The house is a simple two-story one, white with pale yellow trim. A small yard with grass and a few rose bushes is in the front, a much larger yard with a rose garden and a series of small stone statues in the back. The interior is simple, with few pictures or knickknacks, the furniture spartan of build and decorated with a simple black and red design. The walls of most of the rooms have been painted a creamy off-white until they reach a border of red and pale blue roses with dark green stems about four feet off the ground, then the walls are a done in a pattern of silver and white. There are scorch marks on many of the walls, some which there has been attempts to clean them up only to have the person give up in disgust at the sheer number of them.
The kitchen is simply decorated, most of the surfaces being either blue and white tile or stainless steel. Various pots and other cooking implements hang from racks on the ceiling and walls, with the only truly unusual piece of equipment being the vastly oversized refrigerator. And the walk-in freezer next to the fridge.
A variety of pictures hang on the wall of the stairs to the upper story, many of them of a couple with two small red-headed girls, one looking about six years older than the other. The family seems happy in all the pictures, but the pictures after the landing are of an entirely different type. In these pictures the couple are gone, and the girls are dressed in black for the first few frames. After a short bit, only about five years, the older of the two girls is gone, leaving only the younger one behind with a pair of people who are obviously not her parents. They are only in the pictures for three or four frames, with the last seven or so being of the younger girl by herself, with the very last one of her and a much older woman, with long black hair and a skimpy outfit, standing in front of a burning bandit gang with bags of loot.
In the upstairs hall there seem to be several bedrooms, and it seems that many of them are being rented out to a variety of people. Many of the doors have nameplates on them, or at least a sign taped up declaring the inhabitant's name. The doors at the ends of the hall seem to lead off into a pair of bathrooms, one marked men's and the other woman's, with little pictures to indicate which is which for the illiterate. Suddenly, the air is filled with the sound of a klaxon going off, and the various inhabitants slowly stagger their ways through their morning rituals. The most noticeable one is the brightly awake woman, whom is recognizable from the last picture on the stairs. It seems she is the one who set of the klaxon, as she flips a switch back down and the sound cuts off. She frowns, looking at the one door that did not open. Picking up a megaphone, she stalks over to the door, kicking it open to scream into the megaphone at the bundle of covers on the bed.
"GET UP LINA!! YOU'RE GOING TO MISS YOUR BREAKFAST!!!
The bundle of blankets explodes as a young looking red-head jumps up from the bed, ready to fireball whoever woke her up. The redhead, Lina, relaxes when she sees just who yelled.
"Jeez, Naga, do you have to do that every morning?" Lina complained, the only reason why she was not blasting Naga with a fireball was that she had to provide a good example for the boarders, who were also her students.
Naga stuck out her tongue at Lina. "It's not my fault you're such a slug in the morning. Hurry up, there's a teacher's conference this morning." With a flick of her hair, Naga began to head back out into the hall. This brought Lina to notice the outfit Naga was wearing, which consisted of a tight indigo turtleneck with the sleeves and the bottom half ripped off, a pair of cut-offs cut so high on the hip that it nearly showed her underwear, a pair of low black boots, and six bandanas. There were two blue bandanas, one tied around her upper left arm, the other her upper thigh. The next two bandanas were black, one below the blue one on her leg by about three inches and the other around her neck with a skull shaped slide to hold it in place. The last two were white, and one held back Naga's hair while the other was tied around the upper part of her left calf.
"And I see that there will be some new male staff members there. Heh, how many will it be this time, Naga?" Naga spun around, indignant, at the sly tone in Lina's voice.
"Just what are you implying LINA?!?!!" Naga huffed, her hands on her scantily clad hips. Lina shrugged, a smug smirk on her face as she watched Naga stalk back towards her.
"You still protest your man-hunting? Especially after I caught you during one of your little 'escapades' ? With both Kino and Michiro?" Lina grinned evilly as Naga sputtered, utterly incoherent, and walked off to take her shower.
Lina and Naga looked around the overcrowded staff room, amazed at all the rush in what was normally a very quiet room to eat or take naps in. As a consequence of this type of use, the room was normally quite messy. After a few useless attempts to get someone's attention, Naga got impatient and stepped directly into someone's path. The someone turned out to be Kino, who was understandably dazed, after ricocheting off Naga's bosom. Lina crouched down so that Kino could hear her clearly from his position on the floor. "Hey Kino, what's with the rush?" She asked, gesturing towards all the activity. "The school's representative, our oh-so beloved bitch of a principal, at the Board is coming back today, with the new teachers." Kino replied, brushing off his tan slacks as he stood up. He was undeniably among one of the most handsome of the male teachers, albeit in a very brawny way, so it was no surprise he had been the target of one of Naga's manhunts.
Lina blinked, considering the ramifications of Kino's reply. She beckoned Naga down so that she could whisper in Naga's ear.
"GET YOUR BUTT IN GEAR AND HELP!!"
As Naga staggered, hands clasped to her ringing head, Lina began to help the other teachers clean up.
A scant twenty minutes later, the room was clean, and none too soon. They had just put away the broom when the Principal of the school walked in the door.
"Sit down, sit down." The principal, one Ms. Karla Beld, lazily gestured with one hand the assembled teachers to the chairs that had been set up in the room. She stepped up to the podium at the front of the room, shuffling the papers she held as she tested the microphone to see if it was on. "Testing ... Ok, as I know you are all concerned about, no, the board did not cut the magic department, but they have cut the department's funding, and moved the funding to the science department, on the principal the that the funding is more needed by the science department."
Ms. Beld tucked an errant strand of her black hair back behind her ear as a chorus of groans and boos filled the room temporarily. Even if they weren't in the magic department, the teachers tended to be fond of the ones who were. Primarily Naga, Lina, and Slayn were in the magic department, and they also did double duty and taught some of the regular classes, taking the load off the others. Ms. Beld cleared her throat, attracting their attention back to her.
"In the light of these developments, they have allowed us to hire four new teachers, who have been duly warned about the difficulties of their jobs here."
"Huh, wonder if anyone warned them about Naga?" Some wiseass in the back quipped, safe only because of relative darkness of the room hiding them from Naga, who had promptly jumped up and screeched while she looked for the perpetrator. Only sitting down because Lina hit her in the back of her knees to make her, Naga fumed in her seat in the front row.
Ms. Beld continued, ignoring the outburst as if it had never happened. "These new teachers are waiting outside the door of the staff room ... Mr. Kino Ixhinose, can you let them in please?" There was a brief flare of light from the door as the teachers were let in. The darkness of the room after the light made it impossible for Lina to see the four new teachers before they stepped up into the light on and around it.
"The young man on my far left, Mr. Zel Akahoshi, will be joining our magic department as well as taking over the teaching of the magical history class as well as training students in the use of magic with swords and various other weapons with Ms. Lina Mizuno. The man on his left, Mr. Rodimus Kintaro, will be our new P.E. teacher, freeing the rest of you to manage your other classes. On my near right, Mr. Zolf Akino will also be joining the magic department, to teach the first level classes and to assist in the teaching of the upper levels. To his right, who will be be teaching the demonology advanced class as well as taking over Ms. Naga Tesla's English Literature class, Mr. Xeros ... ?"
"Just Xeros." Said the young man with the short purple hair and eyes closed. Ms. Beld raised an eyebrow, looking at him. Xeros just smiled and waved to the assembled teachers in the seats. Lina could practically hear Naga drooling as she looked at the new teachers, all male, all fairly young with the oldest being about forty-something and the youngest being in his early twenties. Lina gave Naga a whack on the back of the head. In the ensuing battle, before they managed to tie up Lina and Naga, thirteen chairs, five tables, a desk, three walls and one flagpole were bent, mutilated, or otherwise destroyed.
During the student's lunch hour, in which Kino and Lina, the ones who were assigned lunch duty, found themselves talking about the new teachers, whom Naga was gracefully giving a tour of the school with the help of Michiro.
"Quit throwing food Akira! So, Lina, what do you think of the new teachers?" Kino said in aside to Lina, glaring at the unrepentant Akira. He honestly liked Lina, as she had no qualms about casting Diem Wing on the most troublesome students in the lunch room, where most of the students ate. He was also one of the few teachers that never mistook her for a child, despite her physical appearance. Lina looked thoughtful, her mind wandering over the conference, and the possible implications. "I'm not quite sure yet, as I haven't had a chance to meet any of them face to face."
Kino made a face, thinking over something that had just occurred to him. "Naga's gonna go for them, isn't she?"
Lina nodded, watching Kino's reaction. A pained, bitter smile passed over Kino's face. "I guess I should know her by now, the nymphomaniac she is." Lina reached up, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I don't think she's going to get very far with any of them. Akoushi doesn't seem to be the type for a brief fling, or at least not with someone he doesn't know well, Xeros ... well, I don't think she'll try for him, but I may be wrong. Kintaro is a little old for her tastes, and he seems to be one of those guys that prefers to choose who, where, and when, and doesn't do it lightly. The only one I see her having a chance with is Akino, and then ... not really. But as I said, I could be wrong." They both grimaced, thinking about the times Lina had been wrong.
"Akira! This is your last warning! Throw food one more time and you're out!" Lina shouted, this time adding her glare to Kino's own. The only response was a chorus of raspberries from the entire table Akira was at.
"Little punks." Kino murmured, peeved. Lina grinned. "And so were you at that age Kino."
"Now, now, no teasing me teacher. I'm a teacher too now." Kino said, a smile creeping onto his face. Lina grinned. "That you are ... DIEM WING! That's the last time Akira!"
"Miss Mizuno, may I talk with you?" Lina jumped slightly, surprised by the voice that had come from behind her. When she had turned around, she found Zel Akoushi behind her. "S-sure! What about?"
He smiled slightly at her startlement. Lina indeed was a strange one, as he had been told. Not much for social formalities. "I am in need of someplace to stay while here in Tokyo, and Ms.Tesla told me that you had room at your boarding house. Would we be able to arrange some sort of agreement?" A rather predatory look passed over Lina's face before it was replaced with a cheerful smile. "I don't see why not." Lina grabbed onto his arm, grinning up at him in a way that made him feel distinctly wary, and wonder if this was such a good idea after all.
Lina grinned cheerfully, balancing the books in her study, quite happy with the flourishing amount of money her boardinghouse was obtaining her. She had been against the site Naga had picked at first, until Naga had explained that while the house would be farther from the college then most of the others, it would be an equal distance from the high school, and the university. Lina had caught Naga's idea then. The house was exactly inbetween all these places, making it equally advantegous to all three schools, as well as being over-all cheaper then most boarding houses or getting an on-campus room. The only catches were that any food bought and stored in the fridge became communal territory, and if you ate from the fridge you had to replace what you ate. That and help repair damage to the building.
Lina frowned as Naga slammed the door to the study open. "Lina! What are you doing?!?"
"What is it now, Naga?"
"You put him in the tower room!"
Lina blinked, surprised. She hadn't expected Naga to object to that. "By him I assume you mean our new boarder, Zel Akoushi? What's wrong with putting him in the tower room?"
"That one has a door that locks with a deadbolt!" Naga had the grace to blush when Lina fell out of her chair, laughing. This wasn't the first time when Naga had wanted to sneak into a male boarder's room after dark. And sometimes it was even with said boarder's knowledge of her visit.