Something has been taken from deep inside of me
The secret I've kept locked away no one can ever see
Wounds so deep they never show they never go away
Like moving pictures in my head for years and years they've played
-Linkin Park
Chapter 11
To say that Naru was in a panic would not have done her a hint of justice. Not only did she have that horrendous nightmare, but upon waking, found herself naked in bed with a sleeping Kentaro by her side. Of course, physical retribution for what could have been the only possible thing that had transpired between the two was the last thing on Naru's mind at that point.
The first thing on her list of things to do was, naturally, finding her clothes. Slowly, she got out of bed, making sure to keep as quiet as possible so as not to rouse Kentaro from his slumber. Considering it was still the dead of night, the room was quite dark, hindering her search. She ended up feeling her way around the room, but came up empty handed.
Dreading the prospect but unable to come up with any other course of action, she decided to look through other rooms of the house. As she walked along a previously unknown hallway, despite making absolutely sure nobody else was around beforehand, she was compelled to cover herself up with her arms. "Why did this have to happen?" she mentally whined. "Just when I think I have everything sorted out, something just has to screw it all up!"
As she made her way through the strange house, her gaze shifted every which way. Every door she came across could lead her to the completion of her primary objective, but if she made one wrong turn, there was no telling what might happen to her. Of course, such thoughts were most likely sparked by her newly arisen paranoia.
After what felt like an eternity of trudging through quicksand, Naru reached the laundry room. In an instant, her face lit up when she saw all her clothes there. Thanking some higher power and not bothering to wonder why her blouse and skirt were hung up as neatly as they were, she quickly got dressed and quietly went out the front door.
As soon as the door was closed, all attempts to be slealthy came to an abrupt end. Breaking out into a run, she made a mad dash to the nearest train station, leaving a trail of tears in her wake. "If only I treated him better," she wailed. "If only I wasn't to quick to blame him for every little thing, then none of this would have ever happened!" Of course, what has already been cannot not be undone. There was only one logical explanation for what had happened while Naru was passed out drunk, and she knew she had no other choice but to deal with what might result from it, but there was still one thing left for her to consider.
"I can't face them... not now," she thought as she sat down inside the first train heading for home. "There's no telling what will happen if they find out where I've been. I'd probably lose all respect they may have for me, if they haven't already. I know Keitaro wouldn't care; heck, he'd probably rub it in my face, saying how much I deserved it. (Sigh) Maybe I do deserve it--to have some guy get me drunk and have his way with me."
By now, she had her knees pressed up against her chest. Sure, there were other passengers on the train and Naru was getting a couple stares, but she wasn't aware of any of them, nor would she have cared if she was. "Oh, Keitaro..." she thought. "Why won't you let me talk to you? Why won't you let me apologize for all the things I've done to you? Why won't you let me tell you how I really feel?"
Hearing the announcement that the train was approaching her stop broke her out of her thoughts. The walk home forced her to think more about the here and now--namely how she could sneak up to her room, but every plan she came up with seemed to end up with her getting caught, being forced to relay recent events and getting procecuted for them in one fashion or another. As she passes by the tea shop, another idea makes itself known in her mind...
---
The sound of knocking on the door roused Haruka from her slumber. "Who could it be at this time of night?" she said with a groan. At first, she didn't get out of bed in the hopes that whoever was there might just give up and leave, but that would not be the case. "Alright, alright," she said, getting up and putting on a robe before coming down from her room to see who it was that had disturbed her. Opening the door, she found a teenage girl who looked like she had definitely seen better days, to say the very least. "Naru?" she asked, barely able to disguise the surprise in her voice.
"I'm sorry if I woke you, Haruka," Naru said. "May I ask you a favor?"
"Shoot," Haruka said.
"Can I stay here with you tonight?"
Haruka blinked a couple times before responding. "Stay here? But why?"
"I don't want to be a bother or anything," Naru said. "I just don't think I can handle seeing the others right now."
By now, Haruka was getting more and more curious about what would spark this turn of events. "Okay," she said, stepping inside so that Naru could enter. "You look like you need to settle your nerves. You want some tea?"
"Yes, please," Naru said, taking a seat at one of the tables. A few minutes later, Haruka joined her, bringing a fresh pot of tea with her.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Haruka asked, pouring the liquid into a couple glasses.
"About what?" As if Naru didn't already know.
"How about where you've been all day?"
"Do I have to?" Naru asked.
"No, but you might feel better if you do."
"I'm not so sure," Naru said.
"What could get her to act this way?" Haruka thought. All of a sudden, she thought she heard something outside. Slowly, she made her way towards the door to see just who else could be out at this time of night.
---
After just missing Naru at the train station, Keitaro was in no hurry to get back to Hinata-Sou, and for good reason. Probably the last thing he needed was to be chewed out by Kitsune again. To be completely honest, he would rather be sent flying by a Naru punch than go through that again, mostly because from he has seen, Kitsune's methods tended to be more devious by comparison, if not more drawn out.
He was barely aware that he was even going up the front steps until he noticed the light on at the tea shop. "Why is Haruka up this late?" he thought upon seeing his aunt in the doorway. "Hello, Haruka," he said.
"Have you been out there this whole time?" Haruka asked.
"Yeah," Keitaro said with a sigh.
"So I guess you didn't find her then, huh?"
"No." Technically, that wasn't true, but to him, it wouldn't have mattered either way. "I guess I can't delay the inevitable any longer." With that, Keitaro continued on his way up the steps. Before he could even get within arm's reach of the front door, a voice called out to him.
"I see you're back," Kitsune said from somewhere in the shadows. "Sure took you long enough."
"I know," Keitaro said, not even bothering to turn his head.
"I also see that you do not have Naru with you. You understand that this cannot go unpunished, right?"
"Go ahead and tell everyone about what I've been doing," Keitaro said. "I'm not sure if I can keep up the act for too much longer anyway."
"Keeping your little secret should be your last concern," Kitsune said.
This caught Keitaro attention. "What do you mean?" he asked, finally looking in Kitsune's direction.
"What I mean is I have something very different planned for you."
Keitaro's eyes went wide when he saw what was about to happen. "You wouldn't," he said, backing up.
"A week ago, no," Kitsune said. "To be honest, I only enjoyed watching Naru and Motoko beat you as often as they did because you always bounced right back as though nothing was wrong. You weren't the only one to undergo a change--there's Shinobu, there's Naru, and because of that, there's me."
"Maybe you should think this through a bit more before--"
"No. Forcing Naru to run off to God-knows-where isn't something I'm going to tolerate, and nothing you can say is going to stop me."
"Kitsune, please..." Keitaro said, getting more and more scared with every step Kitsune took towards him...
---
When Naru first heard Keitaro's voice when he approached the tea shop, her first instinct was to run and hide, but stayed within earshot so that she could hear the short conversation he would have with his aunt--one that brought up some interesting questions that needed answering. "Haruka," she said once she was sure Keitaro couldn't hear her. "What were you two talking about just now?"
"I suppose you have a right to know," Haruka said as they sat back down at the table. "From the minute they came back this afternoon, I could tell they were starting to wonder about where you had gone. From what I can gather, when Kitsune heard of what Keitaro did, she went ballistic. A lot of yelling was involved and it ended up with him getting forced out of the house and sent to look for you, but that happened hours ago." An actual hint of concern made its way onto Haruka's face. "In my honest opinion, I think Keitaro's more scared of Kitsune now than he ever was of you or Motoko."
Naru didn't speak in response to Haruka's explanation, but her mind was going a mile a minute in an effort to digest it all. "So Keitaro was out looking for me all night," she thought as she took sips of her tea. "Not because he was worried about me, but Kitsune forcing him to do it. I've never heard of her being that mad before." That brought up the dream she had not too long ago. "Well, almost never. I guess one can only keep their temper for only so long--not that I'd know anything about that."
Her thoughts would be violently interrupted by a scream coming from the direction of the dorm. "That was Keitaro!" she said. Without another word, both Naru and Haruka rushed out to find the cause, but they wouldn't have believed it if they hadn't seen it for themselves. Before them stood none other than Kitsune wielding a metal bat, but that's not what drew their attention. What did was the sight of Keitaro laying on the ground, clutching his stomach.
"Keitaro..." Naru thought. "No..."
"You like that?!" Kitsune said, not even aware of her audience. "Maybe I should do it again for good measure." She then raised her bat and brought it down hard onto Keitaro's midsection.
"Kitsune, what in heaven's name are you doing?!" Haruka demanded.
"For the last WEEK..." Kitsune said, hitting Keitaro's left arm, effectively ignoring Haruka. "...I just STOOD BY..." Right arm. "...and let you treat Naru like CRAP!" Right leg. "Well, NOT..." Left leg. "...ANY..." Left leg again. "...LONGER!!" A third time.
"Kitsune, stop this!!" Haruka cried. Naru just looked on in silence as Keitaro screamed and writhed about in pain--more than Naru or Motoko ever inflicted on him. Both of them wanted to interfere, but in Kitsune's current state of mind, they couldn't be sure if she'd be able to discern friend from foe; they sure as heck didn't want to find out the hard way, so they stayed out of weapon's reach.
"You have no idea what it feels like to see your best friend lose all confidence in herself," Kitsune said, now standing overtop of Keitaro--as if he could have gotten away if he tried. "You are the cause of it all. Without you, everything will return to the way thing were." Following her broken logic, she raised her weapon once again, intending for the coming head shot to be the final one, but was met with unexpected resistance.
"NO!!" Motoko said, now holding the business end of the bat in her hands, effectively blocking Kitsune's attack. "I will not let you harm Urashima any longer!"
"Why do you defend him?" Kitsune asked. "He deserves to be punished for what he has done. You as much as anyone should know that."
"He doesn't deserve to die," Motoko said. "Not by your hands, nor by mine!"
"She's right!" Shinobu said. She, along with Suu and Motoko were all woken up by Keitaro's cries of agony and quickly came out to investigate. Of course, none of them could have predicted seeing him as badly beaten as he was.
"No..." Kitsune grunted as she tried to overpower Motoko, but was completely outmatched. "He... must... die!"
"Suu!" Motoko ordered. "Knock her down!"
"I'm on it!" Suu said, springing into action, landing a kick to the side of Kitsune's head--albeit with less force than her usual strikes, but it did the job nonetheless.
Before Kitsune could get back up and try to retrieve her bat (on which she lost her grip following Suu's attack), everyone was upon her, holding her in place--well, almost everyone. "How is he, Shinobu?" Motoko yelled over top of Kitsune's curses.
"Not too good," Shinobu said, a look of worry apparent on her face, and rightly so. "I'm going to go call the hospital." Standing up, she was about to do just that, but saw something fly by her, beating her inside. Even though it was dark outside and it was somewhat of a blur, she quickly recognized what it was--or rather, who. "Naru?"
End of Chapter 11
I know, this has been done before, but I hadn't planned on this little development until chapter 10 turned out like it did. Plus, I don't recall Kitsune ever being the aggressor those other times, so I guess my originality is still somewhat intact. Anyway, please R&R and I'll see y'all next time!