Chapter 4: Sasami

"Grandpa's right." Tenchi thought bitterly, forcing the memory to subside with difficulty, taking its place among a multitude of lingering regrets.

"I'm being selfish and it's just plain wrong!" He silently added. Having finished stowing all the tools, he then made his way towards the front entry.

Of course, that was not precisely true ether, he continued to consider.

Oh, he had tried to make amens with how he had unintentionally stabbed Ayeka in the heart.

He had given her the Majesta to her beloved Reyo later that very evening. Yet some how...

Ayeka had seemed happy, radiant in fact as she had taken the pendent for the box he had made.

But it was at that point, Tenchi had realized something.

When all this madness began, what now almost seemed a lifetime ago, He had fought, fought like hell.

Resisting the total insanity his life had bee transformed into with all his might.

Simply yearning to return to what it once was!

As time had worn on however, somewhere during the various resurrections and arrivals. Fitting in between numerous revelations, crash-landings and explosions...

Tenchi came to realize, oddly enough, that it was that earlier existence which had been the illusion.

The world he was now in some ways forced to live in was actually far closer to the truth!

Worse, still! Only recently, he had begun to realize how comfortable he'd become with this new existence, in spite of the insanity!

"The keeper has become one of the inmates!" He muttered, smiling ruefully. Sliding the entryway door open, walking inside. All the while, blissfully unaware he was being 'observed'.

'The presence' chortled softly from the shadows above inside with barely contained a feeling of glee. Watching as Tenchi removed his heavy work boots, placing them under a low shelf prepared for precisely this purpose.

"It's still early," He mused quietly, having no reason to look directly up, noting only which shoes were present, an almost infallible method determining who was and was not in the house. Feeling slightly guilty at being relieved, when seeing Ryoko's outside shoes were in fact, missing.

"She's really making an effort." Tenchi smiled, thinking that 'job' she had been forced to hold for nearly a year while searching for him, had, had a positive effect.

His speculations however were cut short, by the sudden appearance of his father, shuffling, and still half-asleep from another night on the sofa.

Nobuyuki looked rough, no doubt about it. That earlier pang of guilt returning with a vengeance, in spite of the fact Tenchi had tried to give father his room while he was still sorting things out from a fire in his apartment in town.

"Dad, its still your house!" Tenchi had told him not more than a week ago.

"I appreciate you saying that son really." Nobuyuki had responded, in his usual way, before leaning close. "But we both know that ... WOW!" His father had then gasped, looking amazed up at where Mihoshi was putting in a rare morning appearance.

Sauntering sleepily along the second floor balcony in just a pink partially buttoned shirt and a pair of panties an instant before Kiyone's voice sounded loudly from above, reminding her partner Tenchi's father was home!

"I'd only be in the way!" Nobuyuki had continued sheepishly. He had then continued to point out, that with all the 'action' likely taking place upstairs most nights, he wouldn't want to get trampled, sleeping on that floor!

"Ugh..." Tenchi groaned remembering.

Leave it to his Dads lecherously over active imagination to paint such a picture!

Smiling, he was just about to greet Nobuyuki when a third presence entered the hall behind his father.

"And just where dose the man of the house think he's going?" a girl's voice snapped.

In response to the inquiry Nobuyuki's heavy lidded eyes snapped open even as he halted.

Turning slowly, he executed an immediate apologetic bow to the young woman framed by the hall behind him.

Long silken hair, somewhere between a shade of sky blue and aqua framed a delicate oval face with large luminous eyes colored a startling shade of pink.

Now almost approaching six feet in height Sasami was no longer the nine-year-old moppet who once blackmailed Tenchi into stealing her sisters master key.

Just on the cusp of womanhood, but not an adult.

'Still a little too lanky!' In her own words, however, showing signs of curves and other great things soon to come.

Gone where the twin floor length pony tails, Sasami now favored a hairstyle more like her older sister's with a few locks 'spiked' to the front in an obvious homage to Ryoko.