Hi Again! This is Kraken with the next installment in this fic. Have fun with it, and, as before, don't flame me to hard if it sucks. Also I should say again that the characters of Tenchi Muyo! are the property of AIC and Pioneer, and that no characters in this fan fic, with the exeption of some of the villans (for now, anyway) are of my own creation. So, as before, don't sue me, please? Bushido Muyo! By Jeremy "Kraken" Acord azhrei701@hotmail.com or zerokraken@aol.com (Through end 2000) Episode 2: "No Need for a Faceless Adversary!" Tenchi awoke and sat up in response to the growing level of noise in the house below and the brightening of the sky, what portion of it was visible from his bedside window. As his memory told him it was not a schoolday, he pulled on his jeans and shirt, and headed downstairs, where Washu and Ayeka were already watching TV. Sasami, by the smell of it, was cooking breakfast, probably with Kiyone's help. As Tenchi reached the bottom of the stairs, Ayeka got up, came around the couch, and, despite how quietly Tenchi tended to walk around, stood facing Tenchi, showing no hint of surprise at seeing him. "Good Morning, Lord Tenchi." She said musically, with her head cocked ever so slightly to the right. "Uh, good morning, Miss Ayeka." Tenchi replied. At times he suspected Ayeka was more powerfull than she let on, due to her uncanny ability to sense Tenchi's prescence. Tenchi then quickly stepped a few feet back and to the left. The Jurai First Princess cocked her head a little more to the right and sweatdropped. "Um, Lord Tenchi, what are you doing?" Tenchi sweatdropped himself and scratched his head. "Well, it's just that, um, Ryoko usually has me pinned to a wall by now." Kiyone opened the door with her foot and entered from the outside, carrying baskets filled with, among other things, carrots. "Ryoko? She went up to the shrine early this morning. She didn't seem to want to tell me what she was up to, though." Despite being outside and Washu having the TV on, she seemed to have heard the entire conversation. Sometimes Tenchi had similar thoughts about both Ayeka and Kiyone. Tenchi smiled weakly "I wonder what she's plotting." "Kiyone, do you have those carrots that I sent you out for?" Sasami shouted, as the sounds of chopping mixing were briefly interrupted. "Meow!" "No, Ryo-oki, those carrots are for breakfast!" "Mrrooowww." Ryo-oki voiced dejectedly. "Yes, I'm coming right in!" Kiyone yelled back. Mihoshi, probably the only woman in the house who slept in as late as Ryoko (usually, anyway) appeared at the top of the stairs and yawned. "Hi, everybody," she said sleepily, "Oooh, cartoons!" Instantly fully awake, she bounded down the stairs in what seemed to Tenchi about three steps, and ran to sit next to Washu. When Ryoko didn't show up at breakfast, Tenchi's nervousness turned to concern. "I'm off to the feilds now, I guess." "Oh!" Sasami interjected. She got up and hurried to the kitchen, returning with a small bag. "Tenchi, I almost forgot to give you your lunch." Tenchi took his lunch from Sasami's proffering hand. "Thank you, Sasami," He said. Tenchi did not go directly to the fields, however. He walked up the stone steps to the shrine, as he had decided at breakfast. A quick survey of the shrine told Tenchi that Ryoko was not there. "She's probably back at the house." But then another possibility stuck in Tenchi's mind. Upon entering the cave where Ryoko had once been sleeping, he, as his strange suspicions had implied, he found the space pirate immersed in the cold water that filled the pool in the center of the blue tiled chamber. She had a relaxed expression on her face. "Ryoko." Tenchi began. He faltered when her eyes snapped open. For a moment she stared blankly at the ceiling. But then she saw Tenchi. "Oh, hi Tenchi," she said. Tenchi thought he detected a hint of releif. "I was just, uh, remembering how we first met." "Ryoko, you watched me from this cave practically from the day I was born." Ryoko sat up and began to wring out her hair. "Yes, but this is the place where we first met in person." Tenchi sat down cross legged at the other end of the pool. "Ryoko, is there something wrong?" He then mentally kicked himself for being so blunt. Ryoko stopped wringing her hair and gave Tenchi a surprised look. "Is something wrong? No, nothing's wrong, I just wanted to preserve what memories of you I have." "Ryoko, tell me. You know I'll listen to you." Ryoko gasped and abruptly stood, showering the area around her with water. "Oh no, I forgot! I told Sasami I would go to get the groceries today!" She floated up to the ceiling of the cave and disapeared, the water that had soaked into her clothes falling to the floor with a splash. "Hmm." Tenchi mused. He stood slowly, and returned to the entrance of the cave. There was work to be done. At dinner, there was much conversation, but Ryoko largely left herself out. She ate methodically and, when addressed, smiled benignly and replied without trace of sarcasm. This was getting Tenchi even more worried. Afterwards, Ayeka noticed him sitting out on the porch looking at the night sky, and went outside to join him. "Hello Lord Tenchi. Thinking deep thoughts, I suppose?" Said Ayeka, her words accompainied by the thought; Maybe I'll try my hand at teasing him. "In fact, yes." Ayeka had not heard this degree of calm in Tenchi scince the battle with Kagato, on the deck of the battleship Soja. "Ayeka, have you noticed anything different the past few days?" "Other than the fact that Ryoko wasn't there to say good morning to you, no." Tenchi smiled at her. "That, in part, was the answer I had hoped for. It is Ryoko that has been bothering me. She hasn't been in a fight with you for... nearly a week. She's been altogether unintrusive and pleasant." "And is there something about how Ryoko has been acting that you don't like?" Tenchi looked back up at the stars, the smile disappearing from his face. He again wore a look of extreme focus and clarity of thought. "It's not that. What bothers me is that there seems to be something bothering her. And she won't tell anybody, which will probably make things worse." He then yawned, and grinned sheepishly at the Princess. "I guess it would be better if I figured this out in the morning." He stood and offered his hand. Ayeka took it and together they went inside. "Good night, Miss Ayeka." Tenchi said as he climbed up the stairs and walked to his room. "Good night, Lord Tenchi," said Ayeka to the door of Tenchi's room, "I hope you don't stop being so pleasant." Ryoko, afraid to sleep and not tired anyway, was on the roof, stargazing. Her thoughts fell on Tenchi and her worries concerning him. She couldn't seem to put herself back to sleep in the cave, which is what she had really been trying to do. So she had no choice but to keep her distance from Tenchi, for now. Ayeka, half asleep, still noticed the soft sound of footsteps, someone lightly padding down the hallway. She immediately suspected that Ryoko was going to try to get in a romantic interlude with Tenchi behind her back, and, careful not to disturb her sleeping sister, crept into the hallway herself. She closed on the dark figure soundlessly, and when she reached an appropriate distance, whispered, "What are you doing?" What Ayeka had origionaly thought was the hunched figure of Ryoko turned, coming into a moonbeam ranging down the hallway, and straightened to it's full, yet modest, height. It radiated a tenseness in it's appearance. Swarms of miniature logs surrounded the princess as her eyes narrowed, she and the cloaked interloper circled each other as if already locked in a duel to the death. "Why are you here? What do you want?" She asked. Some of the tension seemed to dissolve out of the figure's body language as if it had resolved itself on a course of action. Ayeka saw the hood of the cloak shift, in the direction of a door down the hall, the door to Tenchi's room. Ayeka realized this quickly and moved between the intruder and it's destination. "I will not allow you near Lord Tenchi." She said, in the most commanding voice she could muster. Light flooded the hallway as Tenchi's door slid open, framing the boy in the doorway. Ayeka looked over her left shoulder, about to warn Tenchi to stay back. "Ryoko! Ayeka! could you please save it until mor... What the?-" Before Ayeka could react, the figure dashed across the hallway and leapt at Tenchi. Tenchi barely saw the small, dark shape that hit him with a crushing hug, pinning his arms to his sides. The force of the blow carried both of them back onto Tenchi's bed. The cloaked assailand hit Tenchi across the face to stun him, then opened the window, and, grabbing Tenchi again, jumped out, moment's before Ayeka arrived at the window sill. "TENCHIII!" She screamed. Ryoko was on her feet before she saw Tenchi, attatched to a strangely familiar form, soaring up into the sky. She followed. Ahead of the figure, a ship appeared. The figure oriented on it, and, struggling boy in tow, accelerated toward it. The ship was of an obsidian-black material much like Ryo-oki. It was triangular, with two spines protruding from the back end, giving it the overall appearance of a crystalized ant head. "Hey!" Ryoko yelled. She saw the cloak of the figure fly up as a hand protruded from it, and barely traced a dark shape flying toward her. She barely got her sheild up in time. The concussion from the explosion threw Ryoko into the lake with such force that she surfaced only in time to see the craft above leave the atmosphere, taking Tenchi with it. 8 Ryoko, knowing it was useless to pursue the ship, waded ashore and collapsed in tears on the bank. Rolling onto her back, Ryoko watched the rapidly fading light in the sky. Now Tenchi was gone, and it was her fault. She should have known the dreams were more than just dreams. It was all her fault. Long enough for you? I'd love some feedback, so don't hesitate to mail me. Episode 3 is coming up!