236The Return of Aoyama Motoko
Disclaimers:
All characters contained within this piece of writing belong to Ken Akamatsu, and this piece has been written purely for personal enjoyment. No gains financial or otherwise have been made through the publishing of this fanfic.
Author's Personal Note:
Head injuries can be bad. Even if someone seems okay, they can be bleeding under the skull. My brother was hit by a drunk driver, not a single bone broken. But the damage under the skull put him into a coma he never recovered from.
Author's Story Notes:
I am rewriting this story for a number of reasons:
1) My new computer has better tools for spell/grammar checking. The original text was full of errors. I do not expect this version to be perfect, but I hope this version is far more readable.
2) A number of people had complaints about Motoko's behaviour after her fight with Tomoya Sakagami. After thinking about what they said, I have decided they were right.
3) Additionally, the original script called for three fights involving Motoko and Tomoya, the last version had been cut down to two main fights, and I decide to restore the story back to its original three fights.
Prologue:
Aoyama Motoko has just returned from her clan home and fighting school.
There she had engaged in studying the duties and requirements of a future leader of her clan. This included the things she loved like more training in the secret fighting techniques of her clan and the things she hated like the duties between a husband and wife. Still in her mind, a husband was something Motoko intended to avoid for as long as was possible.
It also required further study of the family clan laws at her sister's school, including studying how her sister settled disagreements between members of the clan, and the clan with the outside world.
Due to what she has seen and learnt, Aoyama Motoko starts to view Keitaro differently than the rest of the girls of the Hinata-Sou. Can they learn to do the same?
Sunday-January 30, 2000:
As Motoko walked slowly up the stairs towards the girl's dorm, her mind was clearly elsewhere. Her face was not its usual blank mask; instead, a frowning expression showed that she was deep in thought about something that bothered her.
"A man! My sister ruled in favour of a man, a male and an outsider to the clan even! Not the clan-sister at-all!", she thought, "A sister in good standing and of a long and honourable family tree. I would have never doubted her word over that of a non-clan male before seeing this trial.", Motoko still expressed surprise to herself even three days after the events in question.
"Worse, I just know that I would have made the same mistake as that woman had and automatically classify him as a pervert. I too would have probably attacked him right away if he had showed up at my front door holding my undergarments in his hands, but big sister was right! He was just returning some things that he found after the wind had gotten a hold of them, and they would never had blown away if that silly woman had used a proper Japanese clothes sticks instead of trying out those dumb American clothes pins.", her frown deepen.
She paused at the landing half way up the stairs, she did not really see the stairs or the building at the top of them, so lost in her thoughts was she at that moment.
"And then she just had to make matters worse by attacking him with no mercy with her Shinai."
Motoko shook her head at the mental image. "He was very lucky, just from the bruises I saw the first sword stokes would had killed him if she had not been using a bamboo practice sword for Kendo. In addition, for the honour of the clan it is a good thing that the doctors could save the eye. But still he will always have that scar on his face, so the entire clan has lost some honour there.", She once again mentally reviewed the end of the trial as an expression of pain quickly crossed her face and was as quickly suppressed.
"All that pain and suffering just because she would not listen for five seconds before acting on her assumptions.", Motoko admitted to herself as she started up the steps again.
"This is clearly a lesson I must remember if I am to follow in my sister's footsteps. I must apply her advice that she explained to me after the judgment was rendered.". She finally looked up towards the building, remembering her sister's final advice before leaving the clan home once again: "Justice is nothing more than revenge when you let your personal feelings hold sway over your decisions; Justice is only justice when it is applied equally to all, learn all the facts! The truth of actions and events are important for true justice! Do not let your heart fool you. Use your heart to decide the sentence, for some will need more from justice than others, but always learn the facts before you act or decide on a course of judgment or action!", Motoko repeated the words to herself.
She sighed, with a feeling of personal shame as she remembered that she too had felt a flash of anger at the man when at first the claims and charges against the woman started to be read aloud to her sister.
Only over the next couple of minutes did she realize that the woman had been so foolish as to hang her clothes out to dry on an un-usually windy day, while using devices that she had no experience with using.
In addition, as for the man, he could have just left it all (the clothes and undergarments) in the street where he saw them; however, the traffic or the wind would have damaged them beyond repair in just a short time if he had just walked away.
As was pointed out at the trial by his legal representative, if he really was the type of pervert that woman claimed she thought him to be, he would had kept the undergarments for himself, gone home with them and the woman would never know who took them or how.
Instead, for his attempted good deed of picking up everything laying in the road and trying to return the items to their rightful owner, his reward was to be viciously attacked with a wooden sword and permanently injured.
Motoko gave a final sigh for her own judgemental mistake and for the events of the past couple of days, then composing her face to once again to show a neutral mask to the outside world - she walk the last few steps to enter the Hinata-Sou.
As Motoko entered the main entrance of the Hinata-Sou, she could see Su and Sarah zooming by on their way to the dining area; "Hi.", yelled Sarah, "Dinner is ready, and I am hungry.", added Su. (It sure seemed like they could never move slowly when they were together.)
Motoko looked down on her dirty travel gear in distaste but knew if she went to her room to change first that Su would have eaten the table clean by the time she returned. Besides, while Shinobu would try to save something for her, she much preferred to choose for herself what she would eat.
Therefore, as she entered the dining area directly from the front door, the familiar sights, sounds and chaos of meals at the Hinata-Sou greeted her. Sarah had already filled her bowl with food while most of the other bowls were still empty, except for Su's whom was already eating something from her bowl. Keitaro and Naru were looking at each other with slight blushes on their faces, and Mitsune was already pouring sake to go with her meal. Meanwhile, poor Shinobu was kept busy running back and fore between the kitchen and the dining area trying to keep up with her goal of serving everyone at once.
"Oh, Motoko-sempai! You are back. Please sit down, I will have your place and food ready for you right away!", exclaimed Shinobu as she gave a quick bow in greetings then hurried towards the kitchen for an extra bowl.
Mitsune waved a bottle in her general direction and then continued to pour out its contents.
"Hello Motoko-san, did you have a good trip?", asked Naru as she filled her bowl.
"It's very nice to see you again Aoyama-san.", Keitaro added, not noticing Naru eyeing him and wondering why he found it so nice to see Motoko in particular.
Suddenly, "Shinobu! Watch your step!", Keitaro called out switching attention as he realized she was about to step on an empty sake bottle. Moving fast enough to impress even Motoko with his speed, he was able to slip one arm around Shinobu waist and the other hand he used to cup her head, catching her before she could hit the floor.
Bent over her to hold her up, Keitaro's face was just inches from Shinobu's own. A blush bloomed on Shinobu's face as she felt his breath on her neck and her lips.
"Shinobu-chan, are you all right!", asked Keitaro softly as he held the position that they were in.
"You pervert! Why are you molesting her now, even with all of us here! Will you ever stop your perverted ways?", Naru yelled. She jumped up as she prepared to launch Keitaro to the moon.
At the same time Motoko eyes widened as she for maybe the first time since her sister's marriage, put aside her automatic distrust for all men, and tried looking at the facts and clues in front of her as Keitaro held Shinobu off the floor.
The bottle that was now rolling out of sight was Mitsune's, as only she drank sake when there was no party going on. Moreover, Keitaro had just prevented Shinobu from being hurt by falling to the hard floor. No! Motoko's eyes widen even more as she saw the worse that could have happened as she projected the path of Shinobu head! Far worse than just being injured by a simple fall to the ground indeed!
"But Naru-san ...", Keitaro begged even as Naru prepared her patented atomic punch.
"Urashima-san, stay as you are.", commanded Motoko as she moved to stand between him and Naru. "And Narusegawa-san stop it.", Motoko snapped.
Naru stared in shock, her killer punch stopped and blocked by the slim and delicate looking left hand of Motoko, a hand like a clamp of steel that gave her no choice but to step back and ask. "Why did you stop me from hitting that pervert? Can't you see what he is doing to Shinobu-chan right this very moment?", Naru cried out.
"Yes, I can.", Motoko replied, "Why don't you open your eyes and see where Shinobu-chan's head would have landed if Urashima-san was not there. ".
It was now Naru's turn to widen her eyes in shock as she realized that Shinobu's head was directly above and in line to hit the sharp corner of the table. "But I thought ...", Naru started.
"And if you had punched him just now there is a good chance that Shinobu-chan could still hit that corner, as it is Urashima-san may have well saved her life by catching her when he did.", added Motoko.
Meanwhile Shinobu having heard what Motoko had said and found herself was thinking, "Sempai really is my true hero, and he just saved my life! He really does care for me.", Shinobu also took advantage of this unique situation as she tried to inhale as much of Keitaro's breath and smell as she could while she had this chance. To her this was far better than secretly smelling his shirts while doing the laundry.
"Can I get up now?", Keitaro begged in turn to the girls, "My back is starting to kill me holding this position.", he added, still not realizing the full importance of his actions, believing he had only prevented a bad fall for Shinobu.
"Of course.", said Motoko.
"About time.", muttered Naru darkly.
"Thank you Sempai.", breathed Shinobu, her head still spinning from his near presence and embrace.
"Keitaro Urashima, why are you still holding her waist? She can stand on her own two feet, you know.", pointed out Naru while tapping one foot.
"Sorry, Naru-san.", Keitaro now sweat-dropped as he moved away from Shinobu.
"Naru-san, maybe instead of trying to punish him for something he didn't do, you should acknowledge and thank him for the good that he did.", stated Motoko.
"Is acknowledge good to eat?", broke in Su.
"No Su-chan,", said Naru, "and as for that idiot, what are you thinking?"
Motoko replied, "I am thinking that I, and you too Narusegawa-san, need to stop assuming that everything Urashima-san does is for a perverted reason and start judging him honestly, the whole cause of this accident was Mitsune-san and I don't see you saying a single word to her.", She paused and turned her head, "And as for you, Kitsune, if you do cause another accident like this in the future I will punish you as surely as if you were Urashima-san.", stated Motoko.
It was Mitsune's turn to sweat-drop now.
"Well, all is well that ends well.", reasoned Keitaro out aloud, as he rubbed his head and started walking back to his place at the table only to stumble over nothing at all and landed with his face planted into Naru's ample chest.
"Well?", asked Naru as she looked at Motoko, one eye twitching and a fist already forming.
"And sometimes it seems he really is just a pervert after-all.", Motoko observed, at which point Naru launched Keitaro towards space.
