Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Choices and Consequences ❯ Tenchi Masu Part 3 ( Chapter 14 )

Tenchi Muyo: Choices & Consequences: Tenchi Masu: Part 3

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 and Ring Princess for helping me with this story's plot. Also I would like to thank Johnny G., Rob F. j_hawk46 and Kirk P for all the help with the grammar and spelling. With so many mistakes I needed a hell of a crew to fix them.

+++++

From Last time:

Once his other wife had finally became conscious again he moved her to a sitting position and then moved in behind her so that she could lean on him. Nobuyuki just gushed about the changes in his son though Tenchi ignored most of it. "Ayeka, are you ok?"

"Huh? Oh yea…I was…" she stopped and spun around to inspect him carefully. Heedless of the others watching she examined his face, his neck, and then deftly lifting up his shirt she examined his chest, sides and back before moving to his arms.

"Ayeka! Ayeka! Ayeka!" Tenchi yelled between laughing and blushing from embarrassment. He finally got her to stop by holding on to her hands. "Ayeka, I'm fine… are you ok?"

"But... the glass and you went through… and…"

"I'm ok… I fazed us through it," he told her softly.

Her eyes went wide, "You!?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"Well it was really the Masu," Washu added breaking in. "The Masu reacted to the threat by phasing him through the glass and since Ryoko was being held by him, her too."

"The Masu did that?" Ayeka repeated looking between Tenchi and Washu.

For the next thirty minutes Washu gave anyone that would listen a detailed description of what the Masu could do for him now that they had become a part of him.

++++++

And now

Tenchi Muyo: Choices & Consequences: Tenchi Masu: Part 3

It was early in the morning when Tenchi awoke and the first thing he felt was that both of his arms were completely numb. No feeling or sensation passed though either one of them and at first he was scared that yesterday was just a dream. At least he thought so until a sharp pain came from both of his hands as feeling began to return. Grinning he moved his hands up and down the back of the two reason his arms were numb. Ayeka was asleep on one side of him, and Ryoko on the other. Both had been lying partially on his arms effectively cutting off enough circulation to cause them to go numb. Though there was a stabbing pain in his arms at moving them he relished the pain and knew that just twenty four hours ago this was not possible.

Slowly the two of them began to wake up as well and began to move about. Ayeka seemed to be tired, almost worn out while the smile that graced Ryoko's face showed that she was very sated and content with things. Slowly one of his grins played across his face as he realized why. Washu had told him that the Masu provide many things, energy being one of them and his two wives had tested that theory last night much to his pleasure. He felt sorry for Ayeka though, she had tried to keep up, but she had fallen asleep out of exhaustion last night and it seemed she was still tired this morning.

"Ayeka?" he asked concerned.

"Hum?" she responded though she seemed to still be asleep.

"You can still rest if you need to…"

"Aw, is the little Princess too tired to get up?" Ryoko teased though Tenchi gave her a look that cut off any other remarks.

"No… I am fine…." Ayeka told them as tried to sit up.

With Tenchi's help, Ayeka was able to sit up; though it was Ryoko that decided on the best way to wake the princess up. "Come on princess; let's take a bath before breakfast." With that said Ryoko grabbed the princess and the two disappeared from his view. Tenchi too went to get cleaned up before breakfast, though with the girls in the onsen he went instead to the in-house bath and took his shower there.

When he made his way downstairs he could smell breakfast wafting in from the kitchen. Grinning Tenchi made his way into the kitchen to find that Sasami already had a good bit of breakfast ready. "Morning Tenchi," she smiled happily as she flitted about the area finalizing their breakfast.

"Morning Sasami," he replied and sat down at his place. "Aren't you a bit early on breakfast?"

"Not at all, brother came down about an hour ago for his breakfast, and he is waiting for you and Ryoko up at the shrine." Tenchi groaned out and bowing his head he said a silent prayer that he was not in too much trouble. "Now eat up," she smiled happily at him.

Tenchi was about halfway through breakfast when his wives appeared beside him. Ayeka still looked tired, but she was definitely awake, while Ryoko still wore a smile bigger than he had ever seen on her. "Oh Tenchi…" Ryoko cooed at him. "You didn't wait for us."

He was about to reply when Sasami placed a plate of food in front of Ryoko. "Eat up because brother is waiting on you this morning!"

"Brother?" she looked confused.

"Yosho," Tenchi said between bites.

Hanging her head Ryoko asked, "He wasn't serious was he?"

"Yes, and he is waiting on you two already so I made sure your breakfast was ready to go." Looking up at Sasami's smile Ryoko grinned and dug into her breakfast. Ryoko teleported with Tenchi out of the dining room, after the two of them had finished breakfast; which left Ayeka with her sister. "Ayeka?" the little princess called.

"Yes Sasami?"

"You look tired, are you ok?"

Ayeka's face flushed a bright red and she was not sure how to tell her sister why she was tired… so she just tried to play it off. "Oh… I just didn't get much sleep last night… I'm fine."

"Yea, I didn't think any of you did, there were a lot of strange noises coming from your room last night."

Choking on her food Ayeka tried to regain her composure. Failing that she just tried to not die of embarrassment. "Um… yes… well…" Ayeka stuttered and finally decided to give up on it, "I need to go see Miss Washu."

"Whatever for?" a nasally voice said from behind her.

"Oh um… for my check up…" the elder princess tried.

"Check up… but…" Washu was about to say more when Ayeka stood up and faced her with pleading eyes. Grinning Washu decided to help her, "Right your check up… well that can wait till after breakfast… I'm starving!" Ayeka's shoulders slumped and she looked at the small scientist in a helpless fashion, she had wanted to get away from this conversation as quickly as possible.

"Are you going to see what's wrong with Ayeka, Little Washu?" Sasami asked innocently as she brought out some more food for her.

"Something's wrong with her?"

Before Ayeka could brush it off her sister decided to be very helpful. "Yea, I said that she looked tired and she said that she did not get much sleep but with the noises in their room last night it sounded like she was in a lot of pain."

Ayeka's face was so red she thought she was going to die right there, and with Washu suddenly starting to snicker at her it really didn't help matters. "Well," Washu began as she tried hard not to laugh. "I think I know of a way to help them, she said casting a look at Ayeka before adding, "Oh I mean her."

"Thank you Little Washu!" The young princess nearly sang as she dashed back into the kitchen.

Once she was in the kitchen though she heard a voice in her head. 'Why did you say all of that?'

'Because…' Sasami replied to the voice knowing it was Tsunami.

'Because? That is not a reason,' Tsunami replied.

'No, but it was fun….'

'Fun? Yes, it was interesting though I do not understand the need to pick on your sister like that.'

'Oh Tsunami, You've got to learn to have a little fun… Like when I go out to play with Ryo-Ohki, or when Ayeka and I do things together… Didn't you and your sisters ever do things together?' Silence greeted her and then she felt something from the goddess, remorse. 'Oh Tsunami, I'm sorry.'

'No, it is not your fault…. Being a goddess the idea of family and fun never really became an issue. Though I would have liked to have had more time with them.'

Sasami went about her morning routine as usual though she continued to listen to Tsunami, she learned from the goddess that she was the youngest of three sisters, the oldest sister was currently hiding her presence while her other sister had not talked to her in about 20,000 years.

'That's a long time,' Sasami told her.

'To mortals it is, to a goddess it is not very long.'

'Will I live to be that old?'

'Yes, and more.' the goddess replied, though it was much slower, almost ruefully.

'Will my sister or anyone else live that long too?' Sasami asked near tears this time.

'That I cannot tell; so many things could change.'

'I hope they can stay with me… I don't want to be without my family.'

'You will never be without them,' Tsunami told her. 'They will always be in your heart.'

In another area of the Masaki Valley, two combatants stood facing each other warily. Both were well aware of the danger the other posed, or at least they both thought they did. For many years Tenchi had trained under his grandfather, and now he stood facing him yet again.

Yosho also had faced his grandson on this same field, but never under these circumstances. Just yesterday Tenchi had advanced on him with the powers of the light hawk, a power strong enough that only the Jurai Space Trees alone could control. But not only had his student learned to control them, but he also had used the wings in place of his missing arm and leg. It was this power that Yosho feared, and respected.

Tenchi and his grandfather were not alone. Ryoko was close by watching, and was totally bored. It had been like this for at least five minutes though she felt like it had been hours. Both combatants watched the other, barely even a movement visible though the tension was mounting. She had never been one to just stand and watch her enemies, but she guessed that the two of them had their reasons.

Finally it happened, one of them twitched and they both moved as one with their bokkens slicing through the air and striking the others weapon. 'Finally,' Ryoko thought as she sighed, 'something to watch.'

With measured movements and counter movement the two of them fought back and forth, and Ryoko had to admit that he had come a long way from when she had first started watching him fight. Though she suspected the reason for his marked improvement had less to do with her training and more to do with his confidence level. She smiled though as she thought about it, in a way she and Ayeka were responsible for his abilities now, without them he would still be too scared and nervous to fight back properly.

Being more confident though did not help Tenchi as much as he had hoped it would, his grandfather was still very good and very quick. It was not long before Tenchi found himself being put solely on the defensive and pushed back. 'Oh no… not that,' he thought as he realized the movement were the beginnings of a kata, one that had always resulted in a lot of pain for him. But try as he might he could not get the kata his grandfather was using against him reversed. And then the final swing came as Tenchi's bokken was knocked away from guarding his body. He blinked as he imagined the swing coming at him, but what truly surprised him was that there was no impact.

Yosho's eyes went wide, as did Ryoko's but for purely opposite reasons. Having pushed Tenchi back Yosho had moved in to deliver the final blow, only to have it pass harmlessly through his grandson. That one moment, that one pause from him gave Tenchi the chance and with a quick turn of the bokken Yosho felt the slap of wood against his skull. Stumbling backwards from the blow Yosho held his head and looked at Tenchi with a slight smile. "So I see she has taught you some of her tricks."

"You better believe it old man!" Ryoko yelled as she teleported over and gave Tenchi a big hug. She was completely pleased with herself, and with what had just happened. She knew now that it was not just a one-time thing, he was able to phase now, just like she could. 'I wonder what else he can do?' she thought, but before she could entertain that she heard Yosho laugh.

"Well then, since you want to use that, let's really see what you can do." She turned to face Yosho as he spoke, and just as he finished talking he stretched his hand out towards her, and Tenchi. Before either of them could move the Master Key flew out of Tenchi's pocket and into Yosho's hand. "Prepare yourself!" Yosho shouted as his battle armor from 700 years ago appeared on him and he advanced on them.

Terror, pure and simple terror coursed though Ryoko as Yosho, the one she remembered so vividly from so long ago appeared and rushed towards her. 'He's gonna lock me up again!' she thought and fell to her knees. Cringing when she heard the sound of energy weapons colliding she dared not look up, but she had to know… she needed to know what happened. Trembling she pulled her hands away from her face and looked up. Relief flooded her as her savior; Tenchi, was now standing between her and Yosho. In is hand was the sword of the Light Hawk, and not only his sword appeared, but he was in his battle armor as well.

Fear had raced though Tenchi when his grandfather took the master key back and especially when Yosho charged them in his full battle armor. It wasn't until he saw Ryoko fall to her knees trembling that he knew what he had to do. He had to fight, though he was unarmed. His power sensed his need and answered his call so the downward stroke of Yosho's blade was met with his own blade. This time when he fought his grandfather Tenchi had an edge. His grandfathers' movement, though accelerated by his own power, now seemed sluggish. And so the two of them fought back and forth, and now using their powers the small training field seemed too small, so the two of them were bouncing of the roof of the nearby shrine, the walls of the shrine and the trees as they took swing after swing at each other.

Staring up in amazement Ryoko watched as they literally bounced off anything they could, be it trees, walls or what ever with their energy swords slicing through the air. It was hard to believe and even harder to understand, her Tenchi had never been that good, what happened? She could vividly recall that while they had been locked away in their own little world, Tenchi had made so much progress it was staggering. But it seemed as though he had just hit a new level, as his movements were quicker, more fluid. It was almost as if he was just floating though the air at times. A sudden grin appeared on her face, as she understood, 'he's using the Masu's powers…' she thought as he was literally floating in places.

Yosho smiled, and it was not from being happy. True, he was thrilled that Tenchi's skills had become better and he even knew that the training itself had little to do with it. For as long as he had tried to train Tenchi, the one thing his student lacked was self-confidence. That in itself made Yosho happier than he could have thought, but at this moment he was planning to show Tenchi, that the result of overconfidence. Planning his moves, Yosho had trapped Tenchi into committing a series of moves that even phasing would not save him. At the precise moment Yosho threw his force field into his student knocking him backwards before lunging with his energy sword. The two moves had an immediate effect and Tenchi was knocked to the ground with enough force to cause a dust cloud to blossom around him. Landing hard Yosho leveled his energy sword right to where he knew Tenchi's throat was. "I suggest you surrender Tenchi," he told his student.

Yosho then felt a light tap on his own neck from behind him and he felt the crackle of an energy weapon behind him. "Ryoko, you stay out of this," he commanded.

"I'm not Ryoko," the male voice said and for the second time today Yosho's eyes went wide.

"Tenchi?"

"Yes sensei." As the dust settled Yosho could see that Tenchi was indeed behind him and not on the ground where he should be, and most importantly his grandson was seemingly floating in the air.

"Tenchi!" Ryoko's voice squealed out in delight as she tackled her husband kissing him feverishly. "That was amazing! You phased! You flew! And teleported…" she was going to say more but her words were cut as Tenchi finally kissed her back.

"Teleporting?" Yosho said as he watched Tenchi finally succumb to the attention he was receiving. With a slight cough he got the couples attention. When the two had finally stopped and looked up at him, he had extinguished his blade and was back in his priests clothing. "You have done well Tenchi; your teachers have taught you all that you need to know, and more." He then suppressed a chuckle as he regarded them. "I believe this idea of theirs worked better than they had planned. You now fight with the powers of the heavens and the abilities of the demons. Tenchi, your name has meant Heaven and Earth, for above the Heavens and under the Earth has your power become complete."

Both Tenchi as Ryoko looked at him and he had to suppress a laugh at their confused looks. "I am sure that your mother will explain what that means Ryoko, as she has undoubtedly been watching this." Yosho then turned and returned to the shrine leaving Tenchi-Ken on the ground beside Tenchi.

Just as Yosho had said, Washu had been watching the duel and at Yosho's parting words she leaned back on her pillow to think about them. As per her usual routine, Washu was in her child form glancing over many holographic displays that monitored each resident of the home. She had thought that Tenchi or the others would like to review the recording of the duel so that they would know what to work on later, but with that surprise ending Washu had changed her mind and now she knew that everyone would love to see this. However it was Yosho's remark about his name that had got her to just sit back and think.

"Interesting…. He now has her powers… but if he can do some of the things she can… then can he do everything?" Her fingers began to fly across her keyboards as she looked at data strand after data strand; looking for her answer. She hated to be left in the dark about things; she had to know.

It was because of this that one of the members of the household was able to sneak into the lab. It was not often that they came in here; in fact one had to strain to think of the last time. But that was not important, what was important was the target. Just a few feet ahead sat the small scientist and questions began forming. What is she doing? Does she know that I am here? Wow, what is all that? I wonder what that thing is? She sure likes to put a lot of lights and buttons on things. Slowly the form moved up behind the small genius and with as distracted as she was there was no need to sneak. Moving up to directly behind the small scientist, her intruder watched and waited.

Finally Washu began to move. Leaning back slightly, Washu lifted her tired arms above her head and stretched. The figure behind her moved quickly, placing their arms around Washu's midsection and planting a kiss on her neck.

Surprising Washu is not easy, but when she felt the arms and the kiss she could not help the scream that escaped her. Nor could she help the fact that she jumped up out of her comfortable spot and into the air above her. Unfortunately she was not calm enough to do anything after that except to fall.

Upon falling, the small scientist fell into a set of waiting arms though she did not see them. As soon as she began to fall Washu had closed her eyes out of reflex and as of yet had not reopened them. "You must not have been paying attention," a male voice said to her before planting a kiss on her cheek. "I know everyone calls me a dirty old man, but I think I prefer you as a woman my love."

It was the voice and the words that told her she was going to have to kill him and then bring him back to life. "Nobuyuki…."

"Yes?" he asked with a grin as he sat her on her feet.

"I am going to kill you now," she said flatly causing his grin to fade.

"W-would you grant a dying man one last request?"

"As long as it's not to spare your life."

He shook his head at her and smiled slowly, "I just want the see you as the woman you are, the woman that opened my heart again." Washu blushed and in a bat of the eye she was back to her adult form. "I may be a hentai in saying this, but as a child you a cute, but as a woman… you're…."

She cut him off by planting a kiss on his lips. It has been way too long since someone had appreciated her for what she was, for how she looked, and for this she considered only hurting him real bad so she could play doctor on him later.

It did not take long for their kiss to dissolve into a passionate fury of kissing and groping before clothes were tossed to the side. Few, if any discernable words were spoken between the two. At least until Washu sat up straight. It had not even occurred to her that she had moved them to a bed. In her mind she could hear her daughter. 'Later Ryoko,' she tried to tell her.

'But mom,' the pirate responded, 'it's important.'

Washu grumbled as Nobuyuki had yet to pick up on her sudden change, or if he had, then he was trying his hardest to make her forget about it. 'Is anyone dead? Wounded? Kidnapped?' The scientist asked exasperated as he was making it very difficult to concentrate.

'Um, no…. but…'

Not wanting to hear anymore Washu began flooding her link to Ryoko with nude images of Nobuyuki until she felt her daughter close off the link. Satisfied that she would not be disturbed by the outside world, she turned her attentions to another type of satisfaction.

Trying her best to shrug off the disgusting images that had just bombarded her brain, Ryoko stood up shakily. Her husband helped her up and at first he was concerned about Ryoko's sudden change in emotions, it seemed to him that she went from nearly jumping him on the field to stand-offish, which was something he was unaccustomed to when it came to his more brash and wild wife.

"Well…." She told him in an effort to get her thoughts back on him and expel the images her mother had just sent to her. 'Remind me to never bother her again,' she told herself and she could hear Ryo-Ohki chiming in mentally saying she would. Looking around to get her bearing she then had a wonderful idea, "Tenchi dear, think you can port us back to the bedroom?"

"I'm not sure I can."

"Why not?"

He chuckled nervously, "Well, I am not really sure how I did that just a minute ago."

"You don't know?" She screeched at him.

"I just kind of… it just kind of… happened."

Ryoko gave it some thought and then smiled at him. "Well, let's see what we can do about that then," as she spoke her smile suddenly grew a wicked tint.

"Oh boy," the young man said and prepared himself for what ever she was about to do.

"Let's start with something easy," she told him and looked thoughtful for a moment before coming up with the answer, "flying!"

"Flying! You call that easy!"

"Sure it is, you were doing it just a few minutes ago."

"But I'm not sure how to do it!"

"Tenchi Masaki!" She scolded. "You can do it, and I will prove it to you." Ryoko teleported to behind him and wrapping her arms around him she ported again, though this time it was about 500 feet into the air.

"Ryoko!" He shouted in dismay.

"Time to fly lover," she told him and the released her hold on him.

Tenchi was too scared to think at first, she had surprised him by teleporting into the air, and then just dropping him… Desperately he tried to think or act, but nothing was coming to mind and the ground was approaching fast.

At the last possible moment something seemed to click in his mind and just five foot above the ground he changed direction and began flying back up. "I did it!" He screamed and performed a loop that sent him spiraling out of control and into Ryoko.

Catching him she tried hard not to burst out laughing, "I think you should hold off on that for a while."

"Um… yea…" He nodded and looked around. From here he could see the entire grounds of the shrine, and the house. "Wow…"

"It is beautiful up here," she said with a slight sigh, though he knew it was not out of sadness, she seemed to be very happy. "Look over there," she pointed towards something and looking carefully he could see what she was pointing at. "There's a little stream that flows down the mountain that pools at the lake by the house." That was not the only thing she showed him, as for several minutes she pointed out things he never knew existed.

Taking her by the hand, Tenchi flew towards some of the more interesting things she had pointed out. His reasons for holding her hand were two-fold, as he wanted to make sure he did not get out of control again, and since he had walked hand in hand with her before he wanted to know what it felt like to fly with her. The two sat by one of the streams for a time just enjoying being together, though Ryoko had wanted to show him this spot before, she had never had a chance to. But since they both could fly now it would make it easier. Resting her head on his shoulder, she closed her eyes enjoying the moment.

"Ryoko…."

"Yes?"

"How do I do those other things? Phasing and Teleporting…"

"Well, to go from one place to the other all you have to do is picture where you want to go." She told him with her head resting on his shoulder.

"Ok, but what if I can't see where I am going?"

She raised her head and looked at him, "If you port blind it could… hurt."

"Hurt?"

"Like that tree," she said pointing to one of the nearby trees. "If you were to port into it, you could just be in a lot of pain as part of the tree is absorbed into you or if it is too much then you become a part of it."

"Become a part?" He asked confused, "You mean I could die?"

Sadly, she nodded her head, this was something that she did not want to think about, it was too painful to think of. Kagato had forced her to port into different things to test to see what happened. None of the things was enough to kill her, but they all hurt. Some were worse than others were. The sudden shudder that went through her alerted her love.

When he felt Ryoko shake like that he pulled her closer wrapping his arm around her. But that was not enough; he felt he needed to protect her. Somewhere inside him an unspoken wish to be behind her came to his mind and he began picturing himself behind her with both his arms around her. It was in that instant that he found himself in that same position. Smiling he pulled her back against him as his arms surrounded his love and he pulled her back against him and he held her there by the stream whispering the words he knew she longed to hear when her memories came back to haunt her. "I love you, Ryoko Masaki."

+++++

To be Continued…

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.