Life After Molmol, Book Two : Making Your Way

by Gojirob

The Hinata-Sou's residents are united as never before. Their goals are Tokyo U, fixing things up, and being there for each other. But romances and exhaustion join with potential tragedies past and present to make sure things never get dull for our gang.

8. Chapter Seven Love American Style

Chapter Seven - Love, American Style!

Author's note : Like last chapter, this chapter's opener features a cross-over with plot elements of one of my other story series, also posted on . Hopefully, I don't lose you. Thanks!

December 28th, 1954

The smoke choked off all hints of light, and would have even if there had been power to run lights. The roar of the beast echoed through the darkness as it waded through buildings made of stone and steel as easily as it had through water. Awa Urashima felt his lungs sear from the heat some said emanated from the creature's giant throat. He cared about only one thing.

"HINATA!"

All around him, people ran, though whether for their lives or just out of blind panic, he couldn't say.

"I should never have left her."

But this had been her order, hadn't it? Report to the Chief Administrator that the veterans' hospital had been successfully evacuated, and that the charges they loved so well safe-or as safe as anyone could be, in what had been the proud city of Tokyo.

"I Thank You, Urashima-San. Now go and find your wife. That is my order."

But so far, it had been an order he could not fulfill, though it was something he wanted more than anything he had ever wanted, even to the glory-filled death he once believed was his due. From behind him, the wind quickly swept him over the edge of a piece of raised roadway that no longer met its other side. As he dangled, he prayed.

"I know forgiveness will never be for me. But if I fall, even with how I heal, I will be unable to find her, perhaps until after that thing does. Don't punish her for my stupidity. Please! It isn't fair."

Awa Urashima was a man who needed a hand up, and that was exactly what he got. The hand belonged to a tall, lanky American-who somehow looked more American than any American he had ever seen.

"Let's back away from that ledge, fella. You all right?"

"I am. I thank you for aiding me. But I must find my wife."

"Now, ease up, you. You're almost shaking apart on me, here. Believe me, no matter how bad things get, falling apart is no more an option than giving up. You go and you find that little lady, and you take her and you kiss her. You tell yourself, you're not looking for a body, you're looking for that feisty number you fell for, who's gonna ride you for wearing that shirt or something. And that's how you know you love her, okay?"

Urashima envied this man his ebullience in the midst of all they saw.

"You should be a preacher."

The man chuckled.

"Now there's a laugh. No, all I do is a head up a rinky dink savings-and-loan back home. Now you okay, pal? Because my Missus and I are kind of on the run from-well, whatever in blazes that thing out there is."

"I am fine now, Mister-?"

"Oh, that's rude of me. My name is George-George Bailey. Good luck to you and Missus-?"

"Urashima. I am perhaps the unluckiest man you will ever meet, save for her presence in my life."

"You're unlucky? Heck, Friend-I've only put off taking this world tour my whole life, and now look at us!"

Bailey left to rejoin his wife, and somehow Urashima was not worried for them. As his dash around the ruins kept on, he heard a small voice-not his Hinata.

"Onii-Chan, my hand is burned. Please take me to see a Doctor?"

It was a little girl, and her right hand was indeed badly scarred.

"What sort of fire did this?"

"My Mama and Papa held my hand under running sink water as punishment for not learning my lessons well at school today. But there is something wrong with the water. Even in the dark, it gave off a light. Mama and Papa drank the water-but now they will not wake up."

Urashima held the tiny figure close, and began to look for anyone that looked official. One woman yelled from a distance.

"Hey, if that kid needs aid, the Americans have set up a medical camp down by the dock's edge! About two miles south of here!"

She was gone too fast to thank, or to explain why the Americans were there as medics but not as combatants. In fact, this was part of a major international diplomatic conflict, as various countries, allied and otherwise, tried to use this disaster to punish Japan for the pain and suffering of so many a decade ago. The end result was that US Destroyers were in Tokyo Bay, but boots on the ground and wings in the air was out of the question-for all the good they would have done, and that was not much. Again, Urashima knew or cared nothing of such weighty matters. He wanted to get the little girl some help, and he wanted to find his wife. That was all.

"Hey, you? That kid need help?"

The man asking had a Mediterranean look about him, and a large prominent nose.

"She said that her hand was soaked in poisoned water-I think it may be radioactive, from the monster's residue."

The large-nosed man looked about and settled his sights on a bald man.

"Hey, Doc? I think it may be radiation burns."

The doctor bid Urashima put the girl down on a table once meant for eating on.

"Let me be the judge of that, Max. Oh-God. Max-a sedative. Dilute it heavily."

"Diluted. That's about the only kind we got, Doctor Winchester."

"Well, that works out then, doesn't it? Sir, are you her father?"

Urashima felt he knew what was coming.

"No. I merely found her. She no longer has parents."

"I see. Klinger-pour some ether on your shirtsleeve. Have her breathe it in. Sir-please do me the great favor of holding this precious poppet's-other hand. Forgive me, everyone. But the flow of wounded, plus her condition, makes this brutally necessary."

Awa took the little one's hand-while the Doctor called Winchester took the other for all time. The man was good at his job, and the stump was already being cleaned as Awa finally teared up. Another man walked up, also a Doctor, and for the record, not his usual self at all.

"Klinger-Pierce and Margaret want you boiling as much water in as many pots as you can manage, till Potter tells you otherwise. I'm on bowels."

"Okay, Doctor Burns. Will do."

Urashima saw the other Doctor leave while Winchester bandaged his unfortunate little patient.

"That Doctor Burns-is one cool customer. So calm and collected."

Klinger and Winchester stared at Urashima, who could not know whereof he spoke. Winchester thought of something.

"Are you by chance a medic?"

"My wife and I run-or ran-a veterans' service hospital here in Tokyo. I am fully trained, including some time on American bases."

"Klinger-get him to Potter or Pierce, then see to your pots. We will need that boiling water, have no doubt."

As the two made their way, Urashima stopped Klinger.

"Please-Max is it? I am looking for my wife, Hinata. The disaster has separated us."

Klinger took the picture from Urashima, and then offered up one of his own.

"Your gal is almost as pretty as mine. You got any kids?"

Urashima noted that Klinger's wife was Korean, but offered no comment on that.

"No. We have wasted-a lot of time on a lot of things that now-no longer seem so important."

Urashima saw Klinger approach an older-looking man who looked like a leader, and would have, even if he were not surrounded by people seeking direction from him.

"Hey, Awa? C'mere! Colonel, this fella runs a local vets hospital. Small world, huh?"

The older man extended a hand with a firm grip.

"Seems more like a burning world. Howdy, Mister Urashima. Sherm Potter, Chief Admin, General Pershing Veterans General Hospital, based out of River Bend, Missouri, where Max here is my Chief Of Staff."

"Colonel, I didn't tell you his name."

"Didn't have to, Max. My Chief Surgeon spoke very well of a fella who looks just like you do in his description who ran a vets hospital in Tokyo. Is it still standing?"

Awa closed his eyes. Potter understood.

"Why can't all giant monsters be like Kong? Climb a building, instead of just wandering around with atomic halitosis? Sorry, son. Humor around here is a way of keeping from going batty. That thing out there makes me want to swim the Pacific, just to get back home and away from it."

"The Colonel does not need to apologize. I am willing to offer my services as a medic. Given that yours is one of a few medical facilities still intact, it makes sense for me to await my wife here."

"Good to have you on board then, son. Pierce?"

The man Potter called over worked through fifteen different charts before ever reaching them. He was that needed, and he was also known to Urashima.

"Awa?"

"Doctor Pierce. If it were any other day, I would be happy to see..."

Cries of pain cut off their direct reunion, and for the time remaining, conversations were kept to the patients. To Urashima, it seemed as if every man, woman and child in Tokyo passed through that small makeshift hospital, and this was less far from the truth than he knew. He held patients down, and he held their hands, and he hauled off those who could be saved, those who could not, and parts of those in-between. He held the remaining hand of the little girl who had called him Onii-Chan (he didn't bother to correct her usage) as the radiation finished the job it started.

None of the patients or passers-through was his Hinata.

"Get out of here, Urashima. Find her."

"But Doctor Pierce-"

"Hawkeye."

"Hawkeye-what of the patients?"

Pierce looked at a man with a moustache, seated sleeping in a chair, and in the next one was the other surgeon Awa had known, Trapper John McIntyre.

"Potter says the roads are now impassable. If the current plan to ditch Mister Lizard doesn't work, and that thing comes back out of the water again after this attack, we're heading for the hills. Nobody else is coming, Awa. Find Hinata, and give her my best."

A woman with blond hair and rugged pretty looks stepped up beside him.

"Give her our best. Hawkeye-you have to write your father. The mail ferry is leaving soon."

Pierce nodded as she walked off.

"That may just be the Missus one day."

Despite himself, Urashima chuckled.

"Would that be the very difficult Head Nurse you spoke of clashing with?"

Pierce shrugged.

"So? Now we just settle things differently. Now get going, and good luck."

As he tried to leave, Urashima was stopped once more.

"Walter, I have no time to talk."

Walter O'Reilly shook his head.

"But it's about Hinata."

Awa lit up.

"You know where she is?"

"Nah, I don't. But there's a fella six blocks down that does-"

Urashima said a hasty thanks as he ran off. The man once called 'Radar' gulped.

"-or at least he was there in my dream. Good luck, Buddy."

Whether O'Reilly truly possessed precognition or not, there was in fact a man waiting for Urashima at the spot he described.

"Urashima. Long time no see."

The only problem was, the man himself should not have been there.

"Fudo?"

Awa Urashima knew it was now past Christmas, and wondered if he would ever even see another Christmas, his special status aside. But standing there in front of him was his own personal Jacob Marley.

"Masi-San, why are you here?"

Fudo seemed to have found a confidence in his voice he never had in life.

"So you're not even going to question the rest of that? Fair enough. That thing out there is powered partly by the spirits of the vengeful war dead-on both sides. It's presence is affecting my world as much as it is yours. Hell, I had a date with a pretty American WAC who drowned off Guadalcanal when all this kicked up."

A man who was immortal and who walked with them (including, though he did not realize it, Walter O'Reilly himself) had no time to question the existence of ghosts. But he did have a question for one.

"If it is powered by such spirits, then how did you and your-date-escape being absorbed by it?"

"Easy. She drowned by swimming out too far, after the Americans secured the island. No war involvement. And I died after the peace treaty was signed. Besides, our little group of flyers is looked down upon by the other Kamikaze units. But we do alright. Kusama still cracks them up with the story of how he cracked up. Some British ghosts involved in wizardry actually asked him to do a tour of their old school. Now-follow me!"

Not sure why he would or, despite what he knew of the world, a tiny bit unsure that Fudo was real, Urashima did just that, cutting around corners, walking through wrecked buildings. While he ran, Awa saw a scene of primal horror. A woman was holding two children while cowering amidst the chaos.

"It's all right, children-we'll be with your father soon."

Urashima was just about to run to them when Fudo stopped him.

"Awa-San-they're already dead. It may take them a couple of weeks to move from that spot."

Urashima teared up.

"Masi-there is a little girl back at the medical facility where I was working. Can you help her to find her way? Her parents died before her."

Fudo smiled and shook his head.

"Awa Urashima-concerned for others. Kusama and the others won't believe this."

Dead man or no, Fudo then kicked Awa in the chest, and sent him tumbling down the street until he collided with another. The ghost faded as he shouted.

"Hurry, boy-she's waiting there for you!"

Wondering if said kick hadn't been yet another payment for being a jerk, Awa put his glasses back on. He spoke to the one he'd collided with.

"I am sorry, whoever you-"

"Idiot, I'm in a hurry-trying to find my-"

They looked at one another and found the strength to laugh, this before bear-hugs and soul-kisses were exchanged. Hinata stroked his hair, her smile making his entire life since 1945 worth it with just that.

"I found a hospital still standing near Midtown, and waited for you there."

He kissed her three more times before responding.

"Remember the doctors from the American medical unit? They were all here for some reason, and set up camp down by the docks. I waited for you there. Hinata, the hospital is gone. Our superiors say that they will not rebuild it."

Having seen to the needs of those men for ten years, Hinata was ready to move on.

"I must say the same for our apartment building. We officially have nothing except each other."

Awa recalled Doctor Pierce's comment about heading for the hills, and looked in the lands beyond Tokyo, in the far horizon.

"As a Kamikaze, I was granted my request of a small parcel of land in those mountains. It is still mine to claim. Even if it is just in a tent, we will find it and there we will stay."

She mocked him lightly.

"I am a strict wife. I expect you to build us a house. But before we leave-"

She rose up and cried out.

"Fates! You have thrown everything our way, and still, here we are! I love this fool, and no power on Earth can challenge such love!"

He grabbed her and looked about.

"I thought you were supposed to be the smarter of us! How can you tempt fate like that?"

She chuckled.

"What could happen to us that hasn't already?"

The women in the lives of the Urashima men, whatever their own clan origin, would historically prove brighter than the men they adored. However, in many respects, this only meant that, when they were stupid, it, while a far rarer occurrence, meant that they were so unbelievably stupid it made the fictional men of late 1990's American sitcoms seem like advanced sages. So it was for Hinata's future granddaughter-in-law, who trusted her sisters too much when their man was at stake, so for her daughter/granddaughter when she believed herself to be plain and ugly, and so it was for Hinata herself .

"Why-is the ground shaking?"

It wasn't just the ground. It was the air itself. Air that now felt like a blast furnace was breathing on them. It was.

"Hinata? Above-above you."

"How far above me?"

"About-thirty stories, I'd estimate."

It was the face of the beast. The monster that had risen after atomic explosions to again task and punish Japan, this for sins real and imagined, well-known and well-covered-up. Grey-green in color, it had huge dorsal fins following into a tail as long as the eye could see. It was a craggy apparition with breath that looked like superheated steam. Hinata tried not to scream.

"Awa-we should run. Fast."

Awa found it in him to also look this looming interloper over. The teeth in the mouth alone dwarfed the biggest men he'd ever met.

"We need longer legs."

She hopped on his back, and clung for dear life, and off he ran like the wind. But as he passed up and down over each rise in the street, the monster was still in sight, despite not having moved a centimeter.

"Hinata! I think that we will be out of his sight soon. We're..."

A beam from the monster's mouth leapt the distance between him and the pair fleeing his wrath. The ground behind them exploded, sending the awkward couple flying, up towards those very hills where Awa claimed he had some land. The thought occurred to both that immortality might still have some sort of limit, and that the property in question might become their gravesites.

Whatever primal satisfaction the creature derived from sending the 'pests' away faded quickly and was entirely forgotten as it turned and marched back towards the outskirts of Tokyo Bay, where its great bulk could be hidden. The destiny of the monster called Godzilla will now cease crossing paths with that of Awa and Hinata Urashima.

Literally cast out of Tokyo, the couple landed near a series of farms abandoned by people who didn't understand that they were safe in their area. The food, clothes and a small ax, they would repay and replace when they could-Hina made sure of that.

"Hina-I don't know how ideal this spot is. It's just a small area near to a mountain's summit. I wanted my ashes spread there-"

He chuckled.

"Hail the glorious war-hero."

She grabbed him, and held him close.

"When people ask me of my man's heroism, I will tell them of the day he faced Godzilla himself, and did not faint. Why are you so hard on yourself?"

"So that I never again fall into the trap of only caring about myself."

She kissed him.

"I have not seen that idiot in years. Now keep on up the mountain. Ummm-how exactly will we find it?"

"Easy. It has a marker to my glory. By that light, I should impale myself on it while walking over it."

The axe cut through some of the forest growth, but it was slow going, and breaks were frequent. On the third day, Awa was exhausted and Hina was beyond pushing him any further. While he slept, she whispered.

"Tokyo will rebuild-maybe then we can find an apartment-"

"Unacceptable, Kohai!"

As Awa had been for Fudo, so Hina was now for her predecessor, the former Head Nurse at the now-defunct veterans' hospital.

"Sem-pai?"

Old warnings about embracing the dead were shunted aside-after all, reasoned Hina, wasn't her own curse not to die?

"You said I would see you again. Is it like Awa said?"

"Hai. There are so many crossing over right now, the gates to my side are almost unguarded."

Hina bit down.

"How-many-of these crossovers will we see?"

The ghost was matter-of-fact with only a touch of sympathy in her voice.

"A city of eight million people will ultimately lose half that amount. As we speak, even the mighty daikaiju itself is dying. Hina, my time is short. Let me reveal the hidden treasure I once promised you, for your kindness as I passed."

Rousing Awa enough to have him walk with them, Hina and the ghost made turns and twists, ascending, sometimes descending. Awa kept on ahead as the two women embraced and said goodbye.

"Sempai owed me nothing. I owed you for not simply discarding me."

The woman-shade smiled.

"In another path, I was your stepmother, Hinata. In another path to come, you will hold me when I am new. Look for me then. I'll need a good name."

Hina looked away as she faded.

"Awa?"

A splash was heard on the other side of a tree line. Making her way, Hina saw her husband treading water.

"Is it cold?"

He looked up at her and smiled.

"Hinata, this is my place, it has my marker-and a natural onsen! This-is our place!"

She jumped in, and they both stripped down to let the heat dry their things-and to enjoy each other. In the afterglow of love, they looked at one another.

"A house with its own onsen. It seems a shame to keep it to ourselves."

Awa smiled, and wished he could see her without his glasses.

"We will need to feed ourselves. The onsen could be part of a business-"

His eyes lit up.

"Like-a bowling alley!"

Before her fist could meet his face, he shook his head.

"Or better yet-we could be innkeepers."

So, as millions of souls passed and a titan raged at its death, as the New Year of 1955 began, Hinata Urashima learned an important lesson about her man.

"You're not always an idiot, are you? So what will we call it?"

He looked in her eyes.

"Isn't it obvious? After all, who brought us here?"

She smiled-prematurely, as it turned out.

"We'll call it the Gojira-Sou!"

This time, fist met face.

And no, they did not call it the Gojira-Sou.

MARCH 26TH, 2002 - MAHATUAK, MASSACHUSSETTS

PRIVATE JOURNAL, KEITH TERRENCE ULSTER, MANAGER, HILDA INN

I'll tell you plain, I was expecting a stranger bunch as they walked off the bus took them out from Boston International. Problem came, they weren't so strange. They were-us. Like we all might have been, had we been born in Japan. It was near to downright eerie, you know. Tirama Su's cousin and her friends would be a trip-the kind where you can't get there from here, but somehow you do.

I can tell this Keitaro Urashima is the type who just pushed all obstacles aside. The kind of go-getter his women all flocked to first thing, and who never knew what a setback was, because no setback would dare get near him, wary of having its arse kicked all over Tokyo.

I'm a wicked good judge of people like that.

Keith stopped jogging for a moment, and cleaned his glasses with a cloth.

"Blind without em'."

Keitaro accepted the offer of another cloth, and cleaned his.

"Yeah. Tell me about it."

Keith finally made a comment he had resisted making.

"I wish my Japanese were near as fair as your English. I could take you for a Californian."

Keitaro tried to be attentive. But the hardwoods that dominated so much of the structure of the Hilda Inn were in marked contrast to how the Hinata-Sou was constructed. Neither one was worse in his opinion, but the contrast was there. Even outdoors, this was visible.

"Many of my instructors studied in California, including my Sempai. I suppose it's bound to be picked up on. Keith-may I ask you a few questions?"

"Of course."

Kei looked about him.

"The weather here is magnificent. It's early spring, and yet I haven't seen such a day outside of Mid-May."

Keith was glad to answer this one.

"We catch-and don't ask me how it works-the same climate as Martha's Vineyard. The grandfolk found this place-and founded it-not long after a late 40's Nor'Easter-locals still call it for the Monster. Granma she basically ran it till way about three years ago. Then she up and decided it was her sworn duty to hit every curio shop in the Americas. That's where I came in."

Kei made a guess, one of several he would regret that day.

"You decided to enter Harvard?"

Keith shrugged.

"It had always been my dream-kind of an obsession, you might say. Then, one day-my little sister of all people-she opens her big little mouth and tells me I'm making myself miserable. Here I thought she never even noticed her big bro, while she's making those stop-motion movies-she's wicked talented at them. And she was right. I told the folks I wanted to join the family beverage making business. But wouldn't you know it, my Da and Ma are cool to that-say they wanted me for Harvard, too. So when Gram wants to make her trip, I bypass the whole argument and begin running this place-although when I started, it was the ladies here running me."

Kei felt awkward moving on from there, but a path one takes is not the path to be taken by all.

"You and they clashed? Their opinion of you was lower than you would have liked?"

They had resumed their jog at a good pace.

"Well, I was the outsider, and prone to open doors I really shouldn't have. Poor Sherry-I had to figure out a way to tell such a sweet young girl how pretty her nude body was without sounding like some sort of monster."

Kei felt he understood Keith-again he was wrong.

"Did you accomplish this?"

"I did-my Natalie helped me-that was the first night we made love, too. I guess our childhood love affair never did fade."

"You-knew Miss Natterman from childhood?"

Keith seemed a man almost born at peace.

"Well, I barely remembered her, and she didn't remember me at all. Me or Missy O'Timothy, that is-so we called Grandma Hilda to confirm, and sure enough."

Keitaro felt a dread in the pit of his stomach.

"How long-did all this take?-just curious."

Keith looked sheepish now.

"Well, I didn't make peace with all the ladies till the first month. Me and Natty didn't start in till the second month, and Grandma confirmed it all in the third month. That was also when she told us-Granpa used to be a guard at one of those terrible Japanese-American internment camps. Said he even used to be a creep. Hope that doesn't sour you on us. Say, Keitaro-ummm-Keitaro-San is it?"

Keitaro felt dizzy from merely hearing about Keith Ulster's pace.

"Keitaro is fine, Keith."

"Thanks. Heard tell you went to Molmol, where the Su girls are from. What's the place like?"

Keitaro sighed.

"I guess you could say-it was a real adventure. One we're not entirely anxious to repeat anytime soon, though we love Kaolla Su. She-means well, but crossed some lines there that revealed some other fault lines once we got home. I gained quite a bit there, but again, I might beg off if asked to once again go there."

"Heh. I was asking, because we almost went. But intuition told us that scamp Tirama was plotting something wicked big-everything's a game to that little Dickens, but she keeps things lively."

Keitaro kept up with Keith's pace in the physical world, but felt kilometers behind him in less tangible ones.

PRIVATE JOURNAL, NATALIE RUTH NATTERMAN

Naru is such a pretty sort-and so blasted polite, I feel like a fiend. We just have so much in common-including our dense-headed fellas who we adore with a brainless passion. I would love to see Japan, feel the ancient vibe in the air. Nothing here is much older than four hundred, except for the Restricted Wing, and that's all gone now. Instead of a spa, these wacky folks have a volcanic spring bath-one her man is always invading, to hear the stories. What it must be, to not care if a man you like sees you in your altogether state. I'll bet you I learn a lot from her-maybe I can even get her to translate some of Keith's imported porn for me-heh.

One thing's for certain-she never made her man doubt her love. Betcha those two all but sailed together in some kind of graceful dance.

Natty took the speed bag; Naru the heavy bag.

"You've got a lot of raw power going there."

Naru was amazed at the blur the speed bag had become; Natty never missed it while almost ignoring it.

"Thanks. It beats what I used to hit-namely Kei."

Natty nodded.

"Oh, Yah. Me too with Keith. We finally found the solution."

Naru smiled.

"So did we-and it's a lot more fun."

Natty shook her head at that.

"Mandatory psychiatric care was fun?"

Naru was almost bowled over as the heavy bag came back at her.

"What happened?"

Natty let her bag go as well.

"I was hitting Keith something awful. He's such a gentleman-wouldn't dream of hitting back, when it's a girl. But while Molly only pushed him over when he walked in on her or somethin'-I just kept on over any old thing. One day-I hit him when I walked in on him changing!"

Naru bit down before responding.

"Uh-wow."

"That's when, ya know, Sherry and the others insisted he call the police. The judge, she was a former domestic violence victim herself-said all my excuses stank of her late husband and every other slime she'd seen. Keith-he begged her for putting me in care, under a Canadian Ton of restrictions. I'm glad he did. I'd hate to live my life as some Wilma Flintstone psycho, thinking that sort of mess is alright. What did you mean, dear?"

Naru felt almost targeted by fate.

"We finally moved past all that forever and always-after our first time."

"Your first time together?"

"No-our-our-first time. Period."

"While you were having your period? Girlie, that's an invitation to..."

"No! Natty-it was both our first times-late last year."

Natty smiled.

"Oh, that's so sweet! Almost makes me wish Keith and I had waited-but then again, Auntie and Uncle were just such good teachers that way."

Naru felt blood vessels in her eyes she didn't know she had, and they were all close to bursting.

"You-him-his Aunt was his first time?"

Natty shook her head.

"Hayley is my Auntie-used to be kind of a House Mother here, keepin' us girls in line. Uncle Normie's an Ulster. I tease Auntie that she kind of wanted Keith since we were kids. Their little fling was just working out some old feelings. Kind of like me with her current hubby, my former college professor-Geology's his gig. Keeps it in all in the family!"

Natty laughed at her own joke, and Naru fought to laugh along. Fought being the operative word.

"So you're in Harvard but Keith isn't?"

"Yeah. It was another stumbling block 'twixt us-I couldn't see how a man who felt he had any worth could surrender that kind of dream. Mind you, I wasn't asking that he get in a year early, like me..."

Naru's mind flashed back to a few occasions of full public exposure by Kei when the two were at their worst. Him not looking at anything about where he was going. Her dress and undergarments all gone in one stroke with many onlookers. His mouth a mush of stuttering apologies and denials of intent. Her fists and feet pile-driving blind vengeance seekers.

And after what Natty had just said, she wished her blood pressure were now as low as it had been during those past incidents.

"You skipped your senior year of High School-and got into Harvard a year early?"

Natty shrugged.

"Lost some dear friends after that, though. They used to tease me horrible, and call me 'Natty-Never-Has-To-Study'."

Naru broke the heavy bag and the chain holding it with one blow. Both flew across the room and hit the nearby wall.

"Wow-that must have been really awkward for you."

Natty looked at the resulting mess. She never so much as reacted otherwise.

"Couldja start to clean that up, dear? I'll help ya in a minute."

PRIVATE JOURNAL, MOLLY TOMIKA AYERS-MARTIN

Motoko is an actual samurai. I mean, how cool is that? I'm qualified for the Big Games next year-I know I'll take at least one gold. But the people she competes against make those over-roided little boys and girls at the Olympics look like the pikers they all are-except for yours truly, of course.

Some cutesy folk have called me for being 'extra curious', so's I tell them to come out and just say it. Truth be told, it takes an extra strong woman to even have me looking that side of the camp. Most of our sisters are weak sisters, say God Bless Ye, but some like Motoko move with a grace and strength could wake the curiosity of the dead. I always have to be careful of how I move on another girl, though. Though I'd never play around with Tirama anymore than Keith would nail Sherry's sweet little behind-heh-me and him had a talk about all that once, had us dancing in the sheets fore we knew it. That's a thing I like about Keith-welll, another thing. He knows he and I were just a stop along the way, and we don't mind it. Girls always want something more, which is why I save my ammo for them that's worth it. But she might be well outta this mixed-breed's league.

I can tell Motoko Aoyoma has never known so much as a moment of doubt.

Motoko turned the pages of the many clothes' catalogs.

"You are a model as well?"

Molly sipped her water bottle as she stripped down to her basic sweats.

"Feh-political correctness, is what it is. Never had any use for it."

"I don't understand."

Molly let traces of her natural brogue shine through. This wasn't entirely an accident.

"Well, I'll tell ya true. Land's End, Abercrombie & Fitch, that whole sort-they started gettin the crit that their catalogs were all of a cultural snowstorm."

Motoko's face showed she still wasn't following.

"I'm sorry."

"Well, a white-out, you see? Nobody who didn't look majorly Anglo-Saxon. So with that bug up their bums, all of a sudden anyway, they're all contacting me, because Old Molly is a Black Irish who really is Black and Irish. Yeah, that's right. I made my body into a lithe wonder so I could give a fig leaf to men who would just as happy if none of my ancestors ever came to this land. I-could take them all, grind them up and not come up with enough real meat to-"

She kicked out in a series of katas that impressed even Motoko, though the look of pure rage on her pretty face was not at all attractive.

"I'm sorry for all that, Motoko. But this here is the only place on Earth I've ever felt I belonged. These girls are my sisters-and Keith is like a brother with benefits. He was the first person to ever want me for me. Not scoring with the girl with the dual heritage, or the driven athlete. All he wanted, he told me, was my respect. But I don't respect him-I love him."

Motoko's eyes showed her surprise at that.

"I-perhaps we should begin our session now."

"Straight and to the point. I knew I liked you, Samurai Girl."

Motoko began with a simple outward sweep of her right arm, followed by a kick with the same side leg, and then a push forward with her left hand. As expected, Molly blocked all of these without slowing down.

"Did you ever find him to be a weakling?"

Molly tried to seize Motoko's extended left arm when the blocking was done, struck with force at her head, and almost kicked her in the solar plexus.

"Early on, I demanded to know how it was he could forego such as Harvard, and he told me true. I found it despicable, but so intriguing. I decided to put aside the usual blather and just deal with the fact of my love for the little fool. I've fought too hard at bettering my lot in life to be one of those idiots who goes about denying it or cursing my weakness for it."

Without warning, Motoko picked up the pace and Molly was hard-pressed to even see where some of the blows were coming from.

"So-that is quite a sage realization on your part. Probably the high point of your non-athletic life."

More gradually, but with much more control over her movements and power, Molly met the pace and gave back some as Motoko seemed to pull back.

"No. The high point outside my Olympic training has to be telling my better-than-thou, thinks and wishes she were a third parent, judgmental older sister about a thumb she can go climb, that is when she's not sitting pretty on it!"

Oddly, Molly found herself once more facing an opponent who amped up with no warning.

"Yes. Onee-Chans can be most difficult, at times. Mine liked to lecture me on my supposed fears."

Molly again met Motoko's pace, though they were both showing signs of sweat.

"Once again, I'm right there with ya. Before Keith-I was even afraid-can ya believe it-of guys! I was even afraid of frogs like our pet Bozo-ya know, the swelling up part?"

Motoko bravely moved forward onto ground she knew she would regret. Deeply regret.

"So when did you overcome this?"

The mine by her feet exploded.

"The night I let Keith take me upstairs-and every other stairs. The jerk had just fallen on me, taking my jumpsuit off, and all overheated I decided, I can kill his arse, or I can have him ride mine. Faltering between denial and temptation-I led myself into temptation."

Motoko felt her focus falter in waves.

"A hard choice to make."

"He sure w-ehh-it sure was. But, I figured, either take the chance or spend months if not years telling myself how revolted I was by him-and I couldn't see living that way. Can you?"

Motoko won the overall battle, but you could not tell it from her face afterwards.

PRIVATE JOURNAL, MESSALINA ULRICA THERESA O'TIMOTHY

At first, I was a little leery of us all just 'trading off' with the obvious visitor-the one who most resembles us-boring, Keith. But ever since we were wee ones swinging on that jungle gym, Keith has had the good ideas, and if Natty backs him up instead of back-handing him, then all the arguing is done for.

Mutsumi is awesome! It's like she doesn't even belong on this plane. While we're all playing with New Age, she's on the age a few after that-or maybe before them. She's in touch with most things, at peace with most of the rest, and trig enough to avoid whatever's left over from that.

I really have to doubt anything here in dull old Mahatuak is gonna impress anyone that far out.

"It's very delicious-all of this made from one eggplant?"

Mutsumi was facing a huge plate of breaded fried eggplant and loving it.

Messalina 'Misty' O'Timothy smiled.

"The family hails from an island in a weird location, God love 'em. It's in the waters north of Chincoteague and Asoteague in Virginia, but it's really part of Jersey-we get paid as an auxiliary rescue service for the Cape May Ferry, should it come to that. Strange place, my home is. Eggplants grow twice again like watermelons in that soil."

Her chest gave a very free bounce.

"Girls and boys don't grow so bad either. Wanted to avoid the whole cousin thing, so I came back to this place, to find Keith and Natty. They're my happiness."

Mutsumi was notably ahead of her friends in terms of comfort at the same point in their visit. This would change.

"I know exactly how you feel."

Misty shook a finger in the air while smiling.

"I knew it! You and Kei and Naru, right?"

Mutsumi felt very much at peace with this stranger. Again, it would not last.

"Since we were very small children. I never feel happier than when I'm with them."

"Oh-wouldja mind a question, then? We Yankees love to pry, just a bit."

"Please, go right ahead."

Misty began to destroy Mutsumi's calm.

"Do you ever have any trouble keeping pace with the two of them in bed?"

Mutsumi was suddenly very grateful she hadn't drank any of her grape juice. Misty kept on.

"Because I sometimes find that getting myself between Keith and Natty, once they've started, is near to impossible."

Mutsumi came up with one that Kitsune herself would have applauded.

"Naru and Kei are a very private couple. Very private."

Misty nodded in understanding.

"Oh, I gotcha sure. After our Kitty offered to do a portrait of our couple making love, you'd think that she snapped a paparazzi on them, for how red their faces got."

Mutsumi tried to regain her footing, even if technically she was seated in the lotus position.

"Misty-I think I might want to meditate, right now."

The one who seemed clumsy but was most often at total peace with herself was now actually feeling awkward, and it was something she didn't like.

"Okay-but don't go too deep in. I usually lead the others in a pre-lunchtime session a little before lunch."

"You lead the others? How wonderful."

"Yeah. Well, I couldn't be one of those 'Oh Look At Me, I'm All Happy To Be Serene' types that exude it without at least trying to share what I have with the people I hold as family, ya know?"

"Yes, welllll-perhaps that sort of person only wants to be the calm center in what can be the chaotic lives of others."

Misty seemed to like shaking her head. Mutsumi was finding this less than endearing.

"Noper. Serenity is not worth a tinker's damn if it's not being exported. To not give my friends what I have would have been like-I don't know-"

Mutsumi made a mental prayer to all positive forces in the cosmos.

*Please don't let her say what I think she's going to say.*

"-I don't know-like ignoring my anemia and continuing to think that falling on poor Keith was cute or something. Used to bug poor Natty something fierce, till I gave in one week later and took the iron supplements-"

Mutsumi gave an arch glare to the heavens.

*You do realize one of my best friends is the granddaughter of this realm's protector, right?*

PRIVATE JOURNAL, MATILDA FELICIA 'KITTY' CONNOR

I am so damned lucky. Mitsu Konno-heh I like coincidences-seems to be a typical Japanese go-getter. Business is life and war over there, and I'll bet Mitsu has never known an idle moment her entire life. Just the kick in the pants I need.

Then again, I've heard it said that, in Japan, while High School is an all-out four-year-plus effort that rivals any Decathlon Molly's trained for, College is just one huge part-ay blast. But No. I laugh to even think of Mitsu with a drink in her hand, shaking that rack of hers, daring someone to 'pick a favorite boob'. No, I know the party animal of that bunch-Kei. It's always the ones with the glasses. I'll bet his sundae's whipped cream even has that Shinobu's maraschino. Probably bopped them all his first hour there, while they lovingly attended him.

Except Mitsu. Like I say, obvious super-nerd, and I know people.

Mitsu looked over the Hilda Inn's books. They were amazingly, which is to say annoyingly, well-kept.

"So you never went dorm-only?"

Kitty punched some new numbers into their income tax program.

"Not really possible for us. Too many rooms, too much to heat and cool, and then add in property taxes. Grandma had us all helping out, but Keith cut off a wing for our own use. Less space, and it gets kind of cozy, but after we spent a week or so learning to knock on the bathroom door, everything was good. We service the rest of it, and the guests-hehe-sorry, but I think you know what I mean."

Mitsu closed the ledgers, and nodded.

"Looks like you've always been right on top of this."

Kitty chuckled.

"Not hardly. Grandma and Auntie were always on the verge of throwing my voluptuous butt out the pathway door. It took Keith-my bro tell ya true-to shake me up and make me a part of this business. Said I was wasting my time doing freelance art, and tryin' ta empty every micro-brewery in this great state-and a few of the major ones, to be sure."

Mitsu looked and saw an array of simply stunning paintings, the result of 'wasted time' on freelance art by Kitty Connor. Wincing inside, she gingerly approached a subject, not knowing it and something else had already been broached.

"So you two are just like sibs? Me and Kei are like that-he grew on us all pretty fast, though getting anyone besides Shinobu to admit it when we started was like pulling me off Kirin."

"Oh-I've heard that's good stuff. Kirin, I mean."

Mitsu shrugged.

"Most times, it's excellent. But this one batch I-eh-borrowed from Kei? It tasted like drain cleaner!"

An odd memory began to stir in Mitsu after saying that, but this was cut off by Kitty's continued talk.

"But yah, we are just like sibs-well, now anyway. It's not like that one night, though. Heh-if we were sibs then, Mom and Dad would be breaking out the paddles-not that we didn't do that too. Some kinda memory there. If there'd been a goat or a sheep about-I hope it could have run fast enough to save itself, poor thing. Our Tirama Su never did find out what happened to all her pineapples, though I think she susp-"

"You and Keith are lovers?"

"Ho No-just that one night, like most here. I mean, Natty's got him sewed onto her sleeve, and the kids are kids-but once we all warmed up to the sweet little geek, we really warmed up. Ya Know-"

Mitsu began a deeply felt mental plea.

*Please Do Not Say It. Talk About My Clothes. Call Me Fat, And I'll Let You. Just don't say-what it is you're about to say. Mom, this better not be another test!*

Kitty completed the unintended blow.

"-ya know, Keith, he was my first. Before him, I was one of those claptrap phony-baloney party girls that know how to rub up against a guy just enough to get her tab taken care of-without having to grab his tab, if ya know what I mean."

Mitsu sat and had such an utter look of complete devastation, Kitty walked over and hugged her.

"Huh? Excuse me?"

"Sorry, dear-ya just looked like ya needed a hug."

*At least her rack isn't any larger-just her score.*

"Thanks-I was just thinking about my family back home. Turns out, they're a very strange bunch."

Mitsu at last felt herself on solid ground. But as happened in her favorite Mel Brooks film, the quicksand was soon to reveal itself.

"Oh, do not seek to get me started on that one, Mitsu-Love-Ya. Turns out the whole blasted Connor clan is some mix of stuff from Ancient Celtic Mounds and Ancient Native American Mounds-seriously bizarro world, lemme tell ya. Heck-I'll show ya!"

*No, Honey-I'll show you!*

As she now expected from this ever-sorrier day, Mitsu saw Kitty begin to shape-shift, and decided to break out a form she called a bull wolf, though no such creature really existed.

*Not Again!*

Yes, Again. Mitsu had indeed changed into a ferocious, powerful wolf, a creature of danger and beauty, not unlike how her 'Bro' Kei still saw her, despite her doubts. But Kitty? No housecat, or even a tiger. She had become the grandest looking bald eagle with the largest wingspan ever seen outside of patriotic paintings. As it hovered, the nearly giant bird's beak moved and it looked down at its guest.

"Oh, that's such a cute one there, Mitsu! I'll have to add that to my list. I mean it now, that is a nice looking wolfie."

*She can talk while transformed.*

"And couldja try and keep those thoughts down? They're hard enough ta block out in my standard bod."

Kitty swooped out, flying free. Mitsu changed back, and bleary-eyed sat in front of the TV, this to watch cartoons.

"I used to like Jerry, not Tom."

PRIVATE JOURNAL, CHARLOTTE ELEANOR MAYER-ULSTER

I still do that to myself, sometimes. Well, at least I'm just Sherry nowadays, not Sherry-Nell. I was such a baby when I first came here.

I can't believe Shinobu. Is anyone really that freaking nice? I think she's what they call a YummyTummy Nabisco, or somesuch. Anyway, we both are wizard cooks, though since the Japanese eat sushi 24-7, I don't see what it is she's cooking. I mean, if I could eat sushi that often, why would you cook at all? As for me, ya know? But even so, we are going to be the best buds ever to cross the Arctic Ocean, I can tell. We'll be like Hakuna Nakama-I think that's what they call it. Or was that from Lion King?

Shinobu blushed as she showed Sherry the picture of Arlo in his uniform.

"Ohhh-quite the hunky fella, huh?"

"I like to think so."

"Shinobu-I'm so sorry."

"Ummm-whatever for, Sherry?"

Sherry looked down.

"I'm sorry that my culture reached in and closed so many real Japanese restaurants, that all your boyfriend could find was work in a Johnny Rocket's. I mean, could we as a people be any more intrusive, forcing our values down your throats?"

Shinobu began to feel a confusion build the likes of which she had not felt since Molmol. Since she didn't care for how that went, she moved to end that part of the conversation.

"I-forgive you, of course. So-what's your favorite dish to cook?"

Sherry looked away.

"Cooking isn't as much fun as it used to be-since-since I started in."

Shinobu's concern rose.

"Started in doing what?"

Sherry pointed toward a display wall packed to the edges with a dizzying array of ribbons, plaques, and shelving units of various kinds with large and ornate trophies, including five shaped like golden chef's hats.

"I mean, shouldn't cooking be about more than just waltzing through every blasted competition they put up? 'Oh, here comes Sherry Mayer, guess this thing is settled?' I used to have to think about the whys, the wherefores, and the hows, and the ingredients, but now? I can do things with kids' breakfast cereals ya wouldn't believe. Where's the joy if you always win? Poor Keith says we may have to open up a third storage unit, and I don't want to ask my folks to give up another one they could be renting out."

Shinobu was about to let go with a politely phrased but distinctly sarcastic response when she saw something.

"That trophy-is a silver-tailed puffer fish. You know how to cook Blow Fish?"

She nodded.

"They said they couldn't give me the gold-tailed, because of me being a foreigner. It's okay. Here in New England, we have the same law about Baked Beans. Some things are just held sacred, sure. Down Jersey way, you can't be in a pork roll cook-off or an Italian Hot Dog contest without permission from The Boss."

Shinobu nervously thought of the Mafia and Yakuza.

"Mob Boss?"

"Nah. Bruce Springsteen. Used ta be Mister Sinatra. Frankie Valli if one of them's outta state. Those Jersey folk-they love their crooners."

Shinobu found herself unsure as to whether this was some kind of odd truth, or more of Sherry's seeming fountain of unwitting misinformation, so she changed the subject.

"Has Keith been as positive an influence in your life as Kei has been in mine?"

"Oh, yah-as soon as I got over him, that is. I useta have quite the crush on Old Keith."

Finally, common ground, thought Shinobu.

"I'm not even sure I have gotten over Kei. I'm really not sure if I ever will."

Sherry smiled.

"A good fella will do that to ya, and there aren't that many. But, hey, Natty sure got herself one, right? And isn't that all that counts?"

Sherry's sudden harsh uptake in tone gave away so much, she didn't bother denying it to Shinobu.

"I knew he wasn't going to do a thirteen-year-old girl. But I held on for just the longest time-almost the whole three months before he and Natty hooked up."

Shinobu now walked with her sisters and sempai in awkwardness.

"That's-really a long time."

"Say it true. To make matters worse, we all hooked up with this hare-brained scheme to get the two of them apart, once we arrived on Misty's home island."

"You know, I've seen maps of New Jersey and if there were such an island-"

Sherry kept on right past her.

"Only I don't know what the hey's goin' on from one scheme to the next. At some point, they tell me to keep Keith locked up while they talk to Natty, but it all gets to be a muddle. So I send him in to this anteroom in the big house, and I'm supposed ta take this big soup pot and smash him over the head with it..."

Shinobu reached out her hand, recalling how awful she felt that the first and really only deliberate blow she'd ever struck Kei was in such a circumstance, an ambush by the only one left he really trusted in that insanity. She was prepared to give Sherry what comfort she had.

"...but I just point him to where they really have Natty. I mean, what kind of little stalker witch would I have to be to prove my love for the guy by attacking him? I thought about talking to him about being his secret girlfriend on the sly, but same thing. I had to let go of what wasn't mine and wasn't ever gonna be mine. I was angry as sin with Misty for hosting that whole sorry soiree..."

Ever the optimist, Shinobu prepared to reach out again.

"...so's I avoided her till I calmed down some, and now we're chums again. Either that, or she wasn't listening when I vented on her-sure she meditates a lot."

Shinobu swore that the next reaching out would be for Sherry's throat.

"So you and Keith are good now?"

"Oh, yeah. He even likes when I tell him dirty jokes I found here and there. Kitty suggested 'em as a way of getting over my squeamishness. I useta almost faint if you so much as mentioned any of the big P-words, ya know?"

*I understand, now. The skillet missed Sempai's head and I hit myself with it instead-and this is Hell. Please let it be Hell. This-isn't Hell, is it?*

"Well, Sherry-I think I better go and do some of my laundry. Could you show me your laundry room?"

"Oh, Heck-why use that rinky-dink thing? Here's a coupon for ya-just head down to my dry cleaning concession here on the grounds. The girls will set you up nicely."

Shinobu had seen her last line crossed.

"You run-a dry cleaning business?"

Sherry nodded and smiled, not catching the fury building on her counterpart's face. Son-Gokou himself could not have had a more clueless smile.

"Pays my way here, saves funds up for when I head on to Harvard-should take care of whatever the scholarships don't."

Shinobu withdrew then, because the things she wanted to do to Sherry were not at all Shinobu-like, and she felt as though she'd used up that quota during her first date with Arlo.

"Hey, where ya goin'? I got homemade chocolate fudge-best in five counties, two years running!"

PRIVATE JOURNAL, ARCHDUCHESS TIRAMA SU OF MOLMOL AND MAHATUAK

At first, I wasn't sure about Kaolla visiting here. She's always been so mellow and laid back, it can feel like she's not moving at all.

I am so incredibly anxious to learn how Japanese she's become. When we were both sent away, I was envious that she got to do reconnaissance on the elder of the two cultures. We both disagreed with Grandfather Iwil's edict to avoid China-but he is so easily offended when it comes to counterfeiting our nation's currency, and the Ambassador's answers did not satisfy him. Plus, Aunt Caunter foresaw much of their vast economic power being diverted by savage environmental concerns before 2020. Then again, reports have them on the cutting edge of some 'green' tech, so we'll see.

I know that, just like myself, meek mild little Kaolla has become part and parcel a foremost example of her host culture.

Or more accurately, she had better be.

The Princess looked quizzically at her cousin.

"What happened to your voice?"

Tirama brushed her hair, now streaked with silver as well, and smiled.

"Isn't it great? It took me over a year to get rid of that 'greenhorn' accent. But I'm still working on it."

Kaolla Su began to feel like some did when having a conversation with her, not too long ago.

"What happened to your hair?"

"Oh, that? People thought I dyed it anyway, to have such light hair against skin like ours. The silver streaks make it all look like something I did, rather than an oddity of birth."

"That's not an oddity, Tirama-that's you."

Tirama never turned to look back at her cousin.

"I came here to be a part of this place, Kaolla. Not to stand out."

Sensing the awkwardness, Tirama changed the subject.

"I heard your brother married a girl from Paraklese?"

Kaolla nodded.

"Nyamo-just don't bring it up around Shinobu. See, Lambda looks like Kei, and Nyamo looks like Shinobu, and it kind of rubs her raw."

Tirama gave an arch look at her cousin.

"So these near-duplicates just exist and hook up? What, do you live in a comic book?"

"No-I live at The Hinata-Sou."

Tirama could have her pride in 'normalizing', if she wanted, but Kaolla drew the line at perceived slights against her Japanese family, however extended that definition became.

"Ho-kay. Take a chill pill. If I were as tense as you, I would never have made the varsity cheerleading squad."

Kaolla lit up, and also leaped up.

"Oh, I love cheer girls! Can I join while I'm here?"

"Kaolla-Cheering isn't just jumping up and down in the air like a little fool. It's a precision sport, demanding on every level. Heh-you jump up like that, you're liable to kick someone in the head."

The girl who once understood very little-or at least didn't understand certain things-now understood very well that she was being talked down to. She wished she had no such understanding.

"Who are you closest to here?"

Tirama seemed to have what Molmolians locally and ethnically referred to as a bug up her ass.

"Why would I be closer to any one friend than to another? Suppose I did that, but that one has some sort of anal obsessive compulsive irrational fear or hatred? I am close to everyone here, so that I can learn equally well from all of them."

Kaolla Su could be accused of being rambunctious. It would be harder to accuse her of being a fool.

"My Onee-Chan used to hate and fear men. My Onii-Chan used to be a pile of nerves and doubt. Naru was afraid of anything that could break her stride-badly afraid that she would be weak again like she was as a child. Kitsune-Mitsu-threw an eternal party to hide her fear, and Shinobu drew up marriage plans that she would sit and fear after doing so. Mutsumi-I don't know, but any of us-"

"Is this going to go on all day?"

Kaolla Su arced into the air, and using the stumbling method that had seen Kei's face in many a bosom, she got up in her cousin's face.

"I WILL TAKE ANY OF US OVER YOU, MY SO-CALLED BLOOD FAMILY!"

She then jumped up, and foot-pawed Tirama's head.

"See? I only kick when I want to-"

She turned to leave.

"-and only the people I love."

The lithe princess vaulted the railing and landed downstairs without a sound. She made her way outside, as far from the Hilda Inn as she could get in a hurry.

"All of you?"

Waiting past a certain point was her family, and she was never happier to see them. Oddly, she first ran to embrace Shinobu.

"I'm so sorry-I did it again."

Shinobu wiped her friend's tears away.

"You're sorry for what? You didn't do anything."

"No! I'm responsible for another bad trip."

Shinobu sat her down and held her.

"No! You only suggested we come here. Su, none of the things that applied in or after Molmol mean anything here. This was just-I don't know what this was, and I'm not sure that I want to know."

Each one in turn told of their bad encounter. None seemed to know what Shinobu asked of either.

Finally, Mitsu or Kitsune, she shrugged.

"I know what this was. We, people, sisters and bro-were outclassed. Royally outclassed. Not by strangers, per se, but by people who are so much us my head hurts. And I mean the kind of hurts I used to earn by way of strong rice byproduct."

Motoko looked up.

"It was as though every decision and every realization and every choice I spent years making, tearing out my soul and sorting out my heart, she made as a casual afterthought before beginning her next kata. She actually came out and admitted that Keith accidentally stripping her was a turn-on!"

Kei looked over.

"It-was?"

Motoko smiled and cupped his cheek.

"I'm over you, my sweet."

Naru ferociously fought off a 'Yeah Right' before picking up her end.

"I was proud of myself. I was in a growth stage. I had chosen my heart, and kept my dream-and I only hit when this pretty moron reallllly has it coming-and even then I try to keep it proportionate. I must have ran away as many times as him-and I still had to figure out that I broke my sisters' hearts. They tell me I'm strong, but that all took everything I had. Natty The Wonder Yank does it in three-stinking-months."

Shinobu continued to hold the shattered Su as she added in.

"She made falling in love and getting past it sound as easy as-PIE. Well, it wasn't for me. It involved me acting like a little fool : worried that he saw my boobs; worried that they weren't big enough for him to notice; wanting to tell my sisters to stop abusing him; wanting to be in on it all, all the while fighting off the knowledge that he wasn't going to choose me, till the reality in my face made me crazy."

She stopped, and a new look dawned on her face.

"You know what? I wouldn't trade any of it. Not a single face in my chest, not a single nervous stupidity, not a single moment worried that he'd take my virginity or worried that he wouldn't want it. Not a single meal slaved over just to see this guy who I knew was a goofball smile, because I knew I was a goofball too, and that made me feel so good, to be in something with him. If Su's time machine had a careful edit function, I still wouldn't trade so much as a second-"

She looked at Kei.

"-except for kicking you in the balls, Sempai. That one I'd amend."

Mutsumi seemed set to add some manner of cosmic insight.

"I-really hate these people and this place, and I want to go home."

Kei stood up.

"Maybe we will. But ladies-you're talking to a guy who spent most of his life being outclassed in most things. Not always by huge margins, but still pretty uniformly. The thing to do when you feel this rotten is to go tell those who so badly outclassed you just that. After that, the burden is on them. If they are gracious, or if they gloat-now it's their problem. They told us their stories, and then we told them ours, and I guess theirs won. Big deal. Up against Grandma maybe hating me-it doesn't even rate."

He grabbed up the princess and kissed her.

"I will demand that your cousin apologize. The way she acted is uncalled for."

Naru joined in a mutual hug of Kaolla Su. She asked her man a question.

"Kei? Are all Americans like this?"

"Eh-some of them aren't as polite as most of this bunch acts-but most are also wonderfully Human, as opposed to the colony of winged gods we happened upon."

Mitsu glared.

"Hey-hey-I have family with wings! They're good people."

Kei lead the way as they trudged back to the Hilda Inn. Part of this was out of deference and love to their brother, their leader, their man.

Part of this was because they really did not want to go back to the Hilda Inn.

Motoko picked it up first.

"What's that noise? This place is usually so quiet."

As they got closer, Su cocked her ear.

"I think someone is arguing. I wonder who it is?"

Shinobu almost felt the vibrations through the ground.

"Sounds like all of them. Sempais?"

Kei and Naru looked at one another in a bit of fear that a bad vacation was once more about to get even worse. Mitsu stepped forward.

"If I'm gonna really be Ryobo-that means I gotta take the risks sometimes-I'll go in."

A very pretty woman with a chest size somewhere between Mitsu and Mutsumi stepped forward. She was fair skinned with red hair cut somewhat short, and she showed signs of a late stages pregnancy. She put out a cigarette and pointed at Kei.

"Are you the fiends as put my nieces and nephew into such a sorry state?"

PRIVATE JOURNAL, HAYLEY VERONICA NATTERMAN-ULSTER

When Tirama called me with tears apparent in her voice, I came just as fast as I could, the baby aside. I can never stop being their overseer, nor would I want such. Did I see all this coming? I feel like I should have. After last year, things could never be the same again, and this place, this lovely family that came together so well so fast might not endure when all that sank in.

The bunch from Japan was a trip. I could scarcely believe how much like my own they are. One of them had her dukes up, ready to clobber me for my words. Another had a sword drawn. The other girls looked the sort you'd underestimate and be sorry for it. But the one called Kei, looking skinny and haggard, was still their leader. Again, it was like Keith from Japan-only-only a bit more sure-footed, like he'd stumbled so often and so hard he just knew where not to step. He explained what went on, so far as he and they knew it. Once I heard a few of their stories, I saw clear what had started this whole mess. But as I was to start with the cleaning, my own little mess showed up.

"Mom! How long are you gonna be with these dorks?"

Hayley bid her visitors wait while she addressed the impatient one.

"Sakura Kathleen Mifune Ulster! Did I or did I not tell you to wait in the car with your father?"

At this point, no one seemed surprised that Hayley's step-daughter was of Japanese origin.

"My Dad? Hah! He's like the most cautious driver in the known universe. You know geologists-has to check out every square inch before he parks, and then make two tons of notes as he does. I'll be at my Bat Mitzvah before he's ready."

"Well, just keep quiet and you can stay. Don't make me send you on a field expedition with your Da."

"Geez! That's rough."

Sakura looked over at her visitors.

"Am I supposed to like, bow to you or something?"

"Get inside and see to Tirama, you great mouthed beast!"

"Oh, yeah-Tirama. Miss 'I'm from a mystic island kingdom but I'm so not an immigrant'. Mom, she's become impossible to deal with."

Hayley leaned down.

"It's now she most needs you. Will you turn her away in this state?"

Obviously, that wasn't in the girl, so inside she went. Hayley pointed the same to her visitors.

"Let's go. It's not you that started this, but you're part of where it has to end up."

The children of Hinata Urashima, however removed and exiled, showed their courage and as one entered what sounded like a raucous throw-down. Hayley, who looked a bit like an Amazon, now really looked it as she tossed her wayward children about, breaking off said arguments in mid-tirade.

"You're not the one that almost went to jail! You're not the one who almost killed the guy she-whoa!"

"No! I provoked the firestorm when I moved in here, and didn't know how to knock on a door or ask a question, and I'm the one who was so weak, he had to be with everyone except Sherry and Tirama-Hey!"

"Maintain the pace, Molly! Keep up the modeling, Molly! Better luck for 2004, Molly! I don't need the pressure, I didn't ask for...aahhh!"

"You still have this debt-nope, still another that we didn't bother to bring up! Guess you're not a party girl much anymore, huh, Kitty? Do you honestly think all those endless cutesy remarks are at all endearing? I can't take-leggo!"

"Show us how to be at peace. Oh-not tonight, Misty Love-we'll indulge our threesome fantasies on you another night. Oh-and how many Boob-Eggplant jokes do you think are actually funny? You all start from the presum-watch it!"

"Me? I've tried to get over him. I'm barely sixteen, and I feel like the only really great love I ever had or ever will have sailed past me without a thought. I don't have the raging body or personality, so I tried to be nice. I fed and clothed you. I set up a business to impress you, Keith Ulster, but you are CLUELESS! Why I-Auntie, Stop!"

"I'm the foreigner, the outsider. But do you lot have any idea how many times I had to tell my classmates that you are my greenhorn relatives from the Old Country? I don't know even know where Old Country is! Could you be any more embarassing? No, AUNTIE-I won't stop."

Hayley shook her head.

"You will. You will stop arguing now, Tirama Su."

"And why would I?"

Hayley sighed.

"Because everyone else is sitting down, my love. You're arguing with yourself alone."

Tirama looked about. She tried to make a dismissive shrug.

"That only means I won."

Hayley sat her down as well. Kei asked Shinobu something.

"Did you bring-the hat?"

Shinobu smiled, and so did Naru as she caught on.

"Yeah, they're gonna need it."

Hayley looked both more and less frightening with her pregnant stomach as she glared at her former charges. She placed mild slaps on each one's cheek as she moved.

"That-is for the boy who said he could handle having been too hormonal at first with girls now like his own sisters."

"That is for my own blood-niece, who I first warned of her temper and then warned not to dwell too long on the lessons that temper showed to her."

"That is for the girl who's poised to take the Olympic Gold one day-only the dream of every child in a school gymnasium-and who always acts like she's been cheated or dismissed."

"That is for a girl who is no airhead, but insists on acting like it, the better to hide her pain at her supposed boyfriend choosing her girlfriend instead."

"That is for someone who is long past her early mistakes and slackery, but looks for digs and slights in harmless remarks. You have this messy business of ours in the black and the pink, woman. You can have a wee dram without it all falling apart now."

Sherry she slapped on the hand. Then she grabbed it.

"He is a lovable sort. I'm a grown woman who could have been arrested over just how lovable he is. So don't expect you'll scrape him off so easily. And maybe you're cooking instead of eating-but in psychology, sublimating is sublimating. I have a college roommate who's a degree in the subject-Emily, I think her name is. Lives in Tokyo now with some Chicago folk."

The Hinata-Sou residents let that one slide right on by.

Finally, Tirama was cornered.

"You. What gave you the idea that you had to surrender your essential self to fit in around here? Fool-none of us fits in around here. We are all foreigners and freaks. I'm half-Jewish, half-Irish, and I honestly don't know which side fights better and which side moans better. Why did you give your cousin-who you invited here-such a hard time?"

Tirama looked up at her.

"Well, she did cause those FBI men to visit me."

Kaolla Su looked stunned.

"I did?"

Tirama nodded.

"You violated Japanese sovereignty in almost every way there was last year. They asked me-me-if I had plans to unlawfully hold my friends and impress them into marital servitude."

Molly raised a finger.

"You did have those plans. We just lucked into finding them on your laptop-when you left it on and unlocked in the living room-after chuckling a lot while looking at each of us."

Hayley was looking impatient.

"The truth now, Duchess."

Tirama pointed at Kaolla.

"Their Grandma turned up alive and well-ours never will!"

A look of shocked recognition fell over the residents of Hilda Inn. For those of the Hinata-Sou, understanding was only just beginning. Kei looked at Keith.

"September 11th?"

Keith shook his head.

"American Airlines Flight 587 out of JFK, just two months later. Not as many know of it. It wasn't terror. It crashed near Queens, New York. Grandma was on her way to the Dominican Republic. Always after curios. They found her-mostly intact. The funeral home didn't have to do-too much work, praise the Lord."

Natty held her man as he began to choke up, and then spoke for him.

"She hadn't lived here for awhile. But she was this place. She was its heart."

Molly had her eyes clamped shut.

"For the first time in my life, I wasn't an icon, a champion or an example. Just a teenage girl. That's all she gave me. It was enough."

Misty had the look of her name.

"I fell off that jungle gym so many times. Then she brought Keith out, and he showed me how to play on it, and we both helped Natty past her hard times-and they were all our good times."

Kitty actually managed a smile.

"I got more second chances from her than from a soft-hearted parole officer. I kept blowing them, but for her, I actually felt bad when I did. That was why I jumped the chance Keith offered me-not to mention jumping Keith."

Sherry looked at Keith as well.

"You are wonderful. But I have to admit, part of your appeal was thinking that I could take this most wonderful woman outside Mrs. Claus and make her my for-real Grandma. Which was stupid, because she already was."

Tirama made a confession that made her cousin's head spin.

"I never felt at home in Molmol. Too much presumption on peoples' lives on all levels. When I heard there was a place that had a written guarantee of what you can and can't do-I had to come, and this lovely person looking for antiques showed me the places where this land was born. I was reborn then, too. Like Sherry said-she was Grandma."

If most of the Hinata-Sou's residents were stunned into quiet, the warrior in Motoko still sought to end the conflict permanently.

"We grieve with you, and wish that we could share our miracle. But I fail to see how our presence provoked these house-sundering arguments."

Molly rose and looked at her.

"What? How can you not see that? Are you blind, deaf and dumb?"

Natty squinted and then put on a pair of glasses.

"You come in here, and talk the talk you did, and you don't get it?"

Keith sobered up from his loss.

"Really? You don't get what your stories ripped open in us?"

Sherry shrugged at Shinobu.

"You can't figure this out? And you, a Ninja?"

Shinobu began to get her headache back.

"That's-another Shinobu. Don't bring her up again."

Mitsu bit down and whistled.

"Before we travel the whole circuit again-yes, we don't get it. So tell us."

Mitsu's intentions to break the chain aside, it was Kitty who answered.

"You. Mitsu, ya kept true to yourself till you were good and ready to change. I changed into a scared little rabbit-in one case literally!"

Keith seized back his mantle of leadership.

"You endured all the rejection and misery, Kei. This is supposed to be the land of dreams, but when the going got tough on mine, all it took was a few words to put me off the vows of a lifetime."

Misty hugged Mutsumi.

"I'm with my friends in their room some nights. But I feel like an appendage. Out of fear of loneliness, I can't stop. And I get so upset when the others do, I feel like I have to show them how to calm themselves, or I can't keep mine. You? You accept reality, rather than trying to empty the ocean with a bucket."

Natty sat down.

"Hitting is never good. But fighting for your love? Taking time to figure it all out? Really getting in there and making damned sure this is the one? It wasn't any court-order that changed me. It was fear that he could be the one and I would miss the boat by doing the hard work a relationship is supposed to be all about. That's you, Naru. Hearing you, I felt like nothing."

Molly was next again.

"Do I need to say it? An Olympian puts on a show. A spectacle. You are a samurai. Almost a creature of legend-except, ya know, for the many thousands of samurai that really did and do exist. Even you and Kei. That was a genuine love affair, with denial and wonder and realization. Much as I adore Keith, we were like 'Both Naked-Might As Well'."

Sherry was not the last of all, but the last in this particular mass confessional.

"I still love Keith. I still hate him for being too nice a guy to use a kid with a crush. So I tried to be mature and rational and give him up. But love isn't mature or rational, and you are not supposed to be understanding when it doesn't go your way. You kept on your man, Shinobu, till the ledge collapsed and your fingers came off the edge. That took guts I never had. When I realized that, it was almost as bad as the time I came in second for Miss Teen America, or when I failed to win First With Honors on The Philly Cream Cheese Recipe Contest, or-"

Tirama covered her friend's mouth, and looked at Su.

"I'm sorry. We used to be so much like each other, and now I want something different so badly, it made me resent you for who I used to be-and who I maybe still am. When you wrote me about your Grandma-I broke inside."

Keith summed up for his friends, his (for the most part) lovers, and definitely his family.

"We all felt like we were hopelessly outclassed by these amazing people from across the way, who weren't afraid to get rough and tumble with their lives and emotions. Hearing about the struggle you put up to get all you have, we couldn't help but feel like typical lazy Americans, handed all we have on a silver platter, and still moaning for more. It's like they say in the East : It's the journey, not the destination."

Kei looked to each of his sisters for strength before responding.

"We don't feel at all superior. In fact, we thought of you as the better ones. You speak of all our struggles, and they have strengthened us. But it looks from our eyes like you had the common sense to cut through much of the stupidity we subjected ourselves to. You may laud our culture, and we appreciate that, but there is such a thing as overly complicating what should be simple and clear."

Hayley looked at the two groups and rolled her eyes.

"One worried about working too hard, the other about not working hard enough. Take it from a girl who's been around, folks. How you get there matters, but if it's a good thing you found when you got there, then maybe the terms of that journey matter less than normal. Speaking of which-"

"I finished parking the car, honey. And-I think I discovered meteor dust in the second sub-strata!"

Kei turned to look at Norman Sean Ulster, Keith's Uncle and Hayley's husband. Naru did not.

"Kei-Chan?"

"Yes?"

"What does he look like?"

"Do you really want to know?"

Naru nodded.

"Yeah. Better just tell me."

"He looks like-an American version of Seta-with a goatee."

Naru looked, confirmed this, and then jumped into her man's arms.

"Our shower has a steam option, right?"

He smiled, and they looked at Natty and Keith.

"You two for your room?"

Natty grabbed her coat.

"Nope-this dope, who runs a very successful business, now wants to apply to my alma mater."

Keith shrugged as he put on his jacket.

"I have to know. I have to. By the way, you two-its Pot Roast night. Don't get too into each other!"

Mitsu stopped the two on their way up.

"Kei-Uhh-Kitty says there's this college bar with really cute guys nearby-"

Both he and Naru gave their friend some cash.

"When Grandma fired me, my term as manager ended-and so did your debt."

She smiled, pecked them both on the cheek, and prepared to unleash some of her inner Kitsune.

In the distance, Molly showed Motoko a prized pugilist's combat stick signed by a variety of boxing champions, and decided to begin to spar in that fashion. Misty talked to Mutsumi.

"So I was going to take the trains to Atlantic City and then fly out to visit my folks this weekend. They'd love you. Wanna come?"

Mutsumi smiled.

"I would. But-ahhhh-are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"Because-based on satellite scans and my knowledge of American geography-I'm pretty sure your island doesn't actually exist."

Misty shrugged.

"What's your point?"

After offering up gushing praise of her wall of trophies, Shinobu had calmed Sherry enough for them to just talk.

"I think I might have my own Arlo-works at a Chinese place-always gives me extra sweet and sour pork. I still want us to exchange recipes."

Shinobu nodded.

"Teach me blowfish. Arlo refuses. And I have a special recipe for Beef Barley we call Hinata Soup."

"Sounds Great! And I'll teach you about the history of Mahatuak."

Shinobu moved in for the kill.

"And I-will teach you all about Japan."

Sherry shook her head.

"I know all about Japan. Like when you went to war with Rene Russo."

Shinobu forced a smile.

"I-may-still have one or two things to show you. Just- a-few-things. We'll start with 500 AD and go from there."

"Cool!"

Tirama set the VCR in the living room. She prepared to leave with Kaolla, a promise to hit every eatery and snack bar in the area driving their renewed relationship.

"What are you recording?"

"Oh, our favorite episode of Seinfeld is re-running tonight. It's the one where Elaine starts hanging out with three guys who are like Bizarro versions of Jerry, George and Kramer."

Kaolla Su was lost.

"Seinfeld? What's it about?"

"Ummm...Nothing."

Kaolla Su turned and stormed out.

"I'll be waiting outside. If you don't want to tell me what's it about, then just say so!"

Tirama watched her cousin leave, then shook her head.

"What is up with her?"

THE HINATA-SOU

She picked up the picture. The young man, surrounded by his loving-though at that time abusive-sisters on his first anniversary as manager.

"Mom-Call Him."

The girl who was both her daughter and her granddaughter was only weeks away from bearing her granddaughter/ great-granddaughter. But her tongue never softened.

"I-was just organizing all these pictures. Seems he wasted a lot of time taking them."

"Mom-Just Call Him."

"Why would I call my ex-employee? What would I have to say to someone like him?"

Haruka put her hand down on the table.

"How about-'Grandson, I'm sorry for acting like a mopey fool when you saved my life from certain death' for starters? How about 'Kei, I love you and I want you here as our family's next generation is born' as a follow-up?"

"How about my daughter learns her place, which I thought I taught her long ago and far away?"

Haruka pulled out a cigarette, which Sarah snatched away before she could blink-just as she had been told to do.

"Mom-you never let me or anyone else mope unchecked for as long as you have since Kei brought you back. I'd respect you in any tradition. I respect you too much to see you stay like this."

Exhausted by yet another failed effort to change Hina's mind, Haruka bid Sarah keep an eye on her. Sarah did as she was asked, but also placed a phone call.

"Is this the Hilda Inn in Mahatuak, Massachusetts? Great. Can I speak to one of your guests, a Kaolla Su? Oh? Okay. Well, is my cousin, Keitaro Urashima-humping Naru? Yeah, that's him. Yeah, but he's actually nice and kind of funny-cool. Who's this? Sakura? My name's Sarah."

Before starting to talk in earnest, Sarah briefly wondered if she and the other girl had anything in common.

SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2001

The man who had dropped into the plane tried to handle the small craft. After all, his wealthy family had flown many such planes. But the controls had locked from the near-impact. As he saw the New Jersey Palisades ahead, he cursed in neither English nor Japanese at the powers he thought certain favored him and his cause.

His cause, by the way, was like many such causes throughout history. A dream worth dying for-so long as somebody else was doing the dying. His own dying would be postponed on many many occasions. In fact, through the wide spectrum of what some call universes and realities, this man would be alive as late as ten years after this date.

But not here. The plane collided with the cliffside, pulverizing its unwitting passenger so well, only DNA would identify him-and then American Intelligence would explode from what they found. The one person who could not possibly have been in that plane was.

People with an even more sinister agenda than this dead man would have to use the death of a sinner rather than a saint to open what they called the Red Gate, but more on that another day.

On the flip side of that, innocents alive and dead in the reality we now describe, the one of these stories, would rejoice without knowing why. The man's last memory before dying had been of a wild blonde-haired girl with dark skin kicking him in the head, before he ended up at his final destination-in this world, anyway.

At the same moment most of the first victims died as the first jetliner collided with the first tower of the World Trade Center, they were also being avenged as the chief plotter met his end above a picturesque highway in New Jersey.

For, at the feet of those she loved best, Kaolla Su had learned well of justice.

NEXT : SECRETS AND ORIGINS