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School Rumble (Broom and I)

"Take all the time you need." Mei said before laying down and looking at Kuki. "I don't know why Damian told you to stay here with me, but if you don't have anything else to do you should probably see if there is something you can assist with, Kuki. Not that I don't enjoy your company...I'm just worried. It's bad enough I can't be out there helping...I don't want to stop someone else from helping, too."
 
"...As you wish, Mei," Kuki said, giving a polite bow. "I will see if Adam requires my assistance," she said, excusing herself as she headed out the door. Jana laid back a little, eyes closed. There was a silence there, before Jana finally said something. Her voice was not the confident, boisterous tone it usually was. It sounded like she was about to crack.

"...I'm really glad you're okay, Mei." Jana said, barely. "...I didn't want to lose my best friend out there."
 
"Jana..." Mei could hear that she was about to crack. Seeing Justin nearly dying had shaken her up. Seeing the sight of the entire building collapse and hearing all the screaming and chaos was enough to crack Mei and make her angry. It hurt like hell, but Mei didn't care. She slowly forced herself out of bed, feeling her stitches painfully pull at her skin. She moved very slowly but eventually ended up in Jana's bed. Though when she laid down, she felt them tear. Whatever, it was worth it to comfort her friend. "You're never going to get rid of me." She gave her a smirk, though it was clear she was in pain.
 
"...You're an idiot," Jana smiled, even if she couldn't hide the tears in her eyes to hug her friend and hold her close. She didn't care, she nuzzled into Jana like she was a giant teddy bear. The pain wasn't so bad when she had someone to share it with. And it...sometimes it was good to just have someone to cry with.
 
Mei could feel tears running down her cheeks as well. All this time she had been holding it in..but she loved Central, and she loved her fellow classmates. Knowing so many where injured...a number of them had died..well she just couldn't stand it. She held Jana as she cried silently. Even though Adam told her it wasn't her fault...she still felt so guilty. As if she could have stopped this somehow.
 
Jana wasn't quite sure how long they just laid there together, letting the tears fall. But eventually, Jana put herself together a little with a faint sniffle. "...We'll fix this, partner," Jana mumbled, hand running through her hair. "Okay? We can do this...we have to." There wasn't much room for them to fuck it up, either. But they had to heal first, they needed rest. They wouldn't do anyone any good to spring out of a hospital bed and get right back to work.

Turuga just had to be in chaos a little longer than it should.
 
"Yeah, we do have to." Mei told her as she looked into her eyes, enjoying the feel of her hands through her hair. "I'd move, Jana..but I'm just going to let a doctor or nurse find me...I'm pretty sure my stitches tore, I don't want to make it worse by trying to get back to my bed. You don't mind if I fall asleep here, do you?" Mei knew she wouldn't, so she tried to adjust herself the best she could, getting under her blanket so she'd feel less...exposed. Hospital gowns were never that great at covering people up.
 
"Sure thing," Jana smiled, pulling the covers so they could share them and huddle together. "...You're really getting the hang of this friendship thing, huh?" she teased gently. "The old Mei I know would freak out about all this skin." Gowns weren't exactly thick, either. Damn, it felt like Mei had way tighter legs than Jana did. That was some bullcrap.
 
"The old Mei, huh? I suppose you're right." Even she couldn't deny that she had changed...but it wasn't exactly for the worst. "If you were a guy, this wouldn't be happening, though. No matter how strong our friendship is." Mei closed her eyes and then started to fall asleep. She was still tired from her fight with Komoku and Nicholas.
 
...Guess some parts of Mei were still around. But Jana just chuckled and continued to lazily stroke her hair as she dozed off. It wasn't too much longer that Jana fell asleep either. It was an awkward revaluation for the nurses and the doctors. Who attempted to actually remove Mei from Jana's care but had to deal with an almost literally growling girl when they attempted it. To say Jana was protective was to say a grizzly bear had fur. But thankfully for them, it was easy to fix her stitches within the confines of Jana's bed.

But the week dragged on, slowly. News was all over about what had happened, what it meant...Jana paid it no mind, not out of stress. But out of her philosophy, she couldn't fix any of that right now...so worrying about it did her nothing. Eventually, she did have to migrate back to her own bed...but that didn't stop Jana from being pouty about it on occasion. Still, about three weeks in...Jana could finally settle her feet on the cold as hell floor of their shared room. Her leg bandages mostly removed.

Three weeks...and Turuga was still recovering from Central.
 
Mei had finally gotten herself out of that hospital bed. She was walking around, but wasn't well enough to fight. Even though she really wanted to considering all the things that needed to be done..some that probably required a fight. However, as much as she wanted to be one hundred percent..if she wanted to heal, she'd just have to take it easy right now. Since there was no one left to take charge, she had been making many suggestions along with Damien on what had to be done. No one really seemed to mind...and she seemed to be doing a good job. People weren't avoiding her like usual, but instead coming to her for help and advice. Especially the volunteers...they really wanted to help out.
 
Things were going as smoothly as it was supposed to go, or as well as it could go. Having Mei around was making things much faster, Kuki was a quick little messenger and people seemed to look up to her for her hardened exterior. People were getting better, but good enough to be back on the field again was another matter entirely. But that was for a deeper discussion, one that Damien decided to talk to Mei about over lunch in the cafeteria.

"...Mei, think it's time you and I talked about something," Damien sighed. "Like...where we go from here, and what that actually will mean."
 
Mei sat down at the table Damien was at. She knew that whatever he needed to talk about..probably wouldn't be good. But Mei was good with band news and always tried her best to fix it without getting too depressed about it. If there was one thing she was good at, it was handling stressful situations without her exterior cracking in the least. "Right..." She started as she took a deep breath. They had been focusing more on recovering for now, but not moving forward. It had almost been a month..so yeah, things needed to move forward.
 
Damien tapped an unlit cigarette against the table, regarding Mei a moment.

"...DC needs a leader, Mei." Damien murmured. "And I'd like that leader to be you," Between the two of them, they had enough experience. Damien knew the deeper understandings of infrastructure of how the DC operated, Mei was sharp enough to understand everything. "I could lead...but to be honest, I think you'd do it better," he murmured. "But I need you to understand what exactly it means to be the leader, which means you need to understand what sort of people the Kishi were."
 
Mei narrowed her eyes. He was asking her to lead the Disciplinary Committee? It was not like she immediately felt happy, or honored or anything. It was just that Mei...well she didn't like change. Even if that change was her. They couldn't bring Pitor Kishi back, however. This was probably the only real option at this point. So she wouldn't reject this..at least not right away. "Alright. Tell me. There is obviously something I've been missing all these years." She said as she sipped on her water, her eyes staring intently on him.
 
"Honestly? You could swap Nicholas and Pitor and nothing much would change," Damien said, glancing around a moment before resting his elbows on the table. "The Kishi are...were...they're a byproduct of the days when Turuga was a chaotic mess of war veterans and martial artists." he murmured. "Sociopaths of the highest order, they ruled by fear. They made the Mandate, they controlled what happened...all three of the schools had to buckle down and listen, or else things would get bad for them very quickly. The Kishi had their hand in everything, Mei. They 'suggested' potential people to be the superintendents for all three schools, and usually those people were chosen because they didn't want to cause problems." he murmured.

"And nobody but the Kishi family benefited from it. Can't say how Pitors wife and his son are handling it, they're in Europe living it up. They probably don't care, not like he was a loving husband."
 
Mei listened to his words, and for a moment she didn't believe that. She had treated the Mandate like it was some kind of bible. Nicholas' words were...true then. At least most of it. It was hard to swallow. Knowing that she had been so loyal to such a controlling family who's main goal was to hold everyone underneath their thumb, when really it should have been about making all of Turuga a better, more functional place. She was torn between what she knew then and now. But she kept herself silent, nodding for him to continue on with whatever else he had to say.
 
"So your problem is simple, Mei...assuming you take leadership, by the rules of the Mandate...you would be leader. You didn't end Kishi's life, but you put away the man that did." Damien murmured. "But what we have here is a very...annoying problem," Damien sighed. "People in the higher places are used to a Kishi knowing that they have dirt on everything...you don't have that luxury, for the first time since Iov Kishi...Turuga has no rallying point." he murmured. "You have people who have forced smiles at Pitor's games, people who danced diplomacy around them to not incur his wrath..." he said, tapping his forehead a moment.

"And to say nothing of the fact that you're going to need people you can trust, people who know the three regions like the back of their hand...we won't be able to police anything anytime soon, but getting people on the ground to keep things to a dull roar would go a long way in keeping trust."
 
Mei leaned back in her chair, her gaze at Damien but not actually looking towards him. This was going to get..complicated. That was for sure. In fact, it was going to be very complicated. However, she would figure it out. One step at a time, she would figure everything out. She may not have had leverage on other people, but she'd figure out a way to get them to do what they needed to do. Not by threatening, but rather persuasion. As much as she hated her father, he had taught her that there was always a way...no matter what, there was always a way to get people to do their part.

As far as finding people she could trust, that actually seemed harder to do. Sure there was Jana and Adam...Kuki and Damien were making their way onto that list too. But she wasn't good at trusting people. She had to change her tune real quick. At least she was an excellent judge of character as long as she trusted herself. "..Alright." She simply said before folding her arms. Nothing else. She got it, she knew what the problems were and now she needed to resolve it little by little.
 
"Alright?" Damien said, actually laughing a moment. "The more you change...the more you stay the same," he said, leaning back with an amused grin. "I remember when you came to the DC a few years ago, bright eyed, smart girl that just took everything that was thrown at her with nothing but that Ice Queen expression...guess I shouldn't be surprised. You always were an excellent study, Mei...and you'd probably do better than me, frankly. I don't like the attention...but I know my way around how Turuga works, and I can call in a few favors." he mused.
 
She raised an eyebrow as he laughed at her, but she knew it wasn't anything to be upset about. That wasn't a very...good reaction. Or bad. It was neutral, but he would know what it meant. She was ready to take on the task, regardless of what she may have wanted. This was for Turuga and she would gladly do it. "I don't like attention either, but I didn't join DC to watch it crumble into nothing. I will rebuild it and mold it to what it needs to be. I will certainly need your help though. You have more experience than I do. You seem to know what's really going on. I've never been good at discerning the motives of others...so..." She looked away from him. "So I guess I'm asking for you to be somewhat of an adviser for me."
 
Damien regarded her a moment then chuckled, rubbing his head. "Boy, never thought I'd see the day where I'd be under one of the newbies I had to keep an eye on..." he smiled. "But sure, Mei...I'm interested to see what kind of DC you'll make. I'll throw some feelers out, I doubt anyone will be surprised about you being leader anyway...not like you haven't been a pillar people have been needing." Yes, everyone accused the Ice Queen of being 'frigid'...but that impassive seriousness was something people attached to now. They needed that, craved it, almost.
 
"I'm not a newbie anymore, Damien." She said as she started to eat her lunch finally. She was glad that he had faith in her, and she was sure a lot of others would to. She could only hope that she wouldn't crack under the pressure. She was fine now, but..she knew this wouldn't be easy, and dealing with so many people would be hard. "Of course no one would be surprised..there really aren't many people left to do the job..."
 
"It's not just that, Mei," Damien murmured. "The only people left and the only competent people left are two different things...and you're both." he said. "Maybe not the best of compliments...but I'd rather have you than a Kishi telling me what to do, at any rate."
 
Mei looked at him for a moment before nodding. "Damien. I'm sorry for calling you a traitor. I suppose from you've told me...well I can't blame you for leaving. Well, I can, but...I have been seeing for the last three weeks...you really care about what DC is supposed to be. So, I just want to let you know, that I do trust you. Not that I have much of a choice. But even if I did...I'd still trust you." She..had to be a bit less callous to people that she needed. So this was just a step in making amends with him since they weren't on the best terms before.
 
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