Chapter 7: Top Secret Su

Keitaro groaned and rubbed his head. He had just whacked his skull off of the table, and that didn't make this anymore fun. He'd been on his hands and knees for an hour groping around the floor for his missing earpiece. It just had to be around here somewhere! This was one of the major draw backs of blindness. Losing something didn't just mean looking around the room until you found it. It meant getting down on the floor and moving your hands in a search pattern until you found it. He could be missing the earpiece by mere inches and never know it. With his head aching, Keitaro was ready to give in.

First, he knocked on Kanako's door, but there was no answer. It annoyed him, but he knew he had to ask on of the girls. Naru was at the library with Shinobu. Motoko was training. He didn't want to know where Kitsune had gone off to, but he had his suspicions. Well, that left Su.

Keitaro really hadn't gotten to know Su very well yet. True, she crawled into bed with him nearly every night, yet he hadn't been around her much. So far, he'd managed to stay unscathed by most of Su's escapades. There had been one time when he was nearly run over by a giant turtle mech, but he'd tripped over a pair of Kitsune's panties and the thing had zoomed just over him. He'd heard Su horror stories from the girls, and he was kind of relieved that that was all he'd had happened.

It must be hard for Su to be far away from her family and home. No one had said just where Su was from, but he guessed it must be some place VERY far away. She didn't act like anyone he'd ever met before. Maybe where ever she was from, she was considered normal. She must miss everyone. He guessed that she was lonely and that was why she slept with him, but he couldn't understand why she had chosen him over Motoko.

He knocked on the door.

Su's hands deftly attached wires, and gizmos at a rate that defied logic. The small girl had an idea. A BIG idea, and she wasn't going to stop until she got it right. She shoved a cookie in her mouth, and chewed noisily. Now, if she connected the blue wire to where the red wire was, and hooked that up to this…

A knock at the door interrupted her work. "Who's there?" she called as she tossed a sheet over her secret project.

"Keitaro. Can I come in?" he asked.

Su smiled. "Yep! C'mon in! There's no secrets here."

The door opened, and Keitaro took a step forward. "I heard you hammering. What are you building?"

"Nothin.'" Su replied. She eyed the sheet mischievously.

He sighed. "Please don't blow anything up again. It took days to get the smell of smoke out of the hallway."

"No blowing things up this time," she assured him.

"Su, I was wondering if you could do me a favor?"

"Hmm..what is favor? Like favor of chocolate?"

He shook his head. "Favor, not flavor. A favor as in would you help me with something?"

"Sure. Watcha need?"

"I need you to help me find something. I dropped the earpiece to my headphones, and I can't find it," he admitted uncomfortably. His cheeks were pink.

"Ooooh, like a treasure hunt! Leave it to Su. I will find it!"

Keitaro laughed. Su liked it when he laughed like that. He REALLY reminded her of someone, but right now she couldn't remember who. "I think you're just the person to find the treasure."

"RIGHT!" Su said with a salute. Sometimes, she forgot that Keitaro couldn't see her.

Keitaro's room was really clean. There weren't any gears lying around or anything. Su saw the earpiece right away, and put it in Keitaro's hand. "Next time you should hide it better."

He laughed again. "I'll try. Do you want a snack?"

"Nope, I'm doin' something top secret."

Motoko hadn't seen Su all day, and that made her more than a little nervous. She couldn't blame it on Urashima, because he'd been in his room on his computer since she'd gotten home. It frightened her to think what Su could be unleashing on the world. The last time, people had just barely escaped the Super-Tama-tank. It was a wonder Su hadn't been arrested. Putting her sword away, Motoko groaned. A missing Koalla Su always lead to trouble.

One by one, members of the Hinata household filtered in, and no one had seen Su. Kanako was the only one who seemed not to care. "She probably just went wherever it is people like her go. Maybe someone here besides the slut has a social life."

"Why you bitch!" Kitsune raged. "Like you have any right to judge me! You spend all your time tryin' to seduce your own brother."

"Keitaro isn't my real brother, and I make no apologies for loving him," Kanako said coldly She turned on her heal, and left the Hinata girls in the living room.

"She's not nice," Shinobu said softly.

"Ya think?" Kitsune quipped.

"Forget about her and her brother, what should we do about Su?" Naru asked. "I don't think Su's ever been this gone without telling any of us."

Motoko shook her head. "Normally, Su drags me along with her when she goes into town, so I can't think she's gone there."

"Here's an idea: You all could have come and asked ME where Su went," a voice said from the doorway. Keitaro was standing there with a can of soda. He must have been on his way back upstairs when he heard them.

"Who asked you to listen in?" Naru snapped.

"Where is Su?" Motoko asked. She wasn't going to feed into the little feud that Naru had going with Keitaro. After hearing what had really happened that night, even Motoko had to admit that it had been an accident, but Naru was too proud to admit that.

Keitaro sighed. "She went looking for parts for something "top secret." She said she'd be back before dinner," he told them. Hurt was written across his face, and Motoko did kind of feel sorry for him. He had been trying to be a part of Hinata house, but they really hadn't let him.

Motoko followed Keitaro out back, careful to keep her breathing and steps as light as possible. This time, she really did get the drop on him…or so she thought. He let her force him to the ground, only to use her own weight against her. "Maybe you aren't as clumsy as I thought," she said pushing him off.

"I still heard you breathing," he said with a laugh. He offered his hand to her, and she accepted.

"Letting me strike you was very dangerous, and very foolish. If it had really been my intent to harm you, that would have gone differently. Tomorrow evening we should work on that," Motoko told him seriously.

Keitaro smiled. "Arigato."

Not long before the group sat down for dinner, Su came rushing through the door. Her arms were full of bits of metal and wire, and she barely gave her housemates a second look. Shinobu stood in the kitchen with a look of confusion on her face. She just couldn't believe that Su had raced through the house like that and not even acknowledged the fact that a meal was about to be served. In fact all of the residents of Hinata house had the same look on their faces. And then came the noise. Pounding, drilling, clanking, and the occasional evil laugh came from Su's room. No one was quite sure what to do. Shinobu would have just as soon let the girl go, but Naru moved toward the stairs.

"Something funny is going on up there," Naru said sternly. Before she could make her way to the stairs, Su flung herself down the banister holding something wrapped in a sheet.

"I did it!" Su cried.

"Did what?" Keitaro asked. Shinobu wished he hadn't done that. They were all generally better off not knowing what Su had made. Her inventions had a way of reeking havoc.

"I will show you, but first….WE EAT!"

Shinobu let out a sigh of relief. Until Keitaro nearly bumped into her, she hadn't realized that she'd been hiding behind him. "Excuse me," she whispered.

Keitaro leaned closer to her. "What does she have? Is there any chance it could explode?"

Heat rushed to her cheeks. He was so very close to her! "Um, it's all covered up. It's kind of shaped like a turtle, but that is no guarantee that it won't go boom."

By the time everyone else was seated, Su was on seconds. She continued to devour everything in sight until the plates were bare. The others barely managed to snag some of the disappearing meal for themselves before she announced that it was time to unveil her newest invention. She took Keitaro's hand and led him along without any hesitation. "C'mon and see what I made!"

They all followed Su into the living room, and she made Keitaro take the armchair. She dropped the sheet covered object into Keitaro's lap. "I made it specially for you!"

Keitaro forced a nervous smile, and pulled the sheet off. From what Shinobu could tell, it was just another one of Su's turtles, but with some kind of strange harness on it's shell. "Thanks, Su…..uh, what is it?"

"He's a guide turtle! Just hold on and he will lead you where you tell him to go. I programmed in a map of the town and everything, and listen…" Su pressed the button to turn the turtle on, and pulled Keitaro's hand to the harness.

The turtle hovered forward nearly dragging Keitaro along. It stopped just in front of Motoko. "Human. Female. Motoko," a mechanical voice chirped out.

A wide smile crossed Keitaro's face. "That's pretty neat, Su. Thank you."

Shinobu couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Su had done something so nice for Keitaro, and she hadn't even been able to help him with his homework like she promised. Maybe if she just was a little bolder…

"Hey, Su," Keitaro called out from the other side of the room, "what does this switch do?"

Su didn't have time to answer before Keitaro was airborne. He let out a yell, as the turtle drug him through the wall. All the girls raced after him. He was soaring through the air back and forth over the Hinata house screaming.

"MR. URASHIMA!" Shinobu cried in panic.

"LET GO, DUMB ASS!" Naru screamed.

Keitaro must have heard her, because he did let go. He came sailing through the air, and luckily landed in the spring. Sputtering and splashing, he had to be fished out of the pool. Shinobu hurried and wrapped a towel around him. "Are you alright?"

"UGH, I don't know."

Su leaned over him. "I forgot to tell you that switch makes him go extra fast for when you are in hurry, but it wasn't s'posed to work like that."

"That's ok, Su." Keitaro squeaked before passing out.

Shinobu barely managed to catch his head in her lap. "Do you think we should take him to the hospital?"

Naru crossed her arms over her chest. "Something tells me he'll live"

It took every once of Kanako's self control not to go down to check on her brother. He had to learn for himself that she was the only one for him. Of course, switching around a few wires in Su's guide turtle had only been the start. Those girls were ALL trouble, and she was going to prove it to him. The girl with the bug antennas seemed to be doing the work for her, and so her next target would be the quiet one. Sure, the girl may seem innocent, but Kanako saw how she practically threw herself at him. She was just the same as the rest, and she'd let Keitaro find that out too.