Love Hina: Showdown

Chapter Two!

By Lord LeChuck the Wonder Writter

A fanfiction

Disclaimer: This still belongs to someone else.

Note: This diverges, at some point in the anime. I haven't seen it in a while, so I'm not sure where. But you'll know it when you see it. Oh, it's also kind of a far-flung future thing, but I saw Kill Bill a while back, and kind of thought it was cool. So expect something like that, maybe.

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The long-haired swordswoman sighed, and hung her head. "And what am I?" she asked bitterly, eyes closed, tears forming in them anyway. "A fraction of a shattered dream, where all truth is lost upon the moment of wakening?"

The Shining One stepped towards her, and raised a hand to soothe, and brush away her tears. "Not so, for my will is absolute. I will awaken, and with my powers, cause this to become the reality we truly reside in," he assured her in his booming voice, his very presence setting the universe about him right and causing the fabric of reality to realign itself. "My power is insurmountable in this venue."

A buzzing sound rent the moment asunder, leaving her alone on the wasteland, the Shining Ones presence banished like a dream.

"If only your attention were the same," she lamented for the moment before she ceased to exist.

***

Keitaro stared blearily at the alarm clock before him, blinking away the exhaustion that plagued him like a horrible malady, preying on the weak and spread by rats. "Wait," he murmured. "That's not me. Someone's been tampering with my dreams."

***

Morning found Keitaro at the table before anyone else. Shinobu served him silently, aware that something in his demeanor was more vicious ... more ... withdrawn. She delicately placed his dishes before him, then silently slid away, observing him.

His eyes were unfocused, but shining brightly, as though a fervent energy burned within him, yearning for release, unable to be expressed. He chewed with mechanical precision, although it was only an act, and he were just going through the motions. There was no desire to taste the western omelet she had made, only a desire to fuel his body, though a certain bent of his demeanor suggested that he didn't know why ... why he needed to continue living. It was as though he were simply tired of it, and doing it only by rote. Because it was expected and required of him, though his life was devoid of meaning.

As though he were a mindless automaton, a golem of flesh, a puppet of a student-wanna-be, a mere shadow of the man he once was! Or even--

"Oi, Shinobu," Haruka called. "You're getting that glazed look in your eyes again."

"I wasn't going to dress up in torn stockings with black leather and too much mascara!" Shinobu blurted out in surprise, realizing that she was belaboring the point in her mind. Keitaro had already vanished, though a surprised corner of her mind wondered how she was so distracted she couldn't see him do the dishes. Another calculated the costs of dark makeup and clothing.

"You okay?" Haruka asked, frowning around her cigarette. "You look a little pale."

"It's the sun," Shinobu said reflexively.

The two women stared at each other for a long moment.

Shinobu considered asking Haruka for a cigarette, but decided her already delicate fantasy would be broken by the older woman's common sense, and declined at the last moment. "I should get ready for school," she decided instead.

***

Mutsumi watched speculatively, as Suu prowled the room. The animalistic little girl was crawling around on all fours, a large hammer held by the handle in her mouth, studying every insignificant detail of the room intently, growling, and then moving on.

"What are you doing?" she finally asked the smaller girl.

"Wookim fww smfwng tww bwk!" Suu replied nonchalantly scaling a wall, and scurrying across the ceiling.

"I see," Mutsumi said after a moment.

The girl paused at something she deemed likely, teetering by the fingertips of one hand, and incredulously unlikely toeholds. Nodding decisively, she pulled back her hammer, and lined it up with whatever it was she was looking at.

"And what's this?" Mutsumi asked, peering upwards.

"Well," Suu explained eloquently, as she began to slam her hammer repeatedly into the obstruction, "Thi*WHAM*pie*WHAM!the f*WHAMWHAMWHAM!*Wa*WHAM!*o brea*WHAM!*ru ou*WHAM!*om cont*WHAM!* of t*WHAM!*uthor."

"If that's what it was, you most certainly broke it," Mutsumi assured Suu, who studied the ruined remains before her.

"Yep."

***

The sundering of the thin layer between her and her own control freed Naru of the demonic possession that had claimed her, returning her to normal.

"Did something happen?" she asked dizzily.

"Everything seems the same to me," Mitsune hazarded.

***

The wind whispered through the trees below the rooftop, as the two combatants stared at one another! "It is time," Keitaro said solemnly!

"Indeed," Motoko agreed calmly! One hand went to her Katana, but she didn't draw it!

The clear sky seemed to almost have a quiet and subdued life of its own, distant and placid birds coasting idly on a gentle breeze! It was as though the moment was perfect and calm, to make such an event like a Duel even more dramatic and totally wildly crazy and full of action! Or maybe a peaceful resolution!

The two strode forward towards one another a short distance, and bowed! Calmly!

Then, the battle began! Motoko lead in with a strike with her Katana, which was really fast, and Keitaro couldn't counter! SO HE DIDN'T! HE TOOK THE BLOW TO HIS ARM, AND WAS SENT REELING BY THE HIT! HE SKIDDED BACKWARDS ACROSS THE ROOFTOP, HIS WOUND ALREADY HEALING SLOWLY, BECAUSE IT WAS ONLY A SCRATCH, AND THEREFORE, NOT VERY CRITICAL! HE NARROWED HIS EYES, AND EYED MOTOKO AS SHE READIED ANOTHER ATTACK!

AND THEN HE JUMPED TO ONE SIDE AND ROLLED OFF THE ROOF AND IT WAS TOTALLY COOL!

HIS BODY TUMBLED ACROSS THE ROOFTILES, BOUNCING HITHER AND YON, ROLLING ABOUT LIKE A BODY-SIZED AND BODY-SHAPED BALL!

(AN: Getting tired of holding down shift -- the rest of this scene's gonna be action impaired.)

Motoko looked down the roof as Keitaro rolled down it, bruised, broken, maimed, and barely touched by her Katana or skills.

Tears came to her eyes.

"How cruel," she whispered, before she ran off crying, her Katana held in one hand when she did so.

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Revenge is a dish best served on rye. Toasted rye is best. Cold revenge is like spam; it's greasy and sits in your stomach. But good rye, man, it just soaks that extra right up and gives you that full 'n' content feeling.