Hana sat in the back of the classroom, writing in parent-teacher communication notebooks while Hikaru was being attacked by six children. Normally, she supervised the five-year-olds, who spent most of their time in kindergarten, before coming to daycare in the early afternoon, but it was still important to fill the notebooks out. It was nearing 7 P.M., so they were expecting parents to pick up the remaining children soon. With the unusually heavy rain and winds this March, more than one parent called in saying they would arrive later. 

There were only a few more notebooks left, and only a few more notes that Hana was jotting down. Most of the pages contained things like the children’s temperature, health, or the activities they did recently. In the last notebook she wrote that Yui had finished all of her broccoli that day, despite her general unwillingness to eat anything green— ‘Good Job!’—  and placed the notebook back into the bin with the rest.

She lifted her arms in a stretch, standing up from the small, plastic, child-sized table. There were a dozen children left, between the ages of three to six, gathered into the classroom nearest to the entrance. The rest of the teachers and kitchen staff had already packed up and gone home some time ago, eager to escape the worsening storm. Only she and Hikaru, a supervisor for the three-year-olds, were left.

He was currently lying on the ground, face down, as several children were clambering over him and poking him in the back with plastic toy swords. He was taking the beating in good humour.

“Already finished, Ms. Kano?” When he raised his head to speak to her, Taiga objected.

“Mr. Tobita, you’re a dead dragon!”

“Really? Then why are you still poking me?”

“We have to make sure,” Itaru said. “Or you  might attack the village again!”

Hikaru grimaced. “You know, Ms. Kano is also a dragon.”

Hana felt twelve eyes hone in on her.

“Are you really dragon, Ms. Kano?” Itaru weighed the foam sword in his hand, conflicted.

“No she’s not!” Tsugumi shouted at him. She gave Hikaru another poke in the back with a bright red foam sword.

“Why?”

“Because dragons are liars! Ms. Kano is actually the princess!”

This line of reasoning made perfect sense to them, so they collectively nodded and continued attacking Hikaru.

“Take that, evil dragon!”

“Hiyaa!”

Hikaru went limp, and with a muffled voice he proclaimed, “Congratulations! You’ve defeated the evil dragon! He is no more!”

“That’s not true,” Taiga gave him a pat on the back. “The dragon always comes back.”

“Yeah! He’s always on the show!”

“He’s the bad guy, so he has to come back.”

The children joined in a chorus of agreement. 

So it’s a TV show, huh?

Hana wasn’t exactly up to date with the latest shows on children’s television. Every time she learned about one, another would take its place in a matter of weeks. Still, it was fun listening to kids talk about their favourite shows. Their eyes always lit up when they spoke.

“Really? Which show is it?” Hikaru asked, taking the opportunity to sit up while they were distracted.

“Super Knight Hiro!” Tsugumi said proudly. “I watch it on the weekend!”

“Really?”

“Me too!”

Hana was drawn away from the commotion by a tug on her apron. She looked down to see a little girl with a plaid hairband in her bobbed hair. She was holding a picture book in her hands, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She was four, if Hana remembered correctly, and while she wasn’t in her class, the girl was often picked up later in the evening.

“What is it, Aiko?”

“...”

“Do you want to read together?”

She nodded, and they found a spot in the corner to read. As they sat down, another younger boy, Souta, came shuffling up to them and sat on the other side of Hana.

“Do you want to listen too, Souta?”

“Yeah.”

Everything was fine until they had reached a certain page. It was the scene where the evil witch was poisoning apples. She was an old hag with gnarled hands, long and sharp fingernails, and a wrinkled, menacing face. She stood over a large cauldron, hysterically wide-eyed and laughing. It was horrifically detailed, something straight out of a horror manga.

How did this get put in a children’s book?!

Aiko froze up next to her and Souta ducked behind her.

“Scary…” Hana heard a sniff from the boy.

Is this kind of book okay? This is a six-year-old classroom.

“It’s okay, Souta.” She quickly flipped through the remainder of the picture book. “The story gets better, but you don’t have to listen anymore if you’re scared.”

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The rest of it is normally illustrated…

“Ms. Kano.”

“Hmm? What is it, Satsuki?” The girl was Souta’s older sister, a six-year-old who was going to be entering first grade next month.

“I can read Souta a different book.”

Hana glanced down at Aiko, who still seemed scared stiff. “Why don’t we all pick a different book together? What do you think, Aiko?”

“...” She didn’t say anything, but managed a tiny nod.

They went to the book shelf in search of another book. Hana kept Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs off to the side, she’d have to talk to the other daycare teachers about it tomorrow. Hana wasn’t sure how the book made it into the classroom to begin with.

“Let’s read this one. It isn’t scary,” Satsuki said, holding it up for her to see. Little Bear’s Pancakes. “But,” she added in a quiet tone, whispering in her ear. “It’s a little boring. I think they would like it.”

What a good older sister.

After reading the book— Satsuki was right, nothing much happened in it— Hana was pulled away by Momoka, who insisted that she watch her draw. Then Reina asked her how to write the kanji for her last name, and several other children joined in. A few of them were from her own class. The five-year-olds, mostly Kazuo, were badgering Satsuki and Ritsu about their upcoming debut into first grade.

“Have you bought a backpack yet? Have you seen your school yet? Do you have friends already? What about the entrance ceremony?”

The six-year-olds, both mild-mannered in nature, answered calmly.

“My mom got me a backpack,” Satsuki replied. “Ritsu?”

“Me too. Haruto is going to the same school as us too.”

Kazuo didn’t seem very interested in hearing the answers as much as he was asking questions, because he turned to her next.

“Ms. Kano, what about your entrance ceremony? Was it good?”

“Which one?”

He started, coming to the realization there would be more than one entrance ceremony for a student. Bright-eyed, he asked, “Which one was the best?”

“Definitely my first grade ceremony!”

I don’t actually remember much about it, though.

“Really? Was it fun? Was it cool? Did you make friends?”

“It was a very fun day, and the weather was nice! I made lots of friends!”

“Really? How many?”

“Hmm… Three, I think?”

He considered that for a bit. “That’s not a lot of friends. Three is a few, right?”

Ouch.

He didn’t stay on the topic any longer though. “Hey, Ritsu, did you see Super Knight Hiro last Saturday?”

The torrential rain had evolved into flashes of lightning followed by the rumbling of thunder. Hana expected the parents would be delayed even further, and quietly lamented how useless the flimsy plastic umbrella she brought would be against the elements. She hadn’t brought a poncho, so she thoroughly anticipated she’d be soaked to the bone by the time she made it to the train station.

The thunder spooked some of the children, and Hikaru did his best to distract them with an extremely loud puppet show. It was complete with full voice acting and narration, along with very dramatic flair in the movements of the hand puppets. Hana was preoccupied with explaining some basic math to Ritsu, who was feigning disinterest in Hikaru’s play. Hana herself wasn’t entirely focused on the performance, but she was sure he was reenacting Cinderella. She heard snippets of an evil stepmother and a ball.

Hikaru was a good storyteller, but less so a narrator that stayed on script. The odds were fifty-fifty on whether or not he actually finished reading a story from beginning to end, or would abandon the book midway for something more… spontaneous. The other teachers protested, but he insisted it was important to foster creativity. Besides, it was certainly more interesting.

I wonder if he’ll start improvising this time?

The following words confirmed that he did, in fact, have no intention on faithfully retelling Cinderella.

“And then, Cinderella ran after the evil dragon with her sword to save the prince!”

This exclamation had elicited an uproar of delight from his audience.

Since when was there a dragon in that story?!

In any case, the children loved it, and all things considered, it did make for a more engaging plot. The lights flickered momentarily, and Hikaru used this to his advantage.

In his deep, obviously-the-villain voice, he went, “Hahaha! All according to plan. Soon the whole world will be plunged into darkness!”

“Hey! That’s what the dragon in Super Knight Hiro always says!”

“How did you do that, Mr. Tobita?”

“He didn’t do it, the storm did it.”

“Are you sure? Because I, the great dragon Erasth—”

Of course the lights went out completely at that moment. A few students shrieked.

“Mr. Tobita, that’s not funny! We can’t see!”

“Turn the lights back on!”

It wasn’t completely dark, a little light made it through the windows. Lightning struck close by, illuminating the classroom for a moment, flashing long shadows and eliciting more shrieks and screams.

“It’s okay everyone. Calm down, okay? I’ll get the lights back up.” Hikaru put the puppets down. “Ms. Kano, do you have your phone on you?”

She checked her pockets. “No, sorry.”

“Okay, I’m going to check the power box. I’ll bring back some flashlights if I need to.”

“Be careful, watch your step.”

The children huddled around as another flash of lightning lit up the classroom, and she heard Souta begin to sniff again. Luckily, most of them were taking the situation in stride.

“The evil dragon is taking over!”

“Mr. Tobita broke the lights.” 

“Where’d I put my sword?”

“Mine’s over here.”

Hana comforted a few of the more timid students, but even she was concerned when she noticed the lightning getting closer and closer.

“It’s okay, everyone. I’m sure Mr. Tobita will fix the lights soon.”

Does this area have a lightning rod?

The last time she checked, before the lights went out, it was approaching eight, but not a single parent had arrived. While the daycare technically closed at eight, at least two supervisors had to stay until the last student was picked up. She and Hikaru were usually the ones put to the task, seeing as they were the youngest teachers, without any children of their own to take care of.

“Ms. Kano, I want to go home,” Aiko said, barely audible amidst the chatter of the other students and the downpour outside.

“I know. Your mom will be here soon, so just wait a little bit longer, okay?”

“... I don’t like the dark.”

“It’s okay. You’re being very brave right now.”

Hikaru’s taking a long time… I wonder if something is wrong?

The basement was already dark and maze-like. It gave her the creeps to be down there at night, despite the yellow walls covered in happy paintings of cartoon animals. She had lost her way down there more than a few times, even during the day.

The next rumble of thunder was beyond loud, like standing right next to a revving motorcycle. It sent the children screaming, hiding underneath the tables. The braver ones held out their foam swords, ready to fight some unseen monster. Aiko clung to her arm, trembling. At this point, Hana was sufficiently spooked as well.

What… What happens when lightning hits a building?

She didn’t get a chance to think of what disaster might happen before lightning struck again and her vision went white.