borgward@informatik.tu-muenchen.de (Michael Borgwardt)


                              A NECESSARY STEP

                      or: What if Tenchi had a spine?


                          A Tenchi Muyo fanfiction

                        by Michael "Brazil" Borgwardt
                    (borgward@informatik.tu-muenchen.de)

<disclaimer>
Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki and its characters are copyrighted by AIC/Pioneer, I
don't have any rith to do this but I did it anyway.
The rights to this story, however, are mine.
</disclaimer>

This is my first attemp at writing fanfiction. Actually it's my first
attempt at fiction, I just hope it works out well. I've recently gotten
into fanfiction and now I decided to do something against the serious
lack of TM fanfics.

The idea for this story derived from discussions on the Tenchi ML and
r.a.a.m. Some people claimed that Tenchi's passive behaviour is in fact
the best thing he can do under the given circumstances, and I disagreed
vehemently. Of course this means I have to provide alternatives. Since
many people find the obvious step (choose Ryoko. Yes, I'm a pro-Ryokist)
hard to accept, I had to look a bit further, and here's the result.

Rather ironic, isn't it? I start out saying that I don't like Tenchi and
end up writing a first-person narrative from his POV.

Actually, there's one short paragraph where I leave the first person POV
briefly. I did notice the breach of style, but that passage is just too
good to remove it... So I put it into [square brackets]. if you are a
nitpicker, don't read the paragraph in square brackets!

Enough drivel, here's the story:

                    -----------------------------------

I felt that I was slowly drifting out of slumberland and into the waking
world, and I hated that feeling. Sleep meant peace, and that commodidiy
had been becoming more and more difficult to come by in the last months.
Nightmares? I never had any, probably because my waking time was bad
enough already.

Of course now it was too late and I knew it. No amount of analyzing
would enable me to sleep again now, it was actually achieving the opposite.
I sighed and gave up, opened my eyes and noticed that several things
were not quite right.

For starters, Ryoko wasn't there. It recently had become a habit of hers
to spend the nights in my room, floating above my bed and scaring the
daylights out of me when I woke up. What did she think, that I was a baby
that couldn't even sleep on its own? Needless to say, my protests hadn't
made the least bit of an impression on her. Or had they? She wasn't here
today, maybe she was actually beginning to listen to what I said.

But her absence wasn't the only unusual thing. It was also way too dark.
I looked at the window. No, as always the shutters were not completely
closed. I peeked through the gap. It was still pretty dark outside. A
look at my alarm clock confirmed that it was a lot earlier than my usual
rising time, still 5.22am.

Then I noticed the quiet. No Sasami preparing breakfast and calling at
my father if he could please get her something from the larder, no
Aeka and Ryoko starting a fight about an imaginary offense. It was
wonderful.

I had an idea. I got up and looked at the calendar. Sunrise was still
twenty minutes away, so I had enough time to wash and get dressed and then
watch the sun rise over the lake. It would be beautiful.

While quickly going through my morning routine, I once again thought about
the mess I had gotten into, about Ryoko and Aeka, about Tsunami and Kagato,
and about the Juraian royal family. The hope that I could ever again lead a
normal, peaceful life was starting to appear increasingly futile, I could
as well give it up.

Stop it! I scolded myself. No wonder you can't find peace if you can't get
your problems out of your mind even when there is a moment of calm. I
finished dressing and went downstairs. Still enough time left, no need to
hurry, not on such a perfect morning.

                    -----------------------------------

As I went through the living room, I discovered why Ryoko hadn't been in
my room. She was sleeping on the couch, an almost empty bottle of sake on
the floor. I went over and looked at her. She lay there in a semi-foetal
position, hugging a pillow. I marvelled at how cute she was and the
look of innocence and defenselessness on her face. How could this lovely
girl be the same person who spent half of her time trying to seduce me
and the other half fighting escalating battles with Aeka?

Not wanting to wake her up and witness the change firsthand, I went outside.
It was even more beautiful than I had expected, with the birds singing,
tendrils of morning mist rising from the lake and the brightening eastern
sky announcing the approach of sunrise. I took a deep breath of the slightly
chilly morning air, streched my arms and yawned comfortably, for once at
peace with myself and the world.

"Good morning, Tenchi-sama!" announced a pleasant and calm voice that
nonetheless set my nerves on edge and immediately cut short my feelings
of harmony. Aeka.

But I would not allow anything or anyone to interfere with my enjoyment of
this morning, I quickly resolved. "Good morning Aeka-san" I replied and
sat down on the bench, as far away from her as I could without being obvious
about it, and looked straight ahead at the lake.

"It is a beautiful morning, isn't it, Tenchi-sama?" asked she and I knew
that I had no chance at all of avoiding a conversation with her, one that
would invariably contain lots of hints at our kinship, our shared Juraian
blood and the general beauty of planet Jurai. Hint, hint. Nudge, nudge.

"Hai, sou desu. Uhm, do you often come here to watch the sun rise?"

"Every morning, actually. If I can. It is traditionally part of the
 education of princes and princesses on Jurai to have them rise early
 enough in the morning to greet the sun goddess and thank her for making
 the trees and plants grow and give life to everything that breathes."

"That... is a nice custom."

"It helps me to feel a bit at home here, even though I'm so far away from
 Jurai. Even if it's not the same sun, the familiar ritual evokes many
 pleasant memories."

There was an uncomfortable pause. I tried to think of something to say,
but couldn't come up with anything. Fortunately, Aeka continued:

"I miss Jurai, but I'm also a bit frightened by the though of how much it
 must have changed in the 700 years that Sasami-chan and I spent in
 hibernation. And if I went there, I fear that my father would not let me
 go again. And then I could not see you again, Tenchi-sama."

Ugh, here she goes, I thought to myself. Then my heart skipped a beat as
I suddenly felt her against my arm. While we were talking, Aeka had covered
the distance between us, and with her last words leaned against me. When
I looked at her, she quickly looked away, blushing intensively. I wondered
how much of it was for real and how much was show. You could never tell
with Aeka. She looked at me again and moved in for the kill.

"Jurai is very beautiful, especially the area around the royal palace.
 you should see the royal gardens at dawn, they are so beautiful. I have
 yet to see anything that could match them. Especially the...  Oh, look
 Tenchi-sama! Here she comes, the sun! Excuse me."

She stood up, walked a few steps towards the lake and began a complicated
ritual, that involved slow, graceful gestures, kneeling down and standing up
several times while she was softly singing a simple yet melodious song in
a tongue that I didn't understand.

I sighed and silently thanked the sun goddess too, for saving me from Aeka's
advances. Though hers weren't as... embarassing as Ryoko's, they were just
as unsettling in their own way. Aeka *did* look very peaceful as she went
through her ritual, but I knew exactly that she would come back at me as
soon as she was done. There was just no way that I could get these two
girls to stay away from me for any amount of time unless...

I had been thinking about it for some weeks now. Although the prospect of
actually doing it frightened me pretty badly, I had not been able to come
up with a more promising idea. The situation had been steadily getting
worse, something definitely needed to be done about it before things got
ugly. And even if the best solution still was going to get me into a lot of
trouble, I really should not let it stop me. Tenchi Masaki, what kind of man
are you that you're positively terrified to take a clearly necessary step?
I knew the answer, of course, but it wasn't exactly helpful.

As I watched Aeka, I realized that this might be the best chance I would
ever get to put my plan into action. We were alone, no-one would interrupt
us and Aeka was in a singularly peaceful mood. Yes. Now or never, I decided
with grim determination and waited for Aeka to finish. She stopped, turned
around to look at me and was about to say something when I interrupted her.

"Please sit down, Aeka-san. There is something I have to tell you."

She complied, looking at me curiously. "What is it, Tenchi-sama?"

"I have thought about this a lot, and I have been trying to tell you for
 some time now, but there never was an occasion until  now. I also was
 a bit afraid, but now I can't delay it any more."

A look at Aeka's face where the sun had just risen for the second time
today made me stop. Oh no, she was jumping to conclusions, and most
certainly not to the correct ones!

[Aeka's mind reeled with overjoyed anticipation. He was finally going to
 tell her, to admit his eternal love for her! It hadn't been affection for
 that demon woman that had kept him away from her, he had only been too
 shy, just like herself! But now those barriers had been broken, and their
 boundless love would bloom in... ]

I had to act quickly now, before she gained enough composure to pull a
Ryoko, or I wouldn't anymore be able to say my lines.

"Aeka-san, you have to realize that I do not love you, not in the way
 that you seem to think that I do."

                    -----------------------------------

Aeka's face was a mask of absolute shock.

"Tenchi-sama! That... can't be !!"

"Yes it can. Aeka-san, I do like you very much and I don't want to hurt
 you. But you have never asked me about *my* feelings and yet you have
 taken my love for granted. And your constant fighting with Ryoko-san
 is not..."

With every word I spoke Aeka looked hurt more badly. I couldn't take it
anymore and looked down, that's why I didn't spot the change immediately
and was surprised by a cry of rage. When I looked up again, Aeka's pretty
face was a grimace of pure fury. Through clenced teeth she hissed:

"So it is that demon who has turned your heart against me, probably
 with the help of that lunatic mother of hers! But I'll teach them a
 lesson they won't forget!"

As she was about to turn around and storm into the house, I caught
her by the shoulder.

"Stop! This has nothing to do with Ryoko-san!"

That, at least, got through to her and she stopped, looking confused.

"But you said..."

"Me feelings for her are the same as for you. I like you both as friends
 but I am not ready for the kind of relationship you want, and neither
 are you, I think."

"But I *love* you, Tenchi-sama!"

"I do not doubt that you have strong feelings for me. But love means to
 really care for the other one, to value his needs and opinions as much
 as your own. You don't have to defeat Ryoko to win my love, but you *do*
 have to change your attitude a lot! I am not a prize to be won, Aeka-san."

Her expression suddenly brighted up.

"That means if I change my behaviour, you will love me?"

"I would certainly appreciate it. But there still is Ryoko-san. She loves
 me too, and I don't want to hurt her."

Again she looked as If she was about to cry.

"So you *do* care more about her than about me!"

"No. I will tell her the same things that I'm now telling you. As I said,
 I like you both very much, but if I chose one of you, the other one would
 be hurt terribly, and I simply can't do that. I guess if I were really in
 love, that wouldn't matter to me, so it seems that I'm not. It is rather
 difficult to love someone who assumes to know all about your feelings
 without ever asking you."

Now the tears started to come.

"Please... excuse me, Tenchi-sama. I will... think about what... you said."

Sobbing, she bowed and ran into the house. As I watched her, I really hated
myself for what I had done. No matter how often I told myself that it had
been necessary and that the truth was better for herself as well as for me,
it couldn't change the fact that I had hurt a person who loved me, and hurt
her very badly.

And was about to do it again. There was no going back now, I *had* to tell
Ryoko the same. I shuddered at the thought of how *she* would take it.
Somehow, fighting Kagato seemed like child's play when compared to the
challenges brought about by living with two girls who are in love with you.

I went inside the house.

                    -----------------------------------


That's it for now, guys. Please DO tell me how you liked it.
You can reach me at: borgward@informatik.tu-muenchen.de

(And don't hold back with criticism, I really can take it. I want to improve,
 so I need to have my mistakes pointed out. Including spelling, grammar and
 expression mistakes, since English is not my native language.)

Thanks go to all the people who gave me C&C: Ryan and the rest of the FFML,
Sarah and Federico. Since their practically unanimous reaction was "Write
a continuation!", that's what I'll do, when and if I find the time...

This and future works of me can be found at:
http://www.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/~borgward/goodies.html


EOF

-- 
Michael "Brazil" Borgwardt / 089-3616887 / borgward@informatik.tu-muenchen.de
   Member of #WASHU# and initiate of the Church of Washu-chan, goddess of
   science, humor and everything and Her prophetess Ryoko the Magnificent.
--------------- Let`s shake the dew off this lily, shall we ? ---------------
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       search_env = 'http://search51.lycos.com/a/';
    }

var search_term = encodeURIComponent(document.search.search2.value)
var search_url = search_env+search_term;
window.open(search_url);

return false
}
</script-->
<style>
    .adCenterClass{margin:0 auto}
</style>
<div id="tb_ad" class="adCenterClass" style="display:block!important; overflow:hidden; width:916px;">

<div id="ad_container" style="display:block!important; float:left; width:728px ">
<script type="text/javascript">
if (typeof lycos_ad !== "undefined" && "leaderboard" in lycos_ad) {
  document.write(lycos_ad['leaderboard']);
}
</script>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
if (typeof lycos_ad !== "undefined" && "slider" in lycos_ad) {
  document.write(lycos_ad['slider']);
}
</script> <!-- added 7/22 -->
<div id="FooterAd" style="background:#DFDCCF; border-top:1px solid #393939; clear:both; display:none; width:100%!important; position:relative; z-index:999999!important; height:90px!important"> 
<div class="adCenterClass" style="display:block!important; overflow:hidden; width:916px;">
<div id="footerAd_container" style="display:block!important; float:left; width:728px">
<iframe id="lycosFooterAdiFrame" style="border:0; display:block; float:left; height:96px; overflow:hidden; padding:0; width:750px"></iframe>
</div>
</div>
</div>