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When she returns to him and Washu, it is to return to the real world, because she'd rather win his love the real way, and sacrifice her own wishes to do so. Tenchi seems tongue-tied and unable to express how he really feels at the end of this episode, and even when he tries to explain that he didn't hate travelling with her, Ryoko hushes him, in case it interferes with their transfer back to the real world. However, when she grips his hand, he doesn't push her away, but grips hers tighter and sends her a grin. At the very end of the episode, when Ayeka thinks Ryoko is pushing herself on Tenchi again, she is actually atop the shrine gateway, dreaming. It is Tenchi who approaches Ryoko, and tosses her an apple.

There appears to be hidden symbolism in this gesture. That he gives her an apple seems to mean more than just "here, have some food" (See Ryoko's OTHER section for more about this!) It's not quite a declaration of love (lol!) but it does mark a new understanding between them. Maybe I'm reaching, but there has to be something more to it ^_^.

This episode is a watershed, because from hereon in their relationship is less pushy on Ryoko's side and more interested from Tenchi's. When Yagami is hijacked, Ryoko tells Tenchi to count on her and he tells her that he does. In that episode also, they take off after Yagami, leaving Ayeka and Sasami behind (out of sight, out of mind!). And of course, at the conclusion of the series, Ryoko almost gives her life helping Tenchi to get to Jurai. This is often cited, but what is not so often mentioned is the lingering look of regret Tenchi sends Ryoko when he leaves her side to do battle with Kagato. Ryoko has to practically order him to leave, since it seems pretty obvious he'd rather stay with her. Duty calls, and all that - even though he tells her he'd like to take a trip with her (see, there's that trip motif again!) he knows he has to do the right thing and avenge his grandfather's attack.

It's also worth mentioning that, after the battle with Kagato, Tenchi chooses not to stay on Jurai with Ayeka, even though he could quite easily do so. When he recounts everything at the close of No Need For A Conclusion, he gives us no information on Ryoko's fate, but it's clear he's wondering where she is and what's become of her. As he walks to get the bus for school, he hallucinates Ryo Ohki on a stone when he hears the mew of a cat, and then he thinks he sees Ryoko herself up ahead. Or is it a hallucination? Difficult to say, since Ryoko does descend at that point, stopping him dead and greeting him with a joyful hug. At other points in the series, when Ryoko has thrown herself at Tenchi, he has been less than enthusiastic about it. But this time he is plainly happy to see her, dropping his school bag and returning her hug with a grin of his own. (Whether he ever got to school that day is a mystery...honestly, I have my doubts!) Evidently, even when they are apart, his mind is on Ryoko and not on planet Jurai.

The movies touch on this theme also, although in the interests of objectivity (who am I kidding?) there isn't so much direct evidence in Tenchi Muyo In Love. I think Tenchi is so concerned with saving his mother that he hasn't much time to worry about Ryoko or Ayeka, in truth. It's said the film leads on from the end of Universe (and anyone who hates that ending obviously just hates the idea of Ryoko and Tenchi getting it together) but actually it seems to backtrack in terms of the relationships between characters. The link is very tenuous indeed (even to the point where Jurai magically develops an Emperor that doesn't exist in the entirety of the Universe series!). This being said, the only thing that I can settle on here for Tenchi and Ryoko is the fact that she is the one who brings him out of the other dimension, and refuses to set him down even for a minute while she tries to find the memory gems to give to Ayeka. Equally, I suppose, she throws herself into the fray and grabs him, preventing him from being sucked into the dimension with his mother and father. Perhaps the most interesting thing, though, is Washu's idea about how they find Achika - that Tenchi can pick up his mother's brainwaves and then Ryoko can teleport to that location. This suggests some kind of telepathic bond between Ryoko and Tenchi (just as the brief suggestions exist in the OVA and Tenchi in Tokyo). It's not conclusive, but I don't see how else Ryoko would have known those coordinates. And she is a telepath, so it's not impossible at all.

More conclusive, however, is the second film on this timeline, "Tenchi Forever" or "Tenchi Muyo In Love II" (it gets called both). When Tenchi disappears, Ryoko and Ayeka team up to find him, but it is Ryoko who Tenchi hallucinates and draws when he is in Haruna's ghostly world. Even though his memory of his previous life has been erased and replaced with something Haruna wants him to believe, Ryoko's image keeps cropping up there and Haruna is clearly threatened by it. When Ryoko and Ayeka break into the alternative world, he says Ryoko's name without any prompting, followed by "You're real!" In contrast, he demands of Ayeka - "Who are you?".

From Ryoko's perspective, she is determined to rescue Tenchi until she believes he wants to stay with Haruna (although this breaks her heart). Like relinquishing her world at the end of Time and Space Adventures III and her near sacrifice at the close of the series itself, Ryoko's affection for Tenchi means that she will help him get to whatever will make him happy...even if it destroys her own hopes and dreams in the process. Although Tenchi never definitively says to Ryoko "I love you", the evidence is all there that he does. At the end of the film he tells her "you understand me" and "I can count on you." It's almost like he knows she is coming for him - and holds out his faith that she will.

There is also other evidence in this film that this has become more than just a good friendship. When they are in the coffee shop, Ryoko's frantic behaviour seems to penetrate his sub conscious, bringing on a headache and leading him to have further hallucinations of the space pirate. At the close of the film, Ayeka says that only Ryoko can reach Tenchi, as if she has accepted that Tenchi's feelings for the pirate are stronger than his feelings are for her. This she might possibly have known even since the end of the television series - as he did not choose to stay with her on Jurai like she asked him to.  Washu also states that scientific interference in the world is no longer possible, but that the world is entirely constructed of emotion - including the emotion Tenchi obviously has for Ryoko. Washu does state that "his thoughts keep bringing him back here", referring to the real world - and since those thoughts are of Ryoko, it stands to reason that it's her (like in Manatsu No Eve, see below) that is breaking through Haruna's false charms. This is the probable reason why only Ryoko can go and get him back at the end.

Tenchi tells Haruna he has to paint what is 'in his heart and in his head'. Quite clearly, Ryoko is in both - and Haruna feels threatened enough by her imagined presence to destroy Tenchi's pictures of her (something which Tenchi cannot understand). Tenchi also asks her to change the curtains from pink to 'light blue', the same colour as Ryoko's hair. This seems to distress Haruna also - because she tells him that she's afraid she's going to lose him. She obviously also sees the connection - that something in his mind is still pulling him back to the real world. If you want to get really technical, you could see the curtain switch as a choice in itself, since Haruna's hair ribbon is pink, like the original curtains!

Although there is no conclusive 'decision' at the close, it doesn't take a genius to work out what the audience are expected to think. (In fact, if you can't see it, you're actively deluding yourself :S). At the end of the film, Tenchi says to Ryoko, a little cryptically, that his painting is inspired by what he feels, and that it's something that's in his heart. Since he painted Ryoko in Haruna's world, that clearly indicates that it's her who is in his heart. (Something which she clearly gets the meaning of - after all, he does ask her in Haruna's world whether she came out of his drawing, so she must know he's been drawing her!)

Moving on further from that, if there's still any need for convincing, you just have to watch the closing titles. In sepia brown, as if leading on from Tenchi's comments about things that he'd forgotten from long ago but that were in his heart, there is a little chronicle of his encounters with Ryoko from the Universe series. The montage goes pretty much from his meeting her, through her near sacrifice, his battle on Jurai (but surprisingly without showing Ayeka as the reason for him being there), his parting from Ayeka (when she is in tears and refuses to take his hand), his return to the Earth and then Ryoko's return to him, ending in their hug. Also slipped in here is an image of Yosho and his wife Itzuki and it struck me that Tenchi is merely following in Yosho's footsteps - Yosho set aside his memories of Haruna (a Juraian woman) to marry someone in his new world and begin his new life on Earth. And Tenchi set aside his genetic bond with the Juraian throne and his opportunity to become Emperor to return to his normal life (and clearly, to choose Ryoko).

In this Tenchi-verse, then, you'd need to have been hit very hard on the head by a mallet not to realise that the conclusion is a Ryoko/Tenchi pairing, even if it's not said in as many words.

In Tenchi in Tokyo, Ryoko's relationship with Tenchi is a lot more volatile - at least to begin with. Sometimes she almost seems to scare him - when she asks him on her 'date', she tells him "if you don't turn up, you know what will happen!", and so he does turn up, as if afraid of some big violent scene. Ryoko herself is a lot more brash and forceful in this series anyway, so the chemistry between the two of them is slightly different. However, despite all of that, this is the only time I've seen Tenchi admit his feelings for Ryoko in words - "She's sure selfish and unpredictable, yet somehow I'm attracted to her. She was kinda cute tonight." This is further compounded by Sakuya's confrontation of him - when he tries to deny that there is someone else 'waiting for him', Sakuya accuses him of lying to her, and tells him she can tell when he's not telling the truth. And yet, it is Ryoko who ends this one off date, not Tenchi - as if she feels like the whole thing is getting out of her control and that she has to pull back before she gets herself further in than she can handle.

It's unclear what exactly sparks his change of heart in this series, though her own bond with him is forged when she is lying unconscious in a coma, after their very first meeting. Even though it is Tenchi who has caused her such grievous harm and even though she was a monster when they first met, Tenchi is constantly at her bedside and Ryoko slowly falls for the man who is taking care of her like noone ever has before. Equally, it is Tenchi's apparent betrayal of her with Sakuya that drives her to leave the house and take up with Hotsuma...nursing the bitter anger of a woman scorned. Ironically, then, the love contest in this series is Ryoko vs Sakuya - NOT Ryoko vs Ayeka (despite their constant sparring).

And yet, even here Tenchi retains that strange psychic link with Ryoko. Maybe it's the gems in this series, I'm not sure...but on two occasions he seems to sense she's in trouble (firstly, when the house is attacked by Yugi and Ryoko takes the kid on in "Eye of the Destroyer", the second time when she's attacked by Yugi's fake Galaxy Police droids at the House of the Eternal Pledge in "Drifting Away"). At both times he is with Sakuya, yet his mind is called back to Ryoko - interesting, isn't it? And especially on the second occasion, he is really not paying any attention to Sakuya after the sudden flash - which is probably because she's talking tripe :S. And though he confesses to Sakuya that he loves her, it's Ryoko who he ends up up a tree with at the end, talking about Yugi and about his relationship with Sakuya. Ryoko refers to it as a 'fling' and Tenchi doesn't deny it...or maybe he just knows that Sakuya was an illusion, while Ryoko - even if she's not house trained - is very real. Not that it's conclusive that, at the close of this series, you feel he will take up with Ryoko now. I don't think it's that way at all, since the Ryoko of this series has a lot more to learn about what being in love really means (ie it's not just about 'having fun', but it is a lot deeper than that and Tenchi would not be satisfied with something self centred and on the surface). Just that it's the beginning of a new understanding between them.

In many ways it's something of an epiphany for Ryoko - she decides at the end that it doesn't matter if Tenchi's with someone else, because her love for him will make her able to triumph. In the dub, it's a little bit ambiguous whether she means her love will make her triumph over Hotsuma or whether it means she's going to win Tenchi in the end. But in the subtitles it's a lot less vague - it says "It doesn't matter who Tenchi's with. The one who's going to win is me!". So she means that she'll get Tenchi in the end...and killing Hotsuma is just a means to that end (ie she's decided her love is stronger and less insecure and she's willing to fight for it as strongly as she's fighting for her life right now.)

Tenchi obviously feels he has done something to hurt/betray Ryoko, because he is apologetic and a little embarrassed when talking to her about the whole Sakuya business. Equally, Ryoko has had something of an epiphany whilst with Hotsuma - that her feelings for Tenchi are not dependant on his feelings for her and what's more, she's more settled with them as they are without even needing his constant support or attention. (I have heard it said that Tenchi asks Yugi to bring Sakuya back. I'm confused. Having watched all twenty six episodes, I've yet to find that moment. In the episodes I watched, he confessed his love to Sakuya, then left her to disappear, returning to Earth because he has to save the planet.) It's also interesting to note at this point that, when he is falling from the Crystal Castle (no She-Ra jokes!!), it is Ryoko who is there to break his fall. Nothing new about that, is there?

In the final film (Manatsu No Eve), Tenchi's relationship with Ryoko is also pretty clear. When Mayuka decides to take a bath with Daddy, it's Ryoko that Tenchi tries to placate - "It's not how it looks!". Though they spend a lot of this film in conflict, since Ryoko is both jealous and suspicious of the too-sweet Mayuka, it is also Ryoko who goes with Tenchi into Yuzuha's lair to try and rescue Sasami. There is underlying symbolism here too - Yuzuha makes it clear earlier on in the film that whoever you spend the Juraian summer festival of Startica with is likely to prove your true love. Sasami says earlier in the film that it's 'about the time' of Startica on Jurai, when all of this is taking place. So, when Ryoko and Tenchi go into Yuzuha's lair and encounter her possessed daughter and parodied Christmas celebration, they are actually spending Startica together. Yuzuha even says that Ryoko is in love with Tenchi - and Ryoko does not even bother to deny it, simply telling him that there's no way she'll leave him there at Yuzuha's mercy (injured or not!). In fact, in many ways it seems like Yuzuha's behaviour with Mayuka is intended to cause a rift between Ryoko and Tenchi, since Yuzuha is happy when they are fighting and cross when they seem to repair their bonds. Although Yuzuha's toys greet Tenchi with a welcome to the "prince of Jurai and his devil princess and space pirate", it's not quite certain what the 'devil princess' is referring to. Is it Ayeka, back in the ordinary world? Or Sasami, trapped in the trunk of the tree? Or some kind of joke on Ryoko's 'demon' status in the OVA series? The subtitling is less ambiguous - the mocking bear refers to Ryoko and Tenchi as the 'Prince of Jurai and the former space pirate and demon princess' and then talks about them BOTH being welcome in Yuzuha's world. So the term demon princess is meant for Ryoko - which I find interesting!!

As the canon for this film seems to be a mishmash of OVA (Yosho's tree) and Universe (presence of Kiyone), everything is possible ^_^. It's also worth noting that although even Yosho/Kazuhito and his sword of Jurai can't break Yuzuha's spell in Tenchi's bedroom, Ryoko appears to do so just by teleporting in there and screaming his name. Since it is her presence over the shrine steps that also breaks the earlier trance, it suggests that something deeper inside Tenchi is overriding the hypnosis to let Mayuka seduce him - could it be genuine affection for Ryoko??

The most telling moments in the film come in their most violent quarrel ever - when Tenchi raises his hand and slaps Ryoko across the cheek. The unforgiveable action sends Ryoko disappearing into the night, feeling unwanted and unloved, and gives Tenchi agonies of guilt as he hunts her down. Finally, when he does find her, Ryoko comes very close to expressing her true fears for him, and there's even a nice little cuddle on the roof. (Well, it must be true love, if he's willing to climb up onto the roof for her!) Tenchi also, significantly says something that he should have known Ryoko wouldn't bully Mayuka - although this only appears on the subtitling so presumably the original Japanese dub. It does suggest some deeper understanding of Ryoko, however.

Later on in the film she breaks down even further, so afraid for Tenchi's safety after Mayuka's attempted abduction that she clings onto him, bursting into tears (much to his complete confusion!).

CONCLUSION
Tenchi loves Ryoko!

Okay, so maybe he doesn't 100% love her in every single episode of every series. Wouldn't that be boring, though, if he did? But he does grow to love her in all of them, whether as a very dear friend or as something more significant. And what is much more important is Ryoko's feelings for Tenchi - constant and unchanging, despite all the abuse thrown her way. She's called a demon, a monster and a freeze dried mummy. He tells her he hates her when she ruins his mother's dress and she's slapped round the face for trying to protect him. She's forced to witness him kissing another woman after she'd given him her trust by not chasing off to Tokyo with the other girls to spy on him. And yet, no matter what, Ryoko is always there for Tenchi when the chips are down. He never spoke a truer word than the words he spoke at the end of Tenchi Forever. Ryoko is someone he can count on...and he knows it better than anyone. Even though false shadows come to try and spirit him away in the forms of Haruna, Mayuka and Sakuya, none of them ever manage to fully come between him and Ryoko in the end. Whether you see their bond as eternal love or just the forging of a very special partnership, there is no doubt that Tenchi and Ryoko are a team not to be messed with!

Basically, there is no version of the Tenchi story which could not result in a Ryoko/Tenchi pairing. That's not to say that automatically in every show she will wind up with him...just that there is an argument for it in each version of the canon! Ryoko's intense loyalty and courage where he is concerned often offsets her more embarrassing and pushy behaviour. And it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that - at the very least - he is meant to choose her in the Universe series. I'm completely serious - if you really properly watch the closing credits to TMIL2, it's pretty clear who the finger is being pointed at!!