Moving Day At Saunders

Shizuno and her mother walked up to the apartment where she would be living with Ako on the Saunders schoolship, each carrying boxes full of Shizuno's belongings.

"Well, it looks like we're here," Ayano said.

"Do I have to wear the uniform today, Mom?" Shizuno said. "The entrance ceremony's not until tomorrow."

"There are a few reasons I think you should, Shizuno," Ayano said. "First, you can't just wear your jersey all the time. Second it would be good to get used to wearing the uniform. And third, I think Ako-chan will be impressed at how nice you look, in the same uniform that she'll be wearing."

Shizuno reluctantly nodded. She was not one for dressing up, and had been less than enthusiastic about having to wear a uniform in middle school. But her mother was correct, and she would have to do this from now on, now that she was at Saunders.

"The same uniform as Ako, huh?" Shizuno thought. "It's been a few years, but it is really quite nice for the two of us and Kuro to be at the same school."

The Takakamos walked up to the apartment, knocking on the door.

"Come in!" Atarashi Nozomi, Ako's older sister, an alumna and employee of Saunders, said.

Shizuno opened the door, which was unlocked. Inside the small apartment, which had a living room, a single bedroom with two beds, a small kitchen, and a bathroom with a shower, they saw Ako and Nozomi, who were already unpacking some of Ako's things in the living room. Ako had evidently had the same idea Ayano had, and was also wearing her uniform.

"Sorry to intrude, Ako-chan, Nozomi-chan," Ayano said, having known both sisters since they were young.

"Come right on in, ma'am," Nozomi said politely.

"It's been a while since we've met in person, Shizu," Ako said, as she walked across the room to greet Shizuno.

"It certainly has, Ako!" Shizuno said. "And it's good to see you again too, Nozomi-san!"

As she got a closer look at Ako, Shizuno was struck by a few things about her childhood friend. She seemed more at ease in her uniform, having had to wear a tie every day in middle school. She had grown out her hair, rather than having it in girlish pigtails; Shizuno found it quite to her liking, even if she herself was content to keep the same ponytail she had since elementary school.

But as Ako stopped a few paces from Shizuno, Shizuno noticed that Ako was considerably taller than she was. Formerly, the opposite had been true, with Ako shorter than both Shizuno and Nodoka. With her new vantage point, Shizuno could not help but look at Ako's chest, and see a pair of somewhat well-developed breasts.

"Wow, Ako, you really grew while we were apart," Shizuno said.

"I know," Ako said. "But it's still not quite where I want to be; Yuu-nee might be two years my senior, but she's still taller and larger breasted than I'll most likely ever be, as is Kuro.

"I suppose," Shizuno said. "But in both regards, you're a bit luckier than I am. I don't feel as though I've made any progress since we last saw each other."

Ako took a moment to look Shizuno over, and shook her head.

"I don't think that's entirely accurate, Shizu," Ako said. "You have grown a bit, and you do look considerably more grown up in that uniform."

"So Mom was right," Shizuno said, chuckling resignedly. "You'll get lots of chances to see me in it."

While the younger girls were talking, Nozomi turned to Ayano.

"Time certainly flies, doesn't it, Takakamo-san?" Nozomi said. "I still remember when I was coming here for the first time, back when Ako was little. And to think now I'm an employee here."

"Indeed, Nozomi-chan," Ayano said. No matter how many years would pass, neither would forget how they had met when Ayano was a young woman and Nozomi was a little girl. "I'm glad to see that your sister and my daughter are getting along so well, after going to different middle schools."

"Well, they did keep in touch over the years," Nozomi said. "And more than that, they have a connection. That's why they believe that if they reunite with Haramura Nodoka-chan, they'll be friends again."

In another apartment in the same complex, Kuro and Yuu were in the process of settling into their shared apartment.

"This is your first time sharing an apartment since middle school, right, Onee-chan?" Kuro said.

"It is," Yuu said. "I was uncomfortable with the idea of living in close proximity with someone I didn't know well. It was partly because I was more introverted earlier this year, and partly because I was concerned that they wouldn't be accommodating to... my needs."

"Ah, yes, the temperature," Kuro said. "I understand that you need a warm environment, but I'm also comfortable with saying no to you."

"I understand and appreciate your willingness to do so, Kuro-chan," Yuu said. "We do have to keep our energy use in mind."

Kuro sat on her bed, which she could tell apart from her sister's because it had fewer sheets on it, and began unpacking some of her things. While taking out her belongings, she saw a few framed pictures on her sister's desk.

There was one of the sisters as small girls, with both their parents, and the photo was one of the few the girls had of their mother. The fact that relatively little remained of the woman who had given birth to the sisters was why Kuro was so keen on taking photographs, in order to create mementos of the people dearest to her.

Nearby was a more recent photo of Kuro, Yuu and their mutual friend Arata. Kuro and Arata were wearing their middle school's uniforms- white sailor fukus with blue skirts and red neckerchiefs- while Yuu wore a Saunders uniform with a few appropriate extra layers of clothing.

One last photo was there, showing Yuu with Kay, along with Naomi and Alisa. Kay had befriended Yuu early on in her time at Saunders, and Yuu had, through Kay, gotten to know Alisa and Naomi as well.

"I've got one more photo to add, Onee-chan, if you don't mind," Kuro said.

"Go right ahead, Kuro-chan," Yuu said.

Kuro took out a photo of herself with Ako, Shizuno and Nodoka as young children.

"Ah yes, your friends," Kuro said. "I'm glad Ako-chan is coming here. I'm looking forward to finally meeting Takakamo Shizuno-chan. And I hope you and Haramura Nodoka-chan will be able to reunite."

Kuro smiled, glad that her sister was not only making friends of her own, but was also going to meet and befriend some of her friends. But even if the sisters were making friends of their own, they were glad to stay together once again.

Elsewhere, Himeko and Mairu opened up their dorm room, which was the same one they had shared last year, and which Mairu had inhabited the year before.

"Well, looks like we're back," Mairu said nonchalantly, as they began settling into their room, unpacking their things in the usual places. Having been roommates since Himeko's first and Mairu's second year of middle school, they naturally knew where to put their belongings, which beds each would take, when they would each shower and everything else related to living together.

"This is like middle school, isn't it?" Himeko said. "We share a room for two years, but we're separated for my last year."

"Seems about right," Mairu said. "My roommate from my first year, who was in her third year at the time, was decent enough. She was a bit more than a senpai but a bit less than a friend to me. We'd spent enough time together that we weren't purely defined by our relationship as senpai and kohai, but in the end, we never truly developed a bond apart from that."

"Well, you and I also started out as roommates with an age gap, Shirouzu-senpai," Himeko said, addressing Mairu as she did when they first met. "So when you expressed a desire to become closer, it did take a while to start seeing you as a friend rather than a senpai."

"Yes, I am fully aware of this, Tsuruta," Mairu said, responding in kind. "But I think that in our case, there's more to our friendship than just the time we spend together.

"Same here, Mairu," Himeko said. "Let's find Kirame at some point to get a photo of us together, after we change into our uniforms."

Mairu and Himeko had something of a yearly tradition in which they had their picture taken together while wearing their school uniforms, with the photographer usually being a mutual friend. This started in Mairu's last year of middle school, when she first received her Saunders uniform.

The two changed into their uniforms, and looked themselves and each other over in the mirror.

"You know, Himeko, I'm curious about one thing," Mairu said. "I won't have to wear a uniform at university, so it'll be a little weird standing next to you with your uniform. Should I dress up a little? Or should I just wear what I do every day?"

"The latter," Himeko said. "And when you graduate from college, and we take our picture together again, you can wear a suit that you wear to your first job, while I wear what usually do, so we'll be even."

Mairu smiled. They could not know for certain where they would be in the future, but being friends with staying in touch with Himeko for years in the future seemed like a nice prospect.

Elsewhere, Yoshiko and Hitomi, by sheer chance, ended up as roommates together, as a result of their former roommates, who were a year older than them, graduating.

Yoshiko, unsure of how the encounter would go, nervously knocked on the door to the room they were sharing.

"Yes?" Hitomi said.

"I'm Yasukouchi Yoshiko, and I'll be living here starting today," Yoshiko said.

"Come in," Hitomi said, opening the door into the room. "I'm Ezaki Hitomi, and I heard you were my roommate."

"Pleased to meet you," they said.

The two exchanged bows. When they rose, Hitomi extended her right hand for a handshake and after a moment, Yoshiko took it and shook it.

While Saunders was significantly more relaxed as a result of its American influences, many of its students still practiced Japanese etiquette toward each other. So until one of the two gave permission otherwise, they would refer to each other as "Yasukouchi-san" and "Ezaki-san." In Saunders' highly regarded English courses, in which third-year students were required to use English for class discussions, this would be "Miss Yasukouchi" and "Miss Ezaki."

"So, Yasukouchi-san, what do you do around Saunders?" Hitomi said. "I'm on the tankery team."

"So am I," Yoshiko said. "I don't think we've ever met each other before now."

"Well, the team's quite large," Hitomi said, "large enough to field three full tankery teams. Our commander, Kay, is quite friendly and outgoing, but I don't think she knows everyone."

"That's not really much of an obstacle for her," Yoshiko said. "In our second year, she walked up to me and began talking to me like we knew each other all along. She really does make it look easy..."

"Maybe it is easy," Hitomi said.

While they were talking, the girls then began to decorate their sides of the room. Yoshiko began putting up a picture of her favorite boy band. Hitomi had heard of it before, and found the music decent. She silently approved Yoshiko putting it up, even if she would not put any of her spending money toward buying one of her own.

"That's a nice poster of a wheat field, Ezaki-san," Yoshiko said as she looked at one of Hitomi's posters, trying to make conversation.

"It's actually a group of crop circles, Yasukouchi-san," Hitomi said, trying to avoid bringing up the fact that this seemed to be proof that Yoshiko was visually impaired enough to need her glasses.

"Ah," Yoshiko said. "Like those that UFOs make?"

"That's right!" Hitomi said enthusiastically. "You may not know this, but in the basement between the Diet building, there's a secret government complex dedicated to making contact with aliens."

"I see..." Yoshiko said. She was skeptical at best about that theory, but was unsure of how to express it tactfully enough. "Are you interested in conspiracy theories?"

"You could say that," Hitomi said. "Whenever anything goes wrong, I tend to blame the government."

Yoshiko nodded.

"I've heard another interesting rumor recently," Hitomi said. "Black Forest's former vice captain, Nishizumi Miho-san, was offered a scholarship to Oarai if she abandoned her tank and caused her school to lose the tournament. Oarai will apparently get shut down if they don't win the tournaent this year, and they were desperate to recruit someone like Nishizumi-san."

"But weren't there some girls at risk of drowning in that tank that fell into the water?" Yoshiko said.

"They were Nishizumi-san's accomplices," Hitomi said. "I also heard that she negotiated to include them in the plan, and have them compensated accordingly."

"Why would Nishizumi-san do such a thing, though?" Yoshiko said. "Her parents are clearly wealthy enough to pay for Black Forest's relatively high tuition, and they'd be mad if she switched schools, much less under those circumstances."

"Yeah, I know," Hitomi said. "Some of the comments on the rumor site that hosted this said things like that. Even if Alisa-san seemed to believe it, I acknowledge that it's flawed at best."

"Really?" Yoshiko said, surprised.

"Yeah," Hitomi said. "Take any conspiracy theory and you can poke more holes in it than a screen door. Why would Nishizumi-san go from being vice-captain of the school that won every tournament in the last decade except last year's, to a school without a tankery team?" Hitomi paused, her expression somber. "But I suppose it's less depressing to think about it that way than to think that because Nishizumi-san did the right thing, albeit at great cost to the team, she got forced out of Black Forest, and her sister may well have been among those forcing her out."

Yoshiko had no idea what she could say to that. In her high school tankery career, she believed she had done well, even if she had never even made it to the finals in her first on second year, and did not seriously believe she would in the future. Were there really those who saw winning as inevitable? And did they come down hard on anyone who got in the way of their goal, no matter their goal?

"So... it's a question of hoping you can believe in a more pleasant alternative," Yoshiko said.

"Well, yes," Hitomi said. "I do sometimes make excuses when things go wrong. But when disaster strikes your team, is it really easy to accept that it's all your fault?"

"No, I guess not," Yoshiko said. "Part of my nervousness comes from fearing that I'll make such a mistake. But as for you, Ezaki-san, you're only human."

The two girls, despite only having just met, were gradually starting to get accustomed to the idea of sharing a room together for a year. But a thought crossed their mind, that perhaps it would be nice if their association went beyond that.

Harue unpacked the last of her things in her new apartment, a relatively small and affordable one in a complex for Saunders faculty and staff. The apartments there were fairly affordable for those with positions at Saunders.

Harue sorted her clothes into various drawers. Gone were the days when she would wear the same uniform to school each day. She still had to look presentable for her job, but the dress code was somewhat relaxed for the faculty at Saunders, giving her some latitude as to what to wear.

Harue heard a knock on her door, and glanced through the peephole, recognizing it as her old friend, Nozomi. They had gone to school together since they were young, and now were coworkers at their alma mater.

"Come in," Harue said, as she opened the door. "Hi, Nozomi, it's good to see you."

"Good to see you've moved in, Harue," Nozomi said. "It looks like our apartments aren't that far apart."

"I know," Harue said. "What about your sister? Aren't you at all interested in staying with her while she's at Saunders?"

"Ako's rooming with her friend, Shizuno-chan," Nozomi said.

Harue nodded, remembering Shizuno as one of her students in the mahjong club who had been with her from the start until the finish.

"Ah, yes, Shizu," Harue said.

"It has been a while since Ako and Shizuno have seen each other, so she's happy to see her friend again," Nozomi said. "And I think she's closer to Shizuno-chan than she is to me in some ways."

Harue pondered Nozomi's answer. The Atarashi sisters were quite far apart in terms of age; when Ako was still in elementary school, Nozomi had a job at the same school. They still remained close, but not quite as a bond between siblings who were closer in age that the Matsumi sisters had. In some ways, Ako was closer to Yuu, her friend Kuro's older sister, than she was with her own sister.

"Well, I was hoping to take a walk around the ship, and see some of the places I'd been to for old times' sake," Harue said, hoping to change the subject. "Do you want to come along?"

"Sure," Nozomi said. She had worked at Saunders long enough that it all looked familiar, but always liked the chance to stretch her legs with a friend.

Harue and Nozomi walked though the ship, seeing the school ship that they had left as students and returned as faculty and staff. Some of the places she had once frequented- for shopping, eating out or spending her spare time- were gone, having gone out of business, moved or been replaced by others, but others remained.

Harue saw a few students around, having already learned to recognize the new uniforms. There were quite a few reasons the themed schools had uniforms, and among them was for the sake of emulating the country they were imitating.

Harue said hello to a few of the students, who responded in kind. After passing them by, Harue turned back to Nozomi.

"Do you think they knew who I was?" Harue said.

"I'm not sure," Nozomi said. "But they probably assume that most young adults in business casual work for the school. Or maybe they're just welcoming someone new to the neighborhood"

Harue walked past the student apartment building where she had once lived a decade ago . Glancing at an informational sign, she noticed that the number to call for the management was the same as it had been when she lived there, although Harue suspected that if she called, someone she had never spoken with before would pick up the phone.

Harue examined the door of her old apartment, wondering what kind of person was living there at the moment. Much like she once had, someone had put her name plate in the slot on the door.

"Sagimori..." Harue said. "Does that sound at all familiar to you, Nozomi?"

"If you're talking about the bowling alley from our hometown, it does, Harue," Nozomi said. "The owner's somewhat old, so maybe her granddaughter lives in this apartment and goes to school at this school."

"Maybe," Harue said. "But in any case, it's not my apartment anymore, nor am I the same person I was when the two of us came here."

As she said this, Harue started to walk away, leaving Arata's apartment behind, and Nozomi followed her.

"That's true," Nozomi said. "But I think that even with all the changes over the years, Saunders is still very much the same school it once was. So, welcome back, Harue."

"Thanks, Nozomi," Harue said. "I won't make the same mistakes I did before."

Author's Notes

Some of these side stories will focus on some of the more minor characters. Shindouji in particular didn't get all that much attention in Saki: Achiga-hen or the main fic, so I decided to give them, along with the others, some focus.

I'm personally curious as to where Alisa heard that Oarai would get shut down, so I had her get it from the same site that Hitomi "It's all the government's fault" Ezaki often checks for various conspiracy theories.

Since the holiday season is here, you may see a Christmas-themed story or two by Christmas.