*** Disclaimer - I don't own any of these characters. I wish I did,
but I don't. This means that I stole them. If you legitimately own
any of the characters used here, and want to sue me, go right ahead.
I'll gladly give you my nickel. I'm not making any money off of this,
and I don't plan to. ***
For those of you who have never heard or seen Tenchi Muyo!, this, as
with all fan fiction, may contain inadvertent spoilers, although I
tried to keep them to a minimum. If you absolutely don't want it
ruined, I recommend you don't read this.
For those of you that can't guess, this is my first fic. This is not
however, my first work. Any C&C, flames, advice, whatever would be
greatly appreciated. Included herein are the first two chapters of the
work. The revised tag is partially a misnomer - I rewrote portions of
the first chapter to help improve readability, but I have not done
anything to the storyline itself, nor added anymore exposition. It is
still quite short; however, it is growing, albiet slowly.
For those of you who sent C&C the first time around, your help is
greatly appreciated. Quite a few of your suggestions found their way
into my revision. If you were hoping that this would include shedding
some more light on the situation between Tenchi and the girls, I am
afraid I have to disappoint you, and ask only that you have patience.
I *WILL* get there, I promise!
This is based strictly upon the TM! OAV's continuality, excluding the
movies or manga. I will eventually include some of the characters from
there, but they will all be introduced within the context of the story.
The only one that even possibly needs explaining would be Nagi, but
hey, just b/c Ryoko was Kagato's slave for 2000 years doesn't mean she
didn't time to make an arch-rival. And now, without further a-do, on
with the fic.
Chapter One - No Need For Houseguests
Tenchi stood up and dusted himself off. Watch your feet, he
reflexively thought to himself. The way his shoulder hurt, Tenchi
thought his grandfather just might be right. He couldn't remember the
last time he'd simply fallen down the stairs like that (instead of
tripping over something, like he usually did). For some reason, his
balance just felt wrong.
Below, he heard his father call out breakfast. That too seemed somehow
wrong. "I'm coming!" He hurried down the second flight of stairs,
this time making sure of his footing. Out of habit, he turned towards
the storage closet, and somehow managed to wind up underneath all of
its contents, before he finally placed what was different.
They're gone, he thought. For some reason, life didn't seem as
peaceful and pleasant as he had thought it would when the girls finally
left. Instead, he just felt alone.
The television still rambled on about Juraian politics; that was one
thing that remained the same. Washu had 'fixed' the set the first day
she had arrived. But everything else was gone. He never could quite
shake the feeling he had just woken up from some dream, trying to hold
on as the last little bits slipped from his memory.
"Tenchi!" His father called once again. "Breakfast!" Breakfast
didn't seem right, either. Some of the food was burned, and some not
quite finished, and the seasoning just tasted off. Not too mention the
unmistakable taste of 'instant' food. He started to ask Sasami what
was wrong, then stopped himself when he realized who must have cooked
the meal.
He hurried through the meal and grabbed his bag, glad for something to
do to take his mind away from the emptyness of the house. He almost
looked forward to school these days. Of course, his mind still found
time to wander on the long trek down from the shrine to the bus.
Chibi was on the steps once again. Unconciously, Tenchi quickened his
pace. The cat, or at least its ghost, had been there the first time he
met Ryoko, and had been sitting right on those very steps watching when
she left. He remembered Ryoko floating there, waiting, when he had
come home. He could still see the half-concealed tear in the corner of
her eye, the anger in her face, more emotion than she had ever shown.
"Tenchi, give me my gems," she choked. And then, she and Ryo-Ohki had
just disappeared.
The bus arrived, and Tenchi returned to the present. Memory can be a
terrible thing, he thought. Especially since it had been his fault she
had left, although he still wasn't sure exactly why. All Grandfather
had said was "bonehead," but then he had refused to train him for a
month, and now he was having to work twice as hard as usual to catch
up. That had been three months ago.
Aeka, Sasami, and Washu had left that same day, when Azusa had arrived
the second time, and this time had taken them with him. Why Funaho had
asked Washu go as well was beyond him. Mihoshi, of course, had been
gone even longer, off on her patrols. The last he had heard, she and
her partner had been reassigned to some other part of the galaxy. He
almost felt sorry for whoever her partner was.
He was struggling to decide which event hurt the most when a familiar
voice spoke to him. "Man, you look beat. Don't tell me you've been
sleeping with mummies again." This time, he didn't even bother to
answer. The clown took the hint and gave up, somewhat fearful of what
had happened last time, especially since he had of course heard the
rumors of who was responsible for the fire.
The lecture that day was uneventful. The physics teacher had spent
most of the class lecturing over the impossibilities of interstellar
travel. Of course, the irony was totally lost on Tenchi, who merely
groaned, as yet another event reminded him of the girls. Eventually,
he just resigned himself to his sorrow, and did his best not to notice
the rest of the world around him until class let out.
Coming home didn't seem to help anything either. Reflexively, he
grabbed the broom standing outside the house, and began to sweep the
steps again. It would have been Aeka's turn to sweep today, and
Ryoko's turn to clean the house, and Sasami cooking as usual, and Washu
with bathroom duty, he remembered. Of course, Washu would have
concocted some scheme to get out of it, probably involving a nurse's
costume and a guinea pig, and Mihoshi would have forgotten that she
needed to do anything at all, and fallen asleep on the porch again.
"Tenchi! Are you pretending to be a statue?" Masaki Katsuhito called
from inside the shrine. "You still have work to do."
Startled, Tenchi started sweeping the steps again. "Yes, Grandfather."
"Well, while you're not doing anything, Tenchi, you might as well come
take a look at this," his father said, sliding open the door. Tenchi
could here noise coming from the television as he walked inside. It
sounded like the Juraian news channel.
"... have been captured today." The image of a bored broadcaster from
some vaguely humanoid race was on the screen, trying to appear as if he
was not in fact reading from his notes. "The two pirates were
apprehended while attempting to break through the Juraian planetary
defenses. As of this time, it is unknown what the pair were after, but
it is believed that it was in response to the recent return of the
princess Aeka after her seven hundred year absence. Ryoko ..."
Tenchi yelped. "Grandfather! Wha, what happened?"
"Tenchi, your missing the best part!" His father muttered, admiring
the green haired policewoman who was leading the pair off. "Oh, my
wife in heaven ..." The camera caught a close up of the policewoman's
chest, as her partner tripped over herself and flung her at the
cameraman.
"Boneheads," Tenchi remarked, at the way both of his relatives were
glued to the screen.
"Hush, boy. You don't want to miss anything, do you?" Katsuhito said.
On the screen, the broadcaster had reappeared. "The Juraian council
has scheduled a private hearing for the two most wanted criminals next
week. Their spokesperson announced that they wanted this matter
solved, and that justice be dealt with as quickly as possible.
Furthermore, in light of the newest crimes, the Juraian council has
revoked the statue of limitations for Ryoko's previous offenses, and
say they will be trying them as well."
Chapter Two - No Need For Confrontations
"What do you mean, we're going?" Tenchi asked his grandfather.
"Tenchi, you are a prince of Jurai. It is your duty to attend every
meeting of the Juraian council." Light glinted off the front of
Katsuhito's square-framed glasses, like it usually did when he
lectured.
"That never stopped you from running away," Tenchi said, suddenly
leery. His grandfather had never once mentioned returning to Jurai,
and avoided talk of Juraian politics like the plague. "Besides, how
are we going to get there?"
"Tenchi. You do not think me as unresourceful as that. We shall take
Ryo-oh."
"We're going to do what?" Nobiyuki blurted out.
"Aeka and Washu left Ryo-oh in my care, in case we ever needed to
return to Jurai. So, we shall take Ryo-oh." With that, Katsuhito
grabbed the master key from him, and summoned the tree-ship from the
pocket of subspace Washu had left it in. The tiny tree, and the unit
Washu had prepared, shimmered slightly, and transformed into the ship
that had been destroyed so many months ago.
***
Tenchi's enthusiasm towards the trip, and seeing the girls again, died
almost as soon as it had started. It had taken them only a day to get
to Jurai, but now they had to spend three times that long going through
all of the formal introductions and greetings, before they were ever
even allowed to land at the palace.
Funaho had been the first one to arrive, this time without Misaki, for
which Tenchi was silently thankful. "Hello, mother." Katsuhito said
as she came aboard.
"So. You finally decided come visit me, Yosho?" Tenchi thought his
grandfather looked paler than he had ever seen him before.
"E-hem." Katsuhito cleared his throat. "I thought now would be a good
time to introduce Tenchi to his family. It is important that the boy
learn politics, with the council meeting coming up."
"Yosho." Funaho frowned.
"Yes, mother?" Katsuhito yelped.
"Your disguise, Yosho?"
"Disguise?" Tenchi managed to blurt out, before he saw his very pale
looking grandfather become a very pale looking thirty-year-old, and
decided that lying face first on the floor was the appropriate manner
to watch this conversation.
"E-hem. So, mother, what is the news of the council?" Katsuhito said,
fixing his mother a cup of tea, oblivious to his unconcious son-in-law
and grandson.
"Your father has taken the news hard, as usual. Your return is
something of a scandal."
"So the council is still as prejudiced as always."
Funaho took a sip of tea, glancing out upon the deck of Ryo-oh. "It is
so nice of you to come visit. I am sure Misaki and the girls will be
delighted that Tenchi is here."
"And Ryoko?"
Funaho frowned a little at this, and lowered her cup. "Yosho. More
tea?"
***
After three days, Tenchi was wishing he was back on Earth, and had
never even heard of the shrine. He had received a cold shoulder from
almost everyone he was introduced to, and had experienced open
hostility from two of them. Afterward, he discovered that Azusa had
chosen them to be Aeka's suitors, and thusly, were claimants to the
crown.
Finally, however, a shuttle had been prepared to take them down to the
palace. Briefly, Tenchi had caught a glimpse at the space around him,
as he waited for the shuttle. The sky was quite literally ablaze with
pinpoints of light, and the way the majority of it moved told him there
were more ships out there than stars.
A glance at the surface, towards the palace, told him much the same
thing, and also gave him some indication as to why they had called a
shuttle, rather than try to land Ryo-oh.
"The Juraian fleet, Tenchi. The strongest force in the galaxy. Now do
you see why you needed to come?" A voice behind him spoke. Turning,
Tenchi saw his grandfather, light glinting off his glasses, once again
appearing old.
"I thought it was to learn politics, grandfather. Not to stare at a
bunch of stupid ships."
"Hush, boy!" His grandfather scowled, then boarded the shuttle. It
was, they discovered, fully automated, powered by one of the many
branches of the royal trees, but still manned by servants. Katsuhito,
however, merely shooed them away when they came to attend him, and
instead, chose to stand by the viewport. After a few moments of
scowling, Tenchi joined him.
"These ships are newer than the last time I was here. The royal trees
must have grown."
"Jeez, grandpa, how'd'ya figure that one out?"
Katsuhito's retort was cut short when the shuttle passed a tiny ship,
barely larger than the shuttle itself, that seemed strangely familiar.
It was made of wood, like all of the other ships in the area, yet
wasn't shaped like anything one would associate with Jurai. Instead,
it looked rather like Ryo-Ohki. The shuttle passed around behind the
ship, and Tenchi thought he saw the words 'greatest genius in the
universe' carved into the hull. He shook his head in shock, and the
words disappeared.
The trip to the surface took less than half an hour, although it seemed
like much more. They saw the great palace long before they arrived;
the great trees of Jurai were easily the largest things on the planet,
towering well over any of the other buildings. The palace itself was
built into and around the base of the largest of the trees, surrounded
by a great garden. Beyond that, the world-city that was the heart of
the galaxy sprawled out in every direction.
Tenchi was vaguely annoyed when he saw a ship with the logo of one of
the major news networks flying just behind the shuttle, and several
more vying with it for the choicest filming spot. Before long,
however, the shuttle entered the area of the palace, and the newscraft
veered away, leaving them to land in relative peace.
Misaki and the girls stood by the landing strip, waiting. Tenchi
hazarded a glance at Aeka as he climbed out of the ship, but her scowl
made him wish he hadn't. Not even Sasami seemed cheerful to see him.
Azusa walked out of the palace, attended by Funaho and the rest of the
royal guard, to greet them. A quick look at his face told Tenchi he
wasn't happy to see them either. Once again, Tenchi wondered why his
grandfather had brought them. Only Funaho seemed pleased, but that was
just in contrast with the dark moods around her; her face was almost
expressionless.
"Yosho." Azusa acknowledged, then hesitated. Finally, his scowl
deepening further, he added "Tenchi. Welcome to Jurai." His glance at
Funaho as he turned back towards the palace spoke volumes, and Tenchi
thought he saw his grandfather actually grinning, however fleeting the
expression was.
"So, Lord Tenchi. You've come for your monster woman, I see." Aeka
said, as soon as Azusa was out of earshot.
"Well, I couldn't just leave her," Tenchi blurted, looking stricken.
"Aeka -"
"How DARE you address me so easily!"
"Aeka! At least he came! See, I told you he'd come!" Sasami turned,
pleading.
"Hmph. I have no intention of letting that - that thing - speak to me
in such a way. I am NOT a woman of such morals."
"But, Aeka, he didn't even do anything this time! Don't you even want
to give him a chance?"
By now, Tenchi was busy trying to find a way around his grandfather and
back into the shuttle that was currently flying off towards the
spaceport.
"Hmph. Very well. Lord Tenchi, the servants will attend you to your
quarters. I trust you will have a pleasant stay." With that, Aeka
turned around, and stalked off into the palace. Sasami, looking
frustrated, and Misaki, still glowering at Tenchi, turned and followed.
"Come now, Tenchi," Katsuhito said, "there is much work to be done.
The council meets in three days, and you must be ready. You do not
expect to attend as you are now, do you?"