Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina. Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.

Warning: Contains a couple of adult situations and some choice words. Reader discretion is advised.

THE HINATA MAIDEN

Chapter 3:

Two Faced

As Haruka is finishing up reading about the 6th Hinata Warrior, a rustling noise and then a slight groan from behind them gets everyone's attention. They all turn around to see what it is.

There, sitting up in her bed with a blank stare, is Shinobu. This time with her blue eyes back. She blinks a couple of times and then puts her head into her hand. "Oww... my aching head. I feel like I've been hit by a truck." says Shinobu groaning. "Huh?" she yelps as she pops her head up. She looks around a bit. "How did I get to my room?" she asks curiously.

The others just stare at her with surprise. "Sh-Shinobu?" says Kietaro in a bit of shock. Shinobu turns her head. "Sempai? Guys?... What happened to me?" she says as she rubs her head. "The last thing I remember was watching my own body disappear in front of my eyes." she adds speaking just a little weakly.

Suddenly GGGRRRROOOOWWWLLLLLLL! A loud stomach growl gets everyone's attention. Everyone turns to Su. "It wasn't me." says Su pointing to herself. GGGRRROOOOWWWLLLLL! Comes another loud growl. They all turn back to Shinobu who is now holding her stomach.

"Oh man I'm starving." says Shinobu still a bit weakly. Shinobu pulls the sheet off of her and begins to stand up. "I guess I'll starrrrrr…." Shinobu falls forward. "Ahh Shinobu!" shouts Kietaro as he reaches out and catches her.

"Careful Shinobu you haven't recovered yet." says Kietaro worryingly as he sets her back down. Haruka gives a slight sigh. "Well since I'm the only other person who can cook anything decent around here, I guess I'll go fix her something." she says as she walks out of the room.

A few moments go by in silence as everyone is still a little shocked at what has happened. That is until Su speaks up. "Is it just me, or does Shinobu look different somehow?" she asks.

Everyone looks at Su for a second and then back to Shinobu for a moment. "Now that you mention it, she does look somehow different. But…. I just can't put my finger on it." says Motoko.

Everyone looks at her for a moment before Kietaro speaks up. "I know! Shinobu your hair is longer!" he says. "Hey he's right!" says Kitsune. Kitsune goes over to Shinobu's desk and grabs Shinobu's little vanity mirror and brings over to her.

Shinobu looks at herself in the mirror and can see they are right. Her hair is a little longer, but not too much longer. Instead of it being just past her ears; it is now about halfway down her neck. "You're right it is longer." says Shinobu with a bit of surprise as she turns her head to see both sides of her head in the mirror.

"But wait a minute….. There's something else." she adds. Shinobu looks at herself a little closer in the mirror. "….My face…" she says slightly while placing her hand on her cheek. "Hey you're right. It somehow looks more…. mature and feminine." says Kietaro.

Everyone takes a closer look. "Heh. She almost looks grown up." says Kitsune slyly. Shinobu blushes deeply at Kitsune's comment.

KNOCK! KNOCK! Comes a knock from Shinobu's door. Haruka pokes her head into the room. "Um. I'm going to be needed my apron back if I'm going to cook anything." she says. "Haruka! Look at Shinobu's face. I don't know what it is, but she somehow looks more mature." says Kietaro.

Haruka looks up at Shinobu and sure enough Kietaro is right. "That's to be expected. It's a slight side effect of the merging." answers Haruka. "Merging? What merging?" asks Shinobu.

"We'll explain later. Right now if you want something to eat please hand me back my apron you're wearing." says Haruka. Shinobu looks and notices for the 1st time that she is wearing nothing but an apron. She immediately grabs the sheet and covers herself with it even further out of embarrassment.

Naru sees Shinobu's plight and goes over to her chest of drawers and gets out a pair of Shinobu's panties and a T-shirt. "Here Shinobu." she says as she hands them to Shinobu. Everyone turns around to give Shinobu some privacy as she changes out of the apron into her cloths.

When she finishes she calls out to Haruka. "Here Haruka." Haruka turns around and Shinobu tosses her the apron. "Thank you for letting me wear it." thanks Shinobu.

Haruka waves her hand and leaves the room again to fix Shinobu something to eat.

As Shinobu watches her leave, she can't help but notice that the t-shirt she is now wearing feels a bit tight on her. She looks down to see why and her eyes grow to the size of tea cup saucers. "KYYYEEAHHHHH!" she screams.

Everyone else quickly turns back around after the unexpected scream, and they all see Shinobu looking down at herself. They also look down and their eyes also grow big. "My boobs! Th-Th-Th-Th-They're…" "Huge!" says Kietaro interrupting Shinobu's stuttering. Shinobu instantly blushes a deep red after Kietaro's comment.

Naru comes over a predictably womps Keitaro over the head with her fist, sending him crashing into the floor. "Damn Shinobu. They look just a bit bigger than Naru's!" says Kitsune. Shinobu already blushing; blushes even further.

Everyone begins to talk to each other at how Shinobu looks so grown up and about this so called merging. Shinobu still blushing brightly starts thinking to herself.

"What has happened to me? Why has this happened to me? What is this merging everyone is talking about? I'm so confused!" she thinks to herself. With all the stress from all these happenings building up she can't help but lower her head and let a few tears begins to fall.

Her quiet sobs go unnoticed for about a minute before Keitaro notices her crying. "Shinobu?" he says surprised. Everyone turns to face her and sees her rubbing her eyes and sniffing.

Keitaro goes over and sits next to her and places his hand on her back and begins to rub it. Shinobu immediately turns and plunges her face into his chest and begins to cry loudly.

"Sempai what is all this? What has happened to me!" she cries loudly. Keitaro is caught a little off guard by Shinobu's sudden glomping. His face turns into a nice shade of red as he can clearly feel Shinobu's braless new found chest size smoosh right into his stomach.

"Just what the hell are you doing?" shouts Naru as she winds up for a punch. "SHE'S THE ONE WHO IS GRABBING ME!" shouts Keitaro in his defense. But as we all know Naru doesn't pay one bit of attention to what he says.

Naru punches him right in the face and smashes his face into the wall. Shinobu pops up from his chest in surprise. She realizes what she was doing and blushes once again as bright as a cherry.

KNOCK! KNOCK! comes a knock from Shinobu's door. Everyone turns around and sees Haruka standing in the doorway holding a tray with a couple of bowls, a sleeve of crackers and a glass of green tea on it. "If you guys are through playing lovey dovey I have Shinobu's food ready." she says sarcastically.

Haruka brings the tray over to Shinobu's bed and lays it in front of her. "Here you go Shinobu. I fixed some Miso soup and a bowl of rice." she says. Haruka goes over and sits in Shinobu's desk chair.

"Now Shinobu. About what happened to you earlier…." GULP! GULP! Haruka gets interrupted by some loud gulping. She looks up and is surprised to see Shinobu not even bothering to use the spoon and loudly gulping down the Miso soup directly from the bowl.

Everyone watches in shock as she loudly gulps down all the Miso soup in 4 or 5 gulps. She then picks up the bowl of rice and chopsticks and begins to shoving the rice into her mouth like there is no tomorrow. Within a minute she has eaten all the rice out of the bowl. She then eats half the sleeve of crackers and then drinks all the tea in 2 gulps.

As she sets down the cup, BBBBBUUUUUUURRRRRRRPPPPPPPP! she lets out a huge belch. "Ahhh. Man I was so hungry." she says. She turns to Haruka. "Thank you Haruka. That was quite good." she thanks.

She then notices everyone's "mouths dropped to the floor" shock looks; even Su has the same look. Although she eats like that all the time, she herself has not seen anyone else eat like that.

"What?" asks Shinobu. Haruka shakes her head. "Nothing." she answers. "Now as I was saying before. Shinobu, what do you know about your family history?" asks Haruka.

"My family history?" asks Shinobu curiously. Haruka nods her head. Shinobu puts her finger up to her chin to think for a second. "Well from what my parents have told me, my family has always been one of cooks. The restaurant that we had I know was built back in 1920. And before then the old location was somewhere closer to the beach and that one was started back in 1860. But that's as far back as I know of." answers Shinobu.

Haruka smirks. "Shinobu what would you say if I were to tell you that you actually come from a family of ancient demon slaying warriors?" she asks. Shinobu's eyes grow wide. "I'd call you crazy." answers Shinobu. Haruka smirks again.

"But what does that have to do with what happened to my body?" asks Shinobu. "Do you remember than pendent that you found in that room?" asks Haruka. "Yes." answers Shinobu.

"Well. Believe it or not, that pendent actually belongs to you." says Haruka. "R-Really!" says Shinobu with a lot of shock. "Yes. That pendent has been in your family for centuries. It is full of powerful magic that allowed your ancestors to battle powerful demonic forces during the Feudal Era." explains Haruka.

Shinobu's eyes grow even wider and her mouth drops open in shock. "Because you were the 1st member of your family to touch it in over 400 years the dormant powers within it were awakened. And thus it merged its powers with you." explains Haruka.

Shinobu can't believe her ears. She looks right at Haruka practically speechless. "No way! What makes you think that I'm a descendent of one of those warriors?" asks Shinobu completely stunned. Haruka grabs one of the scrolls that's lying on Shinobu's desk. "This." answers Haruka as she tosses the scroll to Shinobu.

Shinobu catches it. "What's this?" she asks as she opens up the scroll. "That Shinobu, is the earliest record of your family history." answers Haruka. Shinobu is stunned. She looks through the scroll browsing through a few of the lines.

"By the way Shinobu, there is something else you need to know about that pendent." says Haruka. Shinobu looks up at Haruka. "Within the emerald of that pendent resides the spirit of one of your ancestors." explains Haruka.

"A spirit?" says Shinobu. "Yes. The spirit belonged to an ancestor of yours way back in early 13th century Feudal Japan. She was killed while battling an extremely powerful demon. So to prevent the pendent from falling into his hands she used the last of her powers and transferred her soul into the emerald of the pendent just before she died. As such from then on no one but her decedents could even touch the pendent. Shinobu you being able to touch the pendent proves that you are one of her direct descendents." explains Haruka.

"Ok….that makes some since…..I think. But that still doesn't explain what has happened to my body." says Shinobu. "Actually it does Shinobu." answers Haruka. Shinobu tilts her head a bit just like a dog would if it heard a strange sound. Haruka brings her hand up to her head and rubs her temples a bit.

"It's a bit complicated so how should I put this?" she says to herself. "When the pendent merged its powers with you the spirit inside of the emerald also merge with your spirit. Thereby giving you some of the physical features she had when she was alive." explains Haruka. But still Shinobu has a confused look on her face.

"Ahh! I think I get it!" yelps Su. Everyone turns to Su. "Care to explain it Su?" says Motoko. "Ok. Remember in the "Casper the Friendly Ghost" movie where the girl's father got possessed by Casper's 3 uncles' ghosts. When he looked in the mirror his face morphed into what the uncles had looked like when they were alive." explains Su.

"That's a good analogy Su. That, in a since, is exactly what has happened to Shinobu, only her physical features were only slightly altered." says Haruka. "Slightly altered? You call these melons a SLIGHT altercation?" yells Shinobu in protest while pointing to her new boob size.

Haruka gets a little annoyed by Shinobu's sudden outburst at her but then calms herself. "This is Shinobu were talking about; after what has happened to her she has a right to be a bit upset." Haruka thinks to herself. "Ok, MOST of her physical features have been slightly altered." Haruka corrects.

"So Haruka, these physical features, are they what that spirit had when she was 15?" asks Keitaro. "No I don't think so." answers Haruka. "So how do you explain Shinobu's sudden mature look at her age?" asks Motoko.

"Well, from what I have read from the scrolls. All the girls who came after the 1st developed these mature looks. I think it has to do with the spirits age when her body was killed. As I told you earlier she was killed at a young age; shortly after giving birth to her 1st and only son. From what the scroll says she became 'The Hinata Maiden' at the same age as Shinobu is now. She was married 2 years later and her father died 2 years after that. She was killed 6 years after that. So that would have put her somewhere about the age of 24 or 25." explains Haruka.

"However since their spirits are combined, I think her looks are somewhere between her age and the "age" of the spirit. Probably around 18 or 19. So in a since we are looking at what Shinobu might look like at age 18 or 19." adds Haruka.

Everyone looks back at Shinobu who is still blushing a little. Then Kitsune begins to giggle evilly. "What's so funny Kitsune?" says Sara. Kitsune comes over and sits right beside of Shinobu and wraps her arm around Shinobu's shoulder.

"One thing's for sure now Shinobu. Keitaro and the other boys at your school won't be able to resist you womanly figure now! You're going to make so many other girls jealous!" says Kitsune evilly.

Although it doesn't seem possible Shinobu blushes brighter than a red Christmas tree light. She hadn't even thought about what she's going to do at school with this kind of figure yet. Keitaro turns around quickly to try to hide a badly bleeding nose.

Unfortunately for him Naru's pervert radar goes off and then she gives him a roundhouse punch right to the back of his head. "PERVERT!" shouts Naru. Keitaro goes spiraling out of Shinobu's room and crashes into the hallway wall leaving a human shaped crater in it. Sara and Su laugh at Keitaro's misfortune.

As Keitaro hobbles back into the room Haruka speaks back up. "Shinobu, there is one other thing you need to know about the spirit. And this is the most important thing. As the rest of us have already seen, the spirit has the ability to communicate with us through you." explains Haruka. Shinobu's eyes open wide with shock.

"How on Earth can it do that?" asks Shinobu completely stunned. "I'll field that one Haruka." says Motoko. Haruka nods her head. "Shinobu from what I can tell it's not much different from being possessed by a ghost." explains Motoko.

"POSSESSED! Ohh No! I don't want to be possessed! Get it out of me!" Shinobu shouts as she begins to panic a little. "Shinobu calm down!" orders Motoko. "This is a much different possession than the kind you see on T.V. or in the movies." explains Motoko. Shinobu calms down a little and looks at Motoko with a little worry on her face.

"The kind of possessions you see on T.V. and in the movies are totally blown out of proportion demonic or evil ghost possessions. In those kinds of possessions the demonic force or evil ghost takes total control of the body and uses it for their own gain; whether it be to terrorize or other evil doing. In your case Shinobu, from what I have felt a seen, the spirit that inhabits your body now is an extremely kind spirit and only wants to work with you…..At least from my experience in these things." explains Motoko.

"So what you're saying is that like in the movies the spirit inside of me will be able to just talk through me when ever it wants to, only it will be for good purposes?" asks Shinobu. "Essentially yes." answers Motoko.

Shinobu lowers her head a bit. She knows it's a good spirit possessing her, but still feels a bit insecure about being possessed in the 1st placed. Who wouldn't be after all? Suddenly Shinobu can feel her right eye close. She reaches up and covers it.

"Shinobu what's wrong?" asks Keitaro. "My eye. It just suddenly closed all by itself." answers Shinobu a bit worrisome. Suddenly Shinobu gets a surprised look on her face and she slowly uncovers her eye. Once she does everyone takes a slight step backwards.

"What?" asks Shinobu in a bit of panic. "Don't tell me my face has changed again!" says Shinobu in a bit of more panic. "Not exactly. Shinobu your right eye. It's glowing a bright green." answers Keitaro.

"Huh!" Shinobu gasps. She grabs her vanity mirror again and looks at herself once again. Sure enough she sees that her right eye is glowing a bright green. "What the…. Why is my eye glowing green?" she asks out loud.

"Because I am here." says a deep feminine voice from Shinobu's mouth. "YEAHHHH!" Shinobu screams as she tosses her mirror out of her hand, accidentally smacking Keitaro in the face with it, and jumping 3 feet back in her bed.

"What the hell!" yells Shinobu out of panic. Keitaro slowly stands back up holding his head and hands Shinobu back her slightly cracked mirror. "Damn. This just isn't a good day for my head." he thinks to himself.

Shinobu grabs it again and looks in the mirror. "Are…Are you th-th-th-" "The 'spirit' everyone has been talking about? Yes." says the deep feminine voice. "Oh boy…..I don't think I'll ever get use to this." says Shinobu to herself as she lowers her head.

"Oh don't worry about it. I'll only come out when I'm needed. You'll still be able to do you daily activities as normal." says the spirit. "Somehow I doubt that." answers Shinobu as she pokes her right breast.

"As I said don't worry. Most of the time if I need to speak with you I'll only use telepathy. I'll only come out like this when I need to speak with someone on the outside. You have nothing to worry about." explains the spirit.

"So why are you out now?" asks Shinobu. "Just to introduce myself and to show you what it will be like since we are together now. So. It's a pleasure to meet you Shinobu." says the spirit. "Um…Hello. So do you have a name?" asks Shinobu.

No answer. "You there?" asks Shinobu. "Yeah I'm here, but…. my name is one of the things I can't remember from my original life." answers the spirit. "How can that be possible?" asks Kitsune.

"Well from what I CAN remember, I was killed by that powerful demon and used the last of my power to transfer my spirit into the emerald….. however I couldn't transfer everything about myself into it in time before I died, so some things I can't remember…. My name was one of those things I don't remember." says the spirit kind of sad.

"But right now we don't have time for chit chat. I can already feel a demon's powers at work somewhere." says the spirit with a serious voice. "A demon?" asks Motoko.

"You mean you haven't sensed it? I thought you were a part of the God's Cry clan?" says the Spirit. "I am, but I haven't sensed any demonic forces." answers Motoko. "Him I guess in this day in age where demons haven't been seen in over 200 years it has become tough to know what a demonic force feels like exactly." says the spirit.

"Are you saying I lack the ability to sense demonic forces!" shouts Motoko. "No. I believe the demonic forces, wherever they have been, have been able to mask their demonic powers. But they can't do it completely. I can still sense them! My powers are quite keen to homing in on demonic forces." explains the spirit.

"Ok then just what kind of demonic forces are we dealing with?" asks Motoko. "Have you noticed how hot it is?" asks the spirit. "Who hasn't? We've been frying in it for the past week or so!" answers Kitsune.

"Yes this kind of extended heat wave can only be caused by a tenkouoni. Or in other words a kind of weather demon." answers the spirit. "They are a rare breed of demon that can manipulate the weather in a local area." adds the spirit.

"Yes I've heard about them before. They can cause snow to fall in summer and 100+F heat in the winter. But I thought they were all wiped out." says Motoko. "Apparently not." answers the spirit.

"So what are we supposed to do about it?" says Su. "Shinobu we need to prepare for battle." says the spirit. "WHAT! Now? I can't! I don't even have any training in fighting yet! Don't you think I should get some fighting lessons 1st!" protests Shinobu.

" I'm sorry Shinobu, but we have to go now. It looks like your going to have to learn on the fly as we go." answers the spirit. "Auuuuu. But what about me? I could get badly injured. Or worse." complains Shinobu. "Don't worry about that! I have that covered." answers the spirit.

"HUH?" everyone says in unison.

End of Chapter 3

To be continued in Chapter 4: Fiasco on Fuji! Part 1

Author Note: The long awaited Chapter 3 is here at last! However this is going to my last chapter for this story for a while. My college will be starting back up soon and I need to prepare for it. I hope you all understand. After all doing 4 stories at once is a big job! Plus I'm doing a children's book soon also.

Story Note: Kinda freaky isn't it. What does the spirit have up it's… or rather Shinobu's sleeve?