well i'm back from my summer haitus.  school has started and for some strange 
reason i have more time here than at home.  so here's the next part of the 
fic.  sorry for the long wait.  hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer:  Tenchi and all related characters are property of Youmex and 
AIC.  No money is being made from this work of fiction, so please don't sue.  
I'm a poor college student and you wouldn't be able to collect anyway.

Why Me? 
Part 9
by Rose and Jared
    
    
    Rose teleported out of Ryo-Ohki with Jared's hand in her left and
Sasami's in her right, appearing on the lawn in front of the Masaki
household.
    
    Ayeka and Ryoko were so deeply involved in their high-emotion
discussion of who were their probable rivals that neither had even
noticed they were home, staying in the ship and arguing.
    
    Jared quickly excused himself and went up the mountain, figuring that
he'd been close to two hours in Rose's approximate company without
suffering a cutting remark or biting comment and it was time to cash in
and get out while he was ahead.
    
    It was possible that his earliest experience with her was an anomaly
but he was quite willing to take the reevaluation at a cautious pace.
However, he made a mental note to do something she would like later, by
way of possible insurance against any upset caused by him bailing when
things were going well.
    
    Do no harm to anyone, prevent harm to yourself. Lots of people were
good at the latter, most forgot the former. He tried to do both.
    
    Almost by accident Jared found himself at the edge of the wood
bordering the actual shrine. Before him was a practice area with many
wooden pegs driven deeply into the ground at odd angles and forming a
rough circle of extremely treacherous footing. Dangling on a thin cord
in the center of this was another wooden stick.
    
    He'd seen Tenchi train on this. You jumped from peg to peg while
trying to hit the dangling target stick with your practice sword.
    
    Jared smiled, examining the setup for a second, then stepping
cautiously onto it. It really was as bad as it looked. The pegs were
rough and stable, but the angles they were set at and their
deliberately awkward placement was *intended* to spill the person
standing on them, and stood a decent chance of breaking ankles as well.
    
    Happily, Jared began to explore the arrangement with his feet.
    
    ***
    
    Walking back from Ryo-ohki I decided to put my new found clothes away
and help Sasami in the kitchen.  Upstairs I hung the garments on some
hangars, and realized that I hadn't seen Jared come in.  As soon as
everyone had gotten out of the ship he had excused himself in a hurry. 
Surely, he and all the clothes that Ayeka made him buy had to have come
into the house.  But when everyone else came in he had just
disappeared.
    
    "I hope he doesn't get into trouble with Ryoko again.  That little
adventure gave me such a headache," I commented as I headed downstairs
in search of Sasami.
    
    As I got to the bottom of the staircase I saw Sasami running up to
me.
    
    "Rose-neechan, Onee-sama said that while we were shopping you got new
clothes.  Let me see what you got, it's been a while since Ayeka and I
have gotten anything new to wear."
    
    Blinking in surprise I realized that she had spent the whole time looking
at clothes with Jared and Ayeka.  Personally, I thought of shopping as
a chore, and really thought it nothing to get so excited about.  But
then, I hadn't really seen Sasami do much besides cook and clean.  So,
in all likelihood, shopping was a pleasant diversion for her.
    
    "You know Sasami, if you had wanted to stay with Ryoko and myself
when we were shopping you could have spoken up.  I wouldn't have
minded.  Oh well, it's a little too late now.  Let's go back to my
room, I'll show you while I'm putting them away."
    
    "That's all right.  I wanted to stay with Jared to get to know him
a little better.  It would have been more fun to go with you and Ryoko,
but it was also funny to see Onee-sama argue with Jared about what to
buy."
    
    The two of us headed back upstairs towards the room that Ayeka and
I shared.  When we got to the room I opened the closet again and began
to take out my new purchases.  The new pairs of blue jeans, the few
short sleeved and long sleeved tops came out of the closet.
    
    "Rose-neechan...," Sasami began.
    
    "Yes, Sasami-chan?"
    
    "Not that I don't think that these are nice clothes, but they look
a lot like what you already have.  Well...except for that skirt and
blouse over there."
    
    "Well I wanted to be practical.  I don't know how long I'm staying
here so I'd rather have clothes that match well with what I already
have.  It looks like I have more clothes then.  As for the skirt and
blouse, those were Ryoko's idea.  If I hadn't given in and gotten those
I don't think the shop would have survived," I answered with a wry
grin.
    
    At the mention of Ryoko's notorious temper Sasami began to giggle. 
I grinned slightly at this, because as I was thinking back I could see
the situation being a bit funny.  Me in the dressing room saying that I
wasn't going to get them, and Ryoko loudly proclaiming that I was or
she'd smash the place to bits.  Sparks had literal flown between us,
luckily there had been no one else in the dressing room at the time.
    
    Looking at Sasami again I noticed that her clothing, although very
nice and slightly traditional looking, did not quite fit in with the
fashions of the day.
    
    "Hey Sasami-chan, are all your clothes in that style?"
    
    "Hmmm...," Sasami queried," Oh, you mean my Juraian clothes?  Yeah,
they're all like this.  Aren't they nice?"
    
    "Yes, they are lovely.  But I was wondering why you hadn't gotten
some clothes that fit in more with your age group?"
    
    "Well, I suppose I kinda had an idea like yours.  I have a lot of
clothes, all of them are in great condition.  Why should I buy more
when I already have what I need?"
    
    Shrugging, I replied, "That's a good a reason as any.  So Sasami,
what will you be up to now that we're all back?  I was going to help
you with dinner."
    
    "I had just finished doing the dishes before we left.  Tonight was
going to be a quick dinner since we'd all been out all day.  Nothing
fancy, something that will only take about a half an hour or so to
prepare.  So since there was nothing else that needed doing, I wanted
to see what you had bought."
    
    "So what do you do in your free time if you're not looking at my
clothes?"
    
    "Oh lots of things!!  I play with Ryo-Ohki, I go outside and take
walks and pick flowers, and I read manga!"
    
    "Manga?  Which ones?  I liked comics a lot when I was back at
home."
    
    "Nobiyuki-san has a lot of romantic ones that he has lying around. 
I like to read those.  How about you, what kind of comics did you read
back at home?"
    
    "Well, I can't recall there being any comics about romance itself. 
I mainly just liked the super-hero comics.  I always wondered what it
would be like to have super powers.  I guess I know now, ne?"
    
    "Oh yeah!" Sasami jumped and giggled.
    
    "Ara, ara, what are you two up to?" a voice asked from the door.
    
    "Ah, Mihoshi-san!  Rose-neesan and I were just looking at her new
clothes and talking about our hobbies."
    
    "Really?  What did you get Rose-chan?"
    
    As Mihoshi entered the room I noticed that she looked a bit worn
around the edges.  She hadn't come with us on the trip so I assumed she
had stayed at the house.
    
    While showing the galaxy police officer my new clothing I asked,
"What did you do while we were gone Mihoshi-san.  You look a bit
tired."
    
    "Well...I started doing the laundry, but something was wrong with the
soap becuase there were bubbles coming out of the washing machine only
a few minutes into the cycle.  I looked everywhere for Washu-san but I
couldn't find her anywhere, and by the time I got back to the washer
the bubbles had spread to the hallway.  So I had to try and clean those
up because I couldn't figure out how to turn the washer off.  I've only
seen Sasami-chan use it a few times, and it's nothing like anything I
have at home.  Then I went to vacuum becuase I figured that would help
clean up the rest of the suds, and maybe get rid of a lot of the dust
that's building up.  But something was wrong with the vacuum too and
the dust went everywhere...."
    
    As Mihoshi continued on I could see that this wasn't going to end
anytime soon.  In fact, as I looked around, I was quite surprised the
house had survived intact.  There was no damage to the house, which by
the sound of Mihoshi's story, was a miracle.
    
    ***
    
    Eyes closed, arms moving through a pattern of blocks, Jared hopped
to and fro from one peg to another, testing his mental map of their
treachery. He'd gone carefully and slow at first, feeling out each
angle of every peg, submitting them to memory. This was a skill he'd
possessed long before he'd become a martial artist, and he'd found it
quite useful once he'd become one.
    
    But if you never challenge yourself you never get any better.
    
    Ignoring the target stick dangling on its string for the meantime,
the young man focused instead on testing how accurate his mental image
of the pegs was, the blocks were just to keep his hands busy. He did
them more by rote, hardly paying attention to them.
    
    Jared's foot slipped, finding the latest peg he'd jumped to an inch
shorter and at an entirely different slope from what he remembered. His
arms windmilled about and he did a lightning repositioning of his feet,
just barely saving himself from a potentially injurious fall.
    
    A bokken came down softly on his skull and he spent several seconds
looking at the pretty birds before he spilled out of the circle
entirely. When he regained coherence Jared looked up to see Yosho
standing over him, tossing a little hunk of severed peg, about an inch
long and chopped at a steep angle, up and down in his hand, a bokken
held in his other.
    
    "Now then," the shrine keeper was softly amused. "That exercise was
for unsure footing. It defeats the purpose if you commit the pegs to
memory."
    
    Jared's mind spun in neutral for several seconds. Shaking himself,
he grinned sheepishly, mentally shutting off the pain of the blow and
his fall while he recovered. "Well, it didn't exactly seem like a
beginner's exercise. I was just trying to get an angle on it."
    
    Yosho just *might* have been smiling. "C'mon, get up. You can try
it again. Only this time you cannot ignore the target. Striking at an
object moving unpredictably while you are unsure of your *own* footing
is what this is designed to teach."
    
    A bokken was thrown to him and Jared caught it in a lightning grab
before it hit his chest. Speed and accuracy were *not* his problems. He
almost opened his mouth to say to Yosho that the dangling stick was NOT
unpredictable. Provided you hit it near the cord it hung from you could
pretty much send it where you wanted. But at the last moment he
refrained from saying anything.
    
    Gripping the practice sword, and silently thanking the
poetry-spouting kendoist who'd taught him the basics, Jared hopped back
up on the pegs and went to work. A good knowledge of his footing and
the ability to predict his target would swiftly get him over the
awkwardness and do well at this.
    
    ***
    
    Ryoko teleported down from Ryo-Ohki with princess Ayeka held before
her. She dropped the princess a little above the ground, too low to be
an insult, too high to be polite, and the two went their separate ways.
    
    Their conversation inside of Ryo-Ohki hadn't helped things much. What
it all boiled down to was that neither of them wanted any chance of
losing Tenchi, and too bad for whatever person got in the way.
    
    Once things had boiled down to that point princess and pirate
discovered they hadn't anything more to say. There was a sort of
undeclared truce while they looked around for the woman Tenchi was
supposed to fall in love with. But aside from a grudging acceptance
with the other that they had enough rivals already, things hadn't
changed much.
    
    Ayeka decided that she was going to find Tenchi, so she went up
toward the shrine.  And Ryoko, well, she decided that she'd had enough
exercise for the day and plopped down in front of the television.
    
    The air around the house became heavy with plotting.
    
    ***
    
    *Easier* Jared groused to himself, as his foot slipped from the top
of a smoothly polished wooden peg and he had to swiftly recover, using
the upward slash at his wildly dancing target to take advantage of the
close proximity of his sleeve and wipe the sweat dripping into his eyes
without breaking motion.
    
    He leapt and came down on an unsteady peg, one driven only shallowly
into the ground, forcing him to dance to two others and disrupt his
footwork or be spilled nastily onto his back. *The old guy has the
nerve to call this easy?!!*
    
    In truth, it had taken Jared only a little while to become proficient
on the other set of pegs and its simple target. Yosho had noticed this
and set him on plain ground doing some fiendishly difficult katas he'd
invented and Jared never had any hope of mastering. When he'd come back
after half an hour Jared had been near giving them up as hopeless.
    
    The old guy had made another peg circle that Jared "might find easier
to train on and more to his liking.'
    
    A freshly cut stake set at an odd angle gave under his weight and
nearly spilled him. Jared fought to regain his balance while not
interrupting his strikes at the dancing piece of seemingly-possessed
wood, trying not to spill, injure himself, impale his own chest or
break one of his limited supply of limbs. He realized while he was
doing this that he was having a grand time!
    
    As dangerous as it felt he rather doubted it was *too* likely he'd
fall and spear himself. Yosho was a better judge of skill than that. At
worst he'd get nasty abrasions and heavy bruising, which Washu could
almost certainly fix in half an hour or less.
    
    He was learning!
    
    ***
    
    Ryoko phased through the wall and began to float toward the kitchen,
beginning to feel like a little snack was in order, when she heard
Sasami giggling from the living room.
    
    Teleporting over, she saw the little girl with a dreamy-eyed look
to her face while cradling a book to her chest.
    
    "Hey, whatcha doing?"
    
    Ryoko was ignored. Ryoko did not like being ignored. Ryoko made a
hideous and exaggerated face before the small princess and was rewarded
by a surprised shriek as the girl came out of her fantasies.
    
    "Whatcha ya got there?" Ryoko repeated.
    
    "I'm reading comics for girls. Stories about a boy and girl falling
in love." Sasami replied, then the little mischief-maker went on and
elaborated. "They're a handbook on how to win someone's love,
Earth-style."
    
    The space pirate's face grew delighted and she could hardly keep her
fingers off the manga. "You mean, like, how to win Tenchi's love?" She
whispered, delighted.
    
    "Uh huh." Sasami handed the book over. "Anyway, I'd better go fix
dinner."
    
    She got up and left the room. While Ryoko fell into her trap,
studying the manga.
    
    ***
    
    Ayeka hurried up the steps and out into the clearing just around the
shrine, hearing and following the sounds of Lord Tenchi's training.
When she arrived she saw his foot slide off of an uneven stake and doom
him to fall a bed of sharp spikes he'd been training on.
    
    "TENCHI!!!!"
    
    Thump.
    
    The boy had failed his sudden attempt at rebalancing himself and fell
hard onto the ground, somehow managing to twist himself so that his
body failed to impale itself any on the sticks of sharp wood.
    
    "Ow." The lump offered eloquently.
    
    Ayeka hurried over. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Lord Jared. I did not mean
to startle you. Are you alright?"
    
    The new arrival to the Masaki household managed to extricate himself
from the pile of limbs he'd become, coming to a sitting position. "I'm
still trying to decide that. Looks like I'm.... No, I'm not." He winced
as the hand he'd put to his side came away bleeding. "That's enough
training for today, I guess. When you come down like that, it's time to
call it done for the evening."
    
    Ayeka blinked several times. "You are injured???"
    
    He noted the wound. "Yes, I am. How interesting, I though I'd merely
scraped myself on the way down. Not, no, that looks like an actual
puncture wound." He closed his eyes for a second, assessing himself.
"Lets see, I've got enough time to get down the stairs and treat
myself, I'm pretty sure. Strength's still okay. Yeah, I'll make it, no
big deal."
    
    He stood up and started over toward the steps, holding his hands over
the wound. Ayeka was instantly beside him, supporting him with her arm.
    
    "Oh, Jared. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to..."
    
    He shrugged. "It was a dangerous exercise. I was overconfident, and
your cry came at an awkward time, that's all. It's not a big deal. I've
had life-threatening injuries before, even before this whole
dimensional jump thing started. I'll just get a little cayenne pepper
in me and I'll be fine."
    
    "What are you talking about?" Ayeka helped him start the steps
down.
    
    "Hmm? Oh, you wouldn't know. First lesson on herbs: If you remember
nothing else, remember this; cayenne stops bleeding. It sounds weird, I
know, but it's saved my life before so I don't argue with it. That's
why we are not going to the shrine office. I'm sure your brother,
Yosho, has a first aid kit there. But what I really need is a kitchen."
    
    Ayeka stood a little taller. "Azaka! Kamidake!"
    
    The two logs appeared. "Yes, Ma'am?!"
    
    The purple-haired princess halfway releasing the injured male. "You
are to take us immediately to Masaki kitchen. Lord Jared requires
treatment!"
    
    "Yes Ma'am!" The logs floated to either side of the two and levitated
them in a force field between them, disappearing and reappearing in the
kitchen of the main house. Ayeka forced Jared to sit in one of the
chairs and went to the cabinets, removing a bottle.
    
    "Was this what you needed, Jared?"
    
    He nodded. "Yes. If you'll kindly put some, a few spoonfuls, in a
glass of water that ought to be fine."
    
    She did as instructed and handed him the glass. He grimaced and drank
it. "Yech. I hate spicy foods. Oh, well. Now a little garlic, say a
half a segment, to forestall infection, a little honey to put over the
wound, and we're done."
    
    Ayeka was looking at something. Jared dropped his eyes to see what
and noted that the wound had closed. He let out a deep sigh and rolled
his eyes. "I'm sorry, Lady Ayeka. I'd forgotten I am now a creature of
Washu's. I remember Ryoko getting her hand cut off and restored in only
a few seconds. I guess that means I heal fast now too."
    
    Ayeka smiled. "Don't be upset about it. Maybe someday I can use the
same techniques on Lord Tenchi. Though... are you sure about what you
were doing? It sounded more like a recipe than a remedy."
    
    He grinned sadly in reply. "Cayenne to stop the bleeding, garlic as
an antibiotic and a general immune strengthener, honey as an antibiotic
wound dressing. Yes, I'm pretty sure. Like I said, it saved my life
before." He tossed her a lifted eyebrow in returning good humor.
"Though it looks like I don"t need it now."
    
    Noting that, for some reason, his hair had turned red again, he used
one hand to tease it up in a crablike pattern, then mimed Washu's
voice. "I am *such* a GENIUS!"
    
    Ayeka smiled behind her hand.
    
    Jared kicked his feet back and put his arms behind his head. "So,
what were you doing up at the shrine, anyway? Hoping to catch Yosho
without his disguise field up?"
    
    Ayeka dropped her hand, her face going flat in shock. "Disguise? What
disguise? What are you talking about?"
    
    "The disguise field he's always wearing. That was one of the things
I was hoping that he'd teach me. Among other things like how he senses
people coming when there's no way to see them, and the way he uses
forcefields in a fight, only that last has probably got to be a Jurai
power. I wonder, is the disguise he uses one too? Is it a Jurai power
or is it something anyone can learn to do?"
    
    Ayeka was appearing blank. "I don't know what you're talking about.
What disguise?"
    
    The redhead righted himself and cocked his head, studying her. Seeing
her lack of understanding, he chose to elaborate in detail. "Princess
Ayeka, your brother maintains a constant disguise field to create the
appearance of old age. I thought you knew. Under the disguise, he is
just as young and vital as you once knew him to be. I figured that he
does it to avoid troubles with the local authorities, who aren"t used
to people with long lives like you Juraians have. But I had no idea
*you* didn't know."
    
    "M...my brother... is... He is still young?" The princess
stammered.
    
    Jared gave her a nod. "Yes, extremely so. I don't know of any
difference in his appearance when he left your planet to fight Ryoko
and now, other than hairstyle and clothes. He'd appear almost identical
to the way you knew him if he dropped that field."
    
    "How...?"
    
    The young man shrugged. "This information is about as secret as you
can get, but Ryoko's gems use the same kind of power as the Juraian
trees do. Having put her gems in his key kept the tree alive, and the
tree kept him young and alive. So, in a way, you could almost say that
it was Ryoko's doing that he stayed young this long."
    
    "That doesn't forgive her for luring him out here in the *first*
place." The princess hotly objected. Then she went all glimmery.
"But... but if my brother is still as handsome as he was..." Her face
fell, and she sniffed. "But I am promised to Tenchi, now."
    
    Jared had watched *far* too much of the series. He cleared his
throat. "Ahem, um, princess? If I recall that exchange correctly;
Kagato had just finished kidnapping Ryoko. Tenchi's grandfather had
fought him, and was revealed as the crown prince of Jurai during the
fight. After the fight, you rushed over to him, accused him of being
your brother. He admitted this. There was some discussion over his
reasons for leaving and, at the end of it, he laughed and offered that
you could *still* get married. If I recall correctly your answer was
merely to butt him with your hip and say "Oh Yosho!" Then *he* said
that you were right, he was too old, but Tenchi was the appropriate
age."
    
    Ayeka was drooped listlessly. "I... I don't remember it as well as
you seem to. How could you know such things? You weren't even there."
    
    He waved it away dismissively. "The fight with Kagato was an
important event. I saw recordings of it, part of that information I
received. Anyway, forgive me for being a weasel, but the statement 'Oh
Yosho' isn't really an answer either way. Neither did you actually
*accept* the moving of the arranged marriage over to Tenchi. As far as
I can see it, you've never actually given your answer to either one.
That leaves it open for you to *give* that answer once you decide what
your answer will be."
    
    He rubbed his lip. "Come to think of it, it *does* seem pretty
ridiculous to assume that you knew about his disguise when you were so
obviously distraught over his outward age." He bowed at the waist still
sitting in his chair. "Forgive me for making false assumptions."
    
    The princess wasn"t paying any heed. "After all this time..." Her
face snapped up, gaining dignity and strength. "You're sure of this?"
    
    Jared came to his feet and formally bowed. "Princess, this is my job.
this is what I do. On my last assignment I established and communicated
certain information about an opponent not unlike Kagato to a group of
magical resistance fighters, giving them the victory. There were
millions of lives at stake over the accuracy of my information. It is
possible I could be wrong, there are discrepancies here from what I was
not briefed on. But if your brother is disguised it ought to be easy
enough to verify."
    
    Ayeka was crying. She asked. "How do we... How would you do this
thing?"
    
    "So the task falls on me, huh?" Jared grimaced wryly. "Oh, well. I
guess this is what I get paid for." He raised his head to look out the
window. "You would have me choose a course of action? I'd say go to
him, pretend to yourself that he already is proven to be young, tell
him you'll marry him, and in the shock of that announcement ask him to
drop the disguise. If your own act is convincing he will comply."
    
    The princess sniffed. "But, what if you're wrong?  And what about
Tenchi-sama?  It's been so long since I've last seen my brother, long
enough for me to start having feelings for Lord Tenchi.  He must have
feelings in this.  And if I do go back to my brother, then that monster
Ryoko will start pursuing Tenchi in full force."
    
    He clasped his hands behind his back and looked at her. "If I am
wrong about Yosho I will accept full blame for it, and Yosho won't hold
you to anything I'm sure. It's not in his character profile. At worst
he'd tease you about it, but he'd let you off of marrying him.
Secondly, Tenchi's feelings are... how shall I put it? Tenchi himself
isn't too sure what he feels right now. If you were to be happy with
someone else I'm sure he'd be happy for you. He's that kind of guy. As
for Ryoko... I'm sorry, there's nothing I can say. She's family now.
Unless she does something truly horrible to violate that contract I
will in no way act against her. That includes giving advice others
might use against her. Still, just because you'd be pursuing someone
else doesn't mean that you'd cease to have any influence, does it?"
    
    All the while Sasami listened unnoticed in the pantry to the
conversation.  After hearing what her sister said, a mischevious gleam
appeared in her eye.  Smiling to herself as Jared and Ayeka left the
kitchen, she turned around and went back to gathering the ingredients
needed to start making dinner.