Love Hina
Chapter 1
Morning brings the light of the shining star upon the valley where the inn rests. Silent beings arise from their night's sleep. Off in the distance, deep within the valley, a bird chirps. The wind is howling her song intensely this morning. The people greet each other one by one. Motoko-chan heads out to the stream to start her daily practice early in the daylight. Today is starting off to be a normal day in the lives of Hinata inn residents.
Kaolla walks to the courtyard in the back of the inn and grabs herself a banana to snack on. Shinobu also retreats to the courtyard, and the two begin to chat. "Keitaro seems to be gone for the morning; do you know where he went Kaolla?" Shinobu asked. "I think he's off to get more rice for our dinner tonight, you cooking!" Kaolla responded. "Yes, I'm making my Miso soup too just because it's your favorite." "Yum! Can we have bananas too?" "I'm making a banana pie for dessert." The two end their conversation as Shinobu walks around to the kitchen to begin her preparations for the dinner that night.
Kitsune comes in the kitchen to bug Shinobu about their feast. Shinobu tells her it's a secret and silently pushes her out. Kitsune, known for being mischievous, cuts a hole in the floor above the kitchen and spies on the food preparation. She sees everyone's favorite foods being prepared and gets excited when she also sees a bottle of Sake sitting next to her own chair. Maybe this dinner will actually bring happiness back into the house… or will it?
Motoko, enjoying herself while training at the stream, notices something dashing towards her. She moves her hand for her katana and whips it out. Striking, using all of her ki, in front of her, she sends a great force through the air, knocking whatever was in front of her to the ground unconscious. She walks over to the unknown body and jumps back. It was Tama! Motoko is severely frightened of turtles. But wait, this turtle is unconscious, no? In a split second Tama jumps up and kisses Motoko on the forehead. Motoko jumps back in fear and screams while running off into the hills.
Back at the inn, Naru is silently taking in the heat of the bath. Kaolla walks out to the bath and gets in. The two girls start talking about the big feast that's going to happen later that night. It seems everyone is so excited about this feast. Tama flies in from chasing Motoko. She dives right into the bath, splashing the two girls. They all laugh and then proceed to pet the insane turtle. "Trying to kamikaze Tama?" Naru says while giggling. Tama just bonks her head into Naru's forehead and squees for fun. They all head back into the inn to get changed into their outfits for the day.
In the city, Keitaro finds the rice for the feast, but also finds something else. Lying on the ground in front of him is a pair of gloves, glimmering in the morning day light. He picks up the gloves and notices a note inside one of them. He glances over the note and it says: "Beware: Ye who wield these gloves must learn to take charge. Power overtakes force." Boggled at the thought, Keitaro shrugs and proceeds home.
Juggling with thoughts of the feast, and the note's word in his mind, Keitaro approaches the inn. He walks inside and sees Kitsune glancing through the floor. He asks her what she's looking at and she jumps up and starts to make up excuses. "Keitaro! I didn't notice you standing there…. I uh... was looking for termites in the floor. This guy came by and said termites were starting to populate the city and I was making sure we were safe." She begins to close up the whole and sits on it with the fear of Keitaro looking through it, seeing the kitchen. "Oh? Termites? We haven't had a problem with them before. Why would they be starting now?" "Don't know, you better get that rice to Shinobu. Oh, and what are those gloves for?" Keitaro hides the gloves and runs into the kitchen. Kitsune shrugs then silently proceeds to open the hole back up and spy on the kitchen.
Keitaro slips on some water on the floor and the rice flies into the air. Shinobu scurries around trying to catch it. The rice lands on Keitaro's head, knocking him unconscious for a few minutes. As Keitaro wakes up, Shinobu asks if he is alright. He nods, and then gets back to his feet. Shinobu notices the gloves in his back pocket and asks him about them. He pulls them out and shows them to her. He opens the note and reads it for her. Kitsune hears them through the hole and wonders what dangers wearing the gloves could do. Shinobu gets back to cooking as Keitaro leaves the kitchen.
Kitsune quickly covers the hole back up as Keitaro approaches her room. He goes into his room and sets the gloves on his shelf. As he goes to his bath Kitsune slips into his room, glancing intensely at the gloves. She picks them up and slips them onto her hands. Her hands start to glow as she feels them start to jerk her forward. The gloves must have some magical powers and a mind of its own she thought. She had no control of her hands anymore, thus making it impossible for her to remove the gloves.
Keitaro sits in his bath calmly and unbothered. It's very peaceful and silent since he's the only male resident of the inn. All of a sudden, the doors to his bath bust open. Kitsune dashes in and jumps off the ledge of the inn. Keitaro yells down for her, but she's already gone towards the trees. He gets everyone's attention and starts a search party for her. Naturally, Kaolla is the leader with her robots she made. Everyone but Motoko is present to help. Motoko is still out training at the stream.
As they leave to go find Kitsune, they go to the stream to get Motoko. They already know they can't fight anything without her help. They find her meditating on a rock in the middle of the water. Keitaro yells for her and she quickly comes running towards them. As always, she's ready for battle. They all stride off in search of Kitsune, taking caution at every turn.
Off in the distance, Kaolla spots a bright white light. They go towards it and notice a figure of a human swirling around a grouping of trees and rocks. It's Kitsune and the gloves! They all rush towards her to save her, but the gloves possessed her with someone else's spirit. It must have a larger aura than Motoko does. She is starting to fall into a deep sleep. This can't be good; they need Motoko to help fight the spirit. Without Motoko, they're almost out of their chances of winning the battle.