Disclaimer : Most characters in this story are property of AIC and Pioneer. They are in such a situation solely because of my imagination. This story was written purely for fun.

This FF is based on the TV Series, with some powers drawn over from the OAV, but with no Light Hawk Wings.

This story contains no sex, so please do not expect it.

Before I wrote this Fanfic, I have only read 2 Fanfics, Aikan Muyo and To Love & To Hate. Since then I have read some others, and have noted some writers have a tendency to portray some characters inaccurately. I hope I have not fallen into that trap.

That's about it, I'm a simple soul at heart...

DARKNESS & LIGHT - No Need For Kova

By Zyraen

Chapter V : No Need for Sunshine

"Where is Tenchi?" Ryoko asked, her eyes darting around.

Aeka did not speak up or stop stroking Anako’s fur, but she was equally perturbed. Did she have to look for him every morning just so she could eat her breakfast?

Sasami just sat and quietly ate her food. Aeka cast a sharp glance at her.

"You seem to be hiding something, Sasami."

"Do I?" Sasami’s green eyes opened wide.

"Do you happen to know where Tenchi is?"

"Er… erm, no."

Aeka frowned. Sasami never could lie convincingly.

Ryoko was quick on the uptake too. "Hey, Sasami, could you please tell us where Tenchi is?"

Sasami sighed, knowing they had seen through her. "Uh uh." She folded her hands and shook her head, her blue ponytails dancing around her. "Tenchi said I wasn’t to let you know." She watched as Aeka and Ryoko made as if to get up. "And, well, I think you needn’t look for him. If Tenchi doesn’t show up for breakfast, he’ll probably want both of you to eat first and not worry about him." Just to prove her point, the little princess continued munching her food.

"Say, where is Mihoshi?" Ryoko asked. "Didn’t she stay over last night?"

"I… switched off her alarm clock." Sasami answered. "I think Tenchi would have liked it if I did."

Aeka and Ryoko stared at each other, alarm bells going off in their heads.

Ryoko vanished as Aeka rushed up the stairs, their chopsticks still bouncing on the table top. Sasami stared after them, while Anako picked herself off the ground and went after Aeka. "You know," she said to no one in particular. "You really ought to trust Tenchi more. He really does like the two of you."

Sighing, she went back to her meal.

===========================================================

Kiyone stirred a little.

"Kova…" she seemed to say, and he felt her hands tighten around his. Turning to Tenchi, he nodded for him to come over.

"I have to. I’m not supposed to be here." He said soothingly, as he felt her grip tighten even more. "Relax…" Stroking her hand, he gently coaxed her fingers open, his eyes signalling to Tenchi to kneel beside him.

Tenchi watched as he ran his fingers through Kiyone’s green hair, and she sighed in contentment, her muscles relaxing, her grip falling lax. The man gently moved his other hand out from under her fingers.

"Thank you, Tenchi." He was already by the door to the outside, and then it shut behind him.

"Kova-chan…" Tenchi just managed to catch the sound of the words. He saw Kiyone’s fingers close gently in on air. "Kova..! Where…?" Her hands reached about wildly, as she sought to find him. "Where are you?" Louder now, he could hear her breathing rapidly.

"Kiyone, wake up." He shook her a little by her shoulders.

Her hands went limp, and her eyes opened slowly. Her vision was blurred, but gradually she managed to make out who was bent over her.

"Ko.. Tenchi!" Her eyes opened wide.

"Uh, yeah," he grinned sheepishly. "Tenchi. That’s me all right." It sounded stupid but that was all he could think of saying.

Kiyone sat up, and looked around frantically, eyes searching for someone.

Looking at her tortured expression, Tenchi wished he could tell her he had gone.

"Where is he?" She finally managed to say out, her head falling back onto her pillow.

"Where is who?"

"Him." She looked meaningfully at Tenchi, then at herself, with the covers placed neatly over her. "Where is he?"

"Who? What?" Tenchi tried to pretend he did not know. "There’s just me, Tenchi."

Kiyone looked skeptically at him, and reached out a hand. Tenchi looked at it, puzzled.

"Kiyone?"

"Give me your hand." She ordered. "I need to feel it."

"Uh, sure." Hesitantly, Tenchi did as she said. Her fingers closed around his hand, feeling his softer flesh, his thicker fingers.

Kiyone’s head bowed. "He was here, wasn’t he?"

"What? Who are you talking about?"

And that was when the dimensional door to Tenchi’s house burst open.

"TENCHII!" Two voices screamed.

"Huh?" Tenchi turned around and stared straight into Aeka and Ryoko’s eyes, all four of them utterly consumed by jealousy. The girls were rooted to the spot, practically frothing at the mouth.

"Kiyone!" Mihoshi giggled. "My, what a pleasant sight this is! I didn’t know you liked Tenchi too."

Tenchi and Kiyone both turned pale with dread. They looked at their hands held together, and as one, quickly snatched them away. Looking at the two horrified girls, they tried to visualise what the Ryoko and Aeka had seen.

Tenchi had been beside Kiyone, who was still… in bed.

Kiyone’s head had been bowed before Tenchi.

They had been holding hands.

Worse still - the night before, Kiyone had burst out crying as Tenchi hugged them…

Oh no. Tenchi thought. I’m dead.

Oh no. Kiyone thought. I’m dead.

They sat there and waited for the inevitable explosion from the princess and the space pirate that would blow them into irreparably microscopic smithereens. Already they could see orange sparks and motes of power crackling and focusing on Ryoko while the air around Aeka seethed and spat with sky blue energies.

"Hold everything!" A third party burst out from the door behind Mihoshi, Ryoko and Aeka.

"Huh?" Tenchi and Kiyone said together as the little princess, ponytails flying in the air, face set into a stony mask of determination, interposed herself between them and the two furious girls, hands held high.

"Stop this, Aeka! And Ryoko!"

"Scram, twerp!" Ryoko shouted. "Or I’ll send you to heaven too!"

"Get out of the way, Sasami!" Aeka commanded. "This is none of your business!"

"Yes it is!" Sasami shouted. "Now stand back! I can explain this!"

"We can explain this!" Tenchi added. "Really."

Ryoko, her eyes seething with rage, an orange plasma beam forming in her hand, replied bitterly. "Go right ahead."

Aeka folded her arms, still encapsulated by the shimmering power. "This had better good."

"Look, Aeka, Ryoko, Kiyone wasn’t feeling well yesterday, and Sasami checked on her this morning. She claimed she saw someone beside him, but," Tenchi steeled himself to lie again. "when I came here there was no one. Sasami was worried so I told her I’d handle the situation and she could go whip you all up some breakfast."

"Well, what else did you handle, Tenchi?" Ryoko asked acidly.

Kiyone sprang up out of her futon, green eyes flashing in anger. "Well, whatever he was handling, it was not me." She was still wearing the clothing she wore the night before.

"If you don’t mind me saying, Kiyone, but it really did seem like he was handling you, if not yourself, then at least a certain part of you." Aeka pointedly looked at her hand.

Only Sasami noticed Tenchi, who looked like he was going to cry.

"That was not his fault!" she informed the two older, angrier ladies. "Kiyone probably wanted to see if she had been dreaming or if it was him she was holding." She paused. "Which she wasn’t."

"And how do you know, Sasami?"

"I… I saw the shadow bent over her." One look at Sasami told them she was not lying. "And then when went to wake Tenchi… Honest! Maybe Mihoshi can tell us something?"

Oh no! Kiyone thought. This is it. The cat is out of the bag and on the loose.

"Oh, me?" Mihoshi looked surprised as all eyes turned on her. "Well," She giggled nervously, "I really don’t know, but I think Kiyone has got another…Oh. I’m not supposed to say it, am I?"

Whew, Kiyone sighed.

"Say what, Mihoshi?"

Kiyone’s heart sank.

"Well, Kiyone told me not to tell you that I had seen her out with another guy."

Great, just great. Kiyone thought.

"Oh, I see," Sasami smiled triumphantly at Aeka and Ryoko.

"Was he Tenchi?" Aeka pressed.

"Erm… I didn’t get to see his face, but he seemed a little taller than Kiyone."

"Are you absolutely sure?" Ryoko interrogated.

"Ur… No."

"So he could have been Tenchi, right?" Both of them said, and turned to face him again.

"So, what have you got to…?"

Tenchi was sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest and his face buried in his arms. Now that the girls were thinking rationally, they could hear him, sobbing to himself.

"Tenchi, are you all right?" Sasami hurried over, and knelt by his side.

Ryoko and Aeka still watched, stunned, as Kiyone stood by a window, furthest from them, facing the outside, the sun’s rays shining on her face.

"Why… why is Tenchi crying?" Ryoko asked.

"What’s wrong with Lord Tenchi?" Aeka questioned.

"Maybe…" Mihoshi tried meekly. "Just maybe… he’s erm… scared of you two?"

"No way!" Ryoko’s eyes widened. "No! He wouldn’t think that… would he?"

"We’d never hurt Lord Tenchi, never!" Aeka protested.

"It’s not that." Kiyone replied in an unnervingly calm voice. "Sasami, tell them."

"Well," Sasami said as she sat down beside Tenchi, her voice uncannily sober. "You see, Aeka, and Ryoko, after last night Tenchi was so happy with the two of you, he must have thought surely you would know what he must feel for you now."

Tenchi looked up, looking at Sasami with new eyes.

I didn’t know she was so perceptive.

"Go on, Sasami," he encouraged, wondering how deep this little lady could see.

"And, well, he was just so upset the two of you could think so poorly of him, and after he showed how much he cares for you both…" Sasami, patted Tenchi’s head, almost like she did to Ryo-oh-ki, and the eighteen year old blinked at her. "It must be very hard on him."

"Thank you, Sasami," Tenchi murmured, still trying to digest this new side to her.

"Don’t mention it, Tenchi!" Giggling in pleasure, the little princess skipped past the bewildered Ryoko and Aeka, past Mihoshi, and out through the dimension door. She passed through it and Ryo-oh-ki leaped on her shoulder and settled back on her head. "Thanks, Ryo-oh-ki! I wouldn’t have gone in if you hadn’t alerted me! Say, where’s Washu? I’d better go look for her in her lab."

"Mihoshi, let’s go, we’re late for work." Kiyone suddenly turned away from the window.

"Huh!? Kiyone, but I want to see…"

"No, Mihoshi," Kiyone firmly took her arm. "It’s almost eight thirty and we’re going to be late already."

"But Kiyone, I haven’t even eaten breakfast yet!" Mihoshi protested.

"Ryoko, Aeka, get Sasami to save our breakfasts, could you? We’ll have them for dinner." So saying, she dragged her reluctant partner out the main door.

Tenchi, Aeka and Ryoko were left alone, except for Anako, who was sitting down and watching the three of them rather curiously.

"Sasami’s right," Aeka broke the ice. "We have been very mean, haven’t we?"

"Well, maybe." Ryoko was a little unwilling to admit her own fault. "Still, I don’t expect we could think of anything else in the first place, seeing what we did."

"I understand." Tenchi sounded very weary and wretched. "It’s just that things don’t happen the way we expect them to."

"I know what you mean." Ryoko added. "Sometimes it’s like there’s this, this…"

"…force, this fate, that makes us move in at exactly the wrong time." Aeka finished.

"So, do you all forgive me?" Tenchi looked very pathetic, sitting on the floor, hiding himself behind his knees, eyes still a little wet.

"Lord Tenchi! You never have to ask me to forgive *you*!"

"Tenchi, between you and me, there is *nothing* to forgive."

Tenchi smiled, and stood up. "Only fate knows why it has been so kind to have the two most beautiful ladies I’ve ever known love me so much." His brown eyes shimmered with something resembling pride. "I’m really so glad."

His stomach emitted a loud rumble.

"Oh, er..." He subsided back to his nervous old self as the girls burst out laughing. "And hungry, I guess."

===========================================================

"There! I’ve almost finished," She announced triumphantly.

"Washu! Breakfast!" Sasami cried at the distant clump of red hair, obscured by a variety of machines. If Washu heard she certainly didn’t respond.

"The last touches… there! Completed!" Turning in Sasami’s direction. "Wanna see?"

"It’s the greatest capture device ever!" Washu-doll one.

"Created by the greatest genius ever!" Washu-doll two.

Out of courtesy, Sasami went over. "What is it, Washu?" She asked politely, looking with a certain amount of awe at the device Washu held in her hand, trying to ignore Ryo-oh-ki who was growling softly at Koneko, which was seated beside Washu. "It looks like a bracelet."

"Ah, so it may seem, but it is not!" Washu proudly announced. "This, Sasami, is the Stasis Discharger. It can totally immobilise everything within an volume of twenty-seven cubic metres in stasis!"

"That’s great, Washu, but I think you should be eating breakfast. Tenchi and the rest are probably eating already." Koneko mewed delightedly, as though it understood Sasami, and bounded half way to the door, then sort of waited, eyes pleading with Washu.

"Oh all right." Washu relented. "At least I can show off my latest invention after that."

===========================================================

Kiyone hummed as she worked with the lights, signalling vehicles to move here and stop there and unload that. Mihoshi was currently employed as a sort of servant for the contractors and workers, basically going out now and then to purchase refreshments. It had worked out, for even Mihoshi could not fail as badly as she did the first time with the truck backing into a hole.

Somehow, she felt a lot better this morning than yesterday night, no thanks to Tenchi, Ryoko and Aeka. It felt good to know that someone out there was willing to stand by her, no matter what.

Well, at least someone other than Mihoshi, that is.

She knew she had not thought seriously about it, in fact, she could almost feel herself deliberately avoiding thinking about it, by working, by humming. Given what she could guess what he was, the future didn’t seem very promising.

Yet it was very flattering, comforting even, to know he could not stop himself from coming to her side when she needed him, even though he had no way of knowing how much distress she was in.

Kiyone, Kiyone, what have you become! She chided herself.

You are so weak now! You used to be able to stand on your own, now you have to rely on him. You’re being too emotional, too illogical, you have failed to see things and notice things. How he doesn’t show up openly, how he always seems to melt in and out of your world, almost as though he was a wraith. He belongs to the dark, and he is afraid of the light. You don’t have to live with that.

No, it is not his fault. He is right to be wary.

"Break time! Mihoshi! Get the drinks here!."

"Coming!" Mihoshi huffed and puffed as she struggled over with a bag containing about seven two litre water bottles. Kiyone lowered her arms, placed the signal torches down and hurried over to help her partner.

What about Mihoshi?

In a way, she is attached to me, and I know it will be difficult for her to let me go, if she can ever bring herself to do that.

Thinking back to her Adventures in Time and Space, Kiyone thought about how Mihoshi had searched just about everywhere for her.

Will she do that? Will she still cling on to me even after…

Kiyone’s mind struck a dead end.

What? Exactly what was awaiting herself and Kova?

Her mind wandered back to that moment, in the apartment, as the two of them were clearing the table after their meal. That had felt… so natural, so right. But could it possibly happen? That lunch only yesterday seemed so distant, while the prospect of that seemed light years away.

Kiyone shook her head, expelling the hopelessness from that thought..

I am a person, I have my own will and strength. I can reach for the future, I can decide my destiny. I can bridge the gap to attain that.

That will be my goal.

===========================================================

"Want me to demonstrate?"

Tenchi looked at the golden band with a tiny hole on top of it, adorning Washu’s wrist. "Erm… no thanks. I don’t wish to be frozen into the next century, you know."

"Not on you, Tenchi!" Washu decided she was asking the wrong person. "Ryoko, what’d you like me to do with this?"

The space pirate looked at the device, now aiming at her. "Why not try it out on…" her shifty yellow eyes darted around, searching. "…Aeka’s dress!"

"Ryoko! What do you mean by that!?" Aeka shouted at her. Tenchi flinched inwardly.

"Why nothing princess, I would just like to see Washu’s device work, that’s all," Ryoko answered with surprise in her voice, her yellow eyes going ‘bambi’ style. "Why, what did you think was on my mind?"

"You know very well what was on it!" Aeka retorted tartly.

Washu expressed her impatience and annoyance by alternating between Ryoko and Aeka as targets with the Discharger, mentally doing an ‘Eenie meenie miny moe.’

"Washu, how does freezing a person help you handle your criminal?" Sasami asked.

"Well, it’s simple really," Aeka told her. "Washu just points it and zap, he’s frozen, and then we can do whatever we like with him."

"Nope, wrong, princess." Washu commented, and Ryoko, noting Tenchi’s eyes on her, restrained herself from making a face at the perturbed princess. "This Stasis Discharger takes time to fire, and the ray does not move particularly quickly. However, I’ve set some extra parameters so that the device can detect the source of a Tachyon Ray emission. That way, if he sets off a Tachyon blast, the stasis device will encapsulate them just before the ray can fire, as it requires some charging time."

"So how does that help?" Tenchi looked skeptical. "You said we can’t do anything to anything within the Stasis Field, so we’re stuck with that. Then we release him so we can apprehend him and the world blows up. Great."

"You are rather bright for an earthling," Washu commented rather sharply. Then her eyes narrowed and her mouth became a stern, cold line. "But you are in no position to challenge me, so step down." She cleared her throat again, ignoring Tenchi’s embarrassment and continued as though she hadn’t said anything. "What we can do is that we can move the Stasis cell and its occupants into an alternate dimension, so the tachyon blast can go off there, then we can bring the occupants back and apprehend them." Arching her eyebrows at Tenchi. "Any comments?"

There was silence round the table, except for Ryo-oh-ki’s soft growling at Koneko and Anako, despite Sasami soothingly stroking her on the head.

"Well, I suppose all that means is that we just have to look for the person now and take him down, is that it?" Ryoko asked.

"Yes, it is." Washu replied. "We don’t need to worry about him using the Ray now."

"Oh, and I guess the part about not knowing who or what or where he is, and about him being any out of a hundred and fifty-six space criminals can be conveniently overlooked."

Washu glared so hard at Ryoko the pirate could feel her animosity wishing her the very best time as a kappa. Then to her surprise, the scientist turned to Tenchi and screamed, "Tenchiii!"

Everyone looked at Washu in surprise, and Tenchi looked at her with bulging eyes. "Washu?"

"Tell her to take care of her mouth!" she wailed.

Tenchi blinked. This was strange, usually Washu just took care of such things herself. "How?"

"Very well, then don’t ask me to change her back." The computer terminal popped out before her and her fingers hovered over it.

"Wait, Washu!" he cried frantically. Then his eyes turned to Ryoko. "Ryoko! Can’t you keep your mouth shut!"

"But…"

"Keep quiet! I don’t want to hear a word more from you!" Tenchi saw her flinch, and he felt sorry he had to hurt her so, but he didn’t want her as kappa and he hoped she understood.

Ryoko didn’t know what to think. It hurt badly to have Tenchi shout at her this way, but her common sense told her the more vehement his orders, the more he loved her. Yet she couldn’t help it, her heart ached anyway. It had always been that way when it came to Tenchi.

Washu smirked at them. Now that was a fitting punishment. She never was a sadistic person, but it irked her to be irritated twice, once by Tenchi and then by Ryoko, as though they were above her.

Aeka watched, trying to ignore the nagging unease in her head. Unlike Ryoko, she had been brought up to know the value of punishment for your own good, and to her, the sharp tone in Tenchi’s voice only said how much he valued Ryoko.

Washu looked at Aeka’s dark expression, then she sighed. "You know, the three of you have a lot to learn. Come, Koneko, we need to unwind." Heading for the TV, she quickly found the morning programs lacking in taste and variety, while the four of them stared at her in some kind of collective apoplexy. "Sasami, anything you’d like particularly to do?"

"No. Why?"

"Well, there’s nothing good on TV so I’ll be going back to my lab now."

"But Washu, what are you going to do there?"

"I don’t know, think of some way to find the Ray? I have a hunch the owner is here on this planet, but that’s all it is, a hunch. I hope he’s not already gone to sell it."

Aeka’s brows furrowed. "If it gets into the hands of the SSS, Jurai will be in serious trouble."

"Exactly, so I really have to get this job done quickly."

The three of them watched as the red head disappeared into her lab, followed by Koneko.

"You know," Sasami commented, looking a little sad. "I think Washu has changed a little. She’s more, well, serious now. She’s not so fun anymore."

"I know, Sasami," Aeka stroked Ryo-oh-ki who was perched on Sasami’s head, staring at Anako. She had stopped growling at the two kittens a while earlier, though still notably unhappy about their presence in the household. "But Washu really has something very serious on her hands."

"I understand, Aeka."

===========================================================

"I’m sorry," the bespectacled doctor told the customer for what seemed like the thirteenth time. "But I don’t do that anymore. It’s only a first day promotional offer."

"Well, couldn’t you at least try, doctor? I’ve heard so much about you."

"Oh, all right," he sighed. "I’ll try, but if I get it wrong you mustn’t think too poorly of me."

Smiling, the man sat back and awaited the doctor’s analysis.

"Let’s see. A slight fever, sore throat, and… a headache?" He laughed to himself as he saw the man’s face droop a little in disappointment.

"Nope. I’ve only got a slight fever and a headache. No sore throat." He peered curiously at the doctor. "Care to tell me how you got three out of two?"

"Trade secrets." As always, his same old excuse.

How did the commoners do this? How did they carve a niche for themselves and yet remain so innocuous?

He watched as the customer left his room, holding the medicine. He had just meant the ailment prognostication thing to be a gimmick, an attraction. After this they would come to him not for the advice, but for the treatment. Dr Kashiro was quite certain every one of his diagnoses was right. After all, he had excelled in the Chemistry, Medicine and Biology at the Academy.

I don’t have to be on the run anymore. I can settle down, live a normal life. After my education at the Academy, I can go anywhere, do anything.

He thought to himself as another patient entered.

No, they’ll come after me sooner or later. They always do so. As long as records of my existence is around, and *he* is alive. I’ll bet he has been thinking of where I could have been.

Kova thought back to the Science Academy. Every five years since his entry into the university, an SSS ambassador would come snooping along to the chairman. He knew they were looking for his files, he had seen lines of students who had joined the Academy near the time he vanished called up for examination. Fortunately he had had the foresight to bribe some of the administrators, so they put him down as enrolled six years before then.

Then there were the spies. No doubt some of them had other duties like to steal weapons’ technology, but he kept an eye on them nevertheless. Once in a while he would intercept some of their information and edit it a little, but other than that he tried to make it seem the information flow out of the Science Academy was normal. He had also studiously ensured his results at the Academy were never too outstanding to be noticed, or people might approach him and his identity revealed. Not that it was his face he was worried about, it was totally different from that in his files.

Strangely though, even though he had chosen a guise about thirty odd and rather ordinary, some females would still go after him. He had a hard time restraining his desires, although none of them really appealed to him, because they had been, well, too forward. As for Washu, he somehow sensed she thought he was a lot brighter than most, although his grades were only slightly above mediocre.

As things were, Kiyone could be said to be the first person in thirty years to have seen his true face, even then still missing one feature.

Even now, he asked himself if that was wise. Washu would come back looking for him, no doubt about that, but to be so caught up with someone so near her was a peril he had never dared placed himself in before. No doubt the SSS agents would be keeping an eye on her, too.

Maybe Kiyone-chan could persuade Washu to be merciful with me, as long as I turned over whatever technology she deemed should not be on the Shuriken.

No. Even if she agreed, the SSS would capture and slay me if I came into contact with Washu.

Shaking his head, he tried to clear the disturbing doubts. On this backwater planet, he had not caught even a whiff of the Syndicate presence, something he was usually keenly on the look out for. Of course, Kiyone was a distraction (he allowed himself a smile as he thought of her) and he had only been here for four days.

But what would he do if his previous agency caught up with him? He would have to run, but how could he leave her? And then the Syndicate would tell the GP forces to co-operate, and then she would…

Would she?

There was no doubting the depth of feeling she had for him, as last night had told him, but then he also suspected she was a person who could detach herself from her actions. She had a strong mind and will, but was it strong enough to completely separate desire from duty?

He really wasn’t sure.

Dr Kashiro smiled his thanks upon receiving another consultancy fee, waited till the person left, before slumping forward onto his desk.

===========================================================

The noon sun beat down on his forehead, and he wiped his sweaty brow with his free hand. The soil shifted as the carrot moved, shifted, before finally emerging from the soil, to the sound of a joyful yelp from Ryo-oh- ki.

"Not now, Ryo-oh-ki! These carrots will have to last you for a week at least," Tenchi warned the cabbit. She looked up at him, seemed to think for a bit, then joyfully returned to nibbling the carrot.

Tenchi sighed. Some things just never changed. He’d have to go faster to keep up with Ryo-oh-ki’s rapid consumption.

His hand went around another stump of green along the neatly planted rows, and suddenly he felt something land on him. Something soft, warm and familiar wrapped around him.

"Ryoko!" His tone was a little bothered.

"My, what’s wrong, Tenchi?" He could feel her warm breath as she whispered into his ear. "Is having some shade from the sun too much for you to handle, hmm?"

"Let go of me!"

"Why, Tenchi? Whatever’s wrong?"

"I can’t work with you on my back! You’re not weightless, you know!"

"Oh, is that it?" Ryoko smiled a bright smile Tenchi could not see and used her ability to fly.

The weight vanished from Tenchi’s back, but Ryoko’s proximity was in no way reduced.

"Ryoko?"

"Like it this way?" His eyes widened as she kissed him gently on the cheek.

Tenchi thought about the perspiration on his face. "Don’t you find that a little… yucky, Ryoko?"

"Is it?" He heard her flick her tongue, licking her lips. "Mmm, it tastes exquisitely you. That doesn’t seem very yucky," she lowered her voice, giving it a husky, sultry tone. "In fact, it’s perfect."

Tenchi gulped. "Just get off me, please?"

"You don’t like it?" Ryoko sounded surprised. "Need me to squeeze you harder, mmm?" Tenchi felt her finger twiddling and pressing his chest the way she always did it. "Or hold you somewhere else?" Her other hand wandered down from Tenchi’s shoulder.

"Ryoko! Get off!" He ordered.

"But you said yesterday I could hold you anytime you were alone, except in the toilet or bath!" Her voice was plaintive. "And don’t you dare tell me we’re not alone because Ryo-oh-ki’s here!" Despite her usual playful tone, Tenchi realised there was an underlying note of frustration in her words.

"I’m sorry, Ryoko, but I have work to do."

"Then do it! I’ll watch."

"Don’t you get it!? I can’t do it with you on my back!"

"Tenchiii!"

"Weightless or not, I really can’t. Please, Ryoko."

He heard her snarl in frustration and hurt, then she was off him. Forcing himself not to turn back to see where she was or what she was doing, Tenchi quickly returned to plucking carrots, reminding himself that Ryo-oh- ki was already starting on her fifth one.

High in the sky, Ryoko looked down at him, anger seething in her as he pulled out one, then two carrots from the ground, leaving small pits in their place.

I wish I could blast this carrot field away! Anything that gets between me and Tenchi must be destroyed!

Tenchi turned to toss a carrot into the basket he had left beside Ryo-oh- ki, and she caught a glimpse of his face. It was cheery as he saw Ryo-oh- ki meow back gratefully yet at the same time diligent, and it was all born of an emotion within him.

That pleasure, that peace of mind… just like when I pull off a really big job.

Work is part of Tenchi, part of what he stands for, Ryoko realised.

Even if I demolished the things around him, I could not change that part of him. All I would do is turn him against me.

Ryoko floated for a moment, contemplative. She remembered how happy she had been when she and Tenchi had robbed countless banks during their adventures in Time and Space, how wonderful it had been to be on a journey together, just she and Tenchi, just the two of them.

Tenchi. He had made it all seem better, just by being with her, doing the things she liked.

Tenchi looked up as a carrot sailed over his head and landed into the basket. Ryoko was bent over a hole where a carrot once occupied, smiling at him. She vanished and worked on the next one. It came out with a pop and he watched as she tossed it over his head, but this time it landed along the edge of it and bounced out.

Ryoko frowned, but before she could do anything, Tenchi had reached over and placed it into the basket, before turning back to her, his face somehow more radiant than it was before, then he returned to his work.

The space pirate caught herself smiling. Somehow, there was something in a honest day’s work, something she had never seen in it before.

She looked at Tenchi, working in earnest now, but the light had not faded from his face, and she caught him looking at her out of his sincere, brown eyes. She had thought Tenchi would praise her, maybe thank her, for helping him, but now she realised she was wrong.

There was no need for words between them.

===========================================================

It was only about two o’clock in the afternoon when they had cleared the carrot fields. Tenchi went over the basket, and picked Ryo-oh-ki out by the nape of her neck, before setting her down on the ground with the carrot she had sunk her teeth into. Ryoko materialised before him, stooping down in preparation to help him lift the basket onto his back.

"Ryoko, wait."

She looked up, and saw his demeanour was still uplifted and euphoric. "Tenchi?" she managed to get out as she watched him step over to her.

Brown eyes glittering, Tenchi grinned dangerously and threw himself on Ryoko.

Her yellow eyes opened wide as she felt him hug her, his arms holding her tight to him, almost as though he was Ryoko and she was Tenchi.

Oh god, that felt great!

After what seemed like a fraction of a second, although it was well over a minute, Tenchi let go of her and stood back, regarding her intently, almost proudly.

Then the hesitation returned to his face. "Er, Ryoko, was that okay with you?" He asked nervously. "I’m sorry but I’m a little wet now, hope you didn’t mind…"

"Me, mind that!" Ryoko laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. "Tenchi, you idiot, that was just wonderful! I’m sweating just like you are, anyway," her voice took on a seductive nuance. "Besides, some day I’d love to make you get *really* wet…"

Tenchi took a step back, his face going scarlet. "But we’re…" He forced himself to think before he spoke, trying to play out the conversation in his mind.

‘But we’re not married yet!’

‘Then let’s get married, now!’

‘But I can’t…’

‘Why?’ And then Ryoko would think of Aeka.

It just wasn’t right for him to spoil such a moment for Ryoko, not if he could help it.

Ryoko peered curiously at Tenchi, who was staring into space, his skin still beetroot red.

Is he thinking about it? Is he *actually* thinking about it?

Sometimes Ryoko just wished he had a little more of Nobuyuki’s spirit.

He looked back at her, a slight smile on his face. "Let’s go back, Ryoko," trying to keep his face straight and the red down. It would never do to give her the impression he was looking forward to what she had said she’d love to do, because if she thought he did enough, she *would* do it.

Ryoko’s eyes widened in surprise. Now *that* was a first. Tenchi always would go scarlet and say something like "Ryoko! Stop…" whatever it was she was doing. Now he, still smiling to himself as though in a pleasant dream, had placed Ryo-oh-ki back onto the ground again, and the red had almost vanished from his face.

Maybe he’s finally willing to love me…

"Ryoko, do you mind helping me with this?" Tenchi tried to get the basket on his back. Ryoko laughed, knowing full well he could manage by himself, and went over, hefting the basket up as Tenchi slid under it. Then the three of them proceeded back to the house, Ryoko by Tenchi’s side, with Ryo-oh-ki perched on her shoulder, nibbling away at yet another carrot.

Somehow, Ryoko thought back to the days of robbing banks, only this time, while Tenchi was carrying the carrots, he was not really carrying his booty. It was walking beside him.

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Somehow, Kiyone expected something to turn up from the moment her shift at Mos Burger ended to the time she got back to work at the Fujima Florists cum Delivery Department, but nothing showed up. Oh well, she had eaten lunch at Tenchi’s place and collected the remnants of the breakfast she and Mihoshi missed, and unlike Mihoshi, who had wolfed it all down on their way from Mos to Fujima, Kiyone was snatching small pieces of food between her work. After all, Sasami’s food still retained much of their flavour even though it was cold already.

She let her mind wander back to lunch, knowing full well she could handle the flowers well enough. Washu had been there at lunch, and she had briefed Kiyone and Mihoshi about the Tachyon Ray case as well. She played the conversation back in her mind.

"So, Washu, did this person steal any other technology from the Academy we may have to deal with?" She had asked.

"Well, maybe one or two things, nothing we can’t handle," Washu replied, not making eye contact with Kiyone.

"Washu! We have to know!"

"Don’t worry about it! Basically it’s just about the Tachyon Ray. The rest can be safely ignored."

"Like?" Tenchi looked skeptical.

"Oh, if you really want to know, there’s an EMP device, Stealth and Miniaturisation technology, and a Dimensional Rift Creator." Washu continued eating as though she weren’t saying anything of import. "Like I said, nothing we can’t handle."

"Wait a minute," Kiyone had sounded uneasy. "Isn’t a dimensional rift creator like the door upstairs to my apartment, or like the door to your lab?"

"My, everyone seems to be catching on pretty quick nowadays, huh?" Washu’s eyes sidled from Kiyone to Tenchi and back again. "Must be the influence of such a great, cute genius scientist like me!"

Aeka and Ryoko looked nonplussed at the slight to their intelligence, while Sasami and Mihoshi just listened attentively, the former not bothering with it, the latter missing her point completely.

"So that means he can get away anytime he likes, right, Washu? The way we did with your door."

"Perhaps. Maybe, but not to worry, my computer can trace any alterations in dimensional flux, so we’ll know where he emerges!" Washu smiled. "Nothing to worry about!"

Kiyone looked crossly at Washu. "What you’re telling me is that we can’t catch him!"

"Well, not easily, anyway." The scientist looked a little sheepish.

"What about the door upstairs?" Sasami asked. "We could use that to pursue him, couldn’t we?"

"Well, it’s linked to an artificial wormhole to Kiyone’s apartment, that’s why its current range is so far. If we detach it, it will only be the same as before, eight hundred metres."

"And his device has a range of…?"

"No idea." Washu shrugged, at a loss. "Given his intelligence and the data at his fingertips, it could range from anything between three hundred metres to over several light years."

"Why so far?" Ryoko pressed. "If he could do that, why couldn’t our genius scientist do it too?"

"I have reason to believe his ship can travel through the subspace dimension."

"WHAT?"

"If he opens a rift directly here and somewhere else, he could only get at most around a kilometre away. However, his ship size, as from the Academy project records, is estimated to be able to fit into a dimensional rift, and he has the technology to make it operate normally in that alternate dimension." Washu had often employed devices there, so she knew he probably could. She still wondered why she had never thought of using subspace to travel. "In that case, he could simply open a rift to another dimension, and travel through there to another spot where he could open a rift and return back to this plane of existence."

"How long he’d take to cover that distance?"

"Well, somewhat longer, but not significantly. It could be twenty minutes, say, to traverse to a point where he can re-enter our world ten light years from where he left it."

Kiyone, Tenchi, Aeka and Ryoko all face-faulted. "That is NOT a problem!?"

"Of course not!" Washu laughed. "Given the EMP weapons his ship probably has, he could disable just about any ship’s offensive systems, shields and engines, then blow them up at his leisure with his lasers. Or he could just Tachyon Ray an entire GP battle fleet. Not to mention the fact his ship is practically undetectable and untargetable, in other words, invincible. Why would he have to run?"

It was at this point Kiyone had suddenly an intense fear.

Could it be? Really?

Even now, as she worked at the florists’, she could not shake the feeling of unease.

No ordinary criminal would be so intelligent, nor remain for so long undetected in the Academy.

No ordinary criminal would be so discreet about having such powerful weapons. She could name almost any number of space pirates and criminals who would give half their body to possess such a ship, or even just the Tachyon Ray. Even Ryoko, she was certain, would happily go on a universal rampage with such a ship, obliterating everything Kiyone had ever stood for, and creating almost utter chaos. Yet since Washu arrived, no news have been heard of any disturbances.

And the strangest thing of all - who would possibly set up such an intricate and flawless escape system when he never ever had to be afraid or run away from anything? (unless he knew what Washu was up to, of course, with her Stasis Field)

The seed of doubt planted in Kiyone’s mind began to grow.

===========================================================

He sat back, shocked. The data coming in was close to unbelievably fantastic. The greatest, most deadliest ship - invisible, invincible. If he got it, the SSS would conquer all of existence, with him as its sole and undisputed ruler!

He sat back and thanked destiny for playing him such a nice deck of cards, putting him as overseer of this operation.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he continued reading through the transmission, then delivered his verdict.

"Proposal not approved." He relayed. "Wait until Terminus has had more positive information about the location of the spy and his ship before any action is taken to alarm them. If you find the spy, seize him at all costs. Proposal not required."

He thought again.

"Satellite mission priority to be altered, with original objective as secondary to assisting or executing Terminus’ objective."

=== End of Chapter ===

NEXT CHAPTER : No Need for a Perfect Evening

NOTES: Kova is in a way, an SIed character. Pls include him in your comments, whether I have portrayed him as a person, as a friend or foe, as one of the gang, and most importantly, as a human being.

I hope you have enjoyed this Fanfic as much as I have typing it. If there are any more grammar errors, I beg your forgiveness, as my sole proofreader is myself.

This is my first FF, so go ahead and mail me at zyraen@yahoo.com with comments, especially on character portrayal, realism.

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