Tenchi wiped the sweat off his brow, then looked at his watch. It was a quarter past four in the afternoon. Tenchi had spent almost the entire day replanting seeds, and harvesting grown carrots. He was almost ready for the trek home. It was a cool day, ideal because of all the physical strain Tenchi endured, almost twelve hours worth. He picked up the basket full of his harvest and started heading in the direction of his house. The landscape displayed dazzling shades of green and the sky was solid blue with not a cloud in the sky. It was in the middle of July and the sights of summer began to display its marveling beauty. This walk home, was his time to think. He thought about a lot of things. He would be starting post-graduate school in a few months. He heard all about collage life and how it was much different than high school. He was excited that he was beginning to build the foundations of his life to come as an adult. However, no matter how many things he thought about, they always brought him back to one thing.

I wonder what's up with her.

Since Ayeka brought up her observations to him, he grew increasingly concerned. Tenchi stopped for a moment. He looked up and saw a flock of birds land in a large tree beside the road. They chirped loudly and fluttered around the tree. One bird flew away, then the others followed in the distance – he continued his walk. He told himself that Ryoko is strong and can handle herself, but something was itching him to learn more. He knew her for almost two years, yet it seemed like he knew nothing about her. Perhaps there was a vulnerability of her he never knew about. He wished now that perhaps she would open up to him more, but then he put that thought aside realizing that will never happen, at least in front of him – she wouldn't want to appear weak to him. He was close to his house now, he saw the stone path begin as he knew it would end at the shrine steps. He finally reached the shed where he dropped off his load and then headed for the house. When he got to the porch, he saw Washu lounging on a lawn chair over looking the lake. She was in casual summer attire, sipping a tall glass of lemonade.

"Hey there." She said to Tenchi as he took his gloves off and stuffed them in his back pockets.

"How's it going?" he answered.

"It's going." she muttered.

"It's a beautiful day out. Nice to finally get out of the heat for a bit." he smiled as he caught a gust of cool wind massaging his exhausted body. The bliss of simple nature's beauty however, could not tame his thoughts. He tried to think of a conversation starter, maybe Washu would know if there is a problem. He thought and though, alas nothing came to him. His mind was racing, he heard his mind whispering inside his head,

What are you going to do? What caused this? You know the right thing to do. How can you help? What if she's in trouble?

"Tenchi... Teeennchhii... Tenchi!"

Tenchi jumped. Washu was standing right in front of him.

"What's the matter? You looked like you blacked out, and your sweating like a hard boiled egg." Washu stated with concern.

Tenchi sighed, "I'm fine it's just..." he trailed off.

"Just what?"

Tenchi grumbled, at a loss for words.

"Washu," he started, "do you know what's been up with Ryoko? She's hasn't been herself lately."

"Hmm... I wouldn't know." she said as she turned around, facing her back to him.

"Washu, please, I just want to put my mind to rest – if you know anything..." he sighed again.

Washu hesitated for a second, then turned back around.

"Why don't you go and ask her?" she said.

"Huh?"

"That's right – maybe you need to talk to her about it yourself."

"Washu, I don't know know what you're talking about." Tenchi said sternly.

"Just have a discussion with her if it's bothering you so much."

"I can't."

"Tenchi, time to handle this like a man – men aren't afraid of monsters."

"What? You're making no sense."

For a few moments, there was silence – both of them were at a loss for words. Washu then started towards the door.

"I've got to get back to lab, lots of work to do..." she trailed off.

"Hey, wait a minute Washu!" Tenchi called after her.

"Heh." That was all she muttered as the screen door to the house closed behind her.

Tenchi stood there, even more confused then ever.

Good going Sherlock, now the mystery's gotten deeper.

Tenchi tried to think back, maybe the past held some answers.

"Think Tenchi." he said to himself.

He walked over and lied down on the lawn chair, staring into the clouds in the sky.

"My mind is a blank. Oh well, it can't be that bad – whatever happened. Ryoko seems content to me."

What's the use? I can't think it out of existence no matter how hard I try.

He stood up and looked at his watch. It was almost dinner time.

"Gah, I'm not even that hungry – not with all this drama."

It was after dinner and everyone went their separate ways to unwind for the night. Tenchi went up to his room to finish his school work. He walked past his father's study, and stopped for a second. He peered inside and seen a notebook lying on the desk. He walked towards the desk and scooped up the notebook and opened it. It was all blank and unused. Tenchi shrugged and headed back to his room. He sat down on his desk and started to pull out all his materials. He sighed and opened one of his textbooks.

"Oh math, how exciting. I hope all of this isn't on the entrance exams. Oh well, gotta study if I'm going to make it." he muttered to himself.

A while later, Tenchi heard footsteps out in the hall, then a big yawn.

"Ryoko? What is she doing up so late? Hopefully she won't go and try to sneak into my room."

However the footsteps suddenly ended, and was followed by the sound of a door shutting.

"Huh? She's in Dad's study."

Tenchi stood up firmly, and walked quietly out into the hallway. He tip toed in the shadows towards the door to his father's study. Then, with extreme caution, he turned the door knob slowly and cracked the door and peeked in. There in front of him, sat Ryoko at the desk writing in a notebook, just as Ayeka described.

"What the..." Tenchi whispered, then sighed, "What do I think I'm doing? I should respect her privacy."

Tenchi walked toward his room a few steps and stopped. He thought of an excuse to go in there. Maybe he can get her to open up. He walked back and opened the door. Ryoko jumped and swiveled around to face him.

"Oh, hey Ryoko, what are you doing here?"

Ryoko's eyes fell on the floor – she was dumfounded on what to say.

She cleared her throat, "I was just bored and wanted to read some books, that's all."

"Read some books, at three in the morning?"

"Sure – takes the pressure off."

Pressure? What kind of pressure?

Tenchi peered over Ryoko's shoulder to the notebook on the desk sitting behind her. Ryoko's face grew tense and twitchy.

"That's all you were doing in here, reading books? You're not giving me the whole story, I can tell."

Ryoko stood firm and straight, "Heh, you can tell? Well, I'm just reading books, is that a crime? Or maybe I just feel like sitting in here?"

Tenchi's voice grew soft, "Your left eye is twitching, and you're twirling your hair."

Ryoko froze, wide eyed. Tenchi continued, "A couple of us have noticed that you come up here every now and then. It's just strange, I was only curious. Well, don't stay up too late okay? Night."

"Tenchi?" Ryoko called after him.

"Yes?" he replied.

Ryoko hesitated and sighed, "Oh, nothing. Good night."

Ryoko averted her eyes as Tenchi stepped out into the hallway and started back toward his room. He knew he couldn't gather all the information tonight. If only he could get his hands on that notebook, he might find some clues. Ryoko was frozen, as she stood, thoughts shot through her head. She clenched her fist and tossed the notebook across the room. She fell to her knees with the same blank look on her face.

"I can't be like this anymore." she said to herself, "I know what I need to do if I ever want to feel normal."

The next morning was dark and cloudy. The humidity had set in the air, as it seemed that the sky itself would explode into monsoon. Tenchi had just finished getting himself ready for the day, he headed down the steps into the living room, rubbing the sand out of his eyes.

Noboyuki was on the couch watching the morning news, "Hey Tenchi, come and look at this." he said.

Tenchi walked towards the television and watched along with his father. On the screen stood a young looking female reporter. In the background there were police scattered everywhere. The reporter spoke, "About five A.M. last night, witnesses claimed they heard a explosion rippling though a forest ten miles north of Tokyo. Police arrived on the scene and found a large crater two kilometers in diameter and around 300 meters deep. Experts are stumped as to the cause of the crater and the explosion. No meteors with the size and mass big enough to create such a dent were detected or recorded by scientists last night, so for now, the crater's origin remains a mystery."

Breakfast was ready and everyone was called down. The table was full of all kinds of delicious things to eat. The aroma was hypnotizing. Mihoshi looked especially anxious as her stomach growled with anticipation.

"Look at all this glorious food!" she said, "Well time to dig in!"

When she reached for a plate, Sasami interrupted her.

"Mihoshi," Sasami gestured, "we need to wait until everyone is at the table."

"But I'm hungry Sasami." Mihoshi whimpered.

"We're still missing Ryoko." Sasami replied.

"Why should we wait for her?" Ayeka said sternly.

Sasami frowned, "Sister..."

"I'm sorry, let's wait a while longer."

Ten minutes passed, and Ryoko was still missing. Then Tenchi's stomach growled.

"Gah, the food is getting cold." he said, "I'm sure she wouldn't mind if we started without her."

Everyone started grabbing food like hotcakes right off the press. Washu however, was not eating much, she looked lost in thought.

Tenchi turned to Washu, "How are you doing? You aren't eating much today."

Washu turned back, "I'm fine, just a lot on my mind right now."

"Well," Tenchi motioned, "eat up, there's a lot left, wouldn't want it to go to waste."

After breakfast, Tenchi went upstairs to continue his studies, he headed for his room when he seen Washu sitting by his door waiting for him.

"Tenchi," she said, "I'd like a word with you."

"Um, okay." he replied with a confused tone.

"Your room, just the two of us." she gestured towards the door.

Tenchi and Washu went inside and shut the door. Tenchi sat at his desk and Washu sat on his bedside. Washu cleared her throat.

"Tenchi, I'm concerned." she said.

"About what?" Tenchi said, still confused.

"It's Ryoko. I can't sense her anymore."

"What do you mean you can't sense her Washu?"

"You know that I have a mental connection with her. I can read her thoughts, I can see what she sees, and if I try, I can feel what she feels. Now it's like she doesn't exist anymore."

"Huh? What are you getting at with all this?"

"Ryoko can block my connection, I feel a heavy resistance when she does. I can't connect with her now, yet I don't feel any resistance. It's like I'm trying to connect with dead air. Tenchi, if I am right, then that explosion this morning that is all over the news is no mere coincidence. It happened just as I lost touch with her."

"Huh? Is she okay?"

"I don't know."

"God, this is all my fault, if I just talked to her last night instead of accusing her, this wouldn't have happened."

"Tenchi, don't beat yourself up over this. There was nothing you could do at this point to stop this. Even if you have spoken with her."

"Yeah, I could have done something Washu – I could have treated her like a human being instead of an alien. Me and her are very different, I am a serious person, she isn't. She jokes around and gets rough with me and then I get upset. I really didn't think these things affected her so much because she seemed to just brush them off naturally."

"Ryoko may seem strong on the outside, but she is delicate on the inside. She is very prideful – she would sooner get shot then show you her vulnerable side."

"Washu, the notebook, do you know anything about it? It might have some clues as to what's happening."

"Yes, I told her that she should write a journal to help her cope with her issues."

"So you knew that something was wrong with her, and you didn't tell me?"

"Tenchi, I told you to talk with her about it."

Tenchi sighed, "Yeah, I know. That's why it's my responsibility to set things right. Washu, do you have any idea on what kinds of issues she was having?"

"I think that is something you need to investigate on your own. I cannot speak for her."

"Well, I think I need to try to find her first."

The room was silent. Both Tenchi and Washu were staring at the ground, in deep thought.

"Tenchi," Washu started, "I think you should read her journal, maybe that will help you."

"I don't know Washu, that isn't really my business."

"I think it is your business. I insist that it is."

Tenchi sighed, "Well, I guess my work is cut out for me. I better get started."

"Tenchi?"

"Yes?"

"Please do your best to try to reach her. While you're doing that I will do some investigating of my own. I'd like to know what really caused that crater. Please keep me in the loop on your progress, okay?"

"I will."

Washu stood up and left Tenchi's room.

"Well, I guess I need to find Ryoko's journal in Dad's study."

Tenchi headed out of his room and into the study. He looked through the desk, the bookshelf, and in all the boxes piled in the closet to no avail, he could not find Ryoko's journal anywhere. He threw his arms up in the air and plopped on the office chair.

"Damnit, this is hopeless." he shouted.

Tenchi stared at the ceiling as he thought. Then he seen something out of the corner of his eye. There was something poking out from behind the desk. He stood up to get it. Sure enough, it was her journal. He could tell, it was her hand writing. There was a rumble from outside, it had started to storm. Rain drops were hitting the window inside the study. The air grew cold and moist. Tenchi sat down on the chair and began reading on the first page of the journal. At first it just recorded simple things in her life. Things such as what she did on a daily basis, what she ate and when she went to bed. However as the entries in the journal progressed, it started to get increasingly emotional. Until he seen one large journal entry, which was her last one. Tenchi started reading.

My name is Ryoko, former space pirate, legendary demon, supposed daughter, a monster...

Tenchi's body grew tense, "Ryoko," he said to himself, "now I will understand what you're going through, I hope I can make it right between us. This is my responsibility now."