Disclaimer: t3h l337 luv h1n4z n07 m1n3, f00. (Ah! The l33tspeak! it burns the eyes!)
Honestly, dunno what I can say before I write this one... I'm determined to start really improving and do something new this time around, but I'll be damned if I know precisely what I'm going to be doing to accomplish this. Thanks again, Ronin Writer, for introducing me to Yamiga's Light (sounds kinda like some sort of religion, doesn't it?), and for bringing some humility back into my head just as pride was threatening to give way to hubris. Arigatou, ganbarimasu!
Oh, and Void Hawk... did I just see you use the word "pro" in a sentence pertaining to me? Without a negative in front of it, like "not pro," or "never pro?" Excuse me, I think I'm going to go laugh myself to death. I mean, there's compliments, and then there's flattery, and then there's really really undeserved flattery. But hey, thanks anyways. I'm glad you like what I'm doing. XD To answer the rest of your stuff, yes this thing will probably hit something like 30 chapters, and I'm starting to suspect it may even have a sequel. As for the future... heavy drama, check. Crazy fight scenes, check. Angst, check and circle it a few times for good measure. General explosives, weaponry and death, check. Mystic crap relating to ancient ruins, check. Some relatively comedic moments, check. It's all there, all coming up, and it will probably take at least a month before we get anywhere farther away than Hinatasou. Things may speed up a tad after I graduate though, we'll see.
ShadeXH - What can I say, I expected to take a lot of flak for that one but it was the only way I could see to achieve my ends without totally throwing Naru OOC. I don't like the idea of changing a perfectly good personality, so I avoid it whenever possible. Oh and as an aside for anyone who's been worrying about the changed personalities in other characters, I just wanted to say that I'm doing my best to depict them a few years down the road. Obviously it's all speculation, but it's the best I can do in the circumstances. Anyways, ShadeXH, sorry you feel that way but you may feel at least a bit better about things by the end. Or then again, maybe not, you never know. ; )
In case you haven't guessed, I've been writing these comments as I come across things to write about... I just wanted to mention now that I've lightly updated the last few chapters with respect to Keitaro's staff. I decided that a Jo staff would perhaps be better than a Bo staff considering where and how Keitaro will be using it. Besides, that's pretty much what I envisioned when I first began writing this, someone just misinformed me that the only real kind of Japanese fighting staff was the Bo staff, something I need to injure that person for now. Anyways, the basic difference is that the Jo staff is four feet instead of five to six feet in length, and it's also lighter and more slender for faster movement and easier manipulation. Yay for google searches! Anyways. Time to stop the commentary and move on to the story.
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Chapter 7 - An Unlikely Problem Solver
Dawn's rosy glow filled the sky to the east as waves of soft light rolled across the countryside, striking Hinatasou and causing it to glow warmly. Every railing, every window, every detail was outlined in the beautiful light of that morning. It was a gorgeous new day, free from the bold-print time/space indicators that the author had just decided to remove, the story growing quickly now that it had been given a shot of the fertilizer that was the writer's new resolution to improve himself and his work.
The dawn gave way to full, brilliant, early summer morning. The day was so perfect that it stopped even Haruka in her tracks as she walked towards the house, the taxi she had just left zooming away noisily and leaving nothing behind it but silence, interrupted only by the occasional birdsong. In a rare display of emotion, she sighed and allowed herself to simply stand there, halfway up the stone stairs leading to the house. Looking up at the cherry trees, she found herself a bit disappointed that she had missed their blooming but comforted herself with the thought that there was always next year, and that the work she had been doing with Seta had been just as enjoyable as any hanami party. He was still finishing up the dig but she had come back a bit early, feeling that the residents of Hinatasou, especially Keitaro, might need her.
Brought back to reality by the sober nature of the events that had brought her back toHinatasou, she sighed once more and shook her head. Still trying to reconcile the dark events hanging over the Hinata House with the beauty and calm the place exuded, Haruka began once more to make her way to the top of the stairs. As she braced herself for whatever scene of despair awaited her, though, she would be surprised to learn of the current state of the house.
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"Fire Super Tama Rocket Cluster number one! Don't let him get away!"
Explosions and crashes ripped through the house, causing windows to rattle and water to ripple as approximately half the Hinatasou residents sat at the breakfast table and tried to eat their breakfast. As another blast caused the house to shudder, Motoko calmly reached out one hand to steady a dangerously off-balance glass, the other hand occupied with her breakfast. Shinobu and Ema jumped with each blast until the others began to fear they were going to have a nervous breakdown, just as they had worried for the past couple of weeks. Mutsumi, of course, was unaffected. Then again, it's doubtful the appearance of the four horsemen riding through the dining room would faze her (especially since she was intimately acquainted with at least one of them).
Finally, after a few more minutes of suffering through the sounds of destruction, Kanako stood, announcing, "I shall go and put a stop to this. As manager, it is my duty to ensure the comfort of my guests." She walked out of the room and down the hallway. The breakfasters paused, waiting to see what would happen next. There was a moment of silence, followed by the sound of feet flapping hard against the floor. They heard the sound of a door sliding open, and then two voices simultaneously crying, "oof!" as their respective owners evidently collided.
Straining to hear, the more astute listeners at the table were able to make out a brief and hastily held exchange:
"Gah! K-kanako!"
"Onii-chan, what are you doing? Everyone's -"
"No time! Quick!"
"But your food-"
"No ti- crap!"
"A-HA! Found ya!"
Once again, explosions rocked the house, this time sending both Keitaro and Kanako flying through the air into the dining room, where they bounced and rolled to a stop some distance from the table, slightly smoking. Kanako, of course, was first on her feet, only to fall back over when she discovered she was unable to straighten up fully. Upon closer examination of the situation, it became evident that a stunned Keitaro had grasped the closest thing to hand, which naturally happened to be a portion of Kanako's dress located distinctly north and towards the front. Having landed flat on top of him, Kanako blushed and murmured, "Onii-chan," before hearing the incoming swoosh of another rocket cluster.
Motoko was amazingly quick to take cover, disappearing beneath the table with her breakfast in one hand and drink in the other in less than a second. Kanako acted quickly as well, wrapping her arms about Keitaro and rolling rapidly to the side with remarkable agility. The other diners, however, were less fortunate. The explosion blasted food into diners and, for that matter, diners into food, turning the scene from pleasant breakfast to gourmet's nightmare in a matter of moments. Having removed herself from Keitaro's grip, Kanako straightened up, all fury and rage with her hair standing on end and her battle aura blazing.
"You... you little..." she growled, shaking with anger, at Su. The foreign girl, standing in the doorway behind her creation, remote in hand, gave a nervous giggle.
"Hehheh... oopsie?" she said, turning and running away from the infuriated Kanrinrin, who immediately gave chase. Screaming incoherently, the girl who usually seemed so dark and fragile pursued the mad inventor with a vigor that would put a viking berserker to shame. As the sound of the chase disappeared down the hall, Keitaro came to much faster than he would have in the past, sitting up with a sigh and clapping a hand to his forehead. He looked around at the devastation briefly before saying what was on his mind.
"I don't suppose there's a chance at breakfast anymore, is there?" he asked, smiling wryly as he did so. Faces covered in Shinobu's wonderful cooking glared back at him grimly, as though daring him to look around the room and say that again. All faces but one, that is.
"Ara, ara..." Mutsumi said, hand traveling to cover her mouth. "It looks as though all the food is gone, Kei-kun. I'm sorry." All eyes turned to her, shocked, as they realized that Mutsumi had somehow, miraculously, completely avoided getting hit by... well, by anything.
Good thing anyways, they all thought, sweatdropping. She probably would have died again if she had been hit...
Then Motoko reemerged from under the table, calmly brushed off her chair, sat down, and resumed eating. This time all eyes were on her, staring accusingly. Except for Mutsumi, who couldn't look accusingly at anything if her life depended on it, and Keitaro, whose eyes would better be described as filled with hopefulness mingled with longing.
"Say, uh, Motoko," he said wistfully, "you aren't going to finish all of that, are you?" In reply the swordswoman paused in her steady consumption, turned to him, raised an eyebrow, and then turned back to her meal. Sighing, Keitaro shook his head and got to his feet.
"Fine, fine," he muttered. "That's just really cold of you, you know? You know I'd share if I was in your place..." his smile belied his bitter tone, giving away the joke that was in his face, if not in his voice. "I guess I'll just have to see what I can dig up in the kitchen," he finished, walking across the room and through the doorway, leaving behind a still stunned group of females sitting covered in food.
As the girls finally stood and began cleaning up, the sounds of chase began coming back, once more accompanied by explosions and impacts as Kanako's ki blasts competed with Su's heavily armed mechanical turtle. Fortunately, they didn't pass through the dining room again, but they passed awfully close, heading into the main foyer. Suddenly, there was silence once more. Puzzled, the girls stopped their activities and stood still, listening for the second time that morning. The next moment, they all jumped into the air as a familiar voice roared its dissatisfaction at the two bodies and one mechanical chelonian that had struck her squarely in the chest.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" screamed Haruka, struggling to her feet to loom over the two girls heaped on the floor. Despite her angry appearance, Haruka was secretly relieved that things were actually back to normal. Still, she refused to relax completely until she had seen Keitaro. Just then, Kanako gained her feet as well, standing to face the older woman.
"I apologize, Aunt Haruka, for the accident. I was merely in the process of chastizing this disruptive tenant," she said calmly, reaching down and picking Su up by the back of her shirt. The foreign bundle of energy and trouble looked up sheepishly at Haruka and grinned. Haruka, confronted by the one person she was unable to really deal with, found herself somewhat at a loss for words.
"Um... ahem, I accept your apology. Just... don't let it happen again," she said, dusting herself off and marching briskly into the house interior to get away from her often creepy niece. As she entered the dining room, she was confronted with the remnants of this morning's demonstration of classic Hinatasou-style destruction. Stifling and uncharacteristic smile at the scene, she simply said, "I'm not even going to ask what happened here since I think I already ran into the cause out in the foyer." Sitting down on one of the cleaned seats, Haruka lit herself a cigarette as she was surrounded by all the girls welcoming her back, saying how grateful they were that she would be there to help take care of things.
"So," Haruka asked, "how have things been while I've been gone?" Everyone began babbling all at once, each person trying to explain the events of the past few months in their own words and to pass their own worries on to the long-absent authority figure. Finally, Haruka stood up and waved her right hand, holding the cigarette between its fingers, in order to calm the incoherent gabble. "It sounds like you've all been busy while I was away," she said. "So where's Keitaro at? I'd like to speak to him."
This gave everyone a moment's pause. Keitaro had taken to leaving them all for moments of quiet again after what everyone just referred to as "that morning," though he no longer spent them in his room. They usually saw him walking around the grounds, and once or twice they found him sitting in his spot on the roof, but decided to leave him to his thoughts. Since he had disappeared after breakfast, they decided, he was probably off looking for a bit of peace again. They told Haruka as much, and she nodded, saying, "I'll just go find him then, if that's all right with the rest of you. I'll hear all your stories later." And with that she took a long drag on her cigarette, turned, and walked back out of the room.
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She found him almost a half an hour later, sitting by a pond some distance from the inn. He sat on a stone, his expression blank, as he watched some very bland and generic looking fish swim about in the somewhat murky water. So lost was he in his thoughts that he never noticed Haruka approach, not even when she sat down on a stone just a few feet away from him and sat in silence a bit, watching the pond as well. Finally, after a minute or two, she turned towards him and said, quietly, "So, Keitaro, how have you been?"
Keitaro started, jolted out of his reverie, then turned and looked over at his aunt. For a moment, his eyes remained dead and blank, but then he came all the way back from whatever depths he had been plumbing and smiled in recognition. He jumped up from his seat, wincing as blood rushed to his head and his circulatory system fought to catch up with his sudden movement, then jumped forward to give her a hug. In an atypical aknowledgement of their familial bond, Haruka permitted the embrace, even going so far as to lift an arm and wrap it around his shoulders. She waited a moment, then broke the hug, pushing Keitaro back a bit until she held him by the shoulders at arm's length, inspecting him closely.
"Are you all right?" she asked seriously, scrutinizing his face for any signs to the contrary. "How have you been doing?" Despite the cheerfulness of the other tenants, she was still afraid that Keitaro might be simply keeping his pain to himself. He'd always been such a good kid, he would never let anyone worry about him, trying to keep his problems to himself while simultaneously helping everyone else around him. It was part of what made him such a likeable guy, but that tendency had the potential to put enormous amounts of strain on his psyche.
Keitaro grinned and, laughing, pushed his aunt's hands off his shoulders. "I'm just fine, Aunt Haruka! Never been better. Don't worry about me, I was just enjoying the view over here." He waved an arm, inviting her to enjoy the surroundings as much as he claimed he did. "More importantly, how have you been? How was the expedition? I can't wait to hear all about it." He paused a moment, his smile waning a little, before asking, "is Seta back as well?"
For a moment, Haruka almost wanted to believe in Keitaro's recovery. But a small voice in the back of her head, a voice that had never led her wrong in the past, told her to beware coming to conclusions based on this happy face before her. Still, she allowed a small smile to grace her face as she responded, saying, "I'm afraid not, sorry Keitaro. The dig wasn't quite over when I left, but I was getting a bit homesick and decided to come back." She didn't want to inform him that he was the real reason she had returned, since that would just make him more careful about worrying her.
Upon hearing that Haruka had returned alone, a thoughtful look crossed Keitaro's face briefly, only to be replaced the next moment by that impenetrable smile of his. "That's too bad," he said, starting to walk back to Hinatasou, "but I'm glad you're here. Come on, let's head back up to the house! Have you said hello to the others yet?"
Haruka smiled wryly as she fell into step next to him. "You might say I got a classic Hinatasou greeting from Su, your sister, and what appeared to be a large, mechanical, shelled reptile of some sort. I don't want to say turtle because I would never be able to look at Tama-chan again..." She shook her head, trying hard not to chuckle as she thought back to the look on their faces when they had run into her.
Keitaro winced, then laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Yes, I'm afraid things are very much back to normal around here. I trust you didn't hurt them too badly?"
Haruka couldn't take it anymore, letting loose a whole-hearted laugh at her nephew's concern. "No," she chuckled, "I didn't thrash them." She stopped laughing, then spoke a little more seriously. "Besides, Kanako was there. You know I just don't deal well with that girl..." she sighed, not knowing what to do about her adoptive niece. She turned her head to see Keitaro looking back at her with a serious look on his face.
"Actually, Aunt Haruka-" he started.
"That's Haruka, you dolt!" she cut in, whacking him across the back of the head. "I let you get away with it at the pond because it would have spoiled the meeting, but now you'd better get it right."
Grinning again, Keitaro bobbed his head in apology. "All right, sorry... Haruka. Anyways, I just wanted to ask you a small favor."
Puzzled, her worries making a sudden return, she stared at him a moment before answering. "What kind of a favor are we talking about here?" she asked.
Flapping his hands, Keitaro tried reassuring her. "No, no, don't worry! It's nothing too terrible... It's just that, well, there was something of an argument in the house a while back, and since then I've been a bit worried about Kanako. I mean, she hasn't been acting as though anything were wrong, but... well, something just doesn't seem right, and I do care a lot about her, so could you help me out and wach over her for a bit? Somehow I think that having an older woman around to talk to might..." he realized his mistake too late, as Haruka reddened at the "older woman."
"Ah! No, I, uh, I mean, um, a more experien-" he managed to stammer before being caught by a remarkably swift uppercut from Haruka, sending him sailing over to land in front of the main entryway. He skidded to a stop, thanks to the friction between the ground and his face, then stood up rubbing his cheek. When Haruka finally caught up with him, she was relieved to see that his immortality had come back along with his good cheer. That little voice just wouldn't be quiet, though, so she resigned herself to a long observational period as she walked up to Keitaro and gave him her answer.
"I'll see what I can do," she said, "but you owe me one." Keitaro grinned in relief and, ignoring the mild pain in the side of his face, gave her a hug again. Naturally, since they were within view of the inn this time, this act earned him another trip via the Haruka express, but even as he was launched indoors, he was smiling.
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While Keitaro was getting ready for afternoon training, Kitsune pulled Haruka aside and filled her in on the details of Keitaro's life at Hinatasou, including the episode a couple of weeks earlier. Haruka became very grave upon hearing what Motoko had told Kitsune, deciding she had been right to worry about Keitaro. An incident like that should leave a lasting scar, and even if he didn't show it, Haruka knew that Keitaro was nursing a wound somewhere inside. Still, there was nothing she could do unless Keitaro became willing to confide in her. If he had someone else he was really close to, there might be a chance at him healing once more, but Kitsune killed that grain of hope quickly.
She said that since the fight, Keitaro had become both more active and more withdrawn. He played around more and acted more like his normal self, but while he had seemed to have been entertaining romantic notions about Motoko and/or Kanako before that morning, he had pulled back from any relationships like that since. He was very friendly towards them, towards all the tenants, but if at any time one seemed to be flirting with him, or even just got a little too close emotionally, he would pull away and excuse himself.
So, she said, they had all learned to avoid any situations like that. No one really worried much about it, with the exception of Kitsune and, natually, Motoko and Kanako. Shinobu had been one of the few tenants to move on after Keitaro left, finding that the boys in school were rapidly beginning to notice her and that some of them were definitely worth her attention. Ema had never had the connection with Keitaro the others did, and besides, she spent most of her time with Sara, who had only grudgingly accepted Keitaro and was still a long way from ever considering him a romantic object. Su was... well, in Kitsune's own words, Su was a tough nut to crack. It was hard to tell what was going on behind that hyperactive front but Kitsune suspected that, while she did care for Keitaro, she was perhaps the fourth least interested person in the house after Kitsune herself, Sara, and Ema. Though they had been messing him around earlier, all these girls really cared about was having their cheerful, playful old manager back with them. The didn't worry much about his emotional barriers since they didn't really see evidence of them a whole lot.
As for the others, Kitsune herself was only worried because she found herself taking on the role of authority figure when Haruka was gone and that tends to give you a mother hen kind of mentality whether you want it or not. Motoko, judging by her confessions from the day of the fight, had managed to completely fall for Keitaro when she saw him again after all those years. Motoko, however, for all that she was the one to break down in front of Kitsune, was almost certainly mentally and emotionally strong enough to deal with all of this. In fact, if anyone was likely to pull Keitaro out of his current state, Kitsune decided, it would probably be Motoko.
The other girl, Kanako, was the one Kitsune was concerned about. Her behavior and methods for dealing with things were pretty similar to Keitaro's, though of course for different reasons. She didn't confide in anyone because, despite having bonded pretty well with the other girls at the inn, she was still fairly introverted and had a hard time really getting close to people. She kept an impenetrable facade up at all times, only letting it slip when enraged or around Keitaro. And, of course, even that second scenario had now been taken away. Finally, she was the one to know Keitaro best and longest, and the one whose emotions were most thoroughly anchored in Keitaro's well-being. All in all, her emotional state could be likened to an instant spaghetti-o's container being microwaved with the foil lid still on it. Only in Kanako's case, the microwave had just been turned up to high power. Something was going to give, and Kitsune was afraid to see what would happen when it did.
After digesting all this information for a moment, Haruka inquired about Mutsumi, giving Kitsune a nasty shock. Though now an older authority figure, Kitsune still prided herself on her encyclopedic knowledge of gossip and of the people around her. The fact that she had forgotten one of the most idiosyncratic members of the household confused and alarmed her, and she was only able to speculate that the watermelon girl had slipped her mind because she was just so low-profile. Still mentally reeling, she gave Haruka her best estimate: that she had given Keitaro up to Naru all those years ago and that she considered it a permanent gift. Besides, Mutsumi spent so much time close to death, perhaps she didn't see it as all that big an obstacle to a marriage.
In the end, Haruka realized, Keitaro had been right in worrying about Kanako. However, he also needed a significant amount of worrying to be done about him. After thanking Kitsune for the update, Haruka went to her room to think about what she could possibly do to help Keitaro and the girls of Hinatasou before something worse than that fight happened.
I don't even have any kids of my own, unless you count Sara, and already I feel like a mother hen... she thought as she walked into her room and closed the door behind her. Still, they really do need my help. She lay down on her futon, lacing her fingers behind her head, and stared at the ceiling, thinking, feeling a rare wave of helplessness wash over her.
But what can I do?
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After spending some time lost in futile thought, Haruka decided to give up for now and go watch Keitaro and the others train. Something would come to her eventually, and dwelling on it would only make it worse. She rose, stretching, from the futon, and walked out of her room and up to the deck.
Emerging into the early afternoon sun, Haruka saw Keitaro and Motoko sparring, the two seeming to be more or less evenly matched. Both weapons blurred with speed, cracking against one another so rapidly it sounded as though a woodpecker had mutated and grown to the size of a person and was even now hammering at the deck's supports. Somewhat skilled in the martial arts herself, Haruka was able to watch closely and catch some of the movements as they went by: Motoko going in for a downward chop to the shoulder, Keitaro blocking with his weapon then rotating his body out of range as he dropped his left hand low, allowing her weapon to slide away and him to spin about with a quick stab at chest level, only to find that she had anticipated him and come around to his side, swinging horizontally.
Throwing himself into the stab, converting it into a dive roll, Keitaro came up and whirled about as Motoko charged forward, leaving the briefest of pauses before their weapons blurred once more beyond Haruka's ability to follow. In that pause, however, Haruka had a moment's shock as she recognized the staff held in Keitaro's hands from the Hinatasou armory. It was one of the few weapons she knew by sight from Granny Hina's instructional tour of the house, and though she couldn't quite remember details, she knew that the old woman had only pointed out weapons that she considered dangerous beyond their ability to create physical wounds.
A moment later, the two duelists' blurring movements stopped as Motoko scored a hit with her bokken on Keitaro's side, sending him sprawling. Haruka winced, then realized that Keitaro was fine as he bounced back up, leaning to his left slightly and nursing what should have been a number of cracked ribs but instead seemed to be only a large bruise. Motoko, having been through this all before, just sighed and shook her head. She then turned to Haruka and nodded in greeting. Keitaro followed her gaze and straightened as he spotted his aunt.
Haruka nodded to them and to Kanako, who had turned her eyes away from the two others and was now staring blankly at Haruka. Looking around at the three of them, Haruka found herself trying to decide which of the stack of problems facing her she ought to face first.
Start with the quickest, she decided, then move to the long-term problems. Looking at Motoko, she asked, "are you about done?"
Motoko, still flushed with exertion, smiled back at her. "Actually, I think I'm about ready to call it a day." She turned to Keitaro. "Is that all right with you?" she asked.
Keitaro, even more exhausted looking and drenched in sweat, nodded and took a few steps towards Haruka just as she said to Motoko, "well in that case, would you mind chatting with me for a minute?" Keitaro paused, an impatient look crossing his face briefly, then smiled again and resumed walking, this time for the stairs.
"If you'll all just excuse me, I'll go take a quick shower," he said, moving past his aunt and downstairs. Kanako followed wordlessly, disappearing into the inn after him, leaving the other two alone on the deck.
Once Kanako had left, Haruka turned and looked severely at Motoko. Motoko found herself worried at this sudden talk, and asked, "is there something wrong, Haruka-san?"
Haruka waited a moment before replying. "How long has Keitaro been using that staff?" she asked.
A sudden flash of understanding struck Motoko as she realized what Haruka was concerned about, and her expression grew grave as well. "Mid to late March, I think. I examined the weapon when we found it, but couldn't find anything overtly hostile about it. It did seem strange, though. Is there something wrong with it?"
Haruka's expression turned thoughtful as she replied, "I'm not sure. I recognize it, so there must be something important about it, but I can't seem to remember what." She paused, then went on. "Still, if he's been using this long without any negative effects, I don't see any problem with allowing him to keep using it a while longer. I'll dig through the records tonight and see if I can't figure out the story behind the staff. Just keep an eye on it and on Keitaro, ok?"
Motoko smiled with relief and nodded as she said, "I'll be sure to watch out for any issues." She stopped for a second, as though struck by a thought, and her manner grew somber once more. "Um, Haruka-san? About Keitaro... I think there's something you should know." She flushed bright red as she began trying to explain about the fight a while back, until Haruka waved her into silence.
"I know all about it from Kitsune, of course. Don't worry, I understand," she added, seeing Motoko's face redden even further. "But please," she went on, "do your best to stay close to him, all right? He may seem fine, but there's still something wrong. He needs a companion now, whether he realizes it or not." Then, leaving Motoko to sort out her emotions and get her face back to a normal hue, Haruka turned and went back downstairs.
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That night, as Haruka pored over the dusty old texts that represented the chronicles of the mysterious, magical, historical, or otherwise noteworthy items at Hinatasou (she was on volume XIV thus far), a knock came at the door to her room. Surprised, since few people were confident enough to actually disturb her in the evening, she stood, brushed herself off, and went to answer the knock. When she opened the door, though, she wasn't quite surprised to find that the visitor was Keitaro, smiling that unfathomable smile of his. It was actually starting to bother her, she realized, that smile. It would be perfectly pleasant if you didn't know what had happened to him lately, but as things were, it felt as though he were lying to her.
Standing to the side and allowing him into the room, she shut the door after him. "Well?" she asked, "what's on your mind now?" As he walked over and took a look at the books on her desk, she added, "I was just doing some reorganizing, and I got a bit nostalgic." Keitaro nodded, clearly not really listening or even looking at the books, as she kicked herself for making up such a crappy explanation. Finally, he turned and, looking her in the eye, said what was on his mind.
"Haruka, I would be grateful if you'd be willing to instruct me in the use of guns," he said seriously, for once allowing the smile to leave his face.
Haruka examined him closely for a minute or two before asking, "how come?" His response was immediate.
"The man I'm going after is proficient at more than just close combat, and he doesn't play fair. I don't see what chance I have unless I fight him on his level." He looked deadly serious, and it was clear that he had thought a lot about this.
Haruka was shocked. This was far more worrying than anything else that had happened so far. Keitaro was not the sort to calculate odds, or to consider things possible or impossible, and he was most definitely not the sort to sacrifice honor and honesty for practicality. She stared at him even more closely than before, trying to discern some sign that he had his doubts about this course of action as she asked, "are you sure? You don't strike me as the sort to go into distance fighting. I didn't think it was like you, lowering yourself to your opponent's level in order to beat them."
For a moment, so brief that she couldn't be sure it had happened at all, a bit of pain and indecision flickered in Keitaro's eyes. But it vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind that blank certainty once more. He nodded, saying, "yes, I'm positive. Will you take me to the firing range this week?"
After a long moment, Haruka finally nodded agreement, not seeing how she could do anything else. I have to find a way to fix this fast, she thought, or else the Keitaro we knew will be gone forever. The only problem is, I can't even see what he is now or what he's turning into! Her frustrated train of thought was interrupted momentarily as Keitaro spoke again.
"Um, also, Haruka..." he trailed off, looking genuinely concerned.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Could you... not tell anyone else about this? I'm... I'm not sure what to tell them, but could you just not tell them about the firearms training?" He looked so worried at the prospect of the others finding out that Haruka was once more convinced that his salvation lay in one of the other girls at Hinatasou. Though he was certain of his course when only thinking about himself, considering how his actions would look in the eyes of the other tenants brought him back to his old self somewhat, or at least allowed him to realize the truth that he managed to deny to his own heart.
"Don't worry," she said, "I'll think of something."
Looking relieved, Keitaro smiled that huge, I-can't-believe-it's-not-a-smile of his and, bobbing his head, left the room.
"Goodnight, Aunt Haruka," he said, stepping around the corner just as she threw a paperweight at him. Left alone, Haruka sat in silence for a few minutes before shaking herself and returning to the texts on her desk.
One thing at a time, she told herself, vowing that she would start dealing with Kanako tomorrow and see what she could do through her and Motoko to get the old Keitaro back.
It was shortly after that, somewhere around nine o'clock, when she found the photograph of the staff stuck in between the pages relating its history, or what was known of it. What she discovered wasn't reassuring.
Curiouser and curiouser, she thought, recalling the phrase from a famous book she had read in English as a teen. How the Hell did he come to choose something like that? She finally decided to stop fighting the jetlag and call it a night, to let her mind sort things out as she slept. Things would be clearer in the morning. Turning out the lights and flopping down on her futon, one last thought flashed through her head as sleep overcame her.
If I sent the script of this place in to a television station as an idea for a soap opera, she thought, they'd refuse it on the grounds of it being too unrealistic.
Story of my life, I guess.
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Phew! All right, 'tis done! I've been writing this thing in small increments over the past few days, and it took a lot longer than the others to write because a) it's longer and b) this time I actually took my time and really thought about everything I wrote. Oh, and those of you getting impatient with all of the angsty problems circulating here, I'm hoping to start solving a thing or two in the next chapter. Keitaro's issues, though, will probably last for some time. With a little luck, I may be able to piece some things together for you guys in the near future, but our poor, battered Ulysses is only about a fourth of the way through his travels, if that.
This fanfic is rapidly becoming THE thing I do in my freetime, and it's really giving me some problems when it combines with the senioritis I'm experiencing. Oh well, I'll just have to try and keep everything together... funny, sometimes I can't write at all, other times it just won't stop coming. Meh, such is life. Please review, yadda yadda, and I hope you like my latest and greatest attempt at improving my writing. God, I really admire Yamiga's Light right now...
Oh yeah, finally, I saw some kinda announcement the other day on saying not to post song lyrics in your fics if they aren't yours...? Does that mean songfics are outlawed now, b/c I was thinking about trying my hand at one of those... Anyways, I'm too lazy to mail the staff unless I absolutely have to, so if one of you smart people out there who happens to be in touch with current events could maybe mention if songfics are banned or not in their review, that'd be nice. If not, I'll have to actually email staff, and that makes me a sad panda.
Man, I like to blab, don't I?
Peace,
Vagonnoth