Love Hina:

A Different Path Taken

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Chapter Six

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With a grunt, Keitaro tipped the wheelbarrow full of moldy, rotted, wood into the dumpster and wheeled it back down the ramp.

"I fucking hate demolition work." he muttered under his breath for umpteenth time that day. "Absolutely fucking hate it."

His distaste for the job aside, Keitaro was making good progress in the repairs to Su's room. He'd already stripped out the walls and ceiling, braced the good sections, and he was now tearing up the floorboards a couple of square meters at a time.

There had been a couple of minor hitches: he'd needed to go buy a reciprocating saw and a bunch of blades because the only tools Grandma Hina had on hand were hand tools, and he was not cutting this shit out by hand, and the building inspector had dropped by.

Both problems had been solved pretty easily. A quick run to the hardware store plus some blackmail, and both problems had been solved.

Frankly, Keitaro wished he could get started earlier in the morning, but the residents of the Inn would object to the noise, so out of consideration he started later.

"Hey, Keitaro..." Kitsune called from where she was leaning against one of the support beams on the porch.

Speaking of residents, the only one currently in at the moment was the resident fox-eyed writer, who Keitaro strongly suspected was lounging around just to ogle him as he worked shirtless. Gathering photo material for her article his left foot.

"Hey, Kitsune." he called back as he stopped on the porch and set the wheelbarrow down. "What's up?"

She shrugged. "Just gathering material for my article." she said.

"Uh huh." Keitaro said.

"You don't believe me?" Kitsune asked. "How come?"

Keitaro folded his arms and gave her a look. "Because whenever you're doing it, it's always when I'm shirtless."

Kitsune gave him a very cheeky grin. "That's just a very fortunate coincidence." she told him.

"I knew it." Keitaro said. "You're collecting material for your spank bank."

"I-" she started to say, then realized that she hadn't thought ahead of a way to get out this type of situation. "Damn, I'm caught."

"Uh huh." Keitaro said. "So was any of that for the article at all?" he asked.

"A little bit of it." Kitsune admitted. "And yeah, the rest of it was for my "spank bank". Clever name, by the way."

Keitaro's mouth quirked up into a smile. "Thanks.'' he said. "So, you just like guys working, or do you have a construction worker fetish?"

Kitsune looked around to make sure the coast was clear, then leaned in close to him. "A little bit of both, actually." she told him.

Keitaro's eyebrows arched up in surprise when she said that. "Really?" he asked.

Kitsune nodded. "Yeah." she said. "I admit it, I have some of the stuff from America saved in my porn folder."

"I've seen a few of those kind of video's." Keitaro said. "Not really my thing."

"You're not into porn?" Kitsune asked, surprised by her misunderstanding of what Keitaro had said.

Keitaro shook his head. "No, I mean that isn't my kind of porn." he clarified.

"Oh." Kitsune said. "So, what is your kind of porn?" she asked.

"Amateur."

Kitsune arched an eyebrow at him. "Oh? Why is that?" she asked.

Keitaro shrugged. "Professional, to me, has a plastic feel to it." he explained. "I can't really explain it any better than that."

"Oh." Kitsune said. "Not the most eloquent of explanations, but certainly a good one." she added.

Keitaro nodded. "Yeah." he said, then chuckled as a thought struck him from out of the blue.

"What's so funny?" Kitsune asked.

"This conversation." Keitaro told her. "I was just thinking about if Naru were to overhear it."

Kitsune sighed and nodded. "Yeah, she's a little high strung and prone to snap decisions sometimes." she said. "But she's a good person at heart, really. Personally, I think that she's just trying too hard to get into Tokyo U."

"Ah." Keitaro said. "That part I can understand. I wish her luck. The tests for Tokyo U are insane."

Kitsune gave him a questioning look. "You've taken them?" she asked.

"Yeah." Keitaro admitted. "Way back when, before Shinji recruited me. Friggin' insane requirements. Personally, I'm glad I became a contractor."

"Getting to go to faraway lands, getting to meet strange and interesting people, and shoot them?" Kitsune quipped.

"That's part of it." Keitaro said. "But the best part is the pay. Speaking of which, you would not believe how much of my savings is gonna be going into this repair job."

"I take it that it's a lot?" Kitsune ventured.

"Something like that." Keitaro told her. "All told, I'm probably gonna have a quarter of my savings sank into this place when I'm done."

"Ouch." Kitsune said in sympathy.

"Thanks." Keitaro said. "Lucky for me, my boss is putting a job together, so that'll help."

"Oh." Kitsune said, surprised. "I didn't know this."

Keitaro shrugged. "It's nothing concrete right now." he said. "I got a couple of months before I have to make a decision."

"I see." Kitsune said, and bit her lip for a second.

Keitaro saw her do that and figured that she was working up the courage to say something, so he waited.

"I have a question." she said. "It's really spur of the moment, but when you mentioned that job, it kind of came to me."

"Shoot." Keitaro said, punctuating his statement with a shrug.

"Would it be okay if I followed you?" she asked.

"Huh?" Keitaro asked.

"On the job." Kitsune clarified. "For my article."

"That job's gonna be taking place in like just under six months from now." Keitaro said. "Wouldn't that kind of blow your deadline?"

"I'm a freelancer." Kitsune pointed out. "This is something I was gonna pitch when I came back."

"Oh." Keitaro said. "Well, I'd have to clear it with my boss, and I'd have to make sure that you're fit to come along. Running and getting shot at are a fairly regular occurrence in my profession." he added.

Kitsune laughed. "Keitaro, I live in the same house as Suu." she said. "Compared to some of the stuff she does, getting shot could be considered tame."

Keitaro thought about that one for a second and nodded. "You wouldn't be wrong." he said. "Alright, but I'm still gonna have make sure you're up for it physically."

Kitsune waved her hand in dismissal. "Don't worry about me." she said. "I'll be fine."

"We'll see." Keitaro said, and stooped to pick up his wheelbarrow again.

"And now that we've got that out of the way, what does it take for a girl to get her construction worker fantasy filled around here?" asked Kitsune.

Keitaro stopped for a second and thought about it. "I could use a break." he said.

Kitsune giggled.

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"Well now." Keitaro thought as he slid the door to Kitsune's room closed behind him "That was a case of life imitating art."

Taking a moment to stretch, he sighed and ran through his mind what he was doing before he and Kitsune took a tumble on her futon.

"Oh, right." he said. "Flooring."

With another sigh, he headed back to where the wheelbarrow was. And when he rounded the corner he found himself face to face with Naru.

"Hey." he said, getting a glare in return. Noticing it, he stopped and looked at her. "What?" he asked.

"You have a hickey." Naru responded icily.

Instinctively, Keitaro slapped a hand to his neck. "And what about it?" he asked.

"You and her were doing...that, weren't you?" she said accusingly.

Keitaro merely shrugged. "And?" he asked. "We're both adults."

"I know." Naru said disgustedly. "And I know that there's nothing I can do about it. I just don't want it in my face." she added.

"Well, you weren't here, so unless there's a hidden webcam I don't know about, that didn't happen in this case." Keitaro said flippantly.

Naru scowled at him. "Just as long as I have a repeat of a couple of nights ago, I'll be happy." she said.

"You're still pissed about that?" Keitaro asked.

Naru gave him a disbelieving look. "You two were going until almost one thirty in the morning!" she exclaimed. "I didn't get any studying done, nor did I get any sleep!"

"We weren't that loud." Keitaro protested.

"I heard everything!" Naru said in counterpoint. "Everything!"

"Huh." Keitaro said, a thoughtful look on his face. "And yet Shinobu didn't hear a damn thing." he said.

"What?" Naru asked, confused by the sudden change in direction of the conversation.

"Shinobu said she saw my light on when she went to the restroom." Keitaro elaborated. "She mentioned it that morning. If we were as loud as you say we were, then she would have heard us when she used the can.

And she wouldn't have been able to look at me, much less ask me what I wanted for breakfast."

Naru's left eye started to twitch. "Are you... accusing me... of what I think you're accusing me of?" she asked deliberately.

"I'm not saying you were eavesdropping." Keitaro explained. "What I was trying to say was that I think you're overstating things greatly."

Naru's nostrils flared in anger and for a second it looked like she was going to take a swing at him. But then her self preservation kicked in and she stopped herself.

"You...you..." she sputtered. "You complete ass!"

Fists clenched, she spun on her heel and stomped off, fuming as she went.

"Huh." Keitaro said to the empty hallway. "That went well."

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"Should have made her help..." Keitaro muttered as he dropped an armful of boards into the wheelbarrow. "At the very least charged her something..."

Exhaling, he wiped his forehead off and took a look around. Su's room had been stripped down to the bare timbers, and the surrounding rooms adjoining and above it, along with the hall, had been partially stripped down. There were temporary support beams in place to hold the rest of the building up, and the only thing he had left to do was rip up the last meter or so of flooring in the hall then he could start cutting out the bad beams and sectioning in the new ones-

Behind him a board squeaked. He twitched and looked over his shoulder to see Kitsune stopped in mid-stride holding a can of beer in each hand.

"You're alert.'' she stated. "Want a beer?" she asked.'clock

"In a second." Keitaro told her. "Let me dump this last wheelbarrow load for the day."

"You're putting it up for the day?" Kitsune asked as he grabbed the handles of the wheelbarrow and lifted.

Keitaro nodded. "Yeah. I figured I might as well, it's going on six o'clock, everyone's back, and demolition work is hell on your concentration when you're trying to study."

"I'm sure all of the student's here appreciate it." Kitsune said. "Speaking of students, Naru stopped by."

Keitaro grimaced as he pushed the wheelbarrow along the route to the dumpster. "Yeah, I ran into her in the hall." he said, guessing that was what Naru had wanted to talk to her friend about.

"She mentioned that." Kitsune said dryly. "Numerous times, and at length."

"Hey, she started it." Keitaro protested as he came up to the dumpster. "She saw the hickey you gave me and flipped out."

"I figured that out from her description of events." Kitsune told him. "Though that's not the reason why she's upset."

"Why's that?" Keitaro asked, voice straining as he pushed the wheelbarrow up the ramp.

"She's still upset about when you knocked her out during the turtle incident." Kitsune told him.

"I'm not surprised." Keitaro said as he upended the contents of the wheelbarrow into the dumpster. "I did pistol whip her into unconsciousness. Though to be honest, that's what she got for charging in like that. And I did warn her about what was gonna happen if she tried that again."

Kitsune sighed as Keitaro came back down the ramp. "I know, I know." she said, handing him his beer when got within arms reach "I pointed that out to her at the hospital in the exam room."

"Thanks." Keitaro said, cracking open the beer after he took it. "She went to the hospital?" he asked. "I didn't hit her that hard."

"I took her." Kitsune corrected. "Just as a precaution. Not all of us are rough and tough mercenaries."

"Good point." Keitaro conceded. "Anyways, as you were saying, at the hospital."

"Like I was saying, I told her that at the hospital in the exam room." Kitsune said. "She called you a violent, perverted, thug, who's a danger to everyone around him."

Keitaro belched. "Excuse me." he said. "Anyways, I'm a perverted thug because you and are-" Keitaro stopped for a second to think, then looked at Kitsune. "What the hell are we, anyways?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I was thinking "playmates"." she replied.

Keitaro nodded. "Okay, that works." he said. "As I was saying, according to her, I'm a pervert because I have an active sex life and am not a meek little loser that she can beat the shit out of whenever she needs a scapegoat? Where the hell does she think she is, a harem manga?"

Kitsune shrugged. "Hell if I know." she answered.

Keitaro grunted and took a long swig of his beer. "And you know I'm not bashing on her, right? I'm calling it as I see it." he said.

Kitsune nodded. "I know." she said. "I'm her friend and I think that she's overdoing it."

Keitaro scratched at a spot on his lower back. "Maybe you should talk to her about it." he suggested.

"I think I'll do that." Kitsune said. "It's something I really should have done a while ago."

"Good idea." Keitaro said. "And speaking of good ideas, I'm gonna go scrub the grime off and have a good long soak in the pools."

"And I think I'll join you." Kitsune said. "Just let me go get something to the beer in."

"Please do."

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"So, where did you learn how to do carpentry?" Kitsune asked, shaking a cigarette out of her pack.

"My uncle." Keitaro replied, flicking his lighter to life and holding it out to Kitsune "My parent's wouldn't give me an allowance, and he paid better than they did."

Kitsune lit her cigarette and took a draw as she sat back in the pool, giving a Keitaro a quick glimpse of her bare chest. "They didn't mind that you weren't helping out with the family business?" she asked.

Keitaro shrugged. "Eh, honestly, I think they'd rather have my sister take it over anyways." he said. "She's got a better head for it than me anyways. Of course, the issue's been rendered moot because there's no way in hell I'm gonna quit being a contractor."

"You'd miss the excitement?" Kitsune asked with a half smile.

Keitaro snorted in amusement. "Hell no. I'd miss the money."

"Ah."

There was a pause as Keitaro opened another beer and then lit himself a cigarette.

"You don't seem to have a good relationship with your family." Kitsune said out of the blue.

"It's not the best, I'll admit." Keitaro said. "They don't hate me or anything. But I've always been kind of a let down in their eyes."

"If you don't mind me asking, how so?" asked Kitsune.

Keitaro took a moment to collect his thoughts. "I was awkward, didn't have many friends, not a good student. Kept messing stuff up, too." he explained. "My sister, on the other hand, had a lot of friends, was top of her class, excelled at everything she did, knew the family business, etc."

Kitsune nodded. "Younger sister was the favorite?" she asked.

Keitaro shrugged. "Not exactly, but she seemed to get more slack than I ever did." he said. "How about you?" he asked.

"Huh?" Kitsune asked, taken by surprise by the question.

"What about your family?" Keitaro clarified. "What's it like with them?"

"Pretty good." Kitsune said. "My father's a reporter, and my mom's a manga writer."

Keitaro laughed. "Well that explains a few things." he said.

Kitsune grinned and drained her beer. "Yep." she belched. "Excuse me."

"It's cool." Keitaro said. "Any siblings?"

Kitsune held up the first three fingers of her hand. "Three. I'm the youngest."

"What do they do?"

Kitsune started counting off on her hand. "Well, the oldest two are my brothers, and they're writers. I don't think they've been sober since they hit twenty." (1) she began. "My sister's the black sheep of the family."

"Oh, what's she, an artist?" Keitaro asked.

Kitsune shook her head. "Nah. She's a member of the Lutheran National Front."

Keitaro whistled. He had heard of them- ultra-fundamentalist Lutheran separatists. Very small, but very dedicated, very motivated, and well trained.

Kitsune looked at him. "You know about them?" she asked. "Most people laugh when I say that."

Keitaro shrugged. "You meet some strange people in my line of work." he said. "For example, my crew, we buy a lot of our gear from the Boy Scouts."

"The Boy Scouts." Kitsune said, disbelieving.

Keitaro nodded. "Don't laugh. They're some of the best organized and biggest gun runners on the planet." he told her.

"So what are the Girl Scouts into?" Kitsune asked jokingly.

"Drugs, elements of the baked goods trade."

"Drugs and cookies." Kitsune said. "That's what they're into."

"Uh-huh." Keitaro said. "Most places, there isn't a cookie baked or a gram of coke sold that they don't get a cut of the proceeds."

"Are they here?" she asked.

Keitaro thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No. The Yakuza have a pretty good grip here." he said. "Though I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted get a foothold here."

Kitsune nodded. "I'd say what you were telling me was pretty hard to believe, but after the last couple of years living here with Su have broadened my horizons, so to speak." she said.

"I imagine it would." Keitaro said. "That reminds me, speaking of Su, has she said anything to you about the ultimatum the Guild gave her?"

Kitsune shook her head. "She hasn't said anything to me." she said. "Was that related to that flying pig she was talking about?"

Keitaro nodded and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Yeah. It was." he said tiredly.

"They must really want her to join." Kitsune observed. "They've been sending her all sorts of stuff."

"I'm sure they have." Keitaro said. "They can be very insistent."

Kitsune gave him an appraising look. "You seem to know about them." she said.

"One of the guys I work with is a member." Keitaro explained. "He's explained a bit about them. From what he's said and what the message that the Guild delivered, I know why they're so insistent that she join them."

"Why is that?" Kitsune asked.

"Mutual protection. If the stuff Su's doing goes from "crazy" to "dangerous", then the powers that be would start taking a closer look at the other mad scientist's."

Kitsune nodded in understanding. "So they self regulate themselves." she said. "Lay down rules of conduct, stuff like that."

Keitaro shook his head. "Not at all." he said. "They really don't regulate anything. Members can still do the crazy, insane, dangerous stuff. What the Guild does is make sure that they can do it that doesn't get everyone else all up in their shit."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Keitaro said. "So, for them, it's a case of 'we had better watch out for ourselves, lest one lone nutjob go and ruin the fun for everybody'."

Kitsune turned behind her and looked up at the Inn towering above them. "And Suu has been telling them off." she stated.

"Uh-huh." Keitaro confirmed.

"What do you think they'll do?" Kitsune asked after she had turned back to face him.

Keitaro shrugged. "It depends on who they pick. It could be something subtle, it could be a cruise missile. I don't know." he said.

"Is there anything you can do?" Kitsune asked, worry creeping into her voice.

"Well, if she hasn't accepted their offer by the deadline, I'll ask her to leave the house for the safety of the other residents until the situation is resolved." Keitaro said. "I'm good, and probably indestructible, but the Guild guys aren't the kind of guys I can go up against and win."

"That's the best you can do?" Kitsune asked. "Just throw her to them?"

Keitaro was quiet for a moment. When he spoke again, his tone was dead serious. "Kitsune, I'm the one in charge here. I am the one ultimately responsible for the Inn and it's tenets. If I let Su stay here, everyone else and the Inn itself will be put in danger.

The Guild, the people she has been in effect thumbing her nose at, are not the sort of people you mess with. Vaporizing this entire building and everyone in it, is a perfectly legitimate option for these guys. They are the Inter-dimensional Guild of Mad Scientist's, after all."

Kitsune was silent for several moment, then sighed unhappily. "This sucks." she said unhappily.

"Its the best I can do in a bad situation." Keitaro said. "Though there is something you can do." he added.

"What's that?" Kitsune asked.

"Talk to her. Try to encourage her to take their offer." Keitaro said. "Have the others do that too. Maybe if enough people start in on her, it'll get through that thick skull of hers and she'll avoid the epic shitstorm of trouble that's headed for her."

"Okay." Kitsune said.

"And now that we've gotten that settled..."Keitaro said as he leaned back in the pool "I'm just gonna relax and enjoy my soak."

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End.

(1) The age of majority in Japan is twenty.

Author's note: Sorry about the delay in updating. I was working on some of my non-fanfiction work, namely scripts for my webcomic.