Disclaimer: Tenchi Muyo! and its characters, technologies, 
etc. are property of Pioneer and AIC. All other characters 
and ideas are property of the author and their use is 
prohibited except by consent of the author. Any similiarities 
to actual persons, events, etc. are purely coincidental and 
in no way makes the author liable. To sum up all this legal 
stuff don't steal my original characters and don't sue me for 
use of ones that aren't.

Tenchi Muyo!: Airs of the Past

Chapter 1: A Cold Day in Okayama

	Tenchi Masaki was having a bad night. This must have been the 
two-millionth time he glanced out his window at the moon tonight. 
"Get it together or you won't be able to stay awake at all tomorrow," 
he muttered to himself. 

	At this comment he heard a small giggle come from someone in 
his room. He didn't even have to turn around to tell who it was. 
"Ryoko, do you really need to sit in here like that?" Mentally he 
kicked himself because he already knew her answer.

	"Yea, come to think of it I do!" she whispered seductively in 
his ear as she inched ever closer to him. Try as he might not to he had 
to admit he liked it when she talked like that, but he knew he had to be 
firm or she would try to do more than whisper sweet nothings in his ear. 
Damn hormones he thought as he blushed.

	"Seriously, Ryoko, you sitting there is the last thing I need when 
i'm trying to get to sleep," he managed to put a hint into the tone of his 
voice without plainly telling her to get out.

	"Humph, you're no fun," she said pouting as she phased out of his room.
	That morning Tenchi awoke feeling groggy and worn out. "Feels like I got
hit by a truck," he muttered sleepily as he crawled out of bed. Glancing out his 
window he realized the Sun was already high in the sky glistening off the snow. 
"Hmmm......what time is EAAGH," he screamed as he looked over at his clock It was 
already eleven. "How come no one bothered to let me know what time it was. Not to 
mention I never sleep past my alarm," he said to no one in particular as he threw 
on his shoes and grabbed his schoolbooks.

	He burst out of his room and half jumped and half fell down the stairs. 
He glanced into the living room to see Sasami and Aeka sitting on the couch. He
noticed mihoshi sleeping on the other couch. 

	Seeing Tenchi's mad rush down the stairs, Sasami gave him her usual cheery 
smile, "Hi, Tenchi, I would have woke you but your school was closed today for bad 
weather, and Ryoko said you two had a long night."

	"WHAT??!!" Aeka turned red, her usual over reaction to what she had now 
just heard from Sasami. Tenchi just sighed in one of those 'why me' ways. 
"Thank You, Sasami," he said before turning to take his books upstairs, Aeka hot 
on his heels.

	"What did that...that...demon temptress do to you now, Tenchi?" she choked 
out between her growls.

	"Hardly fitting behavior for the Crown Princess of Jurai," Washu cackled 
from the bottom of the stairs.

	"You stay out of this Washu!" she was even more enraged by Washu's remark.
Washu couldn't help chuckling at Aeka, or Ryoko for that matter, when they acted 
like this. "No need to insult me, Princess, It's LITTLE Washu!" she said in protest 
to Aeka's last comment.
 
	"She did nothing to me, Aeka, now if you will excuse me i'm going to take a 
shower," Tenchi said in a flat manner hoping to put an end to another potential 
argument before it got out of hand.
 
	After Tenchi went upstairs Ryoko came in downstairs and Aeka didnt even 
bother talking to her. She called her power logs into exsistence before Ryoko 
even knew what was going on. She barely managed to avoid them. Ryoko now knew 
Aeka just wanted to fight and not waste time talking. Ryoko unleashed a bolt at her.
 
	Aeka had her shield up and Ryoko was hitting it with her energy bolts and 
her sword in a mad flurry of vicious strikes. Somehow Mihoshi was managing to sleep 
through the whole thing. Sasami had already ran for cover with Ryoohki, she knew how 
these fights end up. Washu was already back in her lab oblivious to the noise outside.

	"This time you have gone to far you demon!" Aeka screamed as Ryoko shot another 
blast into her shield. "You must be punished!" She summoned her logs to electrocute Ryoko.

	Ryoko teleported to the other side of Aeka and loosed a shot of energy that 
struck Aeka in the back, "You and what army are gonna punish me, you stuck up little princess?"
	Aeka shot her an evil glance as she caught her in her web of power logs, 
releasing their charge and pushing it through Ryoko.
 
	Ryoko managed to get out of the logs before being hurt to badly. Aeka hurridly 
put her shield up as Ryoko crashed into it with balls of energy formed in both of her hands.

	The resulting power caused an explosion that Sasami was expecting. Mihoshi 
slept right through it.

	Sometime during his shower Tenchi was sure he heard an explosion. "So much 
for stopping a fight," he sighed as he walked out of the bathroom.
 
	Tenchi walked back to his room and shut the door. He had the eerie feeling 
he was being watched. He glanced around the room and dodged to the right as Katsuhito 
slashed at him with his bokken.
 
	"Not fast enough, Tenchi!" he shouted as he leveled his bokken with Tenchi's neck 
barely a split second after he had lunged at him from the darkness. "You still need to 
practice today bad weather or not, and that is why." Tenchi moaned as he grabbed his bokken 
and followed him. "Now now, if you are to  be a skilled warrior you must first be at peace 
inside, so stop the groaning."

	Tenchi stopped his grumbling before repling to Katsuhito,"I know I still have to 
practice, but I just had a long night and an......interesting morning," he said motioning 
to the now subsided commotion downstairs.

	Katsuhito laughed at the last remark,"I understand you are tired, Tenchi, but do 
you think the enemy will go easy because you are a little sleepy?" without waiting for a 
reply he continued, "You must always be prepared for the worst, whether you are surrounded 
by friends or alone in the darkest of places."

	Tenchi only shook his head as he walked down stairs past the remains of the living 
room and looked at the scene around him. Aeka and Ryoko were sprawled on the floor and Sasami 
was with Ryoohki in the Kitchen. Mihoshi was now gone. Probably on patrol Tenchi figured.

	As he walked up the to training grounds he thought about what he could do to stop 
the two girls from fighting. When he got to the training area he was so engrossed in thought 
he barely managed to parry Katsuhito' s bokken as it slashed at his head.

	Katsuhito did not slow his attack on the now fully aware Tenchi. He slashed at 
Tenchi's side from the right, then tried to sweep his legs out from underneath him before 
trying to bring the hilt of the bokken down on Tenchi's head. Tenchi easily parried the 
slash and managed to hop over the leg sweep. He brought his bokken up to block his head 
but it snapped from the force of Katsuhito's swing barely knocking his strike aside.

	"Crap," Tenchi mumbled under his breath he hated how often his bokkens snapped 
and he was forced into a handicap against his grandfather.
 
	Katsuhito did not hesitate to press the advantage on Tenchi as he tried to defend 
himself with the remains of the training sword. Now on the defensive, Tenchi had to attempt 
to dodge most of the blows without the use his weapon. He was doing a good job of it to, 
at least he thought so until his Grandfather connected with the back of his head knocking 
him out.

	Katsuhito looked down at Tenchi, the blade of his now demolished bokken laying 
next to him. "Hmmm.....maybe I hit him a little hard," he said admiring the cracked hilt 
of his own bokken from the knockout blow he had just delivered to his grandson. 
"Oh well he'll live, and it never hurts to get some sleep, haha!" he laughed at his own 
lame joke thinking about what Tenchi said earlier about being tired.

	Katsuhito slung Tenchi's now limp form over his shoulder and headed back to the house. 
Back at the house Sasami was finishing preparing dinner, (Tenchi and Katsuhito had practiced 
long enough to miss lunch.) Washu and her drones were hard at work repairing the damage done 
by Aeka and her daughter after their fight. "Those two make more work for me than I think 
Mihoshi could if she was trying," Washu was always doing this and it was getting slighty tedious.

	Aeka and Ryoko probably would have been right back to each other's throats had the 
cause of their quarrels not been in bed sleeping since his training session with Katsuhito.
It was a mostly peaceful night(compared to most for the Masaki house) after dinner until 
everyone drifted off to bed.

	Tenchi woke with a pounding headache and looked outside only to see his all to familiar
midnight insomnia sight of the moon. "What the Hell happened to me? I feel worse than I did
this morning." He slowly went over the days events in his mind before realizing he had missed
that last block. His stomach growled fiercely as he suddenly realized he had slept through 
breakfast and dinner, and he was training with grandpa through lunch.

	He headed out of his room and noticed Ryoko was not on her usual rafter sleeping. Oh 
well she is perfectly capable of taking care of herself. At this point he was to hungry to 
really seriously care about much else. He crept down to the kitchen being careful not to disturb 
the rest of the house with his midnight snack. He noticed a bitterly cold air seaping in through 
the window that was slighty opened. After closing the window he fixed himself as quick and simple
bowl of soup that he could before he headed back up to his room.
 
	On his way back up the stairs he heard a sound from the roof. "Ah," he sighed, "that is
where she is hiding." Tenchi momentarily forgot his hunger when he thought of how cold it was
in the kitchen. He grabbed a blanket and headed outside to at least keep her a little warm.
pulling the ladder up to the side of the house as quietly as he could he scaled it soup in one
and the blanket over a shoulder.

	As he expected there she was sitting in the middle of the roof. He could swear she was 
shivering but he knew he had better not say anything to her about it. As much as she tried to 
be tough he knew that she had a soft side underneath her veil of strength.
 
	Ryoko didn't even notice Tenchi until he had drapped the blanket over her shoulders and
sat down beside her. "Hello, Tenchi," she said in the melancholic tone she usually had when she 
been sitting alone thinking.

	Tenchi sat beside her and offered her part of his soup. (as hungry as he was it would 
have been wrong not to) "Are you alright, Ryoko?" he asked slowly. She may try to be tough but
He knew all of the people in the house long enough to know when something was bothering one of
them. Plus he could tell from her demeanor that she had not had anything to drink which meant 
something was seriously upsetting her.
 
	"Look at how beautiful the starlight is glistening on the snow," she was trying to evade 
his question and he knew it. He got closer to her and shared the blanket before he was freezing 
on the roof in thought too. He had no idea how long she had been up here but he could tell she 
was cold as she hugged him and started to cry into his shoulder.

	Well i didn't have to prod very much to get her to open up to me he thought, wondering if
that was good or bad.
 
	"Do you hate the idea of being with me, Tenchi?" she asked as she picked her head off his
shoulder. Inwardly Tenchi groaned, he had this conversation with Ryoko in the past.
 
	"No, but I don't know how far I am willing to commit myself to you or anyone of the 
girls yet, Ryoko," he tried to explain without getting her to angry or sad, "I need time to sort 
through my emotions."

	Apparently satisfied with his answer Ryoko had not yet let go of Tenchi she sat there 
her arms around his torso while he answered her and was not crying anymore.
	"Tenchi?"

	"Yea, Ryoko?"

	"Someday when you are ready to make a choice will you let me know first?" 

	This didn't seem all that unreasonable at the time.....
	"Sure"

	"Hey, Tenchi?"

	"Yea?"

	"Promise me someday you will go with me to see space, OK?"

	"Alright, I promise"

They sat there the rest of the night in silence just looking at the snow and the stars, enjoying
the wonderous beauty of the winter night.

To Be Continued.....

Author's notes: like I said i would get to Tenchi. Even as I write this im admiring the night.
it is now 4:30 AM where i am. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The next one should be up in a 
day or two. As always Questions, Comments, Helpful hints, or requests on where to send gum and 
caffiene ladden products to help me through long nights of writing go to: kemanorel_7@yahoo.com