Duran-kun and Kiyo-chan's Omake Theater!

(featuring the Kuga-Fujino family pets)

"Hey!"

Natsuki Kuga kept walking at a swift pace. Winter, after all, was not her favorite season, and she had no desire to be out with Jack Frost nipping at her nose when she could be back in a heated house (albeit with Shizuru Fujino nipping at her earlobes). And maybe, the caller might be shouting at somebody else.

"Hey, hey, Kuga! Wait up!"

Blast, she is calling me.

Two years ago, Natsuki might just have kept walking, making the person chasing her have to try and catch up. But that was the old Natsuki, the Natsuki who'd been the lone wolf, the ice princess, not the Natsuki who was taking her girlfriend's hydra for a slither around the block because said girlfriend was buried in term papers.

This Natsuki sighed, cursed under her breath, and stopped.

A moment later, Chie Harada came running up, screeched to a stop, and bent over, panting for breath while bracing her hands on her knees. Chie was one of Mai's friends, a friend once removed as it were, and a handsome, dark-haired girl with glasses. Less attractively, she was an inveterate gossip, although a good-natured one.

Natsuki tapped her foot on the snowy sidewalk. Kiyohime's sixth head glanced up at her curiously.

"Oh"—gasp—"man, that"—wheeze—"is just"—huff—"so cute!" Chie got out, looking at Kiyohime. The hydra preened; she was wearing a hand-knit red pet sweater decorated with Christmas trees that Shizuru's grandmother had given her the previous year.

"Ohhh-kay, yes, I agree, and now that you've run yourself out of breath catching up to say that, we'll be going..."

"No, no, that isn't it! I mean, it's part of it, but not really it."

"I think you've been hanging around Mai too much, Harada. Mikoto's starting to rub off on you."

Chie shot her a look, which actually enheartened Natsuki; if the other girl could be irked by Natsuki's snarkiness then it meant there was very likely a point to all of this.

"I meant, I needed to talk to you about Kiyohime."

"Shouldn't you be talking to Shizuru?"

Chie glanced around theatrically, noting the absence of Fujinos.

"Okay, point taken. What do you need?"

"It's for our winter project for the Film Club," she said. "We need her help with our movie."

All six of Kiyohime's heads perked up at that, fixing their attention on Chie and making eager little hissing sounds. Natsuki wondered if she was imagining herself slithering through a model of Tokyo as the new monster-movie icon.

"She seems willing enough."

"Oh, great! Mai said that Kiyohime could breathe out some kind of steam or something when she used to be big. Can she still do that?"

"Yeah, although it's not scalding hot any more, more like the steam off a hot shower."

Kiyohime's second head puffed a small cloud into the air by way of demonstration.

"No, no, that's perfect! See, we're doing 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,' so we need lots of foggy London streets, only we don't have the budget to rent a smoke machine. It would be really great if she could help us out!"

Kiyohime whimpered, heads drooping. Natsuki patted the nearest head.

"Hey, at least you'll be in the credits, even if it's only as a special effect."