Keitaro yelled as he whizzed through the air. Eventually a tree stopped him and the branches pummeled him as he fell down it. Keitaro sat under the tree in a daze. From his current stop he could see the brightly light windows of the apartment, and as usual outside of it were those three wise monks. Keitaro scrambled to his feet before the snow had a chance to melt on his pants. He was starting to think that Naru had done that to him on purpose.
"Well if she's going to be like that. I'll just leave and see how they like not having a manager!" Keitaro yelled brandishing his fist up at the large Hinata apartments. Keitaro angrily shoved his hands into his pockets and dragged his feet down the snowy sidewalk.
"There is obviously a thin line between love and hate." The first old monk said as he leaned causally against a wall.
"Yes, it seems so." The second answered.
"Indeed." The third said ending the conversation.
Naru sat at the kitchen table picking at Shinobu's lovely meal. She had only eaten a small bit, it wasn't bad tasting, but something was worrying her.
"Naru, where is Keitaro?" Shinobu asked placing her hands behind her back innocently making her short black hair swoosh. "His dinner is getting cold." Naru just shrugged and moved her meal around her plate with her chopsticks.
"I think I'll go do some studying now. Dinner was delicious, Shinobu." Naru set her chopsticks down quickly and left. She stepped over Su's abandoned tank formation and entered her room. She refused to be worried about him. It's not something she should be doing.
"He's going to come back, right?" She asked the houses pet turtle; Tama-Chan. Naru didn't even want an answer to that. She didn't care if he came back, they would get along fine. Naru grabbed his notebook that he had left in her room and began to angrily flip through the pages.
"See look at this idiot doing all these problems wrong…" Naru scribbled down the right answers to the problems in his notes and continued to flip through the book. She found another one of Keitaro's random comics that he drew when he was bored. This particular one had a picture of chibi Naru scolding Keitaro. The caption read: "Today, Naru had Motoko beat me up because I was in her room collecting laundry. One of these days I'll leave and see how they do without me."
Naru sighed and closed the book. Maybe she should've just bonked him over the head or something. Sending him to Motoko was kind of cruel. Naru was snapped out of her thoughts by a knock on the door.
"Naru, hunny Shinobu and I are going to go look for Keitaro. You want to come?" Kitsune asked through the thin door.
"No, he's just laying a joke he'll be back." Naru scoffed trying to convince both herself and Kitsune that she wasn't worried.
"Alright, alright you don't have to be like that. We'll be back in a bit." She heard Kitsune's and what she could only imagine was Shinobu's footsteps go down the stairs. When Naru heard the front door slam she rushed to her window and saw Kitsune, Shinobu, and Su stalking around in a Sherlock Holmes outfit. Naru watched as they inspected some footsteps and questioned the old monks. The monks all pointed in the same direction and they all took off. Naru thought of all the possible places Keitaro would go.
"Tokyo University!" She exclaimed as she jumped up. Naru disappeared into her closet and reappeared sometime later in an orange hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans. Naru hesitated as she set her hand on the doorknob. Motoko would know if she went out the front door, and that was the last thing she wanted. Naru returned to the other side of the room and opened her window. She wobbled unsteadily once she had made it outside. She was observing the edge of the roof looking for a way down when she began to wobble again.
"Whew!" She exclaimed as she stopped her self once more. The rapid motion of her hand against her forehead made her lose balance and fall of the roof. She landed with a soft thud in the snow. Inside the sitting room Motoko looked up vigilantly from polishing her sword.
"Pathetic…" She looked back down to her sword when Naru got off the ground and peered in the window.
"Really pathetic…" Naru had actually waved at her when she was sidestepping away from the view of the window.
Naru brushed the snow off of her clothes and ran out in the street. She was trying to refresh her memory on witch street would be the fastest way to Tokyo University. She decided just to head for the clock tower that loomed over the area. If she found it she would find the college campus. Naru was starting to regret not wearing a coat as the snow melted on her clothes and face. She stalked down the streets and stopped at one of the dim streetlights and sniffed in the brisk air. The blizzard that had been blowing in full force before had now lulled down some, but it only seemed to be getting colder. In the back of her mind Naru hoped that Keitaro had at least found someplace warm. She was split from her thoughts as she heard voices coming from an alley on the other side of the street. Her heart jumped as she noticed the familiar blue and white school uniform Su always seemed to wear. Naru faded backwards out of the street and into the thin alley behind her. Kitsune, Shinobu, and Su stepped out from the alley talking amongst themselves. Su was on the ground sniffing it like some sort of dog and the others knelt down next to her.
"Anything?" Shinobu asked rubbing her ungloved hands together.
"Nope, I think my nose has frozen over…" Su said picking an icicle that hung off her nose off.
"We should just head back, Keitaro will come back. He always does." Kitsune said plucking Su off of the ground. The two girls walked off in the direction that she had came in. Naru walked further into the empty alley that was light by only a few dim orange lights. This was perhaps the warmest place outside. Steam rose off of the wet ground and wisped up into the air. Near the edge of the alley she say a young man lying on a pile of boxes. She glasses messily out of kilter on his face.
"Keitaro?"
