Ch 32

V 1.0

start flashback

Tsujimoto/Kobayakawa Residence
Koto City, Tokyo, Japan
Early January
(eight months to story start)

Seeing that there was only an short elderly lady standing in the hallway, Miyuki unlatched the lock and with the combo gun behind her leg opened the door. "Can I help you, Ma'am?"

"You can if you are Miyuki Kobayakawa and Natsumi Tsujimoto." As the two women stared at her, the older woman smiled. "My name is Hina Urashima, Keitaro's grandmother, and I think it would be a good idea to talk. I have a proposition for you I think you both will like."

After blinking for a few moments, Miyuki's senses returned to her. "Please come in, Urashima-san," she said politely as she gave a medium bow. "Please have a seat. Would you like something to drink?"

The older woman stepped into the apartment and casually slipped her shoes off, kicking them to the side so they fell beside the other shoes lined up beside the door. As Miyuki close the door behind her (and slipped her combo gun back into her purse) Hina took a quick look around the apartment. Her dark eyes did not miss much, as they went over the crowded bookshelves, the dining room table bare of anything except for a bottle of sake and a cup, and the brown haired young lady standing on the other side of the living room, looking like she was barely restraining herself from fidgeting.

"If you don't mind, I would like some hot sake. I need to chase the chill from these old bones." Hina stated as she walked over to the table and sat down opposite the bottle and cup.

"Of course. It will only take a couple of minutes." Natsumi had left a bottle of sake in a pot of water earlier, so it only took a little while for Miyuki to heat it and serve to their guest. Once that was done, she walked around the table and sat down next to her partner. "How can we help you Urashima-san?"

"Well, first off, you can call me Granny Hina. I have enough people in my life calling me 'Urashima-san'." Hina raised the ceramic cup full of hot sake and took a deep drink. "Ah, that's good."

"If you insist, Granny Hina." Miyuki probably would have continued using 'Urashima-san', but an instinct inside of her told her to go along with it. "You said that you have a proposition for us?

"Yes, but first, I have a couple of questions for you." Hina smiled at the two girls, but it was not a nice smile; it was more along the lines of 'I know something you don't'. "What is your relationship with my grandson Keitaro? You have barely known him for a month, correct?"

"Yes, we met when a friend of ours, Noriyasu Seta, asked if we would train Keitaro-kun in firearms usage and tactics for his new contract labor job. Natsumi-san and myself are police officers, and Natsumi-san has trained with the Special Unit." The Special Attack Team name had been retired by the police department as being too aggressive. "After spending time with him, we became good friends."

"Very good friends, if you are inviting him to stay overnight with you." Hina looked from Miyuki, who was starting to blush, to Natsumi, who had kept quiet and was starting to become pale.

"Yes… very good friends, I guess you could say." Miyuki did not know where their visitor was going with this, since she did not look upset about it.

"Good enough that the female residents were complaining about it. The males probably were recording certain nights." Now both girls were turning pale, at both the images that came to mind and the fact that their guest was bring this up.

"If I can ask, why are you here, Urashima-san? It doesn't sound like you're upset with us being with Taro-kun." Natsumi finally spoke up. "And how is it that you know about us and him?"

Granny Hina smiled thinly. "Well, I wanted to meet the women my dear grandson lost his virginity to." By now the two girls were almost ashen; while Keitaro had told them he had not dated in school, they did not think that he was a virgin, and given how skilled he was in his time with them, they had some justification for thinking that. "And as to how I know, the apartment manager forwarded the complaints to me and I did some poking around."

"Why would the manager forward the complaints to you?" Miyuki had the feeling she would not like the answer, and she was right.

"Oh, I'm the owner of the building." Hina's smile grew to show teeth, before she took another deep drink from her sake cup. She refilled the cup, pointedly not noticing that Miyuki was swaying where she was sitting, and the two girls were now holding hands out in the open rather than just under the table as before.

Looking back up, Hina gave a slight frown. "Oh, buck up, I'm not here to cause you two problems. I'm like my granddaughter Kanako; when I want to mess with someone, they never see me coming." Hina sipped at the sake, watching as Natsumi and Miyuki pulled themselves together. "Now, what are your intentions with my grandson?"

The two police women looked at each other, silently communicating through slight blinks, eyebrow twitches, shrugs, and nods. After a long moment, they came to an agreement and they turned to face the patiently waiting elder.

"We both care very deeply for Keitaro-kun, and we would not mind having a more… committed relationship with him," Miyuki explained. "However, since he left for a year long trip, we all agreed to not get too deeply involved, and to get back in touch with each other once he returned, to see if we want to continue our relationship. That is all we can do at this point, in any case."

"Don't you think you are both a little selfish, two older women involved with a younger man? One with little worldly experience?" Hina was swirling the sake in her cup but she was focused on the darker haired woman across from her.

"I think of it more along the lines of both Natsumi-chan and I being lucky enough to meet such a wonderful man like Keitaro-kun. That is the reason we were both with him, since the chances of finding another man like him are very small." Miyuki was looking directly at Hina, not flinching at her gaze.

"Which also explains why the two of you were involved with each other before you met him." Hina remarked lightly, seeing blushes on their faces again. "But the question now is what you intend to do now that he left." The elder watched as the two girls frowned in puzzlement. "For one thing, I do know that neither of you are on birth control and you aren't using condoms."

The two girls almost immediately went pale. "How do you know that?" Natsumi managed to choke out.

"You would be surprised what you can learn from someone's trash, especially when there are people going through it for recyclables." Hina drank from her cup again before looking at them levelly. "So, were you trying to get pregnant or were you just overwhelmed by how manly my grandson is?"

The two girls looked at each other for a moment. "It's more the second than the first." Miyuki was barely able to speak steadily. "We would not be adverse to the first happening in the future."

Hina nodded knowingly. "And I would not be opposed to that in theory, especially since Keitaro-kun is the only male of his generation left in our family. That is why I came to make you both a proposition. I take it neither of you are pregnant right now?" Natsumi and Miyuki were barely able to keep from recoiling in shock at the question, but they both shook their heads in a negative answer. "Pity. That would have made what I am offering much easier."

"Which is?" Miyuki asked apprehensively.

"Why, producing the next generation of Urashima. I don't know if Keitaro-kun told you, but he has had problems finding a girlfriend, due to his studies. I would really much prefer for him to find a nice young girl and get married, but due to certain obligations and promises he has made, that is not likely to happen anytime soon, especially since he is on this contract labor job. So I wanted to give you both the chance to accomplish both of our goals; I want for our family to expand, and you are looking for someone to give you the children you are both desiring."

Hina looked from one girl to the other, and while Natsumi looked apprehensive, Miyuki looked intrigued. "I did a deep background check on both of you when I found out you were involved with Keitaro-kun, and both of you came back as acceptable candidates for marriage. While I cannot promise you that Keitaro will wed either of you, due to his promise girl," here Hina paused for a moment, and both girls nodded, indicating that they knew the major reason for Keitaro's commitment to entering the University of Tokyo, "I can assure you that if either of you bear my grandson's children, either as his wives or his unmarried concubines, I will arrange for the Urashima name to be given to them, and for full support to be paid for their upbringing. All I ask is that my family have partial custody, so that the children can be brought up in the traditions of our family."

"How partial would the custody be?" Miyuki asked suspiciously. This was sounding a little too good to be true.

"If you chose to live separate from our family, something along the lines of the children being with our family on weekends and perhaps a month or two during the summer. If you chose to live with the family or are married to Keitaro-kun, you would essentially be in charge of their day to day upbringing." Hina watched as the girls looked at each other again before looking back at her. They stayed silent, but the elder Urashima could see the question on their faces they did not want to ask. "As to their support, if you were to live separate from the family, the support would come out to about one and a half times what you are making as police officers. This would be along with your living quarters being paid for."

"I hate to say this, but what is the catch, Urashima-san?" Natsumi could have put it a little better, but both Miyuki and herself were thinking essentially the same thing.

"Well, besides have to cut back on the drinking in your case Natsumi-san , and probably having to give up your jobs as patrol officers and take something a little more family friendly if you still want to work, I guess the worse part of this deal is having to deal with me." Hina smiled thinly again. "Contrary to popular belief, I don't mess with people's lives for the fun of it. There generally is a reason why I do what I do. And it is very much possible to change my mind if you can present your reasons. Granted, it doesn't happen very often."

"Does Keitaro-kun know about this offer you are making?" Natsumi suddenly asked out of left field.

"No, he doesn't. He has enough to deal with in his new job, and this really would not take effect until he returned anyway." Hina drank from her cup, draining it. "Gods willing, once he returns we can present this to him."

Pushing herself back from the table, Hina rose to her feet, the two girls automatically doing the same. "Well, I've said all I've had to say for now." Reaching into her purse, Hina pulled out a business card and scribbled a phone number on the back. "For now, I'll leave you to think about this. If you have any questions, you can call me at this number. I can see myself out. " Moving toward the door, the elder Urashima turned toward the two young women and gave a medium bow, which they automatically returned. "I hope things work out well in the future, for all of us." Giving a short head bow, Hina slipped through the door and closed it behind her.

The two girls stared at the door for a long moment before they both sat back down at the table, although it was more along the lines of a near collapse. Miyuki picked up the now cold cup of sake in front of her partner and quickly downed it, with Natsumi grabbing the sake bottle and drinking directly from it. The two sat in silence for a long moment.

"Would you do it?" Natsumi asked, glancing at the bottle to see how much was left inside before looking back at her lover.

"Yes. Yes I would. I know I haven't told you, but I do want a child, so very much. And Keitaro-kun would be the perfect father." Miyuki watched as Natsumi refilled her cup before drinking from the bottle again.

"So were you trying to get pregnant?" the brown haired girl asked.

Miyuki shook her head. "Not deliberately, no. But that is what made it feel so good when Keitaro-kun would finish inside of me, the idea that he could be putting a child in me." A tear started to stream down her cheek. "Gods, I want him back as soon as possible."

"I know, Yuki-chan. I know." The two girls sat with their heads against each other, mourning their absent lover, and praying for him to safely return to them as soon as he could.

end flashback

Metro Tokyo Railways
en route to Hinata City
Early December
late afternoon
(three months after story start)

Goddamn it. Goddamn it. Goddamnit goddamnit goddamnit. Keitaro was standing with an arm hooked around a vertical handhold rail support, his eyes looking out at the passing landscape but not focused on anything in particular as he thought to himself.

Keitaro was not an angry person. Anyone who spent any amount of time around him realized this in fairly short order. But while the young ronin was normally in a good or at worse serious mood, there were times that his blood began to boil. Ironically enough, it was not usually when someone was causing him problems or distress, but when someone else was being hurt, all bets were off.

He had not gotten angry when Kanako was taken by that bosozoku gang; things had happened too fast for Keitaro to get more than scared for his sister. But when Sarah had been taken by those Thai pirates and he did not know if Seta was going to survive his wounds, it was as though something ugly awoke in his chest, something that he wanted no one else to see.

Goddamnit goddamnit goddamnit.

Duty, Honor, Family. Those were three words that Keitaro did his best to live by. People would consider Keitaro's dedication to maintaining his honor, and by extension keeping his promises to be admirable. However, when they were told that the main reason he was studying to enter Todai was because of a promise made when he was five years old to a girl the same age whose neither face nor name he could remember so that they could reunite and live happily ever after, people tended to look at him a little weird. That was nothing compared to the reactions he had gotten from Gaz and Yuri when they had heard about the promise. Even though the other two security contractors had been among some of the most admirable men he had ever met, they had trouble wrapping their minds around the idea that a promise made before he had even entered school could affect his life so.

Keitaro was proud of the values that he guided his life. Those values and the support he had received from his family were what made him the man he was today. And when there were circumstances that affected his life due to obligations, he could pass it off as duty; he did not have to be happy about it, such as when Granny Hina made him the manager of the Hinata-sou, he just had do what was required. He could understand the necessity for what she did. But what he had just found out was enough to make his temper to rise.

Goddamnit, Granny.

He had never had anything resembling a romantic relationship when he was younger. Most of his time was spent either in his studies, learning and practicing martial arts, or passing time with his family. This was not to say that he was not attracted to the fairer sex; Keitaro was as much an admirer of the female form as the next adolescent male. It was his lack of experience in talking with girls his age, and an unfortunate tendency to be clumsy and either spill stuff or fall on them that made his few attempts at dating fail so epically. It was not something he had been overly worried about, since he figured that when the time came, either he would reunite with his promise girl or he would find someone else to get involved with.

Natsumi and Miyuki were the first girls that he had ever gotten intimate with, Kyoko stealing his first kiss notwithstanding. Physical pleasures aside, the thing that had made him the most proud had been that they had decided they wanted to be with him… two girls were willing to share him! It sounded like something out of some ecchi doujin, and not something that would happen in real life.

Keitaro had been more than a little hesitant to get involved with the girls again due to that disbelief once he came back from Thailand and took over as manager of the Hinata-sou. Surely they could find someone better than him, a failed ronin with blood on his hands.

But just when he could feel the heat of their embraces, could taste the passion in their kisses, they dropped the bomb on him that instantly cooled all the passion that had been boiling in his blood. Granny's goddamned offer.

He knew that Natsumi and Miyuki were not after him because of the offer. Or at least, he was reasonably sure that they were not after him for money. While the Urashima family was known for being a noble samurai family, and for having partial interests in various businesses and properties, they were not zaibatsu level rich. What did concern him was if they were after him so they could have children. They were both in their late twenties, and even though the prejudice against older females was not as it was before, becoming a Christmas cake girl, someone that was older than twenty five yet not married yet, was still something they had to contend with. Natsumi was not someone he could see as desperate to have children, given her tomboyish personality, but Miyuki… Keitaro had seen a glimpse of sadness in her eyes when the subject had come up on the bridge. She was someone that he could definitely see wanting to have a child, but as much as Keitaro wanted to make the dark haired girl happy, he did not think he was anywhere near ready to become a father. Never mind the fact that he was running the Sou and studying to enter Todai, he wanted to be a part of his children's lives; just giving a child his family name and money for support was nowhere near what he wanted.

Family… Gods in heaven, how was Kanako going to take this? She was not a blood relation, but her attraction was more than a little worrying to him, especially since their sibling relationship was the only thing that he could use to stave off any form of romance with her. But Kanako was not letting any little thing like being his adopted sister get in the way of her feelings. Given the causal way that Japanese people looked upon physical relationships between family members that were against the law in many other countries, it was a surprise that he was able to hold off as long as he had. Kanako was a very attractive girl to be sure with her slender but curvy body, even with the suppression of most of her emotions. But Keitaro would not help but think back of the little five year girl he had first met, all long black hair and tears streaming down her face, whimpering in the thoes of nightmares when she first came to the Urashima house. It was only when his nine year old self had taken her into his arms in a hug and promised to always protect her that she would calm down.

But now things had gotten both better and worse with Kanako. Better in that she had more of a life, with many different interests to occupy her. Worse, as in she was even more attracted to him and not shy in showing it to him. The only saving grace was that it only happened when the two were alone, or Haruka was there at most. But having his romantically obsessive little sister hear that Granny gave the OK for him to have children with two other women? Keitaro was reasonably sure that Kanako would not kill him in his sleep, but he was not sure the same could be said about Natsumi and Miyuki. The brown haired girl was strong enough and had enough martial arts training to defend herself in case the younger Urashima attacked her, but Miyuki did not. If the dark haired police woman had enough warning so that she could draw her custom pepper spray/taser combo gun she had a chance, but Kanako was nothing if not stealthy, as Motoko learned to her dismay.

Motoko. That was someone he had not thought about recently. Kanako had checked up on her, and the newly short haired girl had apparently found a new place to live, a room at a boarding house that was decent enough. However, she apparently need more money on which to live, since she was looking for part time work that she could do when she was not in school, but with no luck so far.

Keitaro sighed as he looked around and saw that the train was about to reach his station. He was feeling calmer now, but he was still worried about Kanako and her reaction. If worse came to worse, he could just break off his relationship with the two police girls. As much as he wanted to be with them again, he did not want to bring down the massive levels of pain that Kanako could unleash when she was on a full tear.

Natsumi and Miyuki… He could see that they wanted to be with him, even more so than he wanted to be with them. They had not been happy to hear him tell them that he needed to think about things after they told him about Granny's offer, but he had promised that he would call them a few days. The sad and anxious looks on the two girls' faces when he walked away from the bridge was nothing like the eager happiness that had been then when they had first gotten together, but as much as he wanted to make the girls happy, he had to straightened things out in his mind first, to go over Granny's offer.

Granny's offer.

Granny.

It was all Granny's fault, wasn't it? Keitaro could see where she was coming from in making the offer, with his being the only young Urashima male left in the family but apparently she did not care so much about the havoc it would cause. He was reasonably sure his parents would not be too happy, Haruka would not really care, but Kanako would be like having a half empty barrel of gasoline hit with a tracer round; an epic explosion, followed by lots of flames and destruction.

This was all Granny's fault. First leaving him in charge of the Hinata-sou with no warning so she could go on her so-called world hot springs tour, then dropping this in his lap. She would totally deserve having all this dropped on her instead.

There was a thought, was it? Blame Granny. Tell Kanako that Granny had made an offer to the two girls to have his children with the Urashima name, leave their names out of it, and have her go off on the interfering old woman. It was not like Kanako could track her down and beat the crap out of her. Even if she could find her, Hina was so far above Kanako's level she would probably drop her in three moves… and more than likely only two.

Keitaro smiled thinly to himself as he stepped off the train onto the platform. While his problems where nowhere near over, he now had a viable plan in how to initially deal with them.

Hinata-sou Dormatory
Early December
early evening

"We need to talk."

Four more scary words could not be thought of from any language. Having her older brother tell her that after dinner, with his aunt standing behind him and both of them with solemn looks on their faces, did not make it any better.

Kanako followed Keitaro and Haruka as they walked though the wooded glen behind the Sou. It was the same area where they had initially taken the seals off the Hina Honor Sword, and it was almost the same time of day. However, this time the three quarters moon was above their heads, and there was enough light for the three of them to walk between the trees with little trouble.

Reaching the clearing with the boulder that they had rested the sword case on, Keitaro stopped and turned to face Kanako. Haruka turned as well, standing shoulder to shoulder with her erstwhile cousin. The cold white moon light was illuminating both their faces, and Kanako could feel dread start to form around her heart. People did not go to this much trouble for good news.

"Kanako-chan, there are some things I need to tell you. You are not going to be happy about any of it. I am not doing this with the intention of hurting you, but someone forced my hand." Keitaro had a serious look on his face as he spoke. He watched as his little sister completely focused on him, which made him more than a little nervous. He had spoken with Haruka earlier about his idea on how to break the news to Kanako about the police girls and Granny's offer, and while she was willing to go along with Keitaro's plan, she also thought there was a fair chance of Kanako blowing up, which is why they were in the woods right now.

"As you suspected, I got romantically involved with someone in December of last year. What you probably didn't know was it was not just one girl. And no, I was not cheating on her, they both knew about each other." Keitaro said, seeing Kanako's eyes narrow and her fists clench.

"They both knew that I was leaving for Thailand in January for what was supposed to be a year long trip, so we all decided not to get too emotionally involved. We agreed that once I got back from the trip I would call them and see if we wanted to get back together again. Even though it's been three months since I got back home, I barely called them the other day." Here Keitaro paused to look at Kanako; while she was visibly angry, she did not look to be very much so.

"They were happy to hear from me, so we met at a park." Keitaro was being very careful not to give either names or locations in anything that he was saying, since he did not want to give Kanako the means to backtrack to the girls. "They wanted to get back together with me, but they felt that they had to tell me something in order to keep things honest between us. Granny Hina had found out about us and went to talk to them."

"What did she say?" Given how emotional Kanako was, her voice sounded gravelly as her head dipped downwards. Keitaro looked at her carefully before continuing.

"She did not have a problem with the girls being with me. In fact, she wanted to encourage it." Keitaro paused for a moment. "She told the girls that if they were to have my children, either as wives or concubines, they would receive the Urashima name and financial support, as long as we had partial custody."

At that moment both Keitaro and Haruka were almost blown off their feet by a massive ki release, dwarfing anything they had ever felt before with the exception of the Hina Demon Blade being drawn. But instead of the cold feeling of anger they had previously experienced, the furnace-like heat of the orange reddish glow starting to form around the motionless younger girl was the greatly feared rage ki,.

"Kanako! KANAKO!" Keitaro shouted, trying to get closer to her but not being able to do so. "Please, don't do this, Kana-chan!" He was afraid, both for his sister and for what could occur. He had heard stories about people becoming locked into a rage ki release, with destruction and death as a result. "Please, come back to me, I need you! You're family, you will always be a part of my life!" To his horror, the ki started to intensify for a few moments before to his shock and relief, it started to recede, steadily but surely dropping before the orange glow disappeared completely. When that happened Kanako dropped down to her knees, openly crying. Keitaro was next to her in a heartbeat, enveloping her in a hug.

"I'm sorry Kana, I'm so sorry." Keitaro was not quite sure what he was apologizing for, all he knew was that his little sister was suffering because of him. He held her for a while, listening as her sobs dropped down to sniffles before she looked up at him, her eyes bloodshot and more than a little scary.

"I'm sorry too, Kei-kun." The male Urashima frowned as he looked at her.

"Sorry for what, Kana-chan?" Keitaro was in no way prepared for her response.

"For this." Moving swiftly, Kanako kissed him fully, her tongue instantly invading his mouth. For a few moments Keitaro was too shocked to respond, before he tried to pull away with no great success as her arms were wrapped around his back. Just as an astounded Haruka was going to pull them apart, Kanako broke the kiss and pulled back and away, stumbling to her feet. Turning, she started to walk away.

"Where are you going, Kana-chan?" The question came from Haruka, as Keitaro was still on his knees, his eyes wide as he looked at her.

"I am not going to look for your girlfriends," the way Kanako pronounced the word was as though it left a foul taste in her mouth. "I have to leave for a few hours. Don't wait up for me." With that she walked into the trees alone, heading toward the Sou. After a couple of minutes, the humming sounds of Kanako's motorcycle became apparent. Shaking off their paralysis, the two Urashima ran toward the house, only to see the glowing taillight on Kanako's motorcycle as she quickly drove away, only her leather racer jacket and crash helmet visible as she disappeared down the access road.

Looking at each other but saying nothing, Keitaro and Haruka slowly moved over to a two person bench in the back yard. The two collapsed onto the wrought iron seat, and leaned against each other as they looked off toward the bright lights of Metro Tokyo.

Hinata-sou Dormatory
early the next morning

Keitaro stumbled slightly as he walked toward the kitchen. He had not slept well the night before, as he had waited in vain until after midnight for Kanako to return, then dozed fitfully in his room, listening for any sounds of her arrival. Kanako had apparently switched off her mobile phone when she left the night before, as calls went right to voice mail, so Keitaro just left a message asking her to call him back as soon as she could. Once the dawn arrived, he finally forced himself to get up and get ready for the rest of the day. He resolved that if he had not heard from his sister by the time breakfast was over, he was going to grab Haruka and go looking for her, even if it meant riding on the back of his aunt's suicide machine. Given Kanako's mood the night before, he suspected that he and Haruka would only need to ride to the rising column of smoke and/or follow the conga line of police, ambulances and self-defense force troops to where she was.

Walking through the kitchen doorway, Keitaro came to a halt. Sitting at the table was Kanako, wearing only a black t-shirt and jeans, slumped forward with her elbows on the tabletop, a posture that was totally alien to the always poised girl. A mug of hot tea was held with both hands, and as the surprised manager watched, she noisily slurped the drink, simultaneously cooling and drinking the steaming hot beverage. Keitaro could remember Kanako doing the same thing as a child, when she was in a hurry to drink something, but this was something he had not seen her do since she became a young adult.

"Good morning, Kei-kun." With a start, Keitaro realized that his sister's dark eyes were fixed on him.

"Good morning, Kanako-chan. How are you feeling this morning?" It sounded like a silly thing to ask, but Keitaro had spent the entire night worrying about his younger sister.

"A lot better, thank you." As a matter of fact, Kanako did look more calm and relaxed, with only the dark rings under her eyes to show that she had been up all night. That was unusual, as there times that she had not been able to sleep for three nights straight, and she did not look as visibly tired as she did now.

"When did you come in? I didn't hear you arrive." Keitaro gingerly sat down across from his sister.

"About half an hour ago. If I leave it in low gear, my bike is almost silent, and I did not want to wake everyone up." Kanako took another slurp of what Keitaro could now smell as green tea.

The silence that followed was not a comfortable one. Keitaro could not just come out and ask what Kanako thought about his girlfriend situation, and she was in no hurry to speak again. Just as Keitaro was opening his mouth to say something, say anything in fact, Shinobu walked into the kitchen.

"Oh! Good morning Kanako-san, sempai." The young resident gave a quick head bow.

"Good morning Shinobu-chan." Keitaro returned the greeting, while Kanako gave a grumbling growl as she drank her tea that could charitably be called a response. The cook was not offended, as she was used to her fellow residents being non-verbal in the early morning before they had their beverage of choice.

"Would you like for me to make you something to tide you over as I prepare breakfast?" Shinobu asked as she pulled on an apron over her casual clothes. It was a testament to how much more self confident the young girl was that she did not panic and start babbling at finding the two Urashima in the kitchen.

"If you can pour me a mug of tea that will be fine, Shinobu-chan." Keitaro was not about to ask Shinobu to go out of her way when she already had work to do.

"Not a problem, sempai." Filling a large mug with steaming hot water from a kettle, Shinobu quickly filled a tea strainer with loose green tea leaves and placed it in the mug before bringing it to the dorm manager. Hustling over to the breadbox, Shinobu loaded the toaster with bread slices before starting to pull various items from the refrigerator. "Sempai, do you mind if I turn on the radio?"

"Not at all." Shinobu had a transistor radio on the window still, which she used to listen to J-pop music as she worked. She reached over and turned it on, and as it was the top of the hour, there was a news report being given.

"…At the top of the news today are reports of a major fight between rival factions of a bosozuko motorcycle group in Tokyo early this morning. Still under investigation after arrests last year for kidnapping and sexual assault, the Rising Sun motorcycle club apparently started fighting amongst themselves, with most of the violence taking place at their clubhouse in the Ginza district. While no fatalities occurred, there were many severe and crippling injuries among the club members and their motorcycles were vandalized and destroyed. The police are investigating this latest incident as well, however due to the lack of cooperation from the club members, no arrests are forthcoming at this time."

Hearing his sister snort softly Keitaro's eyes flicked over toward her for a moment before he noticed something and took a longer look, or more specifically at her hands, which were still wrapped around the mug. Even though her hands were clean, there were what appeared to be fresh scabs and bruises across the first two knuckles of both hands. Keitaro was familiar with those kind of injuries; usually they came from when someone did punching practice without hand wraps, or they were involved in a fistfight where they did not have hand protection.

Looking up at Kanako's face again, Keitaro saw that her eyes were once again focused on him, the expression in them both calm and unapologetic. Keitaro thought about what he suspected may have happened, who it happened to, and more importantly, how the person involved knew not to go too far. After a few moments, Keitaro stood and walked over to a kitchen drawer and pulled out a small first aid kit they kept there. Walking back, he sat down next to his sister and pulled out some disinfectant wipes. Taking one of her hands, he started to clean the injuries as best he could, Kanako not reacting to the sting of the antiseptic, before placing knuckle bandages on the wounds. Finally, he brought her bandaged hands up to his face, and gently kissed the bandages, a throwback to when Keitaro would treat her scrapes and cuts as a child and he would kiss it to make it feel better.

"What are you going to do now, Kana-chan?" Keitaro spoke in a low voice, and with the music now playing, Shinobu did not hear it.

"Follow your lead. Watch your back. Same as always." The look in Kanako's eyes was softer now.

"And what about the girls?" Kanako knew that Keitaro was not referring to the residents of the Sou.

"I'm not going to be happy about it, but as long as they don't hurt you, I won't hurt them." Keitaro knew this was as good as it was going to get at this time.

"That includes physically." Keitaro had to make sure.

"If you insist." After last night, Keitaro was justified in asking, so Kanako could not get offended for the question.

"Thank you." Keitaro kissed her hands again before releasing them, just in time for Shinobu to turn around with a plate full of buttered toast.

"Is everything alright, sempai?" She blinked at seeing the manager now sitting next to his sister and the first aid kit out. Noticing that Kanako's hands were now bandaged, Shinobu decided discretion was the better part of valor and did not say anything about it.

"Yeah, everything's fine." Reaching over to grab his mug of tea, Keitaro took a slice of toast and smiled at the young cook. "Thank you for asking." Shinobu blushed in response, and turned back to work on breakfast, leaving everyone to their thoughts.

A/N – This time I am going to blame my new recliner chair for the fact that this update is a week late. The chair would not lock in the upright position (gee, that sounds familiar) so I had to return it to the store to get it fixed. Since I did not have a place to comfortably sit and write at home, I had to resume my habit of writing at restaurants and diners, which was not as comfortable as it was before. I finished the flashback section of this chapter this evening on my new chair and with the aid of two 12oz Red Bulls, one right after the other.

Now that things are semi-straightened out with Kanako, will Keitaro be able to get back together with his Lovely Ladies? Or is he not ready to become a baby daddy?

Winner of the most unusual place reading my story is the lonely soul in the Palestinian Territories who read all 31 chapters of this story in one shot (or at least within a day or two). Runner up is the person reading my story in Afghanistan (probably a military serviceman), whom I have an idea or two who it could be, since they may be a member of TFF.

Thanks go out to AZ MII and PCH for their help in beta-ing this chapter.

As of 10Apr 2012 0000PDT, this story had 189,910 hits, 381 Reviews,40 C2 Listings, 524 Favorite Listings, and 470 Story Alerts. Thanks again for reading, guys.*double thumbs up*