Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Love Hina.
Pre-Read by: HinaGuy749 & DeathofHell
Keitaro...I'm Pregnant: Letting It All Be Known
I wake up from my slumber, feeling energizes. But when I open my eyes, all I see is darkness. I try putting my hand in front of my face, but I can't see them. I look all around, but everything is the same. Where am I?
I stand in the darkness for what seems like hours when I see a blue light in front of me. I walk towards it, but don't feel my body move. It's like being on a flat conveyer belt like at the airport.
Once I get into the light, everywhere around me are television screens of many sizes. At first they're blurry images of things I can't make out. With each second that goes by, the images on the screens become more clearer. I focus my attention to one screen because of cool color that I can make out and get startled when it comes into full bloom, seeing myself when I got my first hit in little league.
I pull away from the image and look all around me, seeing a cherished moment of my life in each of the screens. Watching all of these memories from when Ariel and I saw May for the first time, meeting Mark and Yoko in Mrs. Pham'a 4th grade class and running in all those track meets in middle school brings back the feeling of joy and happiness I once experienced. Screen by screen, I relish in my past compliments when it hits me: What is this place?
A suddenly blinding white light strikes my side. I turn my head towards it and shield my eyes as I get a glimpses of someone. Once the light slowly fades away, a boy, no more then three or four years old, is standing where the light was, looking at me with misery in his eyes. I wonder what's wrong with him?
"I'm sad that I put you through all of this," the boy says.
"What?" I yell out. What in the world does he mean?
"All the stuff you have done in the past few months is my fault. That's what I mean."
"HUH?!" OK! This little boy is creeping me out.
"I'm sorry for creeping you out."
"ARGH!!!" I yell, taking a few steps back. What in the world is going on? Can he read my mind?
"Yes. I can read your mind," the boy says. "It's something that I can't control, so you might as well just talk to me without thinking. Plus, mind reading gives me a headache."
"Oh..." I give a wobbly smile, not sure of how to react. "So...who are you?"
"I'm known as a watcher."
"Watcher? You mean you're like that bald headed guy in that robe who watches different universes in the Marvel Comics?" He gives me a mean frown.
"You could say that, but I don't observe different universes. I observe over 160,000 people to see how their destiny will turn out."
"Destiny? What do you..." It now hits me what he's talking about. At least, I think I do. "Are you like a Buddhist God or something?"
"I'm no Buddhist God!" The boy laughs, making me red from embarrassment. "Like I told you, I'm a watcher. You know, someone that watches over you."
"Wait a minute! I was told that Buddhist people do have something like a guardian angel or something like that." The boy chuckles, smiling at me.
"I'll let you in on a little secret." The boy beings to float in the air, heading towards me. I'm a little frighten to move before he whispers in my ear. "Very few Buddhist people know I exist." I'm even more creped out. I'm still a newbie when it comes to Buddhism, but learning something only a few know about is unspeakably crazy! While I'm taking in what I just heard of, it dawns on me what I am going through.
"I'm dead, aren't I" The boy turns away from me.
"Right now, you are in the boundary of your present life and your next life. The place we are in right now is called 'Memory Hallway'. It's filled of all the happy memories you been through. Sadly, this is the last place you get to be in as yourself before you go into your next life." I begin to look at the screens again, trying to relive those past moments. Since the boy can read my mind, I try to feel if I accomplished everything I wanted to do. Looking at everything that I have done in these screens, I feel that I haven't done much in my life. I am only 20 years old and there are still things I want to do before I am reincarnation into someone...or something! But at the same time, I am happy for what I have done in my life, even though it's a short life. No matter how sad I feel, I can say I did it. I guess, dying to have Keitaro sees his child was my destiny.
"So...this is the end of Raymond Ancheta, huh?" I can see a few tears running down the boy's face. I smile at him and shake his head, messing up his hair. "Do be so sad Watcher. I accept my destiny. There is much I wish I have done like getting my bachelors in photography and marrying Fong Ling, but I guess this was my fate. Say...I was wondering. Since I'm going to be reincarnated, will I immediately get a body or is there a line that I have to wait in with all the other Buddhist?" More tears run down the boy's face as he shakes his head. When he stops, he looks at me with bloodshot eyes, seeming to be upset.
"You won't know. At least, now right now because this isn't your destiny."
"Excuse me?!" Now, as happy as I should be, I am dumbfounded! "What do you mean this isn't my destiny? You told me you're the Watcher."
"I'm a watcher," the boy cries. "There are more of me who to this."
"FINE!" I snap at him, angry that something went wrong in my destiny and now I'm in this state of confusion and chaos. I calm myself down so the boy doesn't feel I'm that angry with him. "Then can you tell me why I am here?" He looks like he's about to cry, but doesn't, nodding his head.
"Because I changed your destiny." I freeze, not knowing what's going on.
"You what?!"
"I changed your destiny. You were never suppose to go to Japan, let alone die there." At first, I so wanted to beat the living daylights out of him. That was before he drops to his knees and cries, chanting "It's my fault" over and over.
"Kid...please stop," I say, trying to sound polite as possible. "I'm not mad at you. You must have a good reason for doing this. Just tell me and I'll understand." The boy wipes his tears away and stands up, looking very serious.
"I knew I picked the right guy for this." He smiles. "Alright then, I'll tell you, but first, I have to show you something." With his arms out, his little body begins to shine white light. In a matter of seconds, the light covers his whole body and explodes in all directions, blinding me for a bit. Once I get my sight back, the little boy that was standing in front of me is no longer little anymore. He's a grown man, slim in build with light brown hair, looking just a little older then I am. "Do I look like anybody you know?" It didn't dawn on me until he asked that question when I realized who he reminds me of.
"Yeah...You look like...Keitaro Urashima." He gives me a silly smile, laughing.
"Sorry for that. It was just predicable that you'd say that. Then again, any of his friends would say that." He takes in some breathe before speaking again. "But you're wrong. I don't look like Keitaro Urashima."
"But you look so much like him."
"Believe it or not, he looks like me. I say this because my name is Kappei Urashima; I'm Keitaro's older brother." I nearly lose consciousness. He looks so much like Keitaro and with the situation I'm in, it's hard for me not to believe him. But one thing doesn't make sense to me.
"Keitaro never mentioned you before." Kappei looks really sad, turning away from me.
"He doesn't even know I exist." A tear runs down his face, but keeps his composure. "Our parents never told him about me infear that he would meet the same fate as me."
"What do you mean?"
"The day my parents found out that our mother was pregnant with Keitaro was the same day I died. I was three and a half years old."
"You mean, when you were a little boy..."
"That's what I looked like before I died." He looks very sad and depressed, even though he wasn't crying. "I have replayed that moment so many times in my head that I'm sick of it."
"Is it alright if I ask what happened to you?" Kappei glares at me, but nods.
"My mother, father and I were in the park. They just found out that she was pregnant, but I was told I'm getting a new playmate. I was very excited since they were either too busy or too tired to play with me. I asked if I could get some cotton candy from the man and my parents agreed. I went by myself like a big boy, with my parents watching me. I mean, it was just across the path. What trouble could possibly happened? Well, there were a few kids ahead of me and when it was my turn, the man begin to get me some cotton candy when a shadow came over us. The man looked up, yelled 'Get out kid!' and runs away. I didn't know what he was talking about since I couldn't see over the machine and the next thing I saw was darkness." There was an eerie silences between us, making me wonder if he was going to continue or not. "I didn't know until I was a watcher that the shadow above us was a car. It hit the cotton candy machine and went forward, crushing me in the process. As bad as that was, the look on my parents face was even worse. They tried their best to get me out, hoping I was still alive. They gave up when they saw the pool of blood beneath the machine." I can't fathom what Keitaro's parents saw that day, only know that they're devastated.
"How come they never told Keitaro about you?"
"They wanted to. They really did. But after Keitaro was born, they just couldn't."
"What do you mean?"
"They had to perform emergency cesarean section on our mother when I was born because I would be coming out sideways. They had a planned cesarean section on Keitaro, but our mother had complications after he was born. A few days later, her uterus was removed." He gives me a 'do you understand' look. As much as I understand what happened with his mom, I still don't understand why they didn't tell Keitaro.
"I'm sorry, but it still doesn't answer my question."
"I see that you don't get it. Well, I'll tell you. See, they just lost a child and lost the ability to have anymore children. Keitaro was their only blood child they had left. They thought if he ever knew about me, he would dead like I did when I learned about him." Now it makes sense to me. If they ever lost him like they did with Kappei, they would never be happy again. I was about to speak when he continues. "They remembered the way I looked when they told me about Keitaro. They wanted to have the same joy for Keitaro that I never got, so they adopted Kanako. It was always bittersweet when they saw the two of them playing, thinking about me."
"How do you know this? You watch like so many people."
"I always make time to watch my family. I'm really not suppose to, but as long as I don't change their destiny, the Commission of the Watchers are fine with it."
"Commission of the Watchers?"
"Huh...yeah. They're the ones that picked me to be a watcher and are the ones that assigned me Buddhist people to watch over. That's how I meet you."
"It is? So, you been watching me since I was born?"
"No. I can only watch Buddhist people because of our beliefs. I started watching you a year ago and so far, saw that you were destine for great things."
"Wait a minute, you mean you can see my entire life?"
"No. We are limited to seeing a few months into everyone's destiny."
"But you changed mine. Why?" He hesitates in telling me, as if he really doesn't want to.
"I don't want you seeing what I saw, so I'm just going to tell you. Remember when you came to the Hinata Sou the first time?"
"How could I forget! Those girls really wanted to kill Keitaro."
"Without you, they would have succeeded." This doesn't seem possible to me. I start recalling that moment, seeing if he could be wrong, but nearly everything that happen to him with those girls that day, there is no way he could have survived.
"That was his original destiny?" He nodded.
"He was suppose to have died a long time ago. The commission can detect if a watcher is changing someone's destiny if they use that power for longer then a second. Remember that party at your friends' apartment building when Naru sent Keitaro close to outer space? Well, I had a millionth of a second to determine his moment of impact and save him from major harm. I been pretty much doing that all his life. He's very clumsy, but has had help from Shinobu recently. He would have never survived his first day at the Hinata Sou or any other day after that without me accurately figuring out when to save him. That's how I changed his destiny, much like I did with you."
"What?! How?"
"For starters, I made one of your co-workers sick so you could work that night." Oh my gosh! I remember that night. I wasn't suppose to work, but I got called in because Forest Speyer fell ill. Hey! Wait a minute!
"How could you get him sick? He wasn't Buddhist. He's Roman Catholic."
"Changing your destiny means that we can change the destiny of others around you, but only for short term things like that." I find that very odd, but still believed in it since it did happen. "I also changed it when you when talking to your girlfriend about studying abroad."
"How did you do that?"
"I notice on a few occasions that when you hear someone speaking, you would hear one thing when they said something totally different. I used that knowledge to make sure you would hear 'Japan' when she said 'England'." I'm really angry that he used me like a puppet, controlling me like this. I can only imagine what would have happen if I did go to England with Fong Ling and what memories we would have made. But when I think of Keitaro dying and not being able to see his child, what has happen to me is well worth it.
"I'm glad you told me this. So...what happens now?"
"You were destine to die and go into your next life. However, because I changed your destiny to that, I won't let that happen. I'm giving you a second chance."
"That's great! You can really do that?"
"No, but you shouldn't have died either. It's my mistake and I'm going to fix it." He again puts his arms out, floating in the air. All of a sudden, all the screens disappear and a cloud-like whirl of red begins to from. "This goes against everything the commission stands for, but I don't care. Even if it means that I get kicked out of being a watcher. As long as you get your second chance, I'm fine with whatever the commission gives me." Kappei slowly starts turning bright white and the whirl of red turns darker, going above his head.
"Thanks Kappei! I'll never forget what you have done for me."
"I'm sorry to tell you this, but when you go back to the living, you won't remember our conversation."
"How come?" Kappei never get to reply as everything goes completely white.
I look around the room, unable to believe what I'm witnessing. In one corner of the room, the residents of the Hinata Sou cry together, comforting each other. Next to the bed, Jill is crying louder then them, kneeling next Raymond lifeless body, holding his hand. She begs for him to wake up, still believing this is a cruel joke he's playing on us. Soon, she jumps off the floor and runs out of the room. Steve tries to be strong about this, but can't hold back his tears. Mark, who has been Raymond's best friend for years, shakes his head in disbelief, not seeing what is in front of him with tears flying all round. Shinobu holds me in her arms, crying into my coat. I wish I could cry with them. A friend of mine just died right in front of my eyes. But I can't. I'm responsible for this. I'm the one that brought him the needle. I'm the reason Raymond is dead. I killed him.
I can hear the doctor yelling at me, but nothing is registering. For all I know, I'm going to jail on murdering my friend. The nurse seems aw-stuck, but not in a good way. She's fairly young, so this must be the first time seen a dead patient, not one of those cadavers.
"I'm sorry everyone, but we can't save him. The substance he injected himself with wasn't make for the heart." All of us except for the doctor and nurse bow our head, knowing he had truly crossed over. "Nurse, give me the time of die while I talk to this young man." I feel the doctor grab my arm hard. I know that he's angry for what I have done. I may not have deserve that, but I really don't care. From this day forward, my life had changed forever.
"Yes doctor. The time of death is..." A blood-curling screams begins to echo in the room. I look up to see Raymond's head tilted a little up with his mouth and eyes open.
"WHAT IN THE WORLD..." in one swift motion, he takes the needle out of his chest and sits up. "...IS A SYRINGE DOING IN ME?!" He breathes very heavily, making us realizes he isn't die. This puts a smile on all of our faces and I feel the doctor letting go of my arm. However, I see concern in the nurse's eyes.
"Something's wrong. The heart monitor is still showing this patient is still die."
"What?" Raymond yells without all the anger. He sees the heart monitor, gets out of bed, walks towards it and hits it a few times. After the third or fourth punch, the heart monitor begins to beep again. "Hey! Mom was right. Us Anchetas do have problems with medical equip...ment!!!" He loses his balance and falls on his butt. Mark and I rush over to help him as Steve tells us he'll get Jill. We pick him up and carefully place him back on the bed. We both surround him along with Shinobu.
"Welcome back Raymond!" She says with a huge smile on her face.
"Yeah! It's good to see you among the living again," Mark tells him. I thought that was a bit rude, but they always says things like that to each other.
"HUH? What are you guys talking about? And why am I in a hospital?"
"What's the last thing you remember?" I ask. His eyes look up to the ceiling, trying to recall his last moments.
"I remember seeing you two sad in the doorway after Motoko tried...to...kill..." His eyes were growing huge when he shudder. I wasn't sure why until Naru, Motoko and the other girls start surrounding his bed. "Oh crud! What do you all want?" He sounds half mad and half scare.
"We know everything Raymond," Sarah tells him.
"Know what?"
"We know that you pretended to be the father of Shinobu's baby so we wouldn't beat up Keitaro," Kitsune answers.
"We also know that you did this because you lost your father at a young age," Su adds in.
"And that you acted like a jerk around us so that we would divert our attention towards you," Naru also adds in. Raymond looks very frighten now that his secret is out. It's actually kind of funny since I know what's going to be the end result.
"So.. you know it all now?" He ask very calmly. The residents all nod their heads. "Anything you want from me?"
"Yeah. We want something from you," Motoko says, sounding very strict. The two of them look mean at one another, until Raymond is taken by surprise by her smile. "We just want to know the real you."
"And to tell you we're sorry for all the harm and threats we caused you," Naru adds. All the girls begin to smile, but Raymond looks uncertain.
"OK now...I think I get what's happening. I'm dead! There is no other explanation of why you girls are all nice to me!!!" He yells, convince that he crossed over. I would probably think that too. I don't recall a time they, as a group, were ever nice to me. I can hear a faint whimpering from behind me. I turn slightly around to see Steve in the doorway with a crying Jill around his arm.
"You don't need to cry anymore. He's alive. See?" She begins to open her eyes and look in our direction. I don't need to see what's behind me. I already know what she's looking at. Her tearful eyes begin to grow bigger, now looking like tears of joy.
"RAYMOND!" She gets off of Steve, runs towards him and gives a hug. As happy as she seems to be, Raymond looks like his head to pop off.
"Jill...stop...hugging me. I...can't...breathe..."
"But I'm so happy you're alive!"
"Look! If those...girls...didn't kill...me, YOU...SURELY...WILL!!!" We all let out a little chuckle as Jill lets go. Raymond finally gets more air breathing rapidly. Once his breathing sounds normal, Mark and Steve sit along side with Jill.
"I'm glad you pulled through man," Steve tells him.
"Me too. Me too." The guys pat Raymond on the back while Jill lightly slaps his chest. "Say..." He looks at the residents. "...what do you girls want to know about me?"
"Well," Naru begins. "Since you lied to us this whole time and will be leaving in two weeks, we'd like to know everything!" We all laugh.
While the girls begin to start asking their questions, I look around the room and notice that the doctor and nurse aren't here. I see Shinobu enjoying the conversation between the two groups of our friends, so I slip out of the room. I lightly close the door so I don't make a noise, get my back against the wall and do what I have been meaning to do for a while now; I cry.
I feel my legs getting weak, slowly letting myself fall until I reach the floor. I cover my face with my hand, still not believing what happen. I cry to myself for a few minutes before I hear the door opening.
"Keitaro?" I recognize Shinobu's voice anywhere. I look up and see her closing the door. She looks at me, smiles and sits next to me. Before she can say a word, I hold her in my arms, tightly.
"He's alive, Shinobu," I cry onto her shoulder. "Raymond's alive!" I feel her stroke my hair.
"I know. You're the reason why he's alive." I'm still baffled that he is since when I gave him the needle, he died. I ponder this as Shinobu holds me tightly, continuing to stroke my hair. I feel very calm with this when I feel someone tap me from behind. I turn back to see the doctor, looking a bit angry at me.
"Son, I'm not going to lie to you. What you did was reckless and you could still go to jail, even through you saved your friend's life." I see my life flash before my eyes. After what I witnessed in that hospital room, what Shinobu has been through these last few months with me, what Raymond risked his life for, I may go to jail and may never see my child? "Lucky for you, we won't."
"HUH? How come?" I ask without hesitation.
"The syringe you grabbed is an experimental vaccine for patients with failing kidneys. We started experimenting with it last week and the results came up with nothing. From what we saw your friend do, I guess it may work for the heart instead. Since the vaccine is still experimental, we don't want the media's attention. As long as we can draw your friend's blood to see if they're any side effects, we'll pretend this incident never happened. What do you say?" I'm a bit speechless about this, but get my composer and tell the doctor my answer.
"It's not my body that you want. It's his. But knowing him; if you tell him what you told us, he'll agree."
"Alright son. Thank you." We watch the doctor walk away into the waiting room. I look into Shinobu's eyes and for the first time, I kiss her with no fear of getting caught. We stay like this for a few minutes, hearing footsteps and smirks of people walking past us. Suddenly, Shinobu pulls away from me, looking disgusted.
"I'm hungry!" She says in a whiny voice. I chuckle a bit before we get up. I ask a nurse walking by where the cafeteria is and shows us on a map how to get there. We thank her before she walks off. We smile at each other and walk hand in hand towards the cafeteria.
"Keitaro?" We turns around to see Naru. "Can I talk to you privately?" I'm kind of shocked that she wants to talk to me. I mean, what for? Luckily, Shinobu answers for me.
"Go ahead, Keitaro. You know where to find me." I nod and give a quick kiss on the lips before watching her depart. I look at Naru and about to ask her what she wants when she speaks.
"So, you two really love each other, don't know?" She face looks very gloomy. I'm concern, but I don't understand her question.
"I love her with all my heart. And I know she feels the same way about me. Why?" With a few tears flowing down her face, she runs at me and hugs me with all her strength. Fortunately, she's very weak, not able to crush me.
"I...I guess I missed my opportunity, huh?" She cries.
"Opportunity?"
"Keitaro...I really love you," I couldn't believe this. Naru actually loves me?
"How long?"
"For years now." I can feel her tears on my shirt. "I knew for a long time, but let my stubbornness get in the way. If only I told you sooner." I understand what she's feeling. If I have told her how I felt about her sooner, maybe we would be together. But I left my feelings for her behind. I push her off a little so we're looking at each other, face to face.
"I'm glad that you told me. I felt the same way about you, but that was a long time ago. I'm in love with Shinobu and even if she weren't pregnant, I wouldn't leave her." I felt that I said the wrong thing when her sad expression started to change to anger. "Listen, you're a very beautiful woman and many other men would be honored just to know you, like I have. There is someone out there for you. You'll find your Mr. Right. I know it." I'm not sure if that worked until she smiles and leaps back into my arms. I pat her on her head when I feel her kiss my right cheek and pull away from me. I don't know if I'm blushing or not, but I'm sure feeling a little embarrass.
"Thank you." I see the heavy red in her cheeks before she goes back into the room. As she closes the door, I smile at what just happen and head to the bathroom to check my face any mark of lipstick before seeing Shinobu in the cafeteria.
Note: I'm still learning Buddhism, so if I wrote anything wrong with the way a Buddhist person believes, I'm sorry for offending you.
GOOD OR BAD, PLEASE REVIEW :)