Welp, this is long time waiting! Azu-monster Daioh is back with a new story to tell! What is it? You have to find out!
As the school bell rings for the lunch break, the students got out their lunches and Yukari was about to leave the classroom when she saw one of her students raise their hand.
"Okay, twerp!" Yukari said annoyingly, " What are you going to ask me?"
"You mentioned Kurosawa-sensei a lot," the student said, "Why is that?"
"Oh, we were alumni of this very high school, best friends really. But she's a kitsune and I'm a tanuki, and you know how our species do as friends!"
Yukari then left the classroom in a huff, which confused many of the students.
"What was Yukari-sensei angry about?" Chiyo said in confusion.
"About Kurosawa-sensei and Yukari-sensei…" Yomi added, "It's due to an ancient rivalry between the kitsune and the tanuki. You see, the clan leader of the Kitsune: Tamamo no Mae, and the clan leader of the tanuki: Danzaburou-danuki hated each other with a burning passion, and that hate was so powerful that their descendants inherited that hatred for each others' species… until-"
"Until what, Yomi-san?"
"Until the two killing stones in the Yokai Marketplace are destroyed by a non-kitsune and non-tanuki."
"But where are we going to find any non-tanuki and non-kitsune?!" Tomo said before everyone in the friend group looked at the nekomata girl, " Uh oh…"
" Well, we ain't kitsune and tanuki, " Ayumu added.
In the teacher's office, Yukari sat at her desk and was about to eat her lunch, when she saw Nyamo sitting next to her.
"Nyamo, what a surprise for you to be here," Yukari said, her tanuki ears and tail popping out.
"Yeah, it is a surprise…" Nyamo said back, her fox ears and nine tails popping out as well.
"Well well, spawn of Inari, it's been a long time since we last met."
"Yes it is, chubby slacker."
"Who you're calling chubby?!"
"Yukari, you have to admit that fact."
"WHO CARES! You just being more popular than me is making my blood boil!"
"You still owe me that 10,000 yen from a few years ago!"
The two women then continued to argue with each other as the other teachers looked at the two teachers. Meanwhile, in the classroom, the students were doing some cooking for home economics.
"Cooking is so fun! Cooking is so fun! Now let's take a break to see what we have done!" Chiyo sang as she mixed some curry.
"Wow, Chiyo-chan!" Ayumu said, "Yer cookin' is good!"
"Thanks, Ayumu-san! I hope my curry will taste good!"
"Yeah, compared to Sakaki's curry!" Tomo butted in.
"Tomo-chan, how bad is Sakaki's curry?" Chiyo innocently asked.
"Heheh… You know that lamias have no sense of taste right? So that's why Sakaki's curry's a hot mess! I dared Yomi to eat it, but she declined! And of course I don't want to taste it, so who wants to try-"
"I will," Kagura volunteered, which made Sakaki happy.
"Thank you, Kagura," Sakkai said, but the other girls started to get scared as Sakaki scooped up a small portion of her curry with a spoon, "Now Kagura, say ahh."
Kagura opened her mouth and ate the cursed curry before she swallowed it, "Huh, this doesn't taste that-" Then suddenly, Kagura felt a shock in her body.
Little mermaid, this potion will grant you a pair of beautiful legs, but you will suffer terrible pain as your fins and tail tear apart.
Kagura then fell down to the floor and started to winch in pain from eating that curry.
"Kagura-san? Are you okay?" Chiyo asked.
"No… that curry tasted horrible!" Kagura answered, "It's like my body is tearing itself apart!"
"Silly Kagura!" Tomo mocked, "It's not possible for- Huh, why are your scales flaking off of your body?"
"My scales are flaking off… MY SCALES ARE FLAKING OFF!" Kagura panicked as she flopped on the floor, just as Yukari entered the classroom.
"Okay! What's going on?!" The teacher asked before she saw Kagura on the floor and Sakaki's curry. "Oh! Free curry!"
"SENSEI! NOOO!" The students pleaded, but it was too late. Yukari tasted the curry, and then she automatically turned into a kettle.
"Ohh, a kettle!" Ayumu said as she picked up the kettle.
"Well, good thing you didn't eat the curry, Tomo," Yomi said, "It might have caused you to lose a lot of your fur."
"Yeah… it's a good thing…" Tomo smiled to herself in an awkward manner.
And soon the day went as normal as it could until the school day ended. Everyone is already back home, including a still winching-in-pain Kagura. Tomo was in her bedroom, taking a catnap when her phone started ringing, and she picked it up.
"Hello? Is this Yomi?" Tomo asked on the phone.
"No, it's me, Kagura." Kagura answered.
"Oh… hey Kagura… sorry for mentioning Sakaki's curry that put you in this pain…"
"It's okay. I kinda did this to myself."
"Say… about your tail… is it okay?"
"Yeah. My tail is currently growing back after that curry."
"Say, how does your tail grow back?"
"Well, I'm currently in my mucus cocoon right now, since my tail needs extra moisture to form back. I think that curry caused my body to shred the scales of my tail."
"So is your tail like a covering for your legs?"
"Yeah. Mermaid tails are just a covering of dried mucus and scales on top of our legs, and splitting them is extremely painful. So I just let the sun dry off my tail so I can easily slip it off of my legs."
"So that's why you were in so much pain after eating the curry! The curry made your tail violently rip itself apart!"
"Yeah!"
"Also, I think I remember in biology class that mermaids with tails were a recent evolutionary trend. Is that true?"
"Yeah! My mom told me of her great-great-great-great grandmother having no tail at all!"
"That's a long time ago! Say, when did you develop your tail?"
"When I was seven. Then three years later I can split my tail!"
"Cool! I was only able to turn into a human when I was 10!"
"So you were a cute kitten for most of your life?! Oh my god! You gotta be so cute as a kitten!"
"And maybe you were a cute guppy when you were a baby!"
"Yeah, I guess I was cute…" Kagura then looked at her legs to see that her tail was fully formed, "Finally! My tail is back!"
"Say, how did you get back home with legs?!" Tomo asked.
"I swam back home, you doofus."
"Oh yeah, but back on topic… we have to make Yukari-sensei and Kurosawa-sensei stop fighting each other!"
"But how?!" Kagura asked.
"We destroy the killing stones ourselves!"
"Are you dumb?! That's pure chlorine coming out from those stones! If I went there with my gills exposed, I'd die!"
"Yeah, we need some gas masks to survive! Plus we need to distract the guards, and I don't think Yomi's electric shocks can't do much."
"I can produce electricity."
"Oh yeah, some fish can do that… also, we need Sakaki's curry!"
"Why that?"
"I bet what happened to Yukari-sensei might help us!"
"Yeah… I'll call Sakaki to make some of… that stuff from home economics."
"And I'll call everyone else for this mission!"
"Right, we meet at 7:30 PM."
"Okay! See you later Kagura!" Tomo then hung up her phone.
Kagura also hung up her phone and swam out of her room. Her mother saw her daughter swimming out of the kitchen.
"Kagura, where are you going?" Ms. Katawagawa asked.
'Oh, I'm just going to see a friend up on the surface!" Kagura answered.
"Kagura, you like being in the surface world?"
"Yeah! I mean, it's better than living down here."
"Oh, then that's why you always like to split your tail in two a lot nowadays."
"I meant, It's getting less and less painful for me. I want to show you that, but I think my friend will get angry with me."
"Okay dear, but be safe while you're on the surface."
"I will!" Kagura said as she swam out of her house. The house of the Katawagawas was a standard middle-class house in an underwater suburban area that isn't disrupting the seabed. Kagura then saw the cetus swimming by her side. "Cecil!" Kagura shouted, "Sorry if I can't play with you right now. I just have to visit a friend for a bit." Kagura then continued to swim up to the surface as she felt her tail unraveling and slipping off of her body. And when she got to the surface, she peeled off the remains of her tail. She then put on a white T-shirt and a short denim skirt on her body, unlocked her bike from the bike rake, and climbed on the bike. She then flicked her ruddy brown hair, and then it lit up in a brilliant blue glow, and she rode off into the night of Tokyo.
At the Yokai Marketplace, the five girls were waiting for Kagura to show up, a task that bored Tomo to no end.
"Ugh! Where's Kagura?!" Tomo complained, "She should be here by now!"
"Tomo-san, we should be patient with Kagura-san," Chiyo said, "After all, she lives in the ocean, so for her to get her fast will be impossible."
"Yeah, Tomo. You have to leave Kagura be," Yomi added. And just then, Kagura then showed up.
"Hey guys!" Kagura called out, "Sorry if I'm late!"
"Woah Kagura," Ayumu said, "Yer hair is glowin'."
"Yeah, bioluminescent hair." Kagura said as she flipped her hair, "You like it?"
"Yeah… Look Kagura, we have a mission to stop Yukari and Nyamo's fighting!" Tomo got back to the subject.
"Yeah, right… so what's the plan?"
"We feed the guards this curry, we go inside, and we destroy the stones!"
Everyone went silent, and then Kagura burst into laughter. "That's a plan?!"
"Yeah, it is!" Tomo defended, "It's a good one!"
"Yeah, and what if we destroy those stones… then what? Maybe Yukari and Nyamo will continue to argue."
"So all of this time my quest is pointless?!" Tomo shouted. "Then what should we do?!"
"Ah! Maybe we can have a sleepover at my house!" Chiyo suggested.
"Good idea, Chiyo-chan!" Tomo said, "But where is your house?"
"Oh, I'll call my bulter for-"
"Ah! Yukari-sensei and Kurosawa-sensei are here!" Ayumu noted.
"Ah, what are you guys doing out here during the night?" Yukari asked.
"Uhm… we were planning to destroy the killing stones to make sure you two won't argue a lot," Tomo explained.
Yukari and Nyamo soon burst into laughter, which confused the girls.
"Oh my god, why would all of you fall for that rumor?!" Yukari shouted.
"RUMOR?!" All of the girls except Ayumu shouted.
"Yeah, there aren't any killing stones," Nyamo explained.
"Then why do you two argue a lot?!" Tomo shouted.
Nyamo stopped laughing at that question, for she knew what that would mean… "It's because of a love letter…" she spoke.
And now is when Tomo started to laugh herself, "Oh my god! A love letter! That's the funniest way for an argument to happen!"
"So… we just planned to destroy some stones that aren't real…" Yomi moaned, "This is the worst day of my life."
"Mine too," Kagura agreed.
"Ah guess in the end it's all just a shaggy dog story…" Ayumu said, "But why is it called a shaggy dog story? Are there any shaggy dogs it in?"
"Osaka-san, I think no shaggy dog story has a shaggy dog in it," Chiyo corrected.
"Ah…. but why call it a shaggy dog story if there are no shaggy dogs in it?"
"I don't know, Osaka-san."
"Man, I'm hungry!" Yukari said, and then she looked at a bowl of Sakaki's curry, "Oh! Free curry!"
"YUKARI-SENSEI! NO!" Everyone shouted. But it was too late as Yukari ate the curry, and once again, she was turned into a kettle.
"Oh! A kettle," Ayumu said.
"Yeah… this is was happens whenever Yukari eats bad food," Nyamo sighed, "She'll be back to normal… in three hours."
"Well! All's well that ends well!" Tomo said.
"Ugh, I'm just going to go back home!" Kagura moan.
"Me too," Yomi agreed, "And I have enough Tomo for today…"
Yomi and Kagura both walk away from the silliness and soon everyone else was back home, resting for a new day.
So next chapter will be a little more based on Kagura and her mermaid antics, so be on the lookout for that!