"Things were beginning to fall into place. Truly, the first shadows of the coming darkness, and the first rays of the answering hope, came on that day."
- Mutsumi Otohime; 'On a Wing and a Storm'

Chapter III:
Signs of the Future

July 26, 2006
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan
0824 hours, local time

"I thought we'd try something a little different this morning," Seno said.

"That doesn't tell me why you're wearing a blindfold," Motoko replied flatly.

"It's simple," Seno said, turning in the direction of her voice. "I've been wanting to learn Zanshin for a while now."

Unseen through the blindfold over his eyes, Motoko stared blankly at him, blinking confusedly. "Zanshin… the awareness of your surroundings?" she ventured. "I do believe you already have that mastered, Seno."

He chuckled and drew Shinaijou, the glowing light of the blade visible even through the thick black blindfold. "Not quite the kendo version of Zanshin," he replied. "See, I was reading this fanfiction a few weeks ago…"

Motoko slapped her free hand against her forehead. "I should've known…"

"…and in it, the main character lost both of his eyes and couldn't see anymore," the swordsman continued, as if she'd never spoken. "But there was this top-secret project going on by the bad guys, they called it the 'Elemental' project, and it basically was the literal and full infusion of the essence of a Guardian Force into a person. Well, the one that the main character got gave him the ability of Zanshin, or sightless sight."

The swordswoman nodded slowly. She didn't have one clue about Guardian Forces or Elementals or any of that, but his concept of Zanshin made sense. "So, you want to learn how to fight blind."

"Not just fight blind. To be able to use my other senses, hearing and smell and touch, to form a mental image of the world around me." He scratched his head. "It's really a deep concept, and I've never really been good at explaining things, so I'll probably have you read the fanfiction sometime. I can find it easy, the author's pen name is 'Peptuck' so that's not hard to find."

Sometimes, it made perfect sense that Seno and Keitaro were old childhood friends. They seemed to share the ability to 'nerd out' about things from time to time. In Keitaro's case, it was the promise girl of his memories, Naru, and photo booths. For Seno, it was most aspects of pop culture and anything related to video gaming.

"You know, you seem to like to ramble," Motoko said.

"Yeah, I know," Seno replied, scratching the back of his head self-consciously. "Sometimes I do it on purpose, though. Makes people underestimate me, since they're too busy thinking that I've got the collective intelligence of a rusty shovel."

"Rusty…shovel…?"

"Okay, so my cracks could use some work. You're not exactly Miss Wit yourself, you know."

Motoko smiled and shifted herself into a fighting stance. It wasn't her usual straightforward stance, it was one she had admittedly picked up from one of Seno's video games. Supporting her weight on her right foot, she slid her left forward, the toe of her sandal pointed at Seno. She held the Hina blade in her right hand, the curved, sharpened edge of the blade turned toward the ground. Her left hand was raised beside the blade, fingers curled in an almost-beckoning fashion toward her sparring partner.

"I chose to spend more time sharpening my blade than my tongue," she retorted.

"Oooh, feisty," he grinned, still standing in that aloof manner. "I turned you into a quick-mouthed vixen, didn't I?" He likewise slid into a stance, also borrowed from a game. His weight also supported itself on his right foot, but he held his blade in a double-handed grip up near his right ear. "It's just as well you practiced your sword rather than your wit. At least you can hold your own against me in swordplay."

When the swordsman had first arrived several months ago, Motoko would've taken grave offense at that statement, but not any longer. While she had always known that Seno taunted her out of a desire to entertain those around him while simultaneously spurring her to higher levels, she had been prideful and took almost everything as a personal strike to her honor.

But as time passed, and she'd grown more comfortable with letting her emotions show, first in regards to Keitaro and then to Seno, she'd come to find she was just as entertained by his remarks, even if they weren't always the wittiest in the world. And now they were a part of everyday life at the Hinata apartments, like Shinobu's cooking, Su's inventions, and Keitaro and Naru remaining woefully ignorant of their feelings for one another.

The younger Aoyama smiled at that last thought. That is no longer a part of everyday life, she thought. Now they are well aware of each others' feelings, and are happier than they have ever been. Closing her eyes, she took a deep, cleansing breath of the early morning air. So much has changed here in just one night. The Hinata has always been a place of fun and laughter, but now it seems as if the walls are alive with joy.

"Let us see how I fare against you in a match of blades," she said. "Prepare yourself, Seno!"

Seno smiled. "Come on, then."

In silence, Motoko rushed him. As she neared him, she drew back her right arm and sent the blade singing through the air in a horizontal arc. But as she began her swing, Seno took a step forward, bringing his own weapon down to intercept hers, albeit a tad sloppily, away from his body. He twisted the blade in his hands, forcing her back and away from him, but did not press an attack.

She immediately struck again, striking straight for his chest, but the flat of his blade knocked her sword away from her target. Unperturbed, she raised her blade again and circled him silently, creating as little noise as possible to give away her movements. She drew her arm across her body, preparing to strike his undefended back, and her gi rustled just slightly as she moved her arms. She swore mentally as he began to spin to defend against her attack, having heard the noise of her gi. Keeping her movement constant, she changed the angle of her blade to strike at his knees, fully expecting him to alter his defense to parry her blow.

He didn't.

By the time she realized that he had no idea of the danger he was in, it was too late for her to withdraw the strike. She flipped the blade in her hands, turning it so that the flat edge would hit him to reduce the possibility of permanent, debilitating harm. The broad side of the Hina blade bit into his right leg just below the knee, tripping the swordsman over backwards onto the laundry deck.

Releasing the Hina blade to clatter to the ground, Motoko threw herself beneath Seno, wrapping her arms around him to cushion his impact with the ground. Her back hit the wooden deck, followed a split-second later by his full weight landing on top of her, forcing a short gasp of pain out of her.

"Are you okay?" she gasped, breathless at the thought that she had hurt him.

The swordsman reached up to pull the blindfold off, looking down to see Motoko inspecting the area of his leg that she had hit. The strike hadn't been hard enough to break any bones, and it'd been lucky that she'd hit him with the backside of the sword or there'd be an awful mess on the deck.

He sat up, leaning forward to poke at the discolored area. "It'll leave a bruise," he said. "Nothing serious." He shifted his hand to rest it around Motoko's neck, gently squeezing her shoulder. "I guess we're even now, huh? From the first time we fought, and I hurt you."

She smiled faintly, remembering the fight that had lasted two moves in only two seconds. She'd attacked him in arrogance and overconfidence, and had taken a smarting blow, both to her ego and the back of her neck, for her troubles. "I'm sorry," she said. "I thought you would anticipate the change in my attack."

He smiled as well and leaned forward further, kissing her temple. "Don't apologize," he replied. "I wanted to test the limits of my ability to fight sightless, and I did. Tomorrow, I'll try again."

"If it means that I keep having to hurt you, I don't know how much I'll be able to take."

He brought up his other arm and pulled her into a hug, pillowing her head against his chest. He then laid back on the deck, pulling her down with him. "Don't worry, Motoko. I promise I'll be more responsible. Besides, just think of it as a way to figure out just how good I am in the, ah… stamina department."

The way he'd uttered the word 'stamina' caused Motoko's face to turn bright red. She tried to reply, but the only sounds that would come out were embarrassed stammerings. After a moment, she managed to gain control of herself, and pressed her forehead against his chest.

"I'm going to kill you, Nakakami," she said quietly.

The laid-back swordsman smirked. "I'd be able to live with myself in Hell, knowing I've gotten so many rises out of you."

For several moments, she was silent. But then she started laughing, and rolled off of Seno's chest to lay on the deck beside him, one arm pillowed beneath her head as the other draped across his stomach.

"I could get used to this," she said, watching the morning mists slowly evaporating under the heat of the sun.

"What, beating me up?"

Motoko smiled. "That, too." She sighed in contentment, and snuggled up closer to the swordsman. "But I mean this, what we have right now. Quiet moments just to enjoy each others' company."

Smiling, Seno slid his right arm beneath her and squeezed her right shoulder. "Never figured you to be a romantic, Motoko," he said.

"I was never allowed to be," she replied, sighing, sadly this time. She curled closer against him. "All my life, I've been focused solely on honing my swordsmanship. And when my sister married and gave up the sword, I was convinced that romance was a tool of the weak and unjust."

"'Weak and unjust'?" he repeated. "Having a Wufei moment?"

Motoko smiled. "You're the one writing that silly story that turns all of us into Gundam pilots," she replied. "I never asked to replace him."

"He was the pilot whose personality matched yours the closest. But hey, look on the bright side. At least you didn't have an emotional breakdown when you lost to Tsuruko."

The swordswoman went very still. "Actually, Seno, I did have an emotional breakdown." She paused. "Oh, that's right, you weren't there when that happened. I forgot, you didn't know."

"I'm sorry," he said, sensing that he'd just poked a hot knife into a barely-healed injury.

"Don't be," she replied calmly. "You weren't aware." For a moment, there was silence between them, then she looked over and gave him a thin smile. "Anyway, back to the previous topic, I didn't think that there would be any use for love after my sister gave up the sword for marriage."

She took a slow breath, then laid her head on his shoulder. "Then Keitaro came here to take over as manager. At first, I hated him. He was the personification of everything about men and romance that I didn't want anything to do with. But then, the more I was around him, the more compassionate that I saw he was, the more selfless I saw he was, and I thought that maybe I had been wrong.

"And then you showed up, with all your laid-back charisma, all your skill. Between you and Keitaro, my barriers got broken down. I stopped being so hateful, and I allowed myself to wonder what love is like. But with Keitaro being so close to Naru, it felt like someone was twisting a knife in my guts every time I saw them. To think that I had been so close to finding love, but it was just out of reach."

Pausing, she flushed slightly and looked toward Seno, who was watching her attentively, listening to her every word. She smiled. "But then last night happened, and I discovered my love." Then she grinned, breaking the wistful mood that had settled over them. "So yes, I never was a romantic until last night. And since you brought it out of me, you have to suffer through my exploring it."

"I have absolutely no problem helping you explore your romanticism," he replied with a grin that would do Kitsune proud.

Blushing again, she smacked his chest with her right hand. "Pervert," she muttered.

Naru wandered into the living room to see Keitaro standing near the door, pulling his shoes on. She walked over to him and tilted her head to one side. "You going somewhere?" she asked.

He looked up and smiled when he realized who it was. "Yeah, I'm going to the hardware store. Want to come along?"

"Sure," she replied, sitting down to pull on her shoes.

Once they were both ready, Keitaro stood up and pushed open the front door, holding it for Naru to walk out ahead of him. She smiled at him and stepped outside, then turned and waited for him to join her. Once he closed the door behind him, she slipped her left arm through his right, and they started down the steps of the Hinata apartments.

"So what do you need at the hardware store?" she asked.

"Stuff that I can use to fix the hole in our rooms," he answered.

She stopped in her tracks, letting her arm fall away from his, and stared at him, the hurt plainly evident on her face. Tears began to well in her eyes. "Fix the hole? But why?"

He blinked, realized that she'd made the wrong assumption, and waved his hands placatingly in front of him. "No, no, that's not what I mean!" he hastily said. "I didn't mean I was going to close the hole, I just meant I was going to repair it and make it safer!"

She sniffed and blinked away the tears. "Make it safer?"

"Yeah," he replied, nodding. "Because you know, the floor around the hole is rotted, and it could fall through any day. And since it's not a circular hole, there's always the chance that one of us could cut ourselves trying to go up or down through it. So what I was going to do was pull up the floor, replace it, then cut an even hole into it. Maybe put a raised step in your room as well, so it won't be so easy to just fall into it."

As he explained his reasoning, Naru lifted her left hand and pressed it against her heart, willing it to stop beating so fast. "Oh," she said. "I thought you were going to…"

"Of course not," he said softly, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her tightly. "That hole means too much to me to ever close up. I just don't want you to get hurt trying to get through it, that's all."

Smiling, she laid her head on his chest and luxuriated in the feeling of his proximity. "Keitaro, you jerk," she said, her voice warm, lacking any venom to put behind her words. "You only ever think of others. Don't you ever do anything for yourself?"

"Seeing you girls happy, and you especially, Naru, is all I want for myself," he replied.

"Oh my, am I interrupting something?"

The young couple looked up to see a lovely young woman standing in front of them, smiling pleasantly. She had long, dark brown hair tied back in a braid, with two disobedient strands of hair sticking up from the front of her head like antennae. She wore a green long-sleeved shirt underneath a yellow sundress.

"Mutsumi?" Naru asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know, I just felt like dropping by. It's nice to see that you and Keitaro are getting along so well. Are you two together now?"

Keitaro smiled and released Naru, then took her left hand in his right and laced their fingers together. "Yeah, we are," he said.

"Oh, how wonderful!" Mutsumi said, clapping her hands together. "It's about time you two finally admitted your feelings for each other."

The young couple smiled at their optimistic friend, then something flashed through Naru's mind. "Umm, Mutsumi? Do you remember fifteen years ago? A promise you made to a little boy?"

"Why, yes, I do," Mutsumi said. While her expression didn't change, her tone of voice indicated that she was becoming serious. "But I already told you, Naru, I'm not the little girl Keitaro made his promise with."

"That's not what my memories tell me," Keitaro replied. "I distinctly remember making a promise to a girl I called Mu-chan. The only thing was, the promise wasn't to get into Tokyo University together. It was to get into Tokyo University with our friend…"

"Na-chan," Mutsumi finished, smiling. "So you finally remembered the promise, did you?"

"Yeah. I can't believe I've had it wrong all this time."

"It's okay, Keitaro," Mutsumi said. "We were only kids, so it's natural you wouldn't remember all of the promise. The important thing is that you've found your promise girl." With that, Mutsumi nodded her head in Naru's direction.

"Mutsumi, I don't understand," Naru said, squeezing Keitaro's hand. "Why did you make him promise to be with me, and not you?"

"It's true that I've always loved Keitaro and that he had feelings for me as well, but it was obvious that you absolutely adored him when we used to play together as kids." At this, Naru's face reddened considerably. "And I knew that he loved you as well. I knew that the two of you were meant for each other."

"But that still doesn't explain why you let me have him, instead of keep him yourself?"

Mutsumi smiled that warm, motherly smile of hers. "Naru, have you ever heard the saying, 'If you love something, let it go'?"

The younger girl nodded.

"I love Keitaro, but I knew he would be happier with you. That's why I made him promise to be with you."

Naru looked down and blushed again. "Thank you, Mutsumi," she said quietly. "You've given me more than I can ever repay you for."

"That's not true," Mutsumi replied. "All you have to do to repay me is make sure he keeps his promise to me." She turned her head toward the sky, a dreamy expression appearing on her face, before she focused on her friends again. "So what are you two up to today?"

"We're going to the hardware store so I can get some supplies to fix the hole connecting our rooms," Keitaro said.

"Oh, are you moving in with each other and that's why you don't need the hole anymore?" the dark-haired girl asked.

Naru's face turned as red as her skirt as Keitaro's eyes widened. "Uhh, I don't think we're to that point in our relationship yet, Mutsumi," he said. "I'm just going to fix the hole so that there's no danger of one of us getting hurt while we're using it."

"Oh, I see," Mutsumi said, nodding. "That's a good idea. You should have done that a while ago."

"I guess I just didn't think about it," Keitaro replied, scratching his head nervously.

"Don't feel bad, Keitaro," Mutsumi said with a smile as she touched her forehead with her right hand in that way of hers. "I forget things all the time."

"Want to come with us, Mutsumi?" Naru asked.

"Sure!" the older girl said, beaming. She fell in on Keitaro's left side and, after a questioning glance to Naru, looped her arm through his. "So tell me the story. I want to know how you two got together so suddenly when I've been trying to push you together since I've known you."

"Seno basically got fed up with us playing cat and mouse and threw me into Naru's room and forced me to confess under swordpoint," Keitaro replied, deadpan.

"Oh, my," Mutsumi said.

"He did no such thing," Naru said, pinching Keitaro's side. As he yelped, Naru leaned forward to look at Mutsumi. "The only thing Seno did was give Keitaro a pep talk, send him up to me, and then stood outside to make sure nobody would interrupt us."

"That sounds more accurate," the Okinawan native said. She smiled at Keitaro. "You're a bad liar, Keitaro."

The Hinata apartments kanrinin grinned ruefully. "Well, let me tell you about all that happened…"

1132 hours, local time

Hours later, the sword-wielding pair of Seno and Motoko made their way down the stairs to the common room on the first floor. Seno seemed to be favoring his right leg, a fact that had Motoko in a state of near-permanent shame. "Hey, Kitsune, you seen Naru and Keitaro?"

The fox-eyed lady looked over to them from her position on the couch, where she'd been watching a poorly-dubbed American soap opera. "Yeah, they came back a little while ago with some building supplies and the turtle lady," she said.

"Guess we didn't notice," Motoko said.

Kitsune rolled over on the couch and winked at the couple. "So what've you two been doing that's got you so distracted?" she asked with a grin.

Rolling his eyes, Seno slipped an arm around Motoko's waist and led her back upstairs. "Do us all a favor, Kitsune, go get laid."

Growling like her namesake, Kitsune hurled her half-full sake glass at the retreating swordsman. He reacted instantly, his free hand drawing a kunai from a hidden sheath at his waist to strike the sake glass from the air. With no further word, he replaced the blade and continued upstairs with Motoko.

All of that having been done without looking.

As they wandered down the hallway on the second floor, Motoko looked over at Seno. "I'm going to take a bath," she said.

He nodded, all jokes and poking laid aside, and asked, "Want me to wash your back?"

Flushing red, she looked away. "I… would like that, but I don't think that our relationship has progressed that far yet," she replied.

"I understand," he said, smiling comfortingly at her. "No hurry. I'll just go bother Keitaro for a while until you're done, or maybe go sneak one myself."

"Thank you for understanding," Motoko said softly, then rose up on the balls of her feet to kiss his cheek, before turning toward the stairs to go up and into her room for a change of clothes.

Seno stopped in the middle of the hallway after she left, resting his left hand on the hilt of his sword as he looked out into the morning sky. "Another beautiful day at the Hinata," he said to no one in particular. "And this day is much brighter than those in the past have been. Hopefully, future days will only continue to get brighter."

It was at that point that something hard landed on top of his head, accompanied by a "Myuh!" sound.

The swordsman looked up to find that the resident hot springs turtle, Tama-chan, had landed on his head. He chuckled. "Sorry, Tama, you just missed Motoko. She went upstairs to her room."

With a "Myuh!" that sounded oddly like a 'thanks' the turtle jumped from his head and sailed through the air toward the stairs. Snickering, Seno turned and walked toward Keitaro's room.

Moments later, the sound of a shriek could be heard from all corners of the house, followed by a panicked cry of "Turtle!"

Seno's smirk broke into a wide grin. "Poor Motoko. One day, I'll have to help her get over that fear of turtles, even if I have to tie her up and throw her in a room full of them."

Clearly, his voice carried farther than he'd thought, because he next heard her shout from the floor above, "I will cut your fingers off if you even try that, Nakakami!"

"It would be well worth it, Motoko dear!" he called back.

His only answer came in the sounds of Motoko stomping angrily down the hallway above him. At the same time, Tama-chan glided serenely down from the upper level and landed on his shoulder. Patting the turtle on the head, he walked into Keitaro's room.

The first thing he noticed was that the entire section of ceiling where the hole leading into Naru's room should have been was gone, and that Keitaro was leaning halfway out of Naru's room, a carpenter's belt wrapped around his waist and a sheet of plywood in his hands.

"Redecorating?" the swordsman asked, raising an eyebrow up at his friend.

"Just fixing the hole so that nobody gets hurt trying to use it," the kanrinin replied, not looking up from his work.

Seno couldn't resist. "Making it easier for you and Naru to sneak into each others' rooms for some nookie, eh?"

Keitaro paused. "What's nookie?"

"An American term," his friend replied with a grin. "You're too young to understand. Give it a few months."

For several moments, Keitaro was as still as a statue as he pondered the meaning of what Seno had said. Then, the rising color of his face became a clear indicator of his understanding. "Seno, you bastard!" he said.

"You should be thanking me," the swordsman replied calmly, his grin growing to infuriating levels. "If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be getting any."

Just then, Naru appeared in the removed section of ceiling, glaring daggers at Seno, her face red in a mixture of anger and embarrassment. She reared back her right arm and threw a dictionary at him. And not any tiny little pocket dictionary; this was a full-sized, hardcover dictionary bigger than his head.

"That is none of your business!" she screamed as the dictionary flattened Seno in under a second. She then stalked away from the hole, working her shoulder and wincing slightly as if she'd pulled a muscle.

Upstairs, Mutsumi watched her friend closely. "Oh my, are you okay, Naru?" she asked.

"Yeah, just my shoulders hurt," the younger girl replied, sitting at the table in the center of her room.

"Well, then let me see," Mutsumi said.

"Do what?"

Smiling, the Okinawan native turned Naru around and pulled the back of her shirt up to her neck. "Let me see," she repeated.

Naru's face reddened again. "Mutsumi! What are you doing?"

The older girl giggled. "I can't see if you pulled your shoulder if you're wearing your shirt," she said. "So take it off."

That statement caused Keitaro to twitch violently, and if he hadn't been holding onto Naru's floor, he almost certainly would've been on the ground with Seno right about then. Impulsively, he pulled his head up and turned toward the pair just as Naru pulled off her shirt. Even though she was still wearing her bra, he immediately realized that just because of that, he had taken his life into his own hands. Again.

Naru saw him looking at her, but instead of reacting violently, she just flushed red from her face to her chest and quietly said, "Keitaro…"

"Ack!" Keitaro shouted, covering his eyes with his hands. "I'm sorry, Naru! I didn't mean to look!"

"It's okay…" she said softly.

Slowly, he lowered her hands and met eyes with his girlfriend from across the room. She had crossed her arms over her chest, and the expression on her face was the complete opposite of what he had expected. Instead of anger, he saw fear.

"Naru…?"

"I… I don't want to disappoint you," she whispered, then looked away from him.

That revelation stunned him into silence. His jaw muscles worked up and down, but no sound came out. She was afraid of disappointing him with her looks? If not for the fact that she seriously thought that was the case, he would have found it funny.

"Oh, my," Mutsumi said.

"Wh-what?" Naru asked, a note of fear creeping into her voice. "What is it?"

The dark-haired woman pointed to the mirror nearby. "Naru, look at your back!"

Naru turned her back toward the mirror and looked over her shoulder. Mutsumi obligingly pulled Naru's hair out of the way, and the younger girl gasped. Cutting across her shoulder blades, beneath her bra straps, were two marks on her skin that appeared to be old scars, half an inch wide and six inches long, that ran diagonally from her spine toward the sides of her body.

"What the hell are those?" Naru blurted out.

Her older friend looked around her room, as if seeking the answer for you. Her eyes fell on the table, where Keitaro's sketchbook was still laying open to the drawing of an angelic Naru. Smiling, Mutsumi traced her fingers along the marks on Naru's back and said, "Those must be where you hide your wings."