Disclaimer: Characters and concepts from "Tenchi Muyo!" were created by Kajishima Masaki, and are Copyright AIC and Pioneer LDC. This work is a parody and not to be used for any commercial purposes.
Personal History, Ch. II
Eventually, the time arrived for the day's lesson. Ayeka, as was her habit, arrived early at the door to Washu's lab. Usually she waited patiently, but today she was anxious, fidgeting with the sleeve of her robe.
Finding a place with enough privacy to hold the sessions had required some effort. Ayeka shared her room with Sasami, so that was out. Ryoko's room was too open, and not kept as clean as Ayeka wanted. It wasn't fair to close the floating onsen to everyone else, especially not to Tenchi since he worked so hard growing Ryo-Ohki's carrots and often needed a bath afterwards. Finally, Ayeka and Ryoko had broken down and asked Washu to create a compartment inside her lab. And the genius scientist had delivered, creating a unit capable of being configured to a wonderful variety of lighting, backgrounds and even scents.
It had also come with an array of hidden recording equipment, but Ryoko was an old hand at dealing with spying devices. In fact, she had positively enjoyed herself blasting the microphones and video gear. However, there was one final problem that even she was having trouble with.
What Ryoko showed up with this time didn't seem to be useful for detecting spy gear. Today she was carrying a length of sturdy-looking metal tubing over her shoulder. If Ayeka had not known that Ryoko preferred to fight with bare hands or energy blades she would have been worried that Ryoko intended to use it on her.
"Hello, Miss Ryoko." Ayeka's voice showed uncertainty. "May I ask what you are carrying?"
"The latest in privacy insurance." Ryoko smiled. "It's an alloy beam, like the ones Washu uses in the heavy-equipment sections of the lab. I figured since Mihoshi always causes the locks to malfunction somehow, I'd simply bar the door."
"For once, I wish you success." As Washu had found time and time again, Mihoshi turned up exactly where and when you didn't want her. High-tech locks or concealed doors seemed to be equally useless at keeping the GP detective out.
Ayeka and Ryoko made their way into Washu's lab and down the maze of corridors to their unit. (Ryoko had nicknamed it "the Passion Pit", to Ayeka's discomfort.) Ayeka undid the double cobalt-titanium alloy locks that they hadn't got around to removing yet after their failure against Mihoshi. The two stepped inside. At the moment, the unit had been configured to look much like a luxury hotel suite, with a king-size bed instead of a futon, and plush carpeting instead of tatami mats.
Ryoko put one end of her beam on the floor. "Could you make a dimple in the floor, Ayeka?"
The princess manipulated the keypad on the wall, and a shallow depression appeared a short distance from the door. Ryoko put one end of the beam into it, and then braced the other end against the door's upper panel. "That ought to hold it." Ryoko said with a satisfied expression.
"It does look really sturdy." Mihoshi's voice came from a corner of the room. Ryoko and Ayeka spun around to see the blonde getting up from an overstuffed armchair.
"How does she DO that??" Ryoko hissed to Ayeka.
"Time for plan 'b'," muttered Ayeka.
"So what are you girls up to today?" Mihoshi asked innocently.
"I'm showing Ryoko how to arrange furniture to according to the Feng Shui philosophy," Ayeka lied shamelessly. "Did you know that the direction you lie on a bed can help you feel more energy?"
"Uh, no," Mihoshi looked thoughtful, "I thought everyone had to lie horizontally."
A vein throbbed in Ayeka's forehead, and she had to take one or two deep breaths. "No, actually I meant whether you lie down with your head towards the wall, or away from the wall." She walked over to the king-size bed, and patted it. "Here, try it yourself."
"Okay." Mihoshi reclined on the inviting surface as Ayeka directed.
"Now, close your eyes," Ayeka instructed, "and visualize energy flowing through you. Imagine it as a gently flowing stream . . . "
Four minutes later, the blonde was snoring away.
"Well, that takes care of that." Ayeka said with a self-satisfied air.
"If the idea was to put her out, I could have done it a lot faster." Ryoko rubbed her knuckles.
"Your way would have disturbed the mood we were after."
"Let me point out that our resident napping champion is now occupying the bed." Ryoko waved her hand at Mihoshi's horizontal form.
"You've been known to rival her for that title. And we won't be needing the bed today." Ayeka repressed the embarrassing thought of just when they would be needing it. "For now, I wish to teach you the breathing exercises."
"Breathing exercises??" Ryoko said disdainfully. "Come on, Ayeka, don't waste time. Washu gave me the ability to go underwater or into deep space. I don't need to breathe at all."
"True, but you have the lungs for it, just as you have the ability to get energy from food as well as from the Masu or your gem." Ayeka replied calmly. They were now in an area she had taken care to learn from Washu. "I believe your hormones will work more strongly when your blood carries more oxygen."
"Okay, I guess it's worth a shot." Ryoko conceded. Her dream during the night came back to her. She found it unsettling that Ayeka knew so much about the way her body worked.
Ayeka gathered a pair of towels from a cupboard and laid them on the carpeted floor. She knelt on one, while Ryoko sat cross-legged on the other. "Let's start with slow breaths," Ayeka began, "about half of your full lung capacity. Ideally your partner shouldn't notice."
"Tenchi, you mean." Ryoko permitted herself the reply, then began to concentrate on her breathing.
With some effort, Ayeka passed over the remark. "Now, gradually deepen your breaths. Try to expel a little more while exhaling than you take in while inhaling. Think of it as removing what has gone before."
"All right." Ryoko found she was relaxing a little. It had just been a dream, after all. And Ayeka seemed to know what she was doing.
"Visualize the extra oxygen going into your bloodstream. It's as if your blood is getting warmer . . . more charged with energy . . . "
"Oxygen potential up to 78 percent," Ryoko intoned, "Overall body temperature rising point three degrees."
"Umm . . . I don't think that's the frame of mind we want, Miss Ryoko." Ayeka said.
Ryoko's eyes went wide. "Ayeka -- I didn't say that."
"What?" Ayeka looked quickly over to Mihoshi, but the GP detective was still sound asleep. "Come now, even if Mihoshi were awake, I doubt she's a ventriloquist."
"No, no." Ryoko shook her head. "It was my voice speaking -- but I didn't tell it to say anything."
"You mean you were -- possessed somehow?" Now Ayeka looked as concerned as Ryoko.
"I sure hope not. Give me a moment to concentrate." Ryoko grudgingly admitted to herself that was one thing Ayeka was good at. When she wanted to, the princess could be as still and silent as a stone Buddha. Ryoko closed her eyes and tried to feel where the words had come from. There was nothing from outside that she could sense. It hadn't been anything like Kagato's control of her. But what about Dr. Clay's commands to Zero? "I think I found it. That was one of Zero's self-diagnostic routines. Maybe it finally came back on-line because of my regeneration ability."
Ayeka drew in a sharp breath. The image from her dream of Ryoko's nails regenerating had come back to her. "Ryoko. If that is happening, I think you had better see Washu right away."
"Back to the Chamber of Horrors?" Ryoko had the same feelings about Washu's main examination room that Tenchi did, and for much the same reasons. "Ayeka, I don't think it's that serious."
"Other things from Zero may have regenerated too." Ayeka pointed out. "Perhaps even the self-destruct system."
"Oh." Ryoko looked grim. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But I'm not going in there alone."
"I will accompany you." Ayeka offered.
"I think it had better be someone else, if you don't mind." Ryoko repressed a shudder. Just as in her dream, Ayeka had stumbled across something hidden from her past. Something that might pose a terrible threat. Ryoko was now very anxious to get away from Ayeka. She focused her energies, and teleported out of Washu's lab entirely, directly to the living room.
Now, who should go with her to see Washu? She first thought of Tenchi. But he was out of the house, probably training with his grandfather. That only left . . . wait a minute, there might be a silver lining to this after all . . .
Back in the unit, Ayeka sighed. Ryoko had left without bothering to remove the beam holding the door shut. Really, why was she the only one who could see how inconsiderate the ex-space-pirate was? Ayeka walked over to the beam and tried to lift it.
But Ryoko had jammed the beam against the door with her extraordinary strength, and the friction against the panel held it firm. There was no chance of moving the other end either, for the dimple in the floor locked it in place. Ayeka strained harder, but with no better result. "That bakemono (idiot monster)!!" she yelled in frustration.
"I'm here, chief!" Mihoshi sat up, jarred out of her slumber. She looked around blankly for a moment. "Oh! Funny, I thought I heard my superior calling me. Usually I have much nicer dreams when I nap . . ."
"Miss Mihoshi," Ayeka requested, "now that your nap is done, could you possibly help me here?"
"Sure thing." Mihoshi looked around with a slightly higher level of awareness. "Wasn't Ryoko here also?"
"She left," Ayeka said as calmly as she could manage, "and left us with a little problem."
"She does come and go so quickly," Mihoshi said, getting off the bed. But, not too surprisingly, she stumbled. "Ooops!" The blonde collided with the wall, arms flailing. One arm hit the unit's control panel.
The dimple in the floor suddenly widened and deepened. Now loose, the beam came down, catching Ayeka's left foot. Reacting instantly, the princess filled the air with high-volume profanity.
"My," Mihoshi stared wide-eyed, "you've learned a few things from Ryoko, haven't you?"
Mihoshi's luck was working for her once again. Ayeka was limping too much to catch her.
- - - - - - - -
A short time later, Ryoko was in the standard position for one of Washu's "guests". Suspended by metal tentacles in mid-air, she had been stripped of all her clothes and several instruments had been hooked up to her. As might have been expected, Washu was intently studying her control panel. The one difference was that the third person in the room was not Mihoshi but Sasami, who was studiously trying to avoid staring at Ryoko.
"Are you sure sister-Mihoshi wouldn't be better for this?" the little princess asked.
"Yes, we're sure!" both Washu and Ryoko answered immediately. The idea of Mihoshi causing her typical foul-ups in Washu's lab made both of them more worried than they cared to admit.
"Oh." Sasami still looked uncomfortable. "Well, have you found what's wrong with sister-Ryoko yet?"
"It's not 'wrong'!" Washu and Ryoko again answered simultaneously.
"My design is handling an unplanned situation, that's all." Washu continued.
"It's more like an unexpected extra." Ryoko added. "But you know," she turned towards Washu as best she could, "it's not entirely your design."
"I've eliminated nearly all of that walking abomination Kagato's modifications," Washu spat back.
"I was thinking of Dr. Clay's part." Ryoko countered. "Old octopus-head may have been greedy, but he did some pretty good work."
"Hah! As if Zero could compare with my masterpiece!" Washu said dismissively.
"Hey!" protested Zero/Ryoko.
"Can we get back to finding out what's going on?" Sasami reminded the two (more-or-less) adults.
"Oh, all right." Washu typed in several more commands to her holo-keyboard. "As Ryoko and Ayeka guessed, a few of Zero's systems are starting to regenerate. Only the minor ones, however. Anything powerful was seen as a threat by the excellent immune system I gave Ryoko, and eradicated."
"So I'll never have the shape-changing ability again?" Ryoko's voice had no small amount of disappointment. Turning into a doppelganger of Ayeka would have had so many amusing possibilities. She blinked for a moment. On second thought, maybe it was best not to provoke the princess while the training sessions were going on.
"Nope." Washu answered. "Actually, from what I can determine, that was a one-time-only function. I'm still not sure how Clay set it up. Maybe he got the technology from somewhere else."
"Come to think of it," Ryoko frowned, "I have no memory of where that ability came from."
"Well, as long as sister-Ryoko is all right." Sasami got up from her seat. "Can I go back now?"
"You stay right here, Sasami." Ryoko answered quickly. "I don't want anyone leaving me in this set-up again!"
"Again?" Sasami queried. "Washu, did you forget to release her once?"
"Ahh, well," Washu nervously tapped her forefingers together, "It may have slipped my mind that one time . . ."
"Slipped your mind, my a . . . eye!" Ryoko caught herself with a glance at Sasami. "You wanted to see how long it took me to get scared!" She turned to the blue-haired princess. "She knows I hate being alone in dark places, ever since those miserable seven hundred years in the cave."
"So you were frightened?" Sasami's voice had all the concern Ryoko was hoping for.
"Not at first. But I was left there for so long," Ryoko said, "that I kind of lost track of time. I thought maybe everyone had forgotten about me. I may have cried just a little."
"A little??" Washu snorted. "You were wailing like a toddler who lost a lollipop!"
"Come on, it wasn't that bad!" Ryoko argued.
"It certainly was!" Washu retorted. "I should know, I got it all on tape!"
"You were taping her??" Sasami's eyes widened in outrage.
"Shimatta! (I blew it!)" Washu realized she'd said too much.
"That's shameful! I want you to apologize to sister Ryoko, and promise me you'll erase that tape!" Sasami demanded.
"Now wait a minute--" Washu began.
"Or I won't cook any dinner for you for a week!" Sasami declared.
"Not that!" Washu exclaimed. Sasami gazed steadily at her. "All right. I'm sorry for leaving you there, Ryoko, and I'll erase the tape."
"And all the copies you made, too." Sasami prodded.
"Copies?" Washu said as innocently as she could. "What copies?"
"Don't believe her, Sasami!" said Ryoko.
"You stay out of this, Ryoko!" Washu said angrily.
"I've been involved since the beginning, remember?" retorted Ryoko.
Washu glowered at her daughter, then turned back to Sasami. "Come on, Sasami, try to understand. Those tapes are valuable scientific data."
"Valuable blackmail material, you mean." Ryoko piped up again.
"Will you shut up?!" yelled Washu.
"Can't make me!" Ryoko stuck out her tongue in response.
"Calm down, both of you!" said the eight-year-old to the five-thousand-year-old and the twenty-thousand-year-old. Washu and Ryoko both took deep breaths. "Washu, you're going to erase all the copies, right?"
"Very well." Washu said grudgingly. Ryoko smirked.
"And Ryoko," Sasami turned towards the cyan-haired woman, " you're going to help with the breakfast dishes tomorrow without dodging, right?"
The smile disappeared from Ryoko's face. She couldn't teleport away, and there was no good way to refuse. "Okay," she said after a moment. It was still a reasonable price to pay for getting rid of those humiliating tapes.
As she let Ryoko out of the tentacles and clamps, Washu was also of the opinion that Ryoko had come out ahead. Well, just because she had to erase everything from that episode didn't mean there couldn't be another episode to frighten Ryoko. And she had a fair idea of what Ryoko was scared of at this point . . .
- - - - - - - -
It was getting towards dinnertime, and some delicious smells were drifting out of the kitchen. Never being the patient type, Ryoko decided to see what Sasami was preparing for the evening meal.
But there was an interruption as she made her way down the hall. "Ryoko!" came a voice from behind her. "I've come for you!"
Ryoko spun around. Behind her was a nightmare figure. An inky black cloak billowed around its body, and an equally dark hood framed the face. The apparition held a wickedly gleaming scythe in one hand, and pointed straight at Ryoko with taloned fingers on the other hand. But the most frightening part was the face. It was Ayeka's face, red eyes alight with menace. "Your time has come!" it announced.
"Holy--!!" Ryoko jumped back and ignited her energy-sword. She settled into her ready stance, then charged forward with a sweeping cut. The figure parried with its scythe. But when the glowing energy-blade met the metal, instead of being cut, the scythe seemed to absorb the energy like a sponge. Ryoko found herself holding nothing.
"No!" Ryoko burst out. "Can't be--" And then she noticed something that made the situation make sense.
"Confess your crimes, demon, and I may show mercy!" said the apparition.
Ryoko straightened up. "I confess that my 'mom' is a jerk!" she answered defiantly.
The figure laughed with Washu's voice. "Not bad! You guessed four seconds earlier than I predicted!" The free hand went up to the hood, and pulled off the mask. "So, tell me. What is it about Ayeka that you think is so scary?"
"Well, at the moment, her over-sized fan." Ryoko replied, keeping a poker face.
WHAP!
"Itai! (oww!)" yelled Washu as she was smacked to the floor.
"Nice swing and follow-through," Ryoko said approvingly, "but wouldn't a mallet be better?"
"This was a gift from my Grandmother," Ayeka replied. "It doesn't have the extras that her own fan does, but it's served me well."
"It does seem to pack a wallop." Ryoko floated up to a ceiling light which hadn't been there yesterday. "I have to dispose of one or two pieces of junk. Would you like to help me?" Yanking the light loose, she confirmed that it was actually a disguised video camera.
"Certainly." Ayeka answered. By this time she had retrieved up the mask, which had slipped out of Washu's grasp. She followed Ryoko out of the house and on to the patio next to the lake.
Ryoko handed the camera to Ayeka. "Ready when you are." said the princess.
"Pull!" Ryoko said.
Ayeka threw the camera over the lake. As the device reached the peak of its trajectory, Ryoko let loose with an energy beam. The camera disappeared in a bright explosion, and a few moments later a small cloud of blackened particles began falling towards the lake.
"Hey!" shouted Washu. She had recovered from her encounter with Ayeka's fan, and was dashing out of the house towards the pair. " You can't just destroy my--"
"Pull!" Ryoko paid no attention to the interruption.
Ayeka spun the mask as if it had been a discus, sending it soaring over the lake. Ryoko's beam caught it squarely, and in moments a second cloud of tiny fragments was drifting downwards.
"Do you know how long it took me to get the hair right??" Washu nearly screamed. "I would have thought you, Ayeka, would have more respect for other people's property!"
"And I would have thought you would have more respect than to use my likeness for a mean-spirited prank." Ayeka replied with a withering look.
"You haven't seen 'mean-spirited' yet!" Washu roared. "And as for your likeness, it's about to change! Try being kappa (water sprites) for a while!" The redheaded genius summoned her holo-keyboard, and typed in a quick command. Small clouds formed over the two younger girls, and green-tinted rain began to fall from them.
But Ayeka and Ryoko were ready. Ryoko simply disappeared, and re-appeared a few feet away. Ayeka unfolded her fan and held it above her in one swift motion. The fluid ran harmlessly off it and to the side. "Not today." Said the princess.
"Do you really think it's going to be that easy??" Washu grated.
With a low buzz, Ayeka's miniature logs appeared around her. Motes of energy flowed from several directions to collect in a ball just above Ryoko's palm. "Draw when you feel lucky, pardner." Ryoko said.
Washu's pressed another button on the holo-keyboard, and a subspace hole opened up next to her. Ayeka's red eyes and Ryoko's golden eyes narrowed. In the background, the cicadas stopped chirping. Washu reached into the hole.
"I'm back!" came Tenchi's voice. "Am I in time for dinner?"
Washu hastily withdraw her arm and closed the subspace hole. Ryoko dissipated the energy ball. The miniature logs around Ayeka vanished. "Welcome home, Lord Tenchi!" The princess called out. "Your timing couldn't be better!"
Tenchi came around the corner of the house, still carrying his hoe from working on the carrot fields.
"Hi, Tenchi!" Ryoko had a sultry tone in her voice. "Let me take that for you." She took the hoe from where he had it on his shoulder.
"You must have gotten thirsty out there in the fields." said Washu. "Why don't you come into the lab, and I can whip up an electrolyte-restoring drink?"
"Oh, I think a dinner from Sasami will do just fine," said Tenchi warily.
To Washu's disappointment, dinner turned out as Tenchi had predicted. Sasami and Mihoshi kept up a lively conversation over the excellent food, and Tenchi happily joined in. But although Ryoko and Ayeka also took part in the conversation, and Ryoko's appetite seemed to be back, the two were still sitting at opposite ends from each other. Each sensed that one difficulty had been handled successfully, but the main problems had not yet been resolved.
(To be continued . . .)