Maru sighed. Though his hammy efforts had invigorated him for a few minutes, the fact was that between the slump he had awoke with, and his confrontation with Shizune, he was left feeling drained. Moments after he had sat down, he seemed to lose all energy and slumped backward into his seat. Oh fuck this shit, he thought as he undid his tie. I'm going to dig myself out of this before it kills me again. He slipped the tie onto his forehead. As he finished tightening the tie, Miki walked in.
"...Maru, why...," She blinked and shook her head. "Why are you wearing your tie around your head?"
Hisao glanced over at the two from his seat, and sighed. Here we go again. He started watching out of the corner of his eye.
"Because my kung-fu is stronger than yours," Maru replied, moving his hand and prosthetic around as if practicing karate.
She looked at him for a moment before facepalming. "Ask a stupid question..."
"Huwah," he said, doing his best to make every possible facial expression at the same time.
"You're such a dork," she said with a chuckle as she sat down.
"Guilty as charged," he replied with a grin.
Mutou walked in shortly afterward, the lecture he had been in the middle of giving dying on his lips as he noticed Maru. "Mister Kobayashi..."
Miki facepalmed again.
"Your kung-fu is no good here," Maru said, making another set of motions with his hand and prosthetic.
"...You don't think you can defeat me do ya?" Mutou made his own set of vaguely martial artsy hand gestures. "I'll beat you down in less than 30 strokes."
Hisao raised an eyebrow. Now that was unexpected.
Maru blinked at him, then started to laugh loudly, joined by a number of others in the class.
Misha's laugh nearly deafened Hisao. That, too, was unexpected, although I probably should have seen it coming.
"I'm surrounded by dorks," Miki muttered.
"Miss Miura," Mutou began.
"Eep!" She tensed up.
Maru's laughter began to die down. "I don't... Ahahaha..." He waved at Mutou, who turned his attention to him. "I don't recognize the line, what's it from?"
"Death Duel Of Kung Fu," Mutou replied. He glanced at Miki, then nodded. "Now that we have this out of our system, let's begin class. Maru, necktie around the neck."
Miki let out a relieved sigh.
"Ah, sure," Maru replied as he moved the tie to its original position.
"Thanks for the save," Miki whispered when Mutou turned his back.
"No problem," Maru whispered back with a nod.
"Even if it's sort of your fault in the first place," she whispered.
"Eheheh... heh..." He shrugged. "Sorry."
"Just messing with you," she whispered and winked.
He stuck his tongue out at her before looking at his book.
Class went quietly after that point. Hanako didn't come to the morning class at all. It took Maru a while to realize that she was absent, to his surprise. I'm not on the ball today, it seems. He took another swig of coffee and glanced around. Most of the others looked some degree of bored, including Hisao, who was lazily flipping pages in his textbook. He looked back at Mutou, who was scribbling equations on the board.
In front of him, Miki started to snore slightly.
Maru raised an eyebrow, and then shrugged. I'm guessing she's not a math person. Well, can't blame her, but it's rather satisfying if you know what you're doing. He put the thought out of mind and practiced some of the math problems, for lack of anything else to do. Huh. All of these asymptote to a prime number. Funny, math book dudes. Funnier would have been using the Fibonacci sequence. Well, for a given value of funny, I guess.
The bell rang, and the class began to clear out. Maru leaned back in his seat and stretched, and burbled happily as some joints popped. Well, what should I do today, then? He put his hand and prosthetic behind his head, and winced as the edge of it dug into his scalp slightly. He turned his arm slightly. Well, I suppose I could go out to the city again... Or maybe the town? I know there's one down the hill... He glanced around.
Most of the people had already left. Hisao was still there. So were Shizune and Misha, talking to someone he didn't recognize. Shizune was signing furiously, fast enough that Misha was having difficulties following.
Maru grit his teeth. He realized he should leave before either of them had a chance to make a scene, but his pride was keeping his legs from moving. He almost sighed in relief when the group sat down.
"Uwaaah! I'm so tired!" Misha hung her head limply on her desk, looking exhausted.
Hisao scratched his cheek. I'll use the opportunity to reconcile with Shizune a bit, without getting roped into the student council thing again, though I suspect that door is now closed for me. "Festival preparations must be tough for you." Indeed, the people in this school seem to be taking the festival very seriously. Whenever I see people idling around before and after classes they're always talking about their plans for it. It's kind of neat to see everyone being so enthusiastic about it. Maru and I are probably the only ones who don't have something to do.
Maru glanced over at the group before looking at the ceiling. Don't get involved, just leave it be.
Shizune scoffed at Hisao first, as if trying to decide whether to ignore or sneer at him, but in the end she started signing without doing either.
Misha perked up, looking at her hands with slightly unfocused eyes.
Shizune's signing became harsher, heavier, and more dramatic.
"Well of course, we're in the Student Council, you know, so we're pretty busy," Misha said.
She does that so well it's almost like Shizune is actually speaking, Hisao thought, transmitting her thoughts directly through Misha. She must've practiced it vigorously.
"It's an important duty of ours," Misha continued, "to ensure the success of the festival with all our strength." She put her hands on her hips. "We would shame ourselves in front of the past student council generations if the festival were to fail."
Maru quietly sighed. Let's just get up, get out of here. While she's distracted. C'mon, legs, move...
"That's why there must be no flaws," Misha continued, "no... errr I think that was 'encumbrances,' no nothing that might make the festival short of perfect."
Hisao blinked. Shizune's passionate speech and Misha's enacting are really oddly fitting of them.
Maru stood up.
"Oh?" Misha blinked. "Hello~!"
Maru jerked slightly. Ah damn. He turned to face them, and noticed that their eyes were not on him.
Hisao turned to look over his shoulder.
Both of them saw Hanako, peering timidly into the classroom, most of her body hidden behind the door.
"Hey!" Misha smiled. "Playing delinquent again?"
Hanako blushed hard at Misha's straightforward jab, even if it was only in jest.
Maru let out a groaning sigh and glared at Misha, who failed to notice.
Shizune stared at Hanako probingly, causing her to look down and start backing away to the point where only her fingers could be seen wrapped nervously around the edge of the door.
Hisao frowned. Maybe she is showing her dislike of Hanako by association of her dislike of Lilly. It appears so, and Hanako probably knows it as well.
Maru shook his head. Why's shit gotta be like this? Can't we all just get along? He blinked. Because I'm totally someone who can say that without any hypocrisy, yeah.
Hisao decided to break the tension. "What is it, Hanako?"
Hanako looked at him. "H... has Lilly been here?"
"Not since this morning," Maru replied.
"Yes, what he said," Misha agreed.
Shizune blinked, as if she had only just noticed Maru's presence. She looked at him with disgust for a moment, before turning her gaze back to Hanako, who looked back uneasily.
Hisao raised an eyebrow. What is she trying to do? Of course Shizune isn't going to look away, and she is intimidating enough as it is, so I can only imagine how terrified Hanako would be. It's a little uncomfortable, watching Hanako's reaction to Shizune's normal behavior. This is what happened when two people of two different extremes meet, it seems.
Maru shook his head and walked to the door. I gotta just get outta here. I don't think I can take much more of this shit. He passed by Hanako, and leaned against the wall out of view of Shizune. He rubbed his eyes and sighed quietly.
Hanako watched him for a moment before pulling herself back from the door and turning to him tensely. "Do... do you know where she is?"
Hisao frowned at the door. I feel like I should probably go help her. Either with finding Lilly or dealing with Maru. He glanced at Shizune and Misha, who were signing furiously to one another, and picked up his bag.
Ironically enough, I haven't actually seen Death Duel Of Kung Fu. ... Or many kung fu movies, for that matter. That's alright, because I have tropes!
Anyway, thanks for all the reviews! leeroc101, hell payments are fortunately in installments. Though you pay more overall, the individual payments aren't too bad! Either way, everyone likes references. ;) AwesomeInstead, he certainly was a bit irate! Not punchy irate, though. Well, with walls being a notable exception... Nightshade McArthur, glad you find Maru to be a continued source of vitamin amusement!
