Disclaimer: I don't own Love Hina or many of the characters in this story. Only a couple of the characters in this story are mine.

"…" – Character talking

'…' – Character thinking

Chapter Four: Fate's Intervention Begins


Nightfall – Tokyo U.

The gentle rays of sunshine that had graced the city of Tokyo earlier that day had long since been replaced by dark clouds and a driving rain. Tokyo University now looked like a deserted ghost town after the events from earlier. Well, almost. In the courtyard outside of the main campus building, two ominous figures are seen conversing with each other. "The seeds of darkness have been planted my brother." "Indeed, that foolish mortal won't last after putting his soul through that." The two demons can't help but laugh at their handiwork on Keitaro. They took it upon themselves to magnify every dark feeling in his heart for the purpose of damning Keitaro's soul. "Master will be pleased. Come, let's go finish what we started." The demons start for their destination, but never get there as they are halted by the appearance of stranger in black attire.

"You'll go no further! Now give up and leave that soul alone or pay the price!" the stranger shouted at the two demons.

"Get a load of this guy, brother. What do think he's trying to dress up as?"

"I recognize these getups. He's one of those Dark Angel losers. Come; let's rough him up a bit."

The demons advance only a couple of steps before they see a glowing symbol form over the heart of the young stranger. "No way! That's the symbol of that cursed Inner Light technique. One of sorry losers is a demon killer." Both of them continue to stand in fear as the young warrior lets out a high pitch scream and unleashes some of the Super Saiyan powers that he had held back for months.

"Last chance, either both of you leave now or else I'll crush you worse than that ultimate demon that your master thought would overpower Earth." Both demons now feel overwhelmed by terror as they realize exactly what they're up against.

"We'll never let you undo our work!" one of the demons shouts. Derrick, with golden waves of energy and electricity surrounding his body, readies himself for the impending onslaught. Both demons charge furiously at the young Saiyan and each swing a fist with all their might. Only for Derrick to vanish at the last moment. Seconds later, he reappears, sending one demon flying with a vicious punch and dropping the other one to the ground with a bone crushing roundhouse kick. He then reaches down to grab the demon by the throat and hold him in the air. Suddenly, a trail of white ki energy travels from the glowing symbol on Derrick's chest and travels up his arm. "No! Please, have mercy on me demon slayer!"

Too late. "Inner Light Attack!" A giant ball of ki energy, whiter than any snowfall imaginable, engulfs the two combatants. The other demon, trying to regain his bearings after Derrick's attack, looks on in disbelief. After a few seconds, the energy sphere vanishes, revealing the Dark Angel as the lone combatant standing.

"Y-you destroyed my brother! Now you'll feel my wrath!" The second demon charges full speed at the young Super Saiyan. Derrick looks over just in time to see the demon's fist send him flying into a nearby tree. The enraged creature charges again with another attack, only to have it blocked at the last second.

"Well, I felt your wrath, spawn of Satan. Now feel mine!" Derrick unleashes a barrage of punches and kicks onto the unprepared demon. The demon doesn't fly very far, however, as Derrick grabs hold of one leg. Then, with one fluid movement, the young Saiyan spins around and throws the demon into the sky. As he travels through the sky with unbelievable velocity, the demon is able to look back at his opponent, only to see that the Super Saiyan is preparing to launch a final attack.

"Inner Light – Final Flash Combo!" Massive waves of blue and white ki energy travels from the young warrior's hands and engulfs the defenseless demon before completing its path through the Earth's atmosphere. Seeing that the last of his opponents is no more, the young Saiyan powers back down and releases a heavy sigh.

"Enjoy your little sparring session with those two?" Derrick looks over at the nearby tree he nearly knocked over to see Gabriel holding his black hat.

"Not really. It figures that a demon or two would get involved and corrupt his soul. Some of them did the same bullshit with me, remember?" Gabriel nodded in response to this remark. "Unfortunately, those demons have planted a seed of darkness to weaken the Urashima boy's soul even more. The bad part is you can't remove that seed until it is strong enough to break him. This will definitely complicate matters."

"It's going to take more than that to stop me from helping Keitaro. Where is he now?"

"He's at a park a few miles away from here. He's done nothing but wander around the city after he left here. By the way, here's this ticket that you asked for to use in your plan."

"Thanks." Derrick snatches the ticket and his hat from the archangel's hands and takes off the find Keitaro.


1 Hour Later

Keitaro has spent the last hour or so just sitting on a bench in the park, oblivious to everything. He hadn't noticed the cold wind or the pouring rain that had been going on for some time now. All he could think about was the cold and fearful sensations that gripped his heart, the dark seeds taking root even further. 'I can't go back. I let down Naru and Mutsumi. The others probably wouldn't give a damn.' He then took a break from his thoughts and noticed for the first time his dreary surroundings. 'How convenient. What do I do now? Mom and Dad won't let me go back home. The girls at Hinata won't bear with me too much longer. Everyone I know thinks I'm a disappointment. I just wish I was dead.'

His train of thought was again broken by something else this time: The sound of footsteps on the sidewalk. Keitaro looks up to notice the dark clad figure approaching. As the figure draws closer, he just looks in awe at the person approaching. The person looked to be about six feet tall, yet didn't appear to be much older than 15. The boy's hair (or the bit that wasn't soaked by the storm) appeared to be red when illuminated by the lights along the sidewalk. Keitaro was somewhat frightened by the black clothes, the black hat, and leather trench coat the youngster wore, but at the same time was relief to see the silver and ruby cross hanging around his neck. Keitaro was so caught up in the appearance of this person that he almost didn't notice him stopping in front of him. "You know, this isn't really the best place to be doing some soul searching right now?"

Keitaro was caught off guard by the question. "How did you know…?"

A faint grin appears across the face of the Dark Angel. "Your demeanor clearly shows that something's on you mind, my friend. Mind if I take a seat?"

"Go ahead," Keitaro mumbles as the dark stranger takes a seat on the bench next to him. "Anyway, my name's Keitaro. What's yours?"

"The name's Derrick," the young Saiyan said with a little hesitation. "That's an American name, isn't it?" Keitaro asked, with Derrick giving a nod of agreement. "How old are you, Derrick?"

"Fourteen. And you, Keitaro?"

"I'm 21. I've got one more question. What's a 14 year old American doing wandering around Tokyo?"

Derrick's response basically stunned the hapless ronin. "What's a 21 year old Japanese man doing sulking on a park bench in a thunderstorm?"

"Thinking," Keitaro snapped.

"Thinking about what?" Derrick was obviously trying to pry answers out.

Keitaro snapped his head to the side to look at the young stranger. He had gone almost two years thinking that there was nobody he could share his problems with. Now, this American teenager comes out of nowhere and wants to hear his troubles. "Why do you care about what's wrong with me?"

Derrick then turns his head slightly to glance over at Keitaro. "I believe that a person always needs a friendly ear who will listen to his or her problems. Judging from the way you're acting, that's something that you don't have right now. So, just tell me about anything that's troubling your mind and soul." At this request, Keitaro begins to pour out his soul to the young stranger: his past, the exam from earlier, and the internal conflicts plaguing him. After several minutes, both of them get up off the park bench and begin to head their separate ways.

"Hey Derrick. Thanks for listening."

"No problem." However, both of them only take a couple of steps when a girl's voice suddenly pierces the relative calm.

"KEITARO!"

"Oh no, it the girls! I can't face any of them. Not yet, anyway." As Keitaro begins to panic, Derrick immediately reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out a ticket.

"Here Keitaro, take this. It's a ticket for a ferry that's leaving from Hiromi Harbor tonight. I know you still need some time to think things through, so maybe this trip will help you out."

"Thanks Derrick. I owe you one!" Keitaro exclaims, grabbing the ticket and stuffing it in his book bag before turning and running off into the night.

As Keitaro vanishes from sight, the archangel Gabriel appears right beside Derrick. "Well, everything seems to have started off on the right foot." Derrick half mumbles. "Gabriel, are you sure he's going to end up where I want him to?"

"Yes, we've already got that part worked out. But how are you going to follow him around on that island without him recognizing you."

Derrick looks over at Gabriel with a sheepish look on his face. "I've been meaning to talk to you about that. You think that you could go to my home and get a few things for me since I'm not allowed there?"

"Well, I suppose there's no harm in …" Gabriel suddenly stops in mid-sentence and looks behind him as he hears some commotion from another part of the park. "I think that Keitaro's tenants are searching for him, so I'll leave you to deal with that hornet's nest." Gabriel suddenly vanishes from site, leaving Derrick standing by himself.

'Should've guessed that he would take off when the going gets tough.' The young Saiyan's thoughts are interrupted by the group of girls running up behind him.

"Hey you!"


After Naru and Mutsumi told everyone that Keitaro had ran away, the girls split up and searched everywhere they thought that he would be. After several hours and no luck, the girls were forced to return to Hinata Sou as the rain and thunderstorms began. Upon returning to the dorms, they felt very hopeless. "Where could he be at? That baka, he shouldn't be allowed to go anywhere by himself!" Naru hoped her harsh words would hide her concern from everyone else.

"Auuu, I hope that Sempai is alright!"

Motoko walked over and placed a hand on Shinobu's shoulders to comfort the young girl. "Don't worry Shinobu, we'll find Urashima. Then I'll make that sorry excuse for a male pay for doing this."

"Anybody have some ideas?" Kitsune was unusually sober and worried sick about Keitaro's well-being.

"Hey Su, didn't create a tracking device to find that idiot?" Su was suddenly jolted to life by Sarah's question and quickly ran up the stairs, only to return a minute later with a device that looked like a Gameboy with a mini satellite dish.

"Everyone, say hello to the Keitaro-Tracker 5000!" Everyone swarmed around Su in less than a second.

"Ara, how are we going to find Kei-kun with a video game?" Mutsumi asked.

"It's not a video game, turtle lady. This baby has a range of 100 miles and can create a map of the area that our target is in." As the device powers up and begins creating a map, Naru suddenly notices the layout of the area on the screen. "I know where that is! It's a park not too far from Tokyo University! Let's go!"

After the girls grab their rain gear and leave Hinata, they reach the park in mere minutes. As they pause to catch their breath, Naru just couldn't hold it in anymore. "KEITARO!" After a moment, Su looks back at her tracking device. "Uh-oh. I think you scared him because he just took off running and he's moving fast!" As the girls enter the park, they continue to follow Su's directions in a desperate bid to catch the runaway ronin. After traveling a good distance into the park, they notice two thinks: somethingwas distorting the signal of the tracking device (after they heard some very figurative language from the resident inventor and seeing her smack the device several times) and the dark looking stranger right in front of them. The girls come to a screeching halt on the sidewalk as Naru decides to be the bold one.

"Hey you!"

The person looks over his shoulder in response to her question. "May I help you girls?"

"Yeah, where was the guy who was here earlier heading to?" Shinobu could barely hold back her tears as the question left her mouth.

"Sorry, there hasn't been anyone here in the last hour except for me," Derrick said as he turned around to face the group of girls.

"You're lying. We've used a tracking device to follow him here. We know he took off somewhere and you know where to. Now tell us, you vile male!" Anger dripped off of every word as Motoko walked up to the stranger and stood face to face with him, sword in hand. Derrick looked at Motoko, then glanced at the rest of the girls before returning his attention to the swordswoman.

"I can't tell you that."

"You can and you will, you sorry bastard!" Motoko shrieked as she slapped him in the face.

Bad idea. Derrick looked at the ground as he slowly brought his head back around in Motoko's direction. He then begins to lift his head. As the bill of the Dark Angel's hat slowly moves upward, Motoko's look of anger slowly turns to one of fear as she sees the facial expression hidden by the hat and a few strands of long red hair. His face is contorted into an expression of pure rage and only the whites of his eyes were visible, as his pupils are rolled into the back of his head. Motoko takes several steps back, away from the frightful sight before her.

Then the paranormal happenings began.

Fog begins to form around Derrick's feet and spread outward. Then the winds began to howl furiously and the rain came down at an even faster rate. Su let out a small scream as a sudden electrical surge caused her tracking device to blow up. Everyone looks on in fear as Derrick slow begins to raise his arms up slowly along his side. He then throws them upward, opening his hands above his head. As soon as his hands open, seven lightning bolts strike in a circle around the group of people. 'Hopefully, this little demonstration of power will stop them,' he thought to himself as he dropped his arms and returned his facial expression to normal. He was soon proven otherwise as Motoko drew her sword and took a battle stance. "Since you want a fight, let's lay down some ground rules. If you win, I'll tell you where Keitaro is. But if I win, all of you go home and just let fate take its course. Agreed?"

"Fine. Prepare to lose." the Aoyama swordswoman said as she tightened the grip on her weapon.

"Right now!" Naru interrupted the two warriors as she charged forward and drew her fist back to execute one of her patented Naru Punches.Everyone stood in amazement as Naru's fist connected with Derrick's face. He didn't move back one inch and his head remained in the same position as before. There was a loud snapping sound; however, it was soon revealed what snapped when Naru let out a scream and grasped herinjured right hand. "He broke my damn hand!"

"How dare you hurt Naru-Sempai!" Motoko charged forward and took a horizontal wipe at the dark warrior. Derrick only grinned as he blocked it with his hand and took Motoko down with a leg sweep. The young swordswoman, shot back up and proceeded to attack with a barrage of sword strikes, all of them failing to hit their target. They young Saiyan then delivered a quick elbow to Motoko's midsection and delivered another leg sweep. He then looked up to notice the injured Naru charge at him again. Unwilling to hurt her anymore, Derrick immediately removed his leather trench coat and, with a quick twisting motion, wrapped it around her head as he avoided Naru Punch. This worked in that it stopped Naru in her tracks; however, this gave Motoko enough time to charge up an attack.

"Rock Splitting Sword!" Derrick is caught off guard by this attack and is only able to drop his shoulder and brace for the impact. The ki blast from Motoko's blade sends him rocketing into the trunk of a tree about 50 feet away. The swordswoman grins in satisfaction, only to see her opponent stand back up without a scratch. The only damage done was that the attack destroyed a part of his shirt, revealing some markings on his upper arm and chest. Motoko is overwhelmed by a flood of thoughts as she recognizes the markings. 'I've seen those designs on drawings back at the dojo. But that means…no, he can't be a heavenly spirit! It's impossible!' Motoko tries to clear her head as she charges forward to deliver a death strike to her mysterious opponent. That blow never connects, however, as Derrick sidesteps the attack and throws his right arm over hers. He then maneuvers his hand and foreman underneath her arm and pulls back toward his body, pinning Motoko's right arm between his arm and side and causing her to drop her sword. He then takes his left arm and applies a half nelson on the other side of his opponent. The girls, at this point, stand in disbelief as Motoko is unable to break away from Derrick's superhuman grip.

'Looks like I'm going to win. I've got to hand it to you though, Motoko. The stories I've heard about the Aoyama clan are true because you lasted a lot longer than any normal human would have.' Derrick's thought echoed through Motoko's head with absolute clarity.

'How are you…'

'I'm using telepathy to communicate with you through thoughts. Now, to answer the questions you have. Yes, I know all about you, Keitaro, and the rest of your friends over there. Second, I do know where he is headed, but its best that none of you bother him at this time. Third, I know all of this because I'm a spirit from heaven, a Dark Angel, appointed to watch over Keitaro. I've spent the last couple of months watching over him and trying to eradicate a dark presence in his soul."

'Dark Angel? I've heard legends about those back at the dojo – souls who had to do good deeds to cleanse their souls before entering Heaven. Wait a minute! Keitaro containing a dark presence? What do you mean?'

'For the past several months, Keitaro has been fighting an internal battle fueled by his good and dark thoughts. It is a test designed by God himself to strengthen his soul. Almost every human has to deal with the test, but in Keitaro's case, demons have corrupted his soul's will to persist and succeed. I've been charged to help him eradicate the seeds of darkness from his heart so that his life will return to its destined path. Now, I won't let anything happen to him because the stakes are too great for either of us. Secondly, I want you to swear that you won't tell the others yet. They will find out about this in there own way. After that, you can tell them what I told you.'

'Okay. I swear I won't tell the others until it's time.'

'Good. Unfortunately, I need to make my victory look legit, so I'm going to stun you and knock you out for a while. I truly apologize for this.'

After letting Motoko know this, Derrick releases her and delivers a swift knife edge chop to the back of her head. He then catches the unconscious girl and sits her up against a tree while the rest of the girls run over in concern. As Naru approaches, Derrick grabs her by the arm and stops her. Naru has a fearful look on her face as he clasps his hands around her broken hand. She tries to pull away from his grasp as a white aura of energy radiates from his palms. She stops struggling as the pain suddenly subsides in her hand and her bones heal to their normal state. Naru can only muster a dumbfounded look as Derrick releases his grasp and grabs his coat out of her other hand. He then pulls the coat back over his body and begins to walk away from her and the others. Naru watches for a few seconds as the dark clad stranger disappears into the night before she turns around and turns her attention to the fallen Motoko.


Seven Days Later – Pararakelse Island

In the room of a mission church on Pararakelse Island, Derrick was busy cutting some of his hair off. After he looks in the mirror with a look of satisfaction on his face, Derrick turns away to notice that Gabriel has appeared in the room, holding a duffle bag and a couple of items covered by a sheet. "I must say Derrick, that is an interesting style you've got going." The Dark Angel couldn't disagree with his supervisor on that one. His hair had been shortened to where it hung about shoulder length and had tied it up in the back, leaving the rest to hang down in the front. All of this was done in hope that Keitaro wouldn't recognize him when they meet again. "Do you really think that will be enough to hide your identity?"

"No, but this will." Derrick stated as he powered up to Super Saiyan and stopped the flow of golden aura leaving his body, leaving the blonde hair as his only sign of transformation.

"Can your power hold out long enough for you to keep the blonde hair color going?"

"Of course it will since I'm in a resting state of the transformation. Did you get the things that I asked for Gabriel?"

Gabriel responded by tossing the young Saiyan the bag full of clothes. "I also brought you a few personal items as well." Gabriel said as he removed the sheet from the bundle he had earlier to reveal a large sword in its sheath and a guitar case. Derrick's eyes widened as he looked at these two items.

"How did you get these? They were taken to Capsule Corp. after my fight by Master Vegeta after my fi…" Derrick stops himself as thoughts about that day surface in his head.

"I went over there and met with Vegeta himself. I told him about your current plight and he gave me these items. He figured that the sword would come in handy if you had to face any more demons and that you might like to write a few songs during your down time." Derrick couldn't help but smile from ear to ear during this whole time. Both of the items were gifts from Vegeta and his family. The sword, which Vegeta had custom made with a gold and gem-encrusted handle and a blade sharp enough to cut through a battleship, was given to him sometime before his fateful battle with the ultimate demon. The guitar, a Christmas present from Vegeta's son Trunks, helped provide for some musical forms of coping with his grandfather's death and the betrayal from his friends. Derrick's wandering thoughts were interrupted when he remembered the current task at hand.

"Gabriel, shouldn't Keitaro be arriving on this island in the near future?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I need to find that that archeologist guy and put in for some part-time work so I can keep track of our friend when he gets here." Derrick stated as he slung the strap of the sword sheath over his shoulder and exited the room.


Eleven Days after the Tokyo U. Exam – Pararakelse Island

As the last radiant waves of light vanished into the sunset, Keitaro sat on the coast of a strange island while his mind was drowning in a sea of thoughts.

After a week aboard the ferry, he found out that the ship was heading to warmer climates instead of the bitter cold frontier that he desired to disappear in. As he began to freak out, thoughts about his getaway with Mutsumi and Naru a year ago entered his head. Keitaro began to lose it and in an act of desperation to erase his thoughts, threw his exam admission ticket and a page out of his sticker photo album (with his pictures of Naru) into the ocean. At the last second, he decided not to part with them and followed them into the water.

After some time, and some weird visions that involved Naru and Mutsumi getting married, he awoke on this island. After four days of trying to stay alive, he noticed a gleaming object on the shore. He rushed to it to find that his photo album and admission ticket had floated ashore. As hard as he tried, he couldn't bring himself to throw them away again and instead set hung them up near his campfire to dry. As Keitaro returned to the fire to take them down, he noticed some writing on the back of the admission ticket. He then began to look at it and noticed the good luck messages that everyone back at Hinata wrote onto his exam ticket. The last one that he read was the message from Naru, which caused the young man to fall to all fours as he fought back the tears.

"It's no use! I can't forget any of them! Narusegawa … I really do … love you." Keitaro was brought out of his daze as a white van barreled out of the jungle and nearly crashed into him. The door swung open as the driver stumbled out of the wreckage.

"Wow, it's really useless to drive in the jungle at night." The driver looked away from his van to notice the shocked young man staring at him.

"S-SETA – SAN!" Keitaro blurted out as he ran and hugged onto his friend and part-time boss. "Well, if is isn't Keitaro. What in the world are you doing here?"

Back at the campsite, Keitaro gorged on the food that Seta had prepared and amazed the young Tokyo U. professor/archeologist with his tale of survival. "Wow, surviving for 4 days by yourself here is unbelievable. But what about Tokyo U.? Isn't it the exam season?" Seta's question had Keitaro staring at the ground and nervously searching for answers. Seta picked up on this and walked over to the poor ronin, holding a shovel in hand. "Here you go, Urashima?" he said as he handed the shovel to Keitaro.

"Eh?"

"Since you won't be returning to Hinata Sou for a while, why don't you stay here and be my assistant? My whole reason for being on this island is to do some research, but due to funding problems, I don't have enough manpower. It'd be nice to have someone with some experience helping out, so how about it?"

"Sure!" was the only thing Keitaro could say.

"Since that's you're final decision, why don't you contact Hinata Sou!" Seta exclaimed.

"Uh, I-I don't think I can just yet." Keitaro's excuse was cut off by a voice from the jungle.

"Hey Seta! I thought that we warned you about going on road trips by yourself?" Both Keitaro and Seta looked to see a teenage boy run out of the jungle. The young boy looked to be fairly built for his age and sported a baggy pair of faded blue jeans and a tight fitting white t-shirt. The boy had a rather large sword on his back and had blonde hair with bangs over his forehead and the rest (which had considerable length) pulled back into a ponytail. There was something that stuck out about the boy in Keitaro's mind, something that seemed quite familiar: a silver chain around his neck that had a silver and ruby cross pendant on it.

"Funny. Oh by the way, this is Keitaro, a part-time employee of mine from Japan who will be helping us for a while. Keitaro, this is Derrick. He's a teenager working at the local mission church. He's been volunteering to help me the last few days." the two people shook hands as Seta finished his introduction.

'Funny, it almost seems as if I've met this kid before,' Keitaro thought to himself.