Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina and make no profit from this work.
WARNINGS: Rated T for language, violence, mature themes (e.g. gender norms, sexuality, depression, and social commentary), non-explicit sexual themes, and shoujo-ai/yuri.
AN: So, this is the fandom I previously started on on my previous account (Look up 'Love Hina: All Girls Dorm Edition' for my first ever story with my first account, which was completed), and for some reason I find it calling out to me again with this lovely little idea I bring to you! Sadly I lost my old account login stuff and the email long since closed, but I'm back and ready to bring you some awesome fanfiction! Hope y'all enjoy and leave reviews please!
UPDATE: Right, someone reminded me that I put 'nephew' for Keitaro in reference to Granny Hina. Yeah, Hina and Haruka got blended in my head it seems... fixed though for Keitaro to be Hina's grandson, and Haruka's nephew (I think I got them all)
UPDATE2: At a review's suggestion I have reviewed grammar and writing rules, and adjusted accordingly. I now use the hyphen for conjoined words and stuttering, en dashes for the in-sentence narrative asides, and the em dash for the cut-offs and interruptions. Hooray learning! Also fixed the quote/period issue too.
Also, for reference - is a hyphen, – is an en dash, and — is an em dash.
Love Hina: Changes
Chapter 1
"Hello? Grandma Hina?" a voice called as the front entrance to the Hinata 'Inn' slid open. "It's… it's me, Keitaro? Your grandson? Hello?"
No response; were the staff all on break? Were they closed for business today? It was an off-season for hotels and inns after all… Keitaro made his way into the 'Inn,' checking the kitchen, the halls, a few open – and empty – rooms, and eventually stopping in front of Hina's room, clearly marked, to find that indeed it seemed neither guest nor employee nor owner was present on the grounds of the 'Inn'. It was odd; why would Hina ask him to come here after he'd contacted her about his situation, then not be here when he was expected to arrive? It made very little sense…
Waiting in Grandma Hina's room for a while, he eventually got bored and decided to get up and look around some more. It'd been a very long time since he'd last been here, the time of the promise that had driven him so far in his life being the last time he was on the ground of the Hinata 'Inn.' He wanted to try and get a feel for the place again, perhaps spark more memories of the girl from so long ago, just maybe.
Or, perhaps instead, he'd find—
"A hot spring bath?!" Keitaro exclaimed as he opened up the door and saw the vast expanse of the bath before him. "Wow, I don't remember this being here!"
He began to take a few steps towards the changing room, slowed, and then eventually stopped, a look of concern on his face. It was a good several seconds of him frozen still in silence before Keitaro decided that perhaps a bath was a bad idea. After all, someone might see him, and he really didn't like the thought of that. So back out the way he came in, shutting the door behind him with a sigh. Well, that decision over and done with, the place really was empty… didn't Haruka have a tea shop nearby? Maybe Hina and the employees were taking their break at Aunt Haruka's shop there…
The door to the shop gave off a jingle that caught Haruka's attention from her smoke break out behind her teahouse. A little grumble as she dropped the cigarette and ground it out prefaced her return to work, an expression of 'not pissed off at least' where one would expect a smile for greeting customers was present as she came through the divide to the front of the shop. Didn't even get the usual greeting out before she realized who it was waving at her, and only then did some semblance of a smile cross her features (and only because he was the only one at the shop at the moment; she had an appearance to keep up!).
"Well Keitaro, I didn't think I'd see you today," she said, retrieving another cigarette, but not lighting it yet. "Granny didn't mention you'd be here today..."
"...huh?" was Keitaro's response, clearly surprised. "But... the message she sent me was for me to show up today! She's not losing her memory is she?"
A bemused chuckle was the only response Haruka gave, save for a roll of her eyes that just screamed 'no way in hell'.
"Well, that explains why there was nobody up at Hinata..." Keitaro continued, moving to find himself a seat close to Haruka, whom now had her full attention on Keitaro.
"Wait, you've been up to the dorm already?" the older woman asked, an edge to her voice implying an incredulous disbelief.
"Yeah, saw the kitchen, the bath, Hina's room. Waited there a while, but seems nobody was there," Keitaro explained with a nervous grin. "It felt kind of odd wandering around the Inn without anyone around..."
"Dangerous too."
Keitaro's grin froze then, his eyes looking to Haruka, unsure of what she meant.
"Um..."
"The girls up there, some of them are..." Haruka struggled for a good term without being too rude. "Distrustful of having men on the premise, sometimes violently so. Can't really blame them really, given why they're here."
"Wait, why would Hina hire girls to work there that would be so dangerous to guests?" Keitaro asked, the sincerity of the question confusing Haruka until it finally clicked:
"Keitaro, what do you think Hinata is?"
"Huh? It's the Hinata Inn, just as it's always been," Keitaro answered, brow furrowed and confused. "I figured Grandma heard about my, uh, situation and thought I could stay here a bit, which is why she wanted me to come here and talk to her."
Now was time for the cigarette to be lit up; damn Granny Hina sometimes, 'cause Haruka was not about to enjoy this conversation with the mess she'd made of things.
"Keitaro, Hinata isn't an Inn anymore; it's a girls-only dormitory, and it has been for a couple years now."
Silence with only Haruka's inhaling smoke and Keitaro's blinking to add to the lack of sound from the otherwise empty shop persisted for several seconds before—
"IT'S A WHAT?!"
One long explanation later...
"So... this is a dorm, for girls... and Grandma hasn't been here in over a year... and some of the girls have... 'issues,' with men..." Keitaro eventually repeated after Haruka's explanation and re-explanations, mentally trying to keep it all in. "Why would she—?"
"No idea," Haruka cut in, having finished her smoke, but still held the filter (or butt) in her fingers. "You know how Granny is."
Silence, yet again.
"Maybe Shirai or Haitani will let me stay with them?" Keitaro muttered, though it seemed as if he was unsure himself, for one reason or another. "I can't stay here after all—"
"Why not?"
This renewed Keitaro's surprise in a heartbeat.
"I, huh?"
"Granny isn't here; I'm the one running the dorm for her," Haruka explained, tossing the butt of her last cig into the nearby ashtray. "Means I am the one who decides who gets to move in, if anyone can."
"Besides, you're family," Haruka continued, with a bit of frustration growing as she thought of her sister, Keitaro's mother. "We Urashimas take care of our own. At least that's how it's supposed to be done."
"But... but what about—"
"Leave those girls to me," Haruka abruptly cut him off, shutting his question down. "They don't make the rules, I do."
"But—" again, another protest was cut off by Haruka's glare, and Keitaro – simply not wanting to cause problems with his presence – backed down. "Thank you Aunt—"
The resounding echo of the firm smack to Keitaro's head was echoed only by the sound of Keitaro falling out of his chair onto the teahouse floor.
"Don't call me that; I'm not that old, you brat," was Haruka's terse directive.
"Ow..." was Keitaro's equally eloquent statement of understanding.
"Absolutely not!"
Keitaro winced at the young woman's shouting, directed at him solely at this point. The woman – Naru, or so he had been told – was one of the ones that Haruka had warned him about. And indeed her protests were quite verbal, vocal, and emphatic. At least the other woman – Motoko – had the decency to currently remain silent in front of Haruka, though the glare Keitaro was getting from the woman – dressed like a samurai or a shrine maiden and carrying a sword – was somehow more intimidating than Naru's screams.
The entire collection of the dorm's residents were present in the main room of the building, seated about himself and Haruka. Ages between 12 and 18, the names he could remember were Shinobu – the shy bluenette – Suu – the energetic dark-skinned blond – Motoko, Naru, and Mitsune – aka. Kitsune, what with her rather vulpine nature and appearance. Of those, two were fuming, two were curious, one was shy and nervous about the rare male in their presence, something that made Keitaro feel quite uncomfortable and significantly more self-conscious as the antics continued.
"This is a dormitory for girls! We can't have a man living here with us!" Naru continued to shout, very visibly fuming. "What if he does something to one of us?! Shinobu and Suu—"
Keitaro visibly cringed at the implication that he'd try and do something to children; it really hurt, worse than a kick to the groin, or a knife to the gut.
"What are you suggesting?" Haruka cut in, her tone that of barely contained rage that was greater than Naru's own. "Are you suggesting that my nephew, my one and only nephew, would attempt to harm any of you in any way?"
Naru faltered, and Motoko's gaze softened, and averted, lest her eyes be caught glaring by the mother of the house, the person save Motoko's own sister who scared her most.
"W-Well, he came here wanting to live here at a girl's dorm for a reason!"
"I didn't even know... it was..." Keitaro spoke up, but tapered off as the full wrath of Naru's gaze fell upon him.
"And when you found out you forced Haruka to give you a room here I bet!"
"No, he didn't," Haruka calmly stated, her tone more constrained for the moment. "I insisted; he was willing to find a friend to stay with."
"Then why—"
"Because he is family," Haruka stated harshly, quelling Naru's protest. "You are not. Would you have me tell my flesh and blood he has to live somewhere else because a tenant has issues with men for no apparent reason?"
And with that was the end of the argument coming from Naru, but even so she didn't back down quietly.
"Fine! Whatever; he can stay!" she conceded, plopping back onto the couch with a huff and crossed arms.
Keitaro sighed, one part relief, one part nerves, but smiled nervously regardless. For another resident, the smile on her face was one of opportunity. The opportunity for fun, income, and for mixing things up in the Hinata Girls Dorm. The vulpine woman's smile was indeed a kitsune's smile of mischief and hunger at this adorkable prey that had wandered into the dwellings of the girls four and she...
It was strange, getting used to this new-yet-old place. Keitaro had lived his life thus far with his parents, in their home, basically in the same room. Now here he was, in the old manager's room, which was empty but for a futon and the few bags he'd brought with him with some clothes and materials for studying over the next week or two before he returned – yet again – to cram school. For the third year, failing the exam for Tokyo University – Toudai – twice before now. If only he was good at English... and Japanese... History, Math, Biology, Physics... couple others...
No; he shook his head as he sat up, legs crossed. No point thinking about that right now, as he needed to be getting used to this place instead. He was living in a girls-only dorm, the first 'roommates' he'd ever had that weren't related to him in anyway, and needless to say some of them were a hazard to his health if he wasn't careful. Luckily he usually was; he kind of had to be after all, what with everything he had going on.
Which led him to the first thing he had to concern himself with; Hinata had some secret passage ways, didn't it? Emphasis on 'secret' in this instance. He remembered crawling around them when he was much younger, getting so lost that it took Hina herself coming in after them to find himself and... his promise girl, whose name he'd long ago forgotten. How twisted was that; he could remember secret passages, but not the name of the girl he'd promised so long ago to meet once more at Toudai? Fate was cruel, and Keitaro knew that better than anyone else that he'd met...
But focus, focus! Keitaro was sure that there was a passageway that led out from the manager's room he was set to room in. He just had to find it, quickly checking the walls, the floor... aha! Far right corner from the door and voila! Just had to remove the tatami and pop the latch on it and in he could go! This was good, very good, he thought as he climbed into the secret passage and closed it behind him, pulling out his phone for light; if none of the girls knew about these passages, then that meant he had places that he could hide some stuff he didn't want any of the girls – or anyone he had any concerns or caution towards for that matter – to know about.
The door to the manager's room opened seconds after he'd closed the secret passage, the vulpine resident that was Keitaro's next-door neighbor room-wise peeking her head in with a grin. A grin that soon faded as she found neither hide nor hair of the new male resident. Darn, she thought, clicking her tongue as she shut the door and crossed her arms; she'd have to wait til later to start flirt-uh, 'introducing' herself to the shy, nerdy, and likely easily exploitable male that was Granny Hina's grandson. That brought a smile to her face; once she had him in her pocket, and his wealth from Hina's fortunate coffers, she'd be on easy street for a good long while...
Mitsune "Kitsune" Konno was a very, very frustrated woman by the end of the second day of Keitaro's stay. This Keitaro Urashima... he was a harder mark than she had originally thought. Before any fun 'incident' could happen with the open hot spring bath, Keitaro had set up a personal, private bath for himself that was isolated and had no line of sight to the open bath the girls regularly used. He kept to himself largely, spent a lot of time studying, and when he wasn't studying he seemed to go off to gods-knew-where and be there for gods-knew-how-long. When he was around the other girls, he was never alone or in a private spot; he hadn't gone into their rooms with them, talked with them in either the main room or dining room or hallway for the most part. Shinobu seemed to like talking with him, and was the first to find out he preferred to be called 'Kei' instead of 'Keitaro'. Su was naturally as affectionate with him as she was everyone else, and while Naru and Motoko still had their guards up, both were at least not hounding him every moment of the day as protectors of chastity and virtue for the younger girls.
It was, to say the least, so very terribly boring for the fox-faced Konno. That was her biggest complaint about Hinata; it was too boring, nothing interesting happened before, but a male in an all-girls dorm? Hell, that should have been a hilarious mess of misunderstandings and compromising situations! But no, not at all, instead it was as if everything was largely normal, like nothing at all had changed...
Now it was time to make that change happen, even if Kitsune had to 'manufacture' the catalyst herself!
If people had described Mitsune Konno's top three skills, one of them would be drinking, another would be gambling (though not necessarily winning), and the third would be snooping. In this case, as Kitsune cracked open Keitaro's room to glance inside, the third one was going to be the one most well demonstrated as she slid herself into the room and shut the door behind her. Her face was split into a wide, mischievous grin as she scanned his room. It was now a bit more full since he'd gotten more of his stuff from his parents' home, but still rather bland to Kitsune's taste. Still, that was good for her; it meant he held onto his money, more for her to get out of him!
Also meant she had less places to rifle through to find something that she could use to mess with the new resident of Hinata Girls Dorm. She worked swiftly, thoroughly, searching through dressers, closet, table, desk, under the futon, pillow, in his clothing (she discovered he wore boxers in the process)...
But nothing. Nothing at all. No hidden porn or gravure magazines, no pictures of naked women or upskirts, no trashy stories, no secret notes, no stolen panties... not even a lonely-man's photo album with pictures of him alone with no girlfriend to take one with! Kitsune was absolutely floored; was this the one man she'd met that had no interest in girls whatsoever? He wasn't gay was he? But, even gay men would have this stuff too, right?
Or... was he secretly a total stud and got with so many women he didn't need anything else? Extremely unlikely, but the chasteness of this room still felt absolutely wrong to Mitsune as she stood in the middle of it, the room looking exactly as she'd found it before she'd started. This just wouldn't do; she needed something to happen with this man here and he just wouldn't let her get that! She groaned, her head tilting back as she looked up to the heavens, instead finding the hole above, covered totally from the floor above in Naru's...
Mitsune's face broke into her widest and most fox-like grin yet; she had a most glorious, crafty idea, simple, yet it would be most efficacious...
Keitaro was just coming back from a trip into town, bringing food Shinobu had asked him to grab for the Dorm's dinner that night. How was he to say no to such a sweet little girl, who took it upon herself to cook for the entire dorm essentially every night? Kind of reminded him of Kanako to be honest, and then there was Suu who... well, Keitaro was sure it was just the fact that he was a new arrival to the house that she was so excitable and energetic. Or at least he hoped so. Naru and Motoko though he wished could get along with him better; Naru and he were both shooting for the same university, and Motoko... well okay, he didn't have much in common with Motoko, but he had to admire her hard work!
Then there was Mitsune, or Kitsune as she was usually called. She was... Keitaro wasn't sure what to think of the 'freelance journalist'; never saw her work, always seemed to be a bit flirty, drank too much, gambled too often... he didn't want to judge her or anything, but part of him just had to wonder what she did, especially since he never saw her work or doing anything else that got her a paycheck (such as writing, as a journalist). Still, she seemed to care about the other girls enough at least, so she couldn't be a bad person, right?
Entering the dorm, Keitaro slipped off his shoes and into his house slippers, making his way through the halls to the kitchen, which currently was empty. Figuring Shinobu was otherwise busy with something important, he began putting away the cold items at least, lest they ruin before Shinobu can work her wonders with them.
"Hey darlin'!"
A sudden voice made him jump a bit, nearly banging his head on the freezer door above as he went to confirm that yes, it was the oldest of the girls he now lived with standing there in the kitchen doorway. That grin on her face felt a bit off to him right about now...
"Hi, Miss Konno."
"Please, it's Mitsune or Kitsune," she responded with a hand-wave, as she had a couple times before when he'd addressed her so formally. "We're all friends here, after all, right?"
"Yeah, of course!" Keitaro responded, still a bit nervous around the highly confident and oft forward woman, putting on a smile. "How's uh, how's your day been, Mitsune?"
"Oh you know, same ol' same ol'..." she responded offhandedly, making her way to the fridge as Keitaro practically hopped out of the way. "I think Naru was looking for you, something about studying together or something."
"Wait, really?" Keitaro asked, a tad incredulous, though the subject had come up once or twice during dinner "I never thought she'd be interested in helping me study..."
"Could be vice-versa, who knows?" Kitsune stated as she shut the fridge, popping open the tab on a cold beer. "Would give you two time alone to get to know each other; maybe she'll warm up to you because of it. I know she isn't exactly at ease around you, but part of it's just nerves you know? See, she isn't exactly used to being around men..."
"I kinda got that," Keitaro commented, scratching his cheek nervously. "But yeah, okay, uh, did she say when she wanted to—"
"No, but I thought I saw her heading towards your room earlier," Kitsune responded, and with a smile motioned him towards the door. "Head on up stud; wouldn't be good making Naru wait long!"
The blushing man didn't say another word, too embarrassed at being called a 'stud' by a woman like Kitsune to utter a response before taking off towards his room, the cold items already stored in the fridge and the rest safe to leave out. Three seconds of silence, and Kitsune quickly made her way out of the kitchen too, humming a soft tune as she made her way down the hall and up the stairs and to her room, where she saw Naru making her way into Keitaro's room, and knew that the fun was about to begin.
She cleared a spot of sake bottles, opened the balcony-side door, and got comfortable as she watched out over the front of Hinata, waiting patiently for the whispered voices to start getting louder. It didn't take long, seconds really, before Naru found what she'd hidden in the spot that Naru would likely have sat...
"—this? WHAT IS THIS?!"
"What is-AH! OH GOD NARU IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK!"
"WHY DO YOU HAVE GIRLS PANTIES SITTING OUT ON YOUR SEAT?!"
"WAIT, I-I-I, IT'S NOT—"
"OH MY GOD THESE ARE MY PANTIES!"
"WHAT?! BUT I WOULDN'T—I DIDN'T—"
"YOU TOOK MY PANTIES! WAIT, YOU WENT INTO MY ROOM AND TOOK MY PANTIES?!"
"NONONO, I'D NEVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT! I DON'T KNOW—"
"I KNEW YOU'D SHOW YOUR TRUE COLORS SOMEDAY YOU PERVERT!"
"NO! I'M NOT A PERVERT! I DIDN'T TAKE YOUR PANTIES, I SWEAR IT!"
"LIAR! YOU DIRTY PERVERTED LIAR!"
The next moment produced the sound of Naru's fist colliding with Keitaro's face, the force enough to send him hurdling through the thin door to his room and over the balcony, set to land squarely in the dirt in front of the Hinata Dorm. Kitsune leaned forward, spotted Keitaro face-down in a trench that his face had dug, twitching and shifting a bit from the rough landing. He was fine though; he was strangely tough! A bit overkill on Naru's part – the woman who was now storming out of Keitaro's room and down the hall to the stairs – but nonetheless the fox was entertained, taking a long sip of her beer in celebration at something interesting finally happening.
And she would continue to do so until she had a knock at her door, and called for the person to enter. It was Haruka, with a collection of papers in her hands.
"Mitsune, have you seen Keitaro?"
"Kei? Hmm..." she said, and leaned forward to see that Keitaro had moved from his landing spot and was presumably on his way to his room, or somewhere else she wasn't sure. "Not for a while, what's up?"
"Hm, got to find that kid; have some important news for everyone involving him," Haruka said, sighing and making to leave the next moment. "We'll be having a meeting soon."
"Woah there, ain't you gonna tell me what the news is? You know how I love gossip!" Kitsune was all grins as she said it. "Promise not to tell a soul til you do!"
Haruka rolled her eyes, not believing the fox for one minute, but gave an answer nonetheless.
"Just get the other girls and come down to the main room; I'm going to re-introduce you all to your new manager," she said, and shut the door behind her as she left.
Kitsune had a moment where her face paled, realizing that the 'fun' that she'd just orchestrated couldn't have had worse timing, now that Keitaro – whom the house just heard about him stealing Naru's panties from her room and likely implying he did gods-knew-what with them – was going to be the manager of Hinata. Oh, she had not intended this, not one bit.
"Ah hell..." she muttered as she set down the half-finished beer, and went to do as Haruka said: get the other girls and start the next round of screaming and yelling at the newfangled 'pervert' male, led by Naru and Motoko of course.
His body hurt, and it hurt something fierce. For the last week Keitaro had cleaned the dorm top to bottom, inside and out, and that's not even including all of the repairs and maintenance work that needed to be done on the aging building. It seemed the only way the girls were willing to let him stay was if he did all of the upkeep of the building. Realistically, this was a dorm, so yeah he had some stuff he had to keep up, repairs were certainly part of his new job, but they were the tenants and should have some share in the cleaning of the building... actually, didn't he own the building? Why was he letting them determine if he could live here?
He sighed as he collapsed onto his bed, the floor beneath creaking with age; he knew exactly why things were the way they were, and why since that one day with Naru he'd had several 'incidents' involving the girls, mainly Motoko and Naru. He had to clean the bath, and they would walk in or not post that they were in there, and occasionally as he was doing repairs it put him in positions where he'd be in line-of-sight of the girls' rooms and promptly 'punished' for 'peeping' despite having tools in his hands. Didn't the girls know those punches and sword-strikes hurt?
Keitaro needed to get his mind straight, needed to rest; his brief break from class – hah! – was up tomorrow, and he had to get out of Hinata early to get to class. No, not early; extra early! His heart began to race as he thought about it, his nerves and anxiety getting to him as he glanced towards the secret tunnel hidden in the corner of his room. Yeah, he needed to get out very early, lest any of the girls ask questions he wasn't prepared to answer...
Kitsune found herself waking up at an odd hour yet again. Drinking did odd things to one's sleep schedule; one day she'd be up at noon, another at three hours before it was even light out. This time it was a bit between the two, but checking the clock Naru and the other girls who had school to attend wouldn't be getting up for another hour or so. Keitaro too come to think of it; he had cram school to attend too...
Sitting up in bed, Kitsune thought she heard movement nearby... a door opening? Yeah, someone had just gone back into Keitaro's room next door. Likely Keitaro, since it didn't sound like any of the girls' steps moving across the room. Going back to bed? No, no it sounds like he's grabbing stuff... is he getting ready to leave? Curiosity got the better of Kitsune as she stood, tried not to stumble as her head spun a bit, and made her way to the door just as Keitaro was coming out of his room.
Before she even spoke up, she saw that Keitaro was dressed, and was carrying a bag, no, two bags, the second being noticeably larger than the one she'd seen him take a few of his school books out of before.
"Mmm, mornin' Kei," she managed to groan out, watching as the male resident-manager jumped at the sound of her voice. "Where you going so early?"
"Oh, uh, g-good morning Mitsune!" he returned with a nervous grin. "W-Well, I have class today, and it takes a long time to get there! Cram school you know, it's an hour away or so and I like to get there early!"
Mitsune's brain wasn't quite working yet as she nodded, but then it seemed it got a kick and had her making an observation:
"You're carrying a lot of stuff for going to cram school," she managed with a lopsided, sleepy grin as she leaned against her doorway. "Taking all your books or somethin'?"
"Ah, yeah! Yeah, I like having all my resources on hand; I'm not smart like Naru after all," he remarked, scratching his cheek nervously. "I, uh, I gotta go though, sorry if I woke you up!"
"Hm, no problem stud," Kitsune commented as the – now embarrassed – Urashima made his way down the hall and downstairs, quickly leaving her sight as she turned back to her room and made for her bed so she could wake up again at a proper hour...
"...wait a second, a cram school an hour away?" Kitsune's mind was kicking into gear, making connections. "Isn't Naru's... but Naru's classes start..."
Kitsune did an about-face and went out of her room to Keitaro's, and looked inside, where she in fact spotted a number of his books. Come to think of it, where did he get that bag from? She'd searched his room thoroughly not even a week ago before the little incident with Naru that she'd orchestrated, and she'd have noticed a bag like that! Now that she thought about it, Keitaro was a lot more nervous than he should have been, and truth be told he couldn't really intentionally lie worth a damn.
For the resident fox, something was up with Keitaro, and she just had to know what it was...
Kitsune was on the prowl, and Keitaro was her prey. Naru had come back a good hour before Keitaro, and when the only male of the household had come back it was without the bag, which he 'had forgotten' at school, and clearly was lying about it. During dinner, Kitsune had brought up the cram school thing to find out if her hunch was correct, and indeed both of them went to the same school. This came as a shock to Naru, who apparently hadn't seen him at all in their class, to which Keitaro rather shoddily explained that he tended to sit in the back and make sure he didn't stand out. Naru accepted this – she did the same thing after all, as Kitsune knew – but the fox did not.
Something was up with Keitaro, something that Keitaro was doing his best to hide from them. Something he was succeeding at doing with all the girls but for Kitsune herself at least. Kitsune's nature just wouldn't let this slide; she had to know what was going on with Keitaro! So that night she drank nothing, went to sleep early, and having the experience from the night before, she knew about the time he'd be up and getting ready. She went to bed after a good bath and was dressed for the early morning, and only hoped that this was something good that would make waking up intentionally at this ungodly hour worth it.
And like clockwork, she was up with her phone setting off an alarm in headphones she'd worn to sleep, and without liquor in her system she was up and going quickly. Quietly she went to the door and cracked hers open ever so slightly, just enough to see Keitaro leave his room and quickly head down the hallway, this time without the larger bag. Interesting... Kitsune waited for him to make it down the stairs before she began to follow him, stopping at the top of the stairs as he got his shoes on, only heading down once he was out the door. She made sure to keep her distance, her thoughts focused only on Keitaro and following him, when they weren't running through possible scenarios as to what he was doing.
Perhaps he was running drugs! Or carrying money for the Yakuza! Maybe... maybe he was a pervert who was selling stuff like panties from the girls or photos! There were all sorts of thoughts that Kitsune was having as she watched from behind a tree as Keitaro went to a spot just off of the steps of Hinata's front entrance and did he just open up part of the hill? A secret storage spot?! Or perhaps a passage? He was in there for a few moments before he came back out with the bag from the night before, that sneaky bastard! Kitsune had to admit this explained some stuff, and also meant Keitaro was perhaps a bit sneakier than she'd originally given him credit for... which meant there was a bit more to the slew of possibilities that she'd been mulling around in her mind.
For over an hour Kitsune followed the yakuza-drug-running-pervert-thief-etc down to the train station, onto the train, and indeed into the nearest major city where the cram school was. It was easier to follow him in the city and on the train; more people, meaning it was easier to not stand out, especially since she'd dressed to be harder to recognize. Though it did mean she had to be closer to him to follow him, but that didn't seem to matter as Keitaro continued his trek to 'class', or wherever else he was actually going to.
She had to stop for a while as Keitaro ducked into a public restroom. Kitsune was good at not being noticed when she really wanted to be, but she wasn't about to go into the men's restroom in such a public place. She found herself a spot across the street, complete with newspaper to appear busy and something she'd picked up along the way to eat. And then she waited...
...and waited...
Waited some more...
Okay, after a half-hour Kitsune was starting to think that something was up. Keitaro had not yet come out of the bathroom, but a few other people had gone in and come out. Not recently though, not after the last two nerdy guys with glasses went in. She got up from her spot and decided to get closer, crossing the street and seeing that the reason nobody had gone in recently was that apparently someone had put an 'out of order' sign on the front of it. That wasn't there thirty minutes ago, and come to think of it the last two that had gone in hadn't come out in the last five minutes or so. Just what was going-
"Oh shit!" she swore as the door started to open, quickly darting away and around into an alley, pressing up against the wall as she prayed that nobody had seen her.
It was several seconds of silence before she heard nearby laughter, the sort of laughter you expect mid-conversation about something funny. A small group passed by her, and it was revealed that they were the source of the laughter, and hey, it was the two nerdy guys who'd gone into the restroom a few minutes ago! They hadn't noticed her, instead too busy talking to the dark-haired girl that was between them, so Kitsune darted back around towards the bathroom to see that the sign was now gone. Quickly she glanced around, saw nobody really looking her way, and then ducked her head into the men's bathroom to see... nobody, nothing; it was completely empty!
"The hell did Keitaro go?!" she hissed, clicking her tongue in frustration as she shut the door and stepped back. "I couldn't have lost him!"
As she mentally retraced and reviewed every person she'd saw go in and out of the bathroom, she glanced back at the two men she'd saw before, the nerdy guys, and decided to make her way to them. As she was approaching them and their female friend between them, she started to take notice of them, and it wasn't even a few moments that she recognized that the female was carrying the same bag as Keitaro was! What the hell was going on?!
"...Kei!" the word caught her attention from their conversation, the name completing a exasperated statement that elicited a lyrical chuckle from the girl next to him, and a laugh from the other male. The woman began to respond though, and though Kitsune couldn't hear the details of the conversation, she could swear that she heard them call the woman Kei...
...
...no... no way... Kitsune's gut couldn't be right on this...
"Kei?" Kitsune called out, taking off the dark glasses and cap that she was wearing, her brow furrowed as her mind was racing, eyes widening as the dark-haired woman stopped, turned, and looked back at her.
The girl was kind of cute, dark brown eyes accented by dark brown, almost black hair down her back, loose. She was fairly modestly dressed, her outfit covering but feminine, the skirt knee-length and the shirt a turtleneck, hose covering the woman's legs leading into simple flats upon her feet. She wore makeup, but it wasn't gaudy or anything...
...but the more Kitsune looked at the woman, the more she could see the similarities. Height, general build, the facial structure, and those eyes, those eyes were what gave it away, once she imagined them with big, thick, bulky glasses in front of them. What really did it was the paling of the woman's face as a look of recognition and realization set in.
"K-Kitsune?!" the woman managed, her voice higher pitched, more feminine, but it was the final nail in a coffin as the tone was easily recognizable to the fox.
"KEITARO?!"
End Chapter 1
AN: Who saw that coming, eh? Hehe, I really hope you all liked this idea, because I sure do like it. Also, I haven't seen this idea done before, and while I apologize for the cliffhanger I do promise to get the next chapter out ASAP. Reviews are VERY highly appreciated, as it's by your reviews that I am able to make this story better, improve my writing, and ultimately give you all something very interesting to read and to perhaps even think about.
Anyway, more coming soon, and this fic – like my first one on the other account (Allen Ramsey) – is set for a long-run!
A.W.R II
