強い人と弱い人
The Strong and The Weak
Chapter 8 : Proposal from the Blue Kingー
When the stupid fish left her trashed up home, she took refuge in her bedroom; one of the two other rooms (the kitchen and the bathroom) of her apartment that were unaffected by what ensued. Haruna fell onto her queen sized bed in exhaustion. She waited expectantly for the phone next to her dresser to go off. Just like she had predicted, it rang several times before her answering machine played her message,
"Hello. You've reached the Aigasa residence. I'm sorry, but no one is able to answer your call right now. Please leave a message and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can."
Beep.
A woman's voice from the school's attendance office spoke,"Hello, this is a message for Haruna Aigasa, third year of Ashinaka Gakuen. We are to inform you that the amount of absences you have for semester has gone over its limit and we have recorded an automatic failure in your current classes. Please consult the attendance office for further details if you have any questions. Thank you. Goodbye."
Could life get any more worse? She covered her eyes with her elbows and sighed,"I only came to school mainly for student council, anyway."
The mechanical voice from her answering machine spoke up again,"You have one new message. Would you like me to play it?"
"Yes, please."
Beep
At her reply, the new message played within her bedroom with a voice from a man that she had been recently acquainted with,"Haruna Aigasa-kun. This is Reisi Munakata of Scepter 4. I understand that you are drained from the incidents that occurred this morning, but I have a proposal that I'd like to address to you. I'd like you to drop by my office today if you are available. If not, I hope to see you later this week if possible."
Beep
Her answering machine ended the message and concluded,"No new messages."
Beep
Every single damn time she's asked her phone to quit the beeping, it would understand, but continue to do it. She had about given up her attempts to make it stop without throwing it across the room and had learned to ignore it. The nineteen year old didn't want to buy another home phone with the money that her parents sent her monthly for her living expenses. She didn't feel bad about failing her classes either. Honestly, she only went for extra-curricular. Whenever she did come to class, her peers would wonder who the new student was or ignore her completely. Haruna's parents had hoped that by sending her to live in Shizume City and attend Ashinaka Gakuen, she would learn to become independent.
Haruna admitted that their plan had worked. She was learning how to get by without her parent's guidance and she made her own decisions. Her stellar grades that she kept throughout her middle school, first and second year of high school had plummeted. She... was growing lazy. The third year was capable of handling the current classes that she had been officially marked as 'failed' on her transcript because of the absence policy. Two university sciences; one chemistry and astronomy classes and one advanced calculus course.
She removed herself from her bed and made her way to the wooden dresser at the other side of the room. She opened the top drawer and took out a white knitted sweater with a matching camisole. In the second drawer, she drew out a dark pair of leggings and an extra pair of wool socks of the same color. Haruna removed her school garments and slipped on the warmer, new pair of clothes. She retrieved a tan scarf that hung on the one of the hooks on her door along with a small, black leather purse and wore them accordingly. She opened the door to her mutilated living room and skillfully made her way around the broken, toppled items on the wood floor to her the door leading to the outside world.
She retrieved a long, black pea coat that hung on a hook next to the door and slipped on a pair of black leather boots with a tiny heel. Her amber eyes turned to look at her mutilated home one last time before opening the door with her room key and stepping out.
Once she reached the gates of Scepter 4's headquarters, a man with orange hair clad in their uniform approached her.
"Who are you and what business do you have here?"
"I'm Haruna Aigasa. Your captain, Reisi Munakata called me here for an appointment with him." She held up her school ID to the man who eyed it suspiciously.
"I'm sorry, but this is not enough proof. Do you have a message recording his request?" He returned the card to her and she placed it back it back into her bag.
"N-No," She replied nervously. She had nothing to hide, but the professional air he seemed to put up front seemed a bit menacing to her. "It's on my home phone. I could rerecord it onto my PDA if you really need it."
"Domyoji-kun." A female voice came from behind the male officer,"I should be more than enough proof. The captain has been expecting her."
Domyoji immediately spun around on his heel and faced the woman,"Lieutenant...!"
"Aigasa-kun, please come this way."
"Yes, ma'am." She ran passed the officer in attention and came to a walk as she followed behind her. Once inside, the woman led her through a room full of large television and computer monitors and into a hall that stretched to a single door at the very end. She followed the lieutenant into the room and at the very left she recognized that this was indeed the Captain's room that she was brought into two days before.
She saw Munakata piecing together another puzzle on his table and greeted her,"Please have a seat." Haruna's heels made tiny clicks on the floor as she made her way over to the chair and plopped herself down into it.
"How are you doing with school?" He asked without lifting his eyes from the jigsaw pieces.
"It's been great." She mumbled and admitted with the same exact words from the message,"I officially failed all my classes because of my absences."
"And why do you have so many absences, Aigasa-kun?"
Haruna gave him a puzzled look,"Did you invite me here for the sole purpose of asking me about how my school experience was?"
The captain looked up and smiled,"No, of course not."
"Could you get to the point, please?"
"I apologize. I simply wanted you to feel comfortable here with small talk. I had no idea you were someone who liked to cut to the chase."
"There's a flip side to everything, blue king."
"Indeed." Munakata agreed as he pushed his glasses up with a finger,"Since you know know who I am, I will get to the point then." He switched his attention from his puzzle to the girl's face,"You are a bright, young lady. I'm curious, do you have any future plans?"
"Flattery won't get you anywhere, sir." She sighed and began to twirl the ends of her hair,"In any case, the answer to your question is 'nothing in particular'. I don't understand why it would be relevant to you if I had any." She closed her eyes and listened to him hum with recognition.
The same words he left on her home phone came back to her,"I have a proposal for you."
With her eyes still shut, she asked him expectantly,"What is it?"
"Join Scepter 4."
A/N: What is her answer?
Find out next time.
I wrote this chapter pretty hastily... on my iPhone.
Thank you Saki0112, Maya095, rainrain02 and Suzune Lina for your favorites and follows.
SmileRen: I enjoy your predictions very much! Thank you for your review! ;)
See you guys next time. C: