SHATTERED MIRROR
by Emily "Mink" Koh
Part 1: The Uprooted Tree

DISCLAIMER: Tenchi Muyo! is © Pioneer Entertainment and AIC.  
I am in no way affiliated with them, nor do I own it.   "Shattered 
Mirror" is © 2000, "Mink."  (Emily Koh.)  Do not repost elsewhere 
w/o permission.  

C&C demanded at gun point.  -_-;  Send to mink249@aol.com!

* See notes at bottom.

***

	"You're here for questioning.  It depends on how much you 
agree to reveal.  Truth of the matter is, if you're being willing, 
you might not get an arrest warrant."

	The Galaxy Police Officer steadied her eyes level with the 
shorter person in front of her, narrowing hers ever so slightly.  
Years of practice had made her an excellent one to be the officer 
to question suspects -- they usually broke down during this stage, 
and spilled everything.

	But the person in front of her refused to crack.  Her eyes were 
as firm as the questioner, and she tossed her mane of red hair,
and steadied her gaze.

	"Really.  You should become a better inquirer."

	"I'm offering you your freedom.  Through verbal responses."

	"Wow.  Which means I'll be betraying my very daughter..."

	The officer's eye twitched involuntarily, and she began to back 
away, her fists tightening.  "Listen..."

	The other officer, supervising the questioning, was obviously a 
superior.  "Don't let your emotions get the best of you," she 
advised to her colleague.  "She's only making you crack -- isn't 
she?  It's the other way around.  You can do this."

	The questioner regained confidence, sighing.  "You are the 
creator of Ryoko, classification A-1 criminal, are you not?"  Her 
eyes were brittle and cold, no longer forgiving.

	"Please, I much prefer the word 'mother.'  You know that well, 
don't you?  After spending time with us... and lesson number one,
you never tell a mother that her daughter is a class A-1 criminal,"
came the sarcastic reply.
	
	"She's not your daughter," the sentence was flung out.  "You 
created her out of Mass.  And by our classification, it isn't quite --"

	The red-haired person seemed to flare up.  "By your 
classifications, humans are not humans, they are more
specifically categorized as what planet they're from.  Are we not 
all humans, or have aspects of that Earthling trait?  And by your 
classification, Ryoko is a Class A-1 criminal, but you have no idea 
what that exactly means, do you, besides that she's one of the 
most dangerous and top wanted criminals in the galaxy?"

	Both officers stirred in the room.  "We can arrest her," the 
superior said thoughtfully.

	"No."  The reply came quick.  Then the officer gave a serious 
face towards the person in front of her, and her voice was struggling
and almost fake.  "Washu-san.  Please tell us where Ryoko is."

	"Over my dead body."

	The officer found herself seething quietly.  "OK, I'm not asking 
nicely again.  Ryoko has been causing us havoc for a long time now!  
She must be punished."

	"How will you contain her in a prison cell?  Likely, she has 
much experience and can easily escape," came the reply from 
the scientist.

	"Actually, we have you to thank for that," said the superior, 
interrupting, a sly smirk on her face.  "Isn't it wonderful?  You 
created the hyperspace cell technology, did you not?"

	Washu gaped.  "I... that wasn't meant for Galaxy Police 
criminals.  It was a cell I planned to use for my captured 
experiments..."

	"Lucky that we discovered about your plans, eh?  Proved 
to be quite useful."  The superior smiled coyly.  "That's the thing 
that will confine Ryoko for all eternity.  It will be grand, I think."

	"You can't contain a human life in a hyperspace cell for
so long!"

	"She's not human," came the dry reply.  "Remember, if
she was created of Mass, and has a will to obliterate millions of 
planets --"

	"She has her bad traits, but --"

	"You call those 'bad traits'?  More like 'killer traits,' don't you
think?  And I don't want that 'under the influence of Kagato' story.
You know you're over and done with."  The superior looked up.
"Seize her."

	The superior snapped her fingers, and two robots materialized.  
Evidently, they were cleaning robots -- with the ability to grasp 
and follow more complex commands, as Washu discovered.

	As she was taken away, Washu struggled to leave one comment:

	"You may believe Ryoko is inhumane.  But the only person
who is inhumane is you, Kiyone.  What happened?"

	The look of despair left Kiyone's reply choked.

***

	"It is a nice day."

	"Mmm," agreed the blonde girl.  Mihoshi stared at the sky 
with blank eyes.  "The clouds..."

	The Jurain princess next to her smiled gently.  "They are 
pretty, aren't they?" she said softly.  "A huge cluster of 
pillows, in my opinion.  Fluffed and..."

	Absentmindedly, Mihoshi wandered into the house, while 
Aeka was in mid-sentence.

	As usual.

	Aeka sighed, a pained look on her face.  Three years 
changed everything and everyone.  If only she could take that 
time back.  If only...

	In life, there were no time for "if only" moments.  They 
were wasted away.  You were only pining for a fantasy moment, 
and that could never happen.

	Mihoshi had been a natural disaster when she had been her 
normal self, three years ago.  Bubbly and excited.  Vexed everyone 
else, but she was the one who was there for comic relief in their 
lives.  An entertainer, she had been.

	Slowly, after Kiyone left, Mihoshi faded, like a bright 
blanket that had been faded over the years.  The bright 
color evaporated into a murky, colorless cloth, and that was Mihoshi 
herself.

	She was only a robot, murmuring her own agreement at times. 
She said little, and ate so little.  Therefore, she was skinny, and 
looked so much like a twig that one could easily snap her.

	Mihoshi had already been snapped.

	Kiyone was the one who had been forced to snap that twig.  
After all these years, when Kiyone had tried so hard to snap that 
resilient girl, she finally managed to snap it so hard without even
trying, that the splinters still remained.

	As for Tenchi, Ryoko's disappearance had made him fade away, 
too.  He tried not to show it as much, because he never wanted to
show how much he favored someone more than the other.

	Aeka knew that he favored Ryoko in a way that was different 
from the way he favored Aeka herself.  But she didn't blame him -- 
everyone had been pining for Ryoko.

	Kiyone's departure had ultimately been linked to Ryoko's.  
No one, however, blamed it on Kiyone, except for perhaps Aeka.  
She never said it out loud, but she couldn't help but point 
fingers at this former friend who had betrayed everyone's trust 
for a promotion.

	Aeka didn't really like to admit it, but she did miss Ryoko.  
With only Mihoshi and her in the Masaki house now, it was lonely.  
And Mihoshi had therein lost her job and her ship, so in conclusion, 
she was stranded on Earth.  Not that she cared -- she was mindless, 
these days.  Ryo-ohki had left with Ryoko against her will, and
Aeka certainly couldn't return to Jurai, she wasn't welcome anymore.

	No one to fight with.

	How bare and silent the walls sounded.

	Aeka silently put on her slippers, and then, albeit 
unwillingly, began to take a walk.  She found herself strolling 
into the forest, where the sun caved in through the gasps of the 
leaves, providing a glorious light show.

	Her eyes fell on a familiar looking pond.

	"Oneesama!  Don't be a chicken, come on in!  The water's fine!"

	Aeka jumped with a start.  "Sasami?"

	Oh, how she hated memories.  The fleeting image of young 
Sasami three years ago left the pond as quickly as it had come, 
and Aeka found herself crumpling to the ground, and she began to 
cry horribly.  "Sasami..."

	"Aeka-san!  What's the matter?!"

	Tenchi's horrified voice rang against the looming silence 
that had failed to envelop Aeka, and she found herself being helped 
up by a horror-struck Tenchi, who was only too glad to help 
smoothen the crumpled edges of Aeka's worries out.

	"Oh... Tenchi-sama..." Aeka sniffled.  "I didn't mean to worry 
you."  She braved a smile.  "I was... only..."

	Tenchi held her hands.  "Are you okay?" he asked comfortingly.

	Strange.  In three years, Aeka had not felt that close to 
Tenchi.  Like Mihoshi, he had drifted away, although he tried to 
hard not to make that apparent.  Strange, how Aeka's own attraction 
to Tenchi had faded over the years.  It was still there, of course, 
but part of it seemed pointless if she had no rival to fight with.

	The memory of Ryoko teased her to cry again, and she shook 
her head quickly.  "No, no, no..."

	"Aeka-san!  Please, come to your senses!" Tenchi said, 
shocked again, and shook her hands.  "Aeka-san!"

	By then, Aeka was blubbering again.  "Oh, Tenchi-sama.  The 
memories... the memories..."

       "They do try to blame us, don't they?" Tenchi sympathized.

	Moments later, the two of them were sitting under a tree.  
Tenchi was sitting next to Aeka, mentally cradling her, in a sense, 
that Aeka felt.

	Aeka realized that there was nothing morosely romantic about 
this.  And she was in no mood to define it that way, either.  The 
two were upset about the past.  They could do nothing about that, 
things happened.  He was comforting her.  And Tenchi always had 
comforted someone in his life, that was his duty -- no questions
asked.  But who comforted him in his own sorrow?

	"Do you remember," Tenchi said slowly, "when we thought
that Ryoko drowned in that pond?"  He chuckled.  "Turns out that
she was trying to make you feel bad for an earlier fight and me
bad for rebuking her.  Serves me right, I deserved that scare."

	Aeka sniffed.  "Please... Tenchi-sama.  I beg of you."  
The request was enough, and Tenchi apologized.

	"I didn't mean to make you sad, Aeka-san.  But memories 
don't have to make you sad!  I laugh at all the good times we all 
had together."

	"You don't understand," Aeka said.

	"You're right, I don't."  Tenchi nodded.  "I have never been 
alone in my life -- this is my first.  How could I be alone, with 
six women after me?"  He smiled, and Aeka smiled as well.  "But... 
you don't have to cry."

	"Tenchi-sama..."

	Tenchi got up.  "Well, I still have some work to finish, 
Aeka-san.  I'll see you later."

	Aeka nodded.  "I won't cry, I promise."

	But as she saw him leave, she was frozen by the scene of a 
few tears outlined in Tenchi's eyes.

***

	"Hime-sama, the visitors have arrived..."

	"The ambassadors from Ryuugi have come."

	In her full glory, Sasami stepped away from  the balcony.  
"Already?  They're very early," she said calmly.

	She was wearing the formal Juraian princess attire, meant 
for the one in line for the throne.  It seemed strange on her 
figure, seeing as how she was rather petite.  Her young teenage 
look hardly gave the look that she ruled an entire planet.

	"The ambassadors are worried that you will not keep our side 
of the peace treaty," Azaka reported faithfully.

	"They claimed you were too young to... well, understand right 
and wrong.  They claimed also that you never have or would experience 
battles.  So they assumed you knew nothing of peace."  That was the 
final report from Kamidake.

	Sasami's voice was cold and firm -- as it had been, for a 
long time now.  No more of that melodic, sing-song, childish voice.  
She had been forced to conform from her childish ways to one of a 
higher order.  "Evidently, Ryuugi is ruled by an amateur ruler," 
she said distinctly.  "See to it that the ambassadors feel at home,
here on Jurai.  Tell them that I am in no state to meet them today. 
They shall have to wait until tomorrow."

	"Yes!"

	Sasami watched the guardians -- *her* guardians -- drift 
away, and she returned to the balcony.

	Last night, a storm had verged on Jurai.  How horrible it had 
been.  She had been quite surprised at how early the Ryuugi 
ambassadors had come -- in spite of the storm, that was.

	It was sad to see the ruins in the long yard of her palace.  
Trees were broken and her eyes searched the place, hoping for at
least one tree.

	"The Promise Tree won't have splintered, though.  It has 
lasted for so long..."  Her voice suddenly had a childish ring to it.

	At that moment, Sasami regretted thinking about it.  The 
Promise Tree had been planted by Tenchi-niichan, when he and the 
others had come to visit Jurai... well, accumulated in Earth years, 
that would be roughly three years ago.

	She suddenly giggled, remembering the memory.  Being so 
proper had taken away her childishness, and it felt good to
giggle again.

	They had gone to make proper and good disguises for Ryoko and 
Washu.  They had proposed that they should chop off both of the two 
women's beautiful locks, but both bawled (well, Ryoko did anyway) 
and protested, and even Tenchi agreed that it was unnecessary.

	And together, they had all found a seed, and planted it into 
the soil, and it had grown up so big and tall!  Amazing, in only 
such a short time.

	So Sasami regarded it as having magic.  True, that was a 
childish thought.  But when she was alone, she was allowed to have 
childish thoughts.

	The Promise Tree had been named by Mihoshi.  "See, we write 
all our promises on a sheet of paper, then we tie it to the tree.  
Like resolutions."

	"Ooh!  I have a good one!  'I promise that I will marry Tenchi,'" 
Ryoko recited, and looked at Aeka, smirking.

	"Wh-what, how conceited!  You can't make a promise like that!"

       "Oh, I can't?  Okay, then, 'I promise to make sure that Aeka
doesn't marry Tenchi!"

       "Hey you!"

	And the two had argued considerably.  Finally, Tenchi had 
suggested that in the midst of all their wishes, all of them
should share one wish.

	That one wish would be that... well, that they would all 
live happily ever after.

	It was sad how life wasn't a fairy tale.

	To her utter shock and dismay -- or terror -- the Promise 
Tree was no longer in its rightful place.

	It lay on its side, uprooted, the roots all gnarled and 
poking out, a terrible sight.

	Sasami's eyes were blank.

	"That's what happened to us... our family was uprooted from 
the firm soil, and here we are, today."

	Then her eyes closed.  "Oneesama -- no, Aeka -- I'm waiting.
Sasami has a lot to reveal."

TSUZUKU

***

AUTHOR's NOTES

Again, a storyline revision.  Why is that?

I realized that while I mapped out the entire story, I needed
more elements from the OVA series than the STM series.  I
was forced to write the whole Yuugi part out of the story, but
again, she didn't have any significance in this fanfic to begin
with, so that wasn't a problem.

What was a problem was fitting Kiyone in.  Kiyone was never
in the OVA series, the only bit we see of her is in Mihoshi's
special episode and in the "Manatsu No Eve" movie that is
based off the OVA series, but features Kiyone.

So in a way, you could say that I'm keeping the same
relations from the TV series but using the OVA storyline.
Everything is OVA-based, there is nothing about the TV
series that is even morosely similar to this.  So I guess you
could say that's it's based off the second movie.  No, wait,
that's strong.  NO MAYUKA, I repeat, there is NO Mayuka.

Look out for other parts of this story and the other fanfics!
Keep on reading!  ^_^  And happy holidays and a new year!

-- Emily Koh, December 28, 2000

***

UPDATES:

	02.19.01 -- Revised by Mike.
	12.30.00 -- Revised by Ian.
	12.28.00 -- Revised storyline, fixed a few minor things.
	10.25.00 -- Revised story with OVA perspective.
	10.17.00 -- Fixed alignment and author heading.
	10.12.00 -- Revised story.
	09.18.00 -- Revised by Jessica.
	09.12.00 -- Preread by Miyabi.