I don't own Love Hina. Love Hina belongs to Ken Akamatsu. The story though is just a work of fiction. For all spelling and grammar mistakes I apologize in advance.
Legends
XIV
---
Kanako shivered.
There was something in the atmosphere that was frighteningly unnatural. The wind seemed colder, the air damp and heavy. The once hot afternoon was suddenly replaced by a cold and misty sunset. Heavy, black clouds were clustering above the temple.
Kanako shivered again as she stealthily moved from one room to another of the seemingly empty temple. Something was happening around her and she could feel it inside her skin. For her, it was a bad omen.
The loud silence was unbearable.
Then it was broken by a scream.
Kanako dashed towards the end of the dark hall unsheathing her short sword in one quick motion ready to strike.
And she froze at what she saw.
It was Keitaro kneeling on the floor trembling with pure terror, his hands around his head.
Kanako watched wide eyed as he stood shakily and waved his hand furiously around him as if he was warding off unseen beings. There was an empty look in his large round eyes, looking around in circles as if he was completely at lost of where he was.
"Oni-chan…" Kanako whispered as she stepped forward, her hand reaching out to touch him, her heart aching with pity to see him at such state.
"DO NOT TOUCH HIM KANAKO-CHAN!"
Kanako glanced towards her grandmother sitting on the wide chair. There was a deep frown on her face, her eyes closed and her lips pursed, concentrating hard at the strange event that was unfolding before her.
"Why grandma Hina? Why? What is happening to him?" Kanako asked as she fought hard to control her emotions. She would have given anything to comfort him.
"He is struggling to come out… the powers within him are trying to break free," grandma Hina said, "This is a very precarious moment… if we interfere… he may kill us all,"
"What!"
"It is my presence my child… he is responding to my presence. His power is reaching out to the blood within me…"
"Will he… will he be alright?" Kanako trembled at the thought of her oni-chan wielding his sword to kill her… kill all of them.
"He will be… in time… he is one of us after all. He will settle soon and we will be ready for him. He will soon be awaken… there is much to talk about,"
---
Keitaro was oblivious of what was happening around him inside the temple.
For he was not inside the temple at all.
He was on a strange land.
It was a land surrounded by oddly dressed people. There were strange looking carriages filled with people moving around on their own. There were structures that stood as high as the tallest oak trees of the northern mountains. And what fascinated him were the shiny objects that seemed to envelope it.
It was not Japan yet it felt like Japan.
And it disturbed him to notice that with all the oddly dressed people weaving around a seemingly contained forestry riddled with stones and hard decorated ground, there were no samurais.
Not one of them was carrying a sword.
Then there was a loud booming sound.
Keitaro panicked and covered his ears. He looked around frantically like a madman searching for the source of such terrible noise.
Then he saw a large shadow passing on the ground.
He looked up.
And he almost fainted.
It was the biggest bird he has ever seen.
Keitaro shouted an alarm pointing at the sky. But the oddly dressed people around him seemed to ignore the sight. They seemed to ignore the incredible noise it made. They seemed to completely ignore him.
"We're going to be late you idiot!"
Keitaro quickly turned towards the voice and muttered his surprise, "Narusegawa!"
But the girl ignored him. She passed him and reached the stone steps without even looking his way. She turned and then shouted, "KEITARO WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!"
Keitaro frowned. He stepped forward wanting desperately to ask what was happening but then he stopped when another voice spoke behind him.
"You're not supposed to be here you know,"
Keitaro turned around.
And he came face to face with a young man looking straight at him… at him.
"What do you mean?" Keitaro asked.
"You don't belong here…" the young man said impassively, his eyes of brown hue were staring directly at Keitaro.
"Where am I?"
"Tokyo U,"
"Tokyo U?"
Then the young man smiled and said, "You need to wake up…"
"Huh?"
Then he leaned closer to Keitaro and whispered, "Do not let your anger get to you… you're way stronger than that… everything happens for a reason… look beyond that reason… and you'll see what your mind wouldn't let you see,"
"What do you mean?" Keitaro looked around and he found his world suddenly fade into haziness. Even the young man before him seemed to fade. Keitaro raised his arm only to be met by thin air. He asked, "Who are you?"
The fading young man smiled again, "Keitaro… Keitaro Urashima,"
---
The first thing that Keitaro noticed was that the noise has disappeared.
The bright surrounding has suddenly dissolved into a pale lighting. He could see the wooden walls, the pillows on the floor and the darkness of lightless corridors.
Then it dawned to him where he was.
He was back.
"Do you know where you are?"
Keitaro looked up and found the old lady looking at him with the ever closed thin eyes. And beside her was Kanako.
Keitaro croaked an answer, "Te… temple… northern temple,"
He shivered.
It was terribly cold inside the room.
"Do you know who I am?"
Almost immediately Keitaro answered, "Hina… grandma Hina," then realization dawned to him.
Grandma Hina smiled, "It's been a while Keitaro… you have grown quite a bit…"
Keitaro opened his mouth to say something but he closed it again when he realized there was no point in asking the obvious.
Grandma Hina nodded reading exactly what was on Keitaro's mind, "You've been searching for me my child… and now… I'm here,"
Keitaro glanced towards Kanako, "And I suppose you are part of this,"
Kanako nodded only slightly then avoided his cold glare.
"What's going on? What's happening to me?" Keitaro asked raising his fist in fury, "I saw… I saw the strangest thing…"
"You saw the future…" Grandma Hina said calmly.
Keitaro looked up and then slowly nodded. What he saw could never belong in this era. Not even in a hundred years. But somehow part of him knew. Part of him has always known and that he has been given the chance to see what he was not supposed to see. You're not supposed to be here… you need to wake up.
Who are you?
Keitaro.
Keitaro Urashima.
"Who am I? … What am I?"
Grandma Hina shifted in her seat. She breathed slowly and then calmly said, "I will tell you a tale… a tale of a young man who started it all…"
"A… young man,"
"I will tell you the story of the Legend of the Urashima clan,"
---
Seven hundred years ago, during the turmoils of warring clans all over Japan, a gaijin arrived from the China Sea wearing nothing but rags as his clothing.
The locals challenged the stranger from the foreign sea. But for some odd reason nobody could apprehend the young man. He has shown the most extraordinary skills. His speed was impossible… faster than any skilful warriors has even accomplished. His strength was not of this world… stronger than any wild ox in the land of the Gods. And he used only one weapon with ungodly expertise… a short sword.
Warriors felled one challenge after another. Until finally the young man was standing before the castle of the most powerful family in the land unhindered and unopposed. At this time his deadly skills has spread like wildfire all over Japan. Everybody feared him.
And from then on the young man has single-handedly installed the imperial family. He has united the warring clans and forced them into allegiance with the empire. He has destroyed opposing clans. He has completely annihilated rebellion.
With him were the five powerful clans of the land who rode beside him under the banner of the emperor. Apprentices to the powerful and deadly skills the young man possessed.
It was a dark age for Japan where killing was a common sight and battles raged from one ground to another.
The young man never lost.
Then all of a sudden after years of bloody conflict the killing stopped.
The young man has fallen inlove.
He has fallen inlove with one of the imperial councillor's daughter.
And that love blossomed.
The raging heart of the young man has finally been tamed. And after years of courtship, the young man's persistence was answered by the young maiden. They were betrothed to be married.
But the engagement was fiercely opposed by the young maiden's father.
And so the young maiden was married off to another.
She left the young man broken.
And at this time of weakness, the five powerful clans who have pledged loyalty with the empire seized this moment to finally subdue the ever powerful young man.
And he was branded a traitor.
After one last desperate battle for survival, the young man fled and was never seen again.
---
"That young man lived in the northern mountains of Japan in secrecy. He left the politics of the empire and the warring clans. He lived a normal life wherein he managed to raise a family of his own. He toiled the land and he survived. But he left a legacy that the empire and warring clans tried desperately to eliminate…"
"A legacy… what is that legacy grandma Hina?"
Grandma Hina shook from her reverie and said, "It does not matter… what matters is that you are part of that family the young man started…"
"I… I'm part of that family?"
Grandma Hina nodded, "Yes… the young man's name is… Keitaro Urashima,"
"Keitaro… Urashima,"
"Yes… you are named after our ancestor… the very first Urashima in Japan… you are an Urashima just like me,"
Keitaro looked up, "I am… Keitaro Urashima,"
Grandma Hina nodded, "And within you are the very same skills and powers that our ancestor had… the foresight… the speed… the incredible strength… you have everything… for you are a direct descendant of that young man… that young man who had once been the most powerful warrior in all of Japan…"
"But why? Why are you telling me now? Why just now?"
"Because you need to finally be awaken Keitaro… Japan needs you once more…"
"What happened to our family? If you are related to me… then why just now? Why are you here? What happened to us? Where are my father and mother? Do I have a sister or a brother? Why can't I remember who I am?" Keitaro burst out. His eyes were streaming with tears.
He has finally discovered who he really was. But along with that discovery was the realisation that he was alone. And he felt that loneliness choking him with sadness. He was an Urashima. But what happened to his clan? He wanted to know. He needed to know.
"The Urashima clan has been destroyed fifteen years ago…"
Keitaro shivered.
"Our family has been destroyed… and you have been spared because… because I erased your memories… you were saved by the emperor during the furious times of inquisition. But because no one could tell who you really well… you were saved… nobody knew who you were… not even you…"
Keitaro knelt on the ground.
And Keitaro cried.
He cried for he finally understood what he had lost. He finally understood the emptiness that he had carried for so long. He mourned for his lost fifteen years too late.
---
Motoko was gasping for air.
She was shocked.
She leant on to the wooden wall as she retold the whole story in her mind. And she shook with fear; hugging herself closer feeling the coldness of the air around her. She heard what she was not supposed to hear.
And she didn't know what to do.
For one of the five powerful clans who pledged their loyalty to the emperor seven hundred years ago was the Aoyoma clan.
Her clan betrayed the first Keitaro Urashima.
Her clan persecuted the man who has united Japan.
And her clan was also responsible for the destruction of the Urashimas fifteen years ago.
---
Tsuruko turned. She felt a presence nearby.
Her hand slowly and cautiously held the hilt of a hidden sword underneath the folds of her lavender kimono as she scanned the darkness of her room.
Then she saw a shadow move closer to her.
Tsuruko readied herself to strike.
Then the shadow smiled.
"There's no need for that Tsu-chan…" the voice said soothingly.
Tsuruko raised an eyebrow. Then a smile broke on her face. There was only one person who called her Tsu-chan.
"Show yourself Amalla… you have not changed at all… you still tease me the way you do when we were still playmates at the northern temple!" Tsuruko said gleefully containing the happiness in her heart.
Then a woman appeared before her. Her smooth skin was of shining brown and her long hair was of sparkling silver. She was wearing a strange dress with three eye emblems woven on the hems of the long skirt.
The woman smiled, "And you still kept on jumping like the fox you are!"
Tsuruko reached out and hugged her friend, "Amalla… it's good to see you…"
Amalla withdrew and her smiling face turned into a serious tone, "I hate to bring alarming news to you Tsu-chan…"
Tsuruko took the cue. Amalla lived in a far away kingdom. Her presence could only mean that something terrible was about to happen or was happening. She nodded for her friend to continue.
"Haruka has returned to Japan," Amalla said impassively.
Tsuruko shivered.
And it took her awhile to recover, "When… how…"
"She was last seen boarding a Mongolian invasion ship,"
Tsuruko's face darkened. She whispered, "Is this her doing? Is the Mongolian invasion her plan to finally carry out her vengeance against Japan?"
Amalla shook her head, "I could not say. The Mongolians feared her. She might have assisted them in some way… but it could also mean that she just used the Mongolians to return to Japan…"
Tsuruko walked towards the window that faced the China Sea.
"She has come to kill us one by one… every single one of us…" Tsuruko bowed her head. Her sadness apparent, "I guess… I'll just have to accept the fact that she will always hate us for abandoning her in time of her need… she would never know how Seta risked his life to spare her… how he managed to convince his clan on the pain of death to banish Haruka overseas rather than execute her like all the other legends,"
"It could be the reason why she has returned… and I pray to Kami that it was all she was planning to do… I would rather let her kill me than let her accomplish what I think she was planning to do…"
Tsuruko raised her head in confusion, "What do you mean Amalla?"
"The Urashima blade is missing…"
Tsuruko's eyes widened in fear, she trembled and for once in her life she was truly afraid, "How… how could that be? How could the Urashima blade be missing? Maybe it has been passed to another land or another kingdom… Keitaro Urashima himself made sure that the sword would never return to Japan…"
"And the legends recounts that the Urashima blade can only be held by Keitaro Urashima himself… anybody else who try to hold the sword will die…"
"Then it is impossible for the sword to be missing…"
Amalla shook her head, "I hope it's that simple… the Urashima blade went missing… then Haruka was seen boarding a Mongolian ship bound to conquer Japan… it only meant one thing…"
"It can't be! Haruka will never have the strength or the power to hold the sword. The sword will eat her… the sword will destroy her before she reach Japan!"
"Yet she is here… what if she found a way to carry the sword without it consuming her flesh… what if she discovered a way to tame the power of the sword… she is an Urashima after all… and she has the power as all other Urashimas has…"
Tsuruko was still unconvinced or she refused to believe what she heard, "Even if she managed to carry it to Japan… so what? She can never wield it! Keitaro Urashima is the only man who can carry the cursed sword! And the last Urashima was killed fifteen years ago… a boy named Keitaro was killed fifteen years ago!"
"But we are not certain of that… the body has never been found. It was only a rumour spread by samurais wanting to gain attention and fame among the powerful warlords during the terrible inquisition… what if the boy survived the chaos… what if that boy has grown not knowing who he was… what if the boy has grown waiting for Haruka to return…"
"How can you be so sure Amalla? How can you be so sure that Haruka has returned to finally unleash the curse that our ancestors have painstakingly tried to prevent?"
"I could feel her… and you know full well… I have never been wrong. I have done all I could to find her… I have sent countless spies all over China and Mongolia to search for her and I have sent so many pilgrims to watch over the Urashima blade… and yet… with all these…"
Tsuruko shook again. The Mongolian invasion seemed a memory to her. It meant nothing to her now that she discovered that a far greater threat was upon Japan. And it would be much more devastating than anything she could imagine.
The Urashima Curse was upon them.
If the Urashima blade returned to the hands of its master, Keitaro Urashima… it would mean the destruction of Japan. It would mean the fulfilment of the Urashima Curse. The terrible legacy left by Keitaro Urashima himself seven hundred years ago.
They don't stand a chance.
---
Grandma Hina sighed.
It has been quite a while since Keitaro, Kanako and Motoko left the temple. And now she found herself feeling rather lonely inside the cavernous room. She could not hear the usual noise of the shogunate guards. But that did not worry her for she had seen what would happen tonight.
And she would give all she could even her life to prevent the dreadful events that would soon befall Japan.
The Urashima Curse was upon them.
And the one person who would make it all happen was now standing before her.
Haruka.
Haruka Urashima.
Haruka smiled reading exactly what was on grandma Hina's mind, "They also called me lady Yuki…"
Grandma Hina almost cried. This was the first time she had seen her daughter for more than eighteen years. And to see her standing before her consumed with lust for vengeance broke her heart. What has become of her sweet innocent your Haruka?
"Your young Haruka has been banished overseas…" Haruka smirked, "she learned the harsh way how to survive on her own at the age of ten… she learned how to fend off cruel men on her own… and she could think of nothing else but returning to Japan exacting the same cruelty to the same people who banished her… all she could think of now was vengeance towards the clans who destroyed her family… OUR FAMILY!"
Grandma Hina raised her head and stared her teary eyes towards the woman in long black cloak, "Do not be afraid my child…" grandma Hina closed her eyes and whispered, "In the future… you will be loved by the very man who betrayed you… he will show you love the way he showed you love when he saved you from death…"
"I WOULD HAVE CHOSEN DEATH!" Haruka screamed with pure hatred.
"My child… you will have a family who would respect you and…"
"YOUR PREDICTIONS MEAN NOTHING TO ME OLD WOMAN! WHAT MATTERS TO ME IS WHAT I FEEL NOW!"
Then she raised her right arm.
Grandma Hina's eyes opened wide.
A black blade was shiningly darkly with black fumes circling around it, snaking all over its long length. There was an eerie sound emanating from it as if it was humming a sad song. And it was held by a foul smelling rotting cloth covered hand.
Haruka's right hand has turned deep black.
Grandma Hina trembled, "Haruka… your hand… the sword is eating your hand!"
"I know… but the pain is nothing compared to the pain that I feel in my heart… they were my friends… and yet they betrayed me… they betrayed me the same way their ancestors betrayed the first Keitaro Urashima…"
Grandma Hina could only shiver.
"It is time for revenge grandma Hina… it is time to show them the true nature of the Urashima Curse… I will find Keitaro… and Keitaro will unleash the hatred the first Keitaro Urashima felt seven hundred years ago…
… Keitaro Urashima will destroy Japan!"
Hei there guys and gals! I apologize for the delay! I just hope you enjoyed the revelations on this chapter and ofcourse I encourage you to hang on long enough for more revelations! There are stories within stories on this fanfic of mine and I admit that this is my biggest project to date. I was actually planning to write a separate fic about the Legend of the Urashima clan… the true tales behind the ancestors of the Love Hina crew.
I would like to extend my gratitude to all my reviewers who are kind enough to leave a note. 2004 has been a very exciting fanfiction writing year for me as my fics have all been accepted and well reviewed. I hope 2005 bring everyone good fortune and prosperity!
Cheers and more cheers to all!
nivremous