Tsuruko Arc - Chapter Seven: Resonance
"How long has it been since I felt like this? The weight of nature's fury seemed much heavier before." Keitaro looked down at Motoko, laying her head on his lap. The last time Keitaro thought of her as just another pretty damsel was when he first laid eyes on her. That thought disappeared just as quickly when he felt the full extent of her wrath. Several years have passed and he still looks at her like a hellion. Even in the underworld, his memories of her caused him to shiver and he had the scars to prove it. Defenseless as she was now, he could barely stand her.
"The weight of her? Or the weight of her sword?" Tsuruko questioned.
"There's not much difference in my mind. Do you consider yourself different from the blade you hold dear?"
"Is that how you see me as, Keitaro? A weapon?" Tsuruko laid her sword in front of her.
"Do you consider yourself different from that? I certainly don't. Behind that picturesque visage is a honed killer instinct."
"Not a killer?"
"Are you a killer?"
"If I am protecting myself from my enemy and they die in the process, does that make me a killer?"
"I will admit there is a distinction between killer and murderer. But you can't deny you've been trained. A master such as yourself should be able to incapacitate, not kill."
"You make it much simpler than it sounds and much more dangerous. Would you walk away if an enemy were at your back?"
"And if I were your opponent, how would you treat with me?"
"Oh I don't know, perhaps I'll thrash you for a bit and send you on your way."
Keitaro rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm glad that I could appeal to your motherly senses."
"Are you calling me old?" Tsuruko's said unintentionally harsh.
"If the shoe fits..." Keitaro said with a grin. He heard a small snicker from the person under him too.
"If you don't mind..." Tsuruko crawled towards the couple, lithely, with the grace of a feline. Keitaro averted his gaze from the curve of her breasts, but was far too late not to think about allure of the woman coming to him. Monogamous, check, but dead, nope. Tsuruko was right in front of him, on the border of being on top. Keitaro inhaled the sweet fragrance of her and found himself longing. Tsuruko took note of his expression for a moment, before pouncing on Motoko. Motoko burst out laughing as her sister tickled her. "Faking incapacity was something I never taught you, Motoko."
"I'm... sorry." Motoko stood up in a meditative position, right beside Keitaro. "I just wanted to stay put for a while longer."
"Well, we both have some catching up to do. I'll be down at the tea shop." Keitaro stood up, but Motoko reached for him.
"Please, stay." she said pleading.
"I'm not going to disappear." Without even turning to look at her, Keitaro swung his arm out of Motoko's grip and left. Silence filled the room. Motoko struggled to keep her composure, even while her body quivered. The oceans of emotion within her mind threatened to overwhelm her. How could she believe that he would treat her like before? The kind soul that she crippled may have healed, but not without the scars. She sensed the cold steel beneath the surface and had just felt the icy sting.
"Do you love him?" Tsuruko questioned. A simple question that made Motoko unable to hold back the rushing tears.
"I... never realized just how much I needed him. I was so happy when he came back, but now I just want to die."
"Don't be melodramatic, Motoko. It will get you nowhere with me."
"Do you find this melodramatic?" Motoko bared her scared arm, showing the hacked skin in all its grotesque glory. Tsuruko covered her mouth in horror. "But your right, Ane-ue. I don't have what it takes to go all the way." Motoko let loose her sleeves, wiping away the remaining tears and covering the frightening scene underneath.
"You did all of that to yourself?" Tsuruko asked with a shaky voice.
"Some of it was my due atonement from the current manager. The punishment I will not hide from." She said while releasing her sleeves.
"Punishment? What kind of punishment would leave you clinging to life? Aren't you an Aoyama?"
"I am a sinner now before I am an Aoyama. Repenting is all I can live for so that someday, it will be enough for him to forgive me."
"Who are you and what've you done with Keitaro?"
Keitaro choked back a laugh. It didn't surprise him at all that Haruka would say something like that. Just a minute ago she tried to lightly intimidate him into telling him his second life story. Accept that he didn't take kindly to intimidation, family or otherwise. He shot back a menacing glare of his own, a skill he had developed in the gangster underworld. After a few moments of electric tension, Haruka dropped her expression and replaced it with her usual unreadable face.
"Let's just say he got some backbone."
"I didn't know that it was missing."
"Come on now, Haruka. You can't tell me you didn't notice me crashing and burning all over the compound. What did you think it was? Baseballs? Meteors?"
"Don't get smart with me, boy."
"Oh I can do so much more than that, old lady." Keitaro caught Haruka's fist inches away from his face. It was a half assed attempt, but the force still made his hand sting. Smiling, he pulled her forward, the space between them was so close it could be bridged with their breaths. Haruka blew a mouthful of smoke, making him pull back, away from her noxious fumes.
"So far, I'm not impressed." Putting out her light in the ashtray, Haruka proceeded to light another one.
Keitaro stared blankly at the teashop walls as he spoke. "I haven't been gone long enough for you to be impressed you mean."
"How much longer were you planning on staying away?"
"At least a few more years until things settled down. I think I'd have been gone a few decades by the way my life was shaping up to be though."
"Twenty years?" Haruka coughed.
"More like thirty." he said with a grin. "But all of that doesn't mean much at this point. My future is on hold and my past has caught up to me a lot sooner than I expected. Rather than paying the price later, I'm paying it now."
"And what price is that?"
"The price of leaving the girls behind." Keitaro stood up and leaned his back against the wall. "One would have to think that with the capabilities of those girls, one or all of them would be coming after me. I'm kind of surprised that it took this long."
"Wait a minute. You thought they'd come after you. After the way you left?"
"Well, maybe not Shinobu or Sara. Certainly not Naru, but maybe Su or Kitsune. Why even Motoko if you have the imagination."
"And what would've you done?"
"No point in thinking about it now. Tsuruko's one dark horse I didn't see coming. She's got me in a pretty tight spot too... What happened after I left, Haruka? The place is empty."
"That doesn't sound like somebody who was planning to be gone for thirty some years."
"Haruka..."
"Can you blame me?" Haruka sighed. "When it comes down to it, the only thing that really matters is that Motoko is the only one who stayed... The only one with enough cheek to stay and deal with Kanako."
"I was afraid of that." Keitaro rubbed his temple in annoyance. "Why the hell didn't she just leave? I barely looked inside the apartments, but I could tell that the place hasn't been tended to. If that wasn't enough, Kanako's been putting her hands on her too."
"Not all of it has been Kanako, you know."
"Don't even get me started on that. Damn swordswomen. There's no telling what they're capable of. If Tsuruko wants Kanako's head on a pike, it's going to be difficult to handle her. I don't even know if I can handle her if she's serious. I'm not at that level yet." Keitaro looked right at Haruka.
"Oh no, I'm not getting involved with that. It's her own damn fault if it comes down to that."
"She's your niece and my sister. Even if the devil himself came for her soul, I'd be right there to stop him. Though the devil we face might have the visage of a woman."