** Disclaimer:
Tenchi Muyo! and all other characters are property of AIC and are used without
permission. This story is meant for recreational purposes only. The only thing
I have claim to is my actual writings and any unique events and characters that
pop up along the way. :-)
Forward: This takes place roughly twenty years after the events of the OAV
universe and follows the events depicted in it. The first three chapters of
this story will mainly be development and setting things up for later chapters.
That's not to say the earlier chapters will be boring, but it is the most
unique phase of this project and more serious than the rest. I fully expect
this project to contain and convey a wide range of emotions from grief to joy,
from melancholy to romance. Please enjoy!
FF.net reviews are most welcomed and appreciated. Other comments, flames, suggestions, praise, etc should be directed to
[email protected]
---
They were all dead.
Eruptions echoed in the distance, becoming closer with each volley. The living
planet that had once sustained life for countless cycles was now nearing the
end of its own life. The hazy red sky reflected the inescapable truth overhead.
A cataclysm was coming.
Tenchi Muyo! - Echoes of Twilight
A Fan Fiction by Sebayn
Cycle Alpha - Chapter 1: Dissolution
--
"And in the end, its not the years in your life that count. It's the life
in your years." - Unknown
--
*** I *** I ***
It was time.
The old man coughed sickly as he
tried to sit up in his bed. From the room nearby, the sound of footsteps
resonated. The brittle wooden door creaked open admitting a second occupant to
the dimly lit room. The ill man continued trying to sit-up, the harshness of
his coughing becoming more and more violent.
"Be careful, you shouldn't
exert yourself," chided the man's son as he walked over to the bed. "Let me help you there." With a
gentle pull, the young adult helped prop the older man's back against the wall.
"*Cough* Thank you," he
struggled to choke out between breaths.
A weak smile graced the lips of the
man's son as he handed his father a glass of water. He accepted the lukewarm
liquid gratefully and began taking small sips of it.
"How does it look outside
today?" the bedridden man inquired hopefully.
The black haired man sighed and
pulled up a chair to the bed and sat down.
"Dad, I'm afraid it's getting worse out there."
The older man's face remained
unchanged, his eyes remaining fixed on his offspring.
"Were you able to find anyone
in Okayama today, anyone at all?" he asked. "Someone else from Tokyo
or one of the larger cities may have traveled here seeking shelter from the
city's harsh environment."
Since the Earth's environment had
abruptly begun decaying, more and more people had migrated from the sprawling
cities into what was left of the world's forests. What was left of the forests
provided a little protection from the poisoned air and the damaging UV rays
being bombarded onto the planet from above. Unfortunately, most of the plant
life was either dead or dying. The trees, like all living life, required its
own source of clean air and water to survive, and there was none of either to
be found. Only one tree remained unchanged from the poisoned effects of the
earth's environment.
"I'm sorry, Dad, but I think
we're it," he slowly replied showing no emotion on his face. "There may be some people who managed
to get underground in some government bunker, or something like
that." He paused. "But you know as well as I do that this
place isn't like the rest of the world."
An awkward silence fell between the
two men as they shifted their gaze towards the objects and pictures that
reverently hung off the walls. Pictures and portraits of better times, of times
when there was happiness. An era that
had long since past.
The silence was rudely interrupted as
the entire house began to tremble and shake wildly. The half-empty glass of
water fell to the ground and shattered into hundreds of pieces.
It's getting closer, the
younger man thought grimly. It won't be long now.
"Tenchi," the ailing man
cleared his throat. "I want you to listen to me. I want you to gather up a
few things, some belongings and other items that are important to you."
Tenchi raised an eyebrow. "I'm
not going anywhere, Dad."
"Listen!" he almost
yelled, worry now clearly laced throughout his entire persona. "This
planet is dying, you and I both have known that for years now--"
"Dad," Tenchi blurted out,
"we've had been over all of -"
"I said listen!" Noboyuki
shouted at the top of his lungs. He immediately regretted shouting as he broke
out into another violent series of coughs. Sighing loudly, Tenchi handed his
father the handkerchief he kept in his jacket pocket.
"You need to be more careful
with yourself," Tenchi wearily stated.
Noboyuki kept the handkerchief
raised to his face until the last of the coughing subsided. He had aged
substantially over the past fourteen months. For a man of the age of 55, he
looked decades older. His hair and moustache had become increasingly thin and
was now completely white. Wrinkles now filled every inch of the sagging skin on
his face and body. The forty pounds he had lost during the last six months
alone made him look even frailer and physically weak.
"Gather your things
Tenchi," he continued slowly. "Be ready."
"No one is coming to get us --
they won't come."
"You can't be sure about that,
Son."
Tenchi stood up and rubbed his tired
eyes. "Dreaming won't get us out of this one."
"You can't lose hope yet,"
he smiled. "After all, you're the
only human on this planet who's still breathing and going strong."
"That's not true," he
snapped back bitterly. "I'm not really human now, am I?"
"You're my son, that makes you
human enough," he chuckled. Tenchi watched in the corner of his eye as
Noboyuki unsuccessfully tried to hide his handkerchief under the pillow that
was on the futon.
"Here Dad, let me get you a new
one," he muttered softly as he reached for the hidden cloth.
"Do not concern yourself
with-" he stopped in mid-sentence. Tenchi quickly snatched away the cloth
and examined it.
The white piece of cloth was deeply
stained with red blood.
"You should have told me the
coughing was getting this bad," Tenchi barked angrily, turning his body
way from him. He clenched the bloodied cloth even tighter in his fist.
"I'm dying Tenchi," he
stated simply. "There's nothing that you or I can do about it."
"You should have told me!"
Tenchi shouted.
"You already knew, Tenchi, you
just didn't want to face it until now."
"Dad, you can't die,"
Tenchi quietly whimpered. Holding back the tears, Tenchi turned around to face
his father. Noboyuki gave Tenchi a faint smile before beckoning him to sit on
the futon.
"Tenchi, there is something
your mother used to say that has always struck me."
He paused briefly to cough,
"When I asked her to marry me she immediately agreed without the slightest
bit of hesitation. A couple of years later when she was pregnant with you, I
asked her why she was so quick and confident with her choice."
Tenchi's ears perked up. Despite
being almost 35 years old, though looking only as if he were 25, he still loved
hearing stories about his mother. She had died when he was only four. The vague
memories that he retained of her were precious and very mythical to the former
shrine keeper apprentice.
"Achika said that she always
knew that we were destined for each other. The fact that we married while still
in our late teens didn't bother her a bit. But what she said next has always
stayed with me."
Taking a few shallow breaths he
continued. "My beloved wife said
that the only thing in life she cared about was making the most out of each day
of her life with you and I."
"Tenchi, despite dying so
young, she truly lived in ways you and I will never be able to understand. She
made each day count and last a lifetime..."
A deafening explosion ripped across
the landscape. Looking outside the room's lone window, Tenchi could see red
sparks and bits of amber fire flying across the yard and toward the shrine.
For what must have been the fifth
time today, the young shrine keeper absently noted that the lake where Funaho
resided was now almost dried up.
'The lake that was created with my
grandfather battled Ryoko...Ryoko...' Tenchi numbly thought as he recalled the
cyan-haired demon and other friends from years gone by.
Tenchi snapped his attention back to
his father and the words he had spoken. "Mother was quite a woman,"
he thought out loud.
A broad smile lit up Noboyuki's
face, "Heh heh, you don't know the half of it."
"Daaaadd."
The two stood there for a moment
before breaking out into laughter.
The sudden light-hearted mood died
quickly when Noboyuki began coughing again. After fetching him a fresh glass of
water, Noboyuki was able to speak again.
"Tenchi, be ready." He
looked directly at his son.
"There are only three things
that I've always been completely sure about in my life," the elder Masaki
stated.
"The first was that I love your
mother. The second was that I love you, son. You're a better man that I could
ever dream of being."
Tenchi awkwardly smiled.
The third..." he paused,
"the third is that you have to survive this."
"I don't exactly know why,
Tenchi, but I know beyond a doubt that you mustn't die here. You can't!"
"Dad..."
"Let me finish," he almost
pleaded. "You've led a rough life. The loss of your mother, the loss of
your friends, the battles and fights you've had to endure." He grinned
ever so slightly and added, "Not to mention your grandfather's
training."
Noboyuki's breathing was becoming
more ragged than ever before. "Tenchi..." his voice was hoarse.
"Tenchi, you must find them and discover what happened...find the answers
that have plagued your soul for so long."
"They left," Tenchi
replied softly, "without even saying goodbye or telling me why. Just a
stupid, plain, worthless note telling us that they had decided to leave
Earth."
"Things aren't always as they
seem," he insisted firmly.
"Careful, you don't want to
start sounding like grandfather, do you?" Tenchi retorted with a small
grin. Grandfather...
"No I don't," as he
responded his raspy voice seemed to become even more serious, "but the
point remains the same. I've kept you tied down here for far too
long." Noboyuki hesitated. "Something will happen, Tenchi, I am
sure of it." Tenchi stood there silently unsure how to respond.
"I've been in the way too long,
and your such a good, good son to me..."
Tenchi froze as the brutal
realization rushed over him. He scrambled to his feet to search the nearby
desk. Pencils, boxes and papers were flung in all directions as he looked
frantically for his father's medication.
Found it! he thought
victoriously. And its almost empty just as it should be...but...oh no!
"Dad, you have been taking your
medication, right Dad?" Tenchi's voice franticly pleaded. He can't hide
anything from me, he's been taking them I know he has! his inner voice
reasoned unconvincingly.
The response that came hit Tenchi
like a ton of bricks. "I can't hold you down any longer."
"You're going to take these
pills, Dad!" Tenchi desperately shouted. "If I have to *force* them
down your throat you *will* take them!"
Noboyuki responded by coughing even
more violently than Tenchi had ever heard him cough before. Drops of blood
stained the sheets of the bed and dripped onto the ailing man's white kimono
creating a chilling contrast between the two colors.
Tenchi was visibly shaking now. His
strong, calloused hands trembled as he fumbled with the lid of the pill
container. "Hold on Dad!"
"Tenchi..." he barely was
able to choke out.
"You can't leave me, Dad, not
now," Tenchi sobbed. "Not like this!" The young adult was now
kneeling over his father.
"I've lived a good life,"
he breathed. "It's time I *cough**cough* moved on."
No! There's too much to say, too
much to do! Tenchi thought. "You can't die yet!"
"Always remember us, Tenchi,
your mother and me." Noboyuki's breathing was becoming dangerously
shallow.
"Dad..."
"I *cough* love you son."
"I love you too, Dad. I always
have...I always will."
Noboyuki gave his son one last
feeble smile.
"Now go, Tenchi, and live.
Please live, Tenchi. Promise me."
Tenchi was unsure of himself but he
would not let his father's final wish go unanswered. "I promise, somehow I
will."
The old man sighed softly, "That's
my boy."
With those final words Noboyuki laid
his head on his pillow and closed his eyes for the final time in his life.
"Dad," Tenchi mumbled as
he shook his father's lifeless corpse.
"Daddy!" He shifted his
body to a better angle and started the CPR techniques he had been trained in so
many years ago in a vain attempt to try and escape reality. "No.
No...please...not...no... Dad..."
He stopped without another word,
hands locked together on his father's chest.
Having lost all self-composure and
hold on his emotions, Tenchi Masaki flung himself onto the lifeless form of his
father and cried.
To be continued...
Closing Song: Blue
Composed and Arranged by Yoko Kanno
Never seen a bluer sky,
Yeah I can feel it reaching out,
and moving closer,
There's something 'bout blue,
Asked myself what it's all for,
You know the funny thing about it,
I couldn't answer,
No, I couldn't answer.
Things have turned a deeper shade of blue,
and images that might be real,
may be illusion,
Keep flashing off and on
Free...
Wanna be free, Gonna be free...
and move among the stars,
You know they really aren't so far
Feels so Free...
Gotta know free...Please...
Don't wake me from the dream,
It's really everything it seemed
I'm so free...
No black and white in the blue
Everything is clearer now,
Life is just a dream, you know,
that's never ending,
I'm ascending.
The cycle will continue in: Deadlocked
--
Preview of next chapter:
Things pick up in the next chapter of Tenchi Muyo! - Cycles of Twilight. With
his father dead and Earth nearing the end of her own life, Tenchi confronts the
reality of his situation while questions and his past continue to mock him in
his struggle for survival.