[X] A Japanese breakfast of miso and rice. 2 Birdcoins
[X] A Western breakfast of bacon and eggs. 2 Birdcoins
[X] Kagura
I suppose if I were a writer or philosopher, I'd be able find some symbolism in selecting both Japanese and Western breakfasts, but since the most writing I'd done was on a letter home that they'd rewrote for me, I just sat and ate instead. The food was pretty pedestrian, but being in the military I'd had worse, and I doubted anything but rations were easy to find right now. And what decent stuff, yeah, I knew they wouldn't waste on some Killing Game contestants.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZjFanS6hUY
I noticed
Kagura stop and lean in, inspecting what food was there. From her expression she didn't look in the mood for anything there, despite clutching her stomach.
Shaking my feet a little, I gulped before I said to her, "Hey, um, you can have some of my breakfast if you like. Think I may have over-ordered anyway..."
At my words,
Kagura dashed over to my table and immediately began chowing down on the miso and rice. I hadn't given that meal specifically to her, but eh, I'd barely nibbled at it, so like I was one to protest.
Kagura's face had to clench up a bit as she finished, with her then saying, "Meh, I know, I know, rations and everything, but like... I was eating way better stuff than this at Izumo shrine," she then slumped down as she groaned.
"Oh yeah, the Izumo Grand Shrine," I said, trying to make conversation, "Um, it must be a real prestigious position, but like, I'd imagine it's a lot of pressure too, I guess..."
"Ugh, you don't gotta tell me,"
she moaned, but her frown flipped upside-down as she said, "Still, that's what I got my taiko for, I just keep on drumming till I forget all about my chores and stuff. Oh yeah, and for kami rituals, that too".
"Er, wouldn't all that drumming get in the way of chores?" I asked, not sure how else to further the conversation.
"Nope. If you work all time, you'll never get anything done. Gotta blow off some steam so you're not so freakin' miserable when ya actually do what you're 'sposed to do,"
she beamed as she leaned back in her chair, arms folded behind her head.
Huh, I'd been basically the opposite my whole life, especially in the air force. But I did say to Kagura, "Well, you're the Ultimate Miko, so I'll take your advice".
"Ooh hey, speaking of noise, I heard from someone that they heard you were the guy who broke the sound barrier?"
she then said before she leaned all the way into me, "Wow, you gotta tell me was that was like! Must've made a really big boom, huh?"
"Oh yeah, that is true..." I said, blushing while I looked down, "Sorry, but I can't say much on that. It was during a practice flight, I ended up going so fast I knocked myself out, then only heard I'd achieved supersonic flight once I woke up on a stretcher".
"Aww,"
she just said, "Was hoping fer somethin' a little more impressive, y'know".
"Yeah, sorry. Oh, just thought of something. You drum, and Sakamoto plays bass, so maybe-" I began, but Kagura cut me off.
"What, Genpachi? No, absolutely not! Guy's a total weirdo who said he doesn't give a crap 'bout how I play drums, ugh,"
she spat out, then added in a more hushed tone, "Not to mention the guy keeps picking on Simeon for whatever reason, some philosophical hang-up, I dunno, couldn't make any sense of what he said".
"Hmm, I think Sakamoto's just scared of the thought that he may have no control over his life. No, not just he, we may have no control, what with the War and now this..." I mumbled, not sure if I really knew that much about Sakamoto to say all that for him. "Oh yeah, about Omura, you two are actually getting along, huh? Wow, kinda didn't expect that, what with, y'know, your faiths and all".
"Oh that, simple really,"
Kagura said and smiled, "I'm all used to Christian stuff from being to weddings, like my folks got remarried to my stepfolks and all. I can even name the different sects now, like Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, that kinda thing. Er, still not sure what sect Simeon is,
some kinda Catholic I guess, if he's a Pope candidate.
Birdcoin! x1
But yeah, once ya start talkin' to him, you stop seeing him as this preacher man, and as just a guy, y'know?" she went on, "Like, he's got this peanut allergy, and has climbed Mt. Aso seven times, bein' from Kyushu. Stuff like that".
Best to keep quiet about those torture instruments then, I thought... before I got chills from wondering if Kagura already knew of them. "A-anyway, um, I can recall hearing that samurai and swordsmiths would give weapons and armour to shrine as offerings, s-so that'd be where you got your nodachi from, I imagine?"
"Yeah, got it in a trade with Oyamazumi Shrine, like they're where you gonna go for all the real cool weapons and armour,"
Kagura said in, I thought, an un-Miko-like way, but what else did I expect by now. Suddenly, she then produced said nodachi from behind her back, making me twitch backwards on reflex.
"Well, um, i-it's good to know all these historical artifacts are still here," I said while shaking, "After, y'know, all the bombings. Er, do you think Seki's ever been to Oyamazumi Shrine? Sounds like somewhere they'd be into..."
"You mean Yoritsune? Eh, doubt it, seems more interested in prop swords and guns than the real things,"
she shrugged.
"Well yeah, but I'd figure they'd still want to see the actual historical items for authenticity's sake," I tried to defend them, before I noticed the time. "Oh no, Toranosuke's setting up a class for us, I nearly forgot! We have to hurry... all the way to the North building".
"Huh, why should we? Guy ain't the boss of us, no matter much he acts like he is,"
Kagura said otherwise.
"Yeah, but still. I-I don't wanna just disobey orders," I said. Well, it was more like I couldn't disobey orders, "Plus, he's already an accomplished guy, I wouldn't want to disappoint him".
"Meh, the whole idea of Hope's Peak is that everyone's accomplished,"
Kagura frowned and folded her arms, "I'm wagging this one, if he asks just tell him I've got a ritual scheduled. Besides, if he tries to come at me with a cane, I'll come at him with a sword!"
...Kagura was aware we were trying
not to escalate the Killing Game, right? "Okay, um, yeah, I'll tell him you're busy" I just said.
"But hey, it was real nice meeting with ya,"
she then smiled, as she got off her chair and approached me, "Like, Simeon and Jeanne are really the only two people I've talked much with here, so it was cool getting to know another".
I had to blush. "T-thank you, Amano, I liked spending time with you too..." I blurted out.
"Hey, don't worry yourself. I can tell ya whoever dies first, if anyone, it ain't gonna be me"
she smirked.
Kagura's Trust +1!
"Grr, I wanna be the teacher!"
Etsuko hissed out, as she started pawing at
Toranosuke. Given Etsuko's paws were of a kangaroo's, Toranosuke was proving surprisingly resilient.
"If I may so interject, Linguistics are a more than vital skill in communicating, so for a Language class perhaps I would be best suited to teaching, educating, instructing-"
Kanji rambled, also right up in Toranosuke's face.
That was the scene I witnessed when I walked into that yellow-and-brown classroom. Personally I just tried to stay out of it, at least till Kagura was called, as I started searching for my designated seat.
"Ah, Enoshima, right this way if you will,"
Simeon said, guiding me to an old wooden chair in the middle of the room between Aoko and Yudai. "Hmm, by the way, you wouldn't have seen Kagura, anywhere?"
"Uh, Amano. Y-yeah, I just met her," I began, before I readied her excuse, "Said she couldn't come, had an important ritual to practice."
"Rather suspicious she would tell you alone about this 'ritual' then,"
Toranosuke said as he brushed right past Etsuko and Kanji, "Well Enoshima, you are two minutes late, but to err is human I suppose. And my thanks to Omura for his assistance while I was, ahem,
occupied," he glanced back at the Chimera and Conlanger.
"Really, Ishimaru, it's the least I could do,"
Simeon smiled and bowed, before he said, "Perhaps a prayer to start our first class off, even in this unconventional situation- Ow, who threw that?!" he yelled out as a paper plane crashed into the back of his head.
"Zat was I!"
Jeanne jumped on top of her desk and brandished her sword, "Hope's Peak is a state school, is it not? Zerefore, I will not tolerate talk of religion within a classroom setting!"
"Yeah, what Jeanne said!"
Dejan shouted out as he tried to jump up on his desk too, though with it wobbling more than Jeanne's did. "I ain't havin' some Vatican collaborateur tellin' me what to do."
"A foreign religion or not, the both of you are causing far more disruption to this class than Omura has!"
Toranosuke exclaimed, with Jeanne leaping from desk to desk as he tried to reprimand her. Dejan meanwhile had sat back down, if only because he would've fallen off had he stayed atop his desk longer.
Looking around I could see
Hildegard in the corner, taking this opportunity to quietly read a comic she'd smuggled in whilst Toranosuke and Simeon were looking the other way.
Manami just sat next to hear and sighed at everything going on, though couldn't resist talking a peek at what Hildegard was reading.
"C-calm down everybody!"
Momoka tried to say, only to start shaking once the eyes of the rest of the class were upon her. "Um, l-look, there's really no need to get angry..."
"My my, were I Fuhito, Genpachi or Kagura, I'd be regretting not showing up by now,"
Aoko chuckled right next to me, "This chaos is like a trainwreck, but I mean that as a compliment. I simply cannot peel my eyes away".
...Well,
that was reassuring to hear.
Genpachi not being here, however, didn't surprise me in the least. I took it Fuhito was on Truant Officer duty, by process of elimination.
"Psst, hey Enoshima," the hulking
Yudai said as he leaned in next to me, "Ya seem like a trustworthy kid, not one ta go blabbin'. So how 'bout it, why don't you and me sneak outta here while everyone's distracted?"
It was, well, hard to say no to someone like Yudai, but also hard to say yes, since the thought of how Toranosuke would react had wormed into my head.
Just a few seconds later though, it turned out I didn't have to make a choice. A loud rumbling came from down the hall, which made
Dejan gasp and exclaim, "My tank! Argh, could've sworn I'd turned the engine off this morning! Everyone, quick, get out of the way!"
As we all rushed to the side, Dejan's tank rolled right on through the class, leaving gaping holes as it did, and further through the ground floor of Hope's Peak.
"What in the nine blood-soaked Hells is the meaning of this?!"
Columb
ird instantly showed up in the room to survey the damage. "A tank just rolls on through this here Academy, and not a single one of you is crushed by it? Sheer mouse-brained incompetence is what this is! Why, in the army of the
greatest nation on Earth, when we deploy tanks, we damn well expect to see some carnage!"
"...Albini, as this is your tank, you'll be accompanying me to stop its rampage,"
Toranosuke commanded of Dejan, before he turned to Manami and said, "You too, Yamato, I expect you'd had experiences with machines like these. Everyone else, try to find higher ground, or at least somewhere safe, and warn Kirigiri, Amano, and Sakamoto if you get the chance".
"Nyaa! I'm comin' too, you just leave that big, bad tank ta me!"
Etsuko proclaimed. I couldn't help but sigh at her actions, but well, she may've had the strength to actually stop that thing, out of any of us.
While a single-file march outside the building would've been our best response to this, or at least my training had drilled into me, instead all of us ran off in every direction.
I thought to spend this time hiding out in Manami's Lab. Yeah, I hadn't gotten her permission first, but it seemed like the most secure place here. It... may not have been the most noble or valorous thing to do, especially since Kagura, Genpachi, and Fuhito were still out there somewhere, but well... I guess a failed kamikaze pilot like me just wasn't one for desperate measures.
Turns out I wasn't the one who'd gotten the idea to hide in Manami's Lab, as I was soon joined by Kanji, Hildegard, and Aoko. Not that any of us were in the mood to talk, given the thought of a tank on the loose.
Kanji looked like he was about to speak, but he got cut off when the monitor came back on.
"Got ourselves a
Body Discovery! Finally the killin' my hard-earned eagle taxes have been goin' to!" Columbird announced, a fluttering US flag behind him on the screen.
As the monitor turned itself off, I could think
No, please, no...
The four of us left the Manami's Lab to see the Ultimate Captain staring right at us. My first thought was she'd reprimand us, but instead she wordlessly beckoned us to follow her.
We were led down to a
basement, well, technically we were underground so everywhere was a basement- I'm getting distracted. I could see a
poster of an American woman lying on the floor, dirtied and torn by being run over by the tank, but I
think I recognised her as the American actress Rita Hayworth.
Past where the poster had been hung, we walked into a storm drain-styled room which
Manami told us was "Yudai's Lab". And there, on the floor...
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyfgTbtuAto
...was
Katsu Yudai, clutching a
chisel and file in his hands, run over by the
tank which'd now stopped upon it crashing into a cave wall.
It wasn't just the tank treads though. Broken glass had been scattered all over him, having come from a nearby
smashed radio, maybe knocked over by the tank? He had
bled out, with some of the blood having formed into the shape of a
pentagram.
All I could think was...
Why Yudai? He was the Ultimate Jailbreaker, our best ticket out of here, and had always come off like a nice enough guy. W-who would even want to kill him?
I couldn't know, but I guess my first thought was:
[ ] Dejan, it was his tank after all. He would've known it'd roll down to the basement.
[ ] Momoka, the radio instantly made me think of her.
[ ] Genpachi, the guy was a clear troublemaker, given to unpredictably for the sake of it...
[ ] Simeon, that pentagram meant something in Christianity, right?
[ ] Aoko, she always acted suspiciously, and had been the last to arrive at Manami's Lab.
[ ] Manami, she'd been the one to bring us down here.
[ ] It could've been an accident, that tank seemed unreliable anyway...
[ ] ...Nobody, I just didn't know
[ ] Write-in
) gets killed off because the background plot said so.
