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Episode 21 -	Real Friends?
	semi shigure / kanashiki yūgi / yume no ato
	[An outburst of cicada chirps, sad after a dream of playing]
First aired -	19th August 1997

On a balmy summer's afternoon, Sasami is taking a nap outside when she is visited in her dream by Yugi. She asks Sasami if they are friends, to which Sasami replies that they are. With a smile on her face, Yugi disappears, and Sasami wakes with a start.

Inside the house, Ayeka is still moping around when she hears a noise from Washu's lab. Moments later, the door finally opens and a weary Washu steps out. She calls Ayeka into the laboratory to show her the results of her intensive research. Washu shows Ayeka some video footage of Yugi's attack on the shrine (see episode 13), and measurements of the energy readings at the time of her arrival. She has detected traces of Jurai energy; an organic energy form only possessed by natives of planet Jurai. This is puzzling, as Ayeka and Sasami had assumed they were the only Juraians on Earth. Washu points out that the ruins at the archaeological dig site in Okutama (see episode 9) were of Juraian origin, and must be connected with Yugi. Ayeka flies to Okutama on the back of Azaka and Kamidake to further investigate the ruins.

At Galaxy Police headquarters, Mihoshi and Kiyone have just been promoted and reassigned to GPHQ for their assistance in the undercover investigation into Ryoko. Despite this being a happy occasion, Kiyone cannot help but remember the happy times that she shared with Ryoko and the girls. Meanwhile, Ryoko, who managed to make a clean getaway from the GP SWAT team, is similarly reminiscent about her time on Earth.

Sasami is returning from the store with a watermelon, and as she walks through the forest, she comes across Yugi who was waiting for her by the holy tree. Together, they play in the pond, walk through the forest together and talk. Yugi tells Sasami that she wants to be friends with her forever. As they walk on through the forest, watching the woodland creatures, Sasami tells Yugi that there are plenty of friends to be found in the forest. Yugi protests, saying that animals are no substitute for real friends.

At the dig site in Okutama, Ayeka investigates the ruins. Azaka and Kamidake download the contents of the crypt's memory banks and display a holographic record of the events that led to the ruined tomb being found on Earth. The records tell of a disaster 3,500 years previously, in the 27th year of the reign of the empress Hinase of Jurai, caused by a six-year-old mutant girl. Huge monsters rampaged across Jurai, created and commanded by Yugi, too powerful for anyone to stop. However, empress Hinase used her mighty Jurai powers to kill Yugi's beast friends and imprison Yugi herself in a suspended animation capsule; the tomb found later on Earth. As Yugi is pulled down into the capsule, she cries out in terror, afraid of the dark and afraid of being alone. The capsule is launched into space to ensure she can never threaten Jurai again. The capsule, however, crash-landed on Earth, later to be broken open by an earthquake and to free Yugi.

Back in her laboratory, Washu makes the connection between Yugi's recent release and the sudden split in the Masaki family. She decides to pay Tenchi a visit in Tokyo to express her concerns, and temporarily re-establishes the inter-dimensional tunnel. Unfortunately, her co-ordinates are a little scrambled, and she pops out through the toilet in Tenchi's apartment, much to Tenchi and Sakuya's surprise. Washu tells him about the attack on the shrine, and that this may have been a precursor to something larger. She asks him to come back to Okayama, but Sakuya becomes upset that her plans for summer are being disrupted. Before he can make up his mind, Tenchi's friend Umanosuke Tsuchida, grandson of the Tsuchida shrine master who is Tenchi's sensei, bursts in, telling Tenchi that Mr. Tsuchida has injured himself, and that he needs Tenchi to fill in for him. He drags the bewildered Tenchi away before he can protest.

In the woods in Okayama, Yugi offers Sasami the chance to move in with her, but Sasami turns her down. Yugi loses her temper, shouts at Sasami and disappears in a roaring wind, leaving Sasami to wonder what is happening to her playmate.

<< Episode 20 - Old Friends

Episode 22 - Sakuya's Secret >>

Sakuya's "KM" T-shirt is seen for the first time in this episode, and she wears it through to the end of the series. The "KM" on her shirt stands for "Koji Masunari", who was the animation director on the first Tenchi Muyo movie, "Tenchi Muyo in Love!".

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