After way too much time I`ve begun to write the followup to my fanfiction
"A Necessary Step". 

So please take a look and give me some C&C (by personal email, please.
I don`t read the FFML):






                      WITH AN ENEMY LIKE THIS...


                       A Tenchi Muyo fanfiction

                     by Michael "Brazil" Borgwardt
                 (borgward@informatik.tu-muenchen.de)

<legal crap> 
Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki and its characters are copyrighted by 
AIC/Pioneer, I don't have any rigth to do this but I did it anyway.
The rights to this story, however, are mine.
</legal crap>

After the good comments I received on my first fanfiction "A Necessary Step", 
I of course had no choice but to write a continuation.

If you haven't read the first story, you should do so, it ist accessable at
http://www.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/~borgward/goodies.html

If you don't want to do that, well, it's your loss :)
You should at least know what happened in it: Tenchi wakes up early one 
morning. Pondering about his situation, he goes outside and meets Aeka. 
More or less spontaneously he decides to tell her about his true feelings:
that he does like her and Ryoke but doesn't feel ready for the kind of 
relationship they have in mind and wants to hurt neither of them by choosing.
He also tells Aeka that he does *not* appreciate how she and Ryoko never
stop to ask him about his feelings and instead just assume he's completely
in love with them. Aeka runs off crying and Tenchi approaches his next
challenge: Ryoko.

And that's where this story begins.

One more thing: after the first part of this story I will stop employing
the 1st person perspective. It was fun to write, but it won't anymore be
sufficient, as I want to describe scenes where Tenchi is not present.

On to the actual story:

                   -----------------------------------
                   
"Wake up, Ryoko-san!"

I had been shaking her gently for several seconds now, with no avail. She
semmed to be pretty deep asleep, probably due to the sake she had drunk.
Finally, she began to move sleepily and opened her eyes. When she did so,
a smile began to spread on her face. I shuddered because it was *that*
kind of smile, the visual equivalent to her cooing "Teennnchiiiii", and
that always meant some kind of trouble. Trouble for me, of course.

"Good morning, Tenchi! Oh, you were soooo *good* tonight!"

"What do you mean, good?"

"You see, I had a most *enjoyable* dream about the two of us. Do you want 
 me to tell you about it?"
 
To describe her grin at this words as "lascivious" would not have done it 
justice. I felt the familiar blush creping over my face. Damn it, there went
my initiative. But I had made the first step and I *had* to go on now.
So I pulled together all the determination I could muster, put on a serious 
face, pushed back Ryoko (who had of course already flung her arms around me)
and began:

"Ryoko-san, there's something we have to talk about."

"Really? What is it, tell me!"

Her lewd remarks had been bad, but this was worse. She had settled back to 
the couch and put on an eager, *enthusiastic* smile that made what I had to 
do anything but easy. Dammit, if there were an easy way to do this, I 
wouldn't have waited so long. I could NOT back out now, no matter what!

"I... know that you have very strong feelings for me, Ryoko-san . But you 
 have to realize that I do not have the same feelings for you. Ryoko, I am 
 not in love with you, and I would feel a lot better if you stopped acting 
 like I were."

She smiled insecurely.

"You're joking, right, Tenchi? I know that you love me!"

"That's the point, Ryoko. You're not really caring about *my* feelings,
 you just assume that I return yours. But one of the most important signs
 of real love is caring about the *other* person's feelings, not only your
 own. Do you understand that?"
 
The look of absolute agony and horror which appeared on her face at these
words was too much for me, and I looked down, hoping for something,
*anything*, to replace it. Tears were already starting to stream down 
Ryoko's cheeks when the outburst came:

"But I love you so much Tenchi! I love you more than my everything else,
 more than my own life! There is nothing I want or need except being close
 to you."
 
This destroyed the last bits of composition I had managed to keep until then.
I had not realized that her feelings were *that* strong. When I tried to
reply, I noticed that speaking had become difficult. I was almost crying
myself.

"It's not that I don't like you. You're a very important friend to me, as is
 Aeka-san. But I'm not sure if I'm ready for more than friendship. And the
 way you two keep fighting and treating me like a price to be won doesn't
 help me at all! I already told Aeka-san and now I'm asking you: Please 
 stop acting like that."

Sobbing violently, she replied:

"I... understand. I`m sorry... Tenchi. I will think... about it."

After these words she flew outside at high speed, still crying. Within
moments, she had disappeared into the forest. I took a deep breath and sat 
down on the couch. I still had a lump in my throat. Somehow I had expected
to feel better after clearing up things, but the opposite was the case. 
Actually I found myself wishing that I had had slept late today and never 
gotten into this resolute mood. Lost in thought, I didn't notice that I 
wasn't alone anymore.

"So you finally scraped together enough courage to tell them, did you?"

"W-Washu-chan! Um, did you hear us?"

"No. But as you know (or maybe don't), I share a special link with my 
 daughter. Although I respect her privacy when possible, I couldn't fail 
 to sense the anguish you were causing her."
 
She had been walking over to where I was sitting, and the look she gave me 
at these words made me almost wish that she'd perform some tests on me 
instead. But as quickly as it had come it disappeared, to be replaced by a 
reassuring smile and a pat on the shoulder.

"It's OK, Tenchi. I think you did the right thing. Excuse me now. I think
 my daughter needs me."
 
"Thank you, Wa..."

Suddenly, without any warning, she had disappeared, not even making a sound
like Ryoko did! "...shu-chan", I finished while making a mental not never 
to forget that Washu *was* 20,000 years old after all and not the 12 she 
looked like.

                   -----------------------------------




Michael "Brazil" Borgwardt --- Member of #WASHU# and Her would-be guinea-pig.
        Untiring defender of Washu-chan, Asuka-chan and Elektra-chan. 
   A Homepage for Elektra: http://www.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/~borgward/
--------------- Let`s shake the dew off this lily, shall we ? ---------------