddy's exclusive solo performances in the shower. He knew one thing--Tris had better never quit his day job!
Now he beheld the figure of Kiyone, bare legs flashing, as she pounded up from the yard next to the house.covering ground very quickly--in the direction of the other little hill. Toward Tris.
Tenchi looked at Kiyone. Then he looked at Tris, who was oblivious to the approaching chump-seeking missile of a Galaxy Police Detective First Class. After finishing the song with a few last do-wah-diddy- diddy-dum-diddy-do's, Tris was bent over, making bows before his imaginary fans.
Among other feats, Tenchi had defeated the Juraian dark warrior prince, Kagato, in single combat. He had learned to read a situation swiftly.
"Tris!" he yelled, "Run!"
Tris straightened up. He looked with curiosity at Tenchi.
"Run! Run now!"
Tris frowned. He surveyed the area. He stopped--
He spotted Kiyone at twelve o'clock. She was running. At him. And she wasn't smiling. Oh, no, did she hear? How could she have heard? But she must have heard--because look at her come-!
Tris took Tenchi's advice. He tossed down his microphone--that is, his trowel--and ran. This time he ran to the edge of the lawn and encountered the woodland beyond. He plunged into it. He'd try a little camouflage, as well as speed, this time.
Kiyone stopped as soon as she saw Tris disappear into the wooded area. She turned and smiled at Tenchi, who was standing a little distance away with the lawn mower.
Tenchi appeared disconcerted. "Kiyone, if you're upset about Tris's singing...well, I've put up with it for months, you know. You really shouldn't get upset--"
"I'm not upset...now." Kiyone smiled again. "It was just a stupid song. That big stiff probably thought we couldn't hear him." She turned and stared walking back toward the house.
"Uh...Kiyone?"
Kiyone stopped and faced Tenchi again. "Yes, Tenchi?"
"What about...you know, Tris?"
"Oh, him. He'll come back. He won't miss dinner, the greedy boy. Just tell him to come see me when he comes out of there." She flashed another smile at him and left.
Tenchi watched Kiyone go. She seemed rather pleased for some reason. After a moment, he shrugged and stared mowing again.
By dinner time, as Kiyone predicted, Tris was back, with only a few scratches from branches and a chigger bite or two to record his sojourn in the Masaki timberlands. Kiyone applied iodine to his scratches and smiled with satisfaction as he yelped at the sting of the medicine. But she kissed him for every yelp, so he figured he broke even on that deal. Mihoshi asked him to sing the song again, a request instantly squelched by Kiyone.
Ryoko repeatedly patted Tris on the back and laughing. Tris reflected that, if nothing else, he had brightened the existence of the premier space pirate of the galaxy. Princess Ayeka at first give him the fish eye, but eventually moderated her stance. Sasami just smiled and smiled at him.
* * *
As he walked down the stone steps, Tris wasn't thinking about his abused legs or lungs. He was thinking about Kiyone. Her behavior the last day or so had been puzzling, to say the least.
Last evening, as they had watched that cooking show with the galloping chef, Kiyone had cuddled up against him, very soft and warm...which had been wonderful, as always. But she had just sat there, looking at him, rather than at the program. At least he had that impression.
At length, she had taken a few strands of her silken teal hair and playfully tickled his ear. She had chuckled softly when he had tried to brush her hair away. Then she had gently kissed his ear and whispered, "You know, I can cook too, Tris." He had nodded, although he had seen no evidence of that at her apartment back on planet Vestra. Then Kiyone had kissed his neck, little whisper kisses, as he had tried to watch the tube. When he had turned his head toward her, she had chuckled again and whispered, "Would you like me to cook you something, Tris?" Which had surprised the heck out of him. Kiyone, cook a meal...for him?
All he had been able to do then was mutter, "Uh, sure...that'd be nice." Kiyone had then appeared to think a moment, her hand stroking his neck. "What would you like me to cook?" she had whispered. "Remember, I'm a career woman, Tris. Nothing too elaborate." Tris, of course, had had no idea of what to suggest. The notion of Kiyone cooking for anyone but herself seemed fairly novel in itself. He had tried to come up with something he thought she could cook without too much hassle, and Kiyone had gotten impatient. "Well, what would you want?" Tris kept thinking, hard. Fish cakes? Rice and vegetable pilaf? He had looked at the TV screen. Lasagna? "You just don't think I can cook, do you?" Kiyone had asked and her voice was less tender and a bit louder. Mihoshi, sitting next to her on the couch, had turned to look at them. "Um, no, I'm just thinking," he had temporized. "Well, think faster, you," Kiyone had replied, nettled. Tris had thought furiously. "Right. Ummm..." He still had no idea why he had made the silly suggestion, but, under pressure, he had replied, "Well...how about a pizza?" That had earned him a fairly stiff jab in the side. He had yelped, and Tenchi, Sasami, Ryoko, and Ayeka, seated on the other couch, had turned their heads toward him.
"Uh, I'm really allergic to oregano," Tris had quickly explained, motioning toward the TV where the hard-charging chef was tossing in the seasonings for the lasagna. "It gives me a pain."
"You give us a pain, Tris," Ryoko had grumbled. "Be quiet, will you?"
"Will do," Tris had said contritely.
Then everything--and everybody--had settled down. Kiyone had gotten over her ire rather quickly. She had kissed his cheek and whispered, "I'm sorry darling. You just think about something you'd like me to cook for you and then tell me. Okay?"
"Okay," he had murmured, relieved.
She had then cuddled against him again. She had also resumed the practice of alternately studying him and kissing and caressing him. When the program had ended, and Tenchi suggested they all go to bed--an excellent suggestion, of course, they were all beat--Kiyone had held him back while everyone else drifted off to their respective beds. Then she had stood up from the couch, pulling him up with her, and said, "It'd be nice if we didn't have to part like this every night...wouldn't it?" He had been flummoxed by the question. She had smiled then and kissed him tenderly. "You just think about that, darling." After another gentle and sweet kiss, she had left him standing there. It had been a little while before he felt like going to his and Tenchi's bedroom, where he had found Tenchi already sacked out in bed, reading.
The whole incident was perplexing. It wasn't how Kiyone usually acted around him. Perhaps the topsy-turvy events of the past few days-- learning the horrible truth about that Klove character, and that her fellow cops were conducting a cover-up of the case, along with facing likely dismissal over the hacking incident--yeah, likely that was it. If anyone's plate was full, it was Kiyone's. Full to overflowing. She was terribly upset, her nerves were on edge, and she just trying to be sweet to him and not let all the bad things drag her down. Actually, to tell the truth, he had almost welcomed the jab. It was just so--so Kiyone--and assurance that she was still her two-fisted self. She would need all that combativeness, Tris was convinced, in the days ahead.
He had explained his conclusions to Tenchi last night after he had turned the lights off and slipped into his pallet. Tenchi had seemed relieved when Tris explained that he had been off the beam completely about suspecting Kiyone of matrimonial motives. Tenchi had then repeated his original Kiyone Advisory-she was completely dedicated to her career and if and when she got her rank back and was reassigned elsewhere, she'd be gone for good.
Tris had listened in silence. There had been nothing to say. Tenchi was right. It was just a summer romance-actually, a spring romance-and it would fade once he and Kiyone went their separate ways. Although Tris knew it would take a long time for it to fade for him.