Chapter 457: Meggie – I taught her well (3/3) |
Tsuki felt sick to her stomach. It felt like her heart and gut were twisting around, especially seeing Meggie give her that look.
'I didn't mean it! I didn't do anything!'
That was what she wanted to say. But she couldn't even open her mouth.
How did this happen?
Meggie was her best friend. But sometime after school started and Tsuki started hanging around other girls, they'd drifted apart a bit.
'I just wanted more friends... Was it really that bad?'
Meggie had her big sisters and Uncle John and all the girls in Project MirAIs.
Tsuki just had Yuri and Meggie. And besides! Meggie didn't need her! So... it was fine!
...That was what Tsuki kept telling herself every time she saw Meggie's disappointed look when she rushed off first to join the other girls. And that was what she told herself every time she ignored Meggie's messages.
Tsuki's heart ached.
"Tsuki." Meggie called out her name. She didn't say anything else or ask anything else.
But Tsuki understood what Meggie was asking. "I..."
Before Tsuki could answer, the leader of her friends, the girl who dyed her hair and wore colored contacts.
That girl laughed and said, "Don't bother. Tsuki isn't friends with trash like that either."
Tsuki flinched and then quickly waved her hands in a panic. "N-No I didn't! I didn't want to hurt her! I never did!"
Meggie didn't respond, staring at Tsuki with those piercing golden eyes.
Tsuki felt her eyes tear up and clutched her hands over her heart. "Meggie! I didn't! Believe me! I... I didn't stop it, but I would never...!"
The red-haired girl paused and slowly turned to look at Tsuki. "...Hah? Are you siding with that Trash now, Tsuki? And the girl who's only here because her mom owns the school?"
Tsuki flinched again. "Th-that's...!"
Meggie was quiet.
The blonde girl... No. Emma. That was her name.
Emma was quiet too, letting Meggie hold her while she stared at Tsuki.
Tsuki's heart pounded.
If she took Meggie's side, all of her friends would turn on her. And they'd probably start bullying her too.
But...
If they did that, were they really her friends?
That's...
"Okay." A sharp and curt male voice cut through the hallway.
Tsuki flinched and looked up to see a familiar face.
Blonde hair, blue eyes that seemed almost green with the light, a tailored suit that fit his trained body...
"...Uncle John?"
===
John was not having a good day.
Part of that was because Aurora apparently did NOT want to go to sleep AT ALL last night.
But most of that was the situation happening with his second youngest daughter and her friends.
'...This is why I hate cliched plot developments.'
He was already tipped off when Meggie asked if she could teach Emma how to cultivate.
But now Tsuki was involved too.
Kai had already been asking him on the side about how to handle Tsuki since she seemed to be running into the wrong crowd, but John had been a bit busy and just told him to have a proper heart-to-heart talk with Tsuki.
'Apparently, I forgot how vicious kids could be at this age.'
The red-haired girl who seemed to be the leader of the mean girls clique rounded on John and crossed her arms. "And who are you supposed to be?"
"...Yeah. I hate everything about this." John murmured and ran a hand through his hair.
The whole point of this school had been to both give the MirAIs girls a proper high school experience, but also to slowly build up a pipeline for talented and gifted children.
He knew a few bad eggs might get in, but he thought Yue would have sorted it out.
It seemed like, for once, he had overestimated his wife instead of underestimated her.
Because a third-rate wannabe villainess like this shouldn't exist in this school.
"Dad?" Meggie blinked and looked at John. "What are you doing here?" She furrowed her brow and said, "Don't interfere. I'll handle this."
John shifted his speech to Mandarin and said, "Meggie, dearest daughter of mine." John carefully spread out his spiritual energy to reinforce the surroundings and suppress Meggie's. "You are about one bad statement away from exploding the school again. So let Daddy Dearest handle this for you, okay? We're supposed to have nice, wholesome slice-of-life with maybe some love polygons on the side, not faceslapping 2.0."
After everything that happened with Yue, the girls, and Rory, John was DONE with random plot events. At least, the sort like this which was just classic Chinese drama faceslapping subplots.
The red-haired girl huffed and stomped her foot on the ground. "Talk properly! What are you even doing here? This is a school for kids, not-"
"Yeah, no." John pulled out his phone and pressed a button. "Hey, Mira-chan. You see these girls, right? Tell their parents to get here. We're shutting this down. Also." John snapped his fingers and the girls dropped to the ground, fast asleep.
Emma's widened in shock, her mouth dropping open.
Tsuki winced.
Meggie blinked and then facepalmed. "...I should have just done that."
"Eh." John walked over to a nearby supply closet and pretended to pull out some stretchers before placing the girls on them. "You're still a kid in terms of life experience, so don't worry. Also." He looked at Emma and winked. "Magic trick. No telling, got it?"
"Y-Yes, Meggie's Dad! Promise!" Emma mimed zipping her mouth shut. "No telling, ever!"
"Right. Now." John pulled out his phone and checked the time. "I popped in here because I sensed things were going bad, but... Yue's probably going to kill me for ditching your baby sister for a few minutes while she's showering. I was never here."
After that, John booked it out of the school, rounding the corner and warping back home.
The moment he popped back into their house, Rory waved her hand. "Dada! Hai~!"
John scooped her up and said, "Hi, Rory. We don't tell your mommy I left, got it?"
"Ba!"
===
Meggie slowly blinked, watching the aftermath of her dad jumping in to save the day.
A group of unconscious school girls shoved into the corner on cots.
Tsuki standing there confused and uncertain.
Emma still in Meggie's arms, clearly still processing what she just saw...
Thankfully, there hadn't been any other students around.
Her dad might be stupid and drop the ball at times, but when it came time for serious things like this, he knew better than to leave any loose ends.
...Which made Meggie wonder just what he was going to do about the girls' parents.
But since it seemed like it had graduated from a 'kid problem' like her dad first said to an 'adult problem,' Meggie wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.
'...Still dumb how he jumped in though. I could have solved it.'
Maybe.
Probably.
...Okay, Meggie probably would have blown her lid considering Tsuki showed up and was apparently part of this whole mess.
Stupid Dad being right again.
But now for the immediate problem.
Meggie stared at Tsuki.
Tsuki stared back for a bit. Then she lowered her gaze and mumbled, "Sorry. I-"
"We're SO not doing this right now." Meggie immediately cut Tsuki off and walked over to grab her hand.
"E-Eh?" Tsuki blinked, a few tears dripping down her cheeks as she did. But then she looked at Meggie with confusion in her eyes. "Meggie?"
Meggie walked her over to Emma and then placed Tsuki's hand in Emma's before saying, "Emma. This is Tsuki, my first friend. Tsuki, this is Emma. We're ALL friends now. Got it?"
Emma blushed and said, "O-Okay? I-If that's what you want, Meggie...?"
Tsuki frowned. "But Meggie, I-"
"We're friends." Meggie cut Tsuki off again. "End of discussion. Now, we're going to be late for class at this rate, so let's go. It's a Saturday, and the sooner we finish classes, the sooner we get to go do things together."
"T-T-Together?" Emma fiddled with the edge of her left sleeve. "That's... U-Um... okay?"
Tsuki wiped her eyes with her sleeve and let out a shaky smile. "...Okay, Meggie."
"Good. Now. Class." Holding Emma's right hand and Tsuki's left, Meggie immediately marched to class.
...Now, there had BETTER not be anymore STUPID drama or she was going to have words with whatever stupid universal law or entity was responsible for making school so annoying.