Hello again everyone! Sorry it took me so long to do this one, I've been really busy with school as of late. Hard to get motivated after doing so much homework. But here it is! Chapter II! Read and review if you can!
Disclaimer: If I owned Love Hina, why would I be writing a fan fiction? All characters and places belong to Ken Akamatsu. Except for Sazuke, take him and I'll slash your tires…
Five years before the happenings of "The Path Is Lain":
Sazuke looked up at the building he had seen so many times before when he had come with his father, but had never once been inside. He thought about the changes that had happened over the last couple of weeks. After his father had come out of the hospital, he had become increasing dependent on the young boy. Every day it seemed he would rely on his for a new need, and today's new task was picking up his packages in this downtown establishment. He cleared his throat and walked in. What he saw when he entered shocked him beyond anything he had even seen, even from his father. There were people all over the place, doing things that were against what he could imagine covered the entire nation's law book. He was grabbed tightly by the shoulder, and immediately turned around, to find himself looking up at an extremely large and frightening man.
"Hey kid, we can't let ya in here, sorry, but you'll have to leave now." The man said.
Sazuke shuddered at the thought of what may happen should he not return with what his father required of him, so he said back, "Excuse me sir, but I'm Kabuki Minashiro's son, and he just wanted me to come pick up whatever it was he came here to get every week. Could I get it to him?"
"Kabuki's kid eh? Your father's one of our best consumers, we wouldn't want to break such a long relationship. Did he give you the money for it?"
"Yes sir, it's right here." Sazuke took the small bundle out of his pocket and handed it to the man.
"Alright then, I can see that ol' Kabu's still reelin' in the cash." The large man said. "Here ya go kid, make sure you get this to your father safely, alright?"
"Can do." Sazuke replied, then turned to walk out the door.
"Hey kid," The man said as Sazuke was leaving, "You gonna be doin' this regularly?"
Sazuke nodded, and the man continued, "Alright, I'll make sure that the other bouncers don't give ya any trouble when ya come in."
10 Minutes after leaving the bar, Sazuke's curiosity did him in. He just had to know what his father had been coming here for over the last 7 years, why he acted like he needed it so badly, and why it cost so much, that was a really heavy package of En. He unsheathed his pocket knife, made a small slit in the bag, put his finger in, and took some out. He looked at the soft white powder that was now on his fingers, and knew that his suspicions had been confirmed…
The Light After Dawn; Chapter 2. The First Night.
"EVERYONE! COME DOWN TO THE KITCHEN! WE HAVE A GUEST!" Keitarou shouted through the loudspeaker he had taken from under the table. Sazuke looked down at the table and got a bit depressed when he heard footsteps starting to come down the stairs… Then he heard the first voice.
"Ara ara… we have company?" Said a voice from the stairwell, followed by the sounds of someone slipping and tumbling down the stairs. Sazuke jumped up frightened only to be nodded off by Keitarou and the others, and sat back down. An older brown haired woman entered the room and sat down in the chair next to Naru while Shinobu said, "Really Mutsumi-san, you must be more careful coming down those stairs…"
"I know Shinobu-chan! I kno-, ara?" Mutsumi paused while she looked at Sazuke, "Who's this?"
"Oh yah," Keitarou said, "Mutsumi, this is Sazuke Minashiro, Sazuke, this is Mutsumi Otohime." He said pointing each other out. She had seemed perplexed my him and asked Sazuke immediately after Keitarou's introductions,
"Were you at Mitsune Konno's café today by chance? I could have sworn I saw you coming out of there."
Sazuke nodded before replying, "Yah, that was probably me, I stopped by to get some dinner."
'Wow, this is a pretty tightly knit community here in Hinata, everyone here knows each other…' He thought.
"Ah, that's what I thought." Mutsumi said before turning her attention and beginning to converse with Naru. Not soon after these introductions had been made, another voice came from the chair on Sazuke's blind side.
"And whom might you be?"
Sazuke almost jumped through the ceiling then turned around to see a tall black haired girl wearing some kind of martial arts outfit sipping tea in the chair next to him.
"Oh Motoko-chan, we didn't even hear you come in with all of this commotion, how are you today?" Keitarou asked.
"I'm quite fine Urashima, thank you." She replied, "But my question remains unanswered, who is this?" She pointed at Sazuke and then took another quick sip of her tea.
"Ah yes, this is Sazuke, he's looking for a place to stay, and Shinobu-chan over here offered him one here. I didn't see anything wrong with it, so I decided to check what you guys thought of it." Keitarou answered. "So if its alright, lets see what you guys think about it." He then took out a small piece of paper and a pen and got ready to write something down.
"Ummmm, shouldn't we wait for Kaolla?" Shinobu pleaded, "She's not down here yet."
"Yah, we should" Responded Keitarou, "Where is she anyways?" He immediately regretted asking that when a loud "HEY!" resonated throughout the room followed by a swift kick to the head as Suu jumped out of a hole in the wall into her seat (via Keitarou's head mind you).
"ARE YOU EVER GONNA STOP DOING THAT SUU-CHAN?" Keitarou shouted.
"Nah, chances are no." Kaolla said before laughing and talking to Shinobu. Sazuke just sat there and tried to figure out what had just happened before being snapped back to attention by Keitarou saying, "Well, now that everyone's here, lets get to the vote. Who here thinks Sazuke can stay here at the Hinata Sou?"
Shinobu was about to speak but was interrupted by Kaolla who asked, "Who's Sazuke?" She then followed Shinobu's pointing finger to where Sazuke was sitting, and to the momentary shock of all the tenants, blushed slightly and went silent.
"Anyway, I say he can stay!" Shinobu said. Motoko amazingly was the next to speak up saying, "I don't really care, I'm going to be at the University most of the time anyways."
The group next looked at Naru who then looked at Keitarou and said, "Well, you didn't turn out that bad, so I don't see why we can't give him a shot here."
After Naru's answer, everyone turned to Kaolla, who was looking down at the table twiddling her thumbs. She looked up at Sazuke and again blushed slightly before saying, "Yah he can stay." and looking down quickly again.
Sazuke felt like a very fat guy had just gotten up from sitting in him. The pressure was gone, he had a place to stay for a while and didn't have to keep traveling. The group talked a while longer with each other before Kaolla said, "Well, its getting late, I'm gonna call it a night. See all of you tomorrow." She then got up from her chair in an almost peaceful like manner and left the room… up the stairs no less! The entire group just sat there speechless, staring at the staircase they had just seen their friend go up, before Sazuke interjected by asking, "What's wrong?"
The group just continued to stare before Motoko snapped back into reality and replied, "She's not normally like this. She is almost always hyper, and is impossible to detain. It's very strange that she'd be acting like this, ever."
The rest of the tenants all nodded, before leaving the room one by one after saying their goodbyes for the night. Keitarou stayed behind and walked up to Sazuke saying, "Well, now that everyone's gone, time to show you where you'll be staying. Be kind of odd for you to be staying here without a room." Sazuke nodded and proceeded to follow him out of the room, up the stairs, to a place he could call home, hopefully for the foreseeable future.
Keitarou and Sazuke had been walking through the halls of the enormous inn for about 5 minutes talking about life about the Hinata Sou. Keitarou told him about the bathing rooms, mealtimes, rent price, the division of chores, amongst other things.
"It sounds like it's pretty peaceful around here!" Sazuke said.
Keitarou stumbled but managed not to face fault after that comment before laughing and responding, "I'll leave that to you to find out, you'll probably find this place a lot different than where you used to live!"
Sazuke paused at the mentioning of his previous "home". Keitarou noticed his sudden lack of emotion and asked, "Did I say something wrong?"
"No, I'd just rather not get into it right now." Sazuke replied, "I'm too tired."
Keitarou didn't buy this excuse, but avoided the subject anyway, and remained silent until they reached their destination. "Here we are, Room 205. This is where you'll be staying Minashiro-san!"
"Ah thank you Urashima-san! I'll just unpack my stuff and head to bed then." Sazuke said.
"Alright, I'll leave you alone to do that, good night."
And with that, Keitarou left the room, and Sazuke just slumped down to the floor, exhausted. This had by far been the longest and toughest day of his life, and it was apparently taking a toll on his fatigue. He thought about the happenings of the last couple of hours, and realized how lucky he was to be able to find somewhere like this to stay. How fortunate he was to have found people who were so kind, to let him stay with them like this. Then he remembered before these events. He remembered the bar, he remembered his father, he remembered. Sazuke just tried to forget about it, 'No need to worry about the past… I have a new place to call home for now, away from all of that. Its time to move on.' He stood back up, sighed, and then started to unpack his stuff. It didn't take him long, he had few possessions. He looked amongst what he had just taken out of his bag, the few things he felt meant something to him in his old "home". Before him was some money, a picture of him and his mother, his clothes, and his two black tantos. He didn't really know why he brought his tantos with him at first, Sazuke thought he had wanted to forget everything about that part of his life.
Sazuke strolled down the street, and walked into the bar he had become so accustomed to traveling to. It had been a long couple of months, knowing about his father's habit, but having to keep it inside, afraid of what may happen should it get out. He started to make his way towards the stairs, but was grabbed and pulled around. When around, he saw some guy, obviously drunk, looking at him rather angrily. "Where do you think you're goin punk?"
Sazuke was scared out of his mind, he had never come into a confrontation like this before, "Uhhh, I c-come here every week, s-s-sir…I'm just getting someth-hing for my da-"
"YOU DON'T GET ANY SPECIAL PRIVILEDGES KID! NO ONE CAN GO UP THERE! ALRIGHT?" After shouting this, the man pulled back his fist, and started to come at him with a punch. Sazuke felt the searing pain on his face as he flew back into the wall. He looked with terror as the man started to walk towards him again, seemingly angrier by the step. When he was about a meter away, he was swept away by one of the bouncers Sazuke had met over the last few months. He helped Sazuke up, and said to him, "You alright kid? Sorry about that, we were in a shift change."
Sazuke just nodded and said back, "Yah, I'll be fine, thanks…"
The bouncer smirked, and handed him the usual package, taking the money back in return, but as Sazuke started to leave, the bouncer shouted to him, "Hey kid, wait a sec."
Sazuke turned around, and the bouncer gave him another package, this one made of some kind of leather. He looked up confused at the bouncer, who said, "This ones for you, to make sure something like what happened with that moron doesn't happen again."
Sazuke nodded again, thanked him, and then left the bar. After turning a street corner, he went into an alley and opened the package. His eyes went wide as he saw two finely furnished black tantos lying side by side, still in their sheathes.
Sazuke shook his head after this little flashback, and went back to fixing up his new room. He sat down next to a table, and was about to get up again to lay out the futon, when he heard a rapping on his door. "Yes? Who is it?" he asked.
Silence.
"Hello? Anyone there?" he asked again.
"It's Kaolla, Kaolla Suu…" he heard from the other side.
"Oh, come on in"
The door opened, and a very nervous looking Kaolla came walking in and sat down at the other side of the table. They both sat there for about five minutes before Sazuke finally asked, "Umm, what can I do for you Kaolla-san?"
She looked up quickly and said, "You don't have to call me that!"
"What?" Sazuke asked. That was the fasted he had ever heard anyone say anything, and he didn't understand a word.
"You don't have to call me Kaolla." She repeated, a little slower this time.
Having actually understood this time, Sazuke smiled a bit and replied, "Alright then Kaolla, what can I do for you?"
Kaolla paused at this, almost as If she didn't really know why she came in, but then asked in a more calm way than she had spoken earlier, "I was just wondering If you like it here, and if you think you're gonna like living here."
What? Did he like it here? Of course he did. This was the first time anyone had really treated him with real kindness for a while now. He finally had a place where he could feel at home. There was no doubt he would like living here. But he had to try to hide his past, so he just answered back casually, "It's a great place! I'm sure I'm going to love living here with all of you! I've only been here for one night though, so we'll see what happens. But you all seem like nice people, so it should be fine."
At this last statement, Kaolla began to blush slightly again, before saying even quicker than before, "Wellthatsallineededtoknowthankyouverymuchandgoodnight!" Before dashing out of the room faster than a hobo chasing a ham sandwich.
After momentarily gathering what had just happened, Sazuke got up and went out the door after her. Right as he got out, he ran into someone and fell backwards onto the ground. When he looked up, he saw a slightly annoyed Naru looking back down at him.
"What happened to Kaolla? Why was she running off like that?" She asked him impatiently.
"That's what I was trying to figure out when I ran into you!" He replied truthfully.
He could see she didn't believe him, and was getting impatient… and then she snapped. "YOU PERVERT!" Naru shouted as she smacked him right through the ceiling.
A projectile could be seen flying over the streets of Hinata, As the fates put wagers on where it would land.
Well, that's that. Chapter III shouldn't take nearly as long. Just started a new semester, and the classes are easy. Please review! I need to know how I'm doing, it's still my first one here!