Title: none yet
Author: DhampyrX2
Genre: Drama/humor X-over
Rating: PG-13 to R at some point
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Don't sue me, I'm poor.
Notes: My own unique take on the battle between Tsuruko, Motoko, and Keitaro. Title suggestions are appreciated.
Okay, this is just an idea that's been floating around that I thought I'd start here. Reviews, revisions, and criticism are welcome.
This starts off during the tail end of the fight with Tsuruko at the end of Ep. 25 and will run from there with very little following the rest of the story line in canon because it will involve a great deal more of the Aoyama family than was used after the fight. Also, Naru isn't my favorite character. I don't hate her, and I'll try not to bash, but you have been warned.
Summary: What if Keitaro had another ace in the hole to tap besides Su's explosives and the Hina blade? How will that change everything from that point on? To quote a certain fruitcake priest...sore wa himitsu desu.
Indicates Thoughts.
"Indicates Speech."
Indicates foreign speech.
Alright, this is officially INSANE! Urashima Keitaro thought to himself as he was tossed into the air by the collateral damage of another of Aoyama Tsuruko's attacks against her younger sister Motoko. The pair of Keitaro and Motoko were currently trying their hardest to defeat the more experienced swordswoman to regain Motoko's right to practice her family kendo school, the Shinmeiryuu, once more.
That was the prize, a return from the banishment Motoko suffered for pretending to be involved with her landlord and dorm manager, Keitaro, so that Tsuruko wouldn't force her to leave Hinata Sou and take her place as heir too soon. The cost of failure? Making their deception into the ultimate reality. They would be wed that very day should they fail to defeat Motoko's sister by sunset.
But really, it was far more simple than all that. The reward for Motoko was life. The price of failure was death. She had nearly attempted to commit seppuku once already when her punishment was simply to live as a regular woman. There was no way she would stand for the added dishonor of being married to the man she so forcefully insisted was a pervert when his repeated bouts of clumsiness left him in compromising positions around the Inn turned girl's dormitory his Grandmother had left in his care.
Not that being married to her would be horrible if she was actually willing to go through with it. Keitaro conceded, before he berated himself for thinking like that. No. Her life is the life of the warrior. No matter what, I have to help her regain that life. Even if it costs me everything. Even if I have to use it again. he resolved.
And somewhere nearby, a purple-haired priest in white robes and carrying a ringed staff chuckled to himself without even bothering to open his eyes. "It's almost time, Fi-chan." the priest whispered.
If you listened closely, you would swear you could hear a faint "Namagomi no baka" carrying on the wind from some distant land in reply.
The last of Keitaro's resolve was fading fast. Su's bag of tricks had proven to be useless, and he wasn't much better hobbling around on a broken and casted leg like he was. Not that I could, I don't know? Heal the damnable thing or anything. Any sign of something as unnatural as that and I'm a true ronin. Out of the family on mom's orders, disowned and dishonored. Goodbye Todai, promise girl, and my entire miserable life. Of course, if we lose here today I lose all that anyway, except for my name. But then I ruin Motoko's life in the process. Humph. I hate no win situations. Ojisan must be having a feast with how I feel right now. Damned Tsuruko! Damned mother! Damned yogurt-brained sword swinging ancestors and their archaic bullshit! he ranted in his head as he watched Motoko fall to her knees as her sword was shattered.
"Motoko-chan!" he cried as he limped to her side. Keitaro nearly broke into tears himself as he reached his tenant...no, his friend's side and saw her utter despair.
"U..ura...Urashima. Forgive me. I cannot best aneue. And now... You and Naru-sempai," Motoko brokenly wept as she realized she was not only chaining herself to a man she had come to secretly respect and care for (something that plagued her as she began to doubt if she could fight her hardest when she seemed to win a prize of her heart either way), but that she was ruining his chance with the woman he loved. A woman Motoko called her closest friend in the form of Narusegawa Naru.
"Motoko. Motoko, listen to me. We can still win. We will win. No matter what. I will not let you give up your life like that. This school is your world, and I won't let you throw it away," Keitaro whispered back with a forceful confidence few outside of his aunt Haruka, his sister Kanako, and his grandmother Hina would think him capable of as he knelt in front of her as best he could.
"It is impossible Keitaro. She is simply too good. I have failed, and now, you are stuck with the...the burden of that failure," Motoko whispered back with an air of utter defeat.
"Motoko-han is right, manager-san. It is over. Her spirit will take no more. I will prepare for the last arrangements for the ceremony," Tsuruko interjected from where she silently walked up behind the kneeling Keitaro.
Something seemed to snap behind Keitaro's eyes as he reached for the blade shard still connected to the katana's handle and gently took it from Motoko's grasp. The former three time ronin and recent Todai acceptee held the blade piece, a piece less than half the length of even a tanto, confidently in his right hand as he rose and turned to look Tsuruko right in the eye.
"No," he responded evenly. "We didn't come all this way and face all these hardships just to let you ruin your sister's life. We won't let it happen. I won't let it happen.
Tsuruko seemed almost amused as he raised her right brow and replied, "Oh? and what, exactly, will you do manager-san? Defeat me alone with only a broken piece of a blade while on one leg? Your determination is admirable, and your devotion to Motoko-han proves you will make a good husband for her, but I assure you that you are quite defeated." As she said this she added mentally, If this doesn't reignite the fires in imouto-chan enough to make her fight back nothing will. I would certainly never tolerate such taunting of the one I love. Come sister, show me you're still there underneath that fear you've learned to wear as a blanket.
Keitaro shared none of her apparent mirth as he placed as much weight on his good leg as he could to make one good move before he emotionlessly responded, "I will do...whatever it takes."
With those grim words, Keitaro seemed to attempt a suicidal dash right for Tsuruko, a dash she easily leaped away from. Unfortunately of fortunately, even as Tsuruko mentally reproved and praised him all at once, and Motoko cried in fear for her belove...er friend, Keitaro showed his true move. "SHADOW SNAP." he cried out as he tossed the broken and jagged blade into the ground where Tsuruko's shadow lie.
It provided less than a second of distraction for Keitaro before the swordswoman realized the attack was not directed at her and she began to slowly stalk her 'prey' in an attempt to bolster Motoko into action with one of the nearby bokkens or practice blades still in the dojo. That plan fell to the wayside, however, when she discovered she could no longer move forward. She was not paralyzed, per sey, she was just stuck. It almost like some kind of barrier was rooting her to the ground, but she could sense no ki to fuel such a thing, and Motoko's manager would not be capable of such ki manipulation regardless. The swordswoman looked to see what could be holding her, only to discover Keitaro's discarded katana fragment was at the edge of her shadow, and she could not move beyond where the blade touched that shadow.
"What manner of sorcery is this?" the confused woman muttered to herself.
Keitaro smiled a gallows smile as he retorted, "Exactly," before adding the words "Flare Arrow!" and launching an arrow of red hot energy at Tsuruko. Between her distraction at his odd attack, and the unexpectedness of both his words and his follow up, Tsuruko was forced to act instinctively as she swiped her blade to deflect the incoming projectile. This served Keitaro's purposes perfectly as the elder Aoyama cried out in pain and tossed her now too hot to hold sword aside on instinct.
"Lord of the Darkness and Four Worlds, I beseech thy fragments; by all of the power thou possesseth, grant the heavens' wrath to my hand; unleash the sword of dark, freezing nothingness; by our power, our combined might, let us walk as one along the path of destruction: RAGNA BLADE!" Keitaro chanted as he formed an impossibly large blade of pure...emptiness between his hands and leveled it a Tsuruko's throat.
"I told you I would do whatever it took, Aoyama-sama. I suggest you yield. I have no desire to deny Motoko-chan her sister on the day we regained her legacy," Keitaro suggested with an icy tenseness after letting her register just how perilous her position really was.
"Keitaro. H-How?" Motoko asked in bewilderment from where she now stood, gawking, and what the man she once thought of as a useless, perverted, waste was doing.
"I'll explain soon, Motoko-chan. But first I have to hear something from Tsuruko-sama," Keitaro replied with obvious strain in his voice. He could only hold the Ragna Blade in this bluff for a few more seconds before he passed out. If he failed to get a surrender from the superior fighter in Tsuruko before she figured out the secret to escaping the Shadow Snap, he was done for. After all, he had no intention of actually trying to kill her.
The elder warrior looked the dorm manager squarely in the eyes with newfound respect as she smiled and said, "You win, manager-san. I yield."
"That's all I wanted to hear," Keitaro responded with a smile as the Ragna Blade vanished without a sound. Once the spell was gone, his hair faded to a snowy white as the exhausted Keitaro fell face first into the dirt, his body unconscious long before it hit the ground.
(The first part here will be a flashback/dream in Keitaro's head as he's passed out. As a result, it will all be in italics)
"Well, hello there, young man. How are you this fine morning?" asked a purple-haired man with a friendly, if creepy, smile as he knelt down beside a small crying boy in glasses in the park. His smile grew a bit brighter and the boy simply continued to weep. "Hmm, I'd say you're not doing too well at all. Why exactly is that?"
"I'm lost," the boy finally admitted after several failed attempts to speak through his tears. "Mommy t..tu...took me here, but now I cants find her." the child no older than four admitted as he continued to cry.
"Well, that must be quite scary," the man responded with his ever present grin, even and his half closed eyes seemed to somehow narrow dangerously without actually moving. His unseen ire vanished as eerily as it appeared as his smiled a bit wider and said, "My name is Xellos, by the way. Metallium Xellos. What's your name?"
"U...uh...Urashima Keitaro." Keitaro replied as his sniffles lessened a bit. Talking to the strange man seemed to help. "But, I'm not s'posed ta talk to strangers."
"Ah, but we've already introduced ourselves, haven't we? That means we're not strangers anymore," Xellos reasoned happily. "So, since we're friends now, maybe you could tell me how old you are?"
Keitaro shyly held up four fingers before he looked expactantly toward the purple-headed man. "Oh, I'm much older than that. Much much older. Now, do you know where your mommy might have gone?" Xellos answered with a chuckle.
"Nuh-uh," Keitaro said sadly. "She jus' tol' me ta stay here an' keep quiet an' out of the way while she took carea stuff," the boy answered honestly.
"How long ago was that?" Xellos asked as his eyes did that narrowing without moving thing again.
"I dunno. When the other mommies and kids was still firs getting here. It was a whila ago," Keitaro replied.
"Hmmm, well it's just not right for you to be waiting here alone no matter what your mother said. Do you have anyone you trust you'd like to visit while you wait for you mother?" Xellos inquired.
After a few moments to think, Keitaro happily shouted, "Hina-baachan!"
"Hina, eh? Does she happen to own the Hinata Inn?" Xellos responded with a quirked brow.
"Yup. I visit there an see my friends Mu-chan and Na-chan over the summers," Keitaro responded as his earlier bad mood seemed to totally evaporate as he thought of his beloved grandmother.
"Then that's where we'll take you. Come along, young Keitaro," Xellos instructed.
Keitaro followed his orders without question, just as him mother insisted that he should, and followed Xellos to meet his grandmother.
As the strolled off into the distance, one could hear Xellos ask, "Keitaro-chan, have you ever thought about learning some neat magick tricks?"
"Namagomi-ojisan no baka," Keitaro muttered under his breath as he struggled back into a state of wakefulness from his mana-depletion enforced slumber. As his vision began to clear a bit he looked around and noticed he was in a futon in what had to be a room in the main house of the Aoyama compoud. To his right was a dozing Motoko kneeling beside him with a bowl of water and a washcloth, a small trail of drool beginning to pool at the left corner of her mouth.
He studied Motoko's face for a moment before he thought to himself, She must have been exhaused after the emtional roller coaster we just rode together. Boy she looks cute like that. No! No thinking of anyone by Narusegawa as cute. Those thoughts lead to nosebleeds and pummeling. Half of it from Motoko-cha...san.
"Motoko. Motoko." Keitaro prompted after a moment to collect himself as he reached over and gave her sholder a little shake. Well, that's what would have happened had not Tsuruko taken that moment to open the door to the room and enter. A sound that startled both enough to wake Motoko and make her shift slightly as Keitaro's hand went a bit errant and ended up on something far...softer than her shoulder.
Tsuruko looked on with great amusement as she smiled and commented, "My my, manager-san. You and Motoko-han may not have been faking after all. Please forgive my interruption,"
"Wha?" Keitaro intelligently replied as he looked to Motoko for clarification and noticed three things. One, was the slight embarassed flush on Motoko's cheeks. Another was that his hand was now placed somewhere entirely inappropriate for a man to touch without some kind of consent and commitment betwwen himself and his partner. The final thing was the angry tick growing by leaps and bounds over Motoko's right eye.
"Urashimaaaa!" Motoko furiously growled.
"Uwaaahhh!" Keitaro shouted in alarm as he retracted the offending hand as if it was on fire. "N..nu...no! I was just reaching to shake your shoulder when Tsuruko-sama came in and we must have shifted from the sound and it was an accident, I swear!" he whimpered/babbled as he prepared for his rightous punishment.
Motoko was all too willing to deliver that punishment until Tsuruko cleared her throat. "I think we have more important things to deal with than yours and manager-san's foreplay Motoko-han," Tsuruko gently adomonished.
Both younger prople in the room immediately reduced into nuclear-level blushes as Motoko sputtered out a scandalized, "A...a...aneue! I...it's not like that at all! He's just a hentai!"
Her elder sister smiled indulgently as she responded, "You have nothing to be ashamed of, Motoko-han. You are at that age, and manager-san is a fine enough man I was willing to let him marry you. All that I ask is that you save it for in private, little sister. This is not the best time, and we still don't know how his sudden fainting spell might affect his endurance. I wouldn't want you to feel needlessly disappointed."
This earned even harder blushes as both forgot to follow through with their usual cat and mouse over Keitaro's clumsiness and sputtered mostly non-sensical denials in their haste to absolve themselves. (While trying to dispel the images those teasing comments brought about for each of them at the same time no matter how vehemently they would deny having them.)
Her face grew serious as Tsuruko looked squarely at Keitaro and said, "Now, I do believe we are due some explanations, manager-san.
END PART 1