Hey, it's Kaeruchan again, and I have the next installment of Sho-ro
Muyo! No Need for Crying-Part Two.  I kinda procrastinated writing this, and
I'm sorry for keeping you in suspense (right, I'm sure you were on the edge
of your seat :P).  It's taken me a ton of time to type this tedious Tenchi
tale (talk about alitteration!).  I think I'm getting a little bit better at
this whole fanfic thing, and this one's is MUCH better than the last. Oh,
and I didn't put alot of  info in the last fic that I probably should have.
I based the Sho-ro Muyo series on characters and events from the Tenchi
Muyo! OAV.  Kagato just seemed so much eviler in the original series.
There's a downside, though.  I'll have to find out a way to include Kiyone
in some way, because I know alot of you are big Kiyone fans, and I want this
series to appeal to everyone (personally I'm a HUGE Ryoko fan).  And now,
the legal stuff...
Tenchi Muyo! and its charachters all belong to AIC Pioneer.  However, Sho-ro
Muyo! belongs to ME, so ask me before you copy it, 'kay?
On with the fic!...

Sho-ro Muyo-~No need for Crying~Part Two


Aeka was in Washu's lab, despite the "no trespassing" sign on the door.  She
was looking for a knife sharpener for the vegetable knife when the front
door slammed open.
    "HELLO!?  Is anyone in here!?  I need help!"  It was Tenchi.
     "I'm here, Lord Tenchi!" she yelled as she ran out from underneath the
stairs.  She immediateley stopped when she saw the blood.  Ryoko was draped
over the couch cushions, and Tenchi was frantically trying to get at her
wound.  He finally gave up being nice, and ripped the side of her dress
open.
    "Aeka, thank God.  Please, could you get some bandages, a bowl of warm
water, and a towel?" Tenchi pleaded with fresh tears in his eyes.  She
nodded and ran to the kitchen to get the items.  Ryoko was completeley
unconsious, and Tenchi was wringing his hands, wrought with fear that she
wouldn't be able to pull through.  Her once white clothes and skin had
turned a shade of red he didn't like to think about.  Even the tips of her
cyan hair had soaked in some of the blood.
    "Here you are," came Aeka's voice from his left.  She set the bowl of
water next to him and handed him a towel.  *Chikushou,* he thought as he
wiped the crusted blood from around the gash.  Kagato's sword had done it's
damage.  Tenchi's hands were shaking as he set the now crimson towel in the
bowl and held his palm open to recieve the bandages.  He added to the rip he
had made, tearing it until the dress was separated in two.
    "Help me sit her up," he told Aeka, who, in spite of her hatred for
Ryoko, rushed around the sofa to help.  Ryoko's head lolled around, giving
Tenchi the horrible impression that she was dead.  He put his fingers to her
neck, half-expecting a pulse, and relaxed a little when he felt the slow,
steady throb.

    Ryo-ohki was making a landing next to the lake, and her passengers had
their faces pressed against the transparent dome of the ship, hoping to see
someone.  Washu stepped out when they had hit the ground, and made sure
everything was okay before calling Sasami.  She stepped timidly next to the
scientist, and Ryo-ohki shrunk back to a cabbit and hopped ontop of the
princesse's blue hair.
    "Washuchan, where is everybody?" was the first thing she asked.
    "I don't know, but I'll find out."  She whipped out her holotop and
typed in <lifesignsavailable.exe>.  A map of the area projected from the
computer, and the spot where they stood was highlighted in yellow.  She
tapped another button and the house on the map started to turn yellow,
too.
    "Ah, so that's where everyone is," said Washu before grabbing Sasami
and running in the direction of their home.

    "Ohhh..."  Tenchi jerked his face from his hands.  Ryoko was stirring
and groaning.
    "Don't move, Ryoko," he said as he got up from his seat across from
her.
    "Tenchi!  What happened?  How did we get here?"  She made a move
to stand, but Tenchi stopped her.
    "Please, don't stand.  You've got a pretty nasty injury," he reminded
her.  She looked down and realized that her dress was torn all the
way around her middle, and her side was wrapped in linen.  She recalled her
ordeal.  *How could I be so stupid?* she thought, *I should've seen
that backhand thrust coming a mile away.*
    "Where's everyone gone," she asked, swiveling her head to look around
the living room.  As if on cue, Washu and Sasami burst through the back
door, Ryo-ohki pitter-pattering behind them.  Tripping over her feet, Washu
tumbled into the living room.
    "Ryoko!  You're okay, my poor baby!" she yelled as she grew into her
adult form.  She went around the couch, and began to type in figures in the
now present holotop.
    "What have I told you about roughhousing, young lady?  Hmm?" she
muttered as she went over the keyboard, poking Ryoko to make sure nothing
was broken.
    "GASP!  WHAT IS THIS!?" she screeched through her hands, referring to
the bandages wrapped around the sword wound.  She uncovered her mouth and
snapped her fingers.  The door to the laboratory opened, and with a fling of
her pink hair, Washu picked Ryoko up and carried her into the subspace.
Wide-eyed and bewildered, the demoness waved over her creator's shoulder as
the portal closed.
    "Bai bai," said Tenchi, waving back with a small laugh.  He turned and
walked into the kitchen to find Jurai's Princesses, one of whom was crying.
    "Sasami, it wasn't your fault," he heard Aeka say.  Ryo-ohki was rubbing
against the little girl's ankle, trying to provide a little comfort.
    "What's wrong?" he asked, kneeling next to Aeka.  Aeka started to say
something, but her sister cut her off.
    "No, obaasan, please.  I want to tell him," she said between sobs.
*What could be wrong with her?* thought Tenchi.
    "Tenchi, I knew th-that the attack was going to happen."
    "What?  What do you mean?" he asked, completeley caught off-guard.
    "I have these dreams, you see, and most of the time they come true.
Then, sometimes I have nightmares, and they come true too.  I had a
nightmare, a nightmare about Kagato's attack.  I saw everything, or almost
anyway."  She stopped and more tears welled up below her pink eyes.  "I saw
both of you, you and Ryoko, I mean.  But I watched you DIE!" she screamed.
Tenchi could tell that she had tried to deal with this in her own way, and
failed.  Pulling her down to sit on the floor, he wiped her face.
    "It's okay, really.  Even if you had told us, I wouldn't have been able
to stop it anyway," he said in the most loving brotherly voice he could
find.  "Everyone's survived, and most of us got away without any really bad
injuries."  As he said this, Sasami became aware that Ryo-ohki was crying
next to her.  Aeka followed her sister's gaze.
    "What's the matter?"  The little cabbit looked at Aeka and meaad.  She
got to her paws and padded to the kitchen door.  Beckoning with her ear, she
meaad some more.  All three of them got up and went after her.  She loped
down the hall to the door beneath the stairs.  Tenchi opened the door and
Ryo-ohki hopped in.
    "Woah, Ryo-ohki," he said gabbing her under her front legs in mid-jump.
    "Meaa, meaa meaa, meaaaa!"  She wiggled out of his fingers, and bounded
down the corridor.  He shrugged at Aeka and Sasami and they all followed,
going deeper and deeper into the subspace.

    "Ouch," Ryoko yelped as Washu (still in her adult body) peeled the
bandage off her daughter's midsection.  When she had finished, she disposed
of the linen through a
pseudospace hole, and pulled some peroxide through the same hole.  The
ex-pirate cringed at the sight.
    "You're not gonna use that stuff, are you?" she wimpered, scooting
across the table she was seated on.  She hated peroxide.  She had already
experienced way too much pain today, she didn't need this, too!
    "You know that it's not that bad.  It's all in your head," said Washu,
soaking a cottonball in the liquid.
    "C'mon, don't you have a less PAINFUL way of doing this?" Ryoko pleaded
hopefully.  Washu thought for a second.
    "Hmm...NO!"  She dabbed the cottonball on Ryoko's cut and recieved a
scream in response.  "Don't be such a baby," she said after dodging an
energy blast, "If you're good, I'll give you a lollipop!" she told her
patient, waving a little red candy in front of her.
    "Ummm, okay."  Ryoko unwrapped it and stuck it in her cheek while Washu
applied the peroxide.  Just then, Ryo-ohki and her trio of followers came
into the room.  They had found Mihoshi along the way, sleeping on one of the
metal tables in the interstellar animal lab.  Aeka burst into peals of
laughter and Tenchi eggdropped.  Ryoko was watching Sasami run across the
room when she noticed the little search party.
    "AAAH!  How the hell did you get here!?" the mother and daughter pair
yelled simultaneousley.
    "Um, through the door?" Mihoshi stated, after some thought.  Ryoko
pulled the lollipop out of her mouth and hid it behind her back.
    "Oh Ryoko!  What happened?!"  Of course, Sasami was concerned for her
well-being.
    "It's okay, I'm not hurt that badly," she said.  She didn't think the
little princess believed her.
    "AAAHAHAHA!  Was that a LOLLIPOP!?" Aeka managed to gasp out through her
tears of mirth.
    "Hey, you!  What's so funny!?  You eat candy, too!"  Ryo-ohki was
licking the sucker behind Ryoko's back, and she scooped the little cabbit
up, putting her in her lap.
    "Okay, whatever you say.  AAHAHA!!"
    "Out!  OUT!!!" came Washu's voice over the bickering.  She ushered
everyone but Tenchi and Ryo-ohki down the hall, toward the exit.  "How do
you do it, Mihoshi?.."
Ryo-ohki jumped from Ryoko's lap, intending to make her way to the kitchen
for some fresh carrots.
    "Well, how do you feel?" Tenchi asked Ryoko when all the footsteps had
faded into the darkness.
    "Okay, I guess."  She got off the table and stood with her back to him.
"Tenchi, was that for real earlier?"
    "Was what real?" he asked, knowing what her response would be.
    "The kiss, was it real?  You didn't just do it because you thought I
would die?"  Tears were forming in her eyes.  She couldn't bear to think
that it was all just a spontaneous action that only took place because of
the moment.  She wanted more than anything for him to love her for who she
was right now, not because he thought on a whim that he needed to give a
dying woman her wish.  "Well, was it?"  Tenchi could feel those yellow orbs
burning into his deep brown ones, willing him to pour out his heart and
soul, right here, right now.  "TELL ME!" she screamed, whipping around to
face him, salty tears streaming down her already stained face.  So he did.
    "Yes, Ryoko," he said quietly, standing up, "it was real, and I meant
it, too.  I enjoyed it, maybe more than you, if that's possible.  I now know
that I love you, and I always have, because that's what it was, love, not
pity."  He finished, and Ryoko stood there for a moment, completeley
dumbstruck.  Then she fell foward onto his chest, crying her eyes out.
    "Please, don't cry, Ryoko.  It hurts me to see you cry."  She stopped
sobbing and looked at him.  He was smiling.  She leaned foward and met his
lips.  *My God,* thought Tenchi, *She's not groping me, her toung is in HER
mouth!  What did Washu DO to her!?*  *Nothing,* came Ryoko's voice in his
head.  He opened