Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina. Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.

WARNING: Contains a couple of adult situations. Reader discretion is advised.

MINDS WITH IN A MIND

Epilogue

February 14th, 2006; Valentine's Day. It is a crisp very cool Valentine's Day with a slight breeze blowing; the kind that makes Jack Frost come out and tingle your nose every so often. But although it is quite cold, the sun is out in force. A now 17 year old Shinobu is walking along the sidewalk walking home to Hinata Sou after receiving a clean bill of health after finishing her last day of a 6 month rehab program at Hinata Regional Hospital.

She has become somewhat of a celebrity in the town of Hinata. Since guns are extremely hard to get in Japan; being shot by one and surviving tends to get you noticed. Even some of the town council elders are a bit envious. Many of them are WW2 vets and had seen the true horrors of war. They are amazed by Shinobu because they saw many of their comrades die with much less sever wounds.

She is about a block away from Hinata Sou when she stops and looks up, with one of her slight innocent grins. As she looks up she sees Hinata Sou though the mist sitting on top of the hill in the center of town. She gives a bigger grin as she remembers the long 6 months she's had since being released from the hospital.

She blushes and gives a slight giggle as she remembers the reason why she woke up from her coma. She also remembers that she made everyone promise not to tell her parents how she woke up. She knew that if her dad didn't kill Keitaro, then her mom sure would have!

She remembers back to the day when she was finally released from the hospital; which was about a week after she woke up. It was also the very 1st day of school. She remembers she received the shock of her life as she was being wheeled out of the hospital by her dad. There out side of the hospital was everyone from Hinata Sou, many of her relatives, and almost the entire school body from Hinata High.

When the principle of Hinata High learned that Shinobu was to be released from the hospital on the 1st day of school he allowed the whole school to go greet her. Shinobu remembers she cried so many tears of happiness that day. She had no idea that she would in a million years have become popular in school. And here it is, 6 months later, and she still gets asked out by some of the boys at her school. Of course still being very shy she has turned down all of them.

During the 1st month after being released she had been ordered to stay in a wheel chair due to her back injury. She was allowed to stand up for only short periods at a time. 10 seconds at the most; otherwise she could aggravate her back injury and even risk paralyzing herself. This was ok for standing up to get into bed or to get something just out of her reach in the wheel chair, but it was a nightmare when she had to use the bathroom or take a bath. She had to get one of her friends to help her undress for her to be able to sit on the toilet or get into the hotsprings.

She blushes as she remembers the one day when she had to use the bathroom so badly, but everyone but Keitaro had left. She held it for an hour before giving up hope that one of the female attendants would come back. So she shyly, but desperately asked Keitaro for help. He nearly fainted on the spot, but thankfully he didn't. Being the clumsy gentleman he was he wore a blindfold when he had to take off Shinobu's panties and set her on the toilet. She was able to put her panties back on and set back down in her wheel chair by her self, but needed help washing her hands as she couldn't reach the soap because the sink was in her way.

Unfortunately for Keitaro as he was wheeling Shinobu out of the bath room, Naru happened to come back and had just reached the top of the stairs when she saw Keitaro and Shinobu coming out of the bathroom. Keitaro was promptly sent through Hinata Sou's roof.

She goes on to remember the 3 months after that as her rehab progressed, when she had to use a cane to help her walk. She still needed help in climbing stairs but other than that she was recovering nicely.

She opted to use her great-grandfather's old cane. It was a graceful black and green cane carved from and old tree than was more than 200 years old. It had a lovely hand painted picture of a Sakura tree in full bloom on it. It came up and a crane's head was carved in to it to become the curved handle.

She remembers the 4th and 5th months of her rehab when she was allowed to walk short distances without the cane. But she was ordered to use it when she had to walk greater distances or go up or down stairs. It wasn't until late in the 5th month of her rehab that she was allowed to walk completely independent of the cane, but was asked to watch her step of course. Now that the 6th month of her rehab was finally over she could walk for as long as she liked.

She begins walking again back to Hinata Sou with a big smile on her face. How she was glad she could walk without any assistance again. However the emergency back surgery she had to go though, replacing 1 whole vertebra with a plastic one and fusing the other 2 above it, had left her posture slightly crocked to the right. So when ever she walks now, she has a slightly noticeable limp when ever she takes a step with her left leg. But it doesn't bother her.

The limp isn't the only thing that has left her forever scared. She feels a little pain in her stomach and back from time to time from where she was shot. She now has to take a small amount to pain medication every morning at breakfast. Thankfully it's only 1 pill a day.

Surprisingly the "hideous" scare Shinobu had been fearing was actually not all that bad. It was a noticeable long, lighter than her skin color, streak across her stomach from where she was cut open. But thanks to modern medical cosmetic technology they were able to reduce the noticableity of it.

As she reaches the long steps leading up to Hinata Sou, she looks over and sees the wheelchair lift that Su had installed when she was still in her wheelchair. She looks to the other side of the steps and sees the railing that Keitaro had installed when she had to use the cane. Because of these implements Hinata Sou was now wheel chair accessible. Haruka didn't mind because it now also opened the tea house to the wheel chair and cane confined. In the 6 months after both were installed they had more than paid themselves off.

As she grabs onto the railing and begins to walk up she remembers the other important events involving her shooting. 3 months after she was released, the police captured the Yakuza member that had driven the white Honda and had been the one who had shot Shinobu. He quickly gave up his partner.

Shinobu had been called upon as a witness during the trial and had testified on what she saw and what had happened to her. Her emotion filled testimony did wonders for the prosecution as within a week the 2 men were sentenced to life in prison without parole. However as great a victory that was the police still haven't found the local Yakuza boss who had given the order to kill the Johnsons.

During the trial Shinobu learned that her getting shot was just one big mistake. The Yakuza had learned that the Johnson's daughter was there. So wanting to wipe out the whole family for not paying their dues, the 2 gunmen where ordered to kill all 3 of the Johnson family. Because Shinobu looked so much like the Johnson's daughter, and not knowing that she had left back for America already, the driver had shot Shinobu by mistake thinking she was the daughter.

As Shinobu reaches the top of the steps she rests a little. Although she can now walk all on her own, her limp makes her a bit more tired after climbing the long flight of steps.

As she rests she remembers back when she was in the hospital. It had been 4 days since she woke up. Keitaro, her parents, and Naru were visiting her after they had gotten off work. A knock on the door got everyone's attention. Her dad opened the door and in walked a girl who looked a lot like Shinobu. The girl was none other than Susie Johnson, the daughter of the 2 slain store owners.

She had come to apologize to Shinobu and Naru for them getting caught up in her parents' "financial trouble." (To say the least) She told them about how she came back to Japan a few days after the shooting and had taken her parents' bodies back to America to be buried. She came back this time to finish up the closing of the store and take all the rest of her parents' belongings back to America. But before she left she wanted to say sorry to Shinobu and Naru, but mostly to Shinobu.

As a token of her apology she gave Shinobu a pink floral patterned dress that she had been looking at moments before she was shot. Shinobu and Susie now write back and forth to each other regularly and have become good friends. Susie has told Shinobu that she would like to come back to Japan someday to open up her own clothing store. But for now she has to finish High School.

As Shinobu finishes resting up she also finishes going down memory lane. She walks up to the door of Hinata Sou and opens it. "SURPRIZE!" comes a shout from the living room. Shinobu is stunned to see everyone, including Haruka, in party hats and seeing the entire living room decked out in party decorations.

"What's all this?" asks Shinobu still stunned. "We decided to throw a surprise party for you Shinobu for completing your rehab!" answers Kitsune already halfway to being drunk holding up a sake bottle. Su comes over and places a party hat on Shinobu's head.

"We're all so proud of you Shinomu!" says Su as she gives one of her famous big smiles. "If you were a swordsman you would be recognized and honored for your strength and determination in coming back from such a certain mortal wounding." says Motoko with a big smile herself.

"You have been a big inspiration to us all," says Naru. Keitaro looks at Shinobu and gives her a big smile, with a thumbs up. "Well done Shinobu. We all knew you could do it." he says. Shinobu blushes just a bit at his comment. "Well is this a party or what!" shouts Kitsune as she brings out a giant chocolate cake that she and the other girls made for Keitaro and Shinobu. Naru brings out the radio and starts to play some dance music. Everyone including Shinobu starts to dance and have a good old time.

After a few hours of partying Shinobu says she is going to go take a nap because she is feeling tired, but says for everyone to continue the party if they want to. Everyone understands and they continue the party in her honor.

Shinobu walks up the stairs and down the hallway to her room. She gives a short yawn just before she opens her door. When she opens it she receives a big shock. There on her bed is a bouquet of about 36 red roses! She stands there a bit shocked for a moment before she walks up to her bed. After another brief moment she reaches down and picks the bouquet up.

When she does a small card falls out of it. Cradling the bouquet in her left arm she reaches down and picks up the card with her right hand. She opens it up and reads it to herself:

Shinobu: Happy Valentine's Day and congratulations on finishing your rehab. You have been a big inspiration to everyone these past 6 months. Watching you fight your way back from the brink of death and trying to have a normal life again was a great feat that has impressed me to no end. I can only wish to have your courage and strength. You have inspired everyone to do better, and be better at what we do, but especially me. I know you will grow up to become a beautiful wise woman someday and I can sense that you will do great things in your life, and I hope you will always have that beautiful innocent looking smile of yours where ever you go. May you live a happy and long life Shinobu and know that I will always love you.

Signed:

A Secret Admirer.

Shinobu blushes heavily after reading the card as the sun's rays shine through her windows seemingly making her face radiate in a beautiful glow. She then grins and gives a small giggle. She gives an even bigger smile as she brings the roses up to her face and takes a big whiff of the sweet smelling fragrance of the roses. As she does Keitaro peeks in from just around her door.

He then smiles and turns to walk away. He turns his head back one last time to look at Shinobu's open door. "Congratulations on completing your rehab Shinobu. I hope you liked the roses I got you." he says to himself. With a smile he then turns back around and walks back down the hallway to rejoin everyone else at the party.

THE END!

Author Note: Yeah! It's finally done! I hope you all enjoyed my story! I would like to thank the 9 people who put me on their favorites list and the 15 people who put me on their author alert list! This will certainly NOT be my last Love Hina fanfic as I have 3 more stories already slated to be written. I have decided to do 2 stories at once after this one. One you should already know about called "Gundam Hina" where, you may have already guessed it, the world of Gundam collides with the world of Love Hina. It's a bit bloody so read at your own risk. The 2nd one I'm going to be doing is called "The Hinata Maiden." let's just say it's like part Love Hina, part Sailor Moon, and part Xenia. I hope you will all enjoy them. And thank you all for reading my fanfics!

Story hint: Japan has no death penalty, so that's why the 2 shooters only got life in prison. BTW I didn't realize it till I started this chapter that 6 months after Shinobu was released from the hospital would make it February of the next year. So I said what the hell I'll make it Valentine's Day while I'm at it. I think really helped the rose scene. :-) And now you know the identity of the shadow faced groom. (Keitaro!)

Update: I am now finally beginning Chapter 10 of Elope A Dope. It should be up in the next few weeks.