Natsuki Kruger is Lame!!??

Garderobe's headmistress discovers that the new Corals don't respect her capabilities as a Meister. What's a principal to do?

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The Gakuenchou of Garderobe Academy was enjoying a rare break from her administrative duties. Miss Maria had been called to assist Dr. Youko Helene in the medical facilities, and the Bewitching Smile Amethyst, Shizuru Viola, was tutoring Arika Yumemiya at Windbloom Castle. Consequently, there was nobody to keep Natsuki Kruger tied to her desk, both in a figurative and literal sense.

It was a beautiful afternoon, and there was a group of newly arrived Coral students sparring on the practice fields. However, due to Miss Maria's temporary absence, the normally intense dance-battle drills had taken on an almost playful edge.

The recently appointed fourth column, Juliet Nao Zhang, had been tapped to be the temporary drill instructor, and of course she was nowhere near the students. The raven haired principal could see the sassy red head sitting up on the high wall surrounding the practice field, eating an assortment of fruit. With small snarl of rage, Natsuki stomped down toward the lounging 4th Column and stood over the poor excuse for a substitute teacher.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?! " raged Natsuki. "Those girls are supposed to be practicing drills that could one day save their lives, and instead it looks as if they're play-fighting!"

Bright lime green eyes filled with boredom emerged as Nao pulled down her sunglasses.

"You're blocking my sun and distracting me from my job," replied the red head with a yawn.

A small vein emerged on the Gakuenchou's forehead as she seethed, "I don't know what you're doing, but it most definitely isn't your job."

"Well, what pray tell, do you consider my job?" asked the bored 4th column, before she dropped a ruby red cherry into her mouth.

"You should be down on that field drilling those girls until they can no longer stand on their own two feet!"

"Hmmm, I know that's the kind of training you received from Shizuru Oneesama, but I don't think that would be appropriate behavior for a Column," laughed Nao as she popped another cherry between her lips.

Natsuki stared blankly at Nao for a second, but as the other woman's words sunk in, the Gakuenchou's face began to resemble one of the cherries Nao was consuming.

"You know that's not what I meant!" groused the horribly embarrassed blunette. "Get your damn head out of the gutter, Zhang!"

The 4th Column smirked at Natsuki's indignation, "You really do need to lighten up. Especially when you're around the students."

"Huh? What are you getting at Nao?" asked a perplexed Natsuki. "If you're trying to change the subject from your poor teaching abilities, it's..."

"I'm not trying to change the subject...well not completely," interrupted the red head as she looked out toward the first year Coral students engaged in mock battles. "Do you know what those girls are doing out there?"

The Gakuenchou followed Nao's gaze out onto the field. The girls were all materialized in their Coral robes, and they were running around attempting battle moves that were either too advanced for them to successfully accomplish or were simply not possible in their beginning robes. Natsuki overheard several names being called out, such as Haruka and Anh.

"They're pretending to be Meister Otome," answered the Gakuenchou as she realized what the Corals were up to. "How is that going to teach them how to survive a battle?"

Nao shrugged, "It's not."

"Then why are you allowing them to play around like that?!" fumed the blunette.

Leaning down on to one elbow, the red head plucked an apple from her bowl of fruit and began to shine it on her dress uniform. "I'm allowing them to "play" like that because they've only been at Garderobe for a week. These girls can barely perform the most basic sparring drills because they can't control their robes. I tried to begin with the basics, but half the girls couldn't even get their practice batons to appear, and one student's robe seemed to have a mind of its own."

Natsuki looked back out at the students and was surprised to see all of them operating their robes without any major issues.

"They look like they're doing fine to me."

"Yeah they sure are, now that I've allowed them to experiment with the Coral robes' full capabilities," sneered Nao with a roll of her eyes. "If you want someone to master something, it really helps if they first enjoy what they're doing. That wasn't going to happen with repetitive drills."

"Hmmm, you have a point," sighed the Gakuenchou as she sank down next to Nao and stared wistfully out at the laughing Corals. "They're handling the robes quite well, and they look as if they're having a lot of fun."

Nao glanced toward the blunette, "Fun… now that's something you could have a little more of."

Natsuki glared at the substitute dance battle instructor, "I don't care what it is you think I need, Zhang. As the Gakuenchou of this school I have to maintain a sense of dignity in order to cultivate the respect of the students and..."

Nao cut off the blunette before she could get any further in her list of duties. "Wow, thanks for regurgitating Miss Maria's spiel word for word. I only get to hear it once, maybe twice a day if I'm lucky."

Natsuki blushed, "Oh...you get that lecture too..."

Ignoring the headmistress' embarrassment, "Okay, let's rephrase your issue, Gakuenchou. You've already realized that those girls are pretending to be Meister Otome, but do you know who none of them wanted to be?"

"Miss Maria?" guessed the blunette.

A small smile appeared on Nao's lips, "Nope, that little blond girl on the far right wanted to be her. You have to admit the old broad is pretty kick-ass in battle."

Natsuki could only nod her head in grudging affirmation at that comment. They've all witnessed Maria Graceburt in action, and she definitely wasn't one to be messed with.

Fixing her bright emerald green eyes on Nao's lime green orbs, "So who was the unlucky Otome?"

"Wow, you really are dense," laughed Nao as Natsuki frowned. The red head poked her companion in the forehead, "They all refused to be you!"

Natsuki's frown deepened as she rubbed the spot Nao just touched, "What do you mean by… refused?"

Taking a bite out of her apple, the red head relished the look on the principal's face.

Swallowing the apple, "I was assigning Meister Otome to each girl and suggested they attempt to copy the fighting style of that particular Otome. Little blondie over there," Nao gestured with her chin toward the pack of girls," was first assigned you, the Ice Silver Crystal." Nao stared upwards, tapping her chin with her finger. "I believe her response went something like, "What the hell am I supposed to do, battle the others with my amazing ability to fill out paperwork? Or perhaps stun them with an evil glare?" After that comment I couldn't get any of them to pretend to be you."

After she made this point, Nao broke out in uncontrollable laughter due to look of utter indignation that was fixed on Natsuki's face. It wasn't everyday that one got to see the Gakuenchou completely humiliated by a 14 year-old school-girl.

"Why the hell are you laughing? Those girls are supposed to respect me and my authority, but apparently I'm some sort of joke," grumbled the raven haired woman as she pressed her face into the palm of her hand.

"Quite your moping," sighed the 4th Column. Natsuki Kruger was taking all of the fun out of the situation and that just wouldn't do.

"I am not moping."

Rolling her lime green eyes, "Yes, you are. Don't worry about it, oh esteemed headmistress. Those girls don't think you're a joke, they've simply never seen you engaged in a dance battle. Consequently, they believe your fighting style must be sub par, or dare I say, lame."

"Lame!?" howled the blunette. "I'm the Ice Silver Crystal, damnit! My cannon deflected the energy beam that would've destroyed Garderobe when Sears and Artai invaded Windbloom! I battled Aswad and I was the number 2 Pearl in my class. My fighting style is anything but lame!"

"Hey, hey you're preaching to the choir, oh mighty Principal." Nao held up her hands in surrender, and then pointed toward the new Corals engaged in clumsy attempts to mimic their assigned Meister. "You need to show them that you're no mere pencil pusher."

Natsuki frowned yet again as she stared at the girls, "How do I do that?"

A small, devious smile appeared on Nao's perfectly formed lips, "What do you say to giving those girls a small demonstration of your capabilities?

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The battling Corals were about to start a reenactment of Meister Viola's now famous dance battle with Haruka Armitage, when a deafening boom brought all of the girls to their knees in fear. Looking up, they saw the Gakuenchou – the focus of Viola and Armitage's battle herself – standing, fully materialized, on the practice field's upper retaining wall. Next to her stood their substitute instructor, Juliet Nao Zhang, also wearing her Meister robe.

Nao threw what appeared to be a red apple high into the air, and the Ice Silver Crystal took aim with her cannon. With another ear splitting boom, the poor apple was vaporized. The girls all stood there with mouths hanging wide open as their normally stoic Headmistress engaged in a fruit skeet-shooting frenzy.

After a few minutes of obliterating progressively smaller pieces of fruit from the sky, the 2nd Column flew high into the air, did a triple tuck summersault and landed a mere foot from the little blond girl who had refused to imitate her battle techniques.

Looking down at sky blue eyes, orbs filled with both awe and fear, Natsuki growled, "I hear you think my fighting style is lame and didn't think it was worth mimicking."

Blondie's eyes widened with terror, "Oh no, I didn't say that, Gakuenchou-senpai! I didn't say that at all!"

Nao came floating down next to her compatriot and smiled at the confrontation that was taking place.

The Gakuenchou's eyes narrowed, "Well then, little miss, what did you say?"

The blonde's blue orbs ticked back and forth between the two Meisters, and she realized that 4th Column had told the 2nd Column what she said earlier.

"I, I just wasn't sure what you did during dance battles because...you're always in your office and...Meister Viola seems to do all of the fighting and... you just seem like you're g,grumpy all of the time," stuttered out the little Coral.

Seeing the genuine look of fear in the girl's eyes made the young headmistress take a step back. She realized that she may have gone overboard in the attempt to repair her injured pride.

"Uh well, I see," mumbled the blunette as she scratched the back of her head in embarrassment. "I think you may have a point. You can't very well imitate what you haven't ever witnessed. How about the Break Wind Spinel and..."

"String! That's Break String Spinel you idio..."

"Oh! I'm so sorry Nao," grinned Natsuki as she winked at the Corals giggled around them. "How about the Break String Spinel and I engage in a short dance battle? You girls will be able to see how a true Meister performs."

Nao glared at the raven haired woman and licked the ends of her clawed hands. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy kicking your butt."

"You couldn't beat me even if I had one arm tied behind my back!" spat the blunette toward her opponent.

Nao took a step toward Natsuki, as if she were going to attack, when she suddenly pulled up short with a mild look of fear pasted on her face. Turning to the wide-eyed Corals next to her, the red head quickly dismissed the students, who gladly took off without a word.

"Hey!" shouted a perturbed Natsuki at their retreating forms, "you haven't seen me battle yet!"

"I'm afraid this impromptu performance has been canceled," came a refined voice from behind the Gakuenchou.

The dark haired woman glanced over at Nao, who just gave her a nervous shrug. After taking a deep breath, Natsuki turned and faced the voice.

"Miss Maria, I didn't see you there," laughed the Headmistress uneasily.

Cold blue eyes narrowed, "Obviously not, Gakuenchou. I suspect you would not have engaged in such silliness if I had been here sooner."

Blood rushed to the green eyed woman's face, and without thinking she blurted out, "It wasn't "silliness" that I was engaged in."

"I'm outta here," whispered Nao as she dematerialized and walked away from the two women locked in an intense staring contest.

Glancing briefly at the Break String Spinel's retreating form, Maria Graceburt grumbled out, "A wise decision Miss Juliet, though I hope in the future you keep your training instructions on the more traditional side."

Without a verbal response, Nao raised her arm in acknowledgment and continued to walk away.

Turning back to the Gakuenchou, Miss Maria seethed, "Your impulsive materialization was not authorized, Miss Kruger. You know full well that due to your delicate and very important position here at the school, you must ask permission before you activate your robes. There are very few exceptions to this rule, and I believe that the situation this afternoon does not fall under any of them"

"That is the stupidest rule, and you know it!"

"I know no such thing! That rule is in place to prevent you from unnecessarily endangering yourself and this school."

Natsuki's fists were clenched at her sides, and her face began to turn red with rage.

"Those girls, those Corals, thought I was joke! My abilities as a Meister Otome were in doubt. I rarely get to engage in any sort of show of strength, and as a consequence I'm turning into a laughing stock! I need to show the students that I can fight. Hell, that I can even materialize a Meister robe!" by this point, the blunette was screaming.

Miss Maria's lips pursed like she had just sucked on an exceptionally tart lemon, "I see."

"Yeah, I hope you...see," came the lame response from the 2nd Column as she folded her arms over her chest.

"Since your concern is that the student body questions your ability to summon a Meister robe, we shall have to ensure that they all have the opportunity to see you in it." The silver haired woman touched her hand to her GEM. "This is Maria Graceburt. Disengage the Ice Silver Crystal's GEM control systems, authorization code TOP DOMINURA."

Natsuki stared at the blue eyed woman in confusion. "What did you just do?"

"I have disengaged your ability to activate or deactivate your robe using your GEM. All control has been switched to me and the medical research facility. You will be unable to remove your robe until you have apologized for your impudent actions."

Not believing her ears, the blunette attempted to deactivate her robe. To her utter dismay, she met with no success. Kruger's eyes widened.

"For the love of Fumi, what if I have to go to the bathroom!? You know these things don't unzip!"

Miss Maria rolled her eyes at the Gakuenchou's outburst. "You know full well our robes are capable of absorbing and redistributing any fluids our bodies produce. A Meister may be engaged in battles for hours, if not days, and bathroom breaks are not always possible."

"But that's disgusting!" wailed Natsuki.

"Then I suggest you apologize for your unauthorized materialization!"

"Never! I did nothing wrong!" Natsuki dug in, stubborn as always.

With narrowed eyes Miss Maria growled, "Well then I hope you enjoy peeing in your robe."

"Like hell I will! As soon as we're done here, I'm going to talk to Youko and get her to reverse what you've done. She's in charge of our GEM's, not you, Maria."

A small smile spread across the silver haired woman's lips. "You'll be waiting a long time to talk to Miss Helene. She has been called to the Aswad on an important matter and will not be back for a week. She left me in charge and supplied me with all of the necessary access codes."

A shocked gag erupted from Natsuki's lips as Miss Maria turned and walked away. One week was a very long time to be stuck in a materialized robe. A sudden question popped into the stunned principal's head, and she called out after the progressively smaller gray haired figure.

"What about solids?! Can our suits absorb those as well?! They never discussed that in any of our classes!"

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Six hours later, Natsuki was sitting in her office in a completely foul mood. On the walk back to her office from the practice fields, she passed by dozens of students. All of whom gave her the strangest of looks. It wasn't often, after all, that one saw a Meister Otome strolling through the halls in her robe, especially not the Gakuenchou.

After nearly 5 hours in the suit, Natsuki had given in and relieved herself. Thankfully, she found that the suit did in fact absorb all of the fluid and as far as she could tell there didn't seem to be an offending odor. However the indignity of peeing one's pants – however technologically aided - was grating at the headmistress.

It was so unfair that the other Columns and the teaching staff didn't have the same restrictions put on them. It was if she was being punished simply because she had the most influential and powerful position as an Otome!

The dark haired woman was contemplating why she had ever agreed to take the position as Gakuenchou when her answer sauntered through the door. Shizuru was the reason Natsuki had accepted the offer to become the 2nd Column and lead the school. It was for this woman and their love that she had desired to stay at Garderobe. For it was there that they could be together.

"Nat-su-ki," cooed the crimson eyed beauty as she took a seat on edge of the dark haired woman's desk, "why are you wearing your battle garment?"

"Uh...," the blunette didn't know how to answer without being mercilessly teased.

"Hmmm, does my Natsuki wish to celebrate a little early by recreating our first time together in this office?" smiled the chestnut haired woman. "As I recall, we christened the table top, your couch, and your chair,." The 3rd Column sighed as she sank into her lover's lap.

With dawning horror, Natsuki remembered that their anniversary was tomorrow. For weeks they had been planning a special day together, and Shizuru had even invested in some special 'toys' that she refused to let them use before the appointed time. She would have to go and apologize to Miss Maria immediately. Natsuki could survive her pride being injured, but she doubted her lover would allow her to live if she was still stuck in Meister robe tomorrow.

The dark haired Otome was pulled out of her panicked thoughts by the lighter haired woman.

"Ara, is that urine I smell?"

THE END

OMAKE:

The Gakuenchou of Garderobe comes storming into the apartment she shares with her lover. Her Meister robe has been deactivated after she provided Maria Graceburt with a proper apology.

Natsuki: Shizuru!!

Shizuru: What is it, my sweetness?

Natsuki: You lied! There's no way you could've smelled urine when you sat on my lap. Miss Maria confirmed that the suit doesn't smell afterwards!

Shizuru: Ara, ara, so my Natsuki did pee in her Meister robe! Nao-san suspected this may be the case, but you ran out of the office so quickly after I made that comment that I was left unsure whether it were true.

Natsuki: What?! You talked to Nao before you came to my office earlier today?

Shizuru: To be precise, she intercepted me before I reached your office. She had an interesting tale about you getting into trouble and being unable to deactivate your robe.

Our young friend thought I should know. In return, she asked me to confirm whether or not you in fact urinated in your robes, and you've just done so. Nao-san will be most pleased.

A strangled gasp erupts from the emerald eyed woman's throat.

Natsuki: You can't tell her what I did! She'll never let me live it down.

Shizuru: My love, you have nothing to be ashamed of. Our robes were designed to handle these types of situations.

Natsuki: So… you've pee'd in your robe too?

Shizuru: Oh no! I'd never do that, it is far too gross.

Natsuki: But you just said it was nothing to be ashamed of!

Shizuru: That's right, it isn't. Though it is still disgusting…

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A/N:

I realize that the Omake is really just a continuation of the main story, but once I read it through a couple times I felt like I wanted to clarify that Shizuru knew that Natsuki had been trapped in her robes. She wanted to give her lover a subtle reminder that their anniversary was the next day, and wanted to give Natsuki the opportunity to apologizey to Miss Maria without being ordered to do so.