Disclaimer: On Chapter 1. Not gonna re-write it every time.

Love's Redemption: Chapter 3

Jake stepped into the dining area behind Keitaro, the sweet aroma of a hot meal tickling his nostrils. Directly in front of him was a large dining room table with eight chairs. There were seven place setting set out in front of them. The three women he'd just met took their seats at the table in such a manner that suggested to Jake they had some sort of assigned seating arrangements.

Jake noticed two other young women already seated at the table that he did not recognize. One had her face buried in some sort of textbook. Jake was unable to tell what she looked like, and moreover, since he still had not mastered kanji, he could not decipher what course of study she was reading. She had raven black hair down to her shoulder blades that was tied back in a tight ponytail. She had a plain white hand towel, immaculately folded in thirds, draped across her left shoulder. She appeared to be whispering the words aloud to herself, as if puzzled by the language of the text. Nevertheless, she did not remove her eyes from the pages, even as the shadows of the others passed before the pages she was absorbed into.

The other girl, obviously younger than her counterparts, made Jake's eyes weary just looking at her. She had a deep tan golden blonde hair and striking jade eyes, and Jake was disconcerted by her apparent inability to sit still. She constantly fidgeted in her seat, between putting her bare feet up on the table, turning sideways and leaning against the chair back, and leaning her elbows on the table, resting her head on her hands. Jake recognized she was at least a middle school student, being dressed in a simple school uniform consisting of a short-sleeved white blouse and a blue knee-length skirt. Her bright, alert eyes danced about as if she was trying to take the whole world into her brain's synapses all at once. However, she had somehow failed to notice a stranger's presence.

Keitaro leaned over to Jake and whispered, "Wait here, I'll get Shinobu and another place setting for you."

Jake nodded at Keitaro and shifted his weight to lean against the door jam. Keitaro moved off to the right side of the room and disappeared behind the door leading to the kitchen area. After several moments, another young girl entered the room, carrying some prepared food.

"That must be Shinobu," Jake noted to himself. Jake noticed how tall she was, or rather, how short she was. "She couldn't be any taller than four-ten in heels," he thought to himself. She had deep blue hair and eyes, and she wore an apron over her school uniform, as well as a sincere, innocent smile. "Tenshi…that word describes her perfectly," Jake thought, a smile creeping across his face.

All of the girls seated at the table, except the one buried in the textbook, whooped and hollered when Shinobu placed the food on the table. Shinobu then turned and exited back into the kitchen without looking in Jake's direction. Jake rolled his eyes at the realization that Keitaro hadn't even mentioned him to the cook yet.

"I'll just introduce myself then," he thought. As soon as he stepped forward and opened his mouth to speak, Keitaro reappeared from the portal to the kitchen.

"Everyone," Keitaro said, stretching his arms out to his sides, as if to embrace someone, "I'd like to introduce a friend of mine."

The fidgety girl suddenly stopped and looked at Keitaro, but the girl, spellbound by the textbook, merely ignored him. "Motoko-chan? Motoko-chan?" Keitaro repeated, waving his arms, trying to capture the girl's attention.

Kitsune held up one finger and started to count with her hand. A devilish grin passed over each of the girls' faces and Keitaro covered his ears with his hands. As soon as Kitsune reached three, all of the girls at the table belted out, "MOTOKO-CHAN!!!" Motoko literally flipped her book into the air and jumped in sheer horror and genuine surprise.

"What the hell?" Motoko said in intense annoyance. At once, all the girls seated at the table pointed at Keitaro. Motoko peered at Keitaro for a moment before grinning fiendishly at him, recalling his defeat in the sparring match earlier in the day. "Oh, you're back. I hadn't noticed," she said haughtily.

"N, now that I have everyone's attention, I'd like to introduce a friend of mine." Keitaro gestured in Jake's direction and Jake moved next to him, sheepishly waving hello. "Everyone, this is Jake Robertson. We met while I was studying in America with Seta-san!"

"We already know who he is, you fop," Naru replied in a huff, turning her head away in annoyance and folding her arms across her chest.

Keitaro snapped back, "Motoko-chan and Su-chan haven't! Besides, a formal introduction is more appropriate." Naru, confronted with surprisingly sound reasoning from the ronin, simply waved at Keitaro in a dismissive gesture for him to continue.

Keitaro placed a hand on Jake's shoulder and prodded him closer to the table, in the direction of the overactive blonde. "Jake, this is Kaolla Su." Jake waved at Su and nodded his head at her in recognition. Su smiled and waved back at him.

"Su-chan is our resident inventor and banana eater," Keitaro said.

"You forgot place kicker, Keitaro," Kitsune said with a grin.

"Ah, yes, Kitsune-san. She does have an…affinity for kicking things," Keitaro said as he nodded in Jake's direction.

Without missing a step, Kitsune replied, "No, just your head, Keitaro." Giggles rang out from the others seated at the table.

Keitaro changed gears, trying to keep the train on the track. He turned Jake in the direction of the raven-haired girl. "Jake, this is Motoko Aoyama."

Jake stretched across the table and extended his hand to Motoko in greeting. Motoko glanced at Jake's hand for a moment without moving. "What's her problem? I'm just offering a handshake. She should at least know about that western custom," Jake worried to himself.

Motoko finally reached out, albeit cautiously, and clasped Jake's hand in a firm handshake. Jake responded in kind by applying more pressure, but Motoko simply added more force whenever Jake squeezed harder. Before he realized what was happening, pain began shooting through his hand.

Jake finally broke the handshake before he either broke her hand or she broke his, saying, "You are quite strong. I like that. It's nice to meet you." Motoko adopted a look of disdain and harrumphed at him before plopping back into her seat.

A confused look passed over Jake's face and the room stood in an uncomfortable silence for a moment before Keitaro nervously said, "Well, Jake will be joining us…for breakfast today if you all don't mind."

Jake shot a glance at Keitaro who responded by nodding curtly at him. Kitsune slapped her hand on the butt-rest on the empty seat next to her and offered invitingly, "Here's a seat for you right here." Jake once again glanced at Keitaro, who nodded approvingly. Jake then took his seat between Kitsune and Mutsumi, who grinned at each other and giggled. Jake steeled his nerves for what was sure to be a very tense half-hour.

Shinobu, sans apron, reentered the room. She saw an unfamiliar face at the table and said, "Um, who is this?"

Keitaro whipped around and faced Shinobu. "Ah, Shinobu-chan. This is a friend of mine from America, Jake!"

Shinobu smiled politely at Jake and bowed deeply at the waist, saying in a sugary tone, "I'm Shinobu Maehara. It's nice to meet you, Jake." Jake stood and returned the deep bow with a smile.

"If you haven't noticed already, Jake," Keitaro said, "Shinobu is our head chef and chore lady."

Jake nodded as he turned his attention to Shinobu. "That's great that someone so young has such great talents."

Jake returned to his seat with Shinobu sitting directly across from him, her cheeks tinged with pink in embarrassment at his flattery. Motoko finally closed her book and placed it on the floor underneath her chair. Jake watched as all of the table's occupants brought their hands together and bowed their heads to pray. Jake, not wanting to appear ignorant to their eastern customs, followed suit.

All at once, and at the top of their voices, everyone at the table except Jake belted, "Itadakimasu!" Jake's surprise at the volume of the sound caused him to nearly jump out of his seat. They all chuckled at Jake's overreaction and began to serve themselves breakfast.

Everyone enjoyed a casual breakfast, excepting for Jake, who was being hounded by the flirts, Mutsumi and Kitsune. After about fifteen minutes, Kitsune, with her most sultry voice, finally asked the inevitable question, "So what brings you to our beautiful country?"

Jake paused for a moment; noticing how close Kitsune had leaned over to him he replied, "Um, maybe you should ask Keitaro." Mustumi and Kitsune shared a confused look with each other and turned to Keitaro. Mutsumi asked Keitaro, "Urashima-kun, Ja-kun says we should ask you why he's here?"

"Ja-kun?" Jake raised an eyebrow.

Keitaro thought, "Well, there's no sense holding out any longer. I'll just tell them and face the consequences." Keitaro stood up and boomed over the din, "Everyone, I have an announcement to make."

The conversation at the table slowly quieted and Keitaro waited until he had everyone's attention. "Jake is here for a specific reason beyond breakfast, and I hope this is okay with all of you."

Naru looked quizzically at Keitaro and asked, "What do you mean?"

Keitaro took a deep breath and said, "The thing is, after breaking my leg and missing a whole semester at Toudai, I've fallen behind Narusegawa in my studies. I'd like to try to catch up with her, but unfortunately, that means I need to take on more classes. In order for me to do this, I'll need to quit being your manager for a while. And I'd like Jake to take over the position for me while I'm catching up." Keitaro bowed deeply and said, "Please accept him as your new manager."

A tense moment of silence fell over the room and after a few seconds, Keitaro lifted his head and looked around at everyone's reaction. A look of shock is what he saw on each of the ladies' faces. Jake started to push himself away from the table slightly, ready to bolt any second.

Naru finally broke the tension, jumping to her feet and exclaiming, "What do you mean, you're quitting?"

"Narusegawa, we discussed this. I thought you wanted me to catch up to you so we'd graduate at the same time," Keitaro countered.

"Yeah, we talked about it for like 5 minutes! We didn't come to any sort of decision, though!" Naru barked back.

Keitaro shook his head vehemently. "I clearly remember you saying I should do what I want to do."

Naru shook her head right back. "No, Keitaro, I never said that. You must have been having another of your perverted dreams again."

Keitaro blushed furiously. A crooked grin crept upon his face. "Yeah, I guess you didn't after all."

Naru reached back with her right fist and yelled, "BAKA", slamming her fist into Keitaro face, sending him flying across the room, his body slamming against the opposing wall.

Motoko stood, grabbed her sword, still in its scabbard and pointed it at Jake, who was halfway to the door, yelling, "Explain yourself! Why are you here? Why do you want to manage an all girls dorm?"

Jake raised his hands and backed away, saying, "It's just like Keitaro said. I need a place to stay while I'm training."

Kitsune asked, "Training for what?"

Jake ran into the wall next to the door. He had two angry-looking females hovering over him. He stood much taller than even Motoko, but for some reason, they seemed to tower over him. "Well, I'm a baseball player, a pitcher actually, and I want to play professionally," he explained.

Shinobu, who looked the calmest of any of the young women, Su included, chimed in, "Why in Japan? You have your own professional teams in America."

While Jake was playing '20 questions', Keitaro recovered from the crushing Naru-punch, and looked up from his prone position to see the blurred form of Naru standing over him, glaring. Mutsumi stood right behind her, trying to pay attention to both conversations at once.

Naru screamed at him, "Damn it, you baka! What the hell are you trying to pull?"

Keitaro cringed at first, but he responded with uncharacteristic force. "I'm doing this for you, Narusegawa! I want to graduate with you so you aren't waiting for me for another year! Can't you tell?"

Naru gasped slightly, surprised by Keitaro's mushy, yet compellingly persuasive, response. However, she wasn't about to give up her argument so quickly. "How can we trust this man? He's a complete stranger to us!"

"Do you honestly think I would do anything to put any of you in danger, Narusegawa? Keitaro asked, pulling himself to his feet.

Naru played her trump card. "I don't know. Would you, you pervert?"

Keitaro gnashed his teeth at that word. However, he saw through the ruse. "You know me better than that, Narusegawa. Besides, would you rather me call Shirai or Haitani?"

Naru mentally snapped her fingers. She opened her mouth several times to retort, but she could not find a fitting retort. Keitaro, on the other hand, realized he had the upper hand. Not wasting the opportunity, he quickly went in for the kill. "Or maybe Kentaro?" he said, showing atypical daring.

Naru, now visibly sweating, turned to Mutsumi to bail her out of her quickly unraveling argument. However, Mutsumi was listening to the other conversation, wholly ignoring the two lovebirds. Realizing she was defeated, Naru slumped to her knees. "You win, Keitaro," she garbled, her head hanging.

Keitaro pulled his love to her feet. "It is not about winning or losing, Narusegawa, it is about doing what is best for everyone. I can't be expected to be the manager here forever. Besides, like I said, I'm doing this for you. I mean, for us."

Naru's eyes went misty for a moment. "I didn't realize you cared so much, Keitaro. I'm sorry I doubted you." She wrapped her arms around Keitaro in a tight embrace.

Keitaro ran his fingers through Naru's hair. "I love you, Narusegawa." Naru reciprocated Keitaro's professed love with a warm buss on the lips.

Naru released Keitaro and, gazing into his eyes, said, "We'd better save him before they rip him to shreds, eh?" Keitaro chuckled and nodded his approval.

The conflict on the other side of the room raged on. Jake explained himself as best he could. He told them how he signed up for an archaeology class as an elective course, where he met Keitaro and Seta. They both stayed with Jake, who happened to have previously learned Japanese as a part of his business major.

Su, observing to this point, spoke up. "So you graduated from college and tried out for some American teams, but they thought you sucked. A few weeks after, wallowing in your own misery, Keitaro called to see how you were doing. After explaining your situation, he told you he was thinking about stepping down as manager here, but he had no one he could trust to replace him. A few days later, Keitaro called you back and said Japan's pro baseball organizations were holding open tryouts in a few weeks and suggested you come to Japan. After telling him you could only afford a one-way ticket, he decided he'd give you a place to stay here, so long as you manage this place. Am I right so far?" Jake nodded at the girl, silently wishing she hadn't been so blunt.

Mutsumi, passively observing until this point, chimed in, saying, "This is somewhat strange, but it makes sense. If Kei-kun trusts him, I can too."

Keitaro, and Naru joined with Mutsumi and the others. Keitaro affirmed, "That's right, Mutsumi-san. I do trust him, wholeheartedly. I would never think of endangering any of you by leaving you with someone I did not trust completely."

Motoko placed her hands on her hips and scoffed, "Well, I don't trust him. How can we trust someone we don't even know?"

Naru jumped in, using Keitaro's argument, "Would you prefer Keitaro's…other friends?"

Motoko grimaced, unable to keep the horrible mental images at bay and found herself shaking her head. "Those two four-eyed lechers? No way!"

Naru leaned toward Motoko with a cockeyed grin. "And Kentaro?"

Kitsune laughed. "He would put the place out of business in two months, or turn the place into a harem."

Motoko shook her fist for a moment in sheer frustration before giving up. "So there really is no choice, after all."

After a moment of silence, Su chimed in again, "What about a vote?"

Motoko, sensing new life in her argument, swiftly spoke up, "Yes! A vote! A vote is the only fair way to decide!" Keitaro sighed deeply and relented. He owned the place. He did not need anyone to vote on his decisions. However, this option was superior to making Jake deal with a malicious Motoko for months on end.

Kitsune said, "Since I'm not living in the building anymore, I'll abstain from this vote."

Naru nodded and said, "That's fair. She can read the results neutrally."

Su snatched Jake's cap from off his head. "Hey, what gives?" Jake whined.

Su cheerfully responded, "We're gonna put the votes in here!"

Shinobu ran off and returned with some small sheets of paper and pencils. After reseating themselves at the table, each person, except Keitaro, Kitsune and Jake, cast their vote into the cap. Kitsune stood up pulled the first vote from the cap, and said, "Here we go."

"Yes," Kitsune said, reading out the first vote.

"Next one is," she said, fishing out another paper and unfolding it. "No." Jake tensed up with the vote 1-1.

His fears were soon allayed, however. "Yes…yes…yes. So it's 4-1."

Kitsune cast a flirtatious glance at Jake and cooed, "I guess you're in, cutie."

Motoko's heart sank as Jake's heart rose. Unable to argue any further, being soundly and fairly defeated, Motoko cried out in frustration and fled the room.

Keitaro chortled, "Talk about déjà vu all over again."

Jake, flabbergasted, asked, "What's her problem, anyway?"

Naru replied, "Don't worry about her. She just doesn't handle defeat well. Welcome, manager."

Jake's ears perked at the his new title and said, "Thanks. I'll do my best while I'm here. Hopefully my stay will be abbreviated."

The others stood and bowed to Jake, welcoming him to their home. Jake took exception to their formality. "Please, there's no need for formalities. I'm not much for such displays."

Mutsumi asked, "So, where should he stay?"

Kitsune grabbed Jake's arm and, looking right into his eyes, in her practiced sultry voice, said, "He can stay in my room."

Jake's jaw hit the floor for a moment until Keitaro shrieked, "You live in the teahouse! Whatever are you thinking? You don't need to seduce him for free rent!"

Kitsune giggled and said, "I mean my old room. Next to yours, Keitaro, remember?"

Everyone let out a relieved sigh at Kitsune's joke. Keitaro tasked Shinobu with showing Jake to his new room and, after waving goodbye to the dispersing crowd, followed Shinobu out into the front hallway.

Shinobu ran to the front door and started picking up Jake's belongings. Jake grinned at the girl's sincere thoughtfulness and said, "What you are doing? I can take those myself."

Before Shinobu could argue, Jake took his items away from her. "Th-thank you," Shinobu said.

"Please, Shinobu, relax. I already said I don't like people that are overly cordial." Shinobu instinctively bowed, asking for forgiveness. Jake laughed at her conditioned response. "I guess it can't be helped. Shall we?" Shinobu nodded and moved towards the stairs leading to the tenant's rooms.

Jake followed Shinobu upstairs, passing several rooms before she halted. Throwing one of the sliding doors open, Shinobu said, "Here you are. Take your time getting yourself situated."

After thanking Shinobu for her help, he entered his new apartment. "Not much here," he muttered. A small, unfurnished futon lay on the floor in the center of the room, a tiny end table and a small drawer being the only adornments of interest in the room. Regardless of the shabby attire, the room was clean and the bed inviting.

After a few minutes of unpacking his property, Jake heard footsteps approach and a sharp knock on his door. "Yes?"

The paper door slid open, revealing Keitaro, who was carrying some sheets and pillows. Handing the pile to Jake, Keitaro said, "I brought these for you, so you can get some sleep. We'll go over your duties after you've gotten some rest." Jake nodded to Keitaro, while stifling a yawn. "I'll let you be for now then. Good night." Keitaro let himself out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Jake, beginning to feel the full effects of jet lag, made the small bed with the makeshift sheet and blanket. "They don't match, but I hardly care right now," he thought.

Jake stripped out of his traveling clothes and lay down on the bed, his ankles hanging off the end. He chuckled, musing, "I'll definitely need a larger bed. They make these things way too small." He closed his eyes and, despite the cacophony of thoughts swarming his mind, swiftly drifted off to sleep.

Author's Note: Haha, two chapters in two days. How's that? Now, for the meat of the story...