Life After Molmol, Book Three : Storming The Red Gate

by Gojirob

On the run in the multiverse, seeking to stop a mad villain's unknown plan, the siblings of the Hinata-Sou are apart, but the people they keep running into are familiar indeed. Can the casts of other harem series aid or harm our heroes, and will a misguided effort at payback ruin everything? They will need all the help they can get, and from some unexpected helpers.

1. Chapter 1

Life After Molmol – A Tale Of The Missing Three Years Of Love Hina

Book Three – Storming The Red Gate

by Rob Morris

Prologue - Scattered, Shattered and Battered On The Shores Of Reality

PRIVATE THOUGHTS, HARUKA URASHIMA-SETA

I don't dare write or record any of this. They already made good on their threats of surveillance. Sarah's diary provided them with all the codes they needed to at least realize Su's toys were more than what they seemed. Luckily, they so far think that any references to time travel and activist spirits only shows evidence of the imagination of a young girl.

So far. But it can't last. With no sign or hint or even false alarms concerning sightings of the kids, they're getting anxious. The Americans investigating all this are bad, but our people are worse. Lots of people had to flee the collapse of Tokyo Tower, and concerns about a family's business being its own are falling away to nothing.

With Grandma, Alice and Kitsune Sr. detained in Hawaii - not a bad place to be watched - we're all stuck here at the Sou, going crazy. Arlo barked at Sarah over a pointless prank, and I let him, up to a point. Nori's passport was torn up, and he's on a no-fly list. So far, no one has even mentioned immortals of any kind. Mom says we're not ageless, but if she, I or the baby get a thorough once-over-yeah. Bad.

Future Hina Junior said they'd be all right - or she indicated that. No idea what alright means.

To keep from going crazy, I think about the kids. I hope they're together. If they are, they'll always be fine. Separately? Not so much.

Mitsune? She's done incredible things here at the Sou. But she's too much like I was - it's why I love her - and her first instinct if she isn't careful is to find someone to mooch off of. The girl doesn't know how to be responsible, if it's not to impress her siblings. Getting a means of room and board won't be the first thing on her mind.

MITSUNE "KITSUNE" KONNO, AKA MITSU

Miyabi Kagurazaki had her morning routine interrupted at the usual choke point.

"Hey, Miss Manager!"

Miyabi, the Manager of the Sakuruba Properties, knew that chasing this girl away was beyond pointless.

"Yes, Tina?"

The blonde American who still had an appreciable command of Japanese (to the point she sometimes forgot how to speak and read English) for once got straight to the point.

"Well, Miss Manager, it's like this. You said you need an assistant to help you with an inventory of this place. With Kaoru and Taeko's school schedule so blasted heavy, and Aoi-Chan just gettin' over being ill, I think I found someone who can help you out. She says she was a house manager too, until recently."

Miyabi could only wonder what Tina had found. She was not so daring as to really want to find out, but in fact, all her own applicants had been self-promoting and greedy in terms of a pay package.

"Very well, Tina. Please show your friend in."

Tina's boisterous Texan personality was complimented by her broad smile.

"Oh, she's not my friend, Miss Manager. She's just somebody I found sobbing outside a tavern. She's dead broke-and I think a little touched in the head."

Miyabi would not allow herself to sigh.

"Very good, Tina. Show her in."

Miyabi was pleasantly surprised that the young woman looked clean, smelled mostly clean, and did not seem the wreck that Tina had described.

"No references, nor contact with your most recent employer? Can you even read an inventory?"

Mitsu had not considered the fact that she was basically an alien being in this place, and would have been even if she were fully Human.

"I can, Kagurazaki-San. Show me whatever you want. I can't prove it through papers, but I'm legit."

Miyabi looked over a pile of receipts, and then handed one set of papers to Mitsu.

"Tell me what errors you find with that list of home maintenance supplies."

Mitsu shrugged.

"No real errors, everything's shown, including amounts where per-unit determines the purchase price..."

Miyabi prepared to send the applicant on her way.

"Thank You, that will be a..."

"But frankly, you got your lungs taken for this stuff, if you paid these prices. See? They're not even mixing the paint themselves. Glad you got this receipt, because they took you hard."

Miyabi took the receipt back, and tore it up, looking pleased.

"Exactly what I told the store's manager, and he insisted that his were the fairest prices around. I informed him otherwise, and sought another place to shop."

Miyabi rose and shook her hand.

"Konno-San, this job is not permanent. But I gladly hire you for it."

Mitsu was not ungrateful, but a bit confused.

"Just based on passing your test?"

Miyabi raised an eyebrow. Mitsu thought they were roughly the same age, give or take a few years. But in maturity and focus, this woman had her beat.

"Actually, there was a minor error in the charge for the brushes. Hard to catch, and you didn't. But you found something that I had forgotten about, and that no other candidate even picked up on. That means, your claims of prior experience are true, and their claims were just claims. Were you on good terms with your prior employers?"

Mitsu nodded, looking a little lost.

"They were the same as my family. I want to find my way back to them, when this is done. One of them is the first man I ever loved, and even though my Bro chose my sister, it's with them I belong."

Tina Foster was in the hallway, a cup of sake in one hand, and a beer in the other. Mitsu felt thirsty, and she saw a kindred spirit. But she needed a place to stay till she clued in to her way out of this world, and that meant a job.

"Hey, Miss Manager! Isn't Mitsu here just great? It's like she gives off her own electricity."

Mitsu grinned hard at that, by reflex.

"Heh-eh-Tina-san is too kind."

The Texan bear hugged her.

"Aw, I'm just Tina to you. I don't stand on formalities."

Miyabi breathed in, then nodded.

"She really doesn't-at all."

"Manager-San? Chika and I are back from the market. I thought we'd try my Grandma's favorite quickie recipe tonight-will you let me cook it?"

Miyabi was quite firm.

"Will there be chocolate, Taeko-chan?"

The pleading girl looked sad.

"It is meatloaf, after all. It helps the texture."

The younger, suntanned pigtailed girl with her winced.

"Chika asks that Aoi-Chan be the one to make this. Grandma may punish Chika otherwise."

Taeko huffed, and her chest seemed to grow with each harumph.

"Traitor. In some places they stand by family. Just because I knocked over the stove last week, everyone's a critic."

Mitsu whispered to Tina.

"She-knocked over the stove?"

"Yeah-that Taeko. She's improved her coordination something crazy. Before, she would have knocked over the stove and the fridge."

Mitsu actually found some comfort in this. Maybe this place was somehow a version of her home, or close enough to it she didn't need to feel so weird being there. This was about to change, as Tina waved in a new pair.

"Uh-oh, Mitsu-your real boss is walking in with Kaoru-San. Lucky for you, she's as nice as him."

In yet another pattern known to Mitsu, a small animal bounded in ahead of the pair, in this case a ferret. The little critter sniffed her, looked at Tina, looked back again, then jumped on Mitsu's shoulder. Tina seemed to default on smiling, and she didn't stop then.

"Well I'll be. Uzume-Chan sure knows who he likes. Never seen him take so fast to a stranger before. Konno-San, it's like you belong here already. But here's the folks to make it all official."

If Taeko had practically screamed Mutsumi, and if Chika had seemed an odd mix of Sarah, Shinobu and Kaolla Su, Mitsu found this girl also had traces of Shinobu, if Shinobu were just utterly perfect. That thought wasn't a dig at her young friend. It was just that the traces of Yamato Nadeshiko Mitsu saw in Maehara-Chan were set to supreme with the young woman before her.

*Almost too perfect. Crazy beautiful. Soft, pale skin. She looks like impolite isn't even in her DNA.*

"Miyabi-San? Is this our new inventory manager?"

Even her voice was exquisite.

*Talk about DNA. Su could clone up some of our best traits-and I mean all of us-and that super-clone would still be a stumblebum compared to this.*

"Yes, Aoi-Chan. I believe her to be the most qualified of the candidates I have tested. Mitsune Konno, meet our employer, Aoi Sakuruba. Her parents are of course the very wealthy and famed Sakurubas, owners of many department stores that bear the family name."

Which meant nothing to Mitsu, who had never heard of any such department store chain, but that was to be expected. Mitsu thought of Shinobu's boyfriend Arlo (she would have to tell Shinobu just how great a catch he seemed) and wondered if maybe the boy's worthless father was the counterpart to these folks, but she quickly dropped this thought, and indeed any thought like it.

*Easy to go nuts that way.*

"Sakuruba-San, my time here won't be all that long. But since I want to reflect well on myself and those that taught me the trade, I give you my word you'll have my every effort."

Aoi chuckled, and damn her, it was the sweetest most melodious chuckle a Human throat could produce. Mitsu didn't know whether to slap her or set up a shrine.

"Konno-San, you will call me Aoi. Like the woman who calls me her employer but is really like my Onee-Chan, you seem all too serious. We have a wondrous thing in our Miyabi. But two of her would, I think, be far too many for even her tastes."

Mitsu thought Miyabi might be upset by this, but the love for Aoi radiated from her eyes. Mitsu suspected a bit of Haruka to Keitaro in this particular relationship. Now, though, all eyes shifted as the man with Aoi spoke up.

"It's funny. For some reason, I look at Konno-San, and I see more of Tina-San in her."

Tina once again put her arm around Mitsu and laughed.

"Shucks, Kaoru-San! I can't be in her-we only just met! HAA-HEE-HEE!"

As Tina almost fell over from her own joke, and probably more sake since she found Mitsu, Mitsu took a look at the man who all the others were already locked on.

"My apologies, Konno-San. I am Kaoru Hanabishi, one of the first to take up residence in the secondary house Aoi-Chan and Miyabi-San rent to me and my friends. Since we do try to earn our keep along with the rent we pay, please feel free to ask for assistance at any time."

Mitsu wasn't in love, but it wasn't for anything this guy did or didn't do - or to look at him, didn't have. Her heart belonged to a determined geek she called Bro and with whom she still wanted to pound the futons for real. But this? This was a GUY. A real man - again, not to disrespect Kei, but the credit he had to earn from the Sisters Of Hinata would simply be given to this one - probably along with their clothes.

"Thank You, Kaoru-San, and especially you, Aoi-San. Well, truth be told, I prefer Mitsu, and while I like to have fun like Tina-San here-is she awake?-I once carried all that way too far, and ended up being more of a pain in the rear than I ever thought. So while on this job, for which I am very grateful, I'll take Miyabi-San's cues if you don't mind."

Miyabi briefly gave Mitsu a look that seemed to convey 'well said'. Mitsu saw that the leer that seemed to be even in Aoi's eyes for Kaoru was absent from Miyabi, but nor was there a hint of disapproval.

"Work starts early tomorrow, Mitsune-San. For now, familiarize yourself with the extensive grounds covered by both houses on this property. For the moment - I think relaxation and conversation are not out of order. Get to know your employers, and your other charges. Also-can you see through all that hair? You seem to be squinting at times."

The younger girl stepped in, happy to have another new friend.

"Chika thinks that Mitsune-San looks like a Kitsune with that hair and the way her eyes close like that."

*Out of the mouths of babes...*

Tina woke up - or got up - just then.

"Heck, Yeah-I think I'll call you Kitsune. Kinda fits, you ask me."

"really, guys-I've come to prefer-"

Taeko nodded in agreement.

"I was thinking she looked kind of like a fox. It is a good nickname."

Aoi again smiled that irresistible smile, and gave Mitsu some hope by her words.

"But-our Mitsu-chan seems so serious. A Kitsune is by definition a flighty trickster."

Kaoru rubbed salt in the wound without intending it.

"Prone to thievery, irresponsible, self-centered-nothing like our Mitsu-chan."

Deep as that cut, Mitsu hoped that it would end all talk of taking back her old nickname. Then the bottom dropped out when Miyabi added in.

"It will be a good contrast. We will call you Kitsune precisely because you are not these things. I think it is a great idea."

Mitsu considered the wisdom of challenging the one who hired her mere minutes after the fact.

"I guess it is at that."

While Mitsu and all of her siblings had been warned to allow for surprises, the next one would absolutely floor her. Chika walked up to Kaoru.

"Kaoru Onii-Chan? Chizuru, Natsuki and I wanted to apologize for embarrassing you at school, when you came to escort us home the other day."

Aoi looked at Chika.

"What happened now, Chika-chan?"

Chika blushed.

"Same as before. Since we had free run of the empty school for our summer practice, we decided to see how fast we could swim without any suits holding us back. We splashed up out of the water-this time we were all spread out. Kaoru Onii-Chan was so red-faced."

Mitsu fought off a sigh. This couldn't end well. Kaoru shook his head, but no ham-handed stammering explanation emerged.

"Chika, I could have been anyone walking in like that. You hadn't locked the doors to the pool, either, and suppose some boys you know had walked in? They'd have their stories magnified in short order. You girls have got to be more careful."

Mitsu felt an oddity she couldn't yet place. Miyabi took it up a notch.

"We must be considerate of Kaoru-San, Chika-Chan. But learn from your errors. Like last month, when I used the shower at the Secondary House without leaving a note. Kaoru-san walked in on me then, and I could not have felt more foolish. He thought there was an intruder, since none of us were supposed to be anywhere near the property that day. You and your friends were horsing around as before, and I failed to take precautions. Let us reflect on that sort of lazy thinking and do better for ourselves."

After the others had left, and before she began her first tour, Mitsu asked Miyabi a question.

"Manager-San? I'm just curious. Was there any resentment or like that on your part for Kaoru-San's intrusion?"

Miyabi looked at her with confused eyes.

"Why would I resent him? As I said, I failed to do everything I know I should have done in that circumstance."

"So he only caught you in a towel or robe?"

"A lesson in decorum, Kitsune-San? I will allow it. No, he saw me naked, and well, all there was to see. He turned around, excused himself, and left not only the bath/shower room, but the second house entirely, until I emerged dressed."

Mitsu tried to avoid saying what she wanted to.

"So-no extra chores for him?"

Miyabi gave up on a conversation quite alien to her.

"Why would I do such a thing, when it was clearly my fault? Ohh-is our Kitsune a prude?"

She left, and Mitsu began her tour in an utter daze.

*Man-this is really is some bizarre alternate universe!*

( Author's Note : The series referenced here is Ai Yori Aoshi )

HARUKA'S THOUGHTS

Of course, it's probably Kaolla Su I'd have to worry about the most. Outside of the protective confines of the group, our beautiful bundle of energy is bound to find out that there just aren't any people quite like her. She is one of a kind. Where is she going to meet up with another mind as brilliant and unfocused as her own?

KAOLLA SU

Would-be predator crept up on would-be prey, only to find said prey was quite aware of her all along.

"Stop moving around! I don't want to hurt you-"

The small furry creature kept jumping away each time she leaped after it.

"-I just want to eat you. I promise it won't hurt at all."

Fast as its legs would take it, the creature hopped/ran till it lost its stalker entirely in the older growth area of the nearby forest.

"Got you!"

Kaolla Su's arms burst out of the ground where she had dug herself in, and her squealing squirming meal-to-be was held fast. Su frowned.

"Hey! Stop taking it so personally, you-whatever you are. If you were a shark, you'd be eating me, if I were drowning. If it helps, I promise to remember you fondly."

If the creature had illusions about hopping away while on a chopping block, these were discouraged by Su's open mouth.

"EEEEEEGHHHH!"

The creature folded back on itself, seemed to implode and explode simultaneously, then rapidly changed shape and grew right out of Su's hands. Suddenly, it was a flying vessel capable of holding many people. Su looked upset.

"Darn! I can't eat a whole spaceship."

But then, she just as quickly formed a wicked grin.

"But I can have fun trying!"

The ship's weapon systems began to fire on her while making sounds just like the creature it was.

"Hey, no fair being a rotten sorehead about it. Now change back so I can eat you!"

A girl with her blue-green hair in long pigtails emerged, and pointed at the ship.

"Ryo-Ohki! Stop this tantrum right now-I mean it!"

The ship folded back into the little creature, who jumped into the teal-haired girl's arms. The new girl glared at Su.

"How dare you try to eat my friend? We'd miss Ryo-Ohki if she were to get devoured."

Su gave up on her lunch.

"I'm sorry, but I'm so hungry, and my dimensional transit window isn't for a couple of weeks at least."

Even the creature called Ryo-Ohki looked sympathetic to her now. It mewled. The girl nodded.

"You're right. It is a good idea to feed her-if only just so she doesn't eat you-hey!"

Su grabbed and hugged Ryo-Ohki.

"If I can't eat you-can I be your friend instead?"

The new girl nodded as Ryo-Ohki purred approval.

"Hmm-you must have an easy time making friends. My name's Sasami Jurai."

"I'm Kaolla Su - hey, do you have any turtles who aren't anybody's pets?"

Before Sasami could respond, a young man crashed the meeting. Literally.

"YAAAAAAAAGGHHHHHHH!"

Su looked over at the new crater. Sasami seemed saddened but unsurprised.

"Oh, Washu."

"The boy's name is Washu?"

Sasami realized the newcomer couldn't know what was obvious to her.

"No! That's Tenchi. Washu's the scientist who was testing out her new jet-pack on him. Tenchi, are you all right?"

The boy pointed up an arm from the heap he was in.

"I guess so, Sasami. The-the jet-pack kind of lost me in the stratosphere-or was that the exosphere?"

Su asked a question.

"Do you have any radiation burns?"

Tenchi started to get up from the dirt, and felt his clothes, which were singed.

"I think I do."

Su nodded.

"Definitely exosphere, then. So where's the jetpack?"

A girl in a uniform rode in screaming, clinging to the jetpack, which skidded to a halt, striking Tenchi as it came to a halt. Sasami pointed.

"I think Mihoshi found it."

The galactic policewoman rose from her own tangled heap, and looked at the boy.

"Tenchi, jet-packs aren't supposed to be seen at Earth's current level of technology. Do you want to get me in trouble? I'll get demoted again!"

As she began to cry her eyes out, the wounded Tenchi comforted the not-wounded-at-all officer of the law. Which is really kind of sad, when you think about it.

"It wasn't my fault, Mihoshi. Lil' Washu strapped it to me - just not very well."

Mihoshi was still crying, but now not as much.

"If only Kiyone hadn't left me. I'd know how to handle these things."

Tenchi shrugged.

"To be fair, you did keep doing things that erased her existence. She just got tired of shifting between timelines."

"SURE! Take her side."

Su walked up to Tenchi and looked him over. He was in his late teens to very early twenties, somewhat thin with dark hair and a kind if confused look. In other words, nothing like Keitaro at all.

"Who's your friend, Sasami?"

Sasami gave Tenchi a delighted look.

"Her name is Kaolla Su, and well, I wouldn't call us friends just yet. But she is nicer than she seemed when she tried to eat Ryo-Ohki. I'm going to cook her something soon, so she doesn't try again. She's really hungry."

Tenchi kneeled to get down to Su's height.

"Are you poor, Kaolla?"

"Heck, No. I'm a Princess. I just forgot to pack some bananas for my trip here."

Sasami lit up.

"You're a Princess? So am I! Say-do you grow older and more beautiful under certain rare celestial circumstances?"

Su smiled.

"It just so happens I do. What are you Princess of?"

Sasami pointed at the sky above, starting to darken.

"The Galactic Jurai Empire."

Su pointed in an easterly direction.

"My family rules the island nation of Molmol."

To be clear, Su hadn't really gotten a sense of exactly where she was, so she could also have been pointing towards Siberia. Tenchi shook his head.

"Kaolla, I have to say I never heard of that place."

Su considered for a moment.

"I guess it doesn't exist in this universe. Maybe I am poor here. Should have grabbed some gold, along with the bananas."

Sasami and Tenchi stared.

"She's from another universe entirely? Another crazy girl in my life."

Sasami ignored the implications in Tenchi's words.

"Kaolla, if you're from another universe, then what are you doing here?"

A new voice cut in.

"Another universe, you say? The bigger question to me is, how did you get here?"

Su looked at the diminutive redhead with the wily look, then pointed to her wristwear.

"I cannibalized my laptop, so I could make these sideways time-travel devices and let us sneak up on an evil mastermind who locked us out of direct access to his dimensional base of operations."

Washu looked the wristwear over.

"Hmmm. So your bunch got the bright idea of circumventing his lockout by walking through the neighbors' backyards, so to speak. Tell me, kid-however do you keep from being crushed or at least tossed about by the gravity wells these things put out?"

As Sasami and Tenchi's heads spun, Su responded.

"By bypassing them, too. I just use the singularities it taps as an initial trigger, and then coast through the dimensional space needed, with a general guidance towards our destination quantum realities."

Washu was grinning.

"Like a rocket ditching its booster once it breaks orbit. Girl, you are one cool number. Do you mind if I have a look-see at this junky treasure?"

Su gladly handed her wristwear over.

"It's only fair. I played with your jetpack, after all. Diverted some power to the secondary thrust, so it stays on the test subject's back better."

Sasami did a double-take.

"When-when were you able to do that? I was with you the whole time."

Washu looked over the jetpack.

"Kid, you rock! This should really go places now. Tenchi, prepare for takeoff."

Tenchi began to run.

"Lil Washu, C'mon!"

"I love it when you call me Lil' Washu - but it won't save you."

The jet pack almost seemed to form on Tenchi's back. Panicking, he called out to two approaching girls.

"Ryoko! Ayeka! HELP ME!"

As the jetpack took off once more, a girl with grey-ish but not grey-ing hair in a green bodysuit started in a gallop, as did a demure-looking woman in traditional robes. They jostled each other to try to get to Tenchi first.

"Back away, barbarian thief!"

"Not in your blandest dreams, Lady Anal - and I don't mean the GOOD kind."

The regal-seeming girl sneered.

"You take that back!"

The relaxed-looking one grinned.

"Actually, taking it back is the good kind I was talking about - not that you would know."

Sasami pointed to the regal girl.

"Ayeka! Tenchi still needs to be rescued. Onee-Chan! Ryoko! Stop it."

But the feuding pair were past that, and Ayeka pulled out a sword made of energy.

"I'll give you the good kind-straight up your ample backside and then on through!"

The wilder one, called Ryoko by Sasami, made her own energy weapon, anger now apparent on her face.

"Did you just call my butt fat?"

Ayeka lost some of her regal talk.

"If the padding fits - or in your case if it doesn't - wear it-chubby."

"Tenchi wants only me!"

"No, Me!"

The two fought as Tenchi's circling arcs took him ever higher. Su stared at the clash.

"Wow-I've never seen a cartoon fighting smoke cloud in real life before. Are those two friends?"

The cloud stopped, and the feuding pair looked at Su. Ayeka shrugged.

"I'd call it more of a working relationship, with hints of friendship."

Ryoko thought it over.

"Yeah, what she said. We work together when we have to, like when we need to save-"

The two locked concerned gazes, then spoke as one.

"TENCHI!"

Ayeka looked at his spiraling position in the sky.

"You're stronger - can you throw me at him?"

Ryoko squinted.

"It'd do no good. Without a precision strike, we're liable to make things worse. Even sending up Ryo-Oh-Ki might just splat him against the hull."

Mihoshi stepped forward, and fired her pistol.

"I'll get him down, and get rid of that illegal jet-pack."

She smiled as the shot struck true, and created an explosion.

"Well, now I won't get in trouble for letting tech like that be seen on Earth."

Sasami's face sank.

"You blew up Tenchi!"

Ryoko shrugged.

"Well, I was wrong. No way could we have made this any worse than that."

Ayeka stared blankly.

"Yes, I'm forced to agree. That was about as bad as it really gets."

Mihoshi felt the stares and glares, and shrank beneath them.

"Well-you have no idea of the paperwork involved in Prime Directive violations. Getting a waiver means obtaining permission from two members of House Jurai."

Ryoko rolled her eyes.

"Mihoshi? There's like four members of Jurai living with us, including Tenchi himself."

The girl began to cry again, and also once again, a plummeting thud was heard. Washu smiled.

"That Tenchi. Takes a licking and keeps on ticking. Hey ladies - go and fight over who bathes him, and sets his splints. Sasami, make a dinner with plenty of healing herbs. Some turkey soup for Mihoshi-it has calming agents. New kid-I never caught your name."

Su stared at Ayeka and Ryoko using the wounded Tenchi in a tug-of-war.

"I'm Kaolla Su. I'm stuck here until my transit hub opens. Until then, could I learn from you, Washu?"

"Only if I can do the same. Your tech is a little old-school, Kaolla - but it shows the spark. It's not often I meet a kindred spirit. Meet us at the main house for dinner, then we'll get going."

Sasami rushed over with a bowl.

"Kaolla, we have pineapples-but no bananas. Sorry."

Su picked up a pineapple, spun it and ate it down to the core. Sasami stood amazed.

"Would you like another?"

Su shook her head.

"No-Thank You. But I don't really like pineapples."

Sasami left to make the actual dinner, still not sure what to make of the newcomer. Su also felt some confusion.

"Hmmm. A nice guy who is very durable and gets knocked around. Violent girls who fight over that guy. A brilliant cute mad scientist. Warriors. Princesses. A clumsy girl. A happy-go-lucky girl. An uptight girl. A young girl who likes the nice guy and who is a great cook. A supernatural pet. All living in a big place with lots of rooms. Say, this is just like -"

Su stopped.

"Darn it, it's on the tip of my tongue! Maybe I'll remember after I eat something."

For the record, she never did place it.

( Author's Note : Probably less need here, but Su has gone to one of the worlds of Tenchi Muyo )

HARUKA'S THOUGHTS

I can't not worry about them. That hold especially true for the three kids I've known since I was a kid. But of those three, I worry least about Mutsumi. Not out of dislike or favoritism, but for the fact that she always bounces back-Ha-Ha-yeah, Ruka. A boob joke. But I meant it also personality-wise. She is always comfortable, once she gets the feel of a place. Whether it's her extra senses or just being at such peace, there is nowhere she can be disoriented. Sometimes ditzy and sometimes dizzy, but never disoriented.

MUTSUMI OTOHIME

For once, she felt as lightheaded as most seemed to think she was all the time.

"The light...it's strobing in front of me. Can't see straight."

She was sitting back against a tree. She had never mentioned her primal connection with the Earth and the larger universe around her. It gave her peace, it gave her the ability to see, to listen, even to speak with those things others couldn't even guess were there.

"No chatter. Nothing happening."

It all sometimes got to be quite noisy. Add in the personalities of her dearest friends, their friends, family, associates, and guests from other random genres, and paying attention had its price.

"Nice...change of pace. But the light won't stop strobing."

The voice of a teenage girl rang out in annoyance.

"Will you stop? The poor woman is still regaining consciousness."

A teenage boy spoke next.

"But she's magnificent! She has such lovely..."

"I know what lovely thing you're staring at!"

"...eyebrows."

There was a brief silence.

"Okay. Wasn't expecting that one. If in fact you're telling the truth."

Mutsumi's vision began to clear. The girl had reddish-brown short-cropped hair, with a yellow band across the top, with casual clothes typical for a girl of high school age, in this case a pinkish-toned blouse. The boy perhaps looked all too familiar, at least for his look and body type. Even without her senses on overload, the look and feel and presence of a guy who mostly meant well, never quite got it right, but was generally liked anyway was something her heart wouldn't let her recognize. The boy, holding a Single-Lens-Reflex Camera, pointed at Mutsumi with his free hand.

"How can you not see what a beautiful face she has? If I'm to be a gravure photographer, it's finding faces like hers that will place me in their league. Haya-Sensei will be forced to acknowledge and raise me up, if I show that I can make a face like hers immortal."

The boy seemed earnest, but the girl was not buying it just yet.

"She has boobs that won't quit. A lecherous gaze like yours, and you want to tell me your hands aren't forming into claws, with an evil look that you mistake for a playful predator's?"

The boy did grin at Mutsumi, and his gaze did indeed check out what the girl spoke of. But he just as quickly shook his head and closed his eyes. He began to look upset.

"She has a terrific body. Her-chest is not inconsiderable. But lots of women have nice chests. Nina-chan-is a disturbing example, I'll admit. Hatsune Onee-Sama certainly. I-like nice chests. But a face like hers - those are not just handed out. Those are God's works of art. The one who discovers it can be like a god themselves."

The girl suddenly seemed to lose most of her antagonistic stance.

"Whenever you get all ambitious like that, and speak of loftier goals, it just makes me feel such strong things for you."

Quickly, the boy was embracing her about the legs, almost seeming to peer up her skirt.

"How strong are we talking about?"

Apparently, the girl was plenty strong, which she showed by knocking him back, not to mention silly.

"Then you go and ruin it, just like always, you pervert. Why do you keep thinking that's endearing?"

In a pile of his own self, the boy held up a finger.

"It's just how I appreciate you. I try to change. I fail. It doesn't mean I think poorly of you, Kazuki-chan."

She helped him up, and brushed him off.

"I know you don't think I'm a bad girl. But besides my not liking that behavior, we're in front of a complete stranger. Also, Yuuji-kun, let's face facts. Haya-San is a tyrant who has you doing menial tasks with an eternal promise of eventually letting you have your day, while finding some reason to just put it off again."

The boy Yuuji pulled back from Kazuki and seemed to get indignant.

"Sensei asks me to earn my way up. That is what a Sensei does. I use what I do to learn from those who have made it, and wait for my time."

Mutsumi felt it was her time to speak. She rose suddenly and smiled at Yuuji.

"First of all, thank you for your compliments. You remind me of someone very dear to me. In fact, you both do. Second, it is somewhat rude to photograph someone while they can't give their permission, isn't it? By the way, I'm Mutsumi Otohime."

Yuuji, whatever the nature of his 'perversion', blushed and looked nervous. Kazuki rushed in front of him, as though to protect him.

"But he didn't touch you, and he really seems - as a photographer, anyway - to be more interested in your face. He meant no harm, and even Haya-San wouldn't publish them without a release. She might consider it-you do have quite a face."

The way Yuuji rolled his eyes at this comment led Mutsumi to believe Kazuki was possibly messing with him by way of this misty compliment, and that Yuuji had caught on. Fortunately for him, Kazuki never saw this on his face.

"I understand. I just would like no more photos I don't agree to. A friend of mine took a picture of two other friends of mine during their first time together. She meant it as a prank, was kind of drunk at the time, and never got to use it. But it nearly ended their friendship - it could have taken our home apart, I think."

The two looked at each other. Such a primal tearing seemed to put a chill on their faces, as though, with all their obvious back-and-forth, parting forever was something they could not conceive of. But something else had their attention, and surprisingly, it was Kazuki who asked.

"Forgive us, Otohime Onee-Chan. My name is Kazuki Arisaka, and this is my friend - boyfriend, lately - Yuuji Kagura. Ummm-did your one friend ruin your other friends' first time? I don't mean to be so personal, but without details-was their special moment spoiled?"

Yuuji's eyes briefly went wide, but Mutsumi could see he had the same question. Mutsumi realized a ruined 'special moment' was something they had both considered, however far off that might be for them.

"Well, that is personal, Kazuki-chan, but I can tell you they didn't find out about it till after. So they had a peaceful-well, not peaceful, but a successful-success. Just like they planned, they came back from walking through the Red Gate Of Todai together, came back and started in. Past that - I can't and won't say anything more."

But while they respected Mutsumi's desire in this instance and showed gratitude for her minor reveal, in fact she had already said quite a bit. The question instantly shifted from a veiled one about sex to a direct one about another dream of young people, and this time Yuuji asked.

"The Red Gate? Are they Todai students? Are you?"

Their ideas about Mutsumi's beauty remained. But with a few words she became beyond awesome in their eyes.

"Well, Yes. It was our dream from early childhood to go together. Two more of our friends also just got in, and at least three more are doing mock tests to prepare. Though we're all on a sort of sabbatical right now."

Mutsumi tried to avoid pondering just how much of an understatement that was, being expatriates from their own reality fleeing from suspicions of terrorism. The two younger people kept looking almost worshipful. Kazuki plainly had stars in her eyes.

"They have a world-class swim team."

Yuuji looked at his camera, and his grip seemed sweaty.

"With a photography school that can produce a master."

The girl regained her senses.

"Yuuji-kun, we should leave Mutsumi-San alone. We've bothered her enough."

Yuuji sighed, but didn't fight her on this.

"We will. But Otohime Onee-Chan, is there some way I can contact you, if my sensei approves of these pictures and wants to contract for more?"

Then it hit Mutsumi. Nobody she had known or had ever heard of her in any way shape or form was on that world, or anywhere in the creation around her.

"I just got into town. I really don't have a place to stay."

Nor did she even know what town they were in, but she suspected it was a beachfront community like Kamakura, though she couldn't yet see any evidence of its Shogunate era architecture and statuary. That she had nothing to call upon was such an obvious thing, but it was also so large a detail she felt like she had missed it for that very reason. Kazuki got an annoyed look.

"Let me guess. You want her to stay with you, right?"

Yuuji pointed at Mutsumi.

"Are you kidding? I'd end up getting punished every five seconds. Let's ask Hatsune Onee-Sama to have her stay with you two at least tonight. Maybe we can ask Nina-chan to help. She has lots of room."

Kazuki looked impressed.

"You actually thought that out. Wow. Okay. Otohime-San, would you find this objectionable?"

They seemed like nice kids, and Mutsumi was again literally the biggest stranger on the planet.

"Thank you both. I'll try not to be a burden for long."

This was a lie, though Mutsumi's intent was honest. She just had no way of making her way in a place where, so far as she knew, even her most remote ancestor had never even been born. They proceeded to two houses, nearly identical and side by side, so close their upper-level outcoves met up and looked crossable from one house to the other. As they entered, Yuuji was suddenly hit by weapons fire, from what looked like a machine gun. To Mutsumi's relief, the projectiles turned out to be paint-balls, though Yuuji still reeled in pain from their impact. He cried out.

"Marie-Chan! What have I done to deserve this? You can't punish me for no reason at all!"

A young girl in a conservative blouse, jacket and French-style girl's cap briefly stopped firing at her older brother. Kazuki stepped in front of him, and looked upset.

"He did one thing today, Marie-Chan, and I punished it myself. Yuuji has been well-behaved today."

The younger girl kept a blank expression and spoke almost in a monotone at all times.

"If Onii-Chan was in the company of this huge-breasted woman, then he had ecchi thoughts. There is no way around this. Ecchi thoughts lead to ecchi actions. Marie's duty to her brother is clear, laid down by Papa, and this may include pre-emptive actions."

The gun-which a shocked Mutsumi realized was covered up by Marie's teddy bear, with the lip covered by the bear's detachable head-was snatched from Marie's hands by the one they'd really come to see.

"Marie-chan? I spoke to uncle when last he called, and only your brother's behavior is allowed to be punished - not his thoughts."

Marie formed a slight frown, actually made more distinguishable by her otherwise blank expression.

"But Onii-Chan has behaved too well of late - he is overdue for an episode, and this must be guarded against."

Which, to Mutsumi's ear, was the worst logic she had heard since Naru had punched out Keitaro for her walking in on him dressing. The light-brown haired young woman who Mutsumi correctly guessed was Hatsune Arisaka shook her head at Marie.

"Then Marie-Chan leaves me with no choice. A twenty-four hour confiscation is in order, and if you protest-a whole week."

Marie hung her head.

"For the sake of my Onii-Chan and the women he may menace if left alone for too long - Marie will accept the twenty-four hours."

Hatsune smiled a broad, deep smile that unnerved Mutsumi.

*So that's what they were all talking about. I guess it is a bit off-putting to see so much embodied joy.*

Marie looked up at Mutsumi.

"Marie requests that you not encourage my brother's perverted nature any more than your very existence does."

Mutsumi had wanted to say that the only girl her brother had targeted had been his own professed girlfriend, but thought better of it.

"I will try, Marie-Chan."

Whispering to Kazuki, Marie looked away and then looked at Mutsumi once again.

"Marie hopes your stay in our household is a pleasant one, Otohime-San."

With the child slightly calmer, Yuuji spoke to Hatsune.

"Onee-Sama, I thought that we could ask Nina-chan to put Otohime-San up in her large house."

Marie offered what almost sounded like snark.

"Wouldn't that be like punishing Otohime-San?"

Hatsune again adopted her smile, mussing Yuuji's hair.

"Nina-chan can be a bit much, Yuuji-Kun. Kazuki and I will have her stay here, as long as she needs to. I'll lay down some house rules later, if Otohime-san doesn't mind."

Mutsumi offered back her own best smile, and it was almost like Hatsune felt a challenge from it.

"Why doesn't everyone just call me Mustumi? I am a guest, and I feel awkward being treated so formally when I'm freeloading like this."

Hatsune met her perceived challenge with a pushback smile, so to speak.

"Mutsumi-chan will be staying with us, then."

Hatsune then upped the ante by bear-hugging Mutsumi.

"It'll be like having a third sister!"

Kazuki smiled too, but thought for herself :

*Great-another busty sister who'll likely have her own fan-clubs soon.*

Marie had her own thoughts.

*I thought I was the third sister.*

Yuuji nodded and was also thinking about the situation.

*Those eyebrows-that face-wow, is there something wrong with me? She's got an awesome body, but my gaze is locked on her portrait.*

Yuuji soon had something more useful to say out loud.

"Mutsumi-san? Since you probably need work, can I show your pictures to Haya-Sensei, and maybe get you a modeling job?"

Yuuji's suggestion could not have made more sense, yet the eyes of every other girl in the room were locked in a pleading look on Mutsumi.

"Of course, Yuuji-Kun. That would really help me."

He smiled and left, and the unspoken plea became open contempt. Kazuki rolled her eyes.

"Great. She'll probably invite herself over for dinner again."

Marie took empty glass bottles from the recycling bin.

"Marie will be ready for her assault this time. I don't need a gun to punish, and it does not have to be ecchi that I punish."

The two younger girls left, leaving Hatsune and Mutsumi alone.

"Hatsune-chan? Am I right to think that this Haya is not well liked in this household?"

Hatsune shrugged.

"I wouldn't say not well-liked, so much as she is roundly despised. Our Yuuji has some unfortunate habits, and some things he needs to be clued in on. But one area he shines in is his photography. He knows how to capture beauty. But his best efforts are always roundly dismissed by Haya Tojo - and on top of that, she abuses Yuuji's willingness to clean up the mess left to her by her Sempai, my absent uncle, Yuuji-Kun and Marie-chan's father. She is a bully, but a manageable one."

Hatsune's look said that she had managed it at least once, and was prepared to do so again if need be. But Mutsumi heard something else she picked up on.

"Your uncle left his kohai and his son to tend to business he left behind?"

Hatsune pointed to the confiscated teddy bear/gun.

"Not to mention leaving his daughter to discipline his son in certain matters. My uncle is a great man, and I love him. But to know him is to know you will soon clean up after him. It fell to me and Kazuki to help Yuuji learn how to be less - aggressive - in matters of the heart."

Mutsumi again saw another pair that she missed horribly in the young residents.

"They make a cute couple."

Hatsune showed a sign of triumph when Mutsumi said this.

"They're getting married."

Mutsumi looked surprised that ones so young were already betrothed.

"They hadn't mentioned they were engaged."

Hatsune shrugged.

"Oh, they're not yet."

Now her face turned deadly serious.

"But they are getting married. That's already been decided on."

Her face shifted back to its default friendliness.

"Want to help me start dinner?"

Mutsumi again marveled at the level of quiet in this world, while realizing that she had likely still found one of its noisiest spots, and wondered if it wasn't out of reflex.

*Come Hell or High Water - I will get back to Naru and Kei, and then we three will have a very special moment. Maybe several.*

( Author's Note : The series here is called Tona-Gura! - While obscure, I will recommend it )

HARUKA'S THOUGHTS

You'd think it would be hard to worry about a born warrior like Motoko. Problem is, she is so poised for almost any situation, that the few things she is not prepared for tend to knock her straight on her shapely samurai ass. Keitaro being a case in point. Also, she is still so lost in what she feels could have been between her and him, I think sometimes she may never focus on what actually happened, and just deal with the life we get.

MOTOKO AOYAMA

It had all happened ridiculously fast. Hyperactive Ninagawa Amuro had seen the girl in Samurai robes walking by their school's swimming pool. She had acted to help her.

She hadn't helped her at all, a fact confirmed by saner teammate Momoko Orizuka.

"Amuro! How did you make that girl vanish like that?"

The green-haired genki girl looked confused.

"Well, she looked like she had a big bug on her wrist-so I took her wooden stick and went to swat it. Shouldn't I have done that?"

Their team manager, non-swimmer and occasional boy of interest Kaname Okimura tried to get through to her.

"Amuro, maybe her repeated cries of 'Don't Hit My Wristwear!' should have been an indicator."

Amuro looked oddly at her two teammates.

"What are you getting at?"

So it was that the paths of the resident samurai of the Hinata-Sou would not be crossing paths with that of the Umineko High School Swimming Team.

They also lost at the big meet that year. Not that Motoko could have changed that.

"I'm back at the Hinata-Sou? Was it all merely an odd dream-an odder dream than normal?"

The first thing she wanted to do was grab her nephew Shinji (why did all the others roll their eyes at that name?) and head into the onsen with Su and Sarah. Maybe to cap it off (no offense to her Koichi), she would make sure not to inform Urashima, and wait for the door to open.

"Or maybe Arlo. We need to break our brother in-not to mention torment Shinobu. But Kenichi is still too new to all this."

In short, she wanted things back to normal. She walked about, heading for the kitchen, where she heard some familiar humming.

"Shinobu?"

It was a teenage girl, and she was cooking up a storm. But this was not Shinobu Maehara, who walked into the kitchen from the other entrance - and was not a teen.

"Hiya, Sempai!"

The college-age Shinobu sniffed the soup.

"Wonderful as always, Naru-chan. Now, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine. Okay?"

A wolf came running into the kitchen, and then shifted into wild pre-teen Mitsune Konno.

"A new friend?! Ohhh-Shinobu, can I sniff him?"

Shinobu's face still had its sweetness, but this was tempered by a bit of impatience.

"Use honorifics, Mitsune! I know you were raised by wolves, but poor usage is not forgivable. As to sniffing him-just not in the place you usually sniff."

"But-that's how I get to know people. Who is he, Shinobu-kun?"

Naru turned on her friend, waving a spatula like she meant business.

"Its chan or San, not Kun! Kun would be for a man, like Sempai Shin's friend-wait!"

Her young face exploded with panic and frenzy. Her arms started to wave wildly.

"Your friend is a guy? A guy is coming here?"

Mitsune smiled, and bounded up to lean into Naru's face.

"Good. You need to get littered so bad. Hey! Maybe he can make us all part of his pack!"

Shinobu held up a leash, and Mitsune backed into a corner, mewling.

"Good. Now, yes, Naru-chan. My friend is a guy. In fact, he is one of my two oldest friends."

She smiled a lightly wicked smile.

"I walked into the onsen this morning, and there he was. It was kind of awkward at first, till we recognized each other."

Motoko had already read this Naru well enough to see this revelation wouldn't go well.

"This beast saw you naked-and you saw him? You saw his-his?"

Mitsune was smiling, some things being more consistent than others.

"How big a his are we talking?"

Shinobu giggled.

"Big enough."

The implication slapped at all present.

"Sempai, you gave up your honor?"

Shinobu shrugged.

"Gave up some, took some. It just seemed like the right time, and the right guy."

A man walked down the stairs, looking a good deal more confident and calmer than the man Motoko knew. No doubt, though, this was Keitaro Urashima.

"Shinobu was Kei's long-ago playmate, and they both remembered?"

This confirmed for Motoko that she had in fact travelled to one of the other worlds Su had described, and was not the victim of a joke or suffering a hallucination.

"But there were two playmates. Where is Mutsumi?"

An explosion came from one of the rooms. A very young girl with a blackened face, hair bangs and prominent bushy eyebrows walked out with melted or broken test tubes.

"Cold fusion may be a while yet. I'm thinking."

Motoko took hope from this.

"This means that I..."

But this hope was quickly dashed as another new but familiar figure entered.

"Excuse me? Is this the Hinata-Sou? I stayed here as a child, and I'm looking for two friends of mine."

The white-haired beauty smiled at Shinobu and Keitaro. She held up three fingers.

"The Trio At Todai!"

Shinobu held up three fingers.

"The Trio At The Red Gate!"

Keitaro obliged.

"The Trio together in all things!"

They leaned in together, that same predatory grin from before more evident than ever.

"ALL-THINGS!"

The nearly-adult Kaolla Su pointed in back of her.

"Look who I brought-yes! It's the old girl."

A flying turtle of some vintage flew an awkward path, with a small wooden staff on one front flipper, and a small sword in the other. The samurai girl observing all this shuddered.

"No-please-just-just-no."

But the Trio pointed at their pet, with grins on their faces and a united greeting.

"Motoko-Chan!"

The Motoko visiting this world crumbled.

"Really-really? I'm The Turtle? Keitaro, why would you do that? Keitaro? Kei? URASHIMA!"

She went to strike him, and passed through like the wind. The same happened with the others.

"Well, this would tend to explain why no one heard me talking, or saw me, or took note of the fact that I AM NOT A TURTLE-or notices that I am yelling at them. Did that crazy girl damage the controls?"

She began to fade entirely.

"Yes, I believe she did."

Once more, she awoke to find herself back in the Hinata-Sou.

"Alright, then, definitely not a dream. Let's see-Mutsumi was the genius. I should see if I can make her notice me."

But as Motoko moved for the kitchen, the depths of her plight truly became apparent to the born warrior. A woman was sitting back in a chair, looking disinterested with a cigarette in her mouth. But this woman was blonde, American, and with a chest size that could make Mutsumi cry in despair. Keitaro was there, with a Mitsune (now again a young adult) who looked like she had been born serious, rather than having (for however long) converted to it.

"Konno-San, this is your Ryobo, my Aunt Tara Urashima. Her word is law when Granpa isn't here - and I have the broom-swats to prove it."

Tara smiled at her nephew in a sly way.

"They're love-taps, kid."

Mitsune may have been more serious, but her bluntness was still in evidence.

"Urashima-San-you're American?"

Tara was a true Ryobo.

"Don't miss much, do you Konno-chan? Granpa adopted me after he lost his granddaughter and son-in-law-my best pals - on their first trip after having a baby. We needed each other. Little Kei helped out, after his folks died in the bakery fire. He also keeps his little cousin Awa - the former baby I just mentioned - from peeping on the ladies too much. Though they tend to let the little scamp get away with murder."

Mitsune looked almost regally indignant.

"Well, don't expect me to put up with any such nonsense."

Keitaro waved his arms dismissively.

"Not a concern anymore, well, mostly. We have privacy screens surrounding the onsen borders, even have them curved at the top. Plus, the steam and the lighting tends to obscure even the shadows cast on those screens. The last thing we need is a bunch of accidental perverts getting pounded to paste by crazed tsunderes. Bad for insurance premiums."

Mitsune picked up her bags and walked up to her new room.

"For your sake, Manager-san-I hope so. Mitsune Konno does not associate with party dogs and debt skippers."

Tara watched her stalk off and when she was gone, fell back laughing.

"Wow-she could use an association with something called a night of passion."

Keitaro shook his head as he moved to close the front door.

"I dunno, Auntie. I think she could stand to loosen up, but still, there's something about her...uh oh. Vegetable Delivery. Old Mrs. Aoyoma is heading up the path."

Motoko shook her head.

"Old greengrocer?"

Tara got up, and bid Keitaro do the same.

"Let's go help dear Toko-chan, kid. No point letting her break her hip again."

"But Auntie, she's gonna grope me!"

Tara shrugged.

"So? I hear she was quite the looker in her day. Just-imagine-really hard."

A young boy came bounding out of his room. He looked a younger Kei, and the look on his face was that of Su and Sarah combined.

"Mama! Onii-Chan! I have perfected a localized, controllable - Electro Magnetic Pulse!"

The pair chastised the boy as he triggered his invention.

"Awa!"

"You'll shut down Mrs. Aoyama's pacemaker!"

But if this dirty old woman was her counterpart, it was not her pacemaker affected by the device. Rather, it was Motoko's own reality-travel wristwear. She began to fade again, and responded with the words that harkened back to other travelers on eternity's path.

"Oh, Boy!"

( Author's Note : The series that Motoko briefly visited and swiftly left was Umisho )

HARUKA'S THOUGHTS

I'm of two minds on Shinobu. One the one hand, she is no longer the frightened child that nearly exploded after glimpsing Kei's manhood, and that may or may not have played games with getting him beaten by the others on her behalf. Mutsumi's brains aside, the jury is still out on that one. I am so proud that she was the first to love him, and the first to finally admit that he loved another and try to find someone else. But she still has an incredible streak of naiveté in her. She's becoming assertive like her Sempai Naru, but in many respects, Shinobu Maehara still could be facing down the devil and not even realize the horns are there.

SHINOBU MAEHARA

"Am I on the beach? Arlo-are you kissing me?"

She considered this something of a good sign. While Sempai would always hold an inviolable place in her heart, the fact of who he was marrying was not going to change, and considering that she also loved the one he had chosen, one she didn't wish to. She had wondered if all this was fair to Arlo, however things ended up between them. Now she knew. She had thought of him first, for the first time, and this was a first that was not as risky as the one the Sou-Siblings all feared for them.

*However much or little we actually played around, it was going to have been an awesome night. Someday, my lo...my fella.*

There were some things she still wasn't prepared to say, even in her own mind. But now the dream took an ecchi turn.

"Arlo? Are you licking my face? BAKA! If anyone should see us...but until someone does..."

The same panic attacks that had seen her passing out at dinner, kicking her Sempai in the balls rather than kiss him, and joining in the madness at Molmol rather than just aiding her sempais as honor demanded came forward to a girl now mature and also still not as mature as she would become.

"NOOO! We have to stop-it's making me crazy-I think I'll melt inside!"

She forced her eyes open, fully expecting to have to push or punch him away, and feeling bad for leading him on enough to get him this way. But upon inspection, Arlo was not at all who or what he seemed.

"Yip! Bark!"

For one thing, his Japanese was now atrocious.

Shinobu stood up, looking down at the small, cream-colored dog. He was a cute little thing, seemed friendly and curious, but there was something more. For reasons Shinobu couldn't define, he seemed like a very good omen.

"You look like the best friend a lost and lonely girl could ever have."

Why she would say these exact words was a mystery to her, but they felt right, like taking a chance on Arlo the very night her Sempai lovingly told her a final No.

"Hello, little fella. Are you on the run, too?"

In a way, he really was, though by no stretch was his situation like Shinobu's. The one the dog was running from came scurrying down the beach, a broad smile on her face, her head topped with the oddest shade of red hair, almost seeming pink in tone. Tied atop her head in the same locations on each side were ribbons. She was very pretty, though her posture was off for a girl two to three years Shinobu's senior. She walked and bounded like a child might. She did something else like a child as well.

"Found him! Over here! I found him!"

The girl got down on the sand and hugged the dog, who licked her face.

"You find a new friend? Be my friend, too?"

The girl's face could not have been more earnest, and almost seemed like a plea to accept her at face value, which again only made Shinobu wonder why so many things felt off.

"Hey! She found him!"

Another girl came walking up, and as she did, Shinobu looked and realized the beach did not look like any of the ones near easy travel from the Hinata-Sou. The newer girl actually had bluish-purplish hair, and if it was dyed that way, it was the single most natural looking dye job Shinobu had ever seen. Shinobu also took in that this girl had hair ribbons in the exact same location as the first one. She was reminded of Mitsune and Kanako, though these two were not really at all like them.

"Seems like they both found a new friend."

Finally a young woman arrived, looking like a young woman (with an enviable chest size) and carrying herself like a young woman as well. With chestnut brown hair, she offered up an easy smile, like this had been a good day in a sea of otherwise trying ones. Yet even she, despite a lack of the oddly-placed hair ribbons, felt off.

"Are you all right? You seem confused. I see that same look on my cousin's face all the time."

These people seemed nice enough, and nothing they did or said bespoke any danger. Shinobu hoped she could lie well enough to not be obvious and offend - although she really didn't want to, the truth was unlikely to be believed.

"Yes. I am confused. I fell asleep on the train, and got off at what I thought was my station. I headed where I thought I was supposed to go, but now I realize my mistake. Please, what town am I in?"

The young woman seemed to accept the story up to a point.

"You didn't even glance at any station signs or anything? You must have been in a hurry. This is Kamakura-really Enoshima in this part. Where are you from?"

Shinobu wondered why she had been dumped that far off from Tokyo. She tried to recall Su's words about their transit, but now true panic was setting in. Shinobu realized she was nowhere near anyone who could have ever possibly heard of her, let alone knew her. The Earth she was standing on and in was not the same planet she was born to, and the sun overhead was for all intents and purposes an alien star.

"I live at a girls' dormitory near Tokyo. We-"

This time she told the truth, albeit a few years out of date.

"-well, it's all rather silly. My two Sempais both failed their initial entrance exams to Todai. They tried again, and they thought they failed again. They got upset and ran off, and we're trying to find them to tell them they got in. It must sound wacky, I realize."

The young woman didn't seem to find it silly or wacky. She seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"Todai? They-they got into Todai? That's so wonderful. You said they're your sempais? Are you trying for Todai too?"

The lilac-haired girl didn't seem to get it.

"Is Todai one of those mysterious islands where people act weird and slide down dangerous waterfalls? Because Nana never heard of this place."

The girl was closer than she knew in one respect, but Shinobu wasn't sure Molmol was even there, so let her older friend answer. At least, reasoned Shinobu, this version of Japan wasn't so radically different on some basic levels.

"Nana-chan, Todai is the very prestigious University Of Tokyo. The Harvard Of Japan."

The younger girl pondered.

"Nana thought the Harvard was in Massachusetts America, where the third king spilled carpet tacks in people's tea cups. That's very rude, so the Americans evolved."

The young woman held her head and groaned at the supreme non-sequiturs. Shinobu asked the younger girl a question.

"Is your friend all right?"

The younger girl shrugged.

"Yuka-San's mother says she needs to lie down with Kouta-San. Naps like that help Nana too."

Shinobu doubted that was what was said, but this Nana seemed only slightly more coherent than the childlike one still playing with the dog.

"Umm-Yuka-San? My name is Shinobu Maehara. Could I have your family name, so that I can remain respectful?"

Yuka mumbled something that Shinobu couldn't pick up.

"I'm sorry? I didn't get that."

Nana nodded.

"Everyone I know around here always has trouble speaking their family names. They never seem to use them."

Yuka briefly erupted.

"Nana-chan! Maehara-chan does NOT wish to hear all of our household's secrets and doings."

"Good-cause that would make her pretty nosey."

Shinobu found herself in a bear-hug.

"Nyu! Shinobu come to stay with us too?"

Shinobu blushed as the wild child (who really had a body almost as mature as Yuka's) seemed to be groping her chest.

"No-I'm literally just passing through. I better get back to the station. It was nice meeting all of you."

Shinobu went to pet the dog, and the child-like girl grew sad.

"Nyu thought she had new friend."

Yuka shook her head.

"Nyu-she has to get back to her friends and family. Though for keeping Wanta and Nyu corralled while we caught up, we could invite her to dinner."

Shinobu lit up at the thought of what foods an alternate world might have, but pulled herself back.

"Many thanks, Yuka-San. But I really do have to go-what's this?"

Nana pointed at Shinobu's wristwear.

"Your watch is glowing? Why would it do that?"

A bright orange light shone from the wristwear, and Shinobu remembered Su saying the wristwear would guide them to the next transit spot. Yuka stared as well.

"So bright-it's like a small fire."

The childlike Nyu shook with fear.

"Shinobu on fire? Nyu will help her!"

While Shinobu, Nana and Yuka stared at the light, Nyu cupped her hands in the surf and drew some water.

"Fire is Bad! NYU!"

Nyu poured the water straight on the wristwear. Shinobu proved she really was Keitaro's Kohai, convulsing with electricity as an exposed element sent a shock right through her, blasting her back, singeing her clothes, and knocking her silly. Nyu looked at Yuka.

"Fire out. Shinobu stay for dinner now?"

Nana and Yuka helped Shinobu up. Nana took another look at their newest houseguest.

"Is it me, or does she look a little like..."

Yuka cut her off.

"Just a little. Now let's get her home, and hope she doesn't want to file a lawsuit."

Shinobu briefly saw a large house with a very large yard, and registered being tucked into bed. When she awoke, it was not quite like looking into a mirror, but it still felt exactly that way.

"Are you feeling better? You got quite a shock."

The two would never be mistaken for twins. Shinobu was two to three years this girl's senior. But a sense of connection was unmistakable.

"My name is Mayu. Yuka, Nana and Nyu took you to our home, the Kaede-Sou - though the sign outside was written for English-speaking visitors from when this was a restaurant, so it says Maple House-ohhh, forgive me, I'm babbling. I heard Yuka-San say you're prepping for Todai?"

Actually, Yuka must have discerned that, since Shinobu never confirmed it. But since it was true, she also didn't dispute it.

"I'm a ways off yet. But it is my goal, and my boyfriend's goal, too. In our house, so far five of us have made it in."

Mayu's already-wide eyes became ever more so.

"That's just-so wonderful! Sempai-will you tell me of your study secrets while you recuperate? Please?!"

Shinobu felt a chill. Of course this had been inevitable. But she had thought she was far off from anyone ever calling her Sempai.

"I'll do what I can, Mayu-chan. I promise."

Whereas before she had seen herself, Shinobu now saw something else in Mayu's eyes. Promises meant a great deal to her, since at some point, someone had broken a very sacred promise, one that had ought never be broken.

"Thank you so much, Sempai. Maybe-you could show me some of your beauty secrets as well? You - are so nice-looking."

Shinobu now openly wondered if the people surrounding her were in some far removed way this world's counterparts to her family. Shinobu hardly considered herself strong or confident, yet in this girl's eyes, that's exactly what she was. For all this, the off-putting feeling would not leave her, even for a second. It was as though, counterpart or no, a shadow existed on this Maple House, a darkness not of the lives of those of the Hinata-Sou.

"I'll help however I can, Mayu-chan, in all ways. But I simply won't be here that long. Now-I-my wristwear!"

Mayu nodded.

"Kouta-San hung it out to dry. It kept shocking you over and over again. Oh-here he is."

As if to further her speculation about counterparts with different names, a young man of college age entered, holding Shinobu's wristwear, which he handed to Mayu, who in turn gave it back to Shinobu.

"My name is Kouta. Maehara-chan, let me apologize for Nyu. She's a handful. That whole excursion to the beach was to give poor Mayu-chan some breathing space."

Mayu blushed.

"You might not want to let Nyu-chan corner you in the bath. She-gets ideas-but she's good people."

Kouta mussed her hair, but only lightly, as though he knew a border was there.

"I can't read the screen on your watch-it's in some odd language. But it seems to be counting down to a reboot. I've never seen anything like it before. We don't have any money, but you can stay with us until you feel better."

Shinobu realized the watch controls might have defaulted to Paraklese, which suited her just fine, since she could read enough to set it back to Japanese, but no one else could, in a world where Molmol possibly didn't exist. Which, love Su though she did, also suited her just fine.

"When my special watch reactivates, Kouta-San, I'll be able to contact my family. Until then, I accept your offer and vow not to be a burden."

She sat up.

"May I ask a question? Why do Nana-chan and Nyu-chan wear those ribbons on their heads in the exact same location for both of them? It just seems odd."

Shinobu feared the question being too personal, and she would even accept a rebuke if this were so. But what did happen only raised ever more red flags. Kouta smiled, looking no more convincing than her own Kei-Sempai when trying to lie. Nice guys of college age were easy to read.

"Hair Ribbons? Mayu-Chan? Do they wear hair-ribbons?"

The slight panic that came over Mayu's face was one Shinobu had seen in the mirror many a time.

"I-guess they do. I-never really pay attention to that sort of detail. Ummm-Dinner will be served soon, Maehara-Sempai."

Shinobu accepted this non-answer non-rebuke.

"Call me Shinobu, all of you, please. Thank you for your kindnesses."

The two withdrew, but one came bounding in their place, but now looking nervous.

"Shinobu forgive Nyu?"

The girl wasn't right in the head, and Shinobu knew yelling would solve nothing.

"Of course. If-Nyu-Chan promises never to do that again. No water on my wristwear."

Nyu jumped onto her futon, and climbed under the blanket with her.

"Nyu promises? Now we take nap together?"

Nyu was quickly snoozing, but Shinobu had a harder time with Nyu's wandering hands interrupting and sometimes, invading.

*I think this crazy girl may actually be hazardous to my health*

As is often said-she had no idea.

( Author's Note : Welcome to Elfen Lied, Shinobu. The manga version, and her visit is set during the six-month timeskip after the Mariko storyline, for those that know it. On a personal note, it is set directly after the events of my own story "Elfen Liner Notes : The New Papa" - however it is not at all necessary to read it in order to read or appreciate this story )

HARUKA'S THOUGHTS

Naru I really worry about. Yeah, it's because she also reminds me of myself. Left on her own, faced with her own drives and absent anyone to pull her back - she's like as not to end up putting herself through Hell.

NARU NARUSEGAWA

*This isn't a wacky chase!*

It had all the elements of one, at least to appearances. She was rounding corners, a panicked look on her face, and frequently her pursuers collided with one another as they went. Appearance was not even close to reality here, except to a nearly infinite inverse.

"Kill the witch! Add her head to the other one, on the pike!"

Naru had no idea who the poor unfortunate girl was, but since there was no one to rescue, Naru chose to honor that life and memory by not letting this insane mob get her too.

*They said they did the same to her little brother? What purpose could that serve?*

Even in her world, after the Towers fell in New York, not everyone had given in to their demons. In this world, the demons were all too evident on several levels.

As she had arrived, a wave of literal demons was tearing through men, women, children-even babies. Worse, they were taunting their victims, devouring loved ones in front of each other bit by bit, made even more repulsive by the demons whining about how they'd been unfairly excluded from the world.

*Gee, wonder why?*

If Keitaro had, that first night in the onsen, slipped and deflowered her by accident, apologizing all the while and yet not pulling away in time, her rage would still not have equaled what she unleashed then. Whether demons were from Hell or not, that was where Naru sent them, till they ran scared, with her hunting down and tearing inside-out every last cowardly one. As she stood there soaked in their innards and blood, she expected maybe a nervous thank-you from at least one person. The cries of 'One Of Them!' did not endear these people, however frightened they might be.

"What's that noise? Thunder? Mitsu?"

She swore she'd even let her have Kei for a night if she just showed up like the cavalry. It was not Mitsune Konno, who had only so far learned to play with her new powers, or lately realized ones. For one thing, the winged figure above made no pretense at all about what it was.

"YOU HUMANS! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER? YOU WILL PAY! YOU WILL ALL PAY!"

The figure began gathering its hideous power, and Naru realized two things. One, the mob's prior target was about to be avenged.

"Sorry, kid. But he must have loved you a lot."

Two, she had better run. One bit of savage irony would have almost been funny, any other time or place.

"You! Help Us, like you did before. Stop him!"

She wanted to just leave them, but she did something far worse in her mind.

"Yeah, well, I'm a witch, remember? I've got no broom..."

She held up a middle finger and winked.

"...but here's my wand-and I'll bet it's bigger than yours!"

She wanted to be ashamed of herself, but given how they'd lowered themselves, she felt almost happy about their fates. The energy wave did its work quickly.

"Gotta stop. Shouldn't-shouldn't let myself become-like them. Huuuufffggg..."

The winged demon-man from before wasn't remotely interested in her, like he/it knew she played no part in that atrocity. From far away, she still heard sobs.

"Should have protected you-I SHOULD HAVE PROTECTED YOU!"

Naru kept running, but at last shed a tear.

"Poor bastard."

Doubting touchy-feely words would do anything but get her killed, she kept moving away from the slaughter. This was to prove problematic.

"Freeze! You-down here! NOW!"

The soldiers were the most heavily armed and armored she had ever seen. There were no officers present, but one appeared to be in charge as he pointed.

"How are you alive, and fighting like that. Boys, I sniff a demon. Strip her down."

The rage was right back. Maybe these men were doing their job. They just weren't going to do it on her.

"I'm just strong-I've always been strong-which you'll find out about if you try and so much as roll up my sweater cuffs."

Another soldier shook his head.

"Must be one of them. She doesn't even look Japanese."

Naru puzzled at this.

"What? I'm Caucasian?"

The lead soldier rubbed his hands.

"Well, ma'am, let's have those clothes. If you are a demon, it's a bullet to the head. If you aren't, well, then-"

The soldiers all broke into wild grins.

"-it'll be a lot of bullets, everywhere you can name."

Naru grabbed his pointing finger, lifted him and tossed him into the air, followed by all of his followers. They screamed in a less than manly way as they ascended.

"You jerks are just lucky my fiancé isn't here-he's a real man, and he would kill you for what you said. He'd kill you, my one sister would chop you up, my little sister would cook you up with lightning sent from another, another would wave at you as you went to Hell, and my youngest sister would eat you-because she'll frankly eat anything."

She intended to catch the leader, only to toss him up again. But as the soldiers fell, a swarm of tentacled and furred/spiked demons descended and stripped the flesh from their bones before they touched. They turned their attention to her.

"Quality Meat!"

"Tastes So Sweet!"

"Time To Eat!"

Naru poised herself for fighting.

"Get away from me. I swear it won't go well for you."

The things chittered and snickered.

"Hear it preen!"

"Smell its heat!"

"Taste its rage!"

"Touch its anger!"

"See it-tear the heart from my chest, and the brain from my head?"

They were done even more quickly than the first bunch, and for the moment, no replacements came.

"Huh? I have messages on this stupid thing? Voice-Mail on a universe-traveling watch?"

She would soon wish she'd never noticed this function. She would also wish she could tear out her own heart and brain, for how much hurt she'd be in. Su appeared as a holo-face.

*Onee-Chan-you won the big game. But you don't have to remind us so often. I set your wristwear one safety level down from standard. I didn't tell the others. You'll be safe-you may not be very comfortable in some worlds. Oooh-you make me mad sometimes.*

"This is one safety down? Hold on-more messages?"

Mitsu was shaking her holo-head.

*Girl, you just don't when to stop. Not you. Why is it I have to change, and Kei has changed, and everybody's changed, but you're like this shark for evolution? I heard Su say that one safety level down won't hurt anything, though you'll see a bumpy ride. Kisses!*

Naru played the next message despite herself. Shinobu was looking sad but vengeful.

*You have one of the most wonderful men in the world. I think I may have met another, and started to move on. You say a few unneeded words, and suddenly, I'm once more a confused baby in puppy-love holding a skillet and throwing a tantrum. I heard Su tell Mitsu that one safety level down will be needed to get through worlds we need to see in order to get through. But I'm starting you out there. Damn you, Sempai. I feel like Kanako now.*

Increasingly numb, Naru played the next message.

*Narusegawa - do you know nothing of the concept of gracious victory? Of at least telling your failed competitors that it could have gone either way? When I asked Su to explain why trips to bad places might be needed, she showed me the safety settings. I then-*

Naru filtered past it, and played the last message.

"No-not you too. You promised to support me. Mutsumi, you promised."

In tears, she heard a message also recorded in tears.

*You've never once played fair. I love you both, and I have neither of you. I blew one chance to be with you, and another was stolen by this conspiracy. How can you be that cruel? Once I heard about the safety settings, I knew I had to show you by notching them down three levels. Once you reset them, you'll resume a normal path - and maybe you'll have actually learned something.*

Naru had wondered why her trip had literally gone to Hell. Now, she knew it was because that was what her sisters wanted for her.

"Fine? That's what you want? Understand, Ladies-I'm still coming back. Molmol 2 is going the same way as Round 1."

She shook with fury.

"A few simple words, not even harsh ones-and you do this? Okay. So it's like-I can never forgive or trust any of you ever again? Lesson learned. But this student teacher is holding detention, when she gets back-and we'll see who learns something. For now-"

She punched down a building - a damaged building near collapse - but still a building.

"If there's a demon army-then there's a demon king. So let's get ready."

She cracked her knuckles.

"Let's be extremely showy."

She kept to a rule as she punched, kicked, bit, and punched some more. If it looked Human, she held back, going for a simple knockout. This was harder than it sounded, since it seemed like every pipe in the city had been torn loose to be used as a bludgeon, and every piece of wood stood in their left hands.

*It's like they're trying to prove they're worse than the demons.*

Those that weren't actively trying to attack her were often excited into doing so if she met their stares, or if she avoided them. When it was kids, she learned to seize the biggest one's weapon and crunch or snap it in two.

"Do the math."

The math was simple enough that even feral/frightened kids ran off, with only a bare few regrouping, and then regretting their renewed attacks when spankings became literal.

So far, she hadn't caught on to the magnification of her considerable strength and skills. That is, until she saw a little girl, very pretty and with bangs like Mutsumi.

"I forgot how beautiful she is. I can't hate..."

They hadn't intended this, not directly. How often had all of their good intentions piled up till collapse? She would make them feel bad for reacting so poorly to her words, but wasn't that enough?

"She's meat."

The little girl pulled out a gun that seemed a good portion of her size, and fired at Naru. But as the neighborhood poured out to 'feast', they just as suddenly turned back when Naru caught the bullet between two fingers. She stared in surprise.

"That's new."

Grinning, she tossed the bullet very near the child's head. The girl weeped and did more than weep.

"Yeah. Guess Potty time came early, huh?"

Resuming her journey, Naru ominously began to encounter many fewer Humans, or even obviously possessed Humans. These were now pure demons. Their shapes began to be wilder, more off-putting-or they would have been off-putting, if Naru could have been put any further off. One who described itself as a demon general had his proclamation of her doom cut off when she plowed through his horde with no more mercy than the panicky Humans had been shown.

"Sisters, I'm going to find the way out of this world-and then we're going to talk. Be remorseful when we do. Because justifications got left behind at the fourth re-set."

What looked like a giant head with arms and legs grinned and moved right into her sight.

"Be a dear. Go-Psycho for Jenny."

The thing seemed to have her cold.

"Stare into my eyes. Forget everything good. Remember everything wrong. You are now a snarling wreck. What-what are you doing?"

Naru picked the literally damned thing up. One arm came off.

"Did you honestly try and make Naru Narusegawa MORE PSYCHO?"

"Why isn't it working on you?"

A leg came off.

"I'm not from around here. Maybe it's the fact I've spent the last four years dealing with all the repressed stuff people normally keep in their heads, which I'll bet is part of how you do business.

Both other limbs came off as the nightmare shrieked.

"Or maybe I'm already so pissed off at this world and the one I left, you're just irrelevant."

The demon felt her pull on either side of its remaining being.

"STOP! I am one of Satan's own circle. I am Immortal!"

Naru smiled.

"I've pounded an immortal to crap and back, mercilessly punished him for every last transgression real and imagined, and belittled him in what I knew was a vain effort to deny an essential truth of my existence. And that was the man I love."

The creature's eyes went all the wider as its fate approached. Naru waited for this, and said two words.

"Wishbone, anyone?"

It was now only barely beginning to disturb her that it wasn't disturbing her a lot more.

*This world. Just being here is eating into my soul. Gotta get out.*

In the distance, she sighted the winged figure from before, battling with a more angelic winged figure, but somehow the more demonic of the pair looked the more heroic.

"You killed her! All of my family!"

The angelic one smiled the way no angel ever would.

"The Humans did that all by themselves. But I will still spare you, and my price is small."

Suddenly, their battle and their banter ceased. The revealed schemer sniffed about him.

"My armies-my generals-my Psycho Jenny-who has torn through them with such abandon?"

The fiercer looking one, who seemed to have genuine Human feelings, also sniffed.

"They're not hiding. They're just gone? I could feel them before, like an assault on my essence. But now, there's nothing at all of them."

Unknown to either, a force beyond them had a pre-set trigger made to respond to the cessation of hostilities. Whether this force had spawned creation itself is debatable. But its power meant that for all who hailed from that alternate cosmos, it may as well have been exactly who it claimed.

"SO IT IS THAT YOU HAVE ONCE MORE SLAIN THE ONE YOU LOVE, FALLEN ONE. THE WORLD YOU KNOW - IS THE WORLD I MADE, SOLELY TO PUNISH YOUR REBELLION. YOU THOUGHT YOU AND YOUR HORRID RACE HAD SLAIN ME, BUT I AM BEYOND ALL SUCH. IMAGINE THE TRIBUTE, OH SATAN. ALL OF SUFFERING, HUMAN AND DEMON, A LOOPED SHADOW PLAY WITHOUT END CRAFTED BY MY LIGHT. WAIT!? DEVILMAN LIVES? BUT THE FIELDS ARE STREWN WITH YOUR DEMONS, AND THE WAR HAS CEASED. HOW CAN THIS BE?"

Naru had heard enough, and rose up like a rocket, startling Demon King, Demon Man, and would-be/possible Deity.

"All a scam? A dirty trick because you couldn't handle being told you were wrong? All Of It?"

The one called Devilman actually spoke to his foe, whether this was truly Satan or not.

"What can she do-against HIM?"

The first and last of monsters shook his head.

"Somehow-she's not of his creation. How is that possible?"

The ridiculous and the impossible collided like Naru's fist against the energy-head's chin. Her wrist-device overloaded, and the head exploded. When both were gone, the combatants stared stupidly, till Satan shrugged.

"Guess the loop may be broken. How about that kiss?"

The Devilman reverted to his Human form and walked away. Satan seemed indignant.

"Oh-oh. So I arrange the brutal deaths of everyone you ever loved, and you hold it against me? PETTY!"

Naru awoke once more, and saw scenes of carnage around her.

"Again? But-this is not Japan. Britain?"

People of all ages were dying around her, but it wasn't precisely demons chasing them this time.

"Nazi Vampires? REALLY?!"

Hoping the fearful people in this world were brighter than the fearful people she'd just left, Naru smashed several of the attackers surrounding some children. When only an apparent officer was left, Naru raised him over her head, and brought up her knee. The vampire asked a question before it was broken in two.

"I don't suppose saying 'I Was Only Following Orders' will help much?"

In fact it didn't help at all, and as Naru screamed, it didn't help a lot of his compatriots. To be sure, there were heroes steadfast and fierce defenders of murky morality in this world, but Naru would only meet with further rage before moving on, and with each world the misguided prank by her sisters became more firmly stark betrayal in her overworked mind.

( Naru is up against it in the worlds of Go Nagai's Devilman and the vampire war classic Hellsing. There will be more to come. )

HARUKA'S THOUGHTS

They're gonna be by soon. 'Just some questions for background', though we all know better by now. Since so much goes on here that no one understands, we're just playing it up.

The US Navy and the JSDF Naval Forces are now blockading Molmol. That place has been on their list since 1944, and now they know there's a treasure of tech there. The Chinese and Russians want in, but so far no go on that.

Where was I? Kei. We tease and we joke, and I've ridden him longer than any of them, but do I need to say it. I want him to come home so bad, I almost might let one of the others go to make it happen-but then he'd never forgive me. Or-I just would never do that. I helped raise all of them, but I still only held one of them as a baby. You don't forget.

The problem isn't that Kei is an idiot. The problem is he can be one, and he has the worst luck imaginable in a lot of cases, and when those two factors collide, Kei can find himself in a world of trouble.

Come back soon, guys. Bring the time machine, too, because we need a hard reset.

KEITARO URASHIMA

"Falling? From the sky? WAAAUUUGHHHH!"

He calmed himself and thought of his lessons with Seta.

*Heh. Those ladies like to knock you around. Isn't sublimation fun? No health risks that way. But if they're going to send you flying, then you better learn to fly-or at least how to fall.*

He pulled in his flailing arms and legs, and dropped straight down until he could discern the sights of the ground beneath him.

"Not too many people. Time to slow my impact. I hope!"

Now, he held out his arms and legs, and undid his jacket, just a bit, to let the wind catch it. It would never function as a true parachute, but this landing was likely to be ugly in any event, so his endurance plus a controlled impact would have to see him through. Nowadays, he understood what he was well enough that even a fall from the height he started at might not kill him, but it could leave him very vulnerable for a longer time than he could allow. His wristwear in the wrong hands was a nightmare he didn't even want to start on.

"A frenzy from down that street?"

A girl was kicking up a cloud of dust, while a boy chased her. He couldn't see them clearly yet, but their shouts carried as they went.

"Yuuki-San, haven't you done enough? Thirteen girls are naked now because of you!"

The boy's voice carried not lust but a plea.

"Just keep running, Kotegawa-Sempai. My hands have become clothes magnets. Until you fully outpace me, this force just keeps pulling me along for the ride!"

Kei could now see the boy was floating, his hands out in front of him, a hapless look that Kei knew all too well pasted on his face.

"Hmmm...have to time this right."

Taking off his jacket but holding on to it, Kei rose in the air and then folded up the jacket and resumed his straight-arrow plummet. Counting on the force of the boy's unwitting float catching his fall as well, Kei fell onto him, wrapping his offending hands in the jacket, which as Kei guessed, as male clothing shielded the girl's clothes from the 'magnet'. Kei and the boy fell to the ground, but the boy seemed relieved.

"Thanks, Onii-Chan. I don't know where you came from, but maybe now I can go one week without embarrassing Kotegawa-Sempai."

The girl walked over, out of breath but concerned for the boy - albeit with a familiar disguise.

"While it would serve you right to break your hands, Yuuki-Kun-I hope that neither they or you are injured."

The boy sulked while keeping his hands well inside the insulating jacket.

"The only injury is to my standing, Sempai. Once again, every girl I know thinks I'm the worst sort of man-maybe as bad as the principal. Now, just like you, Sairenji-Chan will hate me forever."

Kotegawa blushed, which Yuuki didn't see, but Kei plainly did.

"I do not hate you, Yuuki-Kun. I despise your many many ecchi episodes, but any fool can see these are plainly not your fault. Hmph! We all know hands do not become clothes magnets by themselves."

Before this could be explained, Kotegawa turned and bowed to Kei, misty gratitude in her pretty eyes.

"Sir-thank you for protecting me from Yuuki-Kun's abominable luck. I had resigned myself to yet another round of embarrassment. I am Yui Kotegawa, and you are my hero for this."

The boy looked up, but didn't get up, not wanting his hands to get free of the jacket.

"Yes, thank you, Onii-Chan. I am Rito Yuuki, and this sort of thing-just keeps happening to me. I think I must be cursed."

A new girl wearing a robe walked over. If Kotegawa had traces of Naru in her face and form, this one bespoke Shinobu, in her looks and in her apparent hesitancy.

"Yuuki-Kun is not cursed. I spoke to Lala-chan. She thinks one of her inventions caused this to happen."

Kotegawa folded her arms.

"Well, isn't that just the greatest surprise!"

It took no sort of detective work by Kei to realize that this Lala was the resident soul who kept life interesting. Still in that, he had no idea. Rito Yuuki nodded his head towards Kei.

"Thank you for always forgiving me, Sairenji-chan. By the way, this man came in time to stop me from also harming Kotegawa-Sempai."

Haruna Sairenji managed a slight smile.

"Yuuki-Kun always sees too much of my body, but he at least blushes, tries to look away, or apologizes for it. It's part of how nice Yuuki-Kun is."

Kotegawa was about to deliver yet another mixed barb at Yuuki, but spied something on Kei's hand and for once forgot about the one boy she truly-did not hate.

"Sir! Is that a Todai class ring?"

All three younger people were suddenly focused on Kei's hand. Rito Yuuki nodded.

"It is! It's a second year Todai ring!"

As Haruna also stared in wonder, Kei remembered something.

"Oh, yeah-I meant to get the new one before we left."

Haruna now lit up, her modesty-saving robe almost slipping before Yui Kotegawa righted it.

"A third-year Todai alumnus? No wonder he saved the day for Kotegawa-San."

Kei had honestly forgotten the near-reverence he had once held for someone in his position.

"Well, Sairenji-San, I'd say that has a lot less to do with Todai and more to do with my having been in Yuuki-San's position in the past. Nothing quite so extreme, but some awkward circumstances I had to navigate. I am Keitaro Urashima, and it's a pleasure to meet all of you. But I have to get going."

But just as Kei had fallen from the sky, so did another new girl descend slowly, a device in hand and wings grown out from her clothes on her back. She aimed the device at Rito Yuuki.

"There. That should undo the effects of Clothes-Pull-Kun. What's this big deal about Todai? Oooh-is it some lost location in a secret island kingdom?"

Kei was about to comment on this wild but partially accurate guess when Kotegawa stepped in.

"Todai is the prestigious University Of Tokyo - only the Harvard Of Japan! And why would you use such an invention on Yuuki-Kun?"

Rito got up, took the jacket off his hands, and held them near a nervous Haruna. Thankfully, her robe stayed on her.

"Moreover, why wouldn't you tell me you did this-again?"

At first, the girl, who Kei guessed was the Lala-chan of their talk, seemed quite defensive. Her pink hair was odd enough, but Kei felt like something else was different about her as well.

"Hey! Rito-Kun was worried about being late to school, and finding the clothes he wanted was eating up precious time in the morning. I used Clothes-Pull-Kun before I created Peke. It allows the user to pull only those clothes over that they are at all interested in. I was trying to help."

Kei thought he was going out of his mind when Lala's hairpin began to speak.

"Lala-chan, I would not wish that Neanderthal prototype on anyone. Don't you recall how, when you attempted to upgrade it to giving you multiple selections, Clothes-Pull-Kun went wild?"

Lala gulped.

"I-I do now. Wait a minute-why does this guy have such crazy wristwear?"

Her figure aside, Kei knew that, with an attention span like that, Lala had to be the Kaolla Su of this lot. She could not be allowed to mess with his transit.

"This, Lala-San, is a gift from my friend. I have to ask you not to touch it-no offense."

Lala held up her own wrist.

"None taken and no need to touch it. Peke-scan and duplicate!"

The talking hairpin would take some getting used to, but it seemed more lucid than its owner.

"Intriguing, Lala-Chan. While crude and cobbled together from disparate parts, its basic design is really quite advanced. This wristwear enables the user to travel between alternate versions of the universe on a quantum level. This man is from a reality where none of us present likely even exist."

Lala's eyes went wide. Something curled up from her backside.

"Alternate world travel? I never even dared try that. Urashima-San, your friend must be a certifiable genius. Can I meet them?"

Kei answered as he caught full view of what really made Lala different.

"She's in another alternate universe, Lala-chan. We're trying to find and stop someone who invaded our home reality. Ummm-why do you have a tail?"

Lala shrugged.

"Because all the members of my world's royal family have them."

Kei's mouth dropped open as he realized this girl was in fact an alien being. It slammed shut when he also realized-so, technically, was he. As Lala restored the clothes Haruna had lost, Yui Kotegawa walked up to Kei.

"Urashima-Sempai - universe traveler, protector and Todai Third-Year. If you have no place to stay in this world, I offer up my home. I owe you that much."

Oddly, it was Rito Yuuki who objected.

"Sempai, Urashima-sempai can't stay at your home. Your brother is away all week, and people may talk unjustly about you and your guest."

Kotegawa bit down.

"Yuuki-Kun is right. Even without that, my Onii-Chan would tease me mercilessly. But where can our brave traveler stay?"

Rito felt he had a solution.

"He could stay with me. It'll be great to have another guy around for once, and Urashima-Sempai can maybe help me with my college prep. Maybe while he's here, he can even talk to other students. On many levels, he'll be a celebrity to them."

"Very well, Yuuki-Kun. I will trust that the upright moral nature of our guest can survive your extremely ecchi household. Who knows? Maybe between him and Yuuki-Kun's sweet little sister, your sad misadventures can even be restrained."

Kei was seeing a lot of strange things. But even among these, an uptight young girl praising his morals was an alternate world all by itself.

"I thank you, Kotegawa-San, Yuuki-San. Don't worry about me and ecchi stuff - I have a very beautiful fiancee and several lovely girls I call my sisters to keep me in line, just by thinking about them. Until my device finds the place I need to go, I accept your kind offers and swear to do all I can to be of aid."

The others left, and Keitaro walked with Rito, the spiky-haired younger man staring hard at Haruna Sairenji as she left. Kei made a guess.

"Take the advice of a guy who used to hesitate, hem and haw-you should tell her."

Rito shook his head.

"Easier said than done, Sempai. When my nerves aren't interfering, the time is somehow not right. When those two things aren't in play-things seem to happen for no other reason than to stop it. Besides, suppose she doesn't feel the same?"

"Suppose she does, and you never ask?"

Rito began to look more confident.

"Sempai, what's it like?"

Kei was confused.

"Huh?"

Rito looked up at the sky.

"I mean, I'll bet back in your universe, all people ever say about you is that Keitaro Urashima is one smooth, confident, all-around winner guy."

Kei out of courtesy did not burst out laughing.

"They say-something like that, Rito-San."

Before this first day ended, Kei got one more taste of what life in his guest world was like. Rito's pretty little sister Mikan heard the story of their strange visitor.

"Wait-a GUY fell out of the sky and is moving in with us? You expect me to believe that?"

(Author's Note : Just to be complete, Keitaro is in the world of To-Love-Ru, also simply known as trouble, whose hero has a larger harem and has more ecchi episodes than Kei ever dreamed of. The plan is, one chapter each showing the main cast in their worlds/situations before reuniting to fight the mystery big bad. The pace should be much faster in this book - Gojirob, soooo glad to have Book 3 started within the promised time frame.)

Next, in Chapter One : Bluer Than Mitsune