Ch 48
V 1.0
Kanazawa High School
Hinata City, Kanagawa Prefecture
Metro Tokyo, Japan
ten minutes to eight AM, January 4
(five months after story start/seven months after pirate attack)
"Yea, though I walk into the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I shall fear no Evil, for the Baddest Motherfucker in the Valley is standing next to me and he will totally kick all their asses," intoned Sarah McDougal in English, staring at the building before her.
"Language, Sarah-chan," chided Keitaro Urashima, in English as well. "I don't think that prayer goes like that though."
"I prefer my way," she shot back. "And what have I told you about calling me 'chan', dork?" Sarah scowled up at the young man standing beside her.
"We're in Japan, Sarah-chan. If I call you just by your first name, people are going to assume we have a much closer relationship than you would be comfortable with, or even legal." Keitaro replied patiently in Japanese now. "Would you rather that I call you 'san' or 'kun' instead?"
Sarah snorted. "If you are going to have to call me by some stupid honorific, you might as well call me 'kun' then." Although the young American girl had a solid grasp of spoken Japanese by this point, either because of it was easier or sheer bloody-mindedness, Sarah used masculine pronouns when referring to herself. It did not help that some of the characters in the programs she was now watching on TV had tomboy characters that spoke that way.
"You're going to force me to do this, aren't you? You're going to throw me into the deep end of a foreign school where all the girls are going to hate my pert blonde ass and all the guys are perverts." Sarah looked back at the school building.
"And where did you get the idea that school in Japan is going to be like that?" Keitaro asked.
"From Naru-san and Kitsune-san's stories. From the animes you guys have on TV here. And from Su-chan's doujins and mangas." Keitaro just barely was able to keep himself from visibly wincing at the last response.
"You do know that those animes and mangas are fictional, right?" asked Keitaro.
"Suuuure. It's going to be all pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows in there." Sarah looked down at the school uniform she was wearing with some distaste. "And to top it all off, I have to wear the sailor suit too."
"I know things are different in America, but dressing up like Britney Spears would not have gone over well with your instructors." The young inn manager was not sure if the American girl had been serious about going to her first day of Japanese public school wearing a criminally short pleated skirt, a tight white blouse tied off above her stomach, thigh-high white stockings with black penny loafers, and her blonde hair in stand-out twin ponytails. When Sarah walked into the kitchen dressed like that, Naru had spit out the coffee she was drinking, Haruka had raised both eyebrows, Kanako had frowned severely, Shinobu had gone deep red and almost passed out in embarrassment, and both Kitsune and Su had given thumbs up and grins. Keitaro had not said a word, merely pointing toward the stairs and Sarah had simply turned around and returned to her room. Five minutes later Sarah had returned wearing the same uniform that Su, Shinobu and Nyamo were wearing, a navy blue knee length skirt and jumper over a white long sleeved blouse with a square navy and white sailor flap collar and a rolled up navy neckerchief knotted around it and the neck. She had left the white thigh-highs on however.
"Yeah, yeah." Sarah grumbled. She then quickly turned toward Keitaro, her blue eyes impossibly large and sparkling. "You can declare me a special needs student and have me tutored at home! You taught me Japanese in a month, I don't need no stinkin' public school!"
"Sarah-kun, the Japanese invented Anime Eyes, it's not going to work on me." Keitaro was trying to keep a serious face, even as his lips twitched in trying not to smile. Nyamo was her serious impassive self, Su was grinning and bouncing in place and Shinobu was looking nervous as usual.
"Eh." Sarah let her expression go back to normal and sighed. "I don't do well in school, you know that."
"That is because you are smarter than you let on, Sarah-kun." Keitaro had been slightly surprised by the American girl's placement test results; if it had not been for her weakness in her newly learned Japanese speaking and reading skills, she could have been moved ahead at least one grade. Nyamo had been a shocker though, since she had almost college level reading and math skills but very weak social studies and cultural skills, a result of her education coming from her grandfather and later Seta and Keitaro.
"What will happen because of this will be all your fault and responsibility, Urashima, I hope you know that." Sarah affected an Irish accent in English while speaking now.
"Well, considering I am your legal guardian, yes it would be. But keep in mind that the hot springs always need cleaning." Since Seta was now busy at Todai, Keitaro had been given power of attorney authorization to make decisions for Sarah and Nyamo, the same as with Shinobu.
The young American girl grimaced. After their balloon escapade a few days ago, Keitaro had assigned both Nyamo and Sarah punishment for their risky adventure and for entering Su's research shed and using her materials without permission; scrubbing the Inn hot springs from one side to the other, using hand brushes and biosafe cleanser. It had taken almost six hours to do the full cleaning, and Sarah had fallen into bed after supper and did not get up until almost noon the next day. She had done some half-hearted bitching and moaning about the punishment, but having both Keitaro and Nyamo stare at her had shut her up quickly.
"This isn't going to end well, I can feel it in my bones." Sarah switched from Irish English to Japanese as she continued speaking. "We're all registered at the school, right?"
"Yes, you just have to pick up your class schedule at the main office. Shinobu-chan can show you the way. You need to hurry, classes will start in a few minutes." Keitaro placed his hand on Sarah's shoulder and gave her a half smile. "Have faith, Sarah-kun, and good luck."
Sarah blushed faintly as she nodded her head. "Thanks, dork-san."
"Nyamo-chan, Shinobu-chan, Su-chan, good luck and have a good day. I'll see you all back at the Inn." In order the girls nodded, blushed and smiled, before they turned and started walked through the open gate before the young man turned and walked back toward the Hinata-sou.
Kanazawa High School
Classroom 2-A
8:10 AM
Class Representative Hikari Horaki scowled as she looked at the mob that made up 2-A for the next year. Truth to tell, there really was not much difference between the elementary class group that started out almost ten years ago and this group of first year high school students except for the various transfers both in and out of class. Their age group had started with forty students years ago and they were now down to thirty two. Four of those were transfers into the class over the last few years, and now that Hikari was looking around, two of those were missing, which was rather odd. Education was so highly emphasized in Japan that only the severely or contagiously ill or injured missed class. Parents would call in to the school if their child was staying home, and the class rep would be notified so that copies of the day's work could be sent to their home if necessary.
Seeing that Sensei Ito had finished sorting through his paperwork at his desk and was looking expectantly at her, the dark haired twin pigtailed girl stood from her desk and turned toward the class. As usually, the students were all chatting, gossiping, and flipping through various magazines and mangas and not looking toward the sensei the way they were supposed to. However the young class rep had come up with a way to get their attention thanks to some American military movies she had seen.
"CLASS-ROOM!" Hikari roared at them, driving her voice from her diaphragm, making the words sound more like a bestial bellow than a shout. "AH-TEN-SHUN!" With a clatter of materials being shoved and dropped into desks and book bags, everyone sat up straight, looking toward the front of the classroom. "STAND! BOW! SIT!" In unison with her commands, the students all stood and gave the traditional bow toward the sensei before sitting again.
Just as the sensei was about to thank Hikari for her decidedly effective performance, another voice spoke up in faintly accented Japanese. "Damn girl, were you an army drill sergeant in another life?"
Everyone turn toward the classroom door to see four girls standing there, presumably having come in while Hikari had been shouting out her commands. Two of the girls were the missing students that she had been thinking about earlier, Shinobu Maehara and Kaolla Su, but there were two others were unknown to her. One looked like a twin of Shinobu except for a much darker complexion and the other one was a Westerner with blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Sorry to interrupt, but we were held up at the main office getting our schedules." The blonde girl held up a slip of paper, her voice confirming that she was the one that had gotten their attention. "We got our excuse slip here."
Hikari walked over and took the slip from her, looking it over and confirming it was an official permission slip from the administrative office. The blonde also handed over two class schedules showing that they had been assigned to 2-A as their homeroom. The class rep walked the papers over to the sensei, who gave them a once over and handed them back to Hikari, who gave them to the two new students.
"Very well, Maehara-san, Su-san, please take your assigned seats. If you two could please write your names on the board and introduce yourselves to the class?" As the odd couple of quiet chef girl and bouncing mad scientist girl went to their side by side seats in the back, the new girls moved up to the blackboard. The blonde tossed a piece of chalk over to her companion who snagged it out of mid-air without comment.
The two girls quickly wrote their names in both western romaji letters, and after the darker complexioned girl nudged her blond companion, phonetic hiragana script, one set of characters angular and blocky and another curved and flowing. Turning back toward their classmates, the blonde looked toward Hikari and asked, "How do you want us to do this, Sarge?"
"Sarge?" Hikari blinked, nonplussed.
"With the way you were yelling at the class, you sounded like an army sergeant," the blonde girl explained, a thin smile on her face. "Unless you want me to call you something else?"
"Um… Class Rep is fine." Hikari was used to her fellow classmates being overly polite, disdaining or mocking her due to her insistence of following and enforcing the school rules. This was new, since it sounded like the new girl was not maliciously teasing her. "And please tell us your name, where you came from, why you transferred here, things like that."
"Okay… My name is Sarah McDougal, I was born in the US in California, my mom passed away a year or so ago," here the smile on her face dimmed for a moment before she continued speaking, "who was the only close family I had left. I was adopted and taken in by a friend of my mom from college, Noriyasu Seta, who is a professor at Todai. Since he's busy at the school now I'm boarding at the Hinata Inn with my bud Nyamo here along with Shinobu-chan and Su-chan and enrolled in school here. She's also a ward of my dad, and we're roomies at the Inn." The blonde stopped speaking and looked over the room, where the other students were staring back at her. "Any questions?"
"Is she your girlfriend?" A male voice piped up from the back.
The smile on Sarah's face slowly slid off. "No she's not. Next question?"
"What are your three measurements?" Another voice spoke up.
Sarah's head slowly turned in the direction of the voice. She could not identify the specific person who asked the question, but all the students in her line of sight felt a chill run down their spine. "Do you guys know how to keep a secret?" Most of the students nodded, some more eagerly than others. "So do I." Turning back toward the rest of the class, she spoke again. "Any non-stupid questions? No? Then it's Nyamo's turn." She then stepped back and the other girl stepped forward.
"My name is Nyamo Namo." The dark haired girl started by saying, her voice soft yet carrying throughout the entire room. "I was born in Oceania, my family were fisherpeople. My mother died of illness, my father died at sea when I was young. I lived with grandfather until he died of heart attack, then lived on my own for a while on different islands. Did work for Mis… Seta-san with both grandfather and by myself last year. Time came to leave islands, came to Japan, and Seta-san became my guardian until I am legally adult. I live at Hinata-sou with Sarah-kun and Gidget-chan." Nyamo paused for a moment to take a breath but before she could continue someone spoke up.
"Sarah-kun?" A boy asked incredulously. It was not that rare for a girl to use a masculine honorific, but it was usually done by either tomboys or by out-of-the-closet lesbians.
"Sarah doesn't like being called 'chan' so call her 'kun' instead." Nyamo replied, unperturbed.
"Where the heck is Oceania?" Another male voice wondered out loud.
"Is Pacific islands east and north of Australia and east of Philippines," answered the islander girl. "Family moved a lot following fish."
"Is Maehara-san your sister?" Nyamo did not blink at this question either, since it occasionally came up when she and the other girl went other together; except for their complexions and hair lengths they looked almost identical.
"No, she is not sister," answered Nyamo.
The rest of the class murmured among themselves for a moment before a girl spoke up. "Who's Gidget-chan? Another foreigner?"
Both Sarah and Hikari's eyes snapped toward the student, given the semi-rude question they were not happy, but Nyamo answered it. "Gidget-chan is turtle, came with me to Japan, good friend." Here the islander girl gave a short graceful bow toward the class. "It was good to meet you all today," before glancing over to her friend.
"Yeah, good to meet you all, you have all met my preconceptions." With ill grace Sarah did a short abrupt bow before straightening up and looking toward Hikari. "Where you want us to sit, Class Rep?"
Hikari mentally stumbled for a moment before speaking. "Um… there is a seat open next to me, and a seat open next to Su-san." The reason for the open seats was that no one wanted to sit next to the strict rule enforcing girl nor the hyperactive foreigner.
"Nyamo, take the seat next to the Sarge, I'll sit by Su-chan." With that the blonde hefted her book bag and walked toward the back of the room while the dark haired girl slid into the seat next to the class rep.
Admissions Building,
University of Tokyo,
Hongo Campus
Metro Tokyo, Japan
late morning, January 4
Keitaro sighed as he walked toward the building. This was his first full day back on the job as Seta-sensei's assistant at Todai, and he had spent most of the morning filling out paperwork and then returning it to the various admin offices for the university. He had been lucky in that the two centimeter thick stack of papers had been sitting on his desk waiting for him this morning, but it had taken almost two hours to fill everything out, causing his hand to almost cramp from all the writing. It had then taken a little more than an hour to return the papers, walking from one desk to the other before he was finally able to get his university photo ID renewed and issued to him. The entire hurry-up-and-wait exercise was exacerbated by all the looks he was getting. Given that his job involved physical labor he did not want to wear any kind of office or easily dirtied attire, so he had wound up wearing an open collared dark grey polo shirt over blue jeans and trainers, a dark blue sports coat on top to ward off the winter chill, making him still stand out from the faculty who wore office attire and the more casually dressed students who regardless rarely wore denim. Thankfully it was not quite as bad as the day he had come wearing a full suit to meet Miyuki and Natsumi at Sanshiro Pond and could almost literally feel the eyes on him.
Squinting up at the sun in the clear blue sky Keitaro clipped his shades to his glasses and looked around him. Both students and faculty were walking up and down the stairs before him, running errands before the start of term next week. In fact, that was what the young ronin was doing now, picking up the class lists for the three classes that Seta-sensei was going to teach this semester. Looking down at his Luminox wristwatch, Keitaro saw that it was a quarter hour to noon and therefore needed to hurry, as the admissions office closed at noon to go to lunch. After that he intended to go to lunch himself, as he had not eaten since early that morning and he was starting to feeling puckish.
"Ah!" Hearing a gasp in front of him, Keitaro's head snapped up to see someone on the steps before him falling toward him, long dark hair obscuring her face. Instantly flooding his body with chi and bracing himself, the ronin caught the girl in his arms, their heads knocking together before he fell backwards and slammed into the sidewalk behind him, the other body on top of his.
Keitaro lay on the ground gasping, the breath knocked out of him, dark hair covering his face and blocking his vision. After a few moments, he realized that the girl on top of him was not moving. "Ms? Are you ok? Ms?" Not hearing a response he gently pushed up and to the side, rolling the girl off of him.
Pushing himself up to his knees and looking down at the girl, Keitaro saw that her eyes were closed and she was still not moving. Lowering his head down toward her, he looked closely, and after a moment realized that he could not see her breathing.
"Ms? Ms! Are you OK?!" Reaching down and shaking her shoulder, there was no response. Moving his hand to her throat and her carotid artery, to Keitaro's mounting horror he could not feel a pulse. Looking up from the girl, he could see that he was surrounded by various staff and students, all staring down at them frozen in shock.
"Call 119! She's not breathing, we need an ambulance!" Moving himself so that he was kneeling beside her, Keitaro bent down and put his ear against her chest and listened for a few seconds, the fact that she did not have an audible heartbeat grabbing his attention more than the fact that her chest was rather sizable and soft.
Straightening up slightly Keitaro tilted the girl's head and made sure her jaw and mouth were open in preparation for CPR. Checking her carotid pulse one more time and not feeling anything, he took a deep breath and ducked down, placing his mouth over hers and blowing as hard he could, visibly causing her chest to rise. Pulling clear for a moment he took another deep breath and ducked down, blowing into her mouth again and was therefore was completely startled when a warm sinuous tongue suddenly invaded his mouth.
Starbucks Coffee,
Todai, Hongo Campus,
Fifteen minutes later.
"You don't have to apologize, Keitaro-kun, it is not like you did anything wrong. This sort of thing has happened before, although I must admit that this time is much better than when that kindly old security guard gave me mouth-to-mouth," the girl said in an oblivious tone of voice.
Keitaro winced. After the girl he was giving CPR to suddenly started to French kiss him, he had thrown himself off and back from her, landing on his back a meter away, spluttering in shock. By the time he had calmed down from the unexpected osculation, the girl was starting to sit up on her own, coughing and gasping herself. It was at that point that campus security arrived in an electric cart with a yelping siren, the two officers springing off with medical bags and rushing toward them until they recognized the girl on the ground, at which point they stopped hurrying. Greeting the girl by name, they did a cursory check of her and of Keitaro as well, who looked to be going into shock from the events. Once they saw that there was no medical emergency and the two declining any further treatment, the two officers got into their cart and drove away, the crowd of people drifting off after that.
"I still feel I did something wrong, Otohime-san, since you clearly did not need CPR." Truth to tell, he was feeling more like he took advantage of the young woman, since she was probably one of the most attractive woman he had ever met. Mutsumi Otohime was only slightly shorter than he was, with long thick dark brown hair with two strands arching from the top of her head, with the main part of her hair falling straight below her shoulders where it became wavy. Even though she was obviously Asian her brown eyes were large and wide-set with thick eyebrows, looking more like the stereotypical anime character seen in modern Japan. But it was her figure that got most of the attention; Mutsumi was the bustiest and curviest Japanese girl he had ever met, beating out both Naru and Kitsune at the Hinata-sou. Even now Keitaro could feel people's eyes on them, the men jealous that he was with such a hot girl and the girls jealous of her looks. But the other thing that drew people's attention was Mutsumi's scatterbrained attitude, since it appeared that she could barely hold a single thought straight to it's conclusion.
"Don't be silly, Keitaro-kun. And I told you to call me 'chan', you don't want me to be cross with you." Here the girl gave him a glare that was so obviously fake it was almost adorable.
"Very well, Mutsumi-chan. May I ask what you are doing at the campus today?" Keitaro was sure that she was on her way to meet her boyfriend, as there was no way she was unattached.
"I was on my way to pick up my test registration papers, I took the test last year but there was a mishap and I have to retake it this year." The brunette took a sip from the cup of tea that Keitaro had insisted on buying her after she had been cleared of her syncope episode, apparently as a result of anemia and low blood pressure.
"I'm sorry to hear you didn't pass the test, by how much did you miss the cutoff?" Keitaro was surprised to hear that the other girl was a ronin like himself, since people who failed the Todai exam did not go out of their way to make their failure known. In fact, this was the first Todai aspirant ronin he had met that admitted to that fact.
"Oh, I didn't fail the test. I actually got a rather high score, but since I forgot to sign my name on the test I couldn't get credit. It's all rather embarrassing for the university, so they are letting me retake the test free of charge." Mutsumi smiled happily before starting to nibble on the pastry she had ordered with the tea.
Keitaro sat motionless and wide-eyed for a long moment before finally speaking. "You're the Phantom Test Taker?" This person was the stuff of legend, an applicant that had forgotten to write their name on the test answer sheet packet before turning it in. Since test scores were listed by both student ID number and by percentile score, there had been an uproar about the top score of 99 percentile and 98% actual score not having an ID number associated with it. Most people figured that it had simply been a typographical error at the admissions office, but after scores of test takers had stormed the office hoping the score was their own, the office finally confirmed that the listing was correct, that the top scorer that session had neglected to identify themselves and since various persons had handled the test packets there was no way to conclusively identify who the forgetful student was. Keitaro had heard about the incident when he had returned to Tokyo and started work at Todai again, since it had taken place while he was in Thailand.
Staring at the girl across from him who was calmly drinking her tea, Keitaro finally asked, "Why aren't you more upset with what happened? I know of test takers that would have a breakdown after something like that." In fact, there were cases of test takers committing suicide after not getting a score high enough to allow for admittance or from just studying obsessively before taking the test and falling into despair.
"It was not yet my time to enter Todai, Keitaro-kun. Next time I am sure I will get admittance to the university. It is my destiny, so I need not worry about it." Mutsumi smiled gently. "Don't you have something you need to do? I don't want my problems to affect your duties here at the university."
"It's not a problem, Mutsumi-chan. While we were waiting for our order and you were in the restroom cleaning up, I texted Seta-sensei and he told me to take the rest of the day off. He'll pick up the papers himself today, he told me to make sure you got to your home safely." In fact, Seta had called him a knight in shining armor for helping a poor sickly girl. Keitaro was glad that he had not told his boss what Mutsumi looked like, or what she had done to him when he had been doing CPR , or he would have never heard the end of it.
"Ara, domo arigato, Keitaro-kun. You are such a nice young man. Tell me, do you have a girlfriend?" Mutsumi smiled sunnily at him.
"Yes, I do." Keitaro did not mention the fact that he had two girlfriends since the reaction to people hearing that information usually resulted in them thinking he was cheating scum or a dating god on Earth.
"Pity. Maybe I should talk to your girlfriend and see if I can borrow you for a few days, it gets lonely here in Tokyo." Keitaro was barely able to keep himself from visibly falling back in shock before the dark haired girl picked up her handbag and stood, the young ronin automatically standing up as well. "My hotel room is about twenty minutes away, so you'll have plenty of time to get home after you see me there."
"Hotel room?" asked Keitaro, sweeping up the empty cups and wrapping papers from the table and balling them together to throw away in the trash can.
"Yes, the boarding house I used to live in had the water heater blow up and catch fire. My side of the building did not burn up but the entire boarding house was condemned, and I've been living in a hotel room until I can find a new place." explained the girl as they walked off.
Hinata Inn,
Hinata City, Kanagawa Prefecture
Metro Tokyo, Japan
late afternoon, January 4
"You are too kind, Keitaro-kun. I have enough money to keep living at the hotel for a while yet."
"Mutsumi-chan, you were living in a love hotel, it is totally not proper for a young lady to live at a place like that. People would get the wrong idea from seeing you there all the time."
"But the people there were so nice. All the different men kept offering to pay for my room, and there were all those fun toys to play with. Plus, I think I finally figured out how to use the swing over the bed."
The older residents of the Hinata-sou were frozen in the various places they were sitting in the living room as they heard the two voices approaching from outside the front door. One was recognizable as the inn manager but the female voice with him was not known to them.
"Trust me, Mutsumi-chan, you will be better off here. All the other residents are girls, you'll get along great with them."
"Ara, you have a harem living with you at this inn, Keitaro-kun? How naughty."
Just as Naru sprang to her feet with fire in her eyes, the manager stepped through the door carrying two large suitcases while an unknown young woman followed behind him carrying a handbag and a nylon duffle bag. Keitaro stopped and put the suitcases down before speaking to those present.
"Hi there, is everyone home yet?" Keitaro asked, a pleasant smile on his face.
"Good afternoon onii-chan. The girls just got home from school and are changing, Who is this with you?" Kanako asked, trying hard not to glare daggers at the girl next to her beloved big brother, and not succeeding. In fact, Naru and Kitsune were feeling pangs of jealousy and inadequacy just from looking at the smiling curvy girl.
"This is Mutsumi-chan, I want to wait for everyone to be here before we do the full introduction." As Keitaro was speaking, Shinobu walked down the stairs wearing her usual loose t-shirt over knee-length shorts, and Su followed behind her wearing the abbreviated sailor outfit that she preferred when she was not obligated to wear her actual school uniform. "Ah good, almost everyone is here. Girls wait for a moment I have an announcement to make." Moving to the foot of the stairs, he called up and out, "Nyamo-chan, Sarah-kun, hurry down, I have something to tell everyone."
"Sarah-kun?" Kitsune asked, bemused at the male honorific.
"She doesn't like being called 'chan', she says she prefers 'kun'. And speak of the devil…" Keitaro trailed off as Sarah clattered down the stairs, Nyamo following sedately behind her.
"Ah dork-san, you say the sweetest things," Sarah snarked as she plopped herself down on the couch, her dark haired shadow settling beside her.
"Haruka-chan is coming up right now, it will only be a minute. So how was your first day at school, girls?" the ronin asked.
"About as well as predicted." Sarah frowned as she slumped down on the couch.
"Well, since I don't see any bloodstains and I wasn't called into the school I guess things didn't go too badly." Keitaro looked over all the younger girls and did not see anything out of the ordinary.
"No, we just had your normal snotty kids looking down their noses at the iteki gaijin," replied Sarah.
"Someone actually called you that?" Keitaro asked, the smile dropping from his face. Gaijin was the Japanese word for 'foreigner', while iteki was the word for 'alien', or more pejoratively 'barbarian' and was considered very rude.
"Not to my face, otherwise I probably would have broken their nose to prove them right," the blonde girl answered. "No, I heard it whispered when me and Nyamo were walking in the halls. By the way Naru-san you were right, the little bastards are all hornballs. One of them had the nerve to ask for my three measurements when I did my introduction to my homeroom class, and the ancient fossil they call a sensei just sat there and didn't say anything. The only person cracking the whip on the little bastards is the Class Rep, and the half of the class that isn't blowing her off is laughing at her to her face." Naru did not look happy to have been proven right.
"I'm sorry that happened to you, Sarah-kun. I wish there was more I could do," Keitaro said with a frown on his face. While the older residents had not attended school when the discipline was decidedly more draconian, the students had at least been more respectful. Unfortunately simple rudeness was not a punishable school offence anymore. "I just ask that you not start any trouble."
Sarah turned her head to stare at the manager. "I can tell you this, Keitaro-san," for once using his proper name and honorific. "I don't go looking for trouble, not after my little vacation in Thailand. Trouble usually comes and finds me. And I'm not going to let it walk all over me again."
The ronin and the blonde girl stared at each other for a long moment before Keitaro finally nodded. Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by Haruka walking through the front door, still wearing her Hinata Café apron with an unlit cigarette dangling from her lips. "Sorry to take so long, had to make sure the customers were taken care of. What's up Kei-kun?"
"Good to see you Haru-chan, now that everyone is here I can start. Everyone, this is Mutsumi Otohime, she is a ronin like I am." Here the brunette stepped forward and smiled widely at everyone, her eyes squinting shut. "She is going to be retaking the Todai admission test later this year, and her boarding house caught fire and was condemned, so she has to find a new place to live. I offered to let her stay here at the Hinata-sou for a while, and if she likes it she can stay permanently as a resident, or until she finds somewhere else she likes better. She is also kind of sickly, so I think it's better that she live among other people and not alone like before."
"Hello, it's nice to meet you all." Mutsumi's voice was a smoky contralto that would cause a dead man to sit up and take notice. "I am from Okinawa near Nara and am the oldest of seven children. I am retaking the Todai test and will be studying up to that time. I like turtles, watermelons, and sake, but I don't like walking around too much because of my anemia, which causes fainting spells. I also need to find a part-time job to help support myself, so if you know of anything, please let me know."
"Damn dork-san, you really know how to find them, don't you?" Sarah cracked in English, causing all the older residents fluent in that language to glare at the younger girl, with Keitaro himself frowning at her words.
"Sarah-kun, language," he admonished. "Mutsumi-chan, these are the residents of the Hinata-sou dormitory." At these words all the residents stood from their seats and faced the newcomer. "Starting on the left is Naru Narusegawa and her friend Mitsune Konno, also known as Kitsune." The fox girl cheerfully waved at the new girl as her friend besides her frowned slightly while she waved back. "Next to them is Kanako my sister, and Haruka my cousin slash aunt," Here the older woman frowned at Keitaro but he kept going regardless. "The younger girls are Kaolla Su, resident mad scientist," here the blonde islander girl grinned widely and threw a thumbs up, "Shinobu Maehara, resident part time cook," the blunette blushed and nodded, "Sarah McDougal and Nyamo Namo, residents of the Inn." The last two nodded as well.
Mutsumi was smiling during all of this, but when her gaze fixed onto Nyamo it got even wider. To everyone's shock she began to chirp and whistle at her, and to everyone's surprise the girl chirped and whistled back. They went back and forth for half a minute before the Okinawan girl stepped forward and pulled Nyamo into a hug, mashing her face into her ample bust.
"What the heck is going on here? What's with the turtle talk?" Sarah had not done anything until Nyamo started to frantically wave her arms due to the lack of air. The blonde then took hold of her roommate and with some difficulty pulled her loose, with the islander girl gasping for breath for a few moments.
"Ara, I am so happy another turtle speaker is here! There are not many left, but I thought I could sense turtle ki on her, and I turned out to be right! Oh, I am so happy!" Mutsumi was actually bouncing in excitement, which was doing interesting things to her bust.
"Wait, you can sense ki?" Haruka asked. Given their training in Urashima-ryu, the formal name for their family style of martial arts, they could normally tell when a person was a trained martial artist, since they were usually most of the people that could produce and detect ki. Given her physical frailty Mutsumi was definitely not one of those.
"I am a descendant of Turtle Clan priestesses, there are only two turtle speakers left that we know of, myself and my mother. It usually passes from generation to generation, one person in each. There were more of us before but my family thought we were the only ones left. Oh, I am so happy!" Grabbing Nyamo she mashed her into her chest again, only this time the islander girl turned her head so she was able to breathe, abet with a stunned look on her face.
"Well, I guess Seta-kun will be happy to hear that. His doctoral thesis was on the Turtle Cult Civilization, and all he's been able to find was some artifacts and cave paintings," Haruka stated. "I remember that he said that the cult died off centuries ago."
"Not died off, they became hidden. The original priests of the Clan became corrupted, started demanding young girls as sacrifices. The great sea turtles became angry and caused a typhoon to strike the island they were on. The storm washed away the village they were in, sparing only the young boys and girls. The turtles took the boys and girls to another island and kept watch over them, leading them to fresh water and bringing fish to them until they became self-suffient. After that the girls were the only ones that could talk to the turtles and they became the new priestesses and the men became fishermen. The turtles would lead the families to new fishing areas and they spread over many islands, but then the great war came, many turtle breeding beaches were destroyed, many families died." Mutsumi let go of Nyamo, a very sad look on her face, but then the islander girl stepped up and hugged her, her arms wrapped around her back. "But I have a question, why do you have traces of turtle ki on you, it feels fairly recent, like in the last few days."
"Probably because of Gidget-chan, spend much time with her," Nyamo replied.
Slowly the taller girl looked down at the younger one, a quizzical expression on her face. "Who is Gidget-chan?" she asked.
"Gidget-chan giant turtle, met her with grandfather on islands, know many years," the islander girl answered. "She lead me to Japan, good friend."
Apparently what Keitaro had seen earlier in the day with Sarah not that uncommon, as Mutsumi's brown eyes became huge and sparkly. "You have a giant turtle here? One that you can talk to?" Nyamo nodded, starting to get nervous at being so close to the infamous Anime Eyes. "Where?"
"Gidget-chan in back yard, sleeps there in sun. Almost time to bring her food." Nyamo would have probably said more, but Mutsumi took off running in the direction the younger girl had indicated, her hand on the other girl's wrist and almost yanking her off her feet as she was dragged behind her. A few moments later there was a loud squee of pleasure, then some muffled sounds that were not immediately recognizable.
The residents of the Hinata-sou hurried after them to find that the Marshmallow Hell attack could be done to animals as well, since Gidget's head was buried in Mutsumi's bust, the girl happily hugging the giant turtle. Muffled 'myuh' sounds could be heard, and after a moment the girl realized what she was doing and backed off. But to everyone's surprise the girl dropped down onto her knees and did a full kowtow bow to the turtle, her head touching the ground. With her head still down, Mutsumi began to sing in what Keitaro, Sarah and Nyamo recognized as turtle speech. The words were not immediately understandable, but everyone could hear the emotion behind them, asking for forgiveness.
Mutsumi had only been singing for about thirty seconds before she felt something knock into the top of her head. Looking up, she saw that Gidget was scowling down at her, having tapped her head with her own. Chirping and whistling at the prostrated girl with an angry tone of voice, the busty girl slowly came up to her knees, where Gidget then walked a couple steps closer and started to sing, this time the song being joyous. Mutsumi started singing as well, and all the observers could feel the power in the song before they saw green ki spheres start to form and circle around them. Dozens of the orbs swirled around them, expanding to cover the entire area the residents were standing on, some of the spheres touching and being absorbed by the observers, giving them a sensation of happiness and energy.
Finally the song ended, and the ki spheres dissipated, leaving the group silent, only for Mutsumi to break into tears and hug Gidget again, this time without the threat of suffocation. Everyone stayed quiet until one voice broke the silence.
"Like I said, dork-san, you really know how to pick them," Sarah grinned at Keitaro, the manager weakly smiling back.
A/N: Yes, we are back in Tokyo. I hope everyone likes it. *g*
Sarah and Nyamo are going to have trouble in school due to them being foreigners, and some of it is going to slop over onto Shinobu and Su since they are friends with them and their bully-repellent Motoko doesn't hang around them so much anymore. But don't worry too much, Sarah isn't the type to take that laying down.
Fans of Neon Genesis Evangelion will recognize Hikari Horaki, the Classroom Representive from the main characters' homeroom in school. I decided to make Hikari another character I borrowed from another series on the premise that since the world didn't almost die from poking an angelic being with a giant fork to see what it would do, she would be in the regular MetroTokyo area (actually Hakone, the city Tokyo-3 was build on in NGE, is in Kanagawa Prefecture, the same as Hinata City, which I have based in Kanazawa Ward). The really observant reader will recognize her last name, which I used for an original character before I decided to use her character as well. Of course, this makes her his descendant. A walnut chocolate chip cookie for whoever figures it out. Here is a hint; it is why she has such good order giving skills. I am also extending the Xmas Sees candy offer to whoever IDs the young enemy samurai from Yukiko's omake, with a further hint; he was on the wrong side at the Battle of Sekigahara and later became the most famous dual wielding swordsman in Japanese history.
As to the reason Mutsumi did not pass the Todai test, that is actually canon; she did not put her name on the test! She is smart enough to be in Todai but her scatterbrain attitude and her physical issues don't help at times. I am also making her a bit more physically affectionate and innocently risqué, for comedic value of course.
For the readers that were asking about Lady Yukiko, there is a reason she keeps hanging around the Urashima family even after Taro passed on, and it is not the one you expect. *evil grin*
I know I was complaining last time for the lack of reviews I was getting. You guys have really made up for it this time – 30 reviews in one week, half of those in two days. I keep saying this, and I will again; thanks to all my readers for your feedback, it motivates me to write faster and more often, as you can see by the amount of time past since my last update.
Thanks to AZ MII for his elite beta and snarking skillz.
Winner of this month's Most Unusual Place Reading My Story is Nepal (Ayo Gurkhali!) and Runner Up is Bahrain (wonder if it's the natives there reading the story or the US servicemen stationed there? Hmm…)
As of 0100 19Jan2016 there have been 268k words, 767 Reviews, 664k Views, 61 C2 Listings, 1214 Favorite Listings and 1119 Story Alerts on this story. Thanks to everyone who is making this one of the top stories on FFN. *victory sign*