SASAMI'S ALLEGORY

A Tenchi Muyo! fanfic by Inoue.  
Disclaimer:  All characters of Tenchi Muyo are the property of Pioneer 
LDC.  The piece itself is the exclusive property of Inoue and may not be 
altered in any form or fashion without the consent of the author.  

* * *

        I remember the buzzing of the flies drifting on the warm, autumn 
night.  Laughter pervaded the shadows of the light, banishing my 
appetite.  What should've been warm suddenly felt cold and unkind, and I 
heard the whispers murmuring from deep within my heart.  
        It was at that moment when my sister and Tenchi rose, hand in 
hand, and ran into the night, chattering and laughing to themselves.  I 
stood and watched as they disappeared into the darkness, wanting to 
follow the voices that grew farther and farther on the wind, but the 
whisperings of my heart rebelled against their own murmurs, leaving me 
behind to stare down at my feet and the fringes of the light.   
        So, I sat for a while, conversing with the Sadness, who was my 
only friend and companion.  I embraced Him and swallowed all the beauty 
of His grotesqueness with all the grotesqueness of His beauty.  
        He was not alone, however. 
        He was never alone.  
        In the distance, the flies continued to buzz while we sat on 
Tsunami's lap and conversed and Time carried us a little further down 
the water.  
        Footsteps murmured in the distance, drawing closer and closer 
until I saw my sister emerge into the light, carrying Tenchi on her 
shoulders.  
        Frightened, I touched him and he faded into the hot, autumn 
night.  

* * *

        Four sleepless days and nights came and went, lost too soon in 
the equally-lost sounds of the unanswered prayers.  
        I heard the flies' buzzing on the wind whenever I knelt at the 
foot of his bed and rewet the rags, each time louder and more insistent 
than the last, until they combined with the delirious murmurings in a 
dazzling thing I once heard called the tarantella, and when the 
whisperings of my heart began to dance with them, I knew.  
        In despair, I ran to my sister's room and pleaded with her on my 
knees, but the cold, dark light that flashed in her eyes silenced all 
entreaties and severed all the ropes that bound the ancient bridge.  
        "For four nights," she said, "you've come here to me with the 
same useless questions.  'Will you see him?' you ask.  'Will you share a 
book with him?' you whine.  Really, my throat gets dry having to say it 
over and over again.  Do you think I want to get sick?  I don't know 
what delusions are running through your head, but If you want to get 
sick, then I leave that matter entirely to you, Imouto.  Now go and 
leave me, and don't ask these questions again."
        The flies were with us now, dancing with the echoes of the 
murmurings, chanting madness in my ears until my eyes bled with the 
darkness of the light and the light of the darkness, as if the flies 
were the ones with a need for the taiko.     
        I ran to my mirror and begged Tsunami, and she said to me,
        "Use me to save his life, but if you do, you can never call on 
me again.  This is the price of betraying me.  Know that it is price I 
ask because I love you, Ojouchan."  
        Thoughtlessly, I agreed, and, thus, came my marriage to Tenchi 
and our lives in the darkness that is the light.  It is the darkness 
that resounds with the hatred of my sister and the silence of Tsunami, 
who gave me Tenchi.  
        Now, in this darkness, I profess my eternal love for Tsunami, my 
sister, and Tenchi, murmurings lost forever on the cool, spring wind, 
unanswered because they have already been answered.  
        
-- OWARI

Author's notes:

This is one of those prewrite experiments for a much larger piece that 
I'm starting on.  Hope you enjoyed it.  Please send all comments to 
Kangei@aol.com.  Minna, arigatou gozaimashita, soshite ja mata!