Okay, now Shinobu and others are planning to go shopping together on Tuesday somewhere. Will they find what they're looking for or not? We'll have to see, of course. And what is the deal with the clock they have just found in the clock tower at Tokyo University's main campus? Who might have left it where they found it? Will Shinobu ultimately figure out who's actually been leaving gifts or clues all over southern Japan before all her birthday gifts are found or given, or not, somehow?
We now know that at least some close associates of the Apartments' historical residents, if not relatives, at least, have also been lost since they were first present at them as they were as young people. Those being at least Hinata, Seta, Haruka, and Tsuruko, if not others as well, in fact. As for others who may have left the world due to death in the intervening years, there may be others. But if so, I'll not yet reveal who they might be. Who do you think is Shinobu's husband, in truth? I'm not telling you yet who it definitely is, but hopefully you'll be able to figure out who it might be, whether it's a canon character from Love Hina, a crossover character from some other media franchise, or an original character, by the end of the story. I've already planted some clues to who he might just be, however, folks.
This chapter will be another C chapter. And the chapter after this one will also be another C chapter. As I said before, the letters from the chapter subtitles may or may not be in the exact order of letters for the two words they'll spell when put together properly, so you may have to rearrange them to spell them out as needed. In any case, we so far have the letters C-A-P-P-U represented by various gifts left or acquired for Shinobu's birthday presents. Ten letters remain to be represented in SBS, and the next two chapters will be C chapters.
With no further ado, then, let's get back to the story, and I hope you enjoy this next chapter a lot and all. TUS out.
Surprise Six: Clock
The following morning, after breakfast with many of the people now present on the grounds, Shinobu, Kaolla, and Nyamo soon set off for Tokyo to do some shopping with each other. For safety's sake, and seeing as Motoko and Makoto both had some personal business of their own to attend to there as well, they went with Motoko and Makoto when they did so, at least for a little while.
Once the five women arrived at Tokyo's main station, they soon parted from each other in two groups, with Shinobu, Kaolla, and Nyamo in one, and Motoko and Makoto in the other. A bit of brief conversation later, then, Motoko and Makoto entered a train bound for Azabu Juuban, and the others boarded a train for the area in and around Tokyo University's main campus. Though not without at least a little trepidation in relation to Shinobu on Motoko's part did Motoko enter the Azabu Juuban-bound train with Makoto here, to be sure, in any case.
It wasn't much later that Shinobu and her current companions exited their train near Tokyo University's main campus. Once off that train, they quickly went in search of stores that might have photography-related equipment available for purchase at them, for instance. While still looking for them, however, they were also drawn to a certain store that primarily sold clocks, watches, and calendars as merchandise in it, much of the time, mostly in the non-summer months of the year, and assorted other items during the summer months of it. At the current time, though, most of the purchasable items were clock, watch, or calendar-related items, in any case. They ultimately spent about an hour browsing and/or shopping there, and also made arrangements to have several items delivered to the Hinata Apartments complex's grounds by no later than Christmas Eve, as well. They even bought some items that would somehow help Shinobu and her husband to keep the clock she and her current companions had found the day before in working order sufficiently well, if not perfectly well, according to that store's co-proprietors.
After doing that for a while, they then continued to shop and browse in the area as they all still searched for photography-related equipment to look at and all. Eventually, they found a store that sold such items, and were soon met by the young proprietress of one store, who introduced herself as Eutychia Beulah Eitzen, but said they could call her Eutybeu instead, for short, or by her initials of E and B, if they preferred to do that here.
"Interesting name, to be sure," said Shinobu.
"Well, my parents decided to call me that when I was born, and my father left me this store when he and Mom were killed in a plane crash about eight years ago. I'm still in my twenties, but was in my teens when their plane crashed on the way back from Peking and a fashion show there. This was a small studio/shop for my parents, who were a photographer and fashion designer, from Israel and England respectively by birth. But they had bases all over the world once they got out of college. Tokyo became their Japanese base of operations, and they loved being here a great deal whenever they could be in this country."
It wasn't long before Shinobu showed Eutybeu the piece of paper that had the words "Delighting You Always" on it. After Eutybeu saw it, she soon ushered them all to the back of the store, and into a certain room in it, before briefly stepping out of it to retrieve a few things from elsewhere in the store or her living area above the main part of the store.
While she was absent from the room they were now in, Kaolla said, "I wonder what she's getting for us all here, you two."
"I'd figure she's getting some special photographic equipment, at least, Kaolla-chan. Although I can't be completely sure of that until she returns, of course. As for who she is, I think I've read about her family at least a little bit in the past, since the time of her parents' deaths, come to think of it. She has three younger siblings, and they're named Hevel, Imakyo, and Rufus, it seems. Hevel is a college student in Israel, while Imakyo is a teenage fashion designer much like her mother in terms of her sense of style and all, and Rufus a teenaged baseball player, living with Hevel in Israel. Eutybeu is the only one of the four in Japan at the moment, from what I can recall well enough about the four siblings now," said Nyamo, while briefly running her hands up and down her arms a little bit, for she was feeling a little cool at the moment, in truth.
Minutes later, Eutybeu returned with a moderately-sized case and several slips of paper with what seemed to be random words on them in a small pouch of some sort secured to the aforementioned case. She also provided some coupons for potential use before the end of November by Shinobu and/or others at certain businesses located in various places between Hinata City and Tokyo, as she then handed the case and attached pouch to Shinobu, saying, "Do not open the case until you get safely back into your bedroom, Shinobu-san, and only when you are suitably alone there for a long enough time. What is in there you will have to discover by yourself first, in any case, before anyone else. I can't say any more about its contents, or at least not at this time, anyway, for sure."
"Understood. Anything else, Eitzen-san?" asked Shinobu.
"There are several slips of paper in the pouch that you'll ultimately need to put in a certain order to figure out where to go next after you discover what's in the case here, And until you do that well enough, somehow, you'll probably not know exactly where to go, and when, I believe. Or that you'll be then likely be able to begin figuring out certain things out yet, if you actually haven't yet begun doing so in relation to them at all, of course."
Minutes later, the three older ladies were on their ways again, and heading for the station that they'd arrived at earlier near Tokyo University's main campus, to begin catching the trains that would ultimately bring them back to Hinata City later on. Kaolla hoped that they'd be able to see Motoko, at least, by the time they were on the last train back there on the current day. But she didn't expect to see Makoto again, especially after hearing that someone who worked at her restaurant had called her and told her that one of their chefs needed her to come there for some reason that wasn't told to her at all.
Eventually, the three did make it back to Hinata City and the Apartments with their purchases and other items, and met up with Motoko along the way, but not Makoto. When Shinobu asked where Makoto was, neither Kaolla nor Motoko said much about her to Shinobu, related to her current circumstances, if anything at all, at least somewhat to Shinobu's dismay here, for sure.
Once back at the Apartments, and in the main building, the four women soon dispersed to four different rooms in it, especially Shinobu, as the mood and need then arose for each of them. Most of the residents of the main building were elsewhere on the grounds when they arrived in the main building, and not in their respective rooms. The four women didn't encounter them before dispersing to those other rooms in it, generally, either.
When Shinobu was safely in the managers' room again, as necessary, she locked all the necessary doors and windows, and blocked any other possible entrance points to it that she knew of against potential intrusion or electronic spying and all. Once the room was sufficiently secured as needed here, she soon opened the case to find not only a specially-modified Canon PowerShot G9 X Mark II camera and the related items and materials related to its use and care, among other details related to it, but also what appeared to be a rather good-quality hand-drawn map of some sort, along with a few other items in the case for yet-unknown reasons to her, including some photographs taken with another camera of the same exact make and model.
After reading the materials provided, and viewing the photographs that were included in the case, for a bit, she then secured the camera and everything but the map and the pouch that had been secured to the case in the safest hiding place she knew of in her room against possible prowlers or spies or anything or anyone else who had no business in even knowing what was there in the first place. Once that was done, she left a note for her husband, who also knew of such a hiding place, telling him very seriously indeed not to touch anything there he didn't yet know enough about from her at all, for his own safety and perhaps even the safety of many others on the grounds, at least, if not anywhere else as well.
She stashed the quickly-folded map in a pocket of her current purse, and put the pouch in said purse as well, before heading back downstairs to start making the evening meal for various people on the grounds who she'd often eat with when present on them for a long enough period of time on a particular day. Along the way, she received help from Mitsune and Naru, for they had decided to both come to the kitchen to get themselves some juice, at least, while Shinobu was still working on making up the evening meal for everyone who'd be eating in the main building on the current day. It wasn't long before they both decided to help her out at least a little here with the meal. Which made her quite happy, to put it quite mildly, at the very least. Especially when considering the fact that she'd been recently attacked as she'd been by an unearthly being of some sort, and still wasn't totally recovered yet from that attack, in terms of energy recovery and all, at least.
Some time later, after that meal had been consumed by fifteen other people besides herself, Shinobu returned to the managers' room with her husband, after saying, "I'm going to spend the rest of the night with Darling, and I don't want us to be disturbed needlessly during it. He and I have some catching up to do that we weren't able to do last night, among other things we need to do together, and I don't want us to be interrupted while we do what we need to do in our room."
When Sachiko seemed to want to object to that, for some reason, Shinobu's husband briefly ran one hand through his still-brown hair while holding his glasses in the other, and said, "Sachi-chan, my wife is correct. You and I will have to continue your artistic instruction later. Kanaga and his buddies will have to wait for further development of their story until tomorrow night at the earliest, if not the weekend soon coming to us all. She needs to spend time with me, especially after recently being attacked as she was."
"Don't fight it, Sa-chan, or you'll be grounded for two weeks, in certain ways, along with any other punishment that your father might put on you, when he gets back here soon from his computer conference with Masayuki," said Naru.
"Fine, but I don't like this one bit, to be sure. You promised to help me tonight, Sensei, with my art lessons. And now you won't," complained Sachiko, with a pouting look then on her face, as she and several others were now still present in the main common room for the Apartments's main building.
"True, I did, but my wife needs me more right now than you do with your art lessons. You are a tenant here, but she is my wife. Because those things are true, I have a greater responsibility to be there for her when needed than I have for anyone else in this world, even you, as best as possible, whenever possible. Therefore, I will be spending the rest of the night with her, without question. Naru, I leave you to deal with her as you see fit. As Shinobu has already said, I say as well, in terms of being disturbed needlessly tonight."
Without another word or look from either Shinobu or Darling, then, they almost immediately left the main dining room area behind with each other and retired to their bedroom. Others didn't express any more objections or act out, at least while they were still visible there. But Sachiko was still rather upset that she wouldn't be getting any more art instruction from Darling for at least a little while here, for sure. Her displeasure still showed on her face, for at least a little while, before Naru said, "Sa-chan, go to your room and get to work on your homework now. I will be up shortly, and you had best be working on it when I get up there, or else."
"Mama, I had other plans for tonight, and not just with Sensei. Toshara-kun and I were planning to go for a short walk with each other before bed, too."
"Your art lesson has been cancelled. Toshara-kun will not be walking with you tonight. If he asks why, he will be told you are restricted to your room and/or the nearest bathroom for the rest of the night, on my orders. Motoko, if he shows up, tell him that, but don't volunteer any other information needlessly, please."
"Consider it done, Naru-chan," said Motoko. "He will not counteract your orders regarding Sachiko, or else he will have to deal with the consequences of doing so, or even trying to do so, for sure." She motioned to her daughter Miyako, Kaolla's daughter Koharu, and Mitsune's daughter Olivia, and indicated that they should all make sure that Sachiko returned to her room as ordered, whether Sachiko liked it or not. They immediately sprang into action, and soon had her under control and moving there. But not without some bit of struggling from her, because Sachiko really didn't like her arms being held by both Koharu and Olivia at the present time, while Miyako periodically also prodded her forwards with a shinai then in her possession.
"Stop struggling, or it will be at least two weeks before you get to walk alone with him again like you had planned to do tonight, Sachiko," said Naru.
"Mama, please make them stop holding me so roughly."
"No, they're only doing so because you're still struggling. Stop it, and they'll stop. Simple as that," said Naru, before exiting the main common room, along with everyone else who was still there at the time, besides the four teenagers.
It took some more doing, but Sachiko was eventually forced into her room by the three girls that were told to make sure she got there as ordered, and soon secured there so that she couldn't get out of it again needlessly for a while, somehow. Or at least not while they were still present in her room, and while Naru wasn't there with her for a while, anyway.
Meanwhile, back in the managers' room, Shinobu and Darling were spending time with each other, cuddling on their futon, while also trying to arrange the slips of paper from the pouch that had been attached to the camera case in the proper order for message-reading purposes and look at the map from her purse. Her camera's case was also sitting near them both, at the present time. As they were still doing so, the face of the clock that had been placed in their room not long before began to glow suddenly with a strange light, without their immediate knowledge of that fact. Mere moments later, that light quickly expanded to fill the whole room, and even enveloped both current occupants of the room in it, before they were mysteriously whisked away from it to an immediately-unknown location elsewhere in Japan, along with the items they were then looking at with each other and working on together. Everything else in the room remained as it was, and the clock soon resumed its normal appearance of being a regular clock.
When Shinobu and Darling were able to see again after the light around them had faded away, they were on a beach somewhere, although they didn't know just where, at least at first. The stars and the Moon were also out, and their current surroundings seemed at least a little familiar to them, once they got their bearings well enough, somehow. It was a little cool at the present time, and they were both still fully dressed, neither having changed their respective clothes into sleeping attire yet, on the current night. Slippers were on their feet, but she was still wearing a dress she'd been wearing most of the day, and he a sweatshirt and jeans, at the present time. Also her purse, her camera's case, and the pouch were still near them both, as well, as they found themselves both sitting on a beach about fifteen feet from the nearby water's edge. In fact, they had landed near the Otohimes' family compound on Okinawa, without realizing it as of yet.
It wasn't more than a few moments later that they had picked up the items near them both, and the slips of paper that had been spread out before them on their futon back at the Apartments mysteriously had ended up back in the pouch they'd been in earlier. While the map was back in her purse just as mysteriously as well, and everything in her camera case remained where it had been when they'd been suddenly whisked away from the Apartments as they'd just been, even her new camera. Once they realized all their current items were securely under their control, Shinobu said, "I wonder where we are, and why we are here."
"Me too, Shinobu, me too," said her husband, as he briefly stretched his arms out after standing up and looked at their current surroundings.
"Let's walk around, and see if we can figure out where we are, then."
As they began to explore their current surroundings, her husband mused, "Seems to be a bit warmer here than it was in Hinata City and Tokyo today, so we're probably somewhere south of those places, although I don't know just where yet."
Just then, Shinobu got a whiff of what appeared to be watermelon in the air near them, although she didn't know just why at the present time. Looking around, she soon saw what appeared to be a family of turtles moving on and near the beach they were both still on. A bit of exploring later, she saw a quintet of young children come out of a copse of trees near the beach, and heard, "Get yourselves back here right now and help your mother with the laundry distribution around here, monkeys, or you're not going to the basketball games tomorrow." Unconsciously heading towards where she thought the voice may have come from and keeping one eye on where the five young children who'd appeared to be, at most, no older than about ten years old, more or less, had been last seen by her, she was quickly followed by her husband. It wasn't long before they found themselves in front of a fairly well-built pale-skinned blond man who was now apparently in his late thirties to early forties, as far as they could then tell easily enough here.
When he saw them, and they him, he soon said, "How's big sister Mutsumi now, Shinobu-san?"
It took her a moment to recognize his voice easily enough, and she soon said, "Just fine, Tsukumo-kun, although she's been fairly busy of late with certain things in and around Tokyo, to be sure. And unless I miss my guess too much, those kids are Souma, Akemi, Toshiko, Hina, and Aina, as well."
"That's right, and Misaki's been wondering when you two would come see us again. I notice the others aren't with you this time, however."
"No, we were in our room at the Apartments just spending time with each other, and we were suddenly brought to wherever here is, in truth. Where are we?" asked Shinobu's husband, while still looking around them all here.
"You are near the Otohime family compound here on Okinawa. Not far from here is the Miyagi family compound, although not many live there any more, in truth. People are still talking about the fight that Daniel-san had with Chozen Toguchi a long time ago, as well, after a typhoon suddenly hit the area. We haven't seen much of Kumiko-san since she went many years ago to Tokyo to be a dancer. At least not around here, anyway. She does come here every year around the time of the O-bon festival at the castle that Chozen's uncle once lived in and ran, but other than that, she rarely returns to Okinawa if she doesn't have to."
"What's her surname now, if you know?" asked Shinobu's husband.
"Tomita, I believe, but not sure about that. Think she married someone several years ago, but don't remember who, if so."
"Interesting. Anyway, it's obviously too late now to do much else around here, as far as I can tell right now, so do you mind if we spend the night with you and your family, Tsukumo-kun?" asked Shinobu.
"Of course you can. Any true friends of Mutsumi's are more than welcome to spend nights with us, Shinobu-san, without even having to ask at all. Although several of us were really hoping Mutsumi might actually marry your husband, that wasn't how things ultimately worked out for her with him, as you know. However, we're very happy that she has a loving husband of her own, even if it isn't your own husband, in any case, and we're all very proud of what she's accomplished in her life since she first went to Hinata City and/or Tokyo like she did. She is a fine nurse, and we'll always be proud of her as her family and all, obviously."
It wasn't much later that Shinobu and her husband were brought into the home that Tsukumo and his family now lived in whenever they were home in Okinawa. Tsukumo's wife Misaki greeted them warmly, and soon offered them both a few things to eat and drink. Which they both gladly accepted and ate as a mark of respect to her and her family, even though they weren't very hungry or thirsty at the current time, in truth.
They spent the rest of the night there, after soon calling back to the Hinata Apartments and letting everyone know where they were now. Although they both still didn't know how they somehow got there easily enough. Naru answered the phone there when they did, and they gladly agreed to help keep an eye on things there until they were able to return to the Apartments again.
Once they got off the phone with Naru, they soon were put up in a guest room for the night, and were then left alone for the rest of it there. Shinobu and Darling were both quite tired by then, so they didn't do much else prior to retiring to the futon provided for them in that room. Even though they were still not yet done with the things that they'd been trying to do before they'd suddenly been whisked away from the Apartments as they had been earlier.
They woke up the following morning by 7:30, woken up by the smells of cooking from the main kitchen in the compound's main building. It wasn't much longer before they were up and about, and drawn to the dining room closest to that kitchen in it. When they got there, they not only saw Tsukumo with his wife and five children at the table there, they also saw Keisuke and Akira Saji, friends of the Otohime family, and two of their three children, those being Keiko and Hiromi, but not their oldest child Ryuji, for he was now attending college at Toudai at the present time. Keiko and Hiromi were fifteen-year-old identical twins, and they were currently here on Okinawa for a high-school basketball invitational-type tournament, with their parents coming to watch them play in said tournament.
Darling asked the two Saji parents, "It's been a while since Shinobu and I have last seen you, it seems, Keisuke and Akira. We hear that Ryuji seems to be enjoying Toudai, however, from several of the people at the Apartments, just so you know."
"Ryuji doesn't live with you there, right?" asked Akira.
"No, he doesn't, but I do hear about him periodically from several of our tenants who do attend classes at Toudai, just the same, Akira," Darling said, in between bites of some eggs and pancakes that Misaki had earlier given him as part of his breakfast.
"We've thought about going to Toudai later on, but that's still a good while away from now, in any case, for the both of us," said Keiko, while looking at her three-minutes-younger sister Hiromi. "We've also heard about the Apartments you two run, and we both wonder if we could perhaps live there too, eventually, while aiming for Toudai together. We really don't want to go to different schools, and we hear that the Archeology Department is always looking for new workers whenever it can. But we don't know if we can go into that field of endeavor as adults just yet, to be sure."
"I know a few people who might be looking for help on their future expeditions, but it may be rather difficult for you to both work on the same digs at the same time, especially seeing as Hiromi isn't as coordinated as you often seem to be, Keiko-chan," answered Darling. "She's coordinated to a degree, but archeology is not basketball, as you know. I've seen you both play, and while she's not as fast as you, physically, on the court, she does have a quicker mind, it seems, when it comes to strategy and leadership, albeit with little to no talking from her at all, on it," said Darling.
"And I've tasted her cooking, as well," added Shinobu. "She has great potential for being a good cook, and maybe someday, she might even be good enough to work in one of the restaurants my co-founder and I own in our restaurant chain all over Japan. While she might not ultimately run one, herself, she is very good, quite often, in the kitchen, from what I've seen and eaten of her food in the past so far. She might be better at cooking for a dig crew than doing actual archeological 'grunt-work,' in my opinion."
"Would you like that, Romi-chan?" asked Misaki. "I mean working in a kitchen or in a mess tent instead of perhaps getting your hands dirty digging up things, that is?"
Hiromi took a bite of some eggs then on her plate, and seemed rather contemplative as she did so for several quiet moments, before she simply said, "Yes, Hiromi would like that very much. Hiromi doesn't like digging up old things from the ground like Ko-chan does. Hiromi prefers solitude normally, when possible."
"But she will spend time with those close to her often, too?" asked Akemi.
"Yes, she will, but normally not many outside of school or her family, in truth, if she doesn't absolutely have to at all," said Keiko. "Many others at our school periodically make fun of her because she often talks in third person, doesn't normally move as fast as others might, or because she has some trouble with her grades through no fault of her own. She's always found it somewhat harder to do well in school than either Ryuji and I have, because she often finds it hard to focus on things she's not as interested about in her life, such as learning foreign languages or advanced mathematics or scientific concepts, for instance. It is now suspected that she may be somewhere on the autism spectrum, after one of our teachers told us what she thought might be happening with her in relation to her studies in school. They haven't finished checking her brain out yet, it seems, after we'd been told that, but we now believe that she may possibly have Asperger's Syndrome as something she's been dealing with in her life for a yet-unknown length of time."
"And you all didn't know this before just recently, somehow?" asked Tsukumo.
"No, we didn't, unfortunately. Although we were definitely wondering why certain things were actually the case for her, with no real idea what may have been true for her at any time before we were told what we were told by one of her teachers, for sure, Tsu-kun," answered Keisuke. "And we have to also admit that we often thought that she was much like me in my younger days when it came to schoolwork, in not often being able to apply oneself to it well enough at a particular time in either of our lives. She is a real sweetheart, to be honest. But when you can't actually see when certain things may be happening to those around you for various reasons, no matter what they are, then you often say and do things that you certainly regret later. And both Akira and I once thought that she was less intelligent and more clueless about various things, for instance, than she actually was and is, I have to admit. Causing us to often say certain things that we never should have said to her, and often be somewhat stricter on her at times than we should have, as well."
"But eventually we learned more about what she was going through for a while, and are still learning more about related matters, and have tried to be more understanding and all about them. It's still hard for us at certain times to be fair with her, of course, seeing as we only began learning about these things not long ago, after all. It's going to take a good while yet for us all to be able to get to where we probably should have been all along, if not forever, I think," said Akira, while finishing her current stack of pancakes. "We still make mistakes somewhat frequently with her. But, thankfully, Romi-chan has a good heart, and doesn't really carry grudges against anyone for very long, if at all. Even if they hurt her feelings a great deal at times, normally."
"Does anyone pick on her physically, by the way?" asked Souma.
"Not generally, especially when our closest friends and certain teammates on the basketball teams at our school tend to keep watch over her when we can't typically do so ourselves," answered Keiko. "She has a few close friends on both teams looking out for her practically all the time. Of course, we can't always be with her as we'd like to be, both for them and for us. But most of the time, she's still well-looked-after, to be sure."
"And what of that teacher who you mentioned earlier? What do you know of her?" asked Hina and Aina together. "Is she nice and all?"
"Yes, Faldo-san is nice, when it comes to many people. She was a well-known fashion designer for a while, before she got tired of living a fast-paced lifestyle as such in the States primarily in and around Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Paris, for example, and moved to Japan with her husband Waldo, a well-known master chef."
"Where have I heard that name before, Darling?" Shinobu suddenly mused.
"Motoko-chan told us there was a big case related to him and his restaurant chain not long ago due to several people that tried to claim wrongful terminations of their employment from his chain's establishments here in Japan, among other relevant matters to the case, it seems to me. But with the help of several close friends of his from a long time ago, he and his chain won that case, and won it quite well, in fact. However, his chain's reputation still took some hits to it, just the same, unfortunately. We've met them a number of times before when we've gone to Tokyo together to check out some of your chain's establishments and their competitors every so often, for instance. You just don't remember, do you?"
Shinobu thought for a moment, then said, "They're friends with the Urkels and Winslows, right?"
"Yes, Shinobu, they are. Although we don't see much of them, for sure, they still are, even after so many years of knowing the Urkels and the Winslows in their lives," answered Darling.
It wasn't much longer before breakfast finally ended for everyone, and Shinobu and Darling left the dining room behind to return to the room that they'd spent the previous night in for a while. For the next hour or so, then, they found things to occupy themselves with, those primarily being the things they'd been doing when they'd been whisked off to Okinawa as they had been earlier. While they were still working on them, they heard a knock on their room's door, and Tsukumo asked them if they wanted to spend some time watching basketball games in Naha with several other people then present here.
Shinobu briefly conversed in private with Darling, then said, "Sure, why not? We don't really have anything else to do that can't really wait at the moment, to be honest. Just give us a few minutes to gather up our things, and we'll go with you for a while."
Five minutes or so later, then, Shinobu and her husband left their room with all their things, and joined about two dozen or so other people on a bus to Naha for the game that Keiko and Hiromi were expected to play in together with each other and their teammates. While they were still riding that same bus, Shinobu and Hiromi conversed a good deal with each other about cooking and plush animals, for instance. As they conversed with each other, Keiko and Akira observed them silently and calmly, sitting near them both.
Hours later, after several games had been played that day, including a game between two Kanagawa Prefecture-based high school teams, Shinobu and Darling found themselves unexpectedly meeting up with Hanamichi Sakuragi and his wife Haruko, the parents of two of their current tenants at the Apartments. When Haruko saw them, she said, "We didn't expect to see you here in Naha the next time we met you, Shinobu-san."
"We didn't expect to be here, but we somehow ended up here, just the same. By the way, Kimiko and Hoshi are just fine, just in case you're wondering how they're handling life as college students away from home with you and Hanamichi," said Shinobu. "They do miss Masaru, however, to be honest, a good deal."
"Masaru misses them too. We're here to see our friends' daughter Chika play, while also visiting her parents for a few days. How are things with your restaurant chain lately?" asked Haruko, as she briefly glanced at Hanamichi chatting quietly with Darling for a short time here.
"For the most part, I believe we're doing quite well. However, we do have our competitors who can make things more challenging for us at times, you know. As for me, I'm okay physically, at least for the most part, I think. But I just got out of the hospital a bit ago after being unexpectedly caught up in a monster attack in Tokyo while spending time with friends of mine. So I'm being watched over fairly closely since then, to be sure, whether I like it or not at the present time, Haruko-chan."
Eventually, Darling and Hanamichi finished their conversation, and the Sakuragis soon parted from Shinobu and her husband. It wasn't very much longer, then, before Shinobu and Darling were left alone again, even by Tsukumo and his family, along with Keisuke, Akira, and their two present daughters. Especially after Shinobu said, "It's probably best that we try to catch a train or flight back to Yokohama or Tokyo as soon as we can, I think, Tsukumo-kun. We'll let your big sister know that everything's okay with you all, as soon as we can, to be sure."
"Very good, then. Safe journeys, you two, we hope," Tsukumo soon said, just before he and his family parted from Shinobu and her husband, followed soon by the Sajis then present near them both.
While they were waiting to try and find themselves a flight back to Yokohama or Tokyo, in a hallway of the Naha airport's main terminal, near a set of restrooms there, they soon found themselves all alone there, much to their surprise, late in the evening. Moments later, without warning, her camera case began to glow suddenly, and they unexpectedly found themselves immediately surrounded by a multi-colored pillar of light that they couldn't see out of, before feeling themselves then being whisked away to some yet-unknown location that wasn't either the Hinata Apartments or Okinawa, for some yet-unknown reason to them both.
When the pillar finally vanished from around them, and they'd both realized that well enough, they found themselves somehow in Washington, near the White House, although they didn't know why and how they were there just yet. Once they got their bearings, she said, "Oh, dear, I think we're really not in Japan any more, Darling. I wonder how we're going to get back home now, then. I hope someone's not messing around with us here, of course."
"I don't know why we're in Washington now, either, Shinobu, but hopefully we'll be back home soon, somehow. In the meantime, I hope the Apartments will be there when we finally get back there well enough for a long enough period of time, you know."
Searching his pockets for usable cash, seeing as they were now in the States, he somehow managed to find a couple hundred dollars, when he was sure that he'd not had any American money earlier that day in them at all. That fact perplexed him considerably, as it also did Shinobu here. But they still were rather curious about what might happen next for them in the near future, seeing as they were now so far from home here.
It wasn't long before they found themselves near a bank showing the current time, and when they did sufficiently well, they soon saw it was nearly 7 in the morning local time. Once they realized that, they realized that they'd best find a better place to be than where they were, and they soon did, by hailing a taxi and asking the cabbie to take them to the nearest secure hotel as quickly and as safely as possible. Especially after seeing several people that were obviously gangsters and/or mobsters somewhere nearby, at that.
It wasn't much longer before they were ultimately delivered to that hotel, and both checked into it for at least one day's stay at it, if not longer. Once they were safely behind a definitely well-locked door, and all, they then quickly found themselves crashing onto the bed there, and falling fast asleep on it, both still fully dressed and all, except for their shoes and socks. They would remain asleep for quite some time afterward, much to their eventual great surprise.
That concludes this chapter, folks. Hope you enjoyed reading it. Feel free to try and figure out wha'ts going to happen next, seeing as Shinobu and her yet-unidentified husband are now in Washington, D.C., in this story. By the way, this story is taking place in a non-CCP virus-related timeline. Plus it takes place in a certain semi-fictional timeline where the historical Presidents of the United States are often quite different, one where America's first black president is Frederick Douglass, back in 1885. The United States of America settled the slavery issue in this timeline not long after the end of the American Revolution, once and for all, thereby avoiding the American Civil War, but things weren't always pleasant in America even after slavery was abolished at the time of the Constitution's adoption by the original 13 States.
The world of this particular timeline is considerably different, due to the drastically different historical nature of the United States from 1776 to 2020 in this timeline, in comparison to our known real-world one. As this story continues to develop as the need arises for it to, you then will see just how much it differs from and just how much it is similar to our own, I hope. As in real life, the United States President is Donald Trump, as of November 18, 2020. This story's plot should ultimately end, story-wise, sometime before the calendar year changes for those inside the story, I fully expect, just so you know. That's if all goes sufficiently according to plan here, of course.
As I said earlier, this may or may not actually tie into certain things related to my Earth Versus the Power-Hunters story or stories, at least, so do please seriously try to keep that fact in mind here, folks. That story was set, and is set, long before 9/11 happened, and long before this CCP-originated virus was unleashed, in our real world. Just so we're quite clear on that here, folks, and so that nobody's confused here about it or this particular story here.
The next chapter after this one will be a C chapter, and the one after that one will be an I chapter. If you have any possible suggestions on what kind of suitable enough gift that starts with I Shinobu could potentially receive here, please feel quite free to make any and all potentially reasonable and realistic enough suggestions for that sort of thing here, if and when you like and can and all. Thank you for your time, then, folks.
I can't wait to see who you all may possibly think is Shinobu's husband with all the clues that have so far been given about him and/or his potential identity and all. Whether you think he's from Love Hina's canon cast or not, of course. Until the next chapter, at least, I'll close this here, for sure, and wish you all well, as best as I can and all. Lord willing, in any case. TUS out.