Tenchi Muyo: No Need for Multiple Continuities Chapter 2 Standard Disclaimer: The characters appearing within are the property of AIC and Pioneer, and are used without permission. Please don't sue. I am not making any money on this, and it's done out of love for the show. A special thanks to Rowan-Seven, who convinced me to continue the madness. Ryoko sat on the porch of the Masaki house and watched as another version of herself argued with Princess Ayeka about Tenchi. The hapless boy was being stretched between the two, and looked as if he might break at any given moment. Ryoko looked at the number 4 pinned on her dress, and sighed. To the Tenchi of this world, that was probably all she was, just a number. She certainly couldn't compete with the other Ryoko's that existed beside her now. They flew, they had incredible strength, and they wielded fabulous powers. What could she, a mere human, do to compete with that? "Really got you down?" Ayeka 4 asked, sitting beside her. "You too, huh?" "It's different when it's just the two of us, but we can't compete with ourselves, can we? Besides, he's really not our Tenchi, you know." Ryoko nodded, "I know. He's this world's Tenchi, and he doesn't know us at all. He won't ever remember the time he gave me his handkerchief to use on a bruise I had, or the times he talked with you in the halls of the school. For him, those things never happened. It's pointless to fight over him. He's not ours." Ayeka smiled wistfully, "We'll be going home in a few days anyway. It'll all be like it never even happened." Ryoko smiled as well, "Come on. There ought to be some decent soaps on right now. Let's leave these guys alone." With four Ryokos, four Ayekas, four Sasamis, four Washuus, four Mihoshis, three Kiyones, three Nobiyukis, three Katsuhitos, and four Ryo-Ohkis, there was very little space in the Masaki house. And repairs on the dimensional oscillator were going slowly. Two problems immediately became apparent. First, there wasn't enough living space in the Masaki house for thirty people and four cabbits. Second, there wasn't enough food. To this end, the Washuus came to the aid of the others. "This used to be Ayeka and Sasami's room," Washuu 2 said, "However, thanks to the use of psuedo space, I've taken care of the problem of our housing arrangements." Washuu 2 slid the door open, revealing a lengthy hallway with at least fourty doors lining the wall, "Behind each door is a bedroom fit to accomodate each of us, each one with its own bathroom. They're all furnished and ready for use, and all labeled to keep us all in the right rooms without confusion. It took some doing, but I pulled it off." "Way to go, Washuu!" "You are a genius, Washuu!" Tenchi sighed, "Do those puppet things always do that?" "Yes!" Group 2 moaned. "Hey," Kiyone 2 said suddenly, "Does anyone see any of the Mihoshis anywhere?" "Uh-oh..." Washuu 1 was working on the problem of finding food, "This device is a replicator, Sasami. I'm showing all of you how to use it, because you're the only one...or is it ones?...that I trust to handle it. Place the item to be copied into the slot here, press this button, and the food will be analyzed, and recreated by the matter transmogrification array here. Don't try to copy whole meals. Just stick to base ingredients, and everything should be fine." "Wow!" Mihoshi 1 said, coming into the room, "That's amazing Washuu! But what does this other button do?" Before Washuu could protest, Mihoshi 1 pressed the button. "NO! That's the reflux furnace that powers the replicator! You've just sent it into overdrive. The power buildup is unpredictable!" In Washuu's lab, Washuus 3 and 4 were trying to fix the dimensional oscillator when they heard a giggling noise. It sounded dangerously like Mihoshi! "What is she doing?" Washuu 4 asked. "Oh no! She just contaminated the lab with extra-dimensional particals. Shut down the oscillator, now!" "Too late! I'm reading a new signal entry. No, three of them. Two are Jurai in nature. One is some sort of temporal anomaly. There's a fourth! Humanoid!" "I've got the kill switch!" The dimensional oscillator shut down with a whine. Ryoko 1 was busy yanking on Tenchi's arm, "Come on, Tenchi, come with me!" Tenchi was trying to finish sweeping the stairs of Masaki shrine, "Ryoko, please. I'm never going to finish at this rate." There was a sudden humming noise, and a girl, about 15 years old, with short purple hair pounced on Tenchi, "Daddy!" "Daddy?" Ryoko and Tenchi said in unison. Ryoko gave Tenchi an evil look, "Tenchi...." "I can't possibly be her father, Ryoko!" Tenchi protested, "She's got to be just about two years younger than me." "No, Daddy, I'm Mayuka! I come from the future!" "Washuu!" Tenchi and Ryoko sighed. A thought occurred to Ryoko, "Say, little girl, if you're from the future, who's your mother?" Mayuka smiled, "Why, all of you are my Mommy, Mommy Ryoko! You all raised me!" Ryoko sighed, "Why do I even bother?" "Yoshoooooo," her sweet still voice called to him, "Come to me Yosho. It's been so long since I've seen you." "Haruna?" Yosho 1 looked at the apparition before him, "No, it can't be. You died on Jurai, when Ryoko attacked!" "No," Yosho 2 said, "This is the Haruna of my world. She died here, on Earth. But how are you here now, Haruna?" "I can find you, no matter where you go, Yosho," Haruna said, "My love for you will never die." Yuugi stared from her crystalline domain at the Masaki house, "Sasami my friend, it seems there are so many more of you to play with me. And we'll have so much fun, away from all of these others." Yuugi suddenly felt a dark presence, "Who...who's there?" "You are of Jurai," The dark force said, "But you are different from the others. I cannot absorb you, but you cannot harm me." "What are you?" "I am Kain, who has suffered much from the House of Jurai. And I will punish them for what they've done to me!" Yuugi smiled, "Perhaps we can help each other, Kain." Sasami 1 looked around at the mountain of carrots that covered the kitchen, "Is everyone alright?" "Alright?" Ryo-Ohki 4 gasped, "I'm in heaven!" Ryo-Ohki's 1-3 meowed their agreement. "That was quick thinking, Sasami, putting the carrot in the replicator," Washuu said. "Well, the energy had to go somewhere, so I thought the machine should do its job. I just wish it hadn't been a carrot. What are we going to do with all of these?" "Carrot sticks?" Mihoshi suggested. Sasami 1-4 sighed. Then Sasami 1 felt a presence in the back of her head, a presence that could only have been her other self, Tsunami. -Sasami, there is something wrong. I feel a dark presence here!- -What is it, Tsunami?- -I don't know. But Tenchi is in danger.- Ayeka was fighting with herself, "Look, he's MY Lord Tenchi, and that's that. You can have your own Tenchi when you get back to your own world!" "What difference does it make," Ayeka 2 retorted, "Lord Tenchi will love us all the same, no matter what. We are the same, after all!" Ryoko 2 laughed at that, "Isn't it obvious, Princess, that we're just in the way here. Besides, imagine how upset OUR Tenchi would be if he found out you weren't willing to wait for him." "Are you saying that I'm being unfaithful?" Ayeka 2 demanded. "Cheating on a man with himself is pretty strange," Ryoko 3 added, "Boy, Ayeka, you really have some wierd relationships." Ar that moment, Tenchi and Ryoko 1 came in the door, with Mayuka in tow. "Lord Tenchi, who is this?" Ayeka wondered. "It's OUR daughter from the future," Ryoko said. Ordinarily, she woudl have done this with bravado and style, but now she was just tired and worn out, and in no mood to poke fun, "And by OUR, I mean, you, me, Sasami, Mihoshi, Kiyone, and Washuu. All of us raised her. She doesn't know who her biological mother was. Don't ask." "WHAT?" all the other Ryokos and Ayekas yelled. "Wow!" Mayuka looked around, "I never knew I had so many Mommies!" Tenchi sighed, "It's going to be another beautiful day on Planet Earth." "What!" the Sasamis were awestruck as one of their own reported on the danger that possibly faced Tenchi. "We need to act now!" Ryo-Ohki 4 said, "Sasami, transform now." "Do I have to?" Sasami asked, blushing. "YES! WHAT'S THE POINT ON BEING A MAGICAL GIRL IF YOU DON'T USE IT!!!!" Sasami 4 sighed, and produced her magic wand, "All of you, turn your heads!" She uttered her magic words, and in a flash was once more Magical Girl Pretty Sammy. She turned to face the others, and nearly fainted. "What are we wearing?" Sasami 1 asked, examining the unsightly dresses that all were now in, "These colors are all wrong. Purple and green! Eyuuu!" "That transformation was a bit chilly," Sasami 2 added, "What just happened, anyway?" "I guess we're all Sasami, so it transformed all of us," Sasami 3 said. Ryo-Ohki 4 sighed, while the other cabbits were passed out from shock, "I didn't ask to be a magical guardian. I really didn't. I was just minding my own business in the Magical Kingdom, and then Tsunami comes up to me and says...." At the request of theWashuus, the Kiyones rounded up all of the Mihoshis and confined them to their bedrooms. "But Kiyone..." "NO! Until the dimensional oscillator is fixed, you aren't leaving those rooms, Mihoshis!Things are bad enough as it is. We don't need you making it any worse." "Personally," Kiyone 2 confided in herselves,"I don't think it can get any worse." Kain listened to Yuugi's plan with interest. "Yes. I will spare the one you call Sasami. But in exchange, you will help me fight the House of Jurai, so that I may have my revenge upon them." "I owe them as well, Kain, so don't worry. I'll keep my end of the bargain."