Love Hina: A different path taken

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Chapter Fourteen

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Kneeling down at the edge of the baths, Keitaro dipped his hand into the water to check the temperature. It was hot, but not unpleasantly so. Nodding in satisfaction that the repair he had did to the leaky pipe was holding, he stood up and was about to move onto the next item on the day's checklist when a thought occurred to him.

"You know, the last time I was down there in the boiler room, I really didn't pay much attention to the boiler itself." he thought, remembering from when he was down there that the boiler was pretty old. "Considering how everything else is in this place, I had better go check on it."

Before he went to check on the boiler, Keitaro made a detour to the tool shed to pick up an LED work light, extension cord, and a light bulb adapter. As per the usual with how glacial the Inn's utilities had been updated over the years, there were weak incandescent bulbs hanging from sockets but no electrical outlets, hence the adapter. He then headed for the cavern entrance.

The cavern was not part of the Inn's attractions, and so entry was barred by a padlocked metal door. Keitaro had to put his stuff down and spend a couple of minutes playing musical keys before he found the right one and unlocked the padlock.

Chocking the door open with a rock, he groped around in the darkness until he found the light switch and flipped it on. The lights clicked on with a wan yellow light, dimly illuminating a passageway that had originally been a narrow cave that connected to the cavern and had been expanded into a more useable hallway. Picking his stuff back up, Keitaro headed inside, making a mental note to look into updating the Inn's locks so that there was a master key to everything. And to swap out the incandescent bulbs with some LED bulbs so there was better lighting without having to worry about overloading the wiring.

Walking down the hallway the smell of dampness and the drip of water could be heard, increasing until he walked around a corner and entered the cavern proper.

A shaft of sunlight angled in through a hole in the roof of the cavern to cut through the gloom. The light scattered off of the surface of the large subterranean hot springs pool that was the source of the waters used in the baths above to combine with the electric lights to reveal the pumps, piping, and the massive boiler used to provide hot water to the baths and the Inn's utilities.

Before he began his check of the boiler Keitaro took a moment to familiarize himself with his surroundings, a reflexive habit from his work as a mercenary. Once he had committed the layout of the area to memory he unscrewed a nearby bulb and replaced it with the adapter.

That was followed by the extension cord and work light. When he flipped the switch on he was rewarded with a bright cone of light blazing forth from the worklight. Training it on the boiler, Keitaro grimaced at what he saw. It was covered in dust, the paint was peeling and flaking off, and there were streaks coming from the fittings down to the floor.

Getting down on his hands and knees Keitaro shined the worklight at the underside of the boiler and nearly shat himself at what he saw. The bottom of the boiler was a mass of rust and patch panels brazed on.

"Oh holy shit, this thing is a bomb." Keitaro said as he jumped back up onto his feet. "How the hell has this thing not blown already?"

Keitaro ran the beam of the worklight onto the pipework leading into the top of the boiler where the emergency release valve was located. He tried to turn the handle only to have it snap off in his hand. He stared at it for a moment in bug-eyed incredulity before tossing it aside and going for the gas valve.

The gas valve mercifully cranked shut and then he was able to start dumping the boiler.

"Shit, shit, shit..." Keitaro chanted in a continuous mantra under his breath as he worked.

When it was finished, he took a deep breath and let out a very relieved sigh. Looking up at the hulking form of the boiler, Keitaro shook his head.

"Fuck." was all he could say.

A potential explosion averted, Keitaro then went looking for the gas line cut off.

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After he had gotten the boiler shut down and dumped Keitaro realized that he had another problem: Without the boiler there was no way he could keep all of the pools supplied with hot water. The spring itself provided plenty of hot water for the quite large underground pool.

However, the above ground pools did not have the rock of the cavern to trap the heat of the spring water and thus the boiler was needed to keep them up to temperature.

Thus he spent the next three hours draining all but one of the above ground pools while he waited to make sure the cavern was free of gas after he cut the line to the boiler. Then the only things he had left to do was cut the boiler out of the system and get the remaining pool supplied with water from.

The latter task he accomplished by using spare piping from the tool shed to hook up one of the recirculation pumps to the feed line of the small pool and the other to the return line. Some time monkeying around with the valves to get the feed rate right and it was done.

The boiler was the simpler job. Twenty minutes worth of work with the portable oxy-actelyne rig and he had cut all the lines to and from the boiler .

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"There." Keitaro said as put the last of the tools away in the shed. "It took all day, and I didn't get anything I wanted to get done actually done, but on the upside, that should keep the Inn from getting blown across half of the prefecture."

He then looked at the time on his phone. "Aand it's another three hours before Grandma is awake, so, I'm gonna go clean myself up and get something to eat, then I get to go call Grandma and ask her what the hell she was thinking. Yaaaay."

He sighed, then began to put away his phone but stopped when a thought occurred to him.

"I had better put up a sign letting everyone know what's going on with the baths." he said to himself. "I had better do that right now before I forget."

Finishing putting his phone away, Keitaro hurried away to do just that.

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After a quick shower followed by him raiding the kitchen for some leftovers and beer Keitaro retired to his room. Sitting down at the table, he took out his phone and began to check his messages as he ate.

He'd no messages or calls so he opened his email. The third message down was a group mailing from Shinji, with "emergency" in the header. Opening it, he started to read

"Well now." he said when he finished as footsteps sounded in the hall "That's gonna complicate things a little."

The footsteps stopped in front of his door and were followed by a knock. "Keitaro, you in there?" Kitsune called from the other side.

"Yeah. Come on in." Keitaro answered her.

The door slid open and revealed Kitsune clad in just a bathrobe. Keitaro gave her an appreciative look as she stepped inside.

"Let me guess: You're here about the baths." he said as he put his phone down.

"Yeah." Kitsune answered in a somewhat terse tone. "Why does only the small pool have water in it?"

"Because that's what the hot spring can keep heated on it's own without the boiler." Keitaro told her.

Kitsune rolled her eyes in exasperation at being informed of the latest part of the Inn to break and crossed her arms. "So why's the boiler not working?" she asked.

"You ever read any of Steven King's work?" he asked in a seeming non sequitor.

Kitsune nodded. "I'm a writer. Of course I read his works." she said, wondering where he was going with this and how it related to the boiler.

"Okay." Keitaro continued. "You ever read the Shining?"

Kitsune thought for a second before answering. "It was a while ago, but yeah." she answered.

"You remember the ending?" Keitaro asked.

"Yeah..." Kitsune said as she pulled what she could remember of the story from her memory. "Jack is possessed by the spirits of the hotel, and his wife and kid escape while he tries to keep the boiler …. from... exploding..."

Keitaro watched as she trailed off and her eyes went wide from the realization of just what he was getting at.

"Oh, god, the boiler was that bad?" she asked.

"When I was cutting it free, I found the manufacturers plate." Keitaro informed her. "It made by Nakatomi and Sons, in 1927."

Kitsune nervously ran a hand through her hair. "Oh hell, I need a drink." she said.

"There's a bottle of Sunatory in the cabinet." Keitaro offered.

"Thank you."

Keitaro watched as Kitsune poured herself three fingers of Scotch and gulped it down, idly enjoying the fact that her robe was slipping open as she moved about.

She saw him looking at her out of the corner of her eye and then realized just what he was staring at when she felt the draft from her slowly opening robe.

"Pervert." she said in a lightly teasing tone as she pulled her robe shut.

"You never seem to mind." Keitaro retorted.

"Touche." Kitsune said as she put the whiskey back into the cabinet. "So, the boiler's safe now? We're not gonna explode?" she asked.

"Yeah." Keitaro confirmed. "I cut the pipes and the gas line to it. It's dead."

"Okay then." Kitsune said, relieved. "I'm gonna go take my bath now. Is there anything else I should know about?" she asked.

"Ah, yeah, actually, there is.." Keitaro said.

"What now?" sighed Kitsune, wondering in the back of her mind what else had decided to break.

Keitaro held up his phone. "I just got an email from my boss. The French have moved up the contract by two months."

"Oh." Kitsune said, then pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Aw, crap. That means I gotta get started preparing now."

"Yeah, me too." Keitaro said in a sympathetic tone. "That's another thing I gotta talk to Grandma about. Someone's gotta run this place while I'm gone."

"Have fun with that." Kitsune said as she headed for the door.

"I wish." Keitaro said as he went back to his phone.

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Punching in the last of the hotel's phone number, Keitaro tapped the call icon on his phone and put it to his ear. It rang twice, then it was picked up.

"Hello, and thank you for calling Harrah's Atlantic City! How may I direct your call?" asked a female voice in a startlingly cheerful tone.

Mentally reminding himself that this was an American establishment, which meant bright and cheerful customer service, Keitaro got down to brass tacks.

"Yes, hello. I'd like to be connected to my grandmothers room." he explained.

"May I have her name please?" the clerk asked.

"Hina. I'm her grandson, Keitaro Urashima." Keitaro told her.

"H-I-N-A?" the woman asked, spelling out Grandma Hina's last name to confirm that she had the right one.

"Yes, that is correct." Keitaro told her.

"One moment." the clerk said before putting him on hold.

For the next few minutes Keitaro got to listen as several offers and events were pitched to him along with the benefits of a Harrah's Rewards Card before the spiel was cut off by a click and his grandmother came on the phone.

"Hello?" she asked in Japanese.

Keitaro hesitated for a moment as he switched mentally from English to Japanese. "Hi, Grandma. It's Keitaro." he replied.

"Oh! Keitaro!" Grandma Hina exclaimed. "It's so nice to hear from you. Is everything going well?"

"Sadly, no." Keitaro said.

"What's wrong now?" asked Grandma Hina, immediately figuring out why he was calling.

"I had to disconnect the boiler." was his reply.

"What happened to it? Did it spring another leak?" Grandma Hina asked.

"The reason why I disconnected it was because it was held together with patches and aggressive optimism." Keitaro explained. "It's a miracle that it hadn't cooked off before now."

"Keitaro, the boiler was fine for what it was being used for, which is keeping the baths heated." Grandma Hina pointed out.

"Grandma, that thing was a bomb waiting to go off! I went to pull the emergency valve and the lever snapped off in my hand!" Keitaro interrupted, his grandmother's cavalier response to the hazard the boiler represented making him ditch the respect that he normally showed her. "If that thing had malfunctioned, it very well could have cooked off and taken most of the Inn with it! Do you know when that thing was made?"

"I know my father had it installed before I was born..." Grandma Hina said, somewhat taken aback at her grandson's tone.

Keitaro heard the outrage in his grandmother's voice and winced.

"It was made in 1927." Keitaro told her in a calmer tone as he throttled back his anger. "That thing should have been scrapped decades ago. There was no way I was going to let it stay in operation."

Grandma Hina was silent for a moment, then sighed. "Alright, I understand. If you needed to replace it-"

"I didn't replace it, Grandma. I don't have that kind of money. I scrapped it. Replacing it is something that you're gonna have to shell out the coin for." Keitaro told her point blank.

"Oh." Grandma Hina said in a quiet voice as she realized just how much she was probably going to have to shell out for a new boiler. "How are the girls handling not having the baths?"

"Pretty well, all things considered." Keitaro said, rubbing his eye with the heel of his hand. "I can keep the small pool filled with the feed from just the spring."

"Well, that's good to hear." Grandma Hina said in a relieved voice. "I hope that's it for the bad news."

Keitaro really didn't want to tell her the next part, considering that he had just dropped the boiler issue right into her lap, and took a moment to try to think of the best way to break it to her that he was going to have to leave soon.

"Keitaro, what else is wrong?" Grandma Hina asked, his silence cluing her in that there was another problem.

"I just got an email from my boss." Keitaro began, deciding to just use the direct approach. "Our contract just got bumped up a couple of months."

"I can't come home right now, Keitaro." Grandma Hina pointed out. "I have plans that I made years ago-"

"I know, Grandma." Keitaro told her.

"And you have to go?" she asked.

"Yeah." Keitaro told her. "I'm kinda needed."

"So, you'll need somebody to fill in for you then." Grandma Hina stated.

"Pretty much, yeah." Keitaro confirmed.

Grandma Hina sighed in annoyance. "This is very inconvenient." she complained.

"I know."

Grandma Hina was silent for a moment as she pondered what to do. In his mind, Keitaro could see his grandmother's face scrunched up as she thought.

"Well, I can't ask your Aunt Haruka. She has her hand's full with her cafe." Grandma Hina said finally. "And there's no one else I really ask, other than your sister."

"That's fine." Keitaro told her. "As long as she doesn't try to pull her mind game schtick, she should do fine."

"Ah, good." Grandma Hina said with a relieved sigh. "I'll call her and ask her."

"Okay." Keitaro said. "Have her touch base with me, and I'll fill her in on what the situation is here on the ground."

"Thank you, Keitaro." Grandma Hina said.

"You're welcome. Sorry I wasn't calling with good news." Keitaro apologized.

"No, it's alright." Grandma Hina told him. "You're just being a good manager. And on that note, I had better hang up, because this is an international call and I've cost you enough money as it is."

"I appreciate that. Love you, Grandma Hina." Keitaro said with a chuckle.

"Love you too, Keitaro. Be good."

"I'll try." Keitaro said with another chuckle before ending the call.

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Kitsune was leaning back in the pool, having a good long soak while she tried to remember when the last time she had went to the doctor. As she thought about it, she also realized that she needed to go see her OBGYN as well...

Kitsune sighed and cracked open a beer. If it wasn't one thing, it was another...

"Kitsune?"

Speaking of which..

Kitsune turned and waved with her free hand at Naru as she walked up to the pool clad in just a towel.

"Heeey, Naru!" she greeted her friend. "I take it you saw the sign?"

Naru nodded as she came up to the pool. "Yeah." she confirmed, pausing to dip a toe into the water. "Do you know what's up with that?" she asked.

"Oh, apparently, the boiler that was used to keep all of the pools heated was a rickety old antique, much to Keitaro's horror." Kitsune explained before pausing for a swig of beer. "He disconnected it before it malfunctioned and blew us all up."

"You're kidding." Naru said as she dropped her towel and stepped into the pool.

Kitsune shook her head. "Nope. He said it was made in 1927, and from the sound of it, it was an Overlook Hotel waiting to happen."

"Huh?" Naru asked as she sat down, not getting the reference.

"It's a reference to a Stephen King novel." Kitsune explained, getting an understanding nod from Naru. "Though on another note, I'm glad you're here." she added, not really wanting to discuss other issue that had came up in the conversation that she and Keitaro had had.

"Why's that?" Naru asked as she got herself into a comfortable position for a nice long soak.

Kitsune took a breath to steel herself before she began. "You know how I was planning on going to Africa with Keitaro as part of the project I'm working on?" she asked.

Closing her eyes, Naru nodded, remembering Kitsune bringing it up with her a while back while they had been doing shopping. "What about it?" she asked.

"The contract has been moved up by a couple of months, so we're gonna have be leaving in about a month or so." Kitsune told her, mentally hoping that she didn't sound nervous.

Naru's eyes snapped open and she lifted her head up to look at her friend. "You are?" she asked, getting a confirming nod from Kitsune. "Are you okay with it?" she asked.

"Yeah." Kitsune said.

"Then why are you acting like I might have a problem with it?" Naru asked.

Kitsune sighed. "Well, to be honest, things have been kind of rough for you after what happened with Suu, and I was worried about you being here without me around to be your emotional support." she said.

"Oh." Naru said, somewhat surprised. "Thank you, Kitsune."

Kitsune smiled and shrugged. "Hey, what are friends for?" she asked, then her face grew serious. "You are going to be okay, right?" she asked.

Naru nodded. "I'll be fine." she assured Kitsune. "I'll have Shinobu, Haruka, and Motoko here. I'll look after them, they'll look after me."

"Okay, that's good." Kitsune said, relieved. "Now I can focus on getting ready."

Naru furrowed her brows as a thought occurred to her. "Kitsune." she began.

"Yeah?" Kitsune asked.

"Who's going to be running the Inn while Keitaro is gone?" Naru asked. "I ask because, while I may not like him, he does seem to know what he's doing."

Kitsune's face went blank for a moment as she replayed the conversation that she and Keitaro had had.

"You, when I talked to him, he didn't say." she said finally. "It's not gonna be his aunt, I know that. She has her hands full as it is."

"One of his other relatives?" Naru suggested.

Kitsune shrugged. "Maybe. I know he has a sister. Maybe it'll be her."

"Huh." Naru said, and sank down in the pool up to her neck. "I guess we'll find out eventually."

Kitsune shrugged again in agreement and drained her beer.

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End.

Author's note: Poor Keitaro. It's almost as if the Inn has it out for him. Seriously, though, the thing with the boiler is no joke. It's a giant, high pressure, container that has enough stored energy in it that if it blows, it can take out a building.

Though on the plus side, at least the Hinata Inn doesn't have a bunch of malevolent ghosts floating around causing trouble.