Love Hina Fan Fiction ❯ Problem Solving ❯ Prologue: Planting the Seed ( Prologue )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Problem Solving
by Shade

Disclaimer 101: Love Hina created by Ken Akamatsu, all rights reserved by him and his publishers.

Fusion of the Anime through ep. 25 and the manga through the end of vol 9

Synopsis:

Tsuruko Aoyama has a problem. Her husband has been unable to provide her
with a child. Fortunately for her, she's found a solution to this problem.

Amalla Su has a problem. She's married to a man who's too focused on the battlefield
and not on providing the needed heir for the Kingdom of Molmol. Fortunately for her,
she's found a solution to this problem.

Keitaro Urashima has a problem. He's about to receive some guests who think he's the solution to all of their problems.


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Prologue: Planting the Seed
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Life is a Grand Cosmic Irony. Few people realize this of course, since they tend to be the direct victims
of said irony and have no time to reflect on just how they got there in the first place.

However Tsuruko Aoyama was one of those dubiously lucky few. She had first realized this startling truth
several years ago. To be quite precise, on her wedding night. Or rather what was supposed to have been
one. Her spouse was handsome, kind, intelligent and loving. Perfect in almost every way. Except one.

Naturally upon discovering this little shortcoming she'd reacted in a perfectly sensible and mature fashion.

Fortunately for him, she used the back of the blade when she blasted him through the roof.

Even though she eventually forgave him, the damage had been done. Under other circumstances an anullment
or divorce would not have been out of the question. Unfortunately for them both, family politics made any
option along those lines unfeasible. With various internal factions striving for control over the family's
extensive holdings and heritage, the only way to keep the vultures and jackals at bay was to present
a solid and united front towards them.

Which of course had finally led Tsuruko into this predicament.

She had been married for three years now after all, and tongues were starting to wag freely about
the fact that their union had not produced a child in all that time. Quiet whispers at first, but
growing increasingly louder of late. Never directly within range of Tsuruko's keen hearing of course.
The opposition was greedy and stupid, not suicidal.

But something had to be done about it, and done quickly.

While they had managed to keep her spouse's 'little problem' a secret, the fact remained that without
a direct heir from her loins the line of succession for the God's Cry School and the responsibilities
that came with it would continue to rest on the shoulders of her volatile younger sister Motoko.

Tsuruko needed no crystal ball to forsee that that path would end badly. Motoko was too open, her inner depths as
clear and easy to read as a pure mountain spring. As well drop a helpless chick down a hungry snake's gullet as let
such a straightforward innocent like her sister into reach of the waiting fangs of the 'progressives' who only wanted
to sell off what generations of Aoyamas had defended with blood, sweat and pain. They would easily twist her naive little
sister around their plotting fingers, binding her honor with cleverly sharpened words before stripping it all away
and leaving nothing but a hollow shell behind.

No, while Motoko might yet fulfill her potential to become one of the best swordmistresses their school had seen
in generations, she was ill-suited for the task of leading the entire Clan. But unless Tsuruko bore a child before
Motoko's 20th birthday, the line would be passed on to her sister once she was legally recognized as an adult.
And while Tsuruko could try to contest that claim, she knew with a grim certainty that the end result would be
a power struggle that could end up splitting the family into various weakened factions to the detriment of them all.

And perhaps more importantly to herself at least, Tsuruko desperately wanted a child of her own to nurture and cherish.
Her chest ached whenever she saw a baby these days. Her keen mind's eye found it all too easy to substitute a feature here
and there to show her what might have been had Fate not played such a cruel jest with her marriage.

'And now we come to the cusp of the matter,' she reflected bitterly.

She knew that there were modern means of artificial conception, but such would not help her situation.
While rich in lands and prestige the Aoyamas had never been wealthy as Westerners counted such things.
And the few discrete inquiries she'd made in that direction had merely confirmed what she'd already suspected.
There was no way to use such a clinic and not get caught. They required identification, medical records
and payments too large to make without liquidating assets that would draw unwanted attention. Her best efforts
might keep it secret for a few weeks at best, but any determined investigation would collapse that house of cards
sooner or later. And the Opposition was very determined to find something to bring her side of the family down in disgrace.

'If only....'

If only her younger sister could have been a little more wiser and trustworthy.
If only Motoko's relationship with Urashima had been real instead of a lie.
If only her husband had not kept the truth from her before they had wed.
If only she had met Urashima before....!?

Tsuruko's train of thought derailed as she suddenly realized the unexpected direction
those same thoughts had trailed off towards and the first faint glimmers of a truly
outrageous plan began to form.

'Their eyes are similar in shade, almost the same hair color...'

It could work. More importantly, it had to work for the all of their sakes.
Even if her own sister might think of this as yet another betrayal, she had to try.

'Forgive me, Motoko. But I will do what I must, even at the cost of your love,
for the sake of those who came before us and those who will come after.'

She laid one hand lightly on the white uwagi cloth covering her tight flat stomach.

'Urashima should have no complaints of me. And he himself is not unattractive either.'

Tsuruko mentally brought up the memory of the last time she'd seen him into clear focus,
it had been at the train station where Narusegawa and Motoko had taken Urashima with
them back to the Hinata Sou. He had been so cutely flustered at that time,
caught in the middle between the two interested parties.

'I believe I will find this family duty most enjoyable.'

Smiling faintly to herself, she began to pack for her trip.


-End Prologue: Planting the Seed-