laboratory on a biology experiment, which was designed to increase pheromone production in human females.

"At last, it's near completion!" Washu exclaimed with excitement. "Let Ryoko and Aeka fight all they want to. With this formula I'll have the ultimate advantage." Washu had just finished putting the mixture into a perfume bottle when there was a knock at the door. "Come in!" she shouted.

The door opened and Sasami stepped in. "Breakfast is ready Miss Washu," Sasami stated in that cute, innocent tone of voice.

"Alright, Sasami, I'll be right there," Washu said, putting the bottle down on the table. She got up and walked out the door, leaving the bottle on her desk. Ryoko, who had been listening the whole time, unbeknownst to her mother, giggled with excitement as she approached the desk. "So... this potion will make me irresistible, will it? Gee, it could be dangerous. I should test it out for her." Ryoko reasoned, picking the bottle up and putting it in a pocket in her dress. "Now to find Tenchi," she chuckled with excitement as she left the room. Ryoko stuck her head out the wall to see if anyone was watching and then went upstairs to see if Tenchi was there. She flew into his room to find his book bag and him gone. "Damn!" Ryoko cursed. "He must have left for school early.  Oh well... Washu will never know who took it. It could be Aeka for all she knows. I'll just wait till Tenchi gets home and then..."

"Tenchi already left for school," Sasami said. "Breakfast is ready. Come down and have some."

"Ok Sasami, I'll be right down." Ryoko answered, heading down to the dining area. When she got to the dining table she saw everyone but Tenchi there. "Good morning," Mihoshi shouted.

"Good morning Mihoshi," Ryoko replied. Ryoko sat down at the table and looked across at her mother, who was already enjoying her meal. "This is great Sasami!" Washu complimented. You're one of the best cooks I've met in my entire 20,000 years."

"Thank you very much Miss Washu," Sasami said, blushing. Washu noticed Ryoko looking at her, and asked, "Something wrong little Ryoko?" Ryoko quickly answered, "Oh, no, nothing at all." Washu shrugged and went back to eating. Ryoko resumed eating her breakfast with a slight twinge of guilt. The food probably wouldn't have tasted as good to her as it normally did if she could taste that was. She normally didn't feel guilty for much of what she did, but she hadn't stolen from her mother or any of her friends for a long time either. Ryoko, while eating attempted to do some mental reasoning. She reasoned, "Well she was going to use it for a wrong purpose anyways. This way she can't, and she won't feel bad afterwards." Accepting her own twisted logic, but not clearing her mind completely of guilt, Ryoko finished her breakfast and left the table.

As Ryoko was going back to her room she thought to herself, "If she finds the bottle missing she might automatically assume it was me. I better do something to make her think it wasn't." Ryoko went to her room and quickly poured the contents out of a bottle of her own perfume into a separate container and then poured the mixture Washu had created into her old perfume bottle, then put her own perfume into the bottle which Washu had used for the potion. She then quickly flew down the stairs and put the bottle on Washu's desk, and quickly left the lab.

Washu had taken her time finishing breakfast, and when she finally did finish, got up and went back to her lab to work on other experiments till Tenchi got home.

Throughout the day, Ryoko couldn't shake the feeling of guilt in her mind. She wasn't used to it. Throughout all the violent, and evil acts she had committed on Jurai she never felt a shred of guilt, but for some reason this was different, and she couldn't seem to get rid of it.

The day passed uneventfully for the most part. She had to be "gently" reminded by Aeka a few times to do her chores around the house, but other than that it was a typical day. Tenchi returned home somewhat late, after dinnertime.

Ryoko was there to meet him at the door. "Welcome home Tenchi," she said in a seductive tone of voice.

"Hi Ryoko, how was your day?" Tenchi unsuspectingly replied. Ryoko said, "It was fine, but I have something I want to show you." Tenchi gulped. He had heard this line before, and wondered what she had cooked up this time. "What do you mean Ryoko?" Tenchi nervously asked.

Ryoko grabbed him by the arm and led him to her room. "Uh, Ryoko, why are we in your room? What is it you wanted to show me?" Ryoko picked up the bottle of perfume from the table and said, "I wanted you to tell me what you think of the scent of this." Tenchi breathed a sigh of relief. If only he knew what her real intent was. Ryoko was just about to spray herself with the perfume when she heard someone clearing her throat from the doorway. Ryoko jumped back, and looked to the doorway to see Washu standing there with an angry expression on her face. As soon as she saw her mother's face she inadvertently dropped the bottle, which shattered upon hitting the floor.

Washu's look of anger changed to that of horror as she ran over to the broken bottle on the floor. "My potion! I worked for weeks trying to develop that! RYOKO!!!"

At this point Ryoko was worried. She'd seen Washu angry before, but never like this. Ryoko just stepped back a few feet, as her mother looked her in the eyes, "I should have known!  I heard you did some pretty low things while you were under Kagato's control, but what excuse do you have for this?"

Ryoko, not wanting to admit she was wrong, answered, "You were going to use it for the same reason I was!" Washu breathed more of a hiss and said to Tenchi, "Could you please leave us? I need to talk to my daughter." A confused, and bewildered Tenchi answered, "Uh... ok." Then he turned and walked out the door wondering what just happened. Washu closed the door behind him. "You realize you just about made a fool of yourself right?" Ryoko, surprised, answered, "W... what? What do you mean? You said the potion would make you irresistible. "Washu shook her head, in angry frustration and said, "You don't know anything about biology do you? Pheromones stimulate certain sexual senses within they human body, but they are not the end all of it. Spraying that on you may have made you more appealing to him, but he would still have to have wanted it. "Ryoko answered, "Then why are you so upset over it? Why spend all this time working on it?" Washu answered, "You know nothing about economics either I see. This would have sold like hotcakes on the market to women who have hard time finding a guy.  It would have brought this entire family out of debt for life. Sure I wanted to use it on myself for its obvious advantages, but it in and of itself wouldn't have made him want me. There would have to have been more to it. He was going to be my test subject. I was going to study his reactions, but would I have complained if it had made him want me more? No. All is fair after all. At least I don't fight like a child with someone else over him all day."

Ryoko was dumbfounded. Her mother was right. She didn't know that much about biology despite the fact that her mother was a scientist. Could she in fact, have wrecked the chance at making the Masaki family rich? The feeling of guilt began to swell in her again. "I... I...""I don't want to hear it Ryoko! Not only did you just wreck one of the only inventions I've made that I can actually market on this planet without causing an entire industrial revolution, but also you stole from me. Your own mother!  You've gone too far this time!" Washu yelled.  Ryoko managed to get out the words, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to..."

Washu cut her off, "Be quiet! I know you did some horrible things while you were under Kagato's control. Then you had an excuse, now you have none! I see you've had no sense of discipline in your life at all in 5000 years! That's a situation I intend to remedy now!"

Ryoko looked up at Washu and asked nervously, "W... what do you mean?"

"What I mean is that I'm going to make sure this kind of thing does NOT happen again. You want to act like a 10-year-old then I'll treat you like one! I'm going to blister your backside so you never even think about stealing again!"

Washu continued to yell.

Ryoko was taken aback; she cringed at her mother's words, but indignantly replied, "You have no right! You haven't been my mother for 5000 years. You have no right to do this."

Washu answered, "You're right, I haven't been with you for all that time. If I had been you would NEVER have grown up to be like this, and I'm going to make sure you don't stay like this anymore!  It's my responsibility to deal with your misbehavior. You may be 5000 years old but your mind is still that of a 17 year old, which means that you aren't yet set in your ways, and I'm going to change those ways here and now!"

Ryoko replied, "You'll never be able to do it. I can..."

Washu again cut her off, "There's much worse things I can do without even having to touch you Ryoko. You don't want to experience those, and this attitude you're taking is going to make matters worse for you. You'd be smart to shut up and take your punishment."

Ryoko thought about flying out of there and going away for a few days, but she realized her mother was probably not bluffing, and she really didn't want to find out. She'd heard about children and teenagers receiving such punishments in the past but had never fallen victim to one herself. She thought she could probably get away, but then the feeling of guilt came back. It was getting worse, and she knew it would continue to get worse. She knew she deserved it, if not something worse, but didn't want to admit it or take it.

Ryoko looked up at her mother who had changed into adult form without her noticing it. She was actually serious. This was no joke. Her mother walked to a chair at Ryoko's desk and pulled it out to the center of the room, and sat down in it. Ryoko began to shake, frightened.

"You have no idea how embarrassing and painful it is for me to have to spank my 5000 year daughter as though she were 1/500ths her age, but there's no other way I can think of to deal with your disrespect, and wrong doings anymore. I've held off on controlling your life for this long, hoping you would show some improvement, and instead you get worse. Now come over here." Washu stated while motioning with her hand for Ryoko to come.

Ryoko, very much afraid of what was to come, but not wanting to risk further wrath, and also bound by feelings of guilt, slowly walked over to her mother, and stood by her right side.

Washu took Ryoko by the wrist and laid her across her lap. Ryoko felt so embarrassed. She was about to be punished like a 10-year-old child. Her face turned red and tears came to her eyes. Washu then reached down and pulled the back of her green dress up and over her slender buttocks, baring them, since Ryoko did not bother to wear underwear.

"Mother please don't do it bare. I'm too old." Ryoko implored.

*SMACK* Washu responded to her daughter's plea with a sharp slap to her shapely backside and hissed, "I said be quiet! You're far too old to be stealing too but you did that anyways!"

Washu placed her left arm around her daughter's mid section to keep her from falling off. She was going to make sure that Ryoko never even considered stealing again. She reached into the pocket of her shorts and pulled out an old wooden hairbrush. Ryoko looked back to see it and began to shake even more.

She was genuinely afraid. She was already sure she wouldn't steal again. "Please don't. I promise I'll never steal again!" Ryoko begged.

The adult Washu then brought the hairbrush down on her errant daughter's backside in full force leaving an unsightly mark in its place *SMACK*. "I thought I told you to be quiet! You're right, you won't steal again, because if you do I'll find something more unpleasant next time. Understand me?"

"Yes," Ryoko replied in pain from the last swat. She knew this was not going to be a walk in the park for her.

*SMACK* once again. "That's yes ma'am or yes mother to you!" Washu demanded.

Ryoko winced in pain. Pretty much having lost any and all sense of pride during the ordeal so far she didn't see any point in arguing it any further and said, "Yes ma'am." She grabbed the legs of the chair with both her hands and held on tight. *SMACK* *SMACK* *SMACK* "I hope..." *SMACK* *SMACK* *SMACK* "that you learn from this..." *SMACK* SMACK* "because, if you don't..." *SMACK* *SPLAT* *CRACK* "I will gladly repeat the lesson for you!"

Ryoko was in a lot of pain already by this point, and began to beg, "I promise mom... I'll never do it again! Please stop!"

*SMACK* *SMACK* SMACK* *SMACK* "Oh no..." *SMACK* *SMACK* CRACK* "I promised blisters..." *SPLAT* *CRACK* *SMACK* "And that's what you're going to get!" Washu lectured.

Ryoko at this point broke down into sobs, her buttocks were already turning pink and on fire, and she felt like she was going to die.

*SMACK* *SMACK* *SMACK* *SMACK* Ryoko squirmed unable to hold still any longer. She had been in countless battles and been in a lot of pain before, but this was different. It wasn't just the pain of the hairbrush; it was also the pain of her guilt of the wrongs she had done recently. *SMACK* *SMACK* *SMACK*

Ryoko broke down from sobs into wailing, "Pleeeaaassse.... Stop mommy! Pleeeeeaaasse! I can't take it anymore"

*SMACK* *SMACK *SLAP* *CRACK* "Oh yes you can, and you will!" Washu angrily replied. *SMACK* *SLAP* *CRACK*

"AAAAIIIIEEEEEE!" Ryoko wailed like a little child, as she kicked, squirmed, and rolled trying to escape the relentless hairbrush, but to no avail. It appeared her mother was about as strong as Ryoko, but she had no time to consider this.

Her buttocks had already turned dark red and felt like someone had poured gasoline on them and ignited it.

The hairbrush came down time and time again, and Ryoko, who had lost all strength and will to fight anymore, and lay there wailing as her mother continued to let the brush give a more scathing lecture than her mouth was ever able to.

*SMACK* *SPLAT* CRACK* A set of blisters began to crop up on her daughter's once beautifully shaped ass. Washu delivered 10 more swats, the hardest of all of them and Ryoko wailed even louder. *SMACK* *CRACK* *SMACK* WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" *CRACK* *CRACK* *SPLAT* *SMACK* *SMACK* *CRACK* *CRACK*

Washu then laid the hairbrush down beside her and waited a few moments while Ryoko bawled loudly. After a minute or so Ryoko finally came back down to sobbing and her mother said, "It's over now. Your punishment is over." Washu threw her daughter's dress back over her backside as her daughter let out a slight yelp. Ryoko just lay there sobbing in pain and humiliation. Her mother allowed her to lie there for a few more moments and have a good cry before helping her to her feet.

Ryoko was not in a hurry to go anywhere as she was still sobbing somewhat. Washu, seeing that her daughter had got the point, put her arms around her and said, "I'm sorry I had to do that, and I'm even more sorry that I wasn't there for you all those years. I only want to see you be the best you can, and I should have been more involved in your life, and I would have been if I could have. All is forgiven now, and I hope you learned something from it. I didn't like having to do that, but it causes me even more pain seeing you do something so destructive to yourself and others."

Ryoko continued sobbing. From the time her and Washu had met she had noticed how Washu kept trying to get close to her and be a mother to her, but she refused it, feeling as though she was already grown up and had nothing to gain from someone running her life. She realized it wasn't Washu's fault that she couldn't be there for her. "I'm sorry I stole from you mother, and I'm sorry I've been so disrespectful lately."

Washu answered, "It's ok... you had a right to be. It isn't your fault I didn't raise you, and even now I'm not going to try to run your life. You've actually been pretty good so far from what I've seen. It's just that what happened tonight was not acceptable at all. If you had left I wouldn't have gone after you or done anything more to you, but I would have been hurt even more knowing that my daughter had turned into someone who continually lies, cheats and steals and doesn't regret it. The fact that you stayed makes me think that you did care enough."

Ryoko hugged her mother tightly, and Washu did the same with her daughter. "I still want you to give me advice and to be there for me. I always took what you said into consideration, but I kept thinking my way was better and that's the way I've been living."

Washu replied, "I think you're turning out just fine. You just need a reminder once in awhile. I care about you deeply little Ryoko, and I don't want to see anything happen to you. I would have given my life if it could have stopped Kagato from taking you from me."

Washu and Ryoko embraced in a warm mother/child embrace for a few more minutes and then separated. Washu made one more comment before she walked out the door,

"Oh, and you're not grounded, so don't worry about that." Ryoko let out a slight chuckle despite the immense pain her lower cheeks were in. They still felt like they were being incinerated. Washu walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. Yosho met her on her way down the stairs and said, "I heard what happened in there, and I sent Tenchi, Aeka, and Sasami outside as soon as I saw Tenchi leave the room. They don't know what happened."

Washu walked up to Yosho in tears and said, "I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't bear to see her become any worse than she had. It wasn't easy doing that you know."

Yosho replied, "I had a daughter once, and though I never had to chastise her physically there were often times I had to rebuke her, and those times were some of the most painful as well, but perhaps it was for the best."

"But did I have a right? I mean I haven't been there for her at all. I have never questioned anything I've done in the past, but this is entirely different," Washu asked.

Yosho answered, "It's a little late to think of that now isn't it? You did what you did because you let your motherly instincts take over, because you care about Ryoko. In time she will come to realize that you acted because you wanted what was best for her."

Washu smiled weakly and said, "I think she may understand now, but only time will tell." Washu and Yosho both went into the family room and met with Noboyuki, where they had a few drinks of sake and told various stories of parenthood. Near the end of it Washu had some juicy bits with which to blackmail Tenchi, and they continued to talk well into the night.

Meanwhile, Ryoko lay, stomach down, on her futon, and cried a few more tears before rubbing her burning backside. She was again able to think clearly, and she actually felt better than she had beforehand. The feeling of guilt that had been gnawing at her was now gone. Replaced by a want to do better. She didn't really know what to think of her mother's actions at first. She tried to be angry at Washu for trying to force her to do what she wanted, but failed when she realized that Washu was only doing what she did because she didn't want her to steal anymore. In her mind she could see no other reason. Washu had nothing to gain from it, and from the looks of it, it gave her no pleasure whatsoever. She continued to think on these things and others such as, "Do I want her back in my life now after 5000 years? Can I still live with her the same way after what happened? Can I still live my normal life now?" She pondered these things for sometime, but in the end all three answers came up the same, "Yes." She did want someone other than Tenchi in her life to give her advice. She often acted like she knew everything, but she knew she really didn't, and she was sure that her mother wouldn't hold it against her anymore, and Washu even said that she wouldn't try to control her life, only try to keep her from going too far off course.

Ryoko laid there and smiled for a moment despite the pain she was in. She thought to herself, "Perhaps mother and child do have a bond that is unbreakable even through years of absence." Though she had been created, Washu had still used a part of her own body in creating her. She stood up and walked, rather painfully, over to the wall and turned off the light, then laid back down and went to sleep.

The next day Ryoko awoke and rolled onto her back, only to roll back over rather quickly when she realized the pain from the previous night was not yet gone. She thought it wise to float around the house most of the day rather than walk. She stood up and dressed in her blue and yellow casual dress. Not long after Sasami was knocking at the door. "Ryoko, breakfast is ready," she chimed happily.

The first thought to Ryoko's mind was, "What if they know? I'll never hear the end of this from Aeka, and what will Tenchi think of me?" Knowing there was nothing she could do to change this now, she answered, "I'll be right there Sasami," and flew down the stairs to the dining area. Tenchi greeted her in his usual manner saying, "Good morning Ryoko!" Ryoko replied, "Good morning Tenchi." Aeka was sitting at the table eating and did not say a word. Ryoko looked across the table at Washu puzzled. Washu looked at Ryoko and just shook her head. Ryoko heard telepathically from Washu, "They don't know about it." Ryoko breathed a sigh of relief. Much to Tenchi's surprise she didn't jump on him and try to convince him to be alone with her. This was more due to the fact that jumping anywhere would be more pain than it was worth, and even if she did manage to get him alone what could she do to him with her backside looking the way it was. The last thing she wanted was him finding out about what happened.

The next few days passed rather uneventfully, and there was a slight improvement in Ryoko's behavior. However, the occasional spat between her and Aeka erupted as usual. Washu on the other hand began to pay more attention to Ryoko and slightly less to her work. If she was going to be any kind of influence in Ryoko's life she realized that she'd have to be there for her a lot more. She didn't think she'd ever spank her daughter again. She questioned herself as to whether or not she overreacted and the answer was perhaps, but it did seem to make some sort of difference. Over the years Ryoko and Washu would slowly grow closer together. Though Washu could not replace the years lost, she could, and did, make the best out of the years ahead. The universal bond of mother and daughter was not to be broken in all that time.

FINIS!

Dark Raven can be reach at: darkraven26@hotmail.com

 Copyright 2001