Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Ryoko's Sacrifice ❯ Chapter Four ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

A/N Umm, I don't own these characters, AIC and Pioneer do

however the ideas in this story are mine, if you wish to use them contact
me FIRST at either ring_princess@hotmail.com or ring_princess2001@yahoo.com the worst
I'll say is no.


Ryoko's Sacrafice
Part Four: Aeka's Reaction
By N. RingPrincess

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Ryoko swore that you could hear the water lapping on the lake, the kitchen was so
silent.

She smiled nervously and twiddled with her napkin. "I'm pregnant."

Washu grinned. "I helped. Well, kinda."

Ryoko gave her mother a look. "I'm pregnant with Mayuka."

Aeka glared at both of them, then looked at Tenchi.

"And you are okay with this?" She hissed. Her face was turning that dangerous
shade of red.

Tenchi almost refused to meet her gaze, almost. He nodded.

Ryoko took a deep breathe. "It was my decision. I just told
Tenchi before dinner."

::And a few other things as well.:: Washu mind muttered.

Ryoko sent her a mental glare. ::I had a few things to get off
my chest, and it kinda. . .happened.::

"So, you are going to have a baby?" Mihoshi chimed.

Kiyone groaned and slammed her head into the side of the table.

Ryoko just nodded, happily.

"Oh, congratulations." Mihoshi bubbled.

Aeka slammed her hands down, the dishes jumped. "I will not allow this!"

"You had nothing to do with this," Ryoko snapped back. "This was my decision,
MY LIFE, and MY CHOICE. I love Mayuka and would do anything for her."

"How dare you suppose that. . ."

"No, how dare you try to dictate my life." Ryoko screamed. "You may be a princess,
but you have no right to tell me what to do."

"Little Washu, I demand that you remove this child from her at once." Aeka's voice
was disgusted and she made a vague gesture at Ryoko.

Tenchi blinked. "NO! I said it was okay, Miss Aeka. She wants to do this and
Mayuka is now her child as well."

"And, as a medical principle, I refuse to abort a child from a mother against their
will." Washu said matter of factly.

The look of gratitude she got from both Tenchi and Ryoko was more than worth it.

Sasami peered around the table. "I don't see what is so wrong with Ryoko having
Mayuka. Not if she wants to and truly loves her."

Aeka glared at her sister who leaned back from the force of it.

"Don't you all see, this is just another way to get Tenchi." She almost
screamed, her voice thick with the anger she was feeling. "This demon
also should not have within her the royal blood of Jurai, it is sacrilege."

"It is my choice." Ryoko said firmly. Her amber eyes flashing.

Aeka sneered. "Since when did your choices really matter. Tenchi is and always
will be mine. This crude ploy won't let you win him over."

Ryoko sighed, her chest rising and falling with the force of it. "When will you
believe that this is not a plan to get Tenchi."

"Please, let it go sister." Sasami's eyes were wide and bright with unshed tears. She
hated to see them fight.

Ryoko looked Aeka straight in the eyes. "Please Aeka. Can we just eat this
wonderful dinner that Sasami prepared?"

Aeka humphed. "This isn't over."

Nobuyuki smiled at his son. "Congratulations son, for a moment there. . . "

"Dad!" Tenchi groaned, going red again.

Ryoko chuckled. Aeka's eyes threw daggers in Nobuyuki's direction and he
refused to look at her, as he was laughing quietly to himself.

'You'd be proud my beloved Achika. You'd be proud of our son.'

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Ryoko avoided Aeka, spending larger amounts of time at the shrine or with Tenchi.
Even Washu's lab was preferable to the First Princess of Jurai's wrath.

"I wish she was taking this better." Ryoko sighed and picked up a handful of
dirt. She let it fall from her fingers and back to the ground. She looked
over at Tenchi who was presently weeding the carrot patch.

He grunted, then leaned back on his heels, tilting his head back
to catch the sunlight, eyes closed with pleasure. "I don't know what to tell you."

"I don't like feeling like a stranger in my own house." She sputtered. Then turned
red. "Sorry, I'm presuming again."

Tenchi laughed. "You live there don't you, that is where you sleep, eat and
do chores and have entertainment. It is your house." He put his chin parallel
to the ground and looked at her.

She was lying on her stomach and tracing patterns in the dirt.

"Don't get to used to that." Tenchi said, a slight smile on his lips.

She blinked and looked up. "Get used to it being my house, I don't understand, Tenchi."

His grin got wider. "No, don't get used to lying on your stomach."

She glared at him through her lashes and then shrugged. "I'm trying not to
think about it." She sighed. "You got off the topic again."

He rubbed the back of his neck, which was slightly more red than the rest of
him. "Sorry."

She snorted. "No. You are not. I know you better than that."

"It's a defense mechanicism."

"We can't run away from things forever."

"We?"

"Yeah, we." She placed her chin on her hands, not noting or caring that there was
dirt under her fingernails or that she was leaving smudgemarks on her face. She
was adorable.

Tenchi cocked his head and told his mind to shut up.

"So you say that we run from our problems."

She closed her eyes, her back warmed by the sun's rays, it was a curious contrast to
the coolness of the dirt against her stomach. "MMM-HMM"

He closed his eyes and raised his eyebrows. "We are too much alike."

"I know."

"Ryoko. . ."

Her eyes snapped open, the amber iris burning him.

"It will all work out."

Her lips twitched. "Except you are the optimist and I am ever the pessimest."

He went back to the weeds. "There is no shame in being either."

She grunted something unintellegable and rolled over, placing her hand over her eyes.

Tenchi stopped from weeding for another moment and just looked at her. Her hair
splayed around her and he could see the top of her head, her fingers curled upwards
and her other arm was wrapped around her waist. Her knees pointed towards the sky.

'No, not adorable, beautiful.' He rolled his eyes at his own thoughts. 'Oh be
quiet and get the weeding done, you are lax enough as it is.'

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Dinner that night was tense, but all meals had been tense. Katsuhito had refused to
eat in the house since the announcement, saying that he couldn't stomach the atmosphere
and that itself just ruined the food.

Sasami walked about on eggshells still, not quite sure what would set her sister off.

And Aeka, Aeka was in a foul mood because of this. Washu had blocked her powers, saying
it was for her own good and that she would thank her later.

It had been the most humilating moment in her life, not barring calling her mother
'Mommy.'

Aeka hadn't found out to later that Ryoko couldn't use her powers and Washu was just
taking a precaution against future incidents.

She struggled against the flexible bonds that Washu had put her in.

"If my parents find out about this Little Washu, they will have your head on a
platter." She had hissed at the diminutive scientist.

Washu had just raised a magenta/red eyebrow and tossed her hair. "I don't
think so. If I didn't do it, Tenchi would have. Who do you prefer?"

Aeka had just sat there, mouth open, for a few moments at least. "Lord
Tenchi would never do such a thing."

Washu had seated herself on a nearby cushion and crossed her legs under her. "That
is where you are wrong Aeka, he would, this is his DAUGHTER."

"He has too much honor."

Washu closed her eyes and refrained from rubbing her temples. She was
tempted to take her adult form and just disipline Aeka, almost. 'She
is not my daughter and I have no right to do such a thing.' She
gave a weak inward laugh. 'Even if it is tempting.'

"Honor would force him to stop you if you tried to hurt Ryoko, honor
would force him to ask you to leave his home, HONOR, Miss Aeka now
has a totally different meaning." She said forcefully.

"I know my parents would withdraw me from here if they knew."

"And they don't know, so they can't. Who will tell them, Aeka? You?"

Aeka quivered in rage and tried to call up two power logs to get rid
of the insolent child of a scientist.

"I thought not. You have too much pride." Washu commented, her holotop
appearing out of thin air. "I will not tell them and neither will Katsuhito.
Ryoko can't tell them and I doubt Tenchi wants anything to do with your father.
Tsunami knows because of Sasami, but agrees that this is for the best. You
may go now." A finger stabbed down on the transparent keyboard and Aeka
was dropped to the ground.

"I will not forgive you for this." Aeka hissed as she gather her robes
around her.

"Your headband is useless Aeka, welcome to the realm of a normal, mortal being." Washu
said sarcastically.

Aeka rushed across the room to try to grab the scientist neck. A forcefeild
stopped her six inches from her target.

"Get out of my lab, Aeka." Washu looked her dead in the eyes. "Don't make
this get messy."

"I will kill you for this." She screeched, hands wrapped around an imaginary neck, eyes
wide and nostrils flared.

Washu snorted. "Take a number."

With that and a small ping, Aeka was deposited outside the lab door, roughly and on
her rump. "I will get you Washu." She whispered.

------------------------------

Washu glanced over at her daughter who was now reclining in the lab garden.

"Little Ryoko, if you are going to be here so often I think we should do
something constructive."

Ryoko's head whipped around and her ears perked up. "Like what?"

"Well, we could pick up your schooling or your training." Washu murmured
thoughtfully and her eyes focused out.

"Mom! How can I train if I don't use my powers?" Ryoko wrinkled her
noise and squinched up her mouth.

"You didn't train with your powers, Ryoko." Washu grimaced.

"Yes I did, Kagoto trained me." Ryoko defended.

"No, I trained you."

"Then how did we train." Ryoko placed her hands on her hips.

"Catch." A wooden bokken came soaring through the air and Ryoko caught
it out of reflex. Another was thrown after it and she caught that one
as well. "That was your signature under me, two blades. Kagoto made
you put one up, he called it simplifing." Washu snarled, her fangs
peaking over her lips. "I call it ruining. You will use two swords
from now on."

Ryoko blinked, but hefted the two wooden swords. It was no secret that she
was as good with the sword in one hand as in the other, but using both
swords at once. She looked at the corner of her eye and watched Washu
come foward.

"I'm not so sure about this."

"You fight well now Ryoko, but under me you fought better when you were ten."
Washu said bitterly. It wasn't something that could be described physically, for
physically she looked calm and relaxed, it was in the way she formed the
words and the tone she put on them.

"I don't understand."

Washu morphed into her adult form. "What's to understand? I am your
mother."

Ryoko instinctively held the two swords in front of her, getting a feel
for them.

Washu stared at her straight on, a bo held at an angle in front of her.
"Shall we?"

Ryoko bared her fangs at her parent, who bared them right back. Amber met
emerald and they refused to part.

::You are MY DAUGHTER!:: Washu pounded into Ryoko's brain.

Ryoko grinned and sprung, catlike into a combative crouch. "Bring it then, MOTHER."

The fight was on.

Washu swung at her daughter with the bo and Ryoko crossed her swords and blocked it, throwing
the red head away from her with the sheer strength in her arms. Washu recovered and
swung low, Ryoko jumped over the bo blade and did a back flip.

'I won't be able to do this long, either.' She grinned remembering Tenchi's earlier comment.

Washu didn't let up and came after her swinging, One of Ryoko's blades stopped Washu
from taking her head from behind and held the bo there as she spun and swung
under the first blade. Washu fell backwards bringing her bo down to trip
her cyan haired opponent up.

Unfortunately, she was already gone.

Washu arched her back and sprung up landing on her feet and took off running. She ran up
the wall and flipped over Ryoko's head and landed behind her, Ryoko turned quickly and
with a flurry of slashes and cuts forced Washu back, the bo whirling in circles
and patterns as she blocked every attack.

Washu decided to gain iniative and with a smirk attacked back, Ryoko mentally
mumbled some curses and began to back up. Ryoko wished that her
own blades were one long one.

The thwop of wood against wood, echoed in the air of the lab. They had long ago moved
out of the garden and now where moving between and over and under equipment as they
battled through her lab. Ryoko and Washu used the terrain as best they could, as sheilds
and as stumbling blocks for the other.

They danced back across the garden, full extension, parry, thrust, twirl blade,
grin at your enemy. Dive behind a fountain, jump the stream. Careful of the
plants, they might trip you up, cross your blades to block an incoming blow.
Dive to the right and don't forget to protect YOUR STOMACH!!! One blade high, one
blade low, slash.

Don't let her think too much, keep her reacting, not acting. Go across the bridge, throw
her back and keep her moving. Don't be distracted. Circle the bo, parry her attacks on
the ends and manuever over one end, use both to deflect her swords. Behind her, obstacle,
force her without seeming to. . . almost got it. There!

Ryoko panted and fell over something behind her. Washu's bo at her throat.

The adult Washu nodded appreciatively. "Very Good Ryoko, you are fighting with your
head and not your emotions. . . for once."

Ryoko blinked. "Thanks."

"You think." Washu chuckled and moved off, her hand stuck out for her daughter
to grab.

Ryoko pulled herself up on the arm and began to use her hands to dust off.

"That was fun." She commented dryly.

"And I was right, your rusty." Washu grinned back, grabbing a water bottle from thin
air. She took a sip before tossing it to Ryoko.

Ryoko blinked. "I don't ever remember fighting with two blades, mom."

"You will or you'll just have to pick it up again." She said blithely.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to kill me."

"You are not on my list Ryoko." Washu deadpanned.

"You have a list."

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