79: Troublesome recruits

"Why am I here?" - Rin asked as she looked around fearfully, after all, she was currently inside the teacher's lounge, right in front of Maya Yamada and Chifuyu Orimura.

"Because you interrupted a different class, Huang" - Chifuyu replied as she gave her a blank look - "I think it's pretty obvious that you're in trouble for doing something so stupid."

Rin averted her gaze in embarrassment because if she was honest, she hadn't thought about the consequences of reuniting with her beloved.

"Normally, we would only punish you for two days, but your little action, caused us to have less time than we already had" - Chifuyu continued as she frowned.

"Less time?" - Huang Ling Yin repeated as she looked at the two teachers.

"It's simple, we will have two new recruits, them being more troublesome than you" - replied Chifuyu as she gave the girl a blank look.

"But I'm not troublesome" - Rin replied as she folded her arms.

"Says the girl who interrupted another grade's class just to reunite with an old friend?" - Maya asked with annoyance, which wasn't very normal to say the least.

"Sorry!" - Rin exclaimed as she bowed her head at a 90° angle, a perfect bow.

"You don't have to apologize so firmly, we understand your situation, however, we hope this won't happen again" - said Maya with an understanding tone.

"I promise" - Rin replied with a happy smile - "Thank you very much, Yamada sensei, Orimura sensei".

"Now leave, we still have a lot of problems to solve" - said Chifuyu with a neutral look.

"Ok, I won't steal any more of your time ~!" - Rin exclaimed as she ran out of the teacher's room because honestly, she could hardly hold back the urge to pee from the enormous pressure she was being exposed to.

"What do you think, Yamada sensei?" - Chifuyu asked as she folded her arms.

"She really loves your younger brother" - replied Maya as she shook her head - "That aside, she's a good girl, though we can't say the same for our new recruits..."

"Charles Dunois, possibly the second boy who can pilot an [IS], however, I find something odd about this" - Chifuyu replied with a frown - "There is no record about this name, at least until a few days ago, which means that the Dunois corporation is trying something, possibly against Ichika."

"Do you want me to look into it a bit more?" - Maya asked as she looked at her colleague.

"That won't be necessary, this is easy to solve when [he] is at the academy, we just need to put him together with Strife, and he'll solve the problem" - Chifuyu replied calmly, glad that finally the troublesome boy is of use and not just a pain in the ass.

Maya gave a blank look to her colleague because she did not expect this answer.

"Back to the initial point, our problems don't end with Charles Dunois and his unknown motives" - Chifuyu said with a frown - "But only get worse with her."

"Laura Bodewig from Germany" - murmured Maya as she looked carefully at her colleague - "If I remember correctly, you spent some time in Germany as an instructor"

"Yes, I did that as payment for helping me save Ichika during the [Mondo Grosso] incident" - Chifuyu replied while frowning - "During that time, I was an instructor for this girl, and although talented, I always felt that she lacked some humanity, a feeling that intensified after she decided to agree to be part of a certain confidential experiment"

"How dangerous is she?" - Maya asked with concern - "And what do you think her goal at the academy is?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure" - replied Chifuyu while thinking carefully - "The level I remember the girl being was slightly above a national representative, so currently she may be on the level of Natasha Fairs from the USA."

"Oh, then we'll have to keep an eye on her, and being a girl, we can't throw it to Cloud-kun" - Maya said while giving a blank look to her colleague.

"We can always do that, after all, Laura was always known for wanting to test her power against strong opponents" - replied Chifuyu calmly.

Maya again gave a blank look to her colleague, who seemed to be enjoying the fact that she was planning to throw Cloud under the bus with these two new troublesome students.

"Now that I think about it, it's possible that Laura Bodewig will come to the academy to ask me to return to Germany to finish with her training" - Chifuyu said while shaking her head - "She was always reluctant to the idea that my time as her instructor was so limited."

"Oh, sounds like a more than perfect reason to come, though I feel like there's something else" - Maya said while thinking carefully - "Maybe it's that they're also looking for [Byakushiki]'s information? After all, that's Tabane Shinonono's last recorded work."

"Hmm, it's possible" - muttered Chifuyu while shaking her head - "Anyway, I'd like to know how much time we have for our little recruits to arrive at the academy."

"There was a recorded appearance of a German submarine a few hours off the coast, they have been confirmed as the squadron under Laura Bodewig's command" - replied Maya as she checked the logs - "As for Charles Dunois, his plane has to be landing right now."

"I see, I guess we'd better get ready" - Chifuyu said before organizing the final preparations for the arrival of the two new recruits to the academy.

* * * * *

"How long until we arrive to Japan?" - Laura asked as she looked boredly out the window of the submarine, after all, she had seen the same fish over 100 times.

"Approximately two hours with our current speed" - Clarissa answered as she picked up a book and started reading it with a small smile on her lips.

"What are you reading?" - Laura asked curiously, after all, this was not the first time her subordinate had read a book with a black cover.

"Huh?" - Clarissa was surprised at her leader's question - "I-it's a book on quantum mechanics..."

"Really?" - Laura asked as she frowned slightly - "I hope you're not lying to me, Clarissa."

The vice-captain of the black hare squadron simply began to sweat.

"I didn't know vice-captain Clarissa was such an intellectual" - said a recruit who had been with the group for only a week.

"She's not" - denied a veteran recruit as she watched her leader walk over to the second in command.

"Are you calling me stupid!" - Clarissa exclaimed angrily, and in the process dropping the book, causing the black cover to fly off, and displaying the title of it before all the girls in the squadron - "Ah..."

"Hibi Chouchou?" - muttered a girl in surprise when she saw the image on the cover - "Isn't that the name of a Shoujo Manga from Japan?"

"How do you know?" - asked another of the girls as she raised an eyebrow.

"I have a Japanese friend who sometimes sends me those kinds of books" - replied the girl calmly - "That manga is quite popular these days with girls because it's a classic love story with an interesting drawing style."

Clarissa started sobbing when she saw that her secret was out.

Yes, she was a fan of Shojo manga from Japan due to the fact that her romantic life was practically zero thanks to the constant training she had gone through.

What was wrong with wanting to have a fantasy romance?

Clarissa quickly grabbed the book and ran out to her bedroom with tears running down her eyes.

"I think we made her cry..." - murmured a girl as she looked with surprise at what had happened - "Although I feel like she's overreacting..."

"We made her cry..." - stated the other while shaking her head - "I guess it's because she thinks that now that we know about her hobby, we're going to look down on her for being such a girly one..."

"Which is weird because we all have hundreds of stuffed animals in our rooms, so the vice-captain's tastes are more normal than she thinks" - added another girl as the others nodded.

"Shoujo Manga?" - Laura repeated as she overheard her subordinates' conversation - "What's that?"

When these words came out of the squad leader's mouth, a deep silence invaded the submarine, after all, they didn't know what to say to this question.

"I got this!" - Clarissa exclaimed with a firm expression, as if she had returned to normal, although this was because she had listened to the conversation of her subordinates, who had admitted that her feminine tastes were no reason for them to see her as a bad leader - "I'll tell her about Shojo manga and about Japanese culture."

"Oh, I see, sounds like a good plan, to learn about the culture, so I can more easily adapt to my life in Japan until I complete my goal" - nodded Laura with acceptance - "I understand, please teach me, Clarissa"

"I think this is a bad idea" - muttered a girl while the others nodded at her words because they could tell how excited Clarissa was as she explained everything she knew about the Japanese culture that she discovered through Shojo manga.