Niklas "Hawk" Jonsson
Summary: In Volume 9 of the manga, Motoko looses the battle against her sister and decides to live as an ordinary woman, only to have the denizens of Hinata Sou belittle her efforts without knowing that she overhears them. Motoko runs away and Keitaro goes after her. After Keitaro finally stumbles across Motoko wet and miserable in the streets, he takes her home and treats her to hot chocolate in his room. During the events that follows, she breaks down and Keitaro has to attach a multitude of clothespins to his head in order to prevent himself from getting too intimate with Motoko. In this fic, he never gets his hand on those damnable pins and things deviates from the manga from that point onwards...
Disclaimer: Love Hina, Hinata Sou and whatnot are not mine, though I certainly wish they were. The story is mine though, all mine.
If the layout looks screwy or symbols seems to be missing, you're probably reading the quickedit-mangled version of this fic on ff dot net, if it grates on your nerves too much, read it on my site or something.
Feedback/Flames: Yes, please. Both of them are equally fun to read, although I must admit that I greatly prefer the first variety. :)
I can be found on ICQ as 21771860, MSN Messenger/E-mail as iamhawk at yahoo dot com, though not very frequently as real life lately interferes with my online existance more then I'd like. More stories are available at my nifty lil' site loccated at hawksgalaxy dot com or by clicking on my handle up above.
"speech"
emphasis/shouts/Kindred Domination/post-hypnotic triggers
/thoughts/
/telepathy/
translation
+soundeffect/radio/telephone conversation/TV+
"Motoko?" Keitaro mumbled, staring up at the sky after Narusegawa had been pulled away by an insistent Tsuruko.
"Yes, Keitaro-dono?" Motoko answered, lying next to him, unwilling to move just yet.
"Have your sister ever lost a fight?" he asked.
"Not since she turned nine and defeated the previous Grandmaster of the Shinmei Ryu." Motoko replied.
"Oh. Great." Keitaro grunted, closing his eyes. Then he remembered something from his childhood, remembered training with Haruka and Hina. A straight out assault was obviously not going to work, but there were other ways to go about defeating Tsuruko...
"Urashima Secret Technique: Underwater Walk Attack!" the twin voices of Keitaro and Motoko cried out, scaring the hell out of Naru as they burst out of the water, waving bare blades at her, coming to a stunned halt in front of her.
"What are you..." Naru started, not even noticing that she was as bare as the day she was born. Her eyes were wide open as she stared at the odd pair, dressed all in black and holding swords directed at her. Her heart was beating at least a mile a minute and for a few moments, it felt as if it had been about to make a break and jump straight out of her chest.
"Heh? Narusegawa? Where's Tsuruko?" Keitaro inquired, then noticed Naru's state of dress. Or undress, as it were. "Gack! Sorry! I-I-I-I d-didn't mean to..." he exclaimed, stumbling backwards and pinching his nose shut. Naru blinked, then looked down, realizing just what had gotten his boxers in a bind.
"Keiiiiitarooooo!" she growled, clenching her fists in righteous anger. "You perveeeeeeert!" she bellowed, dashing towards him, only to see Motoko grab hold of him and pull him along with her as she sprinted away, leaving a very surprised and very naked Naru standing in the bath, looking towards the departing wannabe ninja duo with droplets of hot water slowly trickling their way down her body, dripping down into the pool. "What was that all about?" Naru muttered as she stalked back to her former seat, grumbling some very uncomplimentary things about Keitaro as she hastily wrapped up her bath. The unexpected scare had rather drastically reminded her that she needed to visit the little girls room.
Which she did.
It wasn't quite the relaxing and relieving visit she had expected, however.
"Prepare to taste steel, older sister!" Motoko shouted, kicking the door down and rushing in with her sword raised. Keitaro crept up by her side with a blade of his own, only to come to a complete stop as they saw Naru sitting on the porcelain throne with a completely flabbergasted expression on her bright scarlet face.
"What are you... GASP! GET OUT OF HERE, YOU PERVERTS!" Naru shouted, waving her fists angrily although she didn't dare move from where she was currently sitting.
"Uh, we are sorry, Naru-sempai..." Motoko croaked, walking backwards, dragging a paralyzed Keitaro along with her.
Naru huffed and puffed in silence for a few moments, glaring furiously at the broken door lying on the floor in front of her. With a sulphurous oath that could have made a seasoned sailor cringe, she grabbed some paper and hastily wiped herself off before pulling her panties back up and flushing the toilet. She was far from finished, but she was not about to do her business with the door open when anyone could just walk on by.
Nor was she about to use any of the other facilities in the complex, as it seemed that Keitaro and Motoko were on some sort of violent and perverted rampage. Their unexpected appearance as she was in mid-pee had spooked her too much to do her business in the bathroom. So she had grabbed some paper and withdrawn to the garden, hoping for a little privacy there while the two morons stalked the house, looking for Tsuruko.
"Honestly, those two are driving me insane..." Naru muttered, stalking through the Aoyama garden, squatting down behind a hedge that offered her some privacy and concealed her from sight. "AAAAAAH!" she screamed, as the hedge suddenly moved, sprouting two arms holding a sword raised.
"Sorry, Tsuruko-san! But this is the end of your reign of terror!" Keitaro's voice hollered from inside the sword-waving hedge segment.
"Prepare to taste defeat, older sister!" Motoko's voice added, as another segment of the hedge leapt out towards Naru, also sprouting sword-wielding arms.
"I'm not Tsuruko!" Naru protested in a shrill roar and the two green cubes came to a stop. Naru looked at them, her eyes blazing with fury and if looks had temperature, hers would have set the disguised morons on fire within a tenth of a second. They looked ridiculous, two square green cubes with legs and arms, packing swords. Suddenly, two heads poked out from the greenery and paled as they saw Naru's expression.
"Uh..." Keitaro started, then apparently thought better of it and both of them ran, scattering leaves from their camouflage in their wake.
"All right, you two! Just what is going on here!" Naru demanded, after having chased down the two loons. All three of them were panting after a long and frantic run, Keitaro was sporting a fresh bump on the back of his head. Naru had been unable to run them down, but a well-aimed slipper had bowled Keitaro over and when he had rolled to a stop, Motoko had stopped running and tended to the fallen Keitaro, much to Naru's surprise.
Obviously whatever Keitaro had must be contagious, as she had never known Motoko to act as stupidly and strangely as she had been doing lately.
"I'm sorry, Narusegawa." Keitaro apologised, whimpering as Motoko dabbed at a cut from his recent tumble with a wad of alcohol-drenched cotton she'd brought out.
"As am I, Naru-sempai." Motoko added distractedly, more focused on tending to Keitaro's injuries.
"What in the world were you thinking, challenging Tsuruko to a fight?" Naru asked, looking suspiciously between Keitaro and Motoko. This whole situation was seriously creeping her out and she wondered just what had been going on since she left the Hinata Sou that she hadn't been told about.
"Well, ah... She challenged us, actually. It was the only way she would reinstate Motoko into the Shinmei Ryu. When we beat her, Motoko will be reinstated and allowed to stay at the Hinata Sou." Keitaro replied, scratching the back of his head. "I believe we still have a chance to defeat her sister in the final battle! I'm not of much help, but I'll do my best. Heck, Su even gave me some special inventions! We'll win!"
"Yeah, riiiiiiiiiiight..." Naru drawled, glancing at Keitaro with a sceptical look, shaking her head in disbelief. "You, an injured person who can't even go to classes. ... Though you do look, and run, surprisingly well considering... Shouldn't you be a in a cast for quite a while yet?" she inquired, only now noticing that Keitaro wasn't using the crutches any longer and that the cast was off. He was wearing some sort of athletic support, but the cast was nowhere to be seen. "Isn't this just some sort of perverted scheme of yours that you fooled Tsuruko into going along with, just so you could land yourself a pretty young wife?"
"NO!" Keitaro vehemently protested. "I wouldn't do a thing like that, Narusegawa! I'd never force anyone to marry me against their will!" he insisted.
"Well, perhaps not..." Naru reluctantly agreed, as she found that notion far-fetched and ill fitting with Keitaro's kind personality. "But I don't see you protesting too hard against her terms either!" she hastily added.
"What good would that do me?" Keitaro asked with a frustrated expression, shuddering at the thought of the evil looks Tsuruko occasionally gave off. It was as if she was two completely different persons! Perhaps she was manic-depressive or something? Serene-homicidal, perhaps? Was there even such a term? "It's better to focus on training and getting better, so we have a chance of beating her. Though the odds are against us, we will do our best and win. Then all three of us can go back to the Hinata Sou, together."
"What about you, Motoko? What do you say about all this? I can see that you're upset about it." Naru said, looking with concern at her troubled friend.
"We will fight. Then we shall see." she replied neutrally and evasively.
"But if you loose, you'll be married to Keitaro!" Naru exclaimed. "I can see where this moron might not have anything against it, but you?"
"Should we continue to loose, I shall marry Keitaro-dono if he so wishes. If he does not wish for me as his wife, I shall end my own miserable existence and release him from his promise, rather then dishonour him and force him into a marriage with someone as unworthy as me." Motoko answered, stunning Naru into silence and causing Keitaro's jaw to drop. /So, this was what she had in mind/ he thought angrily. He had suspected that there was something that she wasn't telling him, that she was planning something stupid. But he had no idea of just how incredibly stupid things she had been pondering!
"Motoko-chan. You will NOT kill yourself, no matter what the circumstances." he ordered in a voice so firm that it could shatter steel and with an expression on his face so determined that both girls flinched back from him.
"If that is your will, Urashima-sama." Motoko weakly replied as she assumed a very submissive posture, unable to even meet his gaze.
"It is." Keitaro agreed. "And I told you to stop with that -sama and -dono business! Urashima, if you can bring yourself to call me that. Keitaro if you can't!"
"'Kill yourself'? 'Urashima-sama'?" Naru breathed in a hoarse croak, before her eyes narrowed. "Keitaro! What have you done to Motoko!" she demanded.
"He has done nothing!" Motoko suddenly snapped, displaying some of her former fire as she glared furiously at Naru. Even if Keitaro found it odd not to be the target of that glare for once and he wished that it hadn't been directed at Naru either, it felt good to see at least some semblance of Motoko's former self making an appearance. "Nothing! Nothing except show me far greater mercy then I deserve and shown himself to possess far greater honour then I could ever hope to match!" she added and shed a few tears. "I am not worthy, I'm not even worthy to breathe the same air as he does." she finished with self-loathing oozing from every word she spoke.
Keitaro had never seen anyone who seemed to harbour a desire to crawl out of their own skin as much as Motoko seemed to want at the moment, never seen anyone so incredibly uncomfortable with themselves and disgusted by what they were. It was very nearly enough to break his heart, to see the formerly so strong Motoko behave like this.
"Motoko! Stop it." Keitaro interjected, stepping between the two girls. "You are a fine, honourable young woman and I don't ever want to hear you say differently."
"How can you say that, Urashima-sama? How can you say that after I raped you like that?" she demanded, causing Naru to gasp in horror and Keitaro to pale in fear. "I proved myself to be a far more perverted and awful excuse for a human being then I ever even suspected you to be. All those groundless accusations, all that abuse, raping you and you still forgave me for it! I do not deserve that, I don't! I wish you'd just let me end it all!" she sobbed, as Keitaro started regaining some colour as fear was drowned out by another strong emotion.
"Motoko. Shut up." Keitaro growled, growing increasingly frustrated and angry with her extremely foolish suicidal tendencies. "I told you, you will not fucking kill yourself! If you do, I will follow in your foolish footsteps. Is that what you want? To kill the both of us?"
"No, Urashima-sa..." Motoko started to respond submissively, but was cut off before she could finish her reply.
"And if you say Urashima-sama one more time, I'll pull you over my lap and give you such a solid thrashing that I'll be in danger of injuring my own bloody hand!" Keitaro snapped, driven well past the limits of his almost infinite patience and kindness. The abuse against him had always been one thing, but he wouldn't stand for anyone abusing any of the girls at the Hinata Sou, not even the girls themselves!
And Motoko's growing listlessness was simply killing him. She'd managed well enough for a while after the incident, but he'd noticed that the more she thought about it, the worse she got. And after their talk, when he'd given her the sword... She'd really gone downhill from then, that idiotic promise to obey him in everything... That was not something a sane person would have come up with.
"Raped..." Naru repeated in a stunned whisper, her wooden glare swivelling back and forth between Keitaro and Motoko with a shocked and anguished expression on her face. "Keitaro... Motoko... What... What..." she muttered, unable to form a correct question.
Keitaro looked over at her with a pained expression, then down at his clock before he let out a frustrated growl, glaring accusingly up at the skies above, as if they were personally responsible for the situation.
"We'll explain later, I promise. For now... For now, we've only got two hours left to defeat Tsuruko in before the deadline is up." Keitaro announced, looking back at the main building with a resigned expression on his face and a frustrated note in his voice.
"You've got fifteen minutes left. Wanna take one last shot at it or should we move on to exchanging wows?" Tsuruko inquired tauntingly, while cringing inwardly. Teasing and taunting had managed to spur Motoko on, somewhat. But she still preformed well below her usual level of competence, not anywhere near enough to actually pose a threat to her. Keitaro didn't make one iota of difference. He came up with a surprising move or two, but preformed them clumsily. For a fighter of her level, he didn't even manage to provide enough of a distraction to give Motoko a chance to pull something, not in her current state anyway.
Now their allotted time was nearly up, and Motoko still hadn't pulled herself together. Things had gone entirely too far. Oh, how she regretted her careless words now! Her younger sister was a miserable wreck and it was all her fault. She was the one who had driven her sister to this, she was the one who had turned the formerly so vibrant young woman into the depressed wreck who opposed her now.
Heck, her sister had been so out of it that she hadn't even noticed that she was carrying a cursed sword with her. Or perhaps she had, Tsuruko had thought that there had been a slightly disappointed glimmer in Motoko's eyes as Tsuruko announced that the blade was cursed and that they needed to seal it. Had Motoko wanted to get possessed by the spirit in the blade?
She didn't know who her sister was any longer. Judging from what little she'd managed to get out of Urashima during their talks, she'd deduced that her sister wanted to commit suicide, so perhaps voluntary possession wasn't that far-fetched a notion.
Motoko was simply lying on her back, looking listlessly up at the skies, Tsuruko wasn't even sure if her younger sister had heard what she said. Keitaro slowly got back onto his feet and picked up his own blade from the ground, staggering over towards Motoko.
"Motoko-chan? You all right?" he asked and this Motoko did notice.
"Yes, Urashima-sa..." she started but blanched and stopped talking. Tsuruko blinked at the sudden apprehensive look Motoko conveyed, but as she couldn't see Keitaro's face from where she was standing, she never understood the reason for it. "Yes, Keitaro." Motoko responded.
"Come on then. We're not out for the count yet." Keitaro said and held out a hand towards Motoko, who accepted it and hastily got back onto her feet, dusting herself off.
This was another thing Tsuruko failed to understand. Her sister had never been good in dealing with males, in fact, she'd almost seemed terrified of the gender as a whole. Why was she suddenly so deferential to Keitaro? It was almost as if Motoko believed that the sun rose and set with Keitaro. She didn't think it was love, however. This was something different, something entirely different.
Tsuruko's eyes narrowed as her gaze fell across the Hina Blade that Motoko had supposedly been given by Keitaro. Was that it? Did Motoko consider herself indebted to Keitaro for the gift of the sword? Probably, but Tsuruko couldn't shake off the feeling that something else was wrong, even if she couldn't pin-point exactly what that was. If only Motoko would talk to her about it!
Tsuruko had never felt so frustrated in her entire life and she knew that she had nobody but herself to blame for it. If she hadn't overreacted and acted to bloody foolishly, none of this would be happening.
Not for the first time, she contemplated throwing the fight, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Besides, just like Keitaro, she didn't think that was the correct way to bring back the old Motoko, even if she had been able to throw the fight.
So when Keitaro and Motoko made their final assault, Tsuruko glanced sadly over at the silent observer of the fight, Narusegawa Naru, before she returned her attention to the two fighters hurling themselves towards her.
"Shinmei Ryu secret technique, Aoyama family speciality: Wrath of the heavens." she mumbled under her breath and reached out to her surroundings. Ki shot out from her own body and set the Chi all around her into motion, the ground rumbled as Yang Chi in immense amounts were set into motion far beneath the surface. A sudden chill fell over the entire compound as she directed vast amounts of Yin Chi from the air itself to gather in a nexus ten feet above the ground.
She shifted the grip on her sword, raised it up and abruptly thrust it downwards into the ground. She released a burst of her own Ki into the ground and another towards the nexus, causing the Chi she had gathered to react rather violently. Bolts of energy suddenly shot up from the ground, heading for the nexus in the air, while other bolts of energy shot out from the nexus, towards the ground.
Catching Motoko and Keitaro right in the middle of a deadly crossfire of lightening bolts.
Or what would have been a deadly crossfire, had Tsuruko actually gone all out.
As it was, it was enough to knock them both unconscious without causing them any lasting injuries.
"You loose..." Tsuruko whispered in a strained voice, then turned around, let her sword drop to the ground and then collapsed onto her knees, tears flowing freely from her eyes as she succumbed to her guilt-riddled grief.
The End! ( For now... )
