Welcome back to the greatest show on earth! To put some of your minds at ease, I take no offense to you saying this one is better than my epic. The review count only is enough for me to figure that one out. Heck, I got 11 reviews within 24 hours (2 within 60 minutes) of submitting chapter 6! That's more than my other story ever did! Anyway, let's see what torments shall befall our favorite boxer this time, shall we?
Chapter 7
The next week would go by in a blur for most, while at a snail's pace for others. On the positive side, Shinobu appeared to have been affected the most. Where there used to be an extremely shy girl who would freak out at every mention of affection toward Keitaro--hers or otherwise--has been replaced by a carefree spirit. Her face didn't even turn a bright red when the two were in the same room anymore. This would be proven repeatedly, as Keitaro made it a point to join her in the making of the daily meals each day.
One step down from Shinobu was Motoko. Keitaro's accompanyments to her training sessions became more and more frequent and they have gotten to know each other a bit better. She never seemed to mind the visits, but along the way, she kept noticing certain things, like a smile, compliments to her skill or their eyes suddenly meeting--even for a split second. Under past circumstances, she would have regarded such things as nothing more than the banter of some perverted male and would have dealt with it accordingly, but in light of recent events, these subtle things triggered different emotions--ones Motoko definitely weren't used to having. It was times like this when she realized that she and Shinobu have, in a way, swapped places. With this in mind and her continuing to show her usual expressionless demeanor, she hoped any feelings for the landlord she might have wouldn't be found out nearly as quickly.
In the middle was Suu, who liked Keitaro even before all this began. Unlike the other girls, she only wanted him for a playmate and a test subject for her various, and usually dangerous creations. For his part, Keitaro allowed this to go on, but he used his newly developed common sense to ask what was going to be done to him when she asked for his help.
To the extreme negative end of the spectrum was Naru. Despite her efforts to be kinder to Keitaro, he showed no change in attitude regarding his former crush. Her violent tendencies have almost ended entirely and she made countless offers for Keitaro to join her in her studies or some other way for them to be in the same room outside of circumstance, but he wouldn't have anything to do with her. Logic and past beatings conspired against her, and she kept finding herself with nobody to lash out at but herself. All in all, she was no longer the confident girl everyone came to know, but a depressed shell who cried herself to sleep on most nights.
Last, but not least was Kitsune, who found herself caught between loyalties. As much as she liked what Keitaro had become, the same could not be said regarding Naru. Seeing her best friend turn into an absolute wreck was never something she wanted to see. This alone might have convinced her to do something, but there was more the situation than Naru's fall from grace. While Keitaro's rise in confidence was a good thing, it did make things a tad frustrating for the fox. Her usual methods of flaunting her features in order to get free rent or sake money became significantly less effective. This little development was the final straw, making her determined to find the root of Keitaro's transformation.
---
Keitaro's door opened, but not a soul actually stepped inside. "Keitaro, everyone's ready to go."
"Thanks, Shinobu," Keitaro said, not turning away from whatever he was working on; something Shinobu wasn't able to see from her viewpoint. "I'll be down in a minute."
"Don't be too long," Shinobu said before walking back the way she came.
Keitaro set his pencil down and stretched his arms a bit. That morning, he brought up the idea to go to a karaoke club. His main reason behind this was to see how the girls would act around him in public. Besides, it's been quite a while since the last time he went into town for reasons other than grocery shopping or something like that.
After putting his books away, he he went out to the hallway en route to where the others were waiting. For Keitaro, this was one of the most interesting--if not enlightening--weeks of his life. For a change, he found himself able to really get to know the girls without that threat of imminent death that always seemed to loom over his head in the past. During his observations, he noticed the changes that, at least indirectly, he had caused.
For starters, Shinobu had stopped being so formal to him; something she had demonstrated just now. Motoko was beginning to open up to him, but there was still something about her that he just couldn't put his finger on. Kitsune was still her usual foxy self, but her attempts to fleece him have started to decline. He assumed this was because he was somehow able to resist her femenine charms, but he resigned himself to the possibilty that she may step up her efforts in the near future. Out of everyone in the house, Suu was the only one who still attacked him, but he knew it wasn't due to faults on his part. Nevertheless, he had been kicking around a few ideas in his head for how to deal with it. Then there was Naru...
He walked out the front door to find everyone there waiting for him. A moment later, he found Suu flying toward him, foot ready to make contact with his face. "Here goes nothing," Keitaro thought. Much to everyone's surprise, he grabbed Suu by the ankle and used her momentum to swing her around and send her skyward a few feet and catching her in his arms on the way down.
The look of shock and the blush on Suu's face was something that doesn't happen often, but it would only last a few seconds. "That was fun!" she cheered. "Do it again!"
"Maybe another time," Keitaro said, lowering the foreign girl onto her feet. "Looks like those training sessions with Motoko are starting to pay off," he thought. (Note to Innortal: If you're reading this, you probably recognized that last part. I just want to say that I thought it up a couple days before reading chapter 7 of "Friendship, Love and Honor," so don't think of it as plagiarism, but as proof that great minds think alike.) He looked back at the group in front of him and a frown instantly appeared on his face. "Why are we bringing her?" he asked.
Naru flinched when she heard those words, as she knew exactly who he was referring to, but she kept her mouth shut, lest she be subject to yet another tongue-lashing. It was times like this that made her realize just how badly she had treated him in the past.
"Don't be so hard on her," Kitsune said. "Don't you think that she of all people needs this trip to at least try to cheer up."
Keitaro sighed, rolling his eyes. "Okay, she can come along, but for the record, I'm allowing it under protest."
"Y'all have fun, alright?" Kitsune called out.
"You're not coming with us?" Shinobu asked.
"Nah."
"Why not?"
"I've had enough bad hangovers this week. I think I'll just take a break from it all. I doubt the bars will miss me too much."
"We'll see you when we get back, then," Keitaro said. Suu had already latched onto his shoulders. "Thank goodness she's light," he thought.
"It is a good thing that she is starting to control her drink habits," Motoko said as they headed down the steps.
"Don't be so sure," Keitaro said. "She only said she was taking a break from the bars, not drinking entirely, though I guess it's better that she gets drunk at home than to try to make it home drunk--not that I know from personal experience or anything."
"Good point."
It was then that the group passed by the tea shop, where they found Haruka, taking a cigarette break. "Hello, Haruka!" Keitaro called out.
Haruka started to walk over to smack Keitaro for uttering that horrid four-letter word, but stopped short when she realized that he didn't say it. "Uh, hey," she said, never losing her composure--or at least making it appear that way. "Where are you all off to?"
"We're gonna do some karaoke!" Suu yelled cheerfully.
"Well, have fun." As they continued on their way, Haruka noticed that Naru looked quite depressed, but what surprised her was the fact that Keitaro was paying little attention to it, if any at all. In fact, it looked as though he was making an active effort to ignore the troubled girl. "Hmm," she thought. "I thought he loved her. There's something weird going on here." She shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, it's none of my business." Having finished her cigarette, she walked back inside.
It did not take long for them to reach a karaoke club, but for Naru, it felt like an enternity. The whole trip, Keitaro hardly spoke a word to her, focusing his entire attention on the other girls. It took all her strength to keep from crying then and there. "I have tried everything I could think of to have a meaningful talk with him, but he keeps pushing me away," she thought. "Why can't he just go back to being that selfless pervert I fell in love with?!" This wasn't entirely true, as she had considered outright seduction, but she vowed she would never stoop so low. However, after countless rejections, she was beginning to run out of options.
Naru wasn't the only one that was a bit ill at ease at the time. "Why am I here?" Motoko thought. "Urashima knows I'm not one for the social scene, so what possessed him to have me come along?" She made a sideways glance at said man. "As hard as I tried, I have not found anything unnatural about you," her thoughts continued. "But still, who is this man and what has he done with our manager?!" Keitaro glanced back and their eyes meeting for that split-second before Motoko turned her face away to hide the redness that appeared there. "What is wrong with me?! I am beginning to act like Shinobu used to!" Her thoughts were interrupted when a hand was placed on her shoulder.
"Is something wrong, Motoko?" Keitaro asked.
"Or course not," Motoko lied. "Why would there be?"
"Alright, but I want you to remember that if you ever need someone to talk to, my door's always open."
"I'll keep that in mind," Motoko said, trying to sound somewhat threatening. "Maybe I should tell him about how I've been feeling," she thought. "Shinobu confessed her feelings to him and she has more confidence now than ever before. Naru aside, he seems to bring out the best in people if given the chance. I just wonder... what would happen to me?"
Walking inside, they found a suitable table and proceeded to watch as some famous songs were sent to the woodshed by people who should never have picked up a microphone. After about half an hour, Keitaro decided it was time to try his hand, getting up and walking towards the front of the room, where a notebook of available songs was available and began flipping through the pages.
"I wonder what he's going to sing," Shinobu said.
"Probably some dumb love song or something," Naru said, almost surprised she got a word in edgewise.
"I wonder if he can sing," Motoko said. "He certainly can't be any worse than what we've already seen today."
After a couple minutes of searching, Keitaro found a song that interested him and waited patiently for the man already on stage to finish. When the man walked off, accompanied by a chorus of boos (Well, what would you expect when you see someone try to pull off a Barry White rendition of "Toxic"?), he stepped up to the microphone.
All the specualtion made by the Hinata girls were put to rest when they heard the intro to the song Keitaro was about to sing. A couple of them recognized it right away, but the others quickly found out from the lyrics that Linkin Park's "Numb" wasn't exactly the, quote, "dumb love song" Naru said it was going to be. Indeed, it seemed to sum up what has gone on between the once dysfunctional and now defunct couple.
"Of all the songs that he could have picked..." Naru thought, tears welling up in her eyes. "WHY THIS ONE?!?" The energy that Keitaro put into the song didn't help matters, not to mention that he was looking right at her the whole time. Granted, he had ignored her the entire way there, but this wasn't exactly an improvement by any means.
"Where are you going?" Shinobu asked when she saw Naru get up from her seat.
"I need some fresh air," Naru said as she walked out, trying unsuccessfully not to look like she was in a hurry as she did so.
The song eventually came to a close, with Keitaro getting the best ovation of the day up to that point. "Oh man, that felt good," he said as he sat back down at the table, not giving any acknowledgement to Naru's dissapearing act. All the girls around were a bit concerned about the hasty exit, but didn't bother bringing it up, as they figured he saw her leave from up on stage.
Another hour went by and they decided to head back home. When they got outside, they saw that Naru was nowhere to be seen. "I wonder where she could have gone?" Shinobu asked.
"I don't think you should worry about her," Keitaro said, secretly wondering the same thing. "She probably just went back to the apartments." The trip back home went uneventfully, and they found themselves back at the tea shop.
"How was it?" Haruka asked.
"It was fun," Keitaro said.
"Where's Naru?"
"You mean she didn't come home?" Motoko asked.
"Not as far as I know. What happened?"
"Well, Keitaro was singing this song and she just walked out," Shinobu said.
"What song was it?" Haruka's question was answered by Suu singing some of the lyrics. "Okay, I've heard enough," she said after a couple bars.
"If you find out where she is, will you tell us?" Shinobu asked.
"Of course." Haruka watched them head up the stairs, all the while, racking her brain, trying to figure out what had become of her nephew.
When the Hinata crew--or what was left of it--entered the front door, they found Kitsune there, waiting for them. She looked as though she was a mother who had just caught her teenage son coming home drunk at two in the morning, and she acted like it too. "Keitaro," she said. "We need to have a little chat. Now."
"Sure," Keitaro said, curious as to what could make the party girl so serious. "What's up?"
Kitsune didn't respond verbally; rather, she motioned for him to follow her upstairs, which he quickly obeyed. About a minute later, a voice came from Kitsune's room--one that sounded more like the old Keitaro than at any other time that week: "YOU WHAT?!!"
End of Chapter 7
Too many questions, not enough answers. See you next time! Please R&R!