This is a new Tenchi Muyo! fic.  It is in no way related to Bushido Muyo!, my 
other fic.  As you already know, it is on a western theme.  Even so, I have not 
changed any of the names involved in the storyline.  The locations, although 
they are described in a purely fictional way, have the same names as their real 
life counterparts.  Have fun reading!

  By the way, Tenchi Muyo! and all the characters contained therin are the 
property of Pioneer and AIC.  So, I give up all claims that this is all my idea.
The theme and story are mine, but the characters and their personalities are 
not.  So, should Pioneer or AIC get their hands on this, I ask them not to sue 
me into oblivion.  All right?  Let's get going!

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				  Saddle Up, Tenchi!
					   by
				Jeremy "Kraken" Acord
				azhrei701@hotmail.com
		Episode 2

The next day, Tenchi had a lot of work to do in the feilds outside the other 
side of town.  He left early in the morning, and came back in the full noise 
and glory of happy hour.  Katsuhito was tending bar, and told Tenchi to hang 
around should there be any new arrivals.  He sat down on a stool next to the 
stairs and scanned the room.  He recognized the regular patrons, who had, like 
clockwork, arrived at their unique times.  

A woman stepped out of the dark into the bar.  Tenchi casually observed that she
was wearing conservative clothing, modest and functional, complementing her 
demure poise.  She held in her left hand a shawl that held her face in shadow.  
His grandfater called him over, said something about having to get a few things 
out of storage, and left the boy responsibility for the bar.  The woman, unfazed
by this changing-of-the-guard, strode purposefully up to Tenchi.

"Excuse me, I am in need of a room." She said to him.  She was quick, precise 
and formal with her speech.  She stood very still, and Tenchi noted that she was
speaking just loudly enough for the closer occupants of the bar to hear.

"How big a room do you need, miss?" Tenchi asked.

"The smallest size you have will suffice." She said.  When Tenchi turned around 
to write down the order and get the appropriate key, He felt her press some 
money into his hand.  He counted this, then handed her the key.  "Would you like
me to show you to your room?"

She paused momentarily.  "Yes, but not just yet.  I am looking for a man..."

A man sitting at the bar to Tenchi's right put down the drink he was nursing.  
"There are plenty of men around here.  Take your pick."

"What?" The girl turned to face this conversational interloper.  

"Take me, fr'instance" Slurred the man as he stood and aproached her.  "I'm in 
the mood for some fun."  He leaned on the bar.  "How much do you charge?"

Flustered, she stammered: "Whom exactly do you think you are speaking to, you 
drunken buffoon!  I am not a... a... a woman of loose morals!"

Tenchi was intrigued.  He had never seen a woman of this apparent stature act so
empowered, as if she could strike down her antagonist with a glance.  Another 
powerful and dangerous woman.  This, it seemed, was a good week for dangerous 
women.

"C'mon, missy, no need to be shy about it.  How much?"

Tenchi leaned over the bar.  "Hey, that's about enough."

"Stay out of this, boy.  I'm talkin' business."  Slurred the man.  He continued 
to press the girl.

Tenchi smoothly vaulted the bar to stand between the two, showing some of his 
near-legendary agility.  He put a hand on the drunken man's chest.  "I said, 
quit giving the lady a hard time."

He swatted Tenchi's hand away.  "Whadda ya gonna do about it, shrimp?"

"Gee, I thought I was doing something about it."  Tenchi's eyebrows narrowed.  
"If you think you have any chance with me in a fight, you're a lot dumber *and* 
a lot drunker than I thought."

The girl looked nervously about the room, and discovered that they had gained 
the full attention of all the bar's patrons.  Their faces were a mix of 
sypmathy, amusement, and passing interest.

"Who you callin' dumb!  Seein' as you aint carryin', I don't see you in no place
t'call me dumb!"  His words were barely discernible.  

"Go ahead and reach for it if you wanna see what I mean."  Tenchi said sternly. 

The drunken man groped surprisedly at empty air for a few seconds, until Tenchi 
waved a Patterson revolver before his eyes.

"You weren't reaching for this, were you?"  Tenchi asked playfully.

The man's eyes narrowed.  His fists clenched, and he shook with rage at being 
mocked in front of his peers.  Suddenly, he smiled broadly, and laughed in 
Tenchi's face.

"You always were faster'n anyone in town, Tenchi!" He said, putting a hand on 
the boy bartender's shoulder.

"That's how I keep guys like you out of trouble." He replied.  After shoving the
revolver in his left pocket, he added:  "Sober up some, Joseph, and when you 
leave I'll give you your gun back."

Joseph turned and walked across the bar, mumbling "That kid'd make a helluva 
gunfighter..." and then collapsed in a chair by the stairwell.

Pressed against the wall in the shadows on the stairs, Ryoko mused to herself 
"Yes, yes he would.  Agile, and *very* nimble-handed.  I could use a boy with 
hands like his, if I can shake him of some of that chivalry."  She then padded 
lightly back upstairs to her room.

Tenchi turned to face the girl.  "Joseph Hammerman.  Nice man, but can't hold 
liquor nearly as well as he thinks.  Now, miss..."

"Aeka." She replied, more quietly this time.  

"Well, miss Aeka, you were looking for someone?" Tenchi began, but then stopped.
Aeka seemed to be examining his face, scrutinizing him as if to place him 
somehow in her memory, to find his face where she had seen it before.  Tenchi 
was unnerved by this, and thought of a way to break out of this awkward moment 
of silence.  "Miss?  You were looking for someone?"

The girl snapped back to the present.  She stammered for a moment "uh, yes, yes,
I am looking for someone.  A man named Yosho.  Have you met him here?"

Tenchi hopped back over the bar, and keeling behind it, rummaged through some 
papers.  "No.  No one by that name has been through here.  Or if they were, they
didn't buy anything."  He stood, and read the desperation in Aeka's shaded eyes.
"Uh, I can take your luggage up to your room..."

"Yes, I should be... turning in."  She said.  Tenchi thought the pause strange, 
as if Aeka were trying to talk more like the other people around her.  "Please 
take me to my room."

Tenchi walked up the stairs with her, and strode down the hallway to the room 
she had paid for.  He unlocked the door.  "Well, miss Aeka, here is your..."

Aeka was standing in the middle of a small pool of light cast by a wall lamp.  
She was examining his face again.  Tenchi was thankful that she couldn't see it 
very clearly, as he was sure it was turning red.  "Miss.  This is your room."

She started again, and, thanking him quietly, entered the room.  She seemed 
somewhat surprised when Tenchi followed her in to light the candle above the 
bed, but calmed herself quickly.  "Good night, Aeka."  He said, and left, 
closing the door behind him.

"Wake up, Tenchi."  He said to himself.  "You don't have a chance.  With *her* 
either, for that matter."  He strode back downstairs, Passing a door that was 
only slightly open.  In the crack into the blackness, a single shining dot 
gleamed unseen.  Ryoko blinked, and sat down cross-legged by the door to her 
room.  

"You have  better chances than you think, little Tenchi."

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Have fun with the next few episodes.

-Kraken