"Hey! This isn't what we agreed on!" Kars sat on a chair in Kamishirasawa Keine's house, looking at Fujiwara no Mokou beside him. The deal was to help bring the teacher home, but now he was being forced to stay and listen to a lecture, which was definitely not part of the plan.
"But if you leave, Keine will just follow you again." Mokou replied helplessly. In her Hakutaku state, Keine had to complete all her accumulated work, and Kars's matter clearly fell into that category. If it wasn't finished, she wouldn't give up.
"Be serious during class, or there will be a punishment." Hearing Kamishirasawa Keine's voice, Kars turned to see her grinning, as if she was contemplating doing something to him. His body instinctively tensed up.
"But this matter is not greatly related to my Young Master. The problem lies with you. Young Master Kars has already done enough by coming this far." Sakuya spoke up, observing Kars's distress. Mokou didn't respond, as she knew Sakuya was right.
"But if we don't do this, neither of us can have any peace. So, we can only let him endure it for a while. I'll compensate him later, and the night will be over soon anyway. Kars is a vampire; staying up all night shouldn't be a problem."
"But I want to sleep now! This is my bedtime!"
"Please don't take me for a fool. What kind of vampire sleeps at night?" Mokou thought the excuse was poorly chosen; no one would believe that.
"I regret to inform you, but my Young Master is precisely that way. His daily routine is the same as a normal human's, and he even goes out to sunbathe every day, despite vampires disliking the sun."
Fujiwara no Mokou: 눈_눈
Has the outside world changed so drastically? Has it caused vampires to undergo such peculiar changes? This is truly enlightening.
"Enough! You two arguing here is preventing me from teaching! And Kars, you also need to finish yesterday's homework!" Kamishirasawa Keine glared at the two who had been arguing since they arrived, then instructed Kars to complete the unfinished assignment.
Kars: QAQ
Looking distraught and on the verge of tears, Kars took his pen and started writing in the workbook. Not only was he miserable, but the homework was incredibly difficult! He really hated history!
"Young Master Kars…" Sakuya, seeing Kars's state, wanted to step forward to help, but Mokou stopped her.
"If you interfere, it will only make things worse. And you should be grateful that this punishment is relatively mild, not the worst. You should know that Keine usually uses her Headbutt for children who break rules or don't do homework. I can guarantee that very few people in Gensokyo can withstand Keine's headbutt."
Mokou instinctively touched her own head as she spoke. She had firsthand experience; one solid hit was enough to knock a person unconscious instantly.
"So I should be grateful?" Sakuya said with a cold face. She wouldn't accept either form of punishment. Even when her Mistress punished Young Master Kars, though it was corporal, the ruler hitting his backside did nothing to the vampire; his skin didn't even turn red. It was merely a formality to make him understand his mistake and correct it, not a serious punishment.
"So, I can only apologize. I promise this won't happen again." Mokou sighed deeply, watching Keine intensely observing Kars.
"You seriously don't know any of this? You're about as clueless as Cirno and the others." Kamishirasawa Keine looked pained, seeing that Kars couldn't answer a single question in the workbook.
"I'm European! How would I know the history here? Teacher, can you please consider that! I feel like you're deliberately making this difficult for me!" Although he said that, Kars wouldn't have been able to answer even if the test was on European history, since he had never attended school.
"Alright, I'll teach you one question at a time. I suppose you like this posture, right?" She picked up Kars and placed him on her lap. She had observed Kars and Patchouli teaching like this in the Great Library, so she assumed this position would help Kars learn.
Keine then began tutoring, but the content still felt like a regular, mind-numbing class to Kars. It gave him a headache, and all he wanted was to sleep.
"Is the posture wrong?" Seeing no improvement, Keine seemed to think of something. She smiled ambiguously, leaned forward, and pressed her chest against the top of Kars's head.
"So, is this what you prefer?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Keine, you're not teaching anymore!" Mokou couldn't help but intervene. Why did a serious matter suddenly shift into this territory?! Was doing this to a child appropriate?!
"This only makes my headache worse! If you don't understand, then don't try to copy it!" Kars reacted strongly against the pressure. His head already hurt, and now she was pressing her chest against it? Other than making his head feel heavier, it offered no help whatsoever.
Kars tried to push the burdensome chest away from his head with his hands. This action made Keine's smile even more unreadable, though Kars sensed danger.
Trusting his instincts, Kars immediately renewed his focus on the homework. Keine merely smiled without speaking, pretending everything was normal, yet she pinched and kneaded his face repeatedly, treating it like an amusing toy.
All Kars could do was endure and pray he could finish the homework quickly so he could go home. He poured every ounce of his resolve into quickly understanding the damned history textbook so he could answer the hated questions. Yet, even with that desperate resolve…
A whole night passed, and the assignment remained unfinished. Kars, completely drained, turned a gray-white color and collapsed into Sakuya's arms, murmuring.
"Homework… so… so terrifying…"