Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Nightmares: Part I of the Guardian Saga ❯ Ryoko's Death ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Ryoko laid back against the comforting bulk of the tree limb beneath her. The wind blew through the limbs, a gentle caress in the dark. The moon sat full in the midnight blue sky, pregnant with her glowing light. The shadows cast on the forest floor shivered and danced with the wind, their shapes friendly and familiar to Ryoko. The forest was hers alone, tonight. Tonight...
Tonight is a special night. Tonight...Ryoko stirred, suddenly uncomfortable. The forest was one of Ryoko's favorite places. She could come here, relax, enjoy the feeling of the sun on her skin, the tree bark against her back, her arms. Things she had never felt before.
Ryoko loved this, when she could be alone, but close to others. Funny, how she had been alone all her life, but now preferred it....But its because now I have the freedom to choose. Sometimes...you have to be alone. Ryoko thought.
She cast golden eyes towards the homely glow the Misaki house emitted. It was only a few hundred feet away...But it felt like lightyears.
Why do I feel so..odd? Ryoko sat up on the branch, a leg dangling off each side. Tonight is odd...tonight something will happen....
The night, however peaceful, felt of foreboding. The wind, moments before cool and gentle, whipped Ryoko's hair into her eyes and stung the back of her neck with its sudden feirceness.
Ryoko stood, a sudden sense of urgency to get back to the house before it got any worse.
Then, she heard the steely gasp. The sound of metal on metal. Ryoko looked over her shoulder, back at the dark figure. A tide of feeling overswept the space pirate, something she had known before...but hadn't felt much since...

Fear.

Ryoko ran for the Misaki house. The warmth from the windows beckoned her, the love within that house almost came out in palpable waves. Ryoko ran on, not daring to look back. She could feel her, getting closer and closer...the cold steel, somehow alive in its owners hands...The breath on Ryoko's neck, the cold assurance of death in the sound of her steps...

So close...the house was only a few feet away...the door, and then safety....

And then, the metal, piercing her neck, the soft flow of her blood, spilling on the ground.

Ryoko fell to the ground, dying quietly, not even murmuring. Her blood colored the green grass, and the once-friendly moon even seemed to gloat as Ryoko's life force fled her veins.

She thought of the Earth, in all its beauty. She still couldn't understand how one tiny place could give her so much joy...How the people here could give her so much joy...

She thought of Aeka, and their rivalry. She thought of Mihoshi and Kiyone, one an incredibly lucky person, the other her unlucky partner. She thought of the child-goddess, Sasami, and how one day she would be Tsunami. She thought of Washu last, her mother, and....her friend.

Her last thought was of Tenchi.