Ayeka Muyou:
A Tale of Ayeka and Ryouko



	The first thing I learned, when I awoke, was pain.  My lungs were
on fire, my skin was frozen, every muscle seemed to aching, and it was far
too bright to open my eyes more than a slit.  I wanted to curl up in a
ball and quietly die.

	"Ayeka.  Ayeka, come on.  We don't have time for this.  They're
going to come for us, and we gotta get out of here before they get here."
The voice was harsh, but it did not seem angry, as such.  More ... 
concerned.

	I forced my eyes to open, gasping in pain, and stared up into the
golden ones that were glaring at me.  I tried to speak, but all that I
could manage was a hacking cough as the liquid in my throat forced its
way up.

	"Are you able to walk, or am I gonna have to *carry* you out of
here like some mewling infant?" the voice, which I knew had to belong to
the eyes, demanded.  I knew, from the tone, that the speaker was expecting
me to insist that I was able to walk.  I tried to push myself up from the
ground, and my arms gave out as soon as I tried to put my weight on them.
Something at my back kept me from collapsing all the way down, however.  I
shook my head to show that I couldn't walk.

	The eyes closed, and a profound sigh ensued.  "Damn spoiled brat
princess," the voice muttered.  "All right."

	The pressure on my back increased, and I felt a new pressure
sliding underneath my knees.  Then my body left the ground completely.  I
found my head resting against something soft, and I closed my eyes
completely.  

	Then there was a whooshing noise, and I heard the voice mutter a
short expression that I couldn't understand.  What followed it, however,
was very clear.  "ESCAPE!" another voice, angry, bellowed, making me wince
and curl up even more.

	"Time to go!" the voice proclaimed, and in an instant we were
moving at great speed.  I heard several things breaking in the wake of our
passage, heard alarms going off, screams.

	The arms that were holding me were very strong, much stronger than
I was.  I knew that no matter how fast we were moving, no matter how many
twists there were in our course, that the person who was holding me
wouldn't let go.   I was safe.  I didn't know how I knew that, but I knew
that I was safe with this person.

	After a while ... I couldn't be certain how long, perhaps minutes,
perhaps an hour, the voice spoke again.  "Okay, this should be good."  The
bright light beyond my eyelids had dimmed, and I opened them again as we
slowed to a stop.

	We were within a cave of some sort, and the darkness that allowed
me to open my eyes also kept me from making out many details.  We were
moving slowly downward, and I heard the crunch of a footfall.  Then I was
being lowered even further, placed down on the ground.

	And I finally got a look at the person who had rescued me.

	She was tall, with (as I had realized) golden eyes and long, spiky
light blue hair, that flowed down to her waist, with two long locks that 
dangled past her ears.  There was something exotic about her features,
something that I couldn't quite understand, given that her face was no 
more nor any less unfamiliar to me than my own.  She was dressed in a ...
tight-fitting uniform of some sort.

	"Okay," she said, "we can rest here for a while.  Not for a *long*
while, but for a few hours."  She took a deep breath.  "So, you wanna tell
me what all happened?"

	My lungs no longer felt like they were on fire, and my throat was
no longer filled with liquid.  Still, I hesitated before I spoke.  I was
not sure how she would take my reply.

	"I would gladly explain all I remember," I said, slowly, "if you
will but tell me two things."

	"Shoot," she said.

	"Who are you?  And, for that matter, who am I?"

	She stared at me, unblinking for a moment.  "Excuse me?"

	"The first thing that I recall is waking up, in extreme pain ...
back there," I indicated, vaguely gesturing.  "I cannot remember anything
before that --"

	"Ah, *shit*," she said angrily.  "They've doped you up with
Oblivio!"

	I nodded.  Given that I had no idea what she was talking about,
she seemed so certain that it convinced me.

	She turned away, tapping her foot anxiously, thinking about
something.  Her legs were very long, I noticed, and the uniform she wore
emphasized their smooth muscles.

	"Okay," she said suddenly, "here's the scoop.  Your name is Ayeka
Masaki.  You are a princess of the Jurai Star Kingdom, the aunt of the
ruler of that Kingdom, and the ambassador to one of its few allies.  A
week or so ago, while you were taking a vacation to the planet Mars, you
were kidnapped.  The Imperial Security Agency immediately started to
investigate, and they determined fairly shortly that the men who had
taken you were in the employ of a certain Duke Jorashi, who had been
courting your hand in marriage for a few years a while back, before you
finally told him to get bent.  Anyway, this same Duke, about two weeks ago,
seceeded from the Kingdom.  Some of the nobles in this sector do that on
the average of about twice a year, but the fact that he'd done so just
before you were seized was a big indicator that he was responsible.
Unfortunately, this tied Tenchi's hands."

	"Tenchi?" I asked.  "Who is Tenchi?"

	She seemed to be rocked by the question.  After a moment, she
replied, unsteadily.  "He ... he's your nephew.  The Emperor."  Another
moment, in which she seemed to be collecting herself, followed.  "Anyway,
like I said, the fact that Duke Jorashi has seceeded from the Empire tied
Tenchi's hands.  He could send in the whole damn fleet to get you out of
here, but it would be an act of war against an independant power.  It'd
give all the other currently seceeded nobles an excuse to unite against
the Empire, and fighting *them* would give the Empire's *other* opponents
an excuse to invade ... and the weight of galactic opinion would be on
their side.

	"So," she continued, "I volunteered to go in and rescue you
myself."  She avoided meeting my eyes when she said that.

	"And ... who are you, exactly."

	"I'm Ryouko Ma-- just Ryouko.  I'm Tenchi's bodyguard ..."

	"Then ... why did you abandon that duty to come get me?" I asked,
confused.  "Surely protecting someone as important as the Emperor is more
vital than rescuing one of his aunts."

	She glared at me.  "Typical, Ayeka, typical ... I come all this
way to do you a favor and --"

	"Are we friends, then?" I eagerly pressed.  "Or --"

	"No," she said shortly, "we are *not* friends."  She looked away
again.  "But Tenchi ... he still cares about you ..."

	`Still'?

	"... and I can't stand to see him upset or worried.  I never
could."

	With lacerating clarity, it came to me.  "You love him, don't
you?"

	She flinched, but still did not look at me.

	"You and I were never friends ... because we were rivals for his
heart, weren't we?" I continued, sadly.  "And you won --"

	"No," she said shortly.  "Neither of us won."

	"But then --"

	She turned to look at me with an impatient expression.  "Look, I
don't have time to go into all the reasons you usually hate my guts.  Back
to the situation at hand.  I slipped past Duke Jorashi's defenses easy
and found out where you were.  For some reason, he'd stashed you in
coldsleep.  I broke you out of the tank you were in, and now I find out
that he also pumped you full of enough drugs to give you complete amnesia.
Great.  So you don't have the ability to help me in our escape."

	"I'm sorry," I said.

	"Don't make ex... cu... ses ..." she trailed off.  "Uh.  Well,
it's not all your fault.  It'd be nice if we could use your powers as well
as mine to get out of here, but ... we can't.  No biggy.  I can handle
it."

	"I'm sure you can."

	She looked at me oddly, then shook her head.  "Okay.  We're far
enough away from their headquarters that we can take a few hours to rest.
I'm *so* sorry that I couldn't bring a change of clothes for you --"

	I looked down and realized that I was naked.  I wondered why she
thought I'd be bothered by it.  Perhaps when I had my memories I'd be more
... modest, but it didn't really bother me all that much.  I decided to
sit up, and covered my nipples and vulva, in case they were bothering her.

	"-- but I *did* bring a blanket so you won't freeze your skinny
little butt off."  She produced a small package from her belt, and it
unfolded into a large blanket, which she flung at me.  I caught it, and
began to wrap it around myself.  "Right.  Try to get some rest, but don't
sleep too soundly."

	I nodded, and began to lay down ... then paused.  "Where will you
be?"

	"Huh?  I'm not going anywhere."

	"No, I mean, where are you going to sleep?"

	She shook her head.  "I'm fine.  I'll keep watch."

	I laid down.  It was a warm blanket, and I had carefully wrapped
it around me to protect myself from the hard floor of the cave.  Still, I
could not make a headrest out of it, so I was doomed to sleep uneasily.

	Before I nodded off, I heard her yawning.  "Are you sure that you
don't --" I asked.

	"I'm fine, I told you.  Don't worry your pretty little head over
me."  There was a faint hint of anger in her tone.

	I sighed, and closed my eyes again.  Just before sleep took me, I
found myself wondering if she truly thought that I was pretty.


                                *   *   *

	I awoke from my dreamless sleep an immeasurable time later, to the
faint sound of snoring.  A brief flash of irritation consumed me, but it
fell away as I saw her, curled up in a ball a little ways away.

	I knew that she was cold, somehow.

	So I stood up, still swathed in the blanket, and went over to her.
It was not that hard to spread the blanket over both of us, and curl up
behind her.  She was not very warm, and the floor was hard ...

	But it felt good.

	"T'nchi ..." she muttered in her sleep.  I blushed.  She was
obviously having some sort of dream about the one that she said that we
had both loved, and lost.

	She began to twist around beneath the blanket.  For a moment, I
believed that she was trying to steal more of it for herself, and I
resisted, pulling it so that she couldn't do so.  That was when she rolled
over from where she was lying on her left side to lying on her right.

	Facing me.

	Our lips were only an inch apart.

	"Tenchi ... atashi no Tenchi ... daisuki yo ..." she whispered.
Words in a language I couldn't understand.  And then she leaned forward
and she was kissing me.

	Her tongue moved inside my mouth, caressing my teeth for a moment.
Slowly, I reached out with my own tongue to brush against hers.

	Then her eyes opened a fraction.

	And *then* they opened all the way.

	She jerked back, spluttering.  "Uh.  Uh.  I.  Er."  A deep breath.
"Wotinsamhilld'youthinkyou're DOING?"

	I swallowed, still feeling her tongue in my mouth.  "I ... you
fell asleep, and you looked cold, and so I came over with the blanket and
you were dreaming and --"

	"Oh," she said, backing further away, out from under the blanket.
"Well, that's okay then, all my fault, terribly sorry, don't do that ever
again, I mean I'm not cold, I can take interstellar temperatures for
crying out loud, of course I'm not cold --"

	"Why are you running away from me?" I asked quietly.

	She visibly shuddered.  "Be-because I ... "

	I let the blanket drop to my waist.  "Do you find me disgusting?
Is that why --"

	"No!  I mean, hell, it's nothing I haven't seen before, well a
couple times, and besides I'm a lot better built, so --"

	"When you were sleeping," I continued, "you said a word.  Daisuki.
What does it mean?"

	She was silent for a long moment, and for a second I imagined that
I saw a single perfect tear trickling down her cheek.  "It means love.  In
Tenchi's native language."  She was silent for another moment.  "Did.  Did
I say ... your name, when I said ..."

	I shook my head.  "You spoke of Tenchi."

	She closed her eyes, and smiled a sad, quiet smile.  "Of course.
The one time I was with him, he spoke of someone else like that."

	"Of the one who did win him?" I asked.

	"No.  Of someone we all lost ..." She shook her head violently
again.  "It doesn't matter.  It's ... it was a mistake, don't worry about
it."

	I stood up, letting the blanket pool about my feet.  "I want to
worry about it," I answered her quietly.  "Why were we never friends, even
after we had both lost?"

	There was something of a cornered animal in her eyes.  "Because
... too many years of bad memories," she managed to make out.

	Slowly, ever so slowly, I stepped close to her.  Every step
brought me a little closer.  Finally, I was standing with my breasts
against hers, staring deeply into her eyes.  "I don't have any memories,"
I said, and kissed her again.

	This time, my tongue moved into her mouth.  I was startled but not
truly surprised to find her sharp teeth.  In the short while that I'd
known her, I had always sensed something of a wild beast in her.

	I hoped that the wild beast would be wild for me.

	There was a momentary pulse and she was naked against me.  I
pulled back, startled.  "How --"

	Her eyes were on fire.  "A simple trick," she murmured and kissed
me again.  Now our tongues were duelling ... no, were engaging in a dance
complex beyond imagination.

	Before I knew what was happening, she was pulling me too the floor
of the cave with her.  "Wait," I said, "the blank--"

	"I don't want to wait," she said, and kissed my left nipple.  That
made my mind, which was exploding from the sensations of her touching my
skin everywhere else, detonate in a whole new fashion.  I didn't even feel
the grit of the cavern floor pushing into my back.  I was too far gone
from her fingers, from her lips, from her ...

	And then one of her fingers moved down to brush against my vulva,
and she paused.  Her eyes were wide.  "You are ... you're a ..." she
whispered.  I nodded.

	She bent down and began to kiss me there.  It was beyond
imagining.  And then after a moment,  she looked up at me.  She met my
eyes.

	She pushed her fingers in.

	It hurt, a little.

	But what came after made the hurt fade into a distant memory, and
I gasped and cried and in the end I screamed as she gave me the gift.

	And what I screamed was her name.

	We kissed again, and then I decided to give her my gift --

	"Well isn't that cute?"

	Her head whipped around, and too late I saw them standing there.
Hard faces, twisted in amusement and contempt.  With weapons pointed at
us.

	She could destroy them, I knew.  But while she was destroying
them, they could slay me.

	And she could not let that happen.  She lowered her glowing hand,
and the glow around it faded.  "All right," she said quietly, "you win."
Her clothes reappeared around her as she snatched the blanket and flung it
around my shoulders.  "We'll come peacefully, won't we, Ayeka --"

	She stared, baffled, as the squad leader laughed viciously.  "Sure
you will.  Right.  After you put these on," he added, and tossed a set of
bracelets to her.  She looked at them, shook her head -- more in annoyance
than in anger -- and clicked them on.  She was looking right at me when
she did so, and she winked.

	We were marched through the caverns for what felt like hours.  My
feet were bruised and bleeding within minutes, but whenever I stumbled she
was there to catch me.

	At last we came to an door in the wall, through which we were
pushed.  The lights came on a moment after we were inside and the door
closed.

	A cold eyed man with slate gray hair was seated on a throne inside
an almost palatial suite.  He smiled cruelly at us.  "Well, the rumors are
correct, then.  His Imperial Mongrel sent his official pirate to spy on
us, and to steal my property.

	"Go consort with goats, your Grace," she said, sneering.

	"Now where would be the amusement in that?"

	"They suit you more than Ayeka ever will," she hissed.

	He blinked, as though she had said something he hadn't expected,
then laughed uproarously.  "You ... you think that I ... oh, Guide, this
*is* amusing!"

	"Huh?"

	"Lady Ryouko," he asked, drawing out every syllable of her name,
"do you actually think that I would keep such a prize as Princess Ayeka in
cold sleep, where all I can do is look at her charms?"

	He tapped a button on the side of his throne, and a section of the
wall to his left slid open, revealing a clear, glass wall.  Behind the
wall was a young woman with purply black hair, tied back into a pair of
pony tails, dressed in a formal kimono.  She had an outraged expression on
her face, and she looked as though she were about to start pounding on the
glass ...

	And then her eyes met mine, and the young woman froze.

	She looked back and forth between me and the young woman with a
terribly confused expression.  I couldn't understand why.

	"Ayeka?" she finally murmured while gazing at the young woman.

	"Given the remarkable potency of the power of Jurai that runs
through the Crown Princess' veins, I would have been fool indeed to
attempt to force myself on her.  She would probably have annihilated me.
But a clone of the Princess ... a clone possessing all her physical
qualities without the annoying power ... that was much more to my taste."

	I gazed at the back of her head, for she was staring at the Duke.
I whispered her name.

	"And while the clone was being grown, I decided to make some
modifications.  A female who cannot enjoy what is being done to her, for
the simple fact that she is biologically oriented towards other women ...
I have always yearned to rape such a one.  'Tis a dream of mine."

	"You son of a bitch," she said in an extremely quiet tone.

	He looked speculative.  "As I recall, yes, I am.  Now then.  You
stand accused of trespassing on my property.  How do you plead?"

	"You're gonna die, you sick fuck," she said in the same tone.

	"I'll interpret that as guilty.  Therefore, we sentence you to
death.  Executioner!"

	I turned to see the leader of the guards step forward, carrying a
heavy beam rifle of some kind.  Behind me, she lifted a clenched fist and
began to concentrate.

	Nothing happened.

	"It wasn't easy to build a set of restraints calibrated to your
power level, you know," the Duke commented offhandedly.  "But it's worth
every credit."

	The beam rifle in the guard's hand began to hum with power, and he
leveled it at her.

	At my ...

	In the instant that the weapon flashed, I stepped between her and
it.

	I learned more about pain in that moment, and then I collapsed.  I
did not scream.

	She did though.  She screamed what she had thought was my name,
and dropped down to grab me.  She was all but incoherent, and I was in too
much pain to say anything.  But one thing I did say as the darkness rushed
upon me.

	"Dai... daisuki ..." I whispered.

	The first thing I learned, when I awoke, was pain.

	The last thing I learned, as I died, was love.

Epilogue.

AYEKA:
	I felt a sudden stab of pity as I saw Ryouko bending over the body
of my clone, sobbing as intensely as she had when Tenchi had announced
that he was to marry her mother.

	I didn't understand *why* she was carrying on like that, though.

	"Abominable marksmanship," Duke Jorashi said shortly to the
guard.  "Well, here's your second chance.  Don't miss this time."

	"Don't even *think* about it," Tenchi's voice snapped.

	Almost involuntarily, my head turned from where it was gazing.
Tenchi, his moustache resting over a flat, angry mouth, was standing only
a few feet behind where Ryouko was.  I gasped.

	"How dare you!" Duke Jorashi shrieked.  "This is an act of war,
oh Emperor!"

	"Oh?" Tenchi replied.  "Then what about this?  Screen."

	A holographic screen, like the one Washuu uses, appeared beside
him.  The image of Duke Jorashi was on it, with a look of contrition on
his face.  "Lord Emperor Tenchi, I most humbly recant my recent secession,
and regret deeply our dispute.  I further invite you to visit my world at
your earliest convenience, that we might discuss certain strategic
matters."

	"That is a lie!" the Duke shouted.  "A fabrication!"

	"You'll have plenty of time to try and prove that at your trial
for kidnapping.  Ryouko --"

	"Trial?"

	Ryouko's voice was more quiet than I'd ever heard it, even on the
horrid day nearly a thousand years ago when she'd thought that she'd lost
Tenchi forever, to Kagato.  In her eyes was a new level of berserk fury.
I stepped away from the glass, and began to build my personal forcefield
up to maximum.

	"HE DIES NOW!" she screamed as she raced towards the Duke.  The
restrainer bands shattered and fragmented as she drew on more power than
she'd ever pulled before.  Her sword manifested, and the glass wall before
me shattered from the backlash of the power.

	In the twinkling of an eye, Tenchi was standing between her and
the Duke.  "NO," he said in his most authoritative tone.

	"LET ME PAST, TENCHI!  HE IS MINE!" she screamed, swinging a fist
through his head.  Immediately, I realized that he was here only as a
holographic projection.

	"No, Ryouko!  If you kill him now, you're a murderer.  We're going
to use the system this time!"

	"HE --"

	"I know what he did!  And I'm *sorry*.  But this is the way it has
to be!"

	"He ..." she was finally starting to break down.  Tenchi lifted
his arms to try to embrace her ... then realized the impossibility of it.

	"I'm sorry," he said again.  Then he turned to glare at the Duke,
who was cowering behind his throne.  "But rest assured, your Grace, that
Imperial justice will be *very* swift in your case."

	The Duke was too terrified to say a word.  There was a faint hint
of urine in the air.

	"Ayeka," he turned at last to me, "are you all right?"

	"I am quite fine, Tenchi.  That craven never dared to lay a finger
on me."

	"All right.  I'll be down in a shuttle very shortly."  He turned
to look at Ryouko, who had once more bent over the body of my clone.  He
closed his eyes.  "I wish ..." he said ... then shook his head.  A moment
later the hologram dissolved.

	I stepped gingerly out past the wreckage of the wall, just as
Ryouko lifted the clone's corpse up, wrapping it in what remained of the
blanket she'd been wearing, and began to slowly walk towards the door
leading out of the Duke's bunker.  "Ryouko?"  I asked, startled.  "Where
are you --"

	"I have a grave to dig," she softly answered, and teleported away.

	And I wondered.

RYOUKO:
	I spent the entire trip home in bed, locked in my cabin on the
throneship.  No one, not even "Mom", who had come to help with the phony
broadcast from the Bastard, was foolish enough to intrude on me, until the
day before we were to arrive back on Jurai.

	The door to my cabin swished open.  Of course, only one person on
the ship had the authority to enter any room on the ship.  I stayed where
I was, waiting for him to start chastising me.

	Finally, the silence became overpowering, and I spoke.  "I was
wrong.  I shouldn't have --"

	"I didn't come here to argue with you ... but I think that you did
the right voice.

	Her voice was so much like *hers*, but there were a double handful
of differences in the way that she spoke.  So my heart only stopped
beating for a second.  I rolled over to look at her.  She was standing,
elegant as always, near the door.  And I wondered, as our eyes met,
whether I would always remember *her* taste whenever I looked at her.

	"I came," she said slowly, "to thank you for what you tried to do.
For invading Jorashi's homeworld to rescue me, without Tenchi's
permission, so that he could avoid a war.  I am grateful, Ryouko."

	I looked away.  "I didn't do anything.  I barged in head first and
managed to get ... to get someone killed ..."  I would not let the tears
come again.  I *would* not.

	"And I grieve for your loss," she said.

	"What loss," I choked.  "I was dumb enough to fall for someone who
... hell, I thought she *was* you, but now I find out that she was all but
*programmed* to fall for me.  Something as stupid as that doesn't deserve
to be called a loss."

	There was silence for a moment.

	"I will say only this, Ryouko.  Duke Jorashi had to make changes
to her biology, to make my clone a ... lesbian.

	"But not many."

	I whipped around and stared at her standing in the doorway, not
looking at me.  "What?" I hissed.

	"Do you know what frightened me the most when you raided Jurai?
Not the damage you caused.  Not Yoshou running after you.  But one very
simple thing.  It frightened me that someone so beautiful could be so
vile."

	She stepped out of the door, and it closed behind her.

	And I wondered.

"AYEKA":

	I paused as I walked towards the light, and saw my beloved's heart
beginning to heal.  And smiled.  "She's going to be all right, isn't she?"
I asked the Presence who walked with me, holding my hand.

	OF COURSE.

	We began walking again.

Author's Notes

	A serious lemon, featuring Ayeka and Ryouko.  Challenge, met.

	"Tenchi Muyou" was created by Hiroki Hayashi and Masaki Kakajima and
brought to North America by Pioneer LDC.  This story, while incorporating
aspects of a motion picture held under copyright by others, is copyright
1997 by Chris Davies.

	Nobody Sue Me Okay?