Ch 57
V 1.0
Hinata-sou Dormatory
Hinata City, Kanagawa Prefecture
Metro Tokyo, Japan
early February, early Saturday morning
"Why are we up so early, Naru-chan?" Kitsune was yawning and rubbing her eyes as she stumbled into the kitchen. Saturday mornings were for sleeping in, not for getting up as the ass crack of dawn.
"Because Keitaro-sempai is doing a demonstration this morning and you needed to get up anyway, you have the mid-day shift at the teahouse this morning." Naru said between drinks from a large mug of steaming black coffee. "Unless you want to do what you do every weekend, wake up late, miss breakfast, and go rushing down the stairs to the teahouse to make it on time." Shinobu Maehara, who had been quietly preparing breakfast while the two older girls were talking handed a mug of coffee, this one loaded with milk and sugar, to Kitsune who took a large sip before looking back to her friend.
"Keitaro-sempai? What happened to Manager-san? Finally getting sweet on him?" Kitsune slyly said, causing her friend to almost have a spit-take.
"He teaches me tai chi and that's helped a lot with my temper and my studying. It's only right that I call him sempai." Naru had a slight blush on her face.
"OK, it's just that I remember what happened to the last guy you called sempai. I don't want you winding up all depressed in bed again." Kitsune was both kidding and serious at the same time. Naru had pretty much got over her massive crush on Noriyasu Seta and she was slowly working her way up to be more sociable, but the ash blonde did not want for her friend to suffer a relapse.
"Okay, okay, I get you. Anyway I got you up because Keitaro-san is going to demonstrate Urashima-ryu and I thought you might be interested." Naru drained her coffee and went to the counter to refill her mug.
"Oh yeah, who wouldn't want to see that hunk of a man get all bare-chested and sweaty?" Kitsune was rubbing hands and grinning, but came to a screeching halt when a flat toned voice spoke behind her.
"Well, it might not be a good idea when the man in question is already with two other women. And when he won't be taking off his gi jacket." Kitsune slowly turned around to see Kanako standing behind her wearing a black gi and hakama, her expression clearly announcing a lack of amusement at the comment. There was an additional statement writ large across her face; and when he is my brother, you ho bag.
"Heh heh heh. Good morning, Kanako-san." There were a couple of sweatdrops visible on Kitsune's face. "Want some coffee?" The fox-faced girl raised her mug toward the younger girl as though she were offering it to her.
"No, thank you. I prefer tea." As though she was waiting for her cue, Shinobu handed the assistant manager a mug filled with steaming black tea. The expression on Kanako face softened slightly as she took the beverage. "Thank you Shinobu-chan. I need to tell you that Keitaro-kun and I will be delayed for breakfast, and Sarah-san and Nyamo-chan as well. Can you please put some food aside for us to eat later?"
"Heyas, Kanako-san! You going to be fighting today? Can I watch?" Su walked into the kitchen wearing her usual abbreviated school uniform outfit, almost bouncing in place.
"Yes Su-chan, you can watch. Since apparently everyone else is going to be there, you are invited as well, Shinobu-chan." Kanako took a sip of her tea after speaking.
"Thank you, Kanako-sempai. I might as well put off breakfast until later," the young blunette replied. Seeing Kitsune open her mouth to complain and abruptly shut it when Kanako shot a look toward her, she continued speaking. "I'll put out some toast and more coffee to tide everyone over until then." The foxy ash blonde looked slightly happier, but not by much. The next few minutes were spent in silence as toast was buttered and eaten and hot beverages drunk, while everyone did their best to ignore the sounds coming from the corner where Su was consuming her morning allotment of bananas, an even six pieces. When Kanako glanced at her wristwatch and stood from the table, the others followed suit. The assistant manager then left the kitchen and walked out to the back yard and the residents followed behind her, with Shinobu and Su bringing up the rear.
Coming up to the designated training area of the yard, everyone saw that Keitaro and Haruka were waiting for them there, the pair also dressed in gi and hakama, dark blue and black in his case and dark grey and black in hers, with sandals and black tabi socks. They were both also holding bokken in their hands in a casual manner and were speaking softly with each other until they saw the group walking toward them, at which point they both turned toward them.
"Good morning everyone. Thank you for being up so early." Keitaro spoke with a slight smile, his dark eyes catching the minute grimace on Kitsune's face at his words. "Kanako-chan, Haruka-chan and I are going to do some demonstrations of basic katas and techniques that are a part of the Urashima-ryu. Unlike most martial arts the Urashima will gladly take anything that works for other styles and incorporate them into our own. Chinese, Indian, Russian, Israeli, French, any country with a martial arts tradition that we come across is reviewed for techniques we can use. The only thing we care about is if will help protect the practitioner and take out the enemy as fast as safely possible." Keitaro looked across the group again before he noticed something and frowned slightly. "Sarah-kun and Nyamo-chan aren't with you, Kanako-chan?"
"No, I thought they were with you." His sister replied, looking around the area. "In fact, I haven't seen them at all this morning. If it turns out she overslept this morning I'm throwing her out of her bed." Among Kanako's neat-freak tendencies was a near-pathological predisposition to being on time; it extended to an intolerance of other people being late.
Keitaro was about to reply when he heard the crackle of leaves and twigs being stepped on. Turning around he looked at the trees that had been a short distance behind him as he and Haruka had been facing the group on the training ground. Since it was barely past daybreak the spaces around the trees on the hill under the foliage and branches were still fairly dark. Now that everyone was looking directly at the darkened trees they could see two figures walking toward them. Two cloaked figures; one was wearing a hooded black robe that covered them down below their knees with the hood leaving their face in shadow, and the other figure the same except for the cloak being a dark brown color.
The two figures silently walked up to Keitaro, who was standing there with his head slightly tilted to the side both otherwise no expression on his face. He shifted his bokken to his left hand and held it reversed with the wooden blade going up along his arm, while Haruka moved off to her cousin's right side, her bokken held in her right hand but pointed toward the ground.
Stopping slightly less than two paces in front of the Urashima heir, the group behind him was surprised to see the pair go down to one knee and bow their heads. A deep but still feminine voice came from under the hood of the black garbed figure; "You have summoned us, what is thy bidding my master?"
A slight smile formed on Keitaro's face before he spoke, his voice deeper than normal. "Rise, my apprentice." As the pair stood he continued speaking in a normal tone. "Good morning Sarah-kun, Nyamo-chan."
"Good morning, Keitaro-sensei." Pushing back the hood covering her face, the figure in black revealed herself to be Sarah McDougal, her cloak opening to show that she was wearing a black gi and hakama with a dull white belt, while Nyamo was wearing a loose light tan tunic with a black belt over dark brown pants under her brown cloak.
"You're late, Sarah-san." Kanako was staring at the younger girl with an unamused look on her face.
Reaching into a pocket in her cloak Sarah pulled out her mobile phone and keyed the display on. Flipping it around, the blonde showed the group the digital clock display. "It's 7:00 AM on the dot, Kanako-sempai. With all due respect, you guys started early, and without checking to see that everyone was here." While her words were polite, the look in her blue eyes were slightly less so.
Kanako gave a slight growl that cut off when Keitaro waved his hand slightly. Looking the two girls up and down, he asked curiously "What's with the outfits? Taking my intro speech to heart, Sarah-kun?"
"A little." A slight smile was on the girl's face. "This is the first time that I'm wearing the outfit, I figured I might as well go with the theme. Nyamo didn't want to go Sith, so we ordered her set in Jedi colors."
"That's not the only thing you did, Sarah-kun." Now that the hood was down, everyone could see what Keitaro was referring to; while Sarah had pulled her blonde hair back into a loose low ponytail, she had taken a thin lock of her hair behind her right ear and braided it. The triple strand braid ended at a yellow bead about a inch from the end of the lock of hair, and the rest was left loose, looking a little like a fine paintbrush. "You do know what the yellow bead means, right?"
"That I'm an initiate, that I just started my training. It's not until you think that I have advanced to the next level that I get the red bead. The other colors are for the kind of training I would be getting. Since I doubt that you are going to train me in piloting or mechanics, I'll probably wind up with another yellow bead to go with the red if I complete weapons training." Sarah shrugged.
"What are the different colors and what do they mean, Sarah-kun?" Kitsune asked curiously.
"White is for healers, blue is for mechanics, the second red bead is for piloting, the second yellow is for weapons, green is for contemplative or mystical studies, and black is for covert operators." While Sarah's eyes had glanced at Haruka when she mentioned the white bead, they were squarely on Kanako when she mentioned the black bead.
"That's so cool, Sarah-chan!" Su cried out, literally bouncing in place. "That means I could get the blue and red beads, right?!"
"Red, blue and red, Su-chan. You're a little beyond initiate level. Spar with me later on to confirm your level, and I'll give you the braid and red bead myself." Keitaro was looking directly at Su while he was speaking, which was the only reason he was able to dodge when the excitable islander girl dove at him. "Later, I said!" Su came to a halt, but pouted regardless. "Tell you what, I have a special demonstration later this morning, you can take part in it."
"YAY! Keitaros is giving me my warrior braid!" Su started bouncing up and down again.
"Warrior braid?" Kanako asked, a frown on her face.
"On MolMol when teachers think fighter ready for battle, they give them braid with charm on it. The more battles they part of, the more braids they get. Master warriors have all their hair in braids. No do that anymore, but part of island traditions." Su then grinned widely. "Poppa have funny wig he wears when doing formal ceremonies, all braids. Look silly, but holding spear and shark tooth club, no one laugh at him."
"Yes, I can believe that." Keitaro had seen some pictures of Polynesian weapons during his time working for Seta, and one of the most fearsome was the leiomano, the Hawaiian name for the shark tooth club. A flat wooden club that had serrated tiger shark teeth inserted along the edges, it could inflict horrific damage with a single blow; it was the prehistoric version of the sci-fi chainsaw sword. "Keep in mind, you have to pass my test to get the braid and red bead, Su-chan."
"No problem, Keitaros-sensei!" Su gave a sloppy bow, grinning all the while.
"Where did you get the cloaks, Sarah-kun?" It was now Naru who asked the next question. "They couldn't have been cheap."
"Su-chan was able to find a shop in Tokyo that caters to the cosplay and otaku crowd. We didn't have to special order them, they had them in stock. They're even waterproof, so I can use it as a light rain and winter coat. And as to the price," here Sarah shrugged slightly again, "I don't spend that much of my allowance, and Su was able to get me a good deal, something about the owner of the shop being part of some internet group she helps run." Almost everyone there paused for a moment, since the only group they were aware of that Su was a part of the Team Vanilla doujinshi translation group, and Sarah had not been present that day when Su talked about it.
Sarah then turned toward Keitaro. "You ready to walk through the valley again, sensei?" she asked, a devil-may-care smile on her face.
Returning the smile with a slight one of his own, Keitaro nodded. "Yes, it's time to start." Handing his bokken to his cousin he said, "Haruka-chan, Sarah-kun, Nyamo-chan, stand with the group. Kanako-chan, please join me." Once his sister was standing next to him he continued speaking. "First I am going to talk about the Chinese martial art of tai chi, which is the basis and foundation of our family style. Both Kanako-chan and I will demonstrate different kata, and then we will show how it applies to real world fighting…"
Before everyone had realized it, an hour had gone by. Keitaro had shown moves from various styles that he was familiar with, a half dozen in all. After showing some movements from tai chi and finishing with a mirror kata with Kanako that had everyone clapping at the end, he demonstrated jujutsu and judo moves with Haruka, and kickboxing and taekwondo moves with Kanako again. Keitaro then invited Su to demonstrate her own style of acrobatic capoeira, which she happily did, show her head over heels flips, jump kicks, and head level spin kicks, her feet moving fast enough to whistle.
Afterwards was the weapons demonstration. First Keitaro demonstrated bojutsu, the art of staff fighting. Using a wooden staff about two meters long, he had Kanako and Haruka attack him at the same time with bokken. The two female Urashima were skilled and fast with the wooden swords, but the clan heir was faster with longer reach. Unless his two opponents attacked simultaneously, Keitaro was able to both fend off their blows and attack in turn, usually aiming at their legs and forcing them to step back from their attacks. When Kitsune asked how practical staff fighting would be against steel swords, Keitaro stated that the battle version of a staff weapon, a pole arm known as the naiginata and topped with a sword like blade approximately 30 to 60 centimeters long, had been used by feudal Japanese women to defend their homes and families when their men were away. Seeing the fox girl's eyebrows go up, Keitaro stated that Granny Hina was a high expert in nagnatajutsu even she was actually shorter than Shinobu. To demonstrate, he had Kitsune hold a bokken in the ready position while Shinobu held the staff in the straight thrust position with one hand holding the staff at the back end and the other a third of the length forward of that. The point stopped about four centimeters from her throat while the sword point was almost half a meter from touching the younger girl. Keitaro then asked her to imagine a sword blade being affixed to the staff point and the ash blonde girl gave a shaky nod before stepping back.
Following that was a demonstration of iaijutsu, the art of fast drawing a sword and either defending or attacking. At first Keitaro demonstrated against a training post; from the ready with the bokken held against his left side as though sheathed he showed the attacks from various angles, from the upper left and right, the lower right and left, and even with the bokken held reversed in his hand. Each draw would result in a loud clack against the post, the sound of the strike still echoing when Keitaro would return the bokken to the sheathed position.
The last sword demonstration that he gave was something that he admitted was risky but he went ahead with because he trusted the other participant implicitly. Standing with his bokken in the sheathed position, Keitaro stood still while Kanako attacked him with her own bokken, swinging the wooden blade at full speed at his arms and shoulders (even with direct orders she was not about to aim at his head). Just as the blade came close, he drew his own bokken and deflected the blade away from him. After the first two times he then blocked the blade, bringing it to a halt a few centimeters from his body. The last time Kanako attacked Keitaro he stepped back and deflected the blade while spinning his own around it and actually ripping it away from her hands and away from her. By the time the younger Urashima had stopped stumbling her brother's sword point was a few centimeters away from her nose. After a few moments of being frozen in this tableau Keitaro stepped back and a slight smile formed on his face, one that Kanako ruefully matched.
"This is going to be the last physical demonstration we are going to do this morning. This form demonstrates one of the most important premises of Urashima-ryu; a true warrior does not need weapons to defend or attack." Keitaro paused as he looked over the group, who were staring back at him. "For this demo, I am going to be unarmed, and my opponents can attack me in any manner they see fit, the only restriction will be no immediately lethal or crippling attacks." At this everyone's eyes widened; that restriction could still result in serious injuries. Keitaro glanced over at Su. "If you want to participate Su-chan, you may." The blonde islander girl started bouncing in excitement. "You have to go first though, I don't know how well you melee fight with multiple participants."
"Okay Keitaros! You ready?" Su asked excitedly.
"Just one more thing." Keitaro walked up the group and after handing his glasses to Sarah gently pulled Shinobu away. Leading the blushing girl up the training post, he turned her around to face the group and walked away so that he was standing at the opposite end of the training ground, about twenty meters away. Su, Kanako and Haraka were standing between him and the young girl, with the rest of the group standing slightly to the side and in the middle of the field.
"This is called Protect the Princess. The objective is to keep me away from Shinobu-chan. You are to prevent me from getting close enough to her for me to touch her. You three can attack me in any form, with weapons or without, as long as it is not lethal or crippling. If I pin you or touch your neck, you're out. If I get pinned or touched on the neck, I'm out. Understood?" His three opponents nodded, the smile dropping off Su's face for once. Haruka and Kanako held their bokken at the ready, while Su unconsciously started doing the capoeira ginga, stepping back and forth and side to side in a triangle pattern.
"Ready? We start when I begin moving toward you." Seeing the three girls nod, Keitaro looked down at the ground, took a deep breath and then released it. Looking back up at his opponents, everyone immediately was struck by the expression on his face; there was a hollow look in his eyes that caused everyone's breath to catch, but Sarah immediately recognized that look. It was the same expression she had seen in the portrait drawing from The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi titled 'The Demon of the Forest', the one that silently yet loudly proclaimed 'I am going to kick your ass.'
Keitaro dashed toward Su, almost sprinting at her, covering the distance between them in less than two seconds. The islander girl reacted almost instantly, jumping up and whipping her foot around in a head level spin kick that actually whistled through the air, but one step from her Keitaro dug his foot into the dirt and angled off slightly, his arm coming up and deflecting the kick. The angle and strength of the move threw the blonde off balance and caused her to tumble to the ground, where she immediately kipped up onto her feet again, her white panties flashing for a moment under her short skirt. Seeing Keitaro standing in place a few meters away she ran toward him and just short of reaching him performed a snap kick aimed at his chest, only for him to reach out to grab her foot and push up and back, causing her to fall backwards to the dirt.
Rolling to the side and back up again Su had an annoyed look on her face. Taking a deep breath she dashed toward Keitaro. Jumping up she cocked her right leg as if she was aiming for his face, but even as he brought up his arm to block she reversed in mid-air and whipped her left foot around at him. He was not able to react fast enough and her instep crashed into the side of his head, knocking him backwards several steps. Su pursued him, trying to get as close as possible as he staggered off balance, unleashing a flurry of foot and knee strikes at his thighs and abdomen and most of them connecting and throwing him back further until he finally dropped flat on the ground and rolled forward toward her, causing her to dive over his tumbling body and roll up to her feet again. By that time Keitaro had spun up onto his feet and was facing her, giving his head a couple of sharp shakes before focusing on her again, a slight trail of blood leaking from his mouth the only sign of damage.
"Not bad, Su-chan. You caught me off guard there with that reverse." Keitaro wiped at his lips with the back of his hand, his eyes not moving from the blonde islander in front of him.
"You pretty good too, Keitaros-san. Not many people walk away from that many heavy hits." There was a thin smile on Su's face as she started her ginga again. "Time for you to stop running away though."
"As you wish." Keitaro stayed put as Su dashed toward him again, not moving away from her attack run.
During all this the other watchers had been observing closely but with varying reactions. Kitsune and Naru were watching wide-eyed, not having ever seen blows being delivered so fast. Sarah and Nyamo were concentrating on the various techniques, noticing almost immediately that their guardian had deliberately not attempting to hurt his opponent. Shinobu was shocked at how aggressive her friend had been in the fight, having never seen this side of her. Haruka was standing with her bokken at a relaxed ready, watching her cousin with a casual but attentive attitude. However Kanako was standing motionless, her eyes narrowed, biting her lower lip, gripping her bokken so hard her knuckles were white, visibly holding herself back from defending her brother.
Just as Su started running toward her opponent, Keitaro clapped his flattened hands together at about sternum level. Moving almost fast enough to blur he performed hand seals, ending in the sign for tiger. Immediately there was a loud whump sound and dust sprung up around his feet to about knee level. By this point Su was about one meter from the young man and had jumped up to execute a snap kick aimed at his chest. Her foot arced in below his hands and connected with his abdomen… and the young blonde bounced backwards, ricocheting as though she had kicked a stone wall.
Flipping up to her feet from the ground, Su drove toward the motionless Keitaro again, performing a spin kick that was aimed at his upper arm, only to bounce off again with no effect to her opponent. Straightening up, Su was about to move toward him again, only for Keitaro to slowly take a step forward. As soon as his leading foot touched the ground there was a booming sound and the ground shook slightly, as though something massively heavy had taken a step. The sound and vibration repeated when he took another step forward the girl, and Su started moving backwards, shock and anxiety writ across her face.
Keitaro was walking slowly toward Su and Shinobu behind her, his footsteps sounding like thunder. The blonde islander started executing every kick in her style, aiming at his chest and legs and bouncing off repeatedly as she was forced to move backwards. The only kicks Keitaro actually blocked were the ones aimed at his head, his arms up and stopping her feet from connecting.
After a full minute of concentrated strikes Su was panting from her exertions, visibly tired from the expenditure of energy. Keitaro had halted his advance and was standing two paces in front of her, his hands up in front of his chest. Taking a deep breath Su stepped forward and dove headfirst, her hands hitting the ground and her legs spinning forward in a full-power cartwheel kick aimed at his head.
Once Su started moving Keitaro clasped his hands together in the snake seal and whispered 'kai', resulting in another whump sound. As Su's hands touched the ground he took a quick step back and to the side, with her feet whistling past his face only a few centimeters away. Just as Su's feet touched the ground completing the cartwheel but before she regained her balance Keitaro's hands shot out and grabbed her shirt and yanked her up and back. With her feet coming back up off the ground unexpectedly the blonde gave a yelp as her lighter body was pulled through the air and slammed down flat onto the ground, her opponent down on one knee beside her. Before she could blink one hand was on her shoulder holding her down and the knife edge of the other hand was lightly touching the front of her throat.
"Out," Keitaro said softly, no expression on his face as he looked down at her.
"Out." Su agreed, lying motionless and staring up at him. A moment later his hands pulled away from her and she sat up, taking his offered hand and letting him pull her to her feet.
"Good job, Su-chan. I'll give you your braid and beads later." Keitaro said to her, a half smile on his face
Su smiled in response to the words, but it was not the usual carefree grin that they were used to, there was a tinge of wariness behind it now. "Thanks, Keitaros-san. What was that technique you use, sound like Godzilla walking through Tokyo, hurt to hit you."
"It's called chimonamidamonai, the Heart of Stone. You use your chi to make your body denser and resistant to damage, but it massively increases your body weight, so you move much slower and like you said you sound like Godzilla. It's also called nadare no jutsu, the Avalanche Technique." Su nodded slowly; being in front of Keitaro when he had been advancing with that technique had been like standing in front of an oncoming avalanche, powerful and unstoppable, as her aching feet testified to. "Now that we are done, can you go stand next to the other girls? I still have a fight to finish." Su nodded again and walked over to the group of bystanders, the fact that she not bouncing over was a sign as to how tired she was.
Keitaro turned to face his cousin and his sister, the two women standing at the ready with their bokken, but one of them was visibly more hesitant than the other. "Haru-chan, Kana-chan, use the elemental techniques." Both of his opponents stiffened at his words, but not as much as when they heard what he said next. "If you don't try your best to stop me I'll start fighting you Granny Hina style." The two females shivered; the Urashima matriarch could be absolutely brutal if she thought her students were holding back more than they were supposed to. Keitaro formed a single hand bird seal in front of his chest and a cyclone of wind materialized around him, broadcasting what his next move was going to be about as subtly as a neon sign. "Ready?"
"Kanako-chan, go high, I'll go low." Haruka muttered as she began to charge her chi reserves, her cousin tightening her grip on her bokken. "Now!"
Flashing forward, Keitaro was intercepted on his way toward Shinobu by Kanako, who after three long strides leapt in a low arc while swinging her wooden sword at her brother. The reason for this became apparent when Haruka let go of her bokken and dropped to one knee, her hands blurring through hand seals ending in the tiger sign before slamming one hand down on the ground; the surface around her for a distance of ten meters erupted as though in an earthquake, buckled earth and fissures forming around her. The reason for this was immediately obvious; Keitaro stumbled as his feet caught on the uneven surface of the ground, throwing him off balance. Even so he was able to twist out of the way of the oncoming bokken strike, diving onto the ground under the whistling blade.
Tucking and rolling, Keitaro barely came to his feet when he had to dodge out of the way of another strike, his sister prosecuting the attack as fast as she could, trying to keep him off balance until her backup arrived. Once Haruka was next to her a few meters away the two fell into synch, the younger girl concentrating on blows aimed at his arms and chest while the older girl focusing on his legs. The two were not simultaneously attacking but it was enough to keep the young man on the defensive and fall back from the girl they were protecting. However that only lasted until they were clear of the fractured earth.
As soon as one of his opponents was on the smooth dirt along with him, Keitaro sprang forward, supercharging the chi in his arm. Kanako barely was able to widen her eyes before her brother's punch hit her bokken, the wooden sword destroyed from the hilt upwards. Keitaro was suddenly face to face with her and even though this would usually be an ideal state in her mind it still caused her to flinch back, which is what saved her from receiving the full power of the knee strike to her stomach. Stumbling backwards Kanako jerked sideways, her brother's fist whistling past her cheek.
"Haruka, guard Shinobu!" Even as she shouted, Kanako tossed aside the bokken handle and released one of the mental seals that controlled her temperament; a whoshing sound was heard and the ambient air temperature suddenly jumped upwards a few degrees as she dug her back foot into the ground and sprang forward, a fire now burning in her gut.
The two siblings began to exchange kicks and blows, blocking, deflecting and dodging as much as they could as they spun in circles, looking to be engaged in a hyper-violent dance. Most of the blows missed their targets, but the few that connected gave a sickening thwack of meat being hit, including the foot strike that connected with his cheek.
By this point all the watchers were wide-eyed; this dance was very similar but also very different from the mirror tai chi kata the pair had done earlier. The kata had been a dance of grace and beauty; this was a dance of brutality and destruction. All the observers had been silent and motionless, except for two. The group heard Su whisper the words "god-touched" in an awed tone, but no one heard when Shinobu softly whimpering the words "no, stop it".
The moment Keitaro was waiting for finally appeared; Kanako inadvertently left an opening and he took advantage of it, punching her hard in the stomach. As his sister jackknifed forward, he stepped slightly past her and shoved her backwards, throwing her onto her back. Instantly he dropped to one knee and put his hand to her throat, softly but clearly announcing the word, "Out."
The onlookers barely had time to hear and process this when Keitaro's head came up and focused on Haruka, who was standing a few meters away from him in front of Shinobu. The older Urashima barely had time to tighten her grip in her bokken when with a loud crack and a spray of dirt Keitaro flash-stepped forward. Even as she began to swing her weapon Haruka was struck on her sword arm; the bokken went one way, her body went the other falling to the ground and suddenly Keitaro was standing in front of and close to Shinobu, his hand on her shoulder. "Done," he said softly, looking down at her pale face. He did not expect to see her burst into tears.
"You… you hurt Kanako-san! You hurt Haruka-san! You… you… meanie!" Shinobu started beating her closed fists against Keitaro's chest, but given her lack of strength and her half-hearted manner, as well as the sobs racking her body, he could hardly feels the blows.
"Kuso," Keitaro cursed to himself softly. He had not realized that the young girl would not react well to seeing two people she looked up to get bounced around like they did by him. The Urashima were inured to this as a result of their years of training; he did not consider how a sheltered child like Shinobu would see this.
"I'm… I'm sorry Shinobu-chan." Keitaro did not really know what else to say, but thankfully his relatives came jogging up as soon as Shinobu broke down. The older cousin was first, and she wrapped her arms around the crying girl.
"Shinobu-chan, Kanako-chan and I are used to this." Haruka pulled the sobbing blunette up against her chest. "This is how we train, this is how we practice because if we have to do it for real, we have to get used to being hit because the people we fight want to hurt us even worse. The more we ache from practice the less we bleed for real."
"But… he was hitting you both so hard I could hear it! He was hurting you!" Shinobu had stopped crying and was now sniffling.
"And Kanako-chan and I were hitting him pretty hard too. We all gave as good as we got. Granny Hina trained and fought us a lot harder than what you saw right now." Haruka was now stroking the girl's hair. Looking up over the shorter girl's head her eyes flicked from one cousin to the other, and her silent instructions were apparent. Slowly the two younger Urashima put their arms around Haruka and Shinobu, Kanako more reluctant due to her social awkwardness with anyone beside her brother, but the three wound up forming a hugging circle around the young girl.
"Shinobu-chan, we fight to protect." Keitaro spoke again. "I fought to protect Kanako-chan, I fought to protect Sarah-kun and Nyamo-chan, and I promise you, I will fight to protect you and Su-chan, and the other girls too. You are part of our family and I will fight and bleed for all of you." The young heir left unsaid the 'and die for you' part of the promise since he was sure Shinobu would not react well to it.
"I wish you didn't have to fight," Shinobu sniffed. "I don't want to see you hurt."
"But fighting is fun, Shinobu-chan!" A blonde islander girl forced her way into the circle and wrapping her arms around the blunette's neck began to rub her check against the other girl's. "Keitaros and Haruka-san and Kanako-san are tough, they can take it!"
"I wish… I just wish… people didn't have to fight for real. It hurts me to see it, right here." Shinobu put her hand over her heart.
"Most times don't fight for real, just play. Playing with someone who keeps up lots of fun, not many people can do. Now going to play all the time with Keitaros!" The dorm manager, the assistant manager, and their cousin did not look happy at Su's remark. Stepping away from the two young girls, the Urashima turned to see the other onlookers nearby, wanting to appear supportive, but not close enough in their friendship to feel comfortable in hugging the young domestic.
"OK then, even though that did not end the way I wanted to, this concludes the demonstration today." Keitaro spoke up. "Shinobu-chan, I know all the food is prepared already, so you are just going to sit down and eat this morning, Kanako-chan and I will do all the serving." Normally it would take tying down the young cook to her chair keep her seated when others cooked or served, but in this case she merely nodded. "The other girls will do the clean-up." Kitsune grimaced at this announcement but a swift elbow from Naru kept her quiet. "Let's get going then," he directed. Su started almost dragging her friend toward the house with an arm around Shinobu's shoulder with Sarah and Nyamo behind them, Naru and Kitsune following after, and the three Urashima bringing up the rear.
Kanazawa High School
Hinata City, Kanagawa Prefecture
Metro Tokyo, Japan
mid February, mid afternoon
"This is madness." Sarah was staring at the cardboard box sitting in front of her shoe locker in the empty school hallway. The medium-sized box was filled with wrapped chocolate treats and what looked to be handwritten greeting cards, all with ribbons and hearts attached to them. There was even a red heart shaped Mylar balloon on a ribbon attached to a smallish white bear holding a heart with the Japanese characters for 'Be My Valentine' printed on it.
"Madness? THIS! IS! HIGH SCHOOL!" Aki was standing next to the other girl, a wide grin on her face. "You have to realize that you are one of the hottest girls in school, Sarah-kun, besides me of course." The taller girl was many things, but modest really was not one of them.
"So the hell what? That doesn't mean that they have to buy out a candy store for me." Sarah was now on one knee beside the box, gingerly picking through it.
Sarah had been looking forward to the end of school, since her day had been so weird. First it seemed that every person had noticed her padawan braid and were either staring at her (mostly the guys, but they did that a lot anyway) or cooing on how kawaii it was (some of the girls). The teachers were giving her odd looks too, but since the braid did not violate the school rules, they could not punish her for it. What made it even more obvious was that both Su and Nyamo were wearing braids as well. The hyper blonde islander girl was wearing hers with a red-blue-red bead pattern, while the dusky islander girl was wearing a red-yellow-green pattern compared to her own single yellow bead. Almost instantly rumors started to circulate that the braids were a sign that the two other girls were part of a harem put together by Sarah, which caused the American girl to roll her eyes. Su however was not shy in telling the curious that they were warrior braids, explaining what that entailed and that was why Shinobu was not wearing a braid herself. That caused another round of weird looks since the bead pattern indicated that Sarah was actually had the lowest level of training or mastery of martial arts of their group even though she was the leader.
Sarah tried to ignore most of the whispering since she was used to it by now but for one exception. Kimiko had made a crack in passing not to be so rough with her girlfriend, referring to the fading bruise on Nyamo's cheek. Sarah had shot her such a baleful look that the curly-haired blonde almost lost control of her bladder and hurried down the hallway away from the glaring girl.
Most of the whispering died out after that, but Aki kept playing with the braid, mostly using the feathered end to brush against Sarah's cheek and make her flinch. When the taller girl had first touched the braid and tugged lightly on it, the blonde growled "Pull on it again and I'll break a finger".
Without missing a beat, Aki cheerfully asked, "Your finger or mine?", but cooled off on the tugging after that.
Now it was the end of the day and Sarah and Aki were swapping out shoes before leaving the building and waiting for Nyamo, Su and Shinobu to appear; the two islander girls keeping an eye on the young domestic.
"One of the things you have to remember is that the Japanese do a lot of things out of duty and politeness. Valentine Day is a big deal here and a lot of people do find you attractive," Aki explained. "So they spend a few yen on candy and hope that you look at them a little kinder. Either that or they think that you eating chocolate while thinking about them will cause you to go nuts for them."
"That explains the really expensive chocolate then." Sarah had pulled out three or four small gold foil wrapped boxes, the names 'Godiva' and 'Leonidas' prominent among them. There was even one packet with the name 'Ghirardelli', which she recognized as a high end chocolate maker back in San Francisco. "This is way more chocolate than I can eat even now." Training in chi usage had burned almost all the baby fat off her body, leaving her with defined muscles and even faint six-pack abs. "Probably cause me to break out in pimples and wind up looking like a pizza face. But why are all of these in a box on the floor?" the blonde asked.
"Because normally the people who are too shy to give you chocolates will put them in your shoe locker and no one is going to dare mess with yours." Aki tilted her head to the side, where there was a miniature lock with a brightly blinking light attached to one of the doors, the three-eye symbol of MolMol apparent.
"And they can't just give them to me directly?" Sarah asked. There had been two or three schoolmates that had given her little packages of candy that day, which had surprised the American girl, but after Hikari explained about the Japanese traditions for Valentine Day she merely gave a slight bow and murmured her thanks to the giver. It helped that the boys that had given her candy also gave a packet to every girl in the class room, and the packets were relatively small, containing about fifty grams of chocolate, about four bite sized pieces. It was the same size as the premium chocolates actually, but she was pretty sure the gold-wrapped packages had cost much more.
"Most students are more scared of you now than they are of Kimi-chan or Junko-chan. They still think you are pretty hot so they figure they can shell out the five hundred yen to get you some candy and a card and maybe get lucky, one way or the other." The taller girl wagged her eyebrows at her friend.
"So what about that one girl that gave me chocolate? I thought it was just boys doing the giving." Sarah opened her school bag and put in the premium chocolates; she was not about to toss something like that and the packages were shrink-wrapped in plastic, reducing the chances they were tampered with.
"It's not just the guys that want to get in your panties, Sarah-chan." Aki leered at her friend.
"Which would explain this." Sarah picked up the white teddy bear and looked at the card attached to it. "Aoi Fujita… That's the girl with glasses that dipshit Aida had taken pictures of, the one that spat in his face?"
"Oh yeah, the bookish girl with the really big boobs. She's actually one of the girls I wouldn't mind spending some quality time with, I've seen her changing clothes for PE." Aki fanned her face with her hand as though she was overheating. "That girl has the body of a swimsuit model under those clothes, no wonder there were requests for Aida-kun to get photos of her. She has a temper too, I bet she would be wild in bed."
"So why haven't you ask her to join you with Shinji-kun?" By this point Sarah had gotten used to Aki always hitting on her and Nyamo, so she didn't react very much to her advances and sex talk.
"Because with a girl like that it would be a lot of work to get her in bed, and Aoi-chan is pretty much a bookworm. If I can get her worked up she will probably go for it, but it would have be more than a one night stand and I would prefer not to get into another relationship when I'm already with Shin-chan." Aki had dropped down to one knee as well and picked through the box of chocolates, pulling out some that she liked and tucking them into her own bag after Sarah gave her the nod, tossing the cards back into the box.
"What am I going to do with all these cards and candy?" Sarah gestured toward the box. "I don't want to eat all of them."
"You don't have to, but you should make a note of all the cards so you can thank the givers and return the favor in a month on White Day. You don't have to give them more what they spent on you, a little packet should be enough. The candies you can give to your friends if you want." Both girls came to their feet and the black-haired girl watched as the blonde opened her locker and swapped out her shoes, putting the indoor slippers back in the plastic bag she still wrapped in them before closing the locker.
"I guess I can give them to the girls at the Hinata. I don't think it would be a good idea to give a lot of candy to Su-chan though, she would probably start levitating and not with tech." Sarah stated with a slight smile.
"Too true." Sarah was about to sling on her book bag when Aki reached out and lightly touched her shoulder, causing her to look at the older girl. "Sarah-chan, you know I've been wanting to get closer to you for a while now, right?"
"You've kinda made that obvious, Aki-san." Sarah remained in place even though the other girl was close enough to reach out and touch her.
"Well, I thought the best way to celebrate Valentine Day was to give you a giant kiss." Aki was now close enough that she had to look down at the blonde; Sarah could feel the taller girl's breath on her face.
With all the advances the other girl had made on her, Sarah had thought about what Aki was offering, and debating whether to accept it or not. Aki was certainly attractive, and having a girl coming onto her didn't freak her out like a guy doing it did, but it was something she had not decided on going ahead with, although it looked like Aki was now pushing forward on the issue.
"I thought you Japanese were not really into public displays of affection." Sarah did not want to say no, but she did not want to say yes either. The confusion between what her head was saying and her heart was saying was making her slightly light-headed, although that might have been because her head was tilted all the way back.
"This is a little different." Aki took a slight step back and before the blonde could react there was suddenly a white box with clear plastic windows in front of her face, containing the largest Hershey's Kiss she had ever seen. The bloody thing must have weighted about half a pound with the silver foil wrapped chocolate the size of both her fists held together. "Happy Valentine Day, Sarah-chan."
Sarah took hold of the box and studied it for a long moment, her eyes flicking back and forth between the candy and the other girl's face. Silently she tucked the confection in her school bag and then turned back toward the now worried looking girl.
"You know, Keitaro-sensei has taught me some things when he started training me, Aki-chan." The taller girl's eyes widened slightly; this was the first time Sarah had ever used the affectionate suffix on her name. "First is to not let people walk all over you, second is to never be the person to start trouble. And third is that if someone else does start something, make sure that you finish it." Sarah reached up with her hand and placed it on the back of the other girl's neck. Pulling softly, she raised her own face and kissed Aki on the lips.
Presumably it was the shock of the blonde making the first move, but the taller brunette stood still as Sarah caressed her lips with her own. At first it was just their lips touching, but then the blonde's tongue traced along the seam of her mouth and the brunette gave a shiver. Just as she was going to open her mouth and do some exploring of her own, Sarah pulled away and Aki's brown eyes popped wide open, staring down at the blue eyes before her.
"Not bad. Guess I have to try it with a guy now to see what the difference is." Aki's mind started to spin at the words; that had been Sarah's first kiss!? Sarah had given her first kiss to her?! And why had she stopped, it had felt so good! She could still taste the strawberry lip gloss the other girl had been wearing!
Just as Aki was opened her mouth to speak, a mobile phone went off with a text alert chime. Taking a step back, Sarah pulled out her phone and looked at the screen and it was all Aki could do to not scream in anger and dismay at the interruption. Her own phone then chimed, and reading the text message on the screen caused her temper to fade.
"Aki-san, I need for you and Hikari-san to come to the Hinata Inn along with the other girls as soon as possible. It is not an emergency, but it is urgent. I am text-messaging all the girls to gather at the front of the school, Jiro-san will be waiting for you with his taxi van to transport you. If need be, call your family and tell them to call me if they have any questions or issues with you coming to the Inn on such short notice. - Keitaro Urashima
Clearing the screen, Aki could see Sarah putting away her phone and slinging on her bag before picking up the cardboard box full of candy and cards. "Message from Keitaro-san?" After seeing her nod she said, "Let's go, Aki-san." The taller girl opened her mouth to complain, both about the formal suffix and the interrupted kiss, when Sarah simply glanced at her and said, "Later." At that moment the other Hinata girls walked into the hallway, moving quickly even though Nyamo was carrying a cardboard box filled with candy and cards that was even larger than the one being held by Sarah.
"You guys get the message from Keitaro-san?" All three girls nodded, and while they were quickly swapping out their slippers for shoes, Sarah glanced over at the other box full of gifts. "That candy was given to all of you?"
"Nope!" Su was the one to answer. "Candy is for Shinobu-chan, lots of boys like her, but no get too close, they start looking nervous when I there." A look at Shinobu's darkly blushing face confirmed the statement. "Boys no get close to Nyamo-chan or me, too scared. They big weenies anyway, can't play with them, too easy to break." Sarah had to think about that for a moment; Su was the same age as the rest of them, but she acted so child-like it was easy to forget that she was a growing teen going through puberty as well. It raised some interesting questions, since Su was strong enough to hurt people if she got worked up, even though that was apparently a very rare occurrence.
Just as the trio of girls had swapped out their shoes, Hikari came into the hallway at a trot. Looking at Sarah she asked, "Did you get the message about us going to the Hinata-sou?" Seeing the blonde nod, the twin pigtailed girl opened her locker and switched out her shoes, muttering to herself. It was only when she was done that the American girl deciphered the expression on the Class Rep's face; she was visibly uncomfortable.
As the six girls walked down the hallway toward the main entrance, Sarah asked, "Hikari-san, what's with the look?"
The brunette looked over at her, a blush almost as dark as the one on Shinobu's face visible. "Keitaro-san text-messaged me to come to the Sou, and I freaked out because I had not given him my mobile number. He said that he talked to my parents before he sent the message and he got my number and permission to invite me from them. I called them to confirm it."
"So what's the problem with that?" Everything sounded kosher so far to Sarah.
"The problem is that my father told me that I was a mature responsible girl and that he trusted me, and that I was free to do anything I felt comfortable with, while I could hear my mother shouting 'grandbabies!' in the background." Hikari's face was almost brick red in color now.
Sarah gave a snort at the mortified tone of Hikari's voice, while Aki did not even try to hide her laughter. Nyamo's lips twitched a little, Shinobu blushed slightly in sympathy, but the last of them spoke up.
"So what?" Su asked curiously. "You old enough to have babies, Keitaros is good, strong, rich lord, many girls fight to have man like him."
"I'm only fifteen years old!" Hikari almost hissed in reply. "He's older than me!"
"Back home used to be girl was old enough to marry when have first womanly blood, now age of marriage for girl with parent permission is sixteen year old, same as Japan, I check. By the time wedding all set up, you be old enough." The grin on Su's face showed that she was just messing with her classmate. "Keitaros is twenty years old, not that old. My poppa and momma fourteen years apart in age, they marry when poppa thirty-four and momma twenty."
"Besides that Hikari-chan, I noticed that you didn't deny the part about Keitaro-san being a good strong rich lord." Aki decided to throw her two yen in, a smirk on her face. "He is a good looking guy, he'd be a prime catch for any girl."
Hikari started to sputter. "I think he has better choices than just a plain high school girl! Doesn't have a girlfriend?" she asked desperately as the group walked out the main door of the school and down the stairs.
"Yeah, he does," Sarah replied, deciding not to mention that he in fact had two girlfriends. She knew it was not nice to tease the other girl but her nerves were on edge about the abrupt summons by her guardian. "But you heard what Su-chan said, Keitaro-san is in line to be a lord, that means he has the harem option! Maybe he's thinking of doing some wife husbandry, putting you in the farm system to get you all trained up and ready!" It was all Sarah could do to not bust a gut laughing watching as the Class Rep waved her arms about frantically, unable to speak coherently. This was the scene Jiro saw when his taxi van pulled up to the group, one girl looking like she was having a panic attack while the others were either smiling or laughing.
Hinata-sou Dormatory
Hinata City, Kanagawa Prefecture
Metro Tokyo, Japan
mid February, mid afternoon
The trip to the Inn did not take long; traffic was fairly light. The time in the van passed even faster by Aki telling amusing anecdotes about their classmates about that day, usually about some hapless boy or girl making a romantic confession to a classmate and them usually crashing and burning afterwards. This resulting in a quip by the taller girl that there was a Class Rep standing nearby the most popular location for such things holding a fire extinguisher to make sure the flames didn't get out of hand. Seeing Hikari rolling her eyes at the comment just made it that much funnier.
Jiro's taxi van finally pulled up to the front door of the Hinata Inn and the motley crew disembarked. After thanking the driver who then drove back down the hill, the group walked into the house, with Sarah giving the traditional 'Taidaima' greeting once they were all standing in the living room. The girls' noses all twitched at the smell of baking brownies, which was a surprise since it was Shinobu who did most of the cooking and this was the first time they had arrived home with food already being prepared. Hearing the 'Okaerinasai' response come from the kitchen, the girls headed in that direction after leaving their school bags on the couch for now.
Upon entering the kitchen, the smell of brownies was much stronger, as well as the smell of brewing coffee. Sitting around the table with plates, cups and utensils were three adults. Keitaro was expected, Haruka was something of a surprise, but the third adult was unknown to them. A woman who looked to be in her late twenties with light purple hair framing a triangular shaped face. Wearing a darker purple blazer over a white blouse, she looked like a businesswoman until Sarah looked at her eyes. Those reddish brown eyes were too sharply focused and observant; they brought to mind a pair of bright blue eyes belonging on one of the most dangerous women she had ever seen.
"Good afternoon girls." Keitaro greeted them as he stood up, the two women following suit. "Everything go well at school today?"
"Yes, thank you for asking, Keitaro-san." Sarah replied. "Only thing weird is all the candy that Shinobu-chan and I got today." The young domestic blushed slightly at the blonde's words.
"That's not so unusual." Haruka was the one to respond. "Shinobu-chan brought home a large box of cards and chocolate last year. All of the girls here at the Hinata helped out with the giri-choco." Obligation chocolate was the gift that people who received candy on Valentine's Day would give in return a month later on White Day. It used to be that only girls would be giving chocolate on February 14 and boys would return the favor March 14, but things had gotten muddled up enough by the confectionery industry that the gender traditions had faded out. "Shinobu-chan's return gifts were good enough to be honmei-choco," she said, using the name for homemade chocolate, usually only given to close friends and people they had romantic feelings for.
"Maybe Shinobu-chan and I can exchange ideas." Keitaro said with a small smile. "I know a couple of recipes from when I worked in my family's store." Keitaro's parents were the owners of a confectionery shop and most of their products were made by hand and priced accordingly. "I made some walnut brownies, you can have some right now if you want while they are still warm, or you can wait until after dinner."
"You're going to let us have dessert now?" Sarah asked incredulously. While Keitaro did not crack down on snacking by the residents, he did insist that any dessert made for dinner would only be eaten after that meal.
Keitaro hesitated for a moment. "I have some news that might very well ruin your appetite, so I thought I could let you enjoy the brownies before I let you know." Seeing the looks on all the girls' faces, he hurried to explain. "It's not that kind of news, but it's going to be upsetting."
"I think our appetite pretty much went down the tubes with that little warning." Sarah stated, looking around at her classmates and friends and seeing that they all agreed with her. "You might as well get this over with."
"Very well. All of you, please sit down." Keitaro motioned to the kitchen table, and slowly the younger girls took a seat while the adults remained standing.
"I apologize for not introducing you earlier, but this is Motoko Kusanagi." Keitaro motioned to the purple haired woman beside him. The residents with more time living at the Inn blinked at the familiar given name but otherwise stayed silent. "Kusanagi-san is a Chief Inspector for the Tokyo Metro Police Department," for some reason his lips twitched at that statement, "and she has some information she brought to me today. We agreed that you all need to hear what she has to say."
Seeing that everyone's attention was now focused on her, the erstwhile police detective began to speak. "I was one of the investigators assigned to the case where three girls from your high school had their mobile phones hacked and evidence of criminal activity was forwarded to us and published publicly." Motoko's eyes went from one blonde to the other, and only saw a sunny smile and an expressionless look in return. "Junko Himura was one of the girls that had her phone hacked; she was taken into protective custody due to her home life and placed in foster care. This morning Himura-san attacked one of the attendants at the foster care facility, striking him on the head with a heavy object and fracturing his skull. The attendant is now in the hospital in serious condition, but he is expected to recover."
At this point the smile on Su's face had dropped off, the look on Sarah's face got even colder if that was possible and the other girls' expressions had turned to concern and apprehension. However the most severe change had been Shinobu's; the blunette had turned pale and was visibly trembling.
"Himura-san stole the attendant's keys and the money he had on him and escaped the facility." Motoko paused for a moment before her gaze locked onto Keitaro's blankened face. "Junko Himura is now an escaped fugitive wanted for assault with great bodily injury and attempted murder and is considered extremely dangerous."
Omake – Boogie Wonderland
After the martial arts demonstration
"I have a question, Keitaro-sensei," Sarah stated. Breakfast had finally been served in the kitchen and the first few minutes had been nearly silent as everyone dug in. The fact that each of the three Urashima had as much food as three people piled on their plates had caused some eyebrows to rise but that's it. The two ibuprofen tables they had each washed down with coffee was unremarked on as well.
Keitaro looked up at his student, still chewing his food. He had just finished his first plateful of cheesy eggs and toast and had started work on the second. The amount of energy he had expended in the fight, even with the loosened power limiter seals made him feel like he had been awake for twenty four hours straight.
"You guys were doing weird hand signs in the middle of your fights. What's up with that?" Sarah took a sip of coffee after her question, then took two pieces of toast and started buttering them up.
Placing his fork down, Keitaro glanced over at his sister and cousin for a moment before replying. "There are martial arts techniques that can be performed by using chi and ki, the problem is that unless you are very experienced you waste a lot of energy doing the techniques. It's much like a lamp with the shade off, the light and heat go in every direction. If you put the shade back on you can focus both on a smaller area. The hand signs help mold and focus the energy."
"How does hand signs help with the focusing?" Sarah raised her hand to about face level and wiggled her fingers.
"I don't know." The blonde girl blinked at her guardian's response. "I was taught to access and focus my chi and ki, and the hand signs help with it. I don't know that actual mechanics of it, that is something that usually only grandmasters and mystics would know about. Granny Hina might know about it, but that's because she's been practicing martial arts for almost seventy years now."
"OK then, but what do the hand signs mean?" Sarah asked, taking a bite of her buttered toast and washing it down with another sip of coffee.
"There are twelve standard hand seals, and they are based on the Chinese zodiac. They are bird, boar, dog, dragon, ox, tiger, snake, rat, horse, monkey, hare, and ram." Keitaro had put down his fork and demonstrated each seal as he named it. "There are also special half seals that more advanced practitioners can use; there are 108 different sign combinations used by Urashima-ryu practitioners, and the elemental seals as well."
Seeing the question form on Sarah's face he continued speaking. "In Japanese philosophy there are five types of chi and ki that are make up the universe; earth, water, fire, wind and void. They are named after the physical elements they can are usually found in."
"I understand the first four elements, but what about the fifth, void? That's not a physical object." Sarah could see that all of the residents were now paying closer attention, especially Su.
"There are two explanations for void, spiritual and technical. Spiritually, void is the things that are beyond our everyday experience that are composed of energy. Some people believe it is pure life energy. Technically, void is the glue that holds the physical universe together."
"How can energy hold everything together? Is it like magnetism?" Sarah was visibly puzzled.
"Void is the purest form of energy to exist, unable to be generated or destroyed, it just is. You've studied atoms in school? They are made up of electrons, protons and neutrons, the nucleus is made up of protons and neutrons and the electrons orbit them. What holds the nucleus together? What caused the electrons to stay close to the nucleus? And more importantly, what happens when the energy holding the atom together is disrupted?" Keitaro asked rhetorically.
Sarah's eyes had gotten huge by the end of the explanation. "You're saying that chi and ki are nuclear energy?" she asked incredulously.
"All energy is essentially nuclear energy." Keitaro speared a piece of fried potato with his fork and held it up. "All the food we eat, all the plants that grow, all of them absorb energy from the sun, they can't grow without it. And how is solar energy produced? Nuclear fusion, atoms binding together and releasing energy as a result." He popped the potato into his mouth and started chewing, looking around the table. Kanako and Haruka had no reaction to his words, as they were already familiar with the theory. Shinobu and Naru looked intrigued by his words, Kitsune and Nyamo were mildly interested, Su was nodding along and Sarah was almost cross-eyed thinking about the concepts.
"One more thing to think about, Sarah-kun. Chemical elements are made up of atoms, which are made up of particles that are held together by energy. But energy is not a physical object, it is the potential to perform work. So all the physical matter in this universe is being held together by… nothing." Keitaro smiled slightly as Sarah's eyes *did* cross at the thought.
"Ugh… enough already Keitaro-sensei, thinking on this is causing me a headache." Sarah's eyes then focused back on him. "So you guys can use different attacks based on these elements?"
"Yes, but each person has an element that they can use much easier than the other, this is called an affinity," Keitaro answered. "I have wind affinity, that helps me move faster and use attacks that can be used to cut, since you can mold the energy rather thin. Kanako-chan has fire affinity, she can release heat energy and increase her metabolism to access more energy in her fighting. Haruka-chan has earth affinity and can both strengthen and disrupt physical matter. I used an earth technique when I reinforced my body to keep Su-chan's attacks from hurting me."
"So your elements are earth, wind, and fire?" Sarah asked, then froze for a moment even while Keitaro nodded an affirmative. Then surprising everyone, the blonde snorted, then smiled and laughed.
"What's so funny, Sarah-kun?" asked Keitaro, curious but not offended by the reaction.
"Your elements. They're the same as the name of an American R&B music band that was really big in the 1970s and 80's. Earth, Wind, & Fire. They still play their music a lot on the radio stations back in the States." Seeing that some of her fellow residents were still looking confused, Sarah asked Su for her computer tablet, and after thirty seconds of tapping on the screen, the song "Boogie Wonderland" was playing from the speaker and everyone got the joke. With everyone now smiling, the residents returned to their meals, the music left to play as they ate.
Author's Note: Whole bunch of Good News/Bad News here. Good news – new update today! Bad news – took me almost two months to do. Good news – 12K words in the update! Bad news – originally 15K+ words in the chapter. Good news - I am going to post the 3K words section as a separate chapter in a couple days! Bad news – the reason I am posting the 3K section separate is because it is dark, and I did not want to post something like that right before Christmas.
The 3K section is going to be Sarah having a nightmare about her time in Roanapur. As you all well know, I am not going to show anything too explicit in my story, but this upcoming section is going to be like the infamous 'No Russian' section of the video game 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2', where because of disturbing imagery you don't have to play the section in order to advance in the game. Well, this upcoming section, titled 'Prison of Light', part of it can be skipped if you cannot handle that kind of thing. The section will be split into two parts with line breaks, with the dream in italics and the reactions after Sarah awakens in plain text. The reader can just page down until they no longer see italics and start reading from there.
But enough about the dark stuff. As you may have noticed, Sarah got tired of Aki teasing her and made a move of her own. Now I have to decide what is going to happen as a result, since this was Sarah's first kiss and she has to decide if she is just into girls, attracted to guys (if any), split the difference (into both) or just pass (not get physically involved with anyone right now). Sarah doesn't have to get involved in a relationship, not the least reason being that she is friends with Aki and doesn't want to mess that up and she only know one guy she might be interested in getting physical with but who's already with someone else (Shinji). The third option is that Sarah decides to go out on a date with *another* girl and see what happens; I've already alluded that there is a female classmate or two that are interested in Sarah and she might ask them out for a date. I already have an idea for what will happen if/when Sarah does ask that other girl out, and it will be entertaining to say the least, especially the reactions of her friends. It won't be because Sarah is going out on a lesbian date, it will be because Sarah didn't ask them out on a lesbian date! Thoughts from the readers are appreciated.
Also appreciated would be your thoughts about the use of hand signs and techniques from Naruto and the Star Wars imagery in this chapter. Sarah and Nyamo showing up in Jedi/Sith robes was an image that popped up in my head a long time ago, and I hope you found it amusing. And as you can see, I did a 1K word omake just for an "Earth, Wind & Fire" joke, and hope that was humorous as well, even though I threw in some exposition.
As you saw, Junko Himura is back in play. She is going to be the Dragon in this arc of the story, and she is not a happy camper because of what happened to her (there is going to be at least one section from her POV). But the Hinata Inn family is forewarned (and forearmed) and they are for the most part not easy targets.
This last chapter's Most Unusual Place Reading My Story Award goes to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which had 10 visitors and 115 views of my humble story, while the Runner Up is Brazil.
As of 24Dec2016 0000PST this story has 348K Words, 792K Views, 891 Reviews (we need to drive that over the 1K mark!), 61 C2 Listings, 1383 Favorites and 1267 Story Alerts.
Happy Holidays, Everyone! *V sign*
May Peace Prevail On Earth.