All right, i have updated and here it is....in my opinion...I LOVED THIS CHAPTER....well read now!! haha

BetaReader: : Jerails

Disclaimer:...HOw many freakin times do i have to tell you people.....okie thats it i don't own love hina and if you dont beleive me, im going to smash you with oranges...

A New light
End of Act 1: Chapter 14
A "Family" Picnic Pt.3 Final

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It was a clear, black night out in the forest. Keitaro and the gang, made a camp site inside a deep, lush forest right besides the lake. While they were standing around the campfire, completely silent, the view of the lake between the trees, set a calm, and tranquil ambience thru out the place. However, the previous incident, that occured left an eerie silence as well.

Everyone was tense, Keitaro was just staring at the crackling fire as he pondered on what to do. Suu, and Shinobu were laying down on the grass, staring straight up into the clearly visible stars. Both were thinking and regretting what they did earlier, everyone could see that, especially with the dried up tears they both had as they stared blankly into space.

Motoko, and Asuna were deeply distressed by what happened in the lake, but both decided to meditate it off, seeing how every thing is back to normal. However both of them, weren't meditating as hard as before. Their mind wondered torwards Sakura and Keitaro becuase of the accident, occasionally opening their eyes to spot Asuna's beloved father staring into the orange fire like a zombie.

Naru was just holding a stick, with a marshmellow at the end, roasting it by the flames. A pack of hershey chocolate, and grahm crackers by her side. With the full intention to make herself and the others s'mores, in an attempt to cheer up every one. Mitsune was also doing the same thing, but included a sake bottle into her own s'more. Both, like all the others, focused their attentions occasionally to Keitaro.

Haruka was no where to be found and they all concluded that she was having a nice simple hike around the area, as they had noticed that her hiking gear was not in her tent. The last girl, is of course Sakura herself. She wasn't anywhere to be found also. She stopped crying after a 15 minute hug, but then disappeared into the night.

This started to worry Keitaro, and everyone could see that.

The campsite was dead silent. The crackling of fire could only be heard in everyone's ears, as they waited for the time to pass.

Crackle.......!

......Crackle!

Keitaro stood up from his place.

Everyone looked up at his walking form.

He walked torwards his tent, kneeled down beside his bag on the floor, opened it up, and picked up a necklace.

He then immediatly started to make his way to the lake, while putting his necklace on while he walked.

"You girls stay here, I'm going off to find Sakura, she's probably in the beach, okay?!" Keitaro said turning to the girls.

The girls only stifled a nod and went back to what they were doing.

Unknown to Keitaro, Asuna opened one eye from her meditation and looked at Keitaro's walking form as it vanished through the trees and into the mists of the lake.

"Sakura-chan...."

At that moment Haruka came into the campsite, causing everyone to look at the woman. She had all her hiking gear on, and it seemed she just finished.

Haruka went to her tent to change, and came back out with her casual clothes.

A pause

"So, where is Keitaro?" she questioned.

"Aaauu, he went to find Sakura-chan on the beach, he just left a second ago."

"I see......"

Silence again took over the place.

"Um...anoo....Haruka-san?" Suu said, standing up

"Yes Suu?"

"Whats is up with that necklace Keitaro has? It looks good, can I eat it?"

Everyone was interested and they all started to inch closer to the fire in the middle.. When they saw Keitaro running after Sakura, he reached into his pocket a pulled out a necklace. They were all interested in the story behind this.

Haruka let out a light chukle.

"Yes, Keitaro told me something interesting about how he got that necklace and this story also is appropriate for a camping trip!"

By this time, everyone was sitting close near Haruka by the fire as she started the story.

--------Beachside of Cruxis lake-------

There, in the beach was Sakura, perched on a rock, seating down, and looking down at the sandy beach. Dried tears visble at the side of her cheeks, as she continued to look down.

A noise caught her attention to her right. She quickly turned and saw Papa coming to her, his attention at the lake.

Keitaro made his way, taking his time, torwards Sakura, and not taking his eyes off the lake which was reflecting the moon's light into the night sky.

Silently he slowly sat down beside her on the rock, not taking his eyes off the lake.

Sakura just kept looking at his calm, smooth face as he sat down.

A pause.

"Pretty night it is here..isn't it Sakura-chan..." Keitaro lightly spoke, but still caught his daughter's attention.

"Yes..yes it is....really pretty." she replied.

Another pause

"So, Sakura, anything you want to talk about...?"

Sakura just shook abit and relaxed.

"No Papa, I'm fine..really." she said in a strained voice.

"Sakura......"

Keitaro was now looking at her face intently and caused the girl to look away.

"I SAID NO!! NOW LEAVE ME ALONE!" Sakura shouted at the top of her lungs as she looked the other way. She immediately regretted saying those words.

Keitaro was a bit shocked, but just looked down into the sand, hiding his eyes with the bangs of his hair.

"Ok..if you want to be left alone Sakura-chan."

Keitaro started to stand up from the rock, but was instantly tackled to the ground.

Thump.

Sakura had tackled Keitaro in his chest as he was about to leave. Now Keitaro was facing up, his back laying on the ground, and had a sobbing Sakura clenching his T-shirt as she dug her head into his shirt.

"I'm sorry Papa, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She kept repeating, sobbing endlessly.

Keitaro looked stunned, but wiped it away with a smile. He started to hug the small girl back, and pet her hair, softly.

"Shhhh, it's okay Sakura, it's okay..!" Keitaro reassured. "Now is there something you want to tell me, something that you want to get out?"

Sakura just nodded.

"I'm..I'm..just scared of swimming, and the deep waters. Every since when I was 6. I was attacked by a shark." Sakura said, fighting back the sobs, to tell Keitaro everything clearly. "It-It mistook me for food, and tried to tackle me. It made me sink deeper into the water, and all I could see was blue, and black. I tried to swim up but fear over took me, and all I saw was the shark circling around me. Fortunetly Asuna, and Papa were there to scare away the shark. But it was already too late......I...I.....never wanted to swim ever again..."

After she was done she just stopped clutching his shirt, wrapped her arms around Keitaro, and layed her head onto his chest.

Keitaro stood still for a while and took in all of that information, and looked at the now calm Sakura, laying on top of him.

"Well Sakura.....I have a story to tell you to."

Sakura perked her head up and looked straight into his eyes.

"Well, when I was junior in high school, I was one of the top swimmers on our team. Can you beleive it? I was a good swimmer. However at the end of 1st semester, I had an accident, not exactly like yours Sakura-chan, but an accident that prevented me from ever wanting to swim again. I dove from the side of a pool, but I misjudged the depth, and would've broken my back, but I turned at the last second, and broke my hip, instead..."

A long silence was heard.

"But I recovered, and continued to swim after a little....enlightenment." He ended while looking down on his necklace.

Sakura noticed.

"What was..this enlightenment....Papa?"

Keitaro only let out a snicker and put his hand over Sakura's head.

She giggled.

"Well...it was a nice summer day when it all started........."

-------------------------------------Ichigo Town. 4 years ago----------------------------------------------

It was gorgeous summer day, as Keitaro stepped out of the train into the platform below. As he stepped out, he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a picture.

The picture contained him in swim trunks, with 4 other kids surrounding him, including Haruka, in the background, just looking into the camera, calmly.

Keitaro laughed a little.

He then made his way into town.

Keitaro's destination was the lake, where the picture had been taken. After his little accident, he decided to go back to his roots. It was there in this lake, he first started swimming, and learned how to swim.

"This might be my motivation...."

After a few minutes of senseless roaming, he reached an intersection. As he rounded the corner, he bumped into a young girl, around his age.

Bam

Thump.

Both of them came crashing down into the pavement.

"Ouch, go-gomen!" Keitaro said, but instantly stopped when he opened his eyes.

He was greeted to a panty shot tight in front of him. It seems that he had fallen forward, and the girl who he bumped into had fallen backwords, so now Keitaro was looking straight under the girls, skirt.

"Strawberry panties...." Was his only coherent thought, and blood started to gooze out of his nose, but stopped it when he heard a grunt coming from the girl.

Keitaro quickly stood up, went over ot her and held out a hand.

The girl then opened her eyes, looked around, and sees Keitaro above her, holding out a hand.

She smiled, and accepted his help.

"I-I'm terribly sorry, I should have looked at where I was going." The girl spoke but Keitaro did not notice, he was just looking at her gorgeous face. She had long ruby red hair, which went past her shoulder, and bright white skin. She had a high school uniform on, and appeared to have just finished the school day.

"A face of an angel..."

Keitaro then snapped back to reality, and apologized again.

The girl stared at Keitaro for a while.

He sweatdropped.

Then the girl smiled, and lept for the startled young man.

"Kei-kun!!" She shouted, which surprised him

"Ho-how did you know my name?" He said, slightly pushing her away.

"Aaaahhh Kei -kun, you don't recognize me? Oh wait, how about now?!"

The girl then wrapped her hair, with both her hands, twisted it, and pulled it up her head. This made her long silky red hair, look like a pair of long, ruby read, ponytails, that stopped right at her shoulders.

Kietro thought hard, and then had a look of surprise on his face.

He took out the picture, which revealed a red haired girl, right behind Keitaro, giving him two "bunny ears", she also had two pony tails that stopped down to her shoulders.

"A-ak-akari-chan!!! Is that you Akari-chan?!?" Kietaro said pointing at her.

"Hai!!"

"It's been so long, what have you been up to!?"

"Hahaha, nothing much, just sitting in this tiny town. Watching the days go by."

"No, that ain't right! You should have been swimming in that lake?"

"Ichigo Lake? Hahahaha come on Keitaro, you should have known! I can't swim!!"

Keitaro was taken back alittle, but then shook is head.

"Gomen, I forgot."

"How about you Keitaro, have you been swimming lately!?"

Keitaro, did not respond instantly and just looked at the ground.

Akari crept closer to Keitaro and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Was it because of the accident...." Akari said softly.

Keitaro looked up fast, and looked at her eyes.

"How, how did you know Akari-chan?!?" he said startled.

"Haha Kei-kun, ever since you have been starting to swim in meets, I have been lokking at your stats, and news! You can say that...."

A pause

"...You can say that I'm your greatest fan!" She said, moving away and grabbing his hand.

Keitaro looked dumbly at her, but then a smile crept onto his face.

".....Arigatou!" Was the only thing he said while being pulled by Akari, into town.

For the next few hours, they went everywhere. To the mall, to the park, and at the center of the park. For dinner, they enjoyed some food in a ramen stand, next to the park. They talked and had a great time talking about the past, and the present......and of the future. Finally, night took possession of the little town, and the two finally reached their destination.

They were at Ichigo lake.

The two just stood at the beach saoking in the scenery. The lake was a mix of black, and blue, as the night sky and moon, reflected off from it's surface. Both of them just stood there, on the beach, staring. Keitaro had a solemn look on his face.

A look of reflection, a look of awe.

Akari noticed this, and stared at his blank face.

She then tapped him on the shoulder.

Keitaro looked down at her.

She smiled, at him causing Keitaro to be confused.

She then stepped forward a few steps......

....and started to strip.

One by one she took off her school uniform, her shirt, skirt, and finally her bra.

Keitaro's eyes almost popped out of his socket, and blood started to come out of his nose, but stopped it.

"A-a-akari-chan!?! What're you doing?" He shouted at her.

However she ignored him, and started to run to the lake.

Keitaro followed.

"Akari-chan NO! You can't swim?!?" he said desperatly, but was too late.

She dove into the depths of the water.

SPLASH!

Keitaro saw her dive in, and cause a splash, as he stopped at the shoreline of the lake, contemplating on what do to next.

Bubles started to come out from the middle of the lake, and then started to decrease.

"This..this is just a joke...she knows she can't swim...." Keitaro thought over and over again! Sweat beating down his forehead.

But as time passed, he started to doubt more, when the bubbles began to stop.

Then....

There were no more.

His mind went blank for a second, but.....

"AKARI!!!!" He shouted, as he dove into the water himself.

SPLASH!!

Keitaro was swimming torwards where the bubbles had stopped, and it would take a him a while to reach there. He swam as hard as he could, even though he hadn't been swimming for a while. But he didn't care.

He reached his destination, but something came out of the water right in front of him. Causing him to swim back, and protect his eyes with his free hand, fomr the water splashing all over the place.

SWOOSH!

When Keitaro got his vision back, he looked forward, his nose started to bleed a little, and his mouth was wide open.

There stood a glowing Akari, standing on the water, half-naked, with only her panties on. Water dripping down from every curve, nude section of her body. The moon right behind her, the light from it being reflected fomr Akari herself, and from the droplets of water on her.

Keitaro just couldn't help but be amazed, and just stare.

A pause.

"See Keitaro....you swam, didn't you?" Akari said in a soft angelic voice, soothing Keitaro's ears.

He stifled a nod.

"Gomen Keitaro, I won't be there for you in body, but I shall always be there for you......in spirit."

She crept closer, walking on water and raised her hand while making her way to him. She lifted Keitaro, so he too would be standing on the water.

Keitaro had a look of confusion and amazement all etched on his face. He was about to speak, but Akari put a finger on his lips, making him stop what he was about to say.

"I know your confused....but take this." She said, taking out a beiutifull, ruby red necklace. She made herself go onto her tip toes, and slip the necklace around his neck, crept her face closer to his face, and pecked him on the cheek with a kiss.

Keitaro looked at Akari, and then to the necklace.

"Everything will be made clear Kei-kun...." She said in the same angelic voice.

Keitaro just nodded smiling, and looking at her.

"Good bye Kei-kun."

Keitaro let out a gasp, and reached his hand out to her, when suddenly her body started to fade into the night air.

Her body started to become white smoke, as she started to go with the wind. Slowly it was happening from the foot to the head.

Keitaro could only watch. As Akari's head was left. Her eyes looking straight into his eyes.

Into his soul.

"Remember Kei-kun.....

.....I will always be there for you....

I shall always....

be.......

....your biggest fan!"

Was the last thing Keitaro heard when she dissappeared into the night.

Keitaro looked down at his newly aquired necklace, embraced it with one hand, and clutched it tightly as he magically walked his way back to shore.

------Morning-----

Soon after that, he reached Akari's house, and had a chat with her mother. There he found out that Akari had died a few months ago in a terrible car accident. She and her freinds where crossing the bridge in a car, when a drunk ran them off the bridge, and into the lake. All of them were knockeed out cold, in impact, as the car fell deeper into the abyss.

Keitaro sent his regards to Akari's mother and went to get some sleep at the hotel he rented.

Now it was morning, and he was on the platform waiting for his train to arrive.

When his train arrived, he set one foot into the train car, and had an hand holding onto the railing into the train. With one solemn look, he looked back at Ichigo town.

A pause.

He then boarded the train. A single tear in his eye.

------------Two weeks later------

"Ladies and gentlemen! May I have your attention!" The announcers voice boomed in the intercom.

"For our 100 meter freestyle swimming dash, we have in lane three Keitaro Urashima!"

There in Lane three of the swimming pool, stood Keitaro, on the diving board. With one had raised to indicate that he was ready.

Around his neck was a red ruby necklace, which he used his other hand to rub it gently.

"Ready!" The announceer said.

Keitaro took of his necklace.

"Set!"

Keitaro kissed it and threw it into the crowd.

It sailed in the air, and reached into the hands of Haruka Urashima who caught it in mid-air.

"Go!!"

With a smile, Keitaro dove into the water, along with 7 other people. With determintaion, he swam torwards the other side of the pool, as fast as he could.

Haruka, just stood up, cheering and rooting for her favorite nephew, along with Keitaro's parents.

-------------------------------------End of flash back---------------------------------------------------

-------Camp site--------

"And he then stopped competing becuase he told me, that......it was enough for him." Haruka said finishing the story.

Every one around the fire just stood into Haruka's eyes. To see if she was lying, to she if she was joking, to see if this was all a hoax, or just somthing to tell during a campfire.

But saw none of that.

They noticed right away that this was no lie.

All of them just had amazement in their faces.

Each one of them started to look at each other.

"Wow....I never knew that about Keitaro....." Naru thought

"Aaauu, Sempai competed in swimming competitions!" Shinobu thought, with a blush on her face.

Mitsune, Motoko, and Asuna thought of nothing, and just replayed the whole story in their heads.

Silently, Haruka made her way into her tent, and went right to sleep, too tired to do anymore. Soon after, everyone followed suit. They reached their own corresponding tent, and slowly fell into a slumber in the forest.

----------Beach---------

"And I decided that last competition would be my last one I would ever compete in, and it has been my last one." Keitaro said finishing the story.

"B-but why!" Sakura said, a bit confused.

"I....I don't know Sakura-chan...it's just that in my mind....that was enough for me...."

Sakura blankly stared at her father, and just nodded.

"Ok....." She said, but before letting out a yawn.

"Come on Sakura-chan, you're tired, let's go to sleep." Keitaro said, picking up the sleepy girl, and headed towards their campsite.

"Good night Papa."

She then fell asleep in his arms.

Keitaro simply continued to walk, into the forest, with the moon, and lake behind him. Both of them seemed to be smiling down at the two.

--------Next morning--------

It was early in the morning and Asuna woke up with the sun beating down form the tent's door, into her eyes. She rubbed her temples, and opened her tent door.

She noticed everyone else was still sleeping, except for two. Those two where Sakura, and Keitaro. Considering they were supposed to be asleep with her in the tent, and they aren't in the tent, then they should be out somewhere.

She made her way out of the forest, and into the beach, still in her pajamas, and heard some splashing noise. When she reached the top of the hill besides the lake. What she saw astonished her.

There was Sakura and Keitaro, in their bathing suits, swiming in the lake, early in the morning. Keitaro is teaching Sakura how to swim, and Sakura, with a wide smile on her face, seemed to be enjoying the lesson. Asuna stood on the hill she was on and leaned on the single tree perched on top of it. Looking down into the lake, seeing two of the most important people in her life, having a great time.

A pause.

Asuna then retreated back into the forest.

At their campsite she packed all her stuff in her backpack for the long trip back to the Hinata-sou.

A pause

After packing she looked at her back pack.

Unzipped it.

Carefully reached her hand in it, and pulled out her bathing suit.

She then took of her pajamas and put her bathing suit on as fast as she could.

Then sprinted out of her tent, and at the direction of the lake. Going to meet up and have some fun with her family, down by the lake, in this glorious morning.

-------------End of chapter 14--------------

---------------------------------------END OF ACT 1--------------------------------------------------------

all right..i hoped you like this chapter......first time i made someone die...but hey!!! lol..well that concluded this arc AND this Act...going to Act 2!!! Look foreward to it.

-------Next chapter --------

A New light
Start of Act 2: Chapter 15
A Cry for Help