Mayu continued to walk Wanta through town. Being a more introverted person, she stuck to areas which were less likely to hold a lot of people. She was walking along a simple stone path near a closed down restraunt when-
"Sarge, we've been at this for hours. Lets please stop." She hears someone groan.
"No stoping until you've worked off breakfast and last nights supper." A gruffer voice responds. "Maybe a little more."
"Ugh." The first voice groans.
"Get back up, soldier." The second voice demands. The first voice only groans again. Mayu then rounds the corner in time to see a red armoured soldier beating up an orange coloured soldier. Just where were all these futuristic looking men coming from?
"Hey, you shouldn't do these things in front of a kid." Grif says.
"Huh?" Sarge then takes notice of Mayu watching them.
"S-sorry. I'll go now." Mayu says before making a hasty exit.
"Hmm. Somethings not right." Sarge grumbles.
I dunno. I found that a perfectly acceptable reaction for someone like her in this scenario." Grif says.
Meanwhile, Yuka had taken her group to the shrines Kouta suggested they look at. It was pretty vacant of people today, so no one to stare at the blue armoured man accompanying them. Said blue man was looking at the many shrines in wonder, like a 5 year old kid. 'I wonder why he acts like that?' Yuka wonders. The man had to be somewhere in his 20s, right?
"Wow. I've never been to this part in town." Kaede says.
"You didn't explore much of the town when you lived here?" Kouta questions.
"No. I wanted to stay away from crowds, and I already had a nice, secluded, place to be whenever I wanted to be alone." Kaede explains.
"I can understand that." Kouta responds. A moment of silence passes.
"Awkward." Caboose blurts out.
"Okay, you don't say that. It just makes this weird now." Kaede rounds on him.
"I was only saying what we were all thinking." Caboose defends himself.
"The rest of us don't say what we're thinking." Yuka grumbles.
"Why not?" Caboose asks her.
"Lets just leave it at somethings are best left unsaid." Yuka says.
A little while later, after securing some bread crusts from the bakery, Mayu and Wanta had wondered off to find a nice place to eat them. Walking by the shines, she figured that was as good a place as any. Making her way through the many shines, she took note it was mercifully absent of people. Must be the new school year coming up to explain why no one was around.
Finding a nice place to sit, Mayu makes her way over to the spot when she feels her foot kick something over. Looking down at the object, she spies a small music box opened from the kick and playing its tune. A sad, but beautiful melody.
'Someone must have dropped this.' Mayu thought, picking it off the ground. Looking around the box, she found the name 'Kaede' engaged on the bottom. Did it mean the Kaede house, that old restaurant that recently closed down? Or was it an Inn? Didn't matter. Kaede could very well have been the persons name who the box belong to, but either way, it wouldn't harm anyone to check of whoever now owned the building wanted what was possibly their property back.
"I guess we have some place to stop by soon." Mayu tells her companion as she sits down and opens the bag containing her meal. Wanta can only bark in reply, causing Mayu to giggle. She gives him the first bread crust.
It was near days end when everyone returned back to the Maple inn. They were immediately greeted with the sight of Grif passed out in the yard.
"Oh God, is he dead?" Tucker asks.
"Nope, he's still breathing. Looks pretty close to death, though." Kaede comments.
"What does your sergeant make you do?" Yuka asks. The red soldier did seem do do things beyond common reasoning.
"Considering this is Grif we're talking about, I'd say basic exercises." Simmons voices.
"Basic exercise? How out of shape is Grif?" Yuka asks.
"If you take all his armour off, he looks like he's a few sandwiches away from cosplaying as Jabba the Hutt." Simmons answers.
"And he joined the army!?" Kouta exclaims.
"Yeah. Said he did it to fight aliens." Kaede says. "Dunno why he would want to do that when all he does is eat and sleep all day, and occasionally watch TV during those two things."
"I hear we're insulting Grif. I want in." The group look to see Sarge standing, proud at the doorway. "Pink pants, some people are hungry. How about you get in the kitchen and get right on that." He orders.
"Right away, sir." Donut exclaims making his way inside and to the kitchen. "I have just the meal in mind that'll blow everyones clothes off."
"Or, It'll just be really good!" Simmons calls out. "Grif would be glad he's unconscious so he wouldn't have to hear that."
"So, who's gonna carry him in?" Yuka asks.
"Carry him in?!" Simmons asks, incredulously.
"Dude, how much does he even weigh?" Tucker asks.
"We tried to find out, but the fat ass broke the scale." Sarge explains.
"Maybe some intense exercise will be good for him, then." Yuka says.
"Thats an understatement." Kaede mutters.
"It probably did him no good." Simmons says. "He's gonna wake up in the morning and eat enough breakfast to regain whatever he lost."
"How's about we go inside and wait for that meal." Kouta suggests. "Grif's gonna be okay out here?"
"A hurricane could come down on this building and he wouldn't even stir." Simmons answers. With that, the group go inside.
They sit down and devour Donuts delicious meal.
"Wow Donut. This is one of the best meals I've ever tasted." Kouta compliments.
"Aww, thanks. I think everyone can tell you what my secret ingredient is." Donut says.
"If you say love, I will pour my drink on you." Tucker retorts.
"So anyways, how did the hunt go?" Kaede asks.
"It seems like we're stuck here." Carolina sighs.
"Well, look on the bright side. At least Kouta here is willing to put us up." Donut says.
"Donut, that was for a night. We're talking... who knows how long!" Wash exclaims.
"No, no, it's fine. You can stay." Kouta assures them.
"What about when we go to school? Who's going to watch them?" Yuka asks.
"Don't worry. Carolina and I will keep a tight leash on them." Wash assures. If it had been anybody else, Yuka wouldn't feel comfortable with the idea, but seeing as how Wash and Carolina were the only sane ones here, she felt she could at least trust them a little.
"So, you kiddies go to college or something?" Sarge asks.
"Yeah. Just about to start actually." Yuka answers.
"I mean, it's a lower end college, all you have to do to get in is pass the entrance exams, but nevertheless we're still excited." Kouta says.
"Kaede, you should go." Tucker says.
"Huh? Why?" Kaede asks.
"This is a chance for you to get some real education. You've never been in an actual classroom before, so this might be some good experience. Not to mention, you get to hang out with your friends more." Tucker explains.
"Okay then. How do I take this entrance exam?" Kaede asks.
"You can just go in and write it on the day we go in." Kouta explains. "Good thing about being lower end is it isn't as strict on that stuff."
"Alright. What should I expect?" Kaede asks.
"Wash? What are we going to be doing in the meantime?" Tucker whispers to him as the three unarmored individuals ran Kaede through the entrance exam.
"We continue the search for the ball. Hopefully the someone who picked it up is still in the city." Wash explains.
Professor Kakuzawa had just finished up his shift in the labs located in the basement of the local collage.
Going through all the new students coming into his class room was monotonous work, but it had to be done. He figured he was due to check in on his fathers search for the Queen. That old bastard wanted to be the God the new, re-emerging race of Diclonii.
'Heh. Not if I get to her first.' The professor thought. Should any word of her come around, he would go to her and claim her for himself, using his horns as proof that they should be together to make the new Diclonius race to rule the Earth. If his father did get to her first, he would undoubtedly throw her into the best cell he had in the institute. An institute he had full access to and easily break her out, buying more favour with her.
Unfortunately, the Queen has been missing for almost a decade now. No sign of being alive or dead. Hopefully she was alive because if she wasn't, the Diclonius dream goes out the window.
Kakuzawa shook his head out of his fantasy for the future to get his head back to the present. Hopefully there were no last minute students coming in. They were a pain to deal with. Unfortunately, this being the place he teaches, it is likely inevitable that someone who's not yet registered is gonna show up.
AN: I have no clue how the Japanese education system works, so I am probably 100% wrong on a lot in this chapter. (Then again, in the show Kouta and Yuka do get away with bringing Nyu into class and nobody seems to bat an eye [Besides the obvious])
BTW: If you like react- fics, I'm having the Maple Inn crew react to their own show over on AO3, so check it out maybe?