Forget and Forgive

Love Hina belongs to Ken Akamatsu.

A/N: In one of the reviews for this story, Starfire99 suggested that I ought to address the all important incident from which all other plot points flowed, even going as far as saying my story would forever be incomplete without it. I thought about it, and I agreed. It's basically an AU version of the end of The Journey West production put on by the Hinata Sou residents without Seta or Sarah in it. As for Chapter 1 proper, it starts off identically to the original story but ends much differently…

Unfortunately, this completely screwed up the rest of the chapters because the tone of the story changed A LOT. Chapter 2 had to be completely rewritten (it's not even the same POV character anymore) and I'm still figuring out what other parts, if any, can be retooled to fit the new plot or if I should just toss it all out. I also changed the title from Patchwork Love to Forget and Forgive.

It is my personal belief, though it might just be my oversized ego talking, that the story is better than before. But, as ever, I am at the mercy of my readers. I can't apologize enough to the fans of the old story I know I will surely alienate with this decision. I didn't make it lightly. Thank you, all of the loyal readers of Patchwork Love. I'm hoping and praying that the revision meets with your approval, but I know it won't with everyone. Please believe me when I say that I'm sorry. I wish I could offer more than my apologies.

That said, I point the finger at Starfire99! Feel free to direct your thanks or your flames to him/her! But seriously, I always take comments about my stories seriously. Unlike real authors, us fanfiction writers can tailor our work to better meet reader demand, though I'm unsure if mob mentality in literature is really a healthy thing… In any case, whether you love or hate, like or dislike, what I've done, don't be shy and please leave a review. Who knows? Maybe next time it'll be your comment that makes me scrap my story and start from scratch.

Prologue

"Urashima!" Motoko's clarion voice rang throughout the makeshift theater. "I mean, Son-Goku! Fight me now or your dear Sanzo-sama's life is forfeit!"

"M-M-M-Motoko-chan?!" Keitaro spluttered in panic, looking as though he might wet himself from sheer terror. "W-What are you talking about?! I don't stand a chance against you!"

Motoko snorted derisively. "Does your cowardice run so deep that you will abandon your loved ones at the first sign of danger? Small wonder that they call you the Monkey King." She turned her head and spat on the ground. "Because you certainly aren't a man."

Keitaro recoiled at the accusation but his eyes never left Motoko's weapon. Beads of sweat glistened on his brow as he took a step back. "Isn't that a little harsh? This is just a play, after all. You know that I can't beat you!"

"So you have given up before even trying?" Motoko curled a lip in contempt. "I see that you are a wretch as well as a coward." She sheathed her sword. "Go, then. Flee with your miserable life. I'll not taint my blade with the blood of such an unworthy foe."

Provoked by her goading, a glint of indignant rage burst to life in Keitaro's eyes. "Hold on! What gives you the right to talk down to me like that? I wasn't raised since birth as a successor to the techniques of the Shinmeiryuu! I'm just an average guy. You expect me to walk into a fight that I have zero chance in winning? What kind of choice is that?! I'm a coward if I run but I'm a fool if I stay!"

Motoko flashed a cruel smile. "So the frightened monkey still gnashes his teeth at me? You forget, Son-Goku; True strength lies not in fire and steel. This is not a battle between a sword and a quarterstaff, but between you and me. The victor shall be the one with the strongest will, and you have already shown me that yours could not support the weight of a feather. I pity Sanzo-sama for having placed her faith in such an undeserving weakling."

Keitaro let forth a savage cry and readied his quarterstaff. His stance suggested that he may as well have been holding a mop, but his eyes blazed with the fires of his soul. "We'll see about that! You can doubt my courage and you can doubt my strength, but nobody has a stronger will then me! I've devoted my entire life to fulfilling a promise I made long ago to someone important to me. I've overcome every obstacle that's ever stood in my way, and not even you can stop me, Moto— er, Bull King!"

He turned to Naru, who was still chained to a stone pillar in the middle of the stage. "Fear not, Sanzo-sama! I, your loyal servant Son-Goku, will rescue you from the evil clutches of this cruel monster!"

Naru blushed a deep red and, somewhat surprisingly, so did Motoko.

"Enough! I see you have steeled your resolve, Son-Goku." The edge of the kendo heiress' blade glistened in the moonlight once more. "I deem you worthy to face me."

Keitaro bowed low. "I am honored, Mo— Bull King."

Motoko returned the gesture before commencing her attack. "I promise you a quick death!"

She dove forward, making a beeline towards her enemy. Keitaro barely had time to brace himself when Motoko made her first cut. Miraculously, he managed to block the brunt of the blow with his own weapon, but seconds later the staff split in two. Gaping at the two clumsy sticks he now held, Keitaro pushed aside his shock and counterattacked with a low sweeping motion intended to knock his opponent off her feet. Motoko dodged it easily.

"Good reflexes and improvisation," Motoko acknowledged, a half pleased, half condescending smirk on her face. "But you're still an amateur."

"It's not like I've pretended to be otherwise!" Keitaro yelled, discarding his broken weapon as he dove to take cover behind a rock.

"You can't hide from me!" Motoko declared, readying her stance. "Shinmeiryuu Secret Technique: Rock Splitting Sword, Ni-no-tachi!" A shockwave flew from the edge of her blade, obliterating the boulder into finely ground pumice.

Keitaro stared at the remains of his shelter. "T-T-That could have been me…" he whispered numbly. His eyes met Motoko's, hers filled with a grim resolve and his with amazement, and a touch of fear.

He turned and ran. "I'm going to die!"

Motoko took off in pursuit. "Stand and face me, Son-Goku! Ni-no-tachi! Ni-no-tachi! Ni-no-tachi!"

The stage became a war zone, Motoko's Rock Splitting Sword technique proving faithful to its name. Dense clusters of high velocity wind sheared apart everything in their path. A thick shroud of dust enveloped the entire area, lowing visibility to mere centimeters.

"Ni-no-tachi! Ni-no-tachi! Ni-no-tachi!" And still Motoko's assault continued unabated, the explosiveness of her attacks threatening to reduce everything to rubble. The kendo heiress never noticed it, her soul consumed by the thrill of battle. This was where she belonged. This was what she was born to do! Together, she and her sword would cut down any foe foolish enough to oppose them.

She felt content. Whole. And to think, Tsuruko had thrown it all away for a man. Hmph. Motoko was married to her blade and she could ask for no finer partner.

"STOP!!! Motoko-chan!"

A desperate voice cut through the battle song ringing in her ears. She stilled her hand and, slowly, regained her senses.

And she saw the carnage around her.

It was like setting foot in a disaster area. She heard the cries of screaming children in the audience. Everything lay in pieces. Save for the central pillar that still towered in the middle of the circular stage area, nothing remained standing. As the dust cleared further, she could see the children who had been screaming, their bodies and clothes covered in grime. Even their tears were brown and muddy.

"What have I done…?" she asked in a mortified whisper. Her sword slipped out of her hand and fell to the ground in a anticlimactic clang.

Haruka came clambering up to her in a seething rage. "Have you gone nuts?! You could have had us all KILLED! Look at this place! What the hell am I supposed to tell these kids' parents?! Oh, you had better pray that no one got injured, or so help me—"

"Haruka!"

The tea house proprietor's lecture was cut short by a shrill, desperate plea.

"Haruka, hurry! Please! I-It's Keitaro! He's hurt!"

Haruka and Motoko simultaneously snapped their heads in the direction of the voice. In the middle of the stage they saw Naru kneeling over the unmoving body of the Hinatasou apartment manager. Motoko had never seen Haruka move so fast than when she darted to his side. The kendo heiress followed behind slowly, her mind still numb over the havoc she had wrought.

"Hey! Hey, Keitaro! Snap out of it!" Haruka growled, slapping the ronin's cheeks lightly. "Come on, I know you're made of tougher stuff than that! Wake up!"

Keitaro did not move for several moments, but then finally a cough escaped his lips. He opened his eyes and then… smiled. "S-Sorry to worry you. I'm fine." Then he bolted up. Haruka restrained him so that he was still sitting, but no longer laying on the ground. "W-What about Narusegawa? Where's Narusegawa?"

"I'm right here," Naru responded, reaching to clasp his hand. "I'm okay. Not a scratch on me… thanks to you."

"Good," Keitaro deflated in relief. "Good. I'm glad."

Meanwhile, Haruka was eyeing the heavy scratch marks on his back. "What happened? Did something fall on you?"

"N—"

"No."

Keitaro opened his mouth to deny it, but Naru beat him to the punch. "No, Keitaro… He… One of the shockwaves from Motoko's attacks was headed straight for me and he… He protected me."

Motoko's eyes widened in shock. She'd been too busy ruminating over her loss of self-control and only then noticed the scars on Keitaro's back.

"What have I done?" she whispered again. "What have I done?!"

Haruka, satisfied her "nephew" was safe for the present time, left him in Naru's care jumped up and grabbed Motoko by the collar. "I'll tell you what you did. You turn a little children's play into a god damned massacre. You leveled the stage to a pile of rubble. You kept flinging those damned mini-sonic booms all over the damned place like some sociopathic lunatic and hit Granny Hina's grandson, and god knows who else, in the process."

Smack!

Motoko's left cheek suddenly found itself imprinted with a red, hand-shaped rash.

"If Keitaro hadn't screamed at you when he did and put a stop to your rampage, how much worse do you think this could have been? What the hell was going through your head?! Were you trying to commit mass murder or does it say somewhere in the script that the Bull King is supposed to freak out like some lobotomized mental patient?"

"I… I didn't…" Motoko whimpered helplessly.

"Think?" supplied Haruka. "And you're only realizing this, now?" She sighed, bringing a hand to her forehead. "We'll talk about this later. Right now I want you to get your act together and help evacuate the kids, provided they don't flee in terror at the sight of you."

"Yes, Haruka-san," Motoko nodded and proceeded to obey the older woman's orders. She was correct, of course. There would be time to sort out her thoughts later. At the moment, she needed to do everything in her power to aid the victims of her rampage.

"Wait, Motoko-chan."

She'd only made it a few meters away from ground zero when Keitaro's voice stopped her. She paused, turning briefly to face him but unable to look him directly in the eyes.

"Yes, Urashima?"

She expected a reprimand. An insult. An accusation. Even hatred. She was prepared for it.

"I know how you must feel, but don't beat yourself up too much. We all make mistakes. We just have to make sure to learn from them so that they don't happen again. I think I got the worst of things, and here I am, still talking and breathing. And regardless of what anyone else thinks, I don't blame you."

For reasons beyond her comprehension, Keitaro's kind words only served to incense Motoko. "How can you say that?! Look around you! I did this! I endangered the children. I hurt you. Why don't you hate me?!"

At this, Keitaro merely smiled. "Because you have a kind heart."

Motoko snapped. She opened her mouth and howled like a raving madwoman. "NO, I DON'T! I'M A MONSTER! I COULD HAVE KILLED YOU AND ALL YOU CAN DO IS SMILE AT ME?! I DON'T WANT YOUR PITY! I WOULD RATHER DIE! I WANT YOU TO HATE ME!"

The very ground shook from the reverberations of her voice. When she realized she had lost control of herself yet again, she hastily apologized. "Forgive me, Urashima. I did not mean to—"

"Motoko-chan, look out! Above you!"

She instantly craned her neck upwards and saw her impending doom. The sound of her voice had dislodged a boulder that had been clinging to the pillar in the center of the stage by a bare thread. It was now hurtling down towards her, gaining in speed with every passing second.

Somehow, it never occurred to her to step out of the way. She could only stare at it, entranced by the way such a large, awkward monstrosity could tumble so gracefully in the air.

"Motoko-chan!!!"

CRASH!

She felt something collide with her, knocking her to the ground. At first, she thought it was the boulder, but soon dismissed it as a possibility. After all, she was still alive.

And then she noticed the body lying on top of her.

"Ha… ha… ha…" Keitaro was breathing heavily, apparently short of breath for reasons unknown to Motoko. "That… ha… was a close one. Are you… ha… are you okay, Motoko-chan?"

She blinked. "I… I believe so…"

"I'm… ha… glad," Keitaro panted. "Me too. Guess we both… ha… got lucky, that time."

"You… saved me…" Motoko gasped.

"Yeah," he agreed, his pulse rate slowly returning to normal. "Sorry, I know you wanted me to hate you."

"You fool…" Motoko whimpered. "You reckless, idiotic, chauvinistic, male fool."

"Hey, I'm not chauvinistic!" Keitaro denied. "The rest of that sounds about right, though." He grinned.

Despite herself, Motoko felt her own lips form a smile, as well.

"Well, I think I've had enough excitement for one day," Keitaro said, his speech slurring slightly as drowsiness overtook him. Without a clear and present danger, the adrenaline fueling him was fading. "I feel like a nap now…"

And then he collapsed on top of her, his head settling to rest on Mokoto's bosom. Ordinarily, this would have caused her to fly into a rage and attack him but considering the circumstances, she decided to let it slide.

This time.

And then the dust around them that had been knocked up by the impact of the boulder began to clear…

"Keitaro! Motoko! Are you two okay?!"

Naru froze as soon as she saw them.

"W-What are you doing to her, you pervert?!"

"N-Naru-san!" Motoko stuttered. "T-This isn't what it looks like." In an ironic twist of events, she'd somehow found herself in a familiarly awkward situation that was all too easy to misunderstand.

Ah, so this was how Urashima must have felt all those times.

"Urashima was just—"

But it was too late.

"Get off of her, NOW!"

Keitaro went flying into the air, still unconscious. His near vertical ascent sent him hurtling towards the moon, but of course even Naru couldn't punch that hard.

"Naru-san, Urashima just saved my life!" Motoko protested.

"He… what?"

"He saved me from being crushed by that boulder before passing out in that… unfortunate position."

"Oh…"

Keitaro's body slowed to a stop before reversing direction and finally hitting the ground with a sickening crack!

"Keitaro!"

"Urashima!"

Both girls ran towards their apartment manager as quickly as their legs could carry them. They kneeled, reaching out tentatively towards his prone form.

"Clear out, you two!" Haruka arrived on the scene and pushed both of them aside. "I think you've both done enough damage already."

She propped her 'nephew' up and laid his head on her shoulder, slapping his cheeks lightly as she did before. "Hey, don't you think scaring me half to death once in a day is enough?"

This time he didn't open his eyes.

"C'mon, kiddo, I'm not joking. Cut it out before you make me angry."

Still, he did not stir.

Cursing, she laid him flat on his back again and took his pulse by pressing two forefingers into his neck, near the aorta.

"Good," Haruka sighed in relief. "His heart's still beating."

The sound of footstep interrupted her before she could diagnose his condition any further.

It was Kitsune with Shinobu and Su both in tow. "Hey, Haruka, we finished leading all the kids to the parking lot. They're not as rowdy as before, but I think they'll be okay. None of them were hurt from what I saw."

After finishing the short debrief, she finally noticed something odd about the scene she'd walked in on.

"Is that Keitaro over there? He doesn't look so hot."

"What happened to Senpai?!" Shinobu squealed. "He's not breathing!"

Haruka's head snapped back to Keitaro. She put an ear to his chest.

"Shit, Shinobu's right. Naru, call the paramedics! And all of you, clear out. Give me some room."

Haruka positioned her hands on Keitaro's chest and began pumping as she kept count aloud.

"1... 2... 3..."

She plugged his nose and transferred her breath through his mouth. Sparing a glance back at the others, she scowled. "Naru, what are you doing?! Get on your cell phone! Now!"

"B-But I… I…" The brunette mumbled incoherently as she fumbled through her pockets. When she finally retrieved the phone, she just stared at it as if it were a foreign object she'd never seen before.

"Damn it! Shinobu, use Naru's phone. Tell them your name, our location, and that we have a medical emergency. Can you handle that?"

Shinobu appeared surprised to be singled out at first but recovered quickly. She nodded firmly and grabbed the phone from Naru's hand. Hoping help would arrive in time, she made sure to dial the appropriate numbers quickly but accurately.

"Yes, hello? My name is Shinobu Maehara…"

…

…

…

Chapter 1 – In Memory

Inhaling deeply, Haruka felt a rush a warmth enter her lungs before triggering an involuntary gag reflex and she broke out into a fit of coughing. The cigarette slipped out of her fingers and fell to the pavement. Cursing her carelessness, she waited until the dizziness subsided and then used her teeth to draw another from its pack, cupping one hand around it while flicking her lighter with the other. A heartbeat later it was gone, so she lit another. And another after that. And then another.

She ignored the stares she was getting.

When her pack had been emptied, she swore out loud, belatedly wishing she had paced herself better.

"I hope you don't kiss your mother with that mouth," a rich, dulcet voice reprimanded her. It belonged to a man with windswept sandy brown hair, his bespectacled face partially obscured by a perpetual five o'clock shadow. He was wearing a white lab coat and she mistook him for the doctor she'd been waiting for a first, but then she realized she knew the man.

"Seta?" Haruka nearly gagged at the sudden appearance of her old flame. She suspected she would have reacted the same way, even if she hadn't felt nauseous from her recent bout of chain smoking.

Without waiting for an invitation, he seated himself beside her and reached into his pocket.

"I'd offer you a smoke," he told her casually, "but I think maybe you've had enough."

Haruka bristled. "And how would you know that? Were you spying on me?"

"Nope, just got here," came the matter-of-fact reply. He eyeballed the ground at Haruka's feet and she realized it was littered with cigarette filters. "I bet there are proctologists over in that hospital who haven't seen as many butts today."

The pun didn't faze her. "That flippant attitude of yours may charm those empty-headed little co-eds, but it won't fly with me, Seta."

"My apologies, madam," said Seta with a polite incline of his head. "No offense was intended."

"Fine," she waved a hand as a sign of dismissal. "Just give me a damn cigarette."

Contrary to what she expected, Seta did not immediately acquiesce. Light reflecting from his glasses obscured his eyes from view and his expression revealed no other hints to his state of mind. When he finally relented, Haruka thought she may have heard the man give an audible sigh, but it could have as easily been her ears playing tricks on her. He'd always been a difficult man to read, so she paid it no heed.

"Thanks,"she offered her gratitude blandly.

Neither of them said anything more for a while after that. Haruka stared distractedly through the glass walls of the hospital, keeping an eye on any staff that approached the exit.

"Are you expecting someone?" Seta asked after noticing the behavior.

"Damn right," Haruka said in a low growl. "They're supposed to send someone out here to get me when I can see my nephew."

"Part-timer?" Seta spoke in his usual affable tone, but his shoulders shifted slightly at the mention of his assistant and his posture straightened. "It's nothing serious, I hope."

"That's just it: I really don't know," Haruka fumed. "The paramedics in the ambulance with us said he slipped into a coma just before we got here and then the staff shooed me off while carting him away. It's been over an hour since then and they still won't inform me of his condition."

"They probably need time to make an accurate diagnosis," Seta offered. "I'm sure he's fine. They would have told you about any complications."

"I don't share your faith in these incompetents," Haruka said sharply. "This is the same hospital where…" Her voice dropped to just barely above a whisper. "...where Mom died."

She'd been very young then, but the memory of that day had forever been branded in her mind. She felt just as powerless now as she did then. And this time, Granny Hina wasn't there to console her.

"You mother?" Seta sounded confused. "You can't mean Granny Hina."

"No,"Haruka loosed a deep sigh. "She adopted me after it happened. Granny actually is my granny, biologically. I'm just her daughter on paper."

"I see," said an unusually somber Seta. "You never told me that."

"No," Haruka agreed. "I didn't."

The conversation collapsed into silence again but neither made any attempt to revive it. Seta finished his cigarette first and rose from his seat.

"I should go. Sarah ought to be out of surgery from her tonsillectomy by now and I ought to be there when she wakes up."

Haruka raised an eyebrow. "I'm impressed. You sound like a real father." Seta merely smiled at her before walking away.

It wasn't long before one more filter fell to the ground to join the others. Left empty-handed and bereft of company, Haruka's thoughts turned to the girls waiting at home. No doubt they were eager for word of the fate of the apartment manager. She wouldn't be able to oblige, but she supposed that she could at least let them know he'd arrived at the hospital in one piece. Fumbling for loose change in her pockets, she made her way to a pay phone just beside the hospital entrance.

Someone picked up before the first ring even finished. "H-Hello? Keitaro, is that you?" The voice was oddly strangled.

"Sorry, Naru, it's just me."

"Oh, Haruka," Naru was clearly disappointed. "Is Keitaro alright?"

"I wish I could tell you," Haruka replied, doing her best to suppress her anger and frustration over the situation, "but I'm afraid the doctors are still checking him out. I should be hearing from them soon, though." At least, I'd better. "I doubt we'll be home tonight either way, so don't wait up."

From the animated noises in the background, Haruka surmised the other girls were listening in on the conversation.

"Isn't there anything at all you can tell us?" Naru pleaded. She sounded desperate.

"Well…" Haruka sighed. "I don't want to worry you girls, but the last thing I've heard is that he slipped into a coma around the time we got here."

There was a collective gasp from the receiver followed by the incoherent babble of several different voices speaking simultaneously.

"Quiet, everyone!" Naru admonished before addressing Haruka again. "Sorry. The others are pretty worried. And… I guess… I am, too."

As well you should be, considering this is all your fault, Haruka thought darkly, but she pushed it aside. Now wasn't the time, despite how much she wanted to vent her pent-up frustration on someone.

"I'll contact you as soon as I hear anything," she promised. "You know Keitaro; he'll bounce back from just about anything," she assured with a confidence she did not at all feel. "We could be home as soon as tomorrow."

"If— When he wakes up, can you tell him…" Naru hesitated a moment. "Can you tell him that I'm sorry? And tell him that I'll do anything to make it up to him. And… tell him that I… I mean, tell him I… that I… hope he gets well soon."

Haruka tried to sigh, but it came out as a low growl. That was the last straw. "When are you going to grow up, Naru? Your jealous little tiffs have been troublesome in the past, but this time it may have cost Keitaro his life. Do you even understand that?"

"I… But I…"

"You what? Didn't mean it?" Haruka said scathingly. "I'll have to tell Keitaro that, if he wakes up. I'm sure it'll be a big comfort to him."

"Haruka, please," Naru wailed. The sobs she'd been holding back broke out into full force. "I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry!"

"Sorry isn't enough, Naru," Haruka spat. "Not this time, it isn't. You'd better think long and hard about what you're going to do to make sure that this doesn't happen again. Because it won't happen again, one way or another."

She let the veiled threat linger for a few seconds.

"Damn it, I can't talk to you anymore right now. If I get any news, I'll let you girls know."

She hung up the receiver and returned to the spot where she'd been sitting. After a few minutes she realized that she didn't feel any better for having vented her anger at all.

It's not like I didn't mean what I said, but maybe I could have been gentler…

What the hell was she supposed to do? Her decision to open the Hinata Seaside Tea House this year had not turned out as she'd planned at all. It was supposed to be a relaxing retreat, a chance for Keitaro to kick back and have a little fun instead of moping around the dormitory pining for Naru. And, not that she was playing cupid, but Haruka thought that maybe the fresh air and change of scenery might improve their relationship so she wouldn't have to keep putting up with their gloomy faces.

How wonderfully that had turned out.

Time passed without any word of Keitaro. The sun had gone down and the wind was growing chilly. The hospital was almost certainly heated, but she refused to wait inside. The sterile smell of antiseptics and medical equipment stirred memories best left forgotten. Sensibility grappled with stubbornness, but before a winner could be declared, at long last a figure with a white lab coat came out and approached her.

"Still out here, I see. Aren't you cold?"

A few choice, and rather unladylike, words escaped Haruka's lips. "What are you doing back here, Seta? Shouldn't you be looking after your kid?"

"Sarah's resting peacefully," he told her while removing his coat and placing it on Haruka's shivering back. She accepted it without comment. "The doctor promised her ice cream and wasn't able to deliver. I thought I'd pop over to the convenience store across the street and surprise her when she wakes up."

"Funny," Haruka muttered dryly. "You never struck me as the doting father type."

"Is that right?" It was a meaningless reply, perhaps a cue that her comment was unwelcome. Or perhaps Seta was just being Seta. "Nevermind me. Isn't there something you ought to be doing right now?"

Haruka frowned. "Such as?"

"Don't you think you should be with your nephew?"

A flash of red crept up her neck. "You don't think I would be if I could?"

Seta shrugged. "I think you would be if you weren't here, outside, feeling sorry for yourself."

Haruka didn't know if she was more surprised at the provocative words or that Seta had been the one to say them. Before she knew it, she was on her feet and seething."What is that supposed to mean? Who the hell do you think you are, Seta Noriyasu?"

Seta ignored the outburst and looked away, scratching his chin. "You know, the nurses here are very friendly. I struck up a conversation with one and we really hit it off. She was so sympathetic of a young, single bachelor such as myself trying to raise a sweet girl like Sarah without a female role model to emulate. We also discussed my distress over how to spend the generous grant I recently received from the university to fund my research. I believe I failed to mention I wasn't at liberty to spend that money as I pleased, but she was quite delighted for me, nonetheless. It was at this point I mentioned my young assistant, one Keitaro Urashima, had taken ill and that the good doctors were taking quite some time to diagnose his condition. Taking pity on me, she discreetly looked up the room he was staying in so that I might visit him. It's written down on a slip of paper in the pocket of my coat, which I seem to have misplaced."

He threw his hands up and heaved an exaggerated sigh. "And now I need to hurry back to Sarah with that ice cream before she notices I'm missing. There's just no rest for the w— oomph!"Before he could finish, he was nearly bowled over when Haruka wrapped her arms around him in a fierce hug.

"Seta, I don't know how to thank you enough for this," she whispered. She felt him stiffen for a moment, and relax again, and then a gentle stroking of her hair before he softly pushed her away.

"There's someone else you need to see right now," he said to her. "Don't make him wait on my account."

They stood facing each other for a long, awkward moment. And then, almost simultaneously, they strode past each other without another word. Haruka didn't look back, knowing he wouldn't, either. She reached into the pocket of the coat Seta had placed on her and pulled out a strip of paper. On it were two numbers. 315 and—

"555-4382"

She smiled wryly to herself before tearing it neatly into pieces and tossing the fragments into a trash bin. So Keitaro was in room 315, and she was on the first floor. It seemed she needed to go up. Quickening her pace, she followed signs directing her to the elevators. As she turned the corner, she saw a pair of stainless steel doors just beginning to close.

"Hold that, please!"

She rushed forward as a hand holding a clipboard reached out to prevent the doors from closing. Haruka wheezed out her thanks and the woman to whom the hand belonged beamed at her.

"Say, aren't you that new intern?" she asked animatedly, apparently given the wrong impression by Seta's lab coat that Haruka was still wearing. "I think Dr. Nakamura was looking for you earlier. Best not keep him waiting, you know how that old fuddy duddy gets. Or maybe you don't yet? You've been here for what, a week? I only transferred here a month ago myself. Don't you think the staff here is a bit… shall we say, one step from the grave? It's so nice to finally have someone my own age to talk to! Oh, look at me prattle on like this when I haven't even introduced myself yet. I'm Ai. And you were… Sayoko, wasn't it? I've seen you around."

Haruka marveled at the fact that it was humanly possible to speak the woman's introduction with only one breath. Not wanting to be scrutinized too closely, she nodded dully in response and motioned to the front-right corner of the elevator. "Third floor, please."

"Oh, right!" Ai exclaimed. "I nearly forgot where we were." She pressed the appropriate button. "So Sayoko, you'll never guess what just happened to me! I met the most wonderful man, earlier. He was a bit disheveled, but very handsome in a rugged sort of way. And loaded too, which between us girls, is the most important thing, right? Ha! And here I was, cursing the gods for sending me to this nightmarish place, slaving away for a bunch of dusty old men who ought to be in the morgue instead of running it! I suppose every cloud has a silver lining, after all. "

Haruka, without even needing to play along, simply scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, he just sounds too good to be true. How do you know he doesn't have some glaring personality defect like an unhealthy obsession with his work? Or a total lack of awareness of the feelings of the people around him? Or the irritating habit of smiling like a brain-dead monkey when you're trying to have a serious conversation?"

"Goodness me," Ai said, grinning from ear to ear. "Someone is quite the jilted lover, now isn't she? You simply must tell me every wicked detail!" The woman had a predatory look in her eye, like a wolf that had stumbled upon a tasty morsel. "How did he look? How much did he spend on you? How was he in bed?"

Remaining unrattled by Ai's slew of increasingly embarrassing personal questions, Haruka took them in stride and replied flatly, "It was a she." She took no small amount of satisfaction in seeing the smile wiped from Ai's face. The remaining seconds of her ride on the elevator were blissfully silent. You owe me one, Sayoko.

Haruka quickly found her bearings after stepping off the elevator and before long, she found herself standing outside room 315. Beyond the tinted glass, she could make out a prone form on the bed. Steeling herself she opened the door and stepped inside. The figure stirred at the sound of her entry.

"Hello? Is someone there?" Keitaro's voice sent waves of relief through her chest, but she dared not relax completely. Not until she saw him.

"Keitaro, it's me, Haruka. Are you alright?"

"Aunt Haruka?" He sounded confused. "What are you doing here?"

"I snuck in," she confessed. "The clowns running this place wouldn't give any information on how you were doing so I took matters into my own hands… with some help. And how many times do I have to tell you not to call me 'Aunt'? You're off the hook this time, but I'll consider you fair game again once you're back on your feet."

"S-Sorry," Keitaro apologized automatically. "Um… so, Aunt Haruka."

"Haruka," she corrected with a sigh. "Didn't we just go over this?"

"R-Right," said Keitaro. "Haruka, then. I… my head is a little fuzzy. What did… How did I get here?"

Haruka frowned. "You don't remember?"

"Not really… I remember… a play? And then nothing. And then waking up here. The doctor, he ran so many tests. I laid down in this weird machine. I think he said it was an MRI. He asked me a lot of questions. What my name was. Where I was born. About my childhood. He said he was worried I might have brain damage but… I remember everything. Just… just not what happened to me. He said it was probably the shock. Apparently he can't find anything wrong with me."

Haruka let out a long, shuddering sigh. This was better than she dared hope. Still, she had to be sure. Her eyes were adjusting to the darkness but she still couldn't make out more than a vague silhouette of her nephew.

"Do you mind if I turn on the lights? I'd like to get a better look at you."

"No, go ahead."

Light filled the room. Haruka approached the hospital bed slowly. Keitaro's eyes were alert, but frightened, and she didn't want to exacerbate his condition. The color had returned to his face, and but for the bandages wrapped around his head and the hospital gown he was wearing, and the fact she'd seen him when his wounds were there, she would never have suspected he'd suffered any injuries at all.

"You don't look any worse for the wear," she admitted, breathing a sigh a relief. "How do you feel?"

"I… I'm fine," said Keitaro.

"Bullshit," Haruka replied. "You're shaking like a leaf." She took a seat at the edge of the bed, placed a hand on his shoulder, and looked her nephew directly in the eye. "You don't have to pretend in front of me. We're family, okay? No matter what, I'm always in your corner."

Some of the tension drained from Keitaro's shoulders. He gave her the barest of smiles and nodded gratefully.

"So… let's try this again. How do you feel?" Haruka asked.

Keitaro swallowed and licked his lips, then took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "I… could be better," he told her. "I woke up in a strange room with a bunch of people wearing surgical masks poking and prodding me, with no idea of how I wound up there. Nobody would tell me anything. They ignored me when I asked for my family. I… I don't want to be here anymore. I just want to go home."

Haruka squeezed his shoulder. "Soon, I promise. Did the doctor mention when you could leave?"

Keitaro nodded. "Tomorrow. He said there's nothing more they can do for me but he wants to keep me here overnight for observation, just in case."

As if by magic, all of the fear and uncertainty that had been plaguing Haruka the entire night was banished in an instant. She smiled for what felt like the first time in ages. "Great, then we'll both go back first thing in the morning. The girls will be relieved to see you in one piece."

Keitaro grinned back at her, but then a switch seemed to flip on in his head and his smile was turned on its head. "Girls? You mean Mom and Kanako?"

"No…" Haruka said slowly, her spirits dampening. "The girls? Naru? Motoko? Kitsune, Shinobu, Su? Ring any bells?"

Her nephew stared at her blankly. "Who?"

Of course. Of course it wasn't going to be that simple. Why had she ever expected otherwise?

"Keitaro, you said you remembered a play…"

"Yeah. The Journey West," Keitaro confirmed. "One of the other senior classes was performing it for the culture festival. I was in the audience. It's the last thing I remember."

"Culture festival?" Haruka repeated. She had a feeling she knew where things were going. Cram schools did not hold culture festivals. That could only mean… "Keitaro, how old are you?"

"Fifteen," he answered without hesitation. "I'm eight years younger than you, remember?"

"Right, silly me," Haruka deadpanned. Oh, she was going to murder that moron of a doctor. "So that means you're in your last year of middle school?"

"Yeah," said Keitaro, making a face. "I can't wait until graduation. For the past three years, it's like I've been walking around with a giant 'L' branded to my forehead. My classmates don't even acknowledge my existence, and when they do it's only to make fun of me. Even the teachers think I'm hopeless. I try so hard but my grades are average at best. I'm hoping to make a fresh start in high school, but…" His face reddened. "Er, maybe I've said too much."

Her head erupted into a sudden, intense pounding. A smoke. She needed a smoke. Right now, more than ever in her life.

"You said the doc asked about when you were a kid," she grunted, straining to keep her composure. "How thorough was he? How far did he go, chronologically?"

Keitaro shrugged. "We went through pretty much my entire life."

"He didn't ask you about anything recent?"

"Sure, he did," replied Keitaro. "We went all the way up to middle school. How much more recent could he get?"

"He didn't ask about high school?"

Keitaro cocked an eyebrow quizzically. "Why would he? I'm not that old."

It seemed Haruka's skepticism of the medical staff's competence was well justified, though the thought brought her no pleasure. The idiot doctor had stopped short in his testing for signs of brain damage and now it was her job to break the news to her amnesiac nephew.

Wonderful.

She considered how to broach the subject, but ultimately decided to go with naked honestly. Haruka was not one to beat around the bush, and the migraine she was nursing wasn't doing any favors for her ability to think of more creative solutions, or her mood.

"Keitaro, the year is 1999. You're twenty years old."

If she had any expectations of her nephew's reaction, it was not dead silence followed shortly by hysterical laughter.

"You almost had me there, Aunt Haruka," Keitaro guffawed. "Wow, I always thought you didn't have a sense of humor."

She raised a hand and began massaging her temples. "Starting now, for every time you call me 'Aunt', I am going to smack you upside the head with a harisen once you get out of here. And I wasn't joking. Look at the wall mirror and see for yourself."

The laughing stopped abruptly. Keitaro stared at his reflection with a completely empty expression. No hint betrayed his emotions. If he was surprised, confused, or angry, he didn't show it.

Finally, he said, "…how long was I asleep, again?"

Keitaro took the news of his amnesia surprisingly easily. The throbbing in Haruka's head hit a plateau and she was able to tolerate the discomfort while answering any questions her nephew proffered.

"So Granny Hina really turned the old inn into an all-girls dorm? And she put me in charge?" he asked for what must have been the twelfth time.

"Yes," sighed Haruka. Now that she'd confirmed that Keitaro was safe and sound, albeit missing memories of the last five years of his life, her anxiety from earlier in the evening was quickly being replaced by irritation. Of course, none of it was directed towards her nephew. He wasn't at fault.

That son of a bitch doctor was. Her fingers twitched as she imagined snapping his scrawny little neck.

"And the girls who lived there were okay with that?"

"Eventually," said Haruka. She didn't care to elaborate. Luckily, Keitaro didn't ask her to.

"Wow… it sounds like my luck with girls really changed!"

"You could say that," responded Haruka. It would be a lie but, yes, one could say that, certainly.

"What about Toudai?" Keitaro asked with stars in his eyes. "You said I'm twenty, right? That must mean I'm in my… second or third year? Did I ever find my promised girl?"

Haruka sighed. She knew he would eventually bring up this particular topic. And now she had to burst his bubble.

"Actually, no."

"Oh," Keitaro mumbled, a bit put off. Haruka found his behavior curious. She had been expecting a stronger reaction. "Well, it's a big campus. I'll just have to look harder."

"You don't understand," Haruka shook her head. No wonder his disappointment was so underwhelming. "I meant no, you aren't attending Toudai, yet. You've failed the entrance exam three times in a row." She'd thought about trying to cushion the blow, but it just wasn't in her nature. Besides, Keitaro could be a bit thick at times and she didn't want him to mistake her meaning again and cling to false hope.

"Oh," Keitaro repeated, in the same clinical tone, much to Haruka's befuddlement. "Guess I should've figured I'd be too dumb to pull it off the first time around. But three times? Really? Ouch." He frowned for a few seconds before his ears perked back up. "Do I at least have a girlfriend?"

Teenage boys and their one track minds…

"No," said Haruka. Again, she didn't feel like elaborating. She wasn't cupid and even if Naru hadn't pissed her off, the temperamental object of Keitaro's affections had done nothing but sit on her hands. If she couldn't make up her own damn mind, Haruka wasn't going to do her any favors by playing matchmaker.

"Oh," Keitaro said for the third time. Haruka couldn't contain herself any longer.

"You don't seem particularly upset about any of this," she pointed out.

"I guess that's because… I'm not," Keitaro shrugged. "Whoever this guy is you're talking about, he's not me… Well, he's me, obviously, but he's… different. He's had five extra years of what sounds like failures and disappointments… But, me?" His mouth split into a grin. "I thought my life couldn't get any worse but all of a sudden I find out that I don't have to put up with being an outcast in middle school anymore, or risk repeating it all over in high school. And then you tell me I'm the manager of an all-girls dorm! I'd say things are looking pretty rosy for me!"

Haruka blinked. She hadn't thought about it like that. Could losing his memories actually have been a good thing for Keitaro?

"What about Toudai?" she asked.

"What about it?" Keitaro fired back. "I bet the next time I take the exam, I'll ace it! I've only been preparing for it for three years and some of it had to stick." He pointed to his head. "It's not like I've forgotten how to talk or read or write or anything. I bet the other stuff I've learned is still up here, too. This is like the fresh start I was hoping for in high school, but better!"

Haruka frowned. "You seem awfully sure of yourself." Which was strange, to say the least. Keitaro had always been lacking in confidence, even in his youth.

"What do I have to lose?" said Keitaro. "The worst thing that can happen is my memories all come back tomorrow, I realize what a loser I am again, and I pick up right where I left off. Or I don't get my memories back and I get to be fifteen again without all of the crappy parts I'd rather not remember, anyway."

"Except you're not actually fifteen," Haruka corrected. "You only think you are."

"I'm not too concerned about that," Keitaro shrugged. "What's five years, give or take?"

"A quarter of your life so far?" Haruka offered.

"…but less than one fifteenth of my total lifespan, most likely," added Keitaro. "Whoa! I just did fractions in my head! I could never do that before! See? I'm already proving my point!"

"You've lost it," muttered Haruka. He really was acting like a fifteen year old. How were the girls going to react to a mentally pubescent Keitaro?

Though, given their generally low opinion of him, maybe they wouldn't notice.

"Lost what? Only my memories," said her nephew. "And all the emotional baggage they carried with them. Good riddance, I say."

"You're a real smart mouthed brat, you know that?"

"And that surprises you, why?" Keitaro deadpanned. "I'm fifteen. What did you expect?"