Magical Teacher Professor Landry! - Episode 2: In Polite Company

[Teal Mage]

"You hear me Sao!" Hazel eyes blazing with a passion to match her Homeroom teacher's, Adeline's hand snapped in the direction of Diana's still-rolling-camera. "I won't rest until one of us is completely obliterated and left choking on the ashes of the other's victory!" Black flames danced around the brown haired girl's form, as hot emotions stirred her aura awake in the eyes of the spiritually aware. "Prepare for an Election Season like no other!"

A fierce gust of wind broke over the two girls in that moment, throwing both Diana's red locks and Adeline's brown ones into a frenzy of motion. It would appear, when Diana later inspected her film, to be suitably dramatic. Alas, at the moment, the film maker would likely have been too preoccupied holding her hat atop her head to consider this wonderful feat of luck.

Unbeknown to the girls, Adeline's Luck was about to run out.


* * * * * *

"Hi there," From behind the pair, Sean Castevet had appeared on the Field of Honor. The Canadian offered them a curt wave-

Only to be upstaged by the appearance of another member of the audience.

"Heeeeey, you city girls aren't bad." Sweeping up to the pair of girls from the opposite side of the stone-slab was the broad shouldered figure of Kohana Akecheta. "Maybe I'll warm up to this place after all... You, you said Landry, right?".

Face flushed a deep shade of crimson from the embarrassment of someone witnessing her last outburst; Adeline narrowly regained her balance on her make-shift bench in time to throw a hateful glare in Kohana's direction.

A glare that promptly turned into a look of profound surprise when she came face-to-face with the youth's abs.

She toppled backwards into the fern-filled planter.

So much for balance.


* * * * * *

"...you're Diana correct?" With Adeline struggling to extract herself from her dirt padded - leaf-walled - prison and Kohana struggling to hold back laughter, Sean finished his interrupted approach on Diana Tear, "I'm Sean, I'm in the same homeroom as you two. How's it going?"

Whether or not Diana was paying attention to the boy wearing a shirt was questionable.

Once again, Canada was upstaged by America.


* * * * * *

The phone rang.

"Hello, Sophia Andrews speaking - if you're not looking for me, you dialled the wrong number!"

"Hey Sis."

"Oh, hey Bart. How's living away from dad treating ya?"

"Part of me envies you for not being here. You have no idea how completely insane my homeroom teacher is."

"Don't be so melodramatic, she can't be that bad."

"Or perhaps just eccentric. Hard to tell with teachers."

"For you maybe!" Sophia countered cheerfully, "Listen, do you need something? I'm at the mall and my friends are looking at me like I'm a freak for talking to my Brother instead of them." Her voice faded a little, "Oh don't look all hurt, I can see your faces!"

"Having second thoughts already?" She was back, voice at its normal volume. "I'm sure Dad'll be happy to send you to that All-Boys-School if you ask now, you know."

* * * * * *

"What kind of," Fuming, Adeline Fletcher futilely tried to brush the newly acquired dirt marks and plant stains from her (formerly) white shirt. "person sneaks up on a pair of girls without a shirt?" Letting out a low growl, the brown haired girl fixed Kohana with another glare, "And stop smiling! I could have been seriously hurt."

She crossed her arms with an indignant huff, the dark red aura around her body attesting to the intensity of her mood. "And just who are you anyway? I'd remember someone like you if we'd met." Adeline blinked in surprise, before falling back a pace. "Don't tell me you were the Grim Reaper this morning!?"

"Kohana Akecheta." The young man replied, grin broadening in spite of Adeline's previous request, "We're classmates."

"Oh." Adeline's stance lost most of its tension, her aura gutting out. Then, slowly, a smile spread across her face, growing quickly to match Kohana's in width. "Man do I feel sorry for you!" She clenched her fist, bringing her arms tight against her chest in a fair approximation of glee. "Professor Landry looked like she was going to use her Battle-Axe on the Students who missed class today! Man, tough break getting the only Sociopathic Teacher in the school dude!"

"But hey! Don't sweat it." Adeline quickly added, "Maybe she'll lose that duel tomorrow - she's fighting another teacher at 4, right here actually! -" The girl gestured briefly to the garden around them, "and then you'll dodge that bullet! She'll probably be too depressed to try and axe you, you know?"

Adeline didn't seem to realize that she was babbling now.


* * * * * *

Hair shimmering like spun gold in the artificial lighting of the Cafeteria, a green eyed blond strode confidently between the circular shapes of the stand-issue Amaranth Tables. Her delicate looking blue high heels clicked sharply against the chamber's brown floor tiles, as she quickly approached Sao, Dal and Jackson's table. In her hands, the girl held a tray covered with what appeared to be the remains of a salad.

Moving a few paces in the girl's wake were a pair of young men - each seemed muscular enough imply some relation to Shin. Between their impressive builds, the way they followed the girl, and the sunglasses each youth was sporting, it was very clear that they were bodyguards.

"...don't think you did." Jack was talking to Sao, "Just Professor Landry being..." The young man seemed to be struggling to find the right words, but, he eventually gave up. "Whatever she is."

Any reply Sao - or Dal - might have given was cut off by the sound of the older girl's empty tray clattering to the table's top.

"I just wanted to be the first to welcome you all to the school, Professor Landry's newest students!" The girl offered, dusting her hands against one another, a cheerful smile in place on her face. "And!" Hanging around the girl's neck was a necklace that seemed to be made of green-colored metal, stylized to look like three vines twisting around one another. It glinted momentarily. "I also wanted to be the one to break the news to you."

Her hands fell to the table with a loud crash. "My beloved Professor Shuyin is going to destroy your delinquent teacher tomorrow! And-" She pulled back, crossing her arms beneath her white summer dress's bodice, "-I'll be the one to kick you all off the school grounds when he expels every one of you!"

Then, her expression morphed into a smile again. "Hello! I'm Hannah Iriumi." She extended a hand to Sao, "You seem like someone Professor Landry would try to make the Class President, how do you do?"

[Krylo]

Just as Dal was about to respond to the introduction of the new boy a woman arrived in much the same matter as the Fae himself. It was only now that he realized how aggravating it could be.

Of course, he was set to simply welcome her introduction, and perhaps even say hello to her two trained apes, when she decided to make the greatest mistake she could when dealing with the fae: being a mortal and threatening him. His lip twitched, but as any master of the art of insults can tell you, you can never let them know they've gotten to you. As such, his smile remained, though the amusement, joy, and general jovial attitude given off by it, was quite quickly replaced by something more... predatory. Like a shark sizing up a bleeding fish.

Any reply Sao may have made to the woman was interrupted by a chuckle followed by Dal's own response to the woman. "Ah, a beautiful woman with no grace, tact, or intellect. Obviously, we are being welcomed to the school by the local fishmonger. You may inform him, however, my dear, that we are not in need of his wares at this moment," he said in a surprisingly cordial tone, as a gentleman might ask a waiter to return a soup that was too cold as he sought to lock his eyes to hers.

[Teal Mage]

Pausing in her motion to Sao, Hannah turned her green eyes toward Dal. The smile she offered him would have been dazzling enough to light a small town for a week - had she not just threatened the whole table.

"Little boys shouldn't use big words they don't understand." The blond stated, expression reading pure amusement. "Tell ya what, you and Al -" She gestured to the bodyguard on her right, "- can go practice your delivery in the hallway." Her green eyes twinkled merrily, "You just don't seem the Melancholy Prince of Denmark. Maybe if you act out the play's last scene, you'd be more believable."

"I'm sorry." Hannah's attention returned to Sao, "That was terribly rude of me, but I can never resist helping aspiring Actors. Your name is..." Her hand hovered before Sao once again, and the smile decorating her lips was oddly warm - especially in light of her introduction.

[Krylo]

'Little boy?!'

Dal's eye twitched slightly. The mortal was getting to him. All he could think of was that in another century she'd have never dared to speak to him like this. She'd have just been another puppet dancing on his strings. Another toy like all these other glorified monkeys.

He wanted to glamour himself into a large beast and watch her flee in terror, to forge her nightmares into a tapestry of gossamer hell to lay over her, to destroy her inside and out and watch as she learned the true, insignificant, place of mortals on the hierarchy of the world.

Beneath the table a fist clenched before slowly releasing, allowing him to gain just enough control to remain calm.

But not enough to keep him from doing something very stupid in a moment of immortal arrogance... or perhaps merely over injured pride as could drive any human to such acts.

He stood up with a smile, and with a nod of his head excused himself from the table before facing 'Al'. "Well, then, Al... Shall we go and work on my dramaturgy?" he asked with a friendly voice as he gestured toward the door and began the walk out of the cafeteria. "By the by, is that short for anything?"

[Overcast]

Jay had been stewing in the doorway of the cafeteria for a good couple of moments now, a slowly rising anger building in his chest. He had missed the conversation at the table up till now, including the thinly veiled pleading of Dal to have Sao's aid in controlling him and his current nemesis. What he had walked in on though had been a great deal more distressing to him, troublesome enough that it had left him shaking with a faint sense of shock as he tried to figure out how to respond.

BANG!

He wasn't sure where the baseball bat had come from, but he didn't bother to make sense of things right now, his hand wrapped with a white knuckle desperation around the grip as he had slammed it into the floor to get the attention of the blond and her two gorillas,

"I think we have a problem here."

He spun the bat up and laid it onto his shoulder, his eyes narrowed toward the trio with a cold fury burning behind each pupil and took a step forward,

"And maybe where Dal comes from you deal with your problems with acerbic wit and ironic subterfuge, but where I'm from we tend to solve our troubles with violence."

His aura was burning wild with his emotions, the dark blue spinning about him looking to be released however it could,

"We ain't got no discrimination on the matter. Sex, race, creed, you don't think about who the person is, just what they've done to wrong you, and then you crush them under foot like a fucking roach."

He realized his inspirations might be unclear, that they may not completely understand how they wronged him, and if they didn't know before he finished his threat then they might not learn anything from the beating. And that would be tragic,

"You see, I like it here. I'm happy. Happier than I have been for a real long time, and when someone like you comes around and spouts on how your professor is going to get me expelled back to that fucking hellhole I crawled out of, well...that shit don't fly."

He pointed his bat their way, the scene perhaps more intimidating in his mind than it was in reality. What with his small frame and stature compared to the sunglasses wearing forms of Al and Brutish Bodyguard #2, but it wouldn't have changed his mind anyway, he was blinded by the intensity of his rage,

"So I'm going to tell you this shit once. So you had best fucking listen. And tell your classmates, your professor, and anyone else that even has the smallest fucking thought of getting me bounced from here. That Jay, fucking, Miles ain't going to take this shit lying down, and that you'll have to drag me out of this place in a fucking bodybag."

And then a light bulb exploded. They really needed to check out how they wired those things here, I mean why would that keep happening?

[Riin Whitewind]

Sao instinctively stood when Dal did, ignoring the chattering of this golden monkey trying to get her attention. She may not have known him long, but his face spoke of rage far more clearly than his words. The drive to assist, to aid, was an ingrained one, and she could no more ignore it than she could fly.

But before either Dal or the gorilla (Al?) made it anywhere near the door, there was another commotion. Jay stood there, bat in hand, and declaimed that the only way he was leaving was by force. His stance and weapon shouted to all watching - and you better believe, everyone in the cafeteria was watching - that he'd take the swing.

"Jay, listen to me." The swimmer stepped forward without thinking, her voice was low, but loud enough to be heard. She walked forward with the smooth, obvious motions of a handler trying to soothe a wild animal. "I know you feel very strongly about Amaranth, and that you want to stay here." Her arms were out in front of her, palms up in a gesture of peace.

A pair of cooks ducked out of the cafeteria into the main kitchen, to spread the word of the coming tussle. A lightbulb in the midpoint between the two groups of students shattered, raining shards onto the smooth floor. By the time Jay finished his declaration, the undine was almost within touching distance of him.

The swimmer couldn't help but think that the Institute track suit she was wearing wasn't going to be any protection against a baseball bat. "But if you start a fight like this here, it doesn't matter how much you want to stay. They will expell you, and bar you from ever enrolling here again. Your fight will have been for nothing, and your opponents will have won." She hoped he was listening, as intent as he was on the trio by the table.

"If you need to challenge them, to prove your right by might?" Sao was getting anxious, it didn't seem like he was listening at all. "Challenge them formally, take your fight to the Field of Honour, like Landry did."

Her arms dropped to her side, not keeping him from advancing any longer. "But don't court the disaster you're trying to avoid by acting rashly."

[Overcast]

Jay saw Sao moving in from the side, her words entering his mind fighting against the rage that ran through him like a terrible storm sweeping away all his typical rationality. Though her words rang true against the rage, and his aura began to fade as he laid his bat to the ground again, much softer this time, and took a big long breath to get his composure together. He leaned on the aluminum weapon of choice as he stared at the trio and mouthed to Sao, 'thank you' before he went on,

"So shall it be. I challenge you, Hannah Iriumi or any champion of your choice, to a duel at the Field of Honour. We may do it now, or tomorrow with our instructors, or any time of your choice. Take all the time you need, it won't matter. I'll win."

With that he figured he'd get some food, but then he noticed the cooks were gone so he just sat down at the table figuring he could scavenge off his classmates for whatever scraps they could spare. A close call, but close he could deal with. It was when it hit that everything went wrong.

[Teal Mage]

Temper quickly fraying from Hannah's verbal attacks, Dal decided to take the blond girl up on her offer, and invited one of her bodyguards - Al apparently - out into the hall with him. Holding tightly to his own light-hearted composure, the Fae cheerfully addressed his apparent drama partner, "By the by, is that short for anything?"

Any reply Al could offer was pre-empted by an angry, and baseball bat wielding, Jay Miles. Aura flared from the heat of his anger, the young man began to shout, threatening Hannah and her guards with violence for their own threats a moment ago.

For Hannah's part, the green eyed blond seemed entirely unphased by the youth man's threats. An amused expression dominated the young woman's features, as she regarded Jay with the unmistakable air of a patient parent. Beside her, the second - unnamed - bodyguard interposed himself between the delicately built girl and Jay protectively. Hannah's calmness aside, he didn't appear to be willing to take a chance.

The girl's expression did pale significantly when a light bulb exploded though. Her eyes began to nervously dart throughout the room - it seemed like she was looking for something. Something that she probably didn't want to find.

Strange.

"So shall it be." Jay's voice broke through the girl's sudden panic, "I challenge you, Hannah Iriumi or any champion of your choice, to a duel at the Field of Honour."

A ghost of a smile appeared on the girl's lips.

"We may do it now, or tomorrow with our instructors, or any time of your choice. Take all the time you need, it won't matter. I'll win."

"Hah..." Hannah's shoulders began to shake, blue flames beginning to flicker around her shoulders. "...hahahahahahahaha..." Nervous laughter escaped her lips, as the girl's Witch Blue aura slowly rose around her form, quickly turning into a crackling inferno. "Hahahahahahahah!" She threw her head back, letting out a great bark of obvious glee.

"Out of the way Zet." She stated firmly, stepping a pace forward herself. The girl wiped the back of her hand across her lips, heedless of the lip-gloss that she pulled off her mouth with the motion. "Jay Miles is it?" She gave him a self-satisfied look, "I thought it would be the little boy over there," Hannah's hand moved dismissively in Dal's direction, "who would challenge me to the Field of Honor, but any of Professor Landry's students would do."

"I didn't expect it to be that easy, of course. But," Hannah shrugged, her aura's strength falling, "challenge accepted. As the challenged, I have the right to select the competition's form - a three-on-three duel, myself, Zet and Al against you and a pair of associates of your choice." She grinned tightly, "We'll fight when Professor Landry and Shuyin do - in whatever competition Professor Shuyin decides."

"And," Hannah's eyes glittered triumphantly, as her grin spread, "if Professor Landry loses, our Duel will automatically terminate with your defeat." She shrugged, "Of course, the same goes for me if Shuyin loses, but," Hannah shook her finger at Jay, "don't get your hopes up. Landry's finished, and when she loses, Shuyin will gain control of her class, and don't think he'll suffer," Her finger flicked toward Jay's bat, "delinquents like you in this school."

"Al, Zet!" She snapped, turning on her high heels toward a door Jay wasn't blocking, "We're leaving." Hannah took a step forward, before she paused and threw a look in Jay's direction, "Oh, and I recommend only bringing members of your class into this duel, otherwise-" She smiled brightly, "-when I win, they'll still be in school to be punished for their foolishness."

With that said, Hannah strode from the Cafeteria, Zet close behind.

"Sorry," voice surprisingly deep for a student, though somehow fitting his build, Al addressed Dal for a moment. "It looks like we won't be able to practice together." He raised a hand to his sunglasses, sliding the dark shades down his nose far enough to reveal a pair of flame-orange eyes.

He winked at Dal. "We'll have to do it later."

"Al!"

"Coming!" The muscular youth began to work his way across the Cafeteria, toward the doorway that Hannah and Zet now occupied.

[Dracorion]

Jack had no idea what to do when the stuck-up bitch from Professor Shuyin's class showed up and proceeded to insult them all. He simply stood up to assert his presence and listened as Dalbach traded banter with her.

He instantly facepalmed the moment Jay showed up, angry as all hell, and threatened the stuck-up bitch, who had introduced herself as Hannah Irumi. With Sao's counseling he cooled off... just to challenge Hannah to the Field of Honour, causing Jack to facepalm again. As Hannah laughed at Jay's challenge her blue aura flared up and... Oh... not good. Not good at all.

Just when he thought the situation couldn't get any worse, Hannah dictated the terms of the duel, stipulating that Jay needed to bring two associates, and that, regardless of how their duel went, the real victor would be decided by Professor Shuyin's and Professor Landry's duel. This was the last straw for Jack, who ran after Hannah and her bodyguards as she headed for the door. Running past them, he stopped at the doorway, blocking their exit. A sudden draft caused his coattail to flutter slightly, and his aura flickered, which Jack hoped would help her take him seriously.

"Don't think I didn't notice what you just did." He said with a small smile. "Can't say I'm surprised, though. As sure as you may be in Shuyin's victory, you're not that certain about your own, which is why you decided that the victor of your duel should be decided by Shuyin's and Landry's. But that's not good enough. There's not much point to having that duel at all if there's no actual stakes. So how about this as an addendum: If you lose your duel before Professor Landry loses hers, you still suffer the consequences, and the same applies in reverse to Jay and his associates. Otherwise, no duel at all since there's no point."

"Deal?" Jack politely extended his hand for her to shake.

[Krylo]

Watching the proceedings with a bit of a dumb struck expression, Dal finally burst into laughter as the three walked away. It was all so ridiculous. So ridiculous.

And he suddenly had a pretty good idea that Al and Hannah were most likely not completely human... probably Zet as well. It made him feel much better about their approach. Of course, they'd still have to learn... but he wouldn't be the one to teach them.

Retaking his seat with a chuckle as Jack hammered out better terms with the challengee he looked directly at Jay, "And here I thought Dean would be the trouble maker... but you... you've certainly bitten off more than you can chew."

With a slight sigh and a grin he shook his head before speaking in conspiratorial tones, "I'm going to give you a bit of advice Jay... first, fight alongside Dean. I know, I know..." Dal held out his hand to quelch the arguments he surmised would be coming, "He is not the friendliest, but... think of how good it will look to Landry, you two fighting back to back, rivals working together for a common cause, team work of the highest order... And.... really, if Al or Zet happen to mash him into mush, well..." His eyes glittered with a smile that was matched on his face as he trailed off, leaving Jay to catch the subtext.

Quickly returning to business, however, Dal continued with his tactical assessment, "I'd ask Shinobu if I were you as well, the girl that was late to class. You haven't met her yet, I'm sure, but she seems like a bigger, meaner, tougher, version of Dean. I've felt her grip, I think even Al and Zet there may have some troubles... and I've taken the liberty of inviting her to our little party," Dal's gaze flicked over to Sao as he said so, "Assuming she still accepts my invitation..." Flitting his attention back to Jay he continued, "I can sub in if she refuses, though I don't see her the type to turn down a chance to prove her strength, and I'd really prefer not to. I have... other plans."

His smile curled slightly, mischief obvious. Was Dal planning to cheat? To sully the honour of the field of, well, honour? Probably! Though one could hardly blame him, considering what was on the line for him was a bit more important than what was on the line for the others.

"Oh, and Jay... I know the big ones seem scarier, but trust me... take out the blond and the fight is over."

He didn't particularly believe Jay would just accept his advice, but he rather hoped he did. It would mean Dal would be unlikely to have to step into the battle himself. An idea he didn't particularly relish.

With that he stood up, with his tray and nodded toward Sao. "But I'm afraid the cafeteria is getting a bit too exciting for my blood. If any of you need me," his words extended the invitation to everyone in the vicinity, but his eyes were locked quite clearly onto the undine, a not altogether benign smirk on his face, "My dorm is 13-11."

"To discuss tactics, of course," he tossed in as he began to walk away.