Love Hina Fan Fiction ❯ Identity Crisis ❯ Almost Home Free ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter 6

Almost Home Free

Day six found Kitsune waking up rather early, a habit she found more and more disgustingly ingrained in this body. `Only today and tomorrow, then I'm back to my gorgeous self,' the girl thought as she pushed Keitaro's unflattering glasses over the bridge of her borrowed nose.

As she crawled out of bed, the girl cursed the opportunity lost by this exchange, in more ways than one. `If only this had happened last week,' Kitsune thought with a wry grin, `then Keitaro would've understood women better, and I would have avoided it entirely. Damn. Oh well, curse his good luck.' The transformed girl shrugged at Keitaro's amazing timing, be it accidental or otherwise and started to dress for the day.

`Motoko wants me to fix that hole in her ceiling, even though she was the one that punched me through it. Damn, it seems I even have Keitaro's impeccable clumsiness,' Kitsune thought on to herself. All this constant housework made it obvious to Kitsune that Keitaro's body was not as frail as one would expect at first glance. In fact, she would venture Keitaro's body had nearly zero body fat, but was entirely muscle. The thought of bodies immediately turned back to her old form and Keitaro, who was in it. `Oh geez, I bet that numbskull doesn't realize I exercise daily. I guess no real damage from just a few days, but he needs to realize my body isn't all just peepshows and feel-for-alls.'

***

Half an hour later, Keitaro woke up, his delight in spending the day relaxing in luxury tempered by the realization that he would be back to normal the day after tomorrow. `I'd be scared as hell if not for Seta-san's research,' Keitaro thought with great relief. Moments later, a sheet of paper slipped through the side of the bedroom door and Keitaro watched the paper sail gracefully through the air and land inches in from his feet. `Hmm, what's this?' Keitaro pondered as he picked the sheet up. `What the heck?! She's gotta be kidding!'

The sheet of paper read like a gym guru's paradise with an extra note from Kitsune on the bottom, which read: Hey it's only fair since I did your chores.

Keitaro sighed in defeat even before the argument could even begin. Resigned to his role, the transformed boy laid back down on the futon and began performing the insane amount of crunches the paper instructed.

***

Two hours later, Keitaro stepped outside of Kitsune's room, a thin film of sweat illuminating his borrowed skin, wearing a sweat drenched T-shirt and shorts, with a towel hanging from his neck. Nervously, Keitaro turned his head and saw Kitsune looking at him with his old eyes.

"Those exercises should've only taken an hour," Kitsune pointed out.

"Umm, well, you see," Keitaro stammered.

"Fine fine, I understand. Just don't do that too much or you'll make me go blind," Kitsune said with a wink. "Now you really should bathe. I have a hole in the roof I need to finish patching."

"Good luck," Keitaro said.

"By the way, the stuff in the top drawer won't kill you, if you're that curious," Kitsune added as she retreated up the stairs.

"I know that," Keitaro answered muttered, a blush staining his cheeks, "but maybe I don't want to go blind."

***

*Thump* another nail driven in. *Thump*, and yet another. Kitsune sat atop the Hinata house, still repairing the hole from the day before. `Keitaro is one hell of a carpenter, I'll give him that,' Kitsune thought in appreciation as she picked up anther plank of wood and tried to do a somewhat serviceable job. `I just hope it doesn't rain, or poor Motoko-chan will be performing a wet t-shirt contest.' The thought of the poor, uptight kendo girl in such a circumstance was utterly hilarious to Kitsune as she finished off the repairs.

Satisfied with her work, Kitsune stood up and dusted off her hands. "Well, that is that," the girl said as she picked up the tool kit and the spare lumber. Two steps towards the ladder and Kitsune felt the roof groan under the stress. "Damn. Ok, got to do this carefully," the girl said, nervous in the fact that she didn't want to repair ANOTHER hole. "Ok, I think it's safe this way," the girl mused as she took a step in the supposedly safe direction. The roof groaned even louder. "Hmm, this will be tricky."

***

Motoko ran a brush through her long hair, looking at herself in the mirror with a sense of both pride and dread. Just as the other girls suggested, she was becoming more and more beautiful. Being beautiful, however, brought with it more trouble than she was ready for, not to mention as she grew, her body kept becoming more and more feminine, making the art of the sword increasingly challenging.

Fortunately, one thing Motoko did like was a challenge, shrugging, Motoko started to remove her sleeping robes to dress into her usual kendo garb. At that moment, a loud, audible *creak* made itself known from the ceiling. Puzzled, Motoko looked up and saw the ceiling starting to crack. Seconds later, Kitsune, in Keitaro's body, fell through the creaking roof and on top of the partially nude kendo-girl, her hands resting on the sword woman's budding assets.

"Urashima, you PERVERT!" rang out followed by a large gust of wind and yet another hole in the roof.

***

Keitaro leaned against a wall in Kitsune's room and heard the commotion with a wince. `I really need to fix the whole roof someday,' he mused. It was also a good thing that the baths were unoccupied that day, or Keitaro would've had some more problems with the situation. Not that he would object at this point. Naru took Su and Shinobu out for ice cream and Motoko would most likely be furiously practicing her kendo on the balcony.

The summer days certainly felt good and Keitaro could certainly appreciate the impromptu vacation of Kitsune's body. `This is actually a nice break,' Keitaro mused. `Not many can say they became the `bad girl' for the summer time.'

Just then, a familiar, loud horn honking could be heard in the distance and Keitaro knew Seta was paying a visit. A loud metallic crash echoed through the halls and Keitaro quickly leapt out of Kitsune's room, to come face to face with a cloud of dust. With wings on his feet, Keitaro ran down the hallway and met up with a still bruised, but mostly recovered Kitsune in front of Seta's van in the living room. "What's he doing now?" Keitaro asked.

"How should I know? I just got here," Kitsune answered. Seconds later, Seta crawled out of the driver's side window.

"Ah good, I need to talk to you two," Seta said with a wide grin.

***

The two transformed young adults and one helplessly [adorably] clueless professor sat around a table. "This is very good tea, thank you Kitsune!" Seta said with a smile.

"Actually, Seta-san, I made it," Keitaro volunteered.

"Right, that's what I - oh that's right!" Seta exclaimed as he belatedly remembered the situation. "The reason for my visit is to explain a little more about the statues and the change."

"We will switch back tomorrow, right?" Kitsune asked, point blank.

"Oh certainly!" Seta answered. "That is if no one else takes the male statue that you took originally Kitsune. If both statues are still intact by tomorrow, you'll be back to normal."

"What happens if someone takes the stolen statue?" Keitaro asked, worried.

"Well, Hinata is primarily populated by women, so if another woman takes the male statue, on the seventh night, you Keitaro, will be placed in that woman's body and Kitsune will return to her old body."

Keitaro turned as white as a sheet at that announcement. "What if one of them is destroyed?" Kitsune asked, equally peaky.

"Oh, then you two will be stuck that way forever," Seta said with a carefree smile as he sipped his tea. The swapped residents looked at each other with wide nervous eyes. "But I'm sure such an occurrence will not happen, because the magic protects the statues from harm in the first 6 days. It's on the 7th day that the statues are vulnerable."

"Ok, protect the statues with our lives tomorrow, all right Kitsune?" Keitaro said. "Now what about this drinking habit?"

"Ah yes, the traits," Seta said as he stroked his chin with his forefinger. "Well, no need to worry. The traits stay with the body, much like the sparkplugs stay in a car, even if the drivers change."

"That's a relief," Kistune said. "I seem to have your clumsiness in this body."

"I also seem to have your lack of inhibitions," Keitaro countered.

"Ooh, that's low," Kitsune pointed out. "Besides, I said you could mess around once, but -"

"Wait a minute," Seta interrupted. "So you two experimented with your new bodies?"

"Umm, yes," Keitaro reluctantly confessed.

"Well, just a little of this," Kitsune shamelessly admitted.

Immediately, Seta took out his notepad and a pen. "Tell me, how does it compare versus your original form!" the professor eagerly asked.

"2,000 yen," Kitsune said as she held out her hand. "Hey, research subjects get paid."

"Umm, well, I think that's a private matter," Keitaro hurriedly said as he started to blush a deep tomato red.

Kitsune sighed as the uncomfortable boy. "All right, I guess I'll hold out too."

"But, but, the interest in science!" Seta pleaded, stammering in his haste for knowledge. The pair glared at him, "All right." He conceded, "Well, I guess the least I can do is help clean up the living room."

***

Kitsune was once again on the roof, nailing away more wood panels and supports. This time, however, she had a little help from Keitaro. "You see, these cross sections keep everything nice and strong," Keitaro explained.

"You sure are an impressive carpenter," Kitsune admitted.

"Oh, everything I know about home repair I learned from living here," Keitaro explained.

"Us girls must be a real pain to you," Kitsune said. "I'm sorry about that."

"Oh don't worry! Living here has been the most fun I've had in my life!" Keitaro announced reassuringly.

"Well, I'm glad," Kitsune said as she continued hammering. Minutes later, the roof was patched up and night was descending at the Hinata. "Well, have a good last day," Kitsune said.

"You too," Keitaro returned uncomfortably.

"Oh by the way," Kitsune added slyly as she slipped off the roof, "It may be the last day tomorrow, but that doesn't mean you can go at it like the world's gonna end. I don't want to wake up sore two days from now."

"Do you always think about that?" Keitaro asked with a wince.

"Yes, yes I do," Kitsune answered with a grin.

***

The next day, the final day, rose slowly, majestically with the sun. The first few hours of sunlight went onward and both Keitaro and Kitsune were left snoozing in their respective rooms.

Around noon, Keitaro awoke from his slumber with a groggy sigh. With a yawn, he pondered returning to his old sleeping habits. `I'll sure miss sleeping in, and the baths' the boy thought woefully, `and, maybe, I might miss having breasts just a TEENSY bit, even if they get in the way of everything.'

Lazily, Keitaro got out of bed and walked out into the hallway to see Shinobu. "Hey Shinobu, when's breakfast going to be ready?" the transformed boy asked.

"Breakfast?" Shinobu pondered. "Kitsune, that was 3 hours ago."

`Damn, I must've overslept,' Keitaro thought. "Well, when's lunch?"

"Lunch is almost finished," Shinobu explained, turning back to chopping vegetables. "I just came out here to tell you." With that, Keitaro joined everyone else for lunch.

***

As lunch drew to a close, everyone attended their separate lives, and Kitsune eagerly grabbed Keitaro by the arm. "Now listen," Kitsune began, "we have to guard those statues with our lives because, in some ways, we ARE those statues!"

Just then, Kitsune opened the door to Keitaro's room and the sight before the two of them sent immediate horror into their spines. Kaolla Su was juggling the female statue with a chainsaw.

"Hello!" Su said excitedly. "I can almost do this blindfolded!"

"Oh god no!" Kitsune screamed as she leapt and grabbed the wooden statue, inadvertently pushing Su to the side. Kitsune landed on the ground, statue in her hands and the chainsaw landing, blade first, only a foot away from the statue, and only inches away from Kitsune's new crotch. "I think I'm going to be sick!"

***

After a rather tiring day of protecting the female statue, the day was slowly winding down. Once the pair were 100 percent certain that the female statue was safe, Keitaro finally asked the big question. "So where did you hide that male statue?" the transformed boy asked.

"Wanna see?" Kitsune said with a grin. "Well, follow me." Kitsune lead Keitaro into her room and started to clear off a section to reveal the tatami mat below. "I knew you'd be looking for it, so as a gag, if I remember correctly, hid it here." Kitsune pulled off the tatami mat to see the hollowed out floor below, but to both their surprise, the hollowed section was empty, save for a few pornographic magazines with the female reader in mind. "Wait, did I hide it there or somewhere else?" Kitsune pondered.

"YOU DON'T KNOW?" Keitaro shrieked, revolted and horrified at the same time.

"Relax, if I can't find it, no one else can, so we'll swap back and everything'll be right as rain," Kitsune reasoned.

"Well, I hope so," Keitaro said with a sigh.

***

Night descended on the Hinata and Keitaro lay nervously in his bed. Nothing could calm him, not even the prospect of getting one final good memory of Kitsune's body could shake the fear that held his spirits. `I hope we swap back.'

***

Motoko looked at the latest test target she acquired earlier that day. She held it up approvingly. `This will slice beautifully tomorrow,' the swordswoman thought as she went to bed.

***

Naru looked at the object of interest she found earlier that day. `Maybe Seta-san can tell me more about it,' the myopic girl thought wistfully, hugging the object to her. `Or maybe I should give it to Keitaro as a friendship present.'

***

Su carried the large object into her tropical room and grinned. "Perfect! Works wonders with the décor!"

***

Kitsune looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "Boy, I hope none of the other girls found that male statue," the girl said aloud. "even if it'll do them all a bit of good."