Solitary Experiments: A Tenchi Muyo story

Solitary Experiments
By Sergeant Wittmann

During Aeka's first week on Earth, she sequestered herself in the room
Tenchi had lent her, not leaving and probably only talking to Sasami.
Since Aeka became far less isolated after episode 3 of the OVA, this
incident seems to have been forgotten. What i tried to do here is to
illustrate what was happening to her during this time and also to
explore her deep-seated animosity towards Ryoko, which is often glossed
over or distorted.
Even Though I created Tenchi Muyo!, the thieving bastards at AIC stole
the idea from me. Even though I hope to regain copyrights after an
upcoming lawsuit, I still need to credit them with creation of my
characters and story. All of my creations belong to AIC and I am writing
this with their implied consent (even though they're the ones who should
be asking me).

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This is a nice little room, but quaint to the extreme. There is no
furniture here except for the containers I had salvaged from Ryu-oh's
hold. And the floor is covered with a woven reed mat divided into
squares.
I have slept for many hours in this small, austere, foreign room.
It looked like late afternoon when I awoke and I still have not done a
thing to get myself ready. Come to think of it, I have not even really
moved since I awoke and now it is sunset. I just propped myself up and
stared at our things. They seem to make me even more of a foreigner,
these familiar items. Seeing these containers stacked up the way they
are makes me feel like a victim of a natural disaster, who grabbed as
many belongings as she could and fled to a stranger's house. I see these
familiar items; these robes I've worn for so many years, the small
wooden trinkets, brushes, combs, sap jewelry. I wish to burn it all.
They are just taunting me, reminding me that I'm marooned at this place
and not at home. I wish to burn everything except for that one tiny
hologram. Of Yosho.
I wish that I would burn as well. I wish that I could burn in this
room, and that my ashes could leave with the smoke, billow out of that
window and float to the stars. I just don't want to be here anymore.
I may never leave this Earth. I have tried avoiding this thought
but it seeks me out. I am here to stay, but how could I possibly survive
hear? There is nothibng here, no Yosho, no Jurai, only Sasami and
myself. And Sasami is not even here, she awoke at a normal time.
It is strange to wake alone like this. All my life there has always
been someone there when I awoke. Even though I had my own room and slept
alone, I still wasn't alone. I had Father, Mother, Yosho, Mother
Funaho, the servants and guards, but now no one.

There is music coming from downstairs; strange, throbbing, alien
sounds. I hate it. Underneath this pulsating music I can hear a voice. A
voice that freezes my blood. Ryoko's voice. I hear the others laugh
through the music. Perhaps Ryoko did something amusing. Amusing indeed!
If they knew what really lurked in that black heart they would see that
not a grain of charm, wit, or intellect dwelt there. If they knew the
truth about that murderer they would drive her out of this house.
It is almost as though the sole purpose of her existence is to make
my life unbearable. In fact, I had the happiest life one could want
until Ryoko came. She is the source of all my life's misery. And now,
after she has raped me three times, she teases me. Every little smirk,
every wise remark breaks me down further. Here I am at my worst, totally
helpless, and she pours acid into my wounds, holding me down with a boot
on my neck. Fortunately, I haven't seen much of her.
I can hear her singing now. Singing that awful song with that
poisonous voice. What is stopping me from going down there right now and
killing her? I know I can overpower her, it would be easy if I caught
her by surprise.
But that would be underhanded wouldn't it? More her style. I would
need to make it fair, just. Because is this not about justice? That is
why I defied the Statute of Limitations in the first place. Because the
Holy Council seems not to care about justice anymore. How could they
just let her go like that? Aren't the people who died important anymore?
What about avenging the dishonor, and reasserting Tsunami's divine
truth? The Statute was standing firmly in the path of justice, I had to
flaunt it.
But am I arresting justice with my hesitancy as well? What is
stopping me from making that attack? I must, as revenge for the souls
she took. Why do I deprive them of their vengeance? Fear. I have seen
what she can do firsthand. But there is more. If I go down there then I
am confronting my own weakness. When I couldn't stop her on Jurai, when
I couldn't stop her here. She is the embodiment of my failure. But
what's more, I fear myself. I fear what I will become if I do this deed
I've been wanting for so long. I would love to walk down those stairs
right now and deliver her a reckoning, but the idea revolts me as well.
I want to kill her so badly but it just seems so wrong to me. I
couldn't possibly derive joy from something so heinous, but the thought
of doing so entices me. But it is my duty to punish her and so I must.
But this is all futile, since I still need her to help me find Yosho.
But if I were to do so, would I revel in such an act of carnage.
Perhaps. But perhaps not. Every time I imagine killing Ryoko I frighten
myself. I do such horrendous things but I enjoy it in these fantasies.

No one can save me. I'm an animal with my foot caught in a trap,
dying slowly, immobilized, with steel teeth chewing at my flesh. I've
only been on Colonized Planet 0315 for three days but every minute has
been sheer torment. I may remain here forever without ever finding what
I've been looking for. I feel I couldn't last another second here.
In these past centuries I have devoted my entire existence to two
people, Yosho and Ryoko. Now, without the means to find my brother (if
he hasn't already died) and without the will to punish Ryoko I have
nothing. There is no one to pull me out, and I can't pull myself out. I
just want to find Yosho and get out now, nothing more. I'll die if I
don't.

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