by Jessie Wolf
“Yes, I believe we should. For some reason, they think that they can just dispense justice as they see it.” She had made a great deal of progress in mastering the famed Nakatoma ‘glide’. “I believe we should correct their error in judgment. However, I find that a word of wisdom will be inadequate. I believe something more maybe needed for their lack of subtlety.”
“Oh, I quite agree, but let us first try to reason with them. If that fails then I think an application of the ‘old fashioned teaching’ method should convey our displeasure.” When Alice hears this she just gives me a faint smile. Just like mama would do, or close to anyway. She still has a lot of work to pull off that particular action, come to think about, so do I. “Shall we get going, pussycat?”
She just nods her head and turns back to the freshman and eight grade dorms. As we approached the door for the eighth grade dorm we were met by the twins. “Come with us, little sisters. You and Fuyuko have some questions to answer for.” The way I had given them the order was the same way that mama would when they had misbehaved. If I could have taken a picture just then I would have. The look on their faces was priceless. My sisters quickly fell in behind me and Alice. We were met halfway between the freshman and eighth grade dorms by Fuyuko. Even she was brought up short by mine and Alice’s appearance.
With a smile on her face she bowed to us in greeting. “Good morning, sissy. Good morning Alice-san. Why are you all the way over here? I thought we were going to meet up at your room.”
“We have a few minutes before we have to be in the dining hall for breakfast. Now, shall we head up to your room? There are some questions that need answering and you three have the answers.” I held out my arm as if I was inviting her to take the lead. When in fact I was ordering her to head back to her room. I had kept my voice calm and mannerisms proper for a Lady of the Nakatoma House. In doing so everything about me said Head of House, and I was not to be trifled with. Fuyuko took one look at her younger sisters and swallowed. She turned around and headed for her dorm and her room.
Once inside her room I turned to her with a small smile on my face. Just like the one mama often gave me. “Fuyuko, activate your counter surveillance suite please?” Now if her AI wasn’t active there would be no way for her to do as I asked.
“Sure thing sissy, but why aren’t you using your own?” if she had been thinking she would have had me or Alice putting up the counter surveillance jamming. Her younger sisters caught on to what I was doing before she did.
“Don’t go thinking that you’re out of the woods either you two.” Alice snapped. “You get to help her out by taking care of the security cameras. Just so you know I’ll be checking to make sure they’re not showing our entrance into this room. Now get to it, and don’t get caught.” Oh boy was my baby pissed.
Once the three of them had accomplished their tasks I got down to business. “Alright, I want to know two, no make that three things. First how did you little shits fully activate your AIs, second were you the ones who setup the ‘Heathers’, and finally do you realize how much trouble you three have caused for me and Alice?!” I was almost screaming by the time I finished. When none of them were forth coming with answers I did scream. “MAMA is going to skin me alive because of what you three did!”
It was Nanami who was the first to speak. “It was my entire fault, sissy.”
I said only one word through clenched teeth. “Explain.”
She squared her shoulders and looked me in the eye. The way she was willing to take the blame for what had happened showed me just how much she had grown up over the summer. “I was the one who came up with the plan to hurt the ‘Heathers’…”
“That’s not true, Maiha. I was the one who wanted to get them while you and Alice were in the Headmasters office.” Fuyuko was quick to put in not letting her baby sister take the full blame for last night’s activity. And Nanase wasn’t to be out done she was going take some the blame as well.
“We all were in on it. So you can’t just blame Nanami. All of our AIs were used in planning out how we were going to hit the ‘Heathers’.”
Holding up hands in the universal sign of stop kept them from continuing to bombard us with excuses. When they fell silent I looked at Fuyuko first. “Ok, young lady do you want to tell me why you decided to hit them last night?”
Fuyuko got this shit eating grin on her face. “You and Alice were in with the Headmaster along with five of the senior ‘Heathers’. If anyone asked you two would have the perfect alibi, while we would be ruled out because you most likely have told them that we don’t have the ‘training’ to pull off something like this. Which we don’t, but we do have a few years off learning how to move quietly in the halls of the Temple.” When she told me that it was like getting kicked in the head. I had not thought about their lives before meeting me as having an effect on the way they would act in a combat situation or in having value outside of the Temple. “We just put what we learned there together with what our AIs gave us and waited for them to come out of the gymnasium.”
Alice step in with the next question. “Ok, that explains the how and where, but not why. We’re still waiting for why you went after them when you were told not to.”
“We figured that we had to do something after everything they did to us.” Nanase almost whined. “Those bitches needed a smack down and needed it bad. Besides they were dragging four of their former members across the campus treating them like trash, just like they do everybody who doesn’t fit their ideal of who should be a student at this school.”
“Alright, fine I’ll give you that, but how did you get your AIs to help out. Especially as Maiha and I have gone out of our way to keep your AIs in the passive active mode. Can you tell me how you did that?” Alice was really upset over this fact, so was I to tell the truth.
Nanami blushed like she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “I was the one who figured that out.” When Alice and I looked at her, her blush got even deeper. “I only did what you would.” At our looks of confusion she started to giggle. “We did what you always do sissy, we consulted our inner voices. Just like mama always says ‘Look to your inner self for guidance’, that’s what we did.”
Looking over at Alice, I find the same look of disbelief on her face that is on my own. The answer was so simple that I never thought to block them from using that route. Looking back at the three of them I see the exact same looks of smugness on all of their faces. “Ok, you can wipe those smug looks off of your faces right now.”
“But sissy, we only did what you would have.” Nanase’s whining almost makes me lose my self-control and snap at her.
“That may be true, Nanase, but you were told to leave the ‘Heathers’ alone. Now, you’re on their radar and they’ll be looking for you. How do you plan to handle that?”
“We caught them off guard last night and knocked them out before they had a chance to get a look at us. There was no way for them to identify us as we used our sonic disruptors to render them unconscious before we ever moved from cover. Also we made sure to jam the video feed to the security office. We covered all our bases sissy, why are you so upset? It was a prefect operation and no one got hurt.” Nanami was right there defending her sister and their plan for dealing with the Heathers.
“Because, I promised mama that I would keep you three out of trouble, damn it. Also I was to keep you from awakening your AIs until you could be trained in their full usage. Now, not only have you gone looking for trouble intentionally, you’ve managed to awaken your AIs. All of this against mamas expressed wishes. Don’t you three get it? Everything you did last night was wrong, it goes against Temple teachings and everything the House Nakatoma stands for. We do not just go about dispensing justice as we see fit. We have to follow the law as we enforce it.” I was doing all I could to keep from screaming at them. “Don’t you get it? I told you to stay out of this so you won’t do what you did. You promised me that you would stay out of trouble that you would only fight ba
ck if you were directly attacked, that you would let me and Alice handle the sneaky stuff. Why would you go against everything I asked you to do like this? Now, if something else like this happens the security staff is going to be looking at you three a whole lot harder and I might not be able to cover for you. Not like I did this time.”
Alice was just as upset as I was and I could tell by the look on her face. “Little sisters, we told you not to get involved for a reason. All you did last night was to show the security staff that there are more people who can do something like this than Maiha and I on campus. They’ll be looking twice as hard now for whoever did this. If Maiha had not directed them to look elsewhere, you would be in the Headmasters office right now.”
Nanase, Nanami and Fuyuko all looked down at the floor. I could tell they were sorry for causing me trouble. Fuyuko answered for the three of them. “We’re sorry, sissy. We didn’t think beyond getting some payback for everything those girls have done.”
“Now, you’re sorry.” I snapped, and all three flinched at the tone of my voice. “Did you even think that far ahead, or were you only thinking about how to get away with it?”
Nanase looked up at me. “We only thought about how to get away with it, we didn’t think about the fallout.” She answered truthfully.
“So, your only thought was how to make them pay and not get caught?” Alice snapped at them.
Once again the three of them flinched, however it was Nanami who answered. “Yes ma’am. We didn’t think passed that. We figured that with the two of you in with the Headmaster, we could get in a little payback on the Heathers and no one would look at us.”
“Alright, everyone calm down.” I took a deep breath and centered myself. I watched as Alice did the same. When I next spoke it was not as their sister, but as the Head of House Nakatoma. “You three have brought shame on our House, by disobeying my direct orders to leave the Heathers alone. However you have also shown that you’re motives were honorable. Where you made your mistake was in not looking beyond the immediate problem and the ramifications of your actions. So I am going to inform your C and M, and Modern History Teachers of what you have done and leave your punishment up to them.”
Alice looked over at me in shock at first until she realized that she was one of those two teachers. The smile that crossed her face was remonstrant of one mama would have. “I think that is a fine idea, my love. I’ll take care of the History teacher as I have a meeting with her later this morning.”
“That just leaves the C and M teacher and I can take care of that myself.” I was smiling the same smile as her.
“Um… sissy, why are you telling our teachers about what we did and letting them punish us?” Nanase asked in a very small voice.
“Hay, won’t that give us away?” Fuyuko wanted to know. Nanami just nodded her head in agreement.
“Oh, I believe they already know what you three have done.”
“Sissy, how can they already know? I mean you haven’t even talked to them yet?” Fuyuko was more curious than worried at this point.
“That’s because we are your teachers for those subjects. As for the why it is simple. If your teachers hand out the punishment inside of your older sisters, then you are being punished by the faculty and not your family. This way if anyone ever finds out what you did we can say you were punished by the faculty for it. Also this way I can tell the Headmaster that I found out who made that little mess last night and have punished them as a member of the faculty.” As I explained what I was doing to them the light of understanding appeared in their eyes.
“Wait a minute that ain’t fair!” Fuyuko cried out. “You just can’t turn us over to the Headmaster like that. It’ll give us away, and everything we did last night.”
“No, I’m not turning you over to the Headmaster. What I’m going to do is tell him that Alice and I have found out who made the mess last night and are handling it as members of the faculty. Now enough stalling lets go to breakfast and get ready for classes.” With that I turned and with a look gathered them up and headed for the door.
As we left Fuyuko’s dorm, we ran into the dorm mother. “Excuse me, ladies. Would one of you be the Lady Maiha Nakatoma?”
“Um… yes ma’am that would be me. Can I do something for you?”
“Oh no I was just wondering if you were Fuyuko’s older sister is all. You must be very proud of her; I mean she is only fourteen and already taking the advanced courses. Why I believe she maybe the youngest student in her year.” The old woman was just busting at the seams over Fuyuko’s accomplishments. Then she notice Nanami and Nanase, and her eyes got around as dinner plates. “Oh my, are these two lovely young ladies her younger sisters?”
I noticed the embarrassment of my younger sisters and had to smile. They weren’t used to being praised by someone not in their family. “Yes ma’am, they are and everyone in the family is so proud of what they have accomplished. Oh, may I please know your name and the name of the twins Dorm mother, so I can let our mother know who is looking over them while they are here?”
“Of course, Lady Maiha, sorry I should have told you who I was to begin with. Allow me to introduce myself; I am Mrs. Ann McCaffrey, Dorm mother for the sophomore class. Mrs. P.C. Cast is the Dorm mother for the freshman class. I hope you’ll give us a good report when you talk to your mother, the Grand Lady Dai Etsu.” Mrs. McCaffrey was almost tripping over herself with her introduction. If I did not know better I would say she was afraid of losing her job. Then again mama did fire the old Headmistress for her involvement with covering for the Heathers.
“I’ll be more than happy too. Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to get to breakfast, and Alice and I have to have a word with the Headmaster before the start of classes today.” I was trying my best to get away from this woman before she started to ask why we were in Fuyuko’s dorm let alone her dorm room.
“Oh I was just headed that way myself might, I walk with you?”
I was all set to tell her to go to hell, but Alice was quicker on the draw and far more diplomatic. “Mrs. McCaffrey we would love for you to join us for breakfast, but unfortunately we need to discuss family business. Some of which is very private and for family only, maybe some other time?”
“Oh, not a problem, I look forward to a time when we can have a meal together.” Turning to my younger sisters “I’ll see you young ladies in class.” With that she walked away leaving us alone.
“Come on; let’s get out of here before someone else stops.” I quickly led the way out of the dorm building and over to the dining hall. As we approached the doors to the dining room Bethany and her three friends came up to us. From the looks on their faces they were uncomfortable with being near us. Alice was quick to pick up on this and decided to get in a little dig.
“Why Bethany, don’t you all look beautiful this morning.” I know she has issues with these girls, but damn it I need to find out what they want. Especially if it concerns Longfellow and the local Yakuza.
I give her a look that basically told her to back off before turning to Bethany. I could see that they were afraid of us right now and I didn’t need that. “Look Bethany, I know that you want to talk to me about something, I can see it in your eyes. Now, please forgive Alice and tell what is wrong.”
Bethany was almost in tears when she started talking. “Lady Maiha and Lady Alice I, I mean, we have been instructed by our sponsors to invite you and your family to a ‘sit down’ with our sponsor some evening at the Green Serpent Inn and Restaurant.” The poor girl was shaking with fear as she gave me the invite. I could tell she didn’t want to be giving me this invite to talk with her new sponsor. Then again most people who deal with the heads of Yakuza Families who are not criminals tend to be a little afraid. She must have been terrified that I would tell her that I wouldn’t be there.
Smiling to let her know that I was not offended. “Tell your sponsor that my wife and I will be glad to have dinner with him at his place of business.” The look of
relief that crossed their faces confirmed my suppositions of their fears.
Bethany’s next words only drove home this fact. “Oh, thank you Lady Maiha, I was so afraid you would turn down the offer, especially after last night’s goings on.”
“About that, Bethany, I need for you to tell me exactly what you told the security chief and Mr. Longfellow happened last night.”
“We didn’t tell the security chief anything other than the last thing we remembered is passing out in our rooms and waking up in the gymnasium where they found us.” I could tell she was more afraid of Longfellow than Chief Bronson. “As for Mr. Longfellow I told him everything from how we were drugged by the rest of the ‘Heathers’ to teach us a lesson about leaving them, and how it was your little sisters that pulled that stunt with doing the same to them that they were going to do to us. Yes, I know who it was that attack the ‘Heathers’ last night, I may have been out of it thanks to the drugs, but I know what I saw. That was your younger sisters taking down the ‘Heathers’ and then hauling them off like so much trash. The only thing I wish was that they would have covered us up a little before we were found.” The young girl was very embarrassed from the looks of things about being found naked as the day she was born.
Looking over at my little sisters I could tell they had a reason for leaving them the way they did, so I decided to let them explain why. “Fuyuko, would you care to explain why you left them the way you did?”