Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Love Hina, Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.
WARNING: Contains scenes of bloody violence. Reader discretion is advised.
MINDS WITHIN A MIND
Chapter 1: Tragedy Befalls
It's a warm July summer day in Hinata town. There is a constant breeze blowing keeping the temperature from rising to high. The air still feels a bit "sticky" because of all the hot springs around the area, but it isn't too bad. It's shortly after lunch time at Hinata Sou. Naru, wanting to take a break from studying for some of her classes at Toudai, decides shopping is the perfect way to relax, but she doesn't want to go alone. Since Kitsune has a hair appointment at the salon down the street in about 30 mins she decides to take another good friend.
"Hey! Shinobu!" calls Naru into the kitchen. Shinobu is standing by the sink drying off some dishes she has just gotten through washing after lunch. She turns to the doorway.
"Oh hey Naru." she answers after being slightly startled. "Do you need me for something?" she asks. "Not really, but that was a great lunch you fixed." Naru says with much gratitude. Shinobu blushes a little. "Thank you." Shinobu says a little embarrassed.
"Well I was thinking that since you do so much for us, you know with all the cooking and cleaning, I though I could take you shopping; My treat." she adds. "That's very nice of you but I still have some more work to do." Shinobu answers with hesitancy.
"Oh come on! It'll be fun! I know this great little shop near Toudai that sells a lot of great cloths. I'll buy you a nice outfit!" she says while grabbing Shinobu's arm. "But-" Shinobu says while taking a step back. "Don't worry I'll get Keitaro to do your chores until we get back. Now come on!" she commands playfully as she yanks Shinobu out of the kitchen. "Ahh!" yelps Shinobu as she is suddenly jerked by her arm. "Ok! Ok! I'll come." Shinobu finally agrees.
Moments later Shinobu and Naru are heading out the door. Naru turns around to look at Motoko watching the T.V. "Hey Motoko. Shinobu and I are heading out for a while, watch over the place while where out, and make sure Kietaro does those chores I told him about ok." she reminds. "Don't you worry about that. You 2 have fun alright." says Motoko in her almost emotionless voice but still with a slight smile. "We will!" says Shinobu as she turns and waves good-bye. She and Naru start walking down the steps to the bus stop just down below.
As they walk up to the bus stop Shinobu turns her head to Naru. "Hey Naru, um, why did you want to take me shopping all of a sudden?" she asks curiously. "Well since Kitsune had a hair appointment today she couldn't come, so you were the next logical choice. Besides I haven't seen you get any new outfits since Christmas when your mom got you that yellow dress. So I though I would treat you to some new cloths for all the hard work you have done for us." Naru says with a big smile as she faces Shinobu. Shinobu blushes a little. "Thank you." she says. "No problem." Naru answers back.
The bus finally arrives about 5 mins later and Naru and Shinobu both board it. After about an hour they reach the bus stop beside Tokyo U. As Shinobu and Naru exit the bus Naru announces that they have arrived.
"So where is this store?" asks Shinobu. "It's just down the street." answers Naru as the points in the direction they need to go.
They walk down the street for about 5 to 8 mins before Naru stops. "We're here!" she announces. Shinobu looks up at the store's sign trying to see if the store is a local retailer. She's puzzled by the name for a second. (Although it is written in Japanese Characters)
"John…Johns…-" she says trying her best to read and say it at the same time. "Johnson's Clothing Outlet." says Naru helping Shinobu pronounce the name. "Johnson? Isn't that an American name?" Shinobu asks a bit confused. "Yeah. The couple that owns this store are from America. They sell American brand cloths, shoes, and jewelry like Nike and Polo. It's a bit expensive but they sell a great selection of cloths. Lately I have been buying almost all my new cloths from here." she adds. "Neat! I always wanted to have some cloths made from an American brand." says Shinobu finally getting a bit excited about the shopping trip.
Naru and Shinobu walk through the door and the door hits a little bell above it announcing their arrival. "Oh hello Naru!" says a tall man behind the glass display counter. He looks to be in his 40's with a little grey hair on the sides of his head. Very broad in the shoulders he looks as if he could lift 3 Narus with on arm alone. "Hello Mr. Johnson." answers Naru with a smile.
"Back for another designer shirt?" says a dark blonde haired woman on a roller latter behind Mr. Johnson. She looks to be about the same age but she is a clear foot shorter than Mr. Johnson "Nah. Not this time Mrs. Johnson. This time a brought a friend." answers Naru as she points to Shinobu.
"And who might this be?" asks Mr. Johnson as he turns to Shinobu. "Oh hello my name is Shinobu Maehara. I'm please to meet you sir." says Shinobu bowing with nervousness in her voice. "Relax. You can just call me Mr. Johnson. We're pleased to meet you too." says Mr. Johnson.
"Welcome Miss Shinobu to our little store we hope you'll find something to your liking." says Mrs. Johnson. "Thank you. I'm sure I will." answers Shinobu.
Shinobu turns her eyes and notices Mr. Johnson staring at her. She blushes a bit before turning to him. "Um…is there something wrong?" she asks nervously. "Oh I'm sorry. It's just that you look bit like our daughter. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable." he adds. "You know she does look like Susie." says Mrs. Johnson after taking a second look at Shinobu. Shinobu blushes a bit more.
"Tell you what Shinobu." speaks up Mr. Johnson startling Shinobu a bit. "Since you're a friend of Naru, one of out best customers, and since you look a bit like our daughter I'll let you have 25 percent off your 1st purchase of anything in the store." he finishes. "Really?" asks Shinobu with a stunned smile. Mr. Johnson nods his head with a smile of his own. "Thank you!" Shinobu says with excitement in her voice. Shinobu walks off to the designer dresses near the front window of the store.
"Honey. Do you think it's wise to do that, we still own money to THEM." says Mrs. Johnson in a whispering concerned voice after getting off the ladder to reach into a cardboard box full of shirts. "Don't worry. I know we still owe money to THEM but if we don't give our customers a deal every once in a while some of them might not want to come back ever again." says Mr. Johnson. Mrs. Johnson nods her head as if to say she understands.
"So you owe some money to someone?" asks Naru curiously. "Oh um…uh….yeah some money." says Mr. Johnson hesitantly. "See when we 1st opened the store, business wasn't going to well. Bills started to pile up, and the city and tax collectors were starting to breath down our necks. So we…uh… took out a loan to help pay off the bills and pay some of the taxes. Good thing we did because shortly afterward 'word of mouth' about our store started to spread quickly and business started to pick up and the money started flowing better. That's about the time when you 1st started coming to our store. We're about a week behind the due date to pay THEM back but we just about have enough money to pay THEM back with in the next couple of days. I'm sure THEY won't be mad at us since we're going to pay THEM a little bit of interest since the payment is going to be a little late" explains Mr. Johnson.
"And who are 'They?'" asks Naru curiously. Mr. Johnson obviously looks uncomfortable about talking about this and tries to change the subject.
"It's amazing how much your friend looks like our daughter." he says. "Oh really? How so?" Naru asks. Mr. Johnson breaths a sigh of relief in his mind then reaches into his back pocket and pulls out his wallet. He opens it up and pulls out a picture.
"This is Susie." he says as he hands the picture over to Naru. Naru takes the picture and looks at it for a moment. "Hey! Your right! She does look a bit like Shinobu!" says Naru with a bit of surprise.
Mrs. Johnson seeing that Mr. Johnson changed the subject climbs back up the roller ladder and starts placing folded shirts into some display holes behind the counter.
"You know she came to visit us last week." says Mr. Johnson. "Oh man. It's a shame I missed her." says Naru with a bit of disappointment in her voice. "Yea I'm sure you 2 would have gotten along really well because she always loved to make new friends with our customers." adds Mr. Johnson.
Shinobu glances back at Naru and Mr. Johnson having a nice conversation and then turns back around to look at some more dresses. She walks up to one of the store's 2 display windows and looks at the 2 manikins wearing the latest dress designs. One is wearing a pink dress with a beautiful flower pattern on it. The other one is wearing a bluish green dress with white frilly edgings on the sleeves and the bottom of the dress.
She looks at them for a moment and then starts to look at the folded dresses lying on the small display shelf in the window. As she looks at them something out of the corner of her eye catches her attention. She looks out and sees a white Honda flying down the street at a blazing speed. She can tell its speeding because every time it would hit a bump it would go several inches off the road before landing again.
"Man that idiot is going to kill someone!" Shinobu thinks to herself.
She keeps watching it expecting it to go flying by the store any second now when she is surprised to see it slam on its breaks causing a huge smoke cloud to erupt from behind it. She watches as it comes to a complete stop in front of the store. As the smoke cloud catches up and envelopes the car she can barley make out the driver's side window and the window behind the driver start to be rolled down.
As the windows come down she sees 2 black things being pointed at the store. She immediately recognizes the shape of the 2 things.
"GUN!" she cries out startling Naru and Mr. Johnson out of their conversation and some of the other customers.
Suddenly a hail of gunfire and bullets comes blasting and smashing through the windows and the door into the store. Naru is confused for a second until she fells a hard shove on her back which causes her to fall to the ground.
A split second after she hits the ground she hears, "Argh!" and then hears something land beside her with a thud. She looks over and sees Mr. Johnson dead on the ground with a bullet to the head and one through the throat. Next she hears a scream and then something crashing into the glass display case above her. She feels some glass hit her back but nothing cuts her.
For several seconds the gunfire continues to rain into the store, shredding up cloths, knocking over manikins and displays, and shattering mirrors and anything glass. The screams of other customers are nearly drowned out by the gunfire from outside.
Then as quickly as it stared the gunfire stops and Naru hears the sound of tires spin as the car takes off.
After a second or 2 Naru slowly lifts her head up. She looks over at Mr. Johnson covered and in a pool of blood. She tries to stand up but bumps into something above her. She turns around to see what she bumped and falls back on her butt in horror as she sees Mrs. Johnson covered in blood with glass sticking out of her chest and stomach. She looks over to see a bullet wound in her shoulder. Apparently she was shot and was knocked off the roller ladder and fell into the glass display case causing her to be impaled by several large glass shards strait through her back and out her chest, and stomach.
Naru looks to the back of the store and sees other customers getting off the ground and coming out from behind various hiding places. Naru suddenly remembers Shinobu.
"Shinobu! Shinobu! Are you ok?" cries Naru as she starts heading to the front of the store. "Shino-" she is cut off when she sees Shinobu slowly walk out from behind a rack of shredded cloths.
"Shinobu! Oh thank God your-" she stops when she sees the look in Shinobu's face that she has never seen before.
She looks at Shinobu holding her stomach. Naru shakes her head a bit fearing what she is thinking. She looks back at Shinobu's face and then back at her hands and starts to see blood ooze out from between Shinobu's fingers.
"Shinobu?" Naru says with fear in her voice. "……Naru" says Shinobu weakly.
Suddenly the strength in Shinobu's legs gives out and she falls to her knees and starts to fall forward. "Shinobu!" cries out Naru as she rushes to her.
Naru catches Shinobu in her arms and holds her. Shinobu looks directly into Naru's eyes with a face of sheer terror and pain mixed in. Naru looks at her for a moment. "Come on Shinobu! You have to hang on girl!" Naru calls out. Naru then lifts up Shinobu's hands to look at the bullet wound. She looks at it as it starts to poor out blood profusely. "Oh God." she whispers to herself. She turns to the other people in the back of the store and then to the growing crowd gathering out side the store.
"Somebody call for help hurry!" she cries to them. A man waves at her getting her attention and then points to his cell phone that he has up to this ear as if to say he's already on it. "Call an Ambulance! Hurry!" she calls out to him anyway. The man nods and starts talking into the phone to someone.
As Naru looks at him Shinobu reaches up and grabs a hold of Naru's shirt sleeve getting her attention.
Shinobu takes a couple of hard fought breaths. "Naru…….Please tell…..Please tell Sempai that I love him." she says with a whimpering whisper voice. Naru jerks back a bit out of shock from hearing this as tears start to form in her eyes. "No! You can tell him that yourself!" she shouts at Shinobu as a couple of tears fly out of her eyes. As she says that the sounds of a couple of blaring sirens off in the distance tells them that help is coming.
Shinobu's face starts to turn very pale as she gives a small smile at Naru. Her grip weakens and her hand falls off of Naru's sleeve leaving behind a blood stained hand print on Naru's sleeve. She then gasps for air a couple of times before her eyes start to shut.
"Shinobu! Come on stay with me!" Naru says in a crackling voice.
Shinobu's eyes shut all the way as Shinobu uses the last of her strength to try to hold the air in her lungs for as long as possible but to no avail. The breath escapes her lungs and her body falls limp in Naru's arms.
"No…..No…..This can't be happening…..No…." Naru says starting to shake her head. "SHINOBUUUUU!" she whales as the plunges her face into Shinobu's chest and begins to cry bitterly.
End of Chapter 1
To be continued in Chapter 2- "Waiting: part 1"
Author Note: Ok let's get one thing strait. gabs you by the collar and brings you in close to his face. Shinobu's not dead! She's the main character of this story so it wouldn't make since to kill her now would it? I just wanted to say that, so if any Shinobu fans are reading this, not to get upset.