Duran-kun and Kiyo-chan's Omake Theater

(featuring the Munakata family pet)

It was the considered opinion of Mai Tokiha that Yuuichi Tate was a damn fine kisser.

He wasn't much for artistry, true enough. He'd never really mastered the skill of using kisses to steadily build a girl's enjoyment, to tease and excite, to draw her on, then deny, then invite again, to turn each press of lips into an act of seduction. Indeed, she doubted he was even aware that there was such a skill. But she didn't need that from him. Her other boyfriend was more than good enough at that kind of kissing.

What Tate could do was put his arms around her, crush his lips against hers, and give her that shattering, all-consuming kind of kiss that screamed that the woman he held commanded all of his attention, all of his passion, that he was utterly lost in her charms. It was a heady feeling, one Mai thrilled to all the way down to her toes.

Loud banging on Tate's room door cut off the toe-curling before it could get too serious.

"Oniichan!"

Mai groaned. Tate rolled his eyes. They knew that sound.

"I suppose we should see what she wants?" Tate suggested.

Mai was a nice young woman, a genuinely kind and good person. She did not advocate leaving Shiho Munakata outside to bang on the door to her heart's content while they got back to the kissing, nor opening the door but only long enough to pitch Shiho off the balcony into the hedge below.

That's not to say that she didn't think about it. She was only human, after all.

"We probably should," she said, releasing her embrace so Tate could get up to answer.

Shiho bounced through the door happily, a short junior high student with a seafood theme going on with her head: her hair was salmon-pink and styled to, for some reason, resemble a four-tentacled octopus.

"Oniichan, it's so good to see you—"

"Hi, Shiho."

"Mai." She said it flatly, dully. The kind of voice one uses when one comes home and learns that one's dog was not as housebroken as one thought, but the shock has yet to wear off enough to let the emotion through.

Shiho's crow, Yatagarasu, flew through the door and perched on the back of a chair, clenching a rung in his single claw. Tate disentangled himself from Shiho's hello hug and closed the door.

"You didn't mention she would be here," Shiho said.

"Why would I? It's not like I invited you over." One could not say that Tate hadn't learned his lesson about being honest about his feelings during the HiME Festival.

"But oniichan, what did you think I meant when I said I was going to stop off at the grocery store?" She held up the two plastic shopping bags in her right hand.

"I thought you were going to make dinner for your grandpa tonight."

"I asked you what sounded good!"

Somewhere, Mai decided, Reito Kanzaki was smirking.

"I just thought we were chatting!" Tate protested. "I never imagined you were going to come over and make dinner for me!"

Yatagarasu took off, fluttered down to pick up a crumpled piece of paper that had been errantly tossed at the wastebasket, and dropped it in before returning to his perch.

"I mean, I'm sorry that I didn't get it, but you need to be more direct and just come out and say stuff like that, Shiho," Tate continued. Images of smirk aside, Mai found herself unable to be mad at Tate. She thought it was kind of sweet that he didn't even acknowledge that romantic gestures from other women were even possible. Those were the kind of thoughts she was glad to have never cross his mind.

Understandably, Shiho was a little less forgiving.

"You have to pay more attention, too! Now, I've gone to all this trouble, only to walk in on a necking session between you and this femme fatale!"

"You didn't walk in on anything, Shiho; I properly opened the door for you. And Mai's not a femme fatale, either."

"Well, what would you call a woman who keeps two boys on her string, dancing to her tune? I mean, you were here kissing her even though you know that tomorrow night she'll probably be off doing the same thing with Reito Kanzaki."

Yatagarasu flew over to the coffee table and picked up an empty bag of squid chips Tate had finished with while watching TV, and dispatched it to the garbage.

"Really, Shiho, you're being ridiculous."

"It's true, though, oniichan!"

Mai wondered about that. She'd never thought of herself as some kind of skilled seductress like Shizuru or Nao, or some kind of eye-catching, gorgeous beauty like Natsuki, but she had managed to land two pretty awesome guys who were willing to court her until she decided between them.

In a weird way, she actually thought it sounded kind of neat.

Bad Mai, she scolded herself.

"Yeah, well, true or not, I had a date with Mai tonight."

"But it's not fair to Shiho, either," Mai interjected. "She went out and bought groceries expecting to have dinner tonight, because you didn't catch on to what she was saying." Sweet or not, terminal obliviousness had its price.

Tate sighed.

"Fine, I'll pay for the food."

"Uh-uh," Mai said, shaking her finger. "What you'll do is go call Mikoto and invite her over, and maybe Aoi and Chie and Takumi and Akira and Akane and Kazuya and some other people. Shiho and I will roll up our sleeves, get to cooking, and we'll make a party of it!"

"Um, Mai, I didn't bring enough for a bunch of people."

"Don't worry; we'll just clean out Yuuichi's fridge."

Tate's eyebrows rose.

"Wait, how did I agree to this?"

"You did make a dinner date with two girls at once," Mai pointed out in her very best do you think Reito would have done that? voice.

"...What's Mikoto's cell number again?"

Maybe there's something to this femme fatale stuff after all.

Yatagarasu swooped down, plucked an empty soda can from the kitchen cabinet, and dropped it into the recycling bag. Tate paused in the middle of dialing.

"Why does he keep doing that?"

"It's instinctive," Shiho said. "As a crow, he's part of nature's cleanup crew."

"Can he handle a broom? 'Cause I've seen what happens when you HiME throw parties."

~X X X~

A/N: I just finished playing Ace Attorney Investigations this past Saturday, so naturally I was inspired to write a story featuring Yatagarasu. Long-term readers of these omake will realize at once that this story must take place before Chapter 21, since Shiho still has her HiME hairdo here...