DISCLAIMER:

This story is based off of the Tenchi Muyo! anime series, produced
by AIC and released by Pioneer Anime America.  All characters
from said series are the property of such.  The characters Hikaru
Moriyata, and any Argelians (which will be discussed in a later
chapter) are the product of the imagination of Dennis Carr, and
belong to same.  The character Trakal, insofar as he is
developed in this story, is the product of the imagination of
Karmin St. Jean, and belongs to same.

The persons and many events in this fanfic are fictitious.  Any
resemblance to any person, living or dead, or any event other
than what has obviously happened, is a coincidence.

Any military or police procedure outlined throughout the fic does
not necessarily depict any real life procedure or scenario.  Any
similarity to real life procedure/scenarios is, again,
coincidental.


Tenchi Muyo: Unfinished Business

A fanfic by Dennis Carr and Karmin St. Jean


Chapter 1:9 - Out there somewhere

Nov 2, 1998 at 04:45 PST
Hikaru's condo

As was the usual routine, Hikaru stepped out of the bathroom,
still a bit damp from the shower, crossed the hall to his
bedroom, and emerged dressed for the cooling weather a couple of
minutes later.  The automatic timer on the coffee maker had set
itself off, and brewed the usual pot of coffee that was strong
enough to maybe burn holes in the stainless steel sink - or at
best, act as drain cleaner.

He poured himself a cup of this, added nothing, and turned
around, just in time to watch the front door open to allow a
rather uneasy Aeka inside.  She looked more or less like she had
been up for a week.

And then they both spoke simultaneously.

"Hikaru, I-" "Aeka, I-"

"You firs-" "You first-"

They both laughed tiredly, then Hikaru spoke.  "You know, when
something like this happens, we always do this."

"I suppose it is because I tended to deprive myself of sleep for
long periods of time when we fought."  Her gaze shifted down to
the floor.  "Um, incidentally-"

"If you're talking about nearly killing me, don't worry about it.
Granted it's not every day this happens, but still."

"I just... Hikaru, I can't...." It was evident she was on the
verge of tears.  He placed the cup of coffee down on the kitchen
counter, walked around to Aeka, and placed both of his hands on
her shoulders.  "Listen," he said, "it happened, I'm alive, and
there's nothing we can do about what happened last week, so let's
forget about it."

Aeka looked up at Hikaru, her eyes meeting his, and felt
feelings that were long ago buried beginning to surface again.
She then turned away, blushing and trying too late to hide the
message the gaze has already revealed.

"I didn't mean to disturb you," she said, turning away, and
proceeding out the door.

"Aeka, wait."

She paused, her back still to Hikaru.  "I want to...oh, Hikaru."

One of his eyebrows raised, and he realized she was thinking out
loud.

"I wish I could just hold you in my arms forever, but...I am
royalty, and I...." Her speech faltered, and Hikaru walked up
behind her, poised to embrace from behind.  "I CAN'T!" she cried,
and walked out to the landing.

As she walked out, Hikaru spoke one word that he learned from
McCormick, which simultaneously spoke of the joy he felt that
Aeka still loved him, and of his exasperation for missing her by
*that* much: "Oy!"  He retrieved his coffee, took a long sip, and
walked out with it, sitting next to Aeka, who was now sitting
down, sobbing into her hands.

He placed his hand on her shoulder, and smiled.  "You know," he
said, "there's a better view of the eastern horizon from the
balcony.  Especially since right here, we'd have to blow a hole
through my living room wall to see it."

She smiled, laughing a bit despite the tears.

"That is, of course, if you want to talk."

She nodded, and followed him in, closing the door behind her, and
walked up behind him abruptly.  Almost as if on cue, he turned
around, and nearly spilled his coffee as he found himself in her
embrace.

"Hikaru," she said, still sobbing a bit, "I don't know what to do
anymore.  We both know how we feel, but we can't do anything
about it."

"I know," came his reply, as he put his coffee down and returned
the embrace.  After a moment of this, he pulled back and looked
at her, smiling a bit.  "The um, sunrise is outside."  The pair
disentangled, and walked out to the balcony, Hikaru once again
with coffee in hand, and he opened the door.

He then looked around, and noted a few details.  The lights coming
from Orange, Anaheim and everywhere else west of him were
reflecting off of a canopy of clouds, casting a faint orange glare
over most of the sky.  The sky directly above him was further
obstructed by the same bank of clouds, and with the added
humidity, the flashing red lights atop the radio towers that were
otherwise visible on top of Sierra Peak weren't.  True enough,
there would be a sunrise this morning, but it would be a horribly
unimpressive sunrise.

"I think, then, that we will not watch the sunrise this morning,"
he said, closing the door and "falling" onto the couch into a
sitting position.  Somehow, his coffee did not come out of the
cup.  "It's ironic that this happens like this."

"Why's that?"

"I'm taking a train to Santa Barbara for a week."

Aeka sat down next to him, and pulled her legs back, curling up
into a ball.  "When do you leave?"

"About eight."  He shifted closer to her, crossed his legs under
her knees, and wrapped his arms around her.  She, in turn,
relaxed a little, and entwined her fingers in his.

"Ryoko and I spoke last night."

"What about?"

She paused, formulating her answer, and coming up with the best
one - one word.  "Everything."  She paused again, and continued.
"Actually, we talked a lot about Tenchi.  I think I understand
her a little better now.  Rather bizarre, actually, since we were
both very sober when we talked."

"You were sober, you talked, and I didn't hear any explosions?"

"Well, yes.  We didn't make any attempts to kill each other last
night.  Besides, we were somewhere out in the middle of the
desert - I think she said something about Barstow."

*Barstow.  Hmm.*

They were silent for a moment, just holding onto each other in
such a way whereas they seemed to be afraid that the other would
have disappeared from the face of the earth, had one let go. Then
Hikaru spoke: "So which one of you made the move to bury the
hatchet, as it were?"

Aeka looked at him, momentarily puzzled by the American
expression, and then caught on.  "Oh.  I did.  I'm just tired
of fighting, I almost lost the man I love...oh, God, I'm
tired...." She abruptly fell asleep.

He held her for another moment, and slowly disentangled himself
from her, and lowered her down to her back.  After this, he
brushed the hair back from her face, got up, and returned to his
cup of coffee - now cold, as indicated by a somewhat disgusted
expression immediately crossed his face as he took a sip.

As he went to retrieve some blankets for Aeka, Ryoko phased in,
startling him.

"Gah!"

"You know, I didn't think you cared for her that much.  I mean,
she told me about you two-"

"She did?"  He was genuinely surprised at this.

"Yes."

A flick of both wrists unfolded the blanket, and he placed it
over the sleeping princess as Ryoko helped herself to a cup of
that which is considered life's blood to maybe fifty percent of
the population of the United States.  "Guess she trusts you
then."

Ryoko's face relaxed, as those words impacted her.

"Ryoko, you need to keep in mind that what she told you is very
confidential.  Nobody is to be told any of this - including your
own mother, if you can help it.  If anybody finds out, I want it
to be my ass.  *Wakarimasu ka?*"

She considered this before replying.  "Yeah."

---

07:00 PST

Tenchi awoke, as he did every morning, turned over, and was
startled into a more wakeful state when he found that directly in
front of his face was absolutely nothing.

What he found, instead, was Ryoko, hovering one foot off the
ground about seven feet away from the bed, crosslegged, almost
like an odd cross between a very lean Bhudda and a sentry.  She,
in turn, satisfied that he was awake, smiled peacefully and
promptly vanished.

Tenchi froze, and decided that this was probably the least of his
worries.  He found his way out of bed, dressed, entered the
bathroom, and was very surprised when not only did Ryoko not
stick her face through the wall, but there wasn't that incessant
scratching noise.

And then there was breakfast.  Normally, when Aeka and Ryoko were
at the same table, they attempted to stare each other down.  For
the past week, however, Aeka wasn't here, and Ryoko seemed
troubled - almost like she needed to argue, much like a smoker
who is trying to quit just *has* to do something with their
hands.  Today, there was almost a peace about her.

And to Tenchi, this was just the slightest bit disturbing.
"Ryoko?"

"Hmm?"

"Where's Aeka?"

"She's asleep in Hikaru's living room."

Everybody, including Ryoohki, looked at her, staring as if she
had just skewered her chopsticks into her rice.  "What?!  She's
been awake for a week, can't she sleep?"  She went back to her
food. "I guess he was feeling too lazy to carry her over."

---

12:35 PST

The trip up the coast on the Amtrak was rather pacifying - but
then, it only held this property after it got through the Los
Angeles "Hairball", his own nickname for the numerous pieces of
track, siding, junctions, the LA "Red line" subway maintenance
facility, and the Amtrak roundhouse that flanked the
graffiti-riddled Los Angeles River.  The half-hour layover at
Union Station was nice enough - enough time to jump out, grab a
bagel, and jump back on the train - but one still had to make
their way out of the hairball.  Once that happened, much of the
scenery consisted of more industrial cityscapes, and ultimately,
once the track got out towards Ventura, a beautiful view of the
Pacific, as the train ran between the beach and US-101.  It would
do this for a while, making one stop in Carpinteria along the way,
and then finally, his destination, Santa Barbara, California.

The city was a typical large mix of a coastal and college town,
with its own meandering cityscape, and could easily be confused
with any other beach town; except for Hikaru, it was the closest
place around that reminded him of his home on Jurai.  After
checking into his hotel room, he found his way to the beach,
which was abandoned at this time of year for warmer haunts.

As far as he was concerned, this was perfect.

The sights and sounds of the city would be his to deal with
later, but at the moment, just the ocean is what he needed - the
sound of it hitting the rocks, the smell of the salt water, and
a view through the haze would reveal Santa Barbara Island.  A
slight prevaling wind from the north blew through his hair, which
probably could've used a trim.

And at this very moment in time, for Hikaru Moriyata, all was
well with the world.

---

Nov 3, 1998 at 07:00 PST
Hikaru's living room

Aeka awoke, feeling somewhat rejuvenated.  One would consider it
just as well - she'd been sleeping for just over 24 hours.

At the moment, things seemed peaceful for her.  Nobody was here.

*Wait a second.  Where is h- I'm in Hikaru's living room.  And
right now, he's somewhere north of here.*

She crawled off of the couch, returned to her own home, and upon
walking through the door, was met by nobody.  As it was,
everybody was still waking up.

A moment after she walked by his door, Tenchi emerged, and noted
two things: one, Aeka was smiling, and humming a tune that was
somewhat familiar, and two, she actually greeted Ryoko politely,
instead of the usual character criticism.

*I must be dreaming,* he thought, as he walked into the bathroom.
*I think I just saw Aeka and Ryoko getting along without the help
of several liters of sake.*

After she had taken care of her personal matters, she decided it
would not be inappropriate to make a phone call across the
Pacific.  However, it would not be appropriate for this call to
be listened in on.  She immediately returned to Hikaru's condo,
and dialed the number to the Masaki house in Japan.  Certainly,
he wouldn't mind this executive decision on her part.

After a moment, there came the answer.  "Masaki residence?"

"Yosho?"

"Is that my sister?"

"Yes, it is."  She looked at the wall clock, which now read 7:30,
and realized she forgot about the time difference - it would be
late night in Japan.  "Did I wake you?"

"No, I was just bedding down for the night.  I think, though,
that if my sister wants to speak to me, I can forgo some sleep."

"It's about Commander Moriyata."

A brief pause, and then he spoke again.  "You don't say...."

---