[Tenchi] Mind Stew

[SabreMau]

Sasami ran towards the house, Ryo-Ohki playfully chasing her. The
warm, enveloping summer air swirled around, letting her pass, and the
slowly rising sun in the eastern sky brought forth the start of a
fresh new day.

 "Hurry up, Ryo-Ohki, you're falling behind!" the young princess
called back to her cabbit companion, who meowed cheerfully and ran
a little bit faster, trying to win the spontaneous race between them.
It was the sort of morning where fun little games such as this just
seemed to fall into place, like ripe apples slipping off of their
branches. The two raced each other over the final stretch of road,
without a care in the world.

----

 In a junction point between this dimension and trillions of others,
existing in both space and time only with very liberal definitions of
the words, Lady Tokimi watched this scene unfold without betraying any
visible reaction. As the oldest of the three supremely powerful immortal
sisters who, at least in theory, ruled the omniverse, she could not be
less interested in the race, nor in the little cabbit. She continued to
observe the Juraian with faintly mild distaste for what would have to
happen to her, yet she remained stoic nevertheless, since the indomitable
will of Tokimi would not be denied.

 "Lady Tokimi." D3, her servant, phased into view before her. "I have
checked as you requested; there is no other way to halt Tsunami's
merging with this young girl. She is protected far too thoroughly."

 Tokimi blinked, a reaction that, for her, was more than equal to
an outburst of furious rage. "By Tsunami, or by Washu?"

 "Washu is still limited by her memory blocks against knowledge
of our world," the ancient being intoned, "but Tsunami's protection
will prevent any mortal attempt against the girl's life."

 A silence arose between the two cosmic beings. The images from Earth
continued to play out in the space around them, where Sasami won her
foot race with Ryo-Ohki, and was cheerfully promising a tasty snack for
the cabbit to make up for her second-place finish.

 D3 continued, "So you DO plan to make your presence directly known to
them? What of the plans regarding the boy?"

 "The boy called Tenchi is of some concern to us. He can be dealt with
through other means." Her voice turned more sinister. "Tsunami, however,
presents a much more serious problem. If she is allowed to merge with the
girl, her power may surpass even my own. That, I will not permit."

 D3 held a solemn pause, knowing well the gravity of this moment. "Then
you will dispose of the girl personally?" Tokimi smiled at this, not out
of personal malice, but merely at the knowledge of her soon-to-be-assured
supremacy.

 "I will."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

                              Mind Stew
                        a Tenchi Muyo fanfic

                    by DannyCat (sabremau@yahoo.com)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 Ryo-Ohki ran around the house in a happy little cabbit dance. Sasami
was in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on lunch for the few
people who were still at home for the day. Washu was deep somewhere in
the recesses of her multi-planet laboratory, while Tenchi was out
looking for a nice, relaxing place to study. Nobuyuki had to go to
work, as usual, and wasn't expected back for several more hours.

 Ryoko, deciding that she would help Tenchi in his studies, went to
Nobuyuki's library, picked out a rather sizeable pile of old textbooks
buried behind the mountains of girls' comics, and flew off to provide
him with plenty of useful reading material. Ayeka feared, somewhat
over-dramatically, that this would distract Tenchi too much, causing him
to flunk his entrance exams and be forced to live out on the street,
cold and penniless, so she took Azaka and Kamidake with her and rushed
off to protect Tenchi from plenty of useful reading material.

 "Mihoshi, Kiyone, Grandpa! Lunchtime!" Sasami's voice rang out from
the kitchen, causing Ryo-Ohki to halt her scampering dance and start
dashing towards the meal.

 *ZAP*

 Ryo-Ohki froze, looking around the living room in confusion. She
couldn't feel her connection to Washu or Ryoko anymore; all she could
sense in that direction was a painlessly severed numbness. She began
to feel a vague, indistinct chill at the lack of that reassuring bond
that she had held all her life, but just as abruptly a new mental link
was formed, and the woman on the other end spoke to her, giving her a
new and specific task, then urgently asking if she would carry it out.

 Ryo-Ohki hesitated for just a moment, realizing, with some awe, who it
was that was speaking to her, before sending back the only appropriate
response she could give.

 Yes.

----

 Ayeka stumbled back into her bedroom later than night, a long day of
highly grueling protection behind her. Ryoko apparently mistook her many
and varied attempts at making sure Tenchi could study in peace as some
sort of challenge, and Nobuyuki's old college textbooks ended up getting
thrown around the forest, turned into literary missiles.

 She carefully walked by Sasami, who was already sound asleep on her
futon, and slipped into her nightgown before unceremoniously flopping
down onto her own bed and falling asleep within seconds.

 A few hours later, as the dim glow of sunrise began to encroach into
the retreating night, Ryo-Ohki entered the bedroom, phasing through the
door so as not to make any noise. Walking with feline grace, the young
cabbit softly padded over to Sasami's bed.

 Sasami rolled over beneath her blankets, turning her face around as
if to look straight at Ryo-Ohki, despite her being deep in one of her
dreams. Ryo-Ohki stopped, and desperately tried to think of some way
she could get out of her assigned job, but heard yet again the warning
in her mind of what would happen if she failed now. Drawing a deep and
little sigh, she moved in.

%%%%

 Sasami, in her dream, was busily getting ready to go out and tend the
garden. It was the middle of the night, and the carrots were bound to
leave if she didn't instruct them properly. After putting on her apron
with the picture of a giant carrot on it (so that the crops knew who
was boss), along with her pair of heavy padded gardening gloves, she
stood up and walked to the door, heading outside.

 To her surprise, the inside was outside, and she ended up walking out
of the house and into the kitchen, where a giant pot of something was
already cooking on the stove. This confused her, as she was fairly sure
that she didn't put it there. However, after a minute or so of internal
debate she concluded that she must have done it; nobody else in the
household seemed to be the sort to cook meals.

 She walked across the kitchen and looked inside, discovering that it
was a pot full of suiton. Just as she was about to ladle some out with
her glove, so as to taste it and see how it was going, Ryo-Ohki also
walked out of the house and into the kitchen, causing Sasami to turn
around in surprise.

 "Mya-myaaaaa!" she cheerfully greeted Sasami, with extra volume being
provided by her increased size. The little cabbit had inexplicably grown
to a large cabbit, almost as tall as Sasami herself, but both of them
were okay with that.

 "Evening, Ryo-Ohki! Did you want some soup?" Sasami scooped out a
large portion of the pot's contents, seeing that it had silently been
transformed into carrot stew, made from light blue carrots, but figuring
that it was still edible anyway. She poured a bowlful from her gloves
into a conveniently located plate on the floor, and Ryo-Ohki eagerly
began nibbling the proffered meal.

 As she ate, picking and choosing the tastiest morsels with skill, the
house itself began loudly buzzing, as if reality itself had decided to
set an alarm clock for right that instant. Sasami heard this noise
subconsciously, but was taking off her gloves to wash them in the sink,
and didn't notice. Ryo-Ohki also heard this noise, but was apparently
too busy eating to notice.

 At that moment, the door slid open, and both Sasami and Ryo-Ohki
stopped what they were doing to see Ayeka, clad in Tenchi's jeans and
T-shirt, walk out of the house, point dramatically in the window towards
the horizon, and declare, "Look there, my sister! The time is becoming
late in our regally bestowed morning!"

 With a jolt of realization, Sasami turned around in panic, realizing
that, indeed, the sun was rising over the eastern hills. It was also
growing darker, increasing in size, swallowing up the landscape, and
beginning to shift into the silhouette of a woman who Sasami thought
she recognized, but she couldn't quite get a handle on who it was. The
sun's cackling laugh suddenly rang out across the land, and Sasami woke
up.

%%%%

 Sasami suddenly sat straight up in bed, blinking unsteadily at the
mid-morning light streaming through the window and filling the bedroom.
Ryo-Ohki stood by her pillow, giving a quizzical meow at Sasami's abrupt
awakening, but Sasami ignored her, scrambling out of bed and getting
dressed in a hurry.

 "BREAKFAST! I forgot breakfast! Everybody's waiting!!" she shouted to
herself, putting on her usual kimono with quite remarkable speed before
dashing out the door and down the stairs. Ayeka, having been roused by
this noisy outburst, groggily sat up in bed and glanced questioningly
over at Ryo-Ohki, who merely gave a cabbit-sized shrug in response and
turned to follow Sasami down to the kitchen.

----

 "Uh..." Sasami commented, upon pulling a pan of something strangely
unrecognizable out of the over. It was MEANT to be something fresh,
nutritious, and tasty, but she couldn't seem to remember how to make it.
Even stranger, she couldn't remember what it was she was trying to make.
She carried the pan of brown and white custard-like substance over to the
kitchen table and put it down, not knowing what else to do with it.

 As she set it down, some grease resting uneasily on top happened to
splash off and land on the table, where it started to boil into the
wooden surface, giving off a deceptively appetizing sizzle that could
be heard throughout the house.

 "Oh, good morning, Sasami!" Tenchi came in from outside, Ryoko and
Ayeka following him. The two girls glared at each other momentarily,
remembering the previous day's disagreement, but were quickly distracted
by the sounds of breakfast emanating from the dining room table.

 Sasami looked down, still uncomfortably confused over the "meal" on
the table. Ryo-Ohki hopped up, took an exploratory whiff, and gave out
a loud screech, promptly phasing right through the bottom of the table
and running back into the kitchen.

 "Huh? What was all that about?" Ryoko wondered, watching the cabbit's
panicked flight, "I mean, Sasami's cooking can't be THAT bad, can...?"
She trailed off, finally noticing the pan of extremely cooked wannabe
casserole. The soggy crust appeared to be moving of its own volition,
sending rivulets of greaselike liquid running about the constantly
wobbling surface in protest of its own existence.

 Ayeka stared at the food in shock, then over at her sister. "Sasami,
are you all right? What happened?"

 "I'm fine, Ayeka, just feeling a little light-headed...." She closed
her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "I guess I just
forgot the recipe."

 Ryoko gingerly poked the surface of the breakfast with some chopsticks,
and was rewarded with a sudden explosion of orange and black molten
potato sauce bursting out of the pan and splattering all over her face.

 Tenchi and Ayeka shared a glance, evident worry on both their faces.
Tenchi spoke up. "Sasami, maybe you should go lie down for a while,
until we figure out what's happening to you...."

 "I agree, Lord Tenchi." Ayeka spoke with practiced confidence, most of
it faked. "Don't worry, Sasami. I'm just going to go talk with Miss Washu
and see if she can find out what the matter is. I'm quite sure she can
get access to Jurai's medical banks for a proper diagnosis."

 Sasami nodded slowly. "Okay...." She and Tenchi began to head back to
her bedroom, but then she stopped, turned, and asked, "Ayeka?"

 "Yes, Sasami?"

 "Who's Jurai?"

----

 Tsunami shook her head sadly, watching the situation in the Masaki
household unfold through the pond of water surrounding her onboard
her starship. Why was Tokimi doing this, she wondered. How could she
be so power-hungry that she would be willing to kill a young girl just
to maintain her dominance? She thought back to that day all those years
before, when Sasami fell in the Royal Tree Chamber back on Jurai, and
wished that there was some way, with all her power, to explain to her
older sister that it was a just an act of mercy, not a....

 She sighed. It wouldn't work anyway. Once Tokimi set her mind to
something, she would eventually prevail; even if Tsunami put her entire
essence into shielding Sasami, she would end up as close to being fatally
wounded as an immortal being can be, and Tokimi would take Sasami out
anyway.

 No, this plan must succeed. Tsunami resolved to give it everything
she needed to give in order to make it work. She may be weakened quite
severely, and Sasami may die after all, but if the extra effort succeeded
in weakening Tokimi enough that she couldn't launch another incursion
into this dimension for quite some time...then it was by all means worth
it.

 With a mental command, she powered down her ship, a virtual extension
of her own self, to its minimum power. She was doing all she could for
the time being, and until Tokimi made her initial assault, she would have
to gather every bit of strength she could muster.

----

 "Amnesia?"

 Washu shrugged. "Closest diagnosis I can make before I do a scan.
Juraians aren't really known for these types of ailments, but they do
occur with greater regularity among certain other species, humans among
them." She began typing several commands into her ethereal computer
control panel with astonishing rapidity, but she stopped with a frown
as the display buzzed back at her.

 Ayeka paled. "Humans? Do you mean it's contagious?"

 "Probably not...huh?" She quickly typed in some more commands, but
kept getting the same remorseful buzz back at her. With a scowl of
purpose, she started to pull up dozens of additional readouts on extra
displays that materialized before the two of them. Ayeka looked over
her shoulder, though she couldn't make any sense of the fast-scrolling
data.

 "Is something wrong?"

 The red-haired super genius sat down heavily, a puzzle of her caliber
revealing itself before her. She glanced back at Ayeka with annoyed
determination. "Apparently, all my medical diagnostic routines are off-
line. The thing's supposed to be infinitely redundant and there's no
response." She turned back to the screens. "There is absolutely no
scientific, logical way that can happen! And yet...there it isn't."

 "Miss Washu, what about Sasami? Could we please concentrate on helping
her?"

 Washu took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and thought. She tried
opening her telepathic link with Ryo-Ohki, and shortly thereafter heard
that familiar cheerful "Myaa!" ring in her mind. She gave only one
question, "Have you seen anything out of the ordinary happen to Sasami
in the past week?"  An inconspicuous moment or two passed, then a meowing
response came back, indicating that she hadn't.

 She closed down the link and looked back at Ayeka. "Ryo-Ohki says she
hasn't seen anything unusual with Sasami lately, so that's out. Current
technology wouldn't be adequate to handle this sort of job, the native
Earthling tools would be useless, and my computer's acting buggy, so
this may take a little while. I'd advise making sure she gets plenty of
rest and no stressful shocks to the system for the time being. In the
meantime, I'll try to jury-rig some sort of replacement scanner to get
a better idea of what's wrong with her. Don't worry, this shouldn't
take long at all; just take care of Sasami and I'll think of something,"
she finished, giving one of her determined grins to reassure the Juraian
princess.

 Ayeka bowed respectfully and left Washu's lab, leaving its owner to
look around the massive mainframe computer, genuinely disquieted. The
chances of the system "accidentally" glitching, despite diagnostics and
alarms in place to prevent such a thing, at the same time that Sasami
falls ill to a condition that she's not supposed to be able to get were
simply zero, and if whoever was behind this had the sheer power necessary
to disrupt HER systems....

 "...we're in big trouble."

----

 Sasami opened her eyes uncertainly, seeing the ceiling of a room she
couldn't quite place. It was home; she understood that much, yet for the
first time, she was keenly aware of the fascinating flatness of it all.
It ran from wall to wall and wall to wall, remaining suspended several
feet in front of her face without so much as a single visible effort.
She smiled forlornly, knowing that she shouldn't be surprised by such
an obvious truth, but still...it bothered her.

 Her pillow rustled briefly, and Ryo-Ohki came scampering around her
shoulder, climbing onto Sasami's chest to look at her with a visibly
concerned stare, her small amber eyes reflecting the reddish tint of
those of the bedridden princess.

 "Ryo-Ohki...." Sasami slowly lifted up a hand to give the cabbit a
reassuring scratch behind the ears. "Thanks for watching me, but I'll
be fine, really." She closed her eyes again and tried to make the
moment last as long as possible, aware that she had absolutely no idea
what was happening to her, but hanging on to a shimmering sliver of
pure confidence in that whatever it was couldn't last very long.

 The sunset's light began to fade, dimming the room with gradual yet
deliberate pacing. Sasami, falling asleep, rested her hand on Ryo-Ohki,
who merely waited patiently, purring with anxiety.

%%%%

 With simple quickness, the ground-hugging tiny fluffy clouds passed by
a seated Sasami. They looked so gentle and round that she wanted to name
them, but couldn't think of where to start. The ever-present crackling
buzz had returned, shaking the foundations behind her dream, but it
didn't seem to matter much anymore.

 She turned, and saw various indistinct and vague shapes walking towards
her as she sat in the midst of a field by her home, or what was left of
it. She was sure that it used to be a lot larger than the slowly melting
mound of plastic and metal that it appeared as now.

 "Myaow?" Ryo-Ohki, in her child-sized humanoid form, ran towards her,
going around the grey walking blobs, and hurried over to her side. Upon
seeing the cabbit, Sasami finally noticed just how badly her situation
had deteriorated, and began to cry softly; aside from Ryo-Ohki, so much
had changed. Nothing else felt correct anymore. It was as if all that
Sasami knew was just boiling away into space, leaving her trapped within
an empty shell, and even worse, her previously secure glowing spark of
confidence had vanished without her knowledge, leaving to make its home
in some other, more fortunate person.

 She collapsed to her hands and knees, trying to shut out the dream as
well as the reality it was contained in, and desperately hoping to fall
asleep while in here to find an even better dream on the next level up,
but knowing, oddly enough, one other fact clearly in her ever-draining
mind: that only one person could truly help her out at this point.

 "Tsunami, where ARE you?"

 "Myaa...."

%%%%

 Sasami's prone figure lay on her bed, her eyes only half-open and
unfocused, while Washu ran her newly-improvised scanner over her head.
Ayeka stood close by, as Tenchi and Ryoko watched from behind them.
Ryo-Ohki, seemingly impervious to the sense of despair soaking the room,
merely watched curiously from the foot of the bed. Washu ran one last
foot-to-head scan over Sasami and checked the unit's display.

 "From what I can tell, physically she's fine. No chemical imbalance
or synapse deterioration of any kind." She spoke in a calm, clinical
voice, struggling valiantly to keep back the raw emotion that threatened
to crack her voice. "Her brain shows absolutely nothing out of the
ordinary, save activity being only seven to eight percent that of a
normal Juraian girl her age."

 "Miss Washu," Ayeka said in a wavering tone, not bothering to even try
to remain cool and collected, "what can we do to help her?"

 "Not much, I'm afraid. It's almost as if Sasami's mind itself was being
eaten away, leaving everything physical untouched. If that's the case,
then...." She trailed off, powering down her scanner and placing it aside
of the bed. "Let's just hope that's not the case."

 Ayeka looked at Sasami on her bed, a vacant expression staring out
through half-lidded eyes, and she couldn't bear to see her sister in
this condition any longer. With a halfheartedly-muffled sob, she hurried
to the door and headed downstairs. Tenchi turned to follow, but then
stopped and looked to Washu.

 "Washu, please...do whatever you can. I'll go try to talk to Ayeka."
With that, he too left the room.

 Ryoko and Washu stood by Sasami's bed, saying nothing for several
moments. Ryo-Ohki walked alongside her to peer into the young girl's
dull eyes.

 Washu watched her young creation and came to a startling realization.
Normally, she'd be able to see everything Ryo-Ohki saw, in real-time, and
yet, as Ryo-Ohki sat right below Sasami's face, Washu's connection was
still giving her an image of the view from the foot of her bed, with a
suspicious lag time involved.

 She decided to test out her hypothesis with a simple mental test,
opening up the psychic link and trying to get her attention. "Ryo-Ohki?"

 The cabbit kept sitting there, unmoved. A hesitant, "...m-myaa?" came
back along the channel, but Ryo-Ohki hadn't budged at all.

 "RYO-OHKI!" Washu yelled even louder with her mind, causing Ryoko to
wince in pain next to her, but Ryo-Ohki seemingly didn't notice a thing.

 "Washu?! What do you think you're--?" Ryoko began complaining to her
mother about having to yell at Ryo-Ohki so loudly that even she could
hear it, but abruptly fell silent as she felt someone new enter the
house.

 They all felt it. A primal force of the universe, seeming to dim the
very sunlight away, made its presence known loud, clear, and close.
Ryo-Ohki stiffened and her fur involuntarily puffed up out of fear.
Ryoko's mouth fell open, suddenly feeling pathetically weak next to the
power she was sensing from downstairs. Even Sasami, barely conscious of
any of what had been said around her the previous several minutes, opened
her eyes widely and felt the same thing that Washu, for the first time
in millennia, felt at that moment: abject terror.

 Ryoko stammered, looking in the direction of downstairs, where the
indescribably powerful figure had suddenly appeared, entering the
dimension as easily as sticking one's head into a doorway. "That's...
that's INSANE!! H-how can anyone be that...?!"

 Washu knew who it was. She didn't know how she did, but she recognized
the newcomer. Ryo-Ohki also knew, but through quite different means. In
either case, there wasn't even any question as to what had just happened.

 Tokimi had arrived.

----

 Tenchi fell flat on his back after Tokimi instantly materialized a
couple of feet in front of him in his living room, flooding the room with
inconceivably bright light along the entire electromagnetic spectrum at
once. Even if anyone present was capable of rational thought at the
moment, none could mistake this apparition for being a mere projection
or vision; this was THE real thing. When she spoke, her voice seemed to
resonate throughout the very fabric of space and time, echoing vocally,
telepathically, and through every other medium imaginable.

 "Tenchi. The boy who can create the Wings of the Light Hawk. How very
nice it is to finally meet you." Her piercing multi-hued gaze turned
upwards, in the direction of Sasami's bedroom. "However, I'm afraid that
I'm here to execute an entirely unrelated task. Please stand aside." She
began levitating slowly, almost leisurely, towards her young target
upstairs.

 "N...NO!!!" Tenchi, out of sheer panic, exploded with power, his battle
suit forming around him, as he leaped up from the floor to place himself
directly in front of Tokimi, his own trio of Light Hawk Wings glowing
brilliantly in an effort to block her, and yet, the force he was
generating wasn't nearly close to being enough to drown out the raw power
before him.

 Tokimi kept advancing, her velocity completely unchanged and a bored
look on her face. As she got closer, Tenchi's Wings began to sputter and
dim, despite his fevered attempts to hold her back. With a final pop of
exhaustion, they disappeared completely and Tenchi fell to the ground,
reverting back to his normal form partway down and landing in a noticeably
painful position.

 "TENCHI!!" Ryoko shouted as she and Washu ran downstairs and to the
balcony over the living room, just in time to see Tenchi's Light Hawk
Wings, previously thought to be practically indestructible, fizzle out
like a cheap light bulb before the awesome onslaught coming their way.
Growling out a curse and ignoring Washu's shouts to stop, Ryoko leapt
at Tokimi, energy sword blazing into existance in her clenched fist,
and took a wild swing at the immortal's head.

 It never even got close. With a flash of light, Ryoko was swatted aside
effortlessly, crashing through the wall right above Ayeka, who had
started gingerly backing up the staircase at Tokimi's first appearance.
It all seemed to fall into place for Ayeka; whoever this was, she had
shown up right when Sasami was at her very weakest, and as soon as Ayeka
heard the word "execute"....

 She tried to run, but her legs felt like they had locked up with fear,
causing her to slip and slide back down the stairs a few feet, but she
quickly got a hold of herself by thinking of Sasami's helpless form,
lying upstairs, without anything at all to protect herself with. This
image focused her resolve just enough to get her moving, scrambling up
the stairs to try and protect Sasami.

 Tokimi floated a little further, then stopped, face-to-face with Washu.
The brown-haired immortal smiled triumphantly at her little sister.
"Well, Washu, it has been a while, hasn't it? I presume you've forgotten
me completely in that physical shell of yours, haven't you?" Washu just
glared back at her, desperately trying to think of something that would
end this, but coming up blank. Tokimi continued, "We will have to talk
at length some other time, but this dimension is very...inconvenient for
me. I would prefer to leave you unharmed until then, so do not put up a
struggle here and now, all right?"

 Washu said nothing, since she knew there was nothing that could be
said to stop what was soon to happen. Anything she did would cause her
to end up like Tenchi or Ryoko; in her mortal form, she was completely
and hopelessly outmatched.

 She stepped aside.

----

 Ryo-Ohki had waited for Ryoko and Washu to leave before springing into
action. With Tokimi actually having arrived, the secrecy wasn't quite as
important as before, but the job had to be completed before she got TO
Sasami, which was now only seconds away.

 She scurried over Sasami's head and took up position above her pillow,
phasing her small furry head through the young girl's bluish hair and
looking around to see the last few bits of her mind that had yet to be
caught. As she nibbled the remaining portions of energy out of Sasami's
mind, Sasami gave a weak smile and whispered, very faintly, to Ryo-Ohki.

 "Thank you...Ryo...Oh...."

 Ayeka burst through the door right as Ryo-Ohki finished, looking up in
alarm. There would be time for explanations later, she realized, and with
her ethereal guide psychically screaming at her to get out of the room
immediately, she tried to give off as much of a "I'm just a cute lil'
cabbit!" aura as she could, making a run for the wall and phasing right
through it, landing outside.

 Ryo-Ohki's departure barely registered in Ayeka's mind, as she rushed
over to Sasami's side, standing before her in a desperate defensive
posture, and waited.

 Within seconds, the door literally melted away into nothingness, as
well as part of the door frame, as Tokimi floated triumphantly into the
small bedroom. Her power, already unbelievably intense even downstairs
in the much larger living room, made Ayeka feel as if she were trapped
in a cage with a supernova. Sasami, on the bed behind her, gave no
reaction.

 "Stand aside. Now." Tokimi intoned, as she raised her hand towards
the two Juraians, focusing her power into one decisive attack that would
ensure Tsunami's "proper" position in the cosmos for an extended and
manageable period of time.

 Ayeka, drawing upon deep reserves of courage she never previously
dreamed she had, spat back, "STAY! AWAY! FROM! MY! SISTER!!!" She flung
her hands forward, and instantly the room was filled with dozens of her
mini-Guardians. Each floating log crackled with raw Jurai energy, and
without further delay, she launched everything she had.

 To both of their surprise, the unleashed fury of Ayeka actually
knocked Tokimi back a couple feet. As the lightning from her network
of Guardians pushed the goddess back, it seemed to intensify at a
quickly increasing rate.

 Tokimi's expression shifted to one of very real concern. She recognized
the Jurai power that was being channeled through the princess and her
attack; Tsunami herself was on the other side, actually ATTACKING her.
Indirectly, to be sure, but she was definitely putting up a fight, and
if she managed to actually become stronger than....

 "No. Enough." Tokimi thought, realizing that this must be completed,
no matter the cost, "Tsunami cannot become stronger than myself...."
Her eyes flashed, and she accessed the emergency reserves of her power.
"Tsunami SHALL NOT surpass me!!"

 Immediately, Tokimi's assault increased by several orders of magnitude.
Ayeka, who had previously been pushing her opponent back, suddenly was
stopped. Tsunami's influx of power leveled off and began to decrease,
leaving her progressively defenseless. As Tokimi advanced, some of the
mini-Guardians in the room began to warp, deforming and transmogrifying
into shiny metallic orbs, whose energy, instead of going to halt Tokimi,
actually began helping her, moving in towards Ayeka and binding her with
her own energy.

 As more and more of them fell prey to Tokimi's relentless advance,
they started to shove Ayeka out of the way. Finally, enough of them had
been subverted that she was now suspended in place, pulled out of the way
of Tokimi's line of sight with Sasami, and Tokimi raised her hand and
prepared to finish the girl off once and for all.

 Ayeka gave one last scream of rage and frustration, ringing throughout
the house even through the haze of Tokimi's presence, and shut her eyes
tightly to avoid seeing what happened next. A bolt of pure energy lanced
out of Tokimi's hand and struck Sasami, causing her to glow with an
unearthly light. After an flashing instant that felt to Ayeka as an
eternity, the light from the girl's body faded, and her blanket slowly
settled down into an empty bed.

 Tokimi lowered her power slightly, no longer having to fight through
Ayeka's and Tsunami's vicious defense, and was still genuinely impressed
with her younger sister. Tsunami had actually forced her to use her whole
strength to finish this job. She would have to be running at a fairly
limited level for quite some time, but on the other hand...Tsunami would
definitely be the worse off between the two of them.

 She looked over to Ayeka, who was still shaking in hysterical shock,
suspended off the ground by her own converted Guardians. Tokimi realized
what she had just done to this girl, killing off her sister before her
eyes, and felt just the slightest twinge of remorse before it became
trampled by her overriding sense of purpose. Nevertheless, she felt it
proper to give one final message to the girl.

 "My condolences."

 With that, Tokimi appeared to glow even more brilliantly than before,
and with an inaudible flash, vanished from the room, her departure
causing the orbs to disappear and drop Ayeka roughly to the ground. She
gave no resistance, and collapsed into a sobbing fit in the middle of
the bedroom that was now hers and hers alone.

----

 Tsunami fell to her hands and knees aboard her ship, the unbelievably
massive levels of exertion she had to maintain finally ending upon
Tokimi's return to her own dimension. She grinned in cautious triumph,
seeing that Tokimi was completely gone, and knowing that, after all the
reserves she had to burn to push through Ayeka's boosted shield....

 Tokimi couldn't return. At least, she noted, not for a very long time,
and in the meantime, the Masaki household on Earth was now safe. Wasting
no time, she contacted Ryo-Ohki and gave the all-clear signal.

----

 Downstairs, Washu tended to Ryoko and Tenchi, both of whom were
slowly recovering from their wounds. Tenchi's were worse, after being
slammed into the ground in his normal human form, though all three of
them knew immediately after hearing Ayeka's scream what had happened
upstairs. Sasami was gone.

 "This can't...be real...." Tenchi moaned, a cold compress over his
forehead where he slammed into the floor. Ryoko paced around, looking
at Tenchi, towards upstairs, then finally at Washu, at whom she yelled
furiously.

 "Washu!! Why didn't you do anything?! You could have stopped her, and
Sasami might still be alive now!!"

 Washu fixed a stern gaze on her daughter. "There wasn't anything I
could have done to save her. We just faced a being even more powerful
than TSUNAMI, and I hate to admit this, but I just don't have that kind
of ability! Now, let's...."

 *ZAP*

 Mother and daughter looked at each other in surprise, feeling the
lagged fake link to Ryo-Ohki fade out and the real signal come back
in, loud and clear. However, something was definitely different with
this one.

 "Washu," Ryoko breathed, scarcely believing what she felt, "is...is
that...?"

 Washu stood there, a slow look of realization washing over her. She
whispered, "Way to go, Tsunami...hey, Lord Tenchi!" She leaned over
him, an elfish grin on her face. "Cheer up! Just give me a day or two
and I'll have a new Sasami ready, exactly like the old one!"

 "WHAT?!"

----

 Ayeka had not moved from her spot on the floor for several minutes,
so she didn't notice Ryo-Ohki enter the room through the window, hop
down to the floor, and pad softly over to the grieving princess. After
watching her for a short while, she spoke up.

 "Don't worry, Ayeka, we're safe now."

 "No, no...." She brushed the cabbit's reassurances aside, too deep in
sorrow to accept them. "Sasami is...is...."

 "She's okay. Tsunami already planned for this sort of thing, and was
able to save her just in time. Washu can make a new body, and I'll be
good as new in no time!"

 Ayeka froze. That tone of voice shook her to her core, and she looked
up in incredulous surprise at the cabbit that stood next to her. The
same red eyes...the bluish tinge in her fur...the two triangular gems in
her forehead, all slowly drawing Ayeka out of her despair and into newly
reborn joyous hope. The small Juraian-infused cabbit smiled warmly at
Ayeka.

 "Hello, sister."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 Disclaimer:

 The characters of Tenchi Muyo are owned by Kajishima Masaki and
AIC/Pioneer LDC. The events and persons in this fanfic are completely
fictional and any resemblance to actual events or persons is completely
unintentional, and the author is not responsible for any injury, trauma,
or other detrimental condition resulting from proper or improper use of
this fan fiction. Comments, suggestions, and other C&C will be greatly
appreciated, and are accepted at the email address: sabremau@yahoo.com
Keep circulating the fanfics...

[Anastasia]

I'm posting the comments I made on Refuge in the interests of provoking discussion about this fic.  

Or, in the common words, gasoline. ^_^

(In the event that you have addressed all these problems perfectly, well...I'll just look like a raving idiot. Ignore me in that case. :))

Yeah, here I go.

Overall, I have to say I liked this. The main thing I like are your dream sequences; they feel surreal without being forced or strained.  The way you present the details of the dreams are matter of fact, but the off the wall-ness is just enough to where it's naturally strange. It's not like it feels like the author is really trying to be odd, you know? Points for that.

I admit, I missed the ending at first. As in, I wasn't sure about what it was until I reread the piece and talked to you some.  Maybe I'm being dense about this story...Or perhaps you should add a bit more to it, to clarify? Somehow, the mind eating premise didn't entirely sink in the first time through..

[Jeram]

Ah, nice, I see you fixed those typos, excellent excellent.

But hey wait a minute, as long as we're repeating ourselves.

I'm going to have to disagree with dunes about the ending - I don't think they should have too much more added to it, then I think it would be too obvious.

Just my opinion.

-J

[Dracos]

Okay, yep, got some time.  Heya, Danny.  You get one of my two C&C's today.

General C&C only, don't have the time for a line by line sadly.

"off to protect Tenchi from plenty of useful reading material."

Amusing.


Well written, my friend.  Kept me in the dark most the time.  A superb piece of work.  Short, effective, surreal(as is your wont), and enjoyable.  I applaud you.

Your best work was naturally the mystery about Ryo-oh-ki, which you kept up nicely throughout.  A weakness is that your 'surreal' dreamscape was rather hard to actually interpret.  But whether that's a weakness or a strength is up to you.  Anyhow, interesting fic.  I liked it.

Fearless Leader