Author's Notes

And so, we begin to get into the meat of the story. Apologies if Naru may be a tiny bit out of character- she's a little hard to pin down when she isn't shrieking in anger and blasting Keitaro into the stratosphere with a Naru Punch.

Fun Fact: I was introduced to Love Hina through the world of fanfiction, and before I saw pictures of how the characters actually look, I always imagined Naru as resembling Rack, a character from the horror/erotica series "Goumontou wa Nemuranai". Maybe don't look that series up if you're squeamish?


Love Hina: Aozuki-hen

Act 1: An Unwelcome Visitor

Part 2: Keitaro the Landlord

-Hinata House [Dining Room], Late Afternoon-

This was quickly shaping up to be the strangest day of Keitaro's life, and that was saying something. After nearly being disembowled by a fifteen-year-old samurai (who was taller than him), he was now sitting in the large dining room of Hinata House, in the company of five young women, who were explaining the situation to him. Other than retiring Shinobu and severe Motoko, the inn-turned-dorm had three residents.

The first resident, who lived in Room 205, was a woman Keitaro's age with boyishly short, light brown hair, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, who had introduced herself in the Kansai dialect as Mitsune Konno ("But call me Kitsune, 'kay?"). She was wearing an incongruous pairing of a pair of short-shorts with a red turtleneck, which highlighted how, ahem, well-endowed she was. "Kitsune" had shown up at the dining table with a pen tucked behind her ear and a notebook in hand, mentioning that she was a freelance writer. This caused Motoko to snort in slight derision, which prompted Keitaro to doubt the veracity of Kitsune's statement.

The second tenant, who occupied Room 303, was a modestly-dressed seventeen-year-old with unusually long, reddish-brown hair, who answered to Naru Narusegawa, and who presently happened to be eyeing Keitaro with a sour expression; the minute Naru had come into the dining room and gotten a good look at Keitaro, her first reaction was "What the hell is a man doing here?!" She was currently attending a cram school in the hope of passing the next round of entrance exams for Toudai, and openly admitted to hating "stupid perverts who try to feel me up, so you better watch it, big shot." Keitaro winced as she cracked her knuckles and nailed him with a glare to rival Motoko's.

Last, but certainly not least, the occupant of Room 301 was a very unusual, school uniform-clad thirteen-year-old with white bangs and dark skin, named Kaolla Su. The name did not sound Japanese, and this was confirmed when Su cheerfully explained that she came from a nation in the Pararakelse Archipelago, a chain of islands close to the International Date Line. Her Japanese was slightly shaky, and for some reason, she spoke in the Kansai dialect like Kitsune. Not that Su was doing much, if any, speaking at the time- her attention was currently on the bunch of bananas Shinobu had procured from the kitchen and set down in front of her, horking them down like there was no tomorrow.

"As you can see," Motoko explained over bowls of a banana pudding parfait Shinobu had also whipped up, "we five are the only current residents of Hinata House, which was converted into an all-girls' dormitory, as Shinobu has previously informed you."

"What I want to know," Naru said sharply, "is why Granny Hina would send a loser like you here and then not even bother to stick around."

Keitaro shook his head and shrugged. "Heck if I know," he replied, before a thought ocurred to him. "Say, uh, does Aunt Haruka still run that cafe down the hill? She might know."

On the grounds of the Hinata House property, slightly southeast of the inn itself and lower on the hill it occupied, sat the Hinata Cafe, a little teahouse that Keitaro's older cousin, Haruka Urashima, owned. If anyone could puzzle out this mess, it'd be her.

"Haruka?" Su paused in her relentless banana massacre to answer. "Yeah! She's still running the Cafe!"

"Yeah, you should go see her and get the hell out of our dorm," muttered Naru.

Keitaro sighed. -What'd I ever do to you?- he thought exasperatedly, finishing his parfait and standing up. "I guess I'll go see her, then. Thank you for the parfait, Maehara-san. It was delicious."

Shinobu blushed. "Awh... Y-You're welcome, Urashima-san," she said, averting her gaze and tapping her fingers together. For some strange reason, this caused Naru's glare at Keitaro to intensify.

It was a lucky thing that Keitaro's back was already turned, as he walked away from the dining room to go see his cousin.

-I don't like this,- thought Naru. -I really don't like this.-


-Hinata Cafe [Inside], Late Afternoon-

"Keitaro-kun!"

Haruka Urashima, the dark-haired, soft-eyed proprietor of the homely Hinata Cafe, was overjoyed to see her cousin-slash-nephew again.

"Aunt Haruka!" Keitaro grinned... then yelped in surprise and a little pain as Haruka flicked his nose. "Hey! What was that for?!"

"No calling me Aunt anymore, Kei-kun," the older woman scolded. "It makes me feel old!"

Keitaro rolled his eyes. "Sure, sure, whatever you say," he chuckled. "How've you been? It's been years!"

"It has!" Haruka embraced her younger cousin in a big hug. "I missed you so much, Kei-kun!" She stepped back, and raised an eyebrow. "What brings you here, anyhow?"

"Well, I was sent here by Granny Hina. Would you happen to know anything about that?"

Haruka twitched at the mention of Hina. "As it happens..." She groaned. "Come back behind the counter. I've something to show you." Turning, she plodded off behind the ordering counter, beckoning the ronin to follow, which he did.

"Before Granny Hina left last week, she gave me this," Haruka explained as she opened up the cash register and fished out an envelope. "She told me to give it to you when you dropped by."

Raising an eyebrow, Keitaro took the envelope, and prised it open, taking out the letter inside.

"Dear Keitaro," he read carefully.

Dear Keitaro,

I'm dreadfully sorry for calling you to Hinata House on such short notice, and further for not even being here when you do show up. I've been dealing with a lot of, shall we say trouble lately, which necessitated speeding up my plans for the Hot Spring World Tour.

But I digress. What I called you here for is a matter of great importance. There's still some life in these old bones yet, and I want to see the hot springs of the world before I die. However, Hinata House is the property of the Urashima family, and Haruka can't run it on her own- she has the Cafe to think of! As such, I wish to appoint you to the position of the Hinata's Kanrinin. Haruka has the official documents and ownership transfer forms- ask her for them when you're finished reading this. Again, I'm extremely sorry to foist this upon you so abruptly, but it's a necessary measure.

Love,

Granny Hina

P.S. Hinata House has been converted from an inn to an all-girls' dormitory, and currently has five tenants. Some of them have problems with men, and could use the friendship of a kind-hearted and conscientious young laddie like yourself!

"Problems with men?" Keitaro snorted and turned to Haruka. "That Narusegawa chick looked like she wanted to punch me through a wall!"

"She probably would and will, given the chance," Haruka replied dryly, before sighing. "So, the old woman wants to make you the Hinata Kanrinin, huh?"

"Looks like it." Keitaro looked down at the letter and sighed. "I wonder why... I don't know the first thing about being a Kanrinin!"

"Meh, all the more incentive to learn," said Haruka with a shrug. "Think the girls'll take it well?"


-Hinata House [Reception Room], Late Afternoon-

As it turned out five minutes later, the girls (Naru and Motoko specifically) emphatically did not take it well.

"A MAN as the KANRININ!?" Naru thundered, slamming her hands on the table in the reception room. "Of a GIRLS' DORMITORY!?"

Motoko looked vaguely sick. "What was Granny Hina thinking? How can we trust a male to supervise us?"

"Hey!" Keitaro gave Motoko an offended glare.

"As long as he's fun, I don't care!" Su proclaimed, unflappable as ever.

"That's not the point, Su!" groaned Naru. "He could perv out on us any time he wants!"

"What's a perv out?" was the response. "Is it tasty?"

Keitaro shot a baffled glance in Su's direction. "I- wha?" he asked, dumbstruck by the island girl's outlandish question.

"Eh, she does that sometimes," dismissed Kitsune, who had shown up toting a bottle of sake- Keitaro noted that it was Gekkeikan-brand. "Ya get used to it. What I wanna know is why the heck Granny didn't even tell us she was sendin' her grandson to take over as the Kanrinin."

"Your guess is as good as mine, Kitsune." Haruka sighed. "Who knows what goes on in her head sometimes... But no matter. Like Granny Hina said in her letter, I can't supervise the Cafe and the dorms simultaneously. I can't be in two different places at the same time."

Keitaro chuckled at Haruka's comment, but his laughter was silenced by Naru loudly and rudely asking "What's so funny, loser?"

"I thought Haruka-san's comment was funny, okay?" Keitaro shot back, more than a little snideness in his tone. "Excuse me for having a sense of humor, Princess."

"You...! Why I oughta-!" Naru stood up from the table the seven were all gathered around, balling up her fists, but before she could do something rash, Kitsune spoke up again.

"Saaaay, Keitaro," she mentioned, "if you're gonna be our Kanrinin, why don'tcha tell us a li'l more about yourself? We hardly know ya, after all!"

Naru sat back down, still smoldering, as Keitaro realized that this was indeed the case.

"Oh, jeez, I really didn't, did I?" he said. "Gosh, I should've introduced myself properly sooner. My name's Keitaro Urashima. I'm nineteen, and I'm trying to get into Tokyo University."

Naru's eyes widened. "Really? Toudai?" she questioned.

"Uh-huh." Keitaro nodded. "I've been studying really hard and trying to pass the entrance exams..." He bit his lower lip and rubbed the back of his head. "For, uh, about three years now."

The shocked silence after this statement was so utterly still, you could have heard a pin drop...

...at least until Naru broke out into hysterical laughter, clutching at her sides.

"Oh, my God!" she cackled. "You're a three-year ronin? That's the most pathetic thing I've ever heard! Gahahaha! Are you really that stupid!? You'll never get into Toudai that way!"

Keitaro's face flushed with embarassment. "H-Hey!" he protested weakly. "C'mon, gimme a break! Those exams are brutal!"

All Naru did was laugh harder and harder, rolling on the floor and kicking her feet, until Haruka had the presence of mind to flick her in the forehead.

"Yow!" The long-haired girl shot up with a wince of pain. "The heck was that for!?"

"Need I remind you that you still haven't taken the entrance exams ONCE?" Haruka admonished. "You're in no place to be laughing at my nephew, Naru. Apologize, right now."

Naru glowered, first at Haruka, then at Keitaro, then at the thought of apologizing to the maligned ronin. "Ugh," she grumbled, before facing Keitaro. "Sorry." The apology was terse, grunted out, and hardly sincere at all, but Keitaro accepted it with good grace.

"Uhm, what are you going to be doing as the Kanrinin?" Shinobu asked, twiddling her thumbs. "I-I already do a lot of cooking and cleaning..."

"I dunno." Keitaro shrugged. "I guess I'll usually be doing cleaning too, and repairs if there are any. Are the hot springs still around?"

"You betcha!" Su chirped. "They're sooo nice and warm!" She giggled brightly.

"Alright, then I guess I'll be keeping them in shape too... Whooboy, this is shaping up to be a lot of work already. I'm gonna need a lot of help if I'm gonna be the Kanrinin." Keitaro slumped his shoulders... only to recieve a reassuring pat on the back from Kitsune.

"Hey, that's no problem, Kanrinin-san!" she said cheerfully, hanging on to Keitaro's arm and getting up in his face. "We'll be glad to help ya out!"

"R-Really?" Keitaro blushed. "Gosh, thanks..."

"Indeed." Motoko nodded as well, expression stoic. "As..." She paused for a second, trying to find a good word. "...as unorthodox as this new arrangement may be, it should be harmonious. Providing, of course, that a certain Kanrinin should not attempt anything lewd."

"Wouldn't dream of it..." assured Keitaro, noting the veiled threat of a painful death in Motoko's statement should he not heed her words. He wasn't sure if said death would be by stabbing or slicing, and wasn't exactly eager to find out.

"I-I'm okay with this too, if you all are," contributed Shinobu. "P-Please take care of us, Kanrinin-san...!"

"Hey, as long as you're fun, I don't mind either!" Su beamed.

"Meh," Naru conceded. "Just don't try any monkey business."


-Hinata House [Hot Springs], Early Evening-

After breaking the news to the girls, Keitaro and Haruka went back to the Cafe, where they pored in tandem over the ownership papers. Keitaro could honestly say he'd never seen that many papers in one place in his life, and he soon developed a cramp in his hand from having to sign them about a zillion times. And this was on top of a cramp in Keitaro's arse from sitting for too long, as well as the strain of having climbed up all those "Freaking STAIRS, why is it always STAIRS".

Thus, once the mountains of paperwork were taken care of, Keitaro decided to go out to the inn's legendary hot springs and rest his weary bones.

"Man, I've missed being able to chill out in a hot spring," the bespectacled ronin muttered to himself as he made for Hinata House's northern wing, which housed the outdoor baths. Keitaro had not gotten the opportunity to truly unwind in years. Too much of his time had been spent studying, and if it wasn't studying, it was...

...Keitaro shook his head. He was drifting back into thoughts of THAT again. "Ugh. Stop thinking about it, Keitaro!" he scolded himself, lightly rapping a fist against the side of his head. "There's plenty of time to think about it later. For now, hot..."

Keitaro was snapped out of his chastisement by a high-pitched shriek, and he looked up...

...to see that he had unthinkingly wandered into the hot springs, where Naru was getting into the water.

Buck.

Freaking.

Naked.

For a moment that felt like an eon, Keitaro and Naru stared at each other, Naru's face red from an intense blush.

Then, Naru was upon him.

"I knew it!" she hollered, lunging- still in the nude- at the ronin and swinging her fists wildly. Keitaro yelped and backed away. "You are a pervert! Walking in on me naked!? I knew you were up to no good, you pig!"

"W-Whoa! Stop it! Hey! It was an accident!" Keitaro had to duck and weave wildly to dodge Naru's vicious attacks, and even then she still ended up clobbering him, clouting him on the shoulders and in the forehead several times.

"As if!" Naru thundered. She wound up and delivered a right hook that would have made a champion boxer wet themself, and it connected squarely with Keitaro's nose, which broke rather badly. Keitaro saw stars, but the minute Naru noticed the steady trickle of blood pouring from Keitaro's nose, she saw red again.

"And now you're nose bleeding because you saw my boobs! PERVERT! PERVERT!" Keitaro staggered back under the force of blow after blow, helpless to stop the assault.

"Someone help!" Keitaro called, voice quavering. "Narusegawa's gone crazy!"

Immediately, Motoko came running, with Su trailing behind. "What in the nine hells is going on here!?" she asked sharply.

"This PERVERT was peeping on me in the bath!" Naru shouted, pointing angrily at the severely roughed-up Kanrinin.

"Peeping!?" Motoko's eyes narrowed dangerously, and she unsheathed her sword. This time, it was a simple bokuto rather than the menacing katana she had pulled on Keitaro earlier in the afternoon, but it was still pretty scary to poor Keitaro.

Especially once he saw the aura of ethereal flame that surrounded it.

"You dishonest lech! ZANKUUSEN!" Motoko shouted, and in a graceful, deadly arc, she unleashed a vicious slash attack upon Keitaro. Astonishingly, though, a simple blow wasn't where it ended. The white fire shot i)out(i from the sword, and blasted Keitaro into the hot spring, where his bruised, broken body fell into the water!

"Oww..." Keitaro moaned, whimpering as he felt the copious amount of bruises that were already beginning to form from Naru and Motoko's brutal tag-team. He sank into the hot brown water, and began choking as it got into his nose and mouth.

"ACKPTH!" The poor, beaten ronin shot up, to see Kitsune, Shinobu and Su trying to restrain the swordsman and the pugilist from proceeding into the springs to beat Keitaro up even more.

"Stop it, Naru!" Shinobu wailed as she struggled to hold Naru back with Kitsune's help.

"Get OFF me, Shinobu!" Naru snapped. "This pervert deserves every ounce of pain inflicted on him!"

"Doesn't mean you have to beat him into a pancake, sugar!" Kitsune retorted, heaving with all her might.

"Let me GO, Su!" Motoko growled, straining to escape Su's hold. "I must punish this perverted male for his lechery!"

"Nope!" Su shook her head vehemently. "If ya kill him we won't have a Kanrinin!"

Unfortunately for Keitaro, Su's grip may have been like iron, but Motoko had extensive practice in breaking free of it. She managed to get Su off her, and stalked towards Keitaro, another energy attack already forming on her sword.

Keitaro's eyes widened in horror. Motoko's gait, the furious look in her eyes... He knew them all too well. He was about to die.

There was only one thing to do. Almost on autopilot, Keitaro closed his eyes, and took a deep breath with his diaphragm.

"Die, Urashima!" Motoko hollered, swinging her sword. "Raimeiken!"

But her voice sounded faraway to Keitaro's ears. Time seemed to come to a standstill for him...

"Ouka Gen'ei!"


Motoko Aoyama had seen many things in her lifetime. Deadly sword attacks, faced and learned. Betrayals of trust. Tragic battles between feuding families. The lessons of the Aoyama clan and the Shinmei-ryu school of swordfighting it laid claim to.

None of those things had prepared her for this.

As soon as Keitaro had shouted "Ouka Gen'ei!", Motoko felt the perverted Kanrinin's ki signature, or something like it, spike. Then, all of a sudden, a flurry of cherry blossoms surrounded him, and Motoko felt... weak. The lightning aura around her bokuto faded out into nothingness, and her strike was slowed drastically, to the point where it ended up as nothing but a tap to Keitaro's shoulder.

The cherry blossoms vanished as quickly as they had appeared, and with a thrill of shock, Motoko realized that Keitaro looked good as new, if slightly winded. His broken nose had healed, and there wasn't a single bruise on him. Whatever had just happened, he seemed reinvigorated- enough so to wrench the bokuto from Motoko's hand and toss it away, where it landed in the corner of the bathing area with a loud clatter.

"So," the Kanrinin panted. "Am I allowed to say my piece now? Or are you two gonna try and beat me to death again?"

All five of the girls gaped at Keitaro.

"I- I don't-" Motoko stammered.

Kitsune, Su, and Shinobu just stared in silent shock, eyes wider than dinner plates.

"W-What the hell was that!?" Naru sputtered.

Keitaro groaned and got out of the water. "Never you mind," he said. "Anyway, if you'll let me talk now, I'd like to say that I was not peeping on Naru."

"Not peeping!?" Naru scoffed. "What a load of crap! I saw your nose bleeding, you pervert! You were obviously staring-"

"My nose was bleeding because you broke it!" Keitaro snapped, cutting Naru off. "All I did was walk in on you in the baths, completely by accident, because I wasn't looking where I was going! I had my head down until you screamed at me!"

Motoko suddenly felt extremely ashamed of herself. She, without even thinking about the circumstances behind the incident, had blindly rushed into the situation and attacked Keitaro with extremely unreasonable violence. At this rate, she'd be kicked out of Hinata House or worse, and on top of that, if the Shinmei-ryu school caught wind of what she had done... Motoko shivered slightly and mentally noted that she needed to apologize and make restitution to Keitaro as soon as humanly possible.

"Then- then why were you staring at me!?" Naru glared. "I bet you're just lying to cover your ass because you wanna have your way with me."

"Ugh... You really are stubborn. I was staring because I was startled and didn't know what to do. Trust me, I feel nothing for you." Keitaro chuckled bitterly. "Like I'd find a crazy, violent harpy who openly hates me attractive in any way?"

Motoko could have sworn the temperature in the room dropped to negative forty. Every girl in the room, including her, was staring at Keitaro with mouths agape, shocked at his blatant audacity in insulting NARU NARUSEGAWA, the Bane of Perverts, She of the Iron Right Hook.

"Oh, by the way," the Kanrinin added, "you're still naked."

Naru's eyes widened, and she looked down at herself, before letting out a high-pitched squeak of shock. She covered herself, and scurried away, back to her room to get some clothes on.

With Naru and her wild accusations out of the way, Motoko took initiative. She had once again wronged an innocent with her blade, and the guilt of her misdeed was weighing heavily on her. She clasped her hands together and bowed deeply.

"Keitaro... Urashima-san," she said, attracting the ronin's attention. "I wish to apologize for assaulting you. I was frightened by Naru's accusation and didn't think to get the whole story before dispensing judgment."

Keitaro smiled thinly. "Apology accepted, Motoko," he said, before sighing. "Just... don't let it happen again, alright?"

"I understand. I defer to your judgment as Kanrinin of what my punishment should be for assaulting you so gravely."

This caused the Kanrinin to look taken aback. "Punishment?"

Motoko nodded as she got up from her bow. "Indeed. Am I not to be punished for my wrongdoing?"

"No, I just..." Keitaro dithered a little bit, rocking back and forth on his heels. "I'm, uh, gonna level with you, I'm not really sure what a fitting punishment would be."

"I say you make her scrub the floors!" Su said with a giggle.

"With a toothbrush!" added Kitsune.

Shinobu sighed. "Isn't that a little too harsh, Kitsune-san..?"

"I agree," said Keitaro, crossing his arms. "Besides, scrubbing things with toothbrushes is what those American military sargeants make you do. I don't want to be a hardcase like them..." He rocked a bit more, sticking his hands in his sodden pockets, before coming to a decision. "Motoko Aoyama-san, for hurting me unreasonably, I sentence you with my position as Kanrinin to scrub the floors of Hinata House tomorrow at eight thirty in the morning... and forbid you to do..." He glanced at the bokuto. "Whatever the heck you were doing just then, with all the CRASH and the KA-BOOM."

"The... ka-boom?" Motoko blinked.

"Y'know, with the shiny energy things, and the SCHWING-BOOM?" Keitaro made a weird, wavy motion with his hands. "With all of the KAZAZAP?"

"...Do... you mean the ki attacks I used against you?" asked the swordswoman.

"Yeah, those things." Keitaro shuddered. "Those HURT. Please don't use them on me."

"...Understood." Motoko nodded tentatively, still a little weirded out by Keitaro's energetic use of onomatopoeia. "I, er, promise I'll restrain myself from using ki attacks on you."

"Thanks." Keitaro let out a relieved half-chuckle, before he looked down and saw how wet he was. "Aw, jeez, I'm all wet! I better go dry off... See you guys later!" He trotted away to get dry, still dripping as he walked down the hallway.

"Bye, Keitaro!" Su waved.

Motoko didn't notice. The hullaballoo sparked by Keitaro and Naru's little shouting match had wiped it from her mind, but Keitaro's mention of ki attacks had reminded her of what the Kanrinin had done. Somehow, almost on instinct, he had performed some kind of ki-concentrating technique that had weakened Motoko and strengthened him, to the point where he had been almost fully healed of every injury Naru and Motoko had inflicted on him. The martial artist cupped her hand to her chin, frowning thoughtfully. This merited investigation.


-Hinata House [Room 203], Late Evening-

-Stupid, stupid, stupid!- Keitaro berated himself, once the situation with Naru had been resolved and everyone had partaken of an excellent supper cooked by Shinobu. He angrily paced around the room that had been designated his, chewing himself out viciously. -Of all the stupid, stupid things you could've done, you HAD to use Ouka Gen'ei in front of FIVE people!-

He sat down, still smoldering. "God, I dunno what I'm gonna do if THAT gets out," he muttered, low enough that he was sure Naru in the room above and Kitsune in the next over couldn't hear. In a public dormitory, one could never be too sure of how thin the walls were. "Oh, well... At least there hasn't been a..."

And then, Keitaro wasn't seeing the inside of his room at all, but a different scene entirely.


Out of the ocean, crawling, skittering across the sand, thousands upon thousands, ready to maul tear slice devour.

Men sobbing women praying children screaming as they vanished into greedy maws.

Death everywhere, unstoppable.

And at the center of it all, high in the black sky, a lurid blue moon.


Keitaro gasped, snapping out of his trance and taking in the familiar-ish surroundings of Hinata House in an instant.

"Shit!" he cursed, keeping his voice down as much as he could. "Why now!? Why tonight!? Who decides these things!?"

After a few minutes of futile raging, the ronin sighed and adjusted his glasses. It was going to be a very, very long night.


Glossary

Kanrinin: Literally "manager". Something like a building superintendent, landlord, and custodian all rolled into one. As of this chapter, Keitaro is the current Kanrinin of Hinata House.

Bokuto: A wooden sword, usually in the shape of a katana. Also referred to as a bokken. They are sturdy and strong, and can be lethal weapons in their own right. There are stories of Japanese swordmasters who have felled their foes using only a bokuto. Don't confuse them with shinai, which are also wooden blades, but are more flexible and used for practicing and kendo competitions. Motoko, ever the blade-happy jidaigeki reject, usually carries a bokuto around when she's unable to tote her live sword.

Zankuusen: Literally "Air-Cutting Slash". A fictional sword strike, taught in the Shinmei-ryu style of swordfighting in Ken Akamatsu's works. The attack infuses the blade being used with ki (life-force), to create a circular slash attack.

Raimeiken: Literally "Thunderclap Sword". A fictional sword technique taught by the Shinmei-ryu. The attack infuses the blade with lightning, causing an electric attack.

Ouka Gen'ei: Literally "Cherry Blossom Mirage". More on this later!