Love Hina : Life After Molmol

[Gojirob]

I realize that this is now an older series, but I have a story to tell, a little at a time, and from a certain POV. I hope you enjoy. For LH alt-shippers, sorry--I'm trying to keep it as canon as possible.

Summary : A bond is formed, and a bond persists.

The Girl Who Digs In The Sand
By Rob Morris

THE 1980’S, Hinata-Sou


She knew all their scummy, hurtful comments by heart at this point. So it was that a tough girl who prided herself on her emotional control waited till she was well inside the hotel before even allowing her eyes to even begin to redden. Her grandmother was already waiting.

“Your friends need to improve their social graces. Since that is unlikely to happen soon, why don’t you go upstairs and look in on your baby cousin?”

She didn’t mind the assignment. After all, a baby who had yet to say even his first words couldn’t insult her. As she walked up slowly, so as not to awaken the kid (who had the healthiest set of lungs of any baby she’d ever heard), the words that had driven her inside rang in her ears.

*Honestly, it’s not your fault. Your looks just don’t inspire boys.*

*Boys like you well enough. To them, it’s like you’re not even a girl.*

*That tom-boy thing will come back in style some day. Not in our lifetimes, you understand.*

*’Ruka, let’s be real. You’re not a girl that boys will marry. The most you can hope for is that one of them will take you to the beach to dig in the sand with them. Heh. Don’t get crabs!*

Her agitation huge, she saw that her stealth had been for nothing. While not crying, the baby was wide awake. Thankfully, Grandma had positioned his cradle/bed in position to see the sky above, calming him.

“Glad to see you’re doing all right at least. Sorry I’m not your two little girlfriends.”

She picked the delighted boy—really he was not a baby anymore-up and grew a bit bitter.

“Though you’re probably better off without them. As bad as you guys can be, you have nothing on us, when we turn on each other. Why? Because guys go after each other for the stupidest reasons. Girls go after each other for no reason at all.”

The boy laughed. His ‘two little girlfriends’ weren’t even that, really, having only waved to each other across the room so far, like something out of a bad American sitcom based on misunderstandings. The one girl was reported to be very sickly. The other girl, while healthy, had been mistaken for dead on countless occasions.

“Don’t. Don’t you look at me like that. Don’t look at me like I’m some kind of beauty queen, fairy princess, or goddess. Because I’m not. Just ask any girl at school. Or worse, ask any boy. I’m just plain old Haruka Urashima, emphasis on the plain.”

But he wouldn’t stop smiling at her in exactly that way, and eventually, she was smiling as well.

“Okay, I said stop. Here, you little brat. Take this.”

With as little force as possible, she took one finger and swatted him across the nose. She figured to start a crying jag that would end her tenure. She figured wrong.

“Little cousin, are you some kind of masochistic monster? You shouldn’t smile when I hit you! Keitaro…”

“O-ba.”

His gurgling took her by complete surprise. It sounded like a word.

“What did you just say?”

“Oba. Oba Haruka.”

Her eyes went wide, and her eyes never went wide. The first real word out of his mouth had been her name. Her name—prefixed by the honorific ‘Auntie’.

“You little creep. Your Mom’s gonna wanna kill me for this! I took your first word, and it was—just for me?”

Okay, so she was a little young to be an aunt. Her pals would surely tease her about this. But that gave her an idea.

“Work with me, kiddo. I want to give those little bitches what for. See where Auntie is placing your hand?
Well, when my friends come back, I want you to grab them right there—a lot! After all, they can’t punish a baby. And live.”

As she moved his tiny hand to the chest she whose lack she was teased about, she briefly mused that this could become a habit that could get the boy punished later on.

“But it’s only okay when we’re with friends, here at the Sou, got it?”

He seemed to understand. The next day, when tissues came out of one friend’s bra, Haruka decided she would always be happy to see her nephew Keitaro.


THE 2000’S, Kingdom Of Molmol


“What the hell are you doing?”

She had gotten up to clear her head, and what she saw on the beach astounded her.

“Auntie, I’m just digging.”

She pointed at him with a fury.

“Bad enough you mistook my advice to just do it with Naru the first time. But now, having won the woman you love by fighting all the other women you love, you’re digging on the beach instead of making love to her?”

Keitaro waved a hand in the air.

“Please, keep it down. She said it was alright if I tell you, but no one else. For the others, I have to use my best goofball routine. I’m to say something awkward if asked.”

Haruka grew concerned.

“Is she all right?”

Keitaro nodded.

“She is now. I had to rub lotion all over her. Err—she had rope burns and whip abrasions. I think it happened when Kitsune had her all tied up on the warplane. She took some pain relievers, too. She’s tough, but the way this ruined things tonight really hit her hard. And that’s not all.”

He sat down, and she did likewise. He didn’t have his ‘woe-is-me’ giving-up face on, but one from a more tangible sort of upset. This one wasn’t going to pass with a shake or a punch.

“Go ahead, tell me.”

“Auntie, I know the girls are just that way, and that this whole thing was a weird---very, very weird---way of saying that I do mean something to them. While I do wish they’d just told me this was a game, given the benefits of just knowing them, I’m happy to let it all slide. I’m not sure Naru is, though. She did a lot of grumbling while I rubbed her down, and for once, it wasn’t aimed at me. Add to that, I think Shinobu feels like the others weren’t fully truthful with her on some of what happened here. I’m beginning to think that, right after we settle this thing with Grandma and the Inn, there’s going to be some bad blood.”

Haruka sighed. Normally, she thought, this would be the time she smacked him and told him to not worry for no reason.

“Pretty damned insightful, nephew. You’re finally growing up. Look, Keitaro. If this bad blood crops up, let it. Keep it from getting too bad, but accept that it will get bad. Also accept that you have nothing to do with it. All you and Naru’s love did was catalyze some things that have been brewing since before you ever showed your adult face at the Inn. Friends are like this. I had to have it out with mine on occasion, even with Sarah’s Mom. “

She half-expected to hear a whining jag about wanting everyone to get along, but it seemed he really had grown up—at least somewhat. Since she was still waiting for her own confirmation of maturity, she accepted this.

“You’re right. We guys turn on each other for the stupidest reasons, but sometimes I think girls turn on each other for no reason.”

His sudden smile told her he knew damned well where he had gotten that pearl of wisdom.

“Hubby Seta’s sleeping off his accomplishment, and the verbal ass-kicking I gave him for dragging you two into this mess in the first place. Naru’s not like us, and needs her rest after Mitsune’s bout of outdoing herself.”

Keitaro’s head turned.

“Not like us?”

She looked at her watch.

“It’s Three right now. Kitchen opens for Breakfast opens at Four-Fifteen. We’ll eat then, and talk about a lot of things you need to know. But first, we dig for treasure. Okay?”

“Sure!”

So it was that a girl now a woman far happier than any of the friends who had taunted her dug happily in the sand with the first man who ever recognized her worth and beauty. For good measure, just before leaving the area, they tossed their shovels over a rise, knocking two overly zealous Molmolian security force personnel silly.

Haruka decided anew that she would always be happy to see her nephew Keitaro.

(To be followed by Breakfast With Auntie)

 

[Gojirob]

Breakfast With Auntie

By Rob Morris

Shinobu woke up and walked to her bedroom door. But when she opened it, instead of the hallway or some random chaos caused by her beloved Sempai Keitaro's clumsiness (and, she had to admit, the others' predictable over-reactions) there were now steel bars with a lock.

"Hello?"

She looked around as far as she could. There was no one in sight.

"This feels so familiar. But why?"

Though she was growing to hate the damned thing, she grabbed and swung out at the bars with her frying pan. It made a loud clank against the bars that reverberated.

"Shinobu, keep it down! I'm on the phone with my armies."

"Su? Is that you?"

The Molmolian princess closed her phone up and smiled.

"Great news! We've just taken Washington. Ohh-I didn't ask them whether they meant the city or the state. No matter. We'll have both soon. I plan to have the Golden Gate transported back to Molmol, and I'll bury the Statue Of Liberty halfway in the sand, just like in that movie with the monkey men."

Utterly confused and losing patience, Shinobu still tried to keep calm.

"Su? Why am I behind these bars-in my own room?"

Now Su took on a confused look.

"Shinobu! I told you I was going to take over the world someday. Well, last night, I did it. It was so easy, once I found out the secret of Keitaro's immortality, and gave it to my soldiers. But don't worry, since you're my friend, you won't get relocated. You get to stay right here in the Hinata-Sou. I may even make you my bride, along with the others. Motoko first, though, but don't worry. She has second dibs on Keitaro, so we'll still have all kinds of fun! I'm having Beijing made over into one big waterslide!"

Shinobu grabbed at her own head.

"Su, let me out of here. I can't stay in my room my whole life. How can you do this?"

Kaolla Su now looked hurt.

"Huh? Aren't you happy that your friend is ruling the world? That gives you an inside track."

Fuming now, Shinobu used her frying pan and smashed through the bars entirely.

"You---you are psychotic! I'm tired of your schemes and insane advice causing me embarrassment. Finally, you show your true face, and you are the most selfish, shallow thing in the entire universe!"

She hated herself even as she thought and said these things, but they felt true. Screaming, she leaped into the air and moved to swing her pan right at Su's head.

"Tell me, Princess? Do YOU have Sempai's immortality?"

"She's going for the Princess! Open Fire!!"

Shinobu looked, and at the head of the Black-suited bodyguards was a familiar figure, one who she saw through the flare of the gun-fire.

"Kitsune?"

---------------------

MOLMOL, 200X

Waking from the nightmare, Shinobu ran for the bathroom, and splashed cold water on her face.

"It didn't happen like that. They weren't like that. Nobody fired any---"

Yet, she came to realize, that nightmare hadn't come up all on its own. Worse, she could see it happening. Su, taking over the world and ruining countless lives as part of a game. Kitsune, selling them all out, for kicks and sake, more than like. She was no longer even sure if she trusted Motoko, and that made her feel ill.

"They are my friends. Things got a little wild here, but they are my friends. They-"

She hit the wall with her fist.

"They lied to me."

Thankful that she hadn't woken any of them up, Shinobu returned to bed, knowing that they had to leave soon. But she did do one thing before falling back asleep. She took a match, and she burned the oath of loyalty document she had signed, when they joined Su's ‘side'.

"They lied to me."

A girl who didn't hate was suddenly finding it very hard not to hate those she usually loved best of all. Two of those she did not hate, but now worried that perhaps they hated her. Life at the Hinata-Sou was on the verge of becoming very, very interesting in ways that even its harried residents would not believe.


------------------------

Haruka set the suitcase down by a river bank. Keitaro chose not to question either this or why she told him to fetch clothes to put in the bag. For her part, she noticed that he was letting this pass, and appreciated it as they went uphill to the breakfast buffet-style restaurant. It was still before 4:30 AM, and the usually-bustling buffet was almost like a quiet restaurant.

Once they sat down, Haruka looked her nephew in the eye.

"First thing, kid. Old business. I'm not that much older than you. Why Auntie? Why not, say, Nee-Chan?"

Keitaro shook his head.

"I first saw you when I couldn't even speak yet. To me, anybody older was a giant of the earth. Also, you took care of me. I guess calling you just ‘sister' would have seemed disrespectful."

She saw something in his eyes. By at last hooking up with Naru, something in her nephew had finally unclenched. He would always be who he was-no one could escape that. But at least a level of relaxation had taken over.

"Listen-thanks for stepping aside, as regards me and Seta. It meant everything."

"Well, I owe you two just about everything, so maybe we're even."

Haruka knew well that, once back at the Sou, this calm young man would be falling into water, and into the chests of young ladies, all while freaking and stammering. But then and there, it was good to see he could be at peace.

"You know that I couldn't stand up for you too much, when you first showed up at the Inn. I wanted to-we are family-but-"

"Auntie, stop. You had a position to protect. Those girls almost threw me out, and Grandma or No, you had to watch out for yourself. I got that, even back then. Besides, turning to you would have made me the wimpy monster they all thought sure I was."

Now, she was really getting flatly astounded. He had seen all that? It actually made sense, but sense was something that Haruka had thought certain the younger Keitaro, freshly thrown out by his parents, didn't have at all.

"Oh, I guess you get everything, don't you?"

"I wish. I have this feeling that if I got everything, my face would have been a lot less sore these past few years. Whatever the girls think I saw on them, my most vivid memories don't involve bare boobs, but bare knuckles."

Her features sharpened.

"You go and say ‘boobs' to your Auntie?!"

When he gained a look of panic, she smiled.

"Work on that, nephew. Otherwise, Kitsune will keep right on playing you."

He smiled, but that faded.

"I think I can deal with her. And I'm not the one who feels played."

Haruka launched into a large part of why she'd taken him there.

"The problem with over-the-top situations like the one we just lived through is not the situation itself. It's all the little things that bubble up once nerves are rubbed raw. That's the bad blood you talked about. It's not the tidal wave this place has been to our lives. It's the undertow."

"But these girls have always gotten along. They're like sisters."

"Keitaro, sisters fight. And the only one more vicious towards a woman than a man of bad intent is another woman. Guys tend to stick by each other and get each other. Women? We're a mystery to ourselves, and the people we fight with the worst are those we love best."

Now, he seemed to be struggling, to Haruka's eyes, but it was a struggle he was willing to take up.

"Auntie, you make it sound like they have to watch out more for each other than some of my accidents."

She nodded.

"What you've never gotten is, before you showed up, these girls were as lost as you were. Maybe more so."

He looked really stunned at that.

"More than me?"

"In some ways, sure. Kitsune had flirted her way through the male population of the surrounding area. Motoko had successfully threatened the privates of every male past toddling. Su had the attention of many older men-all psychology students, looking for a thesis work."

Keitaro could easily understand that last part, but still disputed her on another front.

"Auntie, I know there were tons of boys after them."

"Oh, you know that? From who?"

He realized his position.

"Kitsune."

She took a puff of her cigarette, and then nodded.

"Well, she wasn't lying. But what she seems to have failed to point out is, aside from yourself, how many guys really stuck around?"

Of course, he couldn't even think of one.

"It got that bad?"

"Story : Shinobu brought home one of her little friends. Future bishie, I'm nearly certain. She wants to introduce him to her nearest and dearest. In short order, he is flirted with well past a 12-year-old's limits, threatened with instant sex change should he break Shinobu's heart, thrown into a giant glass pinball-don't ask, we made her promise to never do it again---and while trying to flee in purest terror, snags Naru's robes as he comes out of the onsen. Shinobu then launches into her hugest crying jag to date."

Keitaro looked lost in thought. Haruka snapped at him.

"Hey, moron? You listening?"

"Sorry, Auntie. I was just trying to figure out if parallel incarnations are possible in the same lifetime. Because that sounds eerily like me."

"That's my point, kid. You weren't the only boy to hit and be hit by the Hinata-Sou. You were just the boy that lived-errr-yeah."

"So what happened to Shinobu's friend?"

"Last we heard, he'd fled to a monastery on a Spanish mountaintop."

He managed a weak smile.

"I think I know the one. I considered running away a few times-I mean besides the times I actually did run away."

She needed to cheer him up, and found the simple words.

"You're also the only one they ever went after to bring back. Keep that in mind."

She now saw a look of consideration on his face.

"You're not coming back to the Sou with us, are you?"

Haruka took a bite of her sausage gravy and biscuits-she'd gotten a taste for them during an Arizona dig with Seta-and then stared at her nephew with something very like new eyes.

"How the hell did you figure that out?"

"Easy. You told me after a prank you pulled when I was little. I was all hurt, but you said ‘Auntie's not a hugger or kisser, kid. Just know that you have my love, and that's enough'. I never forgot it."

He shrugged.

"You were being a little more direct but still with a lighter touch than usual, so I figured you were breaking some big news. Since you and Seta just tied the knot, it only followed that..."

He stopped. The nearly-grown man vanished, but nor did the crybaby teen show up. Instead, he was sounding like a little boy.

"Auntie, I don't want you to go. What will we do without you? What will I do? If the girls start fighting, I'll probably only make it worse, like always."

She took two fingers, and slapped him on his right hand with them.

"This is where you have to learn to trust yourself. You'll be the only one the girls can turn to, when things start to get bad. You will be the one who knows when things have gone too far. That's when you'll step in. This isn't like falling into the onsen, Keitaro. There's no need to stammer or worry. They'll be fully clothed, but in a way more naked than they've ever been, and they'll be counting on you to hand them a towel and get dried off. But act surprised when I tell everyone I'm going."

He shook his head.

"Will I really know when to step in? Didn't I just recently misread your advice about moving things forward with Naru?"

She noted he was calling her ‘Naru' for once, but stayed on topic.

"It's true. I told you to consummate, and you read ‘Do It' as meaning you should propose marriage. That drove me insane when Naru told me. I wanted to choke you!"

Her dour look turned bright.

"Then, it occurred to me. Most guys, and not a few women, would have taken a nudge to get married as meaning they should consummate. But my nephew, so damn sweet and responsible, automatically thinks of doing the right thing, instead of just---doing it. And you've always been that way. Why do you think Kanako fell so hard for you?"

"Umm-because my sister is insane?"

Haruka shrugged.

"Well, there is that. I think your mother dropped her on her head a few times on the way back from signing the adoption papers. But you were sweet to a girl who didn't know what to expect in her new family, just as you were to a sickly girl who, no matter how hard she hits you, kept you in her heart always."

"Auntie, can I ask you some questions?"

"Only if you're good with my leaving."

"I'm good with you and Seta being happy, and I think you're the only one who could possibly raise Sarah. We'll handle it, though I have to find a new manager."

"We'll talk about that too. But what's your first question?"

Keitaro sighed.

"Kanako. Am I so clueless that I didn't see her feelings for me?"

"Well, you are clueless-"

"Hey!"

"---but I don't think anybody saw the depth of her feelings for you. Besides-what kind of guy would get that his little sister has an obsessive complex for him so big, she's willing to kidnap perceived rivals, threaten to blow them and her family's property up, and be the only girl in the Sou to deliberately expose herself to him?"

"Actually, Kitsune did once. She mistook the drain cleaner for Kirin. Lucky for me, no one else was home-and she didn't remember. Instead of telling her that she pulled off her sweater and demanded that I pick a ‘favorite', I said to her later that she asked for warm milk and then went to bed."

Haruka scratched her head.

"I'm surprised you didn't freak out. Then again, I'm not sure there's a man in Japan who hasn't seen her bosoms. So which one did you pick?"

"The right one."

"That'd be mine, too. Next question?"

"Ummm-Kanako, despite nearly blowing up the Sou, was taken back by Grandma in a heartbeat. Do you think that-errr-Grandma sent her for some reason?"

She sighed, he nodded, and they both recited a mantra.

"If one is wise, one does not question the plans of the Great Demon Of Hinata. This is considered unhealthy."

Keitaro shrugged.

"If you were to?"

Haruka looked a bit like she already had.

"Hypothetically, and never to be quoted under pain of death---she wanted to move you and Naru along by sending in a lovestruck rival that was only a rival in her own and Naru's minds."

"But-she and I were moving along pretty well, even before I left with Seta. It may have taken a little more time, but I think we were closer than not."

"Yeah, but Keitaro-neither you nor Naru are a grandmother seeking to become a great-grandmother. The glacial way you two do things may have made her worry about seeing your kids born-or not. This is another reason why I never speculate on her plans."

Keitaro shook his head.

"I didn't lie to Kanako, when I told her that maybe, if I had never met Naru, it could have been her. But what I didn't say was that such a life would also involve her not being my sister. Adoption or no that is how I have always seen her. Joining the others here in Molmol makes me think that she may never really accept that."

"Then my niece has a problem. As in, it's her problem, not yours. Gently and politely take her aside at some point and let her know that she cannot ever again do something like this without risking hurting her relationship with you as her brother. There are times when it's better to slap a hand then to hold it. Mind you-that does not apply to Shinobu. Her, you go as gently as you can. Promise me?"

"Actually, she came up while I was rubbing Naru down with lotion. We're gonna make some choices, and soon. When we do, she has dinner with Mutsumi, and I have dinner with Shinobu."

"And the others?"

Keitaro looked pained.

"Not before-and this is Naru, not me---she hears some words of explanation and/or apology."

Haruka rolled her eyes.

"Did you point out that two out of the three parties remaining tend to never give apologies, one because she's too mischievous, the other because she doesn't quite live in the same world as the rest of us?"

"Till I was blue in the face."

Well, she thought, he had said there was bad blood. After finishing her fruit and nut oatmeal, she pressed on.

 

[Gojirob]

"Next?"

Keitaro took Haruka's lit cigarette from the ashtray, and drove it into his arm. No blister appeared.

"Once and for all-Auntie, what am I?"

She lit a new cigarette, puffed for a few seconds, and then drove it into her palm. No blister appeared. Keitaro breathed in.

"Auntie-you too?"

She looked around to make sure no one had noticed, and only then spoke.

"Sarah's Mom was our Mutsumi in more ways than one, though her rack put both Mutsumi and Kitsune's in the pettanko zone-no joke. She was also kind of---well, not flakey, but off. Brilliant---just like-etcetera. So one day, her me and Seta are on a dig near the Brittany coast, and they find evidence of a Celtic storehouse set up to fend off the Saxons after the Celts fled Britain. They're talking a mile a minute when they swing a spear my way without realizing. I duck, but lose my footing. Boom! Straight into the rocky English Channel below, bouncing a few times to boot. It was a half an hour before our intrepid archeologists realized I was gone. I gave both of them a Naru-punch when I got back."

"But you lived."

"Nary a scratch. I asked Grandma about it when I got back to Japan."

Keitaro's heart began to race. Here was an answer at last.

"And?"

"And-she said ‘You must be very durable. Little Keitaro is like that, too. Now go set the table for dinner.' And that was all she would say."

His face nearly fell into his French Toast.

"Are we the only ones?"

"Honestly? I think one or both of your parents must be like us. They're always grasping those pastry trays straight from the oven barehanded. I think the old demon herself maybe. Seta may have picked it up from me, but it's hard to confirm. Naru probably can from you-hint."

The hint was obvious enough, even for Keitaro.

"But your parents-and my leg. How do you explain that?"

Haruka was starting to get a pained look.

"One night not long after we lost them, I found Grandma drinking. She looked at a picture of my folks, saying over and over that she ‘should have explained things' to them. Maybe it's not automatic. As to your leg? I think Mutsumi broke it."

"Huh?"

"Not on purpose, of course. But to hear her version of that day, you were having a run of really bad luck-and she, bless her, was following you around, saying out loud how you were having a run of really bad luck."

Keitaro seemed to connect the dots.

"I forgot. It's bad luck to even really speak of having it. Especially when you already are."

"Yeah. You three invited the fates down on you with that promise about Toudai. Being the male of the group, your strength was tested by means of some really rotten luck and incredibly lousy timing."

"But Auntie, we were kids!"

"Doesn't matter. All the fates heard was a challenge."

Keitaro ate some bacon, and then some breaded fish heads.

"Well, I guess that's all my questions. We better finish up."

"Suit yourself. Pity about the end of the romance, though."

"No, I think you and Seta still have a lot of that left in you. Unless-you meant me and Naru, but our romance is just really getting going."

She smiled, and it was that of a woman smiling at a man.

"No, Baka-I meant our romance."

He smiled, too, but for different reasons.

"You already told me to be ready for Kitsune's games."

She tapped his forehead.

"This isn't a game, Keitaro. You and I have had a thing going on, but now it's over."

He knew what she would say back, but he said it anyway.

"Call me baka and all those great names for dummies, but I have no idea what you're talking about."

In fact she did no such thing.

"It's okay, kid. It took me a while to realize it too. Go back with me to the Brittany coast and Seta. He had us out so far, even the local fishermen didn't know the area. We were all three of us badly lost, and he broke down."

"Seta?"

"Not the man you know yet. So after a while, and even with that idea TV comedies have that women are any better at finding their way out, we're starting to get in real trouble. Clothes, food, toilet paper-it was getting ugly. Only he could get us back to civilization, and he was a useless lump."

"Did you hit him?"

"Repeatedly. But he just sank in further. Finally, I yelled at him that he was giving up on his dream. More, I told him about my little nephew, who despite setbacks and admonitions, never gave up on his. That seemed to do it."

She drank some apple juice as her throat became dry, then continued.

"He got up and said that he couldn't allow himself to be seen as less in my eyes than a determined little boy, and before we knew it, he not only found out where we were, he even found Exc-ehhhh-an antique Celtic sword the authorities confiscated and swore us to secrecy on."

Keitaro's mouth hung open at the mention.

"Auntie, he found the sword Exc---exactly where he expected to?"

"Not a word, Keitaro, or I will chloroform you and Shinobu, and stick you in bed together for Naru and the others to find. There won't be enough left of you to ID at that point."

His face showed he got the message. Haruka calmed a bit.

"He never told you any of this because he's a forgetful idiot. But you were training him before he ever trained you-in fact, before you even met. Don't you get it? The man I love became that because I came to see him as an older version of the first boy to ever look at me with appreciative eyes. And you? You chose a violent girl whose moods you can never predict but who you know loves you."

Her eyes held the closest thing to touchy-feely Keitaro would ever see in them.

"We provided one another with the template for the love of our lives. I realize now I could never love a man who didn't have at his core your kind of caring and determination."

Floored as he was, Keitaro managed a response that did not end with his face being slapped or punched.

"I could never love a girl who didn't have your strength and yet your inability to get how truly pretty and wonderful she is-because she's just too busy being wonderful to ever notice."

Their warm smiles and quick hand-squeezes started whispers all over the eatery. The pair caught on to this, and smiled wickedly at each other.

"Remember my 13th Birthday?"

"Sure do. It was one of the last times I ever saw you, prior to my moving into the Sou. I'll just update it and improvise for the passage of years."

Leaving the tab and a tip, the pair rose from the table. Haruka adopted a face she'd seen women use in the corniest soaps imaginable.

"We've been together on and off since we were children."

Keitaro removed and folded his glasses, but not before gaining a sense of his surroundings, and deliberately pushed all worry-wart looks from his face as he looked at her.

"Now that has to end. Will your husband allow me to visit you?"

"I can't be sure. You know how he can be."

On Haruka's 13th Birthday, her catty friends had seen her with Keitaro and teasingly asked if this was her new ‘boyfriend'. With a look in her eyes he knew screamed ‘prank alert', little Keitaro played along as she fired back.

*Not just boyfriend. The best lover I've ever had. He's forgotten more things about making a woman feel like a woman than your little-membered boy-toys have ever learned!*

*Haruka, darling, are these your friends? Why are you always so kind to the underprivileged? Let's run off together, before their ordinary looks diminish the shine of your beauty.*

The prank had unnerved Haruka's pals back when, and it unnerved the busybodies now. Keitaro sometimes found it hard to believe he had ever been that bold, even for a second, but realized he had always felt he could do anything for Haruka. Not wanting to fail in her eyes had driven him ever further when the ladies were nearly united in wanting him out of the Inn.

Haruka caught that the busybodies' interest was at its peak, so she kept on.

"I won't let him keep us apart. This has gone on too long for me to allow it to end. You'll come and visit us, and that's settled."

Keitaro put his arm to his head, as though in agony.

"I can't just show up unannounced. Why, in our last battle, he nearly thrashed me!"

The gasps that followed gave the Urashimas the knowledge that they had their targets cold. Haruka feigned suddenly remembering something.

"But what about her? She'll want to come along with you."

"You forget-she's always been-fond-of your husband."

The whispering fools finally became bold enough to move forward. The trap was set. A slightly younger woman pulled Haruka aside, and a man slightly older than Keitaro pulled him aside, grins on their faces.

"He's a little skinny, but I'll bet he's a tiger in the sack!"

"She's a bit of a Christmas Cake, but with that rack, who cares?"

The trap sprang and closed. Haruka and Keitaro adopted horrified looks.

"He's---my nephew!"

"We were just discussing my visit to see her and my new uncle, also my Sempai. His work schedule is frantic, and may not allow it. Uncle is also my girlfriend's sempai."

The crowd began to look both ill and outraged.

"You said you battled him!"

Haruka faked a shudder.

"No! They battled to see who would first declare their love under Molmol's sacred moon at Toudai. My husband won, and he likes to rub that in my nephew's face."

Keitaro brought out his inner crybaby, this time for fun.

"oh, Auntie! These people think the worst of us. If such sick rumors reach the family..."

"No, nephew. Oba-San took care of you as a baby, and she will make it right now..."

She grabbed his hand and ran for a cliff overlooking a waterfall. A large, deep waterfall.

"Auntie will take care of you for all eternity!"

Over the side they went, to the gasps and cries of people who would now always mind their own damn business. Before they hit the water, Keitaro looked over and saw Haruka's smile, and it became his own. He really would miss his favorite Auntie. Then he thought of something.

"Who's going to be the new manager?"

She said a name that hit him harder than the water ever could.

"Kitsune."

--------------

The swirling waters took them almost exactly to the point where Haruka left the suitcase, and looking himself over, he realized this was a good precaution. The water had taken him straight down to his underpants.

"That was great, Auntie."

"Uhh-Keitaro?"

He heard her voice behind him while digging his glasses from the mud.

"Yeah?"

"Ummm-I wasn't wearing any underwear---and my foot is stuck in the mud bank."

His body visibly froze up.

"Look, kid-we are family, and both spoken for. I will even protect you from Naru, if it comes to that. But I can't get leverage here, and it won't be long before people make their way over up the path for breakfast. If it bothers you, just act like we're fifty years older, you're 72, and I'm 80 and..."

He stopped shaking, turned and looked at her. Just for a second, something that could have cost Keitaro a lot of pain normally emerged from his eyes. Calmly, he picked her up, helped her foot loose from the mud, sat her down on the river bank, then promptly turned his back.

"You, Auntie, are not 80 years old."

Haruka realized that the first male to ever see her as beautiful still did. A forbidden moment? Maybe. But one she would treasure, all the same.

"I knew I couldn't leave you two alone!"

Naru was smiling, belying the angry tone of her words. Haruka, dressed by then, played it up.

"Hey, if you weren't going to make my nephew a man, what choice did I have?"

Naru shook her head.

"You told her?"

"You-said it was alright."

"If it needed to be said, but..."

Haruka cut her off.

"Relax. I asked why he wasn't with you, and I have pull with my nephew. Did you get a good sleep?"

Naru nodded.

"The lotions helped my whip and rope burns. Strangling Kitsune would help a lot more."

Haruka shot a look at Keitaro to keep quiet. He would obey her wishes, until such statements were in danger of being made real. That time was coming.

"You two gotta get back so all of you can get back to the Sou. Let's move."

Haruka overheard a conversation on the way back.

"But you always want me to call you Naru."

"No. For now, keep calling me Naruszegawa, and I'll keep correcting you. It'll keep the others occupied."

"We need to keep them occupied?"

"Baka! They just spent the last week showing that when it comes to you, they can't be trusted."

"I wouldn't go that far."

"Keitaro, I don't want to discuss it. Until I hear some explanations and apologies for their little ‘game', then maybe I don't know them as well as I thought. Also, when Kitsune inevitably asks us about last night-tell her we tried, but nothing else. As long as she's chuckling, she's not scheming."

Later, as they prepared to depart in a desperate bid to meet Grandma back at the Inn and confirm Keitaro's choice of wife, Haruka saw further evidence that life back at the Sou was about to become interesting. Well, more interesting anyway.

"Motoko, will there be more lessons when we get back?"

The samurai girl stared down at one she held dear to her heart, but the tenderness was decidedly less pronounced.

"Not for the present, Kaolla Su. In fact, we may need to review old lessons I taught you-or rather attempted to."

"Oh. Okay."

Haruka saw Shinobu mouth ‘Not Okay' silently, and saw her also shoot a glare Kitsune's way. For the moment, no one challenged Haruka's designation of Kitsune as her successor, and Haruka correctly guessed that all the tensions would be buried until Grandma came and went. Mutsumi seemed cheery as ever, and at least that was something. The plane took off, and Haruka saw her new step-daughter shaking her head.

"Ya know, I tried to tell Su that, maybe if her people had done a little thinking, my Dad wouldn't have become a fugitive. I mean, I had fun, but being an outlaw from your best friend is a little weird-scary."

Seta had found yet another set of artifacts out of nowhere, so Haruka responded to Sarah's words alone.

"What did she say?"

"Oh, she totally didn't get it. Just said she was gonna build a robot me for when I wasn't around. I'll miss her-heck, I'll miss all of them. Then again, I could really use a little down-time."

A set of sentiments Haruka found herself in complete agreement with. Later that night, when Sarah was asleep, Seta was astounded to see a tear in his new bride's eye.

"Are you alright?"

She shook her head.

"I will be. It's just that, once upon a time, I took care of this cute sweet little baby who thought I was the sun, the stars and the moon---"

She fell into his arms.

"...and now, he's all grown up."

He put a finger under her chin.

"He'll always love you, he'll always need you---"

Seta shared his student's tendency not to know when to shut up.

"---and before too long, he'll make you a great-Auntie!"

In the fury that followed, it was confirmed that Seta had indeed picked up the durability of the Urashimas. Also, the exact phrase ‘Great-Auntie' was banned from household discussions forevermore.

 

[Gojirob]

Once More Unto The Brunch

By Rob Morris


PRIVATE JOURNAL, MOTOKO AOYAMA


Grandma Hina came and went, confirming as she did her grandson's choice, celebrating the growth of both Urashima and Narusegawa from a boy and a girl wracked by weakness of mind and body to a man and a woman capable of standing ready to claim a dream. It occurred to me that some might think one or the other's prior weakness to be greater than the other, but only a warrior like Grandma would understand that either weakness can be a grave one.

I half-expected, and perhaps even hoped, that Kanako would remain with us, but her part in our lives seems destined to remain hit-and-run. In her sight, I cut a motion into the air with my blade. I knew she would recognize it as an invocation of protection of the Sou and a warning to her : She must never again assault the residents of the Sou in any way. Though she has been my ally, and I would like to call her an even deeper friend, she skirts the edge of tactics that are inherently dishonorable. One cannot be a samurai woman while also, apologies to Maehara-San, playing the Shinobu. Grandma restrains her before she can respond, telling me much. Kanako is a work-in-progress for the Great Demon, a hurricane she unleashed to blow the mist off of her brother's progress. I wish her well, but there will be no more barrels. I have been imprisoned enough for my lifetime. If I must, I will even find a way to mark her, so as to more easily smoke out her disguises.

As Urashima and Naru walk away from the receding anti-climax ( I half-expected Mutsumi's family to assault the compound with giant turtles), Shinobu approaches me. Her look is dour, and not at all what I expect from one so cheery and bright.

"Motoko, I think they're going to the Todai entrance again."

I worry for a moment, then ask her a question.

"And you wish to stop them?"

For just a moment before she regains herself, her look is purest rage.

"Are you crazy? I just want to make sure no one stops them this time. Help me, Motoko. Because you owe them, and you owe *Me*."

I knew this matter would arise. Lying to her about my intentions in stopping our friends from entering Todai Gate before Seta involved us in Molmol will likely remain one of my lowest moments. I had my reasons, but like much else in my life, those are a bit of a muddle.

"If I do this, will you agree to accept my apologies and hear my explanations?"

"Sure. But let's nail the others down first."

Kaolla Su we found in her room, shaking her head at her many layers of electronic equipment. I had almost been avoiding her, horrible though that sounds, even as words on a page. I am not angry or bitter for her actions in Molmol, though I may be the only one besides Urashima, who it at times seems, simply cannot hold a grudge. But those actions make me concerned for her, and for myself, as her sensei and guide. I vary between returning the very deepest love she has for me and then again regarding it as the crush of a chaotic child whose scattershot affections buffet all about her in winds of mania. But whether she is prospect or daughter to me, to say that she is anything but dear to my heart is a lie I could not survive the telling of.

"Motoko, Shinobu---none of my stuff works anymore! All the chips and hard drives have been wiped. The mechas are down for the count too."

Shinobu's answer was too swift and too certain for my comfort.

"The wiring in the Sou is old. Maybe a power surge came through while we were locked up-locked into finishing up in Molmol."

"NO! I mean, I purchased high-end surge protectors to guard against just this kind of thing. It's like an E-M pulse from an atom bomb hit just this one room."

I personally was glad to see Su divorced from her VR overload, yet I knew well that the time she spent with her computers and video games was a peaceful time for the rest of the household, and maybe even a safety valve for their tolerance. Yet it was the lack of a stream of reassuring words from Shinobu that worried me more than Urashima's blood pressure.

"Well, after all, you're a princess. You have money. Could you afford seven first-class train tickets, cross-country?"

"uhhh...sure? That's no problem."

"Then you can afford all new stuff."

I did not at all like the conclusion I was drawing.

"But I was waiting till the next-gen stuff came out in five months."

"Well, keep checking then. Maybe-"

Shinobu's light shake of the head fooled me not at all.

"Maybe this is fate's way of telling you *No*."

I have come to believe that the true difference between we ladies and Urashima has nothing to do with private parts and curves. It is that he is an honest fool who knows it, and we are all self-delusional fools. Shinobu stood there, not comprehending the cost of what she was doing. Su, despite lessons I had given her in reading people's words, tones and gestures, did not pick up on the painfully obvious clues her friend was all but transmitting. Shinobu I will refer to Urashima and Naru. Su is my failure, and she seems by turns to almost be a complete one.

"Let's check on Kitsune next."

"Shinobu, stop."

Her hurry to find the actively mischievous Kitsune evaporated all too quickly.

"Okay."

Her look held no regrets, so nor did I hold back.

"What did you do to Su's things?"

Her room was right next to us, and without a word, she reached into it and pulled out a metal bucket.

"It's full of magnets. I spread them as soon as we got back. It's her own fault for not ‘rugged-izing' her equipment."

She put the bucket aside.

"Kind of like it was my fault for believing that any of you had any real interest in letting me talk to Sempai Keitaro before their first attempt to reach Todai Gate."

Pursuing a heart-felt goal regardless of any other consideration seems a low thing when the thing you failed to consider was the heart of another.

"You want my apology? You have it. I am sorry, Shinobu Maehara, that I lied to you when I had the ulterior motive of giving Urashima one last chance to choose me. Understand, it was difficult enough for me to admit to loving him in the first place. To simply state that I would run after him in the slender hopes he would change his affections from Naru to me was more than I could bear."

Her face softened before my eyes, but so much doubt and anger still remained.

"What about the Inn?"

This child was tasking me as much as my sister, but she had the right in this case, so I did not correct her harsh tone just yet.

"Not a factor in my choice. I am set to inherit property myself, if you recall."

Her look was now much more typically Shinobu, but still not quite.

"What was up with those Sentai costumes we put on? Why didn't we just call them up? They have cell phones-at least I'm sure Naru does. We could have just asked them to wait until we got there."

I had really been hoping to avoid that one entirely. As my sister always said, Kami only puts them in our skulls, so don't blame him if we don't use them.

"That was just stupidity. We forgot that, when in a rush, its best to not let Kitsune and Su make our battle plans-or really, any plans at all."

Her looks became harsh once again.

"So that's it? They're just that way, and we keep on cleaning up and licking our wounds after their actions? For how long, Motoko? For-how-long?"

"They are hardly the only ones to cause problems in this household."

"No, they're just the only ones to shrug it off. We forgave Sempai Keitaro for lying about Todai when he first arrived, but he still hears about it sometimes, even though it was at least partly a misunderstanding. I can't count how many times I've heard about my kicking him in the ba-err downstairs. You fell into despair over your sister's demands. Sempai Naru fell apart after failing her Todai exam. You're right. We all spend time in the barrel. Only two of us never learn from it or change enough to matter."

The things she was saying had crossed my mind, yet I could not allow it to go unchallenged.

"None of this justifies destroying another's property. Also, you put up with the things they do as much as any of us have. Why is it intolerable now?"

This wasn't as simple as her making an awkward try for Urashima's affections, then running off in tears, proclaiming him a jerk-said jerkdom likely earning him his place among us. Naru may find it irritating that her man in a constant state of over-apology, but at least that has always meant he is quick to own up where he truly is wrong. The ones Shinobu holds responsible for her pain are at least less likely to acknowledge or even realize the toes they stepped on. Again, for one of those I can only blame myself.

Shinobu made the shape of a gun with her right-hand's fingers, then put it to her head.

"Click-Click! Don't Move! Click-Click! Sign The Contract, or spend your life in a comfortable jail! Ok-Shinobu-we're going to Todai so you can say your peace-no, it's so we can force a man into a marriage for a property scam-wait, no-it's so we can bring them back from a kingdom we never heard of before-wait again---it's so we can pay them back for all the public kissing-oops-it's now either to give the couple one last grand adventure---"

She fought back tears as she spoke, and her frustration was mine as well.

"---or finally, it's so we all can state how we really feel and not let him not choosing us go completely unchallenged---or maybe Kitsune had another explanation tucked aside somewhere, I don't know, and I don't care! I mean, state how we all feel? THAT's why we went to Todai in the first place! If everyone wanted a turn, we could have had it, maybe just under the wire before Seta showed up. And you, *honorable warrior*---"

She pointed at me in fury.

"---you had already confessed to him. I know what you said about one last shot, but they weren't getting married-just confirming their love. That was all I wanted, Motoko-was just to state unequivocally to the man I loved---love-that he was just that. To make sure that he knew that, and to find out if it changed anything. I knew it probably couldn't, the same as you. But thanks to selfishness and stunts, I ended up bottomless-with all of you slapping him-I ended up running off to someplace its ruler could have phoned the authorities to clear things up-arrested, thrown in jail-and loaded guns shoved in my face. And no, it doesn't matter that the guns weren't fired and the jail was nice-all this was still done by a friend. To win a game."

I had to redirect her wrath, even if at me.

"Shinobu-several months back I gave Kaolla Su lessons on how to be a truly just ruler. I obviously failed to bring those lessons home for her."

Briefly, I considered how foolish this was to strain old friendships over one man. Then, I realized that at some point, Kaolla Su was like as not to push matters this far in the pursuit of some goal.

"Motoko-all respect, but wake up. She is an absolute ruler with her own money and her own kingdom, and an army of trigger-happy lunatics at her disposal. She never has to be a just ruler. I briefly considered just going to Todai myself. I didn't want to be that selfish, at least in part because I have to live in a world where you don't want your friends thinking you're just in it for yourself. But two of us again, never want to live in that world, and primal selfishness is just doing business. The lessons you taught her are not at fault. The lesson you and I have just learned about dealing with *happy-go-lucky* *free-spirits* is one we should have learned a long time ago."

I came to a bitter realization of my own.

"Where is Kitsune?"

"I saw her leaving your room, and head right for hers. She never left. Probably asleep."

"And Mutsumi?"

"Left to be with her folks. I think they're breeding a turtle they call a Kamebas for one of the newer Godzilla films."

My anger began to rise, at having been so played.

 

[Gojirob]

"You already knew where everyone was when you asked me to stop them from interfering with Naru and Urashima's journey to Todai Gate, didn't you, Shinobu?"

She folded her arms, looking quite defiant.

"I said that my goal was to prevent anyone from stopping them. You were the only one I had left on the list."

She then held up one hand while closing her eyes.

"Look, I'm sorry too. But until this talk, I didn't know if you could be trusted. I don't like feeling this way, Motoko. But I realize I can't let my guard down when two of the people I thought really mattered to me and me to them are fixated on where their next chuckle, drink or cheap thrill comes from."

"Shinobu-turn from this path. It isn't healthy, it isn't right, and it isn't you."

Her face showed no signs of relenting.

"You realize I'll have to tell Sempai Naru about how you knew who Su was, ‘months ago' when you taught her those lessons about rulers, right?"

Her mind had done the math. I should have been more vague.

"I was sworn to secrecy. Let me tell Naru myself."

"You have a day. Motoko-can they change? I mean, we are who we are, but if the rest of us have to, then why don't they?"

I gave her the best answer I could.

"They do have to. Rulers are overthrown, and tricksters find themselves in trouble that being cute won't easily solve. Perhaps we owe it to them to force their evolution, before at last giving up."

"Perhaps. I'm---gonna go and hard-boil some eggs. I don't feel much like cooking a big meal."

She was being unfair, perhaps massively so, and I am certain that if pressed, her memory of wrongs past would prove biased and selective. But each injustice she uttered proceeded firmly from the real and verifiable. I adore Su and hold Kitsune as a sister, but I am on the verge of cursing them both for infecting Shinobu's light spirit with such cynicism. In Kitsune's case, the evolution will have to come from catastrophe. She's too old and too canny to be tricked or guided. But Su? Her I will save from herself-with the aid of the man who is not my destination, but rather my journey.

An hour or so later, three of us cracked open hard-boiled eggs, doused with some pepper, vinegar and a little wasabi. Kitsune still hasn't gotten up, and Su still seems down about the collapse of her electronic world. Shinobu quietly promised never to repeat such an act, and to remit back her Molmolian army bonus. I am still worried for her, and the extremes she went to ensuring our friends made their journey unhindered this time. I think she may not be over Urashima. But it is Su, so deflated by the loss of constant over-stimulation that makes me queasy inside. Is it as Shinobu said? Addicted to instant thrills, her psyche must eventually lapse into unthinking, even cruel acts?

A smiling happy pair enter our home, a childhood dream at last fulfilled. They each grab up an egg, a grateful bow and smile at Shinobu, who seems contented for now-almost. If I am wrong, and she is at peace with her love's rejection, what are the terms of that peace?

"We'll be---"

"Yeah-we'll be---"

Looking sickeningly cute, they say the final word together.

"Upstairs."

I cannot let them just yet, and grab her arm.

"Naru? Please. I need to apologize for the part I played during the events in Molmol."

It was not all my fault, to be sure, and if she somehow holds me so, we have real problems.

Her face holds some anger, but she pulls me out of the kitchen area and speaks gently.

"Apology accepted. Keitaro said you didn't put up the kind of fight you could have on the dirigible. Kanako's gone, and I guess whatever wasn't part of Grandma's plans, she'll answer for from somebody scarier than me. Shinobu is as bad at over-apologizing as Keitaro, and I can't see her being any sort of mastermind."

Had there been time, I would have told her to be not so sure.

"Are we truly at peace, then?"

"I-still have some questions, Motoko. You went against something you all knew was more important to me than anything, and if you were playing a game, you never bothered to say so till the end. But for right now---"

She looked up the stairs at what would now become *their* bedroom, and at a grinning pervert whose company I envied her.

"-fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, and bees gotta buzz."

As the wizened Jedi Master said, there is no try, only do. They were about to do.

"Shinobu-"

"Don't go upstairs for a while. I'm not that naïve, Motoko. Heh. Maybe we'll all be Aunties before too long."

She was trying, but I felt that neither her nor Naru's raw nerves were salved quite just yet. Another raw nerve now presented itself.

"Do you think they need help up there?"

"No, Su. They most definitely do not need any help from anyone. What they need to do, they can accomplish on their own."

"If you're sure. Oh, about what you said to Naru about apologizing?"

I took heart and hope at this.

"Yes?"

"Ummm-what did you do to her in Molmol that she's upset about?"

Hope was dashed and my heart ripped out. Even with so obvious and clear a connection, she failed to reason it out. Her brilliance in the sciences and her joy in living still were at odds with a disconnect from basic realities. I sent her to watch the living room TV. Shinobu said something unnecessary as I left to go to my room upstairs-carefully avoiding the increasingly noisy, laughing primates at play in Naru's room.

Shinobu placed her finger against her cheek and half-closed one eye.

"Weee---llll, I guess I'll take a break from world domination for awhile, till I figure out why everyone is so strangely upset about being shot at and arrested."

I felt her distress, but had taken enough of it for then and there.

"Should I now run off in tears, proclaiming Urashima a jerk for failing to get information I failed to give him?"

The peace was evaporating.

"I don't know, Motoko. Maybe I should express my feelings for him via threats of dismemberment?"

I withdrew, and thankfully she said nothing as I did. I heard the noise of their lovemaking as I passed, but wisely chose not to linger. Among Urashima's video treasures I once found a series of cheaply-animated vids wherein a woman made herself merry while spying on a couple in the throes. I may or may not be less uptight now, but I still regard that as pathetic.

"Be well, my friends. Be happy---damn you both."

Inside my room, I elected to toast their dreams having been fulfilled. In a box far inside the closet, I reached for a bottle of sake. The contents of this bottle is only ever to be drunk in smallest doses. It is both too strong and too rare. A master of the art produces these specially for my clan only once during his tenure, and then all must wait until his successor is of age. Wrapped in cloth, kept cool and dry, it is as smooth as it is powerful, and-it is gone.

"How would anyone know what I kept in a hidden recess, out of sight, and never mentioned? Who could find a secret hidden bottle of----sake?"

With stealth, I made my way past the increasingly boisterous lover's lair and into another's room. Ignoring the totally snookered, I obtained the emptied bottle which is rare in and of itself and returned to my room. The contents that should in theory have lasted until the new lovers were new grandparents were gone, and a woman once a sister had in my eyes finally exceeded my limits. Despite hours of meditation with headphones on (those two must each be part elephant), I still said one word over and over, not in friendship but in rage.

"Kitsune!"


END ENTRY

--------------------------

"You were sloppy."

"I know."

"You went way too fast."

"I know."

"You have no technique."

"I know."

"We were both way too nervous."

"Yeah."

She clambered atop him, and looked right into his eyes, squealing one word.

"Again!"

"Oh, yeah."

"Did you just see a light?"

"Probably the sun. We've been at this awhile."

"And so we will be, Mister Narusegawa!"

"Hey! We're not even married yet, and you'll take my name, and...oh who the hell cares?"

Crawling back to her room, a woman not quite cognizant of her immense peril checked the viewscreen on her digital camera.

"I think some glossies are in order. My-how they both have grown!"

Many interesting things were about to happen at the Hinata-Sou. Peace was not among them.