Aikan Muyo
Chapter 3 - No Need For Daydreams and Preparations


     "I'm not a robot, passive and programmed,
      I'm taking the law into my own hands.
      All things come to those who base 
      Their every action on a proper strategy.

      I got a master plan, not taking any chances,
      I got a master plan and I got me some answers.

      I learned my lesson, Fate will keep you 
      Waiting full of doubt and drudgery."
        -- "Master Plan", Split Enz


Aeka lay in the bath, letting the warm water buoy and relax her. Her
entire body ached with fatigue. It had been a very long night. Though
she'd spent most of it in bed, she hadn't slept for an instant. 

Instead she'd remained awake and alert, her ears pricked for the
slightest unusual sound from Tenchi's room. Many times she'd heard him
start to speak in his sleep and she'd rushed, quiet but ready, to his
door and pressed her ear to it, to assure herself that his breathing
remained shallow and even, that Ryoko hadn't managed to sneak in
and... and... 

*Uwakionna! You won't touch him! Not again! Never again!* 

The ghastly image of the previous morning burned in her mind. Ryoko
with her head between Tenchi's legs as he gasped, trapped and
helpless, paralyzed with fear and revulsion, while Ryoko... Ryoko... 

*Gaishou! You should go work in a Pink Salon and charge for that,
instead of attacking my poor Tenchi! At least that way you could pay
back the Masakis after you've wrecked their home and stuffed yourself
with their food! Lazy ungrateful repulsive top-heavy exhibitionistic
oversexed conniving bitch!!!*

The door to the baths opened, then closed. Aeka's eyes narrowed when
she saw her hated enemy walk in as if summoned by the princess'
thoughts.

Ryoko was wearing her black and red one-piece.

Aeka glared at her.

Ryoko got down on her knees, trembling slightly, bowed, put her palms
on the tiles, and placed her head on her hands. She stayed that way,
frozen in place.

Aeka blinked.

"I have come to apologize for what I did yesterday, Aeka-hime," Ryoko
said softly, her voice humble.

"Why?" demanded Aeka.

"Tenchi's angry with me because of it, Aeka-hime. He won't speak to
me."

"Tenchi-sama is right to be angry with you. I'm sure he hates you for
what you did, to him *and* to me. You certainly don't *deserve* to
have him speak to you. But I am prepared to be merciful," she said
haughtily, as if holding court. "So I will listen."

"I'm very sorry for having attacked you yesterday, Aeka-hime. I was
wrong to do so."

"Yes, you were. Let this be a lesson to you, not to interrupt your
betters when they are speaking. But I am not concerned with that. What
of your attacks on my Tenchi-sama?"

A tremor ran through Ryoko's body. She didn't say anything.

"Don't play innocent with me, you disgusting little slut!" warned Aeka
angrily. "Do you think I didn't see the horrible things you were doing
to him? And you *dared* enter his room, after all the times he's made
it quite clear how much he loathes the very sight of you!!"

Ryoko shivered violently, and Aeka thought for a moment that she had
clenched her fists, but on looking carefully saw that Ryoko's hands
remained flat on the floor. It must have been an illusion caused by
the steam from the bath, or something like that. She also thought she
might have heard a sob, but she dismissed that as well.

"Speak, nauseating bitch! Or have you swallowed so much seed from so
many men that it's clogged your throat?"

"I will no longer try to take him from you, Aeka-hime. I will not stop
you from sleeping with him."

"Don't presume that I spread my legs as easily as *you* do, you...
you... you *whore*!" hissed Aeka.

"I'm sorry if I offended you, Aeka-hime."

"You did. And you always have. Now, this `apology' of yours. What can
you say to convince me that you mean it?"

"By my love for Tenchi, I swear it to you, Aeka-hime."

"You know I don't believe your lies about that! Think of something
else."

Ryoko remained silent, but she shook more than ever.

Aeka sighed. "Oh, very well. Your apology is accepted, Ryoko. Not that
you've fooled me for moment into thinking it was sincere. I shall tell
Tenchi-sama what you have done. But being what you are, it would serve
you right if he drove you out of here and never spoke a word to you
again!" She smiled, wanting to twist the knife just a little more.
"And I will do my best to convince him to do exactly that," she added
with a laugh.

She got up out of the bath to get herself a towel. As she approached
Ryoko to walk past her, the space pirate raised her head and looked at
her. When she saw Ryoko's eyes, Aeka stopped, frozen in terror.

Implacable, remorseless, desperate fury burned in those eyes.

With the strength and rage of a cornered, wounded beast, Ryoko tackled
Aeka and held her down. Aeka screamed. But the sound didn't carry
outside the pocket dimension Washuu had used to form the women's bath.

*Oh, no! I pushed her too far! She was obsessed with Tenchi! Now that
she's lost him, she's gone mad, and she's going to kill me!!!*

Her eyes blazing, Ryoko reached underneath the towels for something
she'd hidden there. Seeing it, Aeka's eyes widened in fear.

Later that day, Tenchi sat under a tree in the grounds of his school,
sipping from a bottle of juice while he read a book. Next to him lay
an empty bento box. The book in question was "The Art of War", by Sun
Tzu, a general from the ancient Kingdom of Wu. Along with Musashi's
"The Book of Five Rings", it was something that grandfather had
suggested he study carefully. "It contains much useful wisdom, and
that wisdom can also be applied to many things besides warfare."

He turned the pages, skimming, and decided that it *was* kind of
interesting. It was like his sword practice, except that this was
intended to train the mind, not the reflexes. "In all fighting, the
direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods
will be needed in order to secure victory... Let your plans be dark
and impenetrable as the night, and when you move, fall like a
thunderbolt."

Tenchi smiled. *'Like a thunderbolt.' That certainly reminds me of
someone.* Then he frowned sadly.

He wished again that he hadn't had to yell at her.

There wasn't any other way. She'd made an unprovoked attack on Aeka.
For her own good, he had to make her understand that she *must* stop
trying to hurt people whenever she got angry at them. His mind went
back to the previous morning, remembering the princess's sharp-tongued
speech, and Ryoko's enraged response.

OK, not quite unprovoked. Aeka wasn't *completely* guiltless in the
matter, he decided.

*She shouldn't have called Ryoko a tramp. You got mad at Ryoko for
attacking your guest, but you're not supposed to let your guests be
insulted, either. You should have at least SAID something to Aeka
about it. That way, Ryoko wouldn't feel singled out.*

He was going to remedy that, when he got home.

"Hey, Sato-kun, how's it going?" asked a voice on the other side of
the tree.

"Not too bad. And you?"

He thought he recognized the voices. They were a couple of his sempai,
members of the school soccer team. He'd never liked them very much.
All they ever talked about was how eager women were to jump into bed
with them, and listening to that got boring pretty quick.

"OK. Join me for lunch?"

"Sure thing."

He heard them sit down and begin eating.

"So, how'd it go last night? Did you get lucky?"

"Yeah. My parents were gone, so I brought her over to the house. After
I got a few drinks into her, no problem."

"How many times did you fuck her?"

"Just once. She passed out after that. But next time, I'm going to get
her to suck it."

"Hah! In your *dreams*. None of them do that. Except the sluts. And
even then they probably won't swallow."

Tenchi's face burned red, and he clenched his fists. Though he knew
they weren't speaking about her at all, he had an overwhelming need to
shout at them that Ryoko *wasn't* a slut, how *dare* they say so,
she'd done it because she loved him, and he'd smash their faces in if
they ever, *ever* talked about his girl like that again.

Loved him?

His girl?

*Well, she says so. And you HAVE thought about it. Why not?*

Part of it was the way she looked at him. Like some kind of wild
jungle cat eying a nice, juicy, blood-rare steak. And not just her
hungry gaze. The way she moved. The way she spoke. Even when she was
playful, she seemed like a kitten toying with a mouse before moving in
for a fangs-bared kill.

*If only I could learn to like that.*

Unlike Mihoshi, or Kiyone, he'd never fantasized about Ryoko much.
Except rarely, he didn't have wet dreams of her, either. He had lurid,
erotic nightmares that woke him suddenly in the dark of night, erect
but sweating in fear. And when he thought about her deliberately, and
his mind tried to remove the things about her it found threatening,
what was left wasn't Ryoko at all. Just a lifeless curvy body with
cyan hair and dead yellow eyes. Corpses didn't arouse him, even pretty
ones.

The same went for Aeka, but for a different reason. In his mind, it
was as if she stood on a high pedestal, gazing down regally. He
couldn't place himself up there, and he didn't want to drag her down
to him, either. So he simply stared up and watched her, admiring her
as if she were a Ming Dynasty vase. Beautiful, priceless,
irreplaceable, and not to be touched for fear of she'd break. If he
clumsily tried to reach out and hold her, she'd fall and shatter into
a million pieces.

After a few minutes, his sempai got up and left. Tenchi decided to go
back to his book. He turned the pages some more, and continued
reading. The words vied for his attention with his guilt over having
been, perhaps, too harsh with Ryoko, and the remnants of his angry
reaction to the conversation of his sempai. He yawned. It was a warm
day, and it made him feel a little sleepy.

"Place your army in deadly peril, and it will survive; plunge it into
desperate straits and it will come through in safety..."

"Ryoko. That's my name."

"I *know* that. I thought I told you not follow me to school anymore.
Why won't you listen?"

Ryoko floats in the air, holding her hand against her cheek, looking
down at Tenchi.

A tiny bell rings.

*Oh. It's one of those lurid, erotic nightmares again. I fell asleep.
Missed all my classes, and everyone's gone.*

"I liked it when you went into my cave, Tenchi. After you opened the
entrance. With your sword. And then your sword started to slide in,
and you went down deep, as far as you could go. And then I tried to
hold you. But you ran away from me. You took your sword and pulled out
of my cave, Tenchi. I didn't like that, I didn't like it at *all*."
Light gathers in her hand to form a weapon. "All I want now is SEX, I
mean, REVENGE!"

*Oh, no. This one's always so BIZARRE. Like it's me, but surrounded by
a bunch of stuff breaking through from another universe and getting
mixed-up!*

"I just need to let out my frustration on you... RIGHT NOW!" she
yells, grinning.

He runs and she chases him, slashing the air around him and laughing.

*Why's she doing this? This dream never makes ANY sense! What's this
cave and this sword she keeps talking about? Does she mean the cave
where we found Washuu? Does she want one of my bokkens, or something?*

As he runs past a pile of rubble, he grabs an reinforcing bar and
brandishes it at her threateningly.

He can't quite think why, but it reminds him of a penis.

She beckons with her finger.

"Ready or not, here I come!" he yells as he charges.

Her energy sword swishes through the air faster than sight. He
watches, horrified, as the phallic metal shape falls apart and topples
to the ground in small pieces.

Then his clothes fall off of him, shredded as well.

She chases him, laughing and hurling blasts of energy that explode
around him. They don't hurt him, but they're terrifyingly violent,
close, and hot.

"What's the matter, Tenchi?"

"Why, Ryoko? Why are you trying to kill me?"

"But I'm *not* trying to kill you, Tenchi. Haven't you ever heard of
*foreplay* before?"

"What are you talking about, Ryoko? This isn't foreplay!"

"Yes it is!" she says, blowing holes in the concrete on either side of
him. "When I get hot, I chase you. And chasing you makes me *HOT*!
When you run, it makes me want to catch you and fuck you!" Another
blast rips the ground apart just behind his heels. "You're gonna have
to run faster than *that*, Earthling!" The next explosion lifts him
off his feet. He lands and keeps going.

He starts to run as fast as he possibly can.

She pursues him into a building and down a hall. As she passes a
mirror, she stops. She checks her hair and face to be sure they look
nice. Then she proudly hefts her breasts.

"You are one *beautiful* demon!" she tells herself aloud, before she
resumes her pursuit. She begins to call to him. "Tenchi... Tenchi..."

Finally, she corners him in a classroom.

"Hello there," she says, as she looks down between his legs.

He backs away, and, noticing the direction of her gaze, covers his
crotch with his hands. 

"Ooh! *I* wanna see!"

He doesn't move his hands.

She smiles wide-eyed. "Hey! I don't want to miss anything!"

He *still* doesn't move his hands, and she frowns impatiently.

"Just give me the sword. I want it, and I want it NOW!"

*First the cave, now the sword. I'd REALLY like to know what this is
all about.*

He tries to run, but she floats sideways and blocks his way. His face
runs smack into her breasts, making them bounce. Blood trickles from
his nose.

Not from the force of the impact. From the location.

The collision knocks him back into his desk. She moves up and stands
in front of him, smiling.

"Don't be scared, sweetie-pie!" she says as she approaches and
dematerializes out of her clothes. They fall in a pile behind her, and
she advances on him, naked.

"Well, look who's here!" she says, eying his crotch again.

She kneels in front of him and grabs his penis.

It gives off a powerful shock. She screams and withdraws her smoking
hand, looking dejected.

"Ahhh, so you can't touch this thing, can you?" he laughs.

Ryoko's eyes become very sad.

"Oh, please, I'm begging you!"

Tenchi's not cooperating, so she looks at his penis and talks to it,
instead.

"For starters, why don't you stand up?" she asks.

It does. 

"Ta-da!"

She starts moving her head down.

"Now, point the sword hilt toward me," she tells him gently.

*Enough about the sword already. I don't HAVE a sword!*

Seeing what she's going towards, he tries to cover it again with his
hand, but she grabs his wrist.

"Oh, *yes*, show me that sword of yours!" she says, moving his hand
out of the way.

"Uh-oh! No, just a minute..."

"*Nothing* to worry about."

"Wait! You can't touch this!"

"Just trust me. Relax."

"Come on, stop it! Get away from me!"

"Shhhh. Be quiet."

For some strange reason, he expects Aeka to show up at this point and
say "Stop!"

A little like she did the previous day.

But she doesn't, and Ryoko's head descends into his lap.

"Impressive!" 

She runs her tongue around it.

"It's time for today's lesson... schoolboy."

She beginning to suck on it, loudly.

His eyes roll back in his head. Then he notices something. He sniffs.

*Oh, it's just gas fumes.*

*GAS FUMES?*

He looks down. The friction of Ryoko's lips on the shaft of his penis
is throwing off bright blue sparks.

"Stop that! You'll start a fire!"

He can just see the headline: Brilliant Student Blown To Bits.

*If I'd known it would feel this good, I wouldn't have spent all that
time doing HOMEWORK over vacation!!!*

He pauses, confused. Those just *aren't* the right words!

She stops and looks up at him for moment.

"Now, I want your balls, please."

"What? No way! They're mine, and I'm going to hang on to them!"

She looks annoyed. "Oh, you *numbskull*, I mean what's *in* them.
Otherwise I can't control ochinchin."

He looks at her in confused fear. *Control WHAT?*

"O...chinchin?!"

"Oh, don't tell me you don't know what *that* is. It's the other demon
in the legend, you *dimwit*."

*This doesn't make any more sense than that stuff about the cave and
the sword. What demon? What legend? And that's a really WEIRD name for
a demon, anyway.*

"Listen to me. I need to wake up ochinchin *now*."

Her eyes go wide as she concentrates on something.

"COME, OCHINCHIN!! AWAKEN!!!! AWAKEN!!!!!!"

Ochinchin throbs, reddens, and strains towards her, Ryoko's beckoning
voice making it rise up, still wet from where it's been, as if it
could fly through the sky to get to her.

"COME!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It's very excited at the prospect of obeying it's mistress' command
after waiting for so long.

She backs away, apparently frightened, and she traces a circle on his
chest with her fingertip. "It's so *dangerous* and *mean*, it'll
*fire* at me, without even giving me a teeny-weeny little chance to
explain!"

Somewhere in the back of his mind, for some strange, unknowable,
other-worldly reason, he hears Aeka sneeze.

*That doesn't make any sense, either! What's Aeka got to do with the
demon, anyway?*

Ryoko's demeanor becomes stern and commanding. "Fire at me when
ready!" she orders ochinchin, before closing her lips on it.

Suddenly Aeka is there, pulling at Ryoko's leg just like she did
before. She appears very upset at what she's seeing.

"The sword!" she gasps. "But it shouldn't react to anyone but those of
royal blood! So why is it? It can't be." She falls to her knees in
despair. "No, it can't be true! I can't believe it! I *won't* believe
it! It isn't possible!"

Ryoko looks up at her. "Suit yourself, but you *might* want to get out
of the way," she warns, as ochinchin's mighty spike thrusts upward.

Aeka screams as Ryoko starts sucking on it again. 

"I will never forgive that woman!" vows Aeka.

"Ochinchin mass is growing abnormally," warns a disembodied voice.

Intense friction-induced heat envelops ochinchin.

"Oh, how *unreasonable* that woman is," says Aeka. Ryoko cackles for a
moment, enjoying the princess' fear of what she's doing, then resumes
her work. "Ryoko, stop this immediately!"

Ryoko giggles, continuing to suck on Tenchi.

"Even *you* won't be able to escape unharmed from this, Ryoko! Say
something!" warns the princess.

Ryoko says nothing. Her mouth is much too occupied.

"STOP THIS IMMEDIATELY!" orders Aeka.

Ryoko's eyes bug out, but she doesn't stop.

"I KNOW YOU HEAR ME!"

"Twenty seconds..." warns the disembodied voice.

Tenchi screams as he gets closer, closer, closer...

"RYOKO, STOP, PLEASE!!" Aeka begs.

Ryoko giggles and ignores her.

Almost all of Tenchi's awareness is now focusing tighter and tighter
on what Ryoko is doing between his legs, but with the slim remnant of
his mind not concentrating on that, he distinctly hears Aeka command
something to explode.

All three of them scream as ochinchin's heat is quenched amidst a
mighty fountain of white spray bursting skyward. Then ochinchin is
still, wet and unable to move. For a while, at least.

"Wow! Take a look at that!" says Mr. Masaki, appearing without
warning. "Hey, what's wrong? You don't look well at all, Tenchi. Cheer
up! You should be *thankful* for that. I sure think it's kind of
convenient in a way, don't you think so?"

Tenchi sighs. It's exactly the kind of reaction he'd expect from
Noboyuki. *Dad always was kinda hentai.*

Ryoko looks at Tenchi's penis and talks to it again. She opens her
mouth and runs her tongue around her lips. "Have *this*! It'll make
you grow up big and strong!" she offers. Then she chides it
affectionately. "You're lucky. You doesn't even have a *scratch*,
after all we've been through together. You *really* ought to be
thanking me. After all, I took care of you at my own personal risk!"
She rests her bosom on Tenchi's lap, and smiles as the demon ochinchin
lands between her breasts, squirming urgently. "Oh, you're the only
one who understands my feelings," she coos at it.

"I thought there was another young lady with you. Where did she go?"
asks Noboyuki.

"She's over here," answers Ryoko.

Aeka braces herself with her knees and tugs with both her hands at
Tenchi's penis, trying to pry it out of Ryoko's cleavage.

"Unnnhhhhhhhh!!!! Oh, now what? Sasami, what are you doing? Come and
help me!"

"But it's too big for us to handle," protests Sasami. "We'll never get
it out of there!"

Tenchi shook himself awake, shuddering. Everything was fuzzy, but he
realized that something very disturbing must have been about to
happen. That's what usually caused him to wake up.

He was lying under the tree where he'd fallen asleep reading his book
during lunch.

He noticed the wetness in his pants from his diurnal emission.

*Oh, that's just GREAT. One of these at SCHOOL.* He rushed towards the
restroom to clean up, hoping no one would notice his condition.

Ryoko stood in the kitchen doorway, silently watching Sasami fix
dinner. She smiled. This princess could be dealt with much more easily
than the other one. Ryoko slowly crept up behind her, absolutely
noiseless, and extended her hands to strike.

"BOOO!" she said, covering Sasami's eyes.

"Hi, Ryoko," giggled the princess.

"Mmmmm...", Ryoko said, sniffing as she removed her hands from the
girl's face. "That smells good, Sasami. What're you fixing?"

"Thanks! It's takenoko gohan." She poured some sake and shooyu into
the dashi steaming in the pot on the stove. "Hey, Ryoko, could you
help me slice the takenoko?" she asked, pointing towards the pile of
bamboo shoots she'd washed and set on the cutting board.

"Sure thing, Sasami," answered Ryoko. She grinned and showed her fangs
a bit. "Slicing things is one of my *specialties*." Her energy sword
formed in her hand, a shaft of blazing orange-red fire. She paused,
concentrating for moment.

The sword flashed through the air faster than human sight could
follow.

The bamboo shoots lay on the cutting board, unmoved, perfectly cut. 

*Well, that's ONE thing I can do right in the kitchen.*

"Wow! That was really neat, Ryoko!" said Sasami, clapping her hands.

Ryoko extinguished her sword and bowed, smiling. "Arigato,
Sasami-chan."

"Oh, by the way, do you know where my sister is?" asked Sasami. "I
haven't seen her around all day."

Ryoko hesitated for just an instant. "She's here *somewhere*, Sasami.
I'm sure she'll turn up eventually."

"Yeah, you're probably right," agreed Sasami. "Maybe she went to wait
for Tenchi a little early today."

Ryoko thought about that. "Hmmm... you might be right. Oh, are you
going to be taking some dinner out to Grandpa's shrine?"

"Sure! He's a really nice man, isn't he?"

"Mmm-hmm. He tells some really funny stories, too."

Sasami turned to look at her. "Stories? Like what?"

Ryoko thought for a moment. For some reason the first thing that came
to mind was the one about Amaterasu and Susanoo. But it was a bit too
bawdy to suggest. Especially considering the part where Uzume did her
striptease. Amaterasu always annoyed Ryoko whenever she heard the
story, anyway. Hmmm...

"There's one called The Tale of Urashima Taroo. It's about a princess
who gets rescued by a dragon, who takes her to the Turtle Palace where
she falls in love with a fisherman who gives her eternal old age."
Ryoko frowned. That *was* the way the story went, wasn't it? "Well,
something like that. You'd like it. Maybe you should ask him to tell
it to you, sometime."

"Do you think he'd tell it to me *tonight*?" asked Sasami hopefully.

"Sure. If you asked him nicely, I mean."

"Oh, wait a second. I can't," she remembered, her face becoming sad.
"I'll have to come back to serve dinner."

"I can handle that if you want."

"Are you *sure*? I mean..." started Sasami. Then her expression became
very worried, as if she were struggling to come up with a way to say
something that was extremely bad, without having to hurt someone by
saying it.

Ryoko patted her on the head. "Don't worry, Sasami-chan. I won't mess
things up completely. You'll be done cooking it when you go see
Grandpa, right?" Sasami nodded, still looking concerned. "So, all I
have to do is put it on the table." Ryoko smiled down at her. "Even
*I* can do *that*!"

Sasami let out her breath, relieved. She was very glad she wouldn't
have to say to Ryoko that she wasn't a good cook. She didn't want to
hurt her feelings. Which reminded her of something.

"Um, Ryoko, did Tenchi ask you to say you're sorry to Aeka? For
fighting with her the other day?"

"Yes," answered Ryoko, shaking just a little as she remembered the
encounter in the women's bath that morning.

"I think you should take Tenchi with you when you tell her. My sister
can be kinda mean sometimes, when she's mad at someone."

"You don't say."

"Uh-huh. If Tenchi were with you, I'll bet she'd be nicer to you,"
predicted Sasami hopefully. "You wouldn't have to say you're sorry
quite so much."

"Thanks for the advice."

Sasami looked up at her. "You're welcome, Ryoko. I mean, we're
friends. Even though you and my sister don't like each other. Right?"

Ryoko smiled and crouched so that she was the same height as the
little princess. "Of course we're friends, Sasami-chan. Whatever's
between me and Aeka doesn't have anything to do with that. Like I told
you last night."

Sasami beamed, very happy. "By the way, Ryoko, there's a movie tape
that Tenchi has I think you'd like. It's about space pirates! Can we
watch it together sometime?"

The galaxy's most-wanted space pirate grinned. "Now, *that's* an
interesting idea for a movie. Sure, Sasami-chan. We'll watch it some
time. You, me, and Ryo-oh-ki." She smiled broadly, and patted the
princess's head again. "I promise. Or maybe one night we'll go out and
I'll show you what it's like to be a *real* space pirate."

"Wow! I'd *really* like *that*!" She glanced back at the stove. "Well,
I'd better get back to fixing the food." She went back to the stove
and put the abura-age strips into the pot, then started stirring. "Oh,
and Ryoko, I got some salami for you, for breakfast tomorrow."

Ryoko face-faulted and fell back against the kitchen counter.

Sasami looked over at her. "Didn't you like it?"

Ryoko stood back up. "Oh, yes, Sasami. I loved it. I just didn't get
to finish it."

"Why not, Ryoko?"

"It was just before me and your sister had our little argument."

Sasami looked ashamed on her older sister's behalf. "So is *that* what
you two were fighting about? She shouldn't interrupt your breakfast.
That was very rude!" She shook her head. "Really, you shouldn't have
to apologize to her. She should apologize to *you*."

Ryoko smiled. "Thank you, Sasami. I'll have to remember to tell her
that next time I see her."

"Well, it's in the refrigerator if you want it. You should finish it
before it spoils. Aeka won't want it, anyway."

"Oh?"

"When I told her you were having it the other day, she made a face and
got really upset like it was yucky or something," said Sasami. Then
she smiled. "Hey, maybe she's worried about you, Ryoko, and that's why
she tried to make you stop eating salami -- salty stuff like that is
very bad for you. Maybe you and her can be friends after all! Do you
think so?"

"Sometimes you gotta live dangerously, Sasami," smiled Ryoko. "And
that's exactly what we were fighting about -- she stopped me just
before I got to the really salty part." Then she grinned. "And if Aeka
thinks it's yucky, at least I won't worry about her eating it,
instead."

"But it's not *good* for you, Ryoko," protested Sasami. "That's why I
got you the low salt, low fat kind this time. You should really watch
what you eat."

Once the takenoko gohan was finished, the two of them had a quick
dinner at the kitchen table. Then Sasami left to take some to the
shrine and have Tenchi's grandfather tell her a story. Ryoko waved
goodbye as Sasami walked away.

*Alright. Both princesses accounted for. Aeka's been dealt with.
Sasami and Katsuhito will be occupied for a while. Washuu's in her
lab, and probably won't be coming out unless someone goes and gets
her. Mihoshi and Kiyone are at their apartment. I haven't seen
Nobuyuki around the last few evenings, which means he's probably
working on a big project, so he'll be late. And Tenchi will be home
any time now.*

Today, that last part made her extremely nervous.

*Well, everything's set. No backing out now.*

She noticed that her hands were shaking. She forced them to be still.

*I hope this works. Otherwise...*


Preview of Next Chapter: No Need To Be First

Her nostrils sniffed, and he was sure she was savoring the scent of
the blood pumping through his veins. Holding Tenchi by the shoulders
at arms length, Ryoko looked at him, her skin beaded with sweat, her
ragged breath hissing through her teeth, her chest heaving violently,
her cat-like eyes wide and full of hungry lust.

His knees quaked. The urge to flee and hide was all-consuming.

Run, his instincts shrieked at him. Run, or be eaten. RUN!!!