Disclaimer: I own no part of LH.
And now for something completely different. This will be my first attempt of a chapter done completely in the first person. Also, at least for this chapter, I will be implementing a new system for discerning which gender I am at any given time.
Chapter LXV: A Day in the Life
In this world of ours, most people can be classified into two distinct groups. Those in group A tend to sit on the sidelines and let life pass them by. While this group does include users and abusers of such drugs as cocaine or marijuana, just to name two, there are also those who believe that their lives are inconsequential; that nothing they do will ever matter. Of course, as long as they think this way, they are often proved right.
On the other hand, Group B grabs life by the horns and refuses to let go. Whenever they want something, they are willing to go to great lengths and face many risks to get it. They hold a great entrepreneurial spirit within, and are responsible for most of the modern advances we tend to take for granted.
My name is Mitsune "Kitsune" Konno, a proud member of Group B, and this is my life.
--- Thursday, 11/4 7:15 AM
No matter where you are in the world, the sun poking up over the eastern horizon always means the start of a new day. One might say it's like clockwork. The whole process is perfectly ordinary. For the record, I hate ordinary. I couldn't tell you exactly why, but a ho-hum existence just gets under my skin. Maybe that's why I never feel like leaving Hinata-Sou, even though I could get a place where I wouldn't have to pay rent. After all, there is usually something interesting going on in any given day, and if there isn't, I can easily change that. This day would be no different.
Slowly but surely, the early morning sunlight crept into my room and made its way through my eyelids, acting as a makeshift alarm clock. Even though I was somewhat awake and equally somewhat aware of the time, I felt no earthly desire to get out of bed just yet--we've all been there, I'm sure.
While the sun would fail to get me up and around, the knock at my door soon after would not. "Yeah?" I called out, still having not moved a muscle.
"Breakfast is ready."
"Alright." As soon as I recognized Shinobu's cheerful voice, any trace of drowsiness I had left was gone in an instant. I swear, if there was ever a perfect reason to get out of bed in the morning, that would be it. Some people might see that as odd, but those people have never tried Shinobu's cooking.
Without any further hesitation, I got out of bed and got dressed. I think it's safe to say that I'm more of a morning person now than I have been in years, something I attribute to me taking control over my drinking habits. Granted, I still have some sake every now and again, but nowhere near as much as I used to. Believe me, after experiencing a life without all those hangovers, I don't want to go back.
After making myself more presentable, I headed for the dining room, where everyone else had already gathered for breakfast… well, almost everyone. A couple weeks after their wedding, Keitaro and Naru left for their honeymoon, from which they have yet to return. The only person who knows exactly where they are is Sean. Despite my efforts, I wasn't able to glean the information from him.
"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Shinobu asked. I guess I must have looked a bit out of sorts or something.
"You met me halfway," I answered as I took my usual seat at the table. Glancing around, I can't help but think of how everyone has changed over the years. Aside from maybe Shinobu, I would say that Suu has changed the most. When I first met the foreigner, "wild child" did not do her justice--the back pains I've had to suffer are testament to that. It took a while, but she eventually mellowed as she matured. The most glaring example of this is her eating habits. Granted, her portions are still as big as they ever were, but she no longer devours her food like a ravenous beast. Then again, at times like this, adolescence is only half the story.
"So, had you decided on something yet?" Sean (♂) asked out of the blue.
And that would be the other half. Last night, Suu announced that she had been assigned a science project at school. Naturally, this was a red flag to everyone in the room.
"Why?" Suu asked back. "Were you planning on helping me?"
"Somehow, I don't think that's allowed," Sean said. "I just wanted to watch genius at work." If I didn't know better, I would have thought I just saw Suu blush at that comment. "Plus, it might give me inspiration." As if he needed any more of that.
"I haven't settled on any one thing yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I do," Suu said.
As breakfast wore on, everyone engaged in various bits of small talk, if only to keep the morning meal from being an utterly silent one. Afterwards, we all went to what is easily one of my favorite places: the hot spring. While in those waters, all of your worries just seem to melt away. Naturally, everyone else who lives here enjoys its relaxing powers as well.
I sink into my own little world so quickly, so deeply, I almost didn't notice the door to the changing room open and Shinobu and Sean (♀) come out--only the dirty dishes kept them from showing up sooner.
With an arm around the other's waist, the couple made their way to the far end of the spring. Even through the ever-present mist, I could easily see them start making out. This is by no means the first time this has taken place; in fact, the only thing stopping them from continuing it elsewhere would be the coming school day.
Between those two, there is absolutely no concept of the term "quickie." When they make love, they are in it for the long haul. From what I can gather, they usually don't stop until at least one of them either falls asleep or passes out. In all honesty, I don't know which is worse: the fact that, of all people, Shinobu has a better sex life than I do, or that I'm actually jealous of it.
When I take my eyes away from the scene before me (mostly to keep my mind off that particular subject), I notice that Motoko and Suu are both taking it all in stride. On the other hand, Mutsumi seemed almost compelled to watch, all the while fidgeting and otherwise showing signs of discomfort.
This is just the most recent clue that something is seriously wrong with the ditzy girl. From the day she first moved in, she has shown herself to be a very casual young woman with few concerns. She is also someone who is very comfortable in her own skin; the occasions where she had "forgotten" to wear more than a towel (sometimes less) after bathing is proof enough of that. Lately though, she has become more modest. It has even come to the point where she covers up while in the hot spring. Even now, she appears a tad too protective of that towel wrapped around her.
Despite all that, which might have been enough of a cause for concern on its own, there is one more thing that needs to be brought up. While at first glance, her cheerful demeanor seems unchanged, her smile appears more and more artificial over the last few months. So far, the subject has not been brought up in conversation. The way I see it, either I'm the only one who has taken note of this development or the others are simply waiting for Mutsumi to say something first.
Eventually, everyone--some more reluctantly than others--got out, dried off and prepared themselves for school. For me, watching them all head out brings about images of a similar scene with a mother and her children. You have no idea just how old that makes me feel.
Normally, I have my job writing articles for the newspaper to keep me occupied during school hours; a period of time that has bored me to tears more than once. However, roughly once or twice a month, my list of assignments is empty, forcing me to find some other diversion. Naturally, I wouldn't be saying this if today wasn't one of those days.
Some time ago, on another such free day, I was channel surfing when I came across one of those American soap operas. (How Sean managed to get American channels at all is anybody's guess.) For the heck of it, I started watching it; I've been a fan of them ever since.
At some point during "The Young and the Restless," Sean (♀) passed by, broom in hand in what I assume to be one of the later stages of his cleaning routine. He was humming along to some song playing in his earphones--one I didn't immediately recognize--and wore an ordinary t-shirt and sweatpants like he always does, regardless of which gender he assumes.
As Sean went along his merry way, something caught my eye; something that sparked an idea in my head. Once he had his back turned, I got off the couch, snuck up behind him and, without warning, fondled his breasts. I tell you, the sound he made was priceless; any attempt to describe it would not do it justice.
"I see you're not wearing a bra," I say, confirming something I had already figured out. I briefly considered reaching down to check for panties, but before I got the chance, he reached around and felt me up right back.
"And neither are you," Sean said, pointing out my own hypocrisy, though I would never acknowledge it. Having satisfied my appetite for mischief (at least for now), I released my grasp. As I did so, he turned around and whispered into my ear, "Besides, you should see what I wear when you're not here."
Having successfully implanted that burning question into my mind, he continued on, singing along to his music. This time, I did recognize the song; it was one about a woman who habitually bet on horse races. (A/N: For those who absolutely have to know, it's "Another Horsedreamer's Blues" by Counting Brows.)
Regardless of whether it was a coincidence or not, I felt the need to make him stop. "So, you gonna play video games today?" I ask.
"Nah," Sean said. "I think I'll continue my space project."
"You're still working on that?" Sean's been trying to unravel the mystery of space travel for at least a year now. Frankly, I don't see what's so complicated about it, but what do I know?
"I'm close to a breakthrough, I'm sure of it," Sean said. I can only imagine how many times he's told himself that.
As Sean proceeded to bend the laws of physics once again, I went back to watching television. From there, time seemed almost to go by in a blur. Before I knew it, the resident students started coming home. First to arrive, as usual, was Mutsumi, who had surprisingly little to say when she did.
The three high school students--Shinobu, Suu and Motoko--all showed at the same time. It kinda makes sense if you think about it. "Hey guys. Welcome home."
Motoko replied with a simple nod, while Suu seemed to have her head in the clouds, but it was Shinobu who got my attention. Only stopping long enough to remove her shoes, she skipped off towards the stairs, giggling all the while. The grin on her face was unmistakable; it can only mean one thing, and its part of a short list of things that can tear Sean away from his work. In turn, that leads to one inevitable conclusion…
"Where are you going?" Motoko asked.
"To get something to eat," I answer. "After all, dinner's going to be postponed."
Call it woman's intuition, call it a keen, observing eye, but I would soon be proven right. Even though, the evening meal would be delayed by about an hour, it was well worth the wait, as is usually the case when it comes to Shinobu's cooking.
Dinner came and went in the usual fashion; with everyone telling the events of the day. While I am certainly not exempt from this, there are obviously those things I'd rather not share. The only one not present was Sean, presumably for reasons I have already mentioned.
When everyone had eaten their fill, we all went to our respective rooms for the evening, but if you think this means the day's over, you're sadly mistaken. On the contrary, some of the most interesting things wait until after nightfall.
Once Shinobu officially came of age, both figuratively and literally, I backed off and let her love Sean both in mind and in body like I promised I would way back when. You may ask why I have kept my end of the deal all this time, but the answer in simple: I may be devious, I may be sneaky, I may even be a con artist at times, but I never skimp on my agreements, especially ones involving so much.
Having resigned to fending for myself from that point on, I decided to check out the dating scene. While most of the guys I flirted with seemed interested, it was only in one thing--and it wasn't my personality. While I may be a maturing woman with certain needs, I am looking for a boyfriend first and a lover second. In all my life, I have pursued a wholly physical relationship with only one man--and he's probably the only guy I could do that with and not feel like a whore.
While I was certainly willing for a relationship to eventually turn sexual, I wasn't about to give it up on the first date. However, it soon became apparent that none of the guys I was meeting had that kind of patience, so whenever I had an itch to scratch I found myself practicing self-love.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying masturbation is a bad thing, it's just that once I got a taste of the good life with Sean, it just isn't the same. You might say, I have grown to prefer duets over solos--and I know damn well I'm not the only one.
Every so often (usually when I'm in a certain mood) I think about asking Sean for one "last" romp in the sheets as a personal favor, if not for old times' sake. Most of the time, thoughts are all they are--and brief ones at that. This is mostly because of what Shinobu might do to me when she finds out about it. This night however, I must have felt really gutsy, even for me, since I decided to go forward with that very idea, consequences be damned.
I guess it was some time around 10:30 when I left my room and casually made my way down the hall to Sean's. Once there, I lightly knocked on the door; no sense in waking up the rest of the dorm, right? A few moments went by and I was about to knock again when the door opened, revealing a tired Shinobu.
"Yeah?" I couldn't tell whether I had woken her up or simply kept her from falling asleep. Either way, I'm glad she's a naturally polite person or else she would probably be telling me off right about now.
"Could I have a word with Sean?" I ask.
"He's up on the roof," she answered.
"Alright," I say. "Sorry for disturbing you." Shinobu muttered something before closing the door, but it was so low I couldn't tell what it was.
As I made my way to the roof platform, I couldn't help but wonder what he could be doing. When I actually got up there, any guesses I had made were shot to pieces--as were my plans for the night.
While Sean is by no means a short man, he was easily dwarfed by what he was working on, a semi-transparent sphere that was easily 3 meters across. Inside of it was some pale, swirling substance that I could never hope to identify.
"Wow." Apparently, I had said that out loud, as he turned his head in my direction.
"Hey, Kitsune," he said. "What brings you up here at this time of night?"
"I was going to ask you that," I say. "What in the world is that?"
"This," he said, motioning to the large orb next to him, "is what I hope to be the final version of the space capsule I've been working on."
"Took you long enough," I say without thinking.
"Don't knock it 'till you tried it," he said. "The number of barriers and force fields in this thing is insane. Inside is an assortment of sensors constantly keeping track of barometric pressure, air content, temperature, various radiation levels and a couple other things you wouldn't understand even if I took the time to explain them to you."
Sean took a breath after that longwinded description, but that didn't mean he was done. "The way I see it, if I can get this capsule to the moon and back without anything going red line, I will deem it as fit for human transport."
"And how long would that take?" I ask with one last ray of hope.
"I'm not sure," Sean said. "It should be at least a couple hours." He looked up toward the moon. "Makes me glad I had that nap this afternoon." Despite myself, I rolled my eyes at that comment.
Considering how rare it is that I am able to observe one of Sean's experiments firsthand, I decide to stick around and watch. Taking a seat next to his creation, he took a long blink, after which his eyes started glowing the same color as the inside of the capsule. Apparently, there's a camera somewhere in all that mess. The view he'll be seeing pretty soon should be something else.
I am so mesmerized by the sight before me that I'm caught completely off guard when the sphere vanishes into thin air. "Where did it go?" I ask.
"Nowhere yet," Sean said. "Consider this: What do you think would happen if, by some chance, somebody happened to be looking through their telescope and catch sight of it?"
"The scientific community would be in an uproar," I respond, having put all the pieces together. "Therefore, you turn is invisible to eliminate that risk."
"Exactly, but there's more to it than that," Sean explained. "To make sure I had all my bases covered, I have rendered it imperceptible throughout the entire light spectrum. You have no idea how long it took me to figure that one out. In theory, only people with ki sense like Motoko and Jimmy would even know it's there."
"On that note, I'm surprised Motoko hasn't come up here to investigate what you're doing," I say.
"Don't be," Sean said. "I already informed her of my activities. Besides, even she wouldn't be able to track my capsule after I sent it into space."
"So, if this works, what's next for the great wizard?"
"Training," Sean simply said. "It'll take a lot of it if I plan to hit light speed any time soon."
I wonder if he will ever run out of experiments. Somehow, I doubt it. "Light speed, huh? Well, good luck with that. So, when's liftoff?"
"About thirty seconds ago," Sean said.
"Oh. I'll leave you to it, then." I could have easily waited until Sean was done and proposed my idea then, but I decided against it. No amount of sex is worth going through that much boredom.
And so, I headed back to my room with the intention of getting to sleep before my hormones started making demands. I barely got two steps past the doorway when the most unearthly wailing you ever heard came from above my head. I knew the layout of the dorm well enough to know the only possible source of the noise: the inner sanctum of one Mutsumi Otohime.
It would be right around that time that I became officially fed up. If nobody else was going to help her get through whatever personal problem she's got, then it would be up to me to do it, whether she wanted the help or not.
I wasted no time in getting to the banshee's room, but when I opened the door, all thoughts of shock therapy went right out the window. There she was, laying naked on her futon, one hand between her legs (which were facing away from me, so I couldn't see much else) and the other was squeezing one of her large breasts. All in all, she was masturbating like the world was going to end. Also, from the way she was crying out, I could tell she wasn't entirely enjoying it. In fact, it sounded more like she was in pain.
For one reason or another, I could only stand there and watch. From all the noise she was making, I was glad that Naru was still on her honeymoon or else she would have thrown a fit by now. I can only hope nobody else could hear it, especially with me holding the door open.
After Mutsumi eventually reached her peak--one accompanied by a primal grunt that made me cringe--she fell still, her labored breathing the only thing breaking the sudden silence.
Driven more by curiosity than anything else, I stepped into the room to get a closer look at what I'm up against. Even when I knelt down right next to her, Mutsumi seemed oblivious to my presence, her eyes closed and her mind no doubt occupied by whatever dark thoughts she may be harboring.
I would not have to examine her for long to figure out why she had become so modest lately, but it did little to ease the shock of what I saw. Mutsumi's nether regions were a deep red and swollen, while there were hand-shaped marks on both of her breasts. I might have asked her who had abused her so harshly, but I had a sinking feeling I just witnessed the answer.
After a couple minutes, Mutsumi became regained her senses. The moment she saw me hovering over her, she freaked and turned her back to me. "D-Don't look at me," she half-sobbed.
"It's a bit late for that," I muttered. "What I want to know is why are you doing this to yourself?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Mutsumi said.
"Look," I said, placing a hand on her shoulder, making her flinch. It's not often that you see someone with such frayed nerves. "I want to help you, but I can't do that unless you tell me what's going on."
"I don't want to bother you with my problems," Mutsumi said.
For the second time in so many minutes, I had had just about enough. I spun her around and gave her a good slap in the face. "Damn it, I am not going to be a part of your stupid pity party. Now, either you're going to tell me what the hell is wrong with you or tomorrow morning, I'll tell everyone what I saw you doing. Trust me, we will not drop the subject until you talk."
For a while, Mutsumi looked like a deer in headlights, but then relented and told her tale, which sounded eerily similar to my own dating issues. The main difference was that she has had to deal with it for over twice as long.
That's when it hit me. If things stayed the way they were, I could very well be looking at my own future. Something had to be done, both to end Mutsumi's misery and prevent my own.
Considering my sharp mind, it did not take long for a possible solution to come to the surface--and I wasted no time in sharing it. I explained that a major part of our mutual problem was that we more or less forced ourselves into solitary confinement at night--something that could easily be rectified by the two of us keeping each other company, which can also come in handy when one of us is feeling horny.
Despite the nature of my past relations with Sean, I don't see myself as a lesbian and I can only assume that Mutsumi would say the same, but she agreed to my proposal whole-heartedly and without hesitation. This probably has something to do with how desperate her situation had become. That night, both of us would have the best night's sleep in recent memory. I had considered making a move or two, but I figured it would do more harm than good. Besides, after what Mutsumi's been through, my own needs can wait… at least for now.
End of Chaper LXV
I admit, this is not my best work, but I'm sure there's worse stuff out there. Please R&R!