Duran-kun & Kiyo-chan's Omake Theater
(featuring the Yuuki family pet)
Julia eyed her latest work critically. The drider CHILD took pride in her web-building skills. It wasn't enough just to be pragmatic and catch as many houseflies as possible. A web had to be a work of art, aesthetically pleasing, each strand connected just so to catch the light. An outdoor web could be bedecked with morning dew, but an indoor web required more skill.
The knock at the dorm-room door jolted her concentration. Startled, she jerked back and found herself toppling off her back four legs, sitting down hard.
"Aoi! Door!" Julia's mistress, Nao, called helpfully.
Aoi Senoh stalked out of the bathroom, her hair frothy with shampoo suds; she'd obviously been washing it in the sink.
"Why can't you get up and get the door?" Aoi asked sharply. "You're all of six feet from it."
Nao shrugged from her prone position on the couch.
"You were already standing up," she pointed out. Aoi scowled. Really, Julia did not know how Nao put up with her roommate, who did not appreciate such self-evident logic. And Aoi insisted on doing things like washing dishes and taking out the garbage. How was Julia supposed to catch any flies if Aoi didn't even let them gather in the apartment? It was a good thing she only lost her patience with Nao's "pig-sty habits" every three or four days, or else Julia would have to suffer with store-bought food every day.
The knock was repeated. Aoi was so selfish, making their visitor wait just so she could argue with Nao!
"Were you going to get that? Since you came all the way out here and all that..."
Aoi yanked the door open.
"Who's—oh! Headmistress Fumi!" She stepped back. "Nao, it's for you," she called sweetly. She invited Fumi Himeno inside. "Um, Headmistress, if you don't need me, I'm going to..." She pointed to her head.
"Go on, it's all right," Fumi said in her high, sweet voice. Julia was not fooled. The pink-haired woman walked towards the couch. "I'm here to talk to Miss Yuuki."
Aoi vanished back into the bathroom. Julia kept a close eye on Fumi; the woman had, after all, been a rival HiME to Nao once, though they had never fought during the Festival.
Which was probably a good thing, Julia admitted to herself. Fighting was not what driders did best. That was best left to mutant squid and reptile-bird things that set themselves on fire, and giants who forgot to grow legs.
"I'm concerned about you, Nao," Fumi said. Nao displayed respect for the woman's position by putting her magazine down on the coffee table and looking up at her while she was talking. "Some of your teachers have told me that you are beginning to miss classes again."
"That is a problem. You've got to get those guys to stop being so boring so attendance doesn't drop. Besides, I'm keeping my grades up."
"Your test scores have been acceptable, but there is a concern that you could be slipping back into your old habits. That was one thing when your primary reason for being here was to play your part in the Festival, but now that you no longer possess your HiME powers..."
Julia squeaked indignantly. Just because she was only the size of a dinner plate instead of a large car with the HiME Star gone didn't mean that she should be ignored! Fumi's eyes flicked in her direction, then returned to Nao.
"...you should be taking your education seriously."
"Exactly where is all that concern coming from?" Nao said cynically. "Seriously, when did 'let's save Nao' become such a popular hobby? Between you and Sister and everybody else, I feel like the star of a Very Special Episode of some lame TV show."
"Well, I cannot speak for anyone else, but in my case I owe a debt to Lady Mashiro, both to look after the students at her school and to the recipients of the Kazahana Scholarship for whom she had special care. She did not spend three hundred years planning to defeat the Obsidian Prince and save this generation of HiME from our fate only to see one of us throw her future away simply to maintain the pretense of teenage rebellion."
Her hand flicked out in a sudden movement, grasping the broom that Aoi had left leaning in the corner after one of her cleaning expeditions. It snapped up like a scythe, the bristles driving into the heart of the spiderweb. A sudden spin of the broom-end sucked the web in like a tornado scooping up a Kansas house, and Julia found herself staring at the suddenly spotless corner of the room.
"Um...ah...er..." a gaping Nao stammered.
"Oh, my," Fumi said, pressing one hand to a blushing cheek in an embarrassed gesture. "It's so hard to forget one's old habits from being a maid." She put the broom back where she'd gotten it. "Now, Miss Yuuki, we were talking about your class attendance..."
"I...I'll make a real effort to show up, no matter how much of a yawn-fest it is," Nao said generously.
"Oh, good! I'm glad this little talk helped you to see how important your education is for your future."
"Especially my immediate future," Nao mumbled under her breath.
For her part, Julia decided that after proper reflection, the web really hadn't been up to her standards.