This work is derived from Characters and Situations that are Copyright
and/or Trademark AIC, and Pioneer LDCA, all public or commercial use of
this material would require the very unlikely permission of the original
copyright holders.
The ideas projected in this work are strictly the product of the
imagination of the author, inevitably reflecting his mind, and should in
no way be taken to reflect on the originals from which they are derived.
	The following is an adaptation and extension of "The Lonely Moon", by
Gregory W. Matteson, done with his knowledge and approval. It is ADULT
in nature, containing explicit descriptions of sexual matters. If you
are under 18 years old, or reside in a jurisdiction where such materials
are illegal, do not continue to read, or download this material, but
rather exit this page immediately.
	Mr. Matteson, the original author, notes that:
"The following story is based" ... "on the OAV continuity, departing at
the end of the so-called episode 13.5, where Washu leaves Ryouko in
bondage overnight. Certain other elements depend strongly on the two
original CD "Specials".
	There are two key problems for me, in relying on the CD "Specials".
First, the material is almost completely inaccessible to English
speaking Americans; and second, much of the material strikes American
tastes as being positively counterintuitive, if not downright silly.
	Well, IMHO, the presence of a version of the "Dimensional Tuner" story,
as the core of the first CD Special, is the essential license for a
parallel universes interpretation of the various otherwise incompatible
Tenchi continuities."
Aoi Tsuki 
Part 1,  Virgin Moon

	Aeka's heart affirmed righteously; the Demon is exorcised, the Oni
banished. That creature, no, she admitted to herself internally, that
woman, will never lay with my Tenchi. She felt a certain rightness that
she had been honest, offering Tenchi exculpatory information, hadn't
she? Unwillingly, the memory of ozone and singed hair wafted into her
awareness, along with mocking laughter burned away to agony. Resisting
that memory, she recalled a lonely girl, naked in a cell, and shivered.
That was emblematic of what Aeka's heart knew was the real Ryouko's
primary experience in life. Why should I care, she wondered at herself?
	The Princess chose to spend the morning sweeping the walkways of Masaki
Shrine. It somehow suited her mood, as she was able to hear the
intermixed gasps and chanting of prayers, as Tenchi and his grandfather
poured icy spring water over each other from the spring behind the
Shrine. Their purpose was to purify themselves before the Kami of the
Shrine, so a purification of Achika's grave monument from it's
accidental disturbance could be performed.
	Lunch was meager and plain, reflecting Sasami's mood. Afterward, Aeka
sat watching the purification rituals. She massaged her hands, which
were sore from the morning's sweeping, and recalled that Ryouko-san had
always shirked the chores, mocking the need for them. Aeka felt
improper, thinking of Ryouko at a time like this; still, the damage to
Achika's monument had been inadvertent. Staring at her hands, the
Princess's mind was stirred by a memory from another time, another
world.
	An other Achika was commending another Tenchi into the care of an Aeka
and Ryouko who truly didn't like each other. Aeka knew that in their
hearts, herself and her Ryouko had pledged themselves. She gasped; to
think of such a thing at a time like this! That had happened in another
world, too, one of Washu's damnable illusions; but Aeka knew somewhere
deep within, that those other worlds spoke truths.
	 After a quiet dinner, Tenchi and Grandfather had disappeared into the
onsen, forcing Aeka to postpone her own plans. With Washu still not
having appeared at her damaged portal for the moment, there were only
Sasami and Ryo-ohki to keep her company, and the local video broadcasts
to occupy her mind. Without the presence of the other older girls for
support, she found herself allowing Sasami's little girl tastes to
dictate the viewing fare. One sing-along, and one magical-girl show
later, she was relieved to see Sasami and Ryo-ohki nodding off. Even the
promise of another Chisa Yokoyama sing-along wasn't enough to keep their
attention. Soon, Sasami and her cabbit friend lay dozing together,
sharing the dreams of living starships.
	Clicking through the channels, Aeka found herself a suitably steamy
melodrama. It was a piece about a workaholic salary man, and his pretty
but neglected wife. The girl started drinking. Following the suggestion,
Aeka was returning from the kitchen with a tumbler full of Saki just as
the salary man fell asleep on the down-train, and his tipsy wife was
seducing the pizza delivery boy. In typical Japanese fashion, they were
showing a great deal of moonlit breast over folded down sheet, but
little of the man other than a dark and heavy massaging hand, and the
silhouette  of a face in shadow descending over a nipple.
	Aeka wistfully imagined Tenchi's smooth face and soft mouth pressed
against her own softness. Feeling her nipples press against the quilting
of her under wrap, she hastily gulped half the Saki to repress her
shaking. She reached inside her robe and loosened the top two ties on
the under wrap. Thank goodness Tenchi would never have to be a salary
man! She shuddered again as she remembered Mihoshi's nightmare dream
world, where Tenchi had been both Aeka's brother, and a salary man.
Poor, flighty Mihoshi would hug almost anything that would hug back,
almost a soft version of Misaki. Aeka thought how badly Mihoshi's dream
had felt, and gulped the remainder of the Saki, the heat spreading from
her stomach upwards.
	Hearing the men at the onsen portal, Aeka hastily pushed the empty
glass under the table with her toes, and pulled her robes smooth. As
Tenchi entered the room, she clicked the TV to a quiz show, common fare
for the time and place. Grandfather was already disappearing out the
kitchen door, as Aeka reminded herself that he is in fact her long lost
brother Yousho. Surely he is hiding something, she thought, he really
does avoid getting one on one with me: But her thoughts in that
direction evaporated as Tenchi sat down next to her.
	She realized that she was hot and flushed with Saki, desiring this man.
A fear gripped her, if he were to kiss me now, he would not taste me, he
would taste the Saki, and think that my passion was only liquor, I do
not want him to think me a loose woman. What Tenchi thought mattered a
great deal to her, knowing that he is the embodiment of Jurai power.
Under her wooden tiara, the mind of the Princess was always aware of the
ebb and flow of Jurai power, and around Tenchi it was always flowing
strongly. Did the power, or the Kami, or anyone, for that matter, care
yes or no about her passions?
	The same power, or perhaps just the noise of his entrance, had awakened
Sasami and Ryo-ohki.
	"I miss Ryouko-onesan", Sasami sighed.
	"Meow"
	Tenchi growled and wrapped his right arm around Aeka, half pleasing and
half annoying the two younger females. Aeka still felt a vague
embarrassment, as if her gain in Tenchi's affection was somehow
improper; how she longed to possess the brashness of the Oni-girl! 
	Tenchi seemed covertly aware, in his boyish way, of her passion. His
right arm sneaked lower. Under her own arm and the folds of her outer
robe, his hand cupped her right breast. For all the nose bleeding
excitement when he was embarrassed, he surely didn't think that she was
unaware or unwelcoming of the feel? How she longed, from the tip of her
tongue, to right down there between her legs, to rip off her reserve,
and embrace this boy-man. Why, oh why, she thought in a moment of
clarity, must I wear this quilted wrap, that muffles the divine feel of
his hand on my breast?
Yousho entered unannounced.
	Tenchi's right arm guiltily sneaked out from around Aeka, leaving a
trace of absence in her awareness.
	"Tenchi, we did not raise you to be a cruel man."
	"What are you talking about, grandpa?"
	"Funaho tells me that Ryouko-sama is crying to herself in the old
cave."
	Aeka duly noted Yousho's use of the honorific suffix "-sama" on the
Oni's name.
	"Funaho?"
	"Onisama's Tree", Sasami offered.
	"Ee", Yousho affirmed, "Fool, have you forgotten?"
	"Forgotten what, old man?" Tenchi responded disrespectfully, not sure
whether he should really be annoyed at the old man, or at his own yet
undisclosed failings.
	"Do you still intend to expel Ryouko?"
	"Ee"
	"You have something of hers. More than that, you have a part of her, as
intimate as her heart; no, more than that, as intimate as her very
being. I am talking about her gems. You know as well as I do, that she
has been a willing prisoner, until now. She can no more leave without
those gems than you could leave your beating heart on the kitchen
table."
	"She is dangerous", Tenchi offered.
	"You can't be serious", Aeka added, imagining an enraged Ryouko with
all her gems.
	Yousho turned those impenetrable eyes of his on the Princess.
	"Do you truly believe you would be in danger?"
	Aeka remembered falling to Earth, Ryu-oh breaking under her; Ryouko
could easily have killed her then. She remembered an impudent kick in
the face, putting her on notice that without Ryu-oh's shields, Ryouko
could have spiked her as easily as a melon on a post. Then she recalled
lying on Soja's deck, a thousand tons of debris falling on her, and
those powerful protective arms scooping her up, placing her behind Azaka
and Kamidake's shields.
	"No, Ryouko-san would never intentionally harm me", the Princess
admitted.
	"Tenchi, you know what you must do."
	"Hai."
	Once again, Aeka was left with the feeling that Yousho was concealing
something.
	With the tableau broken, Tenchi and the little ones went upstairs.
Sweating a distinctly Saki tainted perspiration, Aeka sat for a while
aching with unspent passion. Thinking of the Oni-girl was disturbing, at
the moment. Ryouko had always carried with her that same aura of Jurai
power that flowed around Tenchi, to only a slightly lesser degree. Aeka
hungered to unite with that power, in an almost sexual way. She
repressed the thought and sat in the darkened living room for a while,
feeling powerless and alone.
	Taking the half emptied Saki bottle from the kitchen, Aeka made her way
to the floating onsen. Using her Jurai power, she commanded an absence
of lighting. Funny, she had never noticed before, that it was Jurai
power that controlled the onsen. The full moon flooded the onsen with
pale light, and as the Princess stripped, she considered how she could
know that at that moment Ryouko's destiny was up there, alone on that
desolate world? One of the hidden onsens is on that world, she thought,
but at this moment Ryouko is crying alone in her erstwhile prison.
	It had been the hidden onsens which had started Ryouko and herself on
arranging onsen tours. They had been delighted to discover that while
Tenchi would always modestly wrap his loins when at a public bath, you
just had to find a small, intimate one, tied to a sacred spring, to
force his hand. With his strict Shrine training, Tenchi knew that to
enter a sacred onsen covered was to disrespect the Kami of the place. Of
course, his decorum in those circumstances was frustratingly perfect,
but still the girls were pleased. True, you weren't supposed to be
looking, but after all, you can't help seeing what is set before your
eyes, can you? Aeka vowed to herself that the next onsen they toured,
she would enter naked as well, though she might die of shame.
	Right now, without fear of intrusion, Aeka remained naked, soaping and
rinsing before entering the water, as she had generally only done when
alone with Ryouko. Funny that only with a woman she still almost
considered an enemy, did she find nudity tolerable. The two of them had
spent many hours discussing things that only the most intimate of
friends would broach. Ryouko had never mentioned those other worlds in
Washu's machine; mostly they talked about Tenchi. Hmm, maybe it had only
been a dream after all.
	Tenchi had a body almost the same size and build as her own. Though
smooth and vaguely androgenous, Tenchi's body was very solid, from all
the martial arts workouts Yousho put him through. Well, he was still a
child by Juraian standards, barely out of puberty at seventeen. He would
fill out. In the meantime there was no mistaking his masculinity. Aeka
remembered vaguely seeing Tenchi when Sasami had pulled him out of Great
Auntie's onsen after Mihoshi's climactic arrival. She and Ryouko had
allowed the child to remove the unconscious boy's jeans and dry him off,
rather than rekindle their calamitous fight. What thoughts Sasami may
have had about the extra parts, Aeka cared not to speculate.
	Months later, at the Asohara onsen, where Earth's hidden onsen reposed,
Aeka had gotten her first good look at what Tenchi kept hidden. She had
tried hard not to be caught staring, but being the only one not
completely naked, she had felt conspicuous. Fortunately Ryouko's naked
cavorting, leaping, mooning, and breast jiggling had kept the men folk
goggle eyed and distracted.
	What Tenchi had; Aeka blushed in the moonlight as she recalled.
Sheltered as she was, she had seen a few naked boys and men, and what
Tenchi had was more than she had seen. Though an obvious exaggeration,
the trunk of one of Earth's Elephants came to mind, backed by the
rounded jowls of a pouch holding hen's eggs. In reality it drooped
perhaps twelve centimeters to it's crinkled, puckered tip; and within
that the darker roundness of a split bulb, with that most intimate of
openings.
	It was funny, she mused, the most intimate openings of a woman were
hidden, almost buried, but a man hid that with effort. It was out there.
When excited, Aeka caught herself at the thought, but let it proceed,
she wondered? She had only seen diagrams and drawings, including the
adult manga and shunga hidden among Nobuyuki's private collections. She
knew those to be exaggerations. Still, it was hard to imagine that three
or four centimeter thick trunk penetrating her most secret places.
	She took out a small hand mirror and brushed aside the cobwebs of
guilt. Unable to remember the details, Aeka knew that somewhere in the
very early reaches of her childhood nannies and maids had swatted and
batted away her curiosity. Proper princesses simply didn't touch or look
at such things. She just now understood that this should not be true.
Cupping her right hand, she caused the palm to glow with Jurai energy,
holding the mirror with two left fingers, she used the others to gently
spread her labia. Beneath a small soft swatch of dark purple hair her
labia disclosed a glistening redness, and a small opening fringed with
wet, tough membrane, her oh so prized maidenhead. She could barely
insert a single finger to feel the larger passage inside. Above that was
a small mark in the wet redness, where pee came out, and a couple of
centimeters further back was the perfect clean pucker of her princessly
anus. Better not to dwell on that. A couple of centimeters above, her
labia folded together in a nexus of sensitivity. The whole affair seemed
scarcely as large as the thickness of Tenchi's manhood.
	This was the first time, in life, that she had seen this part of
herself; or rather, really looked. She recalled that in that other
world, she had not only examined Ryouko's intimate parts this closely,
she even imagined that she had applied her mouth, as Ryouko had to hers.
Such a thought! She tried, angry at herself, to repress the pleasure of
that memory. Whatever had happened, they must have been dreaming or
drugged at the time, though she didn't understand how. The girl would
have had to have a phenomenally plastic tongue to have penetrated
without rupturing the maidenhead. Of course Ryouko's own maidenhead was
so elastic and self healing that it alone was no guarantor of virginity,
but Aeka was certain of it anyway, at least in this world. Turning from
that possibly illusory memory, she tried to imagine Tenchi's organ
upright and rigid, sliding in and out of this opening, and found a tinge
of trepidation. It would surely hurt, at least the first time, but she
so desperately wanted to be joined with him. She was embarrassed at
herself to find a slick fluid wetness covering her fingers, and the
entire exposed flesh of her vulva.
	She rinsed herself off with a bucket of cold water, and shivering, slid
thankfully into the warmest and most private pool of the onsen, Ryouko's
favorite. There she found that the currents caressed her body, and her
breasts buoyed slightly, nipples stiff and tingly at the cooling
surface. She recalled that Ryouko always seemed a little dreamy and
distracted here, even allowing for the alcohol. Placing herself at ease,
the Princess allowed her thighs to relax, letting the currents flow over
those parts down there. No wonder this was Ryouko's favorite place. The
fingers of Aeka's right hand idly twirled the rather sparse hair down
there, occasionally brushing against the flesh. Soon she found herself
pressing a finger between those hidden lips, slowly drawing upward. Lost
in a reverie that reminded her only of being with Ryouko in that other
world; she told herself, that was not this body, and imagined that it
was Tenchi's hand pressing her most intimate flesh.
	The stars danced and the Moon watered in her sight. In a lonely cave,
Ryouko cried in her sleep, a lonely hand held tight between her thighs.
Tenchi dreamed a dance with a fox lady, who alternately turned into
Ryouko and Aeka; he would wake up with a dampness in his shorts, and
thank the gods that he did his own laundry. Sasami cuddled more closely
with her humanoid companion, and Tsunami struggled to shut away her
awareness, both for the privacy of the virgin Princess, and to prevent
the passion from overflowing into Sasami.
	Aeka shuddered with ecstasy, and wondered if Ryouko also did this here
when she was alone, then she decided that it was entirely too private a
thing for even intimacy to acknowledge. This, she realized, was the
"Masu" about which there was so much whispered denial and joking among
boys. On the tail side of orgasm, she felt that tinge of relaxed
indifference; shouldn't she be feeling guilty? Glad that she hadn't
drunk more, earlier, because she knew it would have been numbing, she
indulged now.
	Between relaxation and alcohol, she barely remembered to crawl out onto
the moonlit decking and ask the floating onsen to blow warm dry air over
her naked body. There she slept until first light, waking up just in
time to dress and appear downstairs as if just freshening up.
	Stepping into the kitchen, she found Sasami at her usual place, cooking
the rather heavy breakfast that Tenchi usually needed after his morning
workout, and the usual two hours in the carrot fields.
	Suddenly there was a series of surges in the Jurai power. Aeka focused
her own sensitivities, feeling a warmth under her tiara.
	"Oniichan has returned the gems", Sasami explained unnecessarily.
	Only Aeka and Sasami were there for breakfast. Ryo-ohki turned up late,
in cabbit form, and with no appetite. Sasami communed with her for a
moment.
	"Ryouko-sama has gone away", Sasami explained mournfully.
	The three of them went to the upstairs common room, and the sisters
read for a while. Bored with even the romance of shoujo manga, Aeka
picked up an old needle point project that she had left sitting around.

 Tenchi found Aeka sitting in the upstairs common room, her feet up on a
giant carrot pillow, doing the needle-point.
	Tenchi looked at her strangely. She wondered queasily if something
showed on her face, of what she had been doing last night?
	"Aeka-san, grandpa said something about you misbehaved, when you first
came here?"
	"Yousho said that?" She thought: He's bluffing, he can't possibly know.
	Just at that moment there was a tremendous crash downstairs. The pair
rushed down to investigate. It turned out to be Washu breaking out
through her damaged portal, and the whole household turned out to watch
her clamber over furniture sized chunks of unspecifiable dusty debris.
As she was dusting herself off, she was muttering.
	"That was excessive. The girl has no self-control. I wonder what could
have provoked her?"
	 Aeka squared off with the usually oblivious scientist, asserting
herself with uncharacteristic bluntness.
	"Just what did you do to Ryouko-san?"
	"Nothing much, just snared her, wired her up for a few experiments, and
left her hanging to dry overnight. What business is it of yours,
anyway?"
	Aeka grabbed the smaller woman by the shoulders, her fingers digging
in. Washu couldn't ignore her without making a point of it.
	"Did any of those experiments by any chance burn her?"
	"Well, maybe a little, nothing Ryouko couldn't handle on a bad day.
Say, where is she, anyway? I don't feel any trace of her."
	"Just how much don't you know about your daughter?"
	"Maybe we'd better sit down and find out", Washu pointed to the living
room.
	Tenchi, Washu, and the three girls gathered on the floor around the
coffee table. Sasami brought out tea and cookies. After a few minutes of
quiet sipping and crunching, Washu turned to Aeka.
	"Maybe you should tell us all of what we don't know."
	"When I saw Ryouko crawling out of your place, I reminded her about
something that never should have happened." Aeka hesitated, obviously
struggling with something.
	"Go on", Washu prompted.
  	"Remember, I fired a warning shot, pursued Ryo-ohki, and captured
you."
	She looked at Tenchi and he nodded.
	"Our people have very strict moral laws to govern our contacts with
other peoples. It was forbidden for me to involve any Earth people. Not
only that, but Azaka and Kamidake had clearly informed me that Ryouko
was no longer a wanted criminal, and my ship was urging me not to fight
Ryo-ohki. I guess the Holy Council understood better than I did, that
Ryouko had only acted as a slave to Kagato. Then I captured and bound
them."
	"So? You didn't actually harm us."
	Aeka swallowed hard.
	"I strung Ryouko up by her ankles, and burned her with the
Tenchi-sword, till she begged for mercy."
	"She never said a word", Tenchi whispered.
	Sasami looked dubiously at her sister, and whispered "Masaka", meaning
unbelievable.
	"So, what made you do this?" Washu inquired.
	"I was angry at her, and at myself; frustrated. I had caught up with
her, and we were imprisoned together. She fooled me into believing she
was someone else, and I confided in her, told her about our people and
our laws. I guess she figured out from me, where Yousho was; and me
without a clue.
	For me, this was not long ago, only a matter of months before I came
here. For her, it was a long time ago."
	Washu asked, "So that's where she picked up the idea she might be
human?"
	Aeka nodded, "Our ships collaborated to free us, and then Ryouko
misdirected me, while she came here to conduct her business with Yousho.
I felt she had mocked me. She was still mocking me as she hung smoking
from the fires of the Tenchi-sword. I might have killed her."
	Tenchi stood up, "I have to talk to Yousho".
	"Do you hate me, Tenchi-sama?"
	Tenchi pulled Aeka to her feet, and kissed her chastely on the
forehead, "Ryouko chose to bear it."
	"Will you bring Ryouko back?"
	"I don't know", Tenchi shrugged, wondering if the girl would even want
to return.
	Washu abruptly slapped her forehead, exclaiming a shocked "I was
wrong!" Then she began chanting in a language that Aeka recognized as
vaguely akin to that of the planet Felix Regina. By the time Tenchi was
out the door, Washu was in a deep trance.

	Aeka pushed her way past the rubble in Washu's portal, and made her way
through the various dimensional paths to the planter where the seedling
Ryu-oh was thriving. Ryu-oh lit up at the physical presence of her
mistress. Though less than two meters tall, barely more than a bush,
Ryu-oh had already recovered all of her mental faculties.
	"Tell me, dear heart, what does your sister Funaho know of her master?"
	"Why don't you ask him directly?"
 Aeka was startled to be interrupted by the presence of Tsunami. She did
obeisance.
"Because everything is being hidden from my eyes. Yousho-oniisan is not
what he seems, Ryouko-sama is not what she seems, you are not what you
seem. Sometimes I think I am the only ordinary human in the place."
"Hmph, Nobuyuki is as near ordinary as dwells here, and that is
stretching the word 'ordinary' quite a ways; but come, I am your
sister", she took Aeka by the hand and raised her, "and what do you say
that I am?" The very image of a Jurai royal priestess inquired.
"You are one of the great goddesses, arising directly from Kami-sama."
"You are being very perceptive", Tsunami inclined her head "Your brother
is also one of us, though of a different order. Your union with him was
never meant to be."
"How can this be? Weren't we born of the same father? Of mortal women?
Didn't my father the Emperor command it?"
"Unprecedented power has gathered around your father, beyond what any
organic being in any continuum has ever held alone."
"Then I am in rebellion, resisting the very will of Kami-sama?"
"Not at all. Your father has abused his power intolerably, and he is
quite mad. If you hadn't fled his presence you would also be insane by
now. Imagine yourself married to Seiryo?"
Aeka shuddered.
"So, what is my purpose? I have known ever since my arrival here that my
Ryu-oh was created to unite with Ryo-ohki, and serve her. Was I created
to serve Ryouko?"
"Perhaps if you hadn't misbehaved? Who knows? But conscious beings are
always more than a purpose. In truth, your fate ever since then has been
veiled, hidden even from the gods of fate themselves, by the will of
Kami-sama. At the moment you are in the balance, and your truthfulness
has weighed heavily for the good of this entire creation.
Now, I must go and attend other matters, onesama. Even the gods are
subject to the strictures of time."

	On returning to his house, Tenchi found Aeka watching a rather steamy
afternoon soap opera. Rather than disturb her he checked upstairs, where
Sasami was curled up on a cushion, asleep with a purring cabbit-form
Ryo-ohki. Putting on his house coat, the one emblazoned the Kanji "Ten"
and "Chi", he went back down stairs. Finding the program finished, he
sat down next to Aeka. Her eyes were shining with the luster of
vicarious pleasure.
	"Ah, Tenchi" Aeka was breathing a little hard. Impulsively, she threw
her arms around him.
	Perhaps because he knew Ryouko was on her way, or maybe because Tenchi
is Tenchi, he started struggling weakly against her hug. She released
him. Standing up and back several paces, she threw her left arm up,
pointing, and emphasizing her bosom by pressing under it with her right
arm. The effect was slightly diminished by the restriction of her
quilted under-wrap, which tended to flatten her already modest
endowment.
	"Which of us is prettier, Ryouko or me?"
	Flustered, Tenchi tried to temporize "Well, Miss Ryouko can be very
sexy when she's not trying to be; but you are very pretty too, in a more
er..uh, princessly  way."
	Frustrated beyond prudence, Aeka began to loosen her robe, and unlace
her under-wrap, right there in the living room. Tenchi waved his arms
frantically, leaping to his feet.
	"Miss Aeka!" he exclaimed, knowing his father Nobuyuki was in the
kitchen, and Sasami a few meters away upstairs, without even a door in
between. He was flushing very satisfactorily, and wobbling. One could
have suspected, there was a foretaste of blood in his nose, and his ears
were ringing.
	Young Washu popped into existence.
	"My daughter has already apologized about that, in private, Aeka-sama",
Washu arched her eyebrows knowingly.
	Aeka stopped in mid motion, "How could you know about that?"
	"I can read her mind, sometimes. She has her dreams too, you know", she
added significantly.
	Aeka turned a solid lobster red, "I am not a woman of loose morals!"
She stomped her tabi covered foot in frustration.
	"Anyway, I take back anything I ever said against her, she's much more
discreet than you, and at least she doesn't go snooping in other
people's minds".
	"Oh, you never know what powers might pop up in my creations", Washu
hinted with glee.
	"And just what will Ryouko-san turn up with, this time?" Aeka, being a
princess of Jurai, knew without having to participate in councils, that
when Ryouko turned up, she would be slightly changed.
	"My daughter got her wings", Washu boasted with a pride in Ryouko that
had never previously shown.
	"Wings?" Both Aeka and Tenchi inquired.
	"Light-hawk wings, of course."
	"Masaka" Aeka understood the implications perfectly; all the
implications. She'd never had any illusions about Tenchi's nature, at
least.  "And just how powerful is Ryouko with all her gems?"
	"Heh, heh, creating and destroying galaxies is no problem."
	"I thought only the dimensional cannon was that powerful?"
	"A mere pop-gun next to my Ryouko, and I said; she can create, as well.
If she knew her powers, she could be here now. As it is, she will be
here in a few minutes."
	At this point Aeka became conscious of her disheveled state, not to
mention considerable sweating inside that quilted under-wrap. It would
never do to welcome Ryouko-san, er...-sama, home in this condition.
	"I've got to go freshen up" Aeka vanished through the onsen portal
marked "Onna". 
	Tenchi lounged around, waiting for the inevitable, which took about ten
minutes. 
	"Tenchi....Tenchi", that familiar voice which he had first heard on a
fateful first day of school, one year previously, echoed through the
house. He tried to pretend to himself that it was grating, but it wasn't
so. In truth, his previous life had been exceedingly dull, desperately
dull, causing him to get into all sorts of trouble. He could imagine he
might have become some sort of delinquent. Now, life would be
interesting again.
	"Hi, Ryouko, I'm in the living room."
	Ryouko entered, in her best pastel and white, gloved outfit; the same
one she used to wait for Tenchi in, when Zero's gentling influence was
still fresh on her.
	"Tenchi", Ryouko clasped Tenchi's hands in her gloved ones. Hope was in
her eyes.
	"It's OK, Ryouko. I was wrong. My mother would not want me to act so
excessively, on behalf of mere stone. I know you didn't intend anything
against her memory. 
	Aeka and Washu told me everything."
	"Everything? I seriously doubt that," her expression and voice were
light, almost mocking. "and just where is her royal-ness?"
	He pointed to the onsen portals, "she wanted to freshen up before you
got here."
	"Haven't been up to anything with her while I was away?" She wagged her
index finger and tisk-tisked. 
	"I, er..uh, well..." Tenchi was struggling to keep his composure.
	Ryouko unexpectedly leaned toward him and brushed him lightly, lip to
lip, upon which he became even more flustered. She then took him in hand
and led him to the onsen portals. He entered the one marked "Tenchi",
she the one marked "Onna". They emerged to find Aeka just finishing
dressing in a fresh robe.
	The three of them stood for a long minute in silence, Aeka on the
right, Ryouko on the left, and Tenchi in the middle.
	"Ryouko-sama", Aeka bowed gracefully.
	"Aeka-ojosama", Ryouko returned the compliment.
	A near perfect communication seemed to flow between them.
	Tenchi was more confused than ever.
	"Of course, I haven't changed that much!" Ryouko remarked. "Let me show
you a new trick I figured out on the way back from the Moon."
	With that, she phased out and back into the material world, reappearing
in her short, split tailed seduction outfit, above and behind Tenchi in
the air. In her hand was the quilted under-wrap that customarily
preserved the body modesty of Jurai women.
	With that, she phased out and back into the material world, reappearing
above and behind Tenchi in the air, wearing the short tailed and rather
revealing open robes she had first worn the night before Carnival, the
night of Mihoshi's calamitous return. In her hand was the quilted
under-wrap that customarily preserved the body modesty of Jurai women.
	"Girls! Girls!" Tenchi called out, turning to interpose himself as
equally as possible between them.
	A gleeful spark seemed to jump between the girls. Acting in unison,
they dived for his legs and upended him, unceremoniously dunking him
fully clothed in the cold-water pool that they just "happened" to be
standing in front of.
	Girlish laughter brightened the heavy onsen air

End of Part 1

 Text Copyright 1998, Anyaku<anyaku@hotmail.com>
Characters are Copyright and/or Trademark AIC and Pioneer LDCA