25/04/2018 - 07:30 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minako
"I heard he beat his students"
"No really? I thought
they just liked bandages"
"Shut up."
"He was so scary..."
Minako had to admit, the arrest of Kamoshida meant that the school was abuzz with rumours, she always loved screwing with the Shujin Academy Rumour Mill but this was wonderful, not only was justice being delivered but the Rumour Mill wasn't focused on her.
"Do you think the Principal knew?"
"Of course he did, the fat
bastard just doesn't care"
"Don't let him hear you say that."
"What's he going to do,
sit on me?"
This was just beautiful and it got better when Kawakami walked in, she looked rather pleased with herself, hell she also looked somewhat well rested, which was an improvement for her.
"Excuse me, class," Kawakami said "Before we take the roll there is something that I need to tell you, as your all well aware, Kamoshida has recently been arrested before you start celebrating, I'm here to tell you that the principal has requested that you pretend to be heartbroken by his arrest." Her face was scrunched up like she was cringing when she read those words "I'm also supposed to tell you that you're not to talk to any news outlets regarding the arrest of Kamoshida." That was met with various boo's, Minako was surprised that some of the students were actually doing that, "Hey, I'm just the messenger, I don't agree with this crap either." She said, shrugging. The students heard what she said and stopped booing as they just processed what their teacher had said. "Now, on to the roll call."
Minako was surprised, there was something almost comical about how Kawakami had turned from
'tired homeroom teacher' to
'only the best teacher in the entire damn school'
25/04/2018 - 8:00 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho
Shiho had to admit, it was hard to focus on class, her thoughts were drifting to either Ann or Volleyball. When had her life come down to the point when that was very only two ports of call? It wasn't like she didn't mind, Volleyball was a really good sport and a fun one at that. And Ann was ... Ann, so pretty wonderful and good looking.
Shiho had to admit, she was trying to focus in class today, though she wasn't trying all that hard when it came down to it. The fact that it was English didn't help, she could barely figure out the language and the words being said barely registered with her, it was something about grammatical rules, though she had it on pretty good authority that no one who spoke the language actually cared about those rules. Ms Chuno herself looked annoyed as she talked about the grammatical rules, her heavily made-up features cast into a minor scowl as she read over grammar rules that she probably struggled over when she was young.
Shiho wondered how exactly anyone learnt English it seemed like such a hard language, too many different sounds and far too many words in that language as well, the grammar was also weird as well. Maybe it was a similar experience to native English speakers trying to learn Japanese?
She looked over to see how Ryuji was faring, there was a simple answer to that: he wasn't. Instead, he was sleeping in the middle of class. She found that somewhat amusing, mostly because she had some knowledge of him before he became the school delinquent and he was one of the least threatening and somewhat dorky people she knew and well... it was hard to see the delinquent Ryuji in him as he sat napping.
Ms Chuno coughed and Shiho focused her attention back to the front of the class, "Miss Suzui." Chuno began, using the foreign title, "since you're clearly paying attention," Chuno continued, the Japanese words being heavily accented with an American accent that she didn't quite recognise "Translate this sentence from English to Japanese." She pointed to a sentence that she had written on the blackboard.
"Of course," Shiho said, she was not really confident about the language, Ann had helped her with the pronunciation of words and similar things, but she never really picked up many skills when it came to translating. She looked at the unfamiliar words and mumbled them "
I wasn't paying attention in class." the words barely left her mouth as she tried to mentally translate the English sentence to coherent Japanese "I wasn't" she mumbled, trying to figure out a sentence that made sense, she recognised the word 'paying' that typically had connections with money, but what did it have to do with class?
"Can't understand it?" Chuno asked, a single eyebrow raised, Shiho shook her head "Understandable, in the interest of time, I'll tell you what it means: I wasn't paying attention in class." Shiho felt some anger at the insult the teacher gave her. Wasn't her fault that she had more important things on her mind than a language that she would rarely use. She glanced back and Ryuji was still asleep, it was understandable that no one was waking him up, most teachers had flat out given up on the ex-athlete.
25/04/2018 - 9:30 - Shujin Acaademy - Takamaki Ann
Ann was currently in another Japanese lesson and the words of the teacher were not registering. She looked at the clock and silently wished that time could go faster.
Her thoughts drifted towards the incident yesterday, someone was staring at her quite intently, it creeped her out, she had just got one creeper off her and now another had risen to take her place. Was it a constant cycle? Such thoughts just made Ann huff slightly, the words of the teacher still weren't registering.
She tried to tune into the lesson but about a minute later, she found herself being bored again and tuned out the teacher again.
25/04/2018 - 12:10 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minato
Minato was sitting on one of the desks that were on the roof of the school.
All was well in Shujin. He was content and there didn't seem to be many problems. Minato made sure not to say that out loud, he didn't want to jinx himself and he found that the prospect of saying something like that out loud would be ... unproductive.
To be honest, most of the gang were sitting around talking away their lunch time. He looked at his notes, exam days were coming and he would be damned if his grade average would drop, his academic standards were at risk here and he wouldn't cheat like some delinquent.
"Hey, Minato," Ryuji said, getting the blue-haired boy's attention. "Think you could help me prepare for the tests?" This got the attention of everyone in the group. Minako let her face drop into a pitying look, Ann, Shiho and Makoto all looked curious at his statement.
"What got you interested in academics all of a sudden?" Makoto asked, sounding very curious.
"Well, considering that we are still waiting for Kamoshida's verdict and will be for a while, I think that I should try to improve my grades." He rubbed his right hand against the back of his neck "It'll help me get a job despite my shitty grades."
Minato looked Ryuji dead in the eye. This blond delinquent, a man who had less than stellar intellect but had his rare moments of brilliance, this was one of them. "Ryuji, just so you know: I will run this material over you to the point where remembering it will become instinctual, I will make sure that the only thing you think about at night will be my lectures. Got it?" Ryuji gulped at that and Minako looked at Ryuji with pity.
"Got it," Ryuji answered bravely, foolishly perhaps, but bravely. "When do we start?" Minako continued looking at Ryuji with barely disguised pity. "Why do you keep looking at me like that?" Minato looked at Ryuji with a single half-smirk.
"You don't know what you're getting yourself into, get out while you still have the chance," Minako said, pleading with Ryuji.
"How bad can it be?" Ryuji naively asked, as if he was asking the Gods of irony to strike him down.
"How often do you sleep during class?" Minako asked, "No, better question, how often do you space out during class?"
"Pretty often, why?" Ryuji answered the consequences of what he agreed to finally sink in.
"Poor child, you will not survive the winter," Minako said vaguely, "honestly though, Minato will run you ragged and more importantly, he will enjoy doing so." The aforementioned blue-haired boy gave his best sadistic half-grin in response to being mentioned. "I'm begging you to reconsider."
25/04/2018 - 12:30 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho
After the rather loud discussion of Ryuji getting privately, and personally, tutored by Minato had finished, Shiho found her thoughts resting back on her home, she realised that she didn't really know her parents and she doubted that they knew her either.
They spent so much time away from the house that Shiho didn't really know what their preferences were, how they acted when they were angry, sad or happy. One of the few times they were home would be during Christmas and even then, dinner there was an awkward affair with them stiffly referring to each other and being unable to make anything more than polite small talk with each other.
She wondered what had caused her mother to look at Shiho so sourly. Though it was somewhat better than her dad trying patch things up, he tried so hard to be hip and it somehow made it worse when he did so, she was still trying to forget the flurry of outdated slang she had heard when her dad tried to talk to her.
It actually made her angry to a small degree, her mother never cared when her daughter walked home with bruises on her face and when she was angry, she didn't ask Shiho about it. Maybe when mother got home, then they could talk about it.
When she thought about it, she remembered the feeling of being watched when she was walking with Ryuji and meeting up with her friends, was she being stalked? If so, then who?
She was broken out of her musings by a hand flashing in front of her face "Hey, Shiho." Minako's voice broke through, waving her hand in front of Shiho's face "Earth calling Shiho, come in Shiho."
"Yeah?" She asked she was somewhat thankful that the brunette had broken Shiho out of a bad thought process.
"You were scowling a lot just now." Minako supplied "and I don't think that's your resting face either, so tell me, is there something wrong?" The brunette, although she sometimes didn't act like it, actually cared for everyone in the group, even if she had a pretty bad way of caring.
"Nah, don't worry about it." Shiho said, dropping into her normal method of getting people to stop worrying about her "It's probably nothing, just family problems." At the mention of the phrase 'family problems', Ann's face darkened in understanding.
So much for that method of evasion.
25/04/2018 - 13:20 - Shujin Academy - Takamaki Ann
Ann was left wondering a few things, one of the things that managed to float its way to the front of her mind was what Shiho was trying to avoid.
Maybe it was the family problems that she had mentioned at lunchtime, from what Ann remembered, Shiho had a pretty apathetic family, so much so that they didn't even seem to raise an eyebrow at her staying with Shiho all day, even during a school day. She didn't like when Shiho tried to get people to stop worrying about her, it probably one of the things that caused Shiho to be so prepared to take her own life. Ann still regretted not being able to see the signs of Shiho sinking into depression.
She was in the middle of a history class, which meant that she was being taught by Inui.
To say that the man was vanilla would be an understatement, he looked like the default character one would get out of a character customisation screen. About average height for a Japanese man, he was thin and was able to maintain a good posture while teaching. His features were averagely Japanese, his hair was pretty standard, the only interesting thing being the hair which was combed to the right of his head in something that could almost become a fringe if it was combed downwards as well.
His outfit was about as boring as the man was, he wore black shoes, black suit trousers, white shirt, red tie and a dark grey suit jacket (he must really be living on the edge), though she would be negligent not to mention his grey waistcoat, he was wearing it today, all of the clothes looked worn from years of usage. The man's face was stern and he had a reputation for being a no-nonsense teacher, though this led to his nickname among the students 'Ushimasu-lite'. She was snapped out of her musings when he coughed lightly.
"Takamaki-san, could you possibly tell me what Roman Emperor participated in the Olympics?" At the mention of the question, Minako's hand shot straight up, Minato also looked vaguely interested. Ann quickly ran through the names of Roman Emperors that she knew of, all five of the names: Ceaser, Nero, and what were the other one's names? Well, it looked like she had to take a guess and she wasn't even sure that Nero was actually a real Roman Emperor.
"Would it be Nero?" Ann answered.
"Are you asking me that or answering me?" Inui responded, it should be mentioned that was one of his pet peeves, he didn't like it when students didn't answer confidently, something about preparing them for life or something similar.
"Emperor Nero was the Roman Emperor who participated in the Olympics," Ann answered, she prepared herself to be reprimanded for answering incorrectly.
"Well done." He said that was basically his way of saying 'correct' "Can anyone tell me what exactly he did at the Olympics?" He asked, "Well, Arisato-san." He paused realising what he had done "The one who is a walking rules violation." Minato's head shot up at that and he realised that Inui was referring to him.
"Emperor Nero participated in Singing at the Olympics," Minato answered in his own way, intoning as if reading from a book "This was because Emperor Nero made up the event. Unfortunately, his singing skills were worse than his candle making skills." He also apparently had no chill if that dark joke was anything to go by.
Inui cleared his throat at that, "Quite." He responded "Since Nero held supreme power in the Roman Empire, he made Singing a competition within the Olympics, an event that he won gold for, though this was largely because of the fact that he was Emperor and not because he was particularly skilled at singing. As Arisato-san has stated, he had particularly bad singing skills and was tone deaf, he even used to hold long singing performances where the audience would not be allowed to leave, women pretended to go into labour and men would pretend to die in order to leave these events." He finished with a small chuckle, why was it that History teachers found amusement in the smallest things. "Because of these actions, as well as the abundant reports of his lecherous side, he became what was known as a Despot."
Ann could not stand this class.
25/04/2018 - 13:30 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho
Shiho was stuck in a class with Kawakami, someone who Minako had described as
'only the best teacher in the entire damn school' sure, the woman had helped during the Kamoshida case, but she couldn't have been that good, right?
Kawakami's teaching style was often moderately fast, she wrote a lot on the board, her elegant hiragana and kanji gracing the blackboard as she wrote out concepts on the board, she generally didn't like long lectures, she would write on the board, answer student's questions and ask questions of students to make sure that they understood what was being taught. "Sakamoto-san." She asked, causing the blond boy to snap to attention "What's the common usage of kakushinhan again, regarding an action you take?" Ryuji had not been paying attention in class, hadn't he, it was very likely after all, he was often lost in thought, blanking out or straight up sleeping in class, it actually made Shiho slightly concerned when she thought about it.
"It's knowing your actions are wrong, right?" He said, looking over his notes. There was a look of hope on Kawakami's face as she processed what Ryuji had said.
"That is correct Sakamoto-san." She said, clearly not quite believing the words coming out of her own mouth. "Anyway, the real meaning of kakushinhan is the opposite, so what is it?"
Ryuji was thinking about it, despite what many believed the boy was somewhat smart, just never really had any conviction in class. "Conviction that you are right?" He answered.
"Sakamoto-san, I never thought I would say this, but good job." She responded, a look of pride and accomplishment on her face "Now please keep it up for the rest of the year."
"Yes, miss." He answered, sounding very proud of himself, Shiho was almost sure she was dreaming, Ryuji was actually becoming smart. What nightmarish hell dimension was she living in? After pinching herself, she decided that she was, in fact, living in reality. The gossipers had apparently started to process what had just happened as well.
"Did, did Ryuji just answer a question?"
"More importantly, did he answer it correctly?"
"Okay, what the hell is going on?"
Well, at least they weren't blaming it on witchcraft like that one time last year.
25/04/2018 - 16:40 - Shibuya - Takamaki Ann
Ann was wondering how exactly she was going to broach the topic of Shiho's home life, the dark-haired girl had a habit of shutting people out when it came to deal with her problems, it was very admirable but it was also very unhelpful when it came down to it.
She twirled a finger in her hair as she sat down on some bench and thought about things, it was then she felt it again, someone was looking at her very intently, she tried to look around for the culprit but couldn't see anyone around. If she was lucky it was a separate incident from the one at Inokashira Park and that it wasn't the same guy, however, if she was unlucky, it was the same guy. The gaze was the same intensity and she felt sick at being glared at despite not being able to see the person.
She couldn't see anyone who really stood out, the closest she got was a sighting of that young boy she saw painting yesterday. Wait, what if? No, that's not likely. Ann started to walk home, making sure to get into large crowds in order to help lose the man who was staring at her, she wouldn't be surprised if the man would start following her, so all she had to do was make sure that she lost him in the crowd.
25/04/2018 - 18:00 - Shiho's House - Suzui Shiho
When Shiho had entered the house she entered her room almost immediately to start on what homework she could do, though that was not much, she really couldn't focus as her head was a flurry with thoughts which ranged from dating Ann to what had pissed her mother off so much.
She was currently sitting at her kotatsu and was trying to get her English homework done before it piled up, the keyword was trying. In actuality, she could not really focus on the subject, oh what she wouldn't give to have Minato explain the entire subject to her in his deadpan voice.
Though her somewhat frantic homework session was interrupted when her mother entered her room, without even knocking as well.
"Shiho?" She asked, her voice was stern but there was a hint of 'caring mother' in her tone as well. "Can we have a chat?"
"Of course, mom." She said, preparing to get up, but was shocked when her mother sat down at the kotatsu with her daughter. "Okay, so what do you want to talk about?"
Shiho's mom started pondering on how to phrase what she was about to say "Have you started seeing someone recently?" She asked.
"Mom!" Shiho responded, out of all the questions she expected she never thought that'd be one, "what makes you think I'm dating someone?"
"Well, you've been happier lately." Shiho looked shocked at that. "You could've been discussing your boyfriend with that Ann girl the other week." Little did she know "And while you were out with your friends, I found a bunch of unsent love letters." How did she find those? Shiho had hidden them in a hidden compartment in her drawers.
"Fine, I've found someone I'm interested in, but we haven't started dating." Shiho said it was true, but she was keeping a few details out of the exchange "No need to worry."
"Oh, I am worried, I followed you to your meeting with your friends." Mom said
"Wait, you followed me to when I was meeting my friends?" Shiho asked. She was honestly not entirely sure if she was hearing that correctly. Her mother was about to start talking but Shiho felt the need to continue "No, I'm sorry mom, I'm not going to let you say anything, you followed your own daughter to a meeting with her friends and then you no doubt eavesdropped on us, due to the fact that you would hardly start worrying just from looking at us."
"Let your mother talk please." Mom responded, "Shiho, I try to care for you, I really do and I can't help but think you might have fallen in with the wrong crowd." She sighed, thinking back to what she remembered from eavesdropping on her daughter "Two of your friends are criminals, all of them want their teacher to go to jail and more importantly, one of them mentioned how Ann could make you satisfied." The two women of the Suzui family looked at each other, eyes meeting.
"I know the Arisato Twins are criminals, I knew that when I talked to them, they're good people, better than half the school for that matter." She added. "I know we want Kamoshida to go to jail, he deserves it for every second he walked free from jail and every time he abused his students." Shiho was getting somewhat angry
"Why'd you never tell me he was abusing you?" Mom asked
"Because you were never at home, how I could tell someone who I saw only like five minutes a day?" She said, asking a rhetorical question "Moreover, I doubt you would've cared, you never showed any sign of caring, even when your daughter was walking home limping with bruises." She tried to control her anger before she said something that she'd regret "Oh but now when I found a group of people who actually care for me, when I found people who act more like family than my actual family, I've suddenly fallen in with the wrong group and you need to save me from that."
"I'm trying to protect you."
"I'm sixteen mom, I don't need your protection." Shiho responded, "In fact, I wanted to tell you something anyway, though I'm sure you figured it out, seeing as you eavesdropped on my conversations and read my love letters." She sighed, there was no going back if she stopped, mom would undoubtedly re-read the love letters and figure it out. "I'm a lesbian." She said finally, this was not how she imagined coming out to her family, being angry with her mother and sitting at a kotatsu. Though she found that there was something worse when she looked at her mom, the woman wasn't responding.
"Where did I go wrong?" She mumbled to herself "Was it because I was never home?" She asked herself "Why, what did I do to cause you to think that way?" She paused, as if in thought for a second before continuing "It's that Foreign girl isn't it?"
"What, no," Shiho said, she would have said that she was born like this, but her mother continued
"Was it the criminal girl?" She asked.
"No, it was not Minako" She answered, "I was born this way, mom." Her voice was resolute, she had to at least get that much through to her mother.
Her mother actually started to tear up, "After all these years, my beautiful baby girl has turned into a faggot." She sniffed "Maybe I shouldn't have focused so much on my job, I could have stopped this from happening."
"No, you would've been able to come to terms with me earlier in life." Shiho disagreed with her mother on a lot of points, to put it simply, she didn't like what her mother was saying and she would be damned if she didn't get at least a few words in.
25/04/2018 - 21:20 - Ann's Apartment - Takamaki Ann
Ann was sitting on the sofa in her apartment, trying to figure out what could be bothering Shiho, all the while ignoring her cat,
Morgana who was trying to get Ann's attention.
The cat itself was rather smart and could see that its owner was troubled by something. Ann still paid her cat little attention as she thought more about it. It had to be Shiho's parents, the girl didn't have any siblings that Ann knew of, the girl was wondering what it would be about, Shiho's parents were apathetic, that was all Ann had seen, she wasn't entirely sure what would make Shiho worry so much.
She was knocked out of her musings from the sound of someone knocking the door. Strange, Ann didn't expect anyone today. Ann was getting off the sofa when the knocking began again, it was a polite knock, the sort you would expect from a salesman.
Ann looked through the peephole in her door. What she saw was a crying Shiho. The blonde quickly opened the door and came face to face with the dark haired girl, she was still in her school uniform and she had a small suitcase with her as well.
Ann put the pieces together in her head. Shiho was kicked out of her house. "Ann, do you mind if I come in?" Shiho asked, she was trying to keep her voice steady, but there were still plenty of tears on her face. Ann moved out of the way and was surprised as Shiho acted like nothing was wrong, politely taking her shoes off and casually stepping into Ann's apartment like she wasn't crying.
"Shiho, were you kicked out of your house?" Ann asked, she knew it was something of a dumb question, but it was probably a good question to start with.
The dark-haired girl nodded, "Do... do you mind if I stay with you tonight?" She asked. Ann felt her face heat up, she didn't have a spare room in her apartment and well, looking at Shiho she would have to help the dark-haired girl, the two were best friends (and romantic interests)
"I don't mind at all." Was all Ann could answer with. She'd ask Shiho about why she got kicked out later.