The light from the windows shone through the curtains, giving the big room a gentle glow. When Kurumi pulled the curtains open, they cast themselves on Seisa's sleeping form. She stirred.
"Ojou-sama, it is time to wake up." Kurumi addressed her mistress. She stood by her side, patiently waiting.
"Mmh..." Seisa slowly got up, rubbing at her eyes to try and see better. She turned to her maid with a tired smile. "Good morning, Kurumi."
"Good morning," Kurumi wheeled a cart with food over, the steam rising off of it. "I have prepared breakfast."
"Thank you, Kurumi..." Seisa moved so her legs dangled off of her bed. She stared at her food, specially made for her. The Japanese-style miso soup and rice looked delicious. "Really, thank you."
"It is my responsibility to serve you as your maid," Kurumi simply stated. "But, um, are you going to be staying home today?" A slight hint of a frown crossed Kurumi's usually stoic face. She knew it was wrong of her to ask Seisa this, but she couldn't help it. She was worried about her.
"Yes." Seisa nodded. She hadn't been going to school for so long, so today would be no different.
"I see." Kurumi looked downcast.
"It's okay," The brunette gave her a reassuring smile. "I'll be okay. You better get to school, you're a teacher remember?"
"That's right, but..." Kurumi, still worried, stood there for a bit longer before finally ressigning. "Alright, as you wish ojou-sama." She set Seisa's breakfast down on a table in front of the bed, and wheeled the cart away.
Before she opened the door, Kurumi turned to Seisa. "Call me if you need anything."
"Of course," Seisa politely affirmed, despite knowing she never called for her during the school day.
Kurumi, after giving one last concerned glance, walked out of the room with the cart.
After she was out of the room, Seisa finished her food and stood up to bring the empty dishes to the kitchen. She felt bad making Kurumi do everything for her.
She went ahead and washed all of the dishes, more from boredom if anything, but also because she wanted to help out Kurumi a little. Being a maid and a teacher at the same time could be grueling for one person. She even considered making Kurumi step down as her maid, but she was insistent on staying. Perhaps it was her loyalty to the Mikagura family stopping her from leaving.
But if anything, she knew that at her current state she would fall apart without someone to take care of her.
Eruna woke up in her club house, still wrapped up in her sleeping bag. At first, she was confused by her surroundings, but suddenly remembered. The day before, she had moved out of her guest room in Seisa's mansion and into the I'll figure it out later club's club room.
She sat up, stretching her arms. She noticed Bimii wasn't there with her, which was unusual. Usually he'd be beside her, griping about how much of a weirdly heavy sleeper she was.
But there was one person beside her. She turned to Otone, who was still fast asleep.
"Otone-chan! Wake up!" She shook her friend, who moved and turned a couple of times before opening her eyes. When she looked up, she saw Eruna's face hovering above her.
"If you don't wake up, I'm gonna have to kiss you!~" Unaware that Otone had already awoken, she started to slowly gravitate down to her with her lips pouted.
"NOO!" Instinctively, Otone pulled herself up and kicked Eruna right in the face, sending her flying into the wall behind them.
"Agh-" Eruna's back hit the wall, which held up surprisingly well despite the blunt force trauma it received. "Just what I needed in the morning, hehe, ow..."
"Ah, sorry Eruna! B-But it's your fault for trying something like that!" Otone switched from white to black in about the span of two seconds.
"It's okay, Otone-chan. I know you didn't mean it." Eruna recovered rather quickly, having gotten used to the several beatings she endured for her behaviour. "Let's get down to breakfast!"
"Yeah!" The pigtailed girl followed Eruna over to the school's cafeteria. As usual, in the mornings the school's halls would be scattered with tired students, some of them still in their pajamas. Although it was a little gross, Eruna had slept in her uniform to save herself some time. It would be okay though, since she was going to freshen up in the washroom later.
When they arrived, Eruna immediately stacked her plate high with pancakes, topped with a generous amount of berries and maple syrup.
"Wow Eruna, that's a lot of food..." Otone stared in amazement as they sat down and started to eat, her own plate having a modest serving of eggs and toast.
"Well, I'm a growing girl after all!" Eruna said through mouthfuls of food. She practically inhaled the pancakes, gulping down her milk as she went on. "The cafeteria always has such good food! I wonder who the cook is?"
"That would be me." Kurumi showed up, seemingly popping out of nowhere.
"Ugyah! Kurumi-sensei!" Eruna nearly choked on a berry. She started coughing, trying desperately to reach for her drink.
"The other staff also contribute, but it is me who decides what food gets served for the day." Kurumi ignored the coughing girl.
Otone rushed over to Eruna, handing her the glass of milk which the pinkette was struggling to reach, despite it being right in front of her. She gulped it all down in a second.
"Ah! That hits the spot!" She slammed her glass down on the table, "Thanks Otone-chan!"
"Mhm." Otone sat back down in her seat, "Be careful, you could choke again if you eat that quickly."
"Teehee, okay!~" Eruna took another bite from her pancakes, this time taking consideration to chew properly before she swallowed. "Kurumi-sensei, your cooking is amazing! Does this mean Seisa-senpai gets food like this every morning too?"
Otone's ears twitched when she heard the name Seisa.
"Yes, I suppose so." Kurumi nodded. She was just about to say something else before she caught a glimpse of her watch, "Oh, look at the time. Looks like I have to go to class now. You better do the same when you're done, or it's extra homework for you."
"Ehh?! I don't want that! Okay, I guess I better hurry up and finish my breakfast!" She began inhaling her food once more as a flustered Otone tried to get her to slow down.
As Kurumi walked away, her expression was one of frustration, mixed with an attempt at keeping her emotions in check. She had walked away too early before she could ask Eruna for help with Seisa. She even confused herself when she considered asking her of all people for help, but she knew no one else could do it. So why was she hesitating?
After Eruna and Otone had finished their breakfasts, they both made their way to the washroom to clean up a bit. They brought their own toothbrushes and towels.
Hurriedly, they washed their faces and headed down towards their respective classrooms. As she was running to catch up, Otone had one thought lingering at the back of her mind. Seisa was still cooped up in her room, refusing to go to school, which didn't go unnoticed by the girl. More than that, was the fact that she hadn't been talking to Eruna recently.
Otone had already decided she was going to change that. She wanted to see Eruna happy, and over the past couple of days that feeling had only gotten stronger. She could feel it morphing into something else, but she ignored that as she focused on the task at hand. Getting to class on time.
Luckily, she was on time and Eruna wouldn't have to do any extra homework. But Kurumi apparently liked picking on Eruna because she still made her do an extra worksheet.
"Why me?!" Eruna groaned.
When everyone had finished writing down things, Kurumi proceeded to teach them about target practice and how to aim properly at gems in battle. She demonstrated with Eruna.
"Why me?!" She groaned for the second time that day, as Kurumi took aim and fired arrows at her.
"This is a demonstration," Kurumi stated as if it explained all of Eruna's suffering.
"This is torture!" Eruna rephrased as she tried her best to dodge everything.
The whole class looked on with awe and slight pity.
When she was done with the demonstration, Kurumi instructed them to try it out for themselves. They moved all of the desks to the side and set up target boards.
For the rest of the period, they did nothing but use their abilites to aim at the center of the targets. Kurumi admitted to herself that she had cut corners for this lesson, but she was justified. Life was hectic for her, coming up with new lessons everyday, having to teach an entire class, tending to Seisa's needs and much more that she was needed around the school for. She wasn't one to complain about things, but everyday was a bit tiring.
She looked at Eruna, who was fifty percent of the time hitting the targets in the center, much to her frustration. The reason she had been hard on the girl at the beginning of class was because she felt that she had been too easy on her the other day. She had witnessed Eruna acting less energetic than usual before that, and something inside of her decided that she should be nice for once. Maybe she had come down with the flu or something.
She was still worried about her mistress though. She had to get Eruna to help somehow.
When the period was over, everyone seperated to go to their second period classes. Eruna and Otone shared this class, so they met halfway and walked together.
By the time second period was over, Eruna's stomach was rumbling for food. Despite the rather large breakfast she had, she still needed lunch. She went together with Otone to the cafeteria.
As they walked, they heard a scream coming from down the hallway. It sounded strangely familiar.
"Eek! What was that just now?!" Eruna freaked.
"I think... It was Bimii-sensei." Otone affirmed. They slowly crept to the room, which was emitting a strange smoke from underneath the door. Then it opened.
A half clothed human Bimii stepped out of the room, looking extremely drained of his energy. He had deep eyebags underneath his usually clear face.
"Bimii! You're human now!" Eruna pointed, looking surprised. She hadn't seen his human form since he used it to help them win over their club room. "Why?!"
"I-I don't know, -ryui..." Bimii turned to them with a far away gaze, "When a came to, I was suddenly like this..." He continued on despite feeling like crap. "I tried several times to return to my cat form, first by waiting it off, then going back into the machine, like just now. As you can see, it didn't work -ryui." He sighed.
"Ooh," Eruna made an o shape with her mouth. "But isn't this a good thing? You told us before that this was your original form."
"Yes, but being like this makes me very tired." Bimii let out another deep sigh, "Why can't I just go back to being a cat -ryui!"
Eruna found it a little strange how fond Bimii was of his cat form, but just figured he liked the convenience of it, "Hey, so do you want to come with us to the cafeteria? We're gonna get some food and go to the club room."
"...Are you sure, -ryui? Everyone might not stop staring at me." Bimii gave what he thought was a charming smile, but paired up with his dark eyebags just looked scary.
"They're going to be staring for a completely different reason." Whispered Otone under her breath.
"You can come with us, just get changed first." Eruna pointed at him, "You can't go in just your pink boxers."
"Oh, uh, yeah. Just give me one second -ryui." He went back into the smokey room he came from, and after three minutes came back out fully clothed, backpack and everything. "Alright, let's go -ryui."
The three of them made their way to the cafeteria, lining up for the sweet buns that were on sale. Eruna's drooling got more and more gross the longer they waited in line, and Otone had to hand her several tissues to mop up the saliva.
When they finally got to the front, Eruna bought several of the buns. Otone had bought one. Bimii made his way to the front by himself.
"One sweet melon bun please, with custard." He had to supress the urge to say -ryui at the end of his sentence. His verbal tick was just a thing that came naturally to him, so surpressing it was hard.
"Alright, that will be two hundred yen."
Bimii handed over his spare change, and took the bun with him. He would've used his teacher authority to get it for free or something, but no one else knew about his human form except for a select few, and he was going to keep it that way.
They walked back to the club room, food in tow. As Bimii had predicted, a couple of students turned their way to stare at him, though it was more so because they didn't recognize him.
"See, what did I tell you. They're enraptured by me -ryui!"
"No they're not! I bet everyone's just looking 'cause they've never seen you before." Eruna shot him down.
"R-Ryui... So mean, -ryui..." Bimii was on the verge of tears.
"Hmph." Eruna turned away from him.
He sulked more, wishing Eruna wasn't so hard on him. This human form of his usually only lasted a couple of minutes, so for him to have already been a human for this long was a miracle. If only Eruna could notice that...
When they arrived at the club room, they sat down in front of the small table. Eruna immediately dug into her lunch.
"You're always so ravenous, -ryui." Bimii commented on the girl's eating habits. It was true - she would always eat large portions of food whenever she had the chance, and with such vigor too.
"I can't help it! I'm a growing girl after all!" Eruna gave him the same answer as she gave Otone and stuffed down the buns.
Bimii smiled, and ate his own food too. Maybe lunch would give him the energy to get through the day.
When they were done, there were still twenty minutes left in the lunch period. The group decided that they would walk around the school for a little bit.
"What period do you have next, Otone-chan?"
"Fujishiro has science," Otone responded, "We're doing a unit on abilities."
"Isn't every unit about abilities -ryui?"
"Who knows."
Bimii's question hung in the air as they continued walking to seemingly nowhere. Suddenly, a boy could be seen running down the hallway from ahead.
"I'm late, I'm gonna be late!"
"Asuhi-kun, wha-" Eruna yelled out, recognizing his voice. But it was too late, as the boy came crashing into her.
The telescope he was carrying rolled out of his hands, and down to Otone's feet. She went to go pick it up, before rushing over to the two fallen people's side.
"Aah, I'm so sorry!" Asuhi got off of Eruna and began to apologize profusely. "I wasn't looking where I was going!"
"It's okay!" Eruna quickly stood up, recovering quickly like usual. "A crash like that is nothing to me! You might even say it was fate that we bumped into each other!~" She looked at him with googly eyes, fawning over how cute he was again.
"A-Are you sure? You're not hurt or anything..."
She reassured him, "Sure as can be!"
"Then that's good." Asuhi let out a relieved sigh. "I have to get going now! Where's my telescope?"
He twirled around himself, frantically searching before someone tapped on his shoulder. "Um... Fujishiro has it." She shyly held it out for him.
"Ah, F-Fujishiro-san! Thank you..." He sheepishly took it from her hands, before running off with it. "Goodbye, and again, I'm sorry!"
"No need for an encore!" Eruna waved back at him. "Hmm, but I wonder what he was late for?"
"Probably a club meeting, -ryui."
Otone was quiet.
"Otone-chan, what do you think?" Eruna turned around only to be greeted with her friend's flustered face. "Otone-chan! What's wrong?"
"That was the first time Fujishiro talked to him," Otone blurted out. "Ever since the tournament."
Eruna had a moment of clarity. She knew her friend was awkward around other people, especially to Asuhi since she beat him in the finals. "Well, isn't it a good thing that you had a chance to talk to him? It might make you open up more."
"F-Fujishiro knows that, but still..."
Eruna thought for a moment, "Then how about I help you?"
"Huh?"
"I'll help you make new friends! I think we're on good terms with the Drama Club, so let's head over there and we'll expand from it!" Eruna pumped her fist, ready to spring into action. "Ah, but some other time since class is about to start."
Otone pursed her lips. Eruna was always helping her, and she felt guilty for it. For now, she nodded her head as they walked together as far as they could before having to seperate. Bimii walked off by himself as he tried to figure out what to do, now that he wasn't in his cat form anymore.
All throughout class, the lingering thought at the back of her mind made it's way to the forefront as she thought about how to make Eruna happy. She figured that there was something she needed to do tonight.
The doorbell to the mansion rang, alerting Kurumi of a visitor. Who could it be, when it's so late outside? She thought as she made her to way to the door. Hoping it wasn't the eejit, she went ahead and opened it.
Otone was there. "I would like to speak to Seisa-senpai."
Author's Note
Heeeyyy guys, it's been nearly a year!... I'm surprised anyone still bothers with this story.
I'm sorry for not updating. :( I think I lost my motivation. But it's okay, because I definitely plan on finishing this. I can't leave a story hanging.
I had to review the story and the entire anime just to write this one chapter, because as you can guess I kinda forgot what happened in the show. I want to keep this consistent while at the same time twisting things around so it makes at least a little bit of sense.
Thanks for reviews and keep voting!
