Things petered out rather comfortably after that. Cirno had been true to her word; though she ended up facing a lot of flak from all the teachers and pupils she'd inconvenienced during her stint as gang leader, she took on the task of winning back their favour with a brave face and a proud smile. It was the same expression she wore during her weekly study session with Koishi and friends - at least, when she wasn't rubbing her head in confusion and asking for clarification.
Koishi had expected every day to be a riveting adventure, with brutal combat and epic battles taking place on every street corner. She was happily disappointed, then, to learn that Claw activity seemed to be focused mainly on finding the Sirens now. They knew that the Pearl's two new allies were too powerful for them to take on with their current forces, and as potent as the mindcoil was it couldn't place someone under the claw's control without a grudge to control them through. They needed a reason to attack, and in all honesty the Sirens were either too well-liked or too unknown for the Claw to have any worthwhile targets for recruitment.
This meant that the search for other holders of the Teardrops took precedence for both parties. Sango would routinely go out for walks alongside Koishi after school, letting off a phwee or two when no-one else was looking to scout the area for potential Sirens. So far they hadn't found anything, but there had been no sign of the Claw getting hold of anyone either, so it was more or less a stalemate.
Sometimes these trips would have the pair out until the dead of night, but today they'd chosen to finish early. Koishi had a test impending for the next day, and given that they'd had no luck up until now she figured she could afford to spend an evening revising. Sango would be doing some revision too, whether she liked it or not - the last thing they needed was for Sango to be held back a year.
They returned home much earlier than normal, and Koishi didn't bother to knock as she entered the house.
"I'm ho-"
No voice responded to her, but the sound of hurried movement out the hallway spoke volumes. Koishi barely had time to acknowledge there was a figure standing there before it had vanished, but it was wearing familiar shades of yellow and green.
Her clothes? Definitely.
"Koishi-san, stay back!"
Sango leaped in front of Koishi, holding her arms out to guard the corridor. The move stunned Koishi as much as it confused her.
"Sango-san...what are you doing?"
Sango looked back at Koishi with the most serious expression she could muster.
"Protecting you, obviously. Someone's here to attack you, and it's my job to keep you safe!"
Koishi needed a second to fully take in Sango's line of reasoning before finally pushing her out the way.
"H-Hey, didn't you hear what I just said?!"
Sango didn't go to the full extent of holding her back, but she motioned for Koishi to stop in every way she could imagine. The girl walked on regardless, heading straight in the direction the mysterious figure had ran. The trip led her into her own room, and immediately Koishi could see that her wardrobe was hanging open, ruffled with pieces of clothing hanging out. It had been recently invaded, that was obvious, but the thief was nowhere to be seen - at least, not immediately.
Koishi, though, had a good idea of where to look. She only knew one person who took refuge here, and she always chose the same spot. Sango stood in the doorway, mystified, as Koishi walked over to her bed and pulled up one of the bedsheets that had fallen over the side.
A long black tail was beneath it, wriggling around anxiously as its owner hid under the bed. Just as Koishi had expected. She reached down, running her hand down it quickly but carefully.
"Nyaah!"
Orin practically flew out from under the bed, pinning herself to the opposite wall. She wasn't wearing the ordinary dark green dress, instead having chosen to wear Koishi's traditional garb. Given the obvious differences between the two, it didn't quite fit her - in particular, the shirt was beginning to strain slightly, thanks to Orin's human form being considerably more endowed than her master's.
The awkward silence in the room may well have lasted an eternity. Koishi wasn't keeping count. The cat looked up, her face bright red, and Koishi's eyes looked down at her in mild confusion. She didn't say anything, but the thoughts rushing through her mind said more than enough.
OhcrapohcrapohcrapKoishi-samawasn'tmeanttoseethisnowIlookreall yweirddon'tIhowamIsupposedtoexplainthi snyaanyaanyaaaaaaaaaah
It took a long time for Koishi to muster up enough sensibility to react. The sight of Orin dressing in her own clothing had been enough to stun her into silence, but eventually she managed to offer a useful response.
She giggled.
"Orin, if you wanted me to get you a change of clothes, you could have just asked."
That was enough to take Orin's composure apart. The panicked thoughts in her head started pouring out into words, inconsistent and desperate.
"N-No, Koishi-sama, that's not it! I just always thought you looked cute in these clothes, so I wanted to try them on while you were away and - wait, no, that sounds even worse, doesn't it?! Nyaaah, I'm not really this strange, I swear!"
She was almost on the verge of tears, sniffling and covering her chest. Sango had yet to recover from the initial shock, still standing in place with her jaw hanging wide open. Koishi looked into her head, but all she could hear was the word 'phwee' being repeated over and over.
She'd have to move things along herself, then. Looking away from Orin for a moment, Koishi reached into the wardrobe and pulled out a large black hat with a wide brim. A yellow ribbon ran around it, the same colour as the shirt it accompanied. Walking over to the frozen feline, Koishi placed the hat as neatly as she could on Orin's head. It stuck up a little higher than it should have, mainly thanks to Orin's ears.
"There. Now the outfit is complete."
Orin seemed confused for a moment, reaching out and touching the brim of the hat to confirm it existed. She pulled herself to her feet, looking over at a nearby mirror, and realising she didn't look half bad in it. The shirt was definitely too small, though - if she wore it for much longer, the thing would probably end up tearing.
"S-Sorry about this, Koishi-sama...I won't do it again, I promise..."
Koishi took the whole thing in her stride, smiling.
"It's okay! And I'll get you some more stuff to wear in the next few days too. Sango-san, you're fine with paying, right?"
Sango didn't answer. The poor girl's brain still hadn't managed to come to grips with this whole idea, and now she was muttering her phwees to herself out loud. She probably needed to go lie down for a while.
"O-Okay...thanks. But there's one other thing you should know. Okuu is-"
"Unyuuu!"
Sango's inanimate body was shoved aside as Utsuho burst into the room. Koishi and Orin both turn their attention to her, and once again the sight left them both speechless. She'd tried to do the same thing, but apparently the concept of putting on a shirt had been slightly beyond her, and she was currently wearing it upside down. Her wings were poking out of the arm holes, her arms jutting out alongside them, and the entire piece of fabric looked set to come apart at any moment. On the bright side, though, at least the skirt seemed to fit.
"Orin...am I doing this right?"
Koishi's face shifted from confusion to amazement to hilarity. She couldn't hold it in any more. She laughed, loud and hard, harder than she could ever remember laughing in months. It was a ridiculous incident, but it was the sort of thing that she'd never have had before she was wrapped up in this whole Dolphin Rider nonsense. She'd never interacted with Orin and Okuu like this - indeed, she'd barely acknowledged their existence, feeding them and giving them as little attention as possible beyond that.
She regretted that, but all she could do now was make up for lost time. So she laughed as loud as she wanted to, putting aside her thoughts of civility and manners. She laughed until her throat hurt, before finally promising she'd offer Okuu the same as well, and she'd even go so far as to cut in little slits for her wings to pop out of. The raven was touched by the act, cheerfully hugging her mistress, and the cat joined in soon afterward. They hadn't been this close to each other in who knows how long.
Of course, while all of this was happening, Sango was still standing straight, staring out blankly with a look of total bafflement on her face. Koishi could probably have waved a hand in front of her face and got no response, and it took her a good minute or two to regain her composure and return to the world of the living.
'Phwee...this isn't what I signed up for...'
"Alright, class, start heading on home. And clean out your test tubes - you'd rather not know what nearly befell this classroom the last time someone left their work unfinished."
Professor Yagokoro - Eirin to her fellow teachers, and even a few of her favourite pupils - offered her students leave at last, bringing the after-school revision class to an end. She was offering revision in chemistry for the upcoming exams out of the goodness of her heart, and thanks to her reputation as a teacher the class was always near-full. No-one actually knew about the incident she was referring to, and most of the older students simply thought of it as her way of scaring people into fixing things up. Either way, no-one was brave enough to risk not following her orders - the ever-present picture of an earth-shattering explosion on her chalkboard was enough to leave them washing out everything at the sink five minutes after the class had ended.
They were good students, for the most part. There had been a couple of faces she hadn't been expecting here, though - notably, the pair currently residing at the back of the class, currently struggling to wipe a murky red mixture from the bottom of one of their test tubes. The taller girl, the one with the long black hair, was wiping something off the other girl's arm. She was Mokou Fujiwara - a student who'd been very much one of her brightest pupils until a few months ago. It was good to see her back on course with her studies - she looked out for her favourite students, and Mokou was definitely one of them.
"There. That didn't hurt, did it?"
The shorter girl gave a proud grin in return as she shook her head.
"Not at all! I'm tougher than I look, Fuji-san!"
Mokou smiled, lifting a piece of cotton off Cirno's arm. A 9-ball shape, presumably what had once been on the girl's skin, was now resting on the cotton which was hastily thrown into the trash can. This little surgical procedure put the pair behind the class by a few minutes, leaving them alone with Professor Yagokoro. She examined the operation from a safe distance.
"I don't recall giving you any chemicals that would work for tattoo removal," she said.
"Personal mixture, brought it from home," Mokou said without skipping a beat. "'Course some big company's already got just about all the patents I'd need to sell it, so I've gotta settle for using it myself when I can."
Eirin's eyes widened. The area on Cirno's arm where the cotton had been pressed was slightly red, but there would be no lasting damage. Her eyes looked down to Mokou's. They had always fascinated her - brown, but such a brilliant shade that sometimes if the light hit them at just the right angle they would flicker scarlet. She'd assumed they were contacts the first time they'd met, but when Mokou told her it was natural it had only made her even more curious.
The student and her teacher stared at one another for a moment. Eirin had been in education long enough to tell that there was a question she wanted to ask, but it stayed unspoken. From the stern look she was getting Eirin figured it had to be a personal matter, and she was proven correct when a few seconds later.
"Kid, mind heading on ahead? I'll catch up with you in a little bit."
Cirno tilted her head, not quite understanding why Mokou needed to stay behind, but she was willing to comply. Cirno had been another student Eirin wasn't expecting here - it was rare enough to see her in class, so an arrival from the (ex?) head Fairy had been almost enough to dislocate her jaw from hitting the floor. She seemed much more calm and willing to learn, though, which from Eirin's point of view could only be an improvement.
Mokou was quick to close the door behind Cirno the moment she'd left. Eirin leisurely strolled towards her desk while her student pulled up a stool from the side to sit across from her.
"So, what is it you'd like to know, Fujiwara-san? Missed homework? Extra credi-"
"What can you tell me about Kaguya Houraisan?"
Eirin was taken aback by the force with which Mokou asked the question. It wasn't an unfamiliar name to her - quite the contrary, in fact.
"Oh, yes, Houraisan. I do recall her, in fact. She studied at this school a few years ago. An excellent student, in just about every definition of the word. At your level of genius, even."
This news did nothing to faze Mokou. Perhaps she'd been expecting it, but that question was only the first.
"So if she was a student here, does that mean her folks came to parents' evenings and stuff like that?"
Eirin nodded. She had no idea where Mokou was going with this, but from the completely serious look on her face she figured it had to be important. To an extent this was breaching her confidentiality as a teacher, but she knew the girl well enough to be sure this information wouldn't be misused.
"...Yes, they did. It was her father, and him alone - I never heard what happened to her mother, but I assume she died young. He would attend regularly, sometimes even making extra meetings to double-check on Kaguya's progress."
Now they seemed to be getting to the crux of the matter. Mokou began to lean forward on the chair, her head looming above the desk.
"Stop me if this is inappropriate, but was Mr. Houraisan...memorable in any way?"
It was inappropriate. It was definitely inappropriate. She was being asked to give away information on not just a former student, but said student's immediate family. Eirin was in no position to pass on this information, and if anyone found out about it she was likely to be stripped of her position or even her license to teach. If it had been any other student, she'd have forced them out of the room with threats of cleaning up duty for the next dozen lab sessions.
Mokou was different, though. She was both one of Eirin's personal favourites, and she had just emerged back in the classroom after a long hiatus. She'd seen the girl walking around in an absurd shirt and suspenders combination, and it was a relief to see her wearing the sensible school uniform again.
The questions about a former genius pupil, and Mokou's sudden disappearance. Eirin couldn't help feeling they were related, and that it was taking more courage than it seemed for Mokou to come back here and ask this of her. Given that, it only seemed fair to offer her what she needed - even without knowing a word of the story, she could tell this was of the utmost importance to the girl.
"...What I am about to tell you does not leave these walls. Am I understood?"
Mokou gave a salute. "My lips are sealed, ma'am."
The smile on her face was only slightly forced. Eirin gave her credit for that. She sighed before her tale began, already reminiscing over times she'd rather have forgotten.
"Mr. Houraisan was...very memorable indeed. Before anything else, there was the way he dressed. I am told he ran only a small pharmacy at the time, but he arrived at every meeting in the most impeccable suit, ironed solely so he would look his best when he appeared. The stench of perfume reached me from across the table as we talked, and given the sniffing sounds that interrupted us I'd assumed it reached the members of staff besides me as well.
As a person? He was...agreeable, cheerful, looking to throw in a joke and make a good impression any chance he could get. At least, that was how each of these meetings would start, but it never ended that way. He would listen intently, nodding with every compliment I offered his daughter - and I gave Kaguya every compliment she deserved, splendid as she was - but whenever I said she had done only 'very well' his brow would furrow rather suddenly. He would ask why I had chosen not to say 'excellently' or even 'perfectly', and I would explain to him that she had made one or two trifling errors in the last examination. They were simple slipups even fully qualified chemists would occasionally fall prey to, but hearing of even a single mistake on his daughter's part would be enough to kill his mood."
Eirin seemed to grow more dreary the more she spoke. She was imagining that face again, looking straight into her eyes with that pure intensity; that sheer white anger when he learned of his daughter's failings. Mokou nodded along, gleaming some unspoken knowledge from Eirin's expression.
"After that, he would listen reluctantly to the rest of the talk. He clearly was paying no attention. His mind was...elsewhere. I would not like to consider where, not with that rage filling up his eyes. It is not something I have a right to consider as a teacher, and...I've said too much, sorry."
She was regretting everything she'd said now. She had been concerned back then, afraid that Kaguya's father had punished his daughter harshly, but it wasn't her position to interfere and she'd seen no sign of injury on the girl during class. She'd been happy to file the thought away and forget it, but now the old worries were rising back to the surface. She'd wanted to bring it up to someone official, even for the sake of being safe, but without solid physical evidence that something was going on it was out of her hands.
"No problem, ma'am. I think I get the idea. Sorry for making you think about it."
Mokou seemed happy as she got to her feet. Eirin shook visibly, the image of the man glaring at her fading away. She breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's fine, Fujiwara-san. Just don't skip class again, and we'll call it even."
"Consider it done. Thanks again for all of that."
The student offered her a quick, fervent wave at the doorway before she slammed it behind her.
Mokou let a deep breath out, feeling her shoulders slump a little. She'd heard everything she needed to hear to confirm her suspicions - the 'touching' need Kaguya had to impress her father was nothing of the sort. She needed to talk to the girl herself now, hear the whole story. Maybe they'd fallen out now, but they'd been friends once, and Mokou still felt she had the right to know.
Now, if only she could find the courage to try visiting Eientei again...