Love Hina: Once Again

Chapter 25

"I wish you could have stayed longer," Ema complained as they gathered at the airport to see Naru and Keitaro off. "I wanted to hear more abut your archeological work."

"I'll try to include some photos with my next letter," Keitaro promised, the tall young man standing with Naru as he carried their bags.

"You'd better," Koalla Su said mock threateningly as she added, "or we'll take the Tama-robo and go visit you."

"Please no," Shinobu shuddered visibly as she remembered other harrowing trips perched on the back of the rocket powered giant robot turtle. "It's been good to see you, too," she added, smiling warmly at Naru.

"I've missed you guys," Naru agreed, ruffling the shorter girl's hair fondly.

"I intend to challenge you when you return," Motoko warned Keitaro seriously, "so prepare yourself. This time things will be different."

Keitaro blinked, "Uhm, right."

"Be careful, both of you," Kitsune added as she hugged them both, "I want you back at the dorm eventually."

Kanako smiled wryly as the black clad girl noted, "Just hopefully nothing as exciting as this weekend ended up being."

"Oh yeah," Keitaro laughed sheepishly.

The Phantom Quest Corp branch that Kitsune was running was asked to look into something at a small shrine, and on a lark Naru and Keitaro asked to come along. Somehow Keitaro ended up unleashing some kind of sealed stone monster, and the group had been lucky to escape with their lives. Well, luck and the existence of several strange girls calling themselves Hime.

"I thought it was fun!" Su said cheerfully.

Shinobu sighed, "You would."

"Take good care of each other," Mutsumi said, the bosomy young woman hugging her two childhood friends.

"We will," Naru promised as their flight was announced. There was a final run of hugs as the plane was announced, then the two hurried away.

Kanako watched them go, her expression oddly blank. "He's really happy, isn't he?" she mused softly after a moment.

Motoko looked at her thoughtfully, the swordswoman standing nearby. "Yes, I think he is," she said simply as the group headed out to the waiting van.

Cramming everyone into the van was a challenge, as usual. Luckily Ami, Rei and Anthy had stayed back at the dorm with Tennyo, or they'd never get the whole mob in. As it was, it took a bit of doing to get everyone inside. With that they were off, trucking off to the dorm at the best speed the old van could manage.

Ema, sitting in the back mushed between two people, asked Kitsune, "Have you decided if we should include those girls on the website?"

"Considering the dark haired one threatened to shoot us, I'm thinking no," Kitsune said dryly. "Not to mention that cybernetic wolf thing she had kept growling at me..."

"Fair enough," Ema said, secretly relieved. The three girls had been pretty scary, really, and she didn't want to cross them.

"I don't think magical girls should act like that," Motoko noted seriously, frowning.

"Do they count as magical girls?" Kanako asked reasonably, "They didn't seem to transform or wear special costumes."

"Heck, if you eliminate costumes and transforming we could say Motoko was a magical girl," Mutsumi teased.

Everyone suddenly imagined Motoko in a short skirt waving a want while chanting a magical phrase, and visibly shuddered. "No no, let's not go there," Kitsune said firmly.

"Please no," Motoko shuddered too.

Changing the subject Shinobu suggested they stop for shopping on the way home, which everyone agreed too. When they did stop Kitsune used it as a excuse to head off on her own, while the others headed back up the long hill to the inn.

Kitsune smiled and waved as they left, then headed off to run a few errands. Ever since she had found out Motoko had gotten published, she had wanted to find out what her friend wrote. But of course, Motoko was too shy to show her. But careful research had helped Kitsune track down which magazine had published it, and she had ordered a copy.

The little bookstore in the small town wasn't a place Kitsune frequented, but she knew the guy running it. Kitsune knew most of the younger people in town to one degree or another, having been a bit of a partier over the years. Since taking over the cafe and running her company she had settled down a lot, but she still knew the faces.

"Hey Kitsune," the young man said, giving her a slightly odd look.

"Hey, Yoshi," she teased, using his hated nickname. "What's up? Is the item I ordered in?"

"Yeah," Yoshi agreed, aking the book down from a shelf behind him. "Uhm," he hesitated, "did you know what you were ordering?"

"Just the name," Kitsune admitted, wondering what he was getting at.

"Ah," Yoshi looked a bit relieved. "It's a yuri publication," he explained as he processed the order for her.

Kitsune blinked, taking a moment to process that. "As in, two women...?" she said as she took the bagged magazine.

"Yup," Yoshi agreed.

"Damn it, maybe there IS something n the water," Kitsune muttered as she left the shop, making Yoshi look at her in confusion.

Making her way to one of the many parks in the sleepy hotsprings town Kitsune settled down on a bench and idly flipped through the pages. The manga stories were all very sweet, with schoolgirls being a major theme. Not bad, but not her thing.

The prose story by Motoko was in the back of the book, and Kitsune quickly found herself engrossed in it. It was a school story like the others but set in university, about a stand offish smart girl who fell for a wild partier. It was kind of cliché, but it worked, and Kitsune had to laugh at some of the trials the two went through. She finished the story and put the maazine back in her bag, already wondering how to go about congradulating Motoko when she didn't offically know about it.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"And that's all we know," Ami Mizuno finished speaking into her wristwatch, the hidden communicator within instantly sending the voice and data away.

"I can't say I've heard of these Hime," Luna admitted, the black cat sounding faintly disturbed at Ami's report.

Rei Hino shrugged, the black haired woman sitting by Ami on the bed in their room in the Hinata Dorm. "Could they have come up after the fall of the Moon Kingdom?" she asked reasonably.

"It's possible," Luna conceded reluctantly. "I'll consult with our various sources, see what I can find out," she said.

"Try hard," Rei said, sighing. "I don't now what these girls are involved with, but they were deadly serious. It could be bad news."

"Understood," Luna nodded then ended the conversation.

"I feel vaguely guilty passing these reports about your ghost busting to Luna," Ami admitted with a sigh, leaning against Rei tiredly. It had been a long day, with her studying, the goodbyes to Keitaro and so on.

"It's not much more than what Ema puts on the website," Rei noted mildly, putting a arm around Ami's shoulders. "Besides, I don't want something like what we run into with the Corp biting us in the ass later," she added.

"We've been pretty lucky so far," Ami admitted.

Since the Sailor Soldiers had first debuted, they had faced many enemies and their monsterous minions. But many foes had been defeated only after scattering servants and creating other threats. On a regular basis they ran into creatures left from enemies they'd defeated years ago, and in some cases innocents had been hurt.

"Think we should hire Kitsune to help hunt the things down?" Ami suggested, only half-joking.

Rei laughed, shaking her head. "We'd be in debt forever paying her off," she noted.

Just then they heard the rattling thump of the old van arriving, signaling that the others were back. "Want to see how things went?" Ami asked, smiling.

"Might as well," Rei sighed as they both got up and headed down to where the mob of women were coming in.

"Hey," Tennyo Masaki smiled, her startling white hair framing a youthful face.

Rei made a mental note to ask Luna about her, too. There was something odd about Tennyo, and it worried her. "Hey," she smiled, but didn't have a chance to say more as Mutsumi hurried in and glomped the other woman.

"I missed you," Mutsumi noted cheerfully, her full breasts bouncing.

"How'd it go?" Ami asked politely as they ignored Tennyo being knocked to the ground.

"Oooh, that's going to hurt," Shinobu winced. She looked at Ami and smiled, "Not bad, really. We got them on the plane and nothing went wrong."

"It went wrong before?" Rei had to ask.

Motoko Made a face as she said, "Oh, you have no idea. The bad luck that both of them have is legendary around here."

"Ugh, Mutsumi is a worse driver than Kitsune," Ema sighed as she staggered by, looking green.

"I'm not that bad," Mutsumi pouted as Tennyo and her got up from their sudden snuggle.

"Yes, you are," Kanako said dourly. She looked at Rei and Ami, "Do either of you drive?"

"I have my learners," Ami admitted as Rei shook her head no.

"I might have to ask you to back up Tennyo, at least until Kitsune gets her license back," Kanako sighed as she headed to the kitchen to see if they needed to make lunch.

"Do we want to tell her how bad a driver you are?" Rei whispered.

"We'll save it as a surprise," Ami shrugged helplessly.

To be continued...

Notes: Yes, that's a reference to Mai Hime. Or My Hime if you like dubs. I already tied it into my Crystal Tokyo canon, so might as well toss them in here.