awesome chapter, I finally caught up again. and that it is, the opening Keitaro needs to dulfill his next target. I was hoping to see Motorola accidently misidentified Keitaro during brief combat to his old identity.

Feel like that was an intimate moment between Motoko and Keitaro. I’m hoping Kitsune gets her chance. She’s the Top Waifu of the series.

Each year a chapter. I know you longer than some of the people in my life

Excellent chapter.

An FYI...
According to manga, Seta is his surname and as is customary in Japan pronounced first. His first name is Noriyasu and it is said last. When someone says Seta-san or Seta-Sensei, it is common to use the surname with an honorific if you are either being respectful or are not on intimate terms.

Must have more asap. Love it so far, keep it up. Can't wait to see what happens next. Wonder what Hakura would do if she knew her love still lived lol. Wonder how Mei is doing now and if she will know who saved her. Who knows mabey fall for him as well, with a little hero complex in there lol.

Hello, it's me again. I noticed that you haven't responded to my analysis via PM, so I am posting it here to see if you will see it in a review. Enjoy.

Hello, and I want to say that you did respond to my previous analysis back in June of last year, but a bit more explanation never hurt anyone. I will even add more things to the previous analysis that they (Tachibana) got lucky in that they were using an untested, experimental enhancement drug that did not destroy their bodies and the fact that not one of them died that day. I know you had Ensui mention that if someone did die, they would destroy all traces of their existence, but there are some people, like Tora or another Pillar head, who I have a hard time believing could be erased from existence if they died.

There are actually two things that I want to bring up for analysis. The first one is the fact that no one outside of the Urashima clan, who has Kyo's testimony, seems to remotely suspect the Tachibana of having a connection to the massacre, despite the fact that anyone with a brain can see that the Tachibana profited from the massacre the most. I know you had an investigation done, and the Tachibana covered their tracks, but everybody seems to take that at face value and not even question whether they could be missing something. I would go as far as to say that without Kyo's testimony, the Urashima would also be in this group. The reason I believe, is the Imperial Tournament decree of 1870, which "ended" the feud between the Mononobe and Tachibana. The imperial family, the Urashima clan and the Aoyama clan all had a hand in crafting that, and I assume take a lot of pride in it. You also said that the Decennial tournament was a "beloved tradition of the Imperial court." If said Imperial court were to entertain the notion that the Tachibana violated the decree and slaughtered the Mononobe for their own gain, it would mean that said decree and the tournaments were completely worthless in the end, and they are very, very reluctant to admit that. As the old saying goes, "It is impossible for a willfully blind man to grasp the truth." (I just made that up now)

Now for my second analysis. It has to do with Hina, Haru and now Seta's attempts to get Kyo to let go of his hatred and their reluctance to feel satisfaction when a Tachibana pillar family is destroyed. While this line of thinking is the high ground, based on the history of the feud and the current dynamics of the players involved, I think they are naive to believe that the situation can end any other way and that Kyo can never move on from what happened as long as the Tachibana are still alive. Here is my reasoning.

1. The history. From your prologue chapter, the Tachibana were the first Imperial guardians under Hideyoshi Totoyomi (by the way, Ishikawa Goemon and his son were said to have been boiled to death after a failed assassination attempt on Totoyomi, so having the Tachibana be Totoyomi's bloodthirsty, sadistic guards is quite in line with this). This was for around 11 years until Hideyoshi died. Then, Tokugawa began his rebellion and the Tachibana were routed by the Mononobe at Sekigahara. The Mononobe then take the power that the Tachibana originally had, and the Edo period was a lot longer that Totoyomi's reign, and that is what started this feud: the Tachibana hated the fact that their power was taken away from them. Fast forward to the end of the Bakamatsu and the Meiji Restoration and the idea of the Decennial tournament was formed. This is a bit of guesswork here, but I believe that the Tachibana were not completely satisfied with the decree as they see the Imperial guardians position as theirs by right because Totoyomi gave it to them and the Mononobe "stole" it, but they consented to the decree as they felt that they just have to win, and if they lose, they are "allowing" the Mononobe 10 years in their position before they take back what is rightfully theirs in the next tournament. This dynamic continued for a while, but then the Mononobe kept winning consecutive tournaments, and the Tachibana got desperate to return to power and the events unfolded the way that they did, and now they have what is "rightfully theirs".

2. The players involved - The first person that comes to mind is Kurotora. He believes that Kyo is dead now, but we know that is not the case, and that fact cannot be hidden forever. When he finds out, he will likely take it as a personal insult that Kyo lived and will not rest until Kyo and everyone in his new life are dead. The next group is what I like to call the "fanatic Tachibana." These are the Tachibana that take the feud seriously, and any Mononobe living after the massacre will be unacceptable to them, so they will go after him. The third group is the "non-fanatic Tachibana." These are the Tachibana, if any, who do not take the feud as seriously as the fanatic Tachibana, but will still be after Kyo because he is a witness to what they did to his clan when they previously believed they silenced all of them. If they find out Kyo is alive, they will go after him, and probably everyone they believe he talked to in order to silence any possibility they will be viewed as the Mononobe killers, as that could get investigators to do a far more thorough investigation than they did initially. If Kyo reveals the truth before this, and I cannot see how the truth can be revealed and accepted without Kyo giving his testimony as shown by my reasons above, then they will go after him based on the fact that once again, they will blame him for their fall from power.

3. The Power Dynamic - From the second chapter, I can infer that the only reason Heihachi did not act against the Mononobe is that he was afraid that if he did, the Tachibana would be stripped of the power they did have. After the massacre, that mindset is thrown out, as they acted with force, and they obtained everything they wanted through that. Heihachi even said that he wants to follow Kurotora's example when talking to Minato in chapter 6, and Minato mentions that he wishes "Tora burned [Nagareboshi] along with the Mononobe dogs." So now the Tachibana are conditioned to think that everything is theirs for the taking, and if they want more power, they need to take it, and not get caught. Another thing goes back to the history. The Tachibana see the IG position as rightfully theirs, and they demonstrated the lengths they will go in order to seize their power back. Knowing that, it is not hard to imagine what depths they will sink to in order to keep their power. So, even if Kyo chose not to walk the path of revenge, if he ever wants justice for his clan, he will still need to obtain it over the dead bodies of the Tachibana.

So this is my analysis of why I believe that if anyone wants justice for what happened to the Mononobe clan, and the Urashima do, the Tachibana need to be destroyed utterly because they will never let go of their power now that they are the undisputed IGs as the Mononobe are gone. Also, Kyo will never be able to wear his real name in public as long as the Tachibana are still alive. What do you think? PM me your response to this. I enjoy our conversations about this story.

PS. Can you tell me roughly how many chapters are left in the arc we are in now, or is that too much of a spoiler?

happy holidays, damn seta...is in serious trouble

The stakes rise

Another excellent chapter.

As an FYI- you do know that Noriyasu is Seta's first name. So many writers of fanfics based on 'Love Hina' forget that.

It is good to see a story that has so much thought behind it.

WtTA

Must have more asap. Love it so far, keep it up. Can't wait to see what happens next. Kei can't get a break can he lol. Will Mei get to following her hero of sorts like a lost puppy? Is Seta gonna get it now lol. One things for sure, he needs to tell his girls as it where the whole truth to who he is sooner or later. The sooner the better, especially with getting you know who off his trail for a while lol. You know all his girls would stand by him through thick and thin even If they would be sister wives/cuncubines lol.

An update on my birthday. A mystery present!

Hello, happy to see you back here, I hope you remember me. So, I found a major mistake in this chapter, and it occurs when Kimiko and Ruumari are talking about the information that they have. When Ruumari talks about discrepancies in the assassination patterns, he says "Tomoko-obasan's murder... and Ruumari's". I am assuming that you meant Ranmaru here as Ruumari is the one talking. You also use Ruumari's name in the place of Ranmaru's several times throughout this conversation. I just wanted to mention this, as you said to me to mention where you make mistakes. I hope this helps.

PS. I made another analysis of this story, although I do not want to put it into a review as it concerns the story as a whole rather than a single chapter. If you decide to respond to this review with a PM, I will respond to that with the new analysis.

Good job so far even with the sporadic updates.

damn sonnnnn, things are heating up

If your speed to update remains the same I can look forward to read this story until I am 60 years old.
Glad you are back. Good chapter, a lot of character development.
The situation with Motoko broke my heart.
Only an appearance of Tsuruko is missing.