Ch 7

In the past…

Haruka cut the ignition on her motorcycle, letting the humming engine go silent. With the amount of mods done to it, the racer bike was almost whisper quiet. Not to say it was not fast, or did not handle well, but there were quite a few bikers out there that were trying to make up for inadequacies somewhere, and having a supercharged crotch rocket screaming their presence was one of the ways to do it. It was either that or having racer groupies dressed like hentai anime girls hanging all over them, she sneered to herself.

It was almost nine in the morning, and she had been out since before sundown the night before. Even though she was eighteen now and Hina gave her a pretty wide lead, she would not be happy that her adopted daughter was out carousing all night with a bosozoku crew (1). Therefore, the quiet approach to the back of the house at the bottom of the Hinata-sou.

Dropping the kickstand and rocking the Kawasaki into place, Haruka swung her leg over the tail of the bike and stepped away. Pulling her helmet off, she hung it on a hook on the side of the bike, then she pulled off the bandana off that she had been wearing under the helmet and brushed her short hair loose. Haruka had heard too many stories of bikers scrambling their brains in accidents, and did not want to wind up that way, so putting up with sweat-matted hair was a small price to pay.

Unzipping her black leather jacket, she let it hang open over her white t-shirt and leather jeans and dug out a pack of cigarettes. Having picked up the habit in junior high school, it was a difficult one to shake, but necessary to help steady her nerves. After a big test at school, before a race on her bike, before dealing with her…

"Good morning, Haruka-chan!" An aged hand snagged the lit cigarette from her mouth as she was taking the first hit, flipping it to the ground and grinding it out with her foot, all in one motion. "Beautiful day, isn't it?"

"Good morning, Granny." Haruka closed her eyes for a moment mourning the loss of her smoke before looking over the pint-sized terror beside her.

Standing at 150 cm (4'10") and weighing 54 kilos (90 lbs) soaking wet, Hina Urashima was not a physically imposing woman at first glance. That is, until one felt the sheer personality radiating from her. After meeting her school friends once, one of them stated that Hina was like one of the old martial arts grandmasters you occasionally met in Japan. They did not have to be big, they did not have to be muscular, but you knew they could kick your ass without even trying. Haruka completely agreed with that assessment, due to extensive previous experience. And this was not even counting her learning the family martial arts style at the hands of Hina and her brother Hiro. It was also that mastery that allowed Hina to just appear next to you like she had just teleported, much to her chagrin.

"Up early this morning, Haruka-chan?" Hina's innocuous question was belied by the knowing look in her eyes. It was her form of a trap; she did not mind people bending the truth some, but lying to her could have serious consequences, especially if they were a family member. Haruka could remember lying once to sneak out of the house at age thirteen to meet a fifteen year old boy. She wound up on restriction for a week, and everyday of that restriction had been spent on her knees scrubbing the wooden floors and the hot spring in the Sou. The worse part had been when Hina had invited the boy and his family over to the Sou for tea. After spending two hours scrubbing floors, Haruka had been given ten minutes to make herself presentable before the family arrived, then she had to spend an hour in the seiza position (2) listening to Hina make nice with the boy's parents, the boy also squirming in seiza as well. It was not much of a surprise that the boy did not want to have much to do with her after that, even when the boy's family kept asking him why he was no longer with that nice Urashima girl.

"Well, it was a nice sunrise today." And it was, only she had seen it speeding down the expressway on her bike on the way home rather than from her window or from some hilltop.

Hina nodded in agreement. "Yes it was. It's good to see young people up early appreciating life, rather than lollygagging in bed on the weekend. You then have a chance to do something constructive."

Haruka smiled weakly. That last line did not sound encouraging.

"Kouji and his family arrived last night. It was too late to call you up from here," sweat drops formed on the back of Haruka's head, "but now you can come up and say hello to them," smiled Hina.

Haruka nodded in silent agreement. She had not seen her uncle for a couple of years, as he had been setting up his bakery business on the other side of Tokyo. Presumably, things were getting better if he was visiting his mother at the family home for a vacation.

"Go ahead and change so we can go up to the house." Hina smiled thinly. "You got ten minutes before I start off without you."

Haruka smiled weakly again, then shot off toward the back door and the stairs up to her room. Hina wanted to make a point, and woe to those who were not on time to receive it.

Bursting into her room, she tore off her jacket and tossed it into the armchair next to the window. Kicking off her heavy boots, she shimmied off her leather pants and tossed them on top of the jacket. T-shirt, bra, socks, and panties flew into the hamper, then she darted into the small bathroom attached her room.

Wetting a washcloth, she rapidly washed her face, then scrubbed down the rest of her body and sprayed some deodorant on herself before darting back to her room. Pulling open her dresser, she wiggled into a clean set of bra and panties before pulling on socks and a pair of faded jeans. Throwing open the closet, she grabbed a sleeveless dark blue top and pulled it on. Stepping back to her leather jacket and pants, she grabbed all her pocket litter and shoved it into the pockets of her jeans.

Dashing to the bathroom, Haruka quickly ran a comb through her hair. Moving back to the closet, she grabbed a comfy pair of sneakers and took off toward the stairs again.

Skidding to a stop by the door, Haruka pulled on her sneakers and then took a deep breath. A moment later she stepped outside and stopped next to Granny, who was standing there with her head slightly cocked to one side, no expression on her face.

"Nine minutes thirty seconds. You could do better, Haruka-chan." Hina smiled slightly before turning and walking to stairs. Knowing better than to respond to that remark, Haruka followed her, to the left and a half step behind her.

After a five minute climb that was more like a forced march than a walk up stairs, Haruka was trying to conceal her heavy breathing while Hina stood inhaling easily at the top of the stairs, looking like she had just walked across a street and not climbed a hundred steps uphill.

"Kouji and Yuki are at the hot spring right now, so you will meet with them later." Haruka tried not to gape at Hina; if the couple was busy, then why the rush to get up here? "I thought you might want to meet someone else," continued Hina, answering the unspoken question. Walking around the side of the building, Haruka followed Granny Hina until she stopped just short of the sandbox in the back yard, set up for the children of guests of the hot spring. There were two children sitting there, a little girl and a little boy.

Haruka glanced at the girl, noting that she looked about three years of age and had long brown hair. She was slowly digging into the sand with a little plastic shovel, filling a matching pail.

The boy, who looked to be a couple years older than the girl, waited until the girl filled the pail, then picked it up and dumped it on a large mound of sand that somewhat resembled a castle. Returning the pail to the little girl, who started to refill it, the boy went back to the large pile and tried to shape it, but he was not doing a very good job of it. It looked more like a large turtle than a castle, to tell the truth.

"Yoko, thank you for watching over them. You can go back to the house now." Haruka looked over to see that Hina was speaking to an older woman with salt and pepper hair and wearing round granny glasses and an apron. The woman nodded silently and walked back into the main house.

"The little girl is Naru, she is the daughter of some guests here. She's been a little sickly for all of her life, and her parents are hoping coming to the spring might help improve her health." Hina spoke softly, not wanting to startle or scare the children.

"And the little boy?" Haruka asked.

"What, you don't recognize your own nephew?" Hina smiled thinly again.

Haruka grimaced. She had been adopted by Hina after her parents' death, even though they were already of the same blood and family name. It was one of the ways that Hina tried to make her feel closer to her father's family, in addition to preventing a custody fight with her mother's family, who seemed to be a little too interested in Haruka's trust fund and family insurance payout. Since she was now considered Kouji's adopted sister instead of his niece, she would be his son's aunt instead of his cousin.

"I'm too young to be an oba-chan," Haruka muttered in disgust.

Hina went from a thin smile to a grin."You really don't have a choice in the matter, do you? Unless you plan to stay young forever."

"I'm working on it," Haruka replied, looking back at the little boy.

"Not if you keep smoking and racing motorcycles, you won't." Hina did not wait for a reply as she turned toward the sandbox. "Kei-kun, come over here!" she called.

The little boy stood up from the sand and carefully stepped over the enclosure before running over to Hina. "Granny!" he called just before he slammed into her, rocking her back slightly as his face was pressed into her stomach and wrapping his arms around her.

Hina smiled as she looked down at her grandson, ruffling his short dark hair, "Kei-kun, I have someone I want you to meet." Pulling away from Hina, the boy looked over and up at Haruka, who was looking down at him.

"Keitaro-kun, this is Haruka-chan, your oba-chan. Go ahead and say hi to her." Hina stepped back out of the way from in between the two.

The little boy squinted at Haruka, as though he could not see very well. Taking a couple steps forward, he spoke, his face contorting as his mouth formed around the unfamiliar name. "Ha- ru-… Ha- ru-…" He stopped for a moment before he grinned and started again. "Haru-chan! Haru-chan!"

Haruka smiled in spite of herself. The boy had such a sunny personality that it was hard not to smile in response. "Hi there, Kei-kun."

Keitaro smiled then said "Oba-chan?" saying it the same way he did for Granny Hina. The accent was on the second vowel of oba, which meant 'grandmother', or informally meant 'old woman'.

Haruka's smile slipped slightly. "No, oba-chan." She pronounced it with the accent on the first vowel, which was the correct way to say 'aunt'.

"Oba-chan, oba-chan!" Keitaro kept pronouncing it the first way, the way he did with Hina.

Haruka sighed. It was hard to stay mad at her smiling and bouncing baby cousin… nephew… whatever. "Haru-chan," she replied, deciding to cut her loses.

"Haru-chan!" To her surprise, Keitaro jumped up and into Haruka's arms, almost knocking the unprepared teen over before she steadied herself. The boy wrapped his arms around her neck and snuggled his face against hers. Haruka stood stiffly for a moment before she relaxed slightly.

"Oh, this is so cute!" Haruka and Keitaro turned at Hina's voice, just in time to be blinded by the flash of a camera. Trying to blink the spots from her eyes, Haruka stood there as she heard Hina take a couple more pictures, until finally she could see clearly again and saw Hina standing there with a smirk on her face, sliding a small camera back into a pocket.

"Haruka-chan, I have to do some things with the guests, could you keep an eye on the children until lunchtime?" Haruka knew that the question was anything but that. Saying no was not an option.

"Sure, Granny." It's not like she need sleep after her long night out.

"Oh, and can you help Kei-kun and Naru-chan with their sand castle? I want to take a picture of all of you together before lunch." Hina grinned at Haruka.

Smiling weakly, Haruka nodded."Not a problem, Granny." Looking back at the sand turtle, she knew this was Hina's way of getting back at her for staying out last night.

"Have fun, kids!" Hina turned and walked back into the house.

Turning her head, Haruka looked at Keitaro, who was staring at her solemnly. "Haru-chan smell bad."

Haruka's eyes went wide before she realized what he was talking about. His face had been next to her hair, which smelled of sweat and cigarette smoke. She sighed to herself; she did not want grooming criticism from a five year old, but the kid had a point.

"I'll wash up later, Kei-kun. Let's go work on your turtle… I mean your castle." Slowly putting him down on the ground, Haruka took his hand and walked toward the sandbox, the boy cheering and pulling her along.

1 - bosozoku - literally, violent running tribe; applied to motorcycle gangs in Japan. Some groups are relatively non-criminal, but some are recruiting grounds for the Yakuza (organized crime).

2 - seiza - formal sitting; kneeling on the floor with the feet tucked so the top of the feet are against the floor and the heels are in a 'V' shape with the person sitting between them. It can get very uncomfortable and/or painful if the person is not used to it, or they are in the position for too long.

Current time…

Haruka awoke from her memory dream with a start, instinctively looking around herself before she remembered where she was at. Sitting against the wall with her legs pulled to her chin, she was leaning against the wall by Keitaro's futon, where he was deeply asleep. A lamp was lit on Hina's desk, illuminating the room in dim light.

Using her not-small emergency medical knowledge, Haruka was able to determine that Keitaro did not have a concussion or any broken or dislocated bones from his fall from the stepladder. As such, Haruka was persuaded by Keitaro that he did not need to be taken to the hospital and could rest in his room instead. She had agreed on the condition that she could stay and keep an eye on him. He agreed, but did not realize that Haruka did not have a place to sleep without bringing in another futon, which she choose not to do as she did not want to get too comfortable. Otherwise, Keitaro would have insisted on giving his own futon to his aunt for her to rest on. Sometimes Keitaro was too noble for his own good.

Digging out her mobile phone, Haruka keyed it on and noted the time. It was 4:15 AM, never a good time to be awake. Given the headache she was getting now, she knew that she would not be able to go back to sleep easily, so she resigned herself to some deep thoughts in the dark.

Haruka was able to con Keitaro into believing that the reason she was staying with him was to make sure his injuries did not take a turn for the worse. That was partially true; however, most of the truth was that she did not want to leave her nephew alone in a room where someone who had almost physically assaulted him had easy access to him in his sleep.

Looking up at the board covering the hole in the ceiling, Haruka almost could not believe that the sweet but sickly young girl she had first met so many years ago was a man-hating berserker now. She had known that Naru had problems with boys and men harassing her - what attractive woman in Japan did not? - but she had always gone with the assumption that the males had instigated the problem, and that Naru was merely fending them off. But what Haruka had seen last night was beyond the pale. She was sure that if she had not intervened so overwhelmingly, Keitaro would have been badly hurt at the very least. It was one thing to punch a man groping you on the train, it was something else entirely to advance on a semi-conscious male with the intent to commit great bodily injury because he had accidently seen her in her underwear.

After getting Keitaro settled on his futon, Haruka called down to the teahouse on her mobile to ask Yoko to close up for her. The quiet part-timer was extremely reliable, having worked for her since she had opened the business, and having worked for Hina in the Hinata-sou for almost thirty years before that. The only reason she was still working instead of enjoying her retirement years was because she found staying at an empty home too depressing. Her three children had grown up and moved out, and her husband had passed on a couple of years ago. Ringing up sales on the register and cleaning up around the teahouse suited her, as well as filling the quiet times with her beloved paperback books.

After talking to Yoko, Haruka asked Shinobu to make some chicken and miso soup for herself and Keitaro. The young cook was glad to oblige, producing two large bowls of what seemed to be homemade soup, it was so tasty. Taking the bowls to Keitaro's room, she split the two bowls with him before he went to sleep for good.

Straitening her legs, Haruka crawled over to her nephew and watched him for a few moments. His respirations seemed to be easy and steady, he did not seem to be in pain, and his skin was warm but not hot and sweaty to the touch.

Haruka moved her fingers from his forehead to his throat and measured his heart rate. Sixty beats per minute, a good resting heart rate. Turning her hand so the back of her fingers were against his cheek, she could feel the downy hair that he had instead of the whiskers one would expect. Then again, Urashima men were not known for their beard growing abilities.

Moving back to the wall, Haruka leaned back and pulled her knees up to her chin again. Looking at her mobile again, she turned it on and went to the calls sent list, looking at the three unsuccessful calls she had made to Hina's mobile phone. The first two times the phone rang without an answer, the third time the call went straight to voicemail. Haruka did not know if Hina was avoiding her calls because of the stunt she pulled with Keitaro, but there was nothing to be done now. Instead, she left a message that Keitaro had been hurt and that she should call as soon as possible. There had been no call received after that.

Backing out to the mobile menu, Haruka went to the address book and scrolled to the house number for Keitaro's parents. She had not called them after the incident for two good reasons. One was that Keitaro did not seem to be seriously hurt, and she did not want to needlessly worry them. The other, more relevant, reason was the other person that lived with Kouji and Yuki; if she found out that not only was Keitaro was back in Tokyo but one of the people in the house he was in had injured him, she would hit the Hinata-sou like an American SWAT team hitting an inner-city meth lab, only with more histrionics, bloodshed and explosions.

Moving the address list to the listing marked 'Kanako U - mobile', Haruka considered her options. She did not want to leave Keitaro in a position where he was vulnerable to injury from one of the tenants. Naru was bad enough, but Motoko could be touchy too, and she was acting suspicious of the events of the last couple days. Keitaro was able to fend for himself normally, but right now he needed someone to watch his back. Haruka would have been more than glad to be his wingman, but she had a separate business to run, and needed to get some sleep eventually.

Rubbing the keys of the mobile, Haruka watched as the display went dim, then dark from the lack of activity. Keying the display back on, she considered her options.

The truth was Keitaro really had not made a decision if he was going to keep the dorm open. Given his experiences with first Motoko and now Naru, he would have completely justified in closing the dorm, or at least evicting those two, and maybe Kitsune as well. But Keitaro had a soft heart, at least as long as someone else was not being hurt. She knew that he would give those three a second chance. What it looked to be Haruka's job now was to make sure that those three did not hurt Keitaro or someone else as a result. She would not be able to watch his back indefinitely, but then again, she did not need to. That is what family was for.

Looking at the display of the mobile just as it went dim then dark again, Haruka noted that the time was now 4:30 AM. Still too early to make a non-emergency call. But after talking to Keitaro when he woke up later, she knew that a call was going to be made sometime afterwards.

Curling up, she looked back at Keitaro before closing her eyes so she could try and get back to sleep again. Now that the decision was made, she was able to doze off a few moments later.