Author Note - Starting with the last chapter, I put version numbers on the chapter headers so it is more apparent when changes are made. This way, if you download the chapter, you can tell if you have the most current one, although this is mostly to correct the odd typo that gets through the spell and beta check. Most corrections are done by the time the next chapter comes out.

Please see second A/N at the end of this chapter.

Ch 14

V 1.5

Motoko Aoyama was no stranger to getting up before dawn. Almost from the time she could stand on her own, her mother or her older sister would shake her awake and rouse her from her warm bed to join them in their morning ritual of stretching, kata, and then conditioning exercises. By the time the sun had cleared the horizon, Motoko would have been up for more than an hour and usually on her way inside her home to bathe and get ready for either school or more training. However, on occasion she would pause and watch the rising sun for a few moments, feeling the warming rays play over her body, to remind her that each day was a gift from the kami, and should be utilized to the utmost.

This habit had carried over to when she had moved to the Hinata-sou. Even though she had been alone in practicing martial arts, her duties as the heir to the God's Cry School drove her to continue her training, to improve her skills until the day she was called upon to take over the family school. Even so, she would still pause before entering the house to watch the sun clear the horizon, enjoying the calm before the start of the day.

But now things had changed since the new manager had arrived.

One of the things that Motoko had learned from her family school was how to detect life energy, usually in the form of chi that was produced by all living things. Her current skill level and sensitivity would not let her detect the energy produced by insects or individual plants, but she could detect the collective energy given off by a forest, or an open field full of flowers. And if she was not careful, she could pick up on the energy that emanated from people… energy that was colored by emotion.

Motoko was not very experienced in blocking the detection of chi, and that could be a major problem for her. If she was in a large enough crowd of people, and they were all feeling more or less the same strong emotions, it could affect her as well. Thankfully, the Japanese were not an overly emotional people, so it did not bother her too much. However, there was one emotion that was abhorrent to her, and that was male sexual desire. It was bad enough to see men's leering faces and know what they were thinking, it was quite another to feel the foul oily sensation of perversion.

One of the reasons that Motoko had been allowed to leave the family dojo was so she could get experience in being among large groups of people. Kyoto was not small by any measure, but the crowds of the bustling metropolis of Tokyo were something else entirely.

Motoko had learned how to tamp down her detection of chi, and most times she was alright even when she was in a major crowd. On the other hand, if someone were to actually touch her, and they were projecting a strong enough emotion, she could feel it. And if that person was one of the deviants that seemed to breed in this city like cockroaches, all bets were off. All men had degrees of perverted feelings within them, although it tended to be stronger in younger men.

However the new manager was something else entirely. Even though he was not that much older than she was, there was very little emotion radiating from him when he was around the tenants, although he did not act emotionless. Even when tensions were high at the tenant meeting, there was little that was given off from him. Haruka was similar in her emotional control, but she tended to act with little overt emotion anyway.

Kanako, on the other hand, was something she had almost no experience with. The younger sister and assistant manager was a boiling cauldron of emotion, so jumbled that she could not pick one emotion from another. There was one thing that was apparent, though; she was very close to her brother, and very protective. Her actions during the tenant meeting were proof of it. Motoko knew that even though Keitaro had already beaten her in a fight, and that Haruka was no small threat, it was Kanako that had the potential to be devastating.

Motoko shivered, thinking back to their confrontation in the hallway outside the kitchen the other day. Even though Kanako was slighter of height and build, she had felt as though she were a mouse under the gaze of a cat, one that was deciding on whether it was worth the trouble to crush her.

But now, standing in the window at the end of the second floor hallway, Motoko could see the Urashima siblings on the rear lawn, practicing their kata. They actually trained twice a day, in the morning at dawn, and in the afternoon after Kanako arrived home from school. The afternoon sessions were dedicated to training with Naru, where they were concentrating on her emotional control, and some basic martial arts moves, as they were try to get her away from her overuse of the infamous Naru Punch. And now after two weeks of training, Motoko could see the difference in Naru; she was calmer and less likely to go off at the least provocation from some unlucky person. Nevertheless, she was not shy in protecting herself, as the perverts in the trains were still pained to learn.

The Urashima tended to do the slow forms of martial arts, mostly Tai Chi. Motoko would have scoffed at the practice of such a calm method, if she had not learned just how effective it was at age 14, when a master in the discipline had visited the family dojo. In fact, it was Granny Hina, and it was an eye-opener to see some of the best attacks by students at the school get deflected and knocked away. What was maddening was to see the smile on Hina's face as she twirled and spun around attacks, both open hand and with bokken. It was almost as though Hina was performing a traditional dance rather than fending off attackers. Of course, the fact that her dance partners tended to go face first into the practice mats tended to be discouraging. It was also the first time that Motoko had seen someone enjoy the martial arts; not that they took pleasure in hurting people, but just simple joy in the movement.

What Motoko was seeing now was similar to what she had seen in the dojo that summer day years ago. Only instead of seeing it on the lined face of a master of the art, it was on the face of someone Motoko had not seen smile before, Kanako Urashima.

Kanako and Keitaro were facing each other, slightly beyond arm's length apart as they moved in unison as they did their kata. What was very unusual was how they were moving - Kanako was literally mirroring Keitaro's every move. As his right arm came up and across, her left arm would rise in unison and go across as well. As his left foot slid back and Keitaro moved back a step, Kanako slid her right foot forward and matched the step, keeping them the same distance as before.

What held Motoko's attention was the look on Kanako's face. Her eyes were locked with her brother's, never looking down to match his movements. It was though they were communicating solely through their eyes, and had no need for another method. And all this while moving around practicing deflections and evasions , moving around the grass as though they were dancing a waltz in a ballroom, with no touching, no talking, and no music. Kanako was smiling softly, and her brother had a slight curve on his lips as well.

Finally, the kata came to an end, and the two halted their movements. Facing each other, they simultaneously bowed and held it, their eyes up and fixed on each other. They then straightened up and Keitaro's face was split by a broad smile. Motoko could not hear what he said to his sister, but Kanako was apparently very glad to hear it, as she sprung forward and hugged him. After talking to him for a few moments, Keitaro stepped back and Kanako looked a little disappointed. She joined him as they started walking back to the house, apparently to get ready for the day.

Motoko stepped away from the window and started walking toward the stairs. She had her own daily training to complete, and then a day to get ready for. But now Motoko had some unanswered questions, and she knew who could probably answer them for her, as soon as she got back from school. It was the day to make the weekly phone call home , and perhaps her sister Tsuruko could provide some answers.

"Moshi-moshi, Aoyama residence."

"Ohayo Tsuruko-aneue, it is Motoko, how are you today?"

"Ah, Motoko-chan, it is good to hear from you. I am doing well, how are you doing?"

"Things could be going better, but right now it is relatively calm. I am doing well in school and I am still working on improving my chi sensing and control For now I am able to hold a ki ball in my hand for about five minutes before I use up my reserves."

"That is very good, Motoko-chan. You have to continue building up your reserves before you can reach the next level of your training in the family art. I know that you can launch ki attacks with your sword now, but ideally you should be able to do it without any physical focus. How is your emotional control training coming along?"

"That has been advancing as well, but not as rapidly as I would prefer, aneue. I can block the sensing of strong emotion in large groups, but it soon as someone touches me directly, it collapses."

"And you lose your temper and attack them, don't you Motoko-chan?"

"Since most of the people that touch me without permission are deviants attempting to have their way with me, I am completely justified in doing so."

"And what of the others, those who touch you by accident? Surely they don't have any ill-intent upon you."

"That is mostly true, aneue. In that case I just pull away from them and that is sufficient."

"That is good to hear, Motoko-chan. I was always concerned when your temper got the better of you."

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something related to that. Do you remember meeting my fellow tenant Naru Narusegawa?"

"The brown-haired studious girl? Yes, I remember her. I also remember what she did to that college student that touched her without her permission when we all went out to eat that night. I did not know that a person could fly so far from just one hit. "

"That is what I wanted to talk to you about, aneue. The new manager and his sister have been working with her to help her control her temper, and it seems to be working. Naru-san has been more relaxed and less likely to lose her temper."

"So what is the problem, Motoko-chan? This sounds like a good thing."

"It is more than that. The new manager is the one that insisted that Naru start working on her temper if she were to continue living here. I feel there is something out of place with the manager, and it is not something I can put my finger on."

"Has the new manager not been acting in a proper manner? I would think that you would not be shy in voicing your complaints if there was something wrong."

"The new manager and I have not confronted each other since he first came to the Hinata-sou and set the new rules that were a condition of residency. I must admit that I nearly lost my temper when he set a new rule prohibiting the open carry of weapons in the Sou, but he deliberately left a loophole for me to take advantage of, and it has been acceptable, if not agreeable."

"This new manager is sounding like quite the interesting fellow, Motoko-chan. I would think that you would chafe about being under the authority of someone like that."

"It is not like I have much of a choice. The new manager is the grandson of Granny Hina, and has just been named the clan heir, bypassing his father and aunt."

"Oh? That is rather uncommon. Now that I think of it, you have not mentioned the new manager's name, have you Motoko-chan?"

"I am sorry for the omission, aneue. His name is Keitaro Urashima. His younger sister is Kanako Urashima, and she is acting as the assistant manager."

"Umm… I seem to remember meeting Hina-san's grandson many years ago. Keitaro would have been around ten years of age, and it was when I came to visit Hina-san at the Sou. He seemed like a pleasant child at the time, very studious yet eager to pursue physical pursuits as well."

"From what I have seen, it seems that he has continued in that direction. He is a ronin and is studying to take the entrance exam for Todai, even though he has already taken it once and did not pass."

"Persistence is an admirable trait, Motoko-chan. We also learn more from our failures than from our triumphs."

"Aneue, I wanted to ask you, what do you know of the martial arts that the Urashima practice? I seem to remember you mentioning once that they had a family style of their own?"

"The Urashima do not practice a distinct style of martial arts. What they do is encourage their family members to study various disciplines and integrate them into their own personal style. What I do know is that most of them are usually at dan level in kendo and Tai Chi by the time they become adults. You remember when Hina-san came to the dojo to practice with our students."

"Yes, I remember. That demonstration made quite the impression on me, especially when Granny Hina was fending off three swordsmen at once while unarmed."

"Hina-san is the equivalent to a high dan master in her knowledge and experience. It would give me very serious pause to have to fight her, Motoko-chan."

"I have seen the manager and his sister practicing their kata here at the Sou, and today I saw something I have never seen before. The manager was performing a Tai Chi kata, and his sister was mirroring his motions, in perfect synchronization, maintaining the same distance throughout, and with them not looking away from each other's faces. Aneue, it was a perfect kata on both their parts."

"…That is very rare, Motoko-chan. That speaks to a possible soul bond between the two of them, where they know each other so well that they don't need to signal or speak to each other in a fight. Together they would be very dangerous to face against in battle. How old are the two of them?"

"The manager is approximately 20 years old. His sister is slightly younger than I am, yet she drives a motorcycle, so she is at least 16 years old."

"Motoko-chan, I've noticed that you do not refer to either of the Urashima by name, why is that? You yourself said you are no longer having trouble with them."

"I… just don't feel comfortable around them. The manager does an acceptable job in controlling his emotions, at least to the point where I normally don't detect the chi he produces, but his sister is another story. Her emotions are always straining against her control. It is like standing in front of a bonfire and not knowing if it will suddenly grow out of control."

"Interesting… and this Kanako is at least dan level from what you tell me. Maybe this is the result of her training and controlling her emotions."

"If this is after her learning control, I shudder to think about meeting her before she learned to control her chi."

"Heh… yes, quite. Motoko-chan, there is something I should tell you. Do you know if Kanako-san practices her martial arts outside of family training?"

"As a matter of fact, it was mentioned that Kanako-san used to compete in the public school tournaments, and did very well, but that this year she was only going to coach the school club competitors. I did find that odd."

"It is not as much odd as it is necessary. Kanako-san is the exception to most Urashima, who do not compete in martial arts. They are not specifically banned from competing, but their presence tends to make opponents who know about them rather nervous."

"Nervous for what reason, aneue?"

"The Urashima family art was developed as a combat defense school, and it is pretty much still one to this day. Practitioners can control the amount of harm they can cause their opponents, but if they are pressed too hard, or if someone is in serious danger, they revert to the original training, and that at the very least is rather rough on their opponents. You do not want to get a Urashima very angry with you when you fight them, you will not escape unscathed. "

"That is not an encouraging thing to hear, aneue. Have you so little faith in our training?"

"It is more along the line that I have seen what happens when a Urashima loses their temper. Please take my word on this, Motoko-chan."

"Very well, aneue. I have to get going now, dinner will be served shortly in the dining room. It was good to talk with you."

"And I am always happy to hear from you as well, Motoko-chan. Have a good night."

"Good-night, aneue."

Keitaro sighed as the train finally pulled into the station. The legendary Japanese bureaucracy had taken its toll today. The Kanazawa Ward building permit office had not been happy that the old shed at the Sou had been replaced by the new one without the necessary paperwork, so they were making it difficult in approving the paperwork, even though the MolMol embassy had already received preliminary approval for the replacement. Keitaro had to personally go down to the ward office to get the final documents approved. Now it was 3:30 in the afternoon, and he was hoping to get off the train before the end of the business day and the human wave of workers that poured from the hundreds of offices and flooded the mass transit system to get home.

Walking onto the train carriage and hooking his arm around one of the overhead vertical supports, Keitaro reached up and pulled off his tie and unbuttoned his shirt collar while shifting the knapsack on his back. Even after years of attending a public school with the traditional military styled gakuran uniform, Keitaro was not comfortable with having a tight collar. In fact, it was the only thing he ever got in trouble about in school, as he would unlatch his collar as soon as he thought he could get away with it, and sometimes a strict teacher would not approve. Compared to the more delinquent elements at his school, it was almost ridiculous to get demerits for that, but then again, Keitaro was less likely to laugh in the face of the offended teacher than a yanki or bozozoku student.

Feeling the carriage jerk as they started to leave the station, Keitaro pulled in tighter against the support and started to look around. Thankfully the carriage was not packed the way it was earlier in the morning so Keitaro was able to get a good look around. He was at the rear of the carriage so he was able to look forward down the length of the car, and that is when he saw her.

Leaning up against a carriage window was a girl with long brown hair done up in two thick braids, heavy horn-rimmed glasses on her face. She was dressed in baggy overalls with a heavy sweatshirt on top and was gazing out the window with a distant look on her face. She looked very familiar to Keitaro, and after a moment he realized why; it was Naru Narasegawa, with a totally different look from what he was used to at the Sou.

Keitaro mentally debated if he should approach and greet her. While they were getting along better than when he had first come to the Sou, they were still not very close to each other, at least in a 'let's make casual conversation with each other' way, especially in the confines of a train carriage. So he decided to keep his distance, and if she got off at the same train station as him, he could greet her then.

Decision made, Keitaro started to look around the carriage again. From the looks of things, they were two stops away from the station closest to the Sou, where he and presumably Naru would get off.

Looking up toward the front, Keitaro saw something unusual; two men, both in their twenties, yanki (thug) types, were walking toward the rear of the carriage. Normally, commuters did not move through a crowded carriage unless they were about to get off at a station.

Looking closer, Keitaro could feel the hair on the back of his neck start to stand. Both men had what was called a predator look on them; their faces were tilted downward slightly but their eyes were up and scanning, looking for threats and witnesses. Their eyes kept coming back to their presumed target however; the oblivious girl looking out the window.

By the time Keitaro processed all this, the two yanki were a short distance away from Naru. Keitaro started toward them, but was three meters away when the two were right next to her. Still, he was close enough to hear the one who dropped a heavy arm on a startled Naru's shoulders hiss out the words, "Hiya bitch, remember me?"

Keitaro could see shock, anger, and then surprisingly, fear cross over Naru's face. Looking over where the second yanki standing behind her, he could see the reason; a knife was pressed point first against her back, right at about kidney level.

Feeling his blood run cold, Keitaro held steady at two meters, still hidden in the crowd of commuters. Consciously, he turned his head so it appeared like he was looking past them, but he kept them in his view out of the corner of his eye. He could also hear what the first yanki continued to say to the now terrified Naru.

"You shouldn't have kneed me in the balls the other day, you stupid bitch. Now you are going to come with me and my buddy to a nice quiet place I know and have a real good time with us, or we'll stick you and leave you to bleed to death on this train." The yanki grinned sadistically, showing tobacco stained teeth.

Keitaro's mind was now running at a hundred miles an hour. Both yanki were too close to Naru for him to take out, especially with her at knifepoint. There were no uniformed security or police officers in sight, and while there were some assigned to train stations, by the time he found one the two men and Naru would be long gone. The only way to stop them was to spring an ambush on them as they started to move off the train and onto the platform.

Hearing the conductor announce their arrival at the next station, Keitaro rapidly put a plan together in his head. It would require split second timing, and what an instructor had amusingly called 'the violence of action'.

Feeling the train come to a stop, Keitaro turned and faced the doors as they opened, still keeping the two men and girl on the edge of his vision. Waiting until they started to walk through the unknowing crowd, Keitaro followed behind them, and when they were on the platform and clear of most of the crowd, he flipped a mental selector switch in his head.

Moving at a brisk walk, Keitaro came up behind the trio, but off to the left side, as the lead yanki was on Naru's right and had his left arm on her shoulders. The second yanki was to Naru's left and behind her, using his body to conceal the knife he had pressed up to her back, his arm at a 45 degree angle and aimed inwards

Looking as though he was going to pass to their left, Keitaro abruptly rotated on the left foot and came up to the right and behind the second yanki. Reaching out with both hands, he grabbed the yanki's elbow and wrist , and while locking down the wrist so he could not harm Naru, drove the heel of his other hand full force up and against the back of his elbow.

With a loud crackly pop, the yanki's elbow disintegrated as it was forced to bend 90 degrees in a direction it was never meant to go. The yanki's shriek of agony instantly attracted the attention of everyone in a fifty meter radius, badly startling his partner and their victim.

Even as Naru and the other yanki instinctively cringed, Keitaro jerked the first yanki back and kicked him hard behind the knee. Even if there was no audible pop with this strike, the fact that his knees slammed into the pavement full force did not help at all. His head hitting the concrete with a thud a moment later was merely icing on the cake.

"NARU, GET AWAY!" Keitaro roared as he spun back toward the remaining yanki. Seeing him tighten his grip on the now struggling girl and his free hand start to dig into his jacket pocket, Keitaro leapt forward and unleashed a hand strike over Naru's shoulder aimed at the yanki's face. However the heel of his hand missed his nose and impacted on the yanki's orbital arch above his eye socket with a crunch, causing him to jerk away and release Naru, who fell to the ground and started to scrabble away from the fight.

"Bastard!" The yanki was snarling as he finally pulled his hand from his pocket, producing a switchblade that he immediately clicked open. "I'm gonna fucking cut you up!"

Keitaro almost laughed at the weapon. Given what he had previously faced, a cheap switchblade with a three inch blade was almost an insult. But seeing the yanki drop into a knife fighter's stance, Keitaro knew to take this seriously.

Slipping off his knapsack, Keitaro grabbed the shoulder straps with his left hand, holding the bag as an improvised shield and flail. His right hand was up and cocked, ready to strike as soon as an opportunity presented itself. And it did not take long; as soon as the yanki's knife started to arc in toward him, Keitaro blocked it with his bag, continuing to advance forward and pushing up against the yanki's knife so that it was trapped under pressure and unable to be easily freed.

Close enough to be pressing his bag against the yanki , Keitaro launched a knife-hand strike at his throat. It did not hit hard enough to crush his windpipe, nonetheless the yanki fell back gasping and wheezing, one hand to his neck.

Seeing that that yanki was still holding the knife, even if he was almost combat ineffective, Keitaro moved to finish the fight. Stepping forward, he unleashed a forward snap kick into the yanki's stomach, the tip of his boot hitting the solar plexus, driving out his air and temporarily paralyzing his breathing; he instantly doubled over, but was still on his feet. Sliding to the side opposite the knife, Keitaro fired off a three-quarter power straight punch into the side of the yanki's jaw. His head snapped to the side and he dropped like a bag of rocks, instantly unconscious.

Standing there for a moment and breathing heavily, Keitaro looked around him, making sure there were no other threats present. Other than a few dozen commuters who had watched the brutal fight in shocked disbelief, and Naru, who was wide-eyed as she was still sitting on the pavement a few meters away, there was nothing else that looked to be a threat.

Stepping over to where the last yanki's knife was laying next to his hand, Keitaro kicked it a couple meters away to keep it out of reach. Looking over at where the first yanki's knife was, he saw that it was far enough already.

"Someone call for the police…" Keitaro finally said, his voice hoarse. "Tell them we need medical assistance as well." Seeing that no one was moving, he mentally rolled his eyes. "For the gods' sake…" he muttered as he stepped toward one of the support pillars of the station and hit the red emergency alert button before stepping back toward the downed yanki and the prep school student who was slowly coming to her feet. "You OK, Naru?"

"Yeah…" Naru was now standing, but not too steadily. "What about you?"

"I've been better." Keitaro looked up as he started to hear police whistles and running feet coming up the stairs to the station. "It's over now Naru," he said as he stepped up next to her. Seeing her start to shiver slightly, Keitaro very carefully reached out with his hand and put it on her shoulder. After a long moment, Naru almost collapsed onto Keitaro as she started to get a major case of the shakes.

Dropping the knapsack still in his hand and holding onto the trembling girl, Keitaro looked up to see uniformed police start to arrive and pause at the sight of the two unconscious yanki. "Officer, this girl's been the victim of an assault, she needs medical attention!" he called out.

As more officers arrived, Keitaro relaxed slightly. Although the day was far from over, the danger was past, and that was never a bad thing.

Author Note (second) - I want to thank all the readers of this story, which at this point in time has had more than 34,300 Hits, 76 Reviews, 136 Story Alerts, 136 Favorites, and is on 10 C2 lists. Pretty good for a couple months work. *grin*

As I may have mentioned before, when a story is posted on FFN, the writer can go to the Author Statistics page and see more detailed facts about who is reading your story. Among these facts are the countries where the story is being read. And while it is quite obvious that most of the readers are in the US (for example, roughly 13,000 hits out 19,000 hits in the month of August are from the US) you see all the different places in the world that is reading your story. Kinda intimidating, actually.

So the reason I am bringing this up is to mention all the out of the way places where some guy/gal is sitting in front of their computer and goes, 'Hey, I want to read me some Love Hina fanfic, lets go online!'

What are some of these out of the way places? (If I don't list your country, it's not because I am snubbing you, it's just because it doesn't have that 'Damn, someone in so-and-so country is reading my story?' zing to it. Needless to say, almost all of the industrialized heavy hitter countries are represented, i.e. North and South America, Europe, and parts of Asia.).

Here is a partial list for the month of August, in no particular order :

Iceland

Slovakia

Northern Marinas Islands

China (I'm presuming the PRC) and Hong Kong

Jordan and United Arab Emirates

Latvia and Estonia

Barbados and the Bahamas

India and Pakistan

Brunei and Singapore

Australia and New Zealand (lots of fans Down Under , actually)

South Africa and Mauritius (had to look that one up, and I'm good in geography)

The Russian Federation

Iraq

And the mysterious 'blank' listing. I'm not kidding – there is a listing for a country out there, but the slot for the country name is blank. Which means that for all I know it can be coming from Antarctica, the middle of the ocean, or outer space. *shrug*

And the last interesting fact – I have less readers in Japan (12) than I do in Malaysia (40). Go figure. *shrug again*

Thanks again for reading.