Dinner was a fairly quite meal that evening, other than a minor spat between Ryoko and Aeyka that was diverted when Rezo sat between them. The night itself was mostly quite, with only a few fights over sleeping space, as Yosho welcomed Rezo and Kagato to sleep at the shrine, Zelgadis and Gourry bunked in Tenchi's room while Amelia, Firia, and Lina temporarily took over Nobuyuki's room. But the night was only mostly quiet.
"Tenchi . . . ?" Tenchi rolled over in his bed towards Zel, both of them ignoring the snoring Gourry on the floor between them. Tenchi stifled a yawn, it had been a tiring day. "Yeah, Zelgadis?"
"However did you end up with so many house guests?"
Tenchi laughed, though a tad sheepishly. "Well it's a long story."
"Why don't you tell it to me? We have all night, and who knows how much more time beyond that."
"Well, it all started about seven hundred years ago when Ryoko was imprisoned in a cave up by my grandfather's shrine ...." The telling of the tale took about an hour at the most, and when it was done, Zelgadis leaned back against the wall, a thoughtful look on his face. "Yosho is your grandfather, right?"
"Hai."
"And Nobuyuki is your father?"
"Hai."
"I don't mean to be rude, but, where is your mother?"
A look of sorrow passed over Tenchi's face. "She died when I was very young .... we have a small shrine to her on a hill near here, one where you can oversee the whole valley. Sometimes . . . when I'm up there, it almost seems as if she's standing right next to me." Zel's voice was soft, respectful of the old pain in Tenchi. "I see ... my father died when I was twelve, but that is not the same. His grave lies deep within the mountains he so loved .... where he built the family home."
A span of silence, both solemn and companionable stretched out between them. Then they both grinned, turned over, and went to sleep.
Amelia looked around the unfamiliar room, with the incomprehensible designs on the wall that somehow made her want to be able to understand them. She hugged her arms around her legs, drawing them up to her chest to rest her chin on her knees. She didn't understand this strange world with all the different foods and customs. She bit her lip, worried and a little scared, listening to the faint snores and the not-so-faint snores of Firia and Lina. For the first time in her life, she wondered if her decision to follow Lina was wise, or really worth it. She was having no progress at all with Zelgadis, or with her quest for justice, or learned much new magic, and she was now far away from her family and home.
"Meow?" Amelia nearly shrieked as something warm and fuzzy brushed against her wrist, meowing curiously. She held absolutely still as the creature moved around to in front of her, half terrified, wondering which would be worse, being chomped by something unknown or waking Lina from a sound sleep. She decided waking Lina would be much more painful. The creature moved about her, meowing curiously. It moved over to the small patch of moonlight that came in through the window. Amelia looked at the strange, rabbit-like, meowing creature, not at all reassured.
"Ryo-Ohki, Ryo-Ohki?" Amelia jumped slightly, startled, even though the speaker was outside their shut door and being as quiet as she could. The creature meowed, almost too loudly, as Lina snorted, shifted slightly, then resumed her normal sleep noises. The door slid open, to reveal the young girl, Sasami, who looked to be no older than Amelia herself. "Oh! Why are you still awake? It's very late." Sasami whispered, coming over to Amelia's mattress. She sat down with the grace of ease that only someone who has been living in a certain culture for a long time can obtain, scooping the furry creature into her lap, where it meowed happily and curled up, it's big, yellow, eyes watching Amelia. Amelia pointed at the creature on Sasami's lap. "What is that?"
"This is Ryo-Ohki, she's a cabbit."
"What's a cabbit?"
"What Ryo-Ohki is. Sort of like a cross between a cat and a rabbit." Ryo-Ohki meowed happily, reaching up to lick Sasami's hand as Sasami scratched her belly. Amelia reached out a tentative hand and begin scratching Ryo-Ohki's head, timidly at first, then with more confidence as Ryo-Ohki started purring. After a bit Sasami sighed and stood up, cradling Ryo-Ohki in her arms. "I have to go to sleep now if I'm going to be able to cook breakfast." Sasami said, smiling at Amelia, who smiled back. "Well, see you in the morning Amelia. Good night."
"Good night Sasami."
Just as Sasami turned to leave, Ryo-Ohki hopped free from her arms to land on the foot of Amelia's bed, meowing softly. Amelia looked surprise as Ryo-Ohki squirmed her way into Amelia's arms and licked her on the cheek.
"I think Ryo-Ohki wants to stay with you tonight." Sasami smiled as Amelia looked up at her.
"Good night Amelia, sleep well." Sasami gently shut the door behind herself, as Amelia curled up under her blankets, Ryo-Ohki nestled behind her at the small of her back. Amelia was soon asleep, lulled by Ryo-Ohki's purr.
Up at the shrine, Kagato, Rezo and Yosho had stayed up, talking, for quite some time. Sometime around midnight, Yosho had brought out some of his rarer stock of Sake, some of them quite potent. By three a.m. all of them were rather tipsy. Rezo placed his cup on the table with some of the exaggerated care of those who are hopelessly inebriated.
"Tenchi's your grandson, right?"
Yosho nodded, blinking owlishly in the dim light. He then noticed Rezo and Kagato giving him considering looks.
"Off with the disguise." Rezo stated flatly, with Kagato nodding in agreement. Yosho blinked again, wide eyed in surprise.
"How did you see through it?" Yosho asked, utterly bewildered, as a pale energy fell away from him, revealing a young, black-haired man in his mid-twenties whom Tenchi would most likely resemble a great deal as he got older. Kagato simply watched for a bit, then an evil smile spread across his face.
"Not quite as old as you appear, eh? Aeyka would be most upset with you if she found out."
Yosho shuddered, thinking of all the shouting, tears, taunts from Ryoko, Tenchi's bewilderment, explosions, bodily and property damage .... "No! No ... please don't tell them. I probably wouldn't survive Aeyka's temper."
Rezo had a blank look on his face while Kagato winced, a expression of pained agreement passing over his face. "That girl does pack quite a punch." He stifled a belch behind his hand. "I may not remember the details, but I do remember her power! .... Quite the young warrior, though she needs more practice."
Yosho nodded in agreement, albeit carefully, as if afraid his head would fall off. "I agree, though the style she would be greatest at is not one that I know well enough to teach."
A faint snoring sound came from one of the corners of the room, causing Kagato and Yosho to look in that general direction. Rezo was out cold, curled up and snoring, with his head on the pillow in front of Yosho's desk. Kagato, who was the closest nearby, moved over close enough that he could attempt to shake Rezo awake. "Hey, cummon' we've still got half a bottle left." His only answer was another snore, which was echoed by another snore to Kagato's right. He looked up to see that Yosho was asleep as well, and snoring just as loudly. Kagato blinked, leaning back against the wall, a look of stunned amazement on his face. He looked at Rezo again, then back at Yosho, shrugged, then downed the remaining sake in two gulps and went to sleep himself.
The only two people truly awake then, one on the roof of the house looking up at the night sky, the other at work in her lab, had surprisingly similar thoughts. They were both thinking about the new guests, with varying levels of caution, curiosity, and female appreciation of male form in some cases.
Feeling her daughter's turmoil, Washu stepped back from her keyboard, and with a simple step through a nearby door, she was on the roof, where her daughter was still gazing at the stars.
"Well now, Mom, what brings you up here?" Ryoko's voice was caustic. She had noticed her mother's new appearance, no longer that of a twelve or fourteen year old child, but of a young woman of nineteen. Washu sighed as she noticed Ryoko never took her eyes from the stars, not even to acknowledge her mother. The pain that caused, while intense, was familiar to her, and older than she cared to remember. Washu sighed, moving to sit near her daughter, just three feet apart, and yet centuries and light years lay between them.
Washu cleared her throat. "What is your opinion of them?"
"Well, can't you just take it from my memories, like you did with my emotions for Tenchi?" Ryoko's voice was bitter as she remembered that.
"Stop that Ryoko! I was being honest. I want your opinion of them. Not as an 'experiment' or anything else like that. I want your opinion as Ryoko, no one else." There is surprise in Ryoko's eyes as Washu's words sink in. For a few minutes, nothing is said, and some indefinable tension leaks from the air. Ryoko's voice was neutral as she spoke. "Hmm. ... My honest opinion, eh? Well, Amelia is annoying, that is for certain, and there is no subtlety to her at all. She is the one who isn't hiding anything at all."
"Saying that the others are."
Ryoko looked at Washu faintly surprised. "Aren't you suspicious, all of them say they can't remember how they got here! And Rezo claims that he was dead!"
"Which the others confirm." Ryoko leaned back, a expression of puzzlement crossing her face briefly, before settling into a stubbornly suspicious scowl. Washu, noticing the change in her daughter's face, sighed silently and quickly steered the conversation back to the opinions she got about the guests.
"What about Gourry?"
"The guy's an idiot. A complete and utter buffoon. I would normally say he's acting, but no one could honestly pull of acting that way unless they really were that stupid."
"What about Firia?"
"She and Aeyka are two peas in a pod." A single shared glance had them both laughing, a little, more of a soft giggle from Washu and Ryoko's familiar cackle. Firia and Aeyka had taken one look at each other and disliked each other on sight. "Yes, isn't she."
A second glance, and both Ryoko and Washu were flat on their backs, laughing as loud as they could. But only after a few seconds they tried to choke most of it back, not wanting to wake the others in the house.
"Hee-hee! Let's ... (giggle) ... head back (gasp! ha-ha) to my lab."
"Good (snort!) idea."
Stifling laughter, they both stepped through the door, which Washu had left open, back into her lab. They promptly collapsed again, wave upon wave of laughter escaping them. After a few minutes, the laughter began to wind down, only to re-emerge when one was incautious to glance towards the other. After several tries, they managed to get themselves under control. Washu sighed, a last few giggles escaping her. Ryoko floated slowly across the room, feeling surprisingly relaxed by the laughter, simple as it was.
"What are your impressions about Rezo?" Washu asked, trying to seem nonchalant.
Ryoko didn't even try to hide her grin. "Heh, the one you're attracted to? The one you pulled your older body out of the closet for?"
Washu blushed, causing Ryoko to cackle with laughter, unaffected by Washu's glower.
"Well, to be perfectly honest, except for the part about being dead, I think he's telling the complete truth." Ryoko, a smirk on her face, watched Washu blink at her, utterly surprised. "I may not trust him, but, he's not one to lie about himself, or what he's done." Ryoko's face became solemn, her eyes gazing at something Washu could not see. "Not even if it causes him or another great pain. Or if it may cost him his life."
Washu was silent, knowing her daughter's instincts about people to be far better than her own, which were dulled and faulty, due to her long imprisonment and from her hiding behind her guise as a mad scientist for so many centuries. Ryoko continued, not noticing her mother's silent solemnity.
"It's Lina and Zelgadis that are the greatest mysteries to me. Both of them are highly intelligent, and both of them have quite a temper."
"Zelgadis seems a little calm to have a temper like Lina's." Washu mused, sitting on her favorite floating pillow.
"You saw how he reacts to Rezo. He simply has under more control than she does."
"But I get the impression that his is far more bitter than hers is."
Ryoko nodded. "And the reason behind the bitterness has something to do with Rezo."
Washu sighed, wondering at where her heart was leading her briefly before turning her mind back to the subject at hand. "Is there anything else you noticed?"
"No, not really, although there is something between the two of them that is un-resolved ... and I don't think they're aware of it either." Washu nodded in agreement. "I had noticed that myself, but I am well aware I'm not too good with people. I wasn't sure. Don't look so shocked Ryoko, I'm well aware of my weaknesses, although I don't admit them in public."
Washu leaned back, folding her hands behind her head. "Any ideas on what to do about them, other than watch?" Ryoko shook her head no. Washu sighed. "Then I guess that's what we'll have to do."
Ryoko's brow furrowed as a sudden scowl appeared on her face. "What do you mean 'we' Washu?" Her voice sparked with restrained fury at being dragged into whatever Washu had planned.
Washu sighed, the relationship she had with her daughter suddenly making her feel all of her twenty centuries. "I apologize Ryoko, I assumed you would help me with this. As much as I hate to admit it, I need that, your, help. I need someone to watch over these people when I can't. Which will be most of the time, as I still need to figure out what's happened here and why. I am asking you, Ryoko, please, will you help me?" Washu extended a hand towards her daughter, hoping beyond hope that Ryoko would accept it, and in some way, herself as well. The shock and surprise on Ryoko's face was unmistakable. Washu was asking her to help her? Ryoko stared in mute astonishment, frozen in surprise, unable to move.
Washu waited patiently, but a small light in her eyes died as she waited.