Tenchi Muyo: Ryo-ohki OVA4

Episode 23: Responsibility

By Galaxy1001D

Chapter Two: Aftershocks

In the futuristic chamber that was Washu's interdimensional laboratory, a huge widescreen was placed above the touch sensitive control panel that ran across the silver wall like it was a shelf. The huge image of the head and shoulders of a green eyed twelve year old girl was displayed on it, her red hair displayed in a huge ponytail. Behind her was a moving geometric pattern of glowing neon lines against a black background.

The large chamber had hidden compartments in the floor through with chairs, tables, or even machines could emerge when needed. Each corner of the room had a sliding door. The door left of the widescreen led to the normal world, to the door under the stairs on the ground floor of Tenchi's house to be exact. The door on the right had a wide slit filled with white glass set at eye level. Close inspection of the white glass revealed that it was actually a sign that read 'Decontamination'.

The door opened up and out came Noike, Ayeka, and Mihoshi wearing orange hazmat suits.

"Well we did it," Noike sighed in exhaustion. "We went to decontamination and managed to wash Tenchi and Ryoko down and even managed to clean the hard to reach places!"

"Why were you the one who got to wash Tenchi?" Ayeka demanded.

"You and Mihoshi were too squeamish to wash a boy," Noike shrugged. "Besides, Ryoko is a two-man job."

"Wow, my second group experience," Mihoshi sighed. "Living here is fun!" she squealed happily.

"It wasn't a group experience," Noike rolled her eyes.

Ryoko staggered out behind them, clad in a pink kimono that looked like a bathrobe. "Oh, God what must Tenchi think of me?" she howled. "He must think I'm a monster!"

"He doesn't think you're a monster," Noike assured her as she and the others removed their hazmat suits to reveal their normal clothing underneath.

"He thinks I'm a monster," Ryoko moaned as she sat down in a chair and covered her face with her hands.

"No he doesn't," Noike insisted. "He doesn't think you're a monster."

"Yes he does," Ryoko whined. "He thinks I'm a monster!"

"Okay, maybe he does think you're a monster," Noike shrugged as she gave up.

"I knew it!" Ryoko howled before crying into her hands.

"Noike!" Ayeka snapped. "I know we're all upset at that monster woman…"

Ayeka was interrupted by a pitiful wail from Ryoko.

"There-there Ryoko," Mishoshi patted the silver haired woman's shoulder.

"Sorry Ryoko, force of habit," Ayeka apologized dryly before turning back to the emerald haired enchantress. "But Ryoko isn't in control of herself right now. As much as it kills me to say this, she's the victim here."

"The victim of her own folly," Noike shrugged. "If she hadn't asked Virtual Washu to mess with her body this would have never happened."

"She was trying to take care of her baby," Ayeka snarled through clenched teeth, "who just happens to be her biological mother! Why don't you try to show some compassion once in a while will you?"

"She's right!" Mihoshi chimed in. "It's not Ryoko's fault that she's been turned into a loose woman who's a fragile emotional wreck! Just put yourself in Ryoko's shoes! Imagine having to live with the shame knowing that the only way you could be with the boy you love is by overpowering him with a pheromone that turns him into a desperate lecher! Poor Ryoko! If it were me I couldn't live with myself!"

Ryoko howled and sobbed even louder.

"Mihoshi, BE QUIET!" Ayeka screeched. "You aren't helping things!"

Mihoshi put her hand in front of her mouth and gazed at Ayeka with contrite blue eyes. "Oops, I'm sorry."

"Ryoko?" Ayeka walked over to the sobbing space pirate. "It's going to be okay. Nobody blames you for this. You're not yourself."

"Myself sucks!" Ryoko sniveled. "When is this going to stop?"

"Your hormonal levels should be back to normal in a few hours, a day or two at the most," the image of the redheaded girl on the screen replied.

"Shut up you!" Ryoko shook her fist at the large screen. "It's your fault I took advantage of Tenchi in the first place!" Ryoko's resolve faltered and she buried her face in her hands again. "I hate myself," she moaned. "I want to die."

"Don't say that," a quiet masculine voice said.

"Tenchi!" Ayeka gasped.

"Tenchi!" Mihoshi smiled. "Thank goodness you're okay!"

Tenchi Masaki was standing in front of the door that led to the decontamination room; a pair of dark pajamas covered his slender but muscular frame. "Ryoko," he said quietly. "I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you."

"You didn't do anything," Ryoko moaned as she rose shakily to her feet. "I was the one who hurt you."

"I'm sorry," he flinched as he closed his eyes to catch a falling tear before wiping his eye with the back of his hand. "I should have controlled myself. I should never have taken advantage of you like that."

"Oh Tenchi," Ryoko cooed as she floated over to him, her feet only an inch above the floor, "It wasn't your fault," she said as she landed next to him and took his hands. "You didn't know what you were doing."

"All I could think about was what I was doing!" Tenchi shuddered in horror. "I can't forgive myself for taking advantage of you in your condition. I should have known better," he apologized as he put his arms around her. "I swear, I promise I'll never touch you again."

"It was me, Tenchi," Ryoko said as she returned his embrace. "It wasn't your fault. I swear I'll never try to take advantage of you anymore. I'll be like a nun."

"I'm sorry," Tenchi said as he nibbled on her neck. "From now on, I'll stay at least twenty feet away from you."

"I'll stay away from you, I promise," Ryoko said as she kissed first his cheeks and then his lips.

"What's going on here?" Ayeka grimaced.

"Oh my gosh, they're starting again!" Mihoshi squeaked.

"Quick girls!" Noike ordered. "Separate them!"

Ayeka and Mihoshi seized Ryoko's arms and Noike put her arms around Tenchi's waist. Once they were pulled apart, both parties stumbled backwards.

"Thanks girls," Ryoko blushed. "I needed that."

"It's no good! I've got to have her!" Tenchi cried as he struggled against Noike. "I can't control myself! Somebody do something!"

"I'll get some chloroform!" Mihoshi declared as she dashed to a large bulky first aid kit that was hung on the wall. "One whiff of this and you should be out like a light!"

"Hurry Mihoshi! I'm getting away!" Tenchi cried.

"Don't worry!" the blonde said as she opened the bottle and soaked a white handkerchief. "I'm almost ready!"

"Quickly!" Tenchi howled as he almost wriggled out of Noike's grasp. "Even with no leverage and multiple muscle cramps I'm still breaking free! Hurry Mihoshi, hurry!"

"Here I come!" Mihoshi announced as she trotted to a position behind Tenchi and Noike.

"Come on, Mihoshi! Hurry!" Tenchi cried. "I'm getting loose! I'm this close to putting Ryoko on page fifteen of the Kama Sutra!

"Here I come!" Mihoshi called as she shimmied next to Noike and Tenchi. "I'm coming up on you now Tenchi! I'm going to catch you unawares!"

"Catch me unawares!" he ordered.

"I'm catching you unawares!" Mihoshi repeated. "Here comes the chloroform Tenchi! Take a deep breath!" With that remark, she hugged the boy from behind and covered his face with the white handkerchief. Tenchi broke free from Noike, struggled against Mihoshi's grasp, staggered forward, and fell to the floor.

"Wow, that was close!" the blonde gasped as she rose to her feet and wiped her face with the chloroform stained handkerchief. "Uhh…" she moaned before she rolled her blue eyes and fell on top of the boy.

"What a bonehead," Noike said as she and Ayeka looked down at the two of them.

"Heh-heh," a blushing Ryoko giggled nervously. "Oops? Guess I'm too much woman to handle."

Ayeka made some growling noises that couldn't pass for words.

After Noike and Ayeka carried Tenchi and Mihoshi back to their rooms Ayeka found Ryoko sitting on the pink 'L' shaped couch that dominated the living room of the Masaki house. Noike went back through the door under the stairs to put away the stretcher and get back to work in Washu's lab.

Ayeka looked at Ryoko and blushed. Ryoko looked guiltily back at the princess.

"Hey," the former space pirate muttered.

"Hi," the princess replied carefully as she joined the pirate on the couch. "How are you feeling?"

"I don't know," Ryoko admitted as she looked away. "I feel so guilty, yet I feel so relaxed and satisfied at the same time y'know? I feel proud… and ashamed. I'm both happy and sad. I really don't know what to make of what happened."

"Ah-huh," Ayeka mumbled.

"I'm so embarrassed," Ryoko continued as she shook her head. "But when I remember what it was like to be with Tenchi, my whole body tingles!" she whispered as she smiled up at the ceiling wistfully. "You have no idea what it's like to be so sexually frustrated and so close to the boy you love without being able to touch him… without getting to be with him… having to share him with a bunch of other women."

"Oh I think I can imagine it," Ayeka muttered bitterly.

"I mean, Tenchi is the only boy I ever wanted to be with, and I was with him," Ryoko said with wide golden eyes. "How weird is that?"

"Unimaginable," Ayeka said through grit teeth.

"I know; you can't imagine what it was like; all those months of rejection, and then suddenly my wildest fantasies fulfilled like that!" Ryoko gasped. "It's all so sudden! I don't know how to handle it!"

"Neither do I," Ayeka grumbled.

"I mean damn!" Ryoko drawled the last word. "Nice things don't happen to me! I don't know what to do! I've got Tenchi right where I want him and I just know I'm going to mess it up!"

"How?" Ayeka snapped.

"I'll find a way," Ryoko shrugged. "If I want a relationship, I gotta play it cool but knowing me I'll just get clingy and scare him away. I've got to get a handle on myself and figure out what's next."

Ayeka's lovely face contorted into a hideous frown and the sound of scrambled eggs cooking on a hot skillet was clearly audible.

"So what do you think? Should I play hard to get or should I strike while the iron is hot? What do you think? Ayeka?" Ryoko pulled herself out of her musings to notice that Ayeka was fidgeting and her face was much redder than normal. "Oops." Ryoko put her hand over her mouth.

"Oh just go marry Tenchi and go fornicate in public!" Ayeka shrieked as she jumped up from the couch. "See if I care!"

"Ayeka!" Ryoko said as she jumped up and watched the princesses dash for the stairs. "I'm sorry! I wasn't thinking!"

"Go hang yourself!" Ayeka gulped as she lifted the hem of her robe and ran up the stairs. "Do what you want but I don't care anymore!"

Tears blinded Ayeka's eyes when she got to her room. It was happening again! First Yosho, her brother and fiancé, then her parents, and now Tenchi! Nobody wanted her! Nobody loved her! Seven hundred years and a new planet and she was still being rejected by the one she loved!

In the meantime Ryoko's high was wearing off. She had hurt Ayeka, and not on purpose this time. She hated to admit it but Princess Ayeka was her best friend. (Not that Ryoko the space pirate who's been considered dead for the last seven hundred years had a lot of friends in the first place.) It was sobering when she realized that hurting the purple haired prissy pants princess wasn't fun anymore.

The more she thought about it, the more horrified she became. Seven hundred years ago, Ayeka's older half-brother and fiancé Prince Yosho had disappeared on a suicide mission (to stop Ryoko!) and had never come back. Ayeka had run away from home only to discover that her brother had never intended to go back and marry her. Instead, over the centuries he had married various Earth girls until he was finally discovered by a Galaxy Police officer named Airi centuries later.

In the meantime Ayeka's spaceship Ryu-oh wandered the universe searching for her brother with Ayeka and Sasami in cryogenic suspended animation. They were out there for seven centuries! In the meantime Prince Yosho was found! Okay, only the royal family and a few trusted agents in the Galaxy Police knew about it, but why didn't they contact Ayeka's spaceship and tell her? Why didn't they try to find her and take her home come to think of it? Heck, even if the king and his wives didn't care about their daughters, you'd think they'd care about Ryo-oh and Tsunami, the spaceship that was bonded with little Sasami. Those were two of the most powerful ships in Jurai's fleet! No wonder Ayeka felt so rejected!

Ryoko's brooding was broken when she heard Mihoshi's childlike voice. "What's the matter, Ryoko? You look down."

"Oh! Well it's just that this all so sudden y'know?" an embarrassed Ryoko blushed. "I still don't know how to handle it."

"Well, if it helps try to think of it as something that just happened," said Mihoshi with a reassuring smile. "It's just mad science gone wrong. You're lucky that even worse things didn't happen!"

"Yeah," Ryoko chuckled weakly as she sat on the couch. "I just think that maybe something worse did happen. I really hurt Ayeka just now."

"Oh you do that all the time Ryoko," the blonde shrugged.

"No, it's different this time," the pirate said miserably. "What happened between Tenchi and me really wrecked her world. I think I destroyed her!"

"Destroyed her?" Mihoshi sat next to her. "In what way?"

"I think she realized that what happened between Tenchi and me…" Ryoko shook her head as she tried to find the words. "I know it was wrong but it was just so wonderful! It was so exhilarating and satisfying and yet by fulfilling my dream I completely crushed Ayeka's, y'know? I've been competing for Tenchi for so long that I never stopped to think of what would happen if I won. I mean, what are the chances of me winning? Out of all of us, I'm the most messed up of the bunch! And yet, due to a bizarre set of circumstances, somehow, Tenchi picked me. How weird is that? Huh? Are you okay, Mihoshi?"

Tears were forming in Mihoshi's eyes, yet the Galaxy Police officer still tried to maintain a brave smile. "I'm… so happy for you, Ryoko!" she sniffed. "After all you've been through it's really great that you finally got to be with the one you love. I'm sorry; I think I've got… something in my eye!" At this Mihoshi got up from the couch and ran sobbing out of the room, leaving behind a trail of tears. Mihoshi's wailing was muffled when Ryoko heard a door open and close.

"Oops," Ryoko blushed and cowered as she sat on the couch. "I did it again."

Next: Disclaimer