Galaxy 1001D presents:
Washustein; or the Modern Mad Scientist
Starring Washu Hakubi as Doctor Washu Fitzgerald von Washustein
Tenchi Masaki as Tenchi Mancini
Mihoshi Kuramitsu as Mihoshi Gerstell
Aeka Masaki Jurai as Ayeka Jurai
Sasami Masaki Jurai as Sasami Jurai
And Ryoko as the Monster-woman
Tenchi Muyo and all related characters are © AIC/Pioneer/Genon/Funimation. This story is written solely for entertainment and is not intended to make a profit in any way.
Based on "Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus" created by Mary Shelly
And "Tenchi Muyo" created by Masaki Kajishima
Chapter Eighteen: Do You Take This Woman?
The morning after Ryoko's threat, Washu and Mihoshi were back at Castle Washustein making preparations to catch their wayward creation.
"Okay, bubblebrain," Washu said as she pulled her Colt Paterson revolver out of a box and set it on a table. "Ayeka has agreed to allow us to run security for the wedding if we promise to behave ourselves. I'm going to carry my revolver in case Eve gets rough. Your weapon is on the table there."
"A flute and three fuzzy darts?" Mihoshi asked her employer.
"A blowgun and three tranquilizer darts," Washu clarified as Mihoshi picked up the blowgun and a dart to examine them. "I don't trust you with a lethal weapon so I'm giving you a blowgun. The darts are tipped with a drug that will render anyone with my body chemistry unconscious within seconds."
"Goodness Master," the blonde giggled. "What can a little prick do?"
"You'd be surprised," Washu muttered. "Your mother certainly was." When Mihoshi didn't react the redhead bellowed, "Are you paying attention?"
"Huh?" Mihoshi sprung to attention and gave a snappy salute. "Yes Master! Paying attention, Master!"
"Stop calling me 'Master'!" the mad scientist snarled before composing herself to speak in a calm reasonable voice. "Since she was created with my ovum, a prick from one of those darts should knock out even someone with Eve's constitution in less than a minute."
"Ryoko Master," Mihoshi corrected. "Her name is 'Ryoko'."
Her face transforming into a twisted grimace, Washu cocked her pistol and pointed at the blonde's head.
"Eve!" Mihoshi cried as she took a step backwards. "You named her 'Eve'!"
"That's better," Washu muttered as she set her gun on the table and started taking it apart.
"Although her name is really 'Ryoko'," Mihoshi insisted childishly. She loaded a dart in the blowgun and shot it at a target.
"Hurrrgh!" Washu growled as a vein throbbed on her forehead. "Mihoshi why do you have to be such a bonehead?" she bellowed while shaking her fist.
"Muh?" Mihoshi had loaded a second dart and put the blowgun in her mouth. When Washu yelled at her, the blonde instinctively turned to face her employer and exhaled as she tried to speak. Unfortunately, with her lips sealed around the tip the air forced the dart out of the blowgun…
…and straight into her employer's neck. "Mihoshi!" the redhead bawled. "You idiot!" Frantically, as her legs turned to rubber, Washu turned and quickly reassembled the revolver. As the room began spinning, she chambered a round and used her thumb to spin the cylinder to line the bullet up near the barrel. She leaned against the table, using one arm to support her weight as she used her other arm to point the pistol at her clumsy servant. "You… stupid… bonehead…" she hissed venomously as the gun shook in her hand. Just before she could pull the trigger, Washu collapsed on the table to slide down to the floor.
Mihoshi put her hand to her mouth as she gazed at her employer lying unconscious on the floor. Then she looked both ways and knelt beside her boss to take the pistol and place the blowgun in Washu's hand. "Maybe she won't notice," she chirped to herself as she tiptoed out of the room.
For the next few days, Ayeka and Tenchi remained alert, but friends and family attributed the lovebirds' nervous dispositions to pre-wedding jitters. The two fiancés decided not to tell Sasami about the threat Ryoko made. The child was not a target and there was no sense worrying her.
Sasami seemed to know that something was wrong; she kept eating her meals by herself in the nursery. Ayeka couldn't blame her after the hair and eyes incident. Who knows what that mad scientist would put their food next time? At least Sasami had a healthy appetite. She would always come out of the nursery for seconds. The girl seemed to have an appetite for two.
At last the happy day arrived. The guests had arrived and were assembled at the church for the wedding ceremony. Still no sign of Ryoko. Perhaps she had given up and left the country in order to escape her demented creator.
Washu and Mihoshi were watching the exits. Washu was at the front of the church where the guests were entering, being alert for disguises. Despite her youthful inexperience, Eve was intelligent and creative, every bit the genius Washu was. It wouldn't pay to underestimate her.
The redhead pulled on a tin can connected to a taut string that went through a window into the church. After giving the string several tugs she put the can to her mouth and said, "Mihoshi! Are you there? Everything is clear on my end! No sign of Eve, anything suspicious on your end? Over!"
At the back of the church where the back door led to dressing rooms and offices, Mihoshi was reading a book while sitting next to another small table and the tin can attached to the string had a little bell attached as well. When the bell rang, she picked up the can and held it to her ear. She moved the can to her mouth and spoke. "Ryoko, Master. Her name is 'Ryoko'."
"HAVE YOU SEEN HER?" came the furious reply.
"Nope!" Mihoshi assured her. "No sign of her! Everything's clear on my end! Over and under!"
"Mihoshi, I thought we decided. 'Over' means you're done speaking," Washu explained into her can from the front of the church. "It means your turn to talk is over. Over!"
"Got it!" Mihoshi spoke into the can at the back of the church. "'Over' means my turn's over! Under and inside!"
"Why do I bother?" Washu sighed as she set her can down. She only hoped that the empty-headed blonde was keeping her eyes open.
"Hey Mihoshi," Ryoko said as she carried a large box up to the church's back door. "Can you get the door for me?"
"Sure Ryoko," the blonde smiled. "Anything for you. Hey, do you want me to help you with that?"
"Nope," Ryoko replied as she carried her load inside. "I got it. Thanks."
"You're welcome," Mihoshi said as she shut the door behind her and sat back down at the table to read her book.
Inside Tenchi was trying to calm his nerves. As if the most important day of his life wasn't nerve-wracking enough! Where was Ryoko? What was she going to do? Would she try something during the ceremony are would she wait for tonight?
"Brandy?" Sasami asked as she carried a tray with a small bottle of spirits and a full shot glass. "Ayeka thought you might need this," the child explained. "You seem really nervous lately."
"Uh yeah Sasami, I guess I am," he admitted ruefully as he swallowed the shot for a spot of courage. How did Ayeka manage to be so brave? Weaker sex indeed! She had refused the very notion of postponing the wedding until Ryoko was found. Tenchi had to laugh to himself. If Ayeka were a man she'd make a great military officer. He had no doubt her men would follow her to Hell and back, no questions asked. He considered himself lucky that he had found a woman with that kind of strength and determination. Technically, he had already found Washu, but Ayeka was using her mental fortitude for good instead of evil. Which one would you marry?
"Nervous, young man?" a sinister masculine voice teased him.
"Yaah!" Tenchi cried as he turned to face the priest. "Kagato!"
Father Kagato was a tall, sinisterly handsome albino dressed in a green and purple version of Catholic clerical vestments. Since he was an albino, his hair and skin was white and the pupils of his yellow eyes appeared to be blood red. He pushed his dark, round-lensed pince-nez back on the bridge of his nose with one finger and glared at Tenchi. "I'm not the villain in every story I appear in," the priest muttered testily. "Show me one other Tenchi Muyo character that looks like a Christian priest and I'm out of here."
At last the ceremony got underway. The organ played the appropriate wedding march as Tenchi and his best man waited by the altar for Ayeka to arrive. Sure enough, the bride appeared, followed by her procession of bridesmaids, to walk down the aisle in elegant dignity.
Ayeka was simply ravishing. Despite the wide skirt, her white wedding gown was tight at the waist and displayed a generous amount of décolletage, leaving no doubt for the men at attendance that Tenchi was a fortunate man. A veil covered her features but her long purple ponytails trailed behind her and nearly reached the floor. Little Sasami followed her sister carrying her wedding train.
Father Kagato cleared his throat to begin the ceremony. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony…"
Despite her better judgment, Washu couldn't resist wandering into the church when the ceremony started. Once again she had to witness her hopes and dreams being dashed to pieces by cruel fate. It put knots in her stomach to see the only boy she had ever loved getting married to someone else. Bitter tears trickled silently from her eyes, but she didn't make a sound as Tenchi Mancini was being taken away from her forever.
At least she had the satisfaction of seeing the boy squirm. Between tying the knot and being a possible target, his nerves were shot.
"Do you, Tenchi Marconi Mancini, take this woman as your lawfully wedded wife? Do you promise to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love, honor, and cherish 'till death do you part?" the priest asked the groom.
"I do," Tenchi replied in a strange strangled voice.
"Do you, Ayeka Winifred Jurai, take this man as your lawfully wedded husband? Do you promise to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love, honor, and cherish 'till death do you part?" the priest asked the bride.
"I do," Ayeka replied in a strange scratchy voice.
"Does anyone have any reason why these two should not be joined in holy matrimony?" Father Kagato asked the assembly. "If so let them speak now or forever hold their peace."
"Are you sure father is still on his sailing trip?" Sasami turned to ask her mother who was sitting in the front row.
Lady Misaki Jurai, the daughter of a Polish baron and the mother of Ayeka and Sasami, smiled and gave the 'A-ok' gesture.
The entire congregation seemed to exhale in relief. Lord Jurai was a fair man, but when it came to his daughters he had serious 'letting go' issues.
Washu nearly choked trying to keep quiet. She wanted to stop the ceremony with all her heart but she had promised Ayeka that she wouldn't interfere if she were allowed to keep an eye out for her homicidal creation. Where was she? The cyan-haired psychopath could have been standing right next to the little scientist, but Washu couldn't perceive anything but her heart being broken. "I swear, Ayeka, if you break his heart, I'm going to strap you to my operating table and…" the redhead muttered under her breath.
"Then by the power invested in me by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I now pronounce you man and wife," the priest smiled. "Tenchi Mancini, you may now kiss the bride."
As applause filled the church Tenchi grinned with relief and lifted the veil of his bride to see…
"Ryoko?" He gasped.
There, clasping her bouquet and wearing Ayeka's wedding dress, was the golden-eyed Ryoko smiling radiantly at him. "Hi Tenchi! Surprised to see me? Pucker up, Buttercup," she quipped as she seized him by the lapels and kissed him roughly on the lips.
"RYOKO!" a feminine voice screeched.
All eyes turned to see Ayeka emerge from the back wearing only a camisole and a petticoat. Her once floor length purple hair had been cut into a short pageboy haircut.
"Ryoko!" Ayeka snarled as she finished unraveling the rope entwined around her and threw it on the floor. "Did you think these ropes could hold me forever? This is the last straw! How dare you tie me up and throw me in the closet so you could take my place as Tenchi's bride! And that was after you nearly sheared me like a sheep! Look what you've done to my hair!"
"Oh well, you said you didn't like purple anyway, Princess!" Ryoko joked as she removed a wig made from Ayeka's lavender locks to reveal wild spiky cyan-white hair.
"Whu?" Tenchi stammered while pointing at first one girl and then the other. "But… I thought… You were…? How could…? When did…?"
"You fiend!" Ayeka stomped over to Ryoko and the blathering Tenchi. "Did you really think that Tenchi wouldn't notice until the wedding night?"
"It doesn't matter Ayeka," Ryoko smiled through clenched teeth. "The wedding ceremony's over and now he's all mine! So long suckers!" With that, the faux bride picked up Tenchi with her wiry arms and dashed down the aisle before anybody could move.
"Yee-ah!" Tenchi cried as they headed out the doors. "Help!"
"HA-HA-HA-HA!" Washu clutched her stomach while rolling on the floor in helpless laughter in a most unladylike fashion. "Eve! St-stop! Cuh! Come back! Come back here! Hah-ha-ha-ha!" It actually happened. Somehow, her creation had outsmarted them all and snuck right past them to replace Ayeka at the altar. Despite her youthful inexperience, Washu's masterpiece was simply brilliant!
Between helpless chuckles, Washu was kicking herself. Of course this was what Eve meant! Her little darling didn't even think of murder until Washu had planted the idea in her head by talking out loud. Eve had probably never considered the possibility of murdering Ayeka or Tenchi. The only reason she realized she could kill Washu was because Washu told her it was possible.
"After them!" Ayeka cried as she pointed her finger at the fleeing couple. "I will never forgive that woman!" she cried as the duo exited the front doors.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha!" Washu staggered outside to point her revolver at the woman who had her true love in a fireman's carry. "St-stop! Put him down Eve, or I'll shoot! Put him down I mean it! Ha-ha-ha-ha!" She dropped her pistol and doubled over in laughter. "She… she made a wig out of Ayeka's hair! Ha-ha-ha-ha! She made a wig of her hair and put on her wedding dress! Heh-heh-heh! I… I don't believe it; she's such a genius!"
"You!" Ayeka pointed her finger at Washu. "You did this! You created her to destroy my wedding! You've gone too far this time!"
In spite of herself, Washu turned to behold the humiliated bride who had been stripped to her undergarments. The redhead tumbled backwards and kicked her feet in the air. "Ayeka! HA-HA! Stop!" she chortled helplessly. "P-put s-something on! I c-can't stop laughing! Ha-ha-ha-ha!"
"Bye-bye Tenchi!" Sasami waved.
Next: Company At Last!