Ch 23

V 1.5

Shibuya Station
Tokyo, Japan
Two years ago
3:27 PM Local Time

Kanako Urashima was waiting impatiently for the coffee cart server to finish her order. Her nii-chan was due to arrive in a few minutes and she did not want to be late.

Keitaro was in the final days before he was to take the entrance exam for the University of Tokyo. Keitaro should have been a nervous wreck – other students she knew of that were taking the entry test for less prestigious universities were literally worrying themselves sick before they took their tests – but her big brother was strangely calm about the whole thing. When she had asked him about it, he had merely smiled at her and said, "I've studied for years for this test. I know I'm going to get into Todai. So why worry about it?" But even as she heard his fearless words, she could see the tiniest spark of nervousness in his deep brown eyes, and she wanted to do whatever she could to assuage it.

Kei-kun normally rode home on the train with her after they both left school, but he had to leave class early to do some paperwork in the administration office regarding his upcoming graduation. So they had agreed to meet at Shibuya Train Station , at the statute of Hachi, a loyal pet Akita dog that waited at the same spot for the train that would bring his master home from his job at the University of Tokyo. One day the man died of a stroke at work, but for ten years afterwards Hachi would show up at the same spot at the time the train would arrive from Todai, until the loyal dog finally passed away as well.

The younger Urashima did not know what to think about the meeting place. It was a popular place to meet for many people, and Hachi's owner had been a Todai professor, but the thought of waiting for years for someone who would never come sent shivers down her spine.

Tapping her foot, Kanako watched as the server prepared her decaf vanilla coffee with steamed milk. She had to be careful drinking coffee, since any intake of caffeine would turn the insomniac hyperactive. Being awake at 3 in the morning was bad enough, let alone being unable to keep from twitching in her chair while studying, or gods forbid, laying in her futon.

Kanako gave a quick look around as the server was finishing, both to see if Keitaro was arriving, and on the lookout for people with perverted intent. It did not happen often, but there were men and teens out there that thought that a fourteen year old girl wearing a school blazer, blouse, tie, and plaid skirt was just like the ones in the doujin manga they read, and were all ready to go and have a tawdry tryst at the nearest love hotel. They also did not like to take 'no' for an answer, but on the rare occasion that someone tried to grab her after she firmly refused them and walked away, grasping the ring and little finger of the hand that was on her and abruptly and violently bending them 90 degrees the wrong way tended to get her point across.

"That will be 590 yen, miss." The server said. Kanako started to dig through her coin purse in her handbag, therefore she did not see the server look over her shoulder at a young male wearing a red and black leather racing jacket who gave him a subtle nod, nor did she see the server slip a small pill into her drink while snapping a travel lid on the paper cup.

Dropping a 500 yen note and a 100 yen coin on the counter, Kanako grabbed her drink and walked away, not wanting to be delayed any longer. Sipping the steaming hot drink, she walked over to the small plaza that had the pedestal and statue of the famous canine and looked around for her nii-chan, not seeing him there yet. Five minutes stretched into ten, and by that time she had finished her coffee and flipped the empty cup into a nearby trash can.

On her next circuit of the plaza, Kanako started to feel tired, sluggish. It was not a feeling she was familiar with, not unless she had been performing hard physical exercise. But this was worse than running sprints in school or a sustained spar while training. It was as though her energy was running out, and she could barely move. Stumbling over to a bench, Kanako was barely able to sit before she would have collapsed.

Slumped on the wooden bench, Kanako was hardly able to move her head to see a male in a red and black racing jacket sit down next to her. Taking her hand as though they were boyfriend and girlfriend, he leaned in close to her face as if he were going to kiss her and looked carefully at her eyes and face to gauge her reactions. When he saw that all she could do was move her eyes and breathe, he smirked slightly before taking her arm and throwing it over his shoulder. Reaching across her back with his arm and taking hold, he lifted her up to where she was standing, the two of them looking like a couple with their arms around each other.

Barely able to stay on her feet as the male was pulling her along, Kanako's head flopped to the side, and she was able to see her brother cross the street and enter the train station plaza a fair distance away, his head turning as he obviously looked for her. Unable to move, not capable of calling out loud for help, Kanako was barely able to do two things.

With all the inner strength she could muster, she managed to form a weak ki pulse and release it, a signal that a chi sensitive would pick up on. And with what little force she was able to muster, she softly cried out "Kei…ta…ro…" before blacking out.

Keitaro Urashima was late, and it was something that he hated.

It was not his fault today. There had been a delay in picking up the paperwork from the high school administration office, as the proper forms had not been filled out. Then he missed his usual trolley to the train station, and he had to wait ten minutes for the next one to come along. Now he was crossing through the pedestrian scramble crosswalk at the intersection and walking toward the plaza of Hachi the dog to meet his little sister, increasing his pace once he got clear of most of the crowd. He knew that she could take care of herself most of the time, but leaving his junior high school aged sister alone in a crowded public place was just asking for trouble.

Reaching the edge of the plaza, Keitaro started to look around for Kanako. He was having trouble finding her, as the small plaza was filled with people, and many of them were school girls in similar uniforms.

His eyes had already swept the plaza once and were coming back the other way when he felt something… a ki pulse. It was something that only a trained martial artist or a chi adept like a temple priest could do. But his eyes automatically looked in the direction the pulse had come from, and the hair on the back of his neck rose.

He could see a young couple walking along with their arms around each other, a male that looked to be in his late teens wearing a red and black racer jacket and jeans, and a girl with long black hair and a school uniform. But looking closer he could see that the girl was barely walking, it was almost as if she was being carried long. But what instantly grabbed his attention was a familiar book bag sliding off her shoulder and fell to the ground, and the couple did not stop to retrieve it. In fact, it looked as though the male was trying to hurry the girl along.

"Kanako…" the Urashima said softly in disbelief. Starting to move faster, he called out "Kanako…" Seeing them keep moving quickly, he finally shouted out "Kanako...!" as he started to run toward them.

Just as Keitaro was about to go into a full sprint, two older teens in leather jackets stepped in front of him. Juking to the side, Keitaro tried to go around them, but one of them grabbed him by the arm and nearly yanked him off his feet.

"Where the hell ya think yer goin', ya little shit?" The taller one sneered at him. "I think ya gotta pay the toll first," his other arm started to pull back, obviously getting ready for a punch.

Becoming almost frantic as Kanako was getting farther away from him, Keitaro ripped his arm free and tried again to run around him, but now the second guy came at him, a glass bottle in his hand arcing toward his head. Barely able to jerk his head out of the way, Keitaro drove a short power punch into the second guy's exposed ribs, driving the air from his lungs and doubling him over. This did nothing to dissuade the first guy, who was now swinging at him with some kind of short club. The Urashima was just able to block the club from hitting his head, but his forearm caught the edge of the weapon and a painful shock ran up his arm, making him think that the blow had almost cracked the bone. It was time for the gloves to come off.

The second guy was now rushing him, his hands outstretched as thought he wanted to grapple with Keitaro, a look of fury twisting his face. Keitaro did not have a lot of time to waste, so as the guy just got within reach, he grabbed his arms and spun in place. With a hard yank he pulled him up and over his shoulder, but instead of letting him go as he cleared the top, Keitaro drove him down and into the ground, hitting head and shoulder first, cracking the latter and making him unconscious.

Keitaro whipped around and saw that the first guy was coming at him again with his club. Dodging to the side as the weapon came down, Keitaro grabbed the guy's arm, twisted it as he spun to the side, brought it over his shoulder and without pausing pulled down with great force until the elbow dislocated with a loud pop, which was followed by a scream from the attacker, a scream that was mercifully cut short as Keitaro drove his elbow back into the guy's temple, knocking him out.

"Kanako!" Keitaro shouted as he began to sprint toward his sister. He could see that the red-and-black jacket guy was dragging her toward a group of rice rocket bikes parked at the curb, as well as a beat up Toyota sedan with the driver's side doors open with another jacket wearing teen standing by, his eyes wide as he saw a guy in a school uniform tear through a couple of members of his crew and was now racing toward them.

"Boss, look out!" The driver shouted as the red-and-black jacket guy got to the car and pushed Kanako toward him. Catching the semi-conscious girl as she fell into his arms, the driver tossed a wooden walking stick toward his leader.

Seeing that the driver of the car was trying to stuff Kanako into the back of the car, at a run and without missing a beat Keitaro grabbed a juice bottle from the hand of a bystander and threw it full force at the driver. The bottle missed the driver's head, but it hit the door frame and shattered, glass fragments and juice spraying into the driver's face a foot away. With a shriek the driver dropped to his knees and started clawing at his eyes, blinded and in pain from the injury as Kanako fell halfway into the car, her legs hanging out of the open door.

The red-and-black jacket guy spun around and seeing Keitaro running toward him. Snarling, he grabbed the stick in both hands and pulled them apart, producing a gleaming sword blade two feet long.

Seeing the blade but unable to stop in time due to his speed, Keitaro instead lowered himself and slammed shoulder first into the guy, driving him back into the car and trying to grab the guy's sword arm, but he was at a bad angle to do so. Grappling with the guy face to face, Keitaro began to give him the infamous 'Glasgow kiss', slamming his forehead repeatedly into the guy's brow and nose, breaking and bloodying the later before being shoved backwards, falling back on his butt and losing his glasses in the process.

Scuttling backwards, Keitaro could see the guy taking a good two handed grip on his swordstick blade; a double bad sign, as it showed that he had proper kenjitsu training and was no longer looking to get away but instead was focusing on attacking Keitaro.

As the swordsman started to advance on Keitaro, his hand hit something sticklike. Not willing to be choosy at this point, he took hold of it as he scrambled to his feet, and saw it was the sheath of the swordstick the guy was wielding. He was just able to toss it from his left to right hand when the guy attacked, the blade whistling as it arced toward his head. Keitaro was barely able to bring the sheath up to block, but it was not at the angle to properly deflect the blade. The wooden sheath disintegrated under the blow as it kept the blade from striking him.

Dropping the small remnant of the sheath, Keitaro circled as the guy kept advancing toward him, dodging the various strikes the guy kept unleashing at him. Even with him unarmed against the furious kidnapper, Keitaro was not in a bad situation, as all he had to do was evade and delay the guy long enough for the police to arrive, as they almost certainly had be called by someone on a cell phone due to the disorder that had started when he chased after his sister.

But as soon as Keitaro even thought that, the back of his legs bumped up against a park bench. Looking around frantically, Keitaro saw that the guy had deliberately driven him against the bench to trap him, as he would not be able to dodge or get out of the way anymore. The look on the guy's bleeding face became positively demonic as he stepped closer and brought his sword up then down at high velocity.

Seeing the sword slow down yet continue toward him inexorably, Keitaro realized he had gone into tachypsychia due to the extreme danger he was in. Knowing that if the sword hit either his head or neck he was dead and Kanako would disappear, Keitaro performed one last desperate tactic. Supercharging the chi in his body, Keitaro concentrated his spiritual energy in his left hand and arm and swung it upwards full force at the descending blade, aiming not just at the blade but past it.

With a loud crash, the sword blade shattered as it met the reinforced hand, the force behind both blows driving both sets of hands past each other. The guy's hands, still holding the blade handle, swung down in front of Keitaro's torso, not causing any damage since the blade fragments extending from the hilt were too short to reach to him. However, Keitaro's hand hit something relatively soft, which crunched under the impact of the edge of his hand and threw the guy backwards and down.

The force of the blow landing tossed Keitaro back onto the bench, although he quickly came to his feet. Looking around rapidly, he saw that there were no other hostiles coming toward him out of the stunned crowd, and that Kanako was still laying halfway in the open car door.

Running toward his sister, he dragged her out of the car and past the driver that was still writhing on the ground. Laying her down on the grass, Keitaro quickly checked her pulse and breathing, and was relieved to find them, abet a bit on the slow side. She was semi-conscious, although she was starting to twitch and move more, showing she was waking up.

Hearing a low strangled gasping, Keitaro looked around and saw that the last guy was on his back, his face turning a dark purple. Stepping closer to him, he could see that his eyes were bulging and he was struggling to breathe, even though those struggles were lessening. After a moment Keitaro could see why; his hand strike had hit him in the throat and larynx and completely crushed it, turning them a dark purple as well from the bruising and swelling.

Even as Keitaro thought about any first aid he might be able to do – although something like this would take a surgical tracheotomy to fix – two police officers came running through the crowd, shouting "Police, Police, what happened here!"

Keitaro suddenly began to feel weak, as the adrenaline started to wear off. Dropping down so he was next to Kanako, he gestured toward the downed teens. "They… tried to… kidnap… my sister. I… had to… fight them… to save her."

One of the officers had dropped down to one knee and was examining the last fighter. After a few moments, he grabbed his shoulder radio microphone and called for multiple ambulance and medical response. Looking over at Keitaro, he asked incredulously, "What the hell did you do him?"

"Came at me… with a swordstick. Had to… break the blade…. hit his neck too." Keitaro was getting dizzy as the officer pulled out a CPR mask from a pouch on his belt and tried to breathe for the downed fighter, to no effect.

The officer grabbed his mike again. "This is Shibuya 3-2, I have at least one critical injury here, put a rush on the medics. This is a major response call, I need supervisors and investigators here ASAP." Letting go of the mike, the officer began to do rescue breathing again, but by this time there was no response from the downed fighter.

Hearing the high-low sirens of the ambulances arriving, Keitaro saw medics carrying bags ran toward them and started to work on the motionless fighter. Sitting still, he watched as they tried to intubate him before they lifted him onto a stretcher and moved off toward the waiting ambulance, As more medics arrived, and one of the medics started to examine Kanako, Keitaro finally fell back onto the grass, his eyes looking up at the sky as even more sirens came closer.

Hinata-sou Dormitory,
Hinata City, Tokyo, Japan
Current day
3:25 PM Local Time

"…That was the end of the fight that day, but there were serious consequences as a result." Kanako said as she sat across the table in front of a motionless Motoko. "Every one of the gang members that were involved in my abduction received severe injuries as a result of fighting Keitaro-kun. A separated shoulder was the least of the injuries. A broken elbow joint and the loss of vision in one eye as a result of broken glass were the injuries sustained by two of the accomplices. The last injury was the gravest; the man that had kidnapped me had his throat crushed when Keitaro broke the sword that he was trying to kill him with. That man died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital." Kanako looked at Motoko for a moment, but the older girl remained silent.

"Because his actions had resulted in the death of another person, and I was not in a condition to verify what had occurred, Keitaro was taken into custody by the Tokyo police. He was held and interrogated as a criminal suspect for almost 24 hours before I regained full consciousness in the hospital and called my family. It took Granny Hina 30 minutes after she got the call from my parents to march down to the police station and get Keitaro-kun released. Granny and Keitaro-kun never spoke about what happened at the station, but I do know that one police investigator was demoted and another dismissed as a result." Kanako gave an almost imperceptible shudder as she remember the look on her nii-chan's face as he got home from the police station, his bruised face showing exhaustion and grief. "Once the police investigation was completed a week later, the testimony of the onlookers in the crowd and the confession of the coffee vender that had drugged me lead the prosecutor's office to rule that the death of my abductor and the injuries of his accomplices were excusable."

"The coffee vendor confessed?" Motoko asked, this her first question since the story began.

"The vendor was a member of the bosozoku gang that had kidnapped me. Apparently, this gang had a relationship with a yakuza group, and what they would do is drug young girls' drinks, abduct and gang rape them, forcibly addict them to drugs to control them, and sell them to prostitution rings, or to human trafficking groups overseas." Now it was Motoko's turn to shudder at the images she came up with after that description. While violent crime was relatively rare in Japan, the true stories of North Korean agents abducting Japanese citizens to take back to their country was still fresh in the public's mind.

"Once the hospital tested me for drugs and came up positive for rohypnol, the police investigated the drink vendors around the plaza. The vendor who drugged me was found relatively quickly, as the drink cart he worked from was owned by his family." Kanako paused for a moment as she looked down at her hands.

"The day after I arrived home from the hospital, I went to wake Keitaro-nii-chan for breakfast, but I found his bedroom empty. We looked throughout the house but he was not there, and my family and myself were starting to panic. Keitaro-kun had been very quiet and depressed that week, and we were starting to fear that he had left to do something rash." Here Kanako stopped speaking for a moment, but Motoko understood what she meant; the Urashimas had thought that Keitaro had become suicidal.

"It was not until late that afternoon that we found Keitaro, as he was slowly walking toward the house from the trolley station. When I ran out of the house and asked him where he had been, he just gave me a sad smile and said, 'Today was the Todai test, and I had to keep my promise. I don't think I did very well though.' Then he started to shake as though from the cold, and he would have collapsed if I had not been there. I had to almost carry him home, and he stayed in bed for three days after that. It took almost a month before he was almost like he was before that day, but something changed in him, and he's become sadder since then. It was three months after he got the news that he had not received a high enough score on his exam that he got a contract labor job with a professor at Todai and went overseas on an expedition."

Kanako looked at Motoko steadily, locking eyes with her. "The reason I am telling you this story is because Keitaro was able to overcome what happened to him that day, and while our family helped as much as we could, it was because of Keitaro himself that he got better. You can never give up, even when you think you are in the worst of situations. Ultimately it is your strength of will that will help you withstand what has befallen you."

Her eyes flicking to the paper and pen before her, Kanako looked back up at Motoko. The older girl looked down at the note she had been writing to say goodbye to the other tenants of the Sou, and suddenly feeling disgust at the cowardice the note represented, Motoko picked the sheet up and tore it into pieces before tossing them into a trash bag.

"It is almost time for dinner to be served, Kanako-san. I need to get ready, as I need to say goodbye to everyone. Could you do me a favor?"

"If I can," Kanako replied, her tone noncommittal.

"I don't want to ruin everyone's dinner by telling them I am leaving before they eat, so if you can ask everyone to assemble in the living room after dinner? I will say goodbye then." Motoko saw Kanako think for a moment before nodding.

"I will ask Keitaro-kun, but I do not think he will have a problem with it. I'll go and ask him right now." Rising to her feet, Kanako walked to the door. Turning back, she looked as though she wanted to say something, but finally turned and left.

Motoko closed the room door and made sure that it was locked. Walking over to the dresser, she set down the duffle bag next to it, and then moved to the low table and put her shoulder bag on top of that. Looking around the minimally furnished room, she was reminded more than a little of her former room at the Sou, the room she had barely left today.

Her farewells with the other tenants of the Sou had not gone as badly as she had feared, although it was a close thing. The girls had all been shocked at her announcement that she had to leave the dormitory due to 'family obligations'. Shinobu had nearly burst into tears and Su almost had to be pried off her waist, she was hugging her so tight. It was only after Motoko had reassured the younger girls that she would still see them at school that they calmed down.

Naru was surprised but otherwise quiet about her departure, but it was Kitsune that had worried her. The fox-eyed girl had been watching her with a calculating look on her face, obviously not believing what the former swordswoman was telling them. She managed to slip away and not get cornered and interrogated by her, but not without seeing the look on the Urashimas' faces as she left the room. Apparently, they had not expected to hear that even though she was leaving the Sou, she was still staying in Tokyo.

After giving the tenants in the living room a hug, Motoko had picked up the two bags waiting for her at the entryway, walked out the door and down the hill to a waiting taxi. She had already said her farewell to her sister in her room, and that had been more wrenching than walking away from her home for the last three years had been.

Motoko and Tsuruko sat on the tatami mat in her former room facing each other, not saying anything. Blame, recriminations, anger had no place at a time like this. This was a moment for the truth, and Motoko had resolved to not make things worse for the person that had saved her from oblivion. The fact that it seemed that all emotion had frozen inside of her only made it easier for now.

Taking out a folded piece of paper from her pocket, Tsuruko placed it on the mat before her and waited until Motoko had picked it up and read what was written inside before speaking. "Motoko-chan, that is the information of the family of our retainer that will be letting you use her family name, as well as the address of a friend of mine who will let you stay in a room for up to a week. By that time, you need to make arrangements on your own."

Placing a small mobile phone on the mat as well, the older sister continued. "This is a prepaid phone, of which I will be making the payments for. In your bank account, I arranged for a deposit of 500,000 yen, as well as continuing monthly deposits of 200,000 yen to cover your costs. These should be enough to pay for rent, food, and other expenses while you attend school. If you need more money, you will have to get a part-time job somewhere, preferably something that will not interfere with your studies. My phone number is already programmed in the phone, I will now be your point of contract with our family. I would like to hear from you every week or so, the way we have been doing it up until now, only you need to call that number instead of the family house number you have been using up until now." Watching as her sister picked up the phone and place it to her side, she waited for her to respond.

"Why are you doing this, aneue? Why are you going through all this trouble for someone who has dishonored our family so gravely? The elders wanted to cast me away completely, and our relationship has not been as it was before. Why are you fighting so hard for me?" Motoko watched as her elder sister's eyes dropped to the mat between them.

"I am doing this because it is partially my fault that you are in the situation that you are in." Looking up at her younger sister, she continued. "I had always assumed that you were more mature and level-headed than you turned out to be, and that you would be able to understand without explanation the actions and decisions that have been made. I had thought that it was merely childish jealousy that made you dislike my marriage, and that it would not affect you the way it did when you started disliking all men. I should have been clearer in telling you why I got married, why you became clan heir, why we allowed you to come to Tokyo. Instead, you had to deal with all this on your own, and it… did not turn out well.

"What I should have done is break family tradition and been there for you. Too many members of our family are stuck in the traditions of our family arts, where the elders teach and the young absorb and memorize. But you are not just a sponge to pour knowledge into, you have emotions and feelings of your own, and suppressing them when you don't agree only made things worse."

Leaning forward toward her sister, Tsuruko continued. "You have to promise me to keep fighting, Motoko-chan. Life is not just martial arts and duty. Life is finding something you are good at and enjoy doing, and hopefully finding someone to share it with. So promise me, Motoko, that you will keep fighting and searching for what is your true destiny. You are the one that are in control of your life, please find what will make you happy, and make me proud."

Motoko sat motionless for a long moment before giving a slight bow and saying, "I promise, aneue…"

Kneeling down on the tatami mat in her borrowed room, now wearing only a white robe in spite of the chill, Motoko looked at the bundle in her lap, wrapped in white silk. Slowly unfolding the fine cloth, she looked at the kaiken dagger within. All of her other weapons had been left behind at the Sou, to be shipped to her former family home, but this one had been a personal gift from a relative, and she had kept it, although she had made sure that her sister did not see it when she was packing.

Unsheathing the small weapon, Motoko brought the knife close to her face, seeing her pale face and long loose back hair reflected in the gleaming blade. Holding the blade in her hand was different now; before weapons gave her a sense of comfort, a reassurance that she could protect herself and other. But now the blade only made her feel a sense of loss, a reminder of what she was now forbidden to use and practice.

…Promise me, Motoko, that you will keep fighting… her sister's voice echoed in her mind, please find what will make you happy.

I promise, aneue…

Slowly turning the blade so that it was at the optimum angle to cut, Motoko brought the blade to her throat, her other hand taking hold of her hair and moving it to the side. Feeling the painful knot of unknown emotions in her chest growing larger and more virulent, the newly proclaimed ronin stayed motionless for a long moment, steeling her nerves before swiftly cutting with the razor sharp blade.

Handfuls of long black strands fell to the floor as Motoko hacked it away, leaving her hair uneven just below ear's length. Finally dropping the knife, Motoko wrapped her hands around herself, rocking back and forth on her knees as her anguish and sorrow finally began to escape from her formerly iron control in the form of muffled sobs.

Sitting motionless in the darkened room, a single figure knelt on the tatami mat in the room facing the window, although she was not looking at any particular thing. The only sound was her breathing, the only light coming under the door from the hallway behind her.

A new sound became apparent, that of footsteps. They would not have been noticed otherwise, but the house was so quiet this night that it could be heard. The steps stopped in the hallway, there was the sound of someone tapping on the door, and after a long moment it clicked open, partially illuminating the empty tenant room, light reflecting off the window glass and onto the tears trailing down the face of Tsuruko Aoyama.

Keitaro Urashima stepped into the room and paused for a moment before he spoke, his voice even. "You and I need to talk, Aoyama-san."

A/N: At 6208 words, this is the largest chapter I have written, and the most involved action sequence to date. Hopefully it will meet with your approval. *grin* Not that it is an excuse for this chapter being a week late, but I have another explanation, really… Modern Warfare 3. *sigh* The good news is that I've made it through the single player game, and I'm not much of an multiplayer, so I'm not going to get hung up on it again. The other good news is that even though Halo Anniversary version is coming out, I'm not going to get caught up in it like I did MW3.

This is pretty much the end of the first arc of this story. There are two more arcs coming, and everyone's favorite professor and his daughter will be showing up soon.

Many thanks to PCH and AZ MII for their betaing and commentary.

As of 16Nov 2011 0000 PDT this story has 90,568 hits, 208 Reviews, 21 C2 listings, 325 Favorite listings, and 283 Story Alerts. Thanks again, guys. *thumbs up*