: A Ronin And His Sword :
by
- GlazedAndConfused -
DISCLAIMER
Don't be silly, now.
"..." - denotes speech.
"(...)" - denotes whispering.
Italics denote thoughts and Japanese dialogue.
Chapter One
The rains that were commonplace on a mild autumnal day in late October relentlessly descended on the small hot spring town of Hinata, setting a rather dreary scene. No sooner than the summer had ended, with warm, crisp blue skies interspersed with white clouds and a shimmering sun replaced by grey and dreary overcast skies, which threatened to put a dampener on things. The brown leaves that had fallen from the many trees around the area were scattered on the ground, which gave the scene a picturesque kind of feel.
As locals and tourists alike scrambled around looking for shelter like mice in a desperate hunt for cheese, however, the frigid downpour did little to stop two other people walking down the local street. One was a woman with ivory-coloured skin, with raven black hair down to her lower back, who wore a white gi and red hakama. Her face was hidden by a large, round hat that doubled as a makeshift umbrella, but one did not need to look twice to see that she was incredibly beautiful. Many men would have taken this as their cue to try and hit on her; however, the katana by her side in it's scabbard would have put paid to such ideas, as would have the ring on her finger.
The other person in her company was a young man wearing a waterproof jacket, carrying an umbrella, wearing thick-framed glasses. To many, he was the kind of person which a girl would not have given a second thought of, let alone a second look at. On first impressions, people would have found it fairly odd that such an unattractive young man was walking side by side, hand in hand, with such a beautiful woman - in the eyes of many men, such a sight was borderlining on criminal - but it wouldn't have taken a rocket scientist to work out that the two were deeply in love; they made no attempt to hide themselves stealing occasional soft, loving glances at each other.
"Are you sure it's around here, Keitaro-kun?" the woman asked, affectionately squeezing his hand as she looked down at the map in her partner's hands.
The man named Keitaro nodded, his eyes not leaving the map as he tried to figure out where to go next. "It's definitely around here somewhere, Tsuruko-chan... I remember it from when I was younger."
The woman named Tsuruko pursed her lips, regarding her surroundings closely. The small street where they walked consisted of mainly traditional foodstuff and accessory shops. She could make out a relatively large, traditional building perched on the top of an elevated part of the landscape, with a large flight of stone steps leading to the top. However, it was also a distance away, and the rain didn't look like it was about to ease, let alone stop, anytime soon. Feeling that it would not be wise to stay out in the deluge for longer than necessary, the ivory-skinned woman looked around for somewhere for shelter, and spotted a tea shop at the bottom of the monolithic steps.
"Keitaro-kun, there is a tea shop just over there," Tsuruko pointed out, "why don't we go inside and ask the proprietor? At the same time, we could warm ourselves up with a nice cup of tea." She gave Keitaro a quick once-over. "Besides, you could do with drying yourself off... despite the adequate cover provided by your umbrella, you are still soaked." She pouted cutely, smirking inwardly as it never failed to make the young man blush. "You wouldn't want to catch your death of cold and make me sad, would you?"
"T-That's not a bad idea," Keitaro shook his head. "L-Let's go in..." A cup of hot tea sounds nice to me... and with Tsuruko-chan, it sounds even better... he thought dreamily, briefly zoning out before the ebony-haired woman gently took his hand and led him inside. The smile disappeared momentarily from his face, a thoughtful look appearing in it's place. But... why does this place seem so familiar to me? Why does it feel like I've been here before?
The tea shop was a cosy and friendly setting, albeit fairly small. The dim lighting provided a homely feel to the place, and the pictures of random themes - ranging from the sea and coasts to more traditional themes such as Shinto and Buddhist temples - helped enhance the feelings of comfort the young couple showed. Spotting some empty seats in a small, secluded corner of the tea shop in the midst of the crowd of tourists and people on their lunch breaks from work, Tsuruko placed her hat on the table and walked over to the counter, telling Keitaro to go and dry himself off in the men's toilets, giving him a chaste kiss on the lips at the same time.
Turning her attention back to the counter, Tsuruko cleared her throat to get the attention of the woman in the small backroom behind it, who had brown hair that went past her ears and wore an apron with Kanji writing on it. A cigarette dangled precariously from her lips as she looked up and went to the counter.
"What can I do for you..." the woman trailed off as she slowly recognised who she was about to serve. "Tsu... Tsuruko?" The cigarette hanging from her mouth dropped to the floor as her mouth opened. This expression turned to a smile as she got over the shock of who she saw. "Why, Tsuruko Aoyama..." she smiled.
The said person grinned. "Hello, Haruka. It is a pleasure to see you again."
Haruka walked from behind the counter and towards Tsuruko, taking the taller woman into an embrace; an action which the Aoyama woman returned with as much affection. "Indeed it is... but, if you're here, I'm assuming Keitaro is as well?" the elder woman asked, tilting her head to the side slightly.
"Yes," Tsuruko nodded her head in the direction of the toilets. "He is just drying himself off in the toilet at the moment. He got drenched out as we walked here in the rain."
"Ah right." Haruka turned to face the younger woman. "So, I'm assuming you came here because of Granny Hina's fax?"
Tsuruko tilted her head to the side, raising an eyebrow inquisitively. "You got one too? Did it say for me and --"
"Uh-huh," Haruka clarified, lighting another cigarette, "for you and Keitaro to come up to the inn. Must have been one hell of a journey from Kyoto, though, with all that luggage..."
"Keitaro-kun insisted on carrying it all, plus the umbrella he had."
"Heh. He always has been the chivalrous type." Haruka smirked. "I think you got lucky when you met him, girl - I doubt you'd ever meet another man like him."
Tsuruko's eyes closed wistfully, a small sigh of happiness escaping from her lips. "Yes... yes, I did." She opened her eyes. "But I wonder why Hina-san wanted us to come up here to stay at the Inn? I have a feeling that it is more than a mere social call."
"God knows," Haruka replied, "but there's something you ought to know."
"Oh? What's that?"
The elder Urashima sighed. "It's not an Inn no more. Rather, it's an all-girls' dormitory, to be exact."
"But... if that is the case, why would Keitaro-kun be asked to come up too?"
"Beats me." Haruka shrugged.
Keitaro emerged from the toilet looking less worse for wear. His clothes were more damp and wrinkled than anything, the young man having wrung them out while sticking them under the airdryer, but he no longer looked soaked to the core, like he previously did. Walking towards the two, he stopped momentarily as he noticed who his young fiancée was talking to. "H-Haruka-obasan! It's nice to see you aga --"
Haruka instantly whapped him over the head with a paper fan, sending him sprawling to the ground. "It's 'Haruka-san'." She smiled, extending a hand to him. "C'mon, get up you big lug. How's my favourite nephew?"
"Ugh... couldn't be better, thanks - Tsu-chan has done a good job of that," he replied, absently rubbing where he got struck while smiling at Tsuruko, who returned the expression in kind.
The elder woman smirked. "So I've heard. But anyway, I was telling Tsuruko that I got the same text as you. And... there's been a little change to the Inn."
"Ah right, what's that?"
Tsuruko shook her head. "It is no longer an Inn. Nowadays, it is an all-girls' dormitory."
"W-What?" Keitaro looked gobsmacked. "But... where will I have to stay? I can't stay in the dorm if I'm the only male... it's not right!"
Tsuruko looked at him with a soft gaze, somewhat contradicted by the steely look in her eyes, making Keitaro involuntarily flinch. "You can, and you will. Wherever I stay, you stay - nobody has any say in the matter." She turned to face Haruka. "Will it be possible that you could tell the tenants that Keitaro-kun would be staying with me?"
"Beat me right to it," Haruka replied. "Once you two have finished whatever it is you're having, wait for me at the front and we'll go up to the old building."
"Okay."
Once the two had made their orders and Keitaro paid, having insisted that he would be paying the tab, they settled down to drink. The isolation of their seating was more comfortable than they thought, as Tsuruko took a sip of her coffee, marvelling in the flavour of it. Keitaro looked a lot less relaxed, however, as he was trying to think of a way of explaining the fact that he would be staying in a place where the clientele were predominantly female. The Aoyama woman immediately picked up on her fiancé's uneasiness.
"Keitaro-kun," she spoke, "are you still uneasy about the fact that it is no longer an inn, but an all-girls' dorm?" When she saw that he only nodded, she continued. "Do not worry; me and Haruka-san will do all the talking. You just stay with me. If anybody objects to it, you can be sure that I will have something to say." She smiled gently at him, resting her forehead against his. "After all, you are my beloved... and we both promised years ago that we would be there for each other, no matter what."
Keitaro leaned in and gave Tsuruko an eskimo kiss, unable to explain the feeling of warmth he felt by just being with the elder woman. "Thank you, Tsu-chan."
"Anytime, Keitaro-kun."
The two of them finished their cups of coffee in silence, merely enjoying one another's company.
The skies that were so grey and murky were still so, but the rain had eased off to light drizzle as the three walked out of Haruka's tea shop, making the ascent up the stone steps. Keitaro sighed; making it up those stairs with the luggage he was currently carrying would have been hell. He was thankful that Haruka offered to take her share of the bags to help him get up the steps properly. Once they finally reached the top of the steps - after Keitaro had nearly collapsed halfway up - they looked up at the old building, Keitaro and Tsuruko appreciating the fact that it had retained it's natural, traditional beauty.
This place is just as beautiful as I remember it... both thought simultaneously, thinking back to childhood memories now long gone.
Haruka cautiously opened the door and called out a greeting, noticing how empty the living room was. The silence in the room was such that it could be sliced with a knife, the only sound being emanated from the room the monotonous ticking of the wall-mounted clock. Tsuruko and Keitaro slipped off sandals and shoes respectively, slowly entering the room.
"Hello? Is anybody here?" Keitaro called, looking around. He shuddered inwardly, noticing that such a degree of silence was somewhat... unsettling. It was just a good thing that he was not on his own, otherwise he would have done the first thing that came to mind... which would probably have been run back outside.
"Hmm. They must all be upstairs. Why don't you two look upstairs, and I'll look downstairs?" Haruka suggested, flicking her cigarette out of the door.
Tsuruko smiled, inwardly breathing a sigh of relief, as it meant she would be able to spend more time with her beloved. "Okay, Haruka-san."
The very strangeness of the fact that the two were still able to remember every nook and cranny of the old building, especially considering that the last time they had come here was when they were children, never dawned upon them as they made their way up the stairs, the young man unconsciously taking Tsuruko's hand in his. The same feeling of warmth and love he felt back in the tea house came flooding back to him as he reached the top of the stairs.
"Keitaro-kun," Tsuruko spoke gently, her voice like velvet, "why don't you try this door here, and I'll try next door? Then we will make our way down the hall."
"Sure," he replied. Turning back to the door, he knocked twice and received no answer. Waiting for a few seconds, he knocked again, only for the same. Shrugging, he slid open the partition door...
"Is anyone in he --"
...and froze in his tracks as he spotted a sight that would have been rather appealing if he wasn't engaged to be married; a young woman with a rather shapely and curvy backside - although Keitaro would never have dared admit that - pulling up her skirt, froze in mid hike as she realised that somebody had just walked in. To be more specific, a male had just walked in. She spun around and hastily yanked her skirt up, her face almost as red as her hair.
"What are you looking at?" she growled, her face twisted into a bitter visage of sheer embarrassment and anger as she clenched and unclenched her fists involuntarily.
"I-I'm sorry!" Keitaro squeaked, covering his face with his arms and walking backwards out of the room almost immediately. "Nobody answered the door, so I --"
"Thought you could peep on me? Hentai!"
"No, that's not i --" he was cut off as the said woman threw a punch at his head that narrowly missed his head as he ducked and ran. At least the reflex training from Tsuruko appeared to be paying off. "Come back here, hentai!" she screamed as she took off down the hall.
What the hell is wrong with this girl? was the Urashima man's only thought as he ran like hell.
This exchange did not go unseen by Tsuruko, who ran after the two as fast as her legs could take her.
Luck was not going Keitaro's way. In less than five minutes - a new record for him - he had not only walked in on a girl in the middle of pulling her skirt up, but he had also landed face first into the cleavage of a woman whose face resembled a fox, escaped being fried by a ray gun that a young gaijin girl wanted to try out on him, and also got another faceful of cleavage, this time the unlucky girl appeared to be a carbon copy of Tsuruko; almost as tall, but much younger. Her form of revenge came in a refined sword attack. God must not have been smiling down on him on this day of all days, because at this moment in time, he was surrounded by all four - practically cornered in the exact same place where he had entered from; the lobby.
If he was going to die, he half-hoped that they did a good job of it.
"You pervert..." the apparent clone of Tsuruko spoke, drawing her sword with nothing less than a malicious scowl across her face. "Not only did you decide to sate your perverted male lust by peeking on Naru-sempai, but you also tried taking it out on Su-chan, Kitsune-san and myself! Now, it's time you pay for your transgressions... Shinmei Ryu --"
"Keitaro-kun?" The voice of Tsuruko called out as she arrived on the scene with Haruka, staring at the young man who was cowering in the corner before shoving through the four girls, her face with the most concerned of expressions. "What happened? What's going on?"
"An... aneue?" The taller of the two girls spoke, her slender and lithe frame freezing almost as if somebody had taken out a remote control and pressed the Pause button. "W-What are you doing here?"
Tsuruko turned to face the raven-haired girl, her face brightening up somewhat as she realised who she was. "Ah, Motoko-han!" she reciprocated, again somewhat cheerfully. "How nice it is to see you! I would like you to meet my beloved fiancé, Keitaro-kun!" she continued, linking her arm with that of the young man standing next to her.
"F... f... fiancé?" This information was too much for the girl named Motoko to take in all at once, and she did the only thing her brain told her to do... faint.
: END CHAPTER ONE :
: AUTHOR'S NOTES :
Apologies for the short opening chapter, but... hey. Most of my opening chapters are short anyway.
For all intents and purposes of this fic, I will be deviating from the canon timeline. Keitaro will still be a second-year ronin, and will be engaged to Tsuruko, rather than married.
Well, that's all. Oh, and any formatting errors on this story are as a result of QuickEdit, rather than my own carelessness.