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. Who knows? =^-^=
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...
12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
. . .
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 theperfect 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
don't 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, having been designed to deal with
sluggish tanks and helocopters, 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.