DISCLAIMER: Tenchi Muyo! and its characters are copyright AIC and
Pioneer. We all love you guys for making the series, so please don't
sue us for showing our appreciation to them through fanfics.
However, the copyrights to this particular story, at least where it
differs from the original Tenchi Muyo! series, belong to me.
BTW, I wonder if AIC/Pioneer really hunts these fanfics down, looking
for someone who's forgotten the disclaimer, so they can sue them?
HEY! PIONEER! If you guys're reading this, drop me a line! 
friend@sunrise-sunset.com

SPOILER WARNING: Naturally, this story is a spoiler for Tenchi Muyo!
OAV series 1. Most of you have probably already seen it, but those who
haven't, shouldn't read further. They say OAV series 1 was the best of
all Tenchies, so that's the one you WOULDN'T want to spoil.

If you wanna know the background to this episode, then read episode 1!
(Awright, here's the plot: Tenchi went and found Ryoko in the cave, as
usual. But this time, he didn't run away in terror. Instead, he and
Ryoko experience a love that needs no words.) You might think parts of
this episode are too alike OAV 2, well that's because the thing that
separates this fanfic from the OAV happened on Earth, so Ayeka's
actions are unchanged until she interferes with Tenchi and Ryoko. Well
well, I talk too much, so on with the story!



                  IT'S THE SMALL THINGS THAT MATTER
                        a Tenchi Muyo! fanfic
                        by Bjoern Braendewall

                    Episode #2: Here comes Ayeka!

______________________________________________________________________

On the royal Juraian starship Ryu-Oh, the crown princess of Jurai,
Lady Ayeka, was awakened from hibernation. She asked what planet she
had come to. One of her servants, named Kamidake, answered: "Colonized
planet number 0315; Earth."

"Then this is where my brother Yosho is!" Ayeka presumed happily. She
was told by the other servant, Azaka, who was of similar log-like
shape as Kamidake, that it wasn't Yosho the ship had detected, but
Ryoko. Ayeka frowned at the sound of Ryoko's name, the devil who had
caused Yosho's disappearence in the first place. It was Ryoko, whom
Yosho had been in pursuit of, when he had vanished. Surely, she must
know of the whereabouts of him.

"We must capture her at once and put her on trial on Jurai, for the
terrible crimes she has comitted!"

"But princess Ayeka," Azaka argued, "this is a specially protected
area, and any interference is strictly forbidden..."

"This is an order!" Ayeka yelled. "We'll think of a reason." Ayeka
never got a chance to think of a reason, as she saw Ryoko's Galaxy
Wanted file be erased before her very own eyes, due to the Statute of
Limitations. Ayeka stood there, staring helplessly at where the file
had been displayed. Ayeka sat course for Earth anyway.

"Be well, my dearest Yosho." she said to herself. "Please be well."

                          *      *      *

Back on Earth, Ryoko turned to Tenchi, a distressed look on her face.
"Tenchi, I need to have the gems on your sword."

"Uh, but, what for?"

"They're the source of my powers, and I *need* them to wake up
Ryo-Ohki."

"Ryo...Ohki? What's that?"

"Don't you know? It's the other demon in the Legend!"

Tenchi desperately tried to grasp all the things he was being told.
Ryoko stared at him with puppy eyes and stroke his chest in circles
with her indexfinger. "Please, hurry. There isn't much time!" she
urged him.

"What? Not much time? How come?" Tenchi was getting worried.

"Because of who's approaching us... she's the devil. Well, she's like
a devil. She's so *mean* and *dangerous.* She'll fire at us!"

"Are you saying that we're gonna awaken Ryo-Okay and fight her?" he
said nervously.

*OHKI! Ryo-OHKI!* Ryoko thought to herself. "Nnnn-no. We'll run away!"

If Tenchi had known Ryoko better, he wouldn't have believed her for a
second. Well, he didn't believe her for a second now either, actually.
However, he reasoned that she had the most experience when dealing
with approaching firing she-devils.

Tenchi held out the hilt for Ryoko to grab. "Here! Take it!"

Ryoko dodged away from it, and her voice jumped down a few pitches.
"WHOA! No can do! If I touch that thing, it's gonna send energy shocks
through my whole body!"

"But how come *I* can touch it, then?"

"Well that goes back to some *fascinating* genetic theories about the
bloodline of Jurai's royal family, but we'll settle with saying that
it was Yosho's, and you're his relative, so you can touch it. Anyways,
it's the gems I need, not the sword."

"Sure I'll give them to you, if that's what you want..." He paused.

Ryoko tilted her head. "What's wrong?" she honestly wondered.

Horror struck Tenchi's  mind. He sat down on his bed, staring into no-
thingness. "But how do I know that you didn't just pretend to love me,
so I would give you the gems? How do I know that you won't go away
when I give them to you?"

Tenchi felt a bit ashamed for not trusting Ryoko, but then again, he
*did* know very little about her. And Tenchi was afraid.

He had realized that his life was bound to Ryoko. She had been with
him all his life. He couldn't even imagine what it would be like with-
out her. Nor did he want to. Tenchi was terrified by the thought that
he might lose her. What would he do? He would feel mutilated, it would
be the same as having lost an arm he had had all this life.

Ryoko understood Tenchi's anxiety. His response to her love for him so
far had been too good to be true. In a way, she was happy about this,
because this was sort of a confirmation that this was reality, and not
a dream, where everything's perfect.

She wanted to show him that she would never try to deceive him. She
sat down next to him on the bed, and moved his chin until he faced
her. She caressed his cheek, a very serious look on her face. "It's
OK." she said. "You don't have to give me all of them right now, if
you don't feel you can trust me. One or two will be just fine."

Tenchi nodded, but couldn't hide his shame. Ryoko hugged him to show
him that it really was OK, and that comforted him.

"I'm sorry." he said.

"Nothing to worry about. Just point the sword hilt towards me, and
pray that the gems will be returned."

"That's it? That's all I have to do?"

"That's all."

Ryoko did some magical gestures, and Tenchi did as he was told.

Ryoko moaned as the first gem vanished from the hilt of the sword to
reappear at her wrist, and she felt the warming feeling of power rise
in her. She remembered how weak she had felt when she had been
separated from the three gems, after her defeat to Yosho, and she felt
happiness over not being weak and defenseless anymore. The sudden
feeling after such a long absence intoxicating her, she longed for the
next gem to consume. When she realized there were no more coming, she
felt a bit disappointed. But she had said that it was OK, so she was
quiet.

"Thank you, Tenchi."

"Uh, sure, you're welcome... so, what're you going to do now?"

"You just watch!" Ryoko replied confidently. She then put her fingers
to her temples, and concentrated. "Come, Ryo-Ohki... Awaken... 
AWAKEN!!!"

The lake outside the Masaki household started to bubble, as if some-
thing huge was moving below the surface. Then, all of a sudden, the
enormous spaceship arose, and its high-pitched screams echoed in the
night, drowning even the sound of the waves it had aroused. They were
screams of joy, joy over being released after such a long slumber,
much like Ryoko's, but with these screams and the rapid flight as the
only way of expressing that overwhelming joy.

Ryo-Ohki got to the Masaki house just in time. The Ryo-Oh appeared
like a bright dot in the nocturnal sky, and descended with tremendous
speed. Ryoko phased out through the wall and looked up. Tenchi, not
blessed with superpowers, had to settle for curiously looking out
through the nearby window. "Dammit, she's here already!" Ryoko
growled.

It looked to Tenchi as if the Ryo-Oh was about to smash them all into
spice gue, when the space-ship slowed down unrealistically fast, and
ended up hovering a near kilometer above them. An angry voice echoed
ominously. "RYOKO, COME OUT! I SAID COME OUT!"

Impatiently, Ayeka ordered an attack, disregarding her servants' war-
nings of prohibited combative actions. A huge shockwave rocked the
house, throwing Tenchi around until he ended up with his nose in
Ryoko's cleavage. "Wonderful thought, but we haven't got time for that
now, sweetie pie." Ryoko said. A light-beam appeared from above and
teleported her and Tenchi to Ryo-Ohki's main bridge.

"Fly, Ryo-Ohki!" Ryoko commanded. "Fly, I say! Put Earth below you,
and fly to the farthest horizon. And while you're at it, blast Ayeka
to bits!"

Tenchi pointed to a container and said: "Why... WHY is my house small
as my hand, two-dimensional and IN THIS CONTAIER?!!"

"I'm sorry Tenchi, but I had no time to worry about it, so I shrank
it! Hope that's okay?"

Tenchi's fear was pushed aside for a while by his anger. "Why do you
have to fight? Why don't the two of you just sit down and *talk* this
out?"

"Talk..." Ryoko said to herself. "Talk, talk, talk-talk-talk-talk...
what a silly little word, talk-talk... I *know* I've heard it some-
where before!" she smirked.

Ayeka counter-attacked using lots and lots of miniature logs, which
appeared in circles around Ryo-Ohki. Azaka and Kamidake appeared on
the main bridge and approached them. Ryoko, who was held fast by the
power of the other logs, could do nothing but scream as the Guardians
of Jurai consumed her as their prisoner. Tenchi ran forth to help her,
but was knocked unconscious.

                          *      *      *

After a while, Ryoko woke up, to find herself tied up upside-down,
facing Ayeka, who put down a cup of tea on the table before her.

"It's been such a long time, hasn't it, Ryoko?"

"Wha... what've you done to Tenchi? Where is he? You've better not
hurt my Tenchi, or I'll..."

"*I* am sking the questions here. But for your reference, I put him
elsewhere." She held up Tenchi's sword hilt. "Now why did that boy
have this sword?"

"You bonehead! Can't you feel it in his blood? Because the sword is
his! It may not be mine, but it hell ain't yours! Tenchi is Yosho's
successor, so it's his property!"

"Look who's talking about other people's property, you criminal. You
know very well this sword belongs to my brother! Now, where is he?
Where's my brother Yosho?"

"Half-brother you mean, and you came all this way just to look for
him? Things must be dull on planet Jurai, you royal types must be
really bored..."

"My brother's disappearance all started because of you!" Ayeka rammed
the sword hilt in Ryoko's stomach. The protection system, that
prevented anyone but Jurai's royal family from touching, it was
activated and energy shocks ran through Ryoko, who screamed in agony.
Ayeka let go after a while, leaving Ryoko emitting smoke, panting.
"Now answer me!" Ayeka repeated.

"Yosho beat me and locked me up. I don't know what happened to him
after that. Tenchi probably knows more than I do, go talk to him."

"Tenchi the sword?"

"Tenchi the earthling boy."

"Is the boy called Tenchi also?"

"Is the SWORD called Tenchi also?"

                          *      *      *

Tenchi woke up in an alley of trees. He got up and looked around the
vast landscape before him, another world of beauty than any one he
had ever seen in his life. The trees around him, the plants, they
looked like nothing he'd ever seen before. The ground was strangely
lit up, considering the sky showing it was still night.

There was a generous amount of chill in the air, but strangely enough,
Tenchi didn't feel cold at all. He then noticed why: there was abso-
lutely no wind. It wasn't just lee, there was an unnatural stillness
in the air. It almost made him feel like he was indoors. He looked up
to the sky again. At first, Tenchi mistook it for an ordinary one, but
then he noticed the stars, and the light, just seemed a bit different.
It was then that he realized, he was in outer space!

The shock faded away quickly, as something more important came to his
mind: Ryoko wasn't there. Tenchi got really afraid. He worried about
what had happened to her. The last thing he had seen of her, was when
she was being consumed by that wooden thing. What *was* that? What had
happened? For all Tenchi knew, Ryoko might have been killed there!

He felt himself getting hysterical. He yelled her name, then spun
around, looking for her in all directions. *No! I can't have lost her
now! I've finally met her, after waiting my whole life for her, and
now she's gone?* He felt the shiver down his spine, the cold sweat on
his whole body, he heard his panting, but repressed those thoughts.
*It can't have been meant to end that soon! There must be more! She
MUST be alive!*

Tenchi calmed down. He decided to run out of the alley and go find
her. He was stopped abruptly by the branches that came to life and
stopped him from leaving the alley, like prison bars. As he struggled
to get free, he heard a voice. "What are you doing?"

He looked up, surprised. His eyes met a little blue-haired girl with a
smile on her face.

"Wha... who are you?" Tenchi stammered.

"I'm Sasami, nice to meet you." The girl bowed politely.

"Sasami? Have you been kidnapped also?!"

"No you silly, this is our ship, me and my sisters."

"Your sister? The mean, dangerous, firing she-devil?" Tenchi slapped
himself for actually saying that.

Sasami didn't seem to take any offence, but simply answered: "I don't
know what my sister Ayeka does in her leisure time, but yes, it might
have been her you meant. We come from the planet Jurai."

"Look, do you know what happened to Ryoko? Where is she? Is she okay?"

"WHO?!"

"She's a woman I arrived with, she's got cyan hair that looks like...
that looks like... well I don't know *what* it looks like really,
but... she's very beautiful, and she's got big b... I mean..." Tenchi
blushed.

"That's no way to talk to a little girl like me!" Sasami smirked.

"Anyways, I'm worried about her, and I *must* see her! The last thing
I saw of her, she was swallowed by a big log or something..."

"Oh! That must've been Kamidake and Azaka!"

Tenchi stopped himself. "Huh?"

"They're my sisters guardians, they're like servants. They didn't
*eat* that woman, they just captured her!" Sasami was obviously
enjoying Tenchi's confusion.

Tenchi was relieved. "So Ryoko is okay?"

Sasami giggled. "Is she your *girlfriend?*"

"Uhm, yes. Well if you don't know where she is, can you help me get
out of here, so I can look for her myself?"

"Weeell... I'll do a favor for you, if you do me a favor..."

                          *      *      *

Ayeka had left Ryoko captivated, and was in her bedroom. She was
watching a holographic message she had watched many times before. It
was her last message from Yosho, before he disappeared, 700 years ago.
He told her that he was going to go fight Ryoko, who had attacked
Jurai. But he also told her that when he came back...

"...when you came back, I was to become your bride." Ayeka continued,
having learned every word in the message by heart. So many times had
she listened to it.

Yosho's hologram faded away, but Ayeka had already taken her eyes away
from it. She didn't want to see him disappear on her yet again.
Instead, she looked at the sword, the Tenchi-ken, which she held in
her hand. The first link to her lost brother in hundreds of years. She
looked at it longingly, tears in her eyes, and tried to remember the
happy days, when Yosho was still there, wielding the sword. How she
wanted to see his hand take the sword away from her, to look up and
find him there.

*I promise I wouldn't question how you could be here all of a sudden,
if it could only happen! I wouldn't say a word.* Ayeka thought to
herself. But the earthling boy, he too bearer of the name Tenchi, had
had the sword now. He must know something. In the morning, she would
talk to him and find out. Ayeka fell asleep in her bed, holding onto
the sword hilt.

                          *      *      *

Outside, Sasami and Tenchi were hiding in the shrubbery.

"There's her room!" Sasami giggled. "She's asleep now, so you'll know
what to do!"

Tenchi was uncertain. "Yeah, I think so. Get her head ornament, right?
But... why should I? I mean, it *does* belong to her, doesn't it?"

Sasami's face hardened. "Just get it!"

"Okay, okay, I'll get it, just make sure you remember your promise!"
Tenchi got up and started sneaking towards Ayeka's room. Once inside,
he quickly found his way to her bed. He had thought it would be fairly
easy to take the ornament. The tricky part was, Ayeka hadn't taken it
off when she went to sleep. "How am I gonna get that off of her!"
Tenchi thought to himself. Then he saw the sword hilt in her hand. He
decided getting back his sword had higher priority. He tried to take
it, but Ayeka held it in a remarkably firm grip for a sleeper. So he
tried harder. Ayeka's eyes opened wide, and she started screaming.
Tenchi figured the best thing in this situation was to run like hell.
Luckily, he managed to get the sword hilt from Ayeka. Ayeka screamed
for her guardians. Azaka and Kamidake appeared on either side of her
bed. "Iwantyoutoputthatscoundreltodeath!" the princess ordered.

Tenchi was halfway to his rendez-vous with Sasami by the time, being a
very quick runner. The guardians began chasing him as he ran, crying
out their really fearsome battle-cry: "Here we come! Here we come!"
Sasami was laughing out loud at the scenario. Tenchi picked her up in
his arms without really stopping. "Let's get out of here, your logs
are trying to kill us!"

"They're my sisters, there's nothing I can do!"

"*NOW* YOU'RE TELLING ME?!"

"Wait, run this way! Jump in here!" Sasami pointed to a holy tree.
Tenchi jumped into it, still carrying Sasami. They fell down a tunnel
with bright flashing lights, and landed in a place not all to different
to the surroundings of Tenchi's earlier prison. As Tenchi got up, he
heard a voice from behind. "Yo-hoo! Tenchiii!" His heart skipped a
beat. He spun around instantly, and saw Ryoko, in a prison similar to
the one he was imprisoned in earlier. He ran to her, and threw himself
into her arms, as much as the prison bars would allow him. He kissed
her anxiously, tears running down his cheeks.

"You must help me get out of here." Ryoko whispered. Tenchi looked her
in the eyes. "But I can't open this thing, and... huh?" The sword hilt
began emitting a strange light, and all of a sudden, the "prison"
opened itself, fullfilling Tenchi's wish.

Sasami had observed the whole incident, and now spoke, pointing at
the Tenchi-ken: "Hey! That sword belongs to my brother Yosho!" Tenchi
was startled. "*Brother* Yosho?" Sasami was oblivious to his question
and continued: "But how were you able to use it? Oh, but where are my
manners? You must be Ryoko. I'm Sasami, nice to meet you." Sasami
bowed before the demon. Ryoko couldn't care less about this little
girl, now that she could spend her time clinging on Tenchi. And so she
did.

"STOP!" The lovers were interrupted by Ayeka, who stood before them,
the guardians by her side. "Sasami, I see it was you who released him.
You *really* shouldn't have done that."

"I'm sorry, I was just bored!"

"You don't let out the prisoners because you're bored! That's no
excuse! Azaka! Kamidake! Arrest that monster-woman!"

The logs remained still. Azaka argued: "Miss Ayeka! We cannot do that
now that Ryoko's Galaxy Wanted file has expired."

"Yes," Kamidake filled in. "We have no charges against her. If we did
that, we would be expelled from the Royal Guardian Society. Please
understand."

Ayeka disregarded the fact that she had never even heard of a Royal
Guardian Society, but growled and looked away. "Oh well, just capture
her for my personal satisfaction, then!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Tenchi pulled Ryoko's arm. "Come on! Let's make a run for it!"

"Aww, but I wanna fight them! Let me show you I can protect you,
Tenchi, you'll see."

"No time to argue here!" Tenchi grabbed Ryoko and lifted her, carrying
her in his arms as he ran for his life. Ryoko struggled at first, but
then put her arms around his neck and leaned her head against his
shoulder. "You're so *sweet* to be concerned about me! Hey Tenchi, did
you hear what they said? My Galaxy Wanted file has expired. I'm 
virtually free! Free, I tells ya! Oh, this is the best of days!"

"Yeah, (puf!) that's great, (puf!) but could you run by yourself now?
They're closing in on us!" Kamidake tried to frighten his and Azaka's
preys with a roar, but it was hardly frightening, since he couldn't
compose a barbaric enough voice. "Roa-arr..." he said in his most
polite manners.

"I'm sorry Tenchi, but your idea didn't work. Now we'll do it *my*
way!" Ryoko jumped off and faced the approaching logs. "Pull your
sword!" she said to Tenchi. "Concentrate, and you can activate a
lightsaber like in Star Wars!" Tenchi held the hilt in his hands and
concentrated. A blue light appeared from the sword, almost as if it
had a mind of its own. Ryoko had already summoned her orange light-
saber.

Ryoko and Tenchi performed a completely symmetric attack on their
respective opponent. Like twin souls did they jump at their outer
side, turn in the air, and swing their swords on the backs of the
logs, not slicing them, but creating huge cuts in them, hitting Azaka
and Kamidake to the floor. Ryoko and Tenchi, still airborne, kept
panning until they were next to each other, back to back. They held
out their arms, and grasped each other's hands from behind, Ryoko
slowly floating them down to the ground. "I love you, Tenchi." Ryoko
whispered with closed eyes.

The royal guardians retreated, giving each other first aid. "Oh, the
unspeakable pain! We can't work under these conditions!" Kamidake
exclaimed.

"Yeah, we demand a dental plan!" agreed Azaka.

"Why would we need a dental plan? We don't have any teeth!"

"But you should always demand one! Do you know what those things
cost?"

Ryoko patted Tenchi on the shoulder. "Well done, my boy! After all,
I've taught you everything you know about swordfighting."

"No you haven't."

"Shuddup. Shuddup!"

Ayeka was devastated at the sight before her eyes. She looked at the
Tenchi-ken, glowing in Tenchi's hand. *The master key is in synch with
him! But it shouldn't react to anyone but those of royal blood?!* She
looked up angrily at Tenchi. "You imposter! How *dare* you pretend
that sword is yours? I'll have you tribed formally at Jurai as soon as
we get there! Azaka! Set course for Jurai at once, or you'll never see
that dental plan!"

"Oh no you don't! You ain't taking my Tenchi nowhere!" Ryoko raised
her sword again, but lianas from the treetops flew down and seized
her on Ayeka's command.

"You play dirty to the end!" Ryoko hissed.

Tenchi screamed. "NO! Let her go!" The Tenchi-ken glew again, and
Ryoko was released. She went closer to him. "Tenchi, call Ryo-Ohki.
You wanna go home, don't you?"

Ryo-Ohki, who had been locked next to the Ryu-Oh, made its presence
known by ramming the Ryu-Oh, so that its lower crystal spike penetra-
ted the floor from below. Ryoko pulled Tenchi along as she phased
aboard.

Ayeka was lying under a pile of debris, some of it being defined as
the immobilized guardians. "I will NEVER forgive that woman!"

Tenchi and Ryoko was at Ryo-Ohki's main bridge again. "I'll make her
follow us down to Earth. As long as she's allowed to fly around up
here, she's only gonna cause us trouble!" Ryoko said.

"But wait, won't that hurt her?" Tenchi objected.

"So what? Would you rather have her take you to Jurai and have you
skinned? Relax honey, it'll be alright." Ryo-Ohki started thrusting
towards Earth. Ayeka read from her controls what was going on, but
could do nothing but plead to Ryoko. "Stop this immediately. Even your
ship won't escape without damage if we hit Earth at this speed!"

Nevertheless, the spaceships fell towards the planet surface. Just
before collision, Ayeka ordered to have the Ryu-Oh's exterial wall
units exploded. This caused a force that almost stopped the descent,
by throwing the ships to the side. The ships rolled over the ocean.

                         >>> SPLASH!!! <<<

                          *      *      *

Tenchi's father, Nobuyuki, didn't seem to ask many questions as to why
three beautiful girls were to live with him and his son until further
notice. And instead of asking why there were two wrecked spaceships in
the lake outside the house (which was now planted near the Masaki
shrine), he simply kept eating his breakfast, and watched the TV news.
Which was probably the wisest thing to do.

A thing that *had* caught his attention, on the other hand, was that
one of the girls acted as if she was Tenchi's girlfriend, and Tenchi
seemed to agree on it! This looked like a job for: (fanfare)
VCR-DADDY!!

Unfortunately, Tenchi seemed totally unaware of how *important* it was
to record progressions in one's love-life, and simply hid Nobuyuki's
camera batteries, ignoring the whines and tears from his father. As he
went to town to buy himself some new ones, and thereby skipping work,
he thought to himself "I'd better wait a few days until I ask how she
flies around and walks through walls."

______________________________________________________________________

I would REALLY appreciate comments, this being my first fanfic series
and all. friend@sunrise-sunset.com

Thanks to Bjoern Hoffmann, aka Leon-san, for pre-reading and helping me
tie the storyline together.

This fanfic series can be found at my homepage:
http://surf.to/the.paradox

Written in December 1997 - August 1998. (Phew! Long span!)