Chapter 10: The Great Cheese Hare Chase

The next day, Saiba sits at his desk back at Polar Star as he writes down on what to teach at his next club meeting. He writes down everything he knows about his world and decide what to teach and what should he do when asks certain questions. Saiba sighs as he stops writing in his notebook. That and scheduling what he can and should do while at Totsuki. Balancing out classes, organizing, and his new club. Saiba yawns as he is getting tired. Then there is a knock at his door.

"Who is it?" Saiba asks.

"It's Megumi." Megumi responds outside the door, "I brought some green tea for you. It should help with your fatigue."

"Come in." Saiba puts his pencil down.

Megumi comes in and has a small tray with a tea pot and a Japanese tea cup. "How are you feeling?"

"A little drain." Saiba says as he looks back at his notebook, "Never knew that high school would be this tough."

Megumi sets the tea cup next to Saiba and pours some. "I know. Yet you should've came here during middle school. Believe me, I've gotten failing grades left and right. I'm surprised I made it this far. But thanks to your help, I didn't get expelled."

Saiba chuckles, "But you are a great cook, Megumi." he looks back at her, "You need to get over your stage fright. For me, I just focus on the task at hand and ignore everything else. How about you try pretending it's another day at your inn? Will that help?"

"Oh. I never thought about that."

Saiba nods, "And thanks for the tea."

"I should be thanking you."

As Saiba takes a drink, Daigo starts screaming, "DUUUUUUUUUDDDEEEE!"

Saiba spat out some of the tea and some came out through his nose. He drops his cup and coughs as Megumi freaks out.

"ARE YOU OKAY!?" Megumi panics and tries to help.

Daigo shows up in Saiba's room, "DUDE! You wouldn't believe- What happened, bro?"

Megumi is rubbing Saiba's back as Megumi explains, "You just screamed and Saiba nearly chocked on his tea!"

"Sorry, bro. But there is something important! Yuki's Cheese Hare is here!"

"A what?!" Saiba says in surprise after coughing.

Outside of Polar Star Dorm, a truck is at the gate with Yuki eagerly awaiting for her new lively ingredient to arrive. She hopes to raise it and figure out how to prepare an ingredient from the Special Region.

"Oh man!" Yuki is having a hard time containing her excitement, "I can't wait to learn more about this new game ingredient! It's finally here!"

The delivery man steps out of his truck and hands Yuki the paperwork, "Sign here, miss."

Yuki quickly signed it and prepares for her new ingredient.

"Alright, this giant beast is your problem now." says the driver.

"Huh?"

Saiba and Megumi run out of the dorm with Saiba shouting, "YUKI! WAIT!"

"Saiba?" Yuki turns around.

"YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE THAT JUMBO RABBIT IS SECURED!"

"Huh?!"

The driver opens the door and something came busting out, destroying the doors and knocking back the driver. What burst out was a gigantic rabbit roughly the size of a human with bright yellow fur, the underside of its feet being white and bright red eyes. The thing moved at fast speeds down the road with Yuki on the ground freaking out by the sudden appearance of the giant hare that just came out. Yuki was expecting the Cheese Hare to be like any ordinary hare, but got more than what she wanted. A lot more since the hare is big.

Saiba runs up, "Are you alright?!" He picks Yuki back up on her feet.

"Just what was that?!" Yuki is trying to process what just happened.

"That was a Cheese Hare. Cheese Hares are a lot bigger than ordinary hares and a lot faster too. Like monstrous."

Megumi is freaking out, "You mean like there is a monster loose at our school now!?"

Megumi imagines a more gigantic version of the Cheese Hare running rampant across the school. Godzilla size to be specific as it tramples all the buildings while having Godzilla spikes and breathe atomic blasts as students run away. Now she is even more frighten with that thought.

"I didn't know that!" Yuki defends herself, "I swear that I thought that it would be the size of a dog or something!"

Daigo, Shun, Ryoko and Shoji come running out with Ryoko asking, "What happened?!"

The driver moans with the truck door on him.

Megumi panics, "There's a monster loose at our school!"

"WHAT!?"

Over at the main school building, Ikumi goes over some of the recipes while heading towards the club room as she walks on the sidewalk.

"Seems like an interesting recipe, but not sure about the quality of the meat. But maybe tweaking the sauce and add a little more vegetables will-"

Ikumi stopped what she was doing as she notices the rumble.

"Earthquake?"

Yet when she turns around, she sees the Cheese Hare coming right at her. She screams as the hare dashes right past her and falls to the ground. The hare dashes as fast as it can.

Ikumi gets back up, "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!"

Some of the students in the area screamed as they see the giant lagomorph run through the crowd. Many of them either run away or dodge out of the way as it passes by.

Everyone from Polar Star try to chase after the hare.

"I hope that thing is a veggie eater, bro!" Shoji expresses his concern.

"It is!" Saiba says, "That creature is cowardly and timid by nature! It only flees and avoids combat thanks to its speed!"

"HEY! SAIBA!" Ikumi is upset as she stands in their way, "MIND TELLING ME WHAT WAS THAT!?"

Yet Saiba and the others run past her, "Sorry, Ikumi! But we need to stop that thing before it ruins any vegetable gardens!"

Megumi bows and apologizes, "Sorry, but we have to move!" and follows Saiba.

"Later, Meat-Meat!" Daigo and Shoji waves bye to Ikumi and run followed by Ryoko and Yuki.

Ikumi yells at the two, "DON'T CALL ME THAT!"

Somewhere at the school grounds, Erina and Hisako are minding their own business.

"What is my schedule for the day?"

Hisako looks at her clipboard, "For today, we have-"

"AAAAAAAAHHH!" a female student screamed.

They both look at the direction of the scream that startled them. Now both of them are frightened at what is going on.

"GIANT RABBBIIIIIT!"

"Huh?" they both went.

Some of the students get out of the way as the Cheese Hare runs past them and heading straight towards them. Erina is frozen in fear as the hare charges right at her.

"Miss Erina!" Hisako pushes Erina as the way as she gets trampled over by the Cheese Hare and Erina falls to the ground.

Erina recovers and tries to help Hisako up, "Hisako!"

Hisako is covered in large, lagomorph pawprints on her and her eyes are spirals. She even has Cheese Hares running around in circles above her head. "Miss Erina...giant rabbit ahead..."

Saiba and the rest of the gang showed up, "Erina!"

Erina looks and sees Saiba. Her face blushes and smiles, "Saiba..." and drops Hisako. "What're you doing here?" Yet notices everyone else and gets out of lala-land, "What're the rest of you doing here?"

Yuki responds, "We're here because my hare got loose."

"You mean that giant rabbit that ran by?" he points at the direction it went, "The thing went that way!"

"Right!" Saiba nods, "Come on everyone!"

Megumi bows and apologizes to Erina and Hisako, "Sorry about the mess! Sorry! Sorry!"

Ryoko bows, "Very sorry."

And they all ran off.

The six chase after the Cheese Hare across campus. They chase the creature to the Totsuki Library where Zenji is at in the Miyazato Seminar and ran him over. Then it busted through the Nakiri Manor right through the walls. Then ram right through the Chinese Cuisine Research Society as it scarfed down some of the vegetables.

"HEY!" says someone with spiky dark brown and blond hair. This is Terunori Kuga, head of the Chinese Cuisine Research Society and holder of the eighth seat of the Council of Ten, "WHO'S RUMMAGING ALL OF MY INGREDIENTS!" He speaks in a violent temper.

Yet when he sees the giant hare, he freaks out before it headbutts him into an unconscious state. Then the Cheese Hare keeps running through the woods of the campus and past all the fancy buildings on campus as the six Polar Star residents continue to chase it and are running out of steam.

"Isn't this thing supposed *pant, pant* to stop and burrow somewhere?" Yuki says as she tries to catch her breath.

"It should." Saiba seems to be doing fine despite the fact he has been running just as long as everyone else. "Yet the Cheese Hare is in a new environment. With all these people around, it will try to get away from every person, every predator and whatever else it considers a threat. It's not used to some of the modern stuff in this world so it will try to get further away." Then he jokes, "Hey! Maybe it will be like one of those cryptid thingies and becomes a legend here at Totsuki."

"This is not the time for jokes!" Ryoko shouts as she tries to catch up.

They chased the hare to the administrative building and even the director got knocked out of the way while he was taking a stroll, then back around the entire campus. After a while, five of the six stopped and try to take a break. Yet Saiba continues on. The reason for that is not because of his demi-human physique, but also because of a harsh training he did.

Many years ago, at a dojo in the Special Region and Saiba was six-year-old, Saiba just got knocked down to the floor.

"Come on, Saiba!" says an old man. He seems to be wearing a white gi with a black belt, have fuzzy gray hair that goes down to his waist, yet also have fox-ears and a tail. "The new continent is not some place for wimps. I need you to be strong if you ever want to see it. You need greater stamina, endurance, and strength to overcome all the dangers."

Saiba gets back up and prepares to fight as well as catch his breath. "I know, grandpa."

"That's it! Now, try to land a single blow on me." His grandfather takes a stance. "Show me your resolve if you want to taste those special foods."

Saiba charges in yelling to try to land a single blow, but he got easily got his butt whooped by a flurry of attacks. He gets up and tries again, but got defeated. He gets up again, and again, and again.

"Hmm..." his grandfather is curious, "Normally a six-year-old will cry and beg for someone to stop. But you... You keep on going. You must have a great amount of resolve. Yet the creatures at the new continent are more terrible than my own fists and slaps." He takes a combat stance again, "Now try again and reach the next level as a member of the Shishushi Gourmet Hunter Clan!"

Saiba tries again and tries to land a blow.

Back on present day, Saiba tries to track the footprints of the hare all the way back to the dorm. He is sweating from all the running he has been doing yet also having to catch his breath after many hours of running. He follows the tracks towards the garden that Isshiki usually tends to rather than attending class. He looks at the greenhouse and sees that it was broken into with the obvious giant hole. Despite catching his breath, he sneaks closer as he notices the hare eating some of the tomatoes. Saiba tries to sneak in closer without making any sounds. While approaching, he raises his left hand up and tries to use magic. A tiny, blue flame is created as he is about to take aim. However, he remembers the promise he made to his mother and decides not to cast a spell or use any magic. Instead, he pulls out a dagger from his shirt as the hare burrows itself in the greenhouse. Actually, it is more of a tanto with the black hilt having three silver fox tails swirling on it.

Many years ago, in the middle of the woods when Saiba was seven and was given the same tanto by his grandfather.

Saiba looks at the tanto before looking at his grandfather, "What's this for?"

"It is for killing your prey. Now listen, there will be times when hands and magic isn't enough and you need to do a more direct, silent kill. Also, this will help you hide your intent to kill your prey. Yet never use it to kill other monsters that you aren't planning to eat."

Saiba draws out his blade with his eyes having a blank stare yet with the intent to kill. He jumps in to kill the Cheese Hare as the birds fly up in the air.

Yuki sighs as everyone make their way back to the dorm at sunset, "I can't believe I lost the Cheese Hare. That thing cost me my entire savings and now it got away."

Everyone is exhausted as they make their way back. Daigo and Shoji look like zombies with Megumi and Ryoko in front of them. Ryoko is hunched back with her arms swinging back and forth. Megumi just have her head down.

Yuki keeps on complaining, "Even worse, I have a month's worth of detention because of the havoc it created."

"Dude, I feel like Zenji right now." Daigo moans.

"You said it." Shoji moans.

"A bath sounds wonderful right now." Ryoko says in exhaustion.

"I agree." Megumi also agrees.

Yet they stopped when they smelled something that snaps them out of their exhausted state.

"What's that smell?" Megumi asks.

Yuki looks at Ryoko, "Smells like..."

Ryoko looks back at Yuki, "Can it?"

They headed towards the cafeteria and sees Saiba with a stew pot.

"Hey guys." he says with a smile, "I finally got it."

"HUH!?" they all went.

"But sorry about cooking it without your permission, Yuki. But I can't let it go to waste."

Yuki holds a bowl out, "Nevermind it! I'm hungry! So lay that rabbit on me!" She takes a bite and is in sure delight with imaginary rabbit ears on her head with a background of crayon drawn rabbits, carrots and a sun.

Everyone else takes a bite and are on cloud nine...until Fumio arrives as she slams the door open.

"YUUUUUUKKKKIIIIII!" Fumio yells out.

Yuki freaks out, "M-M-Ms. Fumio!"

Fumio stomps her way over with a dark aura around her, "I HAD A WORD WITH THE DIRECTOR AND YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE MISSY!"

"B-B-But I already had my punishment!"

Everyone else except Saiba are taking cover from Fumio's wrath. Saiba just sits there with his stew.

Fumio grabs the back of Yuki's uniform and lifts her up with Yuki having tears on her eyes. "THEN FOR YOUR ADDED PUNISHMENT: YOU WILL CLEAN EVERY BATHROOM IN THIS DORM IMMEDIATELY!"

Yuki turns into a crying chibi as she cries out, "NOOOOO!" as she gets taken away.

Saiba slurps the last of the stew and takes a satisfying breath. "That was good."

AN: Okay, this is the last extra that there is. Next time, it will be episode-based chapters from here on in unless you guys want some more extras. Until then, stay safe.