Chapter 1

Alpha - The Beginning

One year ago

The end of summer, 1998

From Motoko's eyes

Summer. The time of happiness for most. Everyone enjoys the heat that permeates every facet of the place we live. I feel it is a hindrance due to increased tiredness levels thanks to the untold strain the sun places upon my body. I am happy that it is finally ending. Nevertheless, during my school holidays, I continued to practise my kendo skills at Hinata-sou. I only attempted basic skills on the grounds, since any of my attacks that use larger amounts of my ki will most likely damage parts of the dorm beyond repair. Occasionally I left Hinata for a few days to travel to rural places, letting Haruka-san know I was leaving beforehand, to practise some of my more destructive techniques. I also attempted the secret of the Shinmei School of Thought, the Shinmei-ryu "Zannma-ken Nino Tachi", Ane-ue's (sister's) forte. I hadn't tried to use any living creature when practising this, so I used two rocks, the smaller one placed in front of the larger one. Still I could not master it, the front rock being sliced in two all the time leaving the one at the back unscathed. However I never let my spirit falter, and continued to hone my skills in other forms of attack and defence, sometimes with my bokken (wooden sword) and almost daily with my katana (samurai sword).

I returned to Hinata-sou after one of these trips. It was soon to be the fall of 1998; another summer has passed me by. The 20th of October, a Tuesday, an ordinary day it had seemed, but then our lives were changed forever. I returned to my room and placed my bokken into my trunk where I kept all my other weapons of old, weapons that helped me to train and become the way I am now, yet obsolete due to their ineffectiveness in real battle. Tired and wanting to lie in the hot springs, I placed my katana on the rack, its place of honour, and was about to remove my clothing until I heard a scream. It came from someone in Hinata, it sounded like Narusegawa. I also heard her scream "Pervert!" which only incensed me further. I snatched up my katana and flew down the stairs to the origin of Naru's screams. I heard another scream louder from outside, undoubtedly Mitsune, so I assumed that the intruder was probably watching her in the hot springs. Shinobu then screamed, this person was going to feel my wrath for traumatising my fellow housemates. I ran outside to the hot springs, only to be met with Suu-chan, who seemed confused and pointed in the direction of the fleeing voyeur with Naru in close pursuit, across the hot springs. I caught up with him, the fool had ran onto the flat roof where we hung our laundry, obviously he wanted a final token of his stay here. When I first laid eyes on him, it was worse than I thought. He was wearing nothing but a towel, a very small towel at that, and what appeared to be a pair of girl's knickers on his head, apparently he already chose his token, the sign of a true pervert.

The imbecile had tried to slither his way out of this by saying that he came to ask his grandmother if he could stay at the inn. For over a year it had been a girls dormitory, since Nana left. Naru threw the first punch, straight in the face. While he was still reeling, I decided to strike. Despite being a pervert, peeking at someone, probably Naru, and not even fully clothed, I couldn't place a fatal blow upon him. Bound by the ancient rule of the Shinmei, which was to never kill anyone unarmed, or dishonourably. Keeping the katana within its scabbard, I struck hard across his left cheek, enough force to knock him out. Suu-chan, who grew attached to me, literally, when I arrived here, felt a little left out, and watching what I did struck a blow underneath his chin, a powerful uppercut since he flew several metres across the ground, the first few in the air. I was shocked at the fact that he was still able to stand, since he had been hit three times, all fairly strong attacks. Mitsune just stood there, her arms crossed watching him with an angry expression on her face, whereas Shinobu-chan looked worried, for him or for her I didn't know. Then Haruka-san turned up, and all became clear.

So this man, Urashima Keitaro, was the grandson of Nana, and a Tokyo University student. Maybe I was too judgmental about his looks. Mitsune then suggested that he stay in Hinata-sou to help tutor them, I sensed that she had some ulterior motive to his staying here. Nevertheless I agreed with her and helped to convince Naru to let him stay, she was still upset that he saw her naked. We then left him alone for a short while until Naru and Suu-chan wanted to check up on him, I decided to follow, only to find Keitaro with a hand on Mitsune's breast. She then cried saying that he forced her. I then threatened him with pain by holding my katana under his chin, until he said sorry. I only saw him once more that day when he started blushing from a compliment from Shinobu-chan, implying he 'liked' her. I reminded him that I was still there, and left him that night. The next day he was hard at work, after what appeared to be an all night study period. Later we learned that he wasn't really from Toudai after all, he lied to us. That hurt me a lot. I then told him that lying was a serious crime, and after all of his shenanigans with members of Hinata-sou he would have to leave the inn. I felt a twinge of pity for him, since it looked like he did not mean it on purpose, so I gave him a chance to say something to ease his soul, and possibly ours as well.

Well he returned upon Nana's instructions. We tried to force him out by making him work incredibly hard, but he managed to pull through, even though any ordinary man would've left before then. This made me respect him a little more, but were dashed once more when he tried to ask me and two others out, although he didn’t realise it was three of the residents of Hinata-sou. I then told him what I thought of him there and then, lowering his ego at the same time. Later whilst practising, I sensed a pair of watchful eyes behind me, and threw a small dagger near the enemy. Keitaro, I should've known, I told him that I did not want him at Hinata-sou, and informed him that I might take some drastic action to remove him. Turning to go inside, I was surprised by Suu-chan popping out from a tree branch above. Having let my guard down, I was caught totally unprepared for this and stumbled backwards. I awaited the impact of the floor, but instead was met with a gentle but firm hand on my back. Looking up I saw that it was Keitaro. Furious and embarrassed I quickly regained my senses and jumped to my feet. You know what happened from then onwards, we touched hands by accident, he pointed out some rice on my face, and even saw me unclothed in the hot springs. To vanquish any feelings for Keitaro, the only way I felt was to challenge him to a fight, bokken against bokken, since it wasn't to be a fight to the death. It ended up as a draw as we were both knocked out. It turned out that I spent too much time in the rain that I caught a cold.

Winter 1998

The next few weeks passed relatively quietly, I spent less time outside practising for fear of catching another cold. However it was finally time for me to leave Hinata-sou and go to the Kendo training camp. After finding Keitaro apparently going for Suu-chan, I let him know that I was going for three days. I warned Suu-chan to beware of Keitaro, and told him myself that I would be happy to see the back of him, I could see that he felt the same way, but he didn’t speak it. However once I left I realised that someone would need to be with Suu-chan, since she doesn't sleep alone. She feels lonely being so far away from home, her family living in India, she still wears her bindi upon her forehead. When she first arrived at Hinata-sou, she stuck with Mitsune, she couldn't speak a word of Japanese, and was crying for a while. However Mitsune persevered and helped her around Hinata, showing her attractions and regularly bathed with her in the hot springs, washing her hair and back. There was a sisterly bond between them. Over time Mitsune was able to teach Suu-chan to speak Japanese properly, since she had just started working part time after leaving senior high school, and so had more time on her hands. At night Suu-chan wouldn't leave her be, so she let her sleep in the same room as her, and then that’s when she begun to do her nightly rituals. At first Mitsune was shocked to say the least, but over time she grew accustomed to it.

The day came when I went to Hinata-sou, I was welcomed by the residents as usual, and went to my room and began to unpack my things one by one. I placed several scrolls on the walls, a rack to put my katana, and of course my futon and ancient samurai armour. That’s when Suu-chan rapped lightly on my door, I let her in and invited her to join me in a cup of tea. She gladly accepted, and that’s when our friendship began. Being much closer to her room than Mitsune, it was useful for her to transfer all her attention onto me. From that day, Suu-chan became attached to me constantly and literally at night. I must admit, it probably helped my training because it helped to tone my stomach muscles, due to the incredible pressure placed on them. She looks up to me everyday, and I appreciate that, she makes me feel wanted. Occasionally I express my emotions, instead of keeping them bottled up inside, by smiling, hugging her, or even a peck on her cheek. Each time she giggles and returns the favour, since she's aware of how rarely I do these things. However these days I seem to have been expressing them a little too often, and I don’t doubt the fact that it was to do with Keitaro. Maybe it was a change for the better. I wonder who she chose to stay with, Mitsune would've stayed away after seeing Suu-chan looking lonely, and I doubt that Shinobu-chan would be able to handle it, so Mitsune might've warned her. The only two people I can think of would be Narusegawa and Urashima. If she chose Urashima and he rejects her, by Kami (God), I won't be responsible for my actions.

The kendo class was good practise if a little easy for me. I am by far the most experienced out of everyone in the class, the sensei (Teacher) included, but I don’t let that cloud my feelings for this training trip. I remain focussed, because even the simplest move may trick me. Practising with a partner improves my training tenfold, since there are a many number of ways to attack an opponent, instead of an inanimate object like a tree or a leaf. I would also have to contend with counter attacks and defensive manoeuvres from my opponents, since trees cannot exactly fight back. Keitaro is the only person I have attacked for a very long while; firstly he seems to be indestructible, always getting up after every hit. Secondly, he seems to expect it after a while, so I constantly have to think of new ways to scare him (I never intend to harm him in any way whenever I drew my blade). Therefore he seems to have helped me in training more than anyone or anything else. I smirk inwardly, it seemed ironic that a man would be the person to test my skills now, even after my promise of many years ago to have nothing to do with them. However those times were long ago, and I try to clear my thoughts on the way up the staircase to Hinata-sou.

Chapter 2

The dawn of a new day

Saturday, December 1st

"BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ"

Keitaro stirred in his sleep.

"BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ"

Keitaro groaned and stuck out a hand from under his futon, slapping the 'OFF' button on his alarm.

"BUZZ BU…"

Keitaro peeked out from under his warm covers and looked at his alarm clock.

5:00AM

Suppressing a yawn, he slowly removed himself from the futon, extracting Suu-chan's legs from his waist and her hands from around his head. The first night that Motoko left, Suu-chan almost killed Keitaro with the force she exerted upon him, but he managed to breathe, so he just let her sleep like that. The next day, Naru said that she trusted him to sleep with Suu-chan alone, without the need for her presence. He felt that her decision was influenced by the fact that she got virtually no sleep from his wheezing and coughing, and that Suu-chan wanted to sleep with Naru the next night. Smiling, he told Suu-chan that he would stay with her for the next two nights, and she was pleased with this. He even put up with her hyperactiveness throughout the day, when she disrupted his studying. Naru was annoyed at first, but then remarked that he seemed to be coping well with Suu-chan. They stuck with each other everywhere they went, eating Shinobu-chan's cooking side-by-side, he even took her around the town for a short while, showing her Toudai in the process. Keitaro convinced Mitsune to let Suu-chan go in the hot springs with her for a short while, since he didn’t want to enter the women's area, Kami knows that he had some bad experiences each time he went in there. Both of the nights, Keitaro had some tissue paper nearby to wipe away Suu-chan's tears, and some painkillers as well in case she got a bit too keen and crushed him further. Although they had to lie on their sides, and stayed close together the whole night Keitaro didn’t complain. He slept on his right side, his right hand on her head, wiping away tears when need be, his left hand on her leg wrapped around him.

As quietly as he could he sneaked around his room until he could hide behind a partition and get dressed into his warm clothes, a green sweater and an ordinary nameless pair of blue jeans, and a pair of indoor slippers.

He looked over to the futon, and saw Suu-chan stirring and sniffling. He found that it was only soon after she fell asleep that she started to experience her dreams, and also in mornings before she woke up, he never left her at these stages, the rest of the night was usually dreamless and therefore free from interruptions. He then picked up a red sweater that was too small for him and carefully put it on Suu-chan, over her pyjamas. He then picked her up on his back and she instinctively locked her legs around his waist, and her arms tightly around his neck. His eyes bulging out and he rapidly set about loosening her grip and letting her arms hang in front of him where he can hold them securely. The sweater was too long; her hands were not to be seen, but that made it easier for Keitaro to hold onto to her. He opened one of his cupboards and picked out a large blanket. He took a handful of tissues from the dispenser and left the room, silently closing his door partition.

He made his way to the main entrance of Hinata-sou, and sat under the canopy. It was a chilly wintry morning, as expected, so Keitaro covered him and Suu-chan in the blanket. He was waiting for Motoko; he couldn't understand why. She phoned the house to let them know that she would be back at Hinata at around 5:30 in the morning, that was the only time the train would arrive in the area. He checked his watch, 5:23, there was still time. He went back inside, and made himself a hot chocolate, he was going to wait, but he wasn’t willing to freeze to death in that time. All the while he kept the sleeping Suu-chan on his back, not making any sudden movements. He returned outside, and sipped his hot chocolate.

Time passed, the mug was empty, Keitaro was slumped forward, asleep, Suu-chan still on his back. Motoko walked up to this curious scene upon reaching the top of the stairs with an inquisitive look on her face. She considered drawing her katana, but put it away upon seeing Suu-chan. She stooped down to his level and spoke softly.

"What are you doing Urashima?" she asked, with one eyebrow raised.

Keitaro jolted awake and was about to shout out when Motoko put a finger to her lips.

"Shh, be silent, Suu-chan is asleep."

"Oh right. I almost forgot." He glanced at the sleeping girl to see that she wasn't stirring. He stood up, "Let's go inside." He picked up the mug and walked inside into the kitchen, and placed it in the sink. While he was there he asked Motoko,

"Would you like anything to drink? Something to warm you up maybe?" He started to wash up as he awaited her to say no. She never liked me from the beginning it seemed. Why would she accept something now?

"What was in that mug you put in the sink? It smelled nice…" She was thirsty from her trip, and a little cold due to the early hours.

"Oh!" He was shocked. "T… That was hot chocolate, would you like one?"

"Very well then." She allowed him this moment to do something nice for her.

Keitaro put a few teaspoons of chocolate powder in another mug, it said 'Hello Kitty' and had a picture of a very cute rabbit on the front, poured the hot water that was left in the kettle and stirred it slowly, without making any loud sounds.

"Here you go." he said, whilst handing the mug over to her. "Be careful, because it's very hot!"

"Arigatou (Thank you)."

She sipped it gently and closed her eyes, letting the warmth spread throughout her body as she drank the chocolate. Keitaro sat down in a chair on an adjacent side of the table to her, sitting at an angle to not crush Suu-chan. Motoko looked up to see Keitaro dry Suu-chan's face, it appeared that she was crying again. She returned to her beverage.

"I assume you've been taking of her during these past few nights." She said in between sips.

"It was hard on me the first night but I got used to it and stayed with her for the next two days and nights." He sighed, "I didn’t like it when she cried, but I made sure that she was never alone whenever she cried for her brother, each time she fell asleep into a dream and in the mornings as well."

"I see that you've done well Urashima, you have my respect for that. I had that same problem myself, but I too did the same as you." I did not believe that he was like this, maybe he's not a complete pervert…

"Well if I didn’t look after her you would've killed me!" he joked.

Motoko had no words for him but stared at his face with a sinister gleam in her eyes. Keitaro was laughing uncertainly; a sweatdrop appeared on the side of his head. Eager to clear the tension in the air he tried to think of something to say.

"Err… well… How did your kendo training go then?"

"It was adequate, it was worth the effort." Keitaro silently breathed a sigh of relief that the air was cleared.

"Why did you arrive late?" He looked at his watch, "You said you would arrive around half past five. It's almost quarter past six now."

"The train was delayed near the training camp, and so our journey was made even longer." She recalled the group being exhausted for having being woken up so early, as a final test for them, only to find that the train was stuck in between stations for a while.

"Oh I see, that makes…"

"Urashima," Motoko interrupted him in mid-sentence, "what are you doing? Why are you up so early?"

"Well, I…" stammered Keitaro, "I… I wanted to speak with you alone before everyone else got up." He lowered his face, blushing slightly.

Hmm, this is interesting… but what could he say to me that would be of value?

"I love you Motoko-chan."

"Huh!" Motoko couldn't believe that he said that and flushed red, reeling back from the shock. No sooner than she finished saying that, he leaned over and kissed her on her lips. She suddenly felt weak and to stop her from falling Keitaro looped his arm around her back to move her closer, pulling her in towards him. He pulled back from the kiss and held her head next to his, saying her name over and over again...

"...toko? Are you ok?" She was jerked out of her daydream to see Keitaro waving his hand in front of her face.

Almost immediately she stood up and was about to unsheathe her katana before Keitaro, who knew usually what that meant for him, told her to hit him later because of Suu-chan. Motoko backed down and sat down again slowly.

"Are you alright Motoko-chan? You seemed to phase out for a moment."

"Yes, I... I was just distracted, that’s all." Her face seemed to be flushed as she spoke, "What did you want to speak to me about Urashima?" Remembering her conversation with him.

"Well, I wanted to apologise to you," said a blushing Keitaro, his hand scratching the back of his head and a small sweatdrop appearing on his forehead, "for all the trouble I caused when you had your cold, and for seeing you…"

Keitaro couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence, his mind wandered back to that time when he opened the hot springs to see Motoko there. Suddenly he sensed capillaries bursting and realised with horror that it about to happen again. He held his hands to his nose and a small trickle of blood appeared between his fingers, but it was no use. With a force that had the power of a fire hose behind it, blood burst out from his nose.

"WAAAH!" cried Keitaro and Motoko at the same time. Motoko got up and picked up some tissue paper that he dropped and rolled them up, and gave them to Keitaro, he immediately placed them in both nostrils. After a few minutes he checked but he was still bleeding. Motoko got up and carefully removed Suu-chan, and attached her to a chair, still in the same position. She pulled Keitaro up by his hand and moved him over the sink. He removed the tissues, mostly red now, and threw them in the bin.

"Keep your head tilted downwards and breathe outwards through your nose. It is better to let the blood flow than to keep it inside. Wash your face as well. That should teach you to wait outside in the cold for too long"

Keitaro did as he was told and the nosebleed stopped soon afterwards, he wiped his face with some tissues and dried it with a towel.

"Arigatou Motoko."

"I accept."

"Eh?" Keitaro was puzzled, "Accept what?"

"Your apology, it was a misunderstanding between us, and it could've happened to anyone."

Keitaro smiled, and noticed a faint trace of a smile on Motoko's face. At that moment the sun appeared over the horizon. Dawn.

"Well, I'd better take Suu-chan to my room now," Keitaro stated, "she'll be waking up soon, and I'd rather her wake up in my bed, or else she might get upset."

"A good idea," replied Motoko, "I will retire to my room for now, in the hope of getting some sleep. Keitaro, please knock on my door before lunchtime, I do not want to be disturbed until then"

"Will do Motoko-chan, Good night!"

They parted their ways, Motoko went upstairs to her room and Keitaro walked quietly to his room. Slowly he placed Suu-chan in the futon and lay down beside her. Once again she automatically clamped herself onto his back, not as forcefully as last time, and he set his alarm to go off at around seven. Facing away from Suu-chan, he was unable to see her open one eye, look at him, smile, and close her eye again.

Chapter 3

Try your best, don’t give up!

The day before the Toudai practice test

Wednesday, December 9th

From Motoko's eyes

It was almost time for the Western celebration of Christmas. Not being Christian I didn't feel the need to partake in the festivities. However Shinobu-chan informed me of the basic meaning of Christmas Day, that a holy man known as Jesus was born on this day, and that he was the Son of God. Suu-chan told me that she wasn’t Christian either but that it is always nice to commemorate other religions, as a sign of respect to both the people and culture. I went along with it, so long as it didn’t interrupt my training. One of the first rituals was to place some decorations onto a tree that grows on the grounds of Hinata-sou. I didn’t hear any mention of these types of trees being present at the birth of this holy man; nevertheless I helped with the decorations. Since the tree was so tall, we could only put a few bits of tinsel and baubles on the lower branches, but it was enough. I offered to slice the top of the tree off to make a smaller replicate that was easier to decorate. Shinobu-chan then started going crazy, waving her hands about and her eyes going around in circles, saying that it would kill the larger tree and that it was not necessary. After a while it looked rather pretty, and that was when Keitaro appeared with Naru. He told us that the Toudai practise test was on the next day, and that if he got a good grade in it he would be able to pass the real exam and get into Toudai. We all wished him luck, although Mitsune felt that he was an idiot for being filled with hope. I sincerely hoped that that he would pass this obstacle, he deserved it really after failing for two years.

I didn’t see him until dinner, since he went back to his room to study immediately after he spoke to his kassan (mother) on the phone. He had a bruise on his face, which looked rather suspect since he didn’t have it the last time I saw him. Mitsune thought that it must've been from him peeping in on Naru. I snatched a glance at Naru, and she seemed rather angry, so I took it upon myself to caution Keitaro, a verbal warning. He took in what I said and understood me. To ease the tensions between the two, I inquired Naru as to why she doesn’t go and fix the hole herself. She asked Keitaro to do it seeing as how he's the manager of the dorms.

Later that night I awaited Suu-chan to enter my room to sleep, and surely enough she did so. However she didn't latch onto me. This was very peculiar since she usually did it immediately. I turned around and saw her smiling at me.

The Revelation

"What are doing Suu-chan?" Motoko asked, "Why have you not attached yourself to me as yet?"

Suu-chan giggled. She sat up and asked,

"Can I talk to you seriously for a moment?"

"Erm, if you insist," Motoko sat up and faced Suu-chan, turning on the light, "we cannot stay up for long, we will need to get some sleep soon."

"Do you like Keitaro?" Suu-chan asked, very bluntly.

"Wh... wh… what did you say!" blushed Motoko, her face turning a bright red and her eyes wide with shock.

"I asked if you have feelings for Keitaro, Motoko-chan?" giggled Suu-chan.

"Why are you asking such trivial questions at a time like this?" Motoko tried to brush it off, "My feelings for him are non-existent."

"I don’t think so Motoko-chan, lately it seems that you are becoming more lenient to his actions." She moved closer and spoke more quietly, as if prying ears could hear what she was about to say. "I saw you that morning when Keitaro welcomed you home and you smiled. You’ve never done that with anyone except to me on occasion."

Motoko's heartbeat slowed down a notch, as she realised she was discovered. "I… I just was accepting his apology, even though it was entirely my fault."

"What is wrong with Keitaro? You would make an ideal couple, he seems to like you, although he still fears you and your katana. I mean I like him!" She beamed at Motoko then.

"I cannot have relationship with Keitaro, Suu-chan," Motoko looked downwards, as if crest-fallen, her hair covering her face, "he still has exams coming up, and it appears that he and Naru are destined to be together, the way that their lives seemed to be linked to one another."

Unbeknownst to Motoko, a single tear appeared from one of her eyes. Suu-chan knelt down further to look at Motoko, and saw the tear fall from her eye onto her own hand. Suu-chan hugged her as soon as she saw this.

"I'm sorry Motoko-chan, I didn’t mean to make you upset, please forgive me!" She started to cry a little as she was holding her.

"There, there now little one, don’t cry." Motoko pulled Suu-chan back and kissed her on the forehead wiping her eyes at the same time, "You have not saddened me. Such is life; Fate seems to have brought those two together, and who am I to tempt Fate. Allow them to live out their own lives and only time will tell. Now, to sleep, we must get up early to wish them luck tomorrow, and do not breathe a word of what has just been spoken here."

Later that night

From Motoko's eyes

I smiled at Suu-chan, turned off the light and lay down. Suu-chan latched onto my back and promptly fell asleep. I however felt restless, not physically, since I was used to Suu-chan by now, but mentally. I had just confessed, indirectly mind, that I possessed some feelings for Keitaro. I couldn’t understand it; he was a weak man, unworthy of my attention, a pervert, and a failure. However there was something about him that was obviously making me attracted to him, perhaps his ability to survive all of my attacks without a scratch? No, I was sure that it was due to his kindness. Despite the fact that he gets put into some awkward positions, he always picks himself up and says sorry. He helps out around the house; sometimes he even offers to take Suu-chan off my hands for a few nights when he feels I had a hard training session. I never had a truly tiring session, but Keitaro insisted. I always asked Suu-chan if she wanted to swap me for Keitaro, and she gladly accepted each time, saying that he was fun. Even all the times that I lost my temper with him, he still considered me to be a friend.

I cried again before I fell into a dreamless sleep and remembered no more until the next day.

Toudai practice test

Thursday, December 10th

I felt my body returning to a state of consciousness, and slowly regained my senses, and stirred slightly in my futon. I opened one eye and noticed that it was around eight in the morning. A warrior like me who has control over her muscles and bodily functions can also control their body clock. I placed an 'urge' to be awake at eight o'clock in my body, and sure enough it worked, to the nearest five minutes. This was why I did not require an alarm in my room. I looked at Suu-chan and slowly woke her up. She was slightly confused as to why we were getting up this early, I then informed her that we had to wish them luck on their tests, praying beforehand. She nodded seriously, knowing that I always took prayer solemnly and with sincerity. I dressed myself with my usual Shinmei garb, and Suu-chan wore her school uniform.

I then lit up two sticks of incense and place them in a pot on a small table. We kneeled down facing each other, the table in between us, and I said a few words to wish luck upon Naru and Keitaro, which cannot be repeated for fear of imposing bad luck upon the prayer. Suu-chan did the same as I, but in her own unique way. We then sat there in quiet contemplation for around ten minutes, the smell of the incense filling the room. Afterwards we felt more at peace, and happier.

We left the room for breakfast, leaving the incense burning. Mistune and Shinobu-chan were already downstairs, Shinobu cooking some breakfast and Mitsune helping her a little. We said our good mornings and sat down to eat. Narusegawa entered the kitchen wearing her usual 'study' outfit, the Salem hooded top, the short (but respectable) skirt, and glasses, which she uses due to her near-sightedness. Her hair was done up in its ponytails again, useful since unbound it would get in her way when writing out the answers to her exam. Shinobu-chan handed her a bowl of rice, and some soup, and Naru accepted it graciously. She ate it quietly, but quickly, returning to her flashcards when she had finished. When she got up to leave, Mitsune asked her if she was going to wait for Keitaro, and Naru answered in the negative rather too abruptly. Though she tried to hide it I knew that something bad had happened between them, worse than all the other times. Mitsune and Shinobu wished her luck and Suu-chan and I struck two pieces of flint against each other, whilst saying "Way of the warriors". This was a tradition in which 'starting a fire', when the spark appeared between the flint, helped to boost the morale of the recipient. A few minutes later a rather sombre Urashima arrived at the kitchen. He accepted a bowl of soup only from Shinobu-chan, and sipped it slowly and pensively. Afterwards he was on his way out of the door, and we repeated the flint striking. He asked us where Naru was, and Mitsune replied saying that she left a while ago. She further questioned him as to whether he did something to her again and he said that nothing happened. I knew that he was lying, but it must have been bad. The other times he would say that it was not his fault, yet this time he did not try to protest his innocence, meaning that he was at fault for whatever he did to her. This dismayed me slightly.

The winter of discontent

(Well, two weeks of it at least)

Since the Toudai practice test, I had noticed that Naru and Keitaro were not on speaking terms. Naru appeared to be ignoring everything that Keitaro said, as if he didn't exist, dodging his questions and conversational talk. She didn’t even hit him once, which, for Naru, was very out of character. He seemed to be very dispirited after each of his attempts, and gradually stopped talking to her, out of guilt, shame, embarrassment, and rejection. The slamming of Naru's door partition stopped as well, meaning that he stopped visiting her room to try to explain. No one could lighten his spirits, Mitsune tried using her body, Shinobu-chan cooked some of her best meals, and Suu-chan even stayed with him one night (she was gentle). It was less than a week before the test results would come out. I felt that it was time I spoke to him…

Chapter 4

The final light before death?

7:38pm

Sunday, December 20th

Motoko walked up to room 204, Kanrinrin's (Caretaker's) Room and knocked on the door partition.

"Naru! Is that you?" Keitaro exclaimed as he opened the door, catching Motoko about to knock again.

"Oh, hello Motoko-chan, what can I do for you?" he said, looking a tad disappointed.

"I would like to talk to you. Is that possible, or are you studying?" she said, looking at him intently.

"No, it's okay, I'm just waiting for the test result to come out, so I'm not doing anything interesting, please come in." Keitaro moved out of the doorframe to allow her in, and she walked in gracefully. He slid the door shut behind her.

They sat down at the low table. A TV was on with a low volume, a vintage episode of Doraemon playing. Motoko thought she should start the talking and get straight to the point.

"I've noticed that something has happened between you and Naru." She noticed his shoulders slump but continued. "It seemed to happen the night before the test." She said this matter-of-factly, wanting a quick response.

"Is it that obvious?" He asked, sounding shocked, "I've been trying to apologise for what I did, but she won't listen to me." He looked down, as if ashamed.

"What exactly did you do that night?" asked Motoko.

Keitaro looked up, his eyes weary, drifted to the TV. The little blue space cat had pulled out of his front pocket a device to change time for his friend, Nobita, just so that Nobita could sleep in a little longer. Keitaro wished that he could do that, change time.

"I invaded her privacy," he sighed, "I went into her room when she wasn’t there to repair the hole." Motoko waited for him to continue, "I dropped some books from her bookshelf, and one thing led to another and I read her diary."

There was a sharp intake of breath as Motoko took this in. She had left her katana in her room since she felt she didn't need it, but she would have used it on him now. There was a tense silence for a few moments as this sunk in.

"I assume that Naru saw you reading her diary then?" Motoko deduced.

"Yes, she did." he admitted, "She got upset at me, different to the other times, this was deeply hurtful to her. She pushed me down the hole afterwards."

"How much did you read? Not that it matters much in the end..."

"Only one line!" he interrupted, "Nothing more. I only looked at it because something caught my eye…"

"Nevertheless," she interrupted again, "you read it, and that is one of the most damaging things that you can do to a woman. A diary is her personal space, straight from the heart, a way to put feelings down without others seeing, and you broke that trust. No wonder she is so unhappy with you."

"I've lost all hope of speaking to her now, every time I try she disregards what I say. I need to find a way to explain." Keitaro mumbled the last part as if it was seemingly hopeless.

"I have heard that on Christmas Day, gifts are handed out to one another as a tradition that dates back around 2000 years. Why not buy her a present, not too expensive or cheap, but something to say that you're sorry? I'm sure that she will understand and find it in her heart to forgive you."

"That's a good idea!" Keitaro cried, "I've got a few days before then, so I can find a suitable present for her."

"Don't forget that you must apologise as well." Motoko reminded him "By the way, when does your test result come out?"

"The 24th, four days from now." he replied.

"I hope that you do well in it Keitaro," She smiled, "I must leave now."

With that she got up and walked to the door, but before she opened it, Keitaro spoke.

"Arigatou Motoko-chan."

Motoko blushed bright red. To avoid herself from doing anything embarrassing, she left his room quietly and closed his door partition.

Christmas Eve

Release date of the Toudai test results

From Motoko's eyes

This is the important day, when we find out if Naru and Keitaro passed their tests. Hinata-sou is quiet, everyone here is holding their breath in anticipation. Naru left at around midday to receive her results, Keitaro later in the afternoon, she arrived not soon after he left, with a good pass rate. We started to celebrate a little, by opening a bottle of wine, and some sake to drink, putting on red hats with a white furry bobble on the tip of it and white fur on the edge of it as well. As we were drinking, I realised that time had passed by quickly, and that it was a few hours since Keitaro left for his results. Shinobu-chan came into the dining room to bring in the cake that she baked and she placed it on the table.

As she did so, she noticed that it had started to snow outside, and she seemed to be very happy at the sight of it. I too said that it was lovely, but also mentioned that Keitaro had still not returned. Mitsune was worried as well, but Naru was still angry with him and said he probably fell down a sewer again. Angered, I brought her aside slyly and then told her that I knew what had transpired between the two that night before the test. She seemed shocked that I knew, but stood firm and didn't care what happened to him. For one of the few times in my life, I lost my temper. I told her that he obviously cared about her given the number of times he tried to apologise to her, and that for once she should give him a chance for forgiveness. She didn’t reply to that. I gave up on her and told the others that I was going out to look for Keitaro. They were surprised at how concerned I was, and they wanted to help me find him as well. Naru seemed apprehensive, as if she wanted to help, but didn’t want to seem too helpful. I graciously declined their requests, and told them that I would return with Keitaro in time for the party. I then left Hinata-sou and started walking to the place where I knew I would find Keitaro.

Outside Tokyo University

Motoko walked briskly in the snow towards the destination where she knew she would find Keitaro. Eventually she reached the place, Tokyo University, Toudai, where she saw Keitaro staring up at the clock-tower with his umbrella down. He turned around to leave.

"Where do you think you're going?"

He froze, and turned around slowly to see Motoko staring silently at him, holding her katana in its sheath at her side, her hair billowing in wind and snow.

"Well?" Motoko said impatiently, she seemed to be getting agitated.

"I am leaving Hinata-sou," Keitaro said, with a twinge of sadness in his voice, "I have failed my test…"

He held out the results slip to her, and Motoko glanced over it, taking note of the figures. She did not flinch, or make any other outward reaction to his results.

"I realised that after that incident with Naru, my mind was not focussed on the exam, and so I failed." Keitaro sighed, "When I went to pick up my results I brought my important documents with me, in case I failed, so that I can go home to my parents straightaway, without having to return to the dorm."

"Does this test result mean you cannot enter Toudai then?" Motoko asked, remembering the 0 probability of him getting into Toudai,

"No, no it doesn't…"

"Then why are you giving up now?" Motoko interrupted, "This does not remind me of the Keitaro who stayed through the most gruelling of labours that we had you perform when you were made kanrinrin. When you tried to and eventually succeeded in making Shinobu-chan happy, surviving three nights with Suu-chan, and…" she paused slightly, "my unpleasantness."

"Well, that's true I guess…" Keitaro drifted off.

"You must continue to try for Toudai, it is your dream after all. You cannot leave Hinata-sou without saying sayonara (goodbye), especially since you would be leaving things unsettled between you and Naru. I spoke to her about you," Keitaro looked at Motoko in mild surprise, "and she is still angry at you."

As if expecting this, he looked downwards and moved off away from Motoko. Before he could get far she caught him by his hand and was about to twist his arm to face her, until she realised that gentle encouragement was what he needed, not unnecessary pain.

"Keitaro…"

He turned his head towards her, then appeared shocked, looking down at his hand, where he saw Motoko's hand stroking his hand slowly. She couldn't understand why she was doing this, showing such an outward display of emotion, especially since this one looked very much like… affection… love even?

"Keitaro," Motoko continued, "you cannot leave us, not now. Everyone would miss you too much. Naru would not be able to study without thinking about what you are doing. You would be breaking your promise to Shinobu-chan and your leaving might affect her grades in middle school. Suu-chan would miss you, since she enjoys you a lot, and your sleeping with her makes her feel secure. Even Mitsune would miss you, since you make Hinata-sou more fun."

Keitaro thought over each of these girls, and what he was in their lives; a fellow examinee to Naru, sempai (teacher) to Shinobu-chan, playmate or victim for Suu-chan and an affinity for Mitsune, being of the same age. He then realised that he missed out someone…

"What about you, Motoko-chan?" he asked, "What am I to you?"

She looked shocked, and though she tried to stop it, she could feel her face becoming warmer as she blushed bright red.

"I… you…" Motoko coughed to get herself on track, "to me, I feel that you are a friend that I can rely on." The last comment remained in the air, as she was unsure as to how to continue.

"Really!" Keitaro was very surprised. He turned his face and Motoko swore that she saw tears streaming down his face. She was about to attack him as to why he was crying when he looked at her again, this time looking happier.

"Is everyone waiting for me at Hinata-sou then?" He inquired.

"Yes they are," Motoko confirmed, "they are about to begin the Christmas party. Have you bought a present for Naru?"

"Yes I have, I think it is a suitable present for the occasion."

"Good, she will like that." Motoko replied, "Hopefully you will get a chance to explain to her why you read her diary."

"Oh!" he exclaimed, "before I forget, here's a little something for you too." He held out a rectangular shaped present to her, wrapped in a pattern of a man in a red suit and reindeer on it, with two ribbons meeting in the middle in a little bow. A card was nestled under one of the ribbons. Motoko gingerly opened the card to see an old anime character, a Moomin with a pink bow on her head, speaking into a speech bubble with the words "Arigatou Motoko-chan" in it. Motoko looked at the gift, not knowing what to make of it. A gift was a very personal thing from one person to another. Does it mean that he has feelings for me? She began to shake it lightly to hear any distinguishing sounds, but couldn't hear any moving within it. It was fairly heavy as well, and being overcome with curiosity she was about to rip open the wrapping paper when Keitaro put his hand on hers.

"Wait until we get back to Hinata-sou, you can open your present there on Christmas day. Shall we go then?"

With that last comment he bowed slightly with his hand outstretched, as if to say 'ladies first', towards the direction of Hinata-sou. Motoko smiled at this and was about to walk by him when she thought of something mischievous to do. She pulled him up by his hair until he was standing tall up fully.

"Itee! (Ouch!)" Keitaro cried, "Why did you do that!"

"There is no need to bow down to me. I am not superior to you, we are both equal in this world, so let us walk side by side."

Keitaro thought this over this. "Okay then, if you want to Motoko-chan."

Chapter 5

A very merry Christmas?

Christmas Eve

With Keitaro's last comment they left the grounds of Toudai, on their way back to Hinata-sou. Not much was said between the two, except a few remarks about the snow and late Christmas shoppers. At one point when the falling snow became a small blizzard, Keitaro clutched Motoko's hand so that they wouldn't get separated. She blushed a little at this, but found Keitaro smiling at her, and she held his hand securely. Upon reaching Hinata-sou, they walked slowly up the many steps towards the dorm, since they had travelled far. A few minutes later, they entered the inn and walked into the dining room, where they found the party just beginning. Everyone was happy to see the both of them alive and well, since the weather had become very cold for anyone to stay out longer than necessary. Keitaro then proceeded to apologise to them, explaining his poor result and subsequent decision to leave Hinata-sou, were it not for Motoko's intervention. All the girls except for Naru thanked Motoko for finding him. Motoko wondered why Naru didn’t thank her until she found Keitaro talking to Naru, giving her his present. She then asked him to close his eyes, which he did, and she punched him hard in the face, making him skid across the ground for several metres. She smiled after he got up, saying that they were now even.

Everyone sat at the table and picked up the ritual crackers in front of them. They interlocked their arms, holding their own cracker in their right hand, meaning that it was on their left side, whilst grabbing onto their neighbours cracker with their left hand. Keitaro was sitting between Motoko and Naru, the former having placed her gift under the table. After a short countdown they pulled their arms. Keitaro succeeded in getting the larger portions of both crackers. However his feat was countered by the fact that he pulled too hard and triumphed in smacking both Motoko and Naru in the face with the cracker ends he held. This led to him being punched by Naru and a katana swipe from Motoko. He returned from the kitchen (after being hit into that direction), a double plaster on his head, with some bottles of wine, sake and champagne. He also had plasters for Naru and Motoko, whose noses were red from where he hit them, they were grateful for this.

After everyone put on their party hats from the crackers, they looked at their presents from the crackers. Since Keitaro had both ends of the crackers, he returned Naru's one to her, and for a moment their hands touched. Naru seemed to freeze and blush at the same time. They lingered there too long, but were able to break it before anyone noticed, though it was mostly Mitsune they feared. Strangely enough they got presents that in some way fit with the person. Suu-chan got a small monkey with a peeled banana in its hand, all limbs could be posed in any which way they wanted. Mitsune somehow had a miniature bottle of sake in her cracker, which delighted her to no end. Shinobu-chan had a light pink handkerchief with a yellow floral design on the edge, the initials 'M.S' written in one corner. Naru had a keyring with two small boxing gloves on one end. Motoko had a metal toothpick and holder that looked like a samurai sword in its sheath. Finally Keitaro had a portable first aid kit in his. Everyone looked amazed at how these presents seemed to be so personal, but it was all revealed at Haruka-san walked in. She explained that she had been closely monitoring what everyone's habits were and then she placed the ideal gifts in the crackers.

They then read out the awful jokes that came with the crackers, and after a few cringes and groans, they started to open the champagne. Suu-chan was eager to do it and shook the bottle before slightly. Before she could react, the cork popped out of the bottle, straight into Keitaro's face.

"Aargh!"

He chased Suu-chan around the room as his nose turned red. She giggled mischievously. When he caught up with the much more energetic girl, he was too tired to do anything apart from wheeze, his head bowed down away from view. Suu-chan became worried and walked up to Keitaro and stooped lower to look at his face.

"Gotcha!"

She turned to run away but he caught her, grabbing her from under her arms, lifting her up slightly. She was quite scared, waving her arms and legs rapidly so that it was all a blur, she even called out for Motoko, who watched her carefully, but making no move at all to help her. He moved his head closer to her.

"Hehe, don't worry, I'm only kidding, I won't hurt you." He slowly placed her down and stroked her hair playfully.

She liked this a lot, and immediately jumped onto his back as he walked back to the main party area. The rest of the party went on well into the night, everyone becoming a little drunk and a lot of fun overall. Suu-chan and Shinobu-chan drank very little, being quite young, they were only allowed one or two glasses of wine each, and plenty of food to soften the impact of the alcohol on their bodies. Motoko made sure that Suu-chan didn't drink too much, and Keitaro subtly kept an eye out for Shinobu-chan, the youngest at Hinata-sou. The cake was finished in no time at all, and the other snacks and treats were to last the night. Mitsune obviously drank the most, she managed to polish off a bottle of sake and two of red wine. The others finished off the rest of the bottles, Haruka-san having several glasses as well. Mitsune had fallen asleep from drinking too much, so Keitaro took it upon himself to carry her back to her room, picking her up gently in both arms. Everyone looked suspiciously at him.

"What?" he asked warily, "What have I done?"

Naru walked up too him, arms folded with a suggestive look on her face. "What do you plan on doing to her, hmm?"

He started to panic a little, sweatdrop appearing on his head. "Wha… I don’t understand..."

He looked a little at the situation realising what made the others think that way. Yet, at that moment Mitsune woke up, "Hey there, handsome, taking me to your room, eh?" She winked at him, whilst trying to loosen his top.

"Kitsune, please…" Keitaro began to blush, but felt daggers in his back, as he saw the others looking at him. Suu-chan looked curious, Shinobu chan looked tearful, a red aura seemed to surround Naru and Motoko as they looked at him accusingly. A red aura! He blinked but it didn't seem to go away.

"Wait!" He cried, "I'm not going to do anything dodgy! I am only taking her back to her room, nothing more, okay?" He breathed a sigh of relief as the others seemed to calm down. "I'll see you all later..."

With that he carried her to Room 205, the room next to his, and opened the door, carefully walking in sideways so that he didn’t catch he head on the edge of the partition. He lifted his leg and slid the door closed, maintaining his balance only barely. He lowered himself and placed Mitsune on top of her futon. The light in the corridor illuminated the room, but he sought out another source of light, and turned on a small lamp in her room. She scrunched her eyes when it was turned on, Keitaro angled the beam of the lamp away from her so that it reflected off the rest of the room, and she then relaxed her eyes slightly. He left the room for a few minutes, picking up a small empty glass and a large jug filled with water. He poured some water into the glass.

"Kitsune," he said, gently rousing her, "here drink some of this." He tilted her head upwards slightly as she opened her mouth to drink. She slowly gulped it down and finished the glass in a few minutes.

Keitaro felt that she should go to sleep soon and helped her into her futon fully clothed, removing her slippers at the same time.

"Mmmm," she moaned at the warmth of the futon, and hugged Keitaro closer to her, "so are you going to stay with me the whole night then?"

"Waaaah!" he cried out, being crushed by her vice-like grip, "Kitsune let go of me!" He managed to struggle out of her arms, and sat up watching her.

"I feel like another glass of water Keitaro," she said, clearing her throat, "my tongue feels like sandpaper."

He did as he was told, and handed the glass to her, she was able to sit up herself and Keitaro helped her place some pillows to do so. "You really shouldn't drink so much, it's not healthy for you. When you get the chance during the night, drink as much water as possible, I've left this jug here for you so that you don't have to leave the room."

She sipped the glass thoughtfully, hugging the futon close to her to keep warm, while Keitaro sat there watching her and taking in her room.

"You have an interesting hobby of collecting bottles, Mitsune," he said whilst looking at one wall, where it was covered by shelves and shelves of bottles.

"Some of them are full," she said, indicating a few with one hand, "but I tend to keep the empty bottles of the wines, sakes, and champagnes that I liked, to remind me. Do you mind if we have a chat?"

Keitaro looked at his watch, "Yeah, okay then, but not too late, I have a feeling that I'll be sleeping with Suu-chan tonight, she's been hanging around me since I chased her."

Mitsune put down the glass and scratched her chin, "Hmm, so you have a relationship with Suu-chan then?"

"Wha... WHAT!" he shut his eyes, his tears flying out from the sides of his glasses, "It's not like that and you know it Kitsune!"

Mitsune chuckled to herself, putting a hand to her mouth, since she knew he would have this reaction. She put her hand on his cheek softly, "Hehe, I'm only jesting with you." She then pinched his cheek.

"Itee!" Mitsune let go and Keitaro smiled at her, "Good, because you knew of Suu-chan and the way she likes to stay with someone throughout the night."

Mitsune sat up, and opened her eyes. Keitaro blinked, since it was very rarely that she opened those wise, brown eyes. "You have been thinking about a relationship with one of our fellow housemates thought, haven't you?"

Keitaro didn’t even look shocked, he just accepted that it would become plainly obvious after a while. "You've noticed then…"

"Yes," interrupted Mitsune, "you've been studying with Naru for a while now, and I've noticed that you have grown closer since the day you came here."

Keitaro looked away. "I can't tell if she feels the same way for me, she always seems to be angry at me, and we are both competing for the same place in Toudai, so that makes matters worse for us." He sighed sadly.

"Mind you, you do realise that you have been influencing Motoko as well, she was concerned for you when you didn’t return after you picked up your results. Much more than the rest of us." Keitaro raised an eyebrow, curious as to why Motoko would do that, "She even volunteered to go out to look for you, alone, without any help."

"Well I have been spending more time with her recently, it's not nice to have a martial artist against you all the time. Out of all of them, I don't know a lot about her. Besides, I do want to be friends with my fellow housemates."

"Is that why you're helping me to bed then?" asked a curious Mitsune.

"Yes, and as I'm the kanrinrin it's my responsibility to look out for the people under my care, and that includes you Mitsune."

She closed her eyes again, resuming her usual foxy look, "Is that really the reason? Or do you really 'want' me secretly?" She grinned wide whilst saying this.

Keitaro sighed. "I think you should sleep now, you're obviously still drunk. Remember that you should drink as much water as you can to reduce the impact of the next day. Sleep well."

Keitaro smiled at her, got up and left her room, sliding her door shut on his way out. Mitsune looked at the looked for a few minutes, opening her eyes in disbelief. This was the first time he didn't overreact to her teasing. He was obviously still feeling down from Naru rejecting him constantly. Or maybe there was some outside force at work.

"He really is someone special, I hope that he picks the right one…"

She finished off her glass and let it settle in her stomach before lying down and falling asleep.

Keitaro returned to the party, receiving many a stare from the girls as to why he stayed so long with Mitsune. He was slightly worried but managed to wave them off without any repercussions. Sure enough Suu-chan stayed close to him when he returned leaving Motoko more or less alone. When the girls appeared tired, Haruka declared the party to be over, and that the next day they would have the Christmas turkey. Suu-chan jumped on Keitaro's back as he waved goodnight to the others, saying that Suu-chan had to go to sleep, and they spent the night together in their usual fashion.

Christmas Day

The next day was mostly a day of rest for all those who drank too much. Keitaro though woke up relatively early, at around ten in the morning. Suu-chan also woke up when he did. They both got changed into their casual indoor clothes on either sides of the central partition, which he closed for privacy for the both of them. They padded around the quiet inn, brushing their teeth in relative silence. Keitaro then went to wash up some of the dishes and trays that were left from the party last night, and Suu-chan helped a little. Haruka arrived at around eleven with the turkey. Keitaro helped to remove the innards and Suu-chan had fun stuffing it with… well stuffing! They then put it in the oven, since it would take a while to cook fully all the way through. The potatoes were put in the oven as well, but Haruka elected not to get sprouts, since nobody ever ate them.

The smell wafted throughout the house, and brought out the sleeping, who were enticed into the kitchen. Shinobu-chan was the first to do so, walking in with her teddy bear and her pink nightgown. Bleary-eyed she looked around rubbing her eyes.

"Good morning Shinobu-chan!" Keitaro said as he walked up to her with the oven gloves still on, "How are you feeling from last night?"

"Oh I'm fine thank you sempai, I didn’t drink too…" she stopped suddenly realising that she was wearing very little. She squealed and ran off to her room.

"Shinobu-chan!" cried Keitaro, only to be met with her teddy bear in his face.

Motoko was the next one to enter, she was wearing her usual garments. She looked around, and praised Haruka and Keitaro for what smells like a good meal.

"I helped too!" Suu-chan cried out putting her hand up enthusiastically.

"Yes she did, she helped Haruka-san with the stuffing," Keitaro agreed, and Haruka nodded, still smoking her cigarette.

"Well done Suu-chan." Motoko patted her on the head in a friendly manner, and Suu-chan giggled and held her hand.

People who were in the kitchen started laying out the table in anticipation. First the tablecloth, then the mats to place the bowls and trays with meals on them. Plates and cutlery were then laid out. At that moment Shinobu-chan came in, her face a bright shade of red, and she walked slowly up to Keitaro to apologise. He didn’t mind, since he said that got worse from Naru and Motoko, and accepted her apology. He returned her teddy to her, and she thanked him, turning even redder. By midday everyone had turned up, Naru and Shinobu-chan were talking, Motoko was involved with Suu-chan, and Haruka was still smoking and drinking a bottle of sake. Keitaro was talking to Mitsune, who made it through the night without incident, though she did feel queasy in the morning, hence her being the last to enter the kitchen.

Eventually it was time for the turkey, and everyone ate in a joyful manner, Keitaro, being the only man in the house was chosen to cut the turkey for everyone. However Motoko asked him to hold it up in the air, which he did, eyes clenched fearing the worst. Motoko's katana rang through his ears and was dumbfounded to see the turkey in neat slices so that everyone could take a piece they wanted. The meal went by peacefully without any notable events. Afterwards they all helped to clear up after themselves, and cleaned the table and kitchen. Everyone retired to their rooms for a nap after their large lunch.

This is the time in which Naru opened her present from Keitaro. The card said 'Gomen (Sorry) Naru-chan'. She ripped off the wrapping paper to find a slender box with a catch on one side of it. She opened it to find a watch, analogue, not like all of those similar digital watches. The strap was made from leather; the watch casing silver coloured, with the numbers from the West engraved in it. She smiled at this gift, and stuck her head down the hole in her room to thank Keitaro; he smiled back at her.

Motoko could finally open the present that had been puzzling her since Keitaro gave it to her. She slowly pulled the ribbon off and opened the wrapping paper carefully, to reveal a container made from a dark wood, similar to old oak. It was engraved with various patterns, including 'Urashima' engraved along the centre of it in Kanji. There was a very old latch along one of the longest sides, and Motoko unhitched it, opening it to what was a beautiful sight. Inside was a dark red, almost maroon like coloured material lining the inside of the box. On one diagonal was a sheath containing a small dagger-like weapon. The sheath was made of a fairly thick wood, ebony most likely due to its colour. The handle was made of a dark, soft spongy like material made from tightly wound string that hid a wooden base underneath. Motoko removed it from the box, unhooking the ancient wooden rack inside that held it in its place. She held it up to the light, marvelling at its sleekness. She then drew the blade, amazed to find it in perfect condition, a brilliant silver gleam reflecting off the metal as she angled it into the light. Upon doing so she noticed that there were some subtle indentations in the length of the blade. It was Kanji, and translated as 'Aoyama Motoko'. She gasped in disbelief, placed the dagger in the box and immediately got up and left her room with the box in hand.

She walked swiftly along the corridors of Hinata-sou until she reached the Kanrinrin's Room. She rapped urgently on the door.

"Who is it?" shouted Keitaro from within.

"Motoko," she replied, "can I come in Urashima?"

"Sure, come on in."

She opened the door to find him sitting at his table, pawing at his portable first aid kit he got from the cracker the day before, looking through it to see what exactly was inside it. Motoko sat down opposite him, and placed down the box in front of him.

"I'm sorry but I cannot accept this gift Urashima." She said sincerely.

"Why all the formality Motoko-chan?" He looked puzzled as he asked her, "Call me Keitaro." He then smiled at her.

She began to fume slightly. "Keitaro," she said between clenched teeth and fists, "I cannot accept this gift."

"Why not?" He seemed to be genuinely confused, "I thought it would appeal to you."

"It is too much Keitaro, much did this cost you?" indicating the box.

"I can't say, it's not right to tell someone how much their present was."

"Well I want to know!" Motoko slammed her hands down onto the table, scaring Keitaro, but calmed down immediately, sitting back down. "Gomen, I'm just a little on edge since seeing this gift."

"Well, if you must know," Keitaro pointed at the Kanji on the top on the box, "did you remember seeing this?"

Something 'clicked' inside Motoko, "So you're telling me that…"

"Yes Motoko-chan," Keitaro interrupted, "this used to be in my family. Therefore your present cost nothing!"

He said this a little too enthusiastically, until he thought he'd better phrase it better. He coughed, "What I meant to say was that the container and the dagger were passed from generations of the Urashima clan. I went to a specialist store to change it to your name, but the wood could not be changed without scarring the surface of it. However he did say that the blade could be engraved, since it hadn't been touched already. That cost around 3500 yen (£21, $35 approximately). Well, it was supposed to cost that, but he said the blade was incredibly durable, and that he had to use more complex machinery to engrave it." He scratched the back of his head, remembering how he began to panic in the shop at the fact that it cost too much, "Thankfully, he only charged me an extra 500 yen (£3, $5 approximately), since he was delighted to work with such a magnificent piece." Keitaro also neglected to mention to Motoko that he also begged the man that was a rather poor student and couldn't afford any more than 4000 yen on such a present.

"Well… that's very touching of you…" Motoko wasn’t sure of what to say, "but surely, this must be a valuable antique…"

Keitaro waved her off, "Don’t worry about it, the dagger is old, that's for certain. However, we won't have any use for it nowadays apart for selling it. This way I feel better if I give it to someone who I know would respect it and take care of it. Haruka-san said that I could give it to you, since we still have some more of the ancient arsenal at hand."

"A… Arigatou Keitaro," she began to blush, since it seemed like such a small thing to him, insignificant even, "I will give it its pride of place in my room and my heart."

Keitaro smiled, "I knew I could trust it with you Motoko-chan, you have a pure heart, I hope you put that blade to good use at one point. Allegedly, the legend passed down to me states that nothing has stopped that blade once it was in motion, but that will be for you find out one day…" A glint appeared in his eye as he said this, and Motoko was uncertain as to what this meant.

"Ja ne (See you later) Keitaro." Motoko stood up and bowed slightly, he returned the bow with a small nod. She then picked up the container, opened the door and left his room to return to hers, shutting the door with her left foot. Keitaro watched her leave, mesmerised by the way she moved, her demure elegance that she kept under wraps almost invariably under her indifferent, vigilant front, instilled in her since childhood due to her background. Even Naru knew of what she was capable of, saying that her family was a group of nameless assassins, although she did joke about that part. It made him think. All lies contain a sliver of the truth, so it shouldn't be automatically thought that Motoko was an exception, maybe her entire family was into martial arts. Nevertheless, he was still happy to see this side of her, where she lowers her guard for a few moments to accept compliments without killing the person who flattered her. He kept thinking happy thoughts, mostly about Motoko, through dinner and well into the night.

Chapter 6

The New Year

From Motoko's eyes

January 1st 1999

After the short holiday that was Christmas, Hinata-sou has returned to its usual state, in which Keitaro appears to do many a perverted act towards one of the residents here. I myself still feel awkward around him; he makes me feel uneasy. Not in an unpleasant way mind, though his pervertedness still annoys me to no end. Yet he is also a remarkable person, he is able to smile even when under scrutiny from everyone. He also possesses qualities that are quite rare amongst the male population, which would make him even more attractive. Attractive… did I just say that? Perhaps this is the cause of my uneasiness that I may soon fall in love with him, if I haven't already done so. I've been brought up to fear all men, due their nature of being naturally arrogant beings who feel that they can just order everyone around. However, since meeting Keitaro, I have questioned that logic, since he shows that he too can care for others, and that he does not fight back when we hit him almost daily.

The dagger that he gave me for Christmas still remains close to me, though I haven't used it in training yet. I have it in its container on a solitary shelf in my room, angled in such a way that the top could be seen without needing to walk close up to it. One night when Suu-chan stayed with me, being her naturally inquisitive self, she noticed the new item in my room, and promptly asked me what it was doing there, seeing as it had the Urashima name on it. I explained to her about how he thought up his idea to buy Naru a present, skipping out the reason as to why she hated being near him in those two weeks. I told her that he gave me the dagger as a way of thanking me. I then showed her the dagger, and she held it as if it was a precious stone, delicately holding it in her hands and turning it over and over, feeling its surface. She asked me if she could draw the blade, and I replied in the affirmative. She gasped when she saw the inscription on it, looking up at me. I merely nodded at her. She closed it and placed it back in her holder. I told her to promise me that she would not breathe a word of this to anyone else, except maybe Keitaro (since I knew how she was around him), until I felt it was time to release this knowledge.

That was three days ago, it is now New Years Day, the Year of the Rabbit. Suu-chan was about to wear a bunny outfit (I have no idea how or why she happened to have one in her possession) before I reminded her that Haruka-san liked us to wear kimono on such a special day. She grumbled a little until I showed her the kimono that I had picked out for her and she loved it. The flowers looked 'very cute' as she had put it. I helped her to put it on, since this was a rare occasion for her to wear such a relatively heavy garment when compared to her school uniform. I had no such kimono for myself, but I chose to wear a formal version of my Shinmei garment, one that is only used at ceremonies performed at the temple back home, such as the inauguration of a new member into our clan. It still looks similar to my usual clothing, but with subtle differences that make it less useful in a combat situation, such as longer sleeves and thicker material. We were about to go to the kitchen when we heard a shout and the sound of someone falling onto something, we went to investigate and found Keitaro climbing off a tree, having just fallen off the roof. Suu-chan and I wished him a happy New Year. He was surprised to see Suu-chan wearing a kimono and commented on this. I told him that we wore these at a time like this because Haruka-san wanted us to. He also noticed my outfit, with its differences, looking at the changes closely. I backhanded him away with my katana, telling him not too get too close to me. He skid on the ground for several metres, and when he got up he apologised to me, scratching the back of his head. He actually complimented me, saying that the new outfit was nice, although most people wouldn't notice the difference. Not knowing how to react to this, I thanked him and walked off with Suu-chan towards the kitchen.

Keitaro dusted himself off and walked in slowly following us to the kitchen. Suu-chan and I sat down at the table and ate a little bit of rice that was already laid out for us. I glanced across to Suu-chan, who was enjoying her meal, behind her I saw Keitaro talking to Mistune and Shinobu-chan, the latter being rather red in the face. Suu-chan jumped out of her seat, putting the empty bowl into the sink, and jumped onto Keitaro's back. He was surprised, but not unpleasantly, and continued to talk to Shinobu-chan. I elevated myself and placed the bowl in the sink, cleaning both Suu-chan's and bowl and leaving them out of dry on the side. As I walked back towards the others Suu-chan said good morning to Naru. Keitaro turned towards her and praised her on her choice of kimono, which had a nice picture of flowers growing up from the bottom of it. She replied to that with a punch to the face, telling him not to say such things out loud. Soon after that, we left for the shrine.

At the shrine, half an hour later

The grounds at the shrine were filled with people of all ages. Most appeared to be in groups of their own, chatting to themselves and excited about being there, an elderly couple were walking by slowly towards the area where the talismans were distributed. The residents of Hinata-sou walked in a tight group amazed at the number of people there. Suu-chan looked happy from her vantagepoint of Shinobu-chan's back, whilst Shinobu-chan looked a little shy around so many people. Motoko said that she was going to have a look around, since she knew where she wanted to be at that moment.

She eventually arrived at a quiet place to say her wishes for the upcoming year. She placed her hands together and closed her eyes. Resting her mind and losing its focus from reality, she achieved a state in which her being felt at one with the world. Her senses were sharpened, she could hear the conversations of individuals amongst the crowds, feel the breeze more intensely on her skin, almost atom by atom. What am I going to wish for? She was confused, since every year, she wished she would become stronger after training, however, she bored of this time and time again. During those times of her life, she had no other distractions to stop her from wanting to become stronger, except for studying, which became a necessity in the later years of her life. Instead she realised that one thing had to be said.

I wish for my relationship with Keitaro to grow, or at the very least clarified. Motoko felt that it needed to be stated, she still wasn't sure whether she truly loved him, or what his feelings were towards her. She was also afraid of what consequences might come out of this, since Naru was obviously growing closely to Keitaro, and she might react severely to me… becoming his girlfriend…

This time, Motoko didn't even shudder at this thought. She had accepted that it was bound to happen one day, that she would fall in love with a boy, a man even, in the case of Keitaro. Yet she felt apprehensive, she was unaware of how to proceed with these… feelings. Her Ane-ue had not taught her the art that many American girls practice, the art of flirting, seduction . She blushed at the thought of it. There were a few sitcoms shown in Japan from America about teenagers going about their daily lives. In almost every one, there was some form of love interest involved with some of the characters. The women seemed to wear short skirts, blow kisses, and wink suggestively (amongst 'other' things) at the person (or persons) they like the most. Immediately Motoko mentally face-faulted, she realised that she wasn't the type of girl to do that kind of thing, it was beneath her to try those things.

She sighed, seduction wasn't the way she lived through life, and she just used her strength to get where she was now. Her Ane-ue was lucky to have found a husband with her beauty alone, it was he who asked her out on a date. Feeling amused that night her Ane-ue agreed to let this ordinary man take her out. She tried to frighten him away, using her skills against inanimate objects as they were going about town, even him sometimes, to scare him away from her. However, it seemed to have the opposite effect. He seemed to get up after every assault, walking back to her side and continuing to show her the town. Motoko's Ane-ue was impressed to say the least. From then on it became history, they fell in love, and got married, resulting in the passing on of the Shinmei dojo to the next in line.

She slowly raised her awareness level, lowering herself from the spiritual plateau that she had just inhabited to the lower world in which she lived in. As she opened her eyes, she noticed that the others had caught up with her. They walked with each other to where the fortune telling talismans were distributed. Mitsune, Shinobu-chan and Suu-chan immediately went to pick up their talismans, and all got fairly good ones. Motoko turned to Keitaro.

"Are you sure that you want to do this Keitaro?" she gestured to the stand, "The talismans here are renowned for their accuracy in predicting good, or bad, luck. I just need to be certain that you are aware of the consequences."

"Nah!" he waved his hand in a dismissive manner, "Things like this aren't likely to affect me, thanks for the warning Motoko-chan."

Motoko left him to his business as he walked to pick up his talisman. When he read it, his eyes bulged out of their sockets, making his glasses fall to the ground.

Ultra bad luck.

"Th... This cant be true…" He read the rest of it.

'Beware of high altitude, especially the roof of an inn. Beware of animal droppings, like birds and dogs. Beware of water.' At this moment a man throwing water from a bucket hit him with some, he apologised. 'Beware of falling objects.' Once again, as this was said, a flowerpot fell on his head, and the woman who dropped it apologised as well. 'Beware of the blade of a warrior. Continuous disaster with women. At this rate, might fail again.'

He shuddered, It's accurate, and could 'fail again' meant the Toudai exam? He read the last line. 'Better to be alone. Stay away from the opposite sex. Might bring misfortune to both.' How can I? I live in a girls dorm, how will I be able to avoid them?

"I wonder where sempai is?" Shinobu-chan was walking around the grounds, looking for Keitaro. She didn't have to walk far, since he was still by the counter where he got the talisman. She looked at him, his back facing her, and noticed that even his clothes were drained of colour, and a little of the surrounding area around him, like an aura of depression so to speak. People who walked by him noticed this and had to take another look at him just to see if they weren't daydreaming. She walked up to him, worried.

"Keitaro-sempai," she said, clutching his left shoulder at the same time, "are you okay? What did the talisman say?" She glanced at the talisman, and gasped as she read the last line.

Keitaro jumped out of his skin at Shinobu appearing, however he quickly regained his composure and turned around to face her. "Wh… What? Oh, it's okay Shinobu-chan. The talisman is good." He smiled at her, except he saw a teary Shinobu-chan. "What is it Shinobu-chan? Did I say something to offend you or hurt you?"

"N... No sempai, you didn't." She began to sob uncontrollably, "I can't… stay with you… if I do it'll only… cause problems for you…" She managed to choke out in between sobs, "Gomen sempai!" As she said this she ran away from him in a random direction, still in tears.

"Shinobu-chan!" he cried out reaching out for her as he chased her, tears flying out of the sides of his eyes, "Wait up! What have I done!" Having placed all of his attention on the fleeing middle-schooler, he didn't watch where he was placing his feet, and subsequently fell over into a puddle of water. Tears streaming down his face, he began to get up, puzzling over what had just transpired. It's true, when I get near women, bad things will happen. At that moment he was almost bitten in two by a lion's head from a lion dance.

"What! Why is this happening? I haven't got near any girls…"

"Peekaboo!" Suu-chan's head popped out of the lion's mouth, "It's Suu! Did you know that getting bitten by a lion is good luck?" She winked mischievously.

"Err… no…" Keitaro began to feel cornered and worried by the look in her eyes.

"Well, shall we test that?" She edged the lion's head closer to him, "Here's to your good fortune Keitaro!"

"Waaah!" He ran away, very fast indeed, tears flying out of his eyes as he ran. Suu-chan however was very energetic, and had enough stamina to keep up with Keitaro. She jumped up onto his back, about to bite him, when he ran into empty space. He then despairingly realised he was in the air. As they tumbled to the ground, over many steps, they were tangled in the mess of the lion, and crashed into a stall at the base of the stairs.

After checking the Suu-chan was all right, he went around the grounds looking for the only person who could help him. He didn't look far until he found her.

"What?" she questioned, "Is the talisman worrying you? So it was an unlucky one…"

"Yes," he replied, tears streaming down his face, "what can I do to reverse the bad luck?"

"Silly boy, haven't you heard that tying the talisman to a tree will remove the bad luck?" She looked at him condescendingly.

"Well… now that you mention it…." Keitaro held the back of his head, looking sheepish.

"Let's go and tie it up then!" She said, slightly irritated.

He and Naru went to one of the trees in one of the more isolated parts of the shrine, only to be met with branches that were high above their heads.

"Hmm," Keitaro was stumped, how are we going to tie it on one of those branches?"

Naru sighed, "Don't be such an idiot, just stand still, okay?"

"Huh?" Before he knew it Naru was already sitting on top of his shoulders, holding onto a branch.

He sighed dreamily looking at her thighs. She has really nice legs… He stopped suddenly, in shock. The talisman said that to be near girls would only cause trouble…He started to move around, trying to shake this feeling off of him, but in doing so only making Naru unsteady.

"H… Hey!" she cried, "What are you do-aaaaaagh!" Keitaro fell over, Naru squeezing her legs around his neck as she fell too.

Keitaro was coughing desperately to get some air in his lungs, whereas Naru got up and dusted herself off calmly. "You little weasel, how dare you do this to me, after all the trouble I went through to help you."

"Wha…" He turned around to face her, only to be met with her fist. He flew straight into a tree, his limbs contorted around it in a violent fashion. He peeled himself off, and narrowly missed another attack from Naru. He ran from her, to no particular place, trying to get away from her, occasionally she managed to catch up and hit him in the head. When he reached a clear area he thought he was free until Suu-chan jumped down in front of him.

"Ah-ha!" She cried, "I've found you! Prepare to be bitten."

"Waaaah!" Tears flying out of his eyes, he ran as fast as he could to a safe haven.

Motoko walked over to where she could pick up a talisman, and picked one out. When she opened it, she found that it said "Indeterminable luck". Curious, since she never read one like this before she read on. "A new arrival might cause you to lose your concentration." She immediately placed this on Keitaro. "The coming year will find you tested to your limit, and you may be required to show force at times." Hmm, well I have been lashing out at Keitaro a few times… "The following year will test you to your limits on the emotional front." She arched an eyebrow at this comment, but read on. "You might fall in love with someone close to you, and someone's feelings for you grow day by day." Suddenly the world around Motoko seemed to darken, time seemed to slow down, people walking by in shades of grey. Wh… What is this? This cannot be, who might this person be? Things returned to normal when she began to read the final line, the solution to her problems. "Later in the flow of time, you will be forced to make a choice between your heart and your mind. Choose wisely, for it may affect the present and the future of both you and everyone around you. Your luck will be based on the results of this choice." This one puzzled her, and she was not able to decipher the hidden meaning of this talisman. Nevertheless, she took it with her. When Motoko placed her talisman into her sleeve she was barged straight onto the ground. Picking herself up, she saw that it was in fact Keitaro, being chased by Naru and what looked like Suu-chan.

"What has he done this time?" She asked no one in particular, rolling her eyes as she spoke. She quickly walked after them not wanting to make another scene by running after them.

Keitaro stumbled on; he had managed to lose the fearsome twosome, and walked along warily, until he saw a kimono-wearing woman lying on the ground. Being concerned with her well being, he did the only thing he could and ask her how she was.

"Hmmm? Good morning Keitaro." It was Mitsune.

"Kitsune, are you okay, are you hurt?" He realised that she was very drunk after smelling the wine on her breath.

"What are you doing?" she asked, "Forcing yourself upon me? You pervert!" She jokingly pushed him away from her.

Keitaro sighed. "How much have you drunk Kitsune?"

"Oh…" she indicated to him on her fingers: three, four, five, then using both hands she held them out twice.

"Twenty glasses!" He was astonished at that, but more surprised at Mitsune caressing his right cheek.

"If you want to do it with a girl, first make sure you have her permission first." She opened her eyes at this point, "So if you want to, you know, do "it" with me, I don't mind at all."

She turned so that her back was facing him, and began to slip her kimono off her shoulders. Before it went down too far, Keitaro caught the edges of it. Mitsune stopped moving suddenly, aware that he might actually take her up on her offer. However she felt the warmth of the kimono being placed back onto her shoulders rather clumsily, and when she looked back she saw Keitaro with his head angled away so that he wasn't peeking at her. When he thought that it was safe to look, he faced her and smiled, helping her up off the ground. Mitsune adjusted herself to make her look decent and proper.

"Kitsune," Keitaro spoke softly, "be more careful about yourself okay? I worry for you when you drink like this. Come, lets go find the others…" He started to walk off but found that Mitsune couldn't walk straight, so he slowed down and hooked his arm around her back. Mitsune did the same, so it appeared as if they were lovers and not one person escorting a drunken person home. However they hadn't walked a few steps when they were confronted with the rest of the girls at Hinata-sou. Naru still looked rather angry, Suu-chan was grinning ear to ear, Shinobu-chan looked a little tearful and Motoko stood there with her katana still in its sheath behind her back, in a non-threatening manner.

"What do you think you're doing to Kitsune?" an irate Naru asked, "Holding her in such a personal way?"

"Err…" he began to panic slightly, "nothing at all, I was just helping her up. She fell over after drinking too much." Mitsune began to hold him closer, leaning into him, the wine taking its full effect on her. "Let's go home now, we all have our talismans, so there is no need for us to stay here any longer."

With that final statement, he turned around, half-dragging Mitsune along with him. Motoko followed him first, looking at Suu-chan, indicating that they should leave. Suu-chan jumped up onto her back, smiling at her. Shinobu-chan began to walk timidly towards Naru.

"Should we go now Naru-sempai?" she asked, "The others are leaving now…"

"Yes," she replied, still dumbfounded at Keitaro's apparent protectiveness towards Mitsune, "let's go now Shinobu-chan." She held her hand out towards her and Shinobu-chan took it, as they walked side-by-side behind the others.

Back at Hinata-sou

Everyone returned home in more or less one piece, Mitsune nearly falling over a couple of times. Keitaro sat her down on a chair giving her a glass of water and a jug of water as before, and made her drink the first glass in front of him. He then got up from the table, turned around and met Suu-chan. It took his a few moments to realise that he was very close to her, and the fact that the lion's head was embedded in his skull.

"Hope you have good luck Keitaro." She said cheerfully.

"ITEEEEE!" Keitaro screamed out loud, the pain being unlike any other he had previously felt during his stay there. He lifted his head, pulling the covers off Suu-chan, so that he was left with the head still attached to his head. He was running around at random, arms flailing about, crying tears from the distress he was under, whilst Suu-chan laughed at this scene. He then started to pull it off, trying and failing each time. However, at one point it began to give way, so he continued to focus on that point. He succeeded in removing it, the ivory teeth popping out of his skull, from where they were embedded, returning to their former state. He threw it off him, only to lose his balance and fall backwards. As he has the habit of doing, he accidentally knocked Shinobu-chan to the floor, who had walked in to see what all the noise was about. Keitaro's eyes were swirling, dazed as he was by hitting his head on the floor, whilst Shinobu-chan lay there hurt and tearful. His eyes snapped back into their sockets and he came back to reality and sat up, and saw Shinobu-chan behind him. He quickly tried to help her to her feet, but she refused his attentions, and got up herself. She turned away and began to walk away from him.

"Shinobu-chan!" Keitaro exclaimed, grabbing her right hand at the same time, "Wait! Are you hurt?"

"Leave me alone…" she mumbled sadly.

"Gomen Shinobu-chan, what did y..."

"I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE!" She shouted very loudly at him, stopping him mid sentence and shocking him into released his grip on her. He stood there dumbfounded, staring at her running away.

"So, what did you do?" came a stern voice from behind him.

"N… Naru!" Keitaro stammered, facing her and now becoming very scared for his wellbeing, "I… I didn't do anything to her…"

"I saw you, " she continued to talk, not giving him a chance, "you forced yourself upon her, making her cry again. You pervert."

"Waah! It wasn't like that!"

Naru was fed up with his excuses, she drew back her hand and punched him square in the face, sending him flying outside through the screen door, making a Keitaro-shaped hole in it. He landed outside in a heap, holding his head in pain, he turned looking through the hole to see Naru walk off in a huff.

"Why it is always like this?" Keitaro was holding his head, which was pounding so much he thought the whole dorm could hear it. He managed to make it back to his room alive, staggering through the corridors back to the Kanrinrin's room. He sat at his heating table, unable to face the world as usual. "I've made Naru angry at me again, and made Shinobu-chan cry, what am I going to do?" He then heard a knocking at the door.

"Who is it?" he asked.

"It's Motoko," she replied, "may I come in?"

Keitaro lightened up a little. "Of course you can Motoko-chan, please do come in."

The door slid open and she walked in, closing the door behind her. She quickly surveyed the room, noticing again that the TV was on, a documentary of what appeared to be the livelihood of a pride of lions. Keitaro didn't seem to be focussing his attention on the show. Motoko thought back to the last time she saw a scene familiar to this, and how depressed he was then. She sat down opposite him, stretching her feet out her feet under the table to keep her warm. Upon doing so however, she rubbed the underside of her foot against something, her heart skipped a beat. She quickly glanced up at Keitaro, but could not detect any reaction from him. Safe in the knowledge that she wasn't touching him, she began to speak, keeping her foot there.

"How are you feeling Keitaro?" she asked noting his appearance, "You do not seem to be well."

"Well," he admitted, "I do have a headache after today's events." As if on cue his head began to thump again to the beating of his heart, only multiplied tenfold in strength. He winced slightly as it began to affect his senses, his eyesight becoming brighter, his hearing more acute and sensitive. Sensing the change in his demeanour, Motoko reached into her sleeve and pulled out a small carton.

"Here, take these when you're in pain." She said, "They are simple pills, painkillers, using a form of penicillin, but with a few changes on my behalf, since it is a family secret as such." She placed in the middle of the table. Keitaro picked it up carefully studying it closely.

"Are you sure this is safe Motoko-chan?" He seemed dubious that it would help him.

"Of course it is, I myself have used them a few times." She looked at him with those piercing eyes, staring into his eyes, his soul. "Do you doubt my intentions Keitaro?"

Keitaro noticed her eyes. I don't think I should provoke her in any way. Besides, she is being kind to me. He immediately brightened up, "Arigatou Motoko-chan. I'll take these when I feel I need to take them."

Motoko relaxed her eyes, the thin field of vision in which they occupied vanishing at once. "That is good..." She spoke softly, leaving that sentence in the air, until she began to blush at showing a little emotion. She cleared her throat. "Anyway now, we have to deal with your problem."

"Err… Wh… What problem Motoko-chan?" He began to panic slightly, looking around nervously.

"Come with me Keitaro." She stood up suddenly, "We have to go quickly." She walked over to his side and held out her hand for him. He looked perplexed, both at what she was talking about, and as to why she was offering him help. He accepted her hand, and she clutched it tightly, pulling him up with ease.

"B… But, where are we going Motoko-chan?" He was apprehensive.

"We must not waste any more time, Keitaro." She stepped closer to him, "This has to be done soon, or all will be lost." She bent down to pick up something, and placed it in his hand, "Take this with you."

Keitaro was too stunned to even move, he felt his heart beat becoming louder as it slowed down. Is Motoko-chan suggesting that we do "that"? I'm four years her senior, she can't be thinking of that…did she give me "that" as well? He felt the item that she gave him and noticed that it wasn't as small or soft as he expected. Confused he looked down only to see that it was his talisman. He looked up at her, realisation dawning on his face. His eyes met Motoko's and they were held there for a few moments that seemed to last minutes.

He clenched the talisman tightly within his fist, a look of triumph on his face. "Lets go Motoko-chan." He smiled as he said this, secretly thanking her.

With that last comment, they both left the grounds of Hinata-sou, back to the grounds of the shrine. There were still one or two people milling about the place, but not in the magnitude of the early morning. The two went to the same place that Keitaro and Naru tried and failed to attach it to a tree. Once again they noticed that the branches were too high. Keitaro and Motoko looked at each other.

Motoko sighed. "Very well Keitaro, I will place my trust in you since I will need to use you a boost to place the talisman on the tree."

Keitaro obliged, he gave her the talisman and crouched down near the trunk, Motoko was in two minds after seeing him wait for her. What if he does something perverted? His head will be in between my thighs… She inwardly gasped, and then sighed. We have gone this far, so we might as well finish it. She gently walked over to him, and sat on his shoulders, bracing herself against the trunk, the lower part of her legs resting on Keitaro's chest.

Keitaro was in two minds too. What if I drop her? My head will be in between her thighs... He inwardly gasped, and then sighed. Well, I hope nothing bad ha… He couldn't finish that thought since Motoko sat on his shoulders. He dared not look up or move his head for fear of enraging her. When she had settled, he began to push himself up from the floor. Surprisingly she was much lighter than he had thought, and he didn't have any trouble standing. Once he had reached his full height he held her legs so that she wouldn't fall.

He risked a glance upwards. "Is everything okay up there Motoko-chan?"

"Yes it is, but don't look!" she berated him. She removed Keitaro's talisman from her sleeve and tied it onto the branch with a bit of string. She looked down at him, and saw him looking down and away from her. While he wasn't looking, she removed another talisman from her sleeve and attached it next to Keitaro's talisman. "Okay I'm done now Keitaro, let me down."

He slowly crouched down again, Motoko holding the trunk for support as she descended. Once he had reached the final point. Motoko extracted herself from Keitaro's shoulders and adjusted her garments. Keitaro stood up and faced her, smiling. He opened his mouth to say something but Motoko interrupted him.

"We must go now. It is better to leave as soon as we have tied the talisman up." She warned him, "Do not look up at your talisman, for it will incur ten time the amount of bad luck that your talisman had imposed upon you."

"Really?" Keitaro was confused, "I hadn't heard that before…"

"Nevertheless, it is true." She seemed anxious, "Let us go now before it gets any colder."

"Okay Motoko-chan, whatever you say." He replied a bit bemused.

As they walked off the overwhelming, childish urge came over him to check that she had done what he had asked her to do. He managed to sneak a look at the tree, only to see not one, but two talismans hanging off the same branch, the wind making them move silently in the current, as if both were waving goodbye. He was very confused, but had no time to take another look, as they neared the exit of the shrine. Motoko and Keitaro walked out of the shrine in silence, walking home together slowly. The two talismans were left alone; one of them inscribed with the Kanji for Urashima Keitaro and the all too familiar Ultra Bad Luck written on the top of it. The other talisman, which had the luck part of it concealed, also fluttered in the wind; the only Kanji visible on it were two words.

Narusegawa Naru.

-------------------------------------

Author's note: Don't take this personally please

Word count minus author's notes: 5631

Thank you for all your comments, I never expected such praise for this fanfic; I like criticism though, as one of you pointed out. All will be revealed as to why there are two tenses

To be perfectly honest, this started out as a darkfic. I have still kept in a few clues throughout the fanfic, including this chapter, as to how it comes about. The darkfic was planned to be "Book 2", but I might put it on hold for the continuation of the romance fic. It appears that this will be a complete rewrite of the manga timeline, and you can imagine that it will take a fair amount of time.

I expect this book to have over 40 chapters, with the darkfic having around 10 chapters, and Book 3 (the official continuation of the romance), the alternate reality version of Book 2, around 40 chapters as well. It will take a year to finish Book 1 though I fear… University work is getting harder, and more important since it counts for my degree this year and the next. Chapter updates will be long in between each other, as this one proves, so please bear with me. Christmas and Easter would probably be the best times for me to work on the fanfic, and my weeks off during uni… This is why I made this chapter especially long.

I'm also a fan of Mutsumi, so I could make a short fic about her and Keitaro getting together (mind you, a 'short' fic from me could turn out to be ten or so chapters ). I also have ideas about other characters in Love Hina, not to mention my other fanfic ideas such as the OVA 3 of Tenchi Muyo (although I do realise that it is being produced now) and a continuation of Shin Tenchi (yes I am a fan of that series, so what?).

Anyways, I hope this satisfies you all for the time being, thanks for all your support (and yes, this really is my first attempt at a fanfic in case you were wondering…). Check out my website at http/majinshinji. if there are any problem with again, it will be updated accordingly. I have updated some of the earlier chapters to iron out some typos and blindingly stupid mistakes (such as the second chapter, which had my original name of the fanfic, Remembrance, instead of Genesis).

Arigatou,

Majin Shinji (this is my username throughout the www, if you see someone with the same name, it's probably me…)

- AKA Jason

Chapter 7

Mind Games

Nine days before the initial exams

Thursday morning, 7th of January

From Motoko's eyes

In a week's time Keitaro should be fully prepared for his exams. Since he and I removed the bad luck charm off him, he has seemed much happier. He likes to study in his room alone, although occasionally he dares to ask Naru if she would help him to study, most of the times she said that she would allow him into her room. There are those days however when she point-blank refuses to let him in (although a few of those times he did enter her room when she was in a state of undress. He felt a little down those times, and decided to go up onto the roof of Hinata-sou to study. I only knew of this when practising on the flat roof, spotting Keitaro sitting on the roof. Curious about this behaviour of his I asked him why he did this. He replied that he felt happier sitting there, with a view of the town below. He also mentioned something about a promise to fulfil, although he did not elaborate on that point. I continued with my training nonetheless, keeping a careful eye on him in case he chose to end his life by jumping off the roof, although he didn't even hint towards that. Occasionally when I looked over at him I caught him staring at me, but when my eyes met his he quickly averted his gaze, a slight blush passing by his face. He stayed up there for long whiles, the only times he left from there was when Shinobu-chan called out to him that it was mealtime, when it got too cold (it was January after all), or when the sun began to set.

I saw him early one day in the corridor outside the hot springs dressed in his cleaning gear. One commendable about him was that he even continued to do his work as kanrinrin during breaks as he studied. I insisted (once more) to him that it was not necessary for him to maintain Hinata-sou when his exams were so near, and I tried to convince him to study at that time. He thanked me for my concern, nevertheless he said that he still owes us for allowing him to stay there. He then went off to clean out the hot springs, walking in there, only to leave it seconds later. He flew through the door hitting the wall opposite headfirst, after what was undoubtedly Naru punching him. He slid down the wall and lay o the ground, a small crack appearing on the wall. His legs were up in the air, twitching sporadically, I sighed to myself and walked over to him.

Tension rising

Keitaro lay there, reeling from Naru's punch, smoke rising from his body as if he was struck by a missile, his glasses reflecting the light, betraying no truths as to what his eyes were saying. Motoko, upon reaching him, looked down at him sadly. She then looked left, into the hot springs to see Naru still with her fist forward, eyes closed, and anger cross on her forehead. She became calm and stood up straight staring at where Keitaro was. Instead she was met with a somewhat indignant Motoko, who stared daggers at Naru, and subsequently shut the partition door between her and the hot springs.

"Wh… What just happened there?"

Naru pondered to herself, she had never received such a look from Motoko before, and she knew that, at least when Motoko looked at Keitaro like that sometimes, it would usually result in him being attacked. Naru shuddered at the thought, Keitaro may be immortal, but she was not, so she would be unlikely to survive anything that Motoko were to throw at her. Reluctant to think about it any further, she sat down back, the warm water relaxing her suddenly tense muscles, she promptly drifted off into that region between dreams and reality.

Motoko was angry, angry with Naru. It was true that Keitaro saw her naked. Well not quite, she still had her towel on… She shook her head, berating herself. Why does she persist in tormenting him? Motoko gasped, realising that she too had been doing the same thing to him all this while. She looked at the now still Keitaro, his leg had stopped twitching. Alarmed she crouched down and placed two fingers on his neck, feeling for a pulse. Sighing softly, having found a strong pulse, she removed his glasses, and found his eyes swirling around; he was out cold. Resilient as ever, but how much of this kind of treatment can he receive before he finally breaks? She gently picked him up and hefted him over her shoulder, turning to return him to his room.

What she didn't notice what that Suu-chan was watching her, and saw the entire event unfold before her, from when Motoko tried to convince Keitaro not to waste time on "such tasks" as she put it, until she picked him up. This prompted Suu-chan to think about things for a bit. Clicking her fingers, having obviously thought of something, she ran upstairs, jumping over several flights of stairs due to her hyperactiveness, and ran slipping and sliding on the newly polished floors that Keitaro had worked on in the morning. Reaching her room, she opened the door to her home away from homes, her own personal jungle which contained the latest in technology, a seamless fusion of both past, present and indeed the future of all that humanity had achieved. Walking in smiling, she stretched her muscles and kneaded her fists.

"Now to work" With a devilish grin she walked further in, calling out commands one after another as she did so, causing a stir in her room, trees groaning, bushes rustling, and the very fabric of her room changing. Angling her head slightly to her right, looking very much like Motoko when angry, her right eye acknowledged the fact that the door to her room was still open

"claud ianua." With that command, her door slid shut as the humming and lights began to pulse from within her room, growing steadily.

Room 204. Kanrinrin's Room

Motoko placed Keitaro gently in his futon, removing his slippers, and covered him up. It won't be long until he wakes up, might as well make him comfortable. She sat down next to him cross-legged, and began to meditate. I might as well do it now, since I have nothing better to do at this moment in time. She began to breathe slowly and more uniformly, allowing her mind to work naturally without any intervention on her part. She felt her body feel lighter and less of a burden. Motoko had reached the state by which she was alone in her mind, free to move about within the confines of her mind.

The Spiritual Plane

Motoko found herself in a white room, with 'windows' in the rest of her mind. She saw times when she was happy, at different time of her life. They were in chronological order, and the nearer they got to the beginning of her life, the less windows there were, her mind was unable to recall anything before she was two years old. Motoko knew that soon she would be able to access those times, they were stored in her mind, but they were just 'forgotten', and would need stimuli to remember those times. She viewed the confines of her mind, looking through all of the things that made her happy, some of these happy events were able to 'break thorugh' their respective windows and grow around the area that the window was. There was one window however, that was completely black. Motoko knew this window all too well, however this time it seemed different. She cautiously took a few steps closer to peer into the darkness. All of a sudden two red eyes peered back at her. Motoko, startled, fell to the ground in shock, still looking at the eyes. They stared at her, and then scrutinised the window it was contained in. Motoko saw the creature bare its sharp fangs and bite at the window.

"N… No, this can't be!" she stammered, "Th… This has never happened before!"

Motoko scooted backwards as fast as she could without standing up, when the creature burst through the wall of her mind, the window shattering completely. It drew up to its full height, around twelve feet high, and roared, its fins growing claws and spikes extending from other parts of its body. It focused its eyes on its prey, the iris glowing red and the pupil a vertical slit down the middle of each eye. It began to walk towards her.

"K… Kami-sama, help me, I h… have no weapon to fight this monster, not here." She began to cry, the past flooding back to her, the pain, humiliation, suffering and loneliness. Motoko remembered the old saying that if one 'died' in their dreams, they would die in real life, the reason being that a living body cannot exist with a dead mind. Though no one has attempted it, Motoko took this to heart and applied it to her own world of meditation. She stood up, adrenaline flooding her system as her body went through the 'Fight or Flight' syndrome.

The Physical Plane

Meanwhile, a cross-legged Motoko began to show signs of strain, beads of sweat forming on her brow, a frown present on her facial features. Keitaro, stirring in his sleep, turned over, making his hand touch Motoko's knee.

The Spiritual Plane

Motoko knew that without any weapons she was powerless to fight the creature, to she turned to run, keeping an eye on the creature behind her. In doing so she didn't see what lay ahead of her, and she bumped into something. Screaming as she fell, she thought that she was ambushed by two of them, but when she looked up she saw a man. He was silhouetted by a bright light behind him, and staggered towards her, one hand outstretched. Motoko, scared for one of the few times in her life, attempted to shield herself by covering her face with her arms, her spirit too weak to defend herself properly. She yelped when the figure grabbed her arm, gently, which puzzled Motoko, and then he spoke.

"Motoko-chan…"

She gasped. Wh… What is this? Is my mind playing tricks on me again? This voice is familiar… She opened her eyes without realising she had closed them in fear, lowering the other arm that wasn't being held by… Keitaro? She blinked twice to clear her vision, but the face in front of her did not change.

"Yes, it is me Motoko-chan," he said as he gently helped her up, "I don't know how I got here…" He kept her by his side, looking down at her tear stricken face, and then looked up at the creature, with a hint of malice and anger in his eyes, "… but it's lucky I did."

Keitaro knew that he could defeat this creature, but not here, he wasn't in a right state of mind, and he didn't want to traumatise Motoko any more. He noticed the stance of the creature had changed and it had begun to lunge at the two.

"This way!" Keitaro lifted up Motoko and ran with her in his arms into the bright light, and Motoko's world became a blinding white

"This is where I came from, we'll be safe in here, that creature can not follow us here." Motoko had closed her eyes and reopened them, growing accustomed to the unnatural light in this new room. There seemed to be no specific point of origin, similar to her room, and was constantly bright throughout the room. Keitaro put her down on the ground, letting her stand on her own two feet for once by herself. He fished out a tissue from his pocket and held it out to her. "Here, take it, wipe your eyes."

"A… Arigatou." As she went to pick up the tissue, her fingers brushed against his, causing her to blush again. She turned around to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. He is being more decisive than usual, and more kind to me…Satisfied that she had somewhat removed all traces of her tears except for her red-rimmed eyes, which couldn't be helped, she turned to face Keitaro, who was relaxing on a white armchair apparently that came from nowhere. She walked towards him, puzzled.

"Before you ask," he spoke, "I have the ability to create any object I wish within this space." With a snap of his fingers, he created a small table with a jug of lemonade and two glasses, and an armchair opposite him. Motoko proceeded to sit in the armchair, amused by all this. "Unfortunately the colours are a little lacking, so if you don't like white, then you're stuck." He chuckled. "Lemonade?" he asked her.

"Yes please." Motoko was feeling rather hot and thus thirsty. Keitaro poured a glass of iced lemonade for the both of them, and once finished, Motoko took a sip of hers, making her feel refreshed. Motoko was about to ask him something before Keitaro held up his hand.

"I'm sure that you have a lot of questions, so I'll fill you in on the more important details. Firstly you are in my mind, not yours." Motoko gasped at this statement, "I don't know how, but our minds somehow connected, which was how I managed to enter your mind for a brief while. However don't worry, the connection is still there…" He paused and nodded behind Motoko, who turned and saw a normal partition door with 'Motoko-chan' written on it. She sweatdropped. I was expecting a somewhat more dramatic entrance to my mind.

"Since you are in my mind, I also have the ability to sense your thoughts," Motoko felt her heart slow down due to the potential secrets he had access to, "but I would not be a fool enough to actually read them. I can however sense your emotions whether I like it or not, so I do know that you were afraid of whatever resided in your mind Motoko-chan." She inwardly breathed a sigh of relief at hearing this.

"Finally before you worry yourself," he continued, making her turn back to face him, "I'm not what you would consider to be the real Keitaro."

"WH… WHAT!" She jumped out of her seat at this piece of news, reaching for her katana, which wasn't there.

"Calm down Motoko-chan," holding a hand out smiling at her, "this is Keitaro's subconscious mind talking to you. Since Keitaro isn't as advanced as you in your abilities to get in touch with your subconscious mind. He is also, as you have probably noticed, more shy and clumsy in real life that me." Motoko cautiously sat back in her seat, and nodded. "Due to your expert handling of this state, you have merged both your conscious and subconscious minds, thus the reason why you are expressing more emotion in this plane than you would usually do in the physical world." Motoko remained silent as she took this in. "I am held here by a strong boundary unknowingly created by Keitaro, preventing me from being fully integrated into his personality."

Motoko mused over these revelations. "So if you are Keitaro's subconscious mind, where is Keitaro's… erm… conscious mind?" She tried to clarify, "The mind that he shows on the outside."

"Where he always is when knocked out or asleep," Keitaro waved a hand at the wall, 'opening' a window in the room, "he is reliving one of his childhood memories, one that means a lot to him."

Motoko looked at the window and saw a very young looking Keitaro kneeling down in a sandpit. Opposite him was a pretty girl around his age patting a dome shaped sandcastle gently. Motoko continued to watch.

"Do you know? When two people who are in love can both get into Toudai, they'll be living happily forever... When we grow up, let's go to Toudai together." The mysterious girl then gave Keitaro a quick peck on his left cheek, making them both blush for an instant.

Motoko blushed slightly, remembering her fantasy of Keitaro kissing her a few months ago. As she continued to watch she noticed that his dream was getting blurry, fading out and in at random moments it seemed. She only saw glimpses of what he was dreaming, another girl appeared for only a second, an old lady, a glint of a sword, Keitaro crying…

"This is where he forgets what really happened all those years ago." Keitaro stood up and walked towards the window, hands laced together behind his head looking at the window with an unreadable expression on his face. "It's not his fault you know… the human mind takes many a year to evolve into our current form wherein which we can retain thought for longer than a few minutes."

Motoko stood up and began to walk toward Keitaro. He continued, "The memories are there… but it might just take longer for him to remember them…" He turned around only to bump into Motoko. She began to fall backwards, Keitaro reaching out to stop her fall, but only losing more of his balance. He ended up falling on her, his right arm holding her head from hitting the ground too hard. Their faces were but a few inches apart now and Motoko could feel her face heating up, as Keitaro also began to blush. Motoko felt some pressure on her chest, and looked down see Keitaro's other hand resting where her left breast would be. Keitaro looked also, seeing what Motoko what seeing. His eyes grew bigger than his glasses, and then he looked back up at Motoko's face. Her eyes were clenched tight, as were her teeth as she began to growl.

"G… Gomen!" Keitaro stood up, both hands in the air, pleading his innocence. Motoko brought herself to her feet slowly, and knowledgeable of the fact that her katana is not on her, was about to uncharacteristically strike Keitaro with her fist.

Keitaro, cowering away from her, put his arms around his head. I'm dead, Motoko's wrath is much more deadly than Naru's. However, the fatal blow never came, and instead he felt a soft touch on his arm. He looked up to see Motoko smiling a little, holding her hand to help him up. He accepted her help and stood nearly level with her.

"Well, it still looks like you're still a pervert, even in your subconscious mind." She folded her arms and smirked at him, "at least you aren't totally different from the Keitaro I know."

"You are not the Motoko I expected either." Keitaro replied frankly, "Any other time and you would've launched me into space as per usual, but it seems that you have increased your tolerance levels for my mishaps."

Motoko was taken aback by this but hid her emotions. "That may be so, but it still doesn't mean anything Keitaro." She tried to act nonchalantly but Keitaro only smiled at her. He was still able to sense her emotions by the fact that she was unsuccessful in keeping her feelings hidden from him mentally. He could feel her embarrassment over the situation, but also another emotion, warmth… Could it be love?

His thoughts were interrupted by the room beginning to shake and the ever-present light starting to flicker less and less bright. Motoko and Keitaro were having trouble standing up straight as the mental earthquake seemed to hit them.

"What is this!" Motoko shouted towards Keitaro, nearly falling over, "Why is this happening?"

"I hate it when this happens." Keitaro stated, "Whenever Keitaro thinks or dreams about sad things, his mind goes into a routine of self-torment and hate."

"Is there nothing you can do to stop this?"

Keitaro could feel Motoko was getting worried, but he wasn't sure what at. "Why are you getting worried Motoko-chan?"

"I'm worried about us Keitaro, in case we get hurt." She replied with a hint of hesitation. Feeling slightly ashamed that she wasn't telling the full truth, she spoke up again, "Okay, for your information I'm worried about the Keitaro outside, what is he feeling?"

At that moment, the room stopped convulsing, the floor becoming flat once again, yet remained a dull grey colour. The two stopped shielding themselves Motoko looking around confused.

"Well I guess the worst is over then," Keitaro said, adjusting his glasses, which were lopsided, "however, he is still depressed, seeing as the room hasn't returned to its usual state."

A window popped up on the wall showing what Keitaro was currently dreaming about. Motoko looked in on it as well. The images were familiar to her though. She saw several people flashing on the screen in quick succession. She immediately recognised them as the residents of Hinata-sou, as if seen from Keitaro's eyes. The faces that appeared all appeared to be angry, sad or disappointed. Shinobu always appeared to be sad or close to tears, Mitsune was shown as disappointed, Suu-chan was making fun of him, Naru was always shown as angry, with or without fist, and she also seemed to like putting him down in their study periods.

Then it came to Motoko. It replayed some of the first moments at Hinata-sou in which Motoko attacked Keitaro, ending with her fighting Keitaro when he was in full battle gear. However at that moment the room seemed to get brighter, as the window began to show Keitaro again, this time with Suu-chan on his back. It was their first conversation together since their 'fight', when she had returned from her kendo training. The room began to consistently get brighter as the moments between Motoko and Keitaro were shown, finding him outside Toudai, when Motoko was asking about her present, the New Year festival… I… I didn't realise that he is beginning to care for me. Motoko looked on in shock at the scenes playing out before her, slightly embarrassed since the other Keitaro was watching on with a slight smile on his face.

The window blanked out. "Well, that's enough of that," said Keitaro, having finished waving at the window, "it's time to return you to where you belong." He smiled at Motoko. "Are you ready for this?"

No I'm not, what do you think? "Yes I am, let us go."

"The greatest victory is a victory won without fighting."

Keitaro walked towards the partition door that separated the two minds, he opened it to see the creature nowhere in sight. Walking through, the twosome were supposedly alone in Motoko's mind. She could now feel Keitaro's emotions, and felt that he was very protective towards her. They both sensed a presence to their left and sure enough the creature was there, albeit in a dormant state. It began to stir and turned around, its red eyes focussing on Motoko, pupils becoming tiny slits.

"Motoko-chan, get to the other side of the room and try to return to consciousness, I will try and hold him off as long as I can." Keitaro stood between her and the creature, one arm held out defiantly across Motoko, as if to say 'I am your opponent' to the creature. "When you get there, do not watch the battle, for it will distract you, face away from us. Do it now!" The creature's eyes narrowed slightly, focussing on Keitaro now.

Motoko could feel Keitaro's confidence, she was unsure as to how he could defeat such a creature. Nevertheless, she took his advice. "I will do as you say."

Keitaro turned his head to his right and smiled at her. "Till we meet again Motoko-chan."

With that Motoko ran to the furthest end of the room, sat down cross-legged, facing away from them and closed her eyes. It took much concentration for her to leave the spiritual plane, as it was to enter it. She tried to put the current battle out of her mind and began the body retrieval process.

Keitaro and the creature stared off at each other. The creature roared, a guttural bellow that seemed to reverberate around the room. Its claws were already at full length, spikes extended on its back, altering its body position preparing to pounce. Keitaro closed his eyes slightly, feeling his ki around him and focussing it for battle readiness, his hands forming a reddish aura around them. He opened his eyes.

There were fifty metres between them. The creature lunged. Keitaro ran forward. Thirty metres, Keitaro had his fists clenched ready to strike. Ten metres, the creature raised both claws above its head. Nine metres, Keitaro tripped over his own feet. He fell over rolling over a few times. In doing this, he managed to avoid the scything claws of the creature, which were aimed for his body were he standing still. Sticking a leg out, Keitaro managed to trip the creature over, making it fall flat on its front. Standing up quickly, Keitaro looked at the creature, which was now still, but slowly picking itself up. Fixating its gaze on Keitaro, it seemed to pant a little. It moved its eyes to the right slightly, a smirk almost visible on its snarling maw. Another deafening roar and it lunged again, but this time at the still form of Motoko, who was unaware of the imminent danger approaching her.

"NO!" Keitaro ran to the creature, tripping it once again. In a feat of strength he picked up the creature by its legs and with an overarm throw, threw it away from Motoko. It landed hard around ten metres away, on its back, its face watching Keitaro. "You would dare attack an incapacitated opponent! You disgust me."

Keitaro walked up to it, preparing to deal its final blow. All of a sudden the creature began to cry, its tears falling to the ground. Its eyes had also turned blue and much rounder than usual. It fins uselessly flapping about as it tried to self-right. Nevertheless Keitaro walked on. It then began to talk with a high pitch. It sounded… cute… as it repeated the word 'Myu' over and over again. Keitaro stopped, he was unsure as to what to do. Is this creature really that evil, or is this some sort of ruse? He began to feel pity for it and gently turned it over onto its front. However, no sooner than he did that, he was rewarded with a backhanded slap from the creature, flying several metres backwards.

"You are quite an honourable person." Keitaro blinked and stood up glaring at the creature. "You would help an enemy even if it would mean your death. I commend you for this." Keitaro understood now, the creature could communicate telepathically.

"And yet you defy your own honour by attacking someone who is unable to fight back! What kind of logic is that?" Keitaro rebuked to creature, holding his chest as he saw his top shredded in four places, however not deep enough to touch his skin.

"Battles must be won through ruthlessness, not with human things like honour and emotions, or else you will lose." The creature blinked, its eyes returning to their usual red state. "This battle is between that girl and I. Why do you defend that weak girl anyway?" Its left fin raised and pointed at Motoko, "What does she mean to you?"

Keitaro was silent for a moment, "I care for her," he stated finally, "and thus it is one of my duties to protect her in times of need."

Keitaro could hear the mental snort of the creature in front of him. "You fool, once again you fall for the weakest of human emotions. Love is like a rose. It's all good-smelling, but if you hold it too tight, it can stab you, make you bleed, and scar you for life." The creature put on an offensive pose, "I hope you remember this lesson I have taught you, for it will be the last lesson you will ever learn in you pathetic life."

With that the creature lunged, claws extended for a fatal blow. Keitaro stood there, still clutching his chest. Act as if you are vulnerable and weak. Now that I know his weak spot I can easily defeat him. Waiting until the last possible moment he made his move. He jumped just as the claws from both hands would've decapitated him were he staying in the same place or trying to slide under him, now just barely missing his feet. The creature, having put all of his strength into the sweeping arc of his attack, could only watch as Keitaro planted an uppercut on his chin with his right fist, still coated in a red aura. Becoming slightly dazed, he staggered back a few steps, slapping his skull to clear the little Pikachu's that were now walking around in circles around his head. This was Keitaro's chance, he jumped in and punched straight into where he thought the creature's gut resided, causing it to double forward in pain. Crouching, Keitaro sweeped his leg behind the creature's heels, making it fall on its back once again. He walked up to the head of it and punched it lightly, knocking it out for what will be a while, its eyes becoming swirls and tongue hanging out, once more Pikachu's walking around its head. Keitaro sighed, and, kicking the shell of the creature, made it return to the window from which it emerged, being sucked into it. The window then sealed up and reinforced itself, once again becoming a repressed memory in Motoko's mind.

Keitaro looked over and walked to Motoko and looked at her as he stood in front. She is almost there; she is also unable to feel anything else from this world. Keitaro blushed slightly, then looking around, paranoid that somehow someone might see what he was about to, he bent down and kissed her on the cheek. Sensing no reaction from Motoko, he was happy and, fixing her bangs in her hair, he left her to return to his own mind. At the doorway, looking back once more at Motoko, he smiled, and shut the door. Immediately the door vanished from sight and became an ordinary part of the wall, forever sealed until another time.

The physical plane

Motoko opened her eyes slowly, sweat still apparent on her forehead. She looked around, and happy that she had finally returned to her body, calmed down. Motoko glanced at the clock and noticed that barely ten minutes had passed, even though it seemed like much longer. I forget sometimes… Time in the spiritual plane travels faster than time in the physical plane, since there are no boundaries between most objects there. She looked down at Keitaro, who was still snoozing away blissfully, and Motoko noticed he was touching her knee. Smiling, she gently picked up his hand, stroking it gently, remembering how he saved her from her nightmare. Being cautious of her surroundings, she lightly kissed his fingers, and placed them carefully back into the futon so that they don't get too cold. Upon tucking him in again and making sure that there were no other problems, she placed and warm damp towel on his head and turned his heating up slightly. Satisfied that he was well onto his way to recovery, she left him and returned to her room.

Feeling tired, she wiped her head with a towel and then decided to go to bathe in the hot springs. I might as well relax after what has just happened. She picked up a towel and walked next door to Suu-chan's room, where she heard a lot of noise in. Cautiously she sneaked up to the door and opened it ever so slightly, only to be met with an eye.

"Waaah!" she fell over backwards and the door opened a little more only to reveal a beaming Suu-chan. Suu-chan pressed a button on a control pad she held behind her back and her room reverted to the usual jungle-like state that she shows to everyone who enters her room. Once it had finished, she opened the door to its full state.

She tiptoed to Motoko, and helped her up, looking sad, knowing that Motoko doesn't like to get scared. "I'm sorry to have scared you Motoko." Once Suu-chan brought her to her feet she hugged Motoko, "Please forgive me!"

Motoko hugged her back, and whispered into Suu-chan's ear, "There is no need Suu-chan, I fell over my own feet." She lied, since she didn't like to see Suu-chan sad especially over such a little thing. Suu-chan pulled back from the hug and looked up at Motoko, her eyes still slightly red. Ruffling Suu-chan's hair she asked, "Would you like to bathe with me in the hot springs? We can play your favourites games if you want."

At the sound of 'games', Suu-chan's face lit up and she eagerly nodded. "Well," Motoko said, "go get your towel then!" Motoko smiled as she saw Suu-chan skip happily into her room and jump around on the trees in order to find her towel, which was hanging off a branch. Upon finding it she left her room excitedly, shutting her partition door and happily jumping onto Motoko's back, towel draped over her shoulder. Motoko held onto Suu-chan's arms and walked downstairs to the hot springs level. They went into the changing rooms and undressed, leaving their rooms wearing their towels.

Motoko opened the partition to the hot springs, and was amused to see Naru still there. Motoko purposely tried to avoid talking to her at this time, and so chose somewhere relatively far from her to sit. Naru was bemused at Motoko's behaviour, since she was still acting hostile towards her. Suu-chan noticed this but chose to remain oblivious to it on the outside and happily followed Motoko to the area she walked to. Suu-chan then began to play her games, Motoko joining in on most of them. Naru watched the two, noticing that Motoko was somewhat more upbeat than last time she saw her. After a short while Suu-chan had got rid of her hyperactiveness and began to settle into the water, nestling against Motoko's shoulder, Motoko responded in kind by allowing her to do so.

As the three sat there, there were several thought going through their minds. Suu-chan was wondering about the exact relationship between the two people she loved the most, Motoko and Keitaro. Why are they getting together now? They seem to be much more amicable in each others company more than usual. I hope there is something I can do for them at one point. Nevertheless, what I'm working on should help out…Narusegawa was thinking about random things in her chaotic mind. I really need to work hard this year, my studying technique seems to be off recently, and maybe Keitaro is the problem…? What is with Motoko? She seems to be upset with me, over Keitaro? Nah… it couldn't be, she doesn't like men, she told me herself when she first arrived here. I wonder what Shinobu-chan is going to cook for dinner…Naru's mind began to wonder again… Motoko however, had only one thing on her mind. Keitaro… was that all real? His subconscious mind said that he would not recall anything that occurred in the spiritual plane. However he also said that he was the 'true' Keitaro. I don't even remember what happened of him during the battle, I lose all my senses when trying to exit that plane. I'm not even sure if he survived… Nonetheless, I would like to meet him again, or get to know Keitaro better. She blushed again, thinking about him. Another ten minutes passed before she felt that they should leave the hot springs. Tickling Suu-chan gently under her armpits, Motoko woke her up giggling. Suu-chan, noticing that Naru had left, gave Motoko a peck on the cheek, beaming afterwards, looking very content. Smiling Motoko picked up both Suu-chan's towel and her own, passing Suu-chan's on to her. Covering themselves, they left the hot springs, dried off, got dressed and returned to their rooms.

Chapter 8

Tergiversation and Catharsis

One hour later

Shinobu-chan was pleased with herself. She had prepared a special meal for everyone in Hinata-sou, with everyone's favourite dish as the main course. It was hard work, but she felt that she had to it, besides, it was one of the few times in which most of them were at Hinata-sou on a weekday. Humming happily to herself, she had to inform everyone that lunch was ready. I think I'll let sempai know first, he is the kanrinrin. Walking towards Keitaro's room, she rapped lightly on his door.

"Come in!" he shouted, Shinobu-chan opened the partition to see Keitaro. Now fully recovered he was sitting up at his heating table reading some of his study books. He had a small bruise on his forehead. "Hello Shinobu-chan, how may I help you today?" he smiled at her.

Shinobu-chan, concerned as ever, saw the bruise and indicated it. "What happened to your head sempai?" She looked as if she was about to cry.

"Ahh, it's nothing Shinobu-chan, no need to get worried over it, I'll survive!" Keitaro put one hand behind his head, a small sweatdrop appearing to the left of it. If only she realised how painful this was… "So, what can I do for you?"

"Umm," she tried to rack her brains, trying to recall why she was there in the first place, but the bruise had put her off, "ah yes, I'm just here to inform you that lunch is ready sempai."

"Arigatou Shinobu-chan!" Keitaro smiled, he always loved her cooking. "Tell you what Shinobu-chan, I'll let everyone else know and you can set out the table. Is that okay with you?"

She looked shocked, "Are you sure sempai?"

"Of course it is!" Keitaro waved off that assumption by her, "It's no trouble at all Shinobu-chan, besides I'm sure you're a little tired from doing all that cooking, the least I could do is let everyone else know that it's ready."

She looked delighted and bowed slightly, "Arigatou! I'll set the table right away sempai!" Shinobu-chan skipped down the corridor down towards the kitchen area.

Keitaro stood up and walked to his next door neighbour, Mitsune, a slight limp evident in his stride. He rapped on her door.

"What?" Her Osaka accent sounding annoyed. Taking this as an invitation into her room, he opened her door to see her lounging on her sofa reading a book. From what Keitaro could see, it was called 'The Last Day'.

"Gomen Kitsune," Keitaro bowed slightly, "I've just popped in to tell you that dinner is ready now if you would like to go downstairs."

"Arigatou Keitaro," she said, still engrossed in the book, just as soon as I've finished this chapter."

"Okay, see you later then!"

Keitaro exited Mitsune's room and walked upstairs. The first door he reached was Narusegawa's room, so he knocked on her door.

"Come in!" Keitaro opened the door to see her working at the heating table, books laid out neatly in front of her. She was wearing her glasses, as she does every time she reads her books. "Keitaro, I can't help you study right now, I'm too busy…"

"No, no," he interrupted, "its nothing to do with that, I'm just informing you that dinner is ready."

"Oh," she seemed slightly disappointed, "okay then, I'll be down in a moment."

Keitaro shut her door and walked to Suu-chan's room, and was about to knock on her door. To his surprise it opened almost as soon as he reached there. Keitaro looked into the room, which was completely dark at this point. Peering in further he could make out a brown object in front of him, it had five small objects on the top, but he realised what it was too late. Suu-chan delivered her powerful kick barefooted against Keitaro's cheek, making him reel backwards, tears of pain leaving his eyes for an instant. Grabbing hold of the top of her door partition frame and swinging herself forwards, she executed a mid air loop and Keitaro, looking up in time, caught her as she landed in his arms. She latched her legs around his waist, arms around the back of his neck, and she was beaming happily at him.

"Heya Keitaro, watcha want?" Without any intervention her door slid shut of its own accord.

Keitaro messed up her hair a little. "Well Suu-chan, just wanted to let you know that mealtime is here."

She began to drool slightly, "Food!" She twisted herself so that she was on his back, kicking him with her legs lightly as if he were a horse, "Well lets go then Keitaro!"

"Hold on Suu-chan, I still have to get Motoko-chan."

Walking by her door, Suu-chan took the initiative and knocked on Motoko's door, calling out loud, "Motoko! Time for lunch!"

There was a little bit of shuffling as she got up from her seating position and opened her door. She was a little surprised at seeing Keitaro there as well.

"Oh, hello Keitaro." She didn't want to seem too forward to him in front of Suu-chan. She began to walk alongside of them as Suu-chan continued to rub her face on Keitaro's right cheek, enjoying the feel of his skin.

"Umm," Keitaro began to blush a little, Suu-chan feeling the heat of it against her own cheek, "Motoko-chan…" She turned to him as they continued to walk, "Arigatou. You took care of me didn't you? After I was knocked out."

"Keitaro was knocked out?" Suu-chan feigned ignorance and asked him. "Did you cure him Motoko?" She looked at her looking innocent.

"Yes Suu-chan," Motoko replied, nodding, "I took care of him, to make sure there was no lasting damage." She noticed the bruise on his forehead. She lightly put a hand to it, feelings its surface, and stopped noticing that Keitaro winced slightly. "It seems that it has not fully healed." She smiled, "Any ordinary human would've been killed at hitting a wall at that speed, but you seem to have emerged relatively unscathed from it."

She stopped, causing Keitaro to stop and look at her, her hands locked together in front, and lowered her head slightly, "If you don't mind I would like to tend to your wound later." Her hair covered her face, which was becoming redder by the second. What am I thinking! I am being too forward! Why would he even want to accept such a preposterous offer...

"Okay then Motoko-chan," He smiled compassionately at her, "I would like that a lot."

Motoko looked up, her face still slightly red, those last few words echoing in her mind. "I would like that a lot… I would like that a lot…" Did I hear him correctly? Does he mean it? She stopped thinking about it and began to walk again beside Keitaro on their way to the kitchen area.

Upon their arrival a wondrous sight met them, there were seven plates set out on the table. Each one had a different meal on them, obviously the favourite of each person. Everyone had arrived, Shinobu-chan was in the kitchen picking up some drinks for everyone. Naru and Kitsune were chatting to each other, waiting patiently for everyone to arrive. When everyone had sat down there was still one spare seat.

"Shinobu-chan," Naru asked, "why is there another seat prepared?"

"Gomen for being late, I had to finish up with a few customers." A voice instantly recognisable came from the entrance.

Keitaro craned his neck to see...

"Haruka-obasan! (Aunt)" Keitaro exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

Haruka belted him over the head with her newspaper. "Call me Haruka-san." Once he looked up again, holding his head, she continued. "Shinobu-chan invited me here for lunch, is that a problem Keitaro?"

"No, no, not at all Haruka-san! I'm just surprised and happy to see you that’s all." Keitaro somehow made Haruka smile a little, her cigarette still smouldering.

She inhaled once more and puffed out some more smoke before walking over to the sink, putting out her cigarette and throwing the wet butt into the bin. Returning to the table they began the meal. Keitaro sat between the two youngest people in Hinata-sou, Shinobu-chan and Suu-chan. The meal went by without any notable events, even Keitaro didn't manage to upset anyone at that time. Suu-chan often managed to cover Keitaro in sauces due to her eating style, one side of him plastered with tandoori and masala sauces. Shinobu-chan was very conservative whilst eating, occasionally laughing with Keitaro over his current appearance.

After the meal they had all congratulated Shinobu-chan on her wonderful meal. She blushed immensely and bowed to them. Keitaro cleaned his face and his left shoulder that was soaked in sauces, and looked at Suu-chan. She turned to him still drinking a glass of water.

"Hmm?" she questioned still drinking.

"I was wondering if you would like to help me do the washing up Suu-chan." Keitaro said, having finished cleaning his face.

She put her glass down and replied, "Sure, I like to spend time you Keitaro!" She beamed at him, making him notice that she still had some sauce left untouched on her cheek. Keitaro reached out and wiped it off her face with a clean serviette from the table. Naru glanced at him from across the table, did a double take and then slammed both hands on the table hard.

"What are you doing to Suu-chan!" She yelled. Keitaro turned, his attention on Naru, moving his hand away from Suu-chan. He was about to answer when he felt the familiar punch on his face. He flew backwards out of his chair, landing in a rather painful looking position on the floor, the chair flipping over and landing on him after he hit the ground. He accidentally slapped Suu-chan as he fell. Naru failed to notice this as everyone else watched in astonishment.

"Sempai!" Shinobu-chan cried out as she got out of her chair to crouch down to help him, lifting the chair off him. His eyes were swirling so she got a glass of water and carefully fed it to him. Drinking slowly he slowly regained consciousness. Opening his eyes, he was met with a concerned Shinobu.

"I… I'm okay Shinobu-chan," Keitaro smiled at her, "You know me, I survive anything."

Keitaro got up off the floor, Shinobu-chan still staying close by his side in case he for some reason falls over or faints. Motoko stood up and glared at Naru.

"Narusegawa!" she exclaimed angrily, "Why did you do that! Can't you see that he was being nice to Suu-chan?"

Naru closed her eyes and folded her arms, "He was being a pervert again. He was touching her…"

"So what!" Motoko interrupted, "He was cleaning her face. You usually have to touch the other person's face to do so."

Shinobu-chan spoke up, "Naru-sempai, you are not being very kind to Keitaro-sempai, he was just helping Suu."

Naru looked shocked, she turned to her old friend and Haruka for support. All she received in return was a disappointed shake of the head from Haruka, who was beginning to light up another cigarette. Mitsune was not being able to hold Naru's gaze.

"K… Kitsune, you too…?" Naru was in disbelief.

"Naru-chan…" Mitsune hesitated, "You do go too far at times… You take things he does way out of proportion."

Naru's vision suddenly went black, a gunshot sound resonating in her ears, she was in a world of darkness. She felt completely alone, all of her friends had abandoned her for Keitaro, and it was as if her heart had just broken. Her vision returned as the darkness smashed as if it were broken glass.

There was a loud sniffling coming from the table.

All eyes turned to Suu-chan, who throughout this exchange was quiet. All became clear as they noticed she was the one sniffling. Her eyes were sad, tears welling up in them. This was shocking for all those around, for not once had they seen her this sad. Mitsune even opened her eyes, in case she was hallucinating. She was holding her cheek, which now sported a red mark from where Keitaro hit her unintentionally. She turned to Keitaro

"Oniisan… (Brother)" she mumbled tearfully, unable to say anymore as she began to sob uncontrollably.

"Suu-chan…" Keitaro reached out to her. However she turned and closed her eyes, her tears floating in the air momentarily, and she kicked him in the face to get him out of her way. Keitaro, who recovered quickly and rubbing his cheek saw the distressed Indian girl bawling loudly down the corridor and up the staircase. Shinobu-chan who was still beside him saw her running off.

Everyone was numb, except for one person. "See? Now look what you've done, You've gone and made Suu-chan cry!" Naru pointed accusingly at Keitaro, looking around at the others for support. Motoko narrowed her eyes at Narusegawa. The other girls were still too numb to react accordingly. Keitaro looked right into Narusegawa's eyes, which made her nervous. What is that look he's giving me? He's not asking for forgiveness yet… it looks like… no, it cannot be… it looks like… anger? Hate?

"Narusegawa…" He spoke with a calm, neutral voice, which made Naru worry. He hasn't been so formal to me for a while, perhaps he's going to beg for forgiveness…? He continued, "When you hurt me, you hurt Suu-chan, and when you hurt Suu-chan, you hurt everyone. I don’t care in the slightest what you think of me, since I no longer care about you." Naru gasped to herself at the last comment, "You can hurt me as many times as you wish, I couldn't be bothered really, but if you hurt Suu-chan again, I will never forgive you…"

Keitaro continued to stare at Naru, but this time spoke more quietly, "I'm afraid that I can't help you with the washing up today Shinobu-chan. I'm sure you can understand why…" He spoke with regret in his voice.

"I understand sempai," Shinobu-chan nodded profusely, her hands balled up together as if in prayer, "I hope you can cheer her up."

Keitaro narrowed his eyes slightly at Naru, and then turned and left the room. For a few moments everyone froze, unsure of what to do. I have to go help him, Suu-chan will need comfort from more than one person. Motoko then decided that enough was enough and left the room son after, not looking at Naru. Haruka mumbled something about reopening her shop, and left quietly. Shinobu-chan began to collect some of the plates to place them in the sink. Mitsune got up using both hands, feeling drained from everything that had just transpired.

"Kitsune," Naru tried to appeal to her friend once more, "you agree with me don't you!" Naru was almost desperate for Mitsune to concur.

Mitsune simply turned to face Naru and opened her eyes, a rare frown present upon her facial features. Mentally distraught herself, Mitsune couldn't bring up enough courage to tell Naru otherwise, so she left without saying a word. Naru was speechless. Shinobu-chan returned from the kitchen to pick up some more plates to wash.

"Do you want me to help you Shinobu-chan?" Naru smiled at the girl, and went to pick up a plate. She however touched Shinobu-chan's fingers, making her flinch. Naru drew back, shocked.

"Gomen Naru-sempai," Shinobu-chan replied softly, picking up the rest of the plates and glasses quickly, "I'm fine thank you."

With that she left Naru alone at the now empty table. Naru sat down, overwhelmed by everything. Alone and depressed, she folded her arms on the table, and wept quietly into them for a long time.

Outside Room 301

Keitaro stared at Suu-chan's door, he knew that she was angry, although angry with whom he couldn't be sure. All he knew was that he was a part of it and that only he could help her. He knocked lightly on her door but received no reply. He tried again, harder, but still no reply. He then decided to risk opening her door, wary of what she might hold within. The room was dark except for the light streaming in from the doorway. Keitaro took a cautious step into her room.

"Suu-chan? Are you in here?" His voice seemed to echo in the darkness.

Immediately, three spotlights from indiscernible sources were pointed at him. The area around him was bathed in a blood red colour, the ensuing klaxon scaring the wits out of him.

"WARNING! INTRUDER ALERT! PRESSURE PADS 03, 05 AND LIGHT SENSORS 13, 101 AND 435 TRIPPED."

"Wh... What is this!" Keitaro couldn't see where the electronic genderless voice was emanating from, the spotlights blinding him. All of a sudden the spotlights vanished, to be replaced with three red eyes from different parts of the room.

"COUNTERMEASURES ARMED. MISSILES PREPPED FOR LAUNCH. TARGET ACQUIRED. LAUNCH IN: T MINUS FIVE… FOUR… THREE…"

"I… I'm going to die!" Keitaro was frozen in his place, unable to move.

"TWO…"

Keitaro could see the missiles beginning to fire up their rocket motors. His muscles began to twitch.

"ONE…."

Three lasers appeared, centred on Keitaro's chest, seemingly from the missiles themselves. Keitaro stepped back slightly.

"FIRE!"

Keitaro burst into a sprint as the missiles launched. "WAAAH!" He screamed as he ran down the corridor away from the rapidly closing missiles, the lasers tracking his every movement. Eyes clenched tight for fear he might die any second, tears flying out of his eyes, he didn't see as he bumped into Motoko.

"Aah!" Keitaro said as he saw her calm face looking at him, "Gomen Motoko-chan, but there's three missiles after me!" Keitaro was panicky, constantly looking over his shoulder in case they were to hit him as he was talking.

Motoko glanced down the corridor to see three red eyes with plumes of smoke behind them. Carefully moving Keitaro out of the way, she drew her katana and waited. Not until they were around ten metres away did she do anything. With three careful airborne swipes with the katana, and a bit of her ki, she was able to destroy all three missiles in the air. They all blew up in puffs of smoke, a little bit of shrapnel falling at the feet of Motoko and Keitaro. Breathing a sigh of relief, Keitaro put one hand on Motoko's shoulder.

"Arigatou Motoko-chan," He turned to her, "once again you have helped me, I won't forget this." He smiled and was rewarded with Motoko eliciting a barely visible but distinguishable smile from her.

"I will go talk to her for the time being, you can wait outside Keitaro." Keitaro was about to say something but then Motoko held up a hand to silence him, "It's all right, she won't use the missiles on me, she's just upset now and needed to let off some steam."

Walking together, they went up to her room door. Motoko knocked on her door. When there was still no reply, Motoko spoke, "It's me Suu-chan."

The room in front of Keitaro seemed to brighten a lot, and the door opened a crack, although he couldn't see in because Motoko stood in the way. Motoko looked down to see a tearful Suu-chan looking up pitifully at her. Suu-chan moved away from the door, opening it slightly. Motoko took this as a sign that she could enter, opening it further. As she was halfway in, she looked at Keitaro.

"Stay here until I let you come in." Keitaro nodded, saying nothing in return as Motoko moved into the room and shut the door.

Motoko turned around from the door and was shocked to say the least, she looked around to see that Suu-chan's room was in a state. Although used to the sight of the jungle by now, she could not understand what brought Suu-chan to do what she had done. Everything was destroyed, or almost broken. Motoko walked over torn leaves, crushed circuit boards and puddles of water to Suu-chan. She was lying on her front on the branch of the only remaining tree left standing in her bedroom.

"Suu-chan…" Motoko was concerned… she had never seen Suu-chan like this.

"Motoko, why did oniisan hit me?" She turned her head towards Motoko, "Does oniisan hate me?" Her eyes began to well up again.

Motoko delicately picked up Suu-chan, cuddling her as if she was a baby. Suu-chan gave in and began to bawl into Motoko's gi. Motoko kneeled down, comforting Suu-chan, whispering soothing noises into her ear and stroking her hair. They sat like that for around ten minutes, rocking gently. When Motoko felt that Suu-chan was crying dry tears, she decided to talk.

"Suu-chan?"

"Hmm?" The fold of Motoko's gi muffled Suu-chan's reply.

"Do you mind if I let Keitaro in?" Motoko felt Suu-chan tense up, but continued nonetheless, "He wants to apologise for what he did."

Suu-chan lifted up her head, so that her voice could be heard, "patesc ianua."

To Motoko's astonishment, the door slid open by itself to reveal a sitting Keitaro just outside looking up. At that moment Narusegawa was returning to her room, but decided to pop her head around the corner. She saw the Suu-chan's door open and noticed Keitaro sitting there, then looking into the door. He seemed to nod and then pushing his hands on his knees, he got up and walked into Suu-chan's room, shutting the door as he got in. Naru hung her head low and walked back into her room, alone with her books as she had been for two years of her life.

Keitaro felt that he was being watched, and felt a presence to his right. As he got up to go inside Suu-chan's room he quickly glanced to his right and saw Naru spying on him. Dismissing her, he walked into Suu-chan's room. He reacted in a similar fashion to Motoko when she saw the room, shocked. He looked at the places where he stood, but could find no sort of security measures there, but figured Suu-chan had them cleverly hidden, however he could see the missile launchers, which were, to put it politely, falling apart. They were placed on a tree, but now that tree was but a shell of what it used to be, the bare skeleton of it remaining. He was still amazed at the mere presence of any trees in her room, but nevertheless kept his head and walked towards the tree where Motoko was holding Suu-chan. Motoko gave Keitaro a look that implied gratitude and feeling that without him, this problem would not go away soon.

Keitaro sat down opposite Motoko, who whispered something to Suu-chan, causing her to stir in Motoko's lap, but not yet turn to Keitaro. I need to speak to her face-to-face, or else it won't be the same. Shuffling closer to where Motoko sat, Keitaro put a hand on Suu-chan's head.

"Suu-chan…" The little girl seemed to turn her head away from his voice, "Please Suu-chan, let me see your face, I cannot apologise to you like this."

Slowly she turned to face Keitaro, her eyes red from tears, her face wet from the countless tears she shed, her nose running a little.

"Suu-chan…" Keitaro was now close to tears, in front of him a vulnerable little girl was crying because of him. "Gomen… gomen for hitting you… it was an accident you must understand. I did not mean to hit you then, and nor will I ever hit you in anger in the future, You mean too much to me Suu-chan."

He hung his head low, unable to say anything more than the truth. Suu-chan looked at him and her eyes somehow began to well up with tears again. She jumped out of Motoko's embrace and hugged Keitaro close, shocking him slightly.

"Gomen oniisan, I didn't mean to be a bad girl and make you sad…" She began to sob into his neck.

Smiling softly and bringing her closer, Keitaro replied. "You didn't make me sad Suu-chan, in fact you make me happy every time you smile." Lifting her face he wiped her cheeks with his thumbs to clear away her tears. "Although I'm not your oniisan, I would be delighted if you could be my imouto-chan (little sister) for as long as I live in Hinata-sou." Keitaro knew that she sorely missed her brother, the nights when she would cry out for him, her bad dreams about never seeing him again. He thought that he might resemble her brother in one way, which is why she called him oniisan. Even so, he knew that she needed companionship at this time, so he didn't want to leave her alone, or at least think she's alone, at any time of the day.

Suu-chan began to brighten up, her smile once again returning for the first time in a while. "Really! Is that okay Keitaro!"

"Sure, I want to, so why not… imouto-chan?" He smiled at her.

Suu-chan was overjoyed and kissed him on the cheek, resulting in a slight blush from Keitaro. Motoko watched all this with amusement. I never knew that Keitaro could be this kind to anyone, even if it is Suu-chan. Upon seeing his blush though, she raised her eyebrow and began to have second thoughts. Looks like he is having more impure thoughts… maybe I was mistaken in thinking he was different. Keitaro looked to Motoko and winked, he had got to the stage at which he could begin to read her, and he recognised that look of doubt in her eyes. Motoko inwardly gasped, she didn't have any inkling that she betrayed her emotions at all. I'm sure I kept them hidden, or maybe… could he… read me? Have I become that transparent to him? She decided to let it go for the time being.

Keitaro looked around the room, and decided that they shouldn't stay there for much longer, it was a tip. He began to rise and indicated to Motoko that they should leave. Still carrying Suu-chan protectively, he opened to door to her room, Motoko following close behind, shutting the door behind her as they left.

"What do you want to do now imouto-chan?" Keitaro needed her to indulge herself for as long as need be, so that she remained happy.

"I want to stay with Keitaro," She held both arms out, still smiling, "I promise to be quiet."

Keitaro chuckled, he knew what she meant by 'quiet', but he liked her presence, so he agreed. Turning to Motoko he asked "Will you be okay for a while Motoko-chan?" She nodded and saw him mouth 'I might need you later' to her as Suu-chan crawled around him onto his back. She nodded once more and entered her room.

Keitaro began to walk back to his room, knowing that he would have to pass by Naru's room. He was still angry with her, and felt that he shouldn't apologise to her as of yet, for fear of upsetting Suu-chan again. He walked back downstairs, and failed to notice Naru following his movements through her door, which was open by a crack. He also failed to notice a single tear flow down her cheek as she returned to her studies.

-----------------------------

Author's notes: These last two chapters were produced almost simultaneously, and simply flowed from my fingers.

The title of Chapter 7 was a sort of tribute to an Evangelion fanfic of the same name, which I find very interesting (it still isn't finished yet).

I apologise in advance to Archimage for any similarities to his monster in his Motoko-based story. I think we both understand that there was a creature in her past that was indeed a turtle (hence her inherent fear of them). However I probably put more attributes that he gave of the monster into my creation, sorry about that (and I will change it somehow if you do want me to).

I know that I might get flames for created what is essentially an ACC in Chapter 7. I am trying to base him on what I think Keitaro is like in the end of Love Hina (Volume 14 I mean, seeing as I saw the scans of it), so it isn't entirely created. Regarding his sudden skills in fighting, well, that is all to come… in chapter 40… of Book 2… (i.e., a while off).

Chapter 8, and some help for those still trying to figure out the title.

Tergiversation: change of mind, change of intention, change of purpose; afterthought.

Catharsis: The release of ideas, thoughts, and repressed material from the unconscious, accompanied by an emotional response and relief.

Hope that clears up any confusion... This is the first of a short saga regarding the change in Naru's constant punishment of Keitaro, indeed, of everyone and the way they react to him. I was really troubled over the way in how I should end the scene at the table. There were two ways in which I wanted it to end, there was this way, where everyone abandoned her, or she could've gone ballistic. I had read probably the longest Evangelion fanfic ever (possibly of all fanfics), standing at well over 200,000 words long, and it's still going. I cannot remember the name, but I know that the author is known as 'Kimberly'. It is about a relationship between Shinji and Rei. This is a very loooong and gradual romance. However, in the background, Asuka went totally bizarre, crazy shall we say, and I wanted to do that to Naru since I liked it a lot '. However I felt that the Naru fans here would lynch me, so I decided to keep her fairly human.

Anyways, back to my fanfic, as you can see the relationship between Keitaro, Motoko and Suu-chan as you can tell is increasing, and I hope you think it is a nice addition to the story. I hope to develop some other characters more, such as Shinobu-chan and Kitsune seeing as very little is known about them. I have added a bit more mysticism over Suu-chan's origins, adding a new language to her vocabulary. Before you ask, there are supposed to be no capital letters at the beginning of a new sentence, and it is not too hard to guess which language she can speak...

E-mail me at for any comments on a personal basis.

Chapter 9

Secrets Revealed I: Kaorra Suu

Kanrinrin's Room

A few minutes later

Keitaro sat down at the heating table where his books remained prepared for study. He immediately began on mathematics, knowing that it was one of the first exams. Of course, Suu-chan was as excitable as ever, almost back to her old self. She sped around the room looking into every nook and cranny of Keitaro's home away from homes, looking for anything she could use to tease him with. This went on for around an hour, much longer than the first time he let Suu-chan into his room. Keitaro was about to complete a calculus problem when his pencil end finally snapped, along with his nerve.

"Yaaah!" Holding his head in his hands he shouted in frustration. Suu-chan remained oblivious as she blurred around him looking for anything. Stopping suddenly, she opened a magazine that Keitaro knew all too well, from his 'collection'.

"Pervert!" She giggled, thinking she would embarrass him further.

However Keitaro smirked a little, he picked it out of her hands and threw it behind him. "Imouto-chan…" He replied in a confident voice, "don’t you remember that this was the same one you showed me before?"

Suu-chan being innocent put her hands behind her back and replied softly, "No."

Keitaro smiled victoriously, only to have his eyes bug out upon seeing Suu-chan hold out another magazine, open at one of his favourite pages.

"What about this one then?" She knew she had hit him where it hurt, it had taken her longer than usual to find this magazine, and three articles of furniture protected it.

"Kyaa! Not that one!" He began to panic a lot. That is my most guarded secret, I keep it a secret to myself almost… Keitaro began to chase Suu-chan around his room, the latter laughing out loud all through it. She jumped over the heating table, swung from doorframes and did just about everything to stop him from reaching her. Tired out, Keitaro braced himself of his knees, panting heavily. Damn, this studying is really affecting my fitness levels, my stamina is very poor, must get in shape one day. He managed to get his colour back into his cheeks as he saw Suu-chan looking at him with a mild curiosity. Knowing that she was going a little too far, she held out the magazine towards him. He understood and accepted it from her. He sat down at the heating table, placing the magazine underneath the covering in case anyone were to walk in unexpectedly.

"I was going to throw them out anyway imouto-chan, it was years ago since I got them. I didn't have the guts to get any more." Keitaro blushed. Why am I telling her these things? She might take them the wrong way and go crying to Motoko-chan… Suu-chan looked at Keitaro carefully, trying to read his expression. She walked up to him and sat next to him, putting a hand on his, which was resting on his knee.

"I won't tell anyone Keitaro," She spoke honestly and kindly, "Besides, it's like what Naru said, all boys have them, so it's nothing to get worked up over."

Keitaro began to wonder. Naru, I wonder what she is doing now. I realise that I may have been a bit too harsh with her, Suu-chan was very upset at that time… I hope she hasn't done anything drastic…

Meanwhile, in the same space immediately above Keitaro in the room above, we see Naru wearing her glasses reading over her World History notes again. She seems happier, or, to put it more accurately, less sad than when she last glimpsed Keitaro. Nevertheless, she continues to immerse herself into her revision.

"Suu-chan…" He called her by her real name for the first time since he decided to make her his 'sister'. This brought her full attention. "Why did you destroy your room? It seemed to be totally devastated when I entered it."

Suu-chan was quiet for a few moments before she came up with her answer. "I was angry… sad… lonely… I had never felt so alone in my life at that moment."

She stopped, the memories apparently overwhelming her slightly. I hope I haven't gone too far, she seems to be getting depressed again…Keitaro took her hand in both of his, and looked into her eyes, which were now downcast.

"I'm sorry imouto-chan, if this is too painful for you, you don’t have to answer me." Suu-chan began to fidget a little.

"Yes, it is painful, but I need to tell you all, however," She looked at him with pleading eyes, "can I stay close to you?"

What a silly question, she has done everything possible to me and now she asks something that would be considered tame by her standards. "Of course you can imouto-chan, I can hold you if you want to."

Suu-chan nodded seriously, not beaming like she would usually do. She slowly crawled into his lap like a young child and tried to make herself comfortable. In the end they both sat so that Keitaro sat against the wall, with Suu-chan's back facing him, her legs stretched out. He hugged her around her stomach, not too tightly, so as to make her feel claustrophobic, but not too loose either to make her think that she was a hindrance, just about right to let her know he was there for her. Keitaro knew this would give him the chance to listen to her properly, she would be mostly talking and he listening, she could always lean into him if she were getting tired or sad. It was perfect, and then she begun.

"This morning, I was confronted with many emotions from everything that happened at the table. Naru's outburst and attack towards you, you hitting me…" Keitaro was about to reply when Suu-chan continued, "I know that you did not mean it Keitaro, it was an accident, and I don’t hold any malice towards you for it. It did however bring up some memories of an incident similar in my past, memories which brought the underlying emotions behind them, those of anger, sadness and loneliness."

Keitaro, becoming all the more wiser put things together quickly. "This was to do with your oniisan? Am I right?"

"Yes," she replied, "he is the one who did this, but not directly." She tensed a little, "Don’t get me wrong, I love my oniisan, this was just one bad event out of many, many happy memories."

For a moment Keitaro had the image of her oniisan beating her, but he was glad when Suu-chan shot down that thought.

"It all happened back at the time I was around seven years old, when I was back in my homeland… back with my oniisan and oneesan…"

Suu-chan begins to look far beyond the horizon, back to a time when everything changed for her.

Six years ago

Unknown location

The ground is a lush green; the occasional trumpet of elephants can be heard in the background. The sandalled feet of someone comes running into view. As the runner gets closer, we see that the person is wearing a traditional sari, dark green to complement her eyes. It is Suu-chan (albeit much younger than she is now), with a big grin on her face. Stretching out her hands she tries to grab the viewer, only for it to float in front of her, constantly out of her reach. She is trying to catch a yellow butterfly that is flying gracefully over grass she is on. It stops on a flower in a flowerbed by a large wall, its wings moving very slowly. Suu-chan tries a different tact, and sneaks up on the butterfly, but instead of lunging it she gently places her finger on the petal, and sure enough the butterfly placed its tiny legs on her finger. Moving it slowly upwards, Suu-chan looked delighted, giggling, as it continued to move it wings slowly whilst remaining on her finger. The image zooms out to show that she is in a fairly large garden, at one end being a palatial house, the other a few large trees. A tall wall, around 8-foot high surrounds the entire gardens, and is about 2-foot thick. Where Suu-chan plays now is on the eastern wall, flowerbeds are immediately in front of the walls. Although not intricately designed, the gardens do have some nice patterns using different paths with concrete slabs, each about enough to hold one person's footstep. The main features appear to be three small ponds. Two of them are around ten metres from the palace, whilst the third is further up the garden, the centre of it equal to the centre of the palace. Using gravel and small slabs, the pattern is unmistakable, the representation of three eyes, the pools being the iris'.

Suu-chan knew not to touch the symbolic eyes in the garden, for they were sacred to the palace, and held much importance in terms of religion. Looking at the butterfly, she stroked both wings gently, not noticing that residue was left on her finger. Only a few minutes later it had died, the fluttering stopping and it falling from Suu-chan's finger, dead. Bemused she knelt down to the butterfly, and began to cry as she noticed that it was no longer moving. Cupping it gently in her hands she walked slowly inside to where she knew she would find her oniisan. Sure enough, he was there, sitting by his room window upstairs with a view of the garden. Light filtering in through gaps in his coloured curtains, which were moving with the air currents inside his room, bathed in the colour of the curtains. Suu-chan walked up to her oniisan. She thought that to outsiders he looked intimidating his (relatively) tall height and hard stare could crack even the most apathetic person. However, only the inner family and some of the servants knew that he was indeed, a kind-hearted person with his family, his first priority in his heart. He looked daunting at that time, the shadows hiding his face above his mouth, which was seemingly in deep concentration as he worked on some important documents on his desk. As per the rest of the house, there was a clay jug there with three eyes on it, a small glass nearby. Filled with water I guess. Suu-chan knew that water was essential in the place where they lived, the heat destroying most of the life-giving reservoirs that used to contain enough to feed the entire country. Thanks to their efforts, they had managed to dig deep wells in most populated areas, and allowed anyone to pump them to the surface when needed via small pumps scattered around each town, so that everyone had their fair share. It took much of their resources, so Suu-chan's family had to cut back on some luxuries for a short while. However, it was all worth it in the end, the people love them for what they did and made sure they would never forget their generosity. Suu-chan inwardly smiled, her oniisan did enjoy a glass or two of wine, but only on special occasions, such as her birthday. Finally walking up to her oniisan she decided to speak.

"Oniisan," She waited until he turned to her, his eyes still hidden from view, his smile apparent on his face.

"What is it imouto-chan?" He put down his pen carefully as he listened intently to her.

"The butterfly died," Her eyes began to water, "I think I killed it." She looked down to the butterfly, its wing still not moving.

Her oniisan got up and gently placed the butterfly in his hands.

"It wasn't your fault Suu-chan, you weren't to know why it died." He rubbed his finger lightly on one of the wings showing her the yellow particles that remained on his fingertips. "See? You probably stroked it with love as your intention. However, removing too much of this dust can kill them."

Removing a tissue from a dispenser emblazoned with the three eyes on his desk, he wiped his fingers and her hands to remove all traces of the dust. Placing the butterfly in the centre of the tissue, he folded it such so that the corners met in the centre. Folding it again, he looked at Suu-chan.

"We shall bury him in the garden by the trees, so that his body may mingle with the roots, giving them essential minerals and nutrients, thus making him live on again in the life of the tree." He smiled at her, making her lighten up a little, though her eyes still contained some tears in them. He hefted up Suu-chan, holding her with one arm, whilst he picked up another tissue from the dispenser.

"Here, dry your eyes little one." He handed her the clean tissue, and continued as he walked downstairs. "You do realise that you're getting heavier, it will be harder for me to pick you up like this." She giggled a little at his comment as they walked outside in the baking heat.

He opened up the small door embedded in the wall outside to open the tool shed, picking up a small trowel, one that was specially used to remove the top layer of turf. Walking to the trees, he slowly knelt, releasing Suu-chan from his grip, and picked a spot that he felt was good enough. Taking the trowel he delicately cut an area larger than that of the tissue into the turf. Wedging one side of it he peeled back the layer of turf exposing bare soil beneath it. Looking at Suu-chan, he noticed her getting excited, and he smiled.

"Do you want to dig out a small hole for me imouto-chan?" Looking at him with wide eyes, he anticipated that she would react like this, she liked to get her hands dirty whenever she could. "But," he pointed out, holding a finger upwards, "not too deep, and place the soil in a small pile here." He indicated the piece of turf he removed, which was now upturned, the earthy side up.

She understood and got to slowly digging up the soil. It would only have taken a few seconds, around three handfuls, even for Suu-chan, however it took around ten minutes. She savoured the feeling of the soil between her fingertips, being forced to remain clean in the household, forced to keep up appearances so that they are not associated with the lower members of their society. Her oniisan knew this all too well; there was a vast difference between the rich and poor in their country, his family obviously in the upper percentile. He despised the way his parents didn't want them to associate with members of a lower class. He defied them, and there was nothing they could do to stop him. He was the next in line to take his father's position, and he threatened to quit the inheritance if he were not allowed to keep his friends from days of old, before they fell from grace. Nowadays he was getting education from a tutor, he wanted to have an education in case the worst came to pass, and he would need to get a job. He was too old to go into a normal school, not that his parents would allow it, and university would not do for a prince, so he asked his parents for a tutor (under their funding obviously). He was not stupid, he inherited his okaasan's (mother's) intelligence and insight, which helped a lot in everyday life. With these he learned quickly from the tutor and from those around him, advancing level by level in a matter of months. Suu-chan was still too young to learn anything unfortunately. He wanted her to get the best possible education in order to have a fairly normal life.

Suu-chan was kneeling there looking at him patiently, having finished digging. She had noticed the pained look in his eyes, which were betrayed by a few rays of light filtering through his hair. "What's the matter oniisan? Is there something bothering you?"

He was jolted out of his reverie by her and replied quickly, smiling again at her. "Oh no it's nothing imouto-chan, nothing to worry yourself over." He put a hand to the back of his head to lighten the mood.

"Okay…" she answered, somewhat unsure, "If you say so oniisan." She was suspicious, it was rare that he lied to her, to hide something, but she decided to let it go, she would find out eventually.

A small sweatdrop appeared on her oniisan's head, just beside the hand behind his head. My, she seems to be as perceptive as otousan (father), I must be careful when I am around her.

"Very well Suu-chan, we shall begin the burial of your butterfly friend." Placing the makeshift coffin in Suu-chan's hands, he asked her to lower it into the hole gently. She did so with the utmost care. He then began to say a few words.

"Requiem: We give up this creature's soul to you God, may it be at peace with itself and the world."

Suu-chan looked as if she were in prayer, hands clasped together. Taking the piece of turf, her oniisan began to fill the hole up until all the loose soil was gone. Patting the soil gently he placed the piece of turf on top of it so that it blended in perfectly with the rest of grass, as if it were not disturbed at all. Taking her hand he picked her up again, angling her so that he could talk to her.

"The tissue paper should decompose quickly, meaning that your little friend will be able to lead a new life within the tree." He smiled and Suu-chan smiled back, feeling happier. "I'm going to continue with my work now, so you go and play now child. If you need me you can always come and see me, I would do anything to get away from work."

"Okay then oniisan!" Now back in the house he let her go and placed her on the ground.

"Go wash your hands though before your parents see you." He spoke fairly sternly, but it was only because his parents would go crazy over seeing her hands dirty. Suu-chan pouted towards her oniisan, but he would have none of it. She sulked off to wash her hands, not really sad but she knew that her fun was ending. Her oniisan smiled at her and returned to his studies upstairs.

Meanwhile there were a pair of violet eyes watching Suu-chan from a doorway that was open by a crack. Opening the door quietly, the figure sneaked up to Suu-chan, who was washing her hands, and placed a heavy hand on her shoulder. She screamed, only to turn around and see a familiar face.

"Oneesan!" Amara Suu stood there looking down at her little sister, who was now miffed at her sister, putting her hands on her hips. "Why did you scare me?" Suu continued.

The ten-year-old Amara answered, "It was fun that's why."

She then walked out into their living room, Suu-chan promptly following, her sandals clacking loudly against the tiled floor. Amara looked outside the window towards the garden.

"Kaorra-chan, why do you insist on bothering oniisan?" She sounded stern, and turned to face the younger child, an angry look in her eyes.

"Wh… What do you mean oneesan?" Suu-chan began to get more tearful. She didn't like the tone that Amara was taking towards her, even the fact that she spoke to her using her first name.

"Do you not understand that he doesn't want you bugging him constantly!" Amara became more animated, her voice rising, "If he fails in his studies it will be all your fault!"

Suu was now crying, "I… I didn't realise… that I was a nuisance to him…" She began to sob as Amara smirked at her victoriously.

Now for the final nail in the coffin. "If you talk to oniisan again, he will hate you forever."

Suu-chan looked up, gasping in shock. She began to bawl out loud now, kneeling down. I don't want oniisan to hate me, but I don't want to not talk to him again. Suu-chan's inability to figure out what to do at that point made her even more distressed. Laughing, Amara failed to hear someone walking down the stairs into the living room. Upon seeing Suu-chan on the floor crying, her oniisan ran over to her, lowering himself and comforting her. Turning, he looked at Amara angrily.

"Why did you make her cry Amara!" Raising his voice for one of the few times in his life, he was angered by the way Amara treated her sister. He stood up and faced her, Suu-chan still sobbing on the ground.

Amara was dumbfounded, and turning this into anger she shouted at her oniisan, "WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO TAKE HER SIDE!"

Clenching her eyes shut, silent tears falling, she drew back her fist and punched her oniisan square across the chin. He fell back a few metres into the opposite wall. Looking up, Suu-chan saw her oniisan unconscious, a small crack apparent in the wall. Already sad she couldn't cope with seeing her oniisan in such a state. Wailing, she ran out of the room and ran upstairs. No sooner than she did so, her oniisan returned to consciousness, and looking at Amara, he left the room without a word, following his younger sister out. Amara just stayed there, in shock. I… I didn't mean to hurt him. Why did I hurt him? Tears beginning to well up, she walked to the bathroom and closed the door behind her, locking it. She let the tears fall to the tiles below as she began to run a hot bath for herself. Only the sound of running water could be heard from that room, with a few sobs after the bath had presumably filled.

Back to the 7th of January

Many minutes later

"I see…" Keitaro sat there in shock, still taking in everything Suu-chan had told him. "So your brother didn't hit you, but your sister hurt him, which made you upset…" Suddenly a thought occurred to him, "Suu-chan? Do I look like your oniisan?"

Leaning back, Suu-chan looked up at Keitaro from her position, and nodded. She began to rest against his shoulder. Keitaro patted her head, finally understanding everything. Several minutes passed when he thought that he should make a move.

"Well," He began, "I think that we should go now and fix the broken things in your room, don’t you think?"

She seemed hesitant, wanting to stay with Keitaro, but finally realised that her room was a state and had to be cleaned. Sighing with happiness that he air was cleared now, she got up, and waited by Keitaro as he stood up. Leaving his room, he walked Suu-chan to her room, both walking in silence side by side but not touching each other, both engaged in their thoughts. Opening her door, he whistled after noticing just how bad the devastation was. However, Suu-chan leapfrogged over him, grabbed onto her doorframe and performed a perfect mid air twist, arms extended in the traditional Y-shape as in gymnastics. She beamed at him.

"Don’t worry Keitaro, I can clean this room by myself now." She spoke very confidently.

"Are you sure imouto-chan!" He couldn't believe it, "There's a lot to be done here, you positive you don’t need any help?"

"Of course I'm sure!" She tiptoed over to him, "Now you have to make up with Naru."

Keitaro knew that he had to apologise to her for overreacting. "Okay then imouto-chan… if you say so, I will see you at dinner then."

"Sure thing Keitaro!" She jumped up and kicked him in the face. "See you later!"

Keitaro was stunned slightly, she had only hit him with a fraction of her strength, and the force of it had managed to push him out of her room. He watched as her room door shut, then began to worry as the room began to pulsate in various colours. He edged away from there and once he was sure that no missiles were after him he began the short walk towards Naru's room. Motoko who was meditating lightly in her room opened one eye and noticed a familiar shadow pass by her room. So he has returned. I hear Suu-chan is in her room now doing some more bizarre things. I will not disturb her yet, nor Keitaro, if he is about to do what I think he is. Closing her eye again she returned to her meditation.

Reaching Naru's door, Keitaro mentally prepared himself for anything as he rapped lightly on her door partition.

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Author's notes

Sorry for the delay, I have begun another fic and also planning others at this time. My Christmas holidays are now coming to an end, I'm returning to my university on January 4th. This will result in loooong delays between chapters again sadly, but I hope to finish them off pretty soon in what I am now going to call the 'Longest Day; saga (think about it, since chapter 7, it is still set in the same day). As you might've guessed from the title, this will be the first of many different parts in which we delve into the pasts of a certain character, seeing as we know so little about certain people. I will try and keep them as close to the original character as possible, so bear with me...

Now, there might be some problems with this chapter again, since I realise that some people might not like the way in which Keitaro and Suu-chan are having some 'special' time together, but hey, it's the way I think things should plan out.

Thank you for all your comments, they are well appreciated and keep me going when writing more fiction.

I'm sure you will all be looking forward to the next one. Onto the depressing mind of Naru!

- Jason

Chapter 10

At last, the final repentance

Room 304

Naru was tired, she leaned back onto a pillow, hands behind her head, looking up at her ceiling. Her legs were still under the furnace table, so she was warm despite the bitter winter cold outside. She was about to nod off when she heard someone knocking on her door. Not caring about anything in particular she spoke.

"Come in." she angled her head to see her door slide open slightly, and noticed that it was Keitaro. Damn, I should've asked who was there first… Opening the door fully once he felt that he could enter he remained in the doorway but was indecisive in entering her room. After a few seconds of deliberation, he felt that it was okay to do so. He sat opposite her, placing his feet underneath the furnace table. Brushing up against Naru's feet he blushed, as did she. She pushed herself up so that she was looking at him normally.

"Naru," He began, "I have to apologise for what I said earlier. I… I was angry and didn’t mean most of what I said."

Naru froze. "Most of what I said." Does that mean that he did mean some of it…? Noticing her reaction, he clarified.

"Gomen, that sounded harsh." He put a hand behind his head, easing the pressure off him, "What I meant was that you shouldn't hurt Suu-chan… that was all." Putting his hand down he relaxed a little, "I hope you can find it in you heart to forgive me."

Naru was quiet, she wasn't sure quite what to make of it all. He is apologising to me! It should be me apologising to him.

"Keitaro…" She looked down, reluctant, "I should apologise to you first, I was the one who got worked up over everything. So…" She paused slightly, "Gomen, gomen for everything that happened…" Her face reddened a little. Why should he accept my apology? I hurt him and now everyone else hates me in the house…

"Okay then, I accept Naru." He smiled at her.

Naru smiled lightly in reply, "Then, so do I accept your apology."

What now followed was a short period of complete silence. The two of them sweatdropped. "I should say something…" Realisation dawned upon the both of them, since they knew they both shared a very important common ground.

"How is revi…?"

"Studying goi…?"

They both stopped, having spoken up at the same time. Sighing Naru held out her hand towards Keitaro.

"Go ahead, tell me how your revision is going."

Keitaro looked dejectedly at the books laid out in front of him. These were the texts that he was studying for the last few weeks. Well, supposed to be.

"I'm not sure, I don't think its going too well." He sighed, "No matter how much I put my focus into it, I just can't seem to concentrate enough to study at all."

Naru sympathised with him, "I can understand Keitaro. However don’t you think that after two years of doing this that it would get easier?"

Keitaro's shoulder's slumped further, "No it doesn't, it gets even harder. After the first year I failed I forced myself to work harder. This only resulted in me getting more stressed, and thus it wasn't surprised that I failed for the second consecutive year."

Naru looked at the depressed form in front of her. Keitaro began to look far into the distance, even though he was staring at a textbook. His eyes became more pained as he recalled the mocking from his fellow students and the incredulity that his parents displayed. He seemed to give off an aura of intense gloom that began to seep into surrounding parts. Reaching out, Naru touched his hand gently. Shocked out of his flashback, he looked up at Naru.

"Don’t worry, everything will work out in the end Keitaro." She smiled compassionately, "You will learn from your mistakes. So you know now that you shouldn't force yourself to work hard. Instead try and find a way to both work and be relaxed at the same time."

He countered that, "How can I? I've got to work hard now, or else I won't be able to keep that promise of 15 years…"

"Huh?" Naru looked at him, confused slightly.

"Anyway, it probably doesn't matter now, it's been too long…" He looked down again.

"Hey!" Keitaro looked up to Naru's exclamation, shocking her. His eyes… They're so sad and melancholic. "You can't just give up now! You still have to keep that promise with Shinobu-chan. I can't imagine that you would want to go home to your parents having failed to get into Toudai…" she hesitated "…and I don’t want to the only person to go in Toudai alone." She blushed at the last thing she said.

At the mention of Shinobu-chan's name, Keitaro perked up, standing up clenching his fist determinedly, tears of resolve pouring over his cheeks. For some reason, beams of light appeared behind him, rotating around him.

"You're right Naru! I must regain my honour for Shinobu-chan, earn the respect of my parents and go with you to Toudai." He paused there a few seconds more, "Huh?" The light vanished, and the tears stopped instantly, "Naru, what did you mean by not wanting to go alone."

She blushed again, "It's… it's nothing Keitaro."

He persisted, "What? Are you sure?" Could this mean she has feelings for me?

"Just leave it be Keitaro!" Naru was getting irritated now.

"But…" Keitaro comment was cut off by a textbook being thrown at him. He saw it but was too slow to react. A hardback book, this is going to hurt a lot. Thankfully it opened up before it reached him, the softer pages hitting him square in the face. Falling backwards, dazed, he lay there for a short moment before getting back to reality. Moving the book off his face, he sat up and placed it on the furnace table. Oh well… I guess I'll just have to ask her later then.

"Gomen…" Naru apologised, "I didn't mean to…"

"Hurt me?" Keitaro interrupted, "Don’t worry about it, I'm fine."

Keitaro adjusted his glasses and started to leaf through the textbook that was thrown at him. As he read on, the words and paragraphs just seemed to meld into one another in an incomprehensible jumble. He sighed and leaned back, looking at the ceiling.

"So what about you Naru? How are you doing with your studying?" He remained staring at the ceiling as he awaited a reply.

Should I tell him the truth, or should I lie about it… Naru was stuck in a particular dilemma, but eventually spoke up, "Well, I think I'm doing okay so far, it's mostly based upon memorising basic formulae with maths and sciences. With the more writing based subjects, it's harder. You need to learn a little about major topics, where most of the marks are based. As long as I focus on those areas, I should be fine."

Keitaro sighed, and began to close his eyes since the warmth of the furnace table was making him sleep. "Still at least it looks like one of us is going to get into Toudai this year…"

Naru lay back also, tired from the day's exertions. "Don’t be so hard on yourself Keitaro." Closing her eyes, she smiled, which was reflected in her voice, "In the end, everything will work out. Besides, if you do fail, it won't be the end of the world."

They both lay there quietly, their own thoughts being kept to themselves. Both being very relaxed at that time, they ended up napping where they lay. It wasn't until an hour later that they both woke up around the same time. Somewhat embarrassed for falling asleep in another's company they sat up and tried to resume their normal routines. Naru began reading some of her textbooks and Keitaro glanced through a few of the ones in front of him.

"Umm, Keitaro?" Naru was looking at a textbook, her glasses hiding her eyes, "How… how is Suu-chan?" She felt responsible and thus spoke very guiltily.

"Suu-chan?" Keitaro wondered why he was worried about her, before he realised that she had ordered him to go see Naru, "Oh yes, she's fine now. She got a little bit upset over what happened, but she got over it after a short while." Keitaro left out the part about Suu-chan talking about her past, since he knew that she confided in him at that point.

"Naru, I'd better go now, I'll see you later at dinner." He looked at her, "I hope that we can put this behind us. I don’t want it to affect our friendship…" He put a hand behind his head, blushing a little.

She blushed as well, "Yes, I want this to be forgotten too. I will see you later at dinner."

Keitaro stood up and opened her door, looking back to see that she was smiling at him. Smiling back, he left her to her studies as he shut her door. What should I do now? There's only just over an hour to dinner, and I don’t feel like getting back into revision… Keitaro pondered over his options and decided. He walked on and knocked on the door of Room 302.

Motoko was kneeling at her table, drinking a cup of tea with her eyes closed. Sipping it with both hands holding the cup, she heard the rapping of someone on her door.

Whilst keeping her eyes closed she replied, "Enter."

The door slid open slowly to reveal Keitaro. Motoko opened her eyes to see who her visitor was, not even flinching when she noticed it was him. Without any invitation, Keitaro sat down opposite her and waited patiently for Motoko to begin the conversation.

"So have you settled everything then Keitaro?"

"Y… Yes." He stammered. Why am I suddenly so nervous around her? It's not like I haven't had an ordinary conversation with her alone before. He coughed to clear his thoughts and continued, "Suu-chan has calmed down now, after playing for a while in my room, and seems much happier than before this all happened." He hesitated, knowing Motoko was still angry with Naru, "N… Naru is okay, I spoke with her and discussed a few things, and we both forgive each other for things we've said or done."

Watching Motoko carefully, he wanted to see how that piece of news affected her. He was happy to spot the subtle softening of her expression, her eyes gleaming more. Taking this to mean that she was satisfied, he smiled.

"Are you still angry at Naru, Motoko-chan?" He had to ask this, just so that he could be sure there wouldn't be any bad feelings between the two. The last thing I need is for the two of them to duel… This stirred up memories of when Motoko challenged him, making him shudder inside.

Motoko was hesitant in answering. "I…" Why should I forgive her? She hurt Keitaro when he was just helping Suu-chan.

"Please…" Keitaro spoke, "I know that it was innocent in this case, but try to forgive her mistake."

"Mistake!" Motoko was outraged, standing up suddenly, "She attacked you for no reason!"

Keitaro cowered away from her, closing his eyes and covering his head with his hands, fearful that she may attack him in her anger. Shocked from his reaction to her outburst, she calmed down at once, and walked over to him, kneeling beside him. Reaching out she tentatively touched one of his hands. Upon contact he flinched a little, but began to peek out between his eyelids to see what Motoko was doing. Sighing, Motoko drew back her hand and placing it in her lap. She looked down at her hands, now fidgeting uncomfortably in her lap. Why do I feel this way? Is it shame? Shame of what I mean to Keitaro?

Her hair casting a shadow over her eyes she spoke, "Do I scare you Keitaro?"

Keitaro moved his hands away, confused. "Huh? What do you mean Motoko-chan?"

"Do I scare you? They way you fear me constantly…" Her palms were becoming more sweaty as she finally managed to keep them under control, latching them together.

Keitaro was stumped. He knew that Motoko was a skilled fighter and should be feared regardless by everyone. However he also knew her more personally than most, getting to understand her better and that she wasn’t as frightening when talking to her one to one. Upsetting her at this time would also not be kind.

"No Motoko-chan, you don’t scare me. It's nothing like that." He tried to say in such a way that didn’t sound too desperate or patronising. "It's just that I get hit so often by everyone here I hide away on instinct, nothing to do with you personally."

Glad that he seemed to make her happy, noting her blush spread across both cheeks, he reached out and picked up one of her hands. "I promise you Motoko-chan, that whenever I think of you, I only think happy thoughts of the time that we have spent together, even though it has only been a few months."

Realising the way he spontaneously said that, he turned bright red, as did the girl opposite him. However Keitaro remained holding her hand. Her skin is so smooth, how is it that Motoko-chan hasn't experienced love before now? She is an incredibly beautiful person, both inside and out, what has made her so hostile to men? Motoko was becoming less nervous by the minute. He is so warm. It is making me feel comfortable, putting my worries at ease. Why does he affect me so? Am I becoming weak? No… that cannot be. I feel stronger when he is near me. Is this how you felt Ane-ue, when you felt love? Reluctantly, Keitaro released Motoko's hand, trying to make the connection last as long as possible.

A brief burst of pain ran from his bruise around his head and down his back, causing him to grip his head sharply to stop himself from shouting out loud.

Motoko saw this and was worried, "Keitaro! Are you okay?"

"Err, not really, Motoko-chan." He said, struggling to speak.

Tears were beginning to form in his eyes as another pain tendril snaked its way around his head, stopping around his sinus, causing his eyesight to waver. Finally reaching a peak, he began to fall towards his side. Out of reflex, Motoko managed to grab a hold of his top, stopping his fall. Pulling him towards her, she held him close as the pain continued to rack his body. Once he became more content, she helped him to his feet and placed him upon her futon, opening it for him.

Removing his slippers, she spoke, "Lie in here and be still. I will try and help you reduce your pain."

Keitaro did as he was told and went inside the futon, taking off his glasses and putting them beside the pillow. Motoko went to one of her storage areas and picked out a few ingredients. Turning on her electric kettle, she started to boil some water whilst pummelling some herbs with her pestle and mortar. Stopping the kettle before the water got too hot, she mixed the two together and passed the lukewarm concoction to Keitaro, who was looking at her with mild astonishment.

"Here, drink this in one. Hold your nose while doing so." He sat up and did as he was told, handing the empty glass to her.

Almost at once the taste of herbs, something similar to menthol and other odd flavours reached his senses. The menthol type sensation reached his nose and then travelled up to his sinus. This managed to reduce the amount of pain he was receiving. The brew also made him feel drowsy, and before he knew it, he fell asleep there and then. Motoko smiled at this. At least he is resting for the time being. It is better for the body to heal itself when it is asleep. Fewer resources are consumed, so more can be allocated in healing the person. She picked out some more items from her collection mixing, grinding, and moistening them until a cream with a pink hue was remaining. Placing some on her finger, she spread it on Keitaro's bruise gently. She made sure that she didn't press too hard, because the solution she made could only limit some of the pain, not all of it. After five minutes or so, when the cream was finished, the bruise was now pink. This should heal the capillaries that were burst by helping the platelets to rebuild the walls. The blood should also move quickly from that area once the serum in the cream takes effect. Sure enough before her very eyes, she could see the swelling visibly shrink as it took effect. Staying beside him throughout the whole process, she was glad that he was till breathing steadily, unable to feel what was happening to him. It never fails, this is one of the potions that Ane-ue taught me, a secret from the Shinmei-ryu. Yet, I am still amazed by the speed at which it works. Once half an hour had passed, the bruise had vanished, and the swelling was gone as well. It was also the time at which Keitaro woke up feeling rejuvenated and healthy. He felt his forehead, where the bruise used to be, but couldn't find it anywhere, no matter how much he pressed. Fumbling around the futon, he found his glasses and began to focus on the large shape over him.

"M… Motoko-chan!" He was shocked to say the least. "H… How long have you been there for?"

She raised her head slightly to look down into his eyes. "It matters not. The important thing is that you are healed and go about your usual perverted activities."

"Wh… What!" Motoko-chan you that I don't do…" Keitaro stopped mid-sentence once he saw the traces of a smile on her face, and realised that she was teasing him. Teasing me? Is this the first time she has done that to me?

He smiled back and got out of her now warm futon, standing up at the same time as her. He put on his slippers.

"Arigatou Motoko-chan, for everything. I don’t know how you did it, but you managed to cure me." He glanced at his watch, "Well, its almost time to cook dinner, I'm going to help Shinobu-chan in the kitchen. In the meantime Motoko-chan, relax, you've had a long day, I don’t want you to strain yourself further."

She blushed at his gentle tone, and merely nodded as he quietly slipped out of her room. Looking at the clock she saw that it was an hour before dinner would officially begin, so she took this opportunity to have a short nap. She admitted to herself that she was feeling drained, and set her mental clock to about five minutes before dinner would begin. Crawling into her futon she began to feel warm again, only to be shocked to smell Keitaro. Taking no notice of it, she promptly fell asleep, smiling unconsciously.

The time then seemed to fly by. Keitaro spoke to Shinobu-chan and helped her prepare some of the food, much to her unbridled delight. After finished off most of the meals for her, she insisted that she make the dessert alone. He had explained to her that he had made up with Naru, and quashed her worries over Suu-chan. Time to spare he walked to Mitsune's room and informed her of how he apologised to Naru. She seemed much happier after he said so. A few minutes later, people began to walk towards the dining area. Keitaro thought that to make Naru less nervous, he should accompany her, and he did so, sitting down with her at the table. Everyone realised that the air from lunch had vanished. Afterwards Naru spoke to Suu-chan privately, and apologised to her, and was surprised when she hugged Naru, happy that 'Naru and Keitaro are friends again.'

A short while after dinner, Keitaro went to the roof to do a little studying with one of his textbooks. Walking up the final staircase, he was glad to hear the repetitive sound of Motoko swinging her sword, training by chopping flying leaves in half. Crawling up to his vantagepoint, the view over the town, he began to read his book. What's the use of studying now? It's already so late… He smirked and lay back, looking at the ceiling. Turning his head, he watched Motoko train. I think I come up here just to watch her, which is why I feel happier when I leave here. It was only a few more minutes until the sun had began to set, the sky getting progressively darker. He stood up and walked to the staircase, looked once more at Motoko and went downstairs.

10:31pm

Keitaro's Room

What a day… I don’t think I'll forget this one in a hurry. Keitaro seemed to be exhausted, beyond his normal levels of sleepiness. He was about to nod off when he heard his door slide open and, after a short pause, close. He could hear footsteps padding slowly over to where he lay. Who is this! I can't see who it is… The person lay behind Keitaro, moving inside the futon, pressing against him. Oh no! Who is this? He could feel his face reddening, his nose threatening to bleed profusely. Turning around suddenly, he saw that it was Suu-chan, already sleeping. Smiling warmly he brushed away some stray hairs, and slept facing her, as she latched herself onto him after a few minutes. This is odd, she doesn't seem to be crying as usual… Little did he know that she was dreaming a different dream than all the other times.

Six years previous

Unknown place

Suu-chan was sobbing in her room. She sensed the presence of someone else in her room. Looking up she saw her oniisan, standing there, a small bruise on his cheek. Walking over he took her up in his arms and began to wipe her eyes. Playing with her hair, he kissed her forehead.

"Imouto-chan, I love you, and I will love you forever, don’t you ever think otherwise." He spoke in a gentle tone. Suu-chan didn’t reply, still sniffling from her earlier tears. Her oniisan noticed this and sat down on her bed, and just hugged her closely. She felt happier, that he was telling the truth after a few minutes, he spoke.

"I have to go to see Amara-chan now. Despite what she thinks, I don’t hate her, she may be jealous of you."

At this Suu-chan looked up, "Jealous? Of me? Why?"

Her oniisan chuckling lightly, "My, you ask a lot of question little one. Don’t tell her, but I think she might be jealous of your age, since you have nothing much to worry about for the future, and Amara-chan is beginning to think about hers. She might also envy your beauty, since you are prettier than when she was your age. She fears this, and so feels anger unjustifiably. Don’t hate her Kaorra-chan, she still loves you."

Suu-chan looked up at her brother's eyes, and nodded wiping her eyes and beaming at him.

"That's a good girl. Now I have to see to her. You stay here and play for the time being."

He then released Suu-chan who then went about building a small castle with some building blocks on the floor. Walking towards where he knew he would find her, the place she went whenever someone would shout at her. He could hear the sobs through the bathroom door, and rapped lightly. He could hear the room had gone silent.

"Amara-chan… can I come in? I need to use the toilet." He knew that she would have thought this strange.

"W… Why don’t you use the one upstairs?" she spoke, trying to disguise her sobs.

"The servants said that the pipes are blocked up there. Please hurry and open the door, I'm really getting desperate!"

Blackmail was never good, he knew that Amara would never deny him anything. Once he heard her getting out of the bath and unlocking the door, he waited until she went back into the bath before entering. The sight that shocked him was the room was in a state, bottles, toothbrushes, and everything that could be removed has been, and now lay on the floor. Manoeuvring his way around them he walked over to Amara, whose back was to him. He sat behind her and placed a hand on her cheek.

Shuddering slightly, she whimpered. "You're not going to tell okaasan or otousan are you?"

"No, of course not Amara-chan."

Turning her head toward him, he could see the tears welled up in her eyes as she refused to let them fall. Stroking her cheek, she closed her eyes, releasing them onto his hand.

Suu-chan was watching slyly from the doorway, she made her brother think she was playing when she decided to follow him. Seeing her sister so upset made her begin to cry, and she ran into the bathroom shouting out Amara's name. Her sister, wearing her towel, stood up and received the jumping Suu-chan into her arms as they hugged, crying into each other's shoulders. Suu-chan's oniisan stood up quietly, smiling. Well, they made up, that was easier than I thought. He began to pick up the items strewn over the floor as the two girls behind him bawled out loud both happy that they had each other still.

The present

Suu-chan smiled in her sleep, happy that everything was now all well in Hinata-sou. She slept soundly throughout the night, without any tears breaching her eyelids.

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Author's notes:

Apologies for the absolute massive delay between this update. Have been working on many an assignment during and last four weeks at university. Thank you for all your comments, they have really kept me going during the times I ran out of that extra yard when writing.

I hope this chapter will be to your liking. I am going to bring out the next one relatively soon, the Valentine's Day special I have reached that point in the manga so it shouldn't have to jump too much to reach this point.

This is the official end of Book 1. Please feel free to read the continuation at this me know what you think as well, reviews are always welcome, as are criticisms, flames, etc. I have updated this entire book by changing some spelling regarding the brother/sister titles that appear in the fanfic that some reviewers have pointed out, and re-edited all chapter to remove typos, misspelled words and in some cases, grammar. Hopefully there will be many more Books to come in the future.