The lunch bell rang and Naiki was up and going for the door before anybody else. She was around the next corner in a flash and then looked back down the hall to see the other students coming out of the door and no sign of Lusca.
Breathing a sigh of relief she leaned back against the wall and started to turn to walk a bit more calmly through the halls to avoid attracting attention.
And saw Lusca right there, staring up at her adoringly hands clasped together and sighing expressively.
"You're so graceful and aggressive!" she said in praise.
"How'd you get here so fast!?" Naiki said.
"Duh," Lusca said, bursting into smoke and reforming again. "Demon"
"Oh, right," Naiki said. "Mara hasn't taught me that yet."
"I could teach you," the smaller Demoness said enthusiastically.
"Uhhh," Naiki said looking around. "Suuuure. Can you show me again?"
"Sure," Lusca said, she burst into smoke again, teleporting all of three feet.
"How about going somewhere further," Naiki suggested.
"How much further?" the pettanko with the long braids asked. "I can't go too far with Nifelheim down."
"How about to that tree and back," the shark-toothed girl said, pointing out the window.
Lusca blinked and looked out the window and then shrugged.
"I think I can almost get there," she said. "That'll be really hard though, I'll have to concentrate on this. I mean, we're not supposed to make it obvious and everything, you know."
"All right," Naiki said from behind her as she stepped quietly back toward the stairwell. "I'm ready to watch."
"Here goes," Lusca declared closing her fists cutely and closing her eyes in concentration.
As soon as she burst into smoke, Naiki was careening down the stairwell. Ten seconds later, Lusca reappeared in the hallway.
"Ah ha!" she said. "I did....it?"
She looked around blinking for Naiki, putting a finger to her mouth in thought.
"Ohhhhh," she said. "A trick. I knew she was strong, but smart too?! Squueeeeee!"
A pair of boys paused and looked over to where the new student was practically hopping around in a circle and sighing as she looked into space.
"Did she just...squee?" the boy asked.
************
"Hey, Yonjuu," a boy said, approaching her. "Would you like me to show you around?"
He was a tall boy dressed in a baseball uniform and flashing a bright smiler. His eyes drifted toward her chest despite his efforts to remain cool.
"Uhhh, no," she said self consciously. "I can find my way around just fine."
"But, I can show you all the special parts," he said, leaning in close to her. "If you know what I mean."
"Uhh, not really," the girl said.
"Oh, I'm sure you..." he paused as he felt a chill work over his spine. "Is Satomi standing behind me?"
"He is," Deimosu said darkly. Twelve.
"Well, I need to be heading to lunch," the baseball player said nervously as he inched away.
"What was that all about?" Yonjuu asked.
"Uh, nothing," Deimosu said as they started walking through the halls toward the lunch room.
"Ah, Yonjuu Ni, how lovely you are this afternoon," a new boy said whom Deimosu recognized as Shirai Satoru. "Perhaps you'd be willing to do me the honor of escorting you to lunch as your official gentlemen."
"But you're my boyfriend," another girl protested about ten feet further down the hall and marching her way up to the scene.
Deimosu looked past Shirai toward the girl and then at Shirai who suddenly looked rather nervous.
Twelve.
And then he quietly sent a surge of electricity through Shirai's body, roughly the same as a tazer, nothing permanent. But it was enjoyable to watch the pervert twitch for what seemed to be no reason at all.
"Shirai-kun!" the boy's unfortunate girlfriend gasped as she came to his side.
"Wh...what was that?" Shirai wondered.
Deimosu and Yonjuu pushed on swiftly, Yonjuu now looking quite angry.
Ohh, I'll bet it's these things here! she said, grasping her breasts for a moment and setting them jiggling. They just want to get me alone and do terrible things to me. It's like that TV show said at the hotel, kids really are cruel to the unfortunate.
They don't actually think you're ugly, Deimosu said with a sigh.
So you're saying they don't want to do horrible things to me? the Ni asked.
Umm, no, that part is right, the martial artist noted.
So, what, Yonjuu asked. Kids do cruel things to the beautiful?
*************
Kyoko sat in a wheelchair for the moment, her leg still needing to be immobilized for a while as it repaired itself. The other members of their group, however were gathered about the grass as usual. Only Mizuki and Naiki weren't there yet, which made sense given that both were in other classes and might still be getting their food.
"Look, I saw the video," Shinji said. "Naiki was fighting a giant calling himself Poseidon and you called her a demon. And then Sousuke comes back all bandaged up too and we've got all these weird people around. I mean, on the way over here, I passed a room with a fourteen year old girl named Amaterasu was talking to a boy who apparently comes from an old martial arts school or something."
"What's weird about that?" Kyoko asked. "We have a lot of old families in Tokyo."
"Yeah, don't make such a big deal about it," Kaname said, hiding her face.
"She was saying something about not remembering what she was doing during the Meiji restoration," Shinji protested.
"That is perfectly explainable," Sousuke noted. "After all, it has been made clear that she would not remember things that happened so far back."
"How could she," Kaname asked. "She wasn't even born yet."
"I thought this was Amaterasu we were..." Sousuke started to say.
"Who's a fourteen year old girl," Kaname noted. "Shinji just told us that."
"Right," Sousuke said.
"Come on, tell me," Shinji said. "Are these really the Gods and Demons come to Earth or something? They're aliens aren't they beamed down here from some ruined star ship."
"No...I'm from Earth," Eija said.
"Well, yeah, but you weren't one of them before," Shinji noted. "And now..."
"My grandmother is from Earth too," Eija noted. "They're all from Earth....ish."
"What she means is that they've just been in a remote part of Earth," Kaname noted.
Mizuki appeared from her own classroom and plopped down on the grass next to Kyoko. Almost immediately, as she used on hand to stuff food into her mouth, she took out a pen and started signing Kyoko's cast without asking or waiting for it to be offered.
"So," Mizuki said, the other kids around her. "What's going on?"
"They don't seem to want to say anything about the whole Gods thing," Shinji started to say.
"Pssh," Mizuki noted, waving her hand. "I don't care about that stuff. I'm wondering about something important."
"Wait, impending invasion isn't important?" Kaname asked.
"Ah ha!" Shinji said, pointing.
"Important!" Mizuki declared, putting a hand in Shinji's face and pointing toward Eija and Kaname, splitting her index finger and middle finger to do so. "You two...wait! Hey, Sousuke-kun, I think I saw a suspicious package by the wastebasket in the cafeteria."
"Really?" Sousuke said surprised and doubtful.
"Yeah," Mizuki said. "It kinda looked like a bento, but I mean it was brand new and right by the trashcan. Who buys a brand new bento and throws it away? And I was thinking about that stink bomb thing that went off right before the break and maybe it's another one of those things."
"And why are you telling Sousuke and not the school staff?" Kaname asked.
"Tssh," Nizuki said. "LAST time they blamed me for the stink bomb and I had to fill out a report and go to detention for a week! Let Sousuke deal with it."
"I am also responsible for garbage," Sousuke reminded them. "It would be best not to allow vandalism to occur under my watch."
"It might be best..." Eija noted.
It could actually be real, the Goddess noted to Kaname. It does sound strange.
"Yeah, I suppose it is," Kaname noted reluctantly.
"All right," Sousuke said. "I shall attend to this swiftly."
He stood up and started to walk away.
"So there's really a suspicious bento box at the wastebasket?" Kyoko asked.
"Oh yeah, just suddenly there," Mizuki said. "Anyway, now that it's just us girls."
"Wait, what?" Shinji asked.
"You two!" Mizuki declared pointing toward Eija and Satomi again with her two fingers before pointing at her eyes and back at them. "I've had my eyes on you."
"Umm, okay," Eija said.
"Sheesh, Mizuki, could you get anymore creepy?" Kaname asked. "What about us?"
"You two are doing the vulcan mind meld thing back and forth," she said, "staring at Sousuke's back and then going back to whatever."
"Oh, yeah," Kyoko said. "I noticed that."
"I'm not really sure what you could mean by that," Eija said, fluttering her eyes toward Kaname.
How could she possibly tell when we're talking?
I don't know? She's just freaky like that.
This was complete with a shrug.
"Look I'm not one of the..."
"So when are you two telling Sagara that you want to share?" Mizuki asked.
"Never mind," Shinji said, "I can listen to this."
Eija and Kaname stared out at Kyoko, Shinji and Mizuki with slack jaws and paling faces before turning toward each other.
"Quick, what do we say for denial?" Kaname asked.
"We just point ou...." Eija paused, and looked over toward their friends, who were staring with rapt attention. Kaname, I think that was out loud.
Oh crap! Kaname said. Uhhh....ridiculous right.
"We don't talk to each other's minds, that's ridiculous," Kaname said laughing. Oh God, I denied the wrong thing!
Don't panic! It's not over yet, there is still an ultimate Satomi secret technique for this, follow my lead, Eija said quickly, before turning to look to the side and pointing. "Oh, is that Deimosu and his underaged girlfriend over there?"
Almost instantly, Mizuki, Kyoko and Shinji looked toward where Deimosu was sitting with Yonjuu.
"She doesn't look underaged," Kyoko said.
And Eija grabbed Kaname before entering the Umesenken, guiding Kaname through the steps, and vanishing them both away.
The other turned back and saw no sign of the two girls.
"Awww, they ninja-ed us," Kyoko said.
********************
Sousuke was walking through the hallways on the way to cafeteria at a fast clip, eager to reach the potential stink bomb (or just plain bomb) before it was either accidentally moved or set off. He was just reaching the door when a Demoness with her hair in eight, long dark braids pushed her way out looking frustrated before catching sight of him.
"Oh, hey! You're one of these new people," she said waving and stepping forward.
"I am," Sousuke said cautiously. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a potential..."
"Do you know where Naiki Satomi is?" she asked, ignoring his comment. "I was trying to show her something and she had to leave or something."
"One can usually find Naiki Satomi in close vicinity to things exploding," Sousuke said.
"I know!" the girl returned breathlessly, clapping her hands together. "So strong."
"Yes, well, failing that," the Mithril mercenary noted. "She usually lunches with my group so that she can put herself in Kyoko Tokiwa's pictures."
"Kyoko Tokiwa..." Lusca said. "Are they an item?"
"I believe they're both separate entities," Sousuke said, wondering at the strange question and trying to get around the little girl. "Now if you'll excuse me."
"Oh, of course," she said. "So I follow your trail back to your group then."
"That should work," Sousuke noted.
Lusca nodded and then sniffed at the air before heading down the hall the way Sousuke had come.
Which left Sousuke free to finally head into the cafeteria and start scanning about the room, looking for the suspicious bento.
"Hey! There it is, just like I heard," a voice declared. "A fresh new Magical Lyrical Nanoha Bento box big enough for two people!"
"Cool deal!" another voice said.
Sousuke geared in on the noise quickly and looked across to see two boys from the modeling club looking toward a wastebasket and then noticing him.
In a moment, both Sousuke and the two boys were charging for the trashcan to the amazement of the watching staff. Each of them were about to reach the item in question when a figure suddenly appeared in their way, bringing both up to a stop.
"Stop!" Kagurazaka-sensei said loudly. "Hold it right there. We're not going to have any of this fighting over lost items."
"It is not lost, Kagurazaka-sensei," one of the modeling club boys declared. "It's been thrown away, that makes it fair game by the rules."
"You can't be..." the teacher started to say. "This is another of that Hayashimizu's student council rulings, isn't it?"
"That it is," the modeling student declared.
"I'm afraid I have to protest," Sousuke said. "There is a possibility of someone having tampered with this container. It has been suggested that a similar container contained a mild chemical attack that was used to assault the school prior to the start of break."
"Uh huh," Kagurazaka-sensei said, eyes half-lidded. "Right, it's going to gas us."
"It is a possibilty," Sousuke said.
"I can't believe I'm asking this," the teacher noted. "But is there an insane ruling for when two people are claiming an item from the trashcan?"
"Yes," Sousuke said immediately. "The contested item must be placed as the prize in a competition of some sort."
"Ah ha!" the modeling club member said. "Then I challenge you, Sagara. To a game of Battletech!"
"I'm not trying to claim the bento box," Sousuke noted. "If you'll just let me examine it for signs of tampering..."
"No," Hayashimizu said, appearing out of the blue. "The challenge has been made and must be met."
Sousuke just knew this was going to get Kaname upset at him somehow, and probably draw Eija in as well.
"Yes, your excellency," he said, sighing.
The teacher sighed and put her hand to her forehead.
"Yeah, you take care of that," she said. "I'm going to put this into the teacher's office until then."
Sousuke flinched as the teacher picked up the item in question.
"You really think it's a gas bomb, don't you," the teacher said with a sigh. "I swear, if this releases something that eats the school's clothes again..."
And with that she walked off toward the teacher's office.
"You'd better find yourself some lancemates, Sagara!" the modeling club said. "No one has ever bested the Modeling club at battletech yet."
"Dude, we only play against each other," his friend said.
"Ssssh!"
*************
"Yonjuu-chan!" a tall, punkish boy wearing his uniform half open said as he slouched toward her and leaned against the wall in her path with a cool smirk. "Hey, Satomi, you don't mind if I talk to the girl here do you?"
"I think you should be treating her with respect," Deimosu said stepping forward and leaning into his full six-foot height.
"Listen, Satomi," the shorter punk said. "I heard you're some sort of martial artist and stuff, but I learned to fight on the streets and I've been in hundreds of scraps, so just you go off and I'll see about showing your girl a thing or two about being a woman."
Twelve.
The thought was full of extreme vehemence.
"Uh, I think you should run right now," Yonjuu said, looking toward Deimosu.
"See, your girl knows what's what," the punk said.
"Actually, I'm talking to you," Yonjuu said.
"Don't worry baby, I can handle a little girly kung fu geek like him," the boy said.
***********
Issei blinked as something slammed into the wall behind him.
Turning around he saw one of the local punks shakily standing up and trying to clear his head.
"Dirty cheating bastard," he said. "I'll show him that that fancy martial arts stuff isn't worth crap."
"Excuse me?" Issei demanded angrily.
"Get out of my way you pansy freak, Inaba might think you're hot stuff, but I know better," the punk started to say as he tried to push through. "I gotta go talk to my boys."
And he put a hand on Issei's shoulder.
************
Kyoko lifted her camera up as she saw something click worthy, in this case a young man doing a flailing screaming dive into the school pool from the second window. Upon bringing the camera down, she saw Naiki standing there with a victory sign.
"Naiki," she said cheerfully. "Wow, glad you got here before lunch was over."
"Yeah, I had to pull some fancy moves to get here clear," Naiki said sitting down and pulling out the bread she'd gotten. "There's this..."
"So who's the new girl?" Mizuki asked.
"...new...student," Naiki finished slowly before turning toward her side and looking to see Lusca sitting there staring up at her again. "How...how did you?"
"This nice boy told me that you eat over here most of the time," Lusca said. "That was a very clever trick you pulled on me! I like you."
"Uhh, trick," Naiki said, eyes shifting in different directions. "What was that."
"Well, you know, how you asked me to see if I could show you how to teleport and I did this," the girl vanished.
"The hell was that?" Shinji demanded.
Naiki took off running.
"Sorry, Kyoko!" she called back.
"Wow, it runs in the family," Mizuki said.
Lusca reappeared.
"And when I got back you were...." she blinked and looked around. "She did it again! Squeeee! Now, where to look...oh, right I can just wait for class! So smart! So cute!"
She said this bouncing up and down with her braids bouncing with her, given that was about all she had that could bounce, and then Lusca turned toward Shinji, Kyoko and Mizuki.
"Which of you is Kyoko?" she asked.
"Oh, that would be me," the named girl said. "It's so good to see Naiki found someone attracted to her."
"You mean you're not?" Lusca asked.
"Can we go back to the vanishing in a puff of smoke thing?" Shinji asked.
"Well, she's a girl," Kyoko noted as if it were obvious.
"Aren't you worried about her running from you?" Mizuki asked.
"Oh no," Lusca said. "Geisthexe-san explained it all to me! Naiki wants someone that can match up to her in her prowess. It is all a test. And I shall pass that test!"
She giggled, then squeed again and skipped off toward the school.
"That was very mean of Geisthexe-san to do that to that poor girl," Mizuki said.
"Aww, I was hoping Naiki'd found a girlfriend," Kyoko said.
"Can someone explain the smoke and teleporting thing?" Shinji asked.
*************
Naiki came to a stop outside the gym and ducked around a corner, trying to think of something to do before the next class.
Naiki! You're so worked up I can hear you through the blocks, what's going on? Tessa's voice demanded.
I've got a stalker! Naiki declared.
All right, Tessa noted seriously. Give me the information and I'll see what I can do.
She's about five foot three inches, with knee length hair in eight braids, Naiki referred.
Okay, Tessa said. And where have you seen her?
She's been sitting in the desk next to mine, Naiki said.
The Demoness could almost see and feel Tessa put down a pen.
What exactly is going on here? she asked.
She's singing at me and staring and being a creepy, Naiki said.
She isn't either a buff or busty blonde either, is she, Tessa asked.
No! She's a pettanko brunette! Naiki returned. Are you laughing Tessa?
**************
"Okay," Kaname said with a sigh as she and Eija reappeared into visibility back in the classroom. That was a close one.
We'll have to be very careful from here on out, Eija said.
You don't think they've forgotten do you? Kaname asked.
Not really, Eija said. So we need to decide what to do.
By the way, Kaname said. Aren't those girls supposed to be here as your cousins?
Well, yes, Eija said. Why?
Because you called her Deimosu's underaged girlfriend, Kaname noted.
Oh. How wonderful.
The embarrassment was clearly noticeable in both her thoughts and face.
"Attention, all students," Hayashimizu's voice called out. "Will all please report to the auditorium after the lunch bell to witness a competition of glory, honor and spoils."
"The hell?" Kaname asked.
"Will Kaname Chidori, Eija Satomi and Shinji Kazama please report to the student council room?" the student president said a few seconds later.
"Sousuke," both girls said at once.
***************
"I swear this school is crazy," Kagurazaka-sensei said, putting down the unclaimed bento with a firm hand as she came into the office.
Mara looked up from the notes she was taking on her break period.
"Now that Hayashimizu is shutting down classes for some sort of pretend battle," she said.
"What is that about?" Mara asked.
"Both Sagara and some other boy are trying to get this bento box and they're settling it with a battle of some sort of miniature game," Kagurazaka-sensei said. "And of course to put our foot down would 'interfere with the autonomy of the students.'"
She put her palm to her forehead and looked skyward as if for guidance.
"I swear," she muttered. "Keep an eye on the office please. We just got all the summer projects and papers in, don't want someone sneaking in and stealing something."
"Not a problem," Mara said. "I can handle that just fine."
Kagurazaka-sensei left still shaking her head and rolling her eyes.
Mara sniffed at the air momentarily and then sighed in a pleased manner.
"Ahhh, sulfur," she said. "Reminds me of home."
*************
"Okay," the punk said to his assembled hoodlums. "Both Tsubaki and Satomi have to come by here on the way to the auditorium for whatever this thing is. And I'll bet Satomi is right around that new girl."
"Hey, if she's hanging around Satomi, maybe she's just as dangerous as his sister," someone suggested.
"Shut your trap," the leader said. "That was a fluke. None of these martial artist geeks know how to really fight worth a damn. Certainly no girl can."
"I was pissing blood after that!" someone protested.
The crowd of punks looked back at him.
"I got better," he said quietly.
"Doesn't Satomi have two sisters?" someone else asked.
There was a wash of quiet.
"Eija took off her sunglasses once and I made eye contact and I couldn't sleep for a week," he said.
"Really?" someone asked.
"She smiled and said 'hi'," he whispered. "It was creepy cute!"
"Why don't we just kidnap Kaname and challenge Sousuke?" someone asked. "He'd use guns and we'd die faster."
"Ooo!" the leader said. "Kidnapping is a good idea, let's kidnap someone for a hostage to get them to fight us."
"I thought we were ambushing them," someone noted.
"But who do we kidnap?" the leader wondered.
A cheerfully humming girl with long brown braids started to skip through the scene between the small horde of punks.
"Hey, flat-chest," the leader called out. "We're going to kidnap you to force Tsubaki and Satomi to fight us."
The girl paused and thought about it for a moment.
"Well, I don't think that works with my plan," she said. "But I'm willing to give it a try. If you think it will get Satomi here."
"Uhhh, okay," the punk leader said.
***************
"How'd we get into this?" Kaname asked her apparent teammates.
"Apparently," Sousuke said. "Someone else wants to claim the bento in question and challenged me for it. President Hayashimizu insisted I take the challenge and when he asked if I had anyone to serve on my team..."
"Obviously it is just us," Kaname sighed.
"Well, we do need to practice if we're going to take on that Megumi girl," Eija noted.
"Oh yeah," Kaname agreed, narrowing her eyes.
I saw my mother talking to her and her brother and that other woman a couple of days ago, Eija told Kaname conspiratorially.
Oh yeah, she's got to go down if she's still sniffing around, Kaname said. So let's paste these geeks than move on to her then.
Right, Eija said clenching her fist and pumping it confidently.
"We're ready," Kaname said smiling and cracking her knuckles.
"They're doing the mind meld thing aren't they?" Shinji asked.
"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," Sousuke noted idly, despite having felt the background static of feeling Kaname's end of the conversation.
******************
"Damn it, Tessa, why can't you help me now in my hour of need," Naiki said.
She paced and considered her situation.
"There's no way I'm going to that thing in the auditorium, cause that girl is going to just be there waiting, I know it," she noted.
Stopping she nodded firmly.
***************
"All right," she decided. "I'll go hang out in one of the empty classrooms. No way she'll find me there."
Deimosu and Yonjuu were stopped in the hall as a trio of punks came into their path.
"Hey, Satomi," the central punk said. "Our boss wants to let you know that we've got your girl kidnapped and we're going to be doing horrible things to her if you don't come and show up for a beating like you've never received in your life."
Deimosu looked over toward Yonjuu and arched an eyebrow.
Why are you looking at me? She blushed fiercely.
"Not this one, another one," the punk said.
"'Another one?'" Deimosu said confused.
Now, I know you don't have a girlfriend, so what is he talking about? Yonjuu said.
I have no idea, but better check it out, he said shrugging. "Okay whatever."
"Okay then, the ambush is two halls over now," he said.
"The ambush is..." Deimosu stared at the punks. "Really?"
"We had to relocate it to make it a hostage thing instead," he said. "Now I have to go contact Tsubaki."
"You go do that," Yonjuu said watching him go. Are we going to kill them?
Just rough them up a little, he returned with a shrug. Wait. What do you mean you know I don't have a girlfriend?
*****************
What the hell is this crap? Kaname declared as the referee put out another marker on her map to note that she'd discovered something. Look out, there's a firefly about to get sight on your Apollo. Turn one faces left and the ref should show it to you.
Oh, I know where he is then, Eija returned out loud she continued. "I'm really sorry I'm already down to one mech."
"Sousuke," Kaname said. "We've got a scout about to find something. I don't got sight on you to know if you can see."
"Are the girls taking this a little personally?" Shinji asked.
"Affirmative," he responded. "He just came into my sight, be aware, the enemy's fourth lance was sighted heading your way."
"Yeah," Shinji said. "There's an Daishi and two Madcats, they passed my position just last turn. I'm trying to get in behind them, but I all I can do is support."
"What do we have left?" Sousuke asked with eyes narrowed.
"I've got a Firefly and a damaged but operating Wolverine," Shinji said.
"One armed Timber Wolf," Kaname said. "Two Wasps."
"My Apollo," Eija said forlornly.
"And I have a Jackrabbit and a Timber Wolf," Sousuke said.
Mizuki wandered over casually.
"By the way, where's the bento?" she asked.
"I believe Kagurazaka-sensei took it to the teacher's office," Sousuke said.
"Wasn't there a weight limit for this match?" Kaname asked. "I've had exchanges with at least two other heavies. They swarmed Eija with mediums, and we've taken out four recon mechs between us."
"Yeah," Shinji said irritably. "And they're using Clan tech to our Inner Sphere."
"They're cheating...in a challenge?!" Eija asked in a shrill, highly offended voice. "Why hasn't the ref caught this?"
She moved over to look at the write up of the challenge.
"This has two different rules sets for team crafting on it," the martial artist said.
"What?" Kaname shrieked moving toward Eija's side. "Experience handicap?! What the hell?"
"Okay, now this is personal for me too," Shinji said.
"All right," Sousuke said. "I have a plan."
**************
"All right, get in there," the punk told Lusca as he pushed her into an empty room and shut the door on her.
"How rude," Lusca said dusting her off. "This plan had better work, or he will be facing a...situation."
"Would whoever that is be quiet," a girl's voice called out. "I'm trying to sleep in here."
"Squeeeee!"
Lusca jumped to the top of the teacher's desk and crouched over to look down at the floor where Naiki was staring wide-eyed at the wall from her lying down position.
*************
Deimosu, Yonjuu and Issei stopped as they came to the same hall and looked at each other.
"Did you get challenged for this nonsense too?" Deimosu asked.
"Yes," Issei said. "This fool has already offended me once today and now I hear he has kidnapped your...." he looked over at Yonjuu. "Are you some sort of two timing pervert, Satomi?"
"He doesn't have a girlfriend," Yonjuu noted with a curiously happy tone.
I still want to know how you can tell that, Deimosu noted mentally. And why do you sound happy about it.
I'm not really sure, the Ni noted.
"So who have they kidnapped then?" Issei asked.
"I don't know," the blonde half-Greek said. "I figure save them first, identify them later."
"Sounds good," Issei said with a nod.
"I suppose I should watch since I'm supposed to be learning basic stuff first," Yonjuu said.
"This'll be about as basic as it gets," Deimosu said.
The three of them turned the corner to see a small army of punks.
"Ha! So you're not cowards then," the leader declared. "Well get ready for..."
He was interrupted as the body of the first struck punk flew past him and the next slammed straight into him.
"My kidney!"
************
"The hell?!" one of the modeling club members said. "I just lost my long-range support. When did they get to this side of the map? Where's scouting?"
"All the scouts are down!" another said. "None of us have any good eyes anymore. Just cover ground with your assaults as best you can."
"Nooo! My Daishi is down!" someone called out. "Some friggin 25 ton Jackrabbit just took out my head in one shot!"
"Missiles just fired from the hill top to the north!" another declared. "Damn it their incendiaries! Critical overheating on two of my mechs."
"How bad," the leader asked. "Three ammo explosions, lost a leg."
"What were you doing keeping ammo on your leg?" another demanded.
*********
Mara looked up at a hissing sound and turned to look back at the bento that the other teacher had brought in. She blinked for a couple seconds watching it.
"What the hell?" she asked.
And then it exploded outward in a wash of thick sulfurous smoke almost immediately followed by a downpour of water from the sprinklers all over everything in the room.
Frantically, Mara moved to turn off her computer as she shaped a shield out of the smoke around the one vulnerable machine. The water soaked everything else in the room, destroying pretty much every pile of papers, homework and the various other summer projects.
As soon as her computer was secured, she waved herself and coughed a little.
"Okay, that was a little thick to be a reminder of home," she noted hacking again. "How do I turn off the sprinklers."
***************
"Why do you keep following me?" Naiki asked.
"Why?" Lusca asked. "Squeee. So strong. So smart. So kyuuute!"
"Okay, so granted I'm strong and smart and sexy," Naiki said.
"Cute, actually," the other Demoness said.
There was a muffled scream from outside the room and a thump into the wall that attracted their eyes for half a minute before they turned back to look at each other.
At which point a bright burst of lightning cascaded through the hall outside.
"Why not sexy?" Naiki asked.
"Cute is better," the other Demoness asserted.
"How do you know about me anyway?" Naiki said.
"Well, when they unsealed me," she said. "They told me someone had cast one of my spells recently to fight some sort of human Juggernaut or something."
"Uhhh, Tendrils of the Kraken?" Naiki asked.
"That's the one," she said happily. "I swear no one has cast it in forever. I was starting to feel unappreciated!"
"Did you say unsealed?" Naiki asked suddenly.
"Well, when you killed Poseidon," Lusca said, twirling one of her braids.
"Helped kill," Naiki corrected her.
"Pfft, everyone else was a land-locked nobody I hear," she said.
"Actually..."
Naiki, I swear, if you sick your unwanted lesbian crush on me, Tessa warned. I will be having words with your mother and teacher.
The green-haired Demoness sighed reluctantly.
"So Poseidon had sealed you," Naiki guessed.
"Yep! Back in the 80s! I wasn't even done growing up yet, the coward!" Lusca declared with more than a trace of anger. "And when he died they were able to unseal me! So here I am. Do you know what it's like to be sealed for that long when you don't have all your memories and power yet?"
"Uhh, no," Naiki said.
"Of course not!" Lusca noted. "Because you're too strong, smart and cute to be captured like that."
"Well, thank you for the compliment but if you could leave me alone?" Naiki asked.
"Oh, but you owe me a favor," Lusca reminded her. "A category 1 favor. So I'm going to admire you from close up."
"Is that your favor?" Naiki asked.
"Oh no!" the girl said. "If I use my favor then I don't have it. No no, I'm not calling in my favor."
"Well, since you have nothing to give me," the shark Demoness noted. "I think I'll..."
"But if I have to, I can ask for a favor," she said. "Like...singing I'm a little teapot to the school. Oooor, oooo! Take me for a helicopter ride..."
Naiki turned dreadfully pale. Especially at the word "helicopter".
"So either you spend your time following me around and gushing at me," the martial artist said. "Or I get some sort of humiliating demand?"
"Right!" Lusca said.
"Why don't you just use your favor to make me date you for real?" Naiki asked.
"Miss Geisthexe said your mother would hurt me if I did that," Lusca said.
"But blackmail is okay?" Naiki asked.
"I think so," Lusca said. "But I didn't ask."
"All right," Issei declared pushing open the door to the classroom and slipping in. "You're free to go ladi...wait, Satomi? They kidnapped you?"
"Naiki, what are you doing here?" Deimosu asked.
"Oh no," the little braided girl said. "That was me."
Deimosu and Issei exchanged looks and left the room wordlessly.
"What does that mean?!" Naiki demanded as she stood up walked out the door herself, only to find Issei and her brother already gone.
The sprinklers went off and the punks started to slowly wake up and notice Naiki standing in the middle of the.
"All right," the punk leader said weakly as he stood up. "No more Mr. Nice Guy. Satomi, I know you're there somewhere. Enough of this cheating crap. I'm going to take you down once and for all. You should have just let us in so you don't get hurt."
"Did someone just call me a cheater?" Naiki asked coldly.
Lusca watched from the doorway and stared forward rapt as Naiki tore through the punks after their highly inappropriate comment in regards to her honor in a competition.
****************
"And the winner is Team Sagara!" Hiyashiizu declared. "Congratulations, you have successfully defended your right to the..."
And the sprinklers cascaded down on the entire auditorium, sparking sudden cries of "fire" and panicked students rushing out of the room for safer areas.
***********
"Dude, we have to give up on this," one of the punks said. "All you've managed to do was get us beat up twice."
"No, no," the leader declared. "We can do this, we can show those pansies what a real fighter is!"
Lusca walked out of the room and looked around for Naiki.
"So strong!" she sighed.
"Hey, you," the leader said. "Get back in that room!"
"But I already saw Satomi," she said.
"Then we can find something else for you to show us," the leader said with a leer as he and his fellows took in the lovely pettanko.
"Ohh, you're funny," Lusca said chuckling.
Another figure walked into the hallway and looked around hesitantly. Lusca looked over at her and blinked to recognize a fourteen year old Amaterasu. She started to move when she remembered that they were allied at the moment.
"Uhh, excuse me," the girl said. "I was looking for my classroom, I left...some...errr...hello."
"Oh look, it's new rich girl," one of the punks said. "Now we've got two girls to play with."
"Yeah," Lusca said. "Even if we weren't apparently on the same side right now. Amaterasu isn't old enough to have most of her power yet, so that's quite such a funny joke here."
"Well, we think it's funny," the punks said chuckling.
Lusca walked over toward Amaterasu and pulled the younger girl behind her.
"Last chance to back off," the girl said, dead seriously.
"Ehh?"
"Us, back off?" the leader said. "Have we shown any sign of that sort of thinking?"
"Oh well," she said. "I'll try not to seriously hurt you."
"You won't seriously hurt us?" a punk said doubtfully.
"Oh man, she's another martial artist," yet another punk noted.
"Oh, no," Lusca said. "I don't do much in the way of martial arts."
"Then how are you going to fight us?"
*******
Kagurazaka-sensei came out of the teacher's office coughing at the stench and blinked as saw a thug screaming down a hallway and then suddenly be pursued by what looked like a long tentacle and pulled back into the hallway he'd run out of, kicking and screaming.
She blinked again and rubbed at her eyes before proceeding to the Principal's office.
********
"Attention students, please vacate the school grounds," the Principal's voice declared. "Apparently someone detonated a hallucinogenic gas in the main building. In addition the sprinklers have apparently destroyed most, if not all of the summer projects. As such you will have another two weeks to complete those assignments."
"Yes!" Mizuki cheered. "It worked!"
Kaname, Eija, Sousuke, and Shinji stopped walking and turned to look at Mizuki. Kyoko, in her temporary wheel chair, and Naiki, who was pushing her, each did likewise. Deimosu and Yonjuu behind Mizuki stopped as well and stared at her as she danced around in celebration.
"Two more weeks to do summer projects and half a day off from school," Mizuki declared proudly.
"When...when did you plan this?" Kaname asked.
"I've been planning this for three months!" Mizuki declared proudly. "I'm not sure how some this stuff happened, but half day off! Woot!"
The people around her groaned in various ways.
"Mizuki," Kyoko said with a sigh.
"You were planning this before you ever got assigned the homework?!" Kaname shouted.
"Yeah," Mizuki said as if that was obvious.
"Why didn't you just do the homework?" Sousuke asked.
"I was busy putting the whole smoke bomb thing together!" Mizuki said.
********
"That's it, I'm through with being a punk!" several boys called out in one set of words or another. "I'm going to be a damn nerd for the rest of the year."
"But they're just wimps and hallucinations," the leader protested.