The other day I said it was going to be a while before the release of
chapter six. I meant chapter seven.
THOTW is going to be a mild crossover from here on. Don't look for too
many chapters involving the Tenchi gang, however, it's still primarily a
Ranma story. Well, I hope you enjoy it. C&C is much desired.
Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is the property of Rumiko Takahashi and Tenchi
Muyo! belongs to Pioneer. I make no claim or money in the writing of
this story.
Previous chapters are archived at:
http://www.geocities.com/LightHawk19/THOTW.html
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"It's a total loss Akira. There's nothin' we can do to fix it on
time," Ran stated when Akira, still recovering from Ryoga's attack,
made it back to the site. "Damn! I had the bastard too."
"Did you do any better, Akira? You seem quite shaken up," Sachi said,
with no small amount of gloating in her tone.
Akira gave her an evil glare before dignifying her with a reply. "As a
matter of fact, I didn't get him, Sachi. He caught me by surprise much
the same way he caught you guys, but with a more powerful technique."
"Listen!" she said, gritting her teeth. "I've told you a million
times not to call me that! I hate that reminder of my previous life, I
want nothing to do with it." Akira simply grinned back at her,
determined to continue, just to spite her.
"Stop it you two. We have too much work to do here. We need to find
another way to get the boss out," said Ran as he was picking up large
rocks, trying to put them back into place.
"There is no other way!" Akira snapped. "We have to have everything
perfect by midnight tonight. The next window isn't for another three
months."
The three of them quieted down and went to work on cleaning up the
cavern. Getting ready to prepare it for the next time they were going
to use it. All three vowed to kill Ryoga on sight the next time their
paths crossed.
************************************************************************
It was two days before Ryoga slowly regained consciousness. An old man
with long gray hair and a mustache noticed and brought over a tray with
tea and some food. "Where am I?" Normally this is a stock phrase for
Ryoga but this time he actually had a reason not to be ashamed about.
"You are at my shrine in Okayama. How do you feel young man? You were
pretty beat up when my grandson brought you here."
"Well, if you wanted to kill me right now, you would most likely be
doing me a favor. But some of that tea and food would really help."
The old man smiled and gave the tray of food to Ryoga after he managed
to sit himself up. The food and drink quickly disappeared after that.
"Thank you, sir. I'm Ryoga Hibiki and I'm now in your debt. May I ask
you what your name is?"
"You are welcome, Mr. Hibiki. I am Katsuhito Masaki but the one you
should be thanking is my grandson, Tenchi, who brought you here. What
happened that made you look so beat up, is it something I should need to
know?" Katsuhito asked, concerned that whatever did this to him would
come here after him.
"It's a long story and I don't know all of it myself. All I know is
that I interrupted something and they tried to kill me. I'm lucky I got
lost like I did," Ryoga rambled. He knew he wasn't making much sense
but he knew no other way to put it.
"I understand, young man. You rest up and I'll have Sasami bring up a
hot dinner to you shortly." Katsuhito said this as he put a hand to
Ryoga's shoulder and squeezed a few knockout pressure points that put
him to sleep.
Meanwhile, down at the Masaki household....
"I wonder when that boy is going to wake up. He looked pretty hurt
when you brought him to grandfather's shrine, Lord Tenchi." Aeka was
sitting at the table munching on some rice crackers.
"Yeah Tenchi, you looked so strong when you carried him up all those
stairs." Ryoko purred as she materialized behind Tenchi, glomping onto
his chest.
"Ryoko, will you stop it! I don't know Aeka, Washu said it could be
any time now," Tenchi said as he tried to get Ryoko off of him, to no
avail. "I wonder what caused those injuries and how he made it this far
with them."
The topic of the conversation was quickly forgotten with the call of
"Dinner's ready!" from Sasami. Everyone quickly went to their places at
the table as Sasami brought the food to the table with Ryo-oki in tow.
It was then that Katsuhito walked in and called to Sasami, "Sasami,
could you save some food for our guest and bring it to him after
dinner? He woke up a little while ago."
"Sure, grandfather. I'll make sure Ryoko doesn't eat it." Ryoko was
too busy to notice the slight because she was inhaling her food as fast
as she could.
Dinner was relatively uneventful, or at least as uneventful as was
possible at the Masaki household. Ryoko and Aeka only got into one
fight and that was only over the last pickle on the plate, so it didn't
come to blows, just a lot of insults and insinuations. Mihoshi ended
the dispute single handedly when she took the pickle and ate it, thus
removing the object of conflict.
Back at the shrine, Ryoga had woken up again and was stretching out his
stiff and injured body. He noted his injuries and figured most of them
to be minor, but his bruised ribs were going to give him trouble for a
while. He would be back on the road in three days at the most. As he
was finishing his stretching routine, Ryoga replayed both of the fights
in his head and tried to figure out what happened and who those people
were. What was with those eyes and aura anyway? Never before had he
seen anything like it, and he had seen many strange things. Ryoga's
musing was interrupted when a young voice asked "Can I come in?"
"Uh, yeah sure. Come on in." A young girl, maybe around 10 or 11,
walked in carrying a tray with steaming food and fresh tea. "Here you
go, sir. I'm glad you're ok. We were worried."
"Thank you little girl, I'm fine. I'll be able to go in a few days."
With that said, Ryoga tried some of the food. Wow! It was better than
anything Kasumi ever made. Ryoga did not think this was possible until
now. "This is great! May I ask who made this?"
Sasami beamed. "I made it, I'm glad you like it."
"You made this, little girl! I'm impressed." Ryoga then shut up and
ate with gusto, as if afraid it would disappear if he didn't. The food
disappeared quickly and soon there were nothing but empty plates and
bowl (Ryoga had somehow managed to eat the chopsticks in his rush).
"Thank you very much. What's your name little girl?"
"My name is Sasami, what's yours?"
"Ryoga, Ryoga Hibiki. Thank you." Sasami welcomed him with a small bow
and took the dishes back home to wash.
Ryoga went back to figuring out who those people were. He spent the
better part of the night thinking about it and was no better off
afterwards.
Ryoga felt much better the next morning, most of his bruises had
faded. Oh, the wonders of Bakusai Tenketsu training! He felt well
enough to venture carefully outside and take a look at his surroundings
in any case. He quickly spotted a large open space near his room and
decided a work out would help. It would at least take his mind off his
recent experiences.
Around that time, Aeka was walking up the stairs to the shrine with a
broom in hand. It was her day to sweep away the leaves on the shrine
grounds and she took her chores seriously. When she reached the top of
the stairs she saw Grandfather standing by the door to the shrine office
watching something with interest. Curious, she looked towards where he
was watching and blushed suddenly. Ryoga was doing his workouts clad
only in his dark green pants and his ever present bandanna. Aeka's
overdeveloped sense on modesty forced her to turn away, blushing, and
walk up to the shrine master.
"I see he's feeling better, Grandfather. But shouldn't he put some
more clothes on if he's going to be outside? It is a little cool for
this time of year" Modest or not, Aeka couldn't resist a small peek to
look at his muscular frame and ended up starring. Had Ryoko chosen to
make an unwelcome visit right then, she would have mercilessly teased
the princess for hours. Aeka had to force herself to turn away, she was
saving herself for Lord Tenchi.
"It's all right Aeka." Katsuhito said with a chuckle. "He's a healthy
young man and it's no big deal. You can also tell most of his bruises
and injuries are mostly healed. Remarkable healing rate the lad has.
I'm sure Washu would love to figure that out, don't you agree?"
"Yes, I'm sure. But he is a guest here, I don't suppose she will
bother him too much." Katsuhito nodded at Aeka's statement, hoping it
was true but knowing it probably wasn't.
Ryoga, meanwhile, was oblivious to the conversation the two were having
about him. As it was, he was too focused on his workout to even notice
they were there. He had other things in mind. Having pushed aside
thoughts of the other day, beating Ranma in a straight fight was first
and foremost his focus.
He was having only a little trouble performing each technique due to
his injuries. He still wasn't in top form and he wouldn't be for a few
days longer.
So that was how most of the morning went. Aeka went about her business
sweeping the shrine grounds, occasionally sneaking a peak at Ryoga.
Ryoga went about his business of working out and training, not knowing
Aeka was there. Both routines ended when Tenchi came running up the
stairs to announce lunch was ready.
"Aeka! Sasami wanted me to tell you that lunch is almost ready. Could
you get Grandpa for me. I'll check on our guest to see if he want's to
join us." Aeka nodded.
"Of course, Lord Tenchi. Mister Hibiki is over there." With that, she
went off to get Grandfather. Tenchi walked over to Ryoga, who had
stopped when he heard about lunch.
"Hello, Mr. Hibiki. My name's Tenchi. Sasami and the others were
wondering if you wanted to join us for lunch."
"Thank you. I'm Ryoga but I don't want to be any trouble."
Tenchi gave Ryoga a smile and shook his head. "You're no trouble at
all. Sasami made extra just for you, so please join us." Ryoga gave in
and after changing his clothes, went with Tenchi and the others back to
the house, taking extra care to stay with the group.
Lunch at the Masaki's for Ryoga was almost like a taste of home, or at
least a taste of lunch at the Tendo's. He almost took a disliking of
Tenchi when he saw the girls fighting over who got to sit next to him,
it reminded him too much of how Ranma was with girls. Not knowing him,
however, gave Ryoga the benefit of the doubt and he saw how Tenchi did
not want to be the center of attention but took it anyway. Almost as if
this was normal behavior, but that couldn't be the case, could it?
The antics of Aeka and Ryoko didn't bother him a bit, he was too used
to it from Ranma and Akane, no, what bothered him the most was the
hungry look the short redhead gave him, Washu is it? She kept giving
him a predatory look, and it wasn't a look of love, he knew that much.
She was forced to turn her attention away when she saw the blonde,
Mihoshi?, pick up something and begin to play with it.
"NO!! Put that down you bubble head! I'm doing some research with
that! Oh no." That last sentence was said in resignation after a
startled Mihoshi dropped the gadget into a bowl of miso soup.
"Sorry. It was an accident." Mihoshi was near tears as she tried to
clean up the object but only succeeded in making things worse by pushing
every button she saw. Washu was having a conniption but calmed down
when she remembered that she brought up the backup and not the original,
just for that purpose. She would have to bring up the original to test
the newcomer when Mihoshi went on patrol that afternoon.
No one noticed when a glass of water was knocked over by Mihoshi during
her frantic attempt to clean the gadget. Nor did anyone notice the
water splash all over Ryoga, thus transforming him into P-chan. Ryo-oki
did notice P-chan, however, and hopped over to greet the new guest.
P-chan went instantly on guard when he heard the cabbit meow at him. He
did not know she was there until then. Ryooki handed out a paw to show
she was friendly and P-chan hesitantly touched it with his snout.
"What is it Ryo-oki?" asked Sasami when she saw the cabbit looking at
something under the table.
"Myaaa! Mya Mya!" meowed the cabbit while pointing to the pig under
the table. Sasami gasped in delight, picking up P-chan, squirming.
"Ohhh, it's so cute! How did he get here?"
Mihoshi stopped her cleaning to look at what Sasami found. "Oh, it's
adorable. Where did you find it?" She promptly dropped the device
again into the soup.
"Under the table." Aeka then noticed that Sasami was holding P-chan.
"Sasami! Put that down this instant, you don't know where it's been."
"Awww, but it's soooo cute. Please can I?" Sasami pleaded with wide
eyes.
"Yeah, Aeka. Why can't Sasami hold him."
"Well, obviously it doesn't want to be held. And also, it's a pig,
dirty little creatures." Aeka managed to distract her little sister
long enough for Ryoga to squirm out of her arms and run for the kitchen,
which was in the opposite direction.
Ryoko took the opportunity to get a quick glomp on Tenchi and say sweet
nothings in his ear, which Aeka had to focus her attention on in order
to stop it. Tenchi was busy trying to get Ryoko to get off of him and
Washu was calmly finishing off her meal, smiling to herself. She was
the only one to see the collar around P-chan's neck and make any kind of
connection. Oh, she was going to have some fun tonight!
P-chan was now being chased by Ryooki, Sasami, and Mihoshi. A couple
of quick turns got them tangled up enough that he was able to lose them
for long enough to find the bathroom. It was not long before Ryoga was
human and clothed (he had managed to run while carrying his clothes in
his mouth) and searching for a way out of the bathroom.
Sasami walked in the bathroom to find a confused Ryoga looking into the
shower stall. "Oh, hello Ryoga. Did you happen to see a cute little
black pig run through here? It ran away."
Ryoga started to sweat a little and had to think up a lie before
replying. "No, I didn't see anything come in here. But I am looking
for the way back to the living room." Ryoga then tried to explain his
way out of this mess without embarrassing himself too much. A
disappointed Sasami led him back to the dinner table, looking for the
little pig on the way.
The rest of lunch, or at least what was left of it, went by
uneventfully. Ryoga, glad he brought his pack with him down to the
house, decided that it would be best to leave before any other trouble
happened. Mainly with that short redhead, she unnerved him for some
reason.
He thanked everyone for their hospitality and promised to repay them
the next time he saw them, which Tenchi declined. Sasami was
disappointed that he was leaving so soon, in addition to the fact that
she never found that pig. She liked making new friends. After several
rounds of good-byes and well wishes, Ryoga walked off into the unknown.
Or at least the unknown to him.
Author's notes:
Chapter seven, hopefully, should be released by Christmas or New
Years. I am waiting for responses on chapter 5 and this one before
writing it. Let me know what you think on these chapters. A note to
Kiyone fans, the Tenchi portion of this fic is based on the OAVs and not
on the 1st TV series (I refused to consider season 2).
Light Hawk
--
Tomorrow sees undone, what happens not today. Indecision brings delays,
days lost lamenting lost days -Ryoga Hibiki
Email me at LightHawk@nc.rr.com
or
visit my web site at http://www.geocities.com/LightHawk19/Index.html