When he arrived home from school that day, Tenchi’s mood hadn’t really improved. “I think it’s getting bigger,” he groused as he gently massaged the bump on his forehead.
Sasami handed him an ice pack to help with the bump’s swelling. “I really think you should let Washu-chan take a look at that.”
The young Juraian princess’ opinion was almost enough to get Tenchi to reconsider heading down to the mad scientist’s lair in the coat closet of the Masaki home (though technically, Washu’s lab was in a pocket dimension that could be accessed using the door that used to lead to the coat closet of the Masaki home, but at the moment, Tenchi didn’t really care about semantics), but then he remembered what had happened the last time he’d gone down there of his own free will. Washu had been… a tad bit over enthusiastic.
Tenchi shuddered as he remembered all the previous contraptions Washu had put him in — the bump might be annoying, but it wasn’t worth the sexual awkwardness that he had to go through whenever the mad scientist got her hands on him. “Uh, maybe later.”
“He couldn’t see her now anyway,” Ryoko commented. “Last I checked, she was in the middle of a teleconference with those other nerds.”
“Those ‘other nerds’ whom you so callously disregard are members of the Royal Science Academy,” Ayeka pointed out with a glare.
“Whatever. The point is, Washu’s not available — so I suggest a little TLC, if you catch my drift.”
“TLC?”
“And if that doesn’t work, I’ll be happy to provide a little T & A, as well,” Ryoko added with a wink.
“Arrgh!” Ayeka groaned in frustration. “Can’t you even pretend to be well-mannered, you licentious space pirate?”
“Space pirate? Moi? You must be mistaken — not only is my criminal record absolutely spotless, but there are no outstanding warrants for my arrest anywhere in the galaxy. Thank you for that, by the way.”
“You’re welcome,” Ayeka managed to grind out between her clenched teeth. Technically, she was only directly responsible for Ryoko’s carte-blanche pardon within the jurisdiction of the Juraian Empire, but thanks to the publicity that was given to this particular act of magnanimity, most of the Empire’s allies had followed suit as a way of reaffirming their loyalty to the Royal Family. (In truth, Ayeka would have done the same thing even if she’d thought that Ryoko was alive at the time — the former space pirate really had redeemed herself through her actions, after all. However, had she known Ryoko was alive, Ayeka probably wouldn’t have allowed the pardons to be as widely publicized, either.)
Tenchi sighed in resignation — it looked like Ryoko and Ayeka were about to have another fight, one that was likely to make his headache even worse at that. He really didn’t want to deal with this… so he did something extremely uncharacteristic: he aired a preemptive complaint. “If the two of you are going to fight, could you do it outside? My headache’s bad enough as it is without arguments loud enough for people in Korea to hear.”
The two women who’d been addressed were stunned — sure, they’d fought loudly and often before… but that was then, and this was now, and they were pretty sure that they’d cut down on the disruptions, but this….
However, any musings on the change in Tenchi’s personality were abruptly cut short by the return of his father, Masaki Nobuyuki. “I’m home!” The architect called out as he took off his shoes in the foyer.
“Welcome home, Mr. Masaki!” Sasami called out. “How was your day?”
“Oh, nothing much… same old, same old… until I left to come home, that is.”
“Why’s that, Dad?” Tenchi asked, eager for any subject that could take his attention from the throbbing lump on his forehead.
“Well, you see, I was about two or three minutes out of the metropolitan area, when I spotted this woman by the side of the road. Apparently, her scooter’s battery had died. I offered to use some jumper cables to try and get her battery going again, but I suppose I messed something up, since the results were nothing but some sort of gray smoke. Anyway, I felt bad for her and I didn’t want to leave her there….”
“Ah, I see,” Sasami replied. “I’ll set out another place at dinner.”
“You’re always so helpful, Sasami.”
“Great, yet another girl to compete with,” Ryoko mumbled to herself.
“Now, now,” Nobuyuki said, trying to calm the ex-space pirate down, “she won’t be staying long — in fact, I figure that if we get Washu to look at it after dinner, she won’t even have to spend the night.”
“Oh… well, where is she?”
“Why, she’s… um…” The architect looked behind him with a somewhat confused look upon his face. “That’s strange; I could have sworn she was with me….”
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Kwakerjak
(Posted Sun, 15 Apr 2007 05:23)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.