The Gun & The Sword
Chapter VI: A Love Concealed, Or Not!
They sat up talking until midnight that night. Keiranto was amazed that he was the one kissing this beautiful girl, that she was his girlfriend. They agreed that they would try to keep their relationship secret from the other Hinata residents for the moment, but their study sessions would help them to talk in private. Tired from a long day, they eventually fell asleep in each other's arms, content.
They rode back the next day, stopping on the way to visit the Kushiro Shitsugen National Park. When they got back to the Hinata Inn they were immediately accosted by the other residents asking about their trip and what those strange boxes that had come in the post were.
"Was there anything good to eat in Hokkaido?"
"Welcome back sempai!"
"So, did you two have any fun in Hokkaido then?" This last question, from the insatiable Kitsune, was replied to with an emphatic "NO!" but the look shared by the two, only noticed by Kitsune, suggested otherwise. "I wonder what really happened," she mused, before tossing her thoughts aside and going to greet the pair.
The next day, Motoko unpacked her crossbow and went down to near the abandoned annex with Keiranto. They set up a series of targets and Keiranto showed Motoko the correct way to load, aim and fire her weapons. They went back 400m from the target and Motoko took aim. She loosed off all twenty rounds at twenty targets and hit all of them within the inner bull's-eye. She was surprised to hear the sound of cheering and clapping behind her and turned to see the rest of the inn's tenants watching her. She blushed, but under Keiranto's instruction switched to her pistol and again scored excellent results. Keiranto then decided to give the residents a little show and loaded his rifle. He shot a bottle of sake out of Kitsune's hand, scored bulls-eyes on various targets and as a grand finale, laid down his rifle and tossed two knives towards Motoko, and a third straight up in the air. He then drew his pistol and shot all three out of the sky. He kept one knife spinning in mid-air by repeatedly shooting it as it started to fall and then, with a final shot, sent it flying to embed in the exact centre of the clock on the annex. His audience responded with awestruck applause and then, seeing he wasn't going to do any more tricks, wandered off.
Seeing that they were now alone, Keiranto walked over to Motoko and kissed her. Back at the Inn, Kitsune, intrigued by the look she had seen Keiranto and Motoko share when they had come home together, went to pay a visit to Kaolla Su. A few moments later, she was sitting with Su and Naru, who had happened to be asking Su for help with a broken games console, looking at a computer monitor as Su tried to locate Keiranto and Motoko. The machine beeped, "Aha! I've got them!" yelled Su, and they all clustered round the monitor. They were greeted to an aerial view of Keiranto and Motoko, arms wrapped round each other, kissing deeply. "I knew it," whispered Kitsune, while Naru and Su just stared in shock. Motoko, the girl they thought was totally unfeminine, and repulsed by men, was kissing Keiranto. Kitsune grabbed the disc that the video was saved onto and took it with her as she left Su's jungle room. "This will be useful later," she said with a wicked grin.
Later, when all the residents were sitting around the dinner table, Kitsune asked, "So, did you two have fun down by the old annex today?" Keiranto and Motoko, immediately on their guard replied vehemently in the negative.
"Methinks thoust doth protesteth too much", said Kitsune with a smile, "and anyways, I know otherwise. Play the tape Su!" Keiranto and Motoko were suddenly confronted with a view of themselves, wrapped in a tight embrace, lips locked. They stared dumbfounded at Kitsune, almost as surprised to see themselves on video as Haruka, Mei, Sara, Shinobu and Keiranto were to see the couple. Tsuroko chose this moment to walk through the front door of the Hinata Sou.
"Motoko, what is this," she yelled.