[Episode 198316] [Episode 198316]"Welcome to the Kôjunsha Seminar. I hope you have a good time here."
"Thank you," Taiko said with a bow to the secretary before she headed out of the office towards one of the classrooms. Like many other cram schools, the Kôjunsha Seminar was set on the upper floors of an office building in the commercial part of Miyamae Ward. Also attending there were many other scholastic rônin, people who had either failed the Centre Test and were studying to make up for it, passed the Centre Test yet failed the specific entrance examination for the school they wanted, or were double-victims such as herself (as Keitarô): Failures in both categories.
Turning a corner, she then gasped as someone slammed into her, collapsing instantly onto the floor. "Oh!" Taiko gasped on seeing that, and then she leaned down to help the other woman to her feet. "Oh, I'm sorry! Are you…eh?" she then gasped on seeing that the other woman's eyes had rolled up into her head. "Oh, no…!" she croaked. I didn't hit her that hard, did I? she demanded as she jolted straight up.
"Oh, Otohime-kun, are you alright?"
Taiko's head snapped over to see one of the teachers leaning out from a classroom. "S-s-s-Sensei, I d-d-didn't m-mean to h-hurt her…" she sputtered out as she shakily pointed at the passed-out girl.
The teacher looked at her, and then he chuckled. "Oh, please, miss, it's alright! It's alright!" he assured her before walking over to gently help the prone girl sit up. "She's very anaemic, so spells like this are quite common. Hey, Otohime-kun!" he called out on clapping her cheek. "Are you alright?"
The girl seemed to blink for a moment, and then her eyes snapped back into place as she looked absently around for a moment. "Oh! Good evening, Sensei. Is class about to start?" she sweetly asked before she found herself gazing at Taiko. "Oh, hello there. Are you joining our class this evening?"
Taiko blinked several times, and then she started to giggle in embarrassment. "I'm sorry about that!" she apologised before reaching down to help the other woman up. "I didn't see where I was going! Are you sure you're alright?"
"Hai, I am now," the other woman said as she allowed Taiko to lift her back up. "I must have scared you very much. I'm sorry!"
With that, she turned around…and walked straight into the wall to the left of the doorway leading into class! "Aaah!" she gasped as she backed away, and then she bowed repentantly. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry! Please excuse me!" she apologised to the wall before walking into class…and flipping right over the desk there, sending her face-first into the floor!
Taiko watched her, sweat appearing in her hair, and then she stared wide-eyed at the teacher. "Is she always like this, Sensei?"
He chuckled. "You get used to her after a while."
"I see…"
After the nearly three-hour session (split with ten-minute breaks every hour to allow people a chance to go to the washroom and get coffee, tea or some other drink), Urashima Taiko could only conclude one thing about her new friend:
Otohime Mutsumi was the cutest girl she had ever met, in all of her incarnations as Stone Mountain or as Urashinma Keitarô!
Which felt very…
Nice!
There had been times when Mutsumi's anaemia, lack of general coordination and sheer absent-mindedness at times had provoked a constant stream of embarrassing situations with Taiko. Falling over her, thinking she was actually a middle school student of all things, asking if she actually had a girlfriend of all things…! With the ten other people in class — five boys and five girls, all first- or second-year rônin — and the teacher, it didn't provoke the total shock or embarrassment Taiko had felt at first when she had met Mutsumi. And yes, after the third time Mutsumi had buried her face in Taiko's lap, even she felt she could get used to it.
Besides, Mutsumi's reactions to these situations was clearly worlds better than anything Narusegawa or Aoyama would have done.
Not that the opinions of those two lunatics mattered to her anymore.
Uh-uh! No way!
"Um, Urashima-sempai?"
Taiko perked, and then she turned to see one of her classmates, Matsumoto Megumi, standing there. A rather well-endowed girl with glasses — she somewhat reminded Taiko of Konno Mitsune for some reason — she was a first year rônin who had passed the Centre Test yet had failed to get into Japan Women's University. "What is it, Matsumoto-san?" Taiko asked.
"You really shouldn't be bothered by Otohime-sempai's behaviour," Megumi said. "She's really one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet." She then started to giggle. "And once you get her drunk, she's really funny!"
Taiko's eyebrow arched. "Why on Earth would I want to get her drunk?"
Megumi shrugged. "Well, she says she prefers girls to guys — although she's really sad about something that she says made her that way — and with the way she was falling over you in class…!"
Taiko blinked. "She confessed she's a…?" she hissed.
A nod. "Well, not exactly. We sometimes go out drinking after classes. She really talks about some weird stuff. Confessing she's half-alien and she's got the soul of some really brainy alien scientist in her head!" She then laughed. "She even said one time that she made some weird promise to a kid she knew fifteen or so years ago…" Here, she paused as she recalled more about that particular incident. "Oh, it was in Hinata, I think…"
Hearing that, Taiko felt her whole body lock up as words from so long ago echoed once more in her mind…
Did you know that two people who love each other go to Tôkyô University?
They'll live happily ever after?
Really!
A kiss on the cheek, then…
When we grow up, let's go to Tôkyô University together…
"Urashima-sempai?"
Taiko gasped as her eyes flew open, and then she stared absently at Megumi for a second before she asked, "Did you just ask something, Matsumoto-san?"
"You just blanked out for a moment," Megumi noted. "What's wrong?"
Taiko stared at her for a moment, and then she breathed out, "I think that was my twin brother she made that promise to."
Megumi stopped, and then her eyes went wide. "What…?"
"That promise Otohime-san spoke of. My brother Keitarô made a promise with a girl fifteen years ago in Hinata — in a park near my grandmother's old inn there — about going to Tôkyô University when we grew up."
Silence.
"No WAY!" Megumi gasped, and then she clapped her mouth closed as she stared wide-eyed at Taiko. "You've got to be kidding me!" she hissed.
"Where does she live?"
"Eh?"
"Otohime-san? Where does she live?"
Megumi stared at the older woman for a moment, and then she waved her towards the elevator. "C'mon! I know where he usual drinking hole is!"
Taiko nodded as she ran after her.
This was just too many things coming together all at once.
Which, given her past experience, made Taiko very nervous.
Whenever luck like this hits me, it's normally all bad! the apartment kanrinin/would-be Tôkyô University student/metahuman warrior mused as she followed Megumi down a side street towards a series of yatai set up near the entrance of a park. "Which one, Matsumoto-san?" she asked.
"The end one," Megumi said as she pointed.
It was a typical fast food/drinking establishment on wheels: A silver steel box that could be towed by hand or car from location to location, with unfolding wood-and-glass panels and a retractable roof, which was now drawn out since clouds were billowing in the sky to the west. Seated at one of the stools which lined the outside of the yatai was a familiar girl in a plaid vest, button blouse and ankle-length split skirt, gently sipping a glass of what had to be beer. Staring at Mutsumi for a moment, Taiko's eyes narrowed as she tried to compare the modern image of the woman before her with the image of the girl she (as Keitarô) had met over fifteen years before. There was a resemblance, but it was very faint. Yet, if Megumi had overheard Mutsumi confess something like that sometime before…!
"Ara?! Tai-chan! Megumi-chan!"
Taiko jerked on seeing Mutsumi stare flush-faced at her, and then she chuckled in embarrassment before walking over to sit to her left. "Gomen ne, Otohime-san," she apologised as Megumi took her place to Mutsumi's right.
"Don't apologise, Tai-chan! I'm glad to see you!" Mutsumi said as she slid a hand across the other woman's thigh before she gazed on the yatai owner. "Oji-san! Some beer for my friends! And can we have some râmen, too?"
"Hai!"
"So what do you think, Tai-chan? Are my boobs too big or what?!"
Taiko — who was beginning to realise that prohibiting alcohol at Hinata-sou might actually be a very smart thing to do! — blinked as she stared at Megumi's partially-exposed (she had taken her top off, but not the bra underneath) superstructure. "Actually, I like them just fine!" she said before a hiccup escaped her. She then reached past Mutsumi to gently squeeze the merchandise. "Nice and soft, just the way I like them!"
"Kyaaa!" Megumi — who was now was red-faced with drink as her classmates — yelped as she pushed Taiko's hand away, her action allowing her to collapse on her seat. "Quit squeezing the Charmin, Tai-chan!"
"At least Megumi-chan remembered tonight's English lesson, ne, Tai-chan?" Mutsumi mused with an amused titter as she gazed on Taiko.
"Yeah, she did!" Taiko then hummed as she considered that point, and then she sighed. "Well, then…" she said as she moved to unbutton her shirt.
"What are you doing?" Mutsumi asked.
"The only proper thing, Mutsumi-chan! Since I squeezed Megumi-chan's Charmin, I gotta let her squeeze mine!" Taiko said as she opened her shirt, revealing her sports bra. "Here ya go, Megumi-chan! C'mon over and have some!"
Megumi laughed as she staggered over to collapse into Taiko's lap. Everyone — including the yatai owner (since Megumi and Mutsumi spent very well here, he didn't mind the floor show the girls sometimes put out) and the three salarymen (currently seated at the other end of the yatai from the three university aspirants, all in a very drunk daze and with handkerchiefs stuffed in their noses to prevent them from making a mess on the counter) — hooted as Megumi swung one leg around so she could straddle Taiko's legs, and then she leaned in to squeeze the merchandise. "Oh, wow! Your boobs are so firm, Tai-chan! Mutsumi-chan, get a gander of these! They're awesome!"
"Megumi-chan?"
"Hai, Tai-chan, what is it?"
A wink. "You have to pay a toll now, you know!"
Megumi blinked as she stared at Taiko, and then she smirked. "I think I know what toll that is," she said before leaning in and kissing her hard.
The salarymen whooped with delight. The yatai owner shook his head as he moved to refill beer glasses. Mutsumi moaned on seeing Megumi and Taiko exploring each other's mouths with their tongues. "Oh, you are so unfair, Megumi-chan!" she whined as crocodile tears started to pour down her cheeks. "Kissing Tai-chan before I could kiss her! Megumi-chan, you're awful!"
They broke apart, and then Taiko sighed. "'Scuse me for a sec', Megumi-chan! Methinks I have to give Mutsumi-chan her toll, too!"
She then leaned over to gently devour Mutsumi's lips with her own. More whoops and cheers from the salarymen nearby as Megumi and the yatai owner applauded. "Hey, you can't complain about this one, Mutsumi-chan!" Megumi said as she grabbed her top to put it back on. "She's the one you definitely want!"
Silence fell as Taiko and Mutsumi continued to kiss, and then they reluctantly pulled apart. "Why do you say that, Megumi-chan?" the latter asked.
"It's her bro! He's the one you made the promise to all those years ago!"
Mutsumi paused as she took that in, and then she blinked as she found herself staring in curiosity at Taiko for a moment before she muttered out, "Kei-chan?"
Taiko gazed on her, and then she sighed. "It was me until very early this morning, Mutsumi-chan. It's now my brother."
"Oh, whoa!" Megumi hooted. "Tai-chan's gonna say some weird stuff, too!"
"What do you mean, Tai-chan?" Mutsumi urged.
Taiko took a deep breath. "Well, Onii-chan visited a planet this morning and got himself special powers…and along the way, he got me…"
"Yiziba?"
Silence.
Taiko's jaw dropped. "Then you…?"
A shy smile. "I'm the Academician. And you?"
Taiko blinked. "Um…S-s-Stone M-m-Mountain…"
Mutsumi grinned. "Good to see you again. Both ways."
"Um…r-r-right…"
So now that that's been revealed…
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(Posted Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:17)
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