Subject: [ff][tenchi]Love's Labor Lost:Chpt 2:Frienship is a four letter word
From: Ryan Anderson
Date: 6/26/1997, 1:34 PM
To: fanfic@fanfic.com

Ok, this story has been a *really* long time in getting here, even though
it was mostly written 2 months ago. I'm very sorry for the long dely, and
hopefully it won't happen again. 

enjoy!
Ryan
---

Tenchi fanfic
Love's Labor Lost
by Ryan Anderson
Part 2:Friendship is a four letter word.


Ryouko quietly floated up through the floor of Tenchi's 
room, hovering cross-legged before Tenchi's bed, watching 
him sleep. It was hardly the first time she'd watched him 
sleep, several times she had crept through the walls at 
night, just to watch his beautiful face, so peaceful in 
sleep. It was late, the moon getting low on the horizon, 
but it was shinning into the room just enough to create an 
eerie glow. For awhile she just sat there, feeling the 
power that flowed from him, watching him sleep, then 
her resolve firmed.

Gently she reached out a hand and shook him awake. Tenchi 
sleepily blinked the sleep out of his eyes and sat up. As 
his vision adjusted to the glow of the moon, he spotted 
Ryouko sitting at the foot of his bed, facing away from 
him. 

He started sweating profusely. Ryouko, in his room, at 
night, _alone_ usually meant trouble... But she just sat 
there. Slowly thoughts besides fear began to creep into 
his sleep-fogged mind. He noticed that for once she wasn't 
glomping onto him, and her entire demeanor seemed 
different, almost sad. 

"Ah... Ryouko... what do you want? It's the middle of the 
night..." he said quietly.

Still facing away from him, Ryouko was racked with 
indecision. What could she say? She'd never tried to 
"talk" to anyone before... she'd always lived by the 
philosophy that actions spoke louder than words. 
However, she just _had_ to talk to him, she couldn't take 
the silence anymore. Quietly she replied, a pleading note 
in her voice. "Tenchi... I-I need to talk to you."

That caused Tenchi to come more fully awake. Ryouko, talk? 
This was getting more and more strange. She sounded 
concerned though, so he decided that he'd better pay 
attention. "What is it Ryouko? Couldn't it have waited 
until morning?" he asked.

"No Tenchi, it couldn't. Every time I try to have a real 
conversation with you during the day, someone interrupts. 
This seems to be the only time I can get you alone." she 
replied.

Tenchi pondered for a moment. He supposed it was true, he 
had complained to Sasami earlier that neither of the girls 
ever really talked to him, but when did they get the 
chance? Their lives had been so full of adventure that 
they'd been too busy dealing with the situations 
developing around them to really talk. 

Ryouko continued, "Tenchi... What do you remember about 
your early childhood?"

That was a new one... Why would Ryouko want to know about 
his childhood? "Well, not very much... I remember vague 
impressions of my mother, and my father before he turned 
into a hentai..."

"Do you... remember anything about the cave where I was 
imprisoned?" asked Ryouko hesitantly.

"Hmm...." Tenchi had always been fascinated by the cave. 
He remembered it as a place that always seemed... magical. 
A place where his childhood dreams came to life. The 
mysterious cave had always been his favorite play place, 
and his imagination had always populated it with goblins 
and dragons for him to slay, and, of course, a wicked 
Oni which he would always single-handedly beat back in 
titanic battles... He looked over at Ryouko, that same Oni 
he had imagined battling so many times, sitting at the 
edge of his bed, looking very small and very alone. "I 
remembered it always seemed like a magical place... 
something more than real.  It was a fun place to play as a 
child, and an enigma to be explored as I grew older... Why 
do you ask, Ryouko?"

"Did you know, Tenchi, that I could see you? When you came 
there to play as a small boy, you were so full of life..." 
Ryouko choked for a moment, struggling to remain in 
control of her voice and emotions, as the flood of 
memories came back to her for a second time that night. 
"...It was you who inspired me to do everything in my 
power to escape the cave. I had been trapped in their for 
_seven hundred years_.... hundreds of times longer than 
you have even been alive. When we first met, I told 
you you could never understand what I had been through in 
there, and I'll tell you the same thing now... You simply 
cannot know, and if I have anything to say about it, you 
never will."

"Ryouko..." Tenchi started, feeling the pity welling up 
within him creep into his voice.

"Oh stop it!" she said, turning to him at last, a playful 
smile on her face, though there was an infinitely sad look 
in her eyes. "It was nothing less than I deserved... and 
it gave me the opportunity to learn that there was more to 
life than piracy and death... I needed that, even if it 
took me seven-hundred years of hell to learn it."

Tenchi returned her smile, wondering what had come over 
Ryouko. This was a totally different side of her than he 
had ever seen. Ryouko had always been an enigma to him, so 
beautiful but so violent, always ready to use violence to 
solve any problem. Inwardly he chided himself for thinking 
that was all there was to her. "You must have experienced 
so much in your life time...."

Ryouko smirked. "Ha! experienced maybe, but I never 
learned anything from it." She looked away again. <It 
wasn't until I saw you playing by my cave that I learned 
what it really meant to live.> a voice in the back 
of her mind said. 

Tenchi was at a loss for what to do, then decided to do 
what felt natural. He scooted over next to her and put a 
hand on her shoulder. He instantly regretted it, however, 
as she turned to face him, her eye's wide with shock at 
his action, a look of fear mixed with longing on her face. 
He smiled at her anyway. "Ryouko, I'm really glad I could 
be here to help you out. I count you as one of my closest 
friends."

The look of shock disappeared from her face, and for just 
a moment there was a look of pain... but it was gone in a 
flash, replaced by a smile. So sudden was the change that 
Tenchi wasn't sure if he'd actually seen it or if it was 
some trick of the fading moonlight. Ryouko slowly stood 
up. "Sorry I woke you up so late..."

"Oh, don't worry about it Ryouko, it was nice to talk to 
you for once. But next time, just try to find sometime 
during the day, ok?" 

"Sure Tenchi, good night."

***

Ryouko exited Tenchi's room (actually using the door, 
instead of just walking through it). For a while she just 
stood in the hall, listening to the sounds of people 
sleeping, her fists clenched. Her heart felt like 
it'd just been flung into the deepest, darkest black hole 
in the Universe. Determinedly, she blinked back her tears. 
<No, I won't give up to despair. He still considers me a 
"friend" at least. That's something... From friendship 
perhaps more can grow.> She thought to herself.

She disappeared from the hallway, heading toward the roof 
to watch the sunrise. As she disappeared, Washu stepped 
from her hiding place among the shadows, staring sadly at 
the spot Ryouko had just vacated.

"Ah, Ryouko-chan... If only you could understand the world 
without having to experience the pain it can bring...."

***

As Tenchi drifted back off to sleep, a new dream came to 
him. He stood outside of the dream, a helpless observer. 
He watched the scene unfold before him; Tsunami stood 
calmly to one side as Ryouko threw herself at her, beating 
on her impenetrable shields again and again, tears rolling 
down her face. Tenchi was surprised to see that Tsunami 
was also crying, but neither was letting up for an 
instant. Ryouko's amazing abilities beat relentlessly 
against Tsunami, but never once did the goddess budge. 
Finally, as Ryouko staggered toward her, tired beyond 
caring, her sword raised for another futile strike, 
Tsunami reached out and touched her lightly on the 
forehead, her first offensive movement throughout the 
battle. Ryouko instantly crumpled to the ground, fading 
from view. Tsunami turned toward the watching dream-
Tenchi and quietly said "Someday may come sooner than you 
think, Tenchi."

***

Tsunami let the dream fade and gave a deep sigh. Things 
were getting desperate.  Tokimi was making her move 
against this dimension, and Washu wasn't going to help 
her. Tsunami was the youngest of the three sisters, and 
this had always been _her_ pet dimension, and only she had 
invested a significant amount of time (as immortals tell 
time) here. Now Tokimi was out to make this dimension part 
of her domain, and Tsunami wasn't at all sure she could 
stop her. Tokimi was by far the most powerful of the three 
goddesses, with hundreds of dimensions subservient to her, 
yet Tsunami had been preparing to defend her dimension for 
eons, and had finally succeeded in creating her 
champion.... but would he be enough? Tokimi had her own 
champion, and it was a good bet that he would be more 
powerful than hers. Tsunami bit her lip in frustration. 
<Damn Washu anyway> she thought. Why wouldn't she help her 
fight? With both Goddesses aligned against Tokimi, there 
was no way they could lose, but if Washu fought against 
_her_ instead of Tokimi....

It was a three way stalemate, yet something HAD to tip the 
balance, and Tsunami intended it to tip her way. Already 
she was marshalling her forces in this dimension, 
increasing the number of Jurai Tree ships, doubling the 
number of recruits for the GP, calling in favors from 
everywhere... Yet as Tokimi's pre-emptive strike against 
Tenchi had shown, she had been woefully unprepared for 
such underhanded and small-scale tactics. If it hadn't 
been for Washu's subtle gamble to win Zero over to her 
side, Tenchi would have been lost to them all forever. 

That set her back a moment, a feeling of fear racing 
through her. <Damn> she thought. Tenchi had become more 
than just a pawn in all this though, she knew. Perhaps it 
was Sasami's Juraian feelings affecting her, or maybe it 
was the way he refused to give up in the face of 
overwhelming odds. Of course, she would never have allowed 
him to die, but even though he had been deathly afraid, he 
had been willing to go in alone after the girls... Tsunami 
sighed again. She knew she shouldn't feel this way for a 
mortal, but she just couldn't help it. She had spent so 
many centuries playing with blood lines, tinkering just 
enough to one day produce Tenchi... she had been there 
influencing his life from the very beginning. She had wept 
with him when his mother died, laughed with him when he 
had played by the cave....

Silently she cursed herself. Yes, that damn cave. Why 
hadn't she seen that coming? Why hadn't she felt Washu's 
presence? Before she had been able to stop her, Ryouko had 
almost taken Tenchi from her, almost brought him over to 
Washu's side, an action which would have completely tipped 
the scales in Washu's direction. If it hadn't been for 
the timely arrival of Aeka, it would have ended right 
there. And yet... she had a feeling she was still missing 
something. Washu had failed in her gambit, but she hadn't 
left, as she usually did. Instead, she had brought herself 
physically to Tenchi, forcing Tsunami to once more 
show her hand and come physically to earth as well. What 
was Washu up to?

Tsunami paced over the deck of the ship that bore her 
name, plotting for the war to come, and she knew it would. 
There was only one thing to do, as much as she dreaded 
doing it. She would have to bring Tenchi to her once and 
for all. She had hoped to wait a few more years to let 
Sasami finish her childhood, but there just wasn't any 
time left. If Washu had changed her tactics so much that 
Ryouko was trying the sweet and gentle approach, Tsunami 
had to act now before Washu could snatch Tenchi out from 
under her nose.

Tsunami shed a silent tear, taking one last look out at 
the cosmos, then descended toward earth.

***

The next morning at breakfast, everything had seemed back 
to normal. Ryouko had nearly gotten in a fight with Aeka 
(narrowly averted by the timely use of "please" by Sasami, 
causing both girls to glare at her, as neither of them had 
told her about their little agreement), Mihoshi had wolfed 
down thirds and made empty headed comments, and Sasami had 
been her bright cheery self. Yet something seemed amiss to 
Tenchi, some ineffable quality was missing from the group.

He went out to work in the field again that day, and again 
Sasami brought him lunch. They talked about the weather 
and other nothings for quite sometime, until finally 
Tenchi maneuvered the conversation toward that mornings 
meal.

"Sasami-chan, did you notice anything.... different at 
breakfast this morning?" he asked.

Sasami looked at him funny. "Nope! Did you Tenchi-
niichan?"

Tenchi shrugged. "I guess it was just my imagination. 
Something just seemed... well, different!"

Ryouko, who was watching from the brush a little ways 
away, could have told him what was different. It was 
Sasami, she looked... well, older, for one thing. It was 
as if she'd aged overnight. Ryouko was pretty sure that 
Aeka had noticed too, but Tenchi seemed oblivious.

"Hey Sasami, wanna hear something else weird? Last night, 
Ryouko came and just _talked_ to me! Is that strange or 
what? I think I probably ought to ask Washu if she's 
replaced Ryouko with a robot again or something." Tenchi 
laughed.

Sasami looked blank for a moment, then she too laughed. 
"Ah, maybe she's just growing up or something."

"Yeah, maybe..." replied Tenchi.

"Well, I gotta get back to start on dinner, see you later, 
Tenchi-niichan!" said Sasami, running off.

Again Tenchi seemed oblivious to anything strange 
happening to Sasami, thought Ryouko. Ryouko certainly 
hadn't missed her delayed reaction to Tenchi's statement. 
Quietly Ryouko crept off.

***

Sasami looked sadly at Tsunami in the water of the lake. 
"But... but Tsunami-chan... why?"

Tsunami also looked sad, as she stared up into little 
Sasami's eyes. "I'm sorry Sasami-chan. I had hoped to let 
you grow up into a normal girl, letting this come on you 
slowly, but the situation has forced my hand. I have to 
have you grow up faster, in order for you... for us to be 
able to fight the things that are coming."

Tears fell unchecked down Sasami's cheeks now. "Tsunami-
chan, I'm scared... I'm not ready to... deal... with these 
new grown up things!"

"I'm sorry Sasami-chan.. The fate of the Universe depends 
on us to see this through! I wish there were some other 
way, but there just isn't anymore time! Please Sasami, be 
brave. I'll try not to let too much of my consciousness 
spill over into yours too quickly." 

"I...I..." Sasami put her head down in the grass and 
sobbed.

***

Washu shook her head sadly.  It really was too bad for 
Sasami. Washu had grown quite fond of the little girl. 
Still, Tsunami had to learn from her own mistakes. Washu 
gave a bit of sigh, there was so much pain here... 
and she was pretty sure there was going to be a lot more 
before too long. She just wished that she wouldn't have to 
be the cause of so much of it... Still, it was the only 
way.


***

Ryouko crept back through the brush, doing her best to 
keep Sasami in sight without giving away her presence. 
Sasami was obviously not heading back toward the house, 
instead she made her way to the far edge of the lake.

Ryouko knelt down behind a bush, strategically out of 
Sasami's sight, but close enough that Ryouko could still 
see her. It appeared Sasami was talking to herself, and 
Ryouko strained her ears to make out what she was saying. 

"But... but Tsunami-chan... why?"

Suddenly Ryouko heard a twig snapping to her right, and 
looked up just in time to see Aeka beginning to walk 
toward Sasami. Ryouko quickly reached and grabbed 
the elder princess, dragging her behind the bush and 
clapping a hand over her mouth. "Shh! Quiet Aeka! 
Listen!.." she said as quietly as she could, slowly 
releasing Aeka.

Aeka shot her a mean glance at having been handled so, but 
reluctantly she did as Ryouko said.

As the two girls watched Sasami break down into tears, all 
the missing pieces seemed to fall into place. Tsunami 
wanted Sasami to grow into her *now* not in ten years when 
she should. Ryouko cursed under her breath. This was just 
what she *didn't* need, another rival for Tenchi... 
especially one that looked like Tsunami.

As Sasami got up and ran back toward the house, Ryouko and 
Aeka sat up, staring at each other, their rivalry 
momentarily forgotten. "This is bad.." started 
Ryouko.

Aeka seemed to have a different take on it. Instead of 
being depressed at having another rival, she looked _mad_. 
"How... how dare she! Tsunami is robbing poor Sasami of 
her childhood!" Aeka's fists clinched in rage.

"Woah woah woah, Oujosama... If it hadn't been for 
Tsunami, Sasami would never have even *had* a childhood."

Aeka seemed to deflate a little, pondering that. Finally 
she hung her head. "That doesn't make it right!" Aeka 
looked up again, fixing Ryouko with a fierce stare. "We've 
got to do something Ryouko-san! We've got to stop 
Tsunami!"

"Uh, sure Aeka... but how? Its not like we can go fight 
her or anything."

"We'll find a way... We've got to!"

***

Dinner was an interesting ordeal that evening at the 
Masaki residents. Conversation seemed non-existent, though 
Tenchi still couldn't figure out what was wrong. Aeka and 
Ryouko actually sat peacefully, neither speaking to the 
other, while Sasami seemed wrapped up in her own thoughts, 
rarely glancing up from her food. 

Mihoshi, at least, hadn't changed a bit. She quickly 
gobbled down everything she could get her chopsticks on. 
Tenchi sighed. <At least some things never change.>

Unable to take the deafening silence any longer, Tenchi 
decided it was up to him to start the conversation. "So, 
uh... What did you all do today?" 

Ryouko looked up at him, "Oh, you know... Just watched TV, 
nothing special... right Aeka?" she said, elbowing Aeka in 
the side. 

"Oh, oh yes... nothing interesting, just you know...." 
Aeka trailed off.

Tenchi eyed the two of them skeptically. Something was 
definitely amiss here. As he examined the two girls, he 
couldn't help but notice that they would both occasionally 
take secretive glances at Sasami... Looking to the object 
of their consideration, Tenchi took a good long look at 
Sasami himself.

The blue-haired girl immediately looked up and met his 
gaze. He found himself looking into eyes that just weren't 
right. It was as if their were two sets of eyes staring 
back at him, both the same hue, but one innocent and 
slightly sad, the other one ancient and powerful. There 
could only be one explanation for it... Tsunami.

Sasami looked decidedly uncomfortable under the secretive 
scrutiny of the table, and found herself fidgeting every 
few minutes, picking at her food but not really consuming 
anything. It was almost like she could feel her body 
growing as she watched... she felt all awkward and 
strange, as though she was in someone else's skin. She'd 
been constantly bumping into things and knocking things 
over all day, completely unused to the length of her 
limbs. However, worse than her physical state, her 
emotional state seemed to be going through so many fluxes 
she had no idea what she was feeling at any given time... 
one minute she would feel like she was on top of the 
world, the next it would be all she could to do keep from 
breaking into tears.

Suddenly Sasami became overly aware that everyone was 
watching her... and she looked up, meeting Tenchi's gaze. 
"What? Why is everyone looking at me like that?"

Tenchi just swallowed hard and looked away, embarrassed to 
have been caught staring. Secretly though, his heart leapt 
at the thought that perhaps his blue-haired goddess 
wouldn't make him wait 10 years for her to grow up...

Aeka, however, answered Sasami's question. "Tsunami..." 
she hissed, staring at Sasami. "Why are you doing this? I 
demand that you leave my sister alone!"

Sasami just stared at her sister in shock, not knowing how 
to respond to that, but then she felt something else well 
up within her, pushing her consciousness to the side. 
Suddenly she was completely without control of herself, 
but she could hear herself saying. "Aeka, I do these 
things for my own reasons, reasons that I cannot explain 
to you at this time. Sasami will always be your sister..."

As quickly as she was forced to relinquish control of 
herself, she had it back, and she found herself staring 
into several very shocked faces. Everyone was looking at 
her with a mixture of surprise and horror, and suddenly it 
was just too much for her. Feeling tears begin to run down 
her face, she dashed up the stairs and into her room.

***

Tokimi's ship drift across the blackness of space, the 
goddess herself staring out the window. Slowly she looked 
away, a smile creasing her usually emotionless face. 
Tsunami was far too inexperienced to be any sort of a 
threat. She'd never even see Tokimi's attack coming.

---

Author's note:
Phew! Well, this chapter has certainly been a long time in 
coming. I started love's labor lost all the way back in 
march, and wrote the first chapter (which was the first 
thing I posted to RAAC and the FFML) and wrote about half 
of this chapter... then promptly stopped writing it until 
today. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from this 
series, and I really do want to do a lot of exciting and 
interesting things with it, but I've just found it so hard 
to get in the mood to write Tenchi lately that I haven't 
really been willing to pick it up. Anyway, hopefully I'll 
be doing more of it now, though I wouldn't expect another 
chapter for at least a month, PHD is just taking up too 
much of my limited writing time (which I should, probably, 
have been working on instead of this, but oh well.)

An update of PHD 3's progress: it's about half done. I 
know I posted that teaser last week saying I'd have it 
finished last weekend, but I just haven't had time to 
write, things have gotten really hectic around here. 

Anyway, thanks for reading, and please let me know what 
you think! C&C always appreciated, even flames, so drop me 
a line!

Ryan Anderson
andersor@cs.colorado.edu
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~andersor/fanfic/fanfic.html
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~andersor/tenchi/ryoko.html


End Part 2