"TENCHI MUYO! LEGACY OF TEARS BOOK 2:"
"ICHIKO'S TALE"

<Author's note: The movie "The Time Machine"
that Ichiko goes to with her friends is a Draalthi
parallel of the Earth version of the movie, not an
imported film.>


-CHAPTER ONE-
Incident at Twilight...


"Bye mom!" Ichiko waved as she ran for the door.
"Ahem." Her father stopped her. "Don't you think you should
give your mother a kiss."
Ichiko smiled and went over to Shiasta. Bending down, she
kissed her wheelchair-bound mother, gently, then planted a
kiss on the side of her father's muzzle.
"Don't stay out too late, he told her."
"I won't." Ichiko promised. "We're just going to see a movie."
"Which one?" Her father asked curiously.
"Actually, we haven't decided." Ichiko admitted. "We're just
going to pick one at random when we get there."
Miaku considered this a moment, then asked his teenaged
daughter. "Who are you going with?"
"Shiko and Tamara." Ichiko replied.
Miaku approved of them and nodded. "Come home right
after. We'll have a late supper."
"I will." Ichiko promised as she ran out.

Shiko and Tamara waited outside the movie house.

Tamara was tall and slender. Her fur was neatly groomed
and she had a row of twelve gold studs along the rims of her
upper front ears. She was dressed in a pair of jeans and a
t-shirt with an image of one of her favorite rock stars on it.

Shiko was also tall, but with an atheletic build. She was the
captain of the school's girl's softball team and she kept in
shape regularly. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt also,
only her t-shirt was one of those novelty shirts of the
"I'm With Stupid" variety which was vastly popular with the
teenage population.

"Oh here she comes!" Shiko said, unneccessarily, as Ichiko
ran up.
"Sorry I'm late." Ichiko bowed for a moment, then smiled. "So,
how shall we decide."
"Coin toss is out." Shiko noted. "Too many choices."
"We could do eeny meeny?" Tamara suggested.
"We did that one when we picked our lunches yesterday."
Ichiko pointed out.  "I have an idea." She pulled a piece of
paper from her pocket and folded it until it had taken on the
form of a familiar game. Then she wrote the names of the
movies on some flaps and the names of colors and numbers
on the other flaps. "Okay," she told Shiko, "pick a number..."

They ended up seeing something called "The Time Machine."

During the movie, they ate snacks and drank sodas. They
sat in the front row, crouched down, watching in awe as the
Time Traveller told his tale.

When it was over, Shiko and Tamara decided to see a second
movie and invited Ichiko to join them.

"I can't." Ichiko apologized. "I promised my folks I'd be home
right after the first one."
"We'll see you in school tomorrow then." Tamara decided.
"Okay." Ichiko agreed.
"You're going to try out for the team tomorrow, right?" Shiko
asked. She'd been trying to get Ichiko to join ever since
school had started.
"I'll think about it." Ichiko promised as she ran off.

Her home was only three miles from the theater so she decided
to walk rather than take the public transport.  She had just
stepped onto the long catwalk that separated the stalagmite her
home city was on from the one the movie house was on when
she heard a man's voice go "hmmm...." She turned and stared
in shock at the man who was now in front of her.

He had no fur and his face was flat in shape, except for a triangular
nose. His teeth were squarish in shape and very small. Ichiko wondered
how he managed to eat with them. Surely they couldn't be very good at
cutting and tearing food.

"Well," he said to his companions, who looked similar to him, "it
seems this place is not uninhabited after all. I wonder what manner of
creature this is..."

"I'm a..." Ichiko began.

The man who had spoken cut her off with a violent backhand across
her muzzle.

Ichiko spun around and fell to her knees.

"How *dare* you speak without permission!" the man demanded,
looming over her.

Ichiko started to stand up, speaking in angered protest as she rose.

The man struck her again. "I think this bitch needs to be taugh a
lesson." He suggested as he began to undress.

Ichiko began to inch backward in horror. "NO!" She screamed at
them. "KEEP AWAY FROM ME!!!"

The man's two companions got hold of Ichiko and held her still.
The man who had spoken tore the clothes from her body and
incinerated them with a weapon he'd been carrying.

"If you struggle or cry for help, I'll use it on you." He warned.

Ichiko could only whimper. She was too terrified to make any
more coherent reply. She felt the strange man's weight on her
and a painful jab between her legs. The assault seemed to last
for hours. When it was over, the man dumped her semi-conscious
form over the edge of the stalagmite.

Ichiko felt herself falling, but was too stunned and ashamed to
fully comprehend that this was happening. After a fall of several
feet, she hit a ledge and came to rest there. The ledge was fairly
wide and there was room to move and stand comfortably. But it
was one hundred feet down and there was no way to climb up.

Ichiko was unaware of any of this, however. The only thing she
was aware of, was that she had just been raped. Shame filled
her mind and permeated her very soul, erasing the smile from her
lips forever. She wished she had fallen to her death.  But she was
too weak and hurt to do anything about it.


***

"She should've been home by now." Shiasta insisted.
"She probably went to a second movie." Miaku sighed."I'm 
going to give her a good talking to when she gets home."
Shiasta called the theatre.

As luck would have it, Tamara was at the candy counter when
the call came in. "Is your name Ichiko?" asked the ticket agent,
who had taken the call.
"No. But I'm a friend of hers." Tamara replied. "I can pass her
a message."
The agent handed her the phone. "Hello? Yes, this is Tamara.
No, she went home an hour ago. She's not? No, she didn't say
anything to me about stopping anywhere. She might have just the
same, but she didn't mention it.I hope so, too. Bye." She hung up and 
went back into the theatre where Shiko was still watching the movie.
"We have to go."
"But..."
"Ichiko never made it home. We have to look for her."
"She probably stopped off somewhere and lost track of time."
"You know she's not like that."Tamara insisted. "Let's go."
The two of them left the theatre, the movie only twenty minutes from
its conclusion, and headed off in search of their friend.

***

Shiasta was in a state of near panic. Having called her mother and
ascertained that Ichiko was not there, she called the local law
enforcement agency. Unfortunately, as Ichiko had not been missing
twenty-four hours, they could do nothing. This did not sit very well
with Shiasta who blew up at them on the phone until they finally 
sent a rookie detective to take preliminary information.

"I'm not allowed to search for her officially until 24 hours is up."
he told them.
Shiasta looked like she wanted to rip his head off. "And what if she's 
hurt right now?" She sobbed. "What if she's been in an accident and 
she's not being helped because it hasn't..."
The detective placed a shushing finger to Shiasta's muzzle. "I said 
*officially*." he assured her.
Shiasta's face, while still worried, showed a modicum of relief.
"Thank you." She told him.

***

Having concluded that Ichiko wasn't off shopping, Tamara and Shiko made 
their way back to her home city. As they neared the catwalk, Shiko 
spotted Ichiko's torn shirt lying where it had been dropped. It had 
somehow escaped incineration. Her heart leaped into her throat. She 
ran to it, then spotted the trail of dried blood which lead to... "NO!" 
She screamed. She ran over to the ledge and peered down. She saw 
Ichiko, naked, lying face-down on the ledge a hundred feet down. 
"Tamara! Get help! Hurry!!"

Tamara ran as fast as she could, calling out for help as she ran. 
"Please," she begged as she grabbed the detective who was out looking 
for Ichiko. "Please, you have to help me. She's hurt. I think she's
dead. Oh, please!" 
The detective followed her until they reached the ledge, then looked 
down.

***