[X] Encourage their prank
It wasn't like you were going to cause much harm with a small prank, right? The information on their reaction would be valuable. You could use this.
===
"You sure know a lot about pranking, Ivara..."
"I had a friend who was very good with traps," you reply, examining your handiwork, "He was quite an inspired fellow."
Your directions had been very thorough. After they stumble upon a tripwire to send them off balance, Misora's bucket would immediately fall upon their head, blinding and disorienting them further, sending them careening into various sheets of loose paper to slip and slide upon whilst several toy arrows would be fired into them from concealed launchers. (Why Fuka would have these stashed in her desk, you would never know, but you would take whatever you could get.) The blackboard eraser wedged in place by the door at the beginning was the best part however; thinking that this was the only trap waiting for them would get them to lower their guard and blunder into the rest, overconfident and assured of their safety.
Devious. The damage this insidious contraption would cause was immense.
You look forward to the new teacher's reaction.
===
You smile a little as the the door opens, the eraser falling onto-
It was a child.
You had blundered. Badly.
The child walking into the classroom had spent a good minute slipping and sliding, his panicked yelps and cries quickly stopping the laughter that the class had initially shared.
An innocent civilian had been caught in the crossfire.
No boy should have to be humiliated like that, especially in front of a crowd of girls this large.
You feel particularly terrible right now, making your way to the boy with the twins and a few of the other girls to help him back on his feet.
"Sorry! Sorry!" Fumika starts, waving her arms in a panic,
"We thought you were the new teacher, for sure!" Fuka continues,
"Oh you girls, you should have known better," Ayaka grumbled, as she tutted and fussed over him, giving you all a displeased look.
You barely manage a mumbled apology yourself, unsure of whether you were directing it towards the boy or to the class president, using the moment of confusion to examine his condition from a little behind the group, keeping your hands held behind you out of guilt.
He was a curious red headed child, barely taller than the twins. Was he of the same age? Or younger? You weren't sure. He wore an excellently tailored suit, in a plain yet neat looking green, slightly powdered by the chalk dust from the eraser that had landed on his head. The little wireframe pince-nez glasses he wore didn't seem that out of place, actually. It gave him a dignified sort of bearing, even as he sweats and squirms under the attention of the other girls.
But what he said next, after he had composed himself somewhat, standing behind the front desk at the head of the classroom had surprised you.
"I'm Negi Springfield. Starting today, I will be train… er, teaching English at this school. I will only be here for the third term, but I look forward to getting to know all of you."
The way the whole class erupts into noise, squealing and giggling was predictable, most of the less disciplined ladies literally bursting from their seats to squeeze the living daylights out of the poor boy. You felt a little guilty about causing him such distress earlier, so you remained in your seat, listening to the rest of the girls subjecting him to a most undignified impromptu question and answer session, demanding his age, nationality and talents in-between loud and persistent cries of "CUUUUUUTE!~" and "ADORABLE~" whilst attempting to smother him under their combined weight.
Ten years old and from the mountains of Wales? Useful little details to know, but to have collegiate level English language qualifications? Fascinating. Behind the shaky uncertainty of his voice, there was a kind of confidence. He knew what he was saying, not merely voicing assertions but stating indisputable fact. Competent at the very least. And he chose his words carefully, his Japanese was fluid and natural, barely accented, scrupulously polite.
This teacher would be interesting.
And that was when Asuna Kagurazaka grabbed him by the collar and tried to interrogate him herself. Something about the eraser that fell on his head earlier. You weren't quite sure what she meant (as the eraser had very clearly fallen on his head, did it not?) and started worrying when she began flailing him around like one of her soft toys and began demanding explanations about... something, before the class had even started.
It seemed very typical Asuna. She was quite the brute at times you recall, even as Ayaka began fighting with her, the usual barbs and insults being thrown between the two of them. Normally, Takahata-sensei could end the fight simply by giving the two girls a quiet word of reprimand. Springfield-sensei tried very desperately to separate the two, but was quite well and truly drowned out by the class egging them on until Shizuna-sensei had stepped in.
Well, you suppose that he still has some ways to go.
===
The lecture that Springfield-sensei gave was good.
Extremely good actually. His concise manner and knowledge of the textbook was exemplary, picking straight up from where Takahata-sensei had left off, and he made sure to explain the rules behind the example passage's grammatical construction as he lectured.
Or, was going to. Because Asuna began disrupting the class again. Really, Asuna? Attacking the teacher with eraser bits? You suspected that her fondness of Takahata-sensei has made her quite hostile to his replacement. In any case, her form was quite bad; it was not hard to trace a direct line of fire from her desk to the blackboard. Sloppy. Even the mundanes in the class could tell it was her. It was only the teacher's inexperience that prevented him from realising, keeping his back to the class.
Ayaka had said something to Springfield-sensei, probably informing him of the clear and present threat to his safety, but all that happened was that Asuna had switched to attacking her instead. With that, the two girls had gotten into yet another titanic struggle which Springfield-sensei was powerless to intervene in, unable to decisively take control of the class just yet.
The trainee teacher had promising roots, but whether he would grow tall and strong was still unclear.
Time takes the initiative here and breaks up the fight for him by announcing the end of the period and the end of the half-day, allowing the school to break up and begin their weekend. Springfield-sensei stumbles out of the classroom, a little dazed and confused, while the rest of the girls start huddling up outside the class, Haruna dragging you into the growing scrum.
"Alright, so yeah. New teacher's cute!" one of the cheerleaders says, "He's a keeper for sure,"
"His teaching ability isn't bad," Kazumi agrees, scribbling down some notes, "A genius child teacher. It'll make for a good story, at least."
"Regardless of all that, the plan's the same, today's party is a go," Chao continues, taking charge of the group, "Konoka and Asuna are running the disposable stuff this time. Mana, I need you to start moving the tables…"
"Got it, Chao."
Ah, so this was the welcome party that you heard about from the twins last night. If there was one thing this class was capable of, it was throwing parties for random and sometimes arbitrary reasons. Not that you minded them. They were very interesting, with some of the more unusual party games they played being quite memorable.
The huddled girls continue to agree vigorously, listening intently as Chao hands out orders and direction to them. She pauses for a moment, turning to you,
"Ivara-chan. You're fast on your feet, right?"
You are a little bewildered by her sudden attention, but nod cautiously, "Yes?"
She claps you on the shoulder very solemnly, "I have an important mission for you, Tenno."
An important mission. You are all ears.
"I'm listening."
"It is very critical that we have our equipment for this event. I need you to grab some things from the storerooms. Here's a list," she explains, handing you a slip of paper, "I also need you to go to the cafeteria and pick up the glasses, cutlery and dishes, let them know we'll wash and return them later. Take Kaede with you."
Collect items listed. Retrieve tableware. Take Kaede along. Simple.
You give her a perfunctory salute, "Yes, will do."
She nods appreciatively, "Great. Get it done in thirty minutes or less, we have a schedule to keep. We're counting on you, Ivara."
===
The mission was very simple. You had no problems at all locating the required items from the storerooms, Kaede dropping them off at the class in good time. Meeting up at the cafeteria again, you both quickly retrieved all the tableware needed from the staff, easily taking the whole lot between the two of you. You'd have this wrapped up very quickly, maybe within twelve minutes if you don't run in the halls.
"You don't think Asuna's going to be too harsh on the new teacher?" you worry, balancing the small plastic crate of glasses in one hand as you shuffle back to class with Kaede, "He seems quite harried on his first day…"
"Oh she'll lighten up probably," Kaede nods, adjusting her grip on her set, "She's just upset that Takahata-sensei is getting replaced,"
"Even so, it's a bit outrageous isn't it? Just attacking a teacher straight out of the blue…"
Kaede laughs, sidestepping a pair of students handily, "Asuna will be Asuna, she's just very youthful, that's all."
"I see…"
Youthfulness was not really an appropriate excuse, but whatever.
As you enter your homeroom again, Kazumi sliding the door open for you in between taking pictures, you can see that preparations were well underway, the classroom already starting its transformation into a party zone. The girls were unusually efficient when it came to parties. If only some of them actually put as much effort into their studies. You and Kaede deposit the items onto a waiting desk and you head off to report to Chao, while Kaede wanders off somewhere.
"All items accounted for. No issues," you state, "Anything else Chao?"
She huffs appreciatively, "Good job Ivara. You're done for now, so take five," she says, passing you a plate of Satsuki's dumplings, "Help yourself to a dumpling or two while we wait for Konoka and Asuna to hurry up already, yeah?"
"Understood."
Suitably dismissed, you take the plate of dumplings and stand by for your next mission. As you idly take a bite of the delicious snack, you suddenly wonder.
Why are you standing by again?
You look at your plate of dumplings and begin looking around the room.
The three library girls seem to be chatting more excitedly than usual, Nodoka in particular seeming to be more alert, a slight blush on her cheeks as she recounts some kind of incident to an eager Haruna and Yue. It must be interesting enough of an incident, because you rarely saw Nodoka so animated about a party. You're kind of intrigued, actually.
You spot Kaede talking to Ku Fei in the corner about something as well. The martial artist had expressed interest in sparring recently, but had been rather busy, attending to the food cart she worked at alongside Chao and some of the others. You'd like to see what kind of a person she is, maybe clear your schedules and arrange a spar next week.
The door to the class opens again, Konoka walking in with a bag full of party supplies, but Asuna appears to be missing. Her ever present shadow, Setsuna is also nowhere to be seen. You technically hadn't apologised for your rude introduction, but her bodyguard intimidated you slightly. Now might be a good chance to make the first move.
[] See what's gotten Nodoka so hot and bothered.
[] Talk with Ku Fei and Kaede about sparring next week.
[] Try to apologise and reintroduce yourself to Konoka.
