A Rainy Revelation

Before Volume 2

Sensei looked down at the various documents and reports presented around him and sighed. "I swear, I'm getting too old for report writing."

Yuuka frowned as she looked up from her seat on the desk across from the man. "Sensei, you're not that old." She paused, "Are you?"

The sky-blue haired man chuckled slowly as his eyes twinkled. "Tell me Yuuka, how old do you think I am?"

The Seminar treasurer frowned as she looked over the grizzled man with a thin sky-blue beard and eyes. "Umm…maybe late thirties? Early forties?" She guessed. "I don't really have much of a reference to work with."

"Try old enough that my daughter is older than you."

"I see." Yuuka nodded, processing the information. Her gaze returned to the reports as she began punching in budget numbers into her calculator.

A few minutes passed before the treasurer froze, dropping her pen. "Wait, you have a daughter?!"

The man looked up from his paperwork. "Yes. Why do you ask?"

"You never told me that you had a daughter? And she's older than me?"

"Never came up I guess." Sensei chuckled as he unlocked his phone and pulled up his photo album. "Here's a picture I took with her a few months ago."

Yuuka grabbed the phone and looked at the slightly less grizzled man standing with his arm around a young woman with long sky-blue hair. "I see...So you weren't kidding about being a father..."

"Is that so hard to believe?"

Yuuka rolled her eyes. "The number of times I've had to drag you into doing your work doesn't help your credibility, Sensei."

"Well, I've been out of the teaching field for so long, it took a while to get back into the groove of things." The man chuckled. "I mean, I had retired from teaching for some time and only done a few stints as a guest lecturer from time to time before I got dragged back here."

"Dragged back here?" The treasurer frowned as she narrowed her eyes, "Wait, I've seen this girl before."

The man smiled softly, "Really? I'd be surprised if you hadn't." He pointed at the girl in the photo. "That's Ao Haru, the former General Student Council President. I'm her father."

Between Volumes 3 and 4

"A tea for your thoughts?"

Rin looked up from her work to see a large steaming mug before her. "Ahh…Sensei, th-thank you."

"Not a problem, Rinny." The older man smiled as he handed her the mug. "What's the problem child of the General Student Council today?"

"Just the new budget proposal put forward by the Defense Department." The pointed ear woman sighed. "They're trying to acquire funds to support a new security measure. Problem is where the funds they want to acquire are from and where they want to put it into." She eyed the man. "And don't call me Rinny. That's way too childish. I'm not a kid anymore."

"To me, you're all kids." Sensei spoke warmly. "Now then, hand me some of those reports and I'll summarize them the best I can."

"Wait," Rin frowned. "Don't you have work of your own to do?"

"Call it taking a necessary pause in my own work to get my mind off of the proposal."

Rin rolled her eyes, "That's still avoiding your own work. But here." She handed him a stack of papers as he sat down beside her.

The two sat in comfortable silence as papers exchanged hands. Finally, the acting student council president spoke up. "Do you miss her Sensei?"

"Every single day." Sensei spoke seriously. "Not a day goes by that I don't think about my little ray of sunshine."

"Sensei…"

"But tell me, Rin. How do you feel about it? Do you miss Haru?"

Rin's eyes didn't leave her report as she remained silent. A moment later, she spoke up. "I do. I miss her charisma that kept schools unified. I miss her ability to find talented and passionate subordinates and partners to make Kivotos a safe place to pursue an education. I miss her intelligence to balance multiple departments and always know the right way to respond to any crisis at hand. I miss her wisdom to see people's true intentions and know how to best handle them. Of course I miss President Haru."

"I see." Sensei nodded, "I'm glad that people value Haru's talent and capabilities. But I meant to ask, do you Rin miss Haru as a person, as a friend?"

"Well...I certainly don't miss her ability to always know how to drive me bonkers. How she always spoke in riddles and hid thousands of secrets from me and never bothered to tell me any of them until she vanished. I don't miss how she always wanted to stuff her mouth with sweets and conspired with Momoka to create a separate budget just for sweets and candy." Rin rolled her eyes, "I don't miss how she would sporadically escape her office to hang out with her friends. I mean, she once vanished from the office for a weekend to go camping with Yukino's squad. And she never thought to tell me in advance!"

She threw her hands in the air. "I mean sure, she technically got all her work done in advance before vanishing. But she still didn't tell me until I tracked her across the Abydos desert to their campsite then she finally told me. I don't miss any of that!"

"That sounds like her alright." Sensei chuckled. "Haru was always the sporadic one when it came to spending time with her friends."

Rin blinked rapidly as a tear shed from her eyes. "She's so annoying and yet so amazing and it just drives me crazy all the same. And then she just vanished and just left me with all the work of keeping the paradise she had worked so hard to make afloat and I'm nowhere near her intelligence and talent. And now everything is falling apart and I can barely keep things together, much less fix things."

She looked at her sensei with teary eyes. "So yes, I miss Haru. I miss her so much."

Then the waterworks let loose as Sensei put his arm around the girl's shoulders and held her tightly. "I know Rinny. I know Rinny. I miss her too."

After Volume 2

"Arona, what does 'madlad' mean?" Sensei rubbed his eyes, trying to grasp the unfamiliar terminology.

"'Madlad' means someone who has done something particularly impressive and audacious. It's generally a compliment. In the context of this statement, you are the madlad who assisted in protecting Aris from Seminar President Rio's machinations." Arona explained matter of factly. "I think that was very impressive, Sensei."

"I really didn't do that much. I would do the same for any of my students." Sensei chuckled, scratching his beard at the Game Development Club's thank you card. "But the thought behind this gift is appreciated."

"It is Sensei," Arona agreed, "the fact that they offered to make you a game based around your life is very thoughtful."

The teacher groaned, "I swear, I don't know how their games do so well. This old geezer couldn't understand heads or toes of their ideas."

He looked back at a picture frame propped on his desk. The picture was of the girls of the Game Development Club holding up their trophy. "I just told them what I thought Haru would say."

Ao had loved puzzles. She loved mind games and thinking up interesting and unique challenges. Sensei would spend many an evening trying to work his way through his daughter's challenges she would send him from time to time. All he had done was share the more interesting challenges Ao had developed with the club and they implemented them as part of the game.

He smiled softly as he turned back to the picture of his daughter waving her new General Student Council outfit proudly. "You would have loved Aris, wouldn't you Haru? You would have swooped in and dragged her on a dozen new adventures and would drive Rin mad, right?"

"Sensei?" Arona's voice interrupted his musings.

"Ah, sorry Arona. Just talking to myself." The father smiled. "I wish you met So. You would have gotten along just fine."

"I wish I met her too, Sensei." Arona agreed.

The two resumed working in quiet comfort, the older man being supported by the A.I as the rain continued to pour across the windows of Schale.

Before Volume F

The alarm buzzed repeatedly, causing a grizzled man's snoring to cease. The blue haired man groggily opened his eyes. "Arona, I'm up. You can turn off the alarm."

The alarm shut off as a chipper voice chimed from the tablet next to him. "Good morning Sensei!"

"Good morning Arona." Sensei's gruff voice responded as he slowly pulled himself out of bed. "What's the agenda for today?"

"You've got an appointment with Kokona's classroom in the morning, then lunch with the Ghenna Prefect team. The early afternoon is reserved for a weapons maintenance seminar with the Trinity Justice Task Force followed up with dinner with the Foreclosure Task Force. Then you've got drinks with Director Kanna in the evening."

"Gotcha. Thanks for keeping track of all this stuff Arona." Sensei threw on his uniform as he adjusted his tie. "I swear, back in my day, all we had were calendars and planners."

"It's no problem, Sensei." Arona chimed. "It's my way to help you the best I can."

As he walked towards the door, Sensei turned to a framed photo of a bright blue haired girl smiling before him. "See you Haru. Dad's gonna do his best."

With that, he opened the door and began another day of continuing the legacy his daughter put forth.