- For the GXP anime, see Tenchi Muyo! GXP.
To date, there are seventeen volumes in the True Tenchi Muyo! GXP series of light novels. Volume 15 was written by Masaki Kajishima, and has yet to be published outside of the main readership in Japan.
Volume 15 is the first volume in the series that doesn't cover any of the material used in the anime series,
Summary
The adventures in the Renza Federation begin. Hakuren, Gyokuren, Karen, and Suiren have "kidnapped" Seina and have taken him to their residence on the extra-governmental plantery-class "entertainment ship," Racepshi. But The Galaxy Police and Jurai quickly act to prevent the action from causing problems by declaring that Seina and Kiriko's group, which followed soon after, are on official missions. Kiriko's group are restricted from contacting Seina but are trying their best to figure out a way to support him from afar. Hakuren's group, along with a crew of elf, ogre, fairy, and dryad military commanders straight out of fantasy novels, create an anti-pirate force, but may not have the full support of a self-serving and corrupt government. And just as their pirate hunting activities, a ghost from the pass, HIMC, threatens to break everyone apart further.
Chapter One: An Elf's Murmur
In a flash-forward chapter, we meet Airen Kariyuuku Kaou, a Kaou Princess (low in succession) and a Renza Military Officer, the head of maintenance, specializing in the Knight Calvary, on the single spaceport on Barrium. The chapter is told completely from her first-person perspective. The spaceport is, depressingly, in the middle of an arid desert, the only way to operate technology on an otherwise magical planet (where plants produce magic and cause technology to breakdown). Her greatest complaint is with her commanding officer, a conniving and cowardly man named Argulus.
She meets an interesting young cadet, Seina, training to be a knight pilot. Multiple things go wrong with the Weak Knight he's training with. It seems the cadet has a serious problem with bad luck, and he is forced to pilot it manually. She notices in his first run that he seems to be faking being a beginner pilot- he obviously has skills.
In a month or so, the cadet has risen through the training with the rest of his class, and he is in a practice battle with others when Space Pirates come to raid the spaceport. Commander Argulus commands the weakest and most ill-prepared cadet soldiers to attack the pirates as a diversion to save his favorite, hand-picked recruits (all of who have connections to nobility). Seina, in his barely armed lowest class Weak Knight, almost single-handedly (he also issues orders to other cadets) takes out several knights in battle and even challenges a mid-class Aquius Knight to a duel- which he wins. As Seina is being heralded as a hero throughout the compound, Argulus loudly reprimands him and tells him to expect punishment for going against his orders. Seina calls out to him and challenges him to a duel (which Argulus cannot turn down- or face losing his rank). At this moment, Airen realizes that she has completely fallen in love with the cadet.
Chapter Two: The Boring Trip from Racepshi to Renza
After his kidnapping, Seina has been left alone in his new residence. Why contemplating his new circumstances and worrying about Fuku and Acha he receives a call from Seto, Airi, and Mikami. He is told that they have covered up the details of the kidnapping and are treating Seina's presence there as an official GP "special mission," and he should take things as they come. They are also downplaying the Kamidake's presence, so it doesn't seem like they are invading Renza. Airi and Mikami leave the call and Seto starts talking about the "traitor" standing behind Seina, he turns around and is surprised to find that Kuis Panta is with him in his room. Kuis has basically taken it upon herself to come along to serve the interests of Jurai, abandoning her usual duties of being Seto's constant double. Kuis explains that, while they always knew about the purpose of the arrival of Hakuren's group, they didn't care about their ulterior motives, and officially they are still employees of Seto. For the official record, the four of them are being provided two years of "vacation-time." Kuis promises that she will aide Seina when she can but at times even she might seem to be working against his interests. She leaves him with the advice to always make sure to first protect himself.
***
Kiriko, Amane, Ryoko Balta, Neju, Fuku, Miki, Kirche, D, and Acha have all been given luxury accommodations on Racepshi and are generally being treated as honored guests, although they are being denied contact with Seina, would be stopped if they tried to find him, aren't being given transportation within their host ship, and are approximately "half a planet's" distance from his location. Still in their wedding attire, they are gathered to complain about their situation, especially about their suspicions that Seto set them all up.
Makihi arrives to explain some things. She insists that Racepshi is completely neutral and not affiliated to Renza, insisting that Kiriko's group avoid conflict with Renza, as they are all guests. But she is willing to share information. She explains the real identity of Hakuren's group, that Gyokuren is the unseated queen of one of the 5 kingdoms and the others are princesses in the other kingdoms (the fifth being the elf nation that Airen belongs to). It was Hakuren's idea to gather the four of them together and attempt to infiltrate Jurai to find a way to defeat the pirate scourge in Renza. Their first foolish idea being to steal a Jurian Treeship. However, knowing the difficulty involved, their focus shifted to Seina's effectiveness, especially once Zinv was discovered. In Renza, giant mecha are practically worshiped as religious figures because, 30,000 year ago, the five founders of the Renza nations each claimed one of five of the five powerful “Heavenly Knights” (powered by 3rd generation Juraian Tree seeds) found at the ruins of a Great Prehistoric Civilization settlement. Hakuren's group immediately recognized Zinv as the original, strongest, "Godly Knight" long theorized to exist but never before proven. What made the situation more urgent was that pirates from the Galactic Federation have fled to Renza after the Daruma Pirate Guild was destroyed, and that, somehow, the pirates are acquiring Heavenly class knights, evidently being powered by 5th generation seeds, although how they are being produced is unknown.
Chapter Three: The Stage of Great Farce
On the Planet Tera (founding location of the original knights), headquarters of the Renza alliance, a meeting is being held among the leaders of the five nations. 3rd Prince Misui Namuwaroru Suire (Suiren's brother), 6th Prince Rotsuka Akeno Kasen (Karen's brother, 10th prince Jitsuki Ren Kihaku (Hakuren's brother) are all in attendance but disdain the proceedings, as they all know the solution has already been determined beforehand. They watch the current kings and firsts in succession discuss the “situation with Seina Yamada.” The may also consider the meeting a farce because these three pragmatic princes also realize that the current kings are blinded by their own self-importance and have no actual idea of the situation at hand. This section ends as the group seems to begin their discussion over their perceived inevitiable outcome of taking possession of Zinv and of the Kamidake and how they will split up the responsibilities of manning their new ships.
***
Maya takes Seina to visit her father, Ekushito Recepshi, and leaves him there in his dingy undecorated office. He is a large muscular man built like a wrestler. The first thing he asks Seina is "Have you had sex with my daughter Maya yet?" After Seina spits out the tea he was drinking and objects, Ekushito asks if he'd prefer one of his other daughters or his wife, Makihi- who he highly recommends. He informs Seina that he and his wife are merely searching for "talented" mates to produce extraordinary children and that, of Makihi's nine children, only two were fathered by him. It turns out this was the entire point of Ekushito wanting to meet Seina.
***
In another meeting between Makihi and Kiriko's group, the girls learn the official and unsurprising goal of Hakuren's group, to form a pirate-hunting group around Seina. Makihi actually also brings up her husband's conversation- Kiriko's response is simply "Seina is not a stallion!" They also have an argument over how Makihi intends to stop any attempt by the girls to stop the Renza Federation from trying to steal Zinv or imprison Seina. Makihi insists that it's to keep the peace but the others point out that they've created a powder keg in the Recepshi and shouldn't be surprised if it explodes. Complicating the situation is that Makihi got Washu to install an "inhibition code" on Miki, Kirche, and D, stopping them from transforming into cabbits while on the Racepshi- limiting their control of the Kamidake. In response to Kiriko's concern over Renza taking Seina away, Makihi assures that the base of Renza's anti-pirate activities will be on Racepshi. That it's precisely because of their neutrality that multiple governments and opposing factions have rented out space in the ship for their operations at the same time.
Seto also delivered a message to the girls through Makihi. Because no service was performed, the four of them aren't officially married to Seina yet.
Chapter Four: Operation "New Encounter"
Makihi assigns a Recepshi liason/butler to help Kiriko as they prepare their own base of operations in the ship. Her name is Marci Diplos, she works for Racepshi but is originally from Renza with freedom to travel wherever needed. Kiriko also recognizes Marci as a former member of Seto's crew. While this means she was probably a Renza spy, they also realize that Seto would have known it and still considered her trustworthy enough to work with her. So Kiriko trusts her too. They have also been allowed to travel within the ship, as long as they do not try to contact Seina or Hakuren's group.
***
In an empty theater, Seina is the only audience member for an erotic “shadow dance” performed by Maya. Seina watches because he was asked to judge her performance, but in actuality, it was specifically meant to seduce Seina into wanting to take her right then and there. Desensitized to her beauty by being a constant companion to the likes of Amane and Gyokuren, and bolstered by his resolve to stay faithful, Seina has no problem resisting temptation. Although Maya just feels she might not be a good enough dancer yet.
Maya then takes Seina to meet with Hakuren, on the way there they pass by a habitat for aquatic people like Mermaids and Mermen and she tells him that he should get used to seeing fantastical beings from now on. She leaves Seina with “First Princess” Hakuren and her retinue of about 100 escorts and officers.
***
As Hakuren starts to give Seina a tour of the Renza quarters on the ship, she informs him that their battle plan is to start slow, but eventually they could expect to battle giant fleets of pirates, which could be difficult if they can't also use the Kamidake.
They join Gyokuren, Karen, and Suiren as they enter a gigantic room in Renza's palatial Recepshi quarters that resembles a botanical garden. The plants in the room produce the magic that certain members of the fleet need to live and are necessary to produce their special abilities. Seina immediately starts to see the fantastical beings that Maya warned him about. First, he sees a group of Cat Fairies, who look like bipedal house cats, but have wings on their backs and move around by hovering. Next is Kaguya Ravel, a member of an ogre tribe who commands the armored calvary, she is beautiful and looks fearless with short horns coming out of her head. Then Sajyu Jumedo, a dryad that commands the battleship fleet, a lustrous barely clad tree-woman who tries to wrap herself around Seina seductively, until Gyokuren threatens to burn her to a crisp if she doesn't release him. And finally, the impossibly slim, fair, and radiant elf, Souren Karyuuku Kaou, the commander of the infantry. As Seina is pondering Souren's stunning straight-from-a-fantasy-story looks, Suiren stuns him even more by revealing that Souren is a male. He's was actually in a deep sleep and no one was able to wake him, so the cat fairies had to carry him in with something like a hover charm. He finally wakes and introduces himself properly. While Seina still has difficulty believing he's a man, he is thankful for the way he addresses him. Everyone else he meets from Renza addresses him as “the pilot of Zinv” but Souren is the first to praise Seina for his own accomplishments.
Chapter Five: The Truth about Renza
Hakuren's group, Kaguya and Souren take Seina to Sajyu's command ship, the Burst Squirrel, and show him the “flower passage” where the armored cavalry are stored and deploy. He tells them of Earth's fictional stories about Mecha fighters, which soothes the two of them to know he has some familiarity of the concept of fighting humanoid weapons. Seina offers some television programs he has access to. On the bridge, Sajyu stays connected to a magic tree, but the tree is able to move around.
But the real reason Hakuren brought Seina to the ship was to make absolutely sure they had a secure place to talk about sensitive issues. After bowing and formally apologizing to Seina for the kidnapping, and Seina accepting the apology, she starts a conversation about the way people in Renza view the calvary, all which have Juraian seeds within, and have Seina help explain to the other how Jurai and he, partner to Zinv, see royal trees. In Renza, only some magical races (like elves and ogres), have any kind of sense that the tree seeds have any sort of consciousness, for the most part, people in Renza just think of the ships as powerful tools.
Seina has to explain how the royal trees he knows, and Zinv, are living, feeling lifeforms who resist fighting. Hakuen and the others also have to explain how specialized and secretive maintenance on the calvary is. If a knight is damaged, there is no one on site who can repair one. They have to be sent away to be repaired in secret locations. These maintenance groups have extreme power because they decide whose knights get repaired. But because the secrets to fixing and building knights is so secretive, and supposedly in the exclusive control of the government, it is baffling how the pirates are amassing new knights. Someone is not keeping their secrets safe.
The meeting ends with discussions of paying Seina for his services and talk of tactical matters and how they fight. Ultimately, success may hinge on Zinv taking out as many opponents as possible.
Chapter Six: The Fairies Banquet and Post-Festival
After a small celebration where Souren is teased about his femininity and talk about things like the royalty being hesitant to fight pirates, everyone goes to bed. Seina is surprised to wake up next to Souren and fights his confusing arousal. They spend the morning together, eating breakfast and chatting.
Chapter Seven: Rondo of the Cat Fairie
When Seina and Souren arrive at the command bridge together everyone starts to tease them about their morning activities. It turns out that a cat fairy was monitoring them and then all of the gossipy cats, who share a limited hive mind, shared a salacious version of them sleeping together, taking baths, and sharing breakfast. Having employees like this can be helpful when they need to keep track of multiple locations, but it also has its drawbacks.
By now, the entire crew would have heard and the rumors could soon spread throughout the Racepshi. There was a point though, Sajyu and Kaguya purposely dropped the sleeping Souren off in his bed to see how they would interact, and the result is assigning Souren to escort and bodyguard duty, to protect Seina from attack or spying.
They then talk about the possibility of meeting HIMC and their Maiden Knight group in battle. It seems it is more of a mercenary outfit and not part of a pirate group, but they like to fight and HIMC is definitely their most dangerous single foe. Kaguya also informs everyone of a known slight weakness in the Light Hawk wings- shooting through a narrow gap between the three wings. They finish by discussing how to train Seina in fighting with giant mecha like Zinv.
Chapter Eight: Godly Knights and Heavenly Knights
Seina in Zinv and Kaguya in her lushly decorated 5th Gen Heavenly Knight, Moonlit Night, participate in a mock battle/ training session. At first, Kaguya has trouble with the speed and oppressive impression of Zinv, but experience and skill allows her to adjust and offer constructive advice for Seina. Kaguya also considers Zinv weak- not in power, but ability. Seina has no expertise in fighting in a knight and Zinv does seem accustomed to it either Seina suggests trying to combine the two together so Kaguya could share a cockpit and she could offer firsthand advice while piloting. A cat fairy overheard and offered a misleading report about them “linking” to Hakuren's group.
Chapter Nine: Sudden Change, Too Soon Encounter
They have begun hunting pirates. Operating like they did in the Galactic Federation, Seina enters random coordinates and they expect to find pirates, but they mostly encounter merchants from Renza. If they do find pirates, they are told to retreat by other Renza ships that pull rank on them and say they will capture the pirates. Something fishy is obviously going on, but they can't prove anything.
Back on the Racepshi, they are surprised when the walls suddenly shake and the floors quake- which should not happen. Ekushito calls and announces an emergency. A group of seven high-powered cavalry units have captured the ships of Racepshi guests just outside of their airspace and are holding them hostage. It's the group that calls themselves the Maiden Knights, most are 3rd generation, but one is 2nd generation, HIMC. They are demanding Zinv come out to fight. Seina telepathically asks Zinv if he can order the lower ranked ships to leave. Zinv replies in anguish with a confusing claim that he can't reach them, that they are all 'broken' and 'they are no longer children.' He says that he too was once broken and “forgive me, I have to end this.” Even though Seina doesn't quite understand what's going on, he knows he'll have to accept this challenge.
xxx
Miki is incensed when Makihi tells the group the news, but Kiriko is oddly calm. Kiriko recognizes that the knights are practically an army of royal treeships and that Seina has no choice but to show Renza what he and Zinv are really capable of. The normally impassive D is visibly shaken by the arrival of HIMC, declaring that its presence is impossible, that HIMC was destroyed, she saw it destroyed. Amane is able to give her an explanation that she had never considered, that this HIMC is not the one she saw destroyed, but rather, it's a new one that was brought into existence when Kazuki combined the previous parallel worlds.
As they were forbidden to use the Kamidake, Kiriko decided not to even tell Fuku and Acha what was going on and told them to stay in their bedroom.
xxx
Previously, when he was in Zinv, Seina had always been able to feel something from Royal Treeships when dealing with them, but in this case, he could only feel an eerie emotionless emptiness when facing HIMC, and it scared him. In a flash, Zinv sped off at HIMC and started a fierce battle.
Fuku woke with a start, realizing her connection to Seina was severed. Using Kamidake's sensors, she detected Zinv and HIMC fighting.
On the Racepshi, they lost their broadcast feed of the fight because the energy from the two ships was so great that it destroyed their camera probes. A fight between 1st and 2nd generation royal trees involves power that could literally rip the fabric of space around them. HIMC initially focused on long-range attacks and Seina was mostly relying on his innate ability to avoid disaster to deal with them, but HIMC suddenly rushed Seina and Zinv. Seina could do nothing but rely on instinct as HIMC somehow broke through the Lighthawk wings and was enveloping Zinv in some sort of energy.
Fuku was panicking and remotely sent the Kamidake out, breaking the restraints on Racepshi that held it back and went straight to the fight. Two Maiden Knights grabbed a hold of it but when Miki, Kirche, and D lend their strength to Fuku, it performs a strange spinning disc maneuver, but it succeeded in breaking apart the nearby knights. Kiriko asks the room what that was and Miki responds “I don't know what it was, I just did it!” The Kamidake then rushes to where Seina was fighting but only sees a damaged HIMC and another half-destroyed Maiden Knight, which are able to jump away. There is no sign of Zinv. Acha has to pet Fuku to calm her and everyone consoles her by reminding her that Seina has always survived serious attacks and this time he had Zinv.
Both Kiriko's and Hakuren's groups meet together in Makihi's residence to view footage from nearby ships that caught what occurred. The footage captured the energy from HIMC as a blinding light, then the scene seemed to distort, Zinv vanished (apparently making a sudden long-distance jump) and HIMC was left half-destroyed.
Watching closely, Kiriko was able to recognize the characteristics of the PKW attack, an attack of the Shank Pirate Guild that once destroyed a Royal Treeship 20,000 years ago. Kiriko is confused as to how they could have the knowledge to use it, but a shaken Miki knows. She used the Shank Guild's technical files as payment to Dr. Clay for his aid in freeing her, Kirche, and D- inserting their astrals into the cabbit clones. Miki also has the same knowledge and realizes that the PKW was the same attack she unconsciously used to have the Kamidake take out the Maiden Knights that has seeized it earlier.
By combining the video data from Makihi, the data from Kamidake, and analysis from Mizuki, a clear picture was made. Seina, instinctively knowing the attack was coming, countered by spraying the surrounding knights with the chemical paint that Shank once used against him to keep them from assisting, shooting gravitational bullets at HIMC, and making a long distant jump before the PKW attack could take full effect.
Kiriko hands their data over to Hakuren, as she knows that they will have the best opportunities to investigate it. Kiriko's group will now be mainly preoccupied on dealing with Renza's charges of violating their airspace and demands of turning over the Kamidake for the perceived crime.
Chapter Ten: Alone In A New World
In hyperspace, Seina considers his situation. Zinv's lower body and left arm were destroyed and aren't able to regenerate and their remaining outer core also has some tracking paint attached. They randomly leave hyperspace and, as this is Seina, they find themselves in front of a pirate fleet. Seina decides he is no condition to be merciful and fires off a gravitational bullet, destroying the fleet. He then has Zinv jettison the rest of the outer shell to get rid of the tracking paint. With only the inner core left, they can easily move and defend himself, but fighting would be risky.
Deciding that having his Philosophers Stone contact Kiriko or Hakuren could accidentally reveal his location, Seina decides that he would go to a nearby planet, Barrium, that Souren told him his sister was stationed on. They landed in an uninhabited area and hid Zinv in a lake, with Seina planning to discover and sneak into the location of Souren's sister, consulting with her about what to do next.
About three hours into his journey to the nearest settlement, Seina realized he was feeling sick. His Philosophers Stone could detect no poison but confirmed a fever. While contemplating this, he's surprised to walk almost straight into a goblin. The goblins, somewhat intelligent, but hostile, gave chase. They were unrelenting, until they all came upon a gorilla sized creature. This creature was now attacking Seina, but, with Kaguya's training and his bio-enhancement, he was able to dodge it and send it in the goblin's direction. He ran on into the night, occasionally coming across more goblins and other creatures. Deciding that his sickness demanded rest, he made camp, covering himself in vegetation to fool anything with a good nose. Wrapped up in a hammock more like a body bag, and tried to sleep but his fever kept getting worse.
Seina's bio-enhancements kept him going despite his sickness and he traveled six more hours before stopping to survey his surroundings. It seemed like there must be a reason why he kept running into the goblins. Once again, he realized goblins were coming at him, but this time they were running away. Behind them was a giant creature with the body of a tiger and the face of a monkey, a chimera. Seina was able to shoot out an eye with his laser weapon, but it kept charging at him. Seina kept firing and managed to stun it badly by exploding his gun's battery, losing his only firearm. While still running, he happened to pass a hidden dwarf that yelled out to him, “Do you want help?” "Please,” Seina responded. The dwarf then yelled for his companions to activate their traps. They quickly finished the job Seina started, killing the chimera, and searched for this mysterious person who had half finished the beast by himself, but found Seina passed out in the brush.
The dwarf, Barigaru, and his companions discussed Seina. Surprised in equal measure that he was seemingly from space, that he could take on a large chimera, and that he had caught “a magic cold.” The dwarf declared that such a person could prove useful and that he would keep him as “a pet” and asked those with him not to tell anyone else about it.
Chater Eleven: Fantasy, Fantasy
Though his body was out of commission, Seina's mind kept active and was able to converse with his Philosophers Stone, which told him that he was entering something like an “astral link” and that maybe a magician was trying to contact him. Seina concentrated on asking who it was and in response got a series of statements about the nature of magic, things like “magic is your imagination” and “go out and spread magic.”
Seina wakes up 20 days after passing out and finds that his body is in an emaciated state. It is explained by his savior, the dwarf mage, Barigaru, that his sickness was caused by Seina growing a magic organ. That normally does not happen to travelers from space, unless they are very young. The extra surprising thing about Seina's cold is its length and severity. Usually, even the native children that develop their magic organ naturally, only suffer a cold for a short period, 3 days to a week, but his cold still persists even now, causing a constant fever and an extreme need for food. It points to Seina developing an extremely large magic organ that, once complete, should give him an extraordinary magical ability.
Afterword: Concluding Theater Part Twelve
Flashing back to the first meeting between Kiriko's and Hakuren's groups at Makihi's residence:
Despite the serious situation at hand, Kiriko can't help but be elated to see Souren and Kaguya and she found herself struggling to hide her excitement. She grew up reading fantasy books and here are two denizens of them in front of her. She and Amane whisper a little about Souren, Suiren hears and mentions that he's a man... causing them to look again.
After Souren and Kaguya leave, they both mention how intense Kiriko's stare was and how frightened they were. Souren thought he was seriously in danger of being killed.