Sakura Wars Fan Fiction ❯ The Odd and the Weird ❯ The Dressing Tube: Iris ( Chapter 3 )

Author's Notes:
Granted, Iris arrived at the Teigeki about a year before Sakura did, so I'm assuming that she's 8 years old when she appeared at the OVA.

I apologize in advance if I'm ever coming up with relatively short chapters, and/or if they're not detailed enough (especially when compared with my other fanfics), and/or if each is not properly checked for errors. I work on each chapter on a whim whenever I do not have something to do at the office, so I don't really plan ahead as I normally do when writing stories.

Disclaimer: Sakura Taisen is owned by Sega and Red Entertainment. I am not making a profit out of this fanfic, but still, this particular story is mine, so please don't take it.

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The Odd and the Weird

Chapter 3

"The Dressing Tube: Iris"

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Maria stood at one corner of the still slightly bare salon room as she watched Kanna give the newest member of the Hanagumi a somewhat detailed - if not completely biased - description of what would take place in the dressing tube the moment they jump down in it. After their earlier experience with the tunnel, both had voted unanimously that the tube be removed from the tour the Teigeki Sannin Musume gave upon arrival, and had taken it upon themselves to make sure the unwary new personnel would be well-informed of it before any actual leaping would take place.

"So, any questions?" Kanna asked, looking at her "student". Although she claims not to be a child, it did not erase the fact that Iris Chateaubriand was only 8 years old, and Kanna expected her to at least be a little scared and have plenty of inquiries.

Iris tilted her head and looked at Kanna innocently.

"Go on, you can ask me anything! I've been through it more than anybody else had, so you can consider me an expert in this subject!" Kanna boasted.

"How does it dress you up?"

"Huh?"

"How does the tunnel dress you up?" Iris asked.

Kanna was a little disappointed - it didn't seem as if Iris had listened to her accounts earlier. "Well, there are these metal hands that appear in particular parts of the tunnel, and each has a specific purpose..."

"No, no, that's not what Iris meant," Iris said. "Iris wanted to know how those hands know that you're there... how they know how to remove your clothes and how they know how to put your uniform on... that sort of thing."

"Uhhhh..."

Kanna was speechless. Whatever question she expected to hear, this wasn't one of them.

Maria, seeing that Kanna was having difficulties answering the question, attempted to help. "The entire process is automatic, Iris," she said. "The machines had been... 'taught' how to do those movements."

"But what if we wore different clothes everytime we go in there? Had it been taught how to undress all kinds of clothes?"

Maria and Kanna looked at each other helplessly...

"Or are there people who can watch from another place and move the hands to do the dressing for you? Which I hope not, because that's bad!"

Kanna gave an audible gulp, whereas Maria's eyes widened. During their past few weeks of "training sessions" with those accursed tubes, not once had they thought of the possibility Iris had just mentioned.

"Of... of course not! That wouldn't be called 'automatic' then, right, Maria?" Kanna said, a little too confidently.

Maria was still too shocked with Iris' comment to answer.

"A-anyway, Iris, would you like to try it now? We've told you all you need to know," Kanna placed her hands on Iris' shoulders and began pushing her towards the hidden room.

Iris protested. "But you haven't answered Iris' question yet!"

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"Here we are!" Kanna announced as she, Iris, and Maria came to a halt in front of an unnamed tube. She took out a nameplate where Iris' name is written and slid it in place with flourish. "Kasumi told me that this will be your dressing tube. It's all set, and your Hanagumi uniform is down there, waiting for you to wear it!"

"But-"

"No 'buts' now, Iris. All of us need to go down this tube. It's... it's a requirement as a Hanagumi!" Kanna fibbed.

The little French girl still looked quite skeptical, and for a long time she just stared at Kanna. Just when Kanna was beginning to feel quite uncomfortable, Iris suddenly nodded. "Iris can bring Jean Paul along, right?"

"Jean Paul... the bear? Uhh..."

"I'm sure you can," Maria said, smiling weakly. "The tube should know what to do with him."

Maria, too, got an inquisitive stare from Iris, before the girl attempted to open the lid to her tube. Kanna noted that it was a little too heavy for her and had moved to help her lift it, but just before she could do so, Iris used her mental powers to do the deed. Taking one, deep, long breathe, Iris clutched Jean Paul tightly to her, before finally taking the leap.

After she had gone, Maria went to her tube and placed a hand on the lid's handle, but could not bring herself to lift it up. She bit her lip, angry at herself. What were all those weeks of "training" for if in the end she could not jump down again just because of what an innocent little girl had said?

"What do you think?" Maria heard Kanna ask.

She looked up. Kanna couldn't jump down either, much less even stand a few meters in front of her own lid.

"Stairs...?"

"Stairs."

The two elder Hanagumi members began sprinting for the stairs and ran their way down. In Kanna's current point of view, she'd rather accidentally fall and break her leg or something on the steps than jump down the tube again.

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Given the fact that it took Maria and Kanna days of preparation before deciding that Iris was ready to jump down the tunnel, Yoneda was expecting a better turn out from the dressing tube this time. Somehow, though, he wasn't that surprised when Iris ended up extremely quiet after coming out of her channel in her uniform.

She didn't faint like Kanna, nor did it seem as if she blew anything up (Yoneda had checked). Iris just calmly walked to one of the chairs in the briefing room after she had landed on her knees, sat, then waited, for what Yoneda wasn't sure. And with the blank look on the young girl's face, he didn't feel up to it to ask.

It wasn't long before Kanna and Maria appeared in the briefing room, both slightly out of breath from running down three flights of stairs. "So, Iris... how was it?" Kanna asked between gulps of air.

Iris slowly turned her head towards Kanna, the blank look on her face now replaced by sheer hatred. "Liar..."

"Huh?"

"Iris felt she was being watched! Iris knows these things! Kanna lied to Iris!!"

"But... but... but!!"

"Iris, she didn't know...!" Maria tried to explain.

"Ohhh... nooo!!" Yoneda exclaimed as Iris' explosive spiritual power gathered around the girl...

BOOM!!!

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Yuri looked up from helping Kasumi organize the Secretarial Office. "Did you feel that?"

"I felt that, too! The floor just shook... is it an earthquake?" Tsubaki asked, leaving her broom from where she had been sweeping as she ran towards her companions.

The Teigeki Sannin Musume paused and held their breath for a few seconds. But it didn't seem as if there would be any other tremors aside from the first one, so they all dismissed it as a minor quake and went back to their daily routines.

A few minutes later, they heard that there was an explosion in the briefing room, and that Maria, Kanna, and Yoneda were treated for light burns.

A day later, they heard that Kanna, Maria, and Iris had all staged an attack in one of the rooms at the lower basement where the hangar was.

It was the people in that room who usually informed Kasumi which tube to assign to which Hanagumi.

One can only guess what those men had done to have angered those girls so.

--Tsuzuki--