Today, I came to Millenium for a few things.
Although, that might be an understatement considering the arsenal I came with. I had multiple duffle bags of long arms on my back, multiple holsters hanging off my body, and two hard cases in both hands stuffed as tight as possible while being able to close.
Needless to say, I was over-armed, especially since the students could easily defeat me in a fight without me even going through a quarter of these, but that wasn't what I was here for.
With my bags of guns, I made my way to the Engineering Club.
"Sensei." Utaha waved to me from where she was sitting.
I'd called ahead of course, because with how much I had on me it was going to be a mess. Seemed like Utaha and Hibiki were the only ones free at this time though, Kotori was apparently off doing something. They weren't too specific about it, but I had to assume it was something important.
A bead of sweat fell from Hibiki's head. "That's… a lot of guns."
"Don't I know it. And it weighs a ton too." I started getting the guns off, making sure not to drop any of them in the process."
"So how did you get all of these? Did you collect guns before working at SCHALE?" Utaha started looking through what I brought.
"Nope, most of these I actually got recently, a shop near SCHALE closed because the owner was retiring, and he still had these stock, so I just bought it off him."
Hibiki perked up from the AR-15 she had been analysing. "Really? So, you got all of this cheap?"
"Yeah. I wanted to pay full price, but he was pretty tough about it, so I took the discount."
Utaha gave me a small smile. "Hah. That couldn't have been cheap nonetheless." She picked up a SG 553. "How much did this one cost, Sensei?"
"A pretty penny." I removed the last holster and its gun from my body, and heaved a sigh of relief at the weight off my body. "So, what do you think of this haul?"
"There's some good things here, but there's also some bad things." Utaha grabbed a battered Kar 98k out of the pile, and pulled back the bolt.
Well, she tried at least. "The bolt here is jammed, so you can't even disassemble it through the normal method. We'll need to tear it apart through other means, so it might cause some damage."
"Go ahead. I'd rather have working sacrileges to the gun gods than pretty but not working rifles, and that isn't pretty even."
Hibiki held up an Austen. "What about this?"
"We can probably throw it into the sea, but that's offensive to the sea."
"So, what do you want us to do to these?" Utaha gestured towards the pile. "Get them working, and anything else you need?"
"Well…" I reached around my back, and took out my own personal weapon.
"What's this?" Utaha leaned over. "A shortened Hi-Power?"
"Yep. I wanted to get some extra magazines for this, since the grip has been shortened as well." I showed off the shortened grip. "It's been reduced to a ten-round capacity. Maybe if you're fine with it some new grips as well, I prefer smooth grips to these stippled ones."
"Alright." Utaha gave me a thumbs up, and from behind where she was looking at the guns Hibiki gave one too.
"Thanks, you two. Send the bill to Schale when you're done, if I fill out the right forms I can get this written off as a business expense." I gave a wink.
Now all that was left was to wait.
A week later, I got a message on Momotalk from Utaha.
Utataka
Sensei, the guns are ready
Feel free to pick them up at anytime
With that in mind, after I finished up with work at SCHALE, I headed over to Millenium to pick up the guns.
When I entered the building, the Engineering Club was busy working on something. It was large, silver, and if I knew anything of how they worked it probably was something like a nuclear-powered hot dog maker.
"Ah, Sensei." Utaha saw me, and put down her tools and walked over. Hibiki and Kotori waved at me and went back to work.
A bit lonely, but well, they are busy.
"Hey. So, it's all working now?"
Utaha showed the table covered in guns. "Every single gun is in working condition now, even the more… ratty ones." She picked up what once was a Kar 98k, now in a Monte Carlo stock and with a set of rings for a scope. "It may not be the most historically accurate way to get them working, but you did tell us anything goes."
"I did. And about my Browning?"
She handed me my gun. "We made a few new magazines for it, not just cut-down Hi-Power magazines but newly built ones. New grips, made out of wood to match the nickel plating."
I held it in my hands, savouring the new grips. They were smooth, finely polished walnut, with a beautiful grain to the wood.
"Perfect work. I doubt I'd be able to find anyone who could do this standard of work outside of Kivotos."
Utaha gave a small chuckle to that. "There's no need to flatter us. This is just the quality the Engineering Club brings to all our projects."
My mind more focused on the gun and the workmanship, I didn't think through my response. "Well, this work is good enough that I'm having second thoughts about passing it on."
"Passing it on?" She cocked her head a little at that. "Who are you passing it on to?"
"Well, my daughter is about of that age, so I thought I'd give it to her."
The Club still hadn't picked their jaws off the floor when Sensei left.
Yuuka came in to help me with my finances, as always.
The first sign I had that something was wrong came when she found the latest evidence of my impulse purchases, a limited run transforming toy I'd bought. Rather than scolding me with her usual bombast, she was uncharacteristically quiet about it. Throughout the entire day she was quiet and introspective, barely saying a word unless it was important.
Finally, I had enough.
"Yuuka, are you alright?"
She snapped out of her trance with a start. "Sensei? What do you mean?"
"I meant what I said. You've been out of it all day, are you sick? If you're sick you should've stayed home, you're a hard worker and you need rest too." Maybe it came off as a bit preachy, but Yuuka has always been one of the most helpful people I knew, and she genuinely deserved to have some time to herself. Like the 'sudden unplanned break' Noa and I had been planning for her. I surreptitiously reached for my phone in case the plans had to be pushed forward.
Her face flushing like a tomato, Yuuka frantically flailed her arms. "N-no! It's nothing like that Sensei, I just… had something on my mind!"
I raised an eyebrow.
Yuuka continued her imitation of a tomato.
I wiggled my eyebrows.
"I just can't hide anything from you, Sensei…" She deflated and heaved a sigh. I tensed up, fearing I might've pushed too much, before Yuuka's posture changed, and the rooms atmosphere sobered.
"Sensei, is it true you have a daughter?"
I stared at Yuuka.
She stared back, unflinching.
I bolted from the room.
"Sensei?!"
I sat in the SCHALE lounge, a cup of cheap fruit punch on front of me.
Opposite me sat Yuuka, her eyes following my every movement, ready to pounce if I ran again.
We sat in silence, punctuated with the sounds of drinking.
I was on my third cup already. We'd been here for about half an hour, and I didn't want to speak about this matter.
Sadly, for all her strengths, Yuuka was also incredibly stubborn. And scary when mad. Her eye started to twitch about 5 minutes ago, and it was just a matter of time before she broke.
But she would break before me. And that was what mattered.
So, I just sat, continuing to drink from my little red plastic cup.
As I brought it to my mouth again, she finally snapped.
"How long are you going to just drink that?"
I didn't respond, instead choosing to make my next sip just a smidge louder.
"Is this really something you don't want to talk about?"
I started to give her a thumbs up, then thought better of it. "Where did you even hear about it from?"
"The Engineering Club."
Hm. I vaguely remembered looking at my pistol when and saying something. Need to keep my tongue in check. Too many awkward questions to step around. "To answer your question, no, not really. Maybe. I don't know."
She slammed the desk in frustration. "Then why were you running away?!"
I thought about it for a bit. Of all the ways to dodge the question, I guess starting with the truth worked the best. "I wasn't a particularly good father. I'd be away on birthdays, I'd be busy when she won awards. Maybe I just didn't want to think about that. She always tried to get closer to me, and I always pushed her away. Never did right by her. Should've. Ought've. Didn't."
I tried not to let the weight of old memories show on my face. So many things I could've done better. So many more things I could've done. But time wouldn't let me now.
My words must've taken her off guard, as Yuuka looked at me, dazed, words trying to form themselves on her lips. Instead, I continued. "You know, the reason I try to do my best for the students, cause I wasn't there for my own kid. Couldn't see her grow up, and whenever she tried to get close I just pushed her away, justifying it was for her good, that making money was more important. But spending time with her was more important."
I looked her in the eye. "And maybe the reason I don't want to talk about it is because some failures weigh more heavily on me than others."
We sat in silence as she digested what I said, before she got out of the chair.
"It's never too late Sensei! Where is she now?"
She forced me out of SCHALE with a bouquet of flowers. Yellow pansies, she said. In the language of flowers, they meant 'thinking about you', apparently.
She and Noa would handle the rest of the work for the day. They sent me off with a smile and a wave, maybe a silent good luck.
I wasn't much for it.
"How have you been doing? Well?"
Silence.
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry I don't visit you more often."
Silence.
"Since the last time I was here, I got a new job. I'm a teacher now, apparently."
Silence.
"Yeah, I know. Weird, huh. The workaholic useless son-of-a-bitch you called a father, teaching?" I barked with laughter. "Seems they think I'm doing pretty well. Wonder what you'd say to them?"
Silence.
"One of them made me come here and visit you, the moment they heard about it. That you exist." I placed down the flowers. "A gift from them to you. Yellow pansies. Apparently, in flower language, they mean 'thinking about you'."
"Wonder how they'd react if they knew how right they were."
Silence.
"I'm sorry. I say it a thousand times, but I'm sorry. I should've been there more. I should've spent more time with you. I'm so sorry." Tears were starting to drip.
"And I'd give everything I have now if I could spend another day with you. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."
I kept repeating myself like a broken record, a broken man in front of a barren gravestone.
"I'm so sorry."
Until a familiar voice came out of the shadows. "Sensei?"
I turned my head to see a pink sleepyhead staring at me in shock.
"W-what are you doing here, Sensei? At Yume-senpais grave?"
Authors Notes:
I tried to go for something less slice of life. Give me a review and tell me how you felt! The beginning was written a year ago, so if the quality is worse than usual its because of that.
The original idea I had was to put it as Yume being the dead daughter, maybe have Hoshino appear, but I felt leaving it open was better.
Edit: This sentence is left here for posterity.
Also, if the tag use is wrong, please let me know. I have no idea which is right, Angst or Hurt.
Edited: 10/3/24, 19/3/24.
