Disclaimer: I do not own this world setting. Only the OCs belong to me. This is just a fun writing exercise.

Chapter Three: How The Child Finally Left His Village

Tenchi walked into his aunt's house with dread. The pink ball of light, the spirit he had just named Nuan, soared ahead of him. Her bell like voice was so happy so cheerful. He pulled the door shut, dragging his feet a bit, only wishing that he could be that joyful, but fully expecting more pain and more abuse from his aunt. What he didn't expect was for his aunt to suddenly sweep him up in a crushing hug and spin him around. Lately, (as in ever since the memories sets merged) he really hated being picked up. It reminded him too much of how small he was. And being hugged so tightly by Aunt Min was just awkward and odd, uncomfortable too. He reacted very stiffly against the embrace. Nuan fluttered around the room making a musical noise that somehow made him think of laughter.

"C-can't breathe," Tenchi struggled to say, and Min loosened her grip.

"You stupid boy," Min said as she put him down, "Do you have any idea how worried I was? You were supposed to be home hours ago. Anything could have happened. Wild beasts could have eaten you. Spirits could have taken you."

Tenchi's gaze followed the little spirit that was now loose in Min's house. Nuan was flying all over investigating every little thing in the room.

"What are you looking at child?" Min asked.
"Nothing Aunt Min." Tenchi shrugged and looked up at his aunt, really looking at her for the first time this evening. Her hair looked even more elegantly pinned than normal. She was wearing her best dress, multiple shades of green, traces of yellow, and lots of embroidery. She only wore that when she was off to the mayor's manor, the only two story house in the village. The mayor paid Min to tutor his daughters three or four days a week in a number of different things including manners, tea ceremonies, and calligraphy. It was all boring stuff that Tenchi had never paid much attention to, but it was also the main thing that kept food in his aunt's cupboards.

Tenchi watched Nuan's exploration of the room. There was so much old junk, and the spirit was so small that it was taking her a while to examine everything.

"It's not nothing that you're looking at," Aunt Min said, "Something has your attention child." Min looked around too. "What is it you're seeing?" Like the guards earlier, Min didn't seem to be able to see Nuan.

"It's nothing. Just a lighting bug," Tenchi lied.

Min turned around the room searching then shook her head. "You're not fooling me boy. You're not a good liar."

Min was unusually calm. Instead of being hit, Tenchi was sent to bed, without super. He was sent to Min's bed. It meant that later that night, he wouldn't able to sneak to the pantry or out of the house without the risk of disturbing her.

Nuan flew out of the house, straight through Min's bedroom wall. She was definitely a spirit. Not that Tenchi had doubted that before, but this was the clearest, most definitive proof he had. He stared at the wall, longing to follow her. He forced himself to try to sleep. He knew what coming later. Min was not a restful sleeper. Kicks and elbow jabs were a normal thing when he was forced to sleep in the same bed as her. This was the only abuse from Min that he was pretty sure she wasn't aware that she did.

When Tenchi awoke at sunrise, as he always did, he was being hugged by Aunt Min again, this time like he was a kid's favorite teddy bear. There was no sneaking away. Worse still it was raining outside. Min never let him out and about on his own on rainy days. Worst case scenario: he'd wind up stuck with Min all day. The best case scenario was not much better, that he could end staying most of the day with one of two reluctant village women who had babysat him before and didn't like him much more than Min. Was there anyone in this village who liked him? Tenchi didn't think so. He'd never even noticed it all that much before he got the other set of memories. It was just the way things had always been, as natural as breathing, then suddenly it wasn't. There was suddenly this whole other life, this whole other understanding of a better life in his head. It was a life he could remember not appreciating when it was his.

The worst case scenario for the day happened. Tenchi was stuck in bed with Min for hours, then forced to dress in stiff, too small, formal clothes. Afterwards, he was carried off by Min to Mayor's house, where they were ushered in by the mayor's servants.

Stepping into the halls of the mayor's place did not impress Tenchi much. As Tenchi he couldn't remember the first time he had been here, and as Taylor, he'd seen better. He'd visited palaces and castles in Scotland, England, and France. He been on a tour of the White House once too. Taylor's parents had been major history buffs with a great love of traveling. They hadn't been to any Asian countries though, and that was the only thing that made place this interesting. It was the showier side of East Asian style architecture, and unlike the cartoon, very very real.

The servant led Min and Tenchi through the hall to a room where three little girls waited, all taller and older than Tenchi. Two of them sat around a table with actual chairs. All three looked bored. Tenchi knew them all by name but wished he didn't. Their names didn't match who they were at all.

The oldest girl was a ten year old who was about as pretty in the face as a horse. Yet she was named Meifeng, which meant either beautiful wisdom or beautiful wind. Tenchi couldn't remember which. He always got that mixed up, mostly because he couldn't stand her.

The next daughter at age eight was named Ting. Graceful she wasn't. Chubby and clumsy though? No question.

The youngest Rou was the only one Tenchi even sort of liked. At four, she was just one year than him. If her parents wanted a meek mild gentle kid, that wasn't what they got. Rou was doing a handstand when Min and Tenchi walked in the room. "Hi there Tree Boy!" Rou said, smiling with her head upside down. "From this angle you look even funnier than normal!"

"Rou!" Min yelled, "Young ladies do stand on their hands!"

At the table Meifeng snickered. Ting giggled and stuffed a pastry in her mouth.

"Young ladies do not eat their food so swiftly either!" Aunt Min corrected Ting. "A lady is gentle, demure, and never ever in a rush if she can help it!"

Tenchi suppressed the urge to groan. He'd never met anyone in either of his lifetimes that could out snob Aunt Min when she really got going. As Taylor he'd met a few that could equal her though. He'd hated those types too. The worst of high society acted that way, as did some who weren't even anywhere near rich.

Most of Min's attention was soon focused on the older two girls. She sat at one of end the table with them. Parchment and quills were laid out. Calligraphy was the focus of the day.

Tenchi and Rou were at the other end of the table with chalk slates and pieces of chalk. Silly sketches were all they were doing, and not very well.

Tenchi's motor skills were horrible. But his body was very young too. In his past life as Taylor, he'd had a cousin, a guy who'd had a long history of motor skill problems well into elementary school. The only way to deal with poorly developed hand muscles and fine motor skills, was to exercise one's hands a lot. It was bugging Tenchi now that his hands were so weak. He remembered being a good artist in his previous life, but he certainly wasn't now.

"What's that supposed to be?" Rou whispered loud, looking at Tenchi's chalk drawing.

"Wolf," Tenchi muttered, though the drawing only vaguely resembled a dog.

"You mean wolfbat?" Rou said.

"No, wolf."

"No such thing!" Rou's voice was just a little too high in volume, earning the two of them a glare and a shush from Min.

After about an hour, Min left the room for a few minutes. Tenchi wished she wouldn't. This was what he always dreaded about being here.

Meifeng was no beauty, true. But she was clever with her words, in a sharp mean sort of way. "Hey brat," she called from across the table. "What's with you and those trees everyday? Do you think you're some kind of monkey? Do you think you belong in those trees?"

"The whole vilage is talking about your tree climbing ob-obsess-" Ting struggled with a word.

"Obsession, Ting," Meifeng stated, annoyed.

Ting nodded. "That's the word. It's weird. You were in those trees all day this past week. What's it like outside the village walls? What's up there in those trees? Berries? Nuts?"

Meifeng scoffed. "Honestly, must you be so food crazed Ting? If I were an unwanted orphaned bastard, food would be not my main desire. I'd -"

"I'm not a bastard!" Tenchi yelled.

"It's just the facts, brat. Your parents weren't married. For all that your mother was a distant cousin to both of my parents, in the end she was as fallen as a woman can get, just a camp follower, a cheap tart who met some random fire nation soldier."

"Take that back!" Tenchi shouted. "My mother was the beautiful woman ever. My father was a prince!"

Meifeng laughed. "Prince of what? He sure wasn't a Earth Kingdom prince, not with those dragon eyes you've got!"

"Meifeng," Ting warned, "Don't you think you're going a little too far?"

Meifeng threw her shoulders back and laughed. "I'm not going far enough. I'm only saying what all the grown ups say. Tenchi here is just another worthless fire nation bastard. A half breed of no good-."

Tenchi lunged, jumping on the table, and climbing across it. In his crawling charge, he kicked slate boards to the floor and knocked over ink bottles.

"My dress!" Ting shrieked. Ink dripped down her formal clothes, ruining them.

Tenchi stood up on the table before Meifeng ready to tackle her to the floor. Meifeng screamed. Trying to doge Tenchi, she sent her chair reeling over backwards. Somehow, they both wound up on the floor in tangled heap, his fists hitting her. This didn't last too long. A male servant came rushing in, grabbing Tenchi. In record timing Tenchi was thrown out of the manor's front doors.

Tenchi sat there on the ground in front of the manor, blinking, with a light drizzle rain falling on his head, wondering why he did that. Why did he attack her? Her words were nothing new. Every other week, sometimes more often, he heard that awful stuff from her. He'd heard similar things from other village kids too.

His aunt Min was going to come looking for him soon. Tenchi didn't want to deal with her. She never listened to him about anything. When older boys beat him up, Min blamed Tenchi for it. This time he was sort of at fault too. At least it looked that way. As far as he could tell without a mirror, he didn't have a mark on him. But Meifeng was going to be black and blue for days. He was ninety percent positive that he had given her a black eye.

Tenchi ran from the manor as fast his feet would allow without tripping. With one leg slightly shorter than the other, that was not a very rapid speed. He felt as slow as a snail.

Tenchi ran through the village to the gates, then to the trees. He tried to climb, but the wet bark was harder than normal to climb, and he gave up.

Reed pipes in hand, Tenchi sat under a tree and played.

The pink ball of light Nuan showed up, flittering above his head.

Tenchi smiled at the sight of her. "Where did you go off to? I could have used a friend last night and today."

Nuan's bell voice was questioning.

"I'll be your friend if you'll be mine," Tenchi said.

Nuan was still questioning.

"What is a friend? Is that what you're asking?" Tenchi had to stop and think for a second before explaining. He'd never really thought of this much in either in lifetime. He'd always had friends as Taylor and never had them as Tenchi. There'd never been a real need to define the meaning of the word before.

"A friend," Tenchi said, "is someone who spends time with you regularly if they can. Who is kind to you. Who defends you if they can, when someone tries to harm you. A friend is someone who helps you if they can. If they can't help, then they try to lead you to someone who can help you. A friend is someone who listens, who accepts you as are, but challenges you to be better if you do wrong or get lazy. Who wants you to be the best you that you can be."

Nuan's bell voice trilled Yes! Yes! Yes!

"You want to be my friend?" Tenchi asked.

Again: Yes! Yes! Yes!

Nuan's words weren't exactly words in the human sense. It was strictly bell and other music note sounds. Tenchi couldn't understand how he knew what she meant. He didn't really care though, as Nuan's voice trilled Yes! Yes! Yes! over and over joyfully.

Tenchi laughed. "That's enough! You're like a cross between Tinker Bell and a Bit. You've got about as many words the Bit from the eighties Tron movie too. Nobody really wants to hear one word over and over like that. Wish you could really speak."

Nuan questioned him again in her wordless way: ?

"I don't know what you want. You want to me to talk about the story Tron?"

No! No! No!

Tenchi scratched his head. "You want to hear about me?"

Yes!

Tenchi shrugged. "I'm nothing special. A little dumb. A little too impulsive, maybe. Sometimes drag my heels too much, hesitating when I shouldn't. I really wish I knew when to speak and act, and when not to. Always seem to have this bad timing problem, in both lifetimes."

?

"I'm not from this world. Not completely…" Tenchi began to tell Nuan about his current life, also about his memories from his time as Taylor and the stupid wish that landed him here. It all spilled out, words and feelings that he hadn't shared with anyone. "… and you want to know the worst part? My grandfather there wasn't so bad. He was no Uncle Iroh, but no one is. Uncle Iroh isn't supposed to be real! None of this is!"

Tenchi burst into tears. Nuan rubbed against his cheek. She felt soft, like the fur of a rabbit pressed against his face. He petted her and thought even more of rabbit fur.

"I keep meaning to leave here, the village. I really do, but the furthest I get is these trees. I don't know when to leave or how. I don't even know where I am in the timeline of the ATA exactly. I just feel so small and helpless. So confused. As Taylor I was so spoiled and never really knew it. As Tenchi I've been so abused, and I never even fully realized it until recently. I've never been really independent in either life, and I don't know how! I feel so alone!"

Nuan rubbed against Tenchi lovingly, and he found himself relaxing some. He wasn't alone. Not right now. For all his planning and daydreaming over the past week, he didn't have a clue what he was really going to do. But at least for now he wasn't alone. He had a friend of sorts. He had Nuan.

Tenchi may have had Nuan. But he also had to eat and sleep at some point. There were no nuts or berries in the forest, like Ting had suggested, not that he knew of.
It was near sunset before Tenchi returned home, again. When he stepped in the hut, Nuan was with him, just like the night before.

This time though, Min was sitting on the floor at their little table, with her hair disheveled. Her clothes weren't much better, though she was still wearing the fancy ceremonial style clothes.

And Tenchi realized that he'd never changed out of his finery either. He knew he'd picked up grass and mud stains. The somewhat rainy day hadn't helped him there.

There was a clay sake bottle on the table. Min was slumped over the table, sipping a cup of something, most likely the sake. Not a good thing here. Drunk Min was Mean Min.

Tenchi was tempted to run. But Nuan flew away from him, investigating the room. Like a large glowing pink firefly, she fluttered all over the place. Tenchi tried to chase after her. Tried being the word. Nuan was just too fast. The spirit moved so effortlessly and swift that Tenchi was in awe of the way she moved. Yet he was also worried about Aunt Min, about she might react, about what she might do.

Nuan continued her hunt around the room, soaring this way and that. Her bell voice rang out her pleasure and her questions, until she finally settled in one place, landing on a shelf filled with trinkets and oddities. She started moving one of Min's old and nearly empty perfume bottles rattling it against another bottle, blue glass clanking against green. The cap went flying off the blue perfume bottle. Nuan landed on top of the blue rim covering like she was a replacement for the cap she had just thrown. Her bell like voice was very loud and very pleased. Tenchi could feel how Nuan was from the sounds she made.

Aunt Min didn't look too happy though. She sat up straight looking thoroughly spooked. Her eyes went from droopy to wide enough to almost pop out. Her brows rose astoundingly high. "What was that? What did that?!"

Nuan's light seemed to contract, shrinking, growing smaller, and she dove right into the bottle. Her pink light lit up the blue bottle, making a section of it a beautiful glowing purple. The pleased bell noises sounded out louder and louder. Then the bottle began shaking. Min looked pretty shaken too, trembling even. Her face was nearly as pale as white rice.

"Stop that!" Tenchi said, approaching the bottle. "Get out of there."

"Who or what are you talking to?" his aunt asked.

Tenchi scratched at the back of his neck. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Min's words came out in a nervous yet forceful breath: "Try me." She rose up to tower over Tenchi. He had seldom felt more aware of how short he was.

Min glared.

Tenchi trembled. "You know what you always say about spirits…those silly old stories you tell sometimes to scare me…how they can take a person off who knows where?"
Min put a hand on her hip impatiently.

Tenchi bit his lip. "Um, well-"

He had the feeling he was going to get hit no matter what he did. He'd seldom seen Min look this angry. The narrowing of her eyes, the downward arching of her brows making an almost perfect v. He was doomed to a beating if he spoke, and equally doomed if he didn't. Well, if the outcome was the same, it didn't matter what he did…

Tenchi rolled his shoulders back and stared up into his aunt's eyes, pretending to a confidence he didn't truly feel. He met her gaze firmly. "A spirit didn't take me off, Aunt Min. It followed me home."

Tenchi pointed over at the shelf. "She's a little ball of pink light brighter than a firefly, and- and- I think she's swimming in your perfume bottle right now. Apparently you have very good taste."

Tenchi knew he shouldn't have said that. He really shouldn't have. He gazed down at the floor. He was expecting to be punched or shaken, and hoping to only be slapped. He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the inevitable.

Instead, Min laughed. It was a harsh and mocking sound. "Only you would tell such a ridiculous story and expect me to believe it. You must think I'm stupid or something boy." Her hands grabbed at Tenchi's shoulders. As he had feared, he found himself being shaken like a sapling in a windstorm. Her grip was so strong, it made his shoulders hurt. He felt like he might pass out. Without meaning to, Tenchi screamed.

Nuan floated out of the perfume bottle, passing right through it. She grew and contracted, and grew and contracted again until she was nearly the size of a basketball. Her pink coloring darkened to purple. Hot pink lines of light streaked across the purple like lightning. Her voice now was not like bells but instead the shattering and breaking of glass. If Tenchi could have covered his ears he would have. The noise was horrible.

Min let go of him. She raised her hands halfway to her ears and turned her head this way and that. A bewildered grimace was on her face. "What in the world is that racket?"
Nuan was huge, frightening, and hovering above Min.

Min moved as if to hit Tenchi, but she was the one who was knocked down. Tenchi barely moved out of the way as she fell. She hit hard against the door. Tenchi wanted to run away now, but her body was blocking the way out. His aunt was still, too still. He crept toward her. She was blinking. She was breathing. Her eyes were glassy though. Concussion? Maybe?

The dark purple Nuan charged at Min.

"No!" Tenchi yelled, "Don't hurt her! You're not supposed to be dark! Please stop!" Nuan didn't seem like Nuan. She scared him worse than Min now. All the images from book two of Korra, of dark spirits, flooded his mind. Recalling those scenes wasn't much fun anymore, not when he knew or suspected that in another reality, another timeline very similar and close to this one, that they were real. He backed away, kept backing away. His back hit a corner of the room. He ducked down and curled up as tight as he could, his arms wrapped against his knees. He closed his eyes. The tears leaked through his eye lids. He rocked himself back and forth. He didn't know how he stayed like that. He heard his aunt's foot steps at one point, but he ignored her.

Tenchi just wanted this world gone. He wanted to be Taylor again. Mostly, he just wanted to stop thinking entirely. His mind was too sharp now. Everything here was too real. It was too scary. And he hadn't even managed to leave this stupid village yet. It wasn't the danger that scared him, not that so much. It was the lack of a safety net. No parents. No family. No one that cared much for him.

A pink light glowed in front of Tenchi's eye lids. He hesitantly peeped up. There was Nuan, still as big as a basketball, but her former pink color again. She was almost too bright to look at. He blinked three times and stared warily.

Nuan changed. She shrunk a bit. Her glow faded and a form began to appear. Tenchi blinked again, this time in disbelief. Hovering in front of him now was not the ball of light of the past two days. In its place was a bunny rabbit, a slightly glowing pink bunny rabbit, with a thick streak of red running from its chin down its chest and stomach. There was a highly stylized looking line of white on either side of its red underbelly. There was a white circle around the pink fur surrounding one of its eyes, its royal blue eyes. The inside of its ears were red circled by white too. There was a flap of something white. Feathers. Attached to the bunny's back were a set of angel like white wings which were moving either super speed fast or very slow. Tenchi wasn't sure which. He was reminded of a Animal Planet program that had shown a humming bird hovering with its wings moving so fast that they looked still.

Tenchi stared and stared. The bunny stared back. It was a regular Mexican standoff, only without the guns. And Tenchi was pretty sure he wasn't a threat to this thing…

The bunny flew up to Tenchi's head and nuzzled it's head against him comforting him. Tenchi reached cautiously to pet it. Its fur, her fur, was smooth and sleek. A bell trill came from the bunny. "Nuan?" Tenchi asked.

"Nuan sorry," the bunny said in a little girl's voice. "Nuan love Tenchi."

Tenchi felt his jaw drop. He had trouble finding words. "Y-you speak?"

The bunny nodded. "Nuan protect Tenchi!" She was trying to sound either fierce or brave, but her voice was too young sounding and too cute for that.

Tenchi laughed nervously. "If I known yesterday that you'd look like this, I'd have called you Usagi or Chibiusa. Your coloring sort of makes me want to think of Sailor Mini Moon."

"Nuan is Nuan!" the bunny said angrily, as if she were a little kid pouting, "Nuan like her name!"

Tenchi laughed more freely. Nuan the bunny was so cute. It was hard to be frightened of her. He knew she could be scary, but she wasn't right now. Even when she'd been scary, it had been to protect him.

When Tenchi got up from the floor, Nuan flew to his arms. He held her and petted her. She was so soft, so comforting to hold.

Min was back at the table with the sake. She didn't seem very aware of her surroundings. She didn't even have a cup. The cup was on the floor empty. Min drank the sake straight from the bottle.

"You were never normal boy," she said, but she could have speaking to the wall. Her focus was not on her nephew. "Always too bright. Always too smart. Even the day you were born, there was something strange about you. You stopped breathing for well over a minute. Neither the midwife nor I understood why you started breathing again. You were pronounced dead. Then without warning, you started gasping for air and screaming."

Aunt Min's head turned to look at Tenchi. There was contempt in her narrowed eyes. "I never wanted you. I promised my little sister though that I would look after her son. I tried. I did. I couldn't do it though. I cannot raise the way that I should. I see you and I see him, the fire nation bastard, the soldier who abandoned my sister, who broke her heart. He was a handsome thing, an officer, a noble. Like a hero from an old storybook. Who wouldn't fall for such a man? I was half enamored of him myself. But he chose my sister. He started the killing of her, and you finished the deed on the night you were born."

Min took another swig of the sake. The anger was replaced with sorrow. "You see an old woman. But I am not. I'm not even thirty yet. Looking after you is trying to raise a monster. You were touched by the evil of spirits from the night of your birth. I want you and that thing in your arms gone from my house!"

Tenchi sucked in a deep breath, a gasp. "You see her?"
Min cackled, a bitter joyless laugh. "I'm not blind. That thing wasn't visible before but at this point I suspect anyone could see it. Now, get out of my house." She rose to her feet stumbling and grabbed a broom as if it were a weapon. She towered over Tenchi, appearing ready to murder him.

With Nuan still in his arms, Tenchi fled from the house and never looked back.

Tenchi hobbled through the village, running as fast as his shorter right leg would allow. As always, it was not too fast. The quicker he moved, the more prone to tripping he was. Running, even this much, always meant a risk of falling.

Tenchi ducked into a barn that was used as a warehouse for the village, and sometimes, rarely, a stable. Nuan flew from his arms, exploring as she seemed to like to do. Tenchi spotted a cart that was full of cabbages. He recalled the cabbage merchant from the cartoon, but decided that that would be too much of a coincidence. He needed a place to hide and rest, one where he wouldn't be discovered easily. He had thought many times about stowing away on a wagon. This could work instead. He unloaded a good deal of the cabbages into a stall, and covered them with straw. He carefully climbed in the cart. He fit, but not very comfortably. Cabbages did not make for very soft bedding. Nuan landed beside him. Tenchi stroked her fur, then pulled cabbages over both of them. He fell asleep petting Nuan.

"Cabbages! Oh cabbages! How lovely are my fair cabbages!" a man's voice half shouted half sung.

Tenchi woke to the bouncing of the cart, and that awful singing. He peered up through the pile of cabbages. He couldn't see the face of the man moving the cart. But his clothes looked like those of the cabbage merchant. But those clothes were also the kind worn by like half the Earth Kingdom. It couldn't be the cabbage merchant. It just couldn't.

It could.

Nuan flew upwards sending several cabbages rolling. The man pulling the cart stopped and gawked at her her. "You- you rodent! You've been eating my cabbages!"
It was the cabbage merchant alright. Tenchi was almost sure of this. And why did Nuan have to decide to make herself visible all the time? Tenchi groaned. He then pulled himself up to stand awkwardly on the cabbages in the cart and confront the cabbage merchant…