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These Characters do not belong to me, they belong to AIC and Pioneer. No money is
being made from the writing of this story.
The Rally
By Kenzie Kennedy
Ayeka awoke and stretched her arms. Sitting up, she saw that Sasami was
already out of bed. She smiled gently at her sister's dedication to feeding the
household. Ayeka dressed and went down the hall.
She stopped in front of Balar's door and knocked a knuckle against the door.
"Yes?" Balar called.
"Are you clothed?" Ayeka asked, blushing.
Rustling was all Ayeka heard for a few seconds. "Yes," Balar called
back. Ayeka entered the room.
She lowered her eyes. It was fortunate Tenchi had thought to give Balar a robe
to wear. "Sasami is downstairs making breakfast," she said demurely.
"Ayeka, may I do something?" Balar asked.
Her eyes reflected her cautiousness, but she said, "Sure."
Balar stepped forward, grasped her shoulders, and kissed Ayeka very thoroughly.
When they parted, Ayeka's eyes were glazed for a split second then they focused on
her intended. "What was that all about?" she asked.
"We're going to be married. Tenchi said you might be nervous." Balar
told her.
Ayeka reluctantly admitted to herself that she was very nervous, but she intended to
have a long talk with Ryoko about the subject, not Balar. "I am not." She
announced, summoning her princessly courage.
"Ah," Balar nodded. "I shall get dressed for breakfast."
Ayeka nodded and left the room.
***
Washu climbed out of bed and bounced into her clothes. She walked out of
the house and into the lab. Popping her head out the door, she called into the house
that there would be three more for breakfast. Sasami giggled and said that she'd
have breakfast in about ten minutes.
Washu walked up the stairs, carefully avoiding a bleary-eyed Mihoshi's erratic
walking pattern, and into Tenchi's room. She strode confidently into the closet.
Washu didn't even knock on the door, just walked straight into Ryoko and Tenchi's
house and up into the second floor. Checking her daughter's mind pattern, she
deduced that they were both asleep. She opened the door carefully and said,
"Ryoko dear, it's time for breakfast."
Ryoko blinked her eyes open and sighed at seeing her mother. "What if we
were involved, Mom?" she asked.
"I check your brainwaves before I come in." Washu told her daughter matter
of factly. "If you were, I wouldn't open this door for a tachyon ray."
She considered that. "Well, maybe a tachyon ray if it had the
attachment."
Ryoko groaned and shook Tenchi awake. "Breakfast dearest." She said.
Tenchi opened his eyes and nodded. Washu left the room so the two lovers
could get dressed.
***
Washu, Ryoko, and Tenchi walked out of the closet and down the stairs to
breakfast. They sat down at their usual places and began to eat.
After breakfast had been devoured and compliments been paid to the cook, Washu
cleared her throat. "As we all know, Ayeka and Balar are getting married
tomorrow." Washu said. The happy couple blushed. "And Tenchi and
Ryoko are getting married again. Ayeka and Balar's wedding will be on Jurai in the
morning and Tenchi and Ryoko's will be on Earth in the afternoon, so you can both go to
each other's. I'll be in my adult form all day tomorrow. Don't get used to
it." Washu grimaced.
"Afraid someone might hit on you, Washu?" Ryoko asked with a silly grin.
Washu grinned back. "Yeah, and I'd have to blast them to smithereens for
daring to court a scientific genius." She looked at Ayeka and Balar.
"Nobuyuki couldn't be here this morning, but he told me to go ahead and you
could thank him when he came home." Washu stood up. "We need to go
outside for this part."
The gang stood up and uncertainly followed Washu outside. "What's going
on, Mom?" Ryoko asked mentally.
Ryoko could sense her mother grinning. "It's a surprise." Was
Washu's only response.
Washu stood out in the front yard and looked toward the other side of the lake.
Pulling a look-alike to the remote control out of the air, she pushed a button.
A two-story blue house appeared.
Washu turned around to see Ayeka staring at it with her mouth open, her eyes alight.
"Want to go see it?" She asked gently. Ayeka nodded.
***
Ayeka stood on the front doorstep and opened the door. The whole family
trooped in behind her. Unlike Washu's and Ryoko's and Tenchi's, the first room they
walked in was a sort of foyer. "This is where people will visit you and hang up
their coats, Ayeka." Washu explained.
Ayeka continued on through the house. The next room they entered was the
living room. Washu pointed to an area to the left just off the living room.
"That's your laundry room. It has a door so you can just walk
outside."
Ayeka nodded at the living room, noted that the staircase was right in front of her,
and walked to her right. A small modest kitchen was situated there. Peeking
down the hall, Ayeka saw nothing.
"You have to flip on the light switch." Washu mentioned.
Ayeka flipped the switch and saw down the hall. Washu told her that was where
the guest bedrooms and guest bath were. "Your bedrooms are upstairs."
Washu told her.
They journeyed up the stairs to find a large master bedroom, a spacious bath, and
several rooms. Washu shrugged. "Nobuyuki and I didn't know what you'd
want those rooms for. Storage, kids, etc."
"Oh, Washu, it's-it's..." Ayeka found no words to express how delighted
she was to have a house of her own.
"Yes, yes, I know." Washu waved a hand dismissively.
"It's wonderful. I just created it last night, Nobuyuki did the design
work. If you're going to move in tomorrow, you're going to need to go shopping
today." She reminded the happy couple.
Ayeka's eyes widened. A whole house of her own to furnish, not one that was
stuffed with memorabilia of by-gone generations?
"Yahoo!" Ryoko shouted. "Another chance to go shopping!"
Everyone laughed at Ryoko's antics. Ryoko immediately draped herself over
Tenchi. "Tenchi, darling, my rocking chair might be ready...." Her
fingers traced circles on his chest.
He laughed. "Yes, Ryoko, we'll go shopping. Just let me check with
grandfather."
***
Katsuhito agreed as long as he fought with Ryoko for an hour that evening.
He added a sly wink and said, "With the Tenchi-ken sword." Tenchi
groaned and ran off.
He found the others waiting by the house, all ready to go. Washu hit the
portal activator and they all went to the mall.
Sasami, Ryo-ohki, and Mihoshi immediately split off from the rest for a comic shop.
Ayeka sighed, but resigned herself to the fact that her sister was crazy.
Ayeka and Balar and Ryoko and Tenchi went shopping with Washu along.
***
A few hours later, the men sighed. Their ladies had bought everything in
sight, it seemed like. First, it had been the bedding store. Sheets, blankets,
comforters, towels, little soap containers, everything had gone into a portal.
Second, they had hit the furniture store. Tenchi could feel a backache coming
on if he was expected to move all that furniture around. Washu assured him that he
wasn't supposed to. The portal would handle it all.
Finally, Balar and Tenchi crept away from the women, using the excuse of 'we're
going to go shopping for fishing stuff. We'll meet you for lunch.' An age-old
cure to the shopping of women.
***
Ayeka was dazzled by the idea of shopping for her house and had thrown herself
into it completely. Washu and Ryoko had been happy to help, of course. They
went into every store that sold household supplies and bought until Washu was concerned
about her portal splitting open. And pseudospace was practically limitless.
So they were on their way to meet the men for lunch. And then more shopping of
course.
***
Ryoko slipped into the woodcraft store after lunch to see if the man had her
rocking chair ready. She tried speaking to the clerk, but he was tongue-tied over
the great space pirate Ryoko.
Finally, Samson came out to see what was the matter. When his eyes alit on
Ryoko, he grinned. Clapping the young man on the back, he escorted Ryoko to the back
room along with Ayeka and Washu.
"Here it is, just as you ordered." Samson pulled the cover off.
The wood was a rich brown stain, with curved arms and big rockers on the bottom.
On the headboard, Ryo-ohki played with carrots.
"It's lovely." Ryoko said softly.
Ayeka gazed at the rockers around her, some in bits and pieces. "Would
you make me one?" she asked.
Samson looked at her. "Of course. Are you going to want a
specialized headboard like hers?"
Ayeka shook her head. "Not Ryo-ohki. Perhaps a Juraian tree ship
surrounded by water?"
Samson stroked his chin. "That could be done. It'd take me about a
week."
***
Washu put the rocking chair in storage while Ayeka worked out the details with
Samson. They ran into Sasami outside the store being followed by an anxious Ryo-ohki
and Mihoshi. "Oh, there you are!" Mihoshi said. "We're so glad
we've found you!"
"Why? What's wrong?" Ayeka said.
"There's a demonstration going on about Ryoko's battles." Sasami told them
breathlessly. "They're saying that she's a demon and that she'd never show her
face to challenge their arguments."
Washu's gaze slid to her daughter. Ryoko's face was as stone.
"Ryoko, don't." Washu cautioned. "They'll just try to make you
angry."
"Well, they've already done that." Ryoko growled. "Come on,
Sasami, show me where they are. Call me a coward."
***
Tenchi and Balar were walking around the mall, glad to be able to look at the
various things without hearing one of the girls squealing that it was adorable.
Balar had not understood that while he was sharing this house with Ayeka, he was
supposed to buy things to put in it too. So Balar exerted his own taste which was
mostly for mechanical objects.
"And she's evil!" a voice shouted. Tenchi and Balar's ears swiveled
in that direction. "She's a demon!" This got loud responses from the
crowd.
Tenchi was about to pass it off as none of his business, but then he caught sight of
the posters. With Ryoko's face on them. Tenchi and Balar moved toward the edge
of the crowd.
"And she's seduced the prince of Jurai into marrying her! She's a slut
and she's married to the Prince of Jurai!" The man sneered. "I
wonder how long it will before she does the rest of Jurai." He took a deep
breath. "She destroyed half the planet and now they're going to let her marry
into the royal family!"
Tenchi's face grew angry at these accusations. Thank the deity of your choice
that Ryoko wasn't here to hear this man.
"Bit of an arrogant s.o.b., isn't he?" Washu said by his elbow.
Tenchi looked down. "Ryoko isn't-" Washu nodded.
"Oh, she's here. And she's angry. But I made her promise not to use
her powers in public." Washu assured him. Tenchi gave her a look. Washu
sighed. "Yeah, I know. At least she'll try not to."
Tenchi groaned inside. Ryoko couldn't be seen anywhere. The man kept
going on about her morals, her battle record, and stirring up the crowd with her marriage
to the prince of Jurai.
Ryoko phased in right behind the man. The crowd's eyes widened and then
narrowed with hatred. Ryoko tapped him on the shoulder. "Don't you think
you should accuse the "demon" to her face?" she asked mildly.
The man's mouth flapped in the wind. "Don't hurt me!" he squeaked.
Ryoko looked at him disdainfully. "I'm not going to hurt you."
The man regained some of his courage. "Yes, because we're in
public!" He announced. "You'd do anything you wanted to if we were in
private."
"No," Ryoko said slowly. "You're just voicing your opinion.
As much as I'd like to blast you into oblivion for saying these lies about me,
you're just saying what you think is right."
Ryoko snagged the microphone away from him. He stood on stage, wondering what
to do. "Not that I think you'll believe me," she said into the microphone,
"but I would like to say a few things." She cleared her throat.
"Yes, I was controlled by Kagato so I did destroy planets. I did kill
people. Does anyone know a good psychiatrist?" She looked out at the
crowd but met with sullen eyes.
"But you don't know me personally. You see all the evidence of my
destroying things. Did you go to the Academy's garden exhibit? I had a garden
there that I made with my own hands. Did you see the agony I went through when I
thought Tenchi might choose Ayeka instead of a heartless pirate who loved him dearly?
No, you didn't. You didn't see how I pushed my own mother away simply because
I hated myself so much I didn't want to contaminate anyone."
Ryoko took a deep breath trying to keep tears back. "I love Tenchi.
If he asked it, I'd die. I've defended him from assassins, sworn to avenge
his death by Kagato's hands when I didn't know he was still living, and swore that even if
he chose a princess over a pirate that I'd defend him still." Ryoko paused.
"And if you must know, I've never had another, um, partner besides
Tenchi." Ryoko blushed.
"I'm just here shopping for my house and Ayeka's house." Ryoko
pointed. "See? She's right over there." Ayeka waved to her.
"But instead of shopping for my rocking chair and a new spray nozzle for my
hose, I face a rally that hates me. If I'm such a bad person, then why aren't you
all dead? If I'm so angry with you," Ryoko paused, "and I am believe me,
then why don't I blast you all into oblivion? With Jurai's help I could glaze it
over as an accident. Sure, it was an accident and here's a couple million Jurai to
pay for the damages." Ryoko mimed giving money to an imaginary person.
Ryoko sighed and looked at the ground. "I just want to live my life,
married to Tenchi. I don't care whether I'm the queen of Jurai or not. I'd
like to try, but it truly doesn't matter to me either way. I was upset when Tenchi
told me he wanted to be emperor. I told him there would be an uprising on Jurai to
kill him just to get rid of me." Ryoko sighed again. "But-"
The man who had been speaking had heard enough. With the microphone wire, he
had crept up behind Ryoko and slung a loop over her throat. Tightening the cord, he
pulled with all his strength to rid the universe of a demon.
Ryoko wrapped one hand around the cord and pulled. The cord flew out of the
man's hand. She turned. "You tried to kill me." She said in wonder.
The man stared at her with hatred and a little fear.
The security officers who were near the rally in case it got out of hand, proceeded
forward to arrest him. Once they were on the stage, she held up a hand.
Picking up the microphone from where she had dropped it, she carried it to the edge
of the stage and sat down. "I'm torn." She admitted. "This man
just tried to kill me. But he thought he was doing the right thing. He can't
hurt me anymore. He's not the type to come to my house and try to kill me. But
he can spread this poison to more people. Do I lock him up for trying to assassinate
a princess of Jurai or do I let him go?" Ryoko stared at the floor.
Her eyes looked searchingly throughout the crowd. "But even if I let him
go, you're going to think I'll just kill him later." Ryoko moped on the side of
the stage. She stood up and put the microphone back in the man's hand.
Speaking into it one last time, she said, "Let the people decide. I'm
going shopping." With that, Ryoko walked off the stage and into Tenchi's arms.
He examined her throat for a few seconds and then kissed her anxiously.
"Geez, Tenchi, its just another assassination attempt." She said airily.
"There've been a lot of them lately."
"We're going home." He told her.
"No, I'm going shopping. Or don't you want a pirate to keep her
word?" Ryoko batted her eyelashes at him. He laughed.
"I'm coming with you, though." He compromised. She looped her arm
through his and they walked away from the crowd.
***
Back at home, Ayeka and Balar went to their house and started putting away
things. Ryoko came along to show Ayeka how to get things out of storage. Washu
went back to her lab, muttering something about an energy weapon about to go nuclear.
No one paid attention to the explosion shortly after that statement.
Tenchi was walking back to the house when Ryoko appeared in front of him. Her
energy sword formed and she grinned at him. "Time for your lesson,
schoolboy." She said, reminiscing about the first time they met.
Tenchi sighed and pulled out Tenchi-ken. Igniting it, he sparred with his
wife. Ryoko admitted that he did pretty good in a set arena. She grinned
evilly and started to back him toward the house.
"What are you doing, Ryoko?" he asked her as his back was pressed up
against the door.
"Just seeing how you do in various atmospheres, my love." Ryoko said with
a slight cackle.
Sasami opened the door and then quickly go out of the way. Ryoko and Tenchi
dueled in the living room, until she ducked inside the lab. "Come and get
me," she taunted. He followed and they continued to fight.
***
Washu heard blades crashing in her lab. Calling up the security camera for
that area, she sighed with relief when she saw it was only Tenchi and Ryoko.
"Be careful, Ryoko," her mother warned. "Don't wear him out
too badly."
She received a tired grin from her daughter and Washu continued to work.
***
The two got to the corridor of the house and then they fought inside the house.
Ryoko coaxed him up the stairs and then she extinguished her blade. They
stood there, panting at each other for a few minutes. Ryoko stalked toward him, a
predatory look on her face. The kiss they shared was not a gentle kiss, more of an
I-need-you-now kiss. Ryoko tore at Tenchi's shirt, while his hands grappled with her
hair. They fell together on the couch, trying frantically to get each other's
clothes off. They stopped in unison, looked searchingly into each other's eyes,
seeing if the other was repulsed by this sudden change in their sexual relationship.
Seeing nothing but wanting, they continued.
***
Washu stretched on her cushion. That was enough work for one day.
Shopping really takes a lot of energy, she thought idly. Time for a bath
before dinner. She hopped off her cushion and started toward her house.
***
Washu opened the door to her house, thinking about making a cup of tea to take into
the bath with her. Her ears perked up. Her eyes squinched together. Oh,
please... She backed out of the house and lightly touched her daughter's mind.
Washu sighed. "Ryoko?" she thought.
Ryoko stiffened. Tenchi's mouth continued to work on her nipple.
"Yes?" she asked through a sexual haze.
"I don't suppose you realize the reason I made you your own house was so that I
might be able to have a bath in mine without worrying about certain noises." Washu
twirled a piece of hair.
Ryoko's face reddened slightly. Tenchi looked up and saw the little crease.
He released her nipple and said, "Mom again?"
"Uh, Tenchi, do you think we could go to our house?" Ryoko mumbled.
"Sure," he said. "Any specific reason why?"
"Mom wants to take a bath." Ryoko said quietly. Tenchi reddened too.
Gathering up their clothes, they sneaked off into their house.
Washu entered a few moments later, sighed, and went to the kitchen for her tea.
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