Author’s Note: Most of the characters in the following story are not mine
and in no way do I claim them to be.  Nor do I claim that I created the
universe that the characters are placed in.  The characters and the
universe remain the property of Hitoshi Okuda, Pioneer LDC, INC and
Kadokawa Shoten Publishing CO.  Please do not sue.  This is a fanfic
and is nothing more than a show of my appreciation to the creators of
Tenchi Muyo.

 

No Need for Dark Warriors

                        Chapter 5

Tenchi awoke with his bed a mess.  The night had been long, as he had
spent the majority of it tossing and turning.  It was as if something had
been preventing him from sleeping, some feeling, something terrible, but
he drove that from his mind now.  Standing up he stretched and hastily
got dressed.  He smelled breakfast soon he has exited his room and
started down the stairs.  He whistled as he went in an attempt to drive out
the thoughts that had accompanied his rough night.  Had they been
thoughts?  No.  They were more like feelings, premonitions of what to
come and impulses of what had been.

            Reaching the bottom of the stairs Tenchi was planning to enter the
kitchen and see what Sasami had planned for the morning meal. 
However as he passed the entrance to Washuu’s lab he felt something. 
For some reason he felt like he had to check on her.  Going with his
impulse he opened the door and walked in.

            Inside were lights, machinery and countless different humming
sounds produced by vast computers.  Tenchi was careful as he walked
for two reasons.  One, he did not want to touch anything by accident and
two; he wondered what Washuu might want from him when and if he
found her.  He found her, however, not looking for him but passed out in
front of her computer.

            Tenchi shook his head.  “Tired herself out doing one of her
experiments again.  Oh well, I better leave and let her rest.”

            He turned wondering why he had come in the first place.  On his
way out, knowing that Washuu was resting, Tenchi did not go as
carefully.  It was because of this that his left foot became tangled in the
wires and cords lining the floor.  Tenchi quickly shifted his feet and threw
out his left leg for support.  This failed however and soon his arms were
doing a fine impression of flags in the wind.  He made one last vain
attempt to right himself and then he fell over landing upon a computer
terminal.  Quickly he latched onto the terminal in blind panic and it was
then that he pressed several buttons by accident.  He quickly regained his
balance after that but the damage had been done.

            “Oh no!  Ohhhh, I hope that doesn’t do anything important.”  He
looked around fearfully for a moment and seeing nothing visibly amiss
wiped the sweat from his forehead.  “Whew!”  It was then that a loud
siren began to sound and the machinery around Tenchi began to light up
with all the more fervor.  Tenchi quickly fell to the ground and covered his
head.  “Oh no!  What have I done!”  Smoke began to fill the room along
with electric sparks and small explosions.  “Ahhh miss Washuu
heeeeellllllllp!”

            Washuu’s eyes slowly opened as she stretched.  “Wow, how
long have I been asleep?  I shouldn’t be sleeping where there’s so much
work to- what the hell!”  Now she was instantly awake.  “How did all
these malfunctions start?  Computer how did all this start?”

            “Systems were activated Washuu.”

            “Well shut them down!”

            “I’m sorry that must be done manually Washuu, would you like a
schematic map to aid you in finding the button?”

            Washuu pounded the computer in front of her.  “No!  Ugh!  I’ll
just do it myself!”

            “That’s what I said Washuu, it must be done-“

            “Oh shut up, don’t you have an off switch!”

            “Yes, would you like me to aid you in finding it?”

            “Argh!”

            Washuu jumped out of her seat and began running at full speed
through her lab pushing buttons as she went.  

            “Not good, this is not good.”  She muttered as she rounded the
final corner where she knew the main controls were.  It was around this
corner where Washuu found the prone form of Tenchi, his arms still
clasped over his head.  “Tenchi!  What- how?  Never mind!”

Quickly Washuu pushed a large red button and immediately the electricity
left the air and the lab stopped rumbling.  Turning Washuu raised her right
hand to emphasize the statement she was about to make.  “Now Tenchi
we can’t have you going around in my lab, someone might get hurt.”

The computer next to Washuu, apparently not fully cleansed of
malfunctions rumbled slightly, produced a few sparks of lightning and then
exploded.  Once the smoke cleared Washuu presented a very interesting
sight.  Her long hair was now blackened and was sticking out at a
ninety-degree angle from the side of her head.  Her clothing was singed
and smoking slightly and her eyes were wide open.  Her right hand was
still raised but her one raised finger slowly lowered and her mouth
closed.  Slowly at first, then with increasing speed the scientist fell over
and landed in a heap with a loud thud.

“Miss Washuu!”  Said Tenchi leaping to his feet.  He quickly approached
the stricken scientist and fell to his knees.  “What have I done?  Are you
alright?”

Washuu’s eyes opened and she looked up at Tenchi.  “Oh’m just finnne
Tenchi Wenchi.  Soooo many bright stars!”

“Miss Washuu snap out of it!”  Tenchi yelled giving her a mild shaking.

Washuu shook her head briskly and some of the soot in her hair came out
during the action.  “What?  Tenchi… My lab!  What happened?”

Tenchi scratched his head.  “Ah… ha, ha, I had a small accident?”

Washuu jumped to her feet but quickly put her left hand to her forehead. 
“Ow!  Tenchi!  It’s going to take me weeks to fix all this!  What are you
doing in here anyway?”

“I don’t know actually.  I just felt like I had to talk to you.”

Washuu looked around her lab.  “Talk?  You’ve done more than that!”

“Sorry.  I just saw you that were sleeping and I didn’t want to wake
you.”

“Well I’m awake now.  So what’s on your mind Tenchi?”  She paused
and then squeezed both her hands together and lifted one foot off the
floor.  “Why Tenchi you’ve come to let me finish my testing!”

“Ahh!  No, I, Washuu I…” Washuu was coming closer.  “Washuu that’s
not why I came!”

Washuu stopped.  “Oh well.  Some other time then, oh and one more
thing Tenchi, do you think you could call me little Washuu?”

“Oh right, forgot.”

“Soooooo?”

Tenchi smiled.  “Well I had a feeling, last night that is.  I couldn’t sleep
because of it.”

Washuu was clearly intrigued and the humor had left her voice.  “What
kind of feeling?”

“I don’t know, its like there’s something wrong, something very wrong
but I don’t know what it is.”

“Tenchi, I have something to show you.”

“What?”

“Just follow me Tenchi.”

Tenchi said nothing more as he followed Washuu through the lab. 
Washuu returned to her computer and quickly began to shoot her fingers
across the nearly transparent keyboard.  Soon holographic screens were
popping up depicting star maps, calculations and other images that meant
little to Tenchi.  As she typed feverishly Washuu began to flawlessly
explain each screen that was appearing in her usual simple way.

“So as you can see by my highly simplified calculations there is a
spreading ion field that is even blocking high speed transmission signals. 
Notice how it originated near the belt of Sojin?  This is where it gets
interesting.  Communications seem to have been shut down throughout
the galaxy because of a high-energy disruption field of a power unlike
anything I have ever seen before.  The signal most highly resembles the
ion interference and corresponding power fluctuations that would be
caused by a very unstable star or even a supernova.  However the
prolonged affect of the ionic waves and their unique triple band with
negative power fluctuations would dictate that this is not a star.  This
coupled with the fact that the area affected is in simple terms the entire
galaxy would seem to indicate that the thing causing the disturbance is not
a natural occurring phenomenon for if it was there is nothing natural that
would have the power to contain such energy, which would mean the
galaxy would be effectively incinerated by such a natural output.  Do you
follow me Tenchi?”

A small trickle of drool was forming in the corner of Tenchi’s very open
mouth.  “Um, no.”

Washuu let out a sigh.  “Very well I shall make it more simple.  I should
realize that not everyone is as versed in science as I am, the greatest
scientist in the universe!”  There was a weak smile on her face and her
tone was very somber.  “There is a ship out there Tenchi.  A ship so
powerful that it’s blocking any and all communications in the galaxy and if
you think that’s bad, take a look at this.”

Washuu quickly pressed several keys and a single, clearly simplified map
replaced the dozens of screens.  It depicted a large red blot that was
slowly growing larger, swallowing up the stars.

“This Tenchi,” Washuu began. “Is a map of the entire galaxy and this red
dot is what I have now named “the void”.  Everything in “the void” seems
to have been phased out of existence.”

Tenchi was becoming aware of a growing fear inside him.  “What do you
mean?”

“Just what it sounds like Tenchi.  Everything in that area of red, the stars,
planets, asteroids, nebulas, even space dust, they aren’t there anymore,
they’re just… gone.”

“What!  How can that even be possible?”

Washuu let out another sigh.  “I don’t know.”

“Well then if what you say is true then why hasn’t Kiyone or Mihoshi
been informed?  I mean this sounds bad, wouldn’t they have been told? 
Or what about Aeka or-“

            “Tenchi please let me explain.  All communications have been
knocked out and the galaxy is in complete chaos.  Plus what’s worse is
the fact I don’t think anyone else knows what I do.  You see Tenchi my
sensors may be the only things in the galaxy powerful enough to penetrate
and scan into that red area and my sensors turn up nothing, everything’s
gone.  I’m sure those on Jurai and those in the Galaxy Police know that
something is very wrong but I don’t think they know how bad it really
is.”  Washuu paused to collect herself.  “And Tenchi, the disturbance is
spreading very quickly and its headed right for Jurai.”

            “But what does it mean Washuu!”

            Washuu stood and her computer dematerialized and the screens
disappeared.  Now the lab was deadly quiet without the sound of her
tapping.  “It means that something is headed for Jurai and when it gets
there Jurai is going to be like everything in that red area I showed you,
gone.”

            Tenchi was silent for a long time.  “Can’t you send a message to
Jurai?  I mean you have all this equipment and-”

            “No.  Even my equipment can’t get through the disturbance, we
can watch but that’s all.”

            “When are you going to tell the others?”

            “Well I was going to tell them the moment I woke up.  Seeing as
that’s now, I guess I better get to it.”  She headed toward the exit. 
“Come on Tenchi, they aren’t going to take this too well.”

            Tenchi shuddered and thought about how he wasn’t taking it very
well as he followed Washuu.

            Outside Washuu’s lab Sasami had set out yet another traditional
Masaki breakfast of huge proportions.  The chef herself was sitting
happily at the table with the tiny Ryo-Ohki on her lap.  Ryo-Ohki was
munching contentedly upon a carrot and mewing as Sasami stroked her
back.

            Mihoshi had of course grabbed the seat next to Kiyone and was
currently doing a fantastic job of getting half of her meal on her partner. 
As usual Mihoshi was in a constant state of apology as she spit her food
everywhere and her voice was taking on its very characteristic whiny,
almost sobbing tone.  Kiyone was doing a fine job of holding in her
frustration as she tried to eat her own meal.  However with eyes closed, a
bead of sweat dripping down her forehead, quivering hands and a vain
protruding from her brow it was easy to see that Kiyone was not enjoying
the meal as much as she could.

            Ryoko was actually up that morning in time for breakfast.  She
was content to fill herself in a voracious manner as she gulped down tea in
between mouthfuls of food.  Also it soon became clear that she was
adding her own special touches to her tea each time she hid the glass
under the table as her eyes were becoming quite shiny.

Aeka was sitting at the furthest possible point she could be from Ryoko. 
She was nibbling upon her food in a very dignified manner as if eating
itself was a fine art that she had mastered.  She kept giving very
disapproving and disgusted looks in Ryoko’s direction but none were
noticed, yet.

Nobuyuki was eating in his regular manner and seemed to be in a
constant state of fidgeting.  Once more, nothing out of the ordinary.

Katsuhito was only drinking tea at the moment and did not seem to be
sharing in the others morning hunger.  His face was set stoically as usual.

Without ceremony the door to Washuu’s lab slowly opened and Tenchi
and Washuu exited.

Nobuyuki was the first to catch sight of Tenchi.  “Hey there Tenchi my
boy!  Bout time you joined us!”

Ryoko smiled and waved.  It was clear that whatever she had been
adding to her tea was starting to take affect.  “Helloooo there Tenchi!”

Tenchi lowered his head.  “Hello Ryoko.”

Aeka shook her head.  “Must you drink at this hour Ryoko, it’s so…
uncultured.”

“Ah come on!  You need to lighten up a bit princess!  Let me get a few
drinks in ya!”

Aeka slammed her cup down.  “Well!”

Sasami was beaming as usual.  “Hello Tenchi!  Glad you could make it,
you too Washuu.  We thought you were going to miss breakfast!”

Washuu sat down at the table next to Ryoko leaving Tenchi standing
dumbly as he had thought she would tell everyone right off.

Nobuyuki looked from Washuu and then to Tenchi, then back to Washuu
again and his eyes lit up.  At the same time a fan wielded by Washuu
struck Nobuyuki in the back of the head causing him to spit out some of
the food in his mouth.

            “Aww.  What’d you do that for!  That hurt!”  Said Nobuyuki
rubbing his neck.

            Washuu sighed and reached under the table grabbing the bottle of
saki Ryoko had hidden.  Without pause she took a large gulp straight
from the bottle and then stood back up and rejoined Tenchi.  The entire
action had happened quickly and had drawn the attention of the others. 
Washuu turned toward Tenchi and nodded and then looked back at the
others.  She cleared her throat and began to speak.

            “Yes, um, there is something I have to tell you.  Something of
great importance.”

            Nobuyuki leapt up.  “You’re marring Tenchi!”

            Silence filled the room for a moment and a vain appeared on
Washuu’s forehead.  “Um, no.  No.  No!  What I was trying to say
before I was interrupted was-“

            “Oh I have a question!”

            A small growl escaped Washuu’s throat.  “Yes Mihoshi?”

            Mihoshi set her chopsticks down.  “Can I be the bridesmaid at
the wedding?”

            “Me and Tenchi are not getting married!  Now could everyone
listen for just one second please?”  Washuu was yelling now.

            Mihoshi looked to be concentrating very carefully.  After a long
time of thinking she finally spoke.  “So… who is getting married?”

            Washuu slapped her forehead.  “Rrrrrrrr!  Please could I say
something!”

            Kiyone began to brush herself off.  “Mihoshi stop getting your
food all over me!”

            “Kiyone I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to.  I… I…” Tears began
streaking down Mihoshi’s cheeks and she began to lean heavily on
Kiyone.

            Kiyone began to try and push her partner off her.  “Will you get
off me!”

            Washuu was still trying to speak.  “Could I say something!”

            Ryoko leaned so far back she ended up lying on the floor. 
“Shout, shout, is that all you do?  You should’ve taken a larger sip of the
stuff Washuu.”

            Aeka shook her head.  “Wretched woman.”

            Ryoko raised an eyebrow.  “What’d you say there princess?”

            “I said you were a wretched woman Ryoko!  And I’ll add to
that-“

            “All right!”  Everyone stopped to look at Katsuhito who had just
spoken louder than anyone could recall.  Seeing that his words had
worked he went on.  “I believe we should all listen to Washuu.  Go
ahead.”

            Washuu nodded her thanks and took a deep breath.  Secretly she
had hoped that she would have found some way to get out of telling them,
but it was too late now.  “I was in my lab doing a rather simple analysis of
space subatomic barrier frequencies when my sensors picked up an ion
flux irregularity in the galactic atmosphere near the belt of Sojin.  So of
course I did the simple solution and reconfigured my sensors to cope with
the microsignal influx, but here’s where it gets interesting.  Apparently the
influx is on a very strong banded wave that’s been imbedded into the
microparticals that fill the void of space and so effectively it blocks any
and all transmissions and all scans except of course for my personally
constructed arrays.  Therefore this makes all attempts to communicate
with anything in space null and void.  You see what I’m getting at right?”

            Silence filled the room and a cricket could be heard in the
distance.  Ryoko chuckled.

            Washuu shook her head.  “Alright I’ll explain it differently then.” 
Quickly Washuu produced a chart and taking a pointer in her hands she
began to point to various sections.  “As you can see in this very simplified
graph there are…” She was having troubled getting the words out.  “On
this graph there is a… red dot and a green dot.  Now listen carefully my
small-minded friends, green dot good, red dot bad.  Green dot is Jurai. 
Bad red dot is moving toward Jurai.”

            Aeka had suddenly become very concerned.  “Washuu, what
does all this mean?”

            “I’m getting to that princess.  Hmm.  All right, I’m not sure how
to say this but here goes.  There is something moving straight for Jurai and
its not good.”

            Aeka began to feel faint.  “What!”

            Sasami looked at Washuu with huge eyes.  “What do you mean?”

            Washuu sighed.  “I mean that something has been, well, for lack
of a better word, consuming the universe.  Planets, stars, everything, its all
being “eaten” by this thing and its moving right for Jurai.  What I’m saying
is that if this thing isn’t stopped than Jurai is going to be, well, destroyed.”

            Sasami began to cry and Aeka was fumbling with her words. 
“Washuu, what?  How?  But… that…”

            Kiyone shook her head.  “But how can that be?  If something that
bad was going on than we would have been informed by the GP.”

            Washuu shook her head.  “This thing is blocking all
communications.  Oh and, Kiyone, my sensors say that this thing took out
half the Galaxy Police fleet a day or so ago.”

            Kiyone fell into silence and Mihoshi began to cry.

            Aeka had regained her voice.  “What can we do?”

            Washuu’s computer appeared and she quickly began to type. 
“Well my opinion would be that we wait.”

            “You can’t be serious!”  Said Aeka aghast.

            “Yes.  I am quite serious.  There is a Juraian fleet headed straight
for Earth at the moment.  They should be here in a few hours and my
guess is that they’re coming for you Aeka, you and Sasami.  My current
suggestion would be that we wait for them.”

            Aeka nodded.  “A few hours, good, and when will this thing that
you’re talking about reach Jurai?”

            “About… fifteen minutes.”

            “What!”  Aeka was now very faint.

            Sasami fell against her sister.  “Aeka I’m scared!”

            Tenchi had been silent for a very long time.  Now he turned to
Washuu with a puzzled look.  “Um, Washuu is there anything we can do
besides wait?”

            “I wouldn’t suggest it Tenchi.  I’m not usually one to go on just
feelings but something feels very wrong about this whole thing.  I’ll be in
my lab, I’ll come out the second my sensors read that the Juraian ships
have arrived.”

            “What will you be doing in there?”  Questioned Tenchi.

            “I will be trying to figure out what we’re up against and trying to
find out a way to defeat it.”

Washuu turned and walked toward the door to her lab.  When she had
opened it Tenchi halted her with his voice.

“Can you stop it Washuu?”

“I don’t know Tenchi, I don’t know.”  Answered Washuu.

Washuu walked through the door and closed it behind her leaving the
room silent save for the whimpers of Sasami. 
 
To be continued...