Love Hina Fan Fiction ❯ Follow The Lady ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Disclaimer: See prologue

Kitsune’s mind raced trying to come to terms with the situation. Not only had she lost a very humiliating bet, but she had also been caught in flagrante delecto with regards to her rampant cheating. While half of her brain puzzled out where she went wrong; the other half was preoccupied with trying to weasel out of her current predicament. Sadly, the former question had her stumped completely while the latter came up with the same two situations it always had: lying and launching counter-accusations. For those to have a hope and a prayer of working she’d have to get rid of the evidence first. Before the rational part of her brain could stop her, she had reached down, grabbed the small folding table and flipped it into the air.

Motoko Aoyama wasn’t a big fan of television. She found most of what came through the ‘boob-tube’ to be crass, needlessly violent, perverse and painfully repetative. What few shows she did watch, she watched religiously. They were all, naturally, samurai slash-em-ups. This may have been seen by some as hypocritical, but most people loved life and limb too much to say anything to her about it.
Motoko leaned closer to the television as Mangoku’s blade tore the slavers to ribbons. She was lucky too. The bigwigs owning the series had arranged for previously unaired episodes for one-time-only showings during the marathon. She faintly smiled as Mangoku finished off the last guard and sheathed his sword.
“Ayame, is your family safe?” The televised swordsman inquired to the lady who first requested his services.
“Yes, they made it out safely.” replied the young woman.”Mangoku, I-”
“Yes Ayame?” Upon hearing this, Motoko leaned even closer to the TV, potential damage to her eyesight be damned.
“I-I’ve always...”
*WHUNK*
A large flat object collided with the back of Motoko’s head, propelling it into the TV screen. Slightly dazed, she checked herself for injuries. Thankfully they were light; a slight nosebleed and a painful throbbing in the back of her skull, but not much else. To her right lay the offending object.
‘A folding table? Where did that come-’ Her thoughts were interrupted by the cries of the guilty party.
“You! You must have cheated! I don’t know how, but you must have!” Kitsune wailed as she fumbled through some playing cards. “I know I kept track of them properly, so how did you do it?” Kitsune demanded from a bewildered Keitaro. Motoko might not know the exact details of what was going on, but even from the other side of the room she could see that the swindler had at least half a deck of cards stuffed up her sleave.
Motoko shook her head, partly in disappointment with her housemates and partly to clear out the nagging pain. She didn’t have time for this. She glanced back at the tube only to find the ending credits rolling. Something within her snapped as the realization that she had missed a once in a lifetime opportunity. The kendo girl clenched her teeth in anger, wiped the blood from her nose and drew her sword.

“Come clean, Ketiaro! How’d you do it?” Kitsune shouted as she thrust an accusatory finger into Ketiaro’s face.
The fox-woman’s outburst was interrupted as she felt a slight brush along her forearm and felt the cards she had stashed therein fluttering to the ground. She glanced at her now-ruined sleeve.
“Hey! This thing was expenisve, you know!” said Kitsune as she turned towards Motoko. She froze. Like a snake, Motoko’s wild-eyed glare fixed her in place. Kitsune could hardly breathe, let alone escape.
“Hey, there’s the queen of spades! And you said I was chea-“ Ketiaro was indignant until he to saw the enraged Aoyama. Although it was common to see Motoko angry, as of that moment she looked ready to kill someone.
“Motoko,” Kitsune began after gathering up what little courage she had. “There’s no need to resort to violence.”
“That’s right!” Ketiaro chimed in. The duo began taking a few baby steps backwards. “I’m sure we can come to a peaceful solution.”
Motoko’s grin sent shivers down their spines.
“Of course we can. Now, if you could have your servant get me a blank tape?”
Keitaro blinked in confusion. “My what?”
“Your new servant. That was what you were supposed to win, was it not?” Keitaro got her hint.
“Kitsune, I think you should do what she says.”
“What? There’s no way I’m gonaa-“ Kitsune’s words were cut short as Motoko leveled her blade at the Vixen’s neck.
“You should refer to your master with more respect.” Motoko demanded.
Kitsune nodded. “Yes, master. Right away, master.” With that, the swordswoman sheathed her sword and the fox woman scrambled off in search for a tape.
Motoko turned to Ketiaro. “You don’t have to be so gentle with her. She was trying to cheat you, after all.”
“I can’t do that!” Keitaro protested. “Besides, what would I have her do?”
“I’m sure you could think of a few things.” At the end of Motoko’s statement, Keitaro eyes snapped wide open as his mind flooded with thoughts that; for the sake of the younger and more impressionable audience members, can’t be stated here.
“I wasn’t referring to that, pervert.” Motoko muttered as Kitsune dashed back into the room. The swordswoman snatched the videotape without so much as a ‘Thank you,’ although much of her earlier rancor dissipated and she was left with mild irritation.
“Think about it though, if she did even a fourth of the chores around here you could probably get in enough studying time to pass your entrance exam this time.”
Keitaro nodded in response to Motoko’s reasoning. She was right. If he lost a fourth-hell, an eighth of his normal workload he would save at least an hour that could be spent studying. Some quick mental arithmetic later he figured he could save at least 173 hours if nothing else demanded his attention during those hours.
One-hundred-seventy-three hours saved- no, liberated from menial chores. Even though he knew he couldn’t spend all of it in cram sessions- as if anyone could!- it would still cause a massive hike in his grades. He continued mulling it over in his head for a few minutes.
Kitsune saw the look on Keitaro’s face and knew that she’d lost. She began to stop thinking of ways to get out of this sorry situation, and began pondering ways of coping with it. Booze would help. Booze always helped. She faced Motoko and prepared to ask her one last-ditch question.
“I don’t suppose there’s any way to talk you out of forcing me into this, is there?”
“Me? This was your doing if I recall corectly. Besides,” Motoko tapped her sheath against Kitsune’s stomach. “A little exercise would do you good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back before the commercial break is over. Please don’t disturb me again.” The duo nodded in response to Motoko’s request, and trekked up the stairs to their rooms.

Kitsune spoke up in the second floor hallway.
“So Master...” Keitaro cringed upon hearing that.
“Don’t call me that-and I’m not talking to you.” He grumbled.
“And what are you so angry about? It’s not like a sword-wielding maniac just appointed you somebody’s slave.” Kitsune inquired, poking him in the elbow for emphasis.
“You cheated.” he replied flatly. Kitsune jaw went slack for a few moments.
“You’re angry because I cheated? Keitaro, it was three-card monty! I’m surprised you couldn’t figure it out on your own! You really shouldn’t be so trusting with your money, you know!”
“Not everybody is like you.” Keitaro wasn’t convinced in the slightest.
“This is the thanks I get for trying to open your eyes to all the dishonest cheats in the world? Insults and distrust? I’m not a bad person, Keitaro!” Kitsune gripped her landlord by the collar and pleaded with him. “I’m not!” Kitsune began to tear up in frustration. Urashima’s heart wracked with guilt at the sight.
“I’m sorry Kitsune. I didn’t realize that...” his voice trailed off as the sobbing turned to chuckling.
“Gotcha.” She said between chuckles.
“That wasn’t nice.”Keitaro blanched.
“Come on!” she pleaded. “It was a joke! Let’s talk about something else, okay?”
Keitaro nodded in response. “Like what?”
“Well master, what do you want me to do for you? I’m serious this time.” Kitsune asked. It would be a lot easier for her to procrastinate on her new chores if she knew what they were ahead of time.
“Well...I suppose that I am tired of getting beaten up for being in the bath at the wrong time. I guess it would be a lot less painful for you to do that.”
Kitsune grimaced. She hadn’t expected him to actually give her real work. Even if scrubbing the baths wasn’t physically exerting, it was time-consuming. She linked her arm in his and snuggled up to him.
“Anything else I should know about? In addition to cleaning the bath and me not paying rent, I mean.” she whispered into his ear while tracing circles in his chest.
“Wait, what? When did I agree to that?” Keitaro demanded.
“Well, for starters if I’m going to be spending all of my time here at Hinata-sou, I’ll have to quit all my part-time jobs.” Kitsune explained. “Besides, as your new errand girl it’s your responsibility to provide for all my needs.” she squeezed his arm to her chest.
“You mean alcohol, right?” Keitaro replied while trying to ignore what his arm was pressing up against.
“Well, that and some other things...”
“I’m not buying you booze, Kitsune.” the landlord insisted.
“That’s what you think.”the vixen muttered under her breath.
“Huh?”
“Er, what else, do you think?”
“It’d be nice if nobody interrupted me while I was studying...” Keitaro answered. Kitsune pondered that. Unless Kaolla showed up, that should be fairly easy to accomplish with a minimum of effort. Still, she needed to make certain she didn’t have anything else that cut into her free time.
“Aww, and here I was hoping you’d ask me to do something dirty!” She purred seductively, hoping it would get him off his guard.
Keitaro stammered for a few moments, paused, then furrowed his brows. “You’re doing it again, aren’t you?”
Kitsune grinned in response as she let go of him. “So you can be taught! Heh, I’ll make a natural out of you yet?”
“A natural what?” Keitaro didn’t like the sound of that.
“You’ll see. Good night, master.”
“Good night, Kitsune...and stop calling me that!”
Kitsune chuckled silently to herself. She had “plans” for the following morning.