AstroNerdBoy wrote:
>OK, if Tenchi-ken is Funaho-ki's key and Juraians need keys to interface 
with their tree, why give the sword to Tenchi?

He is in effect, giving up his control over Funaho.  This also seems 
puzzling since we mostly seem to agree that Yosho didn't give Funaho-ki to 
Tenchi.  The reason most folks think that Funaho-ki was given to Tenchi was 
because Tenchi-ken was given to him.  If Tenchi-ken was Funaho-ki's, one 
can understand why they'd think that.<

     As mentioned, Funaho-no-ki is effectively grounded at this time and 
Youshou seems to have been fine without it for centuries.  Additionally, 
one might still speculate whether he could have carved a spare key.

>Second, why did Kagato recognize Tenchi-ken?  Why did he call the sword 
the "king's property" (OK, I'm being forced to rely on Pioneer's 
translations but that's all I have to go on at present)?  And how did 
Kagato get the idea that Tenchi-ken was what he wanted?  If the sword was 
Funaho-ki's, it wasn't around all that long before disappearing.  And did 
Yosho do anything with it (battle wise) prior to his battle with Ryoko?<

I believe that the Pioneer translation is probably correct.  He does 
say "king's property" or possibly "royalty's property".  However, the 101 
#13 also states that Azusa's master key is the only formally active one 
since Youshou's Royal Tree is grounded.  So, there only being two Master 
Keys and Kagato having already faced Azusa, there was good reason for his 
interest.

>Oh, TS -- do you have access to read question 13 from "101" and do a re-
translation?  You quoted the old fan translation and I would like you to 
clarify it.

"Therefore, Youshou's key (Tenchi Sword) is a master key while Aeka's is 
just a normal key. This is why Tenchi, with his master key, could release 
Ryoko from Aeka's jail in ep.2."  

Doesn't this sound like two master keys in question?  I want to see if the 
translator added the "Tenchi Sword" into the translation.<

     I can confirm that "(Tenchi-ken)" is in the original 101 entry.  The 
entry also mentions that Azusa's key is the only formally active master key 
since Youshou has passed his master key to Tenchi and Funaho is grounded.  
There is also an illustration that says that Tenchi-ken might be the 
strongest sword in the universe.  (But we know better.)


Josep Riggs wrote:
>For all we know, all he wanted was the gems embedded in the sword's hilt.  
When he's all but beaten Tenchi on the bridge of the Souja, he doesn't 
thank Tenchi for bringing the sword.  He thanks Tenchi for bringing the 
rest of the gems.  Its likely that Kagato would have been happy to gain 
control over a master key (something that allows the possessor to override 
the owners of every last 2nd and later generation tree would be extremely 
valuable, particularly if you're engaged in activity that Jurai doesn't 
look favorably on), but the dialogue in the episode suggests that the 
gemstones may have been of more interest to Kagato.<

     Kagato was likely to be no longer interested in Tenchi-ken.  His 
attempt to grab Tenchi-ken resulted in a painful lesson that told him that 
only those that the owner permits are allowed to wield it.  So, Tenchi-ken 
itself was useless to him.  With the pulling of Tsunami towards the Souja, 
Kagato probably figured that he no longer needed a Master Key, anyways. 

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