Love Hina

Chapter 6

The Path of Awakening

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 like, please review, as well as let me know of any spelling errors. I will then re-upload this chapter when I do my next upload.

If you like, check out my other stories.

I also plan to start sending these out to have someone else proofread them before I post them. Volunteers are welcome.

Now, on with the show.

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On one note, some people have asked me to explain some of the characters and their motivations.

Rei. She was a girl who had a crush on Keitaro ever since he stood up for her against some bullies, even breaking the nose and knocking out a tooth of their leader in one punch. She was in love with him from that moment on, even though she admits that at the time, she didn't know what love was. These events took place before Keitaro had the demon sealed into him. When he was forced to withdraw from life when his curse became active, she was the only friend who stayed with him, even going as far as to nearly starve herself for her parents' permission. As a result, she is as close to him as Kanako, more so because Kanako had to move away when she reached puberty, as she was not a blood relative. The two ended up spending more time together after that, until the day her friends hand-cuffed her to him while she was trying to defend his reputation. Her love for him was what kept her coming back to him, and blinded her from the marks on his arms from his earlier suicide attempts, which he chose to never share with her. She is one of a few people who knowing all that she does about Keitaro, still would wish to spend her life with him. Her appearance would resemble an older Rei from Evangelion, minus the red eyes and pale skin.

Keitaro. His story was pretty much followed the anime until slightly after him and his sister stayed at Hinatasou and made the promise to run the inn together. They were walking along the woods when they came across Akiri battling a demon, which leads us to the story. After Keitaro's cursed nature awoke, he lost all but two of his friends, Rei and Kanako. While the parents of Keitaro trusted both girls, Kanako was forced to move in with close relatives when she reached puberty. His earlier attempts at suicide were few and far in-between, which increased as he lost Rei and then Kanako. Now, since he has been without outside contact, with the mixture of some letters and occasionally phone calls, he has grown more depressed, with less will to even continue his hellish existence. His parents have tried to help him, giving him a job in the back of their store away from people, as well as a paycheck so he could buy things and keep his mind active, which has led to this Keitaro being much smarter and confident about his mental skills than the one in anime. He has resigned himself to being alone forever, accepting that the curse may never be removed. As a result, this Keitaro has no expectations of joy, only misery, an aspect amplified by Hina's betrayal, but slightly offset by some of the reactions of the Hinatasou girls. But despite having clear recollection of his time with them, he still hasn't been able to figure out Naru is one of the promised girls, after all, she was two and let's face it, had a major personality shift since then, or perhaps had buried that memory of the promise he knew he could never keep.

Kanako. She will be playing a part in the next chapter, as well as reveal something to Keitaro that will make him question how far his hell can go. More will be said about her later.

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"Young one, are you OK?"

Keitaro tried to open his eyes, tried to focus on the real world, but found it difficult to do. His mind was a jumble of images, as if someone was watching a slide show, with everything out of order, images not belonging to him constantly popping up, showing fear, joy, happiness, pain, other emotions he was unsure of how to handle.

"Young one, please wake up!"

The voice seemed to overlap the sounds he was hearing, sounding like an angel's voice, trying to draw him from the hell that the scenes were placing him in. He wanted to scream out, to call for it to stop, to call for anyone to help him, but his own voice was silenced, the fear rising to new levels when he wouldn't even be able to cry out for help.

No, make these things stop! I wanna go home! I don't wanna be here! Someone help me! Please!

"Onii-san, please wake up! Onii-san!"

Kanako, is that you? Help me Kanako, I'm scared! I can't get out of this place!

But the images continued, the sounds continued, and the fear continued to rise.

Until all went black.

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Mr. and Mrs. Urashima sat inside the small room of the shrine, waiting for word on their son, his adopted sister in the room with him, pleading for him to wake up, the young miko Akiri was trying to wake their son as well.

The Urashima family was no stranger to weird occurrences. On more than one occasion, their son's clumsiness had proven the young child nearly indestructible, which had raised hopes in his Grandmother Hina that the boy would be a perfect student of the family's style of martial arts, there had even been talk of sending him to train at a school ran by Mrs. Urashima's old high school friend, a mother herself of two beautiful young girls; Tsuruko and Motoko, to further his abilities. They also knew of the legends around the family property, the Hinata Inn, as well as the cursed sword from their ancestors.

But what they had been told by the miko's teacher, an old monk named Hideki, was almost unbelievable.

After all, how is one expected to believe that your son is now a conduit that has a demon sealed inside of him?

But that is what was told to them. The miko had brought their son and daughter here, after battling a demon that had been terrorizing the prefecture. From what they had learned, the demon was in the process of being sealed inside a large stone, when Kanako, running away from the battle, had gotten in the path, a fact that even the Urashima family knew would have led to her having the demon sealed inside her. But their son, showing how truly selfless he was, how much he truly cared and loved his dear sister, pushed her out of the way, sacrificing himself to save her.

The miko, having witnessed this all, unable to stop the spell, had brought both children here, carrying Keitaro. When Kanako had calmed down enough to tell them her name and how to get in contact with her family, they informed the parents, who rushed to the shrine in time to see the old monk catch them, informing them of what had happened.

To say the monk was surprised at how easily they accepted it he himself was beginning to worry that this family was having as much trouble with demons as the nation had once had several centuries ago.

But now both parents waited patiently for their son to wake up, heeding the monk's advice that only his sister be allowed in the room with the miko, while he went to their archives and tried to piece together what effects this demon being sealed in their son might have.

They had waited three days for their son to wake up, Kanako never leaving his side except to use the restroom. They had been allowed to sit and talk to him after the miko had finished trying everything she knew to wake him, so she resorted to what is often used to try and awaken coma patients.

When he awoke, the entire family glomped onto him, screaming for joy that Keitaro was ok.

But on the fourth day, Hideki told them of what the demon was, and of an old scroll found in their library, detailing the life of two young siblings, a warrior named Kenji and his sister a miko named Sheito.

The story had not gone well. Keitaro was still busy running around the shrine being watched by Akiri, as she had already been told the story two days ago; his sister still with the family, asking happily if that meant her and Keitaro would be together forever like Sheito and Kenji had. The warnings were passed to them, so when Keitaro ran back inside, all he saw was his crying parents and his sister, still confused as to why she and Keitaro wouldn't be together forever, but held her tears in, preferring to rush her brother and hug him as hard as she could, hoping that it was enough to be with him now, that her love would make all the bad stuff go away.

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A slightly older Keitaro was sitting on the subway car, crying. His parents had begun to tell him he would have to drop out of school soon, finally explaining why his mother had been taking those college classes to become a teacher.

He was sad. He would soon be leaving all his friends behind; his parents telling him that the nasty demon that now was stuck inside of him would be free thanks to puberty, and would hurt people who had reached puberty as well.

Not a nice thing for a young boy to learn, that shortly he would not hesitate to hurt his friends, anyone not family, simply because they existed.

But the worst thing he was going to have to do was lose his best friend Rei. The girl had grown attached to him, ever since he clocked that bully who was picking on her. He hated it when people acted like that, assuming someone was worthless simply because they didn't have the most money, the best clothes, the newest toys.

Rei had been his best friend, his first kiss, though he was rarely ever thankful again for Shinata ever being around with the exception of having the party where he and Rei had kissed, as the boy became a real pain in the ass after his parents won some lotto.

So he sat here on the train, crying, feeling the weight on his shoulders of what his life was to become. Despite what his parents, Akiri, and possibly Hideki thought, Keitaro had come to know what the effects would be to him, to his life, but preferring to allow them to believe that he still lived in blissful ignorance of his true circumstances. It was possibly the reason everyone thought of him as outgoing, because he understood that in a few days, years, or even hours, he could very well end up sheltered for the rest of his life, resigned to hiding in the shadows. He knew that in a few years, if that, his sister Kanako would have to go live with other relatives, tearing her away from him and the only family she could remember, the moment she hit puberty.

All because a demon would gain enough control over him to assault anyone who wasn't a blood relative.

Truth be told, he wouldn't change it for the world, if he had to risk her being hit by the demon's essence. She meant that much to him.

He could only hope he had enough time to help her know that, perhaps lessen the impact when he would have to tell her he could no longer be around him, knowing how much it would hurt her.

It would destroy her dreams, his promise to her to run Hinata Inn together.

He had already laid one promise to rest tonight.

He had gone to a small playground outside in Hinata City, a place he remembered quite well, considering those messed up dreams when he first was possessed made him relive his life over again. He remembered Mu-chan and Na-chan, remembered that they had all promised to get into Toudai together so that they could live happily ever after. Even though the snow coming down had covered the sandbox, it still didn't stop him from lying those two roses down, or from apologizing to the wind that he wouldn't be able to continue with trying to achieve happiness with them.

All he could hope for was that they would both achieve that dream, hope they both would live happily without him.

After all, such dreams were no longer options to him.

"Hey kid, what's the matter, did mommy and daddy run off and leave your sorry ass behind!?"

Keitaro raised his head, spotting several street punks, local gang members judging by the similarities of their clothes. No real danger, I could take these guys out with my family style no problem. "Leave me alone, I ain't got a quarrel with you."

"Listen kid, you're on our turf, so you pay the toll like everyone else."

Keitaro rose from his seat, placing himself into the aisle and directly in front of the gang. After all the hell I've gone through today, after all of the suffering I have had to consider, these punks have the audacity to challenge me! I think I'll show them why the Urashima style is so dangerous, only the bloodline is taught it! "Come on then you little bastards let see how tough you are against this little kid!"

The first one got within six feet.

Then Keitaro launched a powerful punch, shoving the first member into the others, sending them all through the door into the next car, tumbling about as if they were hit by a sonic boom.

He looked at his fist, feeling the rage within his blood, the desire to go and continue killing those punks, assuming that first punch left their leader alive.

Keitaro was now afraid.

But fortunately, the doors opened, and he fled the train to the streets, searching for an alley to hide in while he called his parents to come and get him, tears streaming down his face, ashamed at what he had done, but also what this now meant.

That attack wasn't part of the Urashima style.

The demon had awoken, puberty had arrived, and his life of happiness was gone forever.

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"Happy birthday Kanako!"

The two were now in Keitaro's room, a far cry from where they had been for the last few years, her now living with their relatives who's house was less than a mile away, the closest ones around to give Kanako a close tie to her brother. She had moved out several years earlier when she had come home to give Keitaro a hug, to tell him about her day at school, when Keitaro's face changed, when he leapt away from her, telling her he was sorry, and locking himself in his room until his parents returned.

It was the day she had began puberty.

But she was allowed to have her Sweet Sixteen party here at her old house, and all of the guests had just left. She had cleaned up downstairs, but more importantly to her, it allowed her to gain some access to her adopted parents' stash of liquor.

When she arrived in the room, Keitaro was against the wall on the far side of the room, looking out the locked window, a sign of when Rei had been in here, as he never left it open since then. Her present was by the door, which she quickly opened, her eyes wide at the necklace, including the diamonds inside it. "Onii-san, what…how…?"

"Mom and dad still give me a paycheck for helping with the store, and I couldn't think of anything better to spend it on than you little sister."

Kanako carefully placed the necklace back in the box, tears streaming down her face at not only how thoughtful her brother had been, getting her the gift like she had wished for, an off-handed comment about wishing for it while they had once talked on the phone, but because he had undoubtedly spent a good portion of his savings on it.

Not that one who can't go outside and prefers to read books has much to spend his money on.

"Onii-san, thank you. I love it and will always treasure it." She turned towards him, her eyes slightly still filled with tears, joy in her heart for the first man to show her love, who promised never to leave her side (a promise she had released him from when he could no longer be around her), and who always took the time to treat her with the utmost respect. "Onii-san, I want one more thing for this night to be perfect. You will always love me, no matter what, right?"

"Of course Kanako, I will always love you, you're important to me." Keitaro was beginning to become concerned as a look came over Kanako's face after he said those words, even more so when he caught a whiff of the smell of the alcohol they had apparently been consuming downstairs.

As Kanako approached, the fear began to rise. "Kanako, stay back, you know what'll happen."

"I know onii-san, I want it to, and I want to show you how much I truly love you. I want you to know that even the way you have become, if you'll let me, I will always be by your side, and I will always want you to live."

And with that Kanako leapt the rest of the distance, the fear keeping Keitaro from trying to stop her.

Two hours later, Kanako wouldn't release him, telling him that she loved him, and that no matter what, he had to promise that he wouldn't blame himself, as she wanted this more than he could have possibly known, that she didn't want him to ever blame himself, that she would not think any less of him because of this. She had always loved him, and would only wish to spend the rest of her life with him, despite the danger, despite the pain it might cause, because she would love him for all her soul could give.

Two hours later, Kanako was tired enough for Keitaro to break free from her, running to the bathroom and locking himself in until his parents returned.

Kanako only talked to him through phone calls after that.

Every night for a week, Keitaro would take out a hidden knife in his room, resting the blade on his scarred wrists, trying to work up the courage to slash them, but he couldn't, Kanako's voice wouldn't let him.

So he cried, cried for Kanako, cried for Rei, cried for those punks who had deserved their three month stay in the hospital, cried for his own life.

Keitaro cried for his soul, and the hell his life seemed to forever be stuck in.

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These were the stories of Keitaro's known times of his curse taking control, the discovery and the final incident before his arrival at Hinatasou, minus the incident with Rei. They explain how Keitaro had awoken to the power as well as the final betrayal of the one friend he had remaining, his sister Kanako. Keitaro only had two friends after his curse became active, Rei and Kanako. Now he was alone.

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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.

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