Bubblegum Hime

Chapter Twelve

Rena Sayers smiled as the brown haired woman sat in the cozy cafe, in a little town not far from Fuka academy. She looked stylish in her suit, a conservatively cut garment she had worn for her second week of teaching at the academy. To be honest she was underutilized in a regular biology classroom, but she also knew she needed to prove herself first.

The black haired woman entered the cafe and looked around, dressed in a long sleeved shirt and trousers. She was also quite attractive in a tall, dark and handsome sort of way, even with her scowling face. Spotting her she strode across to where Rena was sitting, pulling out a chair to sit opposite her.

"Saeko," Rena smiled warmly, "I've missed you."

Saeko Kuga's grim visage cracked as she smiled back a bit tiredly. "Me, too," she admitted, sighing. She looked at her lover fondly, "I know this is hard on you, too."

"I don't like being separated from you," Rena agreed. She cracked a smile as she looked at Saeko intently, "Have you been eating mayo sandwiches again?"

Saeko blushed, "Just one."

"Right," Rena rolled her eyes. She had never understood her fondness for the white condiment, but Rena had to accept it eventually. Thankfully she didn't put it on everything, but seeing her eat ramen with mayo had been disgusting.

"Welcome to Hanna Millers," the waitress smiled sweetly, "can I take your order?"

Saeko ordered them coffee, waiting until it was delivered and the waitress left before asking, "Have you talked to Natsuki again?"

Rena smirked, "Would you believe she's in my class? Not doing too well, too, so I have a very good excuse to chat with her."

Saeko looked a bit startled as she said, "I'm surprised she'd have trouble in biology."

"Oh, she's quite smart," Rena told her with a reassuring smile, "but she sleeps in class quite a bit and doesn't apply herself."

"I see," Saeko frowned thoughtfully.

Rena sipped her coffee as she revealed, "It might be the girlfriend's fault, though admittedly I'm not sure."

"Girlfriend?" Saeko squeaked, clearly not having read Mr. Smith's report on the situation. Of course she loathed Smith, so that might be it too....

"It seems to run in the family," Rena smiled impishly, taking out her camera phone and flipping through the images. She called up a picture of a slightly reserved but good looking woman with brown hair and almost red eyes, "Her name is Shizuru Fujino. Student Council president and connected to several wealthy families."

"I suppose Natsuki could do worse," Saeko admitted. She looked concerned as she asked, "And her father's reaction?"

"He supports her financially but that's about it," Rena said, "pays for a apartment plus a little extra. I did some digging in the records department one night and that, plus a scholarship, puts Natsuki in a pretty good position for now."

"Good," Saeko sighed. Her lips twisted in irritation as she added, "I don't think Nagi or Alyssa would be happy if I revealed myself trying to fix the situation."

"Problems?" Rena asked gently.

"Nagi's pushing hard for the new armor, but it isn't even out of testing stage yet," Saeko shrugged, "it won't help him to have a armor that resists a few hits then shatters." Her scowl returned as she added, "Even worse, we've been having troubles with our simulations, so much so I think someone is skunking our data."

Rena didn't let a flicker of worry show on her face, but it was hard. She knew for certain that her cousin Alyssa probably was messing with Saeko's experimental data, most likely to delay her research. She didn't know why, entirely, but Rena was smart enough to make some educated guesses.

"I hope not," Rena answered honestly, "though I can see reasons for Nagi or Alyssa to mess with the data. They might be trying to rush you, or slow you down for other reasons."

"I don't trust either completely," Saeko admitted as she added wryly, "which is kind of sad, not trusting your own bosses."

"Love, I don't think Nagi would even trust letting his left hand know what his right is doing," Rena noted.

"You got that right," Saeko agreed, drinking some more of her expertly made cup of coffee. She put the cup down, giving Rena a thoughtful look as she asked, "Honey, how long is it until you need to get back to campus?"

"I have the whole day free," Rena admitted, smiling.

Saeko chuckled softly, "I think I saw a Love Hotel coming into town." She winked, "We haven't been in one for years, what do you say we try it out?"

Rena grinned back, "Let's."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Mashiro Kazahana was a mysterious young woman, everyone agreed with that. The purple haired wheelchair bound woman was a prodigy who patented a processing chip that was soon used in almost every computer on earth, making her wildly wealthy. She poured that money into buying up the properties and hiring teachers, all to create Fuka Academy.

As headmistress Mashiro ran the school loosely, in part so that she could concentrate on her real interests: developing powered armor. Over the past several years she had built five suits, mostly by hand, and all apparently based on the foreknowledge that they would be needed. When the Orphan attacks began she sent her maid Fumi to recruit her four chosen pilots, trained them, then sent them out to destroy the cybernetic beasts.

Midori Sugiura, a busty redheaded older woman sat watching as Mashiro worked on another suit, in this case only just the framework so far. The small woman in a simple jumpsuit wiggled into place as she bolted in a hand made component, then checked the motion of the knee joint. Satisfied it worked smoothly Mashiro wiggled out, Fumi stepping up to pick Mashiro up and put her back in her wheelchair.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting, Professor," Mashiro said as she used a chemical cleanser to strip oil from her hands, "but that joint was in a critical stage and I wanted to finish it."

"Perfectly understandable," Midori said as she followed the smaller woman out of the lab, through the lower halls and out onto the porch. There Mashiro left her a moment to finish cleaning up, and returned a few minutes later spotless in a new dress.

As they set up around a outside table, Fumi smiled warmly. "Would you like coffee or tea?" the pink haired maid asked.

"Tea, please," Mashiro smiled.

Midori sat back in her chair casually as she said, "Coffee."

Mashiro waited until their drinks were delivered, then she studied Midori thoughtfully. "You made a appointment to see me," she noted, "and told Fumi it was urgent."

"I did," Midori admitted, drinking her coffee. She put the cup down, "What's really going on, Headmaster Kazahana?"

"Hmm?" Mashiro looked at her questioningly.

"You had the Hime armor assembled and ready before the first Orphan attack," Midori said as she stared into Mashiro's eyes, "you knew they were coming. How? Why?"

Mashiro picked up her cup, sipping before putting it down. "Are you sure you really want to know?" she asked directly. "The truth can be rather unpleasant."

"You made me the official teacher-supervisor of the Hime," Midori said after a moment, "after working with them so long I have a responsibility to them, and I need to know why we're asking them to risk their lives."

Mashiro nodded, looking off into the distance thoughtfully. "It's all fairly simple," she admitted, "the truth is I helped create the Orphans." At seeing Midori's slightly stunned look she clarified, "At least the basic technology."

Midori drank some more coffee as a bracer then asked, "Tell me more."

"I was approached by Nagi and his First District shortly after I developed that computer chip," Mashiro explained, "and he had a project he wanted me involved with. His company was trying to develop a kind of artificial life, a cybernetic creature to be used in exploring dangerous territory and through alien environments."

"He lied?" Midori guessed.

"Yes," Mashiro made a face, "but it took me nearly a year to find out." She drank some tea, "The processing core I designed was used by Nagi to animate his first Orphan, a snake like mutant that slaughtered army personnel on it's first test run."

"Gods," Midori murmured.

"After seeing the test I was horrified and went right to Nagi and threatened to reveal him to the police," Mashiro recounted. "He laughed in my face, telling me the government was firmly onside with his research," she added grimly, "and he killed another researcher who was also raising objections, a woman named Saeko Kuga."

"Kuga?" Midori blinked, "Natsuki's mother?!"

"Yes," Mashiro nodded. "I fled the facility with a second generation core I didn't tell Nagi about, and tried to decide what to do. I couldn't go to the government for help, and going international was chancy considering District One's connections."

Midori drank the rest of her coffee, then put the cup down. "So you decided you had to stop him yourself?" she asked.

"Yes," Mashiro agreed, "I found out Nagi was field testing the Orphans in wooded areas nearby, so I bought up the land and established the school as a cover. I went out in the flight armor with Fumi in the sword using suit, and we killed Orphans before I told anyone else."

"And when the Orphans got too big for two people to handle, you recruited your team," Midori realized. She looked curious, "Why did you stop...?"

"I stopped using the armor because of my legs, honestly," Mashiro admitted, "using the suit I could fly, but I'm not as agile as Mai is." With a hint of bitterness she added, "And I didn't want to endanger the others by dragging me along."

"I doubt they'd ever have to drag you," Midori said dryly.

Mashiro looked a bit sheepish, "Yeah, well...."

After a few moments consideration Midori said, "I can accept your reasons for doing this, I suppose. In fact I can't think how I might have handled it differently."

"Thank you," Mashiro said dryly.

"I do think you should take a serious look at talking to someone in government about this, though," Midori said as she looked at Mashiro, "as we both know the frequency of Orphan attacks are increasing. I don't know why he's fielding more and larger Orphans, but it can't be good."

"I'll seriously consider it," Mashiro promised.

"Well, I can't ask for anything more," Midori admitted, getting up and shaking Mashiro's hand. "I'll see myself out."

As Midori left the building and went out into the well maintained gardens around Fuka, she considered the conversation. She felt fairly certain Mashiro had left some things out, but she also felt sure she knew the basics of what was really going on. Of course, what else she could do about it was a whole other story.

"Life was so much easier when I was just a archaeology student trying to finish my dissertation," Midori said to herself with a sigh.

To be continued....