The TENCHI Chronicles
Chapter 5 - Confrontation and Defeat
Version 1.0 (first release version)
A Tenchi Muyo fanfiction
by Michael "Brazil" Borgwardt (brazzy {at} gmail {dot} com)
Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki and its characters are copyrighted by AIC/Pioneer.
I don't have any right to do this but I did it anyway. The rights to this
story, however, are mine. Please don't sell it and don't change it without
asking for my permission.
If you haven't read the previous chapters, you should do so. They can be
found at this URL:
http://fanfiction.brazils-animeland.de
A short summary of what happened so far:
Tenchi tells Aeka and Ryoko about his true feelings and that he is not,
right now, in love with either of them. Both girls are devastated, and
Tenchi suffers from the backlash. But when all is said and done, they are
now able to deal much more openly with each other and with Tenchi. Then,
a picnic held at the anniversary of the arrival of Ryoko, Aeka and Sasami
is held and goes smoothly. Washu finally confronts Ryoko, and the two
manage to open up to each other and start a real mother-daughter
relationship. Then one morning, the crew wakes up to find that an
interstellar war has broken out and Jurai (as well as everyone else) is
under attack. Together they leave Earth to help with the defense.
And this is where chapter five begins:
***********************************
In the empty depths of space, there was a small convoy of spaceships, at
the same time moving at an incredible speed towards their target, and
completely still in relation to each other. The ships were as different
as one could imagine: a sleek Galaxy Police patrol ship, a recently
regrown and still very small Juraian treeship, a half-mineral,
half-organic ex-space-pirate, and, leading them, huge yet graceful, the
oldest and most powerful of Jurai's ships, the very foundation of the
Juraian empire and its culture: Tsunami.
Among the passengers of these ships, some were currently asleep, probably
the smartest thing to do, considering the uncertainty of their near future.
Five hours ago, shortly after they'd left Earth, GCRN, the Galactic
Communications Relay Network which provided instantaneous communication
throughout the galaxy, had effectively broken down. The invaders had either
destroyed or conquered and deactivated a large number of key nodes, robbing
Washu almost completely of her means to gather information about the status
of the war. They could now only keep going and hope that they'd arrive soon
enough to be able to do something.
However, despite this lack of new information, some of them were not able to
attain sleep or had decided to take care of matters they considered more
important.
Aeka, crown princess of Jurai, was among those who were unable to find sleep.
After tossing and turning in her bed for an hour, she gave up, and got
dressed. She wished for a moment that Tenchi were with her and not on
Ryo-ohki, then scolded herself for thinking of such petty matters in this
time of emergency. Still, it would surely have lifted her spirits to feel one
of his rare embraces, or at least talk to him.
Lost in thought, Aeka found herself approaching Ryu-oh's bridge. To her
surprise, it was illuminated. It could only be her brother, kept awake by
his worries, just like herself. In an attempt to do something, anything,
productive, she went to the dining room, made two cups of tea and then
returned to the bridge. She entered, and approached the man sitting in
the pilot's chair.
"Are you also having trouble finding sleep, brother? You really-"
At this point, the sound of her voice was replaced by that of the tea cups
shattering on the floor, as Aeka's left hand was now covering her mouth
while the right hung limply at her side. A mask of shock covered her face.
The man in the chair had just turned around to look at her. A long mane of
beautiful, black hair, not the off-gray of age. No traces of age at all: the
face, which showed a mixture of guilt and determination, had the smooth
features of a Juraian male in the prime of his life.
Aeka's legs gave out under her, and she sank down rather ungracefully. Her
mind was both full to the brink with questions and emotions and completely
unable to focus on any one long enough to formulate a coherent thought.
Eventually, the torrent settled down enough to allow her to speak, albeit
only in a whisper.
"Yousho... why?"
The pain in his eyes got a little stronger, and he stood up and approached
her, as he finally spoke.
"Aeka, I'm so sorry... But you have to understand-"
"-understand what? That you lied to me, deceived me, your own sister, all
this time because you hate me too much to marry me? I think I understand
that pretty well." Her voice began to show a notable tinge of hysteria as she
began to realize the full implications of the situation, the humiliation, and
what might be the reason for it.
Yousho quickly took his sister's hand, ignoring her weak attempts to jerk it
away
"No, Aeka, you *must* beliven me! I don't hate you, I never did. That wasn't
the reason why I did this, not at all. In fact, I did not really deceive
you. You have to understand... This may be what my body looks like without
Tsunami's disguise, but inside... I *am* old. I have seen too many friends
and loved ones grow old and die to feel young myself. That other form... is
much closer to my real self and I feel more comfortable in it."
Aeka stared at him numbly. When he reached down, she allowed herself to
be pulled up and led to a bench at the side of the room, where they sat down
next to each other.
Finally, she spoke, again barely more than a whisper.
"But why... why didn't you just tell me?"
Yousho sighed. "At first because I feared you would insist on marrying me
regardless. That could only have brought grief to both of us. When it had
become clear that you loved Tenchi, I kept up the deception out of habit...
and cowardice. Nobuyuki and Tenchi have known me as an old man for all
their lives. Aeka, it really is as I told you: I *am* an old man, and used to
the way things happen on Earth. Jurai is a distant memory for me, and I
wouldn't be happy there, nor would the Juraians be happy with me. Even..."
he was unable to continue the sentence for some seconds. "...even mother
and father."
Aeka had listened to all this with growing despair. "What about...
Tenchi-sama? Will he also want to grow old and die within a couple of
decades? Would he also be unhappy on Jurai? Is my love for him destined to
be broken by these differences?"
Her brother smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry. Tenchi is still young. I'm
sure he can adapt. Just look at how easily he accepted first the appearance of
Ryoko-san and you, and then his own heritage. It may seem like he hates it
all and would rather lead a normal life, but don't let yourself be fooled.
Before all of this started, he used to complain almost daily that nothing ever
happened at the shrine, and how could we expect him to spend his holidays in
such a remote place. I'm certain that he was much happier this last year,
even if it often seemed like he hated it."
Aeka thought about this for a while and then smiled. "Thank you, my brother.
I hope you are right about that. And I... forgive you for not telling me
about... this." She gestured at him.
For a while, there was silence between brother and sister, until their minds
inevitably returned to more immediate concerns. Aeka was the first to voice
their mutual fears.
"What do you think is happening on Jurai, Yousho?"
He sighed. After a while he decided to stop trying not to upset his sister
and be honest. Brutally honest maybe, but she wasn't a child anymore.
"I don't know either. To be honest, the way it looked when the GCRN broke
down, Jurai might already have been forced to surrender by the time we
arrive."
The next words from Aeka were choked. "What will happen to mother and father
and Funaho-okaasama? They'll... kill them, won't they?"
Yousho hadn't expected this, but the fact that Aeka was coming up with worse
scenarios than he himself told him that he hadn't been wrong in his decision.
"Aeka, there's no reason to assume that! We don't even know-"
"Brother, I know my history lessons! If someone conquers a star system or
empire, killing the former leaders in order to prevent resistance is usually
one of the first things they do!"
At this point, she couldn't hold back the tears anymore and collapsed against
her brother. Awkwardly at first, Yousho put his arms around Aeka and started
to slowly stroke her hair. He took a few deep breaths to calm his own fears
and give his voice the confidence he needed for Aeka's sake.
"That is possbile, yes. But it won't necessarily turn out that way. Whoever
these invaders are, they are very well informed and excellent tacticians, as
their attack on the GCRN and especially the secret military nodes shows. And
if you know your history truly well, you'll remember many instances of the
former leaders being kept in power as figureheads."
With her head still buried in his shoulders, Aeka's voice was faint and hard
to understand. "Father is far too proud to agree to something like that."
"True, but he never let his pride get the better of him when it really
counted. And there's also mother and Misaki-okaasama. They'd never give up
an opportunity to retain at least some ability to keep Jurai out of harm.
You know as well as I do that father always ends up doing what they want, one
way or another."
This actually managed to elicit a chuckle from Aeka, if only a choked one.
"So the best we can hope for is to arrive on an occupied planet with our
parents being forced to work together with the invaders. What will we do
then?"
"Let's decide that when we know more about the real situation. It is still
possible that the invaders aren't as powerful and numerous as they seemed
and are unable to keep up their momentum."
"I suppose you're right." Aeka rubbed the tears out of her eyes, but didn't
move away from her brother. "Thanks... for everything."
Yousho smiled. "I'm your brother, after all. Come, we'd better get some
sleep."
"No! I mean... I'd rather stay like this for now..."
They ended up falling asleep leaning against each other after a while.
-----------------------------------
On a different vessel, Tenchi was also awake and watching the stars through
a window in Ryo-ohki's hull. Glad to have found a moment of peace, he
pondered his situation. Peace! What irony... it was *war* they were going
to, he realized in horror.
Why had he not hesitated, not for the
fraction of a second, to leave his home for a more than uncertain future?
Sure, he was partially Juraian, but he hadn't even known that until less than
a year ago, and he didn't really feel any particular loyalty to Aeka's home
planet. And there he'd touched his real reason: whatever he'd have done,
Aeka, Sasami and Mihoshi would have left. So he'd gone too, hadn't even
considered the possibility of not going. It wasn't only that rushing off to
rescue one of the girls had become almost a habitual thing to do, he didn't
really regret the decision even now. Letting those girls go to war, where
they might die without him being able to do a thing about it... simply hadn't
been an option. Still from everything he knew about war, Tenchi strongly
suspected that he'd soon enough regret not having tried to hold them back.
Of course that would have been futile anyway.
The arrival of another person interrupted Tenchi's thoughts.
"Tenchi?"
"Oh, it's you Ryoko..."
She frowned. "You sure know how to make a girl feel appreciated, don't you?"
"Sorry. But I'm just not in a very good mood right now."
She sat down next to him. "And why's that?" she asked in an uncharacteristically
serious tone.
Tenchi regarded her incredolously. "*Why*?? Maybe you haven't noticed, but
we're about to fly right into a *war*! And I don't know why I'm here, except
that I couldn't really do anything else!"
Ryoko smiled at him warmly. "Exactly. You couldn't do anything else because
that's just the way you are, and that's why I love you. So stop bugging
yourself about it, OK?"
"I guess it's pretty pointless to do that now..." Tenchi sighed. Then,
something else occurred to him. "Um... Ryoko? Why... did *you* come? You
don't have anyone out there, so why..." he trailed off when he saw that Ryoko
had begun to pout.
"Mou, Tenchi! You don't *know* that?"
"Um... I..."
"For the exact same reason, of course! I *knew* that you'd go, so I really
had no choice but to come along!"
"Oh." At this, Tenchi felt a bit guilty, though he wasn't entirely sure why.
An uncomfortable silence began to surround them, until it was broken by a
yawn from Tenchi.
"I... uh... better go to sleep, eh? I'll probably need it soon..." he stated
lamely as he stood up.
However, the gloom was suddenly gone from her face and replaced by a
mischievous expression Tenchi had learned not to dread in recent months.
Ryoko vanished and immediately reappeared behind him, her arms wrapped
tightly around his chest.
"Sure that you don't want me to be with you tonight?" she whispered
into his ear with a sultry voice that sent shivers down his spine.
Smiling, Tenchi reached up and began to undo the knot her hands had formed.
"I appreciate the offer, but... no. You know why."
Suddenly remebering a conversation with Aeka some months ago, Ryoko
renewed her grip on him and laid her face against his neck.
"Tenchi, you said it yourself: we're going right into a war. What if one of
us doesn't survive? I'm afraid, Tenchi..." He felt her tremble and hold on to
him even more strongly, as if afraid that any moment now, he might slip
through her hands and disappear.
"I want more than one night, so much more... but maybe I won't even get
that..."
Tenchi had gone stiff at these words. He could feel her tears on his skin.
When he could move again, he loosened Ryoko's arms a bit, turned around
and then embraced her.
"You mustn't think like that, Ryoko. None of us is going to die, not after
all we've been through already. You'll see, this is going to be over before
you know what happened."
Having said this, he released Ryoko, and looked into her tear-streaked face.
The sight was quite a shock to him. The girl before him looked so... fragile
and afraid, so completely unlike the Ryoko he knew. But then, Tenchi
remembered several occasions on which she'd looked like this. All of them
had been his fault. Even though it was different this time, he felt guilty.
He started to brush away Ryoko's tears.
"Ryoko, you worry too much. I never knew you were such a worrier... You'll
see, everything's going to be fine, and you'll probably laugh about yourself
when this is over."
However, though she stopped crying, Ryoko's eyes hadn't lost the glint of
despair. "But Tenchi, I..."
"Still not good enough?" Tenchi suddenly had an idea and smiled. "You
know what? If you promise me not to worry so much, I'll promise you to
give you a real kiss once this is over, Okay?"
The despair turned into confusion as Ryoko regarded him incredulously.
"Who are you and what have you done with my Tenchi?"
Laughing, Tenchi replied "Well, I think he grew up a bit. What do you say?
Deal?"
Still rather confused and unsure what to make of the "grew up" bit, Ryoko
looked at her beloved. Did this mean that he'd also soon not feel too young
to think about marriage anymore? Better not press him, though, and be
happy with what she could get.
A smile slowly appeared on her face and lifted a great weight off Tenchi's
heart. "Well enough, I suppose. Deal!"
Smiling back at her, Tenchi nodded. "That's the spirit." Then, a frown
appeared on his face. "However, to be fair, I don't think I can do that
without giving Aeka a kiss, too..."
Ryoko rolled her eyes and sighed. Depend on the princess and Tenchi's
sense of duty to spoil the mood. "Yeah, whatever. Just don't forget that
you promised it to me first."
Meanwhile, Tenchi was scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Um, sure. Well, then... good night..."
Watching him turn towards his room, Ryoko reached out, pulled him
towards her once more, and breathed into his ear "Dream of me.
I know I'll dream of you." Then, she was gone.
Tenchi lay awake in his bed for a long time after that. He himself did not
feel the confidence he'd tried to instill into Ryoko. he
realized.
-----------------------------------
Several hours later, the flotilla arrived at a point where one of them had to
leave the rest. Washu had looked up a conveniently located uninhabited
star system with several good hiding spots as a meeting point, should
things not turn out well, and made Mihoshi memorize the coordinates.
"... meet there. So don't forget those coordinates, but *don't tell anyone*
about them! Do you understand, Mihoshi-dono?"
"Yes. I... I'm sorry that I can't help you, I really am, but as a Galaxy
Police officer, my duty-"
"Mihoshi-san, I understand perfectly, and so does everyone else here. Neither
of us can afford to waste any time, so... good bye."
"Good bye, Mihoshi-chan!"
"Oh, I'm so moved! I'll miss you all so much!"
"May we meet again soon, and under better circumstances."
"See you. Good luck... er." Tenchi felt a bit ridiculous, having realized
what he'd just said.
Meanwhile, a few more words of parting were exchanged, and soon they
resumed their voyage. The atmosphere aboard the remaining ships didn't
improve, despite the fact that the uncharacteristically silent and subdued
Mihoshi had spooked everyone during the trip.
-----------------------------------
Eventually, the remaining 3 ships were approaching their target: Jurai.
They had cautiously chosen to drop out of FTL in the outer reaches of the
planetary system to assess the situation first. On Ryo-ohki, Washu was
working frantically on her keyboard, while Ryoko was walking back and
forth impatiently. Tenchi was sitting down, but also showing obvious signs
of nervousness, fiddling with his sword and adjusting his dress for the
hundredth time. On a viewscreen, the faces of Aeka and Yousho could
be seen. Aeka's expression was almost a mirror of Ryoko's, and even
her brother wasn't quite as calm and composed as usual.
"Washu-san, what do your sensors show? Ryu-oh's don't seem to be fully
developed yet."
The scientist snorted in annoyance.
"Aeka-dono, I *will* tell you immediately about any changes. At the moment,
there are none; there are still a lot of ships orbiting Jurai, and I can't
yet pick up communication signals. What about you, Tsunami-dono, any luck?"
On a different screen, two blue-haired girls were visible, one tall and
unreadable, the other much shorter and definitely worried.
"I can't make contact with any of the trees. Something is blocking me. That
is... disturbing."
Washu tried not to let her own worries show. She had the feeling that this
whole course of action was not a very good idea. Too many unknown
parameters, not enough control over the setting. And there was more on
stake than just some expensive equipment or even a scientific reputation.
Her musings were interrupted by a transmission from Ryu-oh.
"We better approach on a course that will keep us in line with that gas giant
at 40-20. It's active enough that we might be able to hide in its emissions
for quite a while."
Yousho's suggestion was met with a mumbled "I was *just about* to say that!"
from both Washu and Ryoko. The latter followed up with "Gee, didn't know
Juraian princes were taught to be so... sneaky!"
Yousho's reply was to almost-smile and say "It's more knowledge gained
through experience than something I was taught, and in my experience, the
difference between being sneaky and being smart is largely a matter of
who gets to write the reports."
Some minutes later, the ships had reached the position next to the gas giant
whose heat emissions would hopefully serve as camouflage for them in
their approach to Jurai.
Then, an alarm began to sound as an AI subsystem decided that one of the
giant's moons was behaving outside of normal parameters in a way that
the crew *really* should know about.
All hell broke loose.
"Hey, what's that?!"
"One of the planet's moons is moving towards us."
"Moons don't move that quickly!"
"Tell me something I *don't* know... It's a *ship*!"
"There's a lot of small vessels coming out of it... fighter craft, obviously.
Aeka-dono, I take it that Jurai does not have anything like this, which
means that we're under attack!"
"Prepare for combat then!"
"Unfolding Light Hawk Wings!"
"Washu-san, four, no, five more of those ships just appeared from behind the
planet."
"I know, and it looks like there were even more of them orbiting the other
planets of the system. A *lot* of radar echoes from all over the system
started to accelerate in our direction."
"What's happening? What do we do?" Tenchi was beginning to get a very bad
feeling about the situation. However, everyone was too occupied to pay him
any attention.
"Tsunami, Washu, we have to move into a defensive formation!" exclaimed Aeka,
remembering her tactics lessons. She had intended the words to come out in
a firm, in-charge-of-the-situation tone, but didn't think she'd succeeded
very well.
"Hate to tell you this, princess, but we do no have enough ships to form
*anything* except a sitting duck! I say we run for it. This is ridiculous!"
"NO! We can't abandon Jurai!"
"Ryo-oh-ki, when will they reach-"
"I already have the data, Ryoko-chan. The estimated time to engagement
is less than half a minute for the fighter craft, 80 seconds for their
mothership, about 3 minutes for the first of the other big ships, and
about 30 minutes till we're surrounded by more enemies than empty space."
"Tsunami, what do you think are our chances in this?"
"I can't say that for certain. I don't think the small vessels will to be
able do much damage... But we don't know who they are or what they might
be capable of, so..."
"...basically we might end up getting an even nastier surprise than with
Kagato, isn't that what you're saying?" Ryoko completed the
tree-goddess' line of thought.
"Fighter craft coming in, firing!"
"Ryo-ohki, evasive maneuvers!"
However, before the mineral life form could react, Tsunami struck out,
and the first wave of attackers vanished in a burst of energy discharge.
Washu shook her head. "Not good enough. We can't... Wait!" Her voice
acquired a panicky edge. "EVERYONE, PUT EVERYTHING YOU HAVE INTO YOUR
SHIELDS! There's an incredible energy buildup in the moon-ship nearest
to us. How can they- " She was cut off as all viewscreens suddenly either
turned a bright white or disappeared. They hardly had the time to notice this
before an ear-piercing scream from Ryo-ohki filled the air.
There was a gentle beating of mighty wings...
"Ryoko?"
"She's okay... mostly. just wait-" Ryoko trailed off as the viewscreens came
to life again and Ryo-ohki provided her with priority information directly
through their mental link. A shocked expression appeared on her face. She
turned towards Washu.
"Mother... we have to..."
"...escape. That's all we can do."
Ryoko just nodded. Then, a screen opened to show Tsunami, somewhat pale
and with a very serious expression on her face. Sasami was nowhere to be
seen behind her.
"Washu-san, we must withdraw immediately. There's a second wave of small
vessels approaching. They're faster than we are, but they won't get past me.
I'll cover you till they run out of fuel."
"I understand. We'll get straight out of the system first and turn towards
our meeting point with Mihoshi-dono later." With these words, the channel
closed, and a subdued silence descended over Ryo-ohki's bridge.
Tenchi, to whom all the charts and diagrams on Ryo-ohki's virtual screens
had been just so many flashing lights, was beginning to get irritated. There
had been some sort of battle, that much was certain. It seemed to be over.
But what exactly had happened?
"Um... Would someone please tell me what happened?!"
At first, neither Ryoko nor Washu seemed to be willing to answer him. Tenchi
bagan to have a bad feeling. Finally, Washu turned around to face him, a
grave expression on her face.
"We were attacked by five of the invaders' largest ships and a number of
smaller ones. We ran away. Tenchi, you have to..."
"Well, so we got away at least. What now?"
"No..."
"What do you mean, 'No'? Washu, *talk* to me!" a mixture of anger and fear,
if not hysteria, was now in his voice.
"Aeka-dono and Yousho-dono did not get away. Ryu-oh was hit directly by a
very powerful energy discharge. They are dead, Tenchi. I'm... sorry."
-----------------------------------
For the first time in months, the space pirate Ryoko was sneaking into
her beloved's bedroom. For the first time ever, she did not feel giddy or
enthusiastic about it. Instead, she felt a strange emptiness. She was also
afraid, very afraid. Washu had warned her that it might not be a good idea,
that Tenchi might misunderstand her intentions. Her mother had tried to
be diplomatic about it, but Ryoko had understood very well. Now that Aeka
was dead, nothing was standing between her and Tenchi. But Ryoko knew
that she'd hate herself for it if she ever thought of her friend's death in
terms of her own chances with Tenchi. However, she also knew that he had
every reason to suspect exactly that under these circumstances. Still, she
simply could not let him alone with the pain she knew he was now in. And,
she had to admit to herself, she also needed to calm her own fears that
she might have lost Tenchi forever to a dead person, that in his memories,
Aeka would attain a perfection she herself could never hope to reach.
Ryoko knew about such things very well, from the television shows she used
to watch. Almost always together with Aeka, she now realized.
Not wanting to dwell on those thoughts, Ryoko took in her surroundings
and suddenly realized that she'd been leaning against the wall outside of
Tenchi's bedroom for the last five minutes, while she'd rationalized her
fears. It was pathetic, she decided. Whatever she had to become for
Tenchi to love her, it certainly didn't include being too scared to talk to
him!
She took a deep, not very steady breath, then another one, and finally
mentally asked Ryo-ohki to open the door. Inside, her feline eyes
pierced the darkness to show her Tenchi lying on his bed, face buried
in the cushion.
Scared again, Ryoko softly whispered his name. What would she do
if he was asleep?
"Tenchi?"
"Ryoko, please... I want to be alone." The tone of his voice told her
that he'd been crying. What now? Ryoko carefully chose her words.
"Tenchi, Aeka was my friend. I miss her too. I don't... *please* let me
be here for you. I'm sure that she wouldn't have wanted you to isolate
yourself. I wouldn't want you to do that either." While she spoke,
Ryoko crossed the distance between the two of them, slowly, as if not
to frighten away an animal. When he showed no reaction, she sat down,
reached out and gently touched him.
"I promise that I won't..." Ryoko had to force herself to continue.
"... I won't try anything
you don't want... Talk to me, Tenchi. Don't keep it to yourself. I had to do
that, when I was alone, and it was terrible. You're not alone, so..." She
ran out of things to say.
Feeling her touch, Tenchi froze, and after she had spoken, there was a
moment of total silence. Neither of them even breathed. Ryoko's hand
was a spot of warmth on his back. This warmth, and the closeness it
promised, suddenly were so alluring that he could not resist for even a
few seconds. Suddenly, he found himself sitting upright, grabbing her
shoulders, words flowing from his lips.
"Why did it happen? Why?? They just... Why do people die just like that?
Without any reason? It's just not fair... First Mother, now Aeka and
grandpa..." He closed his eyes, as tears once more started to well from his
eyes. Ryoko couldn't help but reach out to him, but before her hand could
touch his face, he was suddenly hugging her fiercely, desperately, shaking
with choked sobs. All she could do was hold him, softly stroking his back and
try not to start crying herself. Such pain...
After a while, he calmed down somewhat. Ryoko could not have told whether it
had been a minute or ten. Still, he held on to her. He was accepting her
offer, more easily than she had dared to hope, and despite all the pain,
Ryoko's heart sang, for it meant that he did not fear her any more, even in
this moment of vulnerability. Then she realized that she was not doing nearly
enough for him. He needed more than just her presence. He had asked her a
question, and he deserved an answer, even though he probably hadn't expected
one.
"Why, Tenchi? There is no reason. Life isn't fair. You just have to be
grateful for the good things you get, and treasure them. Enjoy what you have,
while you have it. Yousho and Aeka..." Somehow, this caused Tenchi to start
crying again, so she stopped, confused. What had she done wrong? Then, Tenchi
spoke, the tears making his voice shaky.
"That's it... isn't it? Oh god, R-ryoko, I was such a fool! I... I thought I
was invincible, and that it would go... go on forever. I didn't know what I
had in her, and... and I didn't appreciate it. I treated her badly, m-made
her cry, you and her both. God, I *wished* that the situation would somehow
resolve itself... And now I got what I wanted. Aeka is gone, forever, and
she died unhappy because of *me*."
A terrible coldness gripped Ryoko's heart as she heard these words. Tenchi...
he couldn't *really* believe that, could he? Words started flowing from
her mouth hastily, in her attempt to make Tenchi see how wrong he was.
"Don't *ever* think that, Tenchi! Aeka stayed with you not just because she
loved you deeply, but also because you gave her something she did not have
before. She knew that you cared for her, we both knew. And even if you could
not return our feelings the way we wished, it was something precious. Aeka
was *happy* on Earth, and she was happy because of you! I know, I talked to
her. She *liked* not being treated as a princess for once."
Tenchi had tilted his head while she talked and regarded her with an
unreadable expression. "You really did become friends with her, didn't you?"
She smiled sadly. "Yes. I didn't realize it myself... But I guess, it's not
really surprising, considering how much we have in common..."
His expression changed to one of obvious incredulity. "You and Aeka?
Having something Iin common? *What*?"
"You, for starters. But there's more. Do you remember that time when we went
into town together and you, Sasami and Mom waited for us to come home?
Well, you should have seen how..."
Ryoko herself was surprised at the number of incidents she could think of
where she had really enjoyed Aeka's company. And with each story she told,
her chest tightened a bit, until it was she who was crying and Tenchi who
held her. He then started to tell her of his own experience with, and
thoughts about, the late princess and his grandfather.
They spent the night that way, sometimes crying, comforting each other, most
of the time just sitting next to each other and talking. Eventually
exhaustion took its toll, and they slept through most of the next day, the
arbitrary assignment of day and night, as well as Washu's consideration
allowing them to remain undisturbed.
-----------------------------------
While Ryoko was approaching Tenchi, someone else was also trying to
offer comfort, with considerably less success, despite the fact that she
was much closer, in every way, to her "charge". For hours, she had tried
to get any response besides tears or sobs, with no success so far.
Then Tsunami felt someone wanting to talk to her. She concentrated and
opened a communications channel. As expected it was Washu, a grave
expression on her face.
"How is she?"
"Still crying. No change. Washu-san, I don't think that's a good..."
Washu shook her head. "It was only to be expected. They were very close,
and at her age... She should fall asleep on her own soon, and when she
wakes up, she'll hopefully be more responsive."
"I sure hope so. How are things on the Ryo-ohki?"
"Not good either. Tenchi is taking it very badly. Right now, Ryoko
is trying to help him to deal with it."
"Are you sure that's a good idea? Considering their relationship, she
might end up doing more harm than good."
"Give us some credit, will you? I told her to be careful, but I don't even
think it would have been necessary. She's grown a lot, these last
months. They all did. Besides, she's the only one available. I have
more pressing matters to deal with, like preventing that we run into
another such encounter."
"No time to grieve for us, right?"
"I have enough experience with it to postpone it until I have time."
Tsunami nodded slowly. "I know what you mean. To them, it makes us
seem cold, though." She suppressed the urge to tell Washu about her
thoughts on *that* matter. Tsunami knew that it was sometimes
socially accepted, even encouraged, to show weakness to certain people.
But her knowledge of such things was not substantial enough to start
experimenting, now of all times.
"Well then..."
Washu gave her an almost-smile that was probably supposed to be
encouraging. "...Good luck with Sasami. I'll talk to you later." Then, that
band showed only white noise again.
-----------------------------------
After breaking off the communication link, Washu checked the information-
analyzing AI routines she'd started earlier, but found them still a good time
away from completion of their tasks.
Which left her with nothing to do except do what she'd claimed to have no
time for - grieve.
At her age she had of course experienced the death of friends hundreds of
times before. Yet somehow, this time it was infinitely worse, even worse than
the time when she had finally been able to track down her son and discovered
that he, as well as his children and grandchildren were already long dead.
The difference was, of course, that even though she had secretly hoped (and
dreaded at the same time) to find her son alive, she had told herself that it
was really not very likely.
In short, almost all of Washu's previous encounters with death had occurred
as the result of old age, at the end of a long and (in most cases) fulfilled
life. Most importantly, she had been prepared for the eventually unavoidable
bad news.
But that wasn't all, Washu had to admit. There was also a change in herself.
For the first time in almost twenty millenia, she had permitted herself to
become really involved with other people on a personal level. And once more,
she had paid the price.
Aeka... Even though only Ryko was really related to her, Washu had come to
regard all of them as her children, whose squabbles she had to break up when
they got too violent and whom she had to gently guide towards the right
decisions. Now, one of them was lost, forever...
And another life had ended today. Yousho had been the one person she could
really talk to as an equal, these last months. Even though he had not much
interest in science, she had found a kindred sprit of sorts in the crown
prince of Jurai: Someone intelligent who liked to observe but preferred not
to get involved directly. Often, when she had to wait for the results of an
experiment and nothing interesting was happening in the house, she'd went to
the shrine for a cup of tea, a little chat and another (invariably
resultless) attempt to pry more information about the trees out of Yousho. It
had been a nice way to pass time. Now he too, was gone.
But still, even though the exact same thing because of which she'd lived in
emotional isolation for so long, had happened once again, she couldn't find
it in her heart to regret her decision to come out of that isolation. Was she
fated to lose those close to her, again and again? Washu doubted that she
could survive losing Ryoko.
Well, that meant that she'd have to use all of her considerable skills to
ensure that it wouldn't happen, didn't it? Suddenly, she realized that after
Yousho's death, she herself was the only one with sufficient experience to
lead their little... guerilla army, she suspected was the right word.
Washu, the warlord? General Washu? The thought could almost have
made her laugh.
-----------------------------------
Having nothing better to do, Tsunami spent her time listening to the buzz
of space. The slow, regular bursts of pulsars, the red-shifted radiation of
incredibly distant quasars, the unpredictable roar of a nearby astral storm,
and, of course, the ever-present and almost unnoticeable background
radiation still telling of this universe's very beginning. Together, they
formed a symphony only very few beings could appreciate in its entirety.
Tsunami the space tree was one of them, and it never failed to soothe her
mind when she could just let it engulf her and there was no need to
concentrate on only one tiny aspect of it that someone she was communicating
with used as medium. Time went by, and Tsunami could not have told if it had
been minutes or days without checking. It ended when she felt that part of
her consciousness that was her link with Sasami come awake.Suppressing a
bit of regret, she narrowed her perception down to human levels and formed
a material representation next to Sasami's bed.
"Sasami... good morning. Are you..."
The little girl looked up at her with a blank expression. Through their link,
Tsunami felt... nothing. Neither the old cheeriness nor the pain of the last
few hours. She doubted that it was a good sign.
"This..." Sasami said slowly, "is *not* a good morning. But I am okay.
Where are we?"
"On our way to the meeting point with Mihoshi-san."
Sasami considered this for a while. Then, she looked at Tsunami again
and voiced a request.
The answer was a firm "No."
"Tsunami, I mean it!"
"You have no idea what you're asking for. I said no, and I also mean it.
swore to myself a long time ago that I would wait with the assimilation until
you are a lot older!" Tsunami's rejection was all the more firm because a
part of her desperately wanted to complete the assimilation, to be able to
interact with people, with her friends, as equals. And now Sasami, the one
for whose sake Tsunami had put it off, asked for its completion herself. But
Tsunami had sworn not to do that until the girl was old enough not to be
smothered by the much older being's consciousness.
"I know all that, and I don't care! I don't care if you're stronger than me!
I *want*... we *have to* be as strong as possible to... I mean, I just can't
stand not being able to... not again... Sasami fell silent then. Nothing was
visible on her face, but a new wave of terrible grief washed over Tsunami and
made her shudder. So much pain... But she simply couldn't let it get to her.
"Sasami, it wouldn't have mattered. The attack came too quick, and you
couldn't have done anything, even with my..."
The sudden feeling of cold anger, more fearsome and intense than any she'd
ever felt, made her stop. Even worse was the expression on Sasami's face.
"Don't you *dare* lie to me, Tsunami! You know you can't, and you *know*
I know as well as you do that with the full assimilation, your *would* have
been more powerful, and able to react quicker."
The anger drained out of the little girl's voice again, and was replaced by
despair. These mood swings were beginning to scare Tsunami.
"I know, maybe it wouldn't have made a difference, but... maybe it would.
Maybe, if we were assimilated, Aeka-oneesama and Yousho-oniisama
would still be alive. And maybe it will happen again, soon. I don't want to
pass up *any* chance to help them then. I don't care about anything else."
After that, there was silence between them, for a long time.
Tsunami was confused. Obviously, the loss of her sister had shaken
Sasami's very being, more deeply than she could understand. After all,
death was a part of life. All living beings eventually died, each in his
or her own time. That was simply the way of the world. Death was
necessary to allow change.
Once more, Tsunami realized that despite her efforts to understand
the human mind, and despite the ongoing assimilation (which had helped
her a *lot* in that respect), there still was a great distance to cross
between herself and her friends. But did she really want to do that? It
probably was that distance that prevented her from experiencing the terrible,
irrational and self-destructive pain she felt from Sasami, instead of the
simple regret and sadness that she did feel herself.
But there was also that longing inside of her, the longing to be like them,
to truly share their lives, their joys, and yes, even their sorrow and pain.
Tsunami was always unsure whether it had really been a wise choice to let
herself be guided by that longing, and she was almost certain that it would
be unwise to let herself be ruled by it, especially in this time of crisis.
And then, there was, of course, the matter of how it would affect Sasami.
While she pondered the possible results of the decision which was being
asked of her, Tsunami suddenly began to feel a part of herself that she
only very, very rarely became aware of.
It made the decision for her.
-----------------------------------
The events inside Ryo-ohki and Tsunami had been witnessed from afar (in a
way that even Washu would have found a bit of a challenge to understand) by
someone not quite uninvolved. She noticed that she was not alone.
"What is it, D3?"
"My lady... may I ask a question? It may seem impudent, but..."
Tokimi had seldom seen her servant so uncertain of himself. She usually
found the result quite amusing, but this was not the time for such
considerations.
"Speak out."
"Why do you concern yourself with their struggles? They are but fleas
to your glory. Their fates don't matter, even if they were your sisters
before..."
"They still are. You don't see the real reason, do you? Well, you'll
understand soon enough."
Tokimi again shifted a part of her attention to the lower dimension in which
a change was about to take place the consequences of which even she
could not predict.
"We'll just have to wait and see how *your* method works out, my
sisters..."
Some time later, D3 approached her again.
"My lady, your... student is waiting."
The tone of his voice told Tokimi, more clearly than words could have,
what D3 thought of the concept.
"Ah, yes. I'll be there in a short while."
She considered the situation that was presenting itself a bit longer, but
eventually decided that that wasn't very productive. She shifted her
manifestation to a different part of her realm, where a young mortal was
sitting in a position of meditation. Upon her arrival, he opened his eyes
and moved into a kneeling posture of reverence.
"Lady Tokimi, your presence honors-"
Slightly annoyed with his habit of repeatedly stating the obvious
(one that, for some reason, all her mortal servants had shared), Tokimi
interrupted him.
"Let's start with today's lesson, Seiryou."
***********************************
And that's it for now. First of all, I'm sorry that it took so long. I pushed
off writing this chapter for a long time, and when I started again, I had
some sort of writer's block. Especially the scene where Ryoko comforts Tenchi
was *very* difficult to write. And of course, writing my fanfic reviews also
takes away a lot of time.
I suppose a lot of people will be angry at me for killing Aeka (maybe also
some for killing Yousho). But I hope that it is already clear that I didn't
do it just to be able to get Tenchi and Ryoko together more easily. It allows
me to do a lot of other things, most importantly taking Tenchi & Co down
a few notches in their struggle against the invaders
Unlike before, I now have pretty clear idea of where this fic is going to go.
I think it will be good for another two to four chapters till I'm finally
finished. Chapter six one shouldn't take as long as this one, but it will
probably be at least half a year.
I wonder if anyone got the "Sandman" reference...
Anyway, look at the header to see where to reach me for C&C, which
will be thoroghly appreciated, I promise.
Special thanks go to my pre-readers, David Johnston and Literary Eagle.
Without them, there would be a number of really embarassing mistakes in the fic.
And if you don't know about it yet: I'm also running the biggest archive of
Tenchi fanfiction reviews, which you can find at
http://fanfiction.brazils-animeland.de
Thanks for your attention!