For a while there I was thinking I'd never get to post the next chapter! Ah well, no complaints. Anyway, I really want to thank you all for the absolutely splenderific reviews! Oh, and I think I'll stick with the "post after five reviews" thing, if that's all right with you all… -sweat drop-

My unofficial disclaimer: Sorry in advance for any OOC-ness, liberties taken with the original plot, and/or contrivance/clichés. Also, I'm sorry if the particular pairing in here isn't your cup of tea. Um, did I get it all? XD

And without further ado, I present to you: Chapter Two!

-2-

"Wh—What's going on here?" Kiyone spoke slowly as she stared around at all of the occupants of the room. She then placed her head in her hands and shook it softly, as if to dispel the memory from her mind that she had tried to forget for so long.

Washu and Ryoko looked ashamedly away, and Mihoshi and Sasami's eyes welled up with tears. Tenchi tried to hold back his own tears as he placed his head in his hands as well. Feelings of guilt and sadness washed over him, and he knew he wouldn't be able to live with himself for a long time.

"Kiyone," Ayeka began as grief seeped into her gentle voice, "I'm so sorry—"

"I don't need your pity!" Kiyone spat out furiously as she stood up with shaking fists by her sides. She gritted her teeth vehemently while trying to suppress her own tears. With an infuriated shake of her head, Kiyone rapidly made her way out of the room as everybody else stared after her morosely.

The room stayed silent for a short time while all of its occupants tried to make sense of the terrible images they had just seen. After a moment, Tenchi stood up abruptly and said in a dangerously quiet voice with his head turned from everybody, "We have just done a horrible, horrible thing. We shouldn't have stayed in here and watched that." Without another word, he too ran out of the room.

Tenchi quickly wiped a tear off with his finger as he sprinted out of the house. He couldn't bear the broken Kiyone he just saw, and he knew he'd do anything in his power to help piece her together again. Luckily, he knew exactly where she was heading.

Tenchi came to a halt after he broke through the trees into the clearing where the Juraian Tree stood majestically in its crystalline pond. Sure enough, Kiyone sat beneath it with her arms hugging her legs towards her. He carefully made his way over the stepping-stones before coming to a stop in front of the silently sobbing woman.

He stood quietly before her for a moment with worry etched into his features as he took in the sight of her bowed head and shaking shoulders. To make his presence known to the oblivious woman, he gently remarked, "I thought I might find you here. I've noticed that you've been coming here a lot lately."

Kiyone looked up with surprise at the young man standing in front of her before softly replying with her head turned away from him, "Please, Tenchi. I really don't want to talk right now."

"We don't have to talk," he answered promptly as he sat down beside her and looked towards her, "but I did want to let you know that I'm truly sorry we invaded your privacy like that. We had no right to be there."

Kiyone shook her head and replied, "Don't worry about it; it doesn't matter." She continued to stare away from the young man sitting beside her and fell silent again.

Tenchi nodded gratefully while shifting his gaze to take in the crystal-clear waters of the pond, and he said nothing more either.

They sat in the smothering silence for a long time, and the quiet seemed to hang in the air above them. After a while, Kiyone sighed sadly and looked over at Tenchi.

"You know, for a long time I was convinced that they were alive," she spoke listlessly. Tenchi looked at her, surprised that she had opened up, but he didn't dare speak. "I mean; they were the best of the best, you know? I figured they had made some daring escape and were on their way home. But then a patrolling squad found the remnants of their ship."

Kiyone looked down as tears formed in the corners of her eyes, but she pressed on with her story. "I didn't speak for weeks, literally. I walked from class to class without uttering a word. At first, my superiors tried to get me to open up, but they eventually gave up after I'd just stare at them."

She then looked out at the water and said with a bitter laugh and a shake of her head, "Mihoshi appointed herself as my new best friend immediately. She filled the void of my silence with her incessant talking." Kiyone laughed humorlessly once more and turned to face Tenchi. "After three weeks of listening to her endless chattering, I suddenly threw my books down to the floor in the middle of the hallway, grabbed her by the neck, and shook her while I screamed, 'shut up!'"

They both chuckled at this and stared out at the pond as the sound echoed above the water. Once their laughter died down, the clearing fell silent once more. However, this was a comfortable silence rather than the oppressive one from before.

Suddenly, Kiyone stood up and reached a hand down to help Tenchi up. As he grasped it, she squeezed his hand tenderly and said with a small smile, "Thanks for listening, Tenchi." He beamed in return, and they then began making their way back to the house.

Kiyone's heart was still heavy with sorrow, but she realized that Tenchi had helped her begin the process of overcoming it. I can't believe it's taken me thirteen years to start to come to terms with their deaths, she thought with a bit of wonder. And I can't believe Mihoshi's idiocy led me to finally shed the tears that I've held back for so long. She felt a sweat drop form on her head in response to that thought.

When they had broken through the trees into the clearing where the Masaki house stood, Tenchi stopped and turned to face her. "I want to let you know that I'll do everything in my power to keep you from being sad, Kiyone," Tenchi told her seriously, "I don't ever want to see you cry again." He then flashed her a quick grin before heading off to the house while Kiyone stood still and watched him.

He's such a good kid, she thought with a smile of her own. Then she amended that thought, No, I take that back; he's a good man. With a slight flush of her cheeks, Kiyone tried to keep her thoughts from going astray as she followed after him to the house.

Oh, who am I kidding? The teal-haired woman groused to herself as she stared at his back. Of course I have feelings for him. I'd have to be blind, deaf, and dumb to resist his charms.

I'd be crazy to act on those feelings though, she continued glumly. Not only is he possibly the most powerful person in the universe, but he's also got two gorgeous girls fighting for his attention.

So it's probably just a minor crush, right? She then added as she began to feel ridiculous, a minor crush that's lasted a year…?

The policewoman's internal musings were interrupted when a distraught Sasami attempted to greet her when she entered the house. She frantically bowed and spluttered, "Kiyone, I'm so sorry about what happened! I mean; I'm not sorry about your parents—even though I really am. But I don't want you to feel like I feel sorry for you, and I'm sorry about well…watching it?" Sasami ended her outburst with a confused expression on her face and asked, "D, do you understand my meaning?"

Kiyone laughed and ruffled the young girl's hair with her hand. "Quite frankly," she began, "I have no idea what you just said, but please don't worry. You're fine, Sasami."

A relieved grin split on the princess's and she bowed one more time while answering, "Thank you so much, Kiyone!" She then turned and headed towards the kitchen while grumbling, "Well, I better get back to the grind. Lunch doesn't cook itself, you know."

Sasami was in the doorframe when she turned around suddenly and exclaimed, "Oh, I'm supposed to tell you that Washu wants to see you! She said it was important." With a shrug, the overworked princess entered the kitchen, leaving Kiyone alone in the living room.

I wonder what she wants to see me about, the police officer mused while making her way towards the pint-sized professor's lab. I suppose she wants to see if I regained all of my memories.

"Ah, Kiyone," Washu cried once the teal-haired woman entered the lab. "I rarely—well, never actually—say sorry, but I really want to apologize for my behavior. Normally I'd say it's all in the name of science, but I realized I took it way too far, and I'm sorry." Washu then made a deep bow, even for her miniscule height.

The police officer smiled and waved her off, "Geez, I've been hearing a lot of that lately! Seriously, what's done is done."

"So I'm forgiven?" Washu asked confusedly.

Kiyone gave her a reassuring grin and replied, "Yes, of course."

Washu wiped the sweat off her brow and sighed in relief. She then turned around promptly and began to type on her computer as she sat in a chair that had materialized beneath her. "Well now that that's out of the way, I really did have something important to tell you." An image of her parents on the ship appeared on a large projector screen, and Kiyone's eyes widened as her heart gave a painful lurch.

"I'm sorry to bring this image up, and I promise I'm going to delete it," the pink-haired professor apologized without turning from her computer, "but there's something really important that I thought I'd show you." Kiyone averted her gaze from the screen and gave a slow nod.

"Here it is," Washu stated after she hit one more key. The screen zoomed in closer and closer to an area left of Megumi's shoulder. It finally rested on a small mirror that the teal-haired woman hadn't noticed before. Washu then pressed another button, and the image in the mirror proceeded to take up the whole screen before them.

"What? What is this?" Kiyone gasped as the reflection in the mirror enlarged on the screen. "But that's, that's a Juraian ship!"

The genius scientist rested her chin on her fist and hit a key with the other. A piece of paper wafted down from the ceiling, and she grabbed it as it floated past. She then stared at the printout of the imposing Juraian battleship with a questioning gaze and a furrowed brow.

After staring at it for a moment, she spoke, "Honestly, Kiyone, I have no idea what it means. But trust me when I say I'm going to look into the matter extensively. Of course I'm interested in it because of my ridiculously insatiable curiosity about everything and their mother, but mostly I want to do this for you."

She offered the paper to Kiyone, and the still-stunned woman grabbed it tentatively. Washu nodded reassuringly, "Don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of this—for your parents' sakes." With that, Washu turned back to her keyboard and resumed her perpetual typing.

Kiyone made her way out of the lab in a daze while she stared at the picture of the ship that had killed her parents. She walked past the bathroom as it opened up, and she turned to see Ayeka, Ryoko, and Mihoshi coming out.

"Oh, Kiyone!" Mihoshi cried as her eyes welled up with tears in preparation for one of her wailing sessions. "You're all right!" The ditzy woman hugged her hard and proceeded to squeeze the life out of her.

The beleaguered woman carefully untangled herself from Mihoshi without a glance towards her. She purposely strode towards Ayeka and asked determinedly, "Ayeka, may I have a word?"

"Why, of course, Kiyone," the princess responded somewhat apprehensively. Ryoko shrugged and phased out of the room, and Mihoshi went off in the direction of Washu's lab muttering something about finding a toy to play with, having forgotten all about her partner ignoring her.

The policewoman and the princess sat down on the fluffy pink couch and Ayeka began, "Kiyone, I really want to apologize for my dreadful behavior." Then, she added heatedly, "Of course I'm not surprised Ryoko invaded your privacy like that, but—"

"Really, Ayeka; it's fine. I'm fine," Kiyone interrupted before she could begin one of her tirades denouncing Ryoko, with whom the princess associated all things unholy. "I actually just wanted to ask you if you recognize this ship at all." She held up the piece of paper for Ayeka to see, and the purple-haired woman began studying it.

After a moment, she replied apologetically, "I'm terribly sorry, but I honestly can't say that I've seen that ship before. Why do you ask?"

Kiyone looked away and answered listlessly, "Washu concluded that that was the ship that destroyed my parents." The woman was surprised when Ayeka abandoned her composed and proper pretenses as she hugged her fiercely.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," the princess said sympathetically while still embracing her. "Why would a Juraian battleship do such a horrendous thing?"

Kiyone began to get up and replied with a resolute air, "That's what I'm trying to find out. Thank you for your help." She stood up and started towards the door when Ayeka stopped her.

"Wait, Kiyone," the purple-haired woman called meekly, "I—well I, I just wanted to let you know that I really do know what you're going through. I lost my father when I was very young too, and I'll be here if you need someone to talk to." Kiyone smiled appreciatively at the normally snobbish princess's compassion.

"Well, on second thought, I may not be the best person to talk to," Ayeka continued, "because I really never cared for the man very much anyway—neither did the throne." She covered her mouth with a hand, surprised at her for revealing such information to someone that she rarely spoke to. "Oh my, please forget I said that!"

Kiyone sat back down and placed a hand on the princess's shoulder. "Why didn't you like him very much?" She asked in a tone that suggested she wasn't trying to pry.

"Please don't get me wrong, Kiyone! It's not that I hated him or that he ever did anything to me, Heaven forbid!" Ayeka began frantically, "I don't really know how to explain it, quite honestly, but I always seemed to get an ominous feeling around him. And of course, as I said, the throne absolutely detested the man."

"The…throne?" Kiyone blinked as she asked with a confused tone. "What do you mean by that?"

The princess regarded the woman's bewildered expression with a puzzled one of her own before realization hit her. "Oh, of course! Sorry, I know that sounded like nonsense," she apologized, "that is something most people don't know about."

Kiyone nodded, waiting for her to continue. "Well, a lesser-known facet of the Jurai power is the ability to hear trees' thoughts. It only works with Juraian trees, of course." Ayeka explained. "I happen to have a more developed sense of it than others, so I could even hear the throne's thoughts." She placed a hand to her mouth and giggled, "Oh my, you should have heard that poor throne's indignant rants about the 'jackass with the fat ass!' Please excuse my language, of course."

The policewoman and the princess shared a conspiratorial laugh, and Kiyone stood up once more. With a small smile, she said appreciatively, "Thank you very much, Ayeka; you've been a great help. If you'll excuse me." She then made her way out of the door. The purple-haired woman waved after her and returned the grin with one of her own, realizing that the talk had somehow helped her a great deal as well.

——————

"I feel so stupid," Kiyone muttered to herself when she realized that she was about to try to listen to a tree. The police officer was standing in front of the majestic Juraian Tree, staring up at it with a foot tapping quickly in frustration.

Well, here goes nothing, she thought while feeling completely ridiculous and wondering why she was even bothering. Kiyone walked up to the tree and shrugged in resignation before touching her forehead lightly against the ancient bark. She stood with her eyes closed like that for a few moments, but soon one of her eyes began to twitch as irritation bubbled up inside of her.

What the hell am I doing? Kiyone groused with growing impatience. Why in hell am I trying to hear a freaking tree? What could have possibly possessed me to test this idiotic theory?

However, her inner grumbling ceased immediately when the tree took the liberty to answer her.