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LOVE HINA: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

By Doctor-T

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Some distance below the thick, grey overcast, and flying at less than one thousand meters above the picturesque, mountainous countryside, two small, rapidly moving dots came into view. Heralded by the high-pitched scream of their jet engines, Keitaro and Kaolla were speedily heading inland up a winding valley that originated on the wide coastal plain. Off to the west, they could see almost the entire giant, white tipped cone of Mount Fuji towering up above the green hills of the Fuji-Hikone-Izu National Park.

With the hiss and crackle of static, Su spoke to Keitaro via the medium of the microphone of her helmet radio transmitter. Despite the continuous loud whine of his lifting jets, her cheerful voice come loud and clear into the built-in headphones in his own helmet.

"How's it going over there, Kei-Sweetie? Still hanging in there with me, I see. So how's your stomach lasting, Loverboy?"

"Well, so far it's just fine, Su," the still nervous ronin replied into his own headset microphone, a half-hearted grin twisting at his pale face as he glanced through his protective helmet visor across at the Molmol teen genius, who was flying along less than twenty meters away on his right hand side. "I told you that I wouldn't need those ten sick-bags that you loaded me up with, just in case!"

"You're just lucky that we haven't run into any severe turbulence yet, Kei-Baby," the tanned teen warned him. "Better to be safe than sorry."

"Er, I'll bear that in mind," Keitaro replied, suppressing a gulp at the thought. Ever since the young landlord had returned from his sojourn in Hinata Hospital, to discover with astonishment his newfound popularity with the female residents of the apartments, he had been trying to live up to his new image as a real man - brave and full of self-confidence. But doing so sure wasn't easy in this particular unplanned-for situation. Especially when, since childhood, he had known that heights definitely weren't his mental strong point. Or the strong point of his stomach, either, for that matter.

Keitaro had been feeling a little queasy, rocketing along at high speed above the patchwork quilt of cities, towns, fields and forests sweeping past far below him. But so far the sensation in the pit of his stomach had been bearable, so there was no-way that he was going to mention the uneasy feeling in his gut to Su. But should they strike rough weather, it would definitely be a different story.

And it was cold up here in the thin, high altitude air. Even with his thick jacket, gloves and scarf on, the wind chill was slowly beginning to seep through his clothing and into his body.

Brrrr! I'll sure be glad when we get back down to ground level again. I'm freezing my butt off with the wind-chill factor up here!

Then Keitaro's gaze returned to the black ribbon of road winding its way along the side of the mountain slope far below their current altitude. Even further down the slope, at the base of the rugged range, a second slivery ribbon traced out the course of the small, lake fed river that they were following back to its source. For it was not far from where the river exited the mountain lake that the small hot spring that they had visited on their first accidental trip to this rather remote area was located.

"Hey, Su, I think that I recognize this stretch of road," Keitaro called to his companion, a nod of certainty accompanying his declaration. "And by now, we must be getting pretty close to where I crashed Seta's van into the lake the last time we came here."

"Yup, not far to go now," Su agreed, after a quick check of her digital GPS map on the flip-out screen that was built into the left hand control joystick of the jetpack. "About four and a half kilometers, I'd say. At our current cruising speed, we'll be there in less than three minutes."

"Good. Any trace of Naru's bugged pendant on your locater yet?"

"Not so far," Su admitted, checking the device in question with a quick, sidelong glance. "But with all of these hills and rocky outcrops around here, that's not exactly surprising. There are plenty of obstructions hereabouts to block its signal. But we'll have better luck locating Naru once we get closer and into a direct line of sight of the radio beam the pendant is emitting."

Keitaro grimaced. "Let's hope so, Su. I'd hate to have come all of this way up into the mountains on a wild goose chase."

Su laughed. "I don't mind at all, either way, Keitaro. I hear that wild geese are really tasty! Especially with Shinobu's special sauce!"

At the subject of food, Keitaro's unwilling stomach gave him another discomforting lurch.

"Please can we avoid any mention of food?" the queasy ronin plaintively asked her, figuring quite rightly that it was better to be safe than sorry as far as upsetting his stomach was concerned.

"What? Not even cold, greasy bacon and unsweetened oatmeal porridge?" Su mischievously prompted him, with a straight face. "I was thinking to have Shinobu make them for us for breakfast tomorrow morning, along with a plate of cold, hard-boiled eggs and some natto-"

That last bit did it. Keitaro's face turned an ashy shade of green, his stomach heaved, and he let fly.

"Bluuurkk! Gah! Suu!"

"Bombs away! Look out below! Nyahahahaha!"

-:-:-:-:-:-

About four kilometers further up the mountain valley from Keitaro and Su's present position, inside the small cave beside the rocky lakeshore; Kuro suddenly pricked his outsized ears up. The tiny cat then cocked his small, furry head to one side as he began to listen intently to a strange, high-pitched drone that had intruded into the frequency range of his audio perception.

"What is it, Kuro?" Kanako inquired, having reopened her eyes and noticed her cat's alert posture. "Can you hear someone coming?"

"Maybe," came the black cat's uncertain reply. "I can faintly hear jet engines somewhere near here, Kanako, meow. And they seem to be getting closer, meow."

"So what, Kuro?" the Goth girl sighed in a dismissive tone, slumping back down onto the disheveled sleeping bag. "Airliners fly over these mountains all of the time."

"No, I recognize these particular engine sounds, meow," Kuro assured his stricken mistress. "I'm sure they belong to the jetpacks that Su has been testing back at the apartments, meow."

"Oh? That's right," Kanako recalled, raising her head up from Naru's crumpled pillow again. "I remember seeing Ganguro girl, Su, testing one of them out the other day. So that's what Oniichan, and probably her as well, are using to come and look for Naru."

"It would appear so, meow. And you can be sure that Su is bound to be tagging along with him as well, meow."

"'Cough!' Well, too bad for them that I got to her first!" Then Kanako's tome softened again, and she admitted, "Well, screw Su, but it would be so good to see Oniichan again, anyway, before I have to…go. Thank god he's coming right now, after all! There's no-way now that I could have made it back to the Hinata Apartments to see him if he was still there, Kuro – and we both know that."

"Kanako…"

"It's all right, Kuro. As long as I get to see Oniichan once more before I die, then I…will be content."

"Well, I'm going to see if it really is them coming this way, meow," Kuro declared in a firm tone, rising back onto his tiny feet. "If it is, maybe they can do something to help me keep you alive, meow."

"Yes, you do that, Kuro," the Goth girl eagerly agreed. "I've got to see Oniichan again, while I still can! I've got so much that I want to – have to tell him!"

And with that, Kuro launched himself up into the cool air again, to momentarily hover, with a tinkling of his bow-tied tail bell, over the prone body of his mistress. Then the loyal black cat swooped back out through the cave entrance into the wide, open expanse of the lakeshore, striving hard to gain altitude in the thin, mountain air with every rapid beat of his extra-large ears.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Now that Kuro had departed on his mercy mission, in the lonely mountain cave, many kilometers from the nearest town, Kanako sensed with ever-more growing certainty that her young – although hardly innocent - life was now only mere minutes away from coming to its premature end. She had half an hour left at the most. And as she lay on her back on her ex-enemy's makeshift bed, tears of regret began to stream from Kanako's eyes as she contemplated her own imminent demise. And also, what could have – no, what should have been...

…Oniichan – you should have been mine! And you would've been mine, too, if it hadn't been for-!

"Damn you, Naru," Kanako then shouted in a sudden outburst of rage and frustration, clenching her small fists and shaking them at the angular stone roof of the small cave. "Why am I feeling so bad about what just happened to you? After all, you've been fucking up my poor Oniichan's life ever since he first came back to the Hinata Apartments and ran into you there! And why in the hell did he have to fall for you in the first place, god-dammit? It's just not fair! I've loved him all of my life! I'm the one that he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with, not you! Him and I, running the Hinata Apartments together as man and wife!"

"But, no! On the day that he first arrived back here, you just had to jump in the onsen with Oniichan and let him see you naked, didn't you? Ever since you showed him your tits, he's been running around after you like a little lovesick puppy! All of that time wasted when he should have been with me. And what was the reward you then gave him for his years of love and devotion to you? A cracked skull and a bed in the intensive care ward at the Hinata Hospital, that's what!"

"He finally got shot of you, and moved on with his life. But you had already done your damage. You stole the precious time that I should have had with Oniichan from me, and now…my time is up…"

"I wanted you dead for so long, Naru. You deserve to be, for everything that you've done to my brother, to my hopes and dreams for the future, and to our family. But now that you are…I find that I just…can't hate you anymore. Even after all you've done to screw up our lives. Because I've realized too late that, as well as loving Oniichan, I also… I also fell-"

"God-damn you, Naru! Why in the hell did I have to fall in love with you, too?!"

"It's just not fair…!"

-:-:-:-:-:-

But the newly remorseful Kanako was wrong in her supposition of Naru's demise. For Naru wasn't dead – well, not yet, anyway. And as to the reason for her adversary's continued survival, it had been nothing more than sheer, dumb luck that had saved her.

At the foot of the foaming waterfall was a deep hole in the otherwise rocky riverbed, into which the shot teen had plunged, her falling body missing the brutally hard boulders thrusting upwards at the base of the cataract by mere inches. The shock of hitting the cold, mountain water had revived her stunned mind from the impact of the bullet. Naru had instinctively begun to flail her arms, trying desperately to propel herself up towards the heaving, bubbling surface of the pool. Then the strong river current had taken her, whirling her like a leaf out of the rocky basin and helplessly off downstream. Naru's dishevelled head broke through the surface once, and she managed to gulp down a sweet, life saving breath of fresh air before being pulled under again, as she was swept on her way down through the treacherous, rock-strewn rapids below the falls, and finally out of sight.

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As Kuro gained altitude and turned back down the valley towards the coastal plain, his sensitive ears unexpectedly heard the faint and distant howl of the approaching jet engines slowly begin to decrease in intensity. And then, to his surprise, the sound cut out entirely, leaving only the normal sounds of the surrounding wilderness for him to hear.

Huh? The tiny black cat thought as he soared upwards like a hawk, a baffled look on his bewhiskered face as he rode the buffeting currents of cold air. Could Keitaro and Su have landed for some reason-? Of course! They must have spotted Kentaro's abandoned car on the road further down the valley!

I'd best get there as fast as I can!

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Kuro's surmise was in fact correct. Keitaro had only just finished wiping at his dripping mouth with some of the tissues that Su had thoughtfully packed for him in one of the sick-bags, when he had caught sight of a tiny red shape parked beside the winding road that ran roughly parallel to their flight path.

Keitaro frowned, and looked harder. There was something about that parked car below him…it seemed to be very familiar looking?

"Hey, Su," he called out over the radio in a puzzled tone. "Down there on the road ahead of us! Isn't that Kentaro's car?"

"Hey, you're right, Kei-Baby," Su agreed, after whipping an outsize pair of binoculars out of nowhere and subjecting the vehicle in question to a searching scrutiny. "That is his car! But what's he doing way out here?"

"Beats me, Su. Maybe we'd best go check it out?"

"I'm with you, Kei-Baby. 'Down and at 'em', eh, wot? Nyahahaha!"

Grinning at the enthusiasm of his wingman, Keitaro cut the throttle of his jetpack, to commence his descent in the Molmol girl's wake down towards the twisted ribbon of asphalt road far below them.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Less than twenty seconds later, Keitaro landed next to Su on the isolated road. Once his feet were safely on the ground, Keitaro breathed out a hearty sigh of relief at having survived his first flight on Su's barely tested prototype. Then he cut the power to his engine, which quickly began to whine down the audible scale from ear-splitting to complete silence.

Once the jet engine had fully stopped, Keitaro removed his visored helmet with its built-in headset, turned his head and flashed the by now also helmetless, beaming Molmol girl a relieved grin of his own. He then unbuckled his jetpack harness and lowered the quite heavy device carefully down onto its retractable stand on the road verge, as did his companion with her own jetpack. Once this essential task was complete, Keitaro, still wrapped up in his warm jacket, gloves and scarf, moved off towards Kentaro's seemingly abandoned car, the far more lightly dressed Kaolla hurrying along at his side.

"So, whaddaya think, Kei-Baby?" she excitedly prompted him as they walked together over to the valley side of the road, where the red Mazda Roadster convertible was parked in a lookout bay right on the shoulder of the bend. "Personally, I think Kentaro's come way out here on the sly to find Naru, just like we have! Since I found out that my 'Kalukakuk's Revenge' cruise missile hit his apartment when it was looking for her, I know that she musta been there at the time! And so I betcha he's gotta know something about where Naru-yan is right now, too!"

"That's a definite possibility," Keitaro conceded, thinking back to what Tsuruko had told him about Naru fleeing with Kentaro after his apartment had been destroyed by Kaolla's Naru-seeker missile. "But why is his car stopped here in the middle of nowhere? The onsen we discovered last time is still several kilometres further-!"

Just then, their conversation was interrupted in a most unexpected way.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

"Hello? Is someone out there? Help!"

"That's Kentaro's voice," Keitaro exclaimed. "It sounds like he's locked in the trunk of his car!"

"Urashima? Is that you I can hear? Let me out of here!"

"Coming!"

"So how do we get it open?" Keitaro asked Su as the pair reached the rear of the Mazda Roadster, to stare at the closed and securely locked lid of the car's trunk. "We don't have the key for the lock!"

"Easy," Su enthused, producing what looked to be a stick of dynamite and a lighter out of nowhere. "We blow the sucker!"

"Agh! No, that won't be necessary, Su!" Keitaro hollered, cold sweat flying from his brow at the thought. "Look, I'll just pull the lever for it next to the driver's seat in the car, and the trunk should just open, okay?"

"Awwww? Spoilsport!"

So after opening the driver's door, Keitaro did just that. The lock clicked and the lid of the trunk swung open to reveal its formerly bound and gagged, now definitely hot-and-bothered occupant.

"Kentaro! What are you doing way out here?" the puzzled ronin asked once he was back next to the trunk again, despite figuring that he already knew the answer to that. "And how did you get all tied up and locked in the trunk of your car?"

"Whew! Thank you, Urashima. As to my current predicament, that flaky sister of yours, Kanako, waylaid me just after I had pulled up outside the Hinata Tea Rooms," the dishevelled Kentaro sourly explained, shrugging off his loosened bonds. He then sat up a little too quickly, banging his head with a hollow thumping sound against the underside of the opened trunk.

"OW! Darn it! Anyway, before I knew what was going on, I found myself bound and gagged in here, and everything's been a blur ever since. Once my car came to a stop I finally managed to get out of these restraints, and then you two fortuitously showed up. And that's all I know for certain."

"Kanako?" Keitaro exclaimed, recoiling slightly with surprise at the mention of his sibling. "My sister's way up here in the mountains, too? Why the heck is she here? And where is she now?"

"How the heck would I know that?!" Kentaro indignantly replied, rubbing his sore head as he climbed stiffly out of the trunk and down onto the road. A look of distaste rapidly replaced the annoyed expression on his face as he saw the state of his brand new clothes, and he vigorously commenced dusting himself off. "I've just spent the last few hours tied up in the trunk of my own car! I don't even know where I am, let alone that psychotic sister of yours!"

"Well, she must be still somewhere close if she's walking," Keitaro answered, his eyes behind his glasses shifting to stare off up the winding road in the direction that they had been travelling in. "Hey? Maybe she somehow found out where Naru is, too, and she's gone to find her? And before you ask, finding Naru is also the reason why Su and I are here. We flew here using those jetpacks of hers, that you have no-doubt noticed over there by the side of the road."

"I already figured as much. And as for Kanako, that's a feasible theory, Keitaro," Kentaro agreed, briskly swiping his hands across the sides and back of his newly purchased jacket, raising a faint cloud of dust particles with each movement. "Her enthusiasm to find Narusegawa is commendable – her methods of doing so, somewhat less so."

"But we've still got a couple of kilometers to go before we reach the location of the onsen we found the last time we came here," the puzzled student landlord stated, scratching absent-mindedly at his no longer helmet-covered head. "Why on earth would Kanako leave your car this far away from it and go the rest of the way on foot? That just doesn't make any sense."

"From what I heard from back here in the trunk, my car ran out of gas way out here in the Styx, so she had no choice but to pull over and stop," Kentaro ruefully explained, whilst simultaneously flicking a large and most unsightly piece of lint off his left sleeve. "I didn't have time to fill up its gas tank in Hinata Hot Springs before Kanako highjacked it, and me. And after what I've just been through with her, I should sue!"

"You called?" that worthy inquired, popping up between the pair with a grin and a 'V for victory' sign. "Heyo, Kentaro! So have you changed your mind about that practice session with me?"

"Not you! I mean, sue Kanako! And what practice session?"

"You know, Kentaro," Su prompted him. "Position eighty three. The one where I take you in my mouth, and you-!"

"Urm? Ah, n-not now, Su," Kentaro gabbled, quickly cutting her off. His face had instantly turned a bright and steaming crimson at the vivid memory of just what it was that the Molmol teen had previously suggested to him they do to make up for her having taken out his luxury apartment with a missile.

"Okies," the Molmol teen chirped. "Maybe later, then?"

"M-maybe-? Er, no, I mean. Urashima! I have a question for you."

"Uh, what is it, Kentaro?" Keitaro responded, staring with a baffled look at them both.

"Since you and Su flew here, just how were you planning on getting Narusegawa back to the Hinata Apartments, anyway," Kentaro inquired, having quickly spotted a flaw in their rescue plan. "From what I can see of them from here, those jetpacks of yours aren't capable of carrying any passengers, are they?"

At his words, the suddenly askance-faced Keitaro exchanged a glance with the now sheepishly grinning Molmol girl.

"Whoopsie," the abashed Su exclaimed, her own cheeks now reddening, rubbing at the back of her yellow-blonde hair. "Ah-heh-heh! I never actually thought of that little detail, guys. My bad."

"Typical?!" Kentaro sighed lustily. "Leave it to you to screw up this so-called rescue, Urashima. All right then, I'd best come along with you two and take Naru back with me in my car after we find her again. Doing that won't be a problem either, because I already know where she is currently to be found."

"So do we," Su chimed in.

"You do?" Kentaro's eyebrows rose with surprise. "How?"

"Tama-chan told Turtle-lady Mutsumi, who told us," Su elaborated. "And like Kei-Baby just told you before, that's what he and I are doing way out here. We're the cavalry, on our way to save the day!"

"And when we find Naru, you won't be able to drive her back to the apartments, anyway, Kentaro," Keitaro declared, determined to find a flaw in his pompous friend's plan as well. "I see that Kanako left the key in the ignition, but you've just told us that your car's run out of gas."

"Simple," Kentaro smugly replied. "Your demonic sibling was in such a hurry to find Narusegawa; she clean forgot to check if I was carrying any spare gas with me." He waved his hand down towards the still open trunk, where a large, bright red container with a spout could easily be seen in the left-rear corner of the enclosure.

"As you can no-doubt now see, with a little forethought, she could have saved herself a long walk," he continued. "I always carry a supply of extra fuel with me for emergencies. It's not enough to make it all of the way back to Hinata City, of course, but that won't be a problem. Even after rescuing Naru, I'll still have enough in reserve to get to the nearest town with a gas pump."

"Okay, Kentaro. I guess you're in," the young landlord decided, nodding his head in reluctant agreement to his ex-rival's reasoning. "And on the bright side, your accompanying us solves our Naru transportation problem quite nicely."

"Indubitably. All right, Urashima, Su, since you two already know where Narusegawa is located, you'd best get going right now. I'll follow you in my car. Somehow I doubt that I'll lose sight of you – not with that racket from your jet engines for me to track you by."

"All right," Keitaro agreed. "That's the plan." Then he looked over to Su, who nodded concurrence. "Let's roll."

-:-:-:-:-:-

Several kilometers further back towards the coastal plain, on the road-side bank of the river snaking along below the mountain range, the near nude, barefooted object of their search was at that very moment making her slow and painful way in the opposite direction to the one in which her would-be rescuers were travelling.

As the wet, cold and pain-wracked Naru stumbled across the rough terrain, she was all-too-aware that she had been incredibly lucky to survive her surprise encounters with both Kanako and the policeman on the gravel riverbed above the waterfall. By some miracle, instead of drilling into her chest, the small caliber bullet fired by the policeman had struck Su's pendant that she was still even now wearing around her neck. The red-hot slug had broken the concealed beeper as it ricocheted off its hard, curved surface, to then blast a small, red-rimmed hole completely through the underside of her outstretched right arm, just below her armpit.

Naru wasn't Keitaro, with his innate ability to recover from almost any accident or injury – including falling from great heights onto hard objects such as buildings or rocks, or being squashed by heavy objects like cars or tree trunks. Nor was she like Motoko, who had been trained since childhood to take and withstand physical pain. Naru was only a normal human – and the bullet wound hurt!

And so did her badly bruised chest, where the pendant gifted by Su had taken the impact of the .38 caliber bullet. Possessing a particularly vivid imagination, Naru knew exactly what would have happened to her had she not been wearing the super-tough piece of Molmol jewellery in the exact spot that the bullet had impacted…

And die, she could still very well do. She had lost her towel in the swift and turbulent river currents, which had carried her for nearly a kilometer and a half further downstream before had had finally managed to escape its terrifying embrace. So the bedraggled, shivering teen now had no way of staunching the continual flow of blood from her open wound.

Furthermore, the water in the river had been icy cold. Quite apart from her blood loss, she was now in severe danger of contracting a fatal dose of hypothermia. So she had to keep moving, if only for the sake of the little bit of extra warmth being generated in her body by her constant movement.

So, trailing a tiny rivulet of blood in her wake from the severed artery under her right bicep, the numb and violently shivering Naru stumbled on; feeling herself getting progressively weaker and weaker as her life slowly trickled out onto the ground behind her.

No! This can't be happening to me…? I don't want to die, Naru's numbed mind cried out in silent despair. I can't die, not like this?! I've got to get home, back to the apartments…back to Keitaro! Keitaro, the man whom I love… Can't die yet, must reach him…Keitaro…!

Totally unknown and unsuspected by the suffering girl, the object of her desperate desire was far closer than she could have dared to dream. Naru had heard the thunder of Keitaro and Su's jetpacks passing far overhead of course. But in her weakened and semi-conscious state; her dazed, pain-wracked mind had dismissed the sound as coming from a low-flying aircraft of some description.

Moments later, Naru splashed through a small rivulet that was bisecting her route, to slip and fall down onto her knees with a skin-scraping thump on the smooth, hard pebbles on the opposing bank. After forcing herself with an effort back to her wobbly feet, she then made her unsteady way along on a parallel course to the tiny waterway, following the natural curve of the grassy knoll it was circumventing -

- And then Naru dimly realized that there was a big, red, strange looking foreign car right there in front of her, parked on the bank above the small stream she was following. And three teenage girls – two blondes, one sporting a large red ribbon in her hair, one with a strange 'Odango' hairstyle, and the third girl with long black hair – were staring at her with wide eyes full of uncertainty and fear.

Naru staggered as her weakened legs finally gave way beneath her, and then she tripped again and fell at their feet. With her last conscious breath, the dying teen gasped out, "Help me…!" And then soothing blackness engulfed Naru and she was out for the count.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Not long after Keitaro and Su had lifted off again, their rescue mission was interrupted for a second time. Just after the pair had levelled off to recommence their noisy flight up the valley, Keitaro suddenly spotted a small flying shape directly in front of them and heading their way.

He squinted through his visor at the approaching creature, then his eyes widened again as he recognized just who it was.

"Su, I can see my sister Kanako's cat, Kuro, coming towards us," he quickly informed his companion. "He'll know where Kanako has gone, and maybe even the exact location of Naru, as well!"

"The witch cat! Yeah, I see him now, too. We'd best hit the brakes right here and wait for him to reach us, Kei-Baby."

Quickly the pair brought their jetpacks to a bobbing halt in mid air, watching Kuro homing in on them like a speeding swallow.

"Kuro! Where's Kanako?" Keitaro yelled out over the roar of his and Su's hovering jets, once the panting pet had come to a stop in the air directly front of him.

"She's in a cave near to where the onsen is, the one that you visited the last time you were here, meow," the floating black cat cried out, striving to make himself heard above the thunder of their engines. "You'd best hurry, she's in a bad way, meow!"

"What? What's happened to her?" Keitaro asked, taken aback by this totally unanticipated bad news.

"She's very ill, meow. You'd best hurry, meow."

"Okay, lead the way, Kuro! We'll follow you!"

"Heyo! Wait just a moment," Kaolla interrupted, having been equally concerned by all that had just been relayed to them. "What exactly is wrong with Kanako-yan, Kuro? Do you know?"

"Not really, meow. All I know is that it's some sort of a terminal illness, meow!"

"Is that so?" Su sniffled, tears forming in the corners of her green eyes at the exceedingly bad news they had just received. "Gee, poor Kanako! So…she's gonna die, then?"

"Yes, meow! And no doctor can save her, meow. It's just too far advanced, meow," the teary-eyed small feline miserably confirmed.

"What? Oh, shit!" Keitaro's face was now showing real alarm at the plight of his adopted sister. "Su, we've gotta do something to save her! Please tell me you have an idea of how to do that?"

"Hmmm-? Hey! I do know people who may be able to help," Su suddenly exclaimed, an excited look instantly replacing the worry on her face. "I'll put a call in to them right now!"

"You do? Who?" the suddenly hopeful Keitaro was understandably very eager to know. But then his face fell again as he recalled an unpalatable fact concerning their current situation.

"But how are you going to call them?" he asked, frowning as he began to think hard for a way around their dilemma. "The radios on our jetpacks don't have the range to contact anyone back at the apartments, and there aren't any landlines for you to use way out here in the mountains, either! And we both know that ordinary cell phones can't get a signal through that mystery signal-blocking interference that surrounds Hinata Hot Springs – oh!" He slapped his forehead as the answer came to him. "Of course!"

Su chuckled, and then cheerily replied, "Yep, you got it! As you recall, I've already invented a way to get past that little fly-in-the-ointment, Kei-Baby. I can call my jetpacks up from anywhere in Japan if I have to, so getting a signal back to the Hinata Apartments isn't a problem to me. I'm a genius, remember?"

"That you are, Su," Keitaro happily conceded. "Okay, do it quick! Any chance of saving my sister, no matter how small it is, is better than none!"

"I'm onto it. But you'd best get a move on to the cave, Kei-Baby. I'm sure that Kanako will be real happy to see you. I'll wait up here for Kanako's surprise savior, and then bring her down to you."

"You do that. Right, then, I'm off. Whatever you're planning, Su, I'm praying that it works. Bye!" Then he turned back to face the hovering black cat.

"Let's go, Kuro! I'll be right on your tail all the way!"

"I sincerely hope not my real one, meow? Follow me, meow!"

And with that, Kuro swooped off towards the distant lake at the head of the mountain pass, the anxious Keitaro rocketing off hot on his heels. And as he sped along in the wake of the flying cat, Keitaro noticed that Kentaro's car, which had stopped on the side of the road to wait for them to finish talking to Kuro, was once again gliding along the smooth ribbon of tarmac after him.

"Kanako…" Keitaro whispered with genuine anxiety for his little sister in his thoughts and tone, turning his worried eyes back to concentrate on tracking the tiny, swiftly moving shape of Kuro. "Just hold on. I'm coming!"

-:-:-:-:-:-

"Usagi!" Rei cried out from her position at the side of the bleeding, nearly totally naked stranger who had fallen at their feet, the young miko beckoning urgently up at her veracious blonde friend. "Get your ass down here and transform into Sailor Moon, quick! This poor girl's been shot, and we need you to heal her with your silver moon crystal before it's too late!"

"What? Oh, yeah! I'm onto it - whoops!"

Usagi jumped forward down the bank, to promptly fall flat on her face as the rock that she had landed on slipped out from under her right foot!

"Ouch!" Usagi wailed, tears appearing in her eyes as she picked herself up again, whilst trying to rub at her ankle and her bruised nose at the same time. "Waaaah! That smarts…!"

"Stop goofing around, Odango Head, and shift your butt," Rei scolded her blubbering best friend, not at all sympathetic to Usagi's very minor injury because of the real urgency of the situation.

"'Sniff!' You're so mean, Rei-chan! But I'll do what I can," Usagi promised, instantly losing the upset expression on her face as she spotted the blood pooling on the ground under their obviously badly injured surprise visitor. After a quick wipe of her eyes with her right shirt sleeve, Usagi grabbed her transformation locket and morphed in a flare of light and motion into her alter ego, Sailor Moon.

Then, raising up her now white-gloved hands, the Sailor Scout of Love and Justice quickly summoned the silver moon crystal from inside her body. Kneeling down at their injured patient's side, she placed the softly glowing jewel on the center of Naru's unmoving chest, right between her bare, swelling breasts.

The luminescent, all-healing glow quickly spread from its source, flowing over the limp girl until she was simply a single, radiant outline on the grass. For ten seconds, she radiated both gentle light and heat. Then the glow faded as it was absorbed back up into the ancient gem once more.

"Well, I guess that I've finished the healing process," Sailor Moon told her two watching friends as she stood back up again, the silver moon crystal vanishing once more into her shapely chest of its own volition. "I haven't had much practice with using this silver crystal thing, but I'm sure that this poor girl is fully healed now – I think?"

"You think?" Rei loudly repeated, her eyebrows rising. "You mean, you don't know for sure whether you've actually cured her or not?"

"Um – well, no," the costumed teen confessed in an abashed tone, self-consciously digging the toe of her right boot into the loose gravel as she spoke. "I haven't actually tried to do this before, Rei-chan, remember? Sooo…? Well, I'm just not sure, okay?"

"Usagi-chan! You said that you knew how to use that thing!"

"Well, judging by what I can see from here, this girl seems to be in pretty good shape right now, Rei-chan, Usagi-chan," the second blonde - the one with a red ribbon tied at the top of her long, flowing golden hair - spoke up from where she had replaced Usagi at their motionless patient's side. "And her breathing is unlabored and regular now, as well. So relax, you two. I'd say that she's going to be just fine."

"See, Rei-chan! Minako-chan just said that I did a good job!"

"Yeah? Well, let's hope so," Rei grudgingly conceded, knowing that when it came to medical matters, Minako usually knew what she was talking about. Even though Minako Aino was still only in High School, just like Usagi and herself were, Minako, as Sailor V, had received paramedic training in England before she had moved back to Japan to live with her parents. "But haven't you forgotten something really important, Usagi-chan?"

"Huh?" A baffled look replaced the smug one on that worthy's face. "Um, what would that be, Rei-chan?"

"Maybe you'd best change back from Sailor Moon to your normal self before your patient wakes up," the black haired girl prompted her leader and best friend, knowing all-too-well that at times Usagi could be very slow-minded. "Unless you want her to know that she's just been saved by the infamous, on-the-run Sailor Senshi?"

"Oh-? Yeah, good point, Rei-chan! I'd best do that right now!"

As Sailor Moon quickly transformed back into her normal, clumsy, Usagi Tsukino self once more, the now wary-looking Rei Hino first scanned the surrounding mountain slopes for any sign of trouble. Seeing nothing amiss, she then turned her attention to Minako Aino, an urgent query on her lips.

"How long do you think it will be before this girl comes to again, Minako-chan?" Rei uneasily asked. "I'm talking a 'best guess' here."

"At a guess, it should only be a couple more minutes, Rei-chan," the just-as-perturbed Minako answered. "Any longer than that, and we'll have take her with us in our car. We can't just leave her behind on the riverbank, unprotected from whoever shot her in the first place. And as you already know, we can't exactly afford to hang around out here in the open for too much longer, either."