40Yo, everybody! It's been awhile, hasn't it? (*Cricket Noises*) …Yeah, I have no excuses as to why I've been so absent from writing, except for college, life, and other projects that I've been doing. I've some ideas for other stories, but hey, things happen and they simply fail to come to fruition. ANYway, I've finally got a story I think'll stick around for the time being. Also, the events of the story will start off some time after the events of Chapter 25, after Naru has graduated, so that Sanza will have a bit of time to get used to House Hina before excitement rears its head. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: In case it wasn't obvious, I don't own Love Hina or its characters. If I did, things would've been a lot more sensible and merciful to Keitaro.
Chapter 1: Where to Begin...
Stockholm Syndrome is not generally used for a basis of making romance stories, but it isn't exactly a bad starting point. A girl realizes the softer side of her captor and gets to know him, causing the two to grow close and possibly get together, with the captor treating his former captive properly; nothing too bad about that. It shows depth and changes between the characters as they bond. However, when a guy cannot help himself but return to a woman who is constantly belittling him and punching him across distances at the speed of a bullet, all because of a freaking promise made about 15 FREAKING YEARS AGO to a girl who may or may not be the girl that he gave that promise to, you kinda have to worry about the guy. At least, that's how Sanza Hikari felt about the situation of Keitaro Urashima as he reads the final volume of Love Hina. And as he flips the final page, he is greeted by the image of Naru Narusegawa in a bride's dress...and with Keitaro as the groom.
"You're kidding me." The 20-year-old man nearly dropped the book in shock, but was able to close it and place it on his desk. "You are freaking kidding me." He had pretty much binge-read the 14-volume manga from beginning to end, raptured in the tragic tale of a young man who, after failing the entrance exam to a prestigious college twice in a row, was sent to a Girls-Only Dormitory to regain his bearings and possibly find love. In Sanza's eyes, he probably would've found it earlier too...if his tenants weren't a hazard to the unfortunate ronin's health! Two-no, four now that he thought about it- girls would physically assault him for practically breathing, one girl, while non-physical with her problems, drained him dry and caused him more trouble via riling the main two physical assailants, a girl whose physical issues caused indirect suffering, and one girl that, while easily the nicest of them all, making her Sanza's favorite of the bunch, was too much of a coward to try and stop the others from causing poor Keitaro pain. And the main thing that brought both a smile and an infuriating headache to Sanza was that, while Keitaro was constantly sent flying for "perverted acts" that were, in all intents and purposes, very unfortunate accidents, he kept on coming back and apologizing for what they did to him, as if it was his fault the girls have such short tempers and low expectations of him. And the girls just never seemed to learn just what kind of problems they gave to Keitaro.
Well, no… Sanza stopped to rethink his latest opinion on the girls of the Hinata Dormitory. At least some of them eventually got a shade of growth. Shinobu Maehara was, in Sanza's opinion, one of the nicest girls he had seen and/or read about. A shrinking violet and one of the main reasons why Keitaro suffered so much pain: she would cry out at some touching moments, alerting the two bloodhounds Naru and Motoko into thinking her Sempai was doing something lecherous, causing the nice guy to go flying yet again, and she would do little to try to convince her "protectors" that Keitaro was innocent, and while she did get better at opening her mouths near the end of the series, it didn't help all that much.
Kaolla Su was…oi. She was certainly the quirky one. While it was obvious that she liked Keitaro in her own special way, she had a rather violent and childish way of showing it. Yeah, kick him in the face as a greeting, Su, Sanza thought in irritation. He'll totally love it when you do that. The resident gadget genius certainly brought a lot of bang into Keitaro's life, and she did it so nonchalantly, as if she has no idea that shooting tank shells and missiles at a guy could possibly kill him! But hey, it's Keitaro we're talking about here, so what's the harm in a little fun, right?! But Sanza begrudgingly admitted that when Su tended to be sweet and sensitive around Keitaro…but not that often. Mutsumi Otohime…didn't make that much of an impact to Sanza. She was the ditzy girl with the watermelons that was Keitaro's promise girl except not because reasons. Sarah McDougal was a brat, plain and simple.
Mitsune Konno certainly lived up to her nickname of "Kitsune", Sanza reasoned. She lived to gamble, drink, and Keitaro was a steady stream of income to her. When she wasn't trying to con the manager out of his hard-earned money, she was joking around in ways she knew would send him flying in a matter of seconds, and bluntly speaking, Sanza wished she would grow up.
Motoko Aoyama was a special case. In initially, he wasn't all that much of a fan of her constant murder attempts, but over the course of the manga she matured…if only slightly. The same could not be said of Naru Narusegawa. It didn't take long for Sanza to realize how much Keitaro felt for Naru, and it took even less time to see that she liked him back. The main thing stopping her from getting him as a boyfriend, as well as Sanza's admiration, was her childishness, impulsiveness, and her being less than willing to take Keitaro at his word, usually punching him into the stratosphere without letting Keitaro attempt to explain himself. This act, or rather, this running gag, got old fast for the reader, and Sanza believed that the two would not have a bright future together, despite seeing how many times the manga author pushed them together.
…And this brings the young man to this moment of utter annoyance and sorrow for Urashima. Naru should not have been the bride, Sanza thought snidely as he checked his wristwatch for the time. 10:59?! Yikes! Sanza's eyes widened as he realized just how long he had been reading. He was supposed to be in bed about an hour ago so he could get to work on time. As he scrambled to get under the covers and get some rest, his mind wandered to the possibly abusive marriage life that awaited this fictional character before scoffing. What am I doing, worrying about a guy that doesn't exist. Still, though… Sanza's eyes started to get heavy at this point, and as sleep finally claimed his body, one final thought rang through his mind: What I wouldn't do, though, to show those horrid women what for.
~~場所の変遷~~
The world slowly came into a...rather fuzzy focus as Sanza woke up. ...Strange. The young man rubbed his eyes as he sat up in his futon to try to clear his vision, but to no avail. Since when was my eyesight this bad? Noticing a pair of glasses conveniently folded up to his left, he put them on and was graced with a clear picture of his surroundings. Sadly, his mind was still somewhat asleep, so while he saw a human-sized hole in his bedroom ceiling, it didn't really register to him. Absentmindedly changing into an off-white shirt and blue jeans, Sanza stumbles into a washroom to freshen up before breakfast. After taking off his glasses, he splashes water on his face, shaking his head to wring the water out of his hair, then reopens his brown eyes to check himself out in the mirror. Everything seems to be in ord-
Wait.
Sanza rubbed his eyes and replaced his glasses on his face, befuddled. This ain't right. Instead of dark blue eyes, his mirror image peered at him with dark brown orbs. Wha? His eyes flickered to his hair, changed from a thick black mop to thinner strands of dark brown hair. And his skin…when he went to sleep, he sported a slightly tanned complexion. Here? It was pale. Very pale. The heck? With this getup, I practically look like…like… At this realization, Sanza's eyes shrank in shock and horror.
No…
A few seconds later, the entire Hinata House was alerted with a piercing shriek.
Aaaaaaaand that's Chapter 1! Whew, that was quite something. I should probably get started on the second chapter. Anywho, please let me know what you think of the chapter. Reviews are more than welcome. Just keep it constructive and if you think this story has an issue, fill me in about it in detail, so that I know what it is and see that the issue is not a recurring problem.
Edit: Thank you, zodiac38352 and Grey Wolf4 for proof-reading this.
'Till next time! This is WitsWithMe, signing off. See ya!
