I do not own any of the Tenchi Muyo characters and I am not making any money from writing this story. I am writing this story for the fun of it, so please don't sue me. Thank you.

Shogun Muyo - Chapter 12: Tormented Souls

Two great doors leading to the great hall open, Sasami, Daimyo, and Mihoshi are walking around the castle taking in the sights of the royal palace of Jurai. As they pass through the doors, they walk into a garden that had one of those mazes shaped from the brush.

"Oh, wow, this place is so beautiful!" Mihoshi chimed.

"Yeah, I used to come to this garden to play with my mother or Ayeka. It's still the way that I remember it." The princess added, seeming to drift off into her memories.

"Do you want to show me the maze Sasami? I would love to see it." Mihoshi asked.

Sasami looked at Daimyo to see if he wanted to walk inside of the maze, but he didn't seem to be there with them. Since the fight yesterday he seemed to be distancing himself more from them. He seemed to be becoming like he was when they first found him at the house on earth. She had to try something.

"Hey Daimyo, did you want to go into the garden with us?" Sasami invited.

Daimyo didn't answer; he just looked away from her. She felt her face sadden at his response to her attempt to get him to cheer up. She never liked it when people she knew were unhappy and she couldn't do anything to cheer them up.

"Come on Sasami, you can show me around the garden and Daimyo can stay here." Mihoshi broke the silence. "It'll be fun."

"Alright." Sasami barely agreed.

Mihoshi takes Sasami's hand and begins joyfully running toward the entry to the maze. Sasami looks back toward Daimyo as she is dragged behind Mihoshi. As the two girls disappear into the maze, Daimyo is left alone with his thoughts.

He looked at the people who were tending to the garden in the room. He noticed that they didn't seem to tense up at all around the small princess. Didn't they fear doing something wrong that would offend the princess, which would cause them punishment? He couldn't understand why the strongest people of the planet were in power, but there wasn't any struggles for power, no war zones or destruction to any buildings. His world was so different from this one. Why did his people end up in misery and this planet was prosperous and peaceful.

* I just can't understand what happened to my people. Sure there was disagreement when the emperor took power and there was a civil war which has still split his world. But this world, the people seemed to just accept these people as their rulers. These people would probably think they were better than mine if they ever saw his world. *

His thoughts were stopped when he noticed one of the people in the room seemed to be looking at him. No, he wasn't just looking he was staring at him. The man saw the small jewel on Daimyo's forehead and seemed to be intrigued with it. Daimyo took his staring the wrong way.

"What are you looking at?!!" He snapped at the gardener.

The gardener was visibly shaken by Daimyo's sudden outburst to his staring. He backed up and quickly walked away from him.

* That is what I am to these people. Nothing more than a savage animal in their eyes! *

Daimyo turns back to the bench he was sitting on and releases his anger in a drop kick to the bench. The bench crumbles to the ground as it is split in half by the force of Daimyo's blow. He looks around to see the few people around cautiously looking at him. Feeling the built up frustration that was bottling inside of him, he kicked at a part of the bench laying on the ground as he walked toward the door.

Sasami emerges from the exit end of the maze, she rushed out of the maze when she heard the commotion in the area. She saw Daimyo violently pushing open the doors and walking back inside the palace. Mihoshi follows Sasami out of the maze, but doesn't see Daimyo's exit.

"What was causing all that noise out here?" Mihoshi asked in her innocent tone of voice.

"Daimyo." Sasami whispers in sadness.

"Hey, what's wrong Sasami? You look like your kind of. . . ." Mihoshi breathes in sharply. "Say Sasami, do you have feelings for Daimyo?"

Sasami's head lifts up suddenly, surprised that Mihoshi had just asked her that question. She feels her face begin to blush as she tries to hid it with her hands on her face.

"Oh my, Sasami you have a crush on Daimyo don't you?"

"Mihoshi, please don't say it so loud." She asked looking around the area to see if anyone heard the detective first class.

"Oh that's so adorable. A first love." Mihoshi brings her hands together and stares dreamily into the air.

"Please Mihoshi, don't tell anyone. Everyone will just tell me I'm to young to know what love is. Please promise you won't say anything."

"Well I think you should know what love is Sasami, everyone knows what it feels like. Don't worry, I won't say anything, I promise." Mihoshi finished with a small giggle.

Sasami releases a sigh of relieve. "Thank you Mihoshi. I think we should go find Daimyo now, I think something is bothering him, but he won't tell me what's wrong."

"Ok, we'll go find him. And don't worry too much about Daimyo, I'm sure he'll tell you what's wrong when he wants to talk."

Sasami nods in agreement with Mihoshi and the two head for the door to find where the wayward Daimyo had disappeared to in the palace.

******************************************

Ayeka sat alone in her room. She had spent the morning there to see if the strange dream she experienced the night before held any truth. And as the dream said, she began to gradually feel more powerful. The knowledge of how her new power worked began to enter into her mind as well. She understood what the source that fed her her new power was her anger for Voog. The more anger and hatred she felt for him, the more her power would grow.

Ayeka desired to see her new power at work. But not wanting to lose control of her power, she would do something small. She held her hands a foot apart with the palms of each hand facing each other. She concentrated on making the energy flow from her hands. At first a purple spark arced between her hands, she deepened her concentration, which resulted in the addition to several bolts of the purple lightning that was contained between her hands. A grin appeared on the eldest princesses face, she felt this power flowing freely from her. It seemed that she would indeed have her vengeance upon the creature that carried the name of Voog.
The sound of her bedroom door broke the princesses concentration. She put her hands down by her side and hoped that the person entering the room didn't hear the crackle of her power.

"Didn't you ever hear of knocking!?" The princess blurted out without seeing who it was.

She turned to the person at the door and realized that it was her aunt, lady Funaho.

"Oh, of course, I'm sorry I didn't knock before entering Ayeka. I was just wanting to see my niece since she has finally returned home. I guess my manners failed to come into mind from the joy of seeing you here again." Funaho explained.

"No, I am sorry, I should not have spoken out so harshly. It was a long trip here and I guess I am still irritable from our journey back."

"So is there no morning hug for your aunt?" She asked.

Ayeka nearly giggled like a little girl at her aunt's mocking tone. She walked over and embraced her aunt.

* Hmm, that's funny. Ayeka carries herself differently since I last saw her. But then again she has been on an extended vacation on earth. So perhaps she needs time to get back into habit. * Funaho thought to herself.

"So tell me my niece, what made you decide to come back home? I only ask because when we last met you demanded we let you remain there. Honestly I thought you and little Sasami may have had a little crush on Tenchi." Funaho said, trying to keep a straight face, knowing Ayeka would become embarrassed.

"Oh, well, I. . .I had something I had to take care of here. That and it has been a while since we have last been together, so I took this opportunity to visit with mother and father."

"Visit?" Funaho questioned raising an eyebrow. "You mean you plan on returning to earth soon?"

"Yes, but please don't tell my mother or father just yet. I was planning on telling them tonight at dinner."

"Well I suggest you spend plenty of time with your parents now so your announcement won't meet with to much objection." Funaho said in regards to Ayeka's father.

"Yes I will aunt Funaho. Thank you for agreeing to let me tell them myself."

Funaho smiles. "That my dear is what aunt's are for. Well, I should be going, there is so much work to be done when you're a queen of Jurai. I will see you later tonight at dinner." She finished walking toward Ayeka's bedroom door.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Good luck with your announcement tonight Ayeka." Funaho added from her doorway.

With her aunt's exit from her room, Ayeka walked over to a window. She looked outside to the beauty of her planet in thought.

* I won't need luck tonight. I won't let father keep me from doing what I must do. Not father, not even Tsunami herself is going to keep me from getting Voog. I will have my vengeance. * Ayeka declared, clenching her fists together.

********************************

Progressively the dreams and the sense of urgency were getting stronger by the day. The pain that accompanied the strange dreams cemented the urgency of whatever message the dreams carried within them. The problem was she had no idea what the message could be.
Today was different than the days that had passed before. She could now feel some of the pain from her dreams when she was awake. It felt like a needle poking her in the brain, but there wasn't anything that she could do to make the pain stop. The pain wasn't as bad as it felt in the dreams, but the level of pain was just a little past annoying.

"Ouch." Ryoko cried from the sudden pinch of pain. She had been lying on the living room couch doing her usual routine of being lazy. Her teeth clenched each other and fire seemed to burn in her eyes. "What is with you!" She yelled at the gems in her wrists.

* At first I thought I was just having some crazy dreams, nothing to tell anyone about. But these things are hurting me when I'm awake. I don't understand this! Why?! *

"Oouu" She cried again from the sudden feeling of pain. "Aaarrgghhh. That's it. I've had enough!"

She phased from the couch and reappeared in front of Washu's lab door. She hesitated from opening the door for a few seconds.

* I must be getting desperate if I'm going to Washu for this. Oouuu. * She thought as the pain shot again.

With the last shot of pain, she tightly grabbed the knob and opened to door. She materialized in Washu's lab around all the sea life of other planets surrounding the area.

"Washu?!" She yelled, knowing the scientist stayed within earshot of the door for announcements on when it was time to eat.

"Washu?!"

"Over here!"

Ryoko hovered in the direction Washu's voice came from. She looked past tanks to see where the small scientist was at. Passing one of the many tanks, she found Washu in her normal working conditions. She sat on her floating futon typing information into her database on her holo- computer.

"What can I do for you little Ryoko?" She asked, not breaking her concentration from her work.

"I came to get your oouu. . . .help."

Washu's typing stops. She turns around and looks at her daughter in a confused way.

"My daughter is asking for help?" She said in a distant voice. "Oh no. I should check to see that the universe isn't beginning to unravel!" She said returning to her computer and typing madly onto her keyboard.

"Hey I'm serious. Oouuch."

Washu turns to Ryoko. "So am I. By the way, what's with this new word in your vocabulary that your using. Oouuch is it?"

"Well it's not by my choice. It's these stupid gems, they've been causing me pain ever since I got all three back. Ooouuhh. And it's driving me nuts!"

"So your saying the gems are the source of your pain, eh. I'd like to help you, I really would, but I can't figure out the gems completely myself. They're a mystery to me, I can't define what their source of energy is, so I couldn't help you determine what's causing you this pain. Perhaps you can see if Tenchi could help you out."

"Huh? If you can't help me, how could Tenchi help me with these?"

"You can give him back one of the gems into the hilt of the Tenchi-ken. You can work your way down progressively with the gems to see how many of them you have to give back before this pain of yours is gone."

"Aahh. Well I guess I don't have any other choice huh?" Ryoko said rubbing the back of her head.

"None that my genius could help you with at the moment. Now if you'll excuse me I have to finish compiling this data and I would like to do it before dinner."

Ryoko turns to walk away. "Yes your majesty." She says under her breathe.

"Mother is the word you meant to use Ryoko." Washu hollered to her.

Ryoko's face cringed. "Yes mother." Ryoko said faking the pleasant face she showed her mother.

Walking back toward the door, Ryoko muttered other things under her breathe. Washu decided to ignore it all. She had work to do and little time to finish it up in.

*******************

A body of a soldier falls to the floor after he was slammed into the wall. Botaro was in the center of the training ring, having finished the exercise with five soldiers fighting him at once. He looked over the dead or seriously injured soldiers that he fought and looked at the soldiers who were present during the fight to demonstrate his point to this company of soldiers.

"Weak." He said looking over the soldiers still standing. "This company will double the exercises of it's training to get it's strength up. Our empire is being threatened at this moment and we must have all our soldiers at full strength! Am I understood?!"

A chorus of "Yes Sir's" rings throughout the training area, as the soldier's begin doing various exercises.

Botaro, satisfied enough with his soldiers renewed energy, turns to leave. Walking past the soldiers on the ground, he points to a soldier standing guard at the door.

"Clean this mess up."

"Sir." The soldier replies, saluting his superior.

As he leaves the men to keep up their appearance of strength, Botaro's mind wonders.

* My men must be at full strength, if what my father believes to be true, then I will not appear weak in his eyes if any other general's men out perform my own. If Daimyo is truly this dragon of legend, then I shall kill him with my bare hands. I shall feel my so called brothers blood cover my hands, then I will have my fathers utmost respect. * A grin appears on his face.

Feeling more confident in his abilities Botaro walked around the castle for the remainder of the day feeling eleven feet tall.

****************

Tenchi sat alone in his room, correcting a mistake that he had found in his math assignment that was given over summer vacation. The day was a quiet day, which rarely occurred as of late with all the girls in the house. His life has been turned upside down the day he disobeyed his grandfather and accidentally released Ryoko. But thinking about it now, he couldn't really picture his life going back to the way it was. Unknown to him one of the girls that possessed incredible powers phased her head through his door. She saw that his back was to her, so a playful smile found it's home on her face. She phased through the door and began floating toward him. Sinking through the floor to where her head was barely exposed to the room, she navigated around to the front of Tenchi without him noticing.

* Good, he hasn't noticed me. It's time to take a break from your homework Tenchi. * She thought with a devious grin.

As Tenchi sat at the desk writing in an answer to one of the problems, suddenly a face comes through the top of the desk looking at him.

"Hi Tenchi." She greeted coming through the desktop.

Terrified of the face suddenly appearing, Tenchi yelled, leaned back in his chair too far and fell back onto the floor. Seeing Tenchi's reaction to her playful stunt caused Ryoko to phase through the desk and get by Tenchi's side.

"Ryoko! I told you not to do that!" He yelled as soon as he realized who it was.

"Hey, com'on you're not mad are you?" She asked, helping him back up.

Remembering to be more patient with Ryoko in his promise to himself. "No."

"Hey that's great. Say Tenchi, do you happen to have your sword around?"

"Uh, yeah. I keep it here in my room. Why do you ask?"

"Could you get it out for me?" She asked, her face flashed a small amount of pain that Tenchi failed to notice.

"Alright, was there any reason why you want to see it?" He asked picking it out from the drawer in his desk.

"Yes, I would like to return a gem or two into it."

Tenchi stood there dumbfounded. "But. . .I just returned the gems to you around a week ago. Why do you want to put them back?"

Deciding that her pride came before truth, she had come up with another reason. "I really don't have a need for all three of the gems back, so I figured I'd put one back into the sword. After all I'm not used to having all this power back, do you want me to accidentally blow the house up?" She asked, knowing that she would get his cooperation after that question.

"NO! I mean. . . .no I wouldn't. So you want to return a gem back to the sword, so how do we do that?"

"Just point the sword hilt toward me and pray one of the gems returns to the sword."

"Oh, so it works both ways." He said, looking down at the sword. "That's how it works." She replied.

Closing her eyes and extending her hands out toward Tenchi, Ryoko began the transfer of one of the gems into the Tenchi-ken. Tenchi held the sword out toward her as she had instructed him to do so. The gem implanted into the base of her neck vanishes in a glow of light and appears in the hilt of the sword. Ryoko and Tenchi both open their eyes, as Ryoko waits to see if the pain that had been building up within the week has changed.

* I. . . . .I don't feel the pain. I think Washu was right. It worked! * Ryoko thought as joy found it's way onto her face.

Not thinking about it, she clings herself onto Tenchi in an unexpected reaction. Tenchi patted her back, not wanting to upset her in whatever moment that she was in.

"Oh, thanks a lot Tenchi. You did good."

Not knowing what he did to help her so much, he scratched the back of his head. "Sure, no problem."

*************************

As the elegant food was placed before her, Sasami wasn't accustomed to having the food served to her, she had grown used to cooking the food for everyone on Earth. She would have to resist the urge to help clear the table after dinner was finished, it wasn't proper for royalty to help with the servants work.

The family was at the table, Azura, Misuki, and Funaho sat together. Azura sat at the end, with both his wives sitting on opposite sides of each other. Ayeka sat next to her mother Misuki and Sasami sat net to her aunt Funaho. Daimyo's place at the table was at the other end, facing Azura.

Daimyo looked at the food that was on his plate. It looked like it would be an exquisite meal, but he noticed that there weren't any eating utensils placed where he was sitting.

He looked around the plate and even scanned side to side looking in the floor to see if they had fallen into the floor.

"Is something wrong?" Ayeka whispered to him leaning toward him.

"There aren't any chopsticks here?"

"Yes, I told the maids setting the table to forgo the chopsticks. I figured your people ate with their hands, or maybe you just stuff your faces into your food." She replied before sipping her tea.

Daimyo tightened his fist underneath the table. If it had been anyone else saying that about his people, he would have killed them. But since it was Sasami's sister, it would cause the poor child psychological damage to see her sister beaten to death in front of her.

"Some of my people can't afford to eat at all. Most people aren't as fortunate as you, your highness."

"Not my fault your people are barbarians." She retorted.

Daimyo was having trouble keeping his frustration hidden from everyone else, with Ayeka's words causing his face to snarl up, he was about to yell at her when his actions to do so were interrupted.

"So. . .Daimyo is it?" Azura spoke. "Tell me, how is it I didn't meet you when I last visited my daughters on earth?"

"He came to the house around five weeks ago father. So he came after you visited us on earth." Sasami answered.

"Oh, I see. Thank you Sasami, but I would like to speak with Daimyo for now."

"Sorry father."

"So Daimyo what planet do you come from?"

"My planets name is Draka."

"Draka? I can't say that I've heard of your world. Tell me what's your world like?"

Daimyo gave pause to answering the kings question. "Well sir, it's currently going through some hard times. But people are trying to make it better."

"You mean like war?" Azura questioned.

"With all due respect sir, I would like to change the subject on my world." Daimyo responded. He didn't like the kings questioning about his world. But he could tell that the king wanted to press the issue about his world during his last question.

"I was wanting to find out more about the man that is supposed to be body guarding my daughters. But I heard about your arrival here and you were beaten by three of our palace guards. Now I would think that someone who would be able to protect my two daughters would be able to handle three guards."

"Forgive me sir, I was caught off guard by one of the guards. It will not happen again."

"Yes it won't happen again, Ayeka and Sasami are now back home and are well protected here, so we will have someone return you to your Draka at the earliest time."

Before any reaction could be made by anyone, Ayeka made her presence in the conversation known.

"Actually father, Sasami and I were returning to Earth tomorrow."

Azura's jaw drops open from Ayeka's interruption from him speaking, as well as from the shock of her defying him in front of an off-worlder. "To return to Earth with that. . .Boy?"

"Yes father. Sasami and I are returning to Earth to stay with Tenchi. His name is Tenchi father, he isn't referred to as "That boy."

"I forbid it Ayeka. Your place is here on Jurai to find a suitable husband for yourself."

"You can forbid it all you want father, but I am going to return to Earth. I gave my word as a Jurian that I would return and I intend to make good on my promise."

Azura's fist shakes the table as he hits it. "Ayeka! You will do as I say. ." Funaho places her hand on Azura's to get him to stop for a moment.

"Husband? Perhaps we should allow Ayeka to return to Earth."

"Funaho?" He asked, why expressed across his face.

"I think Tenchi would be a great suitor for Ayeka. His heart is more caring than anyone I have ever met before and. .he is family." Funaho attempting to explain her point slowly to her surprised husband.

"I think Tenchi would be a great husband to take care of my little Ayeka. But then again if my little girl gets married. . . . . .that would mean that I'm. . . . ." Mitzuki's eyes water up. "I'm getting oolllddd!" She finishes sobbing onto her husbands shoulder.

Azura comforted his sulking wife by patting her on her shoulder, this wasn't the first time his wife cried from feeling old. The first time someone called her mam' caused her to go on a month long sulking spell. He didn't let his mind wonder back onto that month, it was incredibly hard to cheer his wife back up and run an empire at the same time.

"But that boy has nothing to offer the Jurian empire any more strength. Ayeka should wed a prince from one of the neighboring empires to help strengthen ours more. I want the best for my daughter and wedding a noble prince instead of some boy on a backwater planet."

"I'm returning to earth father, whether you like me to or not. And if you try to keep me here, I warn you, I will escape from this place and go somewhere where you will never find me and you will be publicly humiliated. Think of it father, your eldest daughter runs off to never return, wouldn't the other empires get a kick out of that? Which would sound worse, me wedding an earthling, or me leaving my home world for the rest of my life?"

There was a long pause in conversation at the table. Azura looked angered at Ayeka for talking to him that way. He was also surprised that his daughter was so bold to stand up to him like that. She had never done something like that before.

* Perhaps she has developed this disobedient behavior from that boy. I knew I shouldn't have let them remain on Earth when I first went to retrieve them. I thought Yosho could be trusted enough to teach his grandson to respect his elders. * Azura pondered.

He took a deep breath and exhaled. "Very well Ayeka, I'll let you return to Earth, but if you wed that boy without my approval. . .I won't be responsible for my actions."

"Of course. If you'll excuse me now father. I'm finished eating my dinner."

Ayeka rises from her place at the table and walks out of the dinning hall. Azura's wives each reach over and caress his hands. They do this instinctively knowing their husband would be fuming from Ayeka's boldness toward him. With Ayeka's departure, Daimyo couldn't help but feel the kings gaze fall onto him. He thought that the king would think he had given some encouragement to Ayeka to stand up to her father like that. He felt that now would probably be the best time to take his leave as well.

"Thank you very much for your hospitality and this excellent meal. If you will excuse me, I will take my leave."

Azura's gaze was upon Daimyo the entire time it took him to get up from the table and out the door of the hall. Once outside the door Daimyo felt that he was able to exhale and catch his breathe. He didn't want to insult the whole planet by giving it's emperor a black eye or two. The whole atmosphere around the emperor was nearly more than he could stand. The emperor's insults to Daimyo also made him want to leave his sight, the way he presented the insults to him was masked in normal conversation to where it would be hard to make out in small talk.

"At least now I see where Ayeka gets her kindness." He said in a whisper to himself, recalling the way she has been treating him since she meet him.

Tonight's little trick she pulled on him, with giving him a meal and no eating utensils to use wouldn't have been insulting enough, she also had the nerve to treat him like a dog. So far his little visit on Jurai was getting to him, he was glad that he was leaving this planet in the morning. Seeing this place was an insult to his planet, these people carried themselves high, as if too good for any other people.

********************

Ryoko lay atop the roof of the house of the Masaki family, lying down onto a blanket she had taken with her. She stared up into the moon filled night, letting her mind wonder on the events that have happened lately. The fight with Ayeka, her disappearance, the way the house was, not knowing what had happened to her.

* Tenchi. . .I remember that night you accidentally called me Ayeka. It was in that moment that I thought I had lost you. But then you showed me that you do want me in your life. * She thought crossing her arms across her chest, seemingly hugging herself.

Then other thoughts came disturbing her joyous thoughts of Tenchi. The thoughts that seemed to puzzle and scare her the most.

* Then again, you have been trying to tell me something. I couldn't understand what you were trying to say, but I understand the meaning of your message. * She thought while looking at the two gems in her wrists. * You were trying to tell me that a danger is coming. I don't know who or what is the cause of this danger, but I do know, that whatever it is.. . . .* She paused in her train of thought to cast her eyes toward the moon. * It lies just beyond the horizon. *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and my story thus far. If you would like to make a comment on my story, please feel free to e-mail me. All replies are welcomed.