A/N: Written for
GX Bingo, the non-flash version, #120 - humour (genre)
Diversity Writing Challenge, b27 - write a fluffy piece
Pharaoh the Homework Hunter
The most common excuse from the Orisis students for not handing in their homework is "Pharaoh took it."
Professor Chronos would assign a detention on the spot, so they'd use it more sparingly with him. Professor Daitokuji, on the other hand, would be more sympathetic. A little overly sympathetic, by all means, but the thing was that "Pharaoh took it" wasn't always an excuse. Pharaoh did have an unfortunate habit of stealing homework from students, particularly if they were done after dinner.
It might have been the heavy seafood menu of the Orisis dorms. After all, they barely had meat unless they were invited to one of the other dorms or it was a special occasion - like graduation. So it was either fish or vegetables, and it was fish more often due to Pharaoh. So it wasn't too far a stretch to think leftover stains finding their way onto homework papers (and writing utensils, though those were far easier to replace). And Pharaoh did spend an awful lot of time up in the rafters. And Professor Daitokuji tended to take their side when his cat was used as an excuse.
And it wasn't a well kept secret that Professor Chronos despised cats, and especially Pharaoh.
Still, that didn't stop the students from having to redo their homework assignments (which their homework actually went missing overnight and it wasn't because they'd never done it in the first place). So even though it was a convenient excuse in Professor Daitokuji's classes and even worked sometimes in their other classes (excluding Professor Chronos'), it was more work in the end for them and even they would have liked to find a way around it.
And it wasn't just the homework after dinner that went missing, too. Not that they could prove Pharaoh was behind it all. Even when Professor Daitokuji wasn't around anymore. Even when the dorms were empty, two years later, except for one Yuuki Juudai - but Pharaoh had found it very difficult to steal homework then, when there was nothing to steal. When Juudai started attending his classes again, Professor Chronos had sat him in his office and made him complete those tasks on the spot. And Pharaoh knew to stay far away from Professor Chronos after that trick with the fish and the net a few months ago.
But then, following that year's graduation, there was a new flood of Orisis students who'd heard the rumours from their upperclassmen, but saw neither hair nor tail of this elusive orange cat that stole their homework.
That didn't stop the excuse from being used, but it did mean it was far less often true.
Still, some students claimed they did see the orange tabby cat in the empty room on second floor. And, sometimes, they saw a boy in a red jacket and brown hair lying down on the lowest bunk of three as well.
Which was ridiculous, because that room had never been reassigned after Yuuki Juudai graduated. But when one of those sightings, some years later, was followed up by a guest appearance by said man himself in Doctor Tenjoin's after lunch class, they had to admit that there was a little more truth to those excuses than they'd previously allowed. Assuming Pharaoh hadn't been broken of his habit of stealing student homeworks, of course.