Love Hina: Once Again
Chapter 29
Ema Maeda stomped her foot angrily as the teen complained, "You forgot me!" She had caught up to them at the hotel, just as the group was moving out.
"I'm really sorry about that," Kitsune lied. Honestly this case had been sufficiently weird that she had deliberately left the (mostly) defenseless young woman behind. Sadly she had underestimated Ema. The young woman had managed via Japan's efficient public transport to catch up with them in less than a day.
"All right," Ema said briskly as she opened her laptop, "have we encountered the headless horsewoman yet?"
Ami smiled wryly, again struck by how odd the situation was. "Not yet," she said, "In fact we were just trying to decide how to carry on from here."
"I'm debating between splitting up to cover more ground or staying as a group so we can respond as a team," Kitsune admitted.
"Haven't you watched horror movies? Splitting up means you get picked off one by one," Ema pointed out to them.
"We're not exactly in a horror movie though," Utena noted, the group of them standing on the street beside the hotel.
"This IS Ikebukuro," Kitsune pointed out, "it's a profoundly weird place." There was the Strongest Man in Ikebukuro (And some said in all of Japan too.), the mysterious Slasher and, of course, the headless horseman.
"Despite all that I DO think we should split up," Rei offered, "but check in regularly with Kitsune via cellphone."
"You and Ami," Kitsune nodded as she quickly divided them up into teams, "Utena and Anthy, and I'll take Motoko and Ema."
"Works," Anthy nodded. "Should we attempt to engage the Dulluhan on our own?"
"Oh hell no," Kitsune blurted. "We have no idea how dangerous or not, it is... if you see it, call then keep an eye out. Okay?"
The young man in the crowd didn't know who these weird people were, but he HAD heard 'engage the Dulluhan.' That mean Celty, which was not something that could be allowed. He covertly pulled out his cellphone and typed, sending a message. When he was finished he put the phone away and disappeared into the throng of people.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Utena, are you all right?" Anthy asked gently as they walked together down a crowded street.
"I'll admit the honeymoon suite creeped me out a bit, Utena conceded, "but I'm fine."
Anthy took her hand and squeezed gently. They both had scars from their years at Ohtori, and they could manifest in odd ways. Still, both women were healing too.
"Do you really think there's a headless horsewoman, or do you think this is a wild goose chase?" Utena asked conversationally.
"Well, I know in general that they are real," Anthy admitted, "though I can't say for sure in this case."
Utena blinked at her girlfriend, "You met one?"
"Long time ago," Anthy nodded. "Wasn't violent or harmful, exactly, but was a harbinger of death more or less."
"Well that's comforting...," Utena drawled.
"Oh wow, are you cosplaying!" a voice cheerfully exclaimed.
Utena blinked at the shorter woman in a cap, accompanied by a brown haired young man in a hoody. Bot seemed very peppy, possibly a little unhealthily so.
"Totally Rose of Versailles. Look at that hair!" the young man agreed.
"Are you Oscar?" the girl asked eagerly.
"It's natural, actually," Utena admitted, slightly befuddled.
"So cool!" the young man exclaimed.
"And you've got purple hair!" the girl cried as she got a good look at Anthy. She looked at her companion, "They are TOTALLY main character types."
"Totally Main Characters, but which type?" he agreed then asked Utena, "Are you a series, OVA, manga or light novel?"
"What?" Utena blinked.
Before things could get any more surreal a taller fellow marched up and grabbed both of the strangers by their collars. "Sorry about this," he said as he dragged them off, "my friends occasionally forget the difference between reality and their manga."
"But Kadota!" she whined. "I was about to ask then about appearing in the Yaoi and Yuri fandoms!" the girl complained.
"Hush, Erika..." Kadota sighed.
Utena looked at Anthy once they were gone and asked, "What was THAT about?"
For once Anthy was equally confused. "I have no idea..." she admitted.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Okay, okay. Right. Thanks," Mikuriya Shizue sighed, then hung up the phone. "Sorry," she apologized to the woman beside her.
Misaki Saiki smiled back, her white hair falling into her eyes. "It's fine," she reassured her. "What happened?" she asked.
Shizue smiled wryly, "A author needed some hand holding."
"I of course would know nothing about that," Misaki winked, having done some writing for her friend's magazine.
Shizue snorted rudely.
"And I thought I was easy to work with," Misaki sighed, deliberately looking sort of pitiful.
THAT got Shizue to laugh aloud. "Trust me, you do not want to know how often I get complaints about your Mistress Misaki column," she told her.
Misaki looked at her curiously, "So why do you run it?"
"Because it's a riot, and it's popular too," Shizue smiled.
Feeling strangely comforted by that Misaki smiled.
Before anything else could happen a large, black man loomed in front of them.
"Eeep," Shizue eeped as she actually hid behind Misaki.
"Eat Sushi," he smiled as he spoke with a odd accent, "Russian Sushi. Is good for you."
Misaki took one of his fliers, managing to say "Thank you."
"Nice ladies have sushi?" he smiled in his Japanese Sushi making outfit, "Give good price."
"Maybe later," Shizue smiled weakly.
"Good luck hunting headless horsewoman," the big Russian waved.
Both woman stopped dead. Misaki turned back, "How do you know that?"
"Is all over town, that strange women are hunting her," the big man shrugged expressively. "You will need all luck you can get, I think."
With that he laughed and walked back to keep trying to sell Russian Sushi.
"That was VERY brave of you," Misaki noted deadpan to her friend.
"He surprised me," Shizue protested. She paused and added quietly, "What was that about?"
"Dunno, but I don't like it..." Misaki sighed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"This is maddening," Motoko growled out as the group found themselves blocked by a (apparently) random street fight between a blond haired young man and a slim, dark haired man in a fur lined coat.
"IZAAAAYAAAA!" he roared, literally picking up a vending machine and flinging it towards his target.
"Shizuo, your timing is terrific as always," Izaya quipped as he dodged.
"This is the fifth random disturbance we'd had slow is down," Motoko noted. "If I didn't know better, I'd think it was deliberate."
Shizuo grimaced as he tore up a sign post, "Just hold still and all your troubles will be over!"
"I'll pass thanks," Izaya answered, dodging nimbly, his coat fluttering in the breeze.
"I think it IS deliberate, actually," Kitsune admitted wryly, "someone's blocking us by organizing these various distractions."
"But who?" Ema blinked as she looked around in confusion.
"The leader of the Dollars, I assume," Kitsune shrugged, holding up her phone and displaying a text message there.
"Huh?" Motoko blinked.
"I got the message because I joined up on their site too, a while back," Kitsune explained. She shrugged, "It's sort of a gang, but organized entirely online..."
Ema gave her a odd look, "And you didn't tell us this earlier?"
Kitsune shrugged eloquently, "I was curious how far they would go."
Motoko facepalmed, looking extremely aggravated. "Damn it Kitsune..." she sighed.
"So what do we do now?" Ema asked patiently as they moved away from the escalating brawl.
"I have a cunning plan that I am certain will succeed," Kitsune reassured them.
Both Motoko and Ema exchanged worried looks. "What?" Motoko asked.
"We'll hire her for a courier job..."
To be continued.
Notes: Writing a fic with Durarara characters is hazardous because they tend to take over the story. Heh. Walker, Erika and Kadota are the characters that ran into Utena and Anthy, Simon of Russian Sushi met Misaki, and Izaya and Shizuo had a fight in front of the others.