Hi!
Here's the other half of chapter 2.
I'm not so keen on it myself, and I think theres plenty of room for improvement... but I'm not sure where, how or why.
I'm thinking I might abandon this part all together and put hilights into chapter 3, instead.

C&C desperately required, thanks!

##################

No Need for a Dragon/Slayer Half
(Ryu/Satsujinha'nin Nibunoichi Muyo)

By Alex Timiney, 12/08/2002 to 10/09/2002
curator@discordia.connectfree.co.uk

Revision 1.1.1
(Wordwrapped MS-DOS text version)

Modified in light of C&C by Michael Feltmate
Thanks!

A Ranma 1/2 (Manga) / Dragon Half (sort of) / Tenchi Muyo (OAV) / 
Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover

Insert standard disclaimer here.

Additional Disclaimer -
Warning: May contain spoilers for sporty hatchbacks.
Caution: Not actually a cannon at all.

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


No Need for a Dragon/Slayer Half
Act One, Part Two-T;

"I Hate Girls, Even Though I Act Like One!"
(Ok, so I'm being a bit mean =)
(This chapter occurs simultaneously with Part 2-R and may be read in 
either order)

		"It's the heart's filthy lesson,
		It's the heart's filthy lesson,
		It's the heart's filthy lesson,
		Falls upon deaf ears,
		Falls upon dead years,

		Oh Ramona - If there was only some kind of future,
		Oh Ramona - If there was only some kind of future,

		In these cerulean skies,

		Something in our skies,
		Something in our skies,
		Something in our blood,
		Something in our skies,"


	'N.W.C. STRIKES AGAIN!' Claimed the story at the bottom of the 
tabloid's front page. 'Damages estimated to be 50 million yen,' was 
the smaller caption.

	Tenchi sighed and put the newspaper down on the table... which 
was promptly blown away by one of Ryoko's attacks on Ayeka, but that 
had become so much of the part and parcel of living in the Masaki 
household, these days, that the explosion didn't even make him 
flinch. He sighed again. He had been going to read that story later, 
but he was going to have to go out and get a new paper now. Standing 
quietly, Tenchi exited the house, unnoticed by the warring girls.

	"Are you going out?" Sasami asked from the kitchen when she saw 
the boy through the back door.

	"Mm hmm," Tenchi nodded, his affirmation punctuated by a scream 
and the sound of a collapsing wall.

	"Great! Can you get some things for me?"

	"Sure thing, Sasami. What do you need?" The younger girl either 
failed to notice, or ignored his tired and exasperated tone of voice.

	Sasami rattled off a short list of random grocery items. The 
list was completed with a large, wet sounding, explosion, followed by 
the pitter-patter of unnatural rain.

	"Ok, I won't be long. Oh, and if they're done before I get 
back," he gestured towards the source of the screams, yells, insults 
and explosions, "Can you go and get Washu-chan to tidy up?"

	"Alright, Tenchi. I'll see you later, bye!"


	Walking to the nearest shops gave Tenchi some time to think. He 
had plenty to think about, and most of it related to the direction 
his life was talking... at least, the normal bits.

	Once he graduated from high school, he'd been planning on 
moving to Tokyo to attend college. This was partly because he wanted 
to get as far away from the craziness of his home life as he could. 
But the recent, and increasingly intense reports of strangeness in 
Nerima were... discouraging.

	Tenchi was convinced that he was a weirdness magnet. How many 
other boys his age could claim to have five beautiful alien girls, 
each with super powers, or super technology, living in their home? 
Hell, how many other people of any age or gender had actually come 
into contact with alien races at all? How many were the descendants 
of an alien prince, and had only recently in his life discovered that 
he was next in line to the throne of a powerful galactic empire? 
Probably not many, if any.

	So it was unsurprising that the boy would believe that any 
weirdness not related directly to him would hurl itself at him as 
soon as he got close enough. Tenchi saw the so-called 'Nerima 
Wrecking Crew' as exactly that sort of magnetic strangeness. If he 
even visited the country's Capital, those super-powered martial 
artists (or whatever they might be, though Tenchi suspected that they 
were yet more aliens) would immediately bump into him, and stick like 
glue.

	It was not something he was looking forward to. His life was 
complicated enough as it was. He just wanted some peace. There /had/ 
to be solution, something other than running to Tokyo and into yet 
more chaos. If he could just look at the problem from a different 
angle, or analyse the situation more thoroughly.

	He needed to get away. Away from the crazy scientists, the 
ditzy galaxy police officers and the super-powered girls, fighting 
for his love. Didn't they understand that they had his love already? 
He cared for them, all of them, more than he cared for himself - 
isn't that what love is? Had he not told Kagato that he would forsake 
himself before allowing harm to come to any of the girls?

	But they wanted more. At least, Ayeka, Ryoko and maybe Mihoshi 
did. Washu... well, she wanted more of something, that was for sure. 
Sasami was a little too young to think in those terms, wasn't she? 
But she would grow up into Tsunami, and she... well that was a 
different type of relationship altogether... wasn't it?

	Tenchi wanted to fall for someone normal, someone who he could 
understand as a fellow human being, and someone who could sympathise 
with his situation. Someone who he was most definitely not going to 
meet for as long as Ryoko and Ayeka kept fighting a battle they had 
both already lost, just by letting their romantic intentions be known

	So he had to get away, as far away as possible. Hokkaido? 
Okinawa? No, he wasn't thinking big enough.

	Ah hah! Of course, Jurai! Yes!

	NO! NO! NO! He was thinking too big, now! Not to mention it'd 
be going from a strange situation on a normal world to an even 
stranger situation on a truly alien world...

	'Got to keep my feet on the earth... literally' the boy 
thought, 'Got to pay attention to what I'm doing, too...' he'd 
completed the shopping list and picked up a replacement newspaper 
without really noticing what he was doing, so lost in though as he 
was.

	The furthest he could possibly go would be... hmmm... in the 
middle of the Atlantic Ocean, just off the east coast of South 
America, if he recalled his geography lessons correctly. There 
weren't many good universities in that part of the globe, and they 
almost certainly wouldn't speak Japanese, or English. Factoring in 
academic and linguistic requirements left the US and the UK, oh, and 
Australia.

	He was going to have to talk with grandpa about this, as well 
as do some research into foreign colleges. Just how were you supposed 
to apply for entry into a faculty that wasn't in the same country, 
anyway?
					  *

	In the office of the Masaki Shinto shrine, the head priest sat 
down with a tray of tea making implements and faced his grandson, who 
had approached him after completing his chores for the day.

	"So, you are thinking of studying abroad?" Katsuhito asked.

	"Yes, grandpa. I..." Tenchi struggled for a moment, trying to 
work out what to say, and why to say it.

	The elder Masaki sipped his tea, letting his grandson stew for 
a moment, before helping him out, "You want to get away from the 
situation with the girls?"

	"Hai."

	"And you don't think Tokyo is far away enough?"

	"Its not that... its just that... well," Tenchi took out the 
rolled up paper from his back pocket and showed one of the articles 
to the priest, "There's this weird group of people in Tokyo. Nobody 
seems to know much about them, but they've been known to cause huge 
amounts of damage in their fights. They destroy buildings with their 
bare hands and shoot out blasts of energy. The only other people I 
know of who can cause that much damage like that are Ryoko and Ayeka. 
Neither of them are from Earth, so I really don't think this group 
is, either."

	"Hmmm..." Katsuhito sipped his tea and looked over the article 
regarding the activities of the so-called 'Nerima Wrecking Crew', 
while his grandson continued his pent up rant.

	"It's not just that I want to get away from the girls here... I 
want to get away from Japan! Its full of crazy aliens everywhere I 
go!" he stopped for a moment to sigh and catch his breath. He 
continued when Katsuhito let the opportunity to interrupt go past, 
"Until a few years ago, I had a normal life, grandpa. Then I released 
Ryoko and all hell broke loose. Its not that I regret anything I've 
done... but I've had enough excitement and strangeness to last me a 
lifetime, and I want to go back to having a normal life again."

	The elder man finished scanning the article and took another 
sip of tea. It wasn't anything new - he'd been keeping track of this 
group since they first started appearing in the news and had 
determined that they were in fact ordinary humans... ordinary being a 
relative term, of course... who had somehow been trained to 
extraordinary levels, and taught techniques he had though to be lost 
centuries ago.

	Keeping his expression calm and neutral, he turned his thoughts 
back to what Tenchi had been saying. It was a shame, really - he'd 
rather been hoping to find out more about this groups of super 
powered martial artists, by proxy of his grandson - but the boy had 
clearly already made up his mind, and was merely seeking the obtuse 
support of some one playing the Old Wise Sensei act.

	"And while you're gone, leading your idyllic normal life, what 
will happen to the girls?" As an Old Wise Sensei, it was his duty to 
pick on such minor details, so the boy could vocalise his reasons 
and, in the face of such wisdom, be sure his logic was sound.

	"Well... uh..." that's assuming, of course, that it is a minor 
detail, and that the boy has even thought about it.

	"After all, you are their reason for being here on Earth. You 
are also the reason why they have not all been killed while fighting 
Kagato, or Doctor Clay. How do you think they would react to your 
absence, or defend them selves, should another extra terrestrial 
emergency arise?" He took the last sip of tea and refilled his cup, 
his attitude still as stoic as if he had not just riddled his 
grandson's grand-scheme with bullet holes.

	Tenchi lost some of his earlier angst, and his shoulders 
drooped slightly as he considered this new thought. Silently he 
chastised himself for not thinking about the girl's perspective 
earlier... but wait, he'd been nothing if not kind and considerate 
towards his houseguests, always putting their needs before his own, 
and look where that got him! While he would never wish for any harm 
to come to any of his various alien friends, it was time for him to 
think about himself for once, and choose what he wanted, consequences 
be damned! He tensed his shoulders again, in preparation for another 
rant, and contemplated his response.

	"If any of them have any respect for me, they'll keep away from 
where ever I go, unless I invite them. It might upset them, but if 
any of them really do love me, then surely they'd be more concerned 
about my own happiness than their own? In which case they should be 
happy that I'm doing something that makes me happy, for as long as I 
know that they aren't unhappy at what I'm doing... which they won't 
be... uh... I think." He had to stop and think about that one for a 
few moments, checking that it did actually make sense, before 
addressing the other problem that his grandpa had brought up.

	"And if some crazy loon with even more super super-powers shows 
up, bent on destroying the world, or capturing Tsunami, or kidnapping 
Washu, or enslaving Ryoko, or marrying Ayeka, then... I'm sure that 
Washu could provide me with a transport solution, so I can get back 
here in time to save the day..." Tenchi struggled to keep the sarcasm 
out of his voice when he said that, "Maybe some sort of warp portal 
thing, or another Ryo-Ohki, then I'd be only minutes, or even seconds 
away, but still far enough away to keep out of the day to day 
craziness, which is driving me... well, crazy!"

	"It sounds like you have already convinced yourself that this 
is the right thing to do.

	"As far as your training is concerned, where you study for the 
next few years will have little impact as you would likely be far 
from home anyway..." Katsuhito quietly thought about things for a 
moment. Maybe he take a vacation a visit Tokyo himself. Oh... hang 
on, he was supposed to be thinking about Tenchi's plans... "Hmmm... 
If you can find a good university, which is accepting overseas 
students at this late date," Now, who could he get to look after the 
temple while he was away? "And you can organise the trip 
yourself..." with Tenchi away he'd have to hire someone... unless... 
no, it would be unfair to have the boy look after the shrine while 
he's also organising his life, even if only for a week (which 
probably wouldn't bee long enough to conduct an investigation, 
anyway) "then you may have my blessing. Until then... you still have 
your chores to do."

	On the other hand, he'd be needed to deal with the aftermath of 
Tenchi's leaving, so he had to go before Tenchi did... but he had to 
keep his eyes on the boy, too. Damn. Nerima would just have to wait.
					  *

	Having grown tired of bickering with Ayeka (what was the point 
when the object of their conflict wasn't about?), Ryoko had decided 
to discreetly find out what exactly Tenchi was doing... and maybe get 
some 'quality time' with him, if he wasn't doing anything as such. 
When the alternatives were helping Washu tidy up, or re-reading last 
week's Weekly Jump, playing with Tenchi alone was definitely first 
choice by a long way. Checking with Sasami, the younger princess 
directed her towards the shrine.

	Teleporting to the temple courtyard, she glanced about and saw 
that the place was empty. A broom was propped up by the entrance to 
one building, a pile of debris to one side rustling gently in the 
evening breeze. The sounds of the rapidly approaching summer filled 
the air, but the chirps and squawks of the forest animals were 
subdued enough for the gentle murmur of conversation to be heard from 
the office.

	Curious, Ryoko got as close as she dared to the inhabited 
structure, and then phased into the ground, out of sight. She moved 
into position, just in time to hear an outburst that made her heart 
ache. Resisting the urge to bolt, or charge in and confront Tenchi, 
she stood her ground (or rather, hovered under it) and listened to 
the remainder of the interview.
					  *

	The next school day after having spoken with his grandfather, 
Tenchi had taken the first opportunity he had to collect some 
pamphlets and the like from his school's careers department. They 
were mostly about overseas university applications, and some 
information on popular foreign colleges for examination at home.

	Hefting an atlas, a large pile of prospectuses, and an English-
Japanese dictionary, Tenchi set down to study his options in the one 
place he could expect a little peace and quiet - the library. It was 
most often deserted, for it's shelves contained nothing but vast 
archives of shojo-manga and trashy romance novels. Who wants to read 
that kind of thing? Well, apart from his father who collected the 
stuff in the first place, and the girls (though strangely only in the 
spring time). Actually, come to think of it, he and his grandfather 
were the only people who didn't have an interest in the most 
flammable room in the house. Never the less, it was almost always 
deserted, and no one would think to look for him here.

	Laying the various booklets out on a small reading table, the 
first thing he did was to plot in the atlas exactly where each 
collage was and determine how far they were from Japan. He discarded 
those that were closer than 5500 miles - those not quite half a world 
away. Of the dozen or so places left, most were in the UK or along 
the east coast of America.

	The next step he took was to examine the details of the courses 
available. Having no specific idea of what he'd like to study, or any 
particular career path in mind, he rejected various universities on 
the basis of having too narrow a field of study. This left him with a 
few faculties, one in the south west peninsular of the UK, one on the 
west coast of the US, and a couple in the north east.

	At this point he stopped for a break. All that research stuff 
was surprisingly hard work, and he been sat in quiet contemplation of 
the possible choices for several hours. He supposed that he could 
call it a day, and apply for all four courses, then attend his first 
choice out of the places he was accepted... but he needed to work out 
which was his first choice, of course, and there may be other factors 
further limiting his options. He stopped himself from thinking more 
about it - he was going to have a break, even if it killed him (or 
whatever foul concoction may have been brewed up by Ayeka or Ryoko).
					  *

	While Tenchi had been going about his extra curricular 
homework, the rest of the household had been remarkably quiet. In 
fact things had been a little less intense for quite some time, 
though Ryoko had been somewhat sullen. Ayeka was dealing with a few 
chores around the house, Sasami was (as ever) preparing for the next 
meal, Washu had kept to herself in her lab, and Mihoshi and Ryoko 
were slacking off in front of the TV, watching the most inane soap 
opera they could find on the galactic broadcasts. Noboyuki was 
absent, as he was working late on an important project.

	After finishing the small amount of cleaning she had set about 
doing, Ayeka noticed that Tenchi hadn't been about since he got home. 
Curious (and also not particularly willing to sit down and watch TV 
with that monster woman), she went to look for him. After checking 
and finding the young prince's usual haunts vacant (or otherwise 
occupied), she went to the kitchen.

	"Sasami, have you seen Lord Tenchi?" she asked her younger 
sister.

	"Nuh huh, not since he got back," she replied as she chopped 
through a pile of vegetables, and slipping a carrot to the humanoid 
Ryo-Ohki, who had been overseeing a more mundane task. "I thought he 
was in his room doing homework..."

	"He's not there. I checked already. Do you think he might have 
gone up to the shrine?"

	"Well, he had a lot of... Aah! That's too much, Ryo-Ohki!" she 
dashed to the other side of the kitchen to prevent the cabbitoid from 
ruining some element of the upcoming meal, "...There, that's 
better," Turning back to the chopping board she picked up where she 
left off, both with the vegetables and her observations. "He had a 
lot of books and things when he got back, so I though he must have 
had lost of work to do and he'd be spending most of the evening doing 
it. But if he's not in his room, then maybe he decided to work in the 
library, since it's usually pretty quiet in there."

	"Thank you, Sasami, I had not thought of looking in there." She 
turned to leave.

	"Oh, Ayeka, if you find him can you tell him that dinner will 
be ready in about half an hour? I wouldn't want him to get so bogged 
down with work that he's late for the meal."

	"Of course."

	
	Ayeka opened the ground floor door to the library and took a 
step in... straight into Tenchi. The two teenagers recoiled, 
struggling to avoid falling over. Looking sheepishly at each other, 
they both apologised at the same time.

	"I'm sorry..."

	"Oh, excuse me..."

	They blinked at each other, and then laughed with embarrassment 
for a moment. Ayeka was the first to speak again.

	"I was just looking for you, Lord Tenchi. I had not seen you 
since you arrived home," she stated in a formal fashion, though with 
a tinge of concern, "Were you doing your homework?"

	"Uh, yeah, homework. I guess that what I must have been doing, 
hah hah," he laughed nervously, scratching the back of his neck, "I 
was just stopping for a break - it's really hard work."

	"I see... As a matter of fact, Sasami asked me to tell you that 
dinner would be ready in about half an hour. Perhaps I could help you 
until then. After all, they do say a problem shared is a problem 
halved, do they not?"

	"Well, heh heh, it's really nice of you to offer, Ayeka, but 
I'm not really sure it's something you could help me with," the neck 
scratching became more vigorous for a moment, and the attentive 
observer would had noticed the odd bead of sweat gathering on his 
brow. "Besides, it really has drained me, and I'd just like to watch 
TV for a while."

	"I understand, but if you are having a hard time with it, I 
must insist that I help you, perhaps after dinner is completed, if 
Sasami would excuse me from helping with the dishes. I am quite a 
scholar, you know," the princess said with a smile.

	"Uh, sure, ok. After dinner." Tenchi barely managed to get that 
out coherently, without his actual thoughts of '...oh crap oh crap oh 
crap...' getting through. That out of the way, he slinked past Ayeka 
and into the lounge, completely forgetting to close the library door 
behind him.

	With a sigh he sunk into an armchair, glad that Ayeka hadn't 
found out his plans. Of course, he'd have to invent some homework for 
them to do later, and that would set his work back. He sighed again, 
almost a resigned groan, when he felt Ryoko teleport into his lap and 
slink around him. Thinking that the space pirate's bitter rival was 
close behind him, visions of catastrophe filled his mind. Again. 
'Here we go again... just hope they don't destroy the kitchen until 
after dinner this time.'

	
	Ayeka, however, did not immediately follow Tenchi into the 
lounge as he had expected. This was partly because she already knew 
that what was being shown held little interest for her (she much 
preferred 'Brook System' to 'Red Starsiders' because the actors and 
script writers were clearly of a higher calibre, obviously), it was 
also partly because she wanted to know just what sort of homework 
would be beyond her.

	Seeing Tenchi enter the lounge, out of sight, she crept 
silently into the library and found the small reading table at which 
Tenchi's work was laid out. She glanced over the atlas, the pamphlets 
and the like, and the small notepad with assorted nonsensical 
scribbles.

	At first, from the points plotted on one of the larger scaled 
maps in the atlas, she assumed that the work must have been for a 
geography class, perhaps some large piece of coursework, which would 
contribute to his overall grade. Silently she chided the boy for 
thinking of so little of her - she had been living here for a year or 
so; it would have been rude not to have learnt something about the 
makeup of her host's home planet.

	Glancing over the pamphlets, searching for some clue as to what 
the task might be, however, she realised that her first impression 
must have been wrong. Almost all of the glossy booklets were written 
in an Earth native language that she recognised as being called 
'English'. It was not a language that had found much use in the 
galaxy (the preferred tongue being Jurai-go), primarily because it 
had evolved exclusively in the northwest hemisphere of this planet, 
and had not really been exposed to the rest of the universe.

	Thinking that she now knew the reason for Tenchi's hesitation 
to accept help (beyond the shy boy's natural tendencies), she put the 
small workspace back to how it was when she found it. As a result, 
she completely missed the small Japanese leaflet entitled 'Applying 
to Overseas Colleges For Dummies'.

	Exiting the small library, she joined the others in the lounge 
to partake in the joys of poor quality galactic soap operas. 
Approximately fifteen minutes later, the room (and later, the house) 
erupted in a predictable ball of explosive violence. Again.

					* * *

	The house was a wreck.

	Again.

	For some reason, it wasn't in nearly such a bad a state as it 
normally would be, especially considering that Mihoshi had gotten 
involved in an attempt to calm Ayeka and Ryoko down. The ditzy galaxy 
police detective's efforts actually seemed to have a positive effect, 
if only because the two antagonists had to stop fighting for long 
enough to prevent her from doing the most ridiculous of things with 
her control cube.

	Still, the house had been wrecked. The only consolation was 
that the kitchen had been spared, and the bulk of the melee had ended 
in time for dinner.

	After dinner, Tenchi had somehow managed to discourage Ayeka 
from helping him with his homework. He had decided that perhaps the 
house was not the best place to work, especially while he was trying 
to keep his plans secret, until everything was organised, and he'd 
passed the point of no return, so to speak. So, packing the various 
items he required into his school bag, he went for a walk through the 
forest.

	He had no destination in mind - there were plenty of 
picturesque places that would provide a beautiful backdrop before the 
evening light started to fail. His feet, however, knew exactly where 
to go and very soon he found himself at the sacred tree. As he 
approached he greeted Funaho, Yosho's grounded space tree. In 
response, the sentient tree lanced a pencil thin beam of swirling, 
multi-chromatic light down from one of her leaves, which splashed 
with a melodic chime into the water of the pool that surrounded her 
trunk. The magical display conveyed the tree's greeting to Tenchi by 
some mechanism he did not entirely understand, though assumed it 
something akin to telepathy.

	Several months ago, in the early spring, Tenchi discovered that 
he was able to communicate with the space tree on some strange, semi-
linguistic level. It was enough for him to be able to hold a 
conversation of sorts with the intelligent plant. Through those 
discussions and the tree's ability to visually project her memories, 
he had found out that whatever it was about him that let him generate 
his own light hawk wings (something previously only the Juraian space 
trees were thought to be able to do, though it was theoretically 
possible for Ryoko to do the same, thanks to the power of her gems), 
he was also uniquely able to communicate with the space trees.

	Funaho had been isolated from the other space trees for quite 
some time and had become quite lonely. Space trees, like humans, were 
keen on keeping in touch, even if they weren't really social 
creatures. If not for her bond with Yosho, she would surely have gone 
insane. When Tenchi's ability was first revealed, she had almost 
overwhelmed the boy with her thoughts. She didn't have much to say 
though - you don't get to see very much of the world when you're a 
tree - it was her desire for interaction, which she flooded into 
Tenchi's mind that was overpowering. Apparently the juvenile Ryo-Ohki 
wasn't much of a conversationalist. The two quickly started to 
communicate on an even level when Funaho calmed down. Tenchi agreed 
to visit the tree at least once a week and in return Funaho would try 
and teach the boy how to use the light hawk wings more skilfully.

	Unfortunately Tenchi hadn't once been able to summon the damn 
things.

	Sitting at the base of the tree's trunk, facing out across the 
pool, he laid out the atlas and the booklets and started reading in 
more detail about the places he was considering studying at. He 
discussed his choices and his thoughts with the tree, who provided a 
much needed second viewpoint. Unlike in the library, his efforts 
seemed less intense here. In fact, he was positively enjoying musing 
over the paperwork with a friend by his side... well, at his back. 
The idyllic forest setting, gentle evening warmth and the peaceful 
sounds of living things almost certainly contributed towards his 
sense of well being, too.

					* * *

	Sickening realisation dawned upon Ryoko like some evil, bloated 
sun, killing life as its deadly rays struck home in her heart. Tenchi 
hated her, it was obvious from his sullen appearance when he had 
hastily departed from the wrecked building, and there was nothing she 
could do. It was her own fault too, though equally the fault of 
circumstance. How could she not have seen before? Why did she think 
that letting herself come to blows with Ayeka would endear her to his 
heart?

	The conflict and violence was driving Tenchi away from her. He 
was leaving, after the summer, to some unknown part of the world, and 
if she tried to follow, she would loose him for good. Even a 
confrontation with him now might destroy her chances.

	The only consolation was that Ayeka was in the same position, 
but probably didn't know it. Hopefully she would try to follow, then 
Tenchi would completely loose respect for the princess. Then he'd be 
free for her capture his heart.

	The only trouble would be that she'd have to go about it 
completely differently to anyway she'd ever thought of before. She 
couldn't go chasing off after him, or else she'd scare him off for 
good... but if she did nothing, he'd probably fall for some dumb, 
boring normal girl in the mean time. It was a terrible dilemma. It 
was a no win situation, with only a single way out that was so 
difficult to find, it may as well not exist.

	That single way out was the only thing giving Ryoko hope. The 
only thing that was stopping her from giving up and flying off into 
the setting sun... something which has quite a different meaning when 
you have a spaceship. Not that Ryoko was considering suicide - just 
because a life wasn't worth living didn't mean it was worth taking. 
But without Tenchi, her life was most definitely not worth living. To 
keep a life worth living, she was going to have to change that life. 
Only little changes, but hard ones to make.

	Looking at the charred debris that was once the lounge, Ryoko 
voiced her epiphany, "We've gotta stop fighting like this, Ayeka."

	"Well, you're the one who starts the fights." The princess was 
pompously indignant. Ryoko stifled a growl and a comeback.

	"It... it doesn't matter who started it. We've just got to... 
got to stop." Without waiting for a response, she teleported out to 
places unknown.

	Ayeka blinked a couple of times. She was not used to such 
mature behaviour from the former space pirate... well, not that sort 
of 'mature' behaviour, anyway. She realised, begrudgingly, that Ryoko 
was right. Their violent conflicts had to stop. It didn't matter who 
started them - both the battles and the name-callings and the cries 
of 'she started it!' were very child like. It was not befitting her 
status to be behaving like that, though she expected nothing less 
from a common creature such as Ryoko. That made it so much more 
annoying, though, to be shown up by someone below her. Obviously she 
hadn't really meant it - how could she have? - it must have been a 
ploy to make her feel bad about herself. What dastardly behaviour!
					*

	Ryoko watched Tenchi from a distance. She didn't want to 
disturb him because he was slumped asleep against Yosho's space tree, 
and... well, he was just too cute like that!

	The sight made her think of things that only adults think of, 
and she blushed profusely. Before merging with her doppelganger, 
Zero, after the Dr. Clay affair, she would have happily carried out 
her fantasies of doing 'this and that' with her one true love, given 
the opportunity. Now, though, she had become much more sensitive, and 
much less... forward. She still glomped and groped whenever she 
could, but she tended to be somewhat more subtle about it. Of course, 
where Ryoko was concerned, 'subtle' was definitely a relative term.

	Ryoko turned her thoughts back to her true love. It was late 
and the sun had already set. Though there was plenty of light left, 
it was time to go home. She took a step forward, debating on whether 
she should wake the boy up, or carry him back. She didn't have to 
make the choice.

	"Mmm... uh... she is?" Tenchi mumbled, still with his eyes 
closed, turning slightly as if to address the tree in his sleep. He 
turned back as he woke up fully, eyes blinking open to see Ryoko 
standing several meters away. "Oh, hi, Ryoko. What brings you out 
here?" His sour tone of voice was poorly masked with unfelt 
happiness, or so the cyan haired alien girl thought. It broke her 
heart to hear it, and she wanted to do whatever she could to put her 
back in the boy's good graces, but her earlier epiphany prevented her 
from trying her usual tactics.

	"It's getting late," she said in as calm a voice as she could 
muster, "and I was getting worried about you." This would be a 
perfect opportunity to confront what she had overheard at the shrine, 
she thought, but she was too afraid to act. "I thought I'd make sure 
you were ok."

	"Uh, thanks Ryoko, I'm fine. I just kind of fell asleep while I 
was working," he replied, gesturing at the notes and books scattered 
around him. Taking a second look, his eyes almost bugged out - it 
would /not/ be a good idea for Ryoko to be seeing this stuff... who 
knows what she might do if she were to find out his plans like this? 
Hurriedly (and somewhat clumsily, thanks to a hint of panic in his 
mind) he gathered the papers together and into his bag, laughing 
nervously as he did so. "I'll just put all this stuff away and then 
we can go home, eh heh."

	Ryoko just smiled, but didn't come any closer, or glomp onto 
him. She didn't even offer to help. While that was something of a 
relief to Tenchi, it was also worrying him. It wasn't like Ryoko to 
be so... distant.

	The boy's frantic shufflings and packings became even more 
frantic as a small round brown bead, or perhaps a seed, fell out of a 
shirt pocket. He quickly retrieved the object before it could roll 
away into the waters, and made sure it more secure this time. Ryoko, 
again to his surprise and relief, had merely adopted a quizzical 
expression for a moment, rather than ask what the little thing was.

	Once packed up, Tenchi and Ryoko headed back along the trail to 
the Masaki household. They walked side by side, but with a moderate 
distance between them. Whenever Tenchi looked Ryoko's way, he saw her 
sharply look away to the other side of the forest track. It seemed to 
be that she was staring at him, but was afraid to meet his gaze. An 
aura of discomfort grew around the two as they marched in silence - 
Tenchi not sure what to say, and Ryoko not sure how to say it.

	
	A similar mood descended upon the whole house for the rest of 
the school year, and though the fights and the destruction continued, 
it was somewhat more subdued and less frequent. That mood, as 
unsettling and undesirable as it was, had a feel of stability that 
was not unwelcome. Certainly Noboyuki was delighted that his 
beautiful house was only being destroyed once every other day, 
instead of eight hours. After only a week or so, the residents had 
become content with the state of affairs, even if they were a little 
unhappy. That contented stability was blown away, however, when the 
school year ended... and before Ryoko worked out how to say what she 
had to say...

					* * *

	"Ooohh! Wow! America!" Mihoshi chimed. "Can I go too?"

	"I'm sorry, Mihoshi, but this is something I have to do 
alone." Tenchi tried to ignore the cute expression of childish 
dejection that coloured the inept detective's features. Instead he 
turned his attention to the barrage of questions he was receiving 
from his houseguests, after making his announcement. He was also 
trying to judge their reactions.

	Sasami was fairly easy to read. She was sad that he would be 
going so far, but had rationalised that he'd be gone even if he had 
chosen to study in Japan. She was also, of course, happy for him, to 
have been accepted into the university that he'd wanted (though, 
actually, Sunnydale UC was his second choice - he' had missed the 
final application date for his first choice, but he didn't tell them 
that). She was also excited for him, for she saw the long-term trip 
abroad as an adventure on a par with the Kagato and Clay fiascos 
(she'd not been allowed to go with the others on those occasions, so 
she wasn't any more disappointed this time).

	Mihoshi was perhaps the easiest and hardest person to 
understand... but that assessment applied on a general basis, anyway, 
so he didn't worry too much about the ditzy blonde's apparent lack of 
comprehension.

	Ayeka was being diplomatic, trying to hide her own sadness 
behind a princessly smile. Tenchi assumed that there was some truth 
behind the smile, that she was happy for him, though it was difficult 
to tell - her sense of loss was clearly her overriding emotion, and 
it showed in the type of questions she asked: "Where exactly are you 
studying?" "Will we be able to visit you?" "When will you return?". 
Tenchi somehow managed to avoid giving a direct answer to most of the 
queries.

	Ryo-Ohki seemed to share Sasami's reaction for the most part 
(from what he could tell by her varied 'mew's and 'miah's), but the 
little cabbitoid's face was the picture of distress that he would 
have expected from Ayeka, if the elder princess was not so 
diplomatic.

	Washu... she already knew, and the knowing grin on her face and 
the way she hung back while the others crowded him made it obvious. 
Tenchi knew that she knew, of course, because he had told the ancient 
scientist. That and some other things besides. Things that perhaps 
not even his grandfather knew.

	Finally, Ryoko. The former space pirate had been behaving oddly 
since he'd made the decision to study abroad. Her apparent lack of 
reaction indicated that she knew about his plans, or at least had 
suspicions. Had she worked it out from her link with Washu? Or 
perhaps she had overheard his discussion with Grandpa? However she 
had found out, she was being remarkably calm and stoic about it all. 
She only asked one question, after the others quieted down a little. 
It wasn't so much a question as a request, and it was one that Tenchi 
had no idea how to get out of.

	With a neutral expression that was barely concealing a boiling 
froth of hidden, conflicting emotions, she came up to the boy and 
said, "Tenchi, promise me you won't fall in love while you're away... 
please..."

	"Uh... uh..." he stuttered, seemingly stuck on the one 
meaningless syllable. He managed to keep his shocked features 
relatively stationary, so as not to give away anything.

	How could he answer a question like that!? There was no way he 
could make that promise - matters of the heart were beyond his 
control... and wasn't part of the reason for his departure so that he 
could try and follow the normal love life that he had been denied? 
But if he said no... there was no doubt that Ryoko, even this new, 
solemn Ryoko, would react very badly indeed. He could bear to hurt 
her like that... but he couldn't lie about, or break a promise, 
either - eventually it would result in even more harm. What was he 
going to do!?

	"Don't be ridiculous, Ryoko!" Ayeka scorned her rival for her 
presumption... even though she wouldn't have been upset to hear the 
young prince make that vow. "How could be possibly ask Tenchi-sama to 
make such a ridiculous promise? After all, such matters of the heart 
are beyond our control..." she sighed, clutching her hands to her 
heart and staring off into the middle distance, dreaming some 
childishly romantic fantasy.

	Ryoko seemed disgusted at even the thought of what might be 
going through the Jurian's mind, despite having considered similar 
things in the privacy of her own mind. It was more the fact that 
someone else could be thinking such thoughts that made her feel sick. 
It wasn't long before the two were fighting again, though only in the 
fiercely verbal sense.

	Her request apparently forgotten, Tenchi made his escape and 
returned to keeping the other four girls amused. Things quickly 
settled down, and life returned to some semblance of normality, 
though Ayeka and Ryoko now seemed equally sombre, it was offset by 
Sasami increased cheerfulness.

	
	Under a week later, after a somewhat subdued attempt at a 
leaving party, Tenchi left quietly in the early morning with his 
father, heading for the train station, and then Tokyo airport.


					* * *

					 TBC

		(and possibly expanded on in a side story)
		  (or abandoned completely and replaced)

	


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