Chapter 22

Sunday afternoon saw Laura, now wearing one of her 'new' Yukatas, this one green with a simple ivy like pattern on it, waiting in front of prof. Yakamura's office. She was nervously going through what she wanted to say while double checking the CAD design she had on her tablet. Taking a deep breath, she stepped up to the door and knocked.

After waiting for five minutes without any response, she tried opening the door, which revealed it to be locked. Just as she was about to wonder what she should do now, the professor she had wanted to meet came walking up to her.

"Ah Miss Rosenthal, why did you come to my office on such a nice day? Wouldn't you prefer to enjoy one of the first warm days of the year outside?" the man asked her as he stopped to unlock his office door.

"Well Daiki said you were the Professor to ask for access to better workshops for extra credit projects." Turning around her tablet so the professor could see the model displayed on it she continued. "I wanted to try my hand at making a model jet engine for a while now, and I was wondering if there was a workshop, preferably with a plasma cutter and CNC mill, I could use for it. Of course the finished model would remain here as a teaching aid, or to show of at certain events." Laura finished, her tails wagging from side to side nervously, just barely not giving themselves away as they missed the walls by mere centimeters.

"Hm that does sound quite ambitious, how many semesters have you been studying already back home?" the professor inquired, a hand on his chin as he studied the plans presented to him.

"Five, after this semester here I'll return home for what should be my seventh and final one." cam the Kitsunes nervous reply, her ears flicking around unseen.

"So when does your last lecture end tomorrow." The professor continued, obviously interested in the proposal of the student before him by now.

"About five pm." Laura replied quickly.

"Well then meet me here again tomorrow at half past five, I do have a workshop you could use outside the classes I teach, which would mostly be evenings and at night."

"Thank you very much professor." the kitsune replied with a deep bow.

"Well You will need to prove you can be trusted to use the equipment in it responsibly before I let you work on your own, But I would love to see this work out. Although one suggestion to the plans. If you could include a cut out section that can be replaced with something transparent, or be easily removed to show the inner workings of it?"

"I'll try to include it." Laura said with a smile on her face as she flipped her tablet back around and made a note to try and include the Professors request, outlining probable areas to do it right away.

"I'll see you tomorrow after class then." Prof. Yakamura said as he stepped into his office.

Class the next day was quite close to what Laura was used to from back home, except for the language class was held. While finding a position to sit in the larger lecture halls that did not squish her tails, at least her traditional clothing did not draw more than a quirked eyebrow and strange look, just as Daiki had assumed.

Trying her best to pay attention, the rather boring, cliched first classes filled with explanations of the semesters schedule for the course, and suggested literature were not quite intriguing enough to keep her focused on them at all times, especially with her upcoming meeting with prof. Yakamura on the forefront of her mind.

When finally the last class was done, she rushed to meet with the professor. Which meant Laura ended up being there quite a bit early, and ended up waiting for nearly twenty minutes before prof. Yakamura finally arrived.

"Miss Rosenthal, early I see." He greeted the spirit as he walked up to his office door. "I'll need a few minutes, but then we can go down to the workshop."

After the Kitsune gave a short nod in response, he stepped into his office, leaving her outside to worry on her own. About five minutes later the professor reemerged, carrying a bundle of keys as well as a clipboard. "Thank you for waiting, if you would follow after me please." Prof. Yakamura said before leading the way down the nearby stairs all the way down to the basement.

There he turned to lead her down a couple of corridors until they arrived at a room labeled 'Room B.012'.

"Here we are." the professor said as he unlocks the door and opens it. Inside was a series of older looking machinery, all of it looking well maintained. Most of the room inside was taken up by the rather sizeable Plasma cutter and Milling machine, both of which were just new enough to support computer generated input from the looks of it.

In the center of the remaining space was a decently sized worktable, a simple wheel grinder attached to it on one side. Against one wall rested a selection of labeled metal plates of various sizes, while the other free wall was covered in a cabinet containing various hand held tools, smaller materials like nuts and bolts, as well as replacement wheels for the grinder from the looks of it.

"It's all a bit older, but all of it works like a charm." the professor said as he stepped into the room. "Whenever you use material, please make a note of it here." He continues, pulling a clip board with premade forms out of the cabinet. "Try to keep waste material to a useable size and note it here as well."

"I'll do my best professor." Laura replied as they walked over to the control panels of the two pieces of computer controlled machinery.

"As for these two here, you will need to transfer the files you want to use via USB stick or SD-card to the laptop set up between them. You can then select the file and the machine you want from this menu here."

Bringing the clipboard he had been carrying up to Laura, showing a form and a simple ball pen.

"Now just sign here that you got an instruction in the machinery of the room, and that you will take responsibility for everything that happens while you are in here."

With a nod, the Kitsune took the clipboard and read through the form, before signing it on the bottom and handing it back.

"Good, happy working." The professor said as he took the clipboard back and handed her a key to the workshop.

"Thank you." Laura replied with a bow as the two left the room, locking the door behind her as she made plans to prepare everything she needed to hide a longsword amidst the parts she would need for the engines. And before that she would need to finalize designs for both the engine and her blade, now that she knew how large any one part could be and still fit in the machinery she would be using.