-Hinata Inn-

Haruka puts up a hand as a signal to keep quiet.

Hina speaks through the phone, "How are you doing Haruka-chan? Are your studies going well? How is Misaki-chan doing? Hopefully she's behaving well for you."

She responds, "I'm doing fine. Busy as usual. Studies are going fairly smoothly so far. Misaki-chan is a little rascal as always but overall is doing good. She's as attached to Keitaro-san as ever."

"Oh! Speaking of Keitaro-kun, I need to speak to him regarding something. That's why I initially called. Could you tell him the next time you see him to give me a call?"

"He's actually over here at the girls' dorm right now. He's even been looking for you since you apparently never bothered to tell him you were going on a world tour. I can hand him over to you if you'd like."

"Yes please. Thank you Haruka-chan."

Haruka looks over at Keitaro and performs a hand gesture that tells him to come over to the phone. Setting Misaki to his right, which causes her to pout, he gets up and walks over to her. Handing the phone to him, he puts it to his ear.

"Hello?" He greets.

"Keitaro-kun! It's been a while, how have you been?"

"I've had better days. I still haven't managed to get into Tokyo U yet and due to some circumstances, I need a place to stay. So…granny, if it's alright with you. Can I stay at your inn for a little while? I've heard that it recently changed into an all-girls dormitory so I understand if I can't."

The comment about Tokyo U surprises the residents.

W-what?! He's trying to get into Tokyo U, just like me?! Just like I promised with that boy! Naru thinks.

Well, props to him for trying at least. I heard that school is one of the toughest in Japan to get into. There's no way I could realistically get in there with the grades I've gotten, which is why I've settled for a local college. Mitsune muses.

Is he trying to make her feel sorry for him so that she'll let him stay here for free? That's a sleazy tactic. Shinobu thinks.

Hina replies, "Hoho! Of course you can stay there! In fact, I wanted to talk to you about that all-girls dormitory."

"Really?"

"Yes. You see, I've been getting up there in years and as such I don't feel nearly as qualified to run the place as I once did. I've let Haruka take on my duties unofficially for the past year while I've been out seeing the world, but I know that between her duties as manager, maintaining the teahouse, doing her post-graduate work, and raising Misaki-chan, it must put a lot of strain on her. Thus, I've been thinking about officially passing the Hinata Inn on to the next person in line."

"And that person would happen to be…"

"Yes! You, Keitaro-kun!"

"What?! Me? Me as owner of Hinata Inn?!"

Everyone in the room gasps at this. Shinobu was about to state her protest, but Naru put a hand over her mouth before she could get a word out.

"Yes. I've just now sent over a fax to Haruka-chan regarding all the details of handing over the ownership of Hinata Inn to you."

Keitaro then hears the sound of a few ladies calling what he presumes to be Hina's name, but it's fairly soft so he isn't entirely sure.

Hina confirms his thought by saying, "I need to go. My group I'm traveling with is calling for me. Well, good luck Keitaro-kun! If you don't want to become the owner, simply call back tomorrow and tell me so. I'll try to convince Kanako-chan to take over if that's the case. Otherwise, fill out the documents and fax them back. Once that is done, I will sign my name on the documents and it will seal the deal. Talk to you later."

Keitaro is too stunned by this flurry of information to even respond. By the time he clears his head to the point he can give a response, Hina had already hung up the phone. Putting the phone back in its original place, he returns his seat. One second later Misaki is back on his lap.

Haruka asks, "Can I inform from the bits I heard that granny wants to hand over the ownership of the all girl's dormitory to you?"

He simply nods.

"And? Are you going to do so?"

"No he won't!" Shinobu suddenly jumps up and points a finger at him. "After all he did once he suddenly barged into this home of ours, now he is suddenly going to take ownership of it?! I won't stand for it! He is utterly shameless if he thinks he can come in and turn all of our lives upside down like that!"

"Onii-chan can most definitely take good care of this place! I know he would!" Misaki says loudly in his defense.

"I only just met him so I don't know how he acts usually, but if he can take care of this place like Misaki-chan says he can, then I'm all for letting him stay." Su says. Then she thinks, I wonder if I could seduce him into doing all my chores for me. Maybe I could even avoid paying rent! Then I could spend more of my time gambling, playing video games, and building some cool tech stuff that I haven't gotten around to making yet!

"Why are you so against him staying Maehara-san?" Naru asks.

"It's none of your business." She replies.

Naru frowns, I wonder why she is like this. If only she would be more open with us. Maybe she's holding some deep secrets.

Haruka attempts to get them back on track, "Girls, this is Keitaro-san's decision to make, not yours." Turning to Keitaro, she says, "So, what are you going to do?"

Standing up and observing everyone, he replies, "I will accept the manager position. However, there will be some major changes made around here. The fact the inn looks like a pigsty is completely unacceptable. For now, I will be setting my stuff in the manager's room I saw before when running. Then I will go and officially get the deed of the inn in my name. What I want all of you to do while I do that is fill out a piece of paper stating what you all do on a regular basis to upkeep the inn. Later tonight, me and you five will be having a round meeting discussing the formal schedules."

"Um…sure Urashima-san" Motoko quietly says.

With that, Keitaro and Misaki get up and prepare to head down to the teahouse. Telling Haruka he'll meet her there they go to the door. All the other residents except for Mitsune leave the room.

"Misaki-chan, have you completed all your homework for Monday?" Keitaro asks her.

"No. I don't wanna do my homework!" She whines.

Kneeling down to reach her height level, he says with a smile, "You have to do your homework, otherwise you're not going to become as smart as you can possibly be."

She twiddles her fingers in her hair, "Well…I suppose that's true…"

He lightly sighs while still smiling, "I'll help you if you want me to."

Brightly smiling, she happily replies, "Yes Onii-chan! Please help me!"

"Heh, alright then. But remember, I'm hard on my students. I won't just be giving you the answers!"

"Yes Onii-chan!" Grabbing his hand, she leads him down to the teahouse.

Haruka is about to follow them, but Mitsune stops her by tapping her shoulder.

"Haruka-san, before you go, I have something that's been pressing on my mind for a while."

Turning around, she asks, "What is it?"

"Misaki-chan has come up to the inn numerous times and we've all tried, except for Maehara-san, to befriend her. She never warms up to us. Instead, she's been nothing but a spoiled brat to us. Even you have trouble dealing with her sometimes. Why is she so attached to him?"

"You're aware of how she was in the orphanage before I adopted her, right?"

She nods.

"Well, at that time she was really cold and distant. I won't get into the nitty gritty details, but her family situation was…not good to say the least. Basically, her older siblings abused her and her parents rarely ever stopped the abuse. I heard she was a pretty happy and cheerful child before the abuse started. By the time the local authorities caught wind of the situation, she had become but a shadow of her former self. She refused to play with the others at the orphanage and largely kept to her own devices. At least, until Keitaro-san arrived."

"Urashima-san worked at an orphanage?" Mitsune asks with a hint of surprise.

She nods, "Yep, about 3 years ago. You wouldn't tell by just looking at him, but he's really good with little kids. It was just a part-time thing he was offered by one of his parent's friends. He was only intending to do it for a week or two, but the kids quickly grew attached to him. He said he'd feel guilty for leaving them so soon, so he ultimately decided to work there for a full year before quitting to focus on his studies."

"So Misaki-chan quickly grew attached to him while he worked there?"

Haruka shakes her head, "Actually, no. She adamantly refused to have anything to do with him and avoided him like the plague."

She widens her eyes, "Wow! Really? Why?"

"She told me later on that it was because she didn't trust him at all and was afraid he'd abuse her just like her siblings did. Such a sad situation, but that's how it was."

"I see. So, what caused her to break out of her shell towards him?"

"From what I heard from Masaki-chan, one day she and the other orphans were taken to a playground for a few hours. Even though she didn't play directly with the other kids, she did enjoy swinging on the swings and sliding on the slide. At one point while swinging she accidentally let go of the chains and went flying on her face."

"Oh dear!"

"Yes. Since the floor was made of concrete, it wasn't exactly a painless landing. Immediately bawling, Keitaro-san rushed to the scene and immediately began to tend to her injuries. While she wasn't terribly injured or anything, she did have some big scratches on her face, hands, and knees. He treated her extremely gently and carefully, a sort of a treatment foreign to her. Something changed within her that day. The next day, while she was still largely ignoring Keitaro-san, she did begin to glance at him more often. Sooner or later, they started to have conversations with one another. As their relationship improved, she began to become much more lively and even started to play with the other children to an extent. Her trust in him greatly increased too. Eventually, she began to refer to him as Onii-chan and she seemed to like him the most out of all the children."

"Wow, that's incredible." Mitsune comments.

"It is." She agrees. "When it was time for Keitaro-san to leave his job at the orphanage, you couldn't imagine just how distraught she was. It was bad I'm telling you, bad. She declared that if he couldn't keep working there, she'd just go with him. Obviously, she couldn't do that, and Keitaro-san couldn't adopt her due being too young and planning to study."

"So he called you to adopt her?"

"Not that forcefully, but yes. He knew I wanted to have a child of my own to raise but I wasn't and am still not interested in marrying at the moment. So he decided to call me and see if I was interested. And well, the rest is history. We would often go visit him specifically so she could see him."

"Wow…Urashima-san is really that influential over a little child like that."

Haruka chuckles, "Fufu…yes. She respects him way more than me, and I live with that child every day! She'll do whatever he says, while I struggle to get her to do even the most basic of tasks. She's exhausting, but I'll be darned if I don't love her all the same. I'm glad I adopted her. She has a much better life now compared to then."

Mitsune lightly laughs as well, "That's good. Although if I must admit she's become too self-centered and confident. She needs to learn to respect her peers besides him."

"I'm sure she will someday."

"Hopefully you're right."

The two women part ways as Haruka heads down to her teashop and Mitsune heads up to her room to fill out a piece of paper with her schedule as Keitaro asked. Unknown to the two of them Naru had not fully left and listened in on their conversation from a nearby room.

So Urashima-san really did that? Wow. He's more impressive than I thought he'd be. Suddenly, her heart begins to beat a little faster. I…I wonder. Could he really be who I think he might be? I don't know, I can't jump to conclusions so easily! Maybe I can somehow casually bring it up with him…

About half an hour later Keitaro comes back up after helping Misaki with her homework and getting the deed properly in his name. As soon as he opens the door, an amazing aroma suddenly smacks him straight in the face. Stepping back for a moment, he can't believe that such a great smell could emanate from this filthy inn. Instantly trying to find the source of it, he eventually finds himself in the kitchen, where the rest of the tenants are located.

"Welcome back Urashima-san!" Naru waves to him from her seat at the kitchen table.

Motoko, Mitsune, and Su all give their greetings and he gives his. Once that is done, he shows him the documents stating he owns the inn.

"I'm finally finished with all the legal stuff and am now the full owner of Hinata Inn. I look forward to working with you all."

"Same here." Naru says.

"O-of course, manager-sama. You can count on me." Motoko says nervously.

"It'll be nice having another sane person around the place." Mitsune says.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Su frowns at Mitsune.

"Yeah, what do you mean by that? I'm one of the most reasonable people here." Naru says to her.

"I suppose you are one of the more saner ones Naru-san." Mitsune agrees, "However, everyone here is an idiot, plain as day."

Slightly slamming a bowl of rice in front of Mitsune, Shinobu says, "I'll mostly agree with your statement there Konno-san. Everyone here is a bumbling idiot. However, don't you dare lump me in with the rest of them. I'm nowhere even close to being stupid like you guys."

"Maehara-san, that's uncalled for." Naru says while frowning.

"All of you, calm yourselves." Keitaro says as he sits at the head of the table. "I'm sure you all have your own positive traits. Now then, what's for dinner?"

Everyone takes a look at their food that Shinobu has now passed out to everyone.

Su is the first one to complain, "Boooo! I was expecting more than just rice. Maehara-san, where's the rest of the food?"

"I was admittedly expecting a bit more too." Motoko adds. "I need to maintain a proper diet to train properly. You know how weak my body can get."

"My, you all are so freaking ungrateful!" Shinobu growls. "That person" She points and glares at Keitaro with contempt, "Ruined dinner by bumping into me while I was pouring oil into the pot. So, if you want someone to pin the blame on, it's him. Even after he did that, I went through the trouble to scrawl up a decent meal for five people and you all dare to complain?"

Everyone lowers their heads and mumble apologies to the chef as they begin to dig into their rice, grateful to have something to eat. While they begin to dig in, Keitaro thinks he hears Su mumbling about how it's his fault that they don't have a quality meal. Taking a quick glance at her, he sees her bring out a giant Coca-Cola bottle and begins to chug it.

Guess she's a giant soda drinker. Didn't she say she's a princess from Molmol? Wouldn't she have more proper table manners? Keitaro thinks, wondering what the people of Molmol would think if they saw their princess in such an unladylike state.

Noticing that he himself hasn't gotten anything to eat as Shinobu sits herself down, he asks her. "Um, where's my bowl?"

She looks at him and frowns, "You expect me to make something for you after you were the cause of the dinner being ruined? Go make something yourself if you're so hungry."

Shinobu has been getting on Keitaro's nerves almost since they first met, but this is the first time that she has made him cross. "Maehara-san, I'm really not appreciating your attitude here. You've been very rude to everyone. If you hate everyone, why are you even here?"

"I have no choice but to be here. I can't afford my own place so I made a contract with Urashima-san that I can stay here for free if I cook and do the laundry for everyone. Also, I don't hate everyone here. Although you are most certainly a person I despise, so please don't speak to me unless absolutely necessary. Actually, just stay out of my way period."

"No can do." Keitaro states affirmatively. "This inn has been left to the wayside for far too long and I intend to change that immediately. You all will play a role in spiffing the place up."

"We will?" Naru says perplexingly.

"Yes." Keitaro gets up and heads to the counter where he finds some rice that Shinobu has made. Quickly filling a bowl, he returns to the table and takes a bite. His eyes suddenly widen.

Wow. For a girl as rude as her, she actually can cook really well. She can make something as mundane as rice taste really good!

After chewing and swallowing some rice, he compliments her. "Wow Maehara-san, even though you're really rude, I must admit you're cooking is quite stellar. You could go pro someday.

"If you're trying to shower me with compliments so that I will lower my guard towards you, don't even try." She states coldly. However, deep inside, she actually appreciates the compliment just a tiny bit. Hmph. Where does he get off to, suddenly complimenting me like that? Although, the others have never praised me this highly for my cooking before. Going pro huh? Hmm…

Keitaro just sighs, "Well, moving on. Has everyone filled out their schedules like I asked?"

Naru, Motoko, and Mitsune bring out pieces of paper and unfold them for him to view.

"Thank you three. Su-san, Maehara-san, where are your schedules?" He asks, looking at them expectantly.

"Writing out a schedule is super boring. You can't expect me to actually do something productive like that." Su says.

I'm scared to ask what her standards of "productive" are. But regardless, she's going to have to whip into shape soon enough. He thinks.

"I don't plan on doing anything for you." She glares.

"Well, that is rather unfortunate." Keitaro looks at the two rebellious tenants. "Because you guys will do as I ask. This is my inn now, and it is will within my legal rights to make reasonable demands of you five."

"And it is well within my legal rights to refuse any demands you make." Shinobu retorts.

He nods, "That is true. However…" He stands up to make sure his next point gets across loud and clear. "If you two don't write up and hand me your schedules by breakfast tomorrow, then you can kiss this inn goodbye."

"You…you don't mean…" Su starts.

"Yes Su-san. It is exactly what you're thinking. I will evict any tenant who refuses to do this honestly quite simple task."

"A-aren't you being a little harsh manager-sama?" Motoko asks.

He turns to look at her, "Perhaps, but if I don't establish myself as the owner and primary authority of this inn, then I can't imagine what would follow. I imagine I would just be an extreme doormat for you five. I would likely get beaten, accused of things I never did, and conned out of my money by scheming tricksters. I will NOT let that happen."

After that bold statement, dinner quieted down and only small talk was made for the rest of the time. Despite this quiet mood, it was far from being calm. Instead, there was a very tense feeling in the air and everyone was quite perceptive to it.

Following dinner, Shinobu decided to head to Su's room. Knocking on the door, she answers the room. Wearing an orange hard hat, giant goggles, and some really dusty blue overalls on top of an equally dusty orange shirt, it's clear to Shinobu that she is working on an invention.

"Oh wow, what are you doing here Maehara-san? You like, never visit."

She sighs, "Yeah, I know. Listen, I need your help with something."

"Oh really? Why me?"

"Because I believe we may share similar feelings on a certain someone and you're tech is beyond anything I have ever seen."

Smiling at the compliment, she says, "Alrighty, I'll hear you out, but don't expect me to be doin this for free! Unless, of course, I find it to be highly interesting!"

She smiles back, "I think you'll find it worth your while."

Letting her in and directing her to a chair sitting right behind her main chair where she does all of her work, she asks, "So, what's going on?"

"It's that new manager."

"Oh yeah, Urashima-san was he? I found him to be pretty boring, like Konno-san. He doesn't even enjoy gambling! Speaking of him, I guess I need to fill out that stupid schedule thing or whatever it is. He sounded serious at dinner and I don't want to leave."

"Yeah, I'll have to fill out mine too." She grumbles. "But hey, you don't like him, right?"

"I don't dislike him, but I don't love him either. He's just a plain boring guy who's kinda full of himself."

"Ain't that the truth! He's so full of himself, barging in like that thinking he can command us all around like a pack of dogs. That's why I'm here. Su-san, using your amazing tech, could you find a way to…you know…get him out of here?"

She grins, "Now that sounds interesting!"

Meanwhile, in Keitaro's brand new room, he had been going over the schedules that the three girls gave to him at dinner. He had already changed into his pajamas.

"Looking at Narusegawa-san's schedule, she may be even more devoted to studying than me. Most of the hours in her days involve her going to cram school and hitting the books at home. That's rather impressive. Although that doesn't exactly translate well into reasonable inn upkeeping. She'll most definitely need to lay off the studying to an extent. Can't say I don't understand her though. I'll try to not take too much studying out of her schedule."

He then glances again at Motoko's schedule, "From looking at Aoyama-san's profile back at the teashop, she appears to be a kendo warrior from the God Cry School. Not only that, she appears to be the next heir to it. While her resolve is high, her body is weak. It appears her body is prone to quick exhaustion and if she's not careful she can easily faint from exerting herself too much. She usually spends her days either at school, training here, or sleeping. Looks like we'll have to change the schedule up a bit to be less about kendo and more about helping clean this place."

Finally, he looks at Mitsune's and smiles, "Konno-san appears to be a very hard worker. Holding two part-time jobs, she appears to be the main provider of the group. She and Narusegawa-san seem to be the most reasonable people living here. She also spends a decent chunk of her time keeping the place clean and presentable. Or at least, she tries to. She cleans the hot springs more than anything else according to this and while she tries to fix/clean other things, it's just too much for her. I guess I can infer from this that Su-san and Maehara-san don't really do much cleaning. Though the latter did say she cooks and does the laundry regularly. I wonder why she doesn't try to pitch in more. Su-san just gives me the impression that she is purely lazy, no more no less."

Setting the three pieces of paper back on his desk, he sighs, "Well, I won't know for sure until I get their papers in the morning. I've went through enough for one day. I better hit the hay." Plopping onto his bed, he makes a large sigh of happiness.

Looking straight up, he notices that there is a huge hole in the ceiling. Even more strangely, there appears to a small light coming from it. "Really? There's even a giant hole in the ceiling? Ugh. I guess that's another task to add to my bucket list that is growing longer by the second." Deciding he'd deal with whatever awaits him up there in the morning, he turns to his side, sets an alarm on the clock already in the room, and attempts to fall asleep.

Right above him, Naru has been in deep thought about the events that occurred today. All of a sudden, just like that, they had a brand-new manager. Not only that, but she even took it rather well!

That feels unlike me. She thinks while changing into her pajamas. I feel like I should be more opposed to such a thing. Just letting a man suddenly become manager to an all-girls dormitory, but I'm not. For some reason, I feel like things are about to really change around here, mostly for the better. Also, he had this air of familiarity around him. Just like that kid I made the promise with. Could it really be him? Could it really be Keitaro Urashima who I made that promise with?

Once she finishes changing, she decides that she will go down and ask him directly if he remembers making such a promise. What have I got to lose? If he says no, it'll simply end at that. If he says yes on the other hand…I…I don't know.

Shaking her head, she decides she'll think more about what will happen after he answers later. She begins to walk forward towards her door. Unfortunately, due to being in deep thought she completely forgot to consider just exactly where she is walking and ends up falling straight through the hole right in the middle of her room.

"Ahhh!" She screams as she falls and smacks her head straight onto Keitaro's nightstand.

"What in the?!" Keitaro suddenly sits up in bed and quickly looks around him to see who just made that noise. Quickly finding the culprit out cold on her stomach, he quickly recognizes her as Naru and gets worried.

Flipping her onto her back, he says quickly, "Narusegawa-san! Narusegawa-san! Can you hear me? Are you alright? Wake up!"

A few moments later after checking her pulse, her eyes suddenly flip open. Keitaro almost immediately notices and backs away from her, not wanting to be mistaken for a pervert for touching her body.

She looks around in a seemingly dazed like state. Eventually, her eyes lock onto Keitaro's and she suddenly asks, "Why am I here?"

"I think you fell from the hole in the floor right above me. Seriously, why does such a hazardous hole even exist in the first place?!"

"Not that." She replies, causing him to become surprised and confused. She continues, "Why am I at this inn?"

-Author's Corner-

A/N: To the surprise of no one (well, the audience, not the tenants), Keitaro is now officially the owner of Hinata Inn. Misaki's background is explained to some extent and the tenants have their first meal together…to mixed results.

iacopo passerini: Thank you! I hope you enjoy this story.

James Birdsong: Thank you!