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Episode 16 -	Right Now, I'm Resting ~ Strategy ~
	Tadaima, kyūyō-chū ni tsuki ~Strategy~
Release date -	27th March 2004

Late one night, as Tenchi is asleep in his bed, a bright point of light appears over his forehead. He grunts and winces in pain, but does not wake. In the darkness, Noike stands and watches...

The next morning, as Tenchi prepares to leave for work in the fields, Ryoko, Ayeka and Mihoshi badger him about the fiancée situation. Sasami remarks that her grandmother (Seto) is always causing this kind of trouble. Noike interrupts them when she notices something is wrong with Tenchi. Moments later he collapses to the ground.

Tenchi has retired to his bed, and Washu has diagnosed a combination of heatstroke, exhaustion and stress. She recommends he stay in bed for three days to recover. Ryoko, Ayeka and Mihoshi are eager to help tend to him, but Washu refuses to let them near him, suggesting they will only make matters worse! Instead, she asks Noike, who she knows is a trained nurse, to look after Tenchi.

As Noike watches over Tenchi, she wonders about the vision she saw when she first laid eyes on him (episode 15), a vision she often sees in her dreams. Just then, Tenchi awakens. He tries to get up, but Noike tells him he is to rest for three days. She assures him that everyone else will take a share of his chores, and she herself will work in the fields. She offers to help him change out of his work clothes, though the bashful Tenchi says he would rather do that alone!

After Noike tucks Tenchi back into bed, she leaves him to rest. She finds Sasami and Ryo-Ohki waiting outside his room, both clearly worried about Tenchi's wellbeing. Ryo-Ohki is particularly distressed, but Noike assures her that working in the carrot fields is not the cause of his illness. She tells Ryo-Ohki that she can help in the fields as well.

Later that day, Noike is washing clothes when Ryoko asks her about Tenchi. She tells her he will be okay, but warns her not to bother him in case it slows down his recovery. Ayeka comes and asks Noike the same question. Noike assures Ayeka that Tenchi will be fine in three days, and asks her to take over the laundry while she tends to the fields. She drops in on Sasami in the kitchen and asks Ryo-Ohki to accompany her. Sasami is still worried about Tenchi, but Noike confides in her that Washu is exaggerating Tenchi's illness to keep the girls away from him and give him some peace. Noike then drops by Washu's lab to tell her where she is going. Washu asks Noike if she can examine her sometime to investigate why she fainted when she first met Tenchi. Noike agrees, provided, she warns Washu, that she doesn't try to make her her latest guinea pig!

On the way to the fields, Noike and Ryo-Ohki stop by Katsuhito's house to tell him about Tenchi. Katsuhito thanks her for taking the trouble to look after everyone. He then admits that he knows Seto sent her to keep Tenchi and the others under surveillance, but he promises not to blow her cover. Before she leaves, Noike asks a favour of Katsuhito...

Life goes on as usual in the Masaki home, and Noike helps keep everyone in check and doing their chores, while she and Ryo-Ohki work in the fields. In fact, it soon becomes apparent that she has appointed herself head of the household.

On the evening of the third day, Ryoko and Ayeka sit drinking sake and brooding about Noike's intrusion into their lives. Ryoko is annoyed at how they have let a stranger take over the household, but Ayeka remarks that aside from herself and Sasami, everyone is a stranger to Tenchi. Ryoko laments that they have come to rely upon Noike, and without her to help they would just be a bother to Tenchi. Just as they are beginning to wonder if Noike would make a more worthy partner for Tenchi than themselves, Noike herself steps out of the shadows. She confesses that her becoming Tenchi's fiancée is just a front, and she has really been assigned to watch over everyone. With a one-time space pirate, her spaceship, a genius scientist, two Juraian ships and a Galaxy Police officer all in one place, it is in Jurai's best interests to monitor the situation, Noike tells them. If anything, she continues, Tenchi could end up as her enemy if the political situation changes.

The next morning, Tenchi wakes to find Noike asleep in a chair at his bedside. She is apparently dreaming, and she mutters “No...help me!” in her sleep. Tenchi tries to wake her and she cries out “onii-chan!” (“brother!”). Now awake, she blushes furiously when Tenchi tells her she was talking in her sleep. Changing the subject, Noike remarks that Tenchi is looking well again, and invites him to have breakfast in her ship.

On board her ship, Noike takes Tenchi to meet Kyoko, the Juraian tree at the heart of her ship. Barely even a sapling, Kyoko stands at only a few inches high. Tenchi greets the tree, and she responds by sending a dazzling beam of light looping around the ship's bridge. Noike explains that because Kyoko is a top-secret ship, she has very few visitors so is excited to meet Tenchi. Tenchi wonders if he has any business being inside a classified Juraian ship, but Noike tells him that he is even more top secret than Kyoko!

Tenchi and Noike dine on a floating platform as it drifts along one of the water channels inside the ship. Tenchi remarks how the food reminds him of his childhood; Noike explains that she received cooking lessons from Rea, who helped raise Tenchi after the death of his mother. As Tenchi eats, he asks Noike about the dream she had. She explains that it is a recurring dream in which she is saved by someone whose face she cannot see. Just then, a small green blob jumps up onto the table (it resembles a green version of the Mass/Masu from episode 10). Noike chastises it, calling it “Kyoko”. She goes on to explain that the blob is Kyoko's alternative form, rather like Ryo-Ohki, and she is capable of changing shape (which Kyoko demonstrates).

After breakfast, Noike lets Tenchi take a bath in her lavish bathroom, nestling high in the branches of an enormous tree overlooking the sprawling landscape of the ship's interior. He is marvelling at his surroundings when Noike enters the bath wearing only a towel and offers to scrub his back! Later, as they are soaking in the bath, Noike asks Tenchi what he has done to charm so many women into vying for his love. He insists that he is just an ordinary high-schooler, despite the evidence of his current situation. Just then, a jet of water blasts Tenchi across the bath; Kyoko, who was sitting on Tenchi's shoulder, was jealous that he was only paying attention to Noike!

Following their bath, Noike continues explaining about Kyoko. Kyoko is an experimental third generation Jurai ship designed to overcome the limitations of the previous third generations. When Ryoko attacked Jurai 700 years previously, only the second generation and higher ships were powerful enough to fight back, but there are very few second generation ships and only one known first generation. Kyoko is designed to be almost as powerful as a second generation ship, so is still highly classified. Noike then changes the subject, telling Tenchi that Seto Kamiki will be arriving to check on her progress tomorrow. She then changes the subject again, and tells Tenchi that the person that rescues her in her recurring dream looks a lot like him.

Later that day, Noike arrives back at the house driving a pickup. She steps out of the new vehicle to the gasps of Tenchi and the girls when they see that she has cut her long flowing hair into a neater, shorter style (the same as she had before Seto adopted her, she tells them). She explains that long hair would only get in the way when she is working, and she can wear a wig to face Seto. She then explains about the van, which Katsuhito got for her to help with the work in the fields and lighten Tenchi's workload. She even offers to teach Ryoko and Ayeka to drive it. Mihoshi asks if she can drive it too, but Noike warns her not to come near the driver's seat for fear of what that could mean to other road users!

On another planet, Z, who we last saw interfering with Mihoshi's letter home in episode 14, watches with a satisfied chuckle as a vast spaceship that resembles an enormous golf ball launches. Clearly, the engagement of this spaceship, the Chobimaru (as seen in GXP episode 15) is a part of his devious plans...

In his office, Mihoshi's grandfather Minami Kuramitsu discusses the launch of the Chobimaru with a military officer, Nakita. Nakita is opposed to using the Chobimaru without permission, but Minami informs him that the Chobimaru is Kuramitsu family property, so he can do as pleases with it. Nakita retorts by telling him that Misao (the captain of the Chobimaru and Mihoshi's younger brother) is supposed to be on official duties. Minami explains that he has given Misao and his crew leave to go and rescue Mihoshi, who is apparently miserable on Earth. Nakita realises that after Mihoshi is rescued, Minami intends to destroy the planet and the Juraian heirs living there. He warns Minami against interfering with affairs on Earth because of the planet's protected status, but he is also certain that Misao will realise Earth is no threat when he arrives. Nakita also remarks that Minami, Mikami's sister, has already organised the sale of one of Mikami's garden planets to cover the cost of the damage that the Chobimaru is likely to suffer if it should try to attack Earth. Nakita leaves the fuming Mikami with a parting shot, telling him that Lady Seto is already aware of his plans, but that she only intends to watch.

On board the Chobimaru, Misao Kuramitsu stares out at the view of Earth as the enormous spaceship enters its orbit. He swears that he will protect his beloved sister Mihoshi, and that he will not allow Tenchi to make her suffer any longer...

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Episode 17 - Misao Arrives Aboard the Chobimaru >>

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