AN: And away we go! Thanks to my fellow writers and reviewers for their continued support!

As always, Love Hina and its characters belong to Ken Akamatsu. Original characters belong to me and may be used with permission.

Bloodstained Heritage

Chapter 12: Void

Michael Blade snarled as he swiped at Seta with the giant cleaver, surprising everyone with his agility with a hurricane of kicks and swipes despite the weight and size of his weapon. Even Motoko knew she would've been hard pressed to evade the skilled attacks, but the Toudai professor seemed to not even break a sweat, and even struck back with a vicious roundhouse kick after dodging one string of attacks. Skidding back several feet, the Chairman spat out a bit of blood and glared at Seta...

Meanwhile, Keitaro could only watch on in fear. He thought he had seen the extent of Blade's powers at the kenjutsu tournament, but now realized that they had only glimpsed the surface of his true skills. As he looked over, he saw that Motoko's body was still frozen in mid-strike, her face twisted in anger as she was forced to watch the conflict instead of joining the melee...

"Keitaro..." Motoko whispered, drawing the landlord's attention. "The monster has frozen my ki with a potent spell, thus I am unable to move..." Sighing, she continued. "What I'm about to tell you is important, please pay attention, as this will determine whether we all survive this or not..." She felt her heart stop for a moment as Seta leaned back just enough to avoid a decapitating blow, and struck back with a fist to the Chairman's face. "...Though your friend appears to be winning, he cannot win against the monster in the long run..."

Both the swordswoman and landlord winced as Blade connected with a vicious kick, and nearly followed through with a brutal cut from his weapon. A sudden movement caused Keitaro to look up, and he realized with fear that he was now staring at the same person who had beaten his aunt into a bloody mess just moments ago.

"You've given us a lot of grief, little boy..." Fang grinned as she lifted Keitaro up roughly by the collar, his feet clearing the ground. "Any final words before I snap your neck like a twig?" Her superhuman senses and reflexes suddenly kicked in, and she managed to jump back from a devastating cut by the Hina blade.

"Leave my friends alone." Keitaro said quietly, an edge of anger in his voice. With a growl, the pit fighter leapt at him, fists poised to crush her opponent...

"Bloody hell!"

"Control yourself, brother..." Marik commented quietly, as he worked calmly at the control systems in front of one of the stasis tubes. The master technician then turned to raise an eyebrow at Hakon. "You will obey the Chairman's orders, we will all play our parts soon enough..."

"That's easy for you to say!" Hakon fumed, as he paced back and forth in the lab. "At least Blade gave you a project to work on in his absence! All I can do is wait here while he's out there by himself!"

"You make it sound as though he's helpless by himself..." Marik grinned as he continued his work, the wires from his body darting back and forth between hundreds of controls and sockets across the control panel. "Besides, I thought you said that the Urashima kid survived because of luck?"

"He did!" The vampire roared, then composed himself before speaking again. "And no, I didn't say that the Chairman's helpless. But I still believe it's better that we all went, better that we do not underestimate the foe..."

"Very true, spoken just like our resident samurai..." Marik smiled as the two turned to see if Tsunari was going to add to their conversation...

Except the spirit was no longer in the room...

"Bloody hell!" Both of the brothers exclaimed at the same time.

Breathing heavily, Blade and Fang stood back to back while eyeing their opponents warily. Both Syndicate members sported a number of cuts and bruises, and Blade even had a swollen eye thanks to a vicious kick from Seta. Despite their injuries, the two proved they were by far the most resilient of the organization as they rushed their opponents once more, taking them by surprise.

Instead of the pit fighter, Keitaro suddenly found himself being rushed by Michael Blade, and barely prevented the giant cleaver from splitting his skull in two. Angling his sword, the landlord slashed towards the Chairman's face, who could only react by turning away and receiving a cut across his cheek.

Meanwhile, Seta frowned as he began to realize his punches and kicks were doing little, if nothing to Fang. The pit fighter growled as her attacks became faster and struck harder, and soon forced the Toudai professor back onto the defense.

His face bloodied, the Chairman snarled as he eyed Keitaro for a long moment before chuckling to himself, bringing a confused expression on the landlord's face.

"This is quite pointless, don't you agree?" Blade smiled, the cut on his cheek healing unnaturally fast. "We're all in this together in the end, why fight amongst ourselves when we're after the same thing...?"

"I'm don't associate with murderers like you!" Keitaro replied angrily. "We are nothing alike!"

The Chairman opened his mouth to comment, but then narrowed his eyes with a grin. "Of course..." Blade chuckled, as if he suddenly realized something. "...Your old man never had the chance to explain why he was working for us to begin with, did he...?"

"You lie!" Keitaro seethed. "Dad would've never worked for people like you..."

MOVE!

Though Keitaro never really wielded the Hina blade often, he recognized the voices within enough to follow their instructions to the letter. Giving his entire body to the sword's lesson, the landlord twisted to the side just as Fang's fist shot past where his head was milliseconds ago. Cutting as he spun, the Hina blade trailed a splatter of blood from the pit fighter's stomach as he searched his surroundings. Distracted by the sight of Seta recovering from the beating received from Fang, Keitaro found his head painfully sandwiched between Fang's fist and a flying knee from Blade, forcing him onto his knees.

Stomping down hard on Keitaro's sword arm, Fang smiled cruelly at the sound of crunching bone and the landlord's scream of pain before lifting him to his feet. As the pit fighter restrained the landlord in a full nelson, Blade smiled calmly and shouldered his cleaver, then tapped against Keitaro's broken arm, smiling even wider at the young man's pained expression.

"Join the cause, Keitaro." Blade smiled. "Your father would've wanted you to." Seeing the landlord remain motionless, the Chairman sighed and swung his cleaver. In a blur, Keitaro slammed the back of his head into Fang's face, before throwing the stunned pit fighter over his shoulder with his left arm. Both sides froze as the cleaver connected, sinking deeply into Fang's back as she landed motionless inbetween the two.

Freed from the imprisoning spell, Motoko roared and leapt, determined to cut down the Chairman as he cradled the pit fighter in his arms. As her sword descended towards the grieving Blade, a silver blur suddenly deflected her blow, and the swordswoman suddenly found herself staring into a pair of blazing emerald green eyes...

"Tend to your wounded, Aoyoma." Tsunari growled, a sword in each hand as he stared down Motoko. Still recovering from the spell, the swordswoman grudgingly backed away with Keitaro in tow as the spirit stood guard. Seconds later Michael Blade stood, eyeing the residents with a hateful glare as he carried Fang's body in his arms, before disappearing into a portal with Tsunari behind him. As the Syndicate members disappeared, Naru and Kitsune shook free from the fear rooting them to the spot, and rushed to help the injured...

"I'm so sorry..."

"Stop apologizing, and hold still!" Motoko glared at Keitaro, causing the landlord to clamp his mouth in fear as the swordswoman continued to set a brace to his broken arm. Meanwhile, Kitsune and Naru were busy bandaging Seta and Haruka.

"Well, I've heard about what happened to Keitaro that drew the attention of this group..." Haruka commented as she blew a cloud of smoke from her cigarette. "But what I want to know is how did you get to know their leader, Seta...?" By now all the residents had turned their attention to the Toudai professor, who shrugged with a sigh.

"It was about five years ago, I would say..." Seta began, rubbing his bandaged forehead. "My expedition were in Southern Kyoto studying some ancient temples when we came across a shrine that wasn't on any of the maps we had." Accepting a cigarette from Haruka, he lit up and took a drag before continuing. "Imagine to our dismay that the only entrance to the shrine was sealed up with all manners of inscriptions and wards against evil..."

"And that actually stopped you, Seta?" Keitaro chuckled, knowing full well that his mentor rarely let something stop him in pursuit of his profession.

"No, but since the rest of my expedition were superstitious..." The professor shrugged and took another drag from his cigarette. "...I agreed to settle for taking pictures of the shrine, as well as mapping it for future reference. By then it was dark, so we made camp around the site and planned to leave in the morning..." Seeing that everyone was hanging onto his every word, he continued. "It was dark when I heard screaming, and I ran out to find the campsite had been torn apart, and that's when I saw him..."

Taking his glasses off to wipe away a few tears, Haruka put a comforting hand on his as he continued. "The murderer had killed everyone else, and I tried to stop him..." Seta then sighed. "...He had beaten me within an inch of my life, then left me for the dead." Finishing his smoke, he sighed again. "When I woke up in the hospital three days later, the university told me that an animal attacked us and crushed the shrine, there was nothing of value left at the shrine when the police investigated afterwards..."

A long moment of silence lingered in the Hinata-Sou, before Seta announced that he needed to get back to the university. Despite everyone's concern, the professor insited that he was fine and made his way to the half wrecked van. As he entered, Motoko ran up with a concerned look on her face.

"Seta, if I may ask..." Motoko began.

"I'm quite alright, there's no need to worry for me." Seta smiled at the swordswoman as he started the vehicle.

"It's not that... It's just..." Motoko hesitated. "When you saw the shrine, was there any particular markings or something that caught your eye...?"

"Now that you mention it, there was a large and dark kanji for 'water' on the doors itself, why?" The professor blinked at the swordswoman, whose face paled at his reply before rushing back inside the inn. Shrugging, Seta chugged away in his van, which swerved all over the road as it disappeared into the horizon...

"Well?"

Marik glanced over his shoulder as Michael Blade paced behind him. Before the two was a cryogenic chamber with Fang's body inside. "The damage was quite extensive, it will take quite some time to heal her back to normal." The Chairman glared at the technician, but he did not back down. "I'll be honest with you, her accelerated metabolism and loss of blood are astronomical, normal humans would've died ten times over by now. You're both lucky Tsunari disobeyed your wishes and bailed you out, or even she wouldn't have made it..."

Sighing, the Chairman patted Marik's shoulder in appreciation. "Do what you can for her, my friend..." His eyes then took on a hateful blaze. "But first, begin the sleeper program. I want the Urashima bastard to suffer the same pains as I am now!"

"By your will, Chairman." Marik nodded.

A crash caused everyone around to jump in surprise, as Tsuruko had dropped her teacup in shock. Quickly recomposing herself, she quickly retreated into her private studies with a cordless phone. When she was sure that no one was eavesdropping in on her, she whispered into the phone. "Are you certain on this...?"

"Seta's descriptions seem to match the history books, and it made more sense as I had faced each of them in battle..." Motoko replied, kneeling on the floor and speaking on the phone at Hinata-sou.

"The elemental terrors..." Tsuruko bit her lip. "If what you say is true, Keitaro may be out of his league against them, as may you..."

"Do not belittle me, sister." Motoko replied coldly. "If I cannot defeat them, then I will die honorably in defense against these demons. So if you will not help me, then stand aside and do not judge me."

"You misunderstand, little sister." Tsuruko sighed. "There are ways of sealing them again, but we must find the texts which are probably buried in the family library... In the meantime you are to avoid confronting them at all costs, it's for your own safety as well as everyone else at the inn."

"Very well, sister..." Motoko nodded. "I appreciate the help." Hanging the receiver back up, the swordswoman sighed and closed her eyes.

"Kami, help us..." Motoko whispered.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Hakon raised an eyebrow in doubt. "That's the sleeper agent?"

"Remember, the sleeper program is designed to strike at our foes from a source they didn't anticipate." Tsunari commented. "Know your enemy, and strike at their vulnerbilities."

"Very true, Tsunari." Marik nodded, the cables from his body dancing across the various interfaces of the control panels around him. "With this, we will cripple our foes before going in for the kill ourselves..."

"Just make sure it does it's job." Hakon grumbled as he eyed the cryogenic chamber. "We don't need another example like the Giovannit sisters..."

"All will be taken care of in due time, brother." Marik smiled over his shoulder, before turning back to the computer screen...

Subject 01476559

Name: Otohime, Mutsumi

Combat training download complete

Mission parameter downlad complete

Activate subject? Y/N

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Sorry for the extra long hiatus, I didn't forget about the fic. I just have a lot to deal with in terms of life and work in particular. My progress may be slowed, but rest assured more are on its way!