Ladies and gentlefans, I present to you a filler arc you probably can skip if you want.

Disclaimer: Turtles are funny on their shells.


12: The Abandoned Ship

Somebody always comes back.

"Sakuma?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry."

"Not this again…" The tealnet sighed. It had been the fourth consecutive day that she had been apologizing to him.

"Sakuma…"

"Mhmm."

"I'll never do that again. I'll never raise your hopes up and unintentionally crush them."

"Uh…" Sakuma sweatdropped. What was going on in this girl's head?

"As a sign of my sincerity, please slice off a finger or toe, as is the custom of the Megamino clan."

"…We are not going this far. Seriously, man, it's okay; it's not like I like her."

Sokudone's heart broke at the end of the sentence. It just, seriously, awfully pained her to hear that her matchmaking had failed only on her third supposed-to-be couple. Talk about the third time being the charm. "W-What?"

"I-I-I mean there's plenty of fish in the sea! So don't worry too much!" The eyepatch-wearing striker mentally facepalmed himself with a bat. Genda had already reprimanded him for poking fun at Sokudone's love for matchmaking. If he caught Sakuma doing it again, that beast's girlfriend would personally show him a German suplex…


"Aruto-kun, I think you may have overreacted a little," Another older chaperone, Sarah's older sister, sat on the passenger seat of the tour bus. "Girls will meet boys someday—"

"I'm right here, aren't I?" Aruto tsk-ed as he made a turn.

"—Of their own age set, Aruto-kun." Izumi Angelik offered an apologetic smile to the embarrassed redhead. Hearing him grumble incomprehensively about how Angelik was defending the girls, the elder Izumi decided to check on the Starlets at the back.

"Captain, how are you feeling?" Angelik sat herself seats away from the girls' bus driver. The younger redhead was busy telling off Claira, Zoey and Adrian for setting off a series of pranks on the younger girls; in Aira's arms was a growling Yuu, who still couldn't find her pocky. Bloo Aseena was biting bits of hers behind the captain.

"And hiding Yuu's pocky will help you how?" Demanded the captain. Yuu and Aseena had been up last night, nagging their leader to scold the culprits who hid their precious stuff. "Pranking isn't about benefit," Adrian pointed out, "And Yuu-chan and Nina-chan are on a sugar-free diet anyway," Claira mused, using Aseena's nickname. "We're only helping them." Zoey concluded. Angelik sweatdropped at the philosophy.

"Triplets, give your captain a break. The bags under her eyes mean you two girls are out for the next show," Zoey and Claira had horrified faces in response. "And Adrian-kun, you'll be doing the girls' laundry for a half-year." Now the male triplet completed the three faces of horror.

"Thanks, Angelik-san," Aira offered a small smile as she took out her phone.

"Texting again? All the girls are in one bus," Sarah's stepsister raised her brows.

"Oh, I'm texting a distant friend I met back at the fair,"

"Ah—"

"Megamino Sokudone-chan." The redhead smiled again. She knew Angelik was about to say his name.

Not that it mattered; it wasn't as if they had something special. They were just friends with interesting yet slightly contrasting ways of looking at things. And besides, her top priority at the moment was – oh, look a text!

"Get some rest, Sleepless Beauty! If you get fatigued from insomnia, well, don't say I didn't warn you." The aquamarine-eyed girl looked genuinely happy for the first time in days. This didn't go undetected in Angelik's sight.

"Everyone, I'm off to sleep."


"Shachō, here's the list of new students for the final trimester," Unofficial school president's secretary, Kurokawa Maki, had her layered crimson hair down again. "One of them is actually your friend's relative."

"Is that so?" Sokudone scanned the list boredly, wondering if Genda had imported a goalkeeper cousin to replace him on his dates with his Hakuren-bound girlfriend.

"Yes, but she seems very different from Fudou-san."

Sokudone fell off her father's office chair. "F-Fudou?"

"Affirmative." But the student council president was ever so calm. Apparently she didn't know much about the complicated relationship between Teikoku's delinquent and president. "The students will be arriving in two days to settle in their new residences. When shall we tour them?"

"Hakuren and Raimon transferees, hm?" The blackette studied the list more meticulously. "Well, this might be a little bit of a handful…" Maki's light purple eyes studied her superior's violet ones. "Is something the matter, Shachō?"

"Not really, except for my matchmaking—" Maki rolled her eyes; as Sakuma's good friend he had fed her some gossip about Shachō's efforts. "The fact that the second month is coming to an end, the allotted budget we're in charge of and the addition of these students." Sokudone locked eyes with the Student Council President. "We can fix one problem with a tour guide, but wherever shall I—"

"Not it."

"But Maki-chan!" The orphan stood up from her seat in protest.

"Shachō, I have my responsibilities too. Why not ask Genda-chi? Or even Sakuma-chi since his time isn't revolved around a girlfriend?"

"You're right!" Sokudone had a wide grin on her pale face. "Kindly tell Yuu-chan to be the student tour guide. Who knows the walls of Teikoku better than the strategist who searched every nook and cranny for Chichi's trap?" (A/N: Refer to Episode 12, where Kageyama uses metal beams.)


"Absolutely not."

"You can do it with Akio, if you'd like." Sokudone had a teasing tone in her voice. There was an angry vein on his forehead in response. "Well then, why not?"

"With you using the Student Council President for your secretarial needs, I've been doing twice as much work as the Vice-President. It's not a matter of not wanting to do it, Sokudone," Kidou explained as his goggles reflected the ceiling light at Sherry's. "I just don't have the time."

"You do know Maki can do her own work, right? I mean she doesn't even fill in for me when I call in sick,"

"I was raised a gentleman, Done. I'd rather not burden her more."

"Excuses. If you wanted her back to lessen your load all you had to do was ask!" The blackette drank the remaining liquid version of her sundae.


"Well it wasn't much, but I still got to rest, so thanks for the concern!" Sakuma had a small yet satisfied smile on his face as he replied to the text message that afternoon. His textmate had been so busy with new developments and all the built-up and building-up stress that her latest text at least assured him a little that she was doing fine.

"So…you didn't tell Sokudone-san that we still communicate?"

"You're making this sound like a forbidden love affair, Captain." Sakuma grinned at the boldness of his text.

"But Sakuma-kun, the fact that you didn't tell Sokudone-san in the first place makes you responsible for making this sound like a forbidden love affair." Fair point, she had.

"Then let's make this seem like it is, agree, Aira?"


Don't I just love cliffies? Okay, so before I include any more OCs, and also, the OC Submission is still open, but nobody's still taking Tobitaka so I'm closing it in a few days, OC owners, just because I've included your OC doesn't necessarily mean they'll be getting the guy. This is the nicest I can do since your OC didn't get the guy so yeah.

I'm sorry and I hope you understand! Please review!

-Strawbeariiis