A New Light
Chapter 38
A New Light
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"They're both ok." Asuna replied as she lifted her hand from Keitaro's forehead. "They just need sleep."
The whole ordeal had finally come to an end, and the outcome was an injured Keitaro sleeping on a tree with Sakura in his embrace. It could have been worse but thankfully it was a 'happy ending'. Asuna spent the next couple minutes checking their bodies for any other injuries but could only find Keitaro's injured back which would likely leave after a nice rest.
"Thats nice to here. "Motoko said relieved. "But why are they sleeping?"
"They must be tired. They just experienced a lot today."
"Hehe, lazy bums," Sara playfully said.
Asuna glared at the young girl. "And how about you Sara. Both you and Sakura are still not off the hook for coming here."
"But we saved your butts out there. Come on!"
"That still doesn't--"
Motoko's hand cut her off of speaking. "It doesn't matter Asuna-chan. The important thing is that everyone is safe. Lets give them some time to sleep so as they can recover. Its been a hard day for them. A hard day for all of us."
Asuna and Sara nodded their heads. Obediently following the only conscious adult around. Even if she is only seventeen.
"..."
"We still saved your butts."
-Donk- "Shut up Sara."
"Oowww! Will you and Sakura stop hitting me on the head"
"We'll stop if you stop being such a bother."
"Hmpf."
"Hehe. Moving on...Next in order is to find out what to do with the boy."
The three of them turned around.
They all blinked. The boy's body was gone.
"Whe-where did he go?"
"I swear he was here a minute ago."
"Me too"
They looked around.
"Maybe he fled."
"No he was unconscious. Anyway if he did wake up we should've heard him get away. But even I didn't sense nor hear anything."
A groaning noise.
They looked back at Keitaro who was now waking up.
"Oye, Keitaro. You ok?"
Keitaro stretched out his neck. "Yea, just a little dizzy and shaken up but other then that, I'll be fine."
"That's nice to hear."
"Yea Keitaro. We were worried for a bit."
"Hehe, Sorry, but what about Sakura?"
"See for yourself. She's sleeping on your chest."
"Oh?"
"She is fine, but she seems a lot more exhausted then you. I don't know the reason why."
"Oye, Sakura?" Keitaro worriedly placed his hand over Sakura's forehead. "You awake?"
Only cute light snoring responded back.
"Hehe, guess not."
Motoko watched Keitaro's fatherly nature kick in.
"She doesn't seem to have a fever. But I guess we can let her rest some more."
"That fine." Keitaro said as he slowly but surely stood up with the small tired girl in his arms and close to his chest. "We better get back to the camp and pack up. We're going back to the beach."
"Agreed."
"All right Papa."
"Sara..."
Sara looked at Keitaro. "Yea, wadya need?"
"What are those?"
Sara looked at him curiously. "Whats what?"
"Those!" Motoko said, pointing at her hands.
Her pistols.
"Oh these...hehehe nothing!"
"Sara..."
"Nothing! Seriously! Papa gave me these for protection and I decided to get them to defend you guys..."
Keitaro glared at her. But soon his complexion softened up to a warm smile. Even though he doesn't like to see one of his daughters holding on to a deadly weapon, this was Sara he was looking at. Those guns are something that Seta gave her and it wouldn't be right to take it away from her. If Seta trusted her with it...
I should too...
"Well, all right. But other then when the situation calls for them, I don't want to see you have them in your hands."
"Sure." Sara whimpered, putting them back into a holster around her waist.
"Now thats over with, lets go back to camp and—eh? Sakura! Your awake?"
Sakura squirmed in Keitaro's arms, smiling. Enjoying herself in her father's warm grasp.
"I've been awake. I just didn't want you too put me down."
Everyone sweat dropped.
Keitaro chuckled. "Hehe, all right. Lets get back to camp." Keitaro started walking down the trail back to camp. The young girls following his lead.
Yet Motoko found herself staring at Keitaro's smiling face. She didn't know why but him smiling to his daughters was...a smile she had never seen before. She wondered how she never noticed it before during the whole month the twins were at the Hinata-sou. It was different. It was more handsome and genuine. It made her feelings jump for him more.
It made her lose face.
"Motoko?"
She kept staring.
"Motoko? Are you alright."
Keitaro waved a hand in front of her.
She jumped. "Y-yes!"
"You dozed off for a second there. Are you coming with us?"
"O-of course Keitaro. I'll be right there. You go ahead."
Keitaro shrugged. "Ok. Just don't take too long. There's and old fashioned and quite small restaurant just across the street where I parked the van. We're having dinner there after we pack up the campsite."
Motoko nodded. "All right."
"Papa! Could we eat there first before we pack up!"
"But Sakura! Then we would have to go all the way back up and pack up."
"Yea, but with full stomachs. Pleaaaasseee Papa!"
Asuna smirked.
Sara joined in. "Pleeaaaasseee Keitaro!"
"Auugh, fine. Oye Motoko never mind, just go down the mountain and join us at the restaurant. We'll have dinner immediately."
Motoko nodded and smiled at the family as Keitaro's back disappeared farther downhill, passing tree after tree with his daughters surrounding him. And soon the dense forest faded their backs from her sight, and drowned out their voices, leaving her alone.
Thats what she wanted.
And when she was alone.
Last night played back in her head.
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Motoko only smiled, and picked Keitaro up.
Using her body strength she lifted Keitaro onto her back. His arms slugged over her shoulders. And his legs wrapped around her waist.
'Jeez, why does he have to shorter than me…'
Motoko just smiled with a blush.
'Keitaro…I came to the Hinata-sou to train and become better in swordsmanship than my sister. Now, these feelings for you are just getting in the way. Not challenging you at first is proof of that…But now I have a solution. We are just going to be friends for now Keitaro. I train…I bash your head when you do perverted things...and you take care of your two girls…And when I exceed my sister in swordsman ship skills someday…then that is when I will put my feelings first…I'll have the courage to ask you out then…'
Motoko chuckled to no one as she continued her walk back to their hotel
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Motoko looked up at the blue sky, sheathing her sword. "Whats wrong with me..." She thought to herself closing her two eyes. "I know that I promised myself that I would wait till I had accomplished my goal before going after you Keitaro...that me and Keitaro would only be friends for now...But thats my mind...my heart is saying something else..." Motoko opened her eyes and looked forward. "No I will get stronger soon, I will beat my sister and I will get a hold of myself from now on..."
She took a step forward but something on the ground caught her attention.
A blue card.
She reached down and picked the card up. The card had blue for a background while the foreground had a blue wolf on it. It was quite similar to the wolves they had fought earlier but this one had a more built structure then the ones she fought along side Asuna. No...this one had a bigger body, spiky blue fur, and the most notable feature was the scar over its left eye. Motoko observed it more and noticed the weird text surrounding it in a circle fashion. She couldn't read it but it felt familiar to her.
She shrugged it off and pocketed the item.
Then continued her walk back to the campsite, joining the others.
"..."
A few minutes past.
Motoko was a good distance away from the river and the clearing.
"..."
-Plant!-
A cloaked figure dropped from the trees.
A huge old fashioned straw hat shielded her eyes from the hot afternoon sun as she eyed the trail Motoko just took.
Setsuna whipped a cell phone from under her cloak.
She dialed.
"...Mother...yes...Mhmm...It has begun...what shall I do now...Go home? As you wish Mother."
She hung up and looked at her aunt's distant back for the last time.
"..."
A random wind blew in from the east with dead leaves in its wake.
No one was there to feel it...
She was gone...
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The restaurant door swung open and three cute, young, blond girls came running inside instantly, taking a seat at the nearest available table. Sara, Asuna, and Sakura scrunched up together and left the other side for the Motoko and Keitaro.
A red headed waitress came strolling up to them. A notebook in hand.
"Well, well, what do we have here. A bunch of cute hungry girls!"
"Yup! We're starving." Sara said reading the restaurant's menu.
"Papa took us out to a camping trip and now we want lunch."
Asuna kept silent as she studied the menu carefully.
The waitress smiled. "Speaking of your Papa. Where is he?"
"Sorry for being a little late."
"Eeeep!" The waitress jolted, and fumbled the note pad in her hands. She turned around to meet Keitaro smiling at her. Along with Motoko by his side who was now seated in the table across from the girls.
"Oh, Sorry about that. Didn't mean to startle you." He said kindly as he joined his daughter from across the table.
The waitress blushed. "Th-thats okie sir. I just jump thats all. I do that a lot."
Keitaro smiled and soon joined everyone else in looking at the menu.
The waitress took out a pencil. "So what will be your orders?"
Sara and Sakura in unison replied. "Hamburger please!"
The waitress chuckled. "All right, that would be two hamburgers for the two cute girls. How about the other?"
Asuna looked up. "I would just like a cold glass of milk please."
"Oh, is that all? My my what a disciplined child. Having milk for dinner. All right then. A tall glass of milk for the strong girl. Next up, how about the father."
"Hehe, umm... ano, I would just like a bowl of beef ramen please. Thank you."
"A bowl of ramen for the Dad, and next up is the Mother. What would you like?"
Keitaro and the other girls went bug eyed.
"I would like the same as—HEY!" Motoko jolted. Dropping her menu.
"What? You are ...their...Mother...right"
Soon both the waitress and Motoko found themselves feeling a little red around the cheeks.
Both of them embarrassed to the core.
"N-n-no! I'm not their mother! Of course not!"
The Waitress bowed.
"S-s-sorry! I just assumed that you..I mean the five of you look really..I mean..you guys are just like a family."
Motoko looked around to see the others holding back their laughs. Keitaro sat at the seat besides her and three cute ten year old girls sat at the seats across from them happily facing them. Leading to the only conclusion she could think of. They did seem like a family. A happy, five person family going out for dinner. So she blushed even more.
Sara couldn't help her self. "So, Mother, What were you going to order?"
Motoko glared at the girl. "Shut...up!"
Sakura joined in on the fun. "Yea Mother. You should eat. It isn't healthy for you just to eat nothing."
"Ggrrrr."
Asuna snickered. "Conserve your energy for that special something tonight."
The waitress turned away blushing again. "Oh my."
Motoko was now frantically waving her hands trying to solve this misunderstanding.
"H-hey! Thats not true! I'm not their mother! Keitaro! Do something."
"Hehehe." His face was hidden behind the menu but his snickering could be heard.
"Auuuugh! I'll just have the beef ramen just like Fath-I mean Keitaro!" Motoko finally said. Digging her face into the menu in order to block her beat red face.
The waitress shuffled nervously away.
"Yo-your food will be ready in a sec."
"Sorry Motoko."
Motoko peeked out to see Keitaro look at her with his trademark cute smile. Apologizing.
She retreated back to her menu. Flushed for the third time. "THIS ISN"T HELPING! I JUST KEEP BLUSHING!"
The rest of the dinner was a pain for her. A treat for the others.
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"..."
Motoko leaned on the seat's armrest as she sat in the passenger seat of Keitaro's van. She sighed to herself. Her vision was a blur as she looked out the window where passing buildings and street lamps appeared and disappeared from her sight. It had been a long afternoon for her. After dinner she was already embarrassed as it was, but when she was helping Keitaro and the girls pack up to go back to the beach they still didn't stop the teasing. Only when they were done packing everything into the van did they stop.
Motoko looked back.
There at the very end of the van slept the three devils-er--angels. They became exhausted after hiking up and down the mountain fetching the camp equipment. So at the end it was expected that they all dumped themselves at the back of the van and leaned on each other. Sleeping peacefully for the ride back too the beach.
Motoko leaned on the armrest again.
"They may look cute and cuddly in the outside, but they are devils in the inside sometimes."
"Motoko, just ignore what happened. They're just kids. They don't know better. Even Asuna who takes things seriously like you has to act like the child she is sometimes."
"I know, I know. But it is hard...Hehe look at me complaining about kids. If this keeps up, I'll start hating kids."
"No you won't Motoko." Keitaro reassured her as he switched lanes on the road. "You will be a good mother someday."
"Kei-Keitaro!"
"Hey I'm just saying. You protected my daughters today. That says a lot about you Motoko. When you have kids, I have no doubts about your ability in raising them. Same goes with Naru, Mitsune and even Shinobu. They might have little problems like Shinobu may be a bit too shy, Naru may be a bit too short tempered, while Mitsune is quite laid back. But when they receive a child of their own. They will come out great in the end. I know this because of how I've seen them take care of Sara, Asuna, and Sakura this past month."
Motoko stared at Keitaro. "Wow...wait no! Stop falling for him!" She quickly looked away. Holding back another set of blushes by changing the topic.
"S-so, could you tell me why you suddenly decided to take them off camping?"
Keitaro ran a hand threw his hair.
"Tell me something. What happened exactly a month ago Motoko?"
The teenager thought for a second.
She gasped.
"Today's the one month anniversary of when you and both Asuna and Sakura met isn't it?"
Keitaro nodded.
He glanced at his rear view mirror to catch a glimpse of his three angels sleeping at the rear. A warm sensation crept up his body as he looked at his children.
"Yes. I just wanted to celebrate and have some alone time with them. But it seems today went horribly wrong. Ah well, you can't have everything you want can you? At least no one got really hurt."
"Keitaro..I was meaning to ask you how you first got to meet them. You just told us that you adopted them after their parents were killed in a car accident. You never go into specifics."
Keitaro stopped the van at a stop light which turned red and sighed.
"Where do I begin...It started when you and Naru punched me out of the Hinata-sou."
Motoko winced.
"Sorry."
"No...no need to say sorry, I'm over it now. In fact I don't care if you guys hit me anymore, I just laugh and shrug it off. Its all thanks to those girls. So back to the story. When you guys launched me into the sky, I was of course mad. At that time I didn't appreciate you guys hitting me when you all jump to conclusions. I felt that I was being treated unfairly, that I wasn't appreciated. Any one would feel like that if they kept getting smashed into the face by a fist or a sword. But I calmed my self down and continued walking back to the Hinata-sou...that is until I met Her."
Keitaro looked at his rear view mirror again.
His gaze landed on Sakura's sleeping body.
"..." Motoko kept listening.
The light turned green and Keitaro sped down the road.
"She was crying in a lonely alleyway just at the outskirts of Hinata Province. She looked so helpless and scared. I had to do something so I got a motel room and took care of her until the rain stopped. There she cried in my arms. She let it all out as she hugged me and I felt...I felt like I was some sort of help to some one. I felt appreciated right there and then when two certain girls didn't appreciate me just a couple of minutes ago."
Motoko looked down.
"Like I said Motoko. I'm over it. I don't think like that anymore. And its all thanks to those girls...Right after we got Asuna from the Foster house and we got settled in the Hinata-sou, you guys stopped hitting me as often. There would be the occasional punch and slash here and there but I knew I deserved them. I didn't get hit every five minutes I did something remotely wrong."
Motoko looked back at Asuna and remembered.
"Thats because we didn't want to hit you when Asuna told us not to. We made a promise with her that we would give you the benefit of the doubt in those types of situations.--"
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Suddenly Naru's face became very red. "Why...that...little...perverted...child molesting..." Naru said clenching her fist. "Keitaro is in the hot spring...with Asuna-chan and Sakura-chan...that freak!" Naru then started to advance to her helpless victim. But a hand lightly grabbed her shoulder.
Naru looked behind to see Motoko shaking her head.
"No Naru-Sempai, we should not interfere with them." Motoko said to Naru in a stern voice.
"B...But...Keitaro...the girls...in hot spring...punch...I must...very hard...at pervert..." Naru said stumbling with her words. Also pointing at Keitaro's body out in the spring
"Yes I know the feeling...but I made a promise with Asuna-chan in one of our training sessions. That promise was that we do not hurt Keitaro for any reason, until we get an explanation from him first." Motoko said in a persuading voice.
"But...but...but...but...but...but...but...fine!" she said in a defeated voice.
"I don't like the idea, but I see the sign on the door that says that they are bathing, and if we just rushed in, the girls might get mad. Anyways, if Asuna-chan is there, then we have nothing to worry about. She is a good martial artist and very disciplined. If she agrees to him bathing with her and Sakura, then it is ok." Motoko said while leaving.
Naru just stared into space, while leaving with her clothes as well. "I...guess your right..."
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"--So when we stopped kinda abusing you. I saw a change in you Keitaro. You grew more fatherly and more confident. You started to become more responsible and now we didn't need to worry about the promise. There was no reason to hit you. I mean who would want to hit a hard working single father and Dorm manager?"
Keitaro chuckled. "Haha, I'm flattered."
"You should be..thats the first time I talked to a man like this."
"And thats the second thing Motoko."
"What is?"
"Look at you. Where is the same Motoko I knew who would cut off a man's balls just because he was too near."
"Still here its just that your my...friend Keitaro." She said with strain in her voice. Deep inside her she wanted to say something else...Something else that would express her true thoughts in her heart. But instead of her heart talking, her mind talked for her, and it said...'friend'.
"Hahaha, I became a friend with you Motoko? But I'm a male Motoko. Are you sure?" Keitaro joked.
Right after he said that Motoko's heart acted on its own.
She unbuckled, leaned over to the driver's seat and pecked Keitaro on the cheek.
"Mo-Motoko?"
Her brain kicked back to gear.
The cold metal of Motoko's Katana met Keitaro's neck.
The car swerved to the right a bit.
Keitaro gulped.
"I did that just to prove your a friend to me Keitaro. Don't get me wrong. Your just a friend to me, nothing more." She lied. "Buts thats a good thing...you're the first male friend I have and I respect you. Its all thanks to Asuna and Sakura. Same thing goes to Naru. She tolerates you more and thinks of you as a friend now, maybe even as much as I do. Shinobu turned out to be a lot more out going. Mitsune is still a drunk but loves those girls and Suu still loves to eat..yet she has a fun time with Sakura with those video games."
Motoko inhaled after the speech and retreated her sword back to her scabbard.
"Yea...everything turned out different thanks to those kids..isn't it..." Keitaro's lips curved to a warm smile.
Motoko smiled with him. "As if they were...they were..."
"A new light..." Keitaro finished for her. "Some kind of new light for the Hinata-sou..."
"Interesting choice of words Keitaro...Interesting choice of words..."
"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP! WE'RE TRYING TO SLEEP OVER HERE!" Sara yelled from the back.
"Oops. We seemed to have woken the princesses up."
"Hehehehe." Motoko giggled
------End of Chapter 38------------
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A Desert...
Full of only sand and death. That is what the desert is. A valley of dunes and endless sand plains resides in what is popularly known as Mol Mol. A country full of mystery and long forgotten ruins that seek exploration from the toughest men who dare walk through the punishing desert. But in the middle of such emptiness an oasis stood strong. Surrounded by a seemingly infinite amount of sand it stayed cool, literally. The pond itself isn't large but suitable for any man who seeked water and a place to rest. Scattered around the small oasis are groups of palm trees that provide necessary shade while green fertile grass grew around it as well to signal any travel that relief was near by.
-Splash!-
A girl, about the age of eighteen, knelt down besides the oasis and splashed water to her face, cooling herself off. The tired look etched in her face as she panted and the sweat that still poured down around her tanned body concluded that she had just arrived at the oasis after a long days of walking through the desert.
Her panting started to diminish.
"Phew, finally I made it to the oasis." She said.
She had on a bright sleeveless, midriff-bearing top on that revealed a lot of upper body. These were paired off with a long and flowing skirt that stopped all the way to her shin. A flute could be seen strapped around her waist along with other various items.
"Come. We have a lot of work ahead of us. We shouldn't slack off. It has all begun once again."
-Splash!- "Raaauughrrr!" Replied a white crocodile that emerged out of the oasis's surface.
It joined up with its tanned master as the both of them entered the desert once again.
And left the oasis side by side.