Alien A Tenchi Muyo! Fanfic written by Michael Beck (The son of Dick Beck who uses his father's e-mail address) "Tenchi, stop!", Aeka pleaded. "You'll be hurt!" "That doesn't matter!" Tenchi shouted, pushing past her. Ryoko teleported into his path, grabbing hold of him and pulling him back, away from his destination. Ryoko was far stronger than any normal human, but Tenchi wasn't very normal. He managed to break free, only to have Aeka and Samami join in the fight. He only got them off him becuase desperation had given him extra strength. In the end, it took all six of the girls, along with Yoshou and Ryo-Ohki's huamn form, to get Tenchi under control. However, by the time they had done so was a mute point who won the fight. The fire department, summoned by Noyuboki (sp?), had managed to put out the blaze. But they were too late. The senior citizens in the nursing home had all died from smoke inhalation and burns. The ride home from the abortive trip to town was fraught with tension, at least for Tenchi and Noyuboki. The other seven talked, fought and miyaed as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. When they got to the Masaki residence, Tenchi went up to his room and sat there until Samami called him down for dinner. That did it. He stormed downstairs, to where the girls and his grandfather were just sitting down for dinner. "How can you be like this?!!" he screamed. "All those old people DIED, and you're just sitting and talking as if nothing happened!" "What's the big deal?" Kiyone asked around a mouthful of food. "Yeah, you didn't know any of them." Sasami added. For a moment, Tenchi was to stunned to speak. The room seemed to spinning, and the next thing he knew he was sitting on the floor with everyone looking at him with concern. "Are you OK?" Mihoshi asked, almost desperate. Washuu popped out of existence for a moment, to return with a medical kit that would have made Beverly Crushed green with envy. "Don't worry, Tenchi. I, Washuu, number 1 genius scientist in the universe, will save you!" Seeing Tenchi's look, Youshou explained. "You fainted, Tenchi. It was only for a minute, but we were all so scared." "Don't ever do that to me again." Aeka wailed. "Or me!" said Ryoko. "OR YOU!" Aeka screeched. "What makes you think that Lord Tenchi would care about what happens to YOU!" Ryoko's only response was to smash Aeka in the face. The Jurai Princess responded in kind, and pretty soon a full scale fight was on. Tenchi heard a voice he didn't recognize shout, "STOP IT NOW!" Amazingly enough they did so. It was only then that Tenchi realized that the voice had been his own. "What is with you?" he demanded, unable to stop himself. "A bunch of old folks burn to death, and you don't care. God, if any of you had put half as much effort into saving them as you did into stopping me from saving them, they would all still be alive! But the instant I have even a little trouble, its the end of the world!" "Your point being?" Youshou asked, a expression of genuine puzzlement upon his face. The others had identical looks, even Ryo-Ohki. "Get out. I don't to see any of you again. Anywhere. Ever. In fact, I don't want any of you to ever return to this planet, and you can tell everyone in the Jurai royal court the same thing." "You can't do that!" Kiyone protested. "I AM THE HEIR TO THE THRONE OF JURAI, AND THAT MEANS YOU HAVE TO OBEY MY ORDERS!!" Tenchi yelled. "He's right." Youshou admitted. "He *is* next in the line of sucession, after all. By law, of us must obey. Even I, since I have relinquished my claim to the throne." "But I don't a spaceship." Aeka pointed out. "You can use one of mine." said Wasshu. "You too, Youshou." They walked out the door and out of Tenchi's life. Tenchi was still crying a few hours later when Noyuboki came downstairs. "How could they do that?" Tenchi sobbed. "How could they be so selfish, so heartless, so, so . . ." "Inhuman?" Noyuboki suggested. "Yeah, inhuman, that the right word." Tenchi replied. He was about to continue, when the full import of his father's word choice hit him. An imitation of a fish was all Tenchi could manage. "That's right, my son. They looked human, but they weren't human." "You knew." Tenchi said. "You knew they were like this." "No, I didn't. I knew that they were odd, but not to this degree. I got my first clue just after me and your mother were married. I was talking to Youshou and the subject of the kamikaze pilots during WWII came up. Anyway, Youshou couldn't understand it. I can stil remember his words. 'What could have posessed some many people to die just to delay some minor damage to a physical location?' was what he said. He got more careful after that, but there were always tiny things. I never figured out just what the whole cause was until we found out he was from Jurai. Then, it all fell into place." "My son, your alien friends were just that. Alien. The products of a society and evolution completely different from anything on Earth. No matter how human they look, the most barbaric gaijin has more in common with you and me than they do." "But why didn't you tell me?" Tenchi asked. Now that he was thinking about it, he could remember other times the girls had done things no human would do. What human would just walk up to someone and call them a "guinea-pig for my experiments?" Would take being stranded on Earth in stride. For that matter, what human would stick themselves in stasis, on the off chance that someday, maybe, the ship would pass close enough to their nemesis to revive them? "Because as I said before, I didn't realize the extent of it. I knew they could get obsessive, but some humans can be too." Noyuboki replied. "But this, this total lack of comprehension for the existence of life outside themselves . . . you understand. Or rather, neither of us understand." But that was the whole problem. Tenchi did understand. It was an effort, but he could understand why the Juraians had reacted the way they had. He could see the way their ids and superegos interacted to produce something completely unknown on earth. He could see the inability to become attached to physical objects and locations, the blind acceptance of cycles and self. Moreover, he could see the strangely intense emotions the Juraians felt, how their feelings for those they knew personally were far more deeper and more complex than anything human. His mother's influence, he thought. But he could also see things from the Earth perspective. The willingness to die for an abstraction, the power to think in terms of collectives, the distinction between the name of an object and the object itself, the tendency towards introspection and the willingness to accept the existence of a transdecendent power higher than himself. He supposed he took after his father in that respect. Two mentalities, with very little common ground between them. Except for Tenchi. "My God." he thought. "What am I?"