Motoko whipped her shoulders forward and faced Shigawan before marching over. She made sure to sharpen her actions by drawing her sword and grimacing. She wanted everyone to hear this.

When she reached Shigawan, Motoko stopped and stared at him for a split second before shoving her sword right into his face, actually leaving a trail of blood in its wake as she scratched a cut into his left cheek.

"I'll apologize for this later," Motoko thought.

"BOY!" she thundered in her best scary voice. "You have come into our home uninvited and threatened one of our own! Then, in a moment of weakness, you take advantage of her once again? Unforgiv-"

"Actually, I invited him here…" interrupted Keitaro, in a halting voice.

The glare he received would have frozen his blood if he weren't so used to it. Glaring was generally the least of his problems.

"Unforgivable!" Motoko continued to rant, as if she hadn't been interrupted. "I challenge you to a duel, to regain my friend's honor! If you do not accept, or if you lose, you shall be thrown out of this household."

"Wait a minute, only I can…" Another glare from Motoko silenced Keitaro's protests.

Shigawan flinched at the glare as well, it was seriously hurting him to know that his friend wanted to help him so badly, yet was too weak to do so. Shigawan needed Keitaro to stand up for him, he really did.

A wave of pity washed into Motoko's mind, dulling both her senses and her determination. There was something about this boy that put her off…

She gazed at his eyes without him noticing, and recognized the look of sadness that resonated within them. But, surprisingly, it wasn't his eyes that put her off, it was something else. His chi, the life force surrounding his body, was what threw her into reality.

This boy was hurting. He was being eaten up inside by something, as his chi only portrayed sadness, not bitterness, and a sense of hopelessness. This boy was really upset by something.

She was so moved by the feeling that she might have called the whole thing off, if she hadn't heard a small cough behind her. She turned to face the perpetrator. Keitaro stared back at her.

He back stiffened as he visibly drew up his courage. He inhaled and said in a forceful voice, totally unKeitaro-ish, "Motoko, this boy is my guest, soon to be my employee, and I cannot allow you to simply kick him out, so I will do my part to help him out. I will accept your challenge for a duel."

Motoko frowned. This duel was for Shigawan and her alone. Now Keitaro wanted in on it? She shook her head and lowered her sword. This was too much.

"You think that you can take me on, the heir of the God's Cry School! You are blasphemous, Keitaro. And a fool. This does not concern you."

"Like hell it doesn't!" he spat forcefully. Everybody blinked. "How dare you threaten him in my household? This boy is the best thing that has happened to me in a while, with a few exceptions." He added, catching Shinobu's gaze.

Shinobu felt her face heat up as a blush entered her features. She wasn't that important to him…was she? Her face only blushed harder as he held the gaze for a few more moments.

"All of you are important to me," he said less forcefully, but with no less conviction. "I guess in a way I love you all. But when one of you is threatened, wouldn't you like me to stand up for you too, even if I don't have a chance? Wouldn't you like that kind of support?"

Each of the girls had a different reaction. Shinobu's face reddened even further.

Kaolla smiled happily; seemingly oblivious to the struggle of emotions that was taking place around her.

Naru continued to sleep peacefully.

Motoko's back stiffened; since when did Keitaro grow a backbone?

The last girl in the room smiled. The girl was obviously older than the other tenets, and her omni-closed eyes coupled with a foxy grin gave up the impression of wisdom and experience.

"…Fine, the duel will take place tomorrow," Motoko announced, her voice quivering slightly.

"In," Keitaro interjected quickly, "the afternoon. If you please. There are still chores, after all, and according to a certain someone," he glanced in the sleeping Naru's direction, "the needs of the inn come before everything else."

Motoko watched Keitaro as he smiled brightly and started a half turn to finish the hot springs. She was totally unsurprised when he suddenly lunged forward, tripping over his own feet. This happened much too often. What did startle her, however, was the fact that two individuals caught him.

"Oh," Keitaro began when he realized who caught him, "Kitsune." And indeed, he was currently wrapped in the older girl's arms, along with Shigawan, who had intended to catch the klutz himself, but wasn't quite quick enough.

The two boys got lucky, however, as Kitsune merely smiled and laughed at their horrified faces. She gently released the two, as even she was unwilling to engage in any questionable activities around the younger boy.

The household meeting was dispersed for the night. Shadows lengthened and the tenants all began to head off to their rooms. Shigawan entered his room and closed the door. The sounds of unpacking were heard as he stayed in there.

This puzzled the girls and Keitaro to no end. Shigawan hadn't brought a bag…had he?

While the others pondered the question to themselves and wandered back to their rooms, Kaolla waited until the coast was clear to bound up to his door. She rapped sharply on the barrier.

A few more sounds were heard, followed by a crash. Finally, the door opened a crack to reveal a disheveled Shigawan, blocking the view of his room. Kaolla craned her neck in an attempt to see the inside of the room.

Shigawan quickly shut the door and began the conversation through it, instead of around it.

"Need something?" he asked, puzzled as to why she had visited.

"Nope, just wanted to see your room. I'm curious." Kaolla hated being curious. She wanted to know.

"Sorry," he replied, "my room is off limits to you all for the time being. My things are private until further notice."

"Aww," she pouted, " you're so boring and I'm so curious. Pleeease!"

"…I'm sorry. Not now, maybe later."

"How much later? Is it later now!"

Shigawan chuckled behind the door. "No, much later, after I know you better, and you know me better… When we're friends."

"Oh," was all Kaolla replied before rushing back to her room. She too closed her door and continued to sit and ponder the mystery of what was in Shigawan's room. She thought and thought, but slowly her eyes drooped. She drifted off to sleep in mid ponder.

"Why can't he loosen up…Why can't he relax like me? Why…Why…Why-"

Kaolla awoke with a start. She hastened to glance around her room. Nothing was out of place here…but there had been a noise on the roof.

Having wired the entire Hinata house into her computer's mainframe, Su knew everything that went on. She even explored the shortcuts underneath the inn and wired those in.

But now with somebody on the roof…who was up there? Everybody was asleep.

"Taking a snooze," she giggled. Kaolla bounded around her room for her latest invention, her Mecha-tama. When Keitaro arrived a few months ago, he had brought his pet Hot Springs Turtle along. It HAD looked rather good, and after having read about how GOOD turtle soup was, she HAD to try it.

Unfortunately, she had been forbidden, and even so, Kaolla could never catch the wily Tama-chan. Recently, however she had invented the Mecha-tama, a mechanized version of Tama, in order to help her with her pursuits. She just needed to test its capabilities, that way, if she was required to, she could upgrade it into a newer, better V2.

Bounding from tree to tree, Su searched high and low for her missing invention. One of the downsides to having a jungle for a room, it was almost impossible to have proper organization.

"Mecha-tama, Mecha-tama…" the bouncing blond chanted as she dug through a few bushes. Finally she went to her closet, and, low and behold, there, on the shelf labeled Mecha-Tama, lay the inanimate invention.

"Strange…" Su pondered, "you're where I left you." She quickly snatched her ingenious invention and slowly, silently, opened her door. Dressed now, instead of her usual nightcap and pajamas, Kaolla wore convert army cameo and face paint.

Finally, Su made it to the stairs and creeped upward, towards the new arrival.

Well, finally I got that out of my system. I hit a block a while back, and just couldn't write anything in this story. Sorry about not including the fight in this chapter, but I decided that this would be a good place to end it.

I may not be going on for too many more chapters at all, I only wanted to continue this fic until Shigawan got settled. I'm running out of new material. I may, however, make a sequel where I include Mutsumi. To put her in now wouldn't do her justice.

Review me if you have any comments or complaints. I need feedback if I'm going to do any better.

Thanks once again for reading!