Then To Live As a Woman
The Third Day
A Love Hina Fanfic
Tim Williams (ffml_tim@yahoo.com or fireangel37@yahoo.com)

All characters and settings are copyright Ken Akamatsu, and others.
Divergence from manga #74 (Volume 9) or anime episode 25. Fairly
spoiler-ridden if you haven't seen or read that far, but not too badly
so. This series is the sequel to "To Live Not As a Warrior".

This is the 5th story in a series.  If you're looking for previous parts,
check out www.fanfiction.net or just email me and I'll get them to you. 
I don't suppose there's an archive for the list anymore, is there?  I was
going to rerelease one of my old fics (and continue with it) a while
back, but I couldn't remember what I'd already sent out or even find half
of the chapters.

***

//Six seventy four,// she counted to herself, the halves of the leaf
fluttering in opposite directions.  //Six seventy five.//  Another
leaf vanished beneath the edge of her blade and sprang away as two
where there had been one.  //Six seventy six.//

On and on it went, the training to make herself a better warrior had
gone on for years, with these last few months being the most
rewarding, even as they were the most difficult.  "Seven hundred," she
sighed and took a few seconds to breathe and focus.

"Motoko-sensei."  A voice used her name gently, as if to wake her from
her reverie.  The name was said with confidence and warmth, something
which gave her a secret thrill, deep down inside.  She'd never thought
she would find a male to grow so familiar with or that she was even
capable of allowing it.

She opened her eyes and looked to the newcomer.  He was garbed in
kendo robes, similar to her own, though in a stylish black.  The blade
across his shoulder showed that his intention was probably practice,
or possibly, battle.

"Urashima-san," she said and returned the bow he had given her.  "Come
to test the leaves as well?"

Urashima Keitaro laughed softly, the smile on his face almost
distracting her from the tension she could read in his stance.  "I
have come to test... but not with the leaves."

Motoko sighed and leveled her blade at him.  "You have been my student
for only six months, but you think to challenge me already."  She
smiled back at him, silently congratulating herself on teaching him
confidence, something she had a hand in forming.  "Then let us see who
is worthy to be called 'teacher'."

As the challenged party, Motoko waited patiently for Keitaro's move.
He would have to draw his blade and meet her, while she waited with
blade in hand.  He did so, and, almost too fast to follow, the katana
was in his hand and he was on her, steel ringing against steel.

This was no battle of showy blasts and secret maneuvers, but rather
one of sheer will and determination and raw skill.  Blow after blow
was traded and parried and dodged, but for a few moments, it seemed as
though neither could gain an advantage.  //He has certainly grown more
skilled,// Motoko mused, but then the battle was over.

Motoko looked up, idly wondering how he had managed to send her blade
sliding from her grasp and her falling backwards.  Even more
amazingly, he had caught her and held her in one strong arm, gazing
down at her.  For a long moment, she was lost in his eyes, but then he
spoke.

"Motoko-chan," he said, his breath hot against her face.  She blushed,
from a combination of the heat, her position, his use of such a
familiar name, and his manliness.  "You have taught me well, but now
it is time I teach you."  He leaned in to kiss her.

She blushed, but her eyes narrowed and she gasped out, "Kei-kun" as he
moved in to meet her.

Just before their lips could meet, he murmured softly, "Wow, that's
pretty good, Motoko.  You should be a writer."

Only, it wasn't a murmur, and it didn't come from his lips, Motoko
realized with a start and dropped her pencil which clattered away on
the tabletop.  She looked up and realized that Keitaro had been
reading over her shoulder and he had seen what she'd...  She blushed
fiercely and tried to cover up the study book which had somehow gotten
filled with a lurid short story.

//He read that... and now he thinks I want him to teach me...// Her
blush only deepened.  A week ago, she would have struck him dead where
he stood for intruding, but it was his room, as well, and she couldn't
very well kill her husband.  Well, not for something this minor,
anyway.

They'd been married three whole days, but she still couldn't
concentrate on anything of her old life.  Even the lessons she gave
Keitaro were a challenge to her focus, and school was sliding by
murkily.  Something would have to change soon or there was little
chance she would pass the upcoming center exam.

Seeing her distress, Keitaro offered up the tray he had been using to
carry tea.  Motoko blushed, though now it was more from the
embarrassment that a man on a crutch carrying a tea service had
managed to sneak up on her.

He gave her a slightly nervous smile, as though expecting to be
assaulted at any moment.  "I t-thought you would like some tea... to
help you study."

Motoko took a deep breath and nodded.  Keitaro placed the tray on the
table and started to hobble away, but Motoko stopped him.  "Come and
sit please," she asked, her voice surprisingly soft.

Keitaro looked confused, to say the least, but obediently sank into a
sitting position, resting his crutch behind him.  For several moments,
there was awkward silence as they sat together.  Things had been
awkward, all around, at the Hinatasou since Shinobu and Naru had
vanished.

Naru being scarce wasn't too surprising, but Shinobu's disappearance
had been felt more immediately by the remaining residents.  The only
sign that it had been planned was a hastily written note in Shinobu's
room asking them not to look for her and assuring them she would
return in a few days.  Keitaro had to assume that Naru was with her,
though he couldn't be sure.

In any case, no one had any idea where they had vanished to, and aside
from traipsing across the country to find them, the only other option
was to wait for their return.  The building seemed a lot more empty
without them around, though it was also a lot quieter which suited
Motoko fine.  Mostly.

Something else had been weighing on Motoko's mind, as well, though.
"Keitaro... I..."  She took another sip of her tea to cover the
hesitation she felt toward this topic.  "I was wondering... you
finally passed the Toudai examination so... you are probably the most
experienced person in taking it I shall have a chance to meet."

Keitaro laughed nervously.  "Well, Mutsumi did the same thing..."

Heedless of his comment, Motoko went on.  "I... I would appreciate it
if you would be so kind as to tutor me."  For a moment, a vision of
her short story returned and the word 'tutor' seemed to acquire all
sorts of ettchi connotations.

Keitaro stared at her for a moment, apparently amazed that Motoko was
asking for help.  "I... of course I will help you, Motoko."

Motoko sagged a little bit in relief.  While she was slowly regaining
some of her confidence, she was even more afraid of rejection than she
had been before this entire ordeal started.  //So long as he doesn't
try to 'teach' me anything other than academics,// part of her added.

Another part of her mind, one she normally kept on a short leash,
added mischievously, //He can teach me all about that later.//

***

Shinobu's world swam around her as she paused for breath.  The long
climb up to the temple was farther than she had expected, and the
stairs seemed like they would never end.  Naru paused with her, and
gave the smaller girl a smile.  Though they had spent half of the
morning debating whether or not they were going to visit Tsuruko, the
decision had finally been made to drop in.

Whether or not they were going to be able to convince her to change
her mind about anything seemed irrelevant.  They simply had to make
the trip to prove to themselves that they'd done everything that they
could.

All around them, the beauty of the mountains stretched out and made
the outing almost pleasant.  "There's a flat space up a few more
meters, let's stop for some lunch," Naru said.

Shinobu nodded and started climbing again.  She hadn't gotten much
sleep the night before, and what sleep she had gotten had been full of
dreams which disturbed her on many levels.  The level area really
wasn't far, and there was even a stone bench set to one side which
appeared to be there for just such a purpose.

They sat and Shinobu produced a couple of vending machine sandwiches
and a thermos of tea.  Without a kitchen or funding, they were having
to rely on cheap processed foods, which wasn't an ideal situation in
the best of times.  The stuff was edible, at least, and it kept
Shinobu from having to talk to Naru too much by giving her a
conveniently full mouth.

She cast a sidelong glance at the other girl as they sat.  //What is
going on?// she asked herself for the ten thousandth time.  This time,
just as every other time, she had no answer.  Her physical attraction
for Naru seemed to be growing stronger and stronger as the moments
crept by and she didn't understand the why or the how of it.  //Is it
because she came all of this way to help me get over Keitaro?  Am I
just 'that way'?//

"So, do you think Tsuruko is going to be any help?" Naru asked, having
just finished her sandwich.  The words broke Shinobu's train of
thought and she shrugged in reply, not having much in the way of an
answer.  It was true that their official reason for coming up here had
to do with Keitaro, after all, but Shinobu had, in a very real way,
already given up hope on him.

***

Keitaro limped around his room, doing his best to tidy up.  Motoko was
at her juku, and Kitsune had set out for a meeting concerning her
writing job.  Su's location was a topic that he didn't even know where
to begin thinking about.  He only hoped that it wasn't somewhere that
was going to lead to him having a heart attack.

Motoko had done a good job of cleaning up, he realized, though she had
mostly tidied things.  Fortunately for him, he had chosen to get rid
of certain risqu� periodicals months before.  He didn't know how he
would have dealt with a girl finding those.  //Again,// he added to
himself somewhat bitterly.

Instead, he realized that if he wanted their room to look better, he
would need to do some serious, hardcore cleaning out of his shelves.
There were many books and notebooks which he had no use for, and he
could certainly throw them out or, preferably, sell them off to a used
book store.  There was one not far from Toudai that he'd spotted on
one of his many trips to the university before being accepted, and
there might even be a place in Hinata, if he did some looking.

The number of old practice exam booklets on the shelves was truly
staggering.  In his studying, he had ruined more of them then he would
care to count.  Some of them he kept for his wife, but most were
either so old or so marked on as to be useless.  These went into a
pile for later inspection when he would decide if they went into the
trash, recycling bin, or into the "for sale" pile.

Soon, he was about half way up the shelf and making good progress.
About one in three items was finding its way into the sale pile, and
he was clearing up quite a bit of room.  It was about then that he
turned to place a book on the sale pile and slipped on some loose
notebook sheets which had fluttered to the floor.  His crutch banged
into the shelf and sent it wobbling.  From the top, a single book,
larger and heavier than most, came sliding off to land on his injured
foot.

He fell down, grimacing in pain as his injury was aggravated.  After a
few seconds, the pain receded to a dull throb and he raised himself
into a sitting position, laughing a little.  //Today must be full of
good luck, because any other day, that bookcase would have fallen on
top of me.//  He laughed and the pain seemed lesser still.

The book which had fallen was laying open to the first page near where
his foot hand been.  He glanced at it, and what he saw made him pause.

The title of the book, clearly visible in a set of blocky western
letters, was "An Occult Primer" and, below that, it proudly proclaimed
itself to be the 458th edition.  //Must be a typo,// he decided.

Puzzled by what the book was, much less how it had gotten to be there,
he picked it up.  A few seconds with an English dictionary provided
him with the meaning of the word "occult" and he laughed nervously.

The book certainly wasn't his, he realized, and it didn't look like
something Motoko would have had, either.  He'd already uncovered a few
of her "secrets" during his cleaning, and he'd put them back carefully
so she wouldn't realize he had seen the trashy samurai romance novels.
There were some grimes he simply didn't want to pay for.

The book in question must have been Grandma Hina's, since she had
inhabited the room before him.  High up on the shelf, it must have
missed his earlier attempts at room organization.

He flipped through the pages of the book, curiously, and noticed all
sorts of symbols and incantations.  The book was written primarily in
English, though there was some other language mixed in with it in
places.  It looked kind of like Latin, though Keitaro didn't know
enough about Latin to know for sure.  To him, it was simply gibberish,
so he was only able to understand about three quarters of what was
going on.  As he flipped, he spotted what claimed to be a healing
spell.

He looked at the cover of the book again and laughed nervously.  It
was obviously a useless curiosity, but there was no danger in trying,
he decided.   Shrugging to himself, he followed along with the
incantation, mumbling the words to himself.

"Vulna Levis Sana" he said.  The words didn't look like English so
they must have been French or Latin.  The surrounding text was all in
English and claimed that the incantation would heal minor physical
injuries.  Nothing happened and he laughed nervously and noticed that
the text also indicated some hand gestures with a pointing device.

Laughing as he did so, he picked up a pencil and swished it through
the air as he repeated the words.  "Vulna Levis Sana!" he exclaimed, a
laugh on his lips as he did so.  The laughter died immediately when he
realized that the room was growing brighter and brighter.  Suddenly
the light was blinding and then, suddenly, it was gone.  He blinked
his eyes, but there was no after image, which made him doubt that
there had been a bright light at all.

"Weird..."  He muttered to himself as he slowly toppled over, a
feeling of intense exhaustion washing across him.  He yawned widely
and, as he rapidly fell into slumber, he was only partially aware that
his leg no longer ached or hurt at all.

***

In the tea house, the hairs on the back of Haruka's neck stood
straight up.  She turned in the direction of the tea house and dropped
the rag she had been using to clean the tables.  "Who could..." she
said to herself.  "Keitaro, don't tell me..."

She glanced around at the empty tea house and rushed out, leaving the
bell on the door tinkling furiously in her wake.

***

Tsuruko watched the two girls walking back down the stairs from the
temple.  When she'd told them that there was nothing she could do,
they appeared to have believed her, but the older one did not seem as
ready to accept it as the younger one.  She sighed and turned to go
back inside.

Her husband was waiting for her.  "They were here about your sister?"

"Yes," she said.  Her husband knew about the whole affair.  "They wish
for me to separate her from her husband.  That is a course of action
which is not mine to take."

"His family is part of the order of the East.  Surely you realize what
may happen..." he said, concern filling his voice.

"There may be some danger.  But the truce still holds and we
Shinmeiryuu are not tied to the order of the West so tightly as we
once were.  Neither of them has been introduced to our world, and so
long as that does not happen, there is no danger to either of them."

"But if it does?" he gently prompted.

"If it does, there will be many more tests of courage and skill ahead
for both of them."

***

Keitaro awoke to someone placing a warm cloth on his forehead.  He
tried to rise, but a hand held him in place.  "Easy there."

He recognized his aunt's voice immediately and relaxed a little.  If
she was taking care of him, it must have been something serious,
though.  She wasn't well known for her maternal instincts.

"What..."

"We need to talk about that," she said.  "But we will do it Tomorrow.
Rest for now."


Author Notes:

Hey, guys.  Long time no see.  Anyway, here's another installment on
TTLAAW, making it the fourth in the series (well, the fifth if you
count the one-shot that the series is a sequel to).  I don't think I'm
breaking any new ground with the characters here, though it's obvious
(to those who know such things) that I'm mixing in elements of Mahou
Sensei Negima with the Love Hina stuff.  Why?  Well, I like the one-
fic-a-day pace and it was going to get boring fast if Keitaro didn't
find a way to get his leg better faster.  That, and I think that
Negima is probably Ken Akamatsu's best manga so far.  He took all of
the good stuff from Love Hina and his other work and made a single
really good manga out of it.

Negi is also a very cool character (particularly when compared to
Keitaro or Hitoshi Kobe who are both pathetic at the start of their
respective manga) in terms of personality.

Is this new turn a good thing?  Good question... I have no clue.  The
thing is that I write what comes to my head, and this is what was
coming when I was writing.  Suggestions?  C&C?  Let me know what you
think!



	
		
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