SFFAL Love Hina RPG
This is the combined transcript of the Love Hina RPG being currently played by the members of the Shinobu Fan-Fiction Authors League. Each week, the players submit their chapter, and these are amalgamated and reconciled by the GM who then adds any extra interaction before posting the completed chapter.
Noone has author powers in this game, it is supposed to be in keeping with the LH theme and most players are playing versions of themselves.
Currently you are welcome to contact Baka-Alaskan if you wish to join the league; however the game is not looking for extra players.
Players: Cody (Baka-Alaskan), Al, Lance, Sam (British Dragon), Kyosuke (Blight),
GM: Steve (CheshireCat5)
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Chapter 3: A new week starts: BEGINNINGS
The Morning of No Mornings (Lance's Move)
5:59 A.M
Lance strolled happily over the bridge, relaxing to the sounds of of running stream water and the wind rustling the Sakura tree branches above him. It was early March, and the trees blossoms bloomed and purified the sense of beauty and peace surrounding the Hinata.
Or something like that.
Anyway, the birds sang and the sun shined just like any other perfect setting. As Lance walked up the steps, he saw a small puff of white cloud glide over the top of Hinata Sou. He then peered at a small dot in the sky that became larger and larger as it got closer. Tama-chan flew right into his head and knocked him quite silly.
So much for peaceful sleep.
Lance rose from his new collapsable futon to come face to face with a levitating turtle. He blinked. And again. Then quite a few times. Finally he rubbed his eyes because blinking hurt so much. Nope, definetly not a dream.
"And what brings you, turtle of levitation, to wake me in this most ungodly hour?"
"Myuh!"
He blinked again (Geez, that hurt). "Right..."
The door slid open, and Keitaro Urashima crept inside. He held in one hand a toolbox with jangled with metal screws and tools as he walked. In his other he had a cup of tea, which he gave to Lance.
"Thank you." Lance accepted the tea and took a sip.
Keitaro held his finger to his lips. "Trust me on this one, you don't want to wake up Motoko and Naru at this time of morning."
Lance nodded and whispered, "Look, I didn't want to be difficult for anyone..."
"No, of course not! We needed you and the other tenants so we can keep this place up. Speaking of which..." Lance held his hand up before he could continue.
"I know, I know. I promise to make payment by helping around with repairs here. If it's fine with you, I'd even like to stay from school to help out."
Keitaro nodded, "That's alright with me, I guess. There is a lot to do today, so I thought I'd get you up for an early start."
He sipped some more tea, and shrugged. "What is there to do?"
"There's some roof panels in the front that are falling apart, and there's another hole in my room..." Keitaro blushed.
" 'Another' hole?" Lance raised a curious eyebrow.
"Oh, it's nothing."
"Why would there be one in the first place?"
"I said it was nothing, window crasher!"
"Alright, alright, I'm getting up..."
***
An hour later, Lance has already met a few of the other tenants. Cody stopped by and said hi, and was even kind enough to wrap the safety rope around his waist. And Naru walked by, but she gave him a sour look when he tried to apologize for yesterday.
"What's her deal?" he muttered to himself.
It wasn't two minutes afterwords that he saw another person he hadn't seen. She was in a school uniform and didn't look any older than fourteen. Her blue hair glowed and her cheerful expression was clearly shown with her smile. She didn't notice him as she walked on, even though he had clearly noticed her even when his head and hanging upside-down from the roof.
"Woah...she doesn't look any older than me." he thought to himself, "I wonder why she's here..."
Suddenly he lost his grip, and with a scream he fell off the roof. He was certain he would meet cement, but his rope acted as a bungee cord and bounced him up just three feet from the ground. Then he dangled there, not much doing anything but mentally kick himself.
Tama-chan hovered just inches away from his face. Lance looked up and his eyes met Tama's little black dots.
"One more 'myuh' and I'll nail you to the roof."
"....Myuh?"
Lance's face flushed red with anger. "TASTE STEEL, TURTLE!!"
Since she hovered herself out of reach, Lance finally gave up trying to knock her silly with the hammer. So instead he kept dangling around, waiting for someone to walk by. Keitaro walked out of the front door and met with him shortly after.
"One of our new residents, Al, made us some breakfast," said Keitaro. "Wanna join us?"
"No, that's okay," Lance responded, trying to look cheerful although he was clearly on the brink of a killing spree, "I'd like to get this roof finished first, but as you can see I'm sort of....stuck."
Keitaro laughed, "I know how you feel. The first few days will be a little rough, but you should get used to the gripping after awhile."
"Thanks. By the way, does Naru have a bad vibe to me, or does she just hate men in general?"
"No, that would be Motoko." Keitaro corrected him.
"The girl with the sword?"
"Yeah. You met her?"
"Do you want the gory details, or a nice synopsis?"
"I can probably guess. You seem to have made a good impression on her anyway..."
"Good?!"
"Yes. You're still this side of Tokyo. Anyway, let me help you get untied, and you can join us all for breakfast..."
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Chapter 3: Al's Morning
Keitaro had shown Al to his room and as soon as he was unpacked, Al and Dizzy slid into the futon and slept like logs. Seeing as the night before they had slept on a bench, this mat on the floor was wonderful.
The next morning....
Al's eyes opened, and attempted to focus on his surroundings.
They failed and he crawled around the room trying to find his contact case.
"Dizzy, help me out here will ya?" Al turned to ask assistance of the small gray blur located on his pillow, which was a large red blur.
After the contacts were found and put it, Al glanced at his watch and moaned. It wasn't even seven! He shouldn't be up this soon -- he wasn't expected at school, he wasn't due up till noon.
"Ah well." He sighed, dug around in his pile of things in the corner of the room and pulled on a shirt. "I suppose I can make a good first impression by fixing breakfast for everyone, eh?" He looked to Dizzy for approval and Dizzy nodded and climbed up onto Al's head.
***
Al wandered down the hall and found his way to the deck, Where at the moment, Motoko was practicing.
"Wow..." Al said in a hushed voice as he watched the girl swing up and down over and over again. Half of his surprise was that he didn't expect to see a warrior in his boarding house, and second, because Al was sadly single and seeing such a cutie as Motoko was a bit off-putting for the American.
He decided after a moment he should leave her be -- she was clearly very intent on her continuing work, so he slipped off quietly towards the stairs and shot one final look back at her as he stepped down onto the first step...
Sadly, this meant he missed seeing the banana peel on the second step, and he tripped and fell, smashing down the stairs.
He lay on his back, staring at the morning sky, and before he could stand again, he felt a pointed object on his neck.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The girl demanded as she held her katana to his neck.
Al was stunned for a moment, and they replied nervously, "A...admiring the sky?"
SHING!!!! The girl attacked him, knocking him further down the hall, and then ran up to him again.
"No joking, fool! What kind of a pervert are you -- sneaking around a girls dormitory in the morning hours? I should destroy you now!"
"I'd prefer you not to!" Alex laughed in spite of himself. He always laughed when he was scared or in pain, and in this case he was both.
"Wait a tic, did you say this was a girls dormitory?" Al was suddenly confused by the last thing the girl had said, "I heard it was an Inn, I bought a room here last evening, isn't your landlord Mr. Urashima-San?"
Motoko suddenly realized that this was no thief, this was simply one of the stupid Americans whom that idiot Urashima had let in. This did not do much to improve her mood, nor did it improve when she realized that a small weasel had pushed her sword aside when she had been thinking about this and the blond boy was on his feet again.
"Listen you -- I don't know who you are, and I don't care. All I care about is that you don't do anything perverted or lecherous. If you do anything bad, I will teach you the meaning of the word pain, is that clear?" She finished this with a look that would wilt flowers.
"Y...yes madam." Al nodded, absolutely terrified. The girl ment it! He had had swords pointed at him when he was in the states, but that was just at mock medaevil battles. This girl meant to kill him!
***
Alex found his way to the kitchen easily enough, and had begun to search the place for ingredients to make breakfast when one of the other girls wandered in on him.
"What do you think Dizzy, if you were a bag of flour, where would you be?" Al was saying.
Dizzy was, at the moment, deep inside the fridge, hunting for eggs.
"Grrr!" He called out from somewhere behind the milk.
"No Dizzy, you wouldn't be at the market because somebody already bought you...oh uh...hello there." Alex smiled sheepishly at the small indigo-haired girl in the door way who seemed unsure of what to do, after a moment she said "Hello." Very softly.
"Pardon me miss," Al stood from the floor where he had been searching a cabinet, "My name is Alexander Rush, pleased to meet you, may I ask if your loveliness might know where I could locate a bag of flour?"
Shinobu blushed and pointed silently at a cabinet above the stove.
"Thank you very much, miss." Alex reached up into said cabinet and turned to a cookbook, "Breakfast will be in a little bit, you don't need to worry about making it for yourself miss, I'll be cooking today."
Shinobu wandered away, confused, and decided she should sleep a little more, seeing as she apparently wouldn't need to cook. Whoever this new person was, he was very...odd.
***
The gang gathered around to partake of a fairly edible breakfast, put together by Al and Dizzy. Eggs, bacon, toast, and oatmeal, although the oatmeal was a little sticky -- so sticky, as a matter of fact, that when Keitaro attempted to pull out a spoonful, the whole bowl of oatmeal came attached to the spoon and only Alex and Su seemed to be able to eat it without watering it down with a little milk.
"Eh... Shinobu-chan, some problem with the cooking this morning?" asked Keitaro, in surprise. "This doesn't seem to be up to your usual standard..."
"Ano... I... but it wasn't..." stammered Shinobu, attempting to reply.
"Urashima! How dare you be so ungrateful! I should teach you some manners..." threatened Motoko angrily, although she too had been wondering about the glue-like oatmeal.
"Err... I'm afraid I have to claim responsibility for that one," interjected Al, in an attempt to diffuse the situation. "I thought I could start off on the right foot by helping out with breakfast? I'm sure I'm not a patch on your normal cook - " (here, Shinobu blushed scarlet) " - but it could be worse..."
"Yeah, like Naru's cooking!" unwisely commented Keitaro, before being launched skywards courtesy of Narusegawa Airlines.
"I don't know what the fuss is," said Kaolla, scooping out second helpings of the oatmeal, "although it could use some more chilli..."
***
Al smiled as he got to know everone. Motoko was, to say the least, cold towards him; Naru and Keitaro seemed friendly enough, Su and Sarah seemed to enjoy some of the odder things Al spoke of when Kitsune asked him and the other new residents about themselves, and Shinobu...well Shinobu didn't say a word except to thank him for the meal, what with her being so shy around the new tenents.
The other new tenants -- Cody and Lance -- were fairly quiet during breakfast. Cody chatted in English to Shinobu, who answered shyly and hesitantly. Lance seemed rather tired having been up earlier working for his keep with Keitaro, although for some reason he occasionally shot black looks at the turtle that was sat on the table watching Dizzy with an expression of interest.
"So what is that thing, can you eat it?" Kaolla asked pointing to Dizzy, who was at the moment, reading a small newspaper and drinking a tiny cup of java.
"That's Dizmark, my weasel, he's my best bud, so no you can't." he smiled, sweatdropping, hoping that the tan girl had not been serious. He then watched her try to dip a turtle into her oatmeal -- but the turtle flew off, the entire bowl attached to her shell, and Su was forced to get another bowl.
***
Al set off right after breakfast, wearing a nice shirt and some nearly clean pants, Al had ridden off on his vespa to find a job, after all, he couldn't leave his Landlord hanging, the guy seemed quite nice after all and why make him suffer.
As Alex zipped down the road he was nearly killed by a speeding white van, which turned very sharply left, and flipped over a fence, and thus a rampage in a nearby park began.
Alex spotted the license plate, "R2-D2" It read.
"Boy, does that guy need to retake drivers Ed." He mused as he continued down the road, ignoring the noise of the explosion behind him.
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Chapter 3: Cody's first morning
Cody awakes to the smell of cooking food, its early. He gets dressed in his signature tan pants and green hoodie combo, and walks down toward the dinning room. The table is set, but being that it is early noone is there yet. A few bowls of steaming oatmeal sits there on table. He hears some movement in the kitchen and he decides to check it out.
There is a young girl cooking in there.
"Good Morning." Cody says to the young lady.
"Oh!" She is startled by the greeting,"Good-d Morning, to you sir."
Cody smiles," Sorry about startling you, My name is Cody Bowie, I'm one of the new boarders."
"I'm Shinobu Maehara. It's nice to eat you. Auuu...I mean meet you." Shinobu says in very good english.
"Your english is very good. Maehara-san. It is very nice to meet you too." Cody says with another smile, " So do you do the cooking here?"
"Yes, I do most of the time, but today I'm just helping, Al-san" Shinobu says while says stiring a pot of oatmeal.
" Oh? Another one of the boarders." He asks.
"Yes, right now he's getting the others up for breakfast." Shinobu says to answer.
"I can't wait to meet them." Cody comments to Shinobu.
The two tenants continue to talk for a few minutes, as the others begin to flow into the dinning room.
They all sit down, exchanging greetings. The three Americans sitting on one side of the table, the others on the oppisite side. Bowls of oatmeal sit in front of them. All of them pick-up their spoons and begin to "dig-in". Cody lifts a spoonful to his mouth,but before he eats it he sees that Keitaro, with his spoon still in his mouth, has turned a slight shade of green. He doesn't think much of it though, 'He must be coming down with something.'. He eats his spoonful as do the others. He does a good replica of Keitaro's own face and shade. He swallows the spoonful, and slowly finishs his bowl.
Fortunately for the tenants, Al's attempt at oatmeal is not the only thing on offer. Cody manages to get some fairly decent pancakes, and so doesn't go hungry -- although Al and Kaolla seem to have no problem with the oatmeal (Kaolla unsuccessfully attempt to add some turtle flavouring, but Tama-chan escapes in time).
After they finish, he offers to help clean the dishes. Inside the kitchen he meets Lance and Al, they talk about what they though of the Hinata Sou and some of the tenents. They quickly finish the dishes. As they finish up, Keitaro pops his head in to ask if they would like to meet the others. They says they would love to, and follow him out to the living room. All the other tenents are there.
"This is Mitsune.",Kietaro introduce the resident trickister.
" Call me Kitsune," Kitsune says with her drawl.
Keitaro continues down the line. "This is Motoko".
" If anyone of you males do something preverted you will face my wrath." Motoko says in he usual manner of greeting males. Keitaro sweatdrops at that, but continues.
"This is Shinobu."
"Its nice to Eat you. Auuu...." Shinobu says in english, with a blush on her face. The Americans smile at this.
"This person is Naru."
"It nice to meet you, but the same warn to you as you heard from Motoko." Naru says with a smirk.
Keitaro is glomped by Su,"This person is Su. She's VERY energic."
"Hiyas!! I'm Su!!" Su Says loudly.
"I thinks thats everybody, You'll meet my -" (Keitaro looked around nervously) - "Aunt Haruka, a little later, she owns the Tea house down the hill... but that finishes up the introduction for today. Do you have anything planed today?"
" I'm going to see a little of the town today if thats ok." Cody asks Keitaro.
" That's ok, you've already paid your rent so, have a good time." Keitaro answers.
Cody goes to his room gets his camera bag and his notebook, he goes to the entry way. "I'll be leaving now."
Shinobu is there so she answers, "Take care!"
He opens the door and steps out to see Hina City.
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Chapter 3: Sam's arrival
It was a warm afternoon in Hinata.
Samuel stepped up the stairway of Hinata-sou but then promptly tripped over the hem of his hakama and rolled back down to the bottom.
"Ooofff!" gasped Sam as he rolled down the stairs, "God damn Japanese skirt thingies..."
Finally, he came to a stop swirly-eyed at the feet of one Keitaro Urashima, who was just returning from doing the morning visit to the market.
"Um.. are you the new tenant?" asked Keitaro curiously. "Mei-sensei mentioned that she would be sending someone around today..."
A short while later, Sam returned to conciousness with a curse.
"Ouch... my bloody spine! That really stings..."
"So.. are you the new tenant?" Keitaro repeated his previous question, now that the newcomer was able to reply.
"Sure am !" he replied enthusiastically.
"Ok... err, can I assume that you are able to pay for the room? Only we seem to have had an unfortunate number of hobos turning up..."
Samuel promptly dug into his pockets and handed over 1000 yen and a button.
Keitaro handed the button back, and grasped the cash happily. "Hooray... finaly, money!" he chortled. "Err.. you do know it is 50,000 per month, in advance? Anyway, this will cover the first day, so I'll show you the hotel. Follow me..."
They ascended the stairs to the hotel, but unfortunately Samuel tripped again and started a repeat performance of his tumble back tot he foot fo the stair.
"A strange one..." thought Keitaro to himself as he sighed and started back down the stairs to help out again. "I wonder how Motoko will take to another person searing her trademark outfit -- and a gaijin at that! Also, he seems to be a bit over-clumsy... surely that wasn't alcohol I could smell? Nah, surely not, he can't be over 13, no way he's be a drinker...."
***
Eventually, the new tenant was lodged into room 307, on the top floor next-door to Al and Dizzy. Keitaro gave his normal warnings about hot-spring use, and taking care not to annoy the other residents. It wouldn't be long until everyone started to return from school, although Kitsune was still about as usual.
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Kyosuke Arrives
"Class, I'd like you to meet our new student today."said Mr. Yamamura, as he introduced the new arrival to the other students in Shinobu's form.
The new student entered the classroom and was greeted by silence along with the stares of every student. He had black, short hair which seemed to slightly stick out in front. His dark-brown eyes showed kindness but had an emotionless feeling behind them as they wandered about the room through rectangular glasses. He stood 5'4" without a traditional school uniform. Instead, he wore a grey Timberland Co. hooded sweater and had on a pair of dark-green military pants. His faceless expression seemed to ignore the class as the teacher began to talk again.
"This is Mr. Sagura, he is a student from America who came in exchange for Ms. Taichi. Please welcome him and try to help him adjust." The new student looked at Mr. Yamamura as if to ask something and was answered when he indicated the empty desk next to Shinobu.
"Mr. Sagura, if you would contact the school office after the end of lessons today, they will be able to help you acquire a school uniform. In the meantime, I expect the class president to explain the anomaly to the other teachers."
"Now, let us begin the lesson for today. Please open your textbooks to page 127..." the teacher began to write down on the chalk board while the students took out their utensils and wrote down notes.
The girls kept glancing back at their new addition to the class and giggling as they whisperred into eachothers ears as they exchanged gossip around to eachother. Some of the boys, however, kept giving him wierd looks as if he was crazy or from another world. Shinobu tried hard not to glance back at the foreigner as she wrote in her notes but when she did, she saw him glance right back with that same monotone looke and feeling as if he were starring into her soul. Embarassed, she went right back to her notes and continued to write only harder.
The day continued and ended with Shinobu not saying anything to anyone as usual until after school when she got home.
"Tadaima!" she announced as she entered the main lobby.
"Oh, hi Shinobu." Keitaro said as he entered from the kitchen.
Shinobu slightly blushed when he walked in. "Um, good evening smepai."
"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, we have a new guest who's going to stay here." Keitaro said as he went back to the kitchen.
Shinobu followed him and gasped when she recognized who it was. She trembled in fear as Keitaro took a seat in front of the young man.
"This is Kyosuke Sagura." Keitaro said as he indicated the boy sitting across from him.
"Or Sagara," Kyosuke interrupted, "My friends like to call me that because it sounds like that guy from Rurouni Kenshin."
Shinobu froze in shock, but the two men didn't seem to notice.
"So, Sagura-san. Tell me more about yourself." Keitaro said heartily.
"Well," Kyosuke said, thinking for a moment, "I'm thirteen, I came from California, my parrents are both divorced, my I.Q. is around 127, my favorite colors are black and blue, my favorite foods are anything that's Japanese as long as it's not nato or wasabi, my goal is to someday work in USAMRIID." Keitaro sweatdrops.
"Err... I didn't need to know your personal information."
"Oh, you mean all the important stuff, like why I'm here and stuff? Well, I'm thirteen, I was born in California, I'm here because of a foreign exchange program in highschool put me here, I was supposed to stay at my grandfather's clinic but it's too far from school so we made a deal that as long as he supports me with funding, I'd find a place to live on my own. So, I find this ad. in the newspaper and said 'Sounds like a nice place' and now I'm here, talking to you, and why is she all pale?" Kyosuke replied, pointing his finger at Shinobu, who was still frozen.
She realized that both of them were staring at her and when she did, she did the only thing she could do - run away blushing.
"Oh, she's almost always like that." Keitaro reassured, "Although I honestly have no idea why... Anyway, getting to the topic at hand, I'll have to ask that you pay for the rent in advance Sagura-san." he said with a serious expression.
Kyosuke reached into his duffel bag and pulled out a bundle of yen. "How many zeros you want?" he said, counting all he had.
"Well," Keitaro said, sitting his chin on his left hand and thinking. "the rent is Y50,000 a month so..."
"Fantastic, great place and affordability."Kyosuke said with enthusisasim as he handed one-third of the bundle to the manager. "So there's Y500,000 and where's my room?"
"Well, you'll be in room #308 and - 500,000!!??" If Keitaro's eyes could buldge out any further, they'd be dangling from the nerves attatching them to his brain.
"Well, you look like you could use it, I mean there are some cracks in the windows, and a few boards are kinda broken." Kyosuke drifted off at the last part but Keitaro was overjoyed.
"Thank you so very much, this is just about the kindest thing anyone's ever done for me, *sniff*." he said, as he left crying tears of joy.
Meanwhile, a snicker echoes in one of the air vents as Kyosuke shrugs and leaves with his bags for room 308.
Kitsune peeks out through the grating of an air vent and at the newcomer. "Heheh." "So not only is the new guy cute, he's loaded too. He's only thirteen -- should be easy to trick him into handing some of that cash to a worthy cause!" she thinks to herself as she jumps out of the vent and quickly stalks up to her room to plan on how she's going to get some of that money.
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Chapter 3: That evening
Evening rolled around after a long day. That night, there were five new additions around the table to enjoy Shinobu's cooking -- for the three Americans that had been at breakfast had been joined by two more highschool students.
Keitaro introduced Kyosuke and Sam to the group, gaining yet more black looks from Naru and Motoko as they realised that in the space of a couple of days, the female majority at the Inn had become a minority. Motoko in particular gave a suspicious look at Sam, sending a wordless question as to why he felt it necessary to mimic her form of dress. However, she kept the question silent for now.
Kyosuke seemed to be keeping himself fairly aloof from the rest of the crowd, and Shinobu was completely flustered by the thought that she would now be sharing a roof with a male classmate! What would the other girls say if they found out?
Finally, Kitsune walked in, wearing a slightly lower-cut top than was usual for her. She slid into her chair, and threw a questioning glance over at Naru.
"Naru... have you been borrowing my makeup?" she asked, curiously. "Only, it seems a bit messed up..."
Naru's denial was interrupted by a new voice.
"Myu, myu, myu-myu..." sang Tama-chan as she floated in and settled on the table across from Al and Dizzy. Keitaro had expected a surprised look to be on the faces of Sam and Kyosuke; however, he had not expected to see similar astonishment to be on the faces of the girls as well.
Keitaro followed their glances, and then sweatdropped.
Tama-chan apparently had on blusher and crimson lipstick. She turned her head towards Dizzy, and gave a long, slow wave of her extended eyelashes, before nonchalently propping her head up on her flippers and staring at Dizzy with undisguised interest.
"Grrrr?" asked Dizzy of Al, nervously. Al seemed unable to answer, although his face was going a bit red with the effort of holding in his laughter.
"Now that gots me an idea..." murmered Kaolla to herself, although whatever the idea was, it wasn't enough to divert her from the food.
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GM Notes:
What might Kaollas idea be? How are Al and Dizzy going to cope with this new development?
What will Kitsune be dong to try and bilk some money from Kyosuke, and how is Shinobu going to keep her situation secret from her classmates? Does she resent Kyosuke for being connected with Taichii-chan's absence? Will Kyosuke's wealth gain him friends, or will his arrogance gain him enemies?
Will Sam and Motoko be able to see eye to eye, or will it end up in violence? Why is Sam here, and was he really half drunk despite being only 13? Is that why he couldn't pay all of the first month's rent?
What did Cody do during the day, and is he attending a school, or working? Will he discover the secret passage entrance in his room that leads to deleted before whatever is at the other end discovers it first? Will his next chapter arrive as late as this one did?
Will Lance obtain enough money to pay Keitaro before Keitaro works him to death? Is Lance's cooking as bad as Al's?
And finally, is Al actually going to pay the rent, or will he be dragged into slavery by Keitaro like Lance... and how long can they keep their non-payment of the rent a secret from the vengeance of Motoko and Naru? (about about one more day, I guess)
This is the combined transcript of the Love Hina RPG being currently played by the members of the Shinobu Fan-Fiction Authors League. Each week, the players submit their chapter, and these are amalgamated and reconciled by the GM who then adds any extra interaction before posting the completed chapter.
Noone has author powers in this game, it is supposed to be in keeping with the LH theme and most players are playing versions of themselves.
Currently you are welcome to contact Baka-Alaskan if you wish to join the league; however the game is not looking for extra players.
Players: Cody (Baka-Alaskan), Al, Lance, Sam (British Dragon), Kyosuke (Blight),
GM: Steve (CheshireCat5)
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Chapter 3: A new week starts: BEGINNINGS
The Morning of No Mornings (Lance's Move)
5:59 A.M
Lance strolled happily over the bridge, relaxing to the sounds of of running stream water and the wind rustling the Sakura tree branches above him. It was early March, and the trees blossoms bloomed and purified the sense of beauty and peace surrounding the Hinata.
Or something like that.
Anyway, the birds sang and the sun shined just like any other perfect setting. As Lance walked up the steps, he saw a small puff of white cloud glide over the top of Hinata Sou. He then peered at a small dot in the sky that became larger and larger as it got closer. Tama-chan flew right into his head and knocked him quite silly.
So much for peaceful sleep.
Lance rose from his new collapsable futon to come face to face with a levitating turtle. He blinked. And again. Then quite a few times. Finally he rubbed his eyes because blinking hurt so much. Nope, definetly not a dream.
"And what brings you, turtle of levitation, to wake me in this most ungodly hour?"
"Myuh!"
He blinked again (Geez, that hurt). "Right..."
The door slid open, and Keitaro Urashima crept inside. He held in one hand a toolbox with jangled with metal screws and tools as he walked. In his other he had a cup of tea, which he gave to Lance.
"Thank you." Lance accepted the tea and took a sip.
Keitaro held his finger to his lips. "Trust me on this one, you don't want to wake up Motoko and Naru at this time of morning."
Lance nodded and whispered, "Look, I didn't want to be difficult for anyone..."
"No, of course not! We needed you and the other tenants so we can keep this place up. Speaking of which..." Lance held his hand up before he could continue.
"I know, I know. I promise to make payment by helping around with repairs here. If it's fine with you, I'd even like to stay from school to help out."
Keitaro nodded, "That's alright with me, I guess. There is a lot to do today, so I thought I'd get you up for an early start."
He sipped some more tea, and shrugged. "What is there to do?"
"There's some roof panels in the front that are falling apart, and there's another hole in my room..." Keitaro blushed.
" 'Another' hole?" Lance raised a curious eyebrow.
"Oh, it's nothing."
"Why would there be one in the first place?"
"I said it was nothing, window crasher!"
"Alright, alright, I'm getting up..."
***
An hour later, Lance has already met a few of the other tenants. Cody stopped by and said hi, and was even kind enough to wrap the safety rope around his waist. And Naru walked by, but she gave him a sour look when he tried to apologize for yesterday.
"What's her deal?" he muttered to himself.
It wasn't two minutes afterwords that he saw another person he hadn't seen. She was in a school uniform and didn't look any older than fourteen. Her blue hair glowed and her cheerful expression was clearly shown with her smile. She didn't notice him as she walked on, even though he had clearly noticed her even when his head and hanging upside-down from the roof.
"Woah...she doesn't look any older than me." he thought to himself, "I wonder why she's here..."
Suddenly he lost his grip, and with a scream he fell off the roof. He was certain he would meet cement, but his rope acted as a bungee cord and bounced him up just three feet from the ground. Then he dangled there, not much doing anything but mentally kick himself.
Tama-chan hovered just inches away from his face. Lance looked up and his eyes met Tama's little black dots.
"One more 'myuh' and I'll nail you to the roof."
"....Myuh?"
Lance's face flushed red with anger. "TASTE STEEL, TURTLE!!"
Since she hovered herself out of reach, Lance finally gave up trying to knock her silly with the hammer. So instead he kept dangling around, waiting for someone to walk by. Keitaro walked out of the front door and met with him shortly after.
"One of our new residents, Al, made us some breakfast," said Keitaro. "Wanna join us?"
"No, that's okay," Lance responded, trying to look cheerful although he was clearly on the brink of a killing spree, "I'd like to get this roof finished first, but as you can see I'm sort of....stuck."
Keitaro laughed, "I know how you feel. The first few days will be a little rough, but you should get used to the gripping after awhile."
"Thanks. By the way, does Naru have a bad vibe to me, or does she just hate men in general?"
"No, that would be Motoko." Keitaro corrected him.
"The girl with the sword?"
"Yeah. You met her?"
"Do you want the gory details, or a nice synopsis?"
"I can probably guess. You seem to have made a good impression on her anyway..."
"Good?!"
"Yes. You're still this side of Tokyo. Anyway, let me help you get untied, and you can join us all for breakfast..."
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Chapter 3: Al's Morning
Keitaro had shown Al to his room and as soon as he was unpacked, Al and Dizzy slid into the futon and slept like logs. Seeing as the night before they had slept on a bench, this mat on the floor was wonderful.
The next morning....
Al's eyes opened, and attempted to focus on his surroundings.
They failed and he crawled around the room trying to find his contact case.
"Dizzy, help me out here will ya?" Al turned to ask assistance of the small gray blur located on his pillow, which was a large red blur.
After the contacts were found and put it, Al glanced at his watch and moaned. It wasn't even seven! He shouldn't be up this soon -- he wasn't expected at school, he wasn't due up till noon.
"Ah well." He sighed, dug around in his pile of things in the corner of the room and pulled on a shirt. "I suppose I can make a good first impression by fixing breakfast for everyone, eh?" He looked to Dizzy for approval and Dizzy nodded and climbed up onto Al's head.
***
Al wandered down the hall and found his way to the deck, Where at the moment, Motoko was practicing.
"Wow..." Al said in a hushed voice as he watched the girl swing up and down over and over again. Half of his surprise was that he didn't expect to see a warrior in his boarding house, and second, because Al was sadly single and seeing such a cutie as Motoko was a bit off-putting for the American.
He decided after a moment he should leave her be -- she was clearly very intent on her continuing work, so he slipped off quietly towards the stairs and shot one final look back at her as he stepped down onto the first step...
Sadly, this meant he missed seeing the banana peel on the second step, and he tripped and fell, smashing down the stairs.
He lay on his back, staring at the morning sky, and before he could stand again, he felt a pointed object on his neck.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The girl demanded as she held her katana to his neck.
Al was stunned for a moment, and they replied nervously, "A...admiring the sky?"
SHING!!!! The girl attacked him, knocking him further down the hall, and then ran up to him again.
"No joking, fool! What kind of a pervert are you -- sneaking around a girls dormitory in the morning hours? I should destroy you now!"
"I'd prefer you not to!" Alex laughed in spite of himself. He always laughed when he was scared or in pain, and in this case he was both.
"Wait a tic, did you say this was a girls dormitory?" Al was suddenly confused by the last thing the girl had said, "I heard it was an Inn, I bought a room here last evening, isn't your landlord Mr. Urashima-San?"
Motoko suddenly realized that this was no thief, this was simply one of the stupid Americans whom that idiot Urashima had let in. This did not do much to improve her mood, nor did it improve when she realized that a small weasel had pushed her sword aside when she had been thinking about this and the blond boy was on his feet again.
"Listen you -- I don't know who you are, and I don't care. All I care about is that you don't do anything perverted or lecherous. If you do anything bad, I will teach you the meaning of the word pain, is that clear?" She finished this with a look that would wilt flowers.
"Y...yes madam." Al nodded, absolutely terrified. The girl ment it! He had had swords pointed at him when he was in the states, but that was just at mock medaevil battles. This girl meant to kill him!
***
Alex found his way to the kitchen easily enough, and had begun to search the place for ingredients to make breakfast when one of the other girls wandered in on him.
"What do you think Dizzy, if you were a bag of flour, where would you be?" Al was saying.
Dizzy was, at the moment, deep inside the fridge, hunting for eggs.
"Grrr!" He called out from somewhere behind the milk.
"No Dizzy, you wouldn't be at the market because somebody already bought you...oh uh...hello there." Alex smiled sheepishly at the small indigo-haired girl in the door way who seemed unsure of what to do, after a moment she said "Hello." Very softly.
"Pardon me miss," Al stood from the floor where he had been searching a cabinet, "My name is Alexander Rush, pleased to meet you, may I ask if your loveliness might know where I could locate a bag of flour?"
Shinobu blushed and pointed silently at a cabinet above the stove.
"Thank you very much, miss." Alex reached up into said cabinet and turned to a cookbook, "Breakfast will be in a little bit, you don't need to worry about making it for yourself miss, I'll be cooking today."
Shinobu wandered away, confused, and decided she should sleep a little more, seeing as she apparently wouldn't need to cook. Whoever this new person was, he was very...odd.
***
The gang gathered around to partake of a fairly edible breakfast, put together by Al and Dizzy. Eggs, bacon, toast, and oatmeal, although the oatmeal was a little sticky -- so sticky, as a matter of fact, that when Keitaro attempted to pull out a spoonful, the whole bowl of oatmeal came attached to the spoon and only Alex and Su seemed to be able to eat it without watering it down with a little milk.
"Eh... Shinobu-chan, some problem with the cooking this morning?" asked Keitaro, in surprise. "This doesn't seem to be up to your usual standard..."
"Ano... I... but it wasn't..." stammered Shinobu, attempting to reply.
"Urashima! How dare you be so ungrateful! I should teach you some manners..." threatened Motoko angrily, although she too had been wondering about the glue-like oatmeal.
"Err... I'm afraid I have to claim responsibility for that one," interjected Al, in an attempt to diffuse the situation. "I thought I could start off on the right foot by helping out with breakfast? I'm sure I'm not a patch on your normal cook - " (here, Shinobu blushed scarlet) " - but it could be worse..."
"Yeah, like Naru's cooking!" unwisely commented Keitaro, before being launched skywards courtesy of Narusegawa Airlines.
"I don't know what the fuss is," said Kaolla, scooping out second helpings of the oatmeal, "although it could use some more chilli..."
***
Al smiled as he got to know everone. Motoko was, to say the least, cold towards him; Naru and Keitaro seemed friendly enough, Su and Sarah seemed to enjoy some of the odder things Al spoke of when Kitsune asked him and the other new residents about themselves, and Shinobu...well Shinobu didn't say a word except to thank him for the meal, what with her being so shy around the new tenents.
The other new tenants -- Cody and Lance -- were fairly quiet during breakfast. Cody chatted in English to Shinobu, who answered shyly and hesitantly. Lance seemed rather tired having been up earlier working for his keep with Keitaro, although for some reason he occasionally shot black looks at the turtle that was sat on the table watching Dizzy with an expression of interest.
"So what is that thing, can you eat it?" Kaolla asked pointing to Dizzy, who was at the moment, reading a small newspaper and drinking a tiny cup of java.
"That's Dizmark, my weasel, he's my best bud, so no you can't." he smiled, sweatdropping, hoping that the tan girl had not been serious. He then watched her try to dip a turtle into her oatmeal -- but the turtle flew off, the entire bowl attached to her shell, and Su was forced to get another bowl.
***
Al set off right after breakfast, wearing a nice shirt and some nearly clean pants, Al had ridden off on his vespa to find a job, after all, he couldn't leave his Landlord hanging, the guy seemed quite nice after all and why make him suffer.
As Alex zipped down the road he was nearly killed by a speeding white van, which turned very sharply left, and flipped over a fence, and thus a rampage in a nearby park began.
Alex spotted the license plate, "R2-D2" It read.
"Boy, does that guy need to retake drivers Ed." He mused as he continued down the road, ignoring the noise of the explosion behind him.
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Chapter 3: Cody's first morning
Cody awakes to the smell of cooking food, its early. He gets dressed in his signature tan pants and green hoodie combo, and walks down toward the dinning room. The table is set, but being that it is early noone is there yet. A few bowls of steaming oatmeal sits there on table. He hears some movement in the kitchen and he decides to check it out.
There is a young girl cooking in there.
"Good Morning." Cody says to the young lady.
"Oh!" She is startled by the greeting,"Good-d Morning, to you sir."
Cody smiles," Sorry about startling you, My name is Cody Bowie, I'm one of the new boarders."
"I'm Shinobu Maehara. It's nice to eat you. Auuu...I mean meet you." Shinobu says in very good english.
"Your english is very good. Maehara-san. It is very nice to meet you too." Cody says with another smile, " So do you do the cooking here?"
"Yes, I do most of the time, but today I'm just helping, Al-san" Shinobu says while says stiring a pot of oatmeal.
" Oh? Another one of the boarders." He asks.
"Yes, right now he's getting the others up for breakfast." Shinobu says to answer.
"I can't wait to meet them." Cody comments to Shinobu.
The two tenants continue to talk for a few minutes, as the others begin to flow into the dinning room.
They all sit down, exchanging greetings. The three Americans sitting on one side of the table, the others on the oppisite side. Bowls of oatmeal sit in front of them. All of them pick-up their spoons and begin to "dig-in". Cody lifts a spoonful to his mouth,but before he eats it he sees that Keitaro, with his spoon still in his mouth, has turned a slight shade of green. He doesn't think much of it though, 'He must be coming down with something.'. He eats his spoonful as do the others. He does a good replica of Keitaro's own face and shade. He swallows the spoonful, and slowly finishs his bowl.
Fortunately for the tenants, Al's attempt at oatmeal is not the only thing on offer. Cody manages to get some fairly decent pancakes, and so doesn't go hungry -- although Al and Kaolla seem to have no problem with the oatmeal (Kaolla unsuccessfully attempt to add some turtle flavouring, but Tama-chan escapes in time).
After they finish, he offers to help clean the dishes. Inside the kitchen he meets Lance and Al, they talk about what they though of the Hinata Sou and some of the tenents. They quickly finish the dishes. As they finish up, Keitaro pops his head in to ask if they would like to meet the others. They says they would love to, and follow him out to the living room. All the other tenents are there.
"This is Mitsune.",Kietaro introduce the resident trickister.
" Call me Kitsune," Kitsune says with her drawl.
Keitaro continues down the line. "This is Motoko".
" If anyone of you males do something preverted you will face my wrath." Motoko says in he usual manner of greeting males. Keitaro sweatdrops at that, but continues.
"This is Shinobu."
"Its nice to Eat you. Auuu...." Shinobu says in english, with a blush on her face. The Americans smile at this.
"This person is Naru."
"It nice to meet you, but the same warn to you as you heard from Motoko." Naru says with a smirk.
Keitaro is glomped by Su,"This person is Su. She's VERY energic."
"Hiyas!! I'm Su!!" Su Says loudly.
"I thinks thats everybody, You'll meet my -" (Keitaro looked around nervously) - "Aunt Haruka, a little later, she owns the Tea house down the hill... but that finishes up the introduction for today. Do you have anything planed today?"
" I'm going to see a little of the town today if thats ok." Cody asks Keitaro.
" That's ok, you've already paid your rent so, have a good time." Keitaro answers.
Cody goes to his room gets his camera bag and his notebook, he goes to the entry way. "I'll be leaving now."
Shinobu is there so she answers, "Take care!"
He opens the door and steps out to see Hina City.
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Chapter 3: Sam's arrival
It was a warm afternoon in Hinata.
Samuel stepped up the stairway of Hinata-sou but then promptly tripped over the hem of his hakama and rolled back down to the bottom.
"Ooofff!" gasped Sam as he rolled down the stairs, "God damn Japanese skirt thingies..."
Finally, he came to a stop swirly-eyed at the feet of one Keitaro Urashima, who was just returning from doing the morning visit to the market.
"Um.. are you the new tenant?" asked Keitaro curiously. "Mei-sensei mentioned that she would be sending someone around today..."
A short while later, Sam returned to conciousness with a curse.
"Ouch... my bloody spine! That really stings..."
"So.. are you the new tenant?" Keitaro repeated his previous question, now that the newcomer was able to reply.
"Sure am !" he replied enthusiastically.
"Ok... err, can I assume that you are able to pay for the room? Only we seem to have had an unfortunate number of hobos turning up..."
Samuel promptly dug into his pockets and handed over 1000 yen and a button.
Keitaro handed the button back, and grasped the cash happily. "Hooray... finaly, money!" he chortled. "Err.. you do know it is 50,000 per month, in advance? Anyway, this will cover the first day, so I'll show you the hotel. Follow me..."
They ascended the stairs to the hotel, but unfortunately Samuel tripped again and started a repeat performance of his tumble back tot he foot fo the stair.
"A strange one..." thought Keitaro to himself as he sighed and started back down the stairs to help out again. "I wonder how Motoko will take to another person searing her trademark outfit -- and a gaijin at that! Also, he seems to be a bit over-clumsy... surely that wasn't alcohol I could smell? Nah, surely not, he can't be over 13, no way he's be a drinker...."
***
Eventually, the new tenant was lodged into room 307, on the top floor next-door to Al and Dizzy. Keitaro gave his normal warnings about hot-spring use, and taking care not to annoy the other residents. It wouldn't be long until everyone started to return from school, although Kitsune was still about as usual.
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Kyosuke Arrives
"Class, I'd like you to meet our new student today."said Mr. Yamamura, as he introduced the new arrival to the other students in Shinobu's form.
The new student entered the classroom and was greeted by silence along with the stares of every student. He had black, short hair which seemed to slightly stick out in front. His dark-brown eyes showed kindness but had an emotionless feeling behind them as they wandered about the room through rectangular glasses. He stood 5'4" without a traditional school uniform. Instead, he wore a grey Timberland Co. hooded sweater and had on a pair of dark-green military pants. His faceless expression seemed to ignore the class as the teacher began to talk again.
"This is Mr. Sagura, he is a student from America who came in exchange for Ms. Taichi. Please welcome him and try to help him adjust." The new student looked at Mr. Yamamura as if to ask something and was answered when he indicated the empty desk next to Shinobu.
"Mr. Sagura, if you would contact the school office after the end of lessons today, they will be able to help you acquire a school uniform. In the meantime, I expect the class president to explain the anomaly to the other teachers."
"Now, let us begin the lesson for today. Please open your textbooks to page 127..." the teacher began to write down on the chalk board while the students took out their utensils and wrote down notes.
The girls kept glancing back at their new addition to the class and giggling as they whisperred into eachothers ears as they exchanged gossip around to eachother. Some of the boys, however, kept giving him wierd looks as if he was crazy or from another world. Shinobu tried hard not to glance back at the foreigner as she wrote in her notes but when she did, she saw him glance right back with that same monotone looke and feeling as if he were starring into her soul. Embarassed, she went right back to her notes and continued to write only harder.
The day continued and ended with Shinobu not saying anything to anyone as usual until after school when she got home.
"Tadaima!" she announced as she entered the main lobby.
"Oh, hi Shinobu." Keitaro said as he entered from the kitchen.
Shinobu slightly blushed when he walked in. "Um, good evening smepai."
"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, we have a new guest who's going to stay here." Keitaro said as he went back to the kitchen.
Shinobu followed him and gasped when she recognized who it was. She trembled in fear as Keitaro took a seat in front of the young man.
"This is Kyosuke Sagura." Keitaro said as he indicated the boy sitting across from him.
"Or Sagara," Kyosuke interrupted, "My friends like to call me that because it sounds like that guy from Rurouni Kenshin."
Shinobu froze in shock, but the two men didn't seem to notice.
"So, Sagura-san. Tell me more about yourself." Keitaro said heartily.
"Well," Kyosuke said, thinking for a moment, "I'm thirteen, I came from California, my parrents are both divorced, my I.Q. is around 127, my favorite colors are black and blue, my favorite foods are anything that's Japanese as long as it's not nato or wasabi, my goal is to someday work in USAMRIID." Keitaro sweatdrops.
"Err... I didn't need to know your personal information."
"Oh, you mean all the important stuff, like why I'm here and stuff? Well, I'm thirteen, I was born in California, I'm here because of a foreign exchange program in highschool put me here, I was supposed to stay at my grandfather's clinic but it's too far from school so we made a deal that as long as he supports me with funding, I'd find a place to live on my own. So, I find this ad. in the newspaper and said 'Sounds like a nice place' and now I'm here, talking to you, and why is she all pale?" Kyosuke replied, pointing his finger at Shinobu, who was still frozen.
She realized that both of them were staring at her and when she did, she did the only thing she could do - run away blushing.
"Oh, she's almost always like that." Keitaro reassured, "Although I honestly have no idea why... Anyway, getting to the topic at hand, I'll have to ask that you pay for the rent in advance Sagura-san." he said with a serious expression.
Kyosuke reached into his duffel bag and pulled out a bundle of yen. "How many zeros you want?" he said, counting all he had.
"Well," Keitaro said, sitting his chin on his left hand and thinking. "the rent is Y50,000 a month so..."
"Fantastic, great place and affordability."Kyosuke said with enthusisasim as he handed one-third of the bundle to the manager. "So there's Y500,000 and where's my room?"
"Well, you'll be in room #308 and - 500,000!!??" If Keitaro's eyes could buldge out any further, they'd be dangling from the nerves attatching them to his brain.
"Well, you look like you could use it, I mean there are some cracks in the windows, and a few boards are kinda broken." Kyosuke drifted off at the last part but Keitaro was overjoyed.
"Thank you so very much, this is just about the kindest thing anyone's ever done for me, *sniff*." he said, as he left crying tears of joy.
Meanwhile, a snicker echoes in one of the air vents as Kyosuke shrugs and leaves with his bags for room 308.
Kitsune peeks out through the grating of an air vent and at the newcomer. "Heheh." "So not only is the new guy cute, he's loaded too. He's only thirteen -- should be easy to trick him into handing some of that cash to a worthy cause!" she thinks to herself as she jumps out of the vent and quickly stalks up to her room to plan on how she's going to get some of that money.
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Chapter 3: That evening
Evening rolled around after a long day. That night, there were five new additions around the table to enjoy Shinobu's cooking -- for the three Americans that had been at breakfast had been joined by two more highschool students.
Keitaro introduced Kyosuke and Sam to the group, gaining yet more black looks from Naru and Motoko as they realised that in the space of a couple of days, the female majority at the Inn had become a minority. Motoko in particular gave a suspicious look at Sam, sending a wordless question as to why he felt it necessary to mimic her form of dress. However, she kept the question silent for now.
Kyosuke seemed to be keeping himself fairly aloof from the rest of the crowd, and Shinobu was completely flustered by the thought that she would now be sharing a roof with a male classmate! What would the other girls say if they found out?
Finally, Kitsune walked in, wearing a slightly lower-cut top than was usual for her. She slid into her chair, and threw a questioning glance over at Naru.
"Naru... have you been borrowing my makeup?" she asked, curiously. "Only, it seems a bit messed up..."
Naru's denial was interrupted by a new voice.
"Myu, myu, myu-myu..." sang Tama-chan as she floated in and settled on the table across from Al and Dizzy. Keitaro had expected a surprised look to be on the faces of Sam and Kyosuke; however, he had not expected to see similar astonishment to be on the faces of the girls as well.
Keitaro followed their glances, and then sweatdropped.
Tama-chan apparently had on blusher and crimson lipstick. She turned her head towards Dizzy, and gave a long, slow wave of her extended eyelashes, before nonchalently propping her head up on her flippers and staring at Dizzy with undisguised interest.
"Grrrr?" asked Dizzy of Al, nervously. Al seemed unable to answer, although his face was going a bit red with the effort of holding in his laughter.
"Now that gots me an idea..." murmered Kaolla to herself, although whatever the idea was, it wasn't enough to divert her from the food.
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GM Notes:
What might Kaollas idea be? How are Al and Dizzy going to cope with this new development?
What will Kitsune be dong to try and bilk some money from Kyosuke, and how is Shinobu going to keep her situation secret from her classmates? Does she resent Kyosuke for being connected with Taichii-chan's absence? Will Kyosuke's wealth gain him friends, or will his arrogance gain him enemies?
Will Sam and Motoko be able to see eye to eye, or will it end up in violence? Why is Sam here, and was he really half drunk despite being only 13? Is that why he couldn't pay all of the first month's rent?
What did Cody do during the day, and is he attending a school, or working? Will he discover the secret passage entrance in his room that leads to deleted before whatever is at the other end discovers it first? Will his next chapter arrive as late as this one did?
Will Lance obtain enough money to pay Keitaro before Keitaro works him to death? Is Lance's cooking as bad as Al's?
And finally, is Al actually going to pay the rent, or will he be dragged into slavery by Keitaro like Lance... and how long can they keep their non-payment of the rent a secret from the vengeance of Motoko and Naru? (about about one more day, I guess)