Thank you, prereaders!  (You know who you are.)  I needed the advice
that you gave me for the revisions of the fic.  Thanks, again. :)

Rei-chan

Tenchi Muyo: No Need for a Throne
Prologue: No Need for Sasami...

================================================================================

 The summer had come at last.

 A young man about the age of most high school seniors stood in a
rural field five kilometers out of Tokyo.  Most would pass him off as
a rather plain fellow.  Standing about five foot four inches, he wore
the typical clothes of a Japanese youth.  His black hair was cut short
in an American style called "flat top" and a pony tail to set it off.

 This youth was anything but ordinary, however.  He'd been called many
names in his life: Lord Tenchi, Crown Prince of Jurai to name but a
few, but he preferred Masaki Tenchi.  As Tenchi surveyed the expanse
of his grandfather's carrot field, he realized that he hadn't felt
this care-free since THEY had arrived last year.  THEY were the five
(six, if you count the Cabbit) women that had barged into their lives
one year ago.

 Carefree.  This day to Tenchi was the complete definition of normal.

 Go to classes.  Come home.  Do chores.  These were the kind of things
that Tenchi loved in life.  Simplicity at its peak.  Not running
around the known galaxy to hunt down criminals, find a lost friend or
free demons from centuries of slumber.  The normal life one could lose
oneself in and think of the past, figure things out and not be
rushed.  The strange events in Tenchi's life, however, had been
rushed, spur of the moment decisions that had, in one way or another
placed either himself or those he cared for in mortal danger.

 Bend.  Pull.  Place in the wicker basket beside him.

 This simple repetition continued as he worked.  No danger in these
actions, no embarrassments; no harm.  As he worked he reflected on the
preceding year.  This year had brought much change to Tenchi's life.
Not only had he had to adjust to five very willful and impetuous women
moving into that Masaki home, challenges of the like that he had never
thought had entered his life.  Not only had he been told by one of
those women that he was the next to occupy a throne that he had no
allegiance to, she had told him that he wasn't human.

 This thought brought him up short.  The imagination reeled at the
idea of him being partially ALIEN, a creature not brought out in the
evolutionary paths of earth, but rather, Jurai, a planet that was
located in the Orion star system.  There he had relatives.  Royal, no
less.  And keeping the peace in the stars was
the autonomous group called the Galaxy Police.

 Tenchi pushed these thoughts from his mind and continued working.
Out of the blue, he thought about school and all of the things going
on there.  Student committee elections would be in another week and
then after that would be the class trip.  These mundane thoughts
washed over his thoughts as another carrot met the basket.  The senior
class trip was coming up.  This year, his class had decided to go to a
camp in the north.  Shortly after that would be the New Year
celebrations.  The idea came up in his mind that it might be a nice
little change to get some fire works to set off at the house, and then
he thought better of it.  One of the women that had moved in to the
house, Washu-chan, was a very bright but mischievous young woman who
would probably tamper with the fireworks and destroy a portion of the
house.

 These thoughts of destruction brought on the thoughts of the past to
him again.  Only two weeks earlier had Tenchi and the rest of the gang
gone on one of the most dangerous adventures of their lives, into the
past.  This little escapade had been brought on by the near
disappearance of Tenchi and the Masaki line.  The trouble Washu
concluded, was that Tenchi's mother had somehow ceased to exist before
Tenchi had been born.  When they had gotten to the past, they had
discovered that the evil criminal Kain had killed her in the near
future.  The eventual battle with Kain had been tiring and stressful,
as his mother nearly died protecting the son she hadn't had yet.

 More carrots filled the basket as the memories of his mother burned
in his heart.  That had been the only time that he had seen his mother
since she had died when he had been five years old.  Those memories
brought up the appreciation that he hadn't expressed to Washu-chan for
helping save his mother from Kain's grasp.

================================================================================

 Far from Earth orbit, the space cruiser Yagami sits, vigilant and
peaceful, watching the stars for trouble.

 On duty was the Detective first-class Kiyone.  This procedure had
become routine for the raven haired operative and her partner.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) she
hadn't found her partner before transport up to the ship for the
mandatory watch shifts when their artificially intelligent ship need
to run it's routine: systems diagnosis and power conservation.

 The Galaxy Police officer sat scanning the starscape for any thing
unusual that could disturb the backwater Beta-Sol Star System.  The
three-dimensional landscape around her was like a void.  Devoid of
anything that could be picked up on the short range scanners except
the occasional stray cosmic pebble or the random ice chunk of
Jupiter's meager ice rings.  As she kept watch, she thought about fate
and it's cruelty towards those people that seem to have everything and
then lose it all.

 One month ago, Kiyone had been a promising officer of the Galaxy
Police.  She had a future ahead of her.  Now she was tethered to the
biggest airhead on the GP force.  And to top it all off, this promised
to be the most ridiculous assignment that the now nonexistent HQ could
have come up with.  The Beta-Sol Star System was the most
un-trafficked System within Juraian-GP jurisdiction. The old splinter
colony of the Juraian Empire wasn't even capable of warp let alone
interstellar war.

 "I only hope that Headquarters, if they reestablish one, will
transfer me to a real and meaningful post," said Kiyone out loud.

 "What was your request, Kiyone-san?" asked the floating automaton
that was a part of the ship.

 "Nothing.  It's nothing... "

 It was pointless, thought Kiyone.  Why this backwater?  Why, for that
matter "the Ditz?"

================================================================================

 Out in the field, the usual comedy played itself out as it had so
many times in the past.  Clad in a very revealing top, Ryoko was
barely decent as she teleported in front of Tenchi.  Ryoko reveled in
the fact that her choice had cut short whatever he was thinking
about.  It was so easy to drive Tenchi nuts, thought the blue haired
temptress.  Her blue hair was bound at crown of her head with a string
of plastic beads and went where it pleased.

 She strutted towards Tenchi with a sensual grace that belied the
cavalier pirate attitude.  She gently pressed herself against Tenchi
and placed her arms about his neck.

 "Tenchi," said Ryoko, with a sensual pout, "why are you out here in
the sun in that heavy jacket?  Why don't I help you get it off?"  This
comment was said with an innocent seeming grin stretched across her
feline like features and her hands reaching around front for his coat
buttons.

 "RYOKO-SAN... I...," said a very flustered Tenchi.  His face had gone
from that of a relaxed young man to beat red, and if you looked really
carefully, you could see the sweet drop form on his forehead.
"Carrots... Ryo-ohki... um..."  Ryoko and Aeka's antics were the very
things that Tenchi had thought that had made his world so
complicated.  As Ryoko tried to pin him to the ground to "help" him,
Tenchi dodged out of the way and Ryoko met the dirt in a very personal
fashion.

================================================================================

 In the laboratory of the scientist, Washu, the first signs of a
tragedy that would change everything set off several alarms and woke
the "universe's greatest mind" from her sleep.  The diminutive figure
of Washu-chan rose tiredly from her floating antigravity bed.  Never
again, she vowed, would she ever stay up late tinkering with her
gadgets that she hid in a sub-space closet.

 She walked over to the virtual computer terminal, depositing the
tools all around the area in the "closet."  She sat down and turned
off the alarms and buzzers.

 "Much better... " muttered Washu.  "What seems to be the problem,
computer?"  She spoke aloud as she typed.  Washu-chan appeared to be
about seven Earth Standard Years old, but in reality was about twenty
to thirty thousand years old!  The extreme intellect housed in the
tiny body was, in her own terms, the smartest in the Galaxy.  Crab red
hair flowed from her head in about the same silhouette.  Piercing
green eyes took in the world with an expression of curiosity and
analysis.

 The dazed and sleepy look on Washu's face disappeared as the facts
presented themselves to her like a cold shower after a troubled
night's sleep. Strange lights flickered across the computer in front
of her as she worked at the problem facing her.  The readings just
aren't possible!  That would mean...

    She didn't allow herself the thought as her fingers flew across
the keys of her virtual terminal.  Numbers and strange equations leapt
across the screen.  The physics of the things that she was doing, put
Earth Science and mathematics to shame as she pulled theorems and
formulas out of the air that would not be discovered on Earth for
another three to four Eons from now.

    "Damn it!  Slow down!" she cursed at her screen.  "Even I can't
stay ahead of this... "

================================================================================

 The food had been great, thought Sasami.

 Tenchi had returned home from school a little after lunch and he
didn't even complain that it had been cold.  She cleared the dishes
from the dining room table and carried them, load by load into the
kitchen to be washed.  What a great day, Tenchi even complimented her
cooking, thought Sasami.

 A great day indeed.

================================================================================

 Out in the fields, the comedy of the huntress and the prey
continued.  Ryoko, who moments ago, had tried a ploy to assure her the
affections of the Crown Prince, found out how nimble her Tenchi was.
She presently found herself lying, face first in the muck.

 On her back appeared the tiny form of Ryo-ohki, the Cabbit, pushing
her face deeper into the ground than expected.  The strange half cat,
half rabbit meowed up to Tenchi with the look of some one who was
asking the cook 'when is dinner going to be ready?'  The dirt bound
Ryoko looked up with a hurt and dazed expression on her face.

 "Tenchiii!"  Muck and grime that covered her face and new clothes
slid off as she lifted her head out of the soil, making her appear
like a child who had played in the sand box after a rainstorm.

 Looking down at her he couldn't help but feeling guilty.  Being the
gentleman he reached down, took the cabbit off of her back and helped
her up.  No sooner was she up, however, that she put her arms about
Tenchi's waist.

 "Oh, Tenchi." Ryoko purred as he tried to disengage himself from her
arms.

 "Ahhgg," he yelled out as he bolted across the field, away from
Ryoko.

================================================================================

 This was very interesting, thought Detective first-class Mihoshi of
the Galaxy Police.  Kiyone's Partner Mihoshi was the perfect example
of the insult "blond."  Her slim and tanned figure was topped off with
a wavy mass of yellow blond hair.  Eyes of deep blue stared out at the
world with the vapidness of a simpleton.  Not helping much was the
standard issue GP uniform, which resembled a playgirl's outfit, with
the cotton tails and all.

 She sat high in a tree watching Tenchi and Ryoko running across the
carrot field while Ryo-ohki, the Cabbit sat down to a feast.  The
creature started on the already pulled carrots in a basket, now
forgotten.  She did her best keep the details straight as she wrote
down EVERYTHING that she saw.  Her notes, if one were to look over her
shoulder were meticulous, that is if one could decipher her writing.
Interspersed between the standard kanji and Juraian standard cuneiform
were sketches and diagrams of almost everything under the sun.

 "Oh, my!" fretted the beach blond police office as several of the
pages to her report flew with the wind.  "Come back here! I need
those!" she cried after the flying pages.  How was she going to give
Imperial Princess Aeka the report that she had asked for without all
of the notes.  As she grabbed for them, more pages flew from her
grasp.

 "NO!" As she overextended, her point of balance shifted sending her
out of the tree...

================================================================================

 Washu sat in her extra dimensional laboratory with a worried look on
her face as, almost out of nowhere, Mihoshi fell out of thin air in
the middle of the room, screaming as she fell.  The brilliant young
scientist seemed not even to notice as she worked furiously at her
virtual terminal.

 The beach-blond sat up and discerned the mutterings of Washu over the
beeps and bells that went off periodically in that strange realm.
Mihoshi remembered some of the time that she had been in this place,
most of which had been semi-unpleasant.

 "GOD DAMN IT!  SLOW DOWN!!" she heard Washu state from gritted teeth
at the screen.  The officer noted the look of intense concentration
and decided that now was definitely not the time to bother her.
Mihoshi looked about with an apologetic expression and ran for the
door, using the pretext that she wasn't to be away from her duties.

 Washu didn't even notice as Mihoshi dashed out the door, tripping in
the process.

 Washu focused on the numbers.  She had finally determined where the
disturbance was coming from and WHO it would affect but she still
didn't know WHAT it was trying to do.  As far as she could tell, a
blast of bio-energy was reaching out to one of the tree's on Jurai
Prime that were part and parcel to the well being of a Juraian born
human.

 The energy signature seemed too familiar, as if she'd known this
Juraian before.  A long time ago...

 A picture from her past flashed in her mind and she saw the
unmistakable face of her hated enemy laughing.  In the memory, hatred
for the person flared and in the arms of the target of her hate, a
child no older than an infant.

 "Oh, God!" yelled out Washu as the pattern became unmistakable.  "Not
again!  You will NOT take another away from me...  NOT AGAIN!!!"

 As she typed sweet poured from her face as she tried to stay ahead of
an impossibly fast reaction that had started several light years away
and threatened to tear their world apart.  The VR helmet reached down
as she commanded and let her see the sub-space reaction's effect on
the "Real World."

 "Damn it!  Slow down!" she cursed at the VR screen, wishing in her
heart with all her might that all of her hate could purge the universe
of this evil about show it's face again.

================================================================================

 The kitchen of the Masaki house was a calm and inviting place.  A
place where many happy and memorable meals had been created.  The
household chef and youngest family member, Sasami, stood at the sink
cleaning the lunch time dishes.  She smiled at the thought of the
compliment that Tenchi had given her for the wonderful meal.

 As she finished drying the wok, she saw Aeka, her sister enter the
room.  Sasami absently acknowledged her and reached for another dish.

================================================================================

 Back in the Lab, Washu-chan's eyes opened wide as she realized the
target of the energy: the tree-entity Tsunami.

 "God, NO!"

================================================================================

 Aeka walked over to Sasami and the sink and took the drying towel
from her and began helping with the chore of clean-up.  Sasami, who
normally would have thanked Aeka for the help, didn't even acknowledge
the act of kindness.  Aeka noticed that her sister was acting as
though she was in her own world.

 Ever since Aeka had discovered her secret, that Tsunami, the ancient
tree of Jurai, was keeping her alive, she hadn't distanced herself
from her, but rather brought her closer.  Closer, Sasami thought,
because her sister didn't want her to feel alone.

 "Is some thing bothering you, Sasami?" asked Aeka to the reply of an
absent-minded head shake no.

 Aeka, the Imperial Princess of Jurai and sister to Sasami, dried dish
after dish that was handed to her humming a tune she had heard on the
radio, "A Soul's Refrain."  Her mannerisms were extremely well refined
as she rinsed and dried.  She was about an inch shorter than Lord
Tenchi with deep purple hair that was done up in traditional Japanese
custom.  Her outfit was also traditional, a purple and pink kimono
with blue highlights.  The Red irises that were trademark of the
Imperial Family of Jurai gave her the look of a Japanese goddess.

 She watched Sasami's actions, concern written all about her heart.
The training didn't let her worries reach her face as she asked her
sister another question.

 "Are you sure?" the concern was evident in her voice, however.  "I
can go get Washu-chan?"

 "I'm fine, Aeka." said Sasami, distractedly.  "I'm just a little
light headed is all."  Her voice had a quality to it that Aeka had
never heard in it before.  A tiredness that seemed to reach back
millennia.

 Sasami was a short child at age seven.  Her sea blue hair and pink
irises belied the agelessness of Tsunami, the other half of her
personality that had brought her back to life after she had fallen to
her death on Jurai after Ryoko and her carrot-crazy shape-shifting
spaceship, Ryo-ohki, had attacked three centuries back.  The only
thing keeping her alive was the life energy of the ancient tree.  The
twin diamonds on her forehead that showed her life force shone a
healthy blue as she worked.

 Sasami started in with the chorus of the song Aeka had been singing
earlier to reassure her that she was fine.  A buzzing filled her ears
as she sang.  The tune was so haunting, almost from a dream, she
thought.  Tenchi, she knew somehow, loved that song.  She looked about
her and realized that things were WAY too bright and that she felt
strangely dizzy all of the sudden.

================================================================================

 As Washu worked, the sweet that had been rolling down her face
changed to tears as she realized that she was losing.  Frustration
filled her mind and all of the calm reserve that Washu carried with
her to hide her depression from the others collapsed.  The sorrow that
she felt as the enemy that had stolen so much from her in the past was
magnified tenfold as they struck.

 The attack was precise.  Like a scalpel, really.

 The reaction that had come across the galaxy had found it's mark and
severed a cord.  This was a delicate strand, really, and like a pair
of scissors: it cut.  There was one last thing that Washu could do and
she hoped that she had the time to enact it before she lost the
contest for good.

================================================================================

 Sasami walked away from the sink shakily and sat down in a seat by
the stove.  What was wrong, she thought as she felt a wrenching
feeling in the pit of her being as if a delicate vase had been smashed
on the floor shattering it to pieces.  The room started to dim and
began to whirl around faster and faster as something, she did not know
what, began to drag her down.

 "What seems the matter?" asked Aeka with the refined lilt of
training.  Sasami didn't respond, but looked about vacantly.  "Do you
need me to get Washu-chan?"  Concern edged her voice as she realized
that the twin diamonds on her forehead had gone from blue to deep
blue-gray and continued to get darker.

 Sasami seemed to shake her head in acknowledgment at Aeka's request.
running over to the door to Washu's lab, Aeka was frightened.  She had
never seen once her little sister act like this.  Before she could
turn to get the scientist from her lab, though, she heard a crashing
sound as if a plate had fallen to the ground.

 Whirling around, she saw the plate that Sammy had been holding
shattered across the kitchen floor.

================================================================================

 Slamming the VR helmet that acted as her secondary computer screen to
the ground, Washu began to sob.  It was over.  She had lost and now
the consequences that she dreaded had occurred.  Nothing she could do
could have stopped what had happened.  Nothing her science and
technology could do could change the past.  Not even going back in
time work, since the machine that had sent them back in time after the
crisis with Kain had accidentally been damaged when they had come
back.

 "You won again, damn it," the words racked her small body as she
staggered towards the door of the sub-dimension.  Wailing, "You took
her from me.  Why?"  Anger and sorrow were mixed in that word.  Washu
racked another victory up to the person that she had hated since
school.

 "She wasn't even a part of your original plan... " the facts tasted
bitter in her mouth as she slumped against the door and wailed like a
mother who had lost a child.

================================================================================

 "Where am I?" said Sasami.  The area around her was dark, yet in the
distance, she could make out a faint light.  Everything here seemed
familiar, as if she'd been here before...

 "Your here with me... " it was the familiar voice of Tsunami that
counseled and instructed the young princess.  The voice came from that
light that seemed to be getting further and further away.  "Things are
out of my control... Sasami."  The voice trailed off in the distance
as the light disappeared.

 "I needed to feel your essence... one... more... time," the echo of
the tree's voice was like an angel speaking in a dream as it faded
into the distance.

 Sasami walked down the tunnel as another light fill the void.  In the
distance she could hear her long dead grandmother calling to her.  The
voice was joined by others that she knew had been dead for many
years.  This fact, however didn't scare her as she homed in on the
voices coming from the new light.

 As she entered the brightness she felt the caring arms of Achika,
Tenchi-chan's mother, bring her into the heavenly family.

================================================================================

 The unresponding body of Sasami lay on the kitchen floor beside the
dish that had crashed out of her hand.  Aeka took all of this in with
horror dawning on her face as she noticed the diamonds; they weren't
there.

================================================================================

 The scream that was emitted from the house was heard all over the
Masaki property.  Out in the field, where Ryoko and Tenchi had been
playing a prolonged game of tag.  That scream, however, brought the
game to an end and the entire "family" running to the kitchen in a
hurry.  Tenchi wondered if another villainous alien, like Kain or
Kagato was hurting his friends, while Ryoko prepared for the worst
with her Energy Sword.  Mihoshi, falling out of the tree (again) that
she had been using to spy on the two now battle ready friends, fell in
with them.

 They ran.

 At the door, they met Youshu, Tenchi's grandfather.  Concern was
written on his face.  This was unusual.  If Youshu is worried,
then...  They ran in cataloguing his expression with all of the other
things that they might find running down Nobuyuki and continuing on.

 As they ran toward the door to Washu's laboratory, it suddenly
opened.  Fortunately for Washu, her door opened towards the oncoming
stampeding pack, unfortunately, the group didn't have time to slow
down.  There was a crash as they met the door hard.  Washu walked out
and closed the door to find Tenchi, Ryoko, Mihoshi and Ryo-ohki laying
on the ground in a tangled and dazed mess.

 She bent down and picked up Ryo-ohki and cradled the cabbit to
herself as though she was a hurt child hugging her stuffed toy.  She
didn't even make a comment to the group as she turned and walked
slowly into the kitchen.  The ravages of her weeping were still quite
visible as she started down the hall towards the kitchen.

 Tenchi noted the signs of grief and asked, "Washu-chan, what's
wrong?"

 The child paid no attention to Tenchi as she continued down the
hallway, the only sound that Tenchi heard was the racking sobbing of
another of the women that had come into his life: Aeka.

 As Washu walked down the hall, she began to grow.  In moments, the
small child-scientist had become a full grown woman in her mid
twenties.  The undeveloped body of a seven to ten year old child was
traded for an older more mature form to handle the situation.

 When she entered the kitchen, she found Aeka crying over Sasami's
body and realized she'd expected that.  The consequences had been
dealt the fates had performed their job.  The sight of the child at
Aeka's knees took all of the control she could muster not to let her
personal sorrow register in her voice, but she failed.

 "Aeka, dear," her voice was weighted with the heartache that she
hadn't allowed out in public for millennia.  Washu sat the cabbit that
had served as a comforter down and collected Aeka in her arms.

 "Sasami!  She... " wailed Aeka. "She won't wake up...  I..."  The
voice that normally was filled with confidence was that of a grieving
child who had lost their mother in a crowd.  Why?  This thought and no
other filled the mind of Aeka as the loss sunk deeper and deeper.
Finally, though something deep within broke.  This break though was
not visible to the others, but eventually would be known with time.

 "I know," soothed Washu.  The tears that flowed from her own face
soaked the shoulder of Aeka's purple Kimono.  Deep down she buried the
thought that it had been her fault for another time when she could be
alone.  She saw that they were all gathered around now; Tenchi, Ryoko,
Mihoshi, Youshu, even that perverted excuse for a dad...

 "Sasami's dead." These words were the only ones that she could let
out of her mouth and no others for once she had spoke them, her grief
shoved aside her personal barriers, and the sobbing began anew.  She
wept as she cradled the sorrowing form of Aeka in her lap.

 Each member of the group took this news in different ways.  Mihoshi
began to cry like a water sprinkler and wandered away weeping and
whispering Sasami's name as she went.  Youshu shook his head sadly and
disappeared.  Tenchi, however hide his grief and placed a hand on
Aeka's shoulder.  That action prompted Aeka to throw her arms about
him and bury her face in his shoulder.

 Ryoko's face showed the anger and loss most clearly as she marched
toward her "mother" and lifted the now unburdened Washu to her feet
with irrational murder in her eyes.

 "If you did something to her I'll... " threatened the daughter behind
clenched teeth to her mother in tones that couldn't be ignored.  The
nostrils of the pirate flared as she stared into the eyes of Washu.

 "You'll WHAT!?!" screeched Washu,  "Kill me?  Do it.  I don't care.
I deserve to... "  The sentence was buried by her sobs as her eyes,
that seconds earlier were boring in to Ryoko's, took in the floor.
Ryoko saw the tears streaking down mother's face.  She dropped the
scientist to the ground, then she vaporized, leaving Washu, Aeka,
Tenchi, Nobuyuki and the lifeless form of Sasami.

 Moments later they heard screeches of aggression as Ryoko began
detonating anything in her path that was unlucky to cross her path.

================================================================================

 Youshu had left as soon as he'd heard Washu announce the prognosis.
This wasn't the first person to die in Youshu's life.  He did marvel,
however at the gentleness of Sasami's spirit and walked to the shrine
to offer up a prayer for her.  He walked thought the yard, hearing the
rampage of Ryoko, and realizing how important Sasami was to the entire
family.

 He finally reached the ancient shrine that he had built when he had
arrived on Earth several hundred years earlier.  Instead of picking up
the broom and cleaning, however, on this occasion he knelt down to the
shrine and began to pray that Sasami's spirit would safely reach it's
destination.  After he finished, he walked over to the broom and began
cleaning the dust from the floor.

 There wasn't a sound, but rather a feeling that something was wrong.
For a while he thought it was nothing more than the death of the
child, who, normally would have been doing this very job.  After
several minutes, however, the urgency of the feeling asserted itself.
He calmly set the broom down and walked out of the shrine.  He walked
into the woods to the delicate form of his Juraian tree.

 Appearing in front of the man was the ghostly image of a woman that
he thought he'd never see again.  He gulped as he recognized the
phantom.

 "Mother-sama."

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