Ah! My Hina! -A crossover fanfic featuring Love Hina and Ah! My Goddess!
-Written by Buncy The Frog, with help from members of angelroms.com forums and zinfomxx.com forums-check them out!!!
Ah! My Hina! Episode 2-Who's the best? Competition.
Keiichi and Keitaro sat in a luxurious bath looking out at the night sky, the bath lovingly provided to them by Belldandy. These two had been going there regularly now, because of the events happening in the dorm. The two worlds had. clashed, to say it nicely. The relatively calm atmosphere had dissolved when talents collided. For example, there was Skuld and Suu, who had been trying to top one another time and again making robots and machines. Urd and Kitsume had been trying to outwit one another, using their fellow dormers as the subjects. Finally, a very pleasant, but fierce battle between Belldandy and Shinobu had developed; they had been cooking up a storm ever since the first night.
"Ah, I don't think I'll ever get used to this." Keitaro sighed, leaning deeper into the bath. Keiichi stretched and yawned.
"Me either, its pretty strange not only moving here, but seeing what's going on at the moment." He got out of the bath and dried off. "I'm going to bed now, see you tomorrow morning, for another five course meal, from each of our cooks." He rubbed his stomach to empathize his point, then left. Keitaro slouched down more in the tub, trying to remember what had started the whole thing.
The first conflict had been sparked when Shinobu, having just woken up, walked into the kitchen to prepare dinner, only to see a very beautiful and exotic looking woman preparing rice cakes.
"Ah, um. What are you doing?" She had asked, the answer obvious. The woman crooked her head toward the young lady and smiled warmly.
"I'm preparing dinner, I know it's usually your job, but I thought you could use a break." She opened her mouth to speak, but Belldandy stopped her. "During dinner, I'll explain everything. Now sit down, relax, you must feel stressed here, having to cook for all these people. You must be very talented for them to have you on full time for cooking." Shinobu blushed a dark shade of red.
"Um, annon, yes, I guess you could say that." Shinobu almost whispered. She had gotten out of the idea that everything that she did was a miserable failure and had started accepting that what she did was in fact good work, and that she had a great mind and personality. She gave a little half bow and stammered away from the door. She had been making dinner almost since she had arrived at the dorm. Now, this person who she didn't even know was making dinner? It was all too much for her-she made to Keitaro's room. Maybe her sempai would make her feel better.
As she emerged, she saw, to her surprise, and the obvious delight of almost everyone in the room, Keitaro was hanging upside down, and flying around the room, screaming in sheer terror. She let out a gasp that caught the attention of the group. A darkly tanned woman waved her hand. Keitaro suddenly started flailing his arms around, then dropped face first into the floor. She rushed to Keitaro's side, and started shaking him, trying to get him to wake from the unconscious state the fall had rendered him in. Suu jumped up and started jumping around.
"Shinobuuuuu! Why did you have to ruin our fun!" She emphasized the word "fun" by landing square on Keitaro's back, driving him back into consciousness. Sara folded her legs, obviously disappointed. A strange looking girl with a mallet stood up and moved to the door.
"If you don't mind, we have some more matters to discuss with your manager." She wore a serious expression. As she closed the door, she burst out laughing. "Let's discuss a game of whack the manager!" Shinobu could hear the wails of Keitaro from inside and tried to open the door, but she couldn't. It was jammed or something else that she could not figure out. Feeling flustered and confused, she retreated until her room until dinner was announced.
As she walked into the dining room, it was obvious that this woman was something extraordinary. There were five courses laid out for each person, along with their places already served with each dormer's favourite drink. That may not have been a good choice when Kitsume was involved, Shinobu silently observed. When everyone arrived and the eating started, it was obvious that something was not looking too great for Shinobu's position as cook. Everyone was diving into their dishes, pausing between chews to praise this woman's work. The woman who cooked the dinner got up and called everyone's attention with a slightly amplified voice.
"Hello everyone," She said pleasantly, "I thought that dinner would be the best time to discuss what has happened. The girls nodded their agreement, Shinobu joined in, hoping to know what was going on. It took about an hour, convincing people like Kitsume and Suu that they were Goddesses was hard enough, but they made the girls demonstrate their powers to "convince" them. After the three had preformed some spectacular light shows, as along with showing their angelic forms, the girls turned to Keiichi.
"What about you?" Kitsume inquired, her eyebrow raised. Keiichi looked up, having almost completely ignored the displays, and had been talking with Keitaro, who was too exhausted to see anything out of the ordinary.
"Oh." Keiichi jolted upright, "I'm just a mortal." He grinned, looking over at the woman Shinobu now knew was called Belldandy, "But I think I'm the luckiest mortal in the world right now." Belldandy made a delighted noise while Urd and Skuld, the other two, made acts of retching, along with the adjoining sounds.
"Well, I hope you're staying long, because now out party for these two lovebirds." She motioned to Keitaro and Naru. Keitaro turned a deep red and started mumbling something, but was knocked flat by Naru with a fist to his temple. "Will have to be rescheduled for another time." She shrugged. "But, what does it matter where you get hammered!" She raised her glass of sake. "Bottoms up!"
The night quickly broke down, the dormers, new and old, split into groups of conversation. For Urd and Kitsume however it was a pair of drinking fools, every time they ran out of sake, Urd made another one appear, but her attempts were getting worse and worse every time. Her latest try had resulted in a snake being set loose. Belldandy, Naru, Keiichi, and Keitaro were talking when Shinobu spoke up.
"Annon, Belldandy?' The woman turned and smiled. Shinobu took another breath and continued. "I'm able to cook for tomorrow, if it's all right with you. Belldandy smiled hugely.
"Of course! As long as I get to cook from time to time, I don't mind taking a break." Belldandy said through a delightful smile. Shinobu nodded her agreement.
The next day started as usual, with a simple breakfast from Shinobu, and a lunch that Belldandy had prepared. Their co-operation had been working well, and they seemed to be getting along. But that night everyone's view of that had changed. As they entered the dining room, they were taken aback. There was food-heaping portions of delicious food whose aroma attacked the diners' noses when they got remotely close to the dishes. The food was delicious, as many as them thought it would be, every so often a compliment or praise was shot at Shinobu, her face reddening with each one. Afterwards, Belldandy approached Shinobu.
"Ah, Shinobu?" She poked her head around into the kitchen-Shinobu was cleaning the dishes. She turned and asked what Belldandy needed. "I just wanted to tell you that I'll cook dinner tomorrow." Without giving time to Shinobu to argue, Belldandy had slipped out.
Keitaro sunk deeper into the tub. That argument was actually the good one, it got him fed royally every meal, not like what had happened after that second night when Shinobu had cooked dinner, now THAT rivalry was hell for him-this was one of the places where he could avoid it.
During the second dinner, which fortunately did not provide a sake bottle for Urd to refill time and time again, Urd and her new drinking buddy had to resort to a practice usually only carried out drunk-talking. As soon as Kitsume mentioned a time when she had tricked Keitaro into giving her 10 000 yen, Urd shot back immediately with a situation she had gotten Keiichi into involving a love potion. They very fiercely started shooting things they'd done back and forth at each other, trying to top the other by splurting out some random sneaky or cruel thing they did. It eventually ended in a stalemate, each woman burning holes in the other's eyes. They got up and stormed out of the dining room, heading for their rooms. The goddesses' rooms were positioned very close to the girls' rooms. In fact, all it took for Kitsume to look into Urd's room was to put her head out the door, and look down one room. That didn't help at all with the situation, as the two were on the verge of a fistfight going to their rooms, and seeing the opposition the whole way to their rooms did not go well.
Then it began.
When Keitaro woke up in the morning, Naru was standing over his bed, holding something. Keitaro couldn't quite make it out, because he had just woken. "Have a good night?" She asked, obviously something was wrong. Keitaro sat up and tried to concentrate on the object that Naru was holding. When his eyes finally adjusted and he put on his glasses, it became clear what they were-panties. Strawberry patterned panties. Keitaro immediately was on alert. What was Naru doing with panties in her hand-if he ever even looked at the girls' laundry she'd beat him.
"Are you a bit tired? Because you obviously didn't get much sleep." Naru continued, confusing Keitaro even more.
"What's this about Naru?" He stood up, still a bit groggy.
"Well, for one thing-these are Shinobu's." Naru stated. A shot of fear went through him. What had happened that she wanted to know something that involved Shinobu's panties? He involuntarily took a step back.
"Ah... what about them?" He stammered.
"Nothing," Naru said, lowering them to her side, "just that Shinobu saw you come in last night and take them." She looked too casual to be saying this. Suppressing rage. Keitaro guessed. But this accusation stunned him.
"Me? Taking a girl's panties? Haven't I already shown you that I'm not a pervert?" He took another step back, Naru followed him.
"Well, I did get over that, except for this!" She spat, holding up the panties again. "Shinobu's having a crying fit because you stole her panties! Do you know what it would take to calm her down?! Almost nothing!" Naru's face was set in an ice-cold stare.
"Wait wait!" Keitaro insisted, having his hands. "How do you know it was me? This is just unfair, blindly accusing me of something!" Keitaro wailed, hoping this would buy him some time to run. Naru reached into her pocket and brought out a book. Keitaro took it carefully and immediately noticed it was his datebook.
"I found it in her room." Naru said, her eyes blazing fire. Keitaro nodded, turned slowly, and bolted out of his room, screaming at the top of his lungs as Naru followed him. He knew he hadn't taken anything, but the only way to prevent himself from being killed was to run. Fast. As he bolted down the stairs and past Kitsume's room, he heard a howling laughter. He stopped, and knowing his life was in danger, opened the door a crack. He saw Kitsume rolling around on the floor laughing, with a stony- posed Urd by her side, shaking her head. He flung open the door and knew what was happening.
"Kitsume! Did you do this?" Keitaro insisted, looking down the hall.
"Yes! It was a masterpiece!" She managed to say between bursts of laughter. Keitaro was about to insist what she was thinking, but didn't get the chance, because being punched in the head and flying into the wall opposite a window tends to prevent someone from talking much. Naru stood panting, and looked over at Kitsume, who was not laughing ten times as hard as she was before. Realization finally dawned on Naru. "You. Did this?" She asked, pointing at the laughing figure.
Kitsume managed to sit up straight, and nodded twice. A grin infected her face again and she fell down laughing again.
"Did you hear that? Oh man, you really can hit a guy Naru. Oh, I need some sake." Kitsume managed to stumble out of her room, hanging onto Naru as she passed, never stopping her laughing. Urd, now that Kitsume was gone, nodded slowly. "That was pretty good, I have to admit, but I'll top her." She passed Naru, a look of sheer determination on her face.
Naru didn't know what to think. Sure, she would kick Keitaro's butt if he even looked the wrong way at a girl, but to have done it just because she was set up made her feel almost evil. She had to learn to control her temper, and her jealousy, better.
Wait a second. Me? Jealous of anyone with Keitaro? What am I thinking? Naru thought.
Don't try to convince yourself otherwise, you have feelings for Keitaro and you know it. Another part of her shot back. (For reason of simplicity, let's say it was her heart)
Please, anyone as perverted as him couldn't even get the time of say from me. Naru's other side (Her brain) shot back
Oh please, how many dates have you two been on together? Plus when you tried to break up his date with Mutsumi. Face it, But I wouldn't argue more, you might start talking to yourself out loud, that'd turn Keitaro off, and we both know you don't want that. Her heart finished. Naru, fuming at her dumb impulses, went off to breakfast.
There, she really got a shock. Last night's dinner had been pale in comparison with what was laid out before her. Each place set was divided into two by a plastic barrier. One side was marked "Belldandy", the other marked "Shinobu". On each side of the barrier there were mounds of food, each serving was as large as last night's per-person serving.
"Whaa?" Naru whispered, looking down the hall, where the others were slowly approaching, still slightly groggy, except for a still hysterical Kitsume, Urd, her face set in concentration, and Keitaro, who winced every step he took, and paused when he saw Naru.
"Look, I can explain." Keitaro began. Naru held up her hand.
"I know, Kitsume set it up, just like she did with your rent money last time. Look, I. I'm sorry I hit you back there, if I knew what had been going on." It was Keitaro's turn to hold his hand up.
"Let's just say that now you owe me one ok?" He smiled warmly, then winced as he moved closer. "I'm starved. What's for breakfast?" Naru winced at that question. "Pick a food." She said, leaning up against the doorframe.
"Uh. Fish?" Keitaro guessed, not really knowing what the question was about. Naru shrugged.
"It'll probably be there, take a look." As Keitaro rounded the corner, he showed definite signs of shock.
"Wow, that's. a lot of food." He said, looking at each place set in the room. "I'm guessing that there's going to be some leftovers." Naru nodded. As she made to sit down, a figure jumped on Keitaro's head. Naru glanced up, without really having to, to see Suu with her legs on either side of Keitaro's head, riding him like a child.
"When I saw all that food, it gave me an idea!" She shouted. She pushed off Keitaro's chest, sending him back a few feet, and pulled out what looked like a trash bin. "This is my mega mecha food disposal! Food goes in, but doesn't come out!" She beamed; her trademark symbol imprinted on the side of the object clearly showed that her strange foreign technology had been used to make it. Keitaro looked disappointed.
"Isn't that a waste of food? I mean, a big waste, considering how much there is?"
"It doesn't matter! Shinobu and the Goddess are making enough food to feed a small nation, so there's always more!" Suu grabbed an apple off a counter and jumped over the can, throwing the apple in the bin as she went. There was a hissing sound and some smoke, and the apple was gone. She bounded around the room, obviously pleased, then stopped, and bent over, her hand at her eyes, causing a catcall whistle to sound out of nowhere. "What's that!" She pointed to the other side of the room, where Skuld was wheeling something in. She looked over at Suu and her disposal.
"I had pretty much the same though as Suu, but my invention is a lot better." Skuld beamed. She took out a bag of food and dumped it in her can that looked similar to Suu's. "Skuld's own garbage disposal, switch, on!" She said as she pressed a button on a handheld controller. There was a quick zap, and the food disappeared.
"Oooooo." Suu marveled, looking into the tin on the balls of her feet. She stood up and saluted Skuld. "I can do better! I'll be right back!" She bounced out of the room, picking up her tin as she left.
"Pssh, better then me? Let's see that." Skuld said stubbornly, sitting down at her place. Five minutes later Suu came bouncing into the room, shot Skuld a look, then sat to eat. As Naru had predicted, there was a pile of food left afterwards, even though everyone had eaten until they couldn't place one more piece of food in their mouths, because their stomachs would, they thought, explode. Suu jumped up, rather slowly compared to before she started eating, and pressed a button on a remote controller she was holding, where she got it Naru couldn't guess. They heard a whirring, and a robot screeched around the corner of the door Suu had gotten out of earlier and came straight towards the diners. It stopped at the first place, Shinobu's, and hands shot out, grabbing each piece of food and dumping it into Suu's bin from earlier, which had been attached to a platform on the robot. It moved steadily from table to table, rapidly disposing of the food it came across. When it was done, Suu pressed another button, and the robot retracted it's arms and sped out the door, sliding into it and causing a large dent to appear in the food frame as it tried to turn the corner. Suu punched the air in triumph and thanked Shinobu and Belldandy for the food, then slowly, and not very energetically, bounded out of the room, still leaving the shocked look on everyone's face still very much intact, except of course on the face of Skuld, who had never once flinched as the robot was collecting her food wildly. She puffed in anger and left the room, muttering something to herself under her breath.
The next morning, Keiichi had gotten a punch to the nose by Sara, after being taken control of by a Love potion concocted by Urd, her response to Kitsume's earlier ploy. The piles of food were beginning to become bigger and tastier, as Shinobu and Belldandy tried harder and harder to top one another, but both were receiving the same amount of praise. The most interesting conflict that day by far was that of Suu and Skuld, as Keitaro later pointed out. It was hot for a winter day, previously made snowmen's smiles turned to frowns as they slowly sagged to the ground. By Keitaro's guess, the temperature was around freezing, very strange, considering Christmas was coming up and it would be miserable if the weather was like this for that day. Seeking refuge from the pressure put on by the conflicts, Naru forced Keitaro into studying with her. Keiichi managed to talk his way in too, by saying that since he had moved; he had to go to university somewhere. So there they were, ignoring the sounds of chopping, bickering, power tools, trying to study. As usual, Keitaro couldn't grasp some concepts, but at least he was improving, Naru pointed out to herself. Keiichi was doing pretty well, having already gone to university; he had a good grasp of what he needed to know on his entrance exams. Things had gone on without a hitch when Keitaro heard something from outside his window. He peered out, to see three figures on the roof across from him. One had long flowing black hair-Skuld-and one had strange markings on it's hips-one of Suu's inventions then-the other figure was jumping around-That was Suu-yelling encouragement to. Sara? Looking more closely, he saw Skuld and Sara wearing mechanical suits, both aiming their arms at each other, as if preparing to fire something. Suu was fiddling around with something on a control pad she was holding. Suddenly, without warning, the two began firing missiles at each other, dodging and parrying with supernatural ease.
So much for a good study session. Keitaro thought blandly. Hoping to bring them to their senses, Keitaro leaned out of his window and shouted. "Hey! Stop that! Someone could get hurt! Is that really what you waaa-" he cut off as a missile sped towards him. Sara had turned at his call, while she was in the middle of unleashing a missile, sending it speeding towards Keitaro's room. "GET DOWN!" Keitaro yelled, flinging himself under his table. Naru and Keiichi gave him questioning looks, but soon looked toward the open window, and screamed. The explosion rocked the dorm, and tee three caught in the radius of the blast found it very hard to hear exactly what was being asked them when everyone had gathered outside of what was left of Keitaro's room. Suu, Sara, and Skuld were all being reamed on by Belldandy, Urd, and surprisingly, even Hakura joined in, after being tuned into the more recent events occurring in the dorm.
From there, the three disagreements escaladed, many times resulting in shouting matches, and in one case involving Urd and Kitsume, a catfight was almost achieved. In truth, only two out of the three conflicts really caused any fights, verbal or physical. Belldandy and Shinobu were very polite wit each other, and in fact were turning out to be getting close. However, there was still tension, understandably.
Naru woke up a month after the goddesses' arrival, feeling refreshed and peaceful. There were birds chirping outside her window, the sun was shining on her, warming her body, and she dully realized that her entrance exams were to take place later that day. She picked up her clothes for the day and headed for the bath, hoping to get an early start so she could do some last minute cramming. She bathed and then set off for the hot springs. *
*In Japan, people bathe first, then enter the tub to soak.
As she opened the door, she noticed that she was not the only early riser that day. In fact, the woman sitting in the springs before her didn't even look like anyone she recognized. She had vibrant red hair, which fell beyond her shoulders, and a lightly tanned face. Naru made to ask her what she was doing, but the woman stopped her before she could open her mouth.
"You need not know who I am yet. In fact, my presence here was supposed to go unnoticed." She held up her hand, as Naru tried to talk. "I am performing a spell on this building, as so these three... competitions will cease. In order for the spell to reach maximum capacity, I have to stay on the grounds for eight hours. You have caught me here on my last." The sun shone over the wall surrounding the bath. "Ah. My time here is done. I hope this will make your day a little less stressful. Entrance exams can be tough Naru, do your best." Having not really heard her last sentence, Naru blurted,
"But why do you want us getting along? Why spend eight hours around our home so we would act nice to each other?"
"You will see in time, there is much more in your future then you can care to understand right now. With time, the knowledge will come. Now, I must take my leave, before my sisters discover my presence." With a *pop*, she was gone. Naru still stood there, clutching a towel to her chest, trying to take in what this strange woman had just said.
Keitaro, Naru, and Keiichi sent out later that day, to head to Toudai after meeting up with Mutsumi.
"Keiichi," Naru began, "Do the goddesses have any more sisters?" Keiichi looked surprised.
"I certainly hope not, Urd and Skuld are a big enough problem to begin with" Keiichi replied.
"Urd and Skuld may be the least of our problems soon." Naru said to herself.
"What was that?" Keitaro asked, having bee walking closest to her, he was the only one who had heard her.
"Oh, nothing" Naru said with a smile, "Why don't we go a little faster? I mean, if we're going to pick Mutsumi up, we don't have much time left.
"Right." Keitaro nodded.
As Naru expected, when they got home, everyone was chatting pleasantly.
"Shinobu and I have decided to co-operate to produce meals from now on." Belldandy said cheerily, taking a sip of water out of a glass she had made appear out of nowhere, "In fact, we have a five course meal planned out for tonight. I hope you all enjoy it." She said cheerily.
"Skuld and I are gonna build the best mechas in the world!" Suu said, kicking Keitaro in the head as they passed the threshold of the door. Kitsume and Urd were talking secretly as the three approached them. They broke up when they were aware of people being in close proximity.
"Urd and I have patched up our differences now." Kitsume said proudly. "From now on, it's gonna be smooth sailing. For the two of us anyway-I mean everyone" Kitsume tried to hit Urd back for smacking her on the head.
If only I could think that. Naru mused, still trying to figure out the woman's message.
"You coming up?" Keitaro asked, interrupting her train of thought.
"Yeah, yeah, just hold on a second. Naru shook her head, and headed up the stairs.
Thanks all; I hope you've enjoyed the second chapter. I think the next chapter will be called:
A lost love remembered? Kitsume's past.
Please, R&R.
-Written by Buncy The Frog, with help from members of angelroms.com forums and zinfomxx.com forums-check them out!!!
Ah! My Hina! Episode 2-Who's the best? Competition.
Keiichi and Keitaro sat in a luxurious bath looking out at the night sky, the bath lovingly provided to them by Belldandy. These two had been going there regularly now, because of the events happening in the dorm. The two worlds had. clashed, to say it nicely. The relatively calm atmosphere had dissolved when talents collided. For example, there was Skuld and Suu, who had been trying to top one another time and again making robots and machines. Urd and Kitsume had been trying to outwit one another, using their fellow dormers as the subjects. Finally, a very pleasant, but fierce battle between Belldandy and Shinobu had developed; they had been cooking up a storm ever since the first night.
"Ah, I don't think I'll ever get used to this." Keitaro sighed, leaning deeper into the bath. Keiichi stretched and yawned.
"Me either, its pretty strange not only moving here, but seeing what's going on at the moment." He got out of the bath and dried off. "I'm going to bed now, see you tomorrow morning, for another five course meal, from each of our cooks." He rubbed his stomach to empathize his point, then left. Keitaro slouched down more in the tub, trying to remember what had started the whole thing.
The first conflict had been sparked when Shinobu, having just woken up, walked into the kitchen to prepare dinner, only to see a very beautiful and exotic looking woman preparing rice cakes.
"Ah, um. What are you doing?" She had asked, the answer obvious. The woman crooked her head toward the young lady and smiled warmly.
"I'm preparing dinner, I know it's usually your job, but I thought you could use a break." She opened her mouth to speak, but Belldandy stopped her. "During dinner, I'll explain everything. Now sit down, relax, you must feel stressed here, having to cook for all these people. You must be very talented for them to have you on full time for cooking." Shinobu blushed a dark shade of red.
"Um, annon, yes, I guess you could say that." Shinobu almost whispered. She had gotten out of the idea that everything that she did was a miserable failure and had started accepting that what she did was in fact good work, and that she had a great mind and personality. She gave a little half bow and stammered away from the door. She had been making dinner almost since she had arrived at the dorm. Now, this person who she didn't even know was making dinner? It was all too much for her-she made to Keitaro's room. Maybe her sempai would make her feel better.
As she emerged, she saw, to her surprise, and the obvious delight of almost everyone in the room, Keitaro was hanging upside down, and flying around the room, screaming in sheer terror. She let out a gasp that caught the attention of the group. A darkly tanned woman waved her hand. Keitaro suddenly started flailing his arms around, then dropped face first into the floor. She rushed to Keitaro's side, and started shaking him, trying to get him to wake from the unconscious state the fall had rendered him in. Suu jumped up and started jumping around.
"Shinobuuuuu! Why did you have to ruin our fun!" She emphasized the word "fun" by landing square on Keitaro's back, driving him back into consciousness. Sara folded her legs, obviously disappointed. A strange looking girl with a mallet stood up and moved to the door.
"If you don't mind, we have some more matters to discuss with your manager." She wore a serious expression. As she closed the door, she burst out laughing. "Let's discuss a game of whack the manager!" Shinobu could hear the wails of Keitaro from inside and tried to open the door, but she couldn't. It was jammed or something else that she could not figure out. Feeling flustered and confused, she retreated until her room until dinner was announced.
As she walked into the dining room, it was obvious that this woman was something extraordinary. There were five courses laid out for each person, along with their places already served with each dormer's favourite drink. That may not have been a good choice when Kitsume was involved, Shinobu silently observed. When everyone arrived and the eating started, it was obvious that something was not looking too great for Shinobu's position as cook. Everyone was diving into their dishes, pausing between chews to praise this woman's work. The woman who cooked the dinner got up and called everyone's attention with a slightly amplified voice.
"Hello everyone," She said pleasantly, "I thought that dinner would be the best time to discuss what has happened. The girls nodded their agreement, Shinobu joined in, hoping to know what was going on. It took about an hour, convincing people like Kitsume and Suu that they were Goddesses was hard enough, but they made the girls demonstrate their powers to "convince" them. After the three had preformed some spectacular light shows, as along with showing their angelic forms, the girls turned to Keiichi.
"What about you?" Kitsume inquired, her eyebrow raised. Keiichi looked up, having almost completely ignored the displays, and had been talking with Keitaro, who was too exhausted to see anything out of the ordinary.
"Oh." Keiichi jolted upright, "I'm just a mortal." He grinned, looking over at the woman Shinobu now knew was called Belldandy, "But I think I'm the luckiest mortal in the world right now." Belldandy made a delighted noise while Urd and Skuld, the other two, made acts of retching, along with the adjoining sounds.
"Well, I hope you're staying long, because now out party for these two lovebirds." She motioned to Keitaro and Naru. Keitaro turned a deep red and started mumbling something, but was knocked flat by Naru with a fist to his temple. "Will have to be rescheduled for another time." She shrugged. "But, what does it matter where you get hammered!" She raised her glass of sake. "Bottoms up!"
The night quickly broke down, the dormers, new and old, split into groups of conversation. For Urd and Kitsume however it was a pair of drinking fools, every time they ran out of sake, Urd made another one appear, but her attempts were getting worse and worse every time. Her latest try had resulted in a snake being set loose. Belldandy, Naru, Keiichi, and Keitaro were talking when Shinobu spoke up.
"Annon, Belldandy?' The woman turned and smiled. Shinobu took another breath and continued. "I'm able to cook for tomorrow, if it's all right with you. Belldandy smiled hugely.
"Of course! As long as I get to cook from time to time, I don't mind taking a break." Belldandy said through a delightful smile. Shinobu nodded her agreement.
The next day started as usual, with a simple breakfast from Shinobu, and a lunch that Belldandy had prepared. Their co-operation had been working well, and they seemed to be getting along. But that night everyone's view of that had changed. As they entered the dining room, they were taken aback. There was food-heaping portions of delicious food whose aroma attacked the diners' noses when they got remotely close to the dishes. The food was delicious, as many as them thought it would be, every so often a compliment or praise was shot at Shinobu, her face reddening with each one. Afterwards, Belldandy approached Shinobu.
"Ah, Shinobu?" She poked her head around into the kitchen-Shinobu was cleaning the dishes. She turned and asked what Belldandy needed. "I just wanted to tell you that I'll cook dinner tomorrow." Without giving time to Shinobu to argue, Belldandy had slipped out.
Keitaro sunk deeper into the tub. That argument was actually the good one, it got him fed royally every meal, not like what had happened after that second night when Shinobu had cooked dinner, now THAT rivalry was hell for him-this was one of the places where he could avoid it.
During the second dinner, which fortunately did not provide a sake bottle for Urd to refill time and time again, Urd and her new drinking buddy had to resort to a practice usually only carried out drunk-talking. As soon as Kitsume mentioned a time when she had tricked Keitaro into giving her 10 000 yen, Urd shot back immediately with a situation she had gotten Keiichi into involving a love potion. They very fiercely started shooting things they'd done back and forth at each other, trying to top the other by splurting out some random sneaky or cruel thing they did. It eventually ended in a stalemate, each woman burning holes in the other's eyes. They got up and stormed out of the dining room, heading for their rooms. The goddesses' rooms were positioned very close to the girls' rooms. In fact, all it took for Kitsume to look into Urd's room was to put her head out the door, and look down one room. That didn't help at all with the situation, as the two were on the verge of a fistfight going to their rooms, and seeing the opposition the whole way to their rooms did not go well.
Then it began.
When Keitaro woke up in the morning, Naru was standing over his bed, holding something. Keitaro couldn't quite make it out, because he had just woken. "Have a good night?" She asked, obviously something was wrong. Keitaro sat up and tried to concentrate on the object that Naru was holding. When his eyes finally adjusted and he put on his glasses, it became clear what they were-panties. Strawberry patterned panties. Keitaro immediately was on alert. What was Naru doing with panties in her hand-if he ever even looked at the girls' laundry she'd beat him.
"Are you a bit tired? Because you obviously didn't get much sleep." Naru continued, confusing Keitaro even more.
"What's this about Naru?" He stood up, still a bit groggy.
"Well, for one thing-these are Shinobu's." Naru stated. A shot of fear went through him. What had happened that she wanted to know something that involved Shinobu's panties? He involuntarily took a step back.
"Ah... what about them?" He stammered.
"Nothing," Naru said, lowering them to her side, "just that Shinobu saw you come in last night and take them." She looked too casual to be saying this. Suppressing rage. Keitaro guessed. But this accusation stunned him.
"Me? Taking a girl's panties? Haven't I already shown you that I'm not a pervert?" He took another step back, Naru followed him.
"Well, I did get over that, except for this!" She spat, holding up the panties again. "Shinobu's having a crying fit because you stole her panties! Do you know what it would take to calm her down?! Almost nothing!" Naru's face was set in an ice-cold stare.
"Wait wait!" Keitaro insisted, having his hands. "How do you know it was me? This is just unfair, blindly accusing me of something!" Keitaro wailed, hoping this would buy him some time to run. Naru reached into her pocket and brought out a book. Keitaro took it carefully and immediately noticed it was his datebook.
"I found it in her room." Naru said, her eyes blazing fire. Keitaro nodded, turned slowly, and bolted out of his room, screaming at the top of his lungs as Naru followed him. He knew he hadn't taken anything, but the only way to prevent himself from being killed was to run. Fast. As he bolted down the stairs and past Kitsume's room, he heard a howling laughter. He stopped, and knowing his life was in danger, opened the door a crack. He saw Kitsume rolling around on the floor laughing, with a stony- posed Urd by her side, shaking her head. He flung open the door and knew what was happening.
"Kitsume! Did you do this?" Keitaro insisted, looking down the hall.
"Yes! It was a masterpiece!" She managed to say between bursts of laughter. Keitaro was about to insist what she was thinking, but didn't get the chance, because being punched in the head and flying into the wall opposite a window tends to prevent someone from talking much. Naru stood panting, and looked over at Kitsume, who was not laughing ten times as hard as she was before. Realization finally dawned on Naru. "You. Did this?" She asked, pointing at the laughing figure.
Kitsume managed to sit up straight, and nodded twice. A grin infected her face again and she fell down laughing again.
"Did you hear that? Oh man, you really can hit a guy Naru. Oh, I need some sake." Kitsume managed to stumble out of her room, hanging onto Naru as she passed, never stopping her laughing. Urd, now that Kitsume was gone, nodded slowly. "That was pretty good, I have to admit, but I'll top her." She passed Naru, a look of sheer determination on her face.
Naru didn't know what to think. Sure, she would kick Keitaro's butt if he even looked the wrong way at a girl, but to have done it just because she was set up made her feel almost evil. She had to learn to control her temper, and her jealousy, better.
Wait a second. Me? Jealous of anyone with Keitaro? What am I thinking? Naru thought.
Don't try to convince yourself otherwise, you have feelings for Keitaro and you know it. Another part of her shot back. (For reason of simplicity, let's say it was her heart)
Please, anyone as perverted as him couldn't even get the time of say from me. Naru's other side (Her brain) shot back
Oh please, how many dates have you two been on together? Plus when you tried to break up his date with Mutsumi. Face it, But I wouldn't argue more, you might start talking to yourself out loud, that'd turn Keitaro off, and we both know you don't want that. Her heart finished. Naru, fuming at her dumb impulses, went off to breakfast.
There, she really got a shock. Last night's dinner had been pale in comparison with what was laid out before her. Each place set was divided into two by a plastic barrier. One side was marked "Belldandy", the other marked "Shinobu". On each side of the barrier there were mounds of food, each serving was as large as last night's per-person serving.
"Whaa?" Naru whispered, looking down the hall, where the others were slowly approaching, still slightly groggy, except for a still hysterical Kitsume, Urd, her face set in concentration, and Keitaro, who winced every step he took, and paused when he saw Naru.
"Look, I can explain." Keitaro began. Naru held up her hand.
"I know, Kitsume set it up, just like she did with your rent money last time. Look, I. I'm sorry I hit you back there, if I knew what had been going on." It was Keitaro's turn to hold his hand up.
"Let's just say that now you owe me one ok?" He smiled warmly, then winced as he moved closer. "I'm starved. What's for breakfast?" Naru winced at that question. "Pick a food." She said, leaning up against the doorframe.
"Uh. Fish?" Keitaro guessed, not really knowing what the question was about. Naru shrugged.
"It'll probably be there, take a look." As Keitaro rounded the corner, he showed definite signs of shock.
"Wow, that's. a lot of food." He said, looking at each place set in the room. "I'm guessing that there's going to be some leftovers." Naru nodded. As she made to sit down, a figure jumped on Keitaro's head. Naru glanced up, without really having to, to see Suu with her legs on either side of Keitaro's head, riding him like a child.
"When I saw all that food, it gave me an idea!" She shouted. She pushed off Keitaro's chest, sending him back a few feet, and pulled out what looked like a trash bin. "This is my mega mecha food disposal! Food goes in, but doesn't come out!" She beamed; her trademark symbol imprinted on the side of the object clearly showed that her strange foreign technology had been used to make it. Keitaro looked disappointed.
"Isn't that a waste of food? I mean, a big waste, considering how much there is?"
"It doesn't matter! Shinobu and the Goddess are making enough food to feed a small nation, so there's always more!" Suu grabbed an apple off a counter and jumped over the can, throwing the apple in the bin as she went. There was a hissing sound and some smoke, and the apple was gone. She bounded around the room, obviously pleased, then stopped, and bent over, her hand at her eyes, causing a catcall whistle to sound out of nowhere. "What's that!" She pointed to the other side of the room, where Skuld was wheeling something in. She looked over at Suu and her disposal.
"I had pretty much the same though as Suu, but my invention is a lot better." Skuld beamed. She took out a bag of food and dumped it in her can that looked similar to Suu's. "Skuld's own garbage disposal, switch, on!" She said as she pressed a button on a handheld controller. There was a quick zap, and the food disappeared.
"Oooooo." Suu marveled, looking into the tin on the balls of her feet. She stood up and saluted Skuld. "I can do better! I'll be right back!" She bounced out of the room, picking up her tin as she left.
"Pssh, better then me? Let's see that." Skuld said stubbornly, sitting down at her place. Five minutes later Suu came bouncing into the room, shot Skuld a look, then sat to eat. As Naru had predicted, there was a pile of food left afterwards, even though everyone had eaten until they couldn't place one more piece of food in their mouths, because their stomachs would, they thought, explode. Suu jumped up, rather slowly compared to before she started eating, and pressed a button on a remote controller she was holding, where she got it Naru couldn't guess. They heard a whirring, and a robot screeched around the corner of the door Suu had gotten out of earlier and came straight towards the diners. It stopped at the first place, Shinobu's, and hands shot out, grabbing each piece of food and dumping it into Suu's bin from earlier, which had been attached to a platform on the robot. It moved steadily from table to table, rapidly disposing of the food it came across. When it was done, Suu pressed another button, and the robot retracted it's arms and sped out the door, sliding into it and causing a large dent to appear in the food frame as it tried to turn the corner. Suu punched the air in triumph and thanked Shinobu and Belldandy for the food, then slowly, and not very energetically, bounded out of the room, still leaving the shocked look on everyone's face still very much intact, except of course on the face of Skuld, who had never once flinched as the robot was collecting her food wildly. She puffed in anger and left the room, muttering something to herself under her breath.
The next morning, Keiichi had gotten a punch to the nose by Sara, after being taken control of by a Love potion concocted by Urd, her response to Kitsume's earlier ploy. The piles of food were beginning to become bigger and tastier, as Shinobu and Belldandy tried harder and harder to top one another, but both were receiving the same amount of praise. The most interesting conflict that day by far was that of Suu and Skuld, as Keitaro later pointed out. It was hot for a winter day, previously made snowmen's smiles turned to frowns as they slowly sagged to the ground. By Keitaro's guess, the temperature was around freezing, very strange, considering Christmas was coming up and it would be miserable if the weather was like this for that day. Seeking refuge from the pressure put on by the conflicts, Naru forced Keitaro into studying with her. Keiichi managed to talk his way in too, by saying that since he had moved; he had to go to university somewhere. So there they were, ignoring the sounds of chopping, bickering, power tools, trying to study. As usual, Keitaro couldn't grasp some concepts, but at least he was improving, Naru pointed out to herself. Keiichi was doing pretty well, having already gone to university; he had a good grasp of what he needed to know on his entrance exams. Things had gone on without a hitch when Keitaro heard something from outside his window. He peered out, to see three figures on the roof across from him. One had long flowing black hair-Skuld-and one had strange markings on it's hips-one of Suu's inventions then-the other figure was jumping around-That was Suu-yelling encouragement to. Sara? Looking more closely, he saw Skuld and Sara wearing mechanical suits, both aiming their arms at each other, as if preparing to fire something. Suu was fiddling around with something on a control pad she was holding. Suddenly, without warning, the two began firing missiles at each other, dodging and parrying with supernatural ease.
So much for a good study session. Keitaro thought blandly. Hoping to bring them to their senses, Keitaro leaned out of his window and shouted. "Hey! Stop that! Someone could get hurt! Is that really what you waaa-" he cut off as a missile sped towards him. Sara had turned at his call, while she was in the middle of unleashing a missile, sending it speeding towards Keitaro's room. "GET DOWN!" Keitaro yelled, flinging himself under his table. Naru and Keiichi gave him questioning looks, but soon looked toward the open window, and screamed. The explosion rocked the dorm, and tee three caught in the radius of the blast found it very hard to hear exactly what was being asked them when everyone had gathered outside of what was left of Keitaro's room. Suu, Sara, and Skuld were all being reamed on by Belldandy, Urd, and surprisingly, even Hakura joined in, after being tuned into the more recent events occurring in the dorm.
From there, the three disagreements escaladed, many times resulting in shouting matches, and in one case involving Urd and Kitsume, a catfight was almost achieved. In truth, only two out of the three conflicts really caused any fights, verbal or physical. Belldandy and Shinobu were very polite wit each other, and in fact were turning out to be getting close. However, there was still tension, understandably.
Naru woke up a month after the goddesses' arrival, feeling refreshed and peaceful. There were birds chirping outside her window, the sun was shining on her, warming her body, and she dully realized that her entrance exams were to take place later that day. She picked up her clothes for the day and headed for the bath, hoping to get an early start so she could do some last minute cramming. She bathed and then set off for the hot springs. *
*In Japan, people bathe first, then enter the tub to soak.
As she opened the door, she noticed that she was not the only early riser that day. In fact, the woman sitting in the springs before her didn't even look like anyone she recognized. She had vibrant red hair, which fell beyond her shoulders, and a lightly tanned face. Naru made to ask her what she was doing, but the woman stopped her before she could open her mouth.
"You need not know who I am yet. In fact, my presence here was supposed to go unnoticed." She held up her hand, as Naru tried to talk. "I am performing a spell on this building, as so these three... competitions will cease. In order for the spell to reach maximum capacity, I have to stay on the grounds for eight hours. You have caught me here on my last." The sun shone over the wall surrounding the bath. "Ah. My time here is done. I hope this will make your day a little less stressful. Entrance exams can be tough Naru, do your best." Having not really heard her last sentence, Naru blurted,
"But why do you want us getting along? Why spend eight hours around our home so we would act nice to each other?"
"You will see in time, there is much more in your future then you can care to understand right now. With time, the knowledge will come. Now, I must take my leave, before my sisters discover my presence." With a *pop*, she was gone. Naru still stood there, clutching a towel to her chest, trying to take in what this strange woman had just said.
Keitaro, Naru, and Keiichi sent out later that day, to head to Toudai after meeting up with Mutsumi.
"Keiichi," Naru began, "Do the goddesses have any more sisters?" Keiichi looked surprised.
"I certainly hope not, Urd and Skuld are a big enough problem to begin with" Keiichi replied.
"Urd and Skuld may be the least of our problems soon." Naru said to herself.
"What was that?" Keitaro asked, having bee walking closest to her, he was the only one who had heard her.
"Oh, nothing" Naru said with a smile, "Why don't we go a little faster? I mean, if we're going to pick Mutsumi up, we don't have much time left.
"Right." Keitaro nodded.
As Naru expected, when they got home, everyone was chatting pleasantly.
"Shinobu and I have decided to co-operate to produce meals from now on." Belldandy said cheerily, taking a sip of water out of a glass she had made appear out of nowhere, "In fact, we have a five course meal planned out for tonight. I hope you all enjoy it." She said cheerily.
"Skuld and I are gonna build the best mechas in the world!" Suu said, kicking Keitaro in the head as they passed the threshold of the door. Kitsume and Urd were talking secretly as the three approached them. They broke up when they were aware of people being in close proximity.
"Urd and I have patched up our differences now." Kitsume said proudly. "From now on, it's gonna be smooth sailing. For the two of us anyway-I mean everyone" Kitsume tried to hit Urd back for smacking her on the head.
If only I could think that. Naru mused, still trying to figure out the woman's message.
"You coming up?" Keitaro asked, interrupting her train of thought.
"Yeah, yeah, just hold on a second. Naru shook her head, and headed up the stairs.
Thanks all; I hope you've enjoyed the second chapter. I think the next chapter will be called:
A lost love remembered? Kitsume's past.
Please, R&R.