Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina. Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.
WARNING: Contains seines of under age drinking, nudity, and a few "choice" words. Reader discretion is advised.
MINDS WITHIN A MIND
Chapter 5- Remembering Memories: Part 2
"This is the day in which I decided to move to Hinata Sou!" says Shinobu with amazement.
Shinobu looks over and sees her younger 10 year old self hesitate for a second because of the unfamiliar faces but then slowly make her way to the group of people. Shinobu follows right behind her. As younger Shinobu approaches the group Grandma Hina and Haruka notice her and are a bit shocked to see her.
"I don't believe it! Is that you Shinobu?" asks Grandma Hina with a little disbelief. Shinobu slowly and shyly nods her head. "Wow it's been 2 whole years, my how you have grown!" says Grandma Hina with a smile. The other girls look on with curiosity.
"Grandma Hina do you know this girl?" asks a younger Su. "Oh why yes. She used to come around here all the time when-" Grandma Hina stops when she sees pain starting to form in younger Shinobu's face. "Um never mine that, but yes I knew her when she was younger." restates Grandma Hina.
"So Shinobu what brings you here? Your parents told us that you were too scared to ever come back here because of your accident." says Haruka careful not to tell the others about Shiko. They all notice younger Shinobu lower her head in sadness.
"I remember. My parents had lied to them about why I couldn't come over anymore. I never knew that until I heard it from Haruka. Inside I felt so mad at them for lying. This only added fuel to the fire of why I wanted to move to Hinata Sou." says Shinobu to herself.
Grandma Hina seeing that she isn't getting much of a response from younger Shinobu turns to the other girls. "Would you girls mind if we could talk alone please." she asks. The others look slightly surprised at the request. "Ok." says Naru. She, Kitsune, and Su leave to go to their after school programs. (Kitsune only goes so she can look for boys)
"Come on in Shinobu." says Grandma Hina as she opens the door to Hinata Sou. Younger Shinobu hesitates for a second before following, followed by Shinobu.
"So what brings you here?" asks Haruka again. "Well…" starts younger Shinobu shyly. "Have you heard about how my parents are separating?" she asks. "Yes I heard that. A shame really." says Grandma Hina.
"Well now they are fighting over who gets custody over me and so they are fighting and yelling even louder now. I can't stand it any longer." says younger Shinobu with a few tears building in her eyes. "So I was wondering if I could board here. I want to get away from all the yelling and fighting. They would only continue this even if one of them 'won' me." explains younger Shinobu some more.
"Hmm." says Grandma Hina deep in thought. "Shinobu, let's take a walk." she says as she stands. Younger Shinobu looks up suddenly a bit surprised. "…Ok" she says after a brief moment. Younger Shinobu stands up and walks out of the room with Grandma Hina followed by Haruka and Shinobu.
All of them start walking up the stairs to the 2nd floor. "So Shinobu." speaks up Haruka as they go up the stairs. "Your parents told us that after Shiko died and after your fall that you were too scared to come here anymore, so why did you suddenly decide to want to board here?" she asks.
"They lied to you." says younger Shinobu. Both Grandma Hina and Haruka look at her with a bit of surprise. "I wanted so badly to come visit you guys at Hinata Inn. Even if was only briefly. The only reason why I couldn't come is because my parents totally restricted me from even coming here. And now there closing the restaurant and are both moving to different parts of the city and want to bring me along! I can't stand it any longer! Please let me live here. I cook a lot so maybe I could be the Inn's chief or something like that." says the younger Shinobu.
"Shinobu you should know that this isn't an Inn anymore. I converted it into an apartment building shortly after Shiko and her parents died. This is now an all girls dormitory." says Grandma Hina. Younger Shinobu looks at her with a bit of shock. "I would be happy to take you in as a tenant, but we would have to have your parents' permission to do so." adds Grandma Hina.
"Don't worry about that. I plan on telling them that I can't stand living with either one of them anymore with the constant fighting and arguing. I'll make them understand." says Younger Shinobu sternly. Grandma Hina gives a slight smile.
All 4 women are now walking slowly down the hallway headed toward the manager's room. After a brief moment of silence Grandma Hina speaks up. "Shinobu, do you want to see her room?" she asks. Shinobu looks at her like she had just been slapped. "Not much has changed since that day. Her only other living relative, an aunt, came by a few days after the funeral and had taken some stuff out her parents room and her room but a lot of her stuff is still left. Most of it in boxes because I was planning on sending some of it to charities around the Tokyo area, but now that you're here maybe I should let you have 1st pick." says Grandma Hina giving younger Shinobu a loving smile. Young Shinobu hesitates before answering.
"If you don't want to I'll understand." says Grandma Hina. "No. It's ok. I want to see her room." answers younger Shinobu. "Ok then follow me." says Grandma Hina. After a moment they reach Shiko's room.
Younger Shinobu stands there for a second or 2. "You ready?" asks Grandma Hina. Younger Shinobu slowly nods her head and reaches for the handle. She hesitates for a second just before her hand reaches it, but then forces her self to grab it. She slides open the door with wide open eyes. She looks into the room seeing several boxes at the foot of the large bed with no sheets on it. Younger Shinobu slowly walks into the room.
"Well leave you alone for now." says Grandma Hina as she and Haruka start to walk away. Young Shinobu nods her head but doesn't turn her head. After a moment of taking the sight in she turns around and shuts the door in Shinobu's face. Shinobu is shocked for a second after the door is abruptly closed in her face. Then she realizes that her younger self can't see her. (At least she thinks so)
She reaches down to grab a hold of the handle but her hand goes right through it. She looks on with a stunned face at seeing this. She then grits her teeth and walks right through the door. After entering she can see her younger self standing in the middle of the room looking around a bit.
Younger Shinobu looks around and sees a lot of the stuff she remembers isn't there, probably packed away in the boxes. But a lot of other stuff is still out. She looks over and sees some pictures of Shiko and her parents on Shinko's desk. She walks over to pick one of them up and a tear splashes onto the frame. Younger Shinobu wipes her eyes trying to keep all the emotion building up at bay. She places the photo down and picks up another one. She sees it's of her and Shiko in the 2nd grade having their arms around each other's shoulders. She's used to seeing this picture because she has a copy of the picture on her desk back in her room. Younger Shinobu gives a slight smile at this tender sight. She then puts it back down.
Young Shinobu then walks over to the book shelf. Some of the books have been packed away already but some of them are still out. Younger Shinobu flips through some of them and puts them back. But then she notices a year book. She picks it up and sees it's their 3rd grade year book. Young Shinobu and Shinobu remember that it came out 1 week before the end of school and 8 days before Shiko's tragic death. She flips to the autograph section in the back of the year book and sees plenty of signatures. Some of the signatures are from people that she knows and some are from other people that she isn't familiar with.
She finally comes upon her signature. "Shiko we had a great year didn't we! Here's to a great summer and the beginning of a great school year next year! Your best friend, Shinobu. BTW Want to have a sleep over the week after school lets out? Call me and my parents can arrange it! Hope to see you there! " she gets through reading the signature.
A couple of tears splatter on the page as younger Shinobu closes the year book and begins to whimper and cry a little holding the book up to her chest. Shinobu walks over and places her hand onto younger Shinobu's shoulder knowing that she would never feel it and she also starts to let some tears roll down her face.
After a couple of minutes Younger Shinobu wipes away her tears trying to gather herself. She stands up and puts the year book back in its place on the book shelf and starts to look around some more. She goes over to the head board of Shiko's bed and sees a lot of bunny dolls and other bunny related stuff. Both of them remember that Shiko was almost obsessed with bunny stuff. In fact her nickname at school was "Usagi (Rabbit) girl." Both Shinobus smile as they remember all of this.
"Shinobu." says a woman's voice from behind the door. The door slides open and Grandma Hina enters the room. "I called your mother and told her that you were over here." she says. Shinobu looks a bit shocked at hearing this. "She sounded a bit upset that you were over here. Don't worry I didn't say anything about you wanting to live here, I only said that since you were moving in a few days that you only wanted to visit Shiko's room one last time. After that your mother sounded like she was ok with it." finishes Grandma Hina with a smile. Young Shinobu gives a slight smile.
"I guess I had better head on home then. I don't want to worry her." says younger Shinobu as she stands up and leaves the room. Shinobu looks around for a few more seconds before turning to the door and seeing her younger self looking right at her.
The bright light once again blinds Shinobu by making her close her eyes. More memories of her and Grandma Hina and Haruka come and go until the bright light blinds her again. After a moment she sees that she is once again in the bright white room. After what seems to be another hour the bright white light once again blinds her.
After a few minutes the bright light fades and Shinobu opens her eyes again. She notices that she is once again in the living room of Hinata Sou. "Happy Birthday Shinobu!" comes a shout from behind her. She turns around and sees everyone sitting around a large table with herself at the head of the table.
She watches as Naru brings out a large cake with 12 candles on it. "Oh boy." says Shinobu as she places her forehead into her hand shaking her head knowing what is about to happen later. She watches as her younger self takes a deep breath and blows out all but one candle. She then takes another huff and blows it out. Everyone cheers causing her younger self to blush. "Cake time!" yells Su.
Shinobu watches as everyone has their fill of cake and ice-cream. After they eat they move the table over to the side of the room and place some chips and sandwiches on it. Naru then brings out a boom-box and begins to play some techno dance music that everyone but younger Shinobu dances too, including Grandma Hina who is really boogieing down. "Oh. Good Lord." says Shinobu as she places her head into her hand again embarrassed to even look at Grandma Hina shaking her booty.
"Uh Oh! Forgot the punch!" says Naru as she starts to head to the kitchen. "Don't worry. I'll get it." says Kitsune. Shinobu follows Kitsune in to the kitchen. She watches as she brings out 2 large bottles of Sake from under the table. She then spikes the punch with them. Kitsune then gives an evil giggle as she starts to head back into the living room. "This should get Shinobu into the party mood." she says evilly to herself. "Ok punch is served." she calls out as she sets the punch bowl on the table.
She then fills a cup full of sake…err…I mean punch…..um….I mean spiked punch and takes it over to younger Shinobu. "Here you go Shinobu." says Kitsune with an evil looking grin. "Thank you." says younger Shinobu shyly.
"Kit…sun….e." says Shinobu with a lowered head shaking her fist beside her head with a blood vessel pumping madly. Shinobu only watches helplessly as her younger self drinks the punch. She also watches as everyone else including Kitsune start to drink the spiked punch.
After a while everyone is either one their 3rd or 4th cup of punch when the effects of the strong sake begin to take their effect. Su begins to stumble around aimlessly more than usual. Naru is dancing to the music but in a very provocative way. Haruka it a bit red in the face but being an avid alcohol drinker herself the effects of the sake are not impairing her judgment. Grandma Hina…..never mind you don't want to know what she's doing. Kitsune sits to one side just evilly giggling away.
Shinobu watches as her younger self drinks a 5th and then a 6th cup of spiked punch before her eye's glaze over. She then walks over to Naru and starts to dance like no one has ever danced before. (At least in Hinata Sou) The effects of the sake really do a number on younger Shinobu because before you can say "Let's Dance!" younger Shinobu HAS STRIPED ALL HER CLOTHS OFF! All Except for her socks that is. And she is now dancing bare butt naked! Younger Shinobu starts to yell. "I'm a sexy girl! Look at me! I'm sexy!" having just heard a song being played called "I'm a sexy girl." Naru and all the others who can still stand start chasing younger Shinobu around Hinata Sou carrying her cloths trying to get her to put them back on! Thankfully she never goes out side.
This goes on for about 10 minutes before younger Shinobu just stops in the middle of the living room and falls over onto her right side passed out drunk! Naru all out of breath and having her heart pump all the alcohol through her system faster falls forward and passes out drunk. Only Kitsune is left to carry younger Shinobu up the stairs to her room. Younger Shinobu has a big grin on her face as she is carried up the stairs. "Gee. I didn't know I'd get her into this kind of party mood." says Kitsune.
Shinobu standing off to one corner blushing redder than a tomato remembers this to be her most embarrassing night ever, and the wicked hang-over the next morning plus since everyone eventually passed out they never got to give young Shinobu her presents until the next day! Shinobu was so thankful that all the memories of this night were all a blur; that is until now. She takes another look at Kitsune and her passed out self and sees her younger self looking right at her. The bright light comes and once again forcing Shinobu to close her eyes.
More memories of some stuff Kitsune did to her come and go mostly of what has happened since Kietaro arrived. Then the light comes again blinding her again. When the light fades she opens her eyes and sees she is once again in the bright white room.
After what seems to be another hour or so another bright light comes and then fades. As she opens her eyes she notices several large tropical trees in front of her.
"Why am I in Su's room for?" she asks herself. "Oh come one Shinobu!" comes a voice from behind her. Shinobu turns around to Su's door and sees it be flung open with a thwack with Su standing proudly in the door way.
"Come on Shinobu. In the year since you arrived here you haven't once seen my room!" shouts Su as she reaches over to grab something. "It's ok really! I have some more chores to do. Can't this wait?" says a voice from just out side the doorway.
"No. It can't!" says Su playfully as she yanks an 11 year old Shinobu into the doorway. As soon as Younger Shinobu reaches the doorway her eyes grow to the size of tea cup saucers. "Su! I know you were a wild one but I didn't you were this wild! How did you get all of this in here?' says Younger Shinobu with amazement.
"Very carefully. Now come on!" says Su as she grabs younger Shinobu by the hand and pulls her in. "I don't know about this. Knowing you, you probably have some pretty dangerous animals lurking somewhere." says younger Shinobu fearfully.
"Nah. Just a couple of snakes. They all know me because I raised them so they won't bother me." says carefree Su. "But what about me?" adds younger Shinobu.
"Come on Shinobu! What I have to show you is back here in my lab." says Su happily. Younger Shinobu slowly follows Su. Shinobu follows them as they go to the back of Su's room to her lab. When they reach it Su goes over to something in the middle of the lab covered in a sheet. "Not this." says Shinobu with a sweet drop forming behind her head.
"Introducing!" shouts Su as she grabs the sheet. "Robo Shinobu 1000!" she shouts as she pulls the sheet off to revile a robotic version of Shinobu. (Think of Mecha Sara only in Shinobu's form) Younger Shinobu can only look on with shock.
"This baby runs on a nuclear power cell, that wont need replacing for 500 years! I've programmed it to do all the cleaning and cooking the way you do it Shinobu. But once it starts something it won't stop till it's done! Its bullet proof, bomb proof, scratch resistant, in fact it's nearly invincible! It also includes an artificial learning chip to help it memorize better ways of doing stuff like cleaning or cooking." says Su happy over the creation she has built. "I built it to help you get your chores done faster Shinobu." she adds. Younger Shinobu looks up at it cautiously.
"Really? You made it to help me?" asks younger Shinobu. "Yup! It also thinks like you too so you don't have to worry about it going out of control. "Wow! Thank you." says younger Shinobu.
Su hits a button on her control panel and a bolt of electricity shoots into the robot's back activating the nuclear power cell there by "turning on" the robot. The robot's head pops up with a jerk. "Greetings. How may I be of service to you?" it says with a robotic Shinobu voice. "Go ahead Shinobu, give it a command." says Su.
"Um ok." says younger Shinobu shyly. "Um. Go wash the windows." commands younger Shinobu. "Right away." answers Robo Shinobu. Its chest plate opens up and out pops a bottle of Windex and a clean rag. The robot then walks out of the room and begins to wash all the windows in Hinata Sou.
"Wow! This is so cool!" says younger Shinobu with a slight smile. As the day goes on the 2 introduce Robo Shinobu to everyone else and it goes around doing all sorts of chores like cleaning, washing cloths, and even repairing a couple of holes in the roof.
Evening comes and all the girls are in the hot springs relaxing and washing. "Wow Su. You finally made a robot that works and doesn't try to take over the world or seek out and destroy something." says Kitsune with a smile. "Yeah the dinner it made with Shinobu was one of the best that I have ever had!" says Naru. Su gives a big grin.
"Good evening everyone, may I interest you in some strawberry milk?" says the robot as it enters the hot springs holding a tray. "Why think you so much Robo Shinobu!" says Kitsune as she stands up. Everyone goes over grabs a glass of strawberry milk and drink it all down. After they are done they place all the glasses back onto the tray. "Thank you Robo Shinobu. You can go wash the glasses now." commands Su.
"Right away." says the robot. The robot turns around to head back into Hinata Sou but in the process steps right onto a bar of soap causing it to slip backwards and fall right into the hot springs with a big splash! "Robo Shinobu!" shouts Su.
Her and younger Shinobu run over pick Robo Shinobu out of the water and stands it up right. As they do water starts to poor out of its lower extremities. "Man this thing weighs a ton!" says younger Shinobu as she picks it up.
"Malfunction! Malfunction! Malfunction!" says the Robo Shinobu repeatedly as smoke begins to bellow out of all its ports. Then sparks start to fly and then it just shuts down after overloading. "Looks like it overloaded." says Kitsune
"I knew I forgot to do something!" shouts Su as she smacks her fist into her other hand. "I forgot to water proof the darn thing." she says as she sticks out her tongue. Everyone does a comic fall.
Suddenly the robot's head pops back up. Its eyes are glowing a deep red. "Rebooting. Rebooting. Rebooting." It says in a deeper voice. Everyone looks at Su wondering what's going on. She only shrugs. The robot then looks right at younger Shinobu. "Target located." it says.
A red laser target focuses onto Shinobu's chest. "Must kill imposter Shinobu." it says some more. "Imposter? But I'm the real Shinobu." says younger Shinobu. "Incorrect. I am the real Shinobu." says the robot. It slowly starts to walk toward younger Shinobu.
"Um Su. What's going on?" asks younger Shinobu with some panic in her voice as she takes some steps back. "My guess is that some old data has reactivated." answers Su. "What old data?" yells younger Shinobu as she takes some more quick steps backwards. "Remember the AI chip I told you about. Well it's from one of my old soldier robots I made a couple of months ago." answers Su.
"WHAT?" yells younger Shinobu. Suddenly the robot lunges at younger Shinobu. She barely ducks out of the way and begins to run out of the hot springs back into Hinata Sou. The robot gives chase followed quickly by everyone else and Shinobu.
"SOMEBODY HELP ME!" cries out younger Shinobu as she runs up and down the hallways of Hinata Sou in nothing but her towel with tears flapping out of her eyes. She runs through the kitchen desperately trying to get away. Then as the robot also runs through the kitchen it reaches over to the sink and grabs the butcher knife and starts swinging it at younger Shinobu. "HELP!" cries out younger Shinobu again.
"Su! How do you turn that thing off?" yells Kitsune. "There isn't an off button. It was built to be a 24/7 robot. And its power cell won't run out of power for another 500 years." answers Su.
"What about telling it another command?" asks Kitsune. "Won't work. It's programmed to do 1 job at a time and won't stop until the job is done."
"Well is there a self-destruct or something like that?" yells Naru. "There is but it can only be activated by itself!" answers Su. "AND HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!" yells Naru even louder.
"Hey Shinobu! Try to figure out a way to make it self-destruct!" calls out Su. "But how?" yells back younger Shinobu. "I programmed it with some of your personality remember, so you would be the only one to know its weaknesses!" shouts back Su. "Are you kidding me! I don't even know my own weaknesses." shouts younger Shinobu.
After a few more minutes of running for her life younger Shinobu is nearing exhaustion. She starts to slow up. But every time she does, the robot swings the knife at her and she is forced to run ahead once again. But her legs are beginning to burn and are getting more tired by the minute. She desperately tries to fill her lungs with air to keep up with the demand on her body, but she is slowly running out of steam.
Young Shinobu is too busy thinking about how tired she's getting that she doesn't even notice that she has reached the roof of Hinata Sou. "Oh No! Im trapped!" she says to herself. Just then the door to the roof crashes open. Robo Shinobu jumps into the air from the bottom step and leaps high in to the air. It comes down with a lot of force behind it aiming the butcher knife right at young Shinobu's head.
"Yahhh!" young Shinobu yelps. But just like someone with the reflexes of a ninja, younger Shinobu moves just slightly to her right. She can hear the knife go right by her ear slicing off a chunk of her hair. She then rolls to her right, gets up and starts running to the railing. She leaps over it and desperately climbs the roof. She runs to the edge of the roof and stops.
Robo Shinobu does one giant leap into the air and lands on top of the roof. At the same time Su and the others reach the top of the stairs. "Shinobu!" cries out Naru. As Robo Shinobu steps closer and closer to younger Shinobu, young Shinobu takes a couple of steps back till she reaches the edge. She looks back a second and then back to Robo Shinobu with desperate fear in her face and tears falling from her eyes. Suddenly she thinks of something.
"Hey you think you're the real Shinobu?" she asks. "Affirmative." answers the robot. "What is Shinobu?" asks young Shinobu. "Shinobu is a human." answers the robot. "And what are you?" asks young Shinobu. "I am Robo Shinobu 1000" answers the robot. "You are a robot correct." asks young Shinobu. "Affirmative." answers the robot. "Well if you are a robot and the real Shinobu is human than you must be the imposter Shinobu!" shouts young Shinobu. "Therefore if your mission is to kill the imposter Shinobu then you must kill your self." she adds.
"What is she doing?" asks Naru. "I get it she's telling it an infinite possibility." says Su. "A what?" asks Naru. "A question without an end in other words. Since a robot doesn't think like we do it will keep trying to find an answer to it till it overloads." answers Su.
With out warning the robot charges young Shinobu. Young Shinobu drops to her knees and covers her head with her hands waiting for the impending stabbing. But it never comes. She opens her eyes and looks up to see the robot completely stopped with the knife less than an inch away from her head. She also notices the torso of the robot glowing and getting brighter and brighter.
"Shinobu get out of there! It's about to detonate!" cries out Su. Su turns around and shoves everyone back down the stairs. Shinobu has a look of shock on her face because there is nowhere she can go; that is until she spots the hot springs off to the right of the building. She makes a run for it! Robo Shinobu reaches over to try to stop her but is only able to grab young Shinobu's towel. Young Shinobu spins around out of her towel and runs naked to the edge of the building and looks down for a second. She turns back around and sees Robo Shinobu's torso glowing extremely bright. She has no choice but to jump, so she does. She falls for a second or 2 before hitting water. As soon as she hits the water Robo Shinobu explodes in massive explosion sending fire, smoke, steam, and metal parts flying in all directions.
After a few moments young Shinobu comes out of the water and looks up at the damage to Hinata Sou caused by the explosion. Something splashes in front of her in the water. She reaches down and picks it up. It's her butcher knife. She sits down on a rock and breaths a BIG sigh of relief.
Shinobu walks onto the roof and looks out to the hot springs to see her younger self sitting down with a face of big relief. "That's the 2nd time in my life I stared death in the eye and won." she says to herself. She looks at her younger self once again and sees that her younger self is looking right at her. Then the bright light flashes once again blinding Shinobu making her close her eyes again.
Some more memories of her and Su come and go until the light becomes really bright again. When the light fades Shinobu opens her eyes and sees that she is once again in the white room. After what seems to be yet another hour the bright light returns and blinds Shinobu again.
After a moment the light fades again. Shinobu opens her eyes again and sees that she is in her room. "798! 799! 800!" she hears someone callout at a distance. Shinobu turns around to see herself looking out the window to something.
"I wonder what I'm looking at?" she asks herself.
End of Chapter 5
To be continued in Chapter 6: Remembering Memories- Part 3
Author Note: Man it seems like my chapters keep getting longer and longer don't they. Well I'm trying to figure out a way to cut back a bit. It's just that it is so hard for me to do so. Every time I start typing, new things just keep popping into my head and it is hard not to type them. So please forgive me for going on longer than usual. I will try my hardest to make Chapter 6 a bit shorter.
Story Hint: As you can see I mixed some of the anime and manga versions into the story again. I hope you're not finding this annoying. Hey, Kitsune spiking the punch would be just like her wouldn't it! BTW the over use of the words "young" and "younger" are meant to separate the 2 Shinobus in the story so you won't get confused in which Shinobu is talking or being described.