Love Hina: Once Again
Chapter 34
"Wait... the inn was attacked while we were gone?" Kitsune blinked.
"By SLIMES?" Motoko added, also blinking.
Just after the battered old van had reached the inn, they had been startled to see a lot of damage around the old buildings. Not SERIOUS damage, thankfully, but a lot of small stuff. When the others hurried out to greet them, they asked what happened...
"Yup. It was AWESOME," Su beamed.
"And Tennyo beat it with a LIGHT SABER. It was so cool!" Sara added.
"I need to go talk to Kanako about this...," Kitsune said with a sigh.
As usual, Kanako was in her office doing the paperwork. "Welcome back," she looked up and smiled mildly.
"Uhm... the inn was attacked? Seriously?" Kitsune asked.
Kanako explained, concluding, "It was apparently Tennyo's relative's fault."
"Ah," Kitsune looked relieved.
"What?" Kanako asked curiously.
"I was kind of worried that it was related to my Phantom Quest Corp stuff." Kitsune admitted a bit sheepishly.
Kanako smiled, "It's nice that you care."
"Anyway," Kitsune waved that off, feeling a little embarassed, "how bad was the damage? Do we need to...?"
"We got a cheque sent by 'Jurai Interests Inc' a day after it happened," Kanako reassured her, "apparently Tennyo leaned on her relatives to fix things."
"Huh. Remind me to try to borrow beer money off her," Kitsune mused.
"Bad girl," Kanako scolded her mildly.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"So, the horsewoman, Celty, is missing her head?" Utena asked as she and Anthy were settling back into their room.
"Stolen, apparently. She's in Tokyo looking for it," Anthy added.
Anthy and Celty had conversed a bit once the meeting broke up. Celty, apparently, had sensed the power of Dios both Anthy and Utena had.
"Does she want your help looking?" Utena wondered.
"I actually suggested she go to Juri's friend Hitomi, the fortune teller. She's fairly accurate," Anthy admitted.
Utena gave her girlfriend a thoughtful look. "Is there a reason to stay out of this?" she asked.
Anthy made a so/so gesture. "She's a Dullahan, a celtic death bringing spirit," she said, "my own powers are older, but... not that much. And I worry about those forces colliding."
"Okay, fair enough," Utena gave in willingly.
"That's it? No protests we should help her?" Anthy asked curiously.
"I trust your judgement," Utena reassured her.
"Thank you," Anthy hugged Utena suddenly.
"Besides, knowing our luck something will come up and we'll be involved anyway," Utena added with a shrug.
"Ugh. Probably," Anthy sighed. "Let's go soak in the pool," she suggested, "I missed doing that on our Tokyo trip."
"Let's," Utena agreed.
Out in the hot springs, two guests were relaxing in the steaming water. "Aaah, this is nice." Misaki Saiki sighed happily, the albino neck deep in the steaming water.
"Totally worth renting a room for the night," Shizue agreed, sitting on a stone bench beside her.
"So, you know this Kitsune too?" Misaki asked curiously.
Shizue snorted, "I KNEW you were going to ask that."
"Dish the dirt," Misaki 'ordered' cheerfully.
"There's not THAT much dirt to dish," Shizue told her, "we ran in some of the same crowds, back when she was a heavy drinking party girl. And yes, we slept together a few times."
"Awww," Misaki pouted when she realized Shizue wasn't going any further.
"Afternoon," Anthy nodded to them as she and Utena settled in nearby.
"Ahh, that's nice," Utena sighed as she sat.
Shizue blinked as she got a look at the scars on the woman's back. That wasn't bondage play... someone had stabbed the hell out of her. She looked away, pretending not to notice.
"This is a great hotspring," Misaki noted mildly, "but is there anything else to do in town?"
Utena chuckled, "Not much, though there's a historic shrine nearby."
"That's the one with a actual demoness, right?" Shizue asked, curious.
"Oh HELL no. Pass," Misaki said quickly. "I have enough supernatural stuff at work... I don't need to go looking for it."
Anthy chuckled, "I can understand that."
Before the conversation could continue, Kitsune quickly emerged from the mists. "Any stories Shizue tells about me were heavily exagerated," she said as she got unto the water.
"NOW you have me wondering what you got up to," Utena teased.
"Oh shut up," Kitsune splashed her.
They relaxed in the water, and Kitsune noticed that Misaki, Utena and Anthy were engaged in a conversation. She scooted a bit closer to Shizue as she smiled shyly, "Hey."
"Hmm?" Shizue gave her a curious look.
"Sorry I kind of disappeared on you," Kitsune admitted. She looked upwards, uncomfortable, as she added, "I kind of cut back on the drinking, and..."
Shizue patted her on the arm, "Yeah, I'll admit we didn't do much more than drink and party back in school." She paused and added, "I still can't get over you running a business tho."
"I run two, technically," Kitsune noted, thinking of the cafe. "And you, Miss Editor. Well done."
"Ha. My parents are not as impressed by my editing a porn mag," Shizue snickered.
"I have a friend who's a writer," Kitsune thought of Motoko, "maybe I can get her to show you some of her work..."
"I'll look at it, but no promises," Shizue quickly cautioned her.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Their cellphones went off almost at the same time. Rei and Ami exchanged glances, then answered them.
"THERE'S A HEADLESS HORSEWOMAN IN TOKYO?!" both Usagi and Mina blurted over the phones nearly at the same time.
"I guess Ema uploaded a new video to the Phantom Quest Corp website?" Ami guessed.
"That was so cool," Usagi added.
"That Shizuo guy was SOOO hot. If I was still single...," Mina added cheerfully.
"Mina!" Rei scolded, though that was typical of her.
"Let's put you on speaker," Ami suggested, setting it up using meeting software she had downloaded and tweaked.
"So there's the headless horsewoman, the super strong guy...," Usagi mused.
"And there was something supernatural about the third person, the teen girl," Rei added.
"That's the one with the huge rack," Mina observed.
"MINA," Ami sighed.
Rei just ignored that.
Ami continued, "I have to admit, it's been fascinating discovering all these beings whom we never knew existed..."
Somewhat more seriously Mina mused, "Hopefully none of these end up becoming enemies."
"Or they could be allies!" Usagi offered cheerfully.
"Let's hope," Ami agreed.
There was a knocking on the door, then Shinobu called, "Everyone's having a late lunch. Come down if you want some..."
"Thanks!" Ami called.
"Awww. Wish we could have lunch there too," Usagi sounded like she was pouting. "We'll check in again soon."
"See ya," Mina agreed as they hung up.
To be continued...
Notes: Yes, more Ghostalker's Daydream bits. I still wanna do a team up of Misaki & Rei vs some kind of supernatural nasty...