Disclaimer: see part 1

Sister, Sister

Part 4 – Slip of the Tongue

By Random1377

The dictionary holds the following definitions for Asphyxiation: n 1: the condition of being deprived of oxygen (as by having breathing stopped. v. tr. To cause asphyxia in; smother. v. intr. To undergo asphyxia; suffocate.

A perfect example of this phenomena would be to have a woman, perhaps a foreigner with white hair and blue eyes, trap you up against one of your dormitory's tenants and push her tongue into your mouth right after you've gasped in shock at having her face-to-face with you in the first place.

Keitaro squirmed as his airway was blocked by what felt like a rather talented, cinnamon flavored eel. He had difficulty thinking of it as a mere tongue, as the woman in possession of it used it so skillfully to explore the roof of his mouth, seemingly intent on reaching his tonsils as her voluptuous body molded itself against him on one side while Kitsune's not-insignificant assets were pushed against the other.

This might have been a good definition of Heaven, had Keitaro been able to breathe… and had Naru not been present.

"Get your lips off of him, you slut!"

Now that's strange, Keitaro thought as Amalla was suddenly yanked off of him, this table has a cover on it… how did she knew what was going on?

The answer came in the form of a murmur from Kitsune, who had been close enough to see everything that had happened.

"Damn, she's loud…"

Keitaro – who had been too involved in memorizing the texture of the woman's tongue – had not noticed the sound she had made… which he would later come to find out was somewhere between a growl and a moan.

He didn't need to wonder how Naru had known what was going on after that.

Keitaro flinched, instinctively pulling back against Kitsune at Naru's commanding shout of, "Come out of there right now!"

"Get me out of here and I'll give you three months," he begged in a soft whisper. "Come on, Kitsune – three months, what do you s-"

"Keitaro," Kitsune snorted, "You could make it a year and I wouldn't get between you and Naru right now." Pulling away from him, she planted her foot squarely in the middle of his back. "You're on your own, kid."

So saying, she shoved the unfortunate manager out into the open, where he found himself looking up at a rough circle of Kaolla, Naru, Motoko, Tsuruko, Naru, and Amalla – who, he noticed, looked very uncomfortable… probably because Naru had her in a chokehold.

"Umm… hi…"

"Alright," Naru growled, her eyes blazing as she glared down at Keitaro, "Someone better start talking some sense in this dump or I am really gonna start getting pissed off!"

Tsuruko, who had fought valiantly against Amalla mere moments ago, looked a bit taken aback that Naru had subdued the dark-skinned woman with such ease. Regaining some of her composure, she cleared her throat and said, "I've explained it – your manager is a Shito, and-"

"And my future husband," Amalla cut in, finally getting Naru's arm away from her throat long enough to talk. "Isn't that right, darling?"

"Well, I, er… I've only just met you, and-"

Amalla's eyes were twinkling as she cut in, "Your little shito there seems to like the idea."

"Ah, PERVERT!"

Seeing what Amalla was talking about, Naru quite literally tossed the woman aside and lashed out, kicking Keitaro directly in the chest and sending him flying across the room. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you looked at things from Keitaro's point of view) her aim was particularly good that day, and her kick knocked the unlucky manager through the hole in the floor and down into his own room.

"That can't be good for his lower back…"

"Shut up," Naru snapped, leveling a finger at Tsuruko. "And get out! I don't care if he's a messenger from God himself, you people don't belong here!" Hurrying to the hole, she peered down. "Great," she muttered, "and now he's gone again – this is just super!"

"He's heading downstairs."

Everyone looked at Kaolla, who held up her Keitaro-tracking device with a huge smile.

"Whoever gets to him first-"

Amalla never finished her sentence as Naru abruptly reached out and slapped a hand over her mouth. "Shut up," she growled. "He's not a prize, he's my boyfriend. We are all going, calmly, down to find him, and then you are going to apologize to him, and leave, is that clear?"

Tsuruko stepped forward. "I would like to propose that-"

"No proposals," Naru snapped. "No deals, no arrangements, no compromises… no matter whether you're right or wrong about what he is, he's mine. Now let's go."

As the others filed out of the room, Motoko stepped closer to Naru and whispered, "I had no idea you were so possessive."

Naru shrugged. "We haven't been going out that long," she whispered back. "I don't… what if he decides he likes her better? I have to stake my claim now or I might lose him again."

Motoko nodded. "We won't let that happen," she said, offering her hand to Naru. "No matter what happens, Urashima belongs with one of us."

Blinking, Naru said, "You mean with me."

"Er, right, of course," Motoko quickly agreed, "Now let's go find him."

As they went in search of Keitaro once more, Naru decided that she should take the lead.

( 0 0 0 )

Shinobu hummed to herself as she folded the clean laundry, making neat little stacks on the laundry room table and pausing to stretch her back as she surveyed the large pile of dirty clothes at her feet. "This'll never get done," she lamented, her face bright in spite of the work ahead of her.

It was tedious work, but it was fairly easy, and besides – it gave her a chance to be alone and think about Keitaro, the man of her dreams. Sure, some might question her tastes and ideals, but one look at her adoring eyes when he entered the room would dispel any doubts that Shinobu was head over heels for the Hinata Sou's manager.

"Shinobu!"

"Ah!"

Unfortunately, being that caught up in thinking about her sempai made Shinobu oblivious to her surroundings, so when Naru called her name and put a hand on her shoulder, Shinobu screamed and threw her hands in the air, knocking laundry everywhere.

"N-Naru," she gasped, putting a hand over her racing heart. "What's wrong? You look worried."

"Where's Keitaro?" Naru asked, shooting an irritated glance to her right as Motoko's sister Tsuruko entered the room and tentatively poked at the clean laundry with the tip of her sword sheath. "It's important that we find him, Shinobu, have you seen him at all today?"

"Keitaro?" Shinobu echoed, blinking as Motoko, Kaolla, and a tall, dark-skinned woman with a striking resemblance to Kaolla filed into the laundry room, making things very cramped. "I, umm… can you not poke at those, miss? I just folded them."

"Sister," Motoko murmured, "if he was hiding under the clothes, I would think Shinobu would have said something."

"Mmm, good point," Tsuruko mumbled, folding her arms and gazing speculatively at Shinobu. "Unless she's trying to hide him."

Shinobu took a frightened step backward, but Naru waved a hand dismissively and said, "Ignore her, Shinobu, just answer the question – have you seen Keitaro today, or not?"

"Shinobu," the dark-skinned woman said suddenly, "She's the one that's in love with your manager, isn't she?" she asked, turning to Kaolla for confirmation. "Tsk, such a shame… you need to be bolder, if you want to win his affections, little girl."

"Umm, Keitaro's with Naru," Shinobu said uncomfortably, taking another step back as Naru glared at the woman.

"But how strong is that bond?" the woman insisted. "Why, I'll bet if you made a decisive move, he'd be yours for the asking."

"Watch it, missy," Naru grumbled, brandishing a fist menacingly. "Or I'll-"

"Decisive?" Shinobu blurted. "What do you mean, 'decisive'?"

Putting an arm around the younger girl, the dark-skinned woman leaned forward and declared, "Shinobu, you've just got to sleep with him."

"Alright, that does it!"

Shinobu gaped as the woman, who had been in her personal space less than a moment before, was sent sailing out of the room.

"Shinobu," Naru growled, cracking her knuckles as the woman picked herself up and dusted herself off with a devil-may-care grin, "have you, or haven't you seen Keitaro?"

"Y-yes," Shinobu squeaked, taking one last step backward as all eyes turned to her, and finding that her back was literally against the wall. "About five minutes ago he ran down the stairs and out the front door. I think he-"

"Ah-ha!" a triumphant voice cried from down the hall. "Wait for me, brother!"

Everyone gaped as Kanako – looking rather drunk – burst out of a nearby broom closet and bolted for the door. "Aw come on," Naru groaned. "She'll get a ticket for indecency!"

Shinobu could only nod as Kanako's paper bag covered derrière vanished around a corner. "Yeah…"

Motoko, Tsuruko, Naru, Kaolla, and the dark-skinned woman gave a collective sigh, then filed back out of the laundry room, racing out of the Hinata Sou as Shinobu stared with wide eyes at the door.

After a few moments of quiet, Kitsune ambled into the room. "Hey," she said smoothly, "have you seen Keitaro?"

Silently, Shinobu pointed towards the front door.

"Interesting," Kitsune mumbled, leaning against the wall for a moment before suddenly dropping to the floor and driving her hand into the pile of dirty laundry on the floor. "But I really meant have you seen him lately."

Yanking hard, the gray-haired woman dragged a struggling, terrified-looking Keitaro out from under the pile of clothes, slapping a hand over his mouth before he could scream as Shinobu nervously twisted her skirt in both hands.

"How… how did you know?"

Kitsune grinned as Keitaro saw that they were alone and began to calm down. "You hate messes," she said calmly. "The day you leave a pile of clothes on the floor is the day you drop dead of embarrassment. It's always in baskets or on the table, and it's always organized by lights and darks, so a pile of mixed up clothes on the floor was the biggest red flag in the whole world… to someone that knows you."

"Sorry, Sempai," Shinobu said awkwardly, shuffling her feet as Keitaro – still unsure of Kitsune's intentions – bowed his head in defeat.

"Come on," Kitsune said craftily. "Let's go to my room."

"Your room?" Shinobu gasped. "Wh… why?"

Kitsune grinned. "Oh don't worry; I won't make him scream too loud."

( 0 0 0 )

Naru paused at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the Hinata Sou, holding her side as she tried to catch her breath. "She's quick," she muttered as Motoko jogged back to make sure she was ok. "How can she run that fast when she's drunk?"

"Must be the lack of clothes," Motoko theorized, shaking her head as the woman in question – three blocks away by that point – bounced off of a light post like a pinball and careened down an alley and out of sight. "Sister will catch up with her soon enough."

"Good," Naru muttered, "if she keeps chasing that idiot, it'll give us a chance to go back and see what Shinobu was hiding under that pile of clothes."

Motoko nodded. "Noticed that too, did you?" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes tiredly as Kaolla and Amalla (both laughing with glee) turned down a different alley, clearly believing this would give them some kind of advantage in the 'chase.' "I'm glad you didn't say anything."

"Are you kidding?" Naru snorted. "If they knew he was in that room with us the whole time, it would have been like a feeding frenzy. What is this all about, anyway?"

Leaning against a nearby tree, Motoko scratched her chin. "Those letters," she mused. "When Amalla showed us hers, I noticed that the handwriting was the same as in Tsuruko's. I think, as farfetched as it sounds, that someone's setting Keitaro up."

Naru took one last deep breath, letting it out slowly as she said, "Setting him up for what, though? It's not like he has a lot of money to extort, and he's too dopey to have offended someone enough for them to want to kill him… so who would go this far to make everyone think he's some type of angel?"

"I have no idea," Motoko admitted, "but the letters have had their desired effect – people are definitely interested in Keitaro now."

"Interested," Naru muttered. "Too interested, you mean. What was up with that tramp telling Shinobu to sleep with Keitaro, anyway? Is that all she thinks about?"

Motoko cleared her throat, blushing faintly as she replied, "Haven't… you ever thought about it?"

Shooting her a suspicious glance, Naru grumbled, "I'm not answering that, and before you say anything, I don't want to know if you have or not… I'm perfectly happy with my own illusions."

"But you have to be careful," Motoko said thoughtfully, "because if all you have are illusions…"

Naru bit her bottom lip as the swordswoman trailed off. "I don't want to talk about this anymore," she said abruptly. "Keitaro's with me. He's happy, I'm happy, everyone else is happy… I'm not letting Kaolla's sister, your sister, or anyone else's sister get in the way of that. Talking about this stuff now, while he's hiding under a pile of stinky dishrags and underwear, is like arguing about how many licks it takes."

Motoko blinked. "How many licks?"

"You know," Naru said, "how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop."

Coughing into her fist, Motoko averted her face. "Oh, that. Right…"

Naru ground her teeth, wondering if there was any Su blood in the Aoyama line. "Let's get back to the Sou," she muttered. "With any luck those idiots will be running around town for a good hour."

Together, she and Motoko started back up the stairs, completely missing the stealthy moves of a third party paralleling their steps from the trees on the side of the walkway leading up to the inn.

The mastermind behind the entire affair… was in their midst.

To be concluded…

Next chapter: "What are you, stupid?" "Keep it in your pants, hussy!" "Oh man, that'll leave a mark…" "Seriously? At the same time?" "I doubt he'd want to be buried in that." "Really? You mean… DEAD, dead?"