One of my brother's co-workers is going to Mexico in November, so she wants to learn all the Spanish she can before then. She went to another co-worker who is fluent in Spanish (his nickname is "Ocho"), and told him about this. He replied in Spanish.
"You can tell by my blank expression that I don't understand a word," she said.
"Ok," he said, in English. "From now on, only Spanish. No English."
My brother overheard this, which is reasonable since they were in his office at the time. He doesn't speak any Spanish, but he decided to join the conversation anyway.
Ocho said something in Spanish.
"An easy way to learn Spanish is watching TV," my brother translated.
Ocho said something else in Spanish.
"The best thing to watch is the news," my brother translated.
Ocho shook his head. "Novelas," he said.
"Soap operas," my brother corrected himself.
Ocho nodded, and said something else in Spanish.
"You can tell by the expression on their faces what they are saying," my brother translated.
"Shut up," said the English-speaking co-worker, who knew that my brother did not speak Spanish.
But my brother was translating correctly, and the point is that this is how I'm understanding these episodes. So I use direct quotation a lot, even when I'm not actually sure of what they said. So there.
Tenchi and Sakuya go to the top floor of a 39 floor tower. ("Towers are popular in Japan: You ride to the top, look down at the city far below you, wonder if the tower is constructed according to sound engineering principles, then ride the elevator back down as soon as possible. That's what I do, anyway." -- Dave Barry) Sakuya looks out at the view. "Look, look, Tenchi!" But Tenchi is looking at her. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Ryouko! He frowns. But he realizes he made a mistake; it's just a guy with bad hair. He breathes a sigh of relief.
"Anything wrong, Tenchi?" asks Sakuya.
"No..." replies Tenchi.
Meanwhile, back in Okayama, Sasami, Ayeka, and the Guardians are eating. (Well, the Guardians aren't eating, but they're hanging around.) Sasami says something -- I think she mentions Kiyone, Mihoshi, and Ryouko. She's not happy. Ayeka's pretty depressed. I'm not sure what they are talking about.
Some time later, Ayeka runs through a dark forest. She evidently running away from something -- she stops to catch her breath against a tree for a second, but quickly resumes her flight after looking around. Suddenly she comes upon Ryouko -- but Ryouko's been turned to stone! Ayeka turns and sees the petrified Washuu, Kiyone, and Mihoshi! And a little ways away, Sasami and Ryou-oh-ki are also stone statues! Yuugi appears overhead, and laughs cruelly. Ayeka looks down to find that she is slowly turning to stone. With Yuugi's cruel laughter echoing in her ears, Ayeka tries to escape but only manages to crash to the ground, immobile. As the petrification overcomes her, Ayeka screams.
...and then she awakes, in the middle of the night on the couch of the living room. "A dream," she says. "But what does it mean?" She walks outside and finds herself standing in front of the lake by the house. To her surprise, Tsugaru is there, sitting on the branches of a sunken tree. Even more surprising to Ayeka, Tsugaru somehow knows about the dream she had!
Tsugaru and Ayeka talk for a little while. It's a bit one-sided. I don't really know what Tsugaru is saying. Is she warning Ayeka? Is she advising her to leave?
(Junji tells me that one of the things Tsugaru does is warns Ayeka that the dream that Ayeka had will come true.)
She begins to float away. "Wait!" Ayeka yells. She asks Tsugaru some sort of question, and Tsugaru says something else in Japanese, and then she goes to leave again. Ayeka tries to get her to wait again, and even runs into the lake a little ways, but Tsugaru floats out of sight. The Guardians appear at this time. They seem a little concerned, perhaps because their princess is standing in a lake, but Ayeka has her own concerns....
The next day, in school, more Japanese is spoken! Tenchi and Sakuya are walking into school, and they are talking cheerfully. Sakuya somehow brings up Tenchi's home life or something, because he thinks about a typical day (which consists of Tenchi and the girls sitting around the table while Ayeka and Ryouko shout at each other.) Then Tenchi's friends (Ugly Guy and Luke Perry) come up, and Ugly Guy puts Tenchi in a friendly headlock. They start bantering a little bit (well, Tenchi's not doing so much bantering, but that's not his style.) Sakuya looks a little surprised at something they say, but then she joins in with some comment. I'm not real sure what's going on here, but it'll come up again in the next episode and the one after that. Maybe I'll figure it out by then.
Back in Okayama, Ayeka is pretty angry. Ryou-oh-ki is sitting there, holding a carrot, and Sasami and the Guardians are sitting there too. Ayeka is worried about the break-up of the Tenchi family. With Washuu cloistered in her room, Ayeka seems to be saying, we're the only ones left!
In her mind, Ayeka sees Tenchi, surrounded by the rest of the Tenchi girls. Then, they begin to vanish -- first Kiyone and Mihoshi, then Washuu, then Sasami, then Ryouko, then Tenchi himself, leaving Ayeka all alone, wondering where everyone went.
Sasami just thinks "My sister has gone crazy!" And Ryou-oh-ki concurs ("Mya mya!")
Yuugi watches this, and Sasami and Ryou-oh-ki's crystals float away. And she laughs.
Ayeka suddenly gets the idea that she should get Washuu to come out. She bangs on the door to Washuu's room, yelling "Washuu! Washuu!" Inside, Washuu can hear it, but she just ignores it, and continues her work. Ayeka asks one of her Guardians for a mallet. She pounds on the door with the mallet, but gets no answer. So Ayeka gets a bigger hammer, which she can barely lift, but only manages to shatter the hammer. She gets a power tool from the Guardians, but it doesn't affect the door. So she pulls out the big guns! Sasami and Ryou-oh-ki, realizing this, duck under the table. The Guardians open up and fire!
The blast is powerful enough to rattle the windows and send green smoke shooting out all the open areas of the house, as well as char Ayeka and the Guardians (and even Sasami and Ryou-oh-ki under the table.) It is not powerful enough to open the door.
Washuu continues working, cloistered in her room. Yuugi watches this, as Washuu's crystal floats away. And Yuugi laughs.
A depressed Ayeka goes sits outside the house, while Ryou-oh-ki naps on the porch next to her. Ayeka wonders if she could possibly get Kiyone and Mihoshi, but they're not even on Earth. How could she get to them. And then she thinks of Ryou-oh-ki....
Ayeka approaches a scared Ryou-oh-ki....
Meanwhile, in outer space, Ryouko the pirate is loving life. She's in her ship, laughing maniackly and attacking Galaxy Police ships and blowing them up. She's in the command chair, Hotsuma is at the helm. She's really into this.
The Galaxy Police are vanquished! Hotsuma gets up and talks to Ryouko. They seem to becoming more intimate. He grabs her face and whispers in her ear. After listening to him, Ryouko pushes his hand aside and turns her back to him, but he puts his hands on her shoulders. Perhaps something will happen.
But it won't happen now, because the alert sounds, and more ships come. Ryouko goes back into battle, and she's loving it. At the helm, Hotsuma allows himself a small smile....
Yuugi watches this, as Ryouko's crystal floats away. And she laughs.
Back on Earth, Sasami is looking for Ryou-oh-ki. Ryou-oh-ki is not on Earth, though, as she is taking Ayeka and her Guardians to Kiyone and Mihoshi. Ayeka tells Ryou-oh-ki to speed to the station, and Ryou-oh-ki obliges.
Suddenly, Kiyone and Mihoshi's ship appears. Ayeka and the Guardians are quite happy that they came to see them, but their happiness is tempered when Kiyone pulls them over for speeding.
Kiyone is very stern and businesslike as she issues Ayeka a speeding ticket. Mihoshi is very silly as she poses in the background and makes shadow figures. Kiyone asks Ayeka to sign the ticket (she does) and then she salutes and prepares to leave.
"Wait, Kiyone! Please!" Mihoshi stops. (For some reason, Mihoshi envisions the cartoon people from the 11th episode.) Ayeka talks with Mihoshi, and Mihoshi appeals to Kiyone. But Kiyone is dedicated to her profession. She refuses their entreaties.
Ayeka tells them about Washuu, and about Ryouko leaving. But Mihoshi already knows that Ryouko has left -- she shows Ayeka Ryouko's wanted poster. Kiyone is very stern. "The Galaxy Police is hunting down Ryouko," she explains. "We are going to find Ryouko."
Kiyone imagines the accolades she'll get when she brings in Ryouko.
Mihoshi is rather disturbed at this. Ryouko is a friend, she seems to say. She appeals to Kiyone. But Kiyone will have none of this. She covers her ears. "No, no, no! We're hunting her down, and that's it!" she says. She imagines herself and Ryouko chained together wearing striped prison clothes are the bars slam shut.
"I'm sorry," says Mihoshi to Ayeka. "Kiyone is very determined...."
"Mihoshi, we're going," says Kiyone, and drags her away.
And Yuugi watches this, and as Kiyone drags Mihoshi away, so to do their crystals float away. And Yuugi laughs.
Ayeka goes back to Okayama, unhappily.
Later, in Okayama, Sasami getting ready for bed. She's wearing her carrot pajamas and singing wordlessly ("num num num, num num num"). Ryou-oh-ki is cheerfully jumping beside her. They cheerily bid Ayeka goodnight. Ayeka is very depressed though. As Sasami walks away, she thinks "I hope she'll be OK."
At the same time, in Tokyo, Tenchi is studying. He puts a kettle on the stove for tea.
In Okayama, Ayeka decides to call Tenchi.
"Masaki here."
"Tenchi!"
"Hi Ayeka."
Ayeka tells Tenchi of the things happening. "Washuu's locked herself away in her room."
"Uh-huh."
"Kiyone and Mihoshi have been promoted off the Earth!"
"That's great! Good for them!"
"They're hunting after Ryouko!"
"What? Don't worry, Ryouko can take care of herself. She'll be fine."
"Wait, that's not all...."
"Ayeka, don't worry. I'm sorry, but I gotta go study...."
Tenchi goes to hang up the phone.
Panicked, Ayeka shouts into the phone "Please don't hang up, Tenchi!"
Tenchi doesn't hang up.
"Tenchi? Tenchi?" Ayeka doesn't hear anything for a second. Then,
"Hello?"
"Oh, Tenchi...." breathes Ayeka.
"What's wrong? What is it?"
"Um...." stutters Ayeka. She tries to put the words together.
"Um.... I...." The water begins to boil in the tea kettle.
"Tenchi, I...." The tea kettle begins to whistle.
"Ayeka...." begins Tenchi.
And then Ayeka pours her heart out to this boy. She tells him how much she loves him, and how worried she is about him, and how worried she is about what's happening. Her voice falters and begins to crack and fail near the end of her declaration of love.
And Tenchi can't hear any of it over the whistling tea kettle going off at full steam.
He talks into the phone. "Thanks for calling, Ayeka, but I gotta...."
On the other end, Ayeka is shocked.
The doorbell to Tenchi's apartment rings. "Hold on a second," he says.
He turns off the kettle and answers the door.
Ayeka slowly hangs up the phone and covers it with both hands. "Oh, Tenchi...." she breathes.
And her crystal moves just a little further away. Yuugi watches, but she does not laugh, though Tsugaru beside her smiles.
It was Sakuya at Tenchi's apartment, bringing over some food. They chat for a bit, and Sakuya leaves.
Tenchi goes back to the phone. "Sorry about that, but.... Hello?"
Ayeka has a very dark, very determined look on her face. "I'm not giving in," she says. "Everyone else might leave, but I'm going to fight!" She clenches her fists in determination.
Tsugaru and Yuugi have been watching this. Yuugi is not laughing (a departure from her usual behavior.) Tsugaru is pleased though. I think she's amused that Ayeka is going to keep trying after everyone else has left. Yuugi is more concerned though.
The crystals are still floating in front of them. As usual, Tenchi's crystal and Sakuya's crystal are in the center, with the other crystals floating in a circle around them. The images of the people they represent appear around each of the crystals. Tenchi and Sakuya are facing each other in the center. The other girls appear on the perimeter. Except for Ayeka, all the girls are facing away from Tenchi.
I am the keeper of Gummi Wisdom!
Email address: gee@math.berkeley.edu