Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Sorry about the disgustingly short first chapter, was it not for the human need for sleep it never would have happened. My chapters won't ever be terribly long, but they should be frequent. I'll at least try to top 1000w per chapter. Oh by the way:
Angst: n. A feeling or outlook of dread, fear, etc. There you go Kenshin, and don't worry. Pathetic is ignoring the meaning and pretending you know.
Legal BS:
I do not own, nor shall I ever own Love Hina, or any other anime for that matter. Which is a damned shame, because that would be great. Anyway please don't sue me, I like my money how it is, mine. However little there may be. Anyway, as promised here is chapter two!
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Love by the Sword
Chapter Two (Revised)
Broken Heart, Bloodied Luggage
The young martial artist turned and looked at the source of her meditation's interruption. She sees a young man. Not a man of any impressive stature certainly, but morally he had no equal. The young kendo master had grown quite fond of the young ronin over the past few months, in fact, she found herself falling head over heels in love with him.
"Urashima?" she asks quizzically "what are you doing?"
She watched, as the boy blushed slightly startled and replied "Oh, just watching you train"
Keitaro looked away hoping that the beautiful woman standing in front of him hadn't noticed him blushing.
Motoko giggled lightly at Keitaro's embarrassment.
"I can't believe he actually said something like that," she thought to herself "normally, he'd stammer some pathetic excuse and run as fast as he could." She looked back at her still red manager and asked sweetly, "Would you like to join me?"
Keitaro looked at Motoko like a deer caught in the headlights. Completely taken aback at her offer. His mind raced.
"What was that?" he thought hurriedly, "did she just ask if I wanted to train with her? Why would she ask me that? What the hell am I going to say to that? What will Naru think?" With that last thought Keitaro's eyes dropped, their normal radiance replaced by a murky despair, this did not go unnoticed by Motoko.
"Why can't he let himself move on?" she thought angrily to herself "Why can't he let go of Naru, even after what she did to him?!" White knuckles wrapped around the hilt of her katana, almost shaking with rage. However her rage was soon replaced with sorrow as she looked into the eyes of her friend. She thought back to the beginning of the end for Keitaro and Naru.
2 Months PriorThings had not been going well for Naru and Keitaro. It seemed that there was a wedge being driven between them, and there was only one person driving that wedge. Naru. No one could figure out why she was driving him away. We tried asking her but all that brought was an angry tirade, usually ending in Keitaro receiving another undeserved beating. She even pushed the rest of us away. We all knew that something was wrong, but we never got the chance to find out what.
"Naru wait!" screamed Keitaro helplessly as the long-haired beauty walked out of the doors of Hinata-sou, and out of his life. She had entangled herself in the arms of a musclebound meathead she had met 2 days prior. Even we were aghast at her sudden change in character. As Kitsune so eloquently put it, she had gone from 'Nice girl to raging slut' in roughly 2.5 seconds. We had never expected such a violent change in personality.
With a flick of her hair and a cruel smile she turned to her friends and said to us,
"Sorry, but I'm too old to be hanging around with children anymore, especially," she said staring straight into Keitaro's eyes, "ones as pathetic as you." They then walked out of Hinata-sou, and out of all our lives. We were all saddened by the loss of Naru, especially since we could never find out why she left. No one however, took it as hard as Keitaro. He stopped studying completely, saying that there was no point now that 'she' was gone. He stopped coming for meals, he even stopped drawing. It was like a part of him died that day. I, no we, all longed to see that part live again.
1 Month LaterKeitaro had barely spoken a word to any of us outside, hello, sorry and goodbye. He was a broken man, a hollow shell. Nothing had been able to rouse him from his stupor. Shinobu had tried so very hard to help him. It hurt her so much to see her beloved sempai in such a state. Indeed, it had had a sobering effect on the whole dorm.
Suu had become less energetic and mostly consigned herself to her room and her inventions. Kitsune had began to drink more and more, the loss of two of her best friends had taken a large toll on her spirit. Even I had all but stopped training, simply because I could not draw my thoughts away from Keitaro, and why Naru had done such a thing to him. This continued for weeks, until one day Haruka, had stormed into the Inn and straight into Keitaro's room. The shouting did not stop for several minutes.
"God damn it Keitaro!" Haruka raged "You can't just stop living because Naru left you! What good is that going to do?" Keitaro sat silent, eyes staring at the floor, seemingly hearing nothing. "Come on Keitaro!" Haruka demanded as she dragged Keitaro up by his collar. Keitaro still cast his eyes away from the steel gaze of his Aunt.
"Just leave me alone." He replied in a monotone. Haruka was ready to knock her nephew into next week, hoping maybe that would force him to come back to reality. Before that however, she still had one more card to play. Her voice changed from anger, to an almost sad motherly tone.
"Do you realise what this has been doing to the other girls?" She asked solemnly. This seemed to open something in Keitaro, his eyes snapped open suddenly. Seeing this reaction, Haruka pressed harder. "Shinobu hasn't been truly happy since Naru left, she misses the old you. Kitsune has been drowning herself in sake and barely speaking to anybody," As Haruka spoke Keitaro's eyes started tearing. "Suu isn't half the girl she used to be, she just sits in her room working on her inventions. Motoko hasn't been training, at all. She just wanders around thinking." Keitaro couldn't take this anymore, he broke from Haruka's grip and sprinted out of his room.
The other girls and myself had all gathered downstairs, roused by the shouting coming from the manager's room. We were all standing solemnly waiting for some kind of resolution, when we saw Keitaro scramble down the stairs. Before any of us could think we were enveloped in a tight hug, while Keitaro half shouted, half cried "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Without a second thought we all hugged him back, happy that there was finally some light back in our lives. We stayed like that for what seemed like an age. When the hug finally broke Keitaro looked at us all with apologetic eyes.
"I'm really sorry you guys," he said softly ""I'm sorry I wasn't here for you when you really needed me." To that we all replied by tackling him into another hug. Laughter could be heard from Hinata-sou for quite some time. Haruka looked down from the stairs onto the happy scene then left quietly, her work was done.
Present DayMotoko came out of her reminiscence, and looked at Keitaro, who still had that downtrodden look on his face, his eyes seemingly nothing but empty holes in his face.
"Keitaro?" Motoko asked gently, trying to rouse the young man from his self-degrading stupor.
At the sound of Motoko's voice Keitaro snapped upright and almost shouted, "Yes! I mean, I'd love to! I mean, I'd love to train with you, Motoko-chan." By now his voice had slowed to a conversational pace, and he had a small smile on his face. Motoko however, was having none of the facade. She could still see the pain evident in his features, however well hidden. Although everyone was happier these days, there were still deep wounds in Keitaro's soul.
Keitaro, suddenly feeling the awkwardness of the situation muttered an excuse about having to fix the boiler and retreated into the Inn.
Motoko watched as he ran into Hinata-sou, almost like a scared rabbit scurrying to the safety of its burrow. She longed to see the honest, loving Keitaro she knew and adored. "I'm going to bring you out of this," she thought vehemently to herself "I'm going to show you that there are people who still love you. With that she walked into Hinata-sou to put her plan into action.
