It's Not Enough R
Niklas "Hawk"
Jonsson
Summary: In Volume 9 of the manga, Motoko looses the battle against her sister and decides to live as an ordinary woman, only to have the denizens of Hinata Sou belittle her efforts without knowing that she overhears them. Motoko runs away and Keitaro goes after her. After Keitaro finally stumbles across Motoko wet and miserable in the streets, he takes her home and treats her to hot chocolate in his room. During the events that follows, she breaks down and Keitaro has to attach a multitude of clothespins to his head in order to prevent himself from getting too intimate with Motoko. In this fic, he never gets his hand on those damnable pins and things deviates from the manga from that point onwards...
Disclaimer: Love Hina, Hinata
Sou and whatnot are not mine, though I certainly wish they were. The
story is mine though, all mine. This story deals with some very
unpleasant things. If this disturbs you, don't read.
If the layout
looks screwy or symbols seems to be missing, you're probably reading
the quickedit-mangled version of this fic on ff dot net, if it grates
on your nerves too much, read it on hawksgalaxy dot com or
something.
Feedback/Flames: Yes, please. Both of them are
equally fun to read, although I must admit that I greatly prefer the
first variety. :)
I can be found on ICQ as 21771860, MSN
Messenger/E-mail as iamhawk at yahoo dot com, though not very
frequently as real life lately interferes with my online existance
more then I'd like. More stories are available at my nifty lil' site
at hawksgalaxy dot com or by clicking on my handle up
above.
"speech"
emphasis/shouts/Kindred
Domination/post-hypnotic
triggers
/thoughts/
/telepathy/
translation
+soundeffect/radio/telephone
conversation/TV+
Previously, on 'It's Not Enough'
So when Keitaro and Motoko made their final assault, Tsuruko glanced sadly over at the silent observer of the fight, Narusegawa Naru, before she returned her attention to the two fighters hurling themselves towards her.
"Shinmei Ryu secret technique, Aoyama family speciality: Wrath of the heavens." she mumbled under her breath and reached out to her surroundings. Ki shot out from her own body and set the Chi all around her into motion, the ground rumbled as Yang Chi in immense amounts were set into motion far beneath the surface. A sudden chill fell over the entire compound as she directed vast amounts of Yin Chi from the air itself to gather in a nexus ten feet above the ground.
She shifted the grip on her sword, raised it up and abruptly thrust it downwards into the ground. She released a burst of her own Ki into the ground and another towards the nexus, causing the Chi she had gathered to react rather violently. Bolts of energy suddenly shot up from the ground, heading for the nexus in the air, while other bolts of energy shot out from the nexus, towards the ground.
Catching Motoko and Keitaro right in the middle of a deadly crossfire of lightening bolts.
Or what would have been a deadly crossfire, had Tsuruko actually gone all out.
As it was, it was enough to knock them both unconscious without causing them any lasting injuries.
"You loose..." Tsuruko whispered in a strained voice, then turned around, let her sword drop to the ground and then collapsed onto her knees, tears flowing freely from her eyes as she succumbed to her guilt-riddled grief.
Roll credits
Chapter Nine:
"Owie..." Keitaro whined under his breath as he forced his eyelids to obey his command to lift. It took a couple of seconds, but he eventually did manage it. He stared up at the skies for a few moments, before he shifted his gaze to his left, where he spotted a crying Tsuruko kneeling on the ground, facing away from him.
/Oh, yeah. The fight.../ Keitaro recalled and shifted his gaze to his right, spotting Motoko lying beside him. He slowly moved his arm over and gently grasped her jaw, shifting her head around until she was facing him. He sighed and released her haggard face, she was out cold, not reacting in the faintest to his touch.
That freaky lightening attack had obviously been too much for Motoko after their gruelling day. He was made of sterner stuff, however. After having been exposed to so many of Kaolla's weird inventions, the girls various attacks and having endured all sorts of pain, including electrical, he'd managed to cling on to consciousness where Motoko had blacked out. He raised his arm and glanced at his watch. He still had another three minutes before the gig was up.
He made a silent inventory of himself, flexing muscles and covertly trying to move his limbs. He hurt all over, but nothing seemed to be broken. Not even the leg that had been out of commission before Motoko started using her healing technique on him. He could still move. He could still fight.
He slowly turned around and forced himself up onto his feet, pushing with all his strength until he was upright once again. He slowly bent down and gently removed the formerly cursed sword from Motoko's right hand. He took a deep breath and straightened up, focusing on the still crying Tsuruko. Narusegawa was standing a bit off, a surprised expression on her face as she silently observed him. He felt a pang in his heart as he saw her, but forced himself to focus entirely on Tsuruko.
What he planned to do now was far from honourable, but at the moment he couldn't care less about that. He couldn't allow himself to loose this battle, not when so much was at stake. He took a faltering step forwards and winced as his body protested against having to move again by fresh jolts of ever increasing pain. There were three minutes left, but he didn't think that he would be capable of movement for all those three minutes. He would have to end this fast or it really would be all over.
He took another step and took a deep silent breath, carefully sneaking up on Tsuruko. He removed his left hand from the hilt of the sword and nearly dropped it because of that. He silently cursed his weakness and forced his right hand to raise the sword a bit more, as not to drop it just yet.
He moved his left hand down to the leather pouch hanging from his belt and fumbled around in it, finding one of the grenades Kaolla had provided for him. His thumb hesitated over a small switch on the grenade for a few moments, but he forced himself to move his thumb, shifting the small gauge all the way from 'Smoke' to a setting that didn't even have a name, just the weird three-eyed symbol Kaolla liked to adorn all her inventions with.
He'd used a couple of them during the fight, but only on the lower settings. Smoke hadn't helped at all, Flash-bang had provided some distraction for Tsuruko, but Motoko had been distracted as well, rendering that particular setting useless. The lower explosive settings hadn't done much either, as Tsuruko either completely avoided the blasts or knocked the grenades away before they blew up.
She didn't seem to be in any condition to do so now, however.
He pulled the pin and instantly lobbed the grenade towards the crying Tsuruko.
The moment it landed next to her, she jerked and leapt backwards after just a moment of hesitation.
But that was a moment too long.
+KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM+
"Argh!" Tsuruko cried out as she was caught up in the shock-wave and thrown even further backwards then she had attempted to leap. She dropped her sword and crashed to the ground, rolling around and passing by Keitaro who spun around and darted after the fallen Aoyama, shifting his grip on the sword to a two-handed one. "Brother-in-law!" she exclaimed with a shocked tone of voice as she ended her roll on her feet in a low crouch, just barely managing to dive out of the way as Keitaro took a swing at her.
She yelped in pain as she dived aside and Keitaro felt a tremendous amount of guilt as he saw a tear in her pants, a tear that revealed torn bleeding skin on her right thigh. He had caused that, he had inflicted pain upon another human being and a girl at that.
/For Motoko-chan/ he screamed mentally and pressed on, taking another swing at the injured Aoyama although every atom in his body was screaming at him to drop the sword and help the injured older girl. /Motoko-chan! For Motoko! Motoko-chan/ he chanted inside his mind as he forced his aching body to move.
"You're dead on your feet, brother-in-law." Tsuruko panted a minute later, when Keitaro had run out of steam and stood panting, using the sword to support himself. /Not that I'm any better off.../ she silently admitted. She could just barely use her right leg and every move she did, caused waves of pain to course through it. It was just pure strength of will that allowed her to use it at all. It had slowed her down so much that Keitaro had actually landed a few glancing hits during his wild charge. A tendril of blood was creeping down her left arm, from a wound just below the shoulder. A small cut had been made across her stomach from a nasty slash she hadn't managed to step back from quickly enough. Her forehead was similarly marked and half her bangs had been lopped off.
With her injured leg, she hadn't been quick enough to retrieve her sword either, so she was currently unarmed.
"Just give up, brother-in-law. I admire your persistence and dedication, but this fight is over." she added. He took a deep breath then looked down at his watch.
"I still have one and a half minute." he argued and took another deep breath, before he raised the sword again.
"You won't last even half that time." Tsuruko stated, desperately cursing herself for having lost focus before the fight was over. Her mind was all over the place and while she could feel the tantalizing hints of Ki and Chi just on the edge of her awareness, she wasn't centred enough to make use out of them. She needed a while longer for that, but it didn't appear as if Keitaro would give her time to collect herself.
"Probably. So, all the more reason to use what little time I have left to the fullest!" he exclaimed and launched himself at her again with a wild swing that she easily dodged out of the way of, only to grunt in surprise as he dropped the sword and threw himself bodily at her, bringing them both to the ground.
/Big mistake, brother-in-law/ Tsuruko mentally exclaimed as she brought her left knee up into his groin, believing the fight to have been concluded with that.
What she hadn't counted on, was Keitaro's persistence and resistance to pain.
The knee didn't even slow him down and he instantly retaliated by slamming his forehead into Tsuruko's surprised face.
Tsuruko screamed in pain as she felt her nose shattering, but gave as good as she got by slamming her right elbow into the side of Keitaro's face, before she pulled back and slammed her fist into his ribs. Keitaro grunted in pain, but still pressed on, responding by a nasty left hook to Tsuruko's face. She got him in the stomach with a short right uppercut and landed a left hook at his liver, to which Keitaro responded by grabbing her throat.
Tsuruko gargled as his grip tightened and she lost the ability to breathe. For a few seconds, she lost her cool and frantically pushed against his chest with her right hand and clawed at his hands with her left, before she realized the futility of her actions.
"This fight is... Over!" she managed to spit out, then slammed both her hands into his lower ribs in a simultaneous attack, pulled back, punched him in the throat with her left and grabbed his private parts with her right. Keitaro convulsed in pain, but amazingly enough didn't let go of her throat. She pushed off with her left leg and arm, yanking at him as hard as she could with her right hand, reversing their positions so that she was now on top. With a final double punch at his solar plexus, she tore herself away and landed on her ass between his legs, forcing fresh air into her lungs with deep frantic breaths.
"Not! Yet!" Keitaro gargled as he pushed off from the ground, slamming a straight right into her face. She fell onto her back, but fiercely responded with a double kick, that launched him back onto his back. She howled with pain as she finally felt her right leg give out on her, but pushed that aside. She spun and turned around in the same motion, pushed herself somewhat off the ground and yanked herself back down, slamming her left elbow into Keitaro's stomach, causing him to cough up a spray of blood as he finally collapsed, not even his incredible stamina and steely determination able to keep him moving any longer.
Tsuruko collapsed on his stomach, taking deep breaths as she listened to his erratic heart-beats.
She slowly turned her head around, smearing his dirty t-shirt with blood that was freely flowing from her broken nose and cut on her forehead, silently observing the face of the man whom had nearly managed to defeat her. He had finally lost consciousness, but Tsuruko could feel determination still oozing off him. A few moments later, she could feel it in a more physical manner, as he attempted to strangle her again.
She slapped his hands away and crawled away from him, gasping in shock as she observed his arms moving, trying to seek her out to wrest victory away from her even while he was unconscious.
"For... Motoko..." he grunted out, spraying blood over his face, before his body stopped moving, his arms falling down to the ground as he finally ran entirely out of steam.
"Naru... Segawa." Tsuruko slurred, looking over at their silent spectator, who looked physically ill, just moments away from throwing up. "Hand me that bag." she requested, nodding over at a leather satchel on the ground not too far away from Naru.
A few minutes later after the generous application of a few traditional Aoyama potions, salves and powers, Tsuruko had gotten back onto her feet and started treating her fallen sister and future brother-in-law. She still hurt like hell and she would probably have to go to a hospital to get her nose fixed, but first priority was taking care of the others.
She cursed her arrogance, she had actually believed that she would walk away from all of this without injuries, even if she had prepared supplies in case Motoko and Keitaro were injured. If she hadn't been so arrogant, she would have asked a couple of her fellow practitioners to attend in case of emergencies. But the others were off for the traditional two-week retreat to Hokkaido, leaving her to tend to the compound.
It appeared as if Motoko wasn't the only one who had some growing left to do, Tsuruko sourly reasoned as she tended to the other injured fighters.
"Are... Are they going to be all right?" Narusegawa asked.
"Motoko's injuries are mostly Ki and Chi inflicted. The salve I put on will help and she can cleanse herself of the rest when she wakes up. She'll be a little sore and very hungry tomorrow morning, but otherwise mostly okay." Tsuruko replied, hating how odd her voice sounded with a broken nose. "Keitaro... He'll be all right too, but it'll take a while." she added after a few moments.
Physical injuries were harder to heal then spiritual ones. Other then in some really special cases, none of which were applicable at the moment.
"And you?" Naru inquired.
"Keitaro got me good, but I'll be all right. ... Eventually." Tsuruko admitted.
"What happens now?" Naru asked apprehensively.
"What must." Tsuruko responded gravely and sighed, wishing that it didn't have to be this way and that there were some miraculous way to get them out this horrible mess she'd made of things.
"Hidy-ho, Hinata Sou!" Kitsune chirped as she answered the phone.
+Good evening, Konno-san.+ an unfamiliar voice greeted her from the other end and Kitsune frowned as she tried to put a name to the unfamiliar female voice.
"Eh, hello?" Kitsune eventually blurted out. "Who is this?" she asked.
+Aoyama Tsuruko, Motoko's sister.+ Tsuruko responded on the other end and Kitsune blinked. /What the hell/
"Do you have a cold, Tsuruko?" Kitsune asked in utter bewilderment. It sounded nothing at all like Tsuruko.
+No. I have a broken nose.+ Motoko's sister responded tersely after a few moments of silence.
"Motoko broke your nose!" Kitsune exclaimed and shook her head. "Yikes. I guess you lost, huh?" she asked and exhaled with relief. Ever since she had gone downstairs and heard about what Motoko and Keitaro was up to, she had been worried about the outcome of the fight. But it seemed as if the two of them had pulled through after all.
It had also put a whole different spin on things and opened up another possibility. She had first assumed that it was Mutsumi who Keitaro had gotten down and dirty with. But perhaps she had been mistaken. Though she wondered just what the heck could have made Motoko of all people to allow Keitaro between her muscled legs. It sounded so outrageously out there that it boggled the mind.
But that would somewhat explain just why Motoko had acted so oddly lately.
Though the chances of that ever happening were so incredibly low, that she still mostly assumed that it was Mutsumi who had finally gotten lucky. Motoko could have gone off the deep end due to loosing the fight and having to give up the sword.
+No. I did not and she didn't.+ Tsuruko eventually replied, causing Kitsune to gasp.
"You... Won? They lost?" Kitsune asked and felt a shiver run through her entire body. She knew that she should have pushed harder for all of them to go to Kyoto, or if the others had still insisted on staying, then at the very least have gone there by herself, despite Shinobu's condition. "Wait, wait. Motoko didn't break your nose? Then... Keitaro!"
+Yes, on both accounts.+ Tsuruko admitted. +This is why I am calling. I'm sorry for the lack of warning, but you and the other girls are invited to the wedding which will be held tomorrow. Narusegawa has already been informed.+ she continued and Kitsune gasped again, stunned to silence. +Konno-san+ Tsuruko asked after nearly a minute of astonished silence.
"I'll tell the others." Kitsune breathed and then hung up, staring straight ahead in shock. She stood up from the couch and staggered over towards the kitchen, where Su was cooking under Shinobu's and Haruka's watchful eyes. Shinobu had taken the news of the upcoming fight and what would come from a loss in it rather badly, but at least she wasn't bedridden anymore.
Though Kitsune was worried about how she'd take the news, there wasn't any question about keeping silent about it. The others deserved to know what would happen tomorrow.
"You look like you've seen a ghost." Haruka announced in a dead-pan voice as Kitsune entered the kitchen.
"That was Tsuruko on the phone." Kitsune stated, ignoring Haruka's comment. "Keitaro and Motoko lost. The wedding is tomorrow. I'm going to go pack." she said and walked out of the kitchen, accompanied by a shocked gasp from Shinobu, Haruka dropping her cigarette and Su shouting as she just barely managed to leap aside before the dropped wok landed on her right foot.
Things had just gotten even more complicated then before.
The End! ( For now... )