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Death of an Angel

By, Shinova

Chapter 5

Naru opened her eyes to find herself drifting in a limitless expanse of blackness. She looked around at the nothingness all around her then trained her eyes on herself. A source of lighting of some kind was shining on her, illuminating her, but she could not tell where it was coming from and why everything else was black---if there was anything else besides her in this place.

Someone gasped behind her. Naru somehow found her feet touching the "ground" again and turned around. Keitaro stood there, a short distance away from her, and around him in a circle were the unmoving, lifeless bodies of the other Hinatasou residents, along with Mutsumi, Haruka-san, and even Tama-chan. He gazed at each one of them, hands outspread as if pleading, a look of horror and loss etched onto his face.

Naru tried to step forward and approach him but no matter how much she walked forward she always stayed in one place. She stopped walking and called to him.

"Keitaro!"

Keitaro stopped and turned to look at her. He gazed at her with disbelief...and with sadness. Naru was confused. Was he not happy that she had avenged his death? Was he not satisfied that justice had been served? Why was he looking at her that way? Had she done something wrong?

Keitaro, arms limp at his sides, spoke one word, "Why?..." Then the world around Naru swirled and became blurry again. She felt as if she were falling down a giant pit, plummeting into a blackness without substance or depth.

Slowly though, her perception seemed to pull itself back into some framework of reality. She seemed to be sitting in a chair from what her addled sense of feeling could tell her at the moment.

"...have any idea why..."

"...the police? Maybe we..."

"...waking up..."

The myriad collection of voices coming from the room she was in assaulted Naru's hearing all at once. There was a splitting pain in her skull and it was doing nothing to help her make sense of what was going on. Gradually everything fell back into place and she could finally open her eyes and see the rest of the Hinatasou residents in front of her, gathered in a semicircle.

Naru's emotions turned from confusion to anger as she directed her focus to the people in front of her, banishing the thoughts of that dream/vision from her consciousness.

"What do you want?" she said, her voice low with venom.

"We were worried about you," Kitsune replied in a concerned voice.

"Heh....Worried...right."

"Why were you attacking us, Naru-sempai?" Motoko spoke up.

Naru stared at Motoko for a while, then turned away, chuckling.

"Why, you ask. Well I'm sure if Keitaro had been around he certainly would've told you why."

"What do you mean?"

"Keitaro didn't just die...he was murdered." Naru said, clearly voicing the word murdered. "The autopsy showed spider venom in his body, and his ghost told me about it too."

The truth had landed, and the other tenants stared in utter shock. "M---Murdered?" Kitsune tried to say.

"Oh my...that's not a fun way to die, is it?" Mutsumi said, her face paler than usual.

"No, it's not a fun way to die," Naru continued, "and I know another important fact, judging from what Keitaro told me.

"The murderer was someone living in Hinatasou---someone in this very room!"

The other tenants recoiled as if struck. They glanced at one another, back at Naru, then back at each other. None of them knew what to think.

"Keitaro told you this?" Kitsune asked.

"Yes...his ghost actually, but Keitaro nonetheless. You saw him Kitsune, Motoko, and Su. Remember?"

The three mentioned nodded in agreement.

Naru went on, "The murderer could be anyone here. Motoko, you are a very likely suspect here."

Motoko became indignant. "Wha---I would never---"

"Oh, spare me the honor junk. You, out of the rest of us, wanted him gone the most, calling him a pervert, a menace, whatnot." Naru then turned to face Kitsune. "Even you, Kitsune. No matter how unlikely, even you have had absolute capability to kill him."

She then faced Mutsumi. "And you! You think your brainlessness can hide anything! You probably had some...jealousy-motivated reason or something-whatever to murder him!"

"Eh?" Mutsumi asked, confused.

"See! You pretend all the time!"

Naru then trained her eyes on Sara. "And you definitely had reason to kill him."

"Okay, so maybe I hit him a lot, but so do you!" Sara rebutted.

"Why would Keitaro have told me all this if I was the killer? Huh? Can you answer that?"

Sara became silent, then spoke again. "I never, ever, wanted to kill him. Period."

"Ha, right. Any of you could've killed him at the party. All of you had perfect opportunity to do so..." Naru turned her head to look at Shinobu, who recoiled under the other's gaze. "Even you!"

"Wha, wha, why would I---" Shinobu stammered, tears forming at her eyes.

"Don't play the innocent victim, Shinobu! You might have tried to fool us with all your cuteness and all but---"

"Naru-sempai!" Motoko interrupted.

"Shut up!" Naru shouted. Then to Shinobu, "You pretend to be all nice to him, thinking we wouldn't notice, but nooo, deep inside you wanted to kill him for being what he was!"

"I-I never..." Shinobu stammered, tears flowing down her cheeks, her breath choked by sobs.

"Yes you did! Didn't you?" Naru continued, with a louder voice, "Didn't you!!?"

Shinobu suddenly wailed, "I love Urashima-sempai!! I LOVE HIM!!!"

Everyone stood still, shocked, as Shinobu fled from the room and ran upstairs, crying. Even Naru seemed to be in a state of shock. Motoko turned to face Naru, anger showing through her eyes.

"Naru-sempai, that was not called for," she said.

"Don't you think you might be taking all this too far?" Kitsune added.

"Keitaro was murdered. His death needs to be avenged.... It's the right thing to do," Naru said, staring at the ground.

"How is killing six people, SIX people, the right thing to do!?" Motoko asked, shouting.

Naru did not reply. Motoko snorted in anger and disgust, and walked briskly out of the room. The other tenants filed out slowly, one by one, until only Kitsune remained.

"Keitaro's death is tragic and horrible," she said. "But that's no reason to go through all this. No need to make things worse for everyone. Just let things settle...I mean.... Things'll play out to their own ends in the end, on their own. I hope you get what I'm trying to say. Think things over, Naru."

Kitsune then left the room as well. A cloak-like silence fell over the surroundings as Naru sat tied to the chair, her head low. A few tears escaped her eyes and fell to the floor.

Had she really been doing the right thing? What would Keitaro have said if he had known? Did she have any right to even attempt to do what she had tried to do?

All these thoughts ran through her head, making Naru feel as if boulders were being placed on her shoulders, each putting more weight onto her already-weakened sense of self and dignity.

Tired, both mentally and physically, Naru eventually fell asleep.

* * * * *

Naru's sudden change in behavior had compelled the other Hinatasou residents to untie her and let her roam as she wished, mostly out of compassion's sake. Upon attaining her freedom, Naru had taken a bath, changed into cleaner clothes, and gone outside to take a walk through the city.

So there she was, trudging through the sidewalk, almost dragging her feet across the ground. Her complexion was pale and unhealthy. Even her hair looked unhealthy. Her shoulders sagged and her arms hung without strength. Hence, most people who passed by felt their gazes drift towards the strange, depressed girl. Out of compassion they quickly averted their eyes, but none could deny the air of depression that hung on the girl like a cloak of sadness.

Naru stopped at a bench and sat down; her legs had been beginning to ache from all the walking. She sighed, slouching down against the seat, eyes half-closed as if to block out all that had happened. Suddenly another girl about Naru's age walked over to the bench and sat down.

"Mind if I sit here?" the girl asked.

"No," Naru replied weakly.

The girl sat down next to Naru and gazed at the latter with concern. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yes....Actually no...kind of," Naru replied. "What about you?"

"I'm doing okay, I guess." The girl then turned her gaze elsewhere, looking around at her surroundings. In her hands she held an envelope. Naru glanced at the card and raised one eyebrow. She sat up straight.

"What's in the envelope?" Naru asked.

"Oh this?" the girl, holding up the card. "Oh, it's nothing. Just something I have to give to someone."

"Boyfriend?" Naru asked, with a sly smile.

The girl panicked, raising her hands in defense. "No, no, it-it's just...someone, no one, that's all!"

Naru smiled. "Don't worry. You're secret's safe with me," she said.

The other girl sighed and gazed out in front of her at the street. "I was meaning to give this to him yesterday but I never really got the chance."

"What's he like?"

"Well, he's not the type of guy you'd expect a girl to sort of like. Sort of...well, most would call him a weakling but I don't think that. Well, I guess I wasn't all that nice to him either when we first met, but now...well..."

Naru's sobs stopped the girl. The girl looked as the other covered her eyes with an arm, trying to hide the tears trickling down her cheeks.

"Ah...is something wrong? Did I say something---"

"N---nothing...it's just nothing..." Naru replied, her words choked with sobs. She brought herself under control and wiped her tears. "I'm sorry. Go ahead."

The girl nodded and went on, "Well, I'm trying to get this to him now, but I'm not sure if he'll accept it at all. Most likely not. Maybe I'm just wasting my time."

The girl started to put the card in her purse when Naru suddenly reached out with a hand and grabbed the other's before she could put the card away. The girl stared in shock, wonder, and curiosity as Naru brought her tear-streaked face to the girl's.

"Listen to me, and listen to me closely. I was once like you, and had was given a chance at love like you do now. But I failed to see it in time and now I've lost everything. Please...don't make the same mistake I made. Give him that card. Trust your feelings, and don't be afraid. Don't let anything stop you, and most of all, don't give up."

Naru let go of the other's hand. The girl closed her purse and held the card in her hands, staring down at it, thinking about Naru's words.

A bus drove up to the sidewalk and stopped by the bench. The girl got up and turned to Naru. "This is my bus. I um...don't know what to say."

"You don't have to," Naru replied. "Just go, and give him that card. And remember what I've told you."

The girl nodded and smiled. "I will. Thank you."

Naru nodded in return as the girl boarded the bus. The door closed and the bus drove away, and eventually disappeared into the distance. Naru watched it go then sighed and got up.

"Hey, Naru!" a voice called from the side.

Naru looked around and saw Kitsune walked toward her with a grocery bag in one hand. "Kitsune? What are you doing here?"

"I'm shopping. And you look like you've been crying yourself a river again. You really need to stop drowning yourself in your sorrows."

"Yeah." Naru shuffled her feet around nervously. "And I'm, uh, sorry about...you know, back at Hinatasou..."

"Nah, forget about it. I'm pretty sure we would've all done the same if we were in your place."

"Really? You're sure?"

"Nope," Kitsune said humorously. "But what the hell, let's go take a walk."

Naru followed Kitsune as the two walked through the city, sightseeing the city, pointing out places they thought they'd never seen before. Naru almost couldn't believe that Kitsune, whom she had tried to kill just a few hours ago, was now walking side-by-side with her, casually, almost as if...things were still back the way they were in the old days.

Along the way, Kitsune brought up the inevitable question.

"So, Naru, what are you going to do now?" she asked.

Naru halted in her steps. She gazed down at the ground, as if to search for some answer in the concrete.

Really....What did she want to do with her life?

"I---I don't know..." Naru said after a long moment.

Kitsune nodded as if in understanding. "Take your time. Just remember that you don't have forever to decide."

Naru heard Kitsune's words and nodded in acknowledgement. Indeed, she didn't have forever to decide. This was a truth, and one she had failed to see in time when Keitaro had been alive. The same truth she had told that girl at the bus stop.

Yes. It was time she picked herself up and made up for that lost time somehow. But until then, the two walked side-by-side, through a park, and later arrived at a cemetery.

"Wow. Funny that we should be in a cemetery," Kitsune commented. She suddenly realized what she had said and exclaimed, "Whoops! I'm sorry about that, it just slipped."

"It's alright," Naru said. She walked forward through the cemetery, Kitsune following close behind.

As she walked, Naru said, "Hey Kitsune...I'm sorry for everything. Really."

"Hey," Kitsune said, spreading out her hands. "No problem with me. Like I said: we would've done the same if we were you."

"Now that I think about it, I could've just called the police or something instead of doing what I did. Why didn't it even occur to me to just...find help?.."

As the last bit escaped her lips, Naru remembered the dream she had experience, in which Keitaro had asked her the same question. Why...

"Why...why did I even think of doing that?" Naru went on, seeming to talk more to herself than to Kitsune.

"Well, I don't know, but maybe you felt that Keitaro's death should be avenged by someone close to him, not by a total stranger. Maybe. Just thinking," Kitsune said.

"Maybe. Kinda selfish, now that I think about it."

The two stopped in front of a pair of tombstones. Kitsune gazed down at them and read their inscriptions to herself. Her eyebrows lifted in interest and she said to Naru, "Look here. One tombstone of a hard-working, nice, and honest guy. The other, of a criminal. Interesting."

Naru knelt down and gazed at the tombstones. A criminal and an honest man, buried side-by-side as if through some strange hand of fate. The two seemed almost the same, by tombstone size and style of engraving. Only the names and inscriptions were different.

"You know something, Kitsune?" Naru spoke up. "Now that I think about it, these two guys are no different from each other than one tree is from another---in that both died and ended up buried. Sure, one was a nice guy and the other wasn't, but in the end result, both ended up in the same place."

"Except that one guy's probably in heaven and the other in hell," Kitsune added.

"Yeah. You can do what you want in life, but death---and ultimate justice---finds you, whoever you are, wherever you are, in the very end. And no matter what happened in-between, that final call on who you are and what you've done in life is what matters the most."

"You've become quite the philosopher, Naru," Kitsune said jokingly.

"Yeah," Naru replied smiling. "Point is, we're all the same humans, no matter who we are or what we do in our lives. No difference. Nothing."

The two stayed there, one kneeling, the other standing, both gazing at the two tombstones. Kitsune turned her gaze toward Naru and realized something.

"Naru, you've stopped wearing black. Thank God!" Kitsune exclaimed, raising her hands toward the sky as if to accept divine blessing.

"Yeah...I just noticed too," Naru agreed. Her clothes were mostly white now, completely opposite from the black she had worn all the way during the week to a few hours before. Her mind, heart, and soul seemed...lighter as well.

"Did you actually pick out those?" Kitsune asked, pointing at the clothes.

"No, they were the first one's I could find," Naru replied.

"Well, we should be getting home now."

"It's only, 3 o'clock though."

"Still. You've been out for two and a half hours, did you know?"

"Really? Wow...time flies."

"Yep. Come'on, let's go."

The two friends left the cemetery, talking about their high school days, joking about all the hilarious things that had happened during one birthday party, and much more. Much of the sadness had been banished away, it seemed. The future would never be like the good old days, but at least it seemed headed toward a bright destination of some kind.

Naru and Kitsune finally arrived at the end of the steps that lead up to Hinatasou.

"We should call the police first," Kitsune was saying, "and watch our backs while we're at it."

"Yeah, that's sounds about right," Naru replied.

"Hey Naru!!" Su called from the front door. She, Motoko, Mutsumi, and Sara ran up to Naru and Kitsune.

Naru composed herself, and said in a clear voice, "I'm very sorry for what I did back there. I wasn't thinking clearly and I've gotten over it now. I hope you can forgive me."

Motoko sighed and gazed at the ground, then back up at Naru. "Well, Naru-sempai...though I'm uncomfortable at saying so, I have decided to agree with the others on this. You are forgiven for the time being."

Naru felt her heart lift another step. "Thank you, thank you very much," she said, bowing.

"Come'on, enough moping around! Let's celebrate!!" Su exclaimed.

"Celebrate?"

"Yeah! Look!" Su picked up a backpack-sized contraption she had brought with her from the ground and showed it to Naru. "I haven't come up with a name for it yet, but this can bring Keitaro back to life!"

Naru's eyes widened in shock. "R---Really?"

"Yeah!"

Naru's thoughts became a storm of hopes and dreams. If this device could really revive Keitaro as Su claimed, then...they could all be together again. Naru could finally be more honest to her feelings regarding Keitaro. Everyone could be happy. They could return to the good old days, when joy had been reality and despair was only a figment of nightmares.

Suddenly someone shouted something. There was the sound of a chi wave slicing through the air. The Hinatasou residents leaped away barely in time as a black chi wave tore through the space between them, shattering Su's device in the process. The chi wave went on, tearing up the ground, until it smashed into a group of trees, causing them to twist and explode in a shower of wood.

Naru covered her head as a cloud of sawdust blew over her. She slowly looked up and saw a figure standing at the Hinatasou doorway, holding the Hina Blade, unsheathed. Her eyes widened in shock as her vision clarified and she saw who it was.

"Sh---Shinobu?"

Author's Notes

You may have noticed that I've taken out the disclaimer regarding Shakespeare and Hamlet. Well, at the very beginning of this story's creation, I had intended for this fic to closely share similar elements with Hamlet, but ever since then I've come to realize that it was highly unnecessary because the fic was taking a turn toward becoming a story that was more and more unlike Hamlet. Hence, I've decided to remove that part of the disclaimer. After all, such similarities to Hamlet could easily be called coincidence, cursory, or ambiguous, unlike the disclaimer regarding Love Hina itself, which is a must for obvious reasons. The final part of the disclaimer is fairly enough to cover the Hamlet portion.

Point is, the Hamlet disclaimer became unnecessary. Know from this point on that Death of an Angel is its own story, not a derivative of Hamlet. Thank you.