The next day, Megumi had decided to call a meeting to the students of Saunders as there was something she wished to get out of the way.
"Okay students of Saunders, I have one quick message that I want to bring up." Megumi began. "I spoke to your local lords, and they weren't happy about losing all of their free labor, so as a compromise, you're going to have to pay them back a near impossible amount of money for the next 49 years. Expect your lives to BARELY CHANGE… okay bye." Megumi and Alexandra left the stage and walked away. Kay wasn't happy.
"So we're free but we need to pay our former lords, what is this? Slavery?" Kay asked as this seemed to be unfair to her. Alexandra walked up to Kay and she began laying out what exactly was going to happen.
"Good news, Kay, we have got a pass for you so you can visit various middle schools and bring their ideas back to us as they are getting ahead of us as well." Alexandra began. Kay seemed to be confused.
"What is this for?" Kay asked.
"Well you better hurry because the chopper is leaving in a few minutes." Alexandra replied.
"Hang on, you haven't answered my question?!" Kay called out, two students picked her up and escorted her onto the helicopter and they began to escort her away. Alexandra looked at Megumi as she was happy with what they had done.
"Megumi, we got her." Alexandra told her commander. Everyone cheered as Kay was going to be gone for the long time or so they thought.
Kay was escorted to the mainland where the school ships were docking and undergoing maintenance, so the students had the time to walk around. She stepped off of the helicopter with the two students following her as they were going to act as her supervisors. Looking around. She didn't know where she was supposed to go.
"It sucks that Alexandra didn't give me clear directions on where I should go first." Kay muttered to herself. She was left to wander aimlessly around while the two supervisors followed. One of the students was looking at the newcomer as she was lost. She began walking over to see what was happening.
"You seem lost huh?" One of the students asked. Kay was confused, she turned her head to see who was trying to talk to her. The girl had grayish blue eyes with long brown hair, a white bow ribbon was in the right side of her face. Despite being 13 years old, she still had some features that made her look much younger than that around her face.
"Yeah I wasn't given directions on where to go, I was just dumped here." Kay replied.
"I'll take you to my school as we are more than willing to give you a tour of our school ship the USS Maryland superdreadnought." She offered. Kay was amazed.
"You have school ships too?" Kay asked.
"Yeah we all do except our ships are smaller than yours." She turned around and decided to introduce herself. "I'm Alice but you can call me Baby Lee if you wish. It's kind of easier. My father is the principal of the ship, the Bull Moose Teddy."
"Interesting. I would be more than interested in meeting him." Kay replied. She realized she forgot to introduce herself. "I'm Kay so nice to meet you Baby Lee or I should say Babyface."
"Yeah I guess that works too." Baby Lee responded. They walked onto the ship after what seemed to be many hours of climbing the tour was about to begin.
Meanwhile, Megumi and Alexandra were waiting around for the supposed tsarevich that was coming. They wanted to get the meeting done so they could escort him around the ship.
"Where is he?" Megumi asked as she was getting impatient.
"Yeah I mean I got the text that he had just arrived but I think he was running late." Alexandra told Megumi. Then the carriage pulled up to the entrance of the building.
"Well there he is." Megumi responded. The two guards came out as they opened a door for him. The tsarevich stepped out, he was about 13 years of age, same age as Baby Lee Alice. He had deep blue eyes and auburn hair with a coppery glint to it. He was lanky but he sure was handsome. He was dressed in his usual sailor's uniform with a hat to match, complete with a set of long leather gloves that went to his elbows.
"Wow, I have never seen someone like this before. He surely looks cute." Alexandra began. He walked over as he was gentle with the feet and the ground he walked on.
"He's not even in high school and he's taller than us." Megumi replied. He stopped right in front of them and he began to speak.
"Well I haven't seen any of you before while we're here." He began speaking.
"He's five foot six if I'm going to bet." Alexandra whispered to Megumi, she hushed her before turning back to meet the Tsarevich.
"I bet your father knew I was Megumi, and you must be his son Alexei." Megumi introduced herself and gave the guess to his name.
"That's correct. I heard you're Saunders' new leader." Alexei replied. He was being sweet about it as the guards had finished taking the carriage away.
"What took you so long? We were worried about you." Megumi asked.
"I wanted to make sure to bring my pet spaniel Joy here because you promised we were going to go for a walk." Alexei softly explained what happened.
"A walk, that would be lovely, so you have the papers to renew the alliance between the schools?" Megumi asked Alexei.
"Sure do." Alexei responded. He was holding the papers in a folder that he was carrying on him. The three students began to walk inside followed by the two guardsmen.
The three of them came to the room where Megumi and Alexei were sitting at the middle of the desk on opposite ends while Alexandra gave them water to drink. Alexei then got out the folder and passed it to Megumi. Megumi opened it and slipped the papers out. She looked to notice the leather gloves he was wearing.
"What's with the leather gloves?" Megumi asked as she began reading the terms of the papers.
"Oh it's a safety measure so I don't get paper cuts. Plus the leather is thick so these gloves are going to last me a while." Alexei replied. Megumi continued to read the two page paper as it listed her congratulations, anything Saunders was going to need, anything the school was going to need in return and what goals they wanted to achieve for this academic year.
"Do you have any sort of bleeding disorder or are you afraid of blood?" Megumi asked, she got out a pen and began to sign it. Alexei was sipping his water, he seemed nervous to be bringing this up but he had to if he was going to get a friendship with Megumi.
"Yes I have hemophilia and I can't staunch the blood coming out of me. Whenever I get hurt or get cuts, the platelets can't staunch the flow of the blood so I am sometime's left in agony." Alexei explained his condition to Megumi. Alexandra walked over to him.
"Can I tap you?" Alexandra asked Alexei.
"Hey, don't do that, I bruise easily." Alexei responded as he waved his hands around his face, he didn't want to be punched in case something like this was to happen. Megumi passed the paper back to Alexei who then began to read it over.
"I know I'm not going to do that. But thank you." Alexandra giggled as she found the tsarevich rather amusing. Megumi finished her water as Alexei did the same.
"Want to go for a walk around the school after this. I would like to get to know you some more." Megumi offered to take him on a tour around the place.
"Sure I brought Joy here so we can go for a walk." Alexei replied.
"Around the hedge garden I see. I bet you would definitely want to see the sights before autumn would set in." Megumi sets the course for where they were going to be walking around. Alexandra picked up the empty cups and went to get them washed. Alexei packed up the folder and slipped back into the bag.
"I'll meet you by the entrance." Alexei told Megumi, he got up and made his way to the school's entrance while Megumi was going to wait for Alexandra.
Kay was spending time with Alice as they were talking about their schools. They had sat down to eat some place as Alice had promised Kay that she was going to try the food.
"So, I heard the complaint that you didn't like the food back on your school ship. What was the food?" Baby Lee asked Kay about the food.
"It was beet and cabbage soup. I mean who is willing to eat that?" Kay asked while they were looking through the menu.
"I mean beets and cabbage isn't entirely bad. I've tried it once, not my favorite thing to eat but I wouldn't say it's bad." Baby Lee replied. "So want to try the sweet tea the school has? It's stars and stripes best." She offered and said the school's first three words to Kay.
"Sure thing. I would like to know more about this place." Kay replied, the waitress came over and she began filling out the orders. The waitress replied and walked away.
"Anyways I got you steak with potatoes and some of the bull moose's fried chicken with the moose sauce." Baby Lee told Kay. "The chicken is dad's recipe."
"Nice." Kay replied. "So your dad is the principal around here?"
"Yep, and he's more than welcome to have students come around and visit the school. He often encourages visiting if it's just for the day. We're making money on this stuff as adults often come around and it helps the local businesses." Baby Lee replied. "Places like these, the small stores where they sell patches and clothes are dotted along here, we even got a couple of book stores under construction so students can purchase stuff to read. We got good amounts of industry to keep the people employed and the ship running." Baby Lee explained to Kay what was around this ship and it had its thriving small local stores. "Tell me, what does Saunders look like?"
"There isn't much. We have steel mills around the school but it's mostly farmland as we just got out of being an agrarian economy and began to industrialize though we don't know how long this will take." Kay told Baby Lee what Saunders was like.
"Hmm, maybe I can convince daddy to give you a loan of some money and workers to help the school industrialize." Baby Lee told Kay.
"When will that be done?" Kay asked.
"If daddy has got the chance as he's busy at the moment." Baby Lee told Kay that Principal Teddy had his own business and he wasn't going to be free for the time being.
"How long do you expect this to be done?" Kay asked.
"I can't give the exact date but it will be a couple of months." Baby Lee answered Kay. Kay nodded. They had to wait for a long while before they were going to get the funds and the supplies before they were going to build the factory. Industrializing for Saunders was going to take a long while.
"Okay. Give me a call when you can give me the money." Kay told Alice.
"No promises." Baby Lee replied. The waitresses came back with the sweet tea and the dishes. Kay was a bit disappointed. She took a sip of the sweet tea which was anything but name. This tea tastes dry. She looked at the plates of food which were tiny.
"The sweet tea isn't sweet at all and the plates of food that are being served are tiny. Is there a reason for this? I can eat about four of each." Kay asked Alice as she tried the steak and potatoes. Despite the small portions, the food was at least decent.
"We are currently following the diet restrictions set by MEXT as Renta Tsuji has imposed for the students up to the age of 17." Baby Lee began to get out the list of stuff that Renta had made but this list had been published about five years ago. "All students up until the age of 17 will have to have a ration strength of edible food in these small quantities: Meat, Cheese and Bread will be only served for civilians in small quantities and the students will eat just as much during peacetime. Fresh vegetables, fruit and raw grains will be the main diet of the students during these times and the addition of fish would be supplemented as the main protein source after a hard match of either Zango-San or Sensha-Do. Sugar plus candy will be prohibited from being served at all to everyone as Sweet Tea is heavily watered down and Soda is banned. Plus for all of the students who might have matches go on for multiple days, it is recommended to pack up the needed food, water and cooking equipment and carry it on their backs."
"Wow, I didn't know these measures are harsh and with the fact that we can only eat what we can carry on our backs is going to be detrimental in the long run. What happens if we run out of food?" Kay asked.
"Well, that is something we have yet to experience as both sides never had any matches that have lasted for more than a day." Baby Lee replied.
"Also… no sweets? How do we celebrate when we have parties? Does your school have parties?" Kay asked Alice if Stars and Stripes Middle School had.
"We only party once a year and that is at the very end of the school year." Baby Lee began. "We don't want to overindulge ourselves in something as great when after a while it doesn't feel rewarding."
"So basically, the life I'm having as of right now is completely meaningless due to the fact that everyone would rather do stuff on their own terms instead of mine?" Kay asked. Alice began to think about what Kay asked if this was completely true.
"Not necessarily, you just need to change who you are to meet the environment around you. It's better to become adaptable rather than being specialized for a comfortable life." Baby Lee explained to Kay that she needed to adapt to this new environment.
"Change? You seem to be crazy." Kay replied as she was now eating the fried chicken.
"I'm crazy but it's true. You revolve around the world; the world doesn't revolve around you." Baby Lee replied. The waiter came over as Alice asked for a check. "Check please?" Alice went back to eating her food.
"So change is not possible?" Kay asked.
"It certainly is possible but the one thing that people don't change is themselves more often than not." Baby Lee replied. The waiter came back around as he gave them the check and Alice began to pay up.
"If that's so, I might as well take the ideas from here and make a few refinements to make the experience better for Saunders." Kay nodded as she listed the ideas from what she learned from this school onto here. She was satisfied. "Anyways I need to get going, it was nice chatting with you. Hopefully we can meet again." Kay got up and left. Alice waved goodbye.
"Take care." Baby Lee replied.
Megumi, Alexei and Alexandra were walking around the garden with Alexei's dog Joy, they were followed by his sailor guards to make sure nothing was to happen to them.
"Life is full of childish gaffs and gains. I was wondering if you had anything memorable happening to you?" Alexei began. He was keeping his gentle grip on Joy's leash as they walked around.
"I don't remember my childhood all that much but do you have anything you remember tsarevich?" Alexandra asked Alexei.
"Certainly a few I can name off of the top of my head. Well having my blood disorder means my mother doesn't want me to participate in stuff that might seem to be too dangerous. But that hasn't stopped me from being a lively kid growing up. I remember when I was two and we were on our yacht, I woke up the entire band for them to play for me. And my father instead of punishing me said in a joking manner "That's how you bring up a true Autocrat!" There was also this time when I was seven that I took a bicycle from one of the rental places and after I gave my fee for the bike, I began riding it around in the school as I wanted to be with everyone else and when my mother Alix spotted me and ordered the guards to chase after me so they could get the bike back and my father just took pictures of me trying to evade the guards. I had a lot of fun that day, but I was forced to give the bike back as it was only a rental after all." Alexei told the two of his most joyful experiences.
"Sounds like you were in quite a lot of mischief growing up." Megumi teased as she found the stories quite amusing.
"I know and all of my older sisters adored me like they were my angels and it was hard being the only boy and the youngest." Alexei replied. Megumi giggled once more as they continued walking.
"I think your parents wanted you to have the best life possible because there might be no tomorrow." Megumi told Alexei.
"Yeah, that's true. When we get the invite for you to come to my school, I'll give you a tour of my bedroom, maybe get a couple of rental bikes to go riding around, even my old donkey Vanka to pull us around the park during the winter." Alexei promised Megumi that he would do all of these things for her. "Did you have any mischief growing up?" Alexei then asked Megumi.
"Well for one thing, I went to this play with my parents, and I ended up taking ten pieces of chocolate and eating them with a pair of fine gloves on. My father scolded me for doing that, but I was six when that happened. Another time I was playing…" Megumi explained the times she had gotten herself into trouble, they were nearing the end of the gate as a lone student was standing at the exit smiling and waving casually. What they didn't notice was the fact that she was holding a revolver behind her back loaded up with one bullet, she had intention of shooting Megumi when she came around the corner. When the group came around, the student whipped out the revolver, another girl standing by noticed this and raced over. She grabbed the student's arm and flicked it upward a moment before she fired the trigger, forcing Megumi's would-be assassin to fire the revolver high, directly into the air. Megumi stumbled down when she heard the noise, Alexei's sailor guards rushed over and began to restrain the girl. Alexei noticed Megumi was on the ground and went over to help her.
"Are you okay?" Alexei asked with worry in his voice.
"I'm fine." Megumi replied as she got up. "What just happened?" Megumi was confused about what exactly happened.
"One of the girls at the exit tried to shoot you." One of the sailor guards replied, he was holding the revolver while the other sailor was restraining the assassin.
"I foiled her plans." The second girl replied. She had light brown skin and light brown eyes to match. She was dressed in her casual clothes as she was touring the garden.
"Who are you?" Megumi asked. "I'm Megumi."
"Lola." She replied.
"Thank you for saving me back there." Megumi told Lola that she was thankful that she managed to foil her assassin's plans.
"Hey, no problem. We'll talk more if we bump into each other again." Lola smiled at Megumi before she walked away, the sailor guards escorted the girl away as Megumi and her company walked away.
Kay had returned that night after she stashed the notes away somewhere safe. Megumi and Alexandra were trying to get answers out of the girl that tried to shoot Megumi earlier that day.
"Hey Megumi, what's going on?" Kay asked Megumi.
"Someone tried to kill me today." Megumi replied. Kay seemed curious while Alexandra paced around, she was trying to get some information from the assassin and find out her motives, what they knew was the fact that she was acting alone.
"So why did you try to kill our school leader?" Alexandra asked, she had tied the ropes tightly around her hands and legs so she couldn't move herself.
"Megumi gave the students no land to work on and live. We're being forced to live in the school while you guys took what was right from the students."
"No land eh. So, you're saying we should go back to being an agrarian based school with no economy and industrialization?" Alexandra asked the student if it was worth it to go backwards. The student nodded yes as that was worth it. "Strip this girl of all of her titles and ranks. She will be exiled to Siberia!" Alexandra made her decision final. She was going to be expelled.
Expulsion to Siberia was like getting kicked out of the school and you lost everything, even your personal property as it was seized up and recycled, then you were dropped into the middle of nowhere without anything expecting to survive in the freezing cold. This was often the worst punishment and many students didn't want to run into it but it was a way to keep convicts from striking back and making examples for those to follow the rules.
Kay looked on as the girl was dragged away. Where was the court system that Megumi had promised? Were they still in the time before this? She knew that murder was a capital offense but there was no trial for her. She walked away with Megumi as they were going to go to bed. A lot of changes were being implemented and were going to take some time to add; however, the biggest change of all was going to come to the Sensha-Do team.
[A/N]: This chapter was moreover just character development as we are introduced to more characters, and some have interesting stories or ideas to tell. Next chapter will be focused on the changes to the Sensha-Do line up as well as some new tech that will be helping Saunders out.
Attempts on Megumi's life: 1 out of 7
Also, we're near 50 views so I am more than happy about this. Leave your reviews if you want more. Add "Nicole" if you want a story about her in the future. Farewell.
