Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Choices and Consequences ❯ Consequences of Honor ( Chapter 5 )

Tenchi Muyo: Consequences and Honor

I do not own Tenchi Muyo, or any of its characters or ideas, but I wish I did. As for this story, it was written as a sort of what if, while I wait for OVA 3 and GXP to be released stateside. I started on this after wondering, what if he actually did make a choice? For those that have read the "True Tenchi Novels" that detail the backgrounds on the characters, I have not read those. I guess you could say that this is an AU as I have made certain decisions on their backgrounds to fit my story. And if the Character appear OOC, there is a good reason.

I want to send a very BIG THANKS out to Doug Dennis, Top Quark (Shadow Quark) and Chendzeea Li for helping me with this story.

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From Last time:

Ryoko just grumbled, "We've been through this before. He won't be happy if he looses either of us remember."

Ayeka just smiled and Tenchi looked at the two of them surprised. With all the time they spent fighting, he never thought that this would happen. However, he wasn't about to let them be pulled apart. "I won't let…" He started as the two girls looked at him. "I won't loose. I won't let us be separated."

They both smiled at him and he grinned broadly. There were many things that he could say about them, but for them to be friends, he thought it was impossible. However, they have recently kept him surprised.

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And now

Tenchi Muyo: Consequences and Honor

Ryoko is used to time, or rather the passage of time. She has passed the time away sleeping, drinking, fighting and just lounging around. The ex-pirate was even used to waiting to arrive somewhere to destroy it, and even waiting for years, decades or centuries was not uncommon for her as she has spent 700 years in a cave where all she could do was think. But in all that, it did not prepare her for what was happening now.

Tenchi had told her and Ayeka that unless he can beat Yosho in a duel then Ayeka and Sasami will be forced to go back to Jurai. As much as she's hated the princess, she has come to see her also as a friend, and to suddenly have that friendship threatened is not something she liked. Not to mention the thought of losing Sasami, whom she now considered her little sister, was even worse. The fine meals wouldn't be the thing she'd miss the most about Sasami. Her energetic and happy personality kept the former pirate hopeful of a kind and loving future with her Tenchi, and yes, even Ayeka. However, she could think of nothing that could really help the situation. She could spar with him and teach him everything she knew about sword fighting, but how could she compress a few thousand years of knowledge into just a few months or weeks?

What irritated her even more though was that neither Tenchi, nor herself had ever beaten Yosho. He was the one that had beaten her, taken away the three gems, and then imprisoned her in the cave. And now he was the same one that is threatening to take away not only her best friend but her little sister as well. Both of those were small compared to how much she hated him for putting Tenchi through this and making him accept such a stupid deal, … because of honor.

'Ryoko,' she heard a voice call her mentally, though she didn't want to listen. 'Ryoko,' the voice called louder.

'What?' She finally answered. 'I'm busy ok? I've got a lot on my mind.'

'I want you to come and take a look at something.'

Ryoko grumbled, but decided to go see what Washu's latest creation was. She needed something to do besides worrying, and this would stop Washu's insistent pestering. After stepping into the lab, the door slammed shut behind her and the lights went out. "Washu? Damn it!"

A fanfare began to play and a spotlight came into view on Washu. This of course made the pirate groan, but seeing how she was not being trapped by anything yet she decided to watch.

"Welcome to my Lab!" Washu cried out as cheers and applause seemed to come from the blackness though Ryoko was not impressed. "Today we will unveil my greatest invention! The Time Compressor!" A series of spotlights moved around the room before converging on a simple looking door that was connected to seemingly nothing. Opening the door Washu energetically showed that a field was there with her mecha tending to it. "Inside you will see a simple field in a simulated environment, and by closing the door and starting the machine…" her floating keyboard appeared and she typed on it for a few seconds. "…We will compress time so that time outside is one sixtieth what it is inside!"

"And that means?" Ryoko asked barely paying attention.

Washu grumbled and a few boos were heard from the blackness. "That means that by taking the constant out of the time-relativity equation I can make time inside this room accelerate so that every second that passes out here, one minute passes in there!"

"That's nice…" Ryoko droned on still worried about what was going to happen to them.

"WILL YOU PAY ATTENTION TO ME!" Washu screamed.

"AHHHH!! Ok, alright…." Ryoko rubbed her ears as she tried in vain to stop them from ringing.

Washu sighed deeply while shaking her head, and then she eyed her erstwhile daughter. "With this machine I can have carrots for Ryo-Ohki all year around and I can actually watch how the passing of time affects certain items!"

"What do you mean?"

Washu grumbled, 'How can she have completely ignored me?' Looking at her daughter she tried again, "I can manipulate the flow of time to move at varying rates, so I can see what something will be like after an hour, or day or even a month! By compressing time even further, I can make a year or decades pass inside the room when only a few hours have passed outside!" Ryoko's eyes suddenly lit up as Washu continued completely ignoring her daughters exited look on her face. "You see, Tenchi won't have to work in the fields all the time for Ryo-Ohki to have her carrots, I can have a complete harvest every week for her and maybe even every day!"

"How would it affect… people?" Ryoko suddenly asked as inspiration had struck, and not only that but a answer to her problems seemed to be right in front of her, 'If this can make that much time pass inside, then I can help him beat Yosho! And if he beats Yosho then Ayeka won't have to leave, and Tenchi will be happy again!' Ryoko beamed at such an easy answer to their problems.

"People?!?" Washu gave her a perplexed look and began to think about it. For Ryoko, it seemed that for once Washu's inventions might just come in handy. But, for her idea to work she'd have to convince Tenchi to try it out. "Well since it is only the passage of time that is affected… anyone inside should not really notice the difference… though I would have to make some modifications to allow for sustained life inside." Washu thought some more and began to ramble on about varying ideas. Ryoko was not paying attention to her mother, only how she would get him to get inside it with her.

For the rest of the day, Washu worked on her machines while Ryoko happily went about her day doing her normal thing, which included dodging chores, sleeping on the roof and thinking about Tenchi. This time as she went about her day, she kept thinking and wondering how will she tell him about this, and more importantly will he agree to it?

That evening Ryoko went to sleep on one side of Tenchi very happy and excited about what could happen in the next few weeks. Washu had told her daughter that it would take her some time, but she could make the room larger and self-sustaining to make a prolonged stay inside possible. But what really had Ryoko excited was after she had told her mother of Tenchi's duel the scientist started working on a number of upgrades to her machine.

For as happy as Ryoko was, Ayeka was that worried. As Ayeka lay on his other side from the pirate she could not help but be concerned. Ryoko had told her that things were looking up, but she wouldn't say anything more on it. She didn't know about Ryoko's talk with Washu, or even about Ryoko's plan yet, and it worried her to know that Ryoko was hiding something, especially something that made her this happy.

'What is that pirate thinking about now!' Ayeka thought. For now, she decided that she would enjoy her time remaining with him, at least until she found a way around this. Though she hoped Tenchi could win, she had seen Yosho fight before, and had seen Tenchi fight as well. She knew that he was no where near as skilled as her brother. Whatever happened, she decided that she was not going to forgive her brother for this for a very long time.

The princess made up her mind that the next day while in the onsen with Ryoko; she would make the pirate tell her exactly what was going on. Usually, she would only see Ryoko smile like this when it had something to do with Tenchi. Lying there, in his arms, although Ryoko was there too, Ayeka smiled. 'I wish I could stop time,' she thought, as it felt too nice to be held by him to truly worry about the future.

In the onsen the next day, Ayeka eyed her new friend and bed companion, and asked, "Ok, what's up pirate?"

"What makes you think something's up?"

"Oh nothing... you've just been smiling all night and humming all morning," Ayeka told her, then looked at her out the corner of her eyes. The pirate gave her that cat got the canary smile of hers, which so irritated the Jurain Princess to no end.

But, then she could hear Ryoko grumbling, but she did not seem truly upset. "Ok, remember that thing Yosho tricked Tenchi into?"

"How could I forget?" Ayeka rolled her eyes.

"Right, well…" she paused to consider things and she knew that Tenchi would not really agree to it unless she had help. "Well Washu's made a device that…"

"NO!" She slapped her hand on the water to emphasize her point.

"What? You didn't even hear me out!" Ryoko couldn't believe it, was Ayeka reverting back to her pre truce mode.

"Absolutely not! Washu's machines never work right!"

Ryoko reeled in her temper and bit her tongue as the princess had a point. Taking a deep breath, she answered, " But this one can really help! See all he has do to is step inside and then…"

"I'm surprised at you… you would let her put him in any of her machines?" Ayeka couldn't believe that with what Washu had put Ryoko through, she would allow this to happen.

Ryoko fought back the growl building inside her, she wanted to scream 'no way,' but there was no other way. Even if she could train with him every day for several weeks, it would not be enough to beat Yosho; he was too good. She sighed heavily again. "There's no other way…"

Ayeka looked at her skeptically. "What makes you say that?"

"I fought him, even at full power… I couldn't beat him… Tenchi hasn't even had half the training I've had…"

Ayeka felt anger and rage run through her to be suddenly replaced with sorrow, as she felt ice running though her veins. It was true, she knew it was. Her mothers had told her how he would beat the demon because of how hard he's trained. He had to have trained a lot, as even as an old man he had been a match for Kagato, where Tenchi had been all but brushed aside. Tenchi's light hawk wings, and Tsunami were the only things that really saved them all from Kagato. But Tenchi wouldn't be using then when he fights Yousho. Slumping over, her hands stapled together on her lap, she asked meekly "What are we going to do?"

"Washu's made this thing that can… um, compress time."

"Compress time?"

"Yea, she said that she can slow time down inside… um…" She wondered how much should she tell the princess. In her mind the equations and theories made sense, but how could she explain them to Ayeka so she will agree to it?

"I can compress it down even more than I used to."

Both girls jumped as Washu appeared in the onsen with them. "Miss Washu! Please don't do that, you nearly gave Ryoko and myself Heart attacks."

"Yeah, Mom, don't you know how to knock!"

She snickered at the girls' surprise. But she then focused on why she had come looking for them. "It started out as just one sixtieth of time, but I have refined it even more. One I got past the time shift variable of…" She looked at the two and saw that they had no idea what she was talking about, the droll at the corners of their mouths was a good indication. She sighed. "So much for wanting to explain it."

"What does it do?" Ayeka asked politely, though she was worried about the explanation.

"It can compress time so that at its lowest setting, one second to us is like a minute inside the room. But that was only the beginning! I can make just a few seconds inside the machine seem like days, weeks years!" Here eyes glossed over at her invention.

"She makes every second out here seem like hours too," Ryoko remarked to Ayeka earning a giggle from the princess.

Washu, hearing the giggle looked at the two scathingly causing them to stop and pay attention. "Here's what you two will do..."

"Both of us?" They replied in unison causing them to look at each other shocked.

"Yes, Tenchi won't agree to this unless you both can get him into the machine."

"You mean we have to get in it too?" Ayeka was terrified, and it showed on her face. Ryoko had known that she would have to get into it to train with him. Although she was scared, she was comforted knowing that he would be there too.

"Yes, how else is he going to rally learn? I can program some robots and holograms for him to fight, but he needs to learn the right way to fight otherwise it will be useless." Washu looked rather annoyed at that admission, and both Ryoko and Ayeka felt safer in not asking her to explain that.

However, Ayeka had one other thing she wanted to know. "Why…. Why do I have to get in?"

"Didn't you learn any of the Jurai fighting style?"

"Well, a little, but…" She looked around sheepish. All members of the Royal Family were taught the basics of sword fighting, but she had never really studied them seriously, nor had she been forced to.

"Well Ryoko can't teach him all by herself." Washu huffed, as Ryoko looked indignant. "She will at least need your help in getting him to agree to it. Besides, if he doesn't become better, then…"

Her head fell again as she slumped over, "I know… I'll have to leave." Ayeka let out a groan of frustration, "Ok, what do we need to do?"

After leaving the onsen, Ayeka went to think while Ryoko went to find Tenchi. It wasn't hard for her, as she could fly around easy enough, but Tenchi had not made it easy on her. He wasn't in the field, the house, or even at the shrine. Floating above the area, she scanned everything carefully looking for him and then she heard it. She could hear the distinct thwack of wood against wood. Following the sound she found him hopping around on some small stumps sticking out of the ground hitting a piece of wood that was hanging by a rope.

Landing on a branch she watched him and realized that something was wrong… looking carefully at him she gasped in surprise. He had several bruised on his legs and arms as well as a number of cuts and scrapes. 'How'd he get those?' She wondered then watched as he fell off one of the stumps. When he hit the ground he yelped in pain and she could see that he had been doing this for some time. Her heart ached to see this. Forcing himself to stand back up, he kept trying. But with the bruises he had, it was getting harder for him to maintain his balance. Ryoko could feel tears falling as she watched him doing this to himself until she could stand it no longer. Kagato had forced her to train this way, only he would beat her every time she fell. At first she fell so many times, she thought she would be killed, either by the training or him she did not care, but she would not let him do this to himself.

Tenchi swung and swung at the little piece of wood and he could not help but wonder how was this supposed to help him? 'What kind of stupid training is this? What is his problem? Why can't he just leave us alone?' He swung again and in his anger he lost his balance and fell forward. At first, all he could see was the ground and several pieces of wood that his face was heading to, and then there was nothing. Putting his arms out he felt something soft, and warm. Pushing away from it, he could feel arms loosening from around him. Pulling back from the body, he was surprised to see Ryoko.

Not only had she stopped him from falling, but she had moved them both to the side and his feet were on solid ground. What truly surprised him was that she was crying. "Ryoko…" he started and realized she was not letting him go. She was not strangling him as she had before, but she kept her arms partially around him not letting go completely. "Ryoko, I need to…"

"NO YOU DON'T!" She yell through her tears and held him closer. He was truly surprised as she cried even more, but this time she put her head on his shoulder.

Sighing, he put his arms around her and tried to get her to stop crying. He was not entirely sure why she was, and in fact, he had only seen her do this a few times before. The first time had been when he had given her back her gems. It took a few moments, but Ryoko finally stopped crying long enough for him to talk to her. "Ryoko, I need to get back to training. I'll be home later ok?"

"That's not training!" She gave him a scathing look. "Just look at yourself, your bruised and bleeding…"

"Bu I have to…"

"Not like this!"

To say the least, he was surprised, she was arguing with him, of all things about training. "I need to work harder, you know that."

"Would…" Ryoko began, and she thought about what she would say, "would you let me train that way?"

He looked at her and shook his head, knowing that he needed to train, and train harder, but this was not helping any. "I don't have any other choice though…"

"What if there was another way? Would you take it?" She looked at him and he could see the hopeful look in her eyes.

"If there was another way, but I don't…"

"Then let me help you!" She blurted out. "I know he beat me before, but I can help… I have to do something…"

"Ok, we'll talk about it later, ok?" She nodded reluctantly. "Right now, I have to go to the fields…"

"Not like that," she told him then wrapping her arms around him she teleported them away from there and back towards the house.

Of course when Ayeka saw him she was angry, at first with Ryoko, then him, but finally her anger fell on Yosho. "I WON'T FORGIVE HIM FOR THIS! Not for a thousand years!" She had screamed when Ryoko had told her what happened.

Tenchi kept his quiet as the princess exploded, though he did wonder, 'I wonder if she will hold him to that? They are both almost a thousand anyway, so another thousand years isn't that bad.'

As the two played doctor and cleaned his cuts and scrapes Ryoko told him about Washu's device, he was against it at first like Ayeka was, but then she brought up his own words, "You said you'd let me help you. This will help, please?"

"Yes Lord Tenchi, this device of Washu's sounds beneficial to us and you did say you'd let her help."

"But Ayeka…" he sputtered, "Washu's machines… they never… I mean sometimes… but not… and this…"

With both Ryoko and Ayeka working on him, Tenchi eventually caved in and agreed to at least look at what Washu had created. The idea of actually stepping into her lab was bad enough, but to get into one of her machines… willingly… that was something he was very skeptical about. Even if the girls assured him it would be ok, he was still worried. For whatever he was feeling about the machine, he was equally confused about Ryoko. When she had talked to him about it earlier, she had left both him and Ayeka in the dark as she tried to explain how the machine worked.

"You see, mom's made a machine that can change the rate that time flows," she had told him and not only was he looking confused, but amazed as she had unknowingly called Washu, mom. "Most believe time moves at a constant rate, but if you can adjust the constant that time moves at you can increase or decrease the speed of time!"

Tenchi, and Ayeka blinked in surprise, but said nothing. It was at that point that Ryoko noticed their expressions and said to them slower, "when you step inside one second on the outside is like a minute on the inside…" she grumbled at using Washu's words though the petite scientist was beaming with pride.

And so it was that Tenchi, Ryoko and Ayeka entered Washu's lab while Sasami and Ryo-Ohki kept Mihoshi busy outside. "Well, welcome to my lab!" She cackled and all three of then suddenly had a feeling of dread. "Right this way!" She directed them, oblivious to their worries. Washu was still beaming on the inside at how her daughter had explained it and she knew that the theories that she had taught her so long ago were still there.

Stopping at the door, she opened it so that the three of them saw his fathers' house. "But Washu…"

"I know, I duplicated the entire valley down to the organic level, but you three will be the only people there. I also included the house, shrine, training grounds, onsen, fields…"

"How long will we be in there?" Tenchi blurted out.

"I will set it so that you will be in there for five hours our time, but you will see about ten hours inside."

"Then why…" Ayeka started and Ryoko nudged her.

"She said she added more, you know how she gets when she gets going."

"I heard that young lady!" Washu snorted as Ryoko grinned innocently. Tenchi hid a grin, as did Ayeka. It was nice to see them acting like this.

Washu continued going on about the virtues of her machine and how it can sustain life indefinitely, but none of them really paid it any attention. Their only concern was to go in, train and come out. And since both girls would be there, he was more than a little nervous. Ayeka too was nervous but she hid it, though not very well, as this could very well be what saved her from having to go back to Jurai. The only one that did not seem truly concerned was Ryoko, who actually was eager to get inside and being training him.

Nervously two of the three of them stepped through the door after Ryoko literally flew in, and once through they were surprised at how real things seemed, and not only that, but nothing felt different. "If all goes well you won't feel a thing, but in the first hour time will accelerate, then you will have three hours to train and the last hour will be deceleration until time is parallel with the outside world. This will give you ten hours to train, so make good use of your time!" With that, the door closed on three nervous faces.

Washu setup her system and activated the program, and she could hear a distinct hum from the other side of the door, but outside of that nothing else happened. Watching her controls gleefully, she monitored the acceleration of time for them, and she was glad to see things progressing normally. "Oh this is so good! All three of them in one place in my lab! A scientist could never have hoped for getting the three of them in one place at one time!"

"Why not Miss Washu?"

"AHHH!!!!" Washu screamed and turned around. She then looked at the most fearsome destructive force in the eyes. "What are you doing in here Mihoshi!"

"Oh I came to get you, Sasami's getting tired and Ryo-Ohki's acting funny… hay what's this?"

Washu slapped the blondes' hands away from the controls, "No don't touch that!"

"Owie!"

"Come on Mihoshi, let's… go for a walk… ok?" It was the only thing she could think of, but if it kept the ditz out of her lab then it would be worth it. Besides, her machines could monitor the others easily enough. Glancing back at the controls, she was glad to see that nothing had exploded or fell apart. Banishing the control pad to ensure it was not tampered with further she escorted the blonde out of the lab. Once outside she realized that in her glee she had neglected to look at the time, already two hours had passed and it was lunchtime.

Ryo-Ohki greeted them, but she seemed subdued, and she barely ate any of her carrots.

"Ryo-Ohki? What's wrong?" Mihoshi asked as Washu began to examine her.

Washu soon discovered it was because her link to Ryoko had been cut. "Oh, I didn't think about that..." she mumbled. 'I wonder if Ryoko's felt anything different too?' She thought as the cabbit just cried mournfully while batting around a piece of a carrot. "Don't worry Ryo-Ohki, she'll be back shortly."

Ryo-Ohki looked up and after seemingly cheering up she swallowed down her carrot. Sasami too seemed distracted, more out of concern for Ryo-Ohki, but now she too perked up seeing the little cabbit eating. "Where did Ryoko go?"

"Huh?" Washu looked at Sasami, then smiled. "She and Ayeka took Tenchi to train with him… or was that train him? Oh well, they should be back shortly."

"Oh they left? I hope they didn't take my ship, I'd miss Yukinojo," Mihoshi babbled.

Barely able to contain a scream Washu told them, "They're just training in a special part of my lab, it kind of blocks out her mental connection to Ryo-Ohki though."

"Oh, so that's why she was upset," the little princess smiled and understood things better now.

After lunch Mihoshi helped Sasami and Ryo-Ohki clean the kitchen, at least until her fifth dish was broken and she was sent to watch her cartoons. Since Mihoshi was not with Sasami, Washu kept an eye on the ditz until she felt something, like something was wrong, 'but what, and where?' Deciding that she had better look over things she brought up her holo laptop and began checking out different parts of her lab.

'Well, the cages are fine… none of them are loose and the Masu cage has been rebuilt. I still need to get more of them,' she thought and began checking other things. Experiment after experiment she checked on and everything was operational… and running fine.

"Oh! What's that Miss Washu!" The scientist jumped and looked to see Mihoshi looking at her screens.

"Uh, nothing… Wait a minute!" She then checked on her machine that Tenchi and the girls were in. When she looked it over carefully she nearly fainted. "OH NO!" Her screens disappeared as she rushed into her lab.

"Miss Washu?" Mihoshi called then hearing the TV again she turned around and plopped back down in front of the TV squealing, "It's back on!"

Washu rushed directly to her machine and began looking over the controls. Almost immediately she saw the problem and began bringing the machine to a halt. "Oh no! This couldn't have happened… no way… please let them be alright!" She brought the machine to a stop and then began to survey the area. First she looked at the training grounds and she was surprised as there seems to be hundreds of scorch marks on the ground and numerous small holes that seems to have been filled in repeatedly. "Well at least they were practicing…" Looking over the area she began trying to track them and she was relieved that they were all in on place. "The house…" Bringing up her sensors and cameras she looked for them and she went cold as she realized where they were.

Opening the door, she cautiously looked in, Instead of having it appear in the living room, she connected this door to another closet. Peaking in, her eyes went as big as saucers as the three of them were asleep… in one bed… naked! Gulping she opened the door all the way and moved closer.

Ryoko's ears perked up when she heard a floorboard creak, but she did not move… not yet. She waited until whomever it was got closer then she jumped up and ignited her sword while phasing into her battle suit. The sword stopped right in front of Washu's nose and there it wavered for a moment. The pirate couldn't believe it… 'She's here!' Dropping her sword she wrapped her arms around Washu's surprised form and began hugging her mom.

Ayeka and Tenchi woke up hearing strange noises. When they sat up and looked around they saw Washu, and both rushed her to hug her. "Oh Washu! Thank Tsunami you're finally here!" He told her.

Washu took a step back to look at them, all of them. Ryoko was the only one wearing clothes at the moment, as she was in her battle suit. Even that did not hide the fact that the three of them had changed. And changed a lot. Tenchi had grown, and had developed a slightly broader chest; he looked more like a man now than a boy. His hair was still the same though longer, and then as she looked at the two girls, well women now she could not hold herself together anymore, and she fainted.

Tenchi and Ayeka looked at themselves and then realized they were still naked. "I guess it was a bit much for her," Ayeka said stifling a giggle.

"You could be right," Tenchi added. "Let's get dressed and get out of here." After dressing quickly, Ryoko carried Washu out with Tenchi and Ayeka trying to help. Washu's machines counted five life forms leaving the machine before the door was shut after them.

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To be continued… (I really mean it too…)

I could always use help with pre-reading the story before the next chapter is posted. If you would like to help please go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ffru/
I have the next several chapters posted there for my beta readers to help me on.