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“-Meifan-senpai, are- are you sure?” Shiori asks, glancing around the edel meeting room in a worried manner.
“Yes Shiori. I am so sure. I’ve never felt more sure ever in my life. I-“ Meifan pauses and abruptly stands up from her chair.
“Shiori. Shiori. You have to believe me. There’s something in the ventilation system. Or someone in the vents.”
Quietly, Yachiyo snickers. “Like in the hit game amon-“
“Um- are you sure it’s not just rats? Or a lot of unnatural dirt?” Shiori intervened, not willing to hear an amongus joke in the joyous festival of Christmas.
“Yes!!” Meifan starts making dramatic hand gestures. “Rats wouldn’t cause big large thumping noises in broad daylight!! Rats come out in the dead of night to chew on unnatural dirt and plastic wires! They don’t scurry around making massive sounds at one in the afternoon!”
“I uhm, see.” Shiori and Yachiyo visibly sweatdrop at the immaculately inaccurate description of rats. “Have you tried bringing it up to Michiru-senpai?”
“Just last week. Michiru-san said that she would bring it up to the school. And then I asked her yesterday too, but she said that they couldn’t find the source of the problem.”
Yachiyo leans forwards and rests her chin onto her hands.
“Well- then that’s that. Not much we can do about it. Anyways, it’s been getting awfully chilly lately, yeah?”
Shiori is glad that they’re not talking about venting rats anymore. “It has! Christmas is almost here as well. I’m looking forward to celebrating it with everyone!”
“I’ve thought up some re-ally cute outfit ideas for Christmas!~ Say Shiori, do you think that a reindeer inspired outfit would be nice? Or would an ice and fire motif be better?”
“Oh! Well I-“
Meifan slams her hands down onto the table, gasping out loud. Shiori almost falls out of her chair.
“I GOT IT.”
“-…what did you ge-“
“ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT.” She makes a pause. “THAT SANTA CLAUS IS IN OUR VENTS??”
“Yeah. No wait actually what did you just say?”
“Santa Claus is in our vents.”
“Meifan, what?”
“Ohmygod we figured it out. Santa Claus has broken into our school.”
“Meifan-senpai?”
“You two are geniuses. I'm going to inform Akira-san.”
Meifan is dead serious, they realise.
Meifan starts dashing towards the exit.
“Meifan wait!” Yachiyo calls out in an attempt to stop her. “Would Akira-san just accept that? You don’t even have any evidence.”
She halts to a stop and claps her hands.
“That’s RIGHT! Akira-san would never believe me otherwise!”
Shiori breathes a sigh of relief, seeing as Meifan wouldn’t immediately go calling for Akira.
“That means that I’ll just have to prove that Santa IS in our vents! I’ll have to apprehend him!! Yachiyo, thank you for enlightening me!”
“Meifan, that’s not what I mea- anddddd she’s gone.”
They stare at the gaping doorway.
“Should we stop Meifan-senpai?”
Yachiyo shrugs.
“We both know we can’t do anything to change her mind. Plus,” she laughs. “I think this is going to be amusing to watch~!”
Shiori laughs awkwardly, hoping that this all doesn’t end drastically unwell.
At least they’re not talking about rats now?
——————————
The ringing of her phone pulls her out of her trance. Junna jolts up as the tone plays a second time and she slowly unfreezes, reaching for her phone.
“Hello? Yes? Hoshimi Junna speaking.”
A somewhat familiar voice plays from the phone.
“Good evening Hoshimi-san! Liu Meifan speaking!! I’m here to ask for assistance and perhaps a favour!!”
Junna quirked her eyebrows. Assistance? A favour?
“Oh- I, see. I’ll try my best to help. In what way should I help? What’s the situation?”
Her face scrunched up in something akin to confusion and disbelief.
“…I’m sorry, what? Come again?”
——————————
With the help of Meifan’s edel powers, Junna safely arrives at siegfeld grounds right after classes end. As the bell rings, students pour out of their classrooms and off to their own destinations. Meifan welcomes Junna warmly at the entrance with a big bag of… things.
“Hi! Thanks for agreeing to help! With your help, we’ll be able to crack this case in no time!”
Some Siegfeld students stare at them with curiosity. It’s no surprise, as a Seisho student on school grounds was quite the unusual sight.
“Yes, I’m… glad I could help with this.”
Junna smiles awkwardly and glances at the staring crowd.
“Y'know! I specifically asked for Aijo-san’s help! And then she redirected me to Hoshimi-san because she said that you were the smartest person she knew!”
“Oh-! I’m… flattered!” Meifan leads Junna down the halls of siegfeld, the crowds slowly thinning out as students leave school.
“But wouldn’t Otori-san be a better choice? Since this is technically siegfeld’s internal affairs?”
“Well, I have brought this up to Michiru-san before, and she brought it up to the school people but it never got solved!”
They arrive at a scheduled corner of the school, right below one of the vent openings.
“-so I took it as a sign to take matters into my own hands and solve the problem! With your help, we should be able to apprehend Santa-san in no time!”
Oh. Right. Junna had almost forgotten the goal of this trip. And the absurdity of this situation.
Junna fixes her glasses and stares at the sealed vent.
She takes a moment to ponder, and briefly considers the possibility of talking Meifan out of this.
(Why had she agreed to this-)
“Hey uh Meifan-san. Is it possible that- Santa-san hasn’t been visiting the vents?
Or that Santa Clause doesn’t exi-“
“Sorry?” Meifan asked with a wide smile on her face, already in the process of unscrewing the vent hatch on top of the ladder she had somehow set up without Junna noticing.
She falls silent. It dawns on her that they’re too far gone now.
“Erm. Never mind. Should I set up the camera?”
“That’d be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!!”
Meifan answered with an even wider smile.
——————————
At another scheduled spot in the school, a group of junior students are doing just about the same thing as their senpai.
“I’m not saying that this isn’t beneficial to us, but is it really necessary to be doing this?”
“Ehhh~? Shirorin, of course it is! It’s important to learn from our senpais!!” Minku pips at the bottom of the ladder.
“But everyday after school? Every day? Every single day??” Shiro questions further. She’s helping Stella put on her night vision goggles.
“Oh come on, it’s only an hour! An hour of fun, and adventure!” Stella pumps her fist into the air.
“And learning! The only way we can surpass them is by absorbing everything they do, and honing and perfecting our skills!” Kuina proclaims loudly. She’s immediately reminded to keep her voice down by Shiro.
“There’s got to be a reason she’s crawling around in the vents! If we follow them, then we’ll be right on the path to edelhood! Or whatever that’s called~!”
With everything almost ready, they climb up into the conveniently spacious vent. The four wait quietly for the last member of their adventure pentad.
A figure dashes into the hallway with inhuman speeds, almost trips, and hastily grabs her gear placed at the bottom of the ladder.
“Whoa- hi Ryoko, that sure was some speed! But it’s fine if you take your ti-“
Ryoko, clearly out of breath, freezes up for a split second before going even quicker than before.
“No- we have to go. Right now. No time.” She hisses with panic while she clambers up the ladder and into the vent.
“Oh? What’s wrong?-“
Ryoko violently slams the hatch shut. She signals the others to stay quiet as she holds her breath. The other four stay as still as statues, unnerved by her unusual behaviour.
The sound of quick footsteps echo down the halls.
Shiori scratches her head and glances at the random ladder in the hallway.
“I swore I just saw a student run away from me- was I imagining things?…” she murmurs.
Shiori sighs.
“But I guess I have run away from a student before… is this what they call karma?”
——————————
“Anything interesting up there?”
“Well it certainly is very dark!! Over!”
“There’s a flashlight function on the GoPro. Try switching that on?”
“Oh wait-“ click. “Woah! It’s brighter than Christmas lights! Over!”
“Most things are brighter than Christmas lights- and also, is it necessary to do the over thing? We’re not using walkie-talkies in any way.”
“Good points! I’ll stop then! Ove- I mean. Yes.”
Junna looks at the floor plan of siegfeld and back at her phone.
“It’s rather convenient that siegfeld has such spacious vents.” She comments. Had there been previous vent dwelling creatures in the past? “Where are we headed to?”
Meifan scoots ahead.
“The corridor outside of the edel’s meeting room. It’s been very noisy up there lately, so I think that’s where Santa-san has been around!”
…the corridor outside of the meeting room-
Junna circles the area in red.
It’s going to be quite the journey. She pinched her nose bridge.
——————————
Shiori closes the door behind her.
“Has anyone seen Miefan-senpai? She left one of her seasonal gacha toys here.”
“Michiru hasn’t seen her since school ended! Meifan did say that she was going to bring Junna-chan from Seisho to do some things, so maybe she’s busy with that.”
“Oh! Then I’ll leave it here. Hopefully she’ll stop by soon.”
Yachiyo looks up from her clipboard.
“Maybe Meifan’s up in the vents? She’s been really adamant about fixing it lately.”
A blob of yellow curiously pokes up from the piles of paper.
“Oh? What’s wrong with the vents?”
As if on cue, quick thuds slowly fade in from above. They stare at the ceiling in silence until the noise slowly fades into the distance.
Yachiyo gestures upwards.
“Well. That. It’s been happening a lot recently. Sometimes it’s multiple thuds at the same time instead of one.” She laughs at her own thought.
“Sort of like a caterpillar with really large clown shoes. Not a great fashion choice, really.”
“Oh…. Yeah… that-“ Michiru falls silent for a quick while. She bounces up like a spring.
“… I think I forgot something in the classrooms, I’m going to be right back! Shiori, do you mind finishing up the papers here? I’m ninety per cent done with them! Ok! Have fun! Bye!”
She left as quickly as possible, leaving Shiori and Yachiyo in the edel meeting room.
Yachiyo can’t help but notice how unnatural that felt.
Soon, they settle into a comfortable silence as they work on their respective things. Sometimes, the sounds of the big caterpillar with clown shoes could be heard above.
——————————
“Eh- How do we get there again~?”
“Two lefts and two rights. You really ought to remember this soon.”
“Ehh~ But Kuina memorises too many things~! Like scripts and dance moves and the hundred digits of pi!”
“Um, I think Moriyasu-san has a point. You really gotta start memorising things like scripts and dance moves.”
“Eh~? Ryonryon too?! But what about the hundred digits of pi?”
“Well um, that‘s-“
“Correction, it’s the hundred and twenty one digits of pi. Don’t get it wrong.
-It’s very important to know the school well! Understanding both the insides and outsides of siegfeld is a vital step to edel hood! That’s why we’re following her-“ Kuina gets a bit too fired up and bangs her head into the ceiling. The clank of metal (and pain) is clear and loud.
“Oh mein gott- Moriyasu-san! Are you alright?” Stella whips around.
“Kuina isn’t one to be defeated by a very persistent iron wall~! Right?”
“We should get some ice after we get out!”
“Ouch, I’m fine. Anyways.” Kuina coughs awkwardly. “Ogami-san memorised the entire ventilation system on our first day. Is that correct?”
Shiro spares a glance at Kuina before putting her focus back on a high tech detection device that no one else really knows how to use.
“I memorised the entire floor plan of Siegfeld some time ago. Least Stella ojou-sama be in the risk of any harm-“
“Shiro-!”
Shiro ignores Stella’s hiss of annoyance.
“-then as a member of the maids that serves the Siegfeld family-“
“Shiroooo-!!”
“-I shall-“ Shiro halts to a stop.
“Shi- Oh! That’s never worked before!” Stella, who was expecting further retorts from Shiro, comments, very much amused.
They all glance at Shiro. The device suddenly lights up the dim and dusty vents.
“Oh. Here we go.”
Minku scrambles to put her goggles back on.
“Let’s get a move on, everyone.”
——————————
After what felt like hours, they finally arrived in the corridor outside of the edel’s room.
Junna, in the corridor, and Meifan, in the vents, continued to communicate through their phones.
“Let’s move back to a corner where we can get a clear view of the corridor. Remember to report back if you see anything.”
“You got it Hoshimi-san! It’s pretty dark in here. It’s like a forbidden kiddy park!”
“A forbidden kiddy park?”
“Yeah! Kind of like a forbidden food! Like stone that looks like pork belly!”
“What does that imply in this context…?”
“It’s stupid, but it’s not gonna stop me from trying!”
“Meifan-san, have you actually eaten rocks before…?”
“There was an attempt!”
Junna has to take a brief pause.
(“These siegfeld people never fail to amaze me.”)
“Oh! I’ve heard that Kagura-san has also tried to-“
Junna senses a sudden presence beside her. She slowly turns her head to find- a blob of yellow.
Junna immediately cuts off the call out of pure panic.
Green eyes meet brown.
“…good afternoon…?”
——————————
“Hoshimi-san? Hello?”
Meifan stares at her phone screen in confusion.
“Why’d she end the call? Oh well.” She sighs.
A loud clank of metal not too far from her spot catches her attention.
Her eyes lit up.
There it was. Santa Claus. Her chance to apprehend him to accuse him of his crimes of trespassing all over the world! She will end Santa’s reign of glorified crime here and now!
With the speed of a thousand cheetahs, she clambers through the vents like a well-adjusted spider. The sounds were not far away, and she was getting closer and closer and-
Wait. What?
That’s not Santa Claus-!
Meifan stares at Santa, or what should have been Santa, hunched over in the vents.
Meifan was sure that Santa didn’t look like this. For one, she was sure that Santa only wore exclusively red like some sort of ketchup man. He wouldn’t wear the siegfeld uniform, would he? He wouldn’t have light blue hair and purple eyes, would he?
They stare at each other with wide eyes, both trying to process this baffling situation.
Past Santa Claus(presumably), Meifan spots five pairs of eyes staring back at her.
Were those his elves? Or reindeers? Why were they students? Why were they kids?
Meifan arrives to the only logical conclusion possible. And as promised, she lunged at the vent-dwelling, crime-committing Santa.
Right on top of a loose hatch of the vent.
——————————
It’s not every day you get to have a friendly chat with Frau Saphir about the weather.
And it’s not every day that you get to have a friendly chat with Frau Saphir about the weather while Frau Platinum and Frau Rubin fall from the ceiling. It’s also not every day that five kids, including the school founder’s granddaughter, fall from the ceiling.
Nobody says a thing as 7 beings topple from above, forming a pile of people.
Meifan is the first to move as she escapes from the pile and excitedly yells about something.
“Hoshimi-san! I did it!! I got Santa out of the vents!!”
Junna doesn’t see a Santa. Michiru doesn’t say anything.
Meifan continues. “I think it’s rather disturbing that Santa-san is disguised as Akira-san! I think his elves are disguised as junior students too! It’s a good thing we decided to get him out of there!” She pumps her fists in glee.
Michiru moves to pull Akira out of the bunch of people. Frau Saphir drags Frau Platinum out of sight with a small smile on her face.
The 5 junior high kids don’t stick around after they witness that. They scurry off in the opposite direction.
“Meifan-san, I don’t think Santa-san was pretending to be Yukishiro-san,” Junna starts slowly. “Have you maybe considered that-“
Meifan’s smile falters and for a moment, she furrows her brows.
“Wait.”
Her hands land on Junna’s shoulders.
“Are you saying that.”
Junna feels a bit guilty that she has to be the one to enlighten her. She braces herself.
“…Akira-san IS SANTA-SAN??? SHE CONDEMNS CHILD LABOUR??”
Junna realises, there and then, that Siegfeld sure is one heck of a school.