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www.fanworks.org
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Well, after several years and the violent beatings of Keiichi
with a stick, Mugen Tenchi Muyo, Episode #25 is done.
Right now, there is probably at least a dozen people who would
love to murder us for not having this done say..... 3 years ago,
when we used to be able to pump out an episode a month.
Anyway, here's the final battle of Evil Kyoto, Tenchi and Good
Kyoto for the the universe. In some ways, a rather dark MTM
episode, but, this wouldn't be the first.
You can find all Mugen Tenchi Muyo episodes at
http://mugentm.fanworks.org, and
http://members.fanworks.org/chi-ohki
Anyway, enjoy!
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NOTE: All characters original to the Tenchi-Muyo! TV1 series
portrayed in this story, as well as all those from the
Tenchi-Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA series, are the sole property of AIC
and Pioneer Animation. Any appearance of them in actual life is
purely coincidental. Tenchi-Muyo! material and paraphernalia
listed within is copyright Pioneer Animation 1997. Kyoto
Minamoto, Muriyaki Kushiragi, Chisako, Chi-Ohki, and all other
related characters are the sole property of R&C Books and appear
through permission from R&C Books. If you would like to use any
of these characters in your work, please contact the licensing
department at chi-ohki@anifics.com or visit our website at
http://mugentm.fanworks.org
Mugen Tenchi Muyo!
Episode #25:
No Need For a Finish!
A bright flash of light--
And each of the stations comes crashing down onto.. Something.
Aboard Chisako:
"Oh, my head. feels like a herd of saber-toothed Dai-ohkis went
tramplin' through it...." After a minute, his head slows its
turning enough for him to pull himself to his feet. "Status
report?"
Digital Washu is already on her feet, and at one of the few
functioning consoles. "This makes no sense. Even I don't know
what's going on! The reactor is charging at maximum capacity,
but the power doesn't seem to be routed anywhere."
She spins one of the display flatscreens to face Kyoto, who
groans and bites his bottom lip. "Weapons?"
Tenchi scrolls through the lists. "Laser batteries. blown out.
Particle cannons. gone. Missile launchers, rail-guns, plasma
guns. out, out, out. Shields, communications, auto-camo,
engines. everything but life-support and basic systems is gone!
We're completely helpless," he spits, smacking his fist into his
palm in frustration. "We can't move, we can't fight." He bites
off the rest of the statement as he moves to help a shaken
Kiyone to her feet.
"That's not the worst of it." This statement comes from the
diminutive figure leaning against the hatchway. "The main
reactor's magnetic containment field is losing integrity. When
it goes, this whole area will be turned into a black hole."
Washu staggers onto the bridge, clutching her side. Crimson
stains her blouse around her hand.
"How long do we have?" Kiyone asks gently.
Washu smiles weakly-in all actuality, it is more of a
death's-head smirk. "Not long enough." All at once, her eyes
roll back in her head, and she falls face-first to the floor.
"Washu.?" Kiyone kneels next to her mother in law. Her eyes
widen as she sees blood beginning to ripple outward from Washu's
still form, and Kiyone is ashen-faced as she turns back to
Tenchi. "Tenchi-yon, you'd better get your father."
"I'll be right back," Tenchi whispers, dashing off the command
deck and towards the lift to engineering. Kiyone sets herself to
taking care of Washu's. remains. and is surprised when she sees
her husband return a few minutes later, looking like a ghost.
"Tenchi-yon.?" Kiyone slowly approaches her husband, her shock
deepened by the somewhat hollow look in his eyes.
"Gone. Kiyone-yoni, Dad's gone."
"Gone.?" Kiyone catches her husband as he half-collapses
against her. She half-drags him to a chair and leaves the
command deck to see what he meant.
It doesn't take long. What's left of Nobuyuki Masaki is wedged
between the lift's doors. The trail of blood leading from the
lift can only be Washu's. There is little recognizable about
Nobuyuki; the limbs look as though they've graced a meat
grinder, and the face is shattered beyond
recognition-fortunately for Kiyone's sanity; she doesn't think
she could bear to see the expression of pain on his face.
"Oh my god." Kiyone turns slowly around and staggers back to
her husbands embrace, leaning against him as the shock begins to
wear off. They both jump when they hear a blood curdling scream.
Without a second's hesitation, they dash down the other end of
the corridor as fast as they can.
Sitting at the end of the corridor is Kyoto, holding the
bloody, dead bodies of Kyo, and Momoko. Kyoto and Ryoko's
children look almost peaceful in their death, as if having
passed on while they were sleeping.
"Oh no. my babies." Tenchi and Kiyone turn slowly to see Ryoko
behind them, horror etched into her features. She stumbles
forward, falling to her knees next to Kyoto.
"My darling Kyo." Tenchi turns again to see his daughter Tokimi
coming up from behind.
Tokimi drops to her knees next to Kyo and takes his head in her
arms and begins to cradle it. Tears begin to roll down her face.
"M-m-m-my Kyo. my darling Kyo." She buries her face in his chest
and begins to sob. Kiyone drops to her knees beside her youngest
daughter and wraps her arms around her shoulders. After a
moment, Tenchi does likewise.
Ryoko gently lowers Momoko's head to the floor and turns to
glare at Kyoto. "This is your fault," she hisses. "This is all
your damn fault!" She begins to pound on his chest with her
fists. "I-I-I-If it wasn't for you, our children.. Our
children.." She collapses against his chest, silently sobbing.
* * *
Aboard Akiko:
"Status report!" barks Kyoto.
Silence.
"Status report," he bellows. Grabbing the nearest hapless
figure, and giving him a hard shake.
Said figure's head falls off.
The Evil Kyoto is a little taken aback, but recovers quickly
and flings the body off to one side. "Is there anyone left alive
on this bridge?"
"I am, My Lord." Evil Washu staggers to her feet, looking
bruised, but intact.
"Oh, Washu. Good. Can we get in contact with Tomoko?"
"I will try, My Lord, but I doubt that any survived."
"Try anyway. Also, see if you can bring the dimensional cannon
back online."
One of the communications screens crackles to life, and Nagi's
face appears on it. "My Lord, are you there?"
"I'm here, what's Tomoko's status?"
"We're intact, but most of the crew is dead and all reactors
are charging at maximum, yet no place of focus for the energy. I
don't know what's happening my liege."
"What the hell is going on here?! No one should have been able
to fold! Our dampening field was still active!" Evil Kyoto turns
to face Evil Washu. "Doctor, I would appreciate an explanation
of what exactly is going on! Some how everyone folded and now
our crews are dead and the ships' reactors charging at maximum
power with no direction for the energy! What the hell is
happening?! I want to know, and I want to know now! If you fail
to do--" Evil Kyoto cuts himself off when he looks out the
bridge viewport.
"What the hell?" Evil Kyoto stares one for several seconds;
silent until Evil Washu comes up to his side.
"What is it, my Liege?" She turns to look out herself and
nearly jumps back at what she sees.
Spanning from each of the three ships is an enormous triangle
of energy. The triangle's edges are lined with ancient runes of
some forgotten language. A circle of similar runes that forms a
spherical shield around the ships and the triangle outlines the
triangle itself. In the very center is a much smaller version of
this symbol at which stand the three goddesses. Suddenly, a name
comes to Kyoto's mind.
"The Triad."
"The Triad, my Lord?" asks Evil Washu, turning her gaze away
from the viewport.
"Yes. for some reason I know its name, but I don't know why."
Kyoto tries to think for a moment before giving up the effort.
"No matter. Now, to figure a way out of here."
* * *
"Mommy! Daddy!" Mirei comes running up to her parents, fear in
her eyes. "Something weird's happening down in the house!"
"What is it, Rei-cha'ya?" Kiyone asks quietly. Both she and her
husband are still emotionally drained from seeing the death of
Nobuyuki and the death of Kyoto's children.
"It's Sasami and Tsunami! They're all acting weird and all
sorts of really weird lights are showing around them! A-a-and
Auntie Tokimi, and Auntie Tsunami, and Auntie Murasaki aren't
even here anymore!"
"What?!" Both Tenchi and Kiyone turn to her sharply. They
follow Mirei down to the house, which is already beginning to
crackle with foreboding energy. Some of the extended Masaki
family --namely Katsuhito, Mihoshi, Kamidake, and Mitsuki-- are
gathered outside the house.
"Grandpa, what's going on here?!" asks Tenchi.
"I haven't the slightest idea," he answers in a quivering
voice.
Kiyone's eyes flick over the gathering before registering the
missing. "Where are Ayeka and Yoni?!"
"I think they're still in the house," says Mihoshi through
terrified sobs.
Not bothering to ask why the two were left in the house, Tenchi
and Kiyone dash in. They skid to a stop in the living room.
For the first time in what seems like months, Tsunami and
Sasami have left their bedroom. Blue-white Jurai energy crackles
around them as they stand in the living room, or more
accurately, stand half a meter off the living room floor. Ayeka
and Yoni are standing in front of them; Ayeka is trying to move
Yoni, but the other woman seems completely frozen to the spot.
Some of the blue-white energy is starting to crackle around Yoni
herself.
Tenchi and Kiyone come carefully up to Ayeka. "Ayeka, what's
happening?" Tenchi asks concernedly, taking her by the shoulder.
Ayeka shakes her head, her features reflecting fear. "I'm not
sure, Lord Tenchi. We were trying to leave the house when
suddenly Sasami and Tsunami appeared here. I can't move Yoni!"
Ayeka doesn't get a chance to say much more for at that moment
the triangular symbol of the triad appears on her hand.
Moments later, the same happens to Kiyone, Washu, and
Katsuhito.
Without making any changes to their expressions, Sasami and
Tsunami close their eyes and them, as well as the selected
groups vanish from Chisako.
Aboard Tomoko and Akiko, the same happens as Evil Kyoto and his
minions vanish from their places aboard the ships.
The group from the Masaki house appears first. On either side
of the circle, facing inward, sits Tsunami and Sasami, dressed
in priestess garb and face paint, beating solemnly on ceremonial
drums. The four other chosen ones -- Katsuhito, Ayeka, Washu,
and Kiyone -- take up their places at the corners of the circle.
As they take up their positions, Tsunami floats around to each
of them, quickly removing their clothing. Murasaki is right
behind her, redressing each of them in Juraian ceremonial robes.
Tokimi is last, applying the ceremonial paint to each one's
cheeks.
The preparations complete, the ceremony begins. Still in their
trance, Kiyone, Washu, Ayeka, and Katsuhito begin to dance
around the circle of flame, chanting in Old High Juraian.
Tsunami and Sasami begin to pound harder on their drums, also
chanting in Old High Juraian. And at the points of the triangle,
the goddesses begin to speak.
"O fire which burns hotter than any star, o water that is deeper
than any ocean, o wind that blows stronger than any hurricane,
we ask for thy favor. We ask for thy knight. We ask for the
Light Hawk. It is only he who can triumph against what is ahead.
We ask for thy champion. We ask for the Light Hawk."
As Murasaki chants, Tenchi materializes over the bonfire in the
center of the Triad, clad in his warrior raiment. As Murasaki
repeats the chant over and over, the combat garb changes into
the Light Hawk Wings uniform, and the shifting wings of light,
fanned out like a poker hand, sprout from his back and appear in
front of him.
It is at this point that the form of Yoni appears floating above
the bonfire, facing Tenchi. She is clad in a simple, almost
translucent white robe, tied around her waist by a shimmering
belt of golden rope. Around her neck rests a necklace of flowers
and on her head, a crown of white Juraian energy.
Yoni slowly floats up to Tenchi's dormant form. "Greetings,
young one. I am the Light Hawk, mother of all creation. Within
my present form is contained the seed of power which will help
you become a full child of our family of guardians. Use it
wisely, for this is the power of creation." She then leans up
and wraps her arms around Tenchi's neck as she draws their faces
together in a kiss. As her lips meet his, her form begins to
lose its corporeal form.
After several seconds, she pulls away and turns around so that
her back is facing Tenchi. She then floats back, allowing her
form to merge with his. When the merging completes, Tenchi's
form is bathed in a shell of blue energy and then suddenly
evaporates...
In its place is Tenchi's new form. Ten Light Hawk Wings surround
him now. Eight of them descend on and attach to his back,
fanning out as if real wings. The ninth attaches to his left
arm, solidifying as a shield, and the tenth envelops his sword,
blending and mating with it; the resulting weapon has a
lengthened hilt, with a long, turquoise-white Jurai energy blade
in the shape of a sharpened Light Hawk Wing. His Light Hawk Wing
garb has changed as well. They have gone from the original
simple, baggy suit to a much more streamlined version,
resembling in a fashion a culmination of the armor of a Japanese
samurai and the original Light Hawk outfit. On one arm is a
shield of energy; in his right hand is the Light Hawk sword.
With a flash of blue-white flame, Tenchi's eyes snap open. With
a quick thought, he vanishes from his place above the bonfire
and appears on the ground his back to Chisako.
A second later, the remainder of the group is freed from their
trance and disappear, reappearing a second later all in combat
garb in a combat stance behind Tenchi. Kyoto and Ryoko appear a
moment afterward, clad in their own combat attire and weapons
drawn.
It is at this point the group from Akiko and Tomoko appear.
First appears Evil Kyoto, clad in the garb of a Juraian warrior
Emperor. He is followed a second later by Washu, Nagi, and
Mihoshi, each clad in variations on the Nazi uniform.
"So, we meet at last, for the first and the last time," the Evil
Kyoto sneers, calmly striding towards the center of the
battlefield between the stations. "I've been waiting for this
moment to come for what feels like an eternity of years.
Finally, I will destroy you.. my dear adversaries. Especially
you--" he gestures towards the good Kyoto, who is already
stepping forward to meet his doppelganger face to face "--you're
the reason I ventured on this journey in the first place. I'll
never forget that day when you interrupted my fun with the space
pirate Ayeka, and then tricked my guards into thinking that I
was an imposter. I'll never forget that.."
The good Kyoto grits his teeth for a few seconds, tensing his
grip on Edgatho's hilt before speaking. "I regret.. I regret
that this battle did not come sooner. You are a sick, evil being
that does not deserve to bear my name, or my face! As long as I
exist in the boundaries of existence, I swear, in the name of
all things holy and sacred, that I will kill you." The rage
taking control, he whips Edgatho around, intending to cleave
head from body--
--but the other Kyoto catches the blade in his hand.
The Evil Kyoto is holding Edgatho's blade between his thumb and
forefinger, barely straining against the force of Kyoto's blow.
With a smirk, flips the sword away from his doppelganger,
letting it fall to the ground with a muted clank..
Before Kyoto can lift Edgatho for a second blow, his mirror-self
sends him reeling with a simple right cross. He hits the ground
between the stations.
"Ugh.. I hurt.. everywhere.. "
"Heh.. What pathetic endurance, my dear doppelganger. I haven't
even broken a sweat yet. Maybe you should try a little harder
this time." Grinning, Evil Kyoto turns and beckons for Kyoto to
attack again, an energy broadsword forming in his other hand.
Infuriated even more by the evil Kyoto's insults, Kyoto pushes
himself to his feet again with the use of Edgatho as a crutch,
and charges him once more.
This time, he is knocked to the side by a blow from the evil
Kyoto's sword. Again, he is almost knocked off the triangle of
energy.
And again evil Kyoto eggs him on, and again he futilely attempts
to attack, each time growing a bit weaker.
Finally, after receiving hundreds of blows with the evil Kyoto,
and not even landing a single hit in return, Kyoto can no longer
stand. Bloodied and bruised, he lays on the ground, face down a
small puddle of blood forming next to his face from the torn
bruise. After limply attempting to rise once more, he tumbles
down on his back and drifts into an uneasy sleep.
Kyoto's efforts have not been in vain, however.
During Kyoto's short-lived battle with his doppelganger, Tenchi
was able to generate a large accumulation of energy, one which
he fires into the evil Kyoto just after he trades his final blow
with the good Kyoto.
By all rights, this should have been power enough to detonate a
star. However, the aquamarine energy sluices off the evil Kyoto
like water. As the energy dissipates the reason for this becomes
clear: hovering in front of him are three Light Hawk Wings,
arranged like a three-bladed propeller. These, however, are
black with a crimson outline.
Grinning, the evil Kyoto holds his arms outstretched in front of
him. The wings swing back and envelop him, changing his outfit
into a dark version of Tenchi's.
"Surprised, Tenchi Masaki?" The mirror Kyoto looks smug. "I
imagine you are. You didn't think that I could do this, now did
you? Heh.. Well, you're in for another surprise Tenchi." The
evil Kyoto's smirk becomes an open-mouthed howl as he clenches
his fists tightly at his sides. His body is bathed in an aura of
red energy, which flashes to blinding brilliance twice. When
visibility returns, he now resembles a dark version . Right down
to the set of wings on his back, only composed of the same
black-red energy that his original set of wings was composed of.
"Behold! He has done it! Our Lord Kyoto has achieved Dark
Raven!" squeals evil Washu, snapping to a posture of salutation.
Evil Kyoto smirks, giving his transformed body a quick look
over. "Impressed? Well you should be. I have achieved my peak,
the utmost of my power. Something that is quite a bit greater
than anything you could possibly hope to achieve Masaki."
Grinning wider, he outstretches one hand and points it towards
Ayeka. "Princess, you would have made a wonderful space pirate.
Real shame..."
Faster than the flash burn of the explosion of a nuclear bomb,
a blast erupts from Evil Kyoto's hand and immolates the princess
where she once stood. All that remains when the energy
dissipates is the burned shadow of the princess on the ground.
Almost comically, he blows the wafting smoke from the palm of
his hand and returns his gaze back to Tenchi.
"That wasn't even a tenth of my power. However, you shall be
the first to taste its full power." Grinning with even more
fervor, he extends his right hand palm open. In it, a ball of
red-black energy appears, which is transformed into a blade as
he clenches his hand. Holding the sword tip pointed down to the
ground with one hand, he outstretches the other and beckons with
one finger.
"Come."
* * *
As the sleep of a concussion over comes Kyoto's body, his mind
begins to drift through thought and time. It drifts backwards
over his life, back towards a time when he was young and lost in
a universe with no memory of his past.
"I'm back...." Kyoto finds himself standing on the hot sands of
the world on which he first entered this life, this universe. He
sees.... He sees himself standing in this place, his tattered
clothes providing no protection to him from the burning heat of
the sun.
Then he sees.... them... his first kills in this life. The two
bandits who wanted to kill him for his shoes. Then he sees it.
From his body he sees a brief flash, another him standing in
the exact same place, as if it were a hollow image of himself,
but different from the other, more naive him. He sees himself
clad in a strange set of raiment, not too unlike Tenchi's....
but more Samurai-like. From his back he sees a set of red wings
sprouting. They look bird-like, but lack physical substance as
they appear to be made of solid energy.
The image of this form only lasts a few seconds before it fades
from sight and only the younger self remains, the bodies of the
two bandits disemboweled and spattered over the sands, sizzling
like meat on a hot pan.
Then the scene changes.
He's ahead in time a little, to the day....
.to the day when his first wife in this life died. He's there.
Inches from her. Then he sees them, the two Juraian soldiers
that burst into the house and attacked them. He sees himself
down, a bloodied skull on the floor reaching out towards his
wife with one bloodied hand, screaming for them to stop as one
of the two men raises his blade and swings....
As the head of his wife sails to the ground gently, almost
weightlessly, he feels all the pain and anger resurface from
that moment. He feels in his mind a chain, slipping, breaking,
unbinding something that was sealed and forgotten.
With a scream that shatters the dreamscape around him, Kyoto's
body is swallowed up in a column of red energy and vanishes from
view for a few seconds. When the column fades, he is standing
there, crackling wisps of energy dancing around -the pulsing
aura of energy encompassing his body. Sprouting from his back
are the two wings of energy, and he now wears the same clothing
as his other self wore when he was first attacked.
With this unbinding, all memory and knowledge of all that he is
and was and will be surges to the surface.
He now knows what to do and who he is.
In the space of a thought, he vanishes.
* * *
Kyoto awakens back into the real world in time to hear the
cracking sound of bones and turns his head from his down facing
position to see the Kyoto drive his foot into Tenchi, making a
foot-shaped impression in his back.
The despot goes sprawling a moment later when Tenchi pushes
himself off the ground. Using his hands and arms as a base, the
young emperor brings his legs around in a fierce arc, slamming
into the evil Kyoto's knees, toppling him over. His body
screaming with every movement, he rises slowly from the ground
and drags himself towards the Triad of the Goddesses.
The goddesses, for their part, are in a state of meditation--or
they're sleeping; it's hard to tell from Tenchi's vantage. At
any rate, the blue-white energy crackles around them, resembling
static lightning.
"Not too bad, young emperor." the evil Kyoto sneers. "Still, I
am disappointed. I was hoping for much more from a fellow
emperor of Jurai."
Tenchi is leaning heavily on Tenchi-ken, the energy blade
driven partway into the ground. He spits out a bloody tooth,
knocked loose by the combat. "Sorry I'm not better entertainment
for you."
"Don't apologize. just die." The evil Kyoto looses a slash of
red light at Tenchi, who holds up his hand. A blue Light Hawk
Wing appears in front of the hand, deflecting the red bolt.
Tenchi pushes himself back into a fighting stance. Pain is
shooting through him, and he's sure that at least a few ribs are
cracked, but he's not out of the game
Not yet, he thinks grimly.
As if reading his thoughts, the evil Kyoto laughs and rushes at
him. Red light slaps into blue, and is parried with effort.
Snarling incoherently, Tenchi lashes back out, a burst of azure
flame erupting from his free hand. The blast catches the evil
Kyoto in the side, and with a curse he stumbles back. The wound
was instantly cauterized, and the evil emperor touches it
gingerly before glaring at Tenchi. "That hurt," he hisses.
"That was the point," the younger emperor retorts. He launches
himself at the evil emperor before he finishes speaking, and
Tenchi-ken comes up around and downward in an angry iai-do
slash. Dark Kyoto barely manages to dance back from it; as
matters stand, the tip of the blue light-energy blade cuts
through fabric to scar skin.
At the same time, however, the evil Kyoto's dodging brings him
around to Tenchi's blind side. Sneering, he roundhouse-kicks him
in the small of the back.
Tenchi's head snaps back as agony explodes in his back.
Tenchi-ken clattering from his grasp, he falls to his knees,
gasping.
He has barely landed roughly on his knees when a second kick
catches him in the jaw, shattering teeth and sending him
sprawling across the floor. More pain in his jaw, and he can
taste blood on his lips and tongue.
"Aww, poor widdle Tenchi, can't take a couple of decent kicks.."
The evil Kyoto's voice taunts him.
Grunting, Tenchi starts to rise to his hands and knees when a
third kick catches him in the gut. He goes tumbling over
himself, landing flat on his back.
That is quite enough, Kyoto thinks. He emerges from the column
of energy in the center of the Goddess's Triad and raises his
arms, clasping his outstretched right hand under the wrist, as
if steadying a gun hand. He takes careful aim at his evil
counterpart, who is standing over Tenchi and sneering down at
him.
Concentrate. concentrate, dammit, you're playing for all the
fucking marbles this time, the lives of your friends, family,
and universe depend on this.
A sphere of jade-white energy begins to form in front of his
hand. Unlike his usual bolts, however, this one is shot through
with streaks of red and black.
Kyoto steadies his aim, chuckling as adrenaline begins to sing
in his veins. The old, familiar rush of a fight. "Ikuze," he
whispers, and lets fly.
The blast of energy strikes the evil Kyoto at the base of the
neck, burning into the nerve cluster located there. He screams,
flailing about for a moment before collapsing. Smoke wafts
upward from his prone form.
Kyoto moves over to Tenchi's battered form, wincing as he sees
the damage wrought. Tenchi is, quite frankly, a mess. Washu's
going to have a field day putting him back together. He gathers
him up as gingerly as he can and begins to move quickly towards
the likeliest exit. Better haul ass. That won't have laid him
out for long.
"You're right." The voice comes from right beside him, and Kyoto
leaps to the side--
--too late. A sudden burst of pain in his side. He risks a look
down, and regrets it immediately. The wound is not cauterized,
and blood is trickling out of it.
A second burst of pain, this one across the kneecaps. He topples
over, and Tenchi tumbles out his arm. His head bounces off a
fragment of rubble, and another gash is sliced across his
forehead. Kyoto can only hope no serious damage has been done.
"Slow, Kyoto.... very slow." Kyoto looks up as his mirror-image
strolls around him in a circle.
"You know, one would think that by absorbing that much power,
you'd have gotten a tad faster with your movements-- Oh, wait!
That's right, you didn't transform right! You got the strength,
but none of the speed! What a shame, what a shame... You know,
we could have made a rather nice team, you and I. The universe
could have been a wonderful place. Oh well..."
With a snapping movement, faster than the speed of sight, the
Evil Kyoto snatches his good counter-part's head up in his hand,
lifting him from the ground by the face.
"Say hello to Ayeka for me!" The Evil Kyoto's grin turns to an
uncontrollable laugh as he begins squeezing. Arcs of energy
begin crackling along his arm and over all of the Good Kyoto's
body.
However, his grip of crushing death doesn't last for very long
as the top of Tenchi's foot connects with the evil Kyoto's face
at the end of a spiraling round-house kick.
As the good Kyoto drags himself to his feet again, Tenchi lands
on the ground a few feet ahead of him, lines of blood drying
across his forehead from the gash.
Grinning and wiping a trickle of blood from his mouth, Tenchi
turns back to Kyoto. "You gonna be able to keep going?"
Straightening up, Kyoto pauses a moment for his wounds to heal a
bit before responding.
"Yeah, I think--"
He doesn't get to finish his sentence as a wash of blood and
tissue cascades towards him.
With a smoking hole the size of a basketball through his center,
Tenchi falls face first to the ground, stiff as board.
Standing behind where Tenchi was is the Evil Kyoto. His face is
locked in a grimace, and blood trickles down from several gashes
in his forehead and from the corners of his mouth. His left hand
is tightly clenching his right wrist, and his right hand is flat
and parallel to where Tenchi's back would have been. Large
streams of smoke are wafting away from Evil Kyoto's hand,
looking scorched from its last malevolent volley.
After a moment of tense silence between both combatants, the
evil Kyoto relaxes from his stance and allows himself to breathe
slowly and heavily.
"Done... One down, one to go, Kyoto... Have you made your
peace?" Gritting his teeth, he puts his hands together wrists
back to back and his palms open out towards his good
counter-part.
Gradually, veins of energy begin forming down his arms, flowing
in varying dark shades of reddish-purple-black, coming together
in the center of his joined palms. There a small ball of black,
outlined in red begins to form, growing slowly with each ounce
of energy poured into it.
A sickening, stomach twisted flavor of panic begins to well up
in the Good Kyoto's throat. His eyes dart around him, first to
the motionless body of Tenchi lying in lake of blood, then to
the dead bodies of each of his comrades, their bodies burned and
disfigured across the landscape. Only the goddesses remain
alive, still sealed in their trance of meditation, looking
weakened from the prolonged combat.
Each scene of gruesome death widens his eyes ever more,
increasing his heart rate and breathing to within inches of
hyperventilation. His breathing has become audible now, being
mixed with an increasingly shrill pitch.
Trying to shutout the horror and think, he shuts his eyes and
attempts to concentrate, but his mind only flashes the dead
bodies in front of his eyes in a crisp and vivid black and
white, highlighting every detail of their dead bodies.
He snaps his eyes back open.
By this point, the sphere the evil Kyoto has made has grown to
an enormous size. The veins of energy have faded from his arms
and he has begun to bring the ball of energy and his joined
palms around to one side of his body to bring them into an
almost baseball pitching position.
The good Kyoto knows that it will only be a few seconds before
he fires. The panic has built in him to the point where movement
is impossible and all he can do is tighten up his muscles.
As if in slow motion, the Evil Kyoto slowly brings his blast
forward, the ball, changing shape from a sphere and expanding
into a cylindrical blast of energy, several times larger than
himself. At the same time, panic having consumed him, the Good
Kyoto's head snaps back towards the sky, and from his mouth he
issues a scream.
As the scream erupts the ground around him explodes in fissures
all racing outward from his position. Simultaneously, the
goddesses are snapped into a floating erect position, consumed
in transparent columns of energy, each a different color,
matching the element they represent. This explosion of energy
culminates in a column of energy that erupts around Kyoto,
making a massive impression in the ground that shakes everything
in this realm and any other.
It is at this same exact moment that the evil Kyoto's blast
hits.
The column around the good Kyoto vanishes and the area erupts
into a ball of energy fire and explodes outward, consuming
everything with several hundred yards of the impact.
Relaxing from his combative pose, the evil Kyoto chuckles.
"Well, that takes care of that." Taking a short glance over at
the goddesses, whose bodies are laying unconscious at their
positions on the Triad, he begins to walk back toward Akiko when
the crackling sound of energy catches his ears.
He snaps around to face the cloud of smoke where his good
counter part had once stood, finding it to be outlined with
crackles of red energy. Moments later, a set of enormous red
wings of energy erupt out of the sides of the cloud of smoke.
With a single sweep of these wings, the smoke blows away,
bringing the form of the good Kyoto into view.
His outfit has changed, now clad in a similar costume to that of
the evil Kyoto. However, his outfit is not the only change. His
body has undergone massive changes as well. His muscles have
grown to alarming diameters, as well as having sprouted the two
large wings of energy on his back. The color of his eyes has
gone from any normal shade to a complete pit of black, no pupil,
just empty black.
With teeth bared in a consumed grin of pure hatred, the Good
Kyoto steps forward, slowly, taking one step after another
towards his evil counter part.
"What?! You're dead! I destroyed you! You're nothing!" Screaming
with rage, Evil Kyoto launches a barrage of energy blasts at the
Good Kyoto.
Each of these blasts explodes against an invisible field of
force several feet in front of Good Kyoto.
Grinning even wider, Good Kyoto vanishes and reappears directly
in front of Evil Kyoto, and before Evil Kyoto can respond,
drives his knee deep into his gut.
Evil Kyoto's mouth goes wide in a gasp as a torrent of blood
passes his lips from the blow. Sent flying from the force, he
lands several hundred meters away clutching the tear in his
flesh from the impact. Around where he lands, several more crack
form in the ground.
Still hovering in place from the attack, the good Kyoto slowly
returns to a standing position from the stance of where he threw
his attack. Several arcs of energy crackle across his body, and
where they hit, tears in his outfit form, showing rips in his
flesh.
"Wha-- What are you?!" the evil Kyoto spits, clutching his
wounds, and bringing himself into an uneasy fighting stance.
"The Dark Raven.... But I've come at a price. This body is
disintegrating from the excess of energy. So, when I go, I will
destroy you as well." Grinning again, he puts his hands together
in a similar style that the evil Kyoto had used earlier for his
attack.
"Shi-ne!" Screaming, the good Kyoto unleashes a massive blast of
energy in his evil counterpart's direction.
But, the despot is not to be outdone. Shrieking like a bat out
of hell, he brings to bear all of his energy to counter.
* * *
Tenchi finds himself in another place, a world very much like
the one he had been in moments ago, but different in some way.
The colors all seem to have bled into many hues of white and
blue, and time seems to have stopped.
He looks around. His own body, holed and looking quite dead is
laying on the ground aside him, but for some reason this site
doesn't seem to be of much concern.
Where am I? Is the first thought to cross his mind.
"You are beyond." Comes the reply, making Tenchi jump a few
inches into the air. Tenchi slowly turns around to where the
voice had come from, to address his informant--
"Mother?!"
Standing robed in swathes of white and gold is Achika. Her head
is crowned by an aura of blinding brilliance and her body is
wrapped in a large, flowing kimono with tassels of gold and
lavender running from it. Perched on her left hand is a hawk,
whose feathers are as white as linen bed sheets, with eyes of
golden light.
"Mother," Tenchi says, after taking a few moments to regain his
composure and self-control, "Where are we? What is this, beyond?"
"You are in the Eerie of the Light Hawk, the haven for all
Guardians of the realms. The seed of the Light Hawk that was
placed inside you brought you here. In order for it to begin to
live, your body had to die. And now, you are born again as one
of the Guardian family. But, all is not well. Your life was
extinguished at an instant in which the very strands of time
itself are at stake. Your friend, Kyoto, has forced his body to
undergo the evolution to his higher form, but he was not
prepared for it. What his actions will do in minutes from now
will destroy the futures of all existence. With his destruction,
will come a rip in life that will undo the threads that bind all
together. He will undo creation."
"But how do I go back, if I'm dead?"
"All you have to do is picture a reason to return, my son. And
you will come back to life where you fell."
"A reason... to return?" Tenchi closes his eyes for a few
moments and clears his mind of all lingering thoughts and begins
to focus his mind on finding his reason to return.
"A reason, to return..." The picture goes from a milky washed
out silhouette, slowly into a more crisp, defined image.
Kiyone...
* * *
The first thing Tenchi sees, after standing up again is the
giant hole in his chest slowly filling in, and making him whole
once more.
His outfit so far, has not changed. He is still in the same
costume he died in, aside from the addition of the new
ventilation holes on his front and back that are the size of a
basketball.
"I thought I was supposed to have evolved??"
His train of thought is eternally broken as a piece of meter
thick armored plating flies past him.
It is at this moment in time that he realizes the current
situation.
In the time that had elapsed from his death, visitation of the
Eerie of the Light Hawk and resurrection, several hours had
passed. The battlefield has gone from the clean killing fields
of red energy to the hurricane of spinning metal and energy.
The platform of energy that made up the battlefield has
fissured in innumerable places, looking on the edge of
shattering at any second.
The three stations that were at the three apexes of the
triangular field are rapidly breaking down, their armored bodies
pulling apart and gradually imploding. Clouds of radioactive
fire burn on the dead bodies that remain on the intact parts of
the field.
With a few seconds of searching, Tenchi easily locates the
source of all that is going on. Hovering in the air roughly a
hundred yards off the ground is the Good Kyoto.
His outfit is torn and his body is covered with tears and large
patches of raw flesh. His face is locked in an expression of
rage mixed with unbreakable determination and borderline
insanity. Across his forehead and all down his arms large veins
are visible. From his bleeding, raw hands he still forces
forward a blast of energy large enough to dwarf the cones of
active volcanoes.
On the other side of the blast stands Evil Kyoto. His arms are
outstretched with his palms flat, engulfed in his own energy,
which is pushing against the giant ball of energy being forced
down at him by Good Kyoto.
Evil Kyoto stands with his legs locked, and arms forced upward.
His hair is unbound and the long locks are billowing in the wind
with his robes. The ground around him is filled with millions of
cracks and fissures. Already, thousands of splinters have
collected around his boots and it looks as if the ground will
give way at any moment.
Neither combatant seems aware of the chaos their stalemate is
causing, and neither seems to be interested in finding out.
Already, massive pieces of the three stations are locked in an
orbit around the two, the mass of them ever growing as more
shreds are pulled in.
Struggling his way through the tornado of jagged shards, Tenchi
inches towards them, not sure exactly what he will do when he
gets there.
I've got to stop them! But they're so far away still! Oh,
Kiyone-yoni what should I do?
Tenchi's thoughts are interrupted as three explosions rip
through the din.
>From each of the stations a spiral of plasma has erupted, and
has begun mixing to the spiraling sphere of chaos. It looks like
at any minute that the mess will explode, and all it needs is a
simple catalyst.
Knowing he has little time left, Tenchi concentrates on the
image of Kiyone and extends his Light Hawk Wings to block the
flow and move forward as fast as he can. With every mammoth step
he makes, a piece of the battlefield breaks off and drops into
the oblivion of the stream of time.
Even time itself has started to pull apart in the cacophony of
the struggle. What Achika told Tenchi has become all to clear
now. If one of them was to slip from their delicate poise in
this endless stalemate the catalyst would be added and time and
everything they ever knew would come to an end in a ball of
hell-fire.
This thought only has enough time to register in Tenchi's mind
before Evil Kyoto makes his move.
"I've had enough of this, you winged freak!! I'm going to finish
this now, and I'm taking you with me!" bellows Evil Kyoto over
the din, "you're history!!!!"
As if a low rumble started by a heavy vehicle passing over the
ground a ways away, Evil Kyoto slowly begins to chant.
"Maaaaaaa-"
Straining with every ounce of strength he has, Tenchi lunges for
Evil Kyoto, hoping he can stop what has started.
"-Sennnnn-"
Too far away!! I'm not gonna make it Kiyone-yoni.
"-Koooooo-"
"NO-O!"
"HAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
With more force than either the wielder or the recipient
expected, Evil Kyoto's blast triples in size, releasing a
fire-storm of energy arcs racing through the massive cloud of
energy, and forcing Evil Kyoto back towards the ground. It is
only at this time does Evil Kyoto realize what has been building
around them.
But, it's too late.
The ground under Evil Kyoto gives way, and his blast once
targeted at his good counter part, goes wild, lancing through
the cloud of energy.
Like a blast from a flame thrower into a vortex of gasoline, the
energy around them ignites into an all encompassing hell-fire.
Arms flaying, Evil Kyoto grasps at the remaining jagged edges of
the ground that he had been standing on. Ignoring the pain of
flames burning all over his body, Evil Kyoto pulls himself
slowly back up to the platform.
It is at this point that Tenchi finally reaches him. Before
Evil Kyoto can get a foot hold on the platform, he is grabbed by
the collar and yanked into the air at arms length by Tenchi.
"Kisama." Raising one hand, Tenchi places it palm open against
Evil Kyoto's face, which squirms to get away from it. Charging a
blast, Tenchi smirks, "Shi-ne."
Like a popcorn kernel, Evil Kyoto's head explodes, showering
Tenchi with blood and various tissues.
Letting the limp body drop to the ground, Tenchi levitates away
and back to Good Kyoto who has drifted to the ground during this
time and is sitting hunched on the ground, one arm holding him
up while the other is wrapped around him clutching at wounds.
"You gonna be okay?" Tenchi tentatively reaches out a hand to
put on Kyoto's shoulder. As it comes in contact, he is blown
back from a arc of energy that sparks off Kyoto's body.
"N-no. My body is wracked, I don't think I can hold it together
for much longer. I-knew this was a one way ticket when I stepped
into the column. I can only hope that it wasn't all in vain,"
says Kyoto, looking up at the swirling vortex of flames that
licks at both their bodies.
"Kyoto?.." Both men look up to see a bloodied and beaten
looking Murasaki approaching them with a limp. Smiling, though
with a small amount of pain she kneels down next to Kyoto and
places a hand on his forehead, allowing the residual arcs of
energy to travel down her arm into her own body.
"Mom? Shouldn't you be with your sisters? Who's holding the
platform together? What are we--" Kyoto inquires, but is hushed
by Murasaki's finger as she hugs her son close to her.
"Everything will be alright, you just relax as best you can and
try not to worry about anything. Tokimi and Tsunami are gone,
Sasami is currently holding the platform together, but she won't
be able to do it forever. It'll all be better soon."
"Sasami-cha'ya is still alive?!" Tears of joy stream down
Tenchi's cheeks at the very mention of this. Turning happily,
Tenchi begins to run off towards the center, in hopes to find
Sasami.
Meanwhile, quite unnoticed by the three several yards away, the
small pieces of Evil Kyoto's skull are slowly sliding along the
ground collecting together into a large egg shaped blob forming
at the end of his neck. Within a few moments the liquid-like egg
has transformed into a solid shape, namely that of Evil Kyoto's
head.
Being sure to move stealthily, he rises from the ground and
brings himself to a standing position and extends one hand with
the pointer finger extended, like one pretending to aim a gun.
Aiming his finger, he begins to charge a blast.
* * *
Jogging back, Tenchi is still crying with joy as he kneels down
next to Murasaki and Kyoto.
"Well, Sasami says she'll do her best to hold things together
until we can figure out how to fix things. How's Kyoto doing?"
Looking somewhat more healed, Murasaki looks up from the head
of her son.
"He's stable for the moment, but the damage is irreparable,
it'll only be a matter of time before his body destabilizes.
When that happens, one can only guess what will happen. With as
much astral energy as he absorbed, the results could be
catastrophic. I can only hope that I can take the brunt when it
happens, to spare the universe. If I am lucky, my body will take
the full-"
She never finishes her sentence.
Her eyes go wide as a hole the size of a cigar drills through
her head, exploding quietly out the other side with a small wash
of blood. She slumps quietly into Kyoto's arms, a steady flow of
blood pooling at their knees.
Horrified, Tenchi spins around to where he thought he had killed
Evil Kyoto. Standing erect, and looking quite alive for a man
whose head had just been detonated like a cantaloupe is Evil
Kyoto.
"You're next Masaki, right after my annoying winged
counter-part. I guess you forgot some critical things about us
Minamotos. Our bodies regenerate any destroyed appendices."
Aiming his finger at his good counter-part, he smirks. "If I hit
you just right, this little shot should destabilize that body of
yours and set you off like a barrel of anti-matter. There will
be no victors in this contest. All will end, and there's nothing
in the universe that will stop me, not even you, Masaki."
Good Kyoto, for his part, does not look up, instead, he
continues to cradle his mother's body in his arms, the life
slipping quickly from her body.
"Good bye, it was an enjoyable fight. I really wish we could
continue doing it more often."
For a second Evil Kyoto's extended hand glows red, and then from
his finger a blast erupts. However, instead of hitting Good
Kyoto, the blast is caught by Tenchi in the shoulder.
Landing on his feet, Tenchi comes to a stop squatting, clenching
the searing burn in his left shoulder.
"Futile, Tenchi Masaki, very futile. You've only delayed the
inevitable for a few seconds, for as you watch, I will now fire
again, and this time you will not-"
Evil Kyoto is cut short as his good counter part stands slowly,
laying Murasaki's body down gently to the ground.
Arcs of energy are now crackling everywhere across his body as
he stands up and extends his hands out once more to fire off a
blast at Evil Kyoto. Already, streams of energy are steaming off
his body, and it's only a matter of moments before the flesh can
stand it no longer, and everything goes.
Good Kyoto knows this, and as his body collapses around him, he
fires one last blast.
Leaping desperately, Tenchi dives for Good Kyoto.
But it is too late.
Over stressed and already unstable, his final attack is all Good
Kyoto's body needed to start an unstoppable chain reaction. As
the blast erupts from his hands, immolating Evil Kyoto, Good
Kyoto's body explodes, erupting into a column of blinding white
energy that expands outward enveloping everything.
This blast mixed with the already burning fires of time, causes
meltdown far bigger than any scientist on any world could have
imagined. The only thing anyone could match to it would be the
big bang that started the universe.
As the column of destruction envelops Tenchi, he keeps his eyes
closed, half expecting to find himself returned the eerie of the
Light Hawks.
However, when he chances opening an eye he finds himself quite
alive, hovering inside the blast itself. Around him half-tone
images of the end of existence play out on the walls of white.
Glancing around frantically at these images, Tenchi's heart-rate
begins to race. Before he can utter word of anguish, the images
are cut off as the black silhouettes of three begin to form.
One of the three, Tenchi recognizes instantly as being that of
the recently deceased Evil Kyoto. However, the tall male in the
middle and the shorter female on the left draw a blank.
"Enjoying the view? I think it rather enjoyable actually. The
Dark Raven's doing exactly what it was meant to, bring about
destruction. I think he's doing a good job it with that blast,
wouldn't you?"
The voices come as one, a mixture of two men and one woman, all
speaking the same words.
"Who-Who are you?! And what have you done?!" Tenchi barks,
clenching his fists in anger at these shadows of evil.
"As the Triad stands, with point facing high to the sky, we are
the Triad as it stands pointing down to the ground. We are the
Dark Triad."
"The Dark Triad? What do you mean the Dark Triad?!"
"As the goddesses of the elements make up the Triad of Light, to
which the Light Hawk belongs, we three beings make up the Triad
of Darkness, to which the Dark Raven belongs. Your friend, Kyoto
is one of our kind, though he fights for the side of Light,
really a pity."
"He would never join you! I won't let him join you!"
"He already has, though he is quite useless to us now, having
destroyed his physical body. Now, he only exists as the cascade
wave, which is destroying your universe. It really is a shame we
couldn't have put him to a better use."
"You... bastards!"
"There's no sense in using expletives, it really won't help.
Now, we suggest that you enjoy the show, after all, it's the
last one the Light Universe will be putting on."
Chuckling as they vanish, Tenchi lunges desperately at the three
shadows, but to no avail. By the time he reaches them, they've
gone, and all remains are the pictures of destruction.
Spinning around, screaming for them to return, Tenchi's eyes
falls upon the various images of carnage. Each scream brings the
images clearer into view. Each scream brings the cloud of white
in closer to him.
Snapping his head back and clenching his fists in the air he
hollows louder than any creature ever to known exist. At this
same moment, the cloud of white energy cascades in like the
closing of the Red Sea when Moses had safely brought the
Israelites across.
And for a brief moment, every man, woman, and child of all the
worlds pauses in the chaos of the end, look up, as if they heard
a God die.
However, the wave of destruction that was consuming existence
itself has stopped. Its once bright violent red colors having
faded to a paler blue. And in the place where the fight for
existence had once been, rising from the cloud of energy is
Tenchi.
His side has grown dramatically and his garb has changed
drastically from any of the previous incarnations of the Light
Hawk. His robes are now all of white and flow down hanging low
below him, masking any signs of legs. Hanging in mid-air and
tied around his middle is a sash of gold. From his back has
sprouted two giant wings, each feathered and very real. His eyes
have gone to solid white, glowing like the centers of stars. His
whole body is basked in a heavenly glow as he rises gently from
the cloud.
Hanging around him are the souls of all his friends and family.
Their ethereal forms all glowing in hues of blue and clad in
similar garbs as Tenchi's.
All are there except one.
Bringing his hands down, Tenchi places them in the center of the
cloud below him and closes the palms together.
In a chorus of heavenly choirs and pipe organ chords, the
consuming cloud reverses, pulling back from all directions to
the center once more, restoring all that was destroyed.
The cloud spirals back in, eventually all of it disappearing
into the closed palms of Tenchi's hands.
For a brief second, a brilliant glow escapes from the seams of
Tenchi's two closed hands and as it fades, he opens his hands
the glowing soul of Kyoto emerges. Unlike the souls of his
friends, Kyoto's soul glows a bright red. As his soul floats up
to join the others, they exchange a glance amongst one another
before looking out at the trapped souls of their adversaries.
Without ever uttering a word the group of them vanish from the
scene taking the souls of their enemies with them.
* * *
ROYAL PALACE OF JURAI
YACHIKA, JURAI
JULY 7, 2012
"Mama? Papa? Are you ready?" Mirei's soft voice carries
through the thick mutsuki wood doors.
"Just about, Rei-cha'ya," Kiyone answers, turning her back to
her husband. "Tenchi-yon, can you help me with the obi?"
"Sure thing," her husband replies. As he tightens and fastens
it, he plants a light kiss on the back of her neck.
Kiyone giggles. "Ecchi. Not right now. After all, the Startika
festival cannot begin without the emperor and empress being
present...."
"Don't remind me, yoni. If I never have to preside over another
ceremony again, it'll be too soon...." Tenchi is grinning wryly.
He finishes wrapping the obi and regards Kiyone in her lavender
formal kimono with white trim and silver epaulettes. "Pretty
good looking, Lady Empress."
Kiyone glances at Tenchi, in the gray tunic/trousers/half-cape
semi-formal outfit he favors for long-duration functions. "Not
too shabby yourself, Lord Emperor." She crooks her arm slightly.
"Shall we?"
"Let's." Arm in arm, they step into the hallway.
* * *
JULY 12, 2012
MINAMOTO RESIDENCE
OKAYAMA, JAPAN
"Come on, honey, we're gonna be late for the festival!" Kyoto
yells, dashing around to gather all of the parts of festival
costume together. "If we don't hurry we'll miss the shuttle!"
"I'm hurrying, dear, these feminine things take time, dear!"
"Well, hurry anyway! You haven't been to a Startika festival
and by gods, you're going to go to one!"
Ryoko exits the bathroom a moment later, clad in a long flowing
kimono. The fabric is adorned with multiple flower patterns, and
around her waist are tied several long bows of satiny fabric.
The long sleeves drape down her arms, only allowing the last
inch of her fingers to show.
"How do I look?" she says, doing a pirouette so that Kyoto can
see her whole costume.
"You look great, Ryoko."
Kyoto, for his part, is clad in a very fanciful looking robe,
draping down to his feet. Strapped on his back is Edgatho, its
plain brown leather sheath replaced with a more elaborate one,
encrusted with various jewels and engravings.
Hand in hand, the two walk out of their room. Lining the
hallways are special unit GP forces.
"Lord Minamoto, Lady Minamoto, the Dark Matter Division stands
ready to escort Lord Kyoto and Lady Ryoko to the Startika
festival on Jurai!" sounds off the leader.
"Excellent. Shall we be going then?"
"Whenever you're ready, milord."
"Alright. Dark Matter Division! Fall out!"
* * *
JULY, 2012
MAIN RECEPTION HALL, ROYAL PALACE OF JURAI
YACHIKA, JURAI
"Fly me to the moon, and let me play among the stars..." The
sound of a love song fills the air in the city's largest banquet
hall. Tenchi looks around at all the people dancing and eating
and having fun and thinks, with all this fun going on, why am I
so uneasy? He tries to shake the feeling and turns his attention
back to his wife.
"Having fun, Kiyone-yoni?"
Kiyone smiles and then pats her hand in front of her mouth as
she yawns. "Not as much fun as I would like."
Tenchi returns her inward smile and leans back in his chair.
It's hard for him to believe that fifteen years have passed.
And in that fifteen years, so much has changed.....
Tenchi is broken out of his reverie when the doors to the
banquet hall are opened and Sagami and Mirei walk in.
Soon after Kiyone had given birth to Tsunami and Tokimi, Sasami
had convinced Tenchi and Washu to take her back to Sargasso.
With Washu's equipment, Mirei's spirit was rescued and
resurrected. Sasami had arranged for this to be done in order to
try to find Mirei's family; when it was found that she had no
living relatives, she convinced Kiyone, who in turn convinced
Tenchi (not that either of them needed much), to adopt Mirei
into their family. She was raised on Earth with Sasami and the
twins, living a normal and happy life. Shortly after returning
to Jurai with Sasami after college, she and Sagami had been
introduced and had fallen in love.
Surprisingly, the age difference had never played a factor.
While Sagami was eleven years older than Mirei physically, she
was Kami-only-knew how much older than him chronologically. Much
more important was the complementation of their personalities
and how they got along. Tenchi is anticipating a formal proposal
any day now.
"Ahh, otou-sama, okaa-sama, there you are!" Tokimi suddenly
appears at the table, still wrapped in a bathrobe and with her
hair up in a towel.
Tenchi eyes his youngest daughter suspiciously. "Kimi-cha'ya,
why aren't you dressed yet?"
Tokimi beams at him. "Because I had two looks for tonight, and
wanted to see which one you two liked better!" She holds up one
static holo; in it she wears a jet-black leather kimono with
blood-red highlights, black lipstick, and her hair up in a
geisha hairstyle but secured with chains. "This is my geisha
goth look!"
Kiyone raises her eyebrows. "Oh, my.... Kimi-cha'ya, you look
like someone just died."
Tenchi begins to sweatdrop. "....Right. And the other one is?"
The second holo has her dressed like Judy Garland in The Wizard
of Oz, save for the fact that she's wearing Nike hi-tops and
little cabbits in place of the hair ribbons.
"Better," her parents blurt out in unison.
"All right then! Geisha goth it is!" Before her parents can
object, Tokimi disappears. Kiyone sighs and smiles wryly at her
husband. "Where'd we go wrong?"
Tenchi grins and shrugs. Tokimi's chosen quirk is an
ever-changing fashion sense; one week she will be a demure young
maiden in a yukata; the next she will be a grunged-out rocker
complete with ripped jeans and bandanna. While this has the
potential to be an expensive habit, Tenchi feels that there are
far worse outlets for the frustrations of youth.
"Was that Tokimi-chan just now?" asks Momoko as she, Kyo, and
Tsunami approach the table. The two girls are dressed in yukata,
while Kyo is dressed in light slacks and a short-sleeved
button-down shirt
"Yes it was. She was considering a 'geisha goth' look tonight,"
explains Kiyone amusedly.
Sasami giggles and shrugs. "At least that's better than the...
'baseball player from outer space' look." From her customary
perch on her shoulder, Ryo-ohki miyas in agreement.
* * *
Lord Sato, head of the Satosaki branch of the Juraian Royal
family glares at the platform as the emperor and empress walk
onto it. For fifteen years he has had to suffer with a
half-commoner on the throne and a Megamian whore as the empress.
Well, tonight that will change. He dips his hand into the folds
of his formal jacket fingering the signaling device inside.
Curling his fingers around it, he starts to thumb the switch
when he hears a low rumbling sound behind him.
A quizzical expression on his face, he looks to either side of
him; on either side is brown fur. Looking up, his eyes widen as
he sees a huge cabbit head looming over him, his mouth opening.
He has just enough time to scream.
* * *
Tenchi's speech is interrupted by a high pitched scream.
Everyone in the reception hall turns to look at the large brown
cabbit, which has swallowed someone up to his knees and seems to
be in the process of chewing on the person.
"Dai-ohki!!" the girls cry out in delight.
Kiyone half covers her face with her hand. "Oh dear lord..."
Tenchi turns to his daughters. "What is Dai-ohki doing here?!"
"We don't know!" they chorus.
Tenchi sighs audibly, and then speaks into the mike. "Um... does
anyone know who's... being swallowed by the cabbit?"
"Um... I think it's Lord Sato, milord..." answers a mid-level
bureaucrat near the back of the room.
Tenchi wrinkles his nose. "Dai-ohki! Spit him out, you don't
know where he's been!"
Dai-Ohki continues chewing on Lord Sato for a moment, then his
face takes on the expression of one whose face has just bitten
into a lemon. After a moment, he spits Lord Sato out.
The nobleman flies across the room, slamming head first into one
of the Startika trees near the platform. He hits the ground with
a solid thunk, and a number of star fruits begin to rain on his
head.
As Lord Sato is settling to the ground, the hall doors slam open
and a platoon of guards rush in, combat staves in hand. They
look up at the giant cabbit for a moment, which miyas loudly at
them and points in Lord Sato's direction with its ear, and then
dash over to the fallen noble.
"Lord Sato, under Juraian royal law, you are hereby placed under
arrest for conspiracy to commit treason and regicide," intones
the platoon leader, drawing his light sword. A green-white blade
erupts from its projecting end, and he holds the tip at Sato's
throat while his men haul the noble roughly to his feet.
Lord Sato does his best to smooth down his jacket, and makes a
show of thrusting his hands into his pockets, closing his
fingers around the signaling device. Clicking the transmit
button, he speaks to the guards, "Surely you jest, my good men,
I'm Lord Sato, head of the Satosaki family. By what means did
you come to this preposterous notion?"
"Oh, they have very good sources," a different voice replies
silkily. At the same time, Sato feels the sharp but slight bite
of an actual steel blade just barely piercing skin.
"Thank you again for your assistance in this matter, Lord
Minamoto," the platoon leader says respectfully. "Your contacts
were very helpful."
"Oh, it was my pleasure, Lieutenant. Always happy to help."
"Minamoto!" Sato growls, starting to turn. "I should ha-"
"Ah-ah-ah!" and the blade's edge is laid against the jugular
vein. "You might want to rethink any quick movements. Oh, and by
the way, don't be counting on any assistance from out Megami
way. A certain former emperor of the Alliance has just been sent
into exile - a comfortable, even decadent, exile, but exile
nonetheless. If you're lucky, the Lord Emperor will be so
disposed to deal with you."
"Perhaps after the trial," Tenchi intones. "Lieutenant, take him
away. I trust you have the rest of the conspirators rounded up?"
"Indeed we do, milord," the lieutenant answers, saluting.
"Damn you, Masaki!" Sato growls. "You'll never get away with
this! You'll never find the pr-"
"He already has, otou-sama." The eldest daughter of the Satosaki
family, Jueiko, steps into view. As beautiful as ever, with long
ebony hair framing a heartbreakingly lovely face, her expression
is a sober one. Her lavender eyes reflect both guilt and
conviction. Most notable to her father, however, is her clothing
- instead of the blood-red and royal-blue of the Satosaki line,
her kimono is turquoise and teal - the traditional colors of the
Masaki line. This is a subtle statement, yet to those who
recognize it, it carries the impact of a fusion bomb.
Sato is stunned at first, then his expression changes to one or
rage. "Traitress! You dare side with this. this half-breed
against your own family?!"
Jueiko faces her father, pain and determination mingled in her
expression. "You should never have thought to exclude me from
your planning councils, otou-sama, simply because I am a woman.
You should also never have presumed that, because I am a woman,
that I could not crack your private files." She holds up a
translucent-blue crystal-memory disk. "I am no longer your
chattel." Turning towards Tenchi, she declares, "Milord Emperor,
I place the entirety of Lord Sato's -" This, the refusal to call
him her father, is the final twist of the knife. "-private files
at your disposal, in exchange for amnesty from all prosecution."
"Done," Tenchi replies quickly. "From this day forth, your name
is added to the rolls of the Masaki family." He gestures, and
she approaches the stage, passing him the disk as she takes up a
place with the princesses. "Gentlemen, if you would take him
away?"
".and, in a surprisingly coincident development, two of the
galaxy's most powerful men were removed from power this week,"
the Intergalactic News Channel anchor intones. This is Amiko
Suiryuu's first time doing the Saturday evening broadcast, and
she's determined to get it dead-on. "Lord Sato, patriarch of the
powerful Satosaki branch of the Juraian royal family, and Azusa
Makino, longtime regent of the Megami Alliance, were ousted from
their positions tonight. On Monday, information was provided to
both the Juraian and Megamian governments of the two nobles'
conspiracy to oust Juraian emperor Tenchi Masaki from the
throne, and to permanently secure the Makino line as the sole
royal line of Megami. For a more up-to-date look at things, we
go to Kiyoshi Tamura in Yachika and Suri Nashuin in Megamimachi.
Kiyoshi?"
Tamura, a seasoned field correspondent who looks the part of a
career journalist, faces the camera. "Amiko, there is one word
to describe the scene in Yachika, and that word is. bemusement.
Emperor Tenchi's own personal popularity aside, the general
consensus is that Sato was little more than the average noble
with ambitions in excess of his ability. While a capable
administrator, Sato is noted for an abrasive and arrogant
personality, as well as chauvinistic tendencies that make even
Jurai's admittedly semi-patriarchal society look liberal. These
are tendencies that would alienate him from many of the mid- and
lower-level personnel necessary to maintain an interstellar
government. In fact, it was these tendencies that led his own
daughter, Jueiko, to pilfer his confidential files and deliver
them to the Emperor. Add this to Sato's own unpopularity with
both the rest of the Supreme Council and the military High
Command, and one wonders just where the belief that he could
pull off a coup d'etat originated from."
"Are you saying that Sato would have had no military support at
all?"
"Very little, Amiko. While Sato's own personal guard was
substantial - totaling some three infantry regiments - those
were, for the most part, either green troops or troops who
couldn't cut it in the Regular Army. And as far as regular
military forces. He had two front-line armor regiments and an
aerospace wing pledged to him - a powerful force, but nowhere
near what would be needed to execute a coup and make it stick.
And as far as naval assets are concerned, his records indicated
that he had influence over a single cruiser squadron and two
transport squadrons. About all he could do with that is hit a
planet hard initially, and keep his troops supplied for several
months. He would be hard put to capture a regional capital such
as Hoshimichi or Akikaze. To capture the capital. that would be
almost tantamount to suicide." Tamura shakes his head. "A factor
you must keep in mind is that most Juraian nobles serve terms in
either the RJDF or the Galaxy Police, to get a better
understanding for the forces and people their decisions will
affect the lives of. Sato didn't. He's not even an armchair
tactician, which would at least indicate some understanding of
what his forces would be capable of. Exactly what he did with
his youth is sketchy. And commanders in Jurai's military won't
trust nobles who haven't at least had a taste of life they lead,
and the responsibilities they must carry. Against an Emperor
like Tenchi Masaki, a leader would need either immense military
genius or immense charisma, preferably both. Sato has neither."
"Is there any way his coup could have succeeded?"
"Only if every active unit had been deployed to the borders
against a major incursion. That appears to have been the
reasoning behind Sato's pact with Azusa - I must backtrack and
say that Sato wasn't a complete idiot."
"Thank you, Kiyoshi." Amiko Fuyuno fixes the holocam with the
serious, concerned stare that helped earn her the anchor seat
for the 6 o'clock broadcast. "And now we go to Suri Nashuin in
Megamimachi. Suri?"
Nashuin is pretty enough to be an idol singer, but her
expression is far too grave to be pictured hawking soda pop or
perfume. "Amiko, the people of the Alliance appear to be
cautiously relieved. While Azusa has been a fairly benign ruler
over the past twenty years, the rumors of his own personal
proclivities have brought him wary approval at best. The
wariness seems to have paid off this week, when a local
journalist managed to obtain copies of the regent's personal
files. In them were detailed plans for collusion with Sato of
Jurai - and beyond that, plans for either using Sato as his own
puppet and effectively ruling two nation from behind the scenes,
or for striking directly at Jurai and snatching the throne from
Sato. Also in his files were detailed accounts of his own
dalliances, many of them. we won't say the word 'rape' here,
Amiko, but the word 'coercion' will suffice. When informed of
this, Galactic High Council vice-president Misaki Makibi, the
next-closest claimant to the throne, resigned her position on
the Council and returned to Megami. She is to be invested as
Empress before the month is out."
"Thank you, Suri. Do either of you have any idea what will
become of the two would-be usurpers?"
Tamura speaks first. "That's not really clear right now. Emperor
Tenchi seems to favor exile, but public opinion may take the
decision out of his hands. In fact, there is -" Tamura pauses, a
perplexed expression on his face as he listens to his hands-free
commlink. "What th - Amiko, we've just received a report from
the detention facilities in the Royal Palace. Apparently Sato
was just found in his cell, dead. Preliminary reports seems to
suggest suicide." For all his experience, Tamura cannot avoid
looking slightly stunned. "Amiko, this seems to answer your
question. From Yachika, this is Kiyoshi Tamura for IGNC."
Amiko herself looks taken aback, but recovers quickly. "Thank
you, Kiyoshi, for your on-the-spot assessment. Suri?"
"Nothing quite so dramatic seems to have happened with Makino,
Amiko. Because he was, despite his personal proclivities, a
relatively decent ruler, Empress-designate Misaki exiled him to
the remote Alliance world of Saigoh. There, he will be allowed a
comfortable life, but a solitary one. The only contact he will
be allowed with the outside universe is via holovision or over
ship-to-shore commo channels, with periodic supply ships which
will drop his supplies from orbit. He will be alone in his villa
- a fitting fate for one who used his position to take advantage
of the helpless. As for his victims and their families, a
special commission is being set up to provide assistance and
compensation, although it is likely that the scars of Azusa's
actions will remain for years to come. For IGNC, this is Suri
Nashuin, reporting from Megamimachi."
"Thank you, Suri, Kiyoshi. That brings us up to the half-hour,
and to our commercial break. When we return, Kyoichi Akino will
have the latest updates on galactic reaction to these
far-reaching events. This is IGNC, and we'll be right back.."
The anchor's face is replaced by that of a pretty teenage girl.
The girl, with long green hair and matching eyes, is dressed in
kendo gear and garb and resting a shinai's blade on her
shoulder. She smiles at the camera. "At Oishii Beef Bowls, we do
this to the competition!" The camera pulls back to reveal a beef
bowl, which the girl proceeds to shatter with multiple strikes
to the delicate ceramic. Now looking slightly flushed and
winded, the girl turns back to the camera. "And we do this to
your taste buds." She leans up, planting a kiss directly on the
lens. As it pulls back from her shyly smiling face, a hot pink
lipstick-kiss remains on the lens, which pulls back enough to
frame her face between the "lips". A black screen replaces this
charming image, in the center of which is a cute super-deformed
version of the girl, gaily swinging a shinai, on the side of a
beef bowl. A chorus of cute female voices sing out "Oishii Beef
Bowls!", followed by the kendo-girl saying, "You know why they
call them 'oishii', don't you?"
The cute kendo-girl/fast food hawker is followed by several
less memorable commercials before the newscast resumes. Amiko
Suiryuu's serious face is once again in place. "Welcome back. We
take you now to Yoichi Akino on Prime Center, where he's had a
chance to assess this momentous shift in galactic politics.
Kyoichi?"
Akino, a sober-faced young man with the skin tones and deep
teal hair of a native Megamian, speaks. "Amiko, the atmosphere
on Prime Center is one of cautious optimism. With the. removal
of Lord Sato, many of the more reactionary voices in the Juraian
government have, if not been silenced, at least lost their most
prominent voice. And those hardliners in the Megami Alliance
have also been dealt a serious blow. The two movements may be
immobilized long enough for a true rapprochement between Jurai
and Megami.
In another place.
"Would you like to see more of the reports, milord?"
"No, this is quite enough, I believe." Lips curve upward in a
cold smile. "Amazing, isn't it? The past fifteen years have just
been rewritten - in subtle ways, to be sure, but those
subtleties produce major changes. And now the landscape of this
galaxy has been altered. I wonder if they even remember."
"I would think it unlikely, milord. Human and humanoid memories
tend to be malleable and unreliable at best."
A sigh. "You can be far too literal sometimes. No matter.
You're right; if they remember, it would be as a bad dream."
Cold eyes stare at two of the faces on the screen: Tenchi
Masaki, in his court attire, and Kyoto Minamoto, dressed in a
smartly-tailored suit. "Enjoy your reprieve, gentlemen. The
carpet shall be yanked out from beneath you again soon enough."
The light from the monitor dies, bathing the room in darkness.
___________________________________________
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