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Disclaimer: Tenchi Muyo and the characters therein are property of AIC, Pioneer, and the Tenchi Muyo Committee. I am using it purely for my own entertainment, and yours. The story belongs to the Tenchi Mugen Committee. No cabbits were harmed in the creation of this fic.

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"Ryoko!" Tenchi exclaimed, firing himself from the bed and across the room. Ryoko grinned and slowly advanced on him.

"What's the matter, Tenchi," she cooed.

Sweating profusely, he exclaimed, "How did you get in my room?"

Ryoko looked innocent. "I don't understand, Tenchi, aren't you happy to see me?"

"No I'm not!" he shouted.

He plastered himself against the wall, wondering just how all this had happened. The rest of the day had been normal enough. Maybe he was dreaming! Ryoko wrapped herself around him, trying to kiss him as he frantically tried to pull away. "Stop it, Ryoko!" he pleaded. His plea fell on deaf ears.

---

Meanwhile, Nobuyuki had just returned from work. He hung his hat and coat. It had been a very busy day for him, and there was nothing he wanted more than to collapse in bed and go to sleep. "I'm home!" he called, venturing into the house. It seemed too quiet. He looked around. Tenchi was nowhere to be found.

He heard voices upstairs and pounding on the ceiling. He went to the stairs and cried, "Hey, be quiet up there!" Curious, he headed upstairs. "What's going on up there?" he wondered.

The noise seemed to be coming from Tenchi's room. He slowly opened the door, just wide enough to get a peek. He saw Tenchi struggling with . . . a girl! His heart almost exploded with joy. "I thought Tenchi was a little shy with the girls, but now he's gone and snuck one into his room! He's definitely my son!" he proclaimed in delight. "If I were his mother, I would find an excuse to barge in, but as his father, I will respect his privacy." He closed the door and retreated down the stairs, softly entreating the heavens, saying something about how proud he was of his boy.

---

Tenchi, however, didn't think he was that fortunate. Ryoko had pushed him onto the bed and removed his shirt. She was in the process of doing this for herself, when suddenly, her concentration drifted and she stared into space.

It wasn't that Tenchi wasn't happy that they had been interrupted. After all, that was the kind of thing he had hoped to be doing with someone he loved, not some gorgeous space pirate with rather large, bouncy breasts. He shook that thought from his head.

"R-Ryoko?" he stammered, unsure of whether it was wise to draw her attention back to him. For a moment, Ryoko didn't say anything. Her eyes were closed, as if she were concentrating on something.

Suddenly, her eyes snapped open. "She's coming!" she cried.

"Who? Who's coming?" Tenchi asked. Ryoko looked at him, a lascivious grin spread across her face.

"What was that?" she asked, pretending she hadn't heard him. She clutched him again. "Tenchi, Ryoko's scared. Make it better!" She pressed her nearly bare bosom against his chest, causing him to frantically attempt to suppress a nosebleed. As he struggled to escape her embrace, he thought 'I wonder what she was talking about. Who's "she?"'

Suddenly, there was a bright light outside. Tenchi gulped. It appeared that he might be finding out very, very soon. He wasn't sure he liked that, but Ryoko got off of him. She stuck her head through the window, shocking Nobuyuki who had been filming the proceedings from outside on a ladder. The ladder fell, spilling Nobuyuki and his camera to the ground.

"Shit!" Ryoko exclaimed. "She's here!" Without further explanation, she ran to Tenchi, who had put his shirt back on while Ryoko was distracted, and grabbed him by the wrist. "C'mon! No time to explain!" She ran toward the wall with Tenchi in tow, still half undressed. He wanted to shout something to her about walls and how they're solid . . . but before he could say anything, they had ran through the wall and were flying.

Tenchi clenched his eyes shut. "This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This isn't happening," he sputtered. Ryoko seemed to pay him no heed as they flew over treetops.

"Ryoko!" Ryoko suddenly stopped.

Tenchi allowed himself to open his eyes long enough to look up at Ryoko, who was now completely frozen. Before he could say anything, they were falling! Tenchi looked down. His eyes widened. They had to be at least twenty feet off the ground! He closed his eyes again and began praying that he wouldn't be seriously injured, or worse, killed, in the landing.

They were about two feet from the ground before their descent was stopped. Tenchi opened one eye. He reached out and touched the ground. He sighed in relief, before he and Ryoko were unceremoniously dumped onto the hard earth.

"Ow!" Tenchi murmured, rubbing a sore spot on his forehead as he stood. He found himself face-to-chest with a woman. He shot back with a small exclamation.

The woman merely laughed. From his new position, he was able to look her over a little more comfortably. She was tall . . . at least, taller than he was. She had extremely long, spiky, vivid hot-pink hair and intelligent green eyes. She was wearing a smirk. Ryoko was now floating behind the woman. She appeared unharmed.

"Wh . . . who are you?" he stammered. The woman's smirk widened into a grin.

"You must be the one called Tenchi," she said, ignoring him. She snapped her fingers, and Ryoko floated over to her. "I'm sorry to drag you into this, but you see, I am very interested in you. I am Washu," she said, finally answering his question.

She held out her hand, and orange energy began to gather in her palm. She made a fist, and sword exactly like Ryoko's appeared. "Now, defend yourself!" she shouted, flying toward him.

"Wait a minute!" Tenchi screamed as he attempted to evade her attack. "What did you do to Ryoko?" He dodged another swipe from the energy sword. It had been close. He could feel the heat on his face.

"How noble of you to be worried about her. However, I'm fighting you now. If you must know, Ryoko's fine," Washu replied. She attacked him with a diagonal slash. 'Where is it?' she thought. 'Ryoko said it had appeared when she fought him.'

"Tenchi!" a voice cried. Tenchi whipped around, ducked, and saw something flying toward him. He flipped backward, avoiding another strike from Washu's sword and caught the object. It appeared to be made of some kind of sap and was the shape of the hilt of a sword. As soon as he had closed his hand around it, a blue blade sprung to life.

He looked inquiringly back at his grandfather before remembering that he was in the middle of a struggle for his life. Ryoko was still floating not far away. As he dodged another attack from Washu, he wondered what she did to her. Why did Ryoko seem to be so afraid of her.

It was like the sword in his hands had taken over. He parried an attack from Washu, sending the pink-haired woman stumbling backwards. Washu seemed gravely disappointed, and for some reason, Tenchi was afraid of this. Washu seemed much more powerful than Ryoko, and unlike Ryoko, she didn't seem to have an external power source. He wasn't sure how he could defeat her. She seemed to be an excellent swordswoman, blocking him blow for blow and recovering quickly from his parries.

She stopped, holding her sword in front of her. She didn't seem at all worse for wear. She wasn't even breathing heavily or sweating. He was vaguely wondering if she could sweat.

"Your skills are very impressive," she said softly, gazing at him. Her eyes flitted back to where Katsuhito calmly stood with his hands behind his back. She snapped her fingers again and Ryoko fell to the ground. She strode over to her and hauled her up by her half open shirt. "Cover yourself," she commanded crossly. To Tenchi's immense surprise, the space pirate did as she was told.

Washu didn't even glance back at Tenchi as she spoke quietly with Ryoko, who gesticulated in what Tenchi assumed was a reenactment of their battle. Washu looked back at Tenchi before turning back to Ryoko.

"You said the Lighthawk sword appeared," Tenchi heard her say.

"It did," Ryoko insisted. I saw it. "It materialized from thin air. It was when I tried to kill that annoying detective." She snarled. Tenchi couldn't see Washu's reaction because she was standing with her back to him.

"Looks like I have no choice," she concluded. Before he knew it, a much shorter Washu was hugging him around his waist. The top of her spiky hair barely reached his collar bone. Tenchi blinked. He had no idea how she was suddenly so small. "I'll just have to stay here!" she exclaimed happily. Tenchi sweatdropped. Washu? Stay here? His head seemed to be spinning.

Washu looked around him. "That is, if that's all right with you, Yosho-dono." Tenchi started. Did he hear her correctly?

"D-did you just call Grandpa Yosho?" he asked, looking down at the diminutive red-head.

Washu smirked. "I did. You might want to talk to him about that." She squeezed him. "I'm so happy!" she squealed. Tenchi rubbed the back of his head. Now it seemed he would be having two...no possibly three beautiful alien women living with him. He looked back at his grandfather, as if asking him to refuse to allow Washu to stay. Katsuhito, however, seemed amused.

"I do not have a problem with it," he said with a small chuckle. "But it is Tenchi's father that you would want to speak to regarding the matter." Tenchi groaned. He knew his father would say she and Ryoko could stay. He gave his grandfather a murderous stare, but he merely chuckled again and started ascending the stairs back to his shrine.

He barely realized that Washu was saying "and you can be my guinea pig, Tenchi-dono!" Ryoko was incensed.

"What do you mean by that?!" she roared. Tenchi fought for Washu to release him, but it wasn't too difficult. She let him go when he pushed against her arms and immediately rounded on the now taller woman.

He watched as the two argued. "Umm...Washu-san?" he questioned. She and Ryoko immediately stopped arguing. Washu turned to him.

"Oh no, Tenchi-dono! We can't have that! You must call me Washu-chan!" she said, clamping her hands together and her eyes going all sparkly. Tenchi sweatdropped.

"Alright, Washu-chan," he said. "Umm...why are you here? What's the Lighthawk sword?" he asked.

Washu looked stupefied. "First you don't realize that Yosho-dono is your grandfather, and now you don't even know what the Lighthawk sword is? Yosho-dono must really have not wanted you to know about your heritage, Tenchi-dono," Washu said, shaking her head sadly.

"My heritage?" he inquired. He had no idea what she was talking about. His grandfather had told him the legend of Yosho, but he made it sound like Yosho was a different person who died a long time ago. He vaguely remembered his grandfather telling him that the Sword of the Lighthawk was the sword Yosho wielded.

Washu waved a hand impatiently. "If you want to find out about that, you'll have to talk to your grandfather," she told him. Tenchi nodded, dazed. "However, the Lighthawk sword is a sword of legend that can only be wielded by members of the Jurai royal family." Tenchi had no idea what the Jurai royal family was, and it didn't seem as though Washu was about to tell him. "Tenchi, you are the crown prince of Jurai," Washu revealed.

Tenchi was dumbfounded. He was a prince?! He didn't know how that could be true! "But-I'm just a normal earth boy!" he protested. Washu shook her head as though to tell him he was in denial.

"Just talk to your grandfather. Ryoko and I should be talking to your father!" she exclaimed happily. She grabbed Ryoko by the wrist and dragged her off, cooing something at her. Tenchi sweatdropped. He couldn't believe how much his life had changed in the space of just a few hours!

He turned around and headed up to the shrine, where he knew his grandfather had just gone. His head was spinning with the information Washu had just related. How could he be a prince? How could his grandfather be Yosho? What was this strange sword he was still holding? Most important of all, how had he gotten a hold of the Light-hawk sword? He had already concluded that he couldn't possibly be a prince.

He knelt down in front of the door where they had put Kiyone. He opened it a crack, and as he expected, he saw his grandfather kneeling before her, tending her wounds. He was in the process of rinsing a blood-stained cloth in a basin of water. He opened the door wider. He already knew that Katsuhito knew he was there. He quietly entered the room and closed the door behind him. The flickering flame of a candle and a stream of moonlight from the room's only window were the only light in the room.

Tenchi stood up and walked over to his grandfather, kneeling beside him. "How is she?" he asked, gazing at the beautiful teal-tressed police officer, whose eyes were closed in slumber.

"She is doing well," Katsuhito replied softly, reapplying the now damp cloth against a wound that seemed to be refusing to close. "Although she seemed to have received a bad fracture." Tenchi nodded. Ryoko wasn't exactly easy on her once she had already injured herself. "But that is not what you wish to talk to me about, is it?" he inquired, glancing at his grandson. His glasses flashed in the moonlight streaming from the nearby window.

Tenchi chuckled. His grandfather was always very perceptive. "No, it's not," he said. He sat in silence. His grandfather watched him for a little while before turning back to the detective. "Grandpa...Washu-chan called you Yosho-dono. Are you that legendary warrior you told me about?"

Katsuhito looked down, apparently examining the tatami mat he was kneeling on. He looked up and back at his grandson. "No. I am not that legendary warrior." Tenchi almost shouted in triumph. Washu was wrong! He wasn't the crown prince of Jurai! Before he could say anything however, his grandfather began speaking again. "But I am Yosho." Tenchi's face fell. "Yosho may have been considered a great warrior, Tenchi, but that is not the truth."

Tenchi was confused. What was Yosho if not the great warrior he was told of in his childhood?

"Yosho was a coward, Tenchi," he said at last. Tenchi looked dumbfounded for what he figured was the twentieth time that night.

"What do you mean, Yosho was a coward?" he inquired. It seemed everything he believed in was being shaken to the very foundation. He wasn't even sure of what to believe in anymore.

"I did leave Jurai to slay the man who had murdered my father," Katsuhito admitted as he returned to tending to Kiyone. "However, it was more for my own selfish reasons. I ruined him even though I knew he hadn't murdered my father, simply so I could escape." Tenchi stared, wide-eyed and open-mouthed at his grandfather. "He is a fugitive now. He is not welcome anywhere where Jurai ruled, which is practically everywhere," he chuckled bitterly. "All because I could not face my responsibility."

"What responsibility?" Tenchi asked.

"The responsibility to become the Emperor of Jurai," Katsuhito replied. Katsuhito nodded. "Yes, Tenchi, I was the Crown Prince of Jurai. That is why I wielded the Sword of the Light-hawk, and that is why you now wield the Sword of the Light-hawk. You are now the Crown Prince of the Jurai royal family."

Tenchi couldn't believe it. He wanted his grandfather to disprove all of that. "But...how? How can I be the Crown Prince of Jurai?" he sputtered.

Katsuhito smiled mysteriously. "You are my grandson, Tenchi." He looked back out the window at the branches of trees swaying in the gentle breeze. "When I came to earth, I feel in love and married an earth woman. It was not your mother. No, that was much later."

"How old are you, grandpa?" he asked.

"Well over 800 years old," Katsuhito replied. "I made a life for myself here. I was happy here. I never felt as though I fitted on Jurai. My mother was human, and at the time I left, there was much discourse about someone who was not fully Juraian taking the throne after my father died. Those who held that belief insisted that only one with pure blood should be allowed to rule." He shook his head.

He stayed with his grandfather a while before he decided that he ought to get to bed. He walked down the many stairs, thinking. He really was a prince, and he was part alien himself. He could hardly believe it. He started to wonder why his grandfather never told him he was Yosho. Why he never knew that he now wielded the Sword of the Light-Hawk.

He went up to his room. There was no sign of Ryoko or Washu. He felt his bed for any woman-sized lumps, and since he didn't find any, he climbed into bed with a great yawn. He was suddenly very tired. He fell asleep instantly.