Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ No Need for Alternates ❯ Chapter 1

Tenchi Muyo: No Need for Alternates! Part One

It looked like a normal morning at the Masaki household. The mist out on the lake shimmered in the early sunlight, the trees bending gently under the breeze that made small, playful waves out on the water. The house was silent, in all appearances an oasis of peace and tranquillity.

Appearances, sadly, can be deceiving.

Ryouko sighed to herself softly, gently holding the other warm body in the bed close to her own. In the haze of sleep she snuggled a bit closer, but as she began to wake up, certain inconvenient questions began to disturb her rest.

'Tenchi wouldn't try to sneak in to see me, would he?' Ryouko thought to herself blurrily, her eyes still closed. Softly she asked, "Tenchi?"

"Sorry, try again," the clearly amused and obviously female voice said, sounding like she was right in front of Ryouko's face.

Ryouko's eyes popped open involuntarily, gazing in shock at the pretty, pink haired woman laying in the bed right beside her. She looked a lot like the Jurai empress Misaki, but not quite the same... A shaken Ryouko blurted out, "Sasami?"

"Good morning, Ryouko," the smiling and clearly adult Sasami said, moving forward a bit to gently kiss the stunned Ryouko on the lips even as she firmly pressed a very grown up and quite well developed body up against hers.

Ryouko did the first thing that came to mind, she tried to push her back as gently as possible while she shouted, "Tenchi!"

A few moments later Tenchi ran in the bedroom, Ayeka following right behind the dark haired young man. Various banging noises they heard from around the house indicated that her shout had roused the others, as well.

"What is it?" Tenchi started to ask, then he stopped, looking wide eyed at the two figures laying on the bed.

"Mother?" a badly shaken Ayeka asked tentatively. The dark purple haired girl blinked, then sounding much more indignant she said, "Sasami?!"

"Yes?" two voices said at almost the same time.

One of the answers was from the older Sasami laying there in bed with Ryouko, the other came from just behind Ayeka. The younger Sasami looked up at her elder sister curiously, then her eyes grew wider as she saw her older self, too.

"Hi," the younger Sasami smiled.

Noticing Ayeka's glare Ryouko quickly scrambled out of her bed, and the older Sasami made a soft disappointed sound. "But I thought that you liked me waking you up in the morning," a pouting Sasami complained cutely.

"Wow," a sleepy looking Mihoshi blinked, looking very confused as she gazed back and forth between the two versions of Sasami. The blonde's hair was standing up, and her blush was evident even on her dark skin.

"What in the world is going on here?" Kiyone asked them all, both the black haired lady and Mihoshi still dressed in their pajamas with their robes wrapped around them.

"I don't know," Ryouko scowled, "but I have a pretty good idea who's responsible for this."

Tenshi, Ayeka and Ryouko both took a deep breath and yelled at almost the same time, "Washu!"

Not long afterward, everyone was dressed and standing in Washu's lab. The former storage room stretched off into the distance, machinery of various and unknown functions stretching out all around them, filling up the almost infinite space.

They stood there looking rather uncomfortable while the small, redheaded scientist in front of them paced back and forth and ranted at them angrily, if kind of cutely. "Why does everyone blame me when things like this happen? I don't even have any experiments running right now," she complained, waving her hands in the air.

"I'm sorry," Ayeka spoke up.

"She may not have any experiments running," a soft voice came from just behind them, "but I think that I do." They all turned around to see an elfish looking woman walking towards where they were all standing.

"Yume," the older Sasami beamed at her, "nice to see you again." She was keeping a firm grip on Ryouko's arm, to her great discomfort.

"Would you please let me go?" Ryouko pleaded. She was mildly surprised at how well Sasami was holding on to her. 'She must take after Misaki,' she thought, thinking about Sasami's mother's death grip hugs.

"But you're my snuggle-bunny," Sasami protested cutely, pulling Ryouko even more firmly into her arms.

Ayeka chuckled softly, getting a glare from Ryouko.

Choosing to ignore Ryouko and Sasami's little talk, Washu cautiously asked Yume, "What exactly did you do?"

"Well, you did say I could use your equipment while I was here," Yume said defensively. Pushing her light brown hair back she confessed, "You see, I was modifying an older piece of your equipment, and there was a sudden power surge..."

The entire group said it almost at once, "The Dimensional Tuner!"

"What about the Dimensional Tuner?" a familiar voice asked them from the open door out into the hallway.

Yet another version of Ryouko and Ayeka stood there together, familiar looking yet subtlety different. Ryouko wore her normal fighting costume, but modified slightly with the addition of a few armor segments. Ayeka looked elegantly formal in her traditional robes of Jurai, standing close to Ryouko's side and holding her arm.

"Who, exactly, are you?" Ryouko blinked, her surprise causing her to stop fighting to get loose of Sasami's death grip on her. For now, anyway.

The other Ryouko quirked an eyebrow at them as she said with a wry smile, "I was about to ask you the same question."

"I asked you first," Ryouko said pointedly.

The armored Ryouko took a deep breath, "I am Ryouko, Empress of Manticore and of the Empire that it rules over."

Her Ayeka was looking thoughtfully over at her twin, but she spoke up, "And I am Ayeka, Queen of Jurai... and her bride."

There was a long moment of dead silence as everyone tried to digest that.

"Alternate probabilities," Washu suddenly blurted out.

Yume nodded thoughtfully, "It seems that the Dimension Tuner must be bringing our reality in synch with various alternate worlds, where events went differently than in the here and now."

"Alternate probable futures, too," Washu noted, looking over at the very grown up Sasami cuddling with a struggling Ryouko.

"Not only do they look like them, they sound just like my mothers, too," Empress Ryouko remarked to her bride softly.

"Mothers?" Yume looked up at her in surprise.

Empress Ryouko nodded, "Yes, you and Washu are my mothers, where I come from." She frowned slightly, "You're not here?"

"Interesting," Washu murmured. She noticed the Empress' question, "Sorry, no."

"Yes, it is interesting, isn't it?" another Washu said thoughtfully. She stood nearly five feet tall, and gazed at her childlike counterpart with an impish smile on her face. She wore a skin tight costume, a white lab coat thrown over it.

"It seems as more time passes, more probabilities appear," Yume noted, adding, "We'd better get started fixing it."

"Sounds like a plan," the smaller Washu agreed, and the three headed off to work, soon to be joined by a fourth figure. Then five.

Tenchi looked over at the two versions of Sasami, Ryouko and Ayeka and asked them, "So what do we do now?"

Mihoshi's stomach growled loudly into the quiet, "Sorry."

"Let's cook everybody breakfast," the older Sasami said to her younger self.

"OK," the younger agreed cheerfully, and the two Sasamis ran off down the hallway together, chatting happily.

"I don't think we've met," Empress Ryouko smiled at Tenchi.

"Tenchi Masaki," he introduced himself, gently shaking her hand.

Queen Ayeka was looking at him curiously for a moment, finally saying, "You look a little like my older brother, Yosho."

"He's sort of my grandfather," Tenchi explained.

"I'm glad he survived, in your world," Queen Ayeka smiled.

"He didn't in yours?" Tenchi went pale, considering that idea.

"Lets go get dressed," Kiyone said to Mihoshi quietly.

"Yeah, we don't want to miss breakfast," Mihoshi said cheerfully. She bounded over to their room, slid open the door, and froze. After a moment, she slid it shut again.

"What?" Kiyone blinked at her, "Why aren't you going in?"

"They're kind of busy," Mihoshi blushed.

Kiyone stepped by her and slid the door open, only to freeze too. There, on the bed, where another version of her and Mihoshi, in a passionate embrace. She quickly slid the door shut. "Let's come back later," she suggested to Mihoshi.

"Right," Mihoshi agreed, a thoughtful look on her face.

"Don't even think about it," Kiyone quickly said.

Two more Ryoukos and Minagis were standing talking together in the hallway as Tenchi led the others into the living room. Both looked pretty normal, except that over their normal clothes they had on aprons.

"Well, I guess Juri will just have to get somebody to sub for us at the Locket until this is fixed," Minagi said with a shrug.

Ryouko frowned, "I hope it's not Excel and Hyatt again." With a scowl she added, "Neither one can mix a drink worth a damn."

Empress Ryouko raised an eyebrow, "Interesting." They left the two to their conversation and trooped in to settle around the low table. She thoughtfully looked over at her counterpart sitting by Tenchi and asked, "So you and Ayeka are pursuing him?"

Both Ryouko and Ayeka nodded.

Queen Ayeka made a face, "I'm sorry, I fail to see the attraction."

"Tenchi's awfully handsome," Mihoshi spoke up in his defense, sitting there alone. Another Mihoshi and Kiyone walked in the room, and her eyes widened. "Kiyone?" she murmured, tears glistening in her large eyes.

"Yes?" Kiyone looked down at her in surprise.

Mihoshi jumped up from her seat, tears streaking her face as she ran from the room. "I'm so sorry," they heard her murmur softly.

"What did I say?" Kiyone blinked.

Little Sasami and big Sasami began carrying the breakfast dishes in, carefully setting them down on the table. The older Sasami smiled sweetly at Ryouko as she set a plate in front of her, "I made all of your favorites."

Ryouko blushed, "Uhm, thank you."

Sasami gently pecked her on the cheek, "You're welcome." She slid into a seat beside her, snuggling close. Ryouko froze, clearly unsure what to do. "What's wrong?" Sasami asked with a little smile on her face.