Bubblegum Crisis Fan Fiction / Mai-HiME Fan Fiction ❯ Bubblegum Hime ❯ Chapter 8

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Bubblegum Hime
Nine

Yukino Kikukawa adjusted her student uniform carefully as she walked into the student council offices, feeling the other's eyes resting on her. 'They don't know Haruka just made me go on a vacation,' she reminded herself of the facts firmly, 'and they certainly don't know what we were doing all the time up there.'

"Welcome back," Reito Kanzaki smirked, the black haired young man's eyes twinkling with amusement. "You look very," he paused meaningfully, "rested."

'He does know,' Yukino thought to herself glumly as she took her seat, Haruka following.

Shizuru was also smirking, but in a less obvious way. "Yes, very rested," she agreed, "both you and Haruka."

Haruka grit her teeth, fighting the urge to say something to Shiziru. No matter what she said in her's and Yukino's defense she was pretty sure Shizuru could twist it around against her. "We needed a few days away," Haruka answered coolly.

"Indeed," Mashiro agreed, the purple haired woman sitting in on the student council meeting with her maid Fumi.

Yukino looked down the meeting table at Mashiro. "I haven't gotten a full update yet," she admitted, "how did the Hime do while I was gone?"

"Very well," Fumi said cheerfully as she took a ipod like device from her skirt and passed it to Yukino, "they defeated two orphan's without any problems."

"Good," Haruka murmured as she peered over Yukino's shoulder as she used the device to view two video files.

"The only problem I think we had," Shizuru admitted to the council, "was in determining who should be in charge with you gone."

Yukino gave her a thoughtful look, "It ended up being Natsuki or Mai, am I right?"

Shizuru raised her eyebrows just slightly, a expression of great surprise on the normally reserved woman. "How did you know?" she asked.

Yukino smiled slightly, "I did some personality profiling when I first recruiting them. From my testing I figured those two both showed some degree of leadership potential."

"Do you have someone you'd prefer leaving in command when you're absent?" Mashiro had to ask, leaning forward in her wheelchair.

"I'm tending to think Natsuki," Yukino admitted, "she has a good combination of intelligence, experience and aggression."

"Aggression?" Reito raised his eyebrow questioningly.

"I like Mai a great deal," Yukino shrugged, "but she really doesn't want to fight. I'm sure if she could she'd herd the Orphan's away into a pen or something...."

"Not exactly practical," Shizuru agreed.

Haruka studied the files, "No serious damage to school property, too. Thank goodness."

"Though the delinquent clean up crews did a good job too," Fumi added pleasantly. A smirk, "Nao was especially helpful, I understand."

"What's she up to now?" Haruka wondered, scowling.

"She's been taken under the wing of Sister Yukariko, I think," Tate noted, the young man studying his files, "it could be she's turned over a new leaf." As everyone gave him disbelieving looks he added, "Or she just wanted to get away from her lectures for awhile."

"Heh," Yukino smiled.

"All right," Shizuru said briskly, "let's get on with the day's business...."

Kaiji Sakomizu paused, the slightly overweight man smiling a bit shyly at the woman sitting across the office from him. Her references were excellent, as were her previous jobs, but it did leave him wondering why she would be angling for a job at a small private school like theirs.

"So, Miss Sayers," Sakomizu said warmly.

"Please," the brown haired woman smiled warmly, "just call me Rena."

"Rena, then," Sakomizu flushed a bit as he tried to get his mind back on track. "Why would someone of your talents in science want to be in a simple teaching position?"

Rena looked thoughtful, "To be honest, I needed a break." At his questioning look she added, "I've spent the last several years working on several high pressure assignments, and to be honest I think I burned out a bit."

"Ah," Sakomizu hesitated, "You know that teaching presents it's own challenges....?"

"Oh, yes," Rena chuckled, "I student taught through much of my university training. But at least students are human challenges, unlike the more exotic work I had been doing."

"Fair enough," Sakomizu conceded. He studied her file again, "Your hiring will have to be confirmed by the board, but in my opinion they'd have to be fools to turn you down."

Rena smiled, "Thank you, sir."

He got up from behind the desk as Sakomizu offered his hand, "Welcome to Fuka Academy."

"Glad to be here," Rena answered.

He lead her out of the administration offices as Sakomizu asked, "Has anyone given you the full tour yet?"

"No, not yet," Rena admitted, "though I did a fast walk around with one of your visitor's guides." She nodded to the building they just left, "That's purely administration, along with the library?"

"Yes, ma'am," he agreed as they walked along a tree lined path, "and we're near the student dorms too. We have mixed dorms by age, tho genders are seperated out of course."

"Any problems with that?" Rena asked curiously.

Sakomizu blushed, "There's a certain degree of sneaking around that goes on, but there's not much we can do to stop it." He smiled, "Teenaged hormones being what they are. One of our more controversial decisions was to make birth control methods available at the studen union."

"Upset some people?" Rena said sympathetically.

"Sister Yukariko is still not talking to me," Sakomizu admitted.

Deciding a subject change was a good idea Rena said, "I was quite impressed by the cafeteria, too. It has the sort of quality I'd expect in a cafe."

"We're very proud of it," Sakomizu beamed, "many of the staff eat there, too." He pointed, "Over here is the High School potion of the facility, and the Elementary division is over there."

"They're seperated by a fair distance," Rena noted.

"We try to keep them from distracting one another," Sakomizu agreed, "though we do some united events, too, like the school festival and sports days."

They toured the main facilities and the recreation areas, Rena noting with some amusement how hard he was selling the campus. He clearly thought she would be an asset, and didn;'t want to risk her changing her mind about applying. "Thank you for the tour," Rena said as she shook his hand, "I'll look forward to working with you."

"Me, too," Sakomizu blushed, a bit beffudled by the pretty woman.

Rena took pity on him and stepped away, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "See you later," she promised as she walked away, heading towards the parking lot.

A tall, black haired student dismounted from her bike, pulling off her helmet and shaking out her hair as Rena slowed, looking at her in stunned shock. "What?" Natsuki Kuga demanded irritably.

"Nothing," Rena said, feeling mildly stunned by the resemblance between this young lady and her lover. "Pardon my asking," Rena said cautiously, "are you Natsuki Kuga?"

Natsuki gave her a suspicious look, "And what if I was?"

"I believe I knew your mother," Rena said, mixing truth and lies cautiously.

"What!?" Natsuki blurted.

To be continued....