Love Hina Once Again
Thirty One
"Kitsune!" Misaki Saiki waved, the attractive albino woman striding down the street.
"Wow," Ema muttered at seeing the white haired woman with red eyes. She was wearing a dress with a slit running WAY up her thigh, and... was that NO panties?!
"Kitsune?" Shizue echoed, amused. Then her eyes widened slightly.
Kitsune also looked startled, interestingly enough. "Shizue? It's... been awhile."
"You two know each other?" Misaki asked, looking intrigued.
"LONG story," Kitsune quickly said.
Shizue looked arch but decided not to object.
Motoko frowned as she looked between them, sensing something was going on. "Ladies," she nodded to them.
"Is that a KATANA?" Misaki had to ask.
"Yes. I have a permit," Motoko answered calmly.
"Back up..." Ema waved a hand, "you both know Kitsune?"
Misaki snorted in amusement. "yes, this con-artist had some run ins with my father's department," she explained.
"I object to con-artist," Kitsune pouted, "I prefer 'self motivated business woman,' please."
Motoko bit back a chuckle at that.
"We knew each other back when Kitsune was more of a party girl," Shizue said rather neutrally.
"Ah," Ema nodded slightly.
Kitsune was looking at Misaki thoughtfully for a moment. "Here about the Dullahan?" she asked her.
Misaki looked at bit surprised. "You too?" she blinked.
"Yeah. Wonder if you were sent out here by the same guy...," Kitsune made a face.
"It IS kind of suspicious," Shizue offered mildly. "I know we're getting paid etc etc for this, but do you really want to keep playing along?"
"I'm here as a government employee," Misaki defended herself.
"And I don't think I'll keep playing this as usual, anyway," Kitsune added, taking out her phone.
"Who are you calling?" Motoko asked as she kept a wary eye out. This part of Tokyo was just too odd, even for her.
"Texting, actually. Hopefully the message gets seen," Kitsune said as she put her phone away.
"So what do we do now?" Ema asked reasonably.
"Let's go grab a coffee while we wait," Kitsune suggested.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Mikado Ryuugamine was a fairly average kid. He went to school, he went out with friends, he had a club. What was different about him was that his 'club' was the invisible, online gang the Dollars, and he was the leader of the group, more or less.
(It had started as an online prank, more or less. But someone caused the group to grow, the Dollars started acting in the real world, and things soon spiralled out of control. The original members mostly fled, but Mikado stayed, and eventually ended up in some degree of control.)
The Dullahan, Celty, was a friend of his, and had helped the Dollars out of severakl jams, as well as being a member herself. So when he heard there were people after her, he had mobilized the Dollars to stall them, while he found out what they were dealing with.
Misaki Saiki was, as best as he could tell, a real medium. She could apparently let a roaming spirit possess her, then say what it wanted and/or do what it needed to do to pass on. It was fascinating, if eerie.
She was ALSO a professional dominatrix, and Mikado was VERY glad he wasn't on a public computer when he googled her. While he had safe search on, the images that came up were still very... uhm... erotic, to out it bluntly. Mind you, as a healthy young man he had been rather intrigued, but it was still startling. He didn't know people could BEND like that...
Phantom Quest Corp was, thankfully, weird but not in a sexually disturbing way. Who knew there were professional monster hunters in this day and age. Plus, they were on youtube. He originally thought they were some strange web series, but it did appear legit. Which made him wonder if they could actually hurt Celty...
A chime announced a new post on the Dollar site, and Mikado looked over curiously. "Huh," he blinked, and clicked on the post.
PHANTOM QUEST CORP WISHES PEACEFUL CONTACT WITH CELTY the thread read. Then continued, 'Willing to meet in location of your choosing. No conditions. Please reply soonest.'
Mikado hadn't realized one of the Corp members was on his Dollars site. Clearly Izaya or someone else had recruited him or her. Well, at least this was progress of a sort...
Picking up his phone Mikado dialed a familiar number. "Shinra? Has Celty seen the post on the site, yet?" he asked.
"Yeah, though she's not sure what to do about it," Shinra conceded, the back alley doctor and ally sounding more amused than anything.
"I'm thinking go see them, but with backup," Mikado suggested. "Anri and Shizuo, maybe. If something DOES happen, they can escape."
"But you don't think something will," Shinra noted, picking up his tone of voice.
"Just my gut instinct," Mikado admitted, "that's why I say bring back up. Just in case."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"So we wasted a day wandering Ikebukuro when you could have just posted on the internet?" Rei Hino protested indignantly.
Kitsune shrugged and said, "I didn't know she was connected to the Dollars, or I would have tried that earlier."
"She has a point," Ami Mizuno pointed out reasonably.
"This is the weirdest city..." Utena noted as she and Anthy returned, "and I say that as someone who's seen some shit."
Both Utena AND Anthy looked rather rough around the corners. "What happened?" Ema asked them worriedly.
"What didn't happen! First there were the crazy otakus, then the Yellow Scarves attacked, a bunch of Blue Squares COUNTER-attacked, then..." Utena waved her hands in frustration.
"There there Utena-sama," Anthy patted her arm comfortingly.
"Grab a soda, we may be waiting a bit," Motoko added flatly. She did NOT like the idea of just waiting for the Dullahan to contact them. Still, Kitsune was their leader... plus, wandering around town wasn't accomplishing much.
The group had settled in a ice cream shop while they waited for a reply from the Dullahan. It was a brightly lit, sort of homey joint, and had several customers looking rather bemusedly at the adults occupying the corner tables.
"Miss Hino," Misaki nodded politely.
Rei smiled back wryly, "I'm surprised you're willing to speak with me, Miss Saiki."
"Misaki, please. And the mess wasn't your fault," she said with a laugh.
"Rei, then. And thank you for your forgiveness," she sighed.
Ami looked at them curiously, "I take it you've met?" She firmly stomped on feelings of jealousy inspired by how sexy Misaki looked in that slinky outfit.
"Back before I met you," Rei squeezed her hand. "Grandfather and I were involved in a haunting, along with Misaki. It didn't go well."
Misaki burst out laughing.
"Understatement?" Ami asked with a wry smile.
"Well, yes," Rei conceded. "We thought we were there to seal a out of control nature spirit. It wasn't. Then it fully busted loose..."
"Then I got possessed and we spent the next hour getting the thing OUT of me, while running around the town...," Misaki shook her head, "It was a mess."
"Not to mention Grandfather hitting on you," Rei added, shaking her head.
"He hits on anything with a pulse," Ami noted, amusing.
Misaki snickered but said cheerfully, "I hope I'm that energetic at his age."
Tentatively Rei asked, "Uhm, what's up with your friend and Kitsune?"
"To be honest I don't know..." Misaki admitted as they saw Kitsune and Shizue talking together off to one side. Shizue looked less than happy, too.
"Hopefully it doesn't cause any problems," Ami said neutrally as they all heard Kitsune's phone go off.
Kitsune checked the display then announced, "We have a confirmed meeting."
"Where do we have to go?" Motoko asked crisply.
Kitsune checked the name to be sure then said dubiously, "Russian sushi?"
To be continued...
Notes: Ema, Motoko and Kitsune are from Love Hina. Utena and Anthy are from Revolutionary Girl Utena, Rei and Ami are from Sailor Moon, Misaki and Shizue are from Ghosttalker's Daydream and Celty, Shinra and Mikadio are all from Durarara.
Haven't done a characters note in a while, so there ya go.
I am VAGUELY tempted to write a short fic (2 chapters maybe?) on Rei and Misaki's first meeting. It could be pretty funny if I do it right. We'll see though...
Back At The Inn...
Naru liked getting letters from the Hinata Inn in Japan. They were entertaining, and it was nice to keep up with their friends. And as they were usually from Kitsune, they dished all the 'dirt' on what was going on too.
"She caught Tennyo and Mutsumi in the act?!" Keitaro yelped.
Naru snickered loudly. "Yeah," she nodded, "they were SO embarrassed."
Keitaro looked bemused. He was probably considering that at one point he had very nearly been dating Mutsumi.
"Oh hell," Naru murmured as she hit the last bit.
"Hmm?" Keitaro looked over her shoulder. "Su and Sara were spying on guests..." he blinked.
"Rei found a camera in her room, and she was REALLY pissed," Naru mused.
Both Naru and Keitaro exchanged somewhat guilty looks. As the kinda 'head' of the household, they had sort of been in charge of controlling Su's behaviour. And to be honest they hadn't really managed it. Too often Su had helped them out of jams, making it hard to punish her for more extreme things she did.
"We'll have to tell Seta, then send a really firm letter," Keitaro noted.
Naru gave him a look, but realized that really WAS all they could do from where they were. "And Haruka. She's gonna be PISSED," Naru noted.
"Oh yeah," Keitaro agreed.
"Well," Naru sighed, "let's hope nothing ELSE has gone wrong..."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"AAAAA!" Shinobu yelled as the young woman ran away down the hall from what looked like a slime monster.
The mob of the things had... plopped down from the sky only a few minutes ago, and had driven off all the random passerby. Now they were surrounding the Inn, apparently trying to do SOMETHING to the residents.
"Head over here!" Su yelled, wearing a huge backpack and what looked like a gun. In fact she pretty much looked like a Ghostbuster.
Shinobu staggered by her breathlessly, even as Su's gun poured out a thick white mist. "What...?" Shinobu managed to gasp.
"Super cooled gas," Su noted crisply.
The creature blob THING staggered a few steps towards them, then just froze solid. It teetered a moment, then fell over with a loud thud.
"You okay?" Sara asked, also carrying one of the cool guns.
"I think so," Shinobu managed. "What is going ON?" she demanded.
"Not a clue," Su noted cheerfully. "Let's find the others."
"This would be a LOT easier if you hadn't boarded up the tunnels in the Inn," Sara complained a few moments later as they fought off more slime critters.
"Or they could be using the tunnels themselves," Shinobu noted, now carrying a broom handle. Apparently the things didn't like being hit, too.
"Point," Sara admitted.
Sticking to the hallways they found Kanako calmly evading another one of the critters with her family fighting style. "WHAT is going on?" she demanded as she slapped a jumping blob down with a graceful palm strike.
"No idea," Shinobu admitted.
"Nice!" Su noted as they froze more of the blobs.
Kanako frowned. The black haired woman noted, "Where is Tennyo and Mutsumi?"
A loud crash came from outside, distracting them. "Let's check that out!" Su suggested.
The group advanced through the Inn then out to the hot springs, where they froze. Tennyo Masaki was wielding what looked like an actual LIGHT SABER as she fought a giant slime. And defending her back was Mutsumi, using a broom handle to clobber any smaller critters.
"AWESOME," Sara blinked.
"We should help them," Shinobu declared.
"She's right," Kanako took charge. "We need to help Mutsumi keep the small ones back, then maybe help Tennyo."
Shinobu trailed behind as they all charged into the fray. Her broom was enough to force back a slime, but it was mostly Su and Sara that did the most damage. It was crazy how calmly they all took this soft of thing... tho Shinobu supposed they were sort of used to mad science stuff exploding from Su's lab and such.
"Is everyone all right?" Tennyo asked as she sliced at the huge slime. Burning bits dropped off, crumbling apart as they fell.
"As far as I know," Kanako answered. "Do you know WHAT is going on?" she asked.
"Long story," Tennyo sighed.
'Well, at least someone knows,' Shinobu sighed.
They watched in awe as Tennyo fought the giant slime, leaping up and literally slicing it right down the middle. That massive amount of damage, coupled with what had already been done, finally killed the thing.
As the massive creature crumbled to dust, the smaller ones did too. Even the ones frozen by Su and Sara broke apart.
"Too bad," Su prodded one, "I wanted to study one."
"Oh hell no," several women noted.
"Meanies," Su sighed.
"And another mess to clean up," Kanako sighed as she looked around. "And Tennyo, I think you have an explanation to give?"
"Yes, ma'am," Tennyo smiled wryly.
They ended up at the Hinata cafe, where Shinobu and Mutsumi made everyone tea. As they settled down with relieved sighs, Tennyo explained what she guessed had happened.
"Your RELATIVES sent it?" Sara blinked.
"I think so. Washu, maybe... or my aunt. Or..." Tennyo shrugged helplessly.
"Huh. You have relatives as interesting as mine," Su noted.
"Su," Shinobu sighed.
"I'm really sorry about this," Tennyo addressed Kanako politely. "If it's an issue, I will reluctantly move out..."
"Hey!" Mutsumi yelped.
"It's fine," Kanako shook her head as she added, "I suspected when you moved in you weren't just an architect."
"Whew," Tennyo sighed in relief.
"Just... please try not to let it happen again." Kanako added wryly.
"I'll try," Tennyo answered.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
At the offices of Jurai Interests Inc, the office manager Mitoto Satoko finished compiling the report. She opened a communications link to the off-world ship, then sent it.
Within seconds, she got the call. "How did it go?" Seto Kamiki Jurai demanded.
"They repelled the attack in ten minutes," Mitoko informed her. "Several women were surprisingly combat capable."
"Hmm," Seto agreed as she skimmed the report. Several moves Kanako did actually looked Jurai in origin... she made a note to ask Yosho about that.
"It should also be noted that more than half the residents were away," Mitoko added, "including several we expected to be the most dangerous."
"Do you think that Tennyo is reasonably safe there, then?" Seto asked. That was, basically, the point of this test after all.
"At the worst, I feel confident they can hold out until a response team gets there," Mitoko answered her cautiously.
"Fair enough," Seto conceded. That WAS the point of this test after all.
"I WOULD like to move our headquarters nearer to the Masaki Shrine as well as the Inn. I think we can cut down on our response time that way," Mitoko added.
"And you could visit the hot spring guilt free," Seto noted.
"That too," Mitoko conceded.
To be continued...
Notes: short random break from the Durarara arc. It occured to me Seto would wanna test how safe Tennyo is, living out at the Inn. So, dropped an army of slime monsters on them.
Thirty Two
Rei Hino was used to the supernatural, more or less. Being a member of the Sailor Soldiers had led to her seeing a LOT of interesting stuff. As well, she had done professional exorcism services under her Grandfather, and had seen some very strange sights.
But this actual headless horsewoman might be a whole new thing.
The group had arrived at Russian Sushi a few minutes ago, setting up at a table. Simon Brezhnev had welcomed them cheerfully, provided menus and pretty much LOOMED over them until they ordered something.
"Weird place," Ami murmured.
"Hmm," Rei agreed.
Kitsune complained about paying, but even she had to concede this was a work expense. So they settled down and ate, even as they waited for their target to arrive.
Rei was eating a roll when a sudden chill ran down her spine. "Something's coming," she said to the others quietly.
"I feel something too," Misaki Saiki agreed, the albino blinking a few times. "Occult energy... a lot of it."
Anthy, interestingly, seemed mostly unbothered. Rei wondered if that meant she hadn't sensed it, or possibly just didn't care. Strange woman...
"Welcome! Welcome!" Simon declared as three figures arrived. There was a (apparently) normal looking school girl, a wary looking young woman and a tall lady wearing a motorcycle helmet. "Your party is over here," he said, leading them over.
"Miss Celty?" Kitsune asked, getting up from her seat and offering her hand.
The tall woman shook it, then oddly took out a small, smart phone like device. She typed quickly, "Why were you looking for me?"
'Of course, if she's headless she can't talk. Huh,' Rei blinked.
"A source of mine hired us to attempt to capture you," Kitsune admitted. "We were also specifically ordered not to harm you."
"The agency I work for also recieved information you MIGHT be a threat," Misaki admitted, "so I was sent out to investigate."
Her friend Shizue waved, "I'm just the plus one."
"I'm Anri," the school girl softly introduced herself to the others as Celty and Kitsune 'talked.'
Rei was faintly surprised to feel something like 'murderous intent' coming off the seemingly normal girl. It was eerie. And WOW did she have a nice rack... Rei noted Ami scowling at her and made herself stop noticing that.
The man also gave off a dangerous vibe, but at least he felt non-supernatural. So there was that.
"Yo," Shizuo casually waved. "If any of you actually intend to hurt Celty, I'm going to have to beat you bloody. Nothing personal."
"Gee, thanks," Utena dead-panned.
Shizuo just grinned back, clearly not bothered.
Rei also noted that Motoko looked like she was ready to leap to everyone's defense against Anri. Clearly she sensed SOMETHING there too.
Up sat the head of the table, Kitsune, Misaki and Celty were talking, though of course they could only hear the two women...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Izaya Orihara wasn't dumb.
Right after his run in with Shizuo, he had taken a train and headed out of town. There were various ways he could see his manipulations playing out, and at least some of them could involve angry people looking for his head.
Izaya dialed his phone. He had a LOT of contacts in and around the city. He had to, really, to be the Information Broker he was. That also meant that he could, with a call, mobilize armies if he wanted. But he was just checking up on what was going down...
"Hiii, this is Mika!" the cheery voice answered.
Mika Harima was strange even by Tokyo standards. A crazed stalker, she had had her face re-made to resemble the person her boyfriend loved. She was also easedropping electronically on nearly everyone in town that was remotely connected to them. She had even tried to bug HIM.
"What's going on with the groups looking for Celty?" Izaya asked bluntly.
"Aww, it's YOU. I was hoping Seiji was calling and we could have a love love phone conversation...," she pouted.
Izaya bit back a sigh. "I'll get you tickets to the new, very exclusive restaurant, you and Seiji can go together," he offered.
Mika almost instantly got serious on hearing that offer. "Both groups chasing Celty made contact with her via the Dollars website," she informed him. "They're now meeting at Russian Sushi." she added smugly.
"As expected," Izaya noted.
"Kitsune has revealed to Celty that a 'Information Broker' sent them after her," Mika paused. "And that's set Shizuo off..." she added, amused.
Izaya winced. Shizuo was, possibly, the only person he would consider a 'true enemy.' The man was SO straight forward and simple that he was nearly impossible to manipulate. Plus he could throw around VENDING MACHINES.
"... Anri is there too. No sword appearing though," Mika continued.
Izaya smiled wryly. "You'd best stop now," he noted, "you don't want Simon catching you. Thank you."
"Don't get killed," Mika finished and hung up.
Izaya snorted as he put his phone away. He clearly was going to have to keep his head down for a bit... It was too bad. He had been hoping to see Celty in serious combat against magical foes. Well, he had achieved one of his goals at least. There was that.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"All right. So I think we can all go our seperate ways peacefully?" Celty typed. "Unless you want to fight just for the fun of it."
"Oh no," Kitsune answered quickly.
Motoko, interestingly, looked faintly disappointed with that. Apparently she wanted to try to cross swords with Anri, even though the shy girl appeared unarmed.
"I'm perfectly fine not fighting," Misaki agreed. The albino looked at Celty thoughtfully, "I will have to submit a report to the agency I work for. Will that be a issue?"
"I'm not happy about it, but I expect the government already knows about me," Celty noted.
Ema, typing on her own laptop, sighed. "This ending is SO anti-climatic! It's like the writer just couldn't come up with a good ending."
A waiter mysteriously spilled a glass of water on Ema.
"Et tu, writer?!" Ema sighed, but decided not to complain again.
"Hey Simon, the fourth wall here at Russian Sushi seems kind of weak," Anri noted, "might want to shore it up a bit."
"Moving on...," Kitsune decided taunting the author was a BAD idea.
"I have work to do," Celty typed, "plus my boyfriend knows about this meeting. He's probably worried about me."
"Thank you for coming out," Kitsune nodded politely as the three filed out together.
Shizue puffed out a breath as she smiled at Misaki. "That was tense," she muttered.
Misaki smiled back wryly. "Having non-combat related abilities sucks," she agreed.
"So, we're done right?" Ema asked, still sounding disappointed.
"We're done business, yeah." Kitsune agreed. She looked around the group, "Well, we're in Tokyo. What say we hit the town?"
"We invited?" Shizue asked, giving Kitsune a arch look.
There was a cracking noise, and everyone looked at Motoko, who had, somehow, broken a set of chopsticks in her hand. "Ooops," she winced.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Mikado Ryuugamine was checking the Dollars website, in between doing his homework. Things had ended peacefully, and he was hoping things would stay quiet. It wasn't likely, of course, but he could hope.
Someone named Foxy logged in, and posted to the forum.
Foxy: What I don't get is, WHY?
Saika: Why what?
Foxy: Why the Broker set this all up.
Foxy: They HAD to know once we met and talked, there'd be no fight. So why rig this?
Medium: Good question.
Kanra: Maybe the fight wasn't the point.
Foxy: Oh?
Kanra: Maybe the Broker just wanted to engineer the various people meeting.
Saika: You think so?
Saika: Hello?
Kanra has logged out of the chat
Mikado sat back, frowning at what he had just read. If that was so... then what was Izaya up to NOW?
To be continued...
Notes: I confess, I fugged up. A reviewer pointed out that there would be no good reason the characters would actually fight. After some thinking I basically agreed, which meant I could either erase the lead in chapters and start over, or just try to wrap this bit up. I went for wrap it up.
Thirty Four
"Wait... the inn was attacked while we were gone?" Kitsune blinked.
"By SLIMES?" Motoko added, also blinking.
Just after the battered old van had reached the inn, they had been startled to see a lot of damage around the old buildings. Not SERIOUS damage, thankfully, but a lot of small stuff. When the others hurried out to greet them, they asked what happened...
"Yup. It was AWESOME," Su beamed.
"And Tennyo beat it with a LIGHT SABER. It was so cool!" Sara added.
"I need to go talk to Kanako about this...," Kitsune said with a sigh.
As usual, Kanako was in her office doing the paperwork. "Welcome back," she looked up and smiled mildly.
"Uhm... the inn was attacked? Seriously?" Kitsune asked.
Kanako explained, concluding, "It was apparently Tennyo's relative's fault."
"Ah," Kitsune looked relieved.
"What?" Kanako asked curiously.
"I was kind of worried that it was related to my Phantom Quest Corp stuff." Kitsune admitted a bit sheepishly.
Kanako smiled, "It's nice that you care."
"Anyway," Kitsune waved that off, feeling a little embarassed, "how bad was the damage? Do we need to...?"
"We got a cheque sent by 'Jurai Interests Inc' a day after it happened," Kanako reassured her, "apparently Tennyo leaned on her relatives to fix things."
"Huh. Remind me to try to borrow beer money off her," Kitsune mused.
"Bad girl," Kanako scolded her mildly.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"So, the horsewoman, Celty, is missing her head?" Utena asked as she and Anthy were settling back into their room.
"Stolen, apparently. She's in Tokyo looking for it," Anthy added.
Anthy and Celty had conversed a bit once the meeting broke up. Celty, apparently, had sensed the power of Dios both Anthy and Utena had.
"Does she want your help looking?" Utena wondered.
"I actually suggested she go to Juri's friend Hitomi, the fortune teller. She's fairly accurate," Anthy admitted.
Utena gave her girlfriend a thoughtful look. "Is there a reason to stay out of this?" she asked.
Anthy made a so/so gesture. "She's a Dullahan, a celtic death bringing spirit," she said, "my own powers are older, but... not that much. And I worry about those forces colliding."
"Okay, fair enough," Utena gave in willingly.
"That's it? No protests we should help her?" Anthy asked curiously.
"I trust your judgement," Utena reassured her.
"Thank you," Anthy hugged Utena suddenly.
"Besides, knowing our luck something will come up and we'll be involved anyway," Utena added with a shrug.
"Ugh. Probably," Anthy sighed. "Let's go soak in the pool," she suggested, "I missed doing that on our Tokyo trip."
"Let's," Utena agreed.
Out in the hot springs, two guests were relaxing in the steaming water. "Aaah, this is nice." Misaki Saiki sighed happily, the albino neck deep in the steaming water.
"Totally worth renting a room for the night," Shizue agreed, sitting on a stone bench beside her.
"So, you know this Kitsune too?" Misaki asked curiously.
Shizue snorted, "I KNEW you were going to ask that."
"Dish the dirt," Misaki 'ordered' cheerfully.
"There's not THAT much dirt to dish," Shizue told her, "we ran in some of the same crowds, back when she was a heavy drinking party girl. And yes, we slept together a few times."
"Awww," Misaki pouted when she realized Shizue wasn't going any further.
"Afternoon," Anthy nodded to them as she and Utena settled in nearby.
"Ahh, that's nice," Utena sighed as she sat.
Shizue blinked as she got a look at the scars on the woman's back. That wasn't bondage play... someone had stabbed the hell out of her. She looked away, pretending not to notice.
"This is a great hotspring," Misaki noted mildly, "but is there anything else to do in town?"
Utena chuckled, "Not much, though there's a historic shrine nearby."
"That's the one with a actual demoness, right?" Shizue asked, curious.
"Oh HELL no. Pass," Misaki said quickly. "I have enough supernatural stuff at work... I don't need to go looking for it."
Anthy chuckled, "I can understand that."
Before the conversation could continue, Kitsune quickly emerged from the mists. "Any stories Shizue tells about me were heavily exagerated," she said as she got unto the water.
"NOW you have me wondering what you got up to," Utena teased.
"Oh shut up," Kitsune splashed her.
They relaxed in the water, and Kitsune noticed that Misaki, Utena and Anthy were engaged in a conversation. She scooted a bit closer to Shizue as she smiled shyly, "Hey."
"Hmm?" Shizue gave her a curious look.
"Sorry I kind of disappeared on you," Kitsune admitted. She looked upwards, uncomfortable, as she added, "I kind of cut back on the drinking, and..."
Shizue patted her on the arm, "Yeah, I'll admit we didn't do much more than drink and party back in school." She paused and added, "I still can't get over you running a business tho."
"I run two, technically," Kitsune noted, thinking of the cafe. "And you, Miss Editor. Well done."
"Ha. My parents are not as impressed by my editing a porn mag," Shizue snickered.
"I have a friend who's a writer," Kitsune thought of Motoko, "maybe I can get her to show you some of her work..."
"I'll look at it, but no promises," Shizue quickly cautioned her.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Their cellphones went off almost at the same time. Rei and Ami exchanged glances, then answered them.
"THERE'S A HEADLESS HORSEWOMAN IN TOKYO?!" both Usagi and Mina blurted over the phones nearly at the same time.
"I guess Ema uploaded a new video to the Phantom Quest Corp website?" Ami guessed.
"That was so cool," Usagi added.
"That Shizuo guy was SOOO hot. If I was still single...," Mina added cheerfully.
"Mina!" Rei scolded, though that was typical of her.
"Let's put you on speaker," Ami suggested, setting it up using meeting software she had downloaded and tweaked.
"So there's the headless horsewoman, the super strong guy...," Usagi mused.
"And there was something supernatural about the third person, the teen girl," Rei added.
"That's the one with the huge rack," Mina observed.
"MINA," Ami sighed.
Rei just ignored that.
Ami continued, "I have to admit, it's been fascinating discovering all these beings whom we never knew existed..."
Somewhat more seriously Mina mused, "Hopefully none of these end up becoming enemies."
"Or they could be allies!" Usagi offered cheerfully.
"Let's hope," Ami agreed.
There was a knocking on the door, then Shinobu called, "Everyone's having a late lunch. Come down if you want some..."
"Thanks!" Ami called.
"Awww. Wish we could have lunch there too," Usagi sounded like she was pouting. "We'll check in again soon."
"See ya," Mina agreed as they hung up.
To be continued...
Notes: Yes, more Ghostalker's Daydream bits. I still wanna do a team up of Misaki & Rei vs some kind of supernatural nasty...
Thirty Five
"Inu yasha, hey," Rei waved as she walked up to the shrine.
"Yo," the white haired half demon waved. "Kagome's here, but she's pretty exhausted. Had an exorcism call last night," he noted.
Rei frowned, "She didn't think to call...?"
Inu Yasha gave her a look. "She had me along in case things went wrong," he pointed out to her a bit stiffly.
Rei held up her hand, "And I know you're quite capable. Still..."
Inu Yasha added, "Well, she knew you guys had just gotten back from Tokyo. She figured you were tired too."
"Ugh. Point," Rei conceded.
Rei excused herself then headed up to the main shrine building itself. As she got nearer she saw that Kagome was sweeping, the black haired young women looking distinctly tired. She smiled as Rei walked up, "Hey, morning."
"Rough night?" Rei asked mildly.
"Oooh, yeah," Kagome sighed. "It was a relatively weak entity, or I'd have called you in too."
"I see," Rei nodded. "So why...?"
"Because it was ALSO very stubborn and refused to get out," Kagome added. "I banished it eventually, but it took hours."
Rei looked over the visibly exhausted girl and said, "Why don't you lay down for a bit? I can manage the shrine for a few hours."
"You're a guest I'm supposed to be training with," Kagome protested.
"So we can train once you're rested up," Rei shrugged.
Kagome looked like she wanted to argue, but she was really tired. "Ok," she gave in, "but just a nap. Wake me later."
"Will do," Rei agreed as she watched the girl head back to the house to get some more sleep.
After Rei had swept a bit, she felt a presence nearby. "Thank you," Inu Yasha said gruffly. "I couldn't convince her to sleep in."
"You're welcome," Rei smiled slightly.
"Heh," with that Inu Yasha took off to lurk around the shrine.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The ongoing construction of a new 'Inn' on the grounds of the old annex was continuing, if slowly. The construction was being done with minimal impact on the surrounding area, as well as taking all precautions to protect the hot springs.
"I'm surprised you didn't apply to be the architect," Mutsumi noted as she and her girlfriend watched the crew working.
"I'm more an expert on commercial buildings," Tennyo admitted. "Besides, I knew Noboyuki was bidding on it, too." she added.
"Which reminds me... when do you introduce me to your family?" Mutu=sumi asked curiously.
"Whenever you wish," Tennyo smiled, "the Masaki Shrine isn't that far away." She paused, "I should warn you, my family is weird."
"Weirder that HERE?" Mutsumi asked pointedly.
Just this morning Su had been testing her Tama Mecha VII, with LASER BEAMS. There had been the usual morning duel between Tennyo and Motoko. And Ami Mizuno's attempt to do a science experiment in the basement triggered a fire.
(Not her fault. Su's pet turtle decided to investigate...)
"Well, as weird, in different ways," Tennyo conceded.
"Then I look forward to it. Maybe we can run up on the weekend...," Mutsumi suggested.
At around the same time Kitsune was talking to Kanako. "I still think we should do a bikini day at the cafe."
Kanako looked up at the taller woman in amusement, "You just want to put poor Mutsumi in a bikini and draw all the schoolboys in."
"Are you implying that me and Shinobu don't look good in bikinis?" Kitsune asked.
"Not as good as Mutsumi," Kanako noted.
"Point," Kitsune conceded.
Kanako added, "And honestly it'd be creepy for Shinobu."
"Yeah," Kitsune frowned. She brightened as she suggested, "Maybe I could ask Utena, Anthy, Rei or Ami to join in."
"I want to see you try THAT," Kanako snorted. "They'd kill you."
"Ugh, true...," Kitsune agreed.
"The cafe's not doing badly, is it?" Kanako asked curiously.
"We do okay," Kitsune waved that off, "I just want us to do better."
"You're just too ambitious for your own good," Kanako teased once more.
"I guess so," Kitsune agreed.
"Plus, wouldn't making Mutsumi parade around in a tiny bikini piss Tennyo off?" Kanako suggested archly.
Kitsune visibly paled at the image of a furious, sword weilding Tennyo. "Also a good point..." she muttered softly.
"KITSUNE!" a very agitated voice yelled.
Both woman turned and saw a very annoyed looking Motoko striding up to them. "I think I have paperwork calling to me," Kanako decided, taking off.
"Coward," Kitsune noted as she left.
"WHY did I just get an email from a PORN SITE asking about my writing?" Motoko demanded, an aura of pure rage swirling around her.
"Porn site...?" Kitsune blinked, then realized, "Oh, Honey Chop."
The aura of pure rage dispersed a bit. "YES, Honey Chop. Why are they emailing me?" she asked Kitsune flatly.
"My friend Shizue works there, we met on our Tokyo trip," Kitsune explained. "I lent her a copy of your story to look at."
That dispersed the aura completely as Motoko looked at her blankly.
Kitsune tilted her head as she asked, "Did she say she liked it?"
Motoko went bright pink, amusingly. "Uhm, yes actually...," she admitted.
Kitsune smiled, "Well, that's good."
"There's one thing," Motoko looked profoundly embarassed, "she said that while she liked my writing... it's not really explicit enough."
"Explicit... oh!" Kitsune realized. "More sex, huh?" she guessed.
"Yes," the blushing Motoko admitted.
"I could lend you a couple of magazines..." Kitsune suggested mildly.
Motoko's eyes went wide. "God no..." she groaned.
Kitsune just laughed as Motoko strode off.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Ami nodded as she and Su finished up cleaning the basement room.
(Interestingly, Su apparently had a sub-basement lab, large enough to house small mecha. Ami was also certain it probably violated the law to have it there, which was why she hadn't asked to look. She wasn't dumb...)
"I'm sorry I startled you," Su added once again.
Ami sighed. "I really shouldn't have been trying the experiment outside of a lab anyway," she conceded.
"You forgot the 'don't try this at home' rule," Su nodded wisely.
Ami snickered softly.
The two headed upstairs, both looking tired and, somewhat, messy. "I'm going to go shower then soak a bit," Ami said.
"You want to be nice and clean when Rei gets back," Su teased then hurried off.
Su was apparently no longer scared Ami would do something horrible to her for spying on her and Rei. Well, Ami supposed that was just the resiliency of youth.
'When did I start thinking of young teens as 'youth?'' Ami thought, amused. Probably due to the years of Magical Girl activities...
Ami headed up to their room and stripped off her dirty clothes, then headed out to the baths. A brisk wash, then she settled into the hot springs for a bit.
"Ah, that was a long day," Rei Hino sighed as she emerged from the mists and settled into the spring beside her.
Ami took her hand and squeezed, "Welcome home..."
To be continued...
Notes: I had kind of FORGOT, basically, that I had Rei part-timing at the local shrine from Inu Yasha. So just assume she was doing this in between other story bits.