Tenchi Muyou:  No Need For A Masquerade



	Ryouko stretched as she slowly woke up from her wonderful dream
about engaging in quite a bit of naughtiness with Tenchi.  The futon 
beneath her was wonderfully soft.  She opened her eyes a crack and saw
Sasami slumbering peacefully in her own futon a few feet away, smiled, and
closed her eyes.

	<Wait a minute.>

	<Since when do I sleep in Sasami and Ayeka's room?>

	"Aye--" she said softly, and panic struck as she heard her voice.

	Or rather, not her voice.

	Ayeka's voice.

	After a few seconds of raw panic, Ryouko reached up to the side of
her head, and grasped the length of hair that dangled past her ear.  She
breathed deeply, bracing herself, before she lifted it up into her field
of vision.

	The eartail was a dark, purplish shade.

	"Oh, shit," Ryouko said in Ayeka's crisp tones.

	She rolled out of the futon, and tried to stand swiftly, but the
nightgown that Ayeka had been wearing the night before tripped her up and
she crashed to the floor.

	Sasami looked up, blinking the sleep from her eyes as she did.
"Neesan?" she inquired.

	"I'm okay, I'm okay ... uh, g-good morning, Sasami.  Sleep well?"

	"Just fine, thank you," Sasami said slowly as she watched `Ayeka'
stand up and walk to the bedroom door ... *much* more clumsily than she
normally did.  "Ummmm ... are you sure you're okay?"

	"Never better!  Uh ... I gotta go take a -- um, go to the
bathroom."  She exited quickly.

	Sasami blinked.  <Neesan's *never* that vulgar about going to the
bathroom.  Maybe she's loosening up.>

	<Nah.>

	Ryouko stumbled down the hallway, trying desperately to get used
to the different balance that Ayeka's body had.  <I never dreamed that I'd
regret the fact that she's got such a flat -->

	"AAAAAGGGH!"

	Ryouko looked up to see herself -- her body, rather -- staring
down the hallway at her with an expression of horrific dismay on her face.
She noted with a strange detachment that her body was still wearing her 
blue and green-striped dress, which she'd been wearing when she went to
sleep in the den last night.

	"Ayeka?" Ryouko guessed.

	"What.  Have.  You.  Done.  To.  Me?" `Ryouko's' voice came out
using Ayeka's usual snobby angry manner.

	"What did *I* do to you?" Ryouko exclaimed.  "Why would I ever let
you take my *gorgeous* body and run around with it?  This is the sort of
thing *you'd* do --"

	"Gorgeous body?  This ... withered thing?" Ayeka hissed at her.
"Hah!  It is to laugh!  You are much more likely to engage in body theft
than I -- particularly with what you could do to my reputation --"  She
broke off suddenly.

	Ryouko slowly smiled.  "You know ... I never even thought of that
until now.  I wonder what Tenchi will think when I -- or rather, *you* --
start up with the torture tricks.  `Call me princess!'" she said in a
harsh voice that cracked like a whip.

	`Ryouko's' face twisted in almost psychotic anger, causing Ryouko
to take a step back.  <Geez, I never realized just how -->

	"If you lay so much as a finger on Tenchi-sama while in my body I
will ... I will ..."  `Ryouko' was holding her hand out as though she were
holding a swordhilt, and she seemed to be struggling.  She finally turned
her eyes off Ryouko and gazed at the hand.  "How does she do that?" she
muttered.

	"Practice," Ryouko told her saucily.  "Well, I'm off to ruin your
reputation.  I don't think I'll *have* to torture Tenchi ... a bit of
frottage will convince him --"

	"-- that I'm as loose as you are?" Ayeka snapped.

	"Hey!"

	And then `Ryouko's' face smiled evilly, and Ryouko swallowed.  "Or
maybe he'll respond favorably.  And you realize what *that* would mean,
don't you?"

	Ryouko let out a deep breath.  "Okay ... okay ... let's think
about this.  Presumably, this doesn't happen on a regular basis."

	Ayeka nodded.  "Tenchi-sama would have told me if it did.  Or
Yoshou would have."

	"So it either happened by chance, or someone or something is doing
this to us.  Now who do we know that could --"

	"WASHUU," they said simultaneously, and headed for the crab-marked
door beneath the stairs.  Washuu was silently playing some sort of
computer game when they burst in. 

	"Washuu, I demand that you put us back to rights immediately!"
Ayeka demanded, her terse anger sounding very odd in Ryouko's sensuous
voice.

	Washuu looked over her shoulder at them, and smiled slightly.
"Hello, ladies.  Happy Halloween."

	Ryouko blinked.  "Halloween?  Washuu, what the f--"

	"Halloween," Washuu said in a school teacherish tone, "is a
holiday originating in Europe.  It is customarily marked by wearing
unusual costumes and disguises."

	"What does this have to do with this torment that you have forced
upon me?" Ayeka screeched.

	"For centuries, people have been using costumes to permit them to
say things that they normally couldn't say -- due to social pressures, or
what have you -- or to come to an understanding of another person, by
taking on his or her persona," Washuu explained, unruffled by the glares
she was drawing.

	"Are you telling me that you came up with this crazy stunt in
order to make me get along better with *her* --" Ryouko punctuated her
question with a head jerk in her body's direction.  "--	so that you could
steal Tenchi for yourself?"

	A frustrated look crossed Washuu's face.  "NO!  That is not why I
did it!  I did it so you would realize that Tenchi loves you both, and
*WHY* he does!"

	They stared at her, aghast for a moment.  Then they exchanged
another glare.  "Who could love something like *that*?" they spat out as
one.

	Washuu closed her eyes for a moment.  "Okay.  Forget it.  I'll
undo it."  She turned to the console, and pounded out a short sequence.

	Ryouko was assailed with a sudden surge of vertigo.  When it
cleared, she immediately grasped on of her ear tails to confirm that it
was cyan-colored, and let out a deep sigh of relief.  She teleported back
to her usual perch, and settled down to catch up on her sleep.

	"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Washuu!" Ayeka rebuked as
she headed for the door.

	"Yes, probably," Washuu said glumly as she left.

	A moment later, Tenchi walked out of the shadows of the lab, a
melancholy look on his face.  He gazed at the red-haired scientist seated
at the terminal for a few moments before softly saying, "I'm sorry,
Tenchi-dono."

	`Washuu' shook her head once.  "It's not your fault, Washuu-chan.
It was a stupid plan anyway.  I should never have come up with it."

	"It wasn't stupid," `Tenchi' insisted, walking closer and laying
his hands on `Washuu's' shoulders as he did so.  "If it were anyone else,
they probably would have come to see and appreciate each other's point of
view.  But --"

	"But Ryouko and Ayeka are just too different to ever get along,
and I'm doomed."  `Washuu' let out a deep sigh.  "Oh well.  Thank you very
much for all your help, and for letting me borrow your body like this."

                            HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

        And Make Sure That The Masks That You Wear Aren't Too Tight.

Chris Davies, Advocate for Darkness, Part-Time Champion of Light.
"Damn it all, how am I supposed to sit here and wallow in self-pity and
disgust with all this racket going on?" -- Yuusaku Godai, Maison Ikkoku.
http://www.ualberta.ca/~cdavies/hmpage.html