Chemical
Dependence
By Joshua
Falken
Thanks to David for beta-read this fic :-)
Disclaimer: Love Hina and its characters are property of Ken Akamatsu. No copyright inflingment is intended. This is a fanfiction work, written for fun.
Prologue - A phone call
In a bar in Hinata, at ten minutes to midnight, a girl drank what should be her thousandth glass of sake. Her face, that usually had a mixture of sympathy and malice, was dark. Her sharp eyes were lifeless. Her muscles were as tense as a rope stretched out to its limit - as well as the thoughts of her mind.
"Another." She ordered without lifting her eyes, banging the glass on the counter.
The bartender looked at her in concern, for good reason. That girl had entered the bar all of sudden at the beginning of the night, with a face twisted in anger and red eyes as if she had cried, and she had asked for a bottle of the strongest sake that they had. To his astonishment, she had not fainted yet after everything that she had drunk - with certainty, she had a high tolerance to alcohol!
Carefully, he approached her and asked:
"Are you sure that you didn't drink too much?"
"Another." She repeated the order.
Quietly, he filled the glass. He looked the mysterious young woman up and down. She was pretty, good-looking and she should be about 20 years old, had short light brown hair, and narrow eyes of the same color. She wore a very elegant midnight blue dress, very sexy but not to the point of it to be scandalous. The well-done make-up was spotted now. By his experience, he noticed immediately that her state was problematic... and with all the alcohol that she had ingested, dangerous.
When she turned the glass over, a fillet of sake slipped from her lips. She didn't care.
In that moment, a young man with a jacket from Toyko University entered in the bar, the face indicating that he had already visited other similar establishments in that night. When he noticed the young woman with the sexy dress and dark expression drinking at the counter, he gave a her a seductive smile, that was totally ignored. Not noticing the reaction, he sat down at her side.
"So then, dear? Are you alone?"
"Leave me alone!" She growled.
The man became angry. Who did she think that she was to snob him like that?! "By chance, are you very expensive, you whore?" He asked, with the smell of alchohol on his breath.
The bartender could do nothing to stop her from getting the bottle of sake and throwing it at the man...
======
It was 10 P.M. in the Hinata Inn Girls Dorm and its inhabitants were already preparing for bed. The manager of the dorm, Keitaro Urashima, looked concerned at the main door.
"What's wrong, Keitaro?" A voice from behind him asked. He turned and saw that it was Naru Narusegawa at the bottom of the stairs.
"I'm worried about Kitsune. When she left, she said that she would return before the lights were turned off and it is already 10 P.M.!"
Naru smiled. "Keitaro, you are talking about Kitsune!" She shook her head as if she was thinking that his worrying was funny. "Did you forget how she looked when she left? She is probably with somebody now and will return tomorrow. You know how she is." The Law student from Tokyo University began to go upstairs.
Behind his glasses, the eyes of the manager showed his doubts.
"Even so, Narusegawa!" he protested. "Kitsune is a little irresponsible, I admit it. But she always informed me when she was going to spend the night out."
He didn't get a response to his statement.
With a last concerned glance, Keitaro locked the door and went up the stairway, being careful to not put a lot of pressure on his broken leg.
At 2 A.M., a sound disturbed the peace of Hinata Inn.
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!
"Keitaro! The phone!" A voice from the room above him demanded.
"Huh?" he asked, sleepy.
"Urashima! Answer the phone!" Another voice ordered, which he recognized as Motoko Aoyama.
"I'm going, I'm going..."
Keitaro stood up and slowly made his way downstairs.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
"Keitaro, answer that phone right now!" Naru ordered from her bedroom.
"Who do they think that I am with this broken leg? The Flash?", he thought, upset, while he went in direction of the dorm's lobby.
"Hello? Yes, this is Hinata Inn Girls Dorm... It's the manager that is speaking." Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the building had already gathered at the stairway, curious about that phone call at such a strange hour of the night. "What?!?... I understand, sir... I'm going there right now... Yes, sir.... Yes, sir." Keitaro hung the phone up, his face pale.
"Who was at the phone, Keitaro?" Shinobu Maehara asked in a thin voice.
He was silent for a moment before speaking. "My God, what do I do?", he thought. Naru looked at him curious. Finally, he said:
"Motoko, could I speak to you alone for a moment?"
Divided between surprised and distrustful, she nodded.
"What is the problem, Urashima?" she asked, aggressively, after the two had gone to the other side of the room, where they could not be overheard.
"Motoko, I will need to go out now. Could you watch the girls while I am out?"
"Go out at this hour of the night?! What are you planning, Urashima?"
He sighed, tired. Why is it that she always thought the worst of him? "It seems that Kitsune is in trouble. An officer of the Hinata police station just called me." He revealed in a whisper. "She was arrested, but he didn't give me more information over the phone."
"Arrested?!"
"Yes, I'm going to the police station to try to discover what happened. Can you take care of the inn until I come back?"
"All right." She answered after a pause. "Why didn't you ask Naru?"
"Because I want to know what exactly happened with Kitsune before saying anything to her. It could be just a misunderstanding and I think that is better to verify it before I worry her about it. I believe that is the best course of action."
Slowly, Motoko agreed. While she took care that the other girls went back to bed, he changed clothes and went to the Hinata Tea House. One minute later, a tired Haruka opened the door.
"What's up, Keitaro?"
"Aunt Haruka, could you lend me your car? It's important!"
She made a wry face.
"Lend my car at this hour of the night?"
Keitaro sighed. "I have to go to the police station. Kitsune is in trouble."
Haruka Urashima observed her nephew for a moment before agreeing. She observed in silence, while he went off with her car.
======
"She did what?!!?" Keitaro didn't believe what he heard.
"Ms. Mitsune Konno broke a sake bottle in the face of a young man, and soon after she began to attack him with punches and kicks. Lucky for the boy that two policemen were passing by there, or the damage would have been worse otherwise." The police officer said.
Keitaro shook his head, in disbelief. Later, he went to the cell where Kitsune was being kept. He managed to hide his shock at the sight of her: she looked horrible, vomiting. There was vomit on her dress, her eyes were red. She seemed like... a survivor of some natural disaster.
"Kitsune?"
"K-Keitaro?" she asked, weakly. The alcoholic breath could be noticed from a distance.
"Miss Konno, Mr. Urashima convinced me to not arrest you this time. But you have to be aware that if this happens again, we won't be so tolerant."
"Don't worry, officer. This won't happen again." the manager of Hinata Inn assured.
Keitaro took his near-prostrated friend to Haruka's car. She was so drunk that she barely managed to walk. He placed her in the seat beside the driver and adjusted her safety belt. Kitsune drifted off to sleep as soon as he started the car. He removed a cell phone from the internal pocket of his jacket.
"Hinata Inn Girls Dorm."
"Motoko, it's Keitaro."
"What happened with Kitsune, Urashima?" There was a touch of concern behind the aggressive tone.
"I would prefer not to discuss it over the phone." He whispered. "And please, make the strongest coffee that you can. Coffee without sugar."
There was a silence on the other side of the line.
"Motoko?"
"Is she drunk?" There was now a tone of reproof. He sighed.
"Please, Motoko, do me this favor. And wait at the bottom of the Inn's staircase."
"Very well, Urashima."
Some minutes later, he stopped in front of the staircase. The swordswoman waited for them. He was not surprised with the shock that he saw in Motoko's face.
"Yes, she drank too much. Even for her." He answered the unspoken question while he went to the other side of the car and removed his passenger's safety belt. Kitsune vomited on him and murmured:
"Where am I...?"
"You are at home, Kitsune. Motoko, please, can you take her upstairs? I have to gave the car back to Haruka."
Motoko just nodded in silence and began to carry the nearly-sleeping girl up the stairway. Keitaro just observed them in worried silence, before turning back to return the keys to his aunt Haruka.
To be continued....
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