Love Hina Fan Fiction ❯ Winter Rose ❯ Second Petal: New Doors ( Chapter 1 )

Winter Rose

Second Petal: New Doors

Love Hina is owned by Ken Akamatsu. All copyrights and legal papers are belonging to him ^_^.

I just recently got to know Love Hina. I read the first manga volume, watched a few episodes, and gathered as much info as I can from the net. If I make tons of mistakes about the girls and Keitaro, please forgive them and please tell me the problems in a very constructive way…

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Prologue Summary: Keitaro dreamt of a boy looking for his dead sister. It was a memory of his past more than ten years ago. The boy is his cousin, Hiroaki Urashima, who is currently in the United States. Coincidentally, Hiroaki calls him in the early hours of the morning to announce his arrival to Japan that Saturday, and that he was planning to stay with him at Hinata Apartments.

Second Petal: New Doors

Now what!? Keitaro's brain seemed to ask him as he went cleaning the hot springs area that Saturday morning. It has been two days since Hiroaki called him to see him that day. He the remembered he hasn't told the girls yet. Sooner or later, I'll have to tell them about it. Well, I guess they might agree. After all, he's family. And maybe I can count on Aunt Haruka for support…

Then again, those girls have a very short fuse in the understanding department… True, as he was unable to tell them his cousin's arrival because he got into many sticky situations during the last two days, which eventually led the girls to giving him the silent-though-we'll-send-you flying-each-time-we-see-you treatment. They might rip my head off when I tell them about this… Keitaro pictured Naru Narusegawa's extremely angry face and imagined himself flying many miles in the air, landing God knows where and coming back to the Hinata hours later, where he'll have to repair the hole Naru caused in the ceiling, or get beaten up again up by one of the girls' rage fits. He was busy daydreaming about this (if you consider it more of a dream than of some bizarre nightmare) when he slipped on the rocks and fell into the hot springs.

Ironically, the hot springs felt good, as he was very sore and fatigued from working for more than two hours around the inn. He stopped for a moment and listened for any signs of movement from his tenants. When he was contented to the idea they were still asleep (probably another party last night, he thought), he decided to take a load off and enjoy himself. He first got off the hot springs and put away the cleaning materials. He took off his faded pants and plain white shirt (which were both wet thanks to his clumsy plunge), got a towel, and then proceeded to relax himself. It felt like heaven for the damned. It felt like he was floating on a cloud, with all those nice things floating around him… I could go like this forever… Ha ha… It's been so long since I got into the hot springs… Been so long I can't remember how good it felt…

"Hey have you seen Urashima-sempai around?"

"I don't know, Shinobu… that idiot must still be sleeping right now…"

"C'mon, Naru, you're being too hard on the poor guy. He's just trying to be nice…"

"Don't be naïve, Kitsune, that's not very much like you. Besides, that Urashima's a bunch of trouble ever since we met him, and he hasn't changed a bit ever since…"

"Although I admire him… ANYONE who has to put up with what we've been doing will literally break after a few days, or even a few hours…"

Keitaro felt like he just swallowed a bucketful of ice. THE GIRLS!!! NO!!! Gotta think fast… he dived down in a far corner of the hot springs and hoped they're just passing through…

But, as his bad luck was always plenty, the girls came over for a morning soak. They came over to the hot springs and waded through the water. Keitaro could hear them giggling about something as they edged near his location. Turn away! TURN AWAY!!! Keitaro prayed, his eyes screwed up in concentration. But his prayer was unanswered, as he got an eyeful of Shinobu Maehara's towel-draped behind as soon as he opened his eyes. This is a dream… this is a dream… Keitaro changed his prayer. He was thinking about another plan to evade the girls as Shinobu loomed closer to him. OH MY GOD SHE'S GOING TO SIT NEAR ME!!! Normally, Keitaro thought this would be a plus in his manly scale, but this plus would mean him dead… He was then weighing his last two options: He would stay underwater until he was out of air, or he could surface now and be chopped liver. What do I do! WHAT DO I DO!?

"Wha…?"

"What's wrong, Shinobu?" Naru Narusegawa asked while tying her long auburn hair.

"Nothing, I think… I stepped on something…like a foot… " the meek youth replied to the puzzled lady.

"Hmm… Well, you didn't step on mine" Motoko Aoyama answered.

"Yeah… me too…" Kaolla Su answered with an exaggerated gesture describing what she just said.

"Then, who's…" Mitsune Konno, also known as Kitsune was trying to finish her question when they heard something stirring from underneath the water's surface. The girls got some distance from that area and waited a while to see what it was all about.

SPLASH!!!

Keitaro's head popped out from underneath the water, and soon came the rest of him, clutching his left hand.

<HEAVE! HEAVE! HEAVE! HEAVE!>"Whew!!! Almost drowned there… Ow, Shinobu, did you gain some weight? You stepped on my…" Keitaro quickly stopped in the middle of his sentence when he saw that all his tenants were staring at him. He knew he was in mortal danger.

"Uh, hehehe… Guess I'll be on my way, OK, so…"

SPLASH!!!

Keitaro slipped on the hot spring's floor and landed in Kitsune's front.

"GRRRRRRRRR….. I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR ANTICS YOU PERVERT!!!!!!!!!!!"

Naru Narusegawa then pulled back her infamous right fist to hit Keitaro with her Atomic Punchâ"¢.

"WAIT!!! I can explain! I was just trying to clean the springs when…"

WHAM!!!

Naru hit Keitaro square in the face, sending him flying several miles away from Hinata, much to the girls' delight.

"SORRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!" Keitaro's voice trailed as he went up, up and away until the girls saw only a small dot of their hapless landlord.

"Whew, I think you may have overdone it this time, Naru." said Kitsune, straining her eyes to look for Keitaro among the clouds.

"Yeah, who knows what might happen to Urashima-sempai…" Shinobu added.

"Relax, you guys. That pervert's always okay, even after a beating… Besides, he'll just come back here after a few hours, as always…"

Tokyo International Airport…

Keitaro landed hard on the hard concrete, dizzy and swirly-eyed. As he got focus, he could see a lot of people staring at him. No wonder, he though. Who would go outside in a bath towel anyway?

"Hey, need some help getting up? Here, grab my arm."

Keitaro looked up and to the guy who offered him some help. He was a young man in his late teens, about 5' 11" in height, wearing cargo slacks, a plain white shirt, and an unbuttoned light blue polo shirt. He had small dark blue sunglasses on, which illuminated the effect of his deep blue eyes. He had short dark brown hair, but of which the bangs were very long, and combed neatly in a very unique way. He had a single gold chain around his neck, from which hung an intricately designed golden crucifix. Keitaro thought he was looking at a J-pop star.

"Uh, y-yeah... Thanks.." Keitaro grabbed his hand and stood up straight.

"So, uh, hey, normally you don't go outside wearing something like that..." The man said, referring to Keitaro's bath towel.

"Long story..." Keitaro said, tears flowing in his eyes. "Where am I anyway?"

"Tokyo Airport."

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!? TOKYO AIRPORT!? Wow, Naru-chan got a bit carried away..."

"So, like, do you know where to go back to."

"Yeah, but first, now that I'm here at Tokyo Airport, I'll go and meet my cousin..." Keitaro was going to run off when he paused and asked his new friend "Um, I didn't catch your name, though..."

"Vincent. Vincent Urashima."

"Urashima? That's weird. We share the same surname. I'm Keitaro Urashima... huh?"

Keitaro paused when Vincent took off his sunglasses and took a closer look at him. It was a very astonished look.

"YOU'RE KEITARO!? I mean, you've changed a lot... and how exactly did you get here anyway?"

"Long story… And what do you mean..." Keitaro paused for a while to think of an explanation why the stranger knew his name. His mind could only think of one possible answer "Hiro-san? You're Hiroaki?"

"Well, yeah."

"But... why did you lie about your name? Your name's not Vincent..."

Vincent smiled and replaced his sunglasses. "Well, this is funny... anyway, When I became an American Citizen, I added the Vincent to my name. You're now looking at Hiroaki Vincent Urashima."

Keitaro took a while before the words started to sink in. He was still in excruciating pain from his crash, and the cold wind was blowing on his bare skin. "So, uh, can I still call you Hiro-san?"

"Call me whatever you want, I don't care. So, let's go to the Hinata. I already got a taxi and all that. By the way, you want some pants?" Vincent said as he dug through a navy blue rolling bag. Keitaro blushed and mumbled gibberish. "I think I'm a bit bigger, so these should be a bit baggy..." he pulled out a pair of jeans and a red v-necked long-sleeved shirt.

"Gee, thanks..." Keitaro said as he walked to the men's room just near the Airport's main entrance area and put on Vincent's clothes.

"Hey, those fit you perfectly..." Vincent commended as Keitaro walked out wearing the ensemble. "Anyway, can you please tell me how the heck did you end up on the sidewalk with only a towel on?"

"Uh... long story... I'll tell you in the car..."

"Maybe later, then. Wanna grab a burger? Or maybe hang out at the mall?"

"Okay, But I've got no money…"

"Relax, it's on me, okay?"

Keitaro felt like it was his birthday. "R-really!?"

"Yes." Vincent then put the bag in a taxi cab that was parked near the impact site. "Now let's go."

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Author: Uh, did it sound dumb? Well, It's me first fanfic about Love Hina, though. Please tell me about it. Till next chapter, peace out.

Love Hina © Ken Akamatsu