The Jindai Effect
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
The morning bell rang and in walked Ms. Kagurazaka, carrying an arm full of papers.
"Rise," Kaname Chidori ordered in a curt tone as she and her classmates rose from their seats as their teacher entered the room. "Bow."
After the class was seated once more, Ms. Kagurazaka flipped through the many papers in her arms.
"Good morning class," she greeted as she read one of the many memos. "Well, it seems that today will be a little unorthodox...not that it's unheard of for this particular class."
Class 2-4 began to whisper and talk amongst themselves in confusion, Ms. Kagurazaka continued to read her memo, "Settle down, please. For what it looks like, all of your usual classes have been canceled for today."
"Alright!" cheered Ono D from the back of the classroom and many classmates joined suit.
"Shut up!" scolded Kaname from her corner of the room. "Can't you idiots see we're being punished?!"
The class grew silent and Ms. Kagurazaka eyed the blue-haired girl curiously, "Oh, Ms. Chidori, do you understand what this is all about?"
"Yes, unfortunately," she sighed from her desk.
"Perfect, well then could you please come up to the front of the class and explain to us what exactly is going on."
Kaname obeyed and slowly made her way to the front of the class where she read from a small piece of paper. "As of yesterday during 5th period, after the misconception involving a student, Ono D, unintentionally opening another student, Sousuke Sagara's, water bottle. Thus infecting the entire class as well as three students, Ren Mikihara, Mizuki Inaba and Issei Tsubaki, by the bacteriological contents inside." At the mention of yesterday's ordeal, the entire class sent death glares at the sullen solider who sat in the back of the room. "In any case, this event along with countless others such the incident at Hamburger Hill during Mr. Mizuhoshi's field trip, the attempt to make the class an autonomous region, and the destruction of the entire classroom, has lead to the Jindai High Student Council to have no choice but to intervene."
At this, a student in the back of the class raised his hand, "Um, none of those incidents were completely our fault."
"Yeah," fought another student. "All of that has Sagara's name written all over it!"
"Why should we all be punished for Sagara's stupid stunts?!"
The class then broke out in a loud riot of complaints and arguments. Kaname yelled and smacked the desk in an attempt to calm down the students, even Ms, Kagurazaka attempted to quiet the class, but it was no use. There was then a small bang from the back and a strange gas began to fill the room.
"SOUSUKE!" Kaname screamed between coughs as she ran to the back and kicked the military maniac in the face for such a stunt. She then ordered the students to open the windows in an attempt to air out the room.
"Chidori, that hurt." Sousuke replied.
"I don't care!" she screamed once it was safe to breathe in the classroom. "Are you out of your mind? What were you thinking launching a grenade in a middle of a classroom?"
"It wasn't dangerous. I rigged it with stink gas, the kind used for riot control."
"See," Ono D said from his position at the window. "This is what we mean! He's always pulling weird stuff like this and we all get blamed for it!"
Kaname couldn't help but agree with him, but she had a responsibility as both the class representative and the vice president of the Student Council.
"Look Ono D, I understand what you're saying but we cannot blame our class's entire lack of unity on one person." she explained. "That is why it is my duty to lead our class in a series of exercises that will strengthen both our trust and communication with each other. So, now that the stink gas seems to be cleared out, I would like you all to you pull your desk into a small circle so we can begin."
The class did not move from their position by the window.
"Now what?" Kaname asked, growing irritated.
"We're not going back there until Sagara empties out all of his weird weapons."
"Fair enough," she then turned to the young man next to her, pulling a small box in front of him. "Alright Sousuke, would you please drop all of your weapons in here."
"Chidori, you know I cannot do-"
"Sousuke..." she warned, her anger quickly reaching a boiling point. Sousuke may have been dense, but he knew better than to cross her when she had that sort of look on her face. With an exasperated sigh, he began to drop his pistol, his extra magazines, several grenades, guns, and even a rocket launcher into the box. The rest of the class looked on, dumbstruck. After that was finish, the class obeyed Kaname's orders and pulled their desks into a small circle. Kaname looked over her shoulder to see Ms. Kagurazaka still at her desk.
"Would you like to join us?"
"No thank you, Ms. Chidori." she smiled. "I have a lot of work to catch up on, but I'll be right here if you need anything."
Realizing that she was on her own, Kaname sighed and faced her fellow students. She looked down at the agenda that the Student Council had given her. She rose from her desk and handed each student two small index cards.
"Everyone pretend we are being held prisoner in some sort of war under dire circumstances," Through the corner of her eye, she noticed Sousuke's head raise with the mention of war. "To escape, we are going have to leave someone in this room behind. Anonymously, write down the name of the one person you would leave behind."
The class gawked at her for a few seconds before looking down at their cards and starting the activity. After a few minutes, Kaname requested that the cards be passed back up to her. When all the cards were in her possession, she shuffled the cards quickly before reading them aloud.
"Let's see...we have one for Sousuke...two for Sousuke...three...four...five... six...seven...eight...nine for Sousuke," Quickly, Kaname flipped through the cards to see that nearly the entire class had voted to leave Sousuke behind in the clutches of their hypothetical captor. "Um...well...besides Sousuke, we have two cards that say that they were unsure since they would never want to leave anyone behind...and the last one is a vote to leave Ono D behind."
"What?!" Ono D screamed from his desk and turned to face Sousuke who sat next to Kaname. "You think you're funny, Sagara?"
"Now Ono D," urged Kyoto. "You can't be sure that he's the one who wrote your name."
"But I did," said Sousuke, bringing everyone's attention back to him. "While in any mission I would never leave a comrade behind unless absolutely necessary, after careful calculations I felt that if we needed to abandon anyone it would need to be Ono D. While he is one of the more stronger students, he is also the slowest and the most dimwitted. He would be the most prone to trigger traps or to not follow orders correctly. However, after hearing the rest of the classes choices of me being the one to be left behind made me reconsider my response."
"What do you mean, Sousuke?" Kaname asked.
"You see, while the rest of the class were to be able to escape it would only be logical if i were to be the one left behind. I am the only one who holds any sort of military expertise and thus the only one who would stand any chance against our would-be captors. I am honored that this class has such a high regard for my status as a specialist and trust me enough to be able to handle myself."
Kaname took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down. She figured if that's how he wanted to view the fact that the entire class would abandon him if needed, then so be it.
The next task was for the students to pick one classmate they would save in such a circumstance. To her relief, Kaname saw that the answers were much more varied. Many different girls names were picked, obviously by boys who wanted a date. To her surprise, she saw her name on one of the cards and underneath it read, "I will always protect her. It is not only my duty, but because she is a special person."
Kaname toyed with the card while looking at the straight faced solider with a small smile. She decided to not read the bottom note while reading out the names.
The rest of the day past quickly as Kaname lead the class in a series of different activities. To her surprise, it seemed that out of all the students it was Sousuke who was getting the most out of exercises. Even when the entire class would rule against him or blame him for every one of their misadventures, he would nod and thank them all for noticing what his value would be on the battlefield. Soon the end of the day dawned on the class and Kaname saw that they were up to their last activity on the sheet.
"The Trust Fall is going to be the hardest activity of all," she explained. "What we are going to do is have one of you stand on table while the rest of us catch you as you fall. We will line up at the end of the table in pairs, shoulder to shoulder, in two ranks that face each other. The smaller, weaker students should be closer to the table since they will be catching legs while the on the other end should be the strongest since they are catching the torso. Are there ay questions?"
"What if we fall and no one catches us?" Shinji asked skeptically.
"That won't happen, remember this is the called a Trust Fall for a reason." Kaname promised. "Now everyone line up in front of this desk so we can begin."
The first one up was Kyoko who stood on top of the desk with a uncertain look on her face.
"Just a reminder," Kaname warned from her position with the other spotters. "If any of you boys take advantage of this and choose to be disgusting, filthy perverts looking up the girls' skirts, I will personally beat you all to a bloody pulp. Understood?"
"Yes, Ma'am!" the boys said in terrified unison.
"Alright, Kyoko, you can fall whenever you're ready!" cheered on Kaname, and the rest of the class followed suit. With a small gulp, the tiny brunette fell backwards into the arms of her waiting classmates.
"Oh!" she squeaked. "You all really did catch me!"
"Of course, silly," Kaname laughed. "Alright, who's next?"
One by one, every student in the class stood on the desk, fell and were caught flawlessly. Even Kaname, who thought her tall frame would prove difficult, was easily caught. The last person to have to go on the desk was Sousuke.
Kaname bit the inside of her cheek nervously, fearing the worst. Remember to her classmates earlier illustrations of their intolerance for the military maniac, she knew it would be too easy for them all to just not catch the boy. She eyed Sousuke's five foot nine, slim physique and wondered if she could catch him on her own. She met the glaze of both Shinji and Kyoko who nodded, as if reading her mind. She knew that if it came down to it, those two would attempt to help her catch Sousuke if no one else did.
"Alright Sousuke," Kaname called, trying to mask the nervousness in her voice. "Whenever you're ready."
Stiff like a board, Sousuke fell backwards and Kaname waited for the entire class to take one massive step back. She braced herself for the treason, only to be surprised. Like every classmate before him, Sousuke was caught effortlessly. Shinji let out a sigh of relief while Kyoko smiled warmly.
The class then placed all the desks back in their usual rows, the only evidence of the day's activities being the mass of papers freshly graded on Ms. Kagurazaka's desk.
"I hope this day taught you all the value of your classmates, for this is the first and last time Jindai High will disregard an entire day of perfectly good study time to hold an intervention." the woman said once everything was back in order. "Tomorrow will be back to normal and we will be working extra hard to catch up, do you understand?"
"Yes," the class said in unison.
"Very well, you are all dismissed."
The commute home was its usual peaceful one for Kaname. Like always she sat next to Sousuke and expected the train ride to pass its usual silence. Once the train began moving, however, Sousuke cleared his throat.
"You did very well today, Chidori." he said softly.
She looked up at him, shocked as he continued.
"Very few people would have to courage to take charge of their entire class like you did today. As well as showing a great deal of courage, you always showed leadership and compassion for each of our classmates. I was very impressed."
"Thank you Sousuke," she said happily, smiling up at him. "That means a lot to me, coming from you."
"You always find new ways to surprise me." he said and changed his attention back to the window.
With a sigh, Kaname reached into her pocket to make sure the small index card was still in her pocket. While she threw away the cards with the various names of the classmates chosen to live or die in their hypothetical imprisonment, Kaname couldn't help but save the one that called her a "very special person".