Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, concepts, or themes of Tenchi Muyo! Or any of its spinoffs. I am profiting in no way from this writing. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Please send feedback to hospitaller@msn.com. Thanks! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Ryouko reached deeper into her soul. Somewhere, deep inside her, was what she wanted. Buried down beneath everything that made her sentient, beneath everything that made her civilized, beneath everything that made her even a semi-functional member of society, even beneath the instincts that made her a social creature, there was something primal she wanted to tap. Her eyes narrowed. She’d found it. She opened her mouth and screamed. Her arm whip-snapped back behind her head in a blur. When it came forward, he hand held a bolt of pure plasma. Her scream degenerated into a feral snarl. Energy crackled and writhed about her arm, the charged particles ionizing beyond the point of control or even of physical coherency... First the beam, then her fist impacted the sheer rock face. A quarter-mile wide swath of stone vaporized. The air about her exploded as flash-gas super-expanded. The shockwave whipped her hair about and tore at her clothing. The sonic boom of the overpressure could be heard in Tokyo. Japanese national consciousness cringed as a bright light and faster-than-thought mach-wave spread over the land. Hiroshima and Nagasaki hadn’t been so long ago... Ryouko let her breath hiss out between her teeth. The mountain was gone. Not rubble, not gravel, not dirt... Just gone. It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t NEARLY enough. She tilted her head back and screamed. Her body shot forward, arrowing for the next mountain in the range, plasma already crackling about her fist... It had started a few months ago. Tenchi had never been one to choose one girl over the other. In the end, his personality makeup wouldn’t let him. But as he’d grown and matured, his attraction to them had become unbearable. He had slept with Aeka. And then he’d told Ryouko. She’d stared, openmouthed, as he’d confessed the act. About how they’d been walking by the shore of the lake, under the moonlight, and how one thing had led to another. She wanted to be angry. She could see the truth in his eyes. But it was just too much. Her emotions were too overloaded, too blasted and frazzled to power a reaction. So she’d just stood and listened. And then he’d told her he loved her. Told her that he knew that she was the strong one. That though he knew it would cause her pain, that he had to be honest with someone, and that he trusted her, knew she could handle the knowledge even better than he. That he was in love with them both, and could give neither up. That he’d slept with Aeka. That he still loved Ryouko. That he was afraid that Aeka couldn’t handle that idea. That to her, his act had consummated, perhaps even consecrated, his relationship to the princess, and that to love another would now be seen as proof he didn’t truly love her. That he couldn’t sleep with both of them. That he’d feel he’d be betraying Aeka’s trust. But that he still loved Ryouko. That he wanted to call her his Beloved. That he thought of her first thing in the morning and last thing at night. That he dreamed of her. That she brought light to his world. That he loved her with all his heart. But that he loved Aeka just as much. He’d asked her to understand. Told her that he couldn’t give up the physical relationship he now had with Aeka. He loved the princess too much to deny her. But that it didn’t mean he didn’t love Ryouko too. But she couldn’t tell. That it had to be a secret that he loved her. That one day, when he could, he’d tell Aeka. Or if not, then he’d have to choose. And then, crying, he’d left her. And Ryouko had stood silently, still openmouthed, still staring. She’d agreed. She’d justified to herself that she loved Tenchi, and that his reasoning was valid. Aeka COULDN’T handle the idea that Tenchi loved another, even as he made love to her. And he undoubtedly loved the princess. So to argue, to fight, or to tell Aeka, would have hurt Tenchi immeasurably. And perhaps she’d lose Tenchi altogether in the process. So Ryouko kept her peace. Tenchi, to his credit, had been true to his word. He stole many private moments with Ryouko, and in those moments he was as tender and as loving as she could ever have hoped. They’d held each other under moonlit nights, and walked hand in hand, staring into each other’s eyes. And they’d kissed so deeply and powerfully that he’d told her that it was like an act of religion... But he never made love to her. And he was making love to Aeka. Ryouko’d gritted her teeth and born it as best she could. She hadn’t wanted to broach the issue. She knew Tenchi felt guilty about it, that it would pain him if she revealed her own distress. For that matter, she was afraid he might think she was interested only in the physical, that she couldn’t be satisfied with being loved, that she had to have sex. So she’d held her tongue. Oh, she’d been subversive... she’d done her best on more than one occasion to arouse Tenchi to the point where he lost control and pounced upon her. But somehow, he’d never quite lost control when she’d been truly desperate, and when she wasn’t truly desperate Ryouko never had the heart to force him to betray himself. Their libidos seemed permanently out of sync. And so it had gone on for months. Then there had been this weekend. Tenchi had left her a note, and she stole into his bedroom on Thursday night, as she often did. Usually during such nocturnal visits they kissed and played and groped in a parody of near-sex that served to quell their lust just enough to make life liveable. But Thursday night he hadn’t been playful at all. “Ryouko,” he’d told her, “tomorrow night Aeka and I are leaving for Dewa province for the weekend. She wants to ‘get away’ for a few days.” The demon had nodded and kept her peace. She didn’t like it. At all. In fact, the idea of them alone for a weekend made her physically ill. But she didn’t know what was right here. She’d agreed to this arrangement, after all. Did she have any right to be jealous? If she really loved him truly, would she be so possessive? Doubts assailed her. So she said nothing. Tenchi had left her bedroom, clearly upset, clearly knowing that what he was doing was hurting Ryouko. But the next day he’d left with Aeka all the same. He even called her with his cellular phone during the drive to Dewa while Aeka slept in the passenger seat, to whisper to Ryouko that he loved her. Once he hung up, Ryouko cried until her eyes were sore. He loved her... but he was still going to Dewa with Aeka. Where they’d make love. Something he’d denied her. And would continue to deny her for the foreseeable future. Maybe forever. The next morning, she awoke in a murderous rage. Her every thought was of Tenchi and Aeka, conjoined in the act of love in some luxurious room in some mountain hideaway in Dewa. She tried to banish the thoughts by thinking of the happy times she’d spent with Tenchi, but they were swept away by the avalanche of her fearful imaginings. She’d tried to calm herself by looking at pictures of Tenchi, but so many of them had been taken by Aeka... It was just too much. She couldn’t confront Tenchi, demand that he make a choice. She just couldn’t ask him to give up someone he loved. No matter how much it hurt her that he was With another. And anyhow, He’d been with Aeka on a much more intimate level now, and been with her for a pretty long period. Ryouko had come to feel as though she were a mistress, and Aeka was his wife. Aeka was well established, a regular partner and, in the eyes of the world, Tenchi’s “official” girlfriend. If she demanded he choose, wouldn’t it be logical for him to choose Aeka? Even worse would be if he cast her off “for her own good.” If she let him know she was hurting, he might leave her just to spare her further pain. He was like that. She had neither the callousness nor the bravery to demand anything. But she had to do something. And so she’d flown to Shinano province, and found herself some mountains... The second precipice of the day vaporized in an outpouring of matter, energy, and plasma. Ryouko growled menacingly at the crater. “TENCHI, I HATE YOU!!!!” she screamed. She rapid-fired several blasts of ball lightning into the still-smoking ground. Smoke enveloped her. Gravel stung her as it blasted past her, propelled by her own attack. She could have stopped the debris with her chi-shield, but the pain felt too comforting. A small piece of her worried. A small piece of her thought that her relationship with Tenchi was being asphyxiated, slowly strangled by the resentment she was now giving voice to. That even if one day he chose her, that she’d never feel right about him. The same piece of her wondered at the fact that she didn’t resent Aeka. Then again, how could she? Aeka didn’t know... She began to sob. A JSDF F-16 chose that moment to streak by her, its astonished pilot frantically radioing his base that there was a lone woman FLOATING in space above the Shinano hills, and that she was the cause of the destruction. Before his bewildered superiors could ask him to confirm his report, Ryouko had teleported away. She’d not cry where any could see her. It was funny. The cave had so long been the place of her worst fears. But now she could think of no other place where she could go and be truly alone. Her tears had long since ceased, having run in small rivulets down her face and into the icy cold depths of the central pool. Now she sat on the cold stone floor, hugging her knees to her chest and rocking back and forth, her eyes tightly shut. She whispered, “I love you. I hate you. I love you. I hate you” over and over again. When Tenchi returned from the weekend, she’d meet him with a smile. She’d deny all knowledge of the incredible paroxysm of violence that had rocked Shinano. But until then, she was giving voice to her pain.