Reforged

by MakKeiUra

A collaboration by Y-PenDraig and MakKeiUra. Happily Ever After was all that Tsuruko ever wanted, but in the battle of good versus evil you do not get what you want unless you grab it. An old and tremendous evil has other ideas; an old artifact may be the key; is Tsuruko capable of balancing the battle and a new love?

3. Chapter 3

"Reforged Chapter 3"

By Y-PenDraig and MakiUra

DISCLAIMER: We do not own Love Hina, Ken Akamatsu does. This is a non-for-profit work of fanfiction with no monies or profit being made from it. No copyright infringement is intended.

AUTHORS' NOTE ON CONTINUITY: This story uses a mixed manga/anime continuity that starts to branch off majorly from the Burning Blades arc/TV series episode 25. Simply stated, Keitaro's initial arrival at the Hinata Inn and the order he meets the girls is the same as it is in the TV series, as well as Granny Hina's departure from the same. The increased presence of Shirai and Haitani as well as Kentaro Sakata is also as it was in the TV series, as well as Mei, and Moe-Chan. Beyond that, events that occur in the manga should be considered completely canon unless otherwise obviously superseded except for ages; we'll keep to the TV series there unless noted.

INTRODUCTION: Y-PenDraig and I welcome you, the reader, to this story. It grew out of discussion between the two of us about Tsuruko Aoyama and a shared desire to tell a good, long story involving her. The regular rating will be T for Teen for the story proper, but owing to the naughty idea that kind of inspired this madness, you will see omake side-stories posted independently that are rated M for Mature

000

Keitaro sat down in the common room of the Inn after he, with Kanako's assistance, fetched some tea and rice crackers to enjoy once proper greeting formalities were observed. Despite the fact that he knew this would only increase the crazy quotient in his life, he was nonetheless pleased.

"So how did you and Tsuruko-sama meet, Kana-chan?" Keitaro asked as he sipped his tea. Noon was fast approaching, and he knew that Kitsune would soon be sauntering downstairs in search of a strong cup of coffee or caffeinated soft drink to help get her day started. He wanted to get as much information as possible from Tsuruko and Kanako, as well as tell them what to expect, before anyone else walked in.

"Well," Tsuruko placed her index finger on her chin. "Just over a year ago your grandmother asked me to help your little sister with some nightmares she was having."

Kanako nodded soberly. Silently thanking Tsuruko for her discretion in the matter.

Keitaro nodded as well, saying nothing as he recalled that Kanako had battled nightmares periodically ever since her adoption.

In his hands, Keitaro had the now opened letter Tsuruko had presented him at the door. Sure enough, it was precisely what she had stated it to be. 'Well,' Keitaro thought, 'there will be more help around the Inn.' For which Keitaro was most thankful as it was not easy for him and Shinobu to handle.

"Yes, onii-chan," Kanako smiled, "Tsuruko-sama was of immense help."

Keitaro chuckled, his thoughts drawn back. "Seems I owe you a lot of thanks, Tsuruko-sama." He carefully placed his tea cup down, rose slowly with effort, then (noting Tsuruko rising as well) bowed as deep as he could with his cast and crutches.

"As always, Keitaro-san, you are most welcome." Tsuruko replied. She exhaled. "Now, I do think we should relax formalities as I and Kanako-san will be living and working here for a while to come."

Keitaro nodded. "After our tea I will show you the office."

Kanako's made a questioning face. "Office, Big Brother? I thought Granny made that into a coat closet."

"It was, but I found… running things out of the Manager's room to be… a lot of trouble." Keitaro smiled wanly.

Tsuruko nodded. "I imagine it would be; a Girls' Dormitory run by a male presents it's own set of challenges."

"You don't know the half of it." Keitaro chuckled.

Kanako matched her brother's chuckle, but inwardly she recalled the bits of information she had been able to absorb since her brother took over the Inn from their grandmother. Indeed, she had deduced that part of the reason for this proposal of Granny Hina was to do something about the present situation in the house while also helping Tsuruko occupy her time in this critical time in the swordswoman's life. Kanako's face now took on a small smile, she wondered which Hinata girl will be the first one she will meet face to face.

A loud yawn echoed throughout the common room.

"Kei baby!" A voice drawled from up the stairs. "Good mornin'!"

Keitaro looked up, then over at the clock on the wall. "Um, good afternoon, Kitsune!"

"Ah ya, right." Kitsune laughed as she sauntered down the stairs, dressed in her usual attire for watching the races. She stopped cold as her almost closed eyes registered to her sleep-fogged mind that the Hinata had visitors.

"Tsuruko-sama," she breathed, bowing. "My, what a pleasant surprise, here to test kendo girl again?"

Tsuruko smiled, rising to meet Kitsune's bow. "No, Konno-san." She said no more.

Kitsune's attention turned to Kanako, who now rose to bow properly and deeply to Kitsune. "And I do not believe we have met," Kitsune opened the conversation as she bowed, "Mitsune Konno, Kitsune for short."

Keitaro cleared his throat. "Ah-hem, yes, this is my little sister Kanako Urashima, Kitsune."

Kitsune's eyes opened wide. "P-pleased to meet 'ya," she bowed again at this new development.

"Likewise, Konno-san." Kanako bowed in kind.

"I remember Granny tellin' us all about ya." Kitsune smiled. "She said you were quite an interesting young lady."

"I hope in a good way, Konno-san." Kanako grinned.

Keitaro smiled. Kitsune noted that it was one of the more genuine smiles she had seen from him in a while.

A knock on the front door was heard. Keitaro turned towards it. "Who could that be?" he wondered aloud.

"Much too early for any of the girls to be home, sugah," Kitsune drawled. "Unless they're sick…"

Keitaro's eyes widened. He immediately went over to the front door, opened it.

"Aun-er, Haruka!" Keitaro called. "Isn't it lunch rush?"

"I see we have new residents… and companions." Haruka stated evenly, for once not smoking as she usually tried to curb her habit during rush times at her business. She waved some sheets of paper in front of Keitaro's face that he recognized as being from the tea shop's office fax machine. "Granny just sent this."

"Yeah, Tsuruko-san also brought a letter from Granny."

Haruka nodded downward. "These two were also wandering around the grounds, too."

Keitaro glanced down. "Shippu! Kuro!"

"Kue! Qwaw!" The crane squawked. -Reporting as ordered by the mistress.-

"She's right inside the common room enjoying some tea and snacks; I saved some for you, too." Keitaro smiled.

-I will see myself in, son.- Shippu flapped his wings and flew gracefully and efficiently into the house.

"Meow!" Kuro purred as he slinked around and rubbed against Keitaro's pants' leg.

He reached down to pet and rub behind Kuro's ears. "Oh hey, Kuro!" Greetings finished, the cat scampered inside to find his Mistress.

Keitaro looked up to meet Haruka's perplexed gaze. "What the hell was that all about?" She asked, pointing a finger at him.

"Oh yeah," Keitaro chuckled, "seems I understand what Tsuruko-san's crane is saying now."

"... this doesn't strike you as the least bit odd?" Haruka sighed.

"Is it any more odd than what usually happens around here?"

"No, I suppose not." Haruka shrugged.

"It's probably not so different than how Tama-chan and Mutsumi-chan talk." Keitaro rationalized.

"I thought the operative theory around the house was that Turtle Lady is sweet-"

"Yeah," Keitaro nodded enthusiastically in the affirmative.

"-but crazy."

Keitaro only gave an exaggerated shrug in response.

Haruka sighed. She was only stalling the inevitable. Haruka did wonder why Keitaro, with everything he had lately been through (and was preparing to go through), seemed so at ease about the developments she had just read about in the faxes she just received. Developments that would have to be agreed to and signed by the participants in person with formalities observed. Namely in contracts that would be arriving by courier the next day to be immediately returned to Granny Hina after being approved by the family attorney and notarized by a Justice of the Peace.

'This will cause a shit-ton of problems around here,' Haruka thought. "Well, I better come in and make my greetings." 'And start to talk down Kanako-chan from kicking someone's ass when they come home tonight.' Haruka would never admit it to anyone, but she dreaded this.

Keitaro nodded. "Yeah, already have the tea and snacks ready. Not anything nearly as good as yours or Shinobu-chan's, but-"

"Thank you." Haruka quickly bowed, and Keitaro returned it. She had her way of telling her nephew to shut up without a fan. She walked in the door and deposited her regular work shoes and put on her usual house slippers.

The two Urashimas walked into the common room.

"Morning' Haruka!" Kitsune smiled, perhaps a bit too easily for Haruka's expectations.

Kanako looked up. "Ah, cousin Haruka!" She smiled, rising and giving a bow. "It is good to see you again."

Tsuruko rose as well, bowing with a smile. "Good to see you again, Haruka-san."

Haruka stopped. Kanako seemed… different since the last time she had seen her. The last time they had spoken had been tense, to put it lightly. Haruka returned the bow, "you seem well, Kana-chan. And you too, Tsuruko-san."

"I am well, much better than last time I was here." Kanako smiled brightly.

Haruka pursed her lips in thought momentarily. "So I see, good to hear." 'She seems much more calm and centered-given what's in the fax I am surprised she isn't bouncing off the walls right now.' She briefly opened up the ream of paper she had folded in her hand. "Granny Hina just sent this, she has the family attorney arriving tomorrow to confirm this arrangement."

"That sounds lovely, does it not, Keitaro-san?" Tsuruko smiled.

"Yeah, it sounds great!" Keitaro smiled, shifting where he stood on his crutches.

Haruka looked from him, to Kanako, to Tsuruko, to Kitsune and to the clock. 'Everyone seems to be digesting all this information very well,' Haruka thought. The time said she had to go back to the shop right now and help out Sakata. She desperately needed more help, even if she could hardly afford to pay Kentaro as it was. "Well," she threw on a half-smile out of politeness, ten o'clock tomorrow morning, I will see you all then." Haruka bowed, wishing the newcomers to the Inn a good night and almost rushed out the door, all the while thinking she needed both a good cigarette, and a good beer along with it.

Once Haruka was gone, Kitsune looked at Tsuruko and Kanako as Shippu and Kuro took their places with their mistresses. "Well, how long you two are plannin' on staying? There's always plenty of room at the table and in the hot spring."

"Indefinitely." Kanako replied, smiling.

"Indeed," Tsuruko smirked.

"Kei hon?" Kitsune turned to Keitaro.

Keitaro nodded. "That's right, Granny wants Tsuruko-san and Kana-chan to work here for a while."

"... work as what?" Kitsune asked, dumbfounded.

"Well," Keitaro laughed. He gestured to Tsuruko, "work as the Inn's new housemother and assistant manager," then to Kanako, "and her servant."

Kitsune's eyes opened wide, she opened and closed her mouth before she regained her legendary fox charm. "Um, ah, yeah… woohoo!" She fumbled around in her pants pockets for some fans, broke them out and waved them. "These will have to do until tonight when a proper welcome celebration can be had!"

"That sounds like fun," Keitaro said pleasantly. "But the party can't go on too late since we have to be up and down at Haruka's by ten to sign the employment contracts."

Tsuruko touched her finger to her chin. "I do not wish to burden Shinobu-chan with too much cooking and cleaning, either."

"We can order out," Kanako smiled over to her brother and Kitsune. "Our treat to the residents."

Keitaro bowed. "Thank you, Kana-chan… Tsuruko-san."

Kitsune laughed pleasantly, with effort. 'What will kendo girl think?' she thought as she found herself eyeing the clock.

000

Kitsune mulled over the new developments and the possible scenarios stemming from them as the early afternoon marched towards evening and she accompanied Keitaro on a tour and overview of the Hinata Inn, starting with the aforementioned office/former coat closet. Several times Kitsune thought of questions to ask Tsuruko and Kanako about what they knew about running or maintaining the dormitory, but she found the two readily supplying answers to Keitaro as he happily showed Tsuruko around, as Kanako reacquainted herself with things after her time away.

Kanako, Kitsune found out, had a good bit of cleaning and household repair/maintenance skills owing to her not only helping her and Keitaro's parents in the family's confectionary kitchen, she had also learned how to help out around the house and make minor repairs in her time travelling with her grandmother. There was something else that stuck out in Kitsune's mind though; it was the fact that Kanako knew the name of each and every plant on the Inn's grounds; in Latin.

Tsuruko, of course, knew a good deal about cleaning and repair work through her years growing up at the Aoyama family compound and her service to the dojo. To Kitsune's further surprise, they also volunteered to assist Shinobu with laundry as well as cooking, but both admitted they had no talent for sweets.

"We'll leave that to you and this amazing Shinobu-chan, Big Brother." Kanako winked to Keitaro, who just smiled and nodded, his wizardly with desserts already known and appreciated around the Hinata Inn.

Keitaro had laughed, his only worries were Naru's still painful absence and wondering just why Kitsune was hanging around them as they toured the Inn. It could hardly be called simple courtesy as for several hours they had mostly gone over tedious maintenance and cleaning details; things the fox would typically avoid at all costs. But, all in all, Keitaro was definitely looking forward to dinner tonight.

'Motoko-chan should be happy her sister will be here for a while, they were getting along so much better when we left Kyoto,' as the four settled back into the common room to await the return of the younger residents from school. Keitaro contemplated over things as he put away the Inn's ledger, maintenance schedule, resident dossiers, manual, and even blueprints after giving Tsuruko and Kanako the quick overview and making certain they knew where to find them if need be. Not for the first time, he marveled at his grandmother's unusual propensity for documentation and record keeping; she really should have been an accountant or an economist.

Kitsune refrained from having anything to drink so far that day save for coffee and tea. 'There are times when sobriety is to be preferred; at least until the first piece of furniture is smashed, I reckon,' Kitsune thought. The conversation amongst the four was light, and Kitsune hoped her good-natured quips were appreciated by Tsuruko and, in particular, Kanako. The fox was certainly welcoming of new residents, she just wondered if the older and younger sisters of existing residents was necessarily the best addition for the Inn right now. Naru would return from her family's home soon, and Kitsune knew it would be a difficult homecoming for Keitaro as well as her.

Her worries were soon derailed by the rising sing-song of voices as Sara, Su, and Shinobu arrived home. "We're homes!" Su called out as the door opened. "Mecha-Tama and I are gonna do some practice runnies!"

"Hey dork! Hope you took it easy today, 'cause I want to play Rumble Bosses with you after homework! Best three out of five!" Sara challenged.

"Sempai! Do you want a snack?" Shinobu's smile and blush could not be mistaken, even if not seen. The sounds of their shoes going to their places could be easily discerned.

Tsuruko and Kanako shared a conspiratorial smile. Tsuruko had decided to make certain to conceal their footwear when Keitaro had gone off to the bathroom and Kitsune had gone to make more tea for everyone.

"Girls, we're in here with a couple of guests we'd like you three to meet!" Keitaro called, smiling.

After the girl's put house slippers on, they trotted into the common room and, even for them, stopped dead in their tracks.

Su blinked once, then grinned wide, and ran over behind the couch where Tsuruko was sitting and gave the Aoyama swordswoman a hug around her shoulders. "Tsurummmus comebacks to plays! Missed yous!"

Tsuruko returned the backward shoulder hug with a smile from the young Molmolian princess. "I missed you too, Su-chan."

Shinobu's mouth hung open, before she smiled. "So, ah, Tsuruko-sama," she bowed deeply. "I am sorry, do you need-"

"Tea? No thank you, Shinobu-chan, your sempai and Konno-san here has taken more than adequate care of formalities and hospitality." Tsuruko nodded towards Keitaro and Kitsune. "You have taught them well on tea."

Keitaro smiled at Shinobu. "I learn from the best, thank you, Shinobu-chan."

"Hey, I know a thing or two about things other than sake and horses thanks to you, Shinobu-chan.!" Kitsune winked at Shinobu.

The petite bluenette turned three shades redder on the spot.

Sara's grin turned mischievous as she looked from her peers to Tsuruko, then to Keitaro. "So you get to gawk at Motoko-sempai's Big Sis even more, don't you, dork?"

Keitaro was unfortunate enough to have been sipping some tea in that moment, sputtered. "Er, um… ah, wha?"

Tsuruko laughed. "You are such a darling little kidder, Sara-chan."

"Though I do believe calling my big brother a dork is not necessarily called for."

Everyone, save Tsuruko, turned to Kanako. Tsuruko kept her attention on Sara.

"And who are you?" Sara pointed at Kanako.

Kanako stood up, her black silk skirt and blouse dryly swishing as she stood gracefully. She bowed deeply to Sara, Shinobu, and Su. "My name is Kanako Urashima," she bowed deeply. "Keitaro-onii-chan's younger sister."

Once again the three youngest Hinata Girls were stunned to silence. Su, again, recovered first. "Yays! I have a new Big Sisters!" She ran up, jumped up and soon was wrapped securely around Kanako; piggy-back ride style.

Kanako grimaced. "Likewise… I guess. But," Kanako shifted the weight of Su on her shoulders a bit, "you don't need to wrap yourself around me," she grunted a bit as Su tittered, the MolMol girl tightening her grip, "so… tight."

"Su-chan…" Tsuruko began.

"It is all right, Tsuruko-sama," Kanako stated.

"What's wrongies?" Su asked. "Kaytaros can easily take me on his backies, and also my love-kicks!"

In a flash with one hand Kanako reached up and gently but firmly unlatched Su from her back and set her down on the couch. "Su-san, you will find that with our arrival here that some things will change."

Su, for once in her life, briefly had no reaction. "What do you means?"

Tsuruko stood up. She smiled at each of the younger girls in turn. It was a smile of genuine warmth but also steel. "We are here to assist Keitaro-san in the management of the Inn."

Sara and Shinobu shared an astonished look. "Wha-what?" they both managed at the same time.

Su giggled, enjoying the looks on her friends' faces.

"I will be the new Housemother, starting today, and Kanako-san will be my servant and guard." Tsuruko lowered her voice a bit. "Which means we are here to assist and serve the manager."

Keitaro instinctively blushed, and chuckled awkwardly at the word choice. "Well, um… heh, I appreciate the help."

"Yeah, I'll bet!" Sara pointed from Keitaro to Kanako and then to Tsuruko.

"I… certainly welcome both of you," Shinobu bowed deeply to Tsuruko and Kanako.

Kanako returned the bow with a smile, as did Tsuruko.

There was uncomfortable silence that fell on the common room then. Finally, Kitsune sprang up. "Well girls, how about we go grab some more snacks and tea and we can settle down and hear all about our new housemother and housemother helper, hmmm?" Kitsune finished that with a prompting look at Tsuruko and Kanako.

Tsuruko smiled, a brief glimmer in her eye. "Of course, Konno-san."

"A grand idea," Kanako clasped her hands together, also giving Kitsune a quick look.

Kitsune smiled back, her eyes opening a bit more, she turned back to Su, Shinobu, and Sara. "Come on, sugahs! Let's hop to it!"

000

Motoko walked up the long stone stairs of the staircase in a good mood. Since besting her big sister in battle, she had returned to her studies at Rieka High School with a new sense of… purpose? A new center. While Naru's absence, and Keitaro's refusal to go after her was concerning to her, she eventually conceded that perhaps Keitaro knew what was best in this regard. Naru had, by many standards, made her feelings clear. Not choosing a course of action was in itself a choice. Motoko also was starting to dwell more and more on Kitsune's statement when they returned home as well as her actions at the party. Motoko could not quite put her finger on why, but it did alarm her slightly with just how… open the fox was being with the Hinata Inn manager; without asking for money or a deferment on paying rent.

'It does make a certain amount of sense,' a well-seasoned, sober voice in the back of her mind said. 'Konno-san was the foremost advocate of pushing Naru-sempai and Urashima together. If that is not to be, then should she not have a clear path in Naru-sempai's stead?'

'Hell no!' A much more fierce competing voice shouted down the other one in the recesses of her mind.

Motoko shook her head, this was a distraction. She needed to practice, meditate, and focus. She was just working through residual emotions from such a strange and trying ordeal. She just needed to get back to her routine and everything would be just fine, right?

Right?

'Well, for one thing, you have not properly begun inducting Urashima-san into the God's Cry School of Kendo yet.' That fierce voice in her mind jeered at her. 'He *should* be *your* student, after all that has transpired.'

Motoko blinked, immediately without warning that blush colored her cheeks that she had felt during her first encounter with Keitaro after she returned home from Kendo camp to find him the new manager. That same blush also snuck up on her more times than she would ever, ever admit during the saga with Tsuruko. She took a few deep breaths and remembered her calming exercises. Routine, practice, and focus, that is what she needed.

Right?

Motoko was still dueling with these thoughts when she reached the front door of the Hinata Inn. Hell, she was still deep in thought after her house slippers were on and she had given her familiar greeting to the house and its residents; even its (she still told herself, however hollow it sounded) perverted manager. What greeted her when she walked into the common room was something that made Motoko honestly question her sanity.

There, in an exact same tableau of the scene when she had last come home from school to find something out of the ordinary (more so than usual for the Hinata Inn, that is) was her older sister sitting in the exact same position, with the same expression on her face sipping a cup of tea, with all the other Inn residents sitting around in the exact same position wearing the same clothes.

"Motoko's homes!" Su happily declared, raising both hands to the air.

"Aahah," Motoko looked over to Su bouncing happily, Motoko smiled thinly after taking a breath. "Is this some kind of projection of yours, Su-chan?"

"Whats?" Su asked, honestly taken aback by Motoko's question.

Motoko nodded towards everyone else sitting on the couches. It seemed everything was just the same except for the lack of presence of Haruka. Su should have gotten that detail right. She took an even breath. "I know this is one of your new inventions, Su-chan."

Keitaro looked up from where he was seated. "Motoko-chan, are you feeling alright?"

"Nopes, Motokos, no invention!" Su jumped up and down.

"Then this must be some kind of presence that is shielding itself from my ki," Motoko raised her voice with each word.

Tsuruko giggled. "I admire your understandable-though misguided-wariness, Motoko-han. I am no 'projection' nor am I a figment of some spirit masquerading as your sister." Her smirk deepened as she was gratified that her idea to "hide" her wooden sandals and Kanako's boots was bearing such succulent fruit. She made a mental note to tell their mother about this in her first letter home.

Motoko sighed. "A figment *would* say that-"

"-but a figment would not have these," Tsuruko stood, reaching inside her gi and gracefully extracting a handful of photographs.

Motoko's eyes widened.

"Cool, pictures!" Sara exclaimed.

"Whees!" Su and Sara took up positions behind the couch to better see the pictures Tsuruko held in her hand.

Shinobu, sharing Keitaro's concern, simply looked on at the expression on Motoko's face.

Kitsune sighed. Maybe she should have had that late afternoon drink after all.

"Let us see, let us sees!" Su and Sara sing-songed.

'Anything but those,' Motoko thought miserably.

"Wow, look at that pizza shaped hat Motoko-sempai is wearing!" Sara gasped.

"Almost as bigs as her heads!" Su tittered.

"Now, now," Tsuruko said as she laid the pictures out on the coffee table. "Motoko-han has deprived everyone one of you for too long the joy of seeing her all dressed up for her first job."

Motoko's right eye twitched. "Okay… I believe you *are* my Big Sister."

Everyone, save Keitaro, took a look at the pictures. Truth be told, as Kitsune and Shinobu told Motoko; she looked pretty good in the pizza shop worker uniform. Sara and Su immediately took to asking Motoko questions about the pizzas she made and while the kendo girl took pains to be diplomatic; it was plain to be heard that she thought pizza to be the worst culinary creation ever imported into Japan.

"Keitaro-san?" Tsuruko asked sweetly. "Feel free to have a look."

"Oh, it's okay." Keitaro chuckled. "I'm sure Motoko-chan looks great."

Motoko sighed. "Urashima, it is fine. It is a bit embarrassing, but nothing a samurai cannot easily tolerate."

Keitaro glanced down. "Oh, I would not want to embarrass you, even a little, Motoko-chan."

A hint of red returned to Motoko's cheeks at that.

Tsuruko clapped. "A true gentleman, through and through," she giggled.

"Perhaps you should follow his lead, Big Sister." Motoko smiled, a grin resembling plastic that showed a bit too much teeth.

This only prompted Tsuruko to laugh more.

"Does… mother know you are here for another visit?" Motoko ventured when she resigned herself to her sister's laughter at her expense.

"She does, but it is not for 'another visit.'" Tsuruko threw a look to her dark-haired, black-silk attired traveling companion.

"...?" The unasked question was plain on Motoko's face.

"I will be, at Granny Hina's direction, taking over the combined duties of housemother and assistant manager of the Inn, effective today." Tsuruko recited, as it reading off a grocery list.

Motoko fainted, sprawling in a heap onto the couch next to her.

"Motoko-chan!" Keitaro slid to the floor next to her with a wince as he worked around the cast on his leg, paying no heed to his crutches. Noting that Motoko was fine, and already starting to wake up, he looked up at Tsuruko then at Kanako.

"Was it something I said?" Tsuruko asked incredulously, touching a finger to her chin in deep thought.

000

"I am fine, Shinobu-chan," Motoko said as she took a sip of water from the cup that she had been offered.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" The dark haired girl Motoko had never met held up three.

"Three," Motoko replied politely, if a bit tersely. "Now may I ask your name?"

"You may," the girl smiled. "Promise you will do your best not to faint once more when I answer you, brave samurai of the Aoyama clan."

Tsuruko chuckled.

Motoko simply gave her sister and the dark haired girl before her a dirty look.

Kitsune sighed, the term 'dog and pony show' coming to mind as Tsuruko and her retainer toyed around with Motoko.

Motoko waited in polite silence.

The dark haired girl bowed low. "My name is Kanako Urashima; Keitaro's sister."

"... really?" Motoko asked, in an almost disappointed tone.

"And also your big sister's guard and servant." Kanako continued.

"Surprising." Motoko commented honestly, but dryly.

Sara pointed to Kanako. "Kanako-san?"

"Yes?" Kanako turned to the red-haired girl.

Sara only pointed to her own head of hair.

Kanako picked up on it. "Ah, why is my hair different from Keitaro-onii-chan?"

Keitaro chuckled. "I'll take that one, Kana-chan." He pointed at his brown hair. "Kana-chan was adopted by my parents when she was seven and I was ten."

Everyone nodded slowly.

"So…." Motoko returned her attention to Tsuruko. "Does mother know about this?"

Tsuruko nodded. "She thinks it is a grand idea."

"... what about Aunt Hime?"

"She detested the idea!" Tsuruko grinned, remembering Aunt Hime's 'explosion' when she was informed of Tsuruko taking Granny Hina up on this most peculiar employment offer.

"Will mother be all right dealing with Aunt Hime on her own?" Motoko asked.

"She *is* our mother after all, Motoko-han." Tsuruko gave her a look.

Motoko nodded slowly. Their mother was very much an "iron fist in an apron" type woman. "Well big sister, how long will we have the pleasure of you here with Urashima-san's sister?"

"The appointment is indefinite," Tsuruko said, then thought for a bit, "but perhaps a neat dividing line might be… until your college graduation?"

Motoko calmly told herself that that answer was designed to get a rise out of her. Cautioning herself not to take the bait, Motoko smiled widely. "Why not longer? There is plenty of room."

"Why thank you, Aoyama-san," Kanako politely interjected. "Perhaps we can stay right through all of you girls' weddings and the births of your first children."

Tsuruko giggled. "Why stop there? We can stay right through everyone's retirement."

Keitaro and everyone else laughed. Some of the tension lifting, Motoko turned to Keitaro. "Urashima-san, have you selected their rooms yet?"

Keitaro nodded. "I have." He beamed proudly at his proactivity in his managerial duties.

Motoko put on that toothy plastic smile again. 'Please not on the same floor as me, please not on the same floor as me…'

Kanako cleared her throat.

Keitaro turned to his dark-haired sister. "Yes, I followed your 'suggestion,' Kana-chan."

"The rooms are together on the second floor..." Keitaro said.

Motoko inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

"... right next to the entrance to the deck." Keitaro completed.

'Curses!' Motoko thought miserably, realizing that every time she went out to practice she would pass by her sister's room.

Tsuruko turned to Motoko, a tone of utter sweetness in her voice: "Is it not grand, Motoko-han? I will be able to consistently give feedback on your kendo and train with you."

"Spectacular, Big Sister." Motoko nodded, mentally preparing herself for the light but persistent teasing about Keitaro that her sister had begun embarking upon during their duel in Kyoto.

"You will also get to see a practitioner of the Urashima arts in action, Motoko-sama." Kanako smiled.

Motoko quirked an eyebrow upward. "The… Urashima… arts?" her tone took on an air of incredulity.

Keitaro chuckled as he ran his hand through his wavy brown hair, sheepish. "... just some old family teachings."

"Really now, hon?" Kitsune grinned at Keitaro, winking. "Been hidin' something from us, sugah?"

Keitaro held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Really, it's nothing you probably did not already see from Granny around the house."

Kanako nodded. "Granny Hina is a grandmaster."

Kitsune and Motoko shared a look. The expression on their faces told the whole story.

Keitaro adjusted his glasses. "You mean she never said anything or did anything in front of you?"

Kitsune and Motoko shook their heads in the negative.

"No back-flips, tree-climbings, or bare-knuckle boxing?" Keitaro was only naming a few of his grandmother's skills.

The same negative response from Kitsune and Motoko.

"Interesting," Kanako remarked, turning to Keitaro. "Why wouldn't she, onii-chan?"

Keitaro shrugged, bewildered.

"Oh, I am certain she had her reasons." Tsuruko shook her head. "Hina Urashima always has a reason for everything she says or does; or does *not* say or *do.*"

"I certainly have experience with the last one." Keitaro snorted.

Shinobu looked up at the clock. She rose with a deep bow to everyone, in particular "Ah… if everyone will excuse me," she said shyly, "I have to get dinner prepared."

Kitsune leaned over towards Shinobu. "We can order out, darlin' You can take a night off."

Shinobu stopped, utterly shocked at the suggestion. "No, no!" She shook her head in the negative vehemently. "This is a welcome meal; I will do my best!"

Tsuruko smiled, bowing to Shinobu. "I have looked forward to another one of your meals, Shinobu-chan."

Shinobu blushed sharply.

"If I may, I would like to assist Maehara-san," Kanako bowed shortly to her mistress.

"You have my permission, Kanako-san." Tsuruko smiled. "There are still some items for myself and Keitaro-san to go over."

Keitaro smiled, it seemed like the best thing ever to him in that moment.

000

Ordinarily, Shinobu would have shyly-but firmly-refused the offer of help from someone whether they be guest or resident. She had claimed the Hinata's kitchen and laundry room upon her arrival at the Hinata, and she had protected them both jealously from "outsiders." But, Shinobu was starting to learn the value of information gathering, as well as expediency, so Kanako's offer was welcome. She imagined that her sempai would need a good meal to help put today's madness in perspective, and she would provide it. What better way than to have his little sister help prepare dinner, while she also pumped the dark haired girl for information about Keitaro at the same time?

What Shinobu did not count on was Kanako having the exact same plan.

"So, Maehara-san," Kanako began as she swiftly and gracefully started getting out the pots and pans that Shinobu had indicated would be needed for that night's meal. "I heard from my grandmother that you are a more recent resident here than the others."

Shinobu nodded, turning back to look at Kanako over her shoulder. "Y-yes. I cannot thank sempai and your grandmother enough for allowing me to stay."

Kanako laughed. "It was all Big Brother's doing. Granny just supported his decision when she found out about it from Haruka." Kanako favored the bluenette with a steady eye. "But she was elated when she found out just who this junior high school girl was that onii-chan had opened the Inn's doors to in exchange for cooking and laundry."

Shinobu looked down. "I didn't think she would remember..."

"Of course she remembers you, Maehara-san." Kanako laughed. "When you were young you used to happen up the stairs to the Inn all the time, or at least with your mother or father when the Inn was open to regular guests."

Shinobu smiled, memories of those times flooding back to her. "... You can call me Shinobu."

Kanako bowed. "And you can call me Kanako."

After a brief shared smile, the two of them set about dinner preparations. Finally, both decided to ask the question that was at the forefront of their minds.

"How is my brother?"

"How is my sempai?"

Both questions had been asked simultaneously, causing both Shinobu and Kanako to stop, blush briefly, then chuckle a bit at their shared faux pas.

"You go first," Kanako nodded.

Shinobu bit her lower lip a bit. "I mean… how is my sempai today?"

Kanako considered for a moment. "He was very happy to see us."

"... he's been through alot lately," Shinobu looked down.

"So I have heard, but only some of it," Kanako said gently, taking a step closer to Shinobu. The dark haired girl lowered her voice. "Tell me, how does he get along with a house full of women..?"

"Well, fine, when he isn't getting into trouble with Naru-sempai or Motoko-sempai-oops!" Shinobu blushed sharply, her mouth firmly planting itself over her traitorous mouth. Why had she said that? Perhaps it was the manner or tone of the wording of Kanako's question of her, but Shinobu found herself looking up at the older girl. "I… can't believe I just said that; I am sorry, I don't want to cause more problems for sempai."

Kanako carefully digested what Shinobu just said. Her Grandmother's intelligence and the letters from Haruka had indicated much the same thing. But Keitaro "getting into trouble" with Naru and Motoko did not, by itself, explain Shinobu's reaction behind her answer to Kanako's question.

Kanako took another step closer to the bluenette, she leaned down a bit to put her at eye level with Shinobu. "You can tell me, Shinobu-san. How can anything you say cause more problems for Keitaro-onii-chan?"

Shinobu gulped audibly. "It's just… when he trips over, it seems he always falls into us… and…"

Kanako softly smiled. "Yes, that is my brother all right."

"... they just get so angry."

"Naru-sempai and Motoko-sempai?" Kanako asked. "What about Konno-san?"

"She just tries to get out of paying rent or mooches money from him."

Kanako nodded, that certainly fit Granny Hina's description of Kitsune.

"But she's been better to him lately," Shinobu looked down, "a lot better, actually…"

"That is good," Kanako carefully gauged Shinobu's reaction as she spoke of Keitaro. 'Quite the crush she has,' Kanako thought wistfully. She stilled her emotions, "Shinobu-san, what about Narsuegawa-san and Aoyama-san?"

The bluenette domestic sighed, "Motoko-sempai has gotten much better towards him, too." She admitted this with wistfulness of her own. "Naru-sempai, though…" Shinobu shook her head. "I just do not understand her."

"Oh?" Kanako asked.

"She can be so kind, easy-going, and compassionate one moment," Shinobu said, then shrugged. "But the next moment the exact opposite, especially concerning men. Cross that with Keitaro-sempai's… nature… and, well…"

"What happens?" Kanako prompted. She wanted to hear it from someone who witnessed it personally.

"They hit him. Hard, sometimes." Shinobu looked down, almost whispering. "Mostly Naru-sempai, but sometimes Motoko-sempai too… though, again, Motoko-sempai has been much better towards him too lately. It doesn't happen all the time, and we can tell sempai has special… healing abilities, but still… he does not deserve it."

Kanako stilled her emotions. She had mentally prepared herself for the truth, but still it hurt. She, not for the first time, felt that she should have come here when Keitaro had first arrived. Kanako knew, almost hearing Tsuruko's voice in her head, that that would have been disastrous for all involved, but still her heart felt she had not been there when her brother needed her the most. Kanako put on a warm, comforting smile for Shinobu. "Things will be different here from now on."

Shinobu looked up. Something about the way Kanako spoke gave her pause. "... what do you mean, Kanako-san?"

"Tsuruko-sama and I will make sure nobody mistreats Big Brother; starting today." Kanako spoke firmly.

"Why do you care so much about how sempai is doing here? I mean… it's not as if his parents have ever come down for a visit; to see how he was doing… Granny Hina already left on her trip when I moved in…" Shinobu looked down. Having family relations that were less than perfect (to say the least) was one reason why she felt such a connection to Keitaro and even to the other girls.

"Granny Hina and our parents do care," Kanako said. "If Granny did not care, she would not have sent us here," she smiled. "And Keitaro and my parents do love each other; they are just very different personalities from Keitaro."

Shinobu looked up, studying the dark haired older girl before her, dressed so comfortably gothic in her black silk dress. Something was nagging her in the back of her mind. "You talk like… I have never heard any girl talk about their older brother before."

A small, almost wistful smile crossed Kanako's lips. "You make a brave show of hiding your crush for my brother."

Shinobu blushed sharply, looking down. She said nothing.

"But rest assured," Kanako said, a touch remotely. "I love my dear onii-chan, yes, and while we are only adopted; he *is* still my brother."

"... I… I did-not-mean!" Shinobu looked up, blushing even more at realizing the hidden, taboo implication implied in her question's wording.

Kanako laughed. Shinobu was just too easy. She was going to enjoy this. "It's fine, Shinobu-san. Really." After all, Tsuruko never said she could not have a little bit of fun teasing, now did she?

Shinobu visibly relaxed. "I am glad… we can be friends." Her cheeks colored immediately. "N-n-not that we would not have already-I mean!"

Kanako continued laughing. "I can see what you mean, Shinobu-san." She stopped. "Still, and I have to tell you I *will* look out for my Big Brother's best interests." She gave the bluenette a serious look. "I have to tell you right now while he cares for you; it is as a friend."

Shinobu gave Kanako a puzzled look. "He's talked about us with you?"

"Some," Kanako nodded. "Granny has her information sources as well."

"What do you mean?"

Kanako grinned. "You'll find out if you ever need to know."

Shinobu shrugged, not understanding in the least. But she did appreciate the help preparing dinner, and the answers to her questions. "... do you think sempai might someday think of me as more than a friend?"

It was Kanako's turn to shrug. "Who knows? But I also have to tell you the odds are long for obvious reasons."

Sadly, Shinobu nodded. "I would never, ever want to get sempai in trouble for dating someone my age. So I know I have to wait. And I know things may change between us during that time. He might decide he likes me, or… not. Or I might… like someone else. But… I like things right now between us, you know?" The petite bluenette's brow furrowed. "Isn't that funny?"

"No, I don't think it is." Kanako smiled. "However… you better not try and take advantage of current events for a dream 'girl's first kiss' maneuver on onii-chan. I will not have him in trouble," Kanako's eyes flashed minutely, "with the other girls' here or the law."

Shinobu was fortunate not to have been holding anything in her hands at that moment, for she instinctively flailed her arms about. "Nononononono! Nothing like that!" Shinobu blushed as unbidden the images of her fantasy of "her sempai" taking her in his arms came to her.

Kanako laughed again. "I think we better get dinner finished for the house. No?"

"No, I mean-yes!" Shinobu stammered amidst her blush as she and Kanako turned back to their task.

000

Dinner was completed and served without any further events of any import as Keitaro sat down in his usual seat. He found, somewhat to his relief, that Tsuruko and Kanako sat at the other side of the table, leaving Su and Sara at either side of him. Motoko, he noticed, made certain to ensure that Kitsune and Shinobu sat between her and her big sister and her retainer. With the absence of Naru, and the lack of any visitors this night, this made the seating configuration at the dinner table somewhat strange, but Keitaro decided to just roll with it. No holes had been put in walls or ceilings after all, yet.

Kitsune, having held off a drink all day, had decided it was safe for a bottle of sake or two. She was likely not to learn anything further that night, and, hell, she needed it. Kitsune also wished to see if Tsuruko and Kanako would also drink. She was aware that Kanako was under the drinking age according to catching her state her age in passing, but the fox knew that hardly stopped anybody when it was time for a good kanpai moment.

''An I certainly do not want to make 'em feel unwelcome,' Kitsune thought sincerely as she produced three respectively sized bottles of sake and began filling the saucers for those "reasonably" close to drinking age (at least in high school).

Keitaro stood up, regarding Kanako and Tsuruko with a nod. He smiled, bowed deep-almost gracefully noted both Kitsune and Motoko mentally, though unbeknownst to each other. "Welcome to the Hinata Inn!" He raised his small saucer.

"Kanpai!" everyone else said as they raised either their saucer high or their beverage of choice.

After a wonderful meal was enjoyed, Shinobu had taken Keitaro's advice to sit down and relax for a few minutes instead of washing up, this allowed everyone to sit and talk for awhile at the table. Kanako knew better, however, that the petite bluenette was carefully listening to every word spoken as soon as Sara and Su ran off to play. Tsuruko had been informed of her and Kanako's conversation earlier. Kanako and Tsuruko also knew that Kitsune and Motoko's reactions bear watching.

Tsuruko finished the last bit of her sake. "Keitaro-san, you have only told us a bit of what your duties are."

Keitaro nodded as Tama-chan curled up and napped on the top of his head now that Su had left the room. Shippu had found a perch on the chair Naru usually occupied as he happily shared a plate of cat food with Kuro. It seemed the new animals of the Hinata Inn were as interested in what was transpiring around the dinner table as the human residents. "There is more to the day to day things than most think. That is partly why, I imagine, Granny has us going down to Haruka's tomorrow morning to meet with my family's attorney."

"We have only scratched the surface, Tsuruko-sama." Kanako smiled thinly.

"My, My," Tsuruko looked around, "it seems when I was in residence here that Granny Hina always seemed to be so relaxed, it seems whenever I was not looking she was as busy as a bee."

Keitaro and Kanako nodded in unison, smiled politely, but would say no more.

Motoko sipped her tea, in a manner not unlike her older sister. "Urashima-san, I must inform you I will not be here tomorrow morning. I have a team meeting before school that I must attend. I do not wish for you to worry for me when I am not at table for breakfast." Motoko turned her eyes to see Keitaro as he nodded slowly that he understood what she was telling him; even though the surprise was plain on his face that she was addressing him with such respect and honor.

Tsuruko nodded. "Indeed, you must." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "Then you must be off to the hot spring before all of us, so you may retire to your room and be up in the morning all the earlier for practice."

Motoko turned to Tsuruko, her eyes narrowed so minutely that nobody else caught it but her sister; the intended recipient. "Will you not be joining me, dear sister?"

She smirked. "I would. But I have other duties to attend to now as housemother. I trust to your good offices to decide how to conduct yourself in this matter."

'Motoko-han,' Tsuruko thought, 'now is not the time for a little sisterly discussion.'

'Damnation!' Motoko thought with a twinge of anger. There was still more she wanted to ask her sister, but *not* in front of anyone else, least of all Kanako. Motoko exhaled slowly, then became aware that Kitsune was observing her from how the fox was refilling her sake saucer. Motoko spared a glance in Kitsune's direction.

Kitsune, catching this, favored the kendo girl with a smile. "Ya up for more, sugah?" She waved the sake jar suggestively.

"Hmph!" Motoko turned her nose up. "I thank you, Konno-san, but I must decline." She rose from the table and bowed formally to Keitaro; who almost blushed at her manner. "I must prepare to retire for the night." Motoko spared another moment to bow to her sister and Kanako who rose to return the formal gesture.

Kitsune watched Motoko retreating from the dining room as she began her second saucer of sake. She looked over to Keitaro who was steering the conversation now to the daily duties of maintaining the Hinata Inn and its grounds (with particular emphasis on recycling, trash, and yard waste pick-up days) with Tsuruko and Kanako, briefly she caught his eyes and confirmation that he himself had noted Motoko's little display just now.

'Display?' Kitsune thought to herself as she took yet another sip. 'Hell, that was posturing' if I ever saw it, even if kendo girl would rather set herself on fire rather than be caught admitin' to it.' She favored Tsuruko with a smile now.

Tsuruko returned it, knowing the fox requested a response from the wolf. "Yes, Kitsune-san?"

"So…" Kitsune drawled as she waved her sake saucer around in front of her. "I get the part that you met Kei-kun's little sister a while ago, but when exactly did this 'guard and servant' business start and Granny Hina having y'all come on down? Was this planned from the start when Kei hon took over?"

Kanako shook her head. "No, Kitsune-san, it was not." She looked to her mistress, who wordlessly gave her permission for her retainer to continue. This more extended explanation had been prepared for during the pair's journey to the Hinata Inn...

000

Flashback...

Somewhere on a small island in Ariara, Philippines...

Two days after the "Kyoto Konfrontation"...

000

Sitting at the center of a traditional ten foot wooden fishing motorboat, Tsuruko with her ever present familiar Shippu upon her shoulder instructed the helmsmen to head towards the small island she had marked on the navigation chart. The island's location and the invitation came in a package she had received from Granny Hina the day before the final duel with her younger sister and her would-be husband.

Having needed to travel to many locales over the years as a demon slayer-though the majority of those were traveling throughout Japan-the Aoyama swordsmistress still found that traveling away from her native home a wondrous experience. That said, she still idly wondered how the old woman managed to cover such vast distances at inhuman pace even for people half her age.

Now on the beach, walking away from the modest boat marina, Tsuruko with Shippu on her shoulder curved a palm-fringed beach, the sea so clear that in the pale turquoise waters you can see right through to the sandy bottom, her visage almost dropping its usual stoic appearance as she enjoyed the sun and sea breeze. She looked ahead.

Shimmering away in the distance on the beach ahead there was an outcropping of jungle which marked the center of the island. Before that, lay a small village populated with small and medium sized thatched buildings with one or two larger brick buildings. Tsuruko soon found her destination; a large open-air hut with what looked like a large sized thatched central sitting and dining area adjacent to a larger building and yet more sand-rimmed and forested areas of the island to explore next to it.

Tsuruko reached the small structure where a dark clad figure was awaiting her arrival. With a serene smile the figure greets her with a short bow. "Greetings Aoyama-sama, I trust your journey was pleasant?" Having sent Shippu off to scout before entering the village, she returned her friend's greeting. "It was a most pleasant experience, thank you Kanako-san. It is a wonder how Hina-sama offers such unique experiences each time I visit her. I trust you are well?"

The Urashima witch smiled. "Very well, thank you." Kanako's expression turned more serious. "But how is Big Brother?"

Though her friend had made great progress in working out and controlling her infatuation with her brother, the samurai still found it comical at how animated the youngest Urashima would become at the mere mention of Keitaro. This provoked Tsuruko's usual smirk. "Oh you mean Kei-I mean Manager-san? He was most invigorating at our last encounter."

Stunned into silence for a few moments, Kanako sweatdropped. Finally, gathering her wits she responded: "Huh? Tsu- Just what do you mean by... invigorating?"

Placing her hand over her mouth, Tsuruko chuckled. "Ho-ho, most invigorating, I must say! But should we not gather with Hina-sama?" With a grin, Tsuruko started striding just ahead of Kanako towards the larger building where she deduced her objectives' location, with the dark haired girl following.

000

Arriving at her destination the samurai is greeted by the sight of a shaded beach cabana with one sunbather in a modest one-piece swimsuit. The happy tune being hummed confirmed Tsuruko's supposition that it was none other than Granny Hina even before Tsuruko's ki confirmed her identity. Tsuruko noted as she caught Hina's eye (the old woman waved over to Tsuruko as she came into view) that the old woman was being handed a very large colorful beverage by one of her personal guards.

Observing her guest the old woman gestured her to sit opposite her on an adjacent beach chair. "Welcome my child, would you like to try some? I trust your sister demonstrated sufficient skill?" Hina hummed merrily.

Tsuruko nodded in reply. Then she laughed as Hina took a long, deep sip out of a very long straw. The size of the glass was nearly Hina's size. Tsuruko noted there were three straws, and laughed as brightly as the sun. "Greetings Hina-sama," Tsuruko bowed formally. "Motoko-han demonstrated more than sufficient abilities, though the plan did not proceed as originally envisioned. However she exhibited great potential for the future as both a warrior and a woman." Tsuruko elaborated further on the happenings over the last several days.

A while later after they had finished the original reason for the visit, Hina could see how Tsuruko reached her conclusion that Motoko was more than fit to take over the school in the future, but she still needed further growth. Kanako spent much of the time attempting to steer the conversation towards her brother in between the infrequent sip from her own straw, though to no avail as she was continually shut down each time by Hina. The drink soothed Kanako's frustration, however.

Over the years Tsuruko had sampled several of the western-style alcoholic cocktails as she had found them a pleasant opportunity to expand her palate beyond sake. After several sips, though she was not under the influence she had begun to feel the effects of the tall, colorful concoction. The only way she could describe the feeling was pleasant and the more she had the more at ease she felt. Though one side effect was that maintaining her more business-minded intentions for this meeting had become a little more difficult.

Now fully enjoying the opportunity to catch up with her old friend it was Tsuruko's turn to steer the conversation towards Hina's grandson; much to Kanako's delight.

"You were correct about your grandson, he isn't what anyone would call a manly man but his strength of heart and spirit dwarfs almost any other male I have ever met." The samurai turned and gave the dark haired girl a knowing smile. "I can certainly understand why you have held your brother in such high regard, Kanako-san."

At just that moment the alcohol decided to really impact Kanako. "See? He is the only man in the world worthy!" She immediately shut her mouth tightly, looking sidelong to Hina. Her grandmother now had a grin on her face that sent chills up Kanako's spine. 'What scheme is she cooking up now?' Kanako wondered.

"That is certainly the best idea I have heard in a long time granddaughter, I thank you for it." Hina hummed again contemplatively as she sipped from her straw. For a few moments, she said no more.

Getting a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that kept getting deeper as the moments passed, Kanako realized that her grandmother had been planning on her making a comment in front of Tsuruko that went along the lines of what she had just said. 'I knew it! Granny did it again!' Kanako thought with a combination of embarrassment and awe at how she took the bait and ran with it without ever realizing it.

Tsuruko, her curiosity piqued at the outburst, is unable to keep her questions in check in her pleasingly buzzed state. "Oh, and what would be the intention of this 'idea' be, Hina-sama?"

Giving her audience a smile that would put the cat that got the cream to shame, Hina lifted up her finger, wagging it ever so slightly at Tsuruko. "You forgot to mention how you gave my grandson a hug, Tsu-chan."

Tsuruko chuckled, nodding in the affirmative. "Your sources do not miss much, Hime-sama."

Hina cackled, clearly enjoying her little game. Her expression then took on a more somber note. "I appreciate that it was my proposal for you to become one with Ko. I believe I am honor bound to assist you in working your way through this change in your life. Therefore I have a proposition."

Finally able to speak, Kanako gave Tsuruko a look. "Tsuruko-san is this true? Did you hug my Big Brother?" Giving her the biggest puppy dog eyes she could muster, Kanako did her best, but Tsuruko only gave her a simple smile. Realizing the conversation had turned, Kanako turned back to Hina, keeping herself calm. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then respectfully bowed her head to her grandmother. After that was acknowledged by Hina, Kanako proceeded: "Proposition, Granny? What proposition?"

Feigning clearing her throat, Tsuruko spoke up. "I would also be obliged if you would elaborate, Hina-sama."

"Spoiling an old woman's fun, Tsu-chan?" Hina asked in mock annoyance. "I guess I should just come out and tell you." Hina suddenly became very serious as she took a deep breath. "I propose that you, Tsuruko Aoyama, in order to enjoy a change in your daily life, immediately give your office temporarily to your mother and become Housemother and assistant manager of the Hinata Inn."

Taking a few minutes to ponder the old woman's words, Tsuruko had to agree that prior to her arrival to the Hinata to test Motoko she was quickly becoming something she hated. Pining around the Aoyama clan dojo, burying herself in the minutiae of her duties in the administration of the God's Cry School, and even spending entirely too much time scrutinizing how clean her bedroom was now that Ko was gone. It was all an attempt to fill the gaping hole in her life by focusing on time-consuming busy-work to distract her and all it did was fill hours of the day without making her a better woman or samurai. She knew why she was slowly slipping into this trap; it was a defense mechanism against developing real resentment towards Kimiko or Ko and the situation that brought her to this point.

Tsuruko did not want to live this way.

The chance to spend more quality time with Motoko *was* enticing plus she could spend more time with the other wonderful, colorful individuals in residence at the Hinata Inn. In particular, the intriguing Manager-san.

During this time Kanako contemplated what to do. She knew if she started complaining about how she was promised to co-manage the Hinata with Keitaro then Hina would hear none of her arguments. Kanako mentally searched for some way, any way, to get her sent down to the Hinata Inn. She knew it would not be easy without raising suspicion that she was backsliding on her recovery from her infatuation with her brother and also seeming ungrateful to her grandmother with all she had done for her and taught her. But then, when it seemed like she would not come up with anything, Kanako suddenly smiled. She stood up, moved towards Tsuruko and kneeled before her.

"Tsuruko-sama," Kanako spoke with great deliberation," I humbly pledge fealty to you."

Tsuruko blinked, taken aback.

"Well, well," Hina chortled as she took another sip from her drink, the tone of her voice clearly suggesting a hint of inebriation. "This is unexpected."

Kanako looked up at her grandmother. "Granny, you have always told me I may seek my own path whenever I felt ready. Whether wandering paths on my own, or pledging myself in service to another."

Hina grinned. "That I did, Kana-chan."

Kanako returned her eyes to Tsuruko. The intensity with which she met the gaze of the Kendo Wolf of Kyoto was startling.

"You mean this, do you not?" Tsuruko asked softly.

"Yes," Kanako whispered.

Tsuruko looked up at Hina. "If I accept your offer, Hina-sama, and the pledge of your granddaughter; you may find the way I will assist Keitaro-san in running the Inn may not line up with how you and Haruka-san ran it."

Hina laughed. "Oh, I know. That's why I think it is a grand idea."

'You would, you conniving old coot.' Tsuruko thought.

Tsuruko returned her attention to Kanako. "And if I accept your offer, Kanako-san," Tsuruko's tone took on regal formality despite the alcohol, "I expect obedience and service." Her eyes glinted. "If I find out this is a deception to backslide on you giving up trying to make your brother your husband, then I will be very, very displeased. Is that clear?"

Kanako saw the glint in Tsuruko's eyes, knowing the threat. But Kanako knew her own heart, and the changes wrought within it. "I understand," she nodded, bowing her head almost completely to the tiki wood floor. "But please, accept my pledge and I will show you the change within… while also helping Big Brother with his duties as manager as I serve you."

Tsuruko's expression softened. She stood up. "Well and good. I accept your pledge of fealty, Kanako Urashima. Please rise."

Kanako rose, smiling. She bowed deeply again.

Tsuruko turned to face Hina. She noted the rosy, pleased expression on the old woman's face as she finished her beverage. "I humbly and gratefully accept your offer of employment."

Hina clap-clapped her hands together in gleeful joy, laughing merrily in the way that only doting and manipulative grandmothers could after having a few drinks.

In honest truth, Tsuruko knew Kanako still had some issues regarding her brother, but she trusted Kanako's words and the intentions behind them. Still, as a practical matter Tsuruko knew that Kanako would need to see her brother again to truly put her past feelings behind her and embrace the future. Plus, Tsuruko had to admit she was looking forward to spending more time with Kanako as well as a friend.

Hina smile slowly disappeared. "Though this new assignment is not entirely for you-and now Kana-chan-as a few things have me somewhat concerned. Having someone I trust as support will alleviate some of my worries." Hina let out a sigh, the old woman continued after seeming to choose her next words very carefully. "One concern is my grandson…"

Tsuruko and Kanako unconsciously hitched closer to hear Hina as her voice grew quieter.

For a couple of long moments, Hina said nothing. Tsuruko and Kanako waited, the only sounds were the surf and the wind blowing through palm trees.

Finally, Hina shrugged. "Awh hell, there's no easy way to tell you both this. According to your explanation Tsu-chan, Kei-chan is able to converse to an extent with your familiar-and the presence within that old family heirloom called my grandson a king." Hina leveled a suddenly very sober look at Tsuruko. "If what Kitsune told about her unpleasant encounter in regards to the demon within the blade is correct… these events do warrant further scrutiny in person by experienced eyes." The old woman shook her head, closing her eyes, taking a deep breath. "Though, if I am honest with Keitaro's nearly instant healing abilities I had a small suspicion for a long time now it may not just be the Urashima arts in his spirit."

Tsuruko's flushed feeling is instantly gone and replaced by more cool, detached, focused tone. "What do you know about that katana, Hina-sama? Did you ever have any idea that that sword was *the* cursed blade of Hina?"

Hina shook her head from side to side. "Absolutely not, that sword was passed down from one head of the Urashima clan to the next as an heirloom; never, ever to be drawn, only to be kept safe and out of the way due to it being…" her brow furrowed, sifting through memory. "Fragile," she finished after thinking. "Yes, I was told it was very fragile. In fact, my father always said it was a fake sword for ceremonial purposes. He did not know when it entered the family's possession or from whom or any of the details of its forging. It has always just been with us."

"Granny, did you ever tell Big Brother about it?" Kanako asked.

"Not since he was shorter than me." Hina said simply. "In fact until the report my agents sent me from the duel in Kyoto; I had not thought about it since the last major revision of my will when I provided that the katana would go to Kei-chan when I pass away."

Tsuruko mulled this over. "Nevertheless, that sword *is* the cursed blade of Hina."

"Strange that it passed out of knowledge between the havoc it wrought on ancient Kyoto and your house and then coming into possession of the Urashima clan, my Lady." Kanako commented.

"Strange, yes, but the Aoyama and Urashima clans have since their earliest beginnings been present in the Kyoto area." Tsuruko shrugged. "After the demon in the blade committed its carnage and was sealed, the sword in its sheath could have simply ended up being found at random some time later by someone-almost anyone-and in time made it into the Urashima clan's keeping." She shook her head, there just was no way to know for certain.

"My family never had any idea of that blade being *the* cursed blade of Hina." Hina shook her head. "To imagine my name being the same of such a destructive possessed blade." She sighed, "it is chilling." She fixed a steady gaze on Tsuruko. "Are you certain Motoko-chan sealed that sword? It cannot harm anyone?"

"Yes," Tsuruko nodded in the affirmative. "She sealed and purified the demonic consciousness in it; now it obeys her will and is her sword. It cannot harm anyone unless they draw the katana and are *not* the sword's rightful owner; Motoko-han."

Hina smiled a thin, knowing smile. "Think of this as a working vacation, you two, in more ways than one!" The Urashima matriarch chuckled.

"I thought as much. You wish for me to act as a guard for your tenants and grandchild in addition to helping collect the rent and make repairs, then?" Tsuruko smirked wryly.

"And please do keep the gardens in good order, I am very proud of the work I put in over the years." Hina winked, her mood lightening a touch before becoming a little more somber once more. "All kidding aside, the answer is: yes and no. Dear, I believe it will do you as much good to take a break from your duties and heal your injuries in spirit. Your presence along with my dear granddaughter will help guard against any possibility of trouble, however slight. However, while I do not wish to infuriate or insult you with this, neither you nor I or could defeat the demon inside the blade if the seal Motoko-chan put on it were to somehow weaken or be broken altogether."

Kanako looked down. "It would be better if we had more of a complete history of the sword's role in the near annihilation of the Aoyama clan and the city of Kyoto."

Hina smiled, that familiar gleam coming back to her eye. And that smile.

"What, Granny?" Kanako asked.

"You know something, do you not, Hina-sama?" Tsuruko gave Hina prompting look.

Hina looked from Kanako and Tsuruko before continuing. "There is a legend, exactly what it means is unknown these days; as the one who first recorded the prophecy has been dead for a some time, she gave her life so that your family and the rest of Japan could be saved by confronting the demon burning down Kyoto." Pausing for a few moments to let what she just said sink in (and collect her thoughts), she continued: "It is said that the legend was brought to the east by her student, who escaped the evils that would surely devour his kind and thus ensure his line's continued survival through the ages. Though it is some millennia or so old I will recite the legend. I caution both of you, this is but a translation passed down one generation to the next within the Urashima clan to those with an interest in ancient family lore." The old woman opened a scroll that had been quickly and silently handed to her by one of her servants. Hina opened the scroll and took a deep breath before beginning her recitation.

000

If he does yet breathe, he can be found in the Forest of Celyddon. Although some say he is merely a figure of legend, it may be less than prudent to concur with the doubters. After all, they were the men who dismissed the story of Myrddin's magicking of Stonehenge from across the seas and we know now that the monuments stone came from a quarry that is indeed across a sea, across the Cardigan Bay, on the southern coast of Wales. Such disbelief, however, is not uncommon in the treatment of this man of the woods. His life, to this point, has not been one of ease, but has been marked, yes, by madness but also by a never-ending struggle against those who would sleight his essential nature, even going so far as to attempt to kill him for it.

Once a prince in the world of men, he rules over the forest as king. He speaks the tongues of animals and they listen to him as they listened to Adam, Noah, and the early men of this earth. The society of his animal companions, sometimes the pig, sometimes the wolf, is the only society that Myrddin can withstand for the world of men has driven him to despair and madness. Much has been made of his madness, which unmoored his mind's eye so that rather than experience the world in the present, as the mass of men do, he sees the future relentlessly unfolding before him. To hear him speak of the future is to put oneself in peril, for, as it is commonly known, foreknowledge is a grave danger to all sane men who encounter it.

Myrddin was, before prophecy struck him, a great lord of the Welsh people, the bearer of a golden torque. He was terrible to meet in battle and his prowess inspired awe from his enemies and friends alike. He had a wife whom he loved dearly and who was deeply enamored of him and his powerful figure. He was, from all accounts, well spoken and well spoken of at court, though he harbored great hostility toward the Christian missionaries who had taken to trumpeting their new faith throughout the land. It might have been because of this animosity that he went mad, though the accounts all differ as to how it happened. What is certain is that he was never the same after the Battle of Arfderydd.

The Battle of Arfderydd was fought on the plains of Scotland before Scotland was known by such a name, between the rivers of Liddel and Esk. Assembled on the field that day were the hosts of the Welsh's two most mighty warlords, a devotee to the old Gods and Myrddin's liege lord. It is during this clash of titans that the Gods touched Myrddin.

Away from the moans of the dying and injured, away from the grunts of the soldiers exhausting themselves in the attempt to kill their enemy, in the attempt to stay alive themselves, away from the horrible accusatory silence of the corpses, of the cloven heads that bobbed in estuaries of blood, away from that silence (that silence!) and into the woods went Myrddin. Off into the wild he flew "like any bird of the air." He landed in an apple-tree in the Forest of Celyddon and was to stay there for many years. In that forest, the forest where the madmen searched for their sanity, he lived with the animals. He slept in the boughs of the oak trees and lived on a diet of nuts and vegetables. It was among the animals that he hid as he sought protection from King Rhydderch who he was certain was trying to kill him. It was to the animals that he foretold the coming of Cadwaladyr, the great King who would unite the people and bring peace. It was to the animals that he spoke as he attempted to find peace with the violence of his kind.

Myrddin Wyllt, if he does yet breathe, can be found in the Forest of Celyddon. Perhaps he is singing, for he is, they say, as gifted in voice as the famed Taliesin of the golden brow. But, if he has died in the centuries since he was last beheld by mortal mind, if the word-sorcerers de Boron and Mallory have succeeded in stealing his soul to animate their fantastical courtier-counselor, Merlin the magician, and Myrddin Wyllt has sunk into slumber, then, it is said, wait for the time of the great King Cadwaladyr's return, when the steel cages shall crash to the ground, the black tar shall be uprooted, the endless fires shall be extinguished, the silver dragons that belch smoke into the sky slain, and Myrddin Wyllt shall once again walk with the lonely wolf, ride the crownless stag, fraternize with the hare, consort with the fox, associate with the kite, tame the wild boar, and devour coupled with speak prophecy to the pig.

000

Taking a deep breath Hina allowed a few moments for Tsuruko and Kanako to contemplate what she had just recited. "As I have said, to this day we have been unable to decipher the exact meaning of this translation, but I do have a clue." Reaching underneath the table to a discretely placed attache case, Hina pulled out a solid silver Knight chess piece and gave it to Tsuruko.

Tsuruko accepted the object with a short bow of her head. She analyzed the item, aside from the piece being a solid piece of silver the Aoyama swordsmistress was unable to find any significant feature, though having been trusted with the item she was about to stow it safely in her gi-when her fingers discerned some minute markings.

Kanako noted the change in expression on Tsuruko's face, and gave her new mistress a questioning look.

"I feel some writing on this artifact," Tsuruko said to Hina. "Very faint, but they resemble runes of some kind. Icelandic perhaps, but I am hardly an expert in these things."

Hina nodded in the affirmative. "Those have been noted as well over the years, but we have never had anyone examine the item closely for fear of losing it. The writing on the chess piece is similar to the writing of the scroll-but no one in the Urashima clan has ever been able to translate what is on the piece. As you heard from the translation of that old legend; it is very difficult to understand in parts. So for ages my family has kept these two items close-along with what I now have found out is the dreaded demon sword of Hina-until now." She smiled.

"You do me much honor, Hina-sama." Tsuruko bowed her head again. "I will do my best to investigate further with the knowledge and artifact you have entrusted me."

"As well as help my dear grandson." Hina giggled.

Kanako chuckled.

"Yes, that as well." Tsuruko smirked, already the wheels in her mind were turning on a new question. Who could she ask for help with what she had just learned?

000

Sometime later Hina waved farewell to Tsuruko and Kanako as they embarked on their new quest. "I will miss my granddaughter," Hina whispered.

Abruptly two dark figures appear behind the matriarch. "We can retrieve Kanako at a moment's notice by your command, Hina-sama." They bowed perfectly in unison.

Smiling at the offer Hina smiled, waving the two to stand at ease, but also showing she appreciated their concern. "No, that will not be necessary, Tora. You and Aiko may return to your duties." Hina took a few deep breaths to steady her nerves. "I thank you, but my granddaughter must grow up eventually."

000

On the boat ride back to the mainland where the airport was located, Tsuruko sat with her mobile phone in one hand and the Knight piece in the other. Kanako had asked for a brief leave to watch the ocean from the other side of the ship with Kuro, and Shippu had joined them. Briefly she weighed her options, pondering, then she smirked. She knew just who to contact. As she flipped through her mobile phone's contact list, she laughed as she for a few moments longer luxuriated in the fresh, salty south seas air. Once she made arrangements with the good professor, she would express ship by courier the Knight piece to his good keeping with orders from the Aoyama and Urashima clans to investigate and report back; if he happened to stumble on something that could win him the Nobel Prize, then good for him.

"You owe me a favor or two, Noriyasu Seta," she said out loud as she pecked out the text message on the phone, not caring in the least if any of her fellow ferry passengers heard her.

000

Present day...

"The residents seemed to have taken the explanation well," Kanako said as she dried a dish that Tsuruko had just handed her.

Tsuruko began scrubbing another dish. "Hmmhmm. Though I imagine I may have lost half the room at the mention of the chess piece. I cannot blame even Keitaro-san in not following along in the telling of the legend; I myself have my doubts about many parts of it." They had both firmly insisted to Shinobu and the other residents that they handle the clean-up and dishes for that night. As of now, they were almost done and as their trained ears were able to make out, everyone in the Inn was going through their pre-bedtime routine. To Tsuruko and Kanako's amusement, the greatest commotion while they washed up was Keitaro and Sara during their many rounds of playing Rumble Kings with Su and Kitsune providing color commentary and Shinobu cheerleading.

"What do you think the meaning is of all of this, my Lady?"

Tsuruko handed Kanako another dish to dry. "If there is factual basis to what has happened and your grandmother's fears, then I hope it is just a bit of minor spiritual annoyance now that I have experience with the demon's power." She pursed her lips. "The answer should present itself soon as the wheels have already been set into motion. "

"Then we will purify?"

Tsuruko smirked. "So eager to go into battle, are we?" She passed another dish to Kanako for cleaning.

"I feel continued uneasiness at your report of what happened in Kyoto with that sword," Kanako sighed after considering her mistress' question.

"Yes, I understand why. Even if Motoko-han sealed the presence of the Hina blade. The voice Keitaro-san and Konno-san reported is troubling." Tsuruko shrugged, contemplating. "But do not have your heart set on expectations of a great battle; oftentimes in cases like this the spirits seize on the ghosts of our own minds and give greater shape and meaning than is actually there; even if there *are* similarities. It could also be another spirit that was locked in the blade along with the Hina spirit demon, and has been dispersed by Motoko-han for all time."

Kanako finished drying the last dish. Soon the two began final clean-up around the sink area of the kitchen. "Then what made Granny remember this legend and the artifact, and you this Seta-sensei character?"

Tsuruko gave Kanako a look, then laughed. "My servant knows well how to ask an open question of her Lady."

Kanako blushed, feeling a bit chastened, then she looked down. "I apologize-"

"-no need." Tsuruko smiled, holding up her hand just so. "I only know what you have already learned from Hina-sama on the island." She glanced upstairs, as if making that she could see the object of their discussion. The Rumble Kings tournament having ended a few minutes earlier and everyone started making their way upstairs. "The key seems to be that something involving the Hina blade called Keitaro a 'lesser king' and mocked him, his spirit, and his energies."

Kanako nodded. "How will we proceed then once your archeology professor acquaintance reports back?"

"Fortunately," Tsuruko shrugged. "We have everyone's trust and support. I will talk to Motoko-han in the morning before her practice; catch her up on a few details and instruct her to keep that katana sealed and locked on its katakana when she is not directly wielding it. I should hear from Seta-sensei soon, then we will piece the puzzle together while helping Keitaro-san turn this Inn around!"

"Running an Inn while fighting possible evil, much better than college or working in my parent's sweet shop." Kanako smiled, leaving unsaid the other Urashima clan "enterprises."

Tsuruko laughed into her sleeve knowingly. Indeed it was.

000

Naru Narsuegawa flopped onto the bed of her childhood room with a "harumph" that if one called it exactly what it was-that is frumpy; they would have been immediately rewarded with a Naru left hook. Her trip to see her family had taken a week so far. Three days with her mother, stepfather, and Mei on the other side of Kyoto prefecture from Kyoto City, and three days with her father in the small village on the other end of the jurisdiction. That last bit had been even more unplanned and spur of the moment but had swiftly been embarked upon when she received a fax from Haruka announcing the results of the duel in Kyoto; much to her relief though she would not admit it. Her father had sent to his ex-wife a standing invitation for Naru to come and visit. She accepted once she puzzled over a comment in Haruka's message alluding to Motoko and Kitsune pawing at Keitaro.

Naru at least knew Haruka well enough to know that that was deadpan hyperbole on her part, and she certainly knew Keitaro enough to know he was not overtly inviting increased attention from Motoko and Kitsune, but still one could not quite put it past that perverted part of Keitaro's mind-

Her phone rang on her nightstand, she answered it. "Hello?"

[Hey girl, how you doin'?]

Naru smiled thinly, she could tell Kitsune was forcing the levity into her voice.

"Good, good, how are you?"

[Well, this and that, these and those.]

Naru's smile drooped a bit as she heard Kitsune take a swig of sake. "How are things there?"

[... we have two new residents.]

Naru bolted upright in her bed. "W-what, who? Who has Keitaro let in without me being there?!"

[...]

"Kitsune? You there?"

['Ya, I'm here, girl. Just letting that last line of bullshit of yours roll off 'my back. Oh, look! There it goes!] Another swig of sake.

Naru frowned. Mentally reviewing what she had just said and how it may have sounded, she sighed. "Right, right, I'm not the manager, still I am the manager's study partner and I was close to Granny Hina, that should count for-"

[Not a whole hell of a lot, Naru. Sorry to say.]

"Well, okay! You got me there, Kitsune! So you going to tell me who our new housemates are or not? Please tell me they're girls." Naru rubbed her temples.

[You're only half-right.] Kitsune giggled for a few seconds too long for Naru's liking.

"... Keitaro let a man in? That perv-!"

[Na-chan, if Kei-kei was really such a big perv why would he let men rent rooms? It would mean less for him, ya know?] Kitsune's tone was as if she was talking to a four year old child.

"Yeah," Naru sighed, "but whenever Keitaro does something you have to always be on your guard and make sure it isn't something perverted!"

Kitsune's answering laughter over the phone cut Naru off sharply, in fact the first reaction that Naru felt was that Kitsune was being intentionally condescending towards her.

[Sorry, sorry… I'm sorry, Na-chan. You see, no Kei-kei did not let a man in it is just while Kanako-san is definitely a girl; though a strange one, Tsuruko-sama is definitely a woman; scratch that, a lady.]

"Tsu-what-sama?" Naru blinked, the name familiar. "Wh-what? Isn't that the same name as Motoko's older sister? The one they beat in that damn silly duel?"

[The very same, girl.]

"Then what the fuck is she doing there, Kitsune? And who is this Kanako girl?"

[...why don't you come home and find out, Naru? Should be fun.]

"Wait, you *know*, Mitsune Konno! Why aren't you telling me?!"

[Na-chan, I love ya', 'ya know that?]

"Well, yeah, I love you too, you're my best friend," Naru's frustration with the conversation was filtering outward into her voice and very being. "Why aren't you telling me?"

[... concerned about more rivals for Kei-kei, are 'ya?]

"What? NO!"

[Sorry, sugah, I really gotta jet, another bottle o' sake is calling my name just about now. Bye!]

The line went dead in Naru's ears then. The hand that was not holding the phone clenched into a fist.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she exhaled finding calm using the techniques Seta had taught her and Kitsune years ago. Idly, Naru wondered if that is how Kitsune became such a smooth and calm operator when it came to her little schemes and ease with dealing with adversity in her life. It had served her well, Naru admitted while honestly not seeing the appeal in her best friend's lifestyle. However, things had changed; even Naru would openly admit. The younger girls were growing up, Motoko was blossoming into a more well-rounded individual rather than just the stoic "kendo girl," her and Keitaro were now Tokyo U students, and Su's inventions were causing less property damage. Even Haruka and Seta seemed to be more on the same wavelength when dealing with Sara; more like old friends. Why shouldn't Kitsune be acting a bit for herself and not just as a supporting character in Naru's life?

"Then why isn't she waiting for me to decide?" Naru whispered to herself. "This isn't easy."

Slowly, as the amount of days increased since she left Hinata City (no, turned her back on Keitaro, she mentally amended) she had been evaluating her behavior and while she still *wanted* to blame Keitaro; she found it increasingly difficult to rest it completely on him. As Naru interacted with her fellow club members and then went back home she decided to keep a journal just for the journey; following Seta's old habit of not diary keeping but of writing an account of only actions, reactions, and reasoning behind them. In order to practice her English proficiency, Naru had even written it in English. The practice was beneficial. Last night, Mei had asked to read the journal after discovering it on Naru's bed, lying open. Naru gave her permission, honestly eager for her little sister's opinion as she had not made it clear that she herself had written it or what it was about. She simply told Mei it was an English text, and that since Mei was doing very well with her own English classes, why not try and read it?

Mei had read the journal, then asked who the bitch was that wrote it?

Naru had been fortunate that she had been up the hall in the bathroom brushing her hair so that she could cover up her shock and sputtering reaction by lightly scolding Mei about using such language. All through that night and all that day Naru had re-read the journal twice and thought back on her trip and what had come before. Finally, she conceded the point. At the very least, there was a stark difference between how she acted around her family, and female peers, and how she acted in public and when men were concerned. Even her actions around her father and step-father, while cordial and affectionate, lacked real warmth. Like she was always looking for distance and escape while only keeping up appearances.

"What am I going to do about Keitaro?" Naru asked this outloud of her bedroom ceiling, but it was barely a whisper.

"Na-chan? Dinner!" Her mother called from downstairs.

"I'll be right there, Mom!"

000

Naru went through the motions of smoothing out her appearance and proceeded downstairs. She walked into the dining room and the sight that greeted her nearly made her eyes bug out of their skull.

"Heya, Naru!"

"Seta-sensei?!" Naru blinked, looking around from her mother, her stepfather, and to Mei and back. Realizing they were all getting one hell of a kick from her aghast expression, Naru recovered. "How are you? When did you get here?"

Her old tutor chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "Well, your mother invited me up here when she found out you were coming home for a bit."

Naru's eyes narrowed a bit amid the happy smile on her face. Did Sara know? "I thought you were on a dig."

"I was!" Seta beamed with boy-like enthusiasm. "The Isle of Man… wonderful place, but windy…"

"I can't believe you came all this way just to see me."

"It would be tempting, wouldn't it? But no." Seta smiled, charming as ever amidst his cluelessness that the gentlemanly thing to do would have been to tell a little white lie to a lady. "This may sound a bit funny, but it is a coincidence that I am here. I was at my dig, when an old friend called me to take a look at an artifact that they had happened across. I told them I was far too busy, I mean I had to leave Sara-chan in Hinata, hadn't I? They insisted, then began describing this artifact; which is a Knight chess piece with some runic inscriptions on it. She paid a lot of money for a courier to fly it over to my office at Tokyo U and told me if I was not there to meet it she would challenge me to a duel. This friend of mine is the kind to back up such a threat, so I immediately caught the next flight back to Tokyo. Now there I was sitting in my office looking right at this chess piece artifact! That was around when I got the invitation from your mother."

The somewhat forced smile on Naru's face said it all. "And you just couldn't refuse free food, could you, Seta-sensei?"

"Certainly not your mother's!" Seta rose and bowed to the lady of the house, who blushed as she accepted the pleasantry.

"Can't argue there," Naru chuckled, not insincerely as Seta had stuck around for dinner plenty of times back when he tutored her.

"Why don't you sit down and I'll tell you all about my latest digs; I have discovered lots about the Great Turtle Civilization and its colonies!" Seta's eyes glinted with a boyish gleam that always made Naru stop and take notice.

She found herself smiling, and briefly allowing the turmoil in her mind take a back-seat as she sat down next to Seta to enjoy dinner.

000

After dinner and helping Naru's mother with cleaning up, Naru and Seta decided to enjoy the night with a walk to a local park that held no real sentimental value for Naru in her childhood, nor was it particularly scenic in her young adulthood, but it did provide a destination for them to go without much of a possibility of interruption.

"So, Keitaro broke his leg, and cannot start new student orientation until he can heal up." Naru finished catching Seta up on the recent status of the manager of the Hinata Inn. Naru looked ahead as they reached the front entrance of the park. It occupied a small street corner, sparsely but pleasingly populated with trees and dense shrubberies and flower beds, a gazebo, and two small playgrounds; one for toddlers and the other for older children.

Seta nodded, sighing with sympathy for his part-timer. "That is a problem. Tokyo U does not have good policies for students with injuries; especially those who live a good hour and a half train ride away from campus." He then smiled. "Funny, though, they do have very relaxed work-study and independent learning elective programs."

"That's nice…" Naru agreed aimlessly, she sighed. No time like the present. "Seta-sensei, I did something that I cannot understand; and worse yet, I think I may have behaved… badly."

"Oh, so you slept with Keitaro in an attempt to 'nurse' him back to health?" Seta chuckled, then winked suggestively.

"Don't be perverted, Seta-sensei!" Naru shook her fist in the air for emphasis. The brief flash of anger seemed to dissipate as quickly as it appeared, leaving Naru seemingly deflated, defeated.

"All kidding aside, Naru. Tell me, what happened?" Seta's tone turned serious but sympathetic.

"... he told me he loved me."

Seta grinned. Nodded politely, as if expecting that Naru's revelation would be forthcoming. His smile vanished once he realized that that *was* the revelation. "You mean you didn't know?"

"No! I mean, yeah!" Naru took a few steps off the path to walk around in a deliberative circle in the cool grass where children played and young couple enjoyed picnicking during the day. She shook her head. "Rather I mean to say I suspected he *may* feel that way towards me, but I was surprised when he came out and said it like he did."

"Okay… I'm happy for you two," he smiled. "So why are you acting like you just kicked a litter of puppies to steal their chow?"

"... is it okay if, I don't know, I told you that I did not say anything to Keitaro and just left the room?"

Seta's smile remained. "Well, I would be confused and concerned. And I would be very concerned for how Keitaro was feeling." Bit by bit his small vanished. "... wait, this is for real, isn't it?"

Naru could only nod in the affirmative, not looking at him, staring straight ahead at the fountain.

Seta was stone silent. He looked around where they stood in a vacant park. He admired the well maintained grass and the slightly worn appearance of the swing-set that stood not far from them. He thought briefly that this was not a bad place to park and camp if the local police force would be amiable to that end. Finally, after briefly admiring the stars, he turned back to Naru who was similarly lost in thought and simultaneously trying to avoid it.

"So I guess you don't love Keitaro after all, huh?" Seta suddenly felt a strong urge for a cigarette.

"... I keep trying to think about things, and I just feel scared."

"Scared?" Seta was a bit surprised at that.

"I do feel some kind of warm emotion towards Keitaro," Naru spoke slowly, keeping her eyes fixed on a point as far away as her eyes could discern in the nighttime gloom of the park, illuminated only be a few stray street lamps. "But I can't say it matches what he feels for me, or even if it feels right to date him and find out, you know?"

"Wait, 'feels right,' Naru?" Seta held up his hand, even though she was not looking at him. "What precisely do you mean by that?"

Naru sighed, shaking her head. She said nothing.

Seta smiled compassionately. "Think on your emotions for a moment, then close your eyes and try and recall the first memory of when you felt similarly."

Naru took her old tutor's advice. After a while, Naru spoke in a halting, uncertain whisper that Seta had to take several steps towards her to understand what she was saying. "When Mei was very young, it was her birthday. Her first birthday when she was going to a have a lot of friends over from her school, she was turning seven, and I-I cannot believe how immature I was-I was jealous at how much and how many presents my Mom and Stepdad were lavishing on her…" she fell silent.

Seta waited patiently, his calming, caring and yet carefree expression on his face that Naru had grown to accept and appreciate back when he started tutoring her. The beginning embers of her dream of becoming a teacher were kindled then.

Eventually, Naru rallied the strength to forge on. "The night before I got up and found out where Mom and Dad were hiding all of her presents and I resolved to get back at Mei being spoiled somehow. I found out they were going to give her own Liddo-kun, because she could not keep her hands off of mine… so I convinced myself that switching them out-the new Liddo-kun for me-would be just compensation…" Naru closed her eyes in shame. The pathetic nature of the memory seeming to grow more oppressive by the second.

"But you didn't, did you?" Seta chuckled in good humor. Not at her, though, just to express his solidarity with her in that moment.

"...no."

"Why?" Seta asked, favoring Naru with a probing look. "You probably would have gotten away with it, and I bet Mei would have loved it regardless."

Naru looked up at the starry sky above the trees. "... a feeling that I was opening someone else's gift; which duh-that was the idea, but…" her eyes met his, "like I was robbing them of something meant just for them, you know? I just felt very cold, thinking not of getting in trouble for such a stupid and wrong thing; but just how… that Liddo-kun was not *for* me, you know? It was not *mine.*" Her spine stiffened. She would answer Seta's question. Finally, with effort she did so. "That is how I felt when Keitaro told me he loved me; I felt like if I accepted or acknowledged it I would be opening a gift meant for someone *else.*"

Seta swallowed in a suddenly dry throat. "Then if you are telling me the truth… you did the right thing, Naru."

Her back still turned to Seta, Naru's shoulders slumped. "... but I know I still really hurt him, you know?"

All at once Seta's mind filled with what he knew of his part-timer and caretaker and "playmate" for his adopted daughter. "Yes, I bet he is hurting something fierce right now, Naru; but that does not change the fact you did the right thing. For both of you." Seta smiled thinly, slowly he reached out and grasped Naru's shoulder.

Naru did not flinch at the touch, instead it seemed to have been the final crack in an immense wall of stone within herself. She instinctively turned to Seta and crumpled into his arms, sobbing.

"... I can't go back… not yet!" Naru cried, not bothering to try and look up at him, or even to open her eyes as the tears coursed out of them. "Not right now. Not after what I did to him back there. Not just at the hospital, but before all that, too!"

"You have to face him sometime, Naru." Seta told her, softly.

"I know… Kami, I feel like such an indecisive coward! But I'm just not ready yet." Naru shook her head. "But where can I go?"

Seta flashed his familiar grin. "It just so happens I have the perfect solution."

000

The letter to Kitsune had been easy to write as the morning light spilled across her bedroom's study table, the hard part was coming up with a politic reason to her mother and stepfather as to why she could not just pick up the phone and call her best friend. Her reason, she could tell by the look on their faces, only deepened their worries about why she was spending so much time away from the Hinata Inn. Her mother had even stopped her during a private moment in her room when she was quickly packing.

"Na-chan, what is going on?" Her mother asked, low and conspiratorially. "This isn't like you."

Naru had looked down at her Liddo-kun resting on her bed, peeking up at her, half-packed into her duffel bag. She thought for a moment, then looked up at her mother. "You know what, Mom? You're right; this isn't like me, which is probably why it is exactly the thing I *should* be doing right now." The statement would have probably startled Naru's mother if it was not for the sudden happy smile on Naru's face and the sparkle in her eyes.

Now, as Naru sat in the passenger side seat of Seta's beat-up, nearly broken down van, rumbling along some muddy road through the densely-forested hills of the Kyoto backcountry as the day turned to dusk, she had long since ceased caring about why she was going, where, or how, just so long as she was on a journey to something new and somehow better.

"So you said we're going on an expedition," Naru spoke after a long moment of silent contemplation, turning to Seta. "How many are coming along?"

"Just us," Seta chuckled.

Naru raised an eyebrow. "What? Just us?" If it was any other man telling her this, part of her knew she would have swiftly introduced his face to her fist, but somehow this time she was fine with it.

'It's Seta, it's different. I know what to expect,' she thought after wondering at the contradictory feelings warring within.

"Yeah," he shrugged absently. "The lady friend of mine who gave me this artifact piece… there are runes on it that match the runes on another artifact that a professor of mine at Tokyo U came across and wrote a paper on back in the sixties. There were jarring similarities in some of his findings between what he found and what this piece has on it-"

Naru sighed, shaking her head. "Oh, out with it, Professor!"

Seta chuckled. "Well, if you insist." Seta took a deep breath. "As my many years of studying the Great Turtle Civilization have shown me, sometimes clues and artifacts of a lost civilization can be scattered throughout the world and not just in their main geographical haunts. Most of the times, there's a simple explanation; either the civilization actually *was* there or expanded to that location; however briefly."

"Yeah," Naru nodded, "that's common-sense History 101, Seta-sensei."

Seta smiled, his eyes glinting like a little boy finding hidden candy. "Then there are the cases when a civilization's artifact ends up being found in a place that it does not belong. Like the Viking coin found in a Native American campsite dig in the United States' prefecture of Maine some years ago."

"Well, that's simple too," Naru replied dryly. For the moment setting aside correcting Seta that the Americans customarily do not think of their states as mere prefectures. "There was the Newfoundland site and other evidence that we know of that the Vikings were in the general vicinity in that time period."

Seta nodded. "Very good, Naru," he gave her a sidelong glance. "Then why did my old professor find a similar coin with nearly the same metallurgical elements in Kyushu back in 1967? And with strange runes that are very similar to the Knight chess piece-and once more have no business being anywhere in ancient Japan?"

Naru gave her old tutor a long look. Her first instinct was that Seta was trying to have a bit of fun at her expense but she remembered that that just was not like him. Seta was many things, but someone who liked to tell a fib about archeology in order to trip up one of his students just for his amusement was not one of his character traits whatsoever. Finally, she harrumphed. "If your old professor did find something like that, then why haven't I read about it?"

"I asked him why myself," Seta sighed. "Old Tobimaru-sensei would just puff on his pipe and say; 'my boy, sometimes you cannot have a conclusion without inciting a worse reaction than if you left things vague. Frankly, sometimes that worse reaction is simply not worth the trouble. If I put in that paper what the evidence and the data led to; then I would be hounded out of my field and the paper mocked at and buried. But I wanted it out there so researchers could read it, so I crafted my thesis about the coin and my conclusion to be deliberately open-ended rather than just stating straight-out that I think it is very similar to a Viking coin, but older and with similar properties to coins made in the British Isles prior to the Viking Age. And the runes on the coin are clearly not of local origin. How would that look in the journals?' he would ask."

Naru nodded. "It would look like something completely loony; wait you're not suggesting… are you?"

Seta shrugged. "I don't know exactly what I am suggesting; I am going to follow the evidence and the data. When that old friend sent me that artifact piece, and the rune markings on it, I remembered Tobimaru-sensei's paper about that coin."

"I can see why you think the two artifacts are connected," Naru commented. "But why are we going all the way out here to the back country of Kyoto when the coin was found in Kyushu and the chess piece seems to be from half-way across the world originally?"

"Tobimaru-sensei saved a soil and rock sample from the Kyushu site where the coin was found." Seta's eyes took on that mad, rogue-ish, but good-natured gleam again. "When I got the Knight Chess piece, and matched up the runes, I had the Tokyo U Geologists run a quick and dirty analysis of the sample. Thanks to the new Geological Database at the University, I got a good match on this general area."

"General area?" Naru's eyes widened. "I thought you had a dig site."

"I do," Seta nodded. "The ruins of an old, old Shinto shrine that are in the middle of a forest. One of the stones seemed to have an inset in a stone; missing something about the size of-"

"A coin," Naru nodded again, understanding. "So aren't we going after the coin first?" Naru asked.

"No, no!" Seta giggled. "It's locked in my toolbox along with that Knight chess piece that friend of mine sent me."

"Don't you ever worry you're going to lose something valuable?" Naru narrowed her gaze a bit.

"Artifacts? No." Seta replied simply.

Naru left it at that. Seta was absentminded and dense in many aspects of his life (his relationships with Haruka and Julia in particular; not to mention his parenting of Sara), but not when it came to his work. She looked up ahead at the dirt road ahead in the gloom, and made out piece of road shoulder that lined up to a row of bushes. As Seta thumped his van to a gentle (for him), stop, Naru realized it was not a row of bushes, but an old stone wall that was now covered in vines.

Seta, without missing a beat, hopped out of the van and started gathering their supplies.

"How far is it to the site?" Naru asked as she put on a jacket.

"An hour long hike."

"'Okay," she nodded as she checked her backpack. "But if it isn't *that* far from the village, then why did we have to set out this evening? Couldn't we have waited for the morning?"

Seta gave her a look. "That's just the first campsite, the dig site is a couple days' hike from here."

Naru sighed, looking down at her boot-clad feet, imagining the trial they were about to endure. "I suppose it is too much to ask if we could have just flown there?"

An honest thoughtful look stole over Seta's face for a half-instant. "You know, I never thought of that."

Naru clenched her fists, she briefly fumed, then… released. '... well, it will give me time to think and relax,' she thought of the hike ahead. "I guess we better get going."

"Right!" Seta smiled, shouldering his enormous back-pack. "Let us solve this tantalizing conundrum!"

Naru smiled back, her immediate past forgotten for the moment, with only the journey and task at hand she felt a measure of peace she had not had in a long while.

000

Keitaro inhaled the morning air of the top of the hill where the Hinata Inn sat as he waited for Tsuruko and Kanako. He knew he had arrived early, very early in fact since dressing in his semi-business casual clothes (dark pressed trousers and a white collared button-up shirt) had not taken nearly as long as he had anticipated. Keitaro also wanted to peruse the grounds of the front of the inn and evaluate whether any pressing maintenance needed to be done or not. Since Tsuruko and Kanako assured them they would gladly accept even the most mundane menial task, he did not want to disappoint them. Still, Keitaro grinned to himself, he would reserve the most challenging, difficult, and disgusting tasks for himself. After all, he would not dream of having Kanako or Tsuruko clean the hot springs or the bathrooms; assist yes but there were certain things he just was not having.

'I hope Haruka won't be losing too much business while we're down there signing papers,' Keitaro thought. Haruka had seemed very anxious and surprised at his enthusiasm to get the legal matter of Tsuruko and Kanako's arrival at the Inn finalized. 'She's probably just hoping things won't get too crazy for business with new residents.' Another unspoken plan of Keitaro's was once Tsuruko and Kanako settled in and learned the rhythms of the Inn, then he might advertise for more residents. Resident girls, of course, his mind mentally amended out of (painfully) learned habit.

-Good morning, I see you are up early.- Shippu said to him in his language consisting of KAWS and KUE-KUEs.

"Oh, hey, Shippu!" Keitaro looked up, lifting a hand up from his crutches carefully, waved up to the crane circling around him in the air casually.

"Meow!" Keitaro looked down, feeling Kuro rub up against his uninjured trouser leg. -I see you have finally unlocked your latent ability to talk to sentient animals, Kei-Kei.-

Keitaro's mouth gaped open as he looked down at Kuro. "Y-y-you too?!"

Kuro nodded, purring. -Mistress Kanako will be *so* happy!-

"Well, um, yeah, I guess," Keitaro sputtered, then shrugged. "Though I guess it isn't something that special, I mean ever since Mutsumi-san gave us Tama-chan I have been able to understand him; even if not word by word."

Shippu sighed, or what passed for a sigh from a crane. -My, you are a dense one, aren't you?-

Kuro meow-meowed amusement. -That's an endearment; coming from a crane.-

"Um, thanks, I guess," Keitaro bowed his head, chuckling.

-I suppose it could be worse,- Shippu continued to loop and circle lazily around him and Kuro. -You could have been one of those dishonorable kinds who would take advantage of such an ability to do harm.-

-And if he was of that kind, your mistress and my mistress would have nothing to do with him.- Kuro cut in sharply, licking a paw as he looked squarely up at Shippu.

Shippu "yawned." -I suppose you do have a point, my friend.-

It was then that Keitaro heard the front door of the Hinata open and out strode Tsuruko followed by Kanako. Each was dressed in business casual attire in accordance with their respective stations; Tsuruko in a fresh and proper gi and hakama as if she was on her way to teach a kendo class. For Kanako, she was wearing a black and white women's business dress with a long pencil skirt that ended just above her ankles; her belt was black but with hints of red accents. Kanako's dark hair was tied in a conservative single pony-tail. Tsuruko, though, Keitaro found his eyes staying on her a bit longer. He was used to her elegant beauty, of course, and he admired her strength but the best way he had come to describe the feelings he experienced whenever she was around him was simply this: noble grace.

"Good morning, Kana-chan, good morning Tsuruko-san," Keitaro smiled and "bowed" to each in turn. "Did you two have a good night's rest?"

Tsuruko returned the bow with a grin. "Very much so, Keitaro-san. I thank you for your gracious accommodation." She nodded back towards where the deck of the Inn lay around the building. "I see why Motoko-han enjoys practicing on that deck so much. My morning routine as the sun rose over the bay was much more rewarding than in a dojo."

"It is a great space for a variety of activities, my Lady," Kanako smiled. "Thus my grandfather had in mind when he built it."

Keitaro smiled. "So Tsuruko-san, you were up before dawn. Next time, you have my permission to knock on my door so I can begin my day too!"

"Ah!" Tsuruko raised an index finger up towards the sky about midway; a gesture both taking charge while gently chiding him. "Keitaro-san needs his rest."

"Well, um," he chuckled amidst a slight blush. "I just want to be around in case you have questions-"

"-or do you wish to practice with me?" Tsuruko gave him smile.

Keitaro laughed. "Only if we're practicing hobbling around. I would only be slowing a great warrior down."

Tsuruko touched a sleeve-covered arm to her mouth demurely. "Or does Keitaro-san wish to *watch* his new Housemother's kendo practice?"

Keitaro blushed deep red now, for a moment unsure whether he should continue laughing in good humor or apologize for seeming to possibly fall into the appearance of being even mildly perverted.

Kanako laughed loudly, gently slapping Keitaro on his shoulder. "The Lady is having a spot of fun with you, Big Brother." She looked at Keitaro knowingly, allowing him to meet her gaze to tell him there is no offense present and therefore no need for an apology storm from him.

'It will take time to better things around here for Big Brother,' Kanako thought as she noticed Keitaro start to relax and enjoy the joke amongst the three of them.

Tsuruko stopped laughing, still smiling, but she noted the sun's course across the eastern sky. Tsuruko gave Kanako a grateful look, and reminded herself to thank her servant later for helping defuse a possible misunderstanding between herself and Keitaro. 'I must establish trust between us early on for my role here to succeed; and also to investigate the mystery I have found myself wrapped up in,' she thought. She was not overly worried however; as excessive worry was also a downfall the same as too little worry. Tsuruko had impressed to Motoko the need to keep the Hina katana secured in her room when she was not around to wield it; and Motoko agreed when they had spoken briefly early this morning before Motoko went off to school. The sword was completely inert with Motoko as its Mistress and when it was sheathed in its katechana.

Still, from the corner of her eyes and the awareness of her ki she looked back towards the Inn. Just in case.

"Well, time for us to be getting down to the Tea Shop, Haruka will be waiting with old Kouzoumi-san." Keitaro nodded down towards the stone steps that lay before them.

"Yes, my Lady," Kanako nodded towards Tsuruko, gently telling the swordsmistress that Haruka did not like to be kept waiting.

Tsuruko returned her eyes to Kanako and Keitaro, she smiled warmly as the reason why she looked back at the Inn dissolved from her memory. "Yes, nothing like signing lots of legal documents to brighten one's' morning."

The three began their journey, the ladies sparing a moment to bid their familiars to watch and guard the premises of the Hinata Inn. For his part, Keitaro spared a moment to look back towards the window Kitsune usually would sit next to, enjoying the morning air while enjoying her coffee and reading her racing forms. But this morning the window was vacant, and Keitaro hoped that Kitsune did not overindulge (relatively, by her standards) the night before.

'I hope she's okay,' Keitaro thought. Making a mental note to check in with her later on in the day to get her input into new developments and if she's spoken to Naru.

He grimaced, the pain at thinking about Naru was less now, more of a resigned dull pang of receding sorrow, but it was still present. He worried about her.

Before Kuro and Shippu went about their separate morning patrols, Kuro meowed. -Humans, I never will understand their fascination with 'dressing up' for occasions when they sign dead-trees for such trifling reason-especially when there's no food in it!-

Shippu flap-flapped away up into the air, the crane spared a look at his mistress, Kanako, and Keitaro as they slowly made their way down the steps. -I agree, my friend- he called down to Kuro before flying too far. -It's hardly like anyone is getting life-mated or anything like that!-

000

"... very well then, these documents here pertain to the custodianship of the Inn and Tea House's filing with the Prefectural Office of Property…" Kouzoumi intoned as two identical reams of paper were placed in front of Keitaro and Tsuruko.

Kanako briefly fought off a yawn. They had been at this for over an hour and the constant legal-ese, explanations of tax liability, property holding, and other employment issues were boring her to tears, almost. She looked to Haruka.

Haruka, upon receiving permission from Kouzumi that he did not mind smoking, promptly lit one. She was on her third now. For her part, she kept looking from Keitaro to Tsuruko, and then to Kanako. Seemingly weighing some kind of mental option against another action or just doing nothing. Kanako gave her aunt a brief look.

'What's with her?' Kanako wondered.

Haruka's thoughts mirrored Kanako's; save for a follow-up: 'Doesn't she know what we are here for this morning?!' Haruka sighed.

Kanako sighed quietly, and returned her attention to what the family lawyer was saying now about sewer fees.

000

+TAP+TAP+TAP+

Hearing the repeating noise a certain fox was lying half asleep in her bed, after yet another night of drinking. "AWWW SHIT YA'LL ….WHOOOOOSE TAPPING?" Cried Kitsune as she is fully awoken. "Someone better not be interrupting the fox's beauty sleep… unless y'all be ready to pay; in CASH, too!"

Lifting her head ever so gently as to not aggravate her hangover, she scanned the room, and the noise suddenly stopped.

"Huh?" The fox commented half-heartedly, before yawning and waving her arm dismissively in the vague direction of where she thought the tapping sound had come from before rolling over to get a little more rest before dealing with life in general.

000

"... in the event of Hina Urashima's incapacitation or death her estate shall be divided up precisely in this way…" Kouzoumi continued in his methodical but smooth and pleasant manner. Keitaro idly recalled, after snapping himself back awake for the third time, that he had once asked the old gentleman attorney if he ever considered going into radio as he had the perfect voice for it. Kouzoumi had laughed warmly, and told Keitaro that was how he took care of his mother and siblings during his high school and college years.

Kanako looked again at the clock on the wall. This was taking a lot longer than it should take, even taking into account Kouzoumi's usual precision with contractual matters.

Tsuruko smiled pleasantly, sipping on a half-full mug of tea as she listened calmly while also mentally reviewing her morning practice routine and its effect on her muscles and ki. She then started to make mental plans for her upcoming afternoon/evening session. Perhaps Motoko will be home in time to join her?

Haruka extinguished another cigarette butt in her ashtray. She sighed, everyone was just so damned calm about all of this. She knew from many interactions with Kouzoumi that he only spent this much time on such dry contractual matters only in such important life-changing matters such as this.

Kouzoumi continued: "... the Inn and Annex and its attendant parcels will go to Keitaro Urashima… to Kanako Urashima the Urashima family holdings in the mountains of Kyoto… to your father and mother the office building adjacent to the family's confectionary…. And to Haruka the rest of the building and land of the tea shop and the beach cafe in its entirety..."

Kanako groaned very quietly. That old office building would probably be sold the day after her parents got their hands on the deed to some local ward councillor far below market value in exchange for kickbacks from the future renters.

Haruka immediately lit another cigarette. This meeting had to end soon. She had a business to run, special day or no special day.

Keitaro and Tsuruko shared a look that said it all. What exactly did this have to do with Tsuruko and Kanako's residence and employment at the Inn?

000

Motoko's Room 302...

+TAP+TAP+TAP+

Inside of the room we find the source of the noise, proudly displayed upon the katanakake rested the Hina blade. Or at least it would be resting if it weren't rocking back and forth while making a tapping noise, as dark black smoke seeped from the partially revealed blade as the rocking motion had caused the scabbard to slip from the freshly polished katana blade ever so slightly.

Suddenly a dark black vapor begins to seep out and hover, forming into a dark cloud in the young Samurai's room. In fast order, the cloud formed tendrils not unlike fine reaching and grasping fingers. A low toned chilling laugh reverberated throughout the room as the cloud began to build towards the floor and then seep through the floorboards.

As if searching for something the cloud passes from room to room, then going from the third floor to the second. Finally, it finds its target asleep in her bed in room 205. The dark cloud's tendrils reach towards the prone form and encircles the sleeping woman's head.

000

"... so we come now to the employment contracts…" Kouzoumi said after checking the time on his wristwatch, he then handed several documents to Keitaro, Tsuruko, and Kanako. They signed them all where indicated, and Haruka signed as a witness as well as Kouzoumi endorsing them as family legal counsel and making another notation and then a stamp.

'Why does he need to stamp the ones for Tsuruko-san and me?' Keitaro wondered.

Tsuruko's pleasant smile slowly dropped to a polite grin as her thoughts went in the same direction as Keitaro's.

000

She had no idea where she was or exactly how long she had been there.

'Huh,' wondered Kitsune as she wandered in the dense dark fog. "Where am I? Hey, y'all! Is anybody around?"

No answer.

For an indeterminable amount of time Kitsune wandered this foggy expanse, calling for her friends or anybody who could hear her, but received no answer.

Suddenly, a short while later-or a long while later (she could not be certain) Kitsune unexpectedly finds herself in the hot springs with sake cup in hand and bottle floating nearby.

The confused fox looks around at the warm afternoon setting and spying no one, shrugs and enjoys her drink.

Having the springs to herself was a secret pleasure for the resident party girl. Sure, she loved each of the girls and all the 'fun' she could have teasing them. However, nothing could quite beat an afternoon with the springs all to herself and a full bottle of sake.

As she enjoyed her drink, Kitsune began to wonder about the recent events at the Hinata; Keitaro's very near marriage to Motoko, Keitaro's acceptance to Tokyo U, Naru going on vacation (if it could be called that), and now the arrival of a new housemother and her servant. She found herself oddly attached to the boy, in spite of her better judgment. Sure he was a nice guy, but she had dated many richer and much better looking men who had never made her think twice after she had enjoyed their company for a night or three.

Yet with Naru's complete 180 on her study partner and apartment manager, the fox of the Hinata found herself seriously considering actually making a play for the big lug. As she weighed up her chances she began to realize that there was no reason not to pursue him, she liked him, and his reactions to seeing her varying states of dress over the last nearly two years indicated he liked her as well.

"Well," she took another sip of her sake, "he's certainly paid for the privilege of getting' some from me already and then some." She chuckled, a touch of melancholy to it, then the creeping sting of shame and regret behind it. It was time to make it up to Keitaro for all the mooching, sweet talking delays in paying rent, and the various pratfalls she's participated in setting him up for since he arrived.

She was broken from her inebriated, morose, inner monologue by the sound of the Shōji door sliding open.

"Who goes there?" Kitsune called whimsically. As she spied through the thick steam, the fox's expression brightened upon seeing a familiar looking figure as it steps onto the ledge. It was Keitaro.

Smiling, Kitsune waved in greeting. "Well, well lova' boy, I didn't know ya had it in ya to spy on me? What if Motoko finds yah?" She leaned back and luxuriated some more in the warm water, hoping the steam did not completely obscure her completely nude water-enveloped body from his view.

Rubbing the back of his head Keitaro chuckled shyly, just staring back at the fox and nods a few times as if in approval. Kitsune briefly wondered what was the matter with him before she heard his voice: "Oh, and why wouldn't I wish to 'spy' on such a fine specimen of womanhood?"

"Huh?" Kitsune reacted instinctively, this was the first time she had ever heard Keitaro express himself like that. It wasn't what he was saying, which was welcome to Kitsune in that moment in time, it was just the *how.*

Keitaro walked to the edge of the spring, breaking Kitsune's disbelief. Keitaro' continued smoothly: "Frankly I would not mind joining you in there and show you just how fine a specimen."

'...!" To say the fox was taken aback was an understatement. Sure she'd had a few drinks, but this seemed almost too good to be true. Then again, he was technically back on the market and had been around some of the best looking girls around for practically two years. Idly, Kitsune wondered: 'Maybe he's finally grown a pair?'

But what happened next really surprised the fox as she watched Keitaro smile, then slowly step towards her without his feet breaching the surface water of the hot springs.

''Kay, now that I *know* I am dreaming I can just sit back, relax, and hope I don't have to wash my sheets when I wake up,' Kitsune thought, giddy with anticipation. 'Kami, I better not wake up before the main event!'

Slowly walking towards her prone, but smiling, form Keitaro lets an all knowing smile grace his features. "What is the matter, my dear Kitsune?"

"…." Kitsune attempted to reply but found herself at a loss for words. Mentally, her mind continued with wondering why her dream Keitaro was speaking so out of character for him.

These musings were derailed suddenly as he slowly and methodically approached her, lowering himself into the water from his standing position without even disturbing a ripple. Keitaro's smirk deepened as he bent down and placed a kiss on her forehead, almost formally.

Kitsune smiled. The sensation of the light kiss was pleasant, but she had been kissed plenty of times in her dreams before, and it had not felt quite like this. What was the odd fluttering and tingling she was feeling? And why did the steam of the hot springs smell like smoke?

"What is the matter, my dear Kitsune?"

There was that question again. Who had spoken it?

"Why do you hesitate? What are you waiting for?" Keitaro smiled at her. Just then, she realized she had pulled back from Keitaro after he gave her a light peck on the forehead.

Hating herself for the moment the mischievous freelancer ponders this. 'This is Keitaro? Even in the dreams I have had about him before he has never been so forward and ready to get it on!' She sighed inwardly, it was her dream, what could possibly go wrong? 'Nevermind, 'i've got em to myself,' she thought as she smiled at him. She mentally berated herself for not freely accepting the gift her subconscious was giving to her libido.

She noted Keitaro's' concern for her was just so damned charming in that moment in time. She also realized Keitaro currently had the upper hand when it came to smartalec comments. Not to be out done by the former ronin, Kitsune replied: "Well 'ahl be, did you finally grow a pair now Naru's gone and decide to have ya wicked way with me?"

Finding her reply honestly amusing Keitaro chuckled. "I must admit I was considering that my dear, however there is one problem with that."

"Oh? And what would that be, Kei hon?"

Keitaro's tone became more conspiratorial, even if they were alone in the hot springs and this was Kitsune's wet dream. "Do you remember the battle with Motoko's sister and that cursed blade of my grandmother's that made us… you know?" His face reddened.

'Now that's the Kei hon I know,' she thought as she chucked to herself in amusement. "Ya' mean that big smooch we had?" she winked, her voice drawling with impressive silkiness to it. "How could I forget?"

Keitaro looked Kitsune in the eye. Keitaro leaned in close to her and started to whisper into her ear-

000

To an outside observer, if anyone had been in the Hinata Inn during those moments, they would have noticed a billowing cloud with tendrils roaming the halls leading from Kitsune's room. One of the tendrils was pulling Kitsune by her hand, while the foxes' other hand was barely managing to keep her modesty in check by holding a towel wrapped around herself haphazardly. They were heading in the direction of the stair well. Kitsune's eyes were wide-open, but saw nothing, and her eyeballs were still rolled up in their sockets.

000

'I can't believe it,' wondered Kitsune as Keitaro led her through the Hinata and up the stairs. Her eyes opening wide as her thoughts continued along the way down the hall. 'Has he made up his mind this soon..?'

..ts..une?" So caught up in her own exhilaration and fevered anticipation that Kitsune had not realised they had stopped and Keitaro was waving his hand over her face.

"Are you okay?" Keitaro asked.

Snapped from her daze, Kitsune shook her head. There was that smell of smoke again. "Sorry?"

"I said 'Kitsune, here we are.'" He nodded over to the wall, a familiar door there. Motoko's room. He slid the Shōji door to the kendo girl's room open and led her in by the hand behind him.

Kitsune's eyes opened wide as Keitaro turned to her with a smile on his features; somehow different than any other smile she had ever seen on his face before. "You want to 'play' in Motoko's room?" She slid the door shut behind them. "Pervert," she grinned at him.

Keitaro laughed. "My dear, you are about to find out." His eyes shone in that moment. And they shined pitch black.

The smell of black smoke fully assaulted Kitsune's nose again, causing her, even in her dream to completely lose all consciousness.

000

Completely in a daze, Kitsune had made her way from her room to Motoko's and staggered towards the dark blade. Her eyes were still open, but unseeing, and her arms hung limply at her sides. Her steps gave the impression, if anyone beside the dark cloud and its tendrils were there, of a marionette being led by its strings.

Then a quiet vibrating, pulsing hum could be heard from the direction of the blade, then that hum resolved into a maniacal laugh, as the cloud's tendrils began to direct Kitsune's arms and hands as she took the final steps to where Motoko's katanakake sat, with the Hina blade in its scabbard on it. Now the tendrils of the cloud fully enveloped her arms and hands as the scabbard was soon removed and tossed carelessly to the wooden floor. Then, the tendrils raised Kitsune's arms high above her head with the sword hilt held in both hands.

The cloud barked its final order at its puppet. "NOW SMASH THAT BLADE!"

Upon contact with the katanakake, the blade is shattered into pieces and more, even blacker smoke gushes out as Kitsune passes out completely, crumpling to the floor.

As the room begins to fill completely with the same sinister smoke one last cry is heard: "FINALLY FREE!" Then that mocking, derisive, malevolent laughter.

000

"Well! Everything seems to be in order." Kouzoumi smiled as he rose, everyone else did as well, Haruka being the last.

"I'll say," Haruka sighed, looking from Keitaro to Tsuruko. She shook her head. "Congratulations," she bowed.

Keitaro and Tsuruko blinked. "Um, thank you," Keitaro chuckled, feeling a sweatdrop form. An odd, cold feeling seemed to be creeping up his spine.

Tsuruko nodded. She felt her awareness drawn back to the unseen Inn up on the hill. She could almost picture it mentally, detail for detail, in particular the wonderful hot springs...

Kanako felt that familiar feeling began in the pit of her stomach when something was afoot.

"Yes, congratulations," Kouzoumi bowed deeply to Keitaro and then to Tsuruko. "I must now formally inform all present that my service as the Urashima clan's attorney has ceased as of five minutes ago when my appointment by the Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture as a Hinata Justice of the Peace became effective. It has been an honor and a pleasure to have served the family all these years; rest assured I have already informed Hina-sama." Kouzoumi laughed, "I also timed things just so after twelve noon in my new capacity as a Judge I notarized the civil marriage license between you two that Hina-sama prepared as well as the Urashima family register."

Dead silence, save for Kouzoumi's good natured humming and chuckling (which oddly mirrored Granny Hina's chuckling to everyone present) as he smoothly and efficiently gathered his documents and placed them neatly back into his attache case.

Haruka looked at the same expressions on Keitaro, Tsuruko, and also Kanako's faces. Complete shock and disbelief. Her eyes widened as Kouzoumi bowed deeply again and gave his final congratulations, best wishes, and then a farewell as he let himself out of the front door of the tea shop (which was hardly even noticed). "You mean you two didn't know?!" Haruka shouted at Keitaro and Tsuruko. "Granny Hina even spelled this one out in her fax yesterday!"

'That mischievous, calculating old crone,' Tsuruko thought as she smirked thinly, she bit her lower lip ever so slightly.

'... I'm married…? To Tsuruko-san…?' Keitaro's eyes widened, he felt the room spinning around him.

"This has to be some kind of prank on Granny's part," Kanako said, shaking her head. "It has to be."

Haruka sighed in exasperation at her niece. "It's a pretty damned elaborate one then," she jabbed a finger at Keitaro and Tsuruko. "And you two idiots fell right for it!"

"You-you didn't say anything about marriage yesterday!" Keitaro sputtered. "There was nothing in the letter and the documents Tsuruko-san and Kana-chan came to the door with!"

"Keitaro-san is quite correct on that point," Tsuruko commented. Something else was wrong here. She looked all around the tea shop's main dining room.

Kanako nodded in the affirmative. "They're right, Haruka."

Haruka laughed loudly and harshly. "You two still should have asked more questions at how I was acting, and also everything Kouzoumi was having you two sign."

Tsuruko turned towards Haruka, her eyes narrowing minutely. "Oh, and knowing Granny Hina as you do should you not have questioned her and immediately raised a ruckus yesterday at the Inn about this? Do you seriously think Keitaro-san and I would just suddenly up and get married like you just witnessed if we weren't being tricked?"

Haruka just shook her head, then simply turned and strode towards the door that Kouzoumi had left through. She had not heard heard his car start yet; indeed she could see it through the blinds on the windows of the tea shop, so it would just be a simple matter to get the marriage and family register documents and destroy them-

-Haruka stopped dead cold in her tracks as she heard a sharp intake of breath from Keitaro. She knew instantly that he was not going to faint from processing the sudden fact of his civil marriage to Tsuruko. Her eyes met his.

"... something's really wrong up at the Inn!" Keitaro blurted out as he pointed back vaguely towards the direction of the Inn, immediately turning around as swift as he could on his crutches and making to leave the tea shop.

"Yes, it is!" Tsuruko blinked, horrified at the realization that her ki had been trying to warn her during the meeting, but somehow her attention had been misdirected or masked from feeling the presence growing back up the hill. She dashed out past Keitaro, out the back door and then up the stone staircase, her hand already on Ikazuchi.

"Haruka!" Kanako called back over her shoulder as she followed her Mistress. "Help Big Brother!" In an instant she was gone in the same direction as Tsuruko.

"You don't even have to ask," Haruka quickly extinguished the lit cigarette and started out the back door too; hurrying and helping her hobbled nephew make his way up the stone stairs to the Inn.

000

TO BE CONTINUED...