Episode 7: Ever Present Feeling.
"I don't like this," The President of Cleaning and Clearing of Millennium, Neru, grumbled as she and her club-mates walked into Schale's building.
"You've made that perfectly clear, president," Akane commented as they all got into the elevator.
"What's the problem?" Asuna asked curiously, still not understanding the reason for Neru's bad mood. "We're just helping Master clean a bit. Is that so bad?"
"If you're incapable of doing a simple job as cleaning around the office, Senpai, I'm more than happy to show you how it's done," Toki commented and, while her stoic expression didn't break, a hint of smugness slipped through her voice.
"Can it, newbie!" Neru barked at the club's youngest member.
"President, please take in Sensei's situation," Karin said, trying to make Neru feel better about their assignment. "Sensei is always busy with work and helping students. He doesn't always have the time to clean up his office."
Neru grumbled, knowing that Karin was right, but still not enjoying the assignment. After the elevator doors opened, it was just a quick hallway walk to the main office of Schale. In there, they found their teacher sleeping on the desk.
Seeing the state their teacher was in, Akane sighed. "He must have pulled an all-nighter again. It's so unhealthy," she mumbled, worried for Ritsuka's health.
"Isn't Sensei supposed to have a meeting with Seminar?" Karin commented, remembering why their teacher explained he couldn't clean up the place himself.
"He is, and will most likely be late if he doesn't get ready soon," Akane shook her head before walking forward and gently placing her hand on her teacher's shoulder. "Sensei, wake up. You have a meeting soon," she whispered but only got groans as a reply.
"You're doing it wrong. Let me show you," Neru pulled Akane back, stepping forward herself and leaning closer to her teacher's ear. "Sensei~,you better wake up," she smirked mischievously. "Or I'm telling Yuuka of all those toys and receipts you're hiding from her~."
The threat did the job and Sensei jumped to his feet, and then the members of Cleaning and Clearing were treated to the most shocking scene of their lives.
In a total of three seconds, Ritsuka rushed into the bathroom, his students heard him wash up, brush his teeth, and get dressed before opening the door to reveal he had freshened up and got ready.
"I'm ready! I'm ready!" He yelled, taking deep breaths.
The members of Cleaning and Clearing stared at him in shock and surprise before the silence was broken by their club president. "Holy crap! How did you do that!?"
Ritsuka was in the bathroom for three seconds, yet he appeared like someone who took their time getting ready and pulled all stops to do so.
"That was awesome!" Asuna clapped with stars in her eyes. "Master! Master! Teach me how to do that!"
Ritsuka's eyes landed on the clock on his table. "Ah, that'll have to wait, Asuna. I'm gonna be late and Yuuka will yell at me again," he sighed before addressing why Cleaning and Clearing were there. "Alright. You girls just have to clean around a bit, but I honestly just want you to move the stuff here," walking to a closet, Ritsuka opened the door and revealed it to be full of boxes. "This stuff is important to me. So, I need you girls to move it to a storage unit on the other side of Schale, where they'll be safe. I would have done it weeks ago, but I keep getting sidetracked with work."
"Couldn't you have just hired someone to move this stuff?" Neru asked.
Ritsuka gave an awkward smile. "I thought of that… but Yuuka shot that idea down, saying it'll be a waste to pay someone just to carry a few things."
"Figures," Neru sighed, deciding to simply just accept the job. "But you owe us lunch, got it?"
"I promise to treat you all to a nice meal after this," Ritsuka said, picking up the Shittim Chest before heading outside. "See you girls later, and please be careful, okay? That stuff really means a lot to me."
"Yeah, yeah, just be careful on your way to Seminar," Neru replied, waving at her teacher as the elevator's doors closed.
"Well, I believe we should start cleaning up the place before moving the boxes. It should make moving them less troublesome," Akane commented, looking around at all the papers and stuff around which collected dust.
"I'll get the supplies," Karin said, walking to another closet and opening it to reveal cleaning utilities.
"Why the hell should we clean someone else's place," Neru grumbled, still not enjoying their assignment. "Seriously, do we look like we do cleaning for a living!?"
The whole room fell quiet as her club-mates stopped what they were doing and slowly turned their gaze to their president. None of them even bothered pointing out the obvious redundancy of her statement considering their club's uniform.
Neru, who herself has realised the nature of her statement, hung her head while reluctantly raising her hand to Karin. "Just… Just give me the damn broom."
Cleaning up the office was a simple task. The group was done in minutes since it was a group effort. Then came moving the boxes, which took longer as the students realised their teacher has a lot of stuff.
Asuna placed down a box in the storage unit before hearing something shake inside it. Blinking, curiosity gleamed in her eyes before she opened the box and excitement bubbled up inside her.
"I wonder where Sensei got all this stuff?" Karin commented as she placed down a box. "And what they are?"
"It's not our place to know," Akane commented, placing another box nearby. "These are Sensei's. We shouldn't pry or try to open-"
"Look at me!" All eyes turned to Asuna, who was now wearing a silver and pink helmet with a transparent blue visor and a large microphone connected to the side. "Captain Asuna, taking off!" the hyperactive girl spread her arms like wings and began running around.
"Asuna, put that down!" Karin began chasing down Asuna.
Akane sighed with a shake of her head. Just as she was about to help Karin hopefully capture their laughing upperclassmen, she was called out. "Akane senpai, I'm not familiar with this kind of gun. Do you recognise it?"
Akane turned to see Toki standing near an opened box with an object in her hands. "Not you, too, Toki," Akane sighed with a shake of her head. "You really can't just go through Sensei's stuff like… that…" she trailed off as she got a good look at the firearm in Toki's hands. "T-That's a Calico M950!?" The glasses-wearing girl immediately took the gun from Toki and carefully examined it. "I thought they discontinued these years ago! You'd need to contact a collector or costume order to actually get one now! How did Sensei get this?!"
"Asuna, give that back," Karin finally managed to take the helmet off Asuna's head. "Seriously, Sensei keeping such toys at… their… age," her statement became less and less sure as she held the helmet and felt it within her hands. It didn't feel like a toy, and had the weight of an actual piece of technology made of metal and wires. "This… This is a toy, right?"
"Sensei keeps a lot of fun stuff!" Asuna turned her attention to the nearest box and opened it. Pulling out what was inside, she held up a strange doll with blond hair and a white dress. "Awe, she's so cute!" Asuna's reaction, of course, was to hug the doll.
"These appear to be remarkably well made," Toki commented as she opened another box and pulled out a pair of hand-made shoes of leather. "I wonder where Sensei's got them?"
"Is-Is that an actual spear?!" Akane cried out as she pulled out the content of one of the longer boxes, a yellow and red, double edged spear. "Why would Sensei have this?"
"Hey, how can someone be naked while wearing an apron?" That statement caused the others in the room to stop what they were doing and look at Asuna, who was holding the doll in one hand and an open magazine in the other.
Her question made their minds go into dangerous places with suspicion. Placing down the helmet, Karin took the magazine from Asuna and, much to her relief, there were no pictures of the subject of Asuna's question.
Karin closed the magazine and looked at the cover. "Tamamo's Guide For the Perfect Housewife," she read the cover while looking at the chibi drawings of a woman with fox ears and a blue kimono. Opening the magazine again, she saw that it had tips for housework, cooking, cleaning, and how to get a man's attention. "This looks like something straight out of Hyakkiyako… Did Sensei get it from there as a gift?"
Opening another box, Toki looked inside and the first thing she noticed was a big pink hat with two pointy tips and comically large buttons on the front. "This looks like a cat," she commented, taking out the hat and setting it aside.
Deeper into the box was a group of figurines. The first one looked like Ritsuka. The second was of a woman with pale blue hair and eyes of the same shade. The third was of a girl with red hair and a dress of the same color. The fourth was a bit smaller, and was of a girl with white hair and a blue dress. The fifth was a bit bigger than the others, and was of a woman with blond hair and an armor. The last figurine was the smallest, and looked like a girl wearing the same hat Toki had taken out of the box.
Akane was still looking through the assortment of weapons that her teacher kept, still puzzled on why and how he has them. "I am… very curious on what Sensei used to do in the past," she commented out loud, pulling out a pink pistol.
"Oh, look! More dolls!" Asuna pulled out two more dolls from her box. One looking like a grumpy, tan skinned man in dark purple armor holding a red spear. The other looked like a white sheep with golden horns.
"A ship model?" Karin carefully pulled out a large model from one of the bigger boxes. "This looks like a submarine."
"Is this made of actual gold?!" Akane cried out, pulling out a large golden scale.
"Silver bullets? What would Sensei need these for?" Toki asked, pulling out a container filled with silver bullets that didn't seem to be made for the gun she and Akane were previously inspecting.
"What are you all doing?" The members of Cleaning and Clearing jumped as their president asked them from the entrance. "Put that stuff back where you found it. Didn't you hear Sensei when he said this stuff is important to him? Anything you break or damage, you're the one who will look Sensei in the eye and tell him," the club members immediately began following Neru's orders, putting everything in its designated box and closing them. "Alright, we're pretty much done here, this is the last thing and it wasn't even in a box," Neru held up an album book that had a lock keeping it shut.
While Neru was placing down the album, something fell from between the pages. The President of Cleaning and Clearing blinked before bending down and picking it up. Curiosity won her over and she looked to see it was a picture.
"Who are these girls?" Neru couldn't help but ask. "And why does Sensei have a picture of them?"
In the picture were three girls. The ones on the left and right both looked equally pale with the shorter one having a black dress with her pale blond hair pulled into a braided bun. The taller one of the pale girls was wearing a dark purple dress and her long hair was just let loose.
The girl in the middle was wearing a white dress and looked like she was forced into the picture by the two pale girls if the blush on her face and the fact she was being held in place by them was any indication. Parts of her long black hair was tied into pigtails and even covered one of her blue eyes.
Her club members gathered around her to look at the picture. "Huh, that one on the right kind of looks like Toki," Karin commented, referring to the girl in the black dress.
"Hmph, I don't see it," Toki huffed, something akin to territorial jealousy in her voice.
"I wonder who they are," Akane mumbled.
"Oh, wow!" Asuna got closer to the picture and smiled brightly. "Sensei looks really good in that white dress!"
Neru nodded. "Yeah, I guess he-" She stopped and did a double take, her mind struggling to comprehend what she just heard. "Say what!?"
Karin got closer to the photo and narrowed her eyes before her expression turned to shock. "She… She's right. T-That's Sensei!"
"Why is Sensei dressed like a woman?" Toki questioned, beginning to wonder what her teacher does in his free time.
"Maybe he lost some kind of bet?" Akane suggested, trying to think of a defense for her teacher.
"What kind of bet would he have to lose to end up like this!?" Neru cried out, an embarrassed blush on her own face for seeing her teacher like this. She stuffed the picture back into the album and turned with a huff. "Forget it! Not our problem! Let's get out of here already! We finished our job!"
The members of Cleaning and Clearing followed their president out of the storage room. Locking the place before leaving, the students headed back to Millennium after finishing their job. Just as they were at the doors of Seminar to report in, Ritsuka, Yuuka, and Noa came out.
"Ah, you girls are done?" Ritsuka asked before sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "Again, sorry to make you do this. I'll pay you back, I promise."
"Yeah, you better," Neru mumbled, the image of her teacher in a dress still fresh in her mind. She hoped she would soon forget it.
"Oh, Sensei! Sensei! You looked really great in that white dress!" Neru's hopes were dashed by Asuna deciding to bring up the subject like it was nothing.
While the rest of Cleaning and Clearing looked at Asuna in shock for blurting it out, Ritsuka lost all color in his face. Yuuka and Noa stared at Asuna for a second before slowly turning their heads to look at their teacher in a mixture of confusion and suspicion.
"U-Uh, I don't know what you're talking about," Ritsuka desperately attempted to play dumb.
Asuna, however, didn't pick up on his attempt to save face. "I mean that picture of you in that cute dress! Your hair looked great! Who did your makeup! Can you teach-"
Finally getting over their shock, the other members of Cleaning and Clearing moved swiftly to cover Asuna's mouth. With each word she said, the looks Yuuka and Noa were giving their teacher got stronger and stronger, though the latter of the two also gained a spark of amusement.
"Sensei," Yuuka's voice dripped with nothing but suspicion. "What is she talking about?"
Ritsuka gulped and decided to take the only option that could save him. "Well, thanks again, girls. That's all for today's work, see you later!" Which was running away.
"Sensei, get back here and explain!"