Disclaimer: I'll say this again, I don't owe Love Hina or Saki, she's from Steel Angel.
Note: wow! I can't believe I got so many reviews for my last chapter I didn't expect that, I'm still new to this so I get impressed easily. The only reason I can think of for such a count is because most of you must be turtle fans, tribute to those little guys whom we take granted for, 'All hail the great turtle God!' Ahh anyway enough with the ranting on with the story, anything in () means thoughts and means flash backs, and that's really about it. So without further ado, start-o. Oh! One more thing, the mid section is rather boring it just explains a little bit about amnesia, you can miss it if you want.
Can it really be him?
Aoi Island, Dr Ishida's clinic
After their second encounter with Reiko the group were taken to Dr Ishida's clinic where their injured friends were being treated. Naru was laid out on one of the numerous beds in the clinic and was watched over by the other residents.
"Argh…"
"Dr! I think Naru-sempai's coming around!" Shinobu shouted out the door.
"She is?" Dr Ishida rushed into the room and immediately began to examine Naru, "How do you feel miss?" She asked Naru whilst she placed two fingers on her wrist.
"A bit sore…" she placed a hand up to her head and felt the bandage, a surge of pain went through her, " ouch!" she recoiled.
"It's best that you don't touch that wound, I had to put in some stitches but you'll be fine, it won't even leave a scar so don't worry." She stood up and headed towards a large cabinet by the wall and rummaged for a bottle. "These are pain killers take 1 ½ pill every 4 hours for about a week and you should be fine."
"Thank you." Naru smiled at her and took the medicine.
"Now Narusegawa-san." Dr Ishida sat down on a chair and propped her head on her hand, "I'll like to ask you. What were you thinking? Of all the people in the world why did you pick a fight with Reiko-chan?"
"Well its just that she was putting herself in front of Keitaro and just wouldn't let me near him and…and…" she pointed around in random directions and the Dr just stared at her confused.
"…Right…" (" Who is she talking about? Keitaro? I don't think I've seen him before. Perhaps Reiko-chan hit her harder than I imagined and caused this young girl to be delusional, I've got to talk to Kane-san about Reiko-chan's behaviour. She can be so uncontrollable at times.") She put a hand up to Naru indicating for her to stop, "Alright, I think I know what's happening." She nods slightly.
"You do? So you'll help?" Naru seemed hopeful.
"Of course. It is my duty as a doctor to help my patients." She placed a hand to her chest.
"Wow, you're really stepping over the boundaries as a doctor to help me."
"No need to worry. At least you're better off than your other friend." She turned her chair aside and picked up a clipboard on the desk.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean your other friend, the one with the raven black hair, quite tall, fair skin."
"Oh! You mean Motoko-chan?" Naru turned to the girls and noticed that Motoko was missing among the group, "Where is Motoko-chan?" they avoided her gaze and didn't answer her.
"She's down the corridor turn right." The Dr told her plainly looking up at her before returning to her clipboard. Like a possessed woman Naru quickly got up and ran down the corridor followed by the others and when she got to the end, she flung the door open. There she was, Motoko lying on the bed unconscious. Her shirt removed and was covered in bandages, she looked as though as she was beaten up quite badly.
"What happened?" Naru walked up to Motoko's unconscious form and clutched her hand gently.
"Well Naru-sempai." Shinobu said in a quite voice, "It happened after you became unconscious." She walked closer to Naru and began to tell her what happened.
Outside Kane family restaurant
"Naru-sempai!" Motoko shouted worriedly as she cradled Naru's battered body, her fallen friend's blood on her hand.
"Not bad! Not bad at all, I didn't expect that she could take 3 of my punches so well, if at all! Of course they were only light punches." Reiko said as she slowly walked up to the group. Motoko shot her a disbelieving/angry look. "Don't believe me? Look under her shirt." Turning back to Naru, Motoko lifted up her shirt and found 3 bruises on her body, one on the shoulder, another just above her hip and the last one on her stomach.
(" How is this possible? It was only a split second and she was able to deliver fast surgical punches to Naru-sempai, the shoulder to disable her attack, the hip to limit her movement and the stomach to knock her out. I couldn't even pick up her movements.") Motoko stared at Reiko. ("Who is she?")
"Listen Samurai girl maybe you should take your friend to see a doctor and then get off this island." Reiko waved a hand to the side, turning around she began to walk away from the group.
"How dare you!" Reiko stopped in her tracks and looked over her shoulder.
"What is it now?" Reiko asked, her back still facing Motoko
"How dare you do this to Naru-sempai and now you order us to leave?!" she pointed her sword to Reiko.
"Listen." Reiko faced her, "I think it's for the best that you do."
"Insolent fool! Zantetsusen!" Motoko launched a Ki attack at Reiko. Standing still her arms folded Reiko didn't seem at all worried, this made Motoko suspicious. As the whirlwind of Ki sped its way towards Reiko causing her clothes to flutter, at the last few meters the Ki attacked disappeared, a look of confusion made its way on to Motoko's face. "What happened?"
"Mmm…" Reiko rubbed her cheek, "I tried to tell you, there's no point in using such Ki attacks against me, I'll just counter it with my own Ki and disperse yours easily." She winked at her.
"Hargh!!" Clutching her sword tighter Motoko launched another Ki attack at her putting more Ki energy into this one. Reiko shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.
("So quick to anger, a sign that she hasn't mastered the blade yet.") Raising one hand Reiko caught the Ki wave effortlessly and sent it back to the sender. Seeing this Motoko prepared herself and struck her own attack with the Hina blade and sent it flying into the air, she fell on one knee afterwards weakened from redirecting her own attack.
(" How is she able to so easily deflect my attacks? How?") Using her blade for support she got back up and readied herself.
"Up for more?" Reiko raised her eyebrows, Motoko gave her a death glare. "Ha ha, fine, fine, this time why don't you try hitting me with that sword of yours." She pointed to the Hina blade.
"So be it!" Giving out a war cry she charged at Reiko when close enough she brought the sword diagonally to Reiko's head, but suddenly the Hina blade began to grow dark and stopped to the side of Reiko. "The blade's resisting me!"
"Of course! I am controlling it after all." Reiko said smugly.
"What!? Wah!!" The possessed blade flung itself backwards taking Motoko with it whom landed on her rear the blade still in her hands. "Ahh." She winced as she rubbed her rear.
"Want more?"
"Curse you! What trickery is this?" Motoko growled at her.
Putting a hand to her forehead Reiko shook her head in disbelief, "You mean you don't know?" Motoko didn't reply she just stared at her, "God! What do they teach you in the Shinmei Ryu?"
"How did you…" Reiko stopped Motoko in mid sentence.
"That's not really important." Reiko sighed and began to gather her thoughts, "How should I say this? Ah! I know. Listen that's the demon blade Hina right?" She pointed to the said sword, Motoko nodded curious as to how she knew that, "Well its possessed, correct?" Again Motoko nodded, "Alright then, since it's possessed it has a will of its own and will follow a master of its choosing, however when placed next to a stronger and more powerful presence its will will be dominated by that power and disobey its master. Got that?"
Digesting the information that Reiko just fed her Motoko came to a conclusion which she thought was the most reasonable, "You're a demon!?"
Reiko's eyebrows knitted, "Good guess but not quite, you see like you I too use a demonic weapon but its much more powerful then that little blade of yours, and over time my Ki signature has began to become identical to that of my weapon."
"Then you wield the power of the dark."
"And you don't?"
"The spirit within my blade has been sealed where it can do no harm to others." Motoko defiantly told Reiko.
"Yeah, I know and 'cause of that you'll never be able to draw on that blades full power, but that doesn't really matter even if you were able to draw on its full power you still wouldn't be able to beat me. You must be quite weak if you can't even control that mid-level demon and had to seal it only drawing a minute portion of its full power." Enough was enough having first taking an effortless defeat and now this verbal insult Motoko snapped.
"You…arrogant…insolent fool!!" she said through gritted teeth, " I shall vanquish you!" Motoko's eyes began to glow and give off a dark Ki aura just like her sister when she is angry and went in for the kill.
"Again?" Reiko said with a grin as she dodged a sword swipe from Motoko, another and another all of them she dodged effortlessly. After a few minutes of this Reiko got bored and decided to increase the pace a little, using both her hands she caught the blade in between her palms and threw Motoko back a few feet, dusting herself off she got back on her feet her exhaustion showing and her aura began to fade but she still insisted on continuing the fight ignoring the pleas of her friends to stop. "I admire your persistence." She smiled at her, "Although I'm guessing you won't stop until I showed you some pain? Hmm?" Sparks of electricity began to emit from Reiko's body, "Fine then, I'll show you what I can do." A streak of electricity coiled itself around Reiko's arm and around her and it slowly spread outwards from her, her Ki began to rise to dangerous levels. "Remember you asked for it."
("What is she!?" Such powerful dark Ki, more so than Nee-chan!") Sweat began to form on Motoko's worried face as she faced her strongest opponent as of yet, she stepped back to avoid the electricity coming from Reiko.
"Ready?" Reiko asked her calmly the electricity slowly residing but still visible.
"Any time!"
"Alright then, go." Reiko snapped her fingers and disappeared in a flash of light.
"Where did she go?" Motoko looked around frantically. She found her answer too soon, Reiko reappeared to Motoko's side and delivered a powerful punch to her head, Motoko was sent flying due to the powerful punch and went slightly numb as the electricity made its way through her, before she made contact with any solid object however Reiko appeared in front of her line of flight and drove her knee into the side of Motoko's chest sending her flying upwards. Motoko now currently half conscious due to the pain reached a high altitude in which she was brought back down to earth abruptly as Reiko reappeared again and smashed her heel from a spin kick into her stomach. Combined with such force along with gravity Motoko smashed into the ground with a loud thud, battered, bruised and so on.
"Oh my God." Was all Kitsune could say.
"Haa." Reiko sighed as she walked up to Motoko's unconscious body prodding her with her foot, turning to the restaurant she spoke to Saki who had been watching all along, "Saki-chan, would you mind calling the doctor, I'm in a hurry." Saki nodded timidly, "Thanks." Then she proceeded to address the rest of the girls, " When your friends recover get off this island, you're not wanted here." Turning around she walked off.
End Flash back
"And that's what happened." Shinobu said ending her story.
"Who does she think she is!?" Naru practically screamed.
"I am sorry for your friend, Reiko-chan has a tendency to go… hmmm… what's that word, oh yeah, berserk at times, but believe me when I say this she means well and had no intentions of doing permanent harm to your friend." Dr Ishida said as she entered the room.
"What!? Look at what she did to Motoko and me!? What do you mean 'no intentions of permanent harm'? She practically tried to kill us!!" Naru yelled at the Dr's face.
"Narusegawa-san, please calm down."
"Yes Naru-sempai, please calm down." Shinobu pleaded and offered her a seat.
"Hmph!" Naru sat down angrily.
"Sighs." The Dr walked up to Motoko and checked her pulse. "Your friend is strong, she'll be fine fairly soon." She wrote something down on her clipboard.
"Good. That's a relief." Naru placed a hand to her chest, "Dr what's wrong with her?"
"Hmm, let's see. She has 2 cracked ribs, minor internal bleeding, a slight concussion and slight paralysis due to the electricity but other then that she's fine, we should let her rest." Dr Ishida said as she placed a blanket over Motoko, who began to stir from her slumber.
"Argh!" Motoko moaned as her body began to register the pain coursing through her.
"Don't move." Dr Ishida told her.
"The pain…"
"Please would you hold her?" She said to Naru.
"Sure." She did as she was told. Taking a hypodermic needle and a bottle from her lab coat, the Dr filled the needle with a transparent liquid from the bottle and injected it into Motoko's arm. After a minute or two Motoko began to relax went back to sleeping soundly.
"There. The medicine should put her to rest for a while. Please let's not disturb her, lets go to my room." She ushered the girls out if the room.
"I don't get it." Naru said to herself as she sat down.
"What Narusegawa-san?" Dr Ishida asked as she took something out from the cabinet and looked at it.
"What I mean is Keitaro."
"Oh you mean Tadayoi." (" There she goes again, delusional. Where did I put those Antipsychotic medicines? ")
"Why did he not recognise us?"
"Yeah I know." Kitsune said rubbing her chin.
"Sempai…"
"Narusegawa-san why do you keep referring to Tadayoi as this Keitaro?"
"Because they look so alike!"
"Really? Narusegawa-san can I ask you why are you and your friends here? "
"You see Dr it's like this…" Naru drawing in a deep breath told the Dr what happened. After finishing her story the Dr began to evaluate the situation.
(" Ah… could it be that Tadayoi is this Keitaro person it can't be just a coincidence. Maybe she isn't delusional after all and has something to do with Tadayoi's past, I guess I don't need this.") She looked at bottle in her hand.
"I wish someone would explain to me!" The sound of a clatter directed the girls' attention to the Dr. who was standing there perfectly still.
"Did you just ask for an explanation?" Dr Ishida asked, her face mere inches from Naru's face.
"Er yeah…" Naru said somewhat nervous.
"You mean Tadayoi correct?"
"Yeah…"
"Then allow me to explain!" Dr Ishida moved back from Naru giving her breathing space. "Let's start from the beginning shall we?" She sat down and drank from her glass of water. "From your earlier response I take you know nothing of Tadayoi's condition." The girls seemed confused, as they did not know of this Tadayoi person, "I mean the guy you keep referring to as Keitaro." She clarified, "Well you see he has amnesia."
"What!!" The girls responded.
"What's amnesia does it taste good?" Su asked, the Dr stared at Su strangely.
"No, it's when you lose your memory."
"Never mind that, Dr Ishida what did you say about Keitaro…er…no I mean Ta… Tadayoi?"
"Please relax, let me start. You see all of this began about 9 months ago when we first found Tadayoi he somehow drifted ashore, that's how he got his name by the way, he was on the verge of death when we found him."
"What happened?" Naru asked concerned.
"Well, I'm not exactly sure of the cause but when we found Tadayoi he had sever physical injuries all over him, combined with the fact that he was adrift in the cold seawater we didn't expect much, who ever did that to him should be ashamed of themselves." Dr Ishida said harshly, Naru cringed at her words, as she knew she had done that to him, or at least she hoped not and that it was his accident prone nature was to blame.
(" What happened? He's always pulled through before… but why did this happen?")
"Thank God Reiko-chan found him in time and took him to me to be treated."
"You mean that girl who attacked me saved Tadayoi." Naru asked getting use to Keitaro's new name.
"Yes, still there was a low chance that he would come out of it OK, but through some miracle he managed to pull through, he recovered gradually when he was in his coma state." Taking a sip from her water she continued, " After he awoke that was when we discovered he had amnesia, now that we think about it it really would've been a miracle if he awoke from that and not have any permanent damage, so it really wasn't surprising that he had amnesia, actually that's quite good, I mean there are worst. All he suffered was amnesia to a partial degree."
"Doc what do you mean?" Kitsune asked.
"Well you see amnesia has different levels, there's partial and complete. Tadayoi is suffering from partial amnesia, in which he has forgotten only his memories but nothing else, such as his motor skills and knowledge seems intact, he can still ride a bike, swim, write, read etc. If he had complete amnesia then he would've been like a new born child, we would've had to teach him everything from the basics that requires conscious control, how to speak, walk perhaps, even how to use chopsticks and such, so in other words he got off pretty lucky."
"What do you mean 'lucky'? He doesn't even remember his own name and…and he… doesn't remember me. All the time that we spent together… gone." Naru burst out saying, tears forming. The other tenants attempted to calm her down, the Dr gave her a glass of water.
"I know it must be difficult. It's not like I did nothing to speed up his memory recovery." She opened a draw at the side of her desk and produced a folder from it.
"Dr, what's that?" Naru asked calmer now.
"This is a record of Tadayoi. There are numerous reasons for his amnesia, but let me start from the beginning. Before he woke up I had taken some x-rays of Tadayoi and discovered that there were some swelling in his brain and from that I already anticipated some sort of damage, and when he did awake up it was confirmed. That was my original theory, that it was this swelling that caused his amnesia."
"Then when his swelling goes down he would remember right?" Naru asked hopefully.
"Well that was the idea but…"
"But what?"
"Narusegawa-san, think about it. It's been 9 months I'm sure any one would've recovered in that amount of time." Naru slumped a little. "But like I said that was one of the theories. The second theory and possibly the most plausible is that Tadayoi is suffering from a psychological type of amnesia."
"Huh?" Were the girls' responses.
"What I mean is that his brain is perfectly fine but there is something holding him back."
"What's holding him back?" Shinobu asked
"Well…I can't really explain because it's very complicated." Dr Ishida scratched her head, "But I'll try my best. What I think is happening to Tadayoi is that due to the shock to his brain he repressed his memories maybe it's a natural reaction, actually more like instinct, exactly why though, I don't know. So in a way his memories are still in his mind but for some unforeseen reason he can't seem to access them." The Dr paused and took a sip from her cup.
"Then how can he access his memories again?" Naru asked trying to grasp what is happening.
"Well I tried to approach this psychological block in many ways, I started after his brain recovered cause I didn't want to risk anything plus the fact that I thought he would've made progress, first I thought it was a involuntary memory block so I gave him some medicine that helped patients to clear their memory blocks, usually the medicine is known to take effect within a week and the patients would recover, however in Tadayoi's case this didn't happen. I was absolutely baffled.
"The next thing I tried was administering Sodium Amytal to him." All the girls looked at her weird, "You know, truth serum?" The girls shook their heads, "Hmm, actually it isn't really truth serum there's no such thing. Basically Sodium Amytal is a relaxant it acts by suppressing the human's inability." The girls stare at her weird again, 'Sighs'… "it slows down some of your senses, makes you more communicative and suggestive to other influences.
"Why did you give him that?"
"The truth is, even though I didn't want to think of it, was that the only conclusion left possible is that this was a voluntary block, meaning he's holding back on purpose. But anyway whilst under the influence of Sodium Amytal I discovered that he genuinely had no recollection of his past through a series of questions I asked him names, places and dates. Nothing! I got nothing, at this point and still I have no idea what is wrong with him, he is a medical mystery."
The girls looked at each and wondered what they should do. "If a doctor can't help him who can?" Kitsune asked.
"Well since my facilities were very limited I sent him off to a neighbouring Island, I have colleagues there that work in a hospital, I asked them if they could help. There they performed scans on him, but sadly they got the same results as me." She looked out the window.
"So there's nothing we can do." Naru said sadly.
"Not quite, if Tadayoi really is this Keitaro in which you speak of you may be able to help."
"Really? How?"
"Your presence might be able to remove his psychological block. But first you need to prove that he is Keitaro, if not he might think you're just strange and avoid you."
"Yeah but how?"
"Su knows!" Su declared proudly and pulled out her DNA radar from her pocket.
"Great we can use that."
"Good. Once you confirmed that he is who you think he is remind him subtly of who he is, too much information can damage him." Everyone nods, "Listen it's rather late now why don't you all stay for the night and get things sorted. The rooms are upstairs and I need to tend to your friend."
"Thank you Dr, we don't know how to thank you." Naru bowed to her as well as everyone else.
"Yeah after today, I need a good sleep." Kitsune said as she approached the door followed by the others.
"Then I bid you all goodnight."
"Goodnight Dr." They said as they closed the door. Turning back to the folder Dr Ishida pulled out a piece of paper from it and began to read it silently.
'To Dr Ishida
From the institute of health
Dr Ishida following your request we have scanned the patient as you requested and we are happy to say that the patient has no brain damage and that he is perfectly healthy. However whilst we scanned him we noticed certain abnormalities in his brain wave pattern, what we mean to say is that the patient displayed 2 distinct brainwave patterns, the cause of this is still yet unknown. We are sorry that we can't provide you with any more information, included in this letter are the results of the tests we preformed on the patient.'
Placing the letter back into the folder, she got up and walked to the window. (" 2 brainwave patterns? What does this mean? Tadayoi exactly what are you hiding from us but more importantly, from yourself?") Deciding it was no use to linger on that topic any longer she stepped away from the window and left the room going to check up on Motoko.
Next day
At the door of the clinic everyone was ready to leave and confront their manager about his past.
"Dr Ishida we're like to thank you again." Naru bowed to her.
"You're welcome." She flicked a stray strand of hair out of her face, "You know where to go right?"
"Yeah we do."
"Alright then, good luck." She waved them goodbye.
"Motoko-chan are you sure you should be walking?" Naru asked her shaky friend.
"I'm fine, you need not worry about me. It was very nice of the Dr to give me an item of her clothing but why this shirt?" She looked at the back of her t-shirt.
"I don't know, I think its quite good." Kitsune said.
"Have you seen what it says?"
" Let's see, 'I'm a bomb technician, if you see me running try to keep up.' I like it." Kitsune half laughed.
"Stop that!"
"You two be quite, hey we're here." Naru said as they stopped in front of Kane family restaurant. "Is anyone in there?" After a few moments the door opened to reveal Saki behind it.
"It's you!" Saki panicked and tried to close the door but Naru placed her foot in the door frame and stopped her.
"Please let me explain!"
"We're not open yet!"
"It's not that, we need to know where we can find Tadayoi."
"Erm… I don't know if I should tell you…"
"Please." Naru pleaded.
"Well OK." She opened the door. "You see that island small island over there." She pointed at the back window of the restaurant.
"Yeah."
"Since its still early they're there training."
"Training?"
"Yeah. You can get there by boat but I suggest that you don't go."
"Why?"
"Because it's dangerous when ever they start training on that island."
"How dangerous?" Motoko interrupted.
"Remember yesterday?" They nod, " Well, think of that as a little spark compared to what happens there." They froze slightly.
(" How can it be worst?") Motoko thought to herself, (" I must see it with my own eyes and once I know her secret I shall redeem my honour by defeating her in honourable combat.") She hurried off to the said location.
"Motoko-chan wait up!" Naru chased after her.
"You guys wait!" Saki shouted to them but they were already gone, "You forgot to pay your bill from yesterday. Reiko-chan's going to kill me."
Lone Island
After riding on the boat the group finally landed on the island, when they arrived they noticed that there was already another boat. Everything seemed normal at first glance.
"Hey where do you think they are?" Kitsune inquired.
"Probably deeper in the island." Motoko said.
"How do you know?" Motoko just pointed at the tracks on the ground.
"They were running, two of them and one of them just walked." Motoko inspected the tracks.
"Then lets go." Naru lead the way through the forest.
After minutes of walking the girls still saw nothing out of the ordinary that is until they came across some fallen trees.
Walking up to one of the fallen trees Naru bent down and examined it. "Hey do you think a storm hit here or something?"
"I doubt it. Look around, the destruction is only in this area and the trees have all fallen in a straight line, this was by hand."
"Motoko-chan how?" Motoko just pointed to the side of the tree where a fist print was present.
"Sempai I'm scared." Shinobu clung herself on to Naru.
"Don't worry Shinobu-chan me and Motoko-chan can take care of what ever did this, right Motoko-chan?" She smiled nervously at the Samurai.
"Perhaps…what was that?" Motoko's line of sight was directed deeper into the forest.
"What was what?"
"There it is again, the sound of fighting!" Without hesitation she took off in that direction.
"Wait up!" Running a short distance the group stopped close by a flat area in the middle of the forest. The area around it was badly burnt and flattened, a lone old man sat at the far end of the flat land.
"What's all this and why is that old guy sitting there by himself?" Kitsune asked.
"Shh." Motoko silenced them and indicated them to get down behind the trees, "We don't want to get spotted." She whispered to them her gaze still firmly fixed on the old man.
"Why? He's just an old guy…" Just then a pair of shadows flashed across the sky and collided with each other causing several trees to fall. "Ekk!" Everyone ducked down.
"Doku Ryu! [Poison Dragon]" One of the shadows shouted and lunched what seemed like a palm strike at the other shadow, the force of the strike caused the air in front of it to pressurize. The other shadow dodged the strike and the air continued to fly across the plain slicing through tress and turning them to splinters.
"Howo Tszme! [Phoenix Claw]" The other shadow countered. The other shadow moving at blinding speed dodged the attack.
The shadows moved to the centre of the flat land where they continued to collide with each other.
"What are those things?" Naru crept closer to Motoko.
"They're fighters moving at incredible speeds, let us observe." ("I know who one of them is, but who is the other presence standing up against her, he or she must also be an amazing fighter and who is that old man? I can't sense any Ki energy being emitted by him.")
Jumping apart in opposite directions the two shadows separated from each other and began to take shape, one of them was Reiko dressed in her battle gear her fists raised and the other shadow to everyone's surprise was Tadayoi who was also dressed in his battle gear his stance similar to Reiko's.
"Is that Keitaro?" Naru tried to get up but was stopped by Motoko.
"No Naru-sempai!"
"Why?"
"It's best that we observe for now."
"Enough you two, warm up is over." The old man said, "Draw your weapons."
"Hai sensei." They both answered. Tadayoi raising his hand into the air gathered his Ki into his hand and called forth something, intense fire began to burn around him and it flowed into his hand, grasping the fire it began to extend and materialize into a blade. The blade itself had a crimson hilt and was doubled sided, along the centre of the blade there was a layer of black metal on both sides and on the layers were red markings almost like spells. At the same time Reiko held out her hand and gathered her Ki, lightning rained from the sky and struck her, holding her hand out to the side lightning shot forth from her hand and became a blade. Her blade unlike Tadayoi's was only one sided, longer and had a blue hilt instead other than that it had the same layers of black metal on either side and the same red markings.
"Those blades!! It can't be!!" Motoko shouted in horror.
"What is it Motoko-chan?" Naru asked as she noticed the look of horror on Motoko's face.
"Those blades, if they are what I think they are… no never mind! We must leave!"
"But…" Naru sentence was cut short however.
"Ready Tadayoi-kun?" Reiko said over the crackle of lightning.
"Let's go!" Tadayoi called out as he dashed through the intense burning flames.
Fire and lightning erupted from the two fighters as their swords collided, their Ki energy spreading across the flat land burning or frying everything.
"I think we should get out of here!" Naru shouted as she scurried back from the fire and lightning.
"I don't think it'll do us any good. Their energy is spreading everywhere we wouldn't have enough time to escape." Motoko told her. Just then a stray branch fell upon the group they all covered their heads and readied for the blow, but it never came. "Strange." Motoko looked up as did everyone else.
"You think the fire roasted it?" Kitsune asked sweat pouring from her face from the intense heat.
"Maybe." (" But I felt a strong Ki protect us, but who?")
"Hey look! The fire and lightning is pulling back!" Shinobu pointed out.
The two fighters' swords were still locked in heated combat their Ki energy now slightly lower. Reiko pushed Tadayoi away and took a slash at him to the side, Tadayoi blocked the attack and went in for a kick, using her arm Reiko blocked the blow and grabbed his leg, and with a little effort she tossed him across the air. While in mid air he spun himself and rebounded of a tree and went straight for Reiko sword at the ready. Reiko pared the attack but was pushed back a little due to the force, side stepping she created more between them and went in for a rising cut, Tadayoi jumped back and countered with a spinning slash which was blocked by Reiko. The two fighters continued to exchange sword attacks one after another at inhuman speeds, whilst the girls continue to stare on even though they couldn't actually see the attack, with the exception of Motoko who can just barely see the out lines of their attacks.
("I have serious doubts that that is Urashima, there is no possible way that he can increase his Ki energy to such levels, and it almost feels as he is a different person. Can it really be him? And that blade he's holding, can it be? That that is the legendary Demon Blade of Fire, Hono Kokoro [Flame Heart]. I thought that it was sealed because of how destructive it was, if what I heard is correct residing in that blade is no ordinary demon but a Demon Warlord, one of the four most powerful demons in Hell. Then the other blade must be Kami-nari Ha [Lightning Tooth]. That blade is just as dangerous as the other one, why are they free? They're meant to be sealed so their destructive powers may never be used by mortals, and how did they come to posses such power…unless…no! It can't be! ") Motoko thought to herself.
"Ha haa…" Tadayoi separated himself from Reiko and took in deep breaths, the blade in his hands still burning. ("If I'm going to win I'll need to use some of my special techniques. Right Hono Kokoro?") He turned to his blade, as if responding to his question the blade's markings began to glow a crimson red. "Right!"
(" Hmm…judging from the way its glowing I'm guessing that he's about to use one of his special attacks. I know its stupid, but what the hell!") Leaning forward she dashed towards Tadayoi. Standing still Tadayoi waited until Reiko was close enough to initiate his attack, once she was close Tadayoi took a few slashes at the air, Reiko stopped in her tracks when lines suddenly surrounded around her, soon the space between the lines solidified into semi-transparent walls completely encasing Reiko in a doom like structure. (" Humph! This attack. I thought so."). The fire that was trapped along with Reiko inside the doom began to go out, the air in the doom was running out.
"What's happening?"
Motoko didn't reply as she was too busy observing the battle. (" That technique…could it be?")
(" Hmm… suffocate or burn, ah what the hell.") Pulling her arm back Reiko plunged the blade into one of the walls completely shattering it, the instance that she did however she was swallowed by fire and soon followed by a huge explosion.
"Dansu No Hi [Dance of Fire]" Tadayoi said to himself silently.
"What was that?!"
"…Dance of fire…" Motoko muttered.
"What?"
"Dance of fire, a high level technique used only by the very skilled. It's an attack in which the user gathers his or her Ki and creates walls encasing the opponent and some fire. The confinement is air tight and the fire burns up the air in it suffocating the opponent, however if the walls were to be broken mass amounts of air would be rushed in but the fire isn't completely out, so with the mass movement of air the fire would quickly burn it and cause an explosion reaching temperatures of up to 1000 degrees, suffocate or burn…" (" How? I thought that technique was lost…")
To Motoko's absolute surprise as the fire died down Reiko emerged from the destruction with only a few scratches and some burns, "Whoa not bad." Reiko wiped some dirt from her face.
"I'm not surprise that you survived." Tadayoi said.
"Yeah, you're improving. Let me show you my special technique." Taking the hilt in both hands Reiko thrust the blade into the ground. Knowing what was about to happen Tadayoi tried to get off the ground but was too late, he was caught in a binding web of lightning. "Denki-no-sz [Electric web], not bad eh?" Reiko indicated to the electric web surrounding her.
"Yeah…argh!" Tadayoi screamed as the electricity coursed through him.
"Don't bother struggling, you know it only makes it worst."
"Hey, Motoko-chan do you know what that is?" Motoko nodded.
"That is electric web, another high level technique. Its principle is that using the ground as a medium the user transfers his or her Ki into the form of an electric web, the user must maintain contact with the ground in order to sustain it. This technique like a spiders web is meant to ensnare an opponent it the web and slowly drains their life away, the more you struggle the more it restrains you. This technique is difficult to use is because its difficult to maintain the user must make a balance between the amount of Ki used, too much would kill the opponent and too little the opponent will break free. Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable."
"Argh!!" Tadayoi screamed in pain.
"Sempai!"
"I'll show you!" Ignoring the pain and using all his strength Tadayoi broke through the web. "I've done it!"
"Hey not bad." Reiko took the blade out. "But try this…Raigeki! [Raining Lightning]" She summoned lightning to rain down.
"Hmph." Bringing his sword up Tadayoi summoned a wall of fire to block the attacked, "Hinotama! [Fire ball]" He fired a few fireballs at Reiko, Reiko brought her guard up and deflected most of them, however one of them flew straight for the girls.
"Watch out!!" Everyone took cover expecting the worst. But it never came.
"Huh? What happened, ahh forget that! Why don't we just get out of here while we can?" Kitsune pleaded.
"No. We're safer here. Someone's helping us." Motoko told her.
"Who?"
"I don't know, but this person is very powerful."
Fire and lightning flew across the sky as the two fighters continued their fight destroying everything. Finally they stopped and stared at each ready to end this. Suddenly shadowy figures began to appear and disappear behind the two fighters. Motoko seeing this shook her head and rubbed her eyes.
"Are you OK?" Naru asked shoving a piece of burnt timber aside.
"Yes, it's just that I thought I saw something." Of course Motoko was lying, what she didn't tell her was what she saw, it was something that she won't forget easily. What she saw was a faint image of a demon standing behind Tadayoi dressed in noticeable thick armour it's claw like hands on his shoulders, where as in Reiko's case instead of a demon it was more of an image of an angel in armour and robes. ("Were they the images of the demons that reside within those blades?")
("I've gotta end this! I guess this is the perfect time for me try out my latest attack I hope I have enough left.") Tadayoi thought. Placing his sword horizontally in front of him he focused all of him remaining energy into the blade, the forest began to burn once again as he did so.
(" What is he trying to pull?") Just in case Reiko brought up her defences.
(" Now's the time! My ultimate attack!") "Howo Naku! [Phoenix Cry]" The fire gathered at the tip of his blade and erupted forth taking the shape of a giant Phoenix heading straight for Reiko. The intense heat of the fire Phoenix incinerated everything as it approached her bringing her sword up she struck the Phoenix. A blinding light shone across the entire island as she did so, the collision of such powers caused a massive explosion, the shockwave of it sent the girls flying. Finally as the dust settled one lone figure stood.
End of chapter 8
AN: What a weird chapter, sorry if it was a bit confusing but I tried to explain a little what amnesia was I hope I didn't over do it. OK let me say a few things:
-First off I hope you lot liked the demon blades introduced in this chapter, since the life span of this fic is coming to an end rather soon I plan to do a fic based on the blades, it will be fairly dark, violent, supernatural and generally weird. During my long absence I debated whether to make it an original or a LH fic finally I decided to make it a LH fic, though it'll seem a bit out of place but hey I found an interesting way to include the cast. Heh heh…
-Second if any of you have ever seen the manga 'Samurai Deeper Kyo', I don't own it by the way, then you'll probably recognise the moves Electric web and dance of fire that Reiko and Tadayoi used, I don't think I translated them properly though. Dance of fire was properly explained and I thought it would be cool to let Tadayoi use, Reiko's move however her explanation was made up and the other moves used I made it up.
-Thirdly if any of you feel that I have made any mistakes on the characters feel free to tell me, I based the LH characters on the manga but my Manga set is in Chinese, I've seen the English version and I noticed various differences so that's probably the reason.
-Sorry if the fight scene is a bit lacking, I have no excuses, please don't flame me!
Well that's it for now, till next I bid you all farewell!
