Love Hina is owned by Ken Akamatsu
The Cat Is Out of the Bag
Keitaro knew that he would never forget the first time he saw her in her other form. It was the first week in December of the first year as dorm manager. Barely two months since he had arrived.
It was in the middle of the night when he was woken up by Kitsune yelping. Poor girl was looking after Kaolla for a few nights. Motoko had caught a cold from someone when she went to the kendo training camp. Kitsune's ribs must have been turned to powder A few days ago it had been his rib cage that had been sacrificed.
He got up and stumbled towards the kitchen to get a glass of water. As he drank the water he looked out of the window, up at the stars, it was a pretty night after all. While watching the stars there some movement in his peripheral vision. He turned his head in the direction of the movement and couldn't believe his eyes. He saw a black cat. It was not a small domestic cat that you would usually see in a city, no this was a humungous, lion sized, bloodthirsty, killer cat. What zoo had it escaped from?
He was quite proud of his behavior, he didn't freak out or turn into a gibbering wreck even when the giant cat turned to face him. He assumed he was dreaming or that it was an optical illusion. "Must be a trick of the shadows" he muttered to him self as he retreated from the kitchen as quickly as he could, he wasn't running away no it was a tactical withdrawal so he could hide in his futon. He went back to his room but did not get much sleep no mater how hard he told him self it was just him imagining shapes in the shadows he could not explain those eyes.
He never forgot the event it was always there in the back of his mind when ever he had a late night study session or when he had to do something around the dorms at night. Of course he didn't associate it with her at the time. There was nothing linking the 'shadows of his imagination' with her.
Over the next weeks he never noticed her watching him when ever they were in the same room as his mind was on other things. It was too close to the final exam, and he was mostly in his room studying. He just knew he would pass this time after all the saying is third time lucky right?
It would be more than a year later when he saw her in a similar state again to the way she was that night.
She was running late! Her ears and tail were already showing! She needed to get out of Hinata dorms before she changed completely. She could not risk being found in such a state. She opened her window and was about to climb out when her door opened. She looked back in horror to see him.
Her thoughts follow;
...
...
...
...
No! My shame been discovered!
Not by him!
MUST SILENCE HIM!
That morning he had been launched through her ceiling by Naru for one of his acts of 'perversion', or what ever she had imagined this time. He was going to her room to fix the hole before it got too late. It was almost sundown and he needed to get this done before anyone got to sleep, he did not want to be accused of, or worse punished for being lazy. When he opened the sliding door and saw her about to climb out of her window. She had black cat ears and a tail, also black. She looked back at him with a horrified expression on her face.
His thoughts follow;
The costume looks so cute on her!
Why is she climbing out of the window?
The ears and tail are moving on their own... how?
Gah
They stared at each over for a few moments then she lunged back into the room and dragged Keitaro in from the doorway. She closed the door as quickly as she could without making a sound, while Keitaro stumbled and fell over onto his back. He let out a cry of pain. She was freaked out at the sound and jumped onto him clamping her hand over his mouth banging his head into the floor. She looked him dead in the eye. "Urashima silence yourself, if you make a sound I will rip your throat out with my teeth. Do you comprehend?"She whispered just loud enough for him to hear. She did not want to make any noise that would bring the others. If they came and discovered her 'condition', it was not worth contemplating the consequences.
He nodded very vigorously. He was quite dizzy from being flung into the room. He was fast running out of air as she had forced it all out of his lungs when she landed on him, and she was not letting him breath with her hand clamped onto his face. Also having a breathtakingly beautiful girl on top of him did not helping matters. Spots started appearing in his vision thus the oxygen deprivation was bad.
At this point he was thinking he was going to die sound or no sound. Someone was bound to walk in while she was on top of him and Naru would launch him to China for being in another compromising position, behind a closed door in one of the girls bedroom.
"I will now remove my hand. Not one noise or you shall die." She whispered while removing her hand. He gasped the sweat life giving air.
The sun finally finished setting and she was suddenly covered fully in fur and had a cat nose. She was like an uber-cute human cat highbreed. They lay on the floor in silence watching each other Keitaro on his back with her on top of him glaring at him. That was until Keitaro did, depending on your point of view, a very very stupid or a very very brave thing. He started to stroke her head between her ears. Did I mention he was stupid?
The were-catgirl started to purr at his actions and generally behave like a domestic cat being petted. She rubbed her head against his hand then against his neck before settling down to be stoked. It was kind of cute... or it was until she fell asleep on top of him pinning him to the ground.
He dared not try to escape from fear of waking her.
'Great get mauled to death now for waking her up... whatever she is, or die later when she wakes up on her own and finds me underneath her.' He thought to him self. 'Might as well be as comfortable as possible before I die. I hope she changes back before waking up, if not I'm breakfast. It'll be like a cat playing with a mouse.' He groaned at his own bad joke. He stretched out his free arm for a pillow, inconveniently it was just out of his reach. It was going to be a long night he thought wile tears streaked down his face. He'd have to stay awake to try and make sure she did not wake up. 'Let sleeping cats lie'. Another groan at his own bad jokes
'Well if she is human again in the morning I hope I am able to talk to her if she eats me I'm not going to be able to heal from that. Better start thinking of what to say in the morning.' He thought to him self.
Twenty minutes later he was asleep.
During sunrise the next day
Motoko woke up after a great nights sleep. Most nights when she prowled outside the dorms were stressful for her as she was unable to sleep outside due to the fear of being discovered, but this time she felt quite rested. Her futon was nice and warm and hugging her nicely she did not want to get up. Then her brain engaged 'I did not fall asleep on a futon. What is hugging me?' she thought and went ridged. Opening her eyes brought her face to face with that disgusting male Urashima. She froze in horror. Memories of last night being discovered then falling asleep on top of him assaulted her mind. One of her three fears had come true she had been discovered and will soon be evicted. Urashima started to stir.
Keitaro woke up from a very nice yet odd dream. He had dreamt that the girls were all wearing costumes.
Mutsume was dressed a very skimpy nurse uniform, the surgical tools she had included a butchers knife, a meat cleaver and an electric carver.
Naru dressed as a black bunny girl dragging Kitsune to the entrance of the cram school to hand out flyers for something called 'Saving the World by Eliminating Perverts Naru Narusegawa brigade', Kitsune was dressed as a red bunny girl trying and failing to resist Naru.
Motoko was dressed as a cat girl shrine maiden. She was exorcising turtle demons all over the place with her sword swinging wildly, with no care for collateral damage.
Kaolla was dressed as a monkey swinging around the place eating bananas, but why did she have cybernetic implants all over her? Su of Borg or something?
Shinobu was dressed as a devil with bat wings, two small horns, a corset, micro skirt and stilettos all black. Nyamo went as an angel with identical clothing to Shinobu but white, white feathered wings and a halo instead of horns, they were standing either side of him whispering something into his ears. He couldn't quite remember what but it was Nyamo was saying something about the name and identity of his promised girl Shinobu was saying something about moving on to a new promised girl.
Alright, not so nice a dream. More ominous than nice, but still great costumes. 'My subconscious is weird.'
What woke him up? Oh that's right his blanket had become ridged for some reason. Why was he sleeping on the floor with such a heavy blanket? He opened his eyes and looked towards his right at the hole in the ceiling and wondered why Naru's room had become the sky.
He wondered what the time was and looked over towards his alarm clock on his left and came face to face with Motoko, she had cat ears on. 'Oh that's cute, just like my dream.' he thought. Then his brain caught up with the situation he had fallen asleep in Motoko's room. He jerked awake and sprang out from under her, dumping her onto the floor. His brain caught up some more and realized that she might still eat him if he was not careful and annoyed her. They watched each other for a long moment.
'Ok not going with the blood and ripping with teeth yet.' Finally Keitaro spoke "We need to talk."
"Yes we do." Motoko replied.
A/N
Not much dialogue in this chapter but it is only the introduction.
For Motoko's appearance after sunset think Hermione from Camber of Secretes but cuter.
This chapter is after Vol 8 but before Vol 9 starts.
For the sake of timing I am assuming that the residents returned from Pararakelse Island on 1st March 2000.
The timeline I am using as a general reference says they returned after the 15th. It can be found here http:/lovehina(dot)wikia(dot)com/wiki/Love_Hina_Timeline
