A/N: Hello. I apologize for the very very long wait. I suffered a little writer's block for a while. Anyway, here is the next chapter. As I said before, honesty is appreciated.

Here we go…

(000)

Motoko slowly opened her eyes and sat up. She immediately regretted it when the pain hit her and she groaned. She thought, 'Did I win? Yes, I defeated Urashima. Now I must go to see him out.' She got up and as she slowly limped for the door, she grabbed her sword and proceeded towards the manager's room.

As she neared the manager's room, she could hear Haruka talking from behind the closed door, "You have to stop pushing people like that, Keitaro. You nearly killed Motoko tonight. What's happened to you?" Motoko heard Keitaro's reply and he sounded angry.

She then heard Haruka's angry response and then jumped a little when Keitaro started yelling. She was about to burst in with her hand on the hilt of her sword but froze when she heard Keitaro's next comment, "I saw her, Haruka. I saw Rika."

Motoko thought for a moment on how that name sounded so familiar when she realized and her eyes widened, 'The picture!'

She leaned back against the wall and accidentally caused a loose board to squeak. She gasped and limped as fast as she could back to her room.

(000)

Motoko managed to get to her room unseen and slid the door shut. She had just learned a little bit about Keitaro's past and one of the girls in the picture. She thought, 'I wonder what happened to those girls?'

Motoko was interrupted from her thoughts by a rapping at her door. She replied, "Enter." The door slid open revealing Haruka. The elder Urashima, with her stoic face and cigarette hanging from her mouth, asked, "How are you feeling, Motoko?"

The girl in question sighed and said, "I am fine, Haruka-san. I was trained to withstand pain."

Haruka then smiled and asked, "Were you trained in eavesdropping too?" Motoko blushed and frantically said, "It was not my intention at first, I promise. My intent was to throw Urashima out since I won the duel."

A voice in the doorway interrupted them, "I highly doubt that. You look like shit and I heal faster than you."

Motoko and Haruka looked in the doorway to see Keitaro leaning against the frame, smirking at the sight as he continued, "Besides, you couldn't throw me out if you tried, not in the state you're in."

Motoko glared at Keitaro and staggered to her feet, wincing in pain as she did and raised her bokken at him, even if she found it difficult to do while in so much pain.

Keitaro chuckled at the sight and shook his head and walked toward her and said, "Put that down before you hurt yourself."

Motoko continued to glare at him and said with malice, "The agreement was if I won you would leave and I won so leave now!"

Keitaro only chuckled at this and asked, "You didn't really expect me to really leave this place did you? It's too much fun to just up and leave. Besides,"

He stopped right in front of her and finished, "my grandmother gave me the responsibility to manage this place, and I'm going to manage it, whether you like it or not. You're stuck with me, kendo girl."

At this, Motoko clenched her teeth as Keitaro walked away and she asked with venom in her voice, "Have you no honor, Urashima?"

He froze as he was near the door to the roof and he turned to her with a glare of his own and marched back to her and stopped when he was just inches from her face and he said with anger in his voice, "What the hell do you know about honor anyway, Motoko? Your idea of honor is to attack an innocent who's done nothing to you before tonight! So you are the last person to ever talk to me about honor, considering how tainted yours is."

She went from wide eyed to shame then to anger as he finally finished, "So unless you have anything 'smart' to say, you may want to keep your mouth shut about honor, kendo girl."

Amidst their arguing, Keitaro nor Motoko noticed Haruka head back inside and to the teahouse.

Meanwhile, Keitaro's words had hit Motoko harder than any punch or strike with a wooden sword could. All Motoko saw after that was red and she screamed as she raised her bokken and ran at Keitaro.

He might have been an okay fighter, but Keitaro was no match for an angry swordswoman who's trained longer than him. He may have managed to avoid the first swing at his head, but he never saw the bokken come back at him from behind and he was struck in his lower back, causing him to fly through her wall and back out onto the roof.

He groaned in pain as he struggled to his feet but Motoko's rage got the best of her and she swung at him again hard and connected with Keitaro's abdomen which forced Keitaro to immediately cough up a decent amount of blood as it flew from his mouth and splattered on the surface of the roof.

Motoko's eyes were burning with fresh tears as she swung again and struck Keitaro, who was on his hands and knees, in the back and he was now laid out on the roof.

He struggled to get up again and was rewarded with another strike to his back and was once again laid out.

Motoko was still blinded by her rage but also despair and she continued her assault as Keitaro struggled to get up again and she swung her bokken at him, this time striking him in his side, forcing him to cough up more blood.

This continued until Motoko was out of breath and she looked down at him and was shocked by what she'd just done. She dropped her bokken and put her hands over her mouth in surprise as she fell to her knees.

She watched on in shock at Keitaro, who was lying in front of her motionless. She was suddenly struck with panic as she realized she just may have committed a murder and quickly tried to shake him awake, which wasn't working.

It started to rain as Motoko continued to erratically shake him into consciousness. She begged him to wake up as tears filled her eyes and finally ran down her cheeks, which was hard to tell in the rain.

She would've lost it completely if Keitaro hadn't stirred at that moment and slowly tried to get up but Motoko managed to turn him over on his back to face her.

When Keitaro saw it was her, he struggled his way to his feet, as did she, and said while in excruciating pain, "See, that's how tainted your honor is, Motoko."

She just looked down in shame as he said this and he finished as he walked away from her slowly back inside, "And I wasn't even armed. Where's the honor in that?"

He slowly went back inside and left Motoko on the roof, pondering her actions until she collapsed to her knees and cried.

(000)

Keitaro awoke the next morning with a slight headache. He groaned as he held his head and thought, 'What happened last night?' He looked next to him and noticed quite a few sake bottles lying around and the picture of Kaede and Rika lying next to them and it suddenly hit him as he remembered…

Last night…

Keitaro walked slowly to the fridge after nearly getting beat to death at the hands of Motoko. He was hoping she would finish him off but he also knew her honor wouldn't allow her to kill him, no matter how much he wanted her to.

He opened the fridge and pulled out a whole case of sake and he smiled as he said to himself, "Well, I guess alcohol poisoning will have to do for now, huh?"

He closed the fridge and made his way back to his room. Once there, he sat down at his desk and popped the top of the first bottle and took a swig from it.

While he drank, his mind drifted back to that hallucination during his fight with Motoko earlier. He saw Rika and she stopped him from killing Motoko. He wondered what that meant and what his life meant to him now.

He just couldn't fathom why his life had turned out the way it had and he hated all of it! He hated the fact that the only two women he ever loved had died way before their time and left him all alone. He hated that his grandmother left him this stupid inn and didn't tell him it had been turned into an all girls dormitory. He couldn't care less anyway. None of it mattered. He didn't want the stupid inn anyway! He just wanted to be with Rika and Kaede again!

The more he pondered about it, the faster the sake went down his throat. He felt the tears in his eyes and he drank some more sake.

He hadn't noticed he'd already drank three bottles of sake and when he reached for another bottle, he fell over. He had knocked over his bag as he hit the floor and the picture of his deceased friends/lovers had slid out of the bag and stopped next to his face.

He slowly looked over in his drunken stupor and grabbed the picture and tried to stand up, which he proved difficult while drunk. Once he finally got to his feet he had grabbed the case of sake and stumbled his way to his futon.

For the next hour, he just sat on his futon with the picture in his hand and a different sake bottle every ten minutes in his other hand until the case was empty. With all the empty sake bottles strung about, Keitaro just sobbed as he held the picture limply in his hand while he had his knees up to his chest and his face buried in his arms.

When the sobs died down, Keitaro just lied down in his futon and let the inevitable blackout he was about to have take him.

End flashback…

Keitaro held back the tears and got ready for the day and headed down for breakfast.

(000)

In the kitchen, the ladies were already seated at the table and were waiting for their new manager to join them before they started. Not only were Naru and Motoko angry that Keitaro hadn't joined them yet, they, along with the other girls, were worried about today. Motoko's older sister, Tsuruko was coming by to see her. That was unsettling to all of them (with the exception of Suu).

They were just getting ready to start eating when Keitaro walked in and stopped when he noticed the girls looking at him and asked rather harshly, "What's your problem?"

He looked at Motoko and Naru and was met by their glares as Naru replied angrily, "It's about time you got down here, idiot! We were starting to think you were dead or something!"

Keitaro smirked as he sat down and said sarcastically, "Awww, was you worried about little ol' me? I'm flattered." Naru grinded her teeth and said barely containing her voice, "No, I'm saying that if you hadn't come down we would've eaten without you."

Keitaro replied with a bit of sarcasm, "Well, I'm glad you didn't, because you would've missed my opinion of you having to lose a little weight,"

The whole table went silent, except for Suu, who was still eating, and Naru's and Motoko's mouths and eyes were wide open and Mitsune was trying and failing to suppressed laughter threatening to escape her lips and Shinobu just blushed when Keitaro finished his witty and insulting comment with, "especially in your ass."

He motioned to Naru's ass and he leaned towards Mitsune, who was trying even harder not to laugh now, and he muttered to her with a sly smirk, "Oh, I was definitely looking." Kitsune couldn't take it anymore and finally let it all out and fell to the floor in a raging fit of laughter.

Both Motoko and Naru had had it with Keitaro and Naru jumped up and yelled at Keitaro, "HOW DARE YOU? I AM NOT FAT, YOU BASTARD! DIE!"

She was about to attack Keitaro when Motoko's bokken stopped her and Motoko said, "It is not wise to attack that pervert, Naru. Do you not remember what happened after the duel?"

Naru's eyes went wide as she remembered Motoko being injured at the hands of Keitaro and she sat back down.

Motoko also sat back down and Keitaro, who'd been eating while the pervert patrol had been talking, stood up with his now empty plate and walked into the kitchen sink and washed his plate and put it away. He went to the fridge and looked inside and remembered he drank all the sake and he growled as he closed the fridge and left the kitchen.

Mitsune was still panting from her outburst of laughter earlier and when she finally managed to control her breath, she went back to eating her meal.

Suu was already on her third plate since she'd been eating the entire time while not paying attention to anything around her.

Shinobu was finished and decided to clean up while the others finished their meals. Once everyone was done, she did the dishes and went to get ready for school.

Once the younger girls left for school and Naru left for Cram School, All that remained at the Inn were Mitsune, who didn't go to school anyway or have a job, Motoko, who decided to stay home and rest due to her injuries, and Keitaro, who could care less about his education now. He decided to clean up around the Inn.

At least it gave him something to do and not be bored to death.

(000)

Around noon Tsuruko Aoyama stood at the bottom of the steps that led to Hinata Inn. She was greeted by Haruka Urashima and Haruka said, "Hello, Tsuruko." The elder Aoyama replied, "Hello, Haruka-san. How are you this fine afternoon?"

Haruka, with the cigarette hanging from the corner of her lips, replied, "Could be better, could be worse, I guess. It's been pretty wild here since yesterday, when my nephew took over the Inn as manager. Naru and Motoko weren't happy in the least."

Tsuruko was surprised by Haruka's words. She didn't know Granny Hina Urashima left and made, who Tsuruko guessed Hina's grandson, manager.

Tsuruko asked, "How is my little sister? Is she behaving herself?"

(000)

Keitaro was finishing up with cleaning the floor when the phone rang. He carelessly walked to it and answered, "This better be good, because I'm busy. What do you want?"

Haruka replied stoically as usual, "Is something wrong, Keitaro?" Keitaro asked again annoyed, "What do you want, Haruka?"

Haruka scowled and said with a little venom, "I called to let you know Motoko's sister is here."

Keitaro didn't say anything for a moment until he asked, "Is that supposed to be a code for something, 'Motoko's sister is here?'"

Haruka slapped a palm to her head and sighed in annoyance and said bitterly, "No, you idiot. It means Motoko's older sister; Tsuruko Aoyama is here in the tea house."

He sighed and said, "You expecting me to give you a prize or act like I care or something? All she has to do is walk up the stairs and knock on the door. How hard is that?"

Haruka was starting to lose her patience, "I was just calling to let you know she was here. I was just being neighborly. What is your problem, Keitaro?"

Keitaro sighed and finally said softly, "Sorry, Haruka. I just had a rough morning. Thanks for calling, I guess."

Haruka faintly smiled and said, "No problem."

(000)

Motoko was limping down the stairs when she heard Keitaro on the phone and she listened. She gasped softly when Keitaro sarcastically said that Tsuruko was there and she immediately went back to her room.

Keitaro hung up the phone and sighed. He felt bad for the way he just treated his aunt Haruka. He knew that, no matter how much pain he felt in his heart, Haruka didn't deserve to be spoken to like that.

He decided to sit on the couch and wait for Tsuruko to knock at the door.

(000)

Tsuruko stood at the front door to Hinata Inn and knocked on the door. She had been told by Haruka that Motoko had been injured in a duel she had with her nephew, the current manager of the dorm, Keitaro.

All in all, Tsuruko couldn't wait to meet this Keitaro Urashima. Haruka hadn't told her, however, about Keitaro's past loves and how their deaths had affected him so greatly to the point of him taking the path of complete self-destruction.

She was about to find out just how self-destructive Keitaro really was when the door opened and Keitaro stood there, looking at her with eyes that were void of emotion.

Tsuruko looked at his aura and noticed the darkness and despair in his soul but she chose not to speak of it and instead bowed her head and introduced herself, "Greetings, Manager-san. I am Tsuruko Aoyama, Motoko's elder sister. May I come in?"

Keitaro put on as sincere a smile as he could and motioned for her to come inside.

Taking a seat on the couch, Tsuruko smiled at Keitaro and said, "Haruka has told me all about you, Manager-san."

Keitaro put a palm to his forehead and sighed and said, "Look, could you please cut it out with the 'Manager-san' crap? It's really starting to creep me out. Secondly, I apologize for being rash but if you want to see Motoko, she's up the stairs and to the right. I'm sorry, but I really have things to do, so enjoy your stay and all that."

He was already near the door to the springs before he was finished and disappeared through the door when he was.

Tsuruko was indeed stunned by the manager's rushed goodbye, but decided to head for her sister's room.

(000)

In her room, Motoko was waiting for her sister. There was a light knock at her door and she said softly, "Come in."

Tsuruko Aoyama slid the door open and Motoko said, "Hello, sister." Tsuruko smiled and walked toward Motoko and gave her a hug and she replied, "Greetings, little sister. Are things going well?"

Motoko was about to reply when she noticed Tsuruko was looking at her sternly. Tsuruko had noticed Motoko was holding her ribs and asked, "Were you recently in a fight, Motoko? You look injured."

Motoko froze at the question. She was trying to hide her injuries from her sister but she hadn't noticed she was sub-consciously holding her ribs.

She blushed and said softly, "I challenged Urashima to a duel. He was a worthy opponent." Tsuruko nodded with a smile.

(000)

Keitaro was just finishing cleaning the onsen. It had been a couple of hours since his encounter with the elder Aoyama sister. He blushed slightly when he thought about how beautiful she really was, 'just like Motoko.' He blushed even more at that thought.

Truthfully, he had been thinking about Motoko and how attractive she really was, not that he was going to tell her that just yet, 'especially with her big sister here.'

Just then, he heard the sound of a sword unsheathing and he turned around and ducked just before a blade barely passed over his head.

He looked up with surprised eyes at Tsuruko standing over him with her sword pointed at him and a determined look in her eyes.

She smirked and said in an evil menacing voice, "You fought and nearly killed my sister, Urashima-san. Now, we shall see if you can do the same to me."

He sighed and slowly pushed the blade away from his face and said sourly, "I'd rather not. I'm not some kind of samurai warrior, in spite of the evidence."

Tsuruko giggled and said, "You duel with my sister, give her internal injuries and are still standing after the fact and you say you are not a warrior? I will only know the truth after you fight me."

Keitaro clenched his teeth in anger and said angrily, "Look, I really don't care if you believe me or not. I'm still not going to fight you."

Tsuruko smiled widely and said, "Then, you die slowly." She unleashed one of her strongest family secret techniques and sent an unmoving Keitaro flying back towards the changing room through the wall.

Keitaro slowly got to his feet only to be sent flying again, this time into the living area. As he struggled to stand, Tsuruko, with her sword over her shoulder, walked slowly towards Keitaro and said, "Ready to fight now?"

He finally stood up and said while in pain, "No matter what you do to me, I will not fight you."

Tsuruko stopped and lowered her sword with an unreadable expression, "Really?" Just then, she pulled out a picture of two girls out of her kimono. Keitaro looked more closely and realized it was his picture and he shouted surprised and angry, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT?"

Tsuruko smiled and held the picture over a lit candle and said, "I bet you would be devastated if something were to happen to this. Why do you care so much about this picture? "

Keitaro sighed. He knew he had no choice but to fight Tsuruko now. He had to agree to fight her to keep her from destroying the picture.

He reluctantly nodded and said bitterly, "Alright!"

Tsuruko gave him a confused look and asked, "Alright, what?" Keitaro looked up at her and said angrily, "Alright, I'll fight you. Just put that picture down!"

Tsuruko smiled and put the picture on the desk and walked towards the door with an angry Keitaro in toe.

(000)

Keitaro and Tsuruko stood on opposite sides of the grounds. They got into a battle stance and rushed each other. While Keitaro was a moderate opponent for Motoko, he was nowhere near a match for Tsuruko, as he figured out when he swung at her head and she effortlessly ducked and struck him in the abdomen.

Seeing her chance, Tsuruko unleashed a huge wave of ki hurdling toward Keitaro, who was still in pain.

Looking up, he noticed the wave coming at him and closed his eyes as it came closer. The impact felt like a ten ton wrecking ball hit him as he sailed toward the Hina inn wall, nearly knocking him through it.

He slowly stood up and came at her again. Dodging a series of swings and kicks easily, Tsuruko noticed something in his eyes as he attacked her, 'He's crying, and really is trying to fight me. Those girls in that picture must really mean a lot to him.'

He took a swing at her abdomen, but she stepped aside and unleashed another ki attack that sent Keitaro flying into another part of the already dented wall of the Inn.

Tsuruko smiled when Keitaro didn't move and smiled even wider when Keitaro stood up and attacked her again. He swung to hit her in the head but Tsuruko blocked his bokken with her sword sheath. She took this opportunity to look in his eyes as they both stood their ground with their weapons still connected.

She saw his eyes were red from crying and full of anger. Then Tsuruko forced Keitaro back and swung at his head successfully. Keitaro was seeing stars and hit the ground, dropping his weapon in the process.

Tsuruko put a hardened look on her face and drew her sword and stood over Keitaro with the tip of her blade to his neck.

Worn out, Keitaro looked up at her and whispered with a lifeless look on his face, "What are you waiting for?" Tsuruko was surprised when he grabbed the blade and forced it to his own neck and asked again, louder, "What are you waiting for? Do it!"

Her faced softened and she sighed as she sheathed her sword and dropped down to his eye level and said softly, "Urashima-san, I know why you are doing this."

He looked up at her, still out of breath, as she continued, "You are doing this because you want me to kill you. you want me to end your pain. Haruka told me what happened to you. I know where you are because I have been there myself."

He looked at her questioningly as she continued, "My husband died from a fatal respiratory disease. He died in only a few short months and there was nothing I or anyone else could do. For a while, I went into a depression I could not escape from. I alienated myself from all of my family and friends and even wanted to commit seppuku if it meant I could be with him again, but I was wrong. It took me a long time to realize that my despair and sadness was hurting everyone around me, just like you."

Keitaro was listening intently until her last sentence and asked surprised, "What do you mean, 'like me?'"

She smiled and chuckled and said, "Have you not noticed that the other girls like you, especially the young Shinobu?"

Keitaro was at l loss for words. He knew Shinobu liked him, that was obvious, but the other girls? He tried to shake off the thoughts and asked angrily, "What's your point?"

Tsuruko sighed and said as she stood up, "My point is, you have a chance to be happy again. Don't waste it. Besides, what have you really got to lose at this point, hmm?"

She turned and went back into the dorms, leaving Keitaro thinking, 'I hate to admit it, but she does have a point. What do I have to lose anyway? Might as well start somewhere. I guess I'll start with Motoko.'

With that, he stood up and walked back inside toward Motoko's room.

(000)

Motoko was meditating when she heard some knocks on her door.

She looked towards the door and replied, "Enter."

Keitaro slowly opened the door and stepped inside. Motoko gave him a glare until she noticed he had a picture in one of his hands and a bottle of sake in the other and he said, "We have to talk. May I sit down?"

She looked at him skeptically but nodded. He sat down across from her and said while handing her the picture and opening the sake bottle, "This really isn't easy for me to talk about so I'm drinking to make it easier."

He took a swig and continued, "The girls in that picture…" he said while pointing at it, "…were my best friends. They died five years ago…" He smiled bitterly, "…and in the same year too."

He laughed humorlessly as the tears started falling down his face. Motoko watched and listened as Keitaro bared his soul to her and she too could not stop her own tears from flowing as she listened.

He took another swig and said, "That picture was the last time they were together. They signed their names and gave it to me so I could always remember them."

Keitaro was doing all he could to hold himself together in front of Motoko, and was failing miserably. Motoko, too, was having trouble keeping herself together as she watched and listened to Keitaro.

He took a couple more swigs from the sake and continued, "Rika, the girl with short blue hair was diagnosed first…"

Five years ago…

Rika, Kaede, their parents and Keitaro, who was sitting between the girls, were in the doctor's office and the doctor was looking over the test results for Rika's check-up and he looked at them and sighed. He said, "Ms. Ichiro, this is not easy for me to say. These results show that you have stage four leukemia. What surprises me more than anything is that you haven't shown any symptoms before now. Usually, leukemia patients show symptoms early on."

Mr. Ichiro, Rika's father, asked, "What can you do, Doc?" The doctor looked grimly at him and said, "There's nothing we can do at this point. Perhaps if we'd known sooner…"

The doctor's voice had drowned out as Keitaro sat in a trance after hearing the news and Rika and Kaede were crying on his shoulders…

Present Day…

Motoko lost whatever will she had left and started to sob just as hard as Keitaro was now. The sakebottle was almost empty as the two sat in Keitaro's painful sadness.

After a while, they settled down and Keitaro finished his story, "Sorry about that. Anyway, she died a couple months later and soon after, Kaede got sick and was diagnosed with kidney cancer that spread to her lungs. She died two months later."

Motoko listened and tears continued to roll down her face every time she blinked. Keitaro continued, "I didn't see the point of living anymore after that. So I drowned myself in the bottle every chance I got and I even cut my own wrists at one time in a drunken state."

He showed Motoko his wrists and she gasped as she saw the scars. He continued, "I would've died too if it wasn't for my stupid immortality and my mom, who called an ambulance."

He sighed and looked at Motoko with a first genuine sad smile in five years and said, "I'm sorry for the way I've been acting lately and for the way I've been treating all of you. Your sister told me what happened to her husband…"

Motoko looked at him confused as he continued, "… and it took her story to help me realize what I've been doing to myself and my family these past five years."

Keitaro smiled brightly, causing Motoko to smile brightly too and he said, "It's about time I let go and move on." He stepped closer to Motoko and she blushed as he continued softly, "And in a way, I think I already am."

Motoko was very surprised and blushed furiously as she noticed he was mere centimeters away from their lips touching, which didn't happen as Keitaro stepped back and said with a blush and a smile, "Well, I…I guess…I should be…g…going now. I've got to get s…some work done and start studying for the Tokyo U exams again. Bye!"

As he turned quickly to leave, he ran into the wall, cracking it and said as he walked off holing his nose, "Ow."

Motoko on the other hand, blushed and smiled as she thought about what almost happened.

'Things may get better yet,' she thought.