Love Hina Fan Fiction ❯ Legacy ❯ Chapter 30

“Haru-chan? Something wrong?” asked Granny Hina, looking over at her eldest grandchild. Blinking, Haruka focused on her grandmother.

 

“No, of course not,” she said, realizing that her ice cream cone had begun to drip on her hand. Swiftly, she licked up the errant treat and cut back the over-burden of cool goodness.

 

“You seem distracted, Haruka,” Kanako observed, delicately licking her own ice cream cone. “Something wrong?” wondered the younger granddaughter.

 

“No, not really,” Haruka denied. “Just…thinking,” she said. Hina hummed, taking a spoonful of her banana split treat.

 

“You might be wondering if there is something I haven't told you, eh, Haru-chan?” she asked, snickering. “Like maybe I'm dying? Is that it?” she suggested. Kanako frowned at the old woman.

 

“What are you saying?” she asked. Granny is the most energetic and healthiest person I have ever met!

 

“The thought had crossed my mind, considering…” Haruka shrugged. The three had spent much of the morning visiting the family lawyers, banks and other related offices in preparation for Hina turning over the Urashima clan to Kanako and Haruka. Now, they were having a light lunch before paying a visit to the national Registry and tending to some issues related to their standing within the nation. With a lineage like theirs, it important to make sure that each change of the guard was documented in the records; more so, given the current situation with the Aoyama.

 

“Heh! You aren't that lucky!” crowed Hina gleefully. “I plan to live to a ripe old age and enjoy myself until the very, very end! And once this matter is done, I can do just that without the millstone of being the Elder of the family around my neck!”

 

“Like that's ever stopped you before,” scoffed Kanako.

 

“More often than you know, Kana-chan,” Hina replied seriously.

 

“Oh? And what about those long, long world-tours you have been going on? And your unannounced disappearances for weeks at a time?” Kanako challenged.

 

“The entire time I was doing that, I was still having to handle the business of our family, or didn't you notice my cell phone kept ringing at all hours?” Hina countered. “Also, the three-year long trip we took was to give the girls at the Hinata time to become comfortable with each other and Keitaro,” added Hina. Kanako frowned.

 

“So you…” Kanako began.

 

“Yes, I selected the girls with Keitaro in mind,” said Hina.

 

“You selected an Aoyama?” interjected Haruka, her interest caught. Hina nodded.

 

“Correct. And not just any Aoyama - but a granddaughter of my old friend Yayoi,” she confirmed.

 

“You knew about the scroll, so…” began Kanako. Hina shook her head.

 

“I knew about the scroll, yes, but at the time, there was no connection between it and Motoko coming to live with me. I had no idea that Keitaro would ask to come live with me, and even then, it was the commonly-held belief of myself and Nat-chan - Mutsumi's mother - that the Aoyamas believed the scroll gone. No, my plan was something different entirely; from a talk Yayoi and I had a very long time ago,” Hina sighed. “I wish she could be here now, to see this show.”

 

“What was your plan for Motoko, then?” wondered Haruka.

 

Granny Hina sort of shrugged. “Not an actual plan so much as a hope that I could expand the horizons of the Aoyama beyond their fixation on their past, their swords and their honor. The added bonus of tweaking Dai-kun's nose was an incentive, as well,” snickered Hina, her eyes mischievous.

 

“Diakon? Radish?” wondered Kanako.

 

“Who is Dai-kun, Granny,” Haruka asked, having caught the old woman's hints.

 

“That will be my secret for the moment, dear,” Hina laughed. “You will meet him in due time, and will be forced to deal with him before it is said and done,” added the woman. “Seems like only yesterday we were butting heads,” she reminisced. “But, anyway,” she forcefully pushed the topic away before Haruka or Kanako could pursue it, “you two will be feeling the weight of being the heads of our family before you know it, so you best enjoy yourself while you can,” admonished the old woman, a twinkle in her eye. “Right, Haru?” she asked.

 

“Whatever you say, Granny,” Haruka said before downing the last of her ice cream cone. Picking up her cup of tea, she swallowed the last of it. “So, ready to go?” she asked the others. Kanako tossed back the last of her cone as well, Granny Hina calmly finished off her own treat. Standing, the old woman theatrically popped her back and stretched her arms, moaning and groaning. Both her granddaughters rolled their eyes, knowing it was all for show.

 

“I don't know if my old body can take the walk to the train station, dears,” she said, her voice wavering and frail-sounding, but pitched to carry to the other tables in the small treat shop. “Be good granddaughters and help your poor, old granny to the station?” she asked.

 

“As if,” scoffed Haruka.

 

“You once made me carry you up a volcano when I was sick with a fever,” Kanako added, both brushing past Hina. Around them they could hear the murmuring and feel the stares of the other patrons. “Piss off,” growled Kanako, glaring at the other diners.

 

“How cruel, to be abandoned by my own family when my health fails,” Hina decried from the door to the eatery. She had slipped past the two and made it to the door before either of her granddaughters.

 

“Terrible,” Haruka commiserated with Hina blandly. “Almost makes you cry, right, Kana?” she said to her companion.

 

“Just terrible,” nodded Kanako dryly.

 

“Stop lollygagging, girls! We've an appointment to keep!” cackled Hina, beckoning the two to hurry up. Shaking their heads, the two quickened their steps, hearing the confused murmuring of the patrons. Out on the street, the younger Urashimas bracketed Hina.

 

“You have a twisted sense of humor, granny,” Haruka said, a small smile on her lips.

 

“Not twisted,” Hina primly replied, “I just have the healthy Urashima sense of humor.”

 

Following Granny Hina, the two boarded a train, riding until Hina nudged them off at a stop a few down from where they had boarded. Looking at the signs, Haruka frowned. “This isn't city hall,” she pointed out.

 

“Just a side-trip,” Hina waved it off, leading her two granddaughters away from the station.

 

“Todai,” Kanako murmured, discerning the destination. Granny Hina nodded. “Are we visiting Keitaro and the girls, or tending to other business?” Kanako asked.

 

“Little of both,” Hina replied. “Though, Kei-kun shouldn't be here right now,” she added, glancing at her phone for a moment. Kanako nodded.

 

“If he is following the itinerary I laid out, he should be picking up supplies and tending to those matters in town,” the sister confirmed. Haruka glanced at her phone, checking to see if any messages were waiting for her. Not seeing one, she swiftly composed and sent one of her own before tucking it away. “Checking up on him, hmm, Haru?” Kanako observed.

 

“Yeah,” Haruka nodded. “You and I both know that things tend to go wrong for him,” pointed out Haruka.

 

“I'm sure one of the girls is helping him,” Hina said carelessly. Both Haruka and Kanako turned to look at Hina.

 

“So, who did you plan to have help him?” asked Haruka. The old woman is having far too good of a time with this whole thing, she thought sourly.

 

“Oh, which one will seize the chance I don't know for sure, but the choices are limited to the girls who are at the Hinata during the day,” hinted Hina.

 

“Kitsune and the Aoyama sisters, then,” Kanako murmured. Haruka's phone chimed softly. Slipping it out, she checked the display.

 

“Motoko,” she reported, sending back a short message. Hina cackled.

 

“Well, she is Yayoi's granddaughter, after all,” Hina chuckled. Before them, the Hongo campus of Todai appeared.

 

“Been a while since I was last here,” Haruka murmured, the three marching right through the gate, barely pausing to wave off the guard. Hina led her two family members through the campus, ending up entering the administrative building. Waving to several of the tenured faculty and instructors, she led the two down hallways, up stairs and through unmarked doors like an old pro until even Haruka was unsure where they were, exactly.

 

“Where are we going?” wondered Kanako.

 

“Just to see an old friend,” Hina said, stopping before a plain, old, worn door. Banging on it with her fist she yelled. “Hey! You've got company, old man! Hide the porn mag and open the door before I kick it in!”

 

Kanako and Haruka shook their heads, though both smiled. Hina was infamous for her personal style, after all. From inside the room, they heard some shuffling, a creak or two of wood, and then the door unlocked. “Hina, you are as rude and uncivilized as ever, I see,” came a dry, somewhat creaky voice. The door opened, revealing a man perhaps a little older than Hina, who looked at the three through thick, bottle-cap glasses.

 

“Thank you,” Hina bowed mockingly. “So, this is what Todai does with their worn-out professors, then? Stick them in a records room?” taunted Hina.

 

“And here I was just thinking of offering a prayer to the heavens for my good luck in not seeing you in so many years, too,” replied the old man. Haruka studied the old man coolly, while Kanako's gaze was far from cool - it was glacial.

 

“Who is this, Granny?” asked Haruka. The old man's gaze turned to Haruka.

 

“You have certainly grown, Haruka,” he said to her.

 

“Have we met?” came back her clipped reply. The old man shook his head.

 

“Not formally, no,” he replied. “I occasionally saw you when you were a student here, subbing a few of your classes now and again. Being not only an Urashima, but the daughter of Yoko and granddaughter of Hina, you were quite the celebrity, you know,” he shared.

 

“You know him?” challenged Kanako.

 

“Sort of vaguely recall him,” Haruka shrugged. Hina laughed.

 

“Popular as ever with the girls, eh, Yojiro?” teased Hina. The old man sighed.

 

“Sadly, that is the truth,” he agreed. “What brings you here, Hina? Surely not a mere visit of a former instructor whose career you destroyed?” he suggested. Haruka and Kanako turned to stare at Hina.

 

“Go ahead and play the martyr if it makes you feel better about it,” Hina blew it off. “No one made you speak up in my defense, you know,” she added.

 

“True, true, but you made a novice professor forget that the truth is what the school dean says it is,” he replied. Hina smirked.

 

“Admit it: you loved seeing that old geezer nearly have a stroke when you contradicted him,” she smirked. Unwillingly, the old man began to smile, too.

 

“Yes, that is one of my fondest memories,” admitted the old man. “Sometimes, this seems almost worth it,” he added, gesturing to the crowded, dusty, cramped room packed with files and folders and binders. “Sometimes,” he repeated. “What can I do for you, Hina?” he asked.

 

“I need to check up on some things, that's all,” Hina said, gently pushing him into the room, her two granddaughters following behind her, Haruka closing the door behind the group.