Red moons & Kanrinin's

By: Tezza1502

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Love Hina', its characters, or anything else to do with it. I'm just putting my own spin on an idea.

Notes:...I got nuthin'.

Chapter Three:- UNCOVERING SECRETS (Or, can't you ever stay out of trouble?)

"Sarah? What are you doing here?" Motoko asked in shock as the girl in question barrelled into Su and knocked her off her feet.

"Gimme food! I'm starving!" Sarah shouted as she planted a foot into the back of Su's head while attempting to tear the pack off her back. Freeing it finally, she bounced away, using Su as a springboard.

'So that's what it feels like for Keitaro.' Su thought to herself as Sarah began rummaging through her backpack.

"If you're looking for food, you're digging through the wrong pack." She said, making Sarah pause. "All I gots is spare parts in mine."

Growling, Sarah abandoned her now useless prize and began advancing on Motoko, who was frantically shrugging off her own backpack. "Here. I think there's snacks at the bottom." She said, throwing it down on the ground. She did not want to be shoved face first into the dirt and trampled on, like Su had been.

A few minutes later, after Sarah had chomped greedily through a large amount of Ration bars, Motoko tried asking her for information again. "Sarah, how did you get here? Is this the place Seta was going with Keitaro?"

"Uh-huh." Sarah answered around mouthfuls of food. "Papa heard that this place had some interesting artefacts on it, so the plan was to give it a once over before applying for a grant from the University. We landed on the southern end about five or six days ago, and we've been exploring ever since. A few days ago, we climbed that," She pointed over her shoulder at the extinct volcano, "to get a birds-eye view. We saw this place, and decided to give it a look-see." Sarah paused as her bottom lip began to quiver slightly. "Papa and the dork went into that building, when they set off a trap and dropped into the floor." By now she was trying hard not to cry in front of them. "I haven't seen them since. That was two days ago."

Motoko was stunned into inaction. 'She…she has survived in this place, alone, all by herself? For almost two days!' While she had vaguely guessed that being raised by a man who spent a great deal of his time outside of civilisation's paved roads would prepare her for a situation like this, she was still amazed that Sarah had managed to hold herself together as long as she had, and that she was only just starting to break down now.

Motoko blinked at that thought. She looked again and observed that Sarah was indeed beginning to shake uncontrollably, despite her best efforts to hide it. The young Aoyama was at a loss as to what to do. She had never really had to offer comfort to someone before, and she was unsure as to how to go about it.

Kaolla, however, cut to the chase. Stepping up close, she wordlessly drew the pre-teen in a gentle hug. Pulling her close, she began stroking Sarah's hair lightly and whispering words of comfort in her native language while rocking the young blond from side to side.

Sarah was frozen at the unexpected offer of comfort. She was a big girl, damnit! She didn't need to be treated like a baby. She had been looking after herself just fine, since her mama went away.

But, there is something very primal about being offered comfort without any strings attached. For someone to just envelop you in a warm hug and share your pain, simply because it's the right thing to do. And try as she might to resist, Sarah eventually gave in and accepted the unspoken offer. Because it felt so damn good to be held by someone. Because it had been far too long since anyone had offered.

So they stayed that way for a while, Kaolla holding Sarah in her arms and comforting her. Motoko looking on, glad that someone knew what to do. And maybe just a little jealous. It's been a long time since she'd been held like that, as well.

"Feel better now." The Mol-Mollian asked softly.

"Y-yeah." Sarah answered shakily. "You tell anyone that I was crying, an' I'll-" She paused, trying to think up a dire enough threat to keep Su's mouth zipped.

"Don't worry. Your secret is safe with us." Kaolla looked over at Motoko and raised an eyebrow.

Motoko caught the hint. "Oh yes, not a word."

"Besides, no-one'd believe us anyway." She teased.

"Damn straight." Sarah agreed, wiping her nose on her sleeve.

"Now, lets get your papa an' Keitaros out of wherever they've landed." Su announced, standing.

"Wait…you know where they are?" Sarah demanded.

"Yup! Or at least, I will once I get to the security control room."

"Huh?" Sarah looked to Motoko for an explanation, and only getting a confused shrug for her efforts.

"It's like this: This island belonged to my family, way back when. So I know how to work the security measures well enough to bail 'em out of the clink. An' if that doesn't work, I'll level the place! Those two'll be out an' tripping over each other in no time." Su marched towards the building they had been just about to enter when Sarah interrupted them. Reaching the point where Keitaro and Seta vanished, she tapped a code into a part of the wall no different to any other. With only the slightest of rumbles, the wall slid away to reveal a stairway leading down. "Ta-daah!"

"Wow." Sarah was appropriately surprised. "That was cool."

"You ain't seen nothing yet." Su preened.

A few more staircases, and the odd wrong turn later, they emerged into a huge room that was empty except for a large, low set stone table in the centre. "An' here we are!"

"Where?" Sarah asked. "There's nothing here."

"Wait for it." Su requested as she walked over to the table and pressed her hand into a depression on one side of it. Motoko and Sarah jumped as a voice came from everywhere. In their shock, neither of them noticed that Su had jumped as well, her eyes widening with surprise.

-/IDENTITY, PLEASE?/-

"Princess Kaolla Su." She responded, a bit suspicious. This was not the level of technology she had been expecting to find in place here.

-/CONFIRMING/-

This time, the wait was almost a minute long. Suddenly, the entire space above the table burst into light. Sarah and Motoko jumped backwards as the light resolved into a three dimensional holographic layout of the entire island. Motoko was surprised to see that it was current, noting that the parts of the jungle Su's landing had destroyed were present, as well as what she assumed to be Seta's plane at the southern end.

-/IDENTITY CONFIRMED. WELCOME, PRINCESS KAOLLA SU. HOW MAY THIS FACILITY ASSIST YOU?/-

"Query: please list the location of every human bio-signature within this city."

-/THERE ARE CURRENTLY TWO HUMAN BIO-SIGNATURES IN THE SAME ROOM AS THE PRINCESS. THERE ARE A FURTHER TWO HUMAN BIO-SIGNATURES IN THE HOLDING CELLS/-

"Please denote the described bio-signatures as non-hostile allies."

-/CONFIRMED/-

A whirring sound came from around them as several lasers withdrew back into their resting places in the shadows. Motoko and Sarah turned back and glared at Su, who shrugged.

"Hey, at least they didn't shoot first. Besides, I am a princess. The computer's first priority is to safeguard me." She explained.

Sarah snorted. "Since when are you a princess? And of where?"

Su evaded, not wishing to go through the whole thing again. "Tell ya later. After we get your papa and Keitaros back." She answered with a wink. Turning back to the table, she continued drawing the relevant information out of the security AI concerning the others. She found that Keitaro and Seta were both sharing a cell several levels below them, but had not been otherwise harmed. "Can you still hear me if we go down there?"

-/AFFIRMATIVE, THROUGH THE VARIOUS WALL MOUNTED INTERFACES PRESENT. ANY COMMANDS WILL HAVE TO BE ADDRESSED THROUGH THEM AS WELL/-

"Okie-dokies!" Su turned and headed out through another doorway that had opened on the opposite side to the way they had entered. "C'mon you two. Lets go get 'em! An' don't touch anything unless I say so. It might be another booby trap."

After the trapdoor had swallowed them both, Keitaro and Seta had fallen a surprisingly long way. The walls of the pit had sloped gently so as to break their rate of descent enough that they didn't go splat when they were finally deposited into the pitch-black cell they now found themselves in.

At first, Keitaro had been majorly freaked out by the complete absence of light. Gradually though, he had calmed down as it became apparent that the darkness was not an indication that anything unpleasant was about to happen to either him or Seta. The Toudai Professor's near-constant banter had assisted greatly in this.

Over the next two days, they had fought the boredom and darkness by swapping stories about themselves as Seta pored over every inch of the room, looking for any weakness that he could exploit to get them out of there. The Kanrinin had been hopeful of a quick escape at first. But as the hours turned into days, he had gradually stopped paying attention to Seta's occasionally hopeful grunts and comments. "Do you think Sarah's okay? Y'know, out there on her own."

"Yup!" Seta replied confidently, not stopping his careful inspection of the wall by touch. "We've been in some pretty hairy situations before. Plus, I trained her myself on how to survive off the land. She'll be fine for a few days. By which time, we'll be out of here." He paused, digging a finger into a crack in the wall to try and find some purchase within. Keitaro had stopped getting excited by sound of this action after the first four times.

"So you really think you'll be able to find a way out of here?"

"Of course! Just gotta keep thinking positive." The professor replied cheerfully. "And this isn't so bad."

"How so?"

"Well, for starters, there's no-one else stuck in here with us, hell-bent on killing us. And we still have some food. Plus, we've been left to our own devices, so there's nothing trying to impede our escape efforts." Seta cheerfully ticked off what he felt were the points in their favour. "So, I give us a better than fifty-fifty chance of making it out of here."

"I guess…" Keitaro was not as enthusiastic about their chances. It was his first experience at being incarcerated against his will, after all.

Seta finally picked up on the lack of enthusiasm coming from his new assistant, and addressed him directly. "Keitaro." The other man looked over at where he assumed the nervous part-timer was. "I meant it when I said that we'll get out of this. The only thing working against us right now is time. Which is much better situation to be in than say, trying to figure this out when the roof's collapsing, or some such."

Just then, the darkened cell began vibrating.

"Oh great! Jinx it , why don't you." Keitaro wailed in panic.

Suddenly, from the wall furthest away from them, a shaft of light erupted, blinding them both.

Seta barely had time to shield his eyes before something slammed into him. "PAPA!"

"Sarah?" Seta looked down and tried to focus on the bundle frantically clutching at him in sobbing excitement. "How did you-?"

"That'd be me." An impish voice stated from the new doorway.

"Su?" Keitaro queried in surprise.

"Yup! Heyas Keitaros!" Keitaro immediately found himself tackled by his own bundle of happy blonde.

"URASHIMA! Stop molesting Su like that." Keitaro froze in shock as another familiar voice entered the cell.

"M-M-M-Motoko?" He stammered as he frantically tried to stop Kaolla rubbing her cheek against his while humming contentedly.

"mmmm…chill out Motoko." Su said in a dreamy voice. "You can have your turn at Keitaro-snuggles after me. So just be patient." This statement left both Hinata-sou residents sputtering frantic denials.

Eventually realising that he was not in imminent danger, Keitaro found his voice. "So… you both came looking for me?" He asked, confused. "How'd you know we were in trouble in the first place?"

"We didn't! And we didn't." Su answered, beaming up at him. "My mom rang me earlier today an' said that someone had tripped an alarm here. So I flew out to investigate. Motoko's just along to keep me warm at night."

"Oh, ah, uh-huh." Keitaro nodded, trying to assimilate Su's statement.

"I beg your pardon?" Seta enquired. "Keitaro? How does your friend know about this island. And how to get us out of a prison cell built by an ancient, long extinct civilisation?"

"Hey! My people aren't extinct. We just chose to step back from the rest of the world." Kaolla retorted indignantly, before a sheepish look crossed her face. "Oops."

"Really!" Seta materialised two inches from Kaolla's face, causing her to squeak in surprise. "You belong to the ancient civilisation that worshipped turtle gods centuries ago? Who's empire once extended across the pacific rim? It still exists?" He babbled excitedly.

"Well, not at the moment." She said, causing Seta to face fault. "I'm just a student in Tokyo right now."

"What about when you're at home?" He asked, trying to get some form of confirmation out of the erratic young girl.

"Oh she said she's a princess, or something." Sarah piped up.

"Say what?" It was hard to tell who shouted the loudest at that statement, Seta or Keitaro.

Su glared in frustration at Sarah, who stuck her tongue out in reply. "Hey, you never said it was a secret, didja."

"No, I didn't." The young girl sighed. "Lets just get out of here."

Turning abruptly, she walked off. Shrugging to each other, the rest of them followed her.

After walking along the subterranean corridors in silence for a few minutes, Keitaro sped up and started keeping pace beside Kaolla. Making sure that he was far enough away that Motoko would not think that he was up to something untoward, he started talking. "Is it true? What Sarah said?"

"…yeah, it is." She replied glumly.

Absorbing that quietly, he spoke again. "Does Granny Hina know? Or Haruka?"

"Yes, and maybe. I never asked her."

"Any of the others?"

"Just Motoko, and I only told her today."

Keitaro absorbed this in silence for a bit. "Don't you like being a princess?"

"Not really." Kaolla said softly. "It gets to be a bit overwhelming, sometimes. That's why I came to Japan. To get away from all that, and have a normal life for a bit."

Keitaro nodded. "Then I understand why you didn't say anything."

"Really?" Kaolla sounded cautiously happy.

"Yeah. You just want to be accepted for the wonderful girl you are inside, not an imposed perception." Keitaro explained honestly.

"You really mean that?"

"Uh-huh. Why would I say it otherwise." He replied with a familiar lopsided grin. "I mean, it's not like you're going to stop testing mecha-tama's on me now that the cats out of the bag, are you?"

"Oh Keitaro!" Kaolla jumped up and glomped him full strength.

"Erk!"

Watching this from behind them, Motoko was happy that her young friend was back in good spirits again. Enough so that she didn't automatically think to blast Keitaro for coming into contact with the girl. 'For cheering Su up and accepting her as she is, I will let him off. This time.' She thought, justifying her lack of anger over their shared contact to herself. And she also managed to ignore the small twinge of jealousy at seeing the Kanrinin cautiously returning the embrace.

Feeling happier than before her secret came out, Kaolla became a little more talkative. Keeping Keitaro's hand in hers, and ignoring Motoko's occasional twitch towards her sword because of this, she decided to be gracious and allow one question from an eager Seta.

"Does the Circle of Petitioning really exist?"

'Damn, how did he find out about that?' Kaolla thought as she nodded hesitantly in the affirmative. "Yeah. My people used to petition the Gods on this island. And no, I'm not going to show you where it is." She stated, forestalling the professors next question. "It is a sacred place to my people. Only royalty is allowed in there. Anyone else gets an automatic death sentence." She shrugged lightly as the others freaked out a little over her blunt statement. "It was the only way to keep it from being abused, towards the end. Even then, it didn't save us." She finished enigmatically.

"What's it look like? Y'know, so we can avoid it." Sarah asked innocently. Not.

Kaolla knew the young girl's underlying motive was just to try and help her father get some more details on it. But she didn't see the harm in giving a brief description. "Well, I've never seen it myself. But from what my moms say, it's at the bottom of a huge cavern. You stand on this large circle of black stone, an' state your piece. If anyone up there is listening, a white flash happens. Then, the symbols carved into the stone start to glow while the outer edge gets surrounded by a wall of light. After that, I dunno. No-one who ever got answered told what happened to them after that." She shrugged again.

"Wow. I hope we're not going anywhere near it." Keitaro said, shuddering. He knew how clumsy he was. No way did he want a death sentence just for stumbling into the wrong place by accident.

"We're not." She squeezed his hand comfortingly, seeing how worried he was about it. 'Don't worry, Keitaro. The closest we'll get is this T-junction up ahead.'

Shortly, they came upon the aforementioned T-junction. Kaolla stopped and faced the others. "Now, like I said to Motoko an' the bigmouth before we left the control room, don't touch anything you see sticking out until I say otherwise. If ya do, ya might send us all back into one of those cells again, or worse. An' I don't want to make this trip more than once. Y'hear?" She asked, ignoring the raspberry Sarah was blowing at her.

"Yep." Sarah.

"Yes." Keitaro.

"Understood." Motoko.

"Wow! An priceless artefact! This could get me funding for a dozen digs!" Guess who.

"Aw crap!" Kaolla muttered as she spotted Seta tugging at another booby trap. "This way guys. RUN!" She shouted as she began sprinting in the opposite direction of Seta.

Sarah, Keitaro and Motoko looked at each other for a moment, before they sprinted over to the professor. Keitaro and Motoko grabbed an arm each as Sarah pinched a nerve on Seta's hand to make him release the trigger so they could drag him after Kaolla.

They had barely pulled him away before the sections of the walls nearest the trigger sprung out and crushed it like a pancake. More sections sprung out and clapped together as they ran full speed after Kaolla.

Gradually, the THOOMing sound of stone slamming together stopped coming from behind them. Risking a glance over their shoulders, they sighed with relief as they realised that the danger was over for the moment.

"Whew! It's safe to stop now guys. GUYS!" Kaolla shouted at the others from a plain doorway a second before four bodies slammed into her. "WOULGH!" She uttered as the breath was knocked out of her.

Seta managed to snag his daughter with an outstretched arm and stop his forward motion as they ploughed into a horrified Kaolla. When he finally confirmed his balance against the doorway, he looked for the others to apologise for causing this. And stopped when he found that they were nowhere in sight. "Huh? Where'd they disappear to?"

"Um, down there Papa." Sarah pointed at the ledge in front of them, and the three sets of footprints leading off into the blackness.

Seta was about to lean over the edge when the room exploded with light. Throwing himself and Sarah backwards purely by instinct, they ended up back in the hallway just as another stone slab came down and sealed the doorway, locking the Hinata-Sou tenants inside the room.

"Well, darn." He sighed in frustration.