Chapter 10

Awakening Spirits

Disclaimer: I don't own this series or any other series. I am just floating an idea. I am making no money, nor plan to, off this venture. If you think of suing me over this, then grow up.

I would like to first personally thank all of those reviewing my stories. I enjoy reading your comments, and try to correct the grammatical errors I miss with my final read-through as well as my spell checkers. The suggestions you all make will help make this story better for everyone to enjoy, as well as allow my to fix some plot holes I may unintentionally leave. If you find any, let me know, and I will correct them and repost the chapters.

I find that if I let thinks sit for a while in my head; I can play them out farther. Plus by trying and keeping my chapters between 2500 and 3000 words, it helps keep me from making the story slide out of control, turning a diamond to a pile of shit.

Please feel free to review, and make comments. If you find a spelling or wordage mistake, feel free to let me know. Thank you.

Also, please check out my other stories. I try to keep a constant level of dedication to all of them.

Words done in bold like this are the spoken words of the Hina sword.

Words like this are for the sword's inner monologue.

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With more than an hour before school started, Motoko made her way to the Kendo Club Training Room, setting up a dozen candles and taking her usual meditative stance, sitting in the lotus position, with the Hina Sword lying across her lap. The sword had informed her that while it had at first been painful for Keitaro to have a direct mind link to the sword so that the knowledge could be passed, it would be easier for her since her training would have better prepared her mind for it.

That wasn't to say it didn't hurt just the same.

But the link was established, and now Motoko was watching past images of the masters the sword had come in contact with.

As she watched the images of the now long since dead warriors show their skill, she turned quickly after feeling a hand rest on her shoulder, to see Keitaro behind her. "Keitaro, what are you doing here!?"

The image of Keitaro shook his head. "I am not your husband; I am the Hina Sword, given appearance to look as my master does. It is to help talk to those who would use me. I am here in this form to guide you and help you with your choices. Do not worry about time. We are now in dreamscape, where time is but an illusion. Years could pass here and it would be only but a few minutes in the real world."

Motoko backed away from Hina, turning once again to watch the warriors again, stunned to see the few she had witnessed earlier had grown into hundreds, each running through a kata that showed the perfection they had in their art. She was amazed at how the masters showed their skills with bare hands, swords, Bo staffs, archery, and other assorted weapons she knew of spanning from Europe to Asia and back again. It was then a certain warrior caught her attention. "That is my sister!? How!?"

Hina walked beside her. "Have you forgotten that Naru absorbed her life force? Her memories and techniques reside within me. It will be about a hundred years before the emotional power of those memories fade, but her skills are available to me none-the-less. My master has expressed interest in these skills, but has declined not to learn them at this time, preferring to learn the skills of my first master first, followed by the skills of the schools that eventually led to the God's Cry Style. He believes this will best prepare him should your sister arrive in a few days and ask him for a challenge for your return to the school."

Motoko lowered her head, tears beginning to form. Hina placed his arms around her, pulling her into a hug. "It is not meant to make you feel that he does not care for you; he does, and a great deal I might add. But my master knows how much your school means to you, and wishes for your happiness. He is willing to risk almost anything to see that happiness returned to you."

Motoko backed away. "What do you mean almost?"

Hina scratched the back of his head, a trademark move from his current master. "Let me just say that from what I have learned about how Tsuruko's mind works, some of the possible prices for failing a third time against her have us concerned, unless of course you wish to be pregnant before the end of the year?"

The full facial blush that now encompassed Motoko's face provided his answer. "I shall take that as a no. Do not worry, my master wishes to be skilled enough to face her when she arrives in two days to regain your place in the school."

Motoko went rigid. "Two days? TWO DAYS!? He is going to face my sister again in two days?" The fear now growing in Motoko was making its presence felt in the dreamscape, surrounding her with a dark aura. There is no way Keitaro can beat my sister, even with the training of the Hina Blade. He'll lose, then I'll have to do…that…with him to be…pregnant…by the end of the year. My life is over! I'll be the laughing stock of…

Her thoughts were cut off by a slap from Hina. "Calm yourself, can you not see what your fears are doing to this place!?"

Motoko looked around, the spirits had backed away from her, stopping their katas; a large dark circle had formed around her, forming a dome that had been expanding, leaving only her and Hina in the center. As she began to calm herself, she saw the circle shrink, until it disappeared and the spirits once again returned to their katas. "Sorry about that. What happened?"

"The dreamscape is a reflection of the user, in this case, the two of us. However, your emotions will affect it as well. When your fears of my master challenging your sister appeared, it took the appearance in this world as the dark sphere you saw. Just as in the real world, you must maintain emotional control in this one. Just because this is almost a dream does not mean the consequences won't be real. Do you understand?"

"I believe so. So what do I do now sensei?"

Hina smiled, proud at the fact that Motoko was growing. "First you must choose which warrior you wish to learn from first. Then I will give you the knowledge of their moves, which you may practice here in the dreamscape. Do not worry about your ki being decreased, here you have a near infinite supply, since it requires only a fraction of what the move needs in the real world. With any luck, we will finish with three warriors before it is time for you to leave the dreamscape for class."

Motoko was joyous she would learn new moves, but if it was this easy… "Why did Keitaro only learn of one warrior yesterday?"

Hina shook his head. "Keitaro does not have the training to enter the dreamscape like you do. I will endeavor to teach it to him tonight, but until he is able to do so, he must practice his knowledge in the real world."

"I understand."

"So then Motoko, which of these warriors do you wish to gain knowledge from first?"

She smiled. "That is easy Hina. I choose my sister."

Motoko would learn her own style first, before trying to handle others. She may be banished from the school for the moment, but if she was going to be fighting with Keitaro to get back in, she would need to know what her sister was capable of and how to defeat her sister.

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Keitaro was finishing his chores in record time, a result he was attributing to his skills and training yesterday. Of course it helps that I finished all of this with Naru and Mitsune passed out. They can't really get me into trouble if they haven't woken up yet. Though I do wonder where Kanako got off to. It isn't like her to disappear like that, not even a note. If it wasn't for the fact her clothes are still here, I'd be a little bit worried.

He made his way to his bath; a small tub on the second floor balcony. He didn't mind it much, understanding how the girls would be upset with him and the possibility that he might have to share the hot springs with them; though when they all left for the occasional day, he did enjoy them (after posting several signs all over the dormitory about him being in there, making certain they wouldn't be able to blame him and call him a pervert). But there was something to be said about having a bath all to yourself.

Though for the life of him, he never did figure out why they never gave him the money to board up the side of the balcony facing the hot springs.

Maybe they did enjoy the possibility of him watching.

Keitaro just stopped midway through the door to his washtub, shaking his head and laughing. "Yeah right. All this time and all these attacks, and they're the ones who are the real perverts.

Of course, he would have to ask them about that during the next dorm meeting.

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Keitaro slowly lowered himself into the tub, feeling the soreness from his quickly completed chores, as well as the training from yesterday, take on the warm water and begin to relax.

So much has happened in the last few days, it is rather amazing. I mean, I never expected to be married, let alone training to become a warrior to defeat the sister of my wife.

Things seemed so much simpler back then.

Everyday, I would wake up, say a small prayer I didn't do anything clumsy or embarrassing, try to be nice to everyone, try to make Naru see how much I cared for her, tried to make them all see how innocent I really was, avoid the obligatory mecha-tama sent by Su, and go to bed. Mix into that my usual daily chores as well as studying for Toudai and you have a complete day.

Now, I am married, sleeping in the same bed with one of the women who constantly attacked me, have Kaolla joining us so she can sleep peacefully, I am training to defeat a master of the God's Cry Style with hardly any previous experience to win back my wife's freedom to both practice that school, but also be free of me.

But does she want to be free of me?

Motoko has grown so much this last two weeks. She is accepting the fact that she is both a woman and a warrior, though her second defeat at the hands of her sister had certainly damaged her pride more than anything I figured.

But she took the Hina Sword to school today, and tomorrow she gets hers back, as good as new.

I hope this is a sign that tomorrow; she will be ready to be a warrior again.

Naru.

What can I say about her? She seems to be opening up, growing. She hasn't struck me once since we returned, not that I've done anything to deserve to be struck for.

Though with my luck, I would have figured that being in the hot springs with my sister would have drawn her and her infamous Naru Punch to me.

But I really don't know how she is feeling. She hasn't come to talk to me, and I can only hope that her talk last night with Kitsune has helped her in some way to open up, maybe tell me if she can truly move on.

I would hate for her to see this battle as a way to get me back. I'm not certain anymore that even if Motoko releases me, I can ever go back to the way I was, to the Keitaro she seemed to care for, to love.

Would Motoko release me? If we defeat her sister, would she want a divorce?

If she doesn't and Naru sees the duel as a chance to get me back, what then?

Keitaro lowered himself farther into the tub, trying to force the dark thoughts away. He didn't want to have to imagine that scenario, of Naru once again crying because Motoko wanted to keep him, that she had lost her chance again.

He had hurt them all too much already.

Perhaps, if Motoko did release him, then perhaps it would be best if he left Hinatasou forever.

Right now, it seemed the best he could do was only bring them a small amount of pain.

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It was a weird day for Motoko.

First off, after arriving nearly an hour before classes began, she entered the dreamscape with Hina and outdid the sword's expectations, learning from both her sister as well as four other warriors; two more than the sword thought she would have had time for. Even now, she could feel the new skills and levels of power course through her body. She would be lying if she said that there was no part of her that wanted to leave right then and go challenge her sister for her own return.

But there were oddities that held her back.

One, and perhaps the largest, was the fact that the Hina Sword refused to let her learn any emotional thoughts of her sister. That indicated to her that the sword knew something, something bad enough for it to hide it from Motoko.

I will have to ask Keitaro about this when I get home. Perhaps my hus…

…

I am thinking of him as my husband now!

Motoko shook the thought from her head. These were not thoughts she needed right now. She had had a hard enough time explaining to her little "fan club" the reason the teachers had now called her Motoko Urashima during role call, not to mention the looks from the local perve…boys in the school when they learned the supposed "fridged bitch" finally found a male worthy of her time.

It had been a trying day in manner respects.

And lunch had yet to occur.

So she sat in her math class, listening to the teacher drone on about a particular mathematic formula; one of which she now knew thanks to the Hina Sword. So she stared at the board, trying to feign interest while she was trying to muse over her current situation. Her fan club had taken it the hardest. Not only had their gallant champion of independence been defeated twice by her sister, but had also been forced into a marriage with a person Motoko had claimed was a "vile, disgusting pervert who was nothing more than a threat to pure women everywhere".

OK, perhaps I had misjudged Keitaro.

Looks like mother was right, I had best be prepared and thoughtful or otherwise karma would visit itself upon me.

So class continued as the clock slowly ticked its way to lunch. Motoko sat at her desk, pondering both her new abilities, as well as how much she really was into this relationship with Keitaro.

It is better to figure out now if she wants to stay married to him, if she was ready to do…that…with him, since the sword mentioned Tsuruko might use that as punishment should they fail a third time.

Would it really be so bad?

That damn thought had started all of this. Her training with Keitaro had been nothing more than to help her defeat her sister and allow her to return to the school. He was obviously not a pervert. That night when he brought her back from the rain, she would have thrown herself at him if he had merely asked; such were the discord of her emotions that night. If he hadn't placed those clothespins on his face, there was no telling what may have occurred.

If he wasn't so nice to her…

She felt herself mentally screaming out, damning the world for doing this to her. In reality, she was staring at the board, her face a mask of rage, her eyes staring at a particular point, as if trying to burn through the board itself. It was so easy when he was just a simple pervert and she had to protect the rest of the tenants from him.

Now, she was falling for him, finding herself desiring to stay with him.

She shook the thoughts out again. I need to be worrying about other things. I need to prepare for my sister's arrival. I need to prepare for her challenge. I need to prepare…

"Mrs. Urashima?"

"Yes?"

"What is the answer to the problem on the board? I'm certain you know it, you've been staring at that one for the last eight minutes."

Oh shit!

The answer is pi divided by seven times the cosine of 2x.

"It is pi divided by seven times the cosine of 2x."

"Very good Mrs. Urashima. I was almost worried you weren't paying attention. Now back to the problem at hand…"

Would you just settle down and worry about class. My master, as well as yourself, will be ready to face your sister. Now relax and enjoy the tediousness of high school math. Otherwise, I know of one former warrior who told the absolute most boring stories you will ever here. Should I let him communicate with you?

It was safe to say Motoko's attention never wavered from the board.

It was also safe to know that she did end up falling asleep in her last class. She should have listened to the sword. Now she would have that story in her head for the rest of her life.

'The sword's no longer evil' he says.

No longer evil my ass!

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If I messed anything up, then let me know including typos.

Any suggestions on how I should continue the story or improve it would also be accepted.

By the way, if you need any help with your stories or would like a fresh idea on what to write about for Ranma or Love Hina, let me know. I would be glad to help in any way I can.