[FFML] [Mai Hime, Future] Teaser for Road Trip

[John Biles]

Here's a teaser for my upcoming Mai Hime story Road Trip.  It should be
ready for posting soon.


*********

    Mitsu-san took the bouquets and put them by Mr. Kukri's bed.  "I'm very
sorry, sir," she said.  "You shouldn't have to watch us fighting."

    "Me too," I said to him.  "We didn't mean to cause you any trouble."

    "It's okay," he said.  "It all seems so much more important when you're
that age."  He looked at Crystal and Hayao.  "Love is dangerous."

    "Love?  That man wouldn't..." Crystal began.  Mr. Sakomizu glared at her
and she shrank in on herself.

    "To be human is to love," Erica said softly.  "Isn't love a good thing?"

    "Weren't any of you paying attention when I taught you about Anthony and
Cleopatra?" Mr. Kukri asked.

    "We haven't gotten to Shakespeare yet, Sensei," Erica said.

    "Rome," Dan said.  "Which I thought was going to be a little later this
semester."  His face was scrunched a bit with the effort of memory.

    "Hmm, yes, you're right," Mr. Kukri said, slightly embarrassed.  "You
teach as long as I have and it all blurs together sometimes."  He stared at
the ceiling for a few seconds.

     Then he began his tale.  "Cleopatra was the last of the Pharoahs; she
was forced to marry her brother, but she didn't want to.  Eventually, she
got Julius Caesar to overthrow him and ruled Egypt on her own and became
Caesar's lover.  They even had a son, Caesarion.  Thus she protected herself
and her kingdom, keeping it free of Rome.  When Caesar was murdered, two of
his generals, Lepidus and Marc Anthony allied with his nephew Octavian to
defeat those who killed him, then ruled the empire for a time as the Second
Triumvirate."

    Mr. Kukri picked up the flowers and sniffed them.  "But even though Marc
Anthony married Octavian's sister Octavia, he betrayed her because he fell
in love with Cleopatra.  It might be argued Caesar and Cleopatra were using
each other, but the love of Cleopatra and Marc Anthony was genuine, strong,
and true.  Never had either of them been happier in their life, and he cast
away all his responsibilities to spend time with hers, and set out to ensure
her legacy, her kingdom, would endure.  They would throw wild parties
together, disguise themselves as commoners to play pranks on people, and in
general, cavorted together as those in love do."

    "So Octavian took his revenge.  Marc Anthony had betrayed his duties as
a leader of Rome because of his crush on that woman, and betrayed the wife
he'd sworn oaths to.  He knew Cleopatra was just using Marc Anthony for her
own gain," Hayao said angrily.  "And so they, who had once been companions
in battle, turned on each other and led armies to war.  But Marc Anthony was
a loser, lost in a haze of lust for the evil Queen of Egypt, and when she
panicked at Actium and her fleet fled the scene, his fleet was annihilated.
In the end, he killed himself thinking her dead, and she killed herself not
for love of him but to avoid being humiliated by the victorious Octavian,"
Hayao finished.  He sounded as angry as if he was Octavian himself.

    I couldn't figure out why he was so worked up over something that
happened to other people thousands of years ago.  It is thousands, right?
I'm pretty sure we haven't even gotten to 0 AD yet.

    "That is a little harsher than I would put it and you left out how
Octavian murdered Cleopatra's son by Julius Caesar, Caesarion," Mr. Kukri
said wearily.  "But it does convey the point.  Love does not always triumph
and when it does, the results are not always good.  And love can turn us
against each other."

    Mr. Sakomizu sighed.  "Well said.  Tate-san, Masakuri-san, if you want
to fight, you can do it at school.  Everyone can come up and say hello, and
then it's time for our community service students to go to work....as I'm in
charge of the gardens now."  GLASSES FLASH.

    Crystal, Shun, and Mitsu-san all paled at the sight of that.
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