Disclaimer: I own no part of Love Hina, but Sean is me.
Another 5 days, another chapter made.
Chapter XLVIII: Menace to Society
Thursday, 7/3 6:43 AM
Shinobu woke up with the sun that morning; it took a few moments to remember where she was. "Ah," she said as she stretched her limbs. "It's good to be home again. Not to mention sleeping in my own room for a change. As much as I love spending my nights with Sean, I do need some time to myself." She smiled as she recalled her memories of the vacation in Myrtle Beach; of her snuggled up close to her love every night. "Even so, my time alone won't last too long, of that I can be sure."
As she changed out of her pajamas and into her day clothes, her thoughts wandered to what she should make for breakfast--something she hasn't had to do in the last month. This caused her to smile once again, knowing that things were getting back to their regular routine.
Shinobu walked out into the hallway, stopping in front of Sean's door. "Hmm," she thought. "Should I? Hehe, why not?" Shinobu opened the door, intending to give him a wake up call, but ended up receiving one herself. Normally, in a situation like this, Shinobu would scream, making the others come running. However, here and now, she found herself unable to say anything. Maybe she was too much in shock; maybe, subconsciously, she didn't want the others to find out; that she could deal with this on her own. Whatever the reason was, instead of acting out, she merely closed the door and continued on her way. Before she made it to the kitchen, she ran into Motoko.
"Hello, Shinobu," Motoko said. Right away, she noticed the blank expression on the young girl's face. "Is something wrong?" Without a word, Shinobu glanced at Motoko and walked by, en route to the kitchen. "I wonder what's troubling her," Motoko couldn't help but think.
"I can't tell them anything," Shinobu thought as she entered the kitchen. "If any of them find out, there's no telling what they'd do to him." Tears started rolling down her cheeks. "This is a personal matter, and I have to deal with this myself."
--- 7:12 AM
As soon as Sean woke up, he was aware of an arm draped across his chest. He assumed it was Shinobu, but when he opened his eyes, he saw just how wrong he was. Laying face down next to him was none other than Mutsumi, but that wasn't all; she was naked as the day she was born. "What the hell is she doing here?" he thought. Visions started appearing in his mind, letting him know what he might have done in his sleep, but he quickly shook them loose. Since he was under the blanket, while Mutsumi was on top of it, he assumed nothing had happened, but the nagging doubt just wouldn't leave for some reason. Accompanying that was questions as to how she had gotten there in the first place, and there was only one way to find out.
"Hey, wake up," he whispered as he shook Mutsumi's shoulders. After a few moments, it was obvious that Mutsumi was a sound sleeper. "C'mon," he thought. "If anyone finds you in here like this, there's going to he hell to pay." If only he knew.
After another minute or so of shaking, Mutsumi finally stirred. She yawned as she flipped over onto her back. Through sleepy eyes, she saw Sean kneeling over her, a worried expression on his face. "Good morning," she said, her usual ditzy grin on her face. She made no effort whatsoever to cover herself up, which only served to make things that much worse for Sean. "Have you come to formally welcome me?"
"Uh, not exactly," Sean said, trying his darnedest not to look at her features.
Mutsumi looked around, not recognizing the room she was in. "Where am I?"
"My room."
"Why am I in here?"
"You tell me. You were in here when I woke up."
"Oh my," Mutsumi said, holding the back of her head. "I must have been sleepwalking again."
"This is just great," Sean said. "The others must be starting to wake up by now. How am I going to get you back to your room without them knowing? It's way on the other end of the house." Suddenly, it dawned on him. "There's only one sure-fire way."
"What are you going to do?" Mutsumi asked.
"This."
In an instant, Mutsumi found herself back in her own room. "Oh." In a once-in-a-lifetime event, the smile left her face and she went to pick out her clothes for the day without saying another word.
---
"Oh man," Sean said to himself, trying to gather his thoughts. "No matter how many times something like that happens, I can never get used to it. I can only hope nobody found her in here like that." The logic part of his brain kicked in; he figured that if somebody had walked in on them, he certainly wouldn't have been able to sleep through the scream that would have followed shortly thereafter. Having convinced himself of this, he got ready to face the day, though he couldn't have prepared himself for what would happen.
---
Naru and Motoko walked down the stairs; Motoko had already told Naru about Shinobu's sudden change in behavior. "Are you sure?" Naru asked.
"There's no mistaking it," Motoko said. "It would take a lot to suck the happiness out of her like that."
The two entered the dining room to find Shinobu there setting the table. "Hello, Shinobu," Motoko said. All Shinobu did in response is glance at them and head back to the kitchen. "See what I mean?" Motoko asked as she sat down at the table.
"Yeah," Naru said, following suit. "What could have done that to her?"
"Good morning," Kitsune said, entering the room.
"What's good about it?" Shinobu said from the kitchen.
"Damn, what got her panties in a bunch?" Kitsune asked.
"We don't know," Naru said.
"That's actually the first thing she's said all morning," Motoko added.
Shinobu reappeared moments later with some food. It looked as though nothing would get her to smile, but that wasn't going to stop anyone from trying.
"Shinobu, why are you so down this morning?" Naru asked.
"Yeah," Kitsune said. "Show us that smile. You know you want to."
Shinobu just ignored them. By that time, Suu had arrived and decided to try her hand. "C'mon," she said, wrapping her arms around Shinobu's neck as she walked back to the kitchen. "Don't be grumpy!"
Without a word, Shinobu turned around and looked Suu straight in the eye with a look the Suu interpreted as saying, "Let go of me or else I'll make you wish you were never born!"
Suu quickly removed her arms from around Shinobu and placed them behind her back. "Or you can be as grumpy as you wanna be," she said, laughing nervously as she went back to her seat. "I think we should leave her alone for a while." Naru, Motoko and Kitsune all nodded in agreement.
As Shinobu brought in the last of the food, Sean and Mutsumi showed up. "Mornin'," Sean said.
"Thank God you're here," Kitsune said. "Shinobu's been little miss cranky all morning. Maybe you can do something to cheer her up."
"Hmm?" Sean looked at Shinobu. She had fire in her eyes; and not in a good way. He couldn't tell if she was looking at himself or Mutsumi, but either way, he realized that his greatest fear might have just become a reality. "Today can't get much worse, can it?" he thought.
"Uh oh," Motoko thought upon seeing Sean's worried expression. "This must be really bad if Sean's scared of Shinobu right now."
Sean and Mutsumi sat down and everyone began eating, but only a couple minutes went by before Sean got up to leave. "Where are you going?" Naru asked. "You hardly touched your food."
"I'm not that hungry this morning," Sean simply said as he walked towards the stairs, but he wouldn't make It there.
"Sean?"
Sean flinched upon hearing that voice. "Yes, Mutsumi?" he said, keeping his back turned.
"Could you help me with something later on?"
"Pray tell, what?" Sean asked, not looking forward to the answer.
"I know it's still summer, but my grades weren't as good as I would have liked them to be, so I was wondering if you could help me out with some math problems."
The request sounded innocent enough, but the uncomfortable silence that followed told a very different story. After another minute or two, Sean finally had an answer. "Alright," he said with a sigh. "After you're done eating, get your books and come to my room. I'll see what I can do." If Sean had turned around, he would have seen Shinobu's eye start twitching almost violently. Unlike him, everyone else saw that the young girl was a mere stone's throw away from going stark raving mad, yet they still had no idea why.
"Hey," Keitaro said, entering moments after Sean had left. "Sorry I'm late. Did I miss anything?" As if he could've picked a worse day to sleep in a bit.
Breakfast that morning could not have been more awkward. Shinobu kept throwing angry glances at Mutsumi for one reason or another. When both Shinobu and Mutsumi finally left, a sigh of relief rang out among the others. "Okay," Keitaro said. "That was weird."
"You said it," Kitsune said. "Have any of you ever seen Shinobu like that? Ever?"
"Not really," Motoko said. "I mean, I've seen her upset before, but now, it looked more like she was infuriated."
"Yeah," Naru said. "She looked at Mutsumi and Sean like she wanted them dead or something. What could have gotten her so mad at them?"
"I can only think of one thing," Kitsune said. "But do we really want to go down that road?"
"We may have to," Motoko said. "You go see what information you can get from Sean. The rest of us will try and talk to Shinobu and Mutsumi."
"Can do," Kitsune said.
---
The morning wore on at a snail's pace. Sean and Mutsumi worked on math problems for hours on end. After a while, Sean started to get suspicious as to Mutsumi's true intentions, as she seemed to be familiar with the subject as is; she didn't appear to need his help at all. However, he never brought it up, since he didn't wish to clutter up his mind; it was messed up enough that morning already.
Meanwhile, the others searched Hinata-Sou from top to bottom, but found no trace of Shinobu. It was as if she had fallen off the face of the earth. Even when Motoko tried using her senses to track her down, the trail would only last a short while before growing cold, forcing her to start over from scratch. Eventually, they all gave up on trying to find her, figuring she needed to be alone to cool off or something.
As lunchtime neared, the blue-haired cook finally showed her face; outside of using a mask, she would have had to in order to make lunch. That meal would end up being as eerie as the last. There was no conversation whatsoever, and strange glances being thrown about the room. After what felt like an eternity, the meal was over and everyone went back to what they were doing before, but Sean decided to take a trip to the hot spring to, yet again, try to sort things out. However, he hadn't been successful up to that point, and the streak would continue, as Sean would get an unexpected visitor; one itching for answers.
--- 12:49 PM
"Some day this turned out to be," Sean thought as he sat in the water, his eyes shut tight. "I don't even want to think about what Shinobu thinks of me right now. I'm going to have to straighten things out with her pretty quickly. Then there's Mutsumi; what's her deal? I could tell she didn't need any help with her schoolwork, so why did she ask for it? On top of that, I kept having the feeling I was being watched. Why do I think this day's going to get worse before it gets better?"
"Hello, Sean."
That snapped Sean out of his thoughts, but he didn't open his eyes. "What do you want, Kitsune?"
"I just want to talk."
"I'm sure." Sean opened his eyes to find the fox lady sitting next to him. "If you wanna talk, let's talk."
"What's going on between you and Shinobu?"
"It's none of your concern."
"When two of my friends start acting that way, it becomes my concern. What did you do to make her so mad at you?"
"It's more like what she thinks I did."
"Does it have something to do with Mutsumi?"
"You can say that."
"Care to give any details?"
"This is something I have to take care of myself. Don't get involved."
While the two were talking in the hot spring, they were unaware of a certain someone watching them from the roof, binoculars in hand. "I wish I could read lips," Shinobu thought. "First Mutsumi, now Kitsune. What is he up to?"
"I finally found you," Suu suddenly said from the stairs, startling Shinobu a bit. "What are you looking at?"
Shinobu didn't want Suu to know that she was spying on Sean. Therefore, she quickly searched for anything that might be of interest. "Someone's moving into that apartment building over there."
"Really? Lemme see." Shinobu handed Suu the binoculars. Sure enough, there was a moving van there, and some men were carrying boxes of varying sizes inside.
"That should keep her preoccupied for a while," Shinobu thought, turning her attention back to the hot spring. Kitsune was still there, but Sean was nowhere to be seen. "Alright, now where did he go?" Shinobu ran back inside, where Sean just happened to be waiting for her.
"You refuse to speak to me, yet you watch my every move," Sean said as he leaned against the wall, his arms crossed. "What are you trying to prove?"
"I think you know exactly what's going on."
"I think you're misinformed. Come with me."
"He must be trying to clear his name," Shinobu thought as she followed Sean to his room where, much to her surprise, Mutsumi was waiting patiently for them. "Why is she here?"
"Mutsumi and I want to set the record straight," Sean said. "Nothing happened between me and her." Mutsumi nodded in agreement.
"Then how do you explain her being in your bed this morning?" Shinobu asked.
"I have a bit of a history of sleepwalking," Mutsumi said. "I could have come here overnight without realizing it."
"How do you expect me to believe that?"
"I have proof," Sean said.
"You do?" Shinobu asked.
"You do?" Mutsumi repeated. Sean went into his video vault and came out shortly thereafter, disk in hand. "What is that?"
"Surveillance from last night. This will show us what really happened."
Shinobu started to feel a bit better at this point. "Maybe I did jump to conclusions," she thought. "If he did what I had suspected, why would he show it to me?" Mutsumi was smiling as she always was, but this time, it seemed a bit forced.
Sean put the DVD in his laptop and the screen displayed the third floor hallway in the dead of night. The three watched on as a door opened and Mutsumi's head poked out. After checking to see if anyone else was around, she stepped out into the hall, exposing her naked body to the audience she didn't know she had at the time.
"Now," Sean said. "I'm no expert on the subject, but I seriously doubt people sleepwalk with their eyes open."
The camera followed Mutsumi as she went down a flight of stairs, constantly looking around, as if someone would find her out at any time. Stopping at Sean's door, she opened it as quietly as possible, so as not to wake him up. She tip-toed her way to where his sleeping form laid. For a few moments, she kneeled over him, as if debating whether or not to proceed further. Taking a risk, she stroked her hand gently against his cheek, snatching it away quickly when he stirred a bit, but after a few moments without waking up, she allowed herself a breath of relief. Gathering her courage once again, she laid herself down next to Sean, where she would soon fall asleep and the next morning, be discovered by both Sean and Shinobu.
"Well," Sean said, genuinely surprised. "I wasn't expecting that."
"At least I know Sean's innocent," Shinobu thought. "Mutsumi, why? Why did you sneak in here like that?"
Tears started to form in Mutsumi's eyes. "I… I…" Unable to contain herself any longer, she buried her face in Shinobu's chest. "I'm so sorry! I never meant to cause so much trouble for everyone!"
Shinobu was suddenly overcome with compassion. Who knew Mutsumi felt the way she did? "Ever since I met Sean," Mutsumi continued. "He just seemed to get cuter and cuter every time I saw him. It made me regret the choices I made. Throwing you away was the biggest mistake of my life; it didn't take me long to figure that out."
"Well," Sean said. "That explains why you snuck into my room last night and asking for my help with your schoolwork this morning when it was obvious you didn't need it."
"Yeah. I just wanted to be close to you in any way I could. I wasn't trying to split you two apart or anything, and I never intended on anyone finding out. I hope you can forgive me."
"Consider it done," Shinobu said.
"You mean it?"
"Of course," Sean said. "We all make mistakes; I should know. Besides, if you hadn't made that so-called mistake, Shinobu would no doubt be worse off than you are now. Speaking of which, I'm surprised at you."
"At me?" Shinobu said. "Why?"
"I would have thought that you'd be able to trust me just a little bit more than that. We've been together for about a year, and as far as temptation is concerned, I've gone through hell and back, yet I remained faithful. I'm not about to screw that up now!"
"I'm sorry," Shinobu said. "I don't know what came over me. I guess the thought of you and Mutsumi being together just beings out the worst in me."
"I promise I won't try anything like that ever again," Mutsumi said.
"You're not the only one who's felt that way towards me." Sean got up and crept toward the door, confusing the other two. "Kitsune and, for a while, Motoko have made some advances on me in the past. You think it's easy resisting them like I have to? I'm lucky not to be aroused 24 hours a day. If I was, I would have given in long ago and WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE RIGHT OUTSIDE MY DOOR?!"
The door opened to reveal Kitsune, Keitaro, Motoko and Naru. "How did you know we were out here?" Naru asked.
"You should know better than to be sneaky around me."
"Uh, sorry," Kitsune said. "But he is right, Mutsumi. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't have him. I've had to move on, and you have to do the same."
"I'll try," Mutsumi said. "Though it might be hard at first."
"Alright," Sean said. "I think we've had just about enough tension for one day. If you don't mind, I'd like some alone time with Shinobu."
"Of course," Motoko said. "Let's see if we can find Suu."
"Try the roof," Shinobu said. "That's where she was last time I saw her."
"Thanks." With that, the door closed, leaving the couple alone together.
"That sort of thing should never happen," Sean said, hugging Shinobu.
"You said it," Shinobu said, returning the embrace.
The movie continued to play, and Sean's voice could be heard. "Oh, Shinobu," the sleeping Sean said.
"Hmm?" Shinobu turned to look at the screen. "What going on there?"
"Even with all that went on, I was still dreaming about you."
"And what were we doing in your dream?"
"Um," Sean said, his face starting to turn red. "I don't remember."
"I think I know how I can make you remember," Shinobu said, an evil grin on her face. Moment's later, sounds of Sean laughing rang out form his room, caused by his girlfriend's tickle torture.
End of Chapter XLVIII
See you next time! Please R&R!
Another 5 days, another chapter made.
Chapter XLVIII: Menace to Society
Thursday, 7/3 6:43 AM
Shinobu woke up with the sun that morning; it took a few moments to remember where she was. "Ah," she said as she stretched her limbs. "It's good to be home again. Not to mention sleeping in my own room for a change. As much as I love spending my nights with Sean, I do need some time to myself." She smiled as she recalled her memories of the vacation in Myrtle Beach; of her snuggled up close to her love every night. "Even so, my time alone won't last too long, of that I can be sure."
As she changed out of her pajamas and into her day clothes, her thoughts wandered to what she should make for breakfast--something she hasn't had to do in the last month. This caused her to smile once again, knowing that things were getting back to their regular routine.
Shinobu walked out into the hallway, stopping in front of Sean's door. "Hmm," she thought. "Should I? Hehe, why not?" Shinobu opened the door, intending to give him a wake up call, but ended up receiving one herself. Normally, in a situation like this, Shinobu would scream, making the others come running. However, here and now, she found herself unable to say anything. Maybe she was too much in shock; maybe, subconsciously, she didn't want the others to find out; that she could deal with this on her own. Whatever the reason was, instead of acting out, she merely closed the door and continued on her way. Before she made it to the kitchen, she ran into Motoko.
"Hello, Shinobu," Motoko said. Right away, she noticed the blank expression on the young girl's face. "Is something wrong?" Without a word, Shinobu glanced at Motoko and walked by, en route to the kitchen. "I wonder what's troubling her," Motoko couldn't help but think.
"I can't tell them anything," Shinobu thought as she entered the kitchen. "If any of them find out, there's no telling what they'd do to him." Tears started rolling down her cheeks. "This is a personal matter, and I have to deal with this myself."
--- 7:12 AM
As soon as Sean woke up, he was aware of an arm draped across his chest. He assumed it was Shinobu, but when he opened his eyes, he saw just how wrong he was. Laying face down next to him was none other than Mutsumi, but that wasn't all; she was naked as the day she was born. "What the hell is she doing here?" he thought. Visions started appearing in his mind, letting him know what he might have done in his sleep, but he quickly shook them loose. Since he was under the blanket, while Mutsumi was on top of it, he assumed nothing had happened, but the nagging doubt just wouldn't leave for some reason. Accompanying that was questions as to how she had gotten there in the first place, and there was only one way to find out.
"Hey, wake up," he whispered as he shook Mutsumi's shoulders. After a few moments, it was obvious that Mutsumi was a sound sleeper. "C'mon," he thought. "If anyone finds you in here like this, there's going to he hell to pay." If only he knew.
After another minute or so of shaking, Mutsumi finally stirred. She yawned as she flipped over onto her back. Through sleepy eyes, she saw Sean kneeling over her, a worried expression on his face. "Good morning," she said, her usual ditzy grin on her face. She made no effort whatsoever to cover herself up, which only served to make things that much worse for Sean. "Have you come to formally welcome me?"
"Uh, not exactly," Sean said, trying his darnedest not to look at her features.
Mutsumi looked around, not recognizing the room she was in. "Where am I?"
"My room."
"Why am I in here?"
"You tell me. You were in here when I woke up."
"Oh my," Mutsumi said, holding the back of her head. "I must have been sleepwalking again."
"This is just great," Sean said. "The others must be starting to wake up by now. How am I going to get you back to your room without them knowing? It's way on the other end of the house." Suddenly, it dawned on him. "There's only one sure-fire way."
"What are you going to do?" Mutsumi asked.
"This."
In an instant, Mutsumi found herself back in her own room. "Oh." In a once-in-a-lifetime event, the smile left her face and she went to pick out her clothes for the day without saying another word.
---
"Oh man," Sean said to himself, trying to gather his thoughts. "No matter how many times something like that happens, I can never get used to it. I can only hope nobody found her in here like that." The logic part of his brain kicked in; he figured that if somebody had walked in on them, he certainly wouldn't have been able to sleep through the scream that would have followed shortly thereafter. Having convinced himself of this, he got ready to face the day, though he couldn't have prepared himself for what would happen.
---
Naru and Motoko walked down the stairs; Motoko had already told Naru about Shinobu's sudden change in behavior. "Are you sure?" Naru asked.
"There's no mistaking it," Motoko said. "It would take a lot to suck the happiness out of her like that."
The two entered the dining room to find Shinobu there setting the table. "Hello, Shinobu," Motoko said. All Shinobu did in response is glance at them and head back to the kitchen. "See what I mean?" Motoko asked as she sat down at the table.
"Yeah," Naru said, following suit. "What could have done that to her?"
"Good morning," Kitsune said, entering the room.
"What's good about it?" Shinobu said from the kitchen.
"Damn, what got her panties in a bunch?" Kitsune asked.
"We don't know," Naru said.
"That's actually the first thing she's said all morning," Motoko added.
Shinobu reappeared moments later with some food. It looked as though nothing would get her to smile, but that wasn't going to stop anyone from trying.
"Shinobu, why are you so down this morning?" Naru asked.
"Yeah," Kitsune said. "Show us that smile. You know you want to."
Shinobu just ignored them. By that time, Suu had arrived and decided to try her hand. "C'mon," she said, wrapping her arms around Shinobu's neck as she walked back to the kitchen. "Don't be grumpy!"
Without a word, Shinobu turned around and looked Suu straight in the eye with a look the Suu interpreted as saying, "Let go of me or else I'll make you wish you were never born!"
Suu quickly removed her arms from around Shinobu and placed them behind her back. "Or you can be as grumpy as you wanna be," she said, laughing nervously as she went back to her seat. "I think we should leave her alone for a while." Naru, Motoko and Kitsune all nodded in agreement.
As Shinobu brought in the last of the food, Sean and Mutsumi showed up. "Mornin'," Sean said.
"Thank God you're here," Kitsune said. "Shinobu's been little miss cranky all morning. Maybe you can do something to cheer her up."
"Hmm?" Sean looked at Shinobu. She had fire in her eyes; and not in a good way. He couldn't tell if she was looking at himself or Mutsumi, but either way, he realized that his greatest fear might have just become a reality. "Today can't get much worse, can it?" he thought.
"Uh oh," Motoko thought upon seeing Sean's worried expression. "This must be really bad if Sean's scared of Shinobu right now."
Sean and Mutsumi sat down and everyone began eating, but only a couple minutes went by before Sean got up to leave. "Where are you going?" Naru asked. "You hardly touched your food."
"I'm not that hungry this morning," Sean simply said as he walked towards the stairs, but he wouldn't make It there.
"Sean?"
Sean flinched upon hearing that voice. "Yes, Mutsumi?" he said, keeping his back turned.
"Could you help me with something later on?"
"Pray tell, what?" Sean asked, not looking forward to the answer.
"I know it's still summer, but my grades weren't as good as I would have liked them to be, so I was wondering if you could help me out with some math problems."
The request sounded innocent enough, but the uncomfortable silence that followed told a very different story. After another minute or two, Sean finally had an answer. "Alright," he said with a sigh. "After you're done eating, get your books and come to my room. I'll see what I can do." If Sean had turned around, he would have seen Shinobu's eye start twitching almost violently. Unlike him, everyone else saw that the young girl was a mere stone's throw away from going stark raving mad, yet they still had no idea why.
"Hey," Keitaro said, entering moments after Sean had left. "Sorry I'm late. Did I miss anything?" As if he could've picked a worse day to sleep in a bit.
Breakfast that morning could not have been more awkward. Shinobu kept throwing angry glances at Mutsumi for one reason or another. When both Shinobu and Mutsumi finally left, a sigh of relief rang out among the others. "Okay," Keitaro said. "That was weird."
"You said it," Kitsune said. "Have any of you ever seen Shinobu like that? Ever?"
"Not really," Motoko said. "I mean, I've seen her upset before, but now, it looked more like she was infuriated."
"Yeah," Naru said. "She looked at Mutsumi and Sean like she wanted them dead or something. What could have gotten her so mad at them?"
"I can only think of one thing," Kitsune said. "But do we really want to go down that road?"
"We may have to," Motoko said. "You go see what information you can get from Sean. The rest of us will try and talk to Shinobu and Mutsumi."
"Can do," Kitsune said.
---
The morning wore on at a snail's pace. Sean and Mutsumi worked on math problems for hours on end. After a while, Sean started to get suspicious as to Mutsumi's true intentions, as she seemed to be familiar with the subject as is; she didn't appear to need his help at all. However, he never brought it up, since he didn't wish to clutter up his mind; it was messed up enough that morning already.
Meanwhile, the others searched Hinata-Sou from top to bottom, but found no trace of Shinobu. It was as if she had fallen off the face of the earth. Even when Motoko tried using her senses to track her down, the trail would only last a short while before growing cold, forcing her to start over from scratch. Eventually, they all gave up on trying to find her, figuring she needed to be alone to cool off or something.
As lunchtime neared, the blue-haired cook finally showed her face; outside of using a mask, she would have had to in order to make lunch. That meal would end up being as eerie as the last. There was no conversation whatsoever, and strange glances being thrown about the room. After what felt like an eternity, the meal was over and everyone went back to what they were doing before, but Sean decided to take a trip to the hot spring to, yet again, try to sort things out. However, he hadn't been successful up to that point, and the streak would continue, as Sean would get an unexpected visitor; one itching for answers.
--- 12:49 PM
"Some day this turned out to be," Sean thought as he sat in the water, his eyes shut tight. "I don't even want to think about what Shinobu thinks of me right now. I'm going to have to straighten things out with her pretty quickly. Then there's Mutsumi; what's her deal? I could tell she didn't need any help with her schoolwork, so why did she ask for it? On top of that, I kept having the feeling I was being watched. Why do I think this day's going to get worse before it gets better?"
"Hello, Sean."
That snapped Sean out of his thoughts, but he didn't open his eyes. "What do you want, Kitsune?"
"I just want to talk."
"I'm sure." Sean opened his eyes to find the fox lady sitting next to him. "If you wanna talk, let's talk."
"What's going on between you and Shinobu?"
"It's none of your concern."
"When two of my friends start acting that way, it becomes my concern. What did you do to make her so mad at you?"
"It's more like what she thinks I did."
"Does it have something to do with Mutsumi?"
"You can say that."
"Care to give any details?"
"This is something I have to take care of myself. Don't get involved."
While the two were talking in the hot spring, they were unaware of a certain someone watching them from the roof, binoculars in hand. "I wish I could read lips," Shinobu thought. "First Mutsumi, now Kitsune. What is he up to?"
"I finally found you," Suu suddenly said from the stairs, startling Shinobu a bit. "What are you looking at?"
Shinobu didn't want Suu to know that she was spying on Sean. Therefore, she quickly searched for anything that might be of interest. "Someone's moving into that apartment building over there."
"Really? Lemme see." Shinobu handed Suu the binoculars. Sure enough, there was a moving van there, and some men were carrying boxes of varying sizes inside.
"That should keep her preoccupied for a while," Shinobu thought, turning her attention back to the hot spring. Kitsune was still there, but Sean was nowhere to be seen. "Alright, now where did he go?" Shinobu ran back inside, where Sean just happened to be waiting for her.
"You refuse to speak to me, yet you watch my every move," Sean said as he leaned against the wall, his arms crossed. "What are you trying to prove?"
"I think you know exactly what's going on."
"I think you're misinformed. Come with me."
"He must be trying to clear his name," Shinobu thought as she followed Sean to his room where, much to her surprise, Mutsumi was waiting patiently for them. "Why is she here?"
"Mutsumi and I want to set the record straight," Sean said. "Nothing happened between me and her." Mutsumi nodded in agreement.
"Then how do you explain her being in your bed this morning?" Shinobu asked.
"I have a bit of a history of sleepwalking," Mutsumi said. "I could have come here overnight without realizing it."
"How do you expect me to believe that?"
"I have proof," Sean said.
"You do?" Shinobu asked.
"You do?" Mutsumi repeated. Sean went into his video vault and came out shortly thereafter, disk in hand. "What is that?"
"Surveillance from last night. This will show us what really happened."
Shinobu started to feel a bit better at this point. "Maybe I did jump to conclusions," she thought. "If he did what I had suspected, why would he show it to me?" Mutsumi was smiling as she always was, but this time, it seemed a bit forced.
Sean put the DVD in his laptop and the screen displayed the third floor hallway in the dead of night. The three watched on as a door opened and Mutsumi's head poked out. After checking to see if anyone else was around, she stepped out into the hall, exposing her naked body to the audience she didn't know she had at the time.
"Now," Sean said. "I'm no expert on the subject, but I seriously doubt people sleepwalk with their eyes open."
The camera followed Mutsumi as she went down a flight of stairs, constantly looking around, as if someone would find her out at any time. Stopping at Sean's door, she opened it as quietly as possible, so as not to wake him up. She tip-toed her way to where his sleeping form laid. For a few moments, she kneeled over him, as if debating whether or not to proceed further. Taking a risk, she stroked her hand gently against his cheek, snatching it away quickly when he stirred a bit, but after a few moments without waking up, she allowed herself a breath of relief. Gathering her courage once again, she laid herself down next to Sean, where she would soon fall asleep and the next morning, be discovered by both Sean and Shinobu.
"Well," Sean said, genuinely surprised. "I wasn't expecting that."
"At least I know Sean's innocent," Shinobu thought. "Mutsumi, why? Why did you sneak in here like that?"
Tears started to form in Mutsumi's eyes. "I… I…" Unable to contain herself any longer, she buried her face in Shinobu's chest. "I'm so sorry! I never meant to cause so much trouble for everyone!"
Shinobu was suddenly overcome with compassion. Who knew Mutsumi felt the way she did? "Ever since I met Sean," Mutsumi continued. "He just seemed to get cuter and cuter every time I saw him. It made me regret the choices I made. Throwing you away was the biggest mistake of my life; it didn't take me long to figure that out."
"Well," Sean said. "That explains why you snuck into my room last night and asking for my help with your schoolwork this morning when it was obvious you didn't need it."
"Yeah. I just wanted to be close to you in any way I could. I wasn't trying to split you two apart or anything, and I never intended on anyone finding out. I hope you can forgive me."
"Consider it done," Shinobu said.
"You mean it?"
"Of course," Sean said. "We all make mistakes; I should know. Besides, if you hadn't made that so-called mistake, Shinobu would no doubt be worse off than you are now. Speaking of which, I'm surprised at you."
"At me?" Shinobu said. "Why?"
"I would have thought that you'd be able to trust me just a little bit more than that. We've been together for about a year, and as far as temptation is concerned, I've gone through hell and back, yet I remained faithful. I'm not about to screw that up now!"
"I'm sorry," Shinobu said. "I don't know what came over me. I guess the thought of you and Mutsumi being together just beings out the worst in me."
"I promise I won't try anything like that ever again," Mutsumi said.
"You're not the only one who's felt that way towards me." Sean got up and crept toward the door, confusing the other two. "Kitsune and, for a while, Motoko have made some advances on me in the past. You think it's easy resisting them like I have to? I'm lucky not to be aroused 24 hours a day. If I was, I would have given in long ago and WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE RIGHT OUTSIDE MY DOOR?!"
The door opened to reveal Kitsune, Keitaro, Motoko and Naru. "How did you know we were out here?" Naru asked.
"You should know better than to be sneaky around me."
"Uh, sorry," Kitsune said. "But he is right, Mutsumi. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't have him. I've had to move on, and you have to do the same."
"I'll try," Mutsumi said. "Though it might be hard at first."
"Alright," Sean said. "I think we've had just about enough tension for one day. If you don't mind, I'd like some alone time with Shinobu."
"Of course," Motoko said. "Let's see if we can find Suu."
"Try the roof," Shinobu said. "That's where she was last time I saw her."
"Thanks." With that, the door closed, leaving the couple alone together.
"That sort of thing should never happen," Sean said, hugging Shinobu.
"You said it," Shinobu said, returning the embrace.
The movie continued to play, and Sean's voice could be heard. "Oh, Shinobu," the sleeping Sean said.
"Hmm?" Shinobu turned to look at the screen. "What going on there?"
"Even with all that went on, I was still dreaming about you."
"And what were we doing in your dream?"
"Um," Sean said, his face starting to turn red. "I don't remember."
"I think I know how I can make you remember," Shinobu said, an evil grin on her face. Moment's later, sounds of Sean laughing rang out form his room, caused by his girlfriend's tickle torture.
End of Chapter XLVIII
See you next time! Please R&R!