Sakura Wars Fan Fiction ❯ The Odd and the Weird ❯ The Dressing Tube: Sumire ( Chapter 4 )

Author's Notes:
Sorry if Iris seems a little out of place, but I somehow couldn't find a way to give her more scripts than the awful few below. I suppose I'm having difficulties imagining her spending time with Maria, Sumire, and Kanna, since I see her with Sakura and Kohran more.

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 4

"The Dressing Tube: Sumire"

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"O-hohohohoho!"

Maria, Kanna, and Iris looked up as their newest teammate gave them one of what was by now her trademark laugh.

Yoneda had just recently updated the Hanagumi about the development of the koubu, and the group had been talking about it at the salon. Kanna had just wondered out loud whether or not the spirit armor would be difficult to move, when her thoughts had been interrupted by Kanzaki Sumire.

"Well, for a brute like Kanna-san, I would be surprised if it would move at all," Sumire said, spreading her fan wide open and using it to cover the sly grin on her face.

Kanna's hands formed into fists as she glared at the girl in front of her.

They had been at each other's throats ever since their less-than-courteous introduction barely three weeks had passed. Sumire's spoiled, arrogant demeanor irked Kanna just as much as her brash over-confidence annoyed Sumire. It got so bad, it was impossible for them not to fight when they get within a couple of meters with each other. Even Iris - who highly disapproved of fighting (and usually emphasizing her point with volatile results) - had grown tired of releasing her explosive energy whenever they argued.

Anyway, it didn't seem as if things would be any different now. How noisy the Teigeki had been ever since Sumire had arrived!

"I'd like to see you do better than any of us!" Kanna growled at the younger girl.

"Why, Kanna-san, who do you think I am?" Sumire asked.

"You're the daughter of the president of the Kanzaki Heavy Industries, who developed the koubus, loaned the steam machines used to build the Teigeki, funded a huge part of our budget... find someone who cares, why don't you?!" Kanna roared, standing up from her chair. She didn't think she could stand another round of how the Teikoku Kagekidan wouldn't exist without the Kanzaki group. She has had enough of Sumire's boasts to last for years.

"My, do I detect jealousy?"

"Your family may have had a huge part in forming this group, but you yourself had nothing to offer at all!"

This time it was Sumire who stood up in anger. "Ho... how dare you say that! I'll have you know that the development of the koubus probably would have been scrapped if it were not for me!"

Maria's eyebrows shot up with this newest bit of information. "How so?"

The Hanagumi captain's even tone seemed to have calmed Sumire somewhat, as she flipped her hair over her shoulder and resumed the haughty look she sported earlier. "I happen to be the first person to ever pilot a koubu. Those bulky machines were just pieces of junk which not even the officer with the highest spiritual power in the army could move until I came along!"

Kanna snorted. "You've got so much hot air, it must have helped with the koubu's steaming system," she grumbled.

Needless to say, Sumire and Kanna got into another fight.

"You act as if you're all womanly and everything, but the fact is that you're more cunning than a snake!" Kanna snapped.

"Well, what about you, you big gorilla!" Sumire angrily replied. "Maybe I should ask them to give you the pink koubu - maybe that would bring out the femininity within you. As if that even exists!"

Maria sighed. She glanced at Iris, who was sitting beside her on the sofa, glaring at both Sumire and Kanna. Instincts told the Russian to subtly slide a little farther away from the young French girl - the explosions may have stopped, but it could only have been dormant, and may once more awaken at any given time.

"No matter what you say, you, your family, and your family's business are not perfect!" Kanna argued.

"I beg to differ! I dare you to give me at least one example of a machine my family created which had not improved the lives of any of the people in Japan!"

Kanna opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Sumire was right - at least, as far as she knew, everything the Kanzaki Heavy Industries had produced had benefited the populace, and had escalated Japan into the industrialized nation that it was at that time.

"Speechless now, aren't we?" Sumire said triumphantly. "As I've said before, even you owe the existence of the Teigeki and everything within it to my family. And with all I've contributed, I'm surprised they didn't consider asking me to lead this group - no offense, Maria-san."

Maria chose to ignore Sumire's statement.

"Ah, yes, but I suppose being the top-star of the Hanagumi is enough for me. After all, I shine the brightest underneath the stage, and in the middle of a heated battle! My superior talents would be wasted if I spent my time distributing less-competent people into the battlefield. O-hohohohoho!"

If Sumire is trying to be modest, it isn't working, Iris noted with a sweatdrop.

Kanna still stood there silently, processing what Sumire had said earlier. "Everything within the Teigeki..."

Everything...?

Kanna smiled.

"Hey, Sumire!"

Sumire stopped laughing from behind her fan and, after seeing Kanna grinning like a mad-woman, gave Kanna looks of deepest loathing. "What?"

"I know one type of Kanzaki-made machine that didn't improve any lives at all."

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Sumire looked at the lids covering the entrances to the dressing tubes with disinterest. "And you brought me here why?"

Kanna leaned against one of the metal covers and tapped it. It was the first time Maria and Iris had seen Kanna actually enjoying herself in that room. "Coming from the Kanzaki group, you do know what these are, right?"

"Ah, yes. The infamous dressing tubes. What about them?" Sumire asked, looking very bored.

"What about them?!" Kanna repeated incredelously. "Didn't you have any idea how they were considered 'infamous'?? These things had been nothing but trouble from the very start!"

"They served their purpose, didn't they?"

"But they certainly didn't make our lives any better. We drop ourselves in there, and metal hands undress us... metal hands operated by men, for crying out loud!! If you consider that an improvement on our lives, then I shudder to think of what you consider inconvenient!"

After being reminded of that incident, Iris shuddered, while Maria silently growled.

"See! Even they agree with me!" Kanna pointed out.

"Well, you can hardly blame the company for creating those when it was the shihainin who had requested them, can you?" Sumire said, still looking pretty confident. "Besides. From what I heard, these had just been replaced by machinery containing the latest in scanning technology - the results of hours of hours of research by the company's top scientists. It should be fully automated, and completely flawless! Surely you must have already tried it. They had been reinstalled before I got drafted for the team!"

Kanna, Maria, and Iris looked at each other uncomfortably. They were too horrified about Iris' revelation with the previous tunnels that none of them wanted to risk jumping into them ever again, whether they were new or not.

Sumire laughed heartily when she saw the uneasy looks on her teammate's faces. "So this is what the rest of the Hanagumi is composed of? If you can't even stay inside a tunnel for a few seconds, how will you be when you're stuck inside a koubu for hours' end?"

"Iris is not scared!!" Iris immediately protested.

"This is a matter of dignity!" Kanna added.

This didn't stop Sumire from chuckling. "Whatever," she said, sweeping the length of her purple kimono off to one side. "Now that I've seen how timid my teammates are, I suppose now I'm aware that I have my work cut out for me."

She was already leaving the room when Maria's voice stopped her. "Hold on."

Sumire raised her eyebrows at the blond leader. "What is it?"

"Seeing as you seem to know more about these new dressing tubes than we do, why don't you give us a demonstration?" Maria said casually.

Ack...!!

Maria's face was so passive, one couldn't tell if she had other intentions other than what she had said.

Kanna's eyes, however, had suddenly brightened. "Yes, that's right!" she exclaimed. "Before they had been changed, I made it a point to inform everyone about these tubes, since I used to know more about them... or I thought I did..." Kanna's voice had lowered at the last line she had said. "But anyway, you know oh so much about these state-of-the-art machines, so surely you wouldn't deny us uneducated people the benefit of seeing how it works, would you?"

Kanna had said all that in such a sweet, sickening voice, Sumire thought her tooth was going to ache.

"Pleeease?" Iris pleaded.

"B-but..." Sumire stammered.

Kanna gleefully looked on as Sumire tried to come up with an good excuse to save face. Except that there isn't any! she thought.

"Sumire, as a member of a group, one of your duties should be to inform the rest of your teammates with knowledge which would highly benefit them," Maria reasoned. "Despite protests, Yoneda-chuujo had made it protocol to jump into these tubes in times of emergency. Your assistance would be of great value to us."

Sumire looked away. "Well, if you put it that way... I suppose I should show all of you that these tunnels are nothing to be afraid of, shouldn't I? Ah, the hassles of being the role model!"

"Oh, just shut up and jump!" Kanna grumbled.

"Hmph! Fine! I shall see you in the briefing room!" Sumire shot back. Standing in front of the tube bearing her name - the lid automatically opening for her (one of the updates installed in the tunnel), Sumire stared down the now dimly lighted cylinder. Her face slightly twitching, she closed her eyes in an expression of defiance, and jumped.

Kanna still had a smirk on her face when she turned to look at Maria, who's face was as emotionless as ever. "Well, you may have been serious in your intentions to make her jump, but I thank you just the same!" Kanna told her.

Maria stared at her.

Kanna's smile faltered a little. "Wait. You were serious, right?" The thought of the Hanagumi leader doing anything but was quite unnerving, even for Kanna.

Maria just raised a questioning eyebrow at her before making her way down to the basement.

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It just so happened that Yoneda was in the briefing room, studying the newly installed computerized map of Tokyo, when Sumire had made her leap. Since there hadn't been any emergencies, and since he didn't expect that any one of the girls would try the dressing tubes anytime soon, that would explain why he hadn't been prepared to see one of the portraits rising up and - for lack of a better word - "spitting" out the "Top Star of the Hanagumi", and in such a state, too. He was then promptly kicked (or more appropriately, screamed) out of the briefing room by the said person, with Yoneda muttering all the while that it looks like the "full automation" of the dressing tubes didn't quite work out as its developers had planned.

For the benefit of the audience, let's just say that when Kanna, Maria, and Iris had jumped down the tubes weeks ago, they at least came out of the tube fully clothed in their uniforms.

Fortunately, Sumire was lucky enough that her kimono had fallen with her, although the metal hands had chosen to use it as a wrap for her body instead, making use of the obi to tie her up in it like a roll.

Kanna couldn't remember the last time she laughed so hard.

Sumire was right, at least - what the machine had just done had definitely improved Kanna's day.

--Tsuzuki--