Author Note: Sorry it took so long for me to post this new chapter. The good news is that at 6800 words it's almost twice the size of a regular chapter, and the long awaited room inspections finally take place. Unfortunately, the size of the chapter pretty much demands that Keitaro calling Kanako and the meeting announcing the new dorm rules will have to take place in the next chapter. Hopefully, that chapter will be posted later this week. Thanks for all the feedback, and I hope you all enjoy this new chapter.
After leaving the kitchen, Haruka pulled out her mobile phone to call down to the teahouse. Keitaro went ahead to his room to get his swim trunks and a change of clothes, then went over the hot spring. Seeing that the scrub room was empty, he was able to wash up fairly quickly before changing into the trunks. After peering into the mirror over the sink and rubbing his chin sadly, he headed over to the steaming pool and slowly lowered himself into the water. Giving a loud sigh, Keitaro was able to relax for a few minutes before he heard the door to the scrub room slide open.
"Hello, I'm in the pool back here," Keitaro called out, not wanting to have another unfortunate misunderstanding with one of the tenants again.
"Yeah, I kinda knew that, Kei-kun." Haruka strolled into the pool area, her body wrapped in a large towel while she carrying another one in her hands. "You might want to close your eyes and look away for a minute, though." Keitaro followed his aunt's suggestion, hearing some splashing and hissing as she lowered herself into the water before he heard, "OK, you can look now." Looking back at his aunt, he saw that she was sitting alongside him, but a short distance away. The vapor and water of the pool concealed almost everything however it was obvious that she was not wearing anything.
"You know, the tenants are going to get ticked if they come in here and see that you are in your birthday suit in the pool after I told them they have to wear swimsuits in here." Keitaro was not bothered by Haruka's nudity, as he had experience in the mixed gender public baths that were still somewhat common in Japan, although not as much as when he was younger. Also, Haruka usually warned him when she entered and left the family hot spring when they were both there, so in reality it was not like he saw very much.
"Yeah, well screw them, I'm not feeling very charitable." Keitaro raised an eyebrow at his aunt, who had made a pad out one of the towels and put it on the edge of the pool to rest her head on with her eyes closed. "After what Naru did last night and the holier-than-thou routine Motoko has going, I'm not in a good mood right now anyway."
"Is this something recent, or something that's you've been feeling for a while?" Keitaro asked.
"No, this is new. I've known the tenants since they all moved in here, but I've never interacted with them much. Granny was the one that was seeing them every day. Guess this is just me seeing their bad sides now." Haruka turned her head to one side then another, producing audible pops from her neck.
"OK, give me a thumbnail sketch, what you do know about them?" Keitaro wanted to hear his aunt's opinion on his tenants.
"Well… Kaolla Su is a hyperactive genius type, only she comes from a rich foreign family, so she can afford to do her research, and pay for the damages when they go boom."
"Wait, her experiments actually blow up?" Keitaro sounded concerned at that news.
"Well, every once in a while you hear a loud bang and some smoke comes out her room window, but Granny never mentioned any actual damage. The bigger risk is being run over by one of her mechanical turtles." Keitaro winced at that statement, already having had a run-in with MechaTama his first day at the Sou. "There are a couple of suit types that come in every week or so to check up on her, but Granny was the one that really kept an eye on her.
"Shinobu Maehara is the sweetest kid you'll probably meet, which makes it worse when her parents use her in a tug-of-war in their divorce. She ran away from home one day and met Granny in the park and started talking. By that evening Granny had brought her home, reamed her parents a new one for having Shinobu in their crossfire, and convinced them to let her stay at the Sou. They share custody of Shinobu, but they pretty much made Granny her guardian.
"Motoko Aoyama is the younger daughter from a clan in Kyoto. I don't know why they decided to send her to school in Tokyo, but they were friends of Granny, and she arranged for Motoko to stay here. The Aoyama clan is famous for their school of sword fighting and for being demon slayers, though there isn't much call for that these days." Haruka grinned. "Part of their school is using ki attacks, and I think you already saw that." Keitaro nodded ruefully.
"I don't know what the full story is, but Motoko had something of a falling out with some members of her family. Even so, she is still the heir of their kendo school, and she is always practicing with her sword on the roof in the laundry drying area or in the glen over by the Annex. She is not supposed to do her ki attacks except in a special area, so don't be afraid to get on her case if she does.
"Mitsune Konno was Naru's friend in school, even though she was a year ahead of her. When she graduated she didn't have the drive or the grades to get into a university, so she started doing part-time jobs to pay for her bills. Kitsune's a party girl, so she is always bar-hopping and looking for a good time. She's into horse racing and betting on it, so she really doesn't have a lot of money to spare. The only close members of her family she has left was some uncle or something, and they kept butting heads on her party ways, so she had to leave and find a place of her own. She came to crash with Naru for a while, then she talked with Granny and she let her have a room here. You have to watch out for her, since she doesn't have a lot of money she tries to scam people for sake and betting money, and you might be next on her list."
Haruka paused to catch her breath when Keitaro spoke up. "She may have already tried to do that. Or at least she tried to kiss me."
Looking over at him out of the corner of her eye, Haruka asked, "Tried to kiss you? What happened?"
Keitaro shrugged. "I was in the kitchen making tea, she was coming on to me, and when she started leaning into me, the tea kettle started whistling and I pulled away. She left after that."
"You didn't let her kiss you? Why not, she's an attractive girl." Haruka turned her head so both her eyes were focused on him.
"She's not really my type. Never really was into drinking, plus there is something about her that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Now that I know that she's a scammer, I know why I'm getting that feeling."
"You really think that she would seduce you for financial reasons?" Haruka asked seriously.
"Well, I do know that she is two months behind on the rent, she doesn't have a well paying job, and she was eyeballing me pretty hard when she found out that I'm the heir to the Sou. You do the math." Keitaro suddenly felt tired.
"As long as you know what you are dealing with." Haruka shrugged. "But now we have to talk about the biggest thorn here, Naru Narusegawa."
"I first met her when she was a little kid, and she was really nice. She's OK now, but she has a temper on her that belongs on a volcano. I don't know what the deal is, but she has problems with men. I mean, guys try crap on the trains and stuff, but Naru just blows up when that happens. Even Motoko doesn't do as much damage as Naru does when she really gets going. I've heard of men winding up with broken bones after she hits them, but they have all been after they tried to molest her, so the cops let it go.
"I don't know what happened to her in her life, but Naru doesn't want to be around guys who come on to her. I've seen her dress down and try and look nerdy when she goes off to that prep school of hers, but it doesn't work very well." Keitaro nodded. Even with her hair in braids and wearing her horn-rimmed glasses, Naru was still a very attractive girl. "Naru moved down to the Hinata-sou so she would be closer to Todai and the prep school she attends. Lately she's been working her butt off to do well in her studies, and it's been paying off. I heard that she gets the top scores at her prep school, let's just hope it stays that way when she takes the actual exam." Keitaro agreed with that, as he had some very personal experience with doing well with the prep work and messing up on the actual exam.
"Not that I don't know what you're going to say, but what do you think about doing with this place? Are you going to try and keep it open as a dorm, or are you going to shut it down?" Haruka sat up and turned so she was facing Keitaro now.
Keitaro sighed. "I know that in theory I really should shut down the dorm, but I don't want to boot those girls out on the street, especially Shinobu and Su. I don't feel a lot of sympathy toward Konno, but she and Aoyama and Narusegawa deserve at least one chance. I'm really going to have to lay down the law to them if we are going to make this work.
"Long-term, I want to make this place back into an resort inn again, but with the economy the way it is, I'm not sure that's really sustainable. Plus, there's Todai for me, and I wouldn't be able to study and hopefully attend if I have a full-time job here."
"Speaking of which, you are going to call Kanako to come over here, right?" Keitaro nodded at Haruka's question. "That's good, because you're going to need her for more than just help around the Sou. Tell me something first, what happened when you stuck your head though that hole in Naru's floor?"
Keitaro winced. "I was looking around to see where I was when I finally saw her. She was standing there turning beet red and then she started running towards me to kick at me, I guess. I tried to duck down, but I couldn't bend down far enough and when she hit the board, the force pushed me down hard enough to knock me loose from you and throw me from the ladder."
"You do know that if Naru had managed to kick you as enraged as she was, she could have taken your head off?" Keitaro nodded, his face grim. "And she wasn't going to stop when she dropped though the hole into your room. I was lucky I was able to shock her into stopping. I stayed last night to keep an eye on you, but I can't keep doing that.
"With Naru being the way she is, I think you're going to need Kanako to watch your back. I know you can defend yourself, but you may not be able to stop her without doing some major damage. With Kanako there, it might not get that messy."
"This is Kanako we're talking about here, right? The girl that doesn't understand the concepts of restraint or overkill?" Keitaro watched as Haruka's eyes scrunched shut in a wince.
"Hey, you're talking to her former sparring partner here, I know as well as you do what she can do in a fight. But I also know that if you are going to run this place you are going to need her, and not just to protect you from crazed tenants. If we set down some firm rules for her, I think she can do well here helping you."
Keitaro nodded. "Speaking of rules, we are going to have to set some for the tenants as well. I don't like the fact that Konno is drinking around the kids, and there is no real reason for Aoyama to be carrying around her actual sword all the time."
"Well, that is something we can sort out after we do those bloody inspections. Gods above, it feels like we've been talking about this for a week instead of just a couple days," Haruka complained.
Keitaro gave a rueful grin. "I know what you're talking about, Haru-chan." Looking down at his watch, he saw that the time was now 9:35 AM. "It's time to get going, after the inspections we'll go down to the teahouse and hash things out there. We can call Kanako after that, then make the announcements to the tenants tomorrow morning after breakfast."
"Sounds good, nephew mine." Haruka started to stand, but Keitaro was able to turn his head and close his eyes in time to not see much.
"Geez, Haru! Give a guy some warning!" Keitaro's face was red and it was not from the temperature of the water.
"Why? Do I have something you've never seen before?" Haruka stood there for a moment, one of her hands on her hip.
"No, but not since I was six years old." Keitaro keep his eyes firmly shut.
"Wasn't that when you would run out of the spring naked and streak the house, and I would have to chase you dressed only in a towel? Granny would be laughing her ass off and taking pictures at the same time?" Haruka stepped out of the spring and starting wrapping the towel around her.
Keitaro cringed. "Thank you for reminding me of that."
"You can look now." Opening his eyes, Keitaro saw that Haruka was covered up. "Give me a couple of minutes then come after me. I'll meet you at your room." Keitaro nodded as he hoisted himself out of the spring and started to dry himself off as she started to walk toward the scrub room.
"So, how do you want to do this, Kei-kun?"
Keitaro and Haruka stood at the head of the stairs on the second floor of the Sou. He could still see the scorch marks from Su's rockets launched from her MechaTama, and remembered that he had written it down as damages that need repairs, although not on an immediate basis. The hole in Naru's floor was the first repair on the immediate list, although he was going to wait for Kanako to show up first before going into *that* lion's den.
"Tell me who is in what room now?" Keitaro asked, looking down the corridor.
"Ok, starting from the left next to us is Kitsune's room, then Su's double room. Motoko's room is at the far right, then Shinobu's room, then Naru's is next to us on the right. As you may have realized, that puts your room right below Naru's." Haruka grinned at Keitaro with the last statement.
"Oh ha ha." Keitaro's back was still sore from last night's shenanigans. He remembered reading in Naru's tenant book entry that Granny had marked down that there was a hole in her room floor that needed repair, but that it was not an immediate concern. It had sounded like the hole was something like a mouse hole, not one big enough for someone to pass through. "We'll do this by the numbers, and leave the best for last."
Haruka watched as Keitaro stepped in front but slightly to the side of Kitsune's door so that he was mostly standing in front of the wall next to the knob. Reaching over with his left hand, he knocked on the door then pulled it back. Looking over at Haruka, who had an eyebrow raised, Keitaro scratched the back of his head and said sheepishly, "I once had a bad experience with a door and a full auto paintball gun."
Before Haruka could ask about that experience the door opened slowly, revealing Kitsune, her eyes blinking as though she had just woken up. Looking past her, Keitaro and Haruka could see the covers on the bed were rumpled, not that the bed or the room for that matter were anywhere near neat. "Good morning Manager-san, Haruka-san."
"Good morning, Konno-san. It's that time." Opening the door wider, Kitsune watched as the two Urashima walked through the door and stopped in the middle of the room. Looking around, they could see that while the room was somewhat messy with strewn clothes and magazines, there did not seem to be much wrong with the room itself. There was a laptop computer sitting on a low table to the side, as well as some notebooks that seemed to be filled with scribbles, empty soda cans and coffee cups.
"I take it housekeeping is not your strong suit, Konno-san?" asked Keitaro as he started writing on his clipboard, even though he was eyeing the nervously shifting fox girl.
"Not so much, I start writing a new article, next thing you know, stuff winds up all over the place." Kitsune was shifting from foot to foot.
"Well, the good thing is that there isn't food trash up here, that kind of thing brings in bugs and vermin." Keitaro walked over to the sole window of the room and pushed the faded curtain aside. The glass on the other side was very dusty, almost to the point of being opaque. Tugging slightly on the sash, the window stuck for a moment then slid upwards, releasing a small puff of dust. Pushing the window back down, Keitaro let the curtain drop back into place.
"There is no problems or damages in the room that need to be worked on, Konno-san?" Keitaro was scribbling on his clipboard as he walked away from the window and back to the center of the room.
"Nope, everything is pretty much fine the way it is." Kitsune was now clasping her hands in front of her.
"Even the dust?" Keitaro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well… maybe not that." Kitsune smiled, but it came out a bit forced.
"Hn." Keitaro noised as he glanced at his aunt, who had been silently standing there. Looking back at Kitsune he asked, "Is there a reason why you are so nervous, Konno-san?"
Kitsune grimaced. "I think we got off on the wrong foot, and I'm worried if I'm going to be able to stay here."
Keitaro nodded slightly. "I can understand that. There's nothing here so far that would prevent you from staying if I decide to keep the dorm open. There are going to be some new rules however, and following them will be a condition of tenancy here at the Sou."
Kitsune nodded her head. "I can follow the rules, don't have many options if I have to leave here."
Smiling slightly, Keitaro nodded toward his tenant. "I'm glad to hear that. That should be it, but there is just more thing, Konno-san."
"What's that?" The fox girl tensed slightly.
"If I were to ask Haru-chan to look in your closet, what would she find there?" Keitaro dropped the smile from his face and looked squarely at the younger woman.
Kitsune swallowed the lump in her throat. After a moment she answered, "A giant pile of dirty laundry and a box full of empty sake bottles."
Looking in her eyes for a long moment, Keitaro smiled slightly again. "I'll take your word for it. Please don't ever make me regret that, Kitsune-san."
Letting out a breath she did not know she was holding, Kitsune smiled as well. "Thank you Manager-san."
"There's going to be a meeting after breakfast tomorrow regarding the final decisions about the dorm. We'll see you around till then." Nodding his head to Kitsune, Keitaro turned and left the room, Haruka following behind him.
Stopping in the hallway, Keitaro was writing again when he felt his aunt's presence next to him. Looking up, he could see that her head was cocked slightly to the side as she looked at him.
"You know you were really psyching her out, right?" Haruka was surprised to see Keitaro smile at the remark.
"That was the point, Haru-chan. Konno has to realize that I'm in charge of the Sou now, and that playing games would really be a bad idea. I didn't want to scare her though."
"Well, you were on the ragged edge there, Kei-kun." Haruka reached over and lightly bopped Keitaro on the head. "But you got the job done."
"So next up is Su's room?" Keitaro started walking toward the end of the hall.
"Yep, and it would be a good idea to stand to the side of this door as well." The two Urashima stopped in front of the door with a placard attached marked with an odd insignia, which resembled three eyes in a triangle formation. There was some odd script below the eyes, but it was not recognizable as either Japanese or English.
"Oh?" Keitaro did as his aunt suggested, only this time his entire body was to one side as he reached over to knock.
"Yeah, I've heard from Granny what happens when Su's door is opened. It gets… interesting." Haruka stood behind Keitaro as he knocked.
For some reason, the force of his knuckles on the door panel pushed the door open, as though the door had not been properly secured.
The door had only reached the half-way mark as it opened before there was a barrage of loud pops, and what looked to a volley of suction cup darts launched through the half open door and hit the wall opposite it. Looking at the wall, Keitaro could see at least fifty darts quivering in place, reaching from floor to ceiling.
"Interesting, huh?" Keitaro looked over at Haruka, who merely shrugged in response.
"Last one." Keitaro and Haruka stopped in front of Narusegawa's door.
Inspecting the previous tenant rooms had proved interesting. Su's rooms had literally been the most exotic, as she had fake jungle trees and bushes set up in the first room instead of regular furniture, with a hammock strung between two of the trees. Dressers that resembled hollowed out tree trunks were against the back wall, and the smell of bananas filled the air. What sounded like recorded jungle birdcalls could be heard in the background; at least Keitaro hoped they were recorded.
The second room turned out to be a miniature yet fully stocked engineering lab, complete with full safety gear, reinforced Plexiglas work boxes… and forced air vents and blowout panels on the outside wall. Su had cheerfully stated that sometimes her experiments went a little… critical… at the wrong times, but with the safety gear there was little if any damage to the building.
Apparently, all of this had been paid for by Su's family, as well as the installation. Granny had approved of all of it at the cost of triple the normal rent, plus Su's family paying for an extensive insurance policy. Keitaro resolved to closely look over Su's rental agreement to see what was involved, and to maybe glean what Granny was thinking in making this kind of agreement with a 14 year old girl.
Aoyama's room was more calming, even if there was literally a certain… edge… to it. She had no bed or chairs, instead having tatami mats and a futon on the floor along with a low table to work at. There was a couple of dressers along one wall, but what really drew a person's attention was along the opposite wall.
A full set of what looked to be custom fitted samurai armor was displayed on a upright rack. The armor was lacquered in gloss black and crimson, and a fearsome demon's mask was the faceguard to the iron helmet.
Beside the armor was something that was just as impressive, even if it did not have the literal flash that the armor did. Two swords sat upon a horizontal rack on a low table, the longer curved katana blade on top, with the shorter and straighter wakizashi blade set below it, both with natural colored wooden mounts and in plain wooden sheaths. A vertical rack was on the floor next to the table held wooden training swords, including light bamboo shinai and heavier solid boken.
Knowing how touchy kendoists were about people handling their swords, Keitaro politely asked Motoko to draw her sword from its sheath and hold it so he could look at it. Motoko did not look greatly enthused by the request but did as she was asked. Keitaro and Haruka had been greatly impressed by the blade of the katana, which Motoko had informed them was named Shisui. The grain of the steel was clearly visible, and the hamon, the line where the difference in tempering showed between the hardened razor sharp steel of the edge and the softer spine of the sword that allowed the sword to flex instead of shatter, undulated in a near perfect wavy pattern.
Shinobu's room was everything that one would expect from a teenage girl's room, although one that maybe had not reached adolescence. The western style bed looked like it would pass the most hardened drill sergeant's inspection, although he would not be impressed with the trio of plushy bears sitting on top of the pillows along with other plushies sitting on top of the dresser and a couple of shelves. A sole picture in a frame sat on the western style desk; a smiling couple and what looked to be a much younger Shinobu, presumably in happier times. The carpet was freshly vacuumed, and if there was dust in the room, it was hiding in a deep dark corner.
Finally coming up to the last room to be inspected, Keitaro took a deep breath. Looking over his shoulder to see that Haruka was once again behind him and giving him an encouraging thumbs up, he reached over and knocked on the door.
After a few moments, the door opened and Naru was standing there, a frown not quite on her face. A moment passed before she could bring herself to speak. "Good Morning Manager-san, Haruka-san."
"Morning, Narusegawa-san. It's time for the room inspection." Keitaro said in a semi-cheerful voice. One corner of Naru's mouth ticked before she stepped back and opened the door fully.
Stepping inside the room, Keitaro and Haruka saw that Naru's room was a weird combination of what they had seen in Kitsune's and Shinobu's rooms. Furnished western style, the room was similar to Shinobu's but it was certainly more of like Kitsune's in that instead of a desk a low table was off to the side with text books, prep guides and notebooks stacked on top, along with a laptop computer. Other books and study materials were spread throughout the room, and on top of the dresser was a framed picture of a younger Naru and Kitsune, both in high school uniforms and flashing 'V' signs and wide smiles at the camera. Another picture was alongside of Naru with an older couple and a younger girl, presumably her family.
"This should not take very long, Narusegawa-san, we just have to ask some routine questions." Keitaro winced at what he had just said; he sounded more like a police investigator than a dorm manager.
"Fine, go ahead." Naru crossed her arms in front of herself, her hands holding her elbows. Given what he knew of body signals, Keitaro knew this was a defensive posture.
"How long has that hole been in the floor, Narusegawa-san?" Keitaro gestured to the section of the floor covered with a piece of plywood, a large plushy sitting on top of it.
"About six months now. It was when I had first started at prep school." Naru tightened her arms and looked away from the hole.
"What did Granny Hina have to say about the hole?" Keitaro was more than a little curious to Hina's reaction, as the notation in the tenant book had literally been two lines - 'Hole in Naru's floor, covered. No rush to repair'.
"I don't think she minded it, actually. I would push the cover to the side and we would talk to each other at night though the hole." Naru's hands slipped from her elbows and down, to where her hands were clasped in front of her.
"Did she ever tell you what she was going to charge you for the repairs?" This was something of a trick question, as Keitaro knew that Granny Hina could be forgiving of someone if she thought they were not truly at fault. If she thought that you had screwed up on your own however, gods above help you.
"She gave me the choice of either paying the equivalent of half my rental deposit at once or pay it off over several months. I paid extra on the rent for three months."
Keitaro nodded as he wrote something down on his clipboard before looking up and at her directly. "Is there any other damage in the room that I should know about?"
"No, everything else is fine here." Narusegawa looked at him for a moment before looking away.
Keitaro walked over to the board on the floor and looked down at it. There was a large crack running through it, directly under where the plushy sat. "You know that even with the hole covered it's still a safety hazard? I'll have to repair it, and as soon as possible."
Naru nodded. "I understand. When are you going to do it?"
Keitaro shrugged. "I have to wait for my sister to arrive, that will be in a day or so. I'll give you fair warning, and she's going to be assisting me." He dropped down to one knee beside the board and gestured towards the plushy. "You want to pick up Lido-kun for a minute?"
Naru nodded jerkily and stepped over in front of him, picking up the plushy and hugging it to her chest. Keitaro moved the board to one side and started inspecting the hole in the floor, looking closely at the edges and the structural supports that ran through alongside them. After a minute of looking and writing notes, he pushed the board back and looked over at Naru. "You can put Lido-kun back now."
Standing up as Naru put the plushy back on the board, Keitaro waited for a moment before Naru was looking at him again. "There is one more thing we have to talk about. Your temper." Naru's face had a combination of worry and anger on it as she nodded her head but did not say anything.
"I know we got off on the wrong foot," Haruka had to suppress a snort at the understatement, "and we've had some misunderstandings," Haruka was barely able to control the cough that would have escaped at that one, "but you do realize that you did overreact to what were essentially accidents?"
Naru did not look happy as she responded. "Look, I know I have a temper problem. It's just that so much crap happens that the only way to stop it is to punch the perverts that are doing it. It's one of the reasons I moved here, to be closer to my prep school and Todai, and not have to take so many trains and trolleys."
Keitaro's eyes widened. "The problem is getting that bad?" The answer to that came from behind him.
"Yeah, it gets bad, Kei-kun," Haruka replied. "The train lines had to set up female-only cars to cut back on the gropings. Even so, there is a lot that goes on, and even with the transit police on the lookout, with the trains as packed as they are, a lot of stuff happens. I try not to take the trains myself, and if I do, one time out of three someone will try something."
"What do you do about it, Haru?" His aunt was not the type to take that kind of thing very well.
"I break fingers, wrists, or knee them in the balls, usually." Haruka stated calmly. "If they really get out of hand, or there are more than one of them, I start using the family techniques."
Keitaro winced at that. The Urashima family techniques were not a martial arts system per se, as much as they were a collection of almost every underhanded maneuver and dirty trick the various family members had come across, both Eastern and Western. While most Urashimas trained in some formal martial arts system, the family techniques were only used in situations where they were in serious danger.
"You said that you were shown how to protect yourself in school, Narusegawa-san? What did that training consist of?" Keitaro turned back to the tenant.
"How to punch and hit correctly, so I won't be hurt by it and to make sure the target goes down. That was pretty much it." Naru replied.
Keitaro sighed at that. That was probably the most irresponsible way to teach someone to fight. When a person only had one or two ways to fight, they would have to responds to all threats the same way, regardless of the actual level of danger. It was a literal physical example of the old axiom that when the only tool you have is a hammer, then all problems begin to look like nails.
"You didn't answer my question though, Narusegawa-san. You do realize that the altercations we had were the result of accidents, and not deliberate action on my part?" Keitaro was looking steadily at Naru, who was trying not to squirm.
"Yeah, I know that now." Naru did not look happy at the admission.
"And that if you had let me explain myself in either case, it would not have gone as far as it did?" Keitaro continued with his line of thought.
"Yes." Naru's face flushed and she looked down at the plushy and away from the eyes of the two Urashima.
"If you are to continue living here Narusegawa-san, you have to get a much better grip on that temper. I can defend myself normally, but last time I couldn't, and my aunt had to protect me. I don't want that to happen again, because it's not just you and I living here, it's other people, some of whom can't defend themselves at all. Remember what Haruka said earlier about battle rage? You're almost a textbox example of it."
Naru did not say anything to that, only nodding her head in a jerky manner. Keitaro and Haruka could see that the anger was pretty much gone from her expression, leaving only the worry.
"I'm going to let you in on a little secret, Narusegawa-san. Will you be able to keep quiet about it? It's not a bad thing." Naru considered for a moment then nodded. "I'm going to leave the dorm open and let the current tenants stay." Naru's head jerked up as she looked at him wide-eyed as Keitaro continued. "However, there are going to be some new rules put in place that are as a result of specific tenants, and you're going to know who they are. One of them is going to be you."
Keitaro paused for a moment, and as Naru did not say anything, continued talking. "The rule is going to be that tenants are not allowed to use force against each other unless they sincerely think they are in danger or that someone else is in danger. The force to be used in that case will be proportional and necessary. For example, if someone were to fall on you, you should only push them away. If they continue to assault you, or they are deliberately attempting to hurt you, then you can use greater force to stop them. Even then, it has to be reasonable. Punching someone to stop them is one thing; punching someone hard enough to blast a hole though them probably isn't." Naru flinched but after a moment nodded.
"And I have to tell you one more thing. You already had two strikes with what happened in the hot spring, and what happened in my room last night. This is your last chance, if you come at someone without good reason, and with unnecessary levels of force, I will evict you. Understand?" Naru nodded. "I have to hear you say it, Narusegawa-san."
"I understand." Naru said quietly
"If a decision to evict someone is needed, it's going to be determined by myself, my sister, and Haruka together. I have to tell you, I'm probably the nicest one of the lot." Haruka fake-scowled at Keitaro, but he just smiled at her before continuing. "I'm sorry it came to this, but I have people to protect here, with me being the least of them. If I have to defend myself or someone else here at the Sou because you are in a rage, you're probably going to sustain a lot of damage before you finally stop. So I will help you with some basic training that will help you control your temper. That training will also be a condition of you staying here. Are you going to be able to live with that, Narusegawa-san?"
"Yes, yes I can." Naru looked back at the two of them, determination starting to rise in her face.
"Good then. I would have hated to throw a fellow Lido-kun fan out of the Sou." Naru got a quizzical look on her face as Keitaro nodded down at the plushy on the floor next to them. "I used to watch 'Lido-kun and Friends' on TV when I was a boy with my friends. It's one of my happier memories." Keitaro smiled at the tenant, who cautiously returned the smile.
"We're all done here, Narusegawa-san. Haru-chan and I are going down to the teahouse to talk some things over, we are going to tell everyone the decision and the new rules tomorrow after breakfast, my sister should be here by then. Remember to keep that secret under your hat for now. If Kitsune-san starts worrying too much though, just tell her you have a feeling everything will be fine."
Walking to the door, Keitaro waited for Haruka to catch up with him before opening it. "Have a good night, Narusegawa-san," he said as the two left the room.