This is supposed to be a one-shot, but the text won't fit in the email. Since edsamail has a history for messing up my attachments, I'll just break it up into two parts. This is part 1.

Jose Argao



Disclaimer: I really shouldn't be writing any of this. The characters
in the story aren't mine, you see. I can't help myself, though. Please
understand. It's not like I'm making any money by writing this anyway.
Please don't sue.

Warning: Kinda limey, but that's to be expected in a Love Hina fic.

"words"

'thoughts'

Growing Attached
by Jose Argao


	"You know, when two people who love each other go to Todai
together, they'll live happily ever after. Let's meet there when we
grow older, okay? Can you do that, Kei-kun?"

	Keitaro turned towards the girl who had been his friend as a
child and nodded excitedly. He would go through the gates of hell and
smash Mephisto's Soul Stone on the Hellforge if she wanted him to.
Going to Todai was nothing. Of course he could go.

	"That's great, Kei-kun. Don't forget your promise!"

	At that, the girl leaned towards Keitaro and gave him a
small peck on the cheek. A friendly kiss to seal a promise that would
shape the rest of one young man's life. Keitaro shyly closed his eyes
and blushed bright red.

	"Keitaro, we did it! We passed!"

	Keitaro opened his eyes and looked his surroundings. He was
no longer five years old. He was no longer at the playground near the
Hinatasou. He was standing in front of the bulletin boards that listed
the students who passed Tokyo University's entrance exams, and his
name was right there on the list! Naru, Mutsumi, and the rest of the
residents of Hinatasou were standing around him, smiling with approval.
Naru slowly approached him and shook his hand firmly.

	"Congratulations, Keitaro. You've earned this."

	Suddenly, Keitaro found himself the recipient of a huge
group-hug from the girls. He became acutely aware of the close contact
between them. Keitaro found himself closing his eyes and bushing once
more.

	"Keitaro, what's wrong? Don't you like your present?"

	Keitaro opened his eyes and found that he was now lying on a
king-sized bed in the middle an unfamiliar room. The sheets appeared to
be made of silk and a large mirror was hanging from the ceiling. From
the reflection, he could tell that he was lying on Mutsumi's lap and
that she was playing with his hair. Naru was lying beside him and
lazily tracing circles on his chest. The other tenants of Hinatasou
were arranged all around him. They were dressed in transparent, filmy
negligees that left nothing to the imagination. He struggled to hold
back a massive nosebleed that threatened to dump his body's entire
blood supply onto the bed.

	"It's okay, Keitaro. The girls and I have discussed this
beforehand," Naru whispered, her voice dripping with honey.

	"You've worked so hard to get into Todai... we didn't want you
to work even more just to choose which one of us you like. You can have 
us all, Keitaro. Isn't that what you want?"

	The threat of the nosebleed immediately vanished as Keitaro's
body rerouted the flow of his blood and directed it towards his lower
extremities. Todai-schmodai... _this_ was the stuff dreams were made
of. His hands reached out to touch Naru when she swatted it away with
a flick of her arm.

	"Not so fast, Kei-kun. We drew straws to see who would get
to be your first, and someone else won the honor of getting first crack 
at you."

	Keitaro's eyes widened as Naru stood up to make way for none
other than....

	"Aunt Haruka!?!"

	Keitaro froze as his aunt, wearing next to nothing, crawled on
top of him and whispered into his ear.

	"Don't worry, I'll be gentle."

*****

	"Noooooo!"

	Keitaro awoke with a start, his heart pounding. He was
looking up at the ceiling of his bedroom. He could see that the hole
leading to Narusegawa's room covered with a piece of wood as always.
There was a little light coming through the windows, indicating that
it was very early in the morning. He heaved a sigh of relief and
closed his eyes once again. That was a crazy nightmare he'd just
experienced. Thank god it was finally over.

	"Stop moving around, Keitaro. This is hard enough as it is
without your squirming. Get it? Hard enough as it is?"

	Immediately after hearing those words, Keitaro opened his eyes
once again and took in a more complete view of his surroundings. This
inspection quickly revealed that Kitsune was sitting beside him, a wide
grin on her face. He opened his mouth to ask what she was doing there,
but she silenced him by putting one of her dainty fingers against his
lips.

	"I told you to stop moving. Don't worry, I'll be done with this
in a second."

	Keitaro frowned at Kitsune's words, not sure what she meant.
He saw that she was looking downwards, and he turned his head to see
what it was she was staring at. He immediately noticed that his pajama
bottoms and boxer shorts had been pulled down, and that Kitsune was
holding what appeared to be a long, wooden object against a delicate
part of his anatomy. Too shocked to even move, Keitaro watched 
wordlessly as she took a pencil from her pocket and made a small mark
on the stick.

	"Waaaah!"

	Regaining his senses, Keitaro pushed Kitsune away and ran for
the light switch, flicking it on even as he pulled his pajama bottoms
and shorts back up. He reached for his glasses from a side table and
put them on before turning to face her.

	"Kitsune-san, just what do you think you're doing?"

	Keitaro's tenant smiled sheepishly at him. "Well, I was just
thinking, you know. You've seen me naked plenty of times, but I've
never seen you naked. I wanted to take a look at it and... well... I
thought as long as I was looking I might as well measure it, right?"

	A frown took shape on Keitaro's face. "With a yardstick?"

	Kitsune giggled. "What can I say? I was hoping to be pleasantly 
surprised."

	Keitaro's mouth dropped open in shock. "That... that makes no
sense at all! You... I... what if... this isn't... I can't...."

	Kitsune looked at her measuring instrument, ignoring Keitaro's
babbling. Her grin disappeared, replaced with a look of awe.

	"Thirty inches! Keitaro you stud! That's amazing! How did you
hide this from me?"

	Keitaro raised his fist in indignation. "You started measuring
from the wrong end!"

	Kitsune frowned, shrugging as she did so. "Really? Too bad. Oh
well, at least I got what I came for. The girls will flip when I show
this to them!"

	Keitaro's face went white. If Naru heard that Kitsune had
gone into his room in the middle of the night, she would be sure to
misunderstand. "You can't tell any of them about this! Give that to
me."

	Kitsune pouted. "I don't want to. It's mine! You can't
have it."

	Keitaro pounced towards Kitsune, but she bolted out of the
room. The sneaky resident of Hinatasou ran off, Keitaro in hot pursuit.

*****

	Shinobu woke up feeling refreshed, excited about facing the
new day. She did some stretches to wake up her muscles and started
walking out of her room to go to the kitchen. She still had to cook
breakfast for everyone before she could shower and get ready for
the day, but she was used to doing it. There was a spring in her step
as she slid open the door to her room and stepped onto the hallway.

	Shinobu hadn't always been this way. It wasn't too long ago
that she regarded mornings with dread, overwhelmed by the challenges
she would have to face before evening came and she could go back
home.

	Things were different now. Her sempai, Keitaro, had given her
a new perspective on life. He taught her tackle the challenges of life
head-on. He was really amazing. Motoko-sempai often told her that he
was just like any other guy, always trying to take advantage of women,
but that was just wrong. Keitaro-sempai wasn't the type to go around
chasing after girls. It just wasn't like him.

	"Catch me if you can, Karinin-san!"

	Shinobu was nearly knocked over as Kitsune ran past the
young girl, carrying what looked like a stick. The impact sent her
spinning rapidly towards the floor. Shinobu had barely regained her
balance when Keitaro ran past her as well, getting similar results.

	"Sempai?"

*****

	"Hmmm... if I remove the master control apparatus and the
safety catch here, I can make room for a self-destruct feature and
a place to store the nuclear material...."

	Su made the necessary adjustments to turn her blender into
a weapon of mass destruction even as she heard the door to her room
slide open, the sound of rapid footsteps indicating that a chase was
going on. A chase! Right in her room! Such fun!

	Quickly putting away her work, Su jumped into the air and,
with perfect precision, fell right on top of Keitaro. Instinctively,
her legs clamped around Keitaro's neck and her left hand grabbed
hold of his hair. She raised her right hand into the air and let loose
with a shrill battle cry.

	"Onward, Keitaro! Together, we shall capture that fleeing fox
and tie her up so that we may visit unspeakable acts upon her person!
Then, all our enemies will learn to fear the partnership of Urashima
and Su!"

	Keitaro stopped running momentarily as he tried to get Su to
stop pulling his hair. He succeeded, but not a second had passed after
he had pulled her hand off before it found a new home on top of his
eyes, blocking his view.

	"Su, what are you doing? Let go of me, and stop saying those
cheesy lines you read in mangas. You don't even know what they mean!"

	To Keitaro's surprise, Su immediately complied with his
request. The bubbly girl bounded over to one of the walls of her room
and opened a hidden panel in one of them. From inside it, she retrieved 
what looked like a pair of mechanized handcuffs.

	"You're trying to catch Kitsune, right? I'm going to help
you with my latest invention, the mecha-cuffs two thousand! With my
help, you can... hey, wait for me!"

*****

	Haruka opened the door to the Hinatasou to check up on her
nephew. She was greeted by the sight of Kitsune running down the hall
holding a yardstick, Keitaro chasing after her, and Su bringing up
the rear carrying a pair of handcuffs. She nodded her head and closed
the door to get back to her tea shop.

	"Everything seems to be normal around here. I'd better leave
before something weird happens."

*****

	"Catch me if you can, slowpokes!"

	Kitsune ran like she had never run before in her life. In her
right hand, she held the yardstick that Keitaro wanted to take from
her. Why hadn't she thought of doing this before? This was way better
than lying around and watching TV.

	"Stop running and give me that yardstick!"

	Keitaro was hard to lose, though, and he could run _fast_.
In hindsight, she should have known he was a good runner. It had taken
the combined efforts of all the tenants to chase him down on his first
day at Hinatasou, after all.

	Still, the important thing right now was to stay one step
ahead of him. Kitsune paused for a moment at an intersection, trying
to decide which way to go. She was interrupted by the cheerful voice
of Kaolla Su.

	"There's no escape for you now, fox-lady! Mecha-cuffs go!"

	Su was chasing her too! Why was Su chasing her? Had the little
brat joined forces with Keitaro in a diabolical scheme to capture her
and visit unspeakable acts upon her person? What were those futuristic
handcuff things that Su was throwing at her anyway?

	Kitsune turned in the opposite direction and found that
Keitaro was rapidly closing in on her as well. Blocked off on both
sides, she had no choice but to simply close her eyes and brace
herself for impact.

*****

	"Aaaargh! I give up! I can't get back to sleep with all
this noise!"

	Naru threw away the pillow she had been using to cover her
ears and muttered angry threats directed at Keitaro under her breath.
Didn't the jerk understand that she'd been up late last night studying?
Why did he have to make such a racket in the morning?

	The pretty redhead got up from her bed, intent on finding
Keitaro so she could give him a sound ass-kicking. She was halfway
to the door when she heard a very loud crash, followed closely by
an eerie silence. Naru stopped, listened for a few more seconds,
then went back to bed. Apparently, someone else had gotten to him
first.

	Next time, she would have to move faster. It simply wouldn't
do to let the others think that they could just punish her Keitaro
anytime they wanted, not that she liked him or anything of course. 

*****

	"Well, _that_ was unexpected."

	Kitsune looked at Su, who had a grin on her face that was so
wide it looked downright painful. The yardstick that had instigated
the wild chase she had just been in lay beside her feet, momentarily
forgotten. Su scratched behind her head and giggled nervously.

	"It appears that the targeting systems could use a bit more
work. Oh well, that was just a beta-version anyway. The next one will
be sure to work. Bye-bye!"

	So saying, Su jumped out of the house through an open window
and bounded off into the unknown.

	Left alone, Kitsune stared blankly at the hallway. There,
just moments ago, Keitaro had been ensnared by Su's newest invention
as he ran towards her. The mechanical handcuffs flew right past her,
somehow managing to hit Keitaro's legs before clamping shut, causing
him to fall and roll across the floor, driven by his momentum.

	Kitsune turned towards the door Keitaro had smashed through.
It now had a large, Keitaro-shaped hole in the middle where he had
passed through it. There wasn't enough light to make the inside, but
she had no intentions of going closer to take a better look. Kitsune
picked up the yardstick, turned around, and walked away with a shrug.

	'Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. If Keitaro survives, I
can do it all over again tomorrow!'

*****

	"Urashima, get off me!"

	Keitaro felt himself being thrown into the air and hitting
his head on a wall. He opened his eyes and was greeted by the visage
of a very angry Motoko. She was breathing deeply. Her eyes were red
with rage, her cheeks were crimson with embarrassment, and her mind
was no doubt filled with murderous intent.

	Keitaro racked his mind for something to say that could save
him from death at Motoko's hands. "Motoko-chan, it was an accident!
I didn't mean to--"

	"Silence! This is completely unforgivable! To barge into a
young woman's bedroom and try to force yourself onto her, Keitaro you
are the lowest! You shall pay for this with your life!"

	With practiced ease, Motoko pulled her sword out of its
scabbard in order to punish Keitaro with one of her secret sword
techniques. As she did so, the top half of the sword snapped off and
fell to the floor with a loud clang. The two of them watched it
bounce once and skid towards a wall before coming to a stop.

	Motoko's face darkened with unsuppressed rage. "Not only did
you attempt to take away my innocence, you also broke my sword! For
that, I shall pull your heart out from inside your chest with my
bare hands!"

	Keitaro tried to pacify the angry woman before she had the
chance to carry out her threat. "Wait, I can fix it!"

	Motoko shook her head. "Fix it? How can you fix it? You know
nothing about re-forging swords."

	"No, but I can glue it back together," Keitaro replied quickly.

	Motoko grabbed Keitaro by his neck and lifted him an inch off
the floor. "Fix my sword with _glue_? Is this your idea of a joke?"

	Keitaro frantically tried to get Motoko to listen to his
suggestion. "No, I'm totally serious! Seta-san gave me this incredible
glue that fixes _everything_. I use it to fix Seta-san's pottery, and
it works on metal too! You can't even see the seams! You know that van
of his? It keeps getting destroyed, then rebuilt. He uses the glue to
fix the van!"

	Motoko paused, thinking to herself. If this glue that Keitaro
was talking about was really all that he claimed it to be, then it just
might be able to repair her sword. There was everything to gain and
nothing to lose by letting him have a go with it. If Keitaro couldn't
fix her weapon, she could still kick his ass anyway.

	Motoko let go of her captive, sending Keitaro sprawling onto
the floor. "Fine then. I'm going to take a bath. You had better be done
repairing my sword before I get back, or there will be hell to pay."

*****

	"Has anybody seen Keitaro? I took a long bath and he didn't
try to peep on me. I didn't see him at breakfast, either. I tried
checking in his room but he wasn't there. He isn't sick or anything,
is he?"

	Naru sat down at the living room where Kitsune was lounging
around. Her friend answered the question with a dismissive wave of the
hand. "I saw him go into Motoko's room earlier. He might have tried to
do something perverted and made her use her sword on him."

	Naru nodded slowly, leaning her head back and closing her
eyes. "Yeah, that must be it. I heard some noise earlier today... that
might have been the two of them. They woke me up too early, and I slept
late last night too. It was kinda annoying."

	Naru smiled, finally understanding what must have happened to
Keitaro. "Actually, now that I think of it, I did see Motoko going into 
the bath as I was leaving. She must have worked up a sweat dealing with 
that perverted idiot."

	Kitsune nodded slowly, an idea forming in her head. "You know,
you just might be right about that. Worked up a sweat indeed...."

*****

	"It's done, and Motoko-chan isn't back yet! Yatta!"

	Keitaro jumped with joy, holding Motoko's newly repaired
sword in his right hand. The glue had worked wonderfully, just as he'd
hoped. His day had started horribly, but it looked like his luck was
finally coming around. With Motoko's sword fixed, he wouldn't have
to endure another one of her sword techniques. He put the tube of glue
he'd used to fix Motoko's blade on top of a low table and looked at
the weapon in his hand.

	'It's kinda amazing, though. To think that a young girl like
Motoko-chan can do those kinds of attacks with this sword....'

	Keitaro examined the weapon, looking for any magical runes or
inscriptions that might have been carved into the blade. He wasn't
able to find anything, though. The sword didn't look like there was
anything special about it.

	'I wonder if there's some kind of trick to get it to work....'

	Keitaro raised the sword into the air and swung it to his
front, his face breaking into a grin as he did so. "Hey, this isn't
all that hard. Actually, it's kinda fu--"

	"Urashima, just what do you think you're doing? That's not a
toy! Give it to me!"

	Keitaro quickly turned towards the source of the voice and
found Motoko running through the door towards him, wearing her her
white gi and hakama. He was holding the sword with the blade
perpendicular to his body, and it was all Motoko could do to dart
to her left in order to avoid getting skewered by it.

	As Motoko dodged, however, Keitaro himself moved the sword in
an effort to avoid stabbing her. As luck would have it, Keitaro swung
the sword right in the direction where she had moved. Motoko was able
to dodge the sword a second time, but she lost her balance when she did 
so. The young swordswoman crashed directly into Keitaro, the collision
causing their heads to get knocked together and rendering both of them
unconscious.

*****

	"Zanmaken!"

	Motoko slashed at her opponent, her strike firing off a series
of pressurized wind projectiles that shattered everything they collided
with. Her adversary nimbly dodged them all, however, frustrating her
efforts to defeat him.

	Beads of sweat began to form on Motoko's forehead. Who was
this strange opponent whose face was covered with a dark mask? The
revealed nothing but his eyes, but she could see them light up with
a crimson glow that sent chills down her spine. He was wearing an
all-black set of traditional ninja garb, and he was kicking her
ass. How was that possible? How could he seemingly read her mind and
effortlessly avoid all of her attacks? What was he--

	"Aaargh!"

	Motoko found herself thrown into the air by the force of the
unknown man's attack. She had been able to block it at the last second,
but her form was poor and she wasn't able to properly deflect the
force of the attack.

	Motoko lost her grip on her weapon and fell to the ground
with a loud thud, her sword landing several meters away from her. When
she opened her eyes, the unknown man's sword was already pointed at
her throat. Motoko glared daggers at him, but they both knew she had
already lost.

	The man reached towards his mask and pulled it off with
flourish. Motoko's eyes widened when she realized just who had been
able to best her in combat.

	"U... Urashima?"

	Motoko was unable to get any more words out before another
voice interrupted her. "I am disappointed, Motoko-chan. To think that
you would be defeated easily by this man. Then again, it is no great
surprise. He is my husband, after all."

	Motoko turned quickly towards the direction the voice was
coming from. The image that was revealed to her confirmed her worst
fears. "Onee-chan? Is that you?"

	Motoko's beautiful sister stepped dispassionately towards
Keitaro and pulled him into her arms. She glanced disdainfully at
Motoko before speaking once more.

	"Do not bother with that weakling, my love. She is not worthy
of your attention."

	Seeing that Keitaro was no longer threatening to cut her throat
with his sword, Motoko quickly got to her feet.

	"This is impossible! It can't be happening. I know for a fact
that it was not Keitaro that you married, Onee-chan. I was there!"

	Motoko's sister chuckled at her words. "My dear sister, this
is but one of many human forms that my husband can assume. His true
identity is that of Leonardo, a teenage mutant ninja turtle!"

	At that, Keitaro grabbed a handful of flesh at his neck and
pulled on his skin as though it were a mask. After quickly ripping off
his skin, he stood before Motoko with a wry grin on his face and the
body of a creature so horrifying that she couldn't even think the word
that people called it with.

	"So Motoko, how does it feel to lose to a turtle?"

*****

	"Have any of you guys seen Keitaro-sempai? I haven't seen him
since this morning and he hasn't eaten breakfast. He's not in his room,
either. I'm kinda worried...."

	Kitsune frowned and turned her gaze towards Shinobu, who was
standing in the middle of the living room and blocking her view of the
television set. She then turned towards Naru, who was sitting on the
couch beside her and trying to pretend that she wasn't listening.

	The two girls obviously had a thing for Keitaro, but insisted
that the opposite was true. If she hadn't known any better, Kitsune
would have thought they were sisters or something. As it was, she was
content to think of them as a renewable source of entertainment.

	"He went into Motoko's room earlier today. Naru was saying
something about the two of them doing perverted things and working up
a sweat or something."

	Shinobu's face went pale and her eyes started to fade away into
strange, spiral patterns. Kitsune had seen this happen before, and she
knew that Shinobu would be fainting any moment now. Naru quickly got up 
from her seat and caught the young girl just as she started falling to
the floor.

	"Shinobu-chan, don't get the wrong idea! I was just thinking
that Keitaro might have tried to do something perverted and Motoko
might have worked up a sweat getting rid of him, that's all! Shinobu,
wake up!"

	Shinobu's eyes slowly fluttered open. "Oh, was that it? I guess
it wasn't what I thought, then. Thank god."

	Naru looked at Kitsune with accusing eyes. "Kitsune, why did
you say that anyway? You knew that Shinobu would misunderstand! You
shouldn't go around saying things like that. What if someone else had
overheard? Rumors might start going around about Motoko and Keitaro,
despite the fact that something like that would never happen. Motoko
and Keitaro doing perverted things together... it's impossible! She
doesn't even like him. No one likes him! That includes me, you know.
Liking a perverted idiot like Keitaro is impossible!"

	Kitsune just smiled enigmatically at Naru. "Oh, I wouldn't go
so far as to say it's impossible. Keitaro may be a wimp and an idiot,
but he has another thing going for him that other men may find hard to
match."

*****

	"Nooooooo!"

	Motoko awakened and sat up immediately, scanning her
surroundings for any signs of recent turtle activity. Seeing none,
she sighed with relief and shook her head. That may have been
the single worst nightmare she had ever experienced, and that was
counting the time she dreamed that she was actually a character in
a manga and that she was fated to fall in love with Keitaro.

	'Urashima... my sword!'

	The mention of Keitaro jogged Motoko's memory and reminded her
of what had caused her to become unconscious in the first place. She
found her sword lying beside her and examined it. The blade was fixed,
just as Urashima had promised. She could not even tell where the break
had been. A few trial slashes with her sword revealed that it appeared
to be like new. Motoko made a mental note to ask Keitaro later about
where she could obtain some of his glue for herself.

	Motoko moved to get up, but found that she could not. Thinking
that she must have snagged something on the floor, she turned her head
to see what it was, Motoko's mouth fell open in shock with what she
saw.

	Lying underneath her, on top of a pile of broken wood that
probably used to be her table, was Keitaro. He was unconscious, and
his hand was latched firmly onto her buttocks. It was his grip, in
fact, that prevented her from standing up in the first place. To say
that Motoko flew into a rage would be an understatement.

	"Urashima! If you value your life, you will remove your vile
hand from my bottom right this instant!"

	Forgetting that she had a sword in her anger, Motoko picked
up a piece of wood lying on the floor and started repeatedly striking
Keitaro with it. While her attacks did not succeed in getting him
to let go of her, they did wake him up rather quickly.

	"Ow... ouch... ouch! Naru-chan, I'm sorry!"

	Motoko paused briefly in her assault to wonder at Keitaro's
choice of words. What had Narusegawa done to this man that he would
automatically assume that she was responsible for any pain he was
feeling?

	Meanwhile, as Motoko was thinking, Keitaro managed to open
his eyes and examine his surroundings. Unlike his female companion,
Keitaro immediately noticed the dangerous position his right hand
was occupying and yanked it towards himself with all his strength.

	The result of his efforts was most unexpected.

	"Urashima, you show your true colors at last! How dare you
pull me on top of you like that! This is an outrage! You will not live
to see the dawning of another day!"

	For his part, Keitaro frantically tried to let go of Motoko
with all his might. All he succeeded in doing, however, was to do an
expert job of feeling her up. He stopped moving when he saw that she
had her sword pointed at his neck, though.

	Motoko's face was a mask of anger as she spoke. "Urashima, you
have five seconds to let go of me. If you do not, I will kill you."

	Keitaro tugged once more on his arm, to no avail. He grinned
nervously as he gave voice to his problem. "Er... Motoko-chan... my
hand won't come off."

	Motoko trembled with rage. "What are you talking about, you
miserable little cretin? If you refuse to let go of me, I will do it
for you!"

	So saying, Motoko grabbed Keitaro's hand and pulled on it.
"Your... grip... is rather... strong...."

	Keitaro shook his head. "No it's not! I'm not gripping at all!
Honest!"

	Motoko rolled her eyes. "Enough with the excuses, Urashima.
How can that be when... no...."

	Motoko stared at the area where she had been sitting when she
initially woke up. She reached towards it and picked up a small, empty
tube. "Urashima, look closely at your hand. Do you see anything strange 
about it?"

	Keitaro had no idea what Motoko was talking about, but he
looked anyway. "I don't see anything strange, really. Well, there's
this weird flaky stuff here... it doesn't seem to be coming off. I'm
not sure what it is, but my hand is covered with it."

	Motoko closed her eyes in defeat. "Tell me, Urashima, does
it look anything like dried glue?"

	Keitaro looked at the substance covering his hand once more.

	"Well, now that you mention it, it does kinda look like....
Oh my god! I'm so sorry! Please don't kill me!"

	Motoko shook her head sadly. She turned to Keitaro with an
encouraging smile. "Relax, Urashima-san. I'm not going to kill you.
I'm not even angry at you. I can see that what happened was an
accident."

	Keitaro reluctantly relaxed. "You're... not angry?"

	Motoko nodded her head in reply to Keitaro's query. "Of course
I'm not angry. You're not the one at fault here. If anything, I should
be the one to apologize. After all, it was I who startled you and lost
my balance."

	Keitaro breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Well gee... thanks.
I'm glad that you can think this through with a clear head. To be
honest, Motoko-chan, I was afraid you were going to panic!"

	Motoko chuckled softly. "The way of the sword does not
encourage loss of self-control, Urashima. Surely, a man of honor such
as yourself would know this."

	Keitaro frowned at Motoko's choice of words. "Man of honor?"

	Motoko grinned at him. "Yes, honor. I know that we may have
had our differences in the past, Urashima-san, but deep down I've
always held you in high regard. You are a man of honor, Urashima. You
are intelligent, brave, and always willing to make sacrifices for the
greater good."

	Keitaro didn't like the sound of that. "Er... sacrifices?"

	Motoko was quick to reply. "Of course. Sacrifices. Like now,
for instance. Surely you can see that the only way to resolve this
situation is to chop off your hand!"

	At that, Motoko raised her sword and started bringing it down
towards Keitaro's arm. The terrified dorm manager managed to grab onto
her arm, however, preventing her from executing her plan.

	"You can do it, Urashima. I know that you can overcome a small
setback like a missing hand and get back to a normal life in no time. I 
shall forever be in your debt. Now please let go of my arm so I can fix 
this!"

	Keitaro felt a burst of strength inflame his body as he
realized that Motoko was serious about her threat. Miraculously, he
managed to wrest the sword away from Motoko's grip and grab hold of
her wrists to prevent her from moving.

	"Please stop, Motoko-chan! This isn't necessary! I know
where we can get help!"

*****

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