Well, here goes... Welcome to the second episode of the second chapter of Bushido Muyo! Gee, that sounds weird, almost like "it was the thirteenth hour of the thirteenth day of the thirteenth month..." But I'm rambling. If you are still reading the series, thank you, and if you are still reading this paragraph, I assume that you have read the preceeding episodes of this and the last chapter. Thank you again for reading. By the way, if there are representatives of Pioneer LDC or AIC reading, I must say, for your benefit (and mine) that I do not own the Tenchi Muyo! universe, characters, ect., nor did I create them. I'm sure that these two companies have sufficiently intimidating legal teams, and I do not wish to have these unleashed upon me. So please don't okay? ******************************************************************************* Bushido Muyo! by Jeremy "Kraken" Acord azhrei701@hotmail.com Chapter 2: Honorbound Episode 2: "A WHAT!?" Aeka leaned over the back of the couch, pushing Tenchi aside. "A WHAT!?" she demanded. "You dare to come to OUR home, after YOU destroyed it, and ask for a FAVOR?!" Ryoko sneered. "You've got some nerve," she commented. "Aeka, please!" Tenchi interjected. He sat up, gently pushing the princess back. He looked back at Ijima. "What do you mean, a favor?" Ijima looked uneasily at the women behind Tenchi. Both girls smoldered with righteous indignation at the mercenary. "Well," he swallowed, "as you know, it's been five months scince we... met. Tenchi, you defeated me in while I was in the employ of the drug baron Menari Lurochi, who was at that time running from the law. You allowed me to live, and so make good my escape. However, allowing me to live seems to have been the only mercy you granted me. I was thouroughly exhuasted, and more gravely injured, probably by that energy wave of yours, than I was to know. I made it to an escape pod, and passed out during the ejection. I landed it on a mountainous section of a mainly oceanic planet. Nearby to where I landed was a retreat for exponents of the Jurai Harmonic Combat style. The students there took it as an opportunity to test their medical skills, which were more than apt. Having nothing better to do, and, as there were no ships due in for several months, nowhere better to be, I asked to train with them, and was well received. My teacher was named Ruan; we deal with each other wholly on a first-name basis. She was one of few classial teachers of the style left, and she said that I had remarkable aptitude for the nuances of classical tecnhique. "Three months after I arrived, the scheduled ships arrived and I was sent to get some supplies, at the expressed desire of my master, Ruan. When I returned I found the school grounds flooded with Galaxy Police. They told me that when I was gone, the school had been raided by pirates. Many things had been stolen, and several of the students and teachers kidnapped, Ruan among them. I realized that these were no ordinary pirates, as such a highly skilled exponent such as Ruan could make short work of them were it so. So, after some discussion, the school sent some of it's better students to investigate. I was one of them, and I knew I would need help." "So you came here," Aeka summarized, "to ask assistance of Lord Tenchi." She paused for a moment. "Are you in any way impaired?" she added. "Uh, no," Ijima stammered. "Lord Tenchi is not going ANYWHERE!" she shouted, "You are wasting your time! Now get out of our house!" She pointed angrily toward the door. Tenchi turned and stood, pushing the princess back. "Aeka, stop it! It isn't your decision in the first place, anyway." "But, Lord Tenchi," she complained, "I *must* look after you. If I didn't make sure you were all right, you could get hurt." "Aeka, it's still my choice," Tenchi continued. "But Tenchi, if I am ever to be your bride..." she began. "Fat chance," Ryoko remarked. Aeka snapped a venomous glance over her shoulder. "What was that, you monstrous hussy?" she spat. "Tenchi and I were destined to be together," the space pirate elaborated, "And he would never marry a prissy tightwad like yourself." "Why you rude, brazen..." "Stuck up little..." Tenchi turned and hurried away as a wrestling match ensued. As the rest rushed to pull the two apart, he leaned close to Ijima. "Quick, let's go," he suggested. They got up and skirted the brawling pair, arriving outside. "I hope they don't destroy the place again," he worried aloud. "Quite a masterful manipulation," Ijima praised. He looked over his shoulder, then back to follow the boy as he moved off toward the shrine steps. As the young man cought up with Tenchi, he glanced back at the house, from which he could hear the shouts of the entire family as they tried to regain order. "I don't like to do that," he explained. The boy walked a while further, then stopped and turned to the mercenary. "What did you want?" Ijima took a deep breath. "I came to ask for your help in finding the missing students." "You mean to help you find this Ruan," Tenchi observed. Ijima looked sheepishly at his feet, then back to Tenchi. "How astute of you." Tenchi gave a sympathetic smile. "I live with a space pirate, two princesses, two Galaxy Police officers, and mad scientist. If I try, I can tell the difference between what people say and what they mean." He glanced nervously back at the house, then continued a ways up the steps. Ijima followed. "Well," Tenchi said with a sigh, "I have to help you." "Really?" asked a disbeleiving Ijima. He jogged around to stand in front of Tenchi. "You're going to help me?" "Despite your past," Tenchi explained, "you are still in need, and I can't hold any grudges." He smiled, "I seem to have made a carreer out of helping people." "Thank you," he said, with a slight bow. "... But are you sure you can convince-" "TENCHIIIII!" Aeka called. She hurried up the stone steps to the pair, jogging in an attempt to balance her worry-born flight with the ritual grace that her position demanded of her. A mirage-like disturbance in the air below and behind the princess betrayed that Ryoko was also in pursuit, and had just vanished. Aeka came to a halt two stairs below them. "Lord Tenchi, what are you doing?" she asked, her hands working at habitual adjustments of her kimono. "Really," Ryoko began as she materialized, setting soflty down on the step above Ijima, "You shouldn't be so careless. This man-" She indicated to Ijima, "-is too dangerous for you to just wander off alone with." "Ryoko, Aeka, I'm fine, really." Tenchi swallowed. "... and what's more, I've decided to help Ijima with his problem." "WHAT!?" Aeka screamed, causing Ijima to flinch. Ryoko laughed heartily. "Oh, Tenchi," she chuckled, "you have the strangest sense of humor." Tenchi smiled. "This is no joke, Ryoko. I'm going to give Ijima any help he needs." The rest of the party, who had followed Aeka's hasty journey up the steps, began to arrive. "Are... you serious, Lord Tenchi?" the princess asked disbeleivingly. "Hmm? Serious about what?" Sasami asked as she came to a halt beside her sister. Tenchi grinned nervously at her, but the Second Princess of Jurai was otherwise ignored. She tugged on her sister's right sleeve. "Aeka, serious about what?" Ryoko grabbed Tenchi by the arm. "You're not going anywhere, Tenchi, not WITH him and definitely not WITHOUT me." Tenchi pursed his lips. He met Ryoko's gaze squarely as he brushed her hand away. "It's my decision. I've chosen to help Ijima. You can't stop me." The space pirate put her fists on her hips. "Oh, is that so?" she replied. *** "This is really immature of you, girls!" Tenchi yelled. He was strapped to a wall in Washu's laboratory, across from cage that housed the mercenary Ijima. Ijima stayed silent, sitting on his knees in the center of the enclosure and curiously examining the scenery outside it. Washu did not look at him. "It's for your own good, Tenchi," she chided him, typing busily on her spectral terminal. "I don't want my favorite guinea pig damaged because he went off and did something foolish without my supervision." Ijima cocked an eyebrow at the scene. "Strange. You don't look like his mother," he commented. "She's MY mother," Ryoko said from behind him. Ijima looked over his shoulder at the space pirate, considering her for a moment. "I still don't see any resemblance," he said noncommitally. "I quite agree with miss Washu," Aeka added, coming through the dimensional door, "As a prince of the Jurai royal family, you, Tenchi, have a responsibility to preserve yourself." "It's called formaldahyde," the boy grumbled. "Did you say something?" the princess demanded. Tenchi didn't answer. "I am not about to allow my groom-to-be to run away from me. It's happened to me once already." "Well, you do tend to drive them away" Ryoko mumbled. "What was that?" Aeka demanded. It seemed she didn't care where her anger was directed. "Did you say something?" Ryoko said, covering her tracks as well as her smile. "You know, girls, I never said you couldn't come with me." This drew the total and undivided attention of the three women. "What was that?" they asked in unison. Tenchi sighed heavily, but there was no turning back. "If I go, I'll have to take you all with me," he explained, "I'm obligated to." Ijima sat back, watching the scene with interest. Ryoko cleared the mercenary's cage with one bound, floating across the thirty or so feet of metal flooring to stand beside Tenchi. "Do you mean it, Tenchi? I can go with you?" she clasped both hands before her, looking expectantly into Tenchi's eyes. "Yes," Tenchi begrudgingly admitted. His head bumped against the wall as Ryoko embraced him. He could see Aeka through the cyan veil of Ryoko's hair. "Hey!" she protested, "I must go as well. Tenchi has sworn to protect me and must stay by my side." Though Tenchi still had great difficulty remembering such an oath, he decided that it was safest to include all of them. He managed to shrug his way out of Ryoko's arms and added; "Yes, you can all come with me." Ryoko frowned at Tenchi at the inclusion of not only the princess, but the rest of her competition for Tenchi's heart as well. She glanced at Ijima again. "I don't see why we ALL have to come..." she remarked disappointedly, "... I can protect Tenchi from that guy all by myself." She jerked her head toward the caged mercenary. Washu now decided to intervene. "Ryoko, Aeka, go tell the others. We have some packing to do." She punched a few keys. With a barely audible hum, Tenchi's bindings loosened. He slid out from under them, and rubbed his sore limbs. He looked down to see that Washu was before him. She glanced to the side to watch the lab door slide shut behind pirate and princess, and cleared her throat. "You're serious about this, aren't you?" she asked. Tenchi was surprised by the ever-so-faint tone of anxiouseness in the normally composed genius' voice. "You can't trust Ijima, not after what he did to us, and-" she stopped. Tenchi was not listening. He peered over the tall red peaks toward the cage in which the mercenary in question was incarcerated. She turned, and gasped. Ijima gave a grunt as he pulled his foot from between the thinly spaced bars. Tugging his extremities free, he sat back, panting from the effort. A veil of blue hair hung over his eyes, obscuring his vision. He did not notice Tenchi until the boy proferred a helping hand to the man. He took it with a muttered word of thanks, and, standing, straightened his loose white cape. "But, b-but..." the shocked scientist stammered, "my scans showed no matter compressors, no teleporters, no technological ordinance at all! How could you-" Ijima silenced her with a warm smile. "Such aids are not needed," he didacted, "It is all a matter of attitude." With that, he turned and headed for the door, cape drifting behind. "He sounds like Grandfather." Tenchi remarked. ******************************************************************************* And there you have it. Chapter 2, Episode 2, in it's entirety. I hope that you liked it, and that it was worth the time you waited to read it. The series is in no jepoardy, as there is much more that I wish to put the Tenchi gang through before I move on to another universe. Keep reading, keep writing! -Kraken