Note: I do not own Love Hina, or any other intellectual properties. They are all copyrights of their respectful owners. The rest, however, is MINE, BEE-YOTCHES!

GYRAX Presents…

Blondie Strikes Back!

Chapter 2: Communicability

Naru just stood there.

It was an empty room with only one window, and it was to her right. The walls were made of wood, seemingly the same wood that the floor was made of. The roof was also made of wood, and it hung high over her head. The room had no furniture; it was literally empty. Directly in front of her was a door; it had to be the way out. Naru, however, felt like something would happen if she opened the door and walked out of the room, it sent chills running down her spine. She decided to stay in; staying secure in a room where you're the only one in was a no-brainer for her.

Then, the door opened. A bright light shone from the door, like the sun was on the other side of it. She still did not want to move from the spot she stood at; she felt threatened by the light. What was on the other side of it? Whatever it was, she did not want to find out; it could hurt her. She stood still, just looking at the light at the other side of the door, feeling threatened by the outside world, if there was one out there.

Suddenly, an eye opened up on one of the walls, at Naru's right. Naru was shocked instantly from taking a gander at the anomaly. Even more frightening was the fact that it was staring directly at her, without even blinking for a second. That was not the end of it, however. More eyes were opening; they were just appearing everywhere. Not only on the wall to Naru's right, but also on her left, in front of her, and behind they did appear. There were even eyes staring at her from the ceiling. They were everywhere but the floor she was standing on.

Naru was now from shocked to horrified. She was rendered utterly motionless, forcing herself to just look down onto the floor, and at her own two feet. Panic overtook her, even keeping her from moving her lips; she could not even use her vocal cords; she was paralyzed all over. She was not sure about what this meant, or what was going to happen to her next, but she did not want to know what the future had in store for her, nor did she even want the future to even come; being aware of the fact that it was just inevitable frightened her even more.

But now she had a choice: she was to either stay here and wait for something to happen, or she was to venture into the outside world. Either way, she did not know what would happen to her, and the future seemed uncertain. She felt threatened by what was in store outside, so she decided to stay, because she felt better staying in a place that she knew of. Unfortunately, the place she knew also began to turn threatening. Every second she stood still, the eyes stared at her more accusingly. Though she was able to sense their hostility, Naru still did not wish to leave. She stood motionless except she was turning her head, looking at the eyes, which were staring at her back. Every second they grew more and more fierce, and Naru was aware of their growing bloodthirstyness. Time progressed, but Naru did not move her feet, not even a millimeter.

The accusing eyes, however, began to change themselves; the former blue eyes now began to change to a more reddish color, showing their viciousness more physically. All the while, Naru's own eyes widened. Then, all of a sudden, Naru turned impulsive. She screamed.

"LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!"

Naru raised her right fist high into the air. With the might of a thunderbolt from on high, Naru slammed it into the ground, channeling all of her emotions. Her hatred, her angst, her passion, have all powered her fist to unimaginable new levels. The impact from the attack sent shockwaves resonating throughout the Hinata House's front yard. Cracks ran through the concrete like snakes wondering around, searching for prey.

The crowd goers freaked out and dispersed, making sure they got out of the way before the cracks reached them. They did not know that they practically cleared the way. Naru, however, saw this as an opportunity, and before you can say "carpe diem", she ran right through the crowd and dashed down the flight of stairs. Keitaro and the others attempted to catch up with her, but they quickly realized that she was running at a superhuman speed. Astonished, they had no choice but to stop at the top of the staircase.

"Damn! She can run!" Kitsune exclaimed. She never saw this side of Naru before in her life, despite being her best friend since high school. Sure, she got angry every now and then, and it even turned violent, but this was an expression that one would not see in Naru. It seemed to her that what Naru felt was not the usual pervert-bashing anger produced from embarrassment, but pure primal rage with a possible sprinkle of agony.

A powerful feeling of regret and resentfulness filled the depths of Kitsune soul as she took witness to the after effects of Naru's monstrous outburst. She just realized the damages she dealt, cracks all over the concrete and a crowd stunned. She looked down on to the floor and she sliently muttered.

"Oh shit..."

"Something wrong, Kitsune?" Motoko approached her with a look of concern on her face, as if she caught some of the fox's lament.

"I'm just fine, Motoko. Don't worry about me." Kitsune had on her "all's well" mask, but the samurai could easily see that it was on crooked.

"Are you sure about that?"

"I said I'm fine, didn't I? So that means I'm fine, right?"

"If you say so." Naturally, Motoko stayed concerned; Kitsune was not acting normal.

"It's all my fault..." Shinobu muttered from the background. Keitaro, however, managed to catch every word swiftly.

The manager decided to investigate and see what had Shinobu at a vice grip. "Something wrong?"

"It's all my fault." The young girl balled her right hand into a fist and held it close to her chest while looking down on the floor in shame. "I'm the reason why Naru's so miserable. I'm the one who started all of this. It's my damn fault."

"Don't be rediculous. Why would you ever think that?"

"I told them..."

"Excuse me?"

"I told everyone about Naru-sempai. They wanted to know so badly, and I had no choice but to spill it out."

"What are you talking about?"

Kitsune could not help but listen, as it already sparked her interest from the beginning. However, with a small feeling of relief came another overwhelming sense of guilt. Why was Shinobu confessing?

Shinobu mustered up what was left of her inner strength to look up at Keitaro. The manager was pushed back by the powerful sense of remorse practically emitting from Shinobu like a strong aura.

"Shinobu?"

"I told them everything about this. I didn't mean to hurt anyone. It's just that I was under too much pressure."

"Pressure?"

"It all started a week ago during Math class."

Keitaro lent his ears; he needed to find out what was wrong with Shinobu, and why she kept saying that she was under pressure.

Kitsune could hardly believe how deep this really went...

The bell was about to ring.

Shinobu sat alone in her seat; Akiko was absent and Su has not come in yet. She was pretty much not in the mood to talk to anyone else. Without anything to keep her occupied at the moment, she looked around, listening to every conversation between the various students. Her ears were assaulted by a barrage of gossip and infromation, mixed around because every word from each conversation was mixed around like when someone was shaking a bag of different colored gumballs. She looked at the doorway and still, Su was not there.

Is she late? She thought. She began to worry about her, as was natural. She did not want her best friend to be late and, god forbid, get a slap on the wrist; she cared about her too much to let that happen. She continued listening to the gossiping voices and various other sounds around her, but then something peaked her interest.

"I saw him flying across town again," It was what a female voice to her right said. Shinobu picked it up word for word and she let it in to stay; she sighed. Since Naru kept sending the poor man to orit, Shinobu got a bit angrier, hoping someday Naru would actually stop and think for a second.

"Naru-sempai made a ruckus again. At this rate, she'll be in a freak show, or even worse --- Jerry Springer!" She pushed hard and tried to bulldoze those thoughts out of her head. Little did she know, she spoke loud enough to catch the interests of the conversing students next to her.

They turned their heads towards Shinobu, hoping that they heard that correctly. Just to clarify things, a young girl with long brown hair and green eyes walked towards her. She put her right hand on Shinobu's desk and leaned a bit forward, so that she'll make sure that what she said would be nice and clear.

"Something up, Shinobu?"

Shinobu snapped out of what seemed like a trance and looked up at her classmate. She looked directly at her eyes and noticed a sly grin corssing her face. Right off the bat, Shinobu recognized her features; she has been in class with her ever since she first came to her school.

"Unagi?"

"Hey there, Shinobu-chan!" The girl, apparently named Unagi Kanehara, greeted her with sunshine enthusiasm. "What's getting your goat?"

"Nothing..." Shinobu hung her head low and stared at her desk afterwards, aware of the fact that she talked to herself a bit too loudly, and someone else caught on to what she said. Unagi knows very well she was lying, and Shinobu may have realized that too.

"You said something that peaked my interest but I didnt' really catch it. Say that last sentence one more time."

"What sentence?" Shinobu began a futile but valiant attempt to play dumb, hoping in vain to acco mplish something by it.

"You know very well what I'm talking about. Something about a ruckus and Jerry Springer."

"Well, I..." Shinobu trailed off. The poor girl was now feeling the heat. An iron was pressing down on her, and she was trying to push it back up. She did not want to talk about personal matters, especially not in class; it was not the right place to do so. However, Unagi was looking down at her, her eyes curious and demanding, with a grin that said "you'll spill it soon; I just need to apply a little more pressure". Even worse was the fact that more students heard what the frail Shinobu said and a small crowd began to gather around her. They did not get a clear message, but they had a feeling that she may know something about the legendary "flying man" of Hinata.

Shinobu looked all around her; a wall of curious, snooping faces surrounded her. She looked back at Unagi, still grinning, still waiting for an answer.

Unagi just cut down to the chase, now. "You know something about the 'flying man' of Hinata?"

"Flying man?"

"Yeah. You know the guy who's always flying across town, hence the name 'Flying Man'?"

"Umm..." Shinobu hated telling lies.

"I heard there's a monster in that house that throws him out of the house just for kicks!"

"That's bullshit!"

"I didn't make that up!"

"You probably did!"

"They say a cram school girl's responsible for it."

"That's even more bullshit!"

Rumors began to bounce off the walls of faces, with Shinobu stuck in the middle of it all, getting hit by each one.

"How do you know?"

"I don't, but i'm damn sure that it wasn't a girl. No one could be that strong, and I mean no one!"

"I heard that there was a high school girl there with the strength of thirty thousand men."

"You too?"

"Not just me. A whole lot of people believe that, and claim they even saw it with their own eyes."

"Do they throw babies off of minivans?"

"Shut-up."

"Actually, it was a schoolgirl! My sister caught it on tape!"

"Why isn't it on RealTV then? Did she send it there or not?"

"Not really. She just likes to watch it over and over again. She gets a real kick out of it."

"How can a mere girl four, maybe even three, years older than us contain that kind of power?"

"Maybe it's some secret Kung-Fu or something."

"Perhaps, she isn't even human."

"With that power, she couldn't be."

"Are you sure it's even a girl?"

"Sure of it! I saw it on tape with my sister! That girl has horrendous power, and a temper to go with it. She's a monster!"

"I definitely second that."

"You would think she had a violent history. Maybe she had a stoner of a mother who abused her or something."

"If I lived in a household like that, I'd go nuts, too."

And they kept talking and talking, as if Shinobu was not even there. But she was still sitting at her desk, surrounded by the crowd. With every rumor she heard, she was shot in the heart. The young girl tensed up all of her muscles and began to grow angry. Sweat ran down her face like tears from a million weeping widows after they lost their husbands at the same day. She balled both of her hands into tight fists and slanted her eyebrows, creating wrinkles in between them. She began to shake slightly; she was ready to explode. Too bad the students around her forgot that she was there.

"And she has to take out all that violence on an innocent, too. That's pathetic. She really needs some help."

"Hell, she's beyond help."

Shinobu slammed her fists on her desk and firmly stood up; she has had it! "YOU DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT NARU-SEMPAI! LEAVE HER OUT OF THIS!"

Time seemingly stopped after that. Everything fell into the hole of silence as the students were staring at her, with wide eyes, not even wanting to utter as much as a peep. They were frozen in their tracks, not making a move, not moving a muscle. For a few seconds, time seemingly stood still.

"So that's her name!" Unagi finally spoke, her already unbridled enthusiasm taken to a whole new level.

"Eep!" Shinobu covered her mouth, but it was too late; she has already made a fatal error on her part. She did not know what was going to happen next. One thing she was sure of though, was that just uttering out her name might subject her and all of the Hinata house to copious amounts of unwanted attention.

"I remember now," Unagi's grin got even wider. "Narusegawa Naru, the 'Ape-Girl' of Hinata."

"That's not her!" Shinobu made a measly attempt to cover it up. Again, she hated telling lies, and Unagi was able to pick that up quickly, so she called off Shinobu's fib.

"Yeah it is. I remember that name anywhere. So she's responsible for all that abuse. This information will prove to be valuable." She went over and patted Shinobu on the back. "You did good, my dear. You did good. Now that we know who it is, the word will spread like wildfire. Add to it the fact that my older sister loves this kind of stuff."

At that instant, Shinobu's eyes widened. Her heart took a massive blow...

They'll all hate me...

I'm the reason they'll be stalking us. It's all my fault. I sold them out to the lions and left them for dead.

My friends will hate me...

Naru-sempai will hate me...

Blow by blow, blow by blow, blow by blow...

And Su still was not here, yet...

"It's ok, Shinobu." Keitaro said, shaking her violently in attempt to snap her out of it. "It's all right! It wasn't your fault. You couldn't help it!"

"I let my feelings cloud my better judgment," Shinobu replied. "I felt I had to defend Naru and I spoke out loud for her sake. I didn't even know that it would have such a painful long-term impact."

"That's ok." Keitaro repeated reassuringly. "At least someone was there to defend her. People can't just talk smack about her, and you knew that."

"Stop fooling yourself, Sempai. You know as well as I do that I made a fatal mistake and cost us a dear friend."

"I'm not fooling anyone. I know that feelings tend to get in the way quite often. We let our emotions run the show; sometimes we don't even know it. So you made a mistake; that's all right. It couldn't be helped."

"But Sempai-"

"But nothing." Keitaro put his right index finger on her lip, silencing her. "Wallowing on what happened before isn't going to help, either. What we can do is try to gather up all the pieces and put them back together ourselves. If you really feel that guilty, perhaps it's time you made up for it and put an end to this yourself, to atone for what you think you've done and the like; whining won't get you anywhere, and it sure won't stop anything, understand?"

"Sempai..."

"And we're going to help you, Shinobu. Just give us the word and we'll help you get this over with so we all can get back to normal, ok?"

"Sempai..."

"Do we have the green light, Shinobu?"

Shinobu paused for a moment. She had to think this over. After considering what Keitaro said, it did not take long until until she made a choice. She looked back up at him, taking in his smiling face.

"Sure, Sempai."

"That's good to hear, Shinobu. Let's get the others ready." He looked around and set his eyes on Motoko. "Now, the first thing we're going to do is search for Naru and straighten things out with her. Then, well deal with these kids, ok?"

"All right." It was a reluctant reply from the young girl.

(O)

"I need to talk to you!" Kitsune ran down the stairs and caught up with the girl in glasses. She turned her around and looked at her straight in the eyes, with her own wide open. "You got my e-mail, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah, we did. I know exactly what you're talking about."

"I had a feeling you would. I had a nagging voice telling me you bashers would be able to hack into it." Kitsune's expression grew more furious. The way the girl casually replied to her just pissed the fox off. "That wasn't yours to touch!"

"I know." Her tone was still sinisterly casual.

Kitsune knew damn well that she was openly mocking her, and she had trouble controlling her ego. "Then why did you do it? What the hell were you up to?"

"I figured after the outbreak of gossip last week, that if I had one of my buddies hack into the Hinata house's server and waited a little while, someone would have valuable information he/she would want to send over to a major television studio just to get rich."

"Damn you!" Kitsune grabbed her black wool vest underneath white-collared shirt. "Do you even know what forces you're dealing with here? Dammit! Naru's my best friend! I won't let you treat her like shit and get away with it!"

"If she's your best friend, then WHY DID YOU EVEN THINK OF EXPLOITING HER?" She simply smacked Kitsune's hand and freed herself. She sent a glare of her own back at the fox. "You just want the money don't you? Some friendship..."

"YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

"Ouch --- This might turn ugly if I don't leave now. So I bid you goodbye for now." And just like that, it was over. The girl walked to the bottom of the steps and out of the fox's sight, still acting as casual as when that delightful conversation began.

kitsune never took her eyes off of her, and even after she left, she just glued them to the bottom of the steps, knowing full on that she was defeated. She tried so hard, only to be thrown to the ground and lying flat on her face. She hated this feeling with all her heart and she cringed in anger every second she thought about it.

But the girl beat her only because she was right; Kitsune made a bad move selling her out to Hollywood, and it was for her own selfish gain, nonetheless. She knew very well that what she did was wrong from the start, and that there would be dire consequences later on. The problem was that it did not really hit her until now, and her cheap attempt to cover it up by placing blame on someone else was thwarted with seemingly no effort. Defeated, she walked back up the steps, taking her psychological bruises with her.

To be continued

On the Next Blondie Strikes Back…

Dual Face

Naru was ambushed by a gang of fanatics and was about to unleash her power once again, only to have someone else save her from the zealots, and probably even herself. This endearing young woman took her in her own house, where she lived alone with her sister and boyfriend. Naru knew her very well, for it was her former academic rival...

Tamako Kanehara

-GYRAX