Niklas "Hawk" Jonsson
Disclaimer: Love Hina, Hinata Sou and whatnot are not mine, though I certainly wish they were. The story is mine though, all mine.
Feedback/Flames: Yes, please. Both of them are equally fun to read, although I must admit that I greatly prefer the first variety. :)
I can be found on ICQ as 21771860, MSN Messenger or through e-mail as , more stories are available at my nifty lil' site at or by clicking on my handle up above.
"speech"
emphasis/shouts/Kindred Domination/post-hypnotic triggers
/thoughts/
/telepathy/
translation
soundeffect/radio/telephone conversation/TV
Another new story? Can't this fucking nutcase ever stick with the ones he's already writing instead of coming up with new stories, you ask? Well, perhaps... If somebody held a gun to my head or something! :) Ah well, stop complaining, because I just uploaded chapter five of Su Kaolla - With a License to Thrill. Progress never stops and so far, I've yet to actually drop a story or series. It's just that progress becomes really slow unless I'm feeling particularly inspired.
Anyways, got to thinking a while back that it might be amusing if Keitaro after the failed exam discovered that it was Naru on the train, thus changing his travel plans in order to stay away from her. At first I was thinking about him bumping into Mutsumi much earlier, spending more time with her, before coming across Naru again. That has been done to death though, so I started thinking about how to do my take on that, when it struck me that it didn't necessarily have to be Mutsumi he bumped into. It could just as well be one of the other girls, Kaolla, Shinobu, Kitsune or Motoko. Then when I started pondering possible reasons for one of them would be away from the Hinata Sou, I recalled another hot babe from the anime/manga that Keitaro could bump into.
After that, this shit practically wrote itself and the chapters to follow still keeps on writing themselves.
"Good evening, manager-san." Tsuruko said, only slightly surprised as she confirmed the fact that it was indeed Urashima Keitaro who was walking down the street. The boy in question jumped, swivelling around to face an ethereal vision of beauty. He blinked in confusion, staring without recognition at the stunning woman in front of him, wondering who it was. She looked somewhat familiar, very much like Motoko in fact, but he was reasonably certain that he'd never met her before.
"G-g-good evening." he responded, feeling slightly tongue-tied as he returned the greeting and offered a deep bow to the imposing woman he was now facing. "Eh... Do I know you?" he inquired hesitantly.
"Oh, I am sorry, manager-san." Tsuruko apologised, bowing as well. "I am Aoyama Tsuruko, your tenant Motoko's older sister." she explained. "I recognised you, as my dear sister sent a photograph of everybody at Hinata Sou with her last letter, wherein she also explained that the Hinata Sou had gotten a new live-in manager."
"Oh, of course. I should have realised." Keitaro excused himself, wondering why he hadn't made the connection instantly, seeing how much like Motoko her older sister looked. Hell, she was even dressed the same way! "I am pleased to meet you, Aoyama-san."
"The sentiment is mutual, I assure you." Tsuruko responded, then further flustered Keitaro as she smiled beamingly at him. "I had wanted to meet with you, though I had not expected to do so this soon." she commented and tilted her head as she considered the younger man in front of her. "Motoko wrote some things in her letter which disturbed me, though the fact that you're still alive and healthy does make me wonder about the truthfulness in her writings."
"Oh?" Keitaro responded, wondering just what sort of things Motoko might have been writing about, before he paled as realisation struck. "Ah..." he began, trailing off as he realised that he didn't know how to proceed in order to dispel the misconception Tsuruko must be labouring under if Motoko had written what he thought she must have.
"Do you really molest your tenants on a regular basis, manager-san? You do not strike me as the sort of man to do some of the things Motoko-han described in her letter." Tsuruko inquired, fingering the hilt of her sword. /Yep, definitively an Aoyama!/ Keitaro thought, growing increasingly more nervous.
"Oh no! I'm not! They're all accidents, accidents!" Keitaro insisted, turning pale and sweating nervously as he edged backwards from Tsuruko, glancing in terror at her sword.
"I figured that you were not. You have an all-together too pure aura to be a perverse deviant molester." Tsuruko commented, then smiled. "But whatever are you doing in the outskirts of Kyoto, manger-san? Shouldn't you be in Hinata right now, tending to the dorm and it's tenants?"
"Ah... I'm... I needed to think about things, so... I went on a journey of self-discovery." Keitaro admitted, his mood taking a plunge at the thought of his recent failure. "I failed the Todai exam... For the third time. I needed... I needed to get away from it all, for a while." he sighed. "Unfortunately, I met with a girl from the Hinata Sou on the bullet train and found out that she was going to the same inn I was, so I cancelled my inn reservation and jumped on the first bus that stopped at the station near the inn I would have stayed at. It took me here, so now I'm looking for another inn to stay at for a few days."
"Nonsense, I will not hear of such things." Tsuruko said, shaking her head in disapproval.
"What?" Keitaro responded, edging another step away from Tsuruko, with fearful glances cast at the hilt of the sword she was still fingering. It seemed as if even she was disappointed in his failure and if she was, what wouldn't the girls at Hinata Sou be? "I'm sorry, Aoyama-san!" he exclaimed. "I will do better next year, I promise! I'll pass the test with flying colours!" he swore.
"Oh, no, not that." Tsuruko responded, somewhat surprised by this young mans sudden outburst. "I merely meant that I will not hear of you living at an inn. You will be staying at the Dojo as our honoured guest." she explained. "It's the least I can offer you for taking care of Motoko-han, manager-san."
"Oh, no." Keitaro protested. "I couldn't possibly inconvenience you in such a mann..." Keitaro started, but was cut off.
"Nonsense, manager-san. You will not be an inconvenience. In fact, it will be pleasant for me to have someone around to talk with during your stay. I fear that I must insist that you reconsider my offer." Tsuruko interrupted him. "There is plenty of room, as the novices and Elders are currently on a training journey to Hokkaido, leaving me alone to tend to the Dojo."
"Well..." Keitaro hesitated, weighing the situation and his rapidly depleting bank account in his mind. Tsuruko's fingering of the sword hilt figured prominently in the cons he weighed against the pros, but he figured that whatever violence she inflicted upon him couldn't be much worse then what he faced at a daily basis back at the Hinata Sou. "If you are sure..." he slowly responded.
"I am certain, manager-san. I assure you, your company will be a most welcome distraction from the currently deserted hallways and echoing chambers of our ancestral home." Tsuruko assured him.
"In that case, I gratefully accept your kind offer and thank you for welcoming me into your home, Aoyama-san." Keitaro responded with a deep bow.
"It is I, who should be thanking you for breaking my desolate isolation, manager-san." Tsuruko replied, bowing in return. "I was merely outside for an evening walk to break my isolation and purchase my evening repast, as I did not feel like cooking for just myself. Do you mind if we stop for a meal, before going to the Dojo, manager-san?" she inquired. "I would have offered you a home-cooked meal, but I fear that the current supplies of our kitchen would not be up to the task, as I did not plan for this fortunate encounter." she apologised.
"Not at all." Keitaro assured her, accompanied by a loud rumbling from his stomach, who took this opportunity to remind Keitaro that he hadn't eaten since lunch. He smiled sheepishly, as he grabbed the handle of his suitcase and lifted it. "Just lead the way, Aoyama-san."
"I was merely going to grab a beef bowl, but if you desire a different repast, just say so." Tsuruko offered, nodding at a restaurant just a little bit down the street.
"That will be fine. More then fine, in fact. I love beef bowls!" Keitaro responded, marvelling at the fact that he was going to share a meal with a beautiful woman. Things had certainly started to change for him since coming to the Hinata Sou. He now ate his meals along with beautiful unrelated females on a regular basis and now he'd get to do it outside of the Hinata Sou as well!
Tsuruko entertained thoughts along the same vein, her eyes softening and her expression turning wistful as she realised that she hadn't shared a meal with a male since her husband passed away. She hastily shook her head, dismissing such thoughts from her mind before they could take hold of her and ruin her mood completely. She glanced aside at the young man walking beside her, before she had to amend her way of thinking somewhat. While he still retained a somewhat childish and naive appearance, his Ki revealed the truth of the matter. He wasn't as young as he appeared.
What was it he had said before? He had failed the Todai exams for the third time? In that case, he couldn't be more then a couple of years younger then her. Twenty? Twenty-one? Four or five years younger, then.
Pleasant and polite, with a warm and pleasant Ki that radiated out from him. Unconsciously, she felt herself responding to it, her own Ki adapting itself to his. She smiled, it was a rare enough ability that she hadn't come across anyone like him before, though she had heard the stories and legends of those very rare individuals that had this gift. She briefly regretted that she had allowed Motoko to leave before she had learned enough to discern such a thing. Had she noticed, Tsuruko could have found out about it earlier and travelled to meet this Urashima Keitaro along with the Elders.
On the other hand, this wasn't so bad either, she absently reflected as the two of them entered the restaurant, were seated and ordered, talking pleasantly with each other as they waited for their respective meals and subsequently ate them. After a brief argument, Tsuruko allowed Keitaro to pay for their meals, but returned the favour by ordering and paying for two glasses of wine, which the two of them sipped from as they continued to talk for a while after their meals.
The atmosphere would usually have been all wrong, but as Keitaro's mood gradually improved, so did the power of his gift. The other customers mellowed out, stress flowed out from them and spirits soared, the usual stressful hustle and bustle of the small dingy restaurant turned far more pleasant then Tsuruko had ever seen.
Before leaving, she excused herself and visited the ladies room, where she proceeded to empty her mind and put up a slight barrier to seal herself off, rendering herself less easily affected by him. It probably wasn't a good idea to leave herself open to such a gift in her current vulnerable state. Developing an attachment to him would be... Inconvenient.
She couldn't bring herself to completely seal herself off, however. She hadn't felt this good about herself and her situation since her husbands death, and she wanted to accept what little comfort she could, but not as much as to render herself susceptible to something... Inappropriate.
The two of them left the restaurant and Tsuruko guided him towards the Aoyama estates, pointing out local attractions as they walked. Shivering slightly as the cool night air made itself known, she linked her left arm with his free right one, pulling it against herself for warmth. It didn't help much, but she didn't think asking him to wrap his arm around her would be all that appropriate.
Besides, he seemed shocked enough at having his arm linked with hers, that she didn't know just what he might do or think if she asked him for any further contact between the two of them.
Faint, probably.
/Wow, she's really different from her sister./ Keitaro thought as Tsuruko guided him through the streets, occasionally pointing out a building or other, offering up various comments and/or amusing anecdotes about them as they walked. Occasionally, a pedestrian or other would stop, bow respectfully and offer a polite greeting to the young woman, who responded in kind. It was obvious that she was a known, respected and well-liked person in the community.
A couple of kids who were still out, even stopped their game of tag and smiled beamingly at her, greeting her as Tsuruko-oneesan, before getting back to their game.
Soon enough, Tsuruko led Keitaro through a prayer gate at the edge of the Aoyama lands and onwards. Keitaro marvelling at the size of the estates all the way. It was a walled community, the wall ancient but lovingly maintained, as were the rest of the estates. At first, Keitaro thought it was all oddly war-like, but then he recalled what little he knew of the family history.
While he didn't really believe in demons, as such, it was clear that the Aoyama's did and when one kept that in mind, the practical layout of the estates and the war-like appearance of buildings, walls and grounds made more sense.
"Don't stray off the path, manager-san. There are plenty of traps on the grounds." Tsuruko hinted as Keitaro was about to put a foot beside the narrow and winding stone path they were walking on. It was narrow enough, that the two of them could just barely walk side by side.
He blinked and pulled a little closer to Tsuruko, taking great pains to ensure that his feet didn't came anywhere near straying off the pathway, hardly blinking as he stared down at the ground as they walked.
Tsuruko led Keitaro through the manse-like main building, showing him to one of the guest rooms, where he deposited his suitcase, before Tsuruko gave him a tour of the building, the training halls next to it and the outdoors bath, where she directed him to a changing room so that he could take a bath and freshen up a bit.
"Wow... She's really different from her sister..." Keitaro mumbled to himself, as he emptied a bucket of water over himself, as he started to clean himself, seated on a wooden pail. "I only wish Naru could be as kind and understanding..." he muttered to himself, before a noise behind him caused him to turn around, only to blush furiously and swivel his head back forward again. "AGH! Aoyama-san! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I didn't know this was the women's bath, I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere! Sorrysorrysorry!" he blurted out, frantically trying to clear his mind of what he had just seen.
"Don't be silly, manager-san." Tsuruko giggled behind him, as she kneeled down and started to scrub his back. "There is only this one bath, it's a joint one." she explained to the paralysed Urashima who was stiffly seated in front her.
"Ah... Ah.... Ah... Uhm..." Keitaro blabbed, completely unable to form a coherent sentence, trying and failing badly to dispel the image of Tsuruko with only a towel wrapped around her torso protecting her modesty from his mind, as she scrubbed his back, taking care of all those hard-to-reach places.
"You had better get started on your front, manager-san. If you think I'll wash that for you too, you're badly mistaken." Tsuruko suggested from behind him, smirking to herself at the reaction she was having on him. At her suggestion, Keitaro yelped and started to wash himself at a furious pace, blushing deeply all the while. "There... All done." Tsuruko eventually announced, rising up and filling two buckets of water for herself as Keitaro dumped his second bucket over himself.
"Ah? Where do you think you are sneaking off to, manager-san?" she inquired, looking over at Keitaro who had wrapped his own towel around his waist and was now sneaking towards the exit. "Are you not going to return the favour? Nor keep me company as I soak in the hot springs afterwards?" she inquired as she turned away from him, before unwrapping the towel and seating herself on the wooden pail Keitaro had just recently abandoned. "It would be the polite thing to do, manager-san." she finished, before emptying one of the buckets over herself, before she started to clean her own front.
Keitaro fought with himself, debating weather or not he should keep going, or do as she seemed to want him to do. After a minute, he slowly turned around, walked over and kneeled behind Tsuruko, blushing furiously as he grabbed a washcloth and started to scrub her back, desperately trying to keep his eyes from straying and his hands from coming anywhere near any inappropriate areas.
"A-a-all d-done..." Keitaro stuttered nervously, as he hastily pulled the washcloth away from Tsuruko's lower back.
"Geeesh, you're shy. I would have thought someone who managed a girls dorm would be more used to things like these by now." Tsuruko commented, reaching behind herself to pull his hands back again. "You missed quite a bit." she added by the way of explanation. "Haven't you ever done this before, manager-san?"
"N-n-n-n-no!" Keitaro exclaimed, hesitantly washing the last of her lower back, taking great care not to venture too far down. "Never!" he added.
"You don't take baths with your tenants?" Tsuruko inquired with a confused expression. "I seem to recall Motoko writing something about frequently finding you in the hot springs?"
"Accidents! All accidents, I tell you!" Keitaro blurted out.
"So... You don't bathe with them? There's a schedule for the use of the hot springs?" Tsuruko inquired, stretching with pleasure as Keitaro finally finished and pulled the cloth away.
"Ah, no. I have a bathroom, a barrel, elsewhere." Keitaro responded, causing Tsuruko to blink.
"You don't use the hot springs? Ever?" she asked incredulously, as the two of them ventured into the warm water.
"Ehm, well I do, but it's not usually by choice..." Keitaro mumbled. "I seem to land there often enough after being attacked by the girls." he added as he seated himself, closing his eyes as he relaxed as his body soaked up warmth from the water.
"But... You're the manager!" she exclaimed.
"Well, the girls doesn't want me there. They claim that I would no doubt do something naughty and soil the water with my 'perverted emissions'." Keitaro eventually confessed.
"If they're so worried about that, they could take their baths along with you." Tsuruko countered.
"All of them would constitute that as perverted." Keitaro explained.
"Taking a bath together? Perverted? All of them? All?" Tsuruko inquired.
"Eh, yes." Keitaro confessed.
"Even Motoko?" Tsuruko inquired in a state of shock.
"Especially Motoko." Keitaro agreed, causing Tsuruko to shake her head in dismay.
"I knew that she got a low opinion on males after I married, but this... This is worse then I ever would have thought!" Tsuruko groused, shaking her head. "What's perverse about this?" she asked, gesturing all around the two of them.
/Well... My thoughts, for one.../ Keitaro mentally confessed, opening his eyes and glancing over at Tsuruko. The towel covered up her most private bits and the water obscured the lions share of her body, but he still couldn't help but entertain a train of thought that while not exactly perverted, was at least highly erotic. He closed his eyes again, desperately trying to think of more innocent things.
The two of them chatted for a while longer as they soaked in the revitalising water, before they got up and headed for the dressing rooms. This, was when Keitaro's luck ran out and his klutziness chose to emerge again from wherever it had laid in wait since meeting Tsuruko.
"WAAAAAH!" he yelped, as he stepped on something slippery and his foot whizzed forward and soared up into the air, causing him to loose his balance and tumble backwards, his wildly flaying hands grasping hold of something, pulling it along with him to the ground.
What he had grasped, turned out to be Tsuruko's towel, the loss of which, along with the unexpected pull, caused her to loose her balance and tumble as well. Though, unlike Keitaro, her training and supreme reactions helped her out some. She twisted in the air and caught herself with her hands, breaking her fall. Keitaro went flat onto his back, whimpering in pain as the ground abused his ass, back and the back of his head. Then he went completely silent as the view distracted him from his pain. Tsuruko had caught herself and was standing on all fours, right across Keitaro. He now found himself staring right up at her impressive mammaries in open-mouthed awe.
"Oh, dear." Tsuruko commented and pushed off, winding up on her knees beside Keitaro, where she hastily snatched up her towel and expertly re-wrapped herself in it. "Manager-san, are you... All right?" she inquired, briefly distracted by the tent-like elevation of the towel wrapped around his waist.
"Don't hit me! It was an accident! An accident!" Keitaro whimpered, huddling up and raising his arms protectively in front of his head. "Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry!" he chanted.
"I know." she responded in confused amusement. "Come on, are you all right?" she inquired, holding out a hand towards him.
"Yeah..." he slowly replied, staring at the hand in confusion, before slowing accepting it and being helped back onto his feet. "Thank you and... Sorry, again." he added with a furious blush.
"These things happen." Tsuruko replied unconcernedly. "It wasn't your fault." she added, which was so far out of Keitaro's realm of experience in these matters that he tumbled to the ground again, unconscious from having fainted at this unexpected turn of events.
"Oh, dear..." Tsuruko sighed, looking down at the unconscious man with a bemused expression.
"Moshi, moshi. Hinata Sou, Aoyama speaking." Motoko said as she silenced the infernal ringing by picking up the phone, after nobody else had seemed about to do so.
"Motoko-han? Nice to hear your voice again. Why haven't you called me?" came a plaintive voice over the line.
"Older sister?!" Motoko exclaimed nervously. "Ah... It's good to hear from you, older sister." she hesitantly offered, wondering if there was some way to drop the call, without raising Tsuruko's ire.
It wasn't that she didn't like her sister, because she did. But though Motoko loved her, she was also terribly afraid of her. Tsuruko could be a very scary person and a call from her, rarely meant good things!
"I don't mean to be rude, older sister... But I need to go. Our manager is missing and we're going out to search for him." Motoko explained, glancing aside at the rest of the tenants, waiting impatiently for her at the door outside.
"Don't bother, Motoko-han. Manager-san is here with me." Tsuruko replied.
"URASHIMA IS WHAT?!" Motoko exclaimed, her eyes bulging out with shock. "What's he doing in Kyoto? With you?!" she inquired, as her outburst drew the others to her as well, everybody clustering around the phone trying to listen in on the conversation, muttering 'Kyoto? Is Kyoto good-to-eat?', 'Sempai?', 'What are you up to now, nephew?' and 'He's shacking up with someone? Who? A girl? Way to go, Keitaro!', respectively.
"He said something about being on a journey of self-discovery after failing an exam or some such. I recognised him from the picture you sent me in your last letter and invited him to stay here when I saw him on the streets." Tsuruko replied.
"But... Why?" Motoko inquired. "He's a male!" she exclaimed.
"Yes, so I've noticed." Tsuruko responded bemusedly. "Pleasant as it is to speak with you, Motoko-han, seeing as how rarely you call... HRM... I actually called because there was something I wanted to ask you. After an unfortunate accident, I informed manager-san that it was all right and that it wasn't his fault. He fainted. I wondered just why it is that this surprised him so and if he is suffering from any medical issues that I should know about?"
"An... Unfortunate... Accident..." Motoko repeated, feeling a cold shiver travel up her spine.
"Yes, very unfortunate." Tsuruko responded, thought she didn't sound all that concerned about it.
"How... Unfortunate? What transpired, older sister?" Motoko inquired, her left hand grasping the hilt of her sword so tightly that her fingers turned paler as circulation was cut off in them.
"Nothing to worry about. He slipped in the hot spring, grabbing my towel in the process." Tsuruko happily responded.
"He snuck into the hot springs to peep on you?!" Motoko howled in outrage.
"Snuck? Not so much, no." Tsuruko responded after a few moments. "I showed him to the baths, then entered to wash myself off."
"You... In the bath with... What?!" Motoko shrieked. "Older sister!" she protested.
"Calm yourself, Motoko-han. It is of no consequence. You have bathed together with men before yourself, have you not?" she inquired.
"Not since I was seven!" Motoko fervently denied. "Well, not by choice..." she amended, once she came to think of Urashima and his deviant ways, sneaking into the hot springs to peep on her time and time again.
"You're such a prude, Motoko-han. You're never going to get a boyfriend at this rate." Tsuruko admonished her. "You have to get by this man-hating phase of yours, Motoko-han. Your big sister can hardly wait to dress you, doll you up and send you out on your first date!" Tsuruko squealed over the phone, drifting off into an excited retelling of her own first date and being fuzzed over by their mother. "You're not lesbian, are you? Is that why you don't like boys, Motoko-han?" she suddenly asked, stopping her tale in mid-sentence.
"NO!" Motoko protested loudly. "I AM NOT A LESBIAN!" she insisted.
"It's okay if you are, Motoko-han. I wouldn't respect you any less if you were. Is that why you've been so reluctant to move out of the Hinata Sou and come back home? Is one of those young ladies your girlfriend?" Tsuruko assured her. "Oh, if you've got a girlfriend, I could doll you both up! That would be so much fun!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Or, are all of them your girlfriends? Do you have orgies, or do you take turns?"
"Older sister! I don't have a girlfriend! I don't have lesbian orgies! I'm straight as an arrow. I... I... I just don't like men..." Motoko insisted.
"Oh, well. You'll come out of the closet when you're ready." Tsuruko reasoned unconcernedly, much to Motoko's dismay. "Anyway, back to manager-san. Does he have any medical issues I should know about?"
"How should I know?" Motoko groused, looking over at Kitsune and Haruka. They would know, those two always seemed to know everything going on around them. "Kitsune, Haruka. Does Urashima have any medical problems?" she inquired, lowering the phone.
"No... No, not that I know of." Kitsune replied. "Why? What's going on?"
"Other then his apparent immortality? No, not that I've ever heard about." Haruka added.
"No, not that we know of, older sister." Motoko said into the speaker.
"All right. I'll just let him sleep it off, then." Tsuruko decided. "Talk to you later, Motoko-han. ... If you ever get around to calling me..." she finished, hanging up.
"Older sister, wait! I... Older sister? Hello?" Motoko blurted out, before realising that she had been hung up on. She glared at the receiver for a while, before slamming it back into the cradle. "Urashima is in Kyoto, with my sister!" she exclaimed.
"What was that about hot springs, peeping, bathing and lesbians?" Kitsune hastily inquired with a bemused tone of voice and a smirk on her lips, causing Motoko to blush furiously. "And your orgies? What about those? What about the orgies?" she added enthusiastically, which caused Motoko to faint from sheer embarrassment.
The End! ( For now... )