Sketches of Tenchi 9: Who Framed Ryou-ou-ki Cabbit?
A Tenchi Muyo! OAV/MnE fanfic
by HKMiller
FFML-R draft 5 May 2001; tweaks 14 May 2001
Featuring characters created by Hiroki Hayashi and Masaki
Kajishima, also copyright AiC and Pioneer.
Incidental characters are from or inspired by other sources.
- - - - - - - - - -
It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a shot rang out. A
door slammed; Aeka screamed.
Feet stampeded through the Masaki house into the room from which
the scream had come. Aeka stood in the doorway, grimacing and
holding on to her left foot.
In the middle of the room's floor lay the slowly-cooling body of
Yugi. The edges of the large, gaping hole through her abdomen
were charred with ash. Next to the body sat a bewildered
Ryou-ou-ki, her paws holding an odd device pointed at Yugi.
- - - - - - - - - -
Washuu looked at the results from her final test, put the sensor
wand away, and sighed. "Well, that's definitely the blaster which
killed Yugi," she said, pointing to the device which Kiyone had
carefully removed from Ryou-ou-ki's grip. "And it was definitely
fired just two seconds before Aeka-dono arrived. Ryou-ou-ki
was definitely in the room at the time. Yugi was the only other
heat-generating body present at the time."
Tearfully, Mihoshi approached Ryou-ou-ki with a pair of handcuffs.
"Ryou-ou-ki, you have the right to remain silent."
"Miya!"
"If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you by
the court."
"Mihoshi, I don't think..." Kiyone started to say.
"No, Mihoshi, you can't arrest Ryou-chan! She didn't do it!"
Sasami protested, grabbing and cuddling the little cabbit.
"You Bozo!" Ryouko shouted into Mihoshi's face. "Ryou-ou-ki
isn't going anywhere. You don't have to arrest her right this
instant."
"Oh," Mihoshi replied in a meek voice.
"Nevertheless," Kiyone said, putting some authority into her
voice, "we do need to find out what happened. What was Yugi doing
here? What does Ryou-ou-ki think happened?"
"I'll find out that last," Ryouko remarked with a smirk, turning
to look directly into Ryou-ou-ki's eyes.
"Not if Edward beats you to it," the red-haired urchin announced,
smiling and stretching her fingers above a holographic keyboard of
her own.
- - - - - - - - - -
Aeka and Kiyone climbed the stone steps to the Masaki Shrine.
Nearing the top, they found Hikaru, Fuu, and Umi sitting on the
steps dejectedly.
"Is something wrong?" Kiyone asked.
"Our new fiance..." Hikaru got out before choking to a stop,
shaking her head sadly.
"Oh, no! Has something happened to my brother, too?"
"Prince Youshou is fine, Aeka-hime," replied Fuu. "He is just
having... some issues... with his responsibilities towards his
fiancees. His..." Fuu coughed. "... marital responsibilities."
Umi added impatiently, "Youshou can't get it up. What a farce
this is; the direct heir to the throne has ten fiancees, and can't
properly service any of them."
"Nine." Kiyone said quietly. "Lady Yugi is dead. We just found
the body a little while ago."
"Oh, no!" cried Hikaru in dismay.
Umi just crossed her arms. "I'm sorry to hear that, but she won't
really be missed up here. She didn't exactly try to make friends
with the rest of us."
"We're trying to trace her movements, to find out what she was
doing when she died. Do you mind if we ask the three of you a
few questions about her?"
Fuu blinked. "You make it sound like... it wasn't an accident."
Kiyone allowed herself a small smile. "You're right; it wasn't.
When did the three of you last see her?"
The three girls looked at each other briefly, thinking. "At
dinner last night, I suppose."
"And do any of you know what she might have been doing down at our
house?"
Umi answered, "Up to no good, obviously."
Fuu thought for a moment, then reluctantly replied, "Lady Yugi
made a pretty blatant attempt to seduce Prince Youshou almost as
soon as we were engaged to him, without success. She didn't take
her failure well. And her clan is well known for their
ambitions."
Aeka gave a short, lady-like laugh. "That remark could apply to
any of your families as well."
Fuu continued, "Perhaps. But I suggest that you look into Yugi's
background in more detail; she has made a few comments which
suggest that she is older than she looks."
"What?" Aeka asked, in some surprise. "Do you mean that her
family might have halted her aging in childhood? But that
practice has been outlawed for millenia!"
Umi replied, "No, Fuu's right. There's something fishy about her.
The rest of us, with our aging halted two to ten years after
puberty, have about the range of real ages you might expect.
Yugi, from her pre-puberty appearance, should have really been
only about eight, but she never said so, and she always acted as
though she were older than any of us."
Aeka didn't notice Kiyone's brief, envious grimace.
- - - - - - - - - -
"Hey! It is NOT my fault!" Ryouko insisted, fists clenched.
"Whose fault? Which? Could this crash be?
Ed's or Ryouko's; come and see!" Edward chanted, capering about
the room on all fours.
Ryou-ou-ki lay completely still on the floor, spread-eagled,
her eyes whirling.
Washuu finished typing and looked up at Tenchi, Mihoshi, and
Sasami. "Yep, her memory's completely gone!" She said cheerily.
"Completely erased back to late yesterday afternoon! You two did
quite a job in there," she said to Ryouko and Ed. "Next time,
don't try racing each other, okay?"
Mihoshi looked suspiciously at Ryou-ou-ki. "Trying to claim you
don't remember anything? Only criminals try that trick."
- - - - - - - - - -
Aeka and Kiyone came across Asuka and Rei, standing just outside
and peering into the shrine office.
"What's going on?"
Asuka turned her back on the office and crossed her arms
impatiently. "Oh, nothing. And I do mean 'nothing'. And here I
thought Prince Youshou was a real man."
In a near monotone, Rei added, "Prince Youshou is being
entertained by the Ladies Shiria, Pikko, Teruzi, and Menori. They
are not having a lot of success."
Aeka looked distressed for a moment, then glanced into the office.
Surprise abruptly turned into red-faced astonishment, succeeded by
anger. "How- how- how- DARE they try such things with a prince of
royal blood?!"
Amused, and biting her lip to keep herself from laughing, Kiyone
composed her face before turning back to Rei and Asuka. "Lady
Yugi is dead, early this morning down at our house. We are
investigating the circumstances by which she came to be there at
all. May we ask the two of you a few questions?"
- - - - - - - - - -
Tenchi followed Washuu into her lab. "Washuu-chan? May I ask you
a few questions while you work? Something has been bothering me
for a while."
"No problem, Tenchi-dono," replied Washuu as she sat down and
started typing. "What's the problem?"
"I want to know how long we're all going to live, Washuu-chan."
Tenchi said quickly. "How long will I have with Aeka? And
Kiyone?"
Washuu stopped typing for a moment, thinking. Then she turned to
look Tenchi in the eyes and opened her mouth... then closed it
again. Abruptly, she assumed an older form, about Ryouko's
apparent age, which could look Tenchi directly in the eyes. "As
you know, Tenchi, Tokimi, Sasami, and I will be with you forever."
"And what about Yuzuha? I thought you said..." Tenchi replied,
his brow furrowed.
"Yuzuha and Alielle... are a bit different. I'm not sure how
to explain it exactly... They will both outlive this universe,
certainly. Their respective orders of being have limitations
which do not apply to the three of us, however. Ah! I have it!
You can think of Yuzuha and Alielle as being with you for a
'countably' eternal period of time, while Tokimi, Sasami, and
myself will be with you for an 'uncountably' eternal period. Does
that help?"
"Not really..." Tenchi crinkled his brow. "But that's not really
what I want to know right now."
"Oh. You want to know about the mortals."
Tenchi nodded.
"With the rest of your fiancees, I can give you only expected
lifespans, Tenchi; accidents or illnesses may occur. Everyone
else can be killed by events within this universe. With that in
mind: Ryouko and Edward will both live for appreciable portions of
the lifespan of this universe; quite possibly billions of years.
It's difficult to be more specific. With lifespans like that,
both will almost certainly die of an accident before the universe
itself dies."
"And what about Aeka?"
"Perhaps thirty thousand years. With luck."
Tenchi closed his eyes momentarily. A tear leaked through.
"Ryouko will be inconsolable."
"I know," Washuu said softly. "And Misao, not being of royal
blood by origin, will last somewhat less long, perhaps ten to
fifteen thousand, even with access to the water of the Royal
Trees."
"And... Mihoshi? Kiyone?"
Finally Washuu reached for her hologramic laptop. She typed a few
keys, then announced, "With luck... don't know why I bothered to
add that," she added darkly, "Mihoshi will live for about two
thousand of your years. Mihoshi's people don't visibly age very
much during their lifespans. The water of the Royal Trees will
probably have some effect on Mihoshi, but not a great deal."
Tenchi digested that, then asked, "And Kiyone is about the same?"
Washuu didn't look up. In a low voice, she said, "Kiyone's people
normally live about fifty of your years, maximum, Tenchi. They
age as visibly as earth humans during that span. And the Jurai
Royal Trees are known to have no effect on her people."
"WHAT? Washuu-chan! Isn't there anything we can do?"
"Hold on, I'm checking. Fortunately I have very good data on
her." Washuu typed for a while; neither spoke. Finally Washuu
looked up. "There are a few substances, most very rare..." A
cheery ping sounded. Washuu stared at her laptop screen, then
started chuckling. "Kiyone will likely kill herself when she
hears this... It seems that there is one and only one substance,
readily available in sufficient quantity, which should give Kiyone
a relatively youthful lifespan similar to Mihoshi's: Mihoshi's
gaseous breast-milk. She just has to be nursed by Mihoshi for
about fifteen minutes a day."
Tenchi stared, then started laughing. "I can just see her face
now, when she hears this."
Another cheery ping sounded. Washuu stared. "And... I don't
believe it. I do NOT believe it. There's a feedback effect;
Mihoshi herself will live longer by nursing Kiyone."
Tenchi rolled off his chair laughing.
- - - - - - - - - -
Elsewhere, Kiyone sneezed, then shivered.
"I can't BELIEVE what those girls were doing with my brother!"
Aeka huffed, for the umpteenth time, as she and Kiyone descended
the shrine stairs again.
"You just wish you had the nerve to try that with Tenchi,"
muttered Kiyone under her breath. She then looked abashed, as
Aeka glared at her suspiciously.
Quickly changing the subject, Kiyone continued. "We don't know
that much more than we did before. Every remaining fiancee of
Prince Youshou can account for her own movements from supper
yesterday, and they all have each other for witnesses. Many
were suspicious of Yugi in various ways, but none of them knows
anything specific. Can we get more information about Yugi from
Lady Funaho?"
"I'm not sure. Yugi's clan is very secretive, and they spend a
lot of time off Jurai, on their private planet. Mother Funaho's
Ministry may not have very much on them."
- - - - - - - - - -
Sasami and Mihoshi peered though the glass door towards the lake,
where Rumia and Misao sat on a bench, holding hands and shyly
trading embarrassed glances.
"Oh, it's so ROMANTIC!" Mihoshi swooned, her hands clasped
together. Sasami eagerly nodded agreement.
Ryouko appeared right behind them, hands on hips. "Well, that's
one less fiancee to share Tenchi with, it looks like. Now, if
only that guy would've fallen for Aeka."
Abruptly, Mihoshi straightened, slamming one fist into an open
palm. "That's right! Whoever killed Yugi might be after Aeka
next! We have to warn her!"
Ryouko blanched momentarily before resuming her smirk.
Sasami turned to Mihoshi in puzzlement. "I thought you were
convinced that Ryou-ou-ki did it?"
Abashed, Mihoshi scratched the back of her head. "Oh, that's
right. Sorry, I kind of forgot."
Alielle appeared out of thin air, glomped to Ryouko. "You can't
get away from me that easily, darling!"
"That's it, pipsqueak!" Ryouko turned and fired a blast which
completely incinerated Alielle. A moment later, Alielle
reappeared again, arms around Mihoshi and hands moving. "But that
doesn't mean I don't love you too, Mihoshi."
"I wish I knew how she does that," Ryouko muttered, regarding the
ashes still on the carpet.
"Silly," Sasami replied, giggling. "You're only burning one tiny
slice of her, can't you see?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Don't you remember what Yume and Washuu said? All you can see
of Alielle and her brother is like a paper-thin slice of their
real bodies. No, thinner than paper, even. Most of their bodies
aren't here, where you can affect them. There's no way you can
ever hurt them, really." Sasami giggled some more at how silly
Ryouko was being.
- - - - - - - - - -
"The key, Tenchi, is to set things up so that Mihoshi solves the
mystery for us," Washuu remarked. "Nice sample, by the way."
"Thag yuu," Tenchi got out. "How 'a we 'oo 'at?"
"I'm still working on that part. I assigned Ed to gather a little
information which might prove useful."
"'Ashuu, 'an 'oo 'et 'ee 'own 'ow?" Tenchi pleaded.
"Tired of hanging around with me already?"
- - - - - - - - - -
Aeka and Kiyone were greeted at the door by Edward, proudly
holding out a printed report on Yugi's background. Each snippet
of information was appropriately credited to the Jurai government
agency, corporation, news organization, university, noble clan,
or other organization from whose computers it came.
Aeka merely glanced at the material before glaring at Edward.
"And how many laws did you break to gather THIS?" she demanded.
"Nine hundred and twelve," Edward impishly replied.
After a few minutes of study, Kiyone announced, "Yugi definitely
WAS older than any of the other girls, much older, that's clear
enough. But that's not the only strange thing about her."
"Here's a photo of her during her first marriage, five hundred
years ago," Aeka announced, with some perplexity. "She was
pregnant, too! So it's not just a case of illicit arrested
maturity; her body is fully mature without looking like it."
Kiyone turned a page. Her eyes widened. "A complete genetic
scan? How did you get this?" Kiyone looked at Edward in
perplexity. "Juraian genetics are one of the most closely
guarded secrets in the galaxy!"
"Probably better not to ask," Aeka muttered. "But there are some
anomalies here..."
"Edward already figured it out!" announced the gleeful hacker,
slowing rotating in place through the air. "Yugi's mother was
visiting Argon when its main reactor blew, twenty-three hundred
years ago! And she never underwent radiation cleansing!"
"You mean Yugi was a mutant?" asked Kiyone, startled.
Intent on the genetic, psycholayer, and astral pattern charts,
Aeka replied slowly, "The genes governing psychic abilities are
very, very unusual. The closest comparisons I can think of...
unaided, she must have been one of the most powerful individuals
in Juraian history! But there is no record of her ever being
registered with Psy Service."
"We could have Teruzi check that; she knows them."
"Edward already checked," Ed noted. "She wasn't."
"Not registering a psychic weapon of this magnitude is a capital
offense!" Aeka looked a bit shell-shocked. "What could her clan
have been thinking?!"
"They probably thought they had a shot at the throne. And thought
the prize worth the risk."
"Exactly!" Aeka seethed. "How DARE they plot to replace the
Jurai royal family! WE are the legitimate rulers, ever since my
great-great-grandfather staged his coup!"
Kiyone rolled her eyes and muttered to herself.
- - - - - - - - - -
Washuu escorted Tenchi out of her lab back into the living area.
"Hey, bubblehead," she called to Mihoshi. "Have you solved the
case yet?"
"Of course I have, Washuu," replied Mihoshi in puzzlement.
"Ryou-ou-ki did it. But nobody will let me arrest her."
Giggling, Mihoshi put out a hand and playfully scratched
Ryou-ou-ki behind one ear.
"Well, here'e one more tidbit you might be interested in. Yugi
definitely was the person who summoned Gozer the Destroyer here.
My recordings were unmistakeable once I analyzed them."
"That fits with what we have discovered," announced Aeka. "Yugi
was a powerful psychokinetic, never registered with the Jurai
government agency responsible for tracking such people."
Kiyone thought hard. "All we've done so far is uncover reason
enough to arrest her, if she was still alive. And clearly,
whoever killed her may have had good reason to do so, possibly
even self-defense. But we still don't know who killed her."
"Oh my," exclaimed Mihoshi. "I can't find my cube!" Mihoshi
patted herself down and felt carefully through her hair. Getting
up off the sofa, she unbuttoned her blouse, exposing her chest
right in front of Tenchi. "No, it didn't fall inside my shirt,
either," she noted, relieved.
"Is this the part where Mihoshi solves the case by accident?"
Sasami asked Washuu quietly.
Washuu nodded. "I think so."
"I must have dropped it on Yugi's body!" Mihoshi exclaimed. She
ran out of the living room into the parlor, where Yugi's stasis
coffin had been placed. Everyone else followed at a more
reasonable pace.
- - - - - - - - - -
Outside, by the lake, the conversation continued.
"I love you, Misao. Will you marry me?" asked Rumia.
Shyly, Misao glanced up at Rumia. "Ye... yes, Rumia. I will
marry you. I love you too, and I don't care what my family thinks
about my not marrying Prince Tenchi. They only cared about the
throne, anyway, never about me." Misao's face glowed with
happiness.
"You've made me so happy, Misao!" Gingerly, he kissed her.
- - - - - - - - - -
In the parlor, Mihoshi was just removing the cover of the stasis
coffin when everyone else arrived. Everyone except Mihoshi gasped
in surprise at the sight of the body, where Mihoshi's pink cube
sat squarely on top of the all-but-healed wound.
"Well, well, well," remarked Washuu. "Maybe Yugi's not so dead
after all."
Mihoshi, paying no attention to this, just grabbed her cube. "I
knew it had to be here," she crowed happily, then started putting
it back in her hair.
Yugi's eyes opened. "No..." she moaned. "Not yet..." Without
Mihoshi's cube, the hole through Yugi's middle started widening
again.
"Let me guess," Kiyone said, stepping up to the side of the
coffin. "You faked your own assassination and framed Ryou-ou-ki,
hoping to confuse us while you healed. Then we would all think
you dead, leaving you a free hand with your next evil plan."
"And I would have... gotten away with it, too..." Yugi gasped, "if
it weren't for... that... meddling..." Yugi's last pronouncement
came to a stumbling halt.
Washuu ran a small device up and down across the body. "Ah, I
see now. Her psychic aura is strong enough to persist even
without bodily support, at least for a while. But not strong
enough to do much more than steal Mihoshi's cube and use it
to heal herself. If we close the coffin again, and put a
couple of psychic dampeners on it, she should be helpless while
we ship her back to Jurai."
"Best to ship her directly to Psy Service for testing," Kiyone
proposed. "If they decide she's an illegally concealed psychic
weapon, her clan will be disgraced and imprisoned."
"Once again," Aeka pronounced, finger held high, "Justice
triumphs! And the Jurai Royal Family is safe once more!"
"Big whoop," Ryouko replied while twirling a finger.
"But _I_ think you're really cool, Aeka-oneechan," purred Alielle
sultrily, as she ran her hands over Aeka's body and rubbed her
chest against Aeka's back.
"How DARE you do such things to my royal person?" Aeka demanded,
grabbing Alielle off of her back and holding her up.
"You wouldn't mind if I were Ryouko," Alielle replied sullenly.
Red-faced, Aeka dropped Alielle and waved her hands in denial.
"No, No! It's Tenchi I want to do this and that with my body,
not Ryouko! Why would I ever think such thoughts about that
monster-woman?!"
Smirking, Ryouko laid one elbow on Aeka's shoulder and stage-
whispered, "That's not what you said last night..."
The explosion was clearly heard from the shrine up the hill.
- - - - - - - - - -
Later, over dinner:
"WHAT?!" Kiyone screamed.
"Oh, Kiyone, of course I'll be happy to do that for you!" Mihoshi
clapped her hands in delight.
Aeka chuckled; Ryouko guffawed. Sasami blushed.
Tenchi patiently took Kiyone's hand and looked her in the eyes.
"Kiyone, won't you do it for me? Live, for me?"
In a low voice, Kiyone replied, "If... if you ask it of me,
Tenchi. If you really want me to... then I will."
Alielle put one arm around Mihoshi and one around Kiyone.
"Then let's get started, right now!"
- - - - - - - - - -
THE END (for now).
This and other fanfics (including parts 1-8) stored at:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Dojo/5058
Hikaru, Fuu, and Umi (Magic Knights Rayearth) were created
by CLAMP; Rei and Asuka (NGE) are owned by Gainax;
Radical Edward is from "Cowboy Bebop";
Rumia and Misao are from Pretty Sammy;
Alielle is from El Hazard.
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