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 Twenty: Bedtime

Back in town, the girls searched Tenchi's house for signs of the groom and his abductor. "It looks like they've given us the slip, huh Ryo-ohki?" Sasami sighed to her pet.

"Meow," the furry cabbit nodded.

"Oh well," Mihoshi shrugged. "I just hope that Tenchi and Ryoko will be happy together," she smiled. "They make such a cute couple, don't they?"

"NO THEY DON'T!" Ayeka screeched as her hands closed around Mihoshi's windpipe. Gasping and choking, the blonde collapsed to her knees as she tried to free herself from Ayeka's iron grip.

"Hey, take your hands off her," Washu scolded as the blonde struggled to survive Ayeka's display of temper. "You can't try to kill her; she doesn't work for you anymore. I'm the only one allowed to murder her these days."

"Oh yes, of course," Ayeka released the blue-faced blonde and assumed a proper dignified posture. "My apologies, Doctor Washustein."

Mihoshi gasped for breath as she fell to the floor.

"All right, get back to it Mihoshi," Washu ordered.

"The looking for Tenchi or the being strangled?" the blonde asked.

"Either one suits me," Washu grumbled as she rolled her eyes. "Okay, listen up. It's getting late and we don't know how much time Tenchi's got..."

"What do you mean by that?" the jilted bride asked as Mihoshi picked herself up from the floor. "What is your monster-woman going to do to him?"

"It's almost time to go to bed," Washu explained. "Sasami, you told me that Eve likes company when she sleeps. If Tenchi refuses to sleep with her she may get violent."

"No she wouldn't!" Sasami shook her head. "Ryoko would never hurt Tenchi! She's sweet and kind! You'd have to be one hundred percent pure evil for Ryoko to want to hurt you!"

"Ouch," Washu winced. "That really hurts, Sasami."

"Oh, I'm sorry for calling you 'one hundred percent pure evil' Doctor Washustein," Sasami clasped her hands and bowed.

"No matter how much the shoe fits," Ayeka added as her eyes narrowed.

Washu cleared her throat. "Okay, let's say I agree with you Sasami. Eve wouldn't harm Tenchi on purpose. The problem is, that girl doesn't know her own strength. She could seriously injure him without meaning to. Remember she is less than two weeks old. She has no concept of life and death. For all she knows, after she snaps someone's neck they could just get up and walk away later. For her sake as well as his we've got to find them!"

"Maybe they're back at Castle Washustein," Mihoshi suggested as she dusted herself off.

"Maybe, but I don't see Eve going back there," Washu muttered.

"She sure wouldn't!" Sasami exclaimed. "You live there! She'd have to be out of her mind to expose herself to such danger!"

"You got a point Sasami," Washu conceded. "Eve wouldn't go back to Castle Washustein unless she was setting a trap for me. We need a bloodhound or something to track them down before the weather obscures their trail."

"What about Ryo-ohki?" the blue-haired child suggested. "I'm sure she could track their scent!"

"Ooh! Let's try it!" Mihoshi chimed in. She rushed to a dirty clothes hamper and pulled a sock out of it. "This is one of Tenchi's socks," she said as she offered it to the little cabbit. "See if you can get Tenchi's scent."

Ryo-ohki sniffed experimentally, then grimaced and wobbled back and forth.

"Do you have it?" Sasami asked her. "Do you have Tenchi's scent?"

"Mew!" the cabbit nodded as it made for the door.

"Everybody get warm clothing," Washu said. "We may be out all night."

Ayeka nodded as she opened Tenchi's front door. "All right, Sasami and I will nip back to my house and… huh?"

Outside gentle snowflakes fluttered down as if it was Christmas.

"Snow?" Ayeka gasped. "How can it be snowing?"

"Er uh, heh-heh." A sweat drop appeared at Washu's temple as she scratched her neck guilty. "Uh… remember when you accused me of trying to ruin your wedding?"

"Yes…" Ayeka put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot.

"Well Eve's mischief wasn't my plan. The weather was," Washu admitted. "Last night Mihoshi and I fired some rockets into the sky filled with a special chemical of my own design. If my calculations are correct before the end of the week you should see glaciers on the horizon."

"Are you telling me that you created the snow?" Ayeka growled through clenched teeth. "You made it snow in order to postpone our wedding?"

"Uh, heh-heh, yeah," Washy conceded. "I figured that Ryoko would wait until the day you got married to strike and you refused to wait until the little maniac was found, so as a last ditch effort I tried to snow you in. Eve's tracks would be obvious in the snow. The plan was foolproof. Too bad it took so long to set up. It was supposed to snow earlier."

"So how long are we going to enjoy a winter wonderland?" Ayeka asked sarcastically. "Well?"

"Uh, at least a week, maybe more," Washu shrugged. "This is the first time I've done this. It's hard to say."

"You idiot!" Ayeka knocked the little genius off her feet with a backhand slap. "Thanks to you we're going to need a Saint Bernard instead of a bloodhound! How could you be so stupid? What were you thinking?"

"Hey!" Washu protested as she sat up and rubbed her head. "You were marrying the man that I love and I thought my daughter was planning to murder you guys! Forgive me for not thinking straight!"

"All right," Ayeka sighed. "I'm sorry. It's just that I'm hurt and frustrated because my wedding was ruined today. The happiest day of my life became my biggest disgrace…"

"Oh wow!" Sasami nodded. "I know! It was so humiliating when you came out in front of the entire congregation wearing only your underwear! I don't know how you lived down the shame…"

"But you gotta admit, it sure was funny!" Washu smiled as she jumped to her feet. "When I saw you with your hair cut short in your underwear I thought I would bust a gut laughing! I mean…" the redhead clutched her stomach as she tried to keep herself from laughing, "…when you marched out in front of everyone wearing only your skivvies… Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!"

"Ooh…" Ayeka growled as a nervous tic marred her young and comely face.

The sound of shattering glass sounded like a thousand tinkling bells as Washu was hurled through Tenchi's window.

Meanwhile, in the mountain home of Yosho Katsuhito, an elderly hermit who lived a few miles outside of town…

"Goodnight Tenchi," a smiling Ryoko said as she untied him.

Tenchi had been planning to leap into action the moment he was free, but his sore limbs were pins and needles as circulation returned to them. He groaned and rubbed his wrists as he surveyed the guest room the old man had provided them. Ryoko was blocking the door, but could he get to the window? His limbs didn't seem to want to work properly and preferred to cramp up. There was no way he could outrun Ryoko in his present condition.

"Are you okay?" Ryoko asked as she removed his gag. "What's wrong?"

"Aside of being kidnapped and scared out of my wits?" the boy grumbled. "My circulation is shot, Ryoko. You kept me tied up too long. The blood needs to flow through my body. You made the ropes too tight."

"Ooh sorry," Ryoko blushed, "but you really shouldn't have tried to escape while we were leaving town. I guess I really did tie 'em too tight huh? We better get you out of those tight clothes then."

"What?" Tenchi said as his head whipped around to face Ryoko.

"Don't worry," she said as she removed his jacket and undid his shirt. "Just leave it all to me. Here we go."

"Yah!" he cried. His cramping arms protested as she forced them above his head to slip his jacket and shirt off.

"And now for the pants," Ryoko said as she pushed him back on the bed so she could take off his shoes.

"Ryoko! Please!" Tenchi begged as he squirmed helplessly.

"Calm down, I'm getting your clothes off as fast as I can," Ryoko scolded as she completely missed the source of Tenchi's distress. She pulled his pants off despite his frantic attempts to keep them.

"Ryoko! Stop!" he cried as the girl removed the last of his undergarments and tossed them over her shoulder. He rolled off the bed and hit the floor with a loud 'thump'.

"Ooh!" Ryoko exclaimed as she trotted to his side of the bed. "Don't hurt yourself, Tenchi!" She opened the bed, then picked him up and set him on it. "There you go. Wow, you are stiff. Let me give you a massage."

"Ryoko!" Tenchi gasped as he rolled onto his stomach. "I don't need a massage!" he lied. "I just need my privacy!"

"Well if you wanted your privacy, why did you marry me then?" Ryoko joked.

"I didn't marry you!" he shouted. "You kidnapped me!"

"Oh," she shrugged ruefully. "So I did."

"Stop!" he squirmed as her strong but delicate hands grasped and rubbed his legs. "Quit touching me!"

"Keep that up and you'll get the gag again," she scolded. "Come on Tenchi. You need some physical therapy. Damn, I nearly completely cut off circulation to your feet!" she added as she rubbed life into his feet and ankles. "Oh Tenchi, I'm so sorry I hurt you! I'll do my best to make it all better. I promise!"

"Ooh! Ah!" he cried as circulation returned to his tortured feet. He hated to admit it, but if he wanted to escape, let alone walk again, he had best humor Ryoko and let her take care of him. He blushed at the loss of his dignity, but as he ruefully decided, dignity had left a long time ago.

Still, the medical student part of him had to admit that Ryoko's strong yet soothing massage was just what he needed. He started to relax as her strong hands explored his body from his feet all the way to his neck. His stiff and sore body was quite limp by the time she got to his neck and shoulders.

"Okay, turn over," she said when she was finished.

"What?" he said, awakening from his stupor. He had spent the day using his energy struggling and stressing out so he didn't have a lot left.

"I need to do your arms, and they don't bend back this way," she explained as grasped his shoulder to gently turn him on his back. "Come on, big guy, turn over. That's it. Hey what's that?"

"What's what?" After his incredible day, the heat from the fireplace was making him dopey.

"Is that a part of you? It looks like a sausage or something," she said as she pointed to his groin. "I don't look like that down there. Here, let me show you." She sat on edge of the bed and pulling up her skirt to expose her shapely white legs…

"Aah!" Tenchi was awake and alert as he pulled the blankets over himself. Despite the reputation many Italians had for promiscuity, he didn't want Ryoko to get any more ideas.

"Something wrong?" Ryoko asked. "Look, if you need to get rid of it, we can go to Washu and force her to do an operation. If we get ahold of her gun…"

"No! No!" Tenchi cried. "I don't want to get rid of it! It's a part of me, and I want to keep it! Do you hear me? I want to keep anything that's down there! Forever!"

"Okay, okay, no need to shout. Calm down, nobody is going to take it away," she assured him. "So what is that thing anyway? What is it used for?"

"I uh… go to the bathroom with it," he blushed. "Boys have it. All boys have one. Girls don't. That's what they teach us in anatomy class. It's one of the basic ways you tell boys from girls."

"You're a boy, right? So why are you covering it up?" Ryoko asked pointblank. "Is there something wrong with yours?

"Er uh ah no," he stammered. "Nothing's wrong with it. It's just ah… considered vulgar to expose it to public view. That's the part of me that 'makes water', as they say and nobody wants to see anything to do with that!" he laughed weakly. "Heh-heh."

"Hm," Ryoko pulled up her own skirts to study herself. She let her skirt fall and tried to open the blanket to look at Tenchi again, but the boy held onto the covers and wouldn't let her. "Come on, I want to see."

"You've seen too much all ready young lady," he told her. "Wait until you're… uh…" he stopped himself before he said 'married', "...old enough."

"Okay, when will I be old enough?" she asked him.

"When you understand why I don't want to show you," he sighed.

"Boy everything's so complicated," she muttered. "Oh well. We've had a big day. We'll talk about it in the morning." She blew out the light, removed her garments and got into bed. "Goodnight, Tenchi," she said sleepily as she curled up next to him.

"Good… uh… night Ryoko," he muttered as she put her strong silky arms around him. Her skin was as smooth as a baby's. Of course it was. She was only a week and a half old. Despite her strength, intelligence and physical maturity, she was only an infant.

Tenchi could only sigh in humiliation as his body reacted to her close proximity. It would be so easy to surrender and melt into her arms… but betraying Ayeka and taking advantage of this overgrown innocent wasn't something he was willing to do.

Ryoko started snoring quietly as soon as she closed her eyes. Amazing. She was out like a light. Before his body's impulses got him into more trouble, Tenchi crawled out of bed and started getting dressed. Could he get back to town in the middle of the night? Would he get lost in the forest and freeze to death? Should he play it safe and wait until morning?

"Tenchi…" Ryoko muttered in her sleep as her arm searched the bed for him. "Tenchi… where are you? I'm scared… Don't leave me alone…"

"I'm right here, Ryoko," he smiled kindly as he sat down in a comfortable chair and pulled a blanket over himself. "I thought I heard a noise but it was nothing. I'll stay on watch until morning, okay?"

"Okay," she muttered as she went back to sleep.

He couldn't abandon Ryoko any more than he could betray Ayeka. He decided to wait it out until morning and see if Ryoko would be reasonable then. He glanced back wistfully at his angelic abductor before closing his eyes. That night he attempted to dream of his purple-haired fiancé instead of his baby-skinned kidnapper, but the memory of a nude Ryoko hugging his naked body didn't make it easy.

Next: Step Outside