Umi was never the type of student to stand by when someone was being bullied. She took the time out of her day to stop any of the bullying going on in the school. She was the head of the disciplinary committee and no one dared to challenge her not because of fear, but respect.

Umi was also the captain of the kendo and archery club, no one wanted to mess with her, but those that did ended up on the bad side of Umi's wrath. Her very presence was enough to keep the students orderly and civil.

That was until a new english teacher arrived at the school. Minami Kotori, a very young teacher right out of college. Her arrival caused a disturbance in the equilibrium and students began to react differently to the new teacher.

Many were infatuated by her looks, others grew to become jealous and envious of all of the attention she received.

It all happened one day after school. Umi was on her way out after a disciplinary committee meeting had adjourned. At the end of the hallway, she spotted the preppy girls of her class surrounding the new teacher against a wall.

"You know, my girlfriend broke up with me because of you, Minami-sensei."

"I'm sorry for your loss, but I have no interest in student relationships, Tachibana-san."

The girl raised her foot and slammed it on the wall next to Kotori, "You won't be let off that easily! Do you even know how severely you've thrown everything apart since you came here?!"

The teacher shrunk, "W-What do you mean?"

"All of us were living a fruitful school life until you arrived. Now every girl is after you except for us, the ones who see through your innocent act."

Kotori held her notebook tighter, "I didn't intend to do that."

The girl knocked the notebook out of Kotori's hands, "That doesn't change the fact that you ruined our high school lives!"

Their eyes followed the notebook as it tumbled onto the ground and into an open palm. When the girls looked up, it was as if they had just seen a ghost and their lives flashed before their eyes, "S-Sonoda-san!"

The preppy girls quickly broke their formation and lined up in a single file line, their backs as straight and stiff as a board, "What are you girls doing...?"

One girl stepped forward with her hand raised, "I was just expressing my opinions about Minami-sensei!"

"Why did you knock her notebook out of her hands?" Umi asked coldly.

The girl flinched, "...M-My hands slipped..."

Umi closed her eyes and stepped over to the teacher, "May I see your hands, Minami-sensei?"

The teacher flinched and hesitantly held out her hands. Umi grabbed them and inspected them thoroughly, "Are you hurt, Minami-sensei?" she placed the notebook back in the teacher's hands.

Kotori shook her head, "I'm perfectly fine, Sonoda-san."

"There were small bruises on your hands, where are they from?" Umi asked.

Kotori's eyes unconsciously swayed over to the preppy girls and Umi followed the gaze, "Which one of you hurt Minami-sensei?"

The leader of the group stepped forward, "W-We didn't do anything!"

"Violence against a teacher is punishable by expulsion," she replied immediately.

The girls huddled back but the leader remained strong, "You have no proof that we hurt her!"

Umi stepped in closer, "I may not, but when I do..." her aura was heavy, "You better pray that it isn't you."

The girl's knees shook, "Wh-whatever! Let's go girls!"

The leader stormed away and the other girls followed her hesitantly. Umi heard a sigh of relief next to her, "Thank you for your help, Sonoda-san, but they weren't doing anything wrong."

"Why do you lie to protect them, Minami-sensei?" she asked.

Kotori thought for a moment, "They're still young, they don't know any better."

"So you're willing to sacrifice yourself for their sake? Even if they hurt you?" she continued to ask.

"W-well, when you put it that way..." Kotori looked away and gripped her notebook tighter.

Umi noticed the small sign of pain on Kotori's face and looked down at her hands which shook, "If they give you trouble, come to me, Minami-sensei."

Umi walked off without another word from Kotori, leaving the young teacher alone in the vacant hallway.

A few months passed by and once again, Umi had to stay for a prolonged disciplinary committee meeting. She was faced with the same situation that she was in yet again.

"Minami-sensei, isn't it about time you quit?" the leader suggested, "I know I would after all the things we've done to you," she proceeded to snicker, "I wonder how you've been able to hide everything and keep your image up."

"Tachibana-san, it's been months now, can you please forgive me?" the teacher begged.

"Of course not! The only way you can forgive us is by leaving!" she shouted back.

"I see... I must be going then, I have work to do," Kotori tried to slip by but was pushed to the ground.

"Oops, you tripped Minami-sensei~" the leader laughed and looked at her friends who seemed to have acted as if they didn't see anything, "Girls, that was funny, wasn't it?"

They paid her no attention except for one girl who faintly nodded her head towards the end of the hallway where Umi stood in the open. The leader's gaze traced over to Umi and a sudden fear struck her heart, did she see her tripping Kotori?

"Minami-sensei, are you okay?" Umi walked over and offered a helping hand. She noticed the bandaging around Kotori's feet, "What happened to your feet, Minami-sensei?"

"O-oh it's nothing! Just cut them when I dropped some glass at home," She replied.

Umi turned around and offered her back, "Allow me to take you to the nurse's office so I can rebandage them for you."

"Oh Sonoda-san, you don't have to go through the trouble," Kotori replied.

"It is my duty to protect the inhabitants of this school, allow me to do my job," Umi barked back.

Kotori, surprised and fearful of Umi's harsh and solid voice decided to climb on. Once she was standing, Umi looked back at the pack of girls, "That was strike two. One more and I'll deal with you personally."

She left the group of girls and headed for the nurse's office to tend to Kotori's feet. When they arrived, the nurse had already left and the room was free to use by the staff and student body.

Umi gently set her teacher down on a nearby bed and searched through the cabinet for any bandages and antiseptic.

"Sonoda-san, I'm fine," Kotori called out.

Without a change in expression, Umi replied, "You're lying."

"N-No I'm not!"

Umi searched through the first aid box, "You always have this fake smile when you lie. Every day for the past week you've been doing it. What did they do to you?"

"N-nothing, I swear."

Umi appeared and knelt down next to Kotori's knees, "Allow me to see your feet, Minami-sensei."

"I-I said I'm okay..."

"Then there should be no problem if I change these bandages," she started removing the bandages to see small puncture wounds on Kotori's feet. They were smaller and more numerous, much different from her smashed glass story, "Where did you get these wounds?"

"I-I told you, glass..."

"We both know that isn't true, if it was glass, there would be cuts, not stabs," she began rubbing the antiseptic around the wounds to clean them and properly bandage them.

Kotori sighed, "...They were from thumbtacks..."

"Thumbtacks?" Umi observed the wounds closely.

"Every other morning, my school shoes would be filled with them..." Kotori admitted.

"Was it them?"

"Them?"

"Those girls..." she replied coldly.

"Oh... M-Maybe... What are you going to do?"

"... Nothing," Umi finished wrapping up Kotori's feet and put her shoes back on for her. She stood up and left the room without another word.

Kotori arrived a school early the next day, just beyond the shoe lockers she spotted a group of girls she was familiar with next to her own shoe locker. It looked like they had just put something inside and giggled to themselves.

Suddenly the group of girls broke their formation and ran in separate directions. Only two girls remained close to Kotori's locker, the leader of the girls, and a familiar blue haired student.

Umi pinned the leader of the girls against the lockers, "What're you doing to Minami-sensei's locker?"

"N-Nothing! Get your hands off me!"

Umi pushed harder, "I warned you if you caught a third strike I would deal with you personally."

"Why don't you open it then?!"

Umi eased off the girl but kept a firm grip on her collar. She opened the locker and her vision suddenly went black, it was a smoke bomb. The leader of the girls used the opportunity to escape while Umi was blinded, "Tachibana!" she yelled.

Once the smoke cleared, she opened her eyes and looked around only to be met with Kotori, "M-Minami-sensei, good morning. You're early."

Kotori stepped over to brush some of the soot from the smoke bomb out of Umi's hair, "Why are you always protecting me, Sonoda-san?"

"It is my job to," Umi replied.

"I thought it was the teacher's job to ensure the safety of the students," Kotori replied.

"Well that is true but..."

"What were you going to do to Tachibana-san just now?" Kotori asked.

Her eyes averted to the ground, "... Teach her a lesson not to bully you..."

"And how were you going to do that?" Kotori continued.

"...Kendo." she replied sheepishly.

"Kendo?! Are you trying to hurt them?"

Umi clenched her fists, "It's how I get people to stop if they haven't after three strikes."

"But aren't you hurting them?"

"Not exactly..." her grip loosened.

"You are hurting them, and it's my duty as a teacher to protect them."

Umi remained silent, "...Why?"

"Why?"

"You're protecting the wrong people!" Umi's voice raised and echoed through the empty locker area.

"Everybody deserves a chance."

"But they've hurt you so many times!" she continued to yell.

"I'm a teacher, if I can't handle this, then I fail."

Umi finally relaxed, "It shouldn't be that way for you..."

"Sonoda-san, why do you care so much?"

"I hate seeing people get hurt..."

"So you're willing to hurt someone to stop hurting others?"

Umi flinched and remained silent. Kotori hit the nail on the head and proved Umi's hypocrisy towards hurting others.

"T-That doesn't matter. I'm going to protect you from harm, Minami-sensei!" Umi stormed off without letting Kotori get her last words in.

Kotori faced little to no bullying since that day, probably because Umi remained in seeing distance from her. The group of preppy girls have been trying their best to get back at their teacher, but Umi was always nearby like a hawk stalking its prey.

They eventually devised a plan to get Umi and Kotori separated by distracting Umi with something else.

Umi opened her shoe locker after school the next day to find a letter inside, when she pulled it out, a blush crossed her face after realizing what it was. She quickly opened the letter and read through it, profusely blushing with each passing word.

"Sonoda-san, I cannot contain my feelings any longer, please meet me on the school rooftop so I can confess to you in person."

She closed her locker and quickly fixed herself up before heading up to the roof. A group of girls from afar giggled to themselves as they saw the flustered Umi run off, "I can't believe she fell for it."

"Yeah, who would fall in love with a stickler like her?"

"What an idiot, let's go girls, we don't have much time," the leader waved her hand and the group followed her to where Kotori would be at this time.

Umi pushed through the door to the rooftop and saw a lone girl standing by the fence. She was watching the sunset and Umi approached her slowly "Umm... Hello? I got your letter..."

The girl turned around and quickly embraced Umi, "Umi-senpai!" she yelled.

The embrace caused Umi to heat up, but the sound of something clicking set her off. She attempted to turn around but the tight grip around her wouldn't allow it, "P-Please let go."

The girl shook her head and kept her arms around Umi. Once Umi was able to get her head to turn enough so that she could see the door, she saw two other girls guarding it, "What's going on?!"

"You're pretty dumb, Umi-senpai," muttered the girl in front of her.

"What? Ahh!" Umi felt a strong push and she fell onto her butt, "What's happening?"

"You don't get it? This is all fake! Who would ever fall in love with you?!" the girl started laughing and soon enough the other two by the door joined along.

"W...Why are you doing this?"

"So we can get you away from Minami-sensei you dimwit, is it really that hard to figure out?"

"Minami-sensei...?" Umi scrambled to her feet, "What are you going to do to her?!"

"Why do you care?"

"What? Did you go off and fall in love with the old hag?"

"Gross, who fall in love with Minami-sensei?"

Umi clenched her fists and hung her head.

"Awww, are we making the big bad Umi cry?"

"...her... alone..." she muttered under her breath

"What was that? I couldn't hear you over your stupidity."

"Leave her alone!" Umi punched a hole through the fence next to her which caused the girl in front to fall back.

"H-hey what the?!"

Umi stomped towards the girl and stood over her, the menacing aura surrounding her caused the girl's entire body to shake, "G-Girls! Help me!"

The other two girls lunged forward, but one glare from Umi froze them in place and sent fear throughout their entire body.

"W-we really dug a deep grave this time..."

"Shut up, now is not the time!"

Umi placed her hand on both of their shoulders and chills ran down their spines, "Key."

One of the girls hesitantly reached into her pocket and held the key with shaky hands. Umi grabbed it and playfully tapped one of their cheeks.

"You bitch!" the girl who was on the floor before was now charging at Umi with what seemed to be a broom.

Umi dodged it quickly and grabbed the weapon before punching the girl's nose. She let go of the weapon and Umi tossed it to the side, "Ahhh! My nose, you broke it you gorilla!"

Umi ignored the girl and proceeded to unlock the door, "It's no use! You're probably too late anyways! Go ahead! Go save that old hag!"

Umi's fists clenched up and her fingernails dug into her palms. She wanted to go back and hit the girl one more time to shut her up, but the image of Kotori lecturing her stopped her from doing so.

Without a word, Umi sprinted down the stairs in search of Kotori. She checked all of the usual places that she would be but she was nowhere to be found. Umi ran to the courtyard and spotted one of the preppy girls that she recognized and followed her until they reached the gym storage.

Umi watched carefully as the girl proceeded to knock a code before the door slid open and allowed her inside. Umi imitated the knock where she was to make sure she had it down before she messes it up on the spot.

When she snuck up on the door, she leaned her ear against it to try and make out what was going on in the storage.

"Smile for the camera, Minami-sensei!" a familiar voice announced.

"...Tachibana?!" Umi muttered to herself. She could hear a faint crying as well and immediately sprang into action.

Umi knocked on the door just as the girl before her did.

"Who is that?"

"I don't know, aren't we all here?"

"Well go check it out!"

The door slid open and Umi kicked the girl inside.

"Sonoda-san?!"

"Tachibana!" Umi yelled, "The rest of you, get out!"

The rest of the girls quickly scrambled out and Umi slid the door to the storage shut, making sure to lock it. She looked at Tachibana who held a digital camera in her hands, behind her was Kotori who had been tied up and stripped of all of her clothing other than her underwear, "What is this?!"

Tachibana stood up, "You're too late Sonoda-san, we already took pictures. Once these get out, Minami-sensei is done for!"

Without a word Umi lunged for the camera and smashed it into the ground, making sure to stomp on the SD card, "Hey! I paid for that camera myself! You're going to pay for that!"

"What you're doing is a crime, Tachibana! I can have you arrested for this!" Umi yelled back.

"Over my dead body!" Tachibana lunged forward swinging at Umi. Her fist managed to make contact with Umi's cheek before she found herself staring at the ceiling.

Umi sat on top of Tachibana and started swinging away at the girl, "I told you I would deal with you personally!" she yelled in between punches.

"Sonoda-san!" a light voice yelled.

Umi ignored all sense of reason, the anger that she had built up for Tachibana couldn't be caged any longer. Every negative emotion she felt when Tachibana bullied their teacher flushed out and she couldn't stop herself from attacking the girl.

"You're going to kill her, Sonoda-san!" Kotori pried out of her bindings and wrapped her arms around Umi's. She held on tightly to stop Umi and it wasn't easy. Her monstrous strength as overwhelming, but she held on even if it felt like her arms would fly apart at any second.

"Sonoda-san, stop!" Kotori pulled Umi off and fell backwards, hugging the ferocious girl until her anger calmed down.

"Minami-sensei…?"

"Are you calm now, Sonoda-san?"

Umi nodded weakly and looked at her hands, there were small amounts of blood plastered onto her knuckles and her eyes wandered back to where Tachibana had laid. Kotori quickly pushed Umi off of her and turned her attention back to Tachibana who was severely beaten, "We have to get her help."

"Y-yeah… Let's take her to the nurse's office." Umi got up and helped Kotori carry the wounded girl to the nurse's office.

They tended to the unconscious girl's wounds and sat next to each other in silence.

"Let me patch up your cheek…" Kotori reached into the first aid next to them but Umi held up her hand to deny the offer.

"I don't need it… It's just a scratch…"

Kotori dropped the things she picked up and stared at the ground, "... Thank you for rescuing me, Sonoda-san…"

"It's nothing…"

A silence fell between them for several seconds before Kotori spoke up, "... I was thinking about quitting…"

Umi stood up in protest, "What?! No, you can't do that, Minami-sensei!"

"If me staying here leads to… that…" she pointed over at Tachibana laying on the bed, "Then it would be best for me to leave…"

"No…" her hands fell to her sides and she sat back down.

"Sonoda-san…" Kotori placed her hand on the girl's shoulder.

"I don't want you to leave…"

"What are you saying, Sonoda-san?"

Umi clutched her chest, "I think… I think I love you, Minami-sensei…"

"Oh… Sonoda-san… I'm a teacher and…"

"I know… It's just a stupid crush, nevermind, forget I said anything…" Umi stood up and left the room.

Kotori reached out for the girl but she was too late, "Sonoda-san..." she stood up and ran after the girl. When she bursted into the hallway, she could still see Umi's back down the hallway.

"Sonoda-san!" Kotori caught up with her.

"... I take back everything I said, Minami-sensei. I only protected you because it was my duty, that's all... You're just like everyone else."

"Sonoda-san."

"Even if it was a crush, it would have been better if it never developed...

"Sonoda-san!"

"What...?"

Kotori took a deep breath, "I... I want you to continue protecting me."

"Why? I'm certain Tachibana won't go near you again after today."

"I... You're the only student who actually... cared for me. So... please keep it up."

"Keep it up? You make it sound like a chore!" Umi started yelling, "How dare you say that! I did everything for you out of my own volition, no one told me to protect you. I WANTED to!"

"Sonoda-san?"

"There are a number of other students getting bullied around here. Why do you think I gave you my attention?!"

"I..."

"I know. It's stupid, I'm only 17, and you're 25. It's a stupid high school crush, just leave me alone so I can get over it..." Umi crossed her arms and faced her back to the dumbfounded teacher.

Kotori reached for the student's shoulder, "Sono-"

"Don't touch me!" Umi slapped her hand away, "If you do then I'll get the wrong message..."

"I'm sorry, Sonoda-san..."

Kotori left the school shortly afterwards once the winter season ended. Spring went by, Umi celebrated her 18th birthday and soon enough, it was time for her to graduate.

Umi stood by the gates of the school and looked back at it with a sense of accomplishment. Even though she convinced herself to forget about Kotori, her former teacher always lingered in her head.

She spotted Tachibana who passed by with a shy smile. After the events during the fall season, Tachibana had grown out of her childish behavior just as Kotori said she would.

She took one last long look at the school before a loud honk from behind her caused her to jump. She quickly turned around and her eyes widened, "Hey there Umi-san!"

A familiar woman with ash colored hair stood by the door of her car, "M-Minami-sensei?"

"You're 18 and graduated now, you can call me Kotori," she giggled.

"I uh... What are you doing here?"

"I came to celebrate my favorite student's graduation of course!"

"I was your...?" Umi blushed.

"No, Tachibana-san," she replied.

"O-oh..." Umi hung her head but shortly heard a snorting laughter coming from her former teacher.

"I'm just kidding, it's you of course!" Kotori walked up to Umi and gave her a hug.

Umi blushed profusely, "H-How are things at the new school?"

Kotori let go and brought a finger up to her chin, "Hmm... I guess things are alright. I don't have a bodyguard anymore though."

"B-bodyguard? I was just-"

"Yeah I know, you were just 'doing your job' but you know what? After my first year of teaching high school, I think that I should move on to teaching in University instead."

"Really? Where are you going to teach?"

"Hmm... Maybe wherever Umi-chan goes~?" she teased.

"U-Umi-cha-? Minami-sense-"

"Kotori!" she chirped.

Umi straightened up like she was a fresh recruit for the army, "Y-Yes, Kotori-sensei!"

Kotori broke out into laughter as Umi stood in place embarrassed, "I guess it will take some getting used to, Umi-chan. I look forward to being under your protection again!"