Disclaimer:  Nope... I still don't own Tenchi.  Hey, the boy's a free spirit!  
Whatcha gonna do about a guy like that?  ;)  Remember to keep your arms inside 
the chapter at all times and to keep your safety belt fastened until the chapter 
has come to a complete stop.  In the event of a water landing, this chapter 
probably won't make much of a flotation device.  Remember the author's note is 
at the bottom of the chapter.  
********************************

Days later Hotsuma and Ryoko had barely exchanged a handful of sentences, and 
those were only spoken between them because they needed to make arrangements for 
their newest ill-gotten gains.  Per the usual, Hotsuma yielded to Ryoko's wishes 
before the men, but Ryoko felt a twinge of guilt when he bowed his head to her.  
He did all the unpleasant work of keeping this gang running, yet he gave her all 
the credit as their leader.  On the other hand, this gang was built upon her 
reputation, and she took on the most dangerous parts of the raids.  Still, she 
was having more and more trouble figuring out what was fair anymore.  Her 
experiences on Earth proved that life was seldom fair, so perhaps it didn't 
matter much anyhow.  She'd tried to be fair with Tenchi, and that had only led 
her to false hope and heartache.  She'd been disillusioned yet again by Kiyone 
and Mihoshi.  That was when she'd decided that it was necessary to wall herself 
off, so that she wouldn't have to feel that hurt again.  She might not be fair, 
but she was safe.  So why did she feel so empty?  

Ryoko turned through the twisted corridors of their new base, as she aimlessly 
wandered.  The new hideout was again subterranean, dark and gloomy on this 
planet.  It had the added bonus of being colder than anywhere else she'd ever 
been in her extensive travels.  Ryoko loathed the cold, and she felt like she 
spent most of her time hunched forward and rubbing her arms briskly.  Nothing 
helped though.  She watched a pair of pirates setting up heating units in one of 
the halls; it was the only way of keeping the entire base from icing up.  It 
wasn't enough to make their surroundings pleasant by any stretch of the 
imagination.  

Ryoko shivered as she entered the cavern where they stored their spoils.  She'd 
set up a throne that they'd pilfered from the royal family of Elerostra.  The 
golden surfaces were covered in an intricate bas-relief, and luxurious purple 
velvet cushions padded the seat and headrest.  Ryoko enjoyed passing out shares 
from it, as though she were rewarding her loyal subjects for following her 
excellent leadership.  Stacks of gold coins stood on either side of the throne, 
and racks of expensive garments had just been brought in alongside the far wall 
to await Ryoko's consideration.  

Hotsuma looked up from the security alarm he was tying into the base's computer 
system, as Ryoko strolled into the room.  She'd traded her normal pirating 
clothes for thermal camo colored to blend into their wintry environment, but the 
design was as revealing as ever.  No wonder she suffered so badly in this 
climate.  "Hello, Princess," he greeted cautiously.  

Ryoko nodded coolly as she approached the clothing rack.  She listlessly thumbed 
through the beautiful designer garments.  "I have more money than I could have 
dreamed, more sake than I could ever drink, and more beautiful clothes than I 
could ever wear... but it's not the same.  Something's missing," she said softly 
without looking at him.  It was the first time she'd told him what she was 
thinking in a while.  She wasn't sure if he would have an answer for her, or if 
he even would understand what was bothering her.  She didn't understand it 
herself.  

Hotsuma knew exactly what had been missing for him lately, but when it came to 
Ryoko he wasn't sure what he understood anymore.  Maybe she wanted to make up 
with him, or maybe she was talking about chucking it all and heading back to 
Earth.  After everything they'd been through together, how could she possibly 
not know what she wanted?  "Are you trying to tell me that you're missing out on 
true love?" Hotsuma replied, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice.  
The statement itself seemed neutral enough to fit either of her possible 
choices, as far as he could tell.  

Ryoko glared at him.  That was the last thing she'd wanted to hear.  "Then you 
obviously don't know me very well!" she spat back venomously.  "I'm a pirate!  
That candy-coated crap is meaningless to me!" she informed him.  Ryoko couldn't 
believe herself how his words had set her off.  She'd wanted to smooth things 
over with him, when she'd first started talking, but she couldn't help but lash 
out at him at the first thing he'd said.  She had to get out of here; she 
couldn't even breathe in this room.  She quickly headed for the door, her boots 
clicking against the stone floor with each stride.  

"Where are you going?" Hotsuma asked her, as he watched her hasty retreat.  He 
pushed his glasses up in a familiar gesture then crossed his arms, as he waited 
for her answer.  He'd reached a decision after their giant row the other day, 
and he had concluded that he had only two options left.  He'd resolved to try 
the first one and tell Ryoko everything.  If he could prove to Ryoko that he 
didn't want to hurt her or Yugi, perhaps together they could create a middle 
path between the child and the Masaki family.  The second option was his last 
resort.  He hadn't had any luck so far in talking to her, and he knew from the 
last time he'd heard from Yugi that things were coming to a climax back on 
Earth.  He had to accomplish one of the two courses of action today.  

"I'm going out for a walk," Ryoko snapped back at him.  She resumed her step, 
still needing to get to a place where she could be alone and sort herself out.  
If Hotsuma was going to be bringing up subjects like love, she definitely wasn't 
ready to talk to him right now.  She needed to be calmer.  She needed to know 
how she would answer his questions.  She really needed to sort out her feelings 
for the two men in her life.  

"I'll go with you," Hotsuma suggested brightly; he knew that if he cowered every 
time Ryoko got snippy, he'd never have been able to deal with her.  Ryoko had 
been making herself unavailable for days.  This was the best chance he'd had to 
talk with her since making his decision.  It was also his last chance, he 
realized.  

"Just leave me alone!" Ryoko growled, as she stormed off without him.  "Can't he 
see that I don't want to be pushed right now?" she thought privately.  She would 
talk to him when she got back-when she was ready.  

"And with that I'm down to the final option," Hotsuma thought, as he watched her 
back disappearing down the shadowy corridor.  Instead of coming out of the 
darkness to be with her, he was dragging her down into it with him.  She 
deserved something better than that.  He needed to save her and Yugi both.  
Something about the look in Ryoko's eyes made it more important than ever.  He 
smiled darkly, as he headed into his own rooms to prepare for Ryoko's return.  
He didn't understand them, but he'd reached the conclusion that his dreams were 
trying to tell him what to do.  However, the price for being wrong was high.  
Hotsuma had never been the type to back away when things got difficult, and he 
wouldn't start now.    

Meanwhile, Ryoko was exploring the area surrounding their hideout.  "I must 
admit Hotsuma picked a secure location for our base.  Nobody in his right mind 
would want to come to this miserable ball of snow," Ryoko muttered as she flew 
low above the blizzard-swept landscape.  The dunes of snow here could reach over 
a hundred feet in height, and walking on them could be fatal if a misstep led to 
an area of loose, sinking snow or created an avalanche.  

She descended low enough to grab a big handful of the fluffy white stuff then 
landed on the crest of an enormous snowdrift.  She looked up into the gray sky 
of an endless winter.  "True love, huh?" she mumbled, as she packed the fresh 
snow between her hands with a squeaky crunching sound.  She looked at the large 
round snowball with a sly grin, and tested its weight experimentally by bouncing 
it in her palm.  The one truly great quality about this stuff was the way that 
it could be packed into the perfect missile to launch at someone's head.  

"Sasami and Mihoshi would especially love this stuff," Ryoko sighed 
reflectively.  "But I'm the only one who understands it's true potential," she 
laughed as she hurled the snowball at a point on the horizon to test her aim.  
"Perfect," she cooed.  "Now to set up a shooting range!"  

With that she proceeded to build a line of snow people with strangely familiar 
shapes.  On one she would sculpt a spiky ponytail as best the snow would allow, 
and on the next she made a small bunny-like creature perched atop its head.  The 
third she created with its bottom in the air, as though it had tripped, and the 
next stood silently by in quiet mortification.  The final snow figure stood 
regally behind the rest; Ryoko only hoped it would look as straight and haughty 
to others as it did to her.  She fished into her pocket and pulled out a handful 
of change, which she pressed into the snow faces to create eyes.  

"Oh yes!" she cackled happily, as she retreated to a suitable distance and began 
her snow barrage.  She acted out the reactions of her victims, as her cold wet 
projectiles soared into their hapless forms.  "Oh, my poor little Ryo-ohki!  
Kiyone, help me!  I can't get up!  You wouldn't be that tough if I had my new 
invention with me, Ryoko!  That was completely uncalled for, you undignified 
monster woman!"  Ryoko could almost hear them as she mimicked their voices.  It 
felt good-warm and welcoming.  Even light years away they were with her, she 
realized.  What had been missing was Ryoko.  She'd been so preoccupied with 
keeping herself safe from another betrayal that she'd failed to think about how 
cold it felt to keep everyone else out.  

"I get it now," she spoke aloud, letting the last snowball fall heedlessly from 
her limp fingers.  "I'm The Space Pirate, Ryoko-not some damned coward!  I don't 
run from anything, and if it means I get hurt sometimes that's just part of the 
deal."  She cocked her head slyly towards her pummeled snow victims.  "Right?" 
she asked with a wry grin, as she winked at the silent sentinels on the lonely 
crest.  

An involuntary shiver brought Ryoko's attention focused upon the subtle shift in 
the weather.  A slight wind lifted snow from the surrounding dunes and dusted 
her hair and skin with the frozen crystals, while the sky overhead darkened with 
thickening clouds.  She'd already learned the warning signs of an approaching 
storm here, and she'd seen them get truly nasty within minutes.  Ryoko took to 
the sky and headed towards the base.  "Poor, Hotsuma," she chuckled.  "I've been 
pretty awful to him, and he's gone out of his way to help me and do everything 
he could for me.  I think it's time I showed him a little appreciation," she 
added with a lascivious glint in her eyes.  "Maybe I don't have all the answers 
he wants, but I'm not going to find out by staying here."  

Upon returning Ryoko headed straight for her and Hotsuma's private wing.  She 
quickly passed through the scanners, which marked the two pirates' comings and 
goings to ensure that no one else had access to their private space or some of 
the best treasures, which they hoarded.  

"Somebody turn up the heat!  It's freezing in here!" Ryoko complained, clutching 
her arms and stomping her feet to warm up.  She strode down the passage to 
Hotsuma's lab.  Perhaps all that time playing in the snow hadn't been such a 
good idea.  She was torn between wanting to go directly to Hotsuma and wanting 
to warm up in her private onsen for a few hours.  

Ryoko heard Hotsuma's voice up ahead, and she pricked her ears to listen.  She 
couldn't make out to whom he spoke.  Ryoko slowed her pace and concentrated upon 
the sound of his voice.  She hung back outside the door, concealing herself in 
the shadows as she listened intently.  

"I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, but I wasn't ready for this 
shrew!  She's a total animal-worse even-at least animals can be house broken.  
She started to grow on me, but now all I see is a barbarian," Hotsuma 
practically yelled.  He punctuated his words with frustrated hand gestures; then 
he paused to compose himself while adjusting his glasses.  "There was no need 
for such an elaborate ruse.  We should have disposed of her long ago," he 
replied to Yugi's previous question.  

Ryoko felt as though he'd just sliced her open and left her exposed to the 
crows.  How could he be the same man who'd been so protective of her around the 
bioroid force or in the tunnels of Olmeck?  Ryoko's chest tightened as she 
fought to slow her beating heart and forced herself to breath deeply.  Her mind 
flew back to all the tender moments she'd shared with him, as if she were 
looking for clues in a desperate attempt to reconcile this new Hotsuma to the 
man she thought she knew.  A terrible internal whirlwind spun her emotions into 
chaos, and it felt like an overpowering influence.  "After all we've been 
through..." her mind repeated relentlessly.  She knew this feeling now, and she 
hated this kind of pain more than any other emotion she'd ever felt.  She 
channeled her pain into the far more comfortable emotion of anger.  He had 
fooled her with an elaborate lie, and she would find out why.  Yes, she'd find 
out just as soon as she kicked his face in and ripped his heart out through his 
neck!  She'd teach him never to toy with the great space pirate!  

Hotsuma could hear her shuffle slightly outside the door, and he knew it was 
time to feign surprise at the sounds of her presence.  He'd learned from Yugi 
that Tenchi was headed to confront the child at this very instant, and their 
time had run out.  It was the moment for his last deception, and he only hoped 
there was time enough for this to work.  "Who's there?" he demanded as he 
switched off Yugi's prerecorded transmission.  It wouldn't do for Ryoko to 
figure out the trick before she could help him finish things.  He couldn't do 
this without her power.  He wore his expression like a correct mask, as he 
whirled around.  

Ryoko balled her right hand into a tight fist, so that she could feel her nails 
biting into the heel of her palm in crescent shaped lines.  She lowered her face 
as she swung into the doorway, using the shadows to camouflage any pain that she 
couldn't hide.  She knew she looked more menacing with her head tilted downward.  
It accentuated the slant of her golden eyes to create the illusion of a great 
predatory cat, and she wanted to look as dangerous as she felt right now.  "That 
was a pretty good trick you had going there, Partner," she declared.  

"Ryoko?" Hotsuma asked sounding surprised by her presence.  He darkened visibly 
as he studied her.  "How long were you standing there?" he asked sounding angry 
and suspicious.  His demeanor spoke volumes of treachery and promised violence.  
To Ryoko he had adopted the character of their cold and shadowy surroundings.  
He was stranger to her now and colder than anyone else she'd ever known.  
According to his words it had always been meant to come to this, hadn't it?  

"What was the plan, Hotsuma?  You wanted me away from Tenchi and Earth, but 
why?" she growled.  She didn't trust her normal speaking voice at the moment.  
"That's all I want to know, and I damned well intend to find out!" She raised 
her voice to a yell, as she took to the air and rushed him without warning.  She 
hit him squarely on the jaw with a right hook, and the impact sent him spiraling 
through the brittle stone ceiling and outside to the icy world above.  

"Despite detesting me, you did all this to prevent me from being able to protect 
Tenchi or Earth!  You used me, because you were scared of something that my 
feelings for that boy could do!" Ryoko spat as she landed solidly in the 
crunching snow, before his supine form.  "All this time, it's my feelings for 
Tenchi that you've been trying to sabotage!" she accused furiously.  

Hotsuma wiped a trace of blood away from the corner of his mouth and smirked 
humorlessly at the cyan-tressed space pirate.  "Too bad he doesn't feel the same 
way about you," Hotsuma taunted vindictively as he rose to his feet.  He needed 
her to be angrier, and as long as she was talking to him about her feelings for 
that farm-boy, his anger was his best tool to incite her.  "He played you for a 
fool, Ryoko!  Worse than I did," he continued.  He let out a derisive laugh as 
he locked gazes with her.  The blizzard blew his hair across his eyes as the 
biting snow pelted down between them at a sharp angle.  "At least you knew I was 
a pirate," he finished letting his words imply her own stupidity for falling 
into a trap.  

"It has nothing to do with reward or possession.  Even if the ones I love hurt 
me, I have to remain true to myself!  I will protect Tenchi and my friends and 
the Earth, not to win him but simply because I love them all.  What I feel for 
Tenchi is something that a guy like you could never understand, Hotsuma," Ryoko 
countered coldly.  "A heartless bastard like you could never comprehend what it 
means to love."  

Her words whipped through him like chilling daggers that made the blizzard pale 
in comparison.  Anger welled up in their wake, like blood pooling in fresh, raw 
wounds.  In the end, maybe she always would idealize that "innocent", but it 
made Hotsuma want to scream at her and shake her until she screamed.  He could 
feel premonitions of danger from Earth.  "You're mine!" Hotsuma bellowed in rage 
and jealousy, and he took to the air, hurtling a desperate punch towards her.  

Ryoko caught a glow out of her peripheral vision, as she swung her arm up to 
block the incoming blow.  The crystal at her wrist cast a bright light even 
through her glove and the blinding snow.  "Tenchi..." she breathed as the 
feeling of danger washed over her.  He needed her help.  She had to end this 
fight quickly and find a way to get to Earth, and that meant it was time to get 
down and brutal.  

The distraction caused by the crystal was enough for Hotsuma to land his blow to 
her cheek, much to both their surprises.  Ryoko rocked under the force and she 
struggled to keep her footing in the slippery snow.  She dropped her center of 
gravity and from a bent position lashed out at her enraged partner with a 
roundhouse kick.  She cursed inwardly as he dodged the full force of it, but 
with a twist of her body she rammed her elbow into his back.  It hurt like hell, 
but she was pretty sure from his cry that she'd fractured a rib or two for him.  

Hotsuma managed to put a few feet between them, before he spun around to face 
her again.  He crouched slightly and held one arm behind him as though 
protecting his injury.  His breathing felt labored as each inhalation was 
brought up short by a nearly electric jolt of pain.  He didn't have time or 
patience for her to take him apart piece by piece.  He needed a quick full power 
attack from the glowering woman, and he was just going to have to up the ante to 
get it.  Hotsuma unleashed a blow to her stomach, and as she leapt to the side 
he hurled a lower powered energy ball at her.  

Ryoko screamed as the energy blast knocked her backwards into a snowdrift.  
About ten feet away Hotsuma landed in the snow and rolled to his feet, coming up 
with his energy sword readied.  Ryoko somersaulted backwards as he rushed her.  
She conjured her own energy blade and crossed her body with it defensively as he 
slashed viciously downward.  Her reddish beam flared as his green one collided 
with it, and both combatants staggered with the energy surge that passed between 
the sabers.  

"How do you like your lover now?" Hotsuma nearly purred against her ear, using 
the proximity to his advantage to land another barb.  Ryoko's free hand shot out 
with a slap to his cheek that snapped his neck around like a loose pivot.  He 
was definitely on the right track, but he couldn't let up yet.  He flew 
backwards to the top of a small snow hill and fired a continuous barrage of 
energy disks at the furious woman, which sent her scurrying for cover.  

In desperation Ryoko phased out of being and teleported behind the blond man's 
back.  She raised her hands to nail him with a plasma blast of her own, but he 
had sensed her intent when she'd disappeared.  He turned and fired a blast of 
his own, which collided with hers midway between the two pirates and caused her 
blast to detonate prematurely.  Then he flickered out of phase, leaving Ryoko 
scanning the air around her anxiously for any flicker to betray his new 
location.  The seconds continued to pass without any sign of him, and an ominous 
feeling ate at Ryoko as she waited.  

Without warning a hand shot out of the snow at her feet and latched onto her 
ankle, as Hotsuma flew out of the snow with the force of a bullet.  He carried 
Ryoko helplessly into the air with him and used his momentum to fling her back 
to the ground.  Her hair fluttered around her face like a spirit as the breeze 
gusted around her.  She shot back at him awkwardly as she plummeted, but he 
easily dodged the small burst.  Ryoko gathered enough energy around her to break 
her fall, and immediately had to dodge a fresh onslaught of plasma bursts from 
the tall, calculating pirate.  

Their energy attacks continued to intensify, like an insane nuclear arms race 
devouring the pair of them.  Each blast was bigger or more concentrated than the 
last, and the verbal sparring between them continued to goad them each onward.  
Hotsuma found it slightly less unsavory to incite Ryoko with his words than with 
physical violence.  Afterall, it wasn't his goal to injure her, no mater how 
angry or hurt some of her words had left him.  Hotsuma could finally feel the 
blast he'd been waiting for, building within his partner.  Even the air around 
him sparked and rippled with the energy, that Ryoko was gathering.  This was it!  

Ryoko screamed as she fired an extremely concentrated energy blast at the man 
who'd betrayed her.  She would destroy him here and now; she had to!  Tenchi 
needed her!  She felt danger prickling along all her senses, and it was 
increasing with every passing second.  If this much energy didn't constitute a 
lethal blow against the cunning bastard, nothing would!  

As soon as the energy ball had left her fingers, Hotsuma extinguished his energy 
sword and pulled Ryoko's locket from his pocket.  He flung his arms wide, the 
locket dangling from the fingers of his left hand, and he stared directly into 
Ryoko's startled gold eyes as the blast flew towards him.  

Hotsuma felt the sparking orange plasma ball hurtling towards him, and it seemed 
that the seconds themselves slowed down for him as his world narrowed to that 
accelerating energy projectile.  He wasn't sure how much energy it took to kill 
a monster like himself, but he sensed that this was Ryoko's most powerful 
attack.  He was sorry that he'd had to push Ryoko into this, but he didn't think 
he was powerful enough to do this on his own.  And maybe he needed it to be like 
this.  Perhaps death at her hands was the only way to atone for his deceptions.  
No, it wasn't really death, if he was right.  

Ryoko's eyes widened in horror as she realized what he'd been intending all 
along.  Hotsuma's long blond bangs fluttered almost serenely before his calm 
face.  He'd lost his glasses a couple of punches ago, but he was still staring 
unerringly at her.  His mouth moved with almost silent words, but his whisper 
carried over the blustering winds as powerfully as the loudest scream.  "I love 
you," his words echoed in Ryoko's ears, as she floundered with exactly what was 
happening.  It was too late to do anything to stop what was about to occur, she 
wouldn't even be able to phase to him before that plasma cut through him.  All 
she could do was stand there with her eyes locked upon his as the orange plasma 
ball ripped through the serene pirate's chest.  

Ryoko was released from her shocked torpor as the blast knocked him ten feet 
backwards in a spray of blood.  She screamed his name as she immediately 
teleported to his side and dropped to her knees in the snow.  "What the hell 
were you doing?" she demanded as tears sprung to her eyes, and she pulled his 
mangled body into her arms as though her presence would stave off death itself.  
"What were you doing?" she repeated inconsolably.  The hole in his chest made a 
sickening whistle as he struggled to breath, and she could see the light and 
awareness in his eyes dimming quickly as his blood tainted the pristine snow 
around them.  She realized that he was smiling at her warmly, and she suddenly 
felt something small being pressed into her palm.  She immediately recognized 
the locket, as he pushed it into her hand and led her fingers to a smaller ruby 
at the side of the heart.  She bent to kiss him tenderly, and her warm tears 
landed on his rapidly cooling cheeks.  Then even the whistling from his chest 
stopped, and his body began to fade away in her panicked arms.  

The intense pain stopped for Hotsuma and he could feel himself snapping back 
into place inside Yugi.  He was connected directly to her mind again, and he 
knew that she had placed the young shrine keeper inside one of her illusory 
worlds.  It was time that he exercised some powers of his own and took away her 
control over the illusions.  Yugi's shadow needed to wake up from her dream 
world before the farm boy was lost forever in her false paradise, and he tapped 
into Yugi's psyche enough to send that wakeup call along.  He could see a mental 
image of the shadow before him, and she seemed completely unaware of the kind of 
world in which she was living.  "You can't have him like that Sakuya," he 
whispered into her thoughts.  He could feel her angry and indignant responses 
flailing back at him.  "A living thing can't survive in your dream life.  To 
keep him is to kill him," he reminded the shadow, before sending her a fresh 
surge of self-awareness.   

That accomplished, Hotsuma himself would confront Yugi on the battlefield of her 
mind.  "Enough!" he bellowed into the child's thoughts like an angry father.  
"Do you really want to be all alone again in the dark?  Because that's the 
direction that you're leading yourself!  It's time to stop this, and I won't let 
you destroy yourself or anyone else anymore," he told the increasingly 
hysterical child.  Yes, he felt Tenchi slipping out of Yugi's grasp.  Hotsuma 
used his own thoughts to remove Yugi's control over her illusions.  He'd left 
Ryoko all the information that he could in the locket, and he could only trust 
in her to do what was needed on the outside while he worked on Yugi from the 
inside.  

Alone in the icy blizzard Ryoko tried to wrap her mind around Hotsuma's 
disappearance.  Even the stains of blood were fading from the snow, as though 
the grisly scene had never taken place.  She'd been sobbing uncontrollably since 
he'd vanished in her arms, and she made little hiccupping noises as she tried to 
calm her still spastic bronchi.  She sniffed a few times to further clear her 
breathing, as her mind continued to lurch.  Ryoko felt a small, hard presence in 
her closed hand, and she opened her fingers to study the locket in shock.  She'd 
forgotten about it in the wake of their flight from the GXP, but here it was-the 
only treasure that remained from those early days together.  She caressed its 
jeweled surface raptly, and her fingers found the small ruby that Hotsuma had 
been guiding them to.  Ryoko took a steadying breath, and pressed the stone.  

*******************

Author's Note:  Okay, here's Kleenex for any of you who are in need!  

::ryoko11 passes around a box of tissue for anyone who looks teary or is 
sniffling::  

That was a really tough chapter to write.  The lemon was the most difficult from 
a technical standpoint, but this was the most emotionally difficult.  That's why 
it took so long.  I feel that Ryoko and Hotsuma do need to come to blows in a 
real confrontation not only because they are on opposite sides of the Yugi 
conflict but also because of all the tensions and fights that build between them 
after the incident with Kiyone and Mihoshi.  There has to be a fight to vent all 
that and possibly to atone for all the deceptions or stupid actions.  Plus, it 
needed to happen for Hotsuma's plan.  I always found it interesting that Sakuya 
didn't help Tenchi until after Hotsuma's "death", and Yugi also undergoes a 
drastic shift after that when she becomes increasingly hysterical.  I felt it 
important to give Hotsuma more of a roll in these events for several reasons.  
One of the main ones being that his sudden personality shift at the end just 
never felt convincing to me.  (Even though they did give him excuses to be 
pretty pissed off)  There are still two chapters to come, and there's a lot to 
come in those chapters.  So let's all take a deep breath and remember that this 
IS a Hotsuma/Ryoko romance.  And it ain't over till Amagasaki sings!  ;)