Tenchi Muyo: Ryo-ohki OVA4

Episode 23: Responsibility

By Galaxy1001D

Chapter Eight: Discipline

Ryoko was lying on a rafter in the living room. Her eyes were closed and she was snoring like a buzz saw.

"Ryoko!" Ayeka called from where she was standing down by the 'L' shaped couch. "What are you doing up there? You're supposed to be in your room crying your eyes out!"

"That's not until the author updates, and knowing him, it will be almost a year before he posts another one," Ryoko muttered. "We got time."

"No we don't!" Ayeka corrected her. "The author is posting the next chapter right now! The chapter's started and you've missed your mark!"

"What?" Ryoko sat up. "But the little whiner never posts anything and just sulks because nobody ever leaves a review!"

"We got reviews this time," Ayeka informed her. "The last chapter got five."

"Five?" Ryoko blinked in disbelief. "What are you talking about? A lot of our chapters get zero. We never get five on a chapter this far in!"

"We did this time," Ayeka said. "So this chapter is being posted now, while the iron is hot!"

"Oh my gosh, you're right!" Ryoko gasped. "We've got to go while people are reviewing otherwise the little whiner will never finish this! After we're done here we still got two more episodes to go!"

"So get up to your room, and for Tsunami's sake get into character!" Ayeka ordered.

"I'm on it!" Ryoko nodded before she vanished into thin air.

Up in her room, Ryoko appeared with an electronic hum and hung floating in the air for a second before letting her feet touch the ground. Without warning, she started hyperventilating. She hugged herself and grimaced as tears started trickling out of her topaz yellow eyes. Before she knew it, she was lying on the floor in a fetal position bawling hysterically.

Tenchi wanted them all to leave! He wanted them all to leave! Whether he felt guilty for stringing them along, thought they were all being manipulated, or just didn't like them he wanted them all to leave! It was unthinkable! He could split up the only family Ryoko had ever known just like that!

She had kept up a strong front before the others but now the emotions had welled up and had to be let out. She covered her mouth so that the others wouldn't hear her bawling. They were depending on her to be the strong one now. Her muffled shrieks seemed to shake the room but nobody knocked on her door. Either Ryoko was quieter than she thought or they were respecting her privacy.

An evil look of purest hate marred the former space pirate's features. How dare Tenchi even think of doing this to her, let alone saying it aloud? She was going to get him back that's for sure! He was going to pay for…

No. That was the evil Ryoko talking. The one from over seven hundred years ago. The dumb killing machine who only used her worthless brain to plan the perfect crime. That wasn't who Ryoko was anymore. She loved Tenchi, even if right now she wanted to pummel him.

Miserably, Ryoko sat up on her futon and took a deep breath. There had to be some way to channel her ire in a constructive way wasn't there? A way that would repair the damage rather than make it worse. She closed her eyes and thought about it. There had to be a way to discipline him.

Discipline. That was it. Despite how mature he acted, Tenchi was the youngest one in the house. Tenchi needed discipline. Now that his grandfather was exposed as a fraud, Katsuhitio couldn't do it anymore. Problem was, the idea of having no one to answer to terrified him. The boy's ridiculous 'everybody leave me so you can be free' idea was based on the fear that she and the rest of the girls would spoil him rotten; spoil him so rotten that Tenchi would become a supervillain. Fine. Ryoko and the girls wouldn't spoil him. They'd do quite the opposite.

The next day, when Tenchi went out to the fields, Ryoko held a meeting.

"So that's my plan," she said when she got them all around the dining table.

The other girls blinked in confusion and looked at each other. Well not all of them. Baby Washu, who was sitting in a highchair, put her face in her juice glass and made a noise that sounded vaguely like a motorboat.

"You got me out of my lab for that?" Noike sneered.

"Darn right I did," Ryoko pouted. "It's a good plan, and the only option we got right now. What's wrong with it? And hey! Who said it was your lab anyhow? That's Washu's lab! That's my mother's lab!"

As if she was agreeing with her daughter, baby Washu sucked in a mouthful of juice and spit it at Noike.

"Um, Ryoko," Mihoshi blushed. "Could you run your plan by me again? I think I missed it."

"I did too," Sasami admitted.

"Meow," Ryo-ohki nodded in agreement.

"That's because she never told us her plan!" Ayeka snapped. "She just got us all in here, sat down and said 'So that's my plan,' like an imbecile! You never told us your plan, you idiot!"

"Hey!" Ryoko protested. "Who's an idiot?"

"I am," Mihoshi sighed as she gazed at baby Washu wearing the happy helmet. Then she blinked in realization. "No wait! It's not me this time! Ryoko, it's you!" Laughing and clapping, Mihoshi expressed her elation, and thanks to the little motorcycle helmet style device on Washu's head, the carrot topped infant did too.

The former space pirate groaned and rubbed her temples. "Okay, so I admit I got excited, but I know this will work. The way I see it we've all been too nice to Tenchi. He doesn't think he deserves the love we give him and he's exhausted trying to live up to our expectations."

"Don't you think that maybe he's simply feeling guilty about taking advantage of you in your weakened state?" Noike asked.

"Maybe, but I think this goes deeper than that," Ryoko shook her head and tapped her finger on the table.

Baby Washu noticed and started slapping her hand against her baby tray. Ryo-ohki slapped her paw like hand against the table too before looking around and blushing self-consciously. With a quiet cough, the furry toddler retracted her hand and placed it under the table.

"Let's face it girls," Ryoko declared. "We all see Tenchi as a hero."

"Well he is a hero," Ayeka shrugged. "Didn't he rescue you twice?" She blinked in realization before breaking down into tears. "Rescued you!" she sniveled. "It's always been you; it's you he cares about…"

"Snap out of it!" Ryoko grunted as she gave the purple haired princess a slap to the face that almost knocked her over.

"Hey!" Ayeka jumped to her feet. "Where do you get off hitting me Ryoko? Once you start you never stop!"

"You see, this is exactly what I'm talking about," Ryoko continued in a lecturing tone while gesturing at the irate and fearful princess. "Sometimes tough love can be better than pity. If I would have hugged Ayeka and told her it would all be all right she would have plunged into a pit of despair. By slapping her around I've restored her fighting spirit."

The rest of the girls made a sound like "Ooooh," and looked at Ayeka. Well not all of them. Washu didn't make a sound because she was picking her nose and Ryo-ohki made a high pitched squeak. Ayeka blushed at the girl's scrutiny and sat back down.

In the meantime, Ryoko made a declaration. "I may not be the best housewife or the best mother or the best woman around…"

"Correct," Ayeka muttered.

"…but if there's one thing I do know it's how to be mean," Ryoko finished.

"You got that right," Ayeka grumbled while rubbing her sore cheek.

"And I think it might just be what Tenchi needs right now," Ryoko continued. "We're all so nice to him that we're creeping him out. I say we discipline him and let him know we're upset with him, what do you say?"

"Discipline Tenchi?" Mihoshi repeated in disbelief.

"Since when does Tenchi need discipline?" Sasami added.

"Mew?" Ryo-ohki shrugged.

"Come on you numbskulls!" Ryoko implored. "Didn't you hear him yesterday? He wants to send us away because we're all too nice to him! If we want to stay here, we have to treat him the way he thinks he deserves!"

Sasami's face darkened. "Tenchi's going down," she muttered darkly. "Because I love him so much!" she added in a worried voice. "Honestly I do!"

"Okay then," Ryoko nodded. "Just follow my lead."

That afternoon Tenchi came home but he didn't know if he accomplished anything in the carrot fields today. To be honest, he really couldn't concentrate on his work. He had been too worried about what had happened recently. First he takes advantage of Ryoko when she's out of her mind thanks to that hormone imbalance, and then he tries to kick all the girls out of the house. What was wrong with him anyway?

Sighing, he shambled in the back door but stopped in his tracks when he saw Ryoko waiting for him in the living room. The look on her face meant she was still angry with him. "Uh, Ryoko," he greeted weakly. "Uh, hi. How was your day?"

"Hard day in the fields?" Ryoko asked dryly.

"Um, I guess so…"

"Tired?" the former space pirate asked him.

"Yeah, but maybe I'm just depressed…"

"Well too bad!" she declared. "It's your turn to clean the toilet and it's plugged up! Get in there and clean it out!"

"What?" Tenchi blinked. "It's not my turn, it's Mihoshi's turn, I could have sworn…"

"We had a vote," Ryoko interrupted. "It's your turn now."

"Had a vote?" Tenchi repeated stupidly. "What for?"

"Somebody wanted to kick us all out yesterday because he was afraid we were being too nice to him and made him think he deserved to have the entire universe bow down to him so we got together and decided to take steps," Ayeka informed him as she walked down the stairs to join the space pirate. "Whenever you do something so bad that it's practically unforgivable we're going to give you the discipline your grandfather can't."

"Yeah," Ryoko snorted. "You got a problem with that?"

"What? Oh," Tenchi blushed and nodded in surrender. "Yeah, I got it. And you're right girls. I deserve it. I guess after what I said yesterday this is getting off easy isn't it?"

"Yup," Ryoko nodded. "So from now on, we're keepin' it real. Get to the bathroom Tenchi. I ate six burritos today to plug it up and I'm not having that disaster area go to waste. Go on get in there."

"Got it," he sighed as he trudged to the bathroom. "Oh my gosh!" he gasped when he opened the door. "It's horrible! I can barely breathe! What was in those burritos anyhow?"

"Hey there, Tenchi," Mihoshi greeted him while wearing a gasmask. "Here's your brush, so you can get going," she chirped while offering him a pair of rubber gloves and a toilet brush.

"Mihoshi!" Ayeka snapped from down the hall. "What are you doing? We agreed we wouldn't be nice to him!"

"Oh, right," Mihoshi apologized as she took the toilet brush away. "My mistake," she said as she handed Tenchi a toothbrush. "Here you go, Tenchi, good luck."

"Mihoshi!" Ryoko and Ayeka scolded.

"I mean, 'you're lucky to have this, you lousy so-and-so,'" the blonde corrected herself. "'When I get back I expect that toilet to be clean enough to eat out of.' Ew! Who'd want to eat out of a toilet bowl?"

"Mihoshi, forget it," Ayeka sighed.

"Yeah, just come away," Ryoko gestured the blonde back to the family room. "Just stay away from Tenchi until you can find your inner witch."

"Oh my!" Mihoshi exclaimed as she left Tenchi to join Ryoko and Ayeka. "I don't know if I have one!"

"Don't worry about it," Ayeka assured her. "Ryoko and I have enough for all three of us."

Dinner was another surprise. Sasami and Mihoshi served a delicious meal to everyone at the table… except Tenchi.

"Hey what gives?" the boy asked. "Where's my food?"

"Here they are," a smiling Noike said as she placed a handful of pills on his plate and gave him a large glass of water. "Virtual-Washu has assured me that these pills contain all of the carbohydrates, proteins, and vitamins that you require. They've were created specifically for your biochemistry, so they should be healthier for you than real food. Just be sure to drink plenty of water, okay?"

Tenchi groaned and bowed so he could put his face on the table.

"I'm sorry, Tenchi," Sasami apologized. "They wouldn't let me cook for you, honest! I'll try to make a snack for you later…"

"Sasami!" Ayeka snapped. "I thought we talked about this!"

"I'm sorry Ayeka, it's just that this is so hard," the blue haired child whined. "It's easy to be mean to Tenchi when he's not in the room but it's hard to do so when he's sitting right there."

"It's okay, Sasami, I deserve it," Tenchi murmured without lifting his head from the table.

"Meow?" Ryo-ohki raised a skeptical eyebrow on her furry toddler face.

"Who am I kidding, I can't be mean to Tenchi even when he's not around," Sasami sighed.

"Well I can!" Mihoshi chirped. "It's easy! Just do it on accident! I do lots of things on accident! Watch this!" She picked up Tenchi's glass and splashed him with the water he was supposed to take his pills with. "See? I'm so clumsy, I can do mean things without realizing it! Go ahead Sasami, you do it!"

"Hmm well…" the little princess was skeptical. She picking up her chopsticks, she flung a piece of meat at Tenchi. It bounced off his head and landed on the table. "I dunno," Sasami's eyes were skeptical. "Being mean to him that way seems awfully messy to me…"

"That's okay, just be mean to him in your own way," Mihoshi smiled.

From her highchair, Baby Washu picked up little handfuls of her food and flung it at anybody she could. She knocked over her little cup with the spillproof lid and went "Whee!"

Meanwhile back at Galaxy Police headquarters Commissioner Airi the lovely greenhaired woman who was Tenchi's maternal grandmother was behind her massive desk. She hit a button on an intercom that was installed in it as a call came in. "Airi," she said.

"Commissioner, this is Captain Seina Yamada," an awkward high pitched teenage boy's holographic image reported. How an underage kid like that became a captain in the Galaxy Police is another story.

"Report Captain," Airi instructed.

"The Kamidake II is at the slave mine at Exilus Four," he said. "It's as bad as you reported. We defeated the slavers but the people they were using to work the mines are in pretty bad shape. We need a medical ship out here as soon as possible."

"That was only to be expected Captain," Airi nodded wearily. "Anything else?"

"Yes Ma'am," he nodded. "You won't believe who one of the workers is! A relative of yours."

"Of mine?" she frowned in disbelief.

"That's right," he nodded. "Only the most celebrated woman in recent history."

"It can't be!" Airi gasped. "I thought she was dead!"

"We all thought she was dead," Siena shrugged. "But she's still alive and we've got to help her."

Next: Guess Who's Coming To Dinner