[This is nowhere near finished.]

Note: This is nominally in the continuity of my AHE story.  It uses no
Eva characters and Akuma only has a cameo, though.

                               Bonding Ceremony
                                by Ken Arromdee

    The year was 2012 in the Earth calendar.  A year that was nothing special
(unless you were a Macross fan).  On Jurai, it was the year 9807, not special
either...  except for a few people and those who paid attention to them.

    The ceremony uniting Noboyuki with a tree of Jurai lasted about an hour.
Nothing went wrong; of course, not much really could.  Noboyuki, now, would
be fully accepted as royalty (or so the theory goes; theory and practice
often differed).  His marriage to Aeka would have the official blessing of
the royal house of Jurai.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Ten full tables were prepared for a formal lunch.  The color of the royal
purple worn by Juraians for this occasion filled them all.  Except for one.
Tenchi, Yosho, Ryouko, and all the others who had been living on Earth had
congregated at one table.  Somehow, the table had exactly the proper number of
seats for them; nobody who had not lived on Earth sat at that table.

    "You did it, grandfather", said Mayuka.

    "Yes, I did, Mayuka", responded Noboyuki.  He was leaning on Aeka, not
entirely recovered from the ritual.  "Now it's your turn.  This one is going
to be a lot harder.  Are you ready?"

    "I suppose.  It's just...  My tree is wrong.  My ancestry is wrong.  I've
never really been in any formal Juraian ritual before.  And I'm still from
Earth."

    "If it's too late to get someone to like you", said Aeka, "you can always
act haughty.  And try to make it sound like the other person is being rude and
distasteful.  It almost always works."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    There was no green on the tree that the group gathered around.  Its trunk
was gnarled, though its height showed it was no older than Mayuka herself.
Its leaves were all shades of russet and orange and gold, though the time
of year was the middle of summer.

    Various people in the crowd began to mumble in dissatisfaction.  This
wasn't how it was supposed to go.  Everyone knew what a Juraian tree was
supposed to look like, and that was nothing of the sort.  Someone whispered the
words "Tree of Darkness" in the crowd and it spread, a rumor travelling at a
hundred times normal speed in the density of the crowd.

    "They don't like you", thought Mayuka at the tree.  She felt its agreement.

    The ritual continued.  The appropriate scrolls were unrolled and read,
discussing how Mayuka was part of the family tree of Jurai and how her roots
would forever be in the castle, and so forth.  Mayuka, meanwhile, was bored.

    Finally the ritual came to a close.  Mayuka put her arms around the trunk
of the tree; the fact that she was not struck down by energy bolts was enough
to show that it had accepted her.  After all, the trees chose their partners as
much as the partners chose their trees.  She would be dizzy for a while, but
it would pass.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "Are you okay?" asked Ryouko.

    "I'm fine, Mom.  And I don't feel the least bit dizzy."

    "It's like Sasami said.  You and Aki were already bonded.  Yuzuha is long
gone; there was one person that a new Tree of Darkness could ever turn to, and
that was you.  Sasami never got dizzy at her ceremony either."

    "It just...  doesn't feel like I went through anything.  In a few days
we're going to go back to Earth and I won't even be telling anyone what
happened here.  And it's not going to make one bit of difference back home."

    One woman, wearing a rich purple robe with gold trim, walked towards
Mayuka from the crowd, and stopped six or seven feet away, just outside a
normal personal space range.  She just looked at Mayuka.

    Ryouko tapped Mayuka on the shoulder and motioned towards the woman.

    Mayuka said "Excuse me?" to the woman, looking directly at her face.

    "You're Mayuka, right?"  What a stupid question, thought Mayuka.  It's
not as if anyone could have sat through the past hour without figuring that
out.  "You look...  almost like one of us."

    "I'm supposed to be one of you!  That's what this was all about!"

    "But you were created as an experiment."  The woman looked at Ryouko and
asked "How can you be a mother to someone like that?"

    "Do you mind?" asked Mayuka and Ryouko at almost the same time.  She glared
at the woman, who left in a hurry.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    The next rude person to come along was an older man.  His hair was gray,
and Mayuka heard him mumbling about Earthers as she passed by him and his wife.

    "Earthers?" said Mayuka.  "You mean us, don't you?"

    "Yes, I..."

    The man's wife stopped him.  "No, dear, let's not..."

    "I'll say what I want to.  We don't need all these people from elsewhere
ruining the neighborhood.  First it's the queen.  Now it's just about everyone
who comes through here.  I remember when everyone on Jurai was Juraian, not
some pirate or some girl from a colony planet."

    Well, thought Mayuka, at least this man recognized her mother.  Not that
that made it any better.  She stared at the man, not speaking a word, but
allowing energy to crackle in her eyes.  The man shut up and left.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "I can't believe this", said Mayuka.  "I thought that, I don't know, it
would make a difference.  It didn't.