Disclaimer:I do not own Tenchi Muyo.  The show and its characters are 
owned by Pioneer/AIC.  


	What If?  A concept story:
	By Dade Gifford


	Tenchi awoke on a fine Saturday morning, ready to get up and go
tend to his crops...or, rather, crop, since carrots were the only thing
being grown.  But first....
	Tenchi crept down the hall and into the living room.  He set up
the ladder, as usual, and climbed up to Ryoko's beam.  He just stared
at her.  After a while, Ryoko woke up, to stare straight into Tenchi's
brown eyes.
	"Ohayo, Ryoko!" he said, beaming.
	"Tenchi?  What ARE you doing?  Get away, I need my privacy!"
	Ryoko pushed Tenchi lightly, and the ladder tipped back.
	"Woaahhhaauuuugh!" Tenchi hit the ground with an audible thump.
	"Oh, but come on, Ryoko..." he pleaded.
	"No.  Now go away, and leave me alone!"
	Tenchi walked away, downtrodden.  A thought occurred to him, 
and he ran off to wait by Aeka's door.
	Tenchi stood there, waiting in silence.  It wasn't long till 
the door whispered open, and Aeka stepped out.  
	"Ohayo, Lady Aeka!" he said, cheerfully.
	"Oh!  Is this any manner in which to greet a princess?  Bow to
me!" she commanded.
	Tenchi bowed respectfully.
	"Lower!" 
	Tenchi bowed honorably.
	"LOWER!"
	Tenchi bowed humbly.
	"L-O-W-E-R!!"
	Tenchi bowed in abject prostration, on his knees, his forehead
to the backs of his hands.
	"Hmph!  I suppose this will have to do.  Now leave my sight, 
you worthless peasant!"
	Aeka stepped on him as she walked away.  
	Tenchi stood after a few moments, rubbing his back where she 
had stepped on him.  He sighed.  Sasami came out of the room a moment
later.
	"Hi, Tenchi." she said.
	"Ohayo, Sasami-chan!" he said, relieved to have someone 
acknowledge him.
	Sasami looked at him as if he were strange, before going off to
the kitchen.
	Tenchi frowned.  Oh, well...  
	It had been like this since they all met.  Tenchi wasn't even 
sure why they stayed.  But he wished they'd at least pay attention to
him.  And he really liked them all..but they didn't want anything to do
with him.  But he tried, day in and day out, to impress them some way.
	But nothing seemed to work.  
	<Maybe Wasyuu needs some help?> he thought.
	Tenchi opened the door to her lab and went down into the secret
dimension.  Wasyuu was sitting in the middle of a lavish garden that 
Tenchi was sure he hadn't seen there yesterday.  
	"Ohayo, Wasyuu-chan!" he said in the sweetest tone possible.
	Wasyuu looked up and groaned.  "Tenchi, how did you get in 
here?" 
	"I just walked in.  Why?"
	"I thought I told you to stay out!  Leave now, or I'll let my
Garvinjh lion have at you again!"
	Tenchi ran, remembering the last time she did that.
	Just before he went into the kitchen to get something to eat,
Tenchi ran into his dad.  
	"Ohayo, dad.." he grumbled.
	"Morning, Tenchi," said Nobuyuki, sipping a cup of coffee.  
	"Hey dad?  What should I do?  None of these women are giving me
any attention!"
	"Well, son, you should leave them alone.  If they don't show 
any interest in you, then let them be.  You haven't been peeking on 
them again, have you?"
	"Aww, come on, dad, that was only once, and it was an 
accident!"
	"I don't think so.  You were in a tree, remember?"
	"Dad, I got put there when Ryoko kicked me again."
	"Suuure, you did.  Don't worry, you'll grow out of it." with
that, Nobuyuki left for work.
	Tenchi went into the kitchen.  "Well, I guess I'll go and get
the yard work done."
	Tenchi waited expectantly, but Sasami just went about preparing
breakfast as usual.  Tenchi left, feeling worse than usual, today.
	He tended to the carrots, wondering what he could do to catch 
at least one of the women's eye.  But nothing he could think of seemed
to work at all.  Aeka would like something expensive, but there's no
way he could buy her something that she couldn't get already.  Ryoko
liked to go out and have fun doing things, but she never wanted to do 
them with Tenchi.  He wasn't even going to start on Sasami, she just
didn't seem to like him that much.  Tenchi knew she was a nice person,
but it was all too easy to see that she wasn't impressed by him.	
	Tenchi brightened a little, remembering that Kiyone and Mihoshi
would be coming over.  Mihoshi didn't show much interest in him, but
Tenchi figured that he could at least get her to go out with him, with
the proper talking, and provided that Kiyone wasn't around, of course.
	Kiyone always seemed to stop Tenchi when he was just about to
get Mihoshi to go somewhere with him.  Tenchi didn't need to be told
twice that she didn't like him-she was almost as bad as Ryoko, in the
sense that she had the tendency to hurt him, rather than just blow him
off.  Plus, she was always defending Mihoshi from him, too.  As long as
she was nearby-which she usually was-then there was absolutely no hope
of Tenchi wooing Mihoshi.
	The fields were done, and Tenchi wiped the sweat from his brow.
He looked over the fields of green, which had become his only time to
gather his thoughts.  Ryoko was always playing tricks on him, Aeka was
criticizing him, Sasami was always giving him these weird looks, and 
his dad was doing absolutely nothing, as usual.  He remembered back
when he and Ryoko had met, after he'd released her from the cave.  She
seemed interested enough.  Tenchi wasn't deterred by the fact that she
almost killed him.  But it seemed that once she got to know him, and he
showed interest in her, it was all over.  Aeka, well, she didn't like
him from the start.  Just to get at Ryoko, she'd blown up his house,
making his dad have to rebuild it.  Consequently making his new 
residence just spitting distance from his grandfather's shrine.  
	Katsuhito had never shown much interest in Tenchi.  Sometimes
he'd crack Tenchi over the head with one of his bokkens, or he'd make
Tenchi do some chores, but that was it.  Katsuhito just stayed cooped
up in the shrine all the time.  
	Sometimes Tenchi saw himself as the catalyst; everyone else had
absolutely nothing in common with him, not even his own father, and it
just resulted in turbulence.  
	"Miya?" 
	Tenchi snapped out of his reverie to see Ryo-ohki perched on 
his foot.  
	"Ohayo, Ryo-ohki."
	The cabbit rubbed against his leg.  
	"Do you want a carrot?" Tenchi joked. 
	The cabbit acted sick, as if the mere thought of eating a 
carrot was to be reviled.  Tenchi got a good laugh out of that one.  
Everyone knew that Ryo-ohki hated carrots.  The root plant was only 
grown because the fields had been subject to overcropping, resulting in
nutrient-deficient fields.  To restore those nutrients, it had been a
choice between lima beans or carrots, and the latter won out.
	Tenchi sat back on the dewy grass and began to pet Ryo-ohki.
The cabbit purred, and Tenchi just stared out into space for a while, 
allowing the animal's rhythmic noises to calm him.  
	"HEY!"
	Tenchi leapt about three feet into the air, along with the 
diminuitive animal.
	Ryoko stood there, hands on her hips.  "Ryo-ohki, how many 
times to I have to tell you to stay away from him?"
	"Miyaaa..."
	"No buts, just go back in the house.  Sasami's looking for 
you!"
	The cabbit scurried away under the withering gaze of its
master.
	Ryoko turned around, feeling Tenchi's eyes on her.  "Don't you
have someplace to be?" she demanded.
	Tenchi lowered his head and slunk away, not in the mood to try
and entice Ryoko.  
	She stared at him as he went.  Why did he have to be so...so...
pathetic?  His mannerisms just begged for her to scold him all the 
time, and to run him down.  The worst thing was that he acted like he
liked her, or something.  Ryoko shivered in revulsion.  He had to be 
the single worst person she could think of to be around.  Tenchi was
always simpering, clumsy, and indecisive.  Even his voice worked her
nerves away.  She only stayed here because the food was good, and 
because Aeka was a good conversationalist.  Aeka was the only person 
that really understood her, the only real friend she'd had in such a
long time.  They had lots in common, too.  They were both looking for a
man, they were both held down from doing so by their career, and both 
of them couldn't stand Tenchi. Ryoko phased away to get some sake, and
to find Aeka.  She was planning on taking her to the onsen, so they 
could have another talk.  Ryoko felt like mentioning history, since she
had seen her fare share of it. 
	Tenchi moped back into the house, and sure enough, Mihoshi and
Kiyone were there.  
	"Hi, guys," Tenchi said, a defeated tone in his voice.
	"Hi, Tenchi!" said Mihoshi, cheery as always.  She turned 
quickly to her food.
	Kiyone just shot him an icy glare.  Tenchi didn't do anything 
but sit down.  Sasami set out plates for Kiyone and Katsuhito, who 
walked into the door as she did so.  
	"Sasami, may I have some?" asked Tenchi, politely.
	"Well, I think you can get it yourself, right?" she said in her
most sugary sweet voice, trying not to say something she'd regret.
	"...I think I'll just..take a nap, or something."
	"You do that."
	Tenchi stood up and left for his room.  He thought about how
things were going outside of his life with the girls.  It looked pretty
bleak.  He had no friends at school.  In fact, he seemed to be a bully
magnet.  Not a single person had anything good to say about Tenchi 
Masaki.  But they had plenty of painful things to say.  Tenchi quivered
as he remembered the words of one of the students:
	"He doesn't even have a mom, and his dad's a loser.  What a
poor, deluded moron."
	Tenchi got into his room, desperately wishing that he could 
lock his door.  But that wouldn't stop Ryoko from playing tricks on 
him, or Aeka from criticizing him, or his dad from ignoring him.  
He thought that maybe, if his mom had survived, things would've been
better.  He clung to that thought like a life preserver.  
	Even as he lifted Tenchi-ken up, igniting the blade, he clung
to the thought.  He turned the blade to himself, keeping that thought
in mind.  His breath quickened, and his heart pounded as he positioned
the blade.  And then...
	And then the blade faded.  He dropped the hilt, and cried.  He
couldn't.  He just couldn't do it.  Tenchi cried himself to sleep.
	He awoke later that afternoon, bleary-eyed and defeated.  
Tenchi left the room, with absolutely nothing left.  He felt empty, 
like there was nothing left to do.  He had been trying for so long to
impress them, and every time he was blown off in such a way that it was
clearly evident he didn't have a chance with any of them.  
	"Hey, Tenchi!" yelled Ryoko, teleporting behind him and kicking
him across the room.  He hit the wall, and slid to the floor.  Ryoko
laughed loudly, attracting Aeka, who laughed till she cried.  Tenchi
didn't even try to get up.  He just wept.  <What's the use?> he 
thought.  <Why should I even try?>
	Ryoko stopped laughing.  "Oh geez, guess I went too far," she
said in an exasperated tone.  
	What Tenchi did next surprised her.  He got up, and walked over
to her.  <This is the one thing I can do to get her to finally end it
all,> he thought.  He ran up and hugged her tightly, like he would 
never let go, and cried into her shoulder.
	Ryoko's face was a mask of revulsion, and she punched him away.
Tenchi hit the wall, the right side of his face black and blue.  But
he ran up and did it again.  And again, Ryoko responded in kind.  Blood
was running freely down his face.  Ryoko had to punch him five more
times before he couldn't get up again.  He felt pain all over.  Ryoko
just stared at him, and felt a wave of pity.  
	"You know, I almost wish I didn't have to do that," she said.
	Tenchi allowed himself to sink over onto his side, letting his
head hit the floor.
	"Just get over it, already.  You don't have to go and throw a
tantrum," Ryoko said smoothly.
	Tenchi didn't have the heart, or the strength to get up.  "Why,
Ryoko?" he said in a low voice.  "Why should I?  Or is that just your
way of telling me to die?" he said sarcastically, a spiteful edge in 
his voice.  
	"Well, if you want to," she said, uninterested but still 
slightly shocked at this change.  
	Tenchi didn't even try to stop his blood from flowing.  He 
realized that he was throwing a tantrum, but it felt good to him.  Yes,
he was in pain, but it felt good, in some way he couldn't describe to
himself.
	"I don't have time for this," Ryoko sighed, and walked away, a
shocked Aeka in tow.  
	Once they were out of view, Aeka pulled Ryoko aside.  "Was that
truly neccessary?" she asked.
	"Why not?  He's always bothering us.  Just let him go."
	"No, I mean, was it neccessary to get the floor all bloody like
that?"
	"Yeah, that was kind of mean of me, huh?" laughed Ryoko.
	Tenchi felt like hamburger.  He was even tenderized, to a 
degree.  But he had a self-satisfied look on his face.  
	<No one cares what happens to me,> he thought.  <So it won't
matter to them if I'm gone.>
	Tenchi closed his eyes.  All he wanted now was to sleep.  He 
was so tired.  So very....very......tired.  Darkness overcame him, and
Tenchi welcomed it.  No, he demanded that it take him.  And as he began
to sleep, a smile found its way to his lips.  
=======================================================================
I guess I should describe this as more of a darkfic.  But this is the
way I feel it would be, if not for the affections of the women.  Tenchi
would probably be destroyed mentally if things were this way.  I know,
it's probably not one of the best ones I've written, but the thought
occurred to me, and I realized that no one had ever written a story 
with this idea, in this manner.  Flame me all you want, I just had to
do it.
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