Jeffery Harris wrote:
>My ignorance is deep and wide here: where did the information 
about Azusa's "eye" come from?  For that matter, what about the 
speculation that Yosho's masterkey (for Funaho-ki) is his 
glasses?  Same theme and all (matching masterkeys?), but I have 
*never* heard any of this before.  I don't doubt its veracity -- 
it fits into the scheme of things  :D -- but I just wonder where 
the information was published at.  I get the impression that those 
of us who have only the anime to draw from are picking at the 
surface of the iceberg, while most of the relevant data (availabel 
to the Japanese fans) remains buried.<

     In the book True Tenchi Muyo! Book One <Jurai>, we are told 
the story of Azusa.  While there is much to the story, the core of 
the matter is that Azusa's first generation Royal Tree was 
originally the Tree of the granddaughter of the current ruler of 
Jurai, from House Amaki.  Though he was young, he had fallen in 
love with her, Mitsuki, but because of things that had happened 
before Azusa was born, it was forbidden that she interact with 
anyone other than the Emperor of Jurai.  She was in poor health, 
possibly due to what happened long ago, and actually watched him 
from afar since he arrived on Jurai.

     When it came time for Azusa to partner with a Royal Tree, it 
was assumed that he would get a second or third generation Tree, 
but instead he made it all the way to the transporter for the 
level where first generation Royal Trees were.  Nobody is supposed 
to accompany him, but Mitsuki did.  The reason was that Mitsuki 
and her Tree had chosen Azusa.  She was dying and only the support 
of many Tree were keeping her alive.  Mitsuki and her Tree wanted 
Azusa.  That is when he found out that her left eye was actually 
her key.  Mitsuki died in Azusa's arms and after he interred her 
body in a pool of clear sap inside Kirito, he came out with the 
master key in his eye socket.  He then named Mitsuki's Tree as 
Kirito, as a tribute to Mitsuki.

     As it turned out, later after the battle with Kagato/Souja 
and Ryouko/Ryo-Ohki resulted a rift in space, Mitsuki appeared to 
comfort him (he had been severely injured in his duel with 
Kagato).  She had apparently merged with her Tree, at least in 
spirit.  That is also when he saw Tsunami (she repaired the rift 
and transported both sides away from the site.  Azusa ended up 
near Earth, where he saved Funaho (who was trying to rescue her 
father from slavers) from pirates and defeated them.  They fell in 
love and Azusa took her with him to Jurai.

     Azusa carried a 'stick', a sword with him, and it was assumed 
by everyone that it was his master key, because it was known that 
Juraians always carry their key with them.  Now, there's nothing 
that says a person can't make a second key, a backup, so some 
people have guessed that Yousho's glasses are a key.  That's 
because of episode thirteen.  During his discussion with Funaho, 
he drops his disguise.  When Funaho and Yousho detect/suspect that 
Tenchi is listening in on them, he presses his glasses' frame and 
suddenly speaks in the Katsuhito voice.  The frame could be a key, 
but it could just as easily be another device made from Funaho-no-
ki.

     Incidentally, the most powerful Juraian devices are not 
powered by conventional means.  They are powered by the Royal 
Trees.  Funaho-no-ki, being a first-generation Tree, could easily 
support such devices. 

________________________________________________________________
Sent via the EV1 webmail system at mail.ev1.net