Love Hina:
A different path taken
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Chapter Seven
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Revving his chainsaw, Keitaro cracked the throttle and sank the blade into the timber in front of him. Wood chips, sawdust, and splinters came flying back at him as the teeth on the blade ate through the floor joist like the saw was some ravenous beast.
Careful not to bind the blade, he cut through the joist and stepped back quickly as the rotted section fell away onto the ground. Taking a second to look at the rotten section of timber, he sighed and killed the saw, the racket of the motor cutting away abruptly and leaving silence ringing in its wake.
Putting down the chainsaw, Keitaro began lugging the meter-long sections joist to where he had the wheelbarrow parked. Thanks to the width of the joists, it didn't take long for him to fill the wheelbarrow and when that happened it was time to go dump it.
He did this three times, the beginning steps in the long process of fixing the structural damage. After he had the old wood cleared away the real work would begin. First, he would dig a hole under the joint where the new wood met the old, then he would pour a cement base for the vertical support he would be putting in to support the joint in the joist.
After he had the bases put in and poured, he would then begin cutting and sectioning the joist to notch the new wood in. He would then repeat the process on every joist until the bad sections were replaced with new wood.
And after that was done, he could put in new sub-flooring and then get the rest of the damage fixed.
"Grandma, I love ya, but this is friggin' ridiculous." he muttered under his breath in English.
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It was mid-afternoon by the time he got the bases done. With the concrete poured, there wasn't much else he was able to do, so he left them be and went to work repairing the damage done to the changing room by Motoko in her turtle-sparked panic.
"All this damage with a chi attack." Keitaro mused as he surveyed the hole. "Impressive. Incredibly inefficient and I could draw and put half a magazine into someone in the time it takes to get one off, but still impressive."
Pulling his tape measure from his belt, Keitaro started taking measurements and jotting down a list of materials that he'd need. He'd gotten a rough idea of what he was going to need when he heard the interior door to the changing room open.
"Hey, I'm in here." he called out as a warning to whoever it was.
"Urashima?" Motoko's voice asked. "What acts of perversion are you up to?"
Keitaro rolled his eyes. "None, unless you have some very specific fetishes regarding carpentry." he said as he finished writing down what he needed.
"You're repairing the hole?" Motoko asked as she came into the changing room.
"I'm going to." Keitaro clarified. "Right now I'm just jotting down a list of materials I'll need." he added, then he looked up as a thought occurred to him. "By the way, how did you do this?"
"Why are you asking?" Motoko asked stiffly, her body language tense, as if she was expecting an attack.
Keitaro noticed her change in tone and posture and thought it was a bit odd, but wrote it off as being because of the bad blood between the two of them.
"I was curious, because to make a hole like that, it'd take me half a brick of Semtex and some detcord." Keitaro explained. "I was wondering how you managed that with a sword."
"I used the Cutting Air Spark." Motoko told him. "It's an attack used by my school in the slaying of demons and monsters."
"Ah. Monster slaying." Keitaro said with a nod. "My boss knows guys who have did that sort of thing."
"What school were they from?" asked Motoko.
"Considering the guys he was talking about, I don't think they followed a particular school." Keitaro replied. "He wasn't clear on how they did it, just that they went after things that went bump in the night on occasion."
"Oh."
Keitaro sighed and clipped the tape measure back to his belt. "Anyways, I'm gonna run to the store, so you can use the baths." he said. "I'll start work on the damage tomorrow after I'm done with what was Suu's room."
Motoko nodded, and took a deep breath. "Thank you." she said, her voice still stiff, but with a touch of respect.
Keitaro would take that any day over open hostility. "You're welcome." he said. "Now if you'll excuse me..."
With that, he exited the changing room.
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After putting in his order and scheduling a delivery for the lumber, Keitaro headed back home. Pausing to light a cigarette, he did a double take when he thought he saw Motoko walking down the street in her straw hat, hakama, and gi. On closer inspection though, she wasn't. Motoko wasn't as tall as this woman was.
"I wonder if they're related?" Keitaro idly thought as he lit his cigarette.
The woman, however, looked confused, as if she didn't quite know where she was going. Looking around, she spotted him and headed towards Keitaro.
"Excuse me, sir?" she asked politely as she came up on him. "May I trouble you for some directions?"
"Okay, they have to be related." was Keitaro's first thought when he got a good look at the woman's face.
Taking a drag on his cigarette, Keitaro nodded and exhaled a lungful of smoke, making sure to aim it away from the woman."Sure." he said. "Where you headed?"
"I am looking for the Hinata House." the woman said. "Do you know of such a place?"
Keitaro laughed and grinned. "I should hope so." he said. "I'm the manager."
The woman arched an eyebrow slightly in response. "Hinata House, as I understand it, is an all-girls dormitory." she said, still in that polite tone she had started the conversation with, but Keitaro saw her hand fall to the hilt of her sword. "How could you be the manager?"
"Okay, definitely related." Keitaro thought.
"It's a long story." Keitaro said, keeping his stance relaxed, thumbs hooked in his pockets- and his hands within easy reach of his USP. "The short version is, my grandma is the owner and she wants me to look after the place while she's taking a tour around the world."
"I see." the woman said with a slight nod.
"Yeah." Keitaro said with a nod of his own "Anyways, I was heading back, so I can lead you there."
"Thank you, Mister..." the woman trailed off.
"Urashima." Keitaro filled in for her. "Keitaro Urashima. And you are?"
"I am Tsuruko Aoyama, of the Shinmei-ryū school." she said with a slight bow.
"Nice to meet you." Keitaro said. "Follow me."
Keitaro started walking, making sure to stay on Tsuruko's left side and keeping her in the corner of his eye.
"So, what brings you to Hinata?" he asked as they walked.
"I'm here to see my sister, Motoko." Tsuruko replied.
"I see." Keitaro said with a nod. "When I first saw you, I thought you might have been related to her somehow."
"We do look awfully alike." Tsuruko agreed. "You said your grandmother is the owner and has you managing the dorm while she's away?"
Keitaro nodded. "Yeah." he said. "She's on a world tour, and wanted me to watch the place while she was gone."
"I see. What do you normally do then?" Tsuruko asked as the base of the stairs that lead to the Inn came into view.
Keitaro shrugged. "I'm a contractor." he said. "I'm usually working overseas for foreign governments helping them with whatever problems have cropped up."
"That sounds interesting." Tsuruko said.
"It can be." Keitaro said, mentally chuckling at how much he was leaving out of the description of his job.
Tsuruko nodded and nothing more was said until they reached the bottom of the stairs and they stood there for a moment, looking up them.
"Hope you like climbing stairs." Keitaro told her. "Because there's a lot of them."
"Well, exercise is always good." Tsuruko observed.
"Yeah." Keitaro said. "This is too much of a good thing."
With a sigh, Keitaro started up the stairs, Tsuruko following him.
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When they reached the Inn, Keitaro directed Tsuruko to the waiting area. Shinobu brewed some tea and a tray of snacks for her to nibble on while she waited for her sister to come home from school. Keitaro, on the other hand, couldn't be a gracious host because Kitsune came in right after Shinobu did and told him that there was a problem with the light switch in her room.
Excusing himself, Keitaro headed for Kitsune's room.
"I swear, this whole place is falling apart..." he muttered.
"Well, look at it this way, at least you're not bored." Kitsune pointed out.
Keitaro rolled his eyes. "Maybe I want to be bored." he countered. "I like being bored. After a few fire fights and mortar attacks, you treasure being bored."
"Poor baby." Kitsune said, patting Keitaro on the shoulder. "Tell you what, I'll make it up to you. Come over to my room later tonight and I'll break out the lube."
Keitaro brightened at her suggestion. "Okay then." he said. "Suddenly fixing a light switch doesn't seem so bad."
"I knew you'd appreciate it." Kitsune said. "Just be gentle, okay?"
"Oh, don't worry, I'm-" Keitaro started to say but was cut off when a shriek came up the hall from the waiting area.
"That sounded like Motoko." Kitsune said as they looked behind them.
"Now what the hell is going on?" Keitaro growled as he started walking back down the hall from where they'd come from, one hand on the grip of his USP.
"Well, I'm not hearing any explosions or swordplay, so I think Motoko is just surprised to see her sister." Kitsune said as they walked.
"I hope you're right." Keitaro said. "I got enough stuff to fix as it is."
"And you're doing a wonderful job of it." Kitsune assured him.
"Thanks."
As they got closer they were able to better understand what was being said between Motoko and Tsuruko.
"B-but we agreed that-!" Keitaro heard Motoko protest as they entered the waiting area.
When they walked in Keitaro found Tsuruko and Motoko facing each other, with Suu, Shinobu standing behind Motoko. Tsuruko was staring her sister down with a look that Keitaro had seen plenty of times on his boss's face when dealing with potentially hostile locals: Pleasant, but with the promise of mayhem and murder if they decided to pull something.
Motoko, on the other hand, was- scared. Actually, she wasn't scared, she was terrified. And she was desperately looking for an out, anything to get her out of this situation. He'd seen that look before, on the faces of girls taken by insurgents he and the rest of his company had rescued after a raid.
"What's going on here?" Keitaro asked.
Tsuruko glanced in his direction. "Oh, I was just informing my sister that I was taking her back so that she may take up her duties as the head of our school."
Keitaro nodded, and looked over at Motoko. The look of terror on her face told him just how badly she didn't want to go. And while she might have been a bitch to him, she was a fairly decent person, unlike the previously mentioned insurgents. So he figured that he'd do something for her.
He was about to say something when Motoko beat him to the punch.
"This is the real reason why I can't go home!" she said, crossing the floor over to where he stood. "Keitaro and I are secretly engaged to be married!" she added, grabbing onto his arm.
There was an explosion of surprised shouts and questions- and thankfully, there was no explosion of anger from Naru thanks to her being absent from this little shindig. Which was a good thing, because Motoko had grabbed hold of his gun arm and he got the feeling that her sister would not have been too particularly happy with Motoko if she knew the truth.
"Ahh, I see." Tsuruko said as she picked up her tea. "May I have a moment to consider this?" she asked.
"Sure! Take all the time you want." Keitaro said with a joviality he was not feeling. "We'll just be over here."
Tsuruko nodded and held her tea in her hands as everyone else gave her some space. When they were on the other side of the room Keitaro beckoned Motoko in close to him, and everyone else leaned in as well.
"Just what the hell do you think you're doing Motoko?" Keitaro whispered.
Motoko glanced at her sister before responding. "She's here to take me back to our dojo. I'm supposed to take it over."
"Yeah, I got that." Keitaro said. "So what does that have to do with me getting involved in something out of a harem manga?"
"I'm not ready, and she's here sooner than I thought she'd be!" Motoko protested. "I panicked!"
"Yes, you did." Keitaro said.
Motoko winced slightly when he said that. "I'm sorry! I know you and Kitsune are an item, and while we generally don't get along, I need your help! Please!"
Keitaro glanced at Kitsune. "We're an item?" he asked her.
Kitsune shrugged. "Apparently." she whispered back.
"Do you have a problem with this?" he asked, pointing to himself and Motoko in reference to her plan.
"Hell no." Kitsune said, a manic grin on her face "This is hilarious."
That made Keitaro feel so much better. Sighing, he turned his attention to Motoko. "Okay. I'll do it. But two things: One, this is a horrible plan and it could go south at any time very quickly."
"And the other thing?" Motoko asked.
"You're gonna owe me for this little bit of cock-blocking." Keitaro added.
Motoko sighed and looked at the floor. "Whatever degrading thing you want, I'll do, Urashima." she whispered resignedly.
"Don't be melodramatic." Keitaro told her. "I just want you to help me with the repairs."
"Oh."
Shinobu poked Kitsune in the ribs. "What does 'cock-block' mean?" she asked.
Kitsune blanched at the question. "Uhhh... I'll explain later." she said hurriedly.
Tsuruko, meanwhile, put her cup down and sighed contentedly. "I have reached my decision." she said.
Motoko got up and walked over so she was standing in front of her sister, Keitaro, playing the part of "fiancee" followed suit.
"I will not be taking you home with me." she announced.
"Thank you, Onee-san." Motoko said with a bow.
Tsuruko then fixed her gaze on Keitaro. "Though I must ask this of you, my sister's future husband, just what is the nature of the relationship that you two posses?"
Motoko quailed in terror, seeing their scheme about to go down in flames, but Keitaro didn't blink. When part of the way you earn your pay is defusing bombs put together by amateurs, a question like Tsuruko's didn't even faze him.
"I'm a hardworking contractor, she's a skilled swords-woman. It's an attraction of opposites." he replied calmly.
Tsuruko nodded and picked up her tea. "Well put." she said. "That is a good description of my marriage."
Keitaro nodded "I guess the apple doesn't fall that far from the tree." he said with a chuckle. "And if you'll excuse me, there's an electrical fixture that needs my attention."
"Don't let me keep you." Tsuruko said.
The rest of the girls crowded around Tsuruko and started asking her questions as Keitaro headed for Kitsune's room and her finicky light switch.
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Lighting up a cigarette, Keitaro drew a lungful and exhaled a blue cloud of smoke.
"So, what's up with your sister?" he asked.
Behind him, Motoko looked up from her bath. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"How did a "housewife" get a girl like you scared shitless?" Keitaro clarified. "You looked down the barrel of my pistol and were ready to make of a go of it. So why were you terrified of your own sister?"
Motoko hugged her knees to her chest as she stared at the bottom of the pool she was in. "My sister is no mere housewife. She's technically retired now, but she used to head the school." she said,
Keitaro took another drag on his cigarette and flicked the ash off the end. "So, she's a heavy hitter, huh?"
"Yes." Motoko said. "She's a "heavy hitter", as you put it. All my sisters are. And she's the best out of all of them."
She took a deep breath and sighed. "Compared to her, I am just a speck of dust at her feet."
Keitaro thought for a moment. "She bulletproof?" he asked.
Motoko looked up at his question. "Why would you ask that question?" she asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Are you planning on killing her?"
"No." Keitaro answered her. "I was asking that question as a way of making a point: No one is unbeatable."
"Tsuruko might just very well be unbeatable." Motoko countered. "The few times she has to draw her sword, she... she's like a god of war."
Keitaro took another draw on his cigarette. "So why isn't she running the school?" he asked.
Motoko sighed. "In our family, if a woman gets married, she steps down and control passes to the next unmarried woman." she said.
"Which would be you."
Motoko nodded. "Yes." she said.
Keitaro studied the cherry on the end of his cigarette for a few moments. "So, in other words, your sister decided to run off and get married, dropping the job of running the school in your lap, but you're not ready for it, but your sister thinks otherwise."
Motoko sank lower into the pool. "Yes." she said.
"I take it, judging by how you two interact with each other, that your sister isn't the type to listen to you?" Keitaro asked.
"Yes." Motoko said.
Keitaro pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Talk about a rock and a hard place." he said. "Your sister has a lot of nerve, getting married and dropping it all into your lap without making sure you're ready, or if you even want the job."
"I do want the job." Motoko said defensibly. "I'm... just not ready for it."
"No shit." Keitaro said. "You're still in high school. You could change your mind in a couple of years and decide you want to go do something else."
"I-" Motoko started to say, but Keitaro cut her off.
"Don't say that you want to do this. When I was your age, all I wanted was to get into Tokyo U." he said. "Always had, ever since I was a kid. But then I realized that I didn't want to go one day. My parents wanted me to go. But it wasn't their decision, and it's not your sisters decision on who heads the school."
"Oh." Motoko said. "I was wondering why you were helping me."
Keitaro flicked the ash off the end of his cigarette. "That's part of my reasons." he said.
That statement made Motoko more curious as to why a lowly mercenary thug (in her opinion) would do something like help her.
"And what are the other parts?" she asked.
Keitaro took a long drag on his cigarette and exhaled slowly. "When I came into the room to see what was happening, that look on your face, I've seen it before." he said.
"You have?" asked Motoko.
"Yeah. Africa." Keitaro said, flicking the ash off his cigarette. "There was a school that some insurgents hit. They killed a bunch of people, took some of the kids. Girls, specifically. From about Shinobu's age up to a little older than you. And they made a video of what they had did, and displayed them like trophies."
He paused to take another drag off his cigarette, finishing it off in the process. He stubbed it out in his ashtray as he continued.
"The girls had the same look that you did. That you would do anything to get out of that situation." he said. "That's why I decided to help you. I admit, I may not like you, but you didn't deserve that."
"Oh." Motoko said quietly. She thought for a moment. "What happened to those girls?"
Keitaro shook out another cigarette. "We rescued them." he said. "We didn't get there in time to save them from... well, lets just say they're alive."
"Oh."
Keitaro lit his cigarette. "Though, on the bright side, we did get the guy who had been getting those insurgents all worked up."
"You brought him to justice?" Motoko asked.
"You could say that." Keitaro told her. "We tied his feet together with a length of rope, and tied the other end to the back of a truck. We then drove around the insurgent friendly areas until there was just a frayed, bloody, end.
We never did have any more trouble from them."
Motoko turned and looked at Keitaro for several moments. She was about to ask how that was justified when she remembered what he had said:
"We didn't get there in time to save them from... well, lets just say they're alive."
She was not naive. What he hadn't said brought all sorts of horrors to mind. And that gave her an insight into why Keitaro and his fellow mercenaries had did what they did.
"I'm sorry." she said.
Keitaro shrugged. "We took care of it, and it didn't happen to anyone else, so there's that." he said as he stood up. "Excuse me. I gotta use the can."
Taking a puff on his cigarette, Keitaro headed inside. Motoko watched him go, then settled back down in the pool to think.
She was troubled by the casualness with which he had described him and his comrade's actions. Evil people or not, sending a message by dragging someone to death behind a truck was quite brutal. And from the way he had said, he would do it again or worse without a second thought.
And yet, he showed restraint. Their first encounter, for example. His dealings with Naru. This didn't fit with her mental image of a mercenary. She found it fascinating, in an odd sort of way, the dichotomy between the two sides of his personality.
It was going to take her a while to sort this all out. In the meantime, she had to get through her sister's stay at the Inn. And that was a whole other load of problems and variables. Sighing, she sank lower into the pool.
"Keeping this act up is going to kill me..." she said as she heard Keitaro's return when the screen to the changing room slide open.
"An act?"
The blood in Motoko's veins turned to ice when she heard her sister's voice.
"Does that mean everything you've told me up to now was... a lie? A fabrication?"
Numbly, Motoko turned to see her sister standing in the entryway of the changing room, sword in one hand, bathing supplies in the other, clad in just her shirt and loincloth.
"Oh, shit." Motoko thought as Tsuruko stepped out of the doorway and into the bath's proper. "Onee-san, I can explain-"
"Save it for someone who cares." Tsuruko cut her off as she dropped her bath supplies, freeing her sword arm.
Motoko's training kicked in and she grabbed her sword from where it was lying next to the pool and got into a fighting stance, not bothering to cover up as Tsuruko drew her sword with practiced grace.
"Time for your punishment, Motoko!" her sister said as she brought her sword up.
Motoko tensed as she waited for her sister's attack, but it never came. Instead her sister froze when a mechanical click-clack sound came from nowhere.
"All right, that's enough." Keitaro said from behind her, the muzzle of his Ithaca 37 Stakeout buried in the base of Tsuruko's skull.
The look of surprise and fury on Tsuruko's face was a sight to behold. "This...this is not your fight..." she began.
"The hell it isn't." Keitaro interrupted her,, the calmness of his voice a stark counterpoint to Tsuruko's fury. "I'm the manager here, and she's my tenant- who you just drew a blade on. That makes it my problem. Now toss the blade."
Tsuruko's left eye twitched, showing how well she was taking being ordered to do something. "I...will.. punish you both... the God's Cry School will not-"
"Look. You got two choices here: Either you toss the blade out of reach, or I blow your head off. Either way works for me." Keitaro reiterated his demands, sounding almost bored.
Tsuruko's eye twitch got worse. "You wouldn't dare."
Keitaro snorted in amusement. "Honey, considering the amount of explosions that are generated around here by one fourteen year old girl, a shotgun blast wont even raise an eyebrow." he told her. "Now what's it gonna be?"
In her mind Motoko was beseeching her gods that her sister would listen to reason, Keitaro was just as dangerous as she was-
"You would, wouldn't you?" Tsuruko asked. "You would kill me for this...pretender, wouldn't you?"
Keitaro let out an irritated growl. "You know, you are really beginning to damage my calm here." he said.
Tsuruko let out a sigh and tossed her sword off to one side. Sparks flew when it hit the stonework, and she winched when that happened. "There. I have disarmed myself. You may lower your weapon." she said.
Behind her Keitaro shook his head. "Uh-uh.'' he said, stepping back. "Mystic swords-women types like you know all sorts of nasty unarmed stuff. Hands up, fingers interlaced on the back of your head, and if they leave I shoot you. Got it?"
Tsuruko was positively murderous as she complied with Keitaro's demand.
"Thank you." Keitaro said. "Now just what the hell do you think you were doing?" he asked, the muzzle of his shotgun never wavering.
Tsuruko took a deep breath before she answered. Motoko could tell that her sister was holding her temper back by sheer force of will.
"I was... merely going to punish her for her transgressions." Tsuruko ground out.
"By trying to kill her?" Keitaro asked. "That's fucked up."
"If I was going to kill her, I would have told her." Tsuruko said. "Her actions are unacceptable, but do not warrant death."
"So what were you going to do?" asked Keitaro.
Tsuruko's eyes locked onto Motoko. "Break her sword." she said, causing Motoko to clutch her weapon tighter. "She is not worthy of heading the school."
"So says the woman who ran off to go get married, dropping the whole thing into her younger sister's lap." Keitaro countered. "Then shows up one day out of the blue to drag her back, no asking her if she's ready or anything, and when you find out that she's not ready, you decide to kick her out of the school for not being up to the problems you dropped in her lap when you decided to abandon your responsibilities."
Tsuruko turned her head slightly so she could look at Keitaro out of the corner of her eye. "Don't you dare to judge me-"
"Shut it." Keitaro ordered her. "I've heard enough. You're gone."
"What?"
"I said you're gone." Keitaro repeated. "I'm throwing you out."
"My things-"
"Not my problem." Keitaro told her. "Now move, and if you try anything I will paint your brains all over the place with this thing."
Tsuruko's response was a strangled growl of outrage as Keitaro forced her at gunpoint out of the baths. In shock, Motoko watched them leave, and when they were gone, she collapsed down onto her knees. She was vaguely aware of her housemates crowding around her and trying to comfort her, but she could only think of one thing:
"Urashima, what have you done?"
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End.