-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffrey Cornish [mailto:jeffrey.cornish@gte.net]
Sent: Sunday, March 28, 1999 10:58 PM
To: Fan Fiction Mailing List
Cc: Mark Allen Davis; Sky; Keith Alan Johnston
Subject: [FFML] [NUKU NUKU] All Purpose Cultural Arisa, Part 1
All Purpose Cultural Arisa, Part One.
Jeffrey Cornish, 1999
<credits>
Thanks to Sky and Miko for ideas.
To Miko: "Okay! I finally wrote one, just like I'd been threatening!
Mhuu-hah-hah-hah! Oh, by the way, thank you for the edits."
To Sky: "I got my story on the FFML before you did! Nyah Nyah!"
This story takes place somewhere between the events of Episode one and
Episode six of the original OVA, or maybe in an alternate dimension.
The Nuku Nuku TV series is funny, but fluff (I mean, really,
Akiko-sama should _NOT_ get hurt along with her underlings).
I haven't seen the new OVA so I don't use it at all in here.
If you haven't seen All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, who was
created by the inestimable Yuzo Takada and is owned by the excellent
Starchild company, you need to rent (or better) buy it to make your
anime collection complete and your life happy and full. No
infringement of copyright is intended. Do not charge money to show
this to your friends or Operative A's torso will be found at your
doorstep! Ewww!
C&C is invited.
</credits>
format testing line. Testing 1. 2. 3. 4. Testing...
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
. . .
Darkness gave way to a pale orange fireball. Plush office
furniture turned a jaundiced pink from the television screen playback.
Three women watched four billion yen of high-tech military hardware
fall from the skies. The camera panned down to capture the moment it
impacted, reducing four blocks of abandoned warehouses to so much scrap
metal.
Two of the women continued to watch passively, one seated and the
other standing. The last woman, standing beside her partner, gritted
her teeth as the stricken craft rose, cartwheeling and ablaze, before
it crashed into the base of a watertower.
"It is obvious that our current methods of attempting to match
the android's speed, agility and strength, as well as using
overwhelmingly superior firepower, have come to naught," said the
woman, sitting dispassionately in her chair, as she continued to watch
the video. Swiveling to face the women who stood at attention before
her, she continued.
"We must find another way to defeat it, find a weakness we can
exploit."
The room lights turned on and the dark-haired woman broke her
silence angrily, leaning forward to strike the black marble desk with
her hands.
"My Lady! We can use the new plasma projection rifles that
Department G has just finished testing in Hokkaido. Our targeting unit
was tracking the android perfectly, it's just that the missiles were
too slow. My Lady! If we could just..."
"No. I have made my decision. We must find a different way to
deal with the android." The woman sitting behind the desk paused,
steepling her fingers in thought.
"Every weapon made has a weakness, even Atsuko Natsume." Akiko
Mishima, President of the mighty Mishima Heavy Industries corporation
paused, watching the android prance past the smoking wreck that had
been one of her company's new 'Panther-2' VTOL fightercraft.
The girl on the screen had crimson hair, a happy smile and wore a
somewhat singed school uniform. The camera tracked her as she bounced
down the street and into the midst of several boys also wearing school
uniforms. The magnified view showed her stopped in the midst of the
boys, smiling and laughing.
"I am convinced that the android's weakness lies in her 'social
combat skills' -- in other words, her ability to interact with others.
If we are to defeat her, then it will be through her deficient
interpersonal relationship skills."
Arisa Mitamura and Kyouko Koitabashi, executive assistants to the
President of MHI, looked at each other, puzzled at their Lady's words.
"Social Combat Skills?" they both murmured.
"But my Lady! Surely the new Mark I Bolo that the heavy tank
division is finishing will give us the edge. Kyouko and I..."
Akiko flashed an angry look that froze the two women with fear.
"Arisa! I am not accustomed to being questioned. Now have you two
fully recovered from your injuries? I expect you to plan and execute a
campaign of covert surveillance on the android NK-1124 that will reveal
what her precise weaknesses are and how we can best use them against
her. I will expect results within 72 hours."
. . .
Arisa closed the doors and turned to Kyouko, fuming. "Attacking
a robot with superior social skills. I have never heard of anything
more ridiculous!"
Kyouko stood here, clutching a folded sheet of paper, and sighed.
Crossing her arms, Arisa half turned away from Kyouko, and
continued to speak sharply.
"I mean, how are we going to defeat that schoolgirl android,
invite her out for tea? Take her to a baseball game? Go dancing at a
fancy restaurant? I just don't understand..." Arisa stopped and
glanced at Kyouko, who had not moved a millimeter.
"You weren't very much help in there. We could have probably
changed her mind on the tank. At least we could use the infrared
sensors on it. They could pick out a gnat blushing twenty kilometers
away!"
Arisa glanced sidelong at her partner.
"Hey, Kyouko." Arisa turned to the blonde, tapping her on the
shoulder with impatience. "Are you alright?"
Kyouko looked blankly at her partner for a moment, her thoughts
Obviously very distant. Arisa was puzzled--Kyouko was usually much
more attentive than this.
Blinking, Kyouko smiled sunnily at Arisa. "Huh? What did you
say Arisa? Oops, I almost forgot to give this to Akiko-sama!"
"I'll be right back, Arisa," Kyouko giggled as she re-entered the
office of Akiko Mishima waving the papers she clutched.
Arisa, nonplussed, wondered if the blow to the head Kyouko taken
was much greater than the doctors said when the water tower had
collapsed on their Panther-2 fighter jet. "Or maybe her brains got
zapped when the water poured in and shorted her computer." She peered
into the office where Kyouko stood at attention before Akiko-sama.
Akiko was reading Kyouko's papers and speaking quietly to her.
Arisa overheard "...this all appears to be in order. Are you certain
you want to take your leave now?"
"What?" Arisa said with alarm, rushing back in. "Leave? Leave?
How can you take leave? Kyouko, what are you..."
With a stern glance and a cough Akiko silenced the gun-woman.
"Arisa. Kyouko has applied for three days vacation."
"What?!? When did _she_ get vacation time? I thought we lost
all of our vacation time after we lost..." Arisa paused. "I mean that
schoolgirl android destroyed the Mark X battleroid in the middle of
Tokyo Bay."
Kyouko looked at Arisa smugly. "Arisa, remember how you went to
that three-day advanced weapons show last year?"
Arisa sighed and smiled thinking of all of those wonderful rifles
she'd seen. "Yes," she breathed.
"I didn't. I still have three days off."
Arisa's face fell. "But..."
Turning to Akiko, Kyouko bowed deeply, straightened and turned,
leaning close to Arisa. Patting Arisa on the shoulder and said
conspiratorially "See ya in a few days, partner!"
Watching Kyouko leave, Arisa found her own thoughts a muddle of
worry and anger. "I don't see how she can leave when _we_ are supposed
to be covertly watching the NK-1124," she grumbled.
"Just close the door on your way out, Arisa. I expect a complete
report in three days," Akiko said, turning to her computer screens
filled with revenue projections.
. . .
Alone in the Mishima Employee's changing room, Arisa Mitamura
opened her locker and carelessly tossing her pink secretarial uniform
inside. Putting on her street clothes and 'Mishama' leather jacket,
she frowned at the singe-marks that blackened one sleeve.
"Ha! I'll be able to afford a new jacket with the bonus that we.
I mean that I will earn from this mission!" Arisa said out loud.
Then she sighed, heavily, her boastful confidence slipping away.
'I just don't understand what has got into Kyouko's head', she
thought. Rummaging for a moment in the mass of papers, boxes and
clothing cluttering the locker floor, she found a holstered pistol.
Drawing the weapon out, she cocked it and sighted down the barrel.
"Actually she has been acting rather strange. After we had both
been released from the hospital I found all that junk in the bathroom.
Perfumes and stuff.
"Where is my clip of hollowpoint ammo?" she muttered, feeling
around the top shelf of her locker. Retrieving it, she sat down on the
bench that divided the rows of lockers, weighing the full clip in her
hand.
"Could it be that she is seeing someone?" Arisa asked aloud in
the empty room. "She did get that new dress. And she missed 'The
adventures of Usagi Yojimbo' two nights ago. We never miss that unless
we're on assignment. She didn't ask me to record it, even."
They'd watched the American written anime of the adventures of
the wandering samurai rabbit since the series had premiered a year ago.
Every Tuesday was their 'Bunny with Dashio' night!
In a low voice she said "Maybe she has a boyfriend?"
She slapped the clip into the pistol, holstering it. "No.
That's impossible. Neither of us are that lucky."
. . .
The clerks and workers in the cavernous Mishima Heavy Industries
Nerima warehouse were used to handling some of the deadliest weapons
known to mankind. These hearty workmen did not tremble at the row upon
row of mighty fighting machines designed to devastate cities. Nor were
any concerned with the deadly armaments, from conventional explosives
to exotic energy weapons, that were stored throughout the building.
However, the men of the MHI Nerima storage facility were deathly
afraid of one slim, dark-haired executive assistant, who was currently
holding a gadget-bespeckled construction of coaxial tubes labeled "MHI
LASER Bazooka, Mk II -- Danger: 75 megawatt power, do not look directly
at or near LASER beam."
"What do you mean I have to fill out a K5-stroke-B form to check
this out? I never had to do that before!" Arisa bullied the balding
man who sat behind the checkout counter.
The clerk swallowed and handed the form back to Arisa. "I'm
afraid this is the way we've always done this ma'am. If you could just
sign here."
"I guess that Kyouko does all of this stuff usually," Arisa said
with an impatient growl. Scrawling her signature onto the form, she
slung the Laser weapon over her shoulder and hefted two boxes full of
everything she though she would need for the operation.
Striding across the warehouse despite the heavy load she carried,
Arisa smiled cruelly. "I'll show them! I'll show them all!! Now I'll
plan the mission out and execute it on my own." Arisa's laugh sent
shivers down the spines of every worker within earshot.
"I don't need that... that... bimbo!"
She never saw the smaller woman walking across her path. In a
hail of grenades, ammo clips, food rations and papers the two women
tripped one another.
"Gomenasai!" yelped the blonde.
"What where you're going you foolish..." Arisa froze when she
realized who it was. Kyouko was already gathering up items that had
fallen out of Arisa's boxes.
"Kyouko?" Arisa said pleadingly. "What are you doing here? I
thought you were..."
Kyouko smiled goofily at Arisa. "I haven't left yet, silly. I
had to check out the backup avionics computer on the Poison-5 before I
quit. It still isn't benchmarking as high as the old computer on the
Poison-4," she sighed.
"Er, yeah. Um, so Kyouko..." Arisa said awkwardly.
"Yes Arisa-chan?"
"Who... I mean what are you doing on your vacation?"
Kyouko looked at Arisa with the same far-off look she'd had
outside Akiko-sama's office earlier. "Would you quit making that
foolish-looking face!" Arisa snapped.
Kyouko blinked, then blushed. "I'm sorry, Arisa, it's just
that..." She looked at her watch and said with shock, "Ohlookatthetime!
Sorry Arisa, I'm going to be really, really late unless I leave right
this second. I'll tell you all about it when I get back, okay?"
Gathering up the papers she had dropped, Kyouko hurried off
towards the exit.
"Kyouko," Arisa said quietly, and then finished picking
everything else that had spilled onto the floor.
. . .
In Arisa's opinion her plan for what she dubbed 'Operation:
Debutante' began as a rousing success. She had ample short, medium and
long range weapons, grenades, a pair of claymore mines and the best-
selling Mishima Heavy Industries' "Duct Blind" urban sniper nest. With
these weapons, a map of the school complex and a timetable of classes
that the Android NK-1124 attended, she began to plan her mission.
Form follows function, her instructor had once told her. "Or do
I have that backwards?" she thought briefly. She immediately dismissed
the notion with a laugh.
"Oh well, I'll make the tools I have work," she said with a
wicked smile.
Planning was simple: given the weapons she had, how could she
best achieve the goal of finding the android schoolgirl's 'Social
Combat Skills'?
"Lets see, I have the battlesight recorder on the Laser Bazooka
to take video and notes. I can probably herd the other students around
with flash-bang grenades. And if all else fails, I can have Kyouko go
down and..."
She stopped on that thought.
"Oh, yeah, no Kyouko."
That meant no tapping into phone lines, no hacking into the
school mainframe and using only her limited satellite imagery
interpretation skills. "I don't think I can do anything like mistake
the Tokyo Tower for a missile launch site again," she said confidently.
After circling where she would set up on the roof of the
Elementary School she gathered her supplies and left to find a bus that
would take her.
. . .
For some reason small bugs started appearing in Arisa's plan.
Arisa pushed her sunglasses up to cover her eye's as she entered
the door of the bus. Dropping the boxes she carried to the floor, she
reached in her pocket for the fare, looking at the driver when he
cleared his throat.
"Just a minute, I'm looking for change already," she snapped,
fumbling as she searched her pockets.
The bus driver asked, "Miss, could you tell me what you are
bringing on my bus?"
Arisa looked at the driver and realized what he was looking at.
Nervously she laughed "Oh ho ho! You mean this thing?" She thumbed at
the Laser Bazooka slung onto her back.
"Ah, yes. I don't think I can let you bring a weapon onto the
bus."
"Oh, but it's not a weapon! It's a, er. Plant stand!"
"But it says 'Danger: Laser'."
Arisa's forced a smile as she paid her fare. "Well, that's just
a label. Pay it no mind!"
. . .
Arisa stood waiting for the next bus. As it pulled up she
slipped through the rear door marked 'exit only.' Luckily a sizable
crowd was waiting to board at the front so she avoided the driver's
attention.
With a sigh she slumped into the rear seat of the bus, placing
her boxes beside her. She opened one and looked around inside.
Pulling out a small binder that was labeled 'Mishima Anti-Tank Laser
(MATL, Mark II)'
An old woman walked down the aisle toward Arisa. "Excuse me,
young lady," she said.
Arisa ignored her as pages fell out of the manual. "Dammit, half
the manual is gone! I must have lost them when Kyouko made me drop my
stuff."
"Excuse me," the old woman said insistently. "You are taking up
the entire bench."
Arisa glanced over her sunglasses at the woman. "Sorry, grandma.
You'll have to sit somewhere else."
"Well I never!" the old woman said, appalled, and turned back
towards the front.
Arisa ignored her as she shuffled through the manual's disordered
pages. "Where's the 'quickstart' steps. Oh, here's part of them," she
mumbled.
Flicking a cover off the side of the Laser she flipped a few
switches that caused the device to beep. Pressing a red button and
flicking a lever to a setting marked "Pre-Heat" the Laser began to hum
loudly.
Looking up, Arisa saw a number of passengers looking back at her
with worried expressions. "Mind your own business, would you!" she
yelled.
The bus bumped and rattled along as Arisa followed the
instructions from what she had of the manual.
Suddenly the bus stopped for a long while. This only made Arisa
happy because all of the bus's jerking around had made connecting the
ground wire to a recessed terminal very difficult. "Yeah, it's
finished!" she exclaimed to herself when it was finally screwed down
tight.
Then Arisa realized that the bus was very quiet and there were
footsteps approaching. She looked up.
All of the passengers on the bus were staring at Arisa. This
didn't worry her as much as the bus driver who was walking back towards
her, cracking his knuckles.
'I am sure he wouldn't throw off a cute girl like me,' Arisa said
putting on a crooked smile, and trying to hold the laser cannon
innocently across her lap.
. . .
"Bastards! You can't abandon me like this! I'll, I'll get my
revenge on you!"
On the side of the road Arisa finished yelling at the departing
bus and picked up her boxes and looked at the street signs.
Smiling evilly, she gloated "I may have been tossed off the bus
rudely, but only three blocks from the school. My luck is changing
already!
. . .
Panting as she reached the front of the school building, Arisa
stopped as an elderly gentleman stepped into her path. Looking
critically at the laser weapon strapped to her back, as well as the
cases in her hands, he asked "Excuse me, young woman, but could you
explain what you are doing?"
"And who are you?" she asked irritably.
"I am Principle Tokomasu, the head of administration for this
school. Who are you?"
Arisa had panicked momentarily before she came up with a perfect
cover line. "Er...I'm with the, the... Natural Gas Company. I'm here
to... examine the gas pipes on your roof."
The principle said flatly, "Really? I didn't think we used gas
in this building. Could you explain what the device you are carrying
is for?"
Arisa smiled, sweating. "Device?"
"The device on your back that says 'LASER, 75 megawatts'?"
"Uh," Arisa had glanced around, looking for some cover she could
dive behind. Things were not going as smoothly as she'd planned. "It's
for, um..."
Then a flash of inspiration struck her. Smiling confidently she
stated, "its the latest in LASER surveying devices from Mishima Heavy
Industries. I'm going to measure the distance from her to... Tokyo
Tower, which I can assure you is not a missile launch site. I'm doing
this for the Gas Company." Arisa laughed at her cunning recovery.
The administrator, who looked as if he had just swallowed a frog,
simply replied, "Oh, I see. Well please do not interfere with any of
our classes Miss..."
"It's Miss Takahashi. With the Tokyo Natural Gas Department."
Arisa could feel her trigger finger itch. She needed to ditch this old
man soon and get to the roof.
"Ah, yes. Well, please be careful up there," the man said and
turned to speak with a young child.
Walking up the front steps leading inside, Arisa wiped sweat from
her forehead.
'Perfect. Now I just have to go to the top of the elementary
school and set up to spy on that idiot schoolgirl android,' she
thought, and entered the school.
She found a back stairway and jogged up to the roof. Setting up
her sniper nest near the edge was as easy as the 'Duct Blind' package
said; just pull the cord and stand back. From here, in what should
appear to be an ordinary rooftop air-conditioning unit, she had the
perfect vantage point to observe the activities of her quarry
outside during the midday recess.
Arisa heard a bell ring and checked her watch. Recess was a
half-hour earlier than scheduled. "So much the better," she said.
With a smile Arisa kneeled, swiveling the Laser Bazooka's full
spectrum sight around so she could look through it. "Now I don't have
to wait as long," she chuckled.
"Start voice recorder. Testing one, two, three.
"Arisa Mitamura recording notes on phase one of Project
'Debutante' surveillance. I have an excellent view of the grounds
surrounding the high school.
"I am seeing many students. I have not spotted the target as of
this time.
"Hmm, these students seem a little shorter than what I remember
from high school.
"Some of them have Pokemon lunch boxes.
"Some of them have... Hello Kitty??? What in the hell?"
Arisa realized that there was something seriously wrong with her
plan.
Then from behind her she heard a pair of feet dropping to the
roof. Arisa pivoted around with the Laser cannon until a smiling girl
with crimson hair swung into her sights.
"Konichiwa! Is that you Arisa-san?"
"I must be imagining things!" Arisa exclaimed.
"No you are not Arisa-san!" Nuku Nuku said cheerfully. "It is
good to see you again. Are you feeling better?"
"How, how did you?" Arisa began to sweat
"I volunteered to come up here and fix the High School's
satellite dish. I'm afraid it didn't take me very long so I decided to
lay in the sun for a little while." Nuku Nuku pointed at the stairwell
that supported a communications dish on one end. "I hope I didn't
scare you! This is such a surprise!"
"Hi-High School? This is the High School?"
"Yes, and Redbird Elementary is right over there! That's where
Ryunosuke attends school."
In a small, dejected voice Arisa said "I went to the wrong
building?"
Hefting the Laser Bazooka, Arisa aimed at Nuku Nuku. "Stupid
schoolgirl android! I'll teach you to make a fool of me!"
Nuku Nuku pointed the weapon, saying innocently "Uh, Arisa-san,
do you know that..."
"Be silent, impudent machine! I will finish you for once and for
all!" Arisa squeezed the grip.
There was a whine and hum as the Laser Bazooka poured out a
blisteringly bright beam for a couple seconds before it ceased to fire
in a whir of cooling fans.
Oddly, it seemed to a have no effect on the catgirl android.
"What the hell! Why didn't you vaporize!" Arisa yelled
furiously.
Nuku Nuku ignored her. Walking to the edge of the roof, hand
over her Mouth, she said, "I think you were holding it backwards."
"Well, of course I was holding it.... Whaa???" Arisa dropped the
laser and turned to see the Elementary School building with a gaping
hole burnt straight through it.
"Oops."
. . .
Ryunosuke crawled out from beneath his desk. He had spotted one
of his mother's secretaries and Nuku Nuku on the roof of the high
school just moments before. Luckily his self-preservation instincts,
honed by two years of living with his Dad and Nuku Nuku, had kicked in.
Looking up he saw that whatever it was had vaporized the roof of
his class, the biology lab above and melted the roof air conditioning
unit.
'Wow, that's three floors just burnt away. Lucky it was lunch
and nobody was up there'
'Well,' he thought, waving at Nuku Nuku, 'At least I do not have
to worry about the biology exam today.'
. . .
Nuku Nuku waved back at Ryunosuke. "Ryunosuke is so clever! He
ducked just in time! Arisa-san, do you think..."
Nuku Nuku frowned as she suddenly noticed Arisa's silence. Her
extended sensors popped out and she leapt, avoiding another laser
blast, this time fired directly at her.
. . .
The tiny tracking computer couldn't keep up with the android's
evasive moves, so Arisa was left to fire the laser cannon manually,
which was fine with her. She fired a fourth time, missing the cyborg
by a wide margin.
"Hold still so I can kill you!"
"Arisa, you sound like Eimi-chan when she comes over to play!"
"ARRRGGGHHH, I will make you pay, robot!"
Nuku Nuku leapt directly over Arisa who, because of the length of
the laser bazooka, was forced to track across, with the Elementary
School in her sights and...
Nuku Nuku landed and prepared to counter Arisa's next move.
However, Arisa wasn't shooting at her anymore. The Office Lady stood
transfixed, looking through the Laser Bazooka's sight, down at the base
of the elementary school.
With the threat of combat over for now Nuku Nuku's ear-like
sensor antenna folded back and disappeared under her long crimson hair.
Cautiously she approached the Arisa who just stared down at the ground
several stories below.
"Arisa-san? Are you okay?"
Arisa's breath was drawn in short sobs. Finally she said just
one word. "Kyouko."
Nuku Nuku ran up and shoved Arisa to the side, nearly knocking
her off the roof. "Kyouko-san is here? Where? Where? Let me see!
Oooh, she's with a man! Why are they walking out of the Elementary
School together?"
Arisa sat down in shock. "She's going on vacation with a man!"
. . .
Arisa was numb. "First Kyouko goes on vacation without me, then
she leaves town with some man she's never told me about," she said
despondently.
Nuku Nuku smiled as she unlocked the door to the apartment where
she lived with Kyusaku Natsume and Ryunosuke.
"Oh, don't worry Arisa-san. I will make you some tea and I think
I have some fishcake left over from last night. I'm sure that Papa-san
can help us figure out where Kyouko-san has gone and what she is
doing."
The apartment was small, but very tidy. Nuku Nuku set down
Arisa's two boxes of supplies. Arisa stood, dazed, holding the Laser
Bazooka, it's energy pack now spent. After an awkward moment Nuku Nuku
took the weapon and placed it upright in the closet next to the front
door.
Arisa could see several other weapons in the closet, many of them
damaged.
"Is that a missile?"
"Yes, Arisa-san. When you leave you can take all of these that
belong to Mama-san with you." Nuku Nuku donned an apron with a picture
of a cat on it. "Papa-san keeps on forgetting to take them back to her.
But please leave the really big gun that is in the back corner--that's
Eimi-chan's."
Nuku Nuku disappeared into the kitchen, yelling "Make yourself at
home, Arisa-san! I will make the tea in just a moment."
Arisa looked around. Several pieces of furniture appeared to
have been repeatedly broken and repaired. She found the sturdiest-
looking chair and sat down in it, breathing a sigh of relief.
"How have I gotten myself into this situation? Lady Akiko would
not approve." After a moment a sly grin appeared on her face. "Still,
now I can get really good, up-close data on that idiot android
schoolgirl and..."
Nuku Nuku leaned out the doorway to the kitchen. "Arisa-san, are
you speaking to someone?"
Arisa smiled and said "Oh, me? No, no. I wasn't talking to
anyone. Um, is the tea ready?"
Nuku Nuku smiled. "In just a minute. The water is boiling right
now. Would you like ginger or catnip tea?"
Arisa sweated. She hated ginger tea. As for catnip, she didn't
know when she wouldn't feel ill at the smell of catnip, after the
disaster that this android had caused at her Lady's restaurant,
"Akie's."
"Ginger tea would be nice."
. . .
The afternoon wore on. Arisa sipped at her tea and swallowed the
vile substance. Nuku Nuku was knitting contently and staring at Arisa,
who avoided her gaze.
"Hey, android."
"Yes Arisa-san?" Nuku Nuku said happily.
"Quit calling me that. When will Kyusaku Natsume be home? We've
been waiting for hours."
"Oh, Papa-san is already here. He is very hard at work in his
office."
"But I thought he was your home room teacher."
"He is taking some vacation so he can work on his greatest
invention ever."
Arisa goggled at that, then set her teacup down with a clatter.
Irritated she said, "Does everyone get vacation time but me?"
Nuku Nuku took a last sip of her catnip tea and, setting the cup
onto the table. "I'm sure that Papa-san will be able to help you find
out why Kyouko-san is..."
Arisa leapt up, her face flush. "I know that! That's why I came.
Instead we've just been drinking and wasting my time!"
Nuku Nuku looked at Arisa with some confusion. "I thought that
you would like to rest for a while with a nice cup of tea. You looked
very tired and Papa-san has told me it's only polite to let a guest
rest for a little while before conducting any business. Did I let you
rest too long?"
Arisa sputtered, wordless with anger. After a moment she
mastered her fury enough to ask, "Where. Is. His. Office."
"I hope that I haven't made you unhappy, Arisa-san," Nuku Nuku
said contritely. "His office is just down the hallway on the right."
Down the short hallway to the bedrooms, she opened the door to
what looked like a closet. Air, thick with cigarette smoke, wafted
out.
Arisa took a breath, and ducked to enter.
"Hey! Professor Natsume? I need to talk with you."
End of Part one.