Love Hina: A different path taken.
Chapter Eight
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Lightning licked the clouds, colored a dim orange by the reflected light pollution of Tokyo and thunder gently rumbled a few seconds later. Keitaro cracked open a beer and lit himself a cigarette. Taking a swig of his beer, he looked out the window at the sky.
The storm had rolled in a few minutes after he had unceremoniously shoved Tsuruko out the front door of the Inn, telling her in no uncertain terms that if she showed up again he was going to blow her head off.
After the adrenaline surge had worn off, he'd sat down, had a couple of beers and smoked some cigarettes, and then he was fine. Motoko, on the other hand, was acting like she was shell-shocked, not that he blamed her a bit. What had happened had been some pretty intense stuff, and it was going to take her a while to come to terms with what had happened.
His main concern though, was her sister. He could take her down easily enough, but her stability worried him. Combining that with the fact that she was capable of doing energy style attacks with a sword, and the potential for massive property damage and innocent bystanders getting hurt increased dramatically.
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why the hell would you give someone like her sister access to weapons, dangerous techniques, and a position of authority?" he asked no one in particular. "And I thought Motoko was going to be trouble..."
Draining his beer, he flicked the ash off his cigarette and decided to hit the sack when it was done. Unstable mystical swords women aside, he had shit to do in the morning and he needed sleep.
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He woke kind of late the next morning. After getting out of bed and dressed, he headed downstairs to the kitchen where he found a note from Shinobu taped to the coffee maker that she had put his breakfast in the refrigerator and that the thermos on the counter had fresh coffee.
"Better tell her thank you when she gets back.." he said to himself.
Keitaro took his breakfast and his coffee into the dining room and was surprised to see Kitsune sitting on the couch in the rec room, with her laptop running, looking at her phone.
"Morning." he called out.
Kitsune looked up and around for a second before she spotted him. "Heeey!" she drawled out. "How you doin'?"
"I'm good." Keitaro responded. "Just getting breakfast and some coffee before I get back to work on the repairs. What are you up to?"
"Just making a few notes about when you activated your bad ass mode." she answered. "I got it on my phone."
"Oh."
Kitsune waved him over. "Come over here and sit down and eat." she said. "It's more comfortable over here."
Keitaro shrugged and walked over to her.
"So whats the general reaction to what happened last night?" he asked. "I saw everyone was fussing over Motoko, so I figured that I'd go have a cigarette to calm down."
Kitsune gave him that grin of hers that made him want to check her for a tail. "Well, I'm certainly impressed." she stated. "So's Shinobu and Suu. Your aunt and Naru came up and wanted to know what the hell happened when Motoko's sister walked by the cafe- you actually threw her out in just her loincloth and a shirt?"
"She pulled a sword and threatened one of my tenants." Keitaro told her as he unwrapped his breakfast. "Social niceties went right out the window when she did that."
Kitsune nodded. "Well, when I showed them the video they were a lot more understanding." she said, then paused for a second as a thought struck her. "Now that I think about it, Haruka seemed... unsurprised."
"It takes a lot to phase her." Keitaro said, deciding that omitting a couple of things from the record would be a good idea.
"So I've noticed." Kitsune said.
"And Naru?"
"She thinks that could have been handled better, but she's glad that you didn't shoot her." Kitsune told him.
Keitaro just nodded, his mouth full of food. "And what about Motoko? She seemed in shock."
"She was." Kitsune said. "We got her dried off and I gave her a drink to calm down, then she crashed."
"Good idea." Keitaro said as he poured himself a cup of coffee. "Rest helps a lot in that situation."
Kitsune nodded again. "Though what are you gonna do if her sister comes back?"
Keitaro paused for a second and thought. "Well, I told her that if she stepped foot onto the property again, I'd blow her head off." he said. "I'm hoping her common sense overpowered her pride and she heeds that warning."
"What if she confronts you when you're off the property?" Kitsune asked.
Keitaro shrugged. "There's a lot of variables in that question." he said. "If it happens, it'll depend on where, when, what she does, how many people are around. About the only thing I can tell you is that I'm gonna do my damnedest to use as minimal of force as possible. Tsuruko might be six kinds of nuts, but she's still Motoko's sister, and the last thing I want to do is kill her."
"You seemed ready to last night." Kitsune pointed out.
"And I was." Keitaro countered. "Didn't mean I wanted to."
"Why not?" Kitsune asked.
"Because I didn't want to do it in front of Motoko." Keitaro answered. "Watching your sister get killed would be a very traumatic event, and I didn't want to be the guy who did that. So I gave Tsuruko an option, and thankfully she took it."
"Oh." Kitsune said. "That... that makes sense."
Silence ensued as Kitsune took a few moments to think about what Keitaro had said, and he took the opportunity to eat some more of his breakfast.
"Keitaro..." Kitsune said, breaking the silence. "Given what you said, I think I see why you had such a problem with Tsuruko. It wasn't just what she did by dropping the school into Motoko's lap, it was that she showed such disregard for her sister when she found out that Motoko wasn't ready."
"That's another reason, yes." Keitaro confirmed. "That, and for a woman who was described as rarely pulling her sword, she was far too casual in her willingness to use force. She... offended me, as a professional, by doing that."
"Ah." Kitsune said, and then picked up her laptop. "Hold on, I need to write this down."
"Go right ahead." Keitaro told her. "I need to eat."
Keitaro then finished his breakfast while Kitsune typed at her laptop, her keystrokes a muted rapid fire clicking.
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After breakfast the lumber order that Keitaro placed was delivered to the Inn, enabling him to start work on cutting the vertical beams he was going to be cementing into place before he sectioned in the new joists. He started by getting the measurements. This he accomplished by taping a piece of string across the gap where the new wood was going to go and running a tape measure down into the holes he had dug for them.
Once he had the measurements, he wet out back to where he had a chop saw set up. Getting the supports adjusted, he muscled a beam onto them and got it marked. Then it was a matter of sliding it down so the marked section was in position, then a quick cut with the saw, and he had a vertical support.
He had just cut his third one when he heard someone shouting something through his hearing protection. Letting go of the saw, he looked up and saw Motoko standing nearby, looking better than she had been the previous night, but still worse for the wear.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"I said, can we talk, Urashima?" Motoko told him.
Keitaro looked at the beams he had cut and the amount he had left to do and figured he was due for a smoke break.
"Sure." he said, unplugging the saw. "I thought you'd be in school."
Motoko shook her head. "I'm not feeling well today." she said.
"Not surprising. Things got pretty intense yesterday." Keitaro pointed out.
She arched an eyebrow at him. "That's an understatement if I have ever heard one." she said. "Do you have any idea what you have done?"
Keitaro nodded as he shook out a cigarettes. "Yeah. Stopped an attack on one of my tenants and injured the pride of your sister. What about it?"
Motoko took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "While I appreciate the help and the amount of restraint, Urashima, my sister is not the type to let something like this go."
Keitaro pinched his nose and sighed in tired frustration. "I was really hoping that you weren't gonna say something like that." he said. "I really was."
"You disarmed her and threw her out onto the street in almost nothing, rather that defeating her in honorable combat." Motoko countered. "A warrior such as her must avenge her humiliation."
"Motoko, if I'd faced off against her, your sister would be dead." Keitaro pointed out to her.
"And I do not doubt that." Motoko admitted. "But she walks the path of a warrior and that is one of the risks you have to accept if you walk that path."
"So if I shoot her in the face, you're saying you wouldn't be upset?" Keitaro asked.
Motoko's eyes narrowed for a second. "I would be very upset." she stated. "But I know that you are trying not to kill her, and if she pushed a confrontation after you had stated your terms, then she knew what could happen going in."
"Okay." Keitaro said. "First, I'm glad you'd be upset."
"Why?" Motoko asked, surprised by what he had said.
Keitaro took a drag on his cigarette and sighed as he exhaled a blue cloud of smoke. "It means that you're not a psychopath, Motoko." he said, and held up a hand to forestall the inevitable protest."What people think of a psycho is actually a sociopath. Psychopath's are incapable of empathy and view people as objects to be manipulated. Your sister has those traits. I'm not saying she is one, just that she has those traits."
"Ah." Motoko said, nodding in understanding. "And the other part?"
"The other part is, that means that I some more options, which is nice." he said.
"What kind of options?" Motoko asked, feeling a little unsettled.
"Violent ones, but not necessarily fatal ones." Keitaro told her. "I'm gonna try and not use them if I can help it, but the option's are there."
"Oh." Motoko said, sounding relieved. "Again, I thank you for your restraint. And also, again, my sister cannot let this go, so there will be a confrontation."
Keitaro nodded. "And speaking of confrontations, what's the fallout for you gonna be?"
Motoko sighed and closed her eyes for a moment as she considered what he had said. "At this point, I don't know." she said. "Whatever judgment she passes on me will be clouded by the fact that she was bested by you, a supposedly "inferior" warrior. It all boils down to how much pull she has with the elders of the school."
"Elders?" Keitaro asked.
"That's those of us who have gotten old enough to retire." Motoko clarified. "The rank and file members will go along with her no matter what, but what the elders say overrules what they might have to say about the matter."
"So what do you think they'll do?" asked Keitaro.
Motoko looked at the ground. "They'll go along with her." she said. "Or at least, enough of them will."
"Which means?"
"Which means, most likely, I will not be able to practice the God's Cry School." Motoko said.
"Ouch." Keitaro said. "So, what are you going to do?"
Motoko sighed and looked away. "I do not know." she said.
"You're a bright girl." Keitaro told her. "You'll think of something."
"Thank you." Motoko said.
Keitaro nodded and then glanced at the pile of supports he had cut. "And that reminds me; since you're staying home today, why don't you give me a hand with the repairs."
Motoko blinked and looked at the woodworking equipment lying around them. "I must confess, I do not know carpentry Urashima-" she started to say.
"No, I got that." Keitaro interrupted. "What I have in mind is something a little different. Follow me."
Wondering what Keitaro was talking about, she followed him. They ended up in the gaping hole that was Suu's room and the two adjoining room next to it.
"I need you to do some digging for me." Keitaro said as he jumped into the hole. Motoko followed him as he continued on. "What I was cutting back there were supports for the new joists I'm gonna be sectioning in. they're going to be anchored in concrete to keep them from rotting out from the moisture in the soil. It would speed things up if all the holes were predug.
I'm one guy, so there is only a limited amount of things I can do in a day. But, with your help, I can get more done than just by working alone."
"So, you want me to dig the holes for the vertical supports while you cut them and put them in?" asked Motoko.
"That's it in a nutshell." Keitaro answered.
Motoko looked around at the work that had been done and was yet to be done, and nodded. "I can do that." she said.
"Okay." Keitaro said. "Go get changed into some old clothes and then I'll show you how I want them dug."
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Keitaro was impressed. Not only had Motoko dug the holes exactly how he had described he had wanted them, she had managed to get almost all of them done by the time they knocked off work for the day. Which would speed up the repairs, much to his relief. He liked building and repairing things, but there was a gorramed limit.
Now all he had to do was get the last couple of holes dug, then he could start getting the supports set and the new joists sectioned in-
Keitaro's nose twitched at the faint whiff of rotten eggs.
"Gas?" he asked himself, and then looked down at the pack of cigarettes in his hand. "Aw, fuuuuuck." he groaned.
Putting his smokes away, he started sniffing around. After a bit of searching, he found the source of the gas: A rusted metal pipe, running along underneath the floorboards not twenty centimeters from the edge of the demolition.
Looking into the gloom- he would have turned on his penlight, but didn't want to risk a spark, no matter how small a chance there was of one- he saw the pipe ran from the general direction of the gas main, along the length of the building, in the general direction of the kitchen.
The pipe itself was cast iron, and badly rusted from being underneath the floorboards of the Inn for God knows how many years.
"Of course there's a gas leak." Keitaro growled. "Of course the pipes are old and need to be replaced. Dammit, Grandma, didn't you do any maintenance?"
Letting out an exasperated sigh, Keitaro looked around at where he had been working for the last week and a half.
"How the hell has this place not burned to the ground?" he asked aloud.
He got no answer, not that he was expecting one. Throwing his hands up in exasperation, he went to go and shut the gas off at the main before the place blew up.
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He ran into Motoko when he came back inside from turning off the gas, freshly scrubbed and her bathing supplies in her arms.
"Hey, Motoko." he said.
"Yes, Urashima?"
"When you were digging those holes, did you hit a pipe or smell gas?" he asked.
Motoko shook her head. "No." she answered. "Why do you ask?"
Keitaro pinched the bridge of his nose. "Must have just started then." he said to himself. "Anyways, I smelled gas when I was checking your work, and found the gas line to the kitchen right near the edge of where we have the floor tore out."
"I don't remember hitting a pipe, or being that close to the edge..." Motoko told him.
"As rusty as it was, it was probably only a matter of time before it sprung a leak." Keitaro told her with a grimace.
"Oh." Motoko said.
Keitaro nodded. "So, on the plus side, it looks like I caught it early enough. On the downside, Shinobu's going to be cooking over charcoal for the time being until I can get a contractor in here."
Motoko was surprised by his statement. "You're not going to do it yourself?" she asked.
Keitaro shook his head. "Not with gas lines." he said. "I want someone to check the main, too, given the amount of things I've had deal with from problems that have been left to fester for too long."
"That sounds like a wise idea." Motoko agreed.
"Thanks." Keitaro said. "I assume that you're done with the baths?"
"Yes." Motoko answered.
"Okay. Good." Keitaro said "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go give Shinobu a heads up, then I'm gonna scrub the grime off and try to forget about what's happened in the last thirty six hours."
With that, Keitaro stepped around her and headed off down the hall. Normally Motoko would have huffed in indignation at his brusqueness, but she let it slide because he had been having a rough couple of days.
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Shinobu's reaction to being told that she would have to cook over charcoal had been to nearly panic because she wouldn't be able to cook the courses she had planned in the time available but she improvised and came up with something different.
Keitaro hadn't minded, as far as he was concerned Shinobu was a fantastic cook and he would be happy to eat whatever she put in front of him. He'd ate far too much dodgy chow in Africa to ever complain about his meals and after eating his fill, now he was settling into the springs for a good soak and a couple of beers.
The faint rasp of wood on wood mixed with the slight rattle of taught rice paper told him someone was coming into the changing room.
"Who's there?" he called out.
"It's me." Kitsune's voice answered. "Damn, Keitaro, you're hard to sneak up on."
Keitaro smirked slightly with pride. "Being aware of your surroundings is how you stay alive in my business." he said as he head a clunk of a plastic tub being set on a bench.
"I suppose that's a good skill to have." Kitsune agreed, the first part of her sentence slightly muffled from what Keitaro figured was her taking her top off.
"You have no idea." Keitaro said, hearing the faint twang of elastic as she undid her bra. "And I'm a demo man, so I also keep my eyes open for little details too."
"Like what?" Kitsune asked, the faint jingle of her undid belt buckle mixing with the sound of a zipper being undone.
"Oh, little things. Disturbed dirt, a toy or some other random object laying right where it would catch your attention, the way a car is sitting, how someone is acting." Keitaro explained.
"How someone is acting?" Kitsune inquired.
"Think someone milling around, keeping an eye on you, has their phone in their hand that sort of thing." Keitaro elaborated.
"That sounds like perfectly normal behavior to me." Kitsune said as she walked into the baths wearing just a towel. "You'd probably see that on any street corner in Tokyo."
"That's true." Keitaro admitted. "But you've never had to deal with a command-detonated IED."
"Oh." Kitsune said as she stepped into the pool Keitaro was relaxing in and undid her towel.
Keitaro took a moment to leer at Kitsune as she sank down into the pool before continuing. "Yeah. After dealing with those, I get twitchy if someone has their phone out, especially if it's a prepaid."
Kitsune arched an eyebrow at him. "You were pretty specific there." she said. "Why prepaid?"
Keitaro took a drag on his cigarette. "Cheap and disposable. No contract, so if your trigger man gets captured or popped, they can't be traced all that well, and you're not out much in terms of materials. For a few hundred yen's worth of components and a little know how, you can wreak a surprising amount of havoc."
"That's frightening." Kitsune said. "It's that easy?"
Keitaro nodded. "If you know what you're doing, yeah." he confirmed. "Thankfully, those kind of people are kind of rare, but it's the gifted amateurs that you gotta worry about."
Kitsune snapped her fingers as she remembered something. "That reminds me." she said "We're gonna have to hold off on your "thank you" for the time being."
"How come?" Keitaro asked.
"Naru told me that she's got a big test coming up and that she would like to be able to study uninterrupted if at all possible." Kitsune told him.
"Ohhhh." Keitaro said. "I've been giving that some thought, and I think I have a solution."
"What's that?"
"That little guest house that's off a ways over there." Keitaro said pointing in the general direction of said guest house. "We could use that.'
"Ohhh that place." Kitsune said "I forgot all about that place. I had been meaning to ask your grandmother about it but never got around to it."
Keitaro nodded. "Yeah. I remember seeing it from when I was a kid, but I don't know the story behind it either." he said.
"Oh, well in that case, you want to meet out there later tonight?" Kitsune asked, mischief dancing in her eyes. "Help you unwind from all the stress you've been subjected to."
Keitaro grinned lecherously. "Sure." he said.
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End.