Death of an Angel
By, Shinova
Chapter 3
After Naru had gone after Keitaro as he flew into the forest, Kitsune had whipped out three flashlights and proposed that Motoko and Su follow her after them. Motoko had protested at first, but relented after Su agreed to Kitsune's plan. After all, someone had to watch out for the two.
Motoko stepped over a log as she watched her surroundings. The darkness of the woods seemed somehow especially intimidating this night. Yes, she had trained during the late evenings before, but the forest had never seemed this...dark before. No--it had to be her imagination running wild. She knew the difference between real fears and imaginary ones.
"Hahahahahahaa!..."
The laughter sent Motoko's hand flying to her sword. Kitsune and Su froze in their tracks, hair on ends. Each watched with wide eyes as a figure approached them from far away. When the figure was close enough, the three sighed in relief to see that it was only Naru.
"Hey Naru! How did it go?" Kitsune called out.
Naru looked up and saw the three. She smiled and Motoko's soul froze.
"Oh, it was great. We got to apologize and make up for things we did wrong, then we parted. Smooth as that," Naru replied cheerfully.
"Naru-sempai, are you alright? Did Urashima do anything to do?" Motoko asked.
"Oh no! Keitaro was just so sweet," Naru answered Motoko's question, still smiling.
"Sweet?" Kitsune perked up at the word. "Did you just say sweet?"
"Nevermind about that, Kitsune." Naru's smile disappeared and a blush crept up her face. "And it's freezingout here! Let's get inside."
The others agreed and headed back to Hinatasou. Along the way, Motoko noticed that Naru had slowed her pace gradually to put herself behind the others, following them as they walked back home. A feeling of intense uneasiness compelled Motoko to look behind herself. Naru smiled happily back at the kendoist. Motoko nodded and faced forward again.
Motoko could swear that for just a moment, a moment so short that only people with experience like herself could catch, there had been a glare...
No. It was just her imagination running wild again. There was no reason why Naru would be angry with any of them. Even the smile; that had to have been the forest affecting Motoko. Perhaps the others were right, and that she needed to take a break and relax a little.
Motoko, her paranoia dispelled, walked back to Hinatasou with the others. Later she turned in for the night. Her mind clear and free of tension, she fell asleep swiftly.
She never heard her heart screaming.
* * * * *
If one had taken the time to climb those long stairs and stand in front of Hinatasou, that person may have felt, almost through his or her skin, the silence that hung over Hinatasou. Silence that seemed to be immersed in the air like a cloud of black paint spreading through a glass of clear water. A silence that numbed the soul to the core.
The three old men gazed up at the now dark Hinatasou. One of them sighed and lowered his head, his eyes shut.
"The power of truth is truly amazing...." he said. Then one by one they disappeared into the mist.
* * * * *
It was well past breakfast and Naru was on the phone. She dialed a number and waited for an answer.
"Hinata Hospital, Dr. Ishikawa speaking."
"Hi, this is Narusegawa Naru--a friend of Urashima Keitaro. Are you the one who operated on him?"
"Yes, now I remember. And you were one of the girls in that waiting room..."
"I'm the one who went psycho."
"Oh....Well, what can I do for you?"
"I was wondering, has the autopsy report come in yet?"
"Ah, yes, the--um--autopsy report....Yes--yes it has come in. Took a while though."
"Can you summarize the cause of death?"
"Poison. Well, not poison to be exact. Spider venom."
"Spider venom?"
"Yep. Must've bit him while he was asleep. We also found traces of it in his ear. Wonder how it got there...."
"I see...."
"Well, that's about it. Anything else I can do for you?"
"Nope. Thank you so much for your help."
"You're--ah--welcome."
Naru hung up the phone and leaned against the wall. Her back slid down the surface and she sat down. She hugged her knees to her body and lowered her head, her face out of sight.
"So it's true...."
* * * * *
Kitsune strummed her guitar lazily, listening to the notes ring softly through the room.
Naru seemed to have gotten over her depression. Her demeanor had certainly become more cheerful, and the whole household was, as a consequence, more relaxed as well. Perhaps life was returning to normal. Or could it?
Kitsune set her guitar down and walked up to her window. She gazed to her left at the forest, listening to the birds chirp and watching the sunlight cascade through the treetops. Peace...quiet....A result of the Keitaro's absence. Maybe some chaos in their lives had been a good thing. Kitsune certainly enjoyed it. Naru had seemed pissed off by it sometimes and Keitaro usually looked as if he were wishing that it would all stop--being the focus of it all.
Strange....The world outside seemed to have become more beautiful than it had ever been. Certainly it couldn't be because of Keitaro's passing. He had been a great person, even if he hadn't the coolest of guys. Maybe the world was moving on, and as a result, was doing its best to look beautiful. Kitsune thought about this for a while. Could the world, with all of its creatures, including people, be actually one collective entity, moving through the giant, endless circle of life as one?
Kitsune breathed in the fresh air. Even the air seemed more rejuvenating that it usually had been. It was as if the world was coming alive. Sure it was already living--in a metaphysical, philosophical sort of way--but it just seemed even more alive now than before.
Kitsune laughed. "What the hell am I thinking?" she muttered to herself, shaking her head in amusement. There she was, standing at her window, gazing at the world outside...thinking. Perhaps way too hard for her own good. She turned away and went back into her room.
Someone else, Keitaro perhaps, might have instead said that the world knew it had taken the life of something great, and was doing its best to make up for it. Make up for the ones who had cared the most for the lost one.
* * * * *
Haruka wished she had known her nephew better. That had been the first thing to come to her mind when she had fully accepted the news, and it was what she was thinking now as she was wiping the dust off some furniture in her teahouse. Sure she knew him--but she hadn't taken the time to really get to know him. Every time she saw him having fun with the rest of the Hinatasou tenants, she had been at the outside....Like an adult watching over children.
Haruka paused in her work to stretch out some kinks in her arms. Her eyes caught a couple walking by the teahouse outside. They were laughing together. The woman was holding a notebook of some kind away from the man, who was trying to retrieve the object but was failing to do so. Occasionally the woman would giggle and point at something in the notebook; and the man would look embarrassed and plead to the woman to give him back his notebook.
Haruka could, at that moment, imagine Keitaro and Naru in the place of the couple. Even after they passed out of her view, she could still, in her mind's eye, see the two walking together. Keitaro and Naru--Naru teasing Keitaro while he struggled to get his notebook back, although deep underneath he was actually enjoying all of it. Perhaps they would be on their way to Toudai and Naru was teasing Keitaro over something embarrassing he had written down in the notebook--his diary most likely. The couple and Naru and Keitaro. A pair of adults and a pair of children. When placed over one another, Haruka couldn't tell the difference.
Haruka sat down and sighed, a hand to her forehead.
If only she had been with the kids as they had whatever fun it was they were having at the moment. If only she had gotten to know Keitaro better, and not just be an aunt. Perverted minds all over would probably have something to say about her line of thinking, but that was not what Haruka meant.
She truly wished she had known Keitaro better....So that she could fully appreciate the person he had been.
* * * * *
Shinobu, with Tama-chan on her head, Sara, Su, and Motoko were all on the patio, enjoying the weather in their own ways: Shinobu doing the laundry, Sara and Su doodling on a sketchbook, and Motoko training. The weather was strikingly beautiful. That, combined with Naru's recent break from her depression, helped each girl go through her routine with a measure of happiness that had been sorely lacking the past few days.
"Hey, you're drawing over the line!" Sara exclaimed when Su doodled into her side of the paper.
"Line? What line?" Su replied, grinning.
"Oh, you! Here, take this!" Sara attacked Su with her pen.
"Oh yeah!?" Su retaliated, and soon the two giggling girls were covered in pen marks.
"Kaolla-san! Sara-chan! You're making a mess out of yourselves!" Shinobu exclaimed, waving her arms, trying to get the two to stop.
"Ah, let them be, Shinobu-chan. People should have at least some fun in their lives," Motoko said as she made her practice slashes through the air.
"Well, can't the same--"
"Apply to me?"
Shinobu nodded. Motoko stopped and smiled. "Yes, that is true. Which is why I am cutting my session early today."
"You are?" Shinobu asked, and Motoko nodded.
"That's a first," Sara commented during a pause in the doodle-war between herself and Su.
Shinobu finished her laundry and Sara and Su packed up their pens and sketchbook. The three, plus Tama-chan, then followed Motoko down the stairs and back inside Hinatasou. They were walking down a hallway when Motoko spoke up again.
"I must confess that I didn't really mind Urashima's presence that much at all," the kendoist said.
"Even when he peeped?" Su asked the obvious question.
"Well...that's a different story. But besides that, he was...a marginally acceptable man...even if he was a coward and a weakling."
"Please, don't be so harsh on Urashima-sempai." Shinobu said.
"Well," Motoko said as the group approached an intersection, "he did teach me one thing: that training isn't everything, and that one should take a break once in a while and have fun sometimes."
An object flew out from around the corner and struck Motoko on the head, sending her crashing into a wall. She slid down its surface and came to a rest on the floor, sprawled and unconscious. The others inched backwards in fright as the attacker stepped out from around the corner.
"I'll be back for you, Motoko-chan," Naru said in an eerie voice, a frightening smile on her face and the sheathed Hina blade in her hands. She turned to look at the three younger girls, who were backing away, eyes wide with terror.
"Now, speaking of fun," Naru continued, gazing down at the girls, her eyes wide-open with a wild, frenzy-like intensity in them. "Why don't we play a round of tag? Hmm? What do you think?"
Naru raised the Hina blade into the air and the girls ran screaming. Naru chased after them, shouting, "I'm it and I'm coming! And I will find you! And when I do, not even death will save you!!"
Author's Note :
I finally finished this chapter...but I feel as if I haven't put in as much effort as I should have!
I think I'll probably end up rewriting this chapter some day. Until then, I hope you somewhat enjoy my chapter, even though it doesn't stack up well with the previous chapters in my opinion.
Boy, do I feel bad....I'll try to make it up somehow, either with the rewrite or the future chapters.
And you'll probably be wondering why the Hina blade was sheated. Well, if it wasn't then Naru would've been possesed by the ghost in the sword, so Naru left it sheathed and is using it like a staff/club.