Chapter 29:

Back to high school Part 3

Valkyria Squadron


After lunch, everyone went back to class. And they continued without major problem, everyone was concentrating on their affairs. My biggest concern, Maria, continues to act like a normal person, but I have begun to notice that she is very aware of what happens in class, although she does not participate much in it. When we got to the last lesson of the day the teacher began to give the indications of the group work.

"So the science work will now be in a group of four"
"And to avoid problems about the groups I will assign them myself"
"I don't expect any complaints about why I assign such a person to such a group"
"And above all Josuke I do not expect to see you charging your colleagues to sell the posters for presentation!"

Although she only has two weeks as a teacher, she does the role of a teacher very well. Despite all the fatigue of having 40 people who ignore her most of the time. But if she was here, was it necessary for her mother to also pretend to be a teacher?

"And the last group will be our new colleagues and the delegate"
"I think it will be a good opportunity for them to get used to the environment here"
"With that would be everything for today"
"Remember to study at home and do the homework for the other classes"
"Bye"

After the teacher left the class she began to clean the room, some students left later, but I stayed to talk to the group they assigned me. And I even thought that the others also had the same idea because it was Haru and Maria who approached me first.

"And again it's my turn to take care of new people, I wonder what the substitute teacher is looking for entrusting everything to me" The delegate said immediately when she approached.

"very well"
"I'm here"
"We must agree to meet to do this"
"How about tomorrow to start sooner?" Said the other girl

I finally hear her voice again. It fills me with the hope that she is healthy. Compared to the last time I saw her in the hospital in the ICU. Seeing her here alongside me by herself is incredible. But I cannot neglect myself now that I am close to her, if it is true that she is working for the I.S.C and they come to pick her up, it means that they must be monitoring her strongly. If so, they shouldn't let her out so easily, maybe. I'm going to check that.

"Sure, no problem"
"Although I would like to ask him to go away from school"
"I don't like to stay in a place where I am bothered with questions from the curious"

"I don't have a problem with that"
"How about the new coffee shop near the park?"
"I know the owner and I think she will let us do our homework there"
"It is also quite calm!"Haru spoke again.

That description sounded quite familiar to me. It seemed to be my mom's shop. So it would be perfect for me to watch over Maria.

"Is it the one that doesn't have a name yet?"
"I think I've been there before, I like that place"

I said trying to find out if it was that place. I think only my mother could still run a restaurant without a name first, so there can be no other place that matches.

"Yes, that same place"
"As I understand it, the owner still doesn't know what to name it, but she has to decide within a couple of days to name it" Haru confirm.

"Okay"
"In the coffee shop then" My sister replied without showing disagreement with the idea.

So it means that I was wrong. She seems that if she has freedom, that she at least can make sure that they will give her permission to go there. It may also be that whatever she is researching has something to do with it. I'm still lost in my thoughts about how I could get more information about my sister and what could be happening, but then Maria started talking to me again.

"Will you let your girlfriend know about the meeting later?"
"Elise?"

"What?"
"What do you mean?"

"The girl who came with you today" She answered
"With which you made that scandal in the morning that you are a couple"

"Tama?"
"But if she is here!"

I looked behind me for Tama to speak, but when I took a closer look she was nowhere to be found. She wasn't in her seat or in the classroom, she wasn't somewhere I could see her. This was weird because since I met her, she has not separated from me. And I don't think she thought getting lost in a place she doesn't know was a good idea.

"Where did she go?" I asked.

"She just left, saying something about preparing food for you when you arrive"
"She left in a hurry"
"Do you also live together?" Haru answered me.

"Seriously!?"
"Okay, I think I better go to warn her well about tomorrow!"
"Remember to get information"
"I will bring the materials for the presentation poster!"
"Bye!"

I started running on the trip back from school. At the same time she was also hanging around thinking that she might be entertaining something while she was walking alone. Hell, we hadn't arranged to meet after school to report on her? This was the best time to get information, I'm going to talk to her about what she did.

When I passed near my mother's store I looked inside thinking that maybe she was there. And I found her, she was near the entrance talking to someone at the counter where the cakes were. Immediately go in to talk to her.

"Tama you are here!"
"What were you thinking of coming here as soon as class finished?"
"Now was when we could talk to my sister and get information!"

"Darling!"
"How fast you have arrived!"
"Sorry for escape"
"It was because he had been thinking of watching over the car that would arrive for Maria from the sky with the moon"
"But if I do that my physical body would disappear and the others would not be able to see me, although I would still be in the same place"
"Although I think it would be very strange if I disappeared like air"
"That's why I came here to do that!"

"Can you do that?"
"Why didn't you say it before!"

"You told me you didn't want to know anything!"

"I am sorry!"
"You are right, if you can follow it do it"
"Please!" I told her

"Despite following the cars with the security cameras of the city, always manage to avoid them by changing cars in a tunnel or parking lot"
"If you can do something like that, follow her from the air"
"Please!"
"Follow them, I want to know what they do with my daughter"
"Where are they taking her!"
"I need to know it!"

My mother spoke from the other side of the counter. She hadn't paid attention to him, so as soon as she spoke she gave me a scare. She was dressed a bit more casually and had a white apron. The store clerk was at the cash register while my mother seemed to be serving customers.

"Mom!"
"How long have you been here?"

"This is my store"
"I'm here every day after finishing my job in the security council"
"I came about an hour ago"

Tama right after jumped on the counter and sat down on her knees right behind him, so from the view of the customers she couldn't be seen.

"I don't want to waste time anymore "
"The car should be arriving by now!"
"So I'm going to start tracking them down"
"Although I fade, you can continue talking to me, because I will continue right here"
"I can continue listening to you"
"When I finish I will appear again!"

"Good luck!" I told her

"Please don't lose sight of them!" my mother added

Right after we finished talking, Tamamo put his backpack at his side, she closed her eyes for a moment. And when he opened her eyes again, they were now lighting up in golden color and as if she were a ghost she began to become little by little more transparent until she completely vanished. And as if what my mother and I just saw was not enough, the backpack that was next to Tamamo was still in her place and lost the balance and even fell in the place where just moments before its owner was.

"Although I never thought that something like this could happen, it is enough convenient to have a goddess in the family" My mother spoke again trying to sound calm, although you could see that she even doubted what she was saying
"I still can't believe that she actually is married with ..."
"..that..."

"Are you looking disappointed of me?"

"Well it's not to bother you and I'm glad you're still alive"
"But I think she would prefer a man"

"She knows that I am one!"

"Yes, I know that too!"
"Only that way you will not be able to continue with the family!"
"I want to have grandchildren!"

"Is that why you won't let me live in peace!?"
"Years have passed and when we meet again, do you keep talking about the same thing!?"
"And what about León?"
"Is he not married yet?"
"He must have a family by now!"
"Why do you keep bothering me with this?"

"He lives in the United States!"
"I want to take care of the children!"
"And for that, they should live close to me !"

"Don't you want to know about Maria better?"
"She is more important than talking about that topic"

My mother and I argued for a long time. It was so much in fact that we decided to sit at one of the tables and have a drink. While we were at it, a new client came to the coffee shop. She was our teacher, Warlady was here and as soon as she saw us she came to talk to us.

"You are quite late Xian!" my mother spoke to her

"I'm very sorry, there was a meeting with the other teachers so I couldn't leave until now"

"Wait a minute, is your name Xian?"
"Are you from China?"
"So why was Yamada calling you Clarice all day?"
"What happened to get a nickname like that?" I ask

"It's because he thinks he's the class clown and because I hate that name"

"And how did he discover it?"

"Very good Xian, what did you find out?" my mother returned to the subject again.

"I have not had any progress"
"She keeps doing what I assign but she still doesn't talk much during class"
"There is not much I can do from the position of a new teacher"
"Today leave a task in groups for your daughters to finish together"

"There's not much I can tell either" I started to report my part
"Talking to the other students they told me the same"
"Seems that she is supposedly watching over a friend of someone in the class, but I don't know if she is someone in the classroom"
"It also seems that if they let her out of school, so she must have a certain autonomy to act"
"We arrange to meet here tomorrow after school to do homework"
"It seems that a certain Haru Yamamoto said that she knows you and that you would let us do the work here"
"I think it is better if you are not here tomorrow so that Maria does not see you yet"
"I hope Tama can get more information"

"Haru said that?" now my mother was talking
"She is the granddaughter of the person who told me about Maria being here"
"There is no problem with them doing the work here"
"Although I prefer to talk to Maria as soon as possible"

"But we have to find out what she's doing first" I spoke
"I know that if she sees you she will leave everything behind to meet us again"
"But then we won't be able to see what the I.S.C had planned with her"
"Besides, I doubt that whatever they have told Maria is the truth, as most likely they are lying to her about what they really plan"
"In any case, I think I can find out soon"
"I just need time"

Right after she finished speaking, I could see Tama slowly reappear behind Xian, silently. When he almost finished making her the entrance to her ghostly he put her hands on her and shook her a little to scare her, which had an effect on her because Warlady almost spit out the coffee that she just bought.

"AAAAHH!"
"Where did you come from!?"

"I come from the bathroom" Tama replied with a smile on her face when she saw the fear that her victim had suffered.

"What did you discover Tama?" My mother asked

"After they left school they took her to a tunnel to the south"
"After they changed their car to a white one, they went out towards the great orange tower with white"
"They stopped at a building that I saw belonged to a security company called Alfa, where they changed cars again"
"After that, they went south to the port and entered a warehouse, the number 4 I think it was"
"Since then they haven't done anything else, they haven't moved again"
"Through one of the windows, I could see that Maria had a small room with a bed, probably where she sleeps"

"Did you see the license plate of the cars?" asked my mother

"What is a car license plate?" Tama said with a smile accepting her ignorance.

"Thanks for your effort helping us"
"It has served us a lot" My mother knowing that Tama did her best despite not knowing anything about our world, she let the mistake that Tama made go
"Xian!"

"Immediately I will investigate Alpha and the warehouse"
"I will inform you today!"

"I hope so!"

And without even waiting for my mother's confirmation, the teacher left the store and left.

"What happened to her and how did it end up like this?"

"Well, she missed something very important in Vienna and she has to show that she is capable of fulfilling what they ask of her"
"Although that was just an excuse to put someone in first grade before I went"
"Maybe later I will return her to her old job"
"Although she preferred if she stays as a teacher, in reality, she seems that she enjoys this more than her real job"

After that we stayed in the store until closing time, then on the return trip, my mother told me that she finally came up with a name for the cafeteria, which would be called from now on as the White Moon, clearly referring to Tama as the goddess of the moon and me for my white color.

Later at home over dinner, I started talking about some of my adventures in the alliance army. Some of them were common like the attack on someplace but others were a little crazier as you see that I managed to escape from a military base with only an empty leather wallet.

"And that's how we discovered that to infiltrate that base of the Empire it was best to use a screwdriver and a plastic card"
"If not, we would lose those three weeks that we were in the tower of that church in Baku spying on the soldiers" I finished with my story.

"How did you figure out that fresh fish would do something like that?" Asked my mom

"Everyday conversations sometimes say very curious things" I answered

"How many languages do you speak?"Asked the goddess
"As far as I know Japanese is not your native language and if you say they are from America it will not be Russian either"

"You know that I am speaking Spanish with my mother since I was in the cafeteria, right?"

"Seriously?"
"I have not noticed it!"

"But you are speaking Spanish right now!"

"Seriously?"
"Right now?"
"I still do?"
"It must be for being a Goddess that surely for all languages are the same for me"
"Otherwise I do not understand how I am talking to you if it is not Japanese"

"How many languages do you know?" The next to ask was my mother
"I'm still curious"

"Spanish is my native language, obviously, later it would be English, completely, also Italian, German, Russian and Japanese although those a little less"
"Finally, French and Portuguese I hardly know what they say because they sound a bit like Spanish"
"So that would be 6 languages, I do not count the other two last"
"It turns out that it is very useful to know several languages in a war"
"That way you can hear what the enemy is planning to do"
"Although most of them learned it with the other soldiers"

"In my work, I also have to know several languages" Said my mother
"Although if I prefer that my employees know Spanish"
"I do not want to complicate myself more than I already have to do by being aware of so many things to add the language on top of that"

"I still don't think I knew that I can speak all languages!"
"It is quite useful!"
"I will pass perfectly the English class tomorrow!"

"Well I'm going to sleep now" I told them
"If they already delivered that new bed, I want to sleep in it!"
"And for that, I have to accommodate to prepare the room first with the new furniture"
"For something I bought them!"
"I've already slept long enough on floors and chairs to continue with that"

It takes about an hour to just be able to put the new furniture in the room. In addition to spending more time trying to install a closet for clothes and putting together a bookcase. Since my mother was taking care of her and Tama's work watching another superhero movie on TV, it was my turn to do everything alone without anyone's help. So it took longer than I planned to get the room ready. By the time I finished, it was already dawn. After that Tama went up to the room to see how it turned out.

"What do you think about the room?"
"Nice right?"
"The windows finally have curtains"
"I even managed to get some extra screws when I finished following the instructions on how to assemble the bookcase and the bed"

Tama looked around the room from side to side, and despite seeing the fruits of my efforts, her face didn't change a bit.

"It's pretty"
"But it's not too much ...simple?
"I was expecting something more ornate!"
"This is supposed to be our sanctuary!"
"Our home!"
"And the bed is too small for two people"

"Is that when I saw her in the store it seemed bigger"
"And if I bought a bigger one, the desk for the computer would not fit"

"And the cabinet with books?"
"Your mother already has many in the other room!"

"But those are from politics, laws or novels"
"These are the ones that we occupy for the high school!"

Tama however made her way to the bookseller and went just where I thought she wouldn't check. She then took one of the books and opened it. And although Tama doesn't get along with books, that didn't matter this time, as the book she chose was one with a lot of black and white pictures. A very popular type of book in Japan among young boys who buy them secretly.

"And these here are also for school?" She asked

"I did not buy those!"
"I'm innocent!"
"I swear!"
"I never went to the third floor of the mall to a store to buy something like that!"

"And how did you know it was on the third floor?"

Shit, I just gave myself away, it's the end!

"They are guides!"
"That is are guides on human anatomy!"
"You have to know a little about everything"

"And what will these guide you if you don't have any tools?"
"You said yourself that he left never to return"

"So sorry"
"I bought them on impulse, I had years of not seeing a single copy in years!"
"You know the despair you can have when you have so much time on a boat, full of people and without privacy"
"The officers even confiscated the books we collected as war loot"
"And just when the war ends I get caught up in this, without even having one last chance"
"You just did something for one last time and didn't realize it until he was gone"
"I could never even really do it with a girl before, not even when I was married to Nanami"
"I did not know what I was doing until I had finished buying them that I remembered that nothing will be like before"
"I'm going to get rid of them right now"

"Wait"
"What are these other books about?"

It turns out that she found other books in one of the boxes I hadn't opened yet. They were other types of mangas that were there. They were of the genre in which only girls appear in the drawings, only of that gender, specifically.

"I swear to you that I did not buy them!"
"This time I'm serious!"
"There was nowhere I went!"

"Here is a note"
"Says they are for you"
"Say you're going to need them since we are both girls"
"Sincerely your mother"
"Look!"
"These if we can use them as a guide!"
"We could try something like this, or maybe this one"
"The truth has never done something like this before, but we could try"
"Looks fun!"

"Leave it!"
"Don't pay so much attention to what my mother does!"
"Can we save this for another day?"
"Please?"
"We have a few hours before we get up again in the morning"
"And besides I'm tired of having to put all this together"
"Have mercy on me please"

After that, I managed to talk to Tama about letting me rest for one more day, since I really wanted to rest and because it was really late.

I know she is really trying to make me happy and please me the best she can. But the truth is that simply having her by my side is enough for me, knowing that I can talk to her and that she is with me gives me joy. A joy that I thought I had lost when the war against the dragons ended and I lost Nanami. Since then I thought that no one else would like to be by my side. But if they have shown me something in these last days, it is that there may be more people who really want to be with me than I thought.

With these thoughts, I managed to sleep well tonight without any trace of yesterday's nightmare.