Extreme Measures

Disclaimers:

The title is really the property of Vince Flynn.

All characters contained within this piece of writing belong to Ken Akamatsu, and this piece has been written purely for enjoyment. No gains financial or otherwise have been made through the publishing of this fanfic.


Morning at the Hinata-Sou:

Chaos, the entire household was up in an uproar.

A bloody Keitaro was being worked on by paramedics; they had already stemmed most of the bleeding and were now assessing his ribs and how best to move him onto the stretcher so they could transfer him to the local hospital.

Shinobu was in the main room peeping in on the medical staff working on Keitaro, her facial expression and the trembling of her limbs clearly showed how scared she was for the manager's health.

Su was eating another banana and doing a very bad job of calming Shinobu down; since she kept claiming despite the evidence in front of them that Keitaro would heal up in no time.

Mutsumi like Shinobu was worried. Unlike Shinobu, she knew that Keitaro would live. There was too much medical help around to fear that; but what about afterwards? It looked like a serious physical wound to heal and Mutsumi thought there might be other mental healing issues to come, not just the present physical ones of the body.

Sarah had mixed feelings, she disliked the dork but on the other hand, she did not want this! Suddenly she found herself praying for him, kicking him for keeping her from her dad was one thing; having him bleeding out on the floor and not getting better was something else.

Kitsune was busy emptying a bottle of sake. It was the only way that she knew to handle her feelings at this point.

Naru also had a single paramedic binding up her hand. She was staring blindly in Keitaro's direction. The police had arrived soon after the paramedics. When they tried to question her about the events leading to his and her injuries, they got nothing useful from her. The paramedic however told the police that the damage to her hands looked self-inflicted, as if she had been fighting i.e. she hit her hand against something.

Motoko sat on the floor near Keitaro, her bloody hands in her lap, her bloodstained sword already bagged and on its way to the local crime lab.

"So, you say you attacked him after he hurt your best friend?" one detective asked her.

"Yes. When I heard her cry out that he hurt her! I defended her from the pervert." Motoko defended her actions but all the time she knew something was very wrong.

"Pervert? How was he being a pervert? And how did he hurt her?" a second detective inquired.

"He looked down her blouse!" Motoko exclaimed with outrage.

"You attacked a man with a wooden sword because he looked down her blouse?" the first detective chimed in.

"No! No, I only attacked him after he hurt her." Motoko tried to explain. She sensed she was not getting thru to these men.

"And once again, how did he hurt her that you thought you should attack him?" the second detective asked again.

"When Naru-san punched him the face. He did not take the punch like he normally did; he just stood there and is why he hurt her hand." Motoko started to realize how silly she sounded.

"So she punched him, and it is his fault that her hand was hurt because of that? And because of that you felt justified to attack him with your sword?" the first detective said. Motoko nodded her head in agreement, but in her heart, she had a sinking feeling.

"I think you better come to the station with us." Said a third detective who clearly was of a higher rank than the others detectives. He nodded to the first two detectives who got out their cuffs.

Motoko numbly stood up and held her hands out to be shackled.


Late morning at the hospital:

All the girls of the Hinata-Sou except for Motoko were standing around the waiting room. The nurse had just told them that the doctor would be out soon to report on Keitaro`s condition. A few (long) minutes later, he walked into the room.

"Who here is the closest relative?" he asked.

The girls eyed each other nervously wondering if Naru, Mutsumi or Kitsune should try to pretend to be a relative so they could get the latest info about Keitaro.

"Actually, we are his dorm-mates and study partners." Mutsumi broke the logjam with the truth.

"All of you?" the doctor asked looking at the group of girls in front of him. For just a second an expression passed across his face that caused Naru to think 'Pervert' and to start forming a fist. Instantly pain coursed up from her hand; reminding her why they were at the hospital. An image of Keitaro's broken body bleeding out on the floor stopped her from doing something stupid.

Suddenly, "You can talk to me, my name is Haruka Urashima; I am his cousin and his closest relative within 150 kilometers. By the way, thanks Mutsumi-san for giving me a call. I don't think it crossed the minds of any of the other girls to do so." thus Haruka announced herself as she walked in thru the front doors of the waiting area.

The doctor turned to Haruka, happy to get down to business.

"The patient suffers from three broken ribs, blunt force trauma to his epidermis and crush damage where the skin was broken thru. It is my understanding this damage was caused by a blow from a wooden sword." The doctor stated.

Haruka's eyes narrowed as she scanned the room for any signs of Motoko. "She is in jail." Naru answered the unstated question. Haruka just nodded in satisfaction and turned her attention back to the doctor.

"If it was just the ribs, we could just keep him overnight for observation and send him home the following day. However, it is not that simple. The damage to the epidermis is a very serious condition. The dressing will need constant changing or there is a real risk of an infection. We want to keep him here at least a week or two, may be longer depending on how fast he starts to heal. Afterwards he will still need to come here regularly to get the dressing and bindings redone. It will probably take six weeks or more until he is well enough to do anything." The doctor reported.

"And can I go see him?" Haruka asked.

"Well, he is asleep now and I cannot allow you to wake him if you wish to talk to him. The earliest I feel I can allow that is tomorrow evening. But you can step in for a look if you wish." The doctor offered, he started leading her to a door.

From her facial expression, it was clear Naru wanted to come too. Haruka was just going to ask the doctor if she could come too when she noticed Naru's bandaged hand. Haruka's eyes narrowed, Naru realizing what Haruka had spotted, hid her hand behind herself. Haruka turned back to the doctor who was standing at the door waiting for her.

"I guess it was a good thing it was a wooden sword at least." The doctor poorly tried to comfort his patient's cousin as he opened to door leading to the ICU rooms where Keitaro presently slept.

"I bet she could cut him in two if she had used her real swords!" Su choose that moment to announce with a tone of glee in her voice. All the girls in the room face-faulted at Su's insensitive comment. Su was just not getting how serious Keitaro's injuries were.

"She has real swords?" the doctor inquired while writing out a note that would be sent to the police as soon as possible.

"Yep, but they are only made of Japanese steel. So they are not as good as if they were made from Molmol steel; she keeps them is her room." Su blabbed on, not paying attention to the rest of the girls signaling to her to shut up.

Disgusted at her lack of concern, "Su, Shut Up!" was the last thing Haruka said as she exited to go see Keitaro. Behind her she could hear the babble of the girls trying to explain to Su what she did wrong.


Late morning at the police station:

Motoko sat in a jail cell. "What happened? He always recovered before when I hit him with my sword." Motoko asked herself as she mentally replayed her attack onto the manager.

Over and over in her mind she could feel the sickening feel of her blade slicing into Keitaro's flesh, the expression on his face and then his collapse to the floor.

"Why did it go so wrong? And why did I attack him so viciously?" Motoko questioned herself.

Motoko now was facing a personal problem that involved more than her attack on Keitaro. She had on multiple occasions attacked men for violating her honour or the honour of other girls. Never in any of her attacks to these men whom she considered so weak had she done any serious damage and some of them had been far worse than Keitaro's peeking down a blouse. Worse, even as she attacked him she knew Keitaro could not have hurt Naru on purpose; Naru had to have done her punch wrong. And still she had attacked Keitaro without hold anything back.

"Why?" Motoko was asking herself.


Soon after the doctor's report arrived to the police:

"It is our understanding that you have some real swords in your possession?", a familiar voice questioned Motoko.

She looked up to find herself facing the detective who had ordered her arrest. He was flanked by the same two men that had bought her to the police station and then to jail.

"They are not my swords! They are family heirlooms which I am to guard with my life until they are returned to the family shrine!" Motoko responded, not expecting much understanding from this vile male who was so willing to throw around his authority. To her our surprise she could see that his eyes soften and he gave a nod of understanding.

"So you do have such swords." the detective noted, "Well, you can't keep them, that is for sure. Please supply these officers the needed contact information so discussions between your clan and the police can be commenced." He gave an odd hand-wave, then turning around he walked away leaving Motoko with the two men she disliked the most.

That wave - hope sprang in Motoko heart and then died just as quickly. That was a clan wave, just not her clan. It was just a signal that he understood her situation.

As she started to answer the detectives questions a horrible realization of how much trouble was to come sent a chill through-out her soul.

HER SISTER WOULD BE COMING!