Adult-FanFiction.org : Anime

No Need for Masculinity	By : Richard_Priapi Category: +S to Z > Tenchi Muyo Views: 501 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the various Tenchi Muyo properties, nor any of the characters herein who may be found within that canon. Originally posted to AO3, I'll be posting more proofread/edited versions of the chapters here.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
Ayeka was curled into a snug ball of creature comfort on the couch, watching the tacky melodramas that the earthlings called “Soaps.” They, and the sticky-sweet mochi balls she placed delicately in her mouth in between commercials, were a guilty little pleasure she allowed herself on her extended dereliction of duty vacation. She found herself chortling at an argument the characters were having- a relationship in tatters, men and woman on the brink of tears, lips pursed and jaws squared in between bouts of scenery-chewing. It is a very good thing, she reflected, that real life is so much more civilized.

And then Lord Tenchi flounced into the room. Suddenly the gummy texture of the mochi seemed to choke her. She swallowed with difficulty as she shot a furtive glance at the man she had once loved. She could nearly abide the slinky blouse and hip-hugging capris that so wickedly emphasized the changes to his body, but the sight of him bedecked in jelly bracelets and a cutesy heart necklace was simply intolerable. As usual, Lord Tenchi attempted a cursory greeting in that hideous new voice. How long had it been since she had allowed herself to speak to him? An eternity, an instant. She sighed inwardly. She’d allow it.
“Good morning, Tenchi. I am glad you seem well.”
Tenchi paused mid-step and turned to her. His shoulders were clenched high and tight, as if the very act of her speaking to him was of momentous import and equally looming danger. A near-extinct Bengal tiger spotted in the woods, charging directly at you. But he had hope in his eyes- perhaps she should grace him with some polite, idle chatter.
“Thank you. The weather’s really nice today. I was thinking of going into town to get some shopping done. Do you… um…”
Ayeka cringed. Was he going to ask her to accompany him?
“Need anything while I’m out?”
Ayeka hoped her relief was not too evident.
“No, I’m quite all right. Weren’t you planning to harvest the southern field today?”
Tenchi raised a hand to his hair. Curled bangs now hung over his forehead and a hairband corralled two poofy tentacles that dangled where sideburns might have been. She’d seen the look before on girls in this prefecture.
“I was going to, but Grandpa gave me the day off. School’s coming up soon, so I have a lot to take care of before I introduce the new me.”
She grimaced. Yosho allowing his only grandson to eschew responsibility to feed his novelty was too much.
“You must think so little of us. Just because I ran away from my duty on my little vacation, you feel you need to stoop to this circus act… just to allow yourself the same privilege?”
Tenchi took a labored breath. The flinty look in his eye was a punch to her gut.
“Ayeka, what are you talking about?” he asked blandly.
Ayeka’s voice quavered with noble suffering.
“This all started the day I asked if you would return to the imperial festival with me. Since then you, who have always been so diligent, have been spending more time loafing around with that hussy, and now you are finding ways to dispose of even earthly responsibilities.”
Tenchi’s nose crinkled and his cheeks puffed in anger. How nauseating.
“I was never planning on going to Jurai. Not as royalty, anyway. That’s your fantasy, not mine. And my transformation has nothing to do with dodging chores. The fact that is where your mind goes…”
Ayeka hid her face behind her sleeve; it would be too painful to meet his eye otherwise.
“Then why? You were so perfect, whatever could make you do this to yourself?”
“Perfect?” He spluttered, as if to say Did you and I know the same Tenchi?
Stirred to life by the growing drama, faces peeked out into the living room. Ryoko leaned over the railing at the top of the steps. Washu from her lab. Nobuyuki from his at-home office. The gentle shinkshink of a knife on a cutting board stopped emanating from the kitchen.
--
Ayeka’s sleeves flared as she spun to face Tenchi.
“I’d never met a man like you, Tenchi. Gentle and kind, yet so passionate. Such quiet strength.”
Tenchi balled her fists. Looking past the self-evident fact that she was not a man, she attacked a different opening.
“And you’re saying that I’m not any of those things anymore?”
Ayeka’s hands grasped the air.
“No! Yes… are you?”
Tenchi gritted her teeth. She measured her phrases carefully and bit each off before it could stretch into something dangerous.
“Ayeka, everything you said… none of it depended on my being male. I like myself better this way. I’m comfortable in ways I didn’t know were possible. So can you, for once, accept that something is not about you and just be happy for me?”
Ayeka paused. Her face softened.
“I’m not sure.”
Tenchi’s glare sharpened.
“Then you can shut up.”
“How dare you-“
“Shut up.”
“I am the princess of-“
“Not being able to shut up. I know.”
Ryoko clapped a hand over her mouth to hold in the laughter. Nobuyuki quickly snapped the office door shut.
A slap rung out. Ayeka left her hand outstretched, backhand at the ready, glaring daggers at Tenchi and her reddening cheek. Then Tenchi’s palm cracked across her cheek, rattling her jaw. Ryoko straightened herself, ready to intervene. She’d been in more than enough scrapes with Ayeka and she liked the odds of two against one. Ayeka threw her backhand, heedless of two key facts. Now that fighting a woman was even ground, Tenchi had no reason to take a hit she saw coming. And she had trained with Yosho since childhood. Tenchi arrested Ayeka’s hand in midair and wrenched her thumb back until the joint screamed in protest as it stretched in too many directions at once.
“Let me go! Unhand me.”
Ayeka stepped back to free her hand, but Tenhi closed the gap with every step until she had Ayeka against the wall.
“Why should I?”
Ayeka’s guardians appeared around her. Lightning crackled. Tenchi stood her ground, gritting her teeth against the next move. If she could remember how to use the Jurai power…
Yosho’s voice growled across the room.
“That’s enough. Let her go, Ten-chan.”
“But-”
“This fight is over. Isn’t it, princess Ayeka?” His eyes invited no argument from either. They turned busily to face anywhere but towards each other.
Ryoko hopped the railing and took Tenchi in a sweeping embrace. Baby’s first catfight and she came out swinging. Ebullient praise gushed from her lips.
“Tenchi doll, that was brilliant. Just when I thought you couldn’t get any more attractive, here we are. How about we go upstairs and you show me what else those hands can do?”
Ten-chan had no words. Not that she was stunned into awkward speechlessness, like so many times before; rather the correct response was simply an admiring silence. Who but Ryoko could make acting like such a goof look so wonderful?
Rosy-cheeked, she muttered back, “But the shopping.”
“Don’t worry,” Ryoko offered, clasping Tenchi’s hands between her own, “We can make it quick.”
That, as much as anything else, cleared the room of spectators and combatants alike. Ryoko leaned in as the room quieted. “Afterwards I’ll fly you into town myself. Call it a first date.”
--
Ayeka paced her room. She did not care one iota for this new Tenchi. This startling transition had upended the whole household- leaving her, as usual, the moral compass of the group. Tenchi! She had the nerve to tell Ayeka to shut up? That bitch. The pacing paused midstride. No. Not right. She wasn’t a woman. She just- he wasn’t. Ayeka took a deep, meditative breath in. And let it out into the nearest pillow, screaming until her throat was raw.
--
As the sun set, Katsuhito sat on the veranda, a pot of tea and a bottle of sake beside him. His cup wandered between the two in accordance with his thoughts.
If anybody on planet Jurai had had a gender identity, it had been hard to tell. Given the wide range of personal hair and makeup styles and muted similarities between practical and courtly dress, men, women, and possibly other options coexisted harmoniously across all echelons of their society. Why, when he was in court- Yosho paused. That had been a long time ago. For some, a lifetime. He looked wistfully skywards, wondering for the umpteenth time what had become of his home in the decades since his departure. Ayeka, a product of this new Jurai, had such vitriol to unleash on Tenchi. For the first time in a long while, he considered that change might not have been positive.
--
Later that night, long after the adrenaline of the moment and the distractions of the day had died, Tenchi lay next to Ryoko wearing a shellshocked look. Ryoko struggled to keep her eyes open. Every muscle in Tenchi’s body had been as tight as piano wire since she’d come to bed, and she’d be damned if she fell asleep first and left Tenchi in that spiral. But it had been almost an hour now. Her smoky voice whispered, smoothly as silk.
“We can talk about it if you want to.”
As the big spoon, Ryoko couldn’t see Tenchi’s face, but her voice said it all, coming out as a desolate drone.
“I don’t. I’ve already had every thought about it at least three times. It just… it hurts, you know? After everything we did for her. Everything we went through together.”
“Makes you want to cry, doesn’t it?” Ryoko murmured drowsily, hand clumsily sliding across Tenchi’s face.
“Can’t cry,” she sniffed, “Not manly.”
“Well… I have some good news for you there.” Ryoko pinched her cheek playfully.
Tenchi’s choking laughter faded into ugly, body-wracking sobs. Ryoko rubbed her back awkwardly. It was one thing to tell a girl she could cry, and another to stay in bed with her while she did it. Thankfully, Tenchi’s sobs faded to whimpers quickly enough. After the tension of grief and rage had eased from her body, Tenchi turned her tear-stained, puffy face to Ryoko in thanks. She ran her fingers through the pirate’s wild blue spikes adoringly and pressed her lips against hers. If Ryoko minded the tears that dampened her face as she returned that kiss, she kept it to herself for Tenchi’s sake.
- 8
- 9
- 10
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

No Need for Masculinity