Meanwhile, outside Tenju were two Third Generation ships, Light Hawk Wings deployed, and one of the House Amaki ships that had been avoiding a skirmish with Ryo-Ohki. They were caught up in Ryu-oh’s attack, still out of control. Damage was minimal, but the lost focus meant the Light Hawk Wings vanished. Ryo-Ohki took advantage, and one of the ships, pierced by an energy blast, made contact with Tenju’s trunk, causing a large explosion.
This was where Fate intervened. When this larger jolt shook Tenju, Sasami slipped and fell into the abyss. It happened in a blink of an eye. With a scream, Sasami disappeared into the pitch-black darkness.
“Ayeka-sama, please stop the attacks. Tenju isn’t going to last!!” Ryu- oh’s bridge shook wildly, and Ayeka, collapsed on the floor, saw Tatsua on the screen with relief and confusion. His ship had sunk, but the Royal Tree had protected the core unit, and he and his crew were safe.
“Uncle Tatsua, I can’t stop it! The hull unit has lost control…” “Blast the hull off, hurry!!”
As she was told, Ayeka tried an explosive release of Ryu-oh’s hull. But already overloaded, there was no outlet for its energy, and the whole thing exploded. With a close range blast, Ryu-oh was blinded, and the smoke allowed Ryo-Ohki to close in. Suddenly, Ayeka saw Ryo-Ohki fill her screen. She screamed. There was not even any time to deploy the Light Hawk Wings!
“Onisamaaaaa!!”
The moment Ryo-Ohki tried to attack, the ship was struck and repelled.
A blink of an eye later, there was a deafening roar. Storming through the clouds was Yosho’s Funaho. The Light Hawk Wings captured the shock wave generated by unmitigated entry into Jurai and redirected it right at Ryo- Ohki.
“Yosho-oniisama?!”
“Ayeka, get back!” he commanded and fired an energy blast towards Ryo-Ohki to keep her in check. He knew she would evade it, but it pushed her further away from Tenju.
Tatsua sent a transmission. “Yosho-sama, there’s an intruder in Tenju!”
“So this is a decoy. I’ll be right there!” The joy of reunion, remorse, everything would wait until later. He had to get this incident, unprecedented in the history of Jurai, under control – that was Yosho’s job.
However, it was clear that if he tried to transport to Tenju from Funaho, Ryo-Ohki would notice and attack the transport coordinates. Yosho had no choice but to pull away from Ryo-Ohki and enter from the other side. “Funaho, I’m counting on you!” he shouted the moment he transported from the bridge. Funaho turned her bow towards the pursuing Ryo-Ohki and fired a volley of energy blasts. The battle of two ships without their masters shook and rattled Tenju.
Looking on, Tatsua breathed a sigh of relief. Funaho, the First Generation ship and one of the most powerful on Jurai, had come at last. Ayeka felt the same on Ryu-oh, but for her, the relief was not due to Funaho, but the fact that her beloved brother Yosho was here. He would never be defeated by a pirate. This, she was sure of from the bottom of her heart.
Ryoko entered Tenju, defeated the warriors one after another, and was about to reach the Hall of Royal Trees, which contained whatever it was she was looking for. “So that’s the entrance!!” She fired off some energy blasts, but the door was unscathed. “How about this?!”
The moment she tried to increase the energy in the blasts, the three jewels in her wrists and neck shone bright, and she let out a bloodcurdling scream of agony. Pain on a level she had never felt racked her body. Even the punishments she received when she ignored Kagato’s orders were not like this.
“What is this? What’s going on?!” She clawed at her throat, glaring at the door, trying to endure the pain.
Beyond the door, in the deepest part of the Hall of Royal Trees, Sasami lay in the darkness of another dimension. It was clear that she had died instantly. A drop of her blood fell onto the surface of the purest water. In the center of this water was a small tree. It was not First or Second Generation. It was Tsunami’s Tree, the Progenitor of Royal Trees.
“What are you doing… Tsunami…” Ryoko mumbled, half unconscious from the pain, the moment Sasami’s blood dripped into the water,
“I’m keeping my promise… with my friend.” Sasami’s mouth moved imperceptibly. In the next instant, her body dissolved into beads of light and was absorbed into Tsunami. The tranquil water churned and swirled. Sasami and Tsunami’s souls assimilated into a single entity, and a new body was reconstructed in the whirlpool. This dimension created by Tsunami was indeed a maternal womb.
Ryoko, completely in a trance, spoke without consciousness, “We shall meet again… Tsunami…”
As Ryoko blacked out, Yosho stood behind her. “You must be Ryoko. I am Yosho, Crown Prince of Jurai. This is no place for you! Leave at once, or else…”
He gave her an obligatory warning, and when she did not respond, he attacked with his sword. But Ryoko evaded it, still unconscious. Yosho noticed that her moves were unnatural and relented for a moment, when Ryoko, eyes still closed, slowly raised her arms into an attack stance. “Oh hell…!”
The energy blasts filled the hallway, and a tremendous blast assaulted Yosho. But the one blown outside Tenju was Ryoko. Falling, Ryoko finally came to. “What…? What… am I doing?”
“The Tsunami unit is out of our reach now.”
“What did you say…?” Something spoke to her from within. The one inside her, who told her the shadow she saw when she fought Azusa, the Emperor of Jurai, was Tsunami… No, that would not be accurate. The voice came from the three jewels embedded in Ryoko. Sometimes she felt a consciousness within those three jewels.