Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original characters, places, or events from 
the Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OAV's or Manatsu No Eve. These are the property of AIC 
and Pioneer. I do own all new events, characters, and places that have occurred 
during and after Tenchi Muyo! Will of the Goddesses.


Tenchi Muyo! Shadows of a Forgotten Sin

"Home for the Holidays"


	The final bell rang. Doors opened all over the school and students poured 
into the halls. Sixteen year old Hiro Masaki easily waded through the crowds to 
his locker. Dressed in his all black school uniform, he looked just like all the 
other male students. This teenager, though, was anything but normal. Hiro was 
one of the offspring of possibly the two most powerful beings in the universe. 

	The young man stood at five foot ten with a strong build. The cyan hair on 
his head was cut short on the back and sides, parted slightly on the right side 
with a few spiky locks on the left side that jutted forward and eventually 
turned into a couple of bangs that fell to his left eye. His eyes were round and 
brown with features reminiscent of his father. 

	Hiro finally reached his locker and quickly began to fiddle with the 
combination lock. "Hey, Hiro!" He turned his head slightly to see his friend 
Gasaki pushing his way through the crowd.

	Gasaki was the son of one of his father's old highschool friends. He was 
fat and about Hiro's height with short black hair and a grossly large nose. The 
large boy stopped next to Hiro to catch his breath. "Glad I caught you before 
you left."

	"Hey, Gasaki," Hiro greeted. "What's up?"

	"Just wanted to say goodbye and Merry Christmas," he told him. 

	Hiro took out his carrying case and closed his locker as they started 
walking down the hall. "Goodbye? Where're you going?"

	The fat boy smiled broadly. "Well, since the divorce is final now, my 
dad's taking me to Hawaii for vacation. Nothing but sun, fun, and babes."

	"Whatever," said Hiro while shaking his head.

	"Just you wait, buddy," Gasaki gloated. "I'm going to have some great 
stories when I get back. What about you? Doing anything that cool for break?"

	"Nope," replied Hiro. "My older sister's coming home from college, so 
we're just gonna do the family thing."

	Gasaki's eyes thinned, as did his smile. "Gee. I kind of wish I was going 
to be around, now. Your sister is hot." He started giggling. "Hell, both Mayuka 
and Rei are hot."

	The cyan haired teen glowered over at his friend. "Shut up, Gasaki."

	"Hey, I'm just telling it like it is!" Gasaki said with his hands raised 
in defense. "Those two are total babes!"

	"I'm warning you," growled Hiro.

	Gasaki started to giggle wildly. "Man, I would give my left testicle just 
to make out with either..." 

	The last part of his sentence was cut off by a punch from Hiro that sent 
him flying into a row of lockers. Hiro looked down at his friend sheepishly. 
Other students only bothered to give the incident enough attention just to 
notice. Annoyed girls or jealous boyfriends knocked Gasaki out at least ten 
times a day. Hiro was just worried that with his abnormal strength, he might 
have actually hurt the fat boy.

	When Gasaki started moving, he sighed with relief. "Have a good break, 
Gasaki. I'll see you later." Hiro waved once and hurried down the hall.

	Once outside, Hiro started scanning the growing crowd for his twin sister 
Rei. The courtyard in front of the school was already a wash with kids either 
meeting parents, getting in cars to go home, or waiting for rides. When Hiro 
didn't see her anywhere, he started grumbling quietly. If she didn't show up 
soon, they were going to miss the bus. 

	"Why the hell do we have to take the bus anyway?" he asked nobody. "Dad 
sure has enough money to buy at least one of us a car if not both." He was 
suddenly jolted from his thoughts by an explosion.

	Everyone in the courtyard instantly stopped what they were doing to look 
for the source of the explosion. It didn't take Hiro long to spot the smoke 
rising from the other end of the school...right where the gymnasium was. "And 
where the science fair is being held," he finished out loud. Without a second 
thought he dashed through the chill December afternoon towards the gym.

	It was only moments later when Hiro arrived at the scene. Students and 
teachers alike were running out of the white, square building that was the gym. 
There was a second explosion from inside followed by the entire gym shaking. 
Hiro groaned and proceeded to make his way to the gym itself. After plowing 
through the panicked populace, he finally made it inside to see exactly what he 
expected.

	Standing at the entrance to the gym itself was his sister Rei Masaki. 
While they were twins, the two were fraternal and not identical. Where Hiro had 
inherited their father's features, Rei looked like their mother. Standing five 
foot eight with long, raven black hair, Rei was easily one of the most 
attractive girls in school. She mirrored Ryoko Masaki in every way except for 
breast size, perhaps being just a size or two less. Her brown, feline eyes were 
frantic and pleading while she tried to assure fleeing students that everything 
was under control. 

	"Please don't run away!" she cried in her light yet rich voice. 
"Everything is under control!" Her all black school dress was torn in several 
places, denoting the actual danger.  

	Hiro calmly walked up to his sister, who stiffened at the sight of him. 
"Hey, sis. What did you do now?"

	"There's no problem," she said quickly. "Just a little error, that's all."

	He nodded slowly. "Oh really? Well, let's just see what this 'little 
error'is." The cyan haired teen stuck his head into the gym.

	Directly in the center of the room was a large grayish brown blob...that 
was steadily getting larger. Hiro looked back at his sister in horror. "What the 
hell is that?"

	Rei smiled weakly. "Well, it's kind of that experiment I was working on 
with Grandma." Hiro paled. "You know, her new waste disposal unit?"

	"Wha...what happened?" Hiro managed to stammer.

	A guilty look crossed her face. "Well, you know the science fair was 
coming up." She reached out and grabbed the front of his jacket. "I *had* to win 
Hiro! I knew that I could probably come up with something, but there was this," 
she said with a gesture to the still growing blob. "I had done at least seventy 
five percent of the work on it, so I decided to use it as my entry. Things were 
going just fine until..."

	"Until what?" asked Hiro with a frown.

	"Until it started eating the other entries," Rei finished. "Not too much 
later it had a bad reaction to something and started growing and basically 
farting fire."

	"Geez," moaned Hiro. "On top of my recent joyride in Ryo-ohki, this 
doesn't look good for us." He looked back at the creature, which was now almost 
the size of half the gym. "Does it have an off switch?"

	Rei shook her head. "Not yet."

	"Well then there's just one solution I can think of," said Hiro with a 
sigh. "Mom's answer to all out of control problems." He turned and walked into 
the gym.

	"Oh no you don't!" shouted Rei. "Hiro! Put down your hand, Hiro!" 

	"I mean it!"

	"Don't you start collecting energy in that hand, Hiro!"

	"Hiro?"

	"Hiro! Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!"

_____ 

	Not a sound could be heard throughout the Masaki home, which was strange. 
Perhaps it was due to the fact that the twins were still at school, Tenchi was 
up at the Shrine with Katsuhito, Ryoko was who knew where, Washu was in her lab, 
and Mayuka had not arrived home from college yet. In fact, the only visible 
member of the family was its youngest. 

	Achika Masaki stood in front of the refrigerator looking up at a cookie 
jar that was resting on its top. Tenchi and Ryoko's youngest daughter was six 
years old, and simply put, a miniature version of her mother. The only 
difference was her eyes. Where Ryoko's were feline and golden, Achika's were 
green like her grandmother's. The little girl wore a white dress with star 
patterns and red sleeves. 

	She folded her hands behind her mass of spiky, cyan hair and sighed. "So 
close, yet so far." The namesake of Tenchi's mother wanted one thing and one 
thing only...a cookie. 

	Being as short and as young as she was, getting things usually required 
the help of someone older and larger. However, being the daughter of Tenchi and 
Ryoko was not without certain advantages, as she had already discovered. Ever so 
slowly, Achika floated, if not very unsteadily, towards the cookie jar. Halfway 
there she suddenly stopped, started flapping her arms wildly, and fell right 
back down to land on her bottom. 

	"Ouchie," she groaned. Not deterred, Achika climbed back to her feet and 
resumed staring at the jar.

	Her first idea having failed, the little girl went for plan B. Achika 
closed her eyes tight and started concentrating. Her small body started 
flickering, but after a moment it stopped and she remained solid.

	"Darn," she mumbled. Finally, she decided to go to plan C.

	Achika fixed her gaze on the cookie jar. The jar moved ever so slightly. 
She took in a deep breath and tried again. Eventually, the cookie jar floated a 
few inches into the air and forward. Achika smiled in triumph and stretched out 
her arms to catch her prize when it fell. The jar shook for a second before 
dropping right towards her waiting hands. Achika would have caught it, too, if 
not for the adult hands that suddenly appeared to catch the jar a foot before it 
reached its intended target.

	The child leaned her head back to get an upside down view of her 
grandmother holding the cookie jar. "Hi, gramma. I was just..."

	"Getting this for me?" finished Washu Hakubi. "I'm sure." The tall 
scientist reached out to place the jar back on top of the refrigerator. 

	The greatest scientific genius in the universe placed a hand on each hip 
and smiled down at her youngest grandchild. She was dressed in her old knee 
length, light green lab dress with the high, white collar and puffy sleeves. 
Washu knelt down and picked up the child. 

	"Dinner isn't too far off, munchkin," the scientist told her. "If tonight 
wasn't so special, I'd let you have a couple of cookies. But with your older 
sister coming home, your mother wants to try and have a real family dinner." 

	Achika made a frustrated face, but relented none-the-less. "Okay. Where is 
Mommy, anyway?"

	Washu had a distant look for a brief second. "She's up near the Shrine. I 
think she's watching Daddy practice with Grandpa Katsuhito." She leaned down to 
put the child back on the floor. "I have an experiment running, but I can stay 
here with you until Mommy or Daddy comes back."

	Achika broke into a huge grin. "Can we take a ride on Ryo-ohki again and 
play space pirates?" she asked excitedly. 

	Before her grandmother could even utter an answer, the little girl bolted 
from the kitchen calling out for the cabbit at the top of her small lungs. "Ryo-
ohki! Time to play space pirates!"

_____ 

	"Are you feeling tired, Tenchi?" asked Katsuhito Masaki. "You are looking 
a bit winded."

	Tenchi Masaki smiled at his grandfather and beckoned with his bokken. "I 
feel just fine." 

	"You're getting old, Tenchi," Katsuhito taunted. "Old men have to pace 
themselves."

	Tenchi only smiled. Although he was thirty nine, he didn't look a day out 
of his mid twenties. His hair was still cut relatively short, giving it a spiky 
nature, except for a neck length ponytail. Both he and the old man were dressed 
in their gray and black training gi's. Tenchi beckoned again, and Katsuhito 
obliged.

	The elder Masaki made a quick dash forwards with a pair of feints at 
Tenchi's head. With the smile still on his face, he read both feints and dodged 
without even raising his weapon so that he was able to block the actual thrust 
at his ribs. Tenchi's bokken slid along the other one, but Katsuhito countered 
by weaving his own weapon in a clockwise circle. With his own counter attack 
foiled, Tenchi disengaged and backed off. An undaunted Katsuhito pressed his 
advantage.

	Tenchi parried a pair of slashes at his head and parried a third attack 
aimed at his shoulder. In mid parry, he reversed his right hand's grip, twisted 
the wooden edge to face inward, and made a quick cut at his grandfather's head. 
Victory was almost assured with that last attack, and it came to a complete 
shock to Tenchi when his opponent somehow sidestepped the slash, brought his own 
bokken down on to his, reversed its angle, and slapped Tenchi in the stomach.

	"Point," Katsuhito stated as he stepped back. "I believe that puts us at 
three wins a piece today." Tenchi, rubbing his mid section, straightened and 
bowed. The old man mirrored the bow and turned to walk away. "Call me when 
Mayuka arrives," he said over his shoulder as he walked up the hill towards the 
Shrine.

	Still rubbing his sore stomach, Tenchi only nodded at the retreating 
figure. Finally, he turned and walked over to a tree at the other end of the 
small clearing. Without leaves, the tree seemed to house no life whatsoever. 
However, Tenchi knew there was a specific "life form" sitting on a branch 
watching him. 

	"I know you're there, so you might as well show yourself," he said in the 
direction of the tree. 
		
	The air around one branch fizzled for a moment before his wife appeared. 
Ryoko Masaki wasn't dressed for the current state of weather. Despite the chill 
December air, she was wearing short sleeved, yellow blouse with a pair if jean 
shorts and sandals. "You'll catch a cold," he told her playfully.

	"I'll catch nothing of the sort," she replied in kind. "I'm in a great 
mood, so I wearing clothes that make me feel good."

	Tenchi started to rub his bare arms. With his adrenaline starting to fade, 
the cold air was making itself known. "Well, unlike you some of us are not 
immune to the cold."

	Ryoko vanished and reappeared with her arms around his neck. "Oh, my poor 
little Tenchi," she cooed. "I know something that will warm you right up." The 
cyan haired beauty quickly followed her statement with a kiss. 

	The bokken slipped from Tenchi's right hand as he moved to embrace his 
lovely wife. Just before his arms completely closed around her, the space pirate 
vanished. "My my, you have such a dirty little mind," her voice accused from 
above.

	"But I thought..." Tenchi started to say as he looked up. 

	"Shame on you," she said with a smile and a shaking of her right index 
finger. "If you want your 'happy time', you're going to have to earn it, cutie 
pie." A red energy sword appeared in Ryoko's right hand, and she started tapping 
her open left palm with it.

	Tenchi's confused look slowly transformed into a playful one. "Oh, so 
you've come looking for a fight, eh?" He wasn't carrying Tenchi-ken, so 
Tsunami's Knight did the next most logical thing. Three green triangles appeared 
on his forehead as he slowly levitated up to Ryoko's position.

	"Oooooo," Ryoko purred. "Gonna go right to the big guns, huh?" Three green 
circles in a triangle pattern appeared on her own forehead. "Catch me if you 
can!" his wife dared.

	The Daughter of Washu shot straight up and zoomed away at her top speed. 
Tenchi loosed a light chuckle before beginning his pursuit. An hour passed by 
relatively quickly. To the untrained eye, or even the trained one in some cases, 
a look to the sky above the Masaki Shrine would have only revealed a pair of 
blue and red streaks zooming around. Tenchi and Ryoko, each one only holding a 
Light Hawk Sword, playfully dueled for the entire hour. The "fight" went from a 
game of Follow the Leader, to an exchange of energy fire, and finally to an all 
out duel. 

	While they both held smiles on their faces, the two warriors were 
completely focused as they exchanged parries and slashes. They went through a 
series attacks that left the two shoulder to shoulder with their swords locked 
in front of them. "We always seem to end up like this," commented Tenchi.

	Ryoko's face became very mischievous. There was a brief power surge, and 
Tenchi cried out as a pair of slender yet strong arms grabbed him from behind. 
"Got ya!" cried the now two Ryokos triumphiantly. 

	The blue and white sword disappeared, signaling Tenchi's surrender. The 
two Ryokos loosed a victorious cheer, vanished, and the original reappeared with 
her arms around his neck. "I won. I won. I won," Ryoko said in imitation of Rei 
whenever she won a match. 

	They kissed briefly while remaining over a hundred feet in the air. Tenchi 
moved back to look into her golden eyes. "You know, I just realized something."

	"What?" she asked while looking at him tenderly.

	Tenchi returned the tender look. "Do you know that we've been married for 
over twenty years now? And on top of that we have four kids?"

	Her right hand came around to tap his nose. "Who'd have thunk it?" she 
whispered while grinning. "Who would have believed that a serious little earth 
boy, who was never expecting to be anything special in life, would meet, let 
alone fall in love with, an evil space pirate? Then go on to marry said pirate 
and have a family."

	Tenchi couldn't help but smile at her story telling tone. "Not me. Never 
did I expect my heart to be pillaged by such a ruthless criminal."

	She scrunched her face at him. "You say the sweetest things, darling." The 
couple resumed kissing with the passion increasing every passing second. 

	The empathic part of their special link was a swirl of emotions and 
feelings. Tenchi started to form a portal back to their bedroom, when Ryoko 
suddenly stiffened in his arms and pulled away from the kiss. "Wha...what's the 
matter?" he asked with obvious confusion.

	Excitement flooded across their link. "She's home!" Ryoko phased through 
his arms in the direction of the house. "Mayuka's home!" 

	"Ryoko wait!" But she had already teleported back to the house. Tenchi 
sighed and lowered himself to the Shrine steps. Once on the ground, he released 
the power of his Wings. "And to think, I used to be the one who ran away."

_____ 

	Mayuka Masaki drove through the front gate past Azaka and Kamidake, who 
greeted her in passing. She waved to the two guardians and kept driving until 
she reached the small bridge that led to the house. She turned off the engine of 
her black pickup truck and got out. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she 
took in a long, deep breath of the fresh air. Next she reached back into the cab 
of the truck to retrieve a green and yellow sweater, which she pulled over her 
white turtleneck and jeans. 

	*Mayuka!* cried her mother's voice over their telepathic link.

	The eldest Masaki child turned just in time to see her mother appear. The 
cyan haired women, wearing clothes that were totally out of season, threw her 
arms around Mayuka in a hug, which Mayuka returned. "Hey, mom," she said 
happily.

	Ryoko held the embrace for a few more moments before finally releasing 
Mayuka. Then she proceeded to inspect her. "You look like you're in one piece," 
she observed with a half smile. "You sounded a lot worse during your last phone 
call."

	"Well, now that finals are done I'm a lot better," she explained with a 
small chuckle. "Do you think we could go inside? You obviously aren't bothered 
by the cold, but us mere mortals still get the chills."

	"Come on, you little wise ass," Ryoko teased after putting her arm around 
her daughter. "We'll leave your stuff for the men to take inside. Us ladies 
shouldn't have to do such lifting."

	Mayuka started laughing. "I guess we should just forget that you could 
pick up my truck with one hand, huh?"

	Ryoko nodded. "Exactly."

	They had just reached the front door when the air was filled with the 
sounds of repeated explosions. Both women turned around to see smoke pillars 
coming from down the hill towards the main road. "The kids are home," they both 
said at the same time.

	Seconds later two forms, one flying and the other running, came rampaging 
up to the front gate and beyond. Their argument could easily be heard all the 
way at the house.

	"You didn't have to blow it up!" shouted Rei from the air. She converted 
her purple energy bo into a pair of lances which she threw at her nimble 
brother.

	"If I hadn't that damn blob would have eaten the entire school!" Hiro 
screamed back. He easily batted away his sister's attack with his green energy 
sword. "And while that wouldn't have been a bad thing, we still would have been 
blamed! I just saved your reputation! You should be thanking me!"

	"THANKING YOU!?" Rei extended both her hands to release a barrage of 
energy balls. "They banned me from any future competitions!"

	Hiro teleported away from his position twenty feet to the right. He 
pointed his left hand at Rei and released his own energy blast. She easily flew 
around it and charged with a new bo. Colored sparks flew everywhere as their 
energy weapons clashed.

	"I hope they don't hit my car," Mayuka told her mother. "So Hiro still 
can't fly yet?"

	Ryoko, sporting a small smile, shook her head. "Not without using his 
Light Hawk Wings."

	Mayuka's eyes went wide. "You mean..."

	"Yup," confirmed Ryoko. "Your father was able to get both of them to 
manifest Light Hawk Wings two months ago. They can only summon two each, but 
that's still something to be noted."

	Mayuka looked back at her warring siblings. "Do they use them during their 
fights?" 

	"They wouldn't dare," Ryoko told her. "There's a strict ban on them 
accessing their Wings unless it's under supervision or an emergency." The twins 
stopped their advance about fifteen feet from them. 

	Rei was spinning her bo to keep Hiro's attacks at bay. She stopped mid 
twirl and made a quick combination attack at his left thigh. Hiro parried both 
attacks and phased into the ground. Mayuka jumped slightly as he came up right 
in front of her. 

	"Hey, May," he greeted quickly before releasing a couple of shots at Rei. 

	The raven haired teen jumped over the blasts and soared at her foe. Hiro 
vanished and reappeared where he had originally been. Rei skidded to a halt in 
mid air right in front of Mayuka. "Hi, Mayuka," she greeted before launching 
herself right back at Hiro. 

	"Hey, guys," she greeted back. "Please don't blow up my car, or I'll kick 
both your butts."

	"Okay!" they called back while continuing to fight. 

	Ryoko and Mayuka watched the bout for a few more minutes. When it was 
apparent that the twins weren't going to quit anytime soon their mother put an 
end to it. "All right, you two, that's enough. It's time to get cleaned up for 
dinner. The whole family is here, so I want to have a nice, explosion free 
meal."

	The twins halted in mid attacks to look over at their mother. Ryoko raised 
one cyan eyebrow. "I'm waiting." 

	They finally extinguished their weapons and trudged into the house still 
grumbling at one another. Ryoko smiled happily and turned to follow. She stopped 
when Mayuka didn't move. "Mayuka, aren't you coming?"

	"I'll just be a second, mom," she said without turning herself. Ryoko 
patted her lightly on the back before going in. Mayuka watched as the sun 
started to drop in the horizon. The partially frozen lake reflected the orange 
light, and the bare trees of the surrounding landscape began to look like crowds 
of tall people.

	A new shouting match between the twins could now be heard from inside. 
Mayuka took another deep breath and released a satisfied sigh. "It's great to be 
home. " With one last look at the setting sun, she turned and walked inside.

_____ 

	Darkness blanketed the area. Suddenly a white portal opened, causing the 
darkness to retreat from the hated light. Azusa and his three servants stepped 
out of the portal onto a fairly large grassy hill. The powerful Juraian walked 
forward to scan the hill itself.

	"What is this place?" asked Zorin in his gruff voice.

	"A realm of darkness," answered Azusa. 

	Timerra walked up beside him. "Why are we here, my Lord?"

	The former Emperor pointed to a crater in the center of the hill. "We are 
here to collect something very important." He started walking towards the 
crater.

	Ashra visibly shivered. "I can feel this place leeching away at my 
strength."

	"You should," Azusa said over his shoulder. "This dimension is not kind to 
brand of power that we have." He looked back at them with hard eyes. "Now stop 
squawking and come help me."

	The three of them bowed their heads and walked over to enter the crater. 
Azusa stopped in the center and knelt down to pick up something. "This is why we 
have come here."

	"It's just a piece of wood," observed Ashra. 

	"Wrong, fool," snapped Azusa with a scowl. "This 'piece of wood' was once 
part of the Tree of Darkness." He handed the foot long piece in his hand to 
Zorin. "Now find three more pieces roughly this size."

	Azusa rose and strode out of the crater to stand on the hill and wait. It 
was only a few minutes before his minions found acceptable pieces. The powerful 
Juraian easily opened a new portal to his right. "We are finished here."

	"Where are we going next, Lord Azusa?" asked Zorin. 

	Azusa smiled darkly. "To get our allies."


To be continued...
	 


Notes- okay it's begun. You'll probably see less post chapter notes this time 
around, since I have presented my cases in all my previous fics. But just to 
remind people, OAV Ryoko is immune to the elements unlike Universe Ryoko. Just a 
small reminder. 

Just please send any comments you may have to Roas1@hotmail.com.