Touring the House
"What the fuck?!" Tsurugi screeched.
"If you'd stop swearing, that would be nice." Sato huffed angrily.
"Well, I'm sorry if I was surprised that a fucking scythe split the fucking cauldron in half!" Tsurugi spat.
"Actually, if you all shut up, it would be nice," a voice chimed in.
"Who said that?" Miya asked.
"Don't really know..."
"I did," the same voice replied. A person in a black cloak appeared before them. Its head was not seen, so the others have a hard time to distinguish if it was a female or a male. Tsurugi, however, felt confident that the cloaked person was a female.
"Uhm... eto, who are you?" Ai asked.
"I'm the mistress in this house, and may I just say: you all did a great job for coming here."
"Oh..." Miya stammered.
"What? Why?" Eri scowled.
The cloaked person stepped out of the shadows and stated, "See, I love results. Especially good ones. And it has come to my attention that you all are the right instruments to bring out those good results."
"Results? So we're just tools?" Sato asked.
The person shrugged and replied, "Maybe."
Kairi scowled, "So? Why did you need us?"
"Well, I can't tell you that."
"Why not?" Kari asked.
"You'll find out soon... just not now," the cloaked person said.
"So, why did you make us go here then?" Kurama scowled.
"You guys ask too many questions that even I have no answers to. For now, maybe I'll let you see the house."
And the figure was gone in a flash.
"Sorry about that!" Sana came around again, with a plate of cookies.
"Cookies...?" Ai whispered.
"Yeah! You want some?" Sana asked Ai.
It was rather surprising, as Ai was always soft-spoken. She didn't think Sana would have understood what she said. It looked like her companions were rather confused as well.
"I'll take one," Kurumada said and gobbled up a lot of them.
"Oi, oi, Gouichi!" Nishiki stated.
"...what?"
"Never mind."
"You are very lucky that the mistress decided to keep you alive." Yuu came out of the shadows.
"Lucky?" Tsurugi voiced out.
"Yeah, lucky." Kei emphasized.
Sato widened her eyes and replied, "K-kei?"
"Ah, Okazaki-san!" Kei greeted, "How are you?"
"Good, I guess." Sato frowned.
Kari looked at Sato and asked, "You know her?"
"Yeah, but she never mentioned this place before..." Sato replied.
Kari simply nodded and glanced at the three newcomers. All of them had a suspicious aura, as if they know something Kari did not. Considering everything, they probably know everything that was happening inside the house.
"So, you want the tour?" Kei asked politely.
Nishiki and Kurama looked at each other. After, they both sighed in defeat and nodded. Kurumada agreed as well, stating, "Even if you did almost kill us, we're pretty curious about this place."
Tsurugi eyed the place and then raised his hand, as if he was in a classroom. Obviously, he had a question to ask for the three of them.
The others looked surprise at his action, Sana, however, was very delighted. She asked, like a gullible teacher, "What is it, Tsurugi-san?"
And they knew their names, too. Tsurugi asked, "Where's Hakuryuu?"
Yuu stiffened and replied harshly, "What does that have to do with you?"
"Never mind, then." Tsurugi muttered. He knew something was going on in here, and he was going to find out what.
"Are you still up for the tour, then?" Kei asked again, noticing the tense exchange.
"Okay," the others chorused.
They split into three groups.
Tsurugi was not happy about it one bit. Luckily, Kurumada was there with him and Miya, too. He didn't like some of the other girls (let's be honest, Eri and Sato), they gave deadly auras. They also gave glares that could possible kill.
Their guide was Yuu, unfortunately for Tsurugi. She also gave him the creeps as she showed not emotions at all. It was rather rude, but neither boys neared her. Miya only managed to make small talk with her.
"This is the East Hall, it's where most of the bedrooms are." Yuu said.
"For what? Do you sleep here?" Miya asked.
"No, I do not. Next." Yuu replied and then walked forward.
It was always like that, she never explained further, she only just answered the question.
"So, um, where is the office of the 'mistress'?" Miya inquired after Yuu showed the kitchen.
"Depends. Her office jumps from one place to another. It is never in one place." Yuu answered.
Magic? Tsurugi thought, that was rather impossible. Judging by the look of Kurumada's face, he thought so, too. Even Miya frowned at the answer and pushed up her violet glasses, an action, Tsurugi noticed, she usually does in class.
"So, how will you know then?" Kurumada asked, finally speaking up to Yuu.
"... the mistress will contact you on where you should go."
"Is that so?" Tsurugi raised his eyebrow.
"Yes."
The group became silent after that.
They split into three groups.
Kurama was stuck with Kairi, Sato and Ai. If it annoyed him, he didn't show it on his face. Not that you'd ever see what he thinks, it was rather impossible (since he always covered half of his face).
Most of the group, however, was the opposite of Kurama.
"Where the hell are we?" Kairi yelled.
Kei patiently answered (as she was also stuck with them), "We are near the bathrooms. We have Jacuzzi installed in there, both in the female and male bathrooms."
"Really? That's amazing." Sato replied, surprised at the information.
"Yes. The mistress loved extravagant things! Especially if it helps her feel relaxed!" Kei informed.
Sato eyed Kei carefully, not really believing her. Kei was the sister of Fei, and it was rather unnerving to see her... especially since Fei mentioned she hated violence.
Plus, you'd really think she was lying as the house was technically the epitome of chaos. Everything was dark, you couldn't see anything, but the little lights on the ceiling helped. The floors were also very creaky, which made you think it will crack and you'll fall down.
A Jacuzzi and Kei who actually likes the 'mistress'? Yeah... no.
It felt like a bad dream for Sato. Though, it looked like Ai and Kurama was not at all impressed (or even scared) at the scenery.
Kairi even felt disgusted. She asked, "Don't they ever clean this place?"
"Well, if there's an occasion, yes. This is actually the cleanest state the house has ever been into. You should see it on ordinary days." Kei replied.
"The cleanest state?!" Kairi was very shocked.
That didn't matter at all to Kurama. He only focused on one thing: 'you should see it on ordinary days'. Kurama growled at Kei, "So, ya'll gonna force us to come here, again?!"
"Possibly. There's a high chance to it. Mistress did invite you in here."
"Shit." Kurama grumbled.
Ai looked at Kurama and said, "Please don't swear."
After saying that, Ai blushed and looked away... embarrassed at the mean sentence she had said. She whispered, "I-i'm s-sorry!"
Kurama couldn't hear that, but, regardless had his jaw dropped. Did the freshman ever talked before that?
The group became silent after that.
They split into three groups.
Nishiki was wary of the surroundings, so he took it up to himself to protect the girls he had on his group (in case you did not know: Eri, Ru and Kari)... even Sana.
Though, I don't think that Sana needed to be protected at all.
She walked calmly on the creaky wooden floors, while the rest of the group fumbled to try and step on the parts that doesn't look exactly about to give in. It made Nishiki quite worried about the girl.
"So, where are you taking us?" Ru quipped.
"I think we're going near the West Hall. Some bedrooms are here, but most are in the East Hall. Usually, the West Hall is used to stock things that are either needed in the future or you don't want it at all." Sana replied.
Think? Eri scowled mentally.
"There are bedrooms here?" Kari questioned.
"Well, yeah," Sana informed, "there are people who work to actually keep this place maintained."
"Maintained?" the others blurted out.
"Ah!"
Nishiki decided not to talk about it anymore. He asked, "What about the things that are stocked there? If you don't want it at all, why don't you just throw them out?"
Sana looked at him as if he was the one who's crazy.
Eri asked, "Are the stuff that are stocked in there dangerous to the public?"
"Probably. Even if it does do good, we're not allowed to take them out. Mistress says that we should avoid giving them to normal people." Sana recalled her conversation with the mistress before.
"Why is that?" Eri asked rather harshly.
Sana whimpered and Kari immediately comforted her. Kari said, "You don't have to say it! Your probably don't know much about it, too... it's really secret-y here in the house and all..."
"We wouldn't blame you." Ru said.
"I know a lot, though..." Sana whispered. It surprised the group, but did not try to push the subject further.
The group became silent after that.
"Reporting for duty, ma'am!" was the chorus of the nine boys.
The room they were inside in was messy. Stacks of books were all over the place, cob webs spiders left, and even scraps of paper that were littered around the place. The room was dark, however, so they saw little of it (regardless, you could still smell a hint of coffee inside the room).
There was a desk in front of them, where there were stacks of stained paper (was that where the coffee came from?) and suspicious remotes that were lined up according to size. Beyond that desk was a huge chair, and (you guessed it) the mistress was twirling her hair over there.
"Oh, hello, boys!" the mistress chirped and pressed a button in one of those remotes.
Immediately, blue light came from her back and stretched out onto a rather huge screen. The screen's ends were practically the corners of the room, but this didn't even faze the boys.
On the screen were the three groups mentioned earlier.
That's where the boys stiffened.
"Oh, so you know them..." the mistress cackled, and then, "YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME EARLIER!"
"Sorry, mistress!" the boys chorused, yet again.
The mistress sighed and looked up to them properly. She knew that they had to start a battle plan, with or without the consent of a certain group of people... she needs to know how they were going to make the enemy surrender.
She inhaled and:
"Amemiya, Kariya, Shindou and Kirino... you go to school with them, right? Keep an eye on them, for me."
"Yes, sir!"
"Hakuryuu and Shuu, infiltrate their HQ. Just sketch out the map, no need to kill someone but, if you have to, do it. Oh, and try to put in some other necessities around the place, just in case."
"Yes, sir!"
"Yukimura, I know you're just back from Hakuren, but I want you to hack in the other enemy's laboratories. We need to know what they've been doing and know how to stop them."
"Yes-"
"AND WOULD YOU QUIT THAT!"
"Of course, mistress."
"Kishibe and Ibuki, try to lessen the enemy camps. If they have extra laboratories, I'm assuming they have other quarters in the area. You know what you have to do."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Where the fuck is Saru? That asshole is late for the meeting, again, and I-"
"I'm here, mistress." Ah, speak of the devil and he shall come. Saru leisurely strolled along the room and lined up along with his other teammates. It was a weird thing for the ten of them to be working together, but they managed somehow.
Even the mistress didn't know how they did it.
"Ah, Saru, glad you could be here today real early," the mistress drawled sarcastically and said, "Since you're late, I have a special mission for you... try to keep an eye on the three trainers. Make sure they aren't revealing any information to anyone."
"They're always here, mistress. Plus, that's not a special mission! I feel you just gave me a babysitting assignment." Saru scowled.
"You don't know one thing about what they do, Saru. I intend to keep it that way, but I don't think their lives are safe. Especially since we're up on that kind of son-of-a-bitch opponent."
Saru considered that and then agreed to it, muttering, "Well, I did want to see the one ear rabbit."
"Good for you. Try not to tell something, but I think they'd know something was up the minute you walk in their house," the mistress said.
"Thanks for the support, mistress." Saru grumbled, still sore about the fact that the three girls were actually pretty intelligent and knew something was fishy whenever he swung by their houses.
"Dismissed."
"Yes, sir!"
"I thought I told you to stop doing that!"
What's that? A wild update had just appeared!
So it took VERY long, but since I officially ended my other story: I can focus on this one!
I'll try to update every week, starting now!
Help my dream become a reality? (HINT: review on the story!)