Sensei Rationale 3 (Patreon)

Sensei Rationale 3 - Or ‘When my seemingly insignificant take on the Lilith-softverse takes a sharp turn into relevancy’ (Taimanin Asagi, SI)

“So, how was the first session with your new teacher?”

“Horrible!”

“Absolutely fine.”

Yatsu Murasaki was not disagreeing with Igawa Sasuka out of wrong reasons- not when she was also talking with the orangette’s sister and her crush, Asagi. To say that Murasaki was smitten to the older kunoichi would be an understatement- she would go hell and back for her senpai.

But, in this situation, Murasaki wasn’t up for any nepotism. Not when she was relieved of the kind of sensei they had with the new discipline.

Bukharin-sensei was a foreigner and a man that Principal Yamamoto had introduced as a reliable teacher. And instead of producing a lengthy speech about promises and potential hopes, the man made his point clear.

“I am not here to make you stronger, I am here to make you more vigilant and more careful. Demons are a scary bunch when it comes to adapting at a higher rate than humans, and while some of the old tricks you are taught may work on some monsters, those that survived up to this point have built strategies and ruses that are specifically meant to not only kill but even capture Taimanin. That is a problem that will be corrected through my lessons.”

And while the lessons were theoretical at best and based around lectures on obscure books published by retired Taimanin that had been previously captured and had a glimpse of what the main issue is today, he decided to provide a test to show how this was meant to appear within the real world.

Sakura had planned to get a ‘freebie’ in terms of grades, thinking she was able to outfox any cunning plans used by a lurking demon. And she failed to prove this three times.

The first example was relatively simple. A street vendor stops Sakura by. He is showing her things but Sakura, of course, is not interested in buying anything suspicious.

Bukharin-sensei didn’t seem surprised by this attitude, in fact he looked to be expecting it. He continued to show her around, the orangette getting fussy over the delay but then-

“My many apologies then, young miss. I will just show you one last thing. You see, I am part of an organization that helps stray cats and dogs find a home. We are trying to pass a petition to have the city mayor open up the old unused warehouse by the docks as a place where to keep and take care of these puppies and kitties. Would you please sign it?”

The teacher had a signature board on him with the proper text detailing this kind of thing and had Sakura read it out loud. It wasn’t too extensive and said what it did. Yet, Murasaki had issues with Sakura just taking the offered pen rather than using one she may have on herself but-

“And you are now a slave.”

The orangette jumped at the jovial voice mixed with an alarming response. The sensei grasped the left edge of the paper she just signed and… flipped it, revealing that the signature box was actually cut through to allow the one on the other page to be signed.

This one was a demonic contract meant to bind Sakura through magic as the fake magical pen was supposedly draining a degree of blood to mix on the ink and thus making the contract as binding as possible.

“B-but that’s-”

“You wouldn’t be a local, so why would anyone seek the signature of someone that isn’t from within town?”

And Murasaki nodded in agreement. It made sense for some petitions to be available in town or even online, but for it to be asked locally by someone that already knew you weren’t from around… suspicious. And the pen hint proved to be also right.

A tiny smile perked by her mouth as the second example unfolded. Sakura felt irked, and wanted to prove this was just a fluke and nothing more. Sensei was more than happy to accommodate.

This time he was not a vendor, but a man with a camera that was visibly sweating a lot.

“I am sorry, young miss, I was passing by and I couldn’t help but notice your beauty. May I take a few pictures for my magazine?” He asked, offering a fake business card that showed he was indeed part of a magazine.

“Sure?”

“Good, I will keep distant so that I can get the right shots without being a nuisance,” He promised, and then started to move around and take pictures as far as it was possible from Sakura without going through desks.

Sakura was perplexed, but took some simple poses to appease the requester. Nothing scandalous, but quite vain in Murasaki’s eyes as she was strutting too much. Then, as she was invested into this, Sakura failed to notice that the sweating man had started to use what looked to be some sort of freshener.

The spray was used only around the man as he moved, the lemon-flavored spray lingering as he moved left and right.  Then, Murasaki noticed what was going to be the issue-

“Could you please move over there? I think those rocks could create a pretty light.”

Sakura nodded, sensing no issue in moving right where the man had previously moved around as he kept his distance. But Murasaki was about to call out what the problem was when the teacher replied mid-photoshooting.

“So, young miss, what’s the smell of the spray I used?”

Perhaps distracted to realize or seeing nothing wrong in sniffing the air, Sakura frowned before answering. “Lemon?”

“Incorrect, aphrodisiac. You are caught!”

Her jaw dropped. “Sensei, that’s unfair!”

“Demons are unfair, Igawa-san and you were too kind towards someone that acted and looked suspicious.”

Murasaki inwardly fistbumped the air at getting another one right. It was rare to feel this invested in a lesson like this one. But it was evident that it was her love for crime stories that was giving her the right perception of things.

The third example was Sakura’s hopeless attempt to salvage the situation through the classic ‘best of three’ which was already lost truth be told. Still, Sensei allowed it. On this occasion, he was neither a vendor nor a photographer.

He was a magician that was already in the middle of doing tricks around kids.

This was a tricky one alright. Maybe Sakura was meant to leave early? After all, what’s the point of getting distracted over some magician’s tricks? Still, the orangette, perhaps driven by bruised pride, decided to stay and see if she could identify the issue and dodge it.

For a time, it was normal tricks. Cards, handkerchiefs all connected and coming from the sleeves in a multitude of colors, and finally a bunny. A pretty bunny with cute white fur. Adorable, simple and kind of ominous.

Part of Murasaki hoped that Sakura would have seen through the cuteness and realized it was a trap when Sensei, holding a picture of the rabbit in question asked for a gorgeous lady from the public to give it a nose-kiss.

She still did, and then-

“After that kiss you would start to feel hot and bothered. The rabbit, being native of the Dark World, had been carrying a potent aphrodisiac that slowly burned your endurance. After staying to look at the wizard’s trick for a while, he would ask you to join him in his tent to help with moving things. You will be too lost into the haze of lust to say no to his advances. And you are caught.”

This time, Sakura took the defeat with grace. As horrible this all was, she had been defeated three times and those were valid issues. Still, Sensei wasn’t done just yet.

He offered someone else ‘one last try’ to show that they were prepared for this and, seeing how her intuition picked up a few of those issues, Murasaki took the gauntlet herself.

Ignoring Sakura’s stinky look, the blue-haired student took her place in front of the class and… sensei had her sit on the teacher’s chair. The reason? She was meant to be driving a car and he was going to behave like a corrupt cop.

The setting was a bit odd compared to before as the previous ones lacked individuals with authority- this time, the police officer was meant to be above her if she was to behave like a normal civilian.

“Oh, what do we have here? Miss, you know why I had you stop here?”

“No,” Murasaki mumbled, unsure of what approach to use just yet and behaving neutrally.

“Well, I saw that you were going pretty fast,” The cop said, lying as the initial narration mentioned she was going at a steady legal pace within the road. “I can’t help but see that you are quite young. May I have your ID?”

She gave documents, thinking it would be over but.

“Well, I have to ask you to get out of your car. I need to check if you are drunk.”

What? But… why?

Despite the confusion, Murasaki followed the request and sat up. She wasn’t aware of the procedure needed but… Sensei sniffed around and totally not around her. Which was further odd.

“I think I need to take you to HQ. I want to make sure you didn’t get to drink anything, missy.”

Murasaki nodded, yet closed her eyes as she was aware she had set herself up for failure.

“You were taken to his car, the rear seats looking normal, yet a pink gas was pumped out of the corners, outplaying you as it put you to sleep. You would wake up a hour later, devoid of clothes and with a needle or two sticking by your arms, aphrodisiacs and drugs serviced as you were taken to an unknown location that looks like a sex dungeons with fellow girls tricked by those fake cops,” He paused for a moment and then offered a question. “What do you think went wrong?”

“The reasoning to stop me was not true. I was going at a reasonable speed.”

“Correct, and?”

“I gave him documents without him providing me with that valid reason to stop me.”

“And?”

She held back a sigh. “I should have said no when he asked me to leave the car, and then when he said I was potentially drunk when he didn’t use standard procedures to determine that.”

“...And?”

Something else was missing? Murasaki was confused and Bukharin-sensei noticed as he smiled.

“You know what, I’ll tell you, Yatsu-san. You trusted this individual because he was in a position of power. While it’s true that people that are involved with roles such as police officers and fellow Taimanin do deserve respect, it’s also true that they are not worthy of absolute trust. This village, I have been told, had a rebellion because a faction allied with Demons bent on destroying the good clans and installing a dictatorship to ‘rule over Japan’. They were fellow Taimanin, were they?”

Murasaki nodded, quite familiar of both the Fuuma Rebellion and the Igawa Civil War. Still, she wasn’t upset. She knew she did better than Sakura and that she had a lot to learn through these lectures.

And she explained as such when she was done debunking Sakura’s ‘dramatized’ take on what happened and she added her own understanding to it. It was clear Asagi-senpai trusted her more about it, and yet she raised a point that perplexed her.

“You know, you speak quite highly of this teacher compared to others. He sure left an impression on you.”

Part of her felt like she should have been ‘offended’ by the thought that a man that wasn’t part of the village had managed to get her admiration for him, but then she understood why.

He was far from a pretty boy, but Bukharin-sensei was quite handsome and quite intelligent. The fact he wasn’t also ogling anyone or hitting on any of the girls looking at him with dreamy eyes made him more appealing to her than anyone else.

And it made her wonder if he was the one guy he had been waiting to finally crush on while she still liked and admired Igawa-senpai…

—--------d-d-d-d—-----

AN

Murasaki has a crush!