Book One: The Straw That Broke The Pervert's Back
Chapter Two: Darkness Overwhelming
By: Sci-Fi Raptor
Disclaimer: See Chapter One
Glad to see you stuck around. I think you'll like this chapter better then the previous. Enjoy.
(-O-)
The next day seemed to start off as usual. Shinobu goes around, distributing foodstuffs and utensils for breakfast, Kitsune torments her about how she pays so much attention to Keitaro's seat ("He missed yesterday's breakfast," she keeps saying), Su acts hyper while Sarah scolds her, Motoko acts calm, ignoring everyone, Mutsumi acts ditzy, and Naru finally comes downstairs. Everyone notices that a certain idiot isn't following her.
"Where's Sempai?" Shinobu asks her.
"Why should I know where that idiot is?" she says, a bit angry at the mention of his existence. "I haven't seen him since last morning."
"Well, he's usually chasing you around this time," Kistune says insinuatingly.
"Ara, ara…" Musumi says in agreement.
"That is a bit odd…" Motoko says, breaking her usual routine of not having anything to do with the mention of her landlord. "Usually he somehow 'accidentally' manages to stumble onto you every morning. Its not like Urishima to skip out on feeling you." Naru blushes, realizing how everyone who resided there took something that would be normally taken as sexual abuse as trivial.
"I don't care," she says, as if an ultimatum and starts eating. Everyone else, except for Su and Sarah, quiets down and continues eating.
For no apparent reason, Haruka pops in and grabs something from the table.
"Hello Haruka-san, what brings you here?" Motoko asks, since she's the first to notice her entrance. Everyone looks at her, since it's not an everyday occurrence for her to join in on breakfast, since she has to wake up early to tend to her teahouse. Speaking of which…
"I'm here to get that damn turtle girl. She's late…" she says, vein popping when she notices her leisurely eating her breakfast.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know what time it was. Usually Keitaro is sent flying around the time I have to leave and Naru joins us."
"Oh yeah," she says, remembering something. "About Keitaro," she starts; everyone's, exempting Su's and Sarah's, ears perked up at the mention of his name. In all reality, they were really anxious about his absence.
"Where is that jerk?" Naru says angrily. "He never told anyone he was going somewhere… not that I care," she covered.
"Well, he went off to a clinic to get his cast taken off," she says. Instantly the girls look shocked. Keitaro was invincible; he wasn't one to need such things. Something must have gone terribly wrong if he actually got hurt.
"What happened to him?" Naru says worriedly.
"Something about landing in a highway after one of your punches," she says, but is cut off by Naru gasping.
"Oh my gosh. Was he seriously hurt?" she says, her hands near her mouth.
"Like I said, he just had a cast. Turns out that it was because someone slapped him in the back that one of his bones cracked," she continued, getting a sigh of relief from Naru (and a sweat drop from everyone else), even though she felt guilty for what she did to him anyway. At least he's not hurt, she thinks, unconciously smiling.
"But that's not what got me worried about him," she says, grabbing everyone's attention again.
"Why? What happened?" Motoko says, a tad bit concerned.
"Well, usually after something like that, he would normally go to Naru and ask her for forgiveness and then go back to his normal happy self, but when he left this morning, he seemed a bit upset and angry."
"That's really weird…" Kitsune says, seeing that this could be a problem if she were to continue with her plan of seducing Keitaro and 'convincing' him to buy her some sake later that day.
"But who am I kidding, he was probably just a bit groggy from having to wake up so early. Its probably no big deal," Haruka says, starting to walk out. "And hurry it up already, Mutsumi!"
"Ara, ara…" she says and quickly finishes her breakfast.
"Do you think Sempai is mad?" Shinobu says, on the verge of tears.
"Nah, Keitaro can't stay mad at any of us for too long," Kitsune says, looking at Naru.
"What?" she says defensively.
"Nothing…" Kitsune says, in a tone suggesting otherwise.
"I'm home," Keitaro announces, slamming the door behind him.
"Sempai!" Shinobu says and runs off to greet him.
"Maybe I did cross the line this time…" Naru says, a bit nervous at how he slammed the door closed.
(At the entrance)
"Hello Sempai…" Shinobu started saying, but almost ended up with a whisper when she saw her beloved Sempai.
"Hello…" Keitaro said grumpily, but quickly apologized for speaking to her as such. "Sorry Shinobu, I already had something to eat while I was out. I'm just gonna go and study, if that's fine with you," he finished, not waiting for an answer.
"Hai…" Shinobu said uncertainly. Keitaro made his way to his room, obviously in a bad mood. Shinobu went back to the dining room.
"So, how was he?" Naru asked, a bit nervously.
"Sempai seems a bit grumpy," she said, choking back tears from their encounter. "And he still had his cast on…"
"What?" Naru exclaimed. Maybe I really did go too far this time…
(O)
Later that day, at the hot springs, Keitaro lay back to have a nice and relaxing soak. He was finally able to release some of his tension as the heated water seemed to evaporate his troubles away. He gave a sigh of content as he sunk deeper into the pool, careful to keep his bagged arm from going underwater.
It was nice to just be able to unwind, without having Naru or Motoko sending him flying off to Mars as usual.
He suddenly remembered that the girls liked to take their bath around this time, but relaxed, remembering that he put a sign up front that he was using the hot springs and even went as far as telling Shinobu to tell everyone. He relaxed his mind, letting the soothing waters melt his stresses away.
He sat there, thinking about the entrance exam that was a mere few days away. But he felt confident this time. He had studied, and with the help of Naru and Mutsumi (until recently) he had dramatically increased his knowledge.
He also realized that he hadn't really seen any of the girls except Shinobu since he had been punched miles away. The thought suddenly made him angry for some reason, and he lashed out at the water.
Whoa, Keitaro, get a hold of yourself… he thought when he noticed this unnatural response. Thinking a bit harder on that, he decided it was the anxiety of the test that was causing him to act like that and that he would be fine when the scores came back. It would also explain why I got this annoying cast.
"I don't know, it seems like he's been avoiding us," a feminine voice said, as she entered the hot springs.
Oh crap… don't tell me that the girls just came in…
"Maybe he's just stressed from the upcoming exams?" Motoko's voice answered. Thinking back a little, Keitaro was sure that the original voice was Naru's (oh yeah, Keitaro doesn't know what they're saying, he just hears noises).
Oh man… Keitaro thought, starting to panic. He was about he hide so that he could try to escape, but something dawned onto him. That's right. I'm not the one who's coming in on them this time. They have no reason to susp-
His trail of thought was ruined by the shriek of an angry Naru.
"How many times will it take for you to get enough?!" she said, angrily shaking her fist.
"Urishima, your perverse ways will not go unpunished!" Motoko exclaimed, drawing her blade out of nowhere.
"Bull," Keitaro said simply, colder then he knew he could, or even meant to.
"Huh?" Naru said, caught unawares. Normally, she was supposed to wind up for a punch while Keitaro begs for her to forgive him.
"Its crap. I specifically put a sign by the door saying that I was using the springs and I even told Shinobu to tell you just in case," he said angrily, not giving any ground. What's going on? Why am I so angry with them?
"S-s-sorry Sempai! I forgot!" Shinobu said out of nowhere, and ran away. Before Motoko cold say anything, Keitaro said.
"What are you perverts waiting for?" he almost screamed. "You made poor Shinobu cry! Now get out!"
"B-but…" Motoko stammered, unsure about what was going on. She had never had experience with being called a pervert.
"Wait, you're the reason she's crying," Naru said, trying to get a hold of the situation. "Shinobu's crying because you came in here so you could peek on us!"
"Shut up!" Keitaro boomed angrily, standing up even though he was fully exposed. Naru froze from the look of pure hatred in his eyes. "I left a sign out there to keep something like this from happening. And stop this crap about me being the pervert. As I recall, you came in on me, not the other way around. Just grow up and learn to take responsibility!" Naru was about to say something, but he cut her off with one last thing. "GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE ALREADY!" Motoko quickly left, a look of fear in her face. Naru lowered her head, her hair covering her face.
"Sorry…" she whispered as she ran away like Shinobu, a trail of tears following her. Within seconds, the room was back to how it was before, save for an atmosphere of hurt.
"Maybe I went too far?" Keitaro said to himself as he went back in the spring, a bit calmer; then he laughed. "Who am I kidding, if I didn't speak up, I would probably be heading headfirst into another highway by now. Its about time that she got what she deserved, that stupid jerk."
(O)
That stupid jerk! Naru thought angrily as she clutched her Liddo-kun.
"Naru Sempai, are you okay?" Motoko asked, trying to comfort her friend. Naturally, she does her best to hide the fact that Keitaro's outburst emotionally shattered her.
"O-of course," she says, trying to play it cool as usual. Unfortunately for her, her body didn't feel like playing along. She just started crying spontaneously. Motoko awkwardly gave her a hug so Naru could cry on her shoulder. She did her best to ignore the feeling of their bare chests touching.
"What's wrong with Keitaro? Why's he so mad at me?" she said between sobs. Motoko searched within her for some kind of answer. She gave the only answer she had.
"I don't Naru-chan…" she said, suddenly sensing a dark aura enveloping the hot springs. "I just don't know anymore…"
(O)
Keitaro's mood just got worse as the day went by. It had even gotten to the point where he was starting to become cold to poor Shinobu, whose only fault was that she wanted to try and break the spell that Keitaro had become stricken with. And she had it the easiest. Whenever a tenant so much as approached him, he stared daggers at them. With Naru in particular, his eyes burned with the fires from the pits of hell, as if saying 'Go to hell. I don't want to be disgraced by your presence ever again!'
Which was particularly hard on her, since she tried her best to apologize for what happened earlier that day. Motoko felt very uneasy whenever she was near Keitaro, since she sensed a very dark aura enveloping Keitaro, an aura that seemed to be getting darker with each passing moment.
Dinner was pretty bad, but not as bad as it could have been, since Keitaro opted to study in his room alone. Just digressing a bit, Keitaro had all but abandoned the study group he had form with Naru and Mutsumi. Getting back to the subject, Shinobu went to his room to give him his dinner, but he flatly refused. Shinobu, being the innocent, kind hearted person she was, apologized for angering him and cooking unsuitably and ran off crying. Keitaro made no move to follow her and just moved to close the door. Motoko had seen this and scolded him for making her cry, and Keitaro almost went ballistic on her. Almost.
With his face showing the rage that he could barely contain, he said to her coldly, "I'm sorry Motoko, I just don't have time for this. I have to get back to my studies," and simply closed his door.
Everyone seemed to think that it couldn't get any worse that day, but boy were they in for a surprise!
(-O-)
And I'll end it here so you guys don't get too accustomed to long chapters. Sorry in advance for the next chapter not being that long…I think.
I hope to have chapter 3 and possibly 4 up by tommorrow, but I don't think ill get much done until classes are over for this week. I hope you have enjoyed this story so far.
Good or bad, please review, though I truly hope I can get some constructive advice on my english, since this is my only real way to practice. =P
