You know the drill…

Chapter 7: Tomo

"So? Anything Keitaro," Naru asked as she continued to sip from her cup of tea. "We've been here for an hour now you know."

"I know that," Keitaro said frantically looking at the table. He knew that he would be hit so badly if he even so slightly decide to glance around the place. "How can I even think like this?"

But the two were interrupted when the girl wearing the red cat suit came back to their table. "Excuse me, master," she said. "But the store would be closing soon. Sorry for the inconvenience."

"Really," Keitaro asked looking at the girl. "Then we'll take our leave. Thanks for the nice cup of tea. It was really something."

"Thank you," the girl said with a smile on her face. Naru on the other hand started to frown as she watched things play on.

"Let's go Keitaro," Naru quickly said pulling Keitaro by the wrist.

"Please come again," the girl said as she watch the two walked out of the door.

Outside, they realized how late it was. The sun was about to set and it means that the search would just get harder unless they stop for the day. But before the two could decide whether to go home or not, the tracker started to move again.

On the mean time, inside the employee's lounge, Motoko has already changed into her regular clothes and was simply waiting for Nami to finish changing.

"I didn't expect them to stay so long," Motoko commented as she sat on one of the chairs.

"I think they were using some kind of device to search for you," Nami mentioned as she peeked out of the dressing room. "I heard them discuss it over the other tables. Are you sure, your former dorm was normal."

"Normal is far from the word you could use to describe that place," Motoko said with a smile. What else could she say? the crazy adventures they had while simply living there was really extraordinary. "And they were probably using a tracker made by one of the tenants there."

"Really," Nami said coming out from dressing room in her regular clothes. "Then that person should be insanely smart to make such a thing that could tract someone so accurately."

"You're right," Motoko said as they walked out of the building from the back door. "But she's only 14 years old."

Nami immediately laugh as she heard Motoko say the age of the inventor. She didn't expect that coming since they were talking about a tracking device here so she expected the person to be at least in her thirties. What were grade schools teaching anyway?

It was also in their way home that the two got to talk about themselves a little more. Like a certain someone, Nami stopped schooling when she graduated from high school. And because of her interest in collecting and drinking tea, she decided to open a cafe where tea was the specialty. And considering she lived at Akihabara the best way to profit more was to make it into one of those maid café, which was really popular in Japan.

Nami also got to learn a lot from Motoko; about how she was to be the heir of the Shinmeiryu and about the crazy adventures she had back at Hinata-Sou. And when she asked the kendo girl if she has already told Yuki and Fuka about this, she denied it, saying, they haven't had the time to talk about things like that because of everything that happened. But if they ever did have the opportunity to chat, she'll tell them. It wasn't like she wasn't keeping it secret anyway. But the only thing Motoko didn't tell her was about the reason why she left her old place. "I'll tell you when we get back," she said.

The sun has already set when they reached the apartments and the first thing to greet them was Fuka who happily stumbled out of the door. "Hey, they're here," Fuka, shouted before running back inside completely ignoring the two. Motoko didn't quite understand what was happening and when she looked at Nami for answers, the girl simply looked at her and then smiled while gesturing that she didn't know. But the biggest surprise to Motoko was when they entered the room.

"Yuki planned this," Nami said as they stood at the entrance. "She told us that since you we're going to stay, even if it's for a short while, it would be appropriate to make you a welcoming party. And knowing you still haven't met the other's this would be a good time to walk to them. The one in the kitchen is Sakura Fuyumi. She should be the one who made most of the food here since she's a really talented chef but her talent mostly lie on sewing since her room is full of clothes she sewed her self. And the one who bought all of this things should be him."

"Him," Motoko asked, she didn't expect this place to be also run by a male. "I was expecting this place to be ran by a landlady but a landlord?"

"Yup," Nami said. "I think he inherited it from his mother or something who took this chance to travel around the world to see all the world's greatest landmarks. But he himself is a great guy, since he was able to get into Tokyo University on his first try. Oh wait, there he is."

As Motoko shifted his eyes to the guy who came out from one of the rooms, she saw a man around he's twenties, holding a tray full of food.

"Oh, you guy's are here," the man, said as he went close to them. "Sorry for not meeting up with you when you first came, I'm Ryu Sanada, nice to meet you Aoyama-san and welcome to the Omoide Ryokan."

"Thank you, please take care of me," Motoko said slowly with a gentle smile as she watched the scene in front of her. Ryu was standing in front of her with a kind smile, behind him were the girls preparing the table. Fuka was dangling upside down from the ceiling placing the ribbons. Nami on the other hand has already left her side and was helping Yuki prepare the table. And in the kitchen she could just imagine the girl named Sakura busily tasting the food she was cooking. But to her, this only felt like a second welcome from the people she just left. (A/N: This would be the time when you change the people above to one of the Hinata residents. You should already get who is who as the relationship of the people above are just like that of Hinata.)

"Hey," Naru called out to Keitaro as they stood outside an apartment building. "Is this where it stops?"

"Yup," Keitaro nodded switching his attention from the tracker and the building it was pointing to. "I'm positive. This should be the place where Motoko arrived."

"This is an apartment right," Naru asked as they climbed the stairs to the entrance.

"It looks like it," Keitaro nodded. "So are we going in," he asked Naru before knocking, since he could hear laughter inside. "It looks like they're having a party."

"We can't just stand here right," Naru asked sarcastically. "She could be here right? It's important we find her now."

"You're right, here I go," Keitaro nodded before knocking on the door.

On the mean time, as the two outside was talking about what to do, the residents of Omoide was already chatting happily with their new friend. They were asking her about what she did when she was still at Hinata and what kind of people live there. Motoko on the other hand was kind enough to answer all of the question, how the manager, Keitaro would always sneak into the girls' bath or how she and a girl named Naru would occasionally punch him out of the orbit.

But of course the chat didn't end with those things, Yuki soon asked her the reason why she left, if she had so much fun from the place. Reluctant as she may be, Motoko didn't saw any harm in telling them what happened and started telling them everything. At first they laughed at the fact that Motoko knew some sort of charm that could erase memories but when they reached the point where Naru asked Motoko to leave they just couldn't hold in their disappointment. They knew there were those kinds of people in but they didn't expect to hear Motoko would be kicked out just because of her interests. But of course Motoko did try protecting Naru from their words but she herself couldn't understand her sempai's reasons, if she had any of course.

Their talk was cut short as Ryu heard knocking from the door. "Who could it be visiting this late," he asked himself as he went to the door. And when he opened the door, there stood in front of him, two people. One was a glasses wearing guy and behind him was a girl with antennae on her hair. "What can I help you?"

"Is there someone named Motoko here," the man asked. "I'm Keitaro Urashima, the manager of the dorm she used to leave. I'm searching for her since it looked like she had some kind of misunderstanding with the girl besides me and left two days ago."

"Sorry," Ryu answered but was caught off guard when he heard water splashing behind him. Causing him to turn around letting the two in front of him have a glimpse of inside.

"Hey, is that Motoko," Naru pointed out as they looked at a wet girl wearing kendo clothes.

"It is Motoko," Keitaro exclaimed but was interrupted when one of the women inside stopped them.

"Sorry," Yuki said and started laughing with an empty can of water in her hand. "But she's not this Motoko you're talking about. She's a new tenant here and well we we're having a welcoming party when or friend (Fuka) here slipped up and got water all over her. So we'll just get her change, sorry."

"I know you people like those kind of scenes in anime but you could have let me handle it," Ryu sighed internally before getting back to the two. "So you see, it's just a misunderstanding."

"No, that was clearly Motoko," Keitaro quickly shouted. "Only she would wear those clothes everyday."

"Like I said," Ryu said starting to get annoyed. "There is no one named Motoko here." But to his displease Keitaro quickly ran inside going to the room where Yuki took Motoko. "Hey!"

Keitaro rushed into the room and when he entered it, he saw a girl with long black hair tied in a ponytail on the right side. Wearing a really short skirt and was only just wearing a red tank top. Keitaro quickly braced himself as he realized she was staring at Motoko wearing only a bra. But nothing came instead the girl spoke.

"Pervert," she exclaimed as she glared at him. She was trying so hard to hide her top from Keitaro's eyes, something Motoko wouldn't do, since if this happened, she would have already blasted him out of space.

"What the hell are you doing," Yuki shouted as she shielded Motoko from Keitaro's view. "I told you we we're going to change."

"Sorry," Keitaro weakly exclaimed but used the last bit of his courage to ask. "What's your name?

"Tomo," Motoko lied. "Tomo Ishinari."

"I see," Keitaro said and smiled before walking out of the room and then turning back to say, "Sorry for the trouble."

"Well, I guess I'll only make it worst if I get angry at you so I'll let it slip this time," Ryu said as he talked to Naru and Keitaro outside the door. "I'm also a manager so I should know it feels to lose one of your tenants who have grown quite close to you."

"Thanks," Keitaro said before both Naru and he bowed to show their respects. "Please tell the girls I'm sorry to ruin your party.

"Sure," Ryu shouted, closing the door and getting back to the girls inside. "I don't think that'll be the last time we see them but it looks like you're really loved by those people. The girl, Naru even came with him, and looking at her, she was pretty worried as well. But it is still your decision if you want to go back. None of us would stop you."

"I really appreciate it, but I don't think I would return yet," Motoko replied. "So I would ask again, to please take care of me for the next few days."

"Sure," Ryu and the girls nodded and gave her their smiles. "We better get this party to its climax. Since it's getting late and we can't let little Sakura sleep too late."

"I'm not a kid anymore sempai," the girl retaliated making everyone in the room burst into laughter.

"Sorry Keitaro," Motoko thought as she continued to laugh. "I know it's okay if I return now, but seeing them like this, maybe something inside me just wants to act differently. So please forgive me for this one selfish request."

My longest chapter yet, and the first part was just perfect. But I didn't quite like how the last part ended. But it's just how the story goes. And before anyone else ask why it feels like there's no romance, then I only have one answer to that… This is only the introduction phase… So please forgive me.