Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ What About Kiyone ❯ The Ceremony Begins ( Chapter 5 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter 5: The Ceremony Begins

A short while later in the living room of the Masaki residence:

"I don't care what you think Princess, I'm not marrying any body but Tenchi."

"Yah, well I'm not going to marry any one except Lord Tenchi either, Demon."

"Like hell you are, no one is gonna..." Ryoko stopped mid-sentence and tilted her head to one side as if listening to something.

"No one is gonna what Pirate?"

"We'll finish this later Ayeka, some thing is out side by that Damn Cave and it can't be good."

Up by Ryokos' cave:

He stands there in the cave entrance, griping the rusted iron bars that block entry to the deeper reassesses of the shine. He was waiting for Her to show up; knowing that She must have felt his arrival at the cave. Hearing the princesses yelling coming nearer he turns away from the gate and bows down on one knee, palms forward with his arms out to the side to show that he intends no hostile action. Finishing his pose just as She arrives followed by the princess.

Ryoko energizes her sword and places the tip of the orange blade a few hairs away from the strangers' head and opens her mouth to speak when the stranger speaks to her.

"Lady Ryoko, you do me to much honor to grant me an audience so soon after my arrival. I would like to say that I am very grateful for being chosen to conduct the bonding ceremony of you and your future sister-wives, and that I have a few gifts to give to each. Since you are to be First-wife you are to be the first to receive hers and thus begin the Bonding Ritual as it was done so many eons ago."

"What are you talking about I am not marrying any one but Tenchi, so you can just tell who ever it is that wants me to marry him to just get lost!"

Ayeka was getting angry about Ryokos' insistence on marrying Her Tenchi and opened her mouth to yell at Ryoko about how she was the one that was going to marry Tenchi and not some monster woman, when the stranger looked up at her and motioned her to stay silent. Leaving her sputtering with indignation he returned his attention to Ryoko.

"That is good to hear, my Lady, his highness would have been upset if you had refused to go through with the ceremony. Now to start with I must give to you your true gems."

The stranger reaches into his coat and pulls out three cyan hued gems. The gems immediately latch them selves to Ryokos' neck and wrists, dislodging the crimson gem from her. The crimson gem dangling from her left ear changes to match its' self to the other gems now imbedded in her. The gem dislodged from her left wrist floats over to the stranger and he places it in the coat pocket that the other three gems were produced from.

"Those gems should return to you the memories and senses that were removed by Kagato in time. Now, if I may approach to with in touching distance to give to you the marriage gift, Lady Ryoko, it should only take a few moments for the gift to manifest its self after contact, there may be some discomfort at first."

Ryoko looked at the man kneeling before her as if he were a serpent waiting to strike. After a few moments she let her sword dissipate and nodded to him. He stands up and takes the few steps closer to her then looks over to Ayeka.

"You must not interfere, Princess Ayeka, and when I have finished you must follow my instructions, exactly. Though you are not going to be First-wife, you are still going to be Bonded to Prince Tenchi as well, so there is no need for jealousy. Oh, and Lady Ryokos' virtue is as pure as your own, so no objections."

As he stops speaking to her he reaches in under his coat and shirt, and pulls it out covered in blood. He then says something under his breath; the only thing Ryoko could understand was two names, Washu and Tsunami. She then saw the blood on his hand form a small blade an instant before it was rammed into her lower abdomen, then her whole body felt as if it were burning from the inside out.

Ayeka watched as the stranger formed the blade made of blood and stabbed Ryoko. The scream unleashed by Ryoko blended with her own as she activated her shield causing it to surround her and Ryoko. The shield pushing the stranger back into the gate, causing it to burst into the cave in several pieces. Ayeka looked from the assailant to Ryoko, who was curled up on the ground clutching where she had been stabbed. The noise she heard coming from her friend and rival could only be described as a low yowl. When she returned her gaze back to the man in black, she saw him stepping through a hole in her shield and removing his long coat. As she started to summon her capture logs when the stranger looked over his shoulder, while wrapping Ryoko in his coat and picking her up, started speaking to her.

"Stop playing games Princess, and summon Azaka and Kamidake. You must take Lady Ryoko into Prince Tenchis' room, undress her and put her to bed. You must then get Prince Tenchi into the room as well, now here is the hard part for you, Princess. Prince Tenchi and Lady Ryoko must mate. If they do not mate in the next two hours she probably will not survive her first heat. No arguments and you should join them, but this must happen between Prince Tenchi and Lady Ryoko. More is at stake here than just the life of Lady Ryoko. Go now, I must repair the damage done here and pray for Lady Ryoko to forgive me the pain I have caused Her this day." He says with remorse in his voice as he turns and walks into the cave.

One hour later at the house:

Tenchi and Kiyone are coming in the door.

"I'm home, I hope I didn't miss dinner. Oh and I brought Kiyone with me, I hope you don't mind Sasami."

"Of course I don't mind Tenchi, dinner is in the oven keeping warm. Tenchi something happened to Ryoko, Ayeka said to send you to your room as soon as you came home. She said to tell you that it was an emergency. Please, hurry and help Ryoko. She's my friend, and I don't want any thing to happen to her."

Tenchi got a worried look as he responded to Sasamis statement as he hurried on his way to his room, "Don't worry Sasami I'll do what ever is necessary to help Ryoko."

As Tenchi headed down the hall to his room, he saw Washu closing his door after exiting his room. *Washu probably knows what is wrong with Ryoko, she can tell me what I can do to help.* Tenchi thought to himself.

"Hay Washu, what is wrong with Ryoko? What can I do to help? It sounds serious from what Sasami was saying."

Washus' face went from the angry, determined expression to one of hopeful concern as she spoke to Tenchi, "Just do what Ayeka tells you to do and Ryoko will be fine, Tenchi." Washus' face returned to its previous expression as she continued, "I'm going to 'talk' to the one who did this to her and make him pay!" She then went down the stairs and out of the house.

Tenchi opened the door to his room and saw Ayeka kneeling on the floor beside his bed, in the undergarment that he had seen her in that day they were caught in the rain oh so long ago. She was holding Ryokos' hand and crying. Through her sobs he hears her talking to Ryoko and quietly walks up to better listen in on what it is she is saying.

"... It was not supposed to happen like this, the three of us were supposed to be married. I was not trying to take him away from you, I just wanted you to wait for the proper time. Maybe if we had not played so much and caused so much damage Tenchi would have married us by now. I wanted Tenchi to come to us because he loves us not because of some thing like this, not like this." Ayeka looks to Ryokos' face when Ryoko lets out a whimpering moan, Ayeka smiles sadly before continuing, not noticing Tenchi kneel down behind her, "Well it looks like you are going to go first after all. Where is Tenchi, he should be here by now."

Tenchi moves around Ayeka to place his hand on her and Ryokos' and starts to speak, "Lady Ayeka, Washu said you would tell me what I need to do to help Ryoko." He places his other hand on her chin and moves her head so that she is looking at him, and he continues to speak, "I did not know certain things about the Galactic Community, but I spoke to Kiyone earlier today, and now I can say what I have all ways wanted to say to you. I was going to say it when we were all together, but I think I need to say it to you and Ryoko now, I love you, I love all of you ladies, I love each of you equally, but differently and for different reasons." He then leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips.

When he pulls back he smiles at her, wipes away her tears and asks, "So what is it I need to do to help Ryoko?"

Ayeka moves her free hand up to her lips, then with a smile she says as she starts to unbutton Tenchis' shirt, "A man in black up by Ryokos' cave did some thing to her after giving her those new gems, and said that this was her first heat and that...."

Up in the cave, the man in black was just putting the final pieces in to place, a small sake set, a bottle of sake, and a few bowls with a variety of food and chopsticks. As he stood up he caught the sight of a mass of red hair arranged in the likeness of a crab reflected in his glasses. Without any hesitation or regard for any injury that might occur to himself, he dropped to his stomach with his arms out to the sides palms up and his face barely a few centimeters from Washus' feet, his hat falling off of his head, coming to rest between her feet. At the sudden movement and speed of her quarry, she brought in to being her energy sword, ready for an attack. To her surprise, and annoyance, the target of her anger started speaking softly into the stone floor, causing her to strain to hear what he was saying. She did not like the situation so she decided to end it.

"Just who are you, and what makes you think I am going to let you get away with what you have done?" Washu demanded coolly.

"My apologies, My Lady, I did not mean to offend you by constructing this temple of Lady Ryokos' before the construction of your temple." He paused a moment then continued when Washu did not comment on that statement. "What I am called is not important, I gave up who I was when I chose to serve you and your family, If I may I must speak with Princess Sasami and Lady Tsunami about how she will be participating in the bonding ceremony. I need to atone for the pain I have caused the Lady Ryoko before I leave here to do so."

"It is regarding that last part that I came here to talk to you about, the rest of what you just said can wait until later to be discussed." *This guy is some kind of nut case* she thought to herself after she finished her statement to the stranger.

"Do you think the Lady Ryoko will forgive me and accept my sacrifice?" He asked as he pulled his knees up under him while keeping his face a few centimeters from the ground. "Will you forgive me for the pain you suffered through your link with Lady Ryoko?" He continued as he pulled a tanto knife out of his boot and brought his hands together between her feet pushing his hat behind her.

"Tell me why either of us should forgive you for what you have done to my daughter?"

"I am not worthy of the mental or emotional energy you would expend to do otherwise, I am not worthy to even ask such a thing as to be remembered after I am have gone into oblivion, let alone forgiven." As he finishes speaking, he places the knife blade against the last knuckle of his right hand pinky and with an audible popping noise severs the entire finger from his hand. His left hand shakes as he drops the blade and crawls a few feet back from Washu. "Please accept this most unworthy of followers offering, please forgive me for leaving before your dismissal, I have other duties that I must see to before it is to late." With that he crawled around Washu and out of the chamber.

After he had left Washu summoned her computer, sent the finger to her lab through a porthole and scanned what was once Ryokos' prison. The energy readings were identical to the readings from earlier. The question was, was this person a Life Priest or a Blood Mage? It was hard to tell since the only difference were the ethics involved.

"Interesting, he did not seam to feel any pain when he did that. Ether he has a strong will, or has some chemical or technological help preventing him from feeling it. Still it is kind of creepy. I'm going to have to keep an eye on this guy, If he has some sort of trap in mind I'm going to have to have a way out set up." She looks around the chamber once more. "He does have nice taste, I think my Little Ryoko will like what he has done with the place."

At the cave entrance:

The stranger walked several feet out of the cave, looked up at the night sky, and dropped to his knees. The scream that was released sent a flock of birds to wing across the lake from the shrine.

Sasami, who was sitting on the dock and looking at Her reflection in the lake, was so deep in her thoughts of the situation with Ryoko that she failed to hear the sound of pain that resounded throughout the valley. Her reverie was interrupted when she heard some one approaching from the shrine.

It was the man in black that Ayeka had said had hurt Ryoko. He had weapon belts crossing his bare chest and a black cloth wrapped around his hand, which he was holding against his chest. On his stomach was a blood soaked bandage.

Sasami, angry with this stranger who had caused her friend pain, got up and ran at him. At her approach he went down on one knee and placed his left hand flat against the dock with his head bowed. After several blows she realized that he was not resisting nor trying to protect himself from her attack. Wiping the tears from her face, she sees that she has given him a bloody nose and a black eye. He did not even bother with his injuries as he spoke to her:

"You are swift and kind in your punishment my lady, my apologies for not coming sooner. I had not expected your sister to arrive so soon, I hope she, your niece, and you can forgive me for my sin. My Lady, I have a question to ask you and a few other things I must tell you." He then waits for Sasami to grant him permission to ask his question.

Sasami, shocked at the ferocity of her own behavior, was at a loss for words when what he has said to her registered.

"What do you mean my sister and niece? Ayeka is my sister and she does not have a daughter, so I have no niece."

"My apologies Princess, I was referring to your other half. Tsunami has two sisters, well through you she has three, one is Lady Tokimi, the other you already know. The one you already know is also a ... cousin(?) of yours Princess. I have some documents for you, mostly birth certificates and marriage licenses. If you wish you can show them to the others. May I ask a few questions My Lady?" As he speaks he pulls a scroll case from behind his back and lays it down at her feet and then resumes his kneeling position before her.

Sasami picks up the scroll case and says, "What is it you want to know? I am going to have a few questions for you also." She then opens the scroll case and pulls out the ancient documents.

"First I must make clear a few misconceptions of yours, Highness. To begin I must let you know that when you finish assimilating with Lady Tsunami, you will still remain. She will not be absorbing, replacing, or taking over you. Right now you and Lady Tsunami are like Lady Ryoko when she splits herself during a fight. In essence you are half of what you will be when you finish merging. When you join you will have a complete memory. The other thing, you did not die that day Lady Ryoko was forced to attack Jurai. In order to save your life Lady Tsunami gave of her own life force in order to preserve yours. In doing so, some of your life force was absorbed into her. On that day the two of you became one, she kept herself apart so that you may have the opportunity to experience child hood without having to worry. Every thing was going well, until you stowed away on the Ryo-oh. Without a basis of comparison for Lady Tsunami to go by, your aging process stopped. Did you know your mother thought that Lady Ryoko was you when she visited? This brings me to the first of my questions. Do you wish to bond with Prince Tenchi as you are now, or as your whole self?"

"I'm the real Sasami? Are you sure? How could you know some thing like that? I'll still be my self after the assimilation is completed?"

"Yes, Highness you are the real Princess Sasami. I am as sure of what I have told you is true, as I am that I kneel here before you. Yes, you will still be yourself only more so."

Sasami thinks on what the stranger has just told her for a few minutes. She then states her choice nervously: "I will bond with Tenchi as my whole self."

"Thank you, this night and the next day belong to Lady Ryoko, the next night and following day belong to Princess Ayeka, then Mihoshi, you as Lady Tsunami or Sasami, Lady Washu, Kiyone, and then Lady Tokimi when she arrives."

Then seemingly out of no where she watches him pull two folded cloth bundles and two small spherical objects and place them in front of her. The bundles were silk kimonos, and the orbs were gems one a golden yellow the other a red so dark as to appear almost purple.

"The golden gem goes to Lady Ryoko, the other to Princess Ayeka. If you please, could you deliver them for me, they would not be happy to see me right now. Could you also tell them that I am sorry for the pain I caused them, and for deceiving them as to the severity of Lady Ryokos' condition. She was not really going to die, but saying so was the only way I could think of to get Princess Ayeka to cooperate. All the rest of what I said was true but for one thing, what I did to Lady Ryoko was not part of the bonding ceremony. I told her that what I was doing was giving her the bonding gift to start the bonding ritual. The truth is that I was activating a part of her genetic structure that had been shut down by Kagato, he felt that if she had those kind of biological drives, she would be too hard to control. The things here before you are the true bonding gifts, you each will receive a set before your time with Prince Tenchi. The gems will allow you ladies to bond with each other, to the point of being able to feel each others emotions and hear each others thoughts to some extent. As each of you accepts her gem and the bond she will share her life and memories with the ones that came be for her, and they will share theirs with her."

"I will do this for you. Thank you for what you have told me. Oh and you should ask Washu to look at those wounds for you, she is the best."

"Lady Washu is the Greatest Scientific Genius in this or any Universe, Highness. However, she is not happy with me at the moment. Any way I need to start my patrol of the area and make sure no one tries to interfere with the bonding ceremony. Sleep well Highness."