Aurthor's Notes: A Defense of Creative Originality I know what you're thinking: "Oh, great. Another Sasami and Tsunami fic, probably disgustingly full of introspection and Sasami's assimilation with Tsunami. Again. Why, God?" I know it's been done. A couple of times. I've read them. They're good fics, and this is not an attempt to emulate them. I hope to approach the thoughts and motivations of the characters in a different, if not new, way from what has been done before. It's a subject that I think would be interesting to explore in a literary sense, and if you think that it might be interesting to read such a thing, then please, read on. If you think I'm an uncreative, unoriginal, copycating (these are worst- case senarios, here), low-talent hack that is simply shooting his mouth off because he can't come up with a plot, I don't care. You can flame me. You can harrass me. You can write a review and drive my story into the afterlife. I'm still gonna write it, because I want to. I don't care if you've read a hundred fics about Sas&Tsu, it hasn't been done by ME! And I say I deserve a shot at it. Now that the self-righteous ranting is out of the way, I present to you, dear and valued reader, a tale of two of the most-loved characters in the universe of Tenchi Muyo!: Sasami and Tsunami: Like Lightning I used to be able to lose track of the days. When I was younger, it was easy. I was care-free, then. I spent so many days happily doing chores, like cooking, cleaning dishes, washing clothes. I could have lived like that forever, it seemed. I was surrounded by a family, the first one where I felt truly loved, and belonged. What day of the week it was didn't matter then. I was care-free, and the skies were clear. I've been thinking in terms of skies alot, these days. I remember what day of the week it is, always. I have to. Ever since they decided to put me in school, I've had to. I like the experience, I've developed friendships, gotten in trouble, gotten good grades. I know what it's like to be a normal person. Tenchi became like more like a father to me as I grew older, and after Ayeka left to take the throne, Ryoko and Mihoshi tried to fill the void my sister had left. Washu... is just Washu. It seems like she'll never grow up. I didn't want to leave this planet. I made so many friends, a family, and I could never leave Mayuka and Ryo-ohki. Both of them have grown up so much, and they're my best friends in the whole world. And me? I've been growing up, too. By the First Tree, has it really been seven years? Seven years since Ayeka and I first came to Earth, looking for Yosho? It seems like a long time, when you're only seven hundred and ten years old. Of course, looking back, it hasn't been so long. I'll be graduating from high school next year. I'm almost all grown up. It's been starting, too. I don't quite know when it started. Sometimes it seems like it's been happening forever. Like it's some sort of inevitable destiny I'm hurtling toward, and I can't find the break. When I turned thirteen, I began to notice my personality was changing. I was quiet more, and I'd spend more time by myself, sitting there, whatching nothing, or it seemed that way. But I did see things. Even now I can't remember what I saw, but I know I saw it. It got... worse? I don't know if that's the word for it. I'll say that I began to experience more changes, as I got older. Sometimes it would be a brief flash, like a long forgotten memory just coming to the surface. I'd remember a name, a place, faces. When I turned fifteen, I got the flashes. Memories that weren't my own. Scents I couldn't describe, noises that I had never heard before. I was afraid. I've always been frightened by it. I guess it's only natural, but that doesn't help. I don't completely understand what is happening to me. Neither does Tsunami. That frightens me even more. She's the braver one of us, no matter what she tells me. She whispers to me. It's soft, so soft that I can barely hear it. She tells me that I'm the strong one, that I always have been. I'm strong because I'm human. Because I can be afraid. I don't know how I can believe that. I was created by her. I'm not Sasami, just her shadow. A reflection of her light. I used to be fine with it, because my family still loved me, no matter what I thought I was. But I feel remorse everyday for that little girl that died seven hundred years ago. I'm living a life that doesn't belong to me. Tsunami's tried to tell me otherwise. Sometimes it's so confusing, aggravating, and frightening that I don't know what to believe. Last year, when I turned sixteen, is when I think it really began. The memories started to become more concrete, the images becoming more real. It frightens the other kids at school, sometimes. I wish that I could tell one of them, one of my friends. I know that I can't, though. It hurts to have to go through this alone. How do you tell normal people what it's like to know that you're... becoming someone else. Something else. And you don't have any idea what? I started to have... flashes, in the last year or so. Two months ago, during dinner, I walked up to Washu, and hugged her. I called her "sister." Sister? Washu's not my sister! Ayeka is my sister! Why did I call Washu my sister? I tried to ask Tsunami, but she retreated. She hasn't spoken to me since then. I'm alone now, and afraid. Alone and afraid inside my own head. I've had other flashes since then. I don't get nightmares anymore, like I did when I was little. I have them during the day. Sometimes, I see the Lady. I know her name, but it won't come to me. At night, when I should be asleep, I take walks in the forest near Yosho's shrine. It's peaceful out there, the whispers in my head gone, and all I hear are the sounds of the forest at night. I look up at the night sky, up at the stars, and I imagine I'm flying. I'm flying through space. I can feel the solar winds on my Light Hawk Wings. I can feel the power flowing through my body, great and unmatched in the universe. I hear the stars whisper to me. When I come out of it, I can still hear the stars, and I can hear the trees. I hear both of them, whispering in my ear. Then I run back to the house, and hide in my room. Ryoko walks in, without knocking, as usual. She sits down next to me, and holds me in her arms, like she used to when I had nightmares as a girl. The others see it, and try to help me as best they can, but I know there's nothing that they can do for me. Ryoko and Tenchi are my two oldest, dearest friends. I know it hurts them, that they can't do anything for me. Mihoshi is still optomistic, despite it all. I can't help but smile when she tries. Mayuka tries her hardest, too. She's still young, though, and sometimes I feel too old. That only leaves Ryo-ohki and Yosho. I can talk to Ryo-ohki, now. Not the bare grasp of human languages she usually has, but hear her in my mind, like Tsunami. She knows I'm changing, and she knows that it has something to do with the ship Tsunami. It makes her happy. She promised to teach me how to fly. Yosho. My real older brother. I never really knew him, back on Jurai. I've been talking to him a lot more, however. It's like I'm getting to know the oldest member of my family for the first time. When I told him that I couldn't hear Tsunami anymore, he understood. He knew I was afraid. "You have to find strength in yourself, Sasami. You feel you are alone in this, and that may be true, but you can't let it hurt you. I know you are afraid. I can see your fear. You must find strength in yourself, for yourself, and for all of us." I've been avoiding Washu. The... incident, when I called her sister, firghtened me beyond description. I wish I knew why I called her sister. Sister. Washu. Sister, Washu. Washu, sister. Washu... It's terrifying. I don't think I've ever known fear like this. I'm alone, without the one person who's been there with me for so long, the only one who knows what I'm going through, because she's part of it, as well. I don't know what is happening to me, or what I'll become. I see ghosts of my ancestors, Jurains long dead and gone, and I wonder how Tsunami has seen all of these things. She won't answer me. I'm afraid. Now, I can only wait, and watch myself become less Me, and more Something Else. If I've said it once, I've said it too many times. It scares me to not know what I'll become. But, I still have to stay strong, just like brother said. I have to find strength in myself, or I'll lose both me and Tsunami. I'm only left with one question to ask. When it does finally happen, when Tsuanmi and I fully assimilate, will it be as slow and gradual as everything else has been, with all of this torment being preparation, or will it all happen in one brilliant, spectacular flash? Just like lightning? Obligatory disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Tenchi Muyo! They are owned by AIC and Pioneer North America. I did not create them, and their use here is strictly for the enjoyment of myself and anyone who gets bored enough to read this. In other words: Please don't sue my poor ass.