The Haunting
A Tenchi Muyo! counterattack fic by Rob Barba
Based on the "fanfic" (I use this term loosely) Kanashii no Imi by
Leaf-chan
Tenchi Muyo! (c) AIC, Pioneer, etc., and others who would treat the
characters with more dignity than some fanfic authors apparently would.

    Jeff woke up, looking around at his room, with the anime posters and
the like.  So it had all been a dream, he thought.  But had felt so
real: the ending up on the world of _Tenchi Muyo!_, meeting Washu and
the others...
    His moment of bittersweet joy with Sasami...
    He shook his head, clearing the last bits of sleep from his mind,
mentally figuring that he had to get a bit more sleep in the nights. 
Searching the web until 2am for his little priceless treasures of
precious images would tire out anyone in the long run.  Besides, he
still had school to keep up with, and he wanted to tell his buddy Al
about that dream he had...after leaving out a few details, of course. 
Al, being a teenager like himself, might be pretty tolerant of certain
things, but there were certain lines that no one crossed.  Rightfully
so.   
    Addicts like himself were always that way.  He'd read something the
other day, from Robert Downey Jr. regarding his own drug addiction:
"It's like I've got a gun in my mouth and I'm addicted to the taste of
gunmetal."  Jeff supposed he felt the same way, while ignoring the
phallic irony of his musing.
    Hauling his sizable girth out of bed, he got ready to start his day.

* * *

    Jeff ran into Al as soon as he arrived on campus.  Jeff began, "Man,
lemme tell you about this dream I had last ni--"  
    Al interrupted him.  "Dude!  Man, have you seen that new girl?  God,
she's a babe!  And she looks just like...."  Al trailed off, looking at
his rather grungy wear.  "Aw, hell, she's never going to notice me in
this clothing...a babe like her...."
    Jeff was about to comment further, but got interrupted by the bell. 
"Tell ya what: let's get to class, and you can tell me about it there,
okay?"  Dragging Jeff off towards the school, Jeff was sure that the
dream was nothing but an odd experience that would fade from his mind as
the day went on.


    It was there that hell began.
    "Class, we have a new student here," the teacher began, "a transfer
from Japan.  She'll be here with us for a while, so please show her our
school spirit and make her feel at home here."  With no further ado, he
pointed towards the front of the class, singling out a young woman. 
Said young woman immediately became the object of dour, jealous stares
from the girls and appreciative, predatory looks from the males.
    By all respects, the girl was (from what you could tell), the normal
typical Japanese girl.  Moon-shaped face, golden skin, dressed rather
conservatively, though thankfully not in a fuku--this was America, after
all.  But there was something about her long, dark hair that seemed to
shimmer with a cyan sheen when the light hit it just right, and
something about her red eyes.  Was she a partial albino?  Apparently
not, because she didn't have that melanin-impaired skin that albinos
usually had.  Likely she was just like those people born with purple or
yellow eyes: uncommon, but not unheard of.  Regardless, though, there
was something that looked eerily familiar...
    Meanwhile, the teacher said, "Well, miss, why don't you stand up and
tell us a little bit about yourself?"
    Shyly at first, she stood and said in accented though excellent
English, "Well, my name is Tsunami Juraino, and I'm from a little town
in southern Japan.  My older sister, who I live with, got a job here in
America, and I'll be going to school here."

    Whispering to Jeff, Al said, "Wow.  Creepy."
    Jeff, concerned that he knew the girl from somewhere before, had
just enough presence of mind to comment back, "What is?"
    "That girl, man!  She looks just like Tsunami, man!  And did you
catch her name?  'Tsunami Juraino'?  Wow, is that a co-inky-dink or
what?"
    "Huh?  What're you talking about, Al?  And who's Tsunami?"
    "Man, did you lookit that _Tenchi_ stuff I lent ya?  Tsunami's the
adult form of Sasami, man.  She's some sort of goddess or something," Al
replied.  "And that girl's name?  Tsunami Juraino?  Or like they say in
Japan, Juraino Tsunami?  That means, Tsunami of Jurai, you know. 
Learned that from my anime."  Jeff's friend brushed his long bangs out
of his face in a sort of amazement.  "What is the odds of something like
that happening?"
    Something in the pit of Jeff's stomach decided to curdle at that
moment.

    Still speaking at the front of the class, Tsunami finished up her
cute little speech by looking at everyone and said, "And I'm hoping to
get to know you all very well.  Very well, indeed."  As she looked at
the class, most of the girls felt at peace, easily thinking they could
be friends with this charming and sweet girl.  Most guys were hoping
that she'd be passing out her phone number at the end of class.  Al
thought she was just so much like Tsunami, he was hoping to get her to
join the school's unofficial anime club.  And as for Jeff...
    When Tsunami looked into his eyes, her pink ones seemed to bore into
his mind, searing something akin to primal hatred in them.  He fought to
keep control of himself as he looked back at her.  She was smiling, and
seemed to be pleasant and happy, and yet there was something about her,
now that his eyes and hers locked in on each other.  It was like staring
into the eyes of Medusa.
    The rational side of his mind said, ((Impossible, man.  It ain't
her.  Anime characters aren't real.  It's just a coincidence.))  This
was followed up by Al's words, ringing in his mind: (("Tsunami's the
adult form of Sasami, man.  She's some sort of goddess or something."))
    A new voice echoed in his mind--Tsunami's: (("And I'm hoping to get
to know you all very well.  Very well, indeed."))
    Suddenly coincidences didn't feel much like it.

*  *  *

    The cycle repeated itself in the classes that Jeff had had.  The new
girl, Tsunami, was also in them, and basically did the same thing in the
other classes, taking time to look at Jeff and Al.  By the middle of
their third class of the morning, Al proclaimed that he felt he was in
love.  Jeff, on the other hand, felt rather nervous and clammy; there
was something about that girl that completely weirding him out.  He
confided in Al on how nervous and sick he was feeling, and Al taunted
that if Jeff would get off his fat ass and work out, maybe he could
score a girlfriend; even Al, who didn't date often had already done the
deed with a girl.  Jeff was about to make a comment about him having
done the deed as well, but caught himself at the last moment and clammed
up.  Eerily, at that time, from her seat, Tsunami seemed to turn around
and give Jeff a dark, knowing look.
    As lunchtime ensued, she'd made friends of all of the school's
senior class, most of the juniors, and quite a few of the ones in the
lower grades as well.  She'd only been at the school for just a few
hours, and already she'd made herself the darling of the school, with no
qualms about it whatsoever.  And here she was, floating around the lunch
area, chatting idly with everyone for a couple of minutes, not sticking
with a particular clique, and getting to know everyone, from the jocks
to the fashionplates, nerds to goths, rivetheads to the crew and all
that made up the population of the school.
    Seated under a tree with their lunches and a stack of manga, Al and
Jeff watched as the girl moved from one group to another laughing and
giggling with the grace and joy of...well, the name of a certain anime
character came to Jeff's mind....  Looking at her in awe, Al commented,
"Hey, that Tsunami girl's acting like...uh, what was the word that old
Mr. Cafferty said in class the other day...'like a social butterfly.' 
Yeah, that's it.  Social butterfly."
    Jeff said nothing, but instead looked tried to keep his eyes off the
girl as he turned the page.  Eating his sandwich, he refused to answer
Al's comments about that "hot Japanese babe" until he heard the other
say, "Oooh, look!  Here she comes!"  Jeff, wincing at that, tore his
eyes away from the manga, looked up and saw....
    "So, hello," Tsunami said, looking at Jeff and Al.  She was wearing
a pair of headphones around her neck, those connected to one of those
Japanese MiniDisc players.  "So, ah, Al, is it?  I heard you were the
president of the school otaku club.  May I join?"
    Al had a stunned look on his face for a couple of seconds before
stammering, "A-a-um...sure!  We'd love to have you!" As she and Al sat
down and chatted, Jeff felt like the fly trapped on a web, with the
spider not really paying attention...yet.  What was it about this girl? 
Was she really *the* Tsunami?  ((Impossible!)) his mind told him. 
((She's nothing but a fuckin' cartoon!  This girl ain't her, dammit!))
    As if hearing his thoughts, Tsunami suddenly said to Al, "The thing
I love most about anime is how life like it is, you understand?  The
characters can do anything in them, and it just seems like it really is
unfolding before your eyes.  Characters can have family, fall in love,
sense fear, be hurt and injured, even get killed...and it all seems so
real."
    Jeff snarled, "Oh, get real!  They're just cartoons, damn it!  Ink
and paint on plastic!"  Al was startled by the sudden anger in Jeff's
words, but strangely enough, Tsunami didn't flinch.
    Looking at him with cool, haunting eyes, Tsunami replied, "You would
be surprised.  Sometimes what is apparently fake can turn out to be the
most real things in the world."
    "What does that mean?" he retorted, but the girl didn't answer that,
and an uneasy pall of silence settled around the three.


    Al, trying to keep the attention of this devastatingly beautiful
Japanese girl, broke the silence.  "So, ah, whatcha listening to?  Are
those MiniDiscs as good as they say they are?"
    Tsunami nodded in the affirmative, handing her unit to Al.  "I think
they're better than CDs, personally.  And as to what I'm listening to,
it's an old Oingo Boingo album."
    Al grinned with the smile of someone firmly entrenched in daydream
land.  "An otaku *and* a Boingo fan too.  I think I'm in love," he
semi-joked.  He slipped on the headphones for a couple of minutes,
playing the music and grooving along.  Stopping after a couple, he said,
"Hey, wow, you're right.  Hey Jeff," Al said, handing him the unit, "you
gotta hear this, man.  As soon as I can afford it, I gotta get me one of
these!"
   Wanting to get the creepy chick away from them as soon as possible,
Jeff took the unit and slipped on the headphones, then pressed the play
button:

    "When they're around, they make me feel like I'm the only guy in
town," Danny Elfman sang, with the rest of the band jamming along on
their instruments.  "Oh I love...little girls....  They make me feel
so--"

    Jeff reacted like a man bitten by a snake.  Ripping off the
headphones, he dropped the unit.  In his haste he knocked over Al's can
of Coke, the contents splashing on the MD player.  The unit made a
couple odd whirs and a popping noise before it stopped and a wisp of
smoke wafted from the little blue rectangle.
    "Oh shit!" Al said, giving Jeff a nasty look.  "Hey, I'm sorry,
Tsunami..."
    "Don't worry," she replied.  "It was an accident.  I'll just have to
buy a new one.  They're only what, 2-300 dollars, ne?"  Standing up, she
said, "Well, I have to meet with a few more people before lunch is over
with, so I will see you later."  With that, she turned and headed
towards another group of people.
    "Smooth move, Ex-Lax," Al growled as Tsunami left.
    Jeff sighed in relief.  "Thank God she's gone, that freak-o."
    "Freak-o?  The only freak I see here is you, dipshit." Al looked
pissed.  "Nice babe like that, you nuke her MD, and when she's nice
enough to say don't worry about it, you call her a freakjob.  What the
hell is your problem?"  Al's eyes narrowed in anger.  "I'll tell you
what: the club is going to use our funds to get her a new player, and
you can pay the club back...or, you explain to the group why you just
pissed off and dissed what appears to be the most popular girl in
school."
    "But you heard her!  To buy her a new one costs 300, man!  That's a
whole paycheck for me!" Jeff whined.
    "Your problem, not mine," Al retorted.  "And to think you're my best
friend.  Grow the fuck up, Jeff."  With that, Al got up and walked away
from Jeff trying to figure out why Al, who'd known him for years, was
suddenly acting li--
    ((Like he was under the spell of a goddess,)) Jeff's mind decreed. 
((She's got him and she's using him against you.))
     ((No way!)) he shouted back against his conscience.  ((Not Al,
man!  Ty, or Rick, maybe even Frank, but not Al!  We're tight!))
    And in answer, a voice entered his head again: (("I'm hoping to get
to know you all very well.  Very well, indeed."))
    This was getting to be too weird, he realized, as he picked up his
books and lunch remains, ready to go back into the school building. 
     "I'm hoping to get to know you all very well.  Very well, indeed,"
the voice echoed in his mind once more.

*  *  *
    
    Finally, the classes ended for the day, and Jeff walked home.
Usually Al gave him a lift, but after today's events, something just
didn't seem right for him to ask for a ride.  Personally, the walk was
probably for the best--he needed to clear his mind of what the hell had
been happening over the course of the school day.  He wasn't sure if was
going to be able to take being near that weird girl anymore.  As the day
had progressed, he'd found out that she was in all of his classes, and
he even had to sit next to her in Biology class, and on the day that
they were talking about the human reproductive system, too.
    That had been weird, especially since the teacher covered the
development of how little boys and girls grew and their bodies changed. 
At the pictures of the younger ones, he couldn't help but smile and feel
something in his loins.
    Bad mistake.  He felt a chill around him, and turned to see Tsunami
staring at him with abject hatred, as if her eyes would set him on
hellfire.  She seemed to stare at him like that for the better half of
eternity, then quick as a wink she turned back to her work and the world
seemed to go back to normal.  Except...even though she was no longer
staring at him, he could feel her burning eyes on him, moving through
his entire soul like a malignant tumor, tearing him apart, bit by bit,
molecule by molecule, a pair of hungry raptors devouring everything in
the path....

    "Is something the matter, Jeff?" the teacher asked.  Jeff looked
around, and found that he was standing up in the middle of the
classroom, with all eyes on him.  All but Tsunami, who was apparently
writing something down in her notebook.
    "Um, no, Ms. Atkins," Jeff replied sheepishly.
    "Well then," the teacher replied primly, "it would serve you well
not to shout 'they're all over me' in this class, especially while we
are discussing the reproduction cycle."  As he sat down sheepishly, she
quipped, "People might start to think that sperm have a personal
vendetta against you."
    As the room burst into laughter at his expense, one giggle in
particular seemed to roar inside him, making him very, very afraid.  It
wasn't the loudest laugh, or the sharpest, or even the weirdest.  It was
merely what appeared to be the laugh of a young Japanese girl.  And it
echoed within the recesses of his brain, over and over again, the
scratched record playing the same key onto infinity....

    As he turned the street reaching the halfway point towards his home,
his mind swam with the possibilities of what the girl named Tsunami
Juraino could be.  Earlier today, he'd just thought the girl to be a
coincidence.  By lunch, he thought she was weird.  Now, he was beginning
to be afraid of what she really was.  Once more, his rational mind spoke
out, detailing the impossibilities of what she was, yet what could the
answer be?
    He was being haunted by Tsunami.  By a non-existent cartoon
character!  Something that shouldn't exist.  And if she did, would that
mean that the universe of Tenchi and his friends was real?  That would
make what he did real.  That would make him a....  ((No, Goddamn it, it
was just a dream!  A fucking dream!))
    "A fuckin' dream!" he snarled aloud.
    "What was a dream?" a voice said.  He looked down and saw a young
girl, about ten years old.  She looked at him with innocent eyes, and an
elfin, angelic face.  Her body, just at the edges of reaching out
towards puberty, teased and taunted him, and a familiar longing stirred
with him.
    There was no one on the street.  The whole stretch of road, as far
as the 
    He reached for her, and stopped.  He felt the presence of someone
watching him.  He turned and looked down the street.  There, in the
distance stood Tsunami, looking in his direction.  He looked down and
saw...
...the dead and defiled body of Sasami, her body pale and set in rigor
mortis, looking at him with lifeless, empty eyes, her unclothed body
covered with the welts and bruises of what he'd done to her...
    ((...what *I* did to her,)) his mind agreed, as though it was a
detached observer.
    He blinked in shock.  When he forced himself to open his eyes again,
the earthly remains of Sasami was gone.  He turned to look at Tsunami,
but she too was no longer there.  Looking back at the ground, he saw
that a new item had been placed in the location.  Scrawled on the
sidewalk in a dark red fluid was a simple word: MONSTER.  It didn't take
too much rocket science for him to figure out what liquid was used in
the scribing of the word.
    Jeff did what any normal person would have done, under the
circumstances: he ran like hell, as a breeze floated through the street,
rustling the leaves scattered on the ground.  And those leaves sounded
frighteningly like the laugh of a fictional alien princess....

*  *  *

    "Mom, I'm home," he gasped, winded and out of breath.  He'd run all
the way home from that last incident and wanted to go into his room and
hide.  Hide, yes, that was it.  Hide where she couldn't find you.  If
she couldn't see him, she couldn't find him.  But Al said that Tsunami
was a goddess?  Couldn't goddesses find anyone wherever they were on the
planet?
    "I'm in here, son," she responded.  "I'm having a chat with our new
neighbors across the street."
    ((New...neighbors?)) he said mentally, while responding with a, "um,
I...I gotta get ready for work.  I'm going to be late."
    "He sounds like such a pleasant boy, Margaret," an aristocratic,
noble sounding voice sounded.  A chill did multiples of the speed limit
down his spine as he recognized the voice.  ((No way in hell. 
Absoulutely no way....))  Feeling like a kid caught in a horror movie,
he looked into the living room and saw the latest aspect of horror.
    "Oh, there you are, son," his mother said as she waved him into the
room.  "This is our new neighbor who moved into the old Hendersons
place.  Jeffrey, I'd like you to meet Ayeka Juraino.  She and her two
sisters just moved from Japan last week.  And her younger sister,
Tsunami, is about your age," she said, winking.
    Jeff didn't pay attention to his mother's comments.  He was too busy
trying to contain his shock, prevent himself from committing any
involuntary bodily functions, and listen to his mind squeal,
((ohmygodohmygodohmygod....))  There, seated in his own living room, in
living breathing flesh, was the Crown Princess of Jurai herself, Aeka. 
Though her hair seemed to be a black rather than the "normal" violet,
and the fact that she was dressed in business attire like someone coming
home from work vice the "space-kimono" she normally wore, it was her. 
No doubting that.
    No doubting the electric, raging hatred in her eyes, either, or the
flat tone that said, "So this is your son, Jeffrey.  I see."  Agonizing
moments passed as she examined him, seeming to look right through him as
intensely as Tsunami did before saying, "You've made quite an impression
on Tsunami, I must admit.  I daresay you've made one on Sasami as well."
    His eyes grew wide with horror.  ((Sasami?!?!  But I...but I...))
    ((Yes, you killed my sister,)) Aeka's burning eyes seemed to say,
before she turned back to Margaret and smoothly said, "Yes, he is
certainly different, as you said.  Not like others of his age, who get
into trouble far and above that of what they can bear, and who do not
understand the repercussions that follow."  Her eyes ever so delicately
darted in his direction, flinging the accusation in his face again:
((you killed my sister, you beast, then tried to hide by returning to
your dimension.  But we have followed.))
    "Yes, he certainly is," Margaret replied, oblivious to what had just
transpired between the princess and Jeff.  "But I weren't aware that you
knew Ayeka's younger sisters.  When did you meet them?"
    "He just popped in and stayed for dinner," Aeka replied to Margaret
with a pleasant tone, though Jeff could hear the barely bridled rage in
her voice, the accusatory tones, the loathing to be in the same space as
he.
    Jeff was fortunate enough to have his watch alarm go off.  Mumbling
something incoherent about him having to go get some sleep as he was
feeling a little under the weather; he'd just call work and tell them
that he wasn't going to be able to make it in that day.  Too much of a
chance of running into *her*.  And as if knowing what he thought, Aeka
looked at him out of the corners of her eyes and gave what appeared to
be a predatory, dark smile.  Wanting to get the hell away from that
woman, he quickly rattled off a quick good day and raced off into the
sanctuary of his room.
    Hide.
    Must.
    Get away, get away, get away from Tsunami and Aeka...
    Get away....

*  *  *

    Jeff woke up in the middle of the might.  He was worn out and
exhausted.  And afraid.  *She* was out there, both of them.  But he was
safe here, right?  In his own home, right?  Nevermind the fact that in
the horror films, the least safe place to be was in one's own room--that
wasn't how real life worked.
    Then again, his mind reminded him, anime characters didn't come to
life and seek revenge for the murder of one of their own.
    ((A murder *you* committed,)) a second voice in his head said,
punctuated by the laugh of a little girl.
    Jeff was wide awake at that laugh.  Because that laugh came from
without, rather than from within.  That is to say, it was still echoing
in the confines of his room.  It was so tangible a sound, it was almost
as though you could follow it from one part of the room to the other,
from the computer, to the TV, to the stereo, to the clock.
    The clock...

    He glanced over at the clock. It was 1:13. As he stared, the three
clicked, and turned into a four.
    And hell commenced to open its maw, and disgorge its hatred on him. 
And that hatred looked eerily like intellectual and physical properties
owned by Pioneer, Ltd.

    The room began to fill with a dark blue mist, as lights began to
flicker in his room, coming from nowhere, yet having the appearance as
though they were reflecting from underneath water.  The computer and TV
suddenly went on, flashing images of nothing but Sasami's dead body,
lying where Jeff had left it.  The radio kicked in, playing a Jpop tune
that would have been nice and catchy if it weren't for the lyrics, the
words RAPIST and MURDERER being sung over and over again.  And all
through it all, the laughter of a young girl, sounding over and over
again, ringing in his ears uncontrollably.
    Jeff leapt for the door, but found that it was locked and shut
firmly; not even kicking it, had he been that strong, would have been
able to break it free.  He turned and headed for the windows, but found
that somehow, they'd disappeared.  The walls were, where the windows
were, covered with wallscrolls from the _Pretty Sammy_ series...except
that it is hard for a girl to be pretty anything when one is dead in the
picture.
    "Jeff...."  The sound of a voice behind him filled with dread.  He
turned to see Sasami, sitting upright in his bed, looking at him with a
pleasant smile and those same empty, dead eyes.  Jeff merely looked at
her with a blind speechless panic; the only think he could feel in his
numbing body was something warm and wet running down his leg.
    "Stay away...." he whispered, shaking like a man shivering from the
cold of a dark, deep pond, not unlike the one where he'd sent the
Juraian princess to her ultimate fate.  He found that he couldn't move,
couldn't do much of everything except whimper and wet himself.
    "But Jeff," the dead girl said, as she got out of the bed and
approached him, "I want to play."  And as he reached for him, etched on
the wall, he could see the images of Tsunami and Aeka, staring at him
with looks of pure revenge.
    The last thing Jeff could do was to scream, his voice a note of
complete and utter terror which could be heard nowhere but in his mind,
matched note for note with Sasami's laughter.

*  *  *

    The little town that Jeff lived in never really recovered from the
shock.  It had started in the morning when Jeff's mother had come to
wake him up for school and instead found him in the corner, laughing
like a jackanape and cooing, "She's not real, she's not real...."  Lying
on the bed, apparently raped and strangled afterwards, was young Sasami
Juraino, the youngest sister of the Juraino family from across the
street.
    During the following weeks, more horror was uncovered about the
young man that the local papers had labeled demonic.  Eight gigabytes
worth of pedophilia were discovered on his hard drive, as were films
such as an X-rated version of _Lolita_, and several hard-core child porn
published in other countries.  The DNA from the sperm found inside the
body of Sasami Juraino, as well as the flecks of blood found on Jeff's
crotch matched their respective donors, though there had never been any
doubt as to what was what.  But equally damning was his own testimony;
apparently he thought the girl to be nothing but a figment of his own
imagination, something out of a cartoon.  The odd thing about his
comments was that no one found any evidence of a Japanese animation
named _Tenchi Muyo!_, much less anything that featured any member of the
Juraino family.  What *was* found in his room, however, were several
rolls of film, with pictures of neighborhood girls on them, not a one
over age ten.
    During this time, any support that Jeff might have had crumbled
around him.  His parents, sickened that their son had turned out to be a
monster, never seemed to recover from the blow, though the Jurainos
never blamed them for that.  The school rallied around the
already-popular Tsunami Juraino in her time of need, and
proportionately, what few friends Jeff had deserted him like the
proverbial rats leaving the sinking ship.  Even Al, Jeff's lifelong best
friend, recanted that friendship when he found out (in his words) "what
a dickweed babyfuckin' bastard" Jeff had turned out to be.  Al, who had
a younger sister named Pearl, had at the time thought his friend to be
treating Pearl kindly for noble reasons, but the truth had come out, and
it made him sick; Pearl had turned out to feature in many of the shots
on the confiscated rolls of film.  By the time the trial had begun, not
only had Jeff been vilified, but his family as well, and it took a
passionate plea from Aeka Juraino to have Jeff's parents left in peace.
    With all that had transpired, there was no way that Jeff could claim
innocence.  As his attorney turned in a verdict of guilt by reason of
insanity.  Due to the brutality in which Sasami had been killed, the
court had ordered that the defendant be sentenced to life in the state
mental institution, with no planned parole.  There was no way that they
were sure that Jeff would ever be sane enough to walk amongst public
again, and the fact that so many of the town's young girls were
potentially endangered, the courts had to make a stand.  As Jeff was led
out of the courtroom, he was terrified to look into the hatred-filled
eyes of Tsunami and Aeka, nor could he stand to look at his own parents.
   But Jeff's hell wasn't over yet.


    Jeff sat in his room in the institution.  It was here now that he
would get some peace and be free of those damn anime characters.  She
would never bother him again.  Sasami, Tsunami, Aeka, whomever,
whatever.  He was free.  Was free. Free.  A thin smile formed on his
lips.  Free and safe.
    "Jeff...." the voice of Sasami said from behind him.  He didn't need
to turn around.  "I thought you would like to play."
    "Go away," he mumbled incoherently, voice shaking from horror and
despair.
    "Oh, I'll never do that," the revenant replied.  "I'll be here
forever."  And on that note, she giggled happily.
    
    The word rang in his head, as the laughter did.
    Forever
        Forever
            Forever
                Forever
                    Forever
    His terror-filled shrieks were loud enough to be heard well outside
the great building, even though the accompanying laughter of the child
could only be heard in his head.
        
*  *  *

    Standing outside of the facility in a grass field, Tsunami breathed
a sigh of relief.  "There.  It is done."
    Aeka looked at Tsunami questioningly.  "You let him live.  I don't
understand."
    "Of course I let him live," Tsunami answered.  "Death would have
been a kindness to him.  That is what he wanted when he destroyed...." 
The goddess paused, unsure for a second whether to say "Sasami" or
"me".  Aeka nodded in understanding, though; she knew the truth of it. 
Continuing after a second, Tsunami added, "This way, he has his whole
life to think and be reminded about what he's done...and I can guarantee
you, he'll live a long, long time."
    "Well, what next?"
    "We go home, Aeka.  As for that bastard's family, they will recover
and move on, I hope.  Those who remembered him at school will also have
to move past what has occurred.  And as for us, the records will show
that Tsunami Juraino will graduate from her class this year before going
away to college in another town.  Aeka Juraino, wanting to be close to
her remaining sister, took a job in that same town.  Within a year,
we'll be a sad memory of this place."
    "So is it time to go?"
    Tsunami smiled.  A snap of her fingers, and they were in the park
two blocks from where they had lived in this town.  Tapping the ground,
a single cyan-and-pink rose burst from the ground, followed by a second,
a third, then dozens.  Within a few minutes, a large patch of the
beautiful roses encircled Aeka and Tsunami.  "Done," Tsunami announced. 
"This is Sammy's Rose.  If there is ever a child in danger in this town,
all they have to do is to come here, and I will come to protect them."
    "As will I.  And Ryoko, and the others," Aeka promised.  "But it's
not enough, is it?"
    "No, would that it were.  The only way to truly stop something like
that is the diligence of people, and that counts more than a goddess'
efforts.  There's a saying amongst these people: 'Out of the Strong,
Came Forth Sweetness.'  I'd like to think that some good will come out
of all this in the end."  Hugging Aeka gently, Tsunami said, "Let's go
home."
    Aeka smiled and wiped a tear from her eye.  "Yes. Let's."
    With a flash, Aeka and Tsunami were gone from the park, leaving the
rose garden behind, and hope.
      
Author's Rant
I wrote this in outright condemnation of Leaf-chan's rather disgusting
piece of cyber trash _Kanashii no Imi_.  There are certain themes and
ideas in fanfiction that should not even be used, and of course the
author of _KnI_ has done so, and more.  Since that work of fiction
seemed to be a sort of attack on people's sense of right, I only felt
that a counterattack was needed.

Thanks to Lurker, Ukyo, Zen, Lany, and Chris for being pre-readers on
it, those who have spoken out against _KnI_, and a backhanded compliment
to Leaf-chan--if it weren't for your work, we wouldn't know to avoid you
like the plague.

And for those who are wondering why I have both "Aeka" and "Ayeka" in
the fic, it's because of how the name is being pronouced.  The correct
spelling in Japanese is (Aeka, the "ye" of course being an obsolete
combination).  However, given the vagaries of English and accents, it is
entirely possible that the "ye" sound could be pronounced.