Reminders of the Past
A Tenchi Muyo and Invinsible Crossover
Chapter 13 - No Need For Old Enemies Part 1
The Okayama Prefecture was more or less exactly what Cecil remembered it to be. Typically his trips around the world were more along the lines of ensuring that problems were dealt with, and today was more of that. Washu Hakubi had seen fit to fill him in on their universe's version of her daughter. Already he was uncertain of the entire thing. The girl had been beaten and tortured until she lost her identity.
The sick bastard that had done it in her universe had ended up meeting his end when their Tenchi had managed to pull a universal level power out of his ass and sliced him, and his ship, into two. Now he was heading toward a shrine where their version of Ryoko was at, and he was going to have a very frank talk with her. Of course, if the Princesses were already here, which he was warned by both Ayeka and Sasami that they could be, then he would need to have a talk with the royals as well.
He could feel the presence of the GDA forces around him, but he remained mostly calm until they neared the house. Their beginning hadn't been a curious boy exploring where he shouldn't and accidentally releasing someone that had far too much power. It'd been a young man scared out of his wits hoping that some old legend was actually true. As it turned out, it was. He neared the house that was currently sitting at the bottom of the stairs to the shrine. He could see an elderly man, dressed as a Shinto Priest, and he was seemingly observing him.
"Good morning," the man said, "Are you lost?"
It was perfect English, and he knew that it had to be one of the ones he was looking for. "Crown Prince Yosho Jurai?"
The man halted for a moment, "Hmmm," he said as he studied them, "I don't recall seeing you before, so you're not Juraian."
Cecil gave a slight bow, "I'm not, my name is Cecil Stedman, I'm the head of the Global Defense Agency," he said before he neared him, "What gave you away is the fact that you're speaking perfect English."
Katsuhito studied him for a moment, "And how would that give me away?"
He looked at him for a moment, "Biochip created by the Jurai Empire," he said as he pointed toward a small mole near the bottom of his neck, "It's implanted on all Juraian royalty in order to allow them to communicate effortlessly with any sapient species. Saves a helluva lot of time when going into diplomatic meetings."
He nodded and looked around, "So, why are you here?" he asked as he steadied himself, "Please keep in mind that while I might not look it, I am very capable of defending myself."
Cecil shook his head, "It's not to bring you in, but instead it's about your new house guest. Ryoko Hakubi I believe," he said as he studied him, "She is not in trouble, but we wanted to make contact and talk to her about lending a hand."
He nodded, "I see, and I suppose that means that you want to talk to me, and to my grandson as well."
Cecil took a moment to look at him, and then after that moment he nodded, "Yes," he admitted, "I'll need to speak to you, and I'm going to assume that there are other guests that I should have a communication with as well."
For a moment Katsuhito looked uncertain. He tried to figure out what it was that he was saying until a slight smile crossed his face, "I see," he replied as he motioned for Cecil to follow him, "I suppose that it was just a matter of time."
That made Cecil pause for a moment. In truth he understood that while parallel dimensions were similar there were going to be slight differences. It was something that their own scientists had theorized for a while, and when Washu Hakubi arrived she confirmed it. She had explained it as similar to having an artist painting the same portrait over and over again. The first two or three would be exceptionally similar, but the fiftieth, or the hundredth would be far different. Oh, there would still be similarities between the original and those paintings. Similar strokes used for the painting, similar patterns, but the entire portrait would change.
It was obvious that their universe and the one that Washu had originated from were more removed. There were similarities, which he was seeing already. Her daughter existed here, so that meant that she did as well. It also meant that the one that controlled her obviously existed. He'd already begun working on beefing up planetary security. Mark was informed of what was going to need to happen, and one of the first things that Rudolph was going to calculate in his cell was the chances they had of defeating this Kagato.
He understood that in her world Tenchi Masaki had been powerful enough to take down this madman and his ship. For that reason alone they were going to explain the situation to him. If he wanted to join the Global Defense Agency then he would begin working on his training in earnest. It wouldn't be the first time that the Agency had gotten to someone that needed to be trained to use their powers.
From what he understood the other Tenchi Masaki had abilities that far surpassed what he had shown. That he didn't unleash them because doing so would put everyone else in danger. That basically his unleashing his full power had the potential to unmake the universe itself. According to what Washu had shared, the one thing that kept him from unmaking everything was the connections he had with the girls he lived with.
He'd developed deep emotional bonds with them, and because of his royal status he took them as wives. So, it stood to reason that the same would happen with this version of Ryoko. He'd develop a bond with her, and in doing so it would help keep his powers in check. Unless of course the bastard that controlled her to begin with ended up coming to this planet. At which point if the universe decided to diverge more, and that could lead to him unleashing his full power when he wasn't ready.
So, Cecil understood that he needed to do a few different things. One of them was that he needed to help the kid train and learn lots of self control. In addition he was going to have to play matchmaker. That wasn't something he was skilled at, but he was certain that he could do it. Since the kid obviously came from a polyamorous culture, or rather his grandfather did, then it wouldn't be an issue to sneak one of his own agents in there.
Besides, it wouldn't hurt to ensure that the kid was connected to humanity through a love interest. It meant he needed to check the psychological profiles of the female agents, and he also needed to find one that would be able to stand with the other girls that would end up being in the house. That meant that the girl needed to have some kind of superpower. There had been more than enough to choose from before, but now there were far fewer superheroes than there had been.
The level of death and destruction that Ruldoph had left across the world had ended up costing about a full third of their known superheroes. The ones left were either prepared for it, or lucky enough to be overlooked. In the case of this Tenchi his desperate hope had paid off. He'd unleashed someone more than powerful enough to deal with it. Moving inside Cecil saw a similar spiky teal headed woman looking at him. Her golden eyes weren't the same as the Ryoko he'd met. She watched him the kind of way a predator watched other predators.
She moved like a lioness, each step, each movement, was done for the utmost efficiency. She didn't make a show of things, she didn't make grand gestures, she moved like a trained assassin. She did not move like the woman he'd met. She moved with the intent to protect what was hers, and to destroy anyone and anything that threatened it. He silently wondered why she couldn't have been unleashed when Nolan had begun his process of preparing the world for the Viltrumites.
If she would have been, there would be a damn good chance that it would have never gotten so far. Then again, she likely wouldn't have cared either. Not unless his actions were to bring him to conflict with the one she was protecting. He could see the young man, who surprisingly seemed at ease.
"Ryoko," he said, softly, "Please, he's a guest."
She backed down, but remained on guard. He could respect that, and he moved further inside. He took the offered place, happy that remembered the tradition of removing shoes and glad that his socks were in decent shape. Taking a seat he looked across at the young man. He was roughly the same age as the other Tenchi, but he looked less confident.
"Here," he said, taking out two ear pieces, each with a small crab on them, "This will allow us to speak easier."
Tenchi took one, and Ryoko snatched the other. She watched as Tenchi put it in his ear, and she followed suit, "Now," he said simply, "My name is Cecil Stedman, and I'm with the Global Defense Agency. I'm sure that you've heard of it before. The Japanese Self Defense Force is part of that same agency."
Cecil could see the understanding, and he waited for a moment before he began again, "Part of what we do at the Global Defense Agency is find those with extraordinary powers, and we recruit them," he said as he watched them, "Heroes like the Guardians of the Globe, Invincible, and Japandroid."
He watched as Ryoko studied him, "What does this have to do with us?" she asked, her eyes never moving away from him, "Why come and talk to us?"
He breathed out, "I've come to talk to you because I've met both of you before," he admitted as he stood, "Well, not the two of you personally, but alternate versions of yourselves. They were from an alternate universe that Invincible had ended up in. With their assistance he made it back here, and thanks to them we were able to put down the rogue hero Robot."
He saw Tenchi standing up, "These other versions of us, what were they like?"
He shrugged, "They were decent people, got along well, and both of them suggested that I come and find you," he replied, "They believed that you would be interested in keeping this world safe."
Cecil watched as the young man sat there for a moment. Finally he looked toward his Grandfather. The older man took a moment and then looked toward Cecil. He leaned back for a moment, "From what you've told us, the planet is no longer considered a developing world, right?"
Cecil gave a nod, "From what I understand we're being given a chance to sit at the adult's table, or at least that was how it was presented to us," he said as he watched the older man, "We have our armed forces, and there are still heroes out there, but we really need to get as much power behind us as possible."
After he explained it to them Tenchi seemed to look toward Ryoko who had never taken her eyes off of Cecil. He noticed that it wasn't a fearful look, but it was the look of a dangerous predator keeping her eyes on another predator that had entered her domain. For Cecil it wasn't anything new. He'd dealt with beings that were far stronger than he was, faster, and in some cases smarter. The one thing that had always been his edge was the fact that they almost always underestimated how dangerous he could be.
Even Nolan hadn't considered him to be a major threat, and that had cost him time. Time that he could have used to distance himself from humanity, time that he could have brought his mission to the forefront of his mind, but he didn't and his connections had led to his self exile. Of course they were still constantly watching out for him to return. Up until meeting with the Masaki family Mark Grayson had been the one possible contingency plan. Now there was another.
He'd seen how powerful the other Ryoko had been, and he'd seen how powerful the other Tenchi was. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind that these two were the same. They wouldn't be just a deterrent for Nolan, but instead they would be a deterrent for any other being too stubborn to leave Earth alone. Having the backing of a major power in the Universe wasn't going to hurt either.
"My Grandpa has been training me," Tenchi said, breaking Cecil from his thoughts, "And I'm guessing that it was more than just temple training, right?"
The older man nodded, "I've been training you to keep focus on your surroundings, how to keep focus regardless of the situation, and how to handle the power that you have."
Cecil could sense that there was about to be a discussion between the two, and likely it wasn't going to be a simple affair either. Something told him that the kid was likely going to ask some fairly difficult questions, and it would only make sense that he try to come to understand what was going on. There wasn't a play for time, there wasn't a massive battle, and so he decided to let the two discuss this between themselves.
As he let them talk, Ryoko continued to watch him. He wasn't exactly the same, but in a way he reminded her of him. Memories of Kagato filled her mind, the begging and pleading that finally died down after the first couple of decades. She'd once commented that the problem with around the clock torture was that he couldn't really step it up from there. Kagato had taken that as a challenge and she faced a whole slew of new tortures.
There were things done to her that she couldn't believe. Horrific things that broke her over and over again. Time began to lose all meaning, her life lost all meaning, and the only thing that mattered was not going back to the bad room. She'd do whatever he asked to not go back there. It didn't matter what it was, how horrible it might have been, because she would do it in order to just merely sleep instead of going back to the room again.
He'd taken so much from her, stolen so much from her, that it wasn't until she was forced down to this planet that she began to understand how much was stolen. Watching Tenchi grow up had helped. She'd managed to project her astral form just in front of the shrine that held her, and she watched as he grew. Through him she realized what had been taken, and she called out to him when she began to understand more about herself.
She called out to him to release her, to let her comfort him, to let her be the one to hold him and wipe away his tears. As he grew older she developed other feelings, feelings she wanted and were afraid of. Kagato had used her, in every way possible, and each time it was a punishment. It was violent, rough, and torture when he used her in a way that could have been considered sexual.
She was afraid of those feelings with Tenchi. She was afraid because he never heard her. He didn't listen to her when she called out to him, and she was afraid that he would do the same to her. At least she was afraid until he tried to protect her. The moment he was willing to take physical harm in her stead made her want to trust him. He'd put himself in the path of something that would have hurt her, and she felt the stirrings of deeper emotions for him.
Those feelings began to focus into love. She felt genuine love for him, and it scared her. It scared her because she didn't want to lose it. She didn't want those feelings to be taken away from her. She wanted to keep him safe, and the idea that he would be in danger didn't sit well with her. She growled a little, not realizing that she was doing it. It wasn't until Cecil looked at her that she truly understood the sound she was making.
"No," she said simply, "I don't want him to be in danger."
Katsuhito looked at him, his right eyebrow arching, "Do you not believe that it is his choice?"
She looked toward him, her golden eyes narrowed nearly to slits, "No," she replied, "He is the only good thing that I care about in this world, the only good thing, and I don't want him to be in danger. I'll go, I'll stop those that would harm him, but that is the extent of it."
"Ryoko," Tenchi said before she looked at him, and her eyes softened, "I want to help protect my home, and you."
She wanted to be mad at him, "You don't understand," she said softly, her voice little more than a whisper, "You don't know the kinds of things that can happen. Things that will make you lose yourself over and over again. I don't want that for you."
She felt a soft hand on her own, and then she looked into the eyes that were looking back at her. They were young, impossibly young, and so full of optimism and hope. She lost herself in them, and then she felt the hand grasp hers in a gentle fashion, "And I don't want that for you. That's the reason I need to do this."