View from a Cave
                           by Bob T. Mi-go


                     (C) 2000, Robert J. Cannard
              Permission is hereby granted to reproduce by
              any means whatsoever provided the entire
              document is reproduced complete and unchanged
              and no charge is levied. That is, don't change
              it and don't sell it.

              Ryoko, Tenchi and co are the property of AIC
              and Pioneer. No challenge of any kind is
              intended to their intellectual property rights.
              This fanfic must be withdrawn from circulation
              if there is any objection from any legitimate
              rights holder.


[The rooftop scene in OAV episode 1 has caused a lot of confusion over
the years. Why exactly did Ryoko attack Tenchi? When the question was
raised on the ryokoforever mailing list a couple of years ago, it
became clear that in all the arguing, no-one was considering how the
events appeared from Ryoko's own perspective, so of course no-one
understood why she did what she did. So I wrote this second-person
account. While this is only one of several possible interpretations, I
think it works, altough a few of its ideas don't seem quite right in
light of new knowledge. This is a slightly re-edited and updated
version of the original email.

OAV Ryoko is not human. She's over 5,000 years old; this gives her a
different view of time. She's practically immortal, and can recover
from almost any injury; she can survive untold levels of pain. She
didn't have a childhood. She's been used by just about everyone she's
known, and so doesn't know or understand how normal people relate to
each other. She was brought up by a criminal mastermind who treated her
as a defective toy, useful mainly for distracting others while he stole
the goods. She was encouraged by him to think of people as commodities
to be disposed of when no longer useful.

Now put yourself in Ryoko's place and think about the situation from
her point of view. Let's begin by turning the clock back 700 years...]


At Kagato's command, you've just caused terrible destruction on Planet
Jurai. Your mission failed...Kagato will punish you. But that's the
least of your worries. You're being chased by the Crown Prince. His
ship is stronger and faster than yours. He chases you down to Earth.
Your ships crash.

You fight...and he's a superior warrior, too. He impales you with his
energy sword. It's the most painful thing you've ever experienced, not
merely the pain of impalement but the agony that you've come to
associate with Jurai energy. He confiscates your precious gems...the
sense of loss is overwhelming. And yet, as you lose consciousness,
there's a sense of freedom also, as Kagato's control over you is
broken.

Now, Yousho has imprisoned you in a cold, dark cave. This is a new kind
of cold; not the cold of space, which you could simply shrug off, but
an internal cold, the cold of hypothermia. You have been given barely
enough energy to stay alive, and even maintaining your body temperature
has become tasking.

Seven hundred years pass. You're bored. Very bored. So bored that there
aren't adjectives to describe it in any language. The only thing of any
interest in all that time is the appearence of a young boy who, unlike
everyone else, can see you. And he's not afraid.

You like him. (New sensation. What does it mean to like someone?)

You want out of the cave. You see him chasing dragonflies, and you want
to play with him (play? What does it mean to play? Kagato never allowed
you to play.) But you can't get out. You make a plan...you'll start
saving up tiny amounts of the precious energy your jailer allows you,
and when you have enough, you'll burst your bonds. It'll hurt...it'll
be agony, because your body will be short on energy and won't be able
to sustain itself. But the one thing you have in abundance is
determination, and you do it.

The boy's mother dies. (Mother? What's so special about a mother? You
didn't have a mother...at least, you can't remember having one.) He
comes to your cave entrance, crying his heart out. You experience
another new emotion: compasssion. (Where did that come from? Certainly
not from Kagato.) You want to comfort him, to touch him, to hug him, to
tell him it's alright and that you're there with him. But you can't.
You put your astral hand on his head but he doesn't notice.

He can't see you any more.

Years pass. The boy grows into a handsome young man. You've almost got
enough energy to break out of the cave...soon, you can be his friend.
(Friend? What's a friend? You've never had a friend. There was Ryo-
Ohki - is that what a friend is? You don't know and you can't ask her.
It's been 700 years since you've been able to talk to her.)

Then a miracle happens. While travelling in your astral form to the
cave entrance, you pass the young man; he doesn't seem to notice the
ball of light floating past him. Somehow, he's managed to get into the
cave. You see that the gate at the entrance is open. He's come for you!
You rush back to your physical body at the bottom of the cave (again,
your rescuer doesn't notice the passing ball), and you prepare to greet
him.

The young man arrives in the innermost part of the cave. If you still
had lungs, you'd be breathless with anticipation. He kneels beside the
pool that imprisons you. You reach up, grasp his hand, pull yourself
up. With your decayed body, the effort required is enormous, but you do
it. You look into his eyes and see...

Terror.

What's wrong? He never used to be afraid. What's frightening him now?

You move closer. You try to hug him, to kiss him, to tell him what you
wanted to say a decade earlier: It's alright, I'm here. But you can't.
Your lungs and vocal chords have rotted. Only a ghastly wheeze emerges.

Then pain. You remember that pain. It's the pain of Jurai energy, the
same pain that impaled you all those centuries past. He's carrying that
sword, and he's struck you with it. In your agony you can't tell that
he doesn't understand what happened, that the contact was not
deliberate. All you know is that the young man you love, who should
have been your Prince Charming, who should have rejoiced to set you
free, is wielding the same weapon that defeated you before. You've been
hurt again, this time by the one you love. The sense of betrayal is
more than you can handle.

He runs. He's fleeing from you. He was terrified of you. He's just like
the others, to him you're just a monster to run from. Worse, he's
allied with your enemies. You thought he would be a friend, but he's
just another bastard. You expected him to bring you love, instead he
brought you more pain. Well, pain is one thing you know well. Your rage
at being mistreated yet again comes to the boil.

You're out of the cave now. For the first time in centuries, you're
surrounded with nature's energy. You draw on it, you patch up your
body. Your feelings are mixed up; you don't know whether you want to
love him or kill him. So you prepare a special battle costume for the
occasion. It gives you total freedom of movement. It covers you, yet
allows you to show off as much as you want when you want. Whichever way
things go, you'll be ready with your new fighting-flirting outfit.

You find him sleeping on the school's roof. When he awakes, you
confront him. You want to be sure he realises how much suffering you've
been through. You talk to him. He claims it wasn't his fault but admits
to being related to the hated Yousho. He's still giving you mixed
signals.

And so you attack. You're still not quite sure of him. You still love
him. You don't want to kill him, not yet. Not until you're sure beyond
a shadow of a doubt that he's your enemy, something you don't want to
believe. But you're going to find out which side he's really on, and
whichever way it turns out, you're going to make sure he appreciates
how badly you've been treated, and just how angry you are.

Thus begins the most confused, mixed-up, half-baked, comical yet
destructive fight scene in anime.


                       END - OR BEGINNING